12
I ndia is all set to roll out the second phase of the vaccina- tion drive from Monday to vac- cinate people aged above 60 years and 45 years with co- morbidities in private and Government hospitals in the backdrop of worrying upward trends shown by Covid-19. The country reported a single-day rise of 16,752 cases in the last 24 hours, the high- est in the last 30 days, taking the overall tally to 1,10,96,731 on Sunday, said the Union Health Ministry, hoping that the accelerated vaccination drive will help make people safe from the infection. The Covid-19 vaccine will be given free of cost at Government hospitals, while people will need to pay for it at private facilities. The private hospitals can charge up to 250 per dose for the jab. Citizens will be able to register and book an appoint- ment for vaccination, anytime and anywhere, using the COWIN 2.0 portal or through other IT applications such as Aarogya Setu etc, said a state- ment from the Ministry. It said there will be only one live appointment for a benefi- ciary at any point of time for each dose. Appointments for any date for a Covid Vaccination Center will be closed at 3 pm on that day for which the slots were opened. For example, for March 1 the slots will be open from 9 am till 3 pm on the same day, and the appointments can be booked any time before that, subject to availability. However, on March 1 an appointment can also be booked for any future date for which vaccination slots are available. It also stated, “The number of doses planned to be admin- istered decided by respective State/UT Government for a Vaccination Cycle. Total vac- cination slots for a vaccination cycle should not exceed the tar- get number of doses.” A User Guide for the Citizen Registration and Appointment for Vaccination has also been uploaded on the websites of the Ministry and National Health Authority (NHA). The Ministry has also spec- ified 20 comorbidities among people aged between 45 and 59 years who will get the vaccine — heart failure with hospital admission in past year, mod- erate or severe valvular heart disease, coronary artery dis- ease, CT/ MRI-documented stroke, diabetes of over 10 years or with complications, hypertension, end-stage kidney disease on haemodialysis, diag- nosis of any solid cancer on or after 2000 or currently on any cancer therapy. About the surge in cases, the Ministry said six States — Maharashtra, Kerala, Punjab, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat — are behind the cur- rent Covid uptick in India and account for almost 86 per cent of the new cases. Maharashtra continues to report the highest daily new cases at 8,623, followed by Kerala with 3,792 while Punjab with 593 new cases. Madhya Pradesh and Haryana have also joined the list in exhibit- ing a spike in daily new cases. A 25-year-old woman, who was carrying her two-year- old daughter, was stabbed to death for resisting a chain- snatching bid in Northwest Delhi’s Adarsh Nagar, police said on Sunday, adding that they have arrested the accused involved in the Saturday (9:30 pm) incident. A CCTV footage of the incident went viral on social media. In the video, two women can be seen walking when a man chases them and tries to snatch the victim’s chain from behind. The woman — identified as Simran Kaur — chases him, following which he falls on the road. Thereafter, he stands up and stabs the woman. The accused stabbed the victim and fled the spot, police said, adding that she was taken to a hospital where she was declared brought dead. Anil Jindal, Simran’s neighbour, said three years ago, an incident of snatching took place at the same spot where Simran was stabbed. The locals are in shock. The incident took place hardly 20 metres from the vic- tim’s house and there is a police post around 100 metres from the spot. Police teams have arrested two accused persons identified as Fardeen (19) and Aqibul (22), both residents of Jahangir Puri. The weapon of offence and scooty used in crime were recov- ered. Simran’s aunt said she had gone to the market to buy med- icines for her daughter. She was wearing a chain and holding her daughter. The accused was chasing them and tried to snatch the chain but Simran caught hold of it and did not lose her grip. When she resisted, the accused fell on the road. S enior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad on Sunday showered praises on Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Speaking at an event organised by the Gurjar Desh Charitable Trust, former Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha said he has serious political dif- ferences with Modi but he “appreciates that the Prime Minister does not try to hide his background from the world”. “I like a lot of things about many leaders. I am from the village and feel proud… Even our Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) hails from the village and used to sell tea. We are political rivals but I appreciate that he does not hide his true self. I have travelled the whole world. I have stayed in 5-star and 7-star hotels. “But the scent of the peo- ple who belong to my village is unmatched,” the Congress leader said after he was felici- tated with the “Sher-e-Gurjar award” by Gurjar Desh Charitable Trust. Interestingly, the platform from where Azad spoke eloquently in favour of the PM was inaugurated by Sonia Gandhi, 11 years ago on May 29, 2010. A am Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal lashed out at the BJP-ruled Centre accusing it over its “indifference” towards the farmers who have been protesting for the last three months at Delhi’s borders — Singhu, Tikri and Ghaziabad against the three farm laws. Addressing a “Kisan Mahapanchayat” in Meerut, he alleged that the January 26 violence at Red Fort was orchestrated by the BJP itself. The Chief Minister also compared the BJP to Britishers, saying not even the colonisers used water canons and lathis on farmers. Criticising the Centre, he said the three agricultural laws are death warrant for the farmers. The Chief Minister said it has been more than three months and 250 farmers have lost their lives while protesting against the three farm laws but the Government has done nothing about it. A few members of the tribal communi- ty on Sunday installed a stone plaque at a plot of land near the Birsa Munda Airport in Ranchi stating that the land belongs to the Gram Sabha and the law of the Panchayati Raj should be enforced there as per the Provisions of the Panchayats (Extension of the Scheduled Areas Act), 1996. The land, sources said, was handed over to spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s organisation, The Art of Living by the former Raghubar Das-led Government in Jharkhand. While some media reports stated that the members of the Gram Sabha performed Pathalgai near the Ranchi airport, police clarified that they were only demanding rights of the Gram Sabha over the land under the provisions of the law. “What they did today was not Pathalgadi. They were demanding the right of Gram Sabha over the land under PESA,” said Ranchi Superintendent of Police, Saurav, who goes by one name. Pathalgadi, sources said, was a simi- lar practice, but it was slightly different from what the Gram Sabha did on Sunday near the largest airport in Jharkhand. In Pathalgadi, a tribal custom of installing stone plaques at the bordering areas of vil- lages, the activists declare that the land is beyond the executive powers of the state government and that the rules framed by tribal bodies must prevail there. The Pathalgadi movement resurfaced this month in Jharkhand with tribal groups in support of the movement attempting to perform Pathalgadi near the Jharkhand High Court and also handing over a memorandum to Governor Droupadi Murmu seeking her nod for per- forming Pathalgadi near the Vidhan Sabha as well. The Pathalgadi supporters demanded that 13 Jharkhand districts fell in Scheduled Areas and should be there- fore beyond the executive powers of the government. As per the 2011 Census, tribals form at least 26.2 per cent of the state’s popula- tion of 3.29 crore. While the 32 tribe groups in Jharkhand were spread across the State, their strength was particularly high in the 13 districts which the Pathalgadi supporters want to be free from government’s executive powers. The 13 dis- tricts are Ranchi, East Singhbhum, Lohardaga, West Singhbhum, Gumla, Latehar, Saraikela Kharsawan, Sahebganj, Dumka, Pakur, Jamtara, Khunti and Simdega. On Sunday, the Gram Sabha members alleged that the former government handed over their land to the Art of Living and their objections were unheed- ed. They added that they wanted to install the stone plaque on the land dur- ing the BJP rule, but were denied entry in the area.

Feb 28, 2021  · report the highest daily new cases at 8,623, followed by Kerala with 3,792 while Punjab with 593 new cases. Madhya Pradesh and Haryana have also joined the list

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Page 1: Feb 28, 2021  · report the highest daily new cases at 8,623, followed by Kerala with 3,792 while Punjab with 593 new cases. Madhya Pradesh and Haryana have also joined the list

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India is all set to roll out thesecond phase of the vaccina-

tion drive from Monday to vac-cinate people aged above 60years and 45 years with co-morbidities in private andGovernment hospitals in thebackdrop of worrying upwardtrends shown by Covid-19.

The country reported asingle-day rise of 16,752 casesin the last 24 hours, the high-est in the last 30 days, takingthe overall tally to 1,10,96,731on Sunday, said the UnionHealth Ministry, hoping thatthe accelerated vaccinationdrive will help make people safefrom the infection.

The Covid-19 vaccine willbe given free of cost atGovernment hospitals, whilepeople will need to pay for it atprivate facilities. The privatehospitals can charge up to�250 per dose for the jab.

Citizens will be able toregister and book an appoint-ment for vaccination, anytimeand anywhere, using theCOWIN 2.0 portal or throughother IT applications such asAarogya Setu etc, said a state-ment from the Ministry.

It said there will be only onelive appointment for a benefi-ciary at any point of time foreach dose. Appointments forany date for a CovidVaccination Center will beclosed at 3 pm on that day forwhich the slots were opened.

For example, for March 1 theslots will be open from 9 am till3 pm on the same day, and theappointments can be bookedany time before that, subject toavailability. However, on March1 an appointment can also bebooked for any future date forwhich vaccination slots areavailable.

It also stated, “The numberof doses planned to be admin-

istered decided by respectiveState/UT Government for aVaccination Cycle. Total vac-cination slots for a vaccinationcycle should not exceed the tar-get number of doses.”

A User Guide for theCitizen Registration andAppointment for Vaccinationhas also been uploaded on thewebsites of the Ministry andNational Health Authority

(NHA).The Ministry has also spec-

ified 20 comorbidities amongpeople aged between 45 and 59years who will get the vaccine— heart failure with hospitaladmission in past year, mod-erate or severe valvular heartdisease, coronary artery dis-ease, CT/ MRI-documentedstroke, diabetes of over 10years or with complications,

hypertension, end-stage kidneydisease on haemodialysis, diag-nosis of any solid cancer on orafter 2000 or currently on anycancer therapy.

About the surge in cases,the Ministry said six States —Maharashtra, Kerala, Punjab,Karnataka, Tamil Nadu andGujarat — are behind the cur-rent Covid uptick in India andaccount for almost 86 per cent

of the new cases. Maharashtra continues to

report the highest daily newcases at 8,623, followed byKerala with 3,792 while Punjabwith 593 new cases. MadhyaPradesh and Haryana havealso joined the list in exhibit-ing a spike in daily new cases.

��������������� �89�38:;�

A25-year-old woman, whowas carrying her two-year-

old daughter, was stabbed todeath for resisting a chain-snatching bid in NorthwestDelhi’s Adarsh Nagar, policesaid on Sunday, adding thatthey have arrested the accusedinvolved in the Saturday (9:30pm) incident.

A CCTV footage of theincident went viral on socialmedia. In the video, twowomen can be seen walkingwhen a man chases them andtries to snatch the victim’schain from behind. Thewoman — identified as SimranKaur — chases him, followingwhich he falls on the road.Thereafter, he stands up andstabs the woman.

The accused stabbed thevictim and fled the spot, policesaid, adding that she was takento a hospital where she wasdeclared brought dead.

Anil Jindal, Simran’sneighbour, said three yearsago, an incident of snatchingtook place at the same spotwhere Simran was stabbed.The locals are in shock.

The incident took placehardly 20 metres from the vic-tim’s house and there is a policepost around 100 metres from thespot. Police teams have arrestedtwo accused persons identifiedas Fardeen (19) and Aqibul (22),both residents of Jahangir Puri.

The weapon of offence andscooty used in crime were recov-ered. Simran’s aunt said she hadgone to the market to buy med-icines for her daughter.

She was wearing a chainand holding her daughter. Theaccused was chasing themand tried to snatch the chainbut Simran caught hold of itand did not lose her grip.When she resisted, the accusedfell on the road.

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Senior Congress leaderGhulam Nabi Azad on

Sunday showered praises onPrime Minister Narendra Modi.Speaking at an event organisedby the Gurjar Desh CharitableTrust, former Leader ofOpposition in the Rajya Sabhasaid he has serious political dif-ferences with Modi but he“appreciates that the PrimeMinister does not try to hide hisbackground from the world”.

“I like a lot of things aboutmany leaders. I am from thevillage and feel proud… Evenour Prime Minister (NarendraModi) hails from the villageand used to sell tea. We arepolitical rivals but I appreciatethat he does not hide his trueself. I have travelled the wholeworld. I have stayed in 5-starand 7-star hotels.

“But the scent of the peo-ple who belong to my village isunmatched,” the Congress

leader said after he was felici-tated with the “Sher-e-Gurjaraward” by Gurjar DeshCharitable Trust. Interestingly,the platform from where Azadspoke eloquently in favour ofthe PM was inaugurated bySonia Gandhi, 11 years ago onMay 29, 2010.

���������������������

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)national convener and

Delhi Chief Minister ArvindKejriwal lashed out at theBJP-ruled Centre accusing itover its “indifference” towardsthe farmers who have beenprotesting for the last threemonths at Delhi’s borders —Singhu, Tikri and Ghaziabadagainst the three farm laws.

Addressing a “KisanMahapanchayat” in Meerut,he alleged that the January 26violence at Red Fort wasorchestrated by the BJP itself.

The Chief Minister alsocompared the BJP to Britishers,saying not even the colonisersused water canons and lathis onfarmers.

Criticising the Centre, hesaid the three agricultural lawsare death warrant for thefarmers. The Chief Ministersaid it has been more than threemonths and 250 farmers havelost their lives while protestingagainst the three farm laws butthe Government has donenothing about it.

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Afew members of the tribal communi-ty on Sunday installed a stone plaque

at a plot of land near the Birsa MundaAirport in Ranchi stating that the landbelongs to the Gram Sabha and the law ofthe Panchayati Raj should be enforcedthere as per the Provisions of thePanchayats (Extension of the ScheduledAreas Act), 1996.

The land, sources said, was handedover to spiritual leader Sri Sri RaviShankar’s organisation, The Art of Livingby the former Raghubar Das-ledGovernment in Jharkhand. While somemedia reports stated that the members ofthe Gram Sabha performed Pathalgainear the Ranchi airport, police clarifiedthat they were only demanding rights ofthe Gram Sabha over the land under theprovisions of the law.

“What they did today was notPathalgadi. They were demanding the rightof Gram Sabha over the land underPESA,” said Ranchi Superintendent ofPolice, Saurav, who goes by one name.

Pathalgadi, sources said, was a simi-lar practice, but it was slightly differentfrom what the Gram Sabha did on Sunday

near the largest airport in Jharkhand. InPathalgadi, a tribal custom of installingstone plaques at the bordering areas of vil-lages, the activists declare that the land isbeyond the executive powers of the stategovernment and that the rules framed bytribal bodies must prevail there.

The Pathalgadi movement resurfacedthis month in Jharkhand with tribalgroups in support of the movementattempting to perform Pathalgadi near the

Jharkhand High Court and also handingover a memorandum to GovernorDroupadi Murmu seeking her nod for per-forming Pathalgadi near the Vidhan Sabhaas well. The Pathalgadi supportersdemanded that 13 Jharkhand districts fellin Scheduled Areas and should be there-fore beyond the executive powers of thegovernment.

As per the 2011 Census, tribals format least 26.2 per cent of the state’s popula-tion of 3.29 crore. While the 32 tribegroups in Jharkhand were spread acrossthe State, their strength was particularlyhigh in the 13 districts which thePathalgadi supporters want to be free fromgovernment’s executive powers. The 13 dis-tricts are Ranchi, East Singhbhum,Lohardaga, West Singhbhum, Gumla,Latehar, Saraikela Kharsawan, Sahebganj,Dumka, Pakur, Jamtara, Khunti andSimdega.

On Sunday, the Gram Sabha membersalleged that the former governmenthanded over their land to the Art ofLiving and their objections were unheed-ed. They added that they wanted to install the stone plaque on the land dur-ing the BJP rule, but were denied entryin the area.

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Page 2: Feb 28, 2021  · report the highest daily new cases at 8,623, followed by Kerala with 3,792 while Punjab with 593 new cases. Madhya Pradesh and Haryana have also joined the list

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The Entrepreneurship Cell atXLRI organised

Entrepreneurship Summit(XES), providing immenseopportunities to countlessentrepreneurs, right fromschool students to profession-als with several years of indus-try experience.

This year, XES was held vir-tually with global outreach, big-ger impact and a gargantuandream to provide every goodidea and talent with the plat-form it deserves. XES held from26th to 28th February, hosted amultitude of events like DisruptBusiness Plan, EmergingEntrepreneurs for kids, E-Cafespeaker series, Internfair,Workshops and more. Withsomething for everyone, all youneed is a sound internet con-nection and a zeal to learn, cre-ate and contribute.

Emerging Entrepreneurs(EE) aimed to nurture brightyoung entrepreneurial talent byproviding them with a platformto explore creative solutions totackle current world problemsand give them a taste of the busi-ness world. Specifically for stu-dents from classes VIII to XII,it introduces them to entrepre-neurship at a young age and pro-vides them with a platform toexplore creative solutions to

tackle current world problems.In today's world, it is imperativefor us to provide our nation'syouth with the right tools andenable them to live up to theirtremendous potential.

This year EE saw participa-

tion from more than 300 stu-dents from 48 schools across thecountry, with young mentorsfrom Stanford, Wharton, andother leading global institutes. Infact, one of the mentors isalready running a start-up worth$1.5 Million which he started atthe age of 23! In preparation forthe Grand Finale on the 28th ofFebruary, 10 finalists havereceived 1-1 mentorship fromsome of the best entrepreneur-ial minds at XLRI! E-Cell’s focushas been on the learning of thestudents and to provide themwith a platform to excel.

The Entrepreneurship Cellat XLRI is a decade old insti-tution that engages with star-tups across the country. It alsoprovides access to experiencedmentors to young entrepre-neurs and is home to XCEED,XLRI’s incubation centre.

����� 6�(";83 <!

The sweets and namkeentraders of the state have

joined hands to form an organ-isation named JharkhandSweets and NamkeenAssociation (JSNA). The asso-ciation was formed during ameeting of over 50 manufac-turers on Sunday at GolmuriClub.

Sudip Mukherjee, CEO ofPuja Sweets, was elected pres-ident of Jharkhand Sweets andNamkeen Association, VikashBajania of New Bombay Sweetswas elected as general secretary,and Harshdeep Singh of NewGangour Sweets was elected asjoint secretary of the associa-tion.

The association has beenformed under the aegis of the

Federation of Sweets andNamkeen Manufacturers(FSNM), an all-India bodyrepresenting more than fivelakh businesses.

Addressing the gathering,Firoz H Naqvi, founder &director at Federation of Sweets& Namkeen, said that FSNMrepresents the entire sweetsand namkeen industry bothmanufacturing and allied sec-tor. “ It is really a momentousoccasion where leading sweetsand namkeen manufacturers ofJharkhand have joined handsto form an association. Withmutual understanding andjoint promotion, FSNM willhelp its members to grow andadopt modern and hitechmeans of production and pack-aging,” he noted.

The director said that thesweets and namkeen is a grow-ing industry and by adoptingmodern packaging andimproving standards of manu-facturing we have potential togrow further.

He said that FSNM been

established with a vision to pro-mote the members interest aswell as to resolve the variousissues which are arising in thesweets and namkeen industry.“ We want to improve the sec-tor of the country so that it alsocontributes in the acceleratinggrowth of the country alongwith the other sectors,” saidNaqvi.

To serve its membership,FSNM disseminates informa-tion in the interest of thisindustry and provides a com-mon forum of interaction by,and it provides a platform tofacilitate cross-industry co-operation.

The director said that theRs.1,00,000-crore industry,which employs nearly 10 mil-lion people directly and indi-rectly, has already taken amajor hit due to the Covid pan-demic. Most businesses arefinding the going tough and areunable to cope with the chal-lenges. The manufacturersneed to join hands for mutualgrowth and progress. �������� !���� �8!(�

The Bokaro thermal policeteam on Sunday recov-

ered around 43 tonne of ille-gal coal by conducting a drivein the forest of Kathara areawithin limits of Nawadih.

Coal smugglers werecaught off-guard on Sundaymorning, when the Inspector-cum-Officer-in charge,Ravindra Kumar Singh alongwith other forces launched asudden raid on Jarandih rail-way siding.

Seeing the police party thesmugglers beat a hasty retreat,nearly 43 tonnes of steam coalkept near buses was recoveredfrom the intensive operation.While Police sources said coalis carted on bicycle and otherscommunication and dumpedin the Jarandih residentialcolony from where it is trans-ported to other destinations.

With the sudden raidspanic seems to have spreadamong some of the illegaltraders in the locality.

DIG,Prabhat Kumar Sinhasaid he conveyed to all the offi-cer-in –charges of all policestations of the Bokaro that hewill not allow illegal miningand his movement againstillegal mining of coal in

Bokaro will continue unabat-ed.

The drive was carried outfollowing the direction of DIGPrabhat Kumar Sinha whoconstituted a team comprisingofficer of Bokaro Thermalpolice station.

"Police found several heapsof illegal coal worth more thanRs 2 lakh stocked at differentplaces inside the buses inJarandih area. These coals wereillegally stolen from railwayracks near railway siding andJarandih mines of the CentralCoalfields Limited (CCL)," saida police Inspector RavindraKumar Singh.

Bokaro Thermal policehave also seized five motorcy-cles with 100 quintals of illegalcoal conducting drive inLukubad more of the block.

The DIG said that heinstructed all police stations tostop illegal mining and trans-portation in the district orotherwise be ready to face themusic, it is instruction of high-er officials to concentrate oncurbing illegal coal trans-portation first. Though theentire Nawadih block area isMaoist zone covered with thickforest, it will be difficult andrisky for police but we arealways ready to face and fightit.

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District Hospital Bokaro hasreceived national certifi-

cation in the national leveltarget evaluation to strengthenthe Labour Room andMaternity OT of the hospitalsacross the country. NITI Aayoghas praised it.

Deputy CommissionerRajesh Singh congratulated CivilSurgeon Dr. Ashok KumarPathak and DeputySuperintendent of SadarHospital, Dr. Renu Bharti for thisachievement. He said this assess-ment had been done at two lev-

els, first on the state level and thenext on the national level byMOHFW and NHSRC teams.

“For the year 2020-21, twohealth institutions of the statehave received National TargetCertification – District Hospital(DH) Bokaro and DistrictHospital Khunti,” informed anofficial.

Expressing happiness, CivilSurgeon Dr. Ashok KumarPathak said, it’s the result ofefficient leadership of ourDeputy Commissioner and thesenior officials' guidance,including the entire team of thehealth department.

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Himachal Chief Minister JaiRam Thakur on Sunday

said that a proactive stancemust be adopted to disseminatethe achievements of the StateGovernment and also, tocounter false propaganda of theopposition.

The Chief Minister wasaddressing the state executivecommittee meeting of the BJPIT Department at Baddi inSolan district.

He said that the unfortu-nate incident of Vidhan Sabhais highly condemned by eachand every person of the state.He also urged the state IT Cellto spread this uncalled forincidence through social mediato expose the real face ofCongress.

Notably, Himachal PradeshSpeaker Vipin Parmar haslodged an FIR against the fiveCongress MLAs suspendedfrom the state assembly for theentire budget session after theyallegedly manhandledGovernor Bandaru Dattatrayaon the first day of the session.

The Chief Minister urgedthe state BJP IT Department towork with greater dedication to

achieve the goal of ‘GramSabha to Vidhan Sabha’ in the2022 Vidhan Sabha elections.

He said that the ITDepartment of the BJP isindeed playing a vital role ineffectively strengthening theparty by highlighting the poli-cies, programmes and achieve-ments of the State Governmentas well as BJP in the state.

The Chief Minister saidthat the present era is an era ofinformation and communica-tion, thus it becomes vital toensure effective use of socialmedia to reach out to the peo-ple of the state. During theCoronavirus pandemic, the

State Government and theparty ensured that optimumuse of social media is made notonly to help the people in dis-tress but also for regularlymonitoring the situation dur-ing the pandemic, he said.

He also said that severalmeetings were also held virtu-ally with the Prime Ministerand other Central leaders. TheIT Cell of the state BJP playeda major role in ensuring prop-er contact and communicationamongst the party workers aswell as with the leaders and themasses, he said.

Thakur further said thatthe Prime Minister Narendra

Modi way back in 2014 putforth a vision of ‘Digital India’to promote InformationTechnology in our day to daylife. The BJP IT members mustensure prompt disseminationof news regarding vital deci-sions such as Cabinet decisions,major decisions for welfare ofthe people etc, he added.

Talking about panchayatpolls, he said that out of the 11Zila Parishads, 9 were won by theBJP supported candidates andthe Congress managed to win inonly two Zila Parishads. Now, thetime is to win the MunicipalCorporation elections and there-after, 2022 Vidhan Sabha elec-tions, he added.

Speaking during the meet-ing, Member of Parliamentand state BJP president SureshKashyap said that IT Cell of thestate BJP has a major role toplay in ensuring the “MissionRepeat” of the BJP Governmentin the state.

He said that the need is toeffectively disseminate the poli-cies and programmes of theState Government, besideseffectively countering the falsepropaganda of the Congressthrough best use of socialmedia.

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Prime Minister NarendraModi has praised ‘Nayak

Sir’ of Odisha of his dedicatedrole in providing training toyouth those want to join army.

Speaking in 21st episode ofMann Ki Baat on Sunday, thePrime Minister said “OnMyGov app, Kamalakant ji hasshared a media report whichstates something different.”

The PM said, “There is agentleman in Arakhuda inOdisha – Nayak Sir. Althoughhis name is Silu Nayak, every-one addresses him as NayakSir”.

“In reality he is a man ona mission! He imparts freetraining to the youth who wantto join the army. The name ofthe organization of Nayak Siris Mahaguru Battalion,” said thePM.

He also said that the train-ing touches upon all the aspectsfrom physical fitness to inter-views and writing to training.You will be surprised to knowthat the people this organisa-tion has trained have securedtheir places in uniformed forcessuch as the Army, Navy, AirForce, CRPF and BSF.

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Haryana Chief MinisterManohar Lal Khattar on

Sunday claimed that the BJP-JJP combine enjoys a majorityin the House.

Responding to Congress’claim of bringing a no-confi-dence motion against the StateGovernment in the Assemblyduring the upcoming budgetsession, the Chief Ministersaid that it is their right to bringa no-confidence motion againstthe government.

“We are in majority. Theopposition is doing such anexercise as they are afraid oftheir sustainability,” ManoharLal said while talking to themediapersons here.

The budget session of theHaryana Assembly will com-mence from March 5.

Recently, the Leader ofthe Opposition in the Houseand senior Congress leaderBhupinder Singh Hooda hadsaid that voices of dissent arebeing heard among the MLAssupporting the governmentand they will bring a no-con-fidence motion against it.

Meanwhile, the ChiefMinister also said that a Billagainst religious conversionby force, inducement orthrough marriages solem-nised for the sole purpose ofadopting a new religion willbe introduced in the Budgetsession. The Bill will bebrought in which there will beprovisions against conversionby misrepresentation, force,undue influence, coercion,inducement, marriage or anyfraudulent means, he said.

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The budget session ofUttarakhand assembly

would start at Bharadisain,Gairsain on Monday. The tenday session would commencewith the address of theGovernor Baby Rani Maurya.On March 4, the Chief MinisterTrivendra Singh Rawat whoalso holds the finance portfo-lio would present a budget forthe financial year 2021-22 inthe assembly.

Incidentally this would bethe first budget of theUttarakhand government inthe summer capital ofUttarakhand. The CM Rawatannounced his government’sintention to grant the status ofsummer capital to Gairsain inChamoli district on March 4,2020. After the consent of theGovernor the official notifica-tion of the summer capital status was done in June2020.

This year the budget isexpected to be to the tune of Rs56900 Crores. On Sunday theCM Trivendra Singh Rawat, ,Cabinet ministers SatpalMaharaj, Madan Kaushik,Harak Singh Rawat and Arivid

Pandey arrived in Bharadisain.The meeting of the businessadvisory committee headed byDeputy speaker RaghunathSingh Chauhan was held inBharadisain on Sunday. In themeeting the agenda of the firstday and the address of theGovernor were discussed.Cabinet minister MadanKaushik, leader of opposition

Indira Hridayesh, GovindSingh Kunjwal and KhajanDas were also present in thismeeting. Later the meetings ofthe BJP and Congress legisla-ture parties were organised inwhich the party leaders dis-cussed their respective strate-gies for the session. The oppo-sition Congress has decided totarget the government on the

issues of unemployment, non-payment of farmers’ dues, pricerise and failure of governmentto tackle the pandemic ofCovid-19.

Uttarakhand ChiefMinister Trivendra SinghRawat too reached Bharadisainon Sunday. He took road routefrom Ranikhet via Dwarahaatto reach Gairsain.

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The Veer Surendra SaiUniversity of Technology

(VSSUT), Burla, was on Sundayshut down until further ordersafter as many as 29 of its students

have tested positive for Covid-19.The Sambalpur district

administration also declaredshutdown in some areas ofBurla town until further ordersafter detection of several Covidcases in the localities.

In the Micro ContainmentZones, only essential activitiesshall be allowed. There shall bestrict perimeter control toensure that there is no move-ment of people in or out ofthese zones.

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Page 3: Feb 28, 2021  · report the highest daily new cases at 8,623, followed by Kerala with 3,792 while Punjab with 593 new cases. Madhya Pradesh and Haryana have also joined the list

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More than 450 private hos-pitals have been roped in

to inoculate senior citizensand middle-aged residents withcomorbid conditions againstthe Covid-19 virus fromMonday onwards in Jharkhand,officials from the state healthdepartment said on Sunday,adding that in the initial stage,private hospitals only in bigcities like Ranchi, Jamshedpur,Dhanbad and Bokaro will berunning the vaccination pro-gramme.

“The price of one jab of thevaccine will vary from Rs.156to Rs.250 at private healthcarefacilities. A hospital willing toprovide the vaccine with min-

imal service charge can provideit to the citizens for Rs.156itself, but the ones seekinghigher service charge cannotcharge more than Rs.250,” adirector rank official said,requesting not to be named.

As per data shared by a

health department official, atleast 71 private hospitals andclinics have been empanelled toadminister the Covishield vac-cine to citizens in Ranchi.Since the vaccination requirestwo jabs in a gap of 28 days, themaximum amount a private

facility can charge from anyperson for the immunization isRs.500.

Rani Hospital, Guru NanakHospital and Research Centre,Raj Hospital, Anjuman IslamiaHospital, Nagarmal Modi SevaSadan, Devkamal Hospital,

Bhagwan Mahavir MedicaSuperspecialty Hospital, AlamHospital and KashyapMemorial Eye Hospital areamong the 71 hospitals in thestate capital empanelled toadminister vaccine againstCovid-19 from Mondayonwards.

Yogesh Gambhir, the pres-ident of Association ofHealthcare Providers (AHPI),Jharkhand, said that citizenscan either register through theCo-Win App for immunizationor simply visit the hospitaland register themselves.

“People who find it difficultto operate smart phones candirectly come to the hospitaland register. The registrationprocess will begin tomorrow(Monday) morning,” saidGambhir, who is also the ownerof Raj Hospital in Ranchi,which is empanelled for thevaccination programme.

The health department

provided training to healthcareworkers in private hospitals onSaturday and Sunday for thesecond phase of the vaccinationprogramme. Vaccination atgovernment hospitals remainedsuspended for these two days,officials from the NationalHealth Mission (NHM) said.

In the first phase of theimmunization programme,Jharkhand administered theCovishield vaccine to morethan 3 lakh healthcare workersand frontline workers sincethe launch of the nationwidevaccination drive on January16. The state has so far achieved78 per cent of its target inadministering the first dose ofthe vaccine to healthcare work-ers and frontline workers ingovernment hospitals. The sec-ond dose of the vaccine hasbeen administered to over23000 healthcare workers sofar, which is 73 per cent of theregistered beneficiaries.

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CPI (Maoist) zonal commanderJeevan Kandulna, who carried a

bounty of Rs.10 lakh on his head andfaced charges in 77 cases of majorcrimes, surrendered to the Ranchipolice on Sunday.

Kandulna, as per details sharedby the police, was accused in casesof murder, loot, rape, levy collectionand involvement in Maoist activitieslodged with different police stationsacross Jharkhand.

Police said that more than 4000operations were conducted to nabKandulna in the past 20 years, buthe always managed to escape.Kandulna, originally a resident ofRania block of Khunti district, about35 kilometers south of Ranchi, wasactive in the Saranda jungles of WestSinghbhum – the largest Sal forest ofSouth East Asia. Police sources saidthat security forces were followinghis location and activities for over ayear and mounting pressure on himto surrender.

After surrendering before thepolice in Ranchi, Kandulna urged hisfellow rebels to shun their gun and

join the mainstream.“I was impressed with the new

surrender policy. I appeal all my fel-low rebels to take advantage of thesurrender policy and start afresh,”Kandulna said.

Ranchi Senior Superintendent ofPolice, SK Jha said that many rebelswere still living in the far-flung jun-gles following an ideology that maynot serve any purpose.

“Many youths join Maoistgroups after getting influenced bytheir ideologies. But eventually, rightwins over wrong,” said Jha. “All theprovisions of the surrender policy forLeft Wing Extremists will be fol-lowed in his (Kandulna’s) rehabili-tation in the mainstream, and we areexpecting that more rebels will sur-render after this,” he added.

Sources said that Kandulna hadjoined the outlawed CPI (Maoist) toavenge the killing of his sister by asplinter outfit years ago. Security

forces have been on the lookout forKandulna during combing opera-tions in West Singhbhum in the pastcouple of months, sources said.

As per records with the Ministryof Home Affairs, at least 19 of 24 dis-tricts in Jharkhand are Left WingExtremism-affected. Besides the mainCPI (Maoist), there are around 17splinter outfits active in the tribal state.

The government has been work-ing on framing better surrender poli-cies in order to ensure more surren-der by insurgents. In 2017, Jharkhand’sone of the most infamous Maoist lead-ers, Kundan Pahan, a zonal com-mander, had surrendered and wasgiven a warm welcome by the police.

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The State Women Congressworkers staged a sit-in

protest on Sunday at AlbertEkka Chowk in the StateCapital to protest against therise in the price of petrol andLPG cylinders and during theprotest they kindled a woodenstove and cooked bread on thespot.

Jharkhand MahilaCongress Chief Gunjan Singhsaid that the issue of farmers,safety of women, inflation oremployment, the CentralGovernment has failed on allpoints. The women will not sitdown silently because it is amatter of their self respect andkitchen budget also.

Attacking the CentralGovernment for failing in con-trolling the inflation, Singhsaid that one can see that thepeasant brothers were con-stantly being tortured afterthat the inflation is tormentingpeople's life badly. "Gas cylin-der prices increased, petrolprices were increased. Ifwomen are working some-where, they are mostly travel-ling by scooty. Now how willthey go to work? The CentralGovernment had said that theUjjwala gas scheme is being

given in respect of the women.Today it has become proofthat it has become a toy only.All of us will return gas cylin-ders to Modi ji. At the sametime, the Women Congresswill also work to give bangles,"she added.

The party's women wingState Chief said that cookingfood on gas today one has tothink twice because of he ris-ing price of LPG. "It is betterthat we will use wood and cowdung. Today we are on theroad. Now there is no talk ofemployment anywhere. Theonly thing is to please Ambaniand Adani," she added.

Only one day earlier onSaturday Jharkhand PradeshCongress Committee (JPCC)Chief, Rameshwar Oraon hadsaid while protesting against ris-ing inflation that the prices ofpetroleum products would comedown for two-three months dueto the announcement of assem-bly election program for fivestates including West Bengal,Assam and Kerala. "There is anatmosphere of public angeragainst rising inflation in thewhole country. After the election,the price will increase again," headded. The party had held a sit-in protest in front of Raj Bhawanin the State Capital.

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Fear of corona pandemic hasonce again hit the Ranchi

Bar Association (RBA) after sixadvocates of Ranchi BarAssociation were found infect-ed with corona virus. TheDistrict Bar Association hasissued a notice stating that thenew Bar Building complex willbe closed for a week for prop-er sanitization of Bar buildings.

District Bar Associationpresident Shambhu PrasadAggarwal said in the notice thatas six lawyers sitting at RanchiBar Association, the DistrictBar Association as precaution-ary measures has decided toclose the new bar building fora week. The notice also statesthat the new bar building com-plex will remain closed till thenew bar building includingthe gate is sanitized.

The decision to closeRanchi District Bar Associationfor week has brought fear in theminds of lawyers as after beingclosed for almost ten months,the Ranchi District BarAssociation (RDBA) open theBar building resuming physicalcourts on February 3.

A lawyer at RDBA VijayKumar said, “The Bar Buildingand physical court resumedafter ten months, but now withcorona infection hitting lawyers

we are left with no other alter-native but to follow RDBAinstructions.” Vijay Kumar fur-ther said, “The Bar Building isthe place where lawyers sitand discuss cases with clients.We are hopeful that RDBA willtake decision looking securityaspects so that Bar Buildingopens once again.”

Based on StandardOperating Procedure (SOP)issued by the Jharkhand HighCourt, Jharkhand State BarCouncil and State Governmentphysical hearing at Civil Courtsacross the state resumed onFebruary 3.

The decision broughtsmiles on the face of over 33hundred members of theDistrict Bar Association. Thelawyers took part in the phys-ical hearing of courts after 10months.

Many judicial processesincluding testimony anddebates in cases that have beenclosed for months began incourts. A total of 49 judicialofficers are posted in CivilCourt, Ranchi. Accordingly, aphysical hearing is being con-ducted in 13 courts. In remain-ing courts there is virtual hear-ing. During the physical hear-ing, the lawyers have to followthe guidelines issued by theHigh Court.

The Court of JudicialCommissioner, Family Court,Additional Judicial (I), CJM,ACJM, SDJM and MunsiffCourt have physical hearingthree days a week. The remain-ing three days there is virtualhearing. The physical courtsits on alternate days, while inthe rest there are physical hear-ings.

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In an attempt to remind the StateGovernment of its promise, the para

teachers have decided to gherao the StateAssembly on March 15. The decision wastaken at a meeting of the StateCommittee of Samekit Para TeacherSangharsh Morcha was held under thechairmanship of Sanjay Kumar Dubeyat Morabadi Ground in the State Capitalon Sunday.

It has been decided in the meetingthat if the demanded pay scale is notgiven to 65000 Para teachers by March14, 2021, then they will encircle the StateAssembly. Apart from this, it has alsobeen demanded to pay honorarium for22 months which has not been paid tountrained Para teachers.

The district heads and the districtsecretaries of 22 districts were also pre-sent in this meeting.

After the meeting Dubey informedthat the agitation will be held even if theunpaid honorarium of 436 para teach-ers of Chhatarpur, Naudiha Bazar blockof Palamu is not paid. "We have alsodemanded the withdrawal of the lawsuitagainst the Para teachers filed during theprevious Government. They havedemanded an honorarium payment ofdiscrepancies and payment of thousandsof Para teachers in the pre-financial year.The Para Teachers Association says

that all demands must be met otherwisethey will encircle the State Assembly," headded.

The Associan's members will heldprotest district wise, on February 15 thePara teachers from Giridih, Ramgarh,Deoghar, Lohardaga, East Singhbhumwill protest, on February 16 the Parateachers from Chatra, Garhwa, Simdega,Godda, West Singhbhum, on February16 the Associan's members fromHazaribagh, Latehar, Pakur, Ranchi,Khunt,i on February 17 the Para teach-ers from Palamu, Dhanbad, Koderma,Saraikela Kharsawan and on February 18and 19, the Para teacher from Gumla,Dumka, Jamtara, Sahebganj, Bokarowill be protest.

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About Nine lakh students of8th, 9th and 11th classes

will attend regular classes inschools from Monday. The14114 the Government schoolsto reopen include NetarhatResidential School, IndiraGandhi Girls ResidentialSchool, Kasturba GandhiResidential School and otherresidential schools of theWelfare Department. Beforethe school opens, the JharkhandEducation Project Council(JPCC) has instructed all dis-tricts to follow the StandardOperating Procedure (SOP).

Before the school reopens,it will be compulsory to cleanthe schools and send theirphoto to the department, sothat it can be known whethercleanliness has actually takenplace or not.

Before opening theschools, in many places in theschool buildings, the informa-tion related to the Coronavirus has to be written andpasted and the students will beshown the videos related to theCorona virus in the schools. Inthe event of an emergency,preparations will also have to

be made at the school level toprovide medical facilities tochildren immediately.

Apart from classes no otheractivities allowed in theschools. Before coming toschool, students will have tobring a letter of permissionfrom their parents. No cultur-al programmes of any kind willbe organized in the schools.

In this regard, the StateProject Director of the Council,Shailesh Kumar Cherasia, hasinstructed all RegionalEducation Deputy Directors,District Education Officers andDistrict Education Directors toopen the Government schools.It has also been said thatschools used as quarantinecenters will open only after spe-cial cleanliness. Also, a list of allsuch schools has been asked to

make available to the StateProject Office on Google Sheet.

"Sanitation will be done inthe vicinity of the playgroundalong with the area around theschool premises. The schoolswhich were used as quarantinecenters will undergo specialsanitation. The JPCC has clear-ly stated that the benches anddesks in the class should bekept in such a way that the dis-tance between two students isnot less than six feet. In orderto follow physical distance inschools, circles should be madeat school entrance restaurantsand other places. In the school,soap or hand wash should bearranged in place of handwashing with toilet service.Teachers should motivate stu-dents to wash their hands fromtime to time," said Chaurasia.

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Touted as world’s largestfund collection drive, over

Rs 2000 crores have so far beencollected in Shri RamJanmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra,during the 44-day SamarpanNidhi Abhiyan which began onJanuary 15 (Makar Sankranti)and ended on Magh Purnimaon February 27 (Saturday).The Shri Ram JanmabhoomiTeerth Kshetra will reveal theexact amount collected throughoffline and online medium innext few days. Sources said thatin Jharkhand the collectionwill be around Rs 50 crore,however, the final figure willcome out within a week.

Shri Ram JanmabhoomiTeerth Kshetra State fund col-lection coordinator VirendraSahu said, “As fund has beencollected from urban as well asrural area. The exact figure oftotal collected fund will bereveal in next few days.However, people have donatedfund with much enthusiasm fortemple collection.”

“The abhiyan was a greatsuccess and it was unique in thesense that it broke all bound-aries of religion, caste andcommunity. People from dif-ferent walks of life and sectsdonated whole-heartedly forthe construction of Sri Ram Lala

temple in Ayodhya,” said Sahu.The Shri Ram

Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetrafor fund collection had consti-tuted small group (tolas) com-prising members of VHP,Bajarang Dal, RSS and othersaffron outfit functionaries.Each tolas were given the taskto collect fund in their respec-tive areas.

Virendra Vimal a seniorVHP functionary looking afterfund collection campaign atHesal area said, “We had thetarget of fund collection inHesal area. In one month wehave collected more than Rs 11lakh which is a good amount.”Donations for Ram templeconstruction were accepted invoucher of Rs 10, Rs 100 andRs 1000. Those making dona-tion higher than Rs 2000 weregiven receipt.

Similarly, a RSS func-tionary Gulab Singh lookingafter the fund collection driveat Deputy Para area said, “Wehad collected Rs 3 lakh in onemonth. People from Rs 10 to Rs5000 contributed for the aus-picious work.”

Sources said that theamount may go beyond Rs 50crores as many donationcheques are yet to be deposit-ed and many are in queue forbank clearance. The exactamount would be known afterfinal tabulation.

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Page 4: Feb 28, 2021  · report the highest daily new cases at 8,623, followed by Kerala with 3,792 while Punjab with 593 new cases. Madhya Pradesh and Haryana have also joined the list

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Asking the country to thinkahead, Prime Minister

Narendra Modi on Sundayhighlighted the need for waterconservation saying theGovernment would “in a fewdays” launch a campaign ‘Catchthe Rain’ “where it falls whenit falls.”

In his monthly radio-talk‘mann ki baat’, Modi called fora 100-day campaign to clean upwater bodies and harvest rain-water.

“This is the best time tothink about water conservationin the summer months ahead.Water has been crucial for thedevelopment of humankindfor centuries,” he said.

In his 74th edition, secondfor 2021, radio address PrimeMinister touched on variousissues concerning the nation,including water conservation,coronavirus and self-reliance.

“Many people from acrossthe country are contributing toAtmanirbhar Bharat…Aatmanirbhar Bharat is notmerely a Government efforts.Itis the national spirit of India,”said Modi.

Modi stressed the impor-tance of water conservationduring his address andannounced that the Jal ShaktiMinistry would soon launch awater conservation campaigncalled ‘Catch the Rain’

“On March 22, WorldWater Day will be celebrated.We must understand ourresponsibility towards waterconservation. In a few days, theJal Shakti Ministry will launcha campaign Catch the Rain. Itsslogan is Catch the Rain, whereit falls when it falls. This is thebest time to think about waterconservation in the summermonths ahead. Water has beencrucial for the development ofhumankind for centuries,” hesaid.

To motivate peopletowards nature conservationModi gave an example of JadevPayeng of Assam. “He hasactively contributed towards300 hectares plantations inMajuli island in Assam. He hasbeen working for forest con-servation and has been inspir-ing people on plantation andconservation of biodiversity”,he said.

Wishing students aheadof their examinations, Modisaid, ‘Be a warrior, not wor-rier.’ He also invited parents,teachers for their suggestionfor “Pariksha pe Charcha.”

In his address ,Modiurged sports ministry to pro-mote sports commentary inregional culture

“We need to think aboutpromoting commentary ofIndian sports in regional lan-guages,’ Prime Minister said.

“We must think aboutpromoting it. I would urge thesports ministry and privateinstitutions to think about it,”he said.

Do you ever feel thatsomething is still missing?asked a listener to which hementioned his “insufficientefforts” to pick-up Tamillanguage.

“You have been PM andCM for so many years. Doyou ever feel that somethingis still missing? asked a lis-tener,” the listener had asked.

“I could not make suffi-

cient efforts to learn world’smost ancient language Tamil.I could not learn Tamil,” saidModi in his response.

Extending greetings tothe people on ‘NationalScience Day’, Prime Ministernoted the immense role that,he said, played by Science inmaking the country self-reliant.

“ Today is NationalScience Day. It is dedicated tothe discovery of the ‘RamanEffect’ by scientist Dr CVRaman. Our youth shouldread a lot about Indian sci-entists and understand thehistory of Indian science,”said Modi.

“In self-reliant India,there is immense contributionof science. We will have totake science forward with themantra of “lab to land,” headded.

Modi began his addressby invoking saint-poet SantRavidas, a day after the nationremembered him on hisanniversary.

“Sant Ravidas Ji taught us-keep working, do not expectanything…when this is donethere will be satisfaction. Hetaught people to go beyondconventional thinking. SantRavidas Ji spoke directly andhonestly about various issues.He was fearless. We bow toSant Ravidas Ji on his Jayanti.His thoughts inspire us,” saidthe Prime Minister.

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The Ministry of ConsumerAffairs on Sunday said that

data collection of wholesale andretail prices of 22 essential com-modities on a daily basis hasimproved following the launchof a mobile app from Januarythis year. The ministry monitorsprices of rice, wheat, wheatflour, gram dal, tur/arhar Dal,urad dal, moong Dal, masoorDal, sugar, milk, groundnut oil,mustard oil, vanaspati, soya oil,sunflower oil, palm oil, gur, tea,salt, potato, onion and tomato.The price data is being collect-ed from 127 centres across thecountry through food and civilsupplies departments of stateGovernments.

“To improve the quality ofprices data for reporting dailyprices by the price reporting cen-tres, the Department ofConsumer Affairs launched aMobile App on 1st January,2021,” the ministry said in astatement.

The monitoring and pre-dictive analysis of prices ofessential commodities has takena giant step forward, it said.

The mobile app for pricemonitoring for 22 essentialcommodities has started pro-viding effective real time infor-mation about retail and whole-sale prices from 127 locationsacross the country, the statementsaid.

The daily report of retail andwholesale prices are obtainedfrom 127 centres located acrossthe country. The daily report ofprices and indicative price trendsare analysed for taking appro-priate decisions such as releaseof stocks from the buffer andexport-import policy etc.

“Price reporting throughMobile App ensures reportingfrom the market

location as data are geo-tagged thereby displaying the

location from where price dataare reported,” it said. The report-ing of static data from officedesktop is ruled out through theapplication of Mobile App.

“Therefore, the condition tooperationalise Mobile App isthat each Price Reporting Centrehas to furnish market detailssuch as names and addresses ofthe shops and markets fromwhere prices are being collect-ed daily,” it said. As per theguidelines for retail price report-ing, the prices of the same vari-ety of a commodity are to be col-lected from three markets —high income market, middleincome market and low incomemarket, and the average of thethree prices is to be reported.

The ministry said that themobile App has inbuilt featureto calculate and report theaverage price.

This helps in avoidinghuman errors in calculation.Market information fromAgmarknet, Agriwatch,NAFED and trade associationsalso constitute inputs for priceanalysis.

The ministry is also utilis-ing the services of Agriwatchfor providing market intelli-gence, predictive analysis ofprices and to develop priceforecasting model.

The ministry said it hadproposed to DEA (departmentof economic affairs) for tech-nical assistance fund underCARES Progamme of AsianDevelopment Bank (ADB) forimproving price monitoringand analysis.

The activity componentsunder the technical assistanceare upgradation of price mon-itoring portal, capacity buildingfor price reporting centres andprice monitoring cell, identifi-cation of long-term improve-ments for food commoditysupply chain & market effi-ciency.

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On World Rare Disease Day,observed on every last day

of February, experts on Sundaystressed on mandatory new-born screening and adequatefinancial support for controland management of the dis-ease.

There are more than 7,000diagnosed rare diseases in theworld and over 350 millionindividuals suffer from them,with nearly one-fifth in India.“But, many patients go withoutbeing diagnosed accurately ortreated on time,” activists in thesector said while calling for acomprehensive policy.

Around 50 percent of therare diseases are by birth, andthe rest are late onset. Onlyseven of the 450 are treatable

diseases, the rest need to bemanaged.

“We are literally sitting ona ticking time bomb,” PrasannaShirol, co-founder of theOrganisation of Rare Diseasesin India (ORDI) said, lament-ing that there is no official listof identified rare diseasesissued by the Government.

In fact, the national registryannounced by Indian Councilof Medical Research (ICMR) in2017, which aimed to cover aset of rare and ultra-rare dis-orders that are prevalent inIndia has remained a non-starter till date.

Lack of awareness is thebiggest challenge in diagnosingrare diseases, said Shirol,explaining that the averagetime to identify a rare diseasein a patient is seven years.

“What the governmentbelieves is utterly contradicto-ry. They ask why should theyinitiate anything massive for agroup which does not have amassive patient burden unlikenon-communicable diseaseslike cancers, but what I say isthat to know the real burden ithas to make newborn screen-ing mandatory,” he slammedthe Government.

Vikas Bhatia from Merd(Metabolic Errors and RareDiseases) India Foundationechoed similar views sayingthat in India, the health carepriorities are still limited toreducing the Infant MortalityRate(IMR) and meeting basicinfrastructure requirements.“The Government is yet to havea mandatory screening pro-gram for newborn babies.”

Though, some States likeKerala and Goa and hospitalslike such as SGPGI Lucknow,JK Loan Hospital, Jaipur, havemade it mandatory screeningfor some disorders in the stategovernment health care facili-ties, it should be uniformlyadopted by all the States, saidBhatia.

“Otherwise also, even if itis mandatory or not mandato-ry, the health of their baby is ofutmost important concern ofthe parents and they do notwant to go through any trau-ma,” he said. “Lastly, screeningshould be simple, specific, sen-sitive, cost effective and easy forcollection and transport,” he

suggested.Unhappy at the delay in

diagnosis, Vijay sappani, chair-man of Sappani Foundation forrare disease research and boardmember of Canadian organi-zation of rare disorders InIndia, Parvathy Krishnan fromFoundation Alliance Managerfor Global Genes felt that “thisjourney is significantly moreprolonged due to the unavail-ability of testing, limited accessto specialists, and a lack of

understanding of the impact ofrare diseases on the patient’squality of life.

“Early diagnosis canimprove avenues for life-savinginterventions and therapies inpatients with rare disease,”added Oommen C Kurian,head of Health Initiative atORF, a thinktank. Though theUnion Ministry of Health hasissued draft National Policy forRare Diseases 2020 for stake-holder inputs, the activists arenot very enthusiastic about it.They rued that the policyembraces a minimalistapproach and maintains thathealthcare is a State subject.

Early this year, the DelhiHigh Court had directed theCentre to finalise and opera-tionalise the Policy by March31, 2021.

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At least three Central PoliceOrganisations (CPOs),

including CBI and NCB,besides two Central ArmedPolice Force (CAPF) or para-military, CRPF and NSG, areheadless in the face of absenceof appointments of regularchiefs. These agencies areworking with ad hoc chiefs.

While the post of Directorof Central Bureau ofInvestigation (CBI) is vacantsince February 3 when thethen incumbent RK Shuklaretired from service after com-pletion of the fixed two-yeartenure, 1984-batch Gujaratcadre IPS officer RakeshAsthana is holding additionalcharge of the chief of theNarcotics Control Bureau(NCB) after his appointment asDirector General of the BorderSecurity Force (BSF) on August17 last year.

The CBI is currently head-ed by 1988-batch Gujarat cadreIPS officer Praveen Sinha,presently additional director inthe investigating agency, as aninterim chief till a regularappointment.

The CBI chief is appoint-ed by a high-level panel head-ed by the Prime Minister thatalso includes the Chief Justiceof India and the Leader of thelargest Opposition party in theLok Sabha and a meeting of thecommittee is yet to be called,sources said.

Likewise, the post of thechief of Bureau of PoliceResearch and Development(BPR&D), also a CPO, is vacantafter the incumbent DirectorGeneral and 1986-batch IPSofficer of Andhra Pradesh

cadre was moved to the UnionHome Ministry has SpecialSecretary (Internal Security)from August 19 last year fortenure till November 30, 2022.

The elite counter-terrorCAPF or paramilitary NationalSecurity Guard (NSG) is head-less since October 1 last year asthe then Director General AKSingh retired from service onSeptember 30 and ITBP ChiefSS Deswal is holding additionalcharge of the top post in theForce.

While the Centre on Fridayappointed the outgoing CRPFDG AP Maheshwari as anadvisor to Puducherry’sLieutenant Governor, two daysbefore his superannuation fromthe Indian Police Service (IPS)on Sunday, the appointment ofthe chief of the paramilitary isyet to be made. The CPRF isthe world’s biggest paramilitarywith a strength of over 3.25lakh personnel.

While the CBI comesunder the administrative con-trol of the Department ofPersonnel and Training, theCentral Reserve Police Force(CRPF), National SecurityGuard (NSG), NarcoticsControl Bureau (NCB), Bureauof Police Research andDevelopment (BPR&D) reportto the Union Home Ministrythat is also the cadre control-ling authority for the IPS offi-cers in the country.

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Normal bilateral tiesbetween India and China

depends on lasting peace andtranquility on the border,Foreign Secretary HarshShringla said on Sunday. Hiscomments came days afterboth the countries completedthe first phase of disengage-ment of troops from the standoff sites at the PangongTso(lake) in Eastern Ladakh.

India has always stressedin interactions with Chineseinterlocutors that a normalbilateral relationship is con-tingent on peace and tran-quility in the border areas, theForeign Secretary said.

Underlining that China isthe second-largest economy inthe world and India has a largetrade profile with it, Shringlasaid India has to continue towork on the economic rela-tionship with the neighbour-ing country, but it has to becalibrated based on theprogress on important issuesthat are critical to both coun-tries politically.

Talking about the “recentdisturbances” on the India-China border areas in EasternLadakh, Shringla, while speak-ing at a session of the AsiaEconomic Dialogue, said, “Wein our interactions with ourChinese interlocutors havealways made the point that anormal bilateral relationship iscontingent upon peace andtranquility in the border areas.”

This is a sine qua non(absolutely necessary) and thisis something both sides haveaccepted as part of their treatyobligations, he said at anonline session of the Dialogueorganised by the PuneInternational Centre.

“Now as we disengage andas there is some forwardmovement in the resolution ofsome of the recent borderfriction points...obviously wehave to see what else isrequired,” he said.

“It is a very long borderthat we have with China andwe are only talking about onesmall point on the border.“We are trying to now seewhether we can apply similarprinciples in sorting out someof the other areas which are inthe Ladakh sector, some othersectors that we are talkingabout, and to see how else wecan move forward on the issueof managing our long butcontentious border with Chinain a manner that allows bothcountries to sort of maintaina level of semblance of nor-malcy,” the foreign secretarysaid.

Shringla said the resolu-tion of the outstanding issueswas a “work in progress” andhas had an impact on theeconomic ties, he said. On theeconomic aspect of the ties, hesaid the important point is thatwhatever one does, China isthe second-largest economy inthe world and India has a largetrade profile with it.

“Clearly, we have to con-tinue to work on the eco-nomic relationship but it hasto be calibrated based onpeace and tranquillity and progress on important issuesthat are critical to both coun-tries politically,” he said.

Noting that China isIndia’s largest trading partnerin terms of goods, the foreignsecretary said the balance oftrade is very much skewed infavour of China.

“We have carried quite aheavy trade imbalance forover a number of years. Overtime this has increasinglyseemed as being unsustain-able,” he said.

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The CBI has identified 10more victims of alleged

child sexual abuse by now-sus-pended Uttar Pradesh Irrigationdepartment junior engineerRam Bhuwan, the alleged pae-dophile also accused of sellingthe illicit acts with kids on thedark web, officials said.

Further expanding itsexhaustive probe, the centralprobe agency recorded the state-ment of these 10 male victimsto buttress its charges againstBhuwan who was arrested alongwith his wife and a suspectedaccomplice, they said.

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New Delhi: In a boost for thecountry’s surveillance capabil-ities to monitor activities ofboth military warships andmerchant shipping in theIndian Ocean Region (IOR),the ‘Sindhu Netra’ satellitedeveloped by a team of youngscientists from Research andDevelopment Organisation(DRDO) was successfullydeployed in space on Sunday.

The satellite was launchedusing the Indian SpaceResearch Organisation’s (ISRO)PSLV-C51 which took off fromthe Satish Dhawan SpaceCentre in Sriharikota inAndhra Pradesh at 10:30 amtoday.

The Sindhu Netra satellitehas been developed by theyoung scientists of the DRDO

and is capable of automatical-ly identifying the warships andmerchant ships operating in theIOR. The satellite has alsostarted communicating withthe ground systems, govern-ment sources told ANI.

The satellite, if required,can also help in carrying outsurveillance in specific areassuch as the South China Sea orthe pirate-infested areas nearthe Gulf of Aden and theAfrican coast, the sources said.

They added that theSindhu Netra is one of the firstin the series of satellites thatwould help the nation inenhancing its surveillancecapabilities on land in areassuch as the Ladakh regionwith China and the borderareas with Pakistan.

Seeking to keep a closer eyeon the activities of the Chinesemilitary both near the Indianterritory as well as in its depthareas all along the 4,000 kilo-metre Line of Actual Control(LAC), the Indian securityagencies feel there is a require-ment of four to six dedicatedsatellites which can help themkeep a check on the adversary’smoves.

Along with the setting upof the Defence Space Agency,the Government also created adefence space research organ-isation to look after the abilityto protect space assets frombeing attacked by adversariesthere. The space arm of thedefence forces would also bebolstered significantly in nearfuture. ANI

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India’s Polar rocket on Sundaysuccessfully launched

Amazonia-1 of Brazil and 18other satellites from the space-port here, in the first missionof the year for space agencyISRO.

The Polar Satellite LaunchVehicle PSLV-C51 lifted off ataround 10.24 am from the firstlaunch pad of the SatishDhawan Space Centre (SHAR)and first injected into orbit pri-mary payload Amazonia-1about 17 minutes later.

After a gap of over one-and-half hours, the co-passen-ger satellites, including onefrom Chennai- based SpaceKidz India (SKI), which isengraved with a picture ofPrime Minister NarendraModi, were launched subse-quently one after another in thespace of ten minutes in a text-book launch.

SKI’s Satish DhawanSatellite (SD-SAT) also car-ried Bhagavad Gita in aSecured Digital card format.According to SKI, the pictureof Modi has been engraved onthe top panel of the spacecraftto solidarity and gratitude forhis Atma Nirbhar initiativeand space sector privatisation.

A beaming Indian SpaceResearch Organisation (ISRO)Chairman K Sivan announcedthe mission was successful andall 19 satellites were launched inprecise orbits. “Today is a verygreat day for the entire ISROteam and the PSLV-C51 is a spe-cial mission for India. Let mecongratulate and complimentthe team ISRO for achieving theprecise injection of AMAZO-NIA-1 and 18 other satellites,” hesaid.

PSLV-C51 is the first dedi-cated commercial mission ofNewSpace India Limited (NSIL),ISRO’’s commercial arm, and thelaunch was watched among oth-ers by Brazilian Governmentofficials at the mission controlcentre here, over 100 kms fromChennai. The 18 co-passengersatellites placed in the orbit are—four from ISRO’’s IndianNational Space Promotion andAuthorisation Centre (threeUNITY Sats from consortium ofthree Indian academic insti-tutes and the SD-SAT fromSKI) and 14 from NSIL.

The 637-kg Amazonia-1which became the first Braziliansatellite to be launched fromIndia is an optical earth obser-vation satellite of NationalInstitute for Space Research(INPE).

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The National Green Tribunalhas formed a six-member

committee and directed it tosubmit a report in connectionwith a gelatin explosion at aquarry site in Chikkaballapurin Karnataka that left six peo-ple dead.

A bench headed by NGTChairperson Justice A K Goeltook note of

a media report and issuednotices to the Central PollutionControl Board, state pollutioncontrol board, Director MinesKarnataka and the DistrictMagistrate Chikkaballapur.

“We constitute a six-mem-ber joint committee compris-ing the CPCB, State PCB,District Magistrate,Chikkaballapur, nominee ofDirector General, Mines, ChiefController of Explosives,Ministry of Commerce andIndustry, Nagpur, and theDirector, Mines, Karnataka togive a report to this tribunal,”the bench said.

The nodal agency forcoordination and compliancewill be the CPCB and the StatePCB, the NGT said whileadding that the committeemay visit the site preferablywithin next one week andgive its report about the causeof the incident.

“Except for visit to the site

at least once, the Committeewill be free to conduct its pro-ceedings online. It will befree to take the assistancefrom any other expert/orga-nization.

“The Committee maysuitably interact with thestakeholders and, apart fromconsidering the present inci-dent, also consider remedial measures for preventing suchincidents in the area or byother establishments evenbeyond the said area,” thebench said.

The tribunal took cogni-sance of media report datedFebruary 23, 2021 whichreported that six people werekilled in quarry blast inHirenagavalli, Chikkaballapuron February 22.

The blast occurred in astone quarry unit situated inHirenagavalli village.

According to the prelim-inary information shared bythe police, the quarrying workwas stopped at the site onFebruary 7 after local resi-dents complained of rampantuse of gelatin sticks.

The work continueddespite the ban, and anotherraid was conducted by thepolice, during which the con-tractor was warned not to usegelatin. The explosives wentoff when the men were tryingto dispose them off, the NGTnoted.

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Page 5: Feb 28, 2021  · report the highest daily new cases at 8,623, followed by Kerala with 3,792 while Punjab with 593 new cases. Madhya Pradesh and Haryana have also joined the list

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Mangaluru: Lashing out at the BJPGovernment in Karnataka for its failureto contain the outbreak of the Covid-19pandemic, the Karnatka Congress chiefDK Shivakumar on Sunday soughtdetails of the relief aid provided to theCovid-affected people, especially themigrants, labourers and displaced peo-ple in the State.

“Though Prime Minister NarendraModi claimed to have allocated a Rs 20lakh crore package to the Covid-hit peo-ple across the country, the Karnatakagovernment has not given the details ofthe relief aid provided to the beneficia-ries, including the 'beedi' workers in thiscoastal region,” Shivakumar told themedia here.

Asserting that he would raise themismanagement of the Covid reliefmeasures during the pandemic in theensuing state Budget session startingMarch 4, the Congress lawmakerlamented that the Central and state gov-ernments were indifferent to the welfareof the people.

“Petrol and diesel prices have shotup 10 times in the recent days, as theCentre refuses to reduce excise duty on

them and the state government's valueadded tax (VAT), which account for over50 per cent of fuel retail price per litre,”said Shivakumar on the second day ofhis trip to the coastal region.

Alarmed over the apathy of the rul-ing BJP to the plight of the people, asprice of petrol crossed Rs 100 per litreand diesel Rs 90 per litre in some statesdue to high taxes, Shivakumar wonderedif Prime Minister Modi cared about thepoor and the middle class.

“Taxes on petrol during theCongress-led United ProgressiveAlliance-2 government in 2013-14 wasRs 10.7 on petrol per litre and Rs 4.9 ondiesel per litre.

“In the present BJP dispensation,central taxes like excise duty have shotup to Rs 32.9 per litre of petrol and Rs32.80 per litre of diesel, which are fuel-ing the inflation,” Shivakumar said.

The Karnataka Pradesh CongressCommittee (KPCC) President alsoaccused the BJP government in thesouthern state of increasing the prop-erty tax amid the Covid-19 pandemicand at a time when people were in dis-tress. IANS

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The time tested DMK-Congress alliance in Tamil

Nadu is on the verge of collapseas Congress scion RahulGandhi has not mentioned thenames of his alliance partner orits supreme leader during thefirst two days of his three-daytour in southern districts whichbegan on Saturday.

No DMK leaders were seensharing the stage with RahulGandhi in Thoothukudi orTirunelveli districts and this isbeing seen as an allis not wellin the ties between the two par-ties.

In earlier occasions, theDMK chief M K Stalin wouldbe seen sharing the stage andin all public appearances of theformer president of theCongress party. The talksbetween the DMK and theCongress over the sharing ofseats for the upcoming assem-bly election in the State has ita roadblock following therefusal of the former to partwith more than 20 seats.

The Congress is hoping toget at least 40 seats, the samenumber of assembly seatswhich it contested in the 2016assembly election. But Stalinhas reportedly told theCongress leaders that the hisparty should have at least 170seats of its own for the smoothfunctioning of the governmentto be formed post-election.

A senior Congress leaderwho shared with The Pioneerthe developments said that theDMK has been threatened bythe BJP not to part with moreseats. “The DMK’s track recordwhile in the UPA Governmentis not clean. The BJP would nothesitate to unleash the investi-gating agencies against them ifthe party leadership does notlisten to the Central govern-ment’s orders,” said the formerunion minister whodid not want his name to be

quoted.Rahul Gandhi’s speech at

Thoothukudi on Saturday andat Tirunelveli on Sunday gaveenough hints about his dis-pleasure over the intransigenceof the DMK. “The Narendra

Modi Government is unleash-ing central agencies likeEnforcement Directorate, CBIand Customs on the oppositionparty leaders. But I am not oneto be frightened by such deeds,”said the Congress leader.

Even as the DMK-Congress seat sharing talksremaining inconclusive, theAIADMK sealed a pact withthe Vanniyar dominated PMKlate Saturday. The PMK, one ofthe tough customers among theAIADMK alliance partners,was allocated 23 seats. ChiefMinister EdappadiPalaniswami and his deputy OPanneerselvam were holdingdiscussions with the BJP Stateleadership on Sunday and a for-mal announcement wasexpected either late evening oron Monday.

The Indian Justice Katchi(Katchi is the Tamil for party)launched by T R PatchamuthuMP , an alliance partner of theDMK who came out of thefront is giving shape to a ThirdFront with Kamal Haassan asthe chief ministerial candi-date.

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In what could give a creasedforehead to Bengal Chief

Minister Mamata Banerjee,Indian Secular Front (ISF)chief Pirzada Abbas Siddiqui ofFurfura Sharief — the largestMuslim religious congregationin Bengal — on Sunday open-ly asked the “people of Bengal”to “vote for the Left Front as amark of gratitude for theirhumility to leave 30 seats forus” in the coming Assemblyelections.

“The Left Front leadershave showed humility to acceptmost of our demands conced-ing 30 seats to us and so the ISFwill support them to throw outthe communal politics of theBJP and its agent MamataBanerjee … the ISF will sup-port the Left Front,” Pirzadawho attended the Left Front-

sponsored mammoth rally atthe historic Brigade ParadeGround in Kolkata said.

“Mamata Banerjee didmore harm to Muslims by cre-ating a Hindu-Muslim divideand allowing the BJP to enterthe State with its agenda … sheis a bigger enemy of theMuslims,” the Muslim clericearlier said.

The mega rally was alsoattended by senior Congressleaders like party Lok SabhaLeader Adhir Chowdhury,Chhattisgarh Chief MinisterRupesh Baghel and JitendraPrasad. Among other starspeakers were CPI(M) gener-al secretary Sitaram Yechury,his politburo colleagues,Suryakanto Mishra, Md Salimand Biman Bose and JNU stu-dents’ wing leader AishiGhosh.

Siddiqui’s support for theLeft beomces significant againstthe backdrop of high percent-age of Muslim votes in Bengalaccounting for about 28-30

percent — dominating the vot-ing pattern of about 125 seats.

The role of Furfura Shariefclerics also becomes importantas they have an influence overthe majority of Bengali-speak-ing Muslims of the State.

Reacting to the “allegedgrand success” of the rally,Bengal Minister Firhad Hakimsaid, “The people do not wantknow to know who supportswhom … they want to knowwho will stand by them … andthat is Mamata Banerjee … noamount of effort to divide anti-BJP votes will work as theminorities are an intelligent lotand they have seen the fate ofBihar elections a few monthsago.”

In an electoral atmos-phere almost vertically divid-ed between the rulingTrinamool Congress and theBJP, the waning Left had beentrying to stitch together aThird Front comprising non-BJP, non-TMC parties includ-ing the Congress.

Siddiqui’s support to theLeft promises to bring backthe minority votes to its foldbut it also threatens ChiefMinister with a realistic loss ofMuslim votes — her electoralmainstay for the past two

decades — a factor that caneventually make the BJP’s jobeasier, a senior State BJPleader and a former MLAsaid adding “this rally was therally not of the Left but of theBhaijan Siddiqui) … let the

thousands of Hindu refugeeswho were forced to leaveBangladesh take a decision.”

Siddiqui who supportedthe Left however issued a veiledwarning to the Congress saying“those who will extend a hand

of friendship will get a positivereply otherwise not.” Siddiquihas been unhappy with theCongress which is reluctant topart with 10 seats from its shareto the ISF.

After initial rounds of talksthe Marxists have left 92 seatsout of 294 for the Congress and30 seats for the ISF. The ISF hasbeen asking for additional 10seats from Congress’ share.

In the rally Siddiqui said,“People must be thinking thatwhy I asked you to vote for theLeft and why I did not mentionthe Congress … I have comehere to extract our genuinerights and not to appeasesomeone … those who willextend their hands of friend-ship we will definitely backthem.”

In private he said, “I haveheard that Sonia Gandhi andRahul Gandhi want thisalliance to be in place butsome people (read AdhirChowdhury) are acting as irri-tants,” Siddiqui said adding

“we have a few days left beforewe will start campaigning. Nowit is their job to take a decision.”

When contactedChowdhury said, “Congress isnot dependant on any one. Ittakes its own decision. Ourtalks with the Left are not overyet. We do not know howmuch we are getting so howcan we part with any seat forthe ISF. First let us be clearabout our own seat share…”

Meanwhile the leaderslambasted Narendra Modi andBaghel attacked the NarendraModi Government for its “anti-people approach” and sellingout the national assets to a fewcorporate houses.

“This Government hasdecided to squeeze the farmersand common people dry as canbe seen not only from thetriple anti-farmer laws passedby them but also the risingpetro-prices and cooking gas,”Chowdhury said More than 8lakh people attended the rally,Biman Bose later said.

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Aakash Mehra, son of a famousKrishna dhaba owner, shot at by

the motorcycle borne terrorists onFebruary 17 in a high security zoneof Sonwar during the visit of a 24member foreign delegation, lost a cru-cial battle of life in a Srinagar hospital in the wee hours ofSunday.

According to close family mem-bers, “Aakash was on ventilator sup-port for the last two days in SMHShospital Srinagar. His condition dete-riorated in the wee hours of Sundaybefore succumbing to his fatalinjuries”.

Aakash had received bulletinjuries in his abdomen and chestfrom a very close range.

The mortal remains of the youngbusinessman were shifted to Jammuto perform his last rites.

Several close relatives and fami-ly friends, who attended the lastrites, criticised the union territoryadministration headed by Lt-GovManoj Sinha for not organising bet-ter treatment facilities outside Jammuand Kashmir to save the precious lifeof a young businessman.

“The authorities wasted precioustime and also misled the family dur-ing the period of the last 11 days.If

Aakash was not responding to thetreatment to their satisfaction theyshould have referred him to NewDelhi or any other place”,several well wishers of the family

claimed. The government should have

responded swiftly. “It was a targetedkilling to scare away members of theminority community”, the relatives ofthe family said.

Ramesh Kumar Mehra, father ofAakash Mehra, has been running thefood joint since 1984 in the area. Hestayed there during the peak militancyand never faced any securitythreat.

The eatery served only vegetari-an food and was frequented by a largenumber of tourists and local residents.Several VVIP's including formerChief Minister Omar Abdullah toovisited the food joint to relish hisfavorite food items.

Two days after the terror attack onthe famous eatery Inspector Generalof Police, Kashmir range Vijay Kumarhad claimed all three terroristsinvolved in the attack were arrestedby the police from Pulwama andDangerpora in Baramulla.

The terror attack, according topolice, was a planned strike to scareaway non-locals settled in Kashmir.According to police, the terrorists had

done recce of the fortified area 10 daysin advance on the instructions of theirhandler identified as 'Ghazi'.

Lt-Gov Manoj Sinha in his con-dolence message said, “Saddened tohear about the tragic loss of AkashMehra, son of the owner of KrishnaDhaba in Srinagar. Condolences to thebereaved family. May God givestrength to the family to bear thisirreparable loss.Terrorists will neversucceed in their nefarious designs, and those responsible forsuch heinous acts shall be brought tojustice”.

Former Chief Minister OmarAbdullah posted a tweet after learn-ing about the death of Aakash. Omartweeted, “Very sad news about Akash,son of the owner of Krishna Dhaba inSrinagar.

After a brave fight he lost the bat-tle to recover from injuries sufferedin the earlier attack. May his soul restin peace & may his family findstrength at this difficult time”. PDPChief Mehbooba Mufti also tweeteda condolence message saying,“Shocked & saddened to know thatAkash Mehra who ran Krishna Dhabain Srinagar succumbed to his injuriesafter being shot at by militants. Mayhis soul rest in peace & deepest condolences to the bereavedfamily”.

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After the ruling Shiv Senatook the wind out of its

sails by seeking the resignationof its Tik Tok star PoojaChavan’s alleged suicide-linkedMinister Sanjay Rathod, theOpposition BJP on Sunday re-calibrated its strategy to targetthe rape-accused NCP MinisterDhananjay Munde, ahead ofthe 10-day Budget sessionbeginning here from Monday.

As the Opposition BJPreadied itself to the corner theShiv Sena-led MVA govern-ment over the resignation ofthe Sena’s Forest Ministerlinked to the alleged suicide by22-year-old Pooja , 49-year-oldRathod -- accompanied by hiswife Shital -- called onMaharashtra Chief MinisterUddhav Thackeray at the lat-ter’s official residence Varshaand handed over his resigna-

tion to the latter.Talking to media persons

later in the evening, Uddhavsaid: “Rathod has resignedfrom the State Cabinet of hisown free will. I have ordered animpartial probe into the cir-cumstances leading to thealleged suicide by PoojaChavan”

Earlier in the day, PoojaChavan’s father Lahu Chavan,her mother Mandodari Chavanand sister Devyani called on theChief Minister and submittedhim a memorandum to the

At his news conference, thechief minister askedParliamentary Affairs MinisterAnil Parab to read out the res-ignation letter of Rathod andthe memorandum submittedby Pooja’s parents.

In his resignation letter,Rathod urged the chief minis-ter to order a detailed probeinto the death of the girl andsaid he would like to step aside

to facilitate a comprehensiveprobe.

On their part, Pooja’s par-ents had requested the chiefminister not to accept the res-ignation of Rathod. They, how-ever, said that they wanted thestate government to takeaction against the minister oranyone else if found responsi-ble for their daughter’s death inthe probe.

Talking separately to themedia, Rathod -- a prominentleader of the Banjara commu-nity from eastern Maharashtra--said: I have submitted my res-ignation to the chief minister.The death of the girl who is alsofrom Banjara community, isvery unfortunate. Over thepast few weeks, the Oppositionhas politicised the issue onsocial media and maligned meand my community. TheOpposition has even tried tofinish me politically”.

Unfazed by Rathod’s resig-

nation, leader of theOpposition in the StateAssembly and senior BJP leaderDevendra Fadnavis said: “Theminister’s resignation is notenough. An FIR should beregistered immediately againstRathod. We also demand thatthe police officers who have notfor the past 20 days not regis-tered an FIR against the min-ister be suspended to facilitatean impartial probe”.

Charging that the chiefminister had tried to shield theSena minister facing charges ofabetting the suicide of Pooja,former chief minister andsenior BJP leader NarayanRane demanded that Rathod beimmediately arrested to facili-tate an impartial probe.

In a development thatcame after Rathod’s resignation,the State BJP presidentChandrakant Patil shifted thegoal post and asked NCP chiefSharad Pawar to act against his

party’s minister DhananjayMunde, who is facing an accu-sation of a rape made by awoman.

Earlier this month, awoman lodged a complaintwith the Mumbai police againstMaharashtra’s Social JusticeMinister Dhananjay Mundefor alleged rape. Following thecomplaint, the BJP had uppedthe ante, by demanding theminister’s resignation on“moral grounds” and also seek-ing action against him from theElection Commission forallegedly suppressing informa-tion that he had two wives.

Notwithstanding the res-ignation of Rathod, the BJP willnot only go all out to target theMVA government over hisalleged link with Pooja’s suicide,it will also try to corner theUddhav Thackeray dispensa-tion over Munde’s resignationin the 10-day-long budget ses-

sion beginning here fromMonday.

It may be recalled that onFebruary 8, Pooja had alleged-ly committed suicide by jump-ing off the Heaven Park build-ing in Pune’s Wanwadi locali-ty on the intervening night ofFebruary 7 and 8.

Following her death, theOpposition BJP on Saturdayhad upped the ante over thealleged of a 22-year-old Tik-Tok star Pooja Chavan, byrooting for the arrest of Rathod,who was reportedly in lovewith the deceased woman.

BJP leaders RadhakrishnaVikhe-Patil, Kirit Somaiya andparty’s woman leader ChitraWagh had said that the minis-ter had no moral right to con-tinue in the office. “In fact, heshould be booked abettingPooja’s alleged suicide andarrested immediately,” Waghsaid.

Maharashtra’s former chief

minister and senior BJPDevenra Fadnavis haddemanded that Pooja’s death beinvestigated in view of the factthat the telephonic conversa-tions between her and theminister had gone viral onsociety media. The Oppositionleaders alleged that Pooja waspregnant at the time of deathand that there were reasons tobelieve that the minister wasresponsible for herpregnancy.

In the case of Muinde,Pawar had at an initial stage (onFebruary 13) termed thecharges made by a womanagainst his party’s ministerwere “serious” and said that hewould take a call on the issue,after consulting his seniorparty’s important colleagues.“The charges are serious..Thematter is with the police...it isalso in court...they will decide,however, we as a party wouldhave to decide on it. I will speak

to my colleagues and decide,”Pawar had said.

However, two days later,Pawar had softened his standover the accusation of rapemade by a woman againstMunde after two more politi-cal leaders alleged that thewoman was trying to honeytrap them, and said that thepolice be allowed to investigatethe matter.

Ruling out Indirectly anypossible action against Mundeat the party level, Pawar said::“Since allegations have beenmade against the woman whohas complained against Munde,we have come to a conclusionthat the police be allowed to doa comprehensive probe into thematter. We are confident thatthe police will do a good job.Hence we will not interfere inthe probe. All we have sug-gested to the government is thatan ACP-level woman officer beasked to conduct the probe”.

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Jammu: Jammu & Kashmir reported report-ed 58 new Covid cases and one pandemicrelated death in the last 24 hours while 62patients recovered from the deadly virus onSunday.

An official bulletin said out of 58 newCovid cases, 11 were from Jammu while 47were from Kashmir.

So far, 126,441 people have been infect-ed with coronavirus in J&K out of which123,661 have recovered while the death tollhas reached 1,957.

The number of active cases is 823, ofwhich 207 are from Jammu division and 616are from Kashmir division. IANS

Patna: The nephew of Congress MLA Santosh Mishra has beengunned down by six unidentified bike-borne assailants inBihar's Rohtas district.

The deceased, Sanjiv Mishra (35), was the nephew ofSantosh Mishra, a Congress MLA from Kargahar constituency in Rohtas district. Sanjiv sustained fourgunshot injuries on Saturday evening and succumbed to his injuries on the way to the hospital in near-by Mohania.

Eyewitnesses said that six unknown assailants rode threebikes to the house of Sanjiv Mishra located in Parsathua vil-lage and opened fire on him indiscriminately. The assailantsfled from the spot without any resistance after committing thecrime.

Sanjiv Mishra was expected to contest the panchayat elec-tions and was preparing for it. He was one of the most activepersons who recently campaigned for his uncle Santosh Mishraand was quite popular at the ground level.

The family members of Sanjiv Mishra suspect that it couldbe a political killing to prevent him from contesting the upcom-ing panchayat polls.

Mandeep Mishra, the brother of Sanjiv Mishra, said, “Hedid not have personal enmity with anybody. Investigationwould reveal the actual reason behind the murder.”

Vinod Kumar Rawat, Deputy Superintendent Of Police(DSP) of Kargahar range, said, “We are investigating the mat-ter from all the angles and recording the statements of the eye-witnesses. We have received some clues about the accused andraids are on to nab them.” IANS

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Sambhal (UP): A 26-year-old police consta-ble was found dead under mysterious cir-cumstances in the barracks of Naraura Bairajflyover police post under Gunnaur police sta-tion in Sambhal. He had been married twomonths ago. The deceased, Shailendra Yadav,26, was deputed at Sambhal Police Lines andwas on duty at Naraura police picket underGunnaur police station limits on Saturday whenhe was found lying unconscious in the barracks.

Senior police officers said the constabledied of a cardiac arrest while on duty.

Sambhal Superintendent of Police,Chakresh Mishra, said: “After getting infor-mation, police teams were rushed to the spotand the constable was taken to the districthospital where doctors proclaimed him deadupon arrival.”

“No visible bruises or any evidence of sui-cide were found. Besides, we have not recov-ered a suicide note. The constable suffered acardiac arrest and died on the spot. The bodywas sent for a post-mortem examination toascertain the actual reason for death,” he said.

Sambhal police said that financial assis-tance will also be provided to the family of thedeceased. IANS

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< J�����$������������� ������������������� Agra (Uttar Pradesh): A 22-year-old Dalit man, who went to meet

his girlfriend from a different caste, was beaten to death by her fam-ily members in Agra, police said on Sunday.

The man succumbed to injuries at a hospital. Five members ofthe woman's family have been arrested.

According to reports, the deceased Pawan Kumar, was in a rela-tionship with the 20-year-old woman, belonging to another caste.

The woman, on Friday, had called Pawan Kumar to meet herlate in the night. Kumar was mercilessly thrashed at the woman'shouse by her family members. On hearing his screams, the localsinformed the police that rescued him.

Kumar's brother, Akash, said, “We came to know about the inci-dent on Saturday. We found him lying inside a police van. He wastaken to district hospital where he succumbed. Before dying, he nar-rated the entire incident to the police. He was called by the womanat her home and then her family brutally beat him up.”

Additional Superintendent of Police Mukesh Chandra Mishrasaid, “A case has been registered under IPC section 302 (murder)against seven persons, including the woman's father and five otherfamily members. Five have been arrested. The matter is being probedfurther.”

Rasoolpur SHO Fateh Bahadur Bhadauria, said, “The man wastied up and beaten with sticks. The body has been sent for postmortem. The woman's father and other relatives have confessed totheir crime. The woman, along with four others, will be sent to jail.Two others are absconding.”

Sources said that Kumar and the woman knew each other andthey were in regular touch over the phone for several months. Thewoman's family was against their friendship and Kumar had beenwarned to stay away from her. IANS

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Page 6: Feb 28, 2021  · report the highest daily new cases at 8,623, followed by Kerala with 3,792 while Punjab with 593 new cases. Madhya Pradesh and Haryana have also joined the list

Prophet! But the Quran doesnot explicitly forbid images ofthe Prophet. Back home,Munawar Faruqui spent a fewnights in the Indore Jail forallegedly cracking anti-Hindujokes. Now, who gave thesepeople – Hindus and Muslims– the proprietary of the religionthey were accidentally borninto? When did the gods askyou to defend them?

Be offended if a priest ofyour shrine rapes. Be out-raged when your co-religion-ist kills in the name of your reli-gion. But that doesn’t happen.You prove your bravado byheckling and harassing a comicwhose words were too offend-ing for you. Religion is notsomeone’s personal turf that heought to defend. A person hasthe right to get offended if heis body shamed. A guy maytake offence to being called fatbut it would be rather absurdthat he becomes the spokesper-son for all fat people on theplanet. A self-appointed police-man to protect all people over-weight!

The other group of mostoffended types is the politi-cians. These are the people whomake a joke of the system but,when ridiculed, act sacrosanct.They must not be laughed at.That is the exaggerated senseof entitlement. Napoleon

Bonaparte once said: “In pol-itics, absurdity is not a handi-cap.” Exactly, they are kind ofnecessary evil but don’t risktelling them that. You couldend up in jail.

Indian politicians areknown for many things buthumour isn’t one of them,though we have had a fewexceptions. Mahatma Gandhiwas never offended whenSarojini Naidu called himMickey Mouse. Piloo Modyoften took jibes at IndiraGandhi. Laloo’s humour isinfectious. The incumbentPrime Minister, too, has a goodsense of humour. He pokes funat his opponents with élan,though how much he enjoysjokes on himself is not clear. Wehave had the tradition of courtjesters, or vidushaks. Haasyakavis kept the joke alive androasted the politicians to theirface. Today, the mantle haspassed on to stand-up comics.

Political humour and satireare well established in the US.At the President’s dinner, peo-ple roast the very President whohosts them. The fearless stand-up, George Carlin, never com-promised his right to freespeech. Today’s comedians inthe US owe much to Carlin. InIndia, stand-up comedy start-ed rather late, but the comedi-ans have caught up with the

rest. Their fearless renderinghas made many people uncom-fortable but, at the same time,won them the respect and fol-lowing they well deserve.

In the US, comics can getaway with a lot. It’s differenthere. Cases of sedition havebeen filed against cartoonists,satirists and artists. That is theprice for calling theGovernment’s bluff. We live ina country where the politicalsystem itself is a big joke. In theHouse, you have a Speaker whowon’t let you speak. We havelawbreakers making laws for us.The judiciary judges every-thing except itself. It is a systemin which the Treasury bench-es become rich and theOpposition gives walkovers tothe opponent by walking out.Is this not a joke worth laugh-ing at?

Comic relief is what thepeople in power need. It is asafety valve. So here is my unso-licited advice to those politi-cians who don’t laugh at jokes.Join a laughter yoga club inyour vicinity. It is good for yourhealth. It lowers blood pressureand increases your longevity. Itmight also increase the longevi-ty of your political career.

(The writer is a columnistand documentary film-maker.The views expressed are personal.)

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Now that the intolerancedebate is over and it hasbeen establishedbeyond reasonable

doubt that we are a tolerantnation, we can safely discuss thelimits of freedom of speech. Backin the bad old days when therewas presumed intolerance, peo-ple had to be silenced by moblynching or guns. Not suchuncivilised behaviour anymore.We can take revenge in a nonvi-olent civilised way by filing FIRsand slapping defamation cases.That is a massive upgrade.

Had it not been for those inthe bad habit of speaking outabout anything, including theirelected Government, it would-n’t be required. Earlier it wasjournalists, writers, authors andthespians. Now, another breedof the so-called champions offree speech, comedians, havejoined the gang, especially thestand-up comedians.

The freedom to speak, laughor breathe has to be balanced withthe other person’s right to getoffended. Sure thing. If you arebreathing air reserved for some-one else, you are choking him. Ifyour deafening laughter hurts andjokes make me throw up, you hadbetter watch out. Now that is ajoke but no laughing matter.

Indeed, offending anyone isnot a good idea, especially whenyou laugh at someone’s looks orbody size. The person has indeedthe right to get offended.Ironically, that is often toleratedby the society. Kapil Sharma’s bla-tant humour at the expense of hisco-stars is ignored. No one filesan FIR against him. The problemstarts when the jokes, laced withtruth, blast the hypocrisy of thosein power. The jokes cracked bythe stand-up are rarely personal.Her/his jokes are about thehypocrisy in the system, religionand society, and that offendspeople. In fact, the two mostoffended sets of people are reli-gious gurus and politicians.

To say you belong to a reli-gion is one thing but to presumethat the religion belongs to you,quite another. In 2015, the self-appointed defenders of Islamshot Charlie Hebdo employees inParis. For what? For a few linesthey had used to depict the

SOUNDBITE����������������� ����������Sir — It was natural for Mamata Banerjeeto cry foul after election dates wereannounced for four States and a UnionTerritory as the Election Commission(EC), in an unprecedented manner,announced an eight-phase election inWest Bengal.

If Mamata sees a conspiracy in this,the EC has given her an opportunity anda reason to do so. Bengal will begin vot-ing on March 27 but, unlike Tamil Nadu,Kerala, Assam and Puducherry, it willhave eight phases spread over a record 33days before the May 2 results. Interestingly,the West Bengal Assembly polls havebecome a prestige issue for both the rul-ing Mamata Banerjee-led TrinamoolCongress Government and the BJP as nei-ther is leaving any stone unturned toretain or capture power, respectively, inthe State.

Mamata’s objection is not without areason, given that in Tamil Nadu andKerala— with 234 and 140 Assembly seatsrespectively— the election gets over in aa single phase while West Bengal having294 seats has to go through a protractedpoll schedule spanning eight phases evenas Assam depends on three phases for 126seats. But it is a matter of shame that shehas accused Prime Minister NarendraModi and Union Home Minister AmitShah of colluding with the EC for gettingfavourable dates. With this, the politicalbattle in West Bengal is going to be evenmore interesting and we have to just waitand watch to see what the voters have ontheir minds.

Azhar A Khan | Rampur

� ��������� ����������������Sir — Metro Man E Sreedharan is 88 yearsold and he wants to be projected as thechief ministerial face of the BJP in Kerala.In his initial comments, he dutifullychanted the party’s mantra on “love jihad”and a few other issues. It sounded strangecoming from a man widely admired for hisintegrity and apolitical approach through-out his legendary career. Indians of all ages

and backgrounds used to look up to him.He had shown the world and our owncountrymen that big projects could bedelivered on time and without the con-comitant hanky-panky.

He set a world record for bridge-building in his earliest years (in the1960s) for the Indian Railways and thenwent on to notch successes with theKonkan Railway project and subsequent-ly with various Metro projects across thecountry. Most of them were post his “offi-cial” superannuation date. The scale ofactivity at his age has few parallels any-where. Age is not a number as far as MetroMan Sreedharan is concerned. But eventhough the BJP is concerned about thepolls, the act of Metro man making a moveinto politics is rather disappointing.

CK Subramaniam | Mumbai

�������������������������Sir — The latest incident of kidnappingof schoolchildren in Nigeria has sentshockwaves across the region and the

world. Haunted by a series of such kid-nappings enacted by certain flourishingarmed groups there, Nigeria has onceagain been left to fend for itself in thematters of security, thereby exposing asevere security breakdown.

Speaking of incidents like kidnap-ping and hijacking, our society has trav-elled a long way in the fight against suchevils. Therefore, it is time for all of us togrow stronger and to build our societyback from the scratch. Agricultural andindustrial activities across the board, edu-cation, technology, food security, employ-ment, natural resources and, above all,good governance can be part of the planto build back the society. India must helpNigeria in all possible ways. TheGovernments need to cooperate witheach other to stop such crimes which arehaunting the world.

P Senthil | Mumbai

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Page 7: Feb 28, 2021  · report the highest daily new cases at 8,623, followed by Kerala with 3,792 while Punjab with 593 new cases. Madhya Pradesh and Haryana have also joined the list

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The pandemic has been a game changer formicroinsurance and people now under-stand its importance in their lives. This

should spur a greater demand for it. In the devel-oped world, insurance is a part of life but its cov-erage has been patchy and woefully inadequatein the developing world. However, what was aluxury for the poor has now become a reality onaccount of several innovative models developedby various institutions. India is now a major cen-tre for rapidly-growing microinsurance.

In India, low-income communities live onthe edge; just a tiny misfortune away from dis-aster — an injury, illness, or natural calamity canpush them deeper into poverty as their meagreresources get depleted. These events often havevery grave financial consequences. Many getdrawn into debt traps as they borrow beyondtheir means, sell productive assets, take childrenout of school or put them to work, compromiseon food, or leave sickness untreated .

Although poor households often have infor-mal means to manage risks, such strategies pro-vide inadequate protection, while insurance isa major safeguard for low-income groups. Theyneed it more than well-heeled people because thepoor have no financial cushion and are more vul-nerable to risks. One of their biggest challengesis health-related expenditure — a burden thatoften triggers poverty.

Poor families have suffered for long, the triplecurse of sudden illness: The trauma associatedwith sickness, loss of wages and the financial bur-den of intensive healthcare. It is a fertile hunt-ing ground for loan sharks and illnesses becomea financial sinkhole for villagers.

The poor usually face two types of risks —idiosyncratic (specific to household) and covari-ate (in which the entire community suffers loss;the most common, for instance, are drought andepidemics). Insurance contracts are most easi-ly offered if risks within the relevant populationare not covariate — so that only some put in aclaim at the same time. Furthermore, insurancefor rare and infrequent events is also typicallymore difficult to offer.

Low-income communities aren’t consideredas “insurable” at reasonable levels of premium.This makes a case for insurance schemesdesigned specifically for the poor, particularlyin sectors of health and life. Microinsurance hasemerged in response to the inadequacy of reg-ular insurance to provide protection to the bot-tom tier of the population. Such insurance canimprove healthcare outcomes and raise schoolattendance rates. Several health insurance pro-grammes cover wage loss on account of illnessor other health related issues. Health insurancepolicies typically don’t cover outpatients or domi-ciliary treatment where the major expense is onaccount of pharmacy bills, diagnostic tests, andso on.

By managing risks and avoiding debt, thosewho have microinsurance policies are in a posi-tion to protect the assets they accumulate, gen-erate more income, and can even get a fair chanceto rescue themselves and their families frompoverty. The cost of insuring against an unfore-seen development is considerably lower than self-insuring through savings.

The Governments, donors andother players engaged in combat-ing poverty and designing socialprotection measures should keepinsurance as a key component oftheir toolbox. They can reach thepoor and thus reduce the cost ofservicing remote clients. For thepoor to reap the real benefits ofmicroinsurance, our insurancecompanies need to function witha sense of responsibility. Becauseof the lack of proper awareness andfailure of institutions to properlyguide them, people buy insurancepolicies without proper planningand give up midway because theydon’t have the money to pay thepremium.

Aggressive selling prevents theagents from properly assessingthe consistency in income streamsof the buyers for servicing theirpolicies. The customers end up los-ing heavily as penalties are veryharsh.

The outreach of the insurancecompanies has been very limited.Microinsurance accounted for lessthan 1.80 per cent for life and 1.16per cent for general insurance in2019-20. The key challenge is thehigh cost of administering it.Microinsurance is a low ticketbusiness, requiring huge volumesto become sustainable. The poorlive off the banking grid. Further,the transaction costs of issuing mil-lions of small policies through ser-vice agents are high.

Despite the potential of insur-ance products to provide a “risk

floor” for farmers and to encour-age higher-productivity invest-ments and behaviour, uptake ofmicroinsurance at market prices isextremely low and it has not beenfound to be easily scalable exceptwhen heavily subsidised by theGovernment.

India also lacks the distributionchannels appropriate for lower-income groups. Rapid advances indigital payment systems are creat-ing opportunities to connect poorhouseholds to affordable and reli-able financial tools, throughmobile phones and other digitalinterfaces.

Insurance coverage can bewidened by coupling services withexisting mobile financial productsor creating new solutions thatbring insurance services straight toa consumer’s phone.

There are also problems withproduct design. Typically, ruralinsurance products are clones ofproducts introduced in urbanareas and are not suited to the localcontext. Risk mitigation mecha-nisms are weak and complexity ofpeople and problems make under-writing, claim processing and res-olution a challenge.

An Insurance Regulatory andDevelopment Authority (IRDAI)committee has suggested reductionin entry-level capital requirementfor standalone microinsurancecompanies to �20 crore from thecurrent �100 crore with a view toaccelerate expansion of this seg-ment.

Microinsurance companies aswell as cooperatives should beallowed to act as composite insur-ers to transact both life and non-life business through a single enti-ty.

There are countries whichhave witnessed a large improve-ment in product design and avail-ability of a range of insuranceproducts. Microinsurance prod-ucts tailored for the farmers’ com-munity — such as crop insurance,health insurance, rural, personal,accident, irrigation, animal cart,aqua-culture, agri-allied and cat-tle insurance — are now availablein the market. Even niche productssuch as insurance covers for snakebites, livestock welfare, failed wells,damage caused by thunderstorms,health issues, funerals and evencovering the birth of twins areavailable.

Microinsurance is nowacknowledged as a highly effectivetool to end the cycle of poverty byproviding a robust safety net thatfamilies need. If the poor knowthat they are covered, they aremore likely to plan their future bet-ter, invest in expanding business-es, diversify crops or send theirchildren to school without the fearof losing their savings if somethingwere to happen.

The whole capacity to takerisks, changes. Thus, apart fromjust being a safety net, microinsur-ance promises something that ear-lier generations could never imag-ine: Hope for the future.

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Analysis emerging fromvarious academic plat-forms in Europe, the

US, Turkey and India in the lastfive years or so, suggests thatthe world has entered a “post-secular age.” But critics of thisthesis fear that it is conceivingsecularism in its most simplis-tic form. Secularism hasevolved in a highly complexmanner, as demonstrated byanthropologist Talal Asad andphilosopher Charles Taylor.

Both saw secularismemerging from a process ofreform during the MiddleAges, so that a society free ofsuperstition, could be formed.Asad’s overall position is thatsecularism’s origins cannot bepinned entirely to a singleoccurrence, while Taylor saysthat the demystification ofChristianity aided the oncesuperstitious layman to accessa disenchanted understandingof the scriptures. Christian

sects such as the Protestant andCalvinist saw having an enter-prising disposition as a virtue,as long as it benefitted human-ity. This not only seeded theidea of “humanism”, it also gavebirth to ideas that formulatedthe mechanisms of modernity.

According to Asad,Christianity’s spiritual promisethat “Christ died to save allhumanity” was folded into apolitical promise “the worldmust be changed for Christ.”Therefore, both Taylor andAsad see the emergence of theidea of secularism springingnot from an averse reaction toreligion but from an urge toreform it in a rapidly evolvingmilieu. To Asad, even thoughthe disenchantment processwithin Christianity saw itaccepting reformist ideas, thetraditional notions of Christianmorality, for example, did notreally wither away. Asad writesthat religion was never entire-

ly expelled from the publicsphere. Indeed, it was relegat-ed to the private sphere, butreligions that were willing totake part in rational debate andaccept the new secular para-digm, were welcome to oper-ate in the public sphere.

With the expansion ofmodernity, the idea of secular-ism spread from Europe toother regions. But it mutated toaccommodate non-Westernrealities. For example, althoughit arrived as an inclusive ideathat advocated the privatisationof the sacred and the institu-tionalisation of the profane asa way to construct a rationalnationalistic whole, in commu-nist set-ups it radically hard-ened by completely expungingreligion. But this hardness wasalso present in France.

According to Taylor,whereas secularism elsewherein Europe had largely emergedfrom reformed Christianity, in

France it had appeared as arevolt against religion (duringthe 18th century FrenchRevolution). known as ‘Laïcité’it barely tolerates any display ofreligion in the public sphere.Unlike inclusive secularism inthe US and European coun-tries, where the State remainsimpersonal towards religionas long as it does not threatenthe liberal-democratic order,Laïcité sanctions it to aggres-sively intervene to discouragereligion in the public sphere.Interestingly, this is also theform of secularism that Turkeyadopted after it became arepublic in 1922.

Most anti-colonial move-ments also adopted secularismby modifying it to suit theirnationalisms. For example,‘Arab Nationalism’ adoptedsecularism because it saw itsanti-colonial religious contem-poraries as competition. Itadopted the inclusive secularversion, even though Arabnationalist regimes were dicta-torial and often jailed leaders ofreligious groups who chal-lenged the Arab nationalistnarrative. According to theFrench political scientistChristophe Jaffrelot, a uniquemutation of secularismemerged in colonial India.Jaffrelot says that followers ofthe 19th century IndianMuslim scholar Syed AhmadKhan, politicised his reforma-tive Islamist narrative by form-ing the Muslim League.Eventually, the party movedtowards demanding a separateMuslim-majority State. Syed,

and then the early 20th centu-ry philosopher and poetMuhammad Iqbal and, eventu-ally, the barrister MuhammadAli Jinnah formulated whatTalal Asad calls “cultural secu-larism.” Instead of separatingreligion from politics, theyseparated the cultural dynam-ics of Islam from the faith’s the-ological and ritualistic dimen-sions, to create a political ide-ology of cultural separatism.

According to Jaffrelot, theyplaced Islam as a cultural iden-tity-marker in the public arena,whereas the faith’s theologicaland ritual aspects were pushedto the private sphere. This iswhy the founders of Pakistanwere never really demonstra-tive about their religiosity (orlack thereof). They under-stood Muslim nationalism as acultural and political idea of amodern Muslim-majorityState, but one that wouldremain impersonal towards

Islam’s theological/ ritualisticfacets.

Jaffrelot writes that, in1974, the passage of the SecondAmendment constitutionallyrolled back the project by mak-ing Islam in Pakistan exclu-sivist. Then, various ordinancesbetween 1979 and 1991 almostentirely expunged the inclusiveidea of Islam. This aided vari-ous far-Right religious groupsto assert themselves in thepublic sphere, without beingchallenged by the State.

Secularism is in crisis, butmostly in developing countries.This has been the case for quitesome time now. India is theexception, where this crisis isrelatively recent. Ironically, thecrisis in this context in India isbeing compounded by the actof treating secularism as it wastreated in Pakistan from 1974onwards. The results were disastrous, as they will be inIndia too.

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Page 8: Feb 28, 2021  · report the highest daily new cases at 8,623, followed by Kerala with 3,792 while Punjab with 593 new cases. Madhya Pradesh and Haryana have also joined the list

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Kathmandu: Nepal's embattledPrime Minister K P Sharma Olion Sunday challenged the rul-ing Nepal Communist Party'ssplinter faction led by PushpaKamal Dahal 'Prachanda' toremove him from the top postif he can.

Addressing an event in hishome district, Jhapa, PrimeMinister Oli challenged thePrachanda-led faction to tablea vote of no confidence motionand endorse that, My Republicanewspaper reported.

“K P Oli is still the parlia-mentary party leader of theNCP. He is the party chairmanas well as the prime minister,”69-year-old Oli said. “If youhave restored parliament,remove KP Oli from the primeministerial post.”

Nepal plunged into a polit-ical crisis on December 20after President Bidya DeviBhandari dissolved the Houseand announced fresh electionson April 30 and May 10 at the

recommendation of PrimeMinister Oli, amidst a tussle forpower within the ruling NepalCommunist Party (NCP).

In a landmark ruling, afive-member constitutionalbench led by Chief JusticeCholendra Shumsher last weekannulled the Oli government's“unconstitutional” decision todissolve the 275-member lowerhouse of Parliament. The courtordered the government tosummon the House sessionwithin the next 13 days.

The ruling party suffered avertical split following Oli's

decision to dissolve the lowerhouse. “Remove me if you can.If I am ousted, I'll emerge vic-torious with a two-thirdsmajority in the next election,”Prime Minister Oli was quot-ed as saying by the paper.

Prachanda has been mak-ing efforts to garner supportfrom the opposition NepaliCongress and Janata Samajbadiparties in an apparent bid tooust Oli from power.

Oli's Press Advisor SuryaThapa last week said the primeminister will not resign imme-diately and implement theSupreme Court's verdictagainst him by facingParliament.

Oli is under pressure tostep down following the courtverdict.

NCP Vice-presidentBamdev Gautam, who main-tained a balance between Oliand his rival Prachanda, lastweek urged the prime ministerto step down. PTI

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The UN Human RightsOffice says it has received

“credible information” that acrackdown on Sunday on anti-coup protesters in Myanmarhas left at least 18 people deadand over 30 wounded.

“Deaths reportedlyoccurred as a result of liveammunition fired into crowdsin Yangon, Dawei, Mandalay,Myeik, Bago and Pokokku,” itsaid in a statement, referring toseveral cities in Myanmar.

“Tear gas was also report-edly used in various locationsas well as flash-bang and stungrenades.”

“We strongly condemn theescalating violence againstprotests in Myanmar and callon the military to immediate-ly halt the use of force againstpeaceful protesters,” itsspokesperson RavinaShamdasani was quoted saying.

Yangon: Security forces inMyanmar made mass arrestsand used lethal force on Sundayas they intensified their effortsto break up protests a monthafter the military staged a coup.At least four people were report-edly killed.

There were reports of gun-fire as police in Yangon, thecountry's biggest city, fired teargas and water cannons whiletrying to clear the streets ofdemonstrators demanding thatthe elected government of AungSan Suu Kyi be restored topower. Photos of shell cas-ings from live ammunition usedin assault rifles were posted onsocial media.

Reports on social mediaidentified by name one youngman believed to have beenkilled in Yangon. His body wasshown in photos and videoslying on a sidewalk until otherprotesters were able to carry himaway.

A violent crackdown alsooccurred in Dawei, a muchsmaller city in southeasternMyanmar, where local mediareported that at least three peo-

ple were killed during a protestmarch.

The fatalities could notimmediately be independentlyconfirmed, though photos post-ed on social media showed awounded man in the care ofmedical personnel, and later laidout in a bed under a blanketwith flowers placed on top.

Confirming reports of pro-testers' deaths has been difficultamid the chaos and general lackof news from official sources.Prior to Sunday, there had beeneight confirmed reports ofkillings linked to the army's

takeover, according to the inde-pendent Assistance Associationof Political Prisoners.

The Feb. 1 coup reversedyears of slow progress towarddemocracy after five decades ofmilitary rule. Suu Kyi's NationalLeague for Democracy partywould have been installed for asecond five-year term in office,but the army blockedParliament from convening anddetained her and President WinMyint, as well as other topmembers of Suu Kyi's govern-ment.

Sunday's violence erupted

in the early morning whenmedical students were march-ing in Yangon's streets near theHledan Center intersection,which has become the gather-ing point for protesters whothen fan out to other parts of thecity.

Videos and photos showedprotesters running away aspolice charged at them, and res-idents setting up makeshiftroadblocks to slow theiradvance. Some protesters man-aged to throw tear gas cannis-ters back at police. Nearby, res-idents were pleading with policeto release those they picked upfrom the street and shoved intopolice trucks to be taken away.Dozens or more were believedto have been detained.

Demonstrators regroupedlater Sunday and security forcescontinued to chase them in sev-eral neighborhoods.

There was no immediateword on Yangon casualties.Sounds of gunfire could beheard in the streets and therewere what appeared to be smokegrenades thrown into thecrowds. AP

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Washington: Eight years after carv-ing the heart out of a landmark vot-ing rights law, the Supreme Court islooking at putting new limits onefforts to combat racial discriminationin voting.

The justices are taking up a caseabout Arizona restrictions on ballotcollection and another policy thatpenalises voters who cast ballots in thewrong precinct.

The high court's considerationcomes as Republican officials in thestate and around the country haveproposed more than 150 measures,following last year's elections, torestrict voting access that civil rightsgroups say would disproportionatelyaffect Black and Hispanic voters.

A broad Supreme Court rulingwould make it harder to fight thoseefforts in court. Arguments are set forTuesday via telephone, because of thecoronavirus pandemic.

“It would be taking away one ofthe big tools, in fact, the main tool wehave left now, to protect voters againstracial discrimination,” said MyrnaPerez, director of the Brennan Center

for Justice's voting rights and electionsprogram.

Arizona Attorney General MarkBrnovich, a Republican, said the highcourt case is about ballot integrity, notdiscrimination. “This is about pro-tecting the franchise, not disenfran-chising anyone,” said Brnovich, whowill argue the case on Tuesday.

President Joe Biden narrowlywon Arizona last year, and since2018, the state has elected twoDemocratic senators.

The justices will be reviewing anappeals court ruling against a 2016Arizona law that limits who canreturn early ballots for another per-son and against a separate state poli-cy of discarding ballots if a voter goesto the wrong precinct.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court ofAppeals ruled that the ballot-collec-tion law and the state policy dis-criminate against minority voters inviolation of the federal Voting RightsAct and that the law also violates theConstitution.

The Voting Rights Act, first enact-ed in 1965, was extremely effective

against discrimination at the ballotbox because it forced state and localgovernments, with a history of dis-crimination, including Arizona, to getadvance approval from the JusticeDepartment or a federal court beforemaking any changes to elections.

In 2013, the Supreme Court ruled5-4 that the portion of the law knownas Section 5 could no longer beenforced because the population for-mula for determining which stateswere covered hadn't been updated totake account of racial progress.

Congress “must identify thosejurisdictions to be singled out on abasis that makes sense in light of cur-rent conditions,” Chief Justice JohnRoberts wrote for a conservativemajority.

“It cannot rely simply on the past.”Democrats in Congress will try againto revive the advance approval provi-sion of the voting rights law. The JohnLewis Voting Rights Advancement Actfailed in the last Congress, whenRepublicans controlled the Senateand President Donald Trump was inthe White House. AP

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The UK's vaccination programme againstCovid-19 enters a new phase on Sunday as

the National Health Service (NHS) will begincontacting all over-60s to book their jabs at thenearest vaccination centre or with a generalpractitioner (GP) or |pharmacy.

Almost 2 million people aged 60 to 63 willbe invited after over 64s had been covered inthe previous phase and letters will start arriv-ing from Monday explaining how they can makean appointment for the jab.

They follow more than three in four peo-ple aged 65 to 70 taking up the offer of a vac-cination and nearly 17 million people acrossEngland, over a third of the adult population,having received the “life-saving jab”.

“Our incredible vaccination programme isaccelerating and well over one in three peopleacross the UK have now received their first jab,”said Nadhim Zahawi, UK Vaccine DeploymentMinister.

“We are now inviting those aged 60 to 63to receive their vaccines and I urge everybodyto come forward as quickly as possible to pro-tect yourself and others from this terrible virus.Thank you to everyone on the frontline,including NHS vaccinators, GPs, pharmacistsand volunteers, whose unrivalled dedication to

protect the most vulnerable should be applaud-ed,” he said.

The latest move comes after the NHS wroteto almost 450,000 people aged 64 along with600,000 who have recently been asked toshield due to underlying health conditions lastweek.

“The NHS vaccination programme, thebiggest in the health service's history and fastestin Europe, goes from strength to strength. Iwould urge anyone who has been invited to takeup the offer – it doesn't matter when you wereinvited you can still come forward and protectyourself and others,” said Professor StephenPowis, NHS national medical director.

The push to get as many of the most at-riskpeople protected means nine in 10 people in thetop four priority groups have received a jab. TheUK government aims to give a jab to all over-50s and those in specific at-risk groups by April15 and all other adults are expected to be offeredtheir first dose by July 31.

“Since around four-fifths of 65-69 year oldshave now been vaccinated, we're rapidly work-ing our way down the generations, with peo-ple ages 60+ now able to come forward. Asexpected vaccine supply increases in March,we're planning for further acceleration as wehead towards Easter,” said Sir Simon Stevens,chief executive of NHS England.

United Nations: Reiterating thatonly a two-state solution willdeliver enduring peace that thepeople of Israel and Palestinedeserve, India has said this shouldbe achieved through direct nego-tiations between both sides onfinal status issues and any uni-lateral action which could prej-udice these issues must be avoid-ed.

India's Deputy PermanentRepresentative to the UNAmbassador K Nagaraj Naidusaid on Friday at the UN SecurityCouncil meeting on ‘The situa-tion in the Middle East, includ-ing the Palestinian question' thatNew Delhi reaffirms its supportto the Palestinian cause and theestablishment of a sovereign,viable and independent State ofPalestine living side by side inpeace and security with Israel.

“We firmly believe that onlya two-state solution will deliverenduring peace that the people ofIsrael and Palestine desire anddeserve. This should be achievedthrough direct negotiationsbetween both sides on final sta-

tus issues. Both sides must avoidany unilateral action which couldprejudice these final status issues,”he said.

Naidu termed the recentdiplomatic efforts to revive thestalled peace talks as encourag-ing and added that the meetingof the Quartet's Special Envoys istimely. India urged the Quartet toinitiate engagement with theIsraeli and the Palestinian lead-ership. “India welcomes allefforts, which are aimed atstrengthening the collective com-mitment of the internationalcommunity to resume directnegotiations and facilitate thepeace process,” Naidu said.

Special Coordinator for theMiddle East Peace Process andPersonal Representative of theSecretary-General TorWennesland told the Councilmeeting that the global commu-nity is focused on helping the par-ties return to the negotiatingtable.

Earlier this month, theLeague of Arab States reiteratedits support for the establishment

of an independent and sovereignPalestinian State based on the1967 lines, with East Jerusalem asits capital. The Envoys of theMiddle East Quartet – Russia,United States, European Unionand United Nations - met virtu-ally on February 15 to discuss thepolitical developments, with allagreeing to meet on a regularbasis.

Naidu also added that Indiais pleased to note that prepara-tions for the Palestinian electionsare moving forward. The Cairoagreement between thePalestinian parties on the conductof parliamentary and presidentialelections - to abide by the elec-toral timetable, accept the resultsof the election and on other elec-tion related arrangements - is apositive step in the right direc-tion, he said.

Noting that the commit-ment undertaken by all parties torelease political detainees will alsohelp build trust between them,India acknowledged Egypt'sefforts in facilitating this agree-ment. PTI

Mexico City: Ten men were killed and awoman and two boys were wounded in ashooting attack on a home in westernMexico on Saturday.

Prosecutors in the state of Jalisco said thebullet-ridden bodies of the 10 men werefound by police on the sidewalk in front ofthe home. Another wounded boy was foundinside, and a woman and another boy werelocated at a local hospital.

The prosecutors' office said the attackwas carried out by unidentified assailantstravelling in an SUV.

The state is home to the Jalisco NewGeneration Cartel, one of Mexico's most vio-lent and powerful. More bodies have beenfound in clandestine burial pits in Jaliscothere than in any other state in recent years.The cartel has been fighting a breakaway fac-tion in and around Guadalajara.

Earlier this month, police found 18 plas-tic bags full of hacked-up body parts on theoutskirts of Guadalajara, the state capital.

In November, Jalisco authorities recov-ered 113 bodies and additional humanremains from a secret grave in the town ofEl Salto, just outside Guadalajara. A total of189 corpses were discovered in the townthroughout 2020. AP

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China has given conditionalapproval for a single dose

Covid-19 vaccine, touted to be arival to Johnson & Johnson's one-jab shot cleared by the US drugregulator on Sunday.

China's first Ad5-nCoVCOVID-19 vaccine was rolledout on Friday, the state-runGlobal Times reported onSunday.

Phase-I clinical trials of thevaccine started on March 16, lastyear, making it the world's firstCOVID-19 candidate vaccinethat entered clinical trials, itsaid.

It is the only single-doseCOVID-19 vaccine that has beengiven conditional approval to berolled out in China, the reportquoted last Friday's story by thestate broadcaster China CentralTelevision (CCTV).

People can get desirable pro-tective effect after 14 days ofinoculation.

The protective effect can last

at least six months after a single-dose inoculation and it canincrease immune response by 10to 20 times if the second dose istaken half a year after the firstone, the report said.

With this, China's medicalproducts regulator has approvedfive coronavirus vaccines whichinclude Sinovac, Sinopharm,CanSinoBio and another byWuhan Institute of BiologicalProducts.

One of the developers of theAd5-nCoV vaccine said that theannual production capacity canreach 500 million doses, whichmeans 500 million people can bevaccinated in a year.

Phase-I clinical trials of thevaccine started on March 16,2020, making it the world's firstCOVID-19 candidate vaccinethat entered clinical trials, theGlobal Times report said.

Though China has been sup-plying its vaccines to differentcountries, none of them havebeen approved by the WorldHealth Organisation (WHO).

New York: Underlining cooperation in thehealth sector, India has donated an advancedtelecobalt machine for cancer treatment,developed by the Bhabha Atomic ResearchCentre, to the island nation ofMadagascar.

The advanced digital cobalt therapymachine 'Bhabhatron-II' was inaugurated atthe Joseph Ravoahangy AndrianavalonaHospital (HJRA) in Antananarivo, capital ofMadagascar by President Andry Rajoelinathis week.

Speaking on the occasion, Rajoelina saidcancer is a disease that affects more and morepeople in our society and is one of the lead-ing causes of mortality, according to a pressrelease.

India's Ambassador to MadagascarAbhay Kumar, addressing the audience at theinauguration, said cancer is a major healthproblem affecting a large number of peopleglobally.

Kumar said that during the visit ofPresident Ram Nath Kovind to Madagascarin March 2018, it was announced that theBhabhatron machine would be donated toMadagascar, which is one of the few coun-tries to have received the Bhabhatron-II radio

therapy machine from India. “This reflects growing ties between the

two Indian Ocean neighbours under ourPrime Minister Narendra Modi's vision ofSAGAR i.E. Security and Growth for All inthe Indian Ocean Region,” Kumar said.

Rajoelina added that cancer is oftenpoorly treated because of lack of screeningand oncology treatment facilities.

“Majority of people affected by cancerhad no other option than medical evacua-tion. Obviously, under these conditions,health had become a privilege and nolonger a right. The setting up of this centre,therefore, is a real solution to facilitate andallow the oncology treatment for Malagasypeople in Madagascar,” Rajoelina said.

Rajoelina expressed gratitude to theGovernment of India for its donation of theradiotherapy device.

“The Malagasy State is pursuing its mis-sion and this radiotherapy centre is a greatstep towards improving the quality of life ofthe population and the modernisation of thehealth system in Madagascar,” Rajoelina said.

The machine has been functional atHJRA since January and has the capacity totreat 50 patients per day. PTI

Vatican City: Pope Francis on Sunday decried thekidnapping of 317 students from their boardingschool in northwest Nigeria and prayed for the girls'quick release.

Addressing the public in St. Peter's Square,Francis said he was adding his voice to others includ-ing Nigeria's bishop in condemning what hedescribed as “the vile abduction” of the girls.

Police on Friday in Nigeria said gunmen hadabducted the students from their boarding school.Several large groups of armed men operate in thearea and are known to kidnap for ransom moneyand the release of their jailed cohorts.

“I pray for these girls, so that they may returnhome soon,'' the pope said. “I am close to their fam-ilies and to them,'' Francis said, asking people to joinhim in prayer.

A resident of the area said the gunmen alsoattacked a nearby military camp and checkpoint,preventing soldiers from interfering with the massabduction.

On Saturday, authorities in Nigeria announcedthat nearly 40 students, teachers and relativesabducted on Feb. 17 from a school in northernNigeria have been freed. AP

Tehran: Iran has surpassed60,000 known coronavirus-related deaths, the latest grimmilestone for the hardest-hitcountry in the Middle East.

The Health Ministryreported 93 new deaths fromCOVID-19 on Sunday andmore than 8,000 new infec-tions, pushing the total infec-tion count over 1.63 million.

After more than a year ofthe pandemic, deaths fromCOVID-19 recently havedeclined in Iran as movementrestrictions in the capital haveset in, including inter-city trav-el bans, mask mandates andschool closures.

The government onSunday banned incoming trav-

elers from a list of 32 countries,including Britain and otherstates in Africa and LatinAmerica, due to fears of newvirus variants.

Over the year, Iran hasstruggled with surges that attimes overwhelmed its healthsystem as authorities resisted atotal lockdown to salvage aneconomy crippled by U.S.Sanctions.

Iran's vaccine drive recent-ly has gotten underway, withRussia's Sputnik V vaccineadministered to health workersthis month. An additional250,000 doses by the Chinesestate-backed pharmaceuticalSinopharm arrived in Iran overthe weekend. AP

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Cairo: A UN humanitarianagency on Sunday warned thatmore than 16 million people inYemen would go hungry thisyear, with already some half amillion people in the war-torncountry living in famine-likeconditions.

The UN Office for theCoordination of HumanitarianAffairs, or OCHA, said the riskof large-scale famine in theArab world's poorest country“has never been more acute,”adding that the years-long con-flict, economic decline, andinstitutional collapse createdenormous humanitarian needsin all sectors.

The stark warning comesa day before a pledging con-ference co-hosted by Swedenand Switzerland.

The U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres willappeal for USD 3.85 billion inrelief aid for Yemen this year.

The response to the U.N.Appeal is unlikely to meetexpectations, given that thecoronavirus pandemic and itsdevastating consequences hiteconomies around the globe.

Wealthy Gulf donors suchas Saudi Arabia and the UnitedArab Emirates, which con-tributed generously to U.N.Appeals in 2018 and 2019, cutback drastically on aid toYemen last year.

Yemen's war started in2014 when the Houthi rebelsseized the capital, Sanaa, andmuch of the country's north.The Saudi-led, U.S.-backedcoalition intervened monthslater to dislodge the rebels andrestore the internationallyrecognised government.

The conflict has killedsome 130,000 people andspawned the world's worsthumanitarian disaster. AP

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At least 15 Africans drowned whentheir boat capsized Sunday off

Libya, a UN spokeswoman said, thesecond shipwreck involving migrantsseeking a better life in Europe in justover a week.

Safa Msehli, a spokesman for theInternational Organization forMigration, said the dead were on arubber boat carrying at least 110migrants, who embarked from theLibyan coastal town of Zawiya onFriday.

The boat started to sink earlySunday and the Libyan coast guardmanaged to rescue at least 95migrants, including six women andtwo children, she said.

Msehli said many of the survivorssuffered from burns from engine fuel,and hypothermia, with some taken tohospital. “It is an additional tragedythat in most cases, there is very littlesearch to recover the bodies. The sight

of bodies washing ashore later hassadly become too familiar,” she added.

Sunday's shipwreck was the latestalong the Central Mediterraneanmigration route. At least 41 migrantswere reported dead last week, part ofa group of some 120 migrants on adinghy that left the North Africancountry on Feb. 18.

Libya has become the majortransit point for African and Arabmigrants hoping to reach Europe,after the North African countryplunged into a bloody civil war fol-lowing a NATO-backed uprising thattoppled and killed longtime rulerMoammar Gadhafi in 2011.

Smugglers often pack desperatefamilies into ill-equipped rubberboats that stall and founder along theperilous Central Mediterranean route.Over the last several years, hundredsof thousands of migrants havereached Europe either on their ownor after being rescued at sea.

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Page 9: Feb 28, 2021  · report the highest daily new cases at 8,623, followed by Kerala with 3,792 while Punjab with 593 new cases. Madhya Pradesh and Haryana have also joined the list

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New Delhi: India on Sundaysaid the proposed carbon-based tariffs on goods is a non-trade issue and it should not bemixed with trade-related mat-ters.Commerce Secretary AnupWadhawan said non-tradeissues like sustainability, envi-ronment and labour have to bediscussed on the right platformand in the right channels.

“Those (carbon-based tar-iffs) are typically non-tradeissues which are coming intothe trade domain.

“So, we always opposedtrade issues getting mixed upwith non-trade issues and espe-cially non-trade issues becom-ing a lever for achieving yourtrade interest,” he said at theAsia Economic Dialogue 2021.

The secretary was replying

to a question about India’sposition on carbon-based tar-iffs as regions with EuropeanUnion are planning to intro-duce that. Wadhawan saidIndia is at the forefront onissues like climate change, butone has to engage on thoseissues on the right platform.

“You cannot mix them withtrade issues,” he said adding thatthe western countries haveevolved to their present levelsover the time and one shouldnot expect that developingworld to evolve instantly.Talking about free-trade agree-ments, he said these pacts putcompetitive pressure on indus-try and “I cannot underrate” theimportance of FTAs for creat-ing competitive pressure foraccess to global markets. PTI

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Pakistan may allow cottonimport from India through

land route as prospects of grad-ual restoration of bilateral tradeties have brightened after thenew ceasefire agreement alongthe Line of Control, accordingto a media report on Sunday.

Citing sources in theMinistry of Commerce, TheExpress Tribune reported thatAdviser to the Prime Ministeron Commerce Abdul RazakDawood may take a decisionon whether to import cottonand yarn from India next week.

They said that the issue ofcotton shortfall has alreadybeen brought to the notice ofPrime Minister Imran Khan,who also holds the portfolio ofthe commerce minister. Oncea principled decision is taken,aformal order will be present-ed before the EconomicCoordination Committee ofthe Cabinet, the sources toldthe daily.

The sources said that in-house deliberations havealready begun but the final

decision would be taken onlyafter seeking the approval of theprime minister.

“I cannot say yes or no atthis stage and would be in abetter position to respond onMonday,” Dawood told thedaily, responding to a questionon whether Pakistan was con-sidering allowing cotton importfrom India.

The trade ties betweenboth the countries can helpminimise cost of production inPakistan and ensure sustainedfood supplies, the daily said.

India and Pakistan issueda joint statement on Thursdayto strictly observe all agree-ments on ceasefire along theLoC and other sectors after thehotline discussions by theirDirector Generals of MilitaryOperations.The two countriessigned a ceasefire agreement in2003, but it has hardly been fol-lowed in letter and spirit overthe past several years.Relationsbetween the two neighbourshave nose-dived after a series

of terror attacks in Indiaperpetrated by terror groupsbased in Pakistan.

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The new social media inter-mediary rules could raise

compliance costs for players,making it difficult for smallercompanies to compete againstbigger giants like Facebook,according to industry watchers.

The new rules, announcedlast week, distinguish between‘social media intermediaries’and ‘significant social mediaintermediaries’ with 50 lakhregistered users as the thresh-old for the categorisation.

Significant social mediaintermediaries will have to fol-low additional due diligence,including the appointment of achief compliance officer, nodal

contact person and residentgrievance officer - with allthree officials residing in India.

Large players like Facebookhave said they are studying therules.

While many in the sectorhave lauded the new regula-tions, saying these aim toaddress concerns like grievanceredressal, fake news and onlinesafety of users, a section of theindustry has aired concernsaround increased compliancecost that could be challengingfor smaller players.

Software Freedom LawCentre (SFLC) founder MishiChoudhary said the rules callfor an undue burden and com-pliance and “ensure only larg-

er players with funds andwherewithal of big legal teamsare the only ones who will beleft to offer services”.

“(This could result in)increasing the barrier for entryand raising compliance costsfor everyone,” she added.

India has 53 croreWhatsApp users, 44.8 croreYouTube users, 41 croreFacebook users, 21 crore useInstagram, while 1.75 croreusers are on microbloggingplatform Twitter, as per gov-ernment data.

While players likeTelegram and Signal do not dis-close country-specific usernumbers, these platforms haveseen a spike in downloads inthe last few weeks on the backof concerns around WhatsApp’sprivacy policy update that seeksto allow sharing limited userdata with

Facebook and its group

firms.Telegram did not

respond to queries on theimpact of the new rules on theplatform.

Industry observers noted

that players like Telegram andothers may not have senior offi-cials based in India and thatthey will now have to take aseries of steps to ensure com-pliance with the new norms as

their business scales up anduser base grows in India.

According to the amendedIT rules, social media andstreaming companies will berequired to take down con-tentious content quicker,appoint grievance redressalofficers and assist in investiga-tions.

The “IntermediaryGuidelines and Digital MediaEthics Code” designed to curbmisuse of social media plat-forms require players likeWhatsApp, Facebook andTwitter as well as streaming ser-vices such as Netflix, YouTubeand Amazon Prime Video toappoint executives to coordi-nate with law enforcement,disclose the first originator ofprovocative content andremove, within 24 hours, con-tent depicting nudity or mor-phed pictures of women.

Any contentious content

flagged by the government orlegal order has to be takendown within 36 hours.

An industry executive, whodid not wish to be named, saidsome companiesmay choose toprotect the privacy of users andchallenge these rules in court.

Also, the industry feelsthat there needs to be clarity onnuances like how long do usershave to be active to be count-ed as registered users, andwhat happens if a platformdrops below the threshold of

50 lakh registered users.Rameesh Kailasam,

CEO of IndiaTech.Org, hadalso cautioned that

while these rules are robustand elaborate, it may translateinto a certain degree of cost andoperational challenges with it.

Nasscom had noted that itis imperative that there is a bal-ance between regulation andinnovation as the world is in a

phase of accelerated technolo-gy shifts.

The industry body hadalso pointed out that there is aneed for “responsible use” andbuilding of technology for allstakeholders - government,industry, startups and citizens.

The option of voluntaryself-verification of useraccounts, the right to receive anexplanatory notification onremoval or disablement ofaccess, and to seek remedyagainst the action being takenby the intermediaries would behelpful for end-users, Nasscomhad said.

The association had alsosaid the government hasemphasised that the new ruleswill not curb creativity, andfreedom of speech and expres-sion of citizens as it urged thegovernment to ensure that thisis the ‘design principle’ followedduring implementation.

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India registered a growth of7.6 per cent in crude steel

production at 10 million tonne(MT) in January 2021, accord-ing to World Steel Association(worldsteel).

The country had pro-duced 9.3 MT crude steel dur-ing the same month last year.“The production for the 64countries reporting to theworldsteel was 162.9 MT inJanuary 2021, registering a 4.8per cent increase compared toJanuary 2020,” the global indus-try body said in its latest report.China remained the globalleader in production of steel inJanuary, registering 6.8 percent year-on-year growth inoutput at 90.2 MT during themonth.

According to worldsteeldata, China had produced 84.3MT steel in the same monthlast year. Last month,Japan’s output slipped 3.9 percent to 7.9 MT year-on-year.

The US produced 6.9 MTsteel in the month underreview. Its output was at 7.7 MTin January 2020.Russia’s output last month wasat 6.7 MT compared to 6 MTin January 2020.

South Korea’s steel productionin the month was at 6 MT, ascompared to 5.8 MT in theyear-ago period.Turkey produced 3.4 MT ofcrude steel last month. It hadproduced 3 MT in January2020. According to thereport, while Germany pro-duced 3.3 MT steel in January2021, Brazil and Iran produced3 MT and 2.6 MT, respective-ly.

�� �� �89�38:;�

India’s coal import registereda drop of 11.59 per cent to

180.84 million tonnes (MT) inthe first 10 months of theongoing fiscal.

The company had import-ed 204.55 MT of coal in April-January period of the previousfiscal year, according to provi-sional data compiled by mjunc-tion services. Mjunction --a joint venture of Tata Steel andSAIL - is a B2B e-commercecompany and also publishesresearch reports on coal andsteel verticals.However, India’scoal imports in Januaryincreased to 20.05 MT asagainst 18.67 MT in year-agoperiod, it said.

Commenting on the coalimport trend, mjunction MDand CEO Vinaya Varma said,“There was a drop in January

volumes as compared to theprevious month (December).This was mainly due to thefirmness in seaborne prices.While there is steady demandin the market, the import trendwill largely depend on themovements in internationalprices, freight rates and alsodomestic supply.”

Coal import was, however,7.4 percent higher in January2021 as compared to 18.67 MTin the year-ago period. Of thetotal imports in January 2021,non-coking coal was at 12.77MT, while coking coal importwas 5.62 MT. During April-January 2020-21, non-cokingcoal import was at 119.84 MTas compared to 140.65 MT inthe same period a year ago.Coking coal import wasrecorded at 39.16 MT, lowerthan 41.15 MT imported dur-ing the same period a year ago.

�� �� �89�38:;�

GST officers have arrested aperson for creating ficti-

tious firms and committinginput tax credit fraud of �50.03 crore, the finance min-istry said on Sunday.

The officers of CentralGoods and Services Tax(CGST) Commissionerate,Delhi East have unearthed anetwork of fictitious firmswhich “was being operated byone Vishal, who is an advocateby profession and was practis-ing law in Karkardooma Court,Delhi”, the ministry said in astatement.

Vishal started this GSTfraud by creating a fictitiousfirm in his own name, which hegot registered at his residence.Subsequently, he arranged var-ious KYCs of different personsto create multiple fictitiousfirms having no business activ-ity and created for the passingon fake Input Tax Credit.

“Multiple KYCs andcheques were resumed duringthe search of his residence. He

used to pass on fake Input TaxCredit to his clients in exchangefor a commission of 2 per centof the invoice amount. Thetotal fake Input Tax Creditpassed on quantified so far isRs 50.03 crore, which is expect-ed to increase as the investiga-tion progresses,” it added.

The accused have beenremanded to 14-day judicialcustody till March 13.

Since the inception of GSTCentral Tax, Delhi Zone hasmade 27 arrests in variouscases, involving GST evasionamounting to more than Rs4,019.95 crore, the ministrysaid.

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As the Indian equities con-tinued to scale new highs

post the Union Budget forFY22, the net foreign portfolioinvestments (FPI) into theIndian equities in Februarywas �25,787 crore.

The total net FPIs in 2020now stand at �45,260 crore, asper NSDL data.Foreign invest-ments have continued to flowin post the Union Budgetwhich announced further lib-eralisation measures includ-ing privatisation of banks andalso did not come up with anew tax levy.So far, in thefinancial year 2021-22, netFPIs into equities stood at�2.63 lakh crore, the highestever FPI inflow into the coun-try.Further, the net foreigninstitutional investment (FII)during the month was�42,044.46 crore.

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Days after a traders’ strikeunder its aegis, the

Confederation of All IndiaTraders (CAIT) on Sundaysaid that it will launch a nation-al movement against the ‘arbi-trariness’ of GST provisionsand alleged malpractices of e-commerce giants.

In a statement, the traders’body said that in the nextphase of the campaign againstGST provisions and e-com-merce majors, states would bethe key focus of the protestingtraders.

The campaign will beginon March 5 and will continuetill April 5.

It said that at present,traders across the country arebadly plagued by the provisionsof GST and the constant arbi-trariness of foreign companiesin e-commerce and now thetraders are either forced toresolve these issues or shut their

business.According to Secretary

General of CAIT, PraveenKhandelwal a video conferencewas held on Sunday in whichmore than 275 prominent lead-ers from all the states andunion territories of the coun-try participated and decidedunanimously to launch anational wide campaign onthese two issues.

“It is not the Centre but thestates who are more responsi-ble for diluting the spirit ofGST, to their own likings andnow they can’t escape fromtheir responsibilities,” it said.

CAIT alleged that the stategovernments have left no stoneunturned to distort the GSTbecause of their own interestswhich has led to the sufferingsof traders.

In this context, CAIT hasurged the Union FinanceMinister Nirmala Sitharamanthat since is the Chairperson ofthe GST Council, she should

initiate dialogues with thetraders’ organisation immedi-ately about the current dis-torted nature of GST.

Further, it has also urgedthe Union Commerce Minister,Piyush Goyal to issue furtheramend and clarify the FDIpolicy and also finalise andrelease e-commerce policysince the FDI policy is beinggrossly violated by foreign e-commerce companies.

“Since elections will beheld in five states in the nextfew months and as a vote bankin all the states, the tradingcommunity holds a hugemajority in strength and num-bers and can be a deciding fac-tor for the victory and defeat ofany political party.

Hence the decision ofCAIT to launch a nationwidecampaign amid elections andthe anger of traders can affectthe prospects of every politi-cal party,” said the CAIT state-ment.

���� �89�38:;�

Fuel prices, which have beensoaring to unprecedented

levels in the country of late,remained unchanged onSunday.

In the national capital,petrol was priced at Rs 91.17per litre, same as on Saturday.

Similarly, in Mumbai,Chennai and Kolkata, the fuelwas sold for Rs 97.57, Rs 93.11and Rs 91.35 a litre respective-ly. Oil marketing companiespressed the pause button afterraising the pump price of petroland diesel by 24 paise and 15paise per litre on Saturday.

In line with petrol, dieselprices also were unchangedon Sunday at Rs 81.47, Rs

88.60, Rs 86.45 and Rs 84.35per litre, respectively in Delhi,Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata.

Petrol and diesel priceshave been rising continuouslysince February 9.

The increase in the previ-ous weeks has taken petrol tocross historic high levels of Rs100 a litre in several cities

across the country.Premium petrol crossed

Rs 100 per litre mark in sever-al cities of Rajasthan, MadhyaPradesh and Maharashtra afew days back.

Since fuel prices are bench-marked to a 15-day rollingaverage of global refined prod-ucts’ prices and dollar exchangerate, pump prices can beexpected to remain north-bound over the next few dayseven if crude price stabilises.

Oil companies executivessaid that petrol and dieselprices may increase further incoming days as retail pricesmay have to be balanced in linewith global developments toprevent OMCs from makinglosses on sale of auto fuels.

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With the information tech-nology exports from

Telangana likely to grow atseven per cent to cross �1.40lakh crore during 2020-21, theState’s IT minister KT RamaRao on Sunday said the growthrate would have been muchhigher if the Centre had notscrapped the ITIR project.

The Minister said he wasdelighted that projectedTelangana IT export numbersshow terrific growth, at a muchhigher rate than nationalaverageRama Rao tweeted thathad the NDA government notscrapped InformationTechnology and InvestmentRegion (ITIR), much higheremployment/growth would’vebeen possible.

KTR, as the Minister ispopularly known, said despitenumerous personal requeststo the Prime Minister andUnion IT Minister, the ITIRhas been scrapped for reasonsunknown.

He said the Telangana gov-ernment had submittedDetailed Project Report and ITCluster details but unfortu-nately neither ITIR has beentaken forward nor has therebeen an alternate progressivepolicy. KTR was reacting toreports that IT from Telanganais expected to grow over 7 percent in 2020-21. According toNasscom, the national growthrate during the same period isestimated to be just 1.9 percent.KTR recalled that in 2013-14, the IT exports from thenundivided Andhra Pradeshwere only �57,258 crore.

The State had clocked over�1.28 lakh crore IT exportsduring 2019-20, a growth ofnearly 18 per cent over the pre-vious year.The state recordedIT exports of �1,28,807 crore,an increase of 17.93 per centover 2018-19. The growth ratewas more than double thenational average of 8.09 percent and more than two-and-a-half times the rest of thenation’s average of 6.92%.

���� �89�38:;�

ATS Infrastructure Ltd hascome up with project man-

agement consultancy - ‘Nirmanby ATS’ - to assist developersin completing stalled real estateprojects and to provide respiteto distressed home buyers.

A company statement saidthat the consultancy targets toacquire over 18 stalled anddelayed projects under resi-dential and commercial seg-ments, over the next five years.

‘Nirman by ATS’ will over-see, supervise and manage theoverall delivery experience ofthese projects.

Initially. the consultancywill assist projects based out ofthe National Capital Region(NCR).

Getamber Anand, CMD ofATS Infrastructure Ltd said,“One of the major challengesbeing faced by the real estatesector is the completion ofstalled projects, which aremajorly trapped due to theprevailing liquidity crunch.

As the country faces anoverall economic slowdown,revival of the real estate sec-tor would play an integral role

in kick-starting the economy.”He was of the view that

completion of stalled projectsand fast-tracking deliverieswill instil positive sentimentamongst homebuyers and allother stakeholders.

Anand also said that therecan be several models of get-ting involved in stalled pro-jects. There could be projectswhich are not in the NCLT,where ATS Nirman couldcome in as third party, over-see and help in rebuilding,selling and manage the projectto its logical conclusion, hesaid.

“Another model is wherewe could, with the existingfinancial institution or with anew financial institution bidfor the project in the NCLT,where there is a managementchange,” he said.

Anand also said that thecompany would also seekfunds from the SWAMIH(Special Window forCompletion of Constructionof Affordable and Mid-IncomeHousing Projects) fund insti-tuted by the Ministry ofFinance for completion ofstalled housing projects.

�� �� �89�38:;�

The Government on Sundayextended the deadline for

filing GST annual returns for2019-20 fiscal by a month tillMarch 31.

This is the second exten-sion given by the government.The deadline was earlierextended from December 31,2020, to February 28.

“In view of the difficultiesexpressed by the taxpayers inmeeting this time limit,Government has decided tofurther extend the due date forfurnishing of GSTR-9 andGSTR-9C for the financial year2019-20 to March 31, 2021 withthe approval of ElectionCommission of India,” theFinance Ministry said in astatement.

GSTR 9 is an annualreturn to be filed yearly by tax-payers registered under theGoods and Services Tax (GST).It consists of details regarding

the outward and inward sup-plies made or received underdifferent tax heads.

GSTR-9C is a statement ofreconciliation between GSTR-9 and the audited annual finan-cial statement.

On the extension, AMRG& Associates Senior PartnerRajat Mohan said, “Eventhough it is a relatively smallextension of 31 days but is suf-ficient for the tax professionalsto complete the requisite fil-ings”. EY Tax Partner AbhishekJain said most industry playerswere struggling to meet thisstatutory deadline and hadrepresented to the governmentfor an extension.

Furnishing of the annualreturn is mandatory only fortaxpayers with aggregate annu-al turnover above Rs 2 crorewhile reconciliation statementis to be furnished only by theregistered persons havingaggregate turnover above Rs 5crore.

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For many of us, the pandemic hasbeen a time to figure out our men-

tal belongings and get back to basics.This, at times, meant hours of scour-ing for home remedies, aimlessly fish-ing for YouTube videos on wellnessand rediscovering the bounties ofhomemade face packs. This year alsorekindled our love and attention tonature’s elements like water, air, heatand light and how these can workwonders for your body and mind.Each of these elements should be atplay when you create the wellnesszone in your home for complete heal-ing and rejuvenation. The bathroomis considered the ideal place for per-sonal care routine. So, it would beworth transforming it to your veryown personal wellness retreat. Here

are a few Jaquar wellness range prod-ucts that can help you do that.

Kubix Prime Whirlpool: Bring well-ness into your home with great styleand panache. The jets project waterin a flowing, circular motion, whichoffers a wide array of health benefits,including relaxation, improved bloodcirculation and sore muscle and jointrelief. Everything your heart desires,whether hot or cold water massages,

long relaxing soaks or even chromotherapy, this can give it all.

Hydrozone Swim Spa: It is a techno-logical marvels, created to let yourelax and restore equilibrium. Here,the ‘well-being circuits’ comprise ofvarious seats and a common footrest.Each seat is strategically fitted withdifferent types of massage jets in var-ious positions, oriented to massagedifferent parts of the body. By mov-

ing from one seat to the other, one canenjoy a complete and satisfying mas-sage which stimulates and relaxes allparts of the body.

Kubix Sauna: The bathhouse orroom, made of wood, uses dry heatto induce perspiration, with steambeing produced by pouring water onheated stones. Perspiration or sweat-ing is one of the main ways our bod-ies get rid of the traces of hundreds

of toxins. 15 minutes in a Sauna canhelp us sweat as much as we mightotherwise do over an entire day ormore. And the benefits range fromrelieving common cold symptoms toaiding in medical conditions likechronic fatigue, rheumatoid arthritis,musculoskeletal pain, and even car-diovascular and skin conditions.

Archimede Steam Cabin: An enclo-sure which may just become yoursafety zone. Functioning on humid-ifying water vapour which is pro-duced from a high-quality steamgenerator provides you with the per-fect location to forget all your wor-ries for one day. Meant to nourish andcleanse your skin as well as yourmind.

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The trailer of horror-come-dy Roohi opens with peo-ple talking about a witch

who preys upon newlyweds.She sings and puts the grooms

to sleep and abducts theirbrides. As the three minuteteaser unfolds, we see actor

Varun Sharma in two con-trasting looks. One, wherehe’s donning a never-seen-before avatar — withspooky makeup with bloodrunning down his face,dark circles, a blank stareand red hair. The otherVarun is his casual comicself where he cracks jokeswith his co-stars

Rajkummar Rao andJanhvi Kapoor.

As is evidentfrom the trailer, thefun quotient in thefilm seems to be topclass. Says Varun,“There was a lot offun on the sets whilewe were doing thisfilm. It is a verycrazy concept withthree witches beingcaught in the adven-ture and falling in

love with a witch. Weare happy with theway the trailer is beingreceived. The enter-tainment quotient andquirkiness is evidentthroughout.”

Directed by HardikMehta, the film followsthe eerie yet hilariousadventures of Bhaura(played by Rajkummar),

and Kattanni (played byVarun), as they come

across a peculiar girlRoohi (essayed by

Janhvi), in a for-est.

It isVa r u n ’ss e c o n do u t i n g

with Rajkummar as they were ear-lier seen together in Dolly ki Doli(2015). The two share a greatchemistry in real life, whichVarun believes “translated on thescreen too.” The actor is all praisefor his co-star Janhvi too. He says,“She is a phenomenal character.While filming this, she was doingsome other project too. So, shehad to portray two different per-sonalities on the same day, whichshe did with a lot of ease and fun.Maza aa gaya!”

What made him take up thisrole? Well, the actor couldn’treally decide one thing as thewhole concept intrigued him.So, he takes a pause and says, “Thescript is the strongest pillar. Andyaar kab life mein churail kesaath kaam karne ka mauka mile-ga? (When will you get a role towork with a witch?) This is real-ly interesting. I am a huge fan ofthe film Stree (2018). I loved thatfilm, so I was really excited towork with the same makers andin the same genre. For all the rightreasons, I immediately realisedthat I want to become a part ofthis mad world.”

But it wasn’t easy. Every rolecomes with its own set of prepa-ration and challenges. Varun hadto step out from his usual Hindi-Punjabi accent and learn the MP-UP style. Says he, “The biggestchallenge was to portray my char-acter right as it belonged to a fic-tional town in the film based nearthe MP-UP border. So, I used to

sit with the writers and learn thataccent. I watched a lot of tik tokvideos, listened to Bhojpuri songsand kept myself away fromPunjabi music so that I could getthe nuances of the dialect, makeit my own and perform in it.”

Horror-comedy is one of themost tricky genres to get rightbecause maintaining the balancebetween the two — horror andcomedy — is very important.How did he make it work? SaysVarun, “I think the conviction ofthe makers, directors, writers andactors did it. I should give it to theteam.”

There’s a very thin linebetween horror and comedy, onemoment it’s scary and the verynext moment you are laughing.“Yes, it’s a tough genre to portraycorrectly. A lot of time goes intowriting the script so that the hor-ror as well as comic timing landscorrectly. No matter how muchwe try, if we don’t get the desiredreaction, the scene would go flat.I hope people get entertained, theylaugh at one point and get scaredat the other,” adds Varun.

He agrees that earlier thisgenre wasn’t explored much in theIndian cinema. But in the last fewyears, we have seen more films onthese lines, including Stree.“When I saw the film, I was scaredbut in the very next moment I waslaughing with ease too. Thisgenre gives a lot of comfort topeople who don’t watch horrorfilms,” says Varun. Hence, we can

attribute this as one of the mainreasons for the growing popular-ity of this genre.

Be it Chucha in Fukrey (2013)or Sexa in Chhichhore (2019), theactor, known for his comic tim-ing, has done a range of comedyroles now. So, what more does heaim to explore? “I really likemaking people laugh. All thecomic roles that I have done so farare very different from each other.It’s important to understand thatthere’s a very thin line betweendifferent styles of comedy and Iwant to attempt all of them.Other than this, I am a huge fanof thrillers too and would love tobe a part of such films,” saysVarun.

Even after doing a consider-able number of comedy films andbeing asked about the fear of get-ting typecast, the actor chooses tostick to this genre. He shares thatit is the ‘smiling faces’ that keephim going. Adds he, “I love to seepeople smile and laugh. It is thenthat I think ‘why not continuedoing this.’ I am simultaneouslytrying other genres too but this isnot something that I am going toleave.”

The film was expected torelease in June 2020 but gotdelayed due to the pandemic. Andnow it has become the first filmto release in cinema halls afterthey have been allowed to oper-ate at full capacity. While the actoris clueless if this will give anupperhand to the film, he’s justthankful to the makers that theyhad the confidence of holding itfor so long. “It is not easy to doit, they stood by it to release it incinemas only. I just hope that theaudience will go back and enjoy.People need entertainment to gothrough such times and our con-stant effort has been to make themlaugh. I promise, you’ll come outof theatres laughing and takingsomething home,” says Varun.

(The film releases on March11.)

Young Bollywood star Bhumi Pednekar was launchedher to stardom with her debut film, Dum Laga Ke

Haisha (DLKH), in which she plays the role of an over-weight girl who stands up for her rights. Bhumi creditsher debut, directed by Sharat Katariya, to be a milestonemoment that paved her path to glory. She was recentlyshooting in Rishikesh for her next Badhaai Do and wasextremely overwhelmed as she was shooting in the samehouse that was used for her debut film.

The actress says, “DLKH is truly a milestonemoment of my life and I can’t imagine how my careerwould have shaped up without it. I was extremely for-tunate to get this film and everyone knows how hard Iworked to deliver this role. It was such a coincidence thatI shot at the same location again for Badhaai Do. The

house which was my first ever loca-tion, for my first film was used for

this film. I was so nostalgic.What were the chances that after

six years, I would be at thesame place!”

She adds, “I was supernostalgic to be actually stand-

ing at the same spot whereI gave my first shot as anactor. I remember we haddone about 11 takes forthis and I was so ner-vous. That is whereBhumi the actor wasborn.”

Bhumi says, “Thefilm gave me an identityas an actress and enabledme to tell the world that I

was different, hungry,ambitious, and that I wouldtake incredible risks to carvemy legacy in the Hindi filmindustry. Today, when Ilook back at my debut, I’mfilled with gratitudetowards everyone whoensured that I do my best.”

She credits the entireteam of her first film forinculcating confidence inher as an artiste. She says,“Right from Shanoo, Adisir, Maneesh Sharma,Sharat Katariya and evenAyushmann (Khurrana) —everyone believed in meand that gave me so muchconfidence to go out thereand present myself as anartiste. DLKH is and will

always be a film from which I har-ness confidence to take on morerisks, to experiment constantly andpresent myself new on-screenevery single time.”

�����Inspired by

her mom’srebellious pastand aconfident newfriend, a shy16-year-oldpublishes ananonymouszine calling outsexism at her school. Starring Hadley Robinson, LaurenTsai and Patrick Schwarzenegger, the film releases onMarch 3 on Netflix.

���������� � ����Transferred home after a traumatising combat

mission, a trained French soldier uses her lethal skills tohunt down the man who hurt her sister. The action-drama releases on March 5 on Netflix.

�������������������������������� � ������Featuring rare

footage and in-depth interviews,this documentarycelebrates the life ofThe NotoriousB.I.G. on his jour-ney from hustler torap king. StarringThe NotoriousB.I.G.,Sean “P.Diddy” Combs, thefilm releases onMarch 1 on Netflix.

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Last month, Prime MinisterNarendra Modi while speakingat the centenary celebrations of

Aligarh Muslim University said thatthere has been an unprecedentedincrease in the rate of Muslim girl edu-cation in the country. It is due to thegovernment policies, he said, that thedropout rate of Muslim girls reducedfrom 70 per cent to 30 per cent in thelast decades.

The suggests that the governmentis investing steps in the right direction.However, there are a few regionswhere the impact of such schemes hasstarted showing only recently, that toowith the combined efforts of thenon-government organisations tofight unawareness and orthodox val-ues that act as a major hindrance.

One such region is Niwai Block inthe Tonk district of the Western stateof Rajasthan. In the block’s Khidgi vil-lage resides a nomadic communitycalled the Muslim Banjaras who areknown for their ignorance towardsgirls’ education. Their insistence to fol-low patriarchal beliefs restricting girlsand women within the household isthe main reason that has deprived sev-eral adolescent girls of their right toacquire basic education for long.

There are around 250 house-holds in this rural settlement called‘Dhani’ which, in local language,refers to the area settled by some fam-ilies outside the main village. PinkiKhangar, a social activist, informedthat a major part of this communityearns its livelihood by selling blanketsin other cities while few families areengaged in cattle trade. “Due to work,most men of this community migratefor more than half of the year. Owingto reasons like poverty and low socialstatus, not much importance is givento the education of girl children. Theyare often married at a young age,” shesaid.

However, things have startedlooking positive now. “There are girlsfrom this Banjara community whohave started to come forward fighting

all the odds. One such girl is Sohinawho is not only pursuing educationbut is equally determinant to raiseawareness against illiteracy and childmarriage in her community,” sharedPinki.

While appreciating Sohina’sefforts, the head of the village, Islam

Khan said, “Sohina was compassion-ate even as a child and was alwayseager to help others. She had her ownways to fight for the rights of the girlsand at that time, I would think wrongof her. However, her willingness tosupport this community has changedmy opinion.”

While appreciating the unflinch-ing courage of Sohina, Mohan Lal,who teaches at the Primary School inDhani said, “This girl has worked hardnot only to connect herself withmainstream education but hasinspired around 50 girls of nearbyareas of Shyampura Dhani, Ghatta

Patti Dhani and Amarpura Dhani topursue their dream of being educat-ed.”

Mahendra Jain, Principal ofSecondary School in Khidgi admittedthat the general approach towards thiscommunity was negative and teach-ers weren’t too concerned about theeducation of girls. However, Sohina’sconfidence and courage transformedtheir approach.

Besides promoting girls’ educa-tion, Sohina along with other mem-bers of Kishori Manch — an adoles-cent group run by a non-profit organ-isation in the region, is also creatingawareness among other members ofher community regarding severalsocial welfare schemes run by the gov-ernment.

Under her leadership, 150 old agepension forms were filled and submit-ted to the concerned authorities while10 widows were connected with thewidow pension scheme. To boost theconfidence among girls and to makethem self-reliant, several girls havebeen given employment training andbeen associated with NREGA. Inaddition, 15 girls are receiving com-puter training and stitch cuttingtraining under the Pradhan MantriKaushal Vikas Yojana which could nothave been possible without Sohina’sefforts. She also inspired 10 girls fromher community to pursue nursingtraining programmes just like her.

“For creating awareness and help-ing people of the village to benefitfrom several government schemes,Sohina has been also honoured by theGram Panchayat,” informed Kamlesh,a junior assistant to the Panchayatcommittee.

Sohina’s journey, however, hasbeen full of challenges. “We were alsoquite orthodox in our approachtowards our daughter. We would nothave allowed her to step out of thehouse if social worker Giriraj Sharmawould not have counselled us. Ithelped us understand the impor-tance of supporting our daughter’seducation. We also supported herdecision to train with the KishoriManch,” shared Sohina’s parents.Besides, the poor economic conditionof the family also created troubles butSohina acted with courage and con-tinued to raise awareness amongother girls. Today, not only her par-ents but the entire community isproud of her.

Sohina believes that girls havenever been a weaker gender and thatthey should get equal opportunities.Here, not surprisingly, the female lit-eracy rate is just 10 per cent of theentire village population.

These are the regions which needspecial attention. Clearly, the existingmodus operandi isn’t sufficient toaddress the needs of such low-incomecommunities residing in rural andremote areas. If the governmentintends to further reduce the drop-outrate of Muslim girls from school, it willneed to work with these communitiesclosely. Only then can every girlbecome inspiring, courageous andself-reliant.

(Rama Sharma is a recipient ofSanjoy Ghose Media Awards 2020.)

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As the country continues tobattle Coronavirus, young

adults in college say that theirmental well-being has beenmost impacted by thepandemic’s socialconsequences. But the silverlining is visible to most andthe outlook is one of hope forthis year, state the results of asurvey by BML MunjalUniversity.

One out of every two, thatis, 49 per cent students say thatstress, anxiety and lonelinesshave been the mostchallenging to cope withduring COVID-19 that hasimpacted their mental health.Approximately 26 per cent cite

not being able to keep upacademically to be mostchallenging. About 15 per centsay that not having a dedicatedplace for studying at home wasa challenge and a meagre 10.47per cent cite poor internetconnectivity to be a pressingconcern.

Stress is exaggerated bytheir concerns of post collegecareers. 55 per cent of collegestudents are concerned, ofwhich 38 per cent say they arevery concerned about theirfuture because of theuncertainty of the situation. Inthis scenario, theirexpectations from theircollege are to offer functional

courses that would be morerelevant in the new normal.Fifty-one per cent of studentscite this as an expectationwhile 32 per cent of studentsexpect their college to facilitateindustry placements, says thesurvey.

Social isolation has been

difficult to deal with and amajority of students, 37 percent say that they have missedtheir friends acutely, followedby the buzz of social events (25per cent) and hands ontraining on campus.

There’s hope at the end ofthe tunnel and the sentiment is

buoyant among students forthe new normal. About 78 percent of students surveyed arefeeling hopeful about thefuture than they did when thepandemic began. Of thesenearly 40 per cent say that withthe vaccination driveunderway, they are hopefulthat normal life will resumesoon.

India’s young adultsdisplay positive energy andresilience to respond fast andsurprisingly well tounprecedented challenges.Students have taken awayimportant learnings from thisblack swan event. Thirty-seven per cent of young adultssay they realise the importanceof mental and physical health,28 per cent the importance offamily and friends andnurturing relationships and 12per cent say that it has

reminded and restored theirconfidence in the resilience ofthe human spirit. ‘When thegoing gets tough, the tough getgoing’, is a lasting lesson thatwill remain with young adults.

With a lot of free time ontheir hands, young adults keptthemselves entertained onOTT platforms. Around 33.4per cent of the students turnedto watching content on OTTplatforms such as Netflix,Amazon Prime, Hot Star,followed by playing videogames (13.2 per cent) andcultivating new hobbies (12.5per cent) within the confinesof their premises.

While students havemissed their college campusesand are eager to return, oneout of every two students saythat the future of learning willbe hybrid, says the survey.

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Most of the people acrossthe world today feel that

education in moral andhuman values is veryessential if we wish to have abetter society. Similarly, it isalso being amply emphasisedthat every profession musthave a code of conduct whichpeople in that professionmust follow. However, thereare some differences amongthe people in regard toimpartation of education invalues. Like, some people feelthat values should not betaught as a separate subject asschool going children alreadyhave a heavy load of booksthat they carry and educationin values, as a separatesubject, would add to thisload and make the burdenunbearable. So, they suggestthat almost every subject,which the students presentlystudy, must have a value-orientation, which meansthat every subject must talkof some values that arederived from it or that arebasic or related to it besidestalking about its mainsubject-matter. This, theyopine, should be done in asubtle and indirect waybecause this way has beenfound to be more effective.

To counter this, there isanother group who says that‘who said that education invalues must be given in theform of a book only?’ Theyfeel that much part of it couldbe given orally. If educationin values is taught as aseparate subject throughstories, poems, dramas,sayings, songs, and more,then this subject would bethe most popular of all,particularly if it is given inthe form of visuals and isenacted on the stage. Besidesthese groups, there is anothergroup as well which talks ofvalue-based education, but itseems to be not very clearabout what exactly it wants.They ask, ‘what does thephrase ‘value-based’ mean?Does it mean that valuesshould form the very basis ofeducation or that everysubject, which we teach,must bring out certain valuesalso. If it has the formermeaning, then it implies thateducation without values hasno basis. Since this secondmeaning seems to be absurd,one can infer that this term‘value-based’ is used to putgreat emphasis on this aspectof education. This term ismeant to convey that ifeducation does not impartvalues, then it is noteducation; it is, perhaps,mere information. In thatsense, it does not talk of themethodology; it does not saywhether there should be onlyvalue-orientation of everysubject or teaching valuesshould form a separatesubject.

Above all these, there isanother category of peoplewho would ask for both themethods. They suggest that,if possible, there should bevalue-orientation of everysubject and there should be aseparate subject also by thatname. One thing that iscommon to all the kinds ofopinion leaders is that theyfeel that the process ofdegeneration in values hasbecome very rapid. However,it seems that even thoughthey all feel seriouslyconcerned with the need tostem the rot and to restorethe morals to their formerheights, they do not thinkthat it is necessary to set atime-schedule for thatpurpose. This nullifies muchof their effort on value-education because it ishuman nature that if goaland time-limits are not set,then the man becomessluggish. Moreover, if weallow our efforts for a globalmoral transformation to goon as a process at any placewithout giving it a sense ofurgency, then before we turnthe tables, the tables will turnon us.

The speed at whichpeople are destroying theenvironment and disruptingthe ecological system, therate at which the populationis growing, the amounts ofmoney which are being spentto prepare and store weaponsof mass-destruction, theseand other signs clearly warnhumankind that if it does nottake any speedy action torestore the values, known asthe spirit of world-brotherhood, love, co-operation, non-violence, andmore, then our very survivalwould be endangered.Hence, the damage caused byrapid degeneration in valuesmust be controlled in time.Else, our present artificialcivilisation will, like many ofits predecessors, be washedaway. Time, in this regard, isa crucial factor. The processof moral regeneration cannotbe allowed to be delayedanymore for that would betoo late. We must, therefore,set a period of time withinwhich we should be able toreverse the tide or savewhatever we can.

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Nathan Lyon would loveIndia’s chief curator to beput in charge of the SCG,

declaring the much-malignedpitch in Ahmedabad was bril-liant and he is perplexed by those“crying” about spin-friendly sur-faces.

India crushed England by 10wickets in a pink-ball match thatspanned just 842 balls, making itthe shortest completed Test since1934.

The result has reigniteddebate about home-groundadvantage.

Former England captainsAndrew Strauss, Alastair Cookand Michael Vaughan criticisedthe pitch prepared by the Boardof Control for Cricket in India(BCCI)’s chief groundsmanAshish Bhowmik, while thetourists are considering whetherto lodge a formal complaint tothe International CricketCouncil.

Lyon pointed to the fact thatJack Leach was the visitors’ solefrontline spinner when askedabout the reaction to the pitch.

“The best thing about thisTest match that just passed is thatEngland went in with four seam-ers,” Lyon said.

“That will do me. I don’tneed to say any more.”

Lyon, who worked as a cura-tor before starting his 100-Testcareer, was captivated by the car-nage created by fellow offspinnerRavichandran Ashwin and left-

arm tweaker Axar Patel.“I was up all night watching

it,” he said.“It was absolutely brilliant.

I'm thinking about bringing thatcurator out to the SCG.

“We play on seaming wick-ets around the world and get

bowled out for 47, 60. Nobodyever says a thing (about thepitch).

“But as soon as it startsspinning, everyone in the worldseems to start crying about it.

“I don’t get it. I’m all for it,it was entertaining.”

The result was a major blowto Australia’s hopes of sneakinginto the Test championship final.

Tim Paine’s team will contestthe mid-year final at Lord’s ifEngland win their fourth Testagainst India, which starts at thesame venue on Thursday.

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Opener Rohit Sharma touched his career-best eighth position in the ICC Test

Batsmen’s Rankings on Sunday with a six-placejump after his impressive show in India’s 10-wicket win over England in the low-scoringthird Test in Ahmedabad.

His rating points aggregate is 742, 20 morethan his best of 722 in October 2019 when hewas ranked 10th.

Player of the match Axar Patel andRavichandran Ashwin have also made solidgains after playing a crucial rile in India’s winon a spin-friendly track.

Left-arm spinner Patel’s 11-wicket matchhaul hashelped himgain 30 slotsto reach 38thposition whileo f f - s p i n n e rAshwin’s sevenwickets have liftedhim four places tothird position.

England spinnerJack Leach has enteredthe top 30 for the firsttime, moving up threeplaces to 28th after takingfour wickets. Captain JoeRoot’s maiden five-wickethaul has lifted him 16places to 72nd amongbowlers while he is nowjoint-13th among all-rounders.

Opener Zak Crawley’sknock of 53 in the firstinnings has helped himadvance 15 places to 46thin what was the onlynotable gain for any oftheir batsmen.

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Young Karnataka sensationDevdutt Padikkal contin-

ued his terrific form ahead ofthe IPL with a third successivecentury as the defendingchampions stormed into theVijay Hazare Trophy quarter-finals with a lopsided 10-wicket win over Railways in agroup C here on Sunday.

The Royal ChallengersBangalore opener, who scoreda careerbest 152 againstOdisha and followed it upwith 126 not out versus Keralain their last outing, smackednine sixes and as manyboundaries in his 145 not outfrom 125 balls.

The 20-year-old left-han-der had the company of hisskipper Ravikumar Samarthwho also slammed an unbeat-en century (130 not out from118 balls; 17x4) as the open-ing duo raced to the 285-runtarget win with 57 balls tospare at the M ChinnaswamyStadium here.

The big win ensured thatthey finished on top of groupC to qualify for the last-eightwhile Uttar Pradesh finishedsecond following their six-wicket win over Odisha at theJust Cricket Academy here.

The Railways bowlers didvery little to trouble theKarnataka opening duo whoraced past 200 in 29.5 overs asthe seemingly challengingtotal proved just to be a cake-walk.

��4���3���3����Hosts Gujarat defeated

Baroda by 40 runs in their lastGroup A match to remainunbeaten. Opting to bat,Gujarat posted 277 for 7, rid-ing on opener Dhruv Raval’s102 off 129 balls and thenrestricted the opposition to237 for 9.

Experienced leg-spinnerPiyush Chawla (3/52) shonebright with the ball forGujarat.

Left-handed batsman

Raval took charge andanchored the innings withresponsibility en route to hiscentury knock which waslaced with nine boundariesand a six.

Gujarat pegged backBaroda by taking three wick-ets in quick succession as theyslipped to 135 for 4.

Pacer Chintan Gaja strucktwice, first removing Solanki,who was caught by Raval, andthen sent back inform rivalskipper Krunal Pandya (2).

Ninad Rathwa (3) also fellcheaply.

Then Chawla trappedPatel in front of the wicket asBaroda lost half of their sidefor 154. From there on, it wasan uphill task for Baroda, whoeventually ended at 237 for 9.

�����3���4��!����Andhra outplayed

Jharkhand by seven wickets toemerge on top of Group B.Andhra, Tamil Nadu,Jharkhand and MadhyaPradesh finished on 12 pointseach from five matches butAndhra emerged on top,thanks to their higher net run-rate and secured a place in theknockout phase.

Sent in to bat, Jharkhandstruggled with only four bats-men managing double figures.Skipper Ishan Kishan made 38(68 balls, 3 fours), the highestscore while medium-pacer MHarishankar Reddy wasimpressive with a four-wickethaul for Andhra.

Ashwin Hebbar (44, 18balls, 4X4s, 4X6s) and RickyBhui (57 not out, 27 balls, 5X4s,4X6s) went on the attack fromthe start with the Jharkhandbowlers having no respite.

The duo added 82 in 5.5overs before Hebbar fell toShahbaz Nadeem (1/26). Bhuicontinued with his aggressiveways and despite losing captainHanuma Vihari (4), he saw theteam home in the company ofNaren Reddy (16 not out, 7balls, 1X4, 2X6s).

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Sune Luus will leadSouth Africa

women’s team againstIndia in the upcominglimited over series asregular skipper DaneVan Niekerk and ChloeTryon will again missthe assignment due toinjuries, the country’scricket board CSA saidon Sunday..

South Africaretained most of theplayers in the 18-mem-ber squad which hadwon the ODI and T20 series against Pakistan last month.Van Niekerk and Chloe Tryon were not part of thatseries.

Pacer Masabata Klaas is the only one to miss outafter picking up an injury at the last moment.

Sune Luus had captained the side in the last seriesand will continue to do so with Van Niekerk and Tryonyet to recover from lower-back injuries.

“It is really exciting to finally have this tour con-firmed and announce our squad that will do duty herein India, and we are looking forward to getting out thereto see our ladies prove themselves under different play-ing conditions,” Hilton Moreeng was quoted as sayingin a statement by Cricbuzz.

“India is always a wonderful place to tour and weare looking forward to the challenge that lies ahead.”

The series comprises five ODIs, followed by threeT20 internationals — all to be held at the Ekana Stadiumin Lucknow.

����Sune Luus (c), Ayabonga Khaka, Shabnim Ismail,

Laura Wolvaardt, Trisha Chetty, Sinalo Jafta, TasminBritz, Marizanne Kapp, Nondumiso Shangase, LizelleLee, Anneke Bosch, Faye Tunniclife, NonkululekoMlaba, Mignon du Preez, Nadine de Klerk, Lara Goodalland Tumi Sekhukhune.

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Star Indian wrestler Vinesh Phogat on Sundaypinned 2017 world champion V Kaladzinskay

to grab a Gold medal at the OutstandingUkrainian Wrestlers and Coaches Memorialtournament here, and returned to the mat instyle after a long coronavirus-forced break.

Up against the world number sevenBelarusian, it was not an easy bout for the worldnumber three Indian as the two grapplers kepttesting each other with consistent attacks in thesea-saw battle in which Vinesh prevailed.

Vinesh opened up a 4-0 lead in the 53kgfinal with a throw which she initiated with a left-leg attack but Kaladzinskay made it 4-4 with herbrilliant move.

Vinesh took the break leading 6-4, addingto her score with a take down, 10 seconds beforethe break.

The Belarusian put pressure on the Indianwith another four-point throw but with 25 sec-onds to go, Vinesh’s move fetched her four morepoints for a 10-8 lead. She got into a positionfrom where she pinned Kaladzinskay to ensureherself a Gold.

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Six-time world champion MC Mary Kom willspearhead a 14-member Indian boxing in

the Boxam International tournament inCastellon, Spain from March 1 to 7.

According to a release issued by theBoxing Federation of India (BFI), the Indiancontingent left for Spain in early hours onSunday.

Besides Mary Kom, the team also hasCommonwealth Games Silver medallist ManishKaushik (63kg).

The duo are key highlights of the Indianteam as they are set to make a return to the ringfor the first time since the Asian OlympicQualifiers held in Jordan in March last year.

The highly-competitive tournament willfeature 19 nations with their Tokyo-bound box-ers.

The Indian team will consist of eight menand six women pugilists, including nineOlympic qualified boxers.

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India figured out England’s gener-al “ineptitude against spin” during

the second Test in Chennai and usedit to their advantage in the ‘Pink Ball’game by unleashing a spin-heavyattack on a helpful track, says formerAustralia captain Ian Chappell.

“India’s decision to select threespinners for the Test was promptedby England’s batting on a trickyChennai pitch, where their batsmen- Joe Root excepted - displayed a dis-tinct ineptitude against spin,”Chappell wrote in a column in‘ESPNcricinfo’.

“India correctly calculated thatwould result in mental scarringand used it to their advantage.”

Chappell said it was poordefence which led to England’s col-lapse in the third Test.

“When faced with a serious spinchallenge, the England batsmen

didn’t trust their defence, whicheventually resulted in panickedattempts to attack the Indian spin-ners,” he wrote.

“Their choice to reverse-sweeprather than to leave their crease tochange the bowler’s length is a clas-sic example.

“How can a risky premeditatedshot be less dangerous than what waspreviously a trusted technique tounsettle good spinners?,” he ques-tioned.

Chappell said “Shrewd use offootwork not only helps negate thespin but also puts a batsman in aposition to direct the ball where hewants.”

“To be fair, this is a skill to belearned at a young age. Whichprompts the question: why is it notwidely taught in England, wheresweeping is misguidedly touted asthe secret to playing spin bowlingsuccessfully?

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Romelu Lukakuscored after just 32

seconds and helped toset up two goals asleague leader Inter Milanbeat Genoa 3-0 in SerieA on Sunday.

Inter dominated buttook until the 69thminute to double itslead, through MatteoDarmian. SubstituteAlexis Sanchez sealedthe win to ensureAntonio Conte’s sidemoved seven pointsabove second-place ACMilan, which visitsRoma in the late game.

Napoli was also playinglater, against Benevento.

It was Genoa’s firstleague defeat since earlyJanuary and left it 13th,eight points above thedrop zone.

Inter was biddingfor a fifth straight leaguewin and it got off to theperfect start whenNicolò Barella sent aball through to Lukaku,who played a quick one-two with LautaroMartínez before drilling

into the bottom left cor-ner.

The Nerazzurriwasted a number ofchances and Barella alsohit a long-range stunneroff the crossbar in the17th.

Inter finally doubledits lead when Lukakudrew defenders towardhim before setting up anunmarked Darmian.

Sánchez was broughton in the 76th and theInter forward immedi-

ately scored as he turnedin the rebound afterGenoa goalkeeperMattia Perin parriedLukaku's effort. The goalwas originally ruled outfor offside but wasawarded on videoreview.

Injury-hit Juventuswas held at HellasVerona to 1-1 as itshopes of a record-extending 10th succes-sive Serie A title took ablow.

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Arsenal turn around itsrecent poor form to beat

Leicester 3-1 on Sunday as thehome side was left to deal withan injury to on-form midfield-er Harvey Barnes.

Arsenal started the day in11th and returned to the top halfwith the win, while Leicestermissed a chance to challengeManchester United for second.

Youri Tielemans gaveLeicester the lead in the sixthminute when the Belgian mid-fielder surged down the right

flank as Arsenal failed to closehim down, and then shot lowpast Bernd Leno.

David Luiz leveled forArsenal with his first league goalsince October 2019, heading inWillian’s free kick when he wasleft unmarked.

Pepe had earlier beendenied a penalty when a videoreview showed he was trippedjust outside the area by WilfredNdidi, but was key to winninga spot-kick just before half timewhen he struck a shot that hitNdidi's arm as the Nigerianmidfielder tried to block with

his leg. Alexandre Lacazettestepped up to power the penal-ty in.

Pepe made it 3-1 in the52nd when he started a movedown the right flank and thenran through the Leicesterdefense to apply a simple finishoff Willian’s low cross.

Barnes was carried off earlyin the second half with anapparent knee injury, anddefender Jonny Evans was alsohurt later in the game. Leicesterwas already without attackingmidfielder James Maddison,who has a hip injury.

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The square turner at theChepauk for the second Test

and the Ahmedabad dust bowlprovided for the ‘pink ball’ gameare hardest surfaces that BenFoakes has kept on in his nascentinternational career.

India have put England onthe mat with a couple of trackswhich aided the home spinners asRavichandran Ashwin and AxarPatel ran riot, giving India 2-1 leadin the four-match series.

“Last two games are the hard-est pitches I have kept on. In thelast game the pink ball was skid-ding, I haven’t seen a wicket likethat and keeping on it was a goodchallenge,” Foakes, who hasreplaced Jos Buttler as perEngland’s rotation policy, saidduring a virtual media conference.

By his own admission, Foakeshasn’t seen a cricket ball turn somuch.

“The two pitches that I haveplayed, I have never seen ball turnlike that. It's certainly very chal-lenging. It’s like having day fivepitch from ball one.”

But for one of world’s bestglovesman, the last two gameswere learning experience andreal fun.

“When the ball spins, it’s fun

to keep and in Sri Lanka, it waseasy because it was consistent andyou knew the ball is going to turn.What I found during pink ballTest was it could spin square pastbatter or it could skid.”

He admitted that no keepercan take every catch on these sortof tracks.

“On these sort of pitches, youcant catch every ball.”

“The way I have approachedis three matches for England andtry and play as well as I can. Notlook too far ahead and enjoy themoment I guess,” he said.

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