12
I n the wake of Denmark, Norway, Iceland, and Thailand temporarily halting vaccination with the Oxford- AstraZeneca vaccine following isolated reports of recipients developing blood clots, India on Saturday said it will carry out a deeper review of post- vaccination side effects from Covishield, the Oxford- AstraZeneca Covid vaccine being manufactured by Serum Institute of India, next week. “No cases of blood clots have been reported so far in the country, but we are looking at all the adverse events, particu- larly serious adverse events like deaths and hospitalisa- tion. We will come back if we find anything of concern,” NK Arora, a member of national task force on Covid-19, told a news agency. This new development took place even as the World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday said there was no rea- son to stop using AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 jab. India has been using the Indian version of the Oxford- AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine called Covishield, as devel- oped by SII, the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer by vol- ume, and indigenous vaccine giant Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin in its vaccination drive. Serum Institute had joined hands with AstraZeneca to manufacture 1 billion doses of the vaccine shot. India has given at least 28 million shots in its vast vacci- nation programme, most of them Covishield. The Government has also gifted and allowed exports of millions of these jabs to around 70 countries over the last few weeks as a part of its vaccine diplomacy. Arora said there was “no immediate issue of concern as the number of adverse events (in India) is very, very low. We are relooking at (adverse events that were reported) to see if there was any issue of blood clotting.” “As of yesterday there were 59 or 60 deaths, and they were all coincidental,” the doctor said, adding hospitalisation cases were being re-examined. “In fact there is a real effort from our side that once complete investigation is done, to put its results in public domain, on the Ministry of Health website,” Arora added. On Sunday, the WHO said its vaccines advisory committee was currently going through safety data and emphasised that no causal link had been established between the vaccine and blood clot. So far, a cumulative total of more than 2.82 crore (2,82,18,457) vaccine doses have been administered in two phases — first, to frontline and healthcare workers, and sec- ond, to citizens above the age of 60 and co-morbid above 45 years. Meanwhile, with India recording the highest number of daily coronavirus cases in 83 days on Saturday, the country could be heading towards a new wave that scientists say can be quelled by vaccinating the maximum number of people and following Covid-appro- priate behaviour. A mid a steady outflow of senior leaders from the Trinamool Congress, former Union Finance Minister and ex-BJP leader Yashwant Sinha joined Mamata Banerjee’s party on Saturday saying the tipping point for him to join the TMC was the “attack” on the Bengal Chief Minister at Nandigram. Sinha said Mamata is one of the few visible faces in the country trying to stop the BJP from “crushing and conquer- ing” the Opposition and the time has come when the demo- cratic-minded parties of the country will have to take a deci- sion to sink differences and unite for a bigger cause. The 83-year-old veteran IAS officer-turned politician, who left the BJP in 2018, said he is joining the Trinamool at a crucial juncture when “the country is facing an unprece- dented situation…” adding the democratic institutions like “the judiciary have become weak now.” Praising the Chief Minister whom he met at her residence before joining her party, Sinha said he always knew her as a fighter who as a Cabinet Minister in the Atal Behari Vajpayee Government and offered herself as a hostage dur- ing the Kandahar crisis when Pakistani terrorists had hijacked an Indian Airlines aircraft. The former Union Minister who once handled the External Affairs joined his new party at the Trinamool Bhawan in the presence of senior lead- ers Derek O Brien, Sudip Bandopadhyay, and Subrata Mukherjee. Sinha said there is qualita- tively difference between the NDA Government led by Vajpayee and the one being run today. T he main Opposition DMK in Tamil Nadu on Saturday made a whopping 500 plus promises, including a shower of doles like 4,000 relief to Covid-19 hit rice ration card holders, in its manifesto for the April 6 Assembly polls. On the lines of Andhra Pradesh and Haryana, which passed laws to reserve 75 per cent jobs for locals, DMK pres- ident MK Stalin assured legis- lation to earmark 75 per cent of jobs in industrial houses for locals and promised to press for quota in private sector. Crop and jewel loans (up to 5 sovereigns) of small and marginal farmers in coopera- tive banks, pending loans of Women Self Help Groups in co-op institutions and educa- tional loans of college students below the age of 30 would all be waived, he said, releasing the manifesto at the party HQ. In Government town buses, women shall be allowed to travel free of cost and quota for women in Government jobs shall be increased from 30 to 40 per cent, he announced. Free computer tablets with data card for students, milk to school students in the morning to provide nutritional support and distribution of napkins free of cost to girl pupils of schools and colleges were some of the other promises. The rural employment guarantee programme would see an increase from 100 to 150 days and poor farmers and auto drivers would get 10,000 sub- sidy to buy farm pumpset and autos respectively, he said. P assengers refusing to wear face masks properly during a flight could be placed on a no-fly list for a period of three months to two years or more. Amid reports of Covid-19 vio- lation by air passengers and surge in coronavirus cases again in several States, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Saturday said a passenger violating pro- tocol despite repeated warn- ings will be treated as “unruly passenger”. If a passenger refus- es to comply with the instruc- tions before a flight takes off, then he or she should be de- boarded, DGCA said. In a circular, the DGCA has directed airport officials and security personnel to ensure that no one is allowed to enter the airport without wearing a mask and everyone must maintain social distanc- ing norms at all times during air travel. The Airlines have to ensure that passengers are fol- lowing the Covid-19 guide- lines. Besides, the violators will be de-boarded and classi- fied as “unruly passengers”. The move follows a Delhi High Court order that pas- sengers without a mask be put on a no-fly list after the judge observed the callous attitude of passengers. Justice Hari Shankar took suo motu cog- nizance of the matter after he witnessed fellow passengers wearing their masks pulled down while on an Air India Kolkata-Delhi flight earlier this month. “In case, any passenger on board an aircraft refuses to wear mask or violates the Covid-19 protocol for passen- gers even after repeated warn- ings during the course of the flight, such passenger may be treated as “unruly passenger” and the procedure in respect of handling such unruly passen- ger as provided in Civil Aviation Requirements (CAR) shall be followed by the con- cerned airline,” the DGCA cir- cular said. R ain and thunderstorms have brought the soar- ing temperatures down in several parts of the State. The weather office on Saturday said the tempera- ture would fall by 2 to 3 degrees Celsius at many places in next 24 hours. The IMD Regional Office here said the tem- perature would rise gradu- ally therefter by 3 to 4 degree. However, there would be no large change in min- imum temperature (night temperature) during the next four to five days, said the IMD. A per the weather office, several parts of the State would experience rain and thunderstorm activity in next 24 hours. The IMD issuing a yel- low warning said thunder- storm with lightning is very likely to occur at one or two places over the districts of Sundargarh, Keonjhar, Mayurbhanj, Baleswar, Jajpur, Bhadrak, Angul, Dhenkanal, Kendrapada, Cuttack and Jagatsinghpur districts. T he State Government has pro- posed to repeal 206 enactments to lessen the burden of the Statute Book. Law Minister Pratap Jena introduced an ‘Odisha Repealing Bill 2021’ in the State Assembly on Saturday to repeal certain enact- ments in force. These enactments have either lost their significance being obsolete or redundant or no longer required to be retained in the Statute Book, said the statement of objects of the Bill. These Acts have been identified in consultation with the respective administrative departments and their repeal is stated to be an important step towards god governance. The State Law Commission has also recommended for repeal of such enactments, including Amendment Acts, enacted during the period from 1974 to 2016. H appy news for the school students of Classes-I to VIII that they would be pro- moted without holding exam- inations for them this year. In the wake of an upsurge in Covid cases, the students from Classes-I to VIII would be declared ‘all pass’ this year too, informed School & Mass Education Minister Samir Ranjan Dash on Saturday. “All students from the Classes-I to VIII will be given the class promotion without conducting examinations this year due to the Covid situation. As no offline class has been held since a year due to the pandemic, it is not possible to conduct examinations in schools,” he said. Notably, last year, the Government had declared the students of Classes-I to VIII ‘all pass’ due to the pandemic. “The students of Classes-I to VIII were promoted without examinations in view of the Covid situation last year. The same method will be adopted this year too,” the Minister said. Though a formal announcement has not been made in this regard, an official notification would be issued soon, he said. However, the examination for the students of Class-IX would be held offline this year. “As the offline classes are being held regularly for the stu- dents of Classes-IX, X, XI and XII, the examination will be conducted for the Class-X stu- dents offline in schools,” Dash informed. On the issue of com- mencement of a new academ- ic session, the Minister said that in view of the present Covid sit- uation, the schools would not be reopened in April. A deci- sion on reopening of schools would be taken after June this year. “It is not possible to com- mence a new academic session from April,” he said. T he State registered 65 new Covid-19 positive cases on Saturday in 12 districts and the State pool, increasing its total caseload to 3,38,121. Of the new cases, 38 were reported from quarantine cen- tres and 27 were local contacts. Cuttack and Sundargarh districts recorded the day’s highest 13 cases each followed by Mayurbhanj with seven. Besides, two cases were report- ed from the State pool. Currently, the active cases stood at 651 and the cumula- tive samples tested were 85,9,8542. The death toll remained at 1,918 as no new fatality was reported on the day. However, 70 patients recovered on the day, taking the total recoveries to3,35,569 in the State. M embers of Opposition BJP and Congress and ruling BJD created pandemonium over different issues in the State Assembly on Saturday. Soon after the House assembled for the day, Opposition members went near the Speaker’s podium and created ruckus over irregular- ities in paddy procurement in mandis. And BJD members demanded an apology from BJP MLA Subash Chandra Panigrahi for attempting sui- cide by consuming sanitiser in the Assembly over the paddy procurement issue on Friday. Ruling party members stood up and protested the act of suicide attempt by Panigrahi. Later, they along with some Ministers rushed to the Well of the House and demanded that the BJP legislator must apologise. Unable to run the House, Speaker Surjya Narayan Patro adjourned it for two times, first till 11.30 am and then till 4 pm. The BJD members alleged that Panigrahi desecrated the sanctity of the House by attempting suicide during its proceedings and maintained that they would not let the House run till the BJP MLA apologises. “We hadn’t witnessed such an instance in the Assembly ever. He (Panigrahi) should immediately apologise for his act,” demanded senior BJD MLA Pratap Keshari Deb. BJD Chief Whip Pramila Mallick said the farmer issue could have been resolved through a debate in the House, but the MLA opted to create a scene by threatening suicide. On the other hand, Congress and BJP MLAs opposed such a protest by the BJD in the Well of the Assembly. They demanded an apology from the ruling party MLAs. “This is the first time that Ministers went to the Well of the House and created uproar. We will not allow the House to function until they apologise,” said Congress MLA Tara Prasad Bahinipati. Opposition Chief Whip Mohan Majhi (BJP) said, “There is no question of apol- ogising. The Speaker has the power; he should take a deci- sion. When the Government didn’t listen to him (Panigrahi), what would he have done? We are having an anti-farmer Government here which never cares for the farmers’ prob- lems.”

 · 2021. 3. 13. · the number of adverse events (in India) is very, ... Free computer tablets with data card for students, ... DGCA said. In a circular, the DGCA

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Page 1:  · 2021. 3. 13. · the number of adverse events (in India) is very, ... Free computer tablets with data card for students, ... DGCA said. In a circular, the DGCA

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In the wake of Denmark,Norway, Iceland, and

Thailand temporarily haltingvaccination with the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine followingisolated reports of recipientsdeveloping blood clots, Indiaon Saturday said it will carryout a deeper review of post-vaccination side effects fromCovishield, the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid vaccinebeing manufactured by SerumInstitute of India, next week.

“No cases of blood clotshave been reported so far in thecountry, but we are looking atall the adverse events, particu-larly serious adverse eventslike deaths and hospitalisa-tion. We will come back if wefind anything of concern,” NKArora, a member of nationaltask force on Covid-19, told anews agency.

This new developmenttook place even as the WorldHealth Organization (WHO)on Friday said there was no rea-son to stop using AstraZeneca’sCovid-19 jab.

India has been using theIndian version of the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccinecalled Covishield, as devel-oped by SII, the world’s largestvaccine manufacturer by vol-ume, and indigenous vaccinegiant Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin

in its vaccination drive.Serum Institute had joined

hands with AstraZeneca tomanufacture 1 billion doses ofthe vaccine shot.

India has given at least 28million shots in its vast vacci-nation programme, most ofthem Covishield. The

Government has also giftedand allowed exports of millionsof these jabs to around 70countries over the last fewweeks as a part of its vaccinediplomacy.

Arora said there was “noimmediate issue of concern asthe number of adverse events

(in India) is very, very low. Weare relooking at (adverse eventsthat were reported) to see ifthere was any issue of bloodclotting.”

“As of yesterday there were59 or 60 deaths, and they wereall coincidental,” the doctorsaid, adding hospitalisationcases were being re-examined.

“In fact there is a realeffort from our side that oncecomplete investigation is done,to put its results in publicdomain, on the Ministry ofHealth website,” Arora added.On Sunday, the WHO said itsvaccines advisory committeewas currently going throughsafety data and emphasisedthat no causal link had beenestablished between the vaccineand blood clot.

So far, a cumulative total ofmore than 2.82 crore(2,82,18,457) vaccine doseshave been administered in twophases — first, to frontline andhealthcare workers, and sec-ond, to citizens above the ageof 60 and co-morbid above 45years.

Meanwhile, with Indiarecording the highest numberof daily coronavirus cases in 83days on Saturday, the countrycould be heading towards anew wave that scientists say canbe quelled by vaccinating themaximum number of peopleand following Covid-appro-priate behaviour.

���)� ���)����� �8 $�$

Amid a steady outflow ofsenior leaders from the

Trinamool Congress, formerUnion Finance Minister andex-BJP leader Yashwant Sinhajoined Mamata Banerjee’s partyon Saturday saying the tippingpoint for him to join the TMCwas the “attack” on the BengalChief Minister at Nandigram.

Sinha said Mamata is oneof the few visible faces in thecountry trying to stop the BJPfrom “crushing and conquer-ing” the Opposition and thetime has come when the demo-cratic-minded parties of thecountry will have to take a deci-sion to sink differences andunite for a bigger cause.

The 83-year-old veteranIAS officer-turned politician,who left the BJP in 2018, saidhe is joining the Trinamool ata crucial juncture when “the

country is facing an unprece-dented situation…” adding thedemocratic institutions like“the judiciary have becomeweak now.”

Praising the Chief Ministerwhom he met at her residencebefore joining her party, Sinhasaid he always knew her as afighter who as a CabinetMinister in the Atal BehariVajpayee Government andoffered herself as a hostage dur-ing the Kandahar crisis whenPakistani terrorists had

hijacked an Indian Airlinesaircraft.

The former UnionMinister who once handled theExternal Affairs joined his newparty at the Trinamool Bhawanin the presence of senior lead-ers Derek O Brien, SudipBandopadhyay, and SubrataMukherjee.

Sinha said there is qualita-tively difference between theNDA Government led byVajpayee and the one being runtoday.

����'9�++$5

The main Opposition DMKin Tamil Nadu on Saturday

made a whopping 500 pluspromises, including a shower ofdoles like �4,000 relief toCovid-19 hit rice ration cardholders, in its manifesto for theApril 6 Assembly polls.

On the lines of AndhraPradesh and Haryana, whichpassed laws to reserve 75 percent jobs for locals, DMK pres-ident MK Stalin assured legis-lation to earmark 75 per centof jobs in industrial houses forlocals and promised to press forquota in private sector.

Crop and jewel loans (up to5 sovereigns) of small andmarginal farmers in coopera-tive banks, pending loans ofWomen Self Help Groups inco-op institutions and educa-tional loans of college studentsbelow the age of 30 would allbe waived, he said, releasing themanifesto at the party HQ.

In Government townbuses, women shall be allowedto travel free of cost and quotafor women in Governmentjobs shall be increased from 30to 40 per cent, he announced.

Free computer tablets withdata card for students, milk toschool students in the morningto provide nutritional supportand distribution of napkinsfree of cost to girl pupils ofschools and colleges were someof the other promises.

The rural employmentguarantee programme wouldsee an increase from 100 to 150days and poor farmers and autodrivers would get �10,000 sub-sidy to buy farm pumpset andautos respectively, he said.

�������������� �������������������������������������������� ��������������������������������������� ���� ������������������ ����

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Passengers refusing to wearface masks properly during

a flight could be placed on ano-fly list for a period of threemonths to two years or more.Amid reports of Covid-19 vio-lation by air passengers andsurge in coronavirus casesagain in several States, theDirectorate General of CivilAviation (DGCA) on Saturdaysaid a passenger violating pro-tocol despite repeated warn-ings will be treated as “unrulypassenger”. If a passenger refus-es to comply with the instruc-tions before a flight takes off,then he or she should be de-boarded, DGCA said.

In a circular, the DGCAhas directed airport officialsand security personnel toensure that no one is allowedto enter the airport withoutwearing a mask and everyonemust maintain social distanc-ing norms at all times during

air travel. The Airlines have toensure that passengers are fol-lowing the Covid-19 guide-lines. Besides, the violatorswill be de-boarded and classi-fied as “unruly passengers”.

The move follows a DelhiHigh Court order that pas-sengers without a mask be puton a no-fly list after the judgeobserved the callous attitude ofpassengers. Justice HariShankar took suo motu cog-nizance of the matter after hewitnessed fellow passengerswearing their masks pulleddown while on an Air India

Kolkata-Delhi flight earlierthis month.

“In case, any passengeron board an aircraft refuses towear mask or violates theCovid-19 protocol for passen-gers even after repeated warn-ings during the course of theflight, such passenger may betreated as “unruly passenger”and the procedure in respect ofhandling such unruly passen-ger as provided in CivilAviation Requirements (CAR)shall be followed by the con-cerned airline,” the DGCA cir-cular said.

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Rain and thunderstormshave brought the soar-

ing temperatures down inseveral parts of the State.The weather office onSaturday said the tempera-ture would fall by 2 to 3degrees Celsius at manyplaces in next 24 hours.

The IMD RegionalOffice here said the tem-perature would rise gradu-ally therefter by 3 to 4degree.

However, there wouldbe no large change in min-imum temperature (nighttemperature) during thenext four to five days, saidthe IMD.

A per the weather office,several parts of the Statewould experience rain and

thunderstorm activity innext 24 hours.

The IMD issuing a yel-low warning said thunder-storm with lightning is verylikely to occur at one or twoplaces over the districts ofSundargarh, Keonjhar,Mayurbhanj, Baleswar,Jajpur, Bhadrak, Angul,Dhenkanal, Kendrapada,Cuttack and Jagatsinghpurdistricts.

����49"4$+��7$,

The State Government has pro-posed to repeal 206 enactments to

lessen the burden of the StatuteBook. Law Minister Pratap Jenaintroduced an ‘Odisha Repealing Bill2021’ in the State Assembly onSaturday to repeal certain enact-ments in force.

These enactments have either losttheir significance being obsolete orredundant or no longer required tobe retained in the Statute Book, saidthe statement of objects of the Bill.

These Acts have been identifiedin consultation with the respectiveadministrative departments and theirrepeal is stated to be an importantstep towards god governance.

The State Law Commission hasalso recommended for repeal of suchenactments, including AmendmentActs, enacted during the period from1974 to 2016.

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Happy news for the schoolstudents of Classes-I to

VIII that they would be pro-moted without holding exam-inations for them this year.

In the wake of an upsurgein Covid cases, the studentsfrom Classes-I to VIII would bedeclared ‘all pass’ this year too,informed School & MassEducation Minister SamirRanjan Dash on Saturday.

“All students from theClasses-I to VIII will be given

the class promotion withoutconducting examinations thisyear due to the Covid situation.As no offline class has beenheld since a year due to thepandemic, it is not possible toconduct examinations inschools,” he said.

Notably, last year, theGovernment had declared thestudents of Classes-I to VIII ‘allpass’ due to the pandemic.

“The students of Classes-Ito VIII were promoted withoutexaminations in view of theCovid situation last year. Thesame method will be adoptedthis year too,” the Ministersaid.

Though a formalannouncement has not beenmade in this regard, an officialnotification would be issued

soon, he said.However, the examination

for the students of Class-IXwould be held offline this year.

“As the offline classes arebeing held regularly for the stu-dents of Classes-IX, X, XI andXII, the examination will beconducted for the Class-X stu-dents offline in schools,” Dashinformed.

On the issue of com-mencement of a new academ-ic session, the Minister said thatin view of the present Covid sit-uation, the schools would notbe reopened in April. A deci-sion on reopening of schoolswould be taken after June thisyear.

“It is not possible to com-mence a new academic sessionfrom April,” he said.

���� 49"4$+��7$,

The State registered 65 newCovid-19 positive cases on

Saturday in 12 districts and theState pool, increasing its totalcaseload to 3,38,121.

Of the new cases, 38 werereported from quarantine cen-tres and 27 were local contacts.

Cuttack and Sundargarhdistricts recorded the day’shighest 13 cases each followedby Mayurbhanj with seven.Besides, two cases were report-ed from the State pool.

Currently, the active casesstood at 651 and the cumula-tive samples tested were85,9,8542.

The death toll remained at1,918 as no new fatality wasreported on the day.

However, 70 patientsrecovered on the day, taking thetotal recoveries to3,35,569 inthe State.

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Members of Opposition BJPand Congress and ruling

BJD created pandemoniumover different issues in theState Assembly on Saturday.

Soon after the Houseassembled for the day,Opposition members wentnear the Speaker’s podium andcreated ruckus over irregular-ities in paddy procurement inmandis. And BJD membersdemanded an apology fromBJP MLA Subash ChandraPanigrahi for attempting sui-cide by consuming sanitiser inthe Assembly over the paddyprocurement issue on Friday.

Ruling party membersstood up and protested the actof suicide attempt by Panigrahi.Later, they along with someMinisters rushed to the Well ofthe House and demanded thatthe BJP legislator must apologise.

Unable to run the House,Speaker Surjya Narayan Patroadjourned it for two times, first

till 11.30 am and then till 4 pm.The BJD members alleged

that Panigrahi desecrated thesanctity of the House byattempting suicide during itsproceedings and maintainedthat they would not let theHouse run till the BJP MLAapologises.

“We hadn’t witnessed suchan instance in the Assemblyever. He (Panigrahi) shouldimmediately apologise for hisact,” demanded senior BJDMLA Pratap Keshari Deb.

BJD Chief Whip PramilaMallick said the farmer issuecould have been resolvedthrough a debate in the House,but the MLA opted to create ascene by threatening suicide.

On the other hand,Congress and BJP MLAs

opposed such a protest by theBJD in the Well of the Assembly.They demanded an apologyfrom the ruling party MLAs.

“This is the first time thatMinisters went to the Well ofthe House and created uproar.We will not allow the House tofunction until they apologise,”said Congress MLA TaraPrasad Bahinipati.

Opposition Chief WhipMohan Majhi (BJP) said,“There is no question of apol-ogising. The Speaker has thepower; he should take a deci-sion. When the Governmentdidn’t listen to him (Panigrahi),what would he have done? Weare having an anti-farmerGovernment here which nevercares for the farmers’ prob-lems.”

234�56�������������� ��������������������237�4/�!�!�� ���!��������������$���!����*������ ����� �������7������ ������,��#������� �%�����%� �������� ���!����� ����� �����

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Page 2:  · 2021. 3. 13. · the number of adverse events (in India) is very, ... Free computer tablets with data card for students, ... DGCA said. In a circular, the DGCA

�How did you come on board for CrimeAlert?

It was Bhagwan (Kale) sir who called meand wanted me on the project. I agreedbecause first, it was a rather interestingconcept and second, I had been doingnegative roles one after the other and waslooking to do something different that hadrealism to it. Crime is a subject that needsto be looked at in-depth since the percentageis on the rise. We have become insensitiveto what we read. What we visualise, we finda connection. Here, we are usingentertainment as an eye-opener to makepeople aware of what is happening aroundthem. Anchoring this show has been an eye-opener for me as well.�How did you end up a producer and ananchor?

First, I want to say that I never thoughtthat I would become a producer but thechannel gave me the opportunity to be one.This is something new that I have explored.To being, with, they asked me to anchor myown production. But then I had become abit busy. However, now I am on board withthem. In fact, they gave me twoopportunities; I also never thought I wouldbe an anchor. But here I am, being an anchorthanks to Bhagwan (Kale) and Manish(Singhal) sir, the owners of the channel. Ionly saw myself as an actor/dancer. Tobe a host is a wonderful experience.�What was your reaction when youwere offered to host and be aproducer?

These were two genres where I hadno prior knowledge about. For me,when it was suggested that I turn aproducer, my reaction was where wouldI get the money from. I could not put allmy hard-earned money in the series.When I met the owners, I told them thatI would like to produce one. They guidedme and gave me the confidence to go ahead.�What was the most shocking lesson youlearnt as a producer and host?

We all read newspapers and watch news.But sadly, we only see the headlines. We arenot personally connected to the crime thattakes place. While hosting the show,one can’t be emotional to the subject;one ha to have a straight face and tellpeople what has happened in a dispassionatemanner. Through this show, we want to tellpeople that as citizens, they too must takeresponsibility to understand the crime andtalk about it. We can’t be dependent on thepolice all the time. We can’t turn a blind eyeto the crime taking place in the countrybecause we are personally not affected. �You started with films and now TV. Howhas the journey been?

It has been wonderful. It was never astraight line but I enjoyed every phase of it.This is because I always took things in a

positive way. Even when I was at the lowpoint of my career, I had expectations thatI would rise again and be given anopportunity to showcase my talent again.God has been kind to me thus far. I amextremely thankful to my audience whoaccepted me every kind of role that I havedone.�Why and how did you get into acting?

My life story has been told in NaacheMayuri or Mayuri (Telugu). I would say thatit was the first biopic film. It saddens me thatwhen we talk about autobiography filmstoday, nobody mentions it. It was not onlythe first biopic to be made, it also starredthe person acting her own life. Today’sbiopics don’t have the actual person enactingtheir life’s story; an actor is chosen to playthe real-life person. This is depressing.�How did you get this film?

It was because of Ramoji Rao (producerof Mayuri), he owns Ramoji Film City. Hesaw me dance with an artificial limb. Healways wanted to make different kinds offilms. He read about me and thought itwould make for an interesting human-interest film. He felt that if I played the roleof myself, it would be more genuine. That’show I came on board the movie and endedup acting.�What kind of roles attract you?

No actor can vouch that a certaincharacter will be good or not. I personallyfeel that one can’t predict which role will bea turning point in one’s career. I have alwaysplayed good role and then I did negativeroles and people loved me as the vamp. Iwould not have survived in the industry for25 years if I had turned down the negativeroles that came my way.�You have been part of Tamil, Malayalam,Hindi, Telugu and, Gujarati, Kannada

even Bhojpuri films. How did thishappen?

This happened at a time whenyou don’t get work and I startedexploring regional cinema. Iloved doing these movies for acouple of reasons. First, they havea wonderful storyline. Second,they are extremely professional intheir approach.�You are a dancer, an actor, ahost, a producer, and a judge.The role where you are mostcomfortable.

I don’t want to be in a zonewhere I am comfortable becausethen you take yourself for

granted. In order to explore newthings, one must move away from the

spot where one is most comfortable.�What next?

I am doing a show for Zee Telugu, thishas been on for over a year. With Crime Alertadded to the kitty, my 30 days are full.

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This is the first movie withbig stars to have had atheatrical release after

Hollywood’s Wonder Woman1984 that released inDecember 2020. Given theincrease in the number ofCOVID-19 cases once again,the BO was sure to be affectedand the film could only makea modest �2.50 crore on Day1.

It has less to do with thefear that is keeping patronsaway from the cinema hallsand more to do with the factthat Roohi doesn’t make muchsense after the first fewminutes of its running time.

The film is a horror-

comedy genre. Sadly, there isneither any horror nor anycomedy. Just because thechudail, in this case a mudhiyapairi (witch with inverted legs)doesn’t make the film scaryeven if they show ultey bloodyfootprints, a face that hasmore blue veins and slightlyreddish eyes, a smirk and hairall over the face.

Director Hardik Mehtashoves down the message thatthe paranormal entity here isnot a ghost but a chudail. Onewonders what the difference isgiven that there are no frightfulmoments or even eerie musicplaying in the background.

However much we werelook for laughter, what wedidn’t find funny is how VarunSharma’ character falls in lovewith the witch in JahnviKapoor even if there is a DDLJmoment — Muje tohmohabbat ho ri bhai; agar je

bhi mujhe love you too kartinaa toh palat kar jaroordekhegi.

Also, this is the 21stcentury where science andtechnology rule the roast andyet Bollywood still continuesto make movies on chudailsand shows how people here, inorder to ward off evil, marrya tree or even a dog —Rajkummar Rao marries one— to mislead the mudiyapairi.

What doesn’t make evenmore sense is why all ourchudails end up at the edge ofeither the tallest building or amountain where there is amandir. Obviously, our chudailhere is not scared of God.

Overall, this movie haslaughs few and far between.Watch only if you are aRajkummar Rao fan and youdon’t want to miss any of hisfilms. 7�%�� ����%������

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Given the controversiessurrounding this latest webseries, it may be prudent for

those who feel that one must shut one’seyes to all the bad that is happeningaround them to avoid this one.However, if you are the kind of personwho knows what teenagers are up tothese days, you need to watch it to takea lesson and ensure that your wardsdon’t walk the thin line of what is rightand wrong. Of course, one’s perspectiveof the situation and circumstancesalso make a difference and one takesdecisions based on them.

So despite the hue and cry by childright activists about the inappropriateportrayal of teenagers, the series is alsoabout four other adult women who aretrying to make a place for themselvesin a man’s world — a world that is filledwith cut-throat competition wheredog eats dog and it is all about survival

of the fittest — you snooze you lose. Directed by Alankrita Shrivastava

(Lipstick Under My Burkha fame),Bombay Begums takes one on a journeywhere a woman is allowed to pursueher dreams and make it big in lifewithout feeling guilty that theypreferred to pursue a career rather stayat home and be a mom.

The only problem here is thateven though there is plenty of intrigueand twists and turns in the plot it movesat an extremely slow pace. So much sothat one can even go for a bathroombreak and come back and pick up thestory of these five women withouthaving missed much in terms of howthings unfold.

Pooja Bhatt, who was last seen inSadak 2 plays the part of a powerfulbanker (Rani) rather well. Her choiceof sarees is brilliant and will leave oneimpressed. Aadhya Anand deserves around of applause. Shahana Goswami,Amruta Subhash, Plabita Borthakur dotheir part as well.

The men here don’t have much todo except plot the downfall of thesewomen so that they rule.

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It seems certain that eitherwife Prativa Maharathy or

son Rudra Pratap of latePradeep Maharathy will be theBiju Janata Dal (BJD) candi-date in the by-election to thePipili Assembly constituency.

The Election Commissionof India is expected toannounce soon the date of theby-poll necessitated by PredeepMaharathy’s death.

That the BJD would choosea member of the Maharathyfamily as its nominee in the by-poll was amply evident from astatement of Minister SamirRanjan Dash on Saturday.

Dash said that as he repre-sents the Nimapara con-

stituency, which is adjacent toPipili, he knows it well that thepeople of Pipili want someonefrom the Maharathy clan to bethe BJD candidate. This isbecause the people used to lovePradeep Maharathy and theynow want one from the fami-ly to step into his shoes andcontinue to work for the area’sdevelopment.

Dash, however, added thatit is up to BJD supremo NaveenPatnaik to take a final decisionin the matter.

Political observers are ofthe view that Dash, who is con-sidered as a confidant ofPatnaik, would not have madethe statement without knowingthe BJD high command’s mind.

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Afive-member team of theNational Security Guard

(NSG) has arrived in the Stateahead of its inspection drives atthe Lingaraj Temple inBhubaneswar and theJagannath Temple in Purischeduled on March 16 and 18,respectively.

The team, including twosenior officials, would reviewsecurity and conduct mockdrill along with the State policeat the two famous shrines.Besides, the Odisha policewould update the officials ofthe elite counter-terrorism unitabout the security systemaround the temples.

Sources said IG

(Operations) Amitabh Thakurhas been appointed as thenodal officer to assist the NSGteam.

It will be the first recon-naissance of NSG at the PuriSnreemandir, which is stated tobe on the radar of terrorists,after demolition of structuresaround the shrine under theState Government’s heritageand security corridor project.

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The Bhajan Sandhya con-ducted by the Berhampur

Municipal Corporation(BeMC) on the occasion ofMahashivaratri here onThursday in the premises of then e w l y - r e n o v a t e dRamalingeswar Park hassparked controversy.

The district administra-tion and the BeMC forgot theirown SoP and deviated fromCovid-19 guidelines while con-ducting the fest as none of thevisitors and devotees had wornface mask. Neither had theymaintained social distancing inthe event performed byPadmashree Anup Jolta.

While on the one hand, thedistrict administration and theState Government have cau-tioned the people to refrainfrom mass gathering withoutputting face mask and strictlyfollow social distancing normsin view spike in Covid-19

cases, on the other, the BeMCauthorities organised a “BhajanSandhya” in theRamalingeswar Amusementcomplex and reportedly com-mercialised the event in thename of “RamalingeswarMahostsav” imposing an entryfee Rs 50 per visitor/devotee.

Even the vehicles of anumber of devotees who visit-ed different Shiva temples with

their family were denied per-mission to enter Goutam HallRoad forcing them to diverttheir vehicles through someother roads during the nightcausing much inconvenience.

Except the vehicles of politi-cians and elected representa-tives, others were denied accessto cross Goutam Hall road.The BeMC could have allowedsenior citizens free access, said

a local here on Thursday.There were thousands of

people assembled to witness thefest. Hence there was absolute-ly no restrictions on the num-ber of visitors. Eye witnessesclaimed that, this was an opendeviation of the SoP issued bythe district administration.

Brahmapur MP ChandraSekhar Sahu graced the eventas chief guest, whileBrahmapur MLA BikramKumar Panda, former DeputySpeaker of OLA and seniormost leader of Ganjam districtRama Chandra Panda, formerMLA Dr Ramesh ChandraChyu Pattnaik, Southern RangeDIG Satyabrat Bhoi, GanjamCollector Vijaya AmrutaKulange, Brahmapur SP PinakMishra, Brahmapur Sub-Collector Kirthivasan, BeMCCommissioner Dr SiddheswarBaliram Bonder, BJD leaderSubash Maharana, Districtvice-president of BJD SanjeetPanigrahi attended as guests ofhonour.

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Adjudicating a 15-year-oldwrit petition and after

receiving a recent report sub-mitted by the Amicus Curiae inthis matter, the Orissa HighCourt has expressed shock andconcern over the precariousconditions prevailing in variousjails of the State.

A Bench headed by ChiefJustice S Muralidhar has direct-ed all District Magistrates(DMs) to make surprise visitsto the jails in their respectivejurisdictions and submitreports detailing jail condi-tions, overcrowding, food,accommodation and recreationof inmates.

“Preferably, these visits (ofthe DMs) should be unan-nounced,” said an order passedby the High Court fixing April27 for next hearing of the peti-tion.

The State Government, inthe meantime, has been askedto arrange at least one medicalvisit to each jail and submit areport on it.

The High Court has alsosought cooperation from theOdisha State Legal Aid ServicesAuthority and the High CourtLegal Aid Services Authorityfor execution of jail reforms inthe State as suggested by theSupreme Court in its judge-ments passed in 2016 and2017.

Based on Amicus CuriaeGautam Mishra’s report of atleast five deaths of inmates inOdisha jails during the last fiveyears, the High Court hasasked the Government toinform it separately as to whatactions have been taken ineach of these custodial deaths.

The Government shall alsoinform the court by the nextdate as to what instructions ithas issued with regard to dis-continuance of handcuffingthe prisoners in jails or whilebringing them to the courts.Handcuffing the prisoners hasbeen banned by the SupremeCourt in several judgements,the High Court pointed out.

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School & Mass EducationMinister Samir Ranjan Dash

on Saturday instructed allDistrict Education Officers(DEOs) to complete the pre-board examination in March byadopting the examination pat-tern prescribed by the Board ofSecondary Education (BSE),Odisha.

“All the DEOs are instruct-ed to conduct the Matric Testexam based on the BSE patternby March-end so that the stu-dents will be familiar with theexamination pattern and theywill not face any issue whileappearing in the annual HighSchool Certificate (HSC)Examination,” Dash toldreporters after making a sur-prise visit to a Governmentschool in Puri district.

Earlier in the morning,

Dash had visited the Puri ZillaSchool for inspection. Hedirected the Puri DEO to servea show-cause notice to theHeadmistress of the school,who was absent during hisvisit, for not conducting theMatric Test examination inthe BSE-prescribed format inthe school.

He also asked the DEO tolayoff one-day salary of teach-ers, who remain absent in theschool without prior notice tothe authorities.

Last month, the BSE hadreleased HSC Exam Pattern forthe year 2021 on its officialwebsite. As per the BSE pattern,there will be two separate ques-tion papers in subjects includ-ing General Science, SocialScience based on old and newcourses for HSC candidates.

While the question papers

based on old course will bemeant for the ex-regular can-didates, the new course ques-tion will be for regular candi-dates.

The questions in othersubjects for annual HSC andSOSC Examination, 2021 willbe the same for all students cat-egory. The question papers inall subjects for MadhyamaExamination, 2021 will be thesame for different categories ofstudents.

As per the revised exampattern, the students will haveto answer questions for 80marks instead of 100 marks.However, the overall evaluationin each paper will be for 100marks.

The remaining 20 markswill be evaluated on the basisof the percentage secured by anexaminee from the given 80marks in a particular paper.

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In view of an uptick in Covid-19 cases in States like

Maharashtra and Kerala, theOdisha Government hasextended the Covid testingdeadline till April 30 fromMarch 31.

Besides, the StateGovernment has decided toramp up testing, for which sixdoctors and an official in rankof Special Secretary have beenassigned to monitor theprocess.

“Even as the Covid infec-tions are under containment inOdisha, we need to remain onalert. We want to make surethat returnees from other Statesare not infected withCoronavirus. We are discussingwith the RMRC, ILSresearchers and Directorate ofPublic Health on imposingrestrictions on movement ofreturnees,” said Health andFamily Welfare SecretaryPradipta Kumar Mohapatra.

Keeping the rise in Covidcases in mind in Maharashtraand Kerala, passengers visitingfrom five high-risk Statesincluding these two, are under-going thermal screening test inairports and railway stations.The Covid test is being con-ducted only on returnees withsymptoms. If required, otherStates can be listed in the cat-egory, he added.

So far, 10,94,952 personshave been vaccinated in theState. On Friday, 77,094 per-sons received the vaccine, ofwhich 393 healthcare workerstook the first dose and 5,698were administered the seconddose.

As many as 941 frontlineCovid warriors were vaccinat-ed with the first dose and20,753 with second dose.Similarly, 47,179 senior citizenswere given the shot on 12th dayof the third phase vaccinationprogramme with which thetotal rose to 3,00,589.

Besides, 2,940 personsabove 45 age and below 59 withcomorbidities were adminis-tered the vaccine on Friday.

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The Commissionerate policeon Saturday nabbed six

members of a gang fromBharatpur in the capital citywho looted passengers at busand train terminuses in thetwin cities of Bhubaneswarand Cuttack by spiking theirdrinks.

The arrested included theowner of a medicine store,who supplied the sedatives tothe gang members and tworeceivers of the looted goods.

Police said three goldchains weighing 40 grams, 18strips of medicines (sedatives),one motorcycle, six mobilephones were recovered fromthe gang members. The med-

icine store owner and the tworeceivers of the stolen proper-ty were subsequently arrestedafter their link with the arrest-ed accused was ascertained.

Commissioner of PoliceSaumendra Priyadarshi said,“The modus operandi of thegang was they targeted pas-sengers travelling from far-off

places to the State capital for thefirst time. They would befriendthe unsuspecting travellers anddecamp with their belongingsafter offering them spikeddrinks and food.”

Police said the SpecialSquad was on the trail of thegang after three cases of drug-ging and loot were reported inthe city within a span of fewdays. As many as 11 to12 suchcases were reported in Cuttackand Bhubaneswar in 2020.

Meanwhile, Priyadarshihas warned passengers to becareful about strangers andnot accept any food or drinkfrom them. He also warnedmedicine stores not to providesedatives without a certifieddoctor’s prescription.

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In a serious lapse, a humanskeleton was found in a

seized vehicle parked in thepremises of the Janla policeoutpost on the outskirts ofBhubaneswar on Saturday.

Following the incidentcoming to light, theCommissionerate police sus-pended Janla police outpost in-

charge Satyabrata Grahacharyafor dereliction in duty.

City DCP UmashankarDash said the skeleton was dis-covered from a vehicle seizedby the Ganjam police in con-nection with a ganja smugglingcase in 2019.

“When the Ganjam policecame to release the vehicle inFebruary, the skeleton wasfound in the vehicle aban-doned on the outpost premis-es following which we called upa scientific team for examina-tion. The skeleton was sent tothe AIIMS Bhubaneswar forpostmortem,” the DCP said.

The scientific examination

revealed that the skeleton wasof a 45-year woman and shehad died naturally. The cause ofdeath was stated to be TB

She somehow got stuck inthe vehicle and died naturally.We are trying to ascertainidentity of the deceased per-son,” the DCP added.

The disciplinary action wastaken on the grounds that hewas unaware of the incident,which occurred on the outpostpremises.

Even after clarification bythe DCP in the incident, themystery still shrouds the casewhy the police had kept thecase under wraps till now.

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Abusinessman was grievous-ly injured when some

unidentified miscreants fired ata him in Umarkote inNabarangpur district on Fridayevening.

As per sources, the busi-nessman identified as SanjibSubudhi was on his way homeafter closing his shop. All ofsudden three bike-borne mis-creants shot at him from close-range near the Punjab NationalBank branch here and fled fromthe spot. After the attack, a crit-

ically wounded Subudhi wasrushed to the UmerkoteCommunity Health Centre bythe neighbours. As his conditiondeteriorated he was shifted to theDistrict Headquarters Hospitaland later to Visakhapatnam.

His family members allegedthat a mediaperson and few per-sons with whom Subudhi hadpast enmity, were involved in theincident.However, investiga-tions into the incident by policeare ongoing.The attack onSubudhi has triggered shock-waves among the locals in theregion.

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Ayouth drowned while threeothers narrowly escaped

from watery grave in theKuakhai river at Bankuala onthe city outskirts on Saturday.

The mishap took placewhen the four friends were tak-ing bath in the water body.

On receiving information,Fire Services personnel fromBalianta rushed to the spot andlaunched a search operation.

Further details were await-ed.

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According to the ForestSurvey Institute (FSI), sev-

eral beats, reserve forests (RF),demarcated protected forests(DPF) and protected reserveforests (PRF) are devastateddue to manmade fire. Statisticsof the FSI depict that 784 firepoints were there on March 7in Rayagada district.

This came down to 289 onMarch 8, 53 on 9, 45 on 10 ,

increased to 164 on 11 , sub-sided to 101 on 12 and finallyto 20 on March 13. As there isextreme heat due to the presentsummer, the intensity of firehas been doubled.

Fortunately, because of theFAST system developed by theFSI, fire alerts are made andmessages are sent to concernedauthorities on real time basisfor quick action.

“It is unfortunate that thefire incidents are mostly man-made. The forest dependentsput fire on the fallen driedleaves and twigs to collectmahua flowers, tendu leaf,tamarind and sal seeds. In a fewpatches, tribal perform

podu(shifting or burn andslash cultivation) on rotation-al basis. Sometimes, the local

forest dwellers do it for akhandshikar (continuous hunting)and charcoal. Scores of medi-

cinal flora in all the forests andespecially in Niyamagiri hillsrange are gone," said RabindraPatakhandal, an RTI activistand State convenor of OdishaSuchana Adhikar Mancha.

District Collector SarojKumar Mishra reviewed thegrievous situation in the districtand instructed all the BDOsand Tehsildars to raise aware-ness among public and if needbe, take punitive action.

Accordingly joint opera-tions were initiated at block lev-els by respective BDOs,Tehsildars, fire officers, policeand forest rangers. Awarenessand orientation workshopswere organised for elected PRI

members, SHG leaders, VSSand NGO functionaries andother rural gentries.Monitoring visits to hotspotswere conducted by the forestofficials.In the fire points, ninespecial squads with 90 foreststaff alongwith 1,016 VSSs areengaged to put off the fire fol-lowing technical methods.

According to ACFPrabhakar Senapati, out of1,716 fire points in toto, 1,415have been attended and the fireput off till date.

DFO Aswini Kumar Kar iscoordinating all these initiativeswith the help of the ODRAFteam, which has arrivedSaturday.

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BOUDH: Three persons were arrested by the Forest Departmentpersonnel on Saturday for allegedly setting a fire at the MundeswarForest Range in Boudh district. Later, in the day the accused wereforwarded to court. Acting on a tipoff, the officials raided somelocations in the forest and located and caught red-handed theaccused, who were burning dry leaves for poaching wild animals.

Meanwhile, the Forest Department has pulled up it socks totake stringent action against those who set forest ablaze by form-ing special squads. A coordination meeting between forest officialsand district administration was held to plan strategies for the jointcrackdown.“The staffs in the zone have been split into several teamsand they are keeping a watch on fire incidents. We are taking allnecessary steps to prevent poachers from setting forests afire,” saida forest official. PNS

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Ganjam Superintendent ofPolice Brijesh Kumar Rai

and three Additional SPs werehonoured by the KurmiKhetriya Samaj at Chhatrapurin the district.

Before joining as GanjamSP, Rai had served in Rayagadadistrict where he combated theMaoist menace successfully saidpresident of the district KurmiSamaj Abhimanyu Pradhan.

The Kurmi Samaj alsopraised the SP for effectivelytackling the Covid-19 pan-

demic and wished that peaceand harmony would prevail inthe district during his tenure.

Besides, Rai three

Additional SP of the districtThakur Prasad Patro, AshokMohapatra and Bijay KumarMallick were also felicitated.

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Offline classes wouldresume in the Veer

Surendra Sai University ofTechnology (VSSUT), Burla,from March 16, informed Vice-Chancellor Bibhuti Bhusan Pation Saturday.As per a decision, the onlineclasses would be suspendedand the first year students canjoin the campus from March17.The Vice-Chancellor tookthe decision after the VSSUThas now been declared aCovid-free institution.

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The State Government hastaken a decision to change

the name of ‘Xavier University’to ‘XIM University’. A XavierUniversity, Odisha(Amendment) Bill 2021 wasmoved by Higher EducationMinister Arun Sahoo in the StateAssembly on Saturday. The Billstated that because ‘XIM’ hasmore brand value than ‘Xavier’,there is a need to utilise the

brand value.The Bill also stated that the

Xavier Institute of Management(XIM) campus situated atChandrasekharpur inBhubaneswar over 20 acres ofland would be declared as theadditional campus of ‘XIMUniversity’.

It is to be recalled that theXavier University was estab-lished on July 6, 2013 throughthe Xavier University Rules 2013framed by the Government of

Odisha.The Bill further amend-ed that the university can startonline courses and programmesunder the provisions of theUniversity Grants Commission(UGC); and from now, the StateGovernment is authorised tosuspend the highest the author-ities ‘Controlling Authority”and ‘Management Authority” incase of mismanagement, mal-administration, indiscipline orviolation of rules framed for theuniversity.

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The Cabinet CommitteeInvestment (CCI) projects

monitored under the ProjectMonitoring Group (PMG) ofthe Government of India havemade significant progressOdisha.

This was ascertained fromthe CCI PMG meeting heldunder the chairmanship ofChief Secretary Suresh

Chandra Mahapatra here onFriday.

Mahapatra resolved theground level issues that cameup on the way of the expedi-tious implementation of theprojects through detail discus-sion with the project propo-nents, departmental officersand collectors of the concerneddistricts.

The Chief Secretary direct-ed the project proponents tocomplete the projects in time asall the issues raised by themwere resolved promptly. Headded, “this joint exercise hasbeen very fruitful and there hasbeen substantial progress inimplementation of the pro-

jects.He also directed the project

proponents and concerned offi-cials to keep pace with time-lines set against different phas-es of the projects.

The committee reviewedthe progress of twenty fivemajor projects envisaging atotal investment of aroundRs.73,362 cr. These includedsixteen railway projects, twonational highway projects, twocoal mining projects of MCL,a STTP project of NTPC, arefinery and crude oil pipe lineproject of IOCL, two gaspipeline projects of GAIL anda project of Dalmia Cement.

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RP GUPTA

In 1964, the FoodCorporation of India (FCI)

was incorporated with severalobjectives such as, to maintainbuffer stock and ensure nation-al food security, to procurefood grains from the farmers atMinimum Support Price(MSP) and distribute amongthe poor as per the public dis-tribution scheme (PDS).

Successive governmentshave subsidised farm inputsand provided cheaper bankcredits. The farmers have alsoresponded to such policies andmade India self-sufficient infood; that needs applause.

Somehow, the averageincome of farmers is miserablylow compared to other personswho are engaged in the indus-try and service sectors. This is

mainly due to low sale prices atfarm gates and the surplusproduction of food grains. Fewfarmers get a MSP. This helpsthem survive.

In general, there is peren-nial distress among framerscausing suicide and agitations.Here, we are not discussingabout perishable agri-producefor which separate policy isneeded.

So far, India has kept thefood price under check for pro-tecting the poor and middleclass. Hence, the rich class alsoenjoyed cheaper prices of foodgrain compared to peernations. In a sequel, the pover-ty among farmers has aggra-vated. The question arises; whyshould the poor farmer sub-sidise the rich class by sellingits produce below MSP?

If the entire food grain issold at MSP, the farmer’s dis-tress can be almost resolved.Currently, Union Government,in the Financial Year 2020-21,procured barely 26 per cent (byvalue) food grain under MSPout of the total 22 crops eligi-ble for MSP. This might bebelow 15% of all crops. Evenwith such low-level procure-

ment, currently, unsold stockwith Food Corporation of India(FCI) is about 32.0 milliontonnes (excluding 24.0 milliontonnes with states) and the debtof FCI has exceeded Rs 4.0 lakhcrore incurring interest andstorage cost.

Hence, it is not feasible forthe government to buy entireproduction and hence; thetrade channel must be pro-moted. For this, the marketprice must be economicallyviable after meeting the cost oftransport and storage. More so,the farmers don’t have bar-gaining power with trade chan-nels without government sup-port. Allowing farmers foropen market sale and legalbinding of MSP on trade chan-nels are incomplete and unvi-able solutions.

Considering complexity,the role of FCI should be mod-ified in totality, as discussedbelow. By which, the farmerswill sell the entire producealmost at MSP. After stabilisa-tion, the farmers might get ahigher price than MSP. The fis-cal and debt burden on theGovernment and FCI shallreduce except during initial

years. More so, another privatemandi, as proposed in the newlaw may not be needed.

�The buffer stock limitwith FCI may be reduced to 20-25% of the public distributionsystem (PDS) requirement. Asper demand, part stock may besold in the open market.Balance may be exporteddirectly or through trade chan-nels and processing industries.While exporting, the loss toFCI and trade channels may becompensated through need-based export incentive. By this,the debt of FCI shall reduce andthe storage capacity shall beavailable for fresh arrival ofcrops. More so, trade channelsshall also participate.

� Considering the hugedifference between PDS andmarket prices, the PDS pricemust be gradually increased.Such a large difference is caus-ing leakages and the PDS quan-tity is diverted into the marketwhich artificially reduces mar-ket price. For arresting leak-ages, it is better to adopt “directcash transfer.” The targetedbeneficiary must be restrictedto poor and marginal classwhich might be maximum

40% of the total population. Bythis, the food subsidy bill shallbe moderated.

�During crop arrival sea-son, the trade channel andprocessing industries may bepursued to purchase food grainstock brought by farmers inAPMC mandis. FCI mustassist for such sale transactionsthrough auction. The floorprice may be kept at about 93-95 per cent of MSP. FCI shouldfix quality standards and pro-vide testing facility to avoid anyarbitrary deduction on qualityground by purchasers.

�Unsold stock must beessentially stored by FCI and a“Goods Receipt” (GR) may beissued to farmers mentioningthe quantity, quality and loanamount. The validity period ofsuch GR may be 5-6 months.FCI shall extend loan to farm-ers up to 90% of stock value atMSP price. Same can be refi-nanced by banks to FCI atStatutory Liquidity Ratio (SLR)rate. Currently, in absence ofsuch stocking facilities, thefarmer is compelled to sell itsproduce at distress price totrade channels.

�GR must be transferable

and tradable in the open mar-ket, e-NAM and Commodityexchange. For which, FCI mustassist and charge a nominal feeof 0.5% on sale value. Theinterest and storage chargesmay be levied maximum 9%per annum on the stock valuewhich may be recovered fromthe ultimate buyer duringdelivery of goods. Balancemoney may be remitted tofarmers. This will eliminateinterest and storage cost of FCI.

�In general, the price offood grain will increase aftercrop arrival season till the nextcrop arrives in mandis. Thus,farmers shall get better pricesafter storage, as done by thetrade channel. With prior con-sent of farmers, FCI may alsopurchase stock at MSP as perthe needs of PDS scheme. Bythis, FCI need not keep sepa-rate buffer stock, as done now.Hence, it will reduce the debtburden on FCI.

�In case, the stock is notsold by farmers within thevalidity period of GR, they shalllose selling rights and it shall bedeemed sale to FCI at MSP.FCI shall remit balance moneyafter adjusting debt, interest

and storage charges.�No doubt, with the above

arrangement, the farmersmight get about 95 prices ofMSP but they will be protect-ed from selling at a distressprice. With the active market-ing role of FCI, after one year,there are bright chances for get-ting higher prices to farm-ers.FCI shall also be benefitedsince; its debt burden and stor-age cost shall reduce. Rather,it might earn gross profit.

�For availing benefit by allfarmers across the nation, FCIshould increase the network ofmandis and storage capacity. Itshould also build marketinginfrastructures. More so, itmust disseminate marketinformation to farmers.

� Intermittently, the stockwith FCI might increase due toexcess production or poor mar-ket demand. In such a situation,it must quickly export directlyor through trade channels. Thegovernment must encourageexport and be liberal for givingneed-based export incentives tocompensate for loss of FCI andtrade channel and processingindustries.

Simultaneously, India must

promote food grain processingindustries near to FCIgodown.FCI should sharelogistic infrastructure with pro-cessing industries and tradechannels for exports andonward marketing. A teamspirit between FCI,Government, industries,traders and farmers will cer-tainly deliver the desired out-come.

Currently, India must pro-vide relief to farmers from theprolonged sufferings.Subsequently, the productioncost of agro-produce must bereduced through investment ininfrastructure and technology.

Farmers may be also pur-sued for crop diversion; thatwill reduce Agro-imports andenhance income. Also, the pol-icy may be framed for perish-able produce for the overallgrowth of Agro-sector. Indiashould also develop entrepre-neurial skills of farmers; thatwill fetch rural prosperity.

(The writer is a leadingcolumnist and author ofbooks ‘Turn Around India,’ ‘Jan-Andolan’ and ‘ TurnAround India-2020’)

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Ataskforce committee wasformed in joint collabora-

tion of Unicef and Action Aidto check child marriage in thedistrict. The performance ofthe taskforce was reviewed bydistrict Collector KandhamalDr Brunda D.

The Collector was dissatis-fied as the information collect-ed by the taskforce in the pan-chayat and block level had notreached the DSWO. SubCollector Kandhamal DevendraKumar Nanda defined themeaning of single parent sothat the Government can helpthe helpless child. The Collectordirected the DEO to display artin walls of each school of thedistrict giving a message of no

to child marriage.In the meeting, 298 villages

were declared as child marriagefree. The district level officials,supervisors, childline repre-

sentatives and child protectionofficers were present. BesidesDSWO Manaswini Mishra andAction Aid coordinatorSwatitanaya Mishra attended.

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Apublic hearing for expan-sion of Rungta Mines

Limited's Kamanda Steel Plantwas held on March 9 atMundasahi Anganwadi Centreplay ground of Koira blockunder Sundargarh district.

At the beginning steel plantchief general manager PranayDeo appraised the publicregarding the impacts and rem-edy of the project. He also saidwith the expansion of the plantthe peripheral developmentworks will be expedited further.

The villagers urged the

plant management for localemployment, drinking waterfacilities, electricity, ambulanceservices, development of roadand playground, more planta-tions, engagement of moreteachers in village schools,construction of bus stand atKusumdihi etc.

The management agreed tofulfil the demands and theexpansion proposal got publicnod.

Among others, SundargarhADM Biswajit Mohapatra,Bonai Sub collector PradipDang, Rourkela PollutionControl Office head DrPrakash Kumar Mohapatra,Scientist Deepak Wahoo, otherblock officials, steel plantadministration head RamuAgarwal, logistic head BB Patel,villagers and local politicalleaders were present.

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The Cuttack Chapter ofOdisha Union of Working

Journalists affiliated to theIndian Journalists Union, NewDelhi held its2021 Annual Dayat Phulnakhara. Joining as theinaugurator of the event andchief guest, noted writer PadmaShri Pratibha Ray opined thatjournalists are like the teachersof the society.

They show the real pathand thereby contribute a greatdeal to the society.

President of Cuttack Unionof Journalists Lalit Kumar Dashpresided over the programme.Chief speaker retired IPSOfficer and former AdditionalDirector General of PoliceArun Kumar Upadhyay in hisaddress stated the relationshipamong the Press, police and

public.Noted Indo-Anglican poet

Raju Samal called for characterbuilding of all these threestake-holders in order to createa healthy society.

Guest of Honour and pres-ident of Odisha Union ofWorking Journalists Sugyan

Choudhury maintained thatthe job of the mediapersons isto create an enlightened pub-lic opinion for a sustainabledemocracy.

Secretary of the associationPabitra Kumar Patra presenteda brief annual report earlier. Inthis context, noted personalitieslike the Director of SVNIRTAR(Swami Vivekananda NationalInstitute of Rehabilitation andResearch) Dr Shakti PrasadDas, Dr Chittaranjan Mishra,Dr Adhiraj Parida, BharataMasala enterpriser SurendraNath Panda, Ganesh PrasadDas, Biman Bihari Behera,Manoj Kumar Nayak, ErPradeep Kumar Behera andDeben Roy were felicitated.

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The residents of Sambalpurare much aggrieved over a

decision of the Railways toclose the Fatak Rail Station sit-uated in the heart of the cityand catering to the needs of 70per cent of users.

Notably, the people of theregion have got an emotionalattachment with the station asthe father of the nationMahatma Gandhi had gotdown here to address meetingsduring the freedom movement.

And it has got a long his-tory of 126 years of existencefrom 1884 under the BengalNagpur Railway (BNR) when itstarted operating during theBritish India.

An attempt was made ear-lier in the year 2007 to close thestation on the plea of doublingof lines and shortage of space.

But it couldn’t be success-ful due to strong interference ofthe then administration andprotest by public. The thenRDC MS Padhi, Collector LNNayak and sub collector KCSahu told railway officials herethat the Railways has sufficientlands on both sides which have

been encroached by differentpeople as it remained unusedfor a century.

Upon a fresh decision ofthe Railways to close it againand issue of a letter under thesignature of SanjayaMahapatra, Chief Transportand Planning Manager, EcoRailway Bhubaneswar, that thestation is closed, people hereare preparing for agitation.

“We will never allow it tohappen. This is free India andnever British India that theGovernment will take an anti-people decision without con-sulting the people. We willfight it tooth and nail,” warnedpresident of the ActionCommittee of lawyers, PradeepBahidar.

“Why is the Railways notusing its encroached land andmodern technology like doubletier system as used in othercities of the country includingBhubaneswar,” Bahidar asked.

Sureswar Mishra,Gaurishankar Dash,Jayashankar Mishra, MahendraMishra of Nagarika KalyanSamity, Subash Panigrahi, pres-ident of Rail users Forum,Bhupen Sahu of APP,Siddhartha Das of BJD andmany others warned theRailways to refrain from suchdictatorial decision.

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Additional Registrar ofCooperative Societies

(ARCS) Sarat ChandraPanigrahi on Tuesday suspend-ed the secretaries of JadupurPAC and Ameipal PAC, who arehusband and wife, for theiralleged involvement in sellingpaddy to black market on thetoken of farmers.The duo sus-pended have been identified asAjitbandhu Samantaray and hiswife , Miyanka Beura.

According to officialsources, the matter has come tothe fore about the nexus of duowith paddy traders as oneSarojkant Behera, a farmer of

Ameipal , came to know thatpaddy had been sold on histoken and money had beenwithdrawn without his knowl-edge,when he came to providehis paddy to the PAC onFebruary 24.

Behera lodged a complaintbefore the district Collector inthis regard. Acting on directionof the Collector, the ARCS con-ducted a probe and the duo sec-retaries were found guilty in theinquiry.

“ The district Collectordirected me to place the duohusband and wife under sus-pension for their alleged involve-ment in corruption and negli-gence in duty," added Panigrahi.

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Adispute over car parking inan apartment complex in

Baleswar led to firing onSaturday evening, in which a42-year-old man received bul-let injuries and was referred tothe SCB Medical College

Hospital in Cuttack.The victim was identified

as Anand Singh, owner of anelectronic gadgets outlet,Ananda Construction.

He was allegedly shot byone Laxman Behera with hislicensed pistol.

Reports said both accusedand victim were residing in the

multi-storied residential com-plex. A heated altercationbetween them over the carparking resulted in the inci-dent.

The Town police rushed tothe spot and took the accusedinto custody and shifted theinjured to hospital. Furtherinvestigation was on.

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The State Pollution ControlBoard on Thursday, in a

letter to the CollectorSundargarh and theCommissioner, RourkelaMunicipal Corporation,expressed its concern over sud-den rise in air pollution level inRourkela city.

It also served a nine-pointadvisory to bring an improve-ment in the situation.

Significantly, on March 8,the Air Quality Index (AQI) of

Rourkela city was recorded ashigh as 526, which is consid-ered as severe condition.

The same however hascome down to as low as 342,which is considered as moder-ate to poor condition, since 100is the ideal for a city likeRourkela. Sources said, thepeople of Rourkela reportedlyhad experienced eye burningexperience on March 8 and hadcomplained with the regionaloffice of SPCB, Rourkela.

On the reports of regionaloffice of SPCB Rourkela,Member Secretary SPCBOdisha had sent a letter to theSundargarh Collector and theCommissioner of RourkelaMunicipal Corporation,

regarding the alarming the sit-uation.

The SPCB in its letteradvised various measures likecleaning of road and watersprinkling on major roads,adequate cleaning and watersprinkling on approach road ofrailway siding, strict vigilanceon high polluting vehicles,ensuring no garbage burning,no outdoor sports activity inschools and colleges andrestriction and regulation onair polluting industries etc.

The officials of SPCBRourkela however maintainedthat they were closely moni-toring the development relatedto Air Quality Index of the city.

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Haryana State WomenCommission has sought

an explanation from Congressleader Bhupinder Singh Hoodafor riding a tractor that waspulled by his party's womenlegislators to protest the rise infuel prices earlier this week.

Commission chairperson(officiating) Preeti Bhardwajshot off a letter to Hooda, whois the Leader of the Oppositionin the Haryana Assembly, cit-ing news reports.

Hooda on Monday rode atractor pulled by party legisla-tors on the way to the stateAssembly here to protest therise in fuel prices. Mondayhappened to be InternationalWomen''s Day and on the occa-sion, women MLAs fromacross parties had presidedover the day''s proceedings inthe Haryana Assembly. Hoodaalong with some party legisla-tors sat on the tractor whilesome other Congress MLAspulled the tractor with ropes.

Haryana Chief MinisterManohar Lal Khattar hadexpressed his anguish over theincident and said in theAssembly, "This treatment towomen MLAs was worse thanbonded labour." As known to

the whole world, the day is cel-ebrated as InternationalWomen''s Day and the occasionshocked the entire nation,Bhardwaj wrote in the letter.

Seeking a “strict writtenexplanation” from Hooda with-in three days (by Sunday),Bhardwaj wrote why strictpenal action under relevantprovisions of law may not betaken against him. In thecommunication, she wrote,"What is important to under-stand here is the fact that thisact was committed with theulterior motive and intention toharm, disrespect and strip thedignity of women on Women''sDay itself."

"You have committed anact of gendered political vio-lence with the motive to water-shed the relevance of all eventsplanned for March 8 Women''sDay.

Sadly, you chose women tocommit this undignified anddisrespectful act that hashanged the heads of one andall, irrespective of gender orparty or any affiliations, inshame…You chose to chal-lenge our existence—aswomen,” she wrote.

Bhardwaj alleged thatHooda chose to challengewomen MLAs of Haryana “by

attempting to strip them oftheir joy and pride as presidingofficers" in the HaryanaAssembly. You chose to chal-lenge the head of the govern-ment–chief minister ofHaryana--who was over-whelmed while making a pointregarding the context of thisincident next day before thewhole strength of theLegislative Assembly, she said.

She further added, “Youchose to challenge and youmanaged to play with the emo-tional connection that eachperson has with women intheir lives – as grandmother, asmother, as daughter, as wife, asniece, as colleague, as partyworker, as neighbour and aGoddess, too.”

One of the MLAs who hadpulled the tractor , ShakuntalaKhatak, had on Thursdayasserted that she never con-sidered herself less than menand accused the BJP of "play-ing dirty politics" over thematter. "This is our internalmatter. When I am not com-plaining, why do they have aproblem?

He (Hooda) is my leader,he is like my father. If I have topush a truck, I will do that too,"Khatak had told reporters here.

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Chandigarh: The Covid-19 pandemic continues to spread its ten-tacles in what many say is the second wave, claiming 22 morelives in Punjab on Saturday, raising the death toll due to the dis-ease to 6,052 in the State.The infection count too climbed to1,96,263 with 1,515 fresh coronavirus cases reported in the State,a medical bulletin said. The total number of active cases in theState is 10,916.Punjab’s total eight districts have come under ‘nightcurfew’ rule with the Districts Administration of Mohali andFatehgarh Sahib also ordering re-imposition of clampdown fromthe night of March 12. Already, night curfew is in place from11 pm to 5 am in Ludhiana, Patiala, Jalandhar, Nawanshahr,Kapurthala, and Hoshiarpur districts. PNS

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Page 5:  · 2021. 3. 13. · the number of adverse events (in India) is very, ... Free computer tablets with data card for students, ... DGCA said. In a circular, the DGCA

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The Election Commission(EC) has sought more

details on West Bengal ChiefMinister and TrinamoolCongress leader MamataBanerjee’s alleged attack inci-dent, saying that the reportsubmitted by State chief sec-retary on her injuries wassketchy and not comprehensiveenough.

The EC has asked Statechief secretary AlapanBandyopadhyay to furnishmore details to elaborate on theincident further. On the hand,the special observers in theirreport has ruled the possibili-ty that the injury was the resultof an attack. Stating that thereis no evidence of an attack onCM’s convoy, the their reportsaid she was in the midst ofheavy police cover at the timeof the incident.

“The report submitted bythe West Bengal Governmentappeared to be quite sketchyand without any details of theincident like how it happenedor who could be behind it,” anofficials of the EC. Meanwhile,the EC special observers havesought another day to submittheir report, which has been

allowed by the poll body.Meanwhile, in a report to

the EC, West Bengal ChiefSecretary AlapanBandyopadhyay reported tohave stated that injury to ChiefMinister Mamata Banerjee’sleg in Nandigram was causeddue to the car door but thereport does not clearly men-tion what led to the doorslamming on MamataBanerjee’s leg.

In addition, the ChiefSecretary’s report also mentionsthat a massive crowd had gath-ered on the road in Nandigramwhen the incident took place onMarch 10.On the other hand,the report does say that an ironpole was not far from CMMamata Banerjee’s car but doesnot clearly say if the door of thevehicles closed on her leg afterbrushing against the pole. Thereport also mentioned thatthere was no clear footage avail-able of the spot where the inci-dent took place from anywherein the vicinity,

Following the incident, theElection Commission hadasked Chief Secretary AlapanBandyopadhyay, specialobserver Ajay Nayak and spe-cial police observer VivekDube to submit a report byFriday evening.

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Rajya Sabha Chairman MVenkaiah Naidu on

Saturday offered 12 tips to thenewly elected members of theHouse to make a difference inHouse proceedings and nationbuilding by becoming effec-tive Parliamentarians.

He counselled the mem-bers on their conduct bothwithin and outside the Housewhile inaugurating a two-dayorientation programme forthe newly-elected members ofRajya Sabha.

Naidu stressed that criti-cism of the Governmentshould be informed and cred-ible, instead of being just forthe record.

“The Opposition has theright to crit icise theGovernment. In fact, it istheir duty. But the criticismshould be informed so that itlooks credible. Opposingever y move of theGovernment for the sake ofrecord dents its credibility.The quality of criticism shouldreally sting the Government ofthe day and catch the eye ofthe media and the people,”Naidu said.

Urging the members toacquire deep knowledge of thestate of the nation to makeeffective contributions to itstransformation, Naidu said: “Itis also your duty to ensure andfurther strengthen the unityand inclusivity of our multi-cultural society by checkmat-ing the attempts to createdivisions based on caste,colour, region and religion.Each one of you must emergeas the spokesperson of theaspiring, emergent, capable,resilient and united India.”

He also cautioned themembers about the attemptsto block the progress of thecountry, the voice of which isfinding an echo in the global

order in the form of distur-bances along the boundaries,misplaced criticism of thecountry based on some spo-radic incidents, discreditingIndia’s democracy, economicrestrictions, cross- border ter-ror etc. and urged them toeffectively checkmate suchattempts in every forum.

Naidu reminded themembers of their solemn dutyto defend the integrity andsovereignty of India by beingalert all the time about thethreats facing the country.

Elaborating on the chal-lenges of time management inthe House, Naidu assertedthat what is important is notthe length of the interven-tions, but the content and theperspectives presented.

He urged the members tobe specific and avoid repeti-tions which even kill mediainterest. He suggested themembers to avoid givingnotices as a matter of routinelike the notices under Rule

267 for suspension of thebusiness of the day.

The Rajya SabhaChairman urged the membersto develop in depth knowl-edge of issues being taken upin the House so as not to begeneral and vague in theirinterventions when complexissues with wider implica-tions are discussed.

Expressing concern overthe rising ‘negative perceptionquotient’ among the publicabout the functioning of thelegislatures in the country,Naidu urged the members toabide by the elaborate rules ofprocedure and conventionsof the House evolved over theyears to enable its smoothfunctioning.

“These rules provide forevery contingency. Duringmy 20 years in the RajyaSabha and three-and-a-halfyears as its Chairman, I havenever witnessed a situationwhen inadequacy of Ruleswas felt in addressing proce-dural matters in the House,”he said.

Stating that the membershave the right to seek their duein the House as per the rulesand conventions, and that thepresiding officers are theircustodians, Naidu said that itis in the interest of the mem-bers and of the House toabide by the decision of theChair in the end.

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The EnforcementDirectorate (ED) has

attached properties worth�55.57 crore in a case of cheat-ing the investors dishonestlyacross Jharkhand and otherStates by real estate firmSanjeevani Buildcon Pvt. Ltd.(SBPL).

The accused company usedto receive payments from thegullible investors in the nameof giving them plots of land.

“The attached assetsinclude 98 immovable proper-ties situated at Ranchi,Jharkhand and three commer-cial shops at Raipur as well asbank balances in the form offixed deposits in the name ofSanjeevani Buildcon Pvt. Ltd.and its directors and their rel-atives Jayant Dayal Nandy, hiswife Anita Dayal Nand, anoth-er director Shyam KishoreGupta and Ranjana Shrivastav,wife of one of the directorsPrakash Prasad Lala,” the EDsaid in a statement. .

The ED initiated investi-gation on the basis of FIR reg-istered by CBI, Ranchi andchargesheet against SanjeevaniBuildcon Pvt. Ltd. and others.

The ED investigation hasrevealed that SBPL and itsdirectors cheated a large num-ber of people of Jharkhand byinducing them by way of pub-lication of misleading adver-tisements through variousmedia channels and publiccanvassing which resulted intoreceipt of payments from theinvestors through cheque/cashtowards purported sale of plotsof land/constructed house, itsaid.

The directors of the com-pany had opened a large num-ber of bank accounts in the

name of company as well as intheir name for the purpose oflaundering of such funds. Alarge part of proceeds of crimewas also withdrawn in cash bythe accused persons fordepositing the same in theirpersonal accounts which wasfurther projected as untainted,it said.

The ED had earlierattached assets worth �3.10crore in the name of SBPL andits directors which was subse-quently confirmed by PMLAAdjudicating Authority.

During the course of inves-tigation, one of its directorsShyam Kishore Gupta wasarrested on March 12, 2020.Prosecution Complaint(chargesheet) was filed beforethe PMLA Special Courtagainst eight accused per-sons/entities.

Look Out Circular has alsobeen issued by ED against theabsconding accused JayantDayal Nand who was thealleged master mind of thisscam.

Further investigation inthis case is under progress, itadded.

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The CPI(M) polit bureau onSaturday termed the

Supreme Court’s re-examina-tion of Places of Worship Act,1991 as “unfortunate” and urgedthe Government not to supportthe petition. The Left partywas responding to the petitionfiled by BJP leader AshwaniUpadhyay and the apex courtseeking Centre’s response.

“It is unfortunate that theSupreme Court has opened theway for a re-examination of thePlaces of Worship (SpecialProvision) Act, 1991. The Actmandates that the character ofall religious places of worshipshould be maintained as it wason August 15, 1947, and no suitor proceedings shall lie in acourt of law with respect to thecharacter of places of worship.This effectively barred courtsfrom entertaining cases whichraise disputes over places ofworship that existed as ofAugust 15, 1947. The law fur-ther provided that such casesalready pending in courts wouldstand abated,” said CPI(M) in astatement.

“The Act, however, grantedan exception for the BabriMasjid/Ramjanmabhoomi siteat Ayodhya, which was thenunder dispute. While invokingthis exemption, the SupremeCourt in the 2019 Ayodhya ver-dict reaffirmed that similarsuch cases cannot be enter-tained with respect to other sitesin view of this Act.

The Polit Bureau of theCPI(M) reaffirms that thegrounds on which this law wasenacted need not be re-exam-ined. The Central Governmentmust respond to the SupremeCourt seeking its views in a firmaffirmation of the Places ofWorship Act, 1991,” saidCPI(M).

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India on Saturday recorded24,882 fresh Covid-19 infec-

tions, the highest so far thisyear, taking the tally to1,13,33,728, according to theUnion Health Ministry data.This is also the highest dailyrise in the last 83 days. Asmany as 26,624 new infectionswere recorded on December20.

Maharashtra, Kerala,Punjab, Karnataka, Gujarat,Tamil Nadu and MadhyaPradesh reported 87.72% ofthe new cases in the last 24hours. Maharashtra accountsfor 63.57 per cent of India’stotal active cases.

This is the fourth timethat the country’s single-daycases have crossed the 20,000-mark this year. The activecases also soared to 202,022,after a downward trend since

January 20, as 4,785 new caseswere added in the last 24hours, comprising 1.74% ofthe total cases seen so far. Thefirst two instances of a spikein active cases were seen in thefirst week of January when thefirst wave of Covid cases wasreceding, followed by a thirdrise on March 11.

At least 140 deaths were

reported in the last 24 hours.The surge in Covid-19

cases reported on Saturday isalmost 7 per cent higher thanthe previous day’s number.Data also showed that 19,957people were cured of the coro-navirus disease in the last 24hours, taking the recoveries to 10,973,260 so farand the national recovery rate

to 96.81%.After witnessing a reduced

number of cases in the last fewmonths, the infections haveonce again spiked in severalparts of the country.

In a bid to combat theinfection spread, the StateGovernments l ikeMaharashtra have imple-mented restrict ions andpushed the Covid-19 vacci-nation drive in the countrywith full force.

The Centre said2,82,18,457 vaccine doses havebeen administered so far, with20,53,537 doses given in thelast 24 hours.

The Government has beenasking the people to not takethe virus for granted. “It cancome up unexpectedly. If wehave to remain free of thisvirus, Covid-appropriatebehaviour, containment strat-egy as well as vaccination has to be broughtin,” said an official from theMinistry.

He advised that in dis-tricts where Covid-19 casesare seemingly on the rise,vaccination of eligible indi-viduals should be intensifiedand prioritised.

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The Supreme Court havingleft with only one woman

judge is “deeply worrying” andmust promptly receive seriousintrospection, apex court judge,Justice D Y Chandrachud, saidon Saturday.

Justice Chandrachud wasspeaking at a farewell ceremo-ny organised by the SupremeCourt Young Lawyers Forumto honour Justice InduMalhotra, who was the firstwoman lawyer to be appoint-ed directly as a judge of theSupreme Court, retires fromthe apex court on Saturday.

“Justice Malhotra’’s retire-ment means that the SC nowhas only one female judge onthe Bench. As an institution,I find that this is a deeply wor-

rying fact and must prompt-ly receive serious introspec-tion,” Justice Chandrachudsaid.

He said that “as an insti-tution whose decision shapeand impact lives of everydayIndian, we must do better”.

“We must ensure thediversity of our country findreflection in making up of ourcourt. Intrinsically having amore diverse judiciary is anend, a goal in itself and worthpursuing in its own sake.

“Instrumentally, having a

more diverse judiciar y,ensured diversity of perspec-tives is fairly considered,instills high degree of publicconfidence,” he said.

He said that it wasrequired that stories such asJustice Malhotra become morecommon place.

“As members of legal fra-ternity we do our bit to ensurethat it doesn’’t remain as hardas it was for Justice Malhotrafor women to climb upperechelons of our profession,” hesaid.

Speaking at the occasion,Justice Malhotra said that fora lawyer it was important toconduct yourself with highdegree of professionalism.

“You must be properlyattired, professionally at alltimes and be punctual in yourengagements. One issue Iflagged when I was called bywomen lawyers to Bar roomafter becoming a judge, I saidplease don’’t wear fashion-able clothes, which you mustkeep for the evening and notwhile you are at work.

“You must be profession-ally dressed as that’’s how youwill be perceived by yourclients, your colleagues, andthe Bench. Second, you mustlearn to draft in clear and con-cise manner,” she said.

In her farewell speech onWednesday, she said that theverdict delivered by the apexcourt decriminalising con-sensual gay sex was the “mostmoving moment” as the emo-tions that swept the court-room at that time was quiteoverwhelming.

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Prime Minister NarendraModi and Sri Lankan

President Gotabaya Rajapaksahad a telephonic conversationon Saturday during which theyreviewed topical developmentsas well as ongoing cooperationbetween both the countries inbilateral and multilateralforums.

The two leaders agreed tomaintain regular contactbetween relevant officials,including in the context of thecontinuing COVID-19 chal-lenges, a Prime Minister’sOffice statement (PMO) said.

The leaders reviewed top-ical developments and theongoing cooperation betweenboth the countries in bilateraland multilateral forums, itsaid.

During the call, PrimeMinister Modi reiterated theimportance of Sri Lanka toIndia’s Neighbourhood Firstpolicy, the PMO said.

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The Ministry of Jal Shakti onSaturday launched a frame-

work and guidelines for testing,monitoring and surveillance ofdrinking water quality as wellas a Water Quality InformationManagement System(WQMIS), an online portalthat provides detailed infor-mation on laboratories for thispurpose.

The guidelines specifywork to be done in terms ofsurveillance and monitoring atthe state, district, block/tehsiland village levels.

The basic water qualityparameters prescribed underthe guidelines are pH value,total dissolved solids, turbidi-ty, chloride, total alkalinity,total hardness, sulphate, iron,total arsenic, fluoride, nitrate,total coliform bacteria, e.Coil orthermo-tolerant coliform bac-teria.

The guidelines have beenprepared in consultation withthe Indian Council of MedicalResearch (ICMR).

Jal Shakti MinisterGajendra Singh Shekhawat toldreporters that the aim of the JalJeevan Mission is to providefunctional tap water connec-

tions by 2024 to all rural house-holds and water quality is animportant aspect of it.

He said the total cost of theJal Jeevan Mission is �3,60,000crore and 2 per cent of it hasbeen dedicated to the quality ofwater.

According to a 2018assessment by the CentralGround Water Board, 52 percent of all the blocks in thecountry have inter alia any oneof the geogenic contaminantslike arsenic, chloride, fluo-ride, iron, nitrate and salinity.

Nearly 20 States in Indiahave drinking water sourcecontaminated with arsenic,

fluoride, nitrate, iron, salinityor heavy metals.

Apart from these, there are61 priority districts across fivestates identified by theMinistry of Health and FamilyWelfare which are affected byJapanese Encephalitis - AcuteEncephalitis Syndrome (JE-AES).

Bharat Lal, AdditionalSecretary and Mission Directorof National Jeevan Mission,said the purpose of the exerciseis to instil a sense of confidence about water qual-ity and people can also testwater quality.

He added that a databaseof 2,200 laboratories across thecountry has been prepared sothat water quality can be test-ed. All the laboratories havebeen accredited by NationalAccreditation Board forTesting and CalibrationLaboratories.

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Congress leader RahulGandhi on Saturday asked

how did businessman GautamAdani manage to increase hiswealth by 50 per cent whileeveryone else was strugglingbecause of the Covid-19 pan-demic.

His remarks come after anew report said that Adaniadded USD 16.2 billion to hiswealth taking his net worth toUSD 50 billion in 2021, morethan anyone else in the world.

Tagging the news reportin a tweet, Gandhi asked,“How much did your wealthincrease in 2020? Zero. Youstruggle to survive while hemakes Rs 12 lakh crore andincreases his wealth by 50 percent. Can you tell me why?”

With the biggest wealthsurge, Adani has beatenAmazon founder and CEOJeff Bezos and Tesla CEOElon Musk, according to thereport.

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In the run up to theInternational Yoga Day to be

held on June 21, 2021, a stringof programmes are plannedacross the country including athree-day Yoga Mahotsav in sixcities— Ahmedabad, Itanagar,New Delhi, Bhopal, Panjimand Leh from April 9.

The event will have theparticipation of various yogastakeholders and yoga masters.The preparation is going onwith coordination with respec-tive States, said Kiren Rijiju,Minister of State (IC), YouthAffairs and Sports and addi-tional Charge MoS(IC)AYUSH l after launching the100 days’ countdown to 7thIDY at an event here.

Calling Yoga, a soft powerwhich has given India a uniquerecognition before the inter-national fraternity, the Ministersaid that it has vast potential foremployment opportunities,especially after the declarationof Yogasana as a competitivesport.

All the young students pre-sent during the function andthose who are watching onlineto practice Yoga should takepart in Yogasans sports, said

the Minister while PK Pathak,Additional Secretary (Ayush)said that Yoga has played animportant role in enhancingthe immunity of the humanbody and hence useful in man-agement of Covid-19.

Dr IV Basavaraddi,Director Morar j i DesaiNational Institute of Yoga(MDNIY) talked in detailabout how at the initiative ofIndia, the United NationGeneral Assembly declared21st June as InternationalDay of Yoga. “UNESCO rec-ognized Yoga as an intangiblecultural heritage of humani-ty and Yogasana declared as acompetitive sport. These ini-tiatives resulted in exponen-

tial growth in Yoga promotionsince 2014,” he said.

Later, the Ministerlaunched the edition of YogaVijnana a Bi-annual researchjournal of MDNIY, containinguseful scientific research arti-cles and traditional knowl-edge about Yoga Shastra,being published for the ben-efit of Yoga professionals.

The Minister a lsolaunched Yoga Re-orienta-tion training programme forYoga Instructors of Leh-Ladakh undertaken byMDNIY.

A Yoga Fusion perfor-mance, by a group of students,was also made during theprogramme.

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Kolkata: Chief EconomicAd v i s o r K r i s h n a m u r t hySubramanian on Saturday hassaid that the country requiresgrowth at this juncture, evenwith economic tradeoffs, as itaspires to increase its domi-nance and self- reliance in theglobal economy.

Subramanian’s commentcomes ahead of the revision ofpolicy framework and inflationtargets by the Monetary PolicyCommittee headed by the RBIgovernor by March 31.It will be the first review for RBIsince it was tasked with a man-dated inflation target of 4 percent with a 2 per cent deviationeither way in June 2016, whenit adopted a flexible inflationtargeting model.At this juncture we must focuson growth and when it comesto pressures for trade-offs, wemust be leaning on growth,Subramanian said at a virtualannual regional meeting of theCII, Eastern Region.

PTI

Mumbai:To create employa-bility and employment oppor-tunities, there is a need tofocus on new age skills and stepup the momentum of skilling,Union Minister for SkillDevelopment andEntrepreneurship MahendraNath Pandey said on Saturday.

The minister said that toachieve these objectives, train-ers need to be updated on newtechnologies. Pandey wasspeaking at the inauguration ofL&T’s Skill Trainers Academy(STA) in Mumbai. He saidL&T’s STA supports short-term skill training through awide network of trainingproviders and district nodalskill centres called PradhanMantri Kaushal Kendra. PTI

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India’s financial technologycompanies are poised to

become three times as valuablein the next five years, reachinga valuation of USD 150-160billion by 2025, according to areport.

The report unveiled onSaturday details the findingsfrom the study that BostonConsulting Group (BCG) andFICCI undertook to size thevalue-creation potential andidentify imperatives for India’sFinTech growth.

“India is strongly poised torealise a FinTech sector valua-tion of USD 150-160 billion by2025, translating to an incre-mental value-creation potentialof approximately USD 100 bil-lion. It is estimated that to meet

this ambition,India’s FinTechsector will needinvestments ofUSD 20-25 bil-lion over thenext five years,”says the report.

India’sd y n a m i cFinTech indus-try has over2,100 FinTechs of which 67 percent have been set up over thelast 5 years alone. The total val-uation of the industry is esti-mated at USD 50-60 billion.

The industry’s growth hasbeen undeterred by the pan-demic, as it has seen the emer-gence of three new Unicornsand five new Soonicorns (USD500 mn+ valuation) sinceJanuary 2020.

Prateek Roongta,Managing Director andPartner, Boston ConsultingGroup India said, “We believeIndia’s FinTechs are at theprecipice of significant value-creation of USD 100 billionover the next five years. Toactualise this potential, theindustry would require invest-ments to the tune of USD 20-25 billion till 2025.Consequently, the number ofIndian FinTech Unicorns willmore than double over thenext few years.”

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The Government depart-ments will not be able to

renew registration of their vehi-cles older than 15 years fromApril 1, 2022, if a proposal inthis regard issued by the theMinistry of Road Transportand Highways is finalised.

It has sought stakehold-ers comments to amend relat-ed rules in this regard issuinga notification.

Once approved, this willbe applicable to all governmentvehicles - central or state gov-ernments, union territories,PSUs, municipal andautonomous bodies, as per thenotification.

“From April 1, 2022, gov-ernment departments will notbe able to renew the certificateof registration of their vehicles,after 15 years. This will applyto all government - central,state, UT, PSUs, municipalbodies & autonomous bod-ies,” the Ministry of Road,Transport and Highways saidin a tweet.

The development comesclose on heels of the voluntaryvehicle scrapping policy

announced in the UnionBudget on February 1 for 2021-22 which provides for fitnesstest after 20 years for personalvehicles while commercialvehicles would require it afterthe completion of 15 years.

Notification of the draftrules has been issued to thiseffect on March 12 by theministry seeking comments,objections and suggestionsfrom the stakeholders withinthirty days.

The certificate of registra-tion shall not be renewed afterthe laps of 15 years for goven-rment vehicles, it said.

Presenting the Budget for2021-22 in Parliament, FinanceMinister Nirmala Sitharamanon February 1 had announced

vehicle scrapping policy.Road, Transport, Highways

and MSMEs Minister NitinGadkari had said that initiallyone crore vehicles will go forscrapping and the policy willlead to new investments ofaround Rs 10,000 crore andcreate as many as 50,000 jobs.

These old vehicles areestimated to cause 10-12 timesmore pollution than the latestvehicles.

The government had ear-lier said it plans to imposegreen tax on old pollutingvehicles soon in a bid to pro-tect the environment and curbpollution while vehicles likestrong hybrids, electric vehiclesand those running on alternatefuels like CNG, ethanol andLPG will be exempted. Therevenue collected through thegreen tax will be utilised fortackling pollution.

Under the scheme, trans-port vehicles older than eightyears could be charged greentax at the time of renewal of fit-ness certificate at the rate of 10-25 per cent of road tax, as pergreen tax proposal sent tostates for consultations aftercleared by the ministry.

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Ahead of the assembly elec-tions In four states and a

union territory, a startup firmhas unveiled a mobile applica-tion with poll statistics and dataon the country’s economy tohelp voters take fact-baseddecisions before exercisingtheir franchise, company offi-cials said.

The startup -Demokratika- launched theapplication, BolSubol, whichhas economic and politicalinformation about all the con-stituencies in India for over 60years on average, they claimed.

“Except the election com-mission’s efforts, not muchseems to be done by politicalparties to empower voters.Hence, the app is rolled out. Itwill offer a powerfulmicroblogging tool,” RiteshVerma, one of the directors ofthe company, said on Friday.

Most of the digital plat-

forms related to the field aresocial networking applications.These do not help voters takefact-based decisions, anotherdirector of the firm SheshagiriAnegondi said.

There is an election knowl-edge game that users can play,and most of the features of theapp are free, the official said.

“Users have to pay forsome of the features of themobile application,” he added.

Tamil Nadu, Kerala andPuducherry will go to polls onApril 6, while assembly elec-tions in Assam will be held inthree phases starting on March27.The eight-phased polls inWest Bengal will be heldbetween March 27 and April29. Votes will be counted onMay 2.

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Indian Oil CorporationLimited (IndianOil) has

leveraged its expertise andreach to bolster India’s Covid-19 vaccination programme bysupplementing the availablecold chain equipment (CCE)infrastructure in four states --Jammu & Kashmir, TamilNadu, Bihar and Manipur -- forthe storage and transportationof vaccines.

IndianOil is procuringCCE equipment like ice-linerefrigerator (ILR), deep freez-er (DF), walk-in-cooler (WIC),walk-in-freezer (WIF) andrefrigerated truck (RT) forhanding them over to therespective state governments.

The IndianOil manage-ment has also asked the com-pany’s stakeholders to get vac-cinated at the earliest to con-tribute to the success of theworld’s largest vaccination

drive.Shrikant Madhav Vaidya,

Chairman, IndianOil, andRanjan Kumar Mohapatra,Director (HR), IndianOil, wereamong the first few to get theindigenous vaccine shot toallay the apprehensions amongthe stakeholders.

Speaking about IndianOil’sfocus on employee welfare,Vaidya said, “An inspired, agile and resilient team ofemployees enabled Indian Oilto fuel the economy and keep the kitchen fires burning,even during the most difficultphases of the pandemic.

We are committed toensuring the employees’ welfareat all times”.

During the countrywidelockdown, IndianOil ensuredthe supply of petroleum prod-ucts, including delivering on anaverage of 25 lakh cylindersevery day to its customers’doorsteps.

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Some of India Inc’s seniorGeneral Counsels have

together to launch the GeneralCounsels’ Association of India(GCAI).

The objective of the asso-ciation is to create a robust plat-form run, managed, and oper-ated by General Counselsacross India in order to createa distinct professional identityand voice for General Counsels.

Amongst the seniorGeneral Counsels who haveassociated themselves with theinitiative are Sanjeev Gemawat,Dalmia Bharat; Akhil Prasad,Boeing India, ManjareeChowdhary, Maruti Suzuki;Tejal Patil, OYO; SameetGambhir, DCM; SameerChugh, Bharti Group; Manish

Lamba, DLF and ParveshKheterpal, Feedback Infra.

GCAI aims to be the pre-mier association to serve thediversified needs of the in-house counsels, who are qual-ified law graduates holding adegree in law duly recognizedby the Bar Council of India. In-house counsels are in employ-ment with organizations,responsible for the enforcementof law and governance in theirrespective organizations,including handling all its legalmatters.

It will also help to enhancethe growth and quality of in-house legal professionals whocan leverage the collectiveknowledge and wisdom ofexperienced members throughcollaboration and exchange ofideas.

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The rising fuel prices isimpacting demand condi-

tions in India that is looking foran accelerated recovery of theeconomy post Covid-inducedlockdowns and disruptions.

According to official data,country’s fuel consumption fellsharply in February, the secondconsecutive month whendemand is slowing signs of aslackening amidst rising fuelprices.

The consumption slow-down in February is lowestsince September when it hadbegun becoming clear thatworst is over and demand ispicking up.

According to oil ministry’sPetroleum Planning andAnalysis Cell (PPAC), con-

sumption of fuel ( largely petroland diesel ) fell 4.9 per cent inyoy February to 17.2 milliontonnes. The demand alsoslipped 4.6 per cent on month-ly basis indicating that varioushiccups still remain on thepath of full recovery for theIndian economy.

A clearer indication thatrecovery is still some way offcan be gauged by seeing thediesel consumption data as thefuel is prime source of trans-port for all kinds of goods inthe country and accounts forabout 40 per cent of overallrefined fuel sales in India.

The consumption ofDiesel fell 3.8 per cent to 6.55million tonnes in February ona month on month basis anddeclined 8.5 per cent year-on-year.

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An e-Commerce operatoroperating in marketplace

or hybrid mode shall manageits relationship with sellers onits platform in an agnosticmanner and without beingpartial to any of its sellers.

This is laid out in the DraftE-commerce policy preparedby Department for Promotionof Industry and Internal Tradeunder the Ministry ofCommerce & Industry.

This National e-CommercePolicy is therein, not a freshconstruct of government’sambitions but is a consolidat-ed document for the continuedvision of providing a level play-ing field to all stakeholders,including individual con-sumers, MSMEs, traders, arti-sans, start-ups, while pursuinga development agenda whichaddresses growth and reducesprevalent market distortions.This focus is important asretail trade has been com-plaining against it.

Meetings are underway toreceive feedback on the policy.One on one interactions have

been held with concernedMinistries/Departments, basiswhich the revised version of thepolicy has been prepared.

A meeting is underway onSaturday under chairmanshipof Secretary, DPIIT to discussthe revised draft.

In this policy, e-commercemeans the business activities ofsale, marketing, distributionof goods or provision of ser-vices through the Internet orother information networks.The policy covers all modes ofe-commerce; i.e., inventory,marketplace and hybrid model.This Policy is equally applica-ble to entities, natural and /orlegal with foreign and domes-tic investments.

An e-Commerce operatorcan operate in any of the threemodes of ecommerce. E-Commerce platforms shallensure that they operateaccording to the extant andapplicable legislation/rules forconduct of all such operations.E-Commerce platforms hostedby or on behalf of entities hav-ing foreign investment shallcomply with Foreign DirectInvestment Policy, which shall

prevail in case of inconsisten-cies between the two policies.

An e-Commerce operatoroperating in marketplace orhybrid mode shall manage itsrelationship with sellers on itsplatform in an agnostic man-ner and without being partialto any of its sellers.

An e-Commerce operatorfunctioning in market orhybrid mode shall ensure thatinformation collected throughplatform is not used to obtainmarket advantage against sell-ers on its own platform.

Actions and things whichcannot be done by the platformentities can also not be done byany of its associates and relat-ed parties.

Government may, fromtime to time, notify partieswhich fall in the definition ofassociates and related parties.

Owing to the cross-cuttingnature of e-Commerce, differ-ent laws and regulations acrosssectors govern the present e-Commerce activities, some ofwhich are; Income Tax Act,1961, Consumer ProtectionAct, 2019, InformationTechnology Act, 2000.

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NITI Aayog CEO AmitabhKant on Saturday said

India’s power is truly repre-sented by its sustained eco-nomic growth, which is a keyto its future and critical forsecurity reasons.

Delivering the keynoteaddress at the inauguration of‘Militaria@Jaipur-2021’, hesaid as a fallout of theCOVID-19 pandemic radicalreforms were ushered inacross a range of sectors andasserted that India has had thesharpest recovery among themajor economies.

Economic Growth is

expected to rebound about 5.5per cent after (-)3.5 per centin 2020 which has been theworst since post-World War,Kant said, adding that push-ing India towards a highgrowth trajectory was a keychallenge. The private sectorneeds to be brought in at theheart of India’s economicgrowth, he said.

“The economies of eastand southeast Asia have trans-formed themselves within ageneration. India’s economyhas witnessed a substantialtransformation over 30 yearssince 1991 with an averageannual growth of 6.5 per cent,”the NITI Aayog CEO said.

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Economic activity isexpected to consolidate in

March 2021 as the Covid-19impacted difficult financialyear 2020-21 is winding downwith new hopes for the nextfinancial year with a greatgrowth trajectory of Indianeconomy, said SanjayAggarwal, President, PHDChamber of Commerce andIndustry on Saturday.

Out of the 10 indicatorsof QET (Quick EconomicTrends) of economic andbusiness activity tracked bythe industry body PHDCCI,7 have performed positive in

February 2021 of which passenger vehicle sales hasshown the highest growth of18% over the correspondingmonth in the previous year.

Though COVID-19 casesare re-emerging in somestates including Maharashtra,Kerala, Punjab, Karnataka,Gujarat and Tamil Nadu, themovement of the Indianeconomy remains steady inFebruary 2021.

We are happy to note thatthe vaccination drive in thecountry is moving at a fasterrate, with more than 2.6 crorevaccines being administeredso far, said Aggarwal.

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There are green shoots vis-ible in various sectors of

the economy and the coun-try is already looking at a ‘V-shaped’ recovery, Ministerof State for Finance andCorporate Affairs AnuragThakur said on Saturday.

“India is already lookingat ‘V-shaped’ recovery. Alongwith the green shoots in var-ious sectors, in the month ofFebruary, FPI inflows were Rs25,787 crore,” Thakur said ata virtual conclave organisedby the Institute of Actuariesof India.

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Security forces in Myanmaron Saturday again met

protests against last month’smilitary takeover with lethalforce, killing at least four peo-ple by shooting live ammuni-tion at demonstrators.

Three deaths were report-ed in Mandalay, the country’ssecond-biggest city, and one inPyay, a town in south-centralMyanmar. There were multiplereports on social media of thedeaths, along with photos ofdead and wounded people inboth locations.

The independent UNhuman rights expert forMyanmar, Tom Andrews, saidThursday that “crediblereports” indicated securityforces in the Southeast Asiannation had so far killed at least70 people, and cited growingevidence of crimes againsthumanity since the militaryousted the elected governmentof Aung San Suu Kyi.

Reports on social mediaalso said three people were shotdead Friday night in Yangon,Myanmar’s largest city, whereresidents for the past weekhave been defying an 8 pm.Curfew to come out on thestreets. Two deaths by gunfirewere reported in Yangon’s

Thaketa township, where aprotest being held outside apolice station was dispersed. Acrowd had gathered there todemand the release of threeyoung men who were seizedfrom their home earlier Fridaynight. Photos said to be of thebodies of two dead protesterswere posted online. The otherreported fatality Friday night

was of a 19-year-old man shotin Hlaing township.

The nighttime protests mayreflect a more aggressiveapproach to self-defense thathas been advocated by someprotesters. Police had beenaggressively patrolling residen-tial neighborhoods at night, fir-ing into the air and setting offstun grenades in an effort at

intimidation. They have alsobeen carrying out targetedraids, taking people from theirhomes with minimal resistance.In at least two known cases, thedetainees died in custody with-in hours of being taken away.

Another possible indica-tion of heightened resistanceemerged Saturday with photosposted online of a railway

bridge said to have been dam-aged by an explosive charge.

The bridge was describedin multiple accounts as beingon the rail line from Mandalayto Myitkyina, the capital of thenorthern state of Kachin. Thephotos show damage to part ofa concrete support.

No one took responsibili-ty for the action, but it couldserve a two-fold purpose.

It could be seen as supportfor the nationwide strike ofstate railway workers, who arepart of the civil disobediencemovement against the coup.

At the same time, it could beaimed as disrupting the ability ofthe junta to reinforce its troopsin Kachin, a state whose residentshave long been at odds with thecentral government. The Kachinethnic minority fields its ownwell-trained and equipped guer-rilla force, and there has beenoutrage in Myitkyina at securi-ty forces’ killing of anti-coup pro-testers there.

The prospect of sabotagehas been openly discussed bysome protesters, who warnthat they could blow up apipeline supplying natural gasto China. They see China asbeing the junta’s main sup-porter, even though Beijinghas been mildly critical of thecoup in its public comments.

In Washington on Friday,the Biden administrationannounced it is offering tem-porary legal residency to peo-ple from Myanmar, citing themilitary’s takeover and ongoingdeadly force against civilians.

Homeland SecuritySecretary Alejandro Mayorkassaid the designation of tempo-rary protected status for peoplefrom Myanmar would last for18 months. The offer of tem-porary legal residency appliesto people already in the UnitedStates. Mayorkas said in a state-ment that worsening condi-tions in Myanmar would makeit difficult for those people tosafely return home.

The Feb. 1 coup reversedyears of slow progress towarddemocracy in Myanmar, whichfor five decades had languishedunder strict military rule thatled to international isolationand sanctions.

Suu Kyi’s National Leaguefor Democracy party led areturn to civilian rule with alandslide election victory in2015, and an even greater mar-gin of votes last year. It wouldhave been installed for a secondfive-year term last month, butinstead Suu Kyi and PresidentWin Myint and other membersof the Government were placedin military detention.

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The Biden administrationoffered temporary legal

residency on Friday to peoplefrom Myanmar, where militaryleaders have overthrown thecountry’s elected governmentand are using deadly forceagainst protesters.

Homeland SecuritySecretary Alejandro Mayorkassaid the temporary protectedstatus would last for 18months. The designationapplies to people from thatcountry already living in theUnited States.

Myanmar’s military seizedpower February 1, hoursbefore the seating of a new par-liament following electionresults that were seen as arebuff to the country’s gener-als. The coup upended inter-nationally backed efforts torestore democracy and enddecades of junta rule. Securityforces have killed dozens of

protesters since the coup.Mayorkas said in a state-

ment that the takeover hasworsened humanitarian con-ditions, disrupted aid andmedical flights into the coun-try and brought on an eco-nomic crisis, making it difficultfor Myanmar nationals andlongtime residents to return tothe country safely.

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Leaders of the US, India,Australia and Japan did dis-

cuss the “challenge” posed byChina during the first meetingof the Quad, and they madeclear that none of them haveany “illusions” about Beijing,US National Security AdviserJake Sullivan has said.

Addressing a White Housebriefing on Friday soon afterthe historic virtual Quad sum-mit between US President JoeBiden, Prime MinisterNarendra Modi, AustralianPrime Minister Scott Morrisonand Japanese Prime MinisterYoshihide Suga, the topAmerican official said the fourleaders have agreed to hold anin-person summit later thisyear.

The leaders addressed key

regional issues, including free-dom of navigation and freedomfrom coercion in the South andEast China seas, the NorthKorea nuclear issue and thecoup and violent repression inMyanmar, Sullivan said.

“Over the course of themeeting, a sense of optimismfor the future, despite the hardtimes were in, was on full dis-play.

“The four leaders did dis-cuss the challenge posed byChina, and they made clearthat none of them have any illu-sions about China, but todaywas not fundamentally aboutChina,” Sullivan said ahead ofa crucial meeting with topChinese officials.

Sullivan, who along withalong with the Secretary ofState Antony Blinken arescheduled to meet their

Chinese counterparts YangJiechi, a member of thePolitburo of the rulingCommunist Party of Chinaand State Councillor andForeign Minister Wang Yi inAnchorage, Alaska on March18-19.

“This is our effort to com-municate clearly to the Chinesegovernment how the UnitedStates intends to proceed at astrategic level, what we believeour fundamental interests andvalues are, and what our con-cerns with their activities are —whether it’s on Hong Kong, orXinjiang, or in the TaiwanStrait — or, frankly, the issuesthat we heard today from ourQuad partners: their coercionof Australia, their harassmentaround the Senkaku Islands,their aggression on the borderwith India,” Sullivan said.

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The Biden administrationon Friday said it is willing

to reconsider the objections oradverse decisions to foreignworkers on visas like H-1B dueto the three policy memos bythe previous Trump adminis-tration which now have beenrescinded.

The move is expected tocome to the rescue of a largenumber of Indian IT profes-sionals who were having atough time during the previousTrump administration due tovarious policies and memo-randums on non-immigrantwork visas, in particular H-1B.

US Citizenship andImmigration Services (USCIS)on Friday announced “it may

reopen and/or reconsideradverse decisions” on Form I-129, Petition for aNonimmigrant Worker, madebased on three rescinded pol-icy memos.

USCIS said it will general-ly use its discretion to accept amotion to reopen filed morethan 30 days after the decision,if filed before the end of thevalidity period requested onthe petition or labour conditionapplication, whichever is earli-er, and the decision was based onone or more policies in the threerescinded H-1B memoranda.

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Sri Lankan PresidentGotabaya Rajapaksa has

praised his brothers, saying thatall three of them are firmly unit-ed and anyone trying to drive awedge between them will notsucceed. In a comment made bythe president at a political gath-ering on Friday, GotabayaRajapaksa praised the maturityof his elder brother Mahinda,the prime minister, and theyounger brother Basil, the keypresidential adviser.

“Mahinda Rajapaksa iscurrently one of the greatestleaders not only here but alsoin Asia. His political experi-ence, maturity and knowledgecannot be matched by anyone,”he said during the programme.

“His mature leadership is agreat relief to me in taking the

country forward,” he was quot-ed as saying by an officialstatement released on Saturday.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa,71,praised Basil as the man whocreated the Rajapaksa politicalparty, the Sri Lanka People’sParty (SLPP) and the forcebehind the political environ-ment for them to return topower after the defeat ofMahinda Rajapaksa in 2015.

In the recent months someof the ruling coalition seniorswere mooting the idea thatGotabaya Rajapaksa be allowedto take over the reins of the rul-ing SLPP from MahindaRajapaksa. This move has metwith stiff resistance from thesenior Rajapaksa loyalists whohave demanded disciplinaryaction against those whosought Mahinda’s replacementas the party leader.

Colombo: A 60-year-old for-mer leader of Islamic organi-sation Jamaat-e-Islami has beenarrested in Sri Lanka forallegedly promoting extremismin the country, policeannounced on Saturday.

Rasheed Hajjul Akbar, whoheaded the Jamaat-e-Islami organ-isation for 24 years until lastSeptember 2019, was arrested bythe Terrorism InvestigationDivision (TID) from Dematagodaarea on Friday, Police SpokesmanDIG Ajith Rohana said.

He was publishing articlesin a magazine published by theJamaat-e-Islami organisationto promote Wahhabism andJihadist ideology in Sri Lanka,the police spokesman said.

The arrest came as aninvestigation panel on the 2019

Easter Sunday bombings hadcalled for banning Wahaabismin the island nation as itinspires Muslim religiousextremism. On April 21, 2019,nine suicide bombers belong-ing to the local Islamist extrem-ist group National ThawheedJamaat (NTJ) carried out aseries of blasts that tore throughthree churches and as manyluxury hotels in Sri Lanka,killing 270 people, including 11Indians, and injuring over 500on the Easter Sunday.

The blasts targeted StAnthony’s Church in Colombo,St Sebastian’s Church in thewestern coastal town ofNegombo, and a church in theeastern town of Batticaloawhen the Easter Sunday masswas in progress. PTI

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Atop Pakistani university hasexpelled two students for

hugging and proposing on cam-pus, after a video of the incidentwent viral on social media. Aspecial disciplinary committeeof the University of Lahoreheld a meeting on Friday andsummoned the two students butthey failed to appear.

The committee then decid-ed to expel the boy and the girland banned them from enter-ing any of the university’s cam-puses. According to theUniversity of Lahore, the twostudents were involved in grossmisconduct and violation ofuniversity rules.

“The students in questionwere summoned before thecommittee but failed to appear.Thus, in pursuance of Section9 of the General Discipline andCode of Conduct on the

Campus, the committee hasdecided to expel the two stu-dents for violating the varsity’srules and regulations and seri-ous infraction of the code ofconduct. Furthermore, as perSection 16, they are debarredfrom entering the premises ofUniversity of Lahore and all itssub-campuses,” read a state-ment from the University ofLahore. The video of the pro-posal took Twitter by storm, it

was one of the top trends onsocial media last Thursdaywhen the incident took place.

The viral footage shows thegirl with her right knee bent onthe ground, holding a bouquetof roses, proposing to the boy,who then takes the flowers andpulls the girl for a hug. Nearbystudents are seen cheeringthem along. As the footagewent viral, the university tooknotice of it. Expulsion of the

couple drew mixed reactionson the internet. A social mediauser posted the picture ofIndian film legend AmitabhBachchan from the movie“Mohabbatein” where heplayed a college principal whowas against romance in college.

“Presenting to you, thePrincipal of the University ofLahore,” read the caption witha photograph of Bachchan.

Slain prime minister ofPakistan Benazir Bhutto’sdaughter Bakhtawar Bhutto-Zardari termed the universityaction “ridiculous”.

Former Test CricketerWasim Akram’s wife ShanieraAkram said in a tweet: “Applyall the rules you want but youcan’t expel love! It’s in ourhearts, it’s the best part aboutbeing young and it what makeslife worth living! You learnmore about love than you canever learn at an institution.”

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Dhaka: Several world leaders,including Prime MinisterNarendra Modi and heads ofstate and government fromNepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan andthe Maldives, are set to visitBangladesh later this month toparticipate in the grand cele-brations to mark the goldenjubilee of the country’s inde-pendence from Pakistan.

The golden jubilee cele-brations to be held from March17-27 to mark the country’sindependence from Pakistanafter the 1971 Liberation Waralso coincides with the birthcentenary of Father of theNation, Bangabandhu SheikhMujibur Rahman. PrimeMinister Modi and four headsof state and government fromNepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan andthe Maldives will be among thedistinguished foreign guests

to join the celebrations underseparate schedules, Bangladeshgovernment’s principal infor-mation officer Surath KumarSarkar told PTI. MaldivianPresident Ibrahim MohamedSolih will be the first top for-eign dignitary to arrive on athree-day tour on March 17,followed by Sri Lanka’s PrimeMinister Mahinda Rajapaksaon March 19 on a two-day tour.

Nepal President Bidya DeviBhandari will be in Dhaka ona two-day tour from March 22while Bhutanese premier LotayTshering will visit the countryfrom March 24 to March 25.

Prime Minister Modi willarrive on March 26 on a two-day visit and will join the mainIndependence Day celebra-tions that also marks 50 yearsof Bangladesh-India diplomat-ic relations. PTI

La Paz: The conservative inter-im President who led Boliviafor a year was arrested onSaturday as officials of therestored leftist Governmentpursue those involved in the2019 ouster of socialist leaderEvo Morales, which they regardas a coup, and the administra-tion that followed.

Jeanine Áñez was detainedin the early morning in herhometown of Trinidad andwas flown to the capital, Las Paz. AP

London: Britain’s foreign sec-retary on Saturday criticisedChina for continuing to violatethe Sino-British JointDeclaration as Beijing furthertightens control over HongKong. Dominic Raab saidBeijing’s decision to “imposeradical changes to restrict par-ticipation in Hong Kong’s elec-toral system ... Is part of a pat-tern designed to harass and sti-fle all voices critical of China’spolicies.”

The moves amount to thethird breach of the JointDeclaration in less than ninemonths, Raab said in a statement.

“The Chinese authorities’continued action means I mustnow report that the UK con-siders Beijing to be in a state ofongoing non-compliance with

the Joint Declaration — ademonstration of the growinggulf between Beijing’s promis-es and its actions,” the foreignsecretary said.

British and Chinese author-ities signed the agreement in1984, paving the way for HongKong’s handover from British toChinese rule in 1997. Theagreement stipulated that theformer British colony wouldretain a high degree of auton-omy and its civil rights and free-doms for at least 50 years.

The UK and US criticisedChina Thursday when its cer-emonial legislature endorsedthe Communist Party’s move toreduce the role of Hong Kongvoters in picking the territory’slawmakers and ensure “patri-ots” rule the city. AP

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West Indies turned aleisurely canter into a

desperate scramble to achievea series-clinching five-wicketvictory over SriLanka withtwo balls to spare in the sec-ond One-Day International oftheir three-match series atthe Sir Vivian RichardsStadium in Antigua on Friday.

A fourth ODI hundred byEvin Lewis and an elegantsupporting 84 by openingpartner Shai Hope seemed tohave set the home side up foran effortless stroll to the tar-get of 273 as the pair put on192 for the first wicket.

However, Lewis’ dismissalfor 103 in the 38th over trig-gered a surprising level ofindecisiveness with the SriLankans coming to life in thefinal stage of the match asseamers Nuwan Pradeep andThisara Perera claimed two

wickets each.But when he most needed

to be on target, Pradeep’s finaltwo overs were plastered for28 runs with NicholasPooran’s unbeaten 35, whichincluded two boundaries inthe last over the match, taking

the West Indies to an unbeat-able 2-0 lead ahead of the finalmatch at the same venue onSunday.

Lewis’ hundred, whichcame off 121 balls and wasembellished by eight foursand four sixes, earned him theplayer of the match award.

“It was a total team perfor-mance. Our best chance waschasing so it was good to seethe boys sticking to the theirplans,” said West Indies cap-tain Kieron Pollard.

Earlier, DanushkaGunathilaka just missed outon a century as Sri Lankaposted a competitive 273 foreight after being put in to bat.

Two days after his contro-versial dismissal — he wasruled to have obstructed thefield in a run out attempt byPollard — the left-handerplayed fluently for 96 in help-ing his team recover from anindifferent start.

While Gunathilaka pacedhis innings at a run-a-ball,Chandimal was more circum-spect, although his contribu-tion of 71 was important toensure the tourists were able

to post a challenging target.They also benefited from

exciting late pyrotechnicsfrom Wanindu Hasaranga,who thrashed 47 off 31 ballswith four sixes and two fours.

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The focuswill firmly

be on Prithvi Shawand the nationalselectors will keep ahawk eye on Mumbai cap-tain’s performance as his teamtakes on Uttar Pradesh inthe Vijay Hazare Trophy finalon Sunday.

Shaw’s stupendous 754runs in the tournament,which includes 105 not out,227 not out, 185 not out and165, has made him a con-tender for a comeback duringthe three ODIs, in case RohitSharma avails the option oftaking rest.

It’s still not clear whetherthat will happen or not butthe 21-year-old Shaw, hascertainly learnt his on and off-field lessons well which hasshowed in his consistencyduring the National One Day

Championships.He is a cut above others at

the domestic level and it isdifficult for the national selec-tors to keep him out of themix.

For Uttar Pradesh, a verysteady outfit under coachGyanendra Pandey, they haveplayed solid cricket without

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The absence of power-hittershas been Indian women’s

bane for the longest time andthey would expect all-rounderDeepti Sharma and wicketkeep-er-batter Sushma Verma to upthe ante at the back-end duringthe fourth ODI against SouthAfrica here on Sunday.

Blown away in the series-opener, India had bounced backin style in the second ODI butMithali Raj’s side couldn’t go thedistance in the third game,going down narrowly by six runsvia D/L method.

The hosts were outclassedby an unbeaten 131-ball 132 byopener Lizelle Lee, whoanchored South Africa’s run-chase with consummate easeafter India had posted a compet-itive 248 for 5.

Despite going strong at onestage, India couldn’t step up therate with the team managing just27 runs in the last 30 balls fol-lowing the dismissal of vice-cap-tain Harmanpreet Kaur andthis is an area the team will lookto improve, especially with theWorld Cup less than a year away.

Deepti Sharma is one of thepillars of this Indian team butsadly, she hasn’t been able tomake any significant improve-ment when it comes to thepower aspect of her game thathas been lacking for a number

of years.With Neetu David’s selec-

tion committee literally creatinga harakiri by keeping youngShafali Verma out of WODI set-up, the only power-hitter in theteam is Harmanpreet with likesof Jemimah Rodrigues, PunamRaut and skipper Mithali Raj allpossessing same style of accu-mulating runs and not the great-est of strike-rates.

While the lower-order hasfailed to pack a punch with thebat, opener Rodrigues’ lack ofform for a long time (evenbefore Covid-19 halted pro-ceedings) will also be a concernfor India.

The paucity of talent at thedomestic level means thatRodrigues’ doesn’t face any wor-thy competition from her peersand even if she is complacent,one isn’t left with too manyoptions.

She is a vital cog in the bat-ting unit along with Raut andSmriti Mandhana, who havelooked in good touch in theseries so far.

Veteran pacer JhulanGoswami has regularly provid-ed the breakthroughs and sits atthe top of wicket-taker list witheight scalps and her form will becrucial to India’s chances.

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Left shaken by a bunch ofworld-class operators, theIndian team’s white-ball

stars will be aiming to put up animproved batting effort in thesecond T20I against Englandhere on Sunday.

It was India’s first white-ballgame in three months and therustiness of some of the premiershorter format players like KLRahul, Hardik Pandya, andYuzvendra Chahal’s showed inthe first game in which the hostswere clinically outplayed.

One defeat is never the endof the story and no critic canrule this Indian team out of theseries on the basis of a singularperformance especially becauseof its zeal to fight.

However, as skipper ViratKohli talks about players withX-factors doing the job, hewould expect Rishabh Pant andPandya to do a bit more withtheir explosive hitting, whichshould not be confined to oneaudacious reverse scoop (Pantoff Jofra Archer) or a fallingramp shot (Pandya off BenStokes).

They are more than capableand will be expected to give a farbetter account of themselves,trying to play more shots squareof the wicket like Shreyas Iyerdid during his innings of 67 off48 balls.

Both Pandya (19 off 21balls) and Pant (21 off 23 balls)weren’t able to gauge the pace ofthe track as Archer and MarkWood bowled fast and straightdenying them any width for thecut shot. The extra bounce alsodidn’t allow them to drive on theup.

“The wicket didn’t allowyou to hit the kind of shots youwanted to. Shreyas’ innings wasan example of how you coulduse the depth of the crease, ridethe bounce because there wasvariable bounce at times, and hitthe areas square of the wicketwhich others failed to do.

“It was just a below-par bat-ting performance and Englandmade us pay for it,” Kohli hadsummed it up aptly at the endof the match.

The captain’s acknowledge-ment of Iyer’s performancecould well mean that the waitfor Suryakumar Yadav might geta tad longer with only onemiddle-order slot available cur-rently.

However, Kohli’s propensi-ty to change his playing XI at thedrop of a hat is well document-ed.

While giving his team’s old-est member, Shikhar Dhawan,a couple of matches is perfect-ly understandable but how longdoes he want to persist with theleft-hander, who looked com-pletely out of sorts during his 4off 12 balls.

Rohit Sharma, as per Kohli,is rested for a couple of match-es having played 6 consecutiveTest matches along with 14days of hard quarantine at thestart of his Australian sojourn.

But Rohit’s presence is verynecessary at the top of the

order and even though no oneis really talking about it, it’s beenlong since the Indian skipperhas had an impactful T20 per-formance. He is too good a play-er to miss out.

The bowling departmentdidn’t have enough runs onboard to put up a fight butwhether one of the three spin-ners can make way for a tear-away quick like Navdeep Sainiremains to be seen.

Perhaps Yuzvendra Chahalcould make way for RahulTewatia, who may not be ascrafty a leg break bowler but cer-tainly a decent one with goodbatting prowess.

Eoin Morgan, one amongthe more likeable Internationalcaptains, has been provided ateam that has its bases coveredwith 12 players plying theirtrade in the IPL.

Unless something reallygoes wrong, this England teamis a contender to win the T20World Cup trophy in Octoberthis year with way too manypowerhouse performers.

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Jason Holder and DarrenBravo have been named in

the 13-man squad for the firstof the two Tests matches athome against Sri Lanka. KraiggBrathwaite will be the full-timeTest captain, as announced bythe Cricket West Indies earlier,and Jermaine Blackwood willcontinue to act as his deputy.

Both Holder and Bravowere among 10 players whodidn't tour Bangladesh recent-ly citing COVID-19 concerns.They are the only two playerswho have been called back;

Shamarh Brooks and RostonChase haven’t made it back.Shane Dowrich, who didn’ttour Bangladesh due to person-al reasons, continues to beunavailable.

The first Test starts onMarch 21 at the Sir VivianRichards Stadium.Squad: Kraigg Brathwaite (c),Jermaine Blackwood,Nkrumah Bonner, DarrenBravo, John Campbell,Rahkeem Cornwall, Joshua DaSilva (wk), Shannon Gabriel,Jason Holder, Alzarri Joseph,Kyle Mayers, Kemar Roach,Jomel Warrican.

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England pacer Jofra Archersaid he needs to look after his

troublesome elbow first beforesetting sights on his twin targetsof playing in the T20 World Cupin India and the Ashes DownUnder.

After missing two Tests inEngland’s 1-3 series defeatrecently, the 25-year-old fierypacer bounced back stronglytaking three for 23 to restrictIndia to a modest 124 for 7 in thefirst T20I on Friday.

“I need to take care of myelbow first before I think aboutwhat is going to happen,” Archersaid in post-match conference.

“For me, in the immediate,I want to get through this seriesand then I will do everything inmy power to make sure I’mgoing to the World Cup and theAshes.”

Archer cleaned up KL Rahulin the powerplay, and nearlytook a hat-trick in the deathovers after dismissing Hardik

Pandya and Shardul Thakur tohelp England win the firstmatch.

“I’m just glad to have helpedin the win. I’m just being hon-est, if I get one wicket or three,the way I bowl doesn’t change.

I think wickets just depend onhow lucky you are at the time,”he said.

Archer further said they allare on the same page as far as theworkload management is con-cerned.

“Obviously, I came to them(the medical team) during theTest series and said it’s (myelbow) was not feeling right atthe moment and I didn’t have tosay it twice, they automaticallyjumped on it and already start-ed making plans. We are all onthe same page.”

England, who lost the Testseries after winning the first Testin Chennai, are well aware ofIndia's resilience and Archerurged caution after their con-vincing victory.

“It’s just the first game of theseries, there are still four othergames to go. They (India) arenumber two in the world for areason so I don’t think we canget ahead of ourselves as yet. Itwas a good win and we’ll enjoyit,” he said.

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India’s “play freely” battingphilosophy that skipper Virat

Kohli has advocated won’tchange despite the opening T20debacle, the rapidly-risingShreyas Iyer said but acknowl-edged that it needs better execu-tion in the coming games.

Asked if India will need tostep away from the new battingphilosophy of going for theshots no matter what the situa-tion, Iyer said, “...It won’t changebecause if you see the battingline up we have and the power-hitters down the line, we don’thave to change anything to behonest.”

“We have come with a planand we have to execute as much

as possible because going intothe world Cup we need to see toit that we tick all the boxes. Thisis a five-match series, so it is a

perfect time to try differentstuff and see what suits us,” heexplained.

The selectors picked IPLperformers like SuryakumarYadav, Ishan Kishan and RahulTewatia for the series while thein-form Rishabh Pant also madea return on the back of his strongInternational performances inthe past couple of months.

Asked if he is under anypressure to perform, Iyer said: “Iam in no sort of pressure to per-form, I am playing freely, hap-pily and enjoying my innings.”

Iyer came out to bat atnumber five after Pant was pro-moted in the batting order. Hesaid, batting position is not hisconcern.

“Coming into Indian team,

you have to be flexible withwhich batting position you willbe batting. I haven’t made anychanges, it is just the mindset,what the team requires and (I)batted according to the situa-tion,” he said.

“It was a challenging situa-tion, we had to keep playing thenatural game and keep thescoreboard ticking irrespectiveof losing early wickets.”

Asked the reason behindplaying three spinners, he said:“We practised on this surfacebefore the match and whenspinners were bowling, it wasstopping and turning, very sim-ilar to the two-paced wicketwhich we played on. The planwas to play three spinners, asthat’s our strength.”

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being spectacular with ayoung captain Karan Sharmaleading the team well.

Their left arm pacer YashDayal might fancy bringingthe ball back in to check outwhether Shaw’s problemsagainst inswingers have beensorted. However Dayal does-n’t have Mitchell Starc’s paceand along with fellow AaqibKhan, could be cannon fod-der that the opener requireson a short on side Kotlaground.

The other Mumbai bats-men, who have been over-shadowed by Shaw’sblitzkrieg, would also need toplay their roles.

Be it Yashasvi Jaiswal,Sarfaraz Khan, experiencedwicket-keeper batsmanAditya Tare, all-roundersShams Mulani or ShivamDube.

In case, Shaw, who nowholds the record for highestindividual score in the tour-nament and highest score byan Indian in a List A chase,fails to come good, one ofthem will have to take theresponsibility.

The Mumbai bowlers ledby experienced pacer DhawalKulkarni (14 wickets), andcomprising TusharDeshpande and the spin-trioof Prashant Solanki, TanushKotian and Shams Mulani,have delivered more thanonce and will need to bowl inthe right areas at the ArunJaitley stadium.

UP, on the other hand,defeated Gujarat by five wick-ets, to make it their thirdsummit clash. And for them,the role of in-form skipper

Karan (225 runs) and wicket-keeper Upendra Yadav (276runs), along with experiencedcampaigner Akshdeep Nath,will be crucial.

Their openers AbhishekGoswami (187 runs) andMadhav Kaushik will alsoneed to give a strong start,thwarting the challenge posedby a formidable Mumbaiattack.

Mumbai, who have wonthe tournament thrice, the lastone in 2018-19, will be look-ing to clinch their fourth titleand end the season on a highnote.

UP, on the other hand,will be playing their thirdfinal, would also be eyeing asecond title after havingshared the Trophy with TamilNadu in 2004-05 after thatgame ended in a tie. ThoughMumbai are favourites, theUP team is capable of spring-ing a surprise come Sunday atthe Kotla.

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President Biden’s first diplomatic out-reach — America is Back — is ladenwith harsh domestic realities such asirreconcilable partisanship, stark ethnicdifferences, pandemic riven economy,

and an unprecedented assault on the democraticprocess, all needing urgent attention that limitsUS’ international focus. The White House’s lim-ited foreign policy bandwidth, at least in the firstcouple of years, means retracting the US fromunwarranted and intractable commitments andfocusing on significant challenges — addressingChina’s rise, preventing drift of European allies,limiting nuclear proliferation in the Middle East,and fostering healthy globalisation and free tradethat benefits the US.

A productive American foreign policygeared up to wind down its presence inAfghanistan and poised to increase its focus onChina disrupts its longstanding balance betweenIndia and Pakistan, where both rivals haveenjoyed equal strategic relevance to the US if notequal benefits. For the last two decades, the US’India-Pakistan balancing was majorly driven byan equilibrium between two lenses throughwhich Washington observed South Asia — ‘theAfghanistan lens’ that necessitated relying onPakistan for its support in getting out of theAfghan quagmire and ‘the China/Indo-Pacificlens’ that compelled investing in India as astrategic partner who can stand against Beijing.The equilibrium meant internecine parity toPakistan while ensuring a steady flow of finan-cial and military aid. With a gradual witheringaway of the Afghanistan lens, the US’ South Asiaapproach would enter a phase of realignment,leaving Pakistan in a quest for ‘strategic rele-vance’ to the US.

Such a realignment would prove a mixedbag for New Delhi. On the one hand, it wouldlimit impunity enjoyed by Pakistan with the USfor its state-sponsored terrorism against India byencashing its Afghanistan card. On the other,Pakistan’s desperate attempt to remain strategi-cally relevant can include nefarious designs thatcan harm Indian interest and threaten regionalsecurity. As the American appetite to get out ofAfghanistan grows, it is not only imperative forNew Delhi to remain vigilant about its interest inAfghanistan but also keep a tab on the strategicdesires of its next-door neighbour.

�������������� ����������Strategic relevance is used in the context of

small states. Small states try to play a minor yetcritical role in the strategy of big powers inexchange for their own security assurances andfinancial largesse.

Pakistan, by no means a small state, madestrategic relevance to the US a cornerstone of itsforeign policy since independence for nearlysimilar reasons. First, having the US by its side,Pakistan hoped to offset military disparity with amighty neighbour and arch-rival India duringthe Cold War years. Second, it would ensure acontinuous flow of civilian and military aid from

the US. Third, it allowed the unelected MilitaryInc. of Pakistan to get away with its real powerand authority, unlike military juntas of the ThirdWorld who face American censure.

Having understood the benefits, Pakistanbecame a member of SEATO in 1954. While themembership did not obtain security guaranteesagainst Indian incursion similar to NATO Art. 5,it ensured US goodwill and considerable finan-cial assistance. Pakistan continued to seizeopportunities coming its way. For example, thelate 1960s gave it a chance for yeoman serviceduring the Sino-American détente. Pakistan wassummoned to facilitate negotiations with MaoZedong, which it happily delivered in the hopeof American favours.

Nothing turned out to be more fortunate forPakistan than the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.That fortuitous event entrenched Pakistan in theUS’ strategic calculus like never before. Pakistanhad constant attention of the US as the escala-tion with the Taliban kept piling on the bodycount of American troops. However, it seemsthat the denouement of that dream is approach-ing, making Pakistan’s rulers in both Islamabadand Rawalpindi jittery.

������ ������Most recently, Pakistan’s National Security

Advisor Moeed Yusuf has expressed a desire fora US-Pakistan ‘reset’ based on geoeconomicsand not geopolitics. With an ostentatious candor,he says a ‘new Pakistan’ does not want the rela-tionship to be viewed through lens A, B, or C. IfPakistan is really sincere about an economicsecurity paradigm, it is a most-welcomed sce-nario for India. The market size disparity willsettle the unabating chase for parity with India,which is at the root of many regional problems.

This can be a mere charm offensive byMoeed, an old DC warhorse who has spent overa decade shaping pro-Pakistan opinion and lob-bying for his country through lucrative think-tank positions he perched. Or, it indicates buy-ing time until Rawalpindi formulates a newstrategy. The recent India-Pakistan ceasefireagreement feeds into this arithmetic of taking astep back. For two reasons, the geoeconomicsdesire smacks of insincerity.

First, it does not square with Pakistan’sdomestic realities. With soaring inflation, bil-lions in circular debt, decreasing per capita pur-chasing power, incessant political wrangles, fed-eral government’s policy command contested bythe provincial, military, and baronial powers,lack of urban infrastructure and connectivity,and domestic security challenges, much leaves tobe desired for Pakistan to enamor private UScapital.

Second, a geoeconomics-oriented Pakistanhas to give up on using terrorism as a state poli-cy; there is no way tradesmen and terrorists canthrive together. However, any such changeswould mean the military losing control over thePakistani state, which it would never let happen.It also raises a paradox: Pakistan’s civil-military

elite who have disproportionately benefited fromone extraneous lens or another — most recently,Afghanistan — why wants to give that lens sud-denly for a standalone relationship? Hence thereset pitch is indicative of both consternationand parallel churning that wants to recaptureany potential loss of that status.

�������������� ���With its decision to test Shaheen-III missile

that can carry nuclear weapons to Israel onBiden’s inauguration day, Rawalpindi hasbetrayed its desperation for relevance and atten-tion. But what makes Pakistan so insecure aboutlosing relevance? Apart from internecine parityand millions of dollars in aid, it is Pakistan’s elitethat stands to lose the most. It is unimaginablefor Pakistan’s civil-military rulers, some of whomare dual citizens having properties, businesses,and families in the US, to lose the heft. It is apersonal loss too.

Further, being in the US’ good books grantscomplete impunity to the military leadership indomestic and international affairs. Just look atthe countries that invited US incursions or wrathand their corresponding sins-Iraq for allegedlysupporting Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda, Iranfor aspiring to possess nukes that can threatenIsrael, Syria and Libya for dictatorships and abet-ting jihadists, Myanmar for military despotism,and North Korea for proliferation. But a countrywhere all sins converge — the presence ofOsama bin Laden, nuclear weapons that canreach Tel Aviv, sworn animus towards Israel,sheltering jihadists, military dictatorship, indi-rect control of the civilian government, humanrights abuses, and proven proliferation to NorthKorea, Iran, and Libya — is immune from anyAmerican punitive actions because the US needsit to navigate and exit the largest quagmire itentered after Vietnam. Even the idea of losingthis privilege can fret Pakistan’s generals morethan anything else.

But will Afghanistan be pushed to oblivion?Is a post-Afghan world dawning in? Given theAmerican involvement in Afghanistan today andthe Taliban’s truculence, it seems that the UStroops would never leave Kabul’s soil. Once, itdid not appear to be true in the case of Vietnamtoo. Many had assumed that a small Americanpresence in Vietnam was a fait accompli, andtotal disengagement was next to impossible. In acouple of years, they were proven wrong.

Moreover, mere troop presence does notmean high salience in American foreign policy.Some American 5,000 troops are still stationedin Iraq compared to around 2,500 inAfghanistan, but Afghanistan is a high-priorityissue today. Even if a battalion remains hunkereddown in Kabul, Afghanistan will not attract thesame foreign policy focus forever. And Pakistanis aware that the expiry date is approaching.

�������������� ��Pakistan is now preparing to plug itself

into any issue that can continue its present

perks as a ‘strategically relevant’ country. AsadMajeed Khan, the Pakistani ambassador to theUS, talking to a DC-based think-tank, said that“we also represent the Iranian interest here…and we have been doing that for the last 40years.” As Iran supplants Afghanistan as theprime focal point in the days to come, Pakistanwould want to encash that issue to its advan-tage.

Pakistan’s pursuit of strategically relevantaccess point would be oriented towards west andcentral Asia instead of eastwards. To its east liestwo behemoths — India and China, both wouldensure American attention towards Pakistanwithout the endearing ‘strategic relevance.’ India-US partnership has acquired a new strategic hueshedding the subcontinental shibboleth of anuclear flashpoint. Pakistan has too oftenrehearsed nuclear brinkmanship with the US toblunt its utility. After the abrogation of Art. 370,Imran Khan’s entreaties of ‘nuclear shadow hov-ering over South Asia’ in the pages of New YorkTimes fell on deaf ears.

Similarly, its inordinate proximity with ‘ironbrother’ China that proved an asset during theCold War is now a sure liability. It is folly even toimagine another Sino-American rapprochement,and hence, Pakistan’s China bet is a sunk cost forits American calculus. In fact, anything it needsto do is to salvage its image from sin by associa-tion.

��� ��� ����� �� �This situation leaves Pakistan with three

possible options. First, delay the Afghan peaceprocess and buy as much time with the currentsituation as possible. Although US presence lim-its Pakistan’s ability to assert itself inAfghanistan, it can endure the short-term pain.Such instability hurts Indian interests as it hurtsothers. Second, it has already increased its over-tures toward Tehran, even if it means upsettingSaudi Arabia and the UAE to an extent. Pakistanis emboldened by China’s leverage brought byBeijing’s promise to pour billions in an economystifled by sanctions. Beyond beguiling itsAmerican counterparts through the Tehran card,cutting India to size in Persia would be its anoth-er goal. India’s camaraderie with Gulf monarchscomes at the partial cost of old warmth withIran, but New Delhi should ensure its vital ener-gy and security interests are not hurt. Finally,Pakistan has a notorious past of fomenting trou-bles through non-state actors when it is desper-ate. India would need to stay ahead with betterintelligence and border surveillance to meetpotential challenges.

Pakistan is facing a crisis moment of bulkexpiries in the coming days — Afghanistan,China, and nuclear cards — while its desire tomilk its strategic relevance continues. New Delhineeds to closely monitor the internal strategicchurning in its neighbourhood and war-game itsown responses to stay ahead in the game.

The writer is Visiting Fellow at the StimsonCenter in Washington DC

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US & THE GREAT SOUTHASIAN REALIGNMENT

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Residential buildingsaccounted for 24% of thetotal electricity consump-

tion in India in 2016. This totalelectricity consumption willincrease as more housing unitsare built to meet the estimateddemand of 38 million housingunits in 2030. The electricity con-sumption per household is alsoincreasing as people have accessto better electricity and invest inmore appliances due to increasingspending power. As a result,national electricity consumed bythe residential sector is expectedto increase by more than eighttimes by 2050.

The construction industryalready accounts for 25-40% ofthe world’s total carbon emis-sions. Increase in energy con-sumption by the residential sectorwill result in an exponentialincrease in Greenhouse Gas(GHG) emissions without appro-priate mitigation interventions.

Affordable housing, includingthe Low Income Group (LIG) andEconomically Weaker Section(EWS), accounted for almost 96%of the residential housingdemand in 2012. Even though theenergy consumption of theaffordable housing sector is rela-tively small right now, it willincrease as the number of build-ings and appliance usage increas-es. Hence, any strategy to reduceenergy consumption in the resi-dential sector must include theaffordable housing sector.

The affordable housing sectoris largely managed by the govern-ment owing to its role as regula-tor and major builder. The gov-

ernment launched several initia-tives to meet the affordable hous-ing shortage through its vision on‘Housing for All by 2022.’ Itlaunched the Pradhan MantriAwas Yojana (PMAY) — Urban(PMAY-U) and Rural (PMAY-R)in 2015. Most recently, itlaunched the Affordable RentalHousing Complexes (ARHCs)scheme under PMAY-U to pro-vide affordable housing tomigrant workers and the urbanpoor. The PMAY sub-schemesprovide financial support toState/Union Territories (UTs)through different interventions.

Integrating thermal comfortand energy efficiency strategiesinto the PMAY schemes providesa unique opportunity for wide-spread and quick adoption by theaffordable housing sector. Thesestrategies can be made mandato-ry through the PMAY schemesthus linking them to fiscal bene-fits.

As a first step, the scope ofthe building design regulationsunder PMAY needs to beincreased. This can be done byintegrating Energy ConservationBuilding Code-Residential(ECBC-R) developed by theBureau of Energy Efficiency’s(BEE) into PMAY schemes.

The first part of ECBC-Rincludes design and materialselection to improve thermalcomfort in residential buildings,improve natural ventilation andincrease daylighting. This willhelp reduce energy demand forlighting, cooling or heating. Thisis especially beneficial to the LIGand EWS population which may

be unable to purchase appropriateappliances, especially to improvethermal comfort, due to financialconstraints.

The second part of theECBC-R will include strategiesfor sustainable mechanical sys-tems such as heating, cooling andrenewable energy systems.Including sustainable coolingtechnologies is key to reducingthe GHG footprint of buildings.Rising global temperature due to

climate change is forcing moreand more people to use air condi-tioners to achieve thermal com-fort in their homes. Almost 30%of electricity consumption inhomes is from air-conditioningmaking it one of the biggest con-tributors towards spikes in energyconsumption. Most refrigeratorsand air-conditioners containchemical refrigerants that have1,000 to 9,000 times greatercapacity to warm the atmosphere

compared to carbon dioxide. It isnecessary to phase out theserefrigerants and support climateresponsive sustainable coolingsystems. While use of air-condi-tioners in LIG and EWS housingunits is low currently, the numberis expected to increase in bothrural and urban areas by 2030.

ECBC-R (Part I) can bemade mandatory for all afford-able housing projects, whileECBC-R (Part II) can be made

voluntary. Sustainable mechanicaltechnologies can have high costand maintenance requirementsand should be provided based onproject-to-project suitability.PMAY can provide greater finan-cial benefits to projects adoptingECBC-R (Part- II).

While design interventionscan be integrated into projects atzero cost, material and technolo-gy interventions may result inincreased construction costs. It

will be necessary to reduce thefinancial burden on developers aswell as buyers. The governmentmust invest in research and test-ing for new materials and tech-nologies. Housing built throughthe ARHC schemes provide agreat opportunity to constructpilot projects as occupants do notinvest in the property directly.

It will also be necessary forthe government to simultaneous-ly roll out financial support pro-grams. Direct/indirect mecha-nisms need to be introduced toabsorb the extra costs of buildingsustainably. Increasing home loansubsidies with relaxations in GSTand taxes will incentivise con-struction of low carbon buildings.Housing schemes under PMAYwith green building certificationscan be awarded extra subsidiescoupled with stamp duty waiver.Strategic relaxation in FloorSpace Index (FSI) norms can helpreduce common infrastructuredevelopment costs. Developerscan use the excess budget to pro-vide energy efficiency measuresin their buildings.

Robust enforcement and highcompliance rate will be essentialto ensure the intended energysavings and GHG reductionsthrough this strategy. Regularevaluation and improvements tothe policy will help build trustamongst all stakeholders andinspire confidence in adoptingenergy efficiency strategies. Thiswill help us stay on track toachieve our carbon goals.

The writers are Anant Fellowsfor Climate Action

Upon entering the small,dimly lit but cheerfulorphanage inNizamabad, a smalltown located in the

south of India, eight years ago, Inoticed the pale faces of the childreninside. Four pairs of eyes were fixedon me while the lower half of theirbodies — which at first glanceseemed to me to be incrediblyscrawny — hid behind a corrodedmetal door separating the receptionarea from a large empty hall thatwould probably be repurposed fortheir dining or play through the day.The children in this orphanage wereborn out of illicit relationships in thecommunity, thus abandoned by theirbiological mothers, and all sufferedfrom AIDS.

“They have not received theirmedicines since the past 3 months,”informed Rajoo the founder of theorphanage, noticing my sadness atthe state of the children.

“Why not?” I asked, shocked. “The CSR manager of the com-

pany that provided the medicines hasbeen replaced. The new manager hasa different plan and so he directed thefunds to a set of other CSR initia-tives.”

Standing in the vacuous, win-dowless hall that was being hurried-ly now readied by Rajoo’s industri-ous staff for serving lunch to the fortytwo ailing but happy and clamorousorphans who were all gatheredaround me, I was convinced of thecolossal dangers to the little end-ben-eficiaries of whimsical ‘CSR initia-tives’.

Philanthropy done through spo-radic corporate social responsibilityinitiatives is common in developingcountries such as India, but is notsustainable. In FY 2019-20, an aston-ishing 20.33 per cent of listed Indiancompanies reported losses. In fact,19.65 per cent of Indian companieswho were profitable in Q4 2019-20reported losses in Q1 2020-21 as alikely direct consequence of thepandemic on the country’s economywhich will only worsen in FY 2022.This pushes down the legal liability

of these companies to financiallycontribute to any CSR at all this year.

However, only if these corpora-tions’ social initiatives are inter-twined with their business models,will the initiatives survive employeeturnover and financial losses of thecompany. The company’s procure-ment policies, supply chain manage-ment, production units, and distri-bution networks can be tweaked tobe more socially responsible.Similarly, services and products thatare harmful to society can be phasedout, ushering in those that help peo-ple while also being profitable.

For example, companies likethe Euro 24 billion Veolia earn rev-enues from water and waste manage-ment as well as energy services. TheEuro 9.26 billion Dutch State Mineshas moved out of the polluting busi-ness of coal mining and reinventeditself into a science-based company

active in nutrition, health and sus-tainable living. Similarly, in India,USD 4.2 billion Tata Power haspledged to transition from produc-ing thermal power to entirely renew-able sources of power by 2050.

This way, the company’s socialinitiatives can not be stopped lest itimpacts revenue generation. Howcan CEOs transform their companiesto do this?

���� ���To embed social responsibility in

a company’s operations, servicesand products, first employees atlarge need to be convinced that thisis the right thing to do. Only then willthey willingly implement the changesneeded across the company. Makeemployees feel that it was their ideato change.

For this, it is crucial that thecompany’s leadership deploys a con-

sultative process across teams forproposing the idea and then request-ing employees for their opinionabout it as well as suggestions for theroll out plan.

Not only is the process informa-tive, but also instils a sense of own-ership amongst employees of thechanges in the company that will fol-low. This will result in strongerimplementation by these employeesof the changes that will later be pro-posed by the leadership.

����Next, the transformative process

needs to be placed within a specificteam such as the strategy team, sus-tainability department, R&D or aresearch centre located within thecompany. All the changes neededwithin the company will emanatefrom this team.

However, often a common mis-

take corporations make is to inappro-priately locate this team within theorganisation by either banishing it toa lower down reporting line or to sitwithin the company’s corporatecommunications team, or strippingit of power in other ways. This givesout a signal to employees that anysocial good done by the company isnot important or is simply for imagebuilding.

Instead, the leadership needs toensure that the team responsible forthe transformation is em-powered,reports directly to the CEO, and isinvolved in all business and financialdecisions. This would requirechanges such as having a key employ-ee lead this team, inclusion of theteam within corporate governancestructures or even close physicalproximity of offices of this team tothe CEO.

���������Embedding social good within

operations, services and products ofa company requires teams to close-ly collaborate towards identifying keystakeholders, conducting a material-ity analysis, and implementing ini-tiatives that are driven by the resultsof the materiality analysis.Conducting a materiality analysisensures that social initiatives areimportant both to the business andstakeholders.

Teams across the company needto then collaborate with internal aswell as external entities to ensure thecontinued implementation and mon-itoring of the initiatives that result insocial good as well as revenues.

This often results in an align-ment of initiatives for business andsocial welfare. An example of acompany that successfully alignsbusiness interests, CSR, and philan-thropy is Piramal EnterprisesLimited, an Indian business con-glomerate earning revenues of �5,419crore in the last financial year. Thecompany’s CSR has a sharp focus oneducation and healthcare which alsomirrors the company’s main businessfocus on technology and healthcare.Beyond business and CSR, the pro-

moters of the company Ajay Piramaland his wife Dr. Swati Piramal areactively engaged in philanthropicactivities also in the fields of educa-tion and healthcare. This alignmentof business, CSR, and philanthropyon just 2 clear social goals is an effec-tive approach to ensure deep socialbenefits. Further, this has ensuredthat the social initiatives continueeven during the current economicdownturn as the company’s CSRspend for FY 20 remained unde-terred, amounting to 4.51% of itsaverage net profits of the 3 preced-ing financial years which more thandoubles up on the legally mandatedannual CSR spend.

In other cases, the transforma-tive process results in social respon-sibility being a generator of revenue.Micro-finance, employment ser-vices, affordable housing and variousbusinesses that cater to customers atthe bottom of the pyramid are someexamples. However, businesses thatmight cater to higher income groupsbut source directly from producers,or those who extend their servicesand add value to the smaller compa-nies in their supply chain, or work toeradicate the environmental pollu-tion caused by their operations andproducts, or work on cross subsidisedmodels to provide their products andservices at differentiated pricing tocustomers with different payingpower, are also positively contribut-ing to society. There are many busi-ness models that can usher in ben-efits to society as well as revenues.

Recently, on a trip to HyderabadI made my way by road to visitNizamabad again. Upon enquiring,the locals told me that Rajoo’sorphanage had long closed down dueto lack of regularity in funds. I won-dered what happened to the children.

The writer is the CEO ofSustain Labs, a company that trans-forms companies towards being sus-

tainable and profitable. She is theauthor of Indian Instincts: Essayson Freedom & Equality in India,

and a Global Leadership Fellow atthe World Economic Forum

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�� ��77 0���1���!/����6!�6!���/� �!��6� !%AThe Hague-based

International CriminalCourt (ICC) has ordered aninvestigation into the allegedwar crimes in the Palestinianterritories which were cap-tured by Israel in the historicSix Day War of 1967, whereinthe country has already start-ed settlement construction.

The ICC investigation willlook into “crimes that arealleged to have been commit-ted” since June 13, 2014 — thePalestinians chose June 2014 asthe start of the investigation tocoincide with the run-up toIsrael’s devastating Gaza warthat summer.

Way back in 2015, the ICCbegan a preliminary investiga-tion into the 2014 Gaza con-flict. In the month of June thatyear, the Palestinian Authority(PA) submitted evidence ofmassive war crimes by theIsraeli military. However, areport released by the UNhighlighted that there was evi-dence of war crimes by boththe Israeli military and theHamas, the Palestinian militantoutfit. According to UN esti-mates, over 2,200 Palestinians,including nearly 1,500 civilians,were killed by Israeli fire whileat least 67 soldiers and six civil-ians were killed on the Israeliside.

However, Israel has arguedthat it waged a war of self-defense against nonstop rock-et fire against its cities. Callingthe ICC decision to begin warcrimes probe “anti-Semitismand hypocrisy”, Israel PrimeMinister Benjamin Netanyahuhas said, “The state of Israel isunder attack… I promise youwe will fight for the truth untilwe annul this scandalous deci-sion.”

Netanyahu has accused theICC of “turning a blind eye toIran, Syria and the other dic-tatorships that are commit-ting real war crimes.”

The decision to launch theICC probe was taken by its out-going Chief Prosecutor FatouBensouda, a former GambianJudge. In February this year,Bensouda claimed that theICC had jurisdiction over thecase. Her preliminary probe in2019 has brought forth the factthat there is enough evidenceto open a war crimes case inthe West Bank, including EastJerusalem and Gaza Strip. Inone of her statements, she saidthat the investigation will lookinto crimes within the juris-diction of the court. She hasensured the international com-munity that the investigation

will be conducted “indepen-dently, impartially and objec-tively, without fear or favour”.

The massive task of thisinvestigation will be carried outby the ICC’s new ChiefProsecutor, leading Britishlawyer Karim Khan, who willreplace Bensouda in June thisyear. He currently heads a UNinvestigation into war crimescommitted by the Islamic Statein Iraq.

The ICC probe aims tofocus on two key areas aroundwhich Israeli Government’spolicies are involved: its con-tinued military offensivesagainst the Palestinian militantsin the Gaza Strip rocked by adevastating war in 2014 and itsexpansion of settlements inEast Jerusalem and West Bank.

These actions of Tel Avivhave been broadly highlightedby the PA in its report filed inthe ICC since its joining theCourt.

Though Palestine is not anindependent nation, it wasgranted non-member status inthe coveted UN GeneralAssembly in 2012. And thishelped Palestine to claim itsmembership in other crucialglobal institutions such as the

ICC. Ever since, Palestine hasbeen trying to convince theinternational community aboutits allegation of war crimes byIsrael.

Now interesting part ofthe probe announced by theICC is that Israel is not amember of the court. Also,Israeli Government outlinesthe fact that since Palestine isnot an independent state, theICC does not have any juris-diction over it.

However, the PA isextremely enthused with thelaunch of the ICC probe.

Nevertheless manyPalestine sympathisers are get-ting worked up as the ICC hasbeen painfully slow despitethe evidence of war crimes wasmentioned in the preliminaryreport by Bensouda.

The international courtproceedings involving suchcases might take a longercourse of action in comparisonto domestic trials.

Known popularly as‘KingBibi’, Netanyahu is adeptin handing the ICC probeissue. His followers call him,“The Magician”, “The Winner”,and “Melekh Yisrael” (i.e. Kingof Israel). Known for his anti-

solutionism, he tries to popu-larise the theory that Israel issurrounded by wolves insheep’s clothing and wolves inwolves clothing. It seemsNetanyahu favours status quoon the Palestine issue.

An equally reluctant Fatahand the Palestinian Authorityneed to come up with a realis-tic solution. The status quo hassupported the Fatah leadershipas it helped it to remain inpower. Even without creating aPalestinian state, the securitycooperation with Israel maysafeguard the PA from beingoverthrown by the Hamas.

In the past, when con-cerns were raised over warcrimes in Israeli occupied areas,attempts were made to detractfrom the seriousness of thecourt’s findings. Questionswere raised by Israel on theissue of statehood of Palestine,the legitimacy of the courtjurisdiction and their verypolitical appropriateness.

The then TrumpAdministration solidly backedthe Israeli Government on thisissue. Washington’s unwaveringsupport to Tel Aviv reflected inits direct attack on the ICC andits personnel as it rejected the

ICC’s authority over its citizensand territory, suspended visasto ICC personnel and theirfamilies, and condemned thePalestine investigation and anyother action that seeks to tar-get Israel unfairly.

Then Secretary of StateMike Pompeo constantlyreferred to the ICC as anembarrassing, political, rene-gade, unlawful, and a vehiclefor political vendettas, mas-querading as a legal body.Then President Trump issuedan executive order thatimposed sanctions over ICCprosecutor and investigators.

Many, particularly the leftliberals across the worldthought that with Joe Bidencoming to power, Washingtonwill reverse the previous courseof action. And eventually a newAmerica will be back.

However, the BidenAdministration that hasstressed on human rights anda multilateral approach to for-eign policy has stood behindIsrael, as American Presidentsdo.

Antony Blinken, hisSecretary of State, sharplyreacted to the ICC probe andsaid that the US firmly oppos-

es and is deeply disappointedat the court’s decision to opena war crimes investigation inthe occupied Palestinian terri-tories. He further stated thatthe ICC had no jurisdictionover this matter. Israel is not aparty to the ICC and has notconsented to the court’s jurisdiction and we have serious concerns about theICC’s attempts to exercise itsjurisdiction over Israeli personnel.

US State Departmentspokesman Ned Price said,“We firmly oppose and are dis-appointed by the ICC prose-cutor’s announcement of aninvestigation into thePalestinian situation.”

“We will continue touphold our strong commit-ment to Israel and its securityincluding by opposing actionsthat seek to target Israel unfair-ly,” Price told reporters inWashington.

This will surely encourageNetanyahu to ramp up cam-paign against the ICC decision.

To put an end to all thecontroversies, the duty ofincoming prosecutor Khan isto consider the probe as pure-ly a legal one.

After decades of struggle,the Palestinian people andtheir movement for self-deter-mination are heading nowhere.The right to self-determinationof the Palestinians and theirdream of an independent Statehave so far remained a loftygoal.

Frustrated, annoyed anddeprived of a credible interna-tional attention, thePalestinians are forced to setthe stage for basic buildingblocks for their survival. Allwhat they need is the very basicrights guaranteed by the UNDeclaration of Human Rightsof 1948, some 72 years ago.And it’s time for Israel torecognise and help establishingan independent PalestinianState.

Biden hiding under semi-Trumpism or any other USPresident, with a preset frame-work, will not be able to solvethe long conflict betweenPalestine and Israel. A two-State solution is the most ideal way to end thehostilities between the twoparties.

(The writer is an expert oninternational affairs)

Half a year after the UnitedArab Emirates and Bahrain

established diplomatic relationswith Israel, discreet Jewish com-munities in the Gulf Arab states thatonce lived in the shadow of theArab-Israeli conflict are adopting amore public profile.

Kosher food is now available.Jewish holidays are celebrated open-ly. There is even a fledgling religiouscourt to sort out issues such as mar-riages and divorces.

“Slowly, slowly, it’s improving,”said Ebrahim Nonoo, leader ofBahrain’s Jewish community, whichrecently hosted an online celebrationof the Purim holiday for Jews in theGulf Arab region.

Nonoo is among the founders ofthe Association of Gulf JewishCommunities, a new umbrellagroup for the tiny Jewish popula-tions in the six Arab monarchies ofthe Gulf Cooperation Council.Their goal is to win greater accep-tance of Jewish life in the region.

“It’s just going to take a bit oftime to seep through before we seea Jewish restaurant or a kosherrestaurant spring up from some-where,” said Nonoo, a former mem-ber of Bahrain’s parliament.

Even a modest online gatheringlike the Purim celebration wouldhave been unthinkable a few yearsago, when relations with Israel weretaboo and Jews kept their identitiesout of public view for fear of offend-ing their Muslim hosts.

That changed with last year’saccords between Israel and theUAE and Bahrain that brought

thousands of Israeli tourists andbusiness people to the region and ledto a fledgling industry of Jewishweddings and other celebrationsaimed at Israeli visitors. Emirati andBahraini authorities have launcheda public relations blitz to cultivatetheir image as Muslim havens ofinclusion and tolerance for Jews, instark contrast to regional rivalsSaudi Arabia and Iran.

“A door has been opened,” saidElie Abadie, the new senior rabbi ofthe Jewish Council of the Emirates.“I think there is more openness andmore welcome and enthusiasm forthe presence of a Jewish communi-ty or Jewish individuals or Jewishtradition and culture.”

The Lebanon-born Abadie, amember of the Association of GulfJewish Communities, said he iscertain the shift is taking placeacross the Gulf, not only in the UAE.

The association aims to providesupport and services for the smallJewish populations in Kuwait,Oman, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Qatarand the UAE. These might includekosher certifications for hotels,restaurants and food products, arabbinic court and pastoral guidancefor religious events like bar mitz-vahs, circumcisions and burials.

Their tiny Jewish populationsare almost all comprised of foreignnationals who have come to theregion for business. Only Bahrainhas a rooted Jewish community. Its80 or so members are descendantsof Iraqi Jews who arrived in the late19th century, seeking opportunity intrade.

The Jewish community in theUAE is the largest, with an estimat-ed 1,000 members. It is also one ofthe newest, and Abadie said he hasto “start things from scratch.”

Only about 200 are active mem-bers of the community. The rest, likemost Jews in Gulf Arab states, keepa low profile. Given the growingenthusiasm about Jewish life in theUAE, Abadie said he expects that“more of them will kind of come out

to the light.”Jewish communities had flour-

ished for centuries across the Islamicworld. For long periods, theyenjoyed a protected status, andoccasionally, as in medieval MuslimAndalusia, thrived in a golden ageof coexistence. Most of those com-munities vanished following Israel’sestablishment in 1948, when hun-dreds of thousands of Jews were dri-ven out or fled.

Given the large numbers ofPalestinians, Lebanese, Egyptiansand Pakistanis who live in the GulfArab countries, some Jews havebeen uncomfortable in recent yearsin sharing their religious identity inpublic. Residency permits in theUAE, for instance, require applicantsto state their religion, and “Jewish”is not an option.

Most Arab states have condi-tioned a normalization of diplomatic

ties with Israel on ending thedecades-long Israeli-Palestinianconflict, including the Israeli occu-pation of lands the Palestiniansseek for an independent state.

But recently, those attitudeshave eroded among some Arableaders, even as hostility towardIsrael — in part because of its poli-cies toward Palestinians — has per-sisted among their populations.

The Gulf Arab monarchies havea few scattered remnants of bygoneJewish communities, said JasonGuberman, executive director of theAmerican Sephardi Federation.

Saudi Arabia is home to sitesthat predate the advent of Islam inthe 7th century, and Bahrain, Kuwaitand Oman have old Jewish ceme-teries. The UAE emirate of Ras al-Khaimah is home to a solitaryJewish headstone, possibly from atraveling merchant — like most ofthe Jews arriving in Dubai today.

“Jews have been in the Gulf fora very long time, and now it’s kindof a return to this historical patternof people coming in for trade,”Guberman said, adding it was “veryexciting to see some of this returnof the pluralist past of the MiddleEast.”

Jean Candiotte, a TV directorfrom New York who has been inDubai for seven years, said the newatmosphere is liberating.

“We used to be this small, littlefamily of Jewish people. We wouldfind each other in hidden ways andeveryone thought they were the onlyone,” she said. “We were sensitive tothe fact that we were in a Muslim

country and didn’t know if everyonewas ready for us.”

“Now it feels quite the opposite,”she said. “I truly feel like I can bemyself here, more openly attendingceremonies and Jewish celebra-tions. Jewish life here is becomingmore like Jewish life anywhere else.”

Still, this new reality remainsfragile. Some countries have beenslower to change. Saudi Arabia andQatar have long been criticized forpromoting anti-Semitic attitudesin textbooks.

Security remains a concern, asillustrated by the recent attack on anIsrael-owned ship in the PersianGulf. Israel has blamed archenemyIran, and officials fear other Jewishand Israeli targets could be vulner-able. Many Jews in the region keeptheir religious identities a secret.

A Jewish businessman who haslived and worked in Oman for thepast several decades said he is oneof perhaps 20 Jews living in the sul-tanate.

He said the country has a moretolerant approach to religious diver-sity than its neighbors, but stillinsisted on anonymity because hewas concerned about repercussionsfrom local officials.

During the coronavirus pan-demic, he said that Zoom Sabbathservices organized by the JewishCommunity of the Emirates onFriday evenings have been a lifelinefor him. He said he hopes the newGulf communal organisation “willgenerate a feeling of a bit of securi-ty to come out of the closet, so tospeak.” AP

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It is not easy to remain unaffected bythe thoughts flowing through mind.To get over this, train to keep your

attention away from the thoughts chasingyou by giving auto suggestions if neces-sary. Over a period of time, all inconse-quential thoughts and feelings botheringyou may leave. This is not to suggest thatall thoughts and feelings would go out ofreckoning during this process. Still, theremay be many more left, parked at deeperlayers of mind, yet to surface up. Theywill be attended to during the later issues.Yet, you may be relatively calmer asthoughts and feelings bothering you inimmediate terms may no longer chaseyou from within.

To explain the concept underlyingthe above process, it becomes imperativeto share a story related to GautamBuddha. Once Buddha asked one of hisdisciples to fetch water from a nearbywater stream. When the discipleapproached the stream, he found that ananimal was crossing. So, water hadbecome muddy. Thinking that he cannotcarry dirty water to his Guru, the disciplecame back. After a while when Buddhaasked him for water, the discipleinformed that water was muddy and so

he came back empty handed. Buddhapointed that the mud would have settledand sent him back. When the discipleapproached the stream, he found thatthough a significant amount of mud hadsettled, but water was still not potable.Later, when he visited the water streamfor the third time, water had becomeclean, and so he fetched it for his Guru.

The mind’s flow is almost similar tothat of a running water stream. As youcross the water stream, the muck on thebed is stirred, following which, waterbecomes muddy. If you leave the waterflow undisturbed for a while, all the muckwill settle down and water will becomeclear once again. In mind, instead ofwater, thoughts keep continuously flow-ing. When unwanted and negativethoughts and feelings somehow intrudeyour thought plane, mind gets unnerved.If, however, you let the thoughts naturallyflow in and out without paying attentionto them, over a period of time they go outof reckoning.

The best part of the process is thatmind gets trained to have its attentioneffortlessly turned inwards for a consider-able period of time, and to a large extentalso remain disengaged from thoughts

knocking you from within.Mind-Detoxification: Having thus

created a favourable inner-climate, stageis set to move on to the Mind-Detoxification process. It is purposely sodesigned as to consciously invoke thethought-seeds parked in the deeper layersof the mind and resolve them. Themethod needs to be directly learnt froman expert. The broader principles, howev-er, are being laid down for the sake ofawareness. Here arises the role of Guru,who will give you a two syllable/wordssimple mantra. The mantra as such has tobe individual specific, identified by theGuru, based on the callings of yourinherent frame of mind.

A similar posture as adopted duringthe mind calming down process, is pre-ferred during Mind-Detoxification also.One can do it in sitting position also, butthe spinal-cord needs to be kept erect.Now close your eyes and turn your atten-tion inwards. The focus has to be on thebreath cycle — inhaling and exhaling.Slowly inhale deep (stomach shouldexpand/come out with large air intake)and then slowly exhale (the stomachshould go in as excessive air move out).Now begin reciting the mantra in your

mind/silently, one syllable/word whileinhaling and the other while exhaling, asdirected by the Guru.

Mantra as such has no religiousimplication; it actually has its energy con-notation. When you inhale deep, simulta-neously reciting opening syllable of themantra, one draws extra life-forces fromnature. That triggers the inlaid memoryimprints registered in energy-format —meaningful ones as positive energy andunseemly ones as negative energy. Thechurning that follows tries to expel nega-tive imprints, bringing into focus host ofdistracting thoughts. The vibration of thesecond syllable helps drive away the neg-ative energy. Continue this practice for atleast 20 minutes.

One will be flooded with thoughtsduring this process. They, however arethe ones parked at deeper layer of mind.These thoughts will reflect definite pat-terns, which may throw light on yourinherent habit tendencies. Becomingaware thus, you could make amendsthrough fresh educative inputs.

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