English News Paper | Breaking News | Latest Today News in ...€¦ · Bahrain and Riyadh so far. The flights landed in on Saturday are from the UAE, Kuwait, ... Mamata Banerjee of

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Kerala’s joy over the “flat-tening” of the coronavirus

curve on the 100th day of thereporting of the first case in theState received setback as twopersons who landed in Kochiand Kozhikode airports fromthe Gulf tested positive for thepandemic on Saturday. This hashappened despite all screeningand checks of the evacueesbefore the repatriation.

“A passenger who reachedKozhikode from Dubai andanother person who arrived atKochi from Abu Dhabi onMarch 7 by the Vande Bharatflights tested positive and bothof them have been admitted tothe nearest hospitals,” saidKerala Chief Minister PinarayiVijayan during his daily mediabriefing on Saturday.

While the passenger wholanded at Kochi, a 23-year-oldmale hailing from Malappuramdistrict has been admitted forobservation at KalamasseryMedical College near the air-port, the other person who test-ed positive had reachedKozhikode airport from Dubai.He too has been admitted anearby specialty hospital forobservation and treatment,said Vijayan.

Otherwise the Stateretained its zero-Covid-19 sta-tus as there were no freshcases detected on Saturday.

“Though a person had beenadmitted to hospital in Idukkidistrict on Friday, tests provedthat he has no coronavirusinfection and hence he was dis-charged,” said the ChiefMinister.

The Air India flights fromDubai and Abu Dhabi whichwere deployed for bringingback the expatriates were ledand managed by speciallytrained pilots and cabin crew.The pilots and cabin crew weregiven special training for aweek at Kalamassery MedicalCollege.

Passengers who reachedKochi and Kozhikode airportshave been quarantined at spe-cially prepared hostel rooms.According to the details fur-nished by Vijayan, till Saturday505 persons have been testedpositive for corona virus.

“There are 17 personsundergoing treatment in vari-ous hospitals in the State. Wehave put 23.930 persons underobservation. Out of this 23,596persons have been quaran-tined at their own homes and334 persons have been admit-ted to hospitals,” said the ChiefMinister.

Vijayan cautioned the peo-ple that though the coron-avirus curve has been flat-tened in the State, utmost carehas to be continued in the com-ing days as more and morepeople from West Asia as well

as other north Indian Stateswould be reaching Kerala.

Meanwhile, the Air Indiaon Saturday brought back 129Indians stranded to Delhi fromDhaka. This was the secondflight from Dhaka under theVande Bharat Mission. Anotherflight with 177 passengers isexpected to land in Kochi fromMuscat.

As many as 1,741 Indians,including 21 infants, havereturned home in the pastthree days from Abu Dhabi,

Dubai, Singapore, Dhaka,Bahrain and Riyadh so far. Theflights landed in on Saturdayare from the UAE, Kuwait,Bangladesh, Oman andMalaysia. They are expected totouch down in New Delhi,Lucknow, Chennai, Hyderabadand Trichy.

Till Friday, 1,441 Indiansincluding eight infants, werebrought back on two Air Indiaand four flights of Air IndiaExpress.

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The Centre and the WestBengal Government are

engaged in a fresh face-offafter Home Minister AmitShah accused Chief MinisterMamata Banerjee of red-flag-ging the special Shramik trainscarrying migrant workers fromentering her State.

In a letter to the ChiefMinister, Amit Shah said theTrinamool Government wasn’tallowing trains to reach Bengaland warned this would makelife even harder for them.

Hours after Shah’s letter,the Trinamool Congressexploded calling Shah a “ped-dler of lies.”

“He is peddling bundles oflies,” said TMC MP and ChiefMinister’s nephew AbhishekBanerjee asking the HomeMinister to prove his allega-

tions or seek apology.Saying that Bengal’s apathy

towards its migrant workerswill only aggravate their con-dition, Shah in his letter wrotethat the Central Governmentwas “facilitating (the return ofthe migrant labourers) but weare not getting expected sup-port from the StateGovernment. This is injusticewith the migrant labourers.This will create further hard-ship for them, as the workersare eager to return to theirhomes.”

Within hours the juniorBanerjee hit back wonderingwho was responsible for thecurrent state of affairs and forwhose lack of foresight thedreaded disease could enterIndia. Later he tweeted, “AHM failing to discharge hisduties during this crisis speaksafter weeks of silence, only tomislead people with bundle oflies!” adding “Ironically he’stalking about the very peoplewho have been literally left tofate by his own Govt.”

He said Shah should provehis charges or apologise. Proveyour fake allegations or apolo-gise (sic),” he wrote.

The TMC leadership alsowondered how a letter writtento the Chief Minister found itsway to the media before reach-ing its actual destination.

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There seems to be no respitefor India from Covid-19 as

cases mounted to 62,808 onSaturday with 2,101 deaths.Maharasthra remained theworst hit States with 20,228cases and 779 deaths, whileGujarat occupied the secondspot with 7,797 cases and 472deaths.

The health authorities inMaharashtra went into a tizzyon Saturday, as the Staterecorded highest-ever day’sfatality of 48 deaths and regis-tered a phenomenal 1,165 newcases. Gujarat chipped in 394cases and 24 deaths. The daysaw a record number of 115deaths across India.

Of the total deaths inMaharashtra, Mumbaiaccounted for 27 deaths, whilethere were nine deaths in Puneand eight in Malegaon. Onedeath each was reported fromPune district, Akola, Nandedand Amravati.

The eight deaths reportedfrom Malegaon took placebetween the period of April 25and May 8. With the new 27deaths, the total number ofdeaths in Mumbai has risen to

489, while the total number ofinfected cases has jumped to12,864.

Meanwhile, theBrihanmumbai MunicipalCorporation (BMC) in an advi-sory issued on Saturday urgedthe people not to panic andasked “all positive coronapatients” who do not havesymptoms not rush to the bighospitals for admission whenthe test result is positive.

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As coronavirus cases in Indiacrossed 61,000 on

Saturday, the Union HealthMinistry tweaked the guide-lines for discharge of Covid-19patients subject to clinical con-dition, a move aimed to easethe burden on the medicalfacilities which are anticipatedto gradually overwhelm withserious infections.

The Government is alreadygrappling with the safety of thehealthcare workers who arealso bearing the brunt of thedeadly pandemic.

As per the revised guide-lines, there will be no need fortesting prior to discharge of thepatients admitted with verymild, mild and pre-sympto-matic cases to a Covid CareFacility.

As per the earlier guide-lines issued on April 28, 2020

when the reported cases werearound 29,400, the patient hadto test negative twice for Covid-19 before being discharged.

“They will undergo regulartemperature and pulse oxime-try monitoring. The patient canbe discharged after 10 days ofsymptom onset and no feverfor 3 days. There will be no

need for testing prior to dis-charge. The patient will beadvised to follow the home iso-lation for further 7 days,” as perthe policy. If they developsymptoms of fever, cough orbreathing difficulty again, theymust contact the Covid CareCentre State helpline or 1075.

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Putting an end the rumoursabout his health making

rounds on social media, HomeMinister Amit Shah onSaturday declared that he ishealthy and is not sufferingfrom any disease.

“I want to clarify today thatI am perfectly healthy and I donot have any disease,” Shah saidin a detailed note on Twitter.The Home Minister said for thepast few days there have beenrumours about his health onsocial media and “some eventweeted praying for my death.”

Shah said he did not payattention to these rumours ashe was busy in the coron-avirus pandemic preventionand rehabilitation relatedworks.

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The EnforcementDirectorate (ED) on

Saturday attached assets worth�16.38 crore in the form of anine-storey building with twobasements in Mumbai in amoney laundering case relatingto Associated Journals Limitedand its chairman MotilalVohra.

The market value of theproperty is estimated at �120crore, sources said.

“The attachment order wasissued against the AssociatedJournals Limited and Moti LalVora, Chairman-Cum-Managing Director of theAssociated Journals Limited,”the Directorate said in a statement.

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The Gautam Buddh NagarPolice has requested Air

India to station its Noida andGreater Noida-resident crewmembers, engaged in “VandeBharat Mission” to fly backIndians stuck up abroad amidthe Covid-19 lockdown, inDelhi itself for the period ofthe operation, officials said.

The request has beenmade because Gautam BuddhNagar, adjoining Delhi, falls in‘Red Zone’ and the to-and-fromovement of the flight crewmay increase the risk of thespread of coronavirus infec-tion, the officials said.

Gautam Buddh Nagar hasrecorded 214 positive cases ofcoronavirus including 2deaths, and is one of the worstCovid-hit districts in UP.

Additional Commissionerof Police Shriparna Gangulisaid following a Union HomeMinistry directive, and anoth-er one from the Ministry ofHealth, a request has beenmade to Air India’s Chairman-cum-Managing Director RajivBansal to follow the standardoperating procedures issuedby the MHA on May 5.

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New Delhi: The IndianRailways has operated 302‘Shramik Special’ trains sinceMay 1 and ferried home about3.4 lakh migrants stranded invarious parts of the countryamid the coronavirus-inducedlockdown, officials of theRailway Ministry said.

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Hundreds of migrant work-ers came onto the streets

and clashed with the police ata village in Surat district ofGujarat on Saturday to demandthat they either be sent back totheir home States or allowed toresume work at local industri-al units to earn money, policesaid.

The police resorted to lath-icharge and fired tear gas to dis-perse the angry migrants work-ers. Over a 100 workers weredetained in this connection, anofficial said.

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Noida: A 62-year-old mandied due to coronavirus inNoida, becoming the secondCovid-19 fatality in UttarPradesh’s Gautam BuddhNagar district.

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� What is your role in Ek Thi Begum?This story is from the late 80s and the

early 90s when the underworld was at itspeak. I play Ashraf Bhatkar aka Sapna. Theentire story revolves around her as herjourney from a normal lady to one who isseeking for revenge is shown. Her husbandwas killed by an underworld don that iswhy she chose the path of revenge. � What all preparations did you have todo for the role?

I have never portrayed a character likethis before, so it was definitely exhausting.There are many shades in Ashraf ’scharacter and I had to explore the depthsof it. I had many discussions with SachinDarekar, the writer-director of the series.It was important for me and him to be onthe same page. I wanted to follow hisvision, we had lots of workshops and triedto take out all the things between the lines.It took a lot of homework actually andthat’s how we went ahead with the process.� Do you think there is a need to bringmore such stories at the forefront?

Definitely. What we have seen or heardis that underworld was man dominated.However, I believe that there are many suchwomen who in that era also became thepolice informers and came at the forefront.There was a lot of power to women evenback then. It is important that we showpeople that women were no less. We doneed such content. � What kind of rapport do you sharewith your co-actors?

I have worked with most of the actorson the sets. For Ankit Mohan, who playsmy husband. He is a friend but we nevergot a chance to work together. It was afantastic experience. Everybody has puttheir 100 per cent in the characters theyare playing. When you are working witha bunch of people, then it is more of a teamwork. It is no longer a story about aparticular person rather it is a compilationof everyone’s story. And Sachin, he has puta lot of efforts in the series. I have nevergot a chance to work with him, though hewas the writer of one of my shows. Theexperience if for a lifetime.� How was the environment on thesets?

It was always fun. Obviously notwhen we are shooting an emotionalsequence because it takes a little while toget out of that moment but otherwise it wasan extremely positive environment on thesets which is why our work became all themore fun.� From Radhabai to now AshrafBhatkar, you have played the roles of

women of substance. What attracts youto these roles?

It is the strength inside me may be. Ihave been fortunate that I have beengetting to do so much of work and suchkind of characters.

It is my inner strength that I like toportray such characters. I can connect withall the characters that I have playedbecause there was some common trait.Also all the roles have been different. Anyactor would die for such roles. Till now, Ihave never played a naive character orsomeone who don’t have a spine. I enjoydoing such type of characters.� How did your first show Tamannahappen with you?

I auditioned for it almost five times forthat show. Then I got a call from the team,but still it was not finalised. There was a

50-50 chance. I was hoping to get the role.And when it happened, I knew that it wasan opportunity where I have to provemyself to myself ki main yeh kar sakti hun.I am glad that it happened because itopened a lot of doors for me.� What kind of roles would you like toexperiment with?

I don’t mind playing similar kind ofcharacters as long as I am getting to showmy strength. Also, I would like to explorethe side of mine which I haven’t till nowlike I said I have never played a naive ora bichari character. But my inclination willcontinue to be towards strong characters.� What is there in the pipeline?

There are some projects but I am notallowed to talk about it right now. Onceeverything will fall in place, I will share thedetails.

Believe it or not, besides Mother’sDay, Father’s Day, Valentine’s Dayand a slew of other days, there is

a National Paranormal Day. It iscelebrated on May 3 and people areencouraged to come together and sharetheir eerie stories and or experiences.But given the present situation —COVID-19 lockdown — the gettogether is not be possible. So how thenext best thing? Watch ghosts come aliveon your small screen.

“There is a reason why we love tohear or see shows and films that relateto the paranormal. We have all grownup listening to bhoot ki kahanis from ourgrandparents: ‘Ki aisa usne dekha thha’.That fascinates us. Just like those whoare addicted to sci-fi movies and wantto believe in aliens, we have out ourhome-grown bhoots,” Mayank Mishrasays, who has been playing the ghost forthe last one year on the show. He tellsyou that he has forgotten how manydifferent ghosts he has played till nowsince one rolls into another.

He tells you that it was his dream toplay a ghost since he was a kid. “Whilegrowing up, we each dream of becomingor doing something. Since I had alwayswanted to be an actor my dream role wasto play ghost and today, I am living it.It is interesting to play a bhoot. It is unlikeplaying any other character. There is somuch more than just role play. Since eachepisode has a different ghost, I need togive it a different look, walk and voice.I do a lot of study and watch shows andfilms around the genre to try and seehow I can improve on the creature thatI have to play. Then there is the wholetime spent in getting the prosthetics andmake-up and wearing a costume thatweighs over 10 kg and spend the next12 hours in that get up and then shots.It is extremely challenging but I love it,”Mishra tells you.

Though Mishra may have playedover 25 so far and counting, there are twocreatures that he loved playing. One wasthe episode he which he played the iceman. “There was something sointeresting to play a creature that wascovered in white from top to bottom and

coming out of a fridge. The other wasChanda mama, the moon ghost. Thiswas nice since the kids loved what I havedone here,” Mishra tells you whosefavourite Bollywood ghost movies asRaaz, 1921 and IT (Hollywood).

Nitica Kanwar, one of the writerswho came on board for the show tellsyou that one of the biggest challenges thatcome with writing a monster story asopposed to any other story is how it isdifferent from what one has donebefore. “One has to be more creative,imaginative and think out of the box.Every story that you have has to bringin a new element, not seen before. So thatpeople, when they come back, have anew creature and a new ghost. It isdefinitely challenging and a lot morefun,” Kanwar says who came on boardwhen the show had more of creatures,monsters and bent towards fantasyrather than ghosts.

She tells you that when you write forsuch shows, a lot of research has to gointo studying if there was any folkloreassociated with what you are writing

about or if there was a mention inmythology. “One doesn’t want to createa monster or a creature that doesn’t existor impossible to imagine,” Kanwar says.While it may not always be possible togo out and create a Marvel on TV, whatis not lacking is the talent to write scaryfantasy stories. One has to see if what Ihave written can be executed. The firstconcern is that the creature doesn’tappear to be tacky. We have to see if onecan shoot it was the graphics and VFXlevel. Also, horror/fantasy as a genre hasnot been explored much and in theindustry and that brings in its ownchallenges. It involves a lot of work aswell,” Kanwar says. It takes her aroundtwo-three days to write story before theprocess of positive feedback from thechannel and the producer beings beforethe story is finalised.

Hemant R Prabhu, tells you thatworking with horror/fantasy genre is apassion for him and not only has heproduced 13 episodes of the show, hehas directed most o them. For him thereare two biggest challenges. First, to keep

the audience thrilled enough so that theydon’t surf. Second, revolves around thelook of the monster. “There is so muchsoftware out there. Every story has to bedifferent and new look,” Prabhu says.

Directing comes easy to him sincemost of back-end works in taken careof before the episode goes on the floor.“Most of the work is beforehand. A lotof homework is done. Pre-productionmeetings take care of any other wrinklesthat may come up,” Prabhu says.

Jitu Mhatre, the man behind theprosthetics and make-up who has givenface to 90 per cent of the monsters tellsyou that the biggest challenge he facesis to deliver things on time. “We aregiven only three-four days to come upwith the look that is finalised. This takesa lot of time and effort and a slew ofpeople. We also have to ensure that themonster even though scary is notyucky. People should be scared notrepulsed with the monster. This iswhat attracts people to horror genre; thefact that we have come up with a newlook that has not been seen before,”Mhatre explains.

Then there is the VFX and thechallenges that for a show on ghosts.Sarika who is behind the camera andensures that the ghost does all scary stufflike fly and appear and disappear in lessthan a fraction tells you that while themake-up artist will give the look, it is notalways possible to have a perfect lookingghost or a monster. This is where theVFX people step in and ensure that theghost does what it does best — scare thejeebies out of you.

“Even after the prosthetics artist hasdone his job, it has limitations. He can’tmake the eyes glow nor can he make thearms or the entire body twist and turnat a horrible angel that will scare you.That is where we step in. The CG cando so much more. Even if it a smallscene, it can create that scare quotient.This adds to the thrill factor for the fansof horror genre and they love it. Theyalso want to know what new we haveto offer to them that will add to thewhole experience of watching a reallyscary show,” Sarika says.

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Girl Stop Apologizing by Rachel Hollis: This oneis so empowering and great that it will make youdouble down and start checking off every thing onyour 2020 goals list.

In this title she challenges women to stoptalking thermselves out of their goals and dreamsand live out their life instead of feeling traped intotheir mother/wife/best friend etc roles they havedefined for themselves.

Mom Up: Thriving with Grace in the chaos ofMotherhood by James, Kara-Kae: Being a momis hard and mothers every where know it. we allthink we are failing at this job, but we aren’t. Thebook aims yo help moms stop merely survivingtheir motherhood journey and start thriving. Thebook focuses on intentional motherhood,emphasises the importance of rest and how toembrace the chaos.

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With the addition of fresh224 Covid-19 cases on

Saturday, the total number ofcorona positive stood at 6,542.

Delhi Heath Departmenton Saturday in its report men-tioned that no single coronadeath was reported between 4pm till 11:59 pm while theactive cases in Delhi are 4,454with 68 death toll.

The State health depart-ment has done cumulative test-ing of 84,226 people till May 8.

As per the data of Delhicorona specialised hospitals -505 corona patients admitted inLNJP , 118 in RGSSH,25 inLHMC, 55 and 114 patientsadmitted in RML and SJHwhile 350 patients detained inAIIMS ( Delhi and Jhajjarbranches).

In private hospitals ofDelhi, Apollo has 83 patients,Max and Ganga Ram have 82and 85 corona patients.

Delhi Heath Minister

Satyender Jain took a meetingthrough video conferencing toreview the status of Covid-19.Secretary Home Affairs,Government of India also par-ticipated in the meeting.

“A meeting of EmpoweredGroup was held to discuss thevarious issues related to plan-ning and ensuring implemen-

tation of Covid-19 responseactivities. An order has beenissued regarding providingtreatment /quarantine facilitiesto Covid-19 positive offi-cers/officials of Govt. of NCTof Delhi, Autonomous Bodies,Corporations and Local Bodiesand their family members atthree designated hotel premis-es. RGSSH will provide Covid-19 health care facilities at thesepremises,” a senior DelhiGovernment official said.

According to Delhi gov-ernment officials, an order hasbeen issued regarding appoint-ing representatives of ChiefMinister, to Covid-19 testingcenters (CTC) also to manageand resolve individual griev-ances of patients and Medicalstaff.”

The Delhi Governmenthas been issued an order forconstituting an Enquiry com-mittee to look into the variousaspects of major discrepanciesin the reports of Dr. Lal PathLab.

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The Delhi Congress has sub-mitted a list of 7,299

migrant labour stranded inthe National Capital due tonationwide lockdown to theDelhi Government requestingit to arrange for their trans-portation to send the strandedworkers to their native place.

Party Delhi unit presidentChaudhary Anil Kumaraccused the Delhi Governmentfor taking false credit of payingfor the train fares of themigrant labour. Kumardemanded reimbursementfrom the States, saying thatthere is no need to indulge insuch a charade as DelhiCongress had already expressedits readiness to pay for the trainfares of the migrants.

The Congress presidentfurther said that the party will

start its next phase of the sani-tisation maha abhiyan“Congress Ke Sipahi, KarengeCorona Ki Dhulai” fromSunday mostly at outside liquorshops, mother dairy outlets,ration (PDS) shops and schoolswhere meals are being servedto the poor people.

He also accused the gov-ernment for not doing anysanitization drive in thesecrowded areas despite the ever-rising number of Corona casesin the Capital.

Kumar said that the DelhiGovernment has created a vir-tual death-trap outside liquorshops as no lockdown rules arebeing followed. “The DelhiGovernment has beenindulging in black marketingand profiteering through thesale of liquor which may resultin community spreading ofthe disease.

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South Delhi MunicipalCorporation (SDMC) has

decided to reopen all its AyushCentres from Tuesday for thegeneral public to distributeimmune booster medicinesfrom its 40 centres.

A senior SDMC officialsaid that a team of 53 Ayushdoctors and 53 paramedicalstaff will be deployed at all cen-tres across four zones to pro-vide the free consultation andmedicines to the patients.

In all the 40 centres,Ayurvedic Immune boostermedicines will be made avail-able and distributed to the cit-izens, the official said, addingthat all these centres will func-tion from 9 am to 3 pm fromMonday to Saturday.

The official said that thedepartment has already dis-tributed Ayurvedic immunebooster medicines to the DelhiPolice including 5000 combi-nation of Dashamoola Khand(250gm) and Haridra Khand(100 gm) were provided to theSouthern Range of the DelhiPolice.

These medicines will boostthe immunity and physicalstrength of the police person-nel deployed at the frontlineagainst this national pandem-ic, he added.

The civic body had dis-tributed Ayurvedic medicinesto 32360 Corona worriers infirst phase and more medicineswill be provided to other staffas well.

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The Delhi Sikh GurudwaraManagement Committee

(DSGMC) on Saturdayannounced an insurance coverof �2 lakh to all its employeesin case of death due to the life-threatening coronavirus.

“DSCMC will provide aninsurance cover of �2 lakh forall its 2500 front line workerswho are in the frontline of thebattle against the coronavirusthreat. They are providing lan-gar (free community meals),sanitation, transport and otherservices at various locations inDelhi and extending helpinghand and support to various

agencies engaged in the fightagainst Coronavirus,”Manjinder Singh Sirsa, presi-dent of DSCMC.

Besides, the Committee istaking care of accommodation

and food for around 200 doc-tors, nurses etc involved intreating Corona affectedpatients, he said, adding that ithas also provided free accom-modation to front line Corona

warriors like doctors, the para-medical staff of various gov-ernment hospitals like AIIMS,RML, Safdarjung hospitals.

Elaborating it further, hesaid that life insurance schemewould cover all including san-itation staff, langar cooks, raagis(religious preachers), securitystaff and other front lineGurdwara workers employedwith the distribution of langardistribution and sanitation ser-vices etc at various locations.

Sirsa said that the decisionto provide life insurance coverto all these employees is a stepto say thanks to them for theirservice during Covid-19 pandemic.

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New Delhi Municipal Council(NDMC) on Saturday

donated �1.50 crore in the PMCares Fund to fight against coro-navirus.

A senior NDMC officialsaid that the one day basic salaryand dearness allowances wascontributed voluntarily byapproximately 15,000 employees(regular and others) for fundingmeasures taken to contain thespread of corona virus in thecountry.

“A cheque of �1,50,22, 251was presented to Minister ofState for Home Affairs G KishanReddy by Chairman of NDMCDharmendra in presence ofAdditional Secretary (UT) MHA

Govind Mohan, SecretaryNDMC Amit Singla and finan-cial advisor of NDMC PushkalUpadhyay,” he said.

The civic body is also simul-taneously fighting vigorously tocontain the spread of Covid-19in its area through various health,sanitation, sanitisation, medicaland welfare activities and takenmeasures as per guidelines of theCentral Government, he added.

Even during lockdown, theNDMC is providing all munic-ipal services to its residents andimportant offices, buildings ofcentral government as well asdiplomatic missions in theirjurisdiction during lockdownperiod through its dedicatedteam of officers and employees,he said.

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A23-year-old woman alleged-ly committed suicide at the

AIIMS hospital following thedeath of her mother's death dueto cancer at the hospital. Policesaid that the body of the womanfound on Saturday inside thehospital premises, they said.

"Her mother was a cancerpatient. She was being treated atthe hospital and had died duringthe treatment on Wednesday,"said Atul Kumar Thakur, theDeputy Commissioner of Police(DCP), South district.

"Her father was doing theformalities when she left the area.She was also reported missingsince Wednesday. The familyhails from Moradabad district ofUttar Pradesh," said police offi-cial privy to investigation.

"The body was recoveredfrom near new private wardblock of the hospital. She jumpedfrom the building and commit-ted suicide. A hospital staff sawher and informed police. Theblock was closed due to whichnobody saw her body tillSaturday," he said.

Police said she called herfriends and told them that shewill commit suicide. "The bodyhas been recovered and pro-ceeding is underway," said police.

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The Delhi Police havebooked a for allegedly

obstructing public servant anddamaging public property ineast Delhi's Kalyanpuri area.The incident, which took placeon Friday, was captured in avideo and circulated on socialmedia.

In the video, a shirtlessman can been in drunk stateand obstructing a police gypsy."He repeatedly bangs on itswindscreen and made a crackon it. People are trying to takehim out of the way, but herefuses and stands in front ofthe gypsy," as per video.

According to JasmeetSingh, the Deputy

Commissioner of Police(DCP), East district, the inci-dent took place on Friday andpolice have arrested theaccused.

"On Friday around 4.30 pmin Trilokpuri area. Accusedidentified as Harkesh has beenarrested. He was drunk at thetime of the incident," said theDCP.

"A case under sections 186(obstructing public servant indischarge of public functions),332 (voluntarily causing hurt todeter public servant from hisduty), 353 (assault or criminalforce to deter public servantfrom discharge of his duty) anddamage to public property actregistered as PS Kalyanpuri,"the DCP added.

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In wake of the coronavirusoutbreak, the Delhi Police

Commissioner, SN Shrivastavahas issued orders of 'StandardOperating Procedures' (SOPs)for daily health monitoring ofits personnel.

According to the orderissued on May 7, in case ofmedical emergencies or a sus-pected case of Cronavirus, theStation House Officer (SHO) orinspector in-charge of the con-cerned unit will be responsiblefor taking the police personnelto a doctor.

"If required, the test shouldbe organised and the personshould be hospitalised or sentin home-quarantine on doc-tor's opinion. The SHOs shallsensitise staff during the morn-ing briefing on procedures tobe followed," the order furtherstated.

"If any person complains offever or breathlessness, thepolice official and personnelshould be taken to the nearestfacility with Covid-19 testingand emergency facilities," thestated the orders.

"AIIMS, Apollo, Safdarjunghospital, Ram Manohar Lohia,Lok Nayak Jai Prakash, Deen

Dayal Upadhyay and RajivGandhi Super Speciality -- arethe hospitals for the treatmentof the officials The JointCommissioners and theDeputy Commissioners ofPolice will be responsible foreffective training and imple-mentation of the SOPs," theorder added.

Recently, a Delhi Policeconstable Amit Kumar, a resi-dent of Sonipat in Haryana,who was posted at NorthwestDelhi's Bharat Nagar policestation, had died after his col-leagues took him to hospitals,but the doctors refused toadmit him. The constable'sdeath was first in Delhi Policedue to the novel coronavirus.

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New Delhi: Six policemen ofKhajuri Khas police station inNorth East Delhi have testedpositive for coronavirus infec-tion, an official said onSaturday.

The infected policemenare of the ranks of constablesand head constables, he said,adding that they tested positivein last couple of days.

They have been admittedto hospitals.

The area assistant com-missioner of police and KhajuriKhas station house officer aretaking precautions and haverestricted themselves to self iso-lation, a senior police officersaid.

In North East district, total10 policemen have tested coro-

na-positive. They include sixfrom Khajuri Khas, two fromWelcome and one each fromJyoti Nagar and Jafrabad policestations, the officer said.

Elsewhere in Delhi, a con-stable posted at the MandirMarg police station had testedpositive for Covid-19 on Friday.

The police station bar-racks, where the constablestayed, was sealed. He has beenput in isolation and 11 morepolice personnel have beenquarantined at separate places.

Delhi PoliceCommissioner S N Shrivastavaon Friday had approved cre-ation and monitoring of aWhatsApp group of all DelhiPolice personnel who havebeen tested positive for Covid-

19. "A DCP-rank officer has

been asked to supervise thefunctioning of staff monitoringthe ‘Let's Fight Covid-DP'WhatsApp group which coor-dinates the grievances of coro-na-infected police personnel,who are either hospitalized orare in isolation.

"This has been necessitat-ed because of the increasingnumber of Covid-19 positivepersonnel and the need todeploy some more staff toattend helpline number as wellas monitoring the WhatsAppGroup in order to enable griev-ance redressal of the Covid-positive personnel," the orderread.

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New Delhi: A plea seekinglinking of a metro card or tokenwith a commuter's addressproof was not entertained by theDelhi High Court as no repre-sentation about the issue hadbeen made to the DMRC beforemoving the court. A Bench ofjustices Manmohan and SanjeevNarula disposed of the plea, butgave petitioners liberty to movea representation before theDelhi Metro Rail Corporation(DMRC) on the issues raised inthe plea.

In case the petitionersmove a representation to theDMRC, it is supposed to dis-pose of the plea within fourweeks by a reasoned order aftertaking inputs from authoritiesconcerned. PTI

New Delhi: The DelhiGovernment has so far issuedaround 4.75 lakh e-tokens tobuy liquor in the national cap-ital, an official said on Saturday.

Under the e-token system,customers are given specifictime for purchasing alcohol sothat there is no violation ofsocial distancing norms bypeople queuing up outsideliquor stores.

The e-token is sent onmobile phones of registeredpeople. The new system wasintroduced on Thursday in thewake of long queues outsideliquor vends and people notfollowing social distancingnorms there.

The Delhi government hasallowed around 200 liquor

shops to operate in the city."The government has so farissued around 4.75 lakh e-token since Thursday eveningto people to buy liquor without

standing in long queues," theofficial said.

People willing to get e-token can apply through a weblink www.Qtoken.In wherethey are allotted specific timefor purchasing liquor after theyfill personal details.

According to the official,the e-token system is main-taining social distancing andcutting down on waiting timein long queues by specifyingtime for each e-coupon hold-er to buy liquor at a shop.

People are required to fur-nish address of liquor shop intheir area along with theirmobile number and otherdetails, while applying for e-token on the web link.

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New Delhi:Amid a spurt incoronavirus cases in the nation-al capital, the Delhi Governmenthas roped in three more privatehospitals with a total of 150 bedsto treat Covid-19 patients.

In an order issued onSaturday, Delhi Health SecretaryPadmini Singla declared Fortis inShalimar Bagh, Saroj MedicalInstitute in Sector 19, Rohini andKhushi Hospital in Dwarka foradmitting confirmed or sus-pected cases.

The decision was taken dueto the "shortage of isolationbeds in private hospitals", teorder read.

The three hospitals will have

50 isolation beds each. Medicalsuperintendents of these hospi-tals have been directed to makethe isolation facility functionalbefore Monday.

On April 30, Singla haddeclared Maha Durga CharitableTrust Hospital and Sir GangaramCity Hospital as Covid-19 hos-pitals.

LNJP Hospital, RajivGandhi Super Speciality hospi-tal, Sir Gangaram KolmatHospital and Max Hospital inSaket are some of the Covid-19dedicated facilities in Delhi,where 6,318 people have testedpositive for the disease and 68died till Friday. PTI

New Delhi: Confusion pre-vailed over the number ofdeaths due to coronavirus inthe national Capital, with datafrom four hospitals showingthat 92 people succumbed tothe infection as against 68fatalities reported by the DelhiGovernment.

The toll of 68 shared by theDelhi Government in its healthbulletin on Friday is based on

data collected from 10 hospi-tals, including AIIMS,Safdarjung Hospital, RamManohar Lohia (RML)Hospital and Lady HardingeMedical College.

According to the bulletin,AIIMS (Delhi and Jhajjar)reported two deaths,Safdarjung Hospital reportedfour, RML 26 and LadyHardinge Medical College hadnone till Friday.

However, officials fromthese hospitals said the numberof people who died due to coro-navirus in the national Capitaltill Friday is higher than thatreflected in the DelhiGovernment's bulletin.

AIIMS (Delhi Trauma

Centre and Jhajjar) has record-ed a total of 14 deaths, an offi-cial said.

According to All IndiaInstitute Of Medical Sciences(AIIMS) MedicalSuperintendent Dr DKSharma, the discrepancy couldbe because the Government isonly counting the fatalitiesfrom the Trauma Centre, whichhas been converted into a ded-icated Covid-19 hospital, andhas not taken into accountdata from the Jhajjar facility.

At Safdarjung Hospital, 23people have died due to Covid-19. "They (Government) arecalling us for the data. We havetold them we are regularlysending you the correct, updat-

ed figures. We don't see anyreason why wrong figures arebeing reflected," said a seniordoctor at Safdarjung Hospitalwho did not want to be named.

RML Hospital has report-ed 52 deaths of Covid-19patients.

"We are providing them(government) data regularlyand correctly. It is up to themto incorporate it in their chart.We do not understand whythey are showing incorrect fig-ures," RML MedicalSuperintendent MinakshiBhardwaj said.

Lady Hardinge MedicalCollege Director Dr NNMathur said the hospital hasgiven the government a figure

of three deaths.After the discrepancies

between the COVID-19 deathtoll reported by the govern-ment and figures from hospi-tals came to light on Friday,Delhi Health MinisterSatyendar Jain asserted that thegovernment is not hiding data.

"If we had to hide data, wewouldn't have releasedThursday's number of freshCOVID-19 cases which was thehighest single-day spike of 448cases. We would have saidthere were only 48 new cases,but we did not. Once thereports come, the hospitalshave to inform the governmentimmediately," he had toldreporters. PTI

New Delhi:The Delhi HighCourt on Saturday extendedthe interim bail of 2,177 under-trial prisoners by 45 days to de-congest jails in the wake of thecoronavirus pandemic.

A Bench of JusticesSiddharth Mridul and TalwantSingh passed the order in viewof a high-power committee'srecommendation that it wouldbe dangerous to put the pris-oners back in jail as the risk stillremains high.

The committee, headed byJustice Hima Kohli, on May 5opined that since there was apaucity of space in jail premis-es to create sufficient numberof isolation wards for the pris-oners returning after expiry oftheir interim bail, the reliefshould be extended by anoth-er 45 days.

During the hearing, DelhiGovernment standing counselRahul Mehra and advocateChaitanya Gosain, appearingfor the prison authorities, saidthey have no objection to theextension of bail.

"Accordingly, it is orderedthat the interim bails for a peri-od of 45 days granted to 2,177UTPs, in view of the recom-mendations of HPC...Are here-by extended by another periodof 45 days from the date of theirrespective expiry of interimbails on the same terms andconditions," the bench said.

It directed the DirectorGeneral (prisons) to ensure thatthe order was conveyed to all2,177 under-trial prisoners(UTPs) by telephone and otheravailable modes and listed thematter for hearing on June 22.

PTI

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From Page 1“It may be noted that a large

number of Air India crew membersare staying in Gautam Buddh Nagar,and they would be performing theirduties in bringing back Indian cit-izens stuck in other countries due tothe Covid-19 pandemic.

“And to perform their duties,they will frequently go to Delhi andcome back to their respective homesin Gautam Buddh Nagar, which maytrigger the spread of coronavirusinfection,” the officer was quoted as

saying in a statement.“Since Gautam Buddh Nagar

falls under ‘Red Zone’, a request hasbeen made to the Air India CMD toaccommodate the crew members inDelhi itself. They might come backto Gautam Buddh Nagar after thecompletion of this operation andafter following the protocol laiddown by the Centre,” the officeradded.

She said after consulting the dis-trict administration and the state’sadditional chief secretary (Home) in

this regard, a request has beenmade to the Air India CMD thatcrew members may be stationed inNewaw Delhi during this operation.

In a bid to contain the coron-avirus spread, the district adminis-tration had also sealed its borderwith Delhi last month, banningmovement between the two citiesexcept for those under medicalemergency or engaged in fightagainst coronavirus infection oressential supplies, besides doctorsand media personnel.

From Page 1Later, the State

Government clarified its stancesaying it had already cleared theentry of 8 trains to Bengal. Therespective Shramik specialswere bringing people fromKarnataka, Hyderabad Punjab,Rajasthan and other placeswere bringing 31,000 peopleback to Bengal. Most of thosecoming back are from Malda,East and West Burdwan,Howrah, Kolkata, WestMindapore, Bankura andHooghly, sources said.

Clarifying the State’s standfurther Sougato Roy said thedelay in bringing the workersback was caused because thedelay on the part of the CentralGovernment to allot us trains.Now they have allotted thetrains and we are getting theworkers back.”

A statement from CongressLok Sabha leader AdhirChowudhury, however, tended

to buttress Shah’s claim whenhe said that he had himselfappealed to the Home Ministerto provide special trains forBengal when “he told me thatthe State Government is notallowing the trains to enterBengal.”

Meanwhile, Bengal wit-nessed 11 more corona deathsin the past 24 hours taking thetotal number of deaths to 99,State Home Secretary AlapanBandopadhyay said addinghowever that 72 more deathshad been caused earlier onaccount of co-morbidity con-ditions.

Apart from this, the past 24hours saw 108 new infectionstaking the total number ofcases to 1,786. The number ofactive corona cases in the Statewas 1,243. This included thenew cases noticed in the hith-erto “green zone” district ofNorth Dinajpur in NorthBengal.

From Page 1The ED had initiated investigation under the

provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Actafter taking cognisance of an FIR registered by theHaryana Police and CBI which revealed that PlotNo. C-17 Sector 6, Panchkula was allotted to AJLin the year 1982.

However the plot was resumed/reverted to theEstate Officer, Haryana Urban DevelopmentAuthority (HUDA) through an order on October30, 1992 as the AJL did not comply with the con-ditions of allotment letter. The Resumption Orderattained finality after dismissal of the RevisionPetition before a court in 1996.

“However, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, the thenCM, Haryana/Chairman HUDA, blatantly bymisusing his official position dishonestly allottedthe said plot afresh in the guise of re-allotment tothe AJL at original rates plus interest in violationof necessary conditions/ policy of HUDA videorder dated 28.08.2005,” the ED said.

Hooda also did not adhere to the legal opin-ion of officials of Land Reforms and recommen-dations of HUDA Officers. There was a wrongfulloss to HUDA and wrongful gain to AJL. Hoodafurther favoured the AJL by granting them threeundue extensions for construction of plot fromMay 1. 2008 to May 10, 2012 until the AJL com-pleted the construction in the year 2014, the agencysaid.

Earlier, investigation under PMLA revealedthat Moti Lal Vora and Bhupinder Singh Hoodawere involved in the process of illegal possessionof “Crime Proceeds”.

The property was provisionally attached andthe Adjudicating Authority under PMLA has con-firmed the attachment of plot at Panchkula.

“It is further revealed that the accused used this“Proceeds of Crime” i.e. Plot No. C-17, Sector-6,Panchkula for availing loans from SyndicateBank, I. P. Estate Branch, Bahadurshah Zafar Marg,New Delhi by way of pledging it for approval ofConstruction of building at Plot No. 02, Survey No.341, Near Kala Nagar, EPF Office, Bandra (E),Mumbai- 400051 held in the name of AssociatedJournals Limited valued at Rs. 120 crore,” it said.

The attached property in Mumbai is a nine-storey building having two basements and the totalbuilt up area is 15,000 square metres.

“Thus, the said Asset at Mumbai, germinatedout of Proceeds of Crime, has been attached to theextent of Rs. 16.38 crore.”

From Page 1“The country is currently fighting a glob-

al epidemic, the coronavirus and as I keep busybeing the Home Minister of the country, I didnot pay attention to all of this. When this cameto my notice late at night, I thought that allthese people should enjoy their imaginarythoughts. So I did not give any clarification,”he said.

“But millions of my party workers and mywell-wishers have expressed a lot of concernfor the last two days. I cannot ignore their con-cern. So I want to clarify today that I am per-fectly healthy and I do not have any disease,”he said.

Taking a jibe at the rumour mongers, Shahsaid according to the Hindu belief, rumoursabout one’s health could strengthen the per-son further. “So, I would request every suchperson to give up this meaningless talks andlet me do my job and they may go ahead doingtheirs,” Shah wrote.

In the last paragraph, he said he has noill will or anger against the rumour mongers.“Wishes to you people too,” he said. But fourpeople were arrested in Ahmedabad forspreading rumours about Shah’s health onsocial media.

From Page 1The other serious Covid-19

affected patients will have to bein the hospitals only, as per therevised guidelines issued bythe Ministry.

For moderate cases, if feverresolves within three days andno oxygen support is needed,the patients can be dischargedafter 10 days of onset of symp-toms.

However, if symptoms arenot resolved in three days andthe patients require oxygensupport, they can be “dis-charged only after resolution ofclinical symptoms and ability tomaintain oxygen saturation forthree consecutive days.

In all these cases, thepatients can be discharged astheir symptoms are relievedwithout an RT-PCR test; theyhave to be isolated at home forseven days.

Those with severe symp-toms will be “discharged onlyafter clinical recovery” and

“after testing negative once byRT-PCR (after resolution ofsymptoms)”.

At any point of time duringhis/her recovery at the healthfacility, if the oxygen saturationlevels dip below 95 per cent,patient will be moved to “a ded-icated Covid-19 health centre”.

After discharge, if thepatient again develops symp-toms of fever, cough or breath-ing difficulty he will contact theCovid Care Centre or Statehelpline or 1075. A follow-upwill be done on day-14 throughteleconference.

As per the global estimate,around 81 per cent of Covidcases are mild cases whileremaining 20 per cent maydevelop complications whichwould require hospitalisation.Out of the hospitalised cases,only 5 per cent may requireICU care. Doctors said the pri-mary treatment for viral infec-tion is supportive treatment inmore than 80 per cent of thepatients and oxygen therapy inaround 15 per cent of patientsalong with other drugs.

From Page 1The Air India has opened

bookings for the flight IX 373that will operate on May 10between Kozhikode and Dohaand the flight IX 0486 that willf ly between Kochi andSingapore.

Two more flights - fromthe UK and Qatar - are expect-ed in the early hours onSunday. These flights wouldarrive at the Mumbai andKochi airports.

Officials said two Air IndiaExpress flights commanded

by women took off onSaturday, to evacuate strandedIndians from foreign shores.While one flight took off fromTrichy in Tamil Nadu, theother flight left from Kochi inKerala. The rescue flight thattook off from Trichy airport to

Kuala Lumpur at about 1.11pm was commanded byCaptain Kavitha Rajkumarwhile Captain BindhuSebastian was the commanderfor Kochi - Muscat - Kochiflight that took off at about 1.17pm the same time.

From Page 1"Health department will

guide you for the same tonearby corona care centres.Please take the following pre-cautions: AsymptomaticCovid-19 positive non-comor-bid patients can remain homeisolated, if feasibility andassessment for the same isensured by the health depart-ment and provided patientsgive undertaking and abide toinstructions given by the healthdepartment. Citizens arerequested not to panic," theadvisory stated.

"If any close family mem-ber, neighbour has turned outCovid-19 positive. As perICMR guidelines only veryclose high risk contacts of thepositive case can be testedonce between 5-14 days ofexposure or earlier if theybecome symptomatic," theBMC advisory stated.

"All contacts need to self-quarantine at home, or will bequarantined in an institution ifbelong to slum like areas as perthe directions of HealthDepartment," the advisoryadded.

Meanwhile, a Central teamcomprised of AIIMS DirectorDr Randeep Guleria rushed toPrime Minister NarendraModi's hometown Gujaratwhich has reported a largenumber of coronavirus casesand deaths.

Dr Guleria, who is a pul-monologist, and Dr ManishSoneja from the AIIMS depart-ment of medicine, visited theAhmedabad Civil Hospital andSVP hospital to provide expertguidance and advice to the doc-tors on treatment for coron-avirus-infected patients there.

With 390 more people test-ing positive for Covid-19 and24 fatalities, the total numberof cases in Gujarat climbed to7,797 and the death toll reached472 on Friday.

Of the total coronaviruscases in the State, Ahmedabadhas the highest number ofCovid-19 cases at 1,298 con-firmed infections, followed byVadodara (188), Rajkot (40)and Bhavnagar (32).

Delhi took third place onthe list with 8,406 positivecases so far, including 2,020recovered patients and 68 fatal-ities followed by Tamil Nadu,with over 6,535 positive casesincluding 1,605 recoveries and40 casualties.

Rajasthan had 3,655 casesand 103 deaths while MadhyaPradesh registered 3,457 pos-itive cases including 1,349recoveries and 211 deaths.Scenario in Uttar Pradesh wasno better with around 3,214cases including 1,387 curedpatients and 66 casualties.With 1,930 positive cases,Andhra is the second-worstaffected State in southernIndia. 842 patients have beendischarged in the State while 44have died so far.

West Bengal is fast emerg-ing hub of virus with 1,786 pos-itive cases including 364 peo-ple who were cured and 171who died while Punjab has1,762 cases including 152recoveries and 31 deaths.Number of coronavirus cases inHaryana reached 675, includ-ing 376 active cases, 290 recov-eries and 9 deaths. Odisha has289 cases.

The total number of coro-navirus Covid-19 cases across187 nations reached over 40

lakhs and the death toll stoodover 2.7 lakhs. The number ofthe persons recovered fromthe viral infection is 1.4 lakhs

Meanwhile, the CRPF onSaturday reported 62 freshcases of Covid-19 patients in itsranks followed by identificationof 35 new infected persons inthe BSF, 13 in CISF and six inITBP, taking the tally of coro-navirus-hit personnel in theparamilitary ranks to 653.

On Saturday, 62 new casesof coronavirus infections werereported from Rapid ActionForce, an anti-riot Force underthe CRPF. All the 62 positivecases are from 194 Battalion ofRAF deployed in the nationalcapital. They have been isolat-ed at White Lee Public School,Bawana in the national Capital,a senior CRPF official said.

Earlier, the CRPF hadreported 172 cases of Covid-19infections. Out of the 234 cases,231 are active, two have recov-ered and a Sub Inspector haddied last week. In the BSF, 25corona virus infected person-nel were reported from Tripuraand 10 personnel in the nation-al capital contracted the viraldisease.

With 258 Covid-19 posi-tive cases in its ranks, theBorder Security Force (BSF) isthe worst-hit paramilitary interms of number of personnelinfected by the pandemic fol-lowed by 234 cases in theCentral Reserve Police Forceand 100 in the Indo TibetanBorder Police (ITBP).

With six fresh Covid-19positive cases on Saturday, theITBP has now 100 coronavirusinfections in its ranks. All casesof coronavirus infections inITBP have been reported fromDelhi.

Four personnel of ITBP areundergoing treatment atAIIMS, Jhajjar, Haryana andtwo personnel are admitted atSafdarjung Hospital here.

Mumbai: The samples of anassistant sub Inspector attachedto Vinoba Bhave Nagar policestation in Mumbai who died onFriday have tested positive fornovel coronavirus, officials saidon Saturday.

He died in the early hoursof Friday after being admittedin a civic hospital onWednesday with Covid-19-likesymptoms, an official said.

"He was also a diabetic. Hissamples returned positive onFriday evening. This is thefourth Covid-19 death inMumbai police. Some 350 per-sonnel in the metropolis' forcehave tested positive for thevirus so far," he added. PTI

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From Page 1The incident took place at

Mora village near industrialtown of Haziraa.

“Over 100 workers weredetained after they took to thestreets, demanding that theyeither be sent back home orallowed to work at the indus-trial units they were employedat in Hazira and paid salaries,”joint commissioner of police(Sector 2) D N Patel said.

Protesting workers came

out of their homes in the work-ers’ colony at Mora village andstarted walking in a large grouptowards Hazira industrial area,he said. The migrants demand-ed that the district adminis-tration should arrange for theirreturn to their hometowns inUttar Pradesh, Bihar, Odishaand other states, Patel said.

“Some workers hurledstones at the police, after whichfour tear gas shells were lobbedand we had to resort to batoncharge to control the unrulymob,” Patel said.

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Kathmandu: Nepal onSaturday raised objection overIndia inaugurating a strategi-cally crucial link road con-necting the Lipulekh pass at aheight of 17,000 feet along theborder with China inUttarakhand with Dharchula,saying this "unilateral act" runsagainst the understandingreached between the two coun-tries on resolving the borderissues.

Nepal's Foreign AffairsMinistry in a statement saidthe government "has learntwith regret" about the inaugu-ration of the link road con-necting to Lipulekh pass,which Nepal claims to be partof its territory.

The 80-Km new roadinaugurated by DefenceMinister Rajnath Singh onFriday is expected to help pil-grims visiting Kailash-Mansarovar in Tibet in Chinaas it is around 90 kms from theLipulekh pass.

After inaugurating theroad through video-confer-encing, Singh said pilgrimsgoing to Kailash-Mansarovarwill now be able to completetheir journey in one week

instead of up to three weeks.The road originates atGhatiabagarh and ends atLipulekh pass, the gateway toKailash-Mansarovar.

The Kailash-Mansarovaryatra involves trekking at highaltitudes of up to 19,500 feet,under inhospitable conditions,including extreme weather andrugged terrain.

Raising objection on theconstruction of the link road,Nepal's Foreign Ministry said,"This unilateral act runsagainst the understandingreached between the two coun-tries including at the level ofthe Prime Ministers that asolution to boundary issueswould be sought throughnegotiation."

Lipulekh pass is a far west-ern point near Kalapani, adisputed border area betweenNepal and India. Both Indiaand Nepal claim Kalapani as anintegral part of their territory- India as part of Uttarakhand'sPithoragarh district and Nepalas part of Darchula district.

"The Government of Nepalhas consistently maintainedthat as per the Sugauli Treaty(1816), all the territories east of

Kali (Mahakali) River, includ-ing Limpiyadhura, Kalapaniand Lipulekh, belong toNepal," the ministry said.

"This was reiterated by theGovernment of Nepal severaltimes in the past and mostrecently through a diplomaticnote addressed to theGovernment of India onNovember 20, 2019 inresponse to the new politicalmap issued by the latter," itsaid.

It said that Nepal hadexpressed its disagreement in2015 also through separatediplomatic notes addressed tothe governments of both Indiaand China when the two sidesagreed to include Lipulekhpass as a bilateral trade routewithout Nepal's consent in theJoint Statement issued on May5, 2015 during the official visitof PM Modi to China.

"With this in mind, theGovernment of Nepal has pro-posed twice the dates for hold-ing a meeting of the ForeignSecretaries of the two coun-tries, as mandated by theirleaders, for which the responsefrom the Indian side is stillawaited," it said. PTI

Muscat/Riyadh: As Indiabegan to evacuate its strand-ed citizens from the Gulfnations due to Covid-19 linkedtravel restrictions, the coun-try's envoys have assured theworried expatriates that therewould be more flights in thecoming days for people withcompelling reasons to returnhome.

India began evacuatingstranded nationals in Oman and Saudi Arabia onSaturday under the 'VandeBharat' mission.

The first of such flightsbegan operating from May 7from Abu Dhani and Dubai inthe UAE, taking home 363Indians to Kerala.

The Riyadh to Kozhikoderepatriation flight carried 152passengers, Indian Ambassadorto Saudi Arabia Ausaf Sayeedsaid on Friday.

"The composition of theflight was basically distressedworkers who lost their jobs(due to the coronavirus out-break). It also included sever-al medical cases needing atten-tion immediately and a largenumber of pregnant nursesfrom Kerala," Sayeed said.TheIndian mission in Saudi Arabia

is arranging four flights nextweek to repatriate Indians --including a Riyadh to Delhiflight on Monday.

A Damam to Kochi routeand two flights from Jeddah toKerala have been planned forlater this week.

For those people in SaudiArabia from different states ofIndia like Maharashtra,Karnataka, Uttar PradeshBihar, Rajasthan, Telanganadifferent flights are beingplanned for the week afterfrom May 16 onwards.

Ambassador Sayeed saidIndians who want to be repa-triated should register on theIndian embassy website, assur-ing all stranded persons thatthey will be accommodated inearliest possible flights.

"In the meantime, it is veryimportant that all of you staycalm and keep your moralehigh and do not get panicky,"said Sayeed.

The Muscat to Kochi flightleft with 181 Indians on boardon Saturday.

Indian Ambassador toOman Munu Mahawarthanked the ministries ofhome, civil aviation, healthand external affairs for the

smooth repatriation process.He further thanked the

Government of Oman and itsRoyal Police.

"In the coming days, wewill be organising more flights,and I am sure all Indian nation-als who wish to return to Indiafor compelling reasons will beable to travel back," saidMahawar.

Meanwhile, an Air Indiaflight from Sharjah in theUAE left for Lucknow onSaturday with 182 passengerson board. The flight com-prised mostly nurses.

This was the second roundof Indian nationals being repa-triated from the Gulf kingdom.

On Thursday, two specialflights from the UAE carryinga total of 363 Indian nationals,including nine infants, left forKerala.

On Friday, almost 200workers, 37 pregnant womenand 42 people with medicalissues travelled to Chennai ontwo flights from the UAE.

India's Ambassador to theUAE Pavan Kapoor was per-sonally present at the AbuDhabi airport talking to pas-sengers taking the flights toIndia. PTI

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The first Air India flightfrom the UK, as part of the

Vande Bharat Mission to repa-triate Indians stranded over-seas due to the coronaviruslockdown, took off fromLondon's Heathrow Airport onSaturday with 326 passengersto Mumbai.

The packed flight took offwith Indian students andtourists, who were seen queu-ing with their luggage at theairport from early on Saturdayas they prepared for the jour-ney home.

Each one of them under-went temperature tests beforeboarding and face 14 days ofquarantine at a hotel or otherlocation designated by theMaharashtra government onlanding, with those details tobe made available on arrival inMumbai in the early hours ofSunday.

While there is no socialdistancing possible on thepacked flight, Air India is pro-viding a kit for all passengersconfirmed to fly, with meals,snacks, sanitizer, mask andgloves.

“Finally going back toIndia! Although it was at thelast moment but I was luckyenough to get the ticket of thefirst flight to India underVande Bharat Mission,” said arelieved Indian student, whowas part of a group of seafar-ers that came to the UK for anexamination.

“We got continuousupdates from NISAU (NationalIndian Students and AlumniUnion) and ISWAN(International Seafarers'Welfare Assistance Network)looking after seafarers stuck inthe UK. Thanks to all the rep-resentatives who worked tire-lessly in coordination with theIndian High Commission,”said the student, who did notwish to be named.

The flight marks the firstof seven Air India routesorganised by the Indian gov-ernment from London'sHeathrow Airport to six Indiancities over the next week –Mumbai (Saturday andTuesday), Bengaluru (Sunday),Hyderabad (Monday),Ahmedabad (Wednesday),Chennai (Thursday) and NewDelhi (Friday).

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The NIA on Saturday arrest-ed an alleged narco terror-

ist Ranjit Singh from Sirsa inHaryana.

“The NIA along with teamsof Punjab Police and HaryanaPolice carried out an intelli-gence-based raids in Sirsa,Haryana and arrested notori-ous narco-terrorist Ranjit Singhalias Rana alias Cheeta, son ofHarbhajan Singh, resident ofRam Tirath Road, Amritsar,”the agency said in a statement.

Ranjit Singh along with co-accused Iqbal Singh alias Sheraare the prime accused in caseregistered by NIA in connec-tion with the seizure of 532 kgof heroin hidden in a consign-ment of rock salt importedfrom Pakistan.

The seizure was made bythe Custom Authorities atIntegrated Check Post (ICP)Attari on June 29 last year whenthe contraband was discov-ered during inspection of theconsignment.

“Investigation revealed thatPakistan based entities aresmuggling narcotics fromPakistan into the Indian terri-

tory by hiding it in sacks ofrock salt which is importedfrom Pakistan,” the NIA said.

This, the agency said, isdone through an elaborate net-work of importers, CustomsHouse Agents, transportersand the operation is financedthrough illegal InternatinalHawala channels. Investigationalso established that the seizedconsignment was a part of atotal of five consignments ofdrugs, out of which four hadbeen successfully smuggledinto India, the agency said.

First charge-sheet in thecase was filed by NIA onDecember 27 last year in theSpecial NIA Court, Mohaliagainst 15 accused personsincluding four companies andalso Ranjit Singh who hadbeen absconding after the reg-istration of the case.

Ranjit Singh is also theprime accused in the recentHizbul Mujahideen terrorfunding module which wasbusted with the arrest of HilalAhmad Wagay, a resident ofNowgam, Awantipora, Jammu& Kashmir with Rs 29 lacs incash in Amritsar by PunjabPolice on April 25 this year.

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Washington: An owner of apopular Indian-American gro-cery store in California hasbeen charged with price goug-ing, marking some items up asmuch as 200 per cent, duringthe coronavirus pandemicwhen the entire US state isunder stay-at-home orders.

Following consumer com-plaints filed on Thursday inAlameda County SuperiorCourt, an investigationrevealed that Rajvinder Singh,owner of the popular ApnaBazaar in California'sPleasanton, had allegedlyincreased the prices of groceryitems after the emergency dec-laration by the governor onMarch 4.

Based on evidence provid-

ed by customer receipts, theinvestigation confirmed that thepricing of several food itemsexceeded the 10-per centincrease allowed during a stateof emergency, with some pricesbeing as much as 200 per centmore than what was previouslycharged, according to a jointstatement issued by CaliforniaAttorney General Xavier Becerraand Alameda County DistrictAttorney Nancy O'Malley.

The food items listed in thecomplaint include yellow onions,ginger, green beans, instant noo-dles, tea, chili peppers, pome-granates and red yams.

"We take price gougingseriously and are committed togoing after those who break thelaw during the public health

emergency," Becerra said.Singh faces imprisonment

in the county jail for not morethan a year and/or a fine of notmore than USD 10,000.California law prohibits charg-ing a price that exceeds, bymore than 10 per cent, the priceof an item before a state or localdeclaration of emergency.

"The law prevents busi-nesses from profiteering whenwe are in a state of emergency.All businesses throughoutAlameda County must be onnotice that we will not sit idlyby and allow consumers to fallprey to price gouging. Myoffice will ensure that busi-nesses adhere to the law and donot exploit consumers," saidO'Malley. PTI

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The Union Ministry ofMinority Affairs, which

has trained 1,500 people ashealthcare assistants and putthem in the anti-coronavirusservices in the hospitals andhealth centres, is planning totrain 2,000 more so that theycould also join the health ser-vices to contain the pandemicin the country.

Giving this information,Union Minister for MinorityAffairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvisaid on Saturday that a batch of2,000 would be trained thisyear under the Ministry’s skilldevelopment programme andjoin the anti-Covid-19 ser-vices. He said health assistantsare being trained by the well-established hospitals and healthorganisations in the country.

The Minister said 16 Hajhouses in the country havebeen handed over to the dif-ferent states to be used forquarantine and isolation pur-poses. The healthcare assis-tants, 50 per cent of whom arewomen, were trained under theministry’s skill developmentprogramme and are nowemployed in hospitals andhealthcare centres across thecountry.

He said to create awarenessabout the social distancing andneed to adopt healthcare pro-tocols to prevent the spread ofthe coronavirus, the Ministrywill soon launch the “Jaan Bhi,Jahan Bhi” nationwide aware-ness campaign.

The Ministry is also tocreate quarantine facilities inStates to cater to workers from

India and abroad.Waqf boards across the

country have contributed Rs 51crore to the Prime Minister’sand Chief Ministers’ relieffunds for the pandemic withthe support of religious, socialand educational organisations.The Aligarh Muslim Universitycontributed Rs 1.4 crore to thePM-CARES fund and AMUMedical College arranged 100beds for treating coronaviruspatients, according to a state-ment by the Ministry.

AMU also arranged Covid-19 tests and more than 9,000tests have been done till now,Naqvi said.

The Ajmer DargahCommittee and associatedorganisations provided facilitiesworth about Rs 1 crore, whichincluded arrangements to sendpeople back to their states, hesaid. Nqvi said under Dargahcommittee “Khwaja modelschool” and “Kayad” rest househas been opened up for thecoronavirus affected peoplefrom across the country andbeing used for quarantine andisolation. He said 4,500 visitorsof all religions who werestranded on account of thelockdown were served withfood and medical services.

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The CRPF on Saturdayreported 62 fresh cases of

Covid-19 patients in its ranksfollowed by identification of 35new infected persons in theBSF, 13 in CISF and six inITBP, taking the tally of coro-navirus-hit personnel in theparamilitary ranks to 653.

On Saturday, 62 new casesof coronavirus infections werereported from Rapid ActionForce, an anti-riot Force underthe CRPF. All the 62 positivecases are from 194 Battalion ofRAF deployed in the nationalcapital. They have been isolat-ed at White Lee Public School,Bawana in the national capital,a senior CRPF official said.

Earlier, the CRPF hadreported 172 cases of Covid-19infections. Out of the 234 cases,

231 are active, two have recov-ered and a Sub Inspector haddied last week.

In the BSF, 25 corona virusinfected personnel were report-ed from Tripura and 10 per-sonnel in the national capitalcontracted the viral disease.

With 258 Covid-19 posi-tive cases in its ranks, theBorder Security Force (BSF) isthe worst-hit paramilitary interms of number of personnelinfected by the pandemic fol-lowed by 234 cases in theCentral Reserve Police Forceand 100 in the Indo TibetanBorder Police (ITBP).

With six fresh Covid-19positive cases on Saturday, theITBP has now 100 Coronavirusinfections in its ranks.

All cases of coronavirusinfections in ITBP have beenreported from Delhi.

Four personnel of ITBP areundergoing treatment atAIIMS, Jhajjar, Haryana andtwo personnel are admitted atSafdarjung Hospital here.

At the CAPF ReferralHospital, Greater Noida run byITBP, 94 ITBP personnel arelodged followed by 27 person-nel of BSF, two of CRPF and

one of CISF. Two family mem-bers of ITBP are also beingmanaged here. A total of 126patients are admitted at thereferral hospital and the con-dition of all patients is stable.

Till now, five paramilitarypersonnel have succumbed tothe viral disease — two each in BSF and CISF and one

case in CRPF. The Central Industrial

Security Force (CISF) onSaturday reported 13 freshcases of corona virus infectionstaking the total count of theviral infection to 48. Out of the48 cases, 31 were deployed atDelhi Metro Rail Corporation(DMRC) and 13 at Mumbaiairport, three at Delhi airport,two at Ahmedabad and three atMumbai airport. The SashastraSeema Bal had contracted atleast 13 positive cases.

Officials said, all the pro-tocols of Covid-19 infectionmanagement are being scrupu-lously followed but the diseaseis being contracted by the per-sonnel as they are in the front-line of assisting the law enforce-ment agencies like the policefor ensuring lockdown mea-sures and social distancing.

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Recognising the efficacy ofIndian herbs in helping

boost immunity, theGovernment enterpriseNational ResearchDevelopment Corporation’s(NRDC) Compendium ofIndian Technologies forCombating Covid-19 has eval-uated herbal drug Fifatrol asimmunity enhancer being pre-pared from the extracts ofmedicinal plants.

Launched by Dr Shekhar CMande, Director General, CSIRhere, the Compendium is com-pilation of about 200 Covid-19-related Indian technologies,ongoing research activities,technologies available for com-mercialisation, initiatives andefforts taken by theGovernment to tackle thedeadly viral infection which hascaused havoc across the world.

The Compendium notesthat, “Researchers have sug-gested that Fifatrol, a naturalformulation providing fast relieffrom nasal congestion, sore

throat, body ache and headacheand is enriched with scientifi-cally validated botanicalextracts and micro-nutrientsacts a natural antibiotic andfights infection, flu and ache.”

The Compendium furtherpoints out various benefits ofthe herbal drug, stating that “Itis a rationale combination ofvital phytoconstituents,immune-modulators andantioxidants which justifies itsbeneficial effect for the treat-

ment of viral upper-respirato-ry infections.”

Developed by AIMILPharma, the key ingredients ofFifatrol includes well-knownimmunity enhancer herbs likeGuduchi, Daruharidra,Apamarga, Chirayata, Karanja,Kutaki, Tulsi a few others.

Dr Mande after releasingthe Compendium said thatmost of the technologies in thedocument are proof-of-con-cept (POC) tested and can

help the entrepreneurs to takethe product to market faster asthey do not have to reinvent thewheel. It is very timely andwould benefit the MSMEs,Startups and the public at large,he said.

Dr H Purushotham, CMD,NRDC, said that attempt hasbeen made to compile most rel-evant and emerging indige-nously developed technologicalinnovations, including thosewhich are at research stage, tofight Covid-19 for the benefitof all stakeholders.

As coronavirus is fastspreading its tentacles acrossthe country, Prime MinisterNarendra Modi has been atvarious platforms urgingAYUSH practitioners to pitchin to tackle the coronaviruspandemic. He has also beenexhorting the people to looktowards traditional homeremedies during times of sucha global health crisis to boosttheir immunity. In India, over61,000 people are infected withthe virus which has claimedover 2,000 lives so far.

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Amid Covid-19 lockdown, anon-Government organi-

sation ‘Sahely’, has decided toprovide ration to 1,000 families.Shabana Khan, national pres-ident of Sahely NGO, said thather organisation has alreadyprovided ration to 500 familiesin Mewat, Saharanpur,Kashmir and Delhi. Khan saidthat rations are being provid-ed under ‘War AgainstCorruption’ campaign.

Marginalised people suchas migrant labourers, homelessdestitutes, scrap pickers, joblessdaily wagers, commercial sexworkers and others were thefocus of attention for the reliefwork.

She also expressed grati-tude towards Urdu poetsManjar Bhopali and PopularMeerathi for their appeal todonate her organisation.

Sahely is devoted towardthe empowerment of women inevery field.

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In view of the Covid-19 pan-demic and resultant lock-

down, examiners will evaluateover 1.5 crore answer sheets ofstudents, who took the CBSEClass X and XII Board exams,from their homes.

The Government onSaturday identified 3,000 CBSEschools in the country as thecentres from where the answersheets will be sent to the homesof the teachers. This processwill be completed in approxi-mately 50 days, HRD Ministryofficials said. The HRDMinistry’s move followed theMHA’s go-ahead in this regard.

Ministry officials said theCBSE paper evaluation will beresumed from Sunday andCBSE board examiners will beable to carry out the CBSEboard exam answer sheet eval-uation from their respectivehomes.

Union HRD MinisterRamesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’took to Twitter on Saturdayevening to announce the newsand said that around 1.5 croreCBSE board exam answersheets from around 3,000 examcentres across India will bedelivered to the homes of theboard examiners who will carryout the checking process.

After the paper evaluationis done, officials will comeand collect the answer sheets totake them back to the boardexam centres.

In a video statement onsocial media, Nishank thanked

the Home Ministry for givingthis permission in the lock-down so that students can getthe CBSE board exam results2020 as soon as possible.Pokhriyal said that the wholeprocess of CBSE answer sheetevaluation should be over with-in 50 days.

On Friday, the HRDMinister had announced onTwitter that the remainingCBSE board exams of Class XII(all over India) and of Class X(only students whose examswere postponed due to NorthDelhi violence) will be carriedout from July 1 to July 15.

The new CBSE board examdates for each of the 29 subjectsthat are still to be conducted orthe full CBSE board examschedule after lockdown will beannounced in 1-2 days he hadsaid on his Twitter webinar onFriday.

CBSE Secretary AnuragTripathy said due to the Covid-19 lockdown which has nowbeen extended for the thirdtime and is set to continue till

May 17, CBSE has been forcedto put a complete halt to paperevaluation.

“We will need 1.5 to 2months to carry out the paperevaluation. As soon as we getthe advisory from the CentralGovernment, we can start offthe paper evaluation processwhile maintaining social dis-tancing,” he said.

The CBSE paper evaluationhad started off around a weekafter the board exams started inFebruary.

But after the Covid-19 pan-demic started to spread, theprocess had to be stoppedcompletely after 15 days ofpaper evaluation.

Around 70 per cent ofCBSE answer sheets still needto be evaluated even thoughsome of them were done in the15 days of evaluation before theCovid-19 lockdown wasimposed, Tripathy said .

There are around 35 lakhstudents who appear for boardexams and 2 crore CBSE answer sheets need to bechecked, said the CBSE secretary.

In this regard and toexpdite teh process, Nishankhad met the education minis-ters through webinar later lastmonth of all the states andadvised them to start off withthe paper evaluation of stateboard exams.

He also asked the Ministersto make provisions for CBSE tocarry out their answer sheetevaluation in the respectiveStates as well.

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The Indian Navy warshipINS Jalashwa has started its

homeward-bound journeyafter evacuating 698 Indiannationals from Maldives andwas joined on Saturday bysome more Indian warshipmissions deployed in theIndian Ocean region, high-lighting India’s unwaveringcommitment to safeguardingher diaspora anywhere in theworld. The ship carryingIndians is expected to reachKochi, Kerala, late this evening.

This even as another war-ship INS Magar is about to enterMale, Maldives’ capital to bringout more Indians who want toreturn to their country in thewake of coronavirus pandemic.

The naval rescue effort is code-named Operation Samudra Setuwhich commenced on May 7when the 17,000 tonne landingplatform dock (LPD) oramphibious ship INS Jalashwaset sail along with the 10,000tonne INS Magar for Maldives.The two ships are expected tobring back more than 1,500stranded Indians, sources saidon Saturday.

India’s High Commissionerin the Maldives, Sunjay Sudhir,had earlier expressed his deepgratitude to the Indian Navy, theMaldives Government and itsagencies for extending completecooperation for the success ofthe operation. An Indian Navyspokesman said there were anumber of pregnant womenand children among the Indians

who are travelling to Kochi inKerala.

Officials said the secondwill leave for Tuticorin in TamilNadu on Sunday with 200Indians. He said the exercisewill be repeated next week bythe Indian Navy warships.

The deployment of war-ships in rescue effort is part ofthe repatriation missionlaunched by the Indian Navy tobring Indian citizens homefrom foreign shores, the IndianNavy said in a statement. Themassive repatriation effort istestimony to Maldives-Indiafriendship, the Indian HighCommission said in anothertweet. Several Indians who aretravelling by the warship laud-ed the exercise launched by theGovernment.

New Delhi: Indian Council ofMedical Research (ICMR) haspartnered with Bharat BiotechInternational Limited (BBIL) todevelop a fully indigenous vac-cine for COVID-19, the apexhealth research body said onSaturday.

The vaccine will be devel-oped using the virus strain iso-lated at the ICMR’s NationalInstitute of Virology (NIV),Pune, a statement said. Thestrain has been successfullytransferred from NIV to BBIL,it added. “Work on vaccinedevelopment has been initiat-ed between the two partners.The ICMR-NIV will providecontinuous support to BBIL forvaccine development. ICMRand BBIL will seek fast-trackapprovals to expedite vaccinedevelopment, subsequent ani-mal studies and clinical evalu-ation of the candidate vac-cine,” the health research bodysaid in the statement. PTI

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The Tamil NaduGovernment on Saturday

moved the Supreme Courtchallenging a Madras HighCourt order for closure ofstate-run liquor outlets on theground that there was total violation of guidelines meant to contain the Covid-19pandemic.

The Madras High Courthad on Friday ordered closureof liquor outlets noting thatthere were huge crowds and nosocial distancing was beingmaintained by tipplers. It, how-ever, allowed doorstep deliveryof booze through online mode.

The top court too hadtaken note of crowding atliquor shops and asked stateson Friday to consider non-direct contact or online salesand home delivery of liquorduring the lockdown period toprevent the spread of the novelcoronavirus.

The appeal against the highcourt order has been filed by theTamil Nadu State MarketingCorporation (TASMAC), a gov-ernment firm which sells alco-holic beverages in the state,seeking permission to sell liquorthrough vends also.

The High Court orderrestraining counter-sale ofliquor was passed on a miscel-laneous petition filed by advo-cate G Rajesh, besides a plaintfrom the Kamal Haasan-ledMakkal Needhi Maiam(MNM). The HC had saidthere was total violation of itsinterim order issued onWednesday, when it declined tostay a government order allow-ing resumption of sale of liquorthrough outlets.

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India is nearing its daily test-ing target of 1 lakh with

95,000 tests conducted onSaturday even as theGovernment sought to allayCovid-19 fears saying it doesnot anticipate the worst kind ofsituation in India like otherdeveloped countries, which arebadly hit by the contagion.

To substantiate its claim,the Government cited thecountry’s fatality rate which ishovering around 3.3 per centwhile the recovery rate isclimbing up to 29.9 per cent.The total cases on Saturdaycrossed 60,000 while around2,000 deaths have been report-ed till date.

“We do not anticipate avery worst type of situation inour country like many otherdeveloped countries but still wehave prepared the whole coun-try for the worst situation,” saidUnion Health Minister HarshVardhan while interacting withHealth Ministers and seniorofficials of North-East State onthe current Covid-19 situa-tion via video conferencing.

“Our fatality rate in thecountry continues to be around3.3% and the recovery ratehas climbed up to 29.9%, theseare very good indicators. Thedoubling rate for the last 3 dayshas been about 11 days, for lastseven days it has been 9.9days,” he said.

Testing capacity for Covid-19 has been scaled up to 95,000per day and total 15,25,631 testshave been conducted so faracross 332 Government and121 private laboratories, said

the Health Minister.“We have dedicated 843

hospitals exclusively for Covid-19 patients’ treatment, whichhave about 1,65,991 beds in itfor the same. Across the coun-try, there are 1, 991 dedicatedCovid-19 health centres whichhave 1, 35, 643 beds. Thesebeds include isolation as well asICU beds,” he added. Vardhansaid that the Health Ministry iscontinuously coordinating withthe states and monitoring thedata on a daily basis.

“There are 7, 645 quaran-tine centres across the country.We have distributed 69 lakh N-

95 masks have been to variousState Governments. A total of32.76 lakhs PPEs have been dis-tributed to State Governmentsby the centre. We started fromone testing lab in Pune andnow we have over 453 labs inthe country,” he said.

“Yesterday evening weevaluated the data from variousstates and found that only 0.38per cent of the patients were onthe ventilators. 1.88 per centrequiring oxygen support and2.21 per cent were on ICUbeds,” he added.

During the detailed inter-action, the States highlightedvarious issues related to testingfacilities, health infrastructure,surveillance, contact tracingetc. and also shared their bestpractices, as per the statementissued here by the Ministry.

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Fourteen-day home quarantine for allKeralites returning from other States

would be compulsory, said Kerala ChiefMinister Pinarayi Vijayan, here on Saturday.

"Kerala's home quarantine protocol hasbeen very effective. Hence top health expertB. Iqbal suggested that in the present contextit would be best that those who arrive fromwithin the country and having no symptoms be home quarantined," saidVijayan.

According to the state-owned Norka-Roots web portal, around 200,000 people haveregistered to return and a majority are fromneighbouring States and Maharashtra.

Those with symptoms would be testedand, if needed, be isolated in hospitals, he saidand added, the PCR test would also be con-ducted.

The Chief Minister said all those waitingto enter the state from the six border check-posts would be issued passes. "But none willbe allowed in without a pass," said Vijayan.

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ASOS message has gonefrom Tirupur to Prime

Minister Narendra Modi witha plea to save the cottonknitwear industry in the dis-trict, popularly known as theknitwear capital of India.Tirupur knitwear industryaccounts for 90 per cent of cot-ton knitwear exports, employsmore than 6,00,000 workersand earns anywhere more than�200 billion by way of exports.

With the breaking out ofcoronavirus and the resultantnational lockdown, Tirupurwears a deserted look as mostof the migrant laborers work-ing in the knitwear factorieshave returned to their villages.The industrial units wereforced to lay off a majorchunk of the workforce fol-lowing large scale cancellationof export orders from USA andEurope, the main consumers.

The Tirupur Exporters'

Association(TEA) said in itsmessage to the Prime Ministerthat though the Reserve Bankof India had asked the Banks tooffer three months moratoriumon long terms loans taken bythe industry vide its orderdated March 27, many Banksare yet to make this optionavailable to the industry on theground that either the respec-tive Bank corporate office is yetto take a decision on this or thatthe Auto debit instruction inthe system cannot be undoneat the branch level or any suchflimsy reason.

The exporters pointed outin the message that the textileunits in the district pay �100crore every year to theEmployees State InsuranceCorporation (ESIC) . “Hence itis fair on our part to expect theESIC to pay at least a month’ssalary to the workers employedby us at this hour of crisis, thetype of which has not beenfaced by the industry in the

known history. It is not for uswe are asking this concessionbut to save the industry fromdrifting away,” said S Sakthivel, executive secretary, TEA.

Raja M Shanmugham,president, Tirupur ExportersAssociation in a letter to thePrime Minister said the indus-trial cluster in Tirupur areexperiencing a never seenbefore financial crisis and if nourgent measures are taken andthat too on a war footing mea-sure, the Tirupur KnitwearIndustry would become a thingod the past soon.

“Almost all the buyers inEurope and US has stoppedmaking payments for our sup-plies effected since December.Most of them have officiallyextended the payment termsfor our supplies effected sinceDecember. Most of them haveofficially extended the pay-ment terms from 60-90 days to150-180 days and beyond.Orders in the pipelines are

being cancelled and suspend-ed and even the finished ordersare not allowed to be shipped,”said Shanmugham in the mes-sage to the PM.

More than the grievancesof the textile export units,Shanmugham has lambastedthe financial institutions (readBanks) for their callous andindifferent attitude to the direc-tives issued by the ReserveBank of India to the Banks inthe country asking them to takeappropriate measures to helpthe industry to tide over the cri-sis caused by the coronaviruspandemic.

According toShanmugham and all membersof the TEA, the Indian bureau-cracy works based on a RuleBound approach imbibed fromthe British legacy in all spheresof governance includingadministrative, legislature andjudiciary. “The Britishersimplanted this Rule Boundapproach so that nobody could

easily comprehend the rules ofgovernance which also givesthe rulers to interpret the rulesin their favour,” he said.

Shanmugham has said inthe message that more than theRule Bound approach, what thecountry needs at this criticaljuncture is wartime strategiesto save the industry. “Let theReserve Bank of India issuedirections to the Banks whiochshould be implemented in let-ter and spirits instead of givingthem options to hel the Banks.What we look forward is notfor freebees but some conces-sion in the repayment mode.We will definitely pay back tothe government what we owein the form of bank loans buttaking into account the seri-ousness of the situation, we areasking for a moratorium onloans repayment for a period ofone year. We will pay back alloutstanding loans over a peri-od of five years,” saidShanmugham.

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With death of 11 more coronavirus patientsin the last 24 hours, the death toll due to

the disease in West Bengal climbed to 99 onSaturday, a senior Government official said.

"Eleven more fatalities have been recorded inthe last 24 hours, taking the total death toll to 99,except those 72 comorbidities declared by thedeath audit committee. This figure stood at 88 onFriday," West Bengal Home Secretary AlapanBandopadhyay told a press conference at the statesecretariat Nabanno here.

He said that as many as 108 news cases hadbeen reported in the last 24 hours from across thestate. With this, the total number of confirmedcorona cases reached 1,786 in Bengal

"Altogether, 1,234 corona patients are under-going treatments in various hospitals,"Bandopadhyay said.

As for the return of migrant labourers and pil-grims stuck in other States, the Home Secretarysaid that the State Government is taking neces-sary steps.

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The Rajasthan Government has set up apanel, led by Additional Chief Secretary

Subodh Agrawal, to ensure ease of travel forstranded labourers.

Agrawal has been keeping a tab onmovement of labourers and is in touch withother states. "It's time to ensure that everycitizen is fed and reaches home without anytrouble. We are monitoring labourers'movements every day. Several trains havebeen deployed to shift labourers. ChiefMinister Ashok Gehlot is personally mon-itoring the developments and has said noone should sleep hungry," said Agrawal.

The State Government is taking care oftravelling migrants' meals, masks and san-itizers, and is ensuring strict implementa-tion of social distancing norm. Passengersare also being checked by medical teams onrailway stations.

Till now, 96,000 migrant labourershave been taken to their home states. Ofthis, 4,292 labourers travelled to Gujarat,MP (37,442), Punjab (7,774), Haryana

(5,580), Bihar (5,942), Uttarakhand (1,589),West Bengal (677), Maharashtra (554) andOdisha (79).

Similarly, 2,12,006 Rajasthani migrantshave returned from Gujarat, 36,814 fromMaharashtra, 17,233 from MP, 1,128 fromPunjab, 3,713 from Haryana, 5,614 fromUP, 1,132 from Uttarakhand, 863 from WestBengal, 398 from Bihar and 272 fromOdisha. As soon as the government got thenod for migrants' transportation, 8,12,423registered themselves to travel via trains totheir home states. Similarly, 10,64,417labourers registered to reach Rajasthan fromacross India.

"In the coming days, thousands ofworkers will be sent to their home states andbrought back to Rajasthan. We hope thingswill go hassle-free. After an unfortunate inci-dent in Aurangabad, we have taken strictmeasures to ensure safety of stranded work-ers," Agrawal said. The State Governmentstarted registration of stranded peoplethrough eMitra. Any stranded person couldregister on eMitra portal by providing rele-vant details along with documents or using+181/18001806127, Agrawal said.

Lucknow: To help the migrantworkers stranded in severalstates, the Congress, here onSaturday, launched a web portal,even as the political slugfest con-tinued over rail fares of migrantsbeing ferried by Shramik Specialtrains.

The Congress launched chat portaltinyurl.com/UPmitra to helpUP workers stranded in otherstates as well as those stuck in thestate. The portal has been devel-oped by Valuefirst free of cost."We have launched this chat por-tal to provide help to those inneed. The problems raised bythem will be listed and theparty workers will help them,"UP Congress chief Ajay KumarLallu said.

The list of the problemswould also be shared with ChiefMinister Yogi Adityanath, headded. The Congress, he said,was running communitykitchen in 17 UP districts sincethe nationwide lockdown wasannounced to combat the spreadof Covid-19. Meals and rationhad been provided to over 47lakh people, he added. IANS

Amaravati: With just 43 casesreported on Saturday, AndhraPradesh reported it's lowestdaily tally of Covid-19 cases inweeks. A steady decline in thenumber of positive cases overthe past one week, combinedwith increasing numbers ofpeople getting cured, has result-ed in the state's active cases dip-ping below the 1,000 mark.

The State Nodal Officer hasreported that of the 8,388 sam-ples tested, 43 cases weredetected in the 24 hours end-ing 10 a.m. on Saturday.However, the death tollincreased further, with twopersons reported dead inKrishna district and one inKurnool district.

The state's top Covid-19hotspot of Kurnool districtcontinued to register very lowpositive cases. Only six caseswere reported from here, while

Krishna district reported thehighest daily tally of 16 cases.Visakhapatnam reported fivecases, while Anantapur andChittoor districts reportedthree and two cases respec-tively.

In a reversal of sorts, adecrease in the number of pos-itive cases over the past week

has been observed in AndhraPradesh. 54 cases were detect-ed on Friday, while the 24-hourtally on Thursday was 56. Thedaily tally was 60 cases onWednesday. Similarly the tallyon Tuesday and Monday was67.

Prior to this, the daily tallyof positive cases used to rangebetween 70 and the highest sin-gle-day tally of 81.

On an average, the statetests around 7,500 samples perday and has the country's high-est test ratio of 3,091 testsconducted per million popu-lation. So far, the state has con-ducted 1,65,069 tests. Thestate's positivity rate stands at1.17 per cent, while the Covidmortality rate is 2.28 per cent.The death toll on Saturdayincreased to 43, with threedeaths reported in the past 24hours. IANS

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The number of Covid-19 cases inAgra surpassed the 700 mark on

Saturday, with 26 more people test-ing positive for the coronavirus inthe past 24 hours a health officialsaid.

The total tally now stands at 706and the overall death toll at 23, theofficial added. District MagistrateP.N. Singh said that so far a total of303 patients were discharged fromvarious hospitals after recovery.

The new cases were mostlyfrom the 42 hotspots and those whohad come in contact with someinfected persons. The district healthdepartment has so far collected8,835 samples.

In Firozabad, the tally hasclimbed to 174, while in Mathuratwo new cases have been admittedto the district hospital. The numberof cases has gone upto 38 in the holycity which continues to see a

drought of pilgrims as a result of thelockdown.

The Agra administration onSaturday announced new quaran-tine centres for the incomingmigrant labourers who will berequired to spend 14 days beforeentering villages.

Meanwhile, DivisionalCommissioner Anil Kumar visitedseveral hotspots and governmenthospitals to review the state of pre-paredness and facilities beingoffered.

Senior physicians and home-opaths of the city have been urgingcitizens to change lifestyles and fol-low the guidelines for their safety.

"The coronavirus, was not like-ly to be controlled soon, till medi-cines or vaccines were developed.The only remedy or antidote,according to them was personalhygiene, social distancing, healthyfood and regular exercise", saidsenior doctor Ashok Viz.

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In an indication of his prior-ities, Mumbai’s new

Municipal Commissioner IqbalSingh Chahal on Saturday vis-ited BYL Nair Hospital and thecoronavirus-hit Dharavi’s slumand took stock of the situationthere, even as one more persondied and 25 more persons test-ed positive for Covid-19, tak-ing the total number of deathsto 27 and the total infectedcases in Asia’s biggest slum to833.

Chahal -- who took over asthe new Mumbai civic chieffrom senior IAS PraveenPardeshi late on Friday eveningwithin a couple of hours afterhis appointment – hit theground running on Saturdaymorning.

Chahal’s port of call wasthe Brihanmumbai MunicipalCorporation (BMC) BYL NairHospital & TN Medical Collegeat Mumbai Central in southMumbai, where he wore pro-tective medical gear and inter-acted with the Covid-19patients there and advisedthem to get in touch with theadministration in case theyfaced problem of any kindduring their stay at the hospi-tal.

The Nair Hospital, which

has been functioning as aCovid-19 medical facility sinceApril 18, has in all 531 beds –all reserved for Coronaviruspatients. There are as many 53Intensive Care Units (ICUs) atthe hospital. The hospital,where 44 pregnant womenhave delivered during the last22 days, has 110 beds for preg-nant women. It has 27 dialy-sis units for Coronaviruspatients.

While reviewing the situa-tion at the hospital, Chahalinteracted with doctors, nurs-es and other medical workersthere on the availability of

Pe r s o n a lProtective Equipment (PPE)for medical staff, drug avail-ability, facilities at the ICUs andline of treatment adopted bythe doctors to deal with theCovid-19 patients.

After his visit to NairHospital, Chahal headedstraight to Dharavi slum, wherehe visited worst-affected local-ities of Mukund Nagar andShastri Nagar and took stock ofthe situation there.

Later on, the newMunicipal Commissioner vis-ited a containment zone locat-ed near Tata Colony and inter-

acted with the residents there.As part of the visit to the

Tata colony, Chahal visited apublic toilet and inspected it.His inspection of the public toi-let should be seen in the con-text of the fact that public toi-lets in Dharavi have become amajor source for the spread ofCovid-19 in Dharavi.

Interacting with the policeofficials posted there, Chahaladvised them to enforce thelockdown norms sternly in thearea in view of the rapid spreadof the pandemic in the area. Healso spoke to some private

doctors in the area. Chahal advised the BMC

medical staff to intensify thetracing of Covid-19 “contacts”in the densely populated slumand put them in an institutionalquarantine in a big way to pre-vent the rapid spread of theCovid-19 in the area.

Meanwhile, one moredweller of Dharavi succumbedto Coronavirus on Saturday, 25new infected cases were report-ed from this slum.

With the new death andinfected cases, the total num-ber of deaths in Dharavimounted to 27, while the totalpositive cases rose to 833 in thearea. On Friday, Dharavi hadrecorded five more deaths.These deaths came to light aspart of the BMC’s follow upcalls of cases. “We got to knowthat the patients had suc-cumbed to the pandemic ondifferent days earlier and notFriday, “ a senior BMC officialsaid.

Significantly, as many asfive new infected cases werereported from Mukund Nagar,which incidentally was one ofthe areas that the BMC’s newCommissioner visited onSaturday. Like in the past, pos-itive cases were reported fromdifferent localities of Dharavion Saturday as well.

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Despite enforcing lockdownguidelines strictly on

ground zero, the total numberof positive cases of coronavirusare recording a steady increaseacross Kashmir valley for lastone week. Since May 1, 211fresh cases of coronavirus weredetected from across differentdistricts of Kashmir while 117patients have been dischargedduring the same period.

Reporting of large numberof positive cases may be attrib-uted to enhanced testing capac-ity. Over 7,000 samples weretested in the last 48 hours inJ&K.

The five districts ofBandipora, Srinagar, Anantnag,Baramulla and Shopian aloneaccounted for 71 percent casesof total cases.

Out of a total number of836 positive cases in Jammu &Kashmir, 601 cases were spreadover these five districts withBandipora topping the charts at134, Srinagar 131 and

Anantnag 122 cases. Baramullahave reported 106 and Shopian100 positive cases so far.

On Saturday, 13 fresh caseswere detected in Jammu &Kashmir, 12 from Kashmirand only one case was report-ed from Jammu division. Atotal number of 29 moreCovid-19 patients were alsodischarged from various hos-pitals, 01 from Jammu divisionand 28 from Kashmir divisionon Friday and four on Saturday.

Relatively, the situation inJammu division remainedunder control. At present, outof 459 Active cases in Jammu& Kashmir, Kashmir account-ed for 446 cases and Jammuonly 13. Out of these 13 cases,Five cases are active positive inJammu, 2 in Udhampur, threein Samba and one each inKathua, Reasi and Ramban.

The Bulletin further saidthat out of 44753 test resultsavailable, 43917 samples havetested as negative till May 09,2020.

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Within two days after avideo showing at least

four bodies wrapped in blackplastic lying on beds next toCovid-19 patients undergoingtreatment at the LTMGHospital at Sion in north-cen-tral Mumbai went viral, theBrihanmumbai MunicipalCorporation (BMC) hasappointed Dr Ramesh Bharmalas the new Director and Deanof the Hospital.

Dr Bharmal, who hasreplaced Dr Pramod Ingale asthe new Dean of the LokmanyTilak Municipal General(LTMG) Hospital at Sion, tookcharge as the head of the Sionhospital on Saturday.

Informed sources in theBMC said on Saturday that ina damage control exerciseundertaken after the receipt ofthe report of an inquiryordered into the shocking inci-

dent of the bodies of the Covid-19 deceased being found nextto the beds of Covid-19 patientsundergoing treatment at theSion hospital, Dr Ingale wasgiven marching orders onFriday night.

It may be recalled thatMumbai Mayor KishoriPednekar personally visitedthe BMC-run LTMG Hospitalon Thursday and ordered aninquiry into the disturbingincident. Among other things,the Mayor had disapproved theincident, by saying that“Whatever happened at theSion Hospital is totally wrong”.

Her visit to the SionHospital had followed a publicfurore triggered by a chillingvideo posted by BJP MLANitesh Rane that showed atleast four bodies wrapped inblack plastic lying on bedsnext Covid-19 patients under-going treatment at the LTMG

Hospital. The Opposition BJPhad demanded a full-fledgedinquiry into the incident andalso the resignation of thenMumbai MunicipalCommisisoner PraveenPardeshi.

Dr Ingale, who had himselfsaid that the inquiry ordered bythe Mayor would be complet-ed within 24 hours, is under-stood to have been indicted inthe inquiry report.

While announcing aninquiry into the incident, theBMC had said in a statement:“A video clip showing deadbodies being kept on the trol-leys in a ward of LokmanyaTilak Municipal GeneralHospital where other patientsare being treated is circulatingon media.

To understand the realityand confirmation of the facts,an inquiry Committee has been consti-tuted. Committee members

have been instructed to submitthe report within 24 hrs.Depending on the report, disciplinary actionwill be taken against the guilty”.

Ironically enough, theLTMG Hospital authorities hadadmitted themselves that thereis already a guideline that thebody of a deceased Covid-19patient should be handed overto its family.

“In view of guidelines ofGovt. of Maharashtra, a circu-lar was issued u/no.LTH/108/Dean (L) dtd.2.5.2020 which stated that adead body should be handedover to patient’s relative with-in 30 minutes of death in thesuspect Covid and Covid pos-itive wards. But it is found thatmany a times relatives are notavailable to handover the bodyor they are not willing,” theLTMG Hospital said in itsstatement.

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The health authorities in Maharashtrawent into a tizzy on Saturday, as the

State recorded highest-ever day’s fatalitytally of 48 deaths and registered a phe-nomenal 11,65 infected cases taking thetotal number of cases to 20,228.

On a day when the total number ofdeaths mounted to 779 and the total num-ber of infected crossed 20,000 mark in thestate, as many as 48 persons succumbedto Covid-19.

Of the total deaths, Mumbai account-ed for 27 deaths, while there were ninedeaths in Pune and eight in Malegaon. Onedeath each was reported from Pune dis-trict, Akola, Nanded and Amravati. Theeight deaths reported from Malegaontook place between the period of April 25and May 8.With the new 27 deaths, thetotal number of deaths in Mumbai hasrisen to 489, while the total numberinfected cases has jumped to 12,864.

Of the dead, 21 were men while 27were women. Twenty seven of them agedover 60 years, 18 were from the age group40 to 59 years and 3 were aged less than40 years

While the Information regardingcomorbidities of 9 patients who died wasnot available yet, 28 out of the rest 39patients (72%) had high-risk co-morbidi-ties such as diabetes, hypertension andheart disease.

Out of 2,27,804 laboratory samples,2,06,481 were negative and 20,228 havetested positive for coronavirus untilSaturday.There are 1243 active contain-ment zones in the state currently. “Total12,388 surveillance squads worked todayacross the state and surveillance of 55 lakhpopulation was done,” a state health bul-letin said.

Meanwhile, 3,800 patients have beendischarged till date after full recovery.Currently, 2,41,290 people are in homequarantine and 13,976 people are in insti-tutional quarantine.

Meanwhile, the BrihanmumbaiMunicipal Corporationb (BMC) in an

advisory issued on Saturday urged thepeople not to panic and asked “all posi-tive corona patients” who do not havesymptoms not rush to the big hospitalsforØ admission when the test result is pos-itive.

“Health department will guide you forthe same to nearby Corona care centres.Please take the following precautions:Asymptomatic Covid-19 positive non comorbid patients can remain home isolat-ed, if feasibility and assessment for thesame is ensured by the health department& provided patients give undertakingand abide to instructions given by thehealth department. Citizens are request-ed not to panic,”, the advisory stated.

“if any close family member, neighborhas turned outØ Covid-19 positive. As perICMR guidelines only very close high riskcontacts of the positive case can be testedonce between 5-14 days of exposure or ear-lier if they become symptomatic,” the BMCadvisory stated.

“ All contacts need to self-quarantineat home, or will be quarantined in an insti-tution if belong to slum like areas as perthe directions of Health Department,” theadvisory added.

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Rome: South Korea’s capitalclosed down more than 2,100bars and other nightspotsSaturday because of a new clus-ter of coronavirus infections,and Germany scrambled tocontain fresh outbreaks atslaughterhouses, underscoringthe dangers authorities face asthey try to reopen theireconomies.

Elsewhere, Belarus, whichhas not locked down despiteincreasing case numbers, sawtens of thousands of people turnout to mark Victory Day, theanniversary of Nazi Germany’sdefeat in 1945. That was in con-trast to Russia, where a mutedevent took place over an emptyRed Square.

Around the world, the USand other hard-hit countries arewrestling with how to easecurbs on business and publicactivity without touching off adeadly second wave of infection.

Germany and South Koreahave both carried out extensive

testing and contact tracing andhave been hailed for avoidingthe mass deaths that have over-whelmed other countries. Buteven there, authorities havestruggled with finding the bal-ance between saving lives andsaving jobs.

In South Korea, where adecline in new cases hadprompted the government toloosen up, Seoul shut downthousands of nightclubs, host-ess bars and discos after dozensof infections were linked toclubgoers who went out lastweekend as the country relaxedits social-distancing guidelines.

Many of the infections werelinked to a 29-year-old manwho visited three nightclubsbefore testing positive.

Health officials in Germanyfaced outbreaks at three slaugh-terhouses in what was seen asa test of the government’s strat-egy for dealing with any resur-gence of the virus as restrictionsare eased. Meanwhile, govern-

ments came under fresh scruti-ny over their handling of thecrisis. German Foreign MinisterHeiko Maas said Europe mustacknowledge that it “wasn’twell-prepared” for the out-break. In the US, internal gov-ernment emails obtained byThe Associated Press show thata decision to shelve detailedadvice from the nation’s top dis-ease control experts for reopen-ing communities during theepidemic came from the high-est levels of the White House.

Worldwide, the virus isconfirmed to have infectedover 3.9 million people andkilled more than 275,000,according to a tally by JohnsHopkins University based ondata reported by Governments.Hard-hit Italy saw people returnto the streets for their tradi-tional aperitivos and revel infine weather as restrictionsthere have eased. In some cases,people went too far for theauthorities. AP

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Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi has approved

amendments to the country’sstate of emergency that granthim and security agencies addi-tional powers, which theGovernment says are needed tocombat the Covid-19 outbreak.

An international rightsgroup condemned the amend-ments, saying the governmenthas used the global pandemicto “expand, not reform, Egypt’sabusive Emergency Law.”

The new amendmentsallow the president to to takemeasures to contain the virus,such as suspending classes atschools and universities andquarantining those returningfrom abroad. But they alsoinclude expanded powers toban public and private meet-ings, protests, celebrations andother forms of assembly.

The government haswaged an unprecedentedcrackdown on dissent since2013, when el-Sissi rose to

power, and unauthorizedprotests have been banned foryears. The amendments, whichel-Sissi signed off on Friday,also allow military prosecutorsto investigate incidents whenarmy officers are tasked withlaw enforcement or when thepresident orders it. The coun-try’s chief civilian prosecutorwould have the final decisionon whether to bring matters totrial. The amended law wouldalso allow the president topostpone taxes and utility pay-ments as well as provide eco-nomic support for affectedsectors.

Parliament, which ispacked with el-Sissi supporters,approved the measure lastmonth.

Egypt has been under astate of emergency since April2017, and the governmentextended it late last month foranother three months.

The law was originallypassed to give the presidentbroader powers to combat ter-rorism and drug trafficking.

Karachi: At least six security personnel, includ-ing an Army major, were killed when a road-side bomb struck a patrol vehicle in south-western Pakistan’s restive Balochistan province,close to the border with Iran.

The Army on Friday said in a statement thata vehicle of paramilitary Frontier Corps was tar-geted through a remote-controlled improvisedexplosive device (IED) in Kech district’s Buledaarea, about 14 km from the Iran border.

“A major and five soldiers were killed whileone soldier was injured,” according to the Army.

No one took responsibility but Baloch mil-itants often target the security forces in theprovince.

Security sources said the route where theexplosion took place was monitored round theclock because of suspected movement by smug-glers and insurgents in the border area.

A search operation was launched by thesecurity forces in the area to trace the elementsinvolved in the attack. PTI

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US Vice President MikePence’s press secretary has

the coronavirus, the WhiteHouse said on Friday, makingher the second person whoworks at the White Housecomplex known to test positivefor the virus this week.

President Donald Trump,who publicly identified theaffected Pence aide, said he was“not worried” about the virusspreading in the White House.Nonetheless, officials said theywere stepping up safety proto-cols for the complex.

Pence spokeswoman KatieMiller, who tested positive onFriday, had been in recent con-tact with Pence but not with thepresident. She is married toStephen Miller, a top Trumpadviser. The White House hadno immediate comment onwhether Stephen Miller hadbeen tested or if he was stillworking out of the WhiteHouse.

Katie Miller had testednegative on Thursday, a daybefore her positive result.

“This is why the wholeconcept of tests are not neces-sarily great,” Trump said. “Thetests are perfect but somethingcan happen between a testwhere it is good and thensomething happens.”

Houston: The U.S. Government has awarded a $275million border wall contract for construction thatwould begin in South Texas in January, at the startof President Donald Trump’s second term if he isre-elected.

Caddell Construction Company, based inMontgomery, Alabama, won the contract to build14 miles (22.5 kilometers) of barriers in and aroundLaredo, Texas, a city of 260,000 people on the RioGrande, the river that runs between Texas andMexico. US Customs and Border Protectionannounced the contract award Friday night usingfunds it had previously received from Congressrather than military funding re-directed to the wall.

The CBP said construction would begin inJanuary 2021 “pending availability of real estate.”There is little existing wall separating Laredo andits sister city of Nuevo Laredo, Mexico. Much of theplanned construction would cut through privateland in neighborhoods close to the edge of the RioGrande, requiring the government to take proper-ty through its power of eminent domain. PTI

Washington: PresidentDonald Trump says he’s in “norush” to negotiate anotherfinancial rescue bill, even as the Government reported that more than 20 millionAmericans lost their jobs lastmonth due to economicupheaval caused by the coro-navirus.

The president’s low-keyapproach came Friday as theLabor Department reportedthe highest unemploymentrate since the Great Depressionand as Democrats prepared tounveil what Senate Democraticleader Chuck Schumer calls a“Rooseveltian-style” aid pack-age to shore up the economyand address the health crisis.

Some congressional con-servatives, meanwhile, whoset aside long-held oppositionto deficits to pass more thanUSD 2 trillion in relief so far,have expressed reservationsabout another massive spend-ing package.

“We’ve kind of paused asfar as formal negotiations go,”Larry Kudlow, the director ofthe National EconomicCouncil told reporters Friday.

He said the administrationwanted to let the last round ofrecovery funding kick in beforecommitting to hundreds of

billions or more in additionalspending.

“Let’s have a look at whatthe latest round produces, giveit a month or so to evaluatethat.” Kudlow added that talkswere in a “lull” and that admin-istration officials and legisla-tors would “regroup” in thenext several weeks.

Still, White House aidesare drawing up a wish-list for a future spending bill,including a payroll tax cut, lia-bility protection for business-es that reopen and potentiallybillions in infrastructurespending.

Kudlow added that theWhite House was also consid-ering allowing businesses toimmediately expense the costsof modifiying their facilities toaccommodate public safetymeasures necessary to reopen.The notion was brought up ona call with House membersadvising the White House onreopening plans Thursdayevening and drew bipartisansupport.

“We’re in no rush, we’re inno rush,” Trump told reportersFriday during an event withHouse Republicans. He calledon Democratic-controlledHouse to return toWashington, adding, “We want

to see what they have.”The emerging Democratic

bill is expected to include eye-popping sums, centered onnearly $1 trillion that states andcities are seeking to preventmass layoffs as governmentsreel from the one-two punch ofskyrocketing costs from the

pandemic and dismal taxreceipts in the shuttered econ-omy.

The package being com-piled by House Speaker NancyPelosi — the fifth fromCongress in a matter of weeks— draws on requests from gov-ernors for $500 billion, and

from cities and counties for upto $300 billion to preventwidespread layoffs of police,fire and other frontline work-ers during the pandemic.

“No one could look attoday’s jobs report, the highestunemployment since the GreatDepression, and say we should

hit the pause button on furthergovernment action,” Schumersaid in a statement.

He compared Trump andhis GOP allies in Congress toformer President HerbertHoover, who is often seen asfailing to respond adequately tothat crisis. “We need a big, bold

approach now to supportAmerican workers and fami-lies,” Schumer said.

But the package has hadlittle input from Republicansand is finding scant support,even as some in the partysupport certain provisions,including the local aid. PTI

New York: In a worrying devel-opment, a five-year old boy hasdied in New York from a rareinflammatory illness linked tothe coronavirus, while the deathof another seven-year-old boy isbeing investigated for possiblelinks to the mysterious pediatricsyndrome. The New York StateDepartment of Health is inves-tigating several cases of thesevere illness in children andchild deaths that may be linkedto the serious inflammatorydisease called “Pediatric Multi-System Inflammatory SyndromeAssociated with COVID-19.”There have been 73 reportedcases in New York where chil-dren are experiencing symptomssimilar to Kawasaki disease andtoxic shock-like syndrome pos-sibly due to COVID-19. PTI

Berlin: German ForeignMinister Heiko Maas saysEurope must acknowledge thatit “wasn’t well-prepared” for thecoronavirus pandemic.

In a statement markingEurope Day, Maas said that ini-tially most countries, includingGermany, were focused oncoping with the outbreak athome.

While defending the nation-al response as “necessary, inorder to safeguard our ability toact and then also help other,”Maas said the European Unionhad “grown in the crisis.” TheEU’s sluggish response has givenway to cross-border medicalaid, a massive financial supportpackage and coordinated scien-tific research programmes. AP

Colombo: Muslim theologistsin Sri Lanka have urged thegovernment to reconsider itsdecision on cremating theMuslims who died due to thecoronavirus, saying the revisedrule goes against the Islamictradition.

Sri Lanka has made cre-mations compulsory for coro-navirus victims, ignoringprotests from the country’sMuslims, who make up 10 percent of the 21 million popula-tion.

In a letter to the DirectorGeneral, Health Services, theAll Ceylon Jamiyyathul Ulama(ACJU) claimed that more

than 180 countries in line withthe guidelines of the WorldHealth Organisation haveallowed burials for Muslimswho die of COVID-19.

“It is our moral and ethicalduty to abide by the law of thecountry and to guide peopletowards it. But it does notimply that we endorse or giveconsent to this ruling as it isagainst our religious principles”,the letter said.

They urged the healthauthorities to reconsider thedecision. The Muslim clerics inSri Lanka had earlier also madean appeal regarding their oppo-sition to cremations. PTI

Beijing: China has reported 15new asymptomatic coronaviruscases, taking their total to 836while one new importedCOVID-19 infection was con-firmed, health officials said onSaturday.

According to China’sNational Health Commission(NHC), as for Friday 836asymptomatic cases, includ-ing 63 from overseas, werestill under medical observation.

The NHC said one import-ed case of coronavirus wasreported on Friday and 15new asymptomatic cases, alldomestic ones, were confirmedin the country.

Most of the asymptomaticcases were being reported fromfirst coronavirus epicentresHubei province and its capitalWuhan where no confirmedcases were reported for the 35days, the local health commis-sion said.

Normalcy is returning tothe province as the lockdown

has been lifted and offices,business and factories havebeen opened since last month.

The province still has 628asymptomatic cases undermedical observation, after 13new cases were reported onFriday, the commission said.

Death toll in Chinaremained at 4,633 as no newfatalities have been reported onFriday while the total numberof cases stood at 82,887,including 208 patients whowere still being treated, theNHC said. PTI

Bouda (Burkina Faso):Jihadists burst into the goldmine where Moussa Tamburaworked in Burkina Faso, for-bidding everyone from smokingand drinking. It wasn’t longbefore the men returned andleveled the place to the ground.

“They attacked the site,killed people and burned hous-es,” said Tambura, 29, clench-ing his fists.

He was able to find workagain after fleeing to Bouda,another town in country’s norththat still has small-scale mining.Still, he struggles to provide forhis family since his new job isn’tas lucrative as his old one.

Jihadists linked to al-Qaidaand the Islamic State organi-zation have been overrunninggold mines like Tambura’s one

by one as they try to gain con-trol of Burkina Faso’s mostlucrative industry.

The extremists are thencollecting a “protection tax”from communities livingaround the gold mines and alsoforcing the miners to sell themthe gold exclusively, which isthen smuggled and sold acrossthe border in places like Benin,Ghana or Togo.

The violence already hasshuttered many small minesacross the volatile north andthe government also has triedto shut down other small-scalemines in the east so that theycan’t be used by extremists tofinance more attacks.

Mining Minister OumarouIdani has called the measure anecessary step in the “fight

against terrorism.”But some of the remote

sites continue running anywayas they escape the reach of thenational government inOuagadougou, other officialsand analysts said.

Some are warning too thatthe government’s strategy to cutoff the flow of money from theeast may also backfire, asunemployed miners fallingdeeper into poverty couldbecome more sympathetic tothe jihads’ recruitment mes-sages of marginalization.

“You’re opening up thegates to push people to the ter-rorists,” said OumarouGanemtore, secretary for theNational Union of theArtisanal Miners Associationof Burkina Faso. AP

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Washington: DemocraticParty’s presumptive presiden-tial nominee and former USvice president Joe Biden allegedon Friday that PresidentDonald Trump utterly failed toprepare for the Covid-19 pan-demic and said his entire eco-nomic strategy is focussed onhelping the wealthy and bigcorporations.

Referring to the record2.05 crore jobs lost in Aprilalone, resulting in an unprece-dented unemployment rate of14.7 per cent now — the high-est since the Great Depression— Biden, in a major policyspeech, said it is an economicdisaster, worse than any in

decades, and it was made all themore worse because it did nothave to be this way.

“Donald Trump utterlyfailed to prepare for this pan-demic and delayed in takingthe necessary steps to safeguardour nation against the near-worst-case economic scenariowe are now living in,” he saidin his remarks on “Trump’sDisastrous Economy”.

Covid-19 caused a massiveeconomic challenge, but thecrisis hit the US harder and willlast longer because Trumpspent the last three years under-mining the core pillars of theAmerican economic strength,Biden alleged.

Many small businesseshave closed because of thestay-at-home orders. But a lotof them will not open again asthey do not have a cushion dueto three years of Trump’s poli-cies that reward the biggestcompanies, he rued.

“Trump’s economic agen-da has three unmistakable fail-ings, failings that have beenpresent since day one, but arecoming into sharp relief in thecurrent crisis: first, Trump’smain measure of economicprogress is the state of the stockmarket, second, his entire eco-nomic strategy is focussed onhelping the wealthy and bigcorporations. PTI

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China continues to hide andobfuscate Covid-19 data

from the world, US Secretary ofState Mike Pompeo has said,asserting that he has seen a sig-nificant amount of evidencesuggesting that a laboratory inthe Chinese city of Wuhanwas “underperforming” andthe virus may well haveemanated from there.

By Friday, more than78,000 Americans had diedand 13 lakh tested positive forthe coronavirus. Globally, morethan 2,74,000 people have diedand 39 lakh have tested positive

for the disease, according toJohns Hopkins University data.

“I have seen a significantamount of evidence that sug-gests that the lab was under-performing, that there weresecurity risks at the lab and thatthe virus could well haveemanated from there,” Pompeotold Ben Shapiro in an inter-view on Friday.

“But I am happy to sus-pend the decision about that.What we need are answers.There are still people dying,”he said.

The American economyand that of the rest of the worldhave come to a standstill.

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Mounting a strong defenceof the ruling Communist

Party of China, President XiJinping has said the Covid-19fight has once again shownthat the CPC leadership andthe country’s socialist politi-cal system can overcome anychallenge.

Xi’s comments came asChina faced global criticism forits initial inaction to act againstthe novel coronavirus, whichaccording to Chinese officialsemerged in the central Chinesecity of Wuhan in December lastyear.

Pressure is also mountingon Beijing to agree for aninternational probe on the ori-

gins of the vicious virus, includ-ing from the Wuhan Instituteof Virology (WIV), as claimedby the US leadership.

China curbed the spread ofthe coronavirus in over amonth and brought COVID-19 under control at its first epi-centre in Wuhan in aboutthree months, Xi, also theGeneral Secretary of the CPC,said at a symposium held onFriday to get suggestions fromnon-ruling Communist Partyof China (CPC) parties onCOVID-19 prevention andcontrol. He termed the curbingof the COVID-19 pandemic as“hard-won achievements” forthe world’s most populouscountry and the second-biggest economy.

The COVID-19 fight hasonce again shown that theCPC leadership, China’s social-ist system and its governancesystem can overcome any chal-lenge and make big contribu-tions to the progress of humancivilisation, he said.

Xi said China had basical-ly curbed the spread of thevirus in over one month, man-aged to bring the daily numberof new domestically-transmit-ted cases down to single digitsin about two months, andsecured decisive achievementsin protecting epicentres Wuhanand Hubei province in aboutthree months. “For a hugecountry with 1.4 billion people,these are hard-won achieve-ments,” he said. PTI

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Moscow: Russian PresidentVladimir Putin marked VictoryDay, the anniversary of thedefeat of Nazi Germany inWorld War II, in a ceremonyshorn of its usual military paradeand pomp by the coronaviruspandemic.

In neighboring Belarus,however, the ceremonies wentahead in full, with tens of thou-sands of people in the sort ofproximity that has been almostunseen in the world for months.

Putin on Saturday laid flow-ers at the tomb of the unknownsoldier just outside the Kremlinwalls and gave a short addresshonoring the valor and suffer-ing of the Soviet army during the

war. Victory Day is Russia’smost important secular holidayand this year’s observance hadbeen expected to be especiallylarge because it is the 75thanniversary, but the Red Squaremilitary parade and a mass pro-cession called the ImmortalRegiment were postponed aspart of measures to stifle thespread of the virus. The only ves-tige of the conventional show ofmilitary might was a flyover ofcentral Moscow by 75 war-planes and helicopters.

The ceremony was the firstpublic appearance in about amonth for Putin, who hasworked remotely as the virustook hold. PTI

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Three promoters of RamDev International, recent-

ly booked by the CBI forallegedly cheating a consortiumof six banks to the tune of � 411crore, have already fled thecountry before the State Bankof India reached the agencywith the complaint, officialssaid on Saturday.

The CBI had recentlybooked the company engagedin export of Basmati rice to theWest Asian and Europeancountries and its directorsNaresh Kumar, Suresh Kumarand Sangita on the basis ofcomplaint from the State Bank

of India (SBI), which sufferedthe loss of more than �173crore, they said.

The company had threerice milling plants, besideseight sorting and grading unitsin Karnal district with officesin Saudi Arabia and Dubai fortrading purposes, the SBI com-plaint said.Besides SBI, othermembers of consortium areCanara Bank, Union Bank ofIndia, IDBI, Central Bank ofIndia and Corporation Bank,they said. The Central Bureauof Investigation (CBI) did notcarry out any searches in thematter because of the coron-avirus-induced lockdown, theofficials said.

The agency will start theprocess of summoning theaccused, incase they do not jointhe investigation, appropriatelegal action will be initiated,

they said.According to the com-

plaint filed by SBI, the accounthad become non-performingasset (NPA) on January 27,2016.

The banks conducted ajoint inspection of properties inAugust and October, nearly 7-9 months later only to findHaryana Police security guardsdeployed there, they said.

“On inquiry, it has come tonotice that borrowers areabsconding and have left thecountry,” according to thecomplaint filed on February 25,2020, over four years after theaccount had become NPA.

The complaint alleged thatborrowers had removed entiremachinery from old plant andfudged the balance sheets inorder to unlawfully gain at thecost of banks’ funds, it said.

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The rights issue of RelianceIndustries Limited (RIL) is

expected to open on May 22. Itwill be priced at �1,257 pershare with a share ratio at1:15. The issue amount is �53,125 crore.As per the pay-ment terms, 25 per cent of theamount will be on applicationand the balance on more calls.

Market sources said thereis a strong repositioning of RILas consumer/technology com-pany with Jio and retail plat-forms.

As new strategic investorsparticipate in growth engines,the rights issue will rewardexisting shareholders byenabling them to participate inconsumer/technology businessvalue creation.

The rights issue ensuresminority shareholders’ participate in next wave ofvalue creation.

The price of “Right” sharesto maintain the earnings pershare (EPS) is �1,077. At 8 percent discount on the marketprice of �1,427, the rights issuewill be at �1,314 with a total

size of �55,533 crore.If the discount is 10 per

cent, the price will be �1,284 ata total size of � 54,265 crore. Ifthe discount is 12 per cent, therights issue price will be � 1,257with a total issue size of Rs53,124 crore.

Market sources said thatRIL is well-positioned to nav-igate the macro headwindsand diversified earning streamsbut with conservative gearing.It has a robust and resilientbusiness model, as 35 per centof EBITDA is coming fromconsumer businesses.

In addition, the invest-ment cycle has been complet-ed and it has stronger cost posi-tions across products andreduced Capex intensity.Sources point out that newbusiness models create dispro-portionate value and the gold-en decade of value creation liesahead.

They point out that assetlight technology companieshave created more value overthe last decade than the aggre-gate market capital of energycompanies in the S&P.

They cite the examples of

Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, andGoogle.

The strategic investmentsin digital services and orga-nized retail platforms underpinRIL’s participation in the nextleg of value creation in India.

There has been a signifi-cant re-rating of the stock withthe launch of Jio in September2016, with growth in the con-sumer business visibility.Sources say the re-rating will continue with increasingshare of consumer businessesin earnings.

Giving the rationale forthe rights issue, market sourcessaid the global pandemic isreshaping the way the worldlives and works.

There is a visible accelera-tion in digital services, heightened need for robustsupply chain-led new com-merce model.

Market sources say this isa value accretive rights issueand the first rights issue by RILin three decades.

The rights issue will ensureall investors get to participateat the same level as promotersin upcoming opportunities.

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After announcing on Fridaythat it was reinstating pay

cuts of up to 25 per cent for itssenior employees, IndiGo air-lines said the reduction insalary would remain effectivethrough the 2020-21 financialyear. It said it would take a deci-sion on restoring original salary“closer to the end of this finan-cial year”.

The country’s largestdomestic airlines had on Fridayannounced pay cut rangingbetween 5 and 25 per cent, inaddition to its leave-without-pay programme for May, Juneand July, for senior employees.

The announcement, madethrough internal emails, cameafter a series of flip-flops on thematter as India’s largest domes-tic airline struggled to stayafloat amid grounding of allcommercial passenger flightsdue to the coronavirus-trig-gered lockdown.

In the emails accessed byPTI, the airline said the salarycut will be effected from May tillthe end of the 2020-21 financialyear. It has already paid fullsalary of April to its employ-ees.The airline had firstannounced its decision to cutsalaries on March 19 when theeconomic fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic was apparent.

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India’s fuel demand dipped45.8 per cent in April from a

year earlier, as a nationwidelockdown and travel curbs tocombat the spread of novelcoronavirus (COVID-19)eroded economic activity.Consumption of fuel, a proxyfor oil demand, totalled 9.93million tonnes - its lowestsince 2007, Government datashowed on Saturday.

State fuel retailers in thecountry sold 50 per cent lessrefined fuel in the first twoweeks of April than the sametime a year earlier as the coun-try came to a standstill due tothe lockdown that was put inplace on March 24.

The Government last weekextended the lockdown untilMay 17, with some relaxationsin lower-risk areas, althoughtravel by air, rail and metro andinter-state movement of peopleby road was still banned.

The International EnergyAgency (IEA) in its latest reportsaid the country’s annual fuelconsumption will decline 5.6per cent in 2020 compared withgrowth of 2.4 per cent forecastin its March report.

Consumption of diesel,

which is widely used for trans-portation as well as for irriga-tion needs in the country, wasdown about 55.6 per cent year-over-year at 3.25 milliontonnes.

Sales of petrol dropped by60.6 per cent from a year ear-lier to 0.97 million tonnes.

Cooking gas or liquefiedpetroleum gas (LPG) sales roseabout 12.1 per cent to 2.13 mil-lion tonnes, while naphthasales fell 9.5 per cent to 0.86million tonnes.

State-retailers sold 21 percent more LPG in the first fortnight of April from a yearearlier.

The Government is pro-viding free cooking gas cylin-ders to the poor for threemonths to June to help them weather the impact of thelockdown.

Sales of bitumen, used formaking roads, slumped 71 percent, while fuel oil use dipped40 per cent in April.

However, the country’s fueldemand is set to recover witheasing restrictions on industrialactivity and transport in areasthat have contained the spreadof coronavirus, oil ministerDharmendra Pradhan said ear-lier this week.

Kolkata: Metro Railway,Kolkata has been carrying outvarious maintenance activities during lockdownperiod arising due to Covid-19pandemic.

During this period, varioussafety measures like sanitsation,disinfection activities are beingcarried out in the Carshed.

Dry and wet cleaning onboth outside and inside ofrolling stocks are also beingcarried out for proper disin-fection and sanitization main-taining social distancing andother specified safety norms. .

The communication sys-tem and display boards in eachof the six coaches of every rakeare being checked and kept inworking condition.

Cleaning of the escalatorsand lifts at all Metro stations isalso being carried out at 15 daysinterval and functional testingis being checked at 3 days

interval. Visual inspection ofthe third rail of the entire sec-tion is also being carried outand the battery sets at all thestations are kept in workingcondition.

Rolling out of rakes isbeing done inside the carshedpremises on alternate days andspeed trials on test track arebeing conducted fortnightlyto ensure healthiness of trac-tion system as well as to detectand rectify any abnormalities inany of the equipment.

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ICICI Bank on Saturdayreported a 6.91% growth in

March quarter net at �1,251crore on a consolidated basis,after setting aside over � 2,000crore in provisions for poten-tial impact of the COVID-19pandemic.On a standalonebasis, the second largest privatesector bank’s profit grew 26 %to �1,221 crore as against � 969crore in the year-ago period.For fiscal year 2019-20, itreported a 135% jump in stand-alone profit to � 7,930.81 crore.

From an asset quality per-spective, the bank reported animprovement in gross non-performing assets (NPAs) ratioto 5.53% as against 6.70% in theyear-ago period and 5.95% asof Dec 2019, despite over�5,300 crore in fresh slippagesduring the reporting quarter.

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Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman on Saturday

said �18,253 crore has been dis-bursed to 9.13 crore farmersunder the PM-KISAN schemeduring the ongoing nation-wide lockdown.

Under the PM-KISAN(Pradhan Mantri KisanSamman Nidhi) scheme, eachfarmer gets � 6,000 in a year in

three equal installments direct-ly in bank account.

Front-loading the release ofthe first installment under thePM-KISAN scheme was part ofthe �1.70 lakh crore PradhanMantri Garib Kalyan Package(PMGKP) announced onMarch 26 to protect the poorfrom the impact of the coron-avirus lockdown. The lock-down was imposed by PrimeMinister Narendra Modi on

March 25 to curb the spread ofCOVID-19, and since then ithas been extended twice.

With regard to furtherassistance to farmers, theFinance Minister said that 3crore farm loan borrowers haveopted for a three-month mora-torium. “Since March 2020,9.13 crore farmers have beenpaid �18,253 crore under PM-KISAN during the #lockdown,”Sitharaman said in a tweet.

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Hyundai Motor India onSaturday said its Chennai-

based manufacturing facilityrolled out 200 cars on the firstday of resuming production.

The company re-startedmanufacturing activities at itsplant in Sriperumbudur (nearChennai) on May 8. The automajor has commenced pro-duction at the facility adheringto 100 per cent compliance ofsafety and social distancingnorms, Hyundai Motor Indiasaid in a statement. In line withthe government’s objectives ofreviving the economy andcompany’s global vision ofprogress for humanity.

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The Internet peak traffic saw40 per cent rise in March in

India and there was significantspike in downloads anduploads per user, owing to thehigh volume of work andstreaming content across allmajor cities including tier IImarkets, says a new report.

While the average down-loads increased by 66 per centper user per month, the aver-age uploads surged at 37 percent per user per month,according to ½State of InternetTraffic Trend’ report by ACTFibernet, one of India’s largestwired Internet Service Provider.

The data is based on over-all traffic data measured fromFebruary-April 2020 from 19cities.

One of the most interestingrevelations was that on a par-ticular day in March, 98.7 percent of entire ACT Fibernetsubscriber base was concur-rently online.

“In the last two months, wehave seen a significant shift indata consumption across citiesas people moved to workingfrom home, spending moretime streaming content,indulging in online gaming,taking online classes/course,video conferencing etc,” said

Bala Malladi, CEO, AtriaConvergence Technologies Ltd.

While there has been anoverall surge of 55 per cent instreaming traffic, there was nosignificant difference betweenweekday and weekend stream-ing and/or traffic now.

There was an overall traf-fic increase by 73 per cent onweekdays and 65 per centincrease on weekends, said thereport.

India now has 504 millionactive Internet users, out ofwhich about 14 per cent are inthe age bracket of 5-11 years,according to a new report fromthe Internet and MobileAssociation of India (IAMAI).

Based on data from theIndian Readership Survey(IRS) 2019, the research alsofound that nearly 70 per cent ofthe active Internet populationin India is daily users.

The time spent on theInternet continues to be high-er in urban India compared torural India.

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Several companies across sec-tors ranging from textiles to

consumer electronics andliquor to pharma on Saturdayinformed that they have par-tially resumed operations aftergetting permission from localauthorities in the third phase ofthe lockdown. The manufac-turers have assured to adhere tosafety precautions mandated bythe Government and respectivelocal administrations. The Govthad last week permitted thecompanies to restore theirmanufacturing operations inred, green and organ zoneswith certain riders.

Auto parts and equipmentmaker Rane Holdings Ltd in aregulatory filing said it has par-tially resumed operations atmost of its plants and officeswith restricted manpower.It, however, said that the con-tinuance of operations in theseplaces depends on directivesfrom local authorities, issuedfrom time to time. Liquormaker IFB Agro Industries hasalso resumed operations at its distillery and select bot-tling plants.

“The company has par-tially resumed operations at itsdistillery and some of its IMILbottling plants wherein lockdown restrictions havebeen eased,” it said.

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Just because it is a lockdown,doesn’t mean that one has togive up live concerts. It couldbe a Lady Gaga or ChrisMartin from Coldplay or even

Pink who let the world in as shelearnt how to play the piano. Backin India, B-town celebs Shah RukhKhan, Abhishek Bachchan, KaranJohar, Varun Dhawan, HrithikRoshan and many others came onFacebook live for a four-hour char-ity event to raise funds for COVID-19 warriors and keep people enter-tained.

Then there are others who aremaking fans laugh away their woesby either holding live ticketed showson Zoom app or posting audio clipsor videos on Insta.

Take Amit Tandon. He hasbeen busy not only holding work-shops on comedy writing to thosewho are willing to learn for a fee thatgoes towards charity, but is alsomaking people laugh on Zoomapp.

“There were two-three thingsthat started the minute the lock-down began. First, I knew there willbe no live physical performances forthe next three-four months. So, Istarted online workshops for a fee;the money goes to a charity. I knewthat teaching was easier than doinga show on a digital platform. We hadpeople from five countries takingthese five-hour classes spread overtwo days. In the process, I learnthow to use the app effectively.Second, I started getting offers to docorporate shows online and didthem. Third, I had to do a mindsetchange, to do online shows,” Tandonsays.

For this, he had to change hisbody language. In the beginning, hewould perform as a stand-up artist.Now, he sits and acts like he is hav-ing a conversation with his friendsin his drawing room. This hashelped him get his body languageright. He has also had to concentrateon getting his facial expressions cor-rect.

“On stage, one has to focus onthe body posture as the stage is sixfeet away. For online, one has to takecare of facial expressions as the cam-era is only two feet away. I had tomaster all these changes includinghow to use the app. We have a group

of stand-up artists; the 35 of us gottogether to learn how the it workedand shared our experiences andcame up with best practices. Now Iam regularly holding ticketed shows.We are also trying to rope in openmicers. After the lockdown, theirsource of income has disappeared.We get a comedian to open theshow. He then he also administersthe call for some money. On the app,when I keep everyone on, if one ofthem has a cranky kid, there is a dis-turbance, this person mutes allthat. I have also started doing showsfor the US audience as per theirtime,” Tandon tells you.

Tandon also had to change howhe delivers content online. He tellsyou, that while the content is moreor less similar, there are somechanges. “The jokes have to differ-ent. One has to repeat lines onlinesince sometimes, the sound quali-ty may not be good. One has tolouder and be closer to mic,” Tandonsays whose ticketed show are not formore than 50 people but for corpo-rates it can go up to over 2,500.

Stand-up artist Anubhav Bassihas been keeping his fans enter-tained by posting audio clips onInsta.

“People ask me to post videosfrom my previous shows. Theydon’t realise that it is not always pos-sible to record all live performances.Though, I am not creating any newcontent, I am posting behind thescene clippings from many of myshows. I am trying to edit them,make sense out of it and postingthem. Also, people who are on thissocial platform are keener to knowme personally. I don’t have anyintentions of creating anything newbut if I find something funny forthat day, I post it,” Bassi says who isbusy thinking of content and pen-ning it down for his shows once thelockdown opens.

“The content obviously revolvesaround lockdown. It also dependson what my mood is on a particu-lar day. Like I had tweeted: If youthink that your house is small, koipochcha laga kar dekhe. While I ambusy writing, I am not sure howmuch of it will actually find itself inmy live shows,” Bassi tells you.People call him a storyteller, but hedisagrees. “I only do one kind of

comedy, it is anecdotal,” Bassi says.Actor Nitin Arora who hosted

online Gratitude Concerts, to salutethe medics featuring artists like SonuNigam and Sunil Grover, tells youthat the idea to hold the concertcame while he was walking the ter-race and talking over the phoneabout the lockdown and that therewas need to do something for front-line warriors. “It took us two daysto organise the first show. Theminute the idea took root, I calledSonu Nigam. In fact, he was the firstone to recommend that we dosomething digitally once the lock-down began. But since we are acompany that does large events, Iwas not too sure. But once the ideastuck, I called him. The problem wasthat he was in Dubai so he had toset up the equipment himself andplay the instrument. But he workedhard and came through beautiful-ly,” Arora recalls.

It was not easy for Arora to havea mindset change. To do a show dig-itally was not something that theactor had even thought about. Butthere is an adage: Necessity is themother of invention. “It was theneed of the hour and I jumped rightinto it. The show had to reach 20,000doctors so we planned thingsaccordingly and were able to pull itoff. We have done 10 shows and theresponse has been overwhelming,”Arora says who hosted the show aswell.

He tells you besides having towrap the mind around doing anonline show, it was stranger to hostit with no audience.

“It was so strange. When we didthe first show, it was just Sonubhaiyya, Sunil Grover and me. Iknew there were some 19,000-20,000 medical staff was watchingbut for me there were just the threeof us. On Zoom, when you are talk-ing, you are the bigger picture andthe others are smaller one. I havehosted over 4,500 shows, I had neverlooked at the script. But here, I wasscared and had to practice in frontof the mirror. But the three of uscheered for each other and it becameeasier,” Arora says.

Whether this is going to be thenorm for the industry is early days,Arora opines. “Every day there aredifferent reports. But we do know

that things are not going back towhat they were given social distanc-ing for the next few months.However, the charm and thrill towatch a live performance can’t bereplicated digitally. A Sonu Nigamor Shaan or Katrina Kaif dancinglive gives a different high. We willbounce back but it will take time,”Arora says.

Besides the live performancesand the concerts, the digital spaceis helping people celebrate birthdaysand anniversaries. A case in pointis Zee TV’s Sa Re Ga Ma Pa, whichis turning 25. The channel is organ-ising a Live-a-thon and an Ek Desh,Ek Raag event on May 23-24, 2020.It is a 25-hour digital musicmarathon with over 350 perfor-mances by singers that include thelikes of Himesh Reshammiya, JavedAli, Kamal Khan singing from con-fines of their homes.

Shaan, the host the concert, tellsyou that he feels honoured to be apart of this. “Sa Re Ga Ma Pa hasbeen close to my heart since thebeginning. Seeing it complete 25years is surreal. I believe that musichas a power to uplift people’s moodsand am sure the concert will be ableto help people rise above the gloomof this pandemic,” he says.

To add to the entertainment fac-tor, Vodafone, as part of its initia-tive #RechargeForGood, in partner-ship with BookMyShow has beenorganising live sessions since April24. Nine artists perform live fromtheir homes to yours for free. Liftyour spirits with great musical per-formances by artists like PrateekKuhad, Dhvani Bhanushali, AnkurTewari and Indian Ocean.

Those interested in classicalmusic need not feel felt out. TheNational Centre for the PerformingArts (NCPA) has been organisingdigital series — NCP@Home on itsYouTube channel. Last month, theseries had seen stalwarts likes ofGirija Devi, Mallika Sarabhai andUstad Zakir Hussain and manymore take centrestage. If you missedthis fret not. Tune into Kathak per-formance by Pandit Birju Maharajon Monday, May 10, 2020 at 6 pm.

Swapnokalpa Dasgupta, head ofdance department, NCP, Mumbai,a renowned Odissi dancer and dis-ciple of Guru Late Kelucharan

Mohapatra, tells you that in India,there are some challenges to havedigital shows. “The bandwidth beingone of them. But the good is that theartists adapt to changing situationsand take things in their stride. It isalso strange to see reverse of guru-shishya parampara; during COVID-19, it is the shishya teaching the guruhow to use technology,” Dasguptasays.

She also tells you that dancerslike herself have had to changeteaching methodology and gives anexample. “If one is taking a Zoomclass, one has to keep in mind thatthe student is not behind you imi-tating your moves but in front. If Isay raise the left hand, I have to raisemy right hand on-screen,” she says.

Murad Ali Khan, sixth-genera-tion sarangi player from theMoradabad gharana and son ofUstad Ghulam Sabir Khan, says thatfor an artist a live audience sets themood but here, there was nobody infront so it was a tad strange.

“But technology has made somemany things possible. While I has noaudience, I was able to read com-ments and took cues from it. Myreason for coming on the digitalplatform was to make people take abreak from their normal routine. Ifwe can, through our music, makepeople stay at home, we have doneour bit,” Khan says.

Ustad Shujaat Khan, who waspart of the HCL Concerts Baithakseries opines that the idea of per-forming with no audience wasextremely strange.

“Any kind of music, as opposeto cinema or painting, is a live inter-action with humans. When one isperforming the energy that comesfrom notes of the ragas goes to thepeople and back. But this kind of liveperformance was really strange.My only apprehension to be part ofthe digital space stemmed from thetechnical side and the anxiety thatcame with it,” Shujaat tells you.

Despite no audience, the sitaristtells you that since he has been per-forming for nearly 55 years onstage, experience came into play asover the years he has learnt the artto tune out distraction and be inplace where he taps into himself andis in a place where he rises above allthis and is in a zone where he uses

his energy and emotions to play forhimself.

Yamini Reddy came onboardthe digital platform because eventhough she has done a lot of stageshows, she wanted to be part of thevirtual world. “I was intrigued andthen curious how the whole wouldwork. Being on the digital platform,one can reach out to a much wideraudience. With virtual concert, onecan be anywhere and watch the per-formance, it transcends bordersand time zones,” Reddy says.

There was preparation as well.She had to see where the lightingwas good, how to place the cameraand what background to chooseincluding curating a backgroundscore for the dance performance.She also had to choose music thathad a balance of North and Southto give an edge to her Kuchipudiperformance and even though it wasstrange to get ready, not wait back-stage and wait for the name to becalled out, the entire experience wasinteresting.

Maalavika Manoj aka Mali,who released her single on Spotify’sRadar cover says that she got theinspiration for her single after shewatched an episode of ConanWithout Borders with a reference tothe Syrian war.

“This got me thinking andwrote this single. It is pure coinci-dence that the song sits perfectlyunder present situation. I hadalready recorded the song but wehad to get a video done. I reachedout to a lot of family and friendsfrom across the globe who sent mefive to 10 second videos. I used thisfootage for my song,” Mali tells you.

However, for her, the digitalplatform is not something that shewould subscribe to.

“What I have observed, pres-ence of people on social media isgoing down, People are saturatedand don’t want to open their apps.There is no replacement for live per-formances even though there arepeople who are looking at ways tomonetise the digital space. Forartists, performing in front of a liveaudience gives a different feel andthe energy can’t be recreated. It isgood to have an alternative buteverything that is happening rightnow is temporary,” Mali says.

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India skipper Virat Kohli is in a goodframe of mind which gives him con-fidence of being able to pick up from

where he left as and when cricketresumes in the post Covid-19 world.

The Covid-19 pandemic has shut-down all cricketing activities across theglobe and Kohli said though he is keep-ing himself physically fit, his mainfocus has been working on the mentalaspect of the game.

“Well, fortunately I have all mygym equipment at home, so I amable to train and that’s not aproblem for me. As far as thegame goes, luckily, I amsomeone who has alwaysbeen very keen onimproving my mentalstate and not really focuson practising long hoursin the net over a periodof time,” Kohli said onStar Sport’s show CricketConnected.

“So I know, once Iam in good frame ofmind and I am keepingmyself positive andhappy, just looking for-ward in life, whenever Ireturn to the game, Iknow I will be in good posi-tion to start again from wherewe left.”

The health crisis, which hasso far killed nearly 2K people andinfected more than 59K in India,had forced the Government toenforce a national lockdown, whichwill end on May 17.

Kohli admitted it was not easy inthe initial days.

“It was a bit tough initially butyou start looking at things from adifferent point of view as the timegoes on more and more, becauseeventually you realise that nothingis in your control,” Kohli said.

“So what you can control to anextent is your own mindset and justlooking at things with positive frameof mind and the only good thing is

that I have been ableto train, practice wasnot such a big prob-lem for me evenbefore, so that is whatI am doing, I am

training, I am keepingfit.”

The highly conta-gious disease also sawthe indefinite post-ponement of the 13thIPL, which was set tostart in March.

Kohli said he“absolutely loves” to play

in the IPL because it is dif-ferent from other ICC events

in terms of the camaraderie thatcricketers of different nationalitiesshare and the connect that the play-ers have with their fans.

“You do play all your tourna-ments, which is one team versus

another, ICC tournaments come everynow and then, but even in ICC tour-naments, you don’t really interact withthe other team players or you see the

other teams so often every now andthen,” Kohli said.

“But in the IPL, you are just prob-ably meeting another team every secondor third day and that's the beauty of theIPL, you are playing in a differentmahol (atmosphere).

“I absolutely love that tournamentand also for the camaraderie which youshare with so many new players that youplay with, so many players that you haveknown for a long time now, not fromyour own country, those who you don'tsee often, and there is one reason whyeveryone loves the IPL too, there is a con-nect, of players and fans and of viewers.”

Asked about his favourite matchapart from 2011 World Cup, Kohli said:“It’s a very difficult question because somany matches happen but I think fromthe point of atmosphere and importanceof match, the quarterfinal match againstAustralia in 2016 T20 World Cup inMohali, that was my most favouritematch.

“Because that day, we won from adifficult situation and I realized manythings about myself.”

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Usman Khawaja has addedhis voice to those calling for

a re-think to the way pitches areprepared at domestic level,warning that a lack of spin-bowl-ing options behind Nathan Lyoncould leave Australia exposedlike it was when Shane Warneretired from the game almost 15years ago.

Khawaja rates hisQueensland teammate MitchellSwepson as the best spinner inAustralia apart from Lyon, butsays he’s reluctant to bowl himat domestic level because con-ditions often don’t suit spinners.

A month after former Testtweaker Steve O’Keefe said thelack of exposure to spin bowlingat domestic level was “a matterof urgency”, Khawaja has joinedcalls for more spin-friendlypitches to be produced in theMarsh Sheffield Shield.

“It’s really hard, even for meas a captain, to get (Swepson)into the game when the ball ishooping around corners andyou’re playing on really greendecks,” Khawaja told Fox Sports

News.“He’s always been a part of

our team and he’s always thereno matter what the wicket isbecause he’s such a good bowler.But it’s really hard to get him inthe game sometimes because thewickets weren’t really favouringspin.

“I feel for spinners inAustralia and we need to becareful here because we have anabsolute genius in Nathan Lyon… but who’s coming after him?”

O'Keefe, who announcedhis retirement last month, fin-ished the truncated 2019-20Shield summer as the most suc-cessful spin bowler with 16wickets at an average of 22.25,with the top 20 places among theleading wicket-takers filled byswing and seam bowlers.

Both O’Keefe and Khawajasay the effectiveness of spinnersis reduced even further in thesecond half of the Shield seasonwhen Dukes brand balls areused, a move introduced to helpAustralian players become bet-ter accustomed to the type ofseam bowling they encounter inEngland.

But with Australia not dueto play Tests in England until2023, and with away seriesagainst India, Pakistan, Sri Lankaand Afghanistan scheduled inthe interim as well as a resched-uled tour of Bangladesh, O’Keefesays time is running out to pro-mote spin bowling at Shieldlevel.

And he has even suggestedradical measures, such as scar-ifying pitches to make themmore spin-friendly, should beconsidered.

Lyon is just 32 years old andis expected to lead Australia’sspin attack for many years tocome, but Khawaja is concernedabout the Warne-sized gulfforming behind the off-spinner.

Australia tried 14 differentspinners in the decade follow-ing Warne’s retirement beforethey finally settled on Lyon, andKhawaja says the seam-friend-ly pitches that were a feature atdomestic level immediately afterWarne farewelled the game arebeing replicated now.

“Tasmania was a greenmonster (last season) ... theGabba was tough work especial-ly in the back end of the seasonwhen the Dukes balls came intoit,” he said.

“Spinners just went out ofthe game.

“Unless we have spinnersplaying day in and day out, get-ting involved in those matchscenarios across the country,we're going to suffer.

“Just like we suffered whenWarnie (Shane Warne) left. Ithink we had a similar situationwhere Tassie (Tasmania) wasreally green, they were trying tomake really green wickets.

“These guys need to bowl sohopefully this year we’ve gotwickets that are favourable foreveryone.”

�� 2�65�7

Former Pakistan captain Rashid Latifhas lavished praise on Virender

Sehwag, saying the former Indian open-er was a fearless cricketer who had a greatinfluence in the team.

“He used to play to dominate. We areused to openers who were a bit circum-spect at the beginning, gauging how thepitch is, who the bowler is whether(Glenn) McGrath, Brett Lee, WasimAkram or Shoaib Akhtar,” Latif said in aYouTube show called Caught Behind.

“But Sehwag was someone whofeared none. He was an impactful play-er, had a great influence in his team andplayers like him succeed in world crick-et,” he added.

Latif, who played 37 Tests and 166ODIs for Pakistan, further said that con-trary to popular belief that Sehwag did nothave a good foot movement, the formerIndian opener had a unique techniquewhich helped him dominate the bowlers.

“It’s wrong to say his feet didn’t move.He had unique technique with a very

strong base. He was superb on the back-foot, used to cut, pull, hook with ease,” saidLatif.

“He had beautiful balance. People saythat he had limited feet movement butthat was perhaps the reason why he wasso successful. And coaches nowadays havestarted to say that keep your balance withminimum foot movement,” he added.

Sehwag represented India in 104Tests, 251 ODIs and 19 T20Is in whichhe scored 8586, 8273 and 394 runsrespectively.

According to Latif, Sehwag playedwith batsmen like Sachin Tendulkar andRahul Dravid and remained under theirshadow.

“He played with Sachin, played withRahul and remained under their shadow.If he was playing for any other countrythen he would’ve easily crossed 10 thou-sand runs, only one and a half thousandruns were remaining,” said Latif.

“Maybe his team had bigger names,bigger players but opponents were alwayswary of the impact that Sehwag couldhave on a game,” he added.

"�� 2�65�7

Umar Akmal did not seem pre-pared to show remorse nor did

he seek an apology for failing toreport corrupt approaches, chairmanof the Pakistan Cricket Board’s dis-ciplinary panel has observed in hisdetailed judgement after imposing athree-year ban on the temperamen-tal batsman.

Justice (retired) Fazal-e-MiranChauhan submitted his detailedjudgement to the Pakistan CricketBoard, which made it public onFriday on its official website.

Akmal was found guilty of twocharges under the PCB Anti-Corruption Code, rendering himineligible for cricket activities tillFebruary 19, 2023. The 29-year-oldhas 14 days to appeal against thepunishment of two three-year banswhich will run concurrently and thePCB will appoint an independentadjudicator to hear it.

“It appears that he (UmarAkmal) is not prepared to showremorse and seek apology, makeadmission that he failed to fulfill hisresponsibility under Anti-Corruption Code...,” Justice Chauhansaid in the judgement.

“...Rather he tried to take refugeunder the pretext that in the pastwhenever any such approaches weremade, the matter was reported byhim,” he said.

Akmal was provisionally sus-pended on the eve of the PakistanSuper League. He was charged withtwo breaches of Article 2.4.4 of thePCB Anti-Corruption Code in twounrelated incidents on March 17.

On April 9, the PCB referred thematter to the disciplinary commit-

tee after the batsman opted not torequest for a hearing before the Anti-Corruption Tribunal.

“The charge as framed is provedand the participant (Umar Akmal)has rendered himself liable to bepunished for breach of Article 2.4.4,”Justice Chauhan said.

“"It is also admitted by him(Umar Akmal) that he failed toreport the approaches and invitationto the PCB Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Department, as requiredby the PCB Code, Article 2.4.4.

“In view of the above charge asframed, stood proven and participanthas rendered himself to be punishedunder Article 6.2 of the PCB Code,”he added. Akmal is the youngerbrother of former Pakistan wicket-keeper-batsman Kamran Akmal,who played 53 Tests, 58 T20s, and157 ODIs for Pakistan, and cousinof current captain Babar Azam.

The right-hander, who lastplayed for Pakistan in October, hasfeatured in 16 Tests, 121 ODIs and84 T20s, scoring 1003, 3194 and 1690runs respectively.

�� England all-rounder Moeen Ali feelshe can play at the high-est level for 2-3 moreyears and that is why hewants to play as much aspossible.

Moeen expressedhis desire to play allthree formats for theThree Lions consideringhe doesn’t have toomuch time left on theinternational arena.

“Since the wholepandemic thing I wantto play as much as I can,”Moeen said during aDoosra podcast.

“Cricket at the high-est level will probablyfinish for me in two orthree years.

“I want to make themost of it and play asmuch as I can. I only did

it (stepping away frominternational cricket) fora bit of a break, and I'vehad that now.”

Moeen also spokeabout being part of theEngland team that liftedthe ICC World Cup lastyear. He gave an insightinto the minds of play-ers who were under

immense pressure toend their trophy droughtin front of home sup-port.

“It was an amazingtime,” Moeen said aboutEngland historic victorylast year.

“I think the wholeemotion of four yearsbuild up to it and somuch went into it... somuch pressure for us towin it at home.

“It took us couple ofseconds to think wehave won the game(final). I wasn’t playingthe game but it didn’tfeel like I wasn’t playing.

“I can’t describe thefeeling but just to see allthe guys celebrating andto be part of that journeywas simply unbeliev-able,” he said. IANS

� �� Bangladesh wicket-keeperMushfiqur Rahim feels his team ismore than capable of entering the top-six in the longest format. He also ruedthe fact that despite having talentedplayers in the team they somehowunder-achieved in the last two decades.

Mushfiqur also raised concernsover Bangladesh’s form in foreignconditions. He expressed his satisfac-tion over the team’s show at home buturged the team to produce similar levelof performances overseas as well.

“I truly believe that there is muchmore to be achieved as a team. Despitehaving talented players, we have notbeen able to achieve that in the last 20years. But our performance have beengoing up on home soil” Mushfiqur wasquoted as saying by bdcrictime.com.

“Our main concern is to do welloutside the country. There are manybig challenges ahead. The TestChampionship is also a big challenge

for us. We have the ability to come inthe top-six in Tests.”

Bangladesh are currently placed atthe last spot in the World TestChampionship table. They have playedtwo series so far and lost all threematches to be rock-bottom in thenine-team championship.

Bangladesh, alongwith WestIndies, are the only two teams who areyet to open their Test championshipaccount. IANS

�� "67��

The Mongoose batwas made famous

by Chennai Super Kingsopener Mathew Haydenduring the IndianPremier League, but theformer Australia bats-man has revealed thatCSK skipper MS Dhonihad pleaded with himnot to use the bat.

In a chat with CSKon their official Twitterhandle, Haydenrevealed the same. “Iwill (MS Dhoni)give you any-thing youwant in life,to not usethis bat.Please donot usethis bat,”

the opener recalled.CSK tweeted the

video which read:“#Thala Dhoni toHaydos: “I’ll give youanything you want inlife, to not use this bat!Please do not use thisbat!”@HaydosTweets

#AnbuDenLions@RuphaRamani”

�� World Cup winning-Australia captain Meg Lanninghas used the extra time inhand amid the Covid-19 pan-demic to provide a virtual bat-ting class to Ireland women’scricket squad.

Lanning was joined by for-mer Ireland skipper Isobel Joycein the initiative that took placethis week to help the playerskeep their skills sharp duringthe forced break from cricket.

The duo touched upon anumber of topics, includingthe mental preparation goinginto a big game, shot selection

and an analysis of theAustralian captain’s T20I centu-ry against England last year.

The session was chaired byIrish women’s team head coachEd Joyce and also featuredAustralia boss Matthew Mott.

“Any time you can pick thebrains of experienced cricketerssuch as Meg and Isobel is valu-able, and I know that our entiresquad enjoyed this uniqueopportunity,” Ireland skipperLaura Delany said.

“People often underesti-mate the mental aspect of thegame, and both players spoke

about the importance of men-tal preparation before a gameand how to keep a clear mindand focus when on the field,”she said in a Cricket Irelandstatement.

“It’s frustrating for all of usto be not playing, but the unex-pected opportunity of this ses-sion is a great offset,” she added.

“It was exceptionally gener-ous of Meg to contribute hertime to the session, particular-ly given that it was the eveningin Australia when she joined themasterclass,” said coach EdJoyce. IANS

�� /72#5��7

Australia’s World Cupwinner Megan Schutt

has said she is ready to playless games this season if ithelps cricket get past thefinancial uncertainty creat-ed by the Covid-19 pan-demic.

“There’s obviouslygoing to be reductionssomewhere, there kind ofhas to be,” she was quotedas saying by cricket.com.au.

“As long as we’re nottaking too big a hit, women

specifically, I’m okay withit.

“It’s about finding abalance in terms of howwe can get cricket goingagain on the nationalscene and the internation-al scene.

“Cricket around theglobe is going to be affect-ed by this and I have nodoubt that women’s crick-et is also going to suffer.Whatever kind of seasonthey can muster together,I’m going to be happyenough with.”

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Former India captain and coach AnilKumble compared the fight against the

dreaded Covid-19 pandemic to the “secondinnings” of an intense Test match where peo-

ple can’t afford to let their guard down.The coronavirus outbreak has

wreaked havoc, claiming over2,76,000 lives so far while

infecting more than fourmillion people.

Among other things,the unprecedented healthcrisis has also broughtsport to a standstill,leading to cancellationand postponement

of several events, including the TokyoOlympics and European FootballChampionships and the Indian PremierLeague.

“If we have to fight this coronavirus pan-demic, we need to be in this together. It’s likea Test match. Cricket Test matches are of fivedays but this has been longer,” Kumble saidin a video posted on his Twitter account.

“Cricket Test matches are only twoinnings each, but this can be even more. Sodon’t be complacent that we had a slenderlead in the first innings because the secondinnings can be really rough.”

“We have to win this battle, it cannot bewon just by a first-innings lead, we need towin this battle by registering an outright vic-tory,” he added.

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Australia batsman UsmanKhawaja on Saturday said

that playing India behindclosed doors at the end of theyear might end up working infavour of the hosts. India are setto tour Australia for threeODIs and four Tests inDecember and January.

“It’s definitely an advan-tage,” he told Fox Sports News.“I remember the last time theycame over for a one-day series,the roar for India was muchbigger.”

“Especially in Melbourne,the amount of expats they haveover there, they flock in. Andwhen India’s on top they real-ly let you know it,” saidKhawaja.

“It’s a really weird feeling.When you’re in India, youexpect to be outnumberedmassively but you can be out-

numbered in Melbourne, aswell as Sydney to some extentalso.”

Australia were without tal-ismanic duo David Warnerand Steve Smith in that seriesand were still in the process ofrecovering from the 2018 balltampering scandal. Khawajaadmitted that India were thebetter team in the series.

“They were clearly the bet-ter team last time, we hung inthere but (Cheteshwar) Pujarawas outstanding and Kohli ledfrom the front as a captain,” hesaid.

“Their bowling unit was asgood as I’ve ever seen an Indianbowling unit, they really wenttoe-to-toe with our bowlers.

“Our bowlers are still ingreat form, though, and thistime Steve Smith and DavyWarner will be in the side too,so a little bit of difference in thebatting line-up.”7��

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India spinner KuldeepYadav feels Mahendra

Singh Dhoni remains invery good shape andcan still play for TeamIndia. He also statedthat the final decisionregarding his futurerests with Dhoni andthere is no point inconstant speculations.

Rumours havebeen doing the roundsregarding Dhoni’sfuture, however,Kuldeep believes theformer India captaincan still turn out for theteam as he makesthings easy for othersaround him.

“I am of coursemissing MS Dhoni.Whenever you playwith a senior player,you become fond ofthem and start missingthem and their pres-ence,” Kuldeep said dur-ing a Live video sessionwith Sportskeeda.

“As far as his retire-ment is concerned, it isMS Dhoni’s decisionand it should be left tohim. There is no pointfor us to debate on that.

“He is very fit andI personally feel heshould play for India.As a fan, I absolutelylove him. If he plays, itwould be easier for us,”he added.

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AC Milan president PaoloScaroni revealed on

Friday that some of hissquad members were stillrecovering from coron-avirus.

Serie A has been onhold since mid-March butItalian Sports MinisterVincenzo Spadafora said onThursday he was hopefulgroup training could resumeon May 18.

“We have some infectedplayers in the process of

recovery,” Scaroni told localmedia.

Scaroni believes Italianfootball must live withCovid-19 and take an exam-ple from the Bundesligawhich will restart on May16.

“We have to get usedto living with the virusand this also applies tofootball,” he said.

“It is not possibleto stand still untilthere is zero infec-tion. Basically we canadopt the German for-

mula that provides that thosewho are sick go into quaran-tine while their teammatescontinue.”

Milan technical directorPaolo Maldini, together withhis 18-year-old son Daniel,a youth team player, have

both recovered from thevirus.

“Maldini fatherand son are doingwell. There are play-ers who are improv-

ing, but we want tostart playing again,” said

Scaroni.

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France defenderSamuel Umtiti has

picked up a calf injury injust the second sessionsince Barcelonareturned to trainingfrom the coronavirusquarantine, the Spanishchampions announcedon Saturday.

Barca said thatUmtiti picked up aninjury to his right calfduring Saturday’s indi-vidual training session atthe club’s Joan Gamperfacility, but did not spec-ify how long the 26-

year-old would be out for.Spanish media report that he will be unavailable for

two or three weeks, so will likely be back in time for apotential June 20 restart for football in Spain as the coun-try attempts to loosen coronavirus restrictions.

The 26-year-old Umtiti joined Barca from Lyon in2016 after he helped France to the final of Euro 2016. Hehad further success with France in their successful 2018World Cup campaign.

He played 16 times for the Catalan giants this seasonbefore play was suspended in March, and was twice injuredearlier in the campaign, causing him to miss 10 matchesbetween September and November last year.

��"� 25��5�

Australia’s Daniel Ricciardoanticipates “chaos”, “rust”

and “adrenaline” should the2020 Formula One season startat last.

Officials at the FIA, motor-sport’s world governing body,are hoping to launch the seasonbehind closed doors in Austriaon July 5.

“(It will be) some form ofchaos, hopefully in a con-trolled manner,” the Renaultdriver told BBC Radio Five Live.

“I am not really referencingcars everywhere. But there isgoing to be so much rust, acombination of emotion,excitement, eagerness.”

Ricciardo, waiting out thecrisis on his farm near Perth,Western Australia, believes adramatic season-opener is inprospect at the Red Bull Ring.

“Everyone is going to beready to go,” he said. “You aregoing to get some guys whoperform on that level of adren-aline and others who mightnot.

“So you’re going to getsome bold overtakes, somemiscalculated ones.

“You’re going to see a bit ofeverything, I’m sure.”

Even though the pandem-ic means it has been severalmonths since Ricciardo was ona race track, the 30-year-oldbelieves his experience of eightfull seasons of Grand Prix rac-ing means he will be in theright physical condition shouldthe 2020 campaign finally getunderway.

“If this was my first year ortwo in F1, if I was still not com-pletely adapted to it, my answerwould be yes (it would take metime to get used to drivingagain),” he said.

“But winter testing is nor-mally a good reference point.My first few winter testings, dayone always felt like a bit of ashock to the system again.And the further my career hasgone on, the less of a shock thathas been.

“The rookies, the first-year, second-year guys, willfeel it a little bit more.”

�� Six-time world cham-pion Lewis Hamilton has said hefeels “fresher than ever” follow-ing an unexpected break fromFormula One.

The start of the 2020 GrandPrix season has been delayeduntil July by the coronavirus,with 10 races out of what shouldhave been a record 22-event

championship either cancelledor postponed.

Hamilton, however, is try-ing to make the most of thedowntime ahead of his bid fora record-equalling seventhworld title.

“There have been times inthe past five years that I thoughta rest would be good for body

and mind,” he said in a videoreleased by his Mercedes teamon Saturday.

“For an athlete in theirprime, it’s never a good thing tostep away for a year but we havebeen handed a part-sabbatical,which I am enjoying.”

The 35-year-old British dri-ver added: “I feel fresher andhealthier than ever.”

Hamilton explained hisenforced absence from the trackwas “almost a blessing on oneside because it gives you evenmore appreciation for the thingsyou love and do” and had lefthim “excited for the future”.

Hamilton said the prospectof racing without spectators“gave me a really empty feelingbecause the fans make the race”.

Nevertheless, he understoodracing of any kind would be aboost for GP enthusiasts amidthe pandemic. “I don’t knowhow exciting it’s going to be forpeople watching it on TV but it’llbe better than nothing.” AFP

�� 7��726�

2016 Olympics Bronze medalwinning wrestler Sakshi

Malik’s qualification to the2020 Games has been a story ofan ever-narrowing window.After her defeat to 18-year-oldSonam Malik in the trials forthe Asian Olympic qualifiers,Sakshi was left with a nervywait for the results of the tour-nament, which would decide ifshe would be able to competeat the last gasp world qualifiers.

All of this however wasbefore the coronavirus pan-demic took truly global propor-tions. Eventually, the Asianqualifiers was shifted twicebefore being postponed alto-gether and eventually, theOlympics itself got postponedto July 2021.

India went into a lockdownon March 25 that has beenextended twice. Sakshi hasbeen at her home in Rohtak,Haryana all this while, where

she fixed an old akhada in herbackyard and, in the absence ofa sparring partner, has beenkeeping her shoulders downand training individually.

Sakshi says that she hadslacked off in the early days ofthe lockdown but eventuallyrealised that this could be along haul. “Yes, in the begin-ning I took it easy thinking it’sjust a 15-day lockdown,” Sakshi

said. “I was thinking it’s fine ifI have no partners for thisamount of time because train-ing is anyhow not going to takeplace properly.

“But then obviously it keptgetting extended and I changedmy mindset accordingly. We allhave to try and adapt to our sit-uations or else we will all haveall sorts of mental problems. SoI just changed my mindset

according to the situation.”Life for the 27-year-old

has mostly revolved aroundtravel for wrestling over thepast 15 years, whether it be forcompetitions or training campsin the country and abroad.“This is the first time in my lifeI am experiencing anything likethis — being quarantined athome. Life is completely differ-ent,” said Sakshi.

“I rarely spent more than15 days in one place. Either Iwould be travelling to camps orabroad for training or for tour-naments. So yes, negativethoughts do come sometimes.I wonder sometimes if I havegone too far away fromwrestling. But then I rememberthat this situation is not some-thing that only I am facing.Everyone around the world isgoing through this or worse.”

Sakshi says that she ismaintaining her normal rou-tine — training in morningsand evenings and rest during

the day.“As I said, there is no spar-

ring partner so I do individualwork on the mat. I have an areawhere I can do strength-basedexercises. I have maintained myusual schedule that was therebefore and a good part of theday still goes in training, therehave been no changes on thatfront,” she said.

Sakshi also follows advicethat women’s foreign coachAndrew Cook sends onWhatsapp. For now, she is notthinking about the risk ofinjuries whenever wrestlingreturns after the unusuallylong break.

“He keeps sending videosof what sort of training we cando on an individual basis.Right after the lockdown theyplan to hold a camp with all thegirls in one place. The risk ofinjury is there for everyone. Sothis situation is not somethingthat we are thinking too muchabout,” she said.

��"� 25��5�

Watford have becomethe latest English

top-flight club to hit out atproposals by the PremierLeague to end the season atneutral venues, with chair-man Scott Duxbury wor-ried about the impact of a“distorted nine-game mini-league”.

Clubs are due to meeton Monday to considerthe Premier League’s con-troversial Project Restartplan, which seeks to playthe season to a finish fol-lowing its suspensionbecause of the coronaviruspandemic, with Watfordjoining fellow relegationcandidates Brighton andAston Villa in voicing theiropposition.

Duxbury, while accept-ing fans cannot attendbecause of Covid-19, isunhappy with a proposalthat would see 17th-placeWatford denied the “famil-iarity and advantage” ofplaying at Vicarage Road.

“There is no altruismin the Premier League,”Duxbury wrote inSaturday’s edition of TheTimes.

“There are 20 differentvested interests, whichsometimes align but moreoften than not work pure-ly to protect each individ-ual club.

“That is why someclubs are happy to sign upto Project Restart becausearguably there is only anupside in participating in

this compromised format;it means (leaders)Liverpool can win the title,other clubs can book theirplace in Europe next sea-son.”

“But when at least sixclubs — and I suspectmore — are concernedabout the clear downsideand the devastating effectsof playing in this kind ofdistorted nine-game mini-league, then I believe thePremier League has a dutyof care to address thoseconcerns.”

Duxbury said it waswrong to switch to neutralvenues three-quarters ofthe way through a season.

“How can the long-term future of clubs bedetermined under thesefundamentally changedconditions? How is thereany semblance of fairness?To wave aside all the fearsand concerns is too sim-plistic.

“Surely all 20 clubsmust agree the fairest wayforward to complete theseason?”

A 14-6 majority ofwould, however be enoughfor Project Restart to be putinto action.

Duxbury also insistedit was wrong to play match-es when society was “prob-ably still facing the kind ofrestrictions unenforceableon a football pitch”.

“And with all thesecompromises and healthrisks we are asked to finisha competition that bears noresemblance to the one westarted, which could end asmall club like Watford'stime in the Premier League.

“So is this fair? Does ithave any semblance ofsporting integrity? Ofcourse not.”

The Premier League isfacing a colossal estimatedloss of around 1 billionpounds ($1.25 billion) if nomore football is played thisseason.

Playing the 92 remain-ing games behind closeddoors would mitigate thatloss, avoiding the loss ofhundreds of millions ofbroadcast revenue.

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Real Madrid attacker Luka Jovic hasfracture his right heel, the La Liga

giants have announced.In a statement, Real said the 22-

year-old’s injury had been diagnosedduring tests at the club’s medical cen-tre, but didn’t say how long theyexpect him to be out of action.

According to Spanish media,Serbia’s Jovic picked up the injurywhile training at home shortly afterreturning to Spain from his homecountry at the start of the week.

Jovic caused controversy inMarch when he left for Serbia whileReal were in quarantine after some ofthe club’s basketball players tested pos-itive for coronavirus. He subsequent-ly explained his test for the virus wasnegative.

He arrived at Real last summerfrom Eintracht Frankfurt for a report-ed fee of 60 million euros ($65.1 mil-lion). Before the season was suspend-ed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, hehad played 22 times for the capital cityclub in all competitions, scoringtwice.

�� Indian pistol ace ManuBhaker is “very hopeful” of theOlympics taking place next year andmaintaining her terrific game andpoise too until then, despite the uncer-tainty gnawing at the world of sportsdue to the Covid-19 pandemic.

A medallist at ISSF World Cup,Commonwealth Games and the YouthOlympics, Bhaker was primed for suc-cess at sport’s grandest and biggest stagein Tokyo later this year, but the unprece-dented health crisis intervened andforced a postponement of the Gamesby a year.

With the world still far away frombringing the situation under control,there are doubts if the Games would beheld even next year.

“Yes, the Indian shooters were ingreat form heading into the Games, buthealth is a bigger concern,” Bhaker said.

“I am very hopeful of the Olympicstaking place next year and also confi-dent of maintaining my game and hit-ting peak form there. This is a difficulttime for the world but I have no neg-ative thoughts and I am mentally pre-pared.”

Bhaker has recently got an electron-ic target system installed at hermakeshift shooting range in Haryana’sGoria village home at the expense of anarchaic manual machine that wasprone to frequent breakdowns.

The old machine was causing her“immense irritation” of late.

Delighted by the reboot in hertraining after waiting for the machineto be transported from Faridabad, theteenaged star has got down to prepar-ing with renewed vigour and optimism.

The multiple medallist is not onlyhopeful of the Olympics taking placenext year, despite the uncertaintygnawing at the world of sports, but also

maintaining her form until then.“I have recently got the machine

installed at my home and this will besurely more beneficial in my training,”Bhaker said during an interaction overphone from her home, where therange had been set up by her father aftershe showed exceptional skills in the pre-cision sport.

The target HS10 machine fromSwiss company SIUS Ascor is designedfor all airguns for distance ranging from10 to 20 meters. Some of the salient fea-tures of the machine are its accuracy,integrated high-intensity LED targetillumination, low operating costs (nopaper rolls/rubber rolls) and it is alsosuitable for outdoor shooting.

��&�� The US women’s nationalteam on Friday filed an appeal againsta legal setback in their equal pay law-suit, saying they are being paid less thanthe men even though they win twice asmuch.

In dismissing their equal pay claimlast Friday, Judge Gary Klausner said thecase was unwarranted because they hadpreviously turned down an offer in theCollective Bargaining Agreement nego-tiations to be paid along the lines of theUS men’s team.

“The argument that women gave upa right to equal pay by accepting the bestcollective bargaining agreement possi-ble in response to the Federation’srefusal to put equal pay on the table isnot a legitimate reason for continuingto discriminate against them,” saidUSWNT spokesperson Molly Levinsonon Friday night.

She listed a series of grievances inthe motion to appeal which was filed ina federal district court in California andis part of a larger lawsuit for equal pay.

Levinson said the women are beingdiscriminated against because they are

not getting as much as the men on a pergame basis and that making “close to thesame amount” is not valid.

“Equal pay means paying womenplayers the same rate for winning a gameas men get paid,” Levinson said.

“The argument that women arepaid enough if they make close to thesame amount as men while winningmore than twice as often is not equal pay.

“The argument that maternity leaveis some sort of substitute for payingwomen players the same rate for win-ning as men is not valid, nor fair, norequal.

“Today, we are filing a motion toallow us to appeal immediately the dis-trict court’s decision so that the NinthCircuit will be able to review theseclaims.” AFP

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Tokyo Olympics quota holderYashaswini Singh Deswal and

teen prodigy Rudrankksh Patil onSaturday claimed top spots in 10m airrifle and 10m air pistol event finals atthe third International OnlineShooting Championship.

Rudrankksh from Maharashtrawon the 10m air rifle event with aworld record score of 252.9 but it willnot be registered by the InternationalShooting Sport Federation (ISSF) asit was not a recognised event.

Another young Indian shooterYash Vardhan claimed the secondspot with a score of 250.8, whileFrance’s Etienne Germond finished

third after scoring 228.5.In the 10m air pistol final,

Yashaswini, who had claimed a Goldmedal at World Cup in Rio de Janeirolast year to secure an Olympic quota,shot 243.8 to claim the top spot.

Gaurav Rana and Manu Bhaker,a medallist at ISSF World Cup,Commonwealth Games and theYouth Olympics, finished secondand third with scores of 240.6 and218.3 respectively to make it an all-Indian affair.

It is the third edition of thechampionship where the partici-pants logged on to the Zoom plat-form from their respective locationsand shot electronic targets, set up intheir houses.

�� World Archeryreleased its updated qualifi-cation procedures for thepostponed Tokyo Olympicsand Paralympics. It con-firmed in its statement thatno further qualificationevents will take place thisyear. Furthermore, the peri-od in which athletes canshoot minimum qualifyingscores has been extendeduntil June 28, 2021.

“Continental qualifica-

tion events in the Americas,Europe and Oceania aredelayed until spring/sum-mer 2021,” said WorldArchery. “The final qualifi-cation tournament isdelayed until summer 2021and is planned to take placeas a separate tournamentalongside the Paris stage ofthe 2021 Archery WorldCup.”

World Archery also saidthat National Olympic

Committees (NOC) willretain quotas that have beenwon thus far by athletes incompetitions. Eighty-sevenof the 128 quota places forthe Olympics have already

been awarded. Ninety-threeof the 140 spots for theParalympics have been dis-tributed to date.

The deadline for NOCsto confirm places won at allevents except the final qual-ifier is tentatively set as June1, 2021 and for the finalqualifier “is tentatively set asJuly 2, 2021.”

“The entry deadline forthe Olympic Games is 5 July2021,” it added. IANS

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$��2��!��:��& �� Barcelona’s women’s team have been declaredas champions of Spain’s Liga Iberdrola after the nation-al football federation’s executive committee agreed to endall non-professional competitions due to the Covid-19pandemic.

With nine rounds of matches still to be played, FCBarcelona Femeni topped the table by nine points aheadof Atletico Madrid and with the season unable to be com-pleted, the Catalans (unbeaten in their 21 games) havebeen awarded the title.

The Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) alsoannounced that there will be no relegation, with SantaTeresa and Eibar promoted to make it an 18-team com-petition in 2020-21. After earning a fine third place inthe Reto Iberdrola, the reserves will be staying in the sec-ond division. IANS

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There is a reason why ourelders insisted that we burn

an agarbatti while offering aprayer or for that matter whenthere is a death in the family.Believe it or not, but the sim-ple of act of burning an incensestick brings with it a sense ofcalm and peace. Therefore, it isnot surprising that during thispandemic — COVID-19 —there has been a sharp rise inthe demand of agarbatti andnot just in India but all over theworld.

Several Indian incenseproducts manufacturers havebeen exporting incense to theUS, the UK, United ArabEmirates, Belgium, Brazil andeven Argentina. In 2018, the USincense market size was $128million and is expected to reach$281 million by 2025, growingat a CAGR of 11.89 per cent.The agarbatti market is peggedat �6,000 crore for India. It is a

figure that the companies in thecountry may achieve soonerthan later given the lockdownblues that Coronavirus hasbrought with it.

Ankit Agrawal, a partnerwith Mysore Deep PerfumeryHouse (MDPH) tells you thatthere are several reasons for therecent peak in the demand foragarbattis. “The fragrance inthe incense stick helps torelieve, anxiety, stress and hascalming effect,” Agrawal says.One is told that there is aGerman study that suggestsburning of incense not only hassoothing effect but it is usefulfor treating anxiety, insomnia,depression, restlessness andbrings peace of mind. Thestudy also suggests that inhomes where incense is brunt,the atmosphere is more relaxedand calms kids as well. Theonly catch is that it has to be agood quality branded agarbat-ti.

Agarbattis have been

around for centuries and is anintegral part of our religion andtradition. “Not only is India,but incense is used in China,Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnamand Taiwan. Then there is thewhole idea of catering to themasses as a disinfectant.Lavender oil has anti-septic andanti-inflammatory properties.Therefor there is demand forit,” Agrawal explains.

When one looks at thefigures — four factories, 30regional sales offices, a workstrength of over 2,500 people,a kitty of 1,200-plus productsthat are exported to over 10countries across four conti-nents and processing over 30million incense sticks dailyand still there is a demand —means there are a lot of stressedout people out there.

The company’s flagshipbrand Zed Black, which isendorsed by MS Dhoni, isavailable at over 7.5 lakh retailoutlets across India. Daily morethan 15 lakh retail packs weresold before the lockdown.

Even with the lockdown,the demand has not decreasedand people have been callingup Agrawal wanting to knowhow they can buy it under pre-sent situation.

More than the religiouspurpose and the fragrance thatan incense emits, the rise indemand due to lifestyle needs.“People tell me that they buyour product more out oflifestyle needs rather than reli-gious. The lavender incensesticks, Orva essential oils fordiffusers and Sambrani are alifestyle enhancement. Theylift the mood. Such is thedemand in the given the presentsituation the stocks that wereexported for a period of six-month consumption have

already been sold out leading toa 100 per cent growth especiallywhen it comes to the US mar-ket,” Agrawal says.

He tells you that for thedomestic market, there is a highdemand for Sambrani Dhoopas it has benzoin (loban).“Loban is a well-known disin-fectant and naturally occurringhence there are no side effectsto it.

In today's situation with thepandemic, fumigating thehouse with this dhoop will helpkeep germs and viruses at baysince it gives a lot of smoke. Inthe essential oils section, laven-der is best seller as it is said tohave antiseptic and anti-inflam-matory properties.

This has led to increasedsales volume both in domesticand global markets,” Agrawalsays. While there is no scientificstudy nor any research that hasgone into it, Agrawal tells youthat burning two incense stickswill do the needful.

�How worried are you to get back towork once lockdown opens?

I have no apprehensions. I am noteven worried right now. These are test-ing times and we are all facing it. It isnot as if one person is going through it.

It doesn’t scare me. I am preparedand am a positive kind of per-son. I know that it will taketime for us to get back to thesets. But I also know that themakers will ensure that eachone of us is going to be safe.

I am sure we will startonly when things aresafe.

�What is the teleplay Court Martialabout?

It is a classic play in the world oftheatre that was staged back in the 80s.It is one of the much appreciated plays.Doing a pay was always on top of mybucket list. When people would askwhat my dream role was or whom Iwanted to work with, but I knew I want-ed to do theatre. While this is not a playin front of the live audience, it has beenshot like a play. For me to work withactors from National School of Dramaand to be part of the 90-minute play wasa huge challenge but I jumped right intoit. I was very nervous but I took theplunge. Then began rehearsals and I amproud that I was part of this project.�Were there challenges that came withplaying a defence lawyer?

I play an Army officer who is adefence lawyer. There were plenty ofchallenges but not when it came tothe Defence part of it. I come fromDefence background; my botherand father are in the Army. I did-n’t need to work on body languageor how to salute. I would help oth-ers. We also had a senior retired

Army officer who was part of theplay and helped with ay technical

aspect. The challenge came because Ihad 300-400 word dialogues. I had towalk to each character and have theselengthy monologues. I had to look in

front since it is a play. One couldn’t fum-ble since it was a collective effort. Butit was fun.�Would people find a connect?

Definitely. Court Martial shows aside of the Army that few are aware of— how things were back in the 80s. Thepaly is issue-based and the imbalance

between the officers and other rankswhen it comes to previleges. In the lastdecade or so things in the Army havechanged. The play is set four decadesback and there will many takers even ifthey don’t agree with the subject.�Can you tell us about your film —Ateet?

The film belongs to the directorTanuj Bhramar. It is in the horror-sus-pense zone. When Tanuj came to giveme a narration, I liked the screenplay.He told me that even though he was afirst-time director, he knew each tech-nical and action aspect of the film andneeded to be trusted. I play CaptainAteet Rana who is in the Army and dis-appears during a mission and is believedto be killed. In the meantime, the wifehas moved on and so has his best friend.The film is about what happens whenhe comes back.�You have done TV, films, web seriesand theatre. What made you work ondifferent platforms?

It is not about platform but for theproject that drives me. I am an actor andhence not limited to a medium. Howmany actors are there who has doneprojects for all mediums includinghosting a show. There is a personal high— whether I can hold the attention ofpeople across platforms.�Have you managed to move fromSujal Grewal as far as your fans are

concerned?I will never move on for Sujal fans.

I can understand that. Women don’tgush over me but over Sujal. They arein love with the image that he portrayed.Women have an image of an ideal manand Sujal fit the bill — their idea of love.This is what has stuck in the minds. ButI have moved on but have pocket of fansof some of the shows that I have done.�How does a person with a Bachelorsin Chemistry end up acting?

I realised even back then that myfuture would be all about chemistrywhen it comes to performance. I am agraduate in the subject and thereforehave a great on-screen chemistry. I amsmart guy that way (laughs). On a moreserious note, I always wanted to be anactor but there was something about thesubject that I loved and when it cometo picking up a subject for graduation,I took it up.�The industry is quick to typecast. Doyou think that applies to you?

I have been typecast — people don’tknow what I will do next. I am an enig-ma and have an unconventionalapproach.

While I was hosting, I was doingTV, while I was doing TV, I was doingfilms with varied subjects and genres.Then I do Marzi and a stage show. Eachproject has been different. It is just myimage that has been typecast.

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�Tell us about yourself.I am a TikTok star and make videos for the platform in order

to change their mindset and have 26 million followers. I also have11 million followers on Insta. My work is to make videos thatwill inspire people through content that has a message to it.� I understand that you have started shooting new content.What is it on?

I just completed a song for T-Series YouTube channel —Bewafai, the song has recently been released and has garneredover 16 million views. Then there was another song —Aeroplane — in which I feature. Basically, I either make videosor feature in songs.�What is your group Team 07 about?

First, I would like to say that the No 07 has been lucky forus. This group has been around for six-seven years and has fivemembers. We have great bonding and we work well together andthat is why people like the content we post.�What made you take to TikTok?

Usually people take to a social media platform because some-thing happened and they wanted to share that and other stuff.Nothing like this happened with me. Three years back, when Iwas in college, I used to make content (videos) for Dustmatchsince TikTok was not there. We used to do dubbing of 15 sec-onds for the former. We loved it and people loved it. Then cameMusical.ly app. We posted content there as well. Then we start-ed posting content with messages.�Tell us about the videos you have been uploading on COVID-19?

All the messages and videos that we have been doing thesedays are related to COVID-19. These were related to how to washone’s hands. This video was in collaboration with WHO — totell people that they needed to wash their hands for 20 seconds.Then there are other videos that I have posted like save electricity.In this video I am sitting at home and yet all lights are open eventhough there is good day light. I switch all those lights and thensit to enjoy the bright day outside.� I understand you have been approached by the WHO. Whatfor?

I have some great review and views on Insta. Hence, theyapproached me to make the hand wash video just as the lock-down had started. I had also made a blog which I have just start-ed where I tell people that one should maintain social distanc-ing even with family and friends.�TikTok has come under a lot of flak recently. Should socialmedia platforms not be used judicially?

It is wrong if people are using social media platforms likeTikTok to spread false information about COVID-19. An offi-cial maker on Tiktok will tell you why he is making the videoand what it is about. He will always give out a positive message.There are of course, many unofficial makers (who use fake IDand post) on the platform who are promoting wrong things whichis so not right.�Almost all celebs have been trolled or roasted on socialmedia. Your take.

Those celebs who are being roasted or trolled, it means thatthey are getting popular. I too have been trolled and roasted. Infact, the first video that I had posted, I was roasted a lot and thatwent viral.

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We have UVC-LED system tosanitise homes and publicplaces and a locket that will

send an alert if the six feet distancingis breached. Doctors advise that peo-ple continue to wash hands regularly orsanitise them and maintain social dis-tancing. Still there are apprehensions asto what will happen when the lockdownis lifted and people are out in the streetsand social distancing will be difficult tomaintain given our vast population. Fretnot. There are people who have comeup with protecting gear — smart fab-ric and antiviral/antibacterial sprays toprevent spread of infection.

At the Indian Institute ofTechnology Guwahati, a team ofresearchers have developed affordableantimicrobial (antiviral/antibacterial)spray-based coating for PersonalProtective Equipment. The idea hasbeen developed by Dr Biman B Mandal,Professor, Department of Biosciencesand Bioengineering along with his PhDscholars, Bibhas K Bhunia andAshutosh Bandyopadhyay.

Prof Biman tells you that it is anano-based technology. The metalnanoparticle cocktail like copper, silverand other active ingredients, present inthe spray acts as an antimicrobialagent. The aim is to tied over the short-age of Personal Protective Equipment(PPE) and masks.

“We came up with this innovationthat will protect wearer from infection.There is a protocol to follow when itcomes to PPE and masks but the com-mon man doesn’t adhere to it leadingto growth of microbes. We wanted tocreate an active barrier. Earlier, themicrobe was sitting on the surface forfurther spreading. With this antivi-ral/antibacterial spray, there is no accu-mulation since the spray disrupts themembrane of the microbe. It can nolonger proliferate and survive thereforeincreasing the protection level. Theinnovation is affordable and can be usedeasily on any kind of surface includingtextiles and other medical device sur-

faces to get rid of microbial load,”Biman explains.

He tells you that it is not just for thehealthcare workers. One is told thatmicrobes are not just limited toCoronavirus. “Microbes are all aroundus. We are touching surfaces and goingto hospitals. Now, we have a personalspray that will clean the surface, dras-tically reducing the chances of catch-ing infection,” he says.

Biman says that this technology canbe used to make clothes smart as well.“The clothes we wear get dirty in twoways. First, dirt like mud. Second,microbes from sweat, etc. What if thereis fabric that restricts microbial growth?When we wash woolen garments, weput it in a special solution to keep it soft.This technology can be applied in asimilar manner. After washing, we putthe garment in the additive to make thecloth smart. It is like a knife. Once youhave the gadget, it can be used to cuta fruit, or vegetable or even herbs,”Biman says.

Yatee Gupta, founder of FabiosysInnovations, an IIT Delhi incubatedstart-up, tells you that his smart clothesare all about providing coveralls for thehealthcare workers, for the time being,since they are at the forefront when itcomes to treating COVID-19 patientsand need the protection.

This company uses a technologythat is commonly available in the tex-tile industry — machines throughwhich the fabric passes making itinfection proof. He tells you that themachine has a combination of chemi-cals that the fabric passes through. Thisprocess involves three-four steps wherecoagulant agent that are antiviral arecombined with the fabric in order toretain functionality of the fabric.

“We take the entire bundles of cot-ton fabric. It is a combination of treat-ment and process. The fabric is thenpassed through the machine that hasthree-four chemicals which react withthe material to make it antiviral. Fornow, we are concentrating on cotton

and cotton polyester and looking at alaunch in the next one month,” Guptasays. Then there is concrete Corona suitdesigned using cement fabric. Theuniform is air-tight only allowing theair to flow and blocking everything elsethat is less than 0.05 microns asCOVID-19 carries particles rangingfrom 0.06 microns to the largest is 0.14microns. The suits offer 95-99 per centprotection. It also has a chip embeddedso that there is no need to carrymobile phones. The uniform also hasan inbuilt sanitising process.

Elsewhere, Neo Tech — a uniquetechnology — developed by the Doneargroup of companies under Grado, hasdesigned anti-viral and anti-bacterialfabrics that inhibits growth and reten-tion of micro-organisms, making themsafe and hygienic. The fabric has beencertified by laboratories like NABLaccredited Bio Tech Services, anautonomous body under the guidanceof the Department Of Science &Technology.

Rajendra Agarwal, mentor, Gradotells you that they have been investingin R&D for a very long time. They havebeen pioneers in introducing a lot ofinnovative products in the market likea four-way stretch fabric, Ice-touchmaking the fabric five degrees coolerand uncrushable —wrinkle resistance.The antiviral fabric is just a step aheadgiven the present situation.

One is told that the Neo technol-ogy has been in use for the last two-three years. “We use two-three chem-icals that are applied to the fabrics. Itacts on the bacteria and microbials(viruses) protecting the wearer frominfection to a great degree. In somecases, we are taking the fibre and thentreating it, increasing their protectivevalue. In other cases, we are treating thefabric which has a shelf life of up to 50washes. The treatment will also be dif-ferent depending on the sector. If it ishealthcare, the treatment will be dif-ferent as opposed to if the fabric is fordaily wear,” Aggarwal says.

The idea of antiviral fabric came upafter three years of R&D since there areharmful bacteria and virus in the airand there were people who were look-ing for protective fabric. “Earlier, therewere only a few people who were awareof it. But now, due to Coronavirus, ithas become the need of the hour. Also,people were not willing to pay a pricefor it. But things are different now,”Aggarwal tells you.

He is quick to point out that thereis nobody who can guarantee that doinga certain thing will disintegrate thevirus. “Washing hands with soap actsas a protection. Similarly, we alsoguarantee that our fabric can provideprotection up to 50 washes after whichit will lose its functionality. After that,one can wear the garment as one wouldany other normal garment,” Aggarwalsays and tells you that the cost of thefabric would range between �250 to�10,000 per metre depending on whatfabric one would buy — whether it iscotton or silk.

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He shot to fame with Sujal in Kahiin Toh Hoga.Since then he has been part of many TV showsincluding a teleplay — Court Martial for ZeeTheatre and films, the latest being Ateet. He

speaks with SHALINI SAKSENAabout how he ended up an actor

and if he has been typecast

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Out for a stroll on the grounds ofDimple, his tall shadow saunter-ing alongside, Rajendra Kumarpaused in mid stride, cupping hishand around the flame of his sil-

ver lighter. Inhaling the nicotine from his ciga-rette and enjoying the warm, comforting feel-ing it gave him, he resumed walking. Mothsfluttered around the garden lamps and noctur-nal insects chirped happily. An owl called inthe distance. The actor, however, was absorbedin his own thoughts. No films in hand, he pon-dered, his handsome face flushed with thewinter chill. The year has ended. It’s unbeliev-able. And yet, I am the jubilee star. He drewdeeply on the 555, expelling rings of smoke.There is so much enthusiasm, so much passionwithin me, and there are so many stories! Firstthing tomorrow, I will call up all my industryfriends. My dear film industry will respond.They will not turn me down.

But for all his efforts and enthusiasm, whateventually landed in his kitty was a handful ofspecial appearances in Punjabi films like DukhBhanjan Tera Naam and Do Sher, both withDharmendra as his co-star, although in thesecond film, where the younger actor appearedin a song sequence and one scene, RajendraKumar played a central role as a dacoit. Thefilms released in 1974. Thereafter, sleepwalkinginto 1975, Rajendra appeared in Teri Meri IkJindri, a Punjabi film made to launchDharmendra’s cousin Veerendra. What didperk up the jubilee star a bit, though, was therelease of two of his Hindi films.

The first was the remake of a Telegu film,Sunehra Sansar, directed by Adurthi SubbaRao and helmed by women actors, with MalaSinha playing Rajendra Kumar’s wife andHema Malini his former flame. In the publici-ty posters of Sunehra Sansar, superstar HemaMalini featured quite prominently. Thoughthe film was not a commercial success, shewas much appreciated in a rare negative role.This was followed by Rani aur Lalpari, a chil-dren’s musical with a melee of stars, such asRajendra Kumar, Asha Parekh, Jeetendra,Feroz Khan, Reena Roy, Neetu Singh and oth-ers.

The year ended with Do Jasoos, a film thatchalked up average profits. Produced anddirected by Naresh Kumar, the film starred RajKapoor and Rajendra Kumar. Playing bum-bling detectives, they were mere caricatures oftheir former celebrated selves. The adulationthey had once enjoyed, the fame and stardomthat had been at their fingertips had all butfaded away. Of the two stars who were used tofans screaming, ‘Raj! Rajendra! We love you!’,Rajendra Kumar was still taken aback when heoverheard somebody remark, ‘I saw that actorand he looks old.’

I’ve seen it happening to others over andover again, and yet… Rajendra brooded onenight, allowing his despondent mood to getthe better of him.

‘Biwi,’ he said, turning to his wife, ‘I’m notworried about growing old. But there is somuch more that I want to achieve. I also haveto keep the money coming in. All my money is

invested, but to maintain this lifestyle, we willneed more.’

‘Hmm…’ Shukla murmured, her eyes mov-ing around their spacious home as she listenedto her husband voicing his ambitions andfears.

‘Tonight, I need a few pegs of good Scotch,’Rajendra was saying, ‘but I am worried aboutusing up our Black Label stock.’

Shukla shook her head in exasperation.Actors, she thought to herself. Always so dra-matic! But all she said was, ‘Miyan, go aheadand drink to your satisfaction and leave themoney management to me. We have enough.’

In the days that followed, a lethargic calmdescended over Rajendra Kumar’s life. But theunderlying tension of having no workremained, surfacing ever so often. At times likethese, he would feel helpless, broken. Lying inbed one night, Rajendra reflected that in thecurrent scenario the world was backing awayfrom him, disinclined to professionally engagewith a star who, they all felt, was past hisprime. He sighed, turning on his side. Like hisfellow actors, he too had struggled constantlyto ensure that he wouldn’t lose track of his realidentity — the human being that lay at theheart of his star persona. Now he was caughtin a dilemma: what was real — the elevatedstatus he had enjoyed earlier, the glorificationhe had revelled in, his decreasing relevance inthe world of films, the growing obscurity henow faced? With a multitude of defeatistthoughts vying for space in his mind, the for-mer star shut his eyes and fell into a troubledsleep.

The next day was a Saturday. Rajendraawoke, feeling surprisingly refreshed andcharged. As part of his routine, he dressed inshorts and a striped T-shirt, ready to sweat itout on the courts with a game of tennis.Bounding down the staircase of his magnifi-cent bungalow, he called out to Kaajal, hisyounger daughter, who always accompaniedhim to the club.

‘I’m going for a run. Let me know whenyou are ready,’ he told her, before jogging downthe narrow paths that cut across the grounds ofhis house. A cow mooed, bringing a smile tohis lips. Imagine, he reminded himself, inBombay city, in Pali Hill, on the grounds of myluxurious bungalow, I have a cow, six dogs, amonkey and deer! Rajendra smiled to himself,waving back at his neighbour who stood at theback gate.

‘How’s the cow doing?’ Mr Choraria asked.‘Choraria Saab! What a gift you send over

every morning!’ the actor responded. ‘A cow ofour own to milk!’

‘Of course! Growing kids need fresh milk,don’t they?’ Choraria remarked with a smile.

By this time, Kaajal, a sports lover like herfather, had come running down the stairs.Father and daughter left for the club. RajendraKumar truly enjoyed playing tennis, because itoffered him a reprieve from the depressingthoughts that seemed to preoccupy him muchof the time. But once back home, even as hesat down to a hearty breakfast, his vacillatingmind went into overdrive again. Perhaps I

should call it a day. I am at peace, he reasoned.But then, the workaholic in him raised itshead. No, I can’t just sit at home all day doingnothing, he told himself. I have invested years infilms and I am sure they will keep coming myway. Maybe not the choicest ones, but…Stubbing out his third cigarette, he lit up afreshas the houseboy brought out a tray of fruits.What an industry, the actor reminisced, bitinginto a crisp apple. It gave me so much and I toogave back wholeheartedly. I never played poli-tics. On the contrary, I helped and advisedmany newcomers. Ramesh Behl lived with myfamily from the age of fourteen. It was for himthat we started Rose Movies. And we signedKaka [Rajesh Khanna] even before Aradhana[released and the actor’s fame and popularitypeaked]. Rose Movies also gave Daboo [RandhirKapoor] a new lease of life with Jawani Diwani,which became such a huge success. And Manoj[Kumar]… He is as dear to me as my youngerbrother. He also lived with us, until he made it. Ihelped him too…

‘Chai.’ Bahadur interrupted the flow ofmemories with a cup of tea and RajendraKumar accepted it absent-mindedly, still deep inintrospection.

He recalled how it was through him thatactor Manoj Kumar had finally got his break asa hero in H.S. Rawail’s Kanch ki Gudiya oppo-site Sayeeda Khan. Rajendra had even recom-mended Rakesh Roshan for his debut role inGhar Ghar ki Kahani. Then there were the film-makers J. Om Prakash and Mohan Kumar. Theyhad remained his dear friends.

The star sighed, still lost in the past,attempting to convince himself that his film-industry friendships had endured, despite thedownward curve of his career graph. But a deepfrown continued to furrow his brow.

Time ticked on. The trees in the garden castlong morning shadows over the solitary star ashe sat in contemplative silence.

Excerpted with permission from JubileeKumar: The Life and Times of a Superstar, by

Seema Sonik Alimchand, Hachette India, �599

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For something as apocalyptic as the present times, thetypical American slang is SHTF, that is, when the ShitHits the Fan. A rather crude expression for a catastro-

phe. Nevertheless, as the whole world is in such a situation,let’s examine what is happening. Two old time parables para-phrased here may help. First is the one I read in standard 4,some 5-and-a-half-decades back, in English Literature. It istitled the Timid Hares. The story goes that there lived in ajungle, a hare, that would always worry about the earth fallingin. One day, as it was sleeping under a palm tree, a big coconutfell with a thud. The hare jumped in panic and started run-ning, shouting that the earth is falling in. His fellow hare alsofollowed suit. Coming across other animals, they frantical-ly shouted the same message. Soon, all animals were run-ning, creating a big commotion. The lion saw this and roaredferociously, asking what the matter was. The animal in frontsaid that they were running because the earth was falling in.The lion asked where did he see that. The animal pointedto the one behind. When that animal was asked he also point-ed to the one behind. This way, the first hare was traced. Hethen took the lion to the place where he thought the earthwas falling in. As he pointed out to the palm tree, anothercoconut fell. The hare jumped again, wanting to run. But thelion asked him to stop and look. The hare saw the coconutand realised what the fact was. The lion asked him to tellthis to all animals. The lesson here is that rationality usual-ly takes a back seat in crisis situations. But that is where reas-suring leadership is needed. A leadership that is firm andmaintains a scientific approach. The second parablesummed below will help the self-styled experts who are advo-cating more scare than care understand that fear also kills.There was an ascetic living in a hut on the outskirts of a vil-lage. One night he saw a dark shadow moving menacinglytowards the village. The ascetic picks up the courage to askthe shadow who was he and what his motive was. The shad-ow replied that he was Death and was going to the villageto pick up people who were to die due to an impendingendemic that was about to hit. The ascetic asked how manypeople would die. The shadow said 1,000 and moved towardsthe village. In a few days, the endemic struck and a few thou-sand died. The ascetic was shocked. He thought The Deathhad lied. He decided to wait for the shadow to return. Asthe shadow returned, the ascetic charged him saying he hadnot kept his word because not 1,000 but several thousandhad died. The shadow said that it did not lie. The endemichad killed only a thousand. The rest died out of fear. Themoral of the story is clear. Fear of death can be more dan-gerous than death itself. In these times of distress, old timeparables are more educative and informative than the so-called real time information that is being disseminated inces-santly and copiously. Psychologists have long believed thatgood reading helps. It motivates people, and encourages themto face crisis in a better way. The world needs such peopletoday. We must forget fear. It is time to get back to work.

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Ihope that we can return to the nor-mal mood sooner than later. But thisdoes not mean that we can eliminate

the danger of Coronavirus in a hurry.No, we cannot do that. The danger isvery real and must be accepted as such.Our problem is that we have forgottenthe difference between fear and caution.We must always be cautious as we arepersonally being advised also, but noone is remotely suggesting that weshould become fearful or paralysed withfear. This is not human intelligence.

Therefore, let us separate cautionfrom fear. Cautious we must be alwaysincluding now but fearful we shouldnever be. But we become fearful help-lessly. We do; don’t we? Let us under-stand the mechanics of how fear worksin our minds. Something fearful comesinto our minds, and we give it shelter,i.e. do not deal with it rationally. Thismeans that our minds have turned intoour enemies, about which Lord Krishnahas spoken in the Bhagawad Gita. (6.5-6) Sure enough, this affects our bodieslike it affected Arjuna’s. Gandiva wasslipping out of his hand, his skin wasalso burning, he was unable to remainstanding and his mind was reeling.(1.30) Now we have a serious problem,that is the mind is generating negativeenergy, which is affecting the bodyadversely.

How should we counter it? We canlearn from Arjuna’s example. Arjunabecame fearful due to the likely deathsof his relatives and friends and that tooon a very large scale. We are also placedsimilarly. There is danger of the virusaffecting our friends and relatives. Sowhat did Arjuna do? To begin with, heaccepted his condition. Then, herequested Lord Krishna to guide him;help him. He said, “Please instruct me,who has taken your shelter.”(2.7) Lord

Krishna did exactly that. He toldArjuna about how the human mindworks; it can become one’s friend andalso an enemy. Then, the Lord went onto tell Arjuna how this mind can bemade a friend by turning to God — theultimate solution. The Lord said,“Develop My consciousness; becomeMy devotee and offer obeisance to Me.”(18.65) Arjuna wisely accepted God’sinstructions and said, “I am free fromdoubt, I am composed, and I shall fol-low your instructions now. (18.73)

Though we are not faced with anywar but are similarly face to face witha pandemic. And our minds are gener-ating fear, a lot of it. Our bodies are get-ting affected due to the negative ener-gy generated by our fearful minds.There is an overarching mood of sad-ness. So we should follow Lord Krishna’sinstructions by developing God con-sciousness, becoming devotees of Godand pay obeisance to God. As we are alldifferent, we can choose to do in ourown ways what the Lord has instruct-ed, that is what suits us. I will cite mypersonal example. I have placed pho-

tos of God of His many incarnations inmy room. I also chant God’s names andalso some mantras. When I look atGod’s photo/photos or chant God’snames or some mantras or do bothsimultaneously, a miraculous changebegins to take place. My soul, that is, me— a higher entity than my mind getsinto act. The soul is now connected toGod. This brings the ananda character-istic of soul to the fore. The process gen-erates positive spiritual energy and thenegative lower mental energy is coun-tered and made ineffective. I gradual-ly become composed and peaceful.

Believe me this is that simple but thepractice must be done with faith and forsome period till the effect is felt. But itwill surely happen. It cannot fail. BothGod and souls are realities. The momentwe link with God, His energy begins toflow into us. Our ananda part is acti-vated. Fear — a lower energy form iscountered and we become peaceful,become composed. Just do it and reapits benefits as I am blissfully doing. -��

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Life brings us many disap-pointments and challenges.It is easy to fall victim notonly to others who may hurtor mistreat us, but also to our

own anger. When someone hurts usand we grow angry, we suffer two-fold.First, we have to bear the pain thatothers may cause us. Second, we haveto bear the pain and suffering thatcomes with feeling angry.

Anger not only upsets us emo-tionally, but it has a deleterious effecton our physical body. It causes stress,which in turn contributes to stress-related ailments. This can affect us byincreasing our risk of heart disease,cancer, stroke, high blood cancer, andother diseases. It takes a great amountof strength to withstand the tempta-tions to overcome anger. We maythink the angry person is strong, butactually they are succumbing out ofweakness to this trick of the mind. Ittakes one who is brave of heart to sayno to anger.

Let us trace what happens to us

when we do not forgive. Each of ourpersonal stories generally begins withsomething that happens to us that wedo not like. Some person has wrongedus in some way. Maybe someone hassaid something to hurt our feelings orhas hurt us physically. Maybe some-one we love has stopped loving us andcaring for us or has cheated on us.Maybe someone has taken our power,position, or wealth or has been dis-honest with us.

We can safely assume that all ofus go through life with some incidenthappening that we do not like or thathurts us. So, what happens next? Weare upset, hurt, annoyed or angry. Wethink about what had happened. Wedo not like it and we cannot seem toforget it. We think about it again andagain. We may speak about it repeat-edly either to the person who hurt usor to others. Some person who has lesscontrol over themselves may lashout physically to the person or take outtheir anger physically on someoneelse. As the incident escalates, we find

our thoughts and words occupied withhow to rectify the situation. Some peo-ple will try to solve the problem peace-fully by talking it over with the per-son who they felt has done themwrong.

Sometimes they try that but theother person is not willing to listen orchange. Then, we feel we have to dosomething drastic. This may lead toretaliation or revenge. We begin tothink about ways to get back to theperson who hurt us or we think aboutways to get even with them. We wantto see justice done. Our mind refus-es to forget what had happened untilwe retaliate or see justice done. Thus,in response from one incident we endup creating more scenarios and situ-ations . The other person then may getback at us for retaliating. A cycle ofaction and reaction may go on and onescalating a small situation into amajor problem.

What has happened in theprocess? We have lost our peace ofmind. The initial incident may have

lasted a few moments or a few hours,or a day, but we have now spent hun-dreds of hours and countless daysreplaying what happened and think-ing about how to get even.

In this process, the preciousmoments of our life have been wast-ed. Instead of keeping our attentionon what can help us become better,happier in life, we have wasted thetime in replaying a bad movie. Thus,we lose more than the person towhom we are directing our anger. AChinese proverb says that when weseek revenge, we dig two graves, onefor the other person on whom we seekrevenge and the other one for our-selves.

We become nothing more than atape recording or video recording thatplays the same bad scene over andover. How many of us want to see abad movie twice, or hear a song wedon’t like played again and again? Howmany of us want to eat the same foodwe don’t like again? We usually say,“This is yuck”. That is what happenswhen we repeat in our minds all thewrongs done to us. The solution forprotecting the body against the hor-mones released by hatred, anger andvengeance is simple: forgiveness. It isonly through forgiveness that we cancalm ourselves down and avoid thereactions of hatred and violence.What are the keys to developing thepower of forgiveness?

One of the keys is to let go. Whenwe forgive and forget, we are lettinggo the past and what has happened.We are saying, “I forgive the personfor what has happened. Then I amgoing to forget about it.” In this way,we are letting it go. When we let goof the past and the wrongs done byothers, the gain is that we achievepeace in our life. If we want to succeedon the spiritual path we need to havea pure and clean heart and mind .Theway to do this is through forgiving andforgetting, letting go, and gettingGod.

Let us learn to forgive and forget.It is time to wipe the slate clean andbegin anew. Let us let go of all anger.Let us let go of all hatred. Let us letgo of all feelings of vengefulness. Letus let go of all animosity. Let us devoteourselves to forgiving and forgetting,letting go and getting God.

We can tell our mind that we needto forgive everyone and everythingfrom past and make a consciousdecision to forget all the previoushurts. By sitting in meditation, freefrom all worldly desires and attach-ments, we can let go and find our-selves free to soar back to God. In thisway, we can spend all our time inenjoyment, bliss, laughter, happiness,and love.

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In ancient times, we used to have sim-ple idols made of wet clay of Gods andGoddesses. But as time passed, we

started using colours in these clay sculp-tures. As a result, the magnificence of theidols of gods and goddesses enhanced.

Today, instead of those clay-colouredidols of God, idols of gods in the form ofplastic, POP, metal, silver, gold, glass,photos, and calendars, etc. are being avail-able in the markets.

Such sculptures are more luminous,beautiful, artistic, grand, and durable thanthose ordinary sculptures made of clay. Atpresent, most of the people have seen thatpeople put idols, photos and calendars ofgods and goddesses in their house, shopand office in any place and any direction,where spinning them is not appropriate.

The name of God is considered to bea symbol of positive and constructiveenergy and just as everything has a limit,similarly positive energy also has a limit.It is not right to place idols of God inyour home, office, etc. as a showpiece,because God is worthy of worship ratherthan a decorative item. A man should alsofollow his power, purity, and dignity com-pletely.

Today, we get the idols of gods andgoddesses on many occasions. In such asituation, we keep them at any place inour home and office. Apart from all these,most of the matrimonial invitation cardsnow have a small plastic statue of LordShri Ganesh, we remove these plastic stat-ues from the invitation letter and place itanywhere at our house, and we do noteven realise that is this the right place ornot?

According to Vastu Shastra, idols,photos, calendars, etc. of Gods andGoddesses should not be applied mainlyin the kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, lawn,etc. These idols, photos, calendars should

be installed only at the place of worship ofhome and office.

At the same time, idols of God largerthan 6 inches should not be installed inthe place of worship of the house. Also, inany way, a broken (idol/image) or tornphoto of God should not be installed inthe home or office. Statues and photosshould not be kept crooked at any place,as well as full care should be taken of thedignity of the idols.

It is considered very inauspicious to

keep idols of some deities in the house.These mainly include idols of Shani dev,Bhairav dev, Rahu-Ketu, Nataraja.

An idol of gods and goddesses madeof metal, plastic, glass, silver, and gold isnot a showpiece, but a symbol of positiveand constructive energy. This is the rea-son that we should follow their power,purity, and dignity completely by keepingthis energy symbol in the right place.

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-�� "��<�2��The “unrivalled power, pres-

tige and influence” is howthe USA of the 20th centuryhas largely been defined. AsHenry Kissinger rightlyechoed, “In the 20th century,no country has influencedinternational relations as deci-sively and at the same time asambivalently as the UnitedStates. No society has morefirmly insisted on the inad-missibility of intervention inthe domestic affairs of otherstates, or more passionatelyasserted that its own values areuniversally applicable.” Thiswas how Kissinger definedAmerican power under thenewly emerged rubric of “NewWorld Order” in 1994.

Even when the historicParis Peace Conference washeld in 1919, the differences indecision making between theEuropean and American lead-ers became evident. TheEuropean representatives advo-cated in favour of maintainingthe status quo whereas the USwas firm on highlighting thatthe First World War was notthe result of “intractable geopo-litical conflicts, but from flawedEuropean practices”.

Therefore a new sign ofstatesmanship was demon-strated by the American peace-makers by intervening in theexisting European hegemony indiplomacy and policy makingin international relations.Through his famous FourteenPoints, Woodrow Wilson saidthe international system shouldnot be based on balance ofpower but on ethnic self-deter-mination. And the security ofthe nations should not dependon military alliances but on col-lective security. Further theirdiplomacy should no longer beconducted secretly by expertsbut on the basis of open agree-ments, openly arrived at. It wasclear from these historic linesthat Wilson, instead of dis-cussing the terms for endingthe First World War and tohenceforth restoring the glob-al order, was indeed busyrecasting a purely new orderwherein the US was projectedto lead the world. But then the-sis put forwarded by Wilsoncame into reality in a muchstronger way only after the endof the Second World War.

Since 1945, as Americamoved on, it has experiencedups and downs. Even at theheight of the Second WorldWar, Henry Luce, the founderof the Time magazine, advo-cated that America hadamassed too much wealth andpower that the 20th centurywould come to be known sim-ply as “the American Century”.Surprisingly, his predictionproved prescient. After almostseven decades of hegemony,though it had to live with theCold War till 1990s,Washington has brilliantlymanaged to stay in promi-nence, prestige and relevance.But with globalisation, post-globalisation and especially,globalisation of terrorism, theUS had to encounter new real-ities wherein its trade, securi-ty and stability have been badlychallenged. With the Iraq War,the Afghan War, Syrian civilwar, the Arab Spring, the emer-gence of al-Qaeda (September11 terror attack) and finally, thearrival of the Islamic State(ISIS) have altogether alteredthe global power dynamics.China’s gradual and quiet rise,the Eurozone crisis, the fastgrowth of nationalist regimesaround the world have come asthe last blow to the US-led lib-eral order once and for all.Around the same time, boththe fantasies and credentialsaround which the global liber-al leviathan has been con-structed are badly exposed.This is because the liberaldemocracies have reallybecome worse at improvingtheir citizens’ living standardsleading to major public outcriesagainst their leaders and age-old institutions. And this hasculminated into the rise ofpopulist movements and lead-ers that disavow liberalism.These kinds of regimes haveshown their ugly heads startingfrom Warsaw to Washingtonand from Brussels to Brasilia.And one such regime, manysay is undoubtedly headed byDonald Trump at the citadel ofdemocracy.

Trump, who took up reins

as the 45th President of the USin 2017, has ushered the WhiteHouse into a new age toAmerican politics. With him,starting from his campaign tillthe day he assumed office onJanuary 20, 2017, it was noth-ing but political populism thatsimply drove people aroundhim. The middle class whiteAmericans have really found inhim a leader who could trans-form their agony into comfortand a good living. In some ofthe speeches made during hisPresidential election campaignof 2016, Trump directlyaddressed the major concernsof the white working class withtheir sudden declining positionin the national pecking order.Probably, his media adviserswere smart and sensitiveenough to locate a possiblewinning constituency leftunaddressed by successivegenre of Republicans andDemocrats in the past elec-tions. Therefore, Trump didrightly pick them up whilemoving towards the WhiteHouse. He debated core con-cerns and raised their moralstatus by emphatically under-lining them as truly hard-working Americans who wereoutright victims of an era ofglobalisation and post-global-isation. Much more than that,he courted them as “peopleabove the politicians, profes-sionals and the elite”. Thisindeed drew them not onlycloser to the Republican votebank but also exposed a woundleft unattended by the previousleaders. Capturing the currentsocial dynamics of social engi-neering, he started drawingstrong moral boundariestowards undocumentedMuslims, refugees and immi-grants across America. Thiswas how Trump catapultedhimself to power by trans-forming symbolic boundariesinto engines of change in 2016presidential campaign. Whathappened in the last four yearsof his presidency has con-structed a new dimension ofAmerican power and influence,largely drawn towards “MakeAmerica Great Again”.Threatening to cut traditionalties with many of the US allies,suddenly withdrawing fromhistoric global treaties, forumsand dialogues, Trump has rede-fined an illiberal order symp-

tomatic of political populism,crude business tactics andsheer arrogance. So he hasremained an unpredictablestatesman with whom many ofAmerica’s friends and democ-ratic partners have dealt toocautiously till date.

Sadly, Trump’s pugnacityhas not worked in America’sfavour. It has brought onlyperil to his party, country andgentry along with the mostcommon people of his dearland. His recklessness has large-ly eroded the US dominantposition across the world.Saddest part of the Trumppresidency is that his authori-ty as a global leader hasdeclined not because otherleaders or nations have togeth-er or single-handedly chal-lenged him; it’s clearly as adirect result of his unwelcom-ing actions and untimely com-mentaries. At home, Trump hassignificantly lost his groundafter the House ofRepresentatives approvedimpeaching him.

It’s not that Trump hassolely made America weak. Itis a long drawn process that hascome to fruition over the years.Though globalisation of tradehas proved to be tremendous-ly profitable to for the US, itcould hardly deliver to thecountry’s middle class. Whilemaking globalisation work, theAmerican policy makers advo-cated Russia to adopt privati-sation and China to enter intothe newly established WorldTrade Organization in 1995.Despite InternationalMonetary Fund pushing for anagenda of privatisation, dereg-ulation and severe austeritymeasures, leading to sharp fallin public faith over both thecredentials of democracy andworkability of capitalism, theybacked such institutions topromote global trade and freemarket. To their utter dismay,these and many more such ini-tiatives, instead of bringingopen markets and free soci-eties, have created a vast auraof opportunities for America’srivals to simply rise and chal-lenge its traditional dominancearound the globe. ElizabethWarren, a Democratic USSenator, wrote in 2019 that asa result of such policies “Russiabecame belligerent and resur-gent. China weaponised its

economy without ever loosen-ing its domestic political con-straints. Other countries’ faithin both capitalism and democ-racy eroded. A programmeonce aimed at promoting theforces of freedom ended upempowering the opposite.”True. Absolutely true. TodayChina has turned out to beAmerica’s competitor numberone. How to surge Americaahead of all, with an evergrowing democratic spirit is amatter of serious concern.Amid all these complexities,Trump has echoed wrongnotes, even at right moments.

Around this Covid-19time, what is milling around isthat China might take over theglobal leadership from the US.Many say that this has alreadytaken place. And with thecoming of Trump at the WhiteHouse, the final countdown hasbegun. But then is it going tobe only economic yardsticksand growing military prowessof China that could be matchedwith the current US strength todecide the outcome. However,America’s longstanding liberalorder and traditions cannotsimply be undone by oneTrump and his populist poli-cies.

What advantages the UShas over China? Perfectly,Washington has much moreadvantage over Beijing. Liberalideology offers a significantadvantage to the US overChina. As a free and open soci-ety that advocates for safe-guarding basic premises ofhuman rights and freedoms,America can be a much betterally of the nations of Asia,Africa and Latin America. Thereason behind is that many inthese countries clamour forbasic freedoms and they candirectly draw inspiration fromtheir daily struggle for reclaim-ing these liberties. When itcomes to China, its dealings areaccompanied by sharp abuse ofthe ally’s people and theirresources. But for America, itsdecision making is transparentin regard to its allies unlikeChina that quietly digs debttraps in the name of econom-ic aids.

America has been a dom-inant power since 1945 and itwants to continue with this sta-tus. And this primacy hasbrought immediate and long-

term benefits to the country.This also offers Washington thecapacity to shape regional bal-ance of power. America’sprominence in global stagehas also guaranteed a tranquilenvironment for the rest of thenations to operate within theirown independent spheres.

It has been argued verywell that when a countryreaches the top, it has nowhereelse to go but simply down-wards. Way back in 1950, whenthe Soviet Union acquiredatomic weapons, the NationalSecurity Council warned thatthis advantage to the USSRmight alter the geopoliticalequations among the nations.Again when the Sputnik waslaunched by the Soviet Unionthat led many to prophesisethat Nikita Khrushchev’spledge to bury “Western capi-talism” may turn into reality.John F Kennedy in his heydaystrongly believed that the USSRcould be richer than the US.And Richard Nixon famouslyargued that America wasbecoming a “pitiful helplessgiant”. In the meantime,America’s defeat in theVietnam War provoked manyexperts to argue and writeworks like “After Hegemony:Cooperation and Discord inthe World Political Economy”.This all showed a persistent fearamong both the leaders andintellectuals in the West thatAmerica might fall from thegrace. And the Russophobiahelped Ronald Regan to justi-fy a major military buildup inthe beginning of the 1980s.However with the coming ofPaul F Kennedy’s “Rise and Fallof Great Powers” wherein headvocated that the US is in thedanger of “imperial over-stretch”, the perception aboutits decline has taken a newturn. However Kennedy’s newAmerica decline narrative wasaptly countered by Joseph Nyein his “Bound to Lead: TheChanging Nature of AmericanPower”. Nye strongly put for-ward his view that America hasdistinct strengths and hence itwould remain as leading powerfor many years to come.Afterwards, a number of booksand essays such as CharlesKrauthammer’s “The UnipolarMoment”, G John Ikenberry’s“Liberal Leviathan”, NialFerguson’s “Colossus” and

Fareed Zakaria’s “The Post-American World” have empha-sised that American domi-nance would continue.

However what DanNexton, an American politicalscientist, has just revealed isabsolutely more convincing.In his book “Exit FromHegemony: The Unravelling ofthe American Global Order”published by the OxfordUniversity Press, this year, heemphatically says, “I do notdoubt that the United States iscapable of remaining and like-ly to remain a global power.”And for him, “China is only atthe very beginning of its effortto develop the political infra-structure for power projectionand it is capable of engaging insome limited overseas opera-tions.” This kind of an analysissituates China as a regionalpower wherein it could be ableto rise as little more than a chal-lenge for America’s continueddominance in East and SouthChina Sea.

Is there any possibility thatChina may bypass theAmerican juggernaut or maycome closer to it in a post-Covid-19 economic downturn?There could be possibilities thatfor some time, China may takelead in the economic front. Butcertainly, the whole worldwould wake up to the callgiven by this virus and realisethe fact that too much depen-dence on China may be disas-trous. And this is not even con-ducive for China as well.China’s capacity to lift millionsout of poverty and adjustingthe market dynamics to itssocialist roots must be har-nessed further to resolve theconflicts within and overseasterritories of the country. Maybe a life President like XiJinping would be able to do abetter job in this regard unlikehis immediate predecessors.Instead of encircling the neigh-bourhood and expandingundeterred money and musclepower to the rest of the worldin the guise of soft power, hecan easily bring democraticreforms within his own coun-try. This will ensure at least thebasic minimum human rightsto his brethren. Why is heunnecessarily creating ani-mosity and repeating the samemistakes committed by earliergreat powers? While advocat-

ing multi-polarity, Chinashould not head for the sameunipolar world order nurturedby the US.

Frankly speaking, aChinese-led order will have fewtakers. The western liberalorder offers enough space bothfor open society and even forits enemies as well. Beijing’stutelage will nowhere guaran-tee free speech and open dia-logue. In the name of stabilityand economic development, asocialist authoritarian systemwould be imposed on all. Onecan simply witness the appre-hension generated by such “redfear” among the Hongkongerssince July 1997. The younggenerations and the most of theislanders are rejecting themainland system wheneverand wherever imposed byBeijing. This is more than suf-ficient for the internationalcommunity to learn what anAsian order led by China canherald to all of us. Mere eco-nomic guarantee offered byBeijing will not simply ensuresafe keeping of our basic free-doms.

Hope what PresidentFranklin Roosevelt onceechoed in 1941 comes intoreality: “America is not a coun-try which can be confoundedby the appeasers, defeatists, thebackstairs manufacturers ofpanic…This will of theAmerican people will not befrustrated, either by threatsfrom powerful enemies abroador by small, selfish groups orindividuals at home.”Hopefully, the American lead-ership will be back with arenewed strength. But Trump,when he comes back in 2021for his second term, should notfurther jeopardise the liberalorder that its forefathers builtin the past. He must realise thatonly with this order, the coun-try can retain its traditionalleverage over other nations.And for its old allies, and par-ticularly for the global gover-nance system, America needsto be sensitive.

Finally, it’s not only abouta US-led order. But about ademocratic world order where-in emerging nations like Indiawould be able to rise and shareits world view with the rest.

(The writer is an experton international affairs)

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Moving on from lessons in how torelax and then detoxify themind, in the previous issues, it’s

time now to explore ways and means toaccess powers of mind. The power latentin mind is immense mostly lying dor-mant out of ignorance, which if unfoldedin full has no bounds. The paradox, how-ever, is that ordinary mortals are hardlyable to use five to seven percent of ourmind power, which remains available bydefault. For, ordinarily our mind remainsclouded by lot of inherent limitations.Our reach could, however, be expandedthrough conscious efforts. Einstein andpeople of his calibre are believed to haveused about 10 to 14 percent of theirmindpower to have created history.

Now, how to go about optimisingour mindpower? The first call is to getover inherent limitations by pursuing themind-detoxification process as discussedin the previous issue. Following which,most of inconsequential and negativethought imprints parked in the innerrealms of mind, that otherwise misdirectour thought process, go out of reckoning.Yet, some memory impressions lying atstill deeper layer of mind that hold thekey to our hardened habit tendencies,

may be left. For the final assault thathelps purify the mind fully, we need totake up ‘Dhyana’. Following which, thethought process becomes easy and sim-ple. Please bear in mind; simplicity isclarity, directness, and purity. It is freefrom complications, clutter, and confu-sion. Simplicity paves the way to success,peace, focus, and happiness. Thereafter,you would in full control of the self,when wholesome powers of mind shallbe available. You may then be able to usemind as an instrument, which it is,rather than being victim of its inconsis-tencies. Consequently, mind comes outwith its creative best, when it qualifies tospontaneously lead us towards the rightcourse due.

Mind could be raised to the abovestatus, when one is in a state of “Yoga”,which in applied terms means that uni-tary mind is fully tuned to the element ofconsciousness, which holds the key to allour dynamic functionalities.

The process suggested for the pur-pose by sage Patanjali, the proponent ofthe concept, is “Dhyana”. Going by itsliteral meaning, the word Dhyana impliespaying attention. To what? It is on noneother than one’s own self, which holds

the key to how we usually conduct in life.It, in the first place calls for observingand becoming aware of one’s limitationsof mind. Second, the workable part ofone’s indwelling potential. And finallyexplore one’s wholesome latent potential,unexplored and untapped thus far out ofignorance, which when unfolded in fullwould know no limits. The methodinvolved is to first disengage one’s atten-tion from external distractions, and thenlook within to explore and scan what liesin store at the various levels of the innerrealms of mind. Having become awarethus, to consciously deliberate upon andaccordingly redefine the thought process,with the intent to come out with one’sbest.

In English lingua franca, ‘Meditation’,is the word commonly used to give asense of Dhyana. Although, it doesn’treflect true spirit and essence of“Dhyana”, it however, stands close by.For, the word meditation, seeminglyhints at reflecting deeply over some idea,thought, or concept. Dhyana, on the con-trary, is a process directed towardsattaining a state of being, when mindgets riveted to the root of all thoughts. Itbecomes possible only when flirtation ofmind almost comes to an end, what

Patanjali calls ‘Citta vriti nirodha’.Otherwise, uncontrolled thought impres-sions in mind keep you so much engagedthat it doesn’t leave much of scope toprocess your thoughts objectively, andwith obvious consequences. Meditationremains a necessary part of the process,and so contextually remains relevant.

Once the mind gets fully purified,there is no thought left that may lead youthrough. You then need to cultivate freshdefining principle of mind by raisingawareness level. The process calls forcontinued reflection (meditation) uponfresh educative inputs as laid down in thescriptures or the ones offered by anenlightened Guru. Following which, youmay come out with your creative best.You could then spontaneously makeright choices in life. Remember, mindbeing an instrument, it can’t move on itsown. It needs a guiding principle. Tosum up, Dhyana is a mind-engineeringprocess.

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