EXPLAINER“What people are looking for is someone to explainlife to them. But there is no explanation and nothingto explain.”Marty Rubin 05

Apart from the $3 billion defence deal betweenWashington and New Delhi that was signed lastweek— for the procurement of Apache & MH-60 Romeo Helicopters — India and the US signed

three other MoUs. These were related to the field of men-tal health, safety of medical products and energy.■ OFFSHORE CAMPAIGN: With his re-election coming up lat-er this year, Trump’s mind was understandably in cam-paign mode, never mind that he was “8000 miles” fromwhere campaign rhetoric would actually matter. He ad-dressed a smattering of Indian CEOs including RIL chair-man Mukesh Ambani, Tata Sons chairman N Chan-drasekaran, among others. At the meet, America’s firstbillionaire president predicted that US stock marketswould “jump thousands of points” if he won while it will“fall drastically” if he lost.

NAMES, PLACES & TERMS

WHEN TRUMP CAME...NEW DELHI

AGRA1Very inspiring

that students begintheir day with

practising mindfulness and con-necting with nature

MELANIA TRUMP at the Sarvodaya Co-ed Senior

Secondary School at SouthMoti Bagh

BLUE DOT NETWORK FOR SUSTAINABLE PROJECTS Led by the US’s InternationalDevelopment Finance Corporation,the Blue Dot network was jointlylaunched by the US, Japan andAustralia in November 2019. Thiswas done on the sidelines of the35th ASEAN Summit in Thailand.The network is meant to be amulti-stakeholder initiative that

aims to bring governments, private sector and civil society together to pro-mote “high quality, trusted standards for global infrastructure development”.

MUD-PACK TREATMENT:

➤ The cleaning treatment is said to be based on a traditionalrecipe which is used by Indian women to restore a natural

glow to their faces.➤ A 2mm-thick layer of lime-richclay is plastered over the affectedareas of the monument and leftovernight to dry.➤ When it dries the flakes areremoved from the surface with softnylon brushes and washed with dis-tilled water to remove impuritiessticking to the surface.

➤The marble mausoleum had been given this treatment five times — in1994, 2001, 2008, 2014 and 2020.

During the Taj Mahal visit, Melania Trumpasked about the mud-pack treatment givento the monument and was amazed when shegot to know the details of the process.

SABARMATI➤ Prime Minister NarendraModi gifted Trump the iconicstatue of “three wise mon-keys”, representing the mes-sage “see no evil, hear no eviland speak no evil,” on behalf ofthe Indian government.➤ “The sculpture was a replica of the statue that was gifted to Gandhi by aJapanese monk way back in 1933”, a trustee of the Sabarmati Ashram said.

You know thenews, but did some

terms puzzle you? On thispage, we explain the terms

used in news or by ournewsmakers. Figure out whythe names, places and terms

became the actualnewsmakers this week.

The ashram washome to Gandhi

between 1917 and1930 during India'sfreedom struggle. Itwas from here thathe launched theDandi yatra, or SaltMarch, against theBritish rule

The Greek Olympic Com-mittee said it has dis-cussed with the govern-ment alternative plans

for the Olympic flame lighting cer-emony in March if there is a CORO-NAVIRUS OUTBREAK in the country.The flame for the Tokyo 2020Olympics is scheduled to be liton March 12 in ancient Olympia.Following the torch relay onGreek soil, it will be handed tothe Tokyo organisers at a cere-mony on March 19.

InfodemicExcessive infor-mation concern-ing a problemsuch that thesolution is mademore difficult

Outbreak carries thesame definition as an epidemic but is used todescribe a more limited geographic event. Pandemic refersto an epidemic that has spread over several countries orcontinents, usually affecting a large number of people.

GREECE SEEKS PLAN B FOR OLYMPICFLAME IF CORONAVIRUS HITS2

HIV/ AIDSDeath Toll: 36mn | Cause: HIV/AIDSFirst identified in Democratic

Republic of the Congo in1976, HIV/AIDShas truly provenitself as a global

pandemic.

THE BLACK DEATH (1346-1353)Death Toll: 75-200mn | Cause: Bubonic PlagueFrom 1346 to 1353, an outbreak of the plague

ravaged Europe, Africa,and Asia, with an esti-mated death toll between75 and 200 million peo-ple. It is believed to haveoriginated in Asia.

FLU PANDEMIC (1968)Death Toll: 1 mn |Cause: InfluenzaA category 2 flu pandemic,sometimes referred to as‘the Hong Kong Flu’, was

caused by the H3N2 strain of the Influenza A virus, a genet-ic offshoot of the H2N2 subtype. The first case reportedwas on July 13, 1968 in Hong Kong.

ASIAN FLU (1956-1958)Death Toll: 2 mnCause: InfluenzaAsian Flu was a pandemicoutbreak of InfluenzaA of the H2N2 sub-type, that origi-nated in Chinain 1956 andlasted till1958.

P A N D E M I C O U T B R E A K S A R O U N D T H E W O R L D

SIXTH CHOLERA PANDEMIC (1910-1911)Death Toll: 800,000+ | Cause: CHOLERALike its fiveprevious incar-nations, thesixth CholeraPandemic origi-nated in Indiawhere it killed over 800,000, beforespreading to the Middle East, NorthAfrica, Eastern Europe and Russia.

The devastatingbushfires thatraged over sixmonths burnt

11 million hectares. Asthe country limps backto life, there are signs ofdestruction everywhere.

QUEENSLANDAn aerial view ofthe devastationin Torrington inQueensland.Large parts ofthe state havebeen devastatedby the fires,making it GroundZero for thebushfire crisis

VICTORIA Mallacoota was one of the placesthe fires ravaged. As the tourist seasonbegins for the autumn, the town is takingsteps towards cleaning itself up andputting on a brave face

SOUTH AUSTRALIA Kangarooisland, famed as ‘Australia’sGalapagos’ for its abundantwildlife, is located a little offthe South Australian coast

NEW SOUTHWALES Severalparts ofAustralia werecovered in ahazy fog whenthe fires wererippingthrough thecountry

FIRES OUT, BUT LANDSCAPE STILLCHARRED IN AUSTRALIA3

KOLKATA'S SET TO DOUBLE-DECK UP!4 COVID-19 ADDS TO IRAN’S

LONG LIST OF WOES5

NEW SOUTH WALES In all,100,000 square kilometres of landwas destroyed by the bushfires, anarea larger than South Korea orPortugal

The West BengalTransport Depart-ment is set to rein-troduce the iconic

DOUBLE-DECKER BUS onKolkata roads in March. ❚ The new bus bodies havebeen designed in-house bythe transport departmentand two of these are beingreadied for tourist services,informed West Bengal Trans-port secretary NS Nigam.“These will be open roof,” hesaid.❚ The buses following themodel of the iconic red-and-white behemoths were firstintroduced by the British in1926, and till the mid-90s con-tinued to be part of the city’sdiverse transportation sys-tem that included trams andthe Metro. They were even-tually phased out due to high

maintenance costs.❚FYI: Mumbai is the

only city in thecountry that

now has dou-ble- decker

buses inits fleet.

Iran is facing the worst Covid-19 CRISIS outsideof China as reports emerged that over 50 peo-ple have died from the disease in Qom, a Shi-ite holy city, far higher than the official tally of

8. The fatality rate is the highest outside of China.

ECONOMIC WOES: According to the InternationalMonetary Fund, the Iranian economy had shrunkfor two consecutive years as the US walked out ofthe Obama-era nuclear deal and reimposed sanc-tions. Though the freefall has somewhat steadied,the economic growth for 2020 is projected at 0%.To cope with the depleting cash reserve, Iranian

authorities raised the retail price of petrol by50% late last year.

GLOBAL ISOLATIONThough the killing of General

Suleimani by a US dronecaused a fervour, Tehran

made a mess of its responseby shooting down a passen-

ger plane. The FinancialAction Task Force

imposed fresh sanc-tions on Iran

AncientWisdom

The torch relay inGreece will passthrough 37 cities

and 15 archaeo-logical sites

covering 3,500kilometres and 842nautical miles. Thetorch will be carriedby 600 runners

Photo: GETTY IMAGES

Photo: GETTY IMAGES