12
T he Opposition parties led by the Congress on Tuesday began the boycott of the remaining part of the Monsoon Session to demand the revocation of the suspen- sion of eight MPs and the introduction of a Bill to bar pri- vate players from buying farm produce below the minimum support price (MSP). The battle-line drawn between the ruling BJP and the Opposition after the passing of two controversial farm Bills in the Rajya Sabha impacted the Lok Sabha, too, where Opposition members, includ- ing from the DMK, Congress, NCP and TMC, boycotted the proceedings demanding “with- drawal” of the Bills before they are sent to the President for his consent. While the Opposition members staged a walkout in the Rajya Sabha and announced to boycott the entire ongoing session, the Opposition MPs in the Lok Sabha joined them to express solidarity with them. The eight suspended mem- bers who were on a sit-in dhar- na overnight on Parliament premises called off their protest and joined the Lok Sabha MPs to strategise a broad-based boycott. “Senior Opposition leaders, including Congress Leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad, appealed to all of us sit- ting at the dharna to finish it and join them in boycotting the rest of the session. That is how we have ended this dharna,” said Congress Rajya Sabha member Syed Nasir Hussain. “We not only want our suspension to be revoked but also want the farm Bills to be taken back and discussed fur- ther. There should be proper voting on it,” Hussain said. Hussain is among the eight MPs who were suspended for the remaining part of the Session over “gross disorderly conduct” during the passage of the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020, and the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020 on Sunday. Trinamool Congress’ Derek O’Brien and Dola Sen, Congress’ Rajeev Satav, Ripun Bora, Aam Aadmi Party’s Sanjay Singh, CPI(M)’s Elamaram Kareem and KK Ragesh are the other suspend- ed MPs. Soon after the Upper House resumed, the Opposition parties led by Congress staged a walkout after their demand for revoca- tion of suspension of the eight MPs fell on deaf ears. In order to pacify the members at dhar- na, the Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Harivansh had offered them tea requesting them to call off their protest but in vain. Congress Rajya Sabha member and Chief Whip Jairam Ramesh took to twitter to give seven reasons behind the decision to boycott the proceedings. Several senior Opposition leaders, including Azad, Samajwadi Party’s Ram Gopal Yadav, Janata Dal (Secular) leader and former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda and NCP Praful Patel, appealed to Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu to revoke the suspension of the eight leaders. T he Centre on Tuesday released the tentative cal- endar for the first year univer- sity students of undergraduate and postgraduate courses for the session 2020-21 which have been rescheduled due to the corona pandemic. The new academic session for freshers will now begin in November, and the delay will also impact the next academic session as well. As per the schedule, the admission process has to be completed by October 31, and session has to begin from November 1. The calendar has also suggested certain prepa- ration breaks to be followed by the universities, colleges, insti- tutions and the next session to begin on April 30, 2021. The UGC had, in April, released an alternative acade- mic calendar for colleges, with the plan to reopen colleges in September, but the delay in entrance exams and Covid infections surge has pushed the session by two months. The Supreme Court too on Tuesday asked Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to declare results of compart- ment exams as soon as possi- ble and coordinate with UGC to enable around 2 lakh stu- dents to apply in colleges in the current academic year. Mumbai: NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Tuesday said the Income Tax department has served him a notice in con- nection with his poll affidavits submitted to the Election Commission. Talking to reporters here, Pawar said the Income Tax department has sought his “clarification and explanation” on some poll affi- davits furnished by him. “I got the notice yester- day...We are happy that they (the Centre) love us from among all the members...The notice was served by Income Tax after the Election Commission asked (it) to...We will reply to the notice,” he said. He was responding to a query on reports that his daughter and Lok Sabha mem- ber Supriya Sule, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and Environment Minister Aaditya Thackeray had received similar notices from the I-T department. C hina continues to rapidly ramp up its military prowess all along the border stretching from Arunachal Pradesh in the east to Ladakh in the west as talks are on to defuse the volatile situation at the Line of Actual Control. The Chinese have doubled up their airbases and other mil- itary installations in the last three years thereby threatening India’s strategic interests. China has already deployed more than 150 aircraft and heli- copters close to the LAC in Ladakh where both the coun- tries share a 1,700 km long bor- der. Satellite images and a report by Stratfor, a global intelligence platform, about the massive build up has alarmed the Indian security establishment. The rapid improvement in military infrastructure started right after the 73-day stand-off between India and China in Doklam, Sikkim in 2017. Intervention at the highest political and diplomatic levels then defused the situation. Since then, China has more than doubled its total number of airbases, air defence posi- tions and heliports near the Indian border. The Stratfor report gives details of China’s military-infrastructure build- up through a detailed analysis of satellite images of military facilities. “The timing of the Chinese build-up of military facilities along the border with India just prior to the ongoing Ladakh standoff suggests these border tensions are part of a much larger effort by China to assert control over its border regions,” says Sim Tack, a senior global analyst with Stratfor and the author of the report. Significantly, China’s upgrade of its military infra- structure is far from complete. “The expansion and construc- tion of military infrastructure is in most cases still underway, so the Chinese military activ- ity that we are seeing along the border with India today is only the beginning of a longer-term intent,” the report says. The consequences of this for India, which has been involved in a violent face-off with China in eastern Ladakh since early May, seem clear. “Once finished, this infra- structure will provide support for an even greater intensity of Chinese operations.” According to the report, China has “started constructing at least 13 entirely new military positions near its borders with India”. This includes three air- bases, five permanent air defence positions and five heli- ports. “‘Construction on four of those new heliports started after the onset of the current Ladakh crisis in May,” it says. China’s military build-up along the Indian borders, the report says, is part of a bigger strategy similar to its goals in the South China Sea where Beijing has dredged land around tiny coral atolls to develop full-fledged air bases and naval facilities. Many nations in that region have rejected Beijing’s claim that the area lies within its jurisdiction. In May this year, India, which champions the freedom of navigation in international waterways along with the United States said, ‘’The South China Sea is a part of the global commons and India has an abiding inter- est in peace and stability in the region,’’ remarks likely to irk Beijing which is wary of India’s close strategic partnership with Washington. Practising the same strat- egy along its land frontier with India, ‘’China aims to discour- age Indian resistance or mili- tary action during future bor- der disputes by ostentatiously demonstrating its ability and intent to engage in military confrontations.’’ T he 14-hour military-diplo- matic level talks between India and China on Monday to defuse tension at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) ended on a positive note. The talks were held in a pos- itive manner, and it is hoped that another two to three rounds of dialogues in the coming days may start the process of disen- gagement of troops. India and China on Tuesday in a joint statement after the sixth round of Corps Commanders talks agreed to “stop sending more troops to the frontline” and “refrain from unilaterally chang- ing the situation on the ground” while agreeing to hold more talks to resolve the standoff. “They agreed to earnestly implement the important con- sensus reached by the leaders of the two countries, strength- en communication on the ground, avoid misunderstand- ings and misjudgements, stop sending more troops to the frontline, refrain from unilat- erally changing the situation on the ground, and avoid taking any actions that may compli- cate the situation,” the joint statement said on the senior military commander-level held on Monday. I n an unprecedented act in the history of Parliament, Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Harivansh Narayan Singh went on a one-day fast on Tuesday to express his anguish over the Opposition MPs’ “unruly” behaviour during the vote on the farm Bills on Sunday. He also wrote letter to President Ram Nath Kovind and Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu narrating the incident which had led him to announce the token fast in front of the Mahatma Gandhi statue in Parliament. Harivansh announced his fast shortly after he met eight Rajya Sabha members protest- ing on the lawns on the Parliament complex and offered them tea, a gesture that the MPs snubbed. “After what happened on Sunday, I have been extremely anguished, distressed and in mental agony and have been unable to sleep for the past two days... “In the name of democ- racy, Opposition members behaved in a violent manner and there were attempts to intimidate the Chair,” Harivansh wrote in his letter. P arliament on Tuesday passed as many as 11 Bills, three of them related to the crucial labour sector and the fourth one with regard to essential commodities without the participation of the Opposition. One of those Bills will allow companies to hire and fire at will if the staff strength is less than 300. The other one will virtually decriminalise hoarding of what were defined essential commodities. While the Bill will decide the fate of tens of thousands of workers and millions of farmers, they met with no scrutiny from Opposition parties. The Centre used the Opposition’s decision to boy- cott both Houses of Parliament to rush through these Bills. The Rajya Sabha passed seven Bills, and the Lok Sabha passed four Bills, including three Bills on labour sector. The three labour sector Bills passed in the Lok Sabha are: Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code 2020l; the Industrial Relations Code 2020 and the Code on Social Security 2020. Later the Lok Sabha also passed Jammu & Kashmir Official Language (Amendment) Bill which makes five languages as offi- cial languages in the State. Earlier only Urdu was con- sidered as the only official lan- guage. As per the new Bill apart from Urdu, Kashmiri, Hindi, Dogri and Punjabi will be official language. Rajya Sabha passed seven Bills, which include Banking Regulation (Amendment) Bill, 2020. M ore than one crore migrant labourers returned to their home States on foot during March-June 2020, including those who travelled during the Covid-19 pandemic-induced lockdown, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said on Tuesday. “Covid-19 has resulted in migration of large number of workers from destination states to the home States,” Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways VK Singh told Lok Sabha in a written reply. As per the data compiled by Ministry of Labour and Employment, more than 1.06 crore migrant workers, including those who travelled on foot during the lockdown, returned to their home States, he said. As per provisional available information, 81,385 accidents occurred on the roads (includ- ing national highways) during the period March-June 2020 with 29,415 fatalities, he informed Parliament. Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank announced the calendar approved by University Grants Commission (UGC). “In view of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Commission has accepted the Report of the Committee and approved the @ugc_india Guidelines on Academic Calendar for the First Year of Under-Graduate and Post- Graduate Students of the Universities for the Session 2020-21,” Pokhriyal tweeted.

ˇ˜+#˚12 3 %&%& ’ ()ˆ* + = ˚ ˆ@ / A#B˛ ’˛= ’A’ + # =A # C · 1 day ago  · report by Stratfor, a global intelligence platform, about ... essential commodities without

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Page 1: ˇ˜+#˚12 3 %&%& ’ ()ˆ* + = ˚ ˆ@ / A#B˛ ’˛= ’A’ + # =A # C · 1 day ago  · report by Stratfor, a global intelligence platform, about ... essential commodities without

����� ��������

The Opposition parties ledby the Congress on

Tuesday began the boycott ofthe remaining part of theMonsoon Session to demandthe revocation of the suspen-sion of eight MPs and theintroduction of a Bill to bar pri-vate players from buying farmproduce below the minimumsupport price (MSP).

The battle-line drawnbetween the ruling BJP and theOpposition after the passing oftwo controversial farm Bills inthe Rajya Sabha impacted theLok Sabha, too, whereOpposition members, includ-ing from the DMK, Congress,NCP and TMC, boycotted theproceedings demanding “with-drawal” of the Bills before theyare sent to the President for hisconsent.

While the Oppositionmembers staged a walkout inthe Rajya Sabha andannounced to boycott theentire ongoing session, theOpposition MPs in the LokSabha joined them to expresssolidarity with them.

The eight suspended mem-bers who were on a sit-in dhar-na overnight on Parliamentpremises called off their protestand joined the Lok Sabha MPsto strategise a broad-basedboycott.

“Senior Opposition leaders,

including Congress Leader ofthe Opposition Ghulam NabiAzad, appealed to all of us sit-ting at the dharna to finish itand join them in boycotting therest of the session. That is howwe have ended this dharna,”said Congress Rajya Sabhamember Syed Nasir Hussain.

“We not only want oursuspension to be revoked butalso want the farm Bills to betaken back and discussed fur-ther. There should be propervoting on it,” Hussain said.

Hussain is among the eightMPs who were suspended forthe remaining part of theSession over “gross disorderlyconduct” during the passage ofthe Farmers (Empowermentand Protection) Agreement onPrice Assurance and FarmServices Bill, 2020, and theFarmers’ Produce Trade andCommerce (Promotion andFacilitation) Bill, 2020 onSunday.

Trinamool Congress’Derek O’Brien and Dola Sen,Congress’ Rajeev Satav, RipunBora, Aam Aadmi Party’sSanjay Singh, CPI(M)’sElamaram Kareem and KKRagesh are the other suspend-ed MPs.

Soon after the UpperHouse resumed, theOpposition parties led byCongress staged a walkoutafter their demand for revoca-

tion of suspension of the eightMPs fell on deaf ears. In orderto pacify the members at dhar-na, the Rajya Sabha DeputyChairman Harivansh hadoffered them tea requestingthem to call off their protest butin vain.

Congress Rajya Sabhamember and Chief WhipJairam Ramesh took to twitterto give seven reasons behindthe decision to boycott theproceedings.

Several senior Oppositionleaders, including Azad,Samajwadi Party’s Ram GopalYadav, Janata Dal (Secular)leader and former PrimeMinister HD Deve Gowda andNCP Praful Patel, appealed toChairman M Venkaiah Naiduto revoke the suspension of theeight leaders.

����� ��������

The Centre on Tuesdayreleased the tentative cal-

endar for the first year univer-sity students of undergraduateand postgraduate courses forthe session 2020-21 which havebeen rescheduled due to thecorona pandemic. The newacademic session for fresherswill now begin in November,and the delay will also impactthe next academic session aswell.

As per the schedule, theadmission process has to becompleted by October 31, andsession has to begin fromNovember 1. The calendar hasalso suggested certain prepa-

ration breaks to be followed bythe universities, colleges, insti-tutions and the next session tobegin on April 30, 2021.

The UGC had, in April,released an alternative acade-mic calendar for colleges, withthe plan to reopen colleges inSeptember, but the delay inentrance exams and Covidinfections surge has pushed thesession by two months.

The Supreme Court too onTuesday asked Central Board ofSecondary Education (CBSE)to declare results of compart-ment exams as soon as possi-ble and coordinate with UGCto enable around 2 lakh stu-dents to apply in colleges in thecurrent academic year.

Mumbai: NCP chief SharadPawar on Tuesday said theIncome Tax department hasserved him a notice in con-nection with his poll affidavitssubmitted to the ElectionCommission. Talking toreporters here, Pawar said theIncome Tax department hassought his “clarification andexplanation” on some poll affi-davits furnished by him.

“I got the notice yester-day...We are happy that they(the Centre) love us fromamong all the members...Thenotice was served by IncomeTax after the ElectionCommission asked (it) to...We

will reply to the notice,” he said.He was responding to a

query on reports that hisdaughter and Lok Sabha mem-ber Supriya Sule, MaharashtraChief Minister UddhavThackeray and EnvironmentMinister Aaditya Thackerayhad received similar noticesfrom the I-T department.

����� ��������

China continues to rapidlyramp up its military

prowess all along the borderstretching from ArunachalPradesh in the east to Ladakhin the west as talks are on todefuse the volatile situation atthe Line of Actual Control.

The Chinese have doubledup their airbases and other mil-itary installations in the lastthree years thereby threateningIndia’s strategic interests.

China has already deployedmore than 150 aircraft and heli-copters close to the LAC inLadakh where both the coun-tries share a 1,700 km long bor-der. Satellite images and areport by Stratfor, a globalintelligence platform, aboutthe massive build up hasalarmed the Indian securityestablishment.

The rapid improvement inmilitary infrastructure startedright after the 73-day stand-offbetween India and China inDoklam, Sikkim in 2017.Intervention at the highestpolitical and diplomatic levelsthen defused the situation.

Since then, China has morethan doubled its total numberof airbases, air defence posi-tions and heliports near theIndian border. The Stratforreport gives details of China’smilitary-infrastructure build-up through a detailed analysisof satellite images of militaryfacilities.

“The timing of the Chinesebuild-up of military facilitiesalong the border with India justprior to the ongoing Ladakhstandoff suggests these bordertensions are part of a muchlarger effort by China to assertcontrol over its border regions,”says Sim Tack, a senior globalanalyst with Stratfor and theauthor of the report.

Significantly, China’supgrade of its military infra-structure is far from complete.“The expansion and construc-tion of military infrastructureis in most cases still underway,

so the Chinese military activ-ity that we are seeing along theborder with India today is onlythe beginning of a longer-termintent,” the report says.

The consequences of thisfor India, which has beeninvolved in a violent face-offwith China in eastern Ladakhsince early May, seem clear.“Once finished, this infra-structure will provide supportfor an even greater intensity ofChinese operations.”

According to the report,China has “started constructingat least 13 entirely new militarypositions near its borders withIndia”. This includes three air-bases, five permanent airdefence positions and five heli-ports. “‘Construction on four ofthose new heliports startedafter the onset of the currentLadakh crisis in May,” it says.

China’s military build-upalong the Indian borders, thereport says, is part of a biggerstrategy similar to its goals in

the South China Sea whereBeijing has dredged landaround tiny coral atolls todevelop full-fledged air basesand naval facilities.

Many nations in thatregion have rejected Beijing’sclaim that the area lies withinits jurisdiction. In May thisyear, India, which championsthe freedom of navigation ininternational waterways alongwith the United States said, ‘’The South China Sea isa part of the global commonsand India has an abiding inter-est in peace and stability in theregion,’’ remarks likely to irkBeijing which is wary of India’sclose strategic partnership withWashington.

Practising the same strat-egy along its land frontier withIndia, ‘’China aims to discour-age Indian resistance or mili-tary action during future bor-der disputes by ostentatiouslydemonstrating its ability andintent to engage in militaryconfrontations.’’

����� ��������

The 14-hour military-diplo-matic level talks between

India and China on Monday todefuse tension at the Line ofActual Control (LAC) endedon a positive note.

The talks were held in a pos-itive manner, and it is hoped thatanother two to three rounds ofdialogues in the coming daysmay start the process of disen-gagement of troops. India andChina on Tuesday in a jointstatement after the sixth roundof Corps Commanders talksagreed to “stop sending moretroops to the frontline” and“refrain from unilaterally chang-ing the situation on the ground”while agreeing to hold moretalks to resolve the standoff.

“They agreed to earnestlyimplement the important con-sensus reached by the leadersof the two countries, strength-en communication on theground, avoid misunderstand-ings and misjudgements, stopsending more troops to thefrontline, refrain from unilat-erally changing the situation onthe ground, and avoid takingany actions that may compli-cate the situation,” the jointstatement said on the seniormilitary commander-level heldon Monday.

����� ��������

In an unprecedented act in thehistory of Parliament, Rajya

Sabha Deputy ChairmanHarivansh Narayan Singh wenton a one-day fast on Tuesdayto express his anguish over theOpposition MPs’ “unruly”behaviour during the vote onthe farm Bills on Sunday.

He also wrote letter toPresident Ram Nath Kovindand Vice-President MVenkaiah Naidu narrating theincident which had led him toannounce the token fast infront of the Mahatma Gandhistatue in Parliament.

Harivansh announced hisfast shortly after he met eightRajya Sabha members protest-ing on the lawns on theParliament complex andoffered them tea, a gesturethat the MPs snubbed.

“After what happened onSunday, I have been extremelyanguished, distressed and inmental agony and have beenunable to sleep for the past twodays... “In the name of democ-racy, Opposition membersbehaved in a violent mannerand there were attempts tointimidate the Chair,”Harivansh wrote in his letter.

����� ��������

Parliament on Tuesdaypassed as many as 11 Bills,

three of them related to thecrucial labour sector and thefourth one with regard toessential commodities withoutthe participation of theOpposition.

One of those Bills willallow companies to hire andfire at will if the staff strengthis less than 300. The other onewill virtually decriminalisehoarding of what were definedessential commodities. Whilethe Bill will decide the fate oftens of thousands of workersand millions of farmers, theymet with no scrutiny fromOpposition parties.

The Centre used theOpposition’s decision to boy-cott both Houses ofParliament to rush throughthese Bills. The Rajya Sabhapassed seven Bills, and the

Lok Sabha passed four Bills,including three Bills on laboursector.

The three labour sectorBills passed in the Lok Sabhaare: Occupational Safety,Health and WorkingConditions Code 2020l; theIndustrial Relations Code2020 and the Code on SocialSecurity 2020.

Later the Lok Sabha alsopassed Jammu & KashmirOfficial Language(Amendment) Bill whichmakes five languages as offi-cial languages in the State.Earlier only Urdu was con-sidered as the only official lan-guage. As per the new Billapart from Urdu, Kashmiri,Hindi, Dogri and Punjabi willbe official language.

Rajya Sabha passed sevenBills, which include BankingRegulation (Amendment) Bill,2020.

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������������� �������������� .��������������������������*���$��%�&�������&��$���������/�����!�0����������������!��/�%����������������������/�����*������ ��1������� ����������!�����������*�#�1��234%��� ���������������������-�

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More than one croremigrant labourers

returned to their home Stateson foot during March-June2020, including those whotravelled during the Covid-19pandemic-induced lockdown,the Ministry of Home Affairs(MHA) said on Tuesday.

“Covid-19 has resulted inmigration of large number ofworkers from destination statesto the home States,” Minister ofState for Road Transport and

Highways VK Singh told LokSabha in a written reply. As perthe data compiled by Ministryof Labour and Employment,more than 1.06 crore migrantworkers, including those whotravelled on foot during thelockdown, returned to theirhome States, he said.

As per provisional availableinformation, 81,385 accidentsoccurred on the roads (includ-ing national highways) duringthe period March-June 2020with 29,415 fatalities, heinformed Parliament.

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Education MinisterRamesh Pokhriyal Nishankannounced the calendarapproved by University GrantsCommission (UGC). “In viewof the Covid-19 pandemic, theCommission has accepted theReport of the Committee andapproved the @ugc_indiaGuidelines on AcademicCalendar for the First Year ofUnder-Graduate and Post-Graduate Students of theUniversities for the Session2020-21,” Pokhriyal tweeted.

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Page 2: ˇ˜+#˚12 3 %&%& ’ ()ˆ* + = ˚ ˆ@ / A#B˛ ’˛= ’A’ + # =A # C · 1 day ago  · report by Stratfor, a global intelligence platform, about ... essential commodities without

capital 02CHANDIGARH | WEDNESDAY | SEPTEMBER 23, 2020

TACKLING CORONAVIRUS

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PNS n DEHRADUN

The contagion of Covid-19 iscontinuing its northward

journey in Uttarakhand. OnTuesday 874 fresh cases of thedisease were reported whichtook the patient tally to 42651.Deaths of eleven patientsincluding the CM's OSD GopalRawat were reported on the dayafter which the death toll fromthe disease climbed to 512. Theauthorities discharged 1107patients from different hospi-tals after their recovery fromCovid-19 on Tuesday. So far30107 patients have been curedfrom the disease in the state.The percentage recovery forCovid-19 in the state is 70.59percent and the Infection Rateis 7.06 percent.

Deaths of five Covid-19patients were reported atGovernment Doon MedicalCollege (GDMC) hospital onTuesday. Three patients died atSushila Tiwari hospital,Haldwani while one patienteach was reported dead at All

India Institute of MedicalSciences (AIIMS) Rishikesh,Base hospital Srinagar andDistrict hospital Uttarkashi onthe day.

Dehradun reported 368fresh cases of Covid-19 fol-lowed by 158 in Udham Singh

Nagar district. In Nainital 76patients were reported while 62patients came up in Haridwardistrict. The state now has11831 active cases of Covid-19.Dehradun has 4150 whileHaridwar has 2152 active casesof the disease.

11 deaths, 874 newCovid-19 cases in State

PNS n DEHRADUN

The state minister for high-er education and coopera-

tives, Dhan Singh Rawat,deputy leader of opposition andRanikhet MLA, Karan Mahraand BJP leader and MLA fromKhatima, Pushkar SinghDhami were found positivefor Covid-19 on Tuesday.Ahead of the monsoon sessionof Uttarakhand Vidhan Sabha,the swab samples of the MLAs

and the ministers were takenfor Covid-19 test on Monday.Incidentally Mahra who wastested positive for the diseaseon Tuesday had attended ameeting of Congress legislativeparty (CLP), all party meetingand meeting of business advi-sory committee at VidhanSabha on Monday. The speak-er Prem Chand Agarwal,Leader of Opposition IndiraHridayesh and many MLAs areinfected with Covid-19.

Minister Dhan Singh, Congdeputy leader, BJP MLAtest positive for Covid

PNS n DEHRADUN

In a major relief to the gov-ernment and the patients

visiting the government hos-pitals and other health centres,the Provincial Medical HealthServices (PMHS), the powerfulassociation of government doc-tors has taken back its OPDboycott plan. The doctors hadresolved to boycott the OPDsfrom Wednesday to September30. The decision to suspend theagitation was taken after themeeting of the office bearers ofthe PMHS with the health sec-retary Amit Singh Negi. In themeeting the doctors relentedafter a written assurance fromthe secretary for their demands.

Earlier in the day thePMHS was gearing for theOPD boycott from Wednesday.It had however assured that thedoctors would only boycottOPDs but would remain inhospitals and would continueto serve in emergency, post

mortem, Flu clinics, sampling,Covid care centres, screening,containment zones, home iso-lation, data collection, man-agement, TRUNAAT and lab-oratory testing.

The PMHS said that it isunfortunate that instead ofgiving incentive to doctors andPG students who are workinground the clock from the lastsix months serving Covid-19patients during the course ofwhich many of them have beenaffected by the disease, thestate government is deductingtheir salary. Salary of one dayis being deducted by the doc-tors while stipend of the PGstudents is cut to half. In a mes-sage to all the district units, thePMHS said that cabinet hasmet twice ever since an assur-ance was given to the doctorsbut no decision has been takenyet. The PMHS added that theissue of salary deduction isassociated with their pride andhonour of the profession.

PNS n DEHRADUN

In an indication of how infec-tive and dangerous the virus

of Covid-19 is for the healthworkers about one third of totalstaff members and employeesof Government Doon MedicalCollege (GDMC) hospital haveso far been infected with thedreaded virus.

A total of 87 staff membersof the hospital which includes18 doctors and 26 staff nurseshave been tested positive forCovid-19. Apart from them 12

ward boys, eight sanitationworkers, six data entry opera-tors, five technicians, five sup-port staff and two securityguards have so far been affect-ed by the disease. On Tuesdayfive technicians involved insample collection and investi-gation were found positive forthe disease.

The GDMC hospital hasfunctioned as the dedicatedCovid hospital from the begin-ning of pandemic inUttarakhand on March 15. Thehospital was later declared as

centre of excellence in Covid-19 treatment and care. TheCovid-19 coordinator ofGDMC, Dr N S Khatri said thatmany of the infected staffmembers have recovered whilemany others are still recuper-ating from the disease. He saidthat more than 3700 confirmedand suspected patients have sofar been admitted in the hos-pital. Dr Khatri added thatevery possible care is beingexercised to prevent infectionto the staff members and oth-ers.

PNS n DEHRADUN

The Indian MedicalAssociation (IMA), the

organization of private doctorshas threatened to stop tests ofCovid-19, if the administrationcontinues to deal with a vin-dictive mindset. The associa-tion is particularly peeved atthe Dehradun administration

for initiating an investigationagainst the private labs foralleged irregularities in testingswab samples for Covid-19.Addressing the media personshere on Tuesday the generalsecretary of IMA Dr D DChaudhury questioned theinquiry against the private labs.

He said that the AhujaLab is the first lab of the statewhich was directly approved bythe Indian Council for MedicalResearch (ICMR) for conduct-ing Covid tests. Chaudhurysaid that the private labs areworking in coordination withthe state government but theirimage is deliberately being vil-ified and an impression is cre-ated that the private labs arefalsely reporting more positivecases.

The IMA representativeclaimed that the lab ofGovernment Doon MedicalCollege (GDMC) hospital isnot even approved by NABL.The IMA appealed to the chiefminister Trivendra SinghRawat and health secretaryAmit Singh Negi to intervenein the issue. Chaudhury saidthat IMA is ready to provideevery possible help in inquiryprovided the district adminis-tration refrains from creatingwrong perception about privatelabs.

The IMA has suggestedthat instead of getting nervousover the increase in the num-ber of cases of Covid—19, theadministration should makearrangements for proper treat-ment of patients.

PNS n DEHRADUN

Amid menacing shadow ofthe Covid-19 pandemic,

the one day monsoon sessionof Uttarakhand assemblywould be organised onWednesday. The state admin-istration and assembly secre-tariat has taken all measures forsmooth organisation of thesession. The monsoon sessionwould be unprecedented since

there would be no questionhour during the session and themembers would be allowed toattend the session virtually.The speaker PremchandAgarwal, leader of oppositionIndira Hridayesh, MinisterDhan Singh Rawat, deputyleader of Congress legislatureparty Karan Mahra and manyMLAs from both BJP andCongress would not attend thesession as they all are sufferingfrom Covid-19. The pandem-ic has already forced the gov-ernment to cut short the threeday session. Since there shouldnot be a time gap of more thansix months between two ses-sions, there is an obligation toorganise session beforeSeptember 25.

In absence of the speakerPremchand Agarwal who was

detected positive for Covid-19on Sunday, the house would bechaired by the deputy speakerRaghunath Singh Chauhan.The government is planning totable about 20 bills some ofwhom are ordinances duringthe session. The strategy of thegovernment would be gettingthese bills cleared in a single sit-ting. The opposition Congresswould bring work adjourn-ment motions for Covid-19,unemployment, disaster andfarmers issues.

Meanwhile in an appeal,the speaker PremchandAgarwal who is recuperatingfrom Covid-19 has appealed tothe members of both the trea-sury benches and opposition toensure that the session is con-ducting as per the constitu-tional ethos.

PNS n DEHRADUN

Launching an assault on thestate government for mere-

ly fulfilling its constitutionalobligation by organising a oneday monsoon session, theManglaur MLA and seniorCongress leader QaziNizamuddin has said that thestate government is runningaway from dialogue. Termingdialogue as a key for success ofdemocracy, the Congress leadersaid that it is unfortunate thatthe present regime is not giv-ing the elected representativesthe right of asking questions.Addressing a virtual news con-ference on TuesdayNizamuddin said that issueslike pandemic of Covod-19and failure of government to

deal with it, unemployment,returnees during the lockdown,price rise, plight of farmers,recent disaster in many parts ofthe state, closure of industries,pending payment of sugar-cane farmers, pathetic condi-tion of tourism, Lokayuktaand preparation for Kumbh aresome of the many issues whichdemand immediate discussion.He said that the BJP govern-ment has not fulfilled itspromise of loan waiver of farm-ers. The Congress leader alsotook the government to task forshowing an apathetic attitudetowards the Kumbh works. Heclaimed that the governmenthas made its mind that theKumbh would not be organisedon a large scale in view of pan-demic.

PNS n DEHRADUN

Union minister for JalShakti, Gajendra Singh

Shekhawat has reiterated thatbudget will not be an issue forexecution of works under theJal Jeevan mission.Appreciating the chief ministerTrivendra Singh Rawat forfacilitating water connectionfor one rupee under the mis-sion, he said that this was aunique initiative in the coun-try. He said this while review-ing work under the mission inUttarakhand with the CMthrough video conferencingon Tuesday.

Shekhawat said that effec-tive execution of this schemecan make Uttarakhand a modelstate. To prevent budget short-age for this scheme, the 15thFinance Commission allocatedRs 60,000 crore to thePanchayati Raj department ofwhich Rs 30,000 crore will be

spent on schemes related todrinking water. Water connec-tions have been provided in2.25 crore homes in India dur-ing the past one year, he added.

The CM said that strictinstructions have been issued

to officials for achieving thetarget of providing tap water ineach home by 2022. They havebeen directed to facilitate 1,500connections per day. He saidthat the provision of waterconnection for poor families at

one rupee instead of Rs 2,350has been appreciated by thepublic. By December 25, all theremaining homes in Dehradunand Bageshwar districts will beprovided tap water, said Rawat.

PNS n DEHRADUN

Chief minister TrivendraSingh Rawat along with the

Forest and Wildlife ministerHarak Singh Rawat inaugurat-ed the city forest ‘Anand Van’developed by forest depart-ment in Jhajhra forest range onthe outskirts of Dehradun onTuesday. Developed as a natureeducation centre, it providesdetailed information about theflora and fauna of Uttarakhand.It will be opened to the publicon the first day of Navratri thisyear.

The CM commended thedepartment for developingAnand Van without tamperingwith nature and using onlynatural resources. The peopleshould also get a glimpse of thestate government’s vision ofculture village here. The idea ofproviding at least a partialglimpse of Uttarakhand hereshould be considered, he added.

Stating that the city forest willalso be a tourist attraction, hedirected the departmental offi-cers to get a short film preparedon the city forest.

Forest and Wildlife minis-ter Harak Singh Rawat said thatthis city forest is being handedover by the department as aheritage to the society. Theme-

based city forests are also beingdeveloped in Haldwani andRishikesh. The target given bythe CM to the forest depart-ment of generating employ-ment for 10,000 people will bemet. Works costing Rs 400crore will be undertaken thisyear under CAMPA, throughwhich more than 10,000 peo-

ple will be linked to employ-ment, he added.

Principal chief conservatorof forests, Jai Raj informed thatit had taken three and a quar-ter years to develop this cityforest at a cost of Rs 43 lakh.Sahaspur MLA SahdevPundeer also expressed hisviews on the occasion.

PNS n LALKUAN

Amentally affected man waskilled by a leopard in

Sukauli village of GarhkotGram Panchayat in Pithoragarhforest division. The incidentoccurred on Monday night.

The Pithoragarh sub divi-sional officer Navin ChandraPant informed that on receiv-ing information about a manbeing killed by a wild animal,the police was informed. Thepolice recovered the body andsent it for post mortem. It isbeing stated that the victim, 35-

year old Bhupendra Singh wasmentally affected and had slepton the roadside on Mondaynight when he was reportedlykilled by a leopard.

Residents of the Garhkotarea state that a leopard hasbeen active in the area for aboutone week now. The big cat hasalso killed a few domesticatedanimals so far. The SDO saidthat a cage will be placed in thearea by Wednesday in anattempt to capture the leopard.He has also requested the localsto avoid going into the areawhere the leopard is known tobe prowling.

PNS n DEHRADUN

Tributes were paid to UnisonWorld School founder

chairman, Naveen Agarwal onhis birth anniversary onTuesday. The principal andentire staff of the school paidtributes to him on the occasion.They recalled his role in inno-vations in technical educationin Uttarakhand. The staff alsoheld an online tie and dyeworkshop with the organiza-tion of ‘Devbhumi Janseva andSadbhawna Samiti’, Kandikhal.Over two consecutive sessionsthe participants were taught theprocess of tie and dye and a dis-cussion ensued on how theycan sell these products in themarket.

Doctorswithdraw OPDboycott call 87 staff

membersincludingdoctors,nurses,techniciansand others sofar affected bythe disease

IMA sees red overinquiry of private labsPutsadministrationon dock forvilifying imageof labs overCovid-19 tests

The sessionbeing heldunder theshadow ofCovid-19pandemic

One day Monsoon Sessionof U’khand Assembly today

One day session

Govt running awayfrom discussion, saysQazi Nizamuddin

Leopard killsman inPithoragarh

Tributes paid toUWS founderchairman

City forest ‘Anand Van’ inaugurated at JhajhraBudget not an issue for Jal Jeevan mission: Shekhawat

One third of GDMC staffinfected with Covid-19

STAFF REPORTER n NEW DELHI The Delhi Commissionfor Protection of Child

Rights (DCPCR) has res-cued 10 child labourers fromNew Delhi Railway Station.

The children were beingtrafficked from Jainagar,Bihar to work in Delhi-NCR and Ambala, and mostof them were found unawareof being forced into childlabour.

They were in unsafe andunhygienic conditions, withoutwearing masks. The childrenwere rescued by the teams, suc-cessfully and provided withmasks and sanitizers alongwith refreshments.

A senior government offi-cial said statements of the res-cued children have beenrecorded, followed by medicaltests including COVID-19 test.“The children will be pro-duced before a Child Welfare

Committee on Wednesdaythrough video-conferencingand meanwhile, they will stayat Child Care Institution atLajpat Nagar.”

Two days ago, in a late-night operation, the DCPCR incoordination with SHO (OldDelhi) and teams from NGOsBachpan Bachao Andolan andChildLine-Salaam Baalak Trustrescued six children who werebeing trafficked from Bihar to

work as labourers inDelhi.

With the outbreakof COVID-19 and ensu-ing lockdown, there hasbeen a drastic impact onthe income of families.The traffickers havebeen targeting poorfamilies in Bihar, per-suading them to sendtheir children on thepretext of giving

employment.DCPCR has taken note of

the dramatic increase in childlabour during the pandemicand has been working on a fire-fighting mode to curb itthrough a multi-stakeholderapproach, coordinating with allstakeholders includingAgricultural Produce MarketCommittees (APMCs), MandiAssociations, Private SchoolsAssociations etc. of Delhi.

The Commission is inprocess of evolving a compre-hensive long-term strategy tomake Delhi Child Labour Freeby 2023.

Anurag Kundu,Chairperson, DCPCR outlinedthe Commission’s scheme forproviding financial incentivefor reporting of child labour.He urged citizens to pro-active-ly report instances of childlabour and win cash awardupto to Rs. 10,000.

He further elaborated thatthe Commission is building anearly warning system to deter-mine child adversity using chil-dren’s school attendance as anindicator. It is in the process oflaying down processes to acti-vate a series of actions andinterventions in the event ofchildren remaining absentfrom the schools for morethan 50 percent days.

10 ‘trafficked' child labourers rescued in Delhi

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The Lok Sabha wasadjourned for an hour soon

after it assembled on Tuesdayfollowing an allegation of policeassault by Congress MP fromLudhiana Ravneet Singh Bittuand a DMK MP also com-plaining that some people“barged” in his room askingabout his party’s“Parliamentary agenda.”

The Congress MP chargedthat around 100 Delhi policemencharged at them at ‘Vijay Chowk’when they were “marching insolidarity” with the farmers. Hesaid police assaulted them think-ing they were farmers.

Speaking in the house,Bittu alleged that police “bru-tally assaulted” him and histhree MP colleagues from

Punjab Santokh SinghChoudhary, Jasbir Singh Gilland Gurjeet Sing Aujla, whenthey were all taking out a can-dle light march fromParliament House toRashtrapati Bhavan on theissue of farm bills.

“We told them we are par-liamentarians and sit with thePrime Minister but to no avail.Police didn’t know we wereMPs. They thought we werefarmers and beat us up badly.I had a bad left knee fracture,which has gone worse after theassault and other MPs have alsosuffered injuries. This is horri-fying,” Bittu said in the LS.

The Congress MP also saidhe and other MPs sustainedsevere injuries in the process.

Speaker Om Birla assuredthe MP a full probe into the

incident and protection bothinside and outside Parliament.

Bittu and SantokhChoudhary submitted writtenrepresentations to the Speakerproviding the sequence of eventsstarting 7 pm on Monday.

Prior to this a DMK mem-ber in the House also allegedthat some people barged in hisroom in Tamil Nadu Bhawan(where he is staying), describ-ing themselves as “IB sleuths”and asked him about his party’sprogramme and “interrogated”him on his party’sParliamentary agenda.

The Speaker asked the MPto give details in writing andcautioned him that the infor-mation should be “authentic”. DMK leader TRBalu also backed his party MPon the issue.

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It’s not only poaching and habi-tat destruction which are the

most pressing threats to the sur-vival of the Greater one-hornedrhinoceros, but disease and pres-ence of a large population in anisolated habitat, KazirangaNational Park in Assam also donot bode well for their existence,wildlife experts say.

India is home to two-thirds ofthe world’s remaining one-hornedrhinos, a vulnerable species on theIUCN red list.

After review of records fromthe rhino bearing Protected Areas(PAs) of Assam, a team of wildlifeveterinarians said as compared toreported 217 deaths caused due topoaching, more than 600 naturaldeaths have been recorded during2008-2018 (Unpublished data),meaning about 60 deaths everyyear which may be due to the dis-ease and infighting.

In their study conducted inAssam’s four rhino bearingProtected Areas viz. Rajiv GandhiOrang National Park, PobitoraWildlife Sanctuary, ManasNational Park, and KazirangaNational Park, the researchersobserved that the overall preva-

lence of endoparasites were foundto be in 58.57 per cent of the totalsamples collected while mixedinfection rate was found to be 6.47per cent amongst all the four areas.

A total of 309 Rhino dungsamples were collected from thefour PAs in Assam for this studywhich were analysed at theDepartment of Parasitology,College of Veterinary Science,Assam Agricultural University,in Guwahati, Assam.

Though the study was con-ducted just last year, results stillhold important as India celebratesWorld Rhinoceros Day on Tuesday.Early this year itself in February,five one-horned female rhinocer-oses died in Jaldapara NationalPark which the activists blamed onanthrax, a communicable diseasethat attacks herbivores.

Of the total 2,979 rhinos in thecountry, around 2,652 i.e. 89.35per cent are found in Assam,with Kaziranga NationalPark alone with a popula-tion of 2413 individuals.

The need to initiatestudies on diseases andpathogens affecting the Indianrhino is urgent as considerablenumber of cases on rhino deathsgoes unaddressed and due to

increasing livestock pressure onprotected areas there is a possiblethreat of pathogens getting trans-ferred from domestic animals towild animals, said Amit Sharma,Senior Coordinator RhinoConservation, WWF India.

Parikshit Kakati, SeniorProgramme Officer-Veterinary,WWF-India, chipped in sayingthat additionally, dearth of data inIndia makes it even more crucialto initiate such studies to plug theknowledge gaps in rhino dis-eases, and help draw up measuresto address a disease outbreak.

The wildlife experts felt thatas per the National ConservationStrategy for the Indian OneHorned Rhinoceros launched bythe Union Ministry ofEnvironment, dedicated researchon rhinos in India is very scanty,added wildlife veterinarian

Debabrata Phukan.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi will on Thursday inter-act with sportspersons, fitness enthusiasts and influencers

to raise the importance of fitness and commemorate theCentral Government’s ambitious Fit India Movement.

Fit India Movement was launched on September 24last year. In his Fit India Dialogue, Modi will also inter-act with personalities from other fields also through vir-tual conference. Indian cricketers including Virat Kohli,currently in Dubai in connection with IPL, will also jointhe conversation.

Apart from cricketers, the online interaction will seecelebrities like Milind Soman and fitness influencers likeRujuta Diwekar, share anecdotes and tips of their own fit-ness journey while drawing out guidance from the PrimeMinister on his thoughts about fitness and good health.

“In times of Covid-19 pandemic, fitness has becomean even more important aspect of life. The dialogue willsee a timely and fruitful conversation on nutrition, well-ness and various otheraspects of fitness,”said the SportsMinistry in astatement.

“Envisionedby Prime MinisterModi as a people’smovement, the FitIndia Dialogue is yetanother endeavour toinvolve citizens of thecountry to draw out a plan tomake India a fit nation, said theMinistry.

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After holding separateprotests against agricul-

ture Bills, now farmer organi-sations — Bharatiya KisanUnion (BKU), All IndiaFarmers Union (AIFU), AllIndia Kisan SangharshCoordination Committee(AIKSCC), All India KisanMahasangh (AIKM) — havecome on a common platformand announced a nationwideshut down on September 25.

Farmers’ organisationsfrom southern states -Karnataka and Tamil Naduand Maharashtra have alsocalled for bandh on September25. Meanwhile, Ola CabDrivers’ association and lorrydrivers’ association members inKarnataka have decided tosupport the farmers and willnot operate on Friday.

Besides, ten Central tradeunions, including NationalTrades Union Congress, AllIndia Trade Union Congress,Hind Mazdoor Sabha, Centreof Indian Trade Unions, All India United Trade UnionCentre and Trade Union Coordination Centre,have extended their support for Bharat Bandh onSeptember 25.

Not only farmers’ organi-

sations but also arhatiya (com-mission agent or a link betweenfarmer and procurement agen-cies) of both Punjab andHaryana will join the protest.

The Shiromani Akali Dal(SAD), an NDA ally, onTuesday announced to under-take “chakka jam” for threehours across Punjab onSeptember 25 to protest againstthe farm bills passed by theParliament.

Former Punjab Ministerand Congress leader NavjotSingh Sidhu would holdprotests in his constituencyAmritsar (East).

Many Punjabi singersincluding Harbhajan Mannhave extended their support to the September 25Punjab ‘’bandh’’.

According to BKU presi-dent Rakesh Tikait, over 100farmers and arhtiya unions(small and big) will participate in the protests onSeptember 25.

“Farmers in Uttar Pradeshwill jam their respective vil-lages, towns and highwayswhereas in Haryana it isplanned to be completelyclosed. “We are also trying toinvolve local shopkeepers in theprotests. We will come outwith the final strategy bySeptember 23-24,” he said.

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The National InvestigationAgency (NIA) has taken

over probe in two cases relat-ed to large-scale violence at DJHalli and KG Halli underBengaluru city limits on thenight of August 11 in which thehouse of an MLA and twopolice stations besides vehicleswere torched by miscreants.

The anti-terror probeagency took over the investi-gation of the two cases ofarson and violence whereinUnlawful Activities(Prevention) Act had beeninvoked by State Police.

The NIA has now re-reg-istered these two cases.

The first case has arisen outof an FIR registered atDevarajeevana Halli PS,Bengaluru on August 12. Thesecond was registered on thebasis of a case registered byKadugondana Halli PS,Bengaluru on August 12.

On August 11, 2020, around8 pm, more than 1,000 peoplegathered in front of the house ofCongress MLA AkhandaSrinivas Murthy (PulakeshiNagar constituency) atKavalbyrasandra, BengaluruCity. The mob was protestingagainst the alleged derogatorysocial media (Facebook) postabout Prophet Mohammedmade on August 11 at around 4PM Naveen, nephew of theMLA allegedly insulting the reli-gious sentiments of the Muslims.

“The State Secretary ofSDPI, Muzamil Pasha had ear-lier called a meeting and direct-ed the members of PFI/SDPI toinstigate the mob and inciteviolence. The mob went onrampage in DJ Halli, KG Halliand Pulikeshi Nagar area underBengaluru City. They attackedthe two police stations name-ly DJ Halli PS and KG Halli PSand vandalised the property ofpolice stations includingGovernment and private vehi-cles parked in the PoliceStations. The mob also attackedthe house of Pulakeshi Nagarconstituency MLA beforeattacking the police stations,”the NIA said in a statement.

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The Enforcement Directorate(ED) on Tuesday attached

15 properties in Dubai, includ-ing a Midwest Hotel apart-ment and 14 other residentialand commercial assets, belong-ing to the family members ofnotorious drug baron and aideof global terrorist DawoodIbrahim, Iqbal Mirchi.

Earlier, the ED had issuedtwo attachment orders inDecember, 2019 attaching prop-erties to the tune of �573 crore.Now the total attachment in this

case has reached to �776 crore.The ED had registered a

money laundering case againstIqbal Memon, alias Mirchi,and others on September 26,2019, under the provisions ofPrevention of MoneyLaundering Act (PMLA).

In this case, five accusedincluding Kapil Wadhawan,Dheeraj Wadhawan &Humayun Merchant werearrested.

A prosecution complaint(chargesheet in police parlance)was filed on December 9 lastyear before the Special PMLA

Court that has taken cognisanceof the chargesheet.

Open ended Non-BailableWarrants have been issued bythe designated court againstAsif Memon, Junaid Memon(both sons of Iqbal Mirchi) and Hajra Memon (wife ofIqbal Memon).

Further investigation is inprogress, the agency added.

Mirchi died on August 14,2013, and was considered theright-hand man of DawoodIbrahim. Mirchi was oftencalled the drug baron for histhriving narcotics business

across Asia, Africa and Europe,according to reports.

Memon’s family originallyowned shops selling chilliesand spices that gave him thenickname ‘Mirchi’.

Mirchi’s fortunes soaredafter he began smuggling inbanned meth tablets, heroinand Mandrax. He also owneda club The Fisherman’s Wharfat Worli seafront in Mumbai which was a hotbedfor narcotics.

Mirchi left India in late 80s, first to Dubai and later toLondon.

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With India recording thehighest number of

Covid-19 recoveries in theworld, the Union HealthMinistry on Tuesday said forthe past four consecutive daysthe number of daily recoveredcases surpassed the new infec-tions reported per day.

India has the highest num-ber of recovered cases in theworld at 44,97,867, UnionHealth Ministry SecretaryRajesh Bhushan said, address-ing a Press briefing here.

“India’s Covid-19 casesshare is 17.7 per cent of glob-al infections, while those whohave recuperated are 19.5 percent of total recoveries inworld. The daily recoveriesfrom Covid-19 more thannumber of new infectionsreported per day since past fourconsecutive days,” he said.

While the US’ Covid-19cases share is 22.4 per cent ofglobal infections, those whohave recuperated are 18.6 percent of total recoveries inworld, the data presented byhim showed. Brazil’s Covid-19cases share is 14.5 per cent ofglobal infections, those whohave recuperated are 16.8 percent of total recoveries inworld, it showed.

So far, India has recordedover 55 lakh confirmed cases,including 87,882 deaths.Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh

and Tamil Nadu have reportedthe highest number of caseswhile infections are risingrapidly in States like Karnataka,Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.Yet, India’s recovery rate con-tinues to rise and now standsat 80.1 per cent.

Bhushan said the numberof active Covid-19 cases wereless than one-fifth of the total

55,62,663 infections in India.“We get swayed by the

narrative that India has over 50lakh cases, but we forget thatnearly 45 lakh people havealready recovered,” the healthsecretary said.

“India’s Covid-19 deathsper million population is alsoamongst the lowest in the world.India has 64 deaths per million

population, whereas world’saverage stands at 123,” he said.

Bhushan added earlydetection, isolation and seam-less hospitalisation of Covid-19patients has been made possi-ble due to an exponentialincrease in testing infrastruc-ture in the country.

Covid-19 task force mem-ber VK Paul (NITI Aayogmember) urged people to wearmasks and follow all the socialdistancing norms, specially asthe festival season is about tobegin next month.

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Prime Minister NarendraModi on Wednesday will

convene a meeting with mostCovid-19 affected seven States’Chief Ministers to review thesituation. Maharashtra, AndhraPradesh, Karnataka, UttarPradesh, Tamil Nadu, Delhiand Punjab Chief Ministersand Health Ministers willattend the meeting.

“The PM will chair a high-level virtual meeting with theCMs and Health Ministers ofseven Covid-19 high-burdenStates and Union Territories(UTs) on Wednesday to reviewthe status and preparedness ofthe response and managementof the viral outbreak,” accord-ing to a Government statement.

Union Health MinisterHarsh Vardhan, CabinetSecretary, Home Secretary andsenior officials will attend themeeting of Chief Ministerswith the Prime Minister.

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New Delhi: The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)Director General Dr Balram Bhargava on Tuesday said the effi-cacy of the Covid-19 vaccine in India is likely to remain between50 to 100 per cent, however, they are trying for 100 per centefficiency. “We are aiming for 100 per cent efficacy but mayland between 50 to 100 per cent. However, it still would be aneffective vaccine against the virus,” he said. PNS

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Due to the return of over1.04 crore migrant work-

ers to their home States, theMinistry of Agriculture hasexpected 144.52 milliontonnes of foodgrain produc-tion in 2020-21.

The Ministry has comeout with its first advance esti-mates of foodgrain produc-tion in the country which is higher by 9.83 mil-lion tonnes than the averagefoodgrain production of previous five years’ (2014-15to 2018-19).

Due to return of migrantworkers, the kharif crops sow-ing area coverage has touched1113.63 lakh ha area against1,053.52 lakh ha area duringthe corresponding period oflast year, thus, increase inarea coverage by 5.71 percent compared to corre-sponding period of last year inthe country.

As per the Ministry’s firstadvance estimates for the year2020-21, total production ofrice is estimated at 102.36 mil-lion tonnes. It is higher by 6.70million tonnes than the pre-vious five years’ average production of 95.66 milliontonnes.

Production of nutri /coarse cereals is estimated at32.84 million tonnes is high-er by 1.45 million tonnesthan the average productionof 31.39 million tonnes.

“Total kharif pulses pro-duction is estimated at 9.31million tonnes. It is higher by1.59 million tonnes than puls-es production of 7.72 milliontonnes in 2019-20 as per thefourth advance estimates.

Officials said higher food-grain is expected as over croreof migrant workers havereturned to their home statesduring the lockdown.

“The kharif oilseeds pro-duction in the country is esti-mated at 25.73 million tonneswhich is higher by 3.41 mil-lion tonnes than the produc-tion during 2019-20. The production of sugarcaneduring 2020-21 is higher by39.40 million tones,” theMinistry said.

As per the estimate, pro-duction of cotton is estimat-ed at 37.12 million bales (of170 kg each) is higher by 1.63million bales than the pro-duction of 35.49 million bales during 2019-20.Production of jute & mesta isestimated at 9.66 million bales(of 180 kg each).

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Tamil Nadu is on its way tobring down the Covid-19

cases in the State to a reason-able level if the figures releasedby the Department of Healthom Tuesday are any indication.

On Tuesday, 5,337 per-sons were diagnosed withCovid-19 while 76 deaths werereported from various parts ofthe State.

There are 46,350 activeCovid-19 cases across the Stateas on Tuesday evening. Thisshould be read against thenumber of Covid-19 cases inneighbouring Kerala, wherethe figures reached 40,382 byTuesday evening.

Pinarayi Vijayan, Keralachief minister had claimedearly May that his State was thebenchmark as far as controllingof Covid-19 pandemic wasconcerned. Total fatalities inTamil Nadu reached 8,947 byTuesday

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After failing to smuggle bigconsignments of arms and

ammunition inside the Indianterritory via the land route, thePakistan based handlers of dif-ferent terrorist outfits have fre-quently started using 'drones' todump weapons and narcotics to maintainthe supply of weapons to their cadre andnewly recruited local terrorists in Jammu& Kashmir.

In the recent months at least half adozen attempts to smuggle arms andammunition using drones have come tolight in Jammu region.

Initially drones were used to airdropweapons from across the International bor-der but last week the Indian Army alsorecovered a consignment of weapons andnarcotics airdropped by a drone along theline of control in the forward areas ofRajouri district.

Interestingly, three LeT cadre from theSouth Kashmir area had trekked all the wayfrom Kashmir via Mughal road to receivethe consignment of weapons but werearrested by the security personnel whilesearches were going on in the forest areaof Gurdanbala, four kilometers fromRajouri.

Senior security officerssay, its a new 'challenge' forthem. “We are workingtowards exposing the net-work of Over ground work-ers across Jammu regionwho are acting as couriersand ready to ferry thesearms and ammunition con-

signment to the Kashmir valley”.Meanwhile, on Tuesday another con-

signment of weapons airdropped from adrone was recovered by the joint team ofJammu police and special forces of theIndian army from the border area ofAkhnoor. According to the official sources,the arms consignment was meant to be air-dropped inside the Indian territory fromwhere it was expected to be ferried to ahideout of terrorists with the help of a net-work of over ground workers in theregion.

Senior Superintendent of Police,Jammu Shridhar Patil said, “after receivingintelligence inputs a joint search operationwas launched by the Jammu police alongwith special forces of the Indian army inthe border belt of Akhnoor on Tuesday”.

He said, during the search operationsin village Sohal of Akhnoor, two consign-ments were recovered by the security per-sonnel.

KOCHI: Even as the Department ofHealth in Kerala diagnosed 4,125 newpatients with Covid-19 on Tuesday,Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan blamedthe Opposition parties and the media inthe State for the ‘unprecedented hike’ inthe transmission of the disease.

“My Government has done the bestto control and regulate the Covid-19 pan-demic. But the Opposition parties in theState want to subvert and sabotage thegood works of my government. Themedia is highlighting the unnecessaryand unwanted agitations and demon-strations staged by the opposition parties,”Vijayan charged while briefing the mediaon Tuesday evening.

He said though he was not againstrightful agitations, the present demon-strations have been planned by theOpposition parties with the sole aim ofspreading the pandemic. PNS

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Mandi traders have started an indefinite striketo protest the tax exemption on the purchase

of food grains outside the mandi premises andagainst the 2% mandi duty and 0.5% cess within themandi. Dhanipur Mandi based agents have declaredthat their strike will continue till the governmentdoes not withdraw this rule law.

In this regard, they also submitted a memo-randum to the Deputy Director mandi addressedto the Chief Minister. Due to this strike, the workwas stalled in the grain mandis across the districtand the business of about 80 lakh rupees was affect-ed. Suresh Chandra Lodhi, chairman of Galla TradersWelfare Committee, said that on one hand, the gov-ernment has given exemption of mandi duty andcess on the sale of grain outside the mandi premis-es but within the mandi, 2% mandi duty and 0.5%cess tax has been imposed. This is causing a loss ofrevenue for the government itself. Farmers are notcoming inside the market which results in the cri-sis of livelihood of hundreds of Mandi workers.

Aligarh: In view of black mar-keting of medical oxygen cylin-der, on Monday night, the dis-trict administration team includ-ing City Magistrate VineetKumar Singh, ACM-II, Druginspector, and DSO conducteda raid campaign.

District Magistrate ChandraBhushan Singh said strictinstructions has been given tothe officers to stop black mar-keting of medical oxygen cylin-der. The team formed by CityMagistrate Vineet Singh, start-ed action. On a confidentialinformation, the City Magistrate,ACM-II, District Supply Officer,and Drug Inspector raided a fakeplant named as Radha IndustriesGases operated in the villagealong the Jawa of KasimpurRoad.

According to CityMagistrate, plant owner ArunAgarwal has been caught and300 oxygen cylinders, 4 vehicles,and other equipment have beenrecovered. PNS

Aligarh: 136 people foundinfected including CO civil lineAnil Samaniya but at the sametime 111 patients recovered aswell. 2 people including a pris-oner died with corona. Thetotal number of infected coronapatients reached 7566 in the dis-trict. 6098 patients recoveredand 38 died so far. According tothe report released by the CMOoffice, a total of 136 patientsfound infected. Businessman ofMamubhanja died in BannaHospital, Delhi. PNS

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Kerala government faced anembarrassment on Tuesday as

R Jayakrishnan, Chief JudicialMagistrate, Thiruvananthapuram,rejected its request for withdraw-ing the criminal complaint regis-tered against six members of the leg-islative Assembly by Crime Branchfor the brawl and indecent behav-ior inside the House on March 13,2015.

The Crime Branch case wasthat the MLAs who had tried to stopthe then finance minister KM Manifrom presenting the budget dam-aged public property worth morethan Rs 2 lakh . This included com-puter terminals, mikes, chairs andother furniture.

Two ministers of the presentgovernment, E P Jayarajan and KT Jaleel figure among the sixaccused in the case. Government’sdecision to seek withdrawal of thecase was to ‘preserve the unity ofthe House’, the deputy director ofprosecution had told the court.

The CJM made it clear that therequest to withdraw the complaintat this juncture was like insultingand humiliating the people ofKerala who were watching the liveproceedings of the House.

The CPI(M) had unleashed anagitation against Mani, who alleged-ly took an amount of Rs 1 crorefrom bar owners for re-opening thebars which were shut down in theState as part of ushering in total pro-hibition.

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New Delhi: The NIA onTuesday conducted searches atmultiple locations in Baramulla-Uri and one location in Srinagarin Jammu & Kashmir in con-nection with Hizbul Mujahideenterrorist Naveed Babu case andCross-border Trade case.

In the Hizbul Mujahideencase, houses of close associatesof accused Tariq Mir of Shopian,who was arrested by NIA onApril 29 for his role in smugglingand supply of weapons to HMterrorists, were searched. Thepremises of Azad Ahmad Pir ofDardkote, Uri, Haleema Begumof Boniyar, Baramulla andShaheen Lone of Kanspora,Baramulla, working as anInspector in PowerDevelopment Department weresearched. Lone’s father- in-law’s house at Waza Mohalla,Palhalan, Baramulla, was alsosearched besides Shareen Bibi,wife of accused Tariq Mir ofChinad, Baramulla and TafazulParimoo of Hyderpora, Budgamwere also searched. PNS

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The Central Vista redevel-opment project would gen-

erate large-scale direct andindirect employment whichcould become an “importantfulcrum of economic revival”.

In his written reply to aquestion by All IndiaTrinamool Congress MP MalaRoy, Union minister HardeepSingh Puri told Lok Sabha onTuesday said, “In the currenteconomic scenario, the projectshall generate a large number ofdirect and indirect employ-ment which could be an impor-tant fulcrum for economicrevival.” The redevelopmentproject of Central Vista -- thenation's power corridor --envisages a new triangular par-liament building, a common

central secretariat and revamp-ing of the 3-km-long Rajpath,from Rashtrapati Bhavan toIndia Gate.

Puri said that the estimat-ed cost for construction of newParliament building is Rs 971crore. Estimated cost of otherbuildings and development andredevelopment of Central VistaAvenue will be worked outafter finalisation of plans, Purisaid.

Explaining the rationalebehind the need of the project,the Union housing and urbanaffairs minister said that theexisting Parliament Housebuilding was started in 1921and commissioned in 1927 andhence, the building is already 93years old, adding that its facil-ities and amenities are “highlyinadequate”.

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Quick to milk a farmer centric issuethat once catapulted it to power

post Singur and Nandigram move-ments the Trinamool Congress onTuesday lapped up the alleged forcedpassage of farm bill in Rajya Sabhaeven as the party launched pan-Bengal demonstrations demanding animmediate rollback of the “black law.”

Cleverly mixing the farm billwith the amendment in essentialcommodities laws that has declassifieda plethora of eatables including pota-to, onion --- which are already sellingfor a premium in the State --- edibleoil and other items raising apprehen-sions of burning bigger holes in con-sumers’ pockets, the TMC leadershipsaid the party would reach door-to-door driving home the “side effects ofthe BJP Government’s pro-richreforms.”

This even as Bengal GovernorJagdeep Dhankhar queered the pitchwith a no-holds-barred attack onChief Minister Mamata Banerjeewondering why she stopped pro-

farmer Kisan Sanman Nidhi, a centralscheme that benefits the tillers fromentering Bengal.

He accused the TMC supremo ofblocking the passage of Rs 8,400crore under Kishan Sanman Nidhiand was “shedding crocodile tears” onfarm bill.

Senior TMC leaders includingminister Chandrima Bhattacharyaand MPs Saugato Roy and KalyanBanerjee attacked Prime MinisterNarendra Modi for “hitting at the verybase of the Indian economy.”

Bhattacharya said “first he half-murdered the economy by imposingthe demonetisation which was a trickyscheme to convert black money intowhite money but in actuality it ruinedthe middle and small sector industryand sucked out crores of jobs. Thenthere was another foolish scheme ofGST which was hurriedly imple-mented and massacred the market…and finally these two bills. The farmbill will break the back bone of theIndian economy --- perhaps hittingthe farmers more than the British EastIndia Company did.”

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ASpecial court here onTuesday extended the judi-

cial custody of actress RheaChakraborty in the SushantSingh Rajput-related drug casetill October 6, even as theNarcotic Control Bureau (NCB)widened its scope of investiga-tions and summoned DeepikaPadukone’s manager KarishmaPrakash and talent manage-ment agency’s CEO DhruvChitgopekar for questioning ina WhatsApp chat involving“Padmavat” actress.

In a related development,the Bombay High Court willhear the bail pleas of Rhea –who had been arrested onSeptember 8 in connection withthe Sushant Singh Rajput-relat-ed drug case – and her brotherShowik –who had been arrest-ed in the same case earlier, onWednesday.

The special court – dealingwith cases registered under thethe Narcotics Drugs andPsychotropic Substances(NDPS) Act, 1985 – had earli-er on September 11 rejected thebail pleas of Rhea, her brother

Showik and four others in con-nection with a much-discusseddrug case relating to SushantSingh Rajput’s death.

On Tuesday when the NCBquestioned Sushant’s talentmanager Jaya Saha for the sec-ond consecutive day, the spot-light remained riveted on thesummons issued to DeepikaPadukone’s manager KarishmaPrakash and talent manage-ment agency’s CEO DhruvChitgopekar on the basis of the“Padmavat” actress’ whatsAppcharts with her managerKarishma retrieved by the NCB.

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Mumbai: As he went on a day-long fast to express his solidar-ity with the eight suspendedRajya sabha members, NCPchief Sharad Pawar on Tuesdaydebunked the hurried mannerin which the BJP-led govern-ment had agriculture reformbills passed in the upper houseof Parliament without discus-sion and vote.

Talking to media personshere, Pawar said: “I have neverseen bills being passed likethis. They (the BJP-led NDAgovernment) wanted to passthese bills soon. Members hadquestions regarding the billand they wanted a discussion,”Generally, the members areallowed to speak, deliberateand oppose the bills. PNS

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After a hiatus of sevenweeks, the India-China disengagementand de-escalationprocess (DDP)

resumed on Monday in a revisedmilitary-diplomatic format. Torecap, in April-May, the People’sLiberation Army (PLA) present-ed India with a fait accomplithrough multiple intrusions acrossLAC, annexing 1,000 sq km of ter-ritory following intelligence andoperational lapses of Himalayanheights. China built up 40,000troops with matching deploymentby India and preliminary conver-sations on a DDP culminated inthe Galwan clash, which led to fur-ther mobilisation of troops. TheChina-dictated DDP disadvan-taged Indian forces, locking themin buffer zones and blocking theirpatrolling in Galwan, Hot Springs-Goghra, Depsang and PangongLake areas. An Indian ripostecame south and north of PangongLake on Kailash ridge centredaround Mukhpari through a pre-emptive operation by the SpecialFrontier Force, comprising exiledTibetans, and local action in theFingers area. This unnerved PLA,which created a friction point nearMukhpari prior to the anodynefive-point Moscow agreementbetween Chinese and IndianForeign Ministers. Few days ear-lier, the two Defence Ministers hadconversed at the same platform.Two thresholds — unarmed com-bat resulting in casualties andprophylactic firing — on the esca-lation ladder have been crossed forthe first time in 45 years.

Speaking in both Houses ofParliament on the situation alongthe LAC, Defence MinisterRajnath Singh skipped specifyingstatistics of PLA ingress. In fact, hewas less than economical with thetruth by suggesting that coordinat-ed intelligence and border troops’action thwarted aggression whichhe referred to as transgressionwhen it was clearly a case ofintrusion. In fact, the Ministry ofDefence had put out the details ofintrusions on its website but mys-teriously removed them.

Prime Minister NarendraModi’s epic statement on June 19that no Chinese troops intruded orwere on Indian soil was the orig-inal sin which became the HolyGrail for Beijing. Singh repliedrhetorically to Indian troops inlockdown being prevented from

patrolling by PLA. What wasalso missing from his statementwas any reference to restorationof status quo ante (RSQA) andDepsang, the deepest andstrategically most unbalancingof all intrusions. It was Singhwho first spilled the beans onintrusions and later admitted hecould not guarantee afavourable outcome from mil-itary commanders’ talks. Hewas spot on as DDP had virtu-ally collapsed by August 2, thelast date of talks.

India’s negotiating strategyhas serious lacunae. Further, inthe statements issued by eachside, China has never men-tioned RSQA but restoringpeace and tranquility in borderareas. The word LAC has alsonever been used. Curiously,the Indian side has also notused RSQA in formal state-ments but called for full andcomplete disengagement.Mention of Depsang hasbecome taboo. China has vio-lated all border protocols, espe-cially the 1993 and 1996 agree-ments, and changed the conceptof LAC since it is neither delim-ited nor delineated. It has madeLAC irrelevant, turning it intothe line it can occupy and con-trol. Instead, it has promulgat-ed the November 1959 claimline shifting LAC westwards.As the stronger power, it hasexploited the undefined LACfor exercising coercive diploma-cy. China’s Global Times hasrepeatedly said that India must

accept the 1959 claim line orelse face war.

Before the Foreign Ministers’Moscow meeting, the PLAattempted to unhinge India’sseizure of Chushul heights,including several nodal pointson the 30-km Kailash ridge linedominating PLA Moldo garri-son and Spanggur Gap. Thesedominating heights are on theIndian side of LAC and not atrespass as alleged by China.PLA manufactured a frictionpoint on a plateau roughly 300 m away and 200 m lower,near Mukhpari, one of thehighest points on the ridge. Itis surprising why the SpecialFrontier Force (SFF) did notoccupy this plateau. Duringthe ongoing talks, Mukhparihas already become the newbone of contention in DDP.

Even with the dust not set-tling on the plateaus of eastLadakh for over five monthsnow, it is possible to deciphermore rationally the Chinesemotivation for its well-plannedmilitary occupation of Indianterritory. It is now flatly refus-ing to disengage and abandonmilitary gains like it did afterpast intrusions — SumdorongChu (1986), Depsang (2013),Chumar (2014) and Doklam(2017). India is still relying onChina eventually withdrawingand returning to barracks.

It seems China was incensedwhen Indian troops trespassedborder at Doklam (disputedbetween China and Bhutan)

and blocked PLA from buildinga road towards the disputedIndia-Bhutan-China trijunc-tion in Chumbi Valley. Chinacompared Indian belligerenceto “if you go to steal chicken,you may lose the rice bowl” andtook Indian audacity as daringChina. The Chinese media hadthen noted that Beijing waslooking for an opportunity tohumiliate India.

Two other compulsions canbe added to the Doklam-dare— Home Minister Amit Shah’sparliamentary pledge to liber-ate Aksai Chin and President XiJinping’s realisation of theChina Dream.

India must frustrate Xi’sdream of reviving the mythicalIndia-China border of the Mingdynasty and strive for a fair andmutually acceptable border set-tlement. This appears to beproblematic due to asymme-tries in gross national power.China has already imposedcosts by forcing the IndianArmy to deploy three addition-al divisions ahead of its highaltitude defences in Ladakhalong LAC.

It seems prepared to press onits claims and deployments ina game of blink. It has mobilisedfour out of its five TheatreCommands to grapple withinimical fronts in East ChinaSea, South China Sea, Taiwanand the Xinjiang and Tibetborders facing India. It will beunwise to underestimate thestaying power of PLA — eitherits capacity to fight in highmountains or the need for it toemploy troops in the ratio of 6:1to dislodge Indian soldiersoccupying heights.

But China has no intentionof starting a conflict. It is thesatisfied power, having alreadymade territorial gains. India hassaid it will respond to aggres-sion in self-defence, despiteChief of Defence Staff (CDS)General Bipin Rawat’s threat ofthe military option if diploma-cy fails. One scenario from theDDP is PLA agreeing to with-draw to original positions frommost friction points exceptDepsang with Indian forcesvacating their commandingChushul heights as quid proquo. A full RSQA, still unlike-ly, could result only from a pos-sible third Xi-Modi summiton the sidelines of the G20 atRiyadh in November.Otherwise, the standoff couldgo the long Sumdorong Chuway of eight winters unless Xiis persuaded to temper hisLadakh dream.

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

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Sir — The Government did nothave a majority in the RajyaSabha to get its farm Bills passed.Thus, to bend the House to itswishes, even as the Oppositionprotested and demanded furtherdiscussion on the same, the rul-ing dispensation intentionallyhad the Bills passed through avoice vote. The sheer display ofarrogance by the Governmentwill cost it dear as the farmerscontinue to protest against the“historic farm reforms”.

R NarayananMumbai

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Sir — With the Bihar Assemblyelections round the corner, PrimeMinister Narendra Modi hasannounced a special package of�1.25 lakh crore for the State.This is not the first time aGovernment has announced aspecial package just before elec-tions, so, only time will tell howmuch of this package will actu-ally help the people of Bihar. Asof now, Bihar remains one of themost backward States in thecountry. And many promises

made before are yet to see thelight of day.

Bhagwan ThadaniMumbai

���������� ���Sir — In a first, the Indian AirForce’s Rafale squadron inAmbala is getting its first womanfighter pilot. Currently, the totalstrength of women officers serv-

ing in the IAF is 1,875, includ-ing 10 women fighter pilots and18 women navigators. There isstill a long way to go before weachieve gender equality in allspheres of life.

Yashi BairagiUjjain

���������� �������Sir — Rajya Sabha Deputy

Chairman Harivansh NarayanSingh’s refusal to conduct a divi-sion of votes on two controver-sial farm Bills despite theOpposition’s protest wasunprecedented. The rule booksays that even if a single mem-ber demands division of votes, ithas to be carried out. TheGovernment brazenly under-mined the parliamentary proce-dures and triggered an uproar.

This presents a grim picture ofthe state of democracy in Indiaunder the present regime.However, the Opposition’s reac-tion didn’t help the case either asthey went on a rampage disrupt-ing the proceedings of the Houseand the farmers’ interest was lostin the din.

Yash Pal RalhanJalandhar

�����������Sir — Former RBI GovernorRaghuram Rajan suggested thatthe Government should privatiseselect public sector banks asreforms are necessary to ensuregrowth of banking activity with-out the periodic boom-bustcycles. However, before initiatingsuch a step, the Governmentshould complete the process ofconsolidating Governmentbanks by merging the remainingfive nationalised banks. Once thisis done, there will be aboutseven or eight big public sectorbanks out of which a selectthree or four may be consideredfor privatisation.

MR AnandVrindavan

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Page 7: ˇ˜+#˚12 3 %&%& ’ ()ˆ* + = ˚ ˆ@ / A#B˛ ’˛= ’A’ + # =A # C · 1 day ago  · report by Stratfor, a global intelligence platform, about ... essential commodities without

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ACentral legislation, the EssentialCommodities Act, 1955 was enacted with themain objective of prohibiting hoarding and

black marketing of essential commodities. The otherobjective was to provide them to the common manat fair prices. This is because their cost to the con-sumer is dependent on various uncontrolled fac-tors like climatic conditions, region of origin, sup-ply chain, marketing and so on. Restrictions werestipulated under the Act and control orders wereissued by respective States in relation to stocking,pricing and distribution. Over the years, we havebeen witnessing fluctuations in prices of essentialcommodities as well as other agriculture produce.This has often resulted in huge losses to farmers andcontrol orders have often been invoked by the Statesto minimise the financial damage to them.

Now, there is an uproar among the farmers inthe country and in political circles, too, after theParliament passed three agriculture-related Bills,namely, the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce(Promotion and Facilitation) Bill 2020, Farmers(Empowerment and Protection) Agreement onPrice Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020 andEssential Commodities (Amendment) Bill.

A reading of the Farmers (Empowerment andProtection) Agreement on Price Assurance andFarm Services Bill, 2020 shows that the same is beingenacted to protect and empower the farmers. It ismeant for them to engage with agri-business firms,processors, wholesalers, exporters, large retailers forfarm services and sale of future farming producewithin a mutually agreed remunerative priceframework in a fair and transparent manner. A read-ing of the provisions shows that farming produceincludes all the agriculture produce, foodstuffs, cere-als, cattle fodder, cotton seeds and so on. And farmservices under the Bill include even the provisionfor supply of seed, feed, fodder inputs for farmingand so on by the wholesaler or retailer, who istermed as “sponsor” under an agreement.

This shows that the entire agriculture produceof a farmer would be under the control of the “spon-sor”, who could be a businessman or a corporate.The proposed Act specifically overrides theEssential Commodities Act, 1955 and all the Statecontrol orders and any other laws related to stocklimit and so on under Section 7 of the Bill. The“sponsor”, who would provide inputs for thefarmer, would have overall control over the produc-tion, stocking and so on. Since the proposed Actoverrides the Essential Commodities Act, 1955,there is no limit in relation to the number of agree-ments that may be entered into by the “sponsor”with various farmers. There is a possibility of a sin-gle “sponsor” monopolising the entire control offarming and the produce.

The next stage would be with regard to tradeand marketing by the farmer. The Farmers ProduceTrade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation)Bill, 2020 has been introduced with the main objec-tive of giving farmers and traders the freedom ofchoice relating to sale and purchase of the produce.The word “farmer” has been defined as an individ-ual engaged in the production of agricultural pro-duce and includes farmer-producer organisations(FPOs). The FPO is defined as an association or agroup of growers. However, sections on the inter-State and intra-State trade have included only theword “trader.” The trader has been defined as a per-son who buys farm produce and does not includea farmer. Therefore, the sum and substance of the

proposed Act is that the inter-State tradeor intra-State trade can be conducted byonly the one who buys the farm produce.

The Farmers (Empowerment andProtection) Agreement on PriceAssurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020ends with the purchase of the stock by the“sponsor” who enters into a farmingagreement with the farmer at the produc-tion level. The Farmers Produce Tradeand Commerce (Promotion andFacilitation) Bill, 2020 speaks with regardto the trade of the farm produce and spellsout that the trader would be involved inthe inter and intra-State trade.

Neither the word “trader” in the saidBill includes the “sponsor” under theFarmers (Empowerment and Protection)Agreement on Price Assurance and FarmServices Bill, 2020, nor does the defini-tion “sponsor” include the “trader” underthe Farmers Produce Trade andCommerce (Promotion and Facilitation)Bill, 2020. Both the Bills do not specifyhow the commodity will be dealt withafter the produce is taken over by the“sponsor.” Maybe the “sponsor” has tobecome a trader under the FarmersProduce Trade and Commerce(Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020 butthe Bills are silent on this.

Though it appears from the readingof both the proposed legislations that theyare being pushed for the benefit of grow-ers in relation to agricultural activity, price,marketing and so on, in reality the busi-nessman, corporates, middlemen maytake over the entire control of essentialcommodities. There cannot be any reg-ulation in relation to hoarding and blackmarketing. This lacuna has to beaddressed by the Central Governmentand it must make suitable amendmentsto protect the interests of the farmers andthe consumers.

Section 6 of the Farmers ProduceTrade and Commerce (Promotion and

Facilitation) Bill stipulates that no mar-keting fee or cess levy under any StateAgriculture Marketing Committee Act orany other State law shall be levied onfarmers, traders, electronic trading andtransaction platforms for conductingbusiness in a “trade area.”

The “trade area” has been defined asa place where the farmers produce can becollected. Obviously, the “sponsor” underthe Farmers (Empowerment andProtection) Agreement on PriceAssurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020would be in control of the farm produceand he may be acting as a “trader” whowould utilise the trade area for the pur-pose of his business. In the process, theState Governments shall lose revenue,which otherwise would be available byway of market fee, levy and so on. Sucha provision will adversely affect the rev-enue of the States.

Section 8 of the said Act of theFarmers Produce Trade and Commerce(Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020stipulates dispute resolution but speakswith regard to a dispute arising out of thetransaction between the farmer and atrader under Section 4. The “farmer” maynot have any scope to offer his producefor sale to a trader in cases wherein heenters into an agreement with the “spon-sor” under the Farmers (Empowermentand Protection) Agreement on PriceAssurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020.

When both the Bills are independent-ly understood, those farmers who wouldnot enter into an agreement with any“sponsor” for the purpose of production,may benefit in the course of time. But inthe light of the businessmen/sponsorentering into the domain of the agricul-ture production, whether the farmerwould be benefitted or not is the question.

Certain amendments may berequired to the Farmers (Empowermentand Protection) Agreement on Price

Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020in respect to pricing of farming produceunder Section 5, mechanism for disputeresolution under Section 14 and power ofthe State Governments to make rulesunder Section 23 of the Bill, in the inter-est of protecting the rights of growers.

Certain safeguards can be providedto them in relation to the payment of theMinimum Support Price (MSP), theconsequences if the farming produce isrefused by the “sponsor” on the groundof quality and payment of money to thegrower by the “sponsor.”

Section 5, which contemplates pric-ing of the produce, does not stipulate anyminimum price. It only speaks withregard to the “guaranteed” price to be paidfor the produce. The provision is silentwith regard to the “authority” whichwould determine the said guaranteedprice. Section 23, which empowers theState Government to make rules, is alsosilent regarding this aspect. It onlyenables the State Government to framerules in relation to the mode and man-ner of payment but gives it no right to fixthe guaranteed price. A reading of the Actshows that the guaranteed price would bedetermined inter-se between the “farmer”and the “sponsor.” When the “sponsor”is providing various inputs for the crop,obviously he would be in a position tocommand a particular price which maybe adverse to the interest of the farmer.

The “sponsor”, while determining theprice, would also take into account theother factors like the cost of the inputswhich in the end would reduce thefarmer into a farm labourer.

The Government needs to fix thelacunae in the farm Bills instead of try-ing to push them through without con-sulting those it affects the most, 60 percent of the country’s population.

(The writer is Advocate, Andhra andTelangana High Courts)

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Sneha Singh shifted to an apart-ment in a highrise building withher husband and children in the

national Capital two years ago. She hastwo air-conditioners, a TV, a refriger-ator and other electrical appliances inher home. But she has stopped usingair-conditioners now and has min-imised the use of other electricalappliances because of the economicimpact of the COVID-induced lock-down.

“With the mercury shooting up inApril and May, it was extremely diffi-cult for my kids to study or sleep. Theywere restless and unable to focus ontheir work,” she says. But what she doesnot understand is that the problem lieswith the design and construction of theflat, which was not built keeping the

health of its occupants in mind. Withthe virulent virus forcing Sneha tospend most of the time indoors, sheand many other families like hers arenow realising the importance of thequality of the environment inside thehouse.

Experts are of the opinion thatgreen building technologies can helpthe world prepare for a future in whichpandemics will be more common. Infact, the Singapore Green BuildingCouncil (SGBC) president Dr HoNyok Yong made it loud and clear ata webinar in May this year when hesaid, “Think of green buildings as giantN95 face masks, protecting you fromharmful toxins the moment you stepinside.”

Echoing his observation, a studyin Singapore said that people who stayin “green” buildings are less likely tosuffer from fatigue, headache and evenskin irritation, showing that theirbenefits stretch beyond saving energy.

In contrast, the health impacts ofliving in energy-inefficient buildingshave been studied extensively in somecountries like the UK and NewZealand. They have shown that the list

of consequences of non-energy effi-cient houses is long: Increased chancesof respiratory infections, cardiovascu-lar disease, gastro infections, asthma,allergy symptoms, poor mental health,arthritis, rheumatism and a highernumber of falls — a major safety riskfor the elderly. Closer home, in 2018,IIT Bombay and Doctors For You, anNGO, conducted a study in Mumbai’spoorest ward, M-East, that estab-lished a co-relation between mortali-ty due to tuberculosis (TB) and hous-ing conditions. It found that eight to10 per cent of the residents in thedenser, less light-filled and morepoorly ventilated complexes had TB,compared to one per cent of residentsin a better ventilated project. Evenwithin a building, the risk of TBdeclined on higher, well-ventilatedfloors.

Veteran architect Ashok B Lallexplains, “Most of the time buyers arenot aware that housing conditions havean influence on physical health. Peoplemust understand that houses aremore than the physical structuresproviding shelter. For example, awarm and dry house can improve gen-

eral health outcomes and specificallyreduce respiratory issues. Children liv-ing in crowded homes are more like-ly to be stressed, anxious anddepressed, have poorer physical health,and inattentiveness at school.”

Lall is a supporter of green build-ing design focussing on reductions inenergy and water usage, creation ofhealthy indoor environment and min-imisation of environmental distur-bances.

Realising the significant co-ben-efits of improving housing conditions,in 2018, the World HealthOrganisation (WHO) came out withguidelines on health and buildings.“Improved housing conditions cansave lives, reduce disease, increase thequality of life, reduce poverty and helpmitigate climate change,” said theWHO, also noting that these can con-tribute towards the attainment ofSustainable Development Goals(SDGs) related to health (Goal 3) andsustainable cities (Goal 11). As per theguidelines, installing efficient and safethermal insulation can improve indoortemperatures that support health,while also lowering energy costs and

reducing carbon emissions.Thermal quality refers to whether

the indoor temperature is comfortableand healthy. While most evidencerelates to the impact of cold environ-ment, overheating can also damagehealth through dehydration. In coldclimates, better and improved energyefficiency can lower rates of excesswinter mortality while in hot climatesit helps reduce the risk of dehydrationand negative health impacts, saysSameer Maithel, Director of researchand advisory firm GreentechKnowledge Solutions and Head,Building Energy Efficiency Project(BEEP) Project Management andTechnical Unit in India. BEEP is abilateral cooperation project betweenthe Union Power Ministry and theFederal Department of Foreign Affairs(FDFA) of the Swiss Confederation.Maithel says that the health quotientsin energy-efficient buildings are:Thermal comforts, natural ventilation,daylight availability, which serves as adisinfectant as well as the source ofVitamin D, safe drinking water, sani-tation and waste management.

Talking about the design princi-

ples of building green and sustainablehomes in India, Lall says, “If we candevote 60 per cent of the terrace areaof a four-storey building to install solarpanels, it will meet the energy demandof all its residents.” The height of thebuilding has a direct co-relation withits carbon emissions and is inverselyproportional to affordability, he adds.

Refining the ventilation system isanother key to minimising diseasetransmissions while saving electricity.

Unfortunately, in India mostbuildings are not equipped to estab-lish and maintain healthy indoor airquality and need to be upgraded. Thenumber of buildings conforming togreen labels covers only about one percent of the urban buildings in India.Isn’t there a risk that raising standardswill push up costs further? “But in thebargain you cut down medical bills aswell as enhance productivity,” arguesSP Garnaik, executive director ofEnergy Efficiency Services Limited(EESL), a joint venture under thePower Ministry.

On its part, with an aim to makeworkplaces healthier and greener inthe COVID-19 scenario, EESL and the

US Agency for InternationalDevelopment’s (USAID) MAITREEprogramme, launched the “Healthyand Energy-Efficient Buildings” initia-tive to ensure efficiency along withhealth components at workplaces.

“We hope that this pilot will spururban planners, architects and prop-erty managers to rethink the design,operation and maintenance of thebuildings so as to safeguard the healthand well-being of the occupants atoffices and homes as well,” he says.

It is high time governments act byadopting mandatory energy-savingcodes for new buildings and for therefurbishment of existing ones, assertexperts. “This is all the more urgentin the light of soaring constructionrates. Most buildings lack mandatorybuilding energy codes. By strengthen-ing these codes every three-five years,zero-emission and net zero energycodes could rapidly become the norm,”says Maithel.

(The writer is SpecialCorrespondent with The Pioneer. Thearticle has been published as part ofCMS-BEEP Media FellowshipProgramme.)

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Geneva: The World HealthOrganisation (WHO) hasreported a record number ofconfirmed cases of the coron-avirus registered across theworld over the past week —almost 2 million infections —which marks the highest num-ber in a single week so far.

“ From 14 through 20September, there were almost2 million new cases of COVID-19, which represents a 6 percent increase compared to theprevious week, and the highestnumber of reported cases in asingle week since the beginningof the epidemic. During thesame period, there was a 10 percent decrease in the number ofdeaths, with 36,764 deathsreported in the past sevendays,” the WHO said in a sit-

uation report late on Monday.In particular, an increase in

the weekly case incidence ratewas reported across all regionsin the last seven days, except for

Africa, with the two Americasremaining the worst-hit areasand accounting for over 38 percent of all new cases reportedover the past week.

Meanwhile, Europeshowed the greatest incrementin the number of fatalities inthe past week, with a 27-percent increase compared to theprevious week. AP

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WikiLeaks founder JulianAssange complained of

hearing imaginary voices andmusic while detained in a high-security British prison, a psy-chiatrist who has interviewedhim told his extradition hear-ing on Tuesday.

Michael Kopelman, a psy-chiatrist who has interviewedAssange around 20 times, saidthe former hacker would be a “very high” suicide risk if he wereextradited to the United Statesfor leaking military secrets.

He cited as evidenceAssange’s “ severe depression”and “ psychotic symptoms” ,which included auditory hal-lucinations while in solitaryconfinement in his cell at thehigh-security Belmarsh Prisonin southwest London.

Kopelman told the OldBailey court in central Londonthat Assange said he halluci-

nated music and voices saying“ you are dust, you are dead, weare coming to get you” .

Assange’s suicidal impuls-es “ arise out of clinical factors...but it is the imminence ofextradition that will triggerthe attempt,” he added, warn-ing “ he will deteriorate sub-stantially” if extradited.

Assange’s partner StellaMoris has previously said shefeared he would take his ownlife, leaving their two youngsons without a father.

James Lewis, representingthe US government, quizzedKopelman over the veracity ofsome of Assange’s claims, sug-gesting he may have madethem up.

Assange faces 18 chargesunder the US Espionage Actrelating to the 2010 release byWikiLeaks of 500,000 secretfiles detailing aspects of USmilitary campaigns inAfghanistan and Iraq.

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Washington: The Centers forDisease Control andPrevention on Mondayremoved language from itswebsite that said the novelcoronavirus spreads throughairborne transmission, the lat-est example of the agencybacktracking from its ownguidance.

The agency said the guid-ance, which went up Fridaylargely without notice untillate Sunday, should not havebeen posted because it was anearly draft.

“ Unfortunately an earlydraft of a revision went upwithout any technical review,”said Jay Butler, the CDC’sdeputy director for infectiousdiseases. “ We are returning tothe earlier version and revisit-ing that process. It was a fail-ure of process at CDC.”

Evidence that the virusfloats in the air has mounted

for months, with an increas-ingly loud chorus of aerosolbiologists pointing to super-spreading events in choirs,buses, bars and other poorlyventilated spaces. They cheeredwhen the CDC seemed to jointhem in agreeing that the coro-navirus can be airborne.

Experts who reviewed theCDC’s Friday post had said thelanguage change had the powerto shift policy and drive amajor rethinking on the needto better ventilate indoor air.

Jose-Luis Jimenez, a chem-istry professor at the Universityof Colorado at Boulder whostudies how aerosols spread thevirus, told The WashingtonPost before the CDC reversedits guidance that “ this is agood thing, if we can reducetransmission because morepeople understand how it isspreading and know what todo to stop it.”

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������$��������&��������!����������������&���� ��� United Nations: US President

Donald Trump blasted China onTuesday for “ unleashing” “ theplague of the “ China virus” “onto the world, demanding thatthe United Nations must holdBeijing accountable for failing tocontain the coronavirus thathas killed nearly one millionpeople across the world, includ-ing 200,000 Americans.

“ 75 years after the end ofWorld War II and the foundingof the United Nations, we areonce again engaged in a greatglobal struggle. We have wageda fierce battle against the invis-ible enemy - the China virus -which has claimed countlesslives in 188 countries,” Trumpsaid in a video statement to the75th session of the UN GeneralAssembly.

Trump demanded thatChina, where the coronavirusemerged, be held accountable forfailure to control the virus andfor allowing it to spread acrossthe world.

“ As we pursue this brightfuture, we must hold account-able the nation which unleashed

this plague onto the world:China,” he said.

Doubling down on Beijing,Trump said that China con-demned his travel ban on theircountry, even as they cancelleddomestic flights and locked cit-izens in their homes.

“ In the earliest days of thevirus, China locked down trav-el domestically while allowingflights to leave China and infectthe world,” Trump said.

The COVID-19 pandemichas so far infected over 30 mil-lion people and more than958,000 people have died. TheUS, with 6.7 million infections,crossed the grim milestone of200,000 deaths.

“ The Chinese government,and the World HealthOrganization -- which is virtu-ally controlled by China -- false-ly declared that there was no evi-dence of human-to-humantransmission,” Trump said.

“ Later, they falsely saidpeople without symptoms wouldnot spread the disease. TheUnited Nations must hold Chinaaccountable for their actions,” hesaid.

Trump also slammed Chinafor dumping millions and mil-lions of tonnes of plastic andtrash into the oceans every year,overfishing other countries’waters, destroying vast swaths ofcoral reef, and emitting “ moretoxic mercury into the atmos-phere than any country any-where in the world.

“ China’s carbon emissionsare nearly twice what the US has,and it’s rising fast,” he said,adding that he withdrew fromthe “ one-sided” Paris ClimateAccord and last year Americareduced its carbon emissions bymore than any country in theagreement. PTI

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Rio de Janeiro: Brazil’sPresident Jair Bolsonarodefended his administration’srecord protecting the Amazonrainforest, telling the UnitedNations’ virtual meeting ofglobal leaders on Tuesday thathis country has been wronglyportrayed as an environmentalvillain.

Speaking first in theGeneral Debate of the UN’sGeneral Assembly, as is tradi-tion for the Brazilian leader,Bolsonaro said the SouthAmerican nation’s agribusinesssector has succeeded in boost-ing agricultural exports to feeda growing global population,which has made it a target.

“ We are victims of one ofthe most brutal disinformationcampaigns about the Amazon

and the Pantanal wetlands,”Bolsonaro said.

“ The Brazilian Amazon iswell-known to be very rich.That explains why internation-al institutions support suchcampaigns based on ulteriorinterests, joined by self-servingand unpatriotic Brazilian asso-ciations, with the objective ofharming the government andBrazil itself.”

Bolsonaro came to office in2019 promising to open moreof the Amazon to develop-ment, such as farming andmining. International concern,particularly after last year’sfires, has led investors to try todistance themselves from risingdeforestation and pressureBolsonaro’s government to takemore action against it. AP

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Beijing: The former chairmanof a Chinese state-owned realestate company who publiclycriticized President Xi Jinping’shandling of the coronaviruspandemic was sentenced to 18years in prison on Tuesday ina corruption case, the govern-ment announced.

Ren Zhiqiang, who hadbecome known for speaking upabout censorship and othersensitive topics, disappearedfrom public view in Marchafter publishing an essay onlinethat accused Xi of mishan-dling the outbreak that began inDecember in the central city ofWuhan. Ren, was convicted ofcorruption, bribery, embezzle-ment and abuse of power, acourt in Beijing announced.The former chairman anddeputy party secretary ofHuayuan Group was expelledfrom the ruling party in July. AP

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Ankara: Turkey on Tuesdayaccused the European Union of“ rewarding the aggressor” afterthe 27-nation bloc slappedsanctions on three transportcompanies for violating theUN arms embargo on Libya,including the Turkish shippingfirm which operates a vesselthat was at the center of a navalstandoff in the MediterraneanSea between Turkey and France.

A Turkish Foreign Ministrystatement dismissed the deci-sion as “ of no value.” It insist-ed the ship was providing aid toLibya’s U.N.-recognised gov-ernment based in the capital,Tripoli, and accused the EU ofignoring countries and com-panies sending arms to therival Libyan National Army, ledby Gen. Khalifa Hifter, which

controls the east.“ With this attitude, the EU

insists on maintaining a double-standard attitude ... Whichrewards the aggressor, insteadof taking an attitude in favourof international legitimacy,” theministry said.

The statement also said it is“ extremely unfortunate” thatthe decision came as efforts areunderway to reduce tensionsbetween Greece and Turkeyover energy exploration rightsin the eastern Mediterranean.

At talks in Brussels onMonday, EU foreign ministersimposed sanctions on theAvrasya Shipping company,which is headquartered inTurkey, saying it was “ found tohave violated the arms embar-go in Libya.” AP

Hobart (Australia): Aroundone third of an estimated 270pilot whales that becamestranded on Australia’s islandstate of Tasmania have died,with rescuers managing toreturn 25 to the sea in anongoing operation, officialssaid Tuesday.

The whales were discoveredMonday on a beach and twosand bars near the west coasttown of Strahan. Sixty peoplehave joined the rescue effort.

“ We’ve rescued about 25at the present time and escort-ed them out the channel andout to sea and crews are con-tinuing to work, so that num-ber will increase before we getto the end of the day,” TasmaniaParks and Wildlife ServiceManager Nic Deka toldreporters late Tuesday after-noon. AP

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Wellington: A new opinionpoll indicates that New ZealandPrime Minister Jacinda Ardernis poised to win a second termin office when the nation goesto the polls next month.

But Ardern said Tuesdaythat she’s taking nothing forgranted.

The 1 News ColmarBrunton Poll put support forArdern’s liberal Labour Party at48 per cent while support for theconservative National Party, ledby opposition leader JudithCollins, was at 31 per cent.

Support for Ardern aspreferred prime minister was

at 54 per centcompared to 18per cent forCollins.

Under NewZealand’s proportional votingsystem, larger parties typicallyform coalitions with smallerparties to govern.

Ardern’s popularity hassurged since the coronavirusbecame the defining issue for hergovernment six months ago.Her approach of trying to elim-inate the virus has been widelyviewed as successful. AP

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Industry body CII on Tuesdayurged the Govt to extend the

export incentive scheme MEIStill December 31 in its presentform to help exporters. CIIalso suggested that the ambit ofcoverage under the EmergencyCredit Line Guarantee Scheme(ECGLS) should be extendedto the extent of any unutilisedamount for revival of stressedsectors, including civil aviation,hospitality and tourism. Thesesuggestions, among others,were made by the chamberduring a meeting with NitiAayog. “The Govt shouldextend the MEIS benefits up to31st Dec, in its present formwith a rider that the balancedfunds (60 percent shortfall)would be disbursed later (with

in a fixed agreeable time-peri-od) as and when government’sfinances improve,” CII said ina statement.

It said the extension willhelp address the accountingproblem of exporters as theycan book the receivables underthe Merchandise Exports fromIndia Scheme in the currentfinancial year. The Govt hascapped export incentives underMEIS at �2 crore per exporteron outbound shipments madeduring the period fromSeptember 1 to December 31,2020. The move comes afterthe Department of Revenueasked the commerce ministryto review the coverage of MEISso that the fiscal benefits underthe programme can be broughtdown to �9,000 crore in thecurrent financial year.

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Manufacturers of alcoholicBeverages have urged WestBengal Chief Minister MamataBanerjee not to alter the exist-ing structure of tax on liquorbefore the festive seasons as itwill hit the market.

In a joint representation tothe chief minister, two majorliquor makers’ associations --Confederation of IndianAlcoholic Beverage Companies(CIABC) and InternationalSpirits and Wines Associationof India (ISWAI) -- have saidif the current tax structure ischanged before pujas, it wouldprove “counterproductive” forboth the government and theindustry. The stateGovernment had imposed a 30per cent sales tax on liquorcausing “a deep slide in salesand thus hurting the govern-ment exchequer”, they said.

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The Government aims tocatapult India to among the

top 10 countries in WorldBank’s ease of doing businessrankings with the comprehen-sive labour reforms which arelikely to be completed afterParliament approves three draftcodes in the ongoing session, asenior official said on Tuesday.

Under the labour reforms,the Centre plans to subsume 44central laws into four broadcodes on wages; industrial rela-tions; occupational safety,health and working conditions(OSH) and social security.

The Wage Code Bill 2019was passed by Parliament lastyear, while the other threecodes were introduced in theLok Sabha on Saturday. Thesebill are listed for considerationand passage in the LowerHouse on Tuesday.

“The ultimate goal of thegovernment is to see India fig-

ure in top 10 nations in ease ofdoing business index of WorldBank with completion of long-pending labour reforms,” asenior labour ministry officialtold PTI.

As per the ‘DoingBusiness’ 2020 report, Indiahad jumped 14 places to the63rd position in the ease ofdoing business rankings. Indiahas improved its rank by 79positions in five years (2014-19).

“Labour laws would act ascatalyst after the reform process

is completed with passage ofremaining three codes inParliament during the ongoingsession.

They would be help inattracting investments and gen-erate employment in the coun-try,” the official added.

“At present, it is cumber-some to be an entrepreneur dueto this vicious web of labourlaws which make compliancepractically difficult. It is easy toseek employment rather doingown business and becoming ajob creator,” the official noted.

The codes provide for ‘onelabour return, one licence andone registration’ to smoothencompliance.

At present, an entrepre-neur has to maintain eightregistrations and four licencesto run a business under theexisting labour laws.

Besides, they have to fileeight labour returns, includingto the EPFO, ESIC and ChiefLabour Commissioner.

The government is alsocontemplating to digitise theentire process of labour lawcompliance, which will ease theprocess for entrepreneurs.

Under these codes, themaximum punishment foroffences has been reduced tothree years from seven yearsearlier. Besides, the workerswould benefit by getting 50 percent of penalty imposed bycourts on employers. Thatwould be in addition to thecompensation awarded by thecourt to them.

New Delhi: GAIL (India)Limited has won the LeadersAward in the Mega LargeBusiness, Process Sector cate-gory in the 11th edition of Frost& Sullivan - MEASA and TERI- The Energy and ResourcesInstitute’s Sustainability 4.0Awards 2020. The award recog-nises corporates in sustainabledevelopment practices thatprovide a measurable and ver-ifiable framework for sustain-ability.

Shri Manoj Jain, Chairman& Managing Director, GAIL

said, “We are extremely happyand honoured to have beenrecognised as Leader in MegaBusiness Process SectorCategory this year by Frost &Sullivan & TERI Award Jury.The award is essentially a resultof eco-conscious developmentGAIL has been pursuing for thepast 36 years.”Frost & Sullivanand TERI Award Assessment isan in-depth and comprehen-sive assessment based on awell-defined framework cov-ering all critical areas of sus-tainability.

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Amid a surge in online shop-ping due to Covid-19,

about 60 per cent retail organ-isations in India have seentheir forecasts for the festiveseason go down 25 per cent ormore compared to last year,says a new survey on Tuesday.

Given that festival seasonsales account for a significantportion of sales book eachyear, a downturn in the festivalseason sales would mean alonger road to recovery, saidthe report by BluePiConsulting.

While negative festive fore-casts are pronounced in theapparel retail forecasts, 57 percent of non-apparel retailers areinterestingly optimistic aboutno or little change in the festive

season sales.Due to the reduction in the

festive season forecasts, around71 per cent of the respondentsare considering cancelling ordeferring orders, showed thefindings, adding that thisreduction in forecast puts backthe pressure on the entire sup-ply chain, including the sup-pliers, vendors, manufacturersand other ancillaries.

“There is no shortage ofchallenges as underlined inthe report, and a collaborativepublic-private model is theneed of the hour,” PronamChatterjee, CEO at BluePi, saidin a statement. Nearly 60 percent of the retail sector com-panies are actively looking forcapital infusion, according tothe “Retail Thought LeadershipSurvey Report 2020.”

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The Indian stock marketcontinued its dip on

Tuesday, in line with the glob-al markets as resurgence incoronavirus cases haveincreased possibilities of freshlockdown restrictions acrossEurope, including the UK.

The across-the-board selloff in the Indian market was ledby oil and gas, energy, auto,banking and finance stocks.

“Sensex and Nifty contin-ued to be in correction modeby closing down by 300 pointsand 97 points, respectively,due to a spike in covid cases inEurope,” Keshav Lahoti,Associate Equity Analyst,Angel Broking Ltd, said.

BSE Sensex closed at37,734.08, lower by 300.06points, or 0.79 per cent, fromthe previous close of 38,034.14.

It had opened at 38,200.71and touched an intra-day high

of 38,209.97 and a low of37,531.14 points.

The Nifty50 on theNational Stock Exchange wastrading at 11,153.65, lower by96.90 points, or 0.86 per cent,from its previous close.

Manish Hathiramani,technical analyst with DeenDayal Investments, said: “Themarkets are weak and weshould see more downside inthe coming days. Nifty could godown to 10,950-11,000 and ifwe don’t halt there, we couldfall further to test 10,800.

The resistance on theupside is 10,600-10,650 and tillwe do not cross that, a sell onevery rise would be the appro-priate strategy to adopt.”

The small and midcapindices also witnessed a selloffon Tuesday.

The BSE MidCap indexclosed 1.70 per cent lower andthe BSE SmallCap was down1.61 per cent.

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In a major move to break thelanguage barrier for online

shopping ahead of the festiveseason, Amazon India onTuesday said it is launching itsshopping experience in fournew languages, includingKannada, Malayalam, Tamiland Telugu.

With this launch,Amazon.in customers can nowdiscover deals and discounts,read detailed product infor-mation, manage their accountinformation, place and pay fortheir orders including bill pay-ments, recharges, money trans-fers, track their orders andview order history in the lan-guage of their preference.

Amazon customers canselect their preferred languagein a few simple steps acrossAndroid and iOS apps, mobileand desktop sites.

The launch of Kannada,Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu,Tamil shopping experience onAmazon.in follows the widelyadopted Hindi shopping expe-rience that was launched in2018.

Hundreds of thousands ofAmazon customers from tier-1, tier-2 and tier-3 cities acrossUttar Pradesh, Bihar,Maharashtra, Rajasthan,Punjab, Chhattisgarh,

Jharkhand, Telangana,Himachal Pradesh have sinceswitched to the Hindi shoppingexperience.

In the past five months, theadoption of Hindi shoppingexperience has grown by threetimes, Amazon India said.

Customers will find themost common words that areactually used in their dailylives being used on Amazon.inin all six languages that includeHindi, Kannada, Malayalam,Tamil and Telugu in addition toEnglish.

“We have been working onintroducing multiple ways ofmaking shopping accessible toall customers -- wherever theymay be and whatever the pref-erences may be,” KishoreThota, Director, CustomerExperience and Marketing,Amazon India, said in a state-ment.

“This is in addition to var-ious solutions that we intro-duced to reach a larger base ofcustomers through video andvoice based experiences thatmake consumption of infor-mation easier and interactiona lot more natural,” Thotaadded.

In March this year, Alexawas introduced on the Amazonshopping app for Androiddevices to help users shopusing voice commands.

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Google on Tuesdayannounced the fourth

batch of its Google for Startups(GFS) Accelerator programmewith 20 startups who willreceive three months of supportfrom the network of internaland external mentors in India.

The fourth GFSAccelerator programme hasnot only doubled its batch sizefrom 10 to 20 startups but alsoexpanded the scope of the pro-gramme, to include startupsthat are using cutting-edge

tech to meaningfully help Indiaand the world adapt and moveforward from the pandemic.

It comprises startups fromkey categories that requireurgent innovation, such asworkplace collaboration andconnection tools, mental healthand wellness, health-tech, fin-tech and agritech, the compa-ny said in a statement.

“GFS Accelerator’s missionis more important in the pre-sent times when this ecosystemfaces unprecedented odds.Hence, we aim to focus single-mindedly on helping startups

tide over the next 18-24months, when the effects of thepandemic will be felt thestrongest,” said PaulRavindranath G, ProgrammeManager, GFS Accelerator,Google India.

The ongoing supportranges from access to Googleteams, tech guidance on pro-jects, machine learning relatedsupport, user experience anddesign mentorship, leadershipworkshops, networking oppor-tunities at industry engage-ments, PR support and more.

The 20 Indian startupsinclude Antwak, BharatAri,BlackLight Games, Decoder,Factors.ai, Foxy.in, GramPowder, InnerHour, Leher,Lokal, Math Buddy, MeraCashier, Mosaic Wellness,myHQ, Navia Life Care,Orowealth, Virohan, WellthyTherapeutics, Womaniya, andZee Auto.

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The Covid-19 pandemic hasincreased the propensity

of consumers to opt for a com-prehensive health insuranceproduct that gives properfinancial protection for meet-ing any medical emergencies.

Accordingly, overallgrowth in the health businessof general insurers was strongat 25 per cent yoy in August (13per cent yoy in 5MFY21) withstrong performance reported inretail health and governmentbusiness at 40 per cent yoyeach, according to analysisreport by Kotak InstitutionalEquities.

Group health insurance,however, was muted at 12 percent.

“Increasing risk aversionamong consumers, stronguptick in demand for newCovid-related policies (‘CoronaKavacha’ and ‘CoronaRakshak’) and penetrationamong mass segments throughthe newly launched ‘ArogyaSanjeevni’ plans were likelydrivers,” the report said.

In the health insurancecategory, people preferred tak-ing policies from entities hav-ing expertise in this line ofoperation.

Accordingly, standalonehealth insurers reported 39per cent yoy increase in healthpremiums led by 51 per centyoy increase in the retail healthbusiness. Private players wereup 16 per cent yoy in thehealth business (up 40 percent in retail health) whilePSUs were up 21 per cent yoy.

Investment by health insur-ers in digital renewal of policieshas likely paid off.

Private players witnessed40 per cent yoy increase inretail health insurance pre-miums on the back of 1.1Xyoy growth for RelianceGeneral, 66 per cent yoygrowth for Tata AIG and 65per cent yoy growth for IffcoTokio. Chola MS, ICICILombard and Bajaj Generalreported 62 per cent yoy, 28per cent yoy and 35 per centyoy growth, respectively, thebrokerage report said.

On an overall basis,General insurers reported 10per cent yoy growth in premi-ums (excluding crop) inAugust 2020 (7-8 per cent inpast two months) led by 29 percent yoy growth in fire androbust 40 per cent yoy growthin retail health. Motor contin-ues to drag growth (down 2 percent yoy).

Among key players, SBIreported stellar growth acrossmost segments (up 25 per centex-crop) while ICICI and TataAIG were up 12 per cent and11 per cent yoy (ex-crop).Bajaj’s ex-crop businessremained weak, down 8 percent yoy. Chola MS was mutedat 1 per cent yoy (ex-crop).

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Two of India’s global star-tups, Ola and Oyo, are

cautious about the geopoliticaltrends while they battle toovercome the challenges cre-ated by Covid-19.

Speaking at the 47thNational ManagementConvention of the All IndiaManagement Association(AIMA) on Tuesday, thefounders of the two companiesexplained the global and eco-nomic situation of their busi-nesses.

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Mumbai: The rupee depreci-ated by 20 paise to settle at73.58 against the US dollar onTuesday due to forex outflowsand a stronger greenback inthe global markets.

At the interbank forexmarket, the rupee opened ona weak note at 73.50 and fellfurther to a low of 73.64 asstock markets continued tofall for the fourth straight day.

Renewed growth con-cerns following resurgenceof coronavirus cases inEurope and subsequentrestrictions weighed oninvestor sentiment, dealerssaid.

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India has always held a significantplace in the world of education. Ithas not only been known for its

quality education but also the devo-tion of institutes that focus specificallyon making the students learn andprosper in their respective fields.Even though our country has one ofthe largest networks of higher educa-tion institutions across the globe,there still are a lot of areas of improve-ment it can work on. The country stillhasn't explored its highest potential inthe field of education.

As per a report by Indian BrandEquity Foundation (IBEF), India wasaiming to raise its current grossenrolment ratio to 30% by the end of2020, which would also have boost-ed the growth of distance educationin India. However, the plans had totake a backseat due to the outbreak ofCOVID-19, disrupting the entireeducation sector. There is no doubtabout the industry witnessing a crisisdue to the ongoing pandemic and theeducation of the students beingimpacted severely by the same. The

disruptive period has steered theinstitutions and universities to focuson their higher education model andre-contemplate its working to resonatewith the current scenario.

The conventional model andapproach in the sector seem to be tak-ing a back seat ever since the pan-demic hit the country and theunprecedented time is calling for anewer approach to disseminate edu-cation without impacting the qualityof it. The need of the hour requires theinstitutions to adapt to new innova-tive technologies and different tech-niques, which will further help themsync with the present generation.

Holding lectures and regularclasses for the students is turning outto be a task because of the physical dis-ruption caused by coronavirus.However, the universities from all overthe world are putting their best footforward to combat the issue by adopt-ing a tech-enabled approach andconducting classes on virtual plat-forms. A lot of universities are goingan extra mile to stand in unison with

the global institutes and form inter-national alliances to offer the best totheir students. They are offering adiversity of experiences as they pro-vide international exposure to theirstudents via online platforms andclassrooms.

A number of massive online opencourses (MOOCs) are being availableto the students these days, preventingany lag on their educational front alongwith the professors and lecturersupgrading their skill sets to match thenew way of teaching.

The way to rise above this disrup-tion is to embrace innovative ways andbreak outdated boundaries.Technological advancement comeswith its own set of pros and cons, withsome of the flaws adverse effectsincluding the increase in cybercrimesor offences, but these times require usto focus on the silver lining in the cloudand create opportunities out of this cri-sis instead. Eliminating conventionalways and outdated approaches will cre-ate a wave which will pave a new pathto success and will further make edu-

cation accessible to the masses with thehelp of technology.

Education in the age of disruptionhas eventually led us to a path wherethe institutions are not only makingonline learning cost-effective andaffordable for more people to enrol,but also encouraging students tofocus on acquisition of skills ratherthan theoretical teaching. This willfurther bolster their confidence andmake them competent to deal withany uncalled crisis in the near future.The collaborative learning coupledwith a new way of teaching is revolu-tionising the educational sector alongwith offering additional perks to thestudents, such as online open hous-es, webinars, internships, smart-learn-ing and others.

Fuelling the spirit of educationand promoting remote learning, theuniversities are trying to fleet out oftheir comfort zones to create a newtoday and a better tomorrow.Endeavouring to make educationsoar high in an age of disruption, theyare hosting online workshops, digi-

talised lectures, interactive sessionsand discussions and on-screen exam-inations for the students. Remotelearning, along with other tech-savvyapproaches, is catching up with thecountry and is anticipated to con-tribute to the individual success of stu-dents, eventually leading Indiatowards collective growth.

The education sector's receptivi-ty towards innovative approaches isalso providing the country with a win-dow to improvise the GrossEnrolment Ratio (GER) and buildtechnology-oriented skills and com-petency amongst students. Buildingtechnology-oriented skills and mak-ing students competent to take theworld head-on, edu-tech and virtuallearning are seen serving as the toolsfor collective success.

The education in the age of dis-ruption is creating ripples of changeand empowering the youth to pursuetheir passion and eventually becomeskilled professionals contributing tothe economic growth of the country.���' ��� ����5�.�>��.���� )�$�����?���� ����

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India’s premier cultural institu-tion, the National Centre for the

Performing Arts (NCPA) in col-laboration with renowned dancer,and cultural entrepreneur Dr AnitaRatnam will be hosting a liveworkshop on ‘Innovation, ideasand experimentation in artisticpursuit’ on September 24 live on :https://www.facebook.com/NCPAMumbai. The session is a part of theongoing Utkarsh Series by NCPA.

Considering the new normalwith no on-stage performances, thelive session will have Dr Anitaaddress how innovation, whenadapted digitally, can beautifully

transcend all boundaries and bar-riers associated with dance as agenre.

As a founder of Natharki.com,Ratnam noticed that many dancerswere taking to Instagram whileperforming from their livingrooms. Taking this opportunityahead, this session is curated toaddress out of the box ideas for per-formers to think beyond a struc-tured framework and push bound-aries of dance & choreography.

The live workshop will give theaudience an understanding of theproduction value that can beimperative when a dancer is plan-ning to create content for a digitalaudience.

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The IndianInstitute of

Technology Guwahaticelebrated its 22ndConvocation onSeptember 22, 2020,with a graduatingclass of 1,803 students(1532 male & 271female). PrimeMinister of IndiaNarendra Modigraced the occasion asthe Chief Guest inthe esteemed pres-ence of RameshPokhriyal ‘Nishank’,

Education Minister,Government of India,among others.

Virtually address-ing the students,Narendra Modi said,“Convocation is aspecial day for everystudent. But this year,it is a different expe-rience for them. Thepandemic haschanged the way con-vocation is conduct-ed. But still it is asspecial as it wasbefore. I congratulatestudents for theirbright future.”

While education remains avital part of any individual’s

life span, that not only assists inproviding a threshold to a flour-ishing career but also broadens thehorizon to give a positive outlookto their personality. Analysing theestimated students for under-graduate programmes, around 9crore in senior secondary level andnearly 3.5 crore in higher educa-tion. But devoid of availability ofquality higher education institu-tions in India, the number of stu-dents opting for the best highereducation remains in incongruity,leading to a steady outflow of theIndian Students for InternationalEducation.

Attributing to a plethora ofquite obvious reasons like emo-tional control, financial budget,dependent nature of the child, cul-ture, and lifestyle of various coun-tries, and most importantlyunawareness, parents were earli-er hesitant to send their kidsabroad, as seen historically. Thedemand for high-quality educa-tion fuelled by a rising and stableeconomic condition in the coun-try has managed to make this ideaturn into a reality for many.

Students these days are optingfor higher education in a foreigndestination. However, abundantoptions and too many choicesmake this dream a challenge formany to achieve.

Why Indian students’International Mobility on rise?

When you look at the kind ofcourse combinations that are pro-vided by international universitiestoday, they will definitely attractany student who is willing toexplore possibilities through var-ious courses or inculcate experi-ence by mixing with internation-al peer groups.

But a student aiming to goabroad for education should con-

sider factors that include lan-guages known, budget, aptitude,suitable country, and future plans.Many students due to incompleteresearch end up getting an admis-sion in a university of less credi-bility.

As far as financing the edu-cation is concerned, today moststudents look at affordable uni-versities with part-time workopportunities in order to be ableto fund their living cost. The big-ger question however remainswhat exactly are the top universi-ties looking for in their studentswhich requires expert guidanceand assistance.

Specialised team is required toprovide holistic guidance on the

choice of universities, profilebuilding, deadlines, universityapplication, visa processing, andeven financial planning to studyand get into the world’s best uni-versities.

It is important for a student tounderstand the importance ofbuilding a profile. If one studiesthe student profiles accepted intop universities across the worldthere are a few common traitswithin the students:

Concern for community: ifyou do not bother for people orconditions around you and do nothave an urge to improve situa-tions, probably an expensive edu-cation in a top university is of nogood to you.

Interest towards the course:Prove it to the university that youare keenly interested in the sub-ject that you are applying to,Only exceptional academic scoresin the subject might not beenough in this regard, ratheryour participation in subject basedOlympiads, quizzes or takinghigher level courses may beworthwhile.

Leadership and Risk-Takingcapacities: Very common skill insophomores of top-notch univer-sities across the world. If you havethe capacity of taking the initia-tive and leading others towards apositive movement, it means a lotto the universities as they can seea change maker in you.

Proper guidance helps inaspiring to bring out the best inits students by ethically guidingthem and helping them build uptheir profiles to crack the world’stop universities with scholarships.Motivating the students to choosethe best courses as per theirpotential and evaluate their pro-file to provide the informationbased on a wide range of coursesand options available across theworld, is one of the importanttraits. Overall, one must under-stand those top universities todayare looking for nothing less thana unique individual.���' ��� ��������������� �.�� )�� ����

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Akey concern across industries andgeographies is the lack of lead-ership talent. While the ranks of

executors and managers are adequate-ly staffed with superior talent, the top ofthe corporate pyramid lacks enoughvisionaries. Where is the next JackWelch? The next Bill Gates? The nextSteve Jobs? The next Lee Iacocca? Orcloser home, the next JRD Tata? Thenext Aditya Birla?

Creating leadership talent is noteasy, given just how vast a capableleader’s toolkit is. A leader is a cusp ofpeople skills, strategy, technical com-petence, vision, commercial sense, andselling ability. Little wonder that the busi-ness world is suffering from a dearth ofleaders just when they are needed themost in volatile times.

The majority of millennials (theleaders of tomorrow) agree that theirleadership skills are underdeveloped.Organisations thus have to invest heav-ily in leadership development of theirworkforce which has huge cost impli-cations. To develop tomorrow’s leaders,enter B-schools as a training ground.Think of it this way — from the indus-try’s perspective, if they could hirecompetent business managers from B-schools who have the right seeds of lead-ership already planted then it wouldreduce time, cost, and effort down theroad when it is time to select CXOs.

This clarion call from industry hasled to B-schools sharpening their cur-riculum and pedagogy to include spe-cific and proven techniques for identi-fying and nurturing leadership talent onthe one hand and helping others who arelacking in leadership potential to devel-

op it. The emphasis is based on the beliefthat leadership is better learned whenexperienced than when explained. Hereare some of the initiatives seen in selectB-schools:

Structured courses on leadership:Many B-schools offer personalised andintensive structured programmes onleadership for students. These courseshelp students assess their strengths andweaknesses as a leader, learn differentleadership styles, provide them withopportunities and challenges to devel-op their leadership capabilities. This isaided by lessons from history and real-life case studies.

Emphasis on experiential learning:B-schools are making continuous effortsto re-design their curriculum in a waythat enables students to apply academ-ic knowledge into practice throughinternships, case studies, industry pro-jects, teams, and mock situations to givethem a reflection of real-life situations.Practical exposure involves challengingsituations, which helps students to

think critically and find creative solu-tions thus strengthening their decision-making skills. The objective is to pushstudents out of their comfort zones —after all, leaders have vast comfortzones.

Integrating Entrepreneurshipskills into the curriculum: Not everymanagement student wants to pursue acorporate career. Many of them choosea management programme to polishtheir entrepreneurial capabilities, whichalso emphasises the significance ofleadership qualities. Of course, the firstgateway to successful entrepreneurshipis effective leadership and team build-ing. Realising this, many businessschools have come forward with incu-bators, innovation labs, accelerators, andalso organise ‘start-up pitch’ competi-tions which help students explore andrefine their entrepreneurial skills.

Emphasis on technology and dig-ital skills: Digital technology is reshap-ing the industry and hence, the leader-ship style. Business leaders are nowrequired to possess digital and techni-cal competence to grow the business andtake decisions that are aligned with theevolving trends. Business schools aretaking measures to bridge the techno-functional leadership gap to make stu-dents ready for an ever-evolving busi-ness landscape disrupted by technolog-ical trends.

The gap in leadership talent is notsomething that can be plugged in theshort term. However, a beginning hasbeen made in nurturing talent at an earlystage in the cradle of business education.

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The Symbiosis Centre forManagement Studies, Pune is

all set to welcome its incomingbatch of 2020-23. The virtualinduction ceremony will begraced by distinguished and emi-nent leaders from the industrywho will be addressing the stu-dents. In a first, SCMS is hostingits induction session virtuallydue to the current coronaviruscrisis. With much grandeur, theinstitute is going to welcome thestudents following the virtualprotocol in the new normal. Theinduction is designed in a way

that the students can embark ontheir educational journey withmotivation and learnings fromindustry leaders.

The five-day induction ses-sion will be addressed by KaushikDeka — Deputy Editor of IndiaToday Magazine, Anurag Gour,Director — Partner Developmentat Microsoft.

The session will also includea panel discussion on the thirdday wherein notable SCMS alum-ni Hanisha Lalwani, SeniorMarketing Manager for theMiddle East & Africa region atPageGroup, Dubai, Mr. KunalShah, AVP — Non Financial

Risk Management at Deutschebank, London, TwishiChaturvedi, Channel MarketingManager at Siemens FinancialServices, London, PriyaVenkatraman, Customer CareExecutive at CMA CGMAgencies Pvt Ltd, India shall bediscussing ‘My memories ofSCMS’.

Speaking about the event, DrAdya Sharma, Director, SCMSPune said: “The core agenda ofthe induction programme is toempower students to make themost of what the institute offers.With much mirth and glory,every year the induction session

takes place in the campus and islooked forward to by students.This year, we are welcoming thestudents virtually, with the samezeal and enthusiasm. We hopestudents will be motivated to starttheir career journey with valuablelearnings from industry leadersand faculty members.”

The induction programmewill also include a session on apressing topic of Gender sensiti-sation. Fun filled student activi-ties through virtual gym whichwill be conducted by Departmentof Sports Recreation and Wellness(DSRW), SIU through MicrosoftTeams platform.

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The term GK is firmly asso-ciated with general intelli-

gence, therefore understandingthe significance of things thathappen in our life. Participationin a test like Olympiad makesstudents learn it throughquizzes and puzzles in turnenabling them to be more deci-sive and confident in career.

Hence, in support of everyparents and child’s wish toachieve a new milestone andsucceed in what he or shedoes; Mind Wars, a multiplat-form knowledge programmepromoted by ZeeEntertainment Enterprises Ltdhas announced India’s largestonline general knowledge

Olympiad 2020, intending toidentify, encourage, and pro-mote students towards achiev-ing a better tomorrow.

A national-level champi-onship will begin in November2020, and it is open to studentsof classes IV to XII from alleducation boards across India.The 20-minute exam compris-es relevant and interesting gen-eral awareness question acrossfive topics per class, that aimsat improving students’ abilityand growth in the comingyears.

To participate in Olympiadvisit:https://www.mindwars.co.in/olympiad/.

Exam dates: November 22,28 and 29, 2020. December 5,6 and 12, 2020.

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The University ofStrathclyde, Glasgow is

inviting applications for BEngHons ManufacturingEngineering with Managementcourse (four years) starting inSeptember 2021.

Students will learn to com-bine virtual and physical designand prototyping in the univer-sity’s digital design suite. Everyphysical product you comeinto contact with has beenmanufactured and the indus-try’s demand for those skilledin this area continues toincrease.

Students will benefit fromguaranteed industrial experi-ence to develop and apply theirskills as a product design engi-neer within the real world and

add to their CV, through theIndustrial Group Project mod-ules.

M a n u f a c t u r i n gEngineering with Managementblends a more technical engi-neering focus (such as mechan-ics, manufacturing, electronics,maths, programming, engi-neering calculations of a prod-uct's design) with productionand management principles,and technology such as oper-ational improvement and qual-ity management.

Eligibility: 70-75 per centin all subjects taken at level XIIand the same at level X. Marksshould be particularly strong inthe proposed area of study.IELTS requirement is 6.5 (noindividual element below 5.5).

How to apply: [email protected].

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Since demonetisation, thespread of digital banking hasincreased. More so, due to

Coronavirus. To prevent the spreadof COVID-19, the Reserve Bank ofIndia (RBI) also issued a notifica-tion urging people to use digitalbanking and online payment facil-ities as much as possible. Due towhich the value of transactionsreached its highest level last monthon Unified Payments Interface(UPI), a platform designed byIndia's largest banks in 2016.

Digital bank offers the sametype of banking services such as atraditional bank except it operatesentirely online without any singlephysical infrastructure, such as abank branch. So customers of a dig-ital bank can control their financesentirely from their smart phonesand computers.

Digital banks are seen as thenext frontier in terms of innovationin the financial services sector,which is traditionally dominated bylarge, well-established banks. Thisincludes Internet banking, mobilebanking, UPI, ATM etc. In digitalbanking, your bank is always with

you and you can avail its servicesanytime.

���� �����������A digital banker contributes to

new customer acquisition throughmobile banking registration. Theyare responsible for deliver set salestargets in mobile banking activationand usage. They participate inproduct campaigns to ensure prod-uct information is readily availableto customers and provide excellentsales customer service. Seek cus-tomer feedback on bank productsand services. Help in the selling ofmobile banking products and ser-vices. They do proper documen-tation and KYC as per the stipu-lated standards.

According to a survey, since theCOVID-19, three-fourth of Indianconsumers have started using moredigital payments. 78 per cent ofpeople expected to continue digi-tal payments over the next fivemonths.

The RBI said last year that itaims to increase digital transactionsfrom about 10 per cent to about 15per cent by 2021. The Government

also aims for one billion digitaltransactions every day as con-sumers in the world's fastest grow-ing smart phone market i.e. Indiacan transact at the click of a but-ton.

4�������J4��*��� �To become a digital banker,

Class XII candidates fromCommerce field can make theirfuture in this field by taking a three-year advanced Diploma in Bankingand Finance Course or graduatestudents from any field, by takingone year Global PG Diploma inBanking and Finance course.

During these courses, subjectslike Score Based Lending, e-KYC,Digital Payments, CryptoCurrency, Cyber Frauds and AI infinance are taught to prepare stu-dents as a digital banker. Since allthe work of digital banking isrelated to technology, it is veryimportant to have technical knowl-edge in skills. Apart from this, com-munication skills, interpersonalskills, in-depth understanding ofsales process, numeric and analyt-ical skills and skills to influence cus-

tomers are also very important.

�� ��4������As a rapidly evolving area,

digital banking offers a really broadvariety of roles and jobs in bank-ing and finance.

Millions of transactions takeplace online each day, and banksneed top notch digital teams to helpthem in all matters of their digitalproduct development and man-agement.

Due to which many commer-cial banks as well as many Fintechcompanies are working in themarket which provides services likeonline banking, digital payment,mobile banking, UPI and digitalwallet. By completing these cours-es, the candidate can find a job inany such company or Banks.

���4����� �The digital banker can earn

�25,000-�30,000 a month to beginwith. After gaining experience,new opportunities open up withincreased salary.

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Due to the coronavirus inducedlockdown across India, all edu-cational institutions were closed.

As a learning institution, we believedno crisis should change the trajectoryof teaching and learning. We haveresponded to the ongoing pandemicand made technological advancementsto make sure learning continues. Theinstitute seamlessly shifted from offlineto online pedagogy using technologi-cal devices to train faculty as well asnon-faculty members and conductonline classes for students.

Changes B-schools will witnessIn the future, B-schools must focus

on creating interactive and immersiveteaching-learning ecosystems, whichare flexible as well as accessible. Theseapproaches can be made robust withgreater implementation of technology.With the integration of technologicaltools, students will engage in self-learn-ing.

Assessments can be conducted viaopen-book, take-home exams designedto assess higher-order thinking skillsthat will help inculcate entrepreneur-ial skills. Cloud-based admissionsand enrollment of students may takeplace in the future. With the entire ped-agogy moving online, it will openavenues for business schools to col-laborate deeply and conduct joint pro-grams with other educational institutesvia online methods.

Inculcating entrepreneurial skillsManagement education acts as a

fertile ground to develop entrepre-neurial skills in budding managers. Inaddition to that, independent thinking,ability to spot the opportunities, andrisk-taking ability, etc. are all importantskill development practice that takesplace in a B-school. For students dri-ven to be entrepreneurs, a good blendof theoretical grounding and practicalexposure and interaction with entre-preneurs is a boon.

At MDI, the entrepreneurial cell isalso quite active and indulges in a lotof activities to ignite the fertile brainsto follow their latent entrepreneurialskills by exposing them to not only skilland tactics but also making them lis-ten to great entrepreneurs from differ-

ent sectors, instilling confidence in theirideas. At MDI, classroom educationand attitudinal training in entrepre-neurship goes hand-in-hand.

The futureWe have envisioned scalability by

its research-driven activities of a con-sistently higher international standard.Our goal is to provide a world-classeducation to students who emerge asfuture leaders of the country. We areintegrating our curriculum with new-age skills such as Artificial Intelligenceand Intellectual Capital to train our stu-dents on the same. We are also look-ing ahead to bring infrastructuraldevelopments to establish state-of-the-art labs in collaboration with industries.As per NIRF India Rankings 2020announced by MHRD (GoI), MDIGurgaon is currently on 10th positionamongst the top private B-schools inIndia. In years to come, we hope toachieve newer heights by adapting tothe technological shift and exceling innew age learning.

Research is an important con-stituent and we encourages researchactivities and expects its academiccommunity to be research-active tocarry out research work of a consis-tently higher international standard.

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The University of Sydneyinvites applicaion forthe Dr Abdul Kalam

International undergraduatefinancial aid in any of thecourse of the Faculty ofEngineering and InformationTechnologies.

The purpose of this pro-gram is to provide 50% of thetuition fees for a maximum ofone year of the undergraduateprogram subject to satisfacto-ry academic performancedeemed to be a minimum of acredit average (65%) eachsemester.

Eligibility: Have complet-ed an Australian Year 12 qual-ification or an internationalsenior secondary qualificationaccepted by the Universitywith an Australian TertiaryAdmissions Rank (ATAR) of atleast 98 or equivalent.

How to apply: The stu-dents are required to completethe online form for the fund-ing opportunity. Log on to:https://www.sydney.edu.au/scholarships/b/dr-abdul-kalam-international-undergraduate-scholarship.html.

Application deadline: It isJanaury 11, 2021.

Applicants are invited toapply for the ISSS need-basedawards funded by theInternational Student andScholar Services (ISSS) at the

University of Minnesota.Who can apply: Indian

students can apply. Eligibility: The grant is for

undertaking an undergraduatedegree programme in any fieldoffered by the university.

To be eligible for this fund-ing, an international studentmust be in F-1 or J-1 studentstatus and enrolled at theUniversity of Minnesota-TwinCities.

Supporting documents:Applicants must submit all thefollowing documents: Officialdocuments are those that areoriginal or attested copies oforiginal academic documentsthat are mailed in a sealed,stamped envelope directly fromthe secondary school or exam-ination board.

A scanned or electroniccopy of an official document isconsidered unofficial.

Admission requirements:An applicant must be a highschool candidate while apply-ing to a bachelor degree pro-gram at the university.

Language requirement:Foreign candidates are requiredto satisfy the English languagerequirements of the universityfor studying in the US.

How to apply: Interestedcandidates are invited to applyfor the that they need to takeadmission in an undergraduatedegree program at the univer-sity. After being enrolled, can-didates can apply for theopportunity.

Application deadline: It isFebruary 1, 2021

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Sanju Samson and skipper SteveSmith smashed quickfire half-centuries to guide Rajasthan

Royals to a formidable 216 forseven against Chennai Super Kingsin an IPL match here on Tuesday.

Sent into bat, Rajasthan lostyoung opener Yashasvi Jaiswal (6)in the third over but then Samsonjoined hands with Smith as the duoplayed sensibly initially before theKerala wicket-keeper batsman wenthammer and tongs at oppositionspinners.

Samson (74 off 32) looked ingreat nick, while Smith, returningto competitive cricket after recov-ering from concussion suffered

before the ODI series againstEngland, made 67 off 49 balls to laythe base for Rajasthan’s total.

In the final over, Jofra Archer(27 off 8 balls) hit four sixes offLungi Ngidi as Royals got 30 runsto take the score past 215.

In all, Royals hit 17 sixes withSamson accounting for nine of

them and Smith and Archer hav-ing four each in their kitties.

While Smith played the secondfiddle initially, Samson took theCSK spin duo of Ravindra Jadejaand Piyush Chawla to task taking95 runs of eight overs collectively.

Introduced into the attack inthe seventh over, Jadeja was clob-

bered for consecutive sixes bySamson before Chawla went forfour sixes in his first over — threeby Samson and one by Smith.

Samson, thus, brought up hisquickest IPL fifty in just 19 ballswith the help of one boundary andsix hits over the fence.

If that was not enough forChawla, the leg-spinner againleaked in his next over as bothSamson and Smith took him tocleaners.

CSK made a much-neededcomeback in the match in the 12thover with twin blows in the formof in-form Samson and unluckyDavid Miller.

While after some great hittingdisplay, Samson fell in search onetoo many, caught by DeepakChahar off Lungi Ngidi, Millerdeparted two balls later in searchon a non-existent double.

CSK made another comebackinto the match in the 17th overwhen Sam Curran dismissed RahulTewatia and Riyan Parag beforeSmith departed in the 119th overin search of big hits.

In the last over, Jofra Archerused his long handle to great effectand smashed Ngidi to all parts ofthe ground and above it to pick up30 runs.

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Eoin Morgan could well be the‘ice’ to Andre Russell’s ‘fire’ as

England’s World Cup winningcaptain gets ready to comple-ment the pyrotechnics of thebig-hitting Jamaican whenKolkata Knight Riders take thefield in this edition of IndianPremier League.

One of the more dependablemiddle-order batsman in thelimited overs cricket, Morganwas bought by KKR at the auc-

tion after they looked heavilyreliant on Andre Russell to fin-ish close games as they missed

the qualifiers by a whisker in2019. “I know (Andre) Russellhas done that role significantlywell for a number of years forKolkata. He’s done exceptional-ly well. If I get a go, hopefully Iwill be able to aid that,” Morgansaid during a virtual mediainteraction.

The KKR vice-captain fur-ther said he’s more experiencednow and his batting is comingoff really well.

“I think it’s been quite a fewyears since I played (at KKR).Just looking at batting, my gamehas really come on quite a lot inthe last three to four years. Iwould like to think I’ve come on

quite well,” Morgan, who will beback at the franchise after hisstint from 2011-2013, said.

Besides Morgan, KKR havealso bolstered their batting withhis compatriot Tom Bantonwho became a sensation in theBig Bash League, while thebowling too looks fiery with theaddition of Aussie world num-ber one Pat Cummins.

“I think with the squad thatwe have, it gives us betteroptions, particularly in battingand bowling. I think within thesquad we have a number of veryversatile cricketers who canspecifically control the battingdepartment,” Morgan said.

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Zlatan Ibrahimovic scoredtwice as AC Milan got their

Serie A campaign up and run-ning with a 2-0 win over Bolognaon Monday.

Ibrahimovic, who turns 39next month, showed he has lostnone of his goalscoring skills hav-ing also netted last week againstIrish side Shamrock Rovers in theEuropa League.

“If I had been 20 years old Iwould have scored two moregoals,” said the Swede of his dis-play.

“I’m like Benjamin Button,born old, but I’ll die young.Seriously, the team has workedwell: you can see we’re not at100 percent yet, but it wasimportant to start well.”

Ibrahimovic grabbedthe opener in the 35thminute, rising higherthan Danilo to get hishead to a TheoHernandez cross, andcelebrated in front of the1,000 spectators allowedinto the San Siro for the firsttime since the coronavirus pan-demic — mostly invited frontline

health workers who had toiledduring the worst of the crisis.

The Swede missed a chancefor a second shortly after whenhe was denied by a sliding tack-le from Brazilian defenderDanilo.

But six minutes after thebreak he added a second from thepenalty spot after a RiccardoOrsolini foul on Ismael Bennacer.

He missed

a chance for a third just after thehour mark following a counter-attack launched by HakanCalhanoglu, but LukaszSkorupski proved solid in the

Bologna goal.Bologna were

again saved bySkorupski at the endof the match, withthe Pole pushing outa Hernandez volley.

Milan keeper GianluigiDonnarumma also won his

duel against Andreas SkovOlsen while Federico

Santander hitting the wood-

work for the away side.Bologna finished a man

down with Mitchell Dijks sendoff with two minutes to go but itmade no difference to the match.

“They hadIbrahimovic, we didn't,"said Bologna coach SinisaMihajlovic.

“Ibra made the differ-ence, everything Milan cre-

ated came through him. But itwas a balanced game.

“Maybe we didn’t believe inourselves enough, but the ladswere in it to the end, we createdtwo big scoring opportunities.”

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Grace and strength will be onone side while poise and

killer instinct on the otherwhen a revamped KolkataKnight Riders take on MumbaiIndians, who have once againfaltered in the beginning of theIPL, on Wednesday.

Since 2013, MI have neverwon an opening gameand the script didn’tchange againstChennai Super Kingsalso.

They will be keento bounce back while KKRwould look for a perfect begin-ing as it will be a battle betweenbig hitters on both sides on asluggish Abu Dhabi track.

It will be Shubman Gill’sthird IPL, the one where hewould like to own the stage withhis languid grace and effortlesshitting, which he is so capableof. He can hit sixes over extracover with grace and caress theball through covers too.

These are exactly the traitsthat made Rohit Sharma, thegreat white ball exponent thathe is. SeasonedRohit versusy o u n gShubman isone for thekeeps andmakes this battleenticing.

But it’s not justgrace which makesT20 so appealing. Thebrute masculinity ofpower that sends theball soaring into theorbit is what makes itso special.

Hardik Pandya,who is back with achiselled body.There is nodoubt that hecan unleashhis firepoweragainst SunilNarine andKuldeep Yadav as well as KKR’s

highest paid multi million dol-lar recruit Pat Cummins.

But Hardik will find hismatch in Andre Russell, easilythe most destructive hitter incurrent T20 cricket.

Russell had openly criti-cised the team management lastyear for sending him down theorder.

But this time, he has beenpromised a promo-tion to number threeslot and this couldspell doom for anyopposition.

KKR has EoinMorgan, easily the best whiteball captain in internationalcricket at the moment, whocould advice Dinesh Karthik onhow to tackle tense moments.

Whether he would fit inamong the four overseas play-ers is the question as Knightshave Narine, Tom Banton,Russell and Cummins, whowalk into any T20 playing XI.

For Mumbai, it is impor-tant that Nathan Coulter-Nile,with more all-round T20 utili-ty compared to Trent Boult, getsfit to add more balance.

They could think aboutusing Ishan Kishan’s explo-

sive firepower rather thanbulky Saurabh Tiwary,

who can’t rotate thestrike with ease.

Apart frompacers and spin-

ners KrunalPandya and

R a h u lChahar, theyneed onemore option

in the bowl-ing and thatcan be in form

of Pandya andKieron Pollard.

Both Hardikand Pollard, whodid not bowlagainst CSK can

jointly share theresponsibility of

another bowler.

Abu Dhabi: Mumbai Indians con-sist of world-class players and thatis why it is good for us to play thefour-time champions early in theIPL, Kolkata Knight Riders skipperDinesh Karthik said on Tuesday.

The two teams have faced eachother 25 times and the Kolkata-based franchise has won only sixmatches.

“They (Mumbai Indians) have ateam of world-class players; they area strong lineup and the number ofIPL titles they have won shows that.It’s good that we are playing Mumbaiearly in the tournament. Every yearis a different year. I am sure it willbe a great game tomorrow,” saidKarthik during a virtual press con-ference on Tuesday.

Karthik also hinted thatShubman Gill and Sunil Narinewill be opening the batting forKKR. “Shubman is a quality player.I am sure he will exceed all expec-tations and it’s good to have him. Gilland Narine make a good openingcombination,” he said.

Karthik admitted that he has the‘problem of plenty’ to pick the XIfrom a revamped Kolkata KnightRiders squad.

“One of the tough points forKKR at this point of time is pickingthe right XI. A lot of guys have puttheir hands up and are ready for

selection. It’s going to be an interest-ing one and a tough one but that'sa good sign.”

"We are in a good space. One ofour strengths is the variety we havein our pace department. All fourIndian pacers are shaping up reallywell. It's going to be a hard decisionto make who's going to start thetournament," Karthik said.

�4��>� Sunrisers Hyderabad skipper DavidWarner has backed young Indian batsmenPriyam Garg and Abhishek Sharma to “keep play-ing their natural game” after their disappointingouting against the Royal Challengers Bangalore.

The 19-year-old Garg (12) and 20-year-oldSharma (7) couldn’t grab the opportunity as theformer was bowled while trying to scoop the ballpast the keeper and the latter fell prey to a terri-ble mix-up with Rashid Khan.

Vijay Shankar could not even open hisaccount.

Warner though said he has faith in youngIndian batsmen.

“We wouldn’t have put them (young Indianpair) in the middle over if we didn’t think theyare not good enough,” Warner said in the post-match press conference.

“Anyone who wants to criticisethe middle order batting, ... It issomething I haven’t seen before —three bizzare dismissals. I encour-age them to keep playing their way

and not think too much about thescenario or situation out there.”

“We rely on our senior play-ers to guide these guys out there

in the middle, my message tothe youngsters was to playtheir natural game, that’s theonly way one can learn. It

can be difficult at times,it is pressure environ-ment, it’s got to keep itcalm and simple forthem.” PTI

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Pep Guardiola labelled Phil Foden as“incredible” after Manchester City

survived a scare to start their PremierLeague title challenge with a 3-1 winagainst Wolves on Monday.

City’s delayed start to the campaign— due to their involvement in last sea-son’s Champions League — had allowedLiverpool to build a six-point lead overthem before they had even kicked a ball.

Guardiola’s side could not afford toslip up at Molineux if they wanted tokeep pace with the champions and theyraced into a two-goal lead before half-time thanks to Kevin De Bruyne’spenalty and Foden’s cool finish.

City’s swaggering first half gave wayto an anxious spell as Wolves dominat-ed after the interval and they had to clingon afer Raul Jimenez got one backbefore Gabriel Jesus sealed thepoints in stoppage time.

Foden’s goal was a welcomemorale boost in his first matchsince the midfielder was senthome in disgrace, along withManchester United’s Mason Greenwood,after the pair invited local women intothe England team’s hotel.

“For the goal and in the second halfFoden played incredibly well, he helpedus keep the ball,” Guardiola said.

While City equalled Aston Villa’srecord of winning 10 consecutive open-ing fixtures to a top-flight season, there

is little doubt Liverpool remain thePremier League’s preeminent force fornow.

But Guardiola was delighted toopen with a victory given the short-er than usual pre-season.

“We could not run muchbecause we are tired in our legs butin general we did a good game,” hesaid.

“The period that we are in, thesituation that we had this last twoweeks, I expected some moments wherewe suffer but in general we controlledit well.

“It was a good performance. Weknow how difficult it is in this stadium.

“Sometimes we need more time toget to our best condition but it was agood start to come here and win.”

MATCHES 25KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS 06MUMBAI INDIANS 19

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�,.���%",&���&$��Milan: Inter Milan have com-pleted a deal to sign ArturoVidal from Barcelona for 1million euros, the clubsannounced on Tuesday.

“Barcelona and Inter Milanhave reached an agreement forthe transfer of the player ArturoVidal,” Barca said in a state-ment.

“The Italian team will payFC Barcelona 1 million euros invariables.”

After joining in 2018, Vidalplayed 96 games for theCatalans and scored 11 goals,helping them win La Liga in hisfirst year in Spain.

Inter described the Chilean

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