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Current Weather ConditionsUpdated february 23 , 2021 5:00 PM

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HYDERABAD, WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 24, 2021; PAGES 12 `3

www.dailypioneer.com

RNI No. TELENG/2018/76469

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AIRTEL, QUALCOMM TEAM UPFOR 5G PUSH IN INDIA

PNS n DEHRADUN

The Uttarakhand governmenthas issued a notification autho-rising officials to declare “pre-sumed dead” 136 people stillmissing after the flash flood inChamoli district over twoweeks ago.

Sixty-eight bodies have sofar been recovered after theFebruary 7 disaster possiblytriggered by an avalanche. Adevastating flash flood demol-ished a 13.2 MW hydel projectalong the river besides causingextensive damage to theNTPC's Tapovan-Vishnugadhydel project alongDhauliganga. About 35 peoplewere feared trapped inside atunnel in Tapovan. The debrisand sludge has only beenremoved from a portion of thetunnel.

Uttarakhand HealthSecretary Amit Singh Negi

said on Tuesday that the pre-sumption of death can bemade by officials in the affect-ed district only in case ofmissing people who in all like-lihood have died in the disas-ter but their bodies have notbeen found.

Normally the missing aredeclared dead only when theyare not traced for seven yearsafter the incident responsiblefor their disappearance but in

case of an extraordinary occur-rence like the one witnessed inUttarakhand, special provi-sions can be made, he said.

The move to declare thosewho continue to be missing inthe flash flood as presumeddead has been initiated toexpedite the process of distri-bution of compensationamong the affected families, hesaid.

K VENKATESHWARLUn HYDERABAD

By definition anti-incumben-cy factor works against the rul-ing party during polls.However, in the case of theupcoming MLC polls for thetwo Graduates' seats, theTelangana Rashtra Samiti,believed to be facing head-winds due to issues over PRCand unemployment amongyouth, may actually benefitfrom the anti-incumbency fac-tor as the opposition parties arein disarray and they cannotindividually capitalize on it.

In the upcoming MLC elec-tions for the two Graduates'seats -- Nalgonda-Khammam-Warangal and Hyderabad-Rangareddy-Mahabubnagar -

- over 50 candidatesfrom oppositionparties and inde-pendents are inthe fray in eachconst i tuenc y.This may helpthe ruling party.

The TRS hasfielded its sitting MLCPalla Rajeshwar Reddyfrom the Nalgonda-Khammam-Warangal seat andformer prime minister latePV Narasimha Rao's daughterS Vani Devi from theHyderabad-Rangareddy-Mahabubnagar constituency.TRS party chief and ChiefMinister K ChandrasekharRao has directed party leadersto ensure the victory of theparty candidates. The party has

also appointed in-charges as per theratio of one forevery 50 voters.

The BharatiyaJanata Party hasfielded Gujjula

Premender Reddyand the Congress has

fielded Ramulu Naikfrom the Nalgonda-

Khammam-Warangal con-stituency. Besides BJP andCongress, two other partieshave fielded their party chiefsfrom this constituency.Telangana Jana Samithi (TJS)chief Prof M Kodandaram andTelangana Inti Party chief DrCheruku Sudhakar are in thefray from the Nalgonda-Khammam-Warnagal con-stituency.

PNS n HYDERABAD

Over a 100 candidates remain infray in both Graduates' con-stituencies for the upcomingMLC polls, with the process offiling of nominations papers forthe seats-Nalgonda-Khammam-Warangal and Hyderabad-Rangareddy-Mahabubnagar --ending on Tuesday.

In all, 110 candidates filed 179nominations for the Hyderabad-Rangareddy-Mahabubnagarconstituency. On the final day, 51candidates filed 89 nominations.Besides, 78 candidates filed 123nominations for the Nalgonda-Khammam-Warangal con-stituency.

The election officials wouldscrutinize the nominations on

February 24. February 26 is thelast date for withdrawal of thenominations.

According to returning officerfor Hyd-RR-Mbnr Priyanka Ala,the scrutiny of nominations willbe held in the main hall on 7thfloor of GHMC head office as thenumber of candidates hadcrossed century. Elections will beheld for the two constituencies

on March 14 from 8:00 AM to4:00 PM. Counting will be heldon March 17.

On Tuesday, the final day forthe nominations, former primeminister late PV NarasimhaRao's daughter S Vani Devi filedher papers for the Hyderabad-Rangareddy-Mahabubnagarconstituency at the GHMC headoffice.

PNS n HYDERABAD

A portion of the eastern side ofthe elevation of the oldAssembly building here col-lapsed on Tuesday with a thud,scaring people in the vicinityout of their wits and forcingthose near the building to runfor cover.

The roof of the office of RegaKanta Rao, government whip,collapsed, sending securing

personnel running helter-skel-ter. Later, everyone heaved a bigsigh of relief as the debris land-

ed in the garden area withoutcausing injuries to anyone.

The Telangana StateLegislative Assembly buildingdates back to more than 100years. Its construction beganduring the regime of the sixthNizam Mahbub Ali Khan. Thebuilding construction started in1905 and the main structurewas completed in 1913.

The building became opera-tional during the regime of the

seventh Nizam Mir Osman AliKhan. The building was thencalled as Mahabubia Town Hall.The structure was built withdonations raised from people.

Subsequently, it housed theState Legislative Assembly.

It may be recalled that theGovernment of Telangana hasembarked on a gigantic task ofbuilding a new Secretariat com-plex and an Assembly building.

PNS n HYDERABAD

Telangana BJP in-chargeTarun Chug has alleged thatChief Minister KChandrasekhar Rao's fami-ly has been robbingSingareni C ol l ier iesCompany Limited (SCCL),which generates revenuesrunning into crores ofrupees for the state govern-ment.

KCR's family had gripover SCCL officials, he said.Tarun alleged that TRS MLCK Kavitha had beenindulging in irregularities inSCCL.

The BJP would seek a CBIinquiry into the goings-onin SCCL. Kavitha had beenresorting to graft by keepingTBGKS Union under herthumb, he alleged.

He was speaking toSingareni workers duringhis visit to Srirampur in

Mancher ia l d ist r ic t onTuesday. Tarun launched ascathing attack on KCR andKavitha. He alleged thatSingareni Collieries' CMDhad been working "as anagent of TRS party".

Telangana BJP chief BandiSanjay alleged that Singarenihad become a source offinance for TRS.

He said that CMD Sridharwould go to jail upon com-pletion of enquiry into thecorrupt practices there."Sridhar is not an IAS, butAyya Yes", he remarked.

The TRS government hadfailed to fulfil the assur-ances it had g iven toSingareni workers in thelast elections.

The BJP would hoist itsflag on SIngareni in the nextelections. He said that theBJP would solve the prob-lems of contract and out-sourced workers.

PNS n HYDERABAD

Describing privacy as a humanright, Microsoft CEO SatyaNadella on Tuesday said he ishoping for a global regulationon safety and privacy of datathat would make sure that techproducts and services are safeto use. In a virtual interactivesession with Telangana IT andIndustries Minister KT RamaRao in BioAsia 2021, Nadellasaid the COVID-19 pandem-ic across the globe accelerateddigital transformation.

"So I look forward to aworld where we do have, justafter all we have food safetylaws we have drug safety laws,there will be similarly I thinkrules and regulations (ondata). Hopefully there is aglobal norm around," he saidreplying to query on whetherthe security and privacy con-cerns can be regulated.

"One thing that I wouldhope for is that we don't frag-ment.We are able to whether

on privacy or safety, bringtogether a set of global rulesthat will allow all of us to bothcomply and make sure that weknow what we build is safe touse," Nadella said.

He saidregulations are inplace and initiatives such asGeneral Data ProtectionRegulations (GDPR) arespreading worldwide. He sug-gested that companies shoulddesign and build productskeeping in mind the privacyof the user and no lackadaisi-cal attitude in this regardshould be tolerated.

PNS n NAGPUR

The Nagpur bench of BombayHigh Court on Tuesday grant-ed interim bail on medicalgrounds to ailing poet-activistVaravara Rao in connectionwith a 2016 Surjagarh iron oremine arson case. Rao, 82, andadvocate Surendra Gadlingwere arrested by theGadchiroli police inMaharashtra in February 2019in connection with the case.

Justice Swapna Joshi of theHC's Nagpur bench grantedbail to Rao on similargrounds on which the prin-cipal bench of the high courton Monday granted bail tohim in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case.

PNS n HYDERABAD

The Cyberabad police, afterhaving asked the RegionalPassport Officer to cancel 72Indian passports obtainedfraudulently by someBangladeshi nationals andseeking Look-Out Circularsfrom the Foreigners RegionalRegistration Officer in whathas come to be called the'Bodhan passport scam', arrest-ed eight persons in all as ofTuesday, Cyberabad PoliceCommissioner VC Sajjanartold media persons here.Sajjanar said that a specialteam had been set up to expe-dite the investigations into thescam.

Investigations so far revealedthe role of four Bangladeshis,a Bengali resident, and anoth-er agent. Two Special Branchofficers who assisted themhad also been arrested.

The Commissioner of Policesaid that 32 passports with the

same address were issued anda total of 72 fake passports hadbeen detected. The police werelooking into questions such ashow many of them had crossedthe country with such pass-ports and how many moremanaged to obtain passports.The Police claimed that therewere no Rohingyas among theaccused.

Sajjanar said he hadinformed the immigration andregional passport authoritiesabout the racket. The accused

persons had been remanded.With the permission of thecourt, they would be taken intocustody and prosecuted.

Giving details, Sajjanar saidthat a total of 72 passports hadbeen obtained on the basis offake addresses, of which 42passports were recommendedby ASI Mallesh. The mainaccused has been identified asParimal Bain from Bangladesh,the Police Commissioner said.The passports were found tohave been obtained through aservice administrator inBodhan.

According to the affidavit,Rs 10,000 to Rs 30,000 wastaken from each of them.Twenty-five agents, an immi-gration officer and three policeofficers have been arrested.Parimal Bain claimed to havecome to India illegally by sea.It was found that there were 36passports with only five phonenumbers.

PNS n HYDERABAD

The Telangana governmenton Tuesday decided to startclasses for sixth to eighthstandard students fromWednesday.

As per the directives ofChief Minister KChandrasekhar Rao, ChiefSecretary Somesh Kumar helda teleconference with all dis-trict Collectors, DistrictEducation Officers (DEOs)and other officials.

The Chief Secretary (CS)directed that classes shouldstart from Wednesday as far aspossible and not later thanMarch 1, an official releasesaid.

About 17.24 lakh students,in addition to the students (ofninth and 10th standard) whoare already attending, wouldbe attending school.

The CS instructed that theDistrict-Level EducationMonitoring Committee(DLEMC) should meet, withdistrict Collectors in chair,and take up opening of class-es for 6th to 8th standard stu-

dents, it said.The Chief Secretary also

directed that all precautionsshould be taken for the safetyof students and teachers.

Special measures should beput in place for schools resum-ing for the first time (after theoutbreak of COVID-19 pan-demic and the lockdown), therelease said.

Classes for 9th to 12 stan-dard students have alreadyresumed from February 1.

Satya Nadella batsfor global regulationon privacy of data

4 Bangladeshis, 2 copsheld for passport fraud

Classes VI to VIIIto begin today

Varavara Raogets bail inSurjagarh case

PNS n HYDERABAD

Former India all-rounder YusufPathan on Tuesday inaugurat-ed the 26th centre of CricketAcademy of Pathans (CAP)here, with an aim to provideworld-class coaching to bud-ding cricketers of the city.During the occasion, Yusufinteracted with the trainees andshared his experiences of play-ing cricket in Hderabad, aCAP release said.

"The aim of CricketAcademy of Pathans is to pro-vide world-class cricket coach-ing and the best-possible infra-structure to facilitate and helpthe budding cricketers of thecountry," said Yusuf, a Directorof CAP.

Yusuf Pathanlaunches cricketacademy in Hyd

2 MLC constituencies score a ‘century’

136 missing in Uttarakhandflood to be ‘presumed dead'

Tarun says BJP will seekCBI inquiry into SSCL graft

TRS set to win Graduates'seats in Council elections

Elevation of Assembly building falls off

Division of anti-incumbency votes to help ruling party

5

Sympathy factormakes way for senti-ments in TS by-polls

and MLC polls

2

Sensex, Nifty endmarginally higher;ONGC rallies 6 pc

8

PM warns against

dangers of

climate change

NO REASON TO KEEP 22-YEAR-OLD INCUSTODY: DISHA RAVI GETS BAIL

Disha Ravi, the 22-year-old climate activistarrested February 13 in connection withthe "toolkit" case and charged with sedition

and conspiring against the country, was grantedbail by a Delhi court on Tuesday -- subject toprovision of two sureties of `1 lakh each andconditions that include not leaving the countrywithout informing the court. "Consideringscanty and sketchy evidence on record, I do notfind any palpable reason to breach rule of bailfor a 22-year-old girl who has absolutely nocriminal antecedent," the judge said, adding, "...sedition cannot be invoked to minister towounded vanity of the government".

DUBAI RESTAURANT SERVES ‘MOSTEXPENSIVE BIRYANI' WITH 23 CARAT GOLD!

Biryani, with its Mughal origin, spells royaltyin every grain. The rice-based dish with richingredients and deep-set flavours imbued in

the juicy meat is something that gets us droolingin every bite. Biryani is undoubtedly one of themost celebrated Indian dishes and is everyone'sfavourite too. It is true that we don't mind payinga little extra for scrumptious foods, but how farcan you go to pay for a lavish platter of biryani?Will you be willing to pay a whopping amount ofINR 20,000 for it?! We don't know about you butthis Dubai restaurant certainly expects its patronsto pay this much for their special biryani meal,which it says is ‘Dubai's most expensive biryani.

MEETING AT PM'S OFFICE OVER COVIDSITUATION AMID SURGE IN CASES

Ameeting was held at the PM’s Office toreview the coronavirus situation in thecountry amid a surge in cases over

the past few days, and amid concernsmutated strains - those that originatedabroad and in India, are more infectious -may be circulating in the country. Thespike in Covid numbers in some statescomes as 240 new strains of the virushave emerged across the country; DrShahshank Joshi, a member ofMaharashtra's Covid Task Force, said thatthe new strains could be the reason for anincrease in cases in that state.

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Telecom operator Bharti Airtel and USchipmaker Qualcomm announcedcollaboration for accelerating 5G in India.

Airtel recently became India's first telco todemonstrate 5G over a live commercial networkin city, underlining the company's technologycapabilities. "Through Airtel's network vendorsand device partners, Airtel will utilise theQualcomm 5G RAN Platforms to roll-outvirtualised and Open RAN-based 5G networks.Airtel is committed to driving the success of O-RAN and is working with QualcommTechnologies to explore and implement the O-RAN approach for India," according to company.

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Printed and published by B Krishna Prasad for and on behalf of CMYK Printech Ltd., Phone: 040-23322341, Hyderabad Office: F-502, Diamond Block, Lumbini Rockdale, Somajiguda, Hyderabad - 500 082. Telangana. Printed at Sree Seshasai Enterprises, Plot No.19, IDA Balanagar , Hyderbad-500037, Medchal -Malkajgiri District, Telangana. Chief Editor: Chandan Mitra. Resident Editor: B Krishna Prasad, AIR SURCHARGE of Rs 2.00.

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hyderabad 02HYDERABAD | WEDNESDAY | FEBRUARY 24, 2021

EGG

RATES

` 47, 840 (10 gm)

` 650

GOLD

` 75, 700 (1kg)

` 1300

HYDERABAD 405

VIJAYAWADA 506

VISAKHAPATNAM 480

RREETTAAIILL PPRRIICCEE `̀44..0055

SILVER

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BULLION RATES

`̀//110000

CHICKEN

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Dressed/With Skin `155

Without Skin `177

Broiler at Farm `107

`̀//KKGG

(IN HYDERABAD)

PNS n HYDERABAD

Amidst concerns over the spurtin Covid cases in nearly half adozen states, TS Director ofPublic Health Dr Srinivas saidon Monday that Covid was"under control" in the state. Atpresent, only 100 to 125 newcases were being reported daily,he told media persons here. Heput the number of tests beingdone per day at 22,000 to25,000.

The spurt in cases was lim-ited to a few districts, includ-ing Ranga Reddy, Hyderabadand Medchal in GHMC limits.The other districts whereincrease in cases was reportedare Karimnagar, Nizamabadand the districts of Macherialand Nirmal which share bor-ders with neighbouringMaharashtra. Laying emphasison the need to observe Covid-19 protocol and precautions,Dr Srinivas Rao pointed outthat cases in Maharashtra hadincreased from 2,500 per dayto over 6,000. Kerala had

been reporting 6,000 cases perday for the past two months.Same was the case withChhattisgarh. In some states,local variants of the virus hadbeen reported, he said.

Thousands of variants ofthe viruses had been detectedin the country and hundreds inMaharashtra alone, he said.The virus had not left theshores of the country. "Wehave to learn to live with it", heobserved. The DPH expressedhis concern over people of latenot wearing masks when theygo out. He hinted that previousconditions could return in thedays to come. He wanted peo-ple to take all precautions.

Henceforth, Telangana StateHealth Department will releaseonly weekly bulletins.According to Srinivas Rao,there are no major changes inCOVID cases in TS; hence,they have decided to rational-ize human resource so that sur-plus personnel could be betterutilised for Covid vaccinationefforts.

PNS n NEW DELHI

Two variants of SARS-CoV-2 --N440K and E484K -- have beendetected in Maharashtra andKerala but there is no reason tobelieve presently that they areresponsible for the surge incases in some districts in thesetwo states, the Centre said onTuesday. One of the two variantshas also been detected inTelangana. Addressing a pressconference here, NITI AayogMember V K Paul said that 187people have tested positive forthe UK strain of SARS-CoV-2 inthe country so far, while sixpeople have detected with theSouth Africa variant. Also, oneperson has tested positive forthe Brazil variant strain. Both theN440K and E484K variants ofSARS-CoV-2 have beendetected in Maharashtra. In

Kerala and Telangana also thesevariants have been found. Also,three other mutated strains --one each from UK, South Africaand Brazil are already present inthe country. But there is noreason for us to believe, on thebasis of scientific information,that they are responsible for theupsurge of the outbreak insome districts of Maharashtraand Kerala, Paul said. Reportingonly detection does not lead toany attribution for aphenomenon on the groundbecause to relate the occurrenceof a virus mutation to change indisease pattern, otherepidemiological information andclinical information has to belinked to these mutants, Paulsaid, adding, because otherwisethese (mutations) happen butthey have no influence on thepandemic.

‘New variants of SARS-CoV-2 not reason for surge in cases’

‘Situation under control in TS’Continued from page 1

The Left parties have fieldedJayasarathi Reddy from theN a l g o n d a - K h a m m a m -Warangal constituency. Otherprominent candidates in thefray for the Nalgonda-Khammam-Warangal con-stituency include RaniRudrama, Theenmar Mallannaand Harishankar Goud.

According to TRS partyleaders, opposition parties'candidates viz. GujjulaPremender Reddy, RamuluNaik, Prof Kodandaram, DrCheruku Sudhakar andJayasarathi Reddy, TheenmarMallanna, Rani Rudrama,Harishankar Goud will "sharethe anti-incumbency votes",thus lending more intrinsicvalue to the bloc of voteslinked to ruling party candi-

date Palla Rajeshwar Reddy.Besides, TRS has taken up theenrollment of graduate MLCvoters in a systematic manner.

TRS leaders crow that votesof the pink party's activists areenough to ensure the victory ofPalla Rajeshwar Reddy. For, itis not that easy for any singleopposition candidate to capi-talize on the entire bloc of anti-incumbency votes. The situ-ation is the same even in theHyderabad-Rangareddy-Mahabubnagar constituency.The opposition BJP has field-ed its sitting MLC NRamchander Rao as its candi-date in the constituency.Congress has fielded formerMinister Dr G Chinna Reddy.Former MLC Prof Nageshwarhas entered the election fraywith support from the Left par-ties. TTDP chief L Ramana too

jumped into the arena thistime. The contest, however,will be mainly among TRS'candidate S Vani Devi, BJPcandidate N Ramchander Raoand Congress candidate Dr GChinna Reddy. This being so,Prof Nageshwar, L Ramanaand other independent candi-dates would partake of the blocof anti-incumbency votes,along with BJP and Congresscandidates. This may brightenthe winning prospects of rul-ing party candidate Vani Devi.

The MLC elections for thetwo seats will be held onMarch 14. Most voters in theseelections comprise unem-ployed youth, governmentemployees, teachers, lawyersand other professionals whoare believed to be somewhatdisenchanted with the rulingparty.

TRS set to win Graduates'seats in Council elections

Continued from page 1

Rao suffers from a host of ail-ments, including symptoms ofdementia, as per his lawyers.

His advocates Firdos Mirzaand Nihalsingh Rathod saidthe activist had sought bail onhealth and medical groundsand not on merits of the casepertaining to arson at the ironore mine at Surjagarh inGadchiroli. "We pointed out tothe court here (Nagpur) theorder passed by the divisionbench of Justices S S Shindeand Manish Pitale on Monday,granting Rao interim bail forsix months after consideringhis health condition," Mirzatold PTI. Justice Joshi, afterperusing the order of the divi-sion bench, granted interimbail to Rao for the same peri-

od in the arson case too, hesaid. On December 25, 2016,Naxals allegedly set ablazeleast 80 vehicles engaged intransporting iron ore fromSurjagarh mines in Etapallitehsil of Gadchiroli.

Rao, who is currentlyadmitted in the NanavatiHospital in Mumbai, hadsought bail on medicalgrounds in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case, which isbeing probed by the NIA.

The case pertains to allegedinflammatory speeches madeat the 'Elgar Parishad' conclaveheld in Pune on December 31,2017, which, the policeclaimed, triggered violencethe next day near theKoregaon-Bhima war memo-rial located on the outskirts ofthe western Maharashtra city.

Varavara Rao gets...

Continued from page 1

The other 49 accused in thecase are yet to be identified.

Police initially arrestedsome Bangladeshis at theShamshabad internationalairport on May 25 for tryingto travel to Dubai with anIndian passport. WhenSanjeeb Dutta, Ramdas andSandeep arrived at the air-port, they were questioned byimmigration officials whobecame suspicious because ofthe language they spoke.Sajjanar said all theBangladeshis were detainedand interrogated. Duringtheir interrogation, manystartling facts came to light.

4 Bangladeshis,cops held for...

Continued from page 1

The notification was issued onthe basis of an SOP issued bythe Centre in this regard onFebruary 21, Negi said. A sim-ilar SOP was issued by theCentre after the Kedarnath del-uge of June, 2013 in whichthousands of people were killedand left missing.

The SOP was formulated onthe request of the state govern-ment by the Registrar Generaland Census Commissioner,India, he said.

In normal circumstances, thedeath is registered only on thereports from persons men-tioned in section 8 of the

Registration of Births andDeaths (RBD) Act , 1969 .However, in extraordinary caseslike the one in Uttarakhand,reports from public servantsafter due enquiry can be madeuse of for registering the deaths,the notification said.

As regards people whosebody has been found, it is need-less to state that the normalprocess of issuing death certifi-cates should be followed, Negisaid.

In case of missing persons,who in all likelihood have diedbut the body is not traceable, allreasonable efforts should bemade to determine that theperson has in all likelihood

died in the natural calamity, theofficial said.

According to the notifica-tion, the missing have to bedivided into three categories –permanent residents present inthe affected areas during thecatastrophe, residents of otherdistricts of Uttarakhand whohappened to be in affected areasand tourists/persons from otherstates who were present there atthe time of the catastrophe.

The notification also givesdetails of the process of enquiryto be followed in case of thosemissing in the three categories.

The designated officer shouldconduct a detailed enquiryregarding the missing person.

Based on the enquiry, the offi-cer should issue a speakingorder regarding the provision-al presumption of death.

He should then ensure pub-lication of the list of missingpersons provisionally presumeddead in the newspaper, govern-ment gazette in Hindi andEnglish and also host the sameon the government website forthe purpose of obtaining Claimsand Objections.

C laims and Objec t ionsshould be received within 30days failing which the designat-ed officer should issue the deathcertificate and make it availablefor free to the next of kin of themissing.

136 missing in Uttarakhand flood to be...

Yusuf Pathanlaunches cricketacademy in HydContinued from page 1

Harmeet Vasdev, ManagingDirector of CAP, said theyplan to launch the academyin another 25 cities by theend of the year.

CAP has partnered withPitchVision, a unique onlinetraining platform, to trackthe trainees' performance inreal time as it automaticallygenerates videos and statisti-cal analysis to the extent ofline, length, bounce, devia-tion, pace, etc, the releasesaid.

The academy would alsobe launching a mobile appli-cation soon which will bridgethe gap between the stu-dents, coaches and the man-agement, it added.

Continued from page 1

Citing data pertaining topatients healthcare data, hesaid it should ultimately ben-efit the infirm.

On the post-pandemicworking conditions, he saidthe situation has pushed formore flexibility in terms ofwork sites and collaboration.

"I think collaboration,learning and well-being arefundamentally the things thatare going to transform howwe think about work whilegiving people lot more flexi-bility," he said. The startupcategory has already showntremendous potential inbringing in digital enable-ment in the medical industryand it is not just benefitingany specific segment butevery possible individual inthe country across cities andvillages, he added.

Satya Nadellabats for globalregulation on...

In present-day politics,does death of a sitting leg-islator from a con-

stituency also signify theend of the sway of theparty holding that seat?The answer seems to bein the affirmative, goingby the reversal of for-tunes in certain by-pollsin TS and the sentimentsattached to the upcomingby-polls to the NagarjunaSagar Assembly constituency.

By and large, it appears thatby-polls are considered to benot good tidings for partiesthat hold the seats concerned.The outcomes of certain by-polls in Telangana since itsformation have not beenencouraging for parties hold-ing those seats. FourAssembly seats viz. those ofNarayankhed (P Kista Reddy-Congress ), Palair (R VenkataReddy -Congress ), HuzurNagar (N.Uttam KumarReddy - Congress ) andDubbak (S. Ramalinga Reddy-TRS) have seen by-polls in

Telangana so far. Except forHuzurnagar, all theother three by-polls

were necessitated bythe sudden deaths ofsitting members, andthe parties holding

those seats lostthem. The ruling

Telangana Rashtra Samitihad a mixed bag, consideringit won three seats and lostone!

Now, what would happenin Nagarjuna Sagar by-polls?Had TRS decided to field aperson from the deceasedmember's family, the influ-ence of opposition candidateJana Reddy may have out-weighed the sympathy factor.

One more by-election isimpending at Vemulavada ofthe combined Karimnagardistrict of Telangana. Its sit-ting member (TRS)Chennamaneni RameshBabu, whose citizenship hasbeen challenged in the courtof law, is awaiting judgmentsoon. By-election will be

inevitable in the event of hisdisqualification as he ispresently holding Germancitizenship! Since there is nochance to cash in on votersympathy, it may be difficultfor the ruling party to retainthe seat.

Bringing PV's daughterinto electoral fray is simplytaking a leaf out of the copy-book of Chandrababu Naidu.During the last Assemblyelections in TS, Naidu pittedSuhasini, daughter of formerminister Nandamuri HariKrishna, against TRS in

Kukatpally seat with view tousing the influence of NTR'sfamily on voters. But thepolitical ploy of Naidu did notyield the desired results!Naidu had to face criticismthat he had made her a scape-goat, following TDP’s defeatby 46,000 votes!

If the TRS manages to dowell in MLC polls by usingthe clout of PV, it may givethe pink party a chance toreplicate the same result inthe Nagarjuna SagarAssembly constituency, wherethe by-poll was necessitated

by the demise of ruling partylegislator and formerCommunist leader NomulaNarasimhaiah. He was floorleader of the CommunistParty of India (Marxist ) ear-lier and joined TRS in post-bifurcation scenario. ButCongress is on a strong wick-et, considering the influenceof former CLP leader K. JanaReddy. Actually TRS hadtried its level best to pick its

candidate from Jana Reddy'sfamily with a view to embar-rassing the Congress partyand blight its electoralprospects. But Jana chose notto trouble his party.

In the previous election,BJP gave TRS a big shock inthe same constituency bydefeating its candidate.

The TRS, by picking VaniDevi, former prime ministerPV Narasimha Rao’s daugh-ter, for the Mahabubnagar-Rangareddy- HyderabadGraduates' constituency seatin MLC polls, has madethings dif f icult for theCongress. In the Graduates’constituency, youth are pre-dominant and they areunhappy with the govern-ment's attitude on the recent-ly announced recruitmentprocess. Whether PV's lega-cy will work for the rulingparty is moot question.

Ruling TRS is eying votesof Congress’ sympathisers.PV’s credentials on the T-fac-tor are known. He assisted

former prime minister IndiraGandhi, who had outrightlyrejected the demand forbifurcation of unified AndhraPradesh, following people'ssentiments linked to the con-tinuation of unified statewhich she underlined duringher historic address inParliament on 21stDecember, 1972.

In contrast, the TRS tookbirth on the basis of separatisttheory and the pink party hadcrit icised those who itbelieves have been calloustowards Telangana region,including PV. In the presentchanged circumstances, theTRS has to garner votes byusing the clout of PV. TRS haspinned its hopes on theBrahmin community for apositive vote, and is expect-ing such voting to lap upBJP's votes as the latter's can-didate also hails from thesame caste. Vani's visit to theTelangana martyrs memorialat Gun Park has been ques-tioned by some sections as

her family had made no con-tribution in two stages of T-movement!

It may be recalled herethat Telangana martyrSrikantha Chary's motherSankaramma was givenAssembly ticket earlier, butshe lost to a mighty Congresscandidate. Many persons whohad taken part in the T-stirhad found fault with TRSleadership for fielding her inAssembly seat, instead ofal lott ing her a seat inLegislative Council thatwould have assured her afull term in the legislature.Public view is that she wasmade a scapegoat in electoralpolitics. Some sections inTelangana society are surethat Vani may go theSankaramma way.

In any case, TRS will haveto go the extra mile for suc-cessful implementation of itstwo pronged strategy: bag-ging Nagarjuna Sagar seat inby-polls in addition to thisMLC seat!

M D RATNA KUMAR

Senior Journalist

Bringing PV's daughter into electoral

fray is simply taking a leaf out of

the copybook of Chandrababu

Naidu. During the last Assembly

elections in TS, Naidu pitted

Suhasini, daughter of former

minister Nandamuri Hari Krishna,

against TRS in Kukatpally

PIN

POINT

Sympathy factor makes way for sentiments in TS by-polls and MLC polls

Continued from page 1

Sitting MLC from Nalgonda-Khammam-Warangal PallaRajeshwar Reddy filed hisnominations at the NalgondaCollectorate, which hereached as part of a huge rallytaken out from Marrigudachowrastha. Left parties' can-didate Jayasarathi Reddy filedhis nominations for theNa l g o n d a - K h a m m a m -Warangal constituency onTuesday after organizing ahuge rally involving bikesand cars.

2 MLCconstituencies...

SPIKE IN COVID CASES

Continued from page 1

The new Secretariat is comingup on the old Secretariatpremises, while the newAssembly building is comingup on the premises of R & BDepartment in Errum Manzil.Last year, bhumi puja was per-formed for building thesestructures. Amidst chanting ofVedic hymns by scholars,Chief Minister K Chandr-asekhar Rao laid the founda-tion stone for the Secretariatand the Assembly complexes.

Elevation ofAssemblybuilding falls...

PNS n HYDERABAD

GMR Aero Technic (GAT),the maintenance, repair andoverhaul division of GMR AirCargo and AerospaceEngineering Ltd. (GACAEL),has taken a giant leap interms of aircraft maintenanceand service in Asia, by adopt-ing a new innovative technol-

ogy in the form of InflatableHangar. The GAT is the only MRO inthe Asia region to haveinstalled such a hangar.

The hangar could be usedfor multiple purposes includ-ing scheduled and unsched-uled maintenance, engine orlanding gear replacement.The one bay narrow body

inflatable hangar is sufficientto take one B737 or A320series aircraft which will addone additional bay to GAT’salready existing 7 bay capac-ity. With this additional line,GAT would be able handleadditionally 15 to 20 smallerbase maintenance checks orfour to five end of leasechecks per year.

PNS n MUMBAI India's IT sector is experi-

encing a sequential growthin hiring since the lockdownin 2020, witnessing 39 percent growth in job postingsin January compared to theprevious month, accordingto a report.

IT sector was followed byBPO (10 per cent growth) andbanking (6 per cent), accord-ing to the report by job siteSCIKEY.

Job postings have seen a sig-nificant rise in several metrocities, including Bengaluru,Hyderabad, Pune and Delhi,accounting for more than 50per cent jobs in the sector inJanuary 2021, it added.

The report by SCIKEYMarket Network has analyseddata from over 15,000 jobpostings across India. Further,the report revealed thatBengaluru and Hyderabad arethe highest paying cities for ITjobs in India for the salarybracket of Rs 25 lakhs or

more.Bengaluru also tops the

chart for jobs with salarybracket for less than Rs 6 lakhand between Rs 6-15 lakh, itadded.

The report said projectmanagers are highly indemand in the IT sector (47per cent), followed by con-struction (6 per cent), banking(4 per cent) and recruitment(3 per cent).

Digital marketing (30 percent) is also one of the toproles for hiring compared toother industries, it added.

"The IT sector has madeextraordinary progress inrecovering the jobs lost despitethe pandemic. IT profession-als are playing a critical role indigital transformation andenabling many sectors of theeconomy to continue to oper-ate through remote work.

Although, some parts ofthe jobs market are still strug-gling, IT employment remainsin a bright spot.

GMR Aero Technic adopts an inflatable hangar

IT sector continues tosee growth in hiring

HYDERABAD | WEDNESDAY | FEBRUARY 24, 2021 hyderabad 03

Apostage stamp wasreleased as a tribute tolate legislator and

philanthropist Eashwari Bai ata programme conducted inShilparamam's SampradayaVedika in Hitec City onTuesday. The event, organisedby the Eashwari Bai MemorialFund, headed by Congressleader and daughter of J Eashwari Bai, J Geeta Reddy, saw theattendance of the Vice President of India Venkaiah Naidu as thechief guest. Bandaru Dattatreya, the Governor of Himachal Pradeshwas present as the guest of honour. J Geetha spoke about howfinancial independence for younger children was the idea that washonoured by the Eashwari Bai Memorial Trust. Jana Reddy said thepostal service is to be appreciated for taking this opportunity tocelebrate Eashwari Bai. As a poor, dalit woman she rose to power inthe Republican Party and struggled for the welfare of the poorersegments of society. B Dattatreya said her life was an inspiration tomany others and fought for the rights of Dalits incessantly. VPVenkaiah naidu said that the purpose of memorial stamp is toinspire the present generation and recall the sacrifices. She used tofight the might of the ruling party, he noted.

To facilitate nursingmothers who aretravelling by trains, a

baby feeding kiosk has beenopened at Secunderabadrailway station, on Tuesday.The kiosk set up by theRotary Club of HyderabadEast, Rotary InternationalDistrict 3150 incoordination with SouthCentral Railway (SCR) is located on the Platform No 10 in thestation. The kiosk with cubicles set around will help the nursingmothers duly providing privacy for lactation of their kids, a pressrelease said. According to SCR, with maternal and childcare beingone of the focus area of passenger amenities, railways are planningto set up more such kiosks/ cubicles in various important railwaysstations across Hyderabad, Secunderabad and Vijayawada divisions.Earlier, as a pilot project, the first such baby feeding kiosk was setup at Begumpet railway station in 2019. Abhay Kumar Gupta,Divisional Railway Manager, Secunderabad, said railways is alwaysin the forefront in providing amenities and facilities to its rail usersand setting up of lactation kiosks is one among such initiatives.Thisapart, a handloom stall has also been set up by Pochampallyweavers on Platform No 1 for the benefit of rail users to save theirtime by shopping for locally designed and prepared handlooms. Italso assists the small sector traders for enhancing their business,the press release added.

CITY LIGHTS

PNS n HYDERABAD

In what can be called as a dou-ble-edged sword, the GreaterHyderabad MunicipalCorporation (GHMc) is slap-ping exorbitant fines againstillegal hoardings and adver-tisements. On one hand it willserve as an effective deterrent,while on the other, it willfetch additional revenue to thecivic body.

The Corporation has earnedaround Rs 60 crore by slappingfines on hoardings and flexes,which were setup withoutobtaining proper permissionfrom the appropriate author-ities of the civic body.

Armed with the state gov-ernment's simplified adver-tisement policy and GO No68, officials of the GHMC'sDirectorate of EnforcementVigilance & DisasterManagement (EV&DM) wingare taking strict action againstthe advertisement agencies,which are violating the normsof the government in placinghoardings and flexes. They are

charging hefty fines in a bid tokeep the city clean.

The EV&DM officials areparticularly against hoardingsthat are above 15 feet from theground level. In such casesthey are levying a fine of Rs 1lakh rupees from the ad agen-cies. The officials are examin-ing the old flexes, which arepresent for a long time. Theyare actinf strict, keeping the

safety of commuters andpassersby in mind. The offi-cials are issuing certificates tothe ad agencies only afterexamining the ad content, asalso the structural stability ofthe hoardings.

Apart from the height of thehoardings, the other parame-ters that the officials are look-ing into are proper docu-ments - whether the con-

cerned ad agency has takenpermission from designatedauthorities - proper lightingarrangements incorporated inthe hoarding and structuralstability of the hoardings. Theyare particularly against thosehoardings that have been putup without structural stabili-ty certificate.

The GHMC, which isresponsible for the upkeep of

the city's environment, ischarging 20 percent extraamount for non usage of non-LED lights in illuminating thebillboards, to ensure that thecity stays clean and green.

The advertisers are allowedto use LED lights only from 7pm to 4 am. The GHMCauthorities are particularlyagainst hoardings being put upon buildings that are part ofhistory, at areas where thereare electric transformers andat Commissioner's and othergovernment offices.

In the past there have beeninstances, when hoardingscollapsed resulting in injuriesand property loss as well. Thisis despite after such structuresbeing certified to be stable,officials explained. On theother hand, the new adver-tisement policy will also aid inincreasing revenue. The adver-tisements will now be per-mitted at designated places likebus shelters and toilets andonline data of such structureswill be maintained, a seniorofficial said.

GHMC flexes its muscles againstillegal advertisements, hoardings

PNS n HYDERABAD

As per the directions of theTelangana Chief Minister KChandrasekhar Rao, ChiefSecretary Somesh Kumar con-ducted a teleconference withall the District Collectors,DEOs and district welfare offi-cers of BC, Minority, TribalWelfare and SC developmentdepartments and directed theofficials to reopen the schoolsfor students of Classes VI, VIIand VIII safely following Covidprotocols.

The Chief Secretary hasdirected that the classes shouldstart from Wednesday as far aspossible and not later thanMarch 1. Nearly 17.24 lakh stu-dents in addition to the exist-ing number are likely to beattending school from ClassesVI to VIII. The Chief Secretaryalso directed that District LevelEducation Monitoring Com-mittee chaired by the districtcollector should meet and takeup opening of classes.

The Chief Secretary statedthat all precautions should betaken for safety of students andteachers. Special measuresshould be taken after reopen-ing of schools. Classes for stu-dents of IX to XII standardshave already started function-ing from the February 1.

Secretary of Social WelfareRahul Bojja, Secretary of BCWelfare B Venkatesham,Secretary of Health and FamilyWelfare Rizvi, Secretary ofMinority Welfare NadeemAhmed, Special Secretary ofTribal Welfare Sridhar andDirector of School EducationDevasena attended the meet.

Eashwari Bai memorial postagestamp released in Hyderabad

Due to unexpectedrecent rains in

Hyderabad, the roadsacross the city

resembled a gardenwith trees in full

bloom. The residentscame out and spenttime taking selfieswhile some women

were seen picking theflowers on Tuesday.

– SV Chary

COLOURS OF

SPRING

Reopen schools safely: CS

ANUSHA PUPPALAn HYDERABAD

Even though the TelanganaGovernment TeachersAssociation have welcomed thegovernment's decision ofreopening schools for ClassesVI, VII and VIII, the HyderabadSchool Parents Association(HSPA) has criticised the moveamid increasing Covid cases inTelangana. Education MinisterSabitha Indra Reddy on Tuesdayannounced the reopening ofschools for Classes for VI, VIIand VIII across Telangana fromWednesday. Meanwhile, theTelangana Progressive Teachers'Federation (TPTF) and TelanganaState United Teachers Federation(TSUTF) have also welcomed thedecision. Chava Ravi, GeneralSecretary of TSUTF said,"Traditional classroom teachingfor Class X students, whichstarted on February 1 has beengoing on smoothly for the lastthree weeks. With the sameexperience, TSUTF has

demanded the state governmentto start classes for VI to VIIIstandard students from last weekof this month to ensure that theacademic year is not wasted. Weare grateful that the governmentagreed to it. Similarly, TSUTF hasasked the government to takesteps to start primary schools inthe first week of March."However, Hyderabad SchoolParents Association (HSPA) hascriticised the government'sdecision to open school amidincrease of Covid cases in otherstates. Kadapa Venkat Sainath,Member of Hyderabad SchoolParents Association (HSPA) toldThe Pioneer, "The EducationMinister recently told thatschools will not be reopened forclasses VI, VII and VIII sincethere is only one-and-a-halfmonth left for the academic year.Now, what has forced theminister to reopen the schools?"he questioned adding that "Is itthe pressure of the schoolmanagements which has forcedto take such decision?”

PNS n HYDERABAD

The FASTag, cashless toll taxpayment system for vehicles,which is currently being imple-mented on National Highways(NH) and Outer Ring Road(ORR) will soon be introducedin toll plazas on state highwaysas well. Payments throughFASTag will be introduced intoll plazas on Hyderabad-Ramagundam Rajiv Rahadarifrom March 1.

It may be recalled that allgates of toll plazas have beenlinked to FASTag fromFebruary 15 this year.

There are two state high-ways. They are Hyderabad-Ramagundam highway andNarkatpalli-Addanki statehighway. There are toll plazasat Duddeda, Renikunta and

Basant Nagar on theHyderabad-Ramagundam statehighway. The contractor forthese three toll plazas is onlyone. FASTag system will beintroduced at these toll plazasfrom March 1.

There are three such plazason Narkatpalli-Addanki statehighway. The plaza atMadugulapalli is in Telangana,while the rest of the two are inAP. While the FASTag systemis in vogue at Madugulapalli, itis yet to be implemented in therest of the two toll plazas.Efforts are under way to intro-duce the system in these tollplazas either in the last week ofMarch or in the first week ofApril.

A clear picture is yet toemerge on installation of sen-sors and other automatic sys-

tems and on who will pur-chase the relevant softwareand other related things - thecontractors or the state gov-

ernment. The agreements tocollect toll tax were reached in2010, when nobody knewabout FASTag.

To implement the relevantsystem at each toll plaza, itwould cost Rs 70 lakh. Whilethe nodal agency, appointed

by the Centre, will reimbursethe contractors only Rs 20lakh, the rest of the amountwill have to be borne by thecontractors. But the contrac-tors have appealed to theCentre to reimburse the entireexpense.

The Centre has firmly askedthe contractors to put thesesystems in place first and talkabout the reimbursementlater.

The toll plazas collect dou-ble the toll tax if a vehicleapproaches the toll plaza with-out the FASTag. The statehighways also collected dou-ble toll tax ever since the sys-tem was introduced.

Vehicle owners would haveto buy the FASTag on the spotor would have to pay doublethe required toll tax.

State highways soon to go for payments through FASTag

PNS n HYDERABAD

A fire broke out at a foodmanufacturing and packag-ing unit in the industrialarea at Sri Krishna Nagar onthe city outskirts here onTuesday afternoon. No casu-alties were reported in thefire, the police officials said.

Officials suspect an oilleakage from a boiler led tothe fire. Locals in the nearbyresidential area noticed fireand smoke emanating fromthe unit and alerted the firedepartment and the police.The fire spread into plasticcontainers filled with oil andother chemicals used in theprocess, due to which thicksmoke enveloped the sur-rounding area for quite sometime.

Appreciating theswift action by theRachakonda Police

in arresting interstateburglars who looted herhouse and recoveringstolen material worth Rs25 lakh, B.SwayamPrabha, an employee ofthe Food Corporation ofIndia met PoliceCommissioner MaheshM. Bhagwat andthanked him here on Tuesday. Swayam Prabha thanked theCommissioner and expressed her gratitude to the Nacharampolice and the Central Crime Station police for their efforts insolving the case. It was in December last year that SwayamPrabha's house at Habsiguda in Nacharam was burgled by athree-member gang that stole cash, diamond and goldornaments.

Fire breaks out at food processingunit on outskirts

PNS n HYDERABAD

Seven militia members of thebanned Communist Party ofIndia (Maoist), who wereallegedly involved in 18 caseswere arrested in Mulugu dis-trict and explosive materialsseized from their possession,police said on Tuesday.

Police took up combingoperation in Pamunuru forest

area on Monday and foundsome armed men plantingexplosives with intention to killpolice personnel, they said.

After seeing the team, theytried to escape, but policenabbed seven of them, Mulugudistrict superintendent ofpolice Sangram Singh Patilsaid.

On interrogation, theyrevealed that they have been

working as militia members forthe CPI (Maoist) party for thelast few years, the SP said.

They assisted the naxals intheir activities by providingfood and shelter and informingthem about police movementin the area.

They were given training bythe naxals on how to handleand plant land mines andspikes in order to kill police

personnel and also regularlyprovided with explosive mate-rial and spikes, police sourcessaid.

Accordingly they plantedlandmines in several areas neartheir villages and in deep for-est area in order to targetpolice personnel and to detertheir movement, sources said.

As per the directions ofsenior leaders of Telangana

State committee of CPI(Maoist) party, militia mem-bers were going to assemble inPamunuru forests to plant landmines for killing police comb-ing teams, when they werecaught, police said.

Police seized nine crudeland mines besides detona-tors, electric wires, batteriesand other items from twoplaces.

PNS n HYDERABAD

Four people were killed andtwo others grievously injuredin two separate road acci-dents in Telangana onTuesday.

Two jewellery shop own-ers, who were carrying goldornaments worth Rs 1 crorein a car, were killed and twoothers including the driver ofthe vehicle were grievouslyinjured when the car inwhich they were travellinglost control and overturned

near Ramagundam inPeddapalli district.

The police officials, whoarrived at the accident spothave shifted the injured to thehospital. The deceased, whoown a Jewellery shop inNarasaraopet of Guntur dis-trict in neighbouring AndhraPradesh prepare gold orna-ments in order and supplythem to jewellery shops indifferent parts in the twoTelugu states.

They were on their way toMancherial to supply the gold

ornaments to a local traderwhen the accident occurred.

In another accident, twopeople were killed when aspeeding truck hit them atAbdullapurmet on the out-skirts of the city on Tuesday.

The victims, both con-struction workers, were trav-elling on a two-wheeler fromtheir village to Bandaraipurawhen the accident took place.

The police officials regis-tered the case and are on thelookout for the errant truckdriver.

PNS n HYDERABAD

An elderly woman, has gonemissing from her relative'shouse in Nacharam on Tuesday.

The woman, S Radhamma,60, a resident of Uppal, hadcome to stay with her nephewin Bhavani Nagar two monthsago. On Monday, her nephewand family members went to

their native place in the morn-ing, leaving her at home totake rest. She is suspected tohave gone out and has beenmissing since then.

Unable to find her, familymembers approached thepolice on Tuesday, after whichthe police have booked a caseof missing and have taken upinvestigation.

Seven Maoist militia members held, explosives seized

Four killed, two injured in two different road mishaps

Elderly woman goes missing

PNS n HYDERABAD

The Digital Media Wing ofTelangana IT, E&CDepartment bagged thePublic Relations Society ofIndia's (PRSI) national awardunder "CommunicationsCampaign of the Year - Covid19" for the year 2020.

Digital Media DirectorDileep Konatham receivedthe award at a virtual eventheld by PRSI. Union Ministerof Education RameshPokhriyal and UttarakhandGovernor Baby Rani Mauryawere chief guests at the event.

The outreach initiatives ofTelangana IT, E&CDepartment that were chosenfor the PRSI Award under"Communications Campaignof the Year - Covid 19" cate-

gory include: TelanganaGovernment had partneredwith WhatsApp & SBTechnologies and launched adedicated Chatbot to provideaccurate and timely infor-mation on the Covid pan-demic to citizens. Telanganawas the only state in India tohave launched such a ChatBot in Telugu, Urdu andEnglish languages.

The Factcheck portal isfirst of its kind initiative inIndia by a State Government.

The fact-checked informa-tion is generally useful foreveryone in India who wantsto keep apace with the Covid-19 updates. However, theportal focuses mainly onissues that concern theTelangana Government andits people.

T’gana Digital Media wingbags PRSI national award

Government teachers welcome the move, but HSPA criticizes it

Baby feeding kiosk set up at Sec’bad Railway Station

Burglary victim thanks CPMahesh for swift action

HYDERABAD | WEDNESDAY | FEBRUARY 24, 2021

hyderabad 04

PNS n HYDERABAD

TDP candidate for graduates'MLC elections L Ramana hasalleged that the land, drugand sand mafia were ruling theroost in the state. Speakingafter filing his nomination as aTDP candidate for Hyderabad-Rangareddy-Mahbubnagar dis-ricts graduates' constituency onTuesday, he said that the MLCelections are held apolitically.

If he is sent to the UpperHouse, he claimed that he

would voice the problems ofvarious sections of society.

He claims to have the expe-rience of working as an MLAtwice, MP and Minister.Claiming to be in politics formore than 27 years, he appealedto voters to give their mandateto him. He also pointed outhow Mahabubnagar,Rangareddy and Hyderabaddistricts witnessed develop-ment doing TDP regime.

PNS n MULUG

Mulug district collectorKrishna Aditya on Tuesdayasserted that Rs 2 crore havebeen sanctioned for minimedaram jatara scheduled tobe held from February 24 to28.

Speaking to the media atCollectorate, Krishna Adityasaid, "Necessary arrangementsare being made for the conve-nience of devotees.'

The collector said that thegovernment laid emphasis onproviding drinking water facil-ities, road transport facilities,electricity and darshan facili-ties and added that as many as150 sanitation workers havebeen deployed for cleaningthe premises.

Keeping in view the hugeturnout of devotees from var-

ious districts in Telangana andadjoining districts ofChhattisgarh, MaharashtraMadhya Pradesh and Odishastates, we have set up five newsheds for the convenience ofdevotees, he said.

The collector stated that Rs18 lakh have been allotted forsetting up infiltration wells,taps and sheds for changingdresses and Rs 15 lakh for lev-elling sand in Jampanna vaguto avoid casualties when devo-tees take holy dip.

"Rs 13crore allocated toinstall signboards at MedaramJunction. Rs 25 lakh allocatedfor electrification works and Rs30 lakh for TW. Rs 10 lakhhave been allocated for policebandobust arrangements, Rs 9lakh for endowments and Rs 5lakh for protocol arrange-ments," the collector said.

ITDA project officerHanmanthu Zandenga,Additional Collector AdarshSurabhi, DPRO and otherswere present at the event.

All set for mini medaram jatara

ML MELLY MAITREYI

n HYDERABAD

Things are falling in place forthe Telangana Government’snew Information TechnologyPolicy for 2021-26 to decen-tralise the IT and ITeS and takeit to tier II and III towns withthe Centre sanctioning thenew Regional Ring Road pro-ject around the State capital.

The in principle approvalgiven by the Union Ministry ofRoad Transport and Highwaysfor the 340-km Regional RingRoad around the State capitalto be taken up in two phaseslinking 20 towns around Statecapital has come as a shot inthe arm for the State govern-ment’s Growth in Dispersion(GRID) policy.

The IT department sourcesare enthused that the RRRfrom Sangareddy toChoutuppal, once ready, will

facilitate their plans to take ITand ITeS units to smaller townsfor equitable development.

With employment genera-tion, townships and othersocial infrastructure facilitieswill come up, apart from giv-ing a boost to agriculture and

its allied activities like coldchains, food processing units,etc,.

In August last year, towardsthe end of Telangana State’s firstfive -year IT policy period, theState Government approvedthe GRID policy to offer incen-

tives to the IT companies beingset up in areas other thanHitech City and Cyberabadwhich are in the Western sec-tor on the city.

One of the incentives underthe GRID policy was to pro-vide affordable infrastructurefor the IT companies to helpthem spread to all the foursides of the city.

The government said that ITParks would be established inthe eastern part of the city inand around Uppal, Mallapurand Nacharam. Some big com-panies like Infosys, Genpact,some medium and small scaleenterprises set up operations inthe eastern part of Hyderabad.

The new IT policy, which isbeing fine tuned and likely tobe finalised in April this year,will train its sight on mid-scaleand small companies andattract them to set up facilitiesin tier II and III cities.

MARTHI SUBRAHMANYAM

n HYDERABAD

Will Vani Devi, daughter of for-mer PM PV Narasimha Rao,fulfil Chief Minister KChandrasekhar Rao's dream bygetting elected to the LegislativeCouncil by winning from theHyderabad-Rangareddy-Mahabubnagar graduate con-stituency? According to alle-gations, the TRS has fielded herfrom a losing seat. Even Vani'sfamily members nurse thesame feeling.

KCR, after initial vacilla-tions, gave ticket to Vani Devisurprising everyone. The deci-sion boosted the morale of theparty workers. Earlier, theprediction was zero winningchances for the TRS from theseat. The MLC polls took a newturn with the TRS fielding itscandidate. The contest has nowbecome three-cornered withTRS fielding candidate.

Earlier, the fight was limit-ed to BJP's Ramachander Raoand independent nomineeProf Nageshwar. Now theequation has drasticallyaltered. The TRS strategyworked in changing the pollequation. Political circles arehowever, agog whether KCR's

decision is right or wrong. Vani Devi is going to split

Brahmin community votes.Ramachander Rao is also pop-ular among advocates and stu-dents. His ABVP backgroundis a plus factor for him.Majority of the alumnus of OUwill vote for him. The BJP, fol-lowing its victory in GHMCpolls is rearing to go. It isimplementing its action planby appointing former deputymayor Subash Chander as theconstituency in-charge.

In comparison, many feelthat Vani's candidature hasbeen suddenly imposed.Moreover, she has no rapportwith the people as her rivalRamachander Rao has in hiscommunity, observers feel.She is a stranger to many vot-ers. She has no other identityexcept that of being PV'sdaughter. The burden ofensuring her victor is square-ly on TRS MLAs, since KCRhas himself fielded her. Manyfeel that her credentials as PV'sdaughter will help her only toan extent.

Acting as per a strategy, KCRfielded her to deflect publicattention from the anti-establish-ment wave, which was clearlyperceptible in the GHMC polls.

Bodhan MLA condemnsArvind's allegations NIZAMABAD: Bodhan legislator Shakeel on Tuesday sought anexplanation from Nizamabad MP Arvind as to how the TRS governmentwas related to issue of fake passports which is under the purview of theCentral government. Condemning the allegations levelled against thegovernment by the MP here on Tuesday, he claimed that there were noRohingyas in Bodhan and accused the MP of politicising fake passportsissue. Stating that the Central government issues the passports, hedenied any relation whatsoever to the Telangana government in the issueof passports. He turned tables on the BJP MP questioning what theCentre has been doing when Rohingyas living under the same roofobtained 32 passports. Rohingyas received fake passports in Bodhanwith the help of the Aadhaar cards obtained in other states. He advisedthe MP to stop driving a wedge between various religions and focus ondevelopment. He offered to quit from politics if Arvind were to be re-elected MP.

BoM employees stage protest,want vacancies filledHYDERABAD: Around six thousand employees of the Bank ofMaharashtra working in around 1,900 branches across the countrystaged demonstrations with a demand for filling posts like part-timesub staff, sub staff and clerks. The agitation was organied under theaegis of All India Bank Employees' Association (AIBEA). In astatement, the General Secretary of All India Bank of MaharashtraEmployees Federation (AIBOMEF) Devidas Tuljapurkar said that thetemporary part-time sub staff were working in more than 1,100branches and added that more than 600 branches of the bank hadtemporary sub staff. He also said that since last five years, the bankhad not filled up vacancies which fell vacant due to the death,retirement, resignation or promotion in clerical cadre and thevacancies arising out of branch expansion and increase in business. He said that as per their estimates, more than 1,000 clerks wereneeded to be recruited to man the branches of the bank properly. He alleged that the bank was outsourcing jobs even in core activitieswhile noting that it is inviting fraud risk by doing so in the process.He also alleged that the Bank management was taking all HR and IRdecisions unilaterally by setting aside age-old practice of bi-partisandespite the strong objection by the employees' union. He said thatthey were holding a dharna on February 26 in front of 32 zonaloffices besides holding another dharna before Lokmangal HeadOffice of the bank on March 6 next month. He also said that theywould observe a day-long nationwide strike on March 12, 2021.

SHORT TAKES

RRR to give a fillip to newIT Policy of Telangana

Mafia ruling the roost in TS: TDP

Will PV family namehelp Vani Devi win Council election?

CCTVs vital forcontrollingcrime: MLAPNS n PATANCHERU

Patancheru MLA GudemMahipal Reddy on Tuesdaysaid that CCTV cameras playa key role in controlling crime.

Inaugurating CCTV cam-eras set up by under the aus-pices of the gram panchayatsin Bonthapally and Veerann-agudem villages of Gummad-idala mandal, the MLA saidthat a single CCTV camera isequivalent to 100 policemen.He said that the CCTVfootage were playing crucialrole in cracking several cases.

Stating that the use ofCCTV cameras has increasedtremendously in recent times,he said that efforts were beingmade to set up communityCCTV cameras in the entireconstituency. He advised thedonors to come forward forthe noble cause of setting upCCTV cameras in rural areas.

Launches CC road worksLaying foundation stone

for the construction of CCroad in Veerannagudem vil-lage taken up at an estimat-ed cost of Rs 15 lakh, MahipalReddy said that the creationof infrastructure in ruralareas was a top priority.

MP Praveen VijayabhaskarReddy, ZPTC Kumar Goud,DSP Bhimreddy, CI LaluNayak and others were present.

Private teachers' body prez filesnomination for graduates MLC pollPNS n HYDERABAD

President of Telangana PrivateTeachers' Association, SheikhShabbir Ali, has decided tocontest the graduate MLCelections with the aim to fightfor the rights of teachers of theprivate schools, who havebeen badly hit by the lock-down, in the state. During thelockdown period the schoolsstayed closed and the teacherswere not given their salaries,forcing many to switch profes-sion to feed their families.Situation has not muchimproved now, though theschools have partially openedtheir gates to the students.

40-year-old Shabbir Ali,who teaches Hindi in a privateschool, has filed his nomina-tion for graduate MLC elec-

tions on Monday fromWa r a n g a l - K h a m m a m -Nalgonda graduate con-stituency. The bike rally, lead-ing to his nomination, beganat N2G College in Warangaland ended at the Collectoratein Nalgonda.

He said that during theentire lockdown period,induced by the pandemic, heand his association pleadedwith the managements of theschools to pay salaries to theteachers, but hardly anyonepaid salaries to them. As aresult they had to suffer andlook for other jobs to feed theirfamilies. His aim is to questionall the school authoritiesregarding salaries and ensurethat the teachers get theirdues, if he wins the graduateMLC election.

PNS n PEDDAPALLI

The fourth accused in thedouble murder of highcourt lawyers, Bittu Srinu,was presented before judgein the Manthani court onTuesday.

Tension prevailed in theregion on account of thepolice presenting the accusedbefore the judge.

Meanwhile, the policeincluded the name ofLachchaiah as the fifthaccused in the FIR as he con-ducted recce on the move-ments of Vaman Rao.

The police registered acase against him on a com-plaint lodged by Vaman Rao'sfather.

Tension prevailed near theManthani court as a group oflawyers protested in front ofthe court demanding thatthe government institute aCBI probe into the case.

4th

accused indouble murdercase presentedin court

ANUSHA PUPPALA

n HYDERABAD

Telangana State Human RightsCommission (TSHRC) onTuesday issued notice toDistrict Education Officer(DEO) Rangareddy and in-charge Principal of GlendaleAcademy International Schoolto appear before theCommission on February 24,2021 by 2 pm failing which theCommission would issue war-rant against them.

The Commission has issuednotice to the above authoritiesto discuss the matter in whichGlendale Academy issuedTransfer Certificate (TC) toClass 9 student right before thefinal examinations.

Glendale Academy inBandlaguda illegally gaveTransfer Certificate (TC) to aClass 9 student in January2021 stating that the parentsquestioned the school author-ities for removing the studentsfrom the online classes.

The parents approachedTelangana Human RightsCommission (HRC) for helpbecause the student was givenTC just one month before herfinal examinations of class 9.

According to the report ofRangareddy DEO, MandalEducational Officer, alongwith the father of the child andtheir advocate, visited theschool and had talks with themanagement of GlendaleAcademy International.

The management agreed toallow the child to write Class9 final examinations scheduledto be held in March 2021 andto resume the online classes,provided parents of the childpaid cleared the dues fromNovember 2020 and gave anapology letter.

However, the school expectsthe parents to accept theTransfer Certificate after thefinal examinations of Class 9.

The report also shows thatparents were ready to pay thefees from November 2020 andwere ready to give an apologyletter to the school manage-ment but they are not willingto accept the TransferCertificate (TC) after the finalexaminations as they wanttheir child continue his Class10 education in the sameschool. The DEO in herreport, clearly stated that to themaximum extent, MEO triedto persuade both the parties,but in vain.

According to the Commiss-ion, there is a need to hear thecontentions of all the parties -Meenu Salooja, the in-chargePrincipal Glendale Academy,DEO and the parents of thechild. Hence, the Commissionissued notice to DEO and in-charge principal of GlendaleAcademy to appear before theCommission on Wednesday by2pm without fail. Deviation ofthe order of the Commissionwill result in issuance of war-rant, the commission said.

Boy given TC: TSHRCsummons DEO,Glendale Academy

PNS n HYDERABAD

The state government hasdecided to pay dry seasonallowance to MGNREGAworkers from February 1 toJune 30 because of harshsummers. The workers areentitled to get 20 per cent forFebruary, 25 per cent forMarch, 30 per cent each forApril and May and 20 percent for June.

The government is likely totake suitable measures in thisregard. The allowance will bepaid to the workers as theylose wages due reduced work-ing hours in summer. The

MGNREGAworkers to getdry seasonallowance

HYDERABAD | WEDNESDAY | FEBRUARY 24, 2021 nation 05

In a major shock to the BJP,the NCP on Tuesdaymanaged to elect its mayor

for the Sangli MirajKupwad MunicipalCorporation, which was ruledby the saffron party.The NCP's DigvijaySuryawanshi was elected asthe mayor of the civic body,after five BJP corporatorsvoted in favour of him. "There are 78 members in the civic body.During the election, the NCP candidate bagged 39 votes, while theBJP's Dhiraj Suryawanshi got 36 votes," the NCP's district presidentSanjay Bajaj said. At least five BJP corporators voted in favour of theNCP candidate, while two abstained from voting, he said. Earlier, theBJP's strength in the civic body was 43, while the NCP's was 34, hesaid, adding that the party managed to adjust seven votes in theelection. Umesh Patil of the Congress has been elected as thedeputy mayor, he said.

INDIA CORNERMaharashtra: Jolt to BJP as NCP wins mayoral election in Sangli

Lakha Sidhana, who iswanted in connection withthe violence in Delhi on

Republic Day, on Tuesdayattended a public meeting inPunjab's Bathinda in supportof the ongoing farmers'agitation against the Centre'sagri laws. A video clip showedhim seated on the dais. Thegangster-turned-activist hadgiven a call for the public meeting in Bathinda's Mehraj village lastweek. There was speculation whether Sidhana would take part in thepublic meeting as he is wanted by the Delhi Police for his alleged rolein the violence that broke out during a tractor parade called by farmerunions on January 26 demanding the repeal of the agri laws.Thousands of protesters had clashed with the police during theviolence. Many of the protesters reached the Red Fort and enteredthe monument, and some of them even hoisted religious flags on itsdomes and a flagstaff at the ramparts.

R-Day violence accused Sidhanaattends public meeting in Bathinda

The Uttar Pradeshgovernment on Tuesdaysaid there is a provision of

giving Rs 50 lakh ex-gratia tofamilies of all government,corporations and otherdepartment employees whodied due to COVID-19 whileworking for prevention andtreatment of the virus. TillOctober 26, 2020, families of19 personnel who died due to the virus have been given the amountof Rs 50 lakh each. In a written reply to a question by SamajwadiParty member Mohd Faheem Irfan in the state assembly, ChiefMinister Yogi Adityanath said the ex-gratia provision of Rs 50 lakh isfor all employees of government, semi-government, corporations,autonomous institutions, contractual workers, working for theprevention and treatment of COVID-19.

Covid death: Ex gratia provision forfamilies of govt employees in UP

An elderly man and his twominor grandsons havebeen killed by a herd of

wild elephants near the SanjayTiger Reserve in MadhyaPradesh's Sidhi district, aforest official said on Tuesday.The incident took place onMonday night in Haikivillage, about 85 km from thedistrict headquarters, she said.After the herd of elephants entered the village, Gorelal Yadav and hisgrandsons Ramkripal (12) and Ramprasad (13) rushed out of theirhouse to move to a safer place, the tiger reserve's sub-divisionalofficer Jaya Tripathi said. The jumbos, however, caught hold of thetrio and banged them on the ground with their trunks. The threevictims died on the spot, the official said. Later, angry residents ofthe village, which is situated close to Chhattisgarh, staged a blockadeon the Tilwari-Janakpur Road in protest.A probe is underway into theincident, the official said.

PNS n KHARAGPUR (WB)

Warning against the dangers ofclimate change and naturaldisasters like the one inUttarakhand recently, PrimeMinister Narendra ModiTuesday asked the IITs todevelop disaster resilient infra-structure that can withstandtheir effects.

Addressing the 66th convo-cation of IIT (Kharagpur), theoldest of Indian Institutes ofTechnology, he gave the stu-dents the mantra of "Self-3""self-awarness, self- confidenceand selflessness" in order tobecome startups for bringingabout a change in the lives ofpeople.

He also spoke of the need formaking available safe, afford-able and environment friend-ly energy to people through ini-tiatives like the InternationalSolar Alliance.

"Climate change is a majorchallenge as natural disastersdestroy infrastructure. Indiadrew the attention of the worldto the issue of disaster manage-ment. "You can see what hap-pened recently in Uttarakhand.We should focus on developingdisaster resilient infrastruc-ture that can withstand natur-al disasters," he said.

The prime minister referredto the global Coalition forDisaster Resilient Infrastructure(CDRI), which he announced

at the UN Climate ActionSummit in 2019.

The CDRI envisages partner-ship of national governments,UN agencies and programmes,multilateral development banks,financing mechanisms, privatesector, and knowledge institu-tions to promote the resilienceof new and existing infrastruc-ture systems to climate and dis-aster risks to ensure sustainabledevelopment.

He hailed the role played bythe IITs in developing technol-ogy to battle COVID-19, andsaid the hallowed institutesshould now work fast on find-ing futuristic solutions to otherhealth care problems.

"You represent the aspira-tions of 130 crore people ofIndia," he said, while address-

ing the convocation virtually.Noting that the needs and

aspirations of the 21st centuryIndia have changed, Modi saidIITs also need to transformfrom being just IndianInstitutes of Technology toInstitutes of IndigenousTechnologies.

"You have to become startupsto bring about a change in thelives of people. You have to workon Self 3-- self- awareness, self-confidence and selflessness. Youshould recognise your potentialand move forward, move aheadwith full confidence, moveahead with selflessness," he toldthe students.

Underscoring the need forclean and affordable energy, theprime minister said India pre-sented to the world the concept

of International Solar Alliance.He said the cost per unit of

solar power was very little inIndia. However, it was still agreat challenge to reach it topeople's homes.

"Can you do somethingabout reaching solar cookers tohomes using 'chulha' (earthenovens)," he asked.

He said before the coronavirusstruck people used to keep onlymedicines at their homes.

"Things have changed. Theynow keep machines that mea-sure blood pressure, machinesthat measure blood oxygen. Ahuge market has emerged forpersonal health care equip-ment," he said while speakingabout research and innova-tion in the field.

He said IIT students canmake use of PM Research FellowScheme and the Startup IndiaMission for idea incubation.

The prime minister spokeabout the government liberal-ising regulations on geospatialdata to allow private companiesto conduct survey and map-ping without prior govern-ment approvals and sharing thedata for various everyday appli-cations, from logistics andtransport to road safety and e-commerce.

He said the decision will pro-vide a huge impetus to DigitalIndia and was a step forward inthe direction of realising thevision 'Aatmanirbhar Bharat'.

PM warns against dangers of climate change

PNS n NEW DELHI

The prestige of India's healthsector and trust in it hasincreased manifold across theglobe after it successfullyovercame the trial by fire duringthe COVID-19 pandemic lastyear, Prime Minister NarendraModi said on Tuesday andasserted that time has come totake accessibility and affordabilityin healthcare to the next level.Addressing a webinar oneffective implementation of theUnion Budget's provisions in thehealth sector, he said the budgetallocated to health this year isunprecedented and shows thegovernment's commitment toprovide better healthcare. Modi said his government istaking a holistic approach tohealthcare and is not justfocused on treatment but alsowellness.To keep India healthy,the government is working onfour fronts simultaneously --prevention of illness andpromotion of wellness, providingcheap and effective treatment tothe poorest of the poor,increasing quality and quantity ofhealth infrastructure andhealthcare professionals, andworking on mission mode to

overcome obstacles, Modi said.The prime minister said it is timeto take accessibility andaffordability in healthcare to thenext level for which use ofmodern technology is beingincreased, he said. "Last year wasin a way like 'agnipareeksha' (trialby fire) for the country andparticularly for the health sector. Iam happy that the country'shealth sector was successful inthis 'agnipareeksha'. Wemanaged to save so many lives,"he said while crediting theachievement to combined effortsof the government and privatesector. The prime ministerrecalled how, within a fewmonths, the country could set upa network of 2,500 labs and howit could reach a milestone of 21crore tests from a mere dozentests. Modi said the pandemichas taught a lesson which is notjust to fight the virus but preparethe country for any such futuresituation. "From medicalequipment to medicines, fromventilators to vaccines, fromscientific research to surveillanceinfrastructure, from doctors toepidemiologists, we have to payattention to all so that thecountry is better prepared for anyhealth disaster in future," he said.

India's health sector overcame trialby fire during Covid, says Modi

PNS n NEW DELHI

Petrol price onTuesday nearedthe Rs 91 perlitre mark inthe nationalcapital anddiesel crossedRs 81 a litre, as fuel prices werehiked again after a two-daypause.

Petrol and diesel prices wereraised by 35 paise per litreeach, sending retail rates to anall-time high, according to aprice notification of state-owned fuel retailers. Theincrease pushed petrol price toRs 90.93 a litre in Delhi and toRs 97.34 in Mumbai. Diesel -the most consumed fuel in thecountry - now comes for Rs81.32 a litre in the national cap-ital and for Rs 88.44 inMumbai.

Fuel prices had risen for 12straight days before hitting atwo-day pause button onFebruary 21 and 22.

The increase follows a spurtin oil prices in the internation-al market, on which India isdependent to meet its 85 percent of crude oil needs.

Brent oil crossed USD 66 a

barrel onTuesdayas USo u t p u twas slowto return

after a deepfreeze in Texas

shut production last week.Petrol prices have been raisedby Rs 4.63 per litre in Februaryand by Rs 7.22 in 2021. Dieselrates have gone up by Rs 4.84a litre in February and by Rs7.45 in 2021. Petrol price hasalready surged past the Rs100-mark in some places inRajasthan and MP, which levythe highest value-added tax(VAT) on the fuel.

Retail pump prices differfrom state to state dependingon the local taxes (VAT) andfreight. The increase in fuelprices has been criticised bythe opposition parties such asthe Congress that said that theModi government should havecut excise duty to ease con-sumer pain.

The Modi government hadraised taxes to scoop out thebenefit that arose from inter-national oil rates plunging toa two-decade low in April/Maylast year.

PNS nTHIRUVANANTHAPURAM

Opposition Congress onTuesday demanded a judicialprobe into alleged deep seafishing contract between theKerala government and a USfirm, a day after authoritiesdecided to cancel a controver-sial MoU signed between thecompany and a state-ownedcorporation.

The party rejected as 'inad-equate' the government'sreported directive for an inter-nal probe under the aegis ofadditional secretary T K Joseinto the pact between EMCCInternational and KeralaShipping and InlandNavigation Corporation

Alleging a conspiracy involv-ing Chief Minister Pinarayi

Vijayan and his two cabinetcolleagues over the project,Leader of the Opposition in theassembly Ramesh Chennithala

claimed the probe wouldnot be adequate to bring outthe truth. "The bureaucraticinquiry that has just been

announced is not at all ade-quate. A judicial probe shouldbe carried out to bring out thetruth completely," he told apress meet here.

Not just the MoU betweenEMCC and the KSINC, but theRs 5000 crore worth main

project agreement with thecompany should also be can-celled at the earliest and thefour acre land allotted to themat Pallippuarm should takeback, he said.

The senior Congress leadersaid there were indicationsthat the EMCC was not theonly company behind the deal.

"But, some major monopo-lies are also there behind thescreen. It is doubtful whethersome online food distribution-companies are also involved init," Chennithala said.

He also said the Congress-led United Democratic Front(UDF) would extend supportto the 'coastal hartal' ,announced by various unionsand outfits on February 27 asa mark of protest against thealleged deep sea fishing con-

tract.The front would also take

out a march through thecoastal areas explaining thefishermen community aboutthe issue, he added.

Vijayan on Monday direct-ed the officials concerned tocancel the EMCC-KSINC dealand probe the circumstancesunder which such an MoU wassigned.

The step was taken report-edly to avoid further controver-sies, with the opposition level-ling fresh charges and bringingout what they term as 'evi-dence' almost every day.

EMCC International IndiaPrivate Limited president Shiju

Varghese came out againstthe cancellation of the agree-ment, asking on what basis itwas done.

Cong demands judicial probe into EMCC deal

PNS n BENGALURU

The opposition parties onTuesday held the BJP govern-ment in Karnataka responsiblefor the blast at a quarry site inChikkaballapur district, whichleft six dead, saying it did not payattention to safety aspects evenafter a similar recent incident.

Congress state unit chief DK Shivakumar said, "The blastin Chikkaballapur which killedsix people occurred due to theirresponsible government."

Pointing out that theChikkaballapur blast was thesecond such incident in the lastone month, he sought to knowhow many innocent liveswould the government sacri-fice. "At the time of the explo-sion in Shivamogga, I hadstressed on a safe system forhandling and transporting

these explosives and strictadherence to the rules and reg-ulations but this government,which is caught with its owninternal problems could notpay attention."

He also termed the state-ment on action against theguilty as 'ridiculous.'

Former CM Siddaramaiahcame down heavily on the gov-ernment, saying "theChikkaballapur explosion with-

in a month of the Shivamoggagelatin explosion is a testamentto the government's inaction,irresponsibility and collusion inthis illegality and corruption."

"Dear Chief Minister, whomare you protecting? masses or

the corrupt people?" theCongress stalwart asked andalleged that those who werekilled in the blast did not dieof explosives but maladminis-tration of the CM.

Karnataka oppn alleges govtpatronage to illegal quarrying

PNS n JAMMU

An Army jawan was killedin an accidental firing dur-ing training here onTuesday, a defencespokesman said.

"Gunner Sayan Ghoshof Artillery Regiment suf-fered fatal injury due to afiring accident while carry-ing out live firing trainingat the field firing range (inAkhnoor sector)," thespokesman said.

The incident occurredaround 10.30 am. Thespokesman said furtherdetails are being ascer-tained.

Jawan killed in‘accidental’firing in Jammu

PNS n NEW DELHI

A plea in the Delhi HighCourt on Tuesday sought thata standing order of Ministryof Home Affairs which man-dates inclusion of an advocate'sdetails in an accused's crimi-nal dossier be declared as"illegal and arbitrary".

A bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Jyoti Singhissued notice to the MHA,Delhi government, UP gov-ernment and the police of bothstates seeking their stand on aplea by a businessman whohas contended that due to thestanding order several lawyersdeclined to represent him afterhe was allegedly implicated ina false case by the police.

The petitioner, a formerlawyer, has also sought com-pensation of Rs 10 crores forbeing allegedly "wrongfullyarrested, kept in illegal custodyand brutally beaten for the

purpose of extortion".In his plea, filed through

advocate Dibyanshu Pandey,the petitioner, SaurabhAgarwal, claimed that a fakecase of recovery of stolen goodswas made against him after herefused to accept the allegedextortion demands made bythe police officers of SamaipurBadli PS in north Delhi.

Agarwal, in his plea, hasalso alleged that he was kept inpolice custody "for the pur-pose of extortion", despitebeing remanded to judicialcustody by a magistrate.

He has further alleged thathe was initially "attacked andcaptured" by 7-8 persons at gunpoint from Ghaziabad andthen taken to the police station.He has claimed that his shopwas searched, but no stolenitems were recovered fromthere and after he was againbrought back to the station hewas allegedly beaten up there.

Plea in Delhi HC against MHA order

PNS n MUMBAI

Maharashtra Forest MinisterSanjay Rathod, who was notseen in public after his namewas linked to the death of awoman in Pune, visited a tem-ple in Washim district onTuesday and later dismissedthe allegations against him.

Talking to reporters after vis-iting the Pohradevi Temple inWashim, Rathod claimed "dirtypolitics" was being played follow-ing the woman's "unfortunate"death. The Shiv Sena leader

also expressed confidence thattruth will come out following aprobe into the matter.

The opposition BJP in thestate, however, demandedremoval of Rathod as ministerand a comprehensive probeinto the woman's death.

The 23-year-old womandied after falling from a build-ing in Hadapsar area of Puneon February 8. Some socialmedia posts and the BJP ear-lier alleged that Rathod wasconnected to the death of thewoman. On Tuesday, the min-

ister travelled by road from hisresidence in Yavatmal to thePohradevi Temple in neigh-bouring Washim, where hesought blessings and took partin rituals.

A large number of Rathod'ssupporters thronged the venue,in apparent violation of thesocial distancing norms.

Later, in a brief interactionwith media, Rathod said heand the Banjara community, towhich be belongs, are painedby the woman's death andshare her family's grief.

Maha minister denies link towoman's death, visits temple

PNS n LUCKNOW

The Uttar Pradesh ChiefMinister's Covid Care Fundreceived Rs 412 crore throughvarious sources till July 23 last

year, the state Assembly wastold Tuesday. "In the ChiefMinister Relief Fund-CovidCare Fund, Rs 412 crore wasreceived through varioussources including through the

District Magistrates," the chiefminister said in a written replyto a question in the stateAssembly.

The question was asked bySamajwadi Party MLA Sanjay

Garg who had sought to knowabout the amount received inthe Chief Minister's care fundand the District Magistrates'care fund between January1 toJuly 23 last year.

PNS n NEW DELHI

A plea in the Delhi HighCourt on Tuesday sought thatfact-finding reports by variousextra judicial bodies like theDelhi Minorities Commission(DMC) on the riots in thenational capital last year bedeclared as having no stand-ing in law.

A bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Jyoti Singhissued notice to the Centre,Delhi Police and various extrajudicial bodies, includingDMC, seeking their stand onthe petition by a lawyer whoseschool was burnt down in thenorth-east Delhi riots inFebruary last year.

Communal clashes had

broken out in north-east Delhion February 24, 2020 afterviolence between theCitizenship (Amendment)Act (CAA) supporters andprotesters spiralled out ofcontrol leaving at least 53people dead and around 200injured

The petitioner has con-tended that since the chargesheet has been filed in theFIRs lodged in connectionwith the burning down of theschool, the fact finding reportsby extra judicial bodies wouldinterfere with the due processof the trial.

He has sought that thereports be removed from pub-lic domain and be declared ashaving "no value in law".

PNS n NEW DELHI

The Union Home Ministryhas directed a phased closureof two special and temporaryCOVID care centres in thecity in view of "continuousdecline" in coronavirus cases,officials said on Tuesday.

While the Sardar VallabhBhai Patel COVID hospitallocated in the DelhiCantonment area is man-aged by the DRDO, theSardar Patel COVID CareCentre operational in southDelhi's Chhattarpur area ismanaged by the ITBP.

As per a directive accessedby PTI, the Ministry of HomeAffairs (MHA) has asked theDefence Research andDevelopment Organisationto "close down" the facility runby it and directed the ArmedForces Medical Services(AFMS) to withdraw theirhealth professionals manningthis centre and ordered thesame with "immediate effect"to the ITBP for theChhattarpur facility. The twofacilities will be closed inphases. Those admitted willbe discharged gradually andno new admissions will bemade now, a senior homeministry official said.

Plea in HC againstreports by extrajudicial bodies

MHA directsclosure of twospecial DelhiCovid centres

‘UP CM Covid Care Fund got `412 cr till July’

Petrol nears `91-markin New Delhi, crosses`97 in Mumbai

Man, his two grandsons killed bywild elephants in Sidhi

ongoing three Ds —Disengagement, De-escalationand De-induction. In the past,contradictory informationwould be leaked by theGovernment and military offi-cials even as independent jour-nalists claimed they had theirown sources, all of which ledto mammoth confusion. Lastweek Lt Gen Joshi, who waspilloried over last year’s mul-tiple intrusions, explained howthe disengagement deal cameabout following an audacioustactical operation by stealth toseize strategic heights onFinger 4 and on Kailash rangeon August 29/30 to turn thetables on the PLA. That theseoperations were on the Indianside of the LAC does notdiminish their brilliance.

Elaborating, Lt Gen Joshisaid placing tanks at Rezanglaand Rechinla on Kailash rangewas the game-changer intoreviving stalled talks and forc-ing the PLA to withdrawingfrom Finger 4 to beyondFinger 8. He noted that thewithdrawal plan was in writ-ing for the first time and thatthe talks would resume.

To be clear, details of with-drawal on the south bank arenot as specific as on the northbank. In the written agree-ment, no mention is made ofRSQA April 2020 though dis-

cussion on other frictionpoints is included. AssumingLt Gen Joshi has been quotedaccurately, the Kailash trumpcard has already been playedas quid pro quo for Fingers. Hesaid no land was ceded toChina, presumably referring tothe Pangong lake sector andnot across the intrusion sites.The field is still wide open —with India’s core concernslocated at Galwan, andDepsang apparently left in alimbo without the toweringKailash heights available as abargaining chip. This round iswin-win for both India — withthe vacation of Fingers — andChina — securing removal oftanks and troops from Kailashrange. But using the Ace ofSpades in the first move is a biggamble though Lt Gen Joshisaid it is not advantage in per-petuity. He called the entireepisode — Indian seizure ofKailash heights and the PLA’swithdrawal from Fingers as aloss of face for China whichhas annoyed the Chinese.

The resumed dialogue onSaturday ended not in a writtenagreement but a joint statementto “push for a mutually accept-able resolution of remainingissues so as to jointly maintainpeace and tranquility in borderareas”. Key questions remain:Final disposition of troop sep-

aration at Galwan, Ghogra-Hot Springs, Demchok andDepsang. At Galwan, Indiantroops were pushed back two-and-a-half km from their tradi-tional patrolling point No 14and a buffer zone created.China regards Depsang a lega-cy dispute and the absence ofeyeball confrontation may prob-ably preclude its inclusion froma friction point. But it is of thehighest strategic sensitivity forIndia’s defence of theKarakoram range and an offen-sive towards Aksai Chin; and ofvital strategic import for Chinafor similar reasons. India couldlikely be left with Chinaensconced along its 1959 claimline, buffer zones predomi-nantly on India’s territory, stale-mate at Depsang, no RSQAApril 2020, de facto loss of ter-ritory and most importantly col-lapse of peace, trust and tran-quility along the border, thebedrock of sound and stablebilateral relations. China, on theother hand, wants decoupling ofborder dispute from bilateralrelations. Depsang will prove tobe a test case.

(The writer, a retired MajorGeneral, was Commander,IPKF South, Sri Lanka, andfounder member of the DefencePlanning Staff, currently theIntegrated Defence Staff. Theviews expressed are personal.)

Nearly a fortnight after tragedy struck in the form of a glacier breach at Joshimath inUttarakhand’s Chamoli district, the State Government has issued a notification todeclare 136 people, who are still missing after the February 7 flash flood, “presumed

dead”. Of the 204 people originally reported missing when the flood hit two hydropowerprojects near the Naina Devi National Park, search and rescue workers have recoveredthe rest of the bodies or fragmented body parts. This move by the Government, whichhas begun the process of issuing death certificates for those missing, would basically

make it faster and easier for the bereaved families toreceive compensation early. Treating the Chamoli inci-dent as an “exception”, the Government decided toinvoke provisions of the Registration of Births andDeaths Act, 1969. Usually, people who go missing ina disaster or natural calamity are declared dead if theyremain untraced for seven years. But this law allowsthe Government to declare missing persons as deadbefore the stipulated seven-year-period. The death cer-tificates for those missing would be made under threecategories: One, locals belonging to Chamoli district;two, those belonging to other districts of the State; andthree, tourists or people from other States.

While the Government’s decision is laudatory in thesense that it would help alleviate some degree of pain being felt by those families who arein the throes of uncertainty and suspense after their kin went missing, the need of the houris for the authorities to address the real cause for the tragedy rather than just treating symp-toms. While there is reportedly no imminent danger in the artificial lake formed in the uppercatchment of the Rishiganga river as the volume of water is less than expected and it’sflowing through a natural channel that has been widened, the focus should be on contain-ing mindless human and construction activity in the fragile ecosystem of the hills. Scientistsare still debating the exact cause that led to the flash floods but there is little doubt that suchdisasters are likely to become more frequent. This could be because of long-term effectsof human activity that brew slowly but lead to tragic developments — such as the climatecrisis — as well as more recent developments, such as the construction of dams to gen-erate electricity in the mountain terrain. Slowly but surely, we are beginning to feel the effectsof climate change. It’s in the interest of our own self and our future generations that weheed these warnings and take timely action. Otherwise, it might be too late.

What the ‘Grand Old Party’ needs to learn from the BJP is not only how to winelections but also how to form a Government or at least dislodge the incum-bent by triggering defections and fanning a rift in the rival camp. With the res-

ignation of Puducherry Chief Minister V Narayanasamy ahead of a floor test, the Congresshas lost its only Government in the South. That, too, when crucial Assembly electionsin five States — Assam, Kerala, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal — are roundthe corner. The party’s failure lies not only in losing successive elections but also in itsinability to maintain its hold over places where it has formed the Government. All of thispoints to a weak leadership, demoralised rank and file, lack of planning and coordina-

tion and factionalism. While the BJP has a league ofleaders, including from the Rashtriya SwayamsevakSangh and the Vishva Hindu Parishad, apart from itsown cadres who reach out to various communitiesin a strategic and well-planned manner months aheadof an election, the Congress is literally bereft of sucha “strong line” and its grassroots workers are appar-ently devoid of the confidence needed to win polls.The party still solely depends upon its age-old for-mula of banking on the Gandhi surname for electoralbreakthroughs. However, the plan has now becomeobsolete and the Congress needs to roll up its sleevesand refurbish its image among the voters.

Even as the party tries its best to recuperate from various setbacks with Rahul Gandhi’saggressive campaigning for the upcoming Assembly polls, the party does not have anelected president. Last month, the Congress announced that it will have an elected pres-ident by June 2021. This entails a message: Either the party doesn’t want to lose cru-cial time ahead of polls in conducting internal elections or it is shielding its “Yuvraj”from the ignominy of losing elections, if that happens. Further, most of the Congressleaders still toe the line of the Gandhis and the way important decisions are taken inthe party shows the lack of democracy there. Recently, the party’s highest decision-making body — the Congress Working Committee — had authorised Sonia Gandhito schedule the internal elections after the conclusion of the Assembly polls in five States.With the latest setback in Puducherry, the party’s political footprint has shrunk furtherand it is now in power on its own in just three States — Punjab, Chhattisgarh andRajasthan. For the Congress, the battle ahead is an uphill task. However, if it wants toeven be in the contest, it needs to bring about systemic changes, both within the partyas well as in its strategy of reaching out to the masses. The Congress must also learnfrom the BJP that in order to win polls, it’s more important to make tall promises ratherthan fulfil these on time. Else, it must stay contented with the Punjab civic polls victo-ry. As of now, the BJP seems too formidable for the Congress.

Shaky leadership

P A P E R W I T H P A S S I O N

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HYDERABAD | WEDNESDAY | FEBRUARY 24, 2021

06

Helping handDeclaring those still missing after the Chamoli tragedy

‘presumed dead' is aimed at helping their families

The trump card has already been played as quid pro quo for Fingers. This round is win-win for both India and China

PICTALK

A bicycle rider during a winter snowstorm near Independence Hall in Philadelphia AP

DEPSANG IS OF THE HIGHEST

STRATEGICSENSITIVITY FORINDIA'S DEFENCE

OF THEKARAKORAM

RANGE AND ANOFFENSIVE

TOWARDS AKSAICHIN; AND OF VITALSTRATEGIC IMPORT

FOR CHINA FORSIMILAR REASONS

ASHOK K MEHTA

The Congress has failed to win elections or maintain its hold in several States

Kailash card used,Depsang in limbo

Some questions on disen-gagement from the Line ofActual Control (LAC)need to be asked again:

Why did India withdraw fromthe commanding heights onKailash range without quid proquo like Return Status Quo Ante(RSQA) April 2020 integrallylinked with withdrawal fromDepsang and instead settle forvacation from just north-southbanks of Pangong Tso? Theanswer was located in NorthernArmy Commander Lt Gen YKJoshi’s interviews last week; thedetails follow. For a year now,India has been claiming it has theskill and tenacity in high-altitudewarfare, including Siachen,whereas the People’s LiberationArmy (PLA) — which perhapsfor the first time had occupiedposts on Kailash range since1962 — does not have similar tal-ents. China has imposed addi-tional deployment costs of ̀ 1,000crore, excluding ̀ 20,000 crore inemergency operational acquisi-tions, which is a godsend as innormal course, the transactionswould not have materialised.

To recap: Under the shadowof COVID-19 pandemic, Chinadiverted the PLA on training inXinjiang to intrude at multipleplaces from Depsang toDemchok across 300 km of eastLadakh. India looked like a tube-light bereft of counter-intrusioncontingencies. China pushed theLAC westwards to its 1959 claimline, establishing a buffer zone atGalwan and refusing to discussDepsang. The Galwan clash andan Indian coup de main in thatorder froze and nudged disen-gagement which secured anIndian vacation from dominatingheights on Kailash range over-looking Chinese garrisons atMoldo and Spanggur lake. As inthe first disengagement, it isadvantage China. Beijing hasimposed economic costs, trans-forming the LAC into LoC. WhileIndia has politically withstoodChina’s bullying, the perception inthe neighbourhood about India’sability to be a net security providerhas been cast in doubt.

Still the Government has tobe congratulated for providing,for the first time, critical opera-tional information about the

SOUNDBITEREOPENING SCHOOLS WILL HELP STUDENTS Sir—There is no point in not reopeningschools. There is no substitute for classroomlearning and online education system hasseveral drawbacks. All States must take acue from Uttar Pradesh (UP) which hastaken the lead in announcing the reopen-ing of schools for younger students of class-es one to five. The UP Government has saidschools can open from March 1, and alsoissued a set of guidelines.

While parents are worried, they mustalso understand that staying at home is nosolution. However, it is on the part ofschools and colleges to ensure that socialdistancing is followed and the students aremade to sit at a safe distance from eachother inside classrooms. Further, the schooladministration should distribute soft dis-posable cotton masks to each studentdaily and must place sanitising machinesoutside the entrance and exit of the class-es and at the main entrance of the school.

Staying away from school for long willmake the students lethargic and create sev-eral psychological disorders, especiallyamong the young students. They willdevelop the habit of staying at home andnot going to schools which would provecounterproductive to their mental andphysical development in the long run.Students in the age group of three to 10years will develop fear psychosis and willavoid going to school. They will try theirbest to make excuses and then parents willunderstand the importance of early reopen-ing of schools.

P Senthil | Mumbai

AAP’S MISADVENTURE Sir —This refers to the editorial ‘Harvestingvotes’ (February 23). In the last threeAssembly elections in Delhi, the AAP hasproved its mettle even as there was a strongBJP wave across the country. Now the AAPis looking to expand its base to UttarPradesh, Uttarakhand and other States rid-ing on the farmers’ protest. But the partymust remember that the politics of UP isentirely different and winning the westernregion is the toughest nut to crack. With

parties like RLD, SP and BSP having quitesignificant base among the voters, the AAPventuring into UP elections might proveto be a misadventure for the party.

For the AAP, unlike Delhi, it won’t bea plain contest but a fight where religion,caste, traditional loyalties and other fac-tors will play a crucial role. The AAP madeup its mind to contest the elections in UPlast year itself. Delhi Deputy Chief MinisterManish Sisodia had previously targeted theUP Government regarding the state ofeducation in UP. In December last year,Sisodia conducted a debate programmetitled ‘State of Education—Kejriwal’s DelhiModel versus Yogi’s UP Model’ inLucknow. But the AAP must rememberthat the BJP will leave no stone unturnedto fight anti-incumbency and win the 2022UP elections.

Nischai Vats | Sultanpur

BJP HAS LOST GROUND IN PUNJAB Sir —The BJP has never been a consider-able force on its own in Punjab. But still

the fourth place in the State civic polls isa reflection of the anti-Centre mood thathas gripped the farming community. Forfarmers, the Centre means NarendraModi and the BJP again means NarendraModi. On the other hand, the poor showof the SAD is attributed to its past alliancewith the BJP.

The voters were reluctant to believeboth had “really” parted ways. For theCongress, the massive victory is satisfyingin the sense that there has been no anti-incumbency in the State and it remains thestrongest political party in Punjab. CaptainAmarinder Singh, always seen as his ownman, has strengthened his position in theState though there was a palpable local-level dissent against him. The BJP shouldthink fast to even things even things out.It has lost ground in districts consideredits bastion in Punjab.

Ganapathi Bhat| Akola

Send yyour ffeedback tto:letterstopioneer@gmail.com

It is extremely worrying and alarming that theweekly cases of COVID-19 are surging againin India. The problem is particularly severe in

Maharashtra and Kerala and the StateGovernments are responsible for it. The increasein cases in Maharashtra was witnessed after theMumbai local was thrown open to all categoriesof commuters. These two States have given asevere blow to our fight against the pandemic

and have left the entire nation in the lurch. Withno restrictions on interstate movement, the virusis expected to spread fast and assume giganticproportions.

Further, with new strains of Coronavirusinvading our lives, against which the present vac-cines are ineffective, we need to be very care-ful and take all precautions like wearing masksand sanitising our hands. We must also main-tain social distance that went for a toss recent-ly after the economy was thrown open and var-ious activities restarted. We are not ready to suf-fer another dreaded prolonged pandemic whichcould be even worse. People have already suf-fered a lot; schools, offices and businesses wereclosed for long while daily wage earners havebeen pushed on the verge of extinction. Thosewho fail to follow COVID-related protocols shouldbe put behind bars. Further, the Centre must takestrict action against the States which fail to con-trol COVID.

Ramesh G Jethwani | Bengaluru

Take errant States to taskAny community candemand reservation.That is not wrong.But I feel that onlythose communitiesshould get reserva-tion who deserve it the most, in accordance with the provisions of theConstitution.

Congress leader

— Siddaramaiah

Those who violatesocial distancingrestrictions will notbe eligible for anupcoming batch ofemergency cashhandouts.

South Korea PM —Chung Sye-kyun

I was very affectedwhen my nose broke inthe Bigg Boss. Theybroke my prop's headand threw water on mebut I controlled myanger on the show.

Actor—Rakhi Sawant

We will be able to openschools in July-August2021 but our biggestchallenge will be how to deal with the learning loss.

AAP MLA

—Atishi Marlena

The pink ball tends toswing a lot more thanthe normal red ballthat we play with. Weexperienced that whenwe played one match

in 2019 with Bangladesh. Indian captain

—Virat Kohli

LETTERS TO TTHE EDITOR

Education is not amarket commodity

RAHUL GANDHI WENT TO PUDUCHERRY AND TRUE TO

HIS MIDAS TOUCH, CONGRESS LOSES ITS

GOVERNMENT IN THE STATE!

—BJP LEADER

AMIT MALVIYA

PUDUCHERRY IS A UT AND NOT A STATE. PEOPLE CAN

SEE THROUGH THE BJP’S CORRUPT POLITICS OF

FELLING GOVTS USING MUSCLE AND MONEY, CLEARLY.

—CONGRESS LEADER

GAURAV PANDHI

Unlike other nations, education in India isconsidered a costly affair. Historically,Government spending in education has

been low, with less than four per cent of the GDPspent per annum. This lack of budgetary supportcoupled with an increasing population has result-ed in the cost of education becoming inflated inthe country. However, in India, where a majori-ty of the population finds it hard to make endsmeet, parents and students consider a good edu-cation from a reputed institute a dream worth chas-ing. Inevitably, a good education, be it primary,secondary, higher or professional, has made itsplace in the list of fundamental needs of individ-uals. Considering this, the Government has, timeand again, intervened to regulate and formulatepolicies for promoting quality education across thecountry.

Timely financial support and policy measuresbecome enablers for not only educational institu-tions but students, too. They collectively promotequality education in order to deliver a skilledhuman capital that, in turn, takes the economy ona higher and sustainable growth trajectory. Of late,there have been a slew of reforms in higher andprofessional education, which institutions haveresponded to in different ways. This articleexamines one such reform, its consequences andimpact on the country’s education scene.

The concept of Indian Institutes ofManagement (IIMs) was initiated by JawaharlalNehru on the recommendation of the PlanningCommission in 1960. Subsequently, IIM-Calcuttaand IIM-Ahmedabad were established in 1961with the support of the Ford Foundation, IndiaInc. and the Harvard Business School. This fol-lowed the emergence of other IIMs, and todaythere are 20 in number, including six legacy IIMsand 14 new ones set up after 2007.

The establishment of IIMs aimed to producea skilled workforce equipped with managerial anddecision-making skills required for growingindustrialisation in the country. The need for suchmanagerial skills was felt, especially post-1991,when investment and privatisation buttressed theemergence of corporate giants in the liberalisedIndian economy. Given their role in nation-build-ing, IIMs were declared “institutions of nationalimportance” by the Ministry of Education after thepassage of the IIM Act, 2017. The Act also award-ed autonomy to the IIMs for fee regulations apartfrom selection and removal of the chairperson anddirector, student intake and institute expansion.The Government and bureaucracy cannot inter-vene in the day-to-day and strategic operations ofIIMs.

Exercising this autonomy last year, about halfof the IIMs increased their already exorbitant feesfor the two-year full-time MBA course. Thisincluded IIMs from Lucknow, Calcutta, Bangalore,Jammu, Tiruchirappalli, Sirmaur, Nagpur, Udaipurand Rohtak. The fees increase ranged betweenthree per cent (Rohtak) and 36 per cent (Lucknow),averaging at 13 per cent. There already exists a dif-ference in the fee structure of old and new IIMs,which was further widened by the current hike.With the fee hike in 2020 for the academic year2020-2022, the average fee in old IIMs is ̀ 20.7 lakh,whereas that in new IIMs is ̀ 13.7 lakh. The man-agements of these premier institutions attribute this

hike to inflation and the associatedcost of faculty and infrastructure.However, as such, no quantitativeassessment is provided to justify thisargument. Lack of accountabilitydue to the absence of Governmentintervention leads to more questionsthan answers.

On the other hand, the manage-ment institutions under the ambitof the University GrantsCommission (UGC) and the AllIndia Council for TechnicalEducation (AICTE), are restrictedfrom increasing their fees. In itsnotification dated May 1, 2020, theAICTE had asked the B-schoolsoffering AICTE-approved PostGraduate Diploma in Management(PGDM) programmes not toincrease either admission or tuitionfee for the academic session 2020-21 for existing as well as new stu-dents. These two contrasting stories— fee hike in unregulated IIMs andno fee hike in regulated institutions— make one think. Did autonomyplay a significant role in incentivis-ing the IIMs to hike fees?

Fee hike in premier manage-ment institutions becomes a hurdlefor eligible aspirants to acquiremanagerial skills. This problemwas aggravated by the fee hike coin-ciding with the economic recessionand the COVID-19 pandemic.When the contagion has taken a tollon lives, livelihoods and incomes, anincrease in management educa-tion fees has made it impossible formost aspirants to achieve theirdream of studying at these premierinstitutions. Collectively, the current

scenario compromises the veryfundamental objective of educationin the nation that aims to provideaffordable education to the prospec-tive and existing workforce innation-building.

It is well-known that premiermanagement institutions inviteheavyweight offer letters from cor-porate giants. These huge placementpackages are the primary catalyst forfierce competition among manage-ment study aspirants and even pro-fessionals to get into premier IIMs.The bigger the package offered fora particular IIM, the fiercer the com-petition to get into the institute.Does this higher demand for a par-ticular IIM translate into higher feefollowing the fundamental princi-ples of economics?

In other words, it was worthinvestigating the relationshipbetween placement packages fromIndia Inc. and the fees of IIMs. Tothis end, we collated the averagepackage and fees of all 20 IIMs for2020 and performed a linear regres-sion analysis due to which we dis-covered a significant cyclical rela-tionship between an IIM’s fees andthe packages offered during place-ments. This implied that an IIMattracting a higher salary with alucrative job opportunity was like-ly to charge more than other IIMs.

In the empirical analysis, topIIMs (as per the NationalInstitutional Ranking Framework)like IIM-Ahmedabad, IIM-Bangalore and IIM Calcutta attractextremely high packages (average`26.8 lakh per annum) and they

charge inordinately high fees (aver-age ̀ 23 lakh) as compared to otherIIMs, particularly the new ones.

This resembles the typical pric-ing structure of a market commod-ity wherein the supply-demanddynamic in the market decides theproduct price. Education is not amarket commodity meant to meetan individual’s demand. Therefore,it cannot be left unregulated, espe-cially in terms of pricing or feesstructure. Education serves a larg-er purpose of social uplift andnation-building by generating awell-trained and equipped humancapital.

An inflated fee in premier man-agement institutions leaves most eli-gible aspirants with the only optionof an education loan to fund theirdreams. An education loan poses ademonic challenge of repayment.This burden is carried by the stu-dents during the course of theirstudy and afterwards too. The man-agerially-trained brains coming outwith the burden of liabilities expe-rience constrained freedom and lackof creative thinking. This thwartsproductivity and overall value addi-tion to the economy. It is high timethat policymakers critically observethe amendment in the fee structureof India’s premier managementinstitutions of national interest.Policymakers must curtail unregu-lated fee hike in premier institutions,keeping in mind the followingquestion: How can the objective ofstrengthening the human capitalwith managerial skills and its afford-ability marry each other?

It is high time that policymakers critically observe the amendment in the feestructure of India’s premier management institutions of national interest

MARKANDEY KATJU

HUGE PLACEMENTPACKAGES ARE

THE PRIMARYCATALYST FOR

FIERCECOMPETITION

AMONGMANAGEMENT

STUDY ASPIRANTSAND EVEN

PROFESSIONALSTO GET INTO

PREMIER IIMS. THEBIGGER THE

PACKAGE OFFEREDFOR A PARTICULAR

IIM, THE FIERCERTHE COMPETITION

TO GET INTO THEINSTITUTE. DOES

THIS HIGHERDEMAND FOR A

PARTICULAR IIMTRANSLATE INTO

HIGHER FEEFOLLOWING THE

FUNDAMENTALPRINCIPLES OF

ECONOMICS?

On March 23 the German Parliament, the Reichstag, passedthe Enabling Act (named euphemistically as ‘An Act to rem-edy the distress of the people and the State’), which enabled

the German Government to issue decrees deviating from the WeimarConstitution and the law. Although no such Enabling Act has beenpassed formally in India, and specifically by our Parliament, yetan undeclared Enabling Act has been in operation for many yearsin our country. The Constitution, with its fundamental rights, includ-ing the rights of freedom of speech, liberty, equality, religious free-dom, and so on, as well as the laws, are flouted openly and withimpunity by various governments, the police and others, while thosewith authority, like the judiciary, the bureaucrats and the police topbrass look the other way. For instance, people like Akhlaq Khan,Pehlu Khan, Tabrez Ansari and so on were lynched and atrocitieswere committed on people from the minority community withimpunity. One Union Minister even garlanded the lynchers and therewas a hue and cry over it in the media. Despite Article 25 of theConstitution which grants religious freedom and despite the crim-inal laws in India against murder and other atrocities, not muchwas done to those who flout the law.

In Delhi, many citizens were attacked and killed during the recentunrest over the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) rally, withthe police remaining silent spectators. Kafeel Khan, Safoora Zargarand others protesting against the CAA were arrested and kept injail for long periods. In Uttarakhand, some legislators of the rul-ing party said during the COVID period that no one should buyvegetables and fruits from sellers of a particular community, whichis a crime under Sections 153A and 295A of the Indian Penal Code.

Religious polarisation and incitement to hatred has risen onan exponential level in the nation yet, no action is taken againstthe perpetrators. Freedom of speech, “guaranteed” by Article19(1)(a) of the Indian Constitution, has largely been suppressedby various means e.g. arresting and chargesheeting those whospeak against the authorities. As regards freedom of the media,which too was “guaranteed” by the Constitution, it too has beenlargely suppressed, by arrests or intimidation of journalists whoare perceived as being anti-establishment and encouragement tothe “godi media.”

Article 21 of the Indian Constitution guarantees individual lib-erty. But despite this provision, liberty exists largely on paper asthe arrest and long detention of social activists like the BhimaKoregaon accused, the protestors against the CAA, the Kashmirileaders after revocation of Article 370, and those who speak againstthe establishment shows. During the ongoing farmers’ agitationthe farmers were attacked with water cannons, batons and teargas, though they were only exercising their Constitutional right ofpeaceful assembly and demonstration which all democracies enjoy.How is it that the authorities can so brazenly and flagrantly floutthe Constitution and the country’s laws? It is because those whowere supposed to uphold the Constitution and the laws, and pro-tect the rights of the people, have largely become accomplicesand subservient to the establishment, although they were meantto be independent and neutral. An Enabling Act is in full force inIndia, even if covertly.

(The writer is a former judge of the Supreme Court of India.The views expressed are personal.)

In India, there are a littleover one million allopath-ic doctors to treat a pop-

ulation of about 1.39 billion,with one State-run hospitalfor about 90,343 people anda single Government hospitalbed for nearly 2,046 people.It depicts a grim scenariowith an overburdened health-care system.

The effects of theCOVID-19 pandemic havebeen devastating for thealready fragmented health-care system. The outbreakclearly highlighted the lack ofresources, facilities and infra-structure and so on. It showedthat the Indian public health-care system required an inte-grated approach whichshould be a combination ofallopathic clinical or curativeservices and preventive ser-vices like naturopathy. This isbecause, an alternative systemof medicine like naturopathy,

with its preventive approach,can help reduce the burden ofdiseases and lessen thehealthcare costs and thegrowing burden on health-care facilities across the coun-try.

According to a 2018 studypublished by ‘Lancet GlobalHealth’, non-communicablediseases (NCDs) are growingin India. The study men-tions that from the year 1990to 2016, ischemic heart dis-ease and stroke made thelargest contribution, that is28.1 per cent of the total mor-tality rate in India, whilechronic obstructive pul-monary disease (COPD) andasthma made the second-largest contribution to thetotal mortality burden in thenation, at 10·9 per cent.

Also, the ratio of cardio-vascular diseases in causingdeaths increased by 34·3 percent from 1990 to 2016, the

study revealed. These figuresrepresent some of the world’slargest health losses, withenormous policy ramifica-tions.

Furthermore, the lack ofadequate facilities and infra-structure is a big problem forthe healthcare system, result-ing in overcrowding in hos-pitals. Many major metropol-itan cities reported an alarm-ing shortage of beds in hos-pital Intensive Care Units(ICUs) and general wardsduring the pandemic.

Despite the poor state offacilities and due to the dif-ficulty in accessing them,out-of-pocket (OOP) expen-diture for healthcare in ourcountry continues to beamong the leading causes ofpoverty for many households.The British Medical Journalpublished a study in 2018stating that 55 million Indiansfell below the poverty line

because of high OOP expen-diture in 2011-2012. In acountry with low per capitapublic spending on health-care, a preventive method oftreatment can certainly makea big difference in the lives ofthe citizens.

In such a situation, thebig question is how cannaturopathy help?

Naturopathy is a preventivemodel of holistic care thataddresses the root cause ofvarious diseases rather thanmerely treating the symp-toms.

Naturopathy is more inte-grated, where everything istaken into consideration, likethe patient’s physical, mental,and emotional health and allthe social and environmentalfactors. According to theWorld Health Organisation(WHO), NCD’s result in thedeaths of over 41 millionpeople annually, with 15 mil-lion people dying between theages of 30 and 69 years. Withthe increasing threat ofNCDs, behavioural andlifestyle changes are reck-oned as the way forward.

Naturopathy, with itsholistic approach, educatesand makes people moreresponsible for their health.The combination of yoga

therapy and naturopathy cansuccessfully treat patients andspread knowledge and aware-ness about health and diseaseamong the public.

Unlike conventionalmedicine, the naturopathictreatment method usuallyinvolves diet therapy, lifestylechanges, yoga and varioustherapies that are often lessexpensive. Since naturopa-thy’s primary focus is toimprove the body’s immuni-ty system to boost physicaland mental health, the needfor expensive, repeated, andsometimes ineffective treat-ment is eliminated.

A major advantage ofnaturopathy is its ability toeliminate the associatedhealthcare costs that comewith adverse reactions to pre-scription drugs. According toa Harvard University studypublished in 2014, about3,28,000 patients in the US

and Europe die from adversereactions to prescriptiondrugs each year.

The naturopathic treat-ment method uses therapiesthat are gentle, non-invasive,effective and do not haveadverse side effects.

Often, economically vul-nerable sections of the soci-ety fail to get the treatmentthey need from public healthfacilities as they are mostlyovercrowded and under-staffed. Even if they manageto get evaluated, it is cursoryand incomplete on account ofthe time constraint underwhich most physicians oper-ate. As a result, the health out-comes of the patients suffer.In such a scenario, naturopa-thy’s modality can be animmense support to theGovernment’s dream of uni-versal health coverage, pro-vided the standardisation ofthe practice happens soon.

Naturopathy is a preventive model of holistic care that addresses the root cause of various diseases rather than merely treating the symptoms

HYDERABAD | WEDNESDAY | FEBRUARY 24, 2021

07

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FIRSTCOLUMN

OUR VERSION OF THEENABLING ACT

Those who were supposed to uphold the Constitutionand protect people’s rights, have become subservient

SWAPNIL SONI

POINTCOUNTERPOINT

Soni andKalyanasundaram are

senior research fellows atthe Department of

Management Studies ofIndian Institute of Science,

Bengaluru.The views expressed

are personal.

Time to blend naturopathy and allopathy for a healthier nation

KR RAGHUNATH

The writer is SeniorChairman, Jindal

Naturecure Institute. Theviews expressed are

personal.

GANESARAMANKALYANASUNDARAM

HYDERABAD | WEDNESDAY | FEBRUARY 24, 2021 Money 08

MONEY MATTERS

Bajaj Auto on Tuesday saidit has launched the new

version of Pulsar 180 bike inthe country priced at Rs1,07,904 (ex-showroomDelhi). The 178.6 cc modelgets sporty split seats, blackalloy wheels, LED tail lamp,five-speed transmissiongear box with telescopic antifriction bush in the front

suspension and a five-way adjustable nitrox shock absorber in therear suspension. Currently, 20 per cent of the sports bikingsegment is accounted for by the 180-200cc motorcycles and newPulsar 180 will target consumers looking for a sports vehicle offeringthe best in technology and performance, cementing its leadership inthis segment in India that has been unchallenged for the last 20years, Bajaj Auto said in a statement.

Bajaj launches new Pulsar 180 priced at Rs 1.08 lakh

Hinduja Groupflagship Ashok

Leyland on Tuesdaysaid its customers havebeen able to reduce theoverall cost by 15 percent by utilising thecompany's digitalinitiatives. Thecommercial vehiclemaker's digitalintegration across itsbusiness began in

2017, with the launch of a digital marketplace which included ahost of solutions like iALERT, Service Mandi, Leykart andeDiagnostics. The company has added other digital solutionslike iALERT 3.0- an advanced connected vehicle platform,uptime solution centre and AL Care- a one-stop app forcustomers to manage customers' vehicle needs.

Digital tools helping customersachieve 15 pc overall savings

Telecom operator BhartiAirtel and US chipmaker

Qualcomm on Tuesdayannounced collaboration foraccelerating 5G in India.Airtel recently became India'sfirst telco to demonstrate 5Gover a live commercial net-work in Hyderabad city,underlining the company's

technology capabilities. "Through Airtel's network vendors anddevice partners, Airtel will utilize the Qualcomm 5G RAN Platforms toroll-out virtualized and Open RAN-based 5G networks. Airtel, as aboard member of the O-RAN Alliance, is committed to driving thesuccess of O-RAN and is working with Qualcomm Technologies toexplore and implement the O-RAN approach for India," according toa company statement. The scalable architecture of O-RAN will enablenew opportunities for small and medium-sized businesses tobecome viable players in the deployment of 5G networks, it added.

Airtel, Qualcomm team up for 5G push in India

Private sector lender FederalBank is aiming for an accel-

eration in credit growth into"mid-teen" figures in 2021-22on the back of an economicrecovery, a top official said onTuesday. Its Managing Directorand Chief Executive Officer

Shyam Srinivasan said the increase in virus infections in states likeMaharashtra needs to be watched, but exuded confidence that it willnot affect the overall economic activity, terming it a "minor blip". "Weare looking at a credit growth in the mid-teens levels for 2021-22. Ifyou look at the growth in the third quarter of 2020-21, it will come atan annualised level of 10 per cent," he told PTI. Srinivasan said amajority of the loan segments will grow at over 20 per cent levelsand a few like corporate will also grow around 10 per cent to achievethe credit growth target next fiscal.

Federal Bank aims ‘mid-teen'growth in credit

PNS n NEW DELHI

Companies in India arelikely to offer a 7.7 percent salary increase in2021, one of the highestamong the BRICnations, and higherthan the average actualincrease of 6.1 per centin 2020, says a sur-vey.

Global profes-sional servicesfirm Aon Plc onTuesday released insightsfrom its latest Salary IncreaseSurvey in India, as per which88 per cent of the surveyedcompanies reported that theyintend to increase salaries in2021, as compared to 75 percent companies in 2020,reflecting positive businesssentiment.

The study, that analyseddata across 1,200 companiesfrom more than 20 industriesnoted that while salary incre-ments indicate strong recov-ery, the Code of Wages couldbe a gamechanger.

" W eexpect the incre-ment dynamics for 2021to play out over a longer peri-od of time given the uncer-tainty and potential impact offorthcoming changes," NitinSethi, partner and ChiefExecutive Officer of Aon'sperformance and rewardsbusiness in India, said.

The proposed definition ofwages under the new LaborCodes could lead to addition-al compensation budgeting in

theform of higher pro-visioning for Benefit planslike gratuity, leave encash-ment and provident fund,Sethi noted.

"We expect organisationsto review their compensationbudgets in the second half ofthe year once the exact finan-cial impact of the LaborCodes is known. It is also

possible thatsome of the salary

increments maynot trans-late intoh i g h e rc a s h - i n -hand foremployeesif organisa-t i o n schoose topay higherprovidentfund contri-butions onthe new def-inition ofWages," hesaid. As perthe survey,sectors with

the highestprojected increases include, e-commerce and venture cap-ital, hi-tech/information tech-nology, ITeS, life sciences. Onthe contrary, sectors with thelowest projected increasesinclude hospitality/restau-rants, real estate/infrastruc-ture, engineering services.

PNS n MUMBAI

Equity benchmarks Sensexand Nifty ended marginallyhigher on Tuesday amid highvolatility and tepid cues fromglobal markets.

After gyrating 667.46 pointsduring the day, the 30-shareBSE Sensex ended 7.09 pointsor 0.01 per cent higher at49,751.41.

After a similar movement,the broader NSE Nifty settled32.10 points or 0.22 per centup at 14,707.80.

ONGC was the top gainerin the Sensex pack, rallyingaround 6 per cent, followed byIndusInd Bank, L&T,UltraTech Cement, Titan, SBIand NTPC.

On the other hand, KotakBank, Maruti, Bajaj Auto,HDFC Bank and HCL Techwere among the laggards.

Domestic equities wit-nessed roller coaster ride amidhigh volatility, with metalsand realty indices recordingsubstantial gains, said BinodModi, Head - Strategy atReliance Securities.

"Concerns pertaining toincrease in bond yields andhigher commodity pricesdented investors' sentiments inlast couple of days. However,underlying strength of econo-my and market remainsintact," he added.

Elsewhere in Asia, boursesin Shanghai and Seoul endedon a negative note, while HongKong settled with gains.

Stock exchanges in Europewere also trading in the red inmid-session deals.

Meanwhile, the global oilbenchmark Brent crude wastrading 0.81 per cent higher atUSD 64.88 per barrel.

Sensex, Nifty endmarginally higher;ONGC rallies 6 pc

PNS n NEW DELHI

Indian media and entertain-ment (M&E) sector is expect-ed to witness a strong 27 percent growth in revenue toaround Rs 1.37 lakh crore in2021-22, after contracting 26per cent this fiscal, accordingto ratings agency Crisil.

Segments such as digitaland television (TV) will haverelatively shorter time tobounce-back to pre-pandem-ic levels while print, films,outdoor, and radio wouldtake longer.

Crisil Ratings Ltd DirectorNitesh Jain said advertise-

ment and subscription rev-enues contribute nearly equal-ly to the overall M&E sector'stopline, but since the former

correlates strongly with eco-nomic growth, the pandemichas had a bigger impact on it.

"Next fiscal, with strong

economic rebound on thecards, ad revenue should grow31 per cent on-year and sub-scription revenue around 24per cent," Jain added.

The TV segment – con-tributing around half of thesector's topline – has recov-ered fully and will reporthealthy growth next fiscal. Adrevenue saw a sharp contrac-tion initially, but recoveredswiftly thereafter, aided by air-ing of new content, sportsevents such as the IndianPremier League and a buoy-ant festive season, CrisilRatings Ltd said in a state-ment.

Indian media, entertainment sectorto see 27 pc revenue growth in ’22

PNS n NEW DELHI

Markets regulator Sebi hasslapped a total fine of Rs 1crore on Alchemist InfraRealty Ltd and four individu-als for illegally mobilisingfunds from the public througha collective investmentscheme.

The individuals who havebeen fined are Brij MohanMahajan, Narayan Madhavkumar, Balvir Singh andChandra Sekhar Chauhan.

In an order passed onMonday, the watchdog said thecompany and individuals wereengaged in fund mobilisingactivity from the public, whichwas in the nature of aCollective Investment Scheme(CIS). They had collectedmoney from investors in the

name of developing land.As per the order, the com-

pany had mobilised funds tothe tune of Rs 54.1 crore, Rs449.41 crore and Rs 1,087.68crore as on March 31, 2009,March 31, 2010 and March 31,2011 respectively.

Sebi's Adjudicating OfficerK Saravanan said the three bal-ance sheet figures on recordsestablish with certainty thatthe company was carryingout CIS activities atleast in thefinancial years 2008-09, 2009-10 and 2010-11 whileAlchemist was incorporated inthe year 2008.

"I note that Alchemist wascarrying on unregistered CISactivities at least for threefinancial years," he added.

The total fine is payable bythem jointly or severally.

Sebi imposes Rs 1 crfine on 5 companies

PNS n NEW DELHI

Billionaire Mukesh Ambani'sReliance Industries hasannounced the contours ofcarving out of its oil-to-chem-icals (O2C) business into anindependent unit with a USD25 billion loan from the parent,as it looks to unlock value byselling stakes to globalinvestors like Saudi Aramco.

The reorganisation willenable the focused pursuit ofopportunities across the O2Cvalue chain, improve efficien-cies through self-sustainingcapital structure and a dedicat-ed management team, andattract dedicated pools ofinvestor capital, according to acompany presentation filedwith the stock exchanges.

The O2C business unitholds Reliance's oil refineryand petrochemical assets and

retail fuel business but notupstream oil and gas produc-ing fields such as KG-D6 andtextiles business.

Once completed, RelianceIndustries Ltd (RIL) - thecompany founded byDhirubhai Ambani in the late1960s - will house only theupstream oil and gas explo-ration and production busi-ness, including the KG-D6block, financial services, grouptreasury and the legacy textilebusinesses, and act as a hold-ing company of the group.

The retail business is heldin Reliance Retail VenturesLtd and telecom and digitalventures are nested in JioPlatforms Ltd.

RIL holds 85.1 per cent ofReliance Retail and 67.3 percent of Jio Platforms. The restit had sold to global investorsincluding Facebook Inc andGoogle for over Rs 2 lakhcrore.

The wholly-owned O2Cunit's assets will be funded bythe interest-bearing loan,which will be an "efficientmechanism to upstream cash,including any potential capitalreceipts," in the unit, the firmsaid. RIL will provide a loanof USD 25 billion to the O2Csubsidiary at floating interestrate with the subsidiary havingabout USD 42 billion of assets(28 per cent of consolidatedassets).

Reliance to spin off O2C bizinto separate arm with loan

PNS n NEW DELHI

Huge business opportunitiesare present in Colombia forapparel exporters particularlyin fashion segment and thedomestic industry shouldexplore the areas to boostshipments, AEPC said onTuesday.

The AEPC said it has organ-

ised 'India-Colombia Synergiesin Apparel and Textiles', a vir-tual meeting platform toexplore export opportunities inthe South American nation.

Quoting Indian ambassadorto Colombia Sanjiv Ranjan, itsaid there is a huge potentialfor Indian apparel exporters inColombia, particularly in itsfashion industry with domes-

tic sales of about USD 7 billion."India's apparel exports to

Colombia is just 3 per cent ofits global imports. This doesnot really reflect the strengthof what our sector stands for.We have a huge untappedpotential in this sector whichrequires to be explored andutilised by our exporters," hesaid.

Huge export opportunities for apparel players

PNS n NEW DELHI

The All India PowerEngineers Federation(AIPEF) on Tuesday saidconsumers as well asemployees are beingignored in finalising theElectricity (Amendment)Bill 2021, and demandedthat the draft bill should beput in public domain forfeedback. "The consumersand power sector employ-ees and engineers are beingignored in finalising thedraft Electricity (Amend-ment) Bill 2021," AIPEFspokesperson V K Guptasaid. AIPEF demandedthat the bill be put on thepower ministry websiteand the comments of allstakeholders includingelectricity consumers,power sector employees,workers as well as engine-ers must be consideredbefore finalising draft bill.

Consumersignored inElectricity Bill2021: AIPEF

PNS n NEW DELHI

Gold prices on Tuesdayjumped by Rs 337 to Rs46,372 per 10 grams reflect-ing overnight gains in glob-al gold prices, according toHDFC Securities. The priceof the precious metal hadclosed at Rs 46,035 per 10gram in the previous ses-sion on Monday. Silver alsoshoots up by Rs 1,149 to Rs69,667 per kg, comparedwith the previous close ofRs 68,518 per kg.

Gold jumps Rs 337; silver shootsup by Rs 1,149

PNS n NEW DELHI

Goa Mining People's Front(GMPF) on Tuesday expressedstrong reservations over theviability of mining resumptionin the state via the route of gov-ernment-run MineralCorporation and stressed thatit will only lead to a delay in therestart of mining activities.

Mining in Goa came to astandstill in March 2018 afterthe Supreme Court quashed 88mining leases.

"We are fighting for gettingback our livelihood at the ear-liest by resumption of miningin Goa and the fastest solutionis ideal for getting back ourlivelihood. We see that the ear-liest solution is by legislative

amendments."We do not see Mineral

Corporation being a viablealternative to mining resump-tion in the state of Goa as it willonly delay the resumption ofmining with issues like surfacerights and perpetuity rightsenjoyed by the mine owners...state-run Mining Corporationfor resumption of Goa miningdoes not seem to be a feasiblesolution," GMPF PresidentPuti Gaonkar was quoted assaying in a statement.

PNS n ISLAMABAD

Foreign direct investment inPakistan has seen a 27 per centdecline in the first sevenmonths of the current fiscal,owing mainly to the fall ininvestment from its close allyChina, a media report said onTuesday.

The Foreign DirectInvestment (FDI) in Pakistanduring the first seven years fellby 27 per cent compared tothe same period last fiscalyear, Dawn newspaper report-ed, quoting the State Bank ofPakistan (SBP) as saying.

The SBP, the central bank,on Monday said that the FDIduring July-January FY-21was USD 1.145 billion againstan inflow of USD 1.577bn inthe same period last fiscalyear.

The inflow during January

was USD 192.7 million com-pared to USD 219 million inthe same month of the previ-ous fiscal year, registering a 12per cent decline.

However, the seven-monthdecline was mainly due to adecline in net FDI from Chinaand increase in net outflow toNorway, the report said.

The country-wise detailsshowed that net inflow ofFDI from China was USD402.8 million against USD502.6 million in the sameperiod of last fiscal year.

So far, the net FDI fromChina is the highest in the listof inflows from other coun-tries. The inflows from Chinawere USD 707.2 million dur-ing the seven months but theoutflow of USD 304.4 millionin the same period reducedthe net FDI to USD 402.8 mil-lion.

FDI in Pak down by27% in first 7 months

Mineral Corporation not viablealternative in Goa, says GMPF

PNS n KOCHI

The Marine Products ExportDevelopment Authority(MPEDA) and the NationalCooperative DevelopmentCorporation (NCDC) haveentered into an agreement-to synergise their variousprogrammes in the interestof export-oriented captureand culture of fisheries andallied sectors for bringingbetter value to the stakehold-ers. An MoU was signed byK S Srinivas, Chairman ofMPEDA and SundeepKumar Nayak, ManagingDirector of NCDC, here onMonday evening.

"We have identified amplescope for working jointly inthe interest of export promo-tion of marine products forbringing better value to the

stakeholders through a vari-ety of activities, includingexport focus, in line with thepolicies of the government,"Srinivas said. Under theMoU, MPEDA and its So-cieties (NETFISH, NaCSA &

RGCA) and NCDC willjointly formulate pro-grammes to provide techni-cal know-how to coopera-tives to upscale infrastruc-ture created for primaryproduction and post-har-vest management in themarine products export sec-tor, a release issued by theMPEDA said here onTuesday. MPEDA and itssocieties will share a list ofall clusters in various stateswith NCDC, which mayapproach the clusters forachieving scale and aggrega-tion with export orientation.

MPEDA ties up withNCDC to bring bettervalue to stakeholders

UNREGISTERED INVESTMENT ACTIVITIES

Organisations project 7.7 pcsalary increase

.

ducational institutes areresponsible for providing stu-dents with those competenciesor core skills that will allowthem to be satisfied and suc-

cessful in the workplace. Rather thanteaching student’s specific tasks or spe-cialisations, it’s more effective to teachthem some basic competencies whichwill ensure they grow into good citi-zens.

Here are some of the core competen-cies schools should look to inculcate instudents from a very young age:Creative thought: Students should betaught how to think outside the boxand come up with unique solutions toproblems presented to them. There isno cookie-cutter solution to problems,and therefore, students, too, need tolook at problems from various anglesand present solutions that would bestfit.

Critical thinking: Students shouldpossess the skill to be able to take ininformation, analyse it and understandit, rather than taking someone else'sword for it. Especially in the currentday where there is such ease of access

to information, students need to beable to analyse for themselves what iscorrect and what is not.

Collaboration: Almost any job pro-file requires a person to work effective-ly and efficiently along with others.Therefore, students must be taught howto correctly pitch their ideas andreceive feedback from others in a pro-fessional manner. EffectiveCommunication: Using the right tone,language and right kind of communica-tion can prove to be a key factor inhelping students correctly navigatetheir way through life. Good communi-cation skills will also help them buildself-confidence as they progress.

As students become adults, they willbe able to easily adapt, innovate, com-municate and solve issues, makingthem overall changemakers in theworkforce.

(The writer is the MD of The GreenAcres Academy.)

RohanParikh sharessome of the corecompetencies that schoolsshould inculcate in studentsfor them to be adequatelyprepared to enter theworkforce

ne of the mostdesirable conse-quences of Covid-19 has been theincreased all-roundconsciousness for

hygiene. And among severaltypes of hygiene such as per-sonal hygiene, environmentalhygiene etc which impact ourday-to-day lives, food hygienehas naturally emerged as amajor issue for regulators,consumers and above all, foodmanufacturers and companies.

The constant need to bewatchful of what is ingested orgoes inside of our bodies cannever be exaggerated enough.The recent pandemic has onlyfurther highlighted the needfor making food hygiene a pri-ority for all.

There has been repeatedreporting of how the open andunpackaged food sold in thestreets fashionably calledstreet food has in a way beenresponsible for unsafe andunhygienic food consumptionin the country. Particularly inthese times of Covid, if thefood maker doesn't maintain

personal hygiene wears masksand gloves and keeps suffi-cient physical distance fromfellow workers, the food pre-pared is highly risky to con-sume. The unhygienic andunsafe food leads to a viciouscycle of disease and sicknessparticularly impacting theelderly, the sick and the chil-dren, adding to the alreadyhigh burden of disease per-vading in the country.

Yet, the rise in the outbreakof foodborne diseases andsafety cases has continued tobe reported periodically fromdifferent parts of the country.

In fact, unsafe food and waterhave been cited to be thebiggest cause of preventableinfection in India. Not pursu-ing basic food safety practicessuch as wearing an apron,accessing and using tap water,using soap for cleaning uten-sils, and storing food in properrefrigerated facilities is aninvitation to food-borne dis-eases. This also has an eco-nomic cost. It has been esti-mated that food-borne dis-eases cost the country a whop-ping $15 billion.

In India, food-borne dis-eases (FBD) lead to 120,000

deaths each year imposing aburden of over 8 millionDisability Adjusted Life Years(DALYs). In fact, childrenunder five years are at 40%more risk with around 30,000deaths each year. These arefrightening figures which areonly expected to rise furtherin the coming years.

These ongoing measureswere given a new impetuswhen Covid-19 showed upresulting in a new set of guide-lines. In addition to the exist-ing food safety protocols, thefood businesses were directedto ensure that food handlersand workers are made awareof the symptoms of the virusand the risks emanating fromit.

Training programmes onrisk factors, safe food han-dling, social distancing andother protective behaviourssuch as wearing of face mask,handwashing with soap orusing alcohol-based sanitiserswere made mandatory. Inaddition, food premisesincluding areas of food estab-lishment such as preparation,storage and packing areas,equipment and containersbesides toilets and washroomswere to be periodically sani-tised without fail. Thereshould be limited food workers in a kitchen with each worker strictly maintaining personal/social dis-tancing.

(The writer is the directorofBikanervala Foods Pvt. Ltd.)

ctress Nanda Yadav, bestknown for starring inWhy Cheat India, will beseen next in It’s AbuseOnly written and direct-ed by Rochak Sahu. The

trailer is eye-gripping and it keepsyou mesmerised throughout. Theactress has performed out of herskin and surprised us to endlessextent! It turned out to be a veryhard-hitting movie. “Because it issuch an impactful film, we wouldlove to take it to the festival screen-ings. It’s about what happens whentwo strangers who have difficultjourneys have their paths collide. Ican’t share too much informationabout the film and the characters,but it’s sure to leave everyone spell-bound. It’s an edge-of-the-seat

drama. The team was amazing, andeveryone worked extremely hard onthe movie. I am really looking for-ward to the audience’s response. If Icould tell one line about this movie,I would say that truth is strangerthan fiction and there is an under-lying truth to everything,” sharesNanda.

Nanda Yadav made her debutwith the critically acclaimed filmThe Letters directed by WilliamRiead. Not many know that she is atrained Bharatanatyam dancer too.“Working with known and popularactors was a good experience inWhy Cheat India. Emraan Hashmiwas in an altogether different rolein the film. I was playing the role ofan important member of EmraanHashmi’s gang. So once again, it

was a differentcharacter. I hadseen EmraanHashmi’s filmswhile we were incollege and we hada certain percep-tion about him: thathe was more intoromantic films andlove stories, but see-ing him performingsomething serious in acompletely differentlook, standing next tohim felt really good. It wasa wonderful experience,”she shares about her experi-ence while working for theEmraan Hashmi starrer WhyCheat India.

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WednesdayFebruary 24, 2021

ou can’t really define‘high jewellery’ but youknow it when you seeit! High jewellery con-tains only the finestquality of gems with

distinctive design and exquisitecraftsmanship. With all that, itscost is obviously high but it holdsimmense value! Material, signa-ture style, workmanship, all thisis what describes high jewellery,especially when famous jew-ellery designers combine pre-cious and non-precious sub-stances and make extraordi-nary pieces for the sover-eigns. Recently, YFLOChairperson Apurva Jainand committee membershosted a webinar to dis-

cover the savoir-faire ofBvlgari masterpieces!

Renowned gemsand jewelry expert

Lucia Silvestri atBvlgari and

GiampaoloDella Croce,

HighJewellery

Senior

Director, Bvlgari were invited toshare the distinctive expertise of thetrade name to scout the finest trea-sure of nature and enable themthrough the heritage of the Italianroots and contemporary aesthetics.Special guest Nonita Kalra, writer,consultant and former Editor atHarper’s Bazaar, India, moderatedthe session.

Lucia Silvestri began her careerin Bulgari’s gemmological depart-ment at the age of eighteen andbegan travelling the world, meetingwith the world’s foremost gemmo-logical experts when she was just

20. She shared her journey andlove for gemstones and cre-

ations and mentioned hertravels to India and

affinity with theIndian culture.

When

asked about what sets Bulgari’s highjewellery apart other than theextraordinary color combinationsof the gemstones, Lucia said, “Wealways stay true to our past but wealso look at the needs of today’smarket, the fashion trends and themodern society. Even our crafts-manship is contemporary. We havea great workshop for high jewelryin Rome and a great factory inValenza and they are both equippedwith the newest technologies. Eachartisan in the BvlgariAtelier workson one high jewelry creation at atime all day long for a minimum ofthree months per piece — a perfec-tionist process that can take up to ayear or more.”

Giampaolo Della Croce had beenworking with the Bvlgari for morethan three decades and managesthe storytelling, all the technical,historical information on the jewelsto support the sales of Bulgari HighJewellery.

Adding to the conversation,Giampaolo said “Bulgari high jew-ellery creation is a way to collect avaluable art craft, to enjoy it for alifetime, the most profound gift topass onto your loved ones — onethat will hold its value across theworld and more importantly, onethat your offsprings will derivegreat pleasure from wearing.” Healso added that Bulgari jewelry isan amalgamation of rare preciousstones of the highest quality stan-dards, unique craftsmanship, her-itage and disruptive creativity.

“It’ s important to have the offi-cial certification and documentsthat give the specifications and statethe rarity of the gemstones. Of

course, the craftsmanship ofthe jewellery piece

is crucial. You can have the mostexquisite gemstone, but if it is notset right, it will end up being storedin a safe rather than being worn.High jewellery will not stop being agood investment such as contempo-rary art. It is because jewels haveintrinsic value. The jewellery drivesits value not just from the quality ofthe stones but its unrivalled creativ-ity and celebrated Roman heritage,and this is why its pieces have soldat record prices at prestigious auc-tion houses around the world overseveral decades,” Giampaolo said,when asked about some importantqualities to look for when investingin jewellery.

So, this is some majestic beautyof nature that has given rise tostunning and one-of-a-kind cre-ations along with boundless emo-tions inevitably stirring the heart.

The savoir faireof high jewelleryY

A

O

E

Nanda Yadav looksincredibly good in

It's Abuse Only

Health and hygiene above all

In India,food-borne

diseases leadto 1,20,000

deaths eachyear,

imposing aburden of

over 8 millionDisability

Adjusted LifeYears, saysMANISH

AGGARWAL

Prepping for thefuture

Rules

ARCHIE

GARFIELD

SUDOKU

REALITY CHECK SPEED BUMP CROSSWORD

GINGER MEGGS

NANCY

l Each row and column cancontain each number (1 to 9)exactly once.

l The sum of all numbers inany row or column mustequal 45.

Yesterday’s solution

CALVIN AND HOBBES

FUN

10

Hyderabad Wednesday February 24 2021what’s brewing?

It was a star shower at the walimaceremony of Syed Wajid Ali and the granddaughter of Mahmood Ali, Home Minister

of Telangana, at Classic Convention Centre.The who’s who of Hyderabad, including MPAsaduddin Owaisi, former IPS officer AKKhan, Nagarjuna, Naga Chaitanya, MohanBabu, Manchu Lakshmi, Manchu Vishnu, AlluAravind, and Kalyan Ram, among others,were were present at the elegant affair.

STAR SHOWER

Photos by SV Chary

l Supreeya

l Javed and Zahed

l AK Khan and Wahed

l Mohan Babu

l Nagarjuna

l Kalyan Ram and Taherl Manchu Lakshmil Layak and Ismaill Mahmood Ali and Asaduddin Owaisil Achi Reddy and KrishnaReddy

l Allu Aravind and Zaydan

l Naga Chaitanya and Vishnu Manchu

l Sayed Wajid Ali

PARTY

ee Studios has signed on RunRaja Run and Saaho fame direc-tor Sujeeth for a new project,which will go in front of thecameras later this year.

The untitled film will be anaction-thriller with a strong emotionalcore, Sujeeth, whose last film was Prabhas-starrer Saaho, said.

“I’m very excited to work with ZeeStudios on this new project. Saaho was anout-and-out action movie. But this time I'llbe playing with the emotional angle too inaddition to the power-packed actionsequences. Can’t wait to kick-start thisone,” the

director said on Tuesday.Shariq Patel, CEO, Zee Studios said that

Sujeeth’s vision and technical expertise willensure the film will be visually mostappealing. “It gives us immense pleasure toassociate with the super talented Sujeethfor the upcoming project. Sujeeth has writ-ten a taut thriller with a very strong emo-tional core and as a studio, we are extreme-ly excited to bring this to life on the bigscreen. His vision and technical expertisewill ensure the film is amongst the mostvisually spectacular films of 2022,” Patelsaid.The cast and crew details of the pro-

ject are under a tight lockand key.

ctress Nithya Menenrecalls how she becamegood friends with co-starAshok Selvan on the setof their rom-com NinnilaNinnila in London. She

sees it as a good sign for the upcom-ing film’s prospects upon release.

“It is like we all friends cametogether for this beautiful film. I amreminded of the days of AlaModalaindi (her Telugu debut).During its making, director NandiniReddy, Nani and I became goodfriends. The film became a big hit. Iwish that Ninnila Ninnila repeats the

feat,” Nithya says.“This film is entirely different

from the kind of movies I have donebefore. It has got so much feel. Weenjoyed ourselves together likefriends while shooting for it. Each ofthe songs released so far has been

received well by the listeners. Ourfilm is going to leave you with asmile,” she promises fans.

The film is directed by Ani IVSasi, son of the late filmmaker IVSasi and Malayalam actress Seema.“This project is indeed the collective

effort of our friendship. We had somuch fun shooting Ninnila Ninnilain London. The output is superb,”says Ani Sasi.

Ninnila Ninnila is slated to streamin Telugu and Tamil languages onZeePlex from February 26.

ctor Simha Koduri, whomade an impressive debutwith Mathu Vadalara in2019, will be teaming upwith Suryakantham direc-tor PranithBramandapally for his

third venture. To be a joint produc-tion venture between Suresh Babu,Madhura Sreedhar and YashRangineni, the film, titled BhaagSaale, was announced on Simha’sbirthday Tuesday. Pranith is direct-ing it from his own script; whileKaala Bhairava has been signed on

to render tunes.Talking to us, Pranith said Bhaag

Saale is a crime-comedy and that hehas been working on the script forover a year. “It revolves around thecharacterisation played by Simha.He will be shown as a street-smartguy who lands in trouble. How heemerges from it is narrated in ahilarious fashion,” the director said.

Pranith added that he is lookingto have the cameras rolling fromMarch third week. “It is aHyderabad-set drama and we areplanning to wrap up the entire

shooting in 45-50 days over multi-ple schedules. The lead heroinehasn’t been finalised. We are search-ing for a new face. The supportingcast comprises Vennela Kishore,Satya and Viva Harsha,” he revealed,and added that the soundtrack con-sists of five songs. “Bhairava hasalready given one tune.”

Isn’t Suresh Babu tough toimpress? He replied, “I’m learning alot of things from him. He gave mea few inputs and we are working onthose scenarios. Yes, it is tough toimpress him but he liked the story.

Also, I was pretty confident whilegiving him the narration. The storyexcited him and hetold us to not toexceed the bud-get.”

—NG

fter her wink act inMalayalam film OruAdaar Love gainednation-wide attention,Priya Prakash Varrier

was flooded with offers fromTelugu but she was waiting for agood story. When Chandra SekharYeleti approached her to be a partof Check, she agreed to it withouteven listening to the story. “I'vewatched his Vismayam in Malayalamas it starred my favourite actorMohanlal. The film helped me under-stand what a great director he is. Sowhen he rang me, I said I’d do it. Theicing on the cake was when he men-tioned the film stars Nithiin, Rakul PreetSingh and was backed by a good pro-

duction house,” the actress, who playsan adventurous girl who appears inthe flashback as Nithiin's love inter-est, informs.

In a media session last week,Yeleti heaped high praise

on Priya, saying that shewould give him the

expression he need-ed in seconds. Didhe commend herperformance onsets as well?“Chandoo sir isneutral with hisexpressions. Youcan’t decide

whether he ispleased with your

performance or not.After giving my shot I

would look at him, onlyto understand nothing. He

would reply with a ‘yeah,ok’ to my queries on

whether I gave a goodshot. So when he

lauded me duringthe interactive

session

withthe media, I

felt very happy; it was a big thing,” shepoints out gleefully.

The actress adds that she prepped forthe part and so, didn’t require prompt-ing while shooting. “I participated in areading session with Chandoo sir andco-director a couple of days before wewent to shoot and rehearsed my linesthoroughly. If I know the meaning ofmy lines, I would be able to reel out theright emotion. That’s what I did. I don’tlike the idea of prompting. I can’t con-centrate if somebody prompts lines inthe background,” she states, addingthat she can understand Telugu com-pletely and can even speak a little.“If I do some more films in Telugu,I will be able to speak fluently.”

Priya intended to catch thefilm in Hyderabad with herfamily but due to her brother’sexam falling on the samedate to that of the film’srelease date (Feb 26),she dropped the pro-gram and instead isplanning towatch it inKochi.”

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tollywoodHyderabad Wednesday February 24 2021

Simha and Pranith teamup for a crime-comedy

Titled Bhaag Saale,the film will mostlyroll from Marchthird week, withdirector Pranithplanning to wrap itup in 45-50 days.While the search forthe leading lady ison, the supportingcast is stacked upwith the likes ofVennela Kishore,Satya and VivaHarsha

aving gone on tofloors last November,the filming of SaiTej’s next, Republic,with Deva Katta hasbeen wrapped up.

The makers took to theirsocial media pages toannounce that the 64-dayshoot witnessed not even asingle positive COVID-19case. “It’s a wrap for #REPUB-LIC shoot: 64 days in total,fortunately with zero COVIDcases!! All made possible bythis Army!! Thank you!#RepublicOnJune4th,” Kattawrote on Twitter tagging a pic-ture of his crew.

Responding to Katta’s post,Tej wrote, “4 months of hustleand focus and we have fin-ished shoot...the effort andhard work of all the peoplebehind the camera and infront of the camera have made

this possible...kudos to thewhole team of #REPUBLICthis one is going to be aspecial movie in mycareer.”

A social drama, thefilm’s narrativerevolves around thethree pillars ofdemocracy-legisla-tive, executive andjudiciary. Sai Tej willbe seen as an IASofficer in the film,while Ramya Krishnais believed to haveessayed the role of aminister.

The satellite and dig-ital rights of the filmhave already beenbagged by ZEE Studios,which will also distributeit theatrically along withproducers J Bhagavan andJ Pulla Rao.

Republic is going to be a

special movie in my career: Sai Tej

I don't like the idea of prompting:Priya Prakash

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n the occasion of Bheeshma Ekadasi Tuesday, Nandamuri Balakrishna released unseenstills of his turn as Bheeshma from the damp squib NTR: Kathanayakudu (2019). “Dadplayed Bheeshma role in a film (1962) of the same name and impressed everyone with

his performance. I'm a big fan of the film and the way dad went about bringing his role to life.It is the reason why we shot some scenes from Bheeshma for NTR: Kathanayakudu but due tolength issues, we had to trim them from the final edit,” the actor said in a statement.

O

uperstar Mahesh Babuis the latest celebrity tohave raved Buchi BabuSana’s Uppena, which,in the second week, isstill doing decent busi-

ness. The actor, who has returnedto Hyderabad following a nearmonth-long schedule of SarkaruVaari Paata in Dubai, describedUppena as a timeless film, whilereserving high praise for the direc-tor and composer Devi Sri Prasad.“#Uppena... One word... CLASSIC!

@BuchiBabuSana you’ve made oneof those rare timeless films... Proudof you! The heart of Uppena is@ThisisDSP... it’ll be rememberedas one of the all time great musicscores! This is your best work tilldate DSP... Keep rocking! (sic),” heposted in a series of tweets.

Lauding the lead cast VaisshnavTej and Krithi Shetty, Maheshadded, “It’s really heartwarmingwhen you see two newcomerscome up with stellar perfor-mances.... #VaisshnavTej and

@IamKrithiShetty...you guys are stars!(Sic).”

The actor alsoappreciated the pro-ducers. “And finallyhats off to @arya-sukku garu and@MythriOfficial forbacking a project likeUppena. Like I said it’sone of those timeless films...Proud of you guys! (Sic).”

Chandoosir is neutral with his expressions.

You can't decide whether he ispleased with your performance ornot. After giving my shot I wouldlook at him, only to understand

nothing

Sujeeth and Zee Studiosteam up for an action-thriller

Uppena is a classic: Mahesh

Ninnila Ninnila reminded me of Ala Modalaindi days: Nithya Menen

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sport 12HYDERABAD| WEDNESDAY | FEBRUARY 24, 2021

PTI n AHMEDABAD

Avirgin Motera strip hasbecome the big talkingpoint as India captain

Virat Kohli prepares the rightpink ball questionnaire to trou-ble a spoilt-for-choice Englandin the day-night third Test start-ing here on Wednesday.

Ahmedabad as a cricketingvenue has been witness to a lot

of cricketing feats in Indiancricket — from Sunil Gavaskar’sfamous late cut to complete10,000 runs in Tests to KapilDev’s best bowling figures of 9for 83 and also him eclipsingRichard Hadlee’s then worldrecord of highest wickets.

On Wednesday, IshantSharma joining Kapil as the sec-ond Indian pacer to play 100Tests would add to the momen-

tous occasion and Kohli scoringa hundred is just what the55,000 odd spectators, whowould be allowed in, mightcrave for.

The refurbished Sardar PatelStadium looks colossal underlights but the first Test match inmany years would mean thateven the home team wouldn’texpect a lot of advantage.

It would prefer a square

turner to go 2-1 up in a high-stakes game but whether it actu-ally gets one remains to beseen.

As senior opener RohitSharma was clear in team’schoice of surface — a turner thathelps Ravichandran Ashwin andAxar Patel just like Joe Rootwould have opted for a green topat the Headingley or the OldTrafford.

There are a few more ques-tions that would demandanswers.

How would the twilightperiod be for the batsmen asJames Anderson feels that theball swings more in that phase?

Will the extra lacquer on the‘SG Test Pink’ make it difficultfor the Ashwin-Axar combowhich wreaked havoc on theChepauk snake pit?

And with a 2:30 pm start,how much will the dew have abearing during the final session?The ball would be difficult togrip at that point for slowbowlers and the pitch, despitegrass being shaved off, mightease out with ball skidding offthe surface.

When there are so manyunknown variables that warrantfactoring, any captain would liketo assess conditions.

Umesh Yadav passing thefitness test was good news forthe Indian camp as KuldeepYadav is likely to be droppedfrom the playing XI.

Umesh, along with Ishantand the now injuredMohammed Shami, had pol-ished off Bangladesh twice insidesix sessions in the inaugural PinkTest match in Kolkata.

But this England team, withJoe Root, Ben Stokes, JonnyBairstow, will pose a far greaterchallenge.

Hardik Pandya has beenkept with the Test team with an

eye on his bowling workload butit’s not known whether the teamthinks that he is Test matchready.

Pandya taking the load of amaximum 15 overs per inningson a turner could provide morebalance to the playing XI and hisbig-hitting can tilt any game inIndia’s favour.

For England, with MoeenAli back home as part of work-load management, Dom Bessis expected to be back along-side Jack Leach in the spindepartment. However,whether Anderson and JofraArcher will have Stuart Broador Mark Wood for company isstill not clear.

Also, talented batsman ZakCrawley could be back in theplaying XI in place of RoryBurns while Jonny Bairstow canreplace Dan Lawrence at num-ber three.

PTI n AHMEDABAD

England skipper Joe Root onTuesday said he is yet to have

“real clarity” on what should behis bowling combination for theday-night third Test and willwait some more before finalis-ing it.

“We’re going to take ourtime with the limited informa-tion we have on this ground andpink ball cricket. You know, weare going to make sure, we giveourselves as much (time) as pos-sible heading into the gamebefore we make a decision,”Root said on the eve of thematch.

The England think tankhas a selection headache both in

bowling and batting depart-ments.

In bowling they have JofraArcher fit and available alongwith veteran pace spearheadJames Anderson, who is back infray after workload manage-ment kept him out of the sec-ond Test. Stuart Broad is also incontention for a spot.

“It’s great to see him(Archer) back bowling again, weare excited. He is a world classperformer and have got all theskills...It’s a very exciting placeto be to have now a battery offast bowlers to choose from,”Root said.

Root hinted that they’reweighing a three-seam optionwith the possibility of playing

both Anderson and Broadtogether as the pink ball willhave “a bit more lateral move-ment”.

“Yeah, they have got achance and as I say it’s a greatselection headache to have...The fact that there might beextra lateral movement willobviously work in our favour aswell,” Root said.

Senior wicketkeeper bats-

man Jonny Bairstow has alsoreturned to the squad and itremains to be seen whether theycan keep in-form Ben Foakesout or play both of them.

“We will get you the squadwhen we’re ready... That’s howwe want to do things. We justwant to make sure, we’re reallysure on everything. When we’reabsolutely ready we’ll give youthe full squad together.”

PTI n AHMEDABAD

Ravichandran Ashwin hasproved to be England’s

nemesis in the first two Testsand, well aware of his abilitiesnow, visiting skipper Joe Rooton Tuesday described the Indiaoff-spinner as a “world-classperformer” in all conditions.

Ashwin has already taken17 wickets in the series so farand is expected to add somemore to his kitty in the thirdTest.

“Yeah, he (Ashwin) is aworld-class performer. I thinkit’s been quite tricky for every-one but as you mentioned, inparticular, the left-handers isagainst him... Because youknow how skilful he is, howgood his record is against left-handers in world cricket,” Root

said.The 34-year-old Ashwin

has been Virat Kohli’s go-toman in this series. Besides hisnine wickets in the first Testand eight in second, Ashwinhas also scored a century on aChepuak track, where most ofthe specialist batsmen strug-gled against the turning ball.

“So, he is a fine performerat home and guys just have tokeep working hard to try andfigure out how they’re going toscore every run,” Root added.

He also lauded youngwicketkeeper Rishabh Pant forhis batting skills but said hegives the opposition chances.

“We know Rishabh isextremely talented but he willgive you a chance, and we justgot to be ready to take thatwhen it comes,” said Root.

PTI n AHMEDABAD

Arank turner is being antic-ipated at Motera but India

captain Virat Kohli expectspacers to have as big a role asspinners in the day-night thirdTest against England, a side rid-dled with “many weaknesses”according to him.

Both teams have won agame each in the four-matchseries and ahead of third Testhere starting on Wednesday,the talk has been incessantlyfocussed on the nature of thevirgin track at the refurbishedstadium.

Asked if the ball is unlike-ly to swing much in the thirdTest, Kohli said he expects thepacers to be in the game till theball is “nice and shiny”.

“I don’t think that is anaccurate assessment (that bowlwill not swing). The pink balldoes tend to swing a lot morethan the red ball. We experi-enced that when we played forthe first time in 2019 (againstBangladesh),” Kohli said in thepre-match press conference.

Kohli also rejected theassessment that England wouldhave an edge if the pitchfavours pacers.

“...Not really botheredabout what the strengths andweaknesses of the English teamare. We have beaten them intheir home as well, where theball does way more and holdthem out every time so we’renot really bothered with that.It’s just about playing well as ateam,” he said.

“And yeah, there are many,many weaknesses in the oppo-sition side as well, if you arekeen to exploit them. If it’s aseamer friendly track for them

it’s for us as well.“And we probably have,

you know, among other teams,the best bowling attack in theworld so we’re not really both-ered by what the ball mightbring differently to the table.We’re ready for anything thatcomes our way,” he asserted.

Kohli said facing the pinkball is more challenging thanthe red ball irrespective of thenature of the surface.

“It is much more chal-lenging to play with pink ball

regardless of the pitch youplay on. Especially in theevening, if as a batting team,you are starting your inningsunder lights then that one anda half hour is very challenging,”he said.

“Yes spin will come intoplay for sure but I don’t thinkthe new ball and fast bowlerscan be ignored. The pink balldoes bring them into the gametill the ball is nice and shiny,something we are very wellaware of and preparing accord-ingly,” added Kohli.

Talking about the experi-ence his team has gained fromthe two outings, Kohli said:“Last time we experienced thatthe first session is probably thenicest to bat when the sun isout and ball doesn’t do much.But when it starts to get dark,especially during that Twilight,it gets very tricky.

“The light changes, it’s dif-ficult to see the ball and thenunder lights, it is like playingthe first session in the morning.In a normal Test match the balldoes tend to swing a lot (inmorning). So, I think it’s areversal of roles and somethingthat you need to adjust toquite quickly,” he explained.

PTI n JAIPUR

Mumbai rode on skipper ShreyasIyer’s unbeaten 103 to beat

Maharashtra by six wickets in their EliteGroup D game of the Vijay HazareTrophy here on Tuesday.

This was Mumbai’s second successivewin after they had beaten Delhi in thelung-opener.

Opting to bat first, Maharashtraposted 279/9, with centuries from YashNahar (119) and Azim Kazi (104) despiteexperienced Mumbai pacer DhawalKulkarni (5/44) running through theirtop-order.

But it was Iyer, who anchored theMumbai chase and saw them home in47.2 overs.

Chasing 280, Mumbai openersYashasvi Jaiswal (40) and Prithvi Shaw(34) conjured 67 for the first wicket.

Iyer, who walked in at three, was inhis elements and hammered nine bound-aries and one six, in his unbeaten knock,he found able partners in SuryakumarYadav (29), Shivam Dube (47) as they

played their roles to perfection.In other matches of the group, Delhi

beat Pondicherry by 179 runs whileRajasthan lost to Himachal Pradesh byfour wickets.

CHANDIGARH ON TOPKolkata: In Group E clash at EdenGardens, Chandigarh continued theirgiant-killing run in their Elite debut,stunning hosts Bengal by five wickets.

Fresh from their win over neigh-bours Haryana, Chandigarh who wereplaying their second domestic seasonchased down Bengal’s 253/9 with sevenballs to spare to climb up to the top ofthe group table, ahead of Saurashra onnet-run rate.

Saurashtra secured a thrilling one-wicket win over star-studded Haryana atthe 22 Yards Academy in Saltlake.

Hosts Bengal, who made a groupstage exit in the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20s,dropped to third spot with one win anda loss.

Elsehwhere at JU Second Campusground in Saltlake, Jammu & Kashmir

beat Services by three wickets.

UK’S SECOND WINChennai: Opener Jay Bista starred witha 61-ball 71 as Uttarakhand outplayedManipur by seven wickets for their sec-ond consecutive win in Plate Groupencounter.

Sent in to bat, Manipur lost the open-ers by the sixth over and the rest of thebatsmen struggled against a disciplinedbowling attack.

In reply, Bista continued his goodform with a knock of 71 (8 fours, 2 sixes)to follow up his 141 on Sunday againstMeghalaya to set up the win. He added113 runs for the first wicket with KamalSingh (41) and set the platform forUttarakhand’s win.

Assam also notched up their secondwin, beating Arunachal Pradesh by fivewickets to join Uttarakhand at the top ofthe standings with eight points.

In another match, Mizoram wentdown by 29 runs to Nagaland despitetons by Pratik Desai (141) and TaruwarKohli (108).

UNSEEDED ROGERS STUNS 3RD SEED KONTA Adelaide: Unseeded American Shelby Rogers stunnedthird seed Johanna Konta with a display of raw powerin the second round of the Adelaide International onTuesday. Rogers served superbly and was ruthless withher returns to see off the Konta 6-2, 6-2 in 76 minutes.There were no problems for the three other seededplayers in action, all playing their first round matches.Fifth seeded Iga Swiatek, Petra Martic, the sixth seed,and seventh ranked Yulia Putintseva all progressed.

ROBERTSON’S BRACE TAKES RKFC TO TOP Kolkata: Mason Robertson's fine brace helped adominant Real Kashmir FC beat Aizawl FC 3-1 and jumpto the top of the I-League table at the VYBK Stadiumhere on Tuesday. After a defensive error had givenAizawl FC the lead through Lalremsanga in the 26thminute, Lukman Adefemi's strike in the first half and adouble by Robertson in the second powered the SnowLeopards to a thumping win.

INDIA TO PLAY OMAN & UAE IN MARCH New Delhi: The Indian men's team will play twointernational friendlies — against Oman on March 25and United Arab Emirates on March 29, the AIFF said onTuesday. Both the matches will be held in Dubai. As partof preparation for the two matches, the national teamwill assemble in a camp from March 15. The camp willalso be held in Dubai under head coach Igor Stimac toallow the players to acclimatise to the conditions faster.

HALEP PULLS OUT OF QATAR OPEN Paris: World number three Simona Halep has pulledout of next week's Qatar Open, organisers of the WTAevent announced on Tuesday. Her withdrawal followsher Australian Open quarter-final loss to SerenaWilliams. “Unfortunately I've decided to withdraw, Ican't wait to be back in Doha next year,” organisersquoted her as saying on Instagram. She gave no reasonfor her absence from the March 1-6 tournament.

DEEPAK IN Q/F OF STRANDJA MEMORIAL New Delhi: Asian Silver-medallist Deepak Kumar(52kg) advanced to the quarterfinals with a facile win asIndian boxers got off to a mixed start at the 72ndStrandja Memorial Tournament in Sofia. Deepakdefeated Olzhas Bainiyazov 5-0 in his opening bout tomake the last-eight stage. Other winners on Mondayincluded Naveen Kumar (91kg) among men and Jyoti(51kg) in the women's draw. However, Shashi Chopra(60kg), Lalita (69kg) and Sakshi (57kg) lost theiropening bouts to bow out of the competition.

UPUL THARANGA ANNOUNCES RETIREMENT Colombo: Veteran Sri Lanka opener Upul Tharanga onTuesday announced his retirement from internationalcricket after a career spanning 15 years and duringwhich he also enjoyed a brief stint as captain. Tharanga,36, who was at the helm from July to November in2017, last represented the national team during its tourof South Africa in 2019. “I have decided to retire frominternational cricket,” Tharanga wrote on his Twitterhandle. He enjoyed more success in the ODIs, making6951 runs in the 235 matches he played.

INDIA-SSA SERIES IN LUCKNOW FROM MARCH 7New Delhi: The Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association onTuesday confirmed that it will be hosting the eight-match limited overs series between the women's teamsof India and South Africa in Lucknow from March 7. TheODI, all of them day-games, will be played on March 7,9, 12, 14 and 17 and will be followed by the T20matches on March 20, 21 and 24 with the first twogames to be played under lights at the EkanaInternational Stadium. Agencies

SINGLES

PTI n DHAKA

A“patriotic” Mustafizur Rahman onTuesday said he is willing to skip the

upcoming Indian Premier League fornational duty and be available for nextmonth’s Test series against Sri Lanka ifpicked in the squad.

The Bangladesh Cricket Board(BCB) has allowed its players, includingMustafizur, to participate in the IPLdespite the fact that the lucrative T20league is likely to clash with their inter-nationals assignments.

But the left-arm pacer, who waspicked up by Rajasthan Royals for `1crore, has decided to give precedence tonational duty. “I will do what BCB asksme to do. If they keep me in Test squad

(for the tour of Sri Lanka) then I will playTests and if they (BCB) don’t keep mein Test then they know what I shoulddo,” Mustafizur told reporters beforeleaving for New Zealand.

“My first priority is to play for mycountry and if I am picked in the Testseries against Sri Lanka, I will natural-ly play. If I am not picked then BCB willtell me that I am not included. At thatpoint, if I am given NOC to play in theIPL then I will play but patriotism comesfirst for me.”

The Test series in Sri Lanka will befollowed by a three-match ODI rubberin May but the fixtures have not beenfinalised yet.

CLAUSES IN CONTRACTSPremier all-rounder Shakib Al

Hasan’s request seeking a longer stint inthe IPL has left the Bangladesh CricketBoard “disappointed” and it has decid-ed to add new clauses in the players’ cen-tral contracts to avoid a similar situationin future.

Signing the annual contract withnew clauses would ensure the playerscommit themselves to playing forBangladesh. “We will enter into a newcontact with the players (for 2021),” BCBpresident Nazmul Hassan told reporters.

“It will be mentioned clearly whowants to play which format. They haveto inform us. If they have any otherengagement, they have to be clearabout their availability.

PTI n AHMEDABAD

England’s lead spinner Jack Leachsays he is ready for a new role as the

day/night pink ball Test against Indialooks set to bring the seamers back intothe forefront after the tweakers’ dom-ination in the first two matches.

Leach is aware that with the pinkball, which tends to move around a lotmore than the traditional red cherry,his role could change over the next fewdays.

“We want to be adaptable, we feellike we’ve got all bases covered in oursquad so I think it’s going to be a fas-cinating Test match if the ball is mov-ing around, and if so, it might be aslightly different role for me,” Leachwrote in Sky Sports.

“I’ve definitely thought about that— it’ll be a different challenge and I’llbe ready.”

‘Ashwin is world-class bowler’

Eng yet to decide team combination

Leach ready fordifferent challengewith pink ball

‘Credit to Ishant forprioritising Test cricket’

Shreyas’ ton scripts Mumbai second win

Mumbai batsman Suryakumar Yadav celebrates histeam’s win in Vijay Hazare trophy SKY/Instagram

PTI n AHMEDABAD

India captain Virat Kohli onTuesday lauded Ishant

Sharma’s commitmenttowards Test cricket, sayingthe veteran pacer couldhave easily prioritisedwhite-ball cricket to pro-long his career but choseto focus on the longest for-mat instead.

The 32-year-oldIshant is set to becomeonly the second Indianpacer after the legendaryKapil Dev to play in 100Tests when he takes thefield in the day-night

third match on Wednesday.“It’s a great achievement in mod-

ern day cricket. To maintain your bodyand play 100 Tests, it’s rare to see a pacerhave such longevity these days. Hecould have easily prioritised white-ballcricket but full credit to him that he did-n’t,” Kohli said at the pre-match pressconference.

“A lot of people even lose theirmotivation. He has the skills, if he want-ed he could have improved his fourover, 10 over cricket and played in theIPL regularly, or presented himself inT20 and ODIs. But he gave his fullcommitment to Test cricket,” Kohliadded.

Ishant last played in an ODI in2016 and a T20I match in 2013.

Mustafizur ready to sacrificeIPL for national duty

Pacers can’t be ignored in D/N Test: KohliTest of Night Life

3rd Test. Day 1Live from 2:30pm ISTSTAR SPORTS 1 NETWORK

India venture into unknown, England seek answers for‘pink ball turner’ in world’s biggest cricket stadium