ˆ˜ ˝ˆ !ˆ ! ˆ ˙ ˆ ˚ ˆ ˝˜ ˚˘˝ · 23 hours ago  · high court will resume on friday....

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A day before the crucial floor test in Rajasthan, the Congress finally managed to puts its house in order as Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and former Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot shook hands on Thursday evening before the start of the legislative party meeting. The BJP has decided to bring in a no-confidence motion. This was for the first time that Gehlot and Pilot came face-to-face since the latter went on a rebellious course against the Chief Minister a month back. Senior Congress leaders KC Venugopal, Avinash Pande, Randeep Surjewala, Ajay Maken and Govind Singh Dotasra were present on the occasion. The meeting of Gehlot and Pilot, which took place at the former’s official residence, is seen as an indicator of burying the hatchet between the two leaders. The development came hours after the Congress revoked the suspension of two MLAs from the rebel camp — Bhanwarlal Sharma and Vishvendra Singh. The revocation paved the way for all rebel MLAs to attend Thursday’s legislative party meeting. Amid voices of dissent from several MLAs who ques- tioned the return of rebel MLAs, the Chief Minister on Thursday reiterated the need to bury past differences and move on. “Whatever misunder- standing occurred in the party in last one month, we need to forgive & forget in the interest of the country, State, people and in the interest of democ- racy,” Gehlot wrote on Twitter on Thursday. With the return of Pilot-led 18 rebel MLAs, the Congress will be in a comfortable posi- tion in the legislative Assembly and returns to its original strength of 107 MLAs apart from banking on the support from smaller parties and Independents. This includes 6 MLAs who were earlier BSP — a move that has been legally challenged and hearing in the Rajasthan High Court will resume on Friday. The Congress has 107 MLAs in the 200-member Assembly and the BJP 72. Taking note of the rebellion and the return of Pilot to the Congress after allegedly refus- ing to work with Gehlot any- more, the BJP decided to bring in a no confidence motion in the Assembly.. Former Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje and other top Rajasthan BJP leaders, who were scheduled to meet to strategise for the Special Session of the State Assembly had, to cancel the meeting as Raje did not turn up. “We are bringing a no-con- fidence motion in the Assembly along with our allies,” said Gulab Chand Kataria, Leader of Opposition in Rajasthan Assembly and senior leader of BJP. “The way they have strug- gled, there are chances that they might bring a vote of confi- dence in the Assembly but we are also ready to bring a no- confidence motion,” said Satish Punia, BJP Rajasthan president. “We are reworking our strategy,” Kataria added insist- ing that despite the truce, the Congress would not complete its five-year term. Pilot was last month sacked from the post of Deputy Chief Minister. T he role of the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) behind the mob vio- lence in parts of the city has come to light and investigation will go deep into it, Karnataka Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai said on Thursday. Deputy Chief Minister CN Ashwath Narayan said the Government was also consid- ering banning SDPI, four of whose members are among the over 140 arrested in con- nection with the violence on Tuesday night. “There is evidence for ear- lier incidents (involving SDPI). The Government will take a bold decision to ban such organisations. After collecting necessary evidences govern- ment will take steps to ban this organisation,” Narayan was quoted as saying by his office in a release. According to the FIRs lodged by police, hundreds of people attacked police stations armed with dangerous weapons with an intention to kill the personnel and shouted “kill policemen”, don’t spare them, finish them’ besides set- ting on fire one station and try- ing to torch another. The riot-affected areas, where prohibitory orders have been clamped, were now peace- ful and a strong contingent of the Rapid Action Force per- formed a flag march. “As per the information gathered so far and video footage, most importantly the role of SDPI is coming to light. We are collecting more infor- mation regarding it, we are investigating deeply in this regard”, Bommai told reporters. SDPI on Wednesday had denied its role in the violence and had blamed police inac- tion. Three people were killed after police opened fire to quell a mob that went on a rampage in DJ Halli and adjoining areas on Tuesday night over an inflammatory social media post allegedly put out by P Naveen, a relative of Pulakeshi Nagar MLA R Akhanda Srinivasa Murthy. P rime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday launched the “Transparent Taxation — Honouring the Honest” platform aimed at “easing compliance and expe- diting refunds, benefiting hon- est taxpayers.” The step is dubbed as a fresh initiative of the Government to further reform direct taxes in India. The platform is aimed at bringing more transparency in official communication through the newly-introduced Document Identification Number. Modi said the ongoing structural reforms have “reached new heights today” and that the “Transparent Taxation — Honouring the Honest’ platform will “have faceless assessments, faceless appeal and taxpayer charter”— the three main features of the platform. It would ease compliance and expedite refunds and ben- efit honest taxpayers, he said. The Prime Minister said focus is on making the tax sys- tem people-centric and public friendly, “banking the unbanked, securing the unse- cured, funding the unfunded and honouring the honest.” According to Modi, the four factors responsible for changes in the taxation system were policy-driven governance, belief in people’s honesty, the use of advanced technology and efficiency in bureaucracy. “Where there is complexity, there is a problem in compli- ance,” he said. Lauding the role of hon- est taxpayers, Modi said, “When the life of an honest taxpayer of the country becomes easy, he moves for- ward and develops, then the country also develops and leaps forward.” The Government is now focussing on making tax-pay- ing seamless, painless, faceless. Faceless as it shouldn’t matter who is paying tax and who is tax officer.” “Taxpayers will now be given the respect they deserve,” added the Prime Minister. J amia Millia Islamia has secured top spot in the Central university rankings released by the Education Ministry. Jamia is followed by the Rajiv Gandhi University of Arunachal Pradesh, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), and Aligarh Muslim University AMU in that order. Jamia, JNU, and AMU had witnessed huge unrest due to different issues within their campuses during the last aca- demic session. In June this year, Jamia had featured in the top ten list of National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) 2020 released by HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank. Jamia topped among 40 Central universities in the grad- ing/scoring of performance in which it had a score of 90 per cent. The Rajiv Gandhi University of Arunachal Pradesh scored 83, JNU 82 and AMU got 78 per cent. “The Central University ranking is based on a tri-party evaluation signed between the university, the HRD Ministry and the University Grants Commission (UGC). All the universities were required to sign a tripartite MoU for continuous evalua- tion,” said an Education Ministry official. T he Supreme Court on Thursday refused to pass an interim order on a petition seeking a stay on the merger of six BSP MLAs in Rajasthan with the Congress. The apex court ruling means these six legislators are likely to be allowed to vote in the Ashok- Gehlot led Government’s trust vote if the Rajasthan High Court allows. The Rajasthan High Court has posted for hearing on Friday the petitions filed by BJP MLA Madan Dilawar and the BSP challenging the merg- er of six MLAs with the Congress. After hearing arguments, Justice Mahendra Kumar Goyal posted the matter for next hearing on Friday as a half day was observed in the court. The Rajasthan Assembly Speaker’s counsel Kabil Sibal argued that the BSP must approach the Speaker first. In case, he does not pass any order, then the BSP may approach the court for a direc- tion to the Speaker for decid- ing their application. He said the BSP’s writ peti- tion bypasses the available remedy. Sibal contended that he has no problem if the BSP and the BJP are directed to approach the speaker for a proper order. C onvalescent plasma thera- py may not have shown benefit in reducing mortality risk among Covid-19 patients as per an interim study by India’s premier research insti- tute AIIMS, Delhi, but an ongoing international study of more than 300 virus-infected patients has suggested other- wise. The analysis of the ongoing study says that the plasma treatment is safe and effective. The results of the study, titled “Treatment of Covid-19 Patients with Convalescent Plasma Reveals a Signal of Significantly Decreased Mortality,” have appeared in The American Journal of Pathology. The study which tracked severely ill Covid-19 patients admitted to US’ academic med- ical Centre Houston Methodist’s system of eight hospitals from March 28 through July 6, holds impor- tance in context of India where several States like Delhi, Telangana and Maharashtra have started plasma therapy to treat the Covid-19 infected patients. The latest results from Houston Methodist offer valu- able scientific evidence that transfusing critically ill-Covid- 19 patients with high antibody plasma early in their illness — within 72 hours after hospi- talisation proving most effec- tive — reduced the mortality rate. The study was led by prin- cipal investigator Eric Salazar, who is assistant professor of Pathology and Genomic Medicine with the Houston Methodist Hospital and Research Institute, and corre- sponding author James M Musser chair of the Department of Pathology and Genomic Medicine at Houston Methodist. T he head of the Ram Janmabhoomi Teertha Kshetra Trust Nritya Gopal Das, 82, has tested positive for Covid-19. He shared dais with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other VIPs during the Bhoomi Pujan ceremony for the construction of Ram Temple in Ayodhya last week. Das was among the five people on the stage at the grand ceremony on August 5. Other dignitaries included Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Governor Anandiben Patel and RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat. Mahant Nritya Gopal Das had gone to Mathura to attend Shri Krishna Janmashtami, and was tested Covid-19 pos- itive after a rapid antigen test on Thursday. The seer attend- ed a late-night religious cere- mony at the Shri Krishna Janmabhoomi. Later he com- plained of uneasiness, mild fever, cough, and breathing problems. Senior officials, including District Magistrate Sarvagya Ram Mishra and the CMO rushed to the Sita Ram Ahram where Nritya Gopal Das was putting up. “There is nothing serious. We checked for coronavirus, did an antigen test and there is positivity,” Mishra said and added that the process to identify those who had come in contact with him in the recent past has started. R eporting another 1000-plus figure of fresh cases for the third consecutive day, Punjab’s Covid-19 tally has reached 27,936 while the death toll has surpassed the 700-mark. The state on Thursday reported 1,035 fresh cases and 36 deaths, pushing the Covid-19 death toll to 706. Patiala Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Vikramjeet Duggal along with another 11 cops — six from Ludhiana and five from Bathinda — have been tested positive for the novel coron- avirus on Thursday, besides 29 prisoners including 27 from Bathinda and two from Barnala. For the second successive day, Ludhiana reported highest 13 deaths, followed by five in Jalandhar, three each in Sangrur, Kapurthala, and SAS Nagar (Mohali), two each in Amritsar, Patiala, and Tarn Taran, and one each in Gurdaspur, Hoshiarpur, and Ropar. Continuing the trend, Ludhiana against reported maximum 222 cases, followed by 176 in Jalandhar, 140 in Patiala, 88 in SAS Nagar (Mohali), 79 in Bathinda, 66 in Ferozepur. 43 in Fatehgarh Sahib, 41 in Amritsar, 32 in Faridkot, 24 in Sangrur, 21 in Moga, 19 in Kapurthala, 17 in SBS Nagar (Nawanshahr), 15 in Muktsar, 13 in Barnala. 12 in Mansa, 10 in Ropar, seven in Tarn Taran, five in Fazilka, two each in Hoshiarpur and Gurdaspur, and one in Pathankot. As many as 627 patients — including 160 from Ludhiana, followed by Moga (83), Amritsar (72), Ferozepur (70), Tarn Taran (55), Ropar (36), Kapurthala (26). 23 each from Sangrur and Gurdaspur, 15 each from Fatehgarh Sahib and Hoshiarpur, 14 from Muktsar, 13 from Mansa. 11 from Pathankot, five from Fazilka, foru from Barnala, and two from Nawanshahr — have been dis- charged after recovering from the contagion. With this, the number of total recoveries has reached 17,839 at the rate of 64 per cent, with the state still having 9,391 active cases — account- ing for 34 per cent of the total cases.

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Page 1: ˆ˜ ˝ˆ !ˆ ! ˆ ˙ ˆ ˚ ˆ ˝˜ ˚˘˝ · 23 hours ago  · High Court will resume on Friday. The Congress has 107 MLAs in the 200-member Assembly and the BJP 72. Taking note

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Aday before the crucial floortest in Rajasthan, the

Congress finally managed toputs its house in order as ChiefMinister Ashok Gehlot andformer Deputy Chief MinisterSachin Pilot shook hands onThursday evening before thestart of the legislative partymeeting. The BJP has decidedto bring in a no-confidencemotion.

This was for the first timethat Gehlot and Pilot cameface-to-face since the latterwent on a rebellious courseagainst the Chief Minister amonth back. Senior Congressleaders KC Venugopal, AvinashPande, Randeep Surjewala,Ajay Maken and Govind SinghDotasra were present on theoccasion.

The meeting of Gehlot andPilot, which took place at theformer’s official residence, isseen as an indicator of buryingthe hatchet between the twoleaders. The development camehours after the Congressrevoked the suspension of twoMLAs from the rebel camp —Bhanwarlal Sharma andVishvendra Singh.

The revocation paved theway for all rebel MLAs toattend Thursday’s legislativeparty meeting.

Amid voices of dissentfrom several MLAs who ques-tioned the return of rebelMLAs, the Chief Minister onThursday reiterated the need tobury past differences and moveon. “Whatever misunder-

standing occurred in the partyin last one month, we need toforgive & forget in the interestof the country, State, peopleand in the interest of democ-

racy,” Gehlot wrote on Twitteron Thursday.

With the return of Pilot-led18 rebel MLAs, the Congresswill be in a comfortable posi-

tion in the legislative Assemblyand returns to its originalstrength of 107 MLAs apartfrom banking on the supportfrom smaller parties and

Independents.This includes 6 MLAs who

were earlier BSP — a move thathas been legally challengedand hearing in the RajasthanHigh Court will resume onFriday.

The Congress has 107MLAs in the 200-memberAssembly and the BJP 72.

Taking note of the rebellionand the return of Pilot to theCongress after allegedly refus-ing to work with Gehlot any-more, the BJP decided to bringin a no confidence motion inthe Assembly..

Former Chief MinisterVasundhara Raje and othertop Rajasthan BJP leaders, whowere scheduled to meet tostrategise for the SpecialSession of the State Assemblyhad, to cancel the meeting asRaje did not turn up.

“We are bringing a no-con-fidence motion in theAssembly along with our allies,”said Gulab Chand Kataria,Leader of Opposition inRajasthan Assembly and seniorleader of BJP.

“The way they have strug-gled, there are chances that theymight bring a vote of confi-dence in the Assembly but weare also ready to bring a no-confidence motion,” said SatishPunia, BJP Rajasthan president.

“We are reworking ourstrategy,” Kataria added insist-ing that despite the truce, theCongress would not completeits five-year term.

Pilot was last month sackedfrom the post of Deputy ChiefMinister.

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The role of the SocialDemocratic Party of India

(SDPI) behind the mob vio-lence in parts of the city hascome to light and investigationwill go deep into it, KarnatakaHome Minister BasavarajBommai said on Thursday.

Deputy Chief Minister CNAshwath Narayan said theGovernment was also consid-ering banning SDPI, four ofwhose members are amongthe over 140 arrested in con-nection with the violence onTuesday night.

“There is evidence for ear-lier incidents (involving SDPI).The Government will take abold decision to ban suchorganisations. After collectingnecessary evidences govern-ment will take steps to ban thisorganisation,” Narayan wasquoted as saying by his officein a release.

According to the FIRslodged by police, hundreds ofpeople attacked police stationsarmed with dangerousweapons with an intention to

kill the personnel and shouted“kill policemen”, don’t sparethem, finish them’ besides set-ting on fire one station and try-ing to torch another.

The riot-affected areas,where prohibitory orders havebeen clamped, were now peace-ful and a strong contingent ofthe Rapid Action Force per-formed a flag march.

“As per the informationgathered so far and videofootage, most importantly therole of SDPI is coming to light.We are collecting more infor-mation regarding it, we areinvestigating deeply in thisregard”, Bommai told reporters.

SDPI on Wednesday haddenied its role in the violenceand had blamed police inac-tion.

Three people were killedafter police opened fire to quella mob that went on a rampagein DJ Halli and adjoining areason Tuesday night over aninflammatory social mediapost allegedly put out by PNaveen, a relative of PulakeshiNagar MLA R AkhandaSrinivasa Murthy.

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Prime Minister NarendraModi on Thursday

launched the “TransparentTaxation — Honouring theHonest” platform aimed at“easing compliance and expe-diting refunds, benefiting hon-est taxpayers.”

The step is dubbed as afresh initiative of theGovernment to further reformdirect taxes in India.

The platform is aimed atbringing more transparencyin official communicationthrough the newly-introducedDocument IdentificationNumber.

Modi said the ongoingstructural reforms have“reached new heights today”and that the “TransparentTaxation — Honouring theHonest’ platform will “havefaceless assessments, faceless

appeal and taxpayer charter”—the three main features of theplatform.

It would ease complianceand expedite refunds and ben-efit honest taxpayers, he said.

The Prime Minister saidfocus is on making the tax sys-tem people-centric and publicfriendly, “banking theunbanked, securing the unse-cured, funding the unfundedand honouring the honest.”

According to Modi, thefour factors responsible forchanges in the taxation systemwere policy-driven governance,belief in people’s honesty, theuse of advanced technologyand efficiency in bureaucracy.

“Where there is complexity,there is a problem in compli-ance,” he said.

Lauding the role of hon-est taxpayers, Modi said,“When the life of an honesttaxpayer of the countrybecomes easy, he moves for-ward and develops, then thecountry also develops andleaps forward.”

The Government is nowfocussing on making tax-pay-ing seamless, painless, faceless.Faceless as it shouldn’t matterwho is paying tax and who istax officer.”

“Taxpayers will now begiven the respect they deserve,”added the Prime Minister.

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Jamia Millia Islamia hassecured top spot in the

Central university rankingsreleased by the EducationMinistry. Jamia is followed bythe Rajiv Gandhi University ofArunachal Pradesh, JawaharlalNehru University (JNU), andAligarh Muslim UniversityAMU in that order.

Jamia, JNU, and AMU hadwitnessed huge unrest due todifferent issues within theircampuses during the last aca-demic session.

In June this year, Jamia hadfeatured in the top ten list ofNational Institutional RankingFramework (NIRF) 2020released by HRD MinisterRamesh Pokhriyal Nishank.

Jamia topped among 40Central universities in the grad-ing/scoring of performance inwhich it had a score of 90 percent. The Rajiv GandhiUniversity of ArunachalPradesh scored 83, JNU 82 andAMU got 78 per cent.

“The Central Universityranking is based on a tri-partyevaluation signed between theuniversity, the HRD Ministryand the University GrantsCommission (UGC).

All the universities wererequired to sign a tripartiteMoU for continuous evalua-tion,” said an EducationMinistry official.

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The Supreme Court onThursday refused to pass an

interim order on a petitionseeking a stay on the merger ofsix BSP MLAs in Rajasthanwith the Congress. The apexcourt ruling means these sixlegislators are likely to beallowed to vote in the Ashok-Gehlot led Government’s trustvote if the Rajasthan HighCourt allows.

The Rajasthan High Courthas posted for hearing onFriday the petitions filed byBJP MLA Madan Dilawar andthe BSP challenging the merg-er of six MLAs with theCongress.

After hearing arguments,Justice Mahendra Kumar Goyalposted the matter for nexthearing on Friday as a half daywas observed in the court.

The Rajasthan AssemblySpeaker’s counsel Kabil Sibal

argued that the BSP mustapproach the Speaker first. Incase, he does not pass anyorder, then the BSP mayapproach the court for a direc-tion to the Speaker for decid-ing their application.

He said the BSP’s writ peti-tion bypasses the availableremedy. Sibal contended thathe has no problem if the BSPand the BJP are directed toapproach the speaker for aproper order.

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Convalescent plasma thera-py may not have shown

benefit in reducing mortalityrisk among Covid-19 patientsas per an interim study byIndia’s premier research insti-tute AIIMS, Delhi, but anongoing international study ofmore than 300 virus-infectedpatients has suggested other-wise.

The analysis of the ongoingstudy says that the plasmatreatment is safe and effective.The results of the study, titled“Treatment of Covid-19Patients with ConvalescentPlasma Reveals a Signal ofSignificantly DecreasedMortality,” have appeared inThe American Journal ofPathology.

The study which trackedseverely ill Covid-19 patientsadmitted to US’ academic med-ical Centre HoustonMethodist’s system of eighthospitals from March 28through July 6, holds impor-tance in context of India whereseveral States like Delhi,Telangana and Maharashtrahave started plasma therapy totreat the Covid-19 infectedpatients.

The latest results fromHouston Methodist offer valu-able scientific evidence thattransfusing critically ill-Covid-19 patients with high antibodyplasma early in their illness —within 72 hours after hospi-talisation proving most effec-tive — reduced the mortalityrate.

The study was led by prin-

cipal investigator Eric Salazar,who is assistant professor ofPathology and GenomicMedicine with the HoustonMethodist Hospital andResearch Institute, and corre-sponding author James MMusser chair of theDepartment of Pathology andGenomic Medicine at HoustonMethodist.

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The head of the RamJanmabhoomi Teertha

Kshetra Trust Nritya GopalDas, 82, has tested positive forCovid-19. He shared dais withPrime Minister NarendraModi and other VIPs duringthe Bhoomi Pujan ceremonyfor the construction of RamTemple in Ayodhya last week.

Das was among the fivepeople on the stage at thegrand ceremony on August 5.Other dignitaries includedUttar Pradesh Chief MinisterYogi Adityanath, GovernorAnandiben Patel and RSS chiefMohan Bhagwat.

Mahant Nritya Gopal Dashad gone to Mathura to attendShri Krishna Janmashtami,

and was tested Covid-19 pos-itive after a rapid antigen teston Thursday. The seer attend-ed a late-night religious cere-mony at the Shri KrishnaJanmabhoomi. Later he com-plained of uneasiness, mildfever, cough, and breathingproblems.

Senior officials, includingDistrict Magistrate SarvagyaRam Mishra and the CMOrushed to the Sita Ram Ahramwhere Nritya Gopal Das wasputting up.

“There is nothing serious.We checked for coronavirus,did an antigen test and thereis positivity,” Mishra said andadded that the process toidentify those who had comein contact with him in therecent past has started.

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Reporting another 1000-plusfigure of fresh cases for the

third consecutive day, Punjab’sCovid-19 tally has reached27,936 while the death toll hassurpassed the 700-mark. Thestate on Thursday reported1,035 fresh cases and 36 deaths,pushing the Covid-19 death tollto 706.

Patiala SeniorSuperintendent of Police (SSP)Vikramjeet Duggal along withanother 11 cops — six fromLudhiana and five fromBathinda — have been testedpositive for the novel coron-avirus on Thursday, besides 29prisoners including 27 fromBathinda and two fromBarnala.

For the second successiveday, Ludhiana reported highest

13 deaths, followed by five inJalandhar, three each inSangrur, Kapurthala, and SASNagar (Mohali), two each inAmritsar, Patiala, and TarnTaran, and one each inGurdaspur, Hoshiarpur, andRopar.

Continuing the trend,Ludhiana against reportedmaximum 222 cases, followedby 176 in Jalandhar, 140 inPatiala, 88 in SAS Nagar(Mohali), 79 in Bathinda, 66 inFerozepur.

43 in Fatehgarh Sahib, 41in Amritsar, 32 in Faridkot, 24in Sangrur, 21 in Moga, 19 inKapurthala, 17 in SBS Nagar(Nawanshahr), 15 in Muktsar,13 in Barnala.

12 in Mansa, 10 in Ropar,seven in Tarn Taran, five inFazilka, two each inHoshiarpur and Gurdaspur,

and one in Pathankot.As many as 627 patients —

including 160 from Ludhiana,followed by Moga (83),Amritsar (72), Ferozepur (70),Tarn Taran (55), Ropar (36),Kapurthala (26).

23 each from Sangrur andGurdaspur, 15 each fromFatehgarh Sahib andHoshiarpur, 14 from Muktsar,13 from Mansa.

11 from Pathankot, fivefrom Fazilka, foru fromBarnala, and two fromNawanshahr — have been dis-charged after recovering fromthe contagion.

With this, the number oftotal recoveries has reached17,839 at the rate of 64 percent, with the state still having9,391 active cases — account-ing for 34 per cent of the totalcases.

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Page 2: ˆ˜ ˝ˆ !ˆ ! ˆ ˙ ˆ ˚ ˆ ˝˜ ˚˘˝ · 23 hours ago  · High Court will resume on Friday. The Congress has 107 MLAs in the 200-member Assembly and the BJP 72. Taking note

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To ensure efficacious func-tioning and seamless coor-

dination, especially during try-ing circumstances amidCOVID-19, Punjab MandiBoard on Thursday launchedan in-house video conferencingmobile app ‘QVIC’ — anacronym for ‘Quick VideoCalling App’ where an audio orvideo call can be made with amere click.

Launching this uniquemobile app at Punjab MandiBoard complex in Mohali, itschairman Punjab Mandi BoardLaal Singh pointed out thatPunjab is the first state in thecountry to develop such state-of-the-art app so far at gov-

ernment level.The novel initiative would

ensure greater security in itscommunication, transparen-cy, and speedy disposal of theofficial work, he said.

Taking into account theCOVID inflicted challengesfaced by Punjab Mandi Boardduring wheat procurement-2020 and the experience gainedhaving used private videocon-ferencing tools, which wereavailable free of cost at thattime, Lal Singh lauded thepersonal initiative of MandiBoard secretary Ravi Bhagatwho got developed a secure‘local product’, make availablefor Mandi Board on similarlines of the commercial toolswith an ease to use technolog-

ically and a secure face-to-faceconnections.

Highlighting the salientfeatures of the newly launchedapp, Secretary Mandi Boardsaid through this exclusiveGovernment to Government(G to G) Video Conferencingcommunication, working of

the Board can be reviewedwithout any hassles as the appcontains ‘Group Calling’ and‘Meeting Summoning’.

Bhagat stated that themeeting can also be trans-ferred to computer or laptopalso adding that the app hasnoteworthy features such as

record the call for up to 30 days,share presentations, partici-pants, no time limit, unlimitedone-on-one meetings andgroup meetings, can recordmeetings and save securely ongovernment servers, noise can-cellation feature, screen share,text chats can include photosand audio files, uses end-to-endencryption.

Notably, the service is avail-able across all major platforms,Windows, macOS, Androidand iOS, offers high quality HDvideo and audio. “PunjabMandi Board has developed anin-house tool which is at parwith available foreign appswith the highest standards ofdata security and privacy builtin,” he said.

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Shimla: A 70-year-old Covid-positive man died in HimachalPradesh on Thursday, raisingthe death toll to 18 as 108 newcases were detected in thestate. The total number ofCovid-19 cases in HimachalPradesh stands at 3,745. So far,2,398 people have recoveredfrom the disease, leaving 1,293active Covid-19 cases in thestate, officials said. Thirty-fourpatients have migrated out ofthe state.Solan has reported thehighest number of active casesin the state at 366, followed by155 in Chamba, 131 in Sirmaur,120 in Mandi, 118 in Kullu, 116in Una, 93 in Kangra, 67 inHamirpur, 61 in Bilaspur, 51 inShimla and 15 in Kinnaur.

PNS

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Haryana Police has decidedto create cyber response

centres (CRCs) in every districtof the state to effectively tack-le cyber offences, DirectorGeneral of Police (DGP) ManojYadava said here on Thursday.He said these CRCs would becreated keeping in view theemerging challenges andincreasing cyber threats owingto digitisation.

All cyber-related com-plaints regarding bank frauds,misuse of payment gateways etcwould be dealt with in thesecentres, which would be creat-ed within the existing cybercells of the state police, headded.

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Page 3: ˆ˜ ˝ˆ !ˆ ! ˆ ˙ ˆ ˚ ˆ ˝˜ ˚˘˝ · 23 hours ago  · High Court will resume on Friday. The Congress has 107 MLAs in the 200-member Assembly and the BJP 72. Taking note

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The Haryana Governmenton Thursday decided to

give honorarium to the retireesof the government aidedschools, who retired betweenJuly, 28, 1988 to May 10, 1998through the scheme to becalled PT. Deen DayalUpadhyaya honorariumscheme. A decision to thiseffect was taken in the meetingof Council of Ministers heldunder the chairmanship ofChief Minister Manohar LalKhattar here.

As per the decision, aretired Principal will get anHonorarium of Rs. 20,000 permonth, Headmaster will get anHonorarium of Rs. 18,000 permonth, and Lecturers will getan Honorarium of Rs. 16,000per month, Masters/ Hindi/Punjabi/ Sanskrit/ UrduTeachers, an Honorarium of Rs.14,000 per month and JBTs/

Drawing Teachers/ PTIs/Cutting & Tailoring teachers etcwill get an Honorarium of Rs.12,000 per month. The Non-Teaching Staff (Class III) andNon-Teaching Staff (Class IV)will get a monthly Honorariumof Rs. 11,000 and Rs. 6,000respectively. At present, thereare approximately 352 employ-ees who had retired betweenJuly 28, 1988 to May 10, 1998.

"These people contributeda lot in shaping the future ofgenerations during their activeservice and have no financialsecurity in their old age and aresolely dependent on others fortheir livelihood," a statementsaid.

AMENDMENT INHARYANA CIVIL SERVICESRULES

The Cabinet gave ex-post-facto approval to the amend-ments in Haryana CivilServices Rules. These rules

include Haryana Civil Services(General) Rules, Haryana CivilServices (Pay) Rules, HaryanaCivil Services (TravellingAllowance) Rules, HaryanaCivil Services (Allowance toGovernment Employees) Rules,Haryana Civil Services (Leave)Rules, Haryana Civil Services(General Provident Fund)Rules and Haryana CivilServices (Pension) Rules.

METRO DPR APPROVEDFOR GURUGRAM

To provide MetroConnectivity to the residents ofold Gurugram, HaryanaCabinet accorded approval forfinal Detailed Project Report(DPR) of Metro RailConnection from HUDA CityCentre to various importantlocations in Gurugram at a costRs. 6821.13 crore. The totallength of the corridor shall beabout 28.80 km, consisting of27 elevated stations with six

interchange stations. This linkwould start at HUDA CityCentre and move towardsSector 45, Cyber Park, DistrictShopping Centre, Sector 47,Subhash Chowk, Sector 48,Sector 72 A, Hero HondaChowk, Udyog Vihar Phase 6,Sector 10, Sector 37, Basai vil-lage, Sector 9, Sector 7, Sector4, Sector 5, Ashok Vihar, Sector3, Bajghera Road, Palam Vihar

Extension, Palam Vihar, Sector23 A, Sector 22, Udyog ViharPhase 4, Udyog Vihar Phase 5and finally merge in existingmetro network of RapidMetrorail Gurugram, atMoulsar Avenue station nearCyber City.

This Mass Rapid TransitSystem (MRTS) project willfacilitate maximum part ofGurugram city.

It will interchange withMRTS Corridor at SubhashChowk, with Bus Stand atSector 10, with Railway Station

at Sector 5 and with RapidMetro at Moulsar AvenueStation.

MRTS Corridor at SubhashChowk will interchange withyellow line at HUDA CityCentre and therefore, will pro-vide direct connectivity to a

large part of Gurugram withDelhi. The daily ridership onthe study corridor for the years2025, 2031 and 2041 is expect-ed to be 5.34 lakh passengertrips, 7.26 lakh passenger tripsand 8.81 passenger trips respec-tively.

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The Monsoon session ofHaryana Vidhan Sabha

will commence from August26, at 2 pm, the Cabinetchaired by chief ministerManohar Lal Khattar decid-ed on Thursday.

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Haryana Chief SecretaryKeshni Anand Arora on

Thursday said that the StateGovernment has prepared a'Haryana State Road SafetyPolicy' to achieve a target of 50percent reduction in road fatal-ities and injuries by 2025.

She said, “In the last sixmonths between January toJune 2020, the number ofinjured in road accidents,deaths and accidents alsodecreased by 26.71 percent,26.77 percent and 26.88 percentrespectively".

Arora said this in the meet-ing of Supreme CourtCommittee on ‘Road Safety’held through video conferenc-ing under the chairmanship of

Justice (Retd) Abhay ManoharSapre. In the meeting, Aroraapprised them about the effortsbeing taken in the matter ofroad safety, for which Justice(Retd) Sapre praised the workbeing done by the HaryanaGovernment.

She said that the StateGovernment has set up a StateRoad Safety Council under theChairmanship of the TransportMinister to coordinate all activ-ities related to road safety andlay emphasis on public aware-ness about road safety, trafficlaws and initiate steps to reduceroad accidents.

District Road SafetyCommittees at district levelhave been constituted to ensurecompliance of the directionspassed by the Council. Road

Safety Fund has been created bythe state government.

A fund of Rs 31 crore hasbeen allocated for the year2020-21.

The Chief Secretary saidthat the 'Haryana Vision Zero'programme has been started bythe Police Department with anaim to reduce the death rate inroad accidents in the State.Under this, Road SafetyAssociates have been deployedin all districts for performingRoad Safety activities.

They will coordinate withDistrict Road SafetyCommittees for crash investi-gation, black spot rectifica-tion, road inspection, inter-section rectification, aware-ness campaign and pedestrianfacilities, she added.

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The union territory ofChandigarh on Thursday

witnessed the highest single-day spike with 91 freshCOVID-19 cases. One moreresident also succumbed toCOVID-19 taking the totaltoll to 27 in the city

The total tally of positivecases stood at 1842 whichincluded 737 active cases till theevening. 53 patients weredeclared cured and dischargedfrom various treatment facili-ties taking the total recoveriesto 1076.

With this, the recovery rateof COVID-19 patients stood at58 percent in Chandigarhagainst the national average of70.77 percent.

The fatality rate wasrecorded as 1.46 percent.

“A 50 years old female,resident of Maloya colony, whowas COVID positive, expiredon August 12 in ICU, NHE,PGIMER. She was a patient ofMetastatic carcinoma cervixwith AKI and co-morbid con-ditions of Rectovaginal Fistula,Bilateral Hydronephrosis andDiversion Colostomy,” statedChandigarh HealthDepartment’s evening bulletin.

The fresh cases werereported from Sectors 7, 12, 15,20, 22, 24, 25, 27, 28, 30, 31, 32,35, 37, 30 west, 40, 41, 42, 43,44, 45, 46, 51, 61, Ramdarbar,Manimajra, Hallomajra, Burail,Maloya, PGIMER and BapuDham colony in Sector 26, thebulletin stated. Among positivepatients, a four-week old malechild from Maloya was testedpositive for COVID-19.

100 BEDS AT PGIMER FORCHANDIGARH PATIENTS

With Chandigarh’s hospi-tals brimming with COVID-19positive patients due to suddensurge in cases in the past fort-night, the UT Administrationon Thursday shot off a letter tothe Post Graduate Institute ofMedical Education andResearch asking to immediatelyearmark 100 beds with criticalcare exclusively for the patientsfrom the city.

The city on Thursdayreported its biggest single-dayspike with 91 fresh positivecases. Till now, 1842 positivecases have been reported inChandigarh.

At NHE, PGIMER, 149COVID-19 patients wereundergoing treatment till theevening. Out of them, 57belonged to Chandigarh, 54 to

Punjab, 16 to Haryana, 11 toHimachal Pradesh and remain-ing to other states. The NHE,PGIMER is a 200-bedded treat-ment facility for criticalCOVID patients. Apart fromthis, COVID patients wereadmitted in SoodDharamshala, DhanwantariHospital, GMCH-32 andSector 48 Hospital for treat-ment.

In view of the sudden surgein COVID-19 cases in the city,Punjab Governor and UT

Administrator VP Singh onThursday directed that addi-tional facilities for 100 bedseach exclusively forChandigarh COVID patientsshould be created both inPGIMER and GMCH-32. Inthe month of August so far, thecity has reported 791 positivecases.

Meanwhile, theChandigarh Administration onThursday set-up a help desk forthe COVID-19 active patientswho are in home isolation.

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Eight patients of Covid-19were reported dead on

Thursday which took the deathtoll in Haryana to 511.According to Haryana HealthDepartment’s official bulletinon Thursday evening, the for-ward march of the Covid19 inHaryana is continuing unabat-ed. On Thursday, the Statehealth department reported793 fresh cases of the diseasewhich increased the patient

count in the State to 44, 817. Ofthese, 6820 are active cases.

As many as 792 patientshave been discharged fromdifferent hospitals of the Stateafter recovery on the day. The

State now has a total of 37, 486recovered patients which putsthe recovery percentage at83.64 per cent while the dou-bling rate of the disease inHaryana at 30 days.

According to bulletin, outof eight, three deaths werereported from Panipat whiletwo from Faridabad and oneeach from Gurugram, Sonepatand Ambala.

On the day 136 patientswere reported in Faridabad, 78in Gurugram, 50 in Sonepat, 63

in Ambala, 119 in Panipat, 62in Karnal, 43 in HIsar, 51 inPalwal, 36 each in Panchkulaand Kurukshetra and 37 inMahendergarh. The State stillhas 6820 active cases —accounting for 5.63 percent ofthe total cases — of which 25patients are critical and onventilator support while 121 areon oxygen support. The max-imum number of 173 patientsrecovered from Hisar districton Thursday, reveals the bul-letin.

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Punjab has achieved firstrank in operationalisation

of Health and Wellness Centers(HWCs) as per the latest rank-ing of states released by theCentral Government.

Sharing the informationregarding the HWCs schemelaunched in the state in 2019,the state Health and FamilyWelfare Minister Balbir SinghSidhu on Thursday said thatdespite restrictions on themovement of people due toCOVID-19 pandemic led lock-down, HWCs across Punjabrecorded 28.1 lakh footfalls inthe last five months.

“The OPD services,Reproductive and Child Health

(RCH) services, preventive andcurative clinical services forcommunicable and non-com-municable diseases are beingprovided at these centers byHWC team includingCommunity Health Officer(CHO) along with Multi-Purpose Workers (male andfemale) and ASHAs. Besides,27 essential drugs and six diag-nostic services are being pro-vided free of cost at these cen-ters,” he said.Sidhu said thatPunjab would soon become theleading state in the health sec-tor as the State Government hastaken the pro-people initiativeto further strengthen the healthinfrastructure. “Currently, 2042HWCs are operational acrossthe State.

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To keep the further spread ofCovid-19 under check,

Punjab Government onThursday decided to conduct100 percent testing in themicro-containment and con-tainment zones using RapidAntigen Tests.

The directions to this effectwere issued by the ChiefMinister Capt AmarinderSingh while reviewing theprevalent COVID-19 situationacross the State. At the sametime, the Chief Minister askedthe Deputy Commissioners,Commissioners of Police,Senior Superintendents ofPolice and Civil Surgeons to gofor a vigorous contact tracing,of at least 10 contacts of eachpositive case.

Directions were also issuedfor testing of persons withmultiple contacts on account oftheir occupations, such as shopworkers, mandi workers, andfrontline government employ-ees, within this week, declaringthat this should be a “TestingWeek”.

The Chief Minister alsodirected that all the offices,business establishments, indus-trial units, and marriagepalaces etc where more than 10people gather, must appoint‘COVID Monitors’ to ensureadherence of health and safe-ty protocols meticulously, whowould be responsible to ensure

proper hygiene and sanitizationof working places to check theinfections from this disease.

Capt Amarinder Singh alsoexhorted the people, who haverecovered from this disease, togenerously donate plasma inthe designated plasma banks atGovernment Medical Collegesof Patiala, Amritsar, andFaridkot to treat the patientsinfected with coronavirus.

Showing deep concernover the general perceptionamongst the public about thestigma attached toCoronavirus, Capt Amarinderasked the Chief Secretary todirect Public RelationsDepartment to launch a vig-orous publicity campaign tobring awareness amongst thepeople about the significance

of corona testing as at presentpeople were shying away fromgetting tested due to this stig-ma.

Citing his own example,the Chief Minister said that hehas no qualms for such stigmaas he would gladly share hisvideo of getting tested on var-ious social media platforms toinstill confidence amongst thepeople about testing whichwas of paramount importanceespecially during the recentspike.

Earlier interacting with theDeputy Commissioners, PoliceCommissioners, SSPs and CivilSurgeons of four worst-corona-hit districts — Ludhiana,Jalandhar, Patiala, andAmritsar, the Chief Ministerasked the officers to divide the

districts into sectors to keep astrict vigil over the COVID sit-uation by ramping up 100 per-cent testing, surveillance, andcontact tracing.

“Each Sector would besupervised by a joint teamcomprising of civil and policeofficers of gazetted rank, whichwould ensure the completion ofabove tasks in a time boundmanner,” he added.

The Chief Minister alsounderscored the need to inten-sify efforts to launch testing onwar footing, especially withinthe old walled areas of thesecities, where most of such casesremain untraced.

Updating the ChiefMinister, the state Health andFamily Welfare MinisterBalbir Singh Sidhu under-lined the need to boost capac-ity building in Gian SagarHospital and Mohali CivilHospital to cope up with therapidly rising cases of COVIDon daily basis.

Making a brief presenta-tion to apprise the ChiefMinister about the currentCOVID situation, the HealthAdvisor Dr KK Talwar said thatby and large, all the MedicalColleges and GovernmentHospitals are fully equippedwith robust medical infra-structure and trained doctorsand paramedics to overcomeany unforeseen exigency amidspurt in the COVID cases innear future.

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Page 4: ˆ˜ ˝ˆ !ˆ ! ˆ ˙ ˆ ˚ ˆ ˝˜ ˚˘˝ · 23 hours ago  · High Court will resume on Friday. The Congress has 107 MLAs in the 200-member Assembly and the BJP 72. Taking note

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Despite political parties,including Rashtriya Janata

Dal (RJD) and Lok JanshaktiParty (LJP), urging the pollpanel to postpone the polls, theElection Commission’s prepa-rations are in full swing to holdAssembly polls in time.According to officials, prepa-rations are in full swing forholding the Assembly pollsthis year although the final dateis yet to be announced. Theelection machinery is busyfinalising voter list to ensure novoter is left.

In a recent interview to anews channel, CEC Sunil Arorahas stated that Bihar assemblypolls will be held as per sched-ule. “Despite coronavirus andfloods, the first level checkingof electronic voting machines(EVMs) and voter verifiedpaper audit trail (VVPAT)machines is going on in eachdistrict of the state, officialsadded. Besides this, the option-al postal ballot voting facilityhas been extended to senior cit-izens over 80 years of age, dis-abled voters, electors engagedin essential services and voterswho are coronavirus positive orsuspects, living in quarantine.

The poll body has directedChief Electoral Officer of Biharto limit the number of electorsper polling station (PS) to amaximum of 1,000 (as opposed

to the current limit of 1,500) sothat social distancing normscan be observed. Also, thecommission has introducedmeasures like Booth App forbetter queue management atpolling stations. All such mea-sures will help in ease of vot-ing for electors.

Meanwhile ahead ofAssembly election, the widen-ing rift between the NDA allieswas again on display with theJDU snubbing LJP — followingits national president ChiragPaswan’s assertion that hisparty was ready to contest onall 243 Assembly seats and hisdemand for a common mini-mum programme-by sayingthat party’s “alliance in Bihar isonly with BJP.”

The LJP had written a let-ter to the Election Commissionsaying it is not advisable to putthe lives of lakhs of people atrisk by holding elections at atime when there has been asharp increase in coronavirus

cases in the State.To ensure social distancing,

33,804 auxiliary polling boothsin 243 Assembly constituenciesadded this year in the State.After the addition of theseauxiliary booths, the total num-ber of polling booths will go upto 1,06,527. The State willrequire about 1,80,000 addi-tional workforce for conduct-ing the Assembly polls.

More than three millionmigrant workers returned toBihar during the lockdownimposed to curb Covid-19pandemic. The commission isrunning a special campaign toadd more and more people tothe electoral roll. Bihar had71,822,450 voters on February7 this year. Around 1.24 millionnew voters were added betweenDecember last year andFebruary this year. This num-ber could go much higher afterthe addition of the migrantpopulation.

CEC Arora has stated thatBihar’s chief electoral officerhas been provided an addi-tional number of EVMs,including VVPATs, keepingthe pandemic in mind. Theterm of the current assemblyends on November 29 and anew assembly has to be con-stituted before that. Presently,16 districts are under severeflood situation while pandem-ic is expected to peak byOctober and November.

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Ahmedabad-based ZydusCadila on Thursday trig-

gered a price war by launchingthe cheapest generic version ofGilead Sciences’ antiviral drugRemdesivir in India for Rs 2,800to treat Covid-19 and to meetthe supply gap in the hospitalshere. The new entrant is alsolikely to keep a check on theblack marketing of the brandspresently available in the market.

Priced at Rs 2,800 for a 100mg lyophilized injection,Remdac is the most economi-cal Remdesivir brand in India.Another competitors like Cipla

prices Cipremi, its generic ver-sion of Remdesivir, is at Rs 4,000per 100 mg vial while, HeteroHealthcare’s Covifor is priced Rs5,400. International companyMylan’s Remdesivir generic ispriced at Rs 4,800 per vial whileJubilant Generics launched itsbrand JUBI-R in the Indianmarket last week at a price of Rs4,700 per vial of 100 mg.

“Priced at Rs 2,800 for a100 mg lyophilized injection,our brand ‘Remdac’ will bemade available across the coun-try. Its distribution chain wouldreach out to Government andprivate hospitals treating coro-navirus patients, Zydus said in

a statement here. Zydus is thefifth Indian company to launchthe drug in India after HeteroLabs, Cipla, Mylan NV andJubilant Life Sciences.

“Remdac is the mostaffordable drug as we wouldlike to enable patients to haveaccess to this critical drug inthe treatment of Covid-19”,said Dr Sharvil Patel, theManaging Director of CadilaHealthcare Limited.

With Zydus entering themarket with economicallypriced Remdac, health offi-cials feel that it will put abrake on black-marketing ofother brands of Remdesivirwhich was becoming commonacross India just a month ago-it was being sold for multipletimes its retail price of Rs5,500 per vial. According to dif-ferent complaints reported byconsumers, the drug was beingsold at rates ranging from Rs

15,000 to Rs 60,000.In June 2020, Zydus

entered into a non-exclusiveagreement with Gilead SciencesInc, to manufacture and sellRemdesivir, the investigation-al drug, which has been issuedan emergency use authoriza-tion by the US Food and DrugAdministration (FDA) to treatpatients suffering from severesymptoms of Covid-19.

The group’s plasmid DNAvaccine ZyCov-D is now inPhase II of the Adaptive PhaseI&II clinical trials. India’s drugpricing regulator NationalPharmaceutical PricingAuthority (NPPA) and theDrug Controller General ofIndia (DCGI) has not yetcapped the prices of coron-avirus treatments, thoughNGOs and patient groups havebeen demanding a cap onprices in the past couple ofmonths.

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With the situation contin-uing to remain tense at

the Line of Actual Control(LAC) and the possibility of thetroops braving the harsh win-ter, the Army has assured aParliamentary panel that it hassufficient winter clothing andrelated equipment for deploy-ment at high altitudes.

The Army, however, saidthere is a shortage of such itemsin reserves at the headquarters.At the same time though, theArmy said, troops on groundare adequately equipped.

This assurance was givenrecently to the Public AccountsCommittee (PAC) looking intothe observations of theComptroller and AuditorGeneral (CAG) report earlierthis year, sources said onThursday. The Government

watchdog had flagged concernover shortage of winter cloth-ing, related equipment likeboots, snow goggles and foodfor the personnel deployed atplaces like Siachen and othersuch tough terrains.Temperature there dips below20 degrees. The CAG hadreported 98 per cent shortageof goggles and recycling ofboots to overcome deficiency.

Making these observationsin its report tabled inParliament in February, theCAG also said troops in highaltitude areas such as Siachenand Ladakh among others needto be provided high altitudeclothing, equipment and spe-cial ration to enable the troopsto effectively with stand theinclement weather and ail-ments caused from extremecold weather conditions.

In this backdrop, the Armytop brass informed the parlia-

mentary panel shortage inreserves at the Army head-quarters does not hit availabil-ity of such critical supplies totroops. The panel was alsoapprised that shortages in thestocks for special clothing andmountaineering was nowaddressed to a large extent.

The CAG had reported

these deficiencies for the peri-od 2015 to 2017-18.

As the Army is ready forlong haul with China not with-drawing its troops from the“friction points,” the panel wasalso informed that troopsdeployed at heights of more than10,000 feet had sufficient stocks.Almost all the “friction points”

in Eastern Ladakh are locatedabove 13,000 feet and winter setsin there by early September.

The Army has alreadystarted stocking its winterreserves at all high-altitudepoints, including Ladakh, andmay go in for additional pro-curement of pre fabricatedinsulated huts to withstandharsh winter and cold winds inLadakh, sources said.

The Army also updated thePAC about the procurementprocess for high altitude andsaid only items approved bysoldiers are included in the ten-dering. The panel wasinformed that high altitudeareas are divided into two cat-egories. Heights up to 12,000feet is in the category of“Extreme Cold” clothing, andfor heights beyond that specialclothing and mountaineeringequipment is required.

As regards selection of

inferior rucksacks flagged bythe CAG, the Army said labo-ratory tests were done. Itresulted in a dispute betweenthe Directorate General QualityAssurance and the supplier. Itwas reiterated that there was nocompromise on quality and nodefects were reported by thesoldiers.

The Army also clarifiedon the CAG observation abouttroops supplied expired itemsand said there was no complaintabout quality or loss to state dueto Shelf Life Management ofany of the items.

The Performance Auditfindings of provisioning andprocurement of these itemsduring the period 2015-16 to2017-18 said there were delaysin procurement of high-altitudeclothing and equipment itemsup to four years leading toacute shortage of essentialclothing and equipment items.

It led to critical shortage insnow goggles ranging from 62per cent to 98 per cent. Thetroops were not issued ‘multi-purpose boots’ from November2015 to September 2016 andhad to resort to recycling ofavailable boots.

Further, old versions ofitems such as face mask, jack-et and sleeping bags were pro-cured which deprived the sol-diers from the benefits of usingimproved products. Lack ofresearch and development bydefence laboratory led to con-tinued dependence on import,the report noted.

As regards special rations,the government watchdog saidspecial scales of such rations areauthorized to the troops tomeet their daily energy require-ments. However, substitutes inlieu of scaled items were autho-rised on “cost-to-cost” basiswhich resulted in supply of

reduced quantity of substi-tutes. This compromised thecalorie intake of the troops byas high as 82 per cent.

Explaining the significanceof special rations, the reportsaid the high-altitude regionhas extreme conditions where-in temperatures fall belowminus 50 degrees during severewinter conditions.

This causes loss of appetitedue to various physiologicalchanges leading to weight lossand reduction in performance.The normal ration scale is notsufficient for the calorific valuerequired for the high-altitudearea. The basic objective of giv-ing special rations to the troopsat 12,000 feet and above is toprovide alternative food itemsto alleviate certain psycholog-ical and physiological condi-tions that the soldiers faceunder inhospitable conditionsthere, the CAG had said.

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Dependent on imports till afew months ago for per-

sonal protection equipment(PPE) and ventilators’ require-ments, India is now self-reliantmanufacturing most of the 12.8million PPE kits and 30 millionN95 masks which it has dis-tributed among States forhealthcare workers. The UnionHealth Ministry on Thursdaysaid its main role for containingCovid-19 has been in strength-ening health infrastructure tofight the pandemic and itseffective management.

“Along with augmentingCovid-19 facilities, the UnionGovernment has been provid-ing medical supplies free of costto the State/UT governments tosupplement their efforts. Mostof the products supplied by theGovernment of India were notbeing manufactured in thecountry in the beginning. Therising global demand due to thepandemic resulted in theirscarce availability in the foreignmarkets,” it said.

With the combined efforts

of the Ministries of Health,Textiles and Pharmaceuticals,Department for Promotion ofIndustry and Internal Trade, theDefence Research andDevelopment Organisation andothers, domestic industry wasencouraged and facilitated tomake and supply essentialequipment such as PPE kits,N95 masks, and ventilators.

“Since March 11, 2020, theUnion Government has dis-tributed more than 3.04 croreN95 masks and more than 1.28crore PPE kits toStates/UTs/Central Institutions,free of cost…In addition, 22,533‘Make in India’ ventilators havebeen delivered to variousStates/UTs/Central Institutions.The Centre is also ensuringtheir installation and commis-sioning,” the statement said.

At least 108 millionhydroxychloroquine (HCQ)tablets were distributed as theanti-malaria drug is beinggiven as a prophylactic to pre-vent infections, and also fortreating early cases of Covid-19 that are mildly or pre-symptomatic.

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India conducted a recordhigh of more than 8.3 lakh

tests in span of 24 hours tak-ing the total sample tally to 2.68crore so far in keeping with its“Test, Track and Treat” strate-gy to reach the testing capaci-ty of 10 lakh tests per day soon.

The week-wise averagedaily tests conducted saw asharp increase from around2.3 lakh in the first week ofJuly 2020 to more than 6.3lakh in the current week, saida statement from the UnionHealth Ministry.

Besides, said the Ministry,across the country, about70.77 per cent of the peopleinfected by coronavirus haverecovered and left hospitals

and quarantine centres while66,999 new Covid-19 caseshave been detected in the last24 hours, taking the totalcountrywide tally of infectionsto 23,36,637.

The Ministry in a state-ment said that there are6,53,622 active cases at pre-sent, while 16,95,982 peoplehave been discharged so far. Inthe last 24 hours a total of56,383 people left hospitalsand quarantine centres afterrecovering from the virus,taking the recovery rate up to70.77 per cent.

The authorities also stat-ed that 47,033 people havesuccumbed to deadly virus sofar. In the last 24 hours, 942people lost their lives after get-ting infected with the virus.

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The CBI has registered aRegular Case against three

Andhra Pradesh police offi-cials to probe their role inalleged illegal detention of twopersons to extract confessionsagainst themselves as also theirassociates for involvement incricket betting.

A Preliminary Enquirysuggested prima facie involve-ment of three policemen of theCCS Guntur police station inthe crime.

The PE was registered bySpecial Crime-II Unit of theCBI here on March 5 in com-pliance with the order of theHigh Court of Andhra Pradesh(Amrawathi) dated February25. Two separate Writ Petitionswere filed by the victims’ wivesNalabolu Sunitha and Rayidi

NagaLakshmi and ThumatiVijaya Lakshmi alleging illegaldetention of their husbands.

Before filing their respec-tive petitions before the HighCourt, they had also sent com-plaints to SP Guntur (Urban)on October 29, 2019, about theillegal detention.

“During PreliminaryEnquiry, it was prima facierevealed that Nala BoluAdinarayana, Rayidi SrinivasaRao and Thumati SrinivasaRao were illegally detained byCCS Police Station during the period 14.10.2019to 31.10. 2019 and detainees were forced to disclose theirown involvement and that oftheir associates in cricket bet-ting during illegal detentions,”reads the CBI order registering the case.

During PE, the allegation

of petitioners have prima faciebeen established which dis-close the commission of cog-nisable offences under Sections 120-B (criminal con-spiracy), 344 (wrongful con-finement) and 348 (wrongfulconfinement to extort confession) of the Indian PenalCode (IPC).

“Hence in compliance oforder of High Court of AndhraPradesh, this Regular Case isregistered against Inspector NVenkatrao, ConstableVerrajanayelu and HeadConstable Sambasiva Rao ofCCS, Guntur Urban and otherunknown officers/officials of ofCCS Guntur Urban/LocalPolice and entrusted toMukesh Sharma, Deputy SP,CBI, SC-II, New Delhi forinvestigation,” the CBI order added.

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New Delhi: The UGC has toldthe Supreme Court that finalexamination is a “crucial step”in the academic career of a stu-dent and the State Governmentcannot say that its July 6 direc-tive, asking universities and col-leges to conduct final yearexaminations by September 30amid the Covid-19 pandemic,was “not binding”. TheUniversity Grants Commission(UGC) said the July 6 guide-lines are based on the recom-mendations of experts andhave been made after duedeliberation and it is wrong toclaim that it will not be possi-ble to conduct the final exam-inations in terms of the guidelines.

“That apart, the state govt(Maharashtra) avers that thenext academic session mustbegin in the interest of students,while, at the same time, con-tending that the final exami-nations should be cancelledand degrees can be awardedwithout such examinationseven though such a step wouldirreparably damage the futureof students. Such contentionsby the state govt are clearlytherefore meritless,” the UGCsaid in its reply to the affidavitfiled by Maharashtra earlier.

The UGC has also filed itsreply to the affidavit filed byDelhi government in the topcourt. On August 10, the UGChad questioned the decisions ofDelhi and Maharashtra gov-ernments to cancel final yearexams of state universities amidthe Covid-19 pandemic, sayingthey were against the rules.

In its reply to Maharashtra’saffidavit, the UGC has said thatit is “entirely wrong” to say thatits revised guidelines of July 6are “not binding on the stategovernment and its universi-ties”. The commission said thatit had already filed a commoncounter affidavit earlier on thebatch of petitions which havechallenged the July 6 directiveto all the universities and col-leges to conduct final yearexaminations by September 30amid the pandemic. “In itscommon counter affidavit, theUGC has already emphasizedand justified the need for con-ducting final examinations, beit in the form of program-end-ing terminal semester exami-nation or final annual exami-nation, because it is a crucialstep in the academic career ofa student,” it said whileresponding to Maharashtra’saffidavit. PTI

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The Supreme Court Thursday stayed con-tempt proceedings against the Centre for

alleged “willful disobedience” of a judicialorder to ensure that the draft EnvironmentImpact Assessment (EIA) notification of 2020is published in all the 22 languages in the EighthSchedule of the Constitution within 10 days fromJune 30.

A Bench comprising Chief Justice, JusticesAS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian passedthe order after Solicitor General Tushar Mehtawithdrew the appeal to seek a remedy before theDelhi High Court.

“Accordingly, the special leave petition is dis-missed as withdrawn with the aforesaid liber-ty. Needless to state that in case the petitionerfails before the High Court, it is permitted toapproach this Court once again challenging themain order as well as the order passed in thereview petition.

“The contempt petition shall remain stayedtill the disposal of the review petition,” the benchsaid. The Delhi High Court had asked the Centreon Tuesday to reply to a plea seeking contemptaction against it for alleged “wilful disobedience”of the judicial order on the notification.

It had issued the notice to the EnvironmentMinistry, which was directed by the high courton June 30 to ensure the draft EIA 2020 is pub-lished in all 22 Indian languages within 10 days,and sought its response to the contempt plea byAugust 17.

The order came on the plea by environ-mental conservationist Vikrant Tongad who hasalleged “wilful disobedience and deliberatedefiance” by the ministry as it neither publishedthe translated versions of the draft EIA nor didit seek more time from the court to do so.

The draft EIA 2020, according to the plea,provides for post facto approval of projects and does away with public consultationin some cases.

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The Supreme Court onThursday allowed former

Union Minister Arun Shourie,veteran journalist N Ram andactivist-lawyer PrashantBhushan to withdraw theirplea challenging the constitu-tional validity of a legal provision dealing with criminalcontempt.

A Bench headed by JusticeArun Mishra was informedby senior advocate RajeevDhavan, who was representingthe petitioners, that they wantto withdraw the plea as sever-al petitions on the same issueare pending before the apexcourt and they don’t want “thisto be entangled” with them.

The Bench, also compris-ing Justices BR Gavai andKrishna Murari, allowed thepetition to be withdrawn withliberty to the petitioners toapproach the appropriate judicial forum, except the apex court.

During the brief hearingconducted through video-con-ferencing, Dhavan said that atthis stage the petitioners wantto withdraw the plea with lib-erty to approach the top courtagain, maybe after two months.The petitioners had challengedthe constitutional validity of alegal provision dealing withcriminal contempt for “scan-dalising the court”, saying it wasviolative of freedom of speechand right to equality.

Earlier, on August 8, a reli-able official source had saidthat the apex court adminis-tration had called for an expla-nation from officials concernedover the listing of the plea forhearing on August 10 beforeanother bench of the top courtcomprising Justices DYChandrachud and KM Joseph.

However, on the same day,the matter was dropped fromthe list of business. Later, thematter was listed for hearingbefore a bench headed byJustice Mishra, who is alreadydealing with two separate con-tempt cases against Bhushan.

The top court sources hadsaid that along with the freshpetition, Shourie, Ram andBhushan also moved an appli-cation seeking stay on the pro-ceedings in the two contemptcases pending against theactivist lawyer.

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Page 5: ˆ˜ ˝ˆ !ˆ ! ˆ ˙ ˆ ˚ ˆ ˝˜ ˚˘˝ · 23 hours ago  · High Court will resume on Friday. The Congress has 107 MLAs in the 200-member Assembly and the BJP 72. Taking note

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In a shocking development,Maharashtra on Thursday

breached the daily fatality tallyof 400, as a staggering 413 peo-ple succumbed to Covid-19, while there were11,813 infections in variousparts of the State.

Maharashtra, which hadwitnessed 334 pandemic deathson August 5, 390 deaths onAugust 9, recorded 344 deathson Wednesday, witnessed anall-time high of 413 deaths onThursday.

With the fresh deaths, thetotal number of deaths crossedthe 19000-mark to touch atotal tally of 19063.

With 11813 fresh infec-tions, the total number ofinfected cases in the statecrossed the 5.5 lakh mark totouch 5,60,126.

Of the total 413 deaths,Pune once again topped the listwith 92 deaths, followed by 65deaths in Thane and 48 deathsin Mumbai.

In addition, there were 36deaths in Kolhapur, 20 in

Satara, 15 each in Raigad,Nashik, Jalgaon and Nagpur, 12deaths in Palghar, 11 in Laturand 10 in Sangli.

Similarly, on the lower side,there were nine deaths inOsmanabad, 8 in Ahmednagar,6 in Solapur, 5 in Dhule, 4 inNanded, 3 each in Parbhaniand Beed, 2 each in Ratnagiri,Jalna, Hingoli, Akola,Amravati, Yavatmal, Buldhanaand Gondiya and one deatheach in Nandurbar,Sindhudurg, Aurangabad,Washim and Chandrapur.

With the daily death tallydropping below 50 once again,Mumbai’s Covid-19 toll rosefrom 6,943 to 6991, while thethe total number of infectedcases rose by 1,200 to touch1,27,556 now.

Meanwhile, as many as9,115 patients were dischargedfrom hospitals in the state afterfull recovery, taking the totalnumber of patients dischargedfrom various hospitals after fullrecovery since the second weekof March this year to 3,90,958.The recovery rate went up to69.80 per cent.

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1,564 new persons were diag-nosed with Covid-19 in

Kerala on Thursday. Accordingto the release issued by theHealth Department, this is the highest number ofpatients diagnosed on a singleday till date.

The announcement cameafter the claims made by Chiefminister Pinarayi Vijayan andhis cabinet colleague A K Balanthat the State has done anexcellent job in Covid man-agement and many advancednations were replicating theKerala Model.

Kerala BJP leader KSurendran said immediatelyafter the data was released thatthis was proof of the failure ofKerala Government’s covidpreventive measures.

“There is nothing surpris-ing in this development. Whatthe Chief Minister and theHealth Minister were doingwas a public relations exercis-es to hoodwink the people,”said Surendran while speaking to reporters onThursday.

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Status quo continued in TamilNadu for the 10th day in suc-

cession as the State tested 5,835new patients with Covid-19on Thursday. The day also saw119 persons succumbing to thepandemic taking the death tolltill date to 5,397. At the end ofthe day, there were 53,500active patients in the State,while 5, 146 patients left hos-pitals fully cured. The day alsosaw 134 laboratories in theState testing 65,560 personsfor the pandemic.

The Cluster of districts ledby Chennai remained an issue ofconcern despite the number ofpersons diagnosed in the capitalcity showing some abatement.Chennai tested 989 positivecases while Chengalpet had 453new patients. Kancheepuramtested 243 patients on Thursdaywhile Thiruvallur district tested390 new patients. Districts ofCoimbatore, Cuddalore, Theniand Virudhunagar each testedmore than 200 new patients onThursday. Dr CV Krishnaswami,veteran physician and medicalscientist is of the view that the sit-uation in Tamil Nadu hasplateaued though it is yet toshow signs of stability.

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The Jammu & Kashmir policeThursday collected DNA

samples of parents of missingyouth in Rajouri in order toestablish the identity of three‘unidentified’ terrorists neu-tralised in an encounter inAmshipora area of Shopian onJuly 18, 2020. The said encounterhad earlier come under thescanner after three Rajouri basedfamilies lodged a missing reportat police post Peeru in Kotrankatehsil claiming they were not intouch with their children, whohad gone to Shopian in searchof work since July 17,2020.

Hue and cry was raisedwhen some of the images of the

slain ultras,killed in theencounter, were circulated in thesocial media along with imagesof these three youngsters fromRajouri. The family membersclaimed their children namelyImtiyaz Ahmad, 20, and IbrarAhmad, 16, of Dharsakri village,and Mohammed Ibrar, 25 ofTarkasi village of Kotranka tehsilwere allegedly killed by thearmy during the encounter andthey had identified their lovedones from the images circulat-ed in the social media.

Inspector General of Police,Kashmir range, Vijay Kumartold reporters in Srinagar onThursday, “a senior police offi-cer of the rank of DeputySuperintendent along with his

team is visiting Rajouri to inves-tigate the claims made by thesefamilies”. He said, “We will firstestablish the identity of themissing youth and then we willalso verify whether these youthwere in touch with any of thelocal terrorists or not”. He said,“We will search their call detailsand gather all technical data”.

Vijay Kumar said, “Wehave collected the samples ofthree slain ultras and now wewill match the same with theDNA samples of parents whoare claiming the dead bodies.The DNA samples will be sentto the Central Forensic ScienceLaboratory”. He,however,refused to comment further inthe matter.

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The stolid face of neo-nor-mal humanity was

unmasked on Thursday whena poor wife of a 55-year coro-na patient from Barasat inNorth 24 Parganas saw her hus-band drop down dead on apublic road even as she keptcrying for help from theGovernment agencies for hoursbut none came.

The incident depicting theneo-normal “life after corona,”took place at Bamangachi villagebarely 5 km away from theBarasat district hospital and

half-an-hour away fromDominque Lapierre’s City of Joy.Sandhya Sami a mother of twosquatted on the road for hourscrying for her dead husbandwho was suffering from fever forthe past 10 days but failed tofind an ambulance to reach himto the hospital a few km away.

“I took him to a nearbyhealth centre where they col-lected his swab…but reportsdid not arrive even after 10days of the swab being collect-ed,” she said sobbing. As hedeveloped breathing condi-tions she called up theGovernment agencies includ-

ing Aasha workers but noneturned up and “when no ambu-lance came we started walkingtowards the hospital. But afterwalking five minutes hedropped down severely panti-ng for breath and right there hebreathed his last…”

Earlier a middle aged per-son lying by the sidewalk forthree days at busy ShyambazaarCrossing was finally helpedinside an ambulance not by thehealth staff or police menequipped with PPEs but a localstreet vendor who borrowed aconstable’s PPE to help the ail-ing man get into the vehicle.

Patna: Manoj KumarSrivastava, IAS (retired) 1980batch of Bihar cadre breathedhis last on Thursday morningat AIIMS Patna due to severecomplications developed relat-ed to Covid-19.

Known in Bihar for hisscholarly tastes and trenchantintellect, Shrivastava had a dis-tinguished career spanningmore than three decades. Ascholar of JNU, he first made itto the Indian Police Service IPSin 1979, and went on to secureAll India 3rd position in theCivil Services Examination thevery next year, making it to theIAS with Bihar cadre.

He is survived by his wife,daughter and two sons. His col-leagues fondly remember himas lively , ingenuous , caringand erudite person and the“Land Reforms Man”. PNB

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An IPS officer is trying tomake a difference in the

fight against Covid-19 inBihar’s Jehanabad district.Karuna Sagar, who hails fromBihar and belongs to TamilNadu cadre, has tried to helppeople from the most vulner-able sections of society bymobilising help from privatesector institutions such as theReliance Foundation and StarHealth Insurance as well as theRed Cross Society.

Sagar, who is presentlyposted with the Bureau ofPolice Research &Development under the MHA,organized hundreds of Covid-19 kits which were handed over

to the district administrationfor distribution to the people ofJehanabad as well as neigh-boring district Arwal as well.

The district Magistrate aswell the President of the RedCross Society’s Arwal chaptertook upon the task of distrib-uting these kits to returningmigrant workers. Sagar alsoprovided financial support toRed Cross in order to carry outtheir humanitarian efforts suchas running communitykitchens for migrant workersand the poor. Sagar has beenalso involved in providingrelief to flooded-maroonedpeople in North Bihar wherethousands of people are ren-dered homeless everywheredue to the deluge.

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Page 6: ˆ˜ ˝ˆ !ˆ ! ˆ ˙ ˆ ˚ ˆ ˝˜ ˚˘˝ · 23 hours ago  · High Court will resume on Friday. The Congress has 107 MLAs in the 200-member Assembly and the BJP 72. Taking note

Atext message announcingpresidential candidate JoeBiden’s choice of WhiteHouse running mate hadonly just pinged on his sup-

porters’ phones when US PresidentDonald Trump fired off his first tweetattacking her.

The form that message took — aslickly produced video describing her asa “phony” and creature of the “radicalLeft” — perhaps indicates just how wor-ried the President is about his chancesof winning re-election now that SenatorKamala Harris has joined theDemocratic ticket.

If successful in November, the 55-year-old former prosecutor fromCalifornia would become the first Blackwoman to serve as Vice-President of theUS and would be well-positioned to stepup to the presidency itself four yearslater.

Trump himself has made much ofHarris’s status as a “transition” candidate— at 77, Biden is widely expected toserve only one term if successful. Her“ambition” for the role is said to havebeen a reason he delayed announcing hischoice of running mate, with adviserswarning she may be too focussed on thenext presidential race to serve him loy-ally as the Vice-President.

If it sounds like an episode of Veep,the popular HBO show starring JuliaLouis-Dreyfus as the Vice-President, the2020 presidential race is certainly nocomedy.

Harris’ entry into the race has elec-trified many women and members of aBlack community discouraged by thechoice of yet another White man as theDemocrats’ presidential candidate justas female reproductive rights are underattack and the country is riven by racialstrife following the death of GeorgeFloyd. Her ethnicity and gender wereundoubtedly motivations for Biden’sselection — he had been urged to opt fora Black candidate following the race riotsof late spring and had already promisedto choose a woman.

She also becomes the first person ofIndian extraction to run for the highoffice. Born in Oakland, California,Harris’ parents had emigrated to theStates from British colonies, 16,000miles apart, within a year of each otherin the early 1960s.

Her mother was a breast cancer sur-geon from the Indian city of Chennai,while her father was an economics pro-fessor who grew up in Jamaica. Namedafter a Hindu goddess, Kamala grew upattending both a temple and a BlackBaptist church. As a child, she was partof the busing programme designed todesegregate schools — a history she usedwith devastating effect against Biden,

who had opposed busing dur-ing their primary debates(Harris also initially soughtthe presidential nomination,dropping out of the contest afterfailing to attract big moneydonors).

As a former presidentialhopeful herself, Harris enteredthe Democratic race on MartinLuther King day, carefullytimed to highlight the historicnature of her candidacy. It wasalso a nod to Shirley Chisholm,the first Black woman elected toCongress, who became the firstBlack woman to seek theDemocratic nomination forpresident 47 years ago thatweek. When she announced herbid for the Democratic nomi-nation, Harris said she felt a“responsibility to stand up andfight for the best of who we are”and regain America’s “moralauthority” in the world.

Despite showing earlypromise with strong debateperformances, her campaignfailed to catch fire and she quitthe race in early December asmoney dried up and her pollnumbers plummeted.

Her inability to connectwith voters in the Democraticprimary race remains a concernfor some Democrats, as doesthe lingering idea that shemight not be completely loyalto Biden because of a heatedconfrontation the two politi-cians had as rivals competing

for the Democratic nomination.Members of Biden’s inner

circle have expressed reserva-tions about the incident duringan early Democratic primarydebate, when Harris criticisedBiden’s past opposition to thepolicy of busing, which sawchildren of different racesbussed to schools as a way ofbreaking down segregated edu-cation.

As a prosecutor in SanFrancisco in the 1980s and1990s, Harris gained a reputa-tion for harsh justice, leading to,some have said, an unfairincrease in the incarcerationrate for young Black men. Sherose to become CaliforniaAttorney-General in 2011 andwas elected to the Senate in2016. Her background maywell blunt Trump’s attempts toclaim the mantle of the “lawand order candidate.” Moregenerally, her poise and persua-siveness make someRepublicans nervous.

In his more candidmoments, Trump has admittedto a grudging respect for Harris,publicly advising Biden that shewould be the best pick. Whenthe candidate followed thePresident’s advice, however, itwas time for Trump to unleashhis characteristically colourfulinvective.

In a press conference, hoursafter she was announced, thePresident began trying out a

few familiar attack lines —similar to those misogynisticones he used against HillaryClinton — describing Harrisseveral times as “nasty” as wellas “mean,” “horrible,” “disre-spectful” and a “liar.”

But while the Republicanswill now do their best to por-tray her as a Left-winger, Harrisis more mainstream than othersenior Democrats such asElizabeth Warren and BernieSanders, her politics broadly inline with those of Biden.

She gained a reputationduring her presidential run asa strong debater, leading polit-ical observers to lick their lipsat the prospect of a head-to-head between her and currentVice-President Mike Pence, asteely conservative.

Harris married fellowlawyer Douglas Emhoff in 2014and is step mother to his twogrown-up children, Cole andElla, who call her “Momala.”She has spoken of her deep lovefor the children and friendshipwith their mother, describingthe “modern family” as “almosta little too functional.”

So far, the family has keptout of the limelight but that maychange as Senator Harris joinsthe battle for the presidency, inwhat is expected to be themost fiercely-fought contestfor the White House in modernhistory.

(Courtesy: The Telegraph)

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Sir — This refers to the editori-al, “Women legal heirs” (August13). The Supreme Court’s verdictextending the rights of women totheir fathers’ property is a majorpush towards gender equality.Most laws surrounding coparce-nary rights were from the pre-Constitution, feudatory era. Atthat time, the right to equalitywas not a fundamental right; asa result women stood margin-alised. On the demise of thepatriarch, the share of thedeceased was passed on to hismale heirs. Although there havebeen several amendments to theHindu Succession Act, 1956,none granted unconditionalrights to women. Now all of thisis set for a change. Now the realchallenge lies in ensuring thatthis legal provision empowerswomen. Most do not even knowabout their legal rights.Awareness is a must.

Rahul ChouhanUjjain

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Sir — The death of eminent

Urdu poet and lyricist RahatIndori is an irreparable loss tocontemporary literature andsociety at large. He was a schol-ar of repute and will be remem-bered for both his romanticverses and protest poetry. Hebecame famous as a mushairastar, who had taken part innumerous soirees in India andabroad, especially in countries

where there is a large expatriatepopulation of Urdu-speakingIndians and Pakistanis. Peopleused to flock in huge numbers toattend his mushairas and kavisammelans. He mesmerised hisaudience with his unique style ofrendering nazms and kept themspell-bound.

Ramesh G JethwaniBengaluru

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Sir — US President DonaldTrump’s behaviour at the latestpress conference was disgraceful.Not knowing which World Waryou are talking about, out of twochoices, is just trivial and embar-rassing. The real concern is withhis treatment of the Secret

Service. When they request youto leave a meeting, it’s notbecause they want a coffee break,it’s because you are in danger andthey are at even more riskbecause they are going to bestanding between you and anypotential attack. You do whatev-er they say. It’s time to start treat-ing people with more respect, MrPresident.

Dennis FitzgeraldMelbourne

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Sir — This refers to the editori-al, “Kamala blooms” (August13). Democrat Joe Biden hasplayed hardball by pickingKamala Harris as the Vice-President candidate. With racialinjustice becoming a significantissue in the US, the countryneeds stable, mature, responsibleleadership. Senator Harris has allthe qualities of a capable leader.Besides, Harris will also bringmanagement experience to thejob.

Munmun Ujjain

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Page 7: ˆ˜ ˝ˆ !ˆ ! ˆ ˙ ˆ ˚ ˆ ˝˜ ˚˘˝ · 23 hours ago  · High Court will resume on Friday. The Congress has 107 MLAs in the 200-member Assembly and the BJP 72. Taking note

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Pakistan’s obsession with Kashmir is themain cause of its economic collapse andglobal reputation as the fountainhead of

terror. The Pakistani political and militaryleadership continues to brainwash its citizenswith rhetoric like “Kashmir is an unfinishedagenda of the Partition” and “Kashmir is theumbilical cord of Pakistan.”

Islamabad’s obsession can be gauged fromthe fact that since 1947, it has fought three wars(not counting the Kargil conflict) with India.Failing to defeat the Indian Army, it embracedthe strategy of “bleeding India through a thou-sand cuts” conceptualised by Zia-ul-Haq. It thenlaunched a proxy war in Kashmir, duly backedby jihadi terrorism and termed it as “religiousmilitancy.” Islamabad’s preoccupation withKashmir has forced it to adopt terrorism as aninstrument of State policy with the PakistanArmy maintaining the terrorists as “strategicassets.” Despite the Damocles’ Sword of theFinancial Action Task Force (FATF) hanging overits head, Pakistan continues to support terror-ism with a few cosmetic changes to hoodwinkthe FATF.

Pakistan’s Kashmir agenda has resulted in itlosing friends globally, particularly among theIslamic countries. To begin with, it enjoyed a lit-tle bit of international sympathy on the matterof Kashmir. But as its fetish grew stronger by theday and it set in motion the process to snatchKashmir from India through any and everymeans, particularly terrorism, it began to loseglobal support. Barring one or two nations, noneis willing to support Pakistan on the Kashmirquestion, with most of the countries dubbing itas an “internal matter of India.”

The reasons for Islamabad’s fixation withKashmir are not difficult to gauge. First and fore-most it is fuelled by Pakistan’s greed for the waterof the Indus river. Pakistan fears that its canalnetwork would be starved of water if Indiadecides to stop the excess flow into it. New Delhican do this without violating international lawson sharing the precious resource with a ripari-an State.

Next, the Pakistan Army rules the roost inthe country and its authority over the populaceand the democratically-elected Government ofPrime Minister Imran Khan will remain intactas long as it is successful in keeping Kashmiron the boil. It needs to sustain the myth that Indiaas a “Hindu nation” is an existential threat whichsuffers from “Islamophobia” and if it weren’t forthe army, India would gobble up Pakistan andchange the Muslim-majority identity of Kashmir.This logic holds no validity since Islamabad,through its unilateral actions, has not onlychanged the demography of the territories ofPakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), it has deniedthem civil and political rights and illegally cededparts of the territory to China. However, if Indiais no longer seen as a major military threat, thePakistan Army will lose its raison d’etre.

Plus, after losing its eastern wing in 1971 andsuffering a humiliating defeat at the hands of theIndian Army, Islamabad has nurtured the ideaof taking revenge by annexing Kashmir. And lastbut not the least, Kashmir has acted as a glue tounite the otherwise disunited Pakistanis.Through emotional blackmail and speechesabout atrocities on fellow Muslims, the leader-ship has conveniently diverted the attention of

its citizens from serious domesticissues. Pakistan is almost a failed Stateand the Kashmir issue fosters jingoismin the hearts and minds of its citizens,which keeps the country intact. The daythis jingoism vanishes, the nation willdisintegrate.

With the “ends” defined clearly, thePakistani Deep State has been employ-ing all “means”, including jihadi terror.Apart from direct and clandestineintervention in Kashmir, for decades ithas tried to internationalise theKashmir issue to gain global support,all the while hoping that it couldchange the territorial status quo in itsfavour. But the events of August 5, 2019and a few decisions taken by India,including bifurcation of the State intotwo Union Territories, took the windout of Pakistan’s sails. New Delhi notonly made Pakistan irrelevant by ensur-ing universal acceptance of its standthat Kashmir was its internal matter, italso sent out unmistakable signals of itsclaim over the territories occupied byPakistan, including those ceded illegal-ly to China. Imran Khan and his mil-itary mentors were clearly taken by sur-prise.

Thereafter, Pakistan went into aspin mode and desperation was visiblein all its moves. It tried all tricks in thebook, including a military build-up onthe Line of Control (LoC), raking upthe issue at the United Nations GeneralAssembly (UNGA), appealing toIslamic nations, seeking an emergencymeeting of the Organisation of IslamicCountries (OIC), pleading before theUS President Donald Trump, uppingthe ante on terrorism, increasing cease-fire violations (CFVs) and global pro-paganda against India through its paidthink tanks, including social mediajihad. But it suffered humiliation every-

where to the extent that its leadershiphad to eat a humble pie.

As India tried to set its house inorder in Kashmir through administra-tive reforms, anti-terror operations,employment generation, developmen-tal projects and strengthening of grass-roots democracy, Pakistan kept inter-fering through its proxies to ensure thatKashmir continued to remain on theboil. However, even though things arefar from perfect in the Valley right nowand there is much to be done at thehuman level for its full administrativeand emotional integration with India,the people’s rejection of Pakistan andPakistan-sponsored terrorism is evidentfrom the fact that more and moreKashmiris are coming forward to shareinformation about the terrorists withthe security forces.

Still, in yet another effort to displayits relevance and “solidarity withKashmiris”, Pakistan decided to observeAugust 5 this year as a “Black Day.” Itdid so in order to win back theKashmiris and garner global support.Its efforts to revive its old pitch includ-ed a visit by the foreign media, raisingthe issue at the UN, statements by polit-ical and military leaders, panel discus-sions, special supplements in the printmedia, a visit of UN Military Observersto the LoC, symbolic changes likerenaming the Rawalpindi-Muzaffarabad Highway as KashmirHighway and the Muzaffarabad-UriRoad as Srinagar Road and finally theaddress of Imran Khan to the PoKAssembly. The events proved to be adamp squib.

An attempt to raise the issue at theUN Security Council with the help ofChina found no takers as both all-weather friends were snubbed badly.CFVs to coincide with the address of

Imran Khan met with a strong responsefrom India, causing extensive damageto Pakistan’s military infrastructure.

The danger of losing its promi-nence and supremacy continues tohaunt the Pakistan Army. Through itspuppet Prime Minister, it wants to keepthe pot boiling in Kashmir despite indi-cations to the contrary.

The time has come for Pakistan toend what can be best described as a fan-ciful idea. It has lost the battle, it needsto admit that. Instead it must concen-trate on looking after its own citizenswho badly need the attention of theirpolitical leadership. Pakistan is on theverge of an implosion and that shouldbother Imran Khan. He himself hasadmitted on numerous occasions thatthe global community backs India. Heneeds to understand the harsh reality that international relations arenot built on emotions but on pragma-tism.

The Pakistan Army will have tochange its mindset before it earns thewrath of the citizens and is then forcedto do so. Kashmiris are wise and prac-tical. After initial resistance, sincethere is always resistance to change,they will soon try to work with the neworder to ensure a better future for them-selves and the generations to come.They have discarded Pakistan for good.It is for Pakistan to understand that andstop wasting its energies in Kashmir.

Pakistan needs to set its own housein order to prevent itself from becom-ing a failed State. Instead of solidaritywith Kashmiris, it needs to showempathy and solidarity with Sindhis,Balochis, Pathans, Shias, Ahmadiyyasand other minorities on its soil.

(The author is a Jammu-based vet-eran, political commentator and securi-ty analyst.)

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Patriarchy has existed from timeimmemorial and despite all ourtalk about the equality of men and

women, society sees its evil face every-where. Patriarchy rears its ugly head inour schools, colleges, families, work-places, the Parliament, Governmentand sadly even in institutions entrust-ed to uphold justice for all citizens atall times.

For instance, in a recent order,while granting a rape accused antici-patory bail, the Karnataka High Courtsaid, “It is unbecoming of an Indianwoman to sleep after she is ravished.”Giving reasons for the bail order, thecourt noted that the complainant’sclaim of having slept “after the perpe-tration of the act” because she was tired

was “unbecoming of an Indian woman”.This reason for granting bail was interalia followed by other factors viz,delay in filing complaint by the pros-ecutrix and her prior acquaintance withthe accused. However, the observationmade by Justice Krishna Dixit, aboutthe behaviour of the “Indian woman”post rape, reaffirms the existence ofdeep-rooted sexism and patriarchalnotions, even in the highest constitu-tional institutions.

These patterns of conservativejudicial interpretation can be tracedback to the Tukaram vs State ofMaharashtra case, till which the judi-ciary usually focussed on principles like“utmost resistance” by the woman inorder to establish her “morality.” Thisprinciple of “utmost resistance” was sofragile that it could be precludedmerely by having a friendship with theaccused. There are also instanceswhere the judges who gave “victim-friendly” decisions ended up fortifyingpatriarchal and sexist norms throughtheir observations.

The idea of male dominance andsexual morality persisted until 1983,when for the first time, the legislative

inclination shifted towards ensuringprotection to women and the freedomto live with dignity in society. TheCriminal Law (Amendment) Act, 1983brought major changes to rape laws andinserted Section 114A to the IndianEvidence Act, 1872, which imposed theburden of proving “consent” on theaccused, creating a presumption of guiltagainst the general rule of presumptionof innocence until proven guilty.

Interestingly, Section 155(4) ofthe Indian Evidence Act, 1872 provid-ed defence to the accused to establishthe testimony of the rape victim unre-liable on grounds of her “immoral char-acter.” Fortunately, the 2002 IndianEvidence (Amendment) Act repealedthis provision, prohibiting the use ofpast sexual history as a proof of her“unchastity” and “impurity.”

Despite many progressive judg-ments by the Supreme Court post theabove-mentioned amendments, thenotions and stereotypes of a few judgesremained intact and victims of sexualviolence were time and again put to thetests of “morality” and “chastity” basedon their individual ideas and person-al beliefs. Consequently, such redun-

dant precedents created stereotypicalparameters to be adhered to by eachrape survivor. There have been multi-ple instances where, though judges haverendered logical and rational judg-ments, they have used improper wordsto highlight the injustice suffered by theperson.

In the Kamal Nath vs State of TamilNadu case, the court stated that “agame-keeper has become a poacherand some of the victim girls were rearedto be butchered later when theyattained the age.” Similarly, in a rapecase involving a seven-year-old girl, thecourt made regressive observations byusing terms like “loss of dignity”, lossof her “purest temple” and her “lost rep-utation.” Thus, in a sense reaffirmingthe ancient notion that “the pride of awoman is directly linked with her sex-ual history.”

It is of utmost importance that theBench hearing rape cases should berational, unbiased and sensitive towardsthe victim. This sensitivity is likely tocome only when a woman lends a handin such cases where the victim has suf-fered utmost physical and mentaltrauma. Hence, it is necessary to

include women’s opinions by allowingwomen judges to compulsorily presideover rape cases.

It is worth noting that womenjudges can bring fresh perspectives andthe required level of sensitivity whiledealing with sexual violence cases. Thiswas reiterated in the State Governmentof NCT of Delhi vs Pankaj Chaudharycase wherein the Delhi High Courtacquitted a rape accused on thegrounds that the victim was a sex work-er and was perhaps believed to be of“immoral character.” However, thematter reached the Supreme Court,wherein the Division Bench consistingof women judges, viz Justice RBanumathi and Justice Indira Banerjee,vide an order dated October 31, 2018set aside the acquittal and reversed theDelhi High Court’s judgment. TheBench ruled that “even if there is somematerial to show that the victim washabituated to sexual intercourse, infer-ence cannot be drawn towards loosemoral character.” A woman of “easyvirtue” also could not be raped by a per-son for that reason, the Bench added.

Furthermore, the need of the houris to acknowledge the severity of the

crime, uphold justice and createprospects for rehabilitation of rape vic-tims instead of asserting and re-assert-ing that “immense shame” has beenbrought upon rape survivors and theirfamilies.

It should be remembered thatinsensitive statements not only hurt theperson but also take away her confi-dence and the right to live with digni-ty. Maybe even more than sexual vio-lence, the victims fear the blame andcharacter assassination that happens incourt. Unfortunately, the reality of oursociety even after over seven decadesof Independence remains the same,where we believe that the dignity of thefamily is related to the virtue and “puri-ty” of a girl and it ends when she losesher virginity outside of marriage.

Hence, not only are women judgesneeded to make the rape survivor feelconfident in her fight for justice but alsoto change the course of rape trials inIndia towards a victim-friendly, egal-itarian and sensitive space, where thesword of justice cuts the wings of patri-archy and sexism and does not shamethe victim of sexual violence.

(The writer is an Advocate)

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Page 8: ˆ˜ ˝ˆ !ˆ ! ˆ ˙ ˆ ˚ ˆ ˝˜ ˚˘˝ · 23 hours ago  · High Court will resume on Friday. The Congress has 107 MLAs in the 200-member Assembly and the BJP 72. Taking note

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Beirut: Lebanon’s Parliamenton Thursday approved a stateof emergency in Beirut in itsfirst session since the cata-strophic August 4 explosion,granting the military sweepingpowers amid rising popularanger at official corruptionand mismanagement and polit-ical uncertainty.

The government resignedafter the blast that killed morethan 170 people, injured at least6,000 and wrecked the capital’sport and caused widespreaddamage across the capital.

The disaster has raisedpopular fury toward Lebanon’sleaders to a new level as thecountry reels from an unprece-dented economic and financialcrisis, along with the coron-avirus pandemic.

Before it resigned, the gov-ernment declared the state ofemergency that gave the mili-tary the power to declare cur-fews, prevent public gatheringsand censor the media, as wellas refer civilians to military tri-bunals for alleged securitybreaches.

The action requiredapproval by lawmakers, whichthey granted Thursday.

The move has been criti-cised by rights groups and

others who say the civiliangovernment already was oper-ating with increased powersbecause of the coronavirusoutbreak. Some pointed to themilitary crackdown on pro-testers last week, fearing theextended powers could lead tosilencing dissent.

Parliament met outside itsregular location to observesocial distancing amid a surgeof coronavirus cases andbecause of nearby ongoingprotests by those who want theentire political class to stepdown.

The session opened with amoment of silence for thosekilled in the blast. It thenmoved to discuss the resigna-tion of nearly a dozen law-makers last week to protest thegovernment’s handling of the

blast. A major Christian partybloc is boycotting the session.

It still was not known whatcaused the fire responsible forigniting nearly 3,000 tonnes ofammonium nitrate that werestored for years in Beirut’sport. But documents haveemerged that show the coun-try’s top leadership and securityofficials were aware of thestockpile.

After the governmentresigned Monday, the Cabinetis in a caretaker capacity.

It was not immediatelyclear if Parliament had techni-cally extended the governmentdecision on the state of emer-gency for 15 days or simplyimposed it to take effect start-ing Thursday, said rights lawyerNizar Saghieh.

“There is incredible chaos,”

Saghieh said. He said the stateof emergency’s only justifica-tion is to extend the power ofthe state and security agenciesand “control the opposition.”“We were waiting for the armyto help in reconstruction, notbe an extension of power,” hesaid.

Lawmaker Simon AbiRamieh protested thatParliament was convened tovote on the state of emergencywhile it was already in effectand called instead for forminga parliamentary committee toinvestigate the explosion.

“We are living in a state ofinstitutional blunder,” he said.“We are in a place and theLebanese people are some-where else. ... The public wantsto know the truth behind thenegligence that led to the explo-sion.”

Lebanon’s political land-scape has been shaken by theevents. Before resigning, thecaretaker prime minister pro-posed early elections, an ideathat was not supported by theParliament speaker and otherpolitical groups.

Since the resignation, therehas been a flurry of closed-door meetings and politicalhaggling to form a government

that meets the approval ofdomestic and internationalpowers. Lebanon’s complicat-ed sectarian-based politicalsystem requires the prime min-ister to be chosen from amongSunni Muslims. It wasn’t clearif there would be a nationalunity government — whichwould mean the participationof all political parties — or anemergency transition govern-ment.

France’s defence ministerwas due to arrive in Beirut onThursday amid a flurry of for-eign visits to the stricken coun-try. France has been leadingefforts to help Lebanon emergefrom the drastic blow, includ-ing talking to political partiesto hasten the formation of anew government.

Also on Thursday, USUnder Secretary for PoliticalAffairs David Hale was due toarrive in Lebanon for a two-dayvisit. Hale is expected to “reit-erate the American govern-ment’s commitment to assistthe Lebanese people in recov-ering from the tragedy andrebuilding their lives,” a state-ment by the US.Embassy said.He will also stress the “urgentneed” for embracing funda-mental reforms. AP

Johannesburg: An Africa-widestudy of antibodies to the coro-navirus has begun, while evi-dence from a smaller studyindicates that many more peo-ple have been infected than offi-cial numbers show, the AfricaCentres for Disease Control andPrevention said Thursday.

Experts are eager to knowthe real number of COVID-19cases in Africa, as confirmedcases and deaths have been rel-

atively low on the continent of1.3 billion people. Poor data col-lection, however, has compli-cated efforts. But recent surveysin Mozambique found anti-bodies — proteins the bodymakes when an infection occurs— to the virus in 5% of house-holds in the city of Nampulaand 2.5% in the city of Pemba.That’s while Mozambique hasjust 2,481 confirmed virus cases.Further studies are underway in

the capital, Maputo, and the cityof Quelimane.

“What is important is farfewer people are coming downwith the disease,” Africa CDCdirector John Nkengasong toldreporters. “How many peopleare infected and asymptomaticon our continent? We don’tknow that.” Africa’s young pop-ulation, with a median age of19, has been called a possiblefactor. AP

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The first batch of volunteersaged between 21 and 55 in

Singapore have received a doseof a potential coronavirus vac-cine being developed in thecountry.

Called Lunar-Cov19, thevaccine is developed by Duke-NUS Medical School andAmerican pharmaceuticalcompany Arcturus

Therapeutics.Arcturus in a statement on

Tuesday said that this firstphase of the trial involved vol-unteers aged between 21 and55, who were injected with asingle shot of the vaccine.

Data from this phase of theearly-stage trial would be usedto select the dosage regimens ofthe next phase, which willinvolve those aged 56 to 80, aswell as younger adults.

Dhaka: A Dhaka court onThursday indicted Bangladesh’sfirst Hindu Chief JusticeSurendra Kumar Sinha and 10others on charges of embez-zling 40 million taka from abank, a court official said.

The indictment comesseven months after anotherDhaka court issued an arrestwarrant against the 69-year-oldex-chief justice who lives in theUS and was described as a“fugitive” by the Anti-Corruption Commission(ACC) in its charge-sheet.

“The court today framedcharges against S K Sinha and10 others, beginning their trialin the Farmers Bank scandal,”said a prosecution lawyer in

Dhaka.He said six of the accused

in the case were former officialsof the bank while among therest includes a reported aide ofSinha.

The prosecutor said only three of the accused facedthe trial in person as the rest were “on the run to evadejustice”.

The court officials saidSpecial Judge Shaikh NazmulAlam read out the charges andset August 18 as the date for thenext hearing.

The ACC filed chargesagainst Sinha and 10 otherswhile the court referred thecase to the independent graftbody for investigation. PTI

Gaza City (Gaza Strip): TheIsraeli military said it struckHamas militant sites in the GazaStrip early Thursday in responseto continued launches of explo-sives-laden balloons from thePalestinian territory into Israel.

The military said its targetsincluded a compound used byHamas’ naval force and under-ground infrastructure andobservation posts. There wereno immediate reports of casu-

alties on either side. Israel andHamas have fought three warsand numerous smaller flareupssince the Islamic militant groupseized control of Gaza in 2007.

The enemies have largelyobserved an unofficial truce inrecent months, but recent dayshave seen a resurgence of theincendiary balloons militantshave sent from Gaza that haveset off heavy fires in neighbor-ing Jewish agricultural lands.

Israel holds Hamas respon-sible for all fire out of the coastalenclave. As part of its reprisal,Israel also announced it wouldhalt the import of fuel into theGaza Strip. AP

Washington: Democratic pres-idential nominee Joe Bidenmade a maiden public appear-ance with his running mateKamala Harris on Wednesdayduring which the Indian-American shredded DonaldTrump’s White House record,saying that the president is not“up to the job.”

Biden, a 77-year-old whiteman, on Tuesday named 55-year-old Harris as his vice-pres-idential running mate, makinghistory by selecting the firstBlack woman to compete on amajor party’s presidential tick-et.

Jointly appearing inWilmington, Delaware, tomake their election case for thefirst time as running mates,Biden said his pick for theparty’s vice presidential nom-inee is “smart, tough and aproven fighter for the country’smiddle class”.

“She knows how to makethe hard calls. She’s ready to dothis job on day one. And we’reboth ready to get to workrebuilding this nation andbuilding a better,” he said.

The event was not open tothe public due to coronavirusprevention needs. Both Bidenand Harris walked on stage

wearing masks to address asocially distanced group ofmasked journalists.

Harris said that once elect-ed, the Biden administrationwill create millions of jobs, fightclimate change and build anaffordable care act among var-ious other strong initiativesfor the welfare of Americans.

Hitting hard on the threeand half years of the Trumpadministration during her firstappearance after being pickedas the vice presidential nomi-nee of the Democratic party on

Tuesday, Harris presented along list of missteps taken bythe Trump government.

“This is what happenswhen we elect a guy who justisn’t up for the job,” Harris said.“Our country ends in tattersand so does our reputationaround the world.”

Harris said the case againstPresident Trump and VicePresident Mike Pence is “openand shut” as she mentioned alot of sectors where the currentadministration has created acomplete mess. PTI

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Israel’s Defense Ministry saidon Thursday it conducted a

successful test of the country’sadvanced missile defense sys-tem against long-range ballis-tic attacks.

Defense Minister BennyGantz said the successful flighttest of the Arrow-2 interceptorwas part of Israel’s technolog-ical effort that “ensures that wewill always be one step aheadof our enemies.” The test wasconducted overnight in centralIsrael, jointly with the USMissile Defense Agency.

Oakland (US): BeginningThursday, US Facebook userswho post about voting maystart seeing an addendum totheir messages — labels direct-ing readers to authoritativeinformation about the upcom-ing presidential election.

It’s the social network’slatest step to to combat elec-tion-related misinformationon its platform as theNovember 3 election nears —one in which many voters maybe submitting ballots by mailfor the first time.

Facebook began addingsimilar links to posts about in-person and mail-in ballotingby federal politicians, includ-ing President Trump, in July.

These labels will link to anew voter information hub

similar to one about COVID-19 that Facebook says has beenseen by billions of users aroundthe world. The labels will read,“Visit the Voting InformationCenter for election resourcesand official updates.”

Despite such efforts,Facebook continues to facewidespread criticism aroundhow it handles misinformationaround elections and othermatters. The company hasgenerally refused to fact-checkads by politicians, for instance,and a two-year audit of its civilrights practices faulted thecompany for leaving US elec-tions “exposed to interferenceby the President and otherswho seek to use misinforma-tion to sow confusion andsuppress voting.” AP

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Minsk (Belarus): Crowds ofprotesters in Belarus swarmedthe streets and thousands ofworkers rallied outside indus-trial plants Thursday todenounce a police crackdownon demonstrations over a dis-puted election that extended the26-year rule of authoritarianPresident AlexanderLukashenko.

In several areas of Minsk,hundreds of women formedlong “lines of solidarity.” Manywere dressed in white and car-ried flowers and portraits ofloved ones who have beendetained during protests thatbegan shortly after Sunday’svote that they said was rigged.

The human chains grewquickly, and by early afternoon

filled the main central squaresand avenues. Motorists honkedin support.

In Minsk and many othercities, thousands of factoryworkers also rallied against thepolice violence, raising theprospect of strikes in a newchallenge to the government.

Nearly 7,000 people havebeen detained and hundredsinjured in a harsh clampdownby police on demonstratorsprotesting the official resultsthat said Lukashenko won 80%of the vote and his top opposi-tion challenger got only 10%.Police have broken up protestswith stun grenades, tear gas,rubber bullets and severe beat-ings.

“Belarusians have seen the

villainous face of this govern-ment. I argued with my hus-band and voted forLukashenko. And this is whatI got in the end — I can’t findmy relatives in prisons,” saidValentina Chailytko, 49, whosehusband and son were detainedin protests Sunday and hasbeen unable to get any infor-mation on their whereabouts.

“I wonder how Lukashenkocould keep ruling,” she added.

One protester died Mondayin Minsk, and hundreds ofothers were injured across thecountry. The authorities con-firmed that a detainee alsodied in the southeastern city ofGomel, but the circumstancesof his death weren’t immedi-ately clear. AP

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Lithuania on Thursday des-ignated the Lebanese mili-

tant Hezbollah group as a ter-rorist organisation and issueda 10-year ban on all individu-als related to the Iran-backedgroup from entering the Balticnation’s territory.

“After receiving valuableinformation from our foreignpartners, we can assume thatHezbollah is functioning on theprinciples of terrorist organi-sation,” Foreign Minister LinasLinkevicius said.

Linkevicius added, withoutelaborating, that some persons with the Iran-backedorganization also pose threat to Lithuania’s nationalsecurity.

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Page 9: ˆ˜ ˝ˆ !ˆ ! ˆ ˙ ˆ ˚ ˆ ˝˜ ˚˘˝ · 23 hours ago  · High Court will resume on Friday. The Congress has 107 MLAs in the 200-member Assembly and the BJP 72. Taking note

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Privatisation-bound BharatPetroleum Corp Ltd

(BPCL) on Thursday reportednearly doubling of net profit inthe June quarter after invento-ry gains offset a decline inrefining margins and fuel sales.

Standalone net profit inApril-June stood at �2,076.17crore compared with �1,075.12crore a year back, the compa-ny said in a regulatory filing.

The company earned USD0.39 on turning every barrel ofcrude oil into fuel as comparedto a gross refining margin(GRM) of USD 2.81 a barrel inthe same period of the previousyear.

Fuel sales in the quarterthat saw economic activitycoming to a halt due to nation-wide Covid-19 lockdownslipped to 7.53 million tonneswhen compared to 11.11 mil-

lion tonnes sales last year."Decrease (in sales) is

mainly in retail petrol (38.77per cent), retail diesel (34.62per cent,) ATF (82.92 per cent)and partly offset by anincrease in LPG (10.83 percent)," it said.

Company officials said therise in profit was primarily dueto inventory gains resultingfrom the valuation of invento-ry held rising because of a pickup in oil prices in the later halfof the quarter.

"The outbreak of COVID-19 globally and resultant lock-down in many countries,including from March 25, 2020,in India, had an impact on thebusiness of the Corporation.

"Consequently lowerdemand for crude oil andpetroleum products hasimpacted the prices and there-fore refining margins globally,"BPCL said.

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Sales tax collection of stateson petroleum products is set

to recover sharply, CrisilRatings said on Thursday.

According to the ratingsagency, augmentation in col-lection will be driven by arebound in volume, full impact

of increase in Central and statetaxes, and firmer crude oilprices.

"If these drivers sustain,there could be a 7-9 per centon-year rise in sales tax receiptsto �1.96 lakh crore, despite anexpected 25 per cent fall in col-lections in the first quarter on-year," it said in a statement.

As per the statement, com-bined monthly volume ofpetrol and diesel sales nearlydoubled from 43 per cent inApril to 85 per cent in June,though it dipped marginally inJuly (83 per cent on-year).

"Another kicker to improv-ing collections is higher exciseduty.

Central excise duty wasraised in March and May 2020.

An increase in excise dutyincreases the taxable value ofpetrol and diesel for the levy ofstate sales tax," Ankit Hakhu,Director, Crisil Ratings, wasquoted as saying in the state-ment.

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The Indian stock marketended on a flat-to-negative

note on Thursday, weigheddown by selling in banking,healthcare and telecom stocks.

A largely negative trend inthe global markets also reflect-ed on the domestic indices,analysts said.

However, healthy buying inmetal, capital goods and indus-trial stocks capped the losses.

Rahul Sharma, ResearchHead at Equity99 Advisors,said: "Private sector banks andpharma stocks continued toreel under selling pressure,while select mid-cap and small-cap have started witnessingretail interest."

With June 2020 corporateearnings nearing its end, hesaid that a lot of reshuffling inthe portfolio is expected in thenext few weeks.

"Overall, action in the mar-ket has shifted to mid-capstocks as retail investors con-tinue to chase value-buying atdifferent levels," Sharma said.

Manish Hathiramani, tech-nical analyst with Deen DayalInvestments, said that the trendso far continues to remainbullish and the market is "tak-ing its own time to move up".

"The bias, for now, contin-ues to remain on the upsideand we could target 11,450-11,500 as the target. The sup-port of the Nifty is at 11,100-11,150," he said.

The Nifty50 on theNational Stock Exchangeclosed at 11,300.45, lower by7.95 points, or 0.07 per cent,from its previous close of11,308.40. The BSE Sensexclosed at 38,310.49, lower by59.14 points, or 0.15 per cent,from its previous close of38,369.63.

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For Hindustan Unilever Ltd(HUL), the downturn is

the time to widen its compet-itive advantages and leverage itscore strengths to the fullest,according to a research reportby Japanese financial serviceshouse, Nomura.

"While it demonstrated itsbest-in-class strategy and exe-cution during recent majorevents (demonetisation, GST),it continues to display materi-al improvements in prepared-ness, planning and transform-ing in current tough times,"Nomura said.

"We believe in this down-turn, HUL can further widenits competitive lead vs peers

and is well-equipped to driveshare gains and expand mar-gins," the report said.

Recruiting consumers inits core categories during thedownturn, HUL has increasedits focus on protecting vol-umes during the currentdownturn.

"It has gained share in 86per cent of its portfolio in Q1and is consistently doing so,which should, in our view,enable it to gain value share1.4x faster than peers over thenext five years.

More importantly, it hasstarted gaining share in soaps(c.16 per cent of sales), whereit was losing share; this couldmeaningfully contribute to itssales," Nomura said.

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India’s wind and solar sharerose from three per cent of

the total generation in 2015 to10 per cent in the first half of2020 and at the same time coal’sshare fell from 77 to 68 percent.

For the first time, theworld’s dirtiest fossil fuel coalran at less than half of itscapacity this year, said UKenvironmental group Ember’sreport on Thursday.

The report is a half-yearanalysis of the global electric-ity transition, analysing 48countries that represent 83 percent of global electricity.

Ember says wind and solar

reached a record-high marketshare of 10 per cent of globalelectricity in the first half of2020, up by 14 per cent com-pared to the same period lastyear despite a three per centdrop in demand globally due tothe impact of COVID-19.

These two factors led to thelargest half-year fall in coal gen-eration since at least 1990 andmeant that this year, for the firsttime, the world’s coal fleet ranat less than half of its capacity.

Dave Jones, senior elec-tricity analyst at Ember, said,"Countries are now on thesame path -- building wind tur-bines and solar panels toreplace electricity from coaland gas-fired power plants.

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GAIL (India) Limitedrecorded a Turnover of

�12,060 crore, Profit beforeTax (PBT) of �356 crore andProfit after Tax (PAT) of �256crore for the Q1 FY21 asagainst �18,276 crore, �1,981crore and �1,288 crore respec-tively in Q1 FY20.

The sharp decline in finan-cial performance is mainlyattributable to significantimpact in physical performancedue to nation-wide lockdownduring the earlier part of thequarter coupled with lowerprice realization inPetrochemicals, LiquidHydrocarbons and NaturalGas.

New Delhi: As a part of theactivities organised during the"Atma Nirbhar Week", the fol-lowing products were launchedby the Raksha Mantri, RajnathSingh remotely from Delhitoday.Secretary Defence,Dr.Ajay Kumar, Secretary DefenceProduction ,Shri Raj Kumarand Additional SecretaryDefence Production Shri V LKantha Rao were also present.The proceedings were con-ducted by Shri Puneet Agarwal,Joint Secretary (Land System).

The DGOF and Chairman

Ordnance Factory Board, ShriHari Mohan joined the eventvia video link from Kolkata

(i) NAMICAThe Missile launching plat-

form for the 3rd generationanti-tank fire and forget missile"Nag" using an indigenouslyproduced Infantry CombatVehicle with amphibious capa-bilities. Jointly developed byOrdnance Factory Medak andDRDL, the platform can fire sixmissiles with a gap of 20 sec-onds.

(ii) 14.5 /20 mm Anti

Material RifleThe 14.5 /20 mm Anti

Material Rifle developed by theOrdnance FactoryTiruchirappalli. A dual calibresingle shot with bolt actionsniper rifle for destroyingenemy bunkers, light armouredvehicles, radar systems etc.modular, man-portable andhighly accurate. (iii) 8.6x 70mm SniperRifle

8.6x70mm Sniper Rifle isdeveloped by the Rifle FactoryIshapore.

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If everything is going wellthen soon the form of the

District Panchayats of UttarPradesh will be changed. Theirempty Commercial complexeswill now contribute to tremen-dous increase in the revenue ofthe district panchayats. Forthis, all the MunicipalCorporatios have beeninstructed to adopt a profes-sional approach to increasetheir revenue and order tosymbolize their vacant land andbuildings. At the same time, acommittee has been formed

under the chairmanship ofPrincipal Secretary PanchayatRaj, which will play an impor-tant role in its implementation.After the release of IsokelkarRajnesh, Ghaziabad DistrictPanchayat has started its levelof action.

Additional Chief Officer ofDistrict Panchayat YogeshKumar told on Thursday thatthe mandate has been receivedby the department andGhaziabad District Panchayathas started its level of action.

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State-run Power FinanceCorporation (PFC) on

Thursday reported a 23 percent rise in consolidated netprofit at �3,557.23 crore duringthe quarter ended June 30,helped by rise in income. The company had posted a netprofit of �2,899.74 crore duringthe same quarter a year ago,PFC said in a BSE filing.Its total income rose to�16,932.24 crore during thequarter under review from�14,605.12 crore a year ago.Total expenses stood at�12,311.18 crore as against�10,553.42 crore in April-June2019. PFC, under theadministrative control of theMinistry of Power, is the largestnon-banking financial com-pany (NBFC) in power sectorin India.

New Delhi: With an aim tobenefit over three lakhChartered Accountants duringthe coronavirus pandemic,Poonawalla Finance PrivateLimited has entered into anMOU to offer a collateral-freeloan scheme. It has alreadyreceived over 4,000 applica-tions, and has sanctioned �150crore loans to over 1,500 CAsin the first month of thescheme. “We believe that offer-ing credit support to theMSMEs and professionals likeChartered Accountants andDoctors for business develop-ment will further strengthenentrepreneurial ecosystem andboost economic growth,” saidAdar Poonawalla, Chairman,Poonawalla Finance.

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Retail inflation rose to 6.93per cent in July, mainly dri-

ven by rising prices of fooditems like vegetables, pulses,meat and fish, governmentdata showed on Thursday.

The inflation based on theConsumer Price Index (CPI)stood at 3.15 per cent in July2019.Retail inflation for Junehas been revised upwards to6.23 per cent from the earlierestimate of 6.09 per cent, as perthe data released by theNational Statistical Office .

The Reserve Bank of Indiahas been mandated by the gov-ernment to keep the CPI-basedinflation at 4 per cent (+,- 2 percent).Retail inflation hasremained above the 4 per centmark since October 2019.

Last week, the ReserveBank had kept interest rates onhold to contain elevated infla-tion. The central bank mainlyfactors in retail inflation while

arriving at its bi-monthly mon-etary policy.

As per the NSO data, infla-tion in rural India was 7.04 percent, while in urban areas it was6.84 per cent during July, trans-lating into a combined rate ofprice rise of 6.93 per cent.

The rate of price rise in‘’meat and fish’’ segment was18.81 per cent in July over thesame month last year.

Similarly, the annual infla-tion was 12.41 per cent in ‘’oilsand fats’’ and 11.29 per cent invegetables.The annual infla-tion in the food basket was 9.62per cent, the data showed.

In the ‘’fuel and light’’ seg-ment, the CPI-based inflationstood at 2.8 per cent.

As the various COVID-19-related restrictions were grad-ually lifted and non-essentialactivities started resumingoperations, availability of pricedata has also improved.

NSO collected prices from1,054 (95 per cent) urban mar-

kets and 1,089 (92 per cent) vil-lages during the month of July2020, an official release said.

The price data are usuallycollected from selected 1,114urban markets and selected1,181 villages through person-al visits by field staff of the FieldOperations Division of NSO,under the Ministry of Statisticsand ProgrammeImplementation, on a weeklyroster.Commenting on thedata, Aditi Nayar, PrincipalEconomist, ICRA, said the CPIinflation hardened to a sharp-er-than-anticipated level, led bycore items that are still adjust-ing to the new demand-supplydynamics, even as the increasein food inflation was alongexpected lines."As expected,the soaring vegetable pricesamidst heavy rainfall andlocalised lockdowns, con-tributed to the spike in foodinflation in July 2020, which isexpected to soften somewhat inthe ongoing month," she said.

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New Delhi: The Govt’s move toallow sale and registration ofelectric vehicles without pre-fit-ted batteries evoked mixedreaction from the EV industryon Thursday, with majority oftwo-wheeler makers welcom-ing it while Mahindra Electricsaid no country in the worldallows such a system and thestep has not been thoughtthrough.

Society of Manufacturers ofElectric Vehicles , which haselectric two- and three-wheel-er makers as majority of itsmembers, said the move todelink batteries from the EVsis a good idea but other stepslike reducing GST on batteriesfrom 18 per cent to 5 per centneed to be taken to make thesevehicles more attractive for

customers. Ather Energy, Hero

Electric, Okinawa and AmpereElectric were unanimous thatthe government’s move willlower the upfront cost that aconsumer has to pay andthereby help in popularingEVs. On the other hand,Mahindra Electric, which ismostly into electric three-wheelers and four-wheelers,said this move has not beenthought through, with no con-sultation with the industry andit has created confusion.

SMEV Director GeneralSohinder Gill said the move todelink batteries from EVs is agood idea, but a lot needs to bedone before it becomes practi-cally implementable and ben-eficial to the customers.

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The Arvind Kejriwal-led DelhiGovernment’s plan to incen-

tivise electric vehicles with pricesubsidies, scrappage benefits andreduction in registration chargesis welcome. Delhi, whichbecomes the world’s most pollut-ed capital every winter, needs awell-defined policy to move tolower emission vehicles.Reducing vehicular emissions isa start to reducing overall pollu-tion in the city and as the coun-try’s single-largest urban vehiclemarket, where Delhi leads, therest of India will follow. But thereare some serious questions thatI believe should be ponderedupon before rushing headlonginto an electric future.

The first issue is China.India does not have the manufac-turing and technological capabil-ities to manufacture the batter-ies that are needed for electricvehicles, particularly four-wheel-ers and heavier vehicles. Thesebatteries, their power controlunits and associated technology,are made in giant giga-factoriesthat presently do not exist inIndia and frankly until volumesemerge, they will not exist in thecountry, too. All the fancy elec-tric two-wheelers available inIndia today are built on Chineseplatforms. Given our recentissues with China, Indian man-ufacturing cannot be made tosuffer at its hands by a well-meaning policy that has notthought about the impact onmanufacturing jobs in India.Conditions have to be put inplace for high levels of indigeni-sation on electric cars and busessold under such a scheme.Unfortunately, that might makethe subsidies a moot point ascosts, initially at least, will behigher than that of China.

The second issue is of safe-ty and for that, there is a simpleexample — e-rickshaw. Just lookat one. These are patently unsafevehicles often cramming five-sixpeople in a space where not morethan three should sit. While carsin India have been moving

towards having increased levelsof safety and security with anti-lock brakes and airbags nowmandatory, the average e-rick-

shaw will likely fail any safetytest. Buses and truck platformshave strict safety norms, so whynot have similarly norms for e-

rickshaws and e-scooters? Keepin mind that on electric vehiclesthere is a high chance of electro-cution in case of an accident.

Hence, there needs to be newtraining for first responders aswell. You learn the basis abouthow do deal with an electric fireas a child. So these lessons needto be applied on the road as well.

The third aspect that allgovernments in India, includingthe municipalities, should look atis going after low-hanging fruitfor electrification. There arehundreds of buses used at Indianairports to transport passengersto and from planes, and otherassociated airport equipmentsuch as luggage tractors, cars forcrew transport and so on... thereare also thousands of schoolbuses across Indian cities thatbarely run a 100 kilometers a day.Mandating all new vehicles insuch categories, or even half ofall new vehicles in such cate-gories, as electric will not onlyhelp seed the electric vehiclemanufacturing industry but willgradually convince others toshift too.

The fourth aspect that Ibelieve must be explored is tolook beyond battery-electricvehicles as the single solution. Ina country of low incomes, whichis likely to be stressed for sometime thanks to the Coronavirusdecimating the economy, movingto other solutions such as hydro-

gen or even hybrids will possiblymake a lot of sense. Battery-elec-tric vehicles, particularly cheap-er ones have been shown in trialafter trial to fail in extreme tem-peratures and weather condi-tions. Anybody who has livedthrough the Delhi summer dur-ing May and June would knowthat the city has extreme heat.

A trial run by a shared mobil-ity operator in Nagpur with elec-tric vehicles was really a success.Batteries get overheated andcharging fail at 40 degree heateven at night. But the immenserain over the past few days shouldalso be a concern. We all saw theimage of a bus stuck under theMinto Road Bridge, which indi-cates the poor condition of thedrainage system in Delhi. Well, tobe fair, every other Indian citygets overwhelmed by the amountof rain we get. We also knowthanks to Class VI physics thatwater and electricity don’t mixvery well. Think about it, unsafe,cheap electric vehicles plyingthrough waterlogged roads?

I believe this is a start and wemust look at low-emission solu-tions. The Delhi Government hasto be complimented for beingforward thinking. But we shouldalso look at the potential pitfallsof rushing into electrification.

Actor Ranveer Singh’s vision for his labelIncInk is extremely ambitious. He is

looking to promote and champion indigenousand new-age Indian music that celebrates theculture, diversity and reality of our country.Ranveer’s record label IncInk, a passion pro-ject that aims to give a platform to raw talentfrom across the country to express their skills,will now give India a new sound to listen toby fusing Bengali folk with rap/hip-hop!

In a new song titled, Shwapon, sung by thelabel’s homegrown talent SlowCheeta, akaChaitanya Sharma, the singer is collaboratingwith renowned Bengali folk singer DipannitaAcharya, who is known for her music, BaulAnuragi. This track is part of the rapper’s debutEP for IncInk titled, Rok Nahi Paayega.

Ranveer says, “We formed this label to cel-ebrate the glorious indigenous music of Indiain its various forms and we are thrilled to havehad the opportunity to collaborate withDipannita Achar ya who features inSlowCheeta’s new song Shwapon (meaningdreams). It is one of my most favourite songsfrom our label and what makes this one spe-cial is the incredible confluence of rap and hip-hop with Bengali folk!”

Ranveer, who has founded IncInk along-with Navzar Eranee, says that the song trulyrepresents what the label stands for — inclu-sivity and creative collaboration at the high-est level.

He adds, “My vision was to make India lis-ten to unique music and sounds which areintrinsically new-age Indian. We are proud topresent Shwapon to the world. It is definitelya moment for us and we can’t wait for every-one to listen to this ripper of a track.”

About the lyrics, he says, “I have a specialaffinity for Cheeta. Rap artists are generallyidentified by the hood/gully that they’re from,and Cheeta and I share our code — 050! Thisboy is immensely talented. He’s got an easyvibe and a laidback style and just when youget comfortable, he’ll throw something at youthat you didn’t see coming. As easy-going ashe is, he’s got aggression and grit and each oneof his layers peels off bit by bit, revealing themultiple facets of the artist that he is!”

Sir Arthur Conan Doyleonce said, “When the spir-its are low, when the day

appears dark, when workbecomes monotonous, whenhope hardly seems worth hav-ing, just mount a bicycle and goout for a spin down the roadwithout a thought on anythingbut the ride you are taking.”Certainly, cycling is one of themost efficient and environ-mentally-friendly modes oftransport, especially in the cur-rent scenario.

As part of#DilliDhadakneDo, a surveywas recently conducted, wherea whopping 97 per cent ofrespondents out of nearly 1,400people were willing to usecycles as a mode of daily trans-port. The study indicated thata lack of safe and convenientcycling infrastructure, absenceof dedicated cycling lanes, poorair quality and unruly trafficwere deterrents to more citizenstaking up cycling in the capi-tal.

Two decades ago, a third ofcommuting in 80 Indian citieswas done on bicycles, but by2007 this average had fallen to12 per cent. It is likely to dropfurther given that Indian citiesare not taking any significantinitiatives to create a safecycling environment. Bicycleusers have no rights on theroad. They are forced to eitherremain on the sides with tat-tered edges making cyclingunsafe or they have to ride onthe road space meant formotorised traffic.

It was learnt that around 93per cent respondents who werea part of the survey ownedcycles, while the remainingseven per cent reported hiringon rent for commuting to theirwork place. Maximumhired/rented cycles were usedby the unskilled workers (14per cent). Likewise, maximumrespondents who had theirown cycles were skilled work-ers (97 per cent), followed byowners of petty shops andsmall businesses (95 per cent)and those who are into jobs (94per cent). Those who hiredcycles reportedly had to pay arental amount in the range of50 (minimum) to 250 (maxi-mum) per month.

Believing that cycling willbe the best option to travelwhile maintaining social dis-tancing, Mudra, a domesticworker and one of the surveyrespondents, said, “We have tostep out daily to reach ourworkplace and cannot usebuses as this pandemic calls forphysical distancing norms.Autos or rickshaws are far toocostly for us to use on a dailybasis. As there are no separate

tracks for bicycles, I have to riskmy life daily while trying toearn bread for my family andalso adhering to all the precau-tionary measures. Dedicatedcycling lanes will make life eas-ier for many like me.”

The study attempted tofind out the respondents’ fre-quency of cycle usage for trans-portation. A vast majority ofthe respondents (91 per cent)reported using their cyclesevery day to commute to their

workplaces. The frequency ofcycle usage for commutingwas highest among skilledworkers (94 per cent) and low-est among unskilled workers(87 per cent). Around five percent respondents stated makinguse of their cycles at least oncea week for transportation. Lessthan two per cent each wereusing cycles once a month oronce every two months.

Respondents who were apart of the study were asked to

state the challenges they facedwhile cycling. Half of the sam-ple respondents stated thatthey feel unsafe while cycling inheavy traffic. Nearly 47 per centopined that they feel upset atthe unruly behaviour of otherdrivers. Around 37 per centrespondents stated that theprobability of theft of cycles wasa constant worry, while anoth-er 32 per cent stated thatcycling during bad weatherconditions was a huge chal-

lenge. Lack of proper cyclinginfrastructure was cited as achallenge by 16 per centrespondents. Maximumrespondents who stated feelingunsafe in traffic (58 per cent)and bad behaviour of other dri-vers (54 per cent) were theunskilled workers. Likewise, itwas seen that the owners ofpetty shops and small business-es were the ones most con-cerned about cycle thefts (46per cent).

The survey also attemptedto find out from the respon-dents the factors that couldinspire and encourage them touse cycles for commuting morefrequently. Majority of therespondents (58 per cent) wereof the opinion that more des-ignated cycle lanes would moti-vate them to use cycles moreoften. Another 48 per centpointed out that if separatepathways are designated forcyclists and pedestrians, theywould feel more encouraged tocommute by cycles, while 27per cent sample respondentsfelt the need for exclusive cycleparking spaces in markets andoffices. Around 25 per centstated that they would feelmotivated to cycle more oftenif the streets had a better light-ing system.

Emphasising on the scaryreality of Delhi’s mobility, lead-ing environmentalist andExecutive Director of Swechha,Vimlendu Jha said, “About 91per cent of Delhi livelihoodcyclists use cycles every day tocommute, but are our roadsdesigned for safe walking andcycling? Clearly the answer isno. For almost 11 lakh cyclistsin the city, there is just 100 kmof cyclist tracks. There is a direneed to strengthen policies toprotect pedestrians and theirright to walk and cycle.”

The study findings indicat-ed that cycling is a major modeof transport for majority of thepeople residing in Delhi, partic-ularly those who come frompoor socio-economic strata. SajiCherian, Director of Operations,SaveLIFE Foundation, said,“Segregation of traffic is essen-tial to reduce road user conflictand protect vulnerable roadusers such as pedestrians andcyclists who form the bulk ofurban road users in India. Statesmust ensure that non-motorisedtransport road users are priori-tised in street design ratherthan motorised road users.”

Recent Delhi Governmentestimates show that there arenearly 1.1 million regular bicy-cle users in the city. This figureis from before the COVID-19pandemic hit. The trends indi-cate that the numbers will onlyrise.

In order to enhance the useof cycles, policy measures to cre-ate and provide large-scale safecycling infrastructure, accompa-nied by regulations on the useof private motorised vehiclescould be implemented.

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In the recent months COVID hasbrought a plethora of changes inevery aspect of our day-to-day life. If

we talk of food habits, there is a prefer-ential shift from taste and experience tohealth and safety. The focus is now onnutritious food. Casting aside dieting,calorie counting and food weighing — anew wave of healthy eating is slowly gain-ing ground in a steady manner. The eat-ing habit starts with your attitude (tun-ing in and really enjoying what you areeating), food that makes you full and real-ly satisfies you and the amount of nutri-tional value that comes along. A certainamount of mindfulness is coming in,which is indeed a good sign.

This healthy lifestyle incorporatesmore vegetables into the diets in searchof better, more natural nutrition. Purplefoods have been found to be supportivein this search and have thus begun toslowly replace existing vegetables, asthey are only different variants of regu-lar food items. For example, one canreplace regular cauliflower in their mealswith purple cauliflower or regular cabbagein their salads with red cabbage. Boththese replacements help raise the level ofanti-oxidants and phytonutrients com-pared to their colourful counterparts. Animportant feature of purple foods is theability to help repair and heal cell dam-age. These food items were already anintegral part of traditional eating habitsbut their recent backing by science hasboosted their presence, bringing them tothe forefront.

The recognition of these benefits hasled to a great increase in the demand forpurple foods, which is now being met byfarmers who previously only cultivatedthe regular versions of the same fooditems. For example, ever since the discov-ery of different types of carrots beyond theusual orange variety, many farmers havebegun to cultivate purple carrots to meet

their soaring demands.Even though purple foods has gained

prominence amongst the masses, there isnot enough of it produced to say that itwill ‘take over’ the green foods. Only apart of the population knows that suchfoods are equally good or better thangreen ones. It currently runs parallel togreen foods and will definitely increaseover time, given the proper awareness.One way to explain the growth of purplefoods is by examining how their benefitsare stacked up against their usage. Forexample, lavender flowers are used in foodas a garnish, they not only enhance theappearance but also add health benefitssuch as glowing skin. The discovery of thisbenefit has led to a greater demand forlavender and hence, greater cultivation.Purple foods follow a similar pattern ofincreased demand and we must ensurethat the supply aspect for it is handled ina robust manner.

Local production of such foods, inparticular, must be encouraged, given itsbenefits. In terms of awareness at the locallevel, people must be sensitised to the factthat purple foods are not a version of reg-ular foods. By encouraging the use ofthese foods as part of their daily life, peo-ple can be convinced to grow more of suchvegetables and contribute to the demand.

Another important aspect is thatsuch foods do not require any specialtreatment while cooking. One can easilyreplace normal vegetables with themduring cooking. This includes using pur-ple potatoes instead of regular ones whilemaking Aaloo Jeera. The key here is todetermine the quantity one should use.Purple foods contain anti-oxidants andbased on your requirement of the same,you can determine how much food needsto be incorporated into your diet. Theseanti-oxidants become even more impor-tant when it comes to the ability to com-bat cancer. Previously, we would discardthe skins of berries and grapes duringpreparation and use only the pulp. Thediscovery of the benefits the skin containshas now convinced people to eat them asa whole for maximum nutritional impact.

The use of purple foods in meals inour country is still low as much of thepopulation has not been exposed to theirbenefits. It will be a gradual process ofgrowth, but it is only a matter of time thatfoods like purple rice and pomegranateare incorporated into our diets.Encouraging signs such as the increaseduse of lettuce in salads are the first stepstowards this and with time people willrecognise how such foods can enhanceboth, the flavour of the dish as well as itshealth benefits.

In the current situation, a trend hasemerged where individuals have begunlooking for healthy food that meets theirneed for better immunity. Foods likeberries and red cabbage, which have beenused as part of diets for many years, havealways had the potential to meet theseneeds. It is only recently with the drivetowards incorporating more purple foodinto our diets that these benefits have beendiscovered. As these foods have nowgained traction, we will see them featuredmore prominently in menus acrosshomes, thereby meeting the nutritionalrequirements.

The nutritive value of food gives thebody the vitality it needs to generate ener-gy. This is important for our heart, lungsand a balanced body temperature.

The only positive impact thatCOVID-19 will leave us with will prob-ably be the realisation that the value sus-tainable eating brings along. As a result,there is a growing demand for farm-grown and organic food items. With thelockdown being imposed and restaurantsshutting their doors for dining, peoplehave started to replace their favourite junkfood with healthy and home-cookedfood. Along with this, veganism is alsobeing considered as a food preference bymany.

This can go far in bringing back thedelight of taste and experience alongsidewell-being and security. Overall, thechange in eating habits amongst peopleis a great move and is the need of the hour.

(The writer is Chef Prabhakar Nagaraj,Managing Partner, Elior India.)

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Paris Saint-Germain snatched adramatic victory from the jawsof defeat as substitute Eric

Choupo-Moting’s goal three minutesinto added time allowed them to beatAtalanta 2-1 in their ChampionsLeague quarter-final in Lisbon onWednesday.

Atalanta were on the brink ofextending their remarkable runon into the last four after MarioPasalic gave the Italians a 27th-minute lead in the first game ofthe ‘Final Eight’ at an emptyEstadio da Luz.

But PSG were rescued asMarquinhos came forward to scram-ble in a last-minute equaliser andthey did not even need extra time tocomplete the turnaround, with KylianMbappe setting up fellow substituteChoupo-Moting to win the tie rightat the end.

“When I came on I said tomyself, ‘we can’t lose, we can’t gohome like that’. The rest is history,”said Choupo-Moting, who signed atwo-month contract extension to stayat PSG for the ‘Final Eight’ after hisdeal expired in June.

The French champions’ rewardis a place in the semi-finals ofEurope’s elite club competition for thefirst time since 1995.

They will play RB Leipzig orAtletico Madrid next Tuesday for aplace in the final.

It is the first time PSG have gonebeyond the last eight of theChampions League since the Qataritakeover of the club almost a decadeago and all the huge investment thathas followed.

“Going home never crossed mymind,” said Neymar. “From begin-ning to end, right from the warm-up,qualifying for the semi-finals was allwe thought about. I want to go to thefinal and nobody will stop me think-

ing about that.”The result is heartbreaking for

Atalanta, who were hoping to con-tinue their fairytale campaign for atleast a few more days and give thepeople of Bergamo more reason to

cheer.The northern Italian city suffered

terribly at the height of the coron-avirus pandemic earlier this year.Bergamo’s death toll from Covid-19has made it one of the worst-hit

regions anywhere during the healthcrisis.

“We came very close. It lookedas it we could do it,” said Atalantacoach Gian Piero Gasperini.

This will still go down as a high-

ly successful season for Gasperini’steam, who scored eight goals overtwo legs to beat Valencia in the last16 in March.

MBAPPE’S HALF HOURIt was because of the pandemic

that UEFA decided to bring theChampions League to Lisbon for astraight knockout tournament fromthe quarter-finals onwards, with allties one-off matches behind closeddoors.

PSG therefore knew they wouldget no second chance to turn the tiearound and coach Thomas Tuchel’sgamble on Mbappe’s fitness ultimate-ly paid off.

Mbappe was left in a race againsttime to make this match after sprain-ing his ankle in the French Cup finalagainst Saint-Etienne on July 24.

He was only deemed fit enoughto come on for the final 30 minutes,with PSG already diminished with-out the injured Marco Verratti andthe suspended Angel Di Maria.

Neymar was there, but the

world’s most expensive player failedto take a glorious early chance,shooting wide with only Atalantagoalkeeper Marco Sportiello to beatafter bursting through on goal.

Instead it was Atalanta whobroke through just before the half-hour mark as Pasalic fired home first-time from 15 yards after the ball fellto him in the box.

Berat Djimsiti might have madeit 2-0 on 58 minutes, but thenMbappe came on and PSG steppedup the pressure.

The French side lost goalkeeperKeylor Navas to injury late on andlooked to be down and out untilMarquinhos bundled in a Neymarassist from close range in the 90thminute, the ball going in off MattiaCaldara’s leg.

And Choupo-Moting thengrabbed the dramatic winner.

Neymar supplied Mbappe andhis low ball across the face of goal wasconverted by Choupo-Moting, oftenderided as not good enough for PSGbut this time their hero.

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FIGURATIVELY

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US teen Coco Gauff notchedanother impressive victo-

ry on Wednesday, top-pling second-seededAryna Sabalenka 7-6(4), 4-6, 6-4 to reachthe quarter-finals ofthe WTA tourna-ment inL e x i n g t o n ,Kentucky.

Gauff, play-ing her first tour-nament in the coron-avirus-disrupted seasonsince she stunned defend-ing champion Naomi

Osaka at the AustralianOpen, lined up a quar-ter-final clash with

eighth-seeded TunisianOns Jabeur, a 3-6, 6-2, 6-

4 winner over OlgaGovortsova.

“I’m just happy tohave pulled it through

today,” Gauff said aftercoming out on top in asee-saw battle that last-ed two hours and 24minutes.

Gauff, who wonher first WTA title atLinz last year, said shehad room to improve

on her serve.

“I definitely served better inmy first match than today, butyou’re going to have good andbad days,” she said, “and I liketo go for my serves, so that’s thegive and take.”

In other second-roundmatches on Wednesday, CzechMarie Bouzkova beat RussianAnna Blinkova 6-4, 6-2 to lineup a clash with American JenBrady, who toppled sixth-seed-ed Magda Linette of Poland 6-2, 6-3.

The marquee match of thesecond round was set forThursday, with top-seededSerena Williams due to take onsister Venus.

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No 3 seed Elise Mertenscame out with a powerful

performance as she defeatedCamila Giorgi in straight sets toseal her place in the quarter-finals of the Prague Open.

Mertens defeated Giorgi 6-4, 6-2 and in one hour and 44minutes on Wednesday.

“I knew I needed to play agood game to beat her, becauseshe played a couple of goodmatches last week so she hadthat kind of rhythm already,”Mertens said after the match asper the WTA website.

“But I’m happy with my per-formance,” she added.

The Belgian will now face

the winner of another Round of16 clash between TamaraZidansek or wildcard EugenieBouchard.

In other second-roundmatch, Kristyna Pliskova deliv-ered the biggest upset of thetournament so far as she oust-ed No 2 seed Petra Martic 6-1,7-5 in one hour and 22 minutes.

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Azhar Ali's struggles continued as thePakistan captain was dismissed by

Jimmy Anderson soon after lunchbefore more rain brought another delayto the opening day of the second testagainst England on Thursday.

Pakistan was 85-2, with Abid Ali on49 and Babar Azam on 7, when a heavyshower landed on the Rose Bowl andforced the players off less than an hourinto the middle session on a day ofchanging weather in Southampton.

Azhar was in need of runs aftermaking only 139 in his last 12 away testinnings but fell for 20 - off 85 balls - byedging Anderson low to Rory Burns atsecond slip. He didn't add to his scoreat lunch and it gave England's all-timeleading wicket-taker his second of theday, after trapping Shan Masood for 1in the third over.

Anderson, who kept his place

despite bowling poorly in the first test won byEngland by three wickets last week, had 2-24off 12 overs.

Abid was dropped twice in the slips beforelunch, firstly by Dom Sibley at third slip on 0and then Rory Burns at second slip on 21. He

also was rapped onthe box off a deliveryfrom Chris Woakes.

England select-ed left-arm seamerSam Curran instead

of the rested Jofra Archer, while batsman ZakCrawley replaced Stokes.

The tourists made one change to their side,lengthening their batting lineup with theinclusion of Fawad Alam, 34, for spinning all-rounder Shadab Khan. Alam's selection seeshim play his first test for almost 11 years.

Another victory for England will clinch afirst test series against Pakistan in 10 years, anda second series of this pandemic-affectedsummer having already beaten the WestIndies.

��*������ Women’s doubles specialist N SikkiReddy and physiotherapist Kiran C have tested pos-itive for Covid-19 at the national badminton campin Hyderabad which will be halted for a few daysas its venue — the Pullela Gopichand Academy —closed down for sanitisation on Thursday.

Sikki and Kiran are both asymptomatic,according to a Sports Authority of India (SAI) state-ment. They had undergone the SAI's mandatoryCovid-19 test for players, coaches and support staffbefore the start of training on August 7 at the facil-ity. Sikki was seen training with three Indonesiandoubles coaches Namrih Suroto, Agus DwiSantoso and Miftah besides two sparring partnersfrom that country on August 7.

“The camp will be shut for at least 4-5 daysnow,” a source in the academy said.

She had clicked a picture on the first day oftraining where all of them could be seen along withanother physio Johnson Solomon and theIndonesians who also trained with world cham-pion P V Sindhu and world Bronze-winner B SaiPraneeth.

Though Sindhu and Sikki trained in differenttime slots but they were spotted standing adjacentto each other in a picture which was taken on thefirst day of the resumption of training at the acad-emy.

Both Sikki and Kiran are from Hyderabad andwere attending the camp from their homes.

The academy has been closed down for sani-tisation and all primary contacts of Sikki and Kiranare undergoing the RT-PCR test again.

Among the primary contacts will be Sikki’shusband and fellow doubles player B SumeethReddy even though he is not a part of the month-long camp. PTI

��*������The national archerycamp for Olympic hopefuls willresume at the Army SportsInstitute in Pune on August 25,the Sports Authority of India(SAI) said on Thursday.

The camp was called offmidway in March due to theCovid-19 pandemic.

A total of 16 recurve archers— eight men and as many

women, along with four coach-es and two support staff willreport for the camp on August25.

While the men’s team hasearned an Olympic quota, thewomen’s team is yet to claim one.The players will strive to sealtheir Tokyo tickets at theOlympic qualification event inParis next year. AP

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The FA Cup will not havereplays for the 2020-21 sea-

son to help ease fixture conges-tion caused by the Covid-19 cri-sis, England’s FootballAssociation (FA) said onThursday.

Next season’s competition isscheduled to begin on Sept 1 —only a month after the 2020 final— with the showpiece match atWembley set to take place onMay 15, 2021.

“In order to assist in easing

pressure on the football sched-ule, there will be no replays forthe 2020-21 season,” the FA saidin a statement as it announcedthe schedule.

The FA added that the prizefund would return to 2017-18levels and the winners willreceive 1.8 million pounds($2.36 million), down from 3.6million pounds last season.

Meanwhile, the EnglishFootball League (EFL) said thetwo-legged semi-finals of theLeague Cup will be replaced bysingle ties to be played in January2021.

The first four rounds of thecompetition will take place onconsecutive weeks, kicking off inearly September.

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India and Kings XI Punjabbatsman Karun Nair tested

positive for Covid-19 last monthbut has now recovered and willtravel to the UAE for the IndianPremier League startingSeptember 19.

Cricket websiteESPNCricinfo reported that Nair“went into self-isolation formore than two weeks” beforetesting negative for the dreadedvirus.

The franchise did not com-ment on the report but a BCCIsource told PTI that Nairreturned a negative test on

August 8 at the end of his quar-antine. He will now have to clearthree more tests like the rest ofthe contingent to be able to flyout to the UAE on August 20.

“He is absolutely fine now.He was asymptomatic through-out and was feeling okay. Histest came negative after twoweeks and he has even resumedpersonal training. Now, he willbe tested like all other squadmembers before the team leavesfor UAE,” the source said.

Nair, who has scored atriple hundred in Tests, lastplayed for India in 2017. He hasbeen a part of KXIP since2018.

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No stranger to controversyin North London, mid-

fielder Mesut Ozil has insist-ed that he is the only personwho will decide when heleaves Arsenal after theGerman star was frozen out byGunners boss Mikel Arteta.

Holding out hope of win-ning back his place next sea-son, Ozil told the AthleticUK: “Things have been diffi-cult but I love Arsenal. I’lldecide when I go, not otherpeople. I’ll give everything Ihave for this club. Situationslike these will never break me,they only make me stronger.

“I showed in the past thatI can come back into theteam and I will show it again.”

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