ˇ ˘( ˇ˝ -./ ˝)*+*˝+, ˙˝0$%1 ˇ %!˘ˆ $˙4 ˚ 56 76ˇ 772 ˇ 8 · 2/9/2021  · pandemic,...

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V arious agencies have con- tinued their efforts to reach up to 35 workers stranded in the tunnel of the undercon- struction Tapovan-Vishnugad hydropower project since the disaster caused by glacier burst and resultant flash flood in the Raini-Tapovan areas of Chamoli district on Sunday morning . The tunnel is about 250 metres long and according to the State Emergency Operations Centre (SEOC), about 100 metres of the tunnel’s length has been cleared of the debris. The sludge and debris drying and becoming hard have made it harder for the res- cue teams to clear it. Meanwhile, the death toll stood at 32 with 174 persons still missing as on Tuesday evening. Of the 32 bodies recovered, only seven have been identified so far. The DIG, Law and Order, and the chief spokesman of Uttarakhand Police, Nilesh Anand Bharne informed the media that in addition to per- sonnel involved in the rescue effort, teams of experts and necessary equipment were pre- sent at the tunnel where the workers are stranded. He said that the task of drilling through the debris is difficult but efforts are being undertaken relent- lessly. According to the SEOC, of the 206 persons reported miss- ing initially, the number of missing persons now stands at 174 with 32 bodies having been recovered. Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat visited Chamoli district on Tuesday to meet the resi- dents of the avalanche-hit vil- lages. He said the pace of res- cue operation at the Tapovan tunnel has slowed down due to the flow of slush but efforts are on to reach those trapped inside by drilling through the debris with the help of ropes. “Undaunted multi-agency security personnel are trying hard to make their way through the tunnel. Let us see how many lives we can save,” Rawat told reporters. He reached Tapovan on Monday evening to review res- cue efforts, undertook an aer- ial survey of the affected areas earlier Tuesday and also met 12 workers who were rescued from the tunnel on Sunday evening. Thirteen border villages — Raini Palli, Pang, Lata, Suraithota, Suki, Bhalgaon, Tolma, Fagrasu, Long Segdi, Gahar, Bhangyul, Juwagwad and Jugju — of Joshimath block were cut off following the avalanche in the Rishiganga river on Sunday. S cientists of the Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology (WIHG) have sug- gested that a rock mass, weak- ened due to years of freezing and thawing of snow, may have led to the creation of a weak zone, triggering its col- lapse that resulted in flash floods in Uttarakhand’s Chamoli district on Sunday. The scientists made this observation after conducting a helicopter survey of the area to find clues as to what led to the deadly flash floods that swept away everything. So far, the flash floods have claimed 32 lives with over 170 people still missing. The crashing rock mass also brought earth and mounds of snow with it. The friction may have resulted in heating, which could have caused the floods, the observations sug- gest. Kalachand Sain, Director of the WIHG, said the glaciers where the incident occurred feeds the Rishiganga river that finally joins the Dhauliganga. “This region has a very steep gradient. Our observa- tions suggest that the rock mass may have weakened due to freezing and thawing. This sometimes leads to the devel- opment of a weak zone and fractures. “As the rock mass weak- ened, the glacier and snow came down crashing, it result- ed in flash floods,” he said. The steep slopes of the mountains in the region further increased the intensity of the crash. Two teams of the WIHG comprising five glaciologists left for Joshimath on Monday to find out the reason behind the incident. An institute under the Department of Science and Technology (DST), the WIHG studies the Himalayan envi- ronment and its geology. Sain said an initial report will also be sent to the DST. In Uttarakhand which has 1,400 glaciers, fewer than 10 are being monitored. Patna: After more than two months of intense bargaining between the Janata Dal (U) and the BJP, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday car- ried out the expansion of his Cabinet and showed that despite having fewer seats than the BJP, he still calls the shot in the alliance Government. Governor Phagu Chouhan administered the oath of office to the new Ministers — nine from the BJP and eight from the JD(U) — at a function at the Raj Bhavan. Neeraj Kumar Babloo JD(U), who is a five-time MLA from Chhatapur and a relative of deceased Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput, also joined the Nitish Cabinet. Of the 17 Ministers induct- ed on Tuesday, the BJP got nine berths, just one more than the JD(U). The JD(U) also grabbed important portfolios like Home, Personnel, Education, Rural Development, Rural Works, Water Resources. Nitish ensured that his bit- ter detractor Sanjay Paswan (BJP) was denied a Cabinet berth along with Nitish Mishra, who had deserted the JD(U) to join hands with Jitan Ram Manjhi and later the BJP. Former Union Minster Shahnawaz Hussain, who was in the political wilderness for years, staged a comeback by finding a place in the Cabinet as Industry Minister. The JD(U) too inducted a Muslim MLA Jama Khan, who joined JD(U) after getting elect- ed as a BSP legislator from Chainpur. The JD(U) had field- ed 11 Muslim candidates in the 2020 Assembly elections, but all of them lost. However, Nitish didn’t induct even a single Yadav MLA this time around. Of his 13 Ministers, just one comes from the Yadav caste. Nitish also completely ignored the Bhumihar caste in the expansion and inducted. PNS Kurukshetra: Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait Tuesday criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “Andolan-jivi” (professional protestors) remarks and asked if people like great freedom fighter Bhagat Singh will also be put in that category. Addressing a well-attend- ed Kisan Mahapanchayat at Gumthala Garhu village in Pehowa in this district, a third within a week in Haryana, he said the government should not be under the wrong impression that the protesting farmers will return to their homes without their demands being accepted. He alleged that attempts were being made to divide the protesting farmers on the lines of region and other consider- ations, and appealed them to reject any such design. “They will try to divide you on Punjab-Haryana lines, as Sikh and non-Sikh, Hindus and Muslims..,” he alleged. “The farmers’ agitation against the Centre’s farm laws is nationwide and not limited to Punjab or Haryana.” “We will win this fight,” he declared. Without naming the Prime Minister or using his “Andolan-jivi” phrase, Tikait said, “In Parliament, they are saying these are parjivis (par- asites). Was Bhagat Singh who sacrificed his life for this nation a parjivi? What about 150 farmers who died during this agitation? Were they parjivis too? Had they gone to Delhi to agitate and die?” PTI C oronavirus most likely first appeared in humans after jumping from an animal, a team of international and Chinese scientists looking for the origins of Covid-19 said on Tuesday, dismissing as an alter- nate theory that the virus leaked from a Chinese lab. A closely watched visit by World Health Organisation experts to Wuhan — the Chinese city where the first coronavirus cases were dis- covered — did not dramatically change the current under- standing of the early days of the pandemic, said Peter Ben Embarek, WHO team leader. But it did “add details to that story,” he said at as the group wrapped up a four-week visit. And it allowed the joint Chinese-WHO team to rule out one theory on the origins of the virus. P rime Minister Narendra Modi became emotional and broke down a couple of times in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday while bidding farewell to Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad. He along with three MPs from Jammu & Kashmir will retire in the next few days from the House. The other retiring mem- bers are Shamsher Singh Manhas (BJP), Mir Mohammad Fayaz (PDP) and Nazir Ahmad Laway (PDP). Recalling his long associa- tion with Azad, Modi cried while narrating an incident when they were Chief Ministers of Jammu & Kashmir and Gujarat respectively. Terrorists had killed some tourists from Gujarat while they were travelling in Srinagar and Azad started crying on the phone while informing his counterpart Modi in Gujarat, Modi recalled. “The next day too Azad cried on the phone while talk- ing to me after overseeing that the dead bodies and the injured were flown to Gujarat,” the Prime Minister said. Remembering that con- versation years back, Modi was overwhelmed and paused before breaking down. This happened a couple of times more when the Prime Minister was telling the House about his association with Azad. Azad, in turn, also had tears in the eyes while recalling that incident in his farewell speech later. The veteran Congress leader said he is a proud and lucky “Hindustani Muslim” and wished that terrorism ends from Jammu & Kashmir. Azad also gave examples of Muslim countries in India’s neigh- bourhood and said many of them were at war with each other. I n a major relief to Congress MP Shashi Tharoor and six journalists, including Rajdeep Sardesai, the Supreme Court on Tuesday stayed their arrest in connection with the FIRs lodged against them for their allegedly “misleading” tweets on the violence during the farmers’ tractor rally in the national Capital on the Republic Day. The Supreme Court, in the proceedings lasting only for five minutes, granted protec- tion from any possible coercive action by police of States like Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana and Karnataka to Tharoor as also Sardesai, Mrinal Pande, Zafar Agha, Paresh Nath, Vinod K Jose and Anant Nath. A t least 10 labourers from Latehar, who were working in a National Thermal Power Project (NTPC) site at avalanche-ravaged Chamoli district of Uttarakhand, are stranded in the area with no cash in hand and no document to prove their identity. One of the labourers con- tacted the helpline number issued by the State government on Tuesday for help, but there was no concrete assurance from the authorities as to when and how they would be brought back to their State. “All our government iden- tity cards got washed away in the avalanche. We don’t even have Rs 10 in our pocket. God only know when and how we will manage to return home,” said Rooplal Singh, one of the stranded labourers, originally from Bariatu village in Latehar, about 110 kilome- ters North West of capital Ranchi. Santosh Singh, another stranded labourer staying with Rooplal in a temporary accom- modation arranged by the NTPC after the disaster, said that the company was provid- ing food to the labourers, but they desperately wanted to return home and see their family after having such a close encounter with death. “There is no work left for us here, and we desperately need to return home. We do not have any document to prove our identity as all our valid identity cards got washed away in the incident,” said Santosh, also a resident of Bariatu village, from where several labourers move to other parts of the country to work as daily wagers every year. By Monday, at least 15 labourers from Jharkhand, mostly from Lohardaga and Ramgarh, were feared missing following a glacial burst in Uttarakhand's Chamoli dis- trict which triggered an avalanche and massive flood- ing alongside the Alaknanda and Dhauliganga rivers on Sunday morning. On Tuesday, the number of missing Jharkhand labourers in Uttarakhand jumped to 21. Callers from Chamoli on Tuesday shared names of at least seven labourers from Jamtara and one from Bokaro, who were missing after the avalanche. As per data gathered by the State helpline, as many as nine people were missing from Lohardaga, four from Ramgarh, seven from Jamtara and one from Bokaro, while 10 labourers from Latehar were stranded in Chamoli. Santosh and Rooplal fear that the loss of their identity proofs may pose as a hurdle for them to avail any relief from the government in returning home. Both of them, along with eight other residents of their village in Latehar, went to Uttarakhand on January 23. However, they have not gone to work since the incident and have not earned their daily wage. “We want to return home and start afresh. Our families are entirely dependent on the daily wage we earn. We cannot afford to sit idle here with no income and wait for the gov- ernment’s help, but there is no other option as we do not have enough cash to travel,” Rooplal said over phone from Chamoli. J harkhand has become self- reliant in the field of fisheries production. Now, the farmers of Jharkhand will give a new identity to the State in the field of animal husbandry. To ensure this, the present Government has brought a scheme for the cattlemen & farmers of the State. In tribal-dominated Jharkhand, Animal husbandry has been a tradition for many years. But, it was never adopt- ed as a business. To promote animal husbandry in the State, Chief Minister Hemant Soren launched the Chief Minister Livestock Development Scheme. The scheme incor- porates several facilities and provisions of grants for farm- ers. For many years the State has been facing the curse of migration due to the uneven geographical condition in the state and the lack of self- employment in the village. During the COVID -19 out- break and consequent lock- down, millions of migrant workers returned to their vil- lages, giving employment to them was a challenge for the government. To find the way out to this problem & providing a liveli- hood to the vast majority of this population, an initiative of giv- ing self-employment in the village was undertaken. The aim was to make the state self- reliant by increasing the pro- duction of milk, meat and egg in the state. For this, the Chief Minister Livestock Development Scheme has been started by converging the previously oper- ated schemes under the Animal Husbandry Division and vari- ous schemes under Welfare Department and Rural Development Department. Under the Chief Minister Livestock Development Scheme, Goat farming, Pig Farming, Backyard Layer Poultry Farming, Broiler Poultry Farming, Duck-Chick Distribution, distribution of two cows under Cattle Development Scheme, 5 to 10 cow distribution under Kamadhenu Dairy Farming Scheme, distribution of hand and electric chaff cutters, assis- tance to progressive dairy farm- ers and technical input mate- rials are being provided to the beneficiaries. F ormer Chief Secretary of Jharkhand Devendra Kumar Tiwari was appointed as the new State Election Commissioner of the State on Tuesday. A government notifi- cation stated that the retired IAS officer of 1986 batch has been appointed for the tenure of three years from the date of assuming charge of office or till the date he attains the age of 64 years. The post was vacant since June 15, 2020, when the then SEC NN Pandey retired from his post. And, with the appoint- ment of the former CS as new SEC way has been cleared for holding already delayed Panchayat elections in the State. The three-tier panchayat polls were due in November- December 2020 in the State and were put on hold due to Covid 19 pandemic and vacancies at top positions in State Election Commission. The government has put in place alternative sys- tems at panchayat level till elections are held. Tiwari is an MBBS gradu- ate of King George's Medical University. He also holds a Bachelor of Laws degree from Chhotanagpur Law College and a Master of Arts in Economics from the University of Manchester. He has served in several positions for the Government of Bihar and the Government of Jharkhand.

Transcript of ˇ ˘( ˇ˝ -./ ˝)*+*˝+, ˙˝0$%1 ˇ %!˘ˆ $˙4 ˚ 56 76ˇ 772 ˇ 8 · 2/9/2021  · pandemic,...

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Various agencies have con-tinued their efforts to reach

up to 35 workers stranded inthe tunnel of the undercon-struction Tapovan-Vishnugadhydropower project since thedisaster caused by glacier burstand resultant flash flood in theRaini-Tapovan areas ofChamoli district on Sundaymorning .

The tunnel is about 250metres long and according tothe State EmergencyOperations Centre (SEOC),about 100 metres of the tunnel’slength has been cleared of thedebris. The sludge and debrisdrying and becoming hardhave made it harder for the res-cue teams to clear it.

Meanwhile, the death tollstood at 32 with 174 personsstill missing as on Tuesdayevening. Of the 32 bodiesrecovered, only seven havebeen identified so far.

The DIG, Law and Order,and the chief spokesman ofUttarakhand Police, NileshAnand Bharne informed themedia that in addition to per-sonnel involved in the rescueeffort, teams of experts andnecessary equipment were pre-sent at the tunnel where theworkers are stranded. He saidthat the task of drilling throughthe debris is difficult but effortsare being undertaken relent-lessly.

According to the SEOC, ofthe 206 persons reported miss-ing initially, the number ofmissing persons now stands at174 with 32 bodies havingbeen recovered.

Uttarakhand ChiefMinister Trivendra SinghRawat visited Chamoli districton Tuesday to meet the resi-dents of the avalanche-hit vil-lages. He said the pace of res-cue operation at the Tapovantunnel has slowed down due to

the flow of slush but efforts areon to reach those trappedinside by drilling through thedebris with the help of

ropes.“Undaunted multi-agency

security personnel are tryinghard to make their way throughthe tunnel. Let us see howmany lives we can save,” Rawattold reporters.

He reached Tapovan onMonday evening to review res-cue efforts, undertook an aer-

ial survey of the affected areasearlier Tuesday and also met 12workers who were rescuedfrom the tunnel on Sundayevening.

Thirteen border villages— Raini Palli, Pang, Lata,Suraithota, Suki, Bhalgaon,Tolma, Fagrasu, Long Segdi,Gahar, Bhangyul, Juwagwadand Jugju — of Joshimathblock were cut off following theavalanche in the Rishigangariver on Sunday.

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Scientists of the WadiaInstitute of Himalayan

Geology (WIHG) have sug-gested that a rock mass, weak-ened due to years of freezingand thawing of snow, mayhave led to the creation of aweak zone, triggering its col-lapse that resulted in flashfloods in Uttarakhand’sChamoli district on Sunday.

The scientists made thisobservation after conducting ahelicopter survey of the area tofind clues as to what led to thedeadly flash floods that sweptaway everything. So far, theflash floods have claimed 32lives with over 170 people stillmissing.

The crashing rock massalso brought earth and moundsof snow with it. The frictionmay have resulted in heating,which could have caused thefloods, the observations sug-gest.

Kalachand Sain, Directorof the WIHG, said the glaciers

where the incident occurredfeeds the Rishiganga river thatfinally joins the Dhauliganga.

“This region has a verysteep gradient. Our observa-tions suggest that the rockmass may have weakened dueto freezing and thawing. Thissometimes leads to the devel-opment of a weak zone andfractures.

“As the rock mass weak-ened, the glacier and snowcame down crashing, it result-ed in flash floods,” he said. Thesteep slopes of the mountainsin the region further increasedthe intensity of the crash.

Two teams of the WIHGcomprising five glaciologistsleft for Joshimath on Mondayto find out the reason behindthe incident. An institute underthe Department of Science andTechnology (DST), the WIHGstudies the Himalayan envi-ronment and its geology. Sainsaid an initial report will alsobe sent to the DST.

In Uttarakhand which has1,400 glaciers, fewer than 10 arebeing monitored.

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Patna: After more than twomonths of intense bargainingbetween the Janata Dal (U) andthe BJP, Bihar Chief MinisterNitish Kumar on Tuesday car-ried out the expansion of hisCabinet and showed that despitehaving fewer seats than the BJP,he still calls the shot in thealliance Government.

Governor Phagu Chouhanadministered the oath of officeto the new Ministers — ninefrom the BJP and eight from theJD(U) — at a function at the RajBhavan. Neeraj Kumar BablooJD(U), who is a five-time MLAfrom Chhatapur and a relativeof deceased Bollywood actorSushant Singh Rajput, alsojoined the Nitish Cabinet.

Of the 17 Ministers induct-ed on Tuesday, the BJP got nineberths, just one more than theJD(U). The JD(U) also grabbedimportant portfolios like Home,Personnel, Education, Rural

Development, Rural Works,Water Resources.

Nitish ensured that his bit-ter detractor Sanjay Paswan(BJP) was denied a Cabinetberth along with Nitish Mishra,who had deserted the JD(U) tojoin hands with Jitan RamManjhi and later the BJP.

Former Union MinsterShahnawaz Hussain, who was inthe political wilderness for years,staged a comeback by finding aplace in the Cabinet as IndustryMinister.

The JD(U) too inducted aMuslim MLA Jama Khan, whojoined JD(U) after getting elect-ed as a BSP legislator fromChainpur. The JD(U) had field-ed 11 Muslim candidates in the2020 Assembly elections, but allof them lost.

However, Nitish didn’tinduct even a single Yadav MLAthis time around. Of his 13Ministers, just one comes fromthe Yadav caste. Nitish alsocompletely ignored theBhumihar caste in the expansionand inducted. PNS

Kurukshetra: Bharatiya KisanUnion (BKU) leader RakeshTikait Tuesday criticised PrimeMinister Narendra Modi’s“Andolan-jivi” (professionalprotestors) remarks and askedif people like great freedomfighter Bhagat Singh will alsobe put in that category.

Addressing a well-attend-ed Kisan Mahapanchayat atGumthala Garhu village inPehowa in this district, a thirdwithin a week in Haryana, hesaid the government should notbe under the wrong impressionthat the protesting farmers willreturn to their homes withouttheir demands being accepted.

He alleged that attemptswere being made to divide theprotesting farmers on the linesof region and other consider-

ations, and appealed them toreject any such design.

“They will try to divide youon Punjab-Haryana lines, asSikh and non-Sikh, Hindusand Muslims..,” he alleged.“The farmers’ agitation againstthe Centre’s farm laws isnationwide and not limited toPunjab or Haryana.”

“We will win this fight,” hedeclared. Without naming thePrime Minister or using his“Andolan-jivi” phrase, Tikaitsaid, “In Parliament, they aresaying these are parjivis (par-asites). Was Bhagat Singh whosacrificed his life for this nationa parjivi? What about 150farmers who died during thisagitation? Were they parjivistoo? Had they gone to Delhi toagitate and die?” PTI

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Coronavirus most likely firstappeared in humans after

jumping from an animal, ateam of international andChinese scientists looking forthe origins of Covid-19 said onTuesday, dismissing as an alter-nate theory that the virusleaked from a Chinese lab.

A closely watched visit byWorld Health Organisationexperts to Wuhan — theChinese city where the firstcoronavirus cases were dis-covered — did not dramaticallychange the current under-standing of the early days of thepandemic, said Peter BenEmbarek, WHO team leader.But it did “add details to thatstory,” he said at as the groupwrapped up a four-week visit.

And it allowed the jointChinese-WHO team to ruleout one theory on the originsof the virus.

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Prime Minister NarendraModi became emotional

and broke down a couple oftimes in the Rajya Sabha onTuesday while bidding farewellto Leader of OppositionGhulam Nabi Azad. He alongwith three MPs from Jammu &Kashmir will retire in the nextfew days from the House.

The other retiring mem-bers are Shamsher SinghManhas (BJP), MirMohammad Fayaz (PDP) andNazir Ahmad Laway (PDP).

Recalling his long associa-tion with Azad, Modi criedwhile narrating an incidentwhen they were ChiefMinisters of Jammu & Kashmirand Gujarat respectively.

Terrorists had killed sometourists from Gujarat whilethey were travelling in Srinagarand Azad started crying on thephone while informing hiscounterpart Modi in Gujarat,Modi recalled.

“The next day too Azadcried on the phone while talk-ing to me after overseeing thatthe dead bodies and the injured

were flown to Gujarat,” thePrime Minister said.

Remembering that con-versation years back, Modi wasoverwhelmed and pausedbefore breaking down. Thishappened a couple of timesmore when the Prime Ministerwas telling the House about hisassociation with Azad.

Azad, in turn, also hadtears in the eyes while recalling

that incident in his farewellspeech later.

The veteran Congressleader said he is a proud andlucky “Hindustani Muslim”and wished that terrorism endsfrom Jammu & Kashmir. Azadalso gave examples of Muslimcountries in India’s neigh-bourhood and said many ofthem were at war with eachother.

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In a major relief to CongressMP Shashi Tharoor and six

journalists, including RajdeepSardesai, the Supreme Court onTuesday stayed their arrest inconnection with the FIRslodged against them for theirallegedly “misleading” tweetson the violence during thefarmers’ tractor rally in thenational Capital on theRepublic Day.

The Supreme Court, inthe proceedings lasting only forfive minutes, granted protec-tion from any possible coerciveaction by police of States likeDelhi, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana andKarnataka to Tharoor as also Sardesai,Mrinal Pande, Zafar Agha,Paresh Nath, Vinod K Joseand Anant Nath.

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At least 10 labourers fromLatehar, who were working

in a National Thermal PowerProject (NTPC) site atavalanche-ravaged Chamolidistrict of Uttarakhand, arestranded in the area with nocash in hand and no documentto prove their identity.

One of the labourers con-tacted the helpline numberissued by the State governmenton Tuesday for help, but therewas no concrete assurancefrom the authorities as to whenand how they would bebrought back to their State.

“All our government iden-tity cards got washed away inthe avalanche. We don’t evenhave Rs 10 in our pocket. Godonly know when and how wewill manage to return home,”said Rooplal Singh, one of thestranded labourers,originally from Bariatu villagein Latehar, about 110 kilome-ters North West of capitalRanchi.

Santosh Singh, anotherstranded labourer staying withRooplal in a temporary accom-modation arranged by theNTPC after the disaster, saidthat the company was provid-ing food to the labourers, butthey desperately wanted to return home and seetheir family after having sucha close encounter with death.

“There is no work left forus here, and we desperatelyneed to return home. We donot have any document toprove our identity as all ourvalid identity cards got washedaway in the incident,” saidSantosh, also a resident ofBariatu village, from whereseveral labourers move to otherparts of the country to work as daily wagers every year.

By Monday, at least 15labourers from Jharkhand,mostly from Lohardaga andRamgarh, were feared missingfollowing a glacial burst in

Uttarakhand's Chamoli dis-trict which triggered anavalanche and massive flood-ing alongside the Alaknandaand Dhauliganga rivers onSunday morning. On Tuesday,the number of missingJharkhand labourers inUttarakhand jumped to 21.Callers from Chamoli onTuesday shared names of atleast seven labourers fromJamtara and one from Bokaro,who were missing after theavalanche.

As per data gathered by theState helpline, as many as ninepeople were missing fromLohardaga, four fromRamgarh, seven from Jamtaraand one from Bokaro, while 10labourers from Latehar werestranded in Chamoli.

Santosh and Rooplal fearthat the loss of their identityproofs may pose as a hurdle forthem to avail any relief fromthe government in returninghome. Both of them, along witheight other residents of theirvillage in Latehar, went toUttarakhand on January 23.However, they have not gone towork since the incident andhave not earned their dailywage.

“We want to return homeand start afresh. Our familiesare entirely dependent on thedaily wage we earn. We cannotafford to sit idle here with noincome and wait for the gov-ernment’s help, but there is noother option as we do nothave enough cash to travel,”Rooplal said over phone fromChamoli.

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Jharkhand has become self-reliant in the field of fisheries

production. Now, the farmersof Jharkhand will give a newidentity to the State in the fieldof animal husbandry. To ensurethis, the present Governmenthas brought a scheme for thecattlemen & farmers of theState.

In tribal-dominatedJharkhand, Animal husbandryhas been a tradition for manyyears. But, it was never adopt-ed as a business. To promoteanimal husbandry in the State,Chief Minister Hemant Sorenlaunched the Chief MinisterLivestock DevelopmentScheme. The scheme incor-porates several facilities andprovisions of grants for farm-ers.

For many years the Statehas been facing the curse of

migration due to the unevengeographical condition in thestate and the lack of self-employment in the village.During the COVID -19 out-break and consequent lock-down, millions of migrantworkers returned to their vil-lages, giving employment tothem was a challenge for thegovernment.

To find the way out to thisproblem & providing a liveli-hood to the vast majority of thispopulation, an initiative of giv-ing self-employment in thevillage was undertaken. Theaim was to make the state self-reliant by increasing the pro-duction of milk, meat and eggin the state.

For this, the Chief MinisterLivestock DevelopmentScheme has been started byconverging the previously oper-ated schemes under the AnimalHusbandry Division and vari-

ous schemes under WelfareDepartment and RuralDevelopment Department.

Under the Chief MinisterLivestock DevelopmentScheme, Goat farming, PigFarming, Backyard LayerPoultry Farming, BroilerPoultry Farming, Duck-ChickDistribution, distribution oftwo cows under CattleDevelopment Scheme, 5 to 10cow distribution underKamadhenu Dairy FarmingScheme, distribution of handand electric chaff cutters, assis-tance to progressive dairy farm-ers and technical input mate-rials are being provided to thebeneficiaries.

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Former Chief Secretary ofJharkhand Devendra

Kumar Tiwari was appointed asthe new State ElectionCommissioner of the State onTuesday. A government notifi-cation stated that the retiredIAS officer of 1986 batch hasbeen appointed for the tenureof three years from the date ofassuming charge of office or tillthe date he attains the age of 64years.

The post was vacant sinceJune 15, 2020, when the thenSEC NN Pandey retired fromhis post. And, with the appoint-ment of the former CS as newSEC way has been cleared forholding already delayedPanchayat elections in the State.

The three-tier panchayatpolls were due in November-December 2020 in the State andwere put on hold due to Covid19 pandemic and vacancies attop positions in State Election

Commission. The governmenthas put in place alternative sys-tems at panchayat level tillelections are held.

Tiwari is an MBBS gradu-ate of King George's MedicalUniversity.

He also holds a Bachelor ofLaws degree fromChhotanagpur Law Collegeand a Master of Arts inEconomics from the Universityof Manchester. He has servedin several positions for theGovernment of Bihar and theGovernment of Jharkhand.

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In his maiden visit to the city,Director General of Police (

DGP) MV Rao on Tuesdayheld a meeting with the seniorpolice officials at the districtpolice headquarters and askedits team to intensify operationagainst Maoists.

Sources revealed that dur-ing the review meeting discus-sions were held on a number ofissues, all pertaining to anti-naxal operations. He was learntto have given directives to hissubordinates as to how to goabout for operations.

While addressing a pressmeet, Rao warned criminals andnaxals to refrain from propa-gating criminal acts otherwisethey will be eliminated.

Rao said that he hasinstructed the police officials towork in a proactive manner andarrest the elements involved inorganised crime so that crimi-nal elements involved in extor-tion activity and those indulgedin arms or narcotic drug sup-

plies may get a clear messageand would refrain from suchcrime.

"Apart from tern actionsagainst the criminals, we willhave to see that those arrestedin crime cases are tried inspeedy trial court. Once thecriminal elements are arrestedand tried in fast-track court, theintensity of criminal activities inthe region will automaticallysubside," said the DGP.

He, however, applauded thepolice of Kolhan for performingwell in carrying out investiga-tion and apprehending thecriminals indulged in the crime.

"I have noticed that thepolice in the twin districts ofSinghbhum and also inSeraikela-Kharsawan districtthe police are successfully crack-ing all the crime cases soon or

later by making arrests in mostof the cases. This is a very pos-itive side for curbing the crim-inal activities," said the top cop.

Speaking on the naxal front,he expressed happiness inretaining naxal-sponsored vio-lence in Kolhan, especially inWest Singhbhum and Seraikela-Kharsawan districts.

"The police and paramili-tary forces are doing well inKolhan, especially in WestSinghbhum, where as many as10 naxals have been arrested inthe past couple of months. Thepolice and paramilitary forceshave to intensify their operationa little further so that the nax-als may be eliminated from thejungles in Kolhan," said Rao.

"During the meeting theofficials of police exchanged ofinformation regarding the nax-als movement in areas of con-cern like Ghatshila, Patamda,Nimdih, Chandil, Saranda, andKiriburu in Kolhan areas withPurulia, Burdwan and WestMidnapore districts in Bengaland also with Mayurbhanj,Keonjhar and Sundergarh dis-tricts in Odisha," said an official.

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The first e-edition of quarterly magazine‘Meru’ compiled and edited by BSF Training

center and School was duly released by the com-mandant cum IG, Ravi Gandhi on Tuesday inthe simple ceremony at Meru camp office. Thismagazine will be available for the force per-sonnel. The magazine can be accessed throughthe link on digital platforms.

On this occasion Gandhi said that this mag-azine will be emphasized on training, official vis-its, BAWA activities, cultural events, religiousevents and civic activities. He further said thatearlier this magazine was released on the year-ly basis in physical form pursuing Governmentof India policy of promoting digital India ini-tiative in which all calendar, newsletter and

papers are being published in electronic form.He further said that apart from being envi-

ronment friendly it is economical too also fromthis year. This will be helpful to all personnelto get all the information of the organization.

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XLRI- Xavier School ofManagement, the premier

B School, is participating in thePositive Impact Rating 2021,thereby giving its students thechance to evaluate the institu-tion on how it is solving soci-etal and sustainable challengesand assessing the positiveimpact of their own schools.The millennial B-School stu-dents will get a unique oppor-tunity for their voice to beheard and also express theirviews on the importance ofPositive Impact on society atlarge.

The Positive Impact Rating(PIR) is a rating by studentsand for students. It addressesthe larger role of businessschools; the positive impact ofbusiness schools going beyondtheir contribution to businessand the economy.

It contributes as a lever ofchange for transformation inbusiness schools.

The collection of data inXLRI is organized by SIGMA-oikos, who will distribute a sur-vey across campus throughemail campaigns, social media,and more.

The results can be used asa tool to drive student-led sus-tainable development in coop-eration with schools.

PIR was initiated by agroup of concerned businessschool experts and has beenfounded by the endorsersWWF, Oxfam Internationaland the UNGC Switzerland,with the active support of thefunders VIVA Idea and theMission Possible Foundation.

It is set up to be led byinternational student organi-zations, including oikos, SOS,AIESEC International and oth-ers, to ensure that the PIR cap-tures the student voice in eachschool.

Prof. Tata Raghuram, con-venor, FACES, XLRI (FatherArrupe Centre for Ecologyand Sustainability), said,“Individual and collectiveactions are essential to create agreater common good. AtXLRI, students, faculty, staff,and alumni strive together torealize this vision. We set outour commitments to make apositive contribution to creat-ing a positive impact on soci-ety. Positive Impact Ratingguides business schools frombeing the best in the world tobeing the best for the world.The PIR rating inspires us towork more diligently towardsattaining our Vision andMission.”,

Sunil Varughese, chiefbrand & sustainability officer,XLRI Xavier School ofManagement, Jamshedpur,said, “Once again, businessmanagement students acrossthe world are joining hands toassess their business schools onhow they perceive their insti-tutional positive impact in thecommunity and society at large.

This marks a paradigmshift towards fostering a col-laborative ecosystem and mak-ing the process of managementeducation more meaningfuland purpose-oriented, espe-cially in a world that is still suf-fering as a consequence of theCOVID-19 Pandemic”.

DALTONGANJ: A Maharashtra police teamtoday met the members of the bereaved family ofthe slain navy sailor Suraj Kumar Dubey at vil-lage Purabdeeha under Chainpur police stationin Palamau.

Sources said the 3-member team led by a sub-inspector of police. Sources said the team hadarrived Daltonganj on Monday evening itself butit postponed to visit the bereaved family.

Monday was the day of the cremation and itstarted too late in the after where the rites on theburning ghat went till late in the evening. Officerin charge of the Chainpur police station UdayKumar Gupta has confirmed the arrival and visitof the Maharashtra team at the house of Dubeytoday. Gupta said the team took statements of thefather, mother, brothers and sister of the killed navysailor. Sources said the family is understood to havenot suspected any one for the horrible killing oftheir son.

Gupta said he would not share anything that

the Maharashtra police gathered from the fami-ly members. MP, Palamu, V D Ram has shot offa letter to Chief Minister Hemant Soren request-ing him for the recommendation for the CBIprobe. The MP has pointed out that without therecommendation of the concerned State the UnionHome ministry can't proceed any further inlaunching the CBI probe.

Today Mayor Aruna Shanker visited the fam-ily and assured the family members of full co-oper-ation in the hour of the tragedy.

Navy sailor Suraj was abducted in Chennai,given sub human torture there and then fifteenhundred kilometers away in Palghar ofMaharashtra he was set afire alive and abandonedthinking him to be dead with ninety percent ofthe burns. The Navy sailor finally succumbed tohis injuries on February 6. MP Palamu V D Ramhas raised many pointed queries about this longeststretch between Chennai and Palghar for dump-ing the navy sailor as a dead commodity. PNS

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Pornography being served onthe OTT platform, abuses

of female dignity and non-stan-dard language is going to becurbed soon. The CentralGovernment said on Tuesdaythat guidelines have been pre-pared in view of the com-plaints and suggestionsreceived continuously on thecontent appearing on the OTTplatform and these will beimplemented soon.

This information was givenby the Information andBroadcasting Minister PrakashJavadekar when Rajya SabhaMP Mahesh Poddar took upthis matter under Zero Hour.He said that many complaintsare being received about thecontent appearing on the OTTplatform and some sugges-tions have also been receivedregarding its regulation.

Raising the issue underZero Hour, Poddar said that thecontent being served in thename of entertainment onOTT platforms is giving a deepblow to Indian socio-religious-cultural values. The languageand content of OTT platformsclearly reflects sexual discrim-ination or gender discrimina-tion.

On the one hand, we saythat we are committed to pro-tect the identity of women, onthe other hand we are beingmade available to the mother-sister abuses on public media,the genitals of women andmen are being discussed inpublic in a gruesome manner.Is

Poddar said that in order touse obscene-slang languages onOTT platforms, women's dig-

nity is wired. The content is like this, the

language is as if it has beendecided that the man is theenjoyer and the woman is theenjoyer.

Such content and languagemay not be acceptable in acountry with the feeling of"Yatra Narayastu Pujyante,Ramante Tatra Devta".

In the Parliament of thecountry, if a word or sentenceappears to be objectionable,then immediately voices arisethat this word or sentence isunparliamentary and should beremoved from the proceedings.Obviously, the language whichis not parliamentary cannot becompatible with public life andis also salable, distributableand broadcastable on any pub-lic platform.

Poddar said that theGovernment of India has giventhe responsibility of regulatingthe content available on theInternet to the Ministry ofInformation and Broadcasting.Now the conscious and decentsection of the society is con-sidering delay in this process asvery harmful.

It is a favorable occasionwhen we can play a historicaland important role in prevent-ing degradation and degener-ation of female dignity.

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The State Government in theupcoming Budget Session

is likely to bring a new recruit-ment policy, under which localswill get preference in govern-ment jobs. JMM general sec-retary cum party spokesperson,Supriyo Bhattacharyya said,“The State government in thenext budget session is going tobring a new recruitment poli-cy, under which third andfourth grade jobs will bereserved for locals. Residents ofState, who are living in the Statefor years, will get preference ingovernment jobs.”

The JMM leader alsoslammed former ChiefMinister Raghubar Das forintroducing a recruitment pol-

icy under which locals of 13reserved districts were givenpreference in government jobs.Bhattacharyya said, “The BJPgovernment by introducingsuch discriminatory recruit-ment policy opened the doorsof outsiders especially thosefrom (Bihar and Uttar Pradesh)in third and fourth grade gov-ernment jobs in eleven unre-served districts. Due to gov-ernment discriminatory policyin the recruitment policy for-mulated in 2016, candidatesfrom Bihar and Uttar Pradeshgot preference in teaching andpolice services in eleven unre-served districts.”

Recently the State govern-ment decided to roll back the2016 recruitment policy as for-mulated by then Raghubar Das

government. It may be recalledthat Jharkhand High Court inSeptember cancelled therecruitment of thousands ofteachers and officials that was

finalised on a 2016 policy pro-viding 100 per cent reservationfor local candidates living in 13scheduled districts of the State,describing it as a violation of

fundamental rights.The court declared the pol-

icy null and void and scrappedthe advertisement that wasissued to announce the recruit-ment drive in 2016.

The then governmentheaded by chief ministerRaghubar Das had advertisedfor 17,572 vacancies of teach-ers in the state in 2016. Ofthese, the Jharkhand StaffSelection Commission (JSSC)has so far filled up about 9,000posts in both scheduled andnon-scheduled districts.

The JMM leader alsoslammed the NDA govern-ment headed by PrimeMinister Narendra Modi fornot resolving the agriculturecrisis and not taking back threefarm laws. These laws are --

The Farmers’ Produce Tradeand Commerce (Promotionand Facilitation) Act, TheFarmers (Empowerment andProtection) Agreement of PriceAssurance and Farm ServicesAct, and The EssentialCommodities (Amendment)Act.

The JMM leader said thatthe Prime Minister has littleconcern for farmers as despitemore than 75 days protest thecentre is yet to take any deci-sion on three farm laws rollback.

He said, “The farmers'protest has become the biggestmovement after 1974 againstthe government.” The JMMleader also condemned thePrime Minister for ridiculingfarmers' protest as Andolanjivi.

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Chocolates, flowers, dinnerand dancing bring fond

memories of Valentine ’s Daycelebrations. With the newnormal way of living duringCovid-19, young couples acrossthe City are looking for differ-ent ways to celebrate this day.From ordering the perfect giftonline to planning a movienight, everything has beenarranged to celebrate the spe-cial day.

For Paridhi and AtulDrolia, who got married fouryears back, everyday is special.“As a couple we have a habit ofpicking up flowers and otherlittle gifts for each other on ran-dom days and that is what real-ly makes it special for us. OnFebruary 14 which also hap-pens to be a Sunday, we have

decided to stay home and havea movie marathon session inthe evening along with someChinese food which we plan toorder in. This year is also spe-cial as we have our three-month-old baby and steppingout on a chilly winter eveningduring Covid with him issomething we would certainlyavoid,” said Paridhi.

Devika and KaustubhGovekar, who were in a long-distance relationship for a fewyears before tying the knot,believe they don’t need a spe-

cific day to celebrate love.”Wedon’t believe in celebrating oneday to express our love butsinceit’s a trend we just go out for afancy dinner. This year withFebruary 14 being a Sunday,my husband has offered tocook some prawns and fish fordinner as we don’t want to stepout during the pandemic. Overthe years, I have been makinghim a personalised gift, butsince stepping out to shop wasnot a great idea, Ihave ordereda surprise gift for him,” saidDevika.

Honey and Rohit Sinha, arelooking forward to a weekendgetaway away from the hustlebustle of City life. “The weekbefore Valentines has been fullof surprises and celebrations asmy husband has been shower-ing me with gifts on each day.As February 14 is a Sunday, weare heading to Royal Retreat onFriday for the quite weekendwith our baby. This will givehim some space to run aroundand we too will get a chance tospend some quality timetogether.”

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The long wait of State CivilService aspirants is over as the

Jharkhand Public ServiceCommission (JPSC) hasannounced notification for CivilServices examination 2021. A totalof 252 vacancies will be filledthrough JPSC examination forvarious posts including — DeputyCollector, Assistant MunicipalCommissioner, DistrictCoordinator, Jail Superintendent,and others.

This exam is being held to fillvacancies in various departmentsand organisations generated dur-ing 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020.The students who have been wait-ing for State Civil ServiceExamination for long have wel-comed the State government deci-sion to conduct civil servicesexaminations after four years.

Mahesh Kumar Mahto, a postgraduate student and civil servicesaspirant said, “We welcome theState government decision to con-duct civil service examinationafter four years. The governmentdecision to conduct civil serviceexamination will provide an

opportunity for those studentswho are preparing for civil serviceexamination for long.”

Echoing the views of Mahto,another civil service aspirant, AnilMurmu said, “We welcome thegovernment decision to conductcivil service examination. Likecivil service the governmentshould conduct other examina-tions too which are pending foryears.” Murmu said, “For studentsof Jharkhand, competitive exam-inations especially those fromgovernment jobs are top choice ofstudents. In such a situation if thegovernment conducts civil serviceexamination clearing all backlogsit is a welcome step and big oppor-tunity for students.”

Murmu also demanded thatthe government should declare thepending results of the examinationconducted by the BJP governmentheaded by Raghubar Das. Sourcessaid that final results of panchay-at secretaries conducted byRaghubar Das government arepending.

The final results of around4000 panchayat secretaries arewaiting. Similarly, there are back-logs and vacancies in several

departments for the examinationwhich are conducted by StateStaff Selection Commission(SSSC).

Meanwhile, for JPSC a total of252 vacancies will be filled througha preliminary exam, a main writ-ten exam and personal interview.Application forms for the examwill be available from February 15and candidates can fill and submitit within March 15.

The upper age limit for can-didates belonging to the generalcategory is 35 years. The minimumage limit is 21 years. The minimumeducational qualification requiredfor this exam is graduation. “Thereshall be no limitation on the num-ber of attempts, if a candidate is eli-gible otherwise,” the Jharkhandpublic service commission hassaid.

The preliminary exam will beobjective type and will be held forselection to the main exam, whichwill be a written exam. “The num-ber of candidates to be admitted tothe main written exam will beapproximately 15 times the totalnumber of vacancies to be filled inthe year of the various services andposts,” said a JPSC official.

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State BJP spokesperson PratulShahdeo today said that the

coalition government hascheated the students in theJPSC exam. Pratul said that inhis election manifesto of 2019,the Jharkhand Mukti Morchahad clearly said that it will notcharge any fee from poor can-didates of any caste, religion inthe JPSC or JSSC exam. “Therewas talk of charging only Rs100 from other category can-didates. But, this governmentdid not implement this system.For SC, ST students, it has alsofixed a fee of Rs. 150. There isRs 600 fee for other classes,” hesaid.

Pratul said that one yearago, when the JPSC releasedthe advertisement for 2017,2018 and 2019, there was anadvertisement for 267 posts at

that time. This time, 4 years’advertisements have beenreleased adding the year 2020.But surprisingly the number ofposts has been reduced to 252.Pratul said that this is probablythe first time that the numberof posts should be reduced afterthe passage of time. Pratulsaid that this government ismaintaining a record of revers-ing from its promises madebefore its elections. This gov-ernment has cheated the farm-ers, youth, unemployedwomen, sportspersons, all ofthem, he said.

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Healthcare workers,who refuse to get

vaccinated against theCovid-19 virus in Ranchiwill have to submit a dec-laration stating that theyhave voluntarily optedout of the immuniza-tion programme, offi-cials from the districtadministration said onTuesday, claiming thatmany healthcare workershave backed out fromtaking the Covishieldvaccine jabs and not stat-ed any concrete reasonfor their apprehension.

“The health workers,who are called for vacci-nation but refused to getinoculated, will have tosubmit a declaration stating clearly thatbacking out from the immunizationprogramme was their voluntary decision,”said Ranchi deputy commissioner ChaviRanjan.

As per data collected by the NationalHealth Mission (NHM), more than 75 percent of healthcare workers and frontlineworkers registered for free vaccinationagainst the Covid-19 virus either did notturn up at the vaccination centres or backedout from taking the jab. NHM data high-lights that of the 51,831 people registered forvaccination in the district, only 12,158 wereinoculated. As a result, Ranchi has achievedonly 23 per cent of its vaccination target –the lowest among all the 24 districts inJharkhand.

Ranchi has also reported the highestnumber of Adverse Events FollowingImmunization (AEFI) in Jharkhand. Of the247 AEFI cases reported in the state so far,at least 169 were reported in Ranchi alone,highlights government data. Last week, a 52-year-old healthcare worker from a privatehospital died 33 hours after vaccination here,triggering panic among beneficiaries regis-tered to get free vaccine in the district,

sources said. The matter is under investigation.An official from the district adminis-

tration said that the declaration has beensought only for maintaining records relat-ed to the vaccination programme in the dis-trict. No person will be forced to take vac-cine shots against his wish, he added.

A healthcare worker, employed at a pri-vate hospital in Ranchi, said that rumourscirculated on social media and news aboutpeople facing health complications follow-ing vaccination were instilling fear inhealthcare workers.

“I have already taken the first dose of thevaccine, and I did not face any side effect.But some of my colleagues are afraid thatthey might suffer from severe side effectsand are thereby apprehensive about takingthe vaccine,” he said, requesting anonymity.

Vaccination against Covid-19 virus isnot compulsory for every healthcare work-er in India. Beneficiaries have the freedomto opt out of the process. However, doctorshave requested all healthcare workers to getvaccinated without any fear of adverse effectsof the jab.

Ranchi: CMPDI has venturedinto tunnel survey by success-fully executing GyroscopicSurvey at Katra-Banihal sectionof Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link (USBRL)for IRCON. This is a shift fromtraditional surveys in coalmines and adds a new dimen-sion for CMPDI in the surveyfield. For the project, CMPDIused state of the art DMTMake Gyromat 3000 surveyequipment.

In tunnel construction,keeping alignment as per planis very vital so that differentends of tunnel segments meetat designated places. This job istedious as tunnels are dugbelow ground level. In order tohave a control on alignment of

the tunnel as per design, M/sIRCON entrusted the job ofGyro survey to CMPDIL, look-ing at previous credentials ofCMPDI in survey field usingsame and other sophisticatedsurvey equipment.

CMPDIL has executedGyroscopic Survey for deter-mination of Gyro azimuth at18faces in four tunnels inKatra-Banihal section ofUSBRL from 27.01.2021 to02.02.2021

It's a proud moment for theentire CMPDIL as well as CILbeing the Holding Company tobe a part of such a prestigiousRailway project of Govt. ofIndia and an example ofCMPDIL technological excel-lence. PNS

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Ranchi Deputy Commissioner (DC)Chhavi Ranjan chaired a meeting of

the District Level Approval Committee toapprove pre- matric scholarship paymentin the State capital on Tuesday.

Project Director ITDA, District

Welfare Officer, District EducationSuperintendent, DIO Ranchi, TreasuryOfficer Ranchi and LDM Ranchi were alsopresent for the meeting.

In the meeting, the committee delib-erated on the approval of scholarship pay-ment to eligible students of schedulecaste, schedule tribe, backward caste

under the Pre- Matric Scholarship Scheme2020-21 in Ranchi district.

A list of 127314 students from 1566schools in the district has been preparedfor pre matric scholarship.In-principleapproval of scholarship payment has beengiven by the committee.

Committee Chairman cum DC ChitraRanjan has directed random physical ver-ification of applications from one percentschools.

Approval was also given by the com-mittee to approve the pre matric scholar-ship payment by PMT and transfer it to thestudents account through DBMS toAadhaar mapped students from thereceived list countersigned from the con-cerned officials of the committee.

Project Director ITDA and theDistrict Welfare Officer were also autho-rised to deny the scholarship to theschools or students if they were found inel-igible before the scholarship payment.3/��%������� ������ ���

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After meeting stakeholdersof private mandis and State

Agriculture Marketing Boards,the Supreme Court-appointedthree-member panel onTuesday held its deliberationswith 18 industry bodies includ-ing Amul, ITC, Rice MillerAssociations, TractorManufacture Association andexporter bodies, engaged inagriculture and its allied sectorsand sought their comments onthe three farm legislations.This is the sixth meeting thepanel has held so far.

The meeting was held bothvirtually and in person onTuesday. The committee mem-bers will hold talks with stategovernments’ representativeson February 11. The commit-tee will also take view pointsfrom professionals and acade-micians on the issue.

Sources said that industri-al bodies including AgroProcessing Industries, FoodProcessing industries and theagencies, dairy sector, ricemiller association engaged inthe agriculture sector hailed thethree farm laws during theirdiscussions and also suggestedsome points. The committee

members have requested theparticipants to give their viewson the three farm laws.

“In total 18 different stake-holder organisations’ such asAmul, ITC, FCI, Sugna Foods,Horticulture ProduceExporters’ Association,Venkateshwara Hatcheries,Confederation of IndianIndustry (CII), Federation ofIndian Chambers ofCommerce & Industry ( FICCI), Agricultural and ProcessedFood Products ExportDevelopment Authority(APEDA), Seafood ExportersAssociation, India Rice MillerAssociation, All India RiceExporters Association, TractorManufacture Association,Cotton Association of India,Fertiliser Association of India,India Pulses and GrainAssociation of India and AllIndia Poultry Feed Associationof India participated throughVideo Conferencing in thedetailed deliberations with thecommittee members over thefarm laws,” the ministry ofagriculture said.

“Representatives of theMarine Products ExportDevelopment Authority(MPEDA) participated in themeeting in person. All thestakeholder participants gave

their detailed views and valuablesuggestions on the three farmlaws,” the committee said in astatement.

During the previous meet-ing held on Friday, the com-mittee held consultations withthe heads of state marketingboards, private mandi operators

and food parks from 10 statesincluding those of Kerala. Thecommittee has also sought com-ments from all stakeholdersthrough online in its website.

The three-member com-mittee appointed by theSupreme Court has been hold-ing consultations with stake-

holders both, online and in-per-son and this was the fifth meet-ing of the panel so far. TheSupreme Court had set up thefour-member panel on January11, but one of them, BhupinderSingh Mann, recused himselflater after questions were raisedby the agitating farmer unions

about the views expressed by allmembers in the past in support

of the contentious laws, againstwhich thousands are protesting

on Delhi borders for almost twomonths now.

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Samajwadi Party leaderAkhileshYadav Yadav on

Tuesday attacked theGovernment saying theMinimum Support Price(MSP) was not available evenin the districts in Uttar Pradeshfrom where President, PrimeMinister and Defence Ministercome from and that it was“unrolling red carpet for thecorporates”.

Participating in the dis-cussion on the vote of thankson President’s address, the for-mer Chief Minister wonderedas why Government do nottake back laws if those forwhom there are meant foropposing them.

He said though theGovernment is insisting thatMSP would always be there,the farmers in the districts ofPresident, Prime Minister andDefence Minister have notreceived MSP price for theirproduce .

Yadav said hisGovernment constructed sev-eral ‘Mandis’ for farmers and

even gave 500 acre to GuruRam Dev for establishing a‘Mandi’. By now, he said kisan‘mandis’ are not being estab-lished in the state.

He alleged thatGovernment has unrolled “redcarpet” for corporates whileneglecting farmers.

Taking a swipe at PrimeMinister Narendra Modi fordescribing agitators as“andolanjivi”, the former UPChief Minister asked the rul-ing party members”Are you notChandajivi ?”.

His apparent reference tocollection for Ram temple wasobjected to by BJP MP andMinister Sadhvi Niranjan Jyotiwho said “people not only inIndia but world over are donat-ing with devotion..”.

Earlier, addressing thehouse, former J & K ChiefMinister Farooq Abdullah alsoasked government to talk tofarmers and carry everyonetogether so that countryremains united.

The National Conferencepresident alleged that thoughlocal district elections inKashmir were successful nowan attempt is being made tobuy elected representatives indistrict bodies with moneybags”.

In an emotional speech,Abdullah who was in the pre-ventive detention followingthe abrogation of article 370,said “we have to take all togeth-er... I am a HindustaniMuslim,..Allah and Bhagwan issame, Ram is for everyone,Quran is for all, Bible is forall..take everyone together”, hesaid.

BJP woman MP fromnHaryana, who spoke after him, however, said that Abdullahhad said altogether differentthings when government hadannounced annulment of arti-cle 370 on August 6, 2019.

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The Ministry of Agriculturehas said that the Indian

Council of AgriculturalResearch (ICAR) has devel-oped a total 838 high yieldingand trait specific field crop vari-eties, of which 578 are climateresilient, 41 short duration and47 bio-fortified varieties in thelast three year. Besides, Indiahas developed only 63Integrated Farming System(IFS) in 18 States so far andthese models are suitable to 26States and Union Territoriesand have the potential toincrease the income of farmersby 2 to 3 times or more vis a visexisting systems/practices in aperiod of 3 to 4 years. TheIndian Council of AgriculturalResearch (ICAR) 345 varietiesof different crops were devel-oped in 2020.

In a reply to the Lok Sabha,Union Agriculture MinisterNarendra Singh Tomar saidthat ICAR has developed a total838 high yielding and traitspecific field crop varieties, ofwhich 578 are climate resilient,41 short duration and 47 bio-fortified varieties in the lastthree year. “A total 77 machinesand processing equipment weredeveloped to promote mecha-

nisation of small farms &amp;reduce postharvest losses. Total101 technologies for processingand on farm value additionwere also developed. In fish-eries, ICAR developed breed-ing and seed production tech-nologies of 9 food fishes and 12ornamental fishes, demon-strated cage culture in reser-voirs and open sea, developedseveral cost-effective feeds forfish and shell fish,” he said.

Interestingly, the publicspending on agricultureresearch and educationin Indiais only 0.62 percent of its totalgross domestic products. TheCentre has proposed Rs8513.62 crore for agricultureresearch and education in thebudget 2021-22 as compared toRs 7762.38 crore revised bud-get allocation for the year 2020-21. Of the total budget, Rs968.00 allocated for crop sci-ences.

Replying to a questionasked by Rajya Sabha MPSushil Kumar Gupta Tomarsaid ICAR has developed 63integrated farming systemswith the participation of farm-ers in 18 States.

“Most of the IFS modelshave the demonstrated poten-tial of increasing the farmers’income by 2-3 times or moreand have been included in

State Plans by Government ofBihar, Karnataka, Kerala,Jammu & Kashmir and TamilNadu for up-scaling. As manyas 31 bankable projects suitablefor 22 states have also been pre-pared by ICAR for supportingthrough medium and short-term credit for scaling upthrough schemes of States andCentral Government,” Tomarsaid.

According to the agricul-ture ministry, 31 bankableprojects suitable for 22 stateshave also been prepared byIndian Council of AgriculturalResearch (ICAR) for support-ing through medium andshort-term credit for scaling upthrough schemes of States andCentral Government. Tomarfurther stated that at least 18IFS models, 14 bankable pro-jects on IFS and organic farm-ing packages for 22 croppingsystems were developed duringlast three years.

Total foodgrain produc-tion in the country is estimat-ed to be a record 291.95 mil-lion tonnes, according to thesecond advance estimates for2019-20.

In reply to another ques-tion, the minister said thatICAR has also developed 51organic cropping systems suit-able for adoption in 12 States.

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As many as 197 people aremissing while 20 people

have died due to floods inUttarakhand, Union HomeMinister Amit Shah told RajyaSabha on Tuesday.

In a separate tunnel in theNTPC project, it is estimatedthat around 25 to 35 people arestuck inside, he said, adding“rescue operation to evacuatethese persons is going on a warfooting and all-out efforts aresimultaneously being made forsearching missing persons”.

Making a statement in theHouse “regarding an avalanchein Chamoli District ofUttarakhand”, the Union minister said these inputs werebased on the informationreceived till Monday 5 pmfrom the state government.

Noting that an avalanchehad occurred in the uppercatchment of Rishiganga river,a tributary of Alaknanda rivenin Chamoli District ofUttarakhand, which led to sud-den rise in the water level of

Rishiganga river, he said as perinformation, a total of 197persons are reported missingwhich includes 139 are fromthe under-construction NTPC project, 46 people working on Rishi Ganga pro-ject and 12 villagers.

He said in the financialyear 2020-21, �1041 crore hasbeen allocated to the State ofUttarakhand under the State

Disaster Risk ManagementFund (SDRMF)and the firstinstallment of the central shareamounting to �468.50 crore hasbeen released to the StateGovernment.

The State Government hasreported that there is no dan-ger of downstream floodingand the rise in water level hasbeen contained, he said, addingthe Centre and the StateGovernment have been keep-ing a strict vigil on the situa-tion.

“It is observed from thesatellite data (Planet Lab) of 7thFebruary, 2021 in catchment ofRishi Ganga river at the ter-minus of the glacier at an alti-tude of 5,600m a landslide triggered a snowavalanche covering approxi-mately 14 sq.Km area andcausing a flash flood in thedownstream of Rishi Gangariver,” he added.

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Union Home Minister AmitShah on Tuesday denied in

the Lok Sabha allegation thatduring his visit to West Bengalhe had sat on the chair ofRabindranath Tagore saying“the window seat” he occupiedwas also used by likes ofJawaharlal Nehru, PranabMukherjee and Rajiv Gandhi.

“I asked Vishwabharti Vice-Chancellor to clarify and he saidno such incident took place”,said Shah in the house reject-ing Congress MP Adhir RahanChowdhury’s allegations.

Shah said he sat on a win-dow seat “where everybody isallowed to sit”.

Shah said Nehru, PranabMukherjee and Rajiv Gandhitoo occupied the same seat.

The home minister askedmembers to do some researchbefore sourcing their state-ments from the social media.

Shah also denied com-ments attributed to the BJPpresident JP Nadda during lat-ter’s visit to West Bengal.

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The Union Health Ministryhas asked States and Union

Territories to conclude the firstdose administration to allfrontline workers by March 6even as 62.6 lakh beneficiarieshave been vaccinated againstthe pathogen since January 16when the mega vaccinationdrive was launched.

The states and UTs havealso been directed to concludemop-up rounds latest by March6. Earlier, the Health Ministryhad asked all states and UTs tocomplete the administration ofthe first dose of Covid vaccinesto their healthcare workers byFebruary 20 and concludemop-up round by February 24.

Union Health SecretaryRajesh Bhushan said during apress briefing that the aimshould be that no willing ben-eficiary is left behind and forthat, states and UTs are free toconduct as many mop-uprounds they want.

“They can do multiplerounds depending on theirstrength. The aim of the mop-up rounds is to ensure thatthose healthcare and frontlineworkers, who could not comeduring their scheduled vacci-nation sessions, will then beavailed an opportunity afford-ed by the mop-up rounds to gettheir dose of vaccination,” hesaid.

However, Bhushan alsosaid that those healthcare andfrontline workers, who fail toappear even during the mop-up rounds, will be relegated toage specific appropriate vacci-nation rounds.

“Those who would notcome forward even during themop-ups, will receive vaccinedoses when the age specificvaccination rounds will roll outfor the general public. There,they will be provided vaccineson the age group they fall,” headded.

He said that India was thefastest country to reach 6 mil-lion vaccination doses ofCovid-19 in 24 days.

Bhushan said within thecountry also some states haveperformed well, while othersneed to improve their vacci-nation coverage. “There are 12states and UTs that have vac-cinated more than 65 per centof the registered healthcareworkers. These states are Bihar(78.1 per cent), Tripura (77.1per cent), Madhya Pradesh(76 per cent), Uttarakhand(73.7 per cent), Odisha (72.4per cent), Mizoram (69.9 percent), Himachal Pradesh (68.7per cent), Uttar Pradesh (68

per cent), Andaman andNicobar Islands (67.9 per cent),Rajasthan (67.2 per cent),Kerala (66.9 per cent) andLakshadweep (66.7 per cent),”he said.

On the other hand,Bhushan said, there are 11states and UTs that have vac-cinated less than 40 per cent ofhealthcare workers. These arePuducherry (15.4 per cent),Manipur (21.3 per cent),Nagaland (21.5 per cent),Meghalaya (24.3 per cent),Chandigarh (28.7 per cent),Punjab (34.1 per cent), Dadraand Nagar Haveli (34. 5 percent), Ladakh (35.8 per cent),Jammu and Kashmir (37.5 percent) and Delhi (38 per cent).

Bhushan said a meeting ofthe National AEFI Committeewas held on February 5 wherediscussions were held on 8AEFI cases following COVID-19 vaccinations.

“Out of these 8 cases,causality assessment of 5 cases(2 deaths and 3 hospitalized)was conducted. Among hos-pitalised cases, all three weredischarged. Two have beendiagnosed as anaphylaxis; clas-sified

as vaccine-product relatedreactions (known and expect-ed reactions following vacci-nations) and one case diag-nosed as syncope: classified asimmunisation triggered stressresponse (anxiety reaction),” hesaid.

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In a first for the country, theIndian Army is using its

dogs for quick detection ofCOVID-19 to cut down timedelays associated with regulardiagnostic techniques.

The canine members of thearmed force are known fortheir pronounced olfactorycapability and have earlierhelped in explosive and nar-cotics detection, search and res-cue operations, and other chal-lenging tasks. Now, they haveanother job.

Two dogs – two-year-oldcocker spaniel Casper and one-year-old Jaya, a ‘chippiparai’,which is an indigenous breedfrom Tamil Nadu – have beentrained to detect COVID-19 bysniffing samples of sweat andurine, senior Army officialssaid.

A demonstration of theirskills using real samples washeld on Tuesday

on the premises of the 48Military Veterinary Hospital atDelhi Cantonment. Their han-dlers were wearing full PPEkits.

Lt Col Surinder Saini,instructor at the Dog TrainingFacility of the RemountVeterinary Corps (RVC)Centre in Meerut, said thesedogs are “pioneering canines”of not just the Army, but ofentire India.

“Countries like the UK,

Finland, France, Russia,Germany, Lebanon, the UAEand the US have alreadytrained dogs for detection ofCOVID-19.

Dogs have been previous-ly used abroad to detect malar-ia, diabetes and Parkinson’sdisease, but this is the first timecanines have been used formedical detection in India,” hetold reporters.

To a question on where thedogs are being deployed, Sainisaid that after their training inSeptember, the dogs weredeployed at the Army’s transitcamp in Delhi in November.From December, they are beingdeployed at the transit camp inChandigarh from where troopsmove to large areas, includingthe Ladakh region, under theNorth Command.

Army dogs were success-fully trained on specific bio-markers emanating from urineand sweat samples of positivepatients.

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The Enforcement Directoratehas issued a Provisional

Attachment Order attachingassets worth �34.36 crore ofViva Holding (a company ofViva Group) in Bank FraudPMLA case of RakeshWadhawan and SarangWadhawan, promoters of HDILand others.

The attached assets are in theform of two commercial assetsadmeasuring 15,000 sq. mtrsarea in Kaledonia building,Andheri East located at Mumbaivalued at Rs 34.36 crore.

The ED had initiated probeagainst Rakesh Wadhawan andSarang Wadhawan and others onthe basis of an FIR registered byCBI (ACB), Mumbai underIndian Penal Code Sectionsrelating to criminal conspiracy,cheating and criminal breach oftrust and under relevant provi-sions of the Prevention ofCorruption Act for siphoning offthe loan to tune of Rs 200 croresanctioned by Yes Bank to MackStar Marketing Pvt. Ltd., byshowing it for fictitious purpose.

ED has already initiatedinvestigation under PMLAagainst Housing DevelopmentInfrastructures Ltd. (HDIL),Rakesh Wadhawan, SarangWadhawan, and Joy Thomas,CMD of PMC bank Ltd and oth-ers on the basis of FIR registeredby Economic Offences wing ofMumbai Police.

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The Supreme Court Tuesdaysought Government’s reply

on a plea, seeking transfer ofcases from several high courtsto it against the Centre’s noti-fication to declare five com-munities — Muslims,Christians, Sikhs, Buddhistsand Parsees — as minoritieseven in those States and UTswhere they are in majority.

A bench comprising ChiefJustice S A Bobde and JusticesA S Bopanna and VRamasubramanian issuednotices to Ministry of HomeAffairs, Ministry of Law andJustice and Ministry ofMinority Affairs.

The high courts at Delhi,Meghalaya and Guwahati areseized of the petitions chal-lenging the Constitutionalvalidity of section 2(c) of theNational Commission forMinorities Act, 1992, underwhich the notification wasissued on October 23, 1993.

The notification had

declared the five communitiesas minorities across the coun-try, leading to a situation wheremajority population of Sikhs inPunjab and Muslims in Jammuand Kashmir are availing of thebenefits meant for minorities,the transfer petition alleged.

The apex court was hear-ing a plea filed by lawyer andBJP leader Ashwini Upadhyayseeking transfer of all casesfrom high courts to the apexcourt for an authoritative pro-nouncement on the issue.

Senior advocate C SVaidyanathan appeared forUpadhyay in the matter.

The petition, filed throughadvocate Ashwani KumarDubey, said that in order toavoid multiplicity of litiga-tions and conflicting views, thetransfer plea has been movedbefore the apex court.

Arbitrary and irrationaldisbursement of minority ben-efits to majority infringes uponthe fundamental right to theprohibition of discriminationon the grounds of religion,

race, caste, sex or place of birth,the plea said.

The petition said theHindus, who are a majoritycommunity according tonational data, are a minority inseveral north-eastern statesbesides Punjab and Jammuand Kashmir.

However, the Hindu com-munity is deprived of the ben-efits that are available to theminority communities in thesestates, the plea said, adding thatthe National Commission forMinorities (NCM) shouldreconsider the definition ofminority in this context.

The plea has sought todeclare section 2(c) of theNCM Act 1992 void and inop-erative for being arbitrary,unreasonable and offending.

The definition of minori-ty, according to Article 29-30of the Constitution, has leftleakages in the hands of theState, which shall be misusedand are being misused forpolitical benefits, the petitionsaid.

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The Supreme Court Tuesdaydismissed a plea which chal-

lenged the Constitutional valid-ity of colonial era provision ofsedition under the Indian PenalCode, on the ground that it isbeing used to stifle freedom ofspeech and expression of citi-zens.

A bench of Chief JusticeBobde and Justices AS Bopannaand V Ramasubramanian dis-missed the plea saying thatthere was no cause of action andthe petitioners are not the affect-ed parties.

During the brief hearing,senior advocate Anoop GeorgeChaudhary, appearing for thepetitioners who are advocates,said that this is a public interestmatter and people are beingcharged under the provision.

The bench observed that alaw cannot be challenged with-out appropriate cause of action.

“You are not facing anyprosecution under the Section.

What is the cause of the action?We don’t have any case before usright now. We don’t have anycase in front of us where some-body is rotting in jail. If some-one is in jail then we will con-sider. Dismissed”, the benchtold Chaudhary.

The plea filed by three advo-cates Aditya Ranjan, VarunThakur, V Elanchezhiyan saidthat section 124-A of IPC (sedi-tion), the provision which wasused by the British againstMahatma Gandhi and BalGangadhar Tilak is still stiflingthe freedom of speech andexpression in the country ifthey choose to express dissentagainst policies of theGovernments in power.

“It is submitted that underthe continuously expandingscope of the fundamental rights,a colonial provision like section124-A which was intended tosubjugate the subjects of Britishcrown should not be permittedto continue in a democraticrepublic,” the plea said.

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An action packed drama isunfolding in Tamil Nadu’s

political landscape as the mainprotagonists launched accusa-tion and counter-accusationby Tuesday. Leaders of theAIADMK, AMMK and theDMK were heard terming eachother as the B-team of eitherthe BJP (which has no base inthe State) or the DMK, themain Opposition party.

This provided the ambi-ence as VK Sasikala, the for-mer aide to late J Jayalalithaa,strode into Chennai in thewee hours of Tuesday after a 23hour car ride from Bangalore.

Sasikala was released fromParappana Agrahara CentralJail on January 27 where sheserved a four-year jail term inconnection with the dispro-portionate asset case. She set onher return journey to Chennaiat 9.30 am on Monday and wasaccorded a warm welcome by

thousands who had gatheredalong the road from Bangaloreto Chennai.

Sasikala, who was electedgeneral secretary of theAIADMK on December 29,2016, went to RamavaramGardens in a Chennai suburb,the residence of party founderlate M G Ramachandran andpaid obeisance in front of hispicture and a life-size statue. “Ihave been enslaved by theTamil people and hence Iwould continue to be in activepolitics to fight for them,”Sasikala said while reading outfrom a prepared statement.

By the time Sasikala leftBangalore for Chennai, ChiefMinister EdappadiPalaniswamy had ordered theclosure of JayalalithaaMemorial at Marina Beach.Though the Government ver-sion was that the Memorial hasbeen closed for maintenanceworks, it was to preventSasikala from offering homagesto her Amma (Jayalalithaa).

Though the Tamil NaduPolice ordered Sasikala toremove the AIADMK flag fromthe car in which she was trav-elling, she ignored the diktatand continued to travel in a carowned by a AIADMK func-tionary , who was later sus-pended by the party.

Wherever she addressedparty cadre, in a style resem-bling Jayalalithaa, Sasikalaexhorted the cadre to defeat thecommon adversary DMK. ButD Jayakumar, fisheries minis-ter, who is also the spokesmanof Palaniswamy and theAIADMK termed her andTTV Dhinakaran as the B-team of the DMK. This ledKanimozhi, step-sister of DMKchief M K Stalin to retaliate bycalling the AIADMK as the B-team of BJP.

Political commentators dif-fer in their opinion about thefuture of the AIADMK with theentry of Sasikala. “There aremany MLAs and ministerswho owe their position to

Sasikala who only handpickedthem at the time of 2016assembly election. They willcross over to the Sasikala campin days to come,” said SamRajappa, veteran scribe andcommentator.

Meanwhile the StateGovernment has started takingpossession of properties ownedby Sasikala, her close relationsIlavarasi, Suchakaran andDhinakaran in various parts ofthe State as part of the 2017Supreme Court order uphold-ing the Special Court verdictsentencing Jayalalithaa, Sasikalaand others in theDisproportionate Asset Case.

On Tuesday, the districtcollector of Thanjavur tookpossession of immovable prop-erties owned by TTVDhinakaran in the districtwhile the collectors ofKancheepuram andChengalpettu seized the prop-erties owned by him, Sasikala,and their relatives in these dis-tricts.

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The war of words intensifiedbetween the BJP and Trinamool

Congress with Bengal ChiefMinister Mamata Banerjee attack-ing the saffron outfit for destroyingIndia with its divisive politics whileBJP president JP Nadda slammingthe Chief Minister and his nephewAbhishek Banerjee for degradingBengal’s rich culture by mountingpersonal attacks on adversaries.

Flagging off the second leg ofParivartan Yatra from pilgrim townof Tarapeeth in Birbhum andLalgarh in Jangalmahal Nadda onTuesday alleged how the MamataBanerjee Government had notonly institutionalised corruption,criminalized politics and politicizedthe police but also it has defiled theState’s once rich culture by hurlingslangs at the opposition leaders.

“When I started the tour ofBengal she prefixed invectivesagainst my name,” Nadda said in an

apparent reference to how Banerjeehad alluded to him as “Nadda,Chadda, Gadda, Fadda …” fromone of her rallies.

And then he reminded how theChief Minister’s nephew publiclyattacked the dignity of BJP leaderSuvendu Adhikari’s father SisirAdhikari a veteran politician, a for-mer Union Minister and a sittingMP.

“While Pisi (aunt) abused me,the Bhaipo (nephew) did the sameto a Suvendu Adhikari’s fatherwho is a senior politician,” he saidasking “is it the way you preservethe rich culture of Bengal?” He said“The Chief Minister is accusing theBJP of soiling Bengal’s culture …now it is for the people to decidewho is soiling the culture ofBengal,” adding the “this is the rea-son why the real Poribartan(change) is required in Bengal andwhy the people have decided tobring in the real Poribartan bybringing the BJP to power.”

The TMC is trying to dividethe people by invoking “insider-outsider” politics which is not theculture of Bengal. “This State isknown for the culture of SwamiVivekananda, Vidya Sagar, BankimChandra Chattopadhyay,Rabindranath Tagore and not theculture that is being preached by thePisi and Bhaipo and their partymen,” he said adding only the BJPcan restore to its original glory.

The TMC's slogan of “'Maa-Mati, Manush'” (motherland andpeople) has been reduced to “dic-tatorship, tolabaji (extortion) andappeasement,” he said, alleginghow “police have been politicized,politics has been criminalized, cor-ruption has been institutionalizedby the TMC Government.”

Banerjee on the other handslammed the BJP for unleashing adivisive and destructive politics inIndia. “After unleashing divisivepolitics in other States they havecome to Bengal to divide the peo-

ple and destroy the State … the BJPwill destroy everything,” Banerjeewho held a number of rallies atMalda, Murshidabad and Kalnasaid adding “the people of UttarPradesh who had brought thisparty to power are now regrettingtheir decision

Attacking the saffron outfitfor its alleged anti-farmer policiesshe said that “the farmers will be leftwith nothing if the BJP comes topower … they will loot the farm-ers and take their lands… Farmerswill sow and reap their crops andthey will take away everythingfrom them.”

Slamming her former trustedcolleagues Suvendu Adhikar, RajibBanerjee and others who hadrecently left the TMC to join theBJP, Banerjee said “it is good thatthe black sheep have left the party… I will request others who wantto quit to do so now,” adding howthe turncoats had betrayed herwhen she needed their service the

most. “A mother rears her childrenwith utmost care … but what willyou call them if they leave thatmother after when they grow up …particularly when she is in trouble,”Banerjee said in an apparent emo-tional note.

Meanwhile, a senior IPS offi-cer Humayun Kabir who quit hisservice the last month on Tuesdayjoined the TMC in presence of theChief Minister saying he had beeninspired by her developmentalworks. Kabir was theCommissioner of Police atChandannagar when he orderedthe arrest of some BJP workers whoraised the provocative “GoliMaaro...” slogans from the rally ofSuvendu Adhikari.

“Mamata Banerjee has broughtdevelopment to Bengal. I haveworked under her and I have seenher stand by people. I have beeninspired by her. A party from out-side is trying to win here by spread-ing division.

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T h i r u v a n a n at h apu r am :Kerala's Opposition Congressand BJP on Tuesday took on theCPI-M over a “suspected” dilu-tion in the ruling party's standon the entry of women agedbetween 10 and 50 to theSabarimala temple.

Even as the issue is beforea seven member bench of theSupreme Court, the Congresslast week said that if it wins thecoming Assembly polls, it willbring legislation on women'sentry to the hilltop temple.

In a reaction, CPI-MCentral Committee memberM.V. Govindan, indirectly refer-ring to the issue, said that “it wasimpractical to implementdialectical materialism in a soci-ety which was not even ready toaccept materialism”.

This statement fromGovindan was seen as a bid towin back the Hindu votes andthen came the statement fromCPI-M Politburo member M.A.Baby saying that a fresh affidaviton this would be given in theapex court. However, soon hebacktracked and said what hemeant was that once the verdictcomes, there will be a detailedtalk with all sections to decidethe way ahead.

Soon after the apex courthad allowed entry of all womeninto the temple a couple of yearsago, Chief Minister PinarayiVijayan had moved the imple-ment the verdict, and evenwent to the extent of heraldinga “renaissance movement”.

But the issue had sparkedoff strong protests and led toconfrontations between hard-core believers and the police. Atone point, two women in thehitherto banned age group wereable to get darshan, with astrong police force accompany-ing them.

The CPI-M's stand came tohaunt it as the 2019 Lok Sabhapolls, Vijayan and the CPI-M,who were expecting to win 19out of the state's 20 seats, had to

remain content with one. Thegeneral belief was it was a hugebacklash by the Hindu voters,which decided to teach Vijayanand the CPI-M a fitting lessonfor trying to dilute the traditionof Sabarimala.

Following the CPI-Mleader's statements, BJP's statePresident K. Surendran saidthat it is not for people like Baby“who are sidelined in the party”to come out with such state-ments and instead Vijayanshould come clean on what theirstand is.”The need of the houris Vijayan should apologise tothe believers for their wrongstand that they took and thendecide on a fresh affidavit.Baby's statement means noth-ing, as he is only an 'outsider' inthe party,” he said.

Leader of Opposition andCongress veteran RameshChennithala expressed surprisein the dilly-dallying of the CPI-M on the issue, asking if Vijayanhas laid down his position as theleader of the renaissance move-ment. State Congress presidentMullapally Ramachandran saidall these are nothing but a tac-tical move by the CPI-M andthey should first discuss with allconcerned before, they makeany move.

Hitting back, state Cultureand Devasom Minister andsenior CPI-M leader A.K. Balansaid the Congress and others aretrying to rake up passion forsecuring votes in the upcomingAssembly polls.

Joining issue was the pow-erful Nair Service Society, thesocio-cultural body of theHindu Nair community, whoseGeneral Secretary SukumaranNair, in a statement on Tuesday,blamed all the three politicalfronts for trying to score polit-ical points with the electionsround the corner and pointedthat each of these political out-fits had time to work towards forupholding the interests of thebelievers. IANS

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Rae Bareli (Uttar Pradesh): Ina shocking incident, a manstrangled his tailor to deathbecause the shirt he hadstitched was ill-fitting.

The victim's son, AbdulNaeem Khan, claimed that hisfather, Abdul Majid Khan, 65,was allegedly strangled by oneSaleem on Sunday night.

Saleem was reportedlyenraged over the poor fitting ofthe shirt that Abdul MajidKhan had stitched for him.

According to reports,Saleem was overcome withrage after the two entered intoa heated argument over theissue.

Rae Bareli SP, ShlokKumar, said that the post-mortem examination of AbdulMajid Khan could not revealthe exact cause of death.IANS

Kolkata: A bus carrying BJP activistswas attacked by unidentified miscreantsin West Bengal's West Midnapore dis-trict on Tuesday. The BJP supporterswere going to join the rally of BJPPresident J.P. Nadda at Lalgarh, a placeonce known as a dreaded Maoisthotbed. The incident took place nearJhitka forest area when heavy stoneswere pelted at the vehicle, breaking itswindshield. BJP workers alleged that themiscreants also opened fire at the busfrom the forest area. No one wasinjured in the incident.

However, local Trinamool Congressleaders denied their involvement in theLalgarh attack.

Nadda also held a grand road show

(Rath Yatra) in Birbhum district'sTarapith where he attacked West BengalChief Minister Mamata Banerjee'snephew Abhishek Banerjee for hisobjectionable comments on BJP leaderSuvendu Adhikari and his parliamen-tarian father and former Union minis-ter Sisir Adhikari. IANS

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ArrayAmaravati: The first phaseof the panchayat elections inAndhra Pradesh kicked off on apeaceful note on Tuesday asvoting began at 6.30 am in 18revenue divisions, official said.

The revenue divisions inwhich polls will be held in thefirst of the four phases areSrikakulam, Tekkali, Palakonda,Anakapalli, Kakinada,Peddapuram, Narasapuram,Vijayawada, Tenali, Ongole,Kavali, Nandyal, Kurnool, Kadiri,Jammalamadugu, Kadapa,Rajampeta, and Chittoor.

Except Vizianagaram, elec-tions have been scheduled in allthe districts in the first phase.

As many as 3,249 villageswill go to polls, comprising32,504 wards.

Of the 12 mandals in Kadirirevenue division, there are 169village panchayats, in which sixpanchayats have opted for unan-imous elections. For the remain-ing 163 villages, 462 candidatesare in the fray.

Likewise, 715 of the 1,714wards have gone in for unani-mous elections, even as theremaining 984 wards will see acontest between 2,030 candi-dates. IANS

���*�����"�!!�������������$��%$&����"$�*$'�!���$ Jaipur: A day after the Supreme

Court issued a ruling for par-ents to pay cent per cent schoolfees during the pandemic peri-od, many parents in Rajasthanrecalled how they had to droptheir children from privateschools and get them admittedto Government schools due toreduced source of income, andwondered how did the apexcourt fail to take into accountthe job losses and salary cutsbefore pronouncing its judge-ment in favour of the schools.

One parent said that shehad to withdraw the admissionof her son who was studying ina private school as they wereexhausted with their funds andwere in huge debt.

“I was working as a con-tract employee in an educa-tional institute while my hus-band had a furniture businessin partnership. But the lock-down brought a real harshtime for us, as I lost my job andmy husband who had juststarted the business afterputting all his savings into ithad nothing to earn. So wedecided to shift our son to agovernment school after whichhe went into depression. We arenow seeking medical assis-tance to cure him, all with bor-rowed money,” she said. IANS

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� -� ##��%.. ��'��� ��������� �"�/ �0����)������JAUNPUR: Six people were killed and 11 oth-ers injured in a two-vehicle crash on theVaranasi-Jaunpur highway in Jalalpur area ofUttar Pradesh's Jaunpur district on Tuesday,police said. All the 17 people were travelling ina jeep after attending a cremation in Varanasi,they said.

The injured have been admitted to a localhospital, where condition of three is stated to beserious, police said.

Those killed were identified as AmarBahadur Yadav (58), Ram Singar Yadav (38),Munnilal (38), Indrajit Yadav (48), Kamala

Prasad Yadav (60) and Ramkumar (65), they said.Additional Superintendent of Police (City)

Sanjay Kumar said 112-year-old Dhanadei Devi,a resident of Jalalpur village in Sarai Khwaja area,had died and her son-in-law Lakshmi ShankarYadav went to Manikarnika Ghat in Varanasialong with 17 people from his village to cremateher.

Local police reached the spot after gettinginformation about the accident and were joinedin by rescue personnel.

The truck driver escaped from the scene afterthe incident, the ASP said. Agencies

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alies in defence spending prob-ably because it is anti-nationalto question it, especially whenthe BJP Government — veryvocal on defence and nationalsecurity — makes hollow fundallocations. On Budget day,the armed forces would attractthunderous applause from thelawmakers for their sacrificeswhen the Finance Minister,after announcing the defenceallocation, would predictablyadd: “More funds would beprovided, if needed.” Since2019, there is deafening silenceon defence on Budget day.Surprisingly, the oversight wasquestioned this year by many.The aggregate defence budget,revenue and capital heads; allthree reflected a decline in theallocation as compared to theprevious year’s revised esti-mates (RE). The allocation fordefence modernisation, whichis at the heart of deterrence andcapacity building and whichwas acclaimed by DefenceMinister Rajnath Singh as thehighest increase of 19 per centin 15 years, was actually �2,700crore less than in the RE of2020-21. Even as GDP percent-age, defence has declined to 1.5per cent from 1.6 per cent theprevious year.

What we do not know iscommitted liabilities underthe modernisation head of

the three services though wedo know that last year, the AirForce, the highest recipient thisyear, was allotted nearly �3,000crore less than committed lia-bilities, leaving no money fornew projects. Other negativesthis year in the Budget arelower GDP, higher rupee todollar rate, higher fuel costs,higher internal and externalinflation and substantial addi-tional costs for maintaining theadditional 50,000 troops inLadakh along with costs for re-balancing of forces followingthe belated recognition ofChina, which spends thricemore than India on defence, asthe primary threat.

It is mystifying that evenafter yielding ground on theLAC, now convoluted by GenVK Singh’s not-so-usefuladmission on transgressions,Singh has made lofty claims toIndia’s deterrent actions, CDSGen Bipin Rawat waved themilitary option, Army chiefGen MM Naravane warned(the PLA) not to test India’spatience and the Chief of AirStaff, Air Chief Marshal RKSBhadauria, noted that theRafale had unnerved theChinese. These are undoubt-edly signs of resolve but with-out capability backup to restorethe adverse situation created bythe PLA. Equally intriguing

was Singh last week at theIndian Ocean Region DefenceMinisters’ Conclave, referringto India as a net securityprovider when it has formida-ble security challenges on twofronts. Singh also made exag-gerated claims about raisingdefence exports to a staggering�35,000 crore in 2024 from theexisting �10,000 crore.

Taken together, China sep-arating the border issues frombilateral relations and India’sfailure to accelerate Defencemodernisation amount toBeijing’s continued bullying ofIndia and its rapidly-expand-ing PLA Navy posing a secondfront in the Indian Ocean.Zhao’s blunt response toJaishankar’s missive of interde-pendence of border and bilat-eral relations indicates China’shardline posture will stay till atleast July next year, the comple-tion of 100 years of the ChineseCommunist Party. Withoutboosting combat capacitiesdovetailed in a Defence strat-egy factoring the primacy ofChina threat, New Delhi willkeep shadow-boxing.

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

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������������ ��������������Sir— It is very unfortunate that PrimeMinister Narendra Modi has used the word“andolan-jivi” for protesters. The questionwhy is our Prime Minister so afraid ofprotests and demonstrations? The PM mustunderstand that these are indispensablerights and a healthy democracy cannot sur-vive without these. However, Modidescribed a group of people who tend tohijack every protest or movement that hastaken place in the country in the recentpast. Even if he referred to those who hijackevery protest and not every protester,doubts arise over whether he really meantwhat he said.

It is strange that Modi who began hispolitical journey through “NavnirmanAndolan” or Navnirman movement fromGujarat is now targeting the protesters.Even in America, the United Kingdom,Germany and other democracies, protestsare very common and help keep rolling thewheels of democracy. These are like checksand balances and remind the Governmentof any unpopular or wrong policy decision.The protest acquires more importancewhen there is a weak Opposition, like inIndia, which is not capable of pushing thepopular viewpoint or public opinion con-trary to the wish of those who are in power.Instead of blaming the protesters, theGovernment must strive to resolve theproblem.

N Nagarajan | Secunderabad

�� �������������������������Sir —The coup by the military in Myanmaris dangerous for democracy and a threatto civilians, who voted Aung San Suu Kyi’sparty to power in the November polls. Theinternational community, especially Indiabeing its next-door neighbour, needs tostep up and engage with all stakeholdersso as to restore normalcy and democracyin the erstwhile Burma before it gets toolate.

American President Joe Biden has alsoexpressed concern with Prime MinisterNarendra Modi on the issue. It’s high timefor India to take some concrete measures

and mature diplomatic steps and putpressure on Myanmar’s Junta, or militaryregime, to vacate the power corridors.Merely issuing statements by the Ministryof External Affairs (MEA) won’t suffice orserve any purpose. The coup has given agreat opportunity to China and the Westto enter the South Eastern nation. The for-mer is already calling it merely a “Cabinetreshuffle”. Bridging the rift between Suu Kyiand military may not be an option forMyanmar’s civilians, who appear to resistthe coup. India, America and other glob-al powers should work together to ensurethat the tenets of democracy are protect-ed and strengthened in countries like erst-while Burma.

Nischai Vats | Sultanpur

�� ��������� ��������� ������Sir — It’s good news that the number ofpeople who have recuperated from theCoronavirus surged to 1,05,34,505 push-ing the national COVID-19 recovery rateto 97.20 per cent, while the fatality rate

stands at 1.43 per cent.The Health Ministrystressed that more than 70 per cent of thedeaths occurred due to comorbidities.

With the vaccination process in fullswing, we can flatten the curve and therewill be a remarkable recovery rate, whichaugurs well for a huge country like ours.Even though there were adverse commentsfrom the Opposition about handlingCOVID-19 cases, both State and CentralGovernments did their best to keep peo-ple safe by imposing strict rules and pro-tocols. All were made to follow precautionslike wearing face masks and sanitisinghands.

The inoculation has already started andwe are also supplying vaccines to nationsacross the globe. India is emerging as aglobal leader and will soon play a lead rolein world economy, defence and other sec-tors.

CK Ramani | Chennai

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hina’s pithy, almost dis-missive, response toExternal Affairs MinisterS Jaishankar’s connect

between the border and bilateralties has escaped notice. In reply toJaishankar’s multiple complaintsabout China’s erratic behaviour inaltering the status quo along theLine of Actual Control (LAC) inbreach of existing protocols andviolations of peace and tranquili-ty, Beijing simply repeated itsmantra that Indo-China relationshave to be de-coupled from theborder dispute. At the all-India con-ference on China Studies in NewDelhi last month, Jaishankar sum-marised his various commentsacross eight months on the borderissue into three “mutuals”:Recognition of mutual respect,mutual sensitivity and mutualinterest; and eight broad principlesas key to mending Indo-China rela-tions. He emphasised that a peace-ful border was the pre-requisite forstable relations. Chinese ForeignMinistry spokesperson Zhao Lijiansaid: “We have noted MinisterJaishankar’s remarks and appreci-ate the importance India attachesto ties with China. But we stress theboundary issue shall not be linkedwith overall bilateral relations.”

At one stroke, China segre-gated its aggression along theLAC from bilateral relations andbracketed its territorial encroach-ments to outstanding claims to allof Ladakh, not just the 300 kmspread of intrusions. China’sclaim to Ladakh was articulatedin 2008 through its denial of itswestern border covering Jammuand Kashmir with China andexcising 1,597 km of the 3488-kmLAC. When this was pointed outto an MEA mandarin at the time,he responded: “They can dowhat they like but we have troopson the LAC.” What happened inmid-May last year was a failure ofthe institutional memory ofChinese intent. If the way for-ward, as noted by Jaishankar, isthe Sumdorong Chu route, it willcost India dearly both opera-tionally and financially.

Last week, India missed alegitimate opportunity to repairthe frail defence budget unfit tomeet the Pakistan-China dualthreat despite aggression inLadakh. Few point out the anom-

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The Chief Justice of India (CJI) recently saidthat January 28 must be celebrated as theSupreme Court Day to mark the occasion

when the highest court of Independent India firstassembled in chambers, then situated in theParliament complex in 1950. The Supreme Courtwas established on January 26, under Article 124of the Constitution, however, its first sitting was heldon January 28. Several media reports from that dayshow how this institution was remarked upon as the“guardian of liberty” and one that would exerciseits powers without any influence, bias, fear or favour.

The apex court, which is often regarded as themost powerful top court in the world, took up thisrole of the “sentinel of human rights” in a new demo-cratic India and it exercised its powers to deliver sev-eral landmark judgments upholding the basic fun-damental rights of citizens against the State’s arbi-trary, unfair and unjust actions. The court also ush-ered in an era of “constitutional dynamism” whichhelped the Constitution evolve with society and itschanging circumstances.

Whether it was the ruling in the Maneka Gandhivs Union of India case, where the apex court heldthat not just procedural due process but also sub-stantive due process had to be followed by the Stateand that its actions must pass the “just, fair and rea-sonable test”, or the ruling in the KeshavanandaBharati vs State of Kerala case, wherein the top courtrestricted the power of the Parliament to amend theConstitution and held that the “basic structure ofthe Constitution” could not be abrogated even bya constitutional amendment.

When the 39th Constitutional Amendmentsought to place the election of the President, thePrime Minister, the Vice-President and the Speakerof the Lok Sabha beyond the scrutiny of constitu-tional courts, it was the Supreme Court that struckdown the law, thereby upholding the basic struc-ture doctrine. In cases like Olga Tellis, BandhuaMukti Morcha, Vishaka vs State of Rajasthan,Common Cause vs Union of India, NALSA vsUnion of India, Navtej Singh Johar, Joseph Shineand the Sabarimala judgment among others, theSupreme Court time and again reiterated its com-mitment to the goal of building a “just society”, onewhere every individual irrespective of their caste,creed, sex, religion or place of birth has the rightto live with dignity and freedom. The court has hada glorious history of making positive interventionsand initiating revolutionary changes in India’s demo-cratic culture. Celebrating its foundation day isindeed a step in the right direction.

But right when you thought that all is good withthe courts in India, there’s a caveat. First, deliver-ing justice isn’t a duty solely entrusted to the judi-ciary and second, it cannot be conducted in isola-tion. The justice delivery mechanism is dependenton several factors and cooperation among the threemajor organs of the State: The executive, legislaturesand the judiciary along with certain non-State actorsas well. Unless all these institutions collaborate toachieve a common goal, delivering justice willremain a distant dream.

The India Justice Report, an initiative of TataTrusts and several others does a commendable jobin highlighting the gaps and areas that needreform within our justice delivery system. The reportassesses the performance of our institutions basedon four pillars i.e., police, judiciary, legal aid soci-

eties and the prison system. It interalia highlights several glaring prob-lems in these institutions. It states thatwomen make up just 29 per cent ofsitting judges in India, whilst in HighCourts (HCs) their strength is just 11per cent on the Bench. Moreover, atleast five HCs are functioning with-out a single woman judge. Sadly,vacancies of judges in our HCsstand at 33 per cent. Even though 80per cent of our population is entitledto receive legal aid, only 1.5 crorepeople have received it since 1995.Our prison occupancy is at 119 percent and two-thirds of our prisoninmates are undertrial prisoners andover four crore cases are pending inseveral courts across the country.

Access to institutions of justiceremains skewed for the entirety ofour rural population even today. Thereport also shows how the judiciaryhas not been able to efficiently utilisefunds that were allocated to it by the13th and 14th Finance Commissions.The 13th Finance Commission, forinstance, allocated �5,000 crore to thejudiciary, out of which only 20 percent was utilised.

These data point at uncomfort-able trends in our justice administra-tion and towards intersectional issuesof institutional failure and perpetra-tion of oppression for every stake-holder. We all remember when the43rd CJI, TS Thakur, cried beforePrime Minister Modi in 2016, dur-ing a public conference, while high-lighting several issues plaguing thejudiciary. He had said that judges areforced to work in pitiful circum-

stances and stressful conditions withminimum infrastructure.

The Attorney-General of Indiaalso recently called for setting up ofa “Court of Appeals” to reduce theworkload of the apex court. The IndiaJustice Report also makes several sug-gestions to interrupt the status quo.Ensuring doorstep delivery of justiceby making it an essential service,enforcing a planned budgeting mech-anism, upskilling legal aid and Nyayapanchayats, prioritising cases basedon their urgency and impact andmeasuring public satisfaction are fewof the suggestions. Justice MadanLokur, a former Supreme Courtjudge, during the release of thereport said that a cost-benefit analy-sis and continuous social auditing iskey to ensuring institutional andadministrative efficiency.

However, there is a silver liningtoo. According to the report,Chhattisgarh has emerged as a trend-setter. It began with a notificationreleased by the Chhattisgarh HC in2017 which required the lower courtsto dispose cases pending for morethan five years on a priority basis. Amonitoring committee headed by asitting judge was set up at the HClevel. For district-wise monitoring,respective District Courts were askedto form their monitoring committeesand a weekly review of the progresswas mandated. All compoundablecases where parties were willing tocompromise in Lok Adalats were dis-posed-off. For this purpose, LokAdalats were organised daily afterregular court hours. The monitoring

committee at the District Court-levelwould conduct meetings with the dis-trict and police administration reg-ularly to ensure timely enforcementof summons and warrants issued bythem. New Magistrates were assist-ed and trained by senior judges toensure fair trial and adherence to lawsand procedures. To incentivisejudges, appropriate units were award-ed to them for disposing off casesbefore five years. Bail petitions weredealt with within a week and casesof undertrial prisoners were decid-ed in a time-bound manner.Infrastructural development wasensured by building new court-rooms in major districts like Raipurand Durg. All this cumulatively ledto a decline in the percentage ofpending cases, from 10 per cent in2019 to four per cent in 2020.

The apex court might certainlyhave a past worth glorifying, but itscredibility isn’t going to remain forlong if it sells its history as a sooth-ing balm for the damages done by itand other organisations in currenttimes. India ranks 69th in the Ruleof Law Index, 139th in the GlobalPeace Index, 112 in Global GenderGap Report, 51 in Democracy and142 in World Press Freedom Report.

We are forced to ask: Has justicebeen delivered or is it a myth in thetimes we live in? This question war-rants the attention of all citizens ofIndia. Losing hope in the judiciaryisn’t a solution, as in the words ofRabindranath Tagore: “Faith is thebird that feels the light and singswhen dawn is still dark.”

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Given the socio-econom-ic impact of the pan-demic, all eyes were on

the Finance Minister (FM) andher handling of the twin chal-lenges of stimulating demandand supply, amid falling rev-enues. Since monetary stimu-lus has not been effective inboosting investment demand,the onus of recovery is nowmore on fiscal measures andsupply-inducing reforms. A V-shaped economic recoveryrequires promoting demand insectors such as infrastructureand the rural economy. Whileagriculture and rural develop-ment have understandablybeen given a big push in theUnion Budget, rather regret-tably education has notreceived the same priority.

This is despite the fact thatthe education sector wasseverely impacted by the pan-demic, too. The contagionhampered the teaching-learn-

ing processes across all agegroups as pedagogy wentonline. As per the AnnualStatus of Education Report(ASER), 2020, though the per-centage of rural children own-ing a smartphone went upfrom 36.5 per cent in 2018 to61.8 per cent in 2020, nonethe-less it indicates that a large dig-ital divide still exists.

Similarly, schools and col-leges remain deficient inInformation Technology (IT)-enabled infrastructure. Withhybrid teaching-learningexpected to be the new normal,undoubtedly enormous expan-sion in digital technology isenvisaged. Additionally, to avertthe possibility of India’s demo-graphic dividend becoming adevastating catastrophe,imparting quality educationremains important. The newNational Education Policy(NEP), 2020, reinforces theviewpoint.

With the evolving future ofwork, human potential for life-long learning has assumedgreater importance. Skilling,reskilling and upskilling hasbecome mandatory for theexisting workforce.Undoubtedly, investment ineducation is crucial for humancapital formation. Despitebeing a merit good, necessitat-ing Government provision andactive intervention, the educa-tion sector has been largelyneglected. For the financialyear (FY) 2021-2022, there hasbeen a 6.13 per cent decline inallocation of funds towards it ascompared to the BudgetedEstimates (BE) of 2020-21.However, compared to theRevised Estimate (RE) of 2020-21, there has been a 9.5 per centincrease in allocation for 2021-22. Of the total allocation of�93,224 crore to the sector,�54,874 crore is allocated to theDepartment of School

Education and Literacy (a dropof 8.31 per cent) and theremaining �38,350 crore tohigher education (a drop of2.83 per cent in comparison tothe BE of the previous year).Further, the RE for expenditureon education for 2020-21 wit-nessed a decline of 14.32 percent vis-à-vis the BE.

Additionally, while theNEP had strongly propagatedexpenditure on the sector to beat least six per cent of the GDP,the same has been betweenthree-four per cent in India.For comparison, expenditure

on education relative to theGDP is six per cent or more inAustralia, Chile, Israel, NewZealand, Norway, the UK andthe US. It lies between three-four per cent in the CzechRepublic, Hungary, Ireland,Italy, Japan and the RussianFederation. The average for theOrganisation for EconomicCo-operation andDevelopment (OECD) coun-tries is 4.9 per cent. For OECDcountries, it is about11 per cent.For Chile, Brazil, Mexico,Switzerland, New Zealand,Korea, and Denmark, it is ashigh as 17 per cent.

With hybrid education setto become the new normaleven in a post-Corona world,simply investing in technologyis not sufficient. A technologyroad map needs to be designedfor planned action to enableinstitutions to evolve from thestage of “doing digital” to“being digital.” Despite its

importance, the Budget doesnot promote digitalisation perse. In fact, allocation to IT andthe telecom sector declined asa proportion of the total expen-diture from 1.95 per cent(2020-21 BE) to 0.93 per cent(2020-21 RE). However, forDigital India e-learning, thefunds earmarked have gone upby over 100 per cent and standat �645 crore. Further, underthis scheme, ‘National Missionon Education Through ICT’ aswell as Massive Open OnlineCourses envisaged an over-whelming rise of over 200 percent and 167 per cent respec-tively and stand at �150 croreand �200 crore each.Nonetheless, a greater thrustwould be required in the yearsahead. In addition to alloca-tions, both total and composi-tional, what matters for produc-tivity is governance. In terms ofpolicy reforms, the proposal toamend the Apprenticeship Act

is commendable and can gen-erate opportunities for employ-ability and financing of highereducation. The Government’sfocus on increasing collabora-tion with foreign institutions inJapan and the UAE for skilltraining partnerships is alsopraiseworthy. Additionally, set-ting up of a single higher edu-cation regulator to streamlinegovernance structures in high-er education is commendable.Also, the allocation of �50,000crore over five years willencourage research, develop-ment and innovation.

To impart holistic develop-ment, new models of engage-ment such as learning consor-tiums and coalitions compris-ing of diverse stakeholdersneed to be established for scal-able, sustainable and inclusiveblended education. Hopefully,an enabling policy environ-ment shall make this a realityin the years to come.

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Tiwary is from theNational Law University,

Visakhapatnam, and Dewangan is from the

National Law University,Raipur.

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Kabul: A string of attacks onTuesday in Afghanistan killedfive government employeesand four policemen, officialssaid. No one immediatelyclaimed responsibility for theattacks.

In the capital, Kabul, gun-men opened fire in the Bagh-e Daud neighborhood andkilled four employees of theministry for rural develop-ment, according to FerdawsFaramarz, spokesman for thecity’s police chief.

Hours after the attack, the

presidential palace in a state-ment said the target was ReyazAhmad Khalil, the actingprovincial director of thedepartment for rural develop-ment of Maidan Wardakprovince. He was among thefatalities in the attack. AP

Tehran: Iran’s intelligence min-ister has warned the West thathis country could push for anuclear weapon if cripplinginternational sanctions onTehran remain in place, statetelevision reported Tuesday.

The remarks by MahmoudAlavi mark a rare occasion thata government official says Irancould reverse its course on thenuclear programme. Tehranhas long insisted that the pro-gramme is for peaceful pur-poses only.

A 1990s fatwa, or religiousedict, by the country’s SupremeLeader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei

states that nuclear weapons areforbidden.

“Our nuclear programme ispeaceful and the fatwa by thesupreme leader has forbiddennuclear weapons, but if theypush Iran in that direction,then it wouldn’t be Iran’s faultbut those who pushed it,” Alaviwas quoted as saying.

“If a cat is cornered, it mayshow a kind of behaviour thata free cat would not,” he said andadded that Iran has no plans tomove toward a nuclear weaponunder current circumstances.

The 81-year-old Khamenei,who has the final say on all mat-

ters of state in Iran, on Sundayurged the United States to lift allsanctions if it wants Iran to liveup to commitments under its2015 nuclear deal with worldpowers. However, President JoeBiden has said the US won’t bemaking the first move.

Following the killing lastDecember of an Iranian sci-entist credited with spear-heading the country’s dis-banded military nuclear pro-gramme, Iran’s parliament hasapproved a law to block inter-national nuclear inspectorslater this month — a seriousviolation of the accord. AP

Yangon: Police cracked downon demonstrators opposingMyanmar’s military takeover,firing warning shots and shoot-ing water cannons to dispersecrowds that took to the streetsagain on Tuesday in defiance ofrules making protests illegal.

Water cannons were used inMandalay, Myanmar’s second-biggest city, where witnesses saidat least two warning shots werefired to try to break up thecrowd. Reports on social mediasaid police arrested more thantwo dozen people there. Theyalso used water cannons in thecapital, Natpyitaw, for a secondday and fired shots into the air.

Police were widely report-ed to have also shot rubber bul-lets at the crowd in Naypyitaw,wounding several people.Photos on social media showedan alleged shooter — an officerwith a short-barrelled gun —and several injured people.

Unconfirmed rumours cir-culated widely of shootingswith live rounds and deathsamong the protesters, with thepotential of sparking violentretaliation against the authori-

ties, an outcome proponents ofthe country’s civil disobediencemovement have warned against.

The protesters are demand-ing that power be restored tothe deposed civilian Govt andare seeking freedom for thenation’s elected leader AungSan Suu Kyi and other rulingparty members detained sincethe military took over andblocked the new session ofParliament from convening onFebruary 1. AP

Beijing: Chinese authoritiesare blocking access toClubhouse, a social media appthat allowed users in China todiscuss sensitive topics withpeople abroad includingTaiwan and treatment of thecountry’s Muslim minority.

The move adds Clubhouseto thousands of websites andsocial media apps to which theruling Communist Party blocksaccess in an effort to controlwhat China’s public sees andreads. AP

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AHong Kong court onTuesday denied bail for

government critic and news-paper publisher Jimmy Laiwho is facing charges under asweeping new national securi-ty law.

The ruling by the Court ofFinal Appeal comes amid heavypressure from the Chinese gov-ernment and state media tokeep Lai in custody, arguingthat Lai’s crimes against thestate are particularly egregiousand that he possesses the

means to f lee the semi-autonomous southern Chinesecity.

Lai was arrested in aDecember sweep against pro-democracy activists accusedover their involvement in 2019anti-government protests. Firstrefused bail, Lai was laterreleased on appeal, leading toeditorials attacking HongKong’s judiciary in the pages ofthe ruling Communist Partynewspaper People’s Daily. Hewas returned to jail on NewYear’s Eve ahead of a newhearing.

United Nations: Reiteratinghis concern over the situationin Myanmar, UN SecretaryGeneral Antonio Guterres hasbeen reaching out to regionalleaders in Asia to call for col-lective and bilateral action tocreate conditions for the recentmilitary coup in the country tobe reversed, the UN chief ’sspokesperson has said.

Myanmar’s military lastweek toppled the governmentand seized power for one year,detaining top political figures,including de facto leader AungSan Suu Kyi.

The military accused SuuKyi’s government of not inves-tigating allegations of voterfraud in recent elections. Suu

Kyi’s party swept that vote andthe military-backed party didpoorly. The state election com-mission has refuted the allega-tions.

“The Secretary-Generalcontinues to follow the situation in Myanmar closelyand with grave concern. He and his Special Envoy have been reaching out to key international actors, includ-ing regional leaders, in callingfor collective and bilateralaction to create conditions for the recent coup inMyanmar to be reversed,”Spokesman for the Secretary-General Stephane Dujarric saidat the daily press briefing onMonday. PTI

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Washington: Donald Trump’shistoric second impeachmenttrial is an undertaking like noother in US history, the defeat-ed former president charged bythe House with inciting the vio-lent mob attack on the USCapitol to overturn the electionin what prosecutors argue is the“most grievous constitutionalcrime”.

Trump’s lawyers insist asthe Senate trial opens Tuesdaythat he is not guilty on the solecharge of “incitement of insur-rection,” his fiery words just afigure of speech, even as heencouraged a rally crowd to“fight like hell” for his presi-dency.

The Capitol siege onJanuary 6 stunned the world asrioters stormed the building totry to stop the certification ofPresident-elect Joe Biden’s vic-tory.

No witnesses are expectedto be called, in part because thesenators sworn as jurors, forcedto flee for safety, will be pre-

sented with graphic videosrecorded that day. Holed up athis Mar-a-Lago club in Florida,Trump has declined a requestto testify.

The first president to facecharges after leaving office andthe first to be twice impeachedfor high crimes and misde-meanours while in office,Trump continues to challengethe nation’s civic norms andtraditions even in defeat.

Security remains extreme-ly tight at the Capitol. Whileacquittal is likely, the trial willtest the nation’s attitude towardhis brand of presidential power,

the Democrats’ resolve in pur-suing him, and the loyalty ofTrump’s Republican alliesdefending him.

“In trying to make sense ofa second Trump trial, the pub-lic should keep in mind thatDonald Trump was the firstpresident ever to refuse toaccept his defeat,” said TimothyNaftali, a clinical associate pro-fessor at New York Universityand an expert on RichardNixon’s impeachment saga,which ended with Nixon’s res-ignation rather than hisimpeachment.

“This trial is one way ofhaving that difficult nationalconversation about the differ-ence between dissent andinsurrection,” Naftali said.

White House press secretaryJen Psaki said Monday thatBiden will be busy with the busi-ness of the presidency and won’tspend much time watching thetelevised proceedings. “He’llleave it to his former colleaguesin the Senate,” she said. AP

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Wellington: New Zealandannounced the suspension ofhigh-level military and politicalcontacts with MyanmarTuesday, the first major inter-national move to isolate thecountry’s ruling junta followinga coup.

Unveiling the measures,Prime Minister Jacinda Arderncalled for the international com-

munity to “strongly condemnwhat we’re seeing happen inMyanmar”. “After years of work-ing hard to build a democracyin Myanmar, I think every NewZealander would be devastatedto see what we’ve seen in recentdays led by the military,” she toldreporters.

“Our strong message is wewill do what we can from here

in New Zealand.”Ardern said the measures

would include travel bans onsenior military figures.

Myanmar’s military lastweek detained civilian leaderAung San Suu Kyi and dozensof other members of herNational League for Democracy(NLD) party, ending a decadeof civilian rule. AFP

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Dubai: A spacecraft from theUnited Arab Emirates was setto swing into orbit aroundMars in the Arab world’s firstinterplanetary mission onTuesday, the first of threerobotic explorers arriving at thered planet over the next weekand a half.

The orbiter, called Amal,Arabic for Hope, traveled 300million miles in nearly sevenmonths to get to Mars with thegoal of mapping its atmospherethroughout each season.

A combination orbiter andlander from China is closebehind, scheduled to reach theplanet on Wednesday. It willcircle Mars until the rover sep-arates and attempts to land onthe surface in May to look forsigns of ancient life.

A rover from the US named Perseverance is set to join the crowd nextweek, aiming for a landingFebruary 18. It will be the first leg in a decade-long US-European project to bring Marsrocks back to Earth to beexamined for evidence theplanet once harbored micro-scopic life. AP

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!� �������$���������������������@� ������ ��� ����Warsaw (Poland): A Warsawcourt is due to deliver a verdicton Tuesday in a closely watchedlibel case in which one side seesPolish national pride at stake andthe other the future indepen-dence of Holocaust research.

Two prominent Polishscholars, Barbara Engelking andJan Grabowski, are being suedby the 81-year-old niece of awartime village elder who arguesa book they co-edited defamesher deceased uncle’s memory bysuggesting he had a role in thedeath of Jews.

The uncle is mentioned ina brief passage of a 1,600-pagehistorical work, “Night WithoutEnd: The Fate of Jews in SelectedCounties of Occupied Poland.”

The woman, FilomenaLeszczynska, is backed by thePolish League AgainstDefamation, a group that fightsharmful and untruthful depic-tions of Poland.

It argues the woman’s uncle,Edward Malinowski, was a herowho helped save Jews during

World War II and accuses thescholars of research errors thatresulted in Malinowski appear-ing as someone who betrayedJews to the Germans.

Malinowski was acquitted in1950 of being an accomplice tothe killing by Germans of 18Jews in a forest near the villageof Malinowo in 1943.

The anti-defamation groupsays the authors slandered aninnocent man and deprived theniece of her rights, including theright to pride and national iden-tity. The plaintiffs are suingGrabowski and Engelking for100,000 zlotys ($27,000) in dam-ages and a published apology.

Grabowski, a Polish-Canadian history professor atthe University of Ottawa, andEngelking, founder and directorof the Polish Center forHolocaust Research in Warsaw,are among Poland’s most promi-nent Holocaust researchers.They were among several whoresearched and wrote parts ofthe two-volume work. AP

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The Government has placedorders for 1 crore addi-

tional doses of Covishield fromSerum Institute of India and 45lakh more doses of Covaxinfrom Bharat Biotech, officials ofthe two vaccine makers said onTuesday.

India’s Covid-19 vaccina-tion drive was launched byPrime Minister Narendra Modion January 16.

Serum Institute hasreceived another order fromthe Government for 10 milliondoses of Covishield, a compa-ny official said in response toa query.

The government had ear-lier placed a purchase orderwith Serum Institute of India

(SII) for 1.1 crore doses ofAstraZeneca-Oxford COVID-19 vaccine, Covishield.

When asked, a BharatBiotech spokesperson said,"The company has received aletter of comfort from theGovernment of India to supplyanother 4.5 million (or 45lakh) doses’’.

The spokesperson alsoadded that Bharat Biotech willalso be exporting its Covid-19vaccine, Covaxin, to Brazil andthe United Arab Emirates.

The company is also like-ly to export the vaccine to thePhilippines and other SouthAsian countries, the spokesper-son said. The government hadearlier placed an order for 55lakh doses of Covaxin fromBharat Biotech.

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Indian Railways achieved thehighest ever freight loading

in January 2021 clocking a fig-ure of 119.79 MT and sur-passing its previous record ofloading 119.74 MT of freight inMarch 2019, the ministry saidon Tuesday.

Indian Railways’ freightloading figures for the last fewmonths have been crossing thelast year’s figures for corre-sponding months and the

cumulative freight loading fig-ure this year is expected to sur-pass the last year’s freight load-ing figure, a statement by theministry said.

As per the statistics tillFebruary 8, Indian Railwaysloading was 30.54 milliontonnes which include 13.61MT of coal.

4.15 MT of iron ore, 1.04MT of foodgrains, 1.03 MT offertilizers, 0.96 MT of mineraloil and 1.97 MT of cement(excluding clinker).

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Snapping their six-sessionwinning streak, equity

benchmarks Sensex and Niftyended marginally lower onTuesday following fag-endprofit-booking in IT, FMCG,finance and auto stocks.

After rallying 487 pointsto touch its lifetime intra-dayhigh of 51,835.86, the 30-shareBSE Sensex pared all gains toend 19.69 points or 0.04 percent lower at 51,329.08.

Similarly, the broader NSENifty slipped 6.50 points or0.04 per cent to 15,109.30. Ittouched a record peak of15,257.10 during the day.

M&M was the top drag inthe Sensex pack, shedding 3.62per cent, followed by BajajFinance, ITC, Sun Pharma,Bajaj Auto, Bajaj Finserv andTCS.

On the other hand, Asian

Paints, ONGC, Titan, L&T,Axis Bank and UltraTechCement were among the gain-ers, climbing up to 3.70 percent.

"The market failed to holdon to its upward rally to closeflat due to heavy selling towards

the close, mirroring the weak-ness seen in the Europeanmarket and outflows in equitymutual funds. Most of the sec-tors ended hitting rough weath-er with auto, pharma andmedia stocks being the worstaffected.

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The Government will soonbring a bill on crypto cur-

rencies as existing laws areinadequate to deal with issuesconcerning them, Minister ofState For Finance AnuragThakur told Rajya Sabha onTuesday.

Replying to a question inthe Upper House, Thakur saidregulatory bodies like RBI andSebi do not have any legalframework to directlyregulate

crypto currencies as they arenot currencies, assets, securitiesor commodities issued by iden-tifiable users.

"The existing laws areinadequate to deal with thesubject," he said.

The government hadformed an Inter-MinisterialCommittee which has given itsreport on issues related to vir-tual currencies.

There was also a meeting ofthe Empowered TechnologyGroup.

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An expert committee set upto develop the criteria for

identifying significant comor-bidities present in a person,which would make that personpriority individual for Covid-19 vaccination, will finalise itsreport in the next few days, NitiAayog Member (Health) VKPaul said on Tuesday.

Apart from Oxford-AstraZeneca ‘s Covishield vac-cine and Bharat Biotech’sCovaxin vaccine, there areother vaccines that are in thepipeline, Paul stated.

"The criteria (to identifypeople with comorbidities) hasbeen developed by a commit-tee.

We are expecting the finalreport in the next few days," hetold PTI.

Paul, who is also thechairman of the NationalExpert Group On VaccineAdministration for Covid-19(NEGVAC) said this commit-tee has gone deeply into it andlooked at which comorbidities-- the presence of two or morediseases or medical conditionsin a patient -- should be keptin mind.

"They are also looking athow to ascertain this, whowill certify it, where will theperson has go to get the pri-ority vaccine," he said, addingthat so the procedural andprocess issues have also beendiscussed.

"In this regard, not onlythe expert committee has met,but also we have had discus-sions with the state govern-ments," Paul said.

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Amid domestic traders com-plaining alleged violations

of FDI norms by foreign onlineplayers, Commerce andIndustry Minister Piyush Goyalon Tuesday said the govern-ment is considering to comeout with certain clarificationsto ensure that the e-commercesector works in the "true spir-it" of the law and rules.

He said the current FDIpolicy for the e-commerce sec-tor is robust and well-designed.However, there are certaincomplaints from consumersand small retailers about cer-tain practices of the e-com-merce companies, which areunder investigation, he added.

"We have sought severalinformation, they are being

looked into. We are also con-sidering certain clarifications toensure that the e-commercesector works in the true spiritof the law, of the rules that havebeen laid down for e-com-merce," Goyal told reporters.

He added that the e-com-merce companies are supposedto provide an agnostic platformso that buyers and sellers cantrade with each other.

The online platform shouldnot become part of the tradingtransaction, "should neither befunding it, should neither behaving algorithms which givepreference to one or the other,should neither be promotingtheir own products." But, itshould provide all data that isrequired for a rational choice,and the choice should be a freechoice of the consumer, Goyal

added.The buyers and sellers

should be given an opportuni-ty to trade with each other asthe platform only is a serviceprovider, he said.

"Those who break that lawwill certainly have to respondto our concerns and correcttheir business practices at theearliest," the minister added.

Recently, the ministry hasforwarded representations bythe Confederation of All IndiaTraders (CAIT) of alleged vio-lations by Amazon and Flipkartto the Enforcement Directorateand the Reserve Bank of Indiafor "necessary action".

CAIT has time and againalleged that the e-commerceplayers violated the ForeignExchange Management Actand FDI rules.

Amaravathi: Signing ceremo-ny of Memorandum ofUnderstanding (MoU) betweenthe VIT-AP School of Law(VSL), VIT-AP University andCentre for Human SecurityStudies (CHSS) was held atVIT-AP School of Law, VIT-AP University on 09 February2021. Ch. Dwaraka TirumalaRao IPS, Director General ofPolice (Railways) (AndhraPradesh Cadre) graced theoccasion and witness the cer-emony as a Chief Guest.

Chief Guest Ch. DwarakaTirumala Rao said that "9February 2021 marks as animportant day in the history ofthe VIT-AP School of Law(VSL), VIT-AP University andfor the Centre for HumanSecurity Studies (CHSS) byentering into MoU to workcommittedly for the causenational security.

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New Delhi:Finance MinisterNirmala Sitharaman onTuesday said the stock marketshave received the UnionBudget 2021-22 with "positiv-ity" with an 11 per cent increasein equity indices over the pastweek. She said the Budget,which was presented inParliament on February 1, hasset the tone for greater play ofthe private sector.

Mumbai:The rupee gained10 paise to settle at 72.87(provisional) against the USdollar on Tuesday on the backof sustained foreign fundinflows and weak Americancurrency.

However, surging crudeprices and subdued domesticequity market hit the rupeesentiment and restricted thegain, traders said.

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Ahmedabad: Over 100 womenentrepreneurs from across thecountry attended “Vagyo reDhol”, an annual interstatemeet organised by FICCILadies Organisation (FLO),Ahmedabad Chapter. The meetwas inaugurated by FLOnational president JahnabiPhookan. FLO FIAIR, an exposhowcasing the local art andculture, was also organised.“Our endeavour is to developthe wisdom to lead, comingtogether as strong voice for andby women,” said Jahnabi.

The highlight of this eventwas “Gujarat Garvi Awards”,which was awarded to the 12women entrepreneursacknowledging their contri-bution in various fields.Bollywood actress AmeeshaPatel, Deepti Bhatnagar, andPooja Batra attended the meet.

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The year 2020 was a toughdeal. With countries fac-

ing negative growth leading toloss of lives and livelihoodsowing to the pandemic, therewere a lot of expectationsfrom the Budget 2021. Thepresentation of the Budgettherefore was a challengingand probably a unique exer-cise.

Delhi School of Businessorganised an on-line discus-sion on the Union Budget2021 inviting academicians,scholars and industry expertsfrom within and outside thecountry to understand andunfold the nuances of thebudget and its implications foroverall growth and health ofthe economy, including wel-fare of its citizens.

In his welcome address,Dr Rajiv Ranjan Thakur,Director-Delhi School ofBusiness said that the currentbudget was seen a ray for hopeall stakeholders in the econo-my amidst the gloom of pan-demic faced by the nation. Hedid also mention about thevaried sentiments expressedon the budget, ranging fromit being a grand and visionaryone to a totally disappointingexercise. He expressed thedeliberations on the budgetwill ease out confusion.

The ball was set rolling byDr SC Vats, Chairman,Vivekananda Institute ofProfessional Studies (VIPS)hailing the budget presentedunder extraordinary pan-demic situation, expressinghis hope and confidence aboutthe country’s renewed capa-bility of tackling the menace,boosted by production of twoindigenously developed vac-cines and its roll out as well asincrease in health expenditure.He also touched upon theundesirable social and eco-nomic impact of the pro-longed farmers agitation inthe country.

The ensuing discussionsby the eminent panellistsmoderated by Prof SiddharthMishra, an eminent journalistand Chairman, VJMC, VIPS,reflected on the age-old debateof diverse opinion of any eco-nomic situation, especiallythe budget. The Government’sroad map for managing the

growth and welfare in thecountry is highlighted in theannual budget is often debat-ed among various stakehold-ers in various forums, pro-viding their own rationaleabout its efficacy on the over-all direction of the economy,budget balance sheet and itsimpact on the multifarioussections of the society andeconomy.

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Voicing his reservations ofthe Government not gettingits macro-economics right,Prof Arun Kumar, MalcomAdiseshiah Professor, Instituteof social Sciences, opined thatpresent capital intensiveexpenditure strategy is notgoing to result in nominalgrowth of 14.4 per cent aspromised in the budget. Thecurrent off icial negativegrowth figures of minus 7.7per cent do not include that ofthe unorganised sector, facingnegative growth rate of 29 percent, leading to high job loss-es. According to him, follow-ing capital intensive supply ledgrowth will not generate high-er employment and cause

delay in boosting the econo-my. He also elaborated thatmuch required budgetary allo-cation such as transfer for wel-fare programmes, includingemployment generatingschemes addressing the woesof the unorganised sector hasnot been adequately addressedin the budget.

Allaying the concerns ofthe high fiscal deficit in thebudget 2021 which is tolera-ble under the current eco-nomic situation, Prof.Priyaranjan, Professor ofEconomics, University ofCalifornia, Irvine USA how-ever, lauded the thrust of thebudget on the increase inspending on infrastructure,although lopsided and some-what politically motivated.Infrastructure spending islikely to have a higher multi-plier effect, impacting thegrowth and has the potentialto create jobs in future. Healso did express use of pro-duction subsidy as a mucheffective path to integratedomestic producers with theglobal economy than currentpolicy of discretionary pro-tectionist tariff. He also out-lined that the problems facedby the informal sectors hasnot been fully addressed.

Dhananjay Sinha,Director & Head InstitutionalResearch, Systematix Group,spoke about the consolidation

expected with Budget 2021 todrive efficiency, productivity,better capital allocation andcredit growth. “We believethe Government is telling usthat while it is has takenexpedient measures to get theeconomy back on track, theeffort is also to reinforce thesentiment that it is also takingstructural reform measures,”he added.

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The policy prescriptionsof the Government on thedivestment, revenue genera-tion, structural and institu-tional reforms and welfaremeasures in the budgetopened up a pandora’s box ofmarket or mixed approach thecountry should be followingin the future. The role andbusiness the Government is innow and it should pursue infuture in the medium and

long term through its publicsector entities was debated atlength in the Union 2021 dis-cussion.

Prof. Shiv Kumar, Ex-MDSBBJ during his addresspraised the initiative whichwill attract private investmentin the countr y, mainly,increasing FDI in insurancefrom 49 per cent to 74 percent, revenue generationthrough divestment of Banksand Air India, new institu-tions such as Asset recon-struction company,Development FinancialInstitution for long termfinancing, faceless assessmentand relaxation of disputedtax assessments to instil con-fidence in the business com-munity. He concluded that itis high priority for theGovernment to decide onwhat it needs to focus on andcontribute to its overall strat-egy of minimum governmentand maximum governance.

Elaborating on his opin-ion on the need for prudentspending of taxpayers money,Vijay Sardana, Techno-legalexpert- advocate, opined thatGovernment should refrainfrom undertaking populistmeasures and direct its effortsin improving efficiency to

face global competition, usingtechnology to build skills andpromote innovation in thecountry and help in achievinggrowth in the medium term.The policy shift of privatisa-tion as envisaged in the bud-get is an appropriate measure.He also hinted at the need foruse of new technologies tosupport basic needs pro-grammes, especially in edu-cation, to improve its effec-tiveness and skilling new gen-eration in the remote areas.

Prof Rattan Sharma,Professor Emeritus, DSB gavea dif ferent view of therequired role of Governmentin an economy. Highlightingthe supporting role playedthe Government during finan-cial crisis in 2008 and mostrecently during the pandem-ic situation. Governmentinvolvement, even in a limit-ed way, should be in publicand welfare interest.

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SC Vats on the protests by thefarming community whichgot the similar attention in therecent past in the media, pan-ellists also gave views of thepast and present agricultur-al policies and investments inthe country. According toVijay Sardana, the currentagricultural policies such asthe MSP is a self-defeatingphenomena which has pro-moted inefficiency in pro-duction and distribution sys-tem, taxing the exchequer.The upshot is country is ladenwith high expenditure inmanaging FCI, which couldbe invested in other sectors,capable of generating employ-ment and higher returns. Adetailed study of current sce-nario of agricultural produc-tion and marketing thereforeis required to understand theground realities and addressthe malaise

Echoing the same senti-ments, Dhananjay Sinha,Director, Systematix Goupsaid that reforms are wel-come in the agricultural sec-tor to address the discordbetween the decrease in con-sumption of cereals vis-à-visits increase in cereal produc-tion and consequent its pro-curement by the Governmentleading to drain of resources.He also touched at length onthe progress made in thefinancial sectors and reformsthat has been highlighted inthe budget 2021. With high-er retail participation andmore transparent bonds anddebt market, it is movingtowards a more vibrant finan-cial sector. Prof. RattanSharma discussed on the insti-tutional reforms such as devel-opment financial institutions,asset reconstruction companywill help to ease the stress oncurrent banking system andcan propel growth in the econ-omy

The allocation in the socialsector and the informal econ-omy was touched upon by allthe panellists, complimentingincrease in health expenditureby 137 per cent for fightingCOVID situation and buildinghealth infrastructure. Somecriticisms of the stagnant oreven lower budgetary alloca-tions for the employment gen-eration schemes to support theinformal and unorganised sec-tor and in education has beenhighlighted by Prof ArunKumar and Prof RattanSharma.

0:�0*5��:�As seemed from the dis-

cussion of the Union Budget2021, the Government hasgiven a new direction for theachievement of the vision ofAtmanirbhar Bharat. The dis-agreement on either allocationor policy shifts envisaged inthe budget evident during thediscussion reflects the healthydebate in a democratic coun-try which we follow and prac-tice. We as a nation willalways strive collectively forgrowth, prosperity and equi-ty, and hope this budget willshow us the light at end of thedark tunnel of pandemic peri-od faced by the world.

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The 21st century digital businessclimate demands a constantreassessment of erstwhile skills

and abilities. Paraphrasing the thoughtsof the famous Austrian managementconsultant, educator, and author, PeterDrucker, “Only those skills will be rel-evant in the 21st century that con-tributes towards the gaining of newerskills and abilities pertaining to the dig-ital realm”. The modern managementpioneer’s opinion is spot-on when itcomes to gauging the evolution of theskill-based ecosystem in the moderneconomic milieu.

Even those skill sets that were hith-erto considered indispensable are nowbeing rendered useless in the presentbusiness vista. Constant upskilling hasbecome the present-day norm with theevolution of the technological land-scape. Even more so, for professionalsbelonging to the all-permeating branchof UX design that operates continuouslyat the meeting point of next-gen tech-nologies and human experience. Withthe advent of voice technology, AI, AR,the learning trajectory for UX design-ers is slated to get steeper.

As per a report released by OxfordUniversity, the average shelf-life of aprofessional skill has dropped radical-ly from thirty years to five yearsbetween 1984 and 2014. Furthermore,a survey initiated by the global staffingfirm, Robert Half International revealedthat employers are far more inclined tohire professionals who exhibit theeagerness to learn and develop newskills through advanced training andexposure.

Under such a shape-shiftingpremise, the need for UX designers tostay at par with the contemporary techtrends is paramount. Here are some ofthe top essential skills for ambitious UXdesigners to grow and stay relevantwithin the current tech scape:

Developing a sense of empathy: Itis an unspoken rule in the UX indus-try that designs exist for the sake of theuser, and not the other way round. Fora design to be successful and pertinent,it must be shaped as per the sensibili-ties of the end-user. The central mostfactor integral to creating user-centricUX designs is a sense of deep empathyin the designer. While a decent design-

er is one who can understand the con-sumer, an extraordinary designer canempathise with the lives, challenges,troubles, and expectations of a user. Asense of empathy enables designers theopportunity to zero in on untappedpain-points. This intellectual skill isresponsible for catalyzing much of theinnovation that is witnessed in theindustry. It allows designers to createlasting and powerful user-based expe-riences, which later translate into busi-ness excellence and greater returns.

The art of storytelling: Making abrilliant design is merely half of the mat-ter. The designer must also be able tomarket, evaluate and create a storyaround their designs. The art of greatstorytelling is central to the longevityand impact of any design. The abilityto build a narrative around the designwhich is empathetic to the end user isan essential skill for every aspiring UXprofessional as it marks the fine linebetween a good designer and a brilliantone. Besides having an imaginative fac-ulty and communication skills, a soundknowledge of PowerPoint and videopresentations is also helpful in mar-

keting a design. Teamwork is key: We are cultur-

ally habituated to think of designers likesolitary philosophers who come up withideas in moments of lonely brilliance.This however, is far from the truth. Oneof the most important skill sets in thedesigners’ toolkit is team work and col-laboration. In fact the creative processitself is iterative and collaborative innature. Great ideas and successful exe-cution comes with teamwork. In thereal world a UX designer must collab-orate with business folks, technologyfolks, researchers, partners and more tosuccessfully deliver a project.

Knowledge & application ofDesign frameworks: Design is aprocess. Every process needs frame-works to implement it effectively. Thereare many design frameworks that areused in UX design to help designersbetter understand users and their lives,design strategies and build the rightexperiences. Some important designframeworks that are used in the indus-try include Personas, customer jour-neys, empathy maps, card sorting andtask flow design. These are all easy

frameworks for designers to learn andimplement in their projects and design-ers wishing to learn them can do sothrough many online courses includ-ing the UX Jumpstarted by ImaginXP.

Skilled in design tools: Althoughpen and paper will always be themightiest tools for a designer to ideate,iterate and bee agile, it is also equallyimportant to be able to translate yourthoughts from paper to digital. Thereare many design tools available todayfor wireframing, visual design andprototyping. All designers should beproficient in at least some of these soas to effectively deliver UX design.Some popular design tools includeSketch, Adobe XD, Figma and Axure.

That said, designing is an ongoingprocess demanding constant learningand up skilling. This makes it crucialto open your horizons and be pas-sionate about learning new skills.Remember that the entire world is yourteacher and you need to stay abreastwith the changing pace of the industry.If you love digital designing, then UXdesigning is the destination for you.

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After the successful launch of Kinderuniversity in English andGerman, the Goethe-Institut, has launched the Digital

Kinderuniversity in Hindi. This innovative project shall help stu-dents aged eight to twelve satiate their curiosity about science-related questions through exciting educational content andaccompany them in learning the German language during theprocess.

The Digital Kinderuniversity, a free online learning platform,shall contribute significantly towards making education moreaccessible to the public and ensuring development in childrenfrom an early age. Currently, Kinderuniversity is offered in Hindi,English, and German. While no prior knowledge of German isrequired to enroll at Kinderuniversity, students can familiarisethemselves with the language, combined with an independentand playful pursuit of science.

At Kinderuniversity, children attend lectures and completeexercises based on STEM + Arts i.e. STE(A)M subjects. Theylearn from ‘Humans’, ‘Nature’ and ‘Technology’ and are exposedto elements of gamification throughout the course. Students cancollect badges that help them advance through levels rangingfrom Bachelor, Master, Doctorate to Professor. To further incen-tivise students, certificates can be downloaded anytime and fromanywhere.

DESIGN YOUR FUTURE IN UXDESIGN YOUR FUTURE IN UX

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The coronavirus pandemic already had a devastating impacton the academic calendar. Further to that, all competitive

examinations like NEET, JEE, etc were delayed which we can sayis opportunity for some and pressure for others.

Although, the official announcement in regards to NEET PG2021 dates have been made. NEET PG 2021 is to be held on April18, 2021 which is delayed by three months. The registrations forNEET PG will begin from second week of February.

The constant postponement and delay have put the candi-dates in a tough spot. The main reason for stress of the aspirantsis that NEET PG 2020 was taken late. The counseling of the NEETPG 2020 was done till last week of September. So, the studentsgot less time for studying and they were also burdened with thepressure of the pandemic. The preparation time students havegot was also less. The reason behind the mental pressure is jobs,pandemic and delay in the examination but the positive thingis that the aspirants have got extra time for their preparation.

Commenting on this Gaurav Tyagi, Founder — Career Xpertsaid: “Students should stay calm and focus on the syllabus theyhave command on. They should once go through the previousyear exam papers and also the guidelines of the exams. My bestwishes to all the aspirants.”

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It's a widely held belief that a post grad-uate degree in management is essen-tial if one has pursue a career in the

corporate sector. What is less known,however, is that some new, innovativeundergraduate courses have recentlymade their advent which have started giv-ing the MBA courses a run for theirmoney. In particular, the Bachelor ofBusiness Administration (BBA) course isemerging as the passport to success in amanagerial or entrepreneurial career. So,after finishing 12 years of schooling, ittakes just 4 more years of undergraduatestudy with a global business school andyou are well on your way to launching intoa career in management.

But you need to do some advanceplanning to maximise the opportunitiesprovided by a world-class BBA pro-gramme and the first step is to chooseyour college wisely. Unfortunately, thenumber of institutions offering a goodundergraduate degree in India are virtu-ally non-existent.

But recent entry of a few private insti-tutions offers hope to students aspiring fora high-quality undergraduate education.Not only do these institutions employworld class faculty and an international-ly recognised curriculum, they also pro-vide global learning.

Here is a snapshot of the curriculumof four-year global BBA course run:Foundation courses in Management,Marketing, Business Communication,Economics and World Cultures. Secondyear: Advanced courses In ResearchMethods, Finance, Organization Behavior,Operations, Finance & Accounting andthe Decisions Sciences. Third and fourthyears: Elective courses in your area of cho-sen specialisation.

While pursuing the academic cur-riculum, live projects are part of the cur-riculum in every international campus. Sonot only do students learn the theory ofbusiness but also its practice. And thisgives them the necessary insights tostart up a new business not only in Indiabut in virtually every part of the globe.Add to this the numerous internshipopportunities available in the differentcountries during academic breaks, andyou have a formula for turning out a busi-

ness-ready and global-savvy candidate injust four short years after leaving school!

An UG programme is not just aboutacademics — the top colleges also offeryou opportunities to develop your per-sonality. Interacting with peers from dif-ferent countries will hone your cross-cul-tural team skills. Participating in debateswill further enhance your public speak-ing skills and confidence.

Take advantage of the in-house coun-selling services provided by the great col-leges. Not only do they provide careeradvice but also put you through a batteryof tests to improve your soft skills.Personalized, one-to-one consultancysessions can be a great away to improveyourself in multiple dimensions.

Go for exchange programs - manycolleges offer exchange program whereyou could spend a semester in anotherschool in Europe, USA and other parts ofthe world. A great opportunity to exposeyourself to different methods of teachingand take subjects not offered in your homeuniversity.

Therefore, if you choose your collegewisely, a BBA degree can give you glob-al exposure, broaden your horizon andput you firmly on the path of becominga future leader.

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everal measures have beentaken by the Government tosafeguard the weaker and

impuissant sections of the societyparticularly during the pandem-ic. Education and employment arethe two major factors that werekept in mind while structuring theBudget. There were many impor-tant announcements made.

The Government has alsocommitted to take several steps inorder to reform assessments,including reforms in Board exam-inations and conceptual learning.While introducing the Budget2021-22 Minister for Finance andCorporate Affairs NirmalaSitaraman announced that theexisting National ApprenticeshipTraining Scheme (NATS) will berealigned with a fund of over�3,000 crore.

The NATS was launched in2016. It was launched by theGovernment of India in whichthere were a number of skills anddevelopment programmes to ben-efit the students of India. It is atremendous initiative throughwhich the students can upgradetheir skills to seek better employ-ment opportunities.

This scheme has beenrealigned in the 2021-2022

Budget, in order to enhanceapprenticeship opportunities forthe youth. Under the scheme,�3,000 crore will be provided totrain graduates and diploma hold-ers in Engineering.

Under the scheme, trainingwill be offered by the top notchcompanies. The scheme will workas a bridge between employer’srequirements and a pool of stu-dent's talent. This prioritisation ofskilling will make students job-ready, in their respective domains.

),�,4����:4������� It’s a one year programme

open to all degree/diplomaholders.

�This is a flagship programmeintroduced by theGovernment of India to skillup youth of the nation.

� It provides technical educa-tion by giving practicalknowledge and skills in therespective domain.

�This is served by the organi-zation (Central, State orPrivate) at the workplaceonly.

� Industry experts wellacquainted with trainingmodules will ensure the per-formance of apprentices.

�The apprentices get a stipendof whose 50 per cent amountis reimbursed by theGovernment of India.

�A certificate of proficiency bythe Government , is issued tothe apprentice which vali-dates his employment expe-rience.

Meanwhile other majorannouncementsmade in theBudget involved:

Collaboration for strength-ening the education system: TheUnion Budget 2021 stresses on theimportance of the need to col-laborate with foreign institutionsto strengthen and drive notableprogress in the education system.The collaboration of India withUAE would benchmark assess-ment, skill qualification, certifi-cation, and to keep our skills upto date with respect to globaltrends.

There is a collaborativeTraining Inter TrainingProgramme (TITS) in collabora-tion with Japan that will be facil-itating transfer of knowledge,techniques, industrial and voca-tional skills of Japan. This initia-tive will be taken forward withmore such countries in future. Toencourage improved academic

collaboration with foreign insti-tutions for higher education a reg-ulatory mechanism would put inplace to allow dual/joint degrees,twinning arrangements and moresuch mechanisms.

Set up of new institutions toedify the education system: Setup of a New Central University inLeh, to uplift higher education. Setup of 100 Sainik schools will takeplace in partnership with states,NGOs, and private schools. Intribal areas, 750 Eklavya Modelresidential schools will be set upto create a robust education facil-ity for tribal students.

Amendments to enlightenschool education: The Budget2021 primarily focuses on skilldevelopment. Its emphasis ontransforming the learning frame-work from a traditional approachto an advanced and evolved ped-agogical approach for K12 stu-dents.

The presentation of the NewEducation Policy (NEP) has addi-tionally been filled in as a chargefor the deep rooted instructivefoundation in India and we areoptimistic that the Governmentwill continue getting fundamen-tal corrections in the future also. �����������=1&��&������$��������

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he signing ceremony ofMemorandum ofUnderstanding (MoU)

between the VIT-AP School ofLaw (VSL), VIT-AP Universityand Centre for Human SecurityStudies (CHSS) was held atVIT-AP School of Law, VIT-APUniversity on February 9, 2021.Ch Dwaraka Tirumala Rao IPS,Director General of Police(Railways) (Andhra PradeshCadre) graced the occasion andwitness the ceremony as a ChiefGuest.

Chief Guest Ch DwarakaTirumala Rao said: “February09, 2021 marks as an importantday in the history of the VIT-APSchool of Law (VSL), VIT-APUniversity and for the Centrefor Human Security Studies(CHSS) by entering into MoUto work committedly for thecause national security. I amsure both the organisationswould share the common val-

ues and common ideas to pro-tect the nations from varioussecurity threats.

Threats ranging from cybersecurity, health security, costalsecurity and mostly internalsecurity to be addressed anddealt with clear policy and legalaspects. Without having clearpolicy and legal guidelines it isdifficult for the forces to dealand provide protection to thepeople of this country. TheVIT-AP University and CHSSshould bear in mind that thesechallenges have to be addressedin clear and focused manner.

VIT-AP University shouldguide and provide inputs to thepolicy and law makers in deal-ing with the various challengeswhich are posed by the growingsecurity threat. “The CHSS ishaving almost 10 years of expe-rience in dealing and organis-ing various activities to createawareness among the people of

Andhra Pradesh and Telanganawith regard to prevailing andgrowing security threats. It is theneed of the hour that educa-tional institutions like VIT-APshould come forward to workwith the Governments and be inthe think tank to disseminateand create awareness about thesecurity challenges,” he added.

Dr SV Kota Reddy, Vice-Chancellor of VIT-APUniversity, in his address high-lighted the university's contri-bution for the empowermentand promotion of the educationand advised the law studentsand faculty to work towards thebetterment of the society. Hehighlighted that the universityis committed to create a Centreof Excellence in Cyber Securityand Law. This center will workholistically to provide bettersolutions to the society and hehas informed the importance ofthe center and its scope.

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Rafael Nadal’s injured backdidn’t slow his bid for a

record 21st Grand Slam title onTuesday, as women’s worldnumber one Ashleigh Bartyromped to a 6-0, 6-0 ‘doublebagel’ at the Australian Open.

On a day when women’schampion Sofia Kenin alsoreached round two, but two-time winner Victoria Azarenkalost after breathing problems,Nadal and Barty were the head-line acts at the coronavirus-delayed Slam.

Spanish great Nadal, whopulled out of last week’s ATPCup with back problems, beatSerbia’s Laslo Djere 6-3, 6-4, 6-1 in one hour and 52 minuteson a sun-kissed Rod LaverArena.

“It’s been a tough 15 daysfor me,” said the 2009 champi-on, whose back stiffness firstflared during an exhibitionmatch last month.

“I needed to survive todayand that’s what I did. I’m happyto be through and I think I dida good job today. Straight setsis what I needed.”

Nadal, 34, is attempting tooutstrip his old rival RogerFederer, who is out with injury,and take sole ownership of theall-time record for Grand Slamtitles.

After world number oneNovak Djokovic eased throughlate on Monday, Russia’s DaniilMedvedev extended his win-ning streak to 15 matches withan emphatic 6-2, 6-2, 6-4 vic-

tory over Canada’s VasekPospisil.

The 2019 US Open finalistis raising hopes of a maidenGrand Slam title with hisunbeaten run, which includeswinning the Paris Masters,ATP Finals and last week’sATP Cup with Russia.

Russian seventh seedAndrey Rublev also continuedhis winning start to the yearwith a straight-sets victory overGerman Yannick Hanfmann 6-3, 6-3, 6-4.

And Greek fifth seedStefanos Tsitsipas made shortwork of French veteran GillesSimon, winning 6-1, 6-2, 6-1 in92 minutes.

BARTY STARTEDBarty also outclassed

Montenegro’s Danka Kovinic,losing only 10 points as sheraced into round two in just 44minutes.

With the win Barty, lastyear’s semi-finalist who sat outmost of the 2020 season,ramped up hopes of a firstAustralian women’s winner in43 years.

Women’s champion Keninwas less convincing and sheaudibly vented her frustrationsduring her 7-5, 6-4 win againstAustralian Maddison Inglis,who is ranked outside the top100.

Two-time major-winnerGarbine Muguruza, who wasstunned by Kenin in last year’sfinal, had little trouble beatingRussia’s Margarita Gasparyan6-4, 6-0.

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Veteran James Anderson’sartistic spell of reverseswing trumped Virat

Kohli’s show of grit as Englanddecimated India in the openingTest by a comprehensive 227-run margin here on Tuesday.

A target of 420, with 381 lefton a fifth day worn out Chepauktrack, was always a tough askgoing by cricketing logic andAnderson’s mid-morning burstblew away the Indian middle-

order. In the end, the hosts couldmanage only 192 in 58.1 overs.

That spell ensured that therewasn’t a Sydney like heist or themagic of Brisbane final daywhich many had hoped fordespite the world record target.

Kohli (72 off 104 balls)seemed like a lonely generalstanding on a burning deck ashe showed his colleagues how tobat on a difficult track.

He covered the swing andshuffled towards the off-stumpto counter Anderson, ran pur-posefully and scored his runs

against spinners.But there was that one ball

that was always going to keeplow and he got that from BenStokes.

DOUBLE ALIKE BLOWCourtesy Anderson (11-4-

17-3), the match became a mis-match within an hour and Indianow need to win two out of thenext three Tests to qualify for theWorld Test Championship finalin June. The player of the matchhonours went to England skip-per Joe Root for his match-

defining double hundred in thefirst innings.

It was left-arm spinner JackLeach (26-4-76-4), who after hisfirst innings humilation at thehands of Rishabh Pant, fin-ished with the best figures butthe effort paled in comparisonto the effect that Anderson hadon the psyche of the Indianteam.

Anderson sowed doubtsamong rank and file of thehome line-up, whether theyhad the technique to play themoving ball which swings the

other way round. Kohli can butcan his colleagues do it will bethe big question going forward.

The man from Burnley, inhis 19th Test match season,showed his artistry with a semi-new ball, on a fifth day track andsapping Chennai heat, farremoved conditions from thegrey skies and cool breeze thatOld Trafford gives him.

But then Anderson is adevotee and best practitioner ofTest match ethos and doesn’tneed to take refuge in conditionsbecause of his supreme control

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Bayern Munich advancedto the Club World Cup

final after goals in each half byRobert Lewandowski sealed a2-0 victory over African cham-pions Al Ahly in Monday’ssemi-final.

The European championsface Tigres in the final onThursday after the Mexicanclub saw off Brazilian giantsPalmeiras in Sunday’s othersemi-final.

“It was a very good matchand we’re ready for the final,”Lewandowski said.

He gave Bayern the leadwith just 17 minutes gone atthe Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium, ahost venue for the 2022 WorldCup in Qatar.

The Poland star thenheaded home a pinpoint LeroySane cross four minutes beforethe whistle to book Bayern’s

place in the f inal.Lewandowski, the Bundesliga’stop scorer, has now scored 29goals in 27 club matches thisseason.

Bayern are bidding tobecome only the second teamafter Barcelona in 2009 towin all six domestic and inter-national titles up for grabs inone season. The Germangiants lifted the Bundesliga,German Cup, ChampionsLeague, German Cup andUEFA Super Cup trophies in2020.

“We want to claim anoth-er title — title number six dur-ing this season,” Lewandowskiadded.

“This is a World Cup,which is always somethingspecial.

“I hope we can play evenbetter in the final and that wewill have more goalscoringchances.”

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�+,'��,"�&,2)��,��0over his craft.

ANOTHER FIFTY FOR GILLGill (50, 83 balls) once again

looked dazzling till the time hewas at the crease. The sinewywrists were in play as he hitseven fours and a six, dealingwith spinners comfortably.

Even Cheteshwar Pujara’s(15 off 38 balls) dismissal off JackLeach’s “peach” didn’t unfaze theyoung man from Punjab as healong with Kohli calmly wentabout their business.

It was the 27th over whenAnderson first came into theattack and the second ball wasa perfect reverse inswingerwhich had Gill in a daze as theoff-stump went for a walk.

The way the shiny part onthe inside tailed in was a sight tobehold.

Rahane (0), for all the appre-ciation coming his way, was invery poor form for the betterpart of the Australia series, savea hundred at MCG where hewas dropped thrice.

The first ball he faced onTuesday was another one thatcame back a shade and it washitting the middle of the middlestump with the Umpires’ Callsaving the vice-captain of whatlooked like a plumb leg before.

The wily Anderson realisedthat an out-of-form Rahane’s feetare not moving.

The next time he just wenta shade wide off the crease anddelivered another reverseinswinger. Rahane knew thatthere was no comeback. Pant(11) has had three great knocksbut he was facing a bowler withsupreme game awareness and

immaculate understanding ofconditions.

Against a left-hander, hepredictably came round thewicket and angled a few in witha busy Pant hitting a boundary.

By then, Anderson hadgauged that Pant could be hur-ried on the drive.

So the master changed histactic and bowled a slower oneenticing Pant to go for a drive.

Pant tried his best to checkit but the bowler had asked hisskipper Joe Root to specificallystand at short cover for that par-ticular shot.

From 92 for 2, it was 110 forfive and Kohli cut a lonely fig-ure at the other end.

Washington Sundar (0) wasthen picked by Dom Bess withthe one that turned away leav-ing India in complete tatters.