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M adhya Pradesh Assembly Speaker NP Prajapati on Thursday asked the 22 rebel Congress MLAs to appear before him by Friday and clar- ify whether their resignations that pushed the 15-month-old Kamal Nath Government to the brink of collapse was vol- untary or under pressure. The development took place on a day when Nath’s fire- fighter Minister Jitu Patwari was detained and stopped by the police from entering a resort near Bengaluru where 19 of the 22 MLAs are believed to be holed up. The 22 MLAs who were issued notices are stated to be supporters of Jyotiraditya Scindia, who quit the Congress and joined the BJP on Wednesday. Police sources said the Minister was briefly detained along with his supporters as he tried to enter the resort. A video purportedly showing the Minister picking up heated arguments with the police has gone viral. According to sources, Patwari had come with an apparent intention to convince the rebel MLAs who included six ministers to return to the party fold. The Congress, however, alleged two Ministers from MP were arrested by police in Bengaluru. Talking to reporters at the State Congress office in Bhopal, party MP Vivek Tankha said the two Ministers, Jitu Patwari and Lakhan Singh, had gone to Bengaluru along with the father of party MLA Manoj Choudhary, who he claimed, had been held “captive” by the BJP at the resort. On Thursday, Scindia arrived at the party’s MP head- quarters to a grand welcome by saffron party leaders, including former Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, and amid bursting of crackers. Continued on Page 4 T he Centre-owned Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital (RML), formerly Willingdon Hospital which was established by the British for their staff, is all set to become the first Central Government-run medical facility in the country to have a helipad on its rooftop. Being adjacent to Parliament and offices of vari- ous Ministries and situated in the Lutyen’s Zone, the one of the premier hospitals in the country caters to many VIPs, besides general public. The Expert Appraisal Committee under the Union Environment Ministry last month in a meet- ing recommended a term of reference (ToR) for the 463 crore project which envisages construction of a high-rise new super speciality-cum-paid ward block with 509 beds and a helipad at the terrace floor. The 11-floor high-rise block will have general beds (392 numbers), ICU beds (51 numbers), private beds (66 numbers), Cath Lab (3 numbers), operation the- aters (17 numbers), OPD Rooms (96 numbers), PG Seats (60 numbers) and 20 departments of various streams. The expansion will result into around 2000 beds at the hospital which has a college named as Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute of Medical Sciences. G oods and Services Tax (GST) rates on mobile phones, fertilisers, man-made fabrics and garments are like- ly to be hiked to 18 per cent in the next GST Council meeting on March 14. Experts said the rate hike would improve working cap- ital position of the manufac- tures as it would correct the inverted duty structure but may lead to increase in price of the finished goods. Currently, under the GST, certain manufactured goods attract a tax rate of 5 per cent or 12 per cent while their inputs, input services and capital goods attract GST at the higher rate of 18 per cent or 28 per cent. C hina on Thursday said the peak of the novel coron- avirus outbreak in the country was over, hours after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the epidemic out- break as a pandemic. New cases keep declining and the overall epidemic situ- ation remains at a low level in China, Mi Feng, a spokesper- son for the National Health Commission, as saying at a Press conference here. Countries outside China will likely see a peak in coron- avirus infections in the May- June period before recovering towards normal by the end of third quarter and beginning of fourth quarter (October), a new report warned on Thursday. “This is good news and should allow most factories outside the Hubei province to move back toward normal, seasonal activity levels by the beginning of the second quar- ter,” said Peter Richardson, Research Director, Counterpoint Research. Mi said the number of new confirmed cases Hubei province’s capital city of Wuhan, also the epicentre of the outbreak, has dropped to a single digit, with only eight cases reported on Wednesday. No new cases had been reported in other cities of Hubei for a week in a row, Mi said. Only seven new cases were reported on the Chinese mainland outside Hubei, but six were imported from over- seas, he added. A board meeting in Greater Noida called by a director of a private firm on Thursday took a nasty turn when the director gunned down a senior official of the firm and injured another employee before shooting himself dead, police said. Pradeep, the director of UP Telelinks Limited, shot himself dead after firing at his colleagues Naresh and Rakesh, they said, adding that the incident was report- ed around 3 pm from Badalpur police sta- tion area here. Pradeep and Naresh died while Rakesh is undergoing treatment at a pri- vate hospital, a police spokesperson said, identifying them only by their first names. Bodies have been sent for post- mortem. Police, which started its probe into the incident, said there were disputes among the three men. I n a move to curb spread of Chinese virus, the Delhi Government on Thursday declared coronavirus an epi- demic and ordered closure of schools, colleges and cinema halls until March 31, but the ongoing school examinations will be held on schedule. Also, people have been advised to stay away from pub- lic gatherings. In a high-level meeting with Health Minister Satyendra Jain and health officials, Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal reviewed the preparedness to contain the spread of coronavirus. Soon after the meeting, Kejriwal said, “All schools and colleges shall also remain closed till March 31, except for the ones where the exams have been going on. We have suffi- cient beds in case people are to be quarantined. We are arrang- ing Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Boards flats which have remained unoccu- pied for long, and rooms in under-construction hospitals of the Delhi Government. More than 500 beds are ready to be installed in the Delhi Government hospitals.” As the Government declared COVID-19 as an epi- demic, all the public spaces, Government, and private office premises, malls, and shops, have been notified to disinfect their premises. The Delhi CM said, “Whatever we are doing is to contain the outbreak of the corona. I hope that all the people will support us. We are noticing how rapid the out- break has been, but in India, we have successfully been able to contain the outbreak with the support of the public. We shall remain alert to stop this disease from spreading.” Meanwhile, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia also issued an order, saying, “All educational institutions — schools, colleges, ITIs, poly- technics, universities and pri- vate coaching and tuition cen- tres — will remain closed till March 31, except for holding examinations.” He said the Delhi Government schools will resort to “zero paper attendance” from April 1. “The process of digitis- ing exam result tabulation and attendance records is underway. Tablets will soon be provided to all remaining Government school teachers,” he said. Continued on Page 4 A 76-year-old man who died two days ago in Karnataka while being treated for sus- pected coronavirus has become India’s first COVID-19 fatality with his samples taken earlier confirming the infection, the Karnataka Government said on Thursday. The deceased had gone to Saudi Arabia in January end and came back on February 29. Officials said the patient had severe co-morbidities such as history of hypertension, dia- betes and asthma and appen- dicitis. Coronavirus has continued to spread its tentacles in the country taking into its grip 74 persons with 14 fresh cases, including 10 from Maharashtra and one each from Delhi, Ladakh, and Uttar Pradesh besides one foreign national. Meanwhile, urging people not to panic, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday advised them to avoid non- essential travel and large gath- erings to ensure safety. In a series of tweets, Modi also said that no Minister of the Central Government will trav- el abroad in the upcoming days. “Say no to panic, say yes to precautions. No Minister of the Central Government will travel abroad in the upcoming days. I urge our countrymen to also avoid non-essential travel,” Modi said adding that we can break the chain of spread and ensure safety of all by avoiding large gatherings. Taking a cue, the Rashtrapati Bhavan closed all public tour visits from Friday as a precautionary measure against the spread of deadly pathogens. While Health Minister Harsh Vardhan asked MPs to educate people about the dis- ease in their respective con- stituencies, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said the virus is difficult to iso- late but the scientists have been successful in isolating it. However, developing a vaccine will take at least one-and-a-half to two years. The Ministry of Defence, on its part, announced it has set up seven more quarantine facil- ities for COVID-19 patients, especially for Indian citizens being brought back from coro- navirus-hit countries. The facilities have been set up at Jaisalmer, Suratgadh, Jhansi, Jodhpur, Deolali, Kolkata and Chennai. “We are expecting more civilians to be brought back to India. We are ready with our facilities,” Army spokesperson Colonel Aman Anand said. The Army is operating a quarantine facility in Manesar while the one in Hindon, near Ghaziabad, is being operated by the Air Force. Continued on Page 4 T he Indian stock markets plunged into bear territory, suffering their biggest ever one-day plunge on Thursday as the coronavirus pandemic left a trail of red across global financial markets. The carnage on Dalal Street eroded investor wealth worth 11,27,160.65 crore, tak- ing the total market capitalisa- tion (m-cap) to 1,25,86,398.07 crore on the BSE. Stock markets tumbled across the globe and oil prices slumped on Thursday after President Donald Trump banned all travel from main- land Europe to the US for a month to fight the coronavirus pandemic, ramping up fears of worldwide recession. After nosediving over 3,204.30 points on across-the- board selling, the 30-share BSE Sensex closed 2,919.26 points or 8.18 per cent lower at 32,778.14. Likewise, the broad- er NSE Nifty gave up the 9,600 level, slumping 868.25 points or 8.30 per cent to close at 9,590.15. This was the biggest drop for the benchmarks in absolute terms, eclipsing their previous record one-day fall on Monday (March 9). The markets have now entered bear territory — that is more than 20 per cent down from a recent high. The Sensex and Nifty, which had hit their lifetime closing highs on January 14 this year, closed at more than 2-1/2-year lows on Thursday. The rupee sank by 60 paise to close at a fresh 17-month low of 74.28 against the US cur- rency on Thursday due to heavy dollar demand as investors rushed to prune riski- er bets amid coronavirus pan- demic fanning recession fears. Global markets reeled after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the coron- avirus outbreak as a pandem- ic, and expressed deep concern over the “alarming levels of inaction”. US President Donald Trump suspended all travel from Europe, excluding the UK, to the US for the next 30 days. Countries across the world are imposing travel restrictions, fuelling fears of a global recession, analysts said. All Sensex components ended in the red. SBI was the top loser, crashing 13.23 per cent, followed by ONGC, Axis Bank, ITC, TCS and Titan. “Global stocks including India plunged into a bear mar- ket and oil slumped on Thursday after US President Donald Trump banned travel from Europe to stem the coro- navirus, threatening more dis- ruption to the world economy. “Recession risk is rising and the markets do not seem to be pricing that in fully. Continued on Page 4 New Delhi: The External Affairs Ministry on Thursday advised against holding this year’s IPL edition in wake of the coronavirus scare, but left it to the organisers to take a final call on it. This was stated by MEA Additional Secretary Dammu Ravi who has been appointed as the nodal officer to coordinate efforts to deal with the coronavirus outbreak. Responding to questions about IPL and other sporting events, Ravi said the Government’s advice would be “not do it at this time but if the organisers want to go ahead, it is their decision”. “We are assessing a lot of requests of this nature of sports events that have been held in India and some thing related to mega event already being planned. It is for the organis- ers to decide if they want to go ahead with it or not,” Ravi said during a press briefing. “Our advice would be not do it at this time but if they still want to go ahead it is their deci- sion,” said Ravi. A gainst the backdrop of coronavirus becoming pandemic, the External Affairs Ministry on Thursday advised Indians to stay put wherever they are and travel only under compelling reasons. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar told the Lok Sabha that coronavirus outbreak was a matter of “great concern” and the Government’s initial focus is to bring back Indian pilgrims stranded in Iran. The Minister said there are over 6,000 Indian nationals in various provinces of Iran. Elaborating upon the efforts undertaken by the Government to meet the crisis, the External Affairs Ministry said the focus is on containing and stressed the point that there is no need to panic. Indians were also advised to stay put wherever they are, Dammu Ravi, Additional Secretary and Co-ordinator (COVID-19) said. MEA Raveesh Kumar said the Government has received requests from four countries for assistance in arranging pro- tective gears like masks. They include Bhutan, Iran, the Maldives and Italy and India is processing it. Earlier, such request was received from China, and a package was sent, he said. Continued on Page 4

Transcript of 0˝˚-˛ˆ12345 # ˜ E ˙ &-,ˆ/ ,34? +. *ˆ+ , *ˆ3* -˛. 4ˆ/ / 3 ...

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Madhya Pradesh AssemblySpeaker NP Prajapati on

Thursday asked the 22 rebelCongress MLAs to appearbefore him by Friday and clar-ify whether their resignationsthat pushed the 15-month-oldKamal Nath Government tothe brink of collapse was vol-untary or under pressure.

The development tookplace on a day when Nath’s fire-fighter Minister Jitu Patwariwas detained and stopped bythe police from entering aresort near Bengaluru where 19of the 22 MLAs are believed tobe holed up.

The 22 MLAs who were

issued notices are stated to besupporters of JyotiradityaScindia, who quit the Congressand joined the BJP onWednesday.

Police sources said theMinister was briefly detainedalong with his supporters as hetried to enter the resort. Avideo purportedly showing theMinister picking up heatedarguments with the police hasgone viral.

According to sources,Patwari had come with anapparent intention to convincethe rebel MLAs who includedsix ministers to return to theparty fold.

The Congress, however,alleged two Ministers fromMP were arrested by police inBengaluru.

Talking to reporters at theState Congress office in Bhopal,party MP Vivek Tankha saidthe two Ministers, Jitu Patwariand Lakhan Singh, had gone toBengaluru along with the fatherof party MLA ManojChoudhary, who he claimed,had been held “captive” by theBJP at the resort.

On Thursday, Scindiaarrived at the party’s MP head-quarters to a grand welcome bysaffron party leaders, includingformer Chief Minister ShivrajSingh Chouhan, and amidbursting of crackers.

Continued on Page 4

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The Centre-owned Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital(RML), formerly Willingdon Hospital which was

established by the British for their staff, is all set tobecome the first Central Government-run medicalfacility in the country to have a helipad on its rooftop.

Being adjacent to Parliament and offices of vari-ous Ministries and situated in the Lutyen’s Zone, theone of the premier hospitals in the country caters tomany VIPs, besides general public.

The Expert Appraisal Committee under theUnion Environment Ministry last month in a meet-ing recommended a term of reference (ToR) for the�463 crore project which envisages construction of ahigh-rise new super speciality-cum-paid ward blockwith 509 beds and a helipad at the terrace floor.

The 11-floor high-rise block will have general beds(392 numbers), ICU beds (51 numbers), private beds(66 numbers), Cath Lab (3 numbers), operation the-aters (17 numbers), OPD Rooms (96 numbers), PGSeats (60 numbers) and 20 departments of variousstreams.

The expansion will result into around 2000 bedsat the hospital which has a college named as Atal BihariVajpayee Institute of Medical Sciences.

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Goods and Services Tax(GST) rates on mobile

phones, fertilisers, man-madefabrics and garments are like-ly to be hiked to 18 per centin the next GST Councilmeeting on March 14.

Experts said the rate hikewould improve working cap-ital position of the manufac-tures as it would correct theinverted duty structure butmay lead to increase in priceof the finished goods.

Currently, under the GST,certain manufactured goodsattract a tax rate of 5 per centor 12 per cent while theirinputs, input services andcapital goods attract GST atthe higher rate of 18 per centor 28 per cent.

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China on Thursday said thepeak of the novel coron-

avirus outbreak in the countrywas over, hours after the WorldHealth Organization (WHO)declared the epidemic out-break as a pandemic.

New cases keep decliningand the overall epidemic situ-ation remains at a low level inChina, Mi Feng, a spokesper-son for the National HealthCommission, as saying at aPress conference here.

Countries outside Chinawill likely see a peak in coron-avirus infections in the May-June period before recoveringtowards normal by the end ofthird quarter and beginning offourth quarter (October), anew report warned onThursday.

“This is good news andshould allow most factoriesoutside the Hubei province tomove back toward normal,seasonal activity levels by the

beginning of the second quar-ter,” said Peter Richardson,Research Director,Counterpoint Research.

Mi said the number ofnew confirmed cases Hubeiprovince’s capital city ofWuhan, also the epicentre ofthe outbreak, has dropped to asingle digit, with only eightcases reported on Wednesday.

No new cases had been reported in other cities ofHubei for a week in a row, Misaid. Only seven new caseswere reported on the Chinesemainland outside Hubei, butsix were imported from over-seas, he added.

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Aboard meeting in Greater Noidacalled by a director of a private firm

on Thursday took a nasty turn when thedirector gunned down a senior official of the firm and injured anotheremployee before shooting himself dead,police said.

Pradeep, the director of UP TelelinksLimited, shot himself dead after firing athis colleagues Naresh and Rakesh, theysaid, adding that the incident was report-ed around 3 pm from Badalpur police sta-tion area here.

Pradeep and Naresh died whileRakesh is undergoing treatment at a pri-vate hospital, a police spokesperson said,identifying them only by their firstnames.

Bodies have been sent for post-mortem. Police, which started its probeinto the incident, said there were disputesamong the three men.

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In a move to curb spread ofChinese virus, the Delhi

Government on Thursdaydeclared coronavirus an epi-demic and ordered closure ofschools, colleges and cinemahalls until March 31, but theongoing school examinationswill be held on schedule.

Also, people have beenadvised to stay away from pub-lic gatherings.

In a high-level meetingwith Health Minister SatyendraJain and health officials,Lieutenant Governor AnilBaijal and Delhi Chief MinisterArvind Kejriwal reviewed thepreparedness to contain thespread of coronavirus.

Soon after the meeting,Kejriwal said, “All schools andcolleges shall also remainclosed till March 31, except forthe ones where the exams havebeen going on. We have suffi-cient beds in case people are tobe quarantined. We are arrang-ing Delhi Urban ShelterImprovement Boards flatswhich have remained unoccu-pied for long, and rooms inunder-construction hospitalsof the Delhi Government. Morethan 500 beds are ready to beinstalled in the DelhiGovernment hospitals.”

As the Governmentdeclared COVID-19 as an epi-demic, all the public spaces,Government, and private officepremises, malls, and shops,have been notified to disinfecttheir premises. The Delhi CMsaid, “Whatever we are doing isto contain the outbreak of thecorona. I hope that all thepeople will support us. We arenoticing how rapid the out-break has been, but in India, wehave successfully been able tocontain the outbreak with thesupport of the public. We shallremain alert to stop this diseasefrom spreading.”

Meanwhile, Deputy Chief

Minister Manish Sisodia alsoissued an order, saying, “Alleducational institutions —schools, colleges, ITIs, poly-technics, universities and pri-vate coaching and tuition cen-tres — will remain closed tillMarch 31, except for holdingexaminations.”

He said the DelhiGovernment schools will resortto “zero paper attendance” fromApril 1. “The process of digitis-ing exam result tabulation andattendance records is underway.Tablets will soon be provided toall remaining Governmentschool teachers,” he said.

Continued on Page 4

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A76-year-old man who diedtwo days ago in Karnataka

while being treated for sus-pected coronavirus has becomeIndia’s first COVID-19 fatalitywith his samples taken earlierconfirming the infection, theKarnataka Government saidon Thursday. The deceasedhad gone to Saudi Arabia inJanuary end and came back onFebruary 29.

Officials said the patienthad severe co-morbidities suchas history of hypertension, dia-betes and asthma and appen-dicitis.

Coronavirus has continuedto spread its tentacles in thecountry taking into its grip 74persons with 14 fresh cases,including 10 from Maharashtraand one each from Delhi,Ladakh, and Uttar Pradeshbesides one foreign national.

Meanwhile, urging peoplenot to panic, Prime Minister

Narendra Modi on Thursdayadvised them to avoid non-essential travel and large gath-erings to ensure safety.

In a series of tweets, Modialso said that no Minister of theCentral Government will trav-el abroad in the upcomingdays. “Say no to panic, say yesto precautions. No Minister ofthe Central Government willtravel abroad in the upcomingdays. I urge our countrymen toalso avoid non-essential travel,”Modi said adding that we canbreak the chain of spread andensure safety of all by avoidinglarge gatherings.

Taking a cue, theRashtrapati Bhavan closed allpublic tour visits from Fridayas a precautionary measureagainst the spread of deadlypathogens.

While Health MinisterHarsh Vardhan asked MPs toeducate people about the dis-ease in their respective con-stituencies, the Indian Council

of Medical Research (ICMR)said the virus is difficult to iso-late but the scientists havebeen successful in isolating it.However, developing a vaccinewill take at least one-and-a-halfto two years.

The Ministry of Defence,on its part, announced it has setup seven more quarantine facil-ities for COVID-19 patients,especially for Indian citizensbeing brought back from coro-navirus-hit countries.

The facilities have beenset up at Jaisalmer, Suratgadh,Jhansi, Jodhpur, Deolali,Kolkata and Chennai. “We areexpecting more civilians to bebrought back to India. We areready with our facilities,” Armyspokesperson Colonel AmanAnand said.

The Army is operating aquarantine facility in Manesarwhile the one in Hindon, nearGhaziabad, is being operatedby the Air Force.

Continued on Page 4

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The Indian stock marketsplunged into bear territory,

suffering their biggest everone-day plunge on Thursday asthe coronavirus pandemic lefta trail of red across globalfinancial markets.

The carnage on DalalStreet eroded investor wealthworth �11,27,160.65 crore, tak-ing the total market capitalisa-tion (m-cap) to �1,25,86,398.07crore on the BSE.

Stock markets tumbledacross the globe and oil pricesslumped on Thursday afterPresident Donald Trumpbanned all travel from main-land Europe to the US for amonth to fight the coronaviruspandemic, ramping up fears ofworldwide recession.

After nosediving over3,204.30 points on across-the-board selling, the 30-share BSESensex closed 2,919.26 pointsor 8.18 per cent lower at32,778.14. Likewise, the broad-er NSE Nifty gave up the 9,600

level, slumping 868.25 points or8.30 per cent to close at9,590.15.

This was the biggest dropfor the benchmarks in absoluteterms, eclipsing their previousrecord one-day fall on Monday(March 9). The markets havenow entered bear territory —that is more than 20 per centdown from a recent high. TheSensex and Nifty, which had hittheir lifetime closing highs onJanuary 14 this year, closed atmore than 2-1/2-year lows onThursday.

The rupee sank by 60 paiseto close at a fresh 17-month lowof 74.28 against the US cur-rency on Thursday due toheavy dollar demand asinvestors rushed to prune riski-er bets amid coronavirus pan-demic fanning recession fears.

Global markets reeled afterthe World Health Organization(WHO) declared the coron-avirus outbreak as a pandem-

ic, and expressed deep concernover the “alarming levels ofinaction”.

US President DonaldTrump suspended all travelfrom Europe, excluding theUK, to the US for the next 30days. Countries across theworld are imposing travelrestrictions, fuelling fears of aglobal recession, analysts said.

All Sensex componentsended in the red. SBI was thetop loser, crashing 13.23 percent, followed by ONGC, AxisBank, ITC, TCS and Titan.

“Global stocks includingIndia plunged into a bear mar-ket and oil slumped onThursday after US PresidentDonald Trump banned travelfrom Europe to stem the coro-navirus, threatening more dis-ruption to the world economy.

“Recession risk is risingand the markets do not seem tobe pricing that in fully.

Continued on Page 4

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New Delhi: The ExternalAffairs Ministry on Thursdayadvised against holding thisyear’s IPL edition in wake of thecoronavirus scare, but left it tothe organisers to take a finalcall on it. This was stated byMEA Additional SecretaryDammu Ravi who has beenappointed as the nodal officerto coordinate efforts to dealwith the coronavirus outbreak.

Responding to questionsabout IPL and other sportingevents, Ravi said theGovernment’s advice would be“not do it at this time but if theorganisers want to go ahead, itis their decision”.

“We are assessing a lot ofrequests of this nature of sportsevents that have been held inIndia and some thing related tomega event already beingplanned. It is for the organis-ers to decide if they want to goahead with it or not,” Ravi saidduring a press briefing.

“Our advice would be notdo it at this time but if they stillwant to go ahead it is their deci-sion,” said Ravi.

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Against the backdrop ofcoronavirus becoming

pandemic, the External AffairsMinistry on Thursday advisedIndians to stay put whereverthey are and travel only undercompelling reasons.

External Affairs Minister SJaishankar told the Lok Sabhathat coronavirus outbreak wasa matter of “great concern” andthe Government’s initial focusis to bring back Indian pilgrimsstranded in Iran. The Ministersaid there are over 6,000 Indian

nationals in various provincesof Iran.

Elaborating upon theefforts undertaken by theGovernment to meet the crisis,the External Affairs Ministrysaid the focus is on containingand stressed the point thatthere is no need to panic.Indians were also advised tostay put wherever they are,Dammu Ravi, AdditionalSecretary and Co-ordinator(COVID-19) said.

MEA Raveesh Kumar saidthe Government has receivedrequests from four countriesfor assistance in arranging pro-tective gears like masks. Theyinclude Bhutan, Iran, theMaldives and Italy and India isprocessing it. Earlier, suchrequest was received fromChina, and a package was sent,he said.

Continued on Page 4

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Ganga closure is going tohappen once again in

Haridwar. This 10-day closureis slated to take placefromMarch 22 to April 2 dur-ing which period theGangnahar (Ganga canal) willbe closed. Various works willbe expedited during this peri-od. It is pertinent to mentionhere that there is an annualclosure of Gangnahar fromDussehra to Deepawali everyyear in Haridwar.

During this time the workof maintenance of canals,dams and desilting work inthe Ganga is undertaken bythe Uttar Pradesh Irrigationdepartment. Apart from occa-sions like Kumbh Mela andArdh Kumbh, Ganga closureis not undertaken in general.

This time in view of theKumbh Mela to be held in

Haridwar during 2021, addi-tional Ganga closure is to beundertaken for 10 days toexecute various developmentworks. Gangnahar closure

request has been sent to theUttar Pradesh government onthe request of the KumbhMela administration forGanga closure from midnight

of March 22 to midnight ofApril 1. The works ofNamami Gange will also becompleted during this clo-sure period. Various other

works including pillars onthe Ganga, highways, flyoversand bridges on the Gangawill also be dealt with duringthis period.

The Kumbh Mela officerDeepak Rawat said that dur-ing this time, the work of theGanga temple (MansinghChhatri) on Har ki Paidi willalso be executed. Accordingto Rawat, during the Gangaclosure, work will be expedit-ed on about four under con-struction bridges.

The sub divisional officerof Gangnahar Headworks UP,Vikrant Saini said that theKumbh Mela administrationhas sought Ganga closure forthe works related to KumbhMela.

Till now orders have notbeen received, but it is hopedthat due to the importance ofKumbh Mela works, orderswill be received soon.

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Raids conducted by the druginspector at various hospi-

tals and medical stores onThursday revealed irregulari-ties in some of the establish-ments. The drug inspectorordered closure of a medicalstore in one hospital after find-ing various issues at the store.

Drug inspector AnitaBharti examined the licensesand medicines kept in medicalstores operating in varioushospitals including Yog MataPilot Baba Hospital andSanjeevani Hospital in the cityon Thursday.

During the surpriseinspections irregularities wereobserved in the maintenance ofmedicines in the medical storeof Yog Mata Pilot BabaHospital. During the inspec-tion, medicines, injections and

surgical instru-ments kept inthe medicalstore were con-fiscated. Also,some of themedicines wered e s t r o y e dimmediate ly.The druginspector alsoordered the clo-sure of the med-ical store for itsoperator beingunable to showfee receipt of them e d i c i n e s .Providing thisin for mat ion ,Bharti said that the raids wereconducted after informationwas received regarding over-rating of medicines. Duringthe raid, the medical store inquestion was found to be in a

unsatisfactory condition. Shesaid that even the refrigeratorkept in the medical store wasnot working. Also, mainte-nance of the injections was alsonot correct and packs of sur-

gical items were found to becoated with dust. The storeoperator was unable to presenteven the bills for the medicines.Due to these factors, the storehas been closed.

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After a rainy Thursday inDehradun and some other

parts of the State more rain andsnow is forecast in the state onFriday too. The State meteoro-logical centre has also issued awarning with the possibility ofheavy rainfall likely to occur atisolated places in Dehradun,Haridwar, Nainital and UdhamSingh Nagar districts along withhail and thunder squalltoday.According to the forecastissued by the state meteorolog-

ical centre on Thursday evening,the State is likely to experiencepartly to generally cloudy skywith light to moderaterain/thunderstorm/snowfalllikely to occur at most places inthe state on Friday. Snowfall islikely to occur at places locatedat an altitude of 2,500 metres andabove.

The centre has also issued awarning on the possibility ofheavy rainfall at isolated placesin Dehradun, Haridwar, Nainitaland Udham Singh Nagar dis-tricts.

Hail/lightening/ thundersquall with wind speeds of up to45-55 Kmph is also likely tooccur at isolated places inDehradun, Haridwar, Nainitaland Udham Singh Nagar dis-tricts. In Dehradun, Friday is

forecast to have partly to gener-ally cloudy sky with one or twospells of rain/thunderstorm like-ly to occur accompanied withgusty wind towards afternoon orevening. The maximum andminimum temperatures inDehradun are likely to be about26 degrees Celsius and 12 degreeCelsius respectively.

Meanwhile, the maximumand minimum temperaturesrecorded at various places in thestate on Thursday were 25.7degrees Celsius and 11.7 degreesCelsius respectively inDehradun, 28.4 degrees Celsiusand 16.9 degrees Celsius inPantnagar, 14.4 degrees Celsiusand 3.7 degrees Celsius inMukteshwar and 14.6 degreesCelsius and four degrees Celsiusrespectively in New Tehri.

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The Municipal Corporationof Dehradun (MCD) has

levied penalties on about 25commercial bodies inDehradun so far under the newcampaign ‘Main BesharamVyakti Hoon’ (I am a shamelessperson).

Under this sanitation cam-paign, the team from MCDcarries out on the spot inspec-tion across the city and if anygarbage is found outside anycommercial building, the teampastes a notice outside thebuilding that declares the man-agement as a publicly dirty per-son. The notice states, “I certi-fy that I am a shameless person,I live in filth and it is my habitto spread filth.

I will soon receive the firstaward for being a publiclydirty person.” Under this cam-paign, the corporation haspasted such notices outsideabout 25 commercial enter-prises so far that includeDomino’s, KFC, Soup Bar,

Punjab Restaurant, GingerGrapes Restaurant and manysmall shops. According to theDehradun municipal commis-sioner Vinay Shankar Pandey“Our team has pasted ‘MeinBesharam Vyakti Hoon’ noticeoutside about 25 commercialenterprises that include hotels,restaurants, Pan shops and

grocery stores. So far, a totalpenalty of around Rs 13,000 hasbeen levied on the manage-ment of these 25 enterprises.However, not all the amount issubmitted to the corporationtill now as the management ofsome buildings pay the penal-ty immediately on the spot andthe rest of them pay it in the

corporation.” It is pertinent tomention here that the munic-ipal corporation commencedthis campaign to spread aware-ness among all the commercialenterprises of the provisionalstate capital about the impor-tance of sanitation which, asper the MCD officials, is gen-erally neglected by them.

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Atotal of 12 persons sus-tained injury after two

buses collided head-on on thehighway about three kilometresahead of Asharodi in Dehradunon Thursday.

According to informationprovided by the police, infor-mation was received about twobuses colliding not far fromAsharodi.

Acting on the informa-tion, the Clement Town policereached the accident site where

it was found that an UttarPradesh transport corporationbus going from Dehradun toSaharanpur had collided withan Uttarakhand transport cor-poration bus coming fromSaharanpur to Dehradun.

A total of 12 persons wereinjured in the collision. TheUttar Pradesh police and mem-bers of the public transportedfive of the injured toBiharigarh, Saharanpur whileseven injured persons weretransported by private vehiclesto Dehradun for treatment.

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The stage is set for raising of the new flagpole at Jhanda Sahib in Dehradun on

Friday with the start of the historicalJhanda Mela at 8 AM. According to theorganisers, the raising of the new flag polewill be undertaken between 3 PM and 5

PM. The Darbar SahibMahant Devendra Dasswill direct raising of theholy flag pole. On behalfof Shri Darbar SahibM a n a g e m e n tCommittee, all the nec-essary arrangements forthe Jhanda Mela wereaccorded final toucheson Thursday evening.The ‘Gurumantra’ wasdelivered to the Sangatdevotees by Mahant

Devendra Dass on Thursday evening. TheSangat devotees were blessed by receivingthe ‘Gurumantra’.

While addressing the devotees, theMahant exhorted all to keep away fromsocial evils like female foeticide, intoxica-tion and dowry while also ensuring theirsignificant roles in building a prosperous

society and nation. He also expressed seri-ous concern on the issue of environmen-tal conservation. He appealed to thedevotees to go for afforestation and con-serving water resources.Manager of theJhanda Mela management committee,KC Juyal informed that the fair will beginon Friday at 8 AM. In the morning, the oldsacred flag pole will be brought down.

The Sangat devotees will then bathethe new flag pole with milk, curd, butter,Ganga water and ‘Panchgavya’. From 10AM, the ceremony on putting on ‘Gilaafs’(covers) over the new flag pole will be ini-tiated. The new flag pole will then be raisedunder the Mahant’s directions between 3PM and 5 PM.

Meanwhile, proper security arrange-ments have been made by police admin-istration in order to ensure peace and orderduring the main programme and theJhanda Mela. At the fair site, the policehave opened a special Mela Thana. Fivevehicles equipped to extinguish fire willalso be deployed at the site.

A total of 40 closed circuit televisioncameras have also been installed at theMela site by the management committeeof the Jhanda Mela. A team of doctors fromShri Mahant Indiresh Hospital has beenmade available at the fair site. Free of costmedicines will also be provided to thepatients by the hospital. The ambulance ofthe hospital will also be there in order tohandle any emergency.

Apart from these arrangements, onelarge LED screen each has been installedby management committee at DarshaniGate, Bhandari Chowk, SaharanpurChowk and at Shri Darbar Sahib. Thesewill enable the multitudes to see the livetelecast of the programme at the fair site.

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By showing the tenacity to declare Gairsain as the summercapital of the Himalayan state, TSR has etched his name firmlyin the history of Uttarakhand. This move which is beingtouted as a masterstroke has left his detractors both withinand outside the saffron party gasping for breath. Basking inthe glory of adulations after the historic decision of fulfilling apart of the long held aspirations of the people of the state –the final objective being permanent capital status to Gairsain-TSR is not naive to not understand the future politicalramifications of this decision.Though he has talked aboutconstituting an expert committee for a time bounddevelopment of Gairsain, setting up infrastructure needed fora state capital and cobbling up bare minimum facilities for amore or less reluctant bureaucracy at a place which at presentis bereft of any facilities would be the biggest challenge forTSR. The CM also knows that people would expect his officeand top bureaucracy to start functioning from the summercapital and soon questions would be asked about the rationaleof having two capitals for a small and poor state.

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Amid unprecedented worldwide scare from the threatgenerated by novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) and WorldHealth Organisation (WHO) declaring the dreaded disease asa pandemic, the Uttarakhand government is preparing for theChar Dham Yatra. In the Yatra, devotees from all parts of thecountry and abroad throng the shrines located in theHimalayan state. Last year an estimated 32 lakh pilgrimsvisited the Char Dhams. In the current scenario where thethreat of the Coronavirus is increasing with each passing day,the mandarins of the state are advised to drastically curtail thesize of Yatra in terms of arrival of pilgrims. Though theofficials are making tall claims about setting up elaboratehealth check up facilities along the entire Yatra route, the starkfact is that efforts after the Kedarnath disaster to set up arobust system of registration of the pilgrims have not met withsuccess yet. The condition of the health services in the state isas pathetic as always with near absence of modern facilitiesneeded for quarantine and treatment of the patients of thedreaded disease. In such a dreadful scenario prevention seemsthe best option the state government has in its hands so itshould not hesitate to impose restrictions on the Char DhamYatra.

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A bureaucrat spearheading many important departments inthe Himalayan state has made himself very unpopular amonghis subordinates, politicians and others paying visit to him dueto his arrogant and brusque behaviour. Exasperated by hisattitude some of the elected representatives are contemplatingto register their complaint at the highest level against him.They are of the view that the public representatives should behumble and accessible for everyone and the arrogant Babushould either change his attitude or he should be relieved ofthe important departments which require a high degree ofpublic dealing. They point out that the present chief secretaryof the state, who is humbleness personified should be the rolemodel for the Babus of the State.

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As a preventive measure forthe safety of children in

view of the spread of novelcoronavirus (COVID-19)acquiring pandemic propor-tions in the world, theUttarakhand government hasordered closure of all schoolstill March 31.

In an order issued by theSchool Education secretary R

Meenakshi Sundaram onThursday, it has been statedthat novel coronavirus hasacquired pandemic propor-tions across the world with newvirus infected persons alsobeing identified in variousIndian states.

Hence, for prevention at alllevels in the state, all educa-tional institutions includingpre-primary, primary, upperprimary, high school and inter-mediate level schools willremain closed till March 31.Only those schools whereboard examinations-2020 arecurrently underway will beexempt from the closure.

Such schools will remainopen only during the exami-nation duration and only those

students appearing in the boardexaminations will be allowed toremain present in the exami-nation centres.It is pertinent tomention here that though a fewsuspect cases were found inUttarakhand, so far none havetested positive for novel coro-navirus in the state. Still, highalert is being observed inUttarakhand especially as italso shared a border withChina and Nepal.

Meanwhile, on Thursdaythe Union Health Ministrystated that the number of num-ber of novel coronaviruspatients in the country hadrisen to 73 with 13 fresh cases,including nine fromMaharashtra and one each

from Delhi, Ladakh and UttarPradesh as well as one foreignnational.

According to the ministry,six positive cases have beenreported in Delhi while 10people were diagnosed with theinfection in Uttar Pradesh tillThursday. Karnataka reportedfour cases, Maharashtra 11and Ladakh three.

Further, Rajasthan,Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Jammuand Kashmir and Punjab havereported one case each, accord-ing to the ministry. So far,Kerala has reported 17 cases,including three patients whowere discharged last monthafter they recovered from theinfection.

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The president of thePradesh Congress

Committee (PCC) PritamSingh has said that a massiverally would be organised atSrinagar Garhwal in themonth of April.

He added that in the rallynamed ‘Pol Khol rally’

would expose the failures ofthe Trivendra Singh Rawatled BJP government. Thedate of Srinagar rally wouldsoon be declared. The PCCpresident made this decla-

ration in the meeting of dis-trict, Nagar and Block pres-idents of Garhwal region ofthe party held at the head-quarters of the Congressparty on Thursday. In themeeting, the PCC presidentsaid that the people of stateare now not ready to toler-ate corrupt and incompetentgovernment.

Exhorting the partyworkers to hit the streets, hesaid that the BJP in its man-ifesto had promised to pro-vide jobs but like otherpromises it too proved mere

rhetoric. Singh said thatunemployment is at its peakand recruitment process injobs is halted. The PCCpresident appealed the partyworkers to make the pro-posed rally in Dehradun onMarch 18, a success.

The vice president ofUttarakhand Congress SuryaKant Dhasmana, seniorleader Manish Khanduri,former minister RajendraSingh Bhandari, KedarnathMLA Manoj Rawat andother leaders addressed themeeting.

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The Congress party has decid-ed to remain away from the

programmes organised by theTrivendra Singh RawatGovernment in different parts ofthe State on March 18. The BJPGovernment is completing threeyears in the office on the day.

The State government hasdecided to hold special pro-grammes in all 70 assembly con-stituencies to mark three yearsin office and has requested thelocal MLAs to preside over

these programmes. The leaderof opposition (LoP) in stateassembly Indira Hridayesh saidthat in last three years no devel-opment work has occurred inthe state and the Congress partyis opposing the governmentboth inside and outside theassembly.

Chakrata MLA and PCCpresident Pritam Singh sarcas-tically commented that if thegovernment has undertakendevelopment works then itshould also preside over theseprogrammes.

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Reacting to the Congressleaders deciding to stay

away from the programmesbeing held to mark the StateGovernment’s three years inoffice, the Bharatiya JanataParty state vice presidentDevendra Bhasin has saidthat Congress leaders do not

come when invited but allegeapathy if sending an invita-tion is missed due to somereason. Bhasin said that oncompletion of three years bythe State Government inoff ice under the ChiefMinister Trivendra SinghRawat, the government isgoing to organise pro-grammes in all the 70

Vidhan Sabha constituen-cies on March 18. The localMLAs are to be the chiefguests in these programmes,but the Congress MLAs havedecided to stay away fromthese programmes. “Thisprogramme is fully govern-mental and the state gov-ernment, without any polit-ical bias has invited all to

attend the event. The MLAsof the constituency con-cerned, whether from theBJP or Congress will be thechief guests of the pro-grammes in their con-stituencies. They will alsodevlier a speech and speakabout the developmentachieved in the area and thestate during the event.

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Intensifying pressure on theState Government, the agi-

tating association of generaland OBC employees has nowdemanded that the StateGovernment should revertthe promoted employees ofthe reserved castes with ret-rospective effect. Similarlythe employees of general andOBC castes should be pro-moted retrogressively. Theassociation has set November15, 1997 as the date in thisrespect.

The general secretary ofthe association, VirendraSingh Gusain said that thestate government shouldremove the ban imposed onpromotions with immediateeffect and should start thepromotions in accordancewith the order of SupremeCourt (SC). He said that theGovernment should eitherbring an ordinance or a bill for

the purpose. In anotherdemand, the association ofgeneral and OBC employeeshas said that the cabinet sub-committee headed by MadanKaushik on the issue of rosterin reservation should be dis-solved.Meanwhile the callgiven by the association to dis-rupt essential service failed tohave any effect on Thursday.The health, power and drink-ing water services in the stateremained unaffected from thestrike. The Uttarakhand nurs-ing services association hasthreatened to observe com-plete strike from March 16.

The president of the asso-ciation, Meenakshi Jakhmolasaid that the nurses have start-ed a symbolic boycott of twohours from Thursday andobserve complete strike fromMarch 16. She added thatsome nurses would return towork when any patient affect-ed by Coronavirus is report-ed. The association of diplo-

ma pharmacists and the min-isterial workers of excisedepartment have also plungedinto the strike. In view of theongoing board examinations,the teacher associations areremaining away from thestrike. On the demand ofimplementing the order of

Supreme Court (SC), the gen-eral and OBC employees areon strike from March 2. TheSC on 7 while hearing aSpecial Leave Petition (SLP) ofUttarakhand government onFebruary 7 had said that thestates are not bound to pro-vide reservation in promo-

tions and reservation is not afundamental right. This SLPwas filed by the Uttarakhandgovernment against theUttarakhand High Court(HC) order in Gyanchand Vsstate case in which it hadallowed reservation in pro-motions.

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The old protest site nearParade Ground has been

vacated by all the protesterswhile only one protestinggroup continued its hungerstrike in the new protest sitenear Adhoiwala on Thursday.

On Wednesday evening,some of the protestors weredetained by the police from theold protest site for not shiftingtheir protest to the new site asthe permission approved toprotest there was revoked bythe city magistrate.

Reportedly, when the pro-testers refused shifting to thenew site near Adhoiwala till lateon Wednesday evening, thepolice detained a few protest-ers.

According to one of theprotesting members ofUttarakhand UnemployedOrganisation (UUO) SureshSingh, the police detained someprotesting members from theold protest site and around 2AM, they were dropped at the

new protest site in Adhoiwala.Though the work under theSmart City Project has begun

at the old protest site nearParade Ground, no protestinggroups continued their protest

in new site except UUO onThursday. Various groups likeGairsain Rajdhani Nirman

Abhiyan (GRNA) and StateAnganwadi WorkersAssociation have termed the

shifting of protest site as a blotto the democracy.Meanwhile,the district administration is

working in cooperation withMunicipal Corporation ofDehradun (MCD) to provide

the basic facilities like drinkingwater and toilet facility to pro-testers at the new protest site.

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Many people ofDehradun are happy

with the shifting of theprotest site to Adhoiwala.According to them, the shift-ing of the protest site far fromParade Ground is a wisedecision by the administra-tion as the absence of pro-

testers will prevent theunnecessary traffic jam anddisturbance in the core areaof the city. “I think it is a bigrelief that there would be nomore protest or rallies in thecity every day. I travel fromAjabpur to Rajpur every dayand on the days when thereis some rally or a protestmarch; it takes me at least 40minutes extra to reach myoffice.

The frequency ofprotests and rallies hasincreased in Dehradun inthe last two years whichcauses considerable incon-venience to the commonpeople,” said ShaileshKandari, a store manager inRajpur. According to a bankemployee Prerna Seth, “I

think protest in Dehradun islike a trend that many organ-isations are following thesedays here to force the stategovernment to approve theirdemand which causes prob-lems for the public.

It’s good that the loca-tion for the new protest siteis far from the city centerwhich will not cause fre-quent disruption in the cityarea. Disturbing the wholecity for their demands is notfighting for the rights but aselfish act from their side.”

The city magistrateAnuradha Pal has also stat-ed that frequent demonstra-tions and rallies on the mainroads, especially those whichare done without any per-mission from the adminis-

tration, create an imbalancein the operation system of thecity. It causes considerabletrouble for the people as wellas the police. Therefore, theshifting of the old protest sitedue to Smart City Project willserve the greater good to thepublic too, said Pal.

However, some areopposing the decision to shiftthe protest site away from thecity centre. The Shiv Senastate president GauravKumar said that the mannerin which the protesters weredetained late at night is ques-tionable.

He said that shifting ofthe protest site away from thecity centre is an assault on thedemocratic right of citizensto protest peacefully.

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Chief minister TrivendraSingh Rawat launched the

Mukhyamantri Anchal AmritYojana (MAAY) facilitatedjointly by the Uttarakhand

cooperative dairy federationand school educationdepartment as part of themidday meal scheme onThursday. He offered milk tostudents to launch thescheme.

Rawat also releasedschool books in Garhwaliand Kumaoni languages forclasses I to V and released aKumaoni-Garhwali-Jaunsaridictionary on the occasion.Considering environmentalconservation, NCERT e-books for classes VI to VIIIwere also launched on theoccasion.

Speaking on the occa-sion, Rawat said that underthe Mukhyamantri AnchalAmrit Yojana, children inAnganwadis are being pro-vided milk four days a weekwhile school children fromclasses I to VIII will also beprovided milk once a weeknow.

He said that there is nodearth of talent among schoolchildren in the state. A resi-dential school with classes VI

to XII is being opened atJaiharikhal for talented childrenfrom economically weakerfamilies.

On the occasion, Rawatalso exhorted the citizens to fol-low the guidelines issued by theWorld Health Organisation(WHO) for protection fromnovel coronavirus. Educationminister Arvind Pandey andstate minister for cooperativesDhan Singh Rawat alsoexpressed their views on theoccasion.

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From Page 1

Anil Malik, the Additional Secretary from Ministry of HomeAffairs, informed reporters that there has been a decline of 40per cent in number of people travelling to India in the last 20days.

Given the scale of COVID-19 infection and its pressure onIran’s own resources, a team of six Indian health officials has beendeputed to Iran to set up testing and sampling facilities there.

The first batch of 108 samples was received in India on March7. These were tested and 58 Indian pilgrims (25 men, 31 womenand 2 children), who tested negative, were brought back by a IAFflight on 10 March.

“We have also received samples of 529 more Indians on thisflight which are being tested in the National Institute of Virology,Pune. So far, 299 of them have tested negative. Some more resultsare awaited. We continue to collect more samples in Tehran andour endeavour is to ensure the earliest possible return of ournationals after appropriate testing and screening,” he said.

Talking about Italy, Jaishankar said the situation in theEuropean country is a matter of great concern. Those tested neg-ative will be allowed to return.

About 90 countries have reported coronavirus cases and theGovernment has to focus and to prioritise, he said regarding theefforts to reach out to Indian nationals there.

From Page 1 After the meeting, Baijal

tweeted, “Reviewed prepared-

ness to contain the COVID - 19in Delhi with Hon’ble CM@ArvindKejriwal, HealthMinister @SatyendarJain, CS,Delhi & other officers. Decisiontaken to close schools, colleges,cinema halls, etc.

For sometime to minimisethe possibility of spread.”Inanother tweet, the L-G advisedDelhiites to avoid unneces-sary travel to crowded areas inthe city. “My advice to all toavoid unnecessary travel to

crowded areas. Let’s take allpossible preventive measures asfar as possible,” he tweeted.Jainalso wrote a letter to UnionHealth Minister Dr HarshVardhan requesting tostrengthen the number of test-ing laboratories in Delhi. “Wehave taken several measures inthis regard, but we also need toassess future preparations. Ihave written a letter to Vardhanto increase and strengthen thetesting facilities.

From Page 1

Talking to reporters here, Luv Aggarwal, Joint Secretary(Health), said that there was no need to panic in the wake ofincreasing number of coronavirus cases in the country and thefocus is on preventive approach and there are adequate facili-ties available for testing. “We have around 1 lakh testing kits andadditional kits have been ordered,” the Joint Secretary said.

As the number of coronavirus cases in the country rise, theHealth Ministry has prepared a draft set of guidelines stating do’sand don’ts to be followed by those quarantined at home. Theguidelines also include tips for the use of masks.

The 17 affected foreign nationals include 16 Italians and aCanadian patient. According to the WHO, globally there cur-rently more than 1,24,000 cases of coronavirus across 118 coun-tries. More than 4,600 people have lost their lives due the virus.

A day after India suspended all visas till April 15 followingWHO’s classification of the coronavirus outbreak as a pandem-ic, the Union Civil Aviation Ministry has asked airlines to waiveoff rescheduling charges, and all airlines have agreed.

From Page 1 January was the third

month in a row that the three-month measure of UK GDP

showed zero growth, the weak-est such run since the middleof 2009. In Q1 CY20, on anannualised basis, global growthcould be deeply negative -more like (minus) 1 per cent,”said Deepak Jasani, Head RetailResearch, HDFC Securities.

All sectoral indices ended

in the red, with BSE oil and gascracking 9.82 per cent, followedby realty, metal, bankex,finance, energy and IT. BroaderBSE midcap and smallcapindices followed the bench-marks, losing up to 8.72 percent. A massive plunge in inter-national oil prices and depre-

ciating rupee added to thevolatility, traders said.Therupee depreciated 49 paise to74.17 per US dollar (intra-day). Brent crude oil futuresdropped 5.50 per cent to USD33.82 per barrel. Elsewhere inAsia, bourses in Shanghaidropped 1.52 per cent, Hong

Kong 3.66 per cent, Seoul 3.87per cent and Tokyo cracked4.41 per cent.Markets inEurope crashed up to 6 per centin early trade. In overnighttrade, the Dow fell into a bearmarket and futures pointedThursday to another rout inNew York and Europe.

From Page 1

The 49-year-old formerUnion Minister arrived at thejam-packed BJP office amidbursting of crackers and loudbeating of drums. BJP workersrepeatedly raised the slogan‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’.

Both the CongressMinisters were also assaulted bypolicemen in Bengaluru,alleged Tankha, who is also asenior Supreme Court lawyer.

As the fate of the CongressGovernment hung in balance,the BJP said it will seek a floortest in the Assembly on March16 to test the majority of theruling party.

The Congress, however,said it will face the floor testonly after the Speaker decideson the resignations of the 22MLAs.

Senior Congress leaderDigvijaya Singh wondered whythe rebel MLAs were not meet-ing the Speaker to submit theirresignations.

BJP’s chief whip in theAssembly Narottam Mishrasaid since the Government hasbeen reduced to a minority theopposition party is going to

request the Governor and theSpeaker for a floor test onMarch 16 when the StateBudget session begins. “ThisGovernment has lost majority,”said senior BJP leader andChouhan. When asked aboutthe BJP’s demand, Digvijayasaid the Chief Minister is readyfor a floor test.

“As Nath has already saidwe are ready for the floor test.But, there should be a decisionon the resignation of MLAsbefore the floor test,” Digvijayasaid, while blaming the BJP forthe constitutional crisis in theState.

“The resignations will beaccepted when the MLAs meetthe Speaker one-on-one andverify their signatures withoutany pressure. Then the resig-nations will be accepted and thefloor test can be conducted,” hesaid.

Digvijaya said the rebelMLAs should now go to theSpeaker and clear the air.“Nineteen Congress MLAs arein their (BJP’s) captivity. Thefamily members (of MLAs)are unable to talk to them.Their phones were taken

away,” Digvijaya alleged,

adding it is also strange that theresignations of the CongressMLAs were submitted to theSpeaker by BJP leaderBhupendra Singh. The BJPclaimed this is an “internalmatter” of the Congress, but atthe same time leaders of thesaffron party submitted theresignations of the ruling party(Congress) MLAs to theSpeaker, Digvijaya pointed out.

On Tuesday, 22Congress MLAs resigned in acoordinated revolt soon afterScindia quit the party. Three ofthem are still in MP, sourcessaid.

The Congress has a waferthin majority in the 228- mem-ber Assembly. Before the rebel-lion, its tally was 114.It also has the support of fourIndependents, two BSP MLAsand one from the SP, but somemay now switch sides to theBJP. If the resignations ofthe 22 MLAs are accepted, thestrength of the Assembly willfall to 206.

The Congress, on its own,will then be left with 92 seats,while the BJP has 107 with themagic number for a majoritybeing 104.

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Despite various incentivesoffered by the

Government to stimulate theeconomy, Prime MinisterNarendra Modi’s ambitious Rs5.35-lakh-crore BharatmalaPariyojana Phase-I has beendelayed and running at a snail’space.

Due to slow down in roadsector and shortages of fund-ing, only 12,178 kms workshave been awarded instead oftotal target of 34,800 kms (worth Rs 5,35,000 crore) tillJanuary 2020. The completionof first phase is scheduled by2021-22. Besides, out of thetotal 2,000 kms, the works foronly 168 kms ( 77 km ofcoastal roads and 91 km of portconnectivity roads) have beenawarded so far.

According to Ministry ofRoad, Transport and Highways,out of the 34,800 km approvedunder Bharatmala projectPhase-I, total of 172 projects oflength 6,782 km have beenawarded till January 31 2020.“Out of the approved financialoutlay of Rs. 3,85,000 Crore forprojects to be awarded underthe project, projects of 8,276km length have been appraisedand approved up to January 31,2020, with estimated capitalcost of Rs. 2,25,358 Crore,” the

Ministry informed the parlia-mentary standing committeeon transport, tourism and cul-ture.

Similarly, against theapproved outlay of Rs. 1,50,000Crore for residual NationalHighways DevelopmentProjects, 3,902 km has beenappraised and approved up toso far with total estimated cap-ital cost of Rs. 78,486 Crore.However, based on per kmTotal Capital Cost of theappraised & approved projects,the Estimated Total CapitalCost for the Bharatmala Phase-I projects (including residualNHDP) would be Rs. 8,58,570crore. against Rs. 5,35,000 croreapproved by CabinetCommittee on EconomicAffairs.

Of the 168 kms of coastalroad projects includes includesDwarka-Khambhaliya coastalcorrider (72 kms); airstrip nearDatrana village in Gujarat (5

kms); Belakeri Port to Kumta- Sirsi road in Karnataka (59kms); six Laning of dedicatedPort road to KrishnapatnamPort (Package-I) in AndhraPradesh (18 kms);Visakhapatnam Port Road (13kms) and construction of gradeseparator from H-7 area to Portconnectivity Road by passingConvent Junction inVisakhapatnam (one kms).

The parliamentary panel,headed by TG Venkatesh,expressed concern over theslow pace of PM’s flagship pro-ject and noted that BharatmalaPhase-I is allocated a noticeableportion of the Ministry’s fundsevery year and this being theflagship project of the Ministryat present, any delays wouldhave significant bearing on thefinancial health of the Ministrysince there is a direct relationbetween delays and expendi-ture incurred on a project.

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Setting aside speculationabout Priyanka Gandhi

Vadra’s entry into theParliament from MadhyaPradesh, the Congress onThursday announced its elevencandidates for the Upper Houseand included Digvijay Singhfrom the State. A section of MPCongress and even CM KamalNath had pitched for Priyanka’s

nomination from the State tothe Rajya Sabha.

There were speculationthat the party may fieldPriyanka from MadhyaPradesh in place of JyotiradityaScindia, which led the latter toquit the party and join the BJPwhich nominated him to Rajya Sabha.

The last date for filingnominations for the 55 vacantseats in April is March 13.

Senior leader MallikarjunKharge’s name was also not inthe list of nine candidatesannounced by the party for

Rajya Sabha. The Congress’ names

include KTS Tulsi fromChhattisgarh, Phool SinghBaraiya from Madhya Pradesh,

AICC general secretary KCVenugopal and Neeraj Dangifrom Rajasthan, KennedyCornelius Khyiem from

Meghalaya, Rajiv Satav fromMaharashtra, Shahzada Anwarfrom Jharkhand and PhuloDevi Netam fromChhattisgarh.

The party also nominatedDeepender Singh Hooda as itscandidate from Haryana andShaktisinh Govil andBharatsinh Solanki fromGujarat. Former Haryana ChiefMinister Bhupinder SinghHooda was successful in gettinghis two time Lok Sabha MPson, Depender’s candidaturefrom Haryana. Senior Hoodahad catapulted the party into astrong position in the Assembly

elections last. Three Rajya Sabha seats

from MP, currently held byDigvijaya Singh, and BJP lead-ers Prabhat Jha andSatyanarayan Jatiya, are fallingvacant next month. Digvijayahas been re-nominated. Hereached the State Assemblysecretariat around 12.30 pmand submitted his papers to thereturning officer and VidhanSabha principal secretary AP

Singh. MP will see a keen contest

in one out of three seats as theBJP has also announced twocandidates — JyotiradityaScindia and Sumer SinghSolanki.

Congress and the BJP,given their respective strengthin the Assembly, can ensureeasy win for one candidate,while a contest is on cards onthe third seat.

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Showcasing BJP’s prized catchJyoitraditya Scindia, Home

Minister Amit Shah and

Defence Minister RajnathSingh on Thursday put uptheir pictures with the formerCongress MP on social mediamaintaining his induction into

the party will further strength-en BJP’s resolve to serve thepeople of Madhya Pradesh.

Scindia , who had joinedBJP on Wednesday in the pres-

ence of party president JPNadda, paid “courtesy” visits tothe two senior BJP leadersand Union Ministers at theirrespective residences here inthe morning.

After meeting the partyleaders, Scindia reached Bhopalalong with Union Minister ofAgriculture & Farmers Welfareand Minister of RuralDevelopment, Narendra SinghTomar, to file his nominationpapers for the Rajya Sabhaseat on the BJP ticket. He isexpected to file his papers forRajya Sabha on Friday.

After meeting Scindia,Shah said in a tweet, “I am surehis induction into the party willfurther strengthen BJP’s resolveto serve the people of MadhyaPradesh.”

And Singh tweeted: “I wel-come him to the BJP. His join-ing will help in furtherstrengthening the party. Iextend my best wishes to himin all his endeavours.”

While joining BJP, Scindiahad said he quit his erstwhileparty as it was not open to“fresh ideas” and remainedstruck in “inertia”, cut-offfrom the “reality”.

JP Nadda assured him thathe would find his feet in theBJP as it was a “very democra-tic party”.

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Aday after JyotiradityaScindia joined the BJP,

former Congress chief RahulGandhi on Thursday termedthe former Union Minister an“old friend” but hit out at himsaying he forgot his ideologyas he was apprehensive abouthis political future.

“ Scindia will neither getrespect in BJP, nor will he feelsatisfied there,” Rahul assert-ed a day after he revealed hisemotions for the Scindia scionsaying that he was the personwho could visit his houseanytime.

Speaking on Scindia’sshock move to the BJP afterbeing in the Congress foryears, Rahul recalled his longassociation with the Gwaliorstrongman and said there is a

difference between what is inhis heart and what he is say-ing. While some senior lead-ers like Rajasthan ChiefMinister Ashok Gehlot havebeen scathing in their criti-cism of Scindia, Rahul’sresponse to his quitting theCongress has been tempered.

“I know the ideology ofJyotiraditya Scindia ji, he waswith me in college. I wouldkeep talking to him, I knowhim well. Jyotiraditya Scindiafeared for his political future

and therefore kept his ideol-ogy in his pocket and wentwith the RSS. But the reality isthat neither will he get respectthere, nor will the truth andemotion in his heart be satis-fied. He will come to realise it,”Rahul talking to media outsidethe Parliament.

“This is a clear cut fight ofideologies. On one side is theCongress party’s ideology, onthe other hand is the RSS-BJPideology,” Rahul Gandhiadded.

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The Opposition on Thursdaycautioned the Government

against any move to privatisethe Railways and called forbringing back the practice of aseparate Budget for the publictransporter so that it could getadequate attention.

Debating on the demandsfor Grants in Lok Sabha onRailways, the members appre-ciated the modernisation andcleanliness of railway stationswhile raising doubts of entry ofprivate players in main sectorsof railways.

MK Raghavan (Congress)said the BJP Government hasshown consistent apathytowards railways in the last fiveyears and the dismal perfor-mance is visible in the highoperating ratio, which is theworst in last 10 years. “Railwaysis a services sector. BJP isunaware of reasons for estab-lishment of Railways. Railwaysis not an engine to be auctionedoff to the highest bidder, it is forpoor man’s service,” he said.

“This Budget is a call forprivatisation and eventual sell-ing off of railways which is the

lifeline of Indian people,” hesaid. Opposition members,including Supriya Sule of theNCP and Arvind Sawant of theShiv Sena, acknowledged thatrailway stations have becomecleaner.

SS Palanimanickam(DMK) accused the BJP gov-ernment of moving towardsprivatisation of railways. “AirIndia is on verge of privatisa-tion, land and sea transportshave already been privatised. Isuggest just give up the idea ofprivatisation of railways,” hesaid.

Palanimanickam said thereshould be separate Budgetwhich will encourage the RailMinistry to discuss demands ofvarious railway zones. “Earlierthere was separate budget forall zones. The Rail Ministerused to hold meeting withMPs to know demands ofzones, but now no such meet-ings take place,” he said. TheGovernment had mergedRailway Budget with GeneralBudget from 2017-18 onwards,ending a 92-year-old practice ofa separate Budget for the coun-try’s largest transporter.

Tapir Gao (BJP) said theIndian Railways has developed

so many facilities that its ser-vices are now comparable tothose offered by airlines. “Even60 years after Independence,Arunachal Pradesh andMizoram did not have railconnectivity. It is only underModi Government that railwayextended connectivity to everycorner of the country,” he said.

Before the House took updiscussion of the Demand forGrants of Railways, SpeakerOm Birla said the House has todiscuss Demands for Grants ofsix ministries and sought toknow from members if they areokay if Lok Sabha proceedingsare held on Saturday andSunday. As Opposition mem-

bers and some members fromtreasury benches were seennot supporting the idea, theSpeaker suggested that theHouse will sit late on Thursdayand Friday to discuss them.

In her speech, Sule soughtto know what is the status ofmodel stations, a proposal thatformer railway minister Suresh

Prabhu had f loated, anddemanded clarification fromthe government about details ofprivatisation.

Saugata Roy of the TMChit out at any move to privatiserailways and also attackedRailway Minister Piyush Goyalfor the move to merge all rail-way services.

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Allaying apprehensions on lawslike CAA, NPR and NRC across

the country that led to protests,including violence in the nationalCapital, Union Home Minister AmitShah on Thursday asserted that “nodocument is required for theNational Population Register(NPR)” and that the CAA(Citizenship Amendment Act) is notagainst taking citizenships fromany community but it’s about grant-ing citizenship.”

During a reply to the shortduration discussion on Delhi vio-lence, Shah said that no documentwill be required during NPR andsuggested that an Opposition dele-gation led by Leader of Oppositionin Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azadmay visit him and sort out all theconfusions pertaining to CAA, NPRand NRC. “I am always ready for adiscussion,” Shah said.

“I will discuss all these at pri-ority and urged the oppositionmembers to stop spreading falseinformation on these subjects as so

many have already lost lives whichis regrettable,” Shah said in the RajyaSabha amidst several interruptionsfrom the Opposition benches andsimultaneously treasury benchesdemanding from the Vice ChairmanSatyanarayan Jatiya that the HomeMinister may be allowed to com-plete his speech.

On a query from Congressmember Kapil Sibal about manda-tory documents, Shah said: “If onedoesn’t want to give certain infor-mation, no questions will be askedregarding that. There will be nodoubtful citizen marking”.

Shah said that under the NPR,it is being said that documents willbe asked for, “but let me tell all, nodocuments will be asked for underthe NPR”. “Earlier also under theNPR no document was asked forand so will be the case this time aswell,” said the Home Ministerprompting Ghulam Nabi Azad toreiterate the Centre’s stand andmake it clear.

“Those who don’t have infor-mation to produce, for that we haveclarified through a press release.Whatever information people want

to give, they are free to submit,”Amit Shah said.

“I clearly once again say, underthe NPR, no document will beasked for. You don’t have to provide

any information you don’t possess.Lastly, nobody will be marked‘doubtful’. Nobody needs to bescared of the process of the NPR inthis country,” Amit Shah said when

Sibal questioned about the ‘D’(Doubtful) category.

The Home Minister alsoreferred to the hate speeches in thecountry after the citizenship bill was

made an Act. “The minorities, espe-cially Muslims, were fed with fearthat the CAA will revoke their cit-izenship,” Shah said without nam-ing the Congress and its leaders’speech. The first seeds of hatespeech were sown on December 14,2019 at a rally in Ram Lila maidanwhen a Congress leader gave the callfor a do or die situation. “December16th the Shaheen Bagh started,” saidthe home minister.

The Home Minister assertedthat those responsible for the recentriots in Delhi will be brought tobook irrespective of their caste,religion and political affiliations. Hesaid that 1922 faces have beenidentified using facial identificationsoftware.

On the transfer of Justice SMuralidhar a day after his orders onDelhi violence, Shah said that theorder is issued by the governmenton the recommendation of theSupreme Court collegiums and it isnot related to the Delhi violencecase. “What sort of mindset is thatan individual judge can only do jus-tice and others can’t? Shah asked themembers of Rajya Sabha.

Earlier in the day, theOpposition panned the govern-ment as well as the police over theriots and warned that the spread ofthe “communal virus” would even-tually pose to a threat to democra-cy. Taking part in a short-durationdebate in Rajya Sabha someOpposition members said the “com-munal virus” being unleashed by theBJP was “no less harmful” than thecoronavirus.

If the “virus” is spread amongthe youth, democracy will bedestroyed, senior Congress leaderKapil Sibal said, initiating the dis-cussion. The Opposition also tooka swipe at Prime Minister NarendraModi and alleged when riots wereraging in the nation capital he andShah were busy “entertaining” thevisiting US President Donald Trump.

They also questioned the HomeMinister on “inaction” against lead-ers who gave public speeches toinstigate riots in northeast Delhi.Condemning the “delay” in actionto curb the riots and alleging intel-ligence “failure”, several Oppositionmembers demanded a probe by aSupreme Court judge.

New Delhi: The SupremeCourt on Thursday told theUttar Pradesh Governmentthat there is no law as of nowto back its action of puttingroadside posters of thoseaccused of vandalism duringthe anti-CAA protests inLucknow.

A vacation Bench ofJustices UU Lalit andAniruddha Bose told SolicitorGeneral Tushar Mehta, appear-ing for Uttar Pradesh, that it isa matter of “great importance”.

The bench also askedMehta whether the state gov-ernment has the power to putsuch posters.

The apex court, however,said there is no doubt that

action should be taken againstthe rioters and they should bepunished.

Mehta told the court thatposters were put up as a “deter-rent” and the hoardings onlysays the persons are liable topay for their alleged acts dur-ing the violence.

The hearing in the matteris underway.

The top court is hearing anappeal filed by the UttarPradesh Government chal-lenging the March 9 order ofthe Allahabad High Courtdirecting the state adminstra-tion to remove posters of thoseaccused of vandalism duringthe anti-CAA protests.

PTI

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The Centre on Thursdaydecided to fast-track envi-

ronmental clearance processfor projects entailing produc-tion of bulk drugs and bulkdrug intermediaries in thecountry to ensure that it doesnot have to depend on othernations like China for manu-facturing the drugs.

India imports large quan-tities of bulk drug for its phar-maceutical industry with Chinaalone accounting for over 68per cent of India''s totalimports. Coronavirus has com-pletely disrupted this supply.

The bulk drug is activepharmaceutical ingredient(API) that goes into manufac-turing of formulation andbranded drugs. However, in amove to ensure that it sufficientbulk drugs is manufacturedlocally, the Union EnvironmentMinistry on Thursday issuedan office memorandum statingthat the decision to clear the

projects on priority basis will beimplemented with immediateeffect.

In a notification, theEnvironment Ministry said theexpeditious environmentalclearances given to unitsinvolving active pharmaceuti-cal ingredients (API) and bulkdrug intermediates will ensureoverall preparedness and avail-ability of drugs to reduce theimpact of the outbreak.

“In order to ensure drugavailability/production toreduce the impact of the out-break of Novel Corona virus(COVID-19) and to improveoverall preparedness of drugs,the ministry hereby directsprojects or activities in respectof Bulk drugs (API and bulkdrug intermediates) shall be

considered out of turn andclearances shall be issued expe-ditiously,” the notificationissued by Sharath Kumar, sci-entist at the ministry’s ImpactAssessment division, said.

The notification has beensent to the Central PollutionControl Board, ExpertAppraisal Committee and pol-lution control boards in allstates and Union Territories.

The Government has setup a committee to look into theissue of drug shortages comingfrom trade restrictions in thewake of coronavirus spread.The committee, in its report,has said that the present stock-in-hand of the APIs may besufficient for 2 to 3 months tomanufacture formulations.

India has already restrict-ed export of about 26 APIs andformulations including antibi-otics, vitamins and hormones,as the Government exploresmeasures to ensure there is noshortage of drugs in India dueto lock-down in China.

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US Defence Secretary MarkEsper's forthcoming visit

to New Delhi next week hasbeen postponed in the view ofcoronavirus. He was scheduledto hold bilateral talks withDefence Minister RajnathSingh on March 16. The post-ponement comes days afterthe Navy called off the multi-lateral naval exercise Milan inVisakhapatnam.

More than 40 countrieswere to participate in the exer-cise held every two years. Thisyear the exercise was to com-mence from March 18 and endon March 28.

Some other big events werealso postponed in view of coro-navirus threat. They include atwo-day conference organisedby the Manohar ParrikarInstitute of Defence Studies andAnalysis (IDSA), which was tostart from Thursday.

The Defence Minister andHome Minister Amit Shahwere scheduled to attend theconference, which includedseminars on a range of securi-

ty issues in Asia.“Due to the prevailing

global situation with regard toCOVID-19, it has been decid-ed to postpone the 21st AsianSecurity Conference (ASC) toa later date. Fresh dates for theConference will be conveyed indue course,” the Ministry ofDefence think tank said in anemail to the participants.

The conference organisedby IDSA, now rechristenedManohar Parrikar Institute ofDefence Studies and Analysis,was to be attended by partici-pants from countries such asthe US, Russia, Australia,Vietnam, Sweden, Belgium,Japan and the UK.

Besides this, Milan-2020,the largest multilateral exercisehosted by the Navy to be heldfrom March 18 to 28 inVisakhapatnam, was indefi-nitely postponed as a precau-tion.

Another military drill —India Egypt Joint Special Forcesexercise 2020 — which wasscheduled to be held at Jodhpurfrom March 11 to 13, has beenpostponed as well.

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The Congress on Thursdayaccused the Government of

“completely failing” in tacklingcoronavirus and destroying theeconomy. The party alsoaccused Prime MinisterNarendra Modi of being “neg-ligent” towards the health of thepeople.

Congress said the Indianeconomy was suffering from“coronavirus” and demanded adetailed statement inParliament from PrimeMinister on the economicdecline of the country.

The party alleged the stepstaken by the Government indealing with coronavirus were“inadequate”. Former Congresschief Rahul Gandhi said thePM is not speaking a word oneconomy while FinanceMinister Nirmala Sitharamandoes not understand economy.

In a blistering attack on theGovernment over the economyand the coronavirus fear, Rahul

accused Modi of “sleeping atthe wheel” and “absolutelyclueless” on how to tackle whathe called an oncoming “tsuna-mi”.

“PM Modi and his ideolo-gy have destroyed the economy.(Finance Minister) NirmalaSitharaman is saying nothing.I can understand that sheunderstands nothing so shecan't say anything. But PMmust explain to the nation,”said Rahul.

On the coronavirus pan-demic, Rahul said: “There isabsolutely no preparation. TheGovernment doesn't realisethat the coronavirus is spread-ing in this country.”

“The prime minister is

being casual, actually negligenttowards the health of the peo-ple of India,” he charged. Thegovernment has completelyfailed in tackling coronavirus,in preventing it, in identifyingpeople (affected by the virus),in quarantining them, and intaking important steps,”Congress' chief spokespersonRandeep Surjewala alleged.

“This Government runson knee-jerk reactions, whetherit comes to taking economicsteps to revive or stabilising theeconomy and to prevent eco-nomic corona from affectingthe investors' lifetime savings,or preventing coronavirus fromspreading in this country,” saidthe Congress.

“I dont think a pandemiclike coronavirus can be dealtwith in this casual fashion. It isreally sad the Union healthminister is himself a doctor.The Prime Minister is also adoctor of entire political sci-ence,” he said.

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Ahmedabad: Even as theCentre has imposed Visa curbsto stop the spread of coron-avirus in the country, no posi-tive case of the deadly diseasehas been so far found inGujarat, where more than 2,600travellers have been screened atairports till now, said officialson Thursday.

Out of the 65 samples ofsuspected cases collected sofar in Gujarat, 63 came negativefor the novel coronavirus(COVID-19), while two resultsare awaited, said a release by thestate health department.

The '104' fever helpline isgetting over 200 calls seekinginformation about the deadlyvirus, it said. A total of 2,611travellers have been screened atAhmedabad and Surat inter-national airports so far, therelease said.

Moreover, 1,217 travellers,who were kept under observa-tion upon their return, havecompleted their 28-day obser-vation period, the healthdepartment said.

On Wednesday, DeputyChief Minister Nitin Patel hadinformed the Assembly thatover 2,300 people, mostly crewmembers, on-board 55 shipswere also screened at majorports in Gujarat.

As a precautionary mea-sure, as many as 576 isolationbeds and 204 ventilators havebeen kept reserved at differentgovernment hospitals in thestate, the officials added.

On Wednesday, India sus-pended all visas, except a fewcategories such as diplomaticand employment, till April 15in a bid to contain the spreadof novel coronavirus. PTI

Mumbai: Of the 40 peopleadmitted to Civic-runKasturba Hospital here for sus-pected coronavirus infection,20 have tested negative, theBrihanmumbai MunicipalCorporation (BMC) said onThursday.

Of the 190 people quaran-tined at Kasturba Hospitalsince January 18, 168 havetested negative so far, saidDaksha Shah, deputy director,BMC health department.

“Test reports of another 20are awaited,” she said.

At present there are onlytwo confirmed patients of thecoronavirus in the city, bothbeing treated at an isolationward at Kasturba Hospital.

Those who had come incontact with these two patientstested negative, but doctorswill keep watch on their healthfor the next 14 days, Shahsaid. “The people close to twopositive people have been con-tacted. They have been advisedto stay in home isolation,” shesaid.

Three “close contacts” of

the coronavirus patients wereadmitted to Kasturba Hospital,but their test results showedthey had no infection them-selves. Still, they will be keptunder observation, Shah said.

The number of beds at theisolation ward of KasturbaHospital has been increased to50 from 28, and another 50beds will be added soon, shesaid.

Isolation wards have beenkept ready at four hospitals inthe suburbs. Another isola-tion facility with 300 beds isready at the private Seven Hillshospital too, she informed.

People should not believerumors, Shah appealed.

“Please remain cool andcalm,” she said, adding thatpeople should take generalprecautions while coughing.

A team of 46 doctors andsome 20 para-medical staffhas been deployed at theMumbai airport for screeningof passengers in three shifts,along with medical teams of thestate government and the air-port, she said. PTI

Pune: One more person testedpositive for the coronavirushere on Thursday, taking thenumber of confirmed patientsof the disease in the Pune cityto nine, a senior official said.

District collector NavalKishore Ram said a personwho had travel history to theUnited States tested positiveon Thursday.

With this, the number ofconfirmed COVID-19 cases inMaharashtra has reached 12.Apart from nine confirmedpatients in Pune, two personshave tested positive for thevirus in Mumbai and one inNagpur.

Collector Ram said the per-son who tested positive onThursday had arrived from theUS on March 1 and his sampleswere taken on March 11.Thecondition of all the patients inthe city, being treated at thecivic-run Naidu Hospital, isstable, he said. PTI

Aizawl: A conglomerate of 15 major Churches ofMizoram has asked its constituents to seek divineintervention to contain the coronavirus pandemic, achurch leader said on Thursday.

Member churches of the Mizoram KohhranHruaitute Committee were asked to seek God's inter-vention so that the state remains safe from novel coro-navirus attack and the global pandemic is contained,MKHC general secretary Rev Lalrinsangasaid.

The World Health Organization on Wednesdaydeclared the novel coronavirus a pandemic, sayingit has affected more than 1,18,000 people andclaimed 4,290 lives worldwide.

“All the member churches across the state willhold congregational prayer during church serviceseither on Saturday or Sunday night as per their con-venience,” Lalrinsanga told PTI.

“We have appealed to the people to follow andobey the dos and don'ts set by the government inorder to prevent the spread of coronavirus,” the churchleader said.

The church leader also said that the committeeheld a meeting in Aizawl on Wednesday during whichit expressed concern about alleged hoarding of essen-tial commodities.

“The church committee appeals to the people notto hoard commodities and hike prices at the time ofglobal crisis,” he said.

To allay fears of people, officials of state food, civilsupplies and consumer affairs department said therewas enough stock of rice, cooking gas and oil to lastfor three months.

The state government has formally sealed stateborders with neighbouring countries and states onWednesday. PTI

Pune: Passengers arrriving hereby Dubai -Pune flights wouldbe placed under quarantine athospital if they have visited,after February 15, any of theseven “high- risk” countrieswhich have seen major coron-avirus outbreaks.

Eight Pune residents,including a couple whoreturned from Dubai, havetested positive for the coron-avirus.

Passengers from sevenhigh-risk countries will bestraightway sent to quarantineirrespective of whether theyhave any symptoms, said divi-sional commissioner DeepakMhaisekar.

A Spice Jet flight fromDubai is scheduled to land at

the Pune airport on Friday andanother on Saturday.

“As per the Union govern-ment's guidelines, if passengerson these flights have travelhistory to China, Italy, Iran,Republic of Korea, France,Spain and Germany afterFebruary 15, they will be keptunder institutional quarantine(in hospital) in the city,” saidMhaisekar.

“We are trying to obtaintravel history post-February15 of the passengers on thesetwo flights,” he added.

A “containment program”has been launched in three-kmradius in four areas of the citywhere the patients who havetested positive for the viruslive. PTI

Chennai: The Madras High Court hasDisposed of a petition seeking a directionto the State Government to shutdownschools from kindergarten upto highschool till the coronavirus is contained.

When the plea came up, the court tooknote of two letters issued by the state gov-ernment mentioning precautionary mea-sures against the disease and instructionsgiven to airports for screening all passen-gers. It directed the state government to takeappropriate steps for issuing instructionsthat may be necessary in relation to all edu-cational institutions in the state.

Disposing of the plea filed by advocateVK Rajavelu, the court said the petitionerhas nowhere disclosed in the entire affidaviteven a single incident pertaining to anoccurrence of a coronavirus case in anyeducational institution.

“In the absence of any such material,such cavalier petition does not deserve tobe entertained as a knee jerk reaction to shutdown the schools,” the First Bench, com-prising Chief Justice AP Sahi and JusticeSenthil Kumar Ramamoorthy, said.

The petitioner said coronavirus caseswere increasing the world over and accord-ing to doctors, children and elderly peopleare less immune and likely to get infectedsoon. PTI

Mangaluru: The man whoarrived here from Dubai withsuspected symptoms of coron-avirus has shown no signs ofthe disease following tests, dis-trict officials said here onThursday.

The man, who was diag-nosed with a high fever after hearrived at the MangaluruInternational Airport (MIA) onMarch 8, had left the govern-ment Wenlock Hospital duringthe early hours of March 9refusing to undergo tests.

He was later traced andadmitted to the governmenthospital at Bantwal on March9.

He has since then been dis-charged from the hospital andasked to stay at home quaran-tined for the next 14 days,Dakshina Kannada Deputy

Commissioner Sindhu BRupesh told reporters here.

A total of 49 people areunder quarantine in the districtof which five have completedthe 28-day cycle.

All passengers arrivingby international flights andthose in contact with themshould voluntarily report to thedistrict health team and under-go self-quarantine for 14 days,she said. Screening facility atthe MIA has been strengthenedby posting doctors from sevenprivate medical colleges onrotation basis.

These doctors have beenposted in addition to the med-ical officer at the airport.

An ambulance has beenplaced at the airport exclusivelyto shift people to the hospitals,she said. PTI

Pune: Authorities in Pune havewarned of penal action againstthose who reveal the identity ofpatients testing positive forcoronavirus on social mediaplatforms.

Taking cognisance of acomplaint from a relative of aPune-based patient, who test-ed positive for COVID-19,divisional commissionerDeepak Mhaisekar said policehave been asked to monitorsocial media posts and takeappropriate action in such mat-ters.

“The police have beenasked to monitorsocial mediaplatforms through their cybercell to make sure that norumours are spread and theidentity of patients should notbe revealed,” Mhaisekar said. Ifthe identity of a patient isrevealed, the person and hisfamily could face social hard-ships, he noted.

“So, there is a need to bemore socially concerned aboutthese issues. We have beenmaking appeals since day one,but despite that, some people

are spreading wrong and mis-leading information on socialmedia, and we have receivedone such complaint,” he said.

Mhaisekar said the PunePolice's cyber cell is keeping aclose watch on rumour-mon-gers and those revealing theidentity of coronavirus patients.

He assured that appropri-ate penal action will be takenagainst such people.A relative of one of theCOVID-19 patients onWednesday wrote to the divi-sional commissioner, allegingthat informationabout theinfected person was revealedon social media and this has ledhis family to face hardships.

“The family is facing asocial boycott-like situation”, hesaid.The complainant soughtaction against those whorevealed the identity of thepatient on social media.

So far, 11 positive coron-avirus cases have been report-ed from Maharashtra, includ-ing eight in Pune, two inMumbai and one inNagpur. PTI

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Lucknow: A 35-year-oldIndian-origin doctor fromCanada, who came to visit herrelatives here, has been testedpositive for novel coronavirus(COVID-19) at the KGMUand her samples have been sentto Pune’s National Institute ofVirology for reconfirmation, asenior doctor said on Thursday.

She has been kept in an iso-lation ward while her hus-band, who had accompaniedher, has also been tested but hasbeen found to be negative inthe two tests conducted onhim, Professor D Himanshu of

King George’s MedicalUniversity’s MedicineDepartment said.

The 35-year-old doctor ofIndian origin is based inToronto, Canada and hadarrived here on March 8. Shewas tested positive onWednesday night and her sam-ples have been sent for recon-firmation to NIV, DrHimanshu said.

Though she did not showany symptoms during screen-ing at the Lucknow airport, shedeveloped fever and coughlater and contacted the doctorsat KGMU, he said.

The doctors are also iden-tifying those who had inter-acted with her between March8 and 11 and they will all betested, he added.

“Her husband is alsounder observation in the hos-pital but he will be dischargedby evening today,” DrHimanshu said. KGMUspokesman Dr Sandip Tiwarisaid a total of 300 samples fromacross the state have been test-ed in the lab in KGMU hospi-tal and besides the seven casesof Agra, the latest case of theCanadian doctor has beenfound to be positive. PTI

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Activists belonging to Leftwing and Dravidian

Forum will stage a night longsit-in at the Himalaya Lawnsof the IIT-Madras on Fridayto express their solidaritywith Shaheen Bagh kind ofprotests across the country.

This was stated by one ofthe student leaders on condi-tion of anonymity. “we haveput up many hoardings acrossthe IIT campus and are cir-culating posters to be dis-played during the 12 hour sit-in,” said the student leader. Heclaimed that the teachingcommunity and the studentswere in unison with the sit-in. Tamil Nadu is still wit-

nessing protest marches andrallies across the Statae againstthe CAA and related laws.The Muslim organisations inthe State want the Tamil NaduLegislative Assembly to passa resolution condemning theCAA. But the chief ministerand his cabinet colleagueshave rejected the demand.

Situation in Coimbatore,a communally sensitive citycontinues to be tense follow-ing attacks on Hindu Frontleaders and counter-attackson leaders of Islamic organi-zations. More than 2,000policemen have beendeployed in the sensitive areasof the city in the backgroundof attacks using petrol bombsand other deadly

weapons.

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Bengal BJP is planning toproject former State Minister

and Trinamool Congress discardSovan Chatterjee as its Mayoralcandidate in the coming KolkataMunicipal Corporation elec-tions.

A senior State BJP leadersaid “Sovan da is a seasonedcampaigner and can be an assetfor the BJP if he chooses to leadthe party from the front in theKMC elections… already ourall-India president JP Naddajihas been informed about theState party’s views and he is notopposed to the idea of ropinghim in.”

Chatterjee once a blue-eyedboy of Chief Minister MamataBanerjee quit the party after itapparently backed his wife Ratnain her legal matrimonial battlewith Chatterjee.

Subsequently Chatterjee aformer Mayor of Kolkata joinedthe BJP along with his closewoman aide Baisakhi Banerjee.However, he distanced himselffrom his new outfit withinmonths of his joining it follow-ing differences with BJP’sobserver for Bengal KailashVijabargiya.

At present Chatterjee findshimself parked on a “no man’sland” maintaining equidistance

from both the outfits though theBJP sources say that he is still aprimary member of the partyregardless of the distance he ismaintaining.

The BJP renewed its effortto project Chatterjee as itsMayoral candidate after theTMC entrusted his estrangedwife Ratna Chatterjee with thepre-poll organsational functionsfrom Behala East Assembly con-stituency from where SovanChatterjee is still a sitting MLA.

Though neither Sovan norBaisakhi would mince words ontheir future course of actionsources close to them they havenot as yet made up their mindson whether to take up theresponsibility that the BJP is will-ing to entrust on him.

“There is no formal com-munication from any side…No decision has yet been taken.Let an opportune moment comethen only a decision will betaken,” Banerjee said whileSovan maintained a studiedsilence. When contacted seniorState BJP leader Pratap Banerjeesaid his party was indeed will-ing to field Chatterjee as its facein the KMC elections. “Sovan dais a big leader and as far as Iknow he is stilla BJP member. Inthat case the only question iswhether he will take active partin the elections.

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Tamil film’s super starRajinikanth, who was

expected to make an importantdeclaration on Thursdayregarding the launch of his pro-posed political party made itknown that he was not in ahurry and also he would neverbe the Chief Minister of theState.

“Had I wanted, I wouldhave become the ChiefMinister in 1996 at the age of45. Why should I aspire for apost which I had declined 24years ago?” he asked whilespeaking to journalists atChennai on Thursday. Thereigning star of South Indianfilms asked the people of theState to create an environmentwhereby his idea of gover-nance and Government couldbe implemented. “If only thepeople accept the kind of pol-

itics which I want, we will beable to make any change.Otherwise it will be like cook-ing Chakkarai Pongal (a sweetTamil delicacy) in the same potwhere Meen Kuzhambu (fishcurry) had been cooked,” saidRajinikanth.

Explaining the rationalebehind his decision not toaccept the post of ChiefMinister, Rajinikanth said pre-ferred Tamil Nadu to be therole model for other States inthe country.

“The Chief Minister shouldbe one who is fully devoted tothe matters affecting the Stateand he/she should not be bur-dened with other tasks. It wasin Tamil Nadu we brought aregional party (DMK) to powerdefeating the Congress for thefirst time in the country’s his-tory. My idea of a chief minis-ter’s job is different from thatof a conventional political boss.My idea of politics is that the

party president and ChiefMinister should be differentpersons.,” explainedRajinikanth.

He also disclosed that morethan 50 per cent of the posts inhis party as well as the cabinetwould be reserved for peoplebelow the age of 50 and whohas professional qualifications.“We will rope in retiredbureaucrats and professionalsfor advisory jobs. Ours will notbe a political party of profes-sional politicians,” he said.

The actor set precondi-tions for his entry into theunknown terrain of politics.“As on today, Tamil Nadu isdominated by two Jambavans,two entities with all resourcesavailable in the world. TheAIADMK and the DMK.While the DMK has been outof power for the last ten years,it is bestowed with men andinfrastructure. The AIADMK is

in charge of public treasury andis in a position to manipulatethe way people think,” he said.

According to Rajinikanth,there are 50,000 office bearersworking all over Tamil Nadu inboth the DMK as well as theAIADMK. “This is the rootcause of corruption and I wantthat system to go. Politicsshould not be for makingmoney but it should be for pub-lic welfare,” he said.

He asked the people ofTamil Nadu to set the agendaand prepare the ground for therevolutionary change envis-aged by him. “Then we willthink about the politics andgovernance,” he said.

Maalan Narayanan, TamilNadu’s leading author andpolitical commentator who hasbeen tracking the course ofRajinikanth’s political journey,described the actor’s Thursdayannouncement as a tacit with-

drawal from the battle field. “Itis like one step forward and twosteps backward.

Rajinikanth’s concept ofpolitics is the same that waspreached by Mahatma Gandhibut I doubt whether it wouldmaterialise in the near future.There is lot of differencebetween practical politics andpragmatics. I feel chances arethat he may end up like hisadvisor Tamilaruvi Manian,who too harps on value basedpolitics,” Maalan told ThePioneer.

Kolahala Srenivaas, politi-cal observer, was blunt in hisobservation that Rajinikanthwould not take any hasty deci-sion. “He has set the ground forhis withdrawal from politics. Idon’t think people in TamilNadu would be able to providehim what he has asked for inreturn for his entry into poli-tics; revolution, upsurge andwave.

Chennai: Tamil Nadu ChiefMinister K Palaniswami onThursday sought to allay fearsover coronavirus, saying thestate was home to the bestmedical practitioners in thecountry and people need notpanic. Making his first com-ment on the coronavirus in thestate Assembly on Thursday,Palaniswami said the diseasespread only through those peo-ple coming from foreign desti-nations and those living in thestate were not affected.

The state reported its firstcoronavirus case on March 7 inwhich a 45-year-old engineerhailing from Kancheepuramhad tested positive after return-ing from Oman.

The Chief Minister saidthe government was screeningthose who come to the state

from various foreign destina-tions and those showing symp-toms were isolated and givenproper treatment at the RajivGandhi Government GeneralHospital (RGGH).

Reiterating the earlier com-ments made by Health andFamily Welfare Minister CVijayabhaskar that the diseasewas spreading through thoseindividuals who had returnedfrom overseas, Palaniswamisaid facilities are available to giveproper treatment to those peo-ple if they show symptoms ofthe virus. “There is no need toworry. Around 1.50 lakh peoplewho had arrived from foreigncountries were screened andonly those with symptoms of thevirus are given treatment by iso-lating them,” Palaniswami said. PTI

Jammu: The Jammu &Kashmir administration onThursday said 1,433 travellersand persons in contact withsuspected coronavirus caseshave been put under surveil-lance in the Union Territory,which has reported one posi-tive case so far.

With the cases of coron-avirus on the rise in the coun-try, Financial Commissioner ofthe Jammu & Kashmir Healthand Medical EducationDepartment Atal Dulloo tookstock of measures put in placeto prevent the spread of the dis-ease in the Union Territory(UT). He also inspected thefacilities for suspected patientsin two hospitals in Jammu.

“In UT of J&K till date,1,433 travellers and persons incontact with suspected cases

have been put under surveil-lance, of whom 1,178 are underhome quarantine,” a Healthbulletin issued by the UTadministration said.

Of them, 17 are under hos-pital quarantine, 80 in homesurveillance and 158 have com-pleted their 28-day surveil-lance period, it said.

As many as 74 sampleshave been sent for testing andout of which, 29 are negativeand only one have tested pos-itive, while reports of 44 sam-ples are awaited, it said.

The administrationappealed to the people to vol-untarily declare their foreigntravel history.

Officials said coronavirustesting labs have been started inSher-i-Kashmir Institute ofMedical Sciences in Srinagar

and Government MedicalCollege in Jammu.

Another facility atGovernment Medical Collegein Srinagar was operationalisedon Thursday.

Control rooms and sur-veillance teams have been con-stituted in all districts, theysaid. The government hasstrongly urged all social, reli-gious and political organisa-tions to avoid large gatherings.

There is no need to panic,the public is advised to main-tain social distancing; avoid un-necessary travel and use of pub-lic transport; and also takebasic precautions, includingpersonal hygiene, frequenthand washing with soap andobserving coughing and sneez-ing etiquettes,” the govern-ment advisory said. PTI

Srinagar: PDP leader and for-mer trade unionist AbdulQayoom Wani on Thursdayrenounced politics in protestagainst the Centre’s decision torepeal Article 370 and bifurca-tion of Jammu & Kashmir intoUnion Territories.

Wani, a trade union leader,had joined the PeoplesDemocratic Party (PDP) aheadof the Lok Sabha polls in 2019.

“I am renouncing politicsto protest against the illegal andunconstitutional decision ofthe Centre regarding abrogation

of Article 370 and repeal ofArticle 35A,” he said in a state-ment.

Wani contested from northKashmir’s Baramulla Lok Sabhaconstituency on a PDP ticketand stood fourth.

He had demanded that theCentre should release all main-stream and separatist politicianswho have been arrested afterthe government’s August 5,2019 decision to abrogateArticle 370, which gave specialstatus to the State of Jammu &Kashmir. PTI

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Coimbatore: Tight vigil isbeing maintained in the cityand those involved in attack onworkers of SDPI and RSS willbe brought to book soon, PoliceCommissioner Sumit Saransaid on Thursday.

Police have taken 127 peo-ple into preventive custody asa precautionary measure, hetold reporters here and soughtcooperation from the regionaloutfits to maintain peace andcommunal harmony.

Adequate police force hasbeen deployed in and aroundthe city to meet any eventual-ity and also instill confidenceamong the public, he said.

Besides, vehicle checkshave been intensified at 40strategic points across the city,particularly during night, hesaid, adding that three caseswere registered in connectionwith the incidents over the lastone week.

Arrests have already beenmade in the two cases of hurl-ing of petrol bombs on amosque and Hindu Munnanioffice.

Those protesting werealso asked to avoid any type ofagitations in the city for oneweek, he added.

A RSS worker was attackedon Wednesday, in a fresh inci-dent in the cycle of violence inthe city for the past few daysafter the assault of a Hindu out-fit leader last week.

Tension gripped parts ofthe city since the attack onHindu Munnani SecretaryMadukkarai Anand on March5 when he was returning homeafter attending a pro-CAAdharna and hurling of a petrolbomb on a mosque withinhours.

On Tuesday, the HinduMunnani office here cameunder petrol bomb attack whilea functionary of the SDPI wasthrashed by some unidentifiedpeople. PTI

Guwahati: Over 1,000 posts ofdoctors were lying vacant inhealth institutions acrossAssam due to which around1,800 doctors were engaged oncontract to overcome thisshortage, a state minister saidin the Assembly on Thursday.

Though steps were beingtaken to fill the 1,115 vacanciesin a phased manner, the stategovernment has meanwhileengaged 1,792 doctors on acontractual basis under theNational Health Mission(NHM) to meet the immediate

requirement, state Health min-ister Himanta Biswa Sarmasaid.

The state government hasalso engaged 12,528 nongazetted employees against3,999 posts lying vacant, theminister said in a reply to aquestion of Rupjyoti Kurmi ofthe Congress.

The posts were lying vacantin health facilities of the stateunder Health and FamilyWelfare (A) Department.

Another 1,342 posts ofgazetted and non-gazetted staffin medical colleges and other

institutions under Health andFamily Welfare (B) Departmentare also lying vacant, Sarmasaid.

At least 366 faculty postsunder the Directorate ofMedical Education and 57 sim-ilar posts under the Directorateof AYUSH are lying vacant,Sarma said.

A total of 355 posts of assis-tant professors in government-funded colleges, and 22,938posts in different categorieswere also lying vacant underthe Directorate of SecondaryEducation, he said. PTI

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It’s obvious to anyone, who has seen thevideos and read the first-hand accountsof residents in the troubled north-eastarea of Delhi, that what happened therewas a bloody Hindu-Muslim commu-

nal riot. Tensions were building up ever sincesome citizens launched a nationwide protestagainst the Citizenship Amendment Act(CAA), which often turned violent and dis-rupted normal life in many Indian cities forover two months. Videos shot in the affect-ed areas of Delhi show huge pile of petrolbombs, acid, bricks and stones on the terracesof Muslim residents, including that of a Delhilegislator, burqa-clad women thrashing hap-less policemen and joining the lynch mob.Such was the ferocity of the attacks that sev-eral senior officers suffered grievous injuriesand a Hindu Intelligence Bureau (IB) officialwas hacked to death by his Muslim neigh-bours. He is said to have been stabbed sev-eral hundred times. One had heard of suchbarbarity during the Moplah uprising in 1921and the Kolkata riots after MA Jinnah’s callfor “direct action” on August 16, 1946, tosecure an Islamic nation. It was a blood bath.

This is not to say that the Hindus innorth-east Delhi were silent and innocentspectators. They were not and as much guilty.Seeing the build-up in the Muslim mohallas,they stocked up, too and, therefore, when theriots broke out, the streets resembled a bat-tle field. One had not seen such hatred andviolence between the two communities in along time. So, what triggered this timearound?

One, having got used to a standard dietof appeasement for seven decades, theMuslims find the “no-appeasement” policyof Prime Minister Narendra Modi unaccept-able and, therefore, there has been simmer-ing discontent in the community, which onlyneeded a trigger to explode. Some leaders ofthe community added fuel to the fire by cit-ing the abrogation of the special status ofJammu & Kashmir last August and theSupreme Court’s judgment in the RamJanmabhoomi-Babri Masjid case as develop-ments that hurt the Muslims. The commu-nity was, therefore, looking for a cause andthe CAA came along. Then, the riots hap-pened and it found a chance to play the vic-tim card again.

It must also be said that this timearound, there is gross miscalculation amongthe Muslims about the response of Hindus totheir assertiveness and violence. Havingwatched the sociological transformation of theHindus over many decades, it must be saidthat the Hindu of the 1950s or 1960s, whowould stoically bear with the demands of thisaggressive minority in the hope that eventu-ally things would settle down, no longer exists.The attitude of the Western media and itsIndian cohorts, who are busy spreading Hinduphobia, has proved to be highly provocative.They are actually promoting hatred and vio-lence among these communities. The role ofsocial media and the videos in circulation is

the new-age fuel for communalconflagration. Both communitieshave to factor in the new attitudesthat govern them. The Muslimshave to realise this and arrive ata new equation for peaceful co-existence. The Hindus have tounderstand the anxieties plagu-ing this religious minority andfind ways to restore harmony.Both communities must nowaccept that the old equation hascollapsed.

Following Partition, theMuslims of India on this side ofthe border had the option toeither cross over and become partof an Islamic State or stay put andbecome citizens of a secular,democratic India. Around 35million of them chose to stayback and live in a democraticnation. They constituted about 10per cent of the 350 million peo-ple in India after Partition. Latestestimates indicate that theMuslim population has swelledto 175 million over the last sevendecades and this community iswell spread out across the lengthand breadth of this country.

The integration of theMuslims into a secular, democ-ratic nation that emerged in1947 would have been easy if onlythe then Government, headed byPrime Minister JawaharlalNehru, had given them theoption of either living in an Indiawith a common civil code thatwould be uniformly applicable toall citizens across communities or

to cross the border and live in anIslamic State. Nehru’s Muslimappeasement policy encouragedthe hotheads among the Muslimsto such an extent that even afterPartition and the creation ofPakistan, some Muslim membersof the Constituent Assemblydemanded separate electoratefor the Muslims in democraticIndia. Sardar Patel and otherleaders felt that this demand waspreposterous.

The concession Nehru madeto the Muslim clergy after inde-pendence is indeed the timebomb that is ticking away andthreatens to destroy India’s unityand integrity. After Nehru, hisdaughter Indira Gandhi, in orderto muster the Muslim vote aftershe split the Congress in 1969,continued to molly-coddle theulemas. The Congress got thebest opportunity to wash away itssins vis-à-vis Muslim appease-ment when the Supreme Courtdelivered the historic judgmentin the Shah Bano case anddeclared that divorced Muslimwomen were entitled to mainte-nance like other divorcees, as pro-vided for in Section 125 of theCode of Criminal Procedure. Thecourt took the opportunity todraw the country’s attention toArticle 44 of the Constitution,which committed the State tobring in a Uniform Civil Code.It said such a code would help thecause of national integration.

While this judgment was

hailed across the country, theMuslim clergy was up in armsagainst the apex court’s decision.Even though Prime MinisterRajiv Gandhi had won the biggestmandate ever in the country’sparliamentary elections — over410 seats — he was unable orunwilling to stand up to the mul-lahs and brought in a law to undothe top court’s verdict. This law,the Muslim Women (Protectionof Rights on Divorce) Act, 1986,declared that Muslim men hadno obligation to pay maintenanceto their divorced wives like othermen.

Given this history, the viciouspropaganda unleashed byMuslim communalists in theinternational media against Indiais bunkum. India was and is theworld’s biggest secular, democra-tic nation and its Hindu major-ity is very proud of it. TheMuslims must acknowledge thisand be wary of the false narrativebeing spread my mischief-mak-ers. For once, the UnionGovernment has begun to assertitself to correct the follies ofNehru and his progeny. This isthe only way by which we canpreserve the core values of ourConstitution and protect India’sunity and integrity. The majori-ty cannot allow some malcon-tents among a minority to wreckthis.

(The writer is an author spe-cialising in democracy studies.Views expressed are personal.))��������� ����������������

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Sir — This refers to the editori-al, “Just another Scindia” (March12). It was more than clear thatJyotiraditya Scindia was at oddswith his party ever since he wasdenied the rightful place he wasaspiring for. Both in Rajasthanand Madhya Pradesh, theCongress high command reliedheavily on the old guard and didnot pay heed to the leadershipcapability of the young Turks.

The Congress was able toform a Government in MadhyaPradesh with support from lead-ers like Kamal Nath, DigvijayaSingh and Scindia. Yet therewards weren’t apportioned fair-ly. Scindia was naturally infuriat-ed for being ignored. Politicalanalysts have expressed theiropinion that such a crisis, thoughnot entirely unexpected, couldhave been averted had the grandold party addressed mountingdiscontent among its leaders. Butis Scindia a mass leader as is madeout to be? Is it so easy to changeparty ideology? Having politicalambitions is one thing but com-prising on ideology another.

Vinod C DixitAhmedabad

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Sir — This refers to the article,“Uddhav doing a tightrope walk”(March 12) by Kalyani Shankar. Ifthe past is any indication, coali-

tion Governments have had ashort shelf-life. Notwithstandingthis, political parties are compelledto fall back on regional parties,which time and again keepreminding the Central leadershipof their compulsions and vulner-

abilities. A tripartite alliancepremised starkly on different ide-ologies, like the one inMaharashtra of the Shiv Sena, theNationalist Congress Party (NCP)and the Congress, is yet anotherexperiment in this series. Verily

speaking, keeping its partners ingood humour while adhering tothe Hindutva plank is an uphilltask for Sena supremo UddhavThackeray.

The writer’s observation thatthe Sena, NCP and Congressshould keep their respective pub-lic images intact in order toretain their electorate holds goodeven as Uddhav has admitted thathe doesn’t want a Hindu Rashtra.As long as utopia prevails, nobodyminds — happiness flowing frompeace, communal harmony, tol-erance and respect for one and all,irrespective of faith, religion,region, language caste and creed.

Azhar A KhanRampur

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Sir — The State Bank of India (SBI)is perhaps the best shock absorberin the banking sector. But with sev-eral enterprises experiencing stressand surge in bad loans, how longcan it retain its elasticity is a mat-ter of grave concern.

ShantanuVia email

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If one were to look at the headlines dominat-ing our news channels and the print mediathese days, the COVID 19 pandemic would

be a distant third, behind the political upheavalin Madhya Pradesh following JyotiradityaScindia’s departure from the Congress Party andthe collapse of Yes Bank amid allegations of fraudand deceit by its former chairman and founder,Rana Kapoor and his family. We would do wellto remember that the former two issues, whileimportant, are certainly not life-threatening. Theglaring fact is that till about the third week ofFebruary, Italy had just about the number of casesthat we have today. These crossed the 12,000mark, with over 600 fatalities, in just a matter ofa fortnight. There is of course the possibility thatthe Coronavirus may not impact us as badly forany number of reasons, ranging from high tem-peratures that are usually prevalent at this timeof the year to the fact that we may be God’s cho-sen people. It may even be that because gener-al hygiene is not exactly our strong suite and wehave a better immunity because of it, we mightbeat any impact the Coronavirus might other-wise have on us. However, if these are the ratio-nales that we prefer to exercise to ignore theimminent danger that the Coronavirus poses,then we may well be in for a rude shock.

Megan McArdle, The Washington Postcolumnist and author, uses this old brain teaserto explain the spread of the Coronavirus pandem-ic. “You have a pond of a certain size and uponthat pond, a single lily pad. This particular speciesof lily pad reproduces once a day, so that on daytwo, you have two lily pads. On day three, youhave four and so on. If it takes the lily pads 48days to cover the pond completely, how long willit take for the pond to be covered halfway?” Theanswer is of course 47 days and not 24 as someof us may well conclude but more importantlyeven as late as day 40, one will barely know thelily pads are there as the numbers will still be quitesmall.

Now here’s the catch. Events in both Wuhan,where the virus is said to have originated, andItaly suggest that the number of people infect-ed by the virus doubles every four-five days,which means a ten-fold increase every fortnight.But since there is no preventive anti-virus drugavailable yet, leaving aside some rather fancifulsuggestions, our complete population is clearlyat risk. This obviously implies that if appropri-ate preventive measures are not adopted, ourhealthcare system, which has inherent flawsalready, is at great risk and is bound to be over-whelmed in a relatively short period of time, oncethe threshold is crossed. The threshold is thepoint at which we would just not have therequired infrastructure, i.e. the doctors, nurses,beds or even the ventilators essential for treat-ing those affected.

That in turn would have its own repercus-sions because once that occurs, the doctors wouldhave to play God and select and treat only thosepatients who have the best chance of survival.Triage, as it is known in military circles, is alleged-ly already happening in Italy and may well havebeen resorted to in China. Without doubt, thiswould be the rational choice as one would rather

provide the necessary medical facilitiesto a 20-year-old with better chances ofsurvival and a brighter future ahead ofhim, than to a 65-year-old whosechances of making it are infinitely less.However, make no mistake, that if andwhen such a situation occurs, themedical fraternity will find itself underthe spotlight, facing a great deal ofscrutiny and controversy for the choic-es that they will make, given thatthese will greatly impact social cohesionfor reasons not too difficult to visualise.

Therefore, when the PrimeMinister and the Health Minister, him-self a doctor, tell us not to panic, theyundoubtedly make eminent sense, butfor the fact that we do not really see thekind of drastic measures being initiat-ed here as we have seen in China, Italy,Hong Kong or even Singapore. This isnot a political issue and just talk of“being prepared” or “screening” cannotbecome the buzzword to suggest thatthe Government is in control. The sadfact is that in this specific case, for nofault of the Government, it is theCoronavirus that is in the driver’s seatand we, the people, are on the back foot.Fortunately, the Government has takenthe important step of cancelling all visasissued for entry into the country for onemonth. While this will certainly help,whether it goes far enough in prevent-ing infections remains to be seen.Because more than worrying about thevirus being transmitted by those com-ing from the affected regions, we alsohave to take into account its transmis-sion from within our own communi-ties. The Government thus has littlechoice but to be ahead of the curve and

cannot wait to be overwhelmed beforeit initiates the necessary curbs onmovement and other such drastic mea-sures to firewall the spread of theCoronavirus. Undoubtedly, this will addto our economic burdens, along witha host of other issues. But, that will befar lesser than if we wait till some pre-determined numbers are affected, bywhich time it will be too late to halt thespread of the Coronavirus exponential-ly. As some experts have suggested, thetime for mere containment is gone andwe need to look at measures that willhelp in mitigation.

In this context, the Governments atthe State and Centre would do well toremember that we have problems thatare peculiar to us, which will greatlyimpact our ability to effectively imple-ment the measures that they may putin place. For one, we have an extreme-ly large part of our population that isignorant about matters such as person-al hygiene and what is worse, lackingthe necessary infrastructure requiredlike toilets and piped water. Issueswhich are of critical importance here.Moreover, many among us are whollylacking in the understanding of theirown civic responsibilities and tend tobe even less inclined to fulfil themunless forced.

That apart, hyperbole, superstitionand plain idiocy have run amok andthere are those, including prominentpolitical and religious leaders, who havemade bizarre and scientifically-unproven claims about how to counterthe Coronavirus. Unfortunately, theirviews receive uncalled for publicitythanks to social media and add to the

confusion. Second, unlike China, we neither

have the ability nor the self-disciplineto ensure that measures such as lock-downs can be effectively implementedby our police force. If we are to controlaccess and prevent gatherings ofcrowds, especially for religious events,then there is an urgent need for theGovernment to mobilise the CentralArmed Police Forces and the militarywith the necessary protective clothingand the requisite training. Mobilisationand training take time, as does deploy-ment, something we are very short of.Therefore, it is absolutely essential thatthe Government acts now and movesthe required forces so that they can beeffective as early as possible. There isin fact no time for a separate Plan B, itneeds to be implemented concurrent-ly.

Finally, there is no space for poli-tics here because the Coronavirus killswithout bias and does not respectboundaries, caste or creed. If we are tohalt its spread, we will have to worktogether and hard decisions will haveto be taken now, regardless of theirrepercussions. Just as the Reserve Bankof India was forced to declare a mora-torium on Yes Bank to prevent a run onthe bank, the Government must takedrastic action now if we are to controlthis pandemic. It would do well toremember that it is always better to besafe than sorry.

(The writer, a military veteran, is aconsultant with the Observer ResearchFoundation and a Senior Visiting Fellowwith The Peninsula Foundation,Chennai)

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While presenting the UnionBudget 2020-21, FinanceMinister (FM) Nirmala

Sitharaman proposed setting up fivenew smart cities to attract investmentand drive economic growth. Unlikethe metropolises under the SmartCities Mission (SCM) modelled aslight house with area-based and pancity development, the new smartcities will embrace full-fledged newdevelopment like GIFT city, SpecialEconomic Zones and so on.

However, a closer look at theprogress of the SCM reveals some dis-appointing trends. As of July 25, 2019,of the total approved projects ofunder �3 lakh crore, only 18 per centhave been completed; work ordershave been issued for 37 per cent pro-

jects; tenders have been issued for 16per cent and 29 per cent of proposedprojects are still at the “detailed pro-ject report” stage. Moreover, theSCM’s progress has been lopsided as54 per cent of the completed projectshave come from just four States —Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Gujaratand Uttar Pradesh. At the city level,10 cities (New Delhi, Belagavi, Surat,Indore, Varanasi, Raipur, Tumakuru,Vadodara, Ajmer and Ahmedabad)account for 48 per cent of the com-pleted projects. And 34 smart cities donot have evidence of even a singlecompleted project.

Even the holistic improvement ofthe cities seems to be unrealistic as,on average, the Area BasedDevelopment projects account for upto 80 per cent of the funds but don’tbenefit even five to 10 per cent of thecity’s population. However, theMinistry of Housing and UrbanAffairs (MoHUA) and the SCMnever leave any stone unturned tohighlight cosmetic achievements andannounce new measures like pairingsister towns on the basis of best andworst 20 performing cities or estab-lishing a Smart City Observatory. Tomany observers, the SCM’s initiatives

have become futile. For instance, theEase of Living Index report thatMoHUA started for all smart cities in2018 could not be furnished in 2019despite floating tenders for the sameover six times. Moreover, it was alsoreported that a SCM 2.0 will belaunched in 2020 that would cover allthe 4,302 cities in India. Hence, giventhe Centre’s continued and renewedfocus on smart cities, it is imperativeto understand the constraints plagu-ing the SCM since its inception.

Given the capacity problem at thecity level, leading private firms arebeing engaged as consultants and asProject Monitoring Units (PMUs) bythe Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs)for the preparation of the concept planand execution of the smart city pro-jects. Further, their aim is to create asustainable revenue model to attractprivate investment, but, this turns outto be abysmally low.

The SCM guidelines state that the“rights and obligations” of the city willbe transferred to the SPVs withoutspecifying the exact terms of the rela-tionship and hierarchy between them.The SPVs, headed by a CEO and reg-ulated by the Companies Act 2013,consist largely of bureaucrats with

only a small representation of elect-ed representatives or any experts. Themajor decision-making powers restswith the SPV and its board of direc-tors. Hence, many of their policychoices are guided by centrally-for-mulated guidelines. Quite contrary tothe ethos of decentralisation andempowerment of city Governments,the SPV-led process of implementingthe SCM becomes more bureaucrat-ic and technocratic. Even though it ispragmatic to allow the SPVs to workon smart proposals, that should be inconsonance with and not to theexclusion of elected representatives ofcity Governments.

Public participation has beenvirtually limited to consultationsonline on social media or websiteswith public responses in the form ofmultiple choice answers. This, inturn, increases the risk of makingthese proposals more elitist, leavingbehind the voices and needs of poorand marginalised citizens. In fact,there is evidence showing preferencefor costlier infrastructure over thebasic needs of majority urban resi-dents. Nearly 40 per cent of trans-portation projects are focussed onroads and parking lots, while only 20

per cent of the budget is focussed onpublic transportation and only twoper cent on buses.

Regarding the financing of SCM,studies have indicated a clear patternof not only heavy dependence on pub-lic funds for financing the mission, butthere has been a movement awayfrom market-oriented sources offunding like public-private partner-ships (PPPs) and loans, especially insmaller cities.

The FM’s proposal to develop fivenew smart cities highlights collabo-ration with States in a PPP mode.However, the contribution of suchPPP projects in value terms as well asthe sourcing of revenue from munic-ipal bonds continues to be ambigu-ous. In the absence of robust econom-ic, legal, financial and project viabil-ity, the municipal projects are rarelyperceived to be commercially viable.For this, funds can be arrangedthrough PPPs or by accessing the cap-ital market. With the banking systemcurrently under stress with bad debts,the SCM might not receive the nec-essary investments from the privatesector, at least, in the short term.

Nonetheless, some cities havemade significant progress in terms of

implementation of PPP (Nagpur,Vadodara) while some other citieshave taken specific measures (e.g.appointment of transactional advi-sors) for generating revenue frommunicipal bonds. Pune, Hyderabad,Indore, Bhopal and Amaravati havesuccessfully launched municipalbonds to finance some of their urbandevelopment projects. Emphasis hasalso been placed on land monetisa-tion as another important source forfinancing the SCM.

However, since land is a State sub-ject, city Governments cannot exer-cise their control over it and thus lackthe autonomy to use land indepen-dently to increase their revenues.Further, the use of land especially inthe SCM era has prompted concernsabout forced evictions in many citiesand raised concerns on the inclusiveideals of the SCM. Solutions to theabove problems are well-known andhave been recommended by expertsmany times. The real issues constrain-ing the functioning of cities are age-old in which the SCM has been stuck.City Governments will have to acquiregreater capability in raising resourcesfrom conventional sources (e.g., prop-erty tax, user fee and so on). This

would make them attractive forpotential private investors.

With the global urban populationpoised to grow in the coming decades,Indian cities will be enormouslyresponsible for “global growth andwell-being.”

Simply trusting specific sectorslike manufacturing or services forgrowth seems outdated for the 21stcentury, unless the governance ofcities is fixed.

In essence, into its fifth year ofimplementation, the SCM has turnedout to be inherently unsmart. Itneeds to change its course of actionif it aims to achieve inclusive growthand sustainable development. Forthis we need to draw lessons from fail-ures and build upon the SCM’s suc-cesses.

The Government must demon-strate its commitment towards localeconomic development, sustainabledevelopment and ease of living byinviting experienced countries topartner in the execution of the SCMand tackle the persisting challengesassociated with it in India.

(Soumyadip is Visiting SeniorFellow at IMPRI and Kumar isDirector, IMPRI)

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Given the coronavirus pan-demic and the resultant

bloodbath in global markets,including in the country, andplunging asset prices, the RBIwill begin to look beyond infla-tion and start easing rates to thetune of 65 basis points (bps) byJune, and the first rate cut couldcome even before the Aprilreview, according to Britishlender Barclays.

The domestic marketsrecorded its worst fall in historyon Thursday plunging as much8.2 per cent, while the rupeeplunged 56 paise to a 17-month-low of 74.24 to a dollar.

After nosediving over3,204.30 points on across-the-board selling, the Sensex closed2,919.26 points or 8.18 per centlower to 32,778.14, and theNifty gave up the 9,600-level,slumping 868.25 points or 8.30per cent to close at 9,590.15.

The rout followed the mar-kets bloodbath across the worldafter the World HealthOrganization (WHO) onWednesday termed the coron-avirus outbreak as a pandem-ic. “Growth risks have risendramatically, while CPI(Consumer Price Index) infla-

tion remains outside its targetband (at 6.58 per cent inFebruary down from 7.59 percent in January and 2.57 percent in February 2019).

“But, given the evolvingmacroeconomic situation anddeteriorating global backdrop,we believe risks of an inter-meeting cut of 25-40 bps haveincreased materially. Even ifRBI doesn’t make an inter-meeting move, we see themcutting by at least 65 bps byJune, with risks biased towardsmore easing than this,” Barclayssaid in a note on Thursday.

On the timing and thequantum of rates cuts, thereport says, “As a pre-emptivestep, the RBI could consider atleast 65 bps cuts over the nextthree months, which would pegreal rates close to 0, as CPIinflation appears set to declineclose to 4.5 per cent by June ifcrude stays close to current lev-els.” But, analysts at Barclays arequick to underline that “ratecuts will have little impact onnear-term growth withoutaccompanying steps to keepliquidity conditions ample”which it could ensure throughincreased long-term repo oper-ations (LTROs) or even out-right open market operations.

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India’s travel and hospitalityindustry is headed for its

worst crisis with an at least�8,500-crore hit in revenuesdue to suspension of mostvisas over fears of spread ofcoronavirus that would resultin lower footfalls and drop inbusiness for tour operators,hotels and aviation industry.

Hotels and tour operatorshave seen a spurt in cancella-tions particularly after theWHO declared the outbreak apandemic. Tourists cancelledtravel, hitting hotels, airlinesand tax collections after thegovernment suspended mostvisas in a bid to halt the spreadof coronavirus.

At least 40 per cent ofrooms across big chains ofhotels are going empty whilebanquet bookings have beencancelled, industry officialsand associations said.

Tour operators estimate

January-March quarter earn-ings could fall by more than 60per cent.

India, which annuallyearns �2,200 crore from foreigntourists arrivals, attracts near-ly one million overseas visitorsa month, a number whichcould see a drastic fall nextmonth due to travel restric-tions.

Indian Association of TourOperators (IATO), andAssocham saw job losses in thesectors as companies try to tideover the situation by cuttingnon-essential workforces andstopping recruitment. Theywanted the Government toreview the decision to sus-pend visas for a month andallow inbound travel throughlimited gateway cities.

“The ban on travel to Indiafor a period of one month willhave a cascading economicimpact and will lead to job loss-es in the entire hotel, aviationand travel sector. We estimate

that it will lead to direct loss ofnot less than �8,500 crore,”IATO Secretary Rajesh Mudgilltold PTI.

Assocham Tourism andHospitality Council ChairmanSubhash Goyal said since theoutbreak of coronavirus, theaviation and tourism industriesin India have been adverselyaffected.

“However, we were able tomanage our expenses and keepthe staff because some amountof essential travel was going on.The suspension of visas lastnight has come as an immedi-ate blow to the entire tourism,aviation and hospitality indus-try,” he said.

Warning of the conse-quences of the step, Goyalsaid, “If no visas are valid, with-in next ten days this travel andtourism industry will come toa virtual stop. It would meanthat everyone will cut downcosts and terminate non-essen-tial staff and stop recruiting

additional staff.”Expressing similar views,

Mudgill said, “In view of thestaggering loss that the entireindustry stares at, we requestthe Government to consider areview of the situation after 10days and also consider givingrelief in taxation to the sectoras it will help in mitigating thelosses suffered.”

Federation of Hotel &Restaurant Associations ofIndia (FHRAI) Vice PresidentGurbaxish Singh Kohlisaid,”Since November, whencoronavirus made news, hotelroom cancellations began andcrossed the 80 per cent mark.New bookings are almost com-pletely on hold, including theNRI segment which accountsfor 60 per cent of the tourismrevenues mostly in the monthsfrom April to September.”

Yatra.Com Co-Founderand COO, Corporate Travel &Head Industry Relations,Sabina Chopra said the latest

suspension of visas from allcountries to India is expectedto have a substantial impact onthe foreign tourist arrival in thecountry which was alreadywitnessing a drop due to theprevailing situation.

“We have received close to35 per cent cancellation queriesfrom travellers planning theirtrip to foreign destinations,” shesaid, adding airfares to affect-ed destinations have droppedby 40 per cent.

Chopra added, “There hasbeen about 18 per cent drop inhotel rates and we are receivingcancellation requests from var-ious travellers who are wary of

taking up trips domestically aswell.” According CII, this is oneof the worst crises ever to hitthe Indian tourism industryimpacting all its geographicalsegments — inbound, out-bound and domestic, almost alltourism verticals — leisure,adventure, heritage, MICE,cruise, corporate and nichesegments.

CII Tourism Committeesaid to save on variable costsand minimise fixed costs manysmall and mid-sized hotels,resorts and car rental compa-nies are shutting down opera-tions and asking staff to go onleave without pay.

Moreover, the workingcapital of many corporates inthe tourism sector is seriouslyhit by almost 60 per cent andfor micro, small and mediumtourism enterprises by almost80 per cent, it added.

“Most of the Indiantourism travel and hospitalitycompanies are facing demandsfor full refunds and they aredoing so out of their cashreserves even for which theyhave paid advance tax andGST,” the CII assessment reportadded.

The report further saidcancellations are “reaching apeak of almost 80 per cent nowin March in many Indian loca-tions. The value at risk fromthis segment will be in multi-ples of tens of thousands ofcrores.” With India cancellingall visas, the chamber said theimpact “will be worse”.

ANAROCK PropertyConsultants Chairman AnujPuri said, “The cancellation ofvisas for foreigners as well asthe strong advice issued toIndians to refrain from unnec-essary travel will have a marked

effect. This is the most unset-tling healthcare crisis in recenttimes and hotel bookings willgo south.”

On Indians being advisedto refrain from unnecessarytravel, the CII report said,“The December holiday seasonof 2019 took an estimated hitof almost 40-50 per cent, theholiday season of April to July2020 is likely to take a humon-gous hit which could be as highas 80-100 per cent, unless thereis positive news of the pro-gression of virus decreasing.

VFS Global Regional GroupCOO — South Asia, MiddleEast and North Africa, AmericasVinay Malhotra said,”While it istoo early to comment on theimpact of coronavirus on visaapplication trends, so far, ourvisa application processes inIndia continue on schedule asper the mandates of our clientGovernments.”

MakeMyTrip Group CEORajesh Magow said, “The deci-sion by the Government willhave an impact on inboundand outbound internationaltravel.”

New Delhi: India’s factory out-put showed a marginal rise inJanuary, while retail inflationeased to a two-month low inFebruary, paving the way forRBI to cut interest rate toboost the economy that may belosing steam due to the coro-navirus outbreak.

The Index of IndustrialProduction (IIP) grew by 2 percent in January against 1.6 percent a year back, displayingmoderate green shoots, officialdata released on Thursdayshowed. According to the datafrom the National StatisticalOffice (NSO), the manufac-turing sector output grew by1.5 per cent as compared witha rise of 1.3 per cent in the cor-responding month a year ago.

However, going forward,the February factory outputmay be impacted as severalindustries such as automo-biles, technology, pharma andfashion have some exposure toimports of raw and intermedi-ate materials from China.

Retail inflation eased to6.58 per cent in February, from7.59 per cent in the previousmonth, but remained above theReserve Bank of India’s targetband of 4 per cent, plus orminus 2 per cent.

Manufacturing, which isthe largest component of IIPhaving 77.6 per cent weight,continues to be down. It grewat 1.5 per cent in January 2020and just 0.3 per cent for the first10 months of current fiscal.

As per use-based classifi-cation, out of six sectors four —namely capital goods, infra-structure/construction goods,consumer durables and con-sumer non-durables — record-ed negative growth in January2020. CPI inflation in Februaryreversed six months of increas-ing trend mainly due to baseeffect and sequential decline infood price inflation as well asa dip in transport and com-munication inflation.

Core inflation, a measure ofdemand conditions in the econ-omy, also reversed after increas-ing for three months and camein at 4.08 per cent in February.Between Q1 FY19 and Q3FY20, core inflation declined to3.6 per cent from 6.2 per centand GDP growth declined to 4.7per cent from 7.1 per cent.

With the epidemic spread-ing fast in Europe and the US,a slowdown in these economieswill impact the global demandfor industrial and manufac-tured goods. PTI

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Stock markets tumbled acrossthe globe and oil prices

slumped Thursday afterPresident Donald Trumpbanned all travel from main-land Europe to the United States for a month tofight the coronavirus pandem-ic, ramping up fears of world-wide recession.

With the market panichaving already wiped awaymore than USD 11 trillion inglobal value, the head of theWorld Health Organisationsaid the COVID-19 outbreak“is a controllable pandemic” ifcountries stepped up measuresto tackle it.

“We are deeply concernedthat some countries are notapproaching this threat withthe level of political commit-ment needed to control it,”WHO director-general TedrosAdhanom Ghebreyesus tolddiplomats in Geneva, accord-ing to a statement.

Following an overnightslump, Sydney tumbled 7.4per cent on Thursday to sufferits worst session since the 2008global financial crisis.

Tokyo closed down 4.4 percent, putting it in a bear mar-ket after slumping more than20 per cent from a recent high.

Hong Kong shed 3.7 per

cent, though Shanghai was off1.5 per cent as China continuesto see infection rates slow.Manila crashed nearly 10 percent — sparking a brief tradinghalt — after it emergedPhilippines President RodrigoDuterte would undergo a pre-cautionary test for the virus.

In the Gulf, Saudi dumped3.0 per cent in value, Dubaitumbled 8.0 per cent and Qatarshed 4.5 per cent.

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The largest lender State Bankof India on Thursday

announced a �7,250-crore fundinfusion into the crippled YesBank under which it will pickup to 49 per cent equity in thefourth largest private sectorlender.

The fund infusion is part ofthe Reserve Bank-mandatedrescue plan.

SBI said its shareholding inYes Bank will remain within 49per cent of the paid up capitalof the private lender and fol-lowing the fund infusion, it willpick up 725 crore shares.

“The executive committeeof the central board at its meet-ing held on March 11 accord-ed approval for purchase of 725crore shares of Yes Bank at aprice of �10 a share, subject toregulatory approvals,” SBI said

in an exchange filing onThursday.

The bank, however, didnot mention the exact quantumof stake it will be buying in YesBank. Under the reconstruc-tion scheme, SBI will have tobuy 49 per cent of Yes Bank andcannot reduce its holdingbelow 26 per cent before for thenext three years.

The SBI investment of�7,250 crore is much higherthan �2,450 crore it had plannedinitially for 49 per cent stake inthe private sector lender thatbegan operations in 2004.

Last week, SBI chairmanRajnish Kumar had toldreporters that the bank wouldinvest �2,450 crore to buy 245crore shares of Yes Bank. Hehad also spoken about ropingin other investors and SBIinvestment would not exceed�10,000 crore.

On March 5, the RBIimposed a moratorium on YesBank, restricting withdrawalsto �50,000 per depositor tillApril 3. The RBI also super-seded the board and placed itunder an administrator,Prashant Kumar who is a for-mer deputy managing directorand CFO of SBI.

Since the RBI action, thecentral agencies ED and CBIhave arrested Yes Bank’s co-founder and former CEO RanaKapoor for alleged moneylaundering and corruption,while his wife Bindu and threedaughters are also beingquizzed by these agencies fortheir role in siphoning of pub-lic funds.

One of the biggest chargesagainst Kapoor is that he ille-gally benefitted to the tune of�3,000 crore by lending to cer-tain troubled companies like

DHFL, Anil Ambani group andEssel group — all the loansworth around �20,000 crorethat have turned into bad debt.

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Former Union MinisterSuresh Prabhu on Thursday

said it is essential that globalcommunity must join hands,develop new vaccines, helpvulnerable communities, poorcountries, restore public con-fidence and strengthen publichealth systems.

The former RailwayMinister left for Saudi Arabiaon Wednesday even as most ofdelegates cancelled their visit tothe country in the wake ofWHO declared pandemic

corona. “Must develop early warn-

ing system, work on preventivemeasures and avoid futurescare,” Prabhu said at the G20meeting of Sherpa at Khobar inSaudi Arabia.

Prabhu as an Indian rep-resentative who has been nom-inated as Sherpa by PrimeMinister Narendra Modi isattending the two day confer-ence on world economy. ASherpa is a personal represen-tative of a head of state whoprepares ground for him or herat international summits.

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Script Open High Low LTPUPL 510.00 520.20 435.00 443.55RELIANCE 1087.00 1100.70 1049.50 1061.60HDFCBANK 1075.00 1078.90 1003.55 1021.70SBIN 232.70 232.70 208.80 212.75TCS 1915.00 1915.00 1759.20 1769.85BAJFINANCE 3896.00 3896.00 3629.40 3734.30YESBANK 28.80 28.80 22.55 25.05INFY 670.00 670.00 627.70 631.55ICICIBANK 440.00 445.75 416.10 425.00TATAMOTORS 92.70 94.90 85.75 88.00LT 1077.00 1077.00 1005.00 1013.15IDEA 4.70 4.70 4.05 4.20IBULHSGFIN 175.95 175.95 138.45 162.90TATASTEEL 276.90 291.80 267.35 286.80ASIANPAINT 1870.00 1873.90 1815.80 1842.85INDUSINDBK 771.00 831.50 768.30 782.25KOTAKBANK 1520.00 1546.05 1430.20 1466.45HDFC 1981.75 1989.35 1863.95 1874.90ITC 170.00 170.00 150.40 156.25MARUTI 5958.00 5958.00 5555.55 5640.65EXIDEIND 152.80 152.80 139.70 143.40AXISBANK 598.60 598.60 532.00 542.85BAJAJFINSV 7999.00 7999.00 7399.30 7437.45BPCL 387.00 391.55 330.60 345.15WESTLIFE 381.60 381.60 325.00 374.10CERA 2300.00 2382.25 2295.00 2344.65RBLBANK 204.00 215.10 194.70 207.55ONGC 67.90 68.30 62.00 62.60INDIGO 1039.95 1039.95 946.65 1018.50BHARTIARTL 483.00 483.00 459.45 464.95SUNPHARMA 371.00 372.70 346.65 354.85EICHERMOT 17000.00 17272.50 16701.10 16887.75POWERGRID 181.55 181.55 165.00 165.85GODREJIND 375.00 375.00 348.85 353.25DALBHARAT 696.00 712.00 610.00 637.70VEDL 86.80 86.80 78.70 79.85HINDUNILVR 2109.90 2123.10 2032.50 2059.35HDFCAMC 2835.00 2835.00 2436.90 2480.15JSWSTEEL 210.00 213.20 200.65 203.05GODREJAGRO 420.00 420.00 380.25 390.35JUSTDIAL 410.00 427.40 370.00 375.10MOTHERSUMI 86.10 86.10 66.75 68.05BANKBARODA 62.35 62.85 56.20 56.65JUBLFOOD 1502.00 1573.60 1462.20 1474.60PNB 35.95 36.25 33.55 33.80JINDALSTEL 120.00 121.20 110.25 114.00EIDPARRY 166.25 166.25 146.00 150.85HEROMOTOCO 1991.00 1991.00 1803.20 1904.50DLF 170.00 170.00 154.60 156.40PEL 1168.00 1168.00 1019.40 1036.60COALINDIA 160.00 162.60 150.10 155.25HDFCLIFE 498.00 498.00 453.25 472.45L&TFH 88.00 91.90 80.45 81.50BHARATFORG 395.00 395.00 363.75 369.25NESTLEIND 15822.25 15873.80 15044.35 15619.40TITAN 1169.00 1169.00 1065.00 1078.20ULTRACEMCO 3950.00 3950.00 3616.00 3663.80GLENMARK 252.00 252.00 196.45 199.55NATIONALUM 29.40 29.45 25.90 27.10AUROPHARMA 443.00 443.00 371.10 374.50GRASIM 596.10 609.65 555.00 560.25GODREJCP 601.10 601.10 546.55 557.95M&M 431.55 435.70 400.00 423.80IOC 93.90 93.90 87.10 87.75BIOCON 296.00 296.00 267.25 273.80AAVAS 1850.00 1875.80 1661.00 1749.25ZEEL 194.00 199.75 188.70 190.80RECLTD 102.00 102.00 91.35 93.30NCC 24.75 24.75 21.70 22.15BAJAJ-AUTO 2550.00 2550.00 2321.00 2337.00NTPC 100.80 100.80 93.20 94.40BATAINDIA 1481.00 1481.00 1388.30 1410.60ASHOKLEY 65.00 65.05 60.60 63.35TORNTPOWER 300.00 300.00 280.15 289.90APOLLOHOSP 1621.00 1621.00 1480.00 1508.35SPICEJET 53.90 53.90 48.30 48.55GAIL 85.50 88.60 79.20 79.90ESCORTS 714.00 714.00 664.00 680.25IDFCFIRSTB 32.50 32.50 27.20 27.60BANDHANBNK 365.00 365.00 327.55 334.80CIPLA 423.00 423.00 391.00 394.85HAVELLS 600.00 600.00 515.40 576.15BHEL 26.75 26.75 24.00 24.25PIDILITIND 1688.00 1688.00 1586.20 1593.05TATAPOWER 36.45 41.20 34.00 40.50TECHM 685.10 686.35 637.90 649.80HINDPETRO 208.00 208.00 180.10 183.85MANAPPURAM 140.00 140.00 128.10 130.00NAM-INDIA 272.00 287.50 258.40 279.15LICHSGFIN 275.00 282.10 252.15 255.60DIVISLAB 2145.00 2145.00 1829.70 1915.95M&MFIN 316.00 316.00 279.55 283.70CANBK 109.00 109.00 97.25 98.50MUTHOOTFIN 817.00 817.00 749.60 754.95DEEPAKNI 450.90 450.90 390.10 440.15ACC 1185.00 1185.00 1082.50 1143.35MIDHANI 210.05 210.05 180.35 188.95HINDALCO 131.00 131.00 118.05 120.00INFRATEL 203.00 224.30 203.00 221.20BRITANNIA 2939.75 2974.80 2788.15 2807.10HCLTECH 525.00 525.00 486.65 492.90PVR 1450.00 1450.00 1335.95 1358.45TATACONSUM 324.00 324.00 297.40 303.75FEDERALBNK 68.50 68.50 62.50 63.10ADANIPOWER 38.00 39.20 29.75 30.35BALKRISIND 1009.40 1009.40 930.95 977.20WIPRO 205.90 206.60 197.75 199.20PETRONET 205.00 220.00 205.00 215.15

SRTRANSFIN 960.00 960.00 831.45 842.90SAIL 27.30 27.30 24.50 24.75ADANIGAS 111.55 114.50 95.80 98.90SRF 3677.95 3677.95 3346.65 3366.90ADANIENT 184.00 184.00 160.60 162.45SOBHA 229.95 246.30 212.75 240.55PFC 100.80 100.80 86.70 89.85ICICIGI 1139.95 1169.20 1065.00 1100.25MARICO 265.00 265.00 248.45 260.55UJJIVAN 296.90 296.90 261.40 262.95MFSL 490.00 490.00 441.00 442.60NAVINFLUOR 1377.00 1419.05 1317.85 1336.25BANKINDIA 38.00 38.00 32.40 33.80COLPAL 1232.00 1254.00 1174.60 1203.20WOCKPHARMA 240.05 240.05 204.75 206.70GMRINFRA 17.95 17.95 15.35 15.85SUNTV 398.00 398.00 352.05 360.35NAUKRI 2468.00 2475.00 2348.70 2361.50DRREDDY 2994.00 2994.00 2803.55 2854.80ADANIPORTS 307.25 307.25 284.15 286.70STAR 425.00 442.35 371.95 400.10MCX 1221.00 1221.00 1053.10 1169.10NIITTECH 1548.60 1550.10 1402.80 1438.15APOLLOTYRE 105.00 107.00 96.75 100.25OIL 78.90 80.75 73.70 75.20MRF 62300.00 62300.00 60001.10 60662.65TATAELXSI 950.00 950.00 868.65 878.15CRISIL 1428.15 1527.45 1361.80 1419.30TATAMTRDVR 41.80 45.25 37.50 44.30LUPIN 632.00 632.00 583.65 593.05DELTACORP 108.00 108.00 94.55 96.40INDHOTEL 110.10 118.00 96.55 110.45AMBUJACEM 185.50 185.50 169.25 175.85GRANULES 165.00 165.00 141.30 155.65NBCC 17.90 19.80 17.50 18.45SBILIFE 799.00 799.00 700.00 753.75ICICIPRULI 399.95 399.95 362.05 372.05BAJAJHLDNG 2900.00 3000.00 2840.60 2904.70BOSCHLTD 12140.00 12413.20 11222.40 11327.80GRAPHITE 170.85 176.25 158.30 159.85DABUR 478.90 478.90 451.95 454.95BEL 67.30 67.30 62.50 65.65BERGEPAINT 477.00 486.55 459.70 472.70VOLTAS 638.00 638.00 587.50 618.90AVANTI 338.00 338.00 286.20 310.50POLYCAB 975.80 975.80 850.05 874.70NMDC 80.00 80.00 71.20 72.15CONCOR 381.90 385.00 353.40 376.95SHREECEM 21200.00 21214.65 20170.45 20307.75INDIACEM 84.40 84.70 79.20 79.60HEXAWARE 335.00 335.00 275.00 291.60EQUITAS 84.00 84.00 71.15 73.05SIEMENS 1279.80 1279.80 1151.65 1182.15AUBANK 989.00 989.00 920.55 942.40TEAMLEASE 2284.95 2351.85 2201.35 2330.05PAGEIND 20620.00 20620.00 18983.80 19415.75UNIONBANK 31.45 31.45 28.85 29.05BLISSGVS 92.90 95.10 86.45 93.70DBL 318.00 318.00 272.50 282.10MGL 955.00 955.00 902.50 911.85ABCAPITAL 65.95 65.95 57.30 59.00TRENT 640.00 640.00 567.55 596.10LTI 1709.75 1730.45 1550.00 1609.95UBL 1165.00 1165.00 1021.35 1082.25STRTECH 80.00 80.15 69.90 72.80TORNTPHARM 2130.00 2130.00 1961.70 1985.15DMART 2070.00 2070.00 2018.20 2018.20ABBOTINDIA 14255.00 14445.30 12700.00 13886.45IGL 410.00 410.00 385.45 388.30DIXON 4198.00 4198.00 3884.00 4019.70NOCIL 87.30 87.30 76.35 77.50CADILAHC 256.00 256.00 234.65 236.30CUMMINSIND 467.00 467.00 418.00 449.15CGCL 200.00 205.00 181.50 201.40AMARAJABAT 585.00 598.95 546.50 558.35SPARC 125.25 125.25 108.90 113.10OMAXE 156.25 156.25 153.00 153.55METROPOLIS 1700.00 1730.00 1535.50 1674.15IRCON 371.00 377.00 345.10 363.30TVSMOTOR 400.00 400.00 366.30 389.50HEG 820.00 820.00 725.05 740.80RADICO 333.00 333.00 275.50 314.003MINDIA 20300.00 20300.00 18600.00 19081.75MINDTREE 805.00 842.00 772.00 815.25LALPATHLAB 1590.10 1649.90 1508.50 1613.20IPCALAB 1379.00 1379.30 1250.00 1283.40

ISEC 390.00 390.00 321.70 369.20PCJEWELLER 12.75 12.75 11.15 11.80SUNTECK 298.00 298.00 271.70 287.65CHOLAFIN 253.00 253.00 233.15 243.75PIIND 1490.00 1490.00 1319.05 1347.65PFIZER 4272.90 4272.90 3950.00 4156.15SANOFI 7261.75 7261.75 6895.00 6959.35BOMDYEING 58.00 58.00 50.70 52.45ALKEM 2560.00 2560.00 2205.00 2382.10BEML 620.00 620.00 510.00 520.55PRESTIGE 267.55 267.55 225.25 225.30CANFINHOME 400.50 433.95 336.00 392.25PNBHOUSING 250.00 250.00 221.15 232.85VENKYS 965.00 965.00 852.70 886.10RAYMOND 396.00 396.00 344.10 346.55SCI 46.50 46.50 39.10 40.70DCBBANK 142.60 149.10 141.60 146.30KANSAINER 460.00 469.00 429.50 464.55VINATIORGA 836.00 836.00 740.00 818.55CEATLTD 921.80 930.60 811.80 842.35IRB 74.00 74.00 62.80 64.35RITES 269.00 269.00 231.00 245.20GUJGAS 268.00 270.25 250.10 261.45PGHH 9865.85 9865.85 8950.00 9576.95KTKBANK 52.10 59.00 52.10 55.85ABFRL 230.00 230.00 214.00 224.65FRETAIL 230.00 248.75 213.45 213.45WHIRLPOOL 2030.05 2073.50 1988.00 2007.55GHCL 132.70 132.70 109.80 109.80HINDZINC 158.00 158.00 140.55 145.00WELSPUNIND 33.90 33.90 27.70 28.15BASF 1020.00 1020.00 916.05 973.85RELAXO 647.00 663.90 604.50 657.20FORTIS 138.30 141.50 131.10 134.35ATUL 4900.00 4900.00 4275.00 4575.30JAICORPLTD 65.50 66.65 60.15 61.90INOXLEISUR 350.00 350.00 288.45 315.15BALRAMCHIN 114.85 114.85 100.65 102.85AJANTPHARM 1380.00 1380.00 1261.55 1284.95CASTROLIND 133.50 133.50 126.00 128.30JUBILANT 430.00 430.00 375.60 379.55GLAXO 1281.00 1281.00 1150.00 1201.90GODREJPROP 888.90 888.90 776.45 823.90NHPC 20.80 20.85 18.70 19.90PTC 41.45 41.45 37.65 39.05JCHAC 2800.00 3023.30 2530.80 2954.75HONAUT 32999.90 32999.90 30100.00 31021.65GNFC 135.00 144.45 130.80 133.00LUXIND 1281.05 1281.05 1202.05 1242.05FORCEMOT 966.00 966.00 880.00 888.70ENGINERSIN 67.00 67.00 58.50 61.50GESHIP 221.40 221.40 200.00 201.75IDFC 27.00 29.45 23.90 24.50JMFINANCIL 92.90 93.00 82.35 90.05ORIENTELEC 217.05 225.00 193.00 212.90IDBI 24.80 24.80 21.05 21.30RVNL 16.40 16.40 15.60 16.00MASFIN 1011.15 1011.20 848.65 993.45RAIN 82.00 82.00 67.55 70.90ADANITRANS 189.00 189.00 163.10 163.85LEMONTREE 44.00 44.00 36.80 38.15ASTRAL 1100.00 1108.60 994.50 1030.50PHILIPCARB 87.60 87.60 75.00 79.80SUDARSCHEM 391.55 391.55 350.30 357.70INDIANB 61.00 61.00 53.55 54.35GSPL 215.95 215.95 189.00 208.95PGHL 3896.60 3901.35 3580.90 3606.90REPCOHOME 245.10 246.05 211.10 214.55AKZOINDIA 2400.00 2417.55 2280.00 2339.70LTTS 1504.00 1504.00 1355.90 1419.30KEI 461.00 461.00 382.30 392.65GILLETTE 5575.00 5603.75 5350.00 5405.65CARERATING 405.00 436.70 381.10 422.05RAJESHEXPO 679.50 680.00 663.00 665.15INFIBEAM 47.40 47.40 39.50 41.20FSL 36.00 38.20 33.40 36.55SONATSOFTW 290.00 290.00 250.25 261.30SOUTHBANK 7.69 7.69 7.11 7.22JINDALSAW 71.95 71.95 62.20 62.95RATNAMANI 1235.00 1235.00 1146.25 1166.25EDELWEISS 67.00 67.00 60.00 61.95IEX 160.00 163.50 145.50 148.45ERIS 429.90 429.90 387.00 402.65CHAMBLFERT 129.10 132.35 119.95 123.80JBCHEPHARM 533.80 541.80 468.00 508.75APLAPOLLO 1650.00 1650.00 1430.00 1521.95NESCO 613.35 619.45 582.95 591.05COCHINSHIP 300.00 300.00 240.60 244.85CROMPTON 244.00 255.00 233.70 246.90VIPIND 359.00 359.00 322.85 332.65SJVN 21.25 21.50 20.00 20.20KAJARIACER 523.00 523.00 481.05 489.70APLLTD 600.00 600.00 567.00 580.50MEGH 46.00 48.00 45.10 45.45HSCL 39.00 44.00 35.75 41.05ITI 61.00 63.10 55.25 56.10RPOWER 1.37 1.40 1.37 1.37VBL 770.95 770.95 705.95 752.00JSL 35.00 35.00 29.25 30.00KEC 300.05 300.05 260.85 277.40CREDITACC 807.00 810.00 693.40 782.30RCF 32.10 32.65 29.55 30.65TV18BRDCST 18.50 18.50 17.05 17.15COROMANDEL 607.25 608.25 555.55 575.30CUB 201.90 201.90 186.50 190.00VAIBHAVGBL 970.00 970.00 800.00 804.55ORIENTBANK 43.00 43.00 37.70 38.25CYIENT 380.00 380.00 336.40 369.65GMDCLTD 42.30 42.30 35.10 36.90

GSKCONS 9200.00 9213.45 8819.35 8905.10AMBER 1421.00 1421.00 1243.00 1262.95NATCOPHARM 565.00 573.30 537.15 547.55HINDCOPPER 27.00 27.00 23.40 24.45BDL 229.70 229.70 200.00 204.75SCHNEIDER 80.00 81.70 74.60 79.35ASTRAZEN 2400.00 2400.00 2060.40 2256.15JKCEMENT 1220.00 1255.85 1127.00 1153.75SUZLON 2.20 2.23 2.18 2.18DISHTV 6.16 6.16 5.67 5.68NILKAMAL 1230.35 1300.00 1151.85 1276.75VGUARD 190.00 190.00 179.40 180.50RALLIS 213.00 213.00 190.25 199.75LAXMIMACH 2775.00 2775.00 2525.00 2579.05QUESS 465.00 465.00 424.00 441.50RAMCOCEM 680.00 680.00 647.40 654.10BBTC 1050.00 1050.00 984.00 998.10WABAG 162.00 162.00 133.05 135.50LAURUSLABS 406.00 406.00 360.25 367.35CESC 567.70 567.70 504.05 506.80FINEORG 2112.30 2112.30 1858.95 2039.20NH 306.90 309.00 265.05 302.95INTELLECT 96.30 96.30 77.05 77.05TIINDIA 493.50 493.50 466.00 481.40SUPREMEIND 1175.00 1175.00 1104.35 1126.00VMART 2100.00 2100.00 1870.00 2004.95IFCI 4.89 4.89 3.82 4.04GALAXYSURF 1460.00 1467.05 1425.20 1454.30HEIDELBERG 171.00 171.00 158.40 160.20SWANENERGY 100.25 105.00 99.85 101.05JSLHISAR 58.45 58.45 47.90 49.00ASHOKA 76.00 76.00 63.15 63.20WABCOINDIA 6620.00 6620.00 6387.00 6413.00SHRIRAMCIT 1345.05 1352.00 1241.00 1250.80BAYERCROP 4080.00 4185.35 3812.00 4113.10MOIL 109.00 109.05 99.90 102.15FINOLEXIND 551.00 551.00 499.95 512.20GREAVESCOT 117.80 117.80 109.90 113.25TATAINVEST 756.00 777.00 705.00 718.95EMAMILTD 220.00 220.00 191.10 201.15TIMKEN 901.00 905.00 829.50 890.30OBEROIRLTY 470.70 474.80 448.85 452.90GODFRYPHLP 1105.00 1108.00 1031.00 1050.75OFSS 2315.55 2315.55 2054.00 2195.25SYNDIBANK 17.90 17.90 15.10 15.30NLCINDIA 46.90 46.90 42.45 44.30

MPHASIS 765.00 765.00 720.00 735.05GICRE 149.00 149.00 136.60 136.60GSFC 47.20 47.70 45.00 45.40AEGISLOG 192.00 192.00 167.30 174.10SYMPHONY 1187.85 1195.15 1065.00 1075.85WELCORP 111.00 111.00 107.55 107.55CAPPL 309.90 309.90 278.00 280.50JKTYRE 60.40 60.40 52.00 52.70MOTILALOFS 655.05 687.00 620.00 647.90JSWENERGY 47.50 47.50 43.70 46.20TATACOFFEE 70.25 70.50 66.00 66.60THYROCARE 501.60 501.60 436.60 479.05BIRLACORPN 635.05 688.00 565.35 589.45PARAGMILK 72.00 72.00 62.10 63.50MINDAIND 330.00 333.70 300.00 327.85LINDEINDIA 540.00 540.00 508.15 512.40DEEPAKFERT 82.00 82.00 69.00 71.15MAHSCOOTER 3553.00 3568.95 3167.50 3230.10JKLAKSHMI 261.65 262.95 225.00 229.25BLUESTARCO 751.00 766.45 712.50 741.15HUDCO 25.50 25.50 22.70 23.25HFCL 10.40 11.15 9.75 9.86IIFL 134.20 137.05 120.30 123.55PHOENIXLTD 795.00 795.00 749.15 766.55ALLCARGO 100.00 103.40 97.95 98.70LAOPALA 199.90 203.00 174.85 187.85GARFIBRES 1438.00 1438.00 1240.25 1278.25BAJAJCON 165.00 165.00 147.10 149.85KNRCON 242.80 242.80 222.45 234.60ALBK 8.99 8.99 7.80 8.12KRBL 235.00 235.00 195.40 200.05TRIDENT 4.50 4.51 4.14 4.17RESPONIND 82.05 83.10 79.00 80.25FDC 225.00 225.00 205.00 214.35PNCINFRA 165.55 165.55 138.60 149.85SYNGENE 280.05 284.00 272.25 281.15VSTIND 3750.00 3810.00 3520.05 3725.05CCL 205.00 205.00 187.95 194.60BAJAJELEC 382.00 382.00 359.10 369.25FINCABLES 276.05 288.80 269.00 278.10JAMNAAUTO 29.65 29.65 26.10 27.45AIAENG 1740.00 1741.25 1632.00 1698.65VARROC 320.00 344.00 275.10 287.00

BALMLAWRIE 88.95 88.95 81.00 85.40INDOSTAR 277.65 280.50 273.55 278.70JYOTHYLAB 120.00 120.70 109.00 112.30DCMSHRIRAM 285.00 286.75 254.25 255.80NIACL 97.40 97.40 89.00 90.45CHENNPETRO 89.00 89.00 73.00 78.35PERSISTENT 675.00 675.00 632.40 647.90TVTODAY 187.00 187.00 175.25 176.90ITDCEM 43.05 48.00 40.60 47.10MAGMA 36.90 36.90 27.60 28.10HAL 581.00 581.00 536.90 538.80NBVENTURES 58.90 58.90 49.80 50.15MRPL 36.05 36.25 34.10 35.75SIS 518.00 518.85 460.00 486.90TATAMETALI 542.20 545.70 505.15 536.05J&KBANK 16.40 16.60 14.50 14.85SUNDRMFAST 380.00 380.00 356.05 368.00KALPATPOWR 290.00 290.00 250.00 269.80GUJALKALI 275.00 275.00 250.00 251.70BLUEDART 2500.00 2500.00 2170.00 2416.55ADVENZYMES 132.00 132.00 113.00 120.05TTKPRESTIG 5551.00 5551.00 5297.50 5406.95CENTRALBK 13.40 13.40 12.50 12.65IOB 8.00 8.15 7.55 7.71LAKSHVILAS 15.05 15.05 15.05 15.05MAHSEAMLES 275.30 275.30 226.05 231.45JISLJALEQS 4.60 4.61 4.52 4.52SOMANYCERA 155.25 155.25 132.00 134.10GEPIL 575.00 602.60 568.45 594.50ESSELPRO 174.00 174.00 151.55 160.65MAXINDIA 82.00 82.00 78.10 78.95GPPL 70.10 70.90 62.10 65.45ARVINDFASN 287.00 290.25 272.00 288.85SCHAEFFLER 4160.70 4190.00 4000.00 4111.80MMTC 14.10 14.10 12.95 13.05UCOBANK 11.11 11.37 10.70 10.96TVSSRICHAK 1383.00 1383.00 1170.00 1180.55TCIEXP 686.25 691.40 626.85 639.70JAGRAN 53.05 53.05 44.90 48.25THERMAX 840.00 850.00 812.85 831.15ZENSARTECH 122.90 122.90 105.00 108.80TNPL 145.00 145.00 127.45 132.50MAHABANK 10.00 10.00 8.90 9.28ITDC 172.80 172.80 162.90 162.90UFLEX 178.50 179.05 170.00 172.30SKFINDIA 1770.00 1791.00 1673.00 1749.65ANDHRABANK 10.45 10.45 9.55 9.62EIHOTEL 108.35 108.35 95.20 97.65GET&D 115.00 115.00 101.65 109.25ASTERDM 142.00 142.00 120.10 121.40REDINGTON 103.10 104.65 99.35 100.50MINDACORP 85.45 87.85 75.00 84.65ZYDUSWELL 1380.00 1380.00 1300.00 1324.65CENTRUM 15.40 15.40 12.95 13.60TIMETECHNO 38.55 38.55 34.60 36.75CENTURYPLY 140.00 141.70 130.40 136.30CHOLAHLDNG 476.15 479.00 442.00 464.35STARCEMENT 77.00 77.00 69.00 73.00CORPBANK 11.90 11.90 10.80 10.80SOLARINDS 1056.55 1056.55 1025.00 1037.40HIMATSEIDE 82.05 84.00 80.00 80.35GICHSGFIN 75.00 75.00 67.45 69.55PRSMJOHNSN 44.90 46.80 44.55 45.30TAKE 60.00 60.05 54.25 54.80SHOPERSTOP 340.25 344.00 312.80 314.60KPITTECH 90.00 90.00 71.50 71.50HERITGFOOD 300.00 307.75 289.30 299.60DHANUKA 377.00 383.45 345.00 350.90MHRIL 190.00 190.00 167.00 171.60RELINFRA 13.70 13.70 13.55 13.55GULFOILLUB 645.00 656.00 625.55 631.40KPRMILL 515.00 542.00 500.00 533.70ORIENTCEM 70.00 70.00 61.20 61.65FCONSUMER 13.55 13.55 13.55 13.55UNITEDBNK 5.14 5.14 4.50 4.58VRLLOG 201.50 209.00 197.00 200.90VTL 900.05 940.15 882.00 932.00SUPRAJIT 163.90 164.55 158.00 159.50BRIGADE 193.20 197.80 190.00 190.90MAHLOG 302.05 308.75 289.00 292.25MAHINDCIE 113.00 113.85 103.00 108.65FLFL 337.75 337.80 304.85 329.00ENDURANCE 900.00 909.30 820.00 865.65ADANIGREEN 124.40 124.40 124.40 124.40ECLERX 494.70 494.70 460.85 464.20GDL 109.20 109.45 97.15 104.80IFBIND 380.00 380.00 329.00 342.00MAHLIFE 305.00 313.10 283.90 307.60SHILPAMED 394.70 394.70 394.70 394.70SFL 1480.00 1547.95 1450.05 1535.85ORIENTREF 169.40 173.75 160.00 161.50CARBORUNIV 281.00 281.00 250.80 266.15IBREALEST 59.25 59.25 59.25 59.25CHALET 263.15 296.00 233.60 252.00GRINDWELL 530.00 544.70 518.10 539.90INOXWIND 25.25 25.25 21.55 22.40TEJASNET 45.95 45.95 41.50 42.45HATHWAY 17.00 17.00 14.35 14.70RELCAPITAL 4.93 4.93 4.81 4.81NETWORK18 22.15 22.15 21.50 21.50DBCORP 96.00 96.00 89.50 92.60SHK 85.20 86.55 80.30 83.00DCAL* 66.55 67.50 66.05 66.05DHFL 14.35 14.35 14.35 14.35TCNSBRANDS 461.60 494.75 461.60 489.60SADBHAV 48.30 48.30 48.30 48.30IBULISL 82.65 82.65 82.65 82.65SHANKARA 387.75 387.75 387.75 387.75GAYAPROJ 14.60 14.60 14.60 14.60

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SCRIP OPEN HIgh LOW LTP CHANGENIFTY 50 10039.95 10040.75 9508.00 9590.15 -868.25INFRATEL 207.00 224.50 207.00 222.00 -2.75ASIANPAINT 1864.95 1874.80 1815.00 1852.95 -29.90NESTLEIND 15869.45 15882.75 15045.00 15690.00 -358.55TATASTEEL 275.00 291.80 267.20 291.45 -8.30HINDUNILVR 2102.40 2123.00 2031.65 2074.00 -81.00DRREDDY 2948.00 2982.50 2803.55 2882.00 -118.60EICHERMOT 16999.80 17281.50 16700.00 16945.85 -807.75CIPLA 412.50 412.50 390.75 395.25 -21.85HEROMOTOCO1956.00 1978.95 1793.75 1922.00 -114.05BHARTIARTL 478.50 481.50 459.20 466.00 -27.80WIPRO 204.00 206.95 197.50 200.00 -13.10M&M 427.90 435.95 399.65 421.70 -29.90COALINDIA 161.00 163.00 150.10 156.75 -11.25ICICIBANK 438.00 445.95 416.00 432.95 -32.70BPCL 391.30 392.55 330.55 375.00 -29.40HDFCBANK 1075.00 1080.00 1003.45 1032.00 -81.80SUNPHARMA 365.50 372.70 346.40 357.45 -28.50BAJFINANCE 3860.00 3869.95 3628.10 3729.00 -301.65KOTAKBANK 1509.90 1546.45 1350.95 1468.00 -121.30BRITANNIA 2945.00 2968.95 2785.05 2813.75 -234.55HDFC 1990.00 1990.00 1861.10 1874.50 -161.75HCLTECH 521.00 527.80 486.35 494.00 -42.80INFY 668.00 670.00 627.50 631.00 -55.00RELIANCE 1085.00 1101.00 1048.70 1059.00 -94.55MARUTI 5939.30 5939.30 5555.55 5642.25 -504.05TITAN 1150.00 1153.95 1064.65 1090.00 -97.65TECHM 676.00 690.00 637.10 650.00 -58.55NTPC 99.00 100.00 93.25 94.50 -8.55ULTRACEMCO 3890.00 3890.00 3612.50 3660.00 -333.40LT 1070.00 1070.05 1004.10 1020.00 -96.95POWERGRID 176.20 177.90 164.75 165.60 -15.80ZEEL 191.50 199.80 188.55 190.80 -18.70JSWSTEEL 210.00 214.30 199.05 203.30 -20.20BAJAJ-AUTO 2519.95 2535.00 2319.05 2352.00 -239.55TCS 1904.00 1908.40 1758.35 1772.90 -180.80INDUSINDBK 775.20 831.95 770.00 772.00 -81.55IOC 93.00 93.65 87.25 87.60 -9.30ADANIPORTS 288.20 301.90 284.00 289.40 -30.80GRASIM 609.75 610.00 555.00 564.90 -60.35TATAMOTORS 91.10 94.90 84.10 88.95 -9.95BAJAJFINSV 7900.00 7981.95 7400.00 7405.10 -848.90ITC 169.00 169.15 150.55 155.80 -19.85AXISBANK 592.00 594.00 528.15 545.10 -74.25GAIL 85.00 88.80 79.10 79.55 -10.95SBIN 231.90 231.90 208.60 215.40 -29.70ONGC 66.60 68.40 62.00 63.00 -8.70HINDALCO 130.00 130.00 118.15 120.90 -16.90VEDL 84.75 85.50 78.25 80.40 -11.60UPL 504.55 520.40 434.80 450.00 -66.95YESBANK 28.70 28.70 17.45 25.05 -3.75

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SCRIP OPEN HIgh LOW LTP CHANGENIFTY NEXT 50 24047.10 24087.45 22629.65 22776.40 -2179.20IDEA 4.60 4.60 4.05 4.30 -0.05COLPAL 1223.00 1254.00 1172.00 1225.00 -25.15PETRONET 217.00 220.35 208.50 214.80 -6.65CONCOR 377.95 385.40 351.00 381.25 -13.40MARICO 260.00 263.60 248.30 260.50 -9.25PGHH 10000.00 10000.00 8899.10 9699.00 -358.55NHPC 20.05 20.90 18.65 20.30 -0.80BAJAJHLDNG 2856.00 3009.25 2840.00 2910.00 -129.65SBILIFE 761.00 775.70 700.00 771.00 -37.95ICICIPRULI 384.00 389.95 361.95 385.00 -19.75HAVELLS 590.00 596.95 514.65 583.00 -30.20DMART 2049.00 2049.00 2004.50 2004.50 -105.45ACC 1161.00 1163.95 1082.65 1154.65 -60.80HDFCLIFE 495.00 498.00 453.30 485.50 -28.05BERGEPAINT 482.25 492.20 460.00 473.95 -28.45PIDILITIND 1670.10 1675.00 1586.75 1597.00 -102.75DABUR 477.50 478.00 451.70 456.55 -31.45LUPIN 629.00 629.00 583.65 597.00 -41.80AMBUJACEM 183.00 183.75 169.10 177.35 -13.10SHREECEM 21006.15 21540.00 20128.15 20379.55 -1515.35GODREJCP 595.00 595.00 543.45 565.00 -42.40UBL 1140.05 1150.00 1017.45 1090.00 -82.95PAGEIND 19600.05 20943.95 19021.00 19467.95 -1532.75BIOCON 294.70 294.70 267.25 275.00 -21.70SIEMENS 1255.00 1258.00 1150.05 1190.70 -94.90ICICIGI 1135.65 1169.80 1072.00 1101.00 -89.05OFSS 2300.00 2343.55 2055.00 2194.00 -182.60CADILAHC 250.80 252.60 234.50 238.00 -20.10ASHOKLEY 65.00 65.35 60.55 63.15 -5.40BOSCHLTD 12199.00 12485.05 11220.05 11415.00 -993.35HINDZINC 153.00 155.00 140.15 145.70 -14.30NIACL 96.50 96.50 89.00 90.60 -8.95MCDOWELL-N 600.00 601.00 532.25 547.65 -60.55GICRE 147.50 147.50 136.80 136.80 -15.20DIVISLAB 2129.00 2129.00 1826.85 1925.50 -223.70PFC 98.00 98.85 86.50 92.00 -10.80NMDC 77.00 78.75 71.10 72.60 -8.65INDIGO 1044.25 1044.25 945.00 1036.00 -124.25BANDHANBNK 362.55 362.70 327.25 335.60 -40.50HINDPETRO 204.65 204.65 180.30 187.50 -23.55PNB 35.35 36.30 33.10 34.10 -4.35DLF 168.00 169.00 154.50 157.00 -21.45SRTRANSFIN 958.00 958.00 830.60 849.00 -139.15PEL 1130.00 1147.50 1016.55 1050.00 -177.05BANKBARODA 62.10 62.95 56.15 56.70 -9.90IBULHSGFIN 176.00 176.00 131.50 165.90 -29.65L&TFH 90.00 91.55 80.50 82.50 -14.85HDFCAMC 2820.00 2820.00 2435.50 2470.00 -451.95AUROPHARMA 439.80 439.80 371.00 375.00 -75.15MOTHERSUMI 85.85 85.85 66.80 67.15 -21.10

Hyderabad: The world’s largestaircraft manufacturer Airbus onThursday forecast that Indiawill need nearly 1,900 new air-craft by 2038 and the country’sair traffic growth will be 7.7 percent, almost twice the expect-ed world average of 4.3 per cent.

India’s domestic trafficgrowth over 2018-2038 periodis projected at 8.2 per cent, oneof the world’s highest. The inter-national traffic growth for thecountry is pegged at 5-7 per cent.

Anand Stanley, Presidentand Managing Director, AirbusIndia & South Asia told a newsconference here on Thursdaythat they were bullish on theIndian market but their forecastwas conservative and has takeninto account cyclical eventslike coronavirus.

He said out of 1,880 aircraftrequired, 1,670 will be small and210 in medium and large cate-gories. Some 1,440 aircraft arefor growth and 440 are neededto replace aircraft that will beretired. Taking into account the440 retirements, India’s existingdomiciled fleet of 510 aircraftwill quadruple to 1,950 by 2038,he said. The news conferencewas organised on the first day of

Wings India 2020, Asia’s largestevent on civil aviation.

On average one Airbusaircraft will be delivered toIndia every week for the next10 years.

Anand said India was set tobecome one of the world’slargest economies, with some ofthe world’s fastest growingcities in terms of GDP includ-ing Hyderabad, Chennai andBengaluru.

“In the next 20 years airtransportation is expected to bea key enabler and a beneficia-ry of this economic growth.Rising wealth and urbanisation,and the Indian government’sambitious regional connectiv-ity programmes are all growthdrivers,” he said.

He said with world-classengineering and training cen-tres and 45-strong supplier net-work, Airbus’ industrial foot-print in India set new standardsamong international aircraftmanufacturers. “Today, everyAirbus commercial aircraft ispartly made in India and we areworking to double our sourcingvolumes from the country tomore than US$ 1 billion by2025,” he said. IANS

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Gold prices on Thursdayfell �128 to �44,490 per 10

grams in the national Capitalthough rupee depreciationcapped the downside, accord-ing to HDFC Securities.

The yellow metal hadclosed at �44,618 per 10 gramson Wednesday.

Silver also dropped �302 to

�46,868 per kg, compared with�47,170 per kg in the previoussession.

“Spot gold of 24 karat inDelhi was trading down by�128, matching the overnightfall in global gold prices. Spotgold prices in India limited thedownside on Thursday with asharp rupee depreciation,”HDFC Securities SeniorAnalyst (Commodities) Tapan

Patel said.The spot rupee was trading

around 53 paise weaker againstthe dollar during the day, hesaid.

Meanwhile, in the interna-tional market, gold recoveredto trade at $1,645 per ounceafter witnessing decline onWednesday. Silver, however,was trading almost flat at$16.73 per ounce.

Mumbai: Hiring activityremained flat during Februarycompared to the same monthlast year, mainly due to slug-gishness in sectors like insur-ance, hospitality and travel,according to a report.

The Naukri JobSpeakIndex stood at 2,414 inFebruary 2020, compared to2,415 in the same month lastyear. Naukri JobSpeak is amonthly index which calculatesand records hiring activitiesbased on the job listings onNaukri.Com website.

According to the report,the flat trend was primarily ledby a decline in growth ratesacross sectors such as insurance(-23 per cent), hotel/ restau-rants/airlines/travel (-18 percent), auto /auto ancillary (-16per cent) andrecruitment/employment (-15per cent) compared toFebruary 2019.

Despite a flat trend in hir-ing activity, crucial industrieslike accounting/ taxation/finance, education/ teach-ing/training, BPO/ITES andIT-software recorded growth of14 per cent, 12 per cent, 9 percent and 5 per cent, respec-tively.

The job market inHyderabad picked up 5 percent, whereas other

cities like Mumbai,Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru,Delhi NCR and Pune declinedover the past year. PTI

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Aparliamentary panel haspulled up the Ministry of

Planning for under-utilisationof funds in important areas andalso flagged the issue of vacantpositions in Governmentthink-tank Niti Aayog.

The Standing Committeeon Finance, headed by JayantSinha, in a report noted that ascrutiny of the budget of theMinistry of Planning revealsunder-utilisation of funds inimportant areas.

The budget estimates (BE)for the ministry for the year2020-21 stand at Rs 650 crore.

According to the report,under the head DevelopmentMonitoring and EvaluationOffice (DMEO), out of allo-cated funds of Rs 11 crore for2019-20, only Rs 6.18 crore wasutilised till December 2019,which is 56.18 per cent of thetotal allocation.

Similarly, for OfficialDevelopment Assistance(ODA) from JapanInternational CooperationAgency (JICA) for SustainableDevelopment Goals (SDGs),out of the allocated funds of Rs120 crore, only Rs 61 crore wasutilised, which is 50.83 per centof allocation.

The committee said it isconstrained to note that evenafter four years of the consti-

tution of DMEO, which comesunder the Niti Aayog, morethan 100 positions are vacantout of the sanctioned strengthof 157.

Noting that a large numberof private professionals andconsultant firms are beingengaged by the ministry, espe-cially for evaluation ofschemes, the report said “theCommittee expect that thequalifications are well laiddown and recruitment aredone in a transparent mannerand open tendering process befollowed for engaging the con-sultant firms.”

Appreciating Niti Aayogfor bringing out SDG IndiaIndex 2019 covering all SDGs,the panel said it would like torecommend the ministry toconsider options of bringingout a similar index taking dis-tricts as the base.

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Infosys on Thursdayannounced that it has been

selected by Siemens to deployWingspan, the Bengaluru-headquartered company’s dig-ital learning and talent trans-formation platform.

The company-widedeployment will provideemployees a personalisedlearning experience and makeit possible for them, amongmany other useful features, totrack their progress and suc-cesses, according to an Infosysstatement.

“Infosys will supportSiemens to stay ahead of thecurve through a highly effectivelearning experience platform,while leveraging and simplify-ing the existing learning tech-nology ecosystem”, it said.

New Delhi: Telecom majorBharti Airtel on Thursday saidit has acquired a strategic stakein Spectacom Global under itsAirtel Start-up AcceleratorProgram that supports early-stage start-ups in India.

The company, however, didnot disclose the quantum ofstake picked and the financialdetails of the transaction withSpectacom.

Spectacom, which producesdigital content that allows peo-ple across languages, geogra-phies and fitness levels to con-nect with each other and explorehealth and fitness training pro-grammes, is the brainchild ofAdnan Adeeb and Zeba Zaidi —creators of the Devils Circuitmilitary-style obstacle races.

Spectacom is the secondcompany to join the Airtel Start-up Accelerator Program afterBengaluru-based Vahan. PTI

New Delhi: Over 3,600 URLs(uniform resource locators)were blocked in 2019, up from2,799 in the previous year,under a specific provision ofthe Information TechnologyAct, 2000, Parliament wasinformed on Thursday.

In a written reply to aquery in the Rajya Sabha,Electronics and IT MinisterRavi Shankar Prasad saidSection 69A of the IT Act provides for blocking of unlawful and malicious onlinecontent in the interest of sovereignty and integrity ofIndia, defence and security ofthe country, friendly relationswith foreign states or publicorder or for preventing incitement to the commissionof any cognisable offence relat-ed to these. PTI

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Burlington (US): BernieSanders is vowing to pressahead with his presidentialcampaign at least long enoughto debate Joe Biden this week-end, even while acknowledginghis deficit in the Democraticrace may be insurmountable.

The Vermont senator onWednesday offered no furtherdetails on what his campaignmay look like before or after heand Biden — the last twomajor candidates vying for theDemocratic presidential nom-ination — spar Sunday nighton stage in Arizona.

The only thing on Sanders’public schedule was taping anappearance on Wednesday’s“Tonight Show Starring JimmyFallon.”

And that will continue toraise questions — as unlikely asit may seem less than twoweeks after losing his once-commanding front-runner sta-tus — about how long Sanders

will persist against increasing-ly daunting odds, especially asthe pressure within his ownparty increases exponentially.

Sanders addressed reportersin Burlington after offering nopublic statements Tuesday night,when he suffered a devastatingdefeat in Michigan and losses inMissouri, Idaho and Mississippi.

Sanders noted that he wonNorth Dakota and that the con-tinuing count in Washingtonstate remained close — butadmitted he was trailing badlyin the race to secure enoughdelegates to clinch the nomi-nation before the DemocraticNational Convention inMilwaukee.

“While our campaign haswon the ideological debate,we are losing the debate overelectability,” Sanders said,meaning Democrats thinkBiden has a better chance ofbeating President DonaldTrump in the fall.

“That is what millions ofDemocrats and independentstoday believe.” He was quick toadd that he thinks he’s thestronger choice, and that hecould show that duringSunday’s debate. Sanderspromised to press Biden foranswers about millions ofAmericans who don’t havehealth insurance, a criminaljustice system he said unfairlytargets and punishes minoritiesand raising the federal mini-mum wage.

After that, though,Democrats’ desperate desireto defeat Trump could affect hiscalculus. Should Sanders getout soon, he could saveDemocrats months of a messyand expensive primary fight.But an early departure wouldalso deprive the party’s mostpassionate supporters, includ-ing many young people, of theone man who embodies thedramatic change they crave.

Sanders also noted that hewas winning a greater per-centage of young voters whileBiden continues to run up thescore with older ones. AP

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Washington: Podiums get sani-tised before the candidate stepsup to speak. Fist or elbowbumps take the place of hand-shakes, and kissing babies is outof the question.

Rallies are cancelled, leav-ing candidates speaking to ahandful of journalists andstaffers instead of cheeringcrowds of thousands.

This is campaigning in theage of the coronavirus, whenfears of the new pandemic’srapid spread are upending JoeBiden’s and Bernie Sanders’campaigns.

The urgency of the issuecomes at a pivotal time in theDemocratic presidential pri-mary, as Biden is beginning topull ahead as a front-runner forthe nomination and as Sandersis scrambling to catch up.

“If coronavirus has the last-ing impact that we all fear it will,it will also dramatically reshapethe way a presidential campaignunfolds,” said Jesse Ferguson, aveteran Democratic strategistand former spokesman forHillary Clinton’s campaign.

“Politics is fundamentallyabout leaders interacting withthe people who they represent,and if a pandemic foreclosesthat ability, it changes every-thing — how you campaign,how you knock doors, how youdo events and how you do theretail part of politics.” Tuesdaymarked the first moment theissue affected the campaigns ina substantive way. Both Bidenand Sanders decided to cancelplanned election-night rallies inOhio at the advice of localhealth officials. AP

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Geneva: The new coronavirusoutbreak “is a controllable pan-demic” if countries step upmeasures to tackle it, the headof the World HealthOrganisation said on Thursday.

WHO director-generalTedros Adhanom Ghebreyesusacknowledged on Wednesdaythat the global outbreak of thenew coronavirus could now beconsidered a pandemic — a dis-ease actively spreading globally.

But he told diplomats inGeneva that describing the out-break as a pandemic should notmean that countries give up thefight to stop it spreading further.

“This is a controllable pan-demic,” he said, according to astatement of his remarks.

“We are deeply concernedthat some countries are notapproaching this threat withthe level of political commit-ment needed to control it. Theidea that countries should shiftfrom containment to mitigationis wrong and dangerous,” hestressed.

More than 4,500 peoplehave died, according to an AFPtally, while the WHO said some125,000 cases had been report-ed from 118 countries and ter-ritories.

“To save lives we must

reduce transmission,” Tedrosinsisted.

“That means finding andisolating as many cases as pos-sible and quarantining theirclosest contacts,” he said, urgingstates to test every suspected caseof COVID-19 in a bid to slowtransmission.

“Even if you cannot stoptransmission, you can slow itdown and protect health facili-ties, old age homes and othervital areas — but only if you testall suspected cases.” AFP

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Kuala Lumpur: DisgracedMalaysian ex-leader NajibRazak’s corruption trial washalted Thursday after hisdefence team were reportedlyordered to self-quarantine overfears about the coronavirus.

Najib and his cronies areaccused of looting billions ofdollars from sovereign wealthfund 1MDB and using it tofinance a global spendingspree.

The allegations played amajor part in Najib losingpower in 2018, and he has since been arrested and is facing multiple trials over the scandal. He denies wrong-doing. AFP

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Sri Lanka on Thursdayannounced the closure of all

schools across the country tocombat the spread of the coro-navirus.

The Education Ministryannounced that all schools willremain shut down till April 20,as second person in Sri Lankatested positive for the virus.

The second patient, iden-tified as a 44 year-old man, issaid to have had close contactwith the first patient detectedwith the virus in the country,Director-General of HealthServices Anil Jasinghe said.

Tehran: Iran’s Health Ministryon Thursday said the new coro-navirus has killed 75 more peo-ple, raising the death toll to 429amid over 10,000 cases as theIslamic Republic revealed it hadasked for a multibillion-dollarloan from the InternationalMonetary fund to fight thevirus.

Health Ministry spokesmanKianoush Jahanpour announcedthe latest virus figures in a tele-vised news conference.

Iran has asked for an emer-

gency $5 billion loan from theInternational Monetary Fund tocombat the outbreak there,which has killed more than 360people and infected some 9,000people in the Islamic Republic.

Iran’s Central Bank chiefAbdolnasser Hemmati onThursday said he made therequest last week in a letter toIMF chief Kristalina Georgieva.

The international lenderhas said it stands ready to sup-port countries through a RapidFinancial Instrument. AP

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Perth: Australia on Thursdayput forward a $11.4 billionstimulus package meant to staveoff a recession due to the impactof the virus outbreak on itseconomy.

The package includes cashpayments for small businessesand welfare recipients to counterthe impact of the disease, whichhas infected more than 126,000people worldwide. Australiahas recorded 127 cases of thevirus and three deaths. AP

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!� ���������������������Warsaw: Poland has record-ed its first death from thenovel coronavirus outbreak inthe western city of Poznan, itsdeputy mayor said onThursday.

The 57-year-old femaleteacher, who had recentlybeen hospitalised in criticalcondition with pneumonia,was put into an artificialcoma and on a ventilator but“unfortunately she died notlong ago,” Poznan deputymayor Jedrzej Solarski toldreporters. AFP

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Washington: Three servicemembers were killed, includingtwo Americans, and a dozenmore were injured when a bar-rage of rockets were fired at amilitary base in Iraq, US offi-cials said Wednesday.

One of the officials said fiveservice members were serious-ly wounded and evacuatedfrom the Camp Taji base andseven others were still beingevaluated. Buildingson the base were in flames. Theofficials spoke on condition ofanonymity to give details of theattack ahead of a publicannouncement.

Army Col. Myles Caggins,a US military spokesman inIraq, confirmed that three per-sonnel from the US-led coali-tion were killed and about 12were wounded, but did not pro-vide details about what countrythey were from.

The US military said thatthe names of those killed wouldbe released after family notifi-cations.

Caggins, in a statement,said that about 18 107mmKatyusha rockets struck the

base and that Iraqi SecurityForces found a rocket-riggedtruck a few miles from CampTaji. Such Russian rockets havebeen used in the past byIranian-backed militia groupsin Iraq. AP

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Baghdad: Iraq’s military onThursday said it opened aninvestigation into a rocket attackhours earlier that killed three ser-vicemen, including twoAmericans, at an Iraqi basehousing coalition forces.

At least 12 coalition per-sonnel were also injured lateWednesday by a barrage of rock-ets targeting Camp Taji base,located 27 kilometers (17 miles)north of Baghdad, according toa US-led coalition statement.

A truck rigged with 107mm Katyusha rocket launcherswas discovered by Iraqi securityforces a few kilometers (miles)from the base following theattack. A military statement fromIraq’s joint operations commandsaid caretaker Prime MinisterAdel Abdul-Mahdi ordered theinvestigation into what he called“a very serious security challengeand hostile act.” AP

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Washington: Defying a vetothreat, Congress has approveda bipartisan measure to limitPresident Donald Trump’sauthority to launch militaryoperations against Iran.

The House gave final leg-islative approval to the measureWednesday, 227-186, sendingit to Trump. The president haspromised to veto the war pow-ers resolution, warning that ifhis “hands were tied, Iran

would have a field day.”The resolution, sponsored

by Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va.,declares that Trump must winapproval from Congress beforeengaging in further militaryaction against Iran. Kaine andother supporters say the mea-sure is not about Trump oreven the presidency, butinstead is an importantreassertion of congressionalpower to declare war. AP

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Beirut: An air strike killed 26fighters of Iraqi paramilitarygroup Hashed al-Shaabi in east-ern Syria after a deadly attack onUS-led coalition troops in Iraq,a war monitor said Thursday.

Updating its toll for theWednesday strike, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory forHuman Rights said it was prob-ably carried out by the coalition.The coalition did not immedi-ately provide comment.

Before the strike near theborder town of Albu Kamal,rockets were fired at a militarybase north of Baghdad hostingcoalition troops, killing twoAmericans and one Briton.

It was the deadliest suchattack in years on an Iraqi mil-itary base hosting foreign troops.

There was no immediateclaim of responsibility, but theUnited States has blamed Iran-backed factions from theHashed al-Shaabi for similarviolence in recent months.

Within hours, the airstrikes were launched againstHashed forces just across theborder in Syria.

Hardline Hashed factionshave fought alongside Syriangovernment forces for severalyears and have been targetedby both coalition and Israeli airstrikes. AFP

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Lawmakers in Washingtonhave proposed a ban on

most imports from China’sXinjiang region, charging thatgoods produced by Uighurforced labourers were easilymaking their way into theUnited States.

The US already bans prod-ucts made through slavery,but with rights groups sayingas many as one millionUighurs and other minoritiesare held in camps in Xinjiang,lawmakers said forced laborwas interwoven into theregion’s economy.

“These practices inXinjiang are one of the world’slargest human tragedies. Itremains unimaginable, frankly,that this is happening in 2020,”Senator Marco Rubio, aRepublican sponsor of thebipartisan measure, toldreporters on Wednesday.

Representative JimMcGovern, a Democrat wholeads the Congressional-Executive Commission onChina — which looks athuman rights — said that wit-nesses, surveillance photos andleaked documents all showedthe existence of forced labor.

Colombo: Sri Lanka’s NationalElection Commission hasinvited foreign observers tomonitor the upcoming par-liamentary polls in the islandnation.

President GotabayaRajapaksa on March 2 dis-solved Parliament six monthsahead of its schedule andcalled a snap election on April25. The earlier Parliament wasappointed on Sept 1, 2015.

Rajapaksa sacked theHouse after the minimumterm of four-and-a-half yearsnecessary to dissolve it.

Rajapaksa, who was elect-ed to office in November lastyear, had said he cannot workfreely because his powers hadbeen reduced. He also facedrestrictions as the oppositioncommanded a majority in the225-member House.

According to NationalElection Commission mem-ber S Ratnajeevan H Hoole,the organisation has invitedobservers from the EuropeanUnion (EU), Commonwealthcountries and the NGO, AsianNetwork for Free Elections(ANFREL), to monitor theupcoming parliamentary elec-tion, the Daily Mirror report-ed on Thursday. PTI

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Extra-small crossover SUVs make upthe fastest-growing class in the auto-

motive industry over the past five years,according to Edmunds data. The seg-ment surpassed the one million mark innumber of vehicles sold for the first timein 2019.

Consumers are increasingly attract-ed to these models because they’re lessexpensive than popular small crossoverSUVs such as the Honda CR-V andToyota RAV4 but still offer driversmore cargo storage space and a higherseating height than a typical sedan.

Buying an extra-small crossoverSUV is not without drawbacks. Theytypically cost a few thousand dollarsmore than similarly sized sedans and getlower fuel economy on average. Theyalso sometimes lack features found onbigger crossover SUVs, such as all-wheeldrive or power rear liftgates. Still, ifyou’re going the SUV route, these small-er models can be an appealing choice.

These are five worthy picks for anextra-small crossover SUV, as selectedby the experts at Edmunds. All pricesbelow include the destination charge.

� ��(/�'�&�")'�Starting manufacturer’s suggested

retail price: $21,420EPA-estimated fuel economy: 37-30

mpg combinedThe best extra-small crossover SUVs

take the sharper driving characteristicsof a sedan and add utility. Hyundai Konais a prime example of this formula doneright. Fitted with its optional tur-bocharged engine, the Kona is surpris-ingly quick to accelerate. It’s also nim-ble when going around turns.

Every Kona comes with features thataren’t always standard for this class, suchas Apple CarPlay and Android Autosmartphone integration. The Kona does-n’t have as much rear legroom or cargoroom as some of its rivals, but on thewhole it’s a great choice.

� ��9�&�"��'�)*�Starting MSRP: $24,195EPA-estimated fuel economy: 26-31

mpg combinedThe Buick Encore is a slightly

altered version of the Chevrolet Trax.The two vehicles share their engine andmost of their underpinnings. The Encorehas several key features that set it apart,though, and only commands a smallprice premium. That upscale yet afford-able feel is enough to earn a recommen-dation from our experts.

The biggest difference is theenhanced interior. The Encore useshigher-quality cabin materials and moresound-deadening techniques to blockout wind and road noise. You’ll have toaccept sluggish acceleration and limit-ed cargo space, but otherwise the Encoreis a smart small SUV choice.

� ��()'��(*7CStarting MSRP: $21,940EPA-estimated fuel economy: 28-30

mpg combinedIf you’re finding that other extra-

small crossover SUVs don’t provideenough room for passengers and cargo,the Honda HR-V could be the way to go.Its back seat is roomier than the norm,and we’ve found that adults can be fair-ly comfortable when seated there. It alsohas special folding seats that allow youto carry long or oddly shaped items thatwouldn’t fit in one of its rival crossovers.

Downsides include a somewhatloud and underpowered engine and atouchscreen infotainment system thatcan be overly distracting to use while dri-ving. But overall the HR-V is pricedright, and it’s practical andstrong in all the areas

a pint-

sized crossover should be.

� ����9�*���*)��+*�"Starting MSRP: $23,155EPA-estimated fuel economy: 25-30

mpg combinedMost extra-small crossover SUVs

aren’t designed for recreational use. Onenotable exception is the SubaruCrosstrek. It has standard all-wheeldrive to provide extra traction on loosesurfaces as well as higher-than-averageground clearance to clear ruts androcks when out on a trail. The Crosstrekalso comes standard with raised roofrails that make it easy to install racks tohaul your favorite gear.

The Crosstrek is still a solid pickeven if you’re not planning on off-roadadventure. It has a smooth ride quality,a roomy back seat and easy-to-use con-trols. Nearly all Crosstreks sold alsocome standard with advanced driversafety aids such as forward collision mit-igation. Slow acceleration is the maindrawback to going with this Subaru.

� ����&�D!Starting MSRP: $35,695EPA-estimated fuel economy: 22

mpg combinedLuxury brands are also playing the

extra-small SUV game. Audi’s entry isthe Q3. It’s Audi’s least expensive vehi-cle, yet it has many of the traits thebrand is known for, such as a high-qual-ity interior, a smooth ride and featuressuch as advanced driver safety featuresthat can help mitigate accidents andreduce driver distraction.

The Q3 isn’t the sportiest model inits class, and its fuel economy is belowpar. But on the whole, this little Audishows you don’t need to spend stacksof cash to get a stylish and practical lux-ury crossover SUV.

Edmunds says: A new breed ofcrossover SUVs is here. Extra-smallcrossovers provide close to the same

utility as small crossovers but costless and get better fuel econ-

omy.>9/

Irrfan Khan won’t be arriving at the bigscreens in the city with Angrezi

Medium, neither will Akshay Kumar’slatest biggie Sooryavanshi (which hasbeen postponed). Sandeep Aur PinkyFaraar featuring Parineeti Chopra andArjun Kapoor will be affected, too. Theimpact of restrictions to stem the spreadof the coronavirus in the Capital will befelt at the box office as Delhi cinemaswill be shut till March 31.

With the Delhi government official-ly announcing all cinema halls, schools,colleges in Delhi to be shut till March31 due to the outbreak of coronavirus,the film trade in the city is bound to feelthe impact. After the postponement ofSooryavanshi, massive shuffle of releasedates is expected.

“It is going to put a full stop to theforthcoming releases. Delhi is a hugemarket. If you look at the business oftwo releases — Shubh Mangal ZyadaSaavdhan and Thappad, they were fan-tastic in Delhi and NCR. Even other-wise, Delhi-NCR is a huge market. Thelosses will be worth crores. Why wouldyou even want to release when you knowthat the film will not be released inDelhi? Delhi is a big territory. Producerswill now pay attention and think aboutchanging release dates,” trade analystTaran Adarsh said.

The new announcement will ruinbox office takings of Irrfan’s AngreziMedium (scheduled for March 13) andParineeti Chopra-Arjun Kapoor’s

Sandeep Aur Pinky Faraar (March 20).“The producers will strongly think todelay the release. I think they will haveto defer releases,” trade expert GirishJohar said.

According to Johar, shutting downof theatres in Delhi will have a “hugeimpact to potential revenue.” He said,“Delhi is a very important market. It isone of the topmost cities among revenueearners for Bollywood films across thecountry. In some cases, it is the num-ber one city among all regions andsometimes Mumbai is the number onecity. Delhi is one of the topmost crucialmarkets. If it shuts down theatres, it willhave a huge impact on Bollywood’spotential revenue,” Johar said. “We alsoneed to keep in mind that overseas, too,we are losing a major chunk right now,with the US under a lockdown, parts ofEurope and Australia also under lock-down. All these are big potential mar-kets. Now, Delhi cinemas will also beclosed. It will be a big loss,” he added.

The fate of the Ranveer Singh-star-rer 83 (April 10) is also undecided.Other big films slated in the first quar-ter include the Amitabh Bachchan andAyushmann Khurrana-starrer GulaboSitabo, Varun Dhawan-Sara Ali Khan’sCoolie No.1, Salman Khan’s actiondrama Radhe: Your Most Wanted Bhai,Akshay Kumar’s Laxmmi Bomb, BuntyAur Babli 2 and Kangana Ranaut’sThalaivi.

Haathi Mere Saathi, Gunjan Saxena:The Kargil Girl, Ludo and Chehre arealso lined up in the first half. Accordingto Joginder Tuteja, trade analyst, “Baaghi3 came at a time when the news aboutvirus arriving in India had just broken.The makers didn’t have the time to reactand had to release it over the weekendgone by. Though the virus has impact-ed the film, we need to credit the massycontent due to which it has still donewell in its first week and is on course tobe a hit.”

Talking about the impact, RajKumar Mehrotra, general manager atDelite Cinema, said: “Around 10 to 12films are doing good business in Delhi-NCR right now. Shutting down the hallswill affect business of all these films. Bya rough estimate, if halls are asked toshut down till the end of the month, itcould even pile up a cumulative loss ofaround �100 crore in this territory.”

Sanjay Suri, who was set to bring theOscar-nominated drama Les Miserablesto India on March 13, hopes the situa-tion improves soon. “We shall wait forthe situation to improve and see if aphase-wise release is possible or notwhen shutdown is lifted. Safety is mostimportant,” Sanjay said in a statement.

>�9*�

Our design stories begin with apiece of cloth and we, thedesigners, romance it,” says

Nida Mahmood. For her, fabrics arethe most integral part of her designprocess as they have evolved to beaccepted and recognised as an artform. So it is that she resolves her cre-ative challenges through fabrics. It’s thereason that she has launched a sustain-able line through a sub-brand calledMadam Marigold. It revolves aroundIndian traditions with a contemporarytouch that aims to revive age-old artforms and techniques that do notexhaust natural resources and arelong-lasting. It comprises tunics,pants, saris, jackets, overlays anddresses.

The marigold flower has acted asNida’s muse as it stands for “everythingthat is Indian,” be it a wedding or a rit-ual or a new shop. “It epitomises Indiain several beautiful ways and cele-brates its true essence,” says she.

The collection brings Indian sim-plicity back in the limelight by reviv-ing age-old craftsmanship. In hermaiden collection, she has exploredthe ajrak printing from Gujarat andalso worked on a 160 year-old ana-logue photography technique toexpose designs on the garments andprints on textiles and paper. Ajrak, ablock-printed cloth with deep, crim-son red and indigo blue background,bears symmetrical patterns with inter-spersed unprinted sparkling-whitemotifs. The term is derived fromAzrak in Arabic which implies ‘blue’as it is one of the principal colours init. The colour is the major reason whythe designer chose the technique. It’sher “favourite” and she believes thatthere couldn’t have been a better wayto add her personal touch to the col-lection. She says, “Ajrak printing hasalways fascinated me, especially theindigo colour that it uses widely. It’san art form that needs labour of love.As a designer, my work has alwaysbeen about celebrating India and it’sbeautiful culture. Ajrak, hailing fromas old as the Indus valley civilisation,allows me to do so. I also feel that thiscraft has now been declining due tothe advent of more modern andquicker methods of printing. Brighterchemical dyes are replacing the nat-

ural, muted colours and this slow andcareful process of printing this tradi-tional textile is getting lost.”

In Ajrak, the process of dyeing andprinting the fabric is repeated again

and again with different kind of dyesto achieve the perfect design. Howchallenging is it to deal with such aslow and time-consuming processand yet balance it with the deadlines?“Yes, it is an extremely tedious tech-nique and requires a lot of attentionand care. We coat the fabric with aphotosensitive material so that thedesign and the colours are exposed.The entire process can even takearound two weeks to finally come toend. But once it takes shape, everydesign differs from each other in var-ious aspects. That is the beauty of it,”says Nida.

Eco-sensitivity forms the core ofher collection as the techniques usedfor dyeing, printing and other surfaceornamentation are sustainable. Eventhe process of Ajrak printing is long-lasting as it uses colours from natur-al elements like turmeric, pomegran-ate, onion peels, tea leaves, beetroot,hibiscus, marigold, natural indigoand many others. “It is very importantto consider the impact of the fashionindustry on the land that we are liv-ing. This is an eco-friendly brand. Wefocus on circularity in fashion whichpromotes minimum waste and anoptimum use of all resources. Wemake sure to constantly minimise thenegative impact of any resources onenvironment,” says she.

While the designer is known forintroducing new trends in fashion,what has been her creative process? “Ibelieve in following my heart as a cre-ative person and the only rule is to nothave rules. When one doesn’t box one-self in the rules set by society or anyindustry, one is able to create work thatis fresh and has an independent andfresh perspective,” says she.

As the fashion trends keep evolv-ing with every season, a designerneeds to constantly update his/herdesigns. What keeps Nida going? Shesays, “The love for what I do keeps thelight glowing. This is my bread andbutter and as an entrepreneur it isimperative for me to work towardsachieving mid-term and long termsbusiness goals. Though we nee to beon the toes all the time but there is nopressure. I guess one just slides intothe role that I need to play as it is sucha transient industry.”

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We all know by now thatwhole grains are good

for us and that we should beeating more of them. Anyonewho has dipped a toe (orspoon) into the world of farro,brown rice and quinoa alsoknows how satisfying and ver-satile the arena of whole grainscan be. But what are wholegrains exactly, and which onesshould you stock in yourpantry? The Whole GrainsCouncil, a nonprofit consumeradvocacy group, defines wholegrains as those that contain allthe essential parts and natural-ly occurring nutrients of thegrain seed. When grain isprocessed (for example, bycracking, crushing, rolling orcooking it), some of thosehealthy qualities can bestripped away.

Nutritionists have longtouted the health benefits ofwhole grains. Especially today,when many people are cuttingback on meat, whole grainscan provide texture, flavourand often protein.

Some of the whole grainsyou might experiment with areamaranth, barley, corn(including popcorn!), oats,farro, sorghum, millet, spelt,bulgur, wheatberries, crackedwheat, quinoa, rye, teff, andbrown and wild rice. Besideseating the whole grains whole,consuming things made withwhole grain flours is anotherway to get at the good stuff.

Read labels carefully :Some products might say“made with whole grains” or“made with whole grainflours” but the amount ofwhole grains in them might bevery small. “Multigrain” isanother possibly misleadingterm — multiple grains does-n’t mean that all or even anyof them are whole grains.Look for labeling that says“made with 100 per cent wholegrains”.

Whole grains can star in acasserole or grain salad, beserved up as a side dish, andbolster all kinds of recipesfrom meatloaves to fritters.The grains are often cookedbefore they’re used in a recipe,usually in water or broth.They can also be used in bak-ing, both savory and sweet.Whole grains soak up saucesbeautifully, and can be madeahead and frozen.

A handful of whole grains

to explore:Brown Rice: Switching to

more brown rice instead ofwhite is one of the simplestways to get more whole grainshappening at the table. Brownrice is rice with the inedibleouter hull removed but withthe germ and outer layer intact.It is more nutritious than whiterice, and has a denser, chewier,nuttier grain. It takes longer tocook than white rice, about 45minutes, and the ratio of waterto rice is about 2.5:1.

Quinoa (pronouncedkeen-wah) has been a star ofthe whole grain world forquite some time now.Although it might seem trendyand modern, however, it was astaple in the diet of the ancientIncas. Quinoa is actually aseed but is treated and cookedlike a whole grain. It takesbeautifully to all kinds of sea-sonings and uses. Whencooked, it has a light andfluffy texture, and a lightlynutty flavor. It’s got a high pro-tein count (8 grams in a halfcup of cooked quinoa), a nicedose of fiber and is gluten-free.

Millet (actually, a memberof the grass family) can becooked as a cereal, made intoflour, served as a side dish,made into pilafs or stuffings,you name it. It can even bepopped like corn. It’s rich inprotein, fiber, vitamins andminerals, easy to digest, andhas a slightly sweet, nutty fla-vor. Use millet in soups, saladsand stews.

Teff, a mainstay of tradi-

tional Ethiopian cooking, isbecoming popular worldwide.The grains are tiny, about thesize of poppy seeds but they arepacked with fiber, iron, calci-um and protein. You can useteff in many ways, cooked likeoatmeal or polenta or drycooked in a pan and sprinkledon salads.

Farro is often called speltin the US, where we are justdiscovering its charms, butthe Italians have been creatingfarro masterpieces for cen-turies. The grain originated inwestern Asia. It is similar tobarley, but denser and chewier.Farro is low in gluten, but notgluten-free. There is more thanone way to cook it, even on thestovetop. Some people prefercooking it like rice, with justthe right amount of liquid to befully absorbed. Others cookfarro in a lot of water, likepasta, and then drain it.

Bulgur Wheat: A staple inMiddle Eastern andMediterranean regions, bulgurwheat is whole wheat grainthat has been cracked andpartially precooked. It’s terrif-ic in side dishes, soup, pilafs,casseroles and salads (grainsalads and green salads alike).It can be added to meat dish-es like kibbeh and meatloaf toboost nutrition and bulk themup. Many people have encoun-tered bulgur as the backboneof Middle Eastern Tabboulehsalad. It is high in fiber, low infat, with a nice amount of pro-tein and a lovely nutty flavor.

>9/

There wasn’t much availablefor people to ‘waste’ theirtime on during the pre-

internet era. Of course, unliketoday, there were certainly noweb channels to watch films onat one’s own convenience. Butthere was something specialabout standing in queues of sin-gle-screen theatres to buy the‘first day, first show,’ ticketswhich adhered to strict timings.Films, with their dream-likesequences in idyllic locations,were an escape from monotonyof everyday life. The Hindi filmindustry has influenced us inmore ways than we can everrealise. And Noida Social at DLFMall of India gives us a perfectpeek into nostalgia.

As one enters the externalpremises of the cafe inside thebusy mall, tired after a day ofendless shopping, one noticesthat the table tops have faces oficonic characters fromBollywood like Mogambo andMr India. There are posters ofclassics and blockbusters fromthe 70s, 80s and 90s on a roundpillar. Moving towards the inter-nal premises, one comes acrossa poster of Dilwale Dulhaniya LeJayenge, which informs us thatit was one of the longest runningHindi films in the history ofIndian cinema. A windowtowards its left is designed likea ‘Box-Office’ panel. The hugehall inside the cafe remindsone of the vintage 80s cinemahall with old seat preferences —the stall, balcony, dress circle andbox. It has the touch of a typi-cal Broadway theatre with its redcarpet flooring. There are train-like window compartmentstowards the left, each with a redvelvet curtain on its side. I amcertainly teleported to an era Ihaven’t been a part of or haveonly seen being romanticised inBollywood films itself. Well,what an irony!

I realise I have admired mysurroundings way too much tohave ordered even a single dish,the reason why I had come herein the first place. I order EggsKejriwal mac n cheese, the firstitem that grabs my attention inthe newspaper-like menu.Meanwhile, I notice yet anoth-er addition which furtherenhances the cafe’s cinematheme — background music.English artistes from the 70s to90s like Bryan Adams, BonJovi, Celine Dion, Elvis Presleyand more feature ontheir playlist andtheir videos play ont h e

screen at the centre. Comingback to food, the Eggs Kejriwalseem like the perfect-lookingfirst dish. I wish it’s the same onthe taste front. The spicy macand cheese, topped with friedegg appears like a lasagna in abowl. Baked with cheese, I catchthe macaroni pasta as I dig myfork into the thick layer. The dishhas been cooked to perfection.The egg and cheese on top andthe pasta underneath are just theright blend.

Next up is Chaat kegubaarey. The dish is on mytable and I am wondering if Ihave got the wrong order. Itdoesn’t look like the way I hadimagined it to be nor themanner in which thewaiter had described it.

T h e

plate full of papdis looks exact-ly like a typical chaat. The onlyunusual thing being a white egg-like oval ball on each one ofthem. I wonder why there areeggs in a papdi chaat. After eat-ing one, I realise that what I havebeen thinking to bean egg is actual-ly a ball of hungcurd. Well, fullmarks to thepresentation aswell as the tasteas the curd meltsinside my mouthlike cream. It doesnot for a momentmake you feel that

you need toa d d

any-

thing more.Hummus aur tum, reminis-

cent of a typical Bollywoodfilm name, makes its way to mytable. I initially thought that thedish was a typical hummus pitaone. However, this too is a sur-prise. Two round pita breads aretopped with hummus, braisedtomatoes, feta cheese, arugulaand pomegranates. I polish offthe pair of breads with delightand realise that this is one dishthat I wanted to eat till eternity.It is certainly the best hummuspita dish I have had.

Till now, I haven’t been dis-appointed by any item. It is theturn for some drinks. A Cosmoexplosion cocktail lands on thetable. The drink is a blend ofcranberry juice, triple sec, maltaorange zest and vodka, which ispoured over a candy floss lyinginside the glass after it is broughtto the table. The floss melts soonenough and the cocktail is ready.I would describe this drink asslightly tart, a little sassy andcompletely delicious. There havebeen times when I don’t feel likehaving a cocktail because it’s notproperly mixed with alcohol.Sometimes the juice content islow and at other times, the alco-hol is not properly mixed. Thisone makes me relish a cocktail’sactual taste due to its right bal-ance.

The next is Benarasi Patiala.Social describes it as its most“dangerous combination” offreshly squeezed sugarcane juicewith homemade sweet and sourcondiments, fresh mint, ginger,organic salt and vodka. It can bedrunk as a mocktail too. But Iam already so impressed withthe place’s cocktail-making skillsthat I don’t flinch while order-ing another one. And this oneisn’t disappointing too.

I walk out with a contentheart. The place not only makesyou relive Bollywood’s goldenera but proves to be a box-office

hit when itcomes tofood. Well,you’ll cer-tainly enjoythis show!

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Real Madrid went into quarantineon Thursday as La Liga

announced Spain’s top two divisionswill be suspended for at least two weeksover the coronavirus.

La Liga authorities made the deci-sion after Real Madrid confirmed itssenior football team is in quarantineafter one of the club’s basketball play-ers tested positive for the virus.

Real Madrid’s football and bas-ketball players share facilities at CiudadReal Madrid, the club’s training groundin Valdebebas.

A club statement read: “A playerfrom our basketball first team has test-ed positive for the COVID-19 coron-avirus.

“Since then, the recommendationhas been made to quarantine both thebasketball first team and the football firstteam, given that the two squadsshare facilities in Ciudad RealMadrid.

“Likewise, it has been decided toclose the facilities at our training ground

and it is also recommended that allReal Madrid personnel who work

there remain in quarantine.”La Liga has also followed

Italy’s Serie A in suspendingits matches, after a meeting

on Thursday with theSpanish Football

Federation and the SpanishPlayers Union (AFE).

It had been decided onTuesday that games inSpain’s top two divisions

would be held behind closeddoors but those fixtures over thenext 14 days will now be suspend-ed.

Domestic league matches inFrance, Germany and Portugalhave been put behind closeddoors while Serie A in Italy hasbeen suspended until April 3.

A La Liga statement read: “Inview of the circumstances known

this morning, referring to the quarantineestablished in Real Madrid and the pos-sible positive tests from players at otherclubs, La Liga considers that the circum-stances now exist to continue with thenext phase of action against COVID-19.”

“La Liga agrees to suspend at least thenext two matchdays,” the statementadded. “This decision will be re-evaluat-ed after the quarantine at affected clubsand other possible situations that couldoccur have ended.”

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Paris Saint-Germain playerscelebrated with supporters

gathered outside the groundafter Neymar set them on theirway to a 2-0 win over BorussiaDortmund behind closed doorson Wednesday, taking themthrough to the ChampionsLeague quarter-finals 3-2 onaggregate.

PSG needed to overturn a 2-1 defeat in the first leg of theirlast-16 tie in Germany, butNeymar’s 28th-minute headerput them ahead on the night inthe second leg amid a surrealatmosphere, as banned sup-porters congregated outside theParc des Princes instead.

Juan Bernat then deflectedin a Pablo Sarabia assist to makeit 2-0 and PSG — for whomKylian Mbappe was only fitenough to appear as a substitute— go through to the quarter-finals for the first time since2016. Dortmund finished thenight with 10 men after EmreCan was sent off.

This game was playedbehind closed doors after theFrench government banned allgatherings of more than 1,000people due to the coronavirusoutbreak, but many still cametogether outside.

Those supporters bran-dished flares as the team busarrived before the game andsang and set off fireworksthroughout the match.

PSG players rushed to aconcourse at the back of the sta-dium to celebrate with them atthe end of the game after break-ing a run of three straight exitsin the first knockout round ofthe competition.

“We played like a team. Itwas a pleasure to be their coachtonight,” PSG coach ThomasTuchel told broadcaster RMCSport.

“The atmosphere was greatcoming here in the bus, with allthe ultras singing. We were allsinging together and it was a spe-cial atmosphere.

“It needed a huge effortfrom us, playing without spec-tators made it all the more dif-ficult.”

Neymar was caught oncamera in tears after the match,having shaken off desperate dis-appointment in the competitionin the last two years, with injurypreventing him from playing inthe second leg against RealMadrid at this stage in 2018 andin both legs against ManchesterUnited last season.

Dortmund were disappoint-ing, though, with Erling BrautHaaland never looking likerepeating his first-leg heroicswhen he netted twice.

Their defender MatsHummels admitted his teamstruggled with the atmosphere,saying: “It was really bizarre, butfor both teams. The start of thegame was really strange, like afriendly.”

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Atletico Madrid managerDiego Simeone defend-ed his side’s approach

after dumping Liverpool out ofthe Champions League with a3-2 victory after extra time atAnfield to progress to the quar-ter-finals, winning 4-2 onaggregate.

The holders looked to haveended Atletico’s dogged resis-tance when Roberto Firminoput them ahead in the last-16tie after Georginio Wijnaldum’sfirst-half header forced the sec-ond leg into an extra 30 min-utes.

However, Liverpool weremade to rue a host of missedchances to kill the tie off in 90minutes as Llorente twicecurled home from outside thebox before Alvaro Morata twist-ed the knife by breaking awayto score in added time of extratime.

Defeat ends JurgenKlopp’s proud record ofnever losing a two-leggedEuropean tie as Liverpoolmanager and he took aswipe of Atletico’s defen-sive tactics.

“The way they play, Idon’t get it,” said Klopp. “Theycould play proper football butthey stand deep and havecounter-attacks.”

It remains to be seen if andwhen Atletico will play in thelast eight due to the chaoscaused across the continent bythe new coronavirus.

But Simeone basked inanother famous European nightfor the side he has twice led tothe final in his eight years incharge.

“We play to win, with thearms that we have,” saidSimeone. “Respecting our iden-tity, the characteristics of ourplayers and exploiting thedefects of our rivals.”

OBLAK ‘BEST IN WORLD’A packed Anfield played its

part in trying to roar Liverpoolonto another ChampionsLeague conquest as, unlike innumerous countries acrossEurope, no restrictions have sofar been put on supportersattending games in the UnitedKingdom.

But it was the nearly 3,000travelling fans in attendance,that celebrated a stoic rearguarddisplay from their side.

The European championsdid not manage a single shot ontarget in a 1-0 defeat in Madridthree weeks ago, but Jan Oblakwas quickly put to work.

But Oblak was helpless asLiverpool levelled the tie justbefore half-time throughWijnaldum’s powerful down-ward header.

The goal did not changeAtletico’s approach as theyplayed a risky game andrelied on Oblak to keepthem in the game.

The Sloveniansaved from MohamedSalah, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain andFirmino, while AndyRobertson hit the bar asLiverpool missed a number ofchances that ultimately cameback to cost them.

“I have no doubt Oblak isthe best goalkeeper in theworld,” added Simeone.

Despite Liverpool beingon the brink of a first PremierLeague title in 30 years, theirnumber nine Firmino had notscored at home all season until

four minutes into extra-time.The Brazilian’s header

from Wijnaldum’s crosscame back off the post

and perfectly backinto his path to slothome with Oblakgrounded.

“ E v e r y b o d ywho saw the game

tonight knows it couldhave been different,” said

Klopp. “I loved our first 90minutes, but we scored thesecond goal too late.”

However, no sooner had

Liverpool gone in front for thefirst time in the tie than Atleticohit back with a sucker-punch.

The visitors had barelytested stand-in Liverpool goal-keeper Adrian, but the loss ofAlisson Becker to a hip injuryeventually proved Liverpool’sdownfall.

Adrian fired a simple clear-ance straight to Joao Felix,who fed Llorente and he foundthe bottom corner.

“The pass was not helpful.Adrian is a super player, I lovethe boy, but in this moment, itis the wrong decision,” addedKlopp.

Llorente had joinedAtletico from bitter rivals RealMadrid in a controversial movein June.

But the man whose fatherand great uncle, FranciscoGento, also played for Real,made himself a Rojiblancohero with a second that securedAtletico’s place in the last eightwith another precise low finishin added time at the end of thefirst half of extra time.

Another former Real play-er Morata then broke away andfinished calmly to inflictLiverpool’s first ChampionsLeague home defeat since 2014.

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Juventus and Italy defender DanieleRugani told fans ‘don’t worry, I’m fine’

on Wednesday after becoming the firstSerie A footballer to test positive for thenew coronavirus.

The 25-year-old “is currently asymp-tomatic,” the Italian champions said, butthe Turin-based club are “currently acti-vating all the isolation procedures requiredby law, including those who have had con-tact with him.”

“I want to reassure all those who areworried about me, I’m fine,” Rugani latersaid on Instagram.

“At this moment, however, I feel evenmore duty to thank all the doctors andnurses who are struggling in hospitals tocope with this crisis.

“I invite everyone to respectthe rules, because this virusmakes no distinctions! Let’sdo it for ourselves, for ourloved ones and for thosearound us.” Rugani is thefirst top-flight footballer tofall victim to the viruswhich has killed 827 in Italy,the second moststricken country inthe world afterChina, andinfected 12,000people, includ-ing severalSerie C players.

���� ������ The Indian Super League finalbetween ATK FC and Chennaiyin FC onMarch 14 will be played without any specta-tors at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium inMargao due to the COVID-19 pandemic, theorganisers said on Thursday.

Owing to the current preventive measuresadvised by the Sports Ministry, league organ-iser Football Sports Development Limited(FSDL) has decided to hold the season’s finalbehind closed doors.

FSDL said the decision was taken in viewof the health and safety of players, fans andsupport staff.

“Upcoming Hero Indian Super League

2019-20 Final on Saturday, March 14, 2020,between ATK FC and Chennaiyin FC, will nowbe played behind closed doors at the JawaharlalNehru Stadium, Fatorda, Goa,” the ISL organ-

isers said in a statement.The decision came after the

Sports Ministry’s advisory to allnational federations to follow theHealth Ministry’s advisory and

avoid large gatherings in sportsevents.

“...Ensure that no public gathering takesplace in any sporting event. In the event thesporting event cannot be avoided, the samecould be done wihout allowing gathering ofpeople, including spectators,” read an orderfrom the Sports ministry.

This is the second time that an ISL matchwill be played in an empty stadium after thisyear’s game between NorthEast United FC andBengaluru FC was held behind closed doorsin Guwahati in the wake of the protest againstthe Citizenship Amendment Act in Assam.

FSDL said it will soon initiate the processof ticket refunds and an announcement will bemade through Hero ISL channels.

The final match will be telecast live on StarSports, Hotstar and Jio TV. PTI

���������� The remaining28 matches of the I-League,including the marqueeKolkata derby betweenchampions Mohun Baganand East Bengal, are likely tobe played in empty stadiumsowing to the COVID-19pandemic, an All IndiaFootball Federation officialsaid. The AIFF, however, willhold a meetingwith the I-Leagueclubs on Fridaybefore announcinga final decision.

“We don’t want to takea unilateral decision, wewant to hear the clubs. So,we have fixed a meeting onFriday with them. But themost likely option is that theremaining 28 matches areplayed behind closed doors,”the official said.

“The AIFF will hold a

Skype meeting with repre-sentatives from all I-Leagueclubs at 4pm on Friday(March 13) in view of theguidelines issued by theMinistry of Youth Affairsand Sports concerning therecent global outbreak ofCOVID-19,” read a state-ment from AIFF.

Mohun Bagan havealready clinchedthe I-League titleon Tuesday withfour rounds still tobe played but the

official said the remainingmatches cannot be can-celled.

“There will be relega-tion and promotion andother things. These cannotbe decided without playingthe full league. So, we haveto hold all the remainingmatches,” he said. PTI

��������� McLaren pulled out of theseason-opening Australian Grand Prix onThursday after a team member tested pos-itive for coronavirus, throwing the race intochaos.

The employee was among eightFormula One personnel who went into iso-lation after showing flu-like symptoms typ-ical of the virus this week in Melbourne.

The other seven — including fourfrom the Haas team — all returned nega-tive results, organisers said.

“The team member was tested andself-isolated as soon as they started to showsymptoms and will now be treated by localhealthcare authorities,” McLaren said in astatement.

“The decision (to withdraw) has beentaken based on a duty of care not only toMcLaren F1 employees and partners, butalso to the team’s competitors, Formula 1fans and wider F1 stakeholders.”

McLaren’s decision to pull out castsdoubt over whether the race will be runwithout a full complement of teams, andwhether others will follow suit.

The Australian Grand PrixCorporation said it was “currently in dis-cussions with Formula 1, the FIA and the(Victorian) department of health andhuman services in relation to the broaderimplications of this test result”.

World champion Lewis Hamiltonearlier on Thursday said he was stunnedthe race was going ahead as fears mountabout the spread of the disease.

“I am really very, very surprised thatwe’re here. I don’t think it’s great that we

have races but it really is shocking that we’reall sitting in this room,” he said at an offi-cial pre-race press conference packedwith media.

“It seems that the rest of the world isalready reacting a little bit late, but you haveseen this morning with (President Donald)Trump shutting down the border toEurope to the States, the NBA suspended,yet Formula One continues to go on.

“It’s a concern I think for the peoplehere. It’s quite a big circus that’s come here,it’s definitely concerning for me.”

The Mercedes star, who is gunning tomatch Michael Schumacher’s record sevenworld crowns this season, sat alongside

Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel and Renault’sDaniel Ricciardo in the media session, buta large open space separated them from thepress. Asked why he felt the race was stillon, Hamilton replied: “Cash is king.”

Four-time world champion Vettelsaid it was difficult to judge what to doas the virus continues its spread.

“Obviously we have to trust the FIAto take precautions as much as they can,but I think the answer that nobody cangive you at the moment is how much youcan control what is going on,” he said.

“As a matter of fact, we are here soyou just try to take care as much as youcan.” AFP

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Miami-Dade CountyMayor Carlos Gimenez

declared a state of emergencyon Thursday over the coron-avirus outbreak and begancanceling mass gatherings,including the ATP and WTAMiami Open.

The hardcourt tennistournament, one of the world’stop events outside of theGrand Slams, was scheduledto begin with qualifying onMarch 23 and run throughApril 5.

The ATP and WTA earli-er wiped out the combinedevent at Indian Wells ,California, which was to havestarted main-draw playThursday.

The news came hoursafter the NBA, including theMiami Heat, halted its seasonin the wake of the coronaviruspandemic.

Also axed was a plannedstock car race on March 22 atHomestead Miami Speedway,with NASCAR (the NationalAssociation for Stock CarAuto Racing) to decide if therace would be conductedwithout spectators.

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,����$���������&�����������������������������������'�����9�9���<��� ������������������ UEFA has called a crisis meetingto take place next week, European foot-ball’s governing body announced onThursday, as the coronavirus outbreak

threatens to force the postpone-ment of Euro 2020 and the ongo-ing Champions League.

A videoconference will be held“to discuss European football’sresponse to the outbreak” nextTuesday “in the light of the ongo-

ing developments in the spread ofCOVID-19 across Europe and thechanging analysis of the World HealthOrganisation.” The meeting will involve

representatives from all 55 nationalassociations and club and player bodies.

However, UEFA did not confirmwhether matches scheduled forThursday or for next week would be ableto go ahead as planned.

Meanwhile, two Europa Leaguelast 16, first legs scheduled for Thursdayand involving Italian clubs have beenpostponed.

Euro 2020 is due to kick off in threemonths and the final four qualifyingspots are due to be decided in play-offmatches scheduled to be played at theend of this month. AFP

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The money-spinning IPL mulleda closed-door edition in a des-

perate bid to avoid cancellation asthe deadly COVID-19 sent Indiansports into quarantine after a gov-ernment directive asked for fans tobe kept away from all action to pre-vent the pandemic from spreading.

“...Ensure that no public gather-ing takes place in any sportingevent. In the event the sporting eventcannot be avoided, the same couldbe done without allowing gatheringof people, including spectators,”read an order from the SportsMinistry which caused quite anupheaval through the day.

The directive ensured that theremaining two ODIs between Indiaand South Africa in Lucknow andKolkata, the Indian Super Leaguefootball tournament final in Goa,and the last day of the Ranji Trophysummit clash in Rajkot will beplayed in front of empty stadiums,an unprecedented turn of events inIndian sports.

On the IPL, the BCCI main-tained a stoic silence but the SportsMinistry dropped enough hints thatthe glitzy T20 tournament could beheld in empty stadiums too due tothe health crisis even as foreign play-

ers were ruled out till April 15 fol-lowing government-imposed travelrestrictions. The event is due to starton March 29 in Mumbai.

The Ministry of External Affairshas also advised the BCCI to “not doit at this time but if the organiserswant to go ahead, it is their decision”.

In another major development,the All India Football Federationsaid that the remaining 28 matchesof the I-League, including the mar-quee Kolkata derby between cham-pions Mohun Bagan and EastBengal, are likely to be played inempty stadiums.

This came a day after organisersof badminton’s India Open, startingMarch 24, decided they won’t allowspectators this year.

Besides, the national tennis fed-eration and the ParalympicCommittee of India decided to puton hold all national and state-levelchampionships till April 15, keepingin mind government directions.

The Athletics Federation ofIndia, on the other hand, withdrewinvitations to foreign competitors forthe Federation Cup but said that theevent itself will go ahead in Patialafrom April 10-13.

The IPL’s fate would be up fordiscussion at the event’s GoverningCouncil meeting on Saturday and

the BCCI has decided to adopt a waitand watch policy till then. SportsSecretary Radhey Shyam Julaniyasaid that events can continue butwithout the presence of crowds.

“We have asked all the NSFs,including the BCCI, to follow theHealth Ministry’s latest advisory,which says public gatherings shouldbe avoided in all events, includingsporting activities,” Julaniya said.

“The sporting events can go onbut the advisory needs to be fol-lowed,” he added.

The government on Wednesday

suspended all visas, barring a fewcategories like diplomatic andemployment, in an attempt to pre-vent the spread of coronavirus ascases across India rose to morethan 70.

The outbreak, declared a pan-demic by the World HealthOrganisation (WHO) onWednesday, has led to more than4,000 deaths and left over 100,000infected globally.

In India, Karnataka and Delhihave declared COVID-19 epidemics.The two states are home to IPL

teams Royal Challengers Bangalore(led by Virat Kohli) and DelhiCapitals.

The shooting World Cup and theIndian Open golf tournament are sofar the biggest events to have beenpostponed in the Indian sportingcalendar.

Meanwhile, the Indian boxingteam, returning from the AsianOlympic Qualifiers in Jordan, will beasked to stay “home-quarantined”even though all the members havegot the necessary health clearances.

A total of 13 boxers and almostan equal number of coaching staffarrive back on Thursday after clinch-ing an unprecedented nine Olympicslots in the qualifiers which conclud-ed on Wednesday in Amman.

“They will be asked to quaran-tine themselves at their homes orhostel rooms for a few days. Theyhave, however, been given the nec-essary health clearances by theJordanian Olympic association,”Boxing Federation of India’sExecutive Director R K Sacheti said.

The coronavirus outbreak hasalso led to speculation over the fateof the Tokyo Olympics this year. TheInternational Olympic Committee(IOC), however, has insisted that theGames will be held as scheduled inJuly-August.

���� ������ B��C� Thegovernment has made it clearto the Board of Control forCricket in India (BCCI) thatany sporting event that has tobe held amid the ongoingcoronavirus outbreak willhave to be behind closeddoors and the franchises areokay with the idea of the IPLbeing held with empty stands.But they wish for their foreignplayers to be made availablefrom the start of the season.

Speaking to IANS, an offi-cial of one of the franchises saidthat with the government mak-ing its stance clear and theWorld Health Organisation(WHO) declaring the coron-avirus outbreak a “pandemic”,there is no other option than toplay the match behind closeddoors.

“See, the gate money is noissue as these things are insured.As for the fans, it is disappoint-ing, but we don’t really havemuch of an option as we haveto abide by the diktat of the cen-tral government and evenWHO has declared the out-break a “pandemic”.

“This makes it clear that ifwe have to have an IPL this year,it has to be behind closeddoors. So now, would we ratherwant an IPL where fans canwatch the games on televisionor we don’t want an IPL in2020? So, we are okay with that,but the BCCI must sit downand speak to the central govern-ment to make an exception andallow the foreign players tocome in before April 15 as theIPL loses its sheen otherwise,”the official said.

While there have beenrumours that the league couldbe started in the second week

of April, another official saidthat was a strict no-no as thatwould mean missing the for-eign stars going into the busi-ness end.

“The international com-mitments that the players havecannot be toyed with and thehost broadcasters have alreadymade it clear that they are nottoo keen on double headers. So,keeping the interest of all par-ties in place, the best option isto have an IPL behind closeddoors. The franchises will haveto bear the loss that comes withmerchandise sales, but that is anominal amount as comparedto the losses that will beincurred if the IPL doesn’thappen in 2020,” the officialsaid.

An official of another fran-chise made it clear that theBCCI must ensure that they sitdown with the concernedgovernmental departmentsand ensure that at least theforeign players are handedpermission as they arealready touring around theworld.

“See, the Proteas arealready in the country, so asper the directive, they caneasily stay back. Also, if yousee, the Englishmen arealready in Sri Lanka and theKiwis are playing the Aussiesin Australia, so they are any-way on the road. We just needthe BCCI to sit down with thegovernmental departmentsand get us the clearance sothat we can have the IPL withforeign players. The wholetournament will lose its charmif the foreign players are notthere. It is the biggest cricketcarnival in the world for a rea-son,” the official said.

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Rising Indianshuttler Lakshya

Sen was knockedout of the AllE n g l a n dChampionshipsafter losing instraight games toVictor Axelsen hereon Thursday.

Lakshay wentdown to the worldnumber seven Dane17-21, 18-21 in ahard fought secondround battle whichlasted 45 minutes.

The 18-year oldIndian, who wonfive titles last season,had defeated HongKong’s Cheuk Yiu

Lee 17-21, 21-8 21-17 in the openinground.

On Wednesdaynight, star Indianshuttler SainaNehwal’s chances ofqualifying for theOlympics took a hitafter she made afirst-round exit, fol-lowing a loss toJapanese nemesisAkane Yamaguchi.

Up againstworld number threeYamaguchi, it was atough openinground for Saina,who lost 11-21, 8-21in just 28 minutes.

Saina is placed20th on the BWFrankings with 46267

points and the 2012London OlympicsBronze-medallistneeds to enter thetop-16 bracket byApril 28 to makethe cut for the 2020Tokyo Games.

She now needsstrong perfor-mances to pocketcrucial rankingpoints.

The 29-year-old is scheduled tocompete at theSwiss Open(March 17-22),India Open(March 24-29) andMalaysia Open(March 31-April 5)in the followingweeks.

Lakshya out of All England