403 INFRA PROJECTS SHOW COST HYDERABAD, MONDAY 3 {CINE… · 2020-07-26 · CINE: PAWAN HYDERABAD...

PNS n HYDERABAD

The Telangana State govern-ment is gearing up for Unlock3.0 from August 1 as Unlock2.0 ends on July 31.

As part of Unlock 3.0 steps,the authorities may allow the-atres, gyms etc. to function,though with some restrictions;while schools, Metro Rail andcity bus services may remainshut. Prime Minister NarendraModi is expected to hold a videoconference with Chief Ministersof all States on Monday to dis-cuss steps relating to Unlock 3.0.For, according to source, theChief Minister's Office (CMO)has received communicationfrom PMO requesting the ChiefMinister to be available for thePM's video conference onMonday, though the exact timeof the interaction would beintimated later.

India is proud ofheroes dedicatedto protecting thecountry: Shah

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‘Spl insolvencyresolution forMSMEs atadvanced stage’

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OBTUSE ANGLE

HYDERABAD, MONDAY JULY 27, 2020; PAGES 12 `3

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RNI No. TELENG/2018/76469

Established 1864Published From

HYDERABAD DELHI LUCKNOWBHOPAL RAIPUR CHANDIGARH

BHUBANESWAR RANCHIDEHRADUN VIJAYAWADA

*LATE CITY VOL. 2 ISSUE 287*Air Surcharge Extra if Applicable

1

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MONEY 8403 INFRA PROJECTS SHOW COSTOVERRUNS OF RS 4.05 LAKH CR

SPORTS 12WI NEED

399 TO WIN

ANALYSIS 7NO BUYERS FOR A

NEW COLD WAR PLAN

WE HAVE TO WAIT FOR THE VAC-

CINE: PAWAN{

HYDERABADWEATHER

Current Weather ConditionsUpdated July 26, 2020 5:00 PM

ALMANAC

TODAY

Month & Paksham:

Shravana & Shukla Paksha

Panchangam

Tithi : Saptami: 07:09 am,

Ashtami: 04:57 am (Next Day)

Nakshatram: Chitra: 11:03 am

Time to Avoid: (Bad time to start

any important work)

Rahukalam: 07:33 am – 09:10 am

Yamagandam: 10:46 am – 12:22 pm

Varjyam: 04:20 pm – 05:51 pm

Gulika: 01:58 pm - 03:34 pm

Good Time: (to start any important work)

Amritakalam: 01:23 am – 02:54 am

Abhijit Muhurtham: 11:56 am – 12:48 pm

FFoorreeccaasstt:: Partly cloudyTemp: 31/23Humidity: 66%Sunrise: 05.53 amSunset: 06.51 pm

L VENKAT RAM REDDYn HYDERABAD

The venue of theIndependence Day celebra-tions on August 15 is likely tobe shifted from the GolcondaFort to the Public Gardensthis time in view of theCovid-19 situation. Officialsare also considering a propos-al to hold the celebrations atPragathi Bhavan. A decisionin this regard is expected thisweek.

Independence Day celebra-tions have been held at theGolconda Fort since the forma-tion of Telangana State in 2014on a grand scale in the presenceof thousands of guests, amidpomp and pageantry, withcolourful parades and cultur-al programmes showcasingTelangana's history and culture.

However, according to offi-cial sources, the I-Day celebra-tions this year would be low-key, with Chief Minister KChandrasekhar Rao hoistingthe national flag at PublicGardens. No parades or cultur-al programmes would be heldto mark the occasion due to

Covid-19 regulations.In the undivided AP, the

state government used to holdI-Day celebrations at Parade

Grounds, Secunderabadevery year. Post bifurcation,following shifting of the venue

to Golconda Fort, there hasbeen a huge exercise everyyear, with officials taking con-trol of the fort for securityarrangements and rehearsals ofcultural programmes at leasttwo weeks in advance.

Like other landmarks in thecity, the Golconda Fort and its

surroundings are tastefullyilluminated on the eve ofIndependence Day. Folkartistes, Perini dancers, tribalartistes and students presentcultural programmes on theoccasion.

About 3,500 guests attendthe I-Day celebrations everyyear amidst tight security, withspecialised police personnel,including Greyhounds, bombsquads and OCTOPUS units,guarding the fort and its sur-roundings.

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

Actor Sonu Sood, who oftenplays a villain on screen, hasproven to be a genuine hero inreal life, right from the time thecoronavirus-induced lock-down was thrust upon theunsuspecting citizenry.

On Sunday, Sonu Sood onceagain emerged as a genuineGood Samaritan, by helpingfamilies in each of the twoTelugu States.

Firstly, moved by plight of a

farmer from KV Palli Mandalof Chittoor district, who wasforced to take the help of histwo daughters to plough hisagricultural land, the actor-producer gifted the family a

tractor.He later in the dayspoke to Sarada, an out-of-work techie, who had to resortto selling vegetables to sustainherself and her parents, andpromised her all help.

Sonu Sood had seen theviral video clip of the farmerand his daughters tilling theirland. Early on Sunday, he tookto Twitter to announce:"Tomorrow morning he willhave a pair of oxen to ploughthe fields.

TRS MLA Danam threatens bank officialsPNS n HYDERABAD

When a small-time borrowerof bank loan who does nothave big connections skipshis mortgage payments, thebank normally send goons torecover the amount due,regardless of the methodsadopted by its chosen repre-sentatives. If the borrowerhappens to have big connec-tions, they usually get a doseof their own medicine, withthe defaulter having the lastlaugh.

Videos surfaced on Sundaythat purportedly show TRSlegislator Danam Nagenderthreatening officials of theIndian Overseas Bank whenthey went to an area inKhairatabad (the MLA's con-stituency) in connection withthe auction of a piece of landmortgaged with the bank as aborrower had defaulted onloan repayments. The clipshows the MLA speakingrudely to the officials, whileclaiming irregularities in thebank's records.

“You are not supposed to behere. This itself shows thatmalpractice has taken place.The government is going topurchase this property,”Nagender is heard telling the

bank officials. He also forcedthem to leave the place andthreatened to call the police.

According to officials ofthe bank, land measuringaround 2,500 square yardswas mortgaged to the bank.Due to non-payment of loaninstallments, the asset becamean NPA (Non-performingAsset). As a result, the bankopted for an open auction andNobel Realtor, represented byMA Nayeem Pasha, won thebid.

Prevents bank officials from trying to take possession of land from loan defaulter

PNS n WARANGAL

Junior doctors and interns ofthe Mahatma GandhiMemorial Hospital inWarangal resorted to a strike atmidnight on Saturday after ajunior lady doctor was attackedby an acquaintance of a femalepatient who had been admit-ted in the emergency ward ofthe government health facility.Incensed doctors raised sloganson the hospital premises anddemanded protection and safe-ty at workplace. They boy-cotted even emergency ser-vices.

“I and my fellow doctorswere on a 24 hours emer-gency surgical duty, frommorning 9 am to next day 9

am. During that time, apatient’s relative came andstarted abusing the staff, say-ing we did not attend to thepatient when we were alreadydoing our job. He used abusivelanguage, and shouted on me

and my fellow colleagues,”added the lady doctor, who wasattacked.

“The patient’s attendant wasdrunk and saying that nobodywas providing treatment tothe patient even when treat-

ment was going on. The atten-dant started shouting at thestaff, saying he was the person-al assistant of minister KTRama Rao,” added Dr Bharath,working at MGM.

“He even started showing hisID card. We do not knowwhether he is really the PA ofKTR. Then he started abusingus, saying we hardly earn Rs50,000 and used filthy languageon female doctors. We wantaction to be taken against him.Yesterday, the police took himinto custody, but at night hewas released. Again, we willcomplain against him. He

used abusive and unparlia-mentary language againstfemale doctors.

Lady doctor in MGM hospital attackedn Jr doctors in

Warangalboycottduties afterattendantattackedlady doctor

n Attackerclaimshimself asPA of KTR

MaharashtraCases: 3,66,368

13,389 DEATHS 3.65%

DelhiCases: 1,29,531

3,806 DEATHS 2.94%

Tamil NaduCases: 2,06,737

3,409 DEATHS 1.65%

GujaratCases: 54,626

2,300 DEATHS 4.21%

KarnatakaCases: 90,942

1,796 DEATHS 1.97%

Uttar PradeshCases: 63,742

1,387 DEATHS 2.18%

West BengalCases: 56,377

1,332 DEATHS 2.36%

Andhra PradeshCases: 88,671

985 DEATHS 1.11%

Madhya PradeshCases: 26,926 799 DEATHS 2.97%

TelanganaCases: 54,059

TOTAL CASES 13,85,522

TOTAL DEATHS 32,063

SOURCE: HEALTH MINISTRY SOURCE: HEALTH MINISTRY

India Mortality Rate 2,31%

463 DEATHS 0.085%

STATES WITH MOST COVID-19 DEATHSMaharashtra

Cases: 3,66,3682,07,194 CURED 56.55%

Tamil NaduCases: 2,06,737

1,51,055 CURED 73.07%

DelhiCases: 1,29,531

1,13,068 CURED 87.29%

Andhra PradeshCases: 88,671

43,255 CURED 48.78%

TelanganaCases: 54,059

40,334 CURED 76.88%

Uttar PradeshCases: 63,742

39,903 CURED 62.60%

GujaratCases: 54,626

39,631 CURED 72.55%

West BengalCases: 56,377

35,654 CURED 63.24%

KarnatakaCases: 90,942

33,750 CURED 37.11%

RajastanCases: 35,298

TOTAL CASES 13,85,522

Total recoveries 8,85,577

India recoveries rate 63,92%

25,306 CURED 71.69%

COVID-19: STATES WITH OVER 10,000 REVOVERIES

Central govt to announce Unlock 3.0 from Aug 1 after taking opinions of States

Hyd Mayor tests positivePNS n HYDERABAD

Greater Hyderabad MayorBonthu Rammohan testedpositive for Covid-19, said his officehere on Sunday.

He is asymp-tomatic andunder homeisolation. Hisfamily membershave tested negative. Afterone member of his staff test-ed coronavirus positive recent-ly, the Mayor went into self-quarantine and underwentthe test on Saturday.

NAMRATA SRIVASTAVAn HYDERABAD

Alongside defiant schools thatcock a snook at the authoritiesby demanding extortionate feesin one go, there are compliantschools that are struggling topull along with no classes beingconducted and the education-al authorities breathing downtheir neck to collect only tuitionfees on a monthly basis fromparents. Such schools are in afix. They are struggling tomaintain their premises, pro-

vide security, repay loans takento acquire assets, and paysalaries to their employees.

S Srinivas Reddy, who hasbeen associated with a schools'association, says the current sit-

uation will leave a huge impacton the future of education."There are nearly 11,000 privateschools in the state, and 10,000of them are struggling to payteachers' salaries. Around 3,000

to 4,000 of the schools are onthe verge of shutting down.With over three lakh teachersworking in the state, the govern-ment should at least pay theirsalaries to reduce the burden ofprivate schools. If more schoolsdecide to close doors, the futureof education in the state will bein danger."

Compounding the schools'problem are the various billsthat the schools have to paymonthly, regardless of the pre-sent situation.

Security beefed up at irrigationprojectsPNS n KALESWARAM

In view of the possibility ofMaoists observing MartyrsCommemoration Week fromJuly 28, the police have beefedup security at Kaleshwaramirrigation project and otherprojects in Mahadevpurmandal of Jayashankar-Bhupalapally district.

Following intelligencereports that Maoists are keento make their presence felt inTelangana and that theymight strike at some targetsout of vengeance, the policehave launched intensivecombing operations alongGodavari coast and also inthe forest region.

The police are questioningsuspects around irrigationproject areas. They aresearching all vehicles thatpass through inter-state roadbridge from Maharashtra toTelangana.

The Gadchiroli district inneighbouring Maharashtrais a hot bed of Maoist activ-ity.

S Srinivas Reddy, whohas been associatedwith a schools'association, says thecurrent situation willleave a huge impacton the future ofeducation

Land measuring2,500 square yardswas mortgaged to thebank. But due to thenon-payment of loaninstallments, theasset became an NPA

Corona impact: I-Day event tobe shifted from Golconda Fort

Schools struggle with no income

‘Villain’ Sonu Sood proves heis actually a hero, once againActor sends tractor to farmer in AP, motivates techie Sarada

TS reports 1,593fresh Coronacases, 8 deathsHYDERABAD: Telangana Staterecorded 1,593 new coronapositive cases and eightdeaths during the past 24hours till 8 pm on Saturday.With this, the overall death tollrose to 463 and the cumulativenumber of positive caseincreased to 54,059 in thestate.

Cinemas, gyms likely toreopen from August 1

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SACRED TIRUPATI TEMPLE THREADHELPS POLICE IDENTIFY SKELETON

ALIBABA, MA SUMMONED BY INDIANCOURT ON COMPLAINT OF EX-STAFFER

Gurugram court has summoned Alibaba and its founder Jack Ma in acase in which a former employee in India says he was wrongfully

fired after objecting to what he saw as censorship and fake news oncompany apps, documents seen by Reuters showed. Thecase comes weeks after India cited security concerns inbanning Alibaba's UC News, UC Browser and 57 otherChinese apps after a clash between the two countries'forces on their border. Following the ban, which Chinahas criticized, India sought written answers from allaffected companies, including whether they censoredcontent or acted for any foreign government.

LATIN AMERICA LEADS WORLD INCOVID-19 CASES, MORE THAN USA

Coronavirus cases in Latin America for the first time have surpassed thecombined infections in the United States and Canada, a Reuters tally

showed on Sunday, amid a surge of infections in Brazil, Mexico, Peru,Colombia and Argentina. The quickly growing number of cases make LatinAmerica the region most impacted by thepandemic globally, with 26.83% of worldwidecases. Latin America now has 4,327,160 totalcases of the novel coronavirus compared to4,308,495 infections in United States andCanada, according to the count based on dataprovided by the governments of each country.

The skeletal remains of a 21-year-old man found in Kalina area ofMumbai on Thursday were identified with the help of a sacred thread

around the wrist from the renowned Tirupati Balaji Temple, police said onSunday. After the skeletal remains were found in Pascal Square locality,Vakola police checked missing person complaints andzeroed in on a 10-day-old one from the locality whichmay have a link, said an official. "The peopleconnected to that case were called in to check if theycould identify the skeleton. They managed to identifyhim through a thread on the wrist that was fromTirupati Balaji Temple, as well as his watch," he said.

India needs to be “extra vigilant” as the novel coronavirus threatpersists, PM Modi said in a public address on Sunday, even as the

country registered a record number of patient recoveries in a day.Infections from the coronavirus have risen rapidly inIndia, the world’s second most populous country, withmore than 48,000 cases recorded in the last 24 hours.India has so far recorded nearly 1.4 million cases andmore than 30,000 deaths. On Sunday, the Indiangovernment said 36,145 patients had recovered andbeen discharged in the last 24 hours, marking arecord number of single-day recoveries.

MODI SAYS CORONAVIRUS RISKPERSISTS IN INDIA, RECOVERIES RISE

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HYDERABAD | MONDAY | JULY 20, 2020 hyderabad 02

It is indeed painful to learnthat some top-level bureaucratsof Telangana State have shownthe audacity to approach ChiefMinister K Chandrasekhar Raoand express their unhappinessover some observations andunpalatable remarks made bythe Telangana High Courtagainst them, while dealingwith the matters of demolitionof Secretariat, handling ofCOVID-19 pandemic etc.

If the media reports are cor-rect, the behaviour of seniorbureaucrats in question is high-ly objectionable as it violatesnot only the service rules, butalso the healthy tradition ofrespecting judiciary. Whateverremarks or observations aremade by the High Court haveto be taken with a pinch of saltby the ‘babus’ because there canbe no smoke without fire. If theHigh Court is constrained touse some harsh words againstthe government in general oreven some officers in particu-lar, the High Court obviouslyhas before it some convincing

facts produced by the petition-er.

Although the Chief Ministerreportedly adopted a dignifiedstance by asking the officersconcerned to submit a detailednote of their performance tothe Court; prima facie heshould have refused to lend anear to the grumbling officers. Infact, the Chief Minister’sresponse in allowing the com-plaining officers to presenttheir grievances against theHigh Court does not behovewell.

It is a well-settled principleof jurisprudence that the courtsgenerally do not interfere withthe policy matters of the gov-ernments. However, they haveto take up judicial scrutiny orreview of the decisions taken bythe government in order toensure that the provisions ofthe Constitution of India areduly complied with and noultra vires decisions are takenby the government. This ismore so, in the current extra-ordinary situation of COVID-

19 pandemic, where the life andsurvival of the people at largeare at stake.

There is nothing wrong if theHigh Court comes down heav-ily on thick-skinned bureau-crats, who, despite repeateddirections of the Court, donot take action and do theneedful. The Chief Ministerought to have taken suchbureaucrats to the task.Hope, the ChiefMinister, who is alsothe Chief Executive ofthe State, wouldensure that all judicialorders passed by anycourt, apart from thoseof the High Court orthe Supreme Court, areduly complied with by the offi-cers concerned expeditiously soas to render justice to people.Showing respect to the judicia-ry will only enhance his statureas the democratic leader of theState.

Amended CPA gets teethThe Consumer Protection

Act, 2019, as amended,has been notified and

made effectivefrom July 20.The provi-

sions of the Act havebeen made more

stringent and liberalfor the consumers.Now, a consumer cansue at the place of hisresidence or usualworkplace, class suits

can be filed, the ceiling ofRs.25,000/- of the awardedamount payable at the time offiling appeal has been replacedby half of the amount award-ed. The pecuniary jurisdictionof Consumer Commission hasbeen raised to Rs. 1 crore,State Commission to Rs. 10crore and the National

Commission, over Rs. 10 crore.The changes in the con-

sumer law will certainly bene-fit millions of consumers whoare routinely taken for a ride bysome unscrupulous producersof goods and providers of ser-vices.

Supreme hammer falls onbiggies

At last, the hitherto seeming-ly unchallengeable and uncon-trollable ‘big wigs’ of the legalfraternity now have a cause toshiver in their pants, the reason,big brother has noticed alltheir gimmicks and with allseriousness it is determined tostrike a big blow to them withthe holy object of bringingthem to senses.

Yes, we are referring to two

of such creed, PrashantBhushan and Yatin Oza. Thesetwo fairly senior lawyers nowhave been facing the music forallegedly crossing the limitsthat divides the Bench and theBar. Prashant Bhushan, in a suomotu cognizance taken by theSupreme Court, is facing con-tempt of court proceedings forunsavory remarks on sittingChief Justice of India and dam-aging the majesty of law.Similarly, the president ofGujarat High Court BarAssociation, Yatin Oza, hasbeen stripped of his status assenior advocate by the HighCourt for his contemptuousbehaviour.

Mother is mother: HC The Punjab and Haryana

High Court has held that“…when the child applies forpassport for the first time afterhe becomes a major, he has theoption to retain the name ofbiological parent or step parent,as recorded in his birth certifi-cate/educational certificate”.

The judgment was deliv-ered by Jusice BS Walia, in thecase of Divya Nagpal v/s Unionof India and another, whereinthe petitioner prayed theHon’ble court that all her cer-tificates like birth, aadhaar etc.,had the name of her biologicalmother and after she becamemajor, she applied for a freshpassport including her biolog-ical mother’s name in place ofher stepmother’s name as itwould only facilitate in hertravelling plans for abroad.

Coronil not to be used astrademark by Patanjali

The Madras High Court hasrestrained the business giantPatanjali from using CORO-NIL as trademark for itsclaimed COVID-19 medicinetill 30th July. The order cameafter a plea was filed by M/sArudra Engineering PrivateLimited in the High Courtcontending that ‘CORONIL-92B’ is its registered trademarksince 1993, used as acidinhibitor for industrial clean-

ing. In addition to this, thecontroversial medicine ofPatanjali is facing other litiga-tions as well in the courts ofMuzzafarpur, Uttarakhand andDelhi.

Campaign for plain English The Society of Indian Law

Firms (SILF) is starting a cam-paign for the use of plainEnglish in all matters con-cerning the law including leg-islation, pleadings, contractsand even day-to-day docu-mentation such as applicationforms, insurance policies, war-ranty cards for consumergoods, banking documents etc.

The project ‘Mind your lan-guage --banishing hereof,thereof and whereof and otherabsurdities of the language ofthe law’ will have a series ofmodules to be presented byProf Jyoti Sagar, AssociatePresident of the Society. Awebinar on July 25 marked thebeginning of the project,according to Dr.Lalit Bhasin,president.

It is a well-settled principle of jurisprudencethat the courts generally do not interfere with the policy matters of thegovernments

TS babus must mend their ways, instead of trying to brow-beat judiciary

PNS n SURYAPET

People living in Krishna Rivercatchment area of Suryapet dis-trict are trembling with fear onhearing even a mild sound asthe region experienced manymild tremors since Decemberlast year. Mild tremors wereexperienced for hundreds oftimes since December last yearin Chintalapalem mandal. Thetremor of the highest intensi-ty which measured 4.6 on theRichter scale was recorded onJanuary 26.

The tremor was stated to beof the highest intensity in thestate after 51 years. It is allegedthat at least 20 mild tremors areexperienced in the region lead-ing to even the strongest build-ings developing cracks onwalls. The tremors dislodgehousehold articles from theirpositions leading to peoplerun for safety.

The January month alonewas reported to have experi-enced at least 300 mildtremors. After a gap, thetremors have begun sendingshivers down the people'sspines. Around 1 pm on July 9,tremor of the intensity of 3.1 onthe Richter scale was experi-enced. The state governmentestablished seismic recording

centres at GovernmentHospital in Dondapadu inChintalapalem mandal and atOld Vellaturu.

The experts said that theseismic waves are active in aradius of 100 km from the epi-centre at Vellaturu. Its affectswould be felt in Suryapet,Krishna, Guntur andKhammam districts. Scientists

studying the tremors said thatthe tremors occur as due to thesub-surface plates in layersundergo pressure and due tothe resultant adjustment andfriction among them.

Revenue officials advise thepeople to take precautions,but no efforts have been madeto sensitise them against suchtremors.

Frequent tremors frighten Suryapet district residents

Mild tremors wereexperienced forhundreds of timessince Dec last yearin Chintalapalem.The tremor of thehighest intensitywhich measured4.6 on the Richterscale was recordedon January 26

LEGAL

ROUNDUP

Geo-political situation impacts yellow metalPNS nHYDERABAD

Amidst the stand-off betweenUSA and China, culminatingin the Trump administration'sorders to close down theChinese Consulate; and, inretaliation, similar ordersissued by the Chinese author-ities, the geo-political situationhas become worrisome. Onething is certain: tensions wouldescalate over the matter, engulf-ing other countries also.Already China has been on thetenterhooks and facing anunprecedented volatile situa-tion in Ladakh and HongKong theaters, while for Trumpit is a question of his continu-ation as the President in viewof the November hustings.

Consequently, New Yorkgold rose to a record level andclosed at US $ 1,901.30 (perounce) while, silver followed

suit and closed at $ 22.71 (perounce). Platinum and palladi-um also marched forward andclosed at $ 909 (per ounce) and$ 2,160 (per ounce) respective-ly.

Other economic parame-ters too remained divergent.Brent closed at US $ 43.34(per barrel), whileCrude MCX oil wasquoted at Rs.3, 072(per barrel). GoldMCX stood atRs.51, 035(per 10 gms).The MCXSilver moved up and closed atRs.61, 223 (per kg). Copperclosed at the higher level ofRs.508.80 (per kg). Sensex andNifty 50 closed at 38,128.90and 11,194.15 points respec-tively, following the retreat byIndo-China forces on the bor-ders.

Leading foreign currencies’exchange rates were: US $:Rs.74.72, British Pound:Rs.95.58, Euro: Rs.87.10,Singapore $: Rs.54.04, SwissFranc: Rs.81.16, Australian $:

Rs.53.09, Saudi Riyal:Rs.19.92, New ZealandDollar: Rs.49.67, Kuwaiti

Dinar: Rs.243.83,Omani Rial:

Rs.194.09 and UAEDirham: Rs.20.34,

Japanese Yen:R s . 0 . 7 0 ,Hong KongD o l l a r :

Rs.9.64. In the domestic mar-ket, despite traders offeringhome delivery service, therewere few takers for jewellery.However, both the preciousmetals zoomed to the recordlevels following the globaltrend. Standard gold (24 carats)marched ahead and closed at

Rs.53, 230 (per 10 gms) or Rs.1,080 higher. Ornamental goldtoo moved in tandem and wasquoted in the range of Rs.48,700- 48,800 on the closing day.Similarly, silver (0.999) alsorecorded handsome gains andclosed at Rs.61, 050 (per kg), orRs.8,720 more than the previ-ous week’s closing mark.

COMMODITIES

The sentiment in principalwholesale commodity mar-kets in the twin cities remainedstrong. However, Rythu Bazarsand the various commoditymarkets located in BegumBazar, Kishangunj,Mukthyargunj, RisalaAbdullah, Mir AlamMandi,Dilsukhnagar, Kukatpally,Bowenpally, and General Bazarobserved voluntary closure,following the fear of COVID-19 pandemic.

WEEKLY MARKET REVIEW

Continued from page 1

Let the girls focus on theireducation. Farmers are thepride of our country. Protectthem.'' Some time later, hemanaged to obtain the tele-phone number of the farmerand had a brief conversationwith him and enquired abouthis well-being.

After speaking with thefarmer, he tweeted again: “Thisfamily doesn’t deserve a pair of

ox. They deserve a tractor. Sosending you one. By evening atractor will be ploughing yourfields.''

Not someone to do just onegood deed and rest for the day,the actor-producer called areporter working in the elec-tronic media house that airedthe out of work techie, namedSarada, story and sought herphone number.

He called up Sarada, con-soled her by saying that ups

and downs are quite normal inlife and advised her not to bedisheartened by the loss of herjob.

There are many careeroptions before the youth, hesaid advising her to fightagainst all odds.

The actor-producer’s initia-tive not only motivated Sarada,but it also prompted WarangalMP Pasunuri Dayakar andPanchayat Raj MinisterErrabelli Dayakar Rao, YSRCP

student wing, Office of theVice-President of India,Telangana BJP leaders andothers, in that order, to promiseto come to the aid of Sarada'sfamily.

Earlier, Sonu Sood had goneout of his way to help migrantworkers, who were forced towalk tens of hundreds of kilo-metres to their native places asthey had no other option dueto the lockdown, by providingspecial buses for them.

‘Villain’ Sonu Sood proves he is ...

Cinemas, gyms likely toreopen from August 1Continued from page 1

The government is now for-mulating guidelines for Unlock3.0 which will come into forcefrom August 1. These includerelaxations in reopening cine-ma halls, though with SOPs inline with Covid-19 regula-tions, sources said. Accordingto sources, gyms are also like-ly to be reopened in the thirdphase. Some restrictions arelikely to continue underUnlock 3 phase. Schools,Metro train services are likelyto remain shut across thecountry.

The Union Ministry ofHuman ResourceDevelopment (UMHRD) hasbegun consultations with stateson reopening of schools, withthe meetings coordinated bySecretary of School EducationAnita Karwal.

HRD Minister RameshPokhriyal had said earlier thatfeedback would be obtainedfrom parents on the issue.Subsequently, the ministry saidthat parents were not in favourof reopening of schools.

The Ministry of Informationand Broadcasting has pro-posed the reopening of cinema

halls in its note to the Ministryof Home Affairs. The IBMinistry had consulted own-ers of cinema halls before pre-senting the proposal. Cinemahall owners are in favour ofreopening theatres with 50per cent seating capacity.However, the Ministry hassuggested reopening of the-atres initially with 25 per centseating and following all socialdistancing protocols.

Further, states might begiven the leeway to set theirown guidelines as per theirCovid-19 caseload and situa-tion.


Rammohan is holdingreview meetings with theGreater Hyderabad MunicipalCorporation (GHMC) offi-cials on various civic issuesthrough video link.

On July 23, the Mayor hadattended a programme to layfoundation stone for a flyoveralong with MunicipalAdministration Minister K.T.Rama Rao, Home MinisterMohammed Mahmood Ali(who recently recovered fromCovid-19), Animal HusbandryMinister T. Srinivas Yadav,Hyderabad MP AsaduddinOwaisi and others.

He had twice undergoneCovid-19 tests last month. Onboth occasions he tested neg-ative. On June 7, he had under-gone the test an employee of ahotel where he had tea testedpositive. A few days later, heunderwent the test again afterhis driver tested Covid-19 pos-itive.

The Mayor is the latest addi-tion to the list of TelanganaRashtra Samithi (TRS) leaders

who have tested positive.Home Minister Mahmood Ali,Deputy Speaker Padma Rao

Goud, five MLAs and formerDeputy Chief Minister KadiamSrihari have tested positive.

Hyd Mayor tests positiveTS reports1,593 Corona cases...Continued from page 1

The state government releaseda corona bulletin in a new formaton Sunday morning as per theTelangana High Court'sdirections. As many as 998patients recovered on Saturday,taking the overall tally of thosewho have recovered to 41,332,while the number of activecorona positive cases in thestate currently stands at 12, 264.

The fatality rate (the number ofpersons who died for every 100corona positive cases) is 0.86per cent in the state, though thenational average on that front is2.3 per cent.

Between Friday and Saturday,15,654 swab samples fromsuspected patients were tested,while the overall number ofsamples tested so far is 3,53,25. At present, Telangana is

testing 391 tests for apopulation of one million.

As for the 1,593 fresh positivecases, 641 were reported inGHMC area, 171

cases in Rangareddy district,and 131 in Warangal Urban.

The caseload from otherdistricts include 14 fromAdilabad, 17 from Bhadradri,two from Jagtiyal, 21 fromJangaon, three from Bupalapally,five from Gadwal, 36 fromKamareddy, 51 fromKarimnagar, 18 from Khammam,38 from Mahabubnagar, 29 from

Mahabubabad, 27 fromMancherial, 21 from Medak, 91from Medchal, 12 from Mulugu,46 from Nagarkurnool, six fromNalgonda, seven fromNarayanpet, one from Nirmal, 32from Nizamabad, 16 fromPeddapally, 27 from Siricilla, 171from Rangareddy.


It was only after that themale doctors joined andabused him,” added DrBharath. “There was somequarrel between the patient’sattendant and the doctor,after which other doctors set-tled the problem. There wasno attack, it was just a smallquarrel. Most of our peoplealso got infected with COVIDand are sick and quaran-tined. We are really in a hor-rible situation,” added DrVenkateswarlu of the samehospital. CI Ganesh,Matwada Police Station, said,"We did not receive any com-plaint so far. We will takeaction once we receive acomplaint.”In view thevolatile situation in hospitalshandling the pandemic, doc-tors of many hospitals, eventhose of Gandhi Hospital,have demanded that specialsecurity forces be deployed athospitals.

Schoolsstruggle ...Continued from page 1

S N Reddy, GeneralSecretary of the TelanganaRecognised SchoolManagements Association,said: "Around 9,000 'budget'schools in the state arestruggling to keep theirpromises. Although the feeswe are collecting are verybasic, we still have loans topay for the buses or build-ings the schools have. Wealso have to pay the proper-ty tax. The government has-n't extended any help to us.Most of the schools are nothaving enough funds to paythe salaries."

Excise inspectors told to be vigilantPNS n SURYAPET

State Planning Board vicechairman B Vinod Kumar hasasked the 257 DeputyTahsildars and 284 ExciseInspectors who completedtraining and are being postedto be ever vigilant and serve thepeople.

Speaking to the newappointees when they called onhim at his residence here onSunday, he said: “All I can sayis that you must strike a chordwith the common man andstrive for their welfare. Youmust discharge your dutieswith utmost sincerity and solve

their problems.” He also askedthem to implement govern-ment programmes strictly fol-lowing the norms set by it. Headvised them to be alwaysvigilant and ensure that thefruits of all the governmentwelfare schemes reach the last

person of the society.He also advised them to

seek the advice and opinion ofthe local people’s representa-tives but stay away from theirpolitical affiliations. “Thelocal leaders do have anunderstanding of the local

issues which will be of help toyou while solving the prob-lems of the people, so pleaselisten to them patiently,” hesaid.

Security beefed upat irrigation projectsContinued from page 1

The police have focussedon Ma hade vpur andPalimela mandals to pre-vent Maoists from enteringt he s t ate by cross ingGodavari river. The policehave beefed up securitynear all ports in the twomandals.

As the f lood level inGodavari is very high, allroads leading to the statef rom Ma harashtra areunder the tight vigil of thepolice department.

The v ig i l has b e en

stepped up at LakshmiBarrage in Medigedda,Saraswat i B ar rage inAnnaram, Lakshmi pumphouse in Kannepalli andnear the gravity canals.

Distr ict in-charge SPSang ram Sing h Pat i l ,Kat aram DSP B ona laKishan, CI Narsaiah havefocussed on security nearthe barrages.

In the catchment areas ofthe Godavari river, CRPF,district guards and civilpolice have launched inten-sive combing operations toround up Maoists.


This year, due to Covid-19regulations in force and par-ticularly in view of the situ-ation in GHMC area whichhas seen spikes in coronapositive cases since June, itwould be difficult

to hold I-Day celebrationsat Golconda Fort and makearrangements for the pur-pose. The state FormationDay celebrations on June 2this year were also low-keyamid the corona pandemic.KCR confined himself topaying tributes to Telanganamartyrs at Gun Park andlater hoisting the nationalflag at Pragathi Bhavan.


Due to road-wideningworks, there arose a differencebetween the size of the land asmentioned in the documentsand its actual measurement.The same was mentioned bythe bank in the auction notice.Land measuring 1,538 squareyards was in the name of M/SProgressive EngineeringCompany, represented by BLameswara Rao, vide a saledeed executed in the year1981.After the auction, thesale confirmation was issuedto Nayeem Pasha. However, itwas found that some localshad occupied that place with-out any authorisation.

TRS MLA Danam

threatens bank...

Corona impact:I-Day event ...

Lady doctor inMGM hospattacked

He aslo askedthem toimplementgovernmentprogrammesstrictly followingthe norms setby it


RIME ORNERC

PD Act againsthouse burglar

HYDERABAD: The RachakondaPolice Commissioner MaheshBhagwat has issued a PreventiveDetention (PD) Act order againstB Rajasri Ganesh alias Vijay, ahouse burglar, on Sunday.According to the police, theaccused, Ganesh, a native ofChittoor district of AndhraPradesh started burglaries toearn easy money and committedabout a dozen offences inNagaram, Medipally, LB Nagar,Uppal and also in Kadapa districtof Andhra Pradesh. He wasarrested by the Ghatkesar policein 2019 and lodged in the CentralPrison in Cherlapally.

NGO booked forcheating donors

HYDERABAD: TThe HyderabadPolice booked cases against aself-styled social welfareorganisation, Hyderabad YouthCourage for cheating andmisappropriation of donationscollected through crowd fundingfor a woman suffering fromhealth problems. The donationswere made through banktransfer, Google Pay and cashpayment, the police said.According to the police, MohdSalman of Hyderabad YouthCourage made an appeal througha video at the house of oneYasmeen Sultana who wassuffering from health issues,early this month. After watchingthe video seeking financial help,several persons had donatedover Rs 45 lakh into the bankaccount of Asra Begum providedby Salman. The police invokedSection 406 and 420 of IPCagainst Salman and areinvestigating the case.Hyderabad Youth Courageorganisation volunteers wererecently arrested by thePunjagutta police when theyallegedly created nuisance at aprivate hospital at Banjara HillsRoad No 1. AIMIM leader andsocial worker Shahbaz Khan hadalleged that the organisation wascheating people by making livevideos and transferring moneyfrom the account of the so-calledvictims.

Driver ends life over‘financial problems'

HYDERABAD: An elderly mancommitted suicide at his houseallegedly due to financialproblems in Mansoorabad onSaturday night. According to thepolice, the victim was identifiedas Bikshapathi, 65, a driver wasdepressed over not finding workdue to the lockdown restrictions. "He had also discussed hisfinancial constraint with his sonand daughter-in-law. He wasfound dead on Sunday morningby his family members whoinformed the police," cops said. The LB Nagar police booked acase and took up investigation.

Pvt ambulances rob Covid patientsPNS n HYDERABAD

If you have Rs 10,000 in yourpocket your can f ly toSingapore, Bangkok or Delhiand can come back, but thesame amount is hardly suffi-cient to transport aCoronavirus positive patientfor a distance of at least 10 kmin a private ambulanceequipped with an oxygen cylin-der.

To travel in an ambulancewith oxygen cylinder for adistance of 5 km, the amountbeing demanded is Rs 10,000.If it is in the midnight, the tar-iff increases. The patient has noalternative except to paythrough his nose.

Relatives of a Coronaviruspatient have expressed theirchagrin over an ambulancedriver demanding Rs 7,500from a patient to transport himto KIMS hospital inSecunderabad from SanatNagar. Similarly, the fare beingcharged from ESI hospital toMalakpet is Rs 15,000.

Inadequate 108 ambulance

services have forced the peopleto avail private services. Takingadvantage of the hapless con-dition of the patients, theambulance drivers are almostlooting them.

They are no inferior to pri-vate hospitals which are break-ing the back of the patientswith their heavy bills. If aCoronavirus patient were to dieundergoing treatment in a hos-pital, the transportation costs

in an ambulance would beexorbitant. Recently, a privateambulance charged Rs 25,000to transport a Covid body toburial ground near ESI hospi-tal.

If the patient who tested pos-itive for the virus were to die ina government hospital, thestate government shifts thebody to burial grounds at itscost. If a person succumbs toCoronavirus in a private hos-

pital, the exploitation would beat its zenith.

As per the governmentrecords, the number of 108ambulances plying in twincities is only 45. However,some more such ambulancesare requisitioned to Hyderabadfrom districts keeping in mindthe alarming situation of thevirus. But the vehicles are notable to render timely service tothe needy. Keeping in mind the

demand for the private ambu-lances in this backdrop, sever-al have incorporated changes intheir vans and plying them asambulances fixing siren tothem.

If any changes were to beeffected in a vehicle, the RTApermission is necessary.Department of LegalMetrology should give its clear-ance to the ambulances forusing oxygen cylinders.

Taking advantage of theCoronavirus situation, manyprivate investors launchedambulance services withoutany requisite permission.

They install stretchers, oxy-gen cylinders and sirens invehicles like Maruti Omni,Matador, Winger vehicles andentering into contracts withprivate hospitals to earn a dis-honest penny. They wouldhave no hesitation to loot eventhe discharged patients. Nogovernment department wouldbe able to rein in the looting ofprivate ambulances. Moreover,the transport departmentbecame a mute spectator.

New hope for circus animalsNAMRATA SRIVASTAVA n HYDERABAD

While performing animalshave been happening foryears, this year, the animals arein a particularly poor state dueto the Covid-19 pandemic,which has halted all circusperformances.

However, after much delib-eration, a division bench ofJustice Vipin Sanghi andJustice Rajnish Bhatnagar atDelhi High Court directedAnimal Welfare Board ofIndia (AWBI) to carry out asurvey and submit a statusreport basis the query as towhether the animals can bekept by the circuses during thecourse of the pandemic. Theyalso asked the Ministry ofFisheries, Animal Husbandryand Dairying, Ministry ofEnvironment, Forests andClimate Change, Central ZooAuthority and AWBI to filetheir responses.

Welcoming the decision,city-based activist, ShreyaParopkari, who works as

Senior Campaign Managerfor Humane SocietyInternational, shares, "This isa big step. I have been a partof many surveys for these cir-cuses and the way they keepthe animals is terrible. Theanimals are put through somuch pain while they gettrained. I am glad that the gov-ernment is finally lookinginto this as well. Since the cir-cus organisers aren't earninganything during the pandem-ic, these anarving must havebeen starving."

The direction has come on apetition filed by the FIAPOseeking the rescue of animalsused in circuses amid the ongo-ing Covid-19 pandemic.

Vasanthi Vadi, founder ofPeople for Animals differ onthe matter. "The circus ani-mals cannot be rehabilitatedthere and certainly not in thewild since these animals won'tknow how to feed. There arerehabilitation centres in theNorthern part of the country,the authorities can look atputting these animals there."

PNS n HYDERABAD

Home locker facility, a by-product of Coronavirus pan-demic, is helping many pettytraders to lodge their goodsthere, vacating shops andhomes. The house owners arealso earning a decent incomeby this facility as rental incomefrom real estate plummeted.

With each passing day manyto-let boards are mushroomingin many colonies. There aremany instances of house own-ers slashing the house rent towoo tenants.

For example, a tiffin centreowner in Dilsukhnagar areareturned home as the reopen-ing of his business after lock-down did not progress. Heused to pay Rs 12,000 a monthtowards rent for shop andhome. Therefore, he vacated it

and deposited his goods worthRs 3.7 lakh in a single room ina house that has home lockerfacility and pays only Rs 1,000

a month as rent. The mode of renting homes

have undergone changes intwin cities as the post-lockdown

situation has a devastating effecton many sectors, including thereal estate sector too.

Unable to revive their busi-nesses to the pre-lockdownlevel, many traders are return-ing to villages. This phenom-enon is not limited toHyderabad alone, but to citieslike Warangal, Karimnagar,Nizamabad and so on.

Under the prevailing situa-tion, somehow owners con-verted their single and doubleroom houses into home lock-ers proving facility to functionhalls and godowns to lodgegoods in them.

The experts say that peoplewould have to live togetherwith Coronavirus for at leastanother six months. Therefore,the tenants feel that there is nopoint in staying in city payingthousands as rent. They are

returning to their native placesto sustain their families some-how. Taking their shop andhome furniture along withthem would be big headachefor them. Therefore, the homelocker facility is coming handyfor such persons. They arelodging their goods in homelockers and returning to vil-lages.

Several house owners haveset up home lockers in the cel-lar of their buildings. In the cel-lar of a house in LB Nagar, 16home lockers have been set upon an ad hoc basis. The houseowner earns at least Rs 20,000a month by renting the cellarsset up in the parking area.Janardhan Rao, owner of thehome locker facility said thatthe cellar would be used forparking again after theCoronavirus situation eases.

Locker at home facility - side biz in Covid timesNAVEEN KUMAR n HYDERABAD

Techies in Hyderabad whoare feeling low and stressedwon't have to shell out sever-al thousands or wait for anappointment to meet a busyprofessional counsellor now.

In a novel initiative, theRachakonda Police havelaunched a programme thatwill offer proper psychologicalassessment and counsellingby trained 'margadarshaks'.

According to the police,the programme, apart fromproviding counselling bytrained counsellors and mar-gadarshaks, also has referralservices. Not just IT personnel,but their spouses and depen-dents too can make use of theprogramme.

"The main advantages ofthis wellbeing programme isthat it is given to the individ-ual on an absolute no-costbasis and with no paperworkneeded, unlike other psycho-logical services offered out-

side," Rachakonda PoliceCommissioner Mahesh MBhagwat said.

The psychological help willbe offered by experiencedand trained professionals. Theservices will be on an on-the-spot appointment basis withan assurance of personaldetails being kept completelyconfidential, he said.

Officials said the primefocus would be on everydayproblems being faced by thepeople. The most commonissues to be dealt with includestress, marital problems, fam-ily disputes, alcoholism,depression due to familyissues and work-related prob-lems.

Margadarshak, the flagshipprogramme of the Society forCyberabad Security Council(SCSC) where resources fromorganisations and communi-ties are trained to providesocio-legal support to vic-tims of sexual or domesticabuse or online abuse, is beingconducted online.

‘Margadarshaks’show the way forstressed techies

GMR holds Covidawareness campsPNS n HYDERABAD

For the benefit of the elderlyunderprivileged sections inthe adjoining villages of theHyderabad InternationalAirport, the Hyderabad unit ofGMR VaralakshmiFoundation (GMRVF), theCSR wing of GMR Group hasbeen organizing awarenesscamps on Covid-19 throughits Mobile Medical Unit(MMU) since the beginning ofthe pandemic.

GMRVF's Mobile MedicalUnit (MMU) - a clinic onwheels is a regular service incollaboration with helpage toprovide primary healthcareservices to people living inrural and under-served areasmainly with the objective oftaking healthcare service deliv-ery to the doorsteps of theunder-privileged people.

An MMU is staffed by onedoctor, one pharmacist and adriver. This unit is also accom-panied by a social health work-er to assist in awareness andregular medical checks.

During the Covid-19 pan-demic, the mobile medicalunit at GMRVF-Hyderabadunit has gone beyond theirregular services by sensitisinglocal communities aboutCovid-19 and ways to preventoneself from this virus.

Recently, with the supportof UNPFA, GMRVF's mobilemedical unit has organised 12camps to spread awareness onCovid-19 through distribu-tion of pamphlets. In thesecamps as well free regularhealth screening and distrib-ution of medicines were doneto the needy which benefittedclose to 900 senior citizens andGHMC workers.

Activists laud IPC for abolition ofabnormal toxicity test on animalsPNS n HYDERABAD

A controversial and obsoleteanimal test for batch testinghuman vaccines has been abol-ished by the IndianPharmacopoeia Commission.Deletion of the abnormal tox-icity test (ATT) from theIndian Pharmacopoeia willspare the lives of hundreds ofthousands of animals nation-wide every year. The decisionwas announced following thedraft notification publishedfor public consultation in May.

Talking about the news,Alokparna Sengupta,Managing Director ofHumane Society Internationalsaid, "This is a landmarkdecision by the Ministry ofHealth and Family Welfareand the IPC and represents aprogressive stride in joiningsome of the most scientifical-ly advanced countries in theworld that have also deletedthe obsolete abnormal toxic-ity test. This is the first vitalstep towards consigning ani-mal testing for vaccines to thehistory books and we hope

that an equally forward-thinking vision will be appliedto similarly obsolete animaltests for veterinary vaccinestoo."

She further added, "As aglobal player of ever-growingsignificance in worldwidevaccine manufacturing, Indianeeds to be at the forefront ofinnovation and compliancewith the highest internation-al standards. As well as beinginhumane, animal tests areincreasingly recognised to bepoor at replicating results inhuman, prone to excessivevariability, and highly costly."

Lauding the decision,Panneeru Teja, an animalactivist from Hyderabad said,"Indian are becoming moresensitive to animal relatedissues and that gives a lot ofhope for people who love ani-mal. This decision will impactso many animals who will bespared from toxic testing."

The ATT was originallydeveloped in the 1950s todetect external contaminantsin vaccines and has remainedthe de facto gold standarddespite mounting scientificevidence questioning its relia-bility and value.

PNS n HYDERABAD

Hyderabad MetropolitanWater Supply and SewerageBoard (HMWSSB) baggedISO 9001:2015 certificationfor implementation andmaintenance of quality man-agement system for raw watercollection from all sources,treatment, storage, pumping,transmission and distributionsystem including chlorinationof potable water supply toconsumers.

The efforts of HMWSSB tomaintain quality in treat-ment, storage, pumping,transmission and distributionwere recognized by ISO cer-tification agency and hasrenewed the certificate issuedin this regard after due audit,a press release said.

The audit process is elab-orate and covered variousaspects of treatment, storage,pumping, transmission anddistribution. The audit alsolooked at the chlorinationprocess and has certified itsoperations as continuation ofquality parameters fixed. Thecertificate was awarded formaintenance of the standardwhile drawing the watertransmission and distributionto the customer's satisfaction.

ISO certification for water board

‘Muslims can donate money in lieu of sacrifice on Bakrid’PNS n HYDERABAD

The Jamia Nizamia Islamicseminary on Sunday said thatit is compulsory for thosepersons who are eligible as perthe ‘Sharia’ to do ‘Qurbani’during the three-day Eid ulAdha festival.

Maulana Mufti KhaleelAhmed, vice-chancellor, JamiaNizamia said that only after

trying to get an animal duringthe festival in view of the pre-vailing pandemic situation,can one donate the money tothe needy. “Donating money isnot a substitute for ‘Qurbani’during the three-day Eid-ul-Adha,” he said.

Mufti Khaleel Ahmed fur-ther said that in Sharia thereis no rule of dividing the ani-mal into three parts.

Saplings planted as part of Telanganaku HaithaHaritham at HMDA park near the ORR at Dundigal.Principal Secretary Arvind Kumar tweeted thepictures exactly a month after IT Minister KT RamaRao launched the programme in urban areas.

GREEN DRIVE

PNS n HYDERABAD

More than 1,000 bank employ-ees in both the Telugu statestested positive for the virus anda small fraction of them dieddue to the virus, said All-IndiaBank Employees’ AssociationGeneral Secretary Rambabu.

He said that the bankemployees are dreaded towork in banks. The number ofCoronavirus cases are on therise with each passing day. Inthis backdrop, many bankemployees are proceeding onleave.

The bank managements arenot bothered to sanitise banksin spite of the death of someemployees. He exhorted themanagements to allow bankemployees to work on alter-nate days. The Centre is notrecognising their services inspite of the work on a par withthe employees of emergencyservices.

Over 1,000bank stafferstested +ve for Corona PNS n HYDERABAD

A 26-year-old man died in aroad accident at Khairatabadon Saturday night. Accordingto the police, B Mahesh Yadavwas going on a bike fromRTC X roads to Yousufguda.

“Around 1.30 am, whilegoing on the Khairatabadroad, Mahesh rammed hismotorcycle into the metropillar. He sustained seriousinjuries and dead,” Saifabadpolice said. A case was regis-tered and the body was shift-ed to the Osmania GeneralHospital mortuary.

Motorist dies after bike hitsMetro pillar

Beware of online livestock booking during Eid: Cops PNS n HYDERABAD

The Hyderabad police advisedpeople opting for online book-ing of livestock during the Eid-ul-Adha to cross-check thecredentials of the persons or

organisations with whom theyare transacting before makingonline transfer of money.

Given the Covid-19 pan-demic, many families areapprehensive of bringing insheep or inviting butchers to

their houses to avoid contract-ing Covid-19. With the busi-ness remaining dull, manypeople are sharing messages onsocial media platforms likeFacebook and WhatsApp ofmaking arrangements for sac-

rificing the animal and send-ing meat to the house.

Individuals are sending mes-sages with bank accounts or e-wallet numbers asking peopleto deposit money in thoseaccounts.


Many leave city fearing Covid peakPNS n HYDERABAD

Over the past 4 months, Indiahas been in the grips of a pan-demic that has uprooted thelivelihoods of millions, impact-ing the economy adversely.Amid all the uncertainty, thereis one question that standsabove all, when will the out-break end, and when can Indiaexpect to return to some sem-blance of normalcy? However,some experts have said thatCoronavirus would be at itspeak in August and September.

Fearing the worst ever com-munity transmission, manytraders and employees who gotscope to work from home,have been returning to theirvillages and vow to return tothe city only after the pandem-ic situation comes under con-trol. For example, brothersGiridhar and Rukmangadbelonging to Nalgonda-Gunturregion who owned stores inMasab Tank and edible oilshop in Secunderabad returnedto their native place followingspike in Corona cases and

warning of the worst evercommunity transmission inthe next two months. Similarly,a teacher, Chiranjivi residing atKukatpally, as a precautionarymeasure, left the city for his vil-lage near Gajwel. He got oldfamily house repaired and liv-ing there as a precautionarymeasure. Similarly, MahipalReddy working inNanakramguda-based softwareunit vacated his home inBorabanda and left for his vil-lage in Siddipet district on theadvice of his father. Fearing the

worst ever community spreadwould begin soon, most cityresidents are dreading to settheir foot out and feel that itwould be better for them toreturn to native places. Thosewith facility to work fromhome have already left thecity. Now others are returningto their safer destinations.

A MNC employee posted atSangareddy opted for the VRSand left for home as the optionsof availing leave and workingfrom home do not exist forhim. Even if many of those

who tested positive for thevirus are recovering, a fractionof them end up as fatal cases.In spite of low casualty rate,many people are dreading thevirus and returning to villages.

In companies where congre-gation of employees is more,the employees are worriedabout health. Similarly, thosewho have no option but toreport for work are also wor-ried. Those who have healthproblems and those nearingretirement keen to avail them-selves the VRS. Trades who

hitherto ran petty businessesrather boldly are now inclinedto leave the city.

A family running a medicalshop in Vijayanagar colonyrecently left for Warangal ruraldistrict frightened by increas-ingly more and more people,including Covid-19 patients,approached the shops forCovid-19 drugs. Because ofsuch phenomenon, the numberof shops remained closed incolonies and slums has been onthe rise. Many vendors bringmilk and vegetables to cityfrom villages on the outskirtsto make a living. Such vendorsare expressing their inability tocarry on with their activity.

Those who bring vegetablesto city markets and to rythubazaars have suspended theactivity creating an artificialshortage leading to pushingprices of vegetables at manyplaces. Dilavar, a petty veg-etable vendor buys Rs 1,000worth vegetables daily and sellthem in various colonies, notedthat there was lull in activity atthe Gudimalkapur market.

Those withfacility to workfrom homehave alreadyleft the city.Now others arereturning totheir saferdestinations

Cops foil ‘Chalo Mallaram';Uttam, Bhatti arrestedPNS n HYDERABAD

The police on Sunday foiledCongress' protest march, chris-tened as 'Chalo Mallaram',stalling its leaders includingTelangana Congress presidentand Nalgonda MP N UttamKumar Reddy who accompa-nied by party workers wasproceeding to Mallaram villageunder Malhar mandal inJayashankar-Bhupalpally.

The police, who arrestedUttam at Jangaon shifted himto Lingala Ghanpur police sta-tion. The Congress LegislatureParty Leader Mallu BhattiVikramarka was also arrestedat Raghunathpally in Jangaondistrict. The police put MLAsD. Sridhar Babu and Seethakkaunder house arrest anddetained hundreds of Congressleaders and workers inKarimnagar and Jayashankar-Bhupalpally districts.

Describing Chief Minister KChandrashekhar Rao as anti-

Dalit, Uttam has strongly con-demned the inaction by policein the murder case of a Dalityouth in Mallaram village ofJayashankar- Bhupalpally dis-trict in Manthani Assemblyconstituency. Uttam said thatthe KCR government couldnot stop the Congress partyfrom fighting for the rights ofDalits by foiling their protestthrough illegal arrest. He saidthat the Congress party would

continue to organise mass agi-tation until Dalits get justice.

Uttam Kumar Reddy alsoexpressed deep concern overrising atrocities against Dalitsever since TRS came to powerin Telangana. He said ChiefMinister K. ChandrashekharRao has been pursuing anti-Dalit policies in the State. TheTPCC chief said that there wasa huge rise in cases of atroci-ties against Dalits in Telangana.

BJP demands lockdownin Singareni Coal MinesPNS n HYDERABAD

Telangana BJP senior leaderVivek on Sunday demandedthe government to announcelockdown in Singareni CoalMines as Coronavirus isspreading fast.

He also demanded the gov-ernment to conduct Coronatests to all workers. "Manyworkers and officials workingin 28 underground coal minesand in 19 open cast coal minestested positive forCoronavirus. Two workers inRamagundam region died ofCorona and more than 20

workers and officials testedpositive. In this context, theworkers were confined to theirresidences in these minesafraid of corona for the last fivedays. The same conditionsprevailed in all mines andhence the government has toannounce lockdown by payinglockdown salaries," he said.

The BJP leader suggested themanagement to conduct tests toall Singareni workers immedi-ately. He alleged that tests forSingareni workers have not yetstarted though the managemententered into an agreement withVinta Labs in Hyderabad.

PNS n HYDERABAD

Former Minister MohammedAli Shabbir alleged that thestate government was hidingthe real figures of Covid-19cases and deaths. Shabbir Alisaid that the modified MediaBulletin issued by the Directorof Public Health on the statusof Covid-19 cases on Sundayfor cases as of July 25 (till 8pm) clearly exposes the trick-ery of the State Government inhiding the figures.

He alleged that there was ahuge mismatch in the numberof deaths occurring in Covid-19 and other hospitals acrossthe State and the deaths beingreported in bulletin. He saidmany deaths due to Covid-19were not being registered offi-cially to show less mortalityrate. He said that the deathfigures in the bulletin were just10 per cent of actual numbersof bodies being cremated orburied at graveyards and cre-

matoriums across the State. "Ifthose deaths had occurreddue to reasons other thanCoronavirus, then why werethe last rites being performedsilently as per Covid-19 guide-lines?" he asked.

He said that the present deathrate, as shown in the bulletin, wasjust 2.3 per cent of the total num-ber of positive cases reported sofar. He said that various centralagencies which are tracking theCovid-19 situation have repeat-edly accused the Telangana gov-ernment of under-reporting thenumber of cases.

Govt hiding real figuresof Covid-19: Congress

CongressapproachesNHRC against KTR PNS n HYDERABAD

AICC member and TPCCgeneral secretary Judson fileda petition in National HumanRights Commission againstMinister KT Rama Rao for vio-lating Covid-19 pandemicguidelines and laying founda-tion stone for Neera Cafe atNecklace Road on July 23. Inhis petition, he alleged that theTelangana Government per-mitted people to gather butthere was no social distancing.He urged the NHRC to takenecessary action againstMinister KT Rama Rao andorganisers.

Indian Army will fight back Chinese conspiracies: BJPPNS n HYDERABAD

Telangana BJP chief BandiSanjay Kumar on Sundaystated that Indian Army willrepulse Chinese conspiracieswith the spirit of Kargil mar-tyrs. Recalling the sacrificesof Indian soldiers in Kargilwar on the occasion of KargilDiwas on Sunday, the BJPchief said that people wouldremember Kargil victory for-ever. Praising the decisionstaken by the then PrimeMinister Atal Bihari Vajpayeeduring Kargil war, Sanjaysaid that Atal extended coop-eration by encouraging thearmy during Kargil war. Hesaid that there were soldiersfrom Telangana who sacri-ficed their lives in Kargilwar.

No shortage of urea: NiranjanPNS n HYDERABAD

Agriculture Minister SNiranjan Reddy on Sundaycondemned the intentionalmala fide campaign against thestate government by vestedinterests in accusing the gov-ernment of shortage of urea.He clarified that the govern-ment has 1.56-lakh tonnes ofurea available with it.

Refuting the allegations,the Minister said there was noshortage of urea with thedealers or cooperative soci-eties or Markfed or with theAgriculture Commissioner.The farmers have applied thesecond installment of urea tothe cotton crop and theremaining urea should beapplied for paddy crop alone.He exhorted the farmers notto be worried over by themalicious propaganda. Heassured them that there wasno shortage of urea in thestate.

The total quantity of fertil-izers needed for kharif seasonwas put at 22.30-lakh tonnes.

Out of which, urea constitutes10.50-lakh tonnes. The Centrehas agreed to provide theurea to the State. The urea hasbeen brought to the state inphases. He said that theCentre failed to release Julymonth's quota of urea ontime. Chief Minister KChandrashekhar Rao had spo-ken to the Union Minister forFertilizers, he said addingthat he called on the Ministerin Delhi.

As a result, the Centre start-ed releasing July quota ofurea. Out of 2.05 lakh tonnesfor the month, 1.06-lakh

tonnes of urea have beenreleased. The Ministerpromised Niranjay Reddy torelease the rest of the quota byJuly-end.

He pointed out how theCentre asked other states toemulate Telangana impressedby concessions announced tofarmers by KCR.

Noticing the problems ofagriculture department in thewake of the pandemic, theChief Minister held longreview meetings and gavedirections to the AgricultureDepartment.

Crediting benefits underRythu Bandhu in 56 lakhfarmers' bank accounts with-in 36 hours, the StateGovernment has created aworld record. It explains thestyle of functioning of theAgriculture department, hesaid. When everything is inperfect order, some vestedinterests are out to createmischief and to deal a crip-pling blow to the morale ofthe farmer, he said condemn-ing the malicious campaign.

PNS n MANCHERIAL

The police on Sundayannounced cash prize of Rs 20lakh on the head of MylarapuOdellu, Telangana StateCommittee member, and fiveother members. According toa wall poster released by erst-while Adilabad district DCPUdaykumar Reddy, who wasappointed Officer on SpecialDuty, cash prizes announcedon the heads of Maoists areacommittee members were Rs 5lakh each on the head ofNargesh, Pandu alias Mangu,and Lingavva alias Anita andRs 4 lakh each on Meena andRamu alias Sudhir.

The Maoists are makingtheir presence felt in erstwhileAdilabad district after a longlull over 10 years. In Tiryaniregion, two incidents ofexchange of fire between theMaoists and the police werereported. DGP MahenderReddy recently visited the sen-sitive area and reviewed the sit-uation with the top police offi-cers. Recently, the Maoists

released state, district andmandal wise committeesrecently to the extent ofrebuilding the party.Meanwhile, the special partypolice, the Greyhounds andcivil police have been combingthe forest areas for the Maoists.Uday Kumar reddy was givenadditional powers as Officer onSpecial Duty to weed out theMaoists. The movement hashad its origins in Srikakulamdistrictbut gained roots inTelangana. The movement led

by Kondapalli Sitaramayya, aschool teacher. The attack onthe fort of Pitambar Rao inTapalapur in Jannaram mandalleading to murder of his broth-ers and his subsequent deathdue to heart attack led themovement gain firm roots inTelangana region.

The OSD released a postercontaining six Maoists andannounced prizes on theirhead ranging between Rs 20lakh to Rs 4 lakh. The cashprizes were decided earlier but

poster was released in a latestdevelopment. The OSD saidthat the names of informantswould be kept as classifiedbesides providing them fullprotection.

Those who have informationabout the Maoists should pro-vide information to SP ofAdilabad (944079500), SP ofNirma, (8332811100), SP ofAsifabad (8332801100), DCPof Mancherial (9440795003)and Additional SP of Asifabad(8333986921).

Police announce Rs 20 lakh cashprize on heads of Maoists PNS n HYDERABAD

Telangana Pradesh CongressCommittee (TPCC) MinoritiesDepartment chairman ShaikAbdullah Sohail informed thatthe district presidents ofCongress MinoritiesDepartment have been asked tolodge a police complaintagainst the demolition of placesof worship in the StateSecretariat.

Abdullah Sohail, along withHyderabad CongressMinorities Department chair-man Sameer Waliullah, wasspeaking to media personsafter holding a video-confer-ence with the Chairmen ofMinorities Department of alldistricts on Sunday.

He informed that it has beendecided to file a Public InterestLitigation in High Courtagainst the demolition of twomosques in the Secretariat. Hesaid all DCC chairmen havebeen asked to intensify theprotest by hoisting the blackflags at all prominent locationsin their respective districts.

He said the campaign onsocial media against the illegal

demolition of Secretariatmosques would be intensified.He urged the common peopleto post their videos on socialmedia platforms condemningthe demolitions. He said allDCC chairmen of MinoritiesDepartment have been asked tolodge complaints against thedemolition and register multi-ple FIRs against those respon-sible for the demolition.

Abdullah Sohail stronglycondemned the Wakf Boardfor not lodging a police com-plaint against the demolition ofmosques. He said that both themosques were demolished onJuly 8 and Chief Minister KChandrashekhar Rao himselfhas confirmed the demolitionson July 10. However, the WakfBoard, which is the custodianof both the mosques in the

Secretariat, did not even lodgea formal complaint.

The TPCC Minorities DeptChairman also asked HomeMinister Mahmood Ali, WakfBoard Chairman MohammedSaleem and MIM presidentAsaduddin Owaisi to specifythe ground on which they areclaiming that CM would re-construct the mosques at theoriginal place. "Have theyseen the design of the newSecretariat and the newmosque? Did they had anyone-to-one interaction withthe Chief Minister on theissue?" he asked adding thatTRS leaders were openly mis-leading the Muslims on theissue as the Chief Minister hasnot given assurance of recon-structing the demolishedmosques at the same place.

NSUI slams govt overCorona cases, deathsPNS n HYDERABAD

NSUI Telangana state presi-dent B Venkat Narasimharaoon Sunday alleged that thestate government is hidingthe real figures of Covid-19cases and deaths. "The gov-ernment is showing wrongdata in regard to Coronadeaths. In reality, the actualnumbers of bodies being cre-mated or buried at graveyardsand crematoriums across theState is more. The hospitalsare acting on the directions ofthe government. Coronapatients are dying due to theimpact on heart and lungs.However, the hospitals arementioning it as naturaldeath," he alleged.

He alleged that Bristlecone

Hospital mentioned in thedeath of one patient, whodied due to Covid, as deathdue to cardiac arrest. Anotherprivate hospital, Prathimaalso mentioned death due topneumonia though thepatient died of Corona. Healleged that not only privatehospitals but also govern-ment hospitals were alsodoing the same.

He alleged that the govern-ment is hiding the real num-bers. "This sort of attitude ofthe government will trans-form the state as a burialground very soon," he said.Venkat released case sheets ofthe patients who died inBristle Cone, Prathima andKing Koti hospitals on theoccasion.

Protective equipmentfor medical staffPNS n VIJAYAWADA

Officials visited the govern-ment hospital at Tenali andassured allotting of requiredstaff with immediate effectand protective equipment tonursing and medical staff inthe hospital. Nurses staged aprotest demanding protectiveequipment, including gloves,masks and PPE kits, onSaturday.

Guntur district JointCollector A Samuel DineshKumar visited the hospitaland enquired about the facil-ities and assured to appointadditional staff immediately tosafeguard the patients andreduce the burden on theexisting staff in view of theincreasing number of Covid-

19 cases. He said that theabundant stocks of gloves,masks, PPE kits are availablein the hospital. He assured thatadditional stocks of PPE kits,masks, gloves will be provid-ed for the upcoming addition-al staff as well.

Meanwhile, TDP MP ofGuntur Galla Jaydev demand-ed that the governmentresolve the problems of med-ical staff of Tenali immediate-ly. He claimed that he hadgiven Rs 2.5 crore fromMPLADs funds to procurenecessary kits and upgradehealth facilities in the districtbut it was not fully utilised tilldate. He alleged the adminis-tration had failed in utilisingthe available resources ontime.

‘Include Cantt Board in all schemes'PNS n HYDERABAD

Led by TRS party's MalkajgiriParliamentary constituencyin-charge Marri RajshekarReddy, members ofSecunderabad CantonmentBoard called on MP NamaNageshwar Rao and explainedhim the issues about theBoard and the Ministry ofDefence.

During the meeting,Ramakrishna, vice-president,Secunderabad CantonmentBoard urged the MP to inter-vene in the matter. Heexplained MP about pendingservice charges of up to Rs600 crore and he sought therelease of Rs 100 crore imme-diately. "We need the approvalof new building bye-laws andinclude Cantonment Board inall the national schemes,"Ramakrishna said.

He requested the MP to

sort out frequent road clo-sures by the Local MilitaryAuthority and also wantedemployees transfer policies tobe implemented and exer-cised. After detailed discus-sions, Nageshwar R ao

assured on taking up theissues with the DefenceMinistr y and DefenceSecretary and if required,will raise a question in theforthcoming parliamentarysessions.

Parents go the extra mile to save their kidsPNS n HYDERABAD

Parents' love for their chil-dren is unmatched andunconditional. Even in thesedifficult times, many havefought the odds to save theirchildren and avail specialisedtreatment. Aushi's life hasbeen tough. Within a monthsince birth, she spent time inthe incubator and was diag-nosed with 2 holes in herheart. With the last bit ofhope, Shyam took his daugh-ter Aushi to one ofHyderabad's best hospitalsfor treatment. Without anysecond thoughts he sold hislifelong dream: his restaurantand became a bike taxi driverin the city. Aushi respondedwell to the treatment, andrequired more correctivesurgeries, especially for herwindpipe. Shyam immediate-ly started a fundraiser onlineon Milaap. He was deter-mined to give his child thebest treatment, irrespective ofhis own limitations. With thehelp of hundreds of strangersacross the world, he generat-ed Rs 7.9 lakh for the surgery.

Maoists are makingtheir presence feltin Adilabad after along lull over 10years. In Tiryaniregion, twoincidents ofexchange of firebetween Maoistsand police werereported

DEMOLITION OF SHRINES

Congress to file multiple FIRsAll DCC chairmen have been asked tointensify the protest by hoisting theblack flags at all prominent locationsin their respective districts, said TPCCMinorities Department chairmanShaik Abdullah Sohail

TPCC president N Uttam Kumar Reddy at Lingala Ghanpur police station

HYDERABAD | MONDAY | JULY 27, 2020 nation 05

SHORT READS

Drone deployed tosanitise Odisha townBALASORE (ODISHA): In its bidto support the fight againstCOVID-19, the Integrated TestRange (ITR) here — a DRDOcentre for performanceevaluation of missiles - hasdeployed a sophisticated droneto spray sanitisers over Balasoretown, where around 100 caseshave been recorded. Theremote-controlled drone,equipped with a GPS system, iscapable of spraying disinfectantsfrom a height of 20 metres fromthe ground, a senior official said."We have deployed drones inorder to sanitise different areasof Balasore town. We are tryingto assist the district administra-tion in its battle against thepandemic," ITR Director DrBinay Kumar Das said. OnSunday, the sanitisation drivewas undertaken in threelocalities of the town, includingareas around the police lines, hesaid. The drone, developedjointly by Anna University andITI Chennai, can store up to 20litres of disinfectants, which issprayed through its fournozzles, Das said.

Centre to convertravines of Chambalregion into arable land

Naxal menace: 40 kgIED recovered inChhattisgarhBIJAPUR: A powerful 40 kgimprovised explosive device(IED) planted by Maoists wasrecovered in Chhattisgarh'sBijapur district on Sunday,police said. The explosive,packed in a big plasticcontainer, was unearthed by ajoint team of various securityforces on Basaguda-Tarremroad, Bijapur Superintendent ofPolice Kamlochan Kashyapsaid. Personnel belonging toCRPF's 168th battalion, 204thbattalion of CoBRA(Commando Battalion forResolute Action- an elite unit ofCRPF) and the district forcewere involved in the operation,he said.

NEW DELHI: The Centre, incollaboration with the WorldBank, has decided to convertlarge area of ravines in Gwalior-Chambal belt of MadhyaPradesh into arable land, and apreliminary report for the samewill be prepared in a month,Agriculture Minister NarendraSingh Tomar said on Sunday.After preparation of the initialreport, subsequent meetingswill be held with the chiefminister of Madhya Pradesh forfurther course of action, hesaid. A decision in this regardwas taken in a virtual meetingwith World Bank representativeAdarsh Kumar, who said thebank is keen to work in MadhyaPradesh, an official statementsaid. "More than 3 lakhhectares of rugged land is notcultivable and if this area isimproved, then this will help inthe integrated development ofthe Bihad area in GwaliorChambal region," the statementquoted Tomar as saying in thevirtual meeting.

Delhi govt to launch spl schemeto generate more jobs: MinisterPNS n NEW DELHI

Delhi minister Gopal Rai onSunday said the AAP govern-ment will launch a specialprogramme to generate moreemployment opportunities inthe city, a move aimed at reviv-ing the capital's economy,which was affected due to thelockdown.

The labour and employ-ment minister told PTI that aspart of the special programme,Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwalwill launch a job portal in thenext few days, where the com-panies looking to hire and jobseekers can register themselves.

The Aam Aadmi Party(AAP) government will sooncome out with a slew ofreforms to revive the nationalcapital's economy, which hasbeen adversely affected due tothe coronavirus-induced lock-down, he said, adding thatmany migrant workers havemoved out of Delhi and sever-

al people have lost their jobsdue to the shutdown.

"We have decided to aggres-sively run a special programmeto generate more employmentopportunities.

"In the next few days, thegovernment will launch a jobportal, which will act as acommon platform for bothemployers and job seekers," Raisaid.

He said after the lockdown,

many people are facing diffi-culties in finding jobs and theportal, where they can posttheir details and requirementsin accordance with their qual-ification, will be very helpfulfor them.

"We have managed to arrestthe spread of COVID-19 inDelhi. Now there is a need tobring the city's economy backon the fast track.

"After the launch of the por-

tal, people will not need toapply for jobs at several places.The government will ensurethat maximum applicants getemployment," the ministersaid.

Earlier this month, the citygovernment had formed a 12-member expert committee toexplore economic reform mea-sures in order to help business-es recover from the impact ofCOVID-19.

PNS n NEW DELHI

One cannot think well, lovewell, sleep well, if one has notdined well, wrote VirginiaWoolf in another time andanother context. Decades later,as COVID-19 continues itsspread, the words echo thewistful longing of those itchingto get back to one aspect of nor-malcy -- a nice restaurant, con-vivial company and great food.

That vision of dining out'had receded into the past formany of India's urban elite, butit's time finally to press thereset button as the industrygets into high gear to welcomeback diners after four months.

As the country grapples withthe coronavirus crisis, the F&Bindustry is reinventing itself inkeeping with the times. In aslow, incremental process ofpulling themselves out of aslump, several businesses havestarted with online deliveriesand many are also trying toreestablish dining-in with thehelp of digital solutions.

Social distancing, openkitchens, meticulous sanitising,minimal contact with restau-rant staff and digital menus aresome steps being taken toinstil customer confidence.

Tired of sitting at homesince March, when the nationwent on a nationwide lock-down to curb the spread ofCOVID-19, Shobha Mishra isone of those who has startedgoing back to her favouritehaunt for coffee, cookiesmaybe and some quiet metime away from home.

The extra care for hygieneand social distancing at BlueTokai, one of her regularhaunts in south Delhi, reas-sured the media professional.While the new rules of distanc-ing were a given in the currentsituation, QR codes at hertable caught her eye.

"The cafe wasn't crowded atall, great relief. In addition,they have put these QR codesat each table. You can simplyscan the code with your phoneand access the entire menu,"Mishra said.

Gurgaon-based HR man-ager Ankita Verma is still iffyabout going out but has beenordering in.

More than eating out, I missthe experience of going out toeat, Verma told PTI, addingthat she is keen to overcomeher fears but is still reluctant.

Restaurant owners are goingthe extra mile to satisfy bothMishra and Verma as they strug-gle to get back to business on thetwin tracks of online deliveriesand luring back dine-in cus-tomers. But it's a tough ride.

As foodies await dining-out, restaurantsreinvent themselves in corona times

Amitabh onhow COVIDtakes toll onmental healthPNS n MUMBAI

Megastar Amitabh Bachchan,who is undergoing treatmentfor coronavirus at a hospitalhere, has opened up about themental health strugglesCOVID-19 patients face underisolation in order to curb thespread of the disease. The 77-year-old actor and his son, actorAbhishek Bachchan wereadmitted to the isolation wardof Nanavati Hospital on July 11after they tested positive for thevirus. In his blog on Saturday,Amitabh said the mental con-dition brought upon by the dis-ease takes a toll on the patientas one is kept away fromhuman contact. "The mentalstate sparks from the starkreality that the COVID patient,put in hospitalised isolation,never gets to see anotherhuman for weeks. There are thenurses and the doctors on visitand medicine care but they everappear in PPE units," the screenicon wrote.

PNS n NEW DELHI

Government e-Marketplace(GeM) and Indian Railways' e-procurement system are work-ing on ways to integrate both theplatforms with a view to furtherwiden the ambit of theCommerce Ministry's portalby enhancing its buying andselling process, a senior officialsaid on Sunday.

The official said that current-ly a feasibility assessment isgoing on for integration of gov-ernment procurement portalGeM with Indian RailwayElectronic Procurement System(IRePS) and Integrated MaterialManagement System (iMMS).

"This is a technical integra-tion. It will also help in creatinga uniform procurement system.We are looking at the possibil-

ity of integration. We are doingthe assessment first and then wewill integrate," the official fromCommerce Ministry added.

After assessment of integra-tion of the platforms, Railwaysand GeM will decide the furthercourse of action for completionof the process.

Explaining the integrationprocess, the official said "we will

build a bridge between the plat-forms. Whatever data Railwaysuse for publishing bid on its e-procurement system, that datacan be used to create bid as permarket-place model of GeM".

GeM is working on a seriesof steps to further improvebuying and selling process forministries, departments andother agencies.

Prez donates Rs 20 lakh to Armyhospital to buy Covid equipmentPNS n NEW DELHI

As a tribute to soldiers whofought in the Kargil war,President Ram Nath Kovindon Sunday donated Rs 20 lakhto the Army hospital here tobuy equipment that will helpdoctors and paramedics com-bat COVID-19 effectively.

The contribution from thepresident will be used to pro-cure units of PAPR (poweredair purifying respirator), whichare state-of-the-art equipmentto enable medical profession-als breathe during surgeries andprotect them from infection, anofficial communique said.

This will serve the largercause of patients' care andprotection to those warriorswho are fighting an invisibleenemy, it said.

"As a tribute to soldierswho fought valiantly and madesupreme sacrifice in the Kargilwar, the President of India,

Ram Nath Kovind, today pre-sented a cheque of Rs 20 lakhto the Army Hospital(Research and Referral), Delhi,to buy equipment that will helpdoctors and paramedics tocombat the COVID-19 pan-demic effectively," the state-ment said.

Sunday was the 21stanniversary of India's victoryover Pakistan in the Kargil war.

The day is observed as 'KargilVijay Diwas'.

The president's contribu-tion to the Army hospital hasbeen made possible due to anexercise to economise expen-diture at the RashtrapatiBhavan, the communique said.

The president had earlierissued directions to reduceexpenses by initiating a slew ofmeasures.

Man arrestedfor MatrimonialfraudPNS n NEW DELHI

A 34-year-old man has beenarrested for reportedly dupingseveral women, especially wid-ows and divorcees, whom hemet through matrimonial siteson the pretext of marriage,police said on Sunday.According to the police, theaccused Anchit Chawla posedas a businessman and dupedthe women of several lakhrupees. He changed his nameand location many times to pre-vent the police from catchinghim. The matter came to lightafter a woman filed a complaintat Ashok Vihar Police Stationalleging she was duped by aman named Mudit Chawla,who approached her inDecember 2018, through apopular matrimonial site.

Australia's migration intake to fall by2 lakh due to Covid; Indians affectedPNS n MELBOURNE

Australia's migration intakewill drop significantly to31,000 in 2020-21 from232,000 in 2018-19 due to theeffects of the coronavirus pan-demic, impacting thousands ofIndians planning to emigrateto this country.

While the effects of theCOVID-19 pandemic on theAustralian economy are stillevolving, migration, which isa key driver of the economy,has been hit following thetravel bans, border closuresimposed earlier this year sincethe contagion began.

The Australian Economicand Fiscal Update report,released on Thursday by thetreasury department, said thatthe Net Overseas Migration(NOM) is significantly affect-ed by the international travelrestrictions and constraints onthe ability of applications tomeet visa application require-ments.

The NOM is assumed to fallfrom 232,000 in 2018-19 to be

154,000 in 2019-20 and 31,000in 2020-21, it said.

The Indian community inAustralia is comprised of near-ly seven lakh people.

India is one of the topsources of skilled immigrantsto Australia. Approximately90,000 students are studying inAustralian universities.

The report further said thatthe international borders wereexpected to reopen in Januraynext year, but a two-weekquarantine period wouldremain in place for arrivals to

Australia.Future migration levels

remain highly uncertain, dueto the path of the pandemicand the nature and duration ofmeasures taken to contain itsspread at home and abroad.

The government imple-mented international travelbans in March 2020. This pre-vented all arrivals on visitorand temporary migration visasand prevented Australian cit-izens and permanent residentsfrom departing Australia, thedocument read.

India is proud of heroesdedicated to protectingthe country: ShahPNS n NEW DELHI

Union Home Minister AmitShah on Sunday said the coun-try is proud of the heroes whoare dedicated to protecting itand who drove away theenemy from the arduous hillsof Kargil.

On the 21st anniversary ofthe country's victory overPakistan in the Kargil war,Shah said the "Kargil VijayDiwas" is a symbol of India'sself-respect, amazing valourand steadfast leadership.

"I bow to the bravehearts,who, with their indomitablecourage, drove the enemy fromthe difficult hills of Kargil andwaved the tricolour there again.The country is proud of theheroes of India who are dedicat-ed to protecting the mother-

land," he said in a tweet in Hindi.On July 26, 1999, the Indian

Army had announced the suc-cessful culmination of"Operation Vijay", declaringvictory over Pakistan after thenearly three-month-long bat-tles in the icy heights of Kargil.The country lost more than500 soldiers in the war.

PNS n NEW DELHI

Prime Minister NarendraModi will launch on Monday"high throughput" COVID-19testing facilities in Noida,Mumbai and Kolkata, whichwill ramp up testing capacityand help strengthen earlydetection and treatment inthe country, the PrimeMinister's Office said.

The virtual launch eventwill be attended by UnionHealth Minister HarshVardhan and the chief minis-ters of Maharashtra, WestBengal and Uttar Pradesh —Uddhav Thackeray, MamataBanerjee and Yogi Adityanathrespectively.

The three high throughputtesting facilities have been setup strategically at ICMR insti-tutions -- National Institute of

Cancer Prevention andResearch in Noida, NationalInstitute for Research inReproductive Health inMumbai and NationalInstitute of Cholera andEnteric Diseases in Kolkata.

These will be able to testover 10,000 samples in a day,a statement from the PrimeMinister's Office said.

PM to launch Covid testingfacilities in Noida, Mumbaiand Kolkata today

India will remain indebted toarmed forces forever: NaddaPNS n NEW DELHI

Indian forces combinedinspiration and strategy withvalour to vanquish Pakistanduring the Kargil war despitefacing adverse circumstances,BJP president J P Nadda saidon Sunday.

He said India will foreverremember the sacrificesmade by Indian soldiers tosecure the country's borders.

Speaking at an event on the21st anniversary of KargilVijay Diwas, Nadda alsostressed on the BJP's commit-ment to the welfare of armedforces, saying the defencesector has always receivedPrime Minister NarendraModi's special focus.

The Modi governmentimplemented 'one rank onepension' scheme and clearedall dues with payment of Rs33,000 crore, he said, addingthat 72 border projects arenow near completion whilework on them was not doneduring the UPA government.

The then prime minister

Atal Bihari Vajpayee foughtwith Pakistan in the interna-tional arena during theKargil war and had made itclear that India will notdeclare ceasefire until itsecures its border by defeat-ing Pakistan, he said.

Nadda also noted Modi'svisit to Ladakh recently dur-ing the standoff with Chinaand said that the prime min-ister spends every Diwaliwith the armed forces.

Hailing the armed forces,he said Pakistan was in an"advantageous" position dur-ing the Kargil war after occu-pying mountain heights butIndian soldiers drew inspira-tion from the challenge andfought with valour and strat-egy to attain victory.

"It was the toughest battleon highest mountains," hesaid, asserting that India willremain indebted to the bravesoldiers forever.

GeM to be integrated with IndianRailways' e-procurement system: Official

PNS n BENGALURU

Donations for building theRam temple at Ayodhya wouldbe accepted from all commu-nities, and not from Hindusonly, a member of the RamJanmabhoomi Teerth KshetraTrust mandated by the centralgovernment to oversee its con-struction said on Sunday.

Vishwaprasanna TeerthaSwami, head of Udupi-basedPejawar Mutt in Karnataka,who attended a recent virtualmeeting of the trust, said it wassuggested a sum of Rs ten perhead be collected and Rs 100from household as part of theresource mobilisation efforts.

"Its just a suggestion, itsnot like tax. Its kind of a road-map for people who aredesirous of participating in

the construction of theMandir," the seer told PTI.

"We will accept donationsfrom whoever has devotiontowards and faith in LordRam," he said when asked ifcontributions would be accept-ed from all communities andnot limited to Hindus only.

Whoever has devotion andrespect towards and faith inLord Ram... there is nothing

like they should be from thiscommunity... or they should notbe from this community... thatsleft for them, the PejawarSwamiji said. He also said Rsten per head and Rs 100 perhousehold is a suggested con-tribution, adding, the trustwould accept any amount itcould be Re one or Rs one crore.

The trust proposed to raiseadditional financial require-ments from corporate socialresponsibility funds of compa-nies, he added. According tohim, the temple construction, theground- breaking ceremony forwhich is slated for next week,would cost an estimated Rs 300crore, and another sum ofaround Rs 1,000 crore would berequired for development ofsurrounding areas for temple-related activities.

Donations from all faiths to be acceptedfor Ram temple construction: Trust

"In the next fewdays, the govern-ment will launch ajob portal, whichwill act as acommon platformfor bothemployers and jobseekers," ministerGopal Rai said

Social distancing,open kitchens,meticuloussanitising, minimalcontact withrestaurant staff anddigital menus aresome steps beingtaken to instilcustomer confidence

Hagia Sophia is the most recog-nisable symbol of Istanbul(formerly Constantinople).For the last 85 years, thisgrand edifice has also embod-

ied the idea of the Turkish Republic whichMustafa Kemal Pasha (later called KemalAtaturk) founded in 1923. A cathedral forthe first nine centuries of its existence anda mosque for nearly 500 years after that,it has been functioning as a museum since1935. Recently, on July 10, TurkishPresident Recep Tayyip Erdogan decidedto repeal Ataturk’s decree which haddeclared it a museum. Hagia Sophia is nowofficially a mosque. However, far frombeing dropped from the museums’ portalof the Turkish Government(https://muze.gen.tr/), it is still being cher-ished as the most important one.

Erdogan’s decision has undermined theimage of Turkey at two levels. First, his actis a negation of the Kemalist legacy ofLaiklik (or Laicism), according to which,the Turkish State is avowedly secular.Second, at a deeper level, Erdogan hasrefreshed the memories of the Turkishaggression, which left the Greeks deeplyscarred from the Battle of Manzikert(1071) to the invasion of Cyprus (1974).Turkey’s international standing is likely tosuffer in the West.

Erdogan’s motives have always beensuspected. However, apprehensive of anintervention from the nation’s ultra-secu-lar Army, or the fear of the road to theEuropean Union being permanentlyblocked, he previously stopped short ofreversing the Ankara consensus on Turkishsecularism. Two decades ago, Erdogan hadpublicly recited a poem, “The mosques areour barracks, the minarets our bayonets,the domes our helmets and the faithful oursoldiers.” It led him straight into prison forfour months. He was also banned fromholding any political office. The ban waslater rescinded five months after his party,the Justice and Development Party (AKP),swept to power in the November 2002 elec-tions in Turkey.

Hagia Sophia (Holy Wisdom) was themost exquisite cathedral of the EasternChurch. It was commissioned by Justinian,the Byzantine Emperor, as part of a mas-sive rebuilding of Constantinople, whichwas ravaged during the Nika riots (532AD). “Abandoning the traditional basilicanform”, says Will Durant, “they conceived adesign whose centre would be a spaciousdome, resting not on the walls but on mas-sive piers and buttressed by half a dome ateither end.” (The Age of Faith, Pg, 130). Themagnificent cathedral built at a huge costwas the result of five years of labour by10,000 workers, with Justinian intenselysupervising the construction work. Heinaugurated the cathedral on December 26,537 AD. It was thus a work of love, devo-tion and dedication.

Hagia Sophia passed offunder Turkish control on May29, 1453 AD, coinciding withthe conquest of theConstantinople by SultanMehmet II. Edward Gibbonpoignantly describes theepisode in Chapter 68 of hisclassic book, Decline and Fall ofthe Roman Empire. Under theorders of Mehmet II, the cathe-dral was converted into amosque and was named AyaSofia. Six minarets were con-structed, the icons of the wallswere plastered and a crescentmoon was installed upon thetop of the dome.

Yet, why did the fallencathedral continue to occupy acentral place in the Greek con-sciousness, surpassing in asense even the Parthenon onthe Acropolis of Athens? Ninedecades after Greece’s indepen-dence, as late as in 1919, theGreeks had invaded Turkey,which was then in the throes ofa revolution, hoping to redeemConstantinople and hold amass at the Hagia Sophia.

This is because it isChristianity that forged a uni-fied nation out of the Greeks.If today Greeks from Athensdown to the remotestDodecanese islands could feeland respond as one nation, thecredit should go to aConstantine or Justinian ratherthan a Pericles or Thucydides.Ancient Greece no doubt

evokes a sense of awe andwonder. Nine-tenth of thescholarship on Greece is stillconcentrated on its ancientperiod for good reasons.However, it was actually theByzantine period (fourth to15th century AD) that forgedthe spiritual and political unityof the Greeks. While the worldmight consider Iliad andOdyssey to be the most influ-ential work written in Greekever, to a native of Greece, it isNew Testament of the Bible.

The ancient Greek reli-gion, without a scripture,proved to be the weakest linkin the civilisation. The ascend-ing Greek philosophy and nat-ural sciences hollowed it outcompletely. “The terrible con-flict between philosophy andreligion,” informs Will Durant,“runs through the thought offifth century BC.” (The Life inGreece, Pg, 321). This was onereason behind the fall oftragedy, based on religion andmythology, and the consequentrise of comedy on the Greekstage in the fourth centuryBC. Second, from the verydays of city-states to the era ofSeleucid, Ptolemaic andAntigonid Empires, the Greekshad remained politically dis-united, notwithstanding theirlinguistic and mythologicalcommonality.

The Byzantine empire,whose establishment coincid-

ed with the State approval ofChristianity, secured politicaland temporal unity for theGreeks. This civilisation wascentred on Constantinople —a city inaugurated byConstantine on May 11, 330AD — which the Greeks con-sidered as their “eternal capital.”“Here beyond all expectations”,says Will Durant, “Greek civil-isation would display a savingcontinuity, tenaciously pre-serve its ancient treasures andtransmit them at last toRenaissance Italy and theWestern world.” (The Age ofFaith, Pg, 4).

Constantinople, 567 yearsafter its fall to the Turks, is stillthe spiritual centre of the GreekChurch. The EcumenicalPatriarchate of Constantinopleis based in St George Cathedral,Istanbul. It might be remem-bered that the then Patriarch,Gregory V, had triggered theGreek War of Independence onMarch 25, 1821, by exhortingthe Greeks to rebel against theOttoman. He was hanged forsedition at the main door of thePatriarchate, which has sincethen been welded shut. Theanti-Greek riots of September6-7, 1955, decimated the Greekcommunity left in the cityafter the exchange of popula-tion mandated by the erst-while League of Nations in1923.

The Constitution of Greece

(2001) makes zero reference tothe ancient Greek civilisation.This is in stark contrast to theConstitution of Egypt (2014),which waxes eloquent aboutancient Egypt. However, itexpatiates upon the relation-ship between the Church andthe State. The Constitution(Article 3.3) affirms that thetext Holy Scripture (Bible) shallbe maintained unaltered. Theofficial translation of the GreekBible into any language of theworld would require prior per-mission of the “Great Churchof Christ in Constantinople”(meaning the Patriarchate).

It is not anybody’s case thatthe denizens of Constantinoplewere facing crunch of mosquespace to offer prayers. Thereare already too many of them.“Most visitors in Istanbul,” saysa travel book, “will immediate-ly be struck by the quantity ofmosques, from the domedbuildings dominating skyline tothe small neighbourhoodmosques which would passunnoticed were it not for theminarets” (DK Eye WitnessTravel-Istanbul, Pg, 36). Thereare around 24 mosques, origi-nally Byzantine churches,which dot the seven hills ofConstantinople. Why is Turkeydeliberately setting the clockback?

(The writer is an authorand independent columnist. Theviews expressed are personal)

Like everything else in the new normal, thepandemic has affected Independence Daycelebrations this year. Usually held with

a lot of pomp and show, with thousands ofcitizens, politicians, dignitaries, diplomats, mil-itary brass and invitees attending, PrimeMinister Narendra Modi may not have the liveaudience he is used to, listening to his speech.Everybody understands that the event cannotbe spectacular enough and would much ratherhope that our COVID-19 management is spec-tacular instead. Everybody also hopes to hear

a spectacular speech from Modi himself, not pushing his Government’s or hisparty’s agenda and listing work done but presenting a post-COVID roadmap forIndia. Economic revival is a far cry and the credit-based relief packages are yetto work on the ground. And one would expect incentivisation for our domesticindustries if we are to become a self-sufficient manufacturing hub. So far, theGovernment has left package announcements to specific Ministries but peopleare expecting the Prime Minister to be very specific and holistic. An August 15speech should inspire hope and courage and in pandemic times, Modi shouldkeep to a people-oriented vision and offer solutions than make grandiloquentannouncements. Still, there are some ceremonial embellishments within normslike social distancing, wearing masks and proper sanitisation. So, about 200 VIPswill be seated in a special enclosure. There will be no school children, who havetraditionally been a big part of the celebrations. Last year, Modi had mingled freelyamong them, shaking their eagerly outstretched hands. But suffice it now thatthey stay healthy and the Government strengthen the digital classroom networkin the farthest corners so that they do not miss out on education. However, theNational Cadet Corps is expected to be a part. Of course, to restore hope, around1,500 Corona winners, or people who have recovered from the disease, will attend.These will include around 500 local policemen. Also, COVID-19 warriors like doc-tors, healthcare and sanitation workers will be honoured for their frontline role.The pandemic, in the end, has been more a people’s war than the Government’s.

The one good thing is that I-Day will be used to boost the “Digital India” cam-paign. School children may not be present at the ceremony but they can par-ticipate in online debates, quizzes and poetry competitions. The theme of “AtmaNirbhar Bharat” will also be publicised through webinars and online talks. TheGovernment is attempting a public event with precautionary measures to per-haps lay a template for how celebrations can be managed in a post-pandemicworld. It is using technology to include the masses on a national holiday andsending out a positive message by including Corona winners and warriors. Byholding the event and not cancelling it completely, the Government is indicatingwe have to learn to co-exist with the virus and get on with our lives. That amongall the uncertainty around us, there is certainty about what is seared in our mem-ory and DNA, like August 15.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor,Shaktikanta Das, has a grim warning forour banks. In a worst case scenario, as

the Chinese pandemic continues in India, oureconomy could be pushed into a never beforeseen recession. As it was already sputteringbefore the virus struck, banks, which wereacutely stressed, might see bad loans possi-bly touch a fifth of their loan portfolio. The cen-tral bank has warned that bad loans could riseto a 20-year high as a result of the pandem-ic, from 8.5 per cent in March 2020 to 12.5

per cent by March 2021. If the stress is severe, it can rise to 14.7 per cent. Thisdespite the easing measures announced by the Government, including the mora-torium on loan payments for both commercial and personal loans. In the pastfew years, the Government has often bailed out banks by recapitalising themwith taxpayer money. In return, the banks wrote off a whopping ̀ 1,56,702 croreof non-performing loans during the nine-month ended December 2018, takingthe total loan write-off to over ̀ 7,00,000 crore in the last 10 years. What is par-ticularly frightening is the lack of manoeuvering room left to the RBI and the FinanceMinistry. Former RBI Governor Urjit Patel, too, came down heavily on theGovernment for diluting the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) and the pow-ers of the central bank, saying this “undermined the efforts made since 2014to clean up the bad loan mess.” In his book, Overdraft: Saving the Indian Saver,he alleged that a 2019 verdict of the Supreme Court did not find the RBI’s February2018 one-day default regulation on the insolvency process “problematic.” However,the subsequent (June 7, 2019) circular issued by the central bank had dilutedthis aspect, making the insolvency regime “vulnerable and brittle.” Such movesdelayed the recovery process, thus giving leeway to defaulters to escape thebankruptcy court. Then crony capitalism meant that banks were under pressureto lend to certain people and sectors without vetting their capabilities. In somecases, even the bank top brass was unaware of the identity of the borrowersand the amount written off in individual cases. Public banks have been guilty offollowing orders from the top and loan funds to dubious real estate projects thatwere never completed. And going by Patel’s book, the Government further agreedto underwrite 10 per cent of banks’ purchase of up to `1 lakh crore of NBFCdebt. Also, loan recovery has a very poor success rate of about 20 per cent.

The current economic meltdown has pushed many companies, even pre-viously viable ones, into bankruptcy for no fault of theirs. While there are indi-cations that the economy is slowly getting back on track and this year’s mon-soon has been good so far, it may take several months before overall demandsettles back in many sectors. While rural demand will sustain some firms, par-ticularly those in tractors or cheaper consumer products, this will not only forcemuch of the private sector to stop hiring but potentially lay off employees, too.This would make the unemployment crisis worse in a country where 10 millionyouth enter the job market every year. India’s demographic dividend might be atime bomb, which may lead to social unrest. Therefore, it is important for theGovernment to not only ensure cheaper loans but to directly put money backinto the hands of the consumers. This might have a severe cost sometime laterbut the consequences of not taking action today appear to be far worse. Wemight not have a future where a tough decision needs to be taken. There is nodoubt that some of this is due to profligacy of the banks a decade ago whereloans were made willy-nilly to the likes of defaulters such as Nirav Modi andVijay Mallya but the blame game is no solution to the crisis. The fallout of noaction will be failed banks, in the public and private sectors, and a job crisis thatwill haunt India for decades.

Sinking under loans

Gender equality

Sir — When women are provingtheir calibre in every field, why nota Permanent Commission inIndia’s defence forces? Now thatthe Government has paved theway for it, the women’s reservationBill, which is still in a state oflimbo, should be steered throughthe Houses of Parliament so thatgender equality can prevail inevery walk of life in India.

Sravana RamachandranChennai

Level-playing field

Sir — This refers to the welcomedecision of the HaryanaGovernment to accord 50 per centreservation for women in pan-chayat elections. The SupremeCourt had already endorsed theearlier decision of the HaryanaGovernment mandating certaineducational requirements for con-testing the panchayat elections.Such decisions should be imple-mented at the national level. Manypolitical parties cry for religion andcaste-based quotas but opposethe reservation Bill for women.

The Election Commission’s

formula, mandating every polit-ical party to give at least 33 percent of tickets to women, must beimmediately enforced nationallyas an interim measure. Moreover,to prevent women candidatesfrom being misused as proxies fortheir male relatives, there should

be a system whereby the name orphoto of said relations should notbe permitted in campaigns ofwomen candidates. There shouldbe a uniform 33 per cent reserva-tion for women at all levels.

Madhu AgrawalDelhi

Poor justice delivery

Sir — The disposal of cases bycourts is synonymous with inor-dinate delay. If a criminal casetakes 35 years for disposal, thecourts have no reason to be in a

hurry to dispose of civil cases. Theverdict delivered by a Mathuracourt in Uttar Pradesh convicting11 Rajasthan policemen, whogunned down Raja Man Singh ofBharatpur and two of his col-leagues in Deeg area in 1985, cameafter 1,700 hearings. Altogether 25district judges heard it from timeto time over a period of 35 years.How well would it be if a judge,who seriously falls ill, is asked bya doctor to come after three-fourmonths for a check-up? Judicialreforms are absolutely necessary.

KV SeetharamaiahHassan

Endless battle

Sir — In view of the mountingCOVID-19 cases, State-wise datashows that India hasn’t mounteda united attack on the novelvirus. Some States have been toocomplacent. We need to testmore and the Union Governmentmust take control of the fight toflatten the curve. There should bea national testing protocol.

Kunal SinghVia email

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

www.dailypioneer.comfacebook.com/dailypioneer | @TheDailyPioneer | instagram.com/dailypioneer/

op nionHYDERABAD | MONDAY | JULY 27, 2020

06

Turning the clock back

PRIYADARSHI DUTTA

By converting the Hagia Sophia into a mosque, Erdogan has symbolically unsettled Ataturk's

vision of Turkey. He has revived the memories of Turk conquests that had tormented Europe

At a time when there is anexplosive rise in COVID-19cases, its (UP Government’s)‘no test is equal to no coronapolicy’ can lead to a frightening situation.

Congress leader—Priyanka Gandhi Vadra

Without our mercy, withoutour will, without joining ourgroups or without any bless-ings from us, this girl(Kangana) has gone too farand achieved so much.

Actor—Shatrughan Sinha

For this concept of herdimmunity, you need 50 to 60per cent of the population tohave this immunity to beactually able to break thosechains of transmission.

WHO’s chief scientist—Soumya Swaminathan

S O U N D B I T E

L E T T E R S T O TT H E E D I T O R

India’s battle with China is far from over

Last week, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh report-edly said that talks are on to resolve the border dis-pute with China in Ladakh but stopped short of giv-

ing any guarantee on the resolution process. His wordsindicate that things are not going smoothly in Ladakh.There is no denying the fact that the clash between theIndian and the Chinese troops, which led to the deathof many soldiers on both sides, is not the last.Speculation is running high about disengagement inGalwan even as Pangong Tso Lake and Depsang havenot been addressed yet. After several rounds of talksbetween the corps commanders of both sides as alsoNational Security Advisor Ajit Doval's conversations withChinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, it was hoped thatChina would expedite the process of de-escalation.However, there has been little movement and not muchchange on the ground.

While addressing Indian Air Force commanders,Singh sounded a note of caution about the situation inLadakh and said that the armed forces should be readyto handle any eventuality. The Minister stressed uponthe importance of being watchful on the Chinese andPakistani sides of the borders. Singh also acknowledged

the fact that talks to resolve India-China differences werecomplicated. It is now up to the Indian Government todecide on how to break the deadlock. The Indian mili-tary is unprepared to manage even a one-front threat,leave alone a collusive two-front war. Though theGovernment has been trying to provide the Army withall necessities, the picture is grim. Faced with the triplecrises of the COVID-19 pandemic, a flagging economyand the Chinese aggression in Ladakh, India now hasan additional burden of ramping up defence spending.

Venu GSKollam

Send yyour ffeedback tto:[email protected]

Sanitised I-Day

It does not matter where it(IPL) goes but if it goes to theUAE, it’s a great venue to playcricket in any format. Mostimportantly it’s going tochange the mood of the nation.

Former cricketer—Gautam Gambhir

With many firms on the verge of bankruptcy, the bad loancrisis will get worse unless the Finance Ministry intervenes

Nobody minds the pared down celebrations but everybodyexpects the PM to lay down a post-COVID roadmap

Time to reinforce SDGs

FAIR PLAY TO LIVERPOOL FOOTBALL CLUB, THEY’VE WON THE LEAGUE, BUT ALSO

DON’T GET TOO ARROGANT WITH IT. —CHELSEA MANAGER

FRANK LAMPARD

YOU CANNOT HIT ME AND MY BENCH WITH SOMETHING LIKE THAT BECAUSE WE ARE NOT ARROGANT. —LIVERPOOL MANAGER JÜRGEN KLOPP

POINTCOUNTERPOINT

Owing to the Novel Coronavirus out-break, 2020 has been labelled as the yearof morbidity, increasing inequalities, dec-

imated lives and livelihoods when, ironically, itwas to be the year of ushering in ambitious deliv-erables under the Sustainable DevelopmentGoals (SDGs). The United Nations Departmentof Economic and Social Affairs (UN-DESA) hasreiterated the necessity of fulfilling SDGs fordevelopment, post-COVID-19 recovery andalso for ensuring preparedness for a new andmonumental crisis of global climate change. Inview of this, it is pertinent to draw an SDG-levelmap on how India can walk this delicate pathwith enriching prospects.

Languid demeanour towards the SDGs:With respect to SDGs one and two, that deal withthe goals of “No poverty” and “Food Security”,India already ranks low on the Global HungerIndex (102 out of 117 countries). This is waybelow all its neighbouring countries. Childwasting in India is the highest rate for any nationin the world at 20.8 per cent and child stuntingis at 37.9 per cent. Even Bangladesh has seenstunting decline from 58.5 per cent to 49.2 percent between 1997 and 2011. Nepal has seen adrop in stunting from 56.6 per cent in 2001 to40.1 per cent in 2011. India’s score on hunger is30.3, which means it suffers from a level of hungerthat is “serious.” Even the Food and AgricultureOrganisation (FAO) has stated that over 200 mil-lion people in India remain chronically under-nourished. SDG three, pertaining to “GoodHealth and Well-being”, already finds about 1.3billion people having limited public health facil-ities, let alone the sophisticated treatment need-ed for saving the life of a COVID-19 patient. TheIndian healthcare sector manifests a poor scorein terms of the doctor-patient ratio. There is onedoctor for every 1,445 Indians as per the coun-try’s current population estimate of 135 crore,which is lower than the World HealthOrganisation’s (WHO’s) prescribed norm ofone doctor for 1,000 people.

India also has an acute shortage of hospitalbeds with the National Health Profile, 2019, datashowing that there are a total of 7,13,986Government hospital beds available in the coun-try. This amounts to 0.55 beds per 1,000 popu-lation as against the WHO’s recommendedstandard of five beds per 1,000 population. If wewere to include in-patient beds available in pri-vate, general and specialised hospitals and reha-bilitation centres, this number goes up to 0.7 bedsper 1,000 as per World Bank data.

The rural health infrastructure is in a sorrystate as 60 per cent of the Primary Health Centreshave only one doctor while about five per centhave none, as per the Ministry of Finance sta-tistics. This is in stark contrast to the urban milieuwhich has nearly 60 per cent of all healthcare pro-fessionals working for 30 per cent of the popu-lation. The India State-level Disease BurdenInitiative — which is a collaboration between theIndian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), thePublic Health Foundation of India (PHFI), theInstitute for Health Metrics and Evaluation(IHME), experts and stakeholders from about 100institutions across the country — states that anincrease in the number of diseases like diabetes,cardiovascular illnesses in the nation since 1990is likely to increase the fatality risk of COVID-19 patients. Emerging evidence has revealed thatType-1 diabetes may be triggered in COVID-19

patients, who had otherwise been non-diabetic.

In terms of SDG five (GenderEquality), India ranks a dismal 122 outof 162 countries in the GenderInequality Index. Meanwhile, the lock-down scenario has witnessed an almosttwo-fold rise in domestic violencecases, according to data shared by theNational Commission for Women, aconcern already raised by both WHOand UN Women.

SDG six (Clean Water andSanitation) is in the doldrums with 163million people in India without accessto clean, drinking water. About 82 percent of rural and 60 per cent urbanhouseholds do not have piped runningwater, meaning juxtapositioning avail-ability, accessibility of water and socialdistancing needs amid the pandemic.The outbreak has impacted the infor-mal sector the hardest, where more than80 per cent of the labour force of thecountry is employed. This part of theworkforce is likely to drop deeper intopoverty. Taking on SDG eight (DecentWork and Economic Growth) andSDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities), Indiahas been witnessing jobless growth asreflected in the Periodic Labour ForceSurvey (NSSO, 2017-2018) data,exhibiting the shrinking share of thelabour force to 49.7 per cent in 2018from 55.5 per cent in 2012 and risingunemployment.

To make matters worse, the lock-down left about 96 per cent of themigrant labourers stranded, wherein 90per cent had no wages and 70 per centhad less than `200 ($3.89) in theirpockets, causing many of them toeventually return to the hinterland, gen-erating a large pool of unemployedworkers.

SDGs as building blocks to devel-

opment and post COVID-19 recov-ery: Contextual mapping of State per-formance under the SDG realm hasbeen captured through the manyindices that the NITI Aayog hasreleased, such as the Health Index,School Education Quality Index,Composite Water Management Indexand the SDG Index. These have culmi-nated towards understanding State-levelperformances in these core sectorsthrough self-assessment of needs andgaps, identification of State-specific pri-ority sectors, informed policy planning,skill development and vitalising com-petitive federalism.

The National Indicator Frameworkdeveloped for State rankings on SDGsby the Ministry of Statistics Planningand Programme Implementation(MoSPI) can serve as a guidebook toimprove performance. Further, all thespokes of SDGs need to be adhered to,including capacity and skill-develop-ment, financial support for planningand implementation, and a long-termoutlook on sustainable and inclusivedevelopment.

Beginning with SDG three, the totalexpenditure (out-of-pocket and public)on healthcare needs to be scaled upfrom the current 3.6 per cent of theGDP, which is much lower than theaverage of Organisation for EconomicCo-operation and Development(OECD) countries, which ranges fromeight to 17 per cent. While schemes likeAyushman Bharat have served as animportant tool, investments throughthe Public-Private Partnership routeshould be pursued in other aspects ofthe sectors and also in building localisedhealthcare infrastructure steadilythrough greater devolution of powerand finances to local governance.

For SDG eight and 10, welfare

schemes such as the Mahatma GandhiRural Employment Guarantee Scheme(MGREGS) need to be incrementedwith sustained budgetary allocation.During the pandemic, a notable step inthat direction was taken by the UnionMinistry of Jal Shakti when it decidedto employ the homeward-boundmigrant labour force in work related togroundwater rejuvenation, irrigationand water conservation. However, thereare reports that around 1.4 lakh fami-lies have reached their annual worklimit under the Act. They are now push-ing for wage rates to be increased andprovided on an individual basis ratherthan on the basis of households. In theshort-term, finalisation of labour lawreforms to coalesce the disaggregatedones (there are around 50 Central laws)and increase of social security coverage,while working towards a greater degreeof formalisation in the economy and anemphasis on labour-intensive sectors,like apparel and footwear in the medi-um-term, would address the chal-lenges facing the sector. For a long-termoutlook on SDGs, contributionstowards SDGs must be practised at theindividual level, be inclusive and mutu-ally beneficial.

The current crisis has recalibratedlifestyle patterns to encourage individ-uals into practising minimalism andsustainable consumption, which is acrucial step in the direction of endors-ing SDGs in the long-term, keeping inmind the emerging global threats in theform of climate change and resourcescarcity. Moreover, mainstreamingissues of gender equality, education andenvironment protection in the largerpolicy framework can help accomplishmulti-faceted results on the SDG front.

(Raj and Rijhwani are ResearchAssociates, TERI)

The UN-DESA has reiterated the necessity of fulfilling SDGs for post-COVID-19recovery and ensuring preparedness for the monumental crisis of global climate change

analysis 07F I R S T C O L U M N

Good leadershelp retain talent

HIMA BINDU KOTA

Any organisation, be it a business house or apolitical party, should invest its time and effort topopulate its talent pipeline with potential leaders

AISHWARYA RAJ

VANI RIJHWANI

THE CURRENTCRISIS HAS

RECALIBRATEDLIFESTYLE

PATTERNS TOENCOURAGE

INDIVIDUALS INTOPRACTISING

MINIMALISM ANDSUSTAINABLE

CONSUMPTION,WHICH IS A

CRUCIAL STEP INTHE DIRECTION OF

ENDORSING SDGS IN THE LONG-TERM,

KEEPING IN MINDTHE EMERGING

GLOBAL THREATSIN THE FORM OF

CLIMATE CHANGEAND RESOURCE

SCARCITY.MOREOVER,

MAINSTREAMINGISSUES OF GENDER

EQUALITY,EDUCATION AND

ENVIRONMENTPROTECTION IN

THE LARGERPOLICY

FRAMEWORK CANHELP ACCOMPLISH

MULTI-FACETEDRESULTS ON THE

SDG FRONT

Jet-setting corporate India and politics seldom display similar attrib-utes. Therefore, it becomes a matter of immense interest whensuch similarities develop once in a while. The unbridled enthu-

siasm of these young leaders and their impatience to make it big inthe shortest possible time make them comparable to corporate stal-warts of India Inc. The political turmoil in Madhya Pradesh triggeredby Jyotiraditya Scindia and in Rajasthan by Sachin Pilot serve as aptexamples of restless young leaders who want to desperately comeout of the shadows of political veterans. They get solicited by com-peting camps with lucrative offers, just the way headhunters scoopup talent in the corporate world. It has become tough for even themost capable leaders in politics and the corporate world to retainand motivate talent. However, staff retention is critical for any organ-isation and has many financial implications.

According to analysts, the cost of the annual turnover for anymid-sized organisation with 1,000 workers and a 10 per cent annu-al turnover rate, is nearly $7.5 million. Several expenses like the costof recruitment, training, lost productivity and new hires form a partof this overall turnover cost. Worldwide research suggests that inthe organisational context, leadership is one of the crucial determi-nants of staff retention. The Saratoga Institute, after comprehensiveresearch spanning across 20 years and 60,000 interviews, foundthat nearly 80 per cent of the employee turnover has a direct rela-tion with the level of dissatisfaction with one’s boss. In another inter-esting study by Gallup Organisation, a bad leader is a reason quot-ed for quitting by as many as one million workers. The productivityand profitability of any group led by an incapable leader is almosthalf of the group managed by a competent one, says the study.

In fact, as concluded by author Roger Herman in his book,Winning the War for Talent, employees don’t quit jobs, they quit theirbosses. There is ample evidence to note that the leadership style andan innate ability to manage people has a direct impact on an organ-isation’s capability to retain its workforce. Employees are more like-ly to remain with an organisation if they have a clear description oftheir job profiles and their expected targets and timelines. Workersappreciate an impeccable ability to choose the right person for a jobor have the right job fit. Regular quality feedback and a mechanismto analyse and improve one’s performance go a long way in keep-ing staff motivated. In addition, timely recognition to make staff happyabout their contribution to the organisation is an absolute must.

Plus, if an employee has a positive relationship with his/her boss,the tenure of the employment definitely goes up along with the increasein organisational commitment. Respect and dignity have a specialplace for staff and a great leader is very mindful of the same. Anencouraging and supporting ecosystem should be developed by lead-ers to help employees achieve their best. Therefore, if leadership fal-ters, the organisation fails due to a plethora of factors like low pro-ductivity due to low organisational commitment and job satisfaction,leading to high-stress levels of workers and eventually turnover.Indecisiveness and insufficient or lack of communication with theemployees, which is another hallmark of weak and ineffective lead-ership, can spread dissatisfaction among staff and fuel their turnoverintentions. Therefore, the human resource department should not onlyhire managers but likely leaders.

Since in large organisations, it is not possible for leaders to havea communication channel open with all workers, training and devel-opment must be envisaged to create leaders at all checkpoints. Thiswill nurture a culture of participation, organisational commitment andcan be the best strategy to retain talent.Twenty years ago, when sta-bility was a norm in the business world, leaders made most of thedecisions with little input from employees. They gave clear what-when-how instructions. A stable business environment with small staffturnover also provided an easier path for the identification of futureleaders. But today, workers need a collaborative and participative leaderwho understands the consequences of technological disruption inbusinesses and is adaptive. This has led to a paradigm shift in lead-ership styles — from autocratic to transformational.

A transformational leader understands the needs of the employ-ees, motivates them and provides reasons for them to continue work-ing for the organisation. Transformational leadership is also a bet-ter-suited leadership style in today’s world with COVID-19 forcingpeople to work from home. Here the emphasis is on trusting peo-ple to work towards the overall organisational goals without constantsupervision. The focus should be to steer high-potential employeesinto leadership roles through institutional mentoring programmes. Greatleaders are extremely valuable to organisations as they are instru-mental in retaining talent. Happy employees, in turn, make success-ful firms. So, leadership and employee retention have a direct rela-tion and go hand-in-hand. Any organisation, be it a business houseor a political party, should invest its time and effort to populate itstalent pipeline with great potential leaders. After all, leaders can helporganisations retain their talent. Is the Congress listening?

(The writer is Associate Professor, Amity University, Noida)

Is there going to be a new ColdWar with China? Probably not.Consider the case of Huawei.

Mike Pompeo swept into London onTuesday like an overweight DarthVader, while his local satrap, BorisJohnson, waited nervously inDowning Street for judgment. Peopleswore they could hear Pompeo’scloak swish as he strode through thedoor. But it was all good: The BritishPrime Minister had done enough toappease the overlord.

The subject at issue was Huawei,the Chinese telecommunicationsfirm whose equipment has beenselling to governments throughout

the West because there are no com-parable Western products availableat a competitive price. The USresponse has therefore been political,not commercial. It demands that itsallies ban Huawei on “security”grounds.

The first US strike was in late2018, when it got Canada to arrestMeng Wanzhou, Huawei’s ChiefFinancial Officer, as she was chang-ing planes on her way to Mexico. Sheis still in Canada fighting extradition,while two Canadians are held inChinese prisons effectively ashostages for her release. The initialUS charge was breaking sanctionsagainst Iran, but she’s now accusedof stealing American trade secrets.

Britain had agreed to involveHuawei heavily in building its new5G network well before Johnsonbecame Prime Minister, but he stuckto the deal despite mounting USpressure to cancel because he is tak-ing Britain out of the EuropeanUnion (EU) and into what is poten-tially a very grim future.

More than half of Britain’s tradeis with Europe, but a free trade dealafter it has left looks increasinglyunlikely. What countries could pickup at least part of the slack? Only theUS or China, so Johnson desperate-ly wanted to keep both of thoseoptions open. Washington, of course,wanted Johnson to foreclose theChinese option.

Johnson stuck to his guns rightdown through the past year, reas-sured by Britain’s own security ser-vices that the Huawei technologyposed no threat, but eventually theUS pressure became irresistible.Huawei was told that it would not beparticipating in Britain’s 5G phonenetwork and that all its technologyin the 2G, 3G and 4G networkswould have to come out by 2027.

Only days later, however, Britishofficials whispered in Huawei’s earthat all was not lost. Britain mightreconsider its decision next year.Nobody said explicitly “after the USelection,” but obviously Britain wouldbe keen to bring Huawei back on

board if Donald Trump loses thatelection in November (as he nowseems quite likely to).

Word about this reachedWashington in micro-seconds.(When will they learn that in themodern communications environ-ment, anything you say to anybodyinstantly becomes known to every-body?) So Johnson was understand-ably anxious as he awaited the arrivalof the American viceroy. Sorry,Secretary of State.

But it was all right with Pompeo.Johnson would only be disloyal ifTrump loses, and Trump won’t losebecause he’s going to start a new ColdWar. That’s the plan — but it won’twork. It won’t work because none ofAmerica’s allies, not even one as des-perate as Johnson, believes thatChina is a threat grave enough to jus-tify a 40-year military confrontation.Or even a five-year one.

They are not naive about the cur-rent Chinese regime’s flaws. It is anasty, corrupt dictatorship, intoler-ant of dissent and oppressive towards

its minorities. But it is not territori-ally expansionist except in its ownimmediate neighbourhood (HongKong, Taiwan, South China Sea) andit is not ideologically attractive evento its own citizens.

The only ideological tool avail-able to Xi Jinping is nationalism. Hewould deploy it if necessary todefend his own power, just as Trumpis doing now, but for a sustainablecold war there needs to be a morecredible sense of threat than is cur-rently available to either party.

The idea that China is “the cen-tral threat of our times,” as Pompeoput it on Tuesday, is laughable. It’sa formidable competitor economical-ly (although demographically speak-ing it has feet of clay), but it’s simplynot interested in a classic militaryconfrontation. China does not both-er, for example, to maintain a strate-gic nuclear force remotely compara-ble to America’s or Russia’s. It trulybelieves that nuclear deterrencemakes that kind of war insane, andkeeps only enough missiles to deter

a crazed attacker. The border disputewith India is remote and petty, andwill not be allowed to escalate byeither side. This is true even thoughright now none of the two neigh-bours are willing to back down andare engaged in a contest of who willblink first in the icy heights ofLadakh, as their citizens watch withbated breath.

The other major powers, includ-ing the EU, are simply are not buy-ing into the Trump-Pompeo visionof a world divided into two hostileand militarised blocs like 1945-89.Even Boris Johnson, for all his sub-Churchillian pretensions, can’t takethe notion seriously and instantlyhedges his bets after he has to giveit lip-service. “Don’t defend Trump— attack China!” said the instruc-tions sent to the Republican Party’ssenatorial candidates, but it doesn’twork outside the US. It probablywon’t work inside either.

(Gwynne Dyer’s new book is‘Growing Pains: The Future ofDemocracy and Work.’)

No buyers for a new Cold War planNone of America’s allies believe that China is a threat grave enough to justify a 40-year military confrontation. Or even a five-year one

GWYNNE DYER

HYDERABAD | MONDAY | JULY 27, 2020

www.dailypioneer.com

F O R E I G N E Y E

The recent consulateclosing war is entirely theUS’ doing and China needsto shout this from therooftops to beat back thewaves of misinformationcoming from Trump’s StateDepartment. China hasstayed committed to apeaceful resolution of itsdifferences with the US —and all it’s gotten for itstrouble is one provocationafter another.

(China Daily editorial)

A BONE-HEADEDMOVE BY THE US

HYDERABAD | MONDAY | JULY 27, 2020 money 08

CAPSULE

Hindustan Copperaims to raise oreproduction capacityNEW DELHI: State-ownedHindustan Copper Ltd (HCL) islooking to rope in a partnerwith strong financial health tohelp it expedite ore outputcapacity to over 20 milliontonnes per annum (MTPA), itsCMD Arun Kumar Shukla hassaid. He said all statutoryclearances are in place for thefirst phase of expansion. TheHCL chairman and managingdirector said the company willenhance its ore productioncapacity from the current levelof 4 MTPA to 12.2 MTPA inthe first phase, andsubsequently to 20.2 MTPA, inline with the government's'Aatmanirbhar Bharat' initiative.To achieve this target, he saidHCL "is looking for a suitablepartner with strong financialbackground to expedite itsfuture mine expansion projectat a faster pace".

MCX Q1 net profit up 29% at Rs 56.43 croreMUMBAI: The MultiCommodity Exchange of India(MCX) has posted a 29 percent growth in its June quarternet profit at Rs 56.43 crore. Its net profit stood at Rs 43.70crore during the correspondingquarter a year ago, MCX saidin a BSE filing on Saturday. Forthe quarter ended June 2020,MCX's total income increasedby 11 per cent to Rs 122.70crore from Rs 110.84 crorefrom a year-ago period.However, the operating incomedecreased by 14 per cent to Rs73.01 crore from Rs 84.97crore in the correspondingquarter of 2019. The averagedaily turnover of commodityfutures contracts traded on theexchange decreased by 16 percent to Rs 23,129 crore in Q1FY21 from Rs 27,473 crore inthe June quarter of FY20.During the first quarter ofFY21, the exchange's marketshare in commodity derivativespace increased to 96 per cent.

FPIs withdraw Rs 86 cr from Indianmkt in July so farNEW DELHI: Foreign portfolioinvestors (FPIs) remained netsellers in Indian markets inJuly so far on account of bothdomestic and global factors,including rising number ofcoronavirus cases andincreasing tension betweenthe US and China. Accordingto the depositories data,overseas investors invested Rs2,336 crore in equities butpulled out Rs 2,422 crorefrom the debt segment,leading to net outflows of Rs86 crore from Indian marketsbetween July 1-24. In theprevious month, FPIs were netbuyers to the tune of Rs24,053 crore. HimanshuSrivastava, associate director -manager research,Morningstar India said thatFPIs have adopted a "cautiousstance" with respect toinvestment in Indian markets.

PNS n NEW DELHI

As many as 403 infrastructureprojects, each worth Rs 150crore or more, have been hit bycost overruns of over Rs 4.05lakh crore owing to delaysand other reasons, according toa report. The Ministry ofStatistics and ProgrammeImplementation monitorsinfrastructure projects worthRs 150 crore and above.

Of the 1,686 such projects,403 reported cost overrunsand 530 time escalation.

"Total original cost of imple-mentation of the 1,686 projectswas Rs 20,66,771.94 crore andtheir anticipated completioncost is likely to be Rs24,71,947.66 crore, whichreflects overall cost overruns of4,05,175.72 crore (19.60 percent of original cost)," theministry's latest report forMarch 2020 said.

The expenditure incurred onthese projects till March 2020is 11,20,696.16 crore, which is45.34 per cent of the anticipat-ed cost of the projects.

However, it said that the num-ber of delayed projects decreas-es to 452 if the delay is calcu-lated on the basis of latestschedule of completion.

Further, it said that for 857projects neither the year ofcommissioning nor the tenta-tive gestation period has beenreported. Out of 530 delayedprojects, 155 have overall delayin the range of 1 to 12 months,114 have delay of 13 to 24months, 148 reflect delay in the

range of 25 to 60 months and113 projects show delay of 61months and above.

The average time overrun inthese 530 delayed projects is41.16 months. The brief rea-sons for time overruns asreported by various projectimplementing agencies aredelay in land acquisition, delayin obtaining forest/environ-ment clearances and lack ofinfrastructure support & link-ages.

Besides there are other rea-sons like delay in tie-up of pro-ject financing, delay in finali-sation of detailed engineering,change in scope, delay in ten-dering, ordering and equip-ment supply, law and orderproblems, geological surprises,pre-commissioning teethingtroubles and contractual issues,among others, the report said.

It also observed that projectagencies are not reportingrevised cost estimates andcommissioning schedules formany projects, indicating thattime or cost overrun figures areunder-reported.

PNS n NEW DELHI

A special resolution frame-work for MSMEs is at anadvanced stage of preparationand a prepack resolutionframework is also underworks, IBBI chief M S Sahoohas said and emphasised thatthe insolvency law is evolvingto offer innovative ways to ser-vice emerging needs.

Amid the coronavirus pan-demic that has also significant-ly impacted economic activi-ties, the government hasalready suspended certain pro-visions of the Insolvency andBankruptcy Code (IBC). TheCode, which came into force in2016, seeks to provide time-bound and market-linked res-olution of stressed assets.

Fresh proceedings underthe Code currently remainsuspended and the suspensioncould be extended to up to oneyear.

When asked about whatcould be the lasting impactonce things normalise afterCOVID-19, Sahoo said neces-sity is the mother of inventionand that the focus is on swiftresponse.

"The IBC is evolving tooffer innovative ways of servic-ing emerging needs of theeconomy. A special insolven-cy resolution framework forMSMEs under section 240A of

the Code is at an advancedstage of preparation. A prepackinsolvency resolution frame-work is under works.

"The focus is swift responseas the COVID-19 storyunfolds further and recalibra-tion of the ecosystem in syncwith the all 'new normal'," hesaid in a recent e-mail inter-view.

Sahoo is the Chairperson ofthe Insolvency and BankruptcyBoard of India (IBBI), a keyinstitution in implementingthe Code.

According to him, marketparticipants and the ecosystemwould be nimbler and thatthey would come up withinnovative ways of implement-ing innovative resolutionmechanisms currently underworks.

"There would be betteracceptance of genuine businessfailures and consequently,entrepreneurship would flour-ish. IBC would emergestronger," he stressed.

In May, the governmentannounced various relaxationsunder the Code, includingexemption of COVID-19-related debt and a specialframework for Micro, Smalland Medium Enterprises(MSMEs).

The proposed relaxationsunder the Code wereannounced by Finance andCorporate Affairs MinisterNirmala Sitharaman as part ofthe more than Rs 20-lakhcrore stimulus packageunveiled to boost the economyravaged by the pandemic andsubsequent lockdowns.

KoPT moots tunnel under Hooghly river for truck movementPNS n Kolkata

The Kolkata Port Trust (KoPT)is weighing the option of con-structing a tunnel under theHooghlyriver to facilitate con-tainer truck movement fromone bank to another, a move thatwill help decongest the cityroads, an official said.

Buoyed by the success ofunderwater tunnelling work forEast-West Metro corridor, theKoPT, rechristened as the SyamaPrasad Mookerjee Port, is plan-ning to appoint a consultant toconduct a feasibility study forbuilding a similar structureunder the river, he said.

"It is just an idea as I saw suchtunnels in Antwerp port (inBelgium). So we are appointing

a consultant to look into it," theport's chairman Vinit Kumarsaid. This could potentially free

city roads of 700-800 trucksdaily, he said.

Trucks that trudge throughGarden Reach Circular Road,Kidderpore Road, Hastings andVidyasagar Setu, also known asthe Second Hooghly Bridge,causing traffic snarls and pollu-tion could cross the river via anunderwater tunnel then head tothe destination from the oppo-

site bank in Howrah.The port authorities are also

exploring RoRo (roll on, roll off)ferry services to facilitate move-ment of trucks by avoiding citytraffic, he said.

Asked whether the currentCOVID-19 outbreak hasimpacted the port activities, hesaid, "Eight pilots tested positivefor the disease in a day last week

and overall 180 cases have beendetected among port employeesand support workers. We havenot stopped operations for a sin-gle day as it causes inconve-nience to port users."

Meanwhile, speaking at aseminar organised by CII,Shipping Minister MansukhMandaviya said the Centre haswaived off waterways charges.

The Inland WaterwaysAuthority of India (IWAI) hadlevied the waterway usagecharges at a rate of Rs 0.02 pergross registered tonnage (GRT)per km for inland cargo shipsand Rs 0.05 for cruise vessels onnational waterways.

Trucks that trudge through Garden ReachCircular Road, Kidderpore Road causing trafficsnarls and pollution could cross the river via anunderwater tunnel then head to the destinationfrom the opposite bank in Howrah

‘Spl insolvency resolution forMSMEs at advanced stage’

The expenditure

incurred on these

projects till March

2020 is 11,20,696.16

crore, which is 45.34

per cent of the

anticipated cost of

the projects

403 infra projects show costoverruns of Rs 4.05 lakh cr

PNS n NEW DELHI

The National Green Tribunalhas said the Indian OilCorporation Limited's Panipatrefinery in Haryana has failedto take effective and adequatesteps for pollution control anddirected it to submit Rs 25crore for restoration of theenvironment.

The green panel noted thereport filed by a committeewhich said there was noprogress towards restoration of

the environment by the refin-ery.

A bench headed by NGTChairperson Justice AdarshKumar Goel said a PSU hasto be a model for complianceof environmental norms,which, unfortunately, is

found lacking in the presentcase.

It noted that the timelinesfor compliance were going upto March 2022 to remedystorm water contaminationand other long timelines evenafter two years of directionsand monitoring by the tri-bunal.

The tribunal said the standof the IOCL showed lack ofsensitiveness to the funda-mental rights of the inhabi-tants to clean environment.

AI forms panel to identify‘redundant' employees

LEAVE WITHOUT PAY

PNS n NEW DELHI

Air India's northern regionaloffice has formed a committeeto identify the "redundant" or"surplus" employees whowould be asked to goon a compulsoryleave without pay(LWP) for up tofive years.

An officialorder in this regardwas issued onTuesday.

Air India issued an internalorder on July 14, asking itsdepartmental heads andregional directors to identifythe employees, based on var-ious factors such as efficiency,health and redundancy, whowill be sent on a compulsoryLWP for up to five years.

Moreover, the national car-rier had said the employeescan voluntarily opt for the

LWP scheme too.P S Negi, Regional Director

(RD), Northern Region, AirIndia, issued an order on July21, stating that following the

July 14 order, an empow-ered committee is being

constituted for theidentification of"redundant/surplusm a n p o w e rresources".

Negi's order, whichhas been accessed by

PTI, said the general man-ager (personnel), general man-ager (finance) and depart-mental heads will be the mem-bers of the empowered com-mittee.

"GM (Personnel) will sharethe staff list with all depart-ments and convene the discus-sions/deliberations, includingthe process of identification ofsurplus/redundant resources,”the order said.

PNS n NEW DELHI

Driven by investments in liq-uid schemes as also bankingand PSU funds, debt mutualfunds saw an inflow of Rs 1.1lakh crore in three monthsended June 2020 after witness-ing massive redemptions in thepreceding quarter.

Most individual categoriesthat invest in fixed-incomesecurities, or debt funds, sawinflows. However, credit risk,overnight, ultra-short dura-tion, medium duration anddynamic bond funds saw with-drawals. The positive inflowpushed the asset base of debtmutual funds to Rs 11.63 lakhcrore at June-end from Rs11.5 lakh crore at the end ofMarch, according to data withAssociation of Mutual Fundson India (Amfi).

As per the data, inflowsinto debt mutual funds were atRs 1.1 lakh crore in the threemonths ended June, comparedto outflows of Rs 1.13 lakhcrore in the January-Marchquarter.

Investment into such fundswas at Rs 19,690 crore during

the quarter ended June 2019.Nearly 80 per cent of the

total inflows during the quar-ter under review in the fixed-income segment came throughliquid funds, where most of theinstitutional money is parked.

Liquid funds, with invest-ments in cash assets such astreasury bills, certificates ofdeposit and commercial paperfor the shorter horizon, wit-nessed inflows amounting toRs 86,493 crore during thequarter under review. The seg-ment had witnessed an outflowof Rs 94,180 crore in theMarch quarter, typically due toadvance tax payment require-

ments. In addition, bankingand PSU category, which isconsidered as a safe option,received inflows of Rs 20,912crore in the quarter ended June2020, compared to a withdraw-al of Rs 66 crore in the previ-ous three months.

As a mandate, such fundsneed to invest a minimum 80per cent of their total assets indebt instruments of banks,public sector undertakings, orpublic financial institutions.This makes the category ofinvestment relatively safer thansome of the other fixed-income categories in terms ofcredit risk.

Debt MFs see Rs 1.1L cr inflowon investment in liquid schemes

BPCL offers VRS to employees ahead of privatisationPNS n NEW DELHI

State-owned BPCL has broughta voluntary retirement schemefor its employees ahead of thegovernment privatising thecountry's third biggest oil refin-er and second-largest fuelretailer.

"The Corporation has decid-ed to offer a VoluntaryRetirement Scheme (VRS),

with a view to enable employ-ees, who are not in a positionto continue in service of theCorporation due to variouspersonal reasons, to request forgrant of voluntary retirementfrom the services of theCorporation," BharatPetroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL)said in an internal notice to itsemployees.

The 'Bharat Petroleum

Voluntary Retirement Scheme- 2020 (BPVRS-2020)'opened on July 23and will close onAugust 13.

A senior com-pany official saidthe VRS has beenbrought to offer anexit option for anyemployee or officerwho does not want to work

under a private management."Some employees feeltheir role, position or

place of posting maychange once BPCL isprivatised. So thisscheme offers theman exit option," he

said.BPCL, where the

government is selling itsentire 52.98 per cent stake, has

about 20,000 employees.The official said 5 to 10 per

cent of employees are expect-ed to opt for VRS.

Expressions of Interest (EoI)for buying BPCL are due onJuly 31.

All employees who havecompleted 45 years of age willbe eligible for the scheme,according to the VRS noticeaccessed by PTI.

Corporate earnings,geopolitical events toset market course PNS n NEW DELHI

Domestic equitymarkets this weekwill largely besteered by corpo-rate earnings,developments onUS-China rela-tions front andC O V I D - 1 9trends, analystssaid.

Globally, investors seemedtreading cautiously last weekamid deteriorating US-Chinaties and an uncertainty abouteconomic recovery due to stillsurging COVID-19 cases inmany countries.

Last week, China orderedthe US consulate in Chengduto be closed, in retaliation forthe US closure of the Chineseconsulate in Houston follow-ing spying allegations.

On the coronavirus front,India's overall cases tallyclimbed to 13,85,522 and thedeath toll from the virus infec-

tion rose to 32,063 on Sunday,official data showed.

Globally, the number ofCOVID-19 cases has topped1.6 crore and the death tollreached close to 6.5 lakh.

"Record virus infections inIndia have also unsettledinvestors, with its related delayin business and earningsrecovery. Global markets werealso affected on account of ris-ing US-China tensions. Anyfurther developments in thisfront will impact trade thisweek," said Vinod Nair, Headof Research, Geojit FinancialServices.

Two-wheeler sales on recovery path: Bajaj Auto PNS n NEW DELHI

Bajaj Auto is witnessing a strongrevival in demand for two-wheelers in the domestic as wellas international markets, even asit continues to face headwindsin the three-wheeler segment, asenior company official hassaid. The company, however,expects to have a much clearertrend at its disposal by the nextmonth-end to see whether thecurrent demand for two-wheel-ers is just a pent-up demandfrom previous months or theindustry really is back on a

revival path. "We are seeingmonth-on-month improvementin sales. There was no sale inApril whilethe declinewas verylarge in May.June was sig-n i f i c ant l ybetter thanMay and Julyis much bet-ter than June,"Bajaj Auto CFO Soumen Raysaid. The demand scenario iscoming back pretty sharply andit could be a pent-up demand as

well, so the clarity would emergeonly in August, he added. InApril-June, the company sold

1,85,981 units inthe domesticmarket, down69.55 per centfrom 6,10,936units in the sameperiod last year.

Ray, however,noted that the

domestic three-wheeler segment will take sometime to revive.

"Such vehicles are mostlybought by taking loan. So why

would someone like to start anEMI when there is no business?Passenger three-wheeler recov-ery will happen once this oncethese lockdowns end," Ray said.

The company' CV sales(three-wheelers) in the domes-tic market during the first quar-ter of the current fiscal plungedby 93.87 per cent to 5,282 unitsas against 86,217 units in theApril-June period of the last fis-cal. When asked if the companyexpects things to turn around byfestive season, he said: "Certainly,hope so, there is no reason whyit should not happen.

PNS n MUMBAI

WeikField Foods, famous forits custard powder and pasta,is planning to further diver-sify its products offerings,including in the tea seg-ment, as part of efforts tominimise revenue contrac-tions, a top company execu-tive has said.

"Immunity is a major con-cern for everyone, which isvery relevant especially dur-ing the current scenario ofCOVID-19. We already havea green tea product offeringunder our Eco Valley brand.We decided to expand ourproduct offerings under ourorganic tea segment withdifferent infusions that helpbuild immunity. We areplanning to launch herbalinfusion organic tea nextmonth," WeikField CEODipy Sachdeva said.

WeikFieldFoods plans towiden productofferings

PNS n NEW DELHI

Data network solutionsprovider SterliteTechnologies' receivablesfrom BSNL has come downto less than Rs 100 crore now,and the company is hopefulthat substantial part of pend-ing dues will be cleared by thestate-owned telco this year,Group CEO Anand Agarwalsaid. The dues from BSNLwere close to Rs 230 crore atthe end of 2018. "Our duesfrom BSNL have come downto below Rs 100 crorenow...and we believe a largepart of it should get paid offwithin the current calendaryear. At one point of time...endof 2018, it was Rs 220-230crore," Agarwal told said. Thepending dues were for opticalfibre cable sales to BSNL, thesupplies for which happened in2018, he said, adding that thepayment issue was limitedonly to telco's capex-relatedmaintenance and upgradework, and not state ruralbroadband and other projects.

‘BSNL'soutstandingdues below Rs100 cr’

IOCL's Panipat refinery told to pay Rs 25 cr

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MondayJuly 27, 2020

As more andmore peopletake to OTT

platforms duringthis pandemic,

director ofNetflix India,Shrishti Behl

Arya, talks aboutthis sudden but

definite shift,what her jobentails, and

what's in storefor the

streaming giantin the near

future, writesSHIKHA

DUGGAL

‘NAGARJUNA GARUTAUGHT ME DISCIPLINE'

Web series are indeed replacing television bybecoming the heart of theyounger generation. Ourstreaming service is one of thetrending platforms that consistsof numerous web seriesbecause we understand thatmillennials are bored ofmelodramatic TV shows, sothese original series have thecreativity and new concepts that aren’t time-bound. Forproducers like us, it has provedto be very alluring. Netflix isbecoming a huge contender forfeature films as well, outbiddinghigh profile projects.

— SHRISHTI BEHL ARYA

Too much HAND SANITISER canlead to severe hand dermatitis

and sanitisershave irrefutablybecome the mostimportant thing inour lives to pro-tect ourselves dur-

ing the ongoing Covid-19pandemic; the other thingsinclude masks and social dis-tancing. It has been a longtime since hand sanitisersbecame mandatory; whilethey are effective in dealingwith germs and bacteria,excessive usage can result inkilling good bacteria as well.

Citing medical reports,alcohol-based sanitisers areconsidered effective in elimi-nating the spread of disease.However, there have beenclaims that excessive usage ofthe same has led to severeskin problems like hand der-matitis. People have alsoencountered skin issues likesevere dryness, burning, andredness of the skin alongwith cracked or bleedingskin. However, both alcohol-free and alcohol-based sani-tisers are known to providegood results as longas one adds-onthese habits tosave your skinfrom a anynegativeeffects.

Dr B.L.Jangid,Dermatologists &Hair TransplantSurgeon, SkinQureClinic, New Delhi, sharessome pointers to be kept inmind while using handsanitisers:

Limited usage isalways the best option

Excess of everything andanything can be disastrous,so is the case of hand sanitiz-ers. If used in a limitedamount, it can be really fruit-ful in dealing with germs andbacteria. But if not, it caneasily damage your skin,leading to the occurrence ofhand dermatitis.

Unwanted chemical contamination in handsanitisers

The presence of unwantedchemical contaminationavailable in hand sanitizerscan play a dreadful role ifused excessively. The textureof skin depends from personto person, which is why thechemical ingredients presentin hand sanitisers canaccordingly be useful or evendreadful at times. This iswhy you need to take pre-cautionary steps, avoiding touse excessive hand sanitizers.

Moisturising creams &healing ointment:Saviours from hand der-matitis

If in case you have usinghand sanitisers for a longtime now, your hands maystart to show symptoms ofhand dermatitis. Sometimesit's best to quit using a sani-tiser until it's absolutely nec-essary. As a few home reme-dies, include using goodmoisturisers along with heal-ing ointments. This couldlead to blessing yourskin with the righthealth and textureagain. You can alsoopt for healingmoisturisers con-taining aquapor-in at night,wearing glovesovernight toheal the crackson your skin.

In caseyou're suffer-ing fromeczema ordry

skin, use of a moisturiser isan essential post-hand saniti-sation to avoid any sort ofmajor skin-based problemslike hand dermatitis.Additionally, the usage ofmoisturiser eliminates thechance of dry skin that ifpresent can lead to issueslike eczema, dermatitis, andeven psoriasis.

Soap & Water: An ever-green combination

Reportedly, washing yourhands with soap and waterpreferred to the use of handsanitisers. This switch canalso prove fruitful in pre-venting allergic reactionsdepending upon your skintypes. Thus, try using handsanitisers only when thereare no other options.Otherwise, antiseptic soapcan do the trick along withwet wipes in situations wherethere’s no running water and

soap. Simpler options areknown to provide the

best result for allages.

H

Sushant Singh Rajput case:PM Modi acknowledgesSwamy letter for CBI probe

rime MinisterNarendra Modihas acknowl-edged a letter byformer CabinetMinister

Subramanian Swamy,requesting a CBI enquiryin the suicide case of lateactor Sushant SinghRajput.

While the Mumbaipolice is still investigatingthe case and questioningpeople, senior BJP leaderSwamy had written to thePrime Minister to requesthim to initiate a CBIinvestigation.

Now, it has beenrevealed that PM Modi hasacknowledgedSubramanian Swamy’s let-ter.

Swamy has re-tweetedtweets sharing a copy ofthe letter from PrimeMinister’s office whichread: “I have received yourletter of July 15, 2020”.

In his letter, Swamy hadclaimed that his sourceshave revealed that severalbigwigs from the filmindustry are trying tocover up the case.

He wrote: “I learn frommy sources in Mumbaithat many big names inthe Bollywood Film Worldwith links to Dons inDubai are seeking toensure a cover-up is car-ried out by the Police sothat voluntary suicide isconcluded as the reasonfor the demise of MrRajput.”

On June 14, Sushant wasfound hanging in hisBandra residence by hisdomestic help, which lefteveryone shocked. It hasbeen said that he was

reportedly battling depres-sion over the past fewmonths and undergoingtreatment. Sushant’sdemise sparked off discus-

sions around a lot ofthings — from nepotismto the ruthless favouritismthat Bollywood powercamps allegedly engage in.P

opular OTT plat-form Netflix iscertainly leavingno stoneunturned in keep-ing subscribers

hooked to their screens.Shrishti Behl Arya wasappointed the director ofNetflix India in 2018 who hasbeen playing an active role asa film producer offering us avariety of original content.With film production yet toget back to its former shapein India, most films havebeen resorting to digitalreleases on OTT platforms.

Content is something thathas to happen for self-expres-sion or good marketing,believes Shrishti. From serieslike Kiara Advani’s Guilty toManisha Koirala-starrerMaska, she has been a part ofsome amazing Netflix recom-mendations. She helps createglobal quality original con-tent out of India by collabo-rating with Indian producers.The recently released IndianMatchmaking show is alsohelping Netflix in battling forIndia! “There’s an Eklavyaeverywhere and for me inad-vertently that was my father.Apart from him, Nagarjunagaru has been a mentor tome, who introduced me toTollywood while we wereworking on a film together.He taught me discipline andAmala Akkineni manifestedsincerity in me,” she adds.

Talking about her role inNetflix, Srishti shares,“Netflix is a bucket of origi-

nal and licensee series and Iwork for the original filmswith the sole aim of bringingabundant joy to my audience.All programming is inEnglish unless asked and alloriginal series are proving tobe a must-watch right now.It’s all about reflecting a storywith the right emotions.”When asked how storytellinghas changed in the past twoyears, she said there sure aredifferent takes. “For instance,if we take Anurag Kashyap’sdistinctive writing style pre-viously, it was all about pen-ning down a cult film. Butwith his latest releaseChoked-Paisa Bolta Hai hetouched upon the notions ofthe everyday momentum ofmiddle-class families anddraws the audience closer totheir dreams and aspirationswith a nuanced touch. Therole of younger writers isbeing acknowledged onstreaming platforms evolvingfor more original content.The films that have the abilityto touch their viewers’ heartswill race up to the top 10 onNetflix.”

Sharing her experienceabout witnessing successfulfilms she shares, “Despiteinvesting an enormousamount of money it’s reallydifficult to predict whetherconsumers will be contentand give our series good rat-ings or not. This is becausemovies are experiential andpreferences vary. Star power,acting expertise influencesconsumer behaviour.” She

also went on to share aboutwhat goes into commission-ing a Netflix series, “With 75million subscribers our plat-form is a powerhouse, hometo some of the most highprofile shows that have evercome into existence. It allstarts with an idea of devel-oping a coherent script for itor at least a pilot episode foryour series. Then they get intouch with me, I do extensiveresearch to determine whichproduction companies orstudios will be a good fit forthem. If finalised, we thennegotiate the sum of moneyand a contract as per theterms of the agreement,” sheexplains.

Talking more on the rise ofweb series in India, she says,“Web series are indeedreplacing television bybecoming the heart of theyounger generation. Ourstreaming service is one ofthe trending platforms thatconsists of numerous webseries because we understandthat millennials are bored ofmelodramatic TV shows, sothese original series have thecreativity and new conceptsthat aren’t time-bound. Forproducers like us, it hasproved to be very alluring.Netflix is becoming a hugecontender for feature films aswell, outbidding high profileprojects. Your movies aresynced in all your devices,you can either stop midwayor continue after a break. Ithas all become about conve-nience.”

P

10

FUN

Rules

ARCHIE

GARFIELD

SUDOKU

REALITY CHECK SPEED BUMP CROSSWORD

GINGER MEGGS

NANCY

CALVIN AND HOBBES

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

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

Yesterday’s solution

what’s brewing?Hyderabad Monday July 27 2020

s we face this globalpandemic, it isimportant that westay indoors. main-tain physical distanc-ing and focus on

building a strong immune sys-tem which is a crucial shieldagainst infections.

While we are confined to thehouse, it is important we main-tain a regular routine whichincludes daily exercise, eating abalanced diet, staying hydrated,maintaining good gut health,getting adequate sleep, andmanaging stress levels.

Our immune system worksas the frontline defence mecha-nism against disease-causingmicroorganisms and protectsus from all viruses andmicrobes that our body isexposed to. A healthylifestyle along with a well-balanced diet containingall the essential macroand micronutrients isvital for optimal func-tioning and mainte-nance of the immunesystem.

Protein is a versatilemacronutrient that sustains lifeand has a particularly impor-tant role to play in boostingimmune function. Though weall know about the importanceof protein, Indians are deficientin our protein intake. On anaverage an individual needs0.8-1.0g of protein per kg Idealbody weight.Recommendations may varydepending on several factorssuch as physical activity, age, comorbid conditions like kidneydisease etc. As per the GeneralConsumer Survey (PRODIGY)conducted in 2015, 73percent ofour

population is deficient in pro-tein intake with 93 percent ofour population being unawareabout their daily proteinrequirements.

It is important to consumegood quantity and quality ofprotein daily for the immunesystem to function at its best. Aquarter of our plate at everymeal must be protein.

A good quality first classprotein is one with highdigestibility and has all theessential amino acids requiredby the body. Sources: all animalproducts like eggs, meat, fish,poultry, milk, milk products

like curd, paneer, whey.Proteins that are

partially lackingin one or

more essential amino acids eg,cereals and pulses are calledincomplete protein.

Combinations of foods suchas cereal pulse combination likeidli, dosa, pongal, khichdi, dalrice etc. in 4:1 proportion helpsimprove the quality of proteinin a vegetarian meal if you areunable to meet your proteinrequirements through dietalone, protein powders contain-ing good quality protein can beincluded to bridge the gap. Youcan consult a qualified dieticianto plan a diet tailor made tomeet your protein and nutrientrequirements.

VITAMINS WHICH HELP

BOOST IMMUNITY

Vitamin A

Vitamin A is an anti-inflam-matory vitamin and plays a

critical role in enhancingimmunity. Beta-carotene is

a precursor of vitamin

A which when ingested is con-verted in the wall of the smallintestine to vitamin A.

Sources of beta carotene-car-rots, sweet potatoes, red andyellow peppers, tomatoes, darkgreen leafy veg, pumpkins,asparagus, mangoes, drumstickleaves.

Vitamin B6

Vit B6 plays an important rolein supporting biochemical reac-tions of the immune system.

Sources: fish, poultry, nuts,chickpeas, dark green leafy veg,bananas, papayas.

Vitamin B12

Vitamin B12 is a vital nutri-ent in the formation of healthyred blood cells and DNA syn-thesis. Vitamin B12 along withfolic acid plays a crucial role inmaintaining a healthy immune

system.

Sources: fish, meat, poultry,eggs, milk, and milk products.

Vitamin C

Vitamin C is the most pow-erful antioxidant known toboost immunity. It also helps inthe regeneration of Vitamin E.

Sources: Indian gooseberry(amla), guava, orange, sweetlime, lemon, bell peppers,berries, red amaranth leaves,cashew fruit, kiwi, strawberry,broccoli, etc.

Vitamin D

Vitamin D is essential toimmune function and helpsregulate the body's immuneresponse. You can get yourdose of Vit D by standing insunlight either on your terraceor balcony without sunscreenduring the day preferablybetween 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. Ifyour levels of Vit D are low,consult your physician whomay suggest a Vit D supple-ment.

Sources: Egg Yolk, cod liveroil, mushrooms, sardines, fatty

fish

Vitamin E

Vitamin E is a fat-soluble vit-amin that plays a key role inregulating and supportingimmune system function. Itprevents oxidation of BetaCarotene and Vit A in theintestine.

Sources: nuts such asalmonds, pistachios, seeds likesunflower seeds, flax seeds, gar-den cress seeds In addition toprotein and vitamins, certainminerals like zinc, magnesium,selenium along with omega 3fats play a key role in boostingimmunity.

We can also give ourimmune system a boost byadding anti-viral foods easilyavailable in our kitchen likegarlic, fennel, ginger, cloves,tulsi, turmeric and coconut oil.

Making simple tweaks toyour diet by including immuneboosting nutrients to help tofight infections. Lastly, do notforget to maintain hygiene bywashing hands regularly, wearmasks when out maintainphysical distancing.

(Sheryl Salis, RD, CDE, CPT,CISSN, ND, MDHA, is a

Registered Dietician, CertifiedDiabetes Educator and

Founder of Nurture HealthSolutions)

A

PUMP UP THE PROTEIN AND

VITAMINS IN YOUR DIET

popular name onthe Hindi TVarena — havingfeatured in serialslike Jersey No 10,Dosti… Yaari…

Manmarziyan, Krishnadasiamong others — Hyderabadlad Shravan Reddy is finallydebuting on the home turfwith producer-turned-direc-tor MS Raju’s romanticthriller Dirty Hari, the trailerof which garnered a goodreception when it droppedlast week. Born and bred inHyderabad, Shravan decidedto pursue a career in actingin Mumbai as soon as hecompleted his junior collegein Hyderabad. He tells usthat his decision was moreinstinctive. “After winningGrasim Mr Hyderabad in thesecond half of last decade, Ihad to travel to Mumbai torepresent Hyderabad nation-ally. After the event, I metsome people and my confi-dence to give acting career afillip in Mumbai got a shot inthe arm. I got work sixmonths later in the TVindustry, which I continuedfor two years. Subsequently, Ifelt the need to train myself alittle more, so I got into theFTII acting course for a year,”the actor, who has done hisdegree through correspon-dence, informs.

After training at FTII,Shravan decided to workbehind the camera, as a writerand an assistant on the sets. “Ibalanced work behind and infront of the camera for yearslater. I stopped doing TV fourand half years ago as digitalcontent picked up steam. I’veshot for the acclaimedThinkistan in 2018 and 2019as one of the leads,” he shares.

Impressed by his turn asan English copywriter Hemain Thinkistan — a show setin the backdrop of advertis-

ing world of the 90s, consid-ered to be a landmark decadeof Indian advertising — andthe fact that he is a Telugu,MS Raju approached Shravanto front Dirty Hari. “Growingup as a child in Hyderabad,Raju sir’s name was associat-ed with big blockbusters.When he reached out to mefor Dirty Hari, his nameimmediately rang a bell. Sircame to Mumbai later andgave me a detailed narrationfor over three hours. I likedthe script and what he want-ed to project through it. Ialso felt that sir was trying todo something out of hiscomfort zone for the firsttime and he was very clear inhis vision,” he notes.

Known for deliveringsuper hits as a producer andwriter in the early noughties,the Sumanth ArtsProductions chief switchedto direction for the first timewith Vaana (2008). The filmtanked, so was his othereffort Tuneega Tuneega.Didn’t Raju’s direction trackrecord bother him? Shravanmaintains, “I don’t know ifit’s the way I’ve developed myinstincts or I don’t knowwhat… As I fiddled a lotbehind the camera, I justwent with the script he nar-rated to me. I didn’t want tothink beyond that. Thenature of the industry is thatyou give flops but it doesn’tmean that you will deliver agood movie later.”

Giving a peek of hisunderstanding of the role, hesays that Hari represents theyouth of today — someonewho is full of ambition, love,lust and greed. “With allthese, there’s a whole lot ofan attitude as well.Comparatively, our moralsand ethics have changed. Theway today’s youth looks atlife is different to what my

father looks at. We don’t real-ly are bound by morals; wejust want to achieve what wewant. The film focuses onthe ambitious journey ofHari. In that urge to achieve,you commit mistakes and inthe process of covering it,you might harm somebody.If that somebody is okay withit, then life has a way of giv-ing it back to you. Life takesaway something importantfrom you that despite yourachievements, you are leftwith little satisfaction,” heexplains.

The promotional materialreleased so far of Dirty Hariis filled with steamy scenesbut Shravan clarifies there’smore to the film than whatmeets the eye. “I personallyfelt Raju sir wanted to show

love, lust, creed, competition,ambition as black and whiteas possible. Anything that issteamy or intimate catchesthe eyeballs but the film ismore than this stuff. There’sa proper motivation to havethose scenes in the firstplace. When I heard thestory, I felt such scenes aregoing to be important for thenarrative and they are goingto be in the front. At thesame time there are otherthings which are in the frontas well,” he concludes.

11

Hyderabad Monday July 27 2020tollywood

SHRAVAN'S ROAD TO TOLLYWOOD

Popular name on Hindi TVarena, Hyderabad lad Shravan

Reddy is finally debuting inTollywood. He speaks to

NAGARAJ GOUD about hisjourney to acting, returning to

Hyderabad and more....

A

Mega brothers

join the

Green

India

Challenge

s a part of planting

one lakh saplings over

a period of one month

in Jubilee Hills,

Hyderabad, megastar

Chiranjeevi and pow-

erstar Pawan Kalyan joined the

Green India Challenge initiative

and planted saplings in Jubilee

Hills on Sunday.

Lauding the efforts of MP

Santosh Kumar, who initiated

the Green India Challenge,

Chiranjeevi equated trees as

lungs to planet earth. “It is the

reason why it is important to

plant and protect saplings. This

is how you gift the next genera-

tion,” Chiru said and appealed to

Mega fans to take the initiative

forward.Pawan Kalyan said that in

South Africa grass plants too are

grown with utmost care. “I am a

nature lover and I believe in pro-

tecting the environment. I like

planting saplings and I thank

Narendranath Chowdary and

MP Santosh garu for giving me

an opportunity to plant saplings.

Everyone should take the

responsibility of planting a

sapling carefully and I appeal to

my fans to carry the initiative

forward,” the actor said.

Directors Boyapati Sreenu and

Anil Ravipudi too participated in

the initiative on Sunday.

We have to wait for

the vaccine: Pawan

If it wasn't for the lockdown, Pawan Kalyan's comeback

film, Vakeel Saab, would've had a theatrical roll out by

now. With the shoot put on pause mode since March due

to coronavirus-induced lockdown, the actor confined himself

to his house, farm house and taking up Chaturmasya vrata

deeksha. In a recent interview, he gave clarity on when he

will report back to sets. “Due to coronavirus, the shootings

have come to a halt. We got the consent of two Telugu

states to shoot but we are not in a position to shoot. We

have to haplessly wait until a vaccine hits the market and

boosts our confidence,” the actor noted. Pawan also has

Krish's untitled period drama with AM Ratnam. This film too

moved on to floors but it's in early stages of production.

A

outhern starSamantha Akkinenihas shared a note onthe importance ofgardening, sayingthat planting seed

can bring a change.Samantha took to Instagram

to share the note, while explain-ing how it can help all of us inthe future.

“Gardening is a game changer. Planting a seed can bringchange . “Eat Healthy” we hearthis far too many times ... but Iam telling you “Grow Healthy”is even more simpler,” shebegan.

The actress continued, “All ittakes is a little time and a littleeffort . And since 2020 stillneeds us to ‘Stay home and staysafe a I think we can manage .Change any unused space inyour home into an edible gar-den . Your terrace , balcony ,window sill etc... over the nextfew weeks let's grow together,share our experiences, learnfrom our mistakes and by theend of it be proud that we canfeed ourselves . And god forbidif there is ever another lock-down we will not be the onesrunning to the store panic buy-ing .. because in the words ofRon Finley we would be‘Gangsta Gardeners’ by then ...so who’s with me ...#GrowWithMe.”

At the moment,Samantha is usingher time by garden-ing and makinghealthy food.

Recently,Samantha doledout tips on self-care.

With a black-and-white picture ofherself she posted onInstagram, Samanthawrote: “We wake upearly. Meditate.Positive thoughts. Take that apple cidervinegar. Cleanse bothbody and mind. Pamper self with long skin care routine. Exercise.Hydrate. More positivethoughts and game face onyou.”

Samantha is known for herperformances in films suchas Ye Maaya Chesave,Neethaane EnPonvasantham, Eega, Mersaland Rangasthalam. Sheimpressed all with her role in Super Deluxe lastyear.

She will next be seen in KaathuvaakulaRendu Kaadhal, starringVijay Sethupathi. Thefilm also starsNayanthara. It is direct-ed by Vignesh Shivan.

SAMANTHAAKKINENI: Gardening is agame changer

n the distributionnetwork for thepast 30 years,Asian Cinemaschief NarayanadasNarang says that

the film industry is like amother to him. “I’ve distrib-uted 650 films until now.The industry has given mesome responsibilities to ful-fill and I will work to my

full capacity to dischargethose duties honestly. Thelove that I have for cinemamade me construct AMBCinemas along with MaheshBabu. We have recentlyentered into the productionside, as we are producingSekhar Kammula’s LoveStory along with AmigosCreations and P RammohanRao. The film is 15 days

away from a wrap-up andwe will resume shootingonce the corona crisis ends.We are extremely pleasedwith the work of Kammula,which is why we’ve decidedto work with him again forour next film. A big herowould headline it,”Narayanadas, who celebrates his birthdaytoday, points out.

S

Sekhar Kammula willdo one more film forus: Narayanadas

I

12HYDERABAD | MONDAY | JULY 27, 2020

BARCELONA: Barcelona presi-dent Josep Bartomeu repeatedon Sunday that he had “nodoubt” that Lionel Messi wouldsign a new contract adding thathe can only see Neymarreturning in a player exchange.

“Messi has said manytimes that he wants to retirehere and I have no doubt thathe will re-sign,” said Bartomeuin an interview published byMundo Deportivo.

Messi’s contract expires inJune of 2021 and local radiostation Cadena Ser reported atthe start of July that theArgentine had broken off talks

with the club.In discussing plans for

next season and financial con-straints on the club, Bartomeuaddressed another long-run-ning issue: the possibility thatNeymar would return fromParis Saint-Germain.

“Now we are making deci-sions and the players, if they donot come as part of a playerexchange players, it is very dif-ficult for them to come,”Bartomeu said.

Bartomeu said anotherpriority was persuadingGerman goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen, whose con-tract expires in 2022, to sign anew deal “not only for his qual-ity as a goalkeeper but for hispersonality”.

“He’s a pillar of the dress-ing room and of the future,”said Bartomeu. “At 28 he’s oneof the three best in the world.”

PALERMO: Second-rankedSimona Halep withdrew fromthe Palermo Ladies Open onSunday following a quarantineordinance issued by Italy’shealth ministry.

“Given the recent rise inCovid-19 cases in Romaniaand my anxieties around inter-national air travel at this time,I have made the tough decisionto withdraw from Palermo,”Halep tweeted.

“I want to thank the tour-nament director and the Italianministry of health for all effortson my behalf.”

The August 3-9 tourna-ment announced on Sunday

that the Romanian player’smanager, Virginia Ruzici, hadinformed Palermo officials ofthe decision.

The move comes afterItaly’s health minister on Fridaysigned an ordinance requiringall those who have in the last14 days stayed in Romania orBulgaria to quarantine.

STOSUR TTO SSKIP 22020SYDNEY: Former US Openchampion Samantha Stosurhas decided to sit out the restof 2020 amid the Covid-19pandemic after becoming amother last month but the 36-year-old Australian has vowed

to return to court next year.Stosur recently announced

this month that her partner LizAstling gave birth to daughterEvie in June.

“With the schedule com-ing up, with Covid, with quar-antine and with all the otherthings that you’re going tohave to deal with, I’ve decidedthat I’m going to take the restof the year off,” Stosur toldTennis Australia.

“I’m going to stay here,enjoy being with my family, gothrough all those little mile-stones that Evie is going to havein the next six months and justreally enjoy being home.” AP

PNS n NEW DELHI

World championship Goldmedallist PV Sindhu on

Sunday said initial failures atthe international stage weredisappointing but defeatingthe then reigning Olympicchampion Li Xuerui at theChina Open in 2012 strength-ened her resolve to succeed inthe senior circuit.

Sindhu had burst onto thescene when as a 16-year-oldshe had stunned LondonOlympics Gold medallist Li inthe quarterfinals of ChinaMasters. A year later, sheclaimed a maiden Bronzemedal at the prestigious WorldChampionships.

She eventually went on towin five medals in the presti-gious tournament — twoBronze, two Silver and a Gold,besides the Olympic Silvermedal four years ago in Rio deJaneiro.

“When I started playing Iwas doing well but internation-al standards are not the same.In the beginning, I kept losingin first rounds, qualifyingrounds. I realised I needed togo out harder, that is when I

kept working hard,” Sindhutold paddler Mudit Dani on hisshow In The Sportlight.

“I used to feel sad andthinking what mistake I’mmaking, I am also workinghard as others.

“I think that turning pointI would say I got in 2012where I beat Li Xuerui, she wascurrent Olympic champion atthat time. Since then I workedextra hard and I have beenimproving step by step, year byyear.”

PTI n NEW DELHI

Sri Lanka cricket legend KumarSangakkara has backed Sourav

Ganguly for the ICC chairman’spost, saying the BCCI president’s“astute cricket brain” and vastexperience as an administratormake him a “very suitable” candi-date for the role. Admitting that heis a big fan of Ganguly, Sangakkarasaid the former India captain hasan international mindset which isnecessary to remain unbiased in animportant position.

“I think Sourav definitely canmake that change. Quite a big fanof Dada not just because of hisstature as a cricketer but I think hehas a very astute cricket brain,”Sangakkara, who is currently theMarylebone Cricket Club (MCC)Chairman, told India Today.

“He has the best interests of thegame at heart and that should notchange just because you are theBCCI president or the ECB or SLCor any other cricket board whenyou are at the ICC. “Your mindsetshould be truly international andnot just constrained by partisanshipin terms of where I come from —am I Indian, Sri Lankan or Australiaor English but really understand‘yes I am a cricketer and what I amdoing is what is best for all crick-eting countries’.”

CHENNAI: Indian GrandmasterViswanathan Anand sufferedhis fifth straight defeat in the$150,000 Legends of Chessonline tourney, going down 2-3 to Peter Leko of Hungary.

The former world champi-on got off to a good start andwon the first game of the best-of-four contest. The next twogames were drawn before Lekolevelled by winning the fourth.

The Hungarian thenclaimed the Armageddon (a

tie-breaker) to ensure Anandremain winless and at the bot-tom of the points table.

Anand, who is making hismaiden appearance on theMagnus Carlsen Chess Tour,had earlier lost to Peter Svidler,Magnus Carlsen, VladimirKramnik and Anish Giri.

World No1 Carlsenbounced back strongly toavoid an upset, beating veter-an Vasyl Ivanchuk 3-2 to stayon top. PTI

BERLIN: Bayern Munich defend-er Niklas Suele has fully recov-ered from torn cruciate liga-ments as his team chase a trebleof titles, coach Hansi Flick saidon Sunday.

Germany internationalSuele suffered the injury inOctober and has not playedsince.

“I am very satisfied withhow he has been training andhis intensity level," Bayern coachHansi Flick told a news confer-ence.

“Even today in training innine against nine he did it real-ly well. I expect him to be at100%.” AP

Have no doubt that Messi will stay at Barca: Bartomeu Anand suffers fifthstraight defeat

Beating Oly champion LiXuerui was turning pointof my career: Sindhu

Bayern defenderSuele fit again Halep withdraws from Palermo Open

Sanga backsGanguly forICC top post

Astudent at Loughborough University has designed a "roboticguide dog" that will help support visually impaired people who

are unable to house a real animal. The product, designed byAnthony Camu, replicates the functions of a guide dog as well asprogramming quick and safe routes to destinations using real-time data. Camu, a final year Industrial Design and Technologystudent, was inspired by virtual reality gaming consoles andcreated the prototype - named "Theia" after the titan goddess ofsight. Theia is a portableand concealablehandheld device thatguides users throughoutdoor environmentsand large indoor spaceswith very little input.Using a special controlmoment gyroscope(CMG), Theia movesusers' hands andphysically "leads" them -much like holding the brace of a guide dog. The device isdesigned to process real-time online data, such as traffic density(pedestrians and cars) and weather, to guide users accuratelyand safely to their destinations. Camu says that Theia will also beable to help the visually impaired tackle specific interactions suchas elevators, stairs and shops. It will have a fail-safe procedurefor high-risk scenarios.

People come together tohelp Indore Egg seller

Scribe finds out she hascancer, thanks to her viewer P

ublic figures who are on the television or are social media starsare always in the public eye. It might not be a great thing but

sometimes it can save lives. No, we are not just saying this, itactually happened with a TV reporter in the USA. Victoria Price,who is a reporter, got an email from one of her followers, afterappearing on a broadcast. The viewer alerted Victoria about alump in her throat that she noticed and further said that sheshould get it checked. Theviewer had the same swellingand it turned out to be cancer.Finally, Victoria took to Twitterand announced that her lumpwas also cancer. She tweeted,"A bit of personal news toshare. Turns out, I have cancer.And I owe it to one of ourwonderful @WFLA viewers forbringing it to my attention. I'llbe off work for a bit aftertomorrow, but I'll see y'allsoon (sic)." The reportershared the details of the entireincident. Victoria also posted an image of the email that shereceived from the viewer. The email read, "Hi, just saw your newsreport. What concerned me is the lump on your neck. Please haveyour thyroid checked. Reminds me of my neck. Mine turned outto be cancer. Take care of yourself (sic)."

On July 23, the Indore civic body officials overturned the eggcart of a 14-year old boy after he allegedly refused to pay a

bribe of Rs. 100 to them. The teenager claimed that theofficials warned him to either remove his cart or give them themoney. According to a report, this comes in the wake ofMadhya Pradesh's 'left-right' rule for vendors and shopowners in which shops on the left side would be allowed toopen on one day, and shops on the right side the followingday. This wasreportedlydone to curbthe spread ofcoronavirusbut hasresulted in thepoorstruggling tomake their ends meet. In the video, the distraught boy dressedin white clothes is seen standing beside his destroyedpushcart, gesturing angrily at two men who might be theIndore civic body officials in question. The videos have causeda huge uproar on social media as it was particularlydisheartening to see the authority's lack of empathy andpatience towards the poor during these testing times.However, as the video is circulating online, many goodsamaritans offered to come forward to donate and help theboy.

13-year-old gives Rs 61kto repatriate 2 Indians

‘Robotic guide dog’ tohelp visually impaired

NEW

S

MostRead A

nanya Shrivastava, a UAE-based Indian student of Grade 8,contributed Rs 61,000 from her piggy bank savings to sponsor

flight tickets of two Indians. Donations made by a 13-year-oldstudent in Sharjah and a few other businessmen have helped 68stranded Indians return home amid the coronavirus crisis. AnanyaShrivastava, a UAE-based Indian student of Grade 8, contributedRs 61,000 from her piggy bank savings to sponsor flight tickets oftwo Indians. The two passengers were among the 171 Indianswho were repatriated on the second direct flight from Dubai toGuwahati on Tuesday, reported Gulf News. "I broke my piggy bankand collected my savings, around 3,000 dirhams, which will payfor two tickets," said the 13-year-old Indian national. "I wasinspired when I heard about the group of volunteers collectingfunds to send expats home who do not have the resources and themoney. I desperately wanted to contribute but with my own effortand not with my parents' money," she added.

PTI n NEW DELHI

Nobody in world cricket is even close toEngland all-rounder Ben Stokes, who

is “in his own league”, reckons former Indiaopener Gautam Gambhir.

England’s World Cup hero Stokes hasbeen in top form in the ongoing Test seriesagainst the West Indies. He scored a mag-nificent 176 to help England win the sec-ond Test.

He has a tally of 313 runs apart fromnine wickets in two Tests.

“You can’t compare anyone in India atthe moment with Ben Stokes. Absolutelynot, because Ben Stokes is in his ownleague,” Gambhir said.

“What he has done in Test cricket, inone-day cricket, in T20 cricket, I don’t thinkso there’s anyone, let alone in India, thereisn’t anyone who’s even close to him inworld cricket at the moment,” he was quot-ed as saying in Star Sports show CricketConnected.

The 38-year-old Gambhir said Stokesis a cricketer whom every captain wouldlike to have in his team.

“That is the kind of impact player youneed in every line-up. It would bea dream for every captain tohave someone like BenStokes — whether he’s bat-ting, whether he’s bowling,whether he’s fielding,” saidGambhir, who played58 Tests between 2004and 2016.

Stokes ledEngland in the firstTest against the WestIndies in the absenceof Joe Root, thoughthey lost the series-opener.

Talking aboutStokes’ leadershipqualities, Gambhirsaid, “He’s a leader inhis own capacity. Youdon’t need to be called acaptain to be a captain.You can be a leader byyour own performancesas well.

“So, I think there area lot of guys would beactually looking to be likeBen Stokes, but unfortu-nately, there’s no one at themoment in world cricket.”

AP n MANCHESTER

Rory Burns andDom Sibley weresharing an

unbeaten opening standof 86 as England builtup a 258-run lead overthe West Indies by teaon day three of thedeciding third Test atOld Trafford on Sunday.

By dismissing theWindies for 197 beforelunch thanks to fourwickets from StuartBroad, England took alead of 172 runs into thesecond innings and wason course to take a for-midable advantage intothe final two days inManchester.

Burns was on 38and Sibley was 40 not

out.Earlier, Broad fin-

ished with figures of 6-31 to move onto 497Test wickets and contin-ue his brilliant form inthis match, havingalready smashed agame-turning 45-ball62 at the end ofEngland’s first innings.

Resuming on 137-6,Jason Holder and ShaneDowrich reached theirfirst target — getting theWest Indies past thefollow-on mark — asEngland started Day 3with the same pacemenwho f inished onSaturday, Jofra Archerand Chris Woakes.

However, it a l lchanged when veteransBroad and James

Anderson came into theattack.

Off his third deliv-ery of the day, Broadtrapped Holder lbw for46, with a review back-ing up the on-field deci-sion. Then, off his thirdover, Broad removedRahkeem Cornwall (10)and Kemar Roach (0) inthe space of four balls.

Broad then took thesixth wicket whenDowrich (37) slashedat a short ball andWoakes snaffled thecatch after gett inground from mid-on.

Broad was droppedfor the first Test — wonby the West Indies inSouthampton — anddidn’t take it well ,expressing his disap-

pointment in a TVinterview during thematch.

Restored for thesecond Test inManchester, Broad tookthree wickets in eachinnings in a win forEngland.

In the third Test,he has made his bestscore with the bat since2013 and taken his 18thfive-wicket haul inTests.

The West Indieswere further hamperedwhen wicketkeeperDowrich had to leavethe field after taking abal l from ShannonGabriel in the mouth.Joshua da Silva came onas a replacement forDowrich.3

AFP n MANCHESTER

Kemar Roach set his sightson yet more success after

the fast bowler became just theninth West Indian — and firstsince 1994 — to take 200 Testwickets.

Barbados fast bowlerRoach reached the landmarkwhen he had England’s ChrisWoakes playing-on during thesecond day of the third Test onSaturday.

And the 32-year-oldRoach was understandablyproud of his achievement inbecoming the first West Indies

bowler since Curtly Ambrose26 years ago to take 200 Testwickets.

“I guess I had that land-mark on my mind a little bittoo much, I had a few restlessnights,” Roach, who amazing-ly went wicketless when theWest Indies beat England inthe opening match of thisseries, told the BBC.

“It’s good to get past thatbarrier now and see how manymore I can get. 300 would begreat. I’ll work hard to getthere and we’ll see how manyI can go past 300,” addedRoach, now in his 59th Testfollowing a debut in 2009.

Roach proud to join 200 club

PTI n MANCHESTER

Veteran pacers JamesAnderson and Stuart Broad

complement each other welland their performances overthe years have only proved thatage is just a number, feel formerEngland cricketers.

Both Anderson and Broadare in their mid-30s, but formerEngland captain Alec Stewartbelieves the duo should playtogether for England as long asit is possible.

“A lot has been said andwritten about whether Broadand Anderson are on their wayout and if they should playtogether,” Stewart, who hasscored 8463 runs in 133 Tests forEngland, was quoted as sayingon Sky Sports — Cricket Debate.

“Well, they have shown thatforget what their age is and whattheir birth certificates say — ifyou are good enough (age does-n’t matter). Pick on perfor-mance and what people can do.

“I appreciate having an eyeon the future but, here andnow, Broad and Anderson tak-

ing the new ball is as good asthere is and they showed alltheir qualities.”

While England dropped 34-year-old Broad for the first Testagainst the Windies which theylost in Southampton, Anderson,37, was rested for the secondgame.

But fielded together, both

the pacers are making an impactin the ongoing series decider.

Former England pacerDominic Cork agreed withStewart, saying Anderson andBroad’s different styles of bowl-ing augur well for the team.

“I understand these areback-to-back Test matches andEngland want to make surethey (Anderson and Broad) playthe majority of games,” said the48-year-old, who took 131 wick-ets in 37 Tests for England.

“But they are closing in on1,000 Test wickets between themand complement each otherreally well with their differentstyles of bowling. Jimmy under-stands the art of wobble seamand then when he swaps ends hetries to swing it, while Broadseems to be learning even more.

“While they are both fitand want to play, they playevery single Test match for me.Unless there are injury doubts,they are the first two on the list.”

Broad and Anderson haveplayed 117 Tests together, buthave fielded together only threetimes in the last 15 Tests.

Anderson, Broad complements each other

No cricketer iseven close toStokes: Gambhir WI NEED 399 TO WIN

Stuart Broad speaks to England teammateJames Anderson during the 2nd day AP

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