‘FILM WITH RAVI HILARIOUS · 2021. 2. 22. · ML MELLY MAITREYI nHYDERABAD The Telangana...
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HYDERABAD, TUESDAY FEBRUARY 23, 2021; PAGES 12 `3 www.dailypioneer.com RNI No. TELENG/2018/76469 Established 1864 Published From HYDERABAD DELHI LUCKNOW BHOPAL RAIPUR CHANDIGARH BHUBANESWAR RANCHI DEHRADUN VIJAYAWADA *LATE CITY VOL. 3 ISSUE 123 *Air Surcharge Extra if Applicable @TheDailyPioneer facebook.com/dailypioneer Follow us on: MONEY 8 GLOBAL SHARES MOSTLY LOWER AS INVESTORS WARY OVER STIMULUS ANALYSIS 7 TIME FOR GOVT TO MAKE A CLEAR-CUT CHOICE SPORTS 12 WTC WIN WILL BE SAME AS WORLD CUP: ISHANT } ‘FILM WITH RAVI GARU WILL BE A HILARIOUS ENTERTAINER’ Page 11 { HYDERABAD WEATHER Current Weather Conditions Updated february 22 , 2021 5:00 PM ALMANAC TODAY Month & Paksham: Magha & Shukla Paksha Panchangam Tithi : Ekadashi: 06:04 pm Nakshatram: Ardra: 12:31 pm Time to Avoid: (Bad time to start any important work) Rahukalam: 03:23 pm – 04:50 pm Yamagandam: 09:35 am – 11:02 am Varjyam: 12:54 am – 02:33 am Gulika: 12:29 pm - 01:56 pm Good Time: (to start any important work) Amritakalam: NIL Abhijit Muhurtham: 12:06 pm – 12:52 pm Forecast: Partly cloudy Temp: 32/17 Humidity: 38% Sunrise: 06:38 am Sunset: 06:20 pm 5 VSP privatisation decision is conscien- tious, beneficial 2 Sensex sinks 1,145 points; Nifty drops below 14,700 8 PM opens treasure chest for Assam ahead of polls ML MELLY MAITREYI n HYDERABAD The Telangana government's budget outlay for 2021-22 may touch Rs 2 lakh-crore mark, given the optimism of the rev- enue generating departments based on the clear revival in the State economy in the last two months and the government's intent to give equal priority to welfare and development pro- grammes. The revenue generating departments feel that the worst may be over with the State economy coming out of the shadow of pandemic and eco- nomic and trade activity pick- ing up every month. Till January-end, the State's own rev- enue was over Rs 54,000 crore and it is expected to garner another Rs 10,000 crore at least before end of March. In the last fiscal – 2019-20, the State's own tax revenue was about Rs 65,000 crore and the effort would be to reach that mark before the end of March this year. “This in itself is an achievement as the government is matching the revenue of last fiscal effectively in only 10 months this year, despite loss of economic activity for about two months due to lockdown induced by the pandemic," sources said. Sources point out that even in 2020-21, when the preceding year 2019-20 witnessed slow- down in national economy and the State's revenue growth reduced to 7 per cent making it eligible for GST compensation for the first time from the Centre, TRS government bucked the trend and present- ed the budget outlay of Rs 1.82 lakh-crore in 2020-21 with an increase of 28 per cent over that of revised budget estimates of 2019-20 when the budget out- lay was Rs 1.47 lakh-crore. However, soon after the bud- get presentation, the State gov- ernment had to contend with the unexpected setback in the form of Covid-19. The State's total revenue receipts including borrowings and Central allocations regis- tered a growth of 7.5 per cent till January -end over that of corre- sponding period last year. This year, the Cabinet Subcommittee on Resource Mobilisation, as part of pre-bud- getary exercise, proposed that about Rs 30,000 crore could be mobilised through monetisation of land bank given the revival of land transactions, one-time set- tlement of pending dues in Commercial Taxes and other departments, sale of idling assets of government like Rajiv Swagruha, disinvestment in some institutions, allotment of mining contracts through auc- tion by revising the rules and guidelines in Mines depart- ment. Telangana budget outlay may cross Rs 2 lakh-crore Till January-end, the State's own revenue was over Rs 54,000 crore and it is expected to garner another Rs 10,000 crore at least before end of March Telangana State's total revenue receipts including borrowings and Central alloc- ations registered a growth of 7.5 per cent till January-end over that of responding period last year. PNS n BENGALURU The NIA filed a supplementary chargesheet before a special court here on Monday against two terrorists of Pakistan-based terror group LeT for their alleged involvement in a con- spiracy to commit subversive activities and wage a war against India, besides killing key person- alities of the Hindu communi- ty in the country, an official said. The chargesheet was filed against Dr Sabeel Ahmed of Bengaluru and Asadulla Khan of Hyderabad under Sections of the IPC and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), a spokesperson of the country's premier investigation agency said. The case, initially registered in August 2012 in Bengaluru, pertains to a conspiracy hatched by members of pro- scribed terror organisations Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) and Harkat-ul-Jihad-e-Islami (HuJI) to commit subversive activities and wage a war against the government of India, the NIA official said. As per the chargesheet, the duo had procured illegal arms and ammunition for targeted killings of important person- alities of the Hindu communi- ty in Karnataka's Bengaluru and Hubli, Maharashtra's Nanded and Telangana's Hyderabad to disturb commu- nal harmony and strike terror in the society, the official said. NIA chargesheet says terrorists planned hit on Hyd, Bengaluru ‘Seasoned’ candidates in MLC polls up the stakes ML MELLY MAITREYI n HYDERABAD It is normally political parties that steal the limelight in an election but this time, an array of seasoned political leaders and individuals with proven track record may also end up influencing the outcome in polls to the two Legislative Council seats under the Graduate constituency. It is the profile of candi- dates, carefully chosen by the ruling TRS and opposition BJP and Congress parties that has changed the complexion of the normally low profile MLC election into a keenly contested electoral battle on the lines of general Assembly election. The socially aware graduate voters may well weigh the profile of candidates, their contribution and performance before casting their vote, cut- ting above the party lines, on March 14. The voting pattern may not be entirely on the basis of political party, say some observers keenly watching the developments and campaign by rival parties. Former Minister and AICC general secretary G. Chinna Reddy from the Congress, N. Ramachandra Rao, advocate and outgoing MLC from BJP, Surabhi Vani Devi, educa- tionist, social worker and daughter of late Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao and former MLC Prof K Nageswara Rao, Independent candidate known for his inci- sive analysis socio political and economic issues, are promi- nent among those in the field for MLC seat from Hyderabad, Ranga Reddy and Mahbubnagr Graduate con- stituency. The selection of Ms.Vani Devi as TRS candidate is seen as a deft move by TRS supre- mo to leverage the goodwill of people for late PV Narasimha Rao and 'son of the soil of Telangana'. Hyd image as ‘vaccine capital of world’ further bolstered: KTR PNS n HYDERABAD Minister K T Rama Rao on Monday said Hyderabad's posi- tion as the 'vaccine capital of the world' was further bolstered fol- lowing the COVID-19 pan- demic. He said it is a matter of pride that the world is looking towards the country and Hyderabad. The visit of foreign envoys from different countries and that of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to 'Genome Valley' in the city is testimony to the cluster's significance in the global con- text, he said. Genome Valley is an organ- ised cluster for life-sciences R&D with a number of compa- nies located there. "Our dream and vision of growing the life-sciences indus- try in Telangana to over USD 100 billion looks plausible and we remain committed to it," he said while speaking at the inau- guration of BioAsia, an annual biotechnology and life- sci- ences forum, organised by the government of Telangana. KTR upbeat over response to TRS membership drive PNS n HYDERABAD An upbeat TRS working pres- ident and Municipal Administration Minister KT Rama Rao on Monday said that the TRS membership drive has met unexpected success ‘above and beyond’ the target set by the party. Reminding that member- ship drive is currently under- way across the state, KTR directed the party workers to try and wrap up the member- ship drive by the month- end. Participating in a telecon- ference with in-charges of the membership drive on Monday, KTR advised them to work simultaneously on the membership drive as well as digitalisation of the mem- berships. He sought details of district-wise membership drive. In response, the in-charges informed KTR that the response from the people was good. They said that the membership drive is contin- uing in several constituencies even though the target set by the party has been surpassed. KTR expressed pleasure at this and thanked them. Benami deals in Amaravati: Transcript of conversation is not enough, says SC PNS n NEW DELHI The Supreme Court Monday said it cannot hold an inquiry as to what was there in the phone conversation between former Andhra Pradesh high court judge Justice V Eswaraiah and a suspended trial court magistrate with regard to various issues includ- ing alleged 'Benami' transac- tions related to the Amaravati land scam case. A bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan and R S Reddy also reserved its order on the plea of Justice Eswaraiah seeking a stay on the Andhra Pradesh high court order directing a probe into his conversation with suspended District Munsif Magistrate. The high court had said that their phone conversation had allegedly disclosed a seri- ous conspiracy against the judiciary. This court cannot hold an inquiry as to what is there in the transcript of the conversa- tion and what is missed out. Let the HC take a call, the bench said in the proceedings held through video conferencing. Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing or former HC judge, said that the high court order needed to be stayed as allega- tions have been made without hearing the former judge. Varavara gets bail on medical grounds PNS n MUMBAI The Bombay High Court on Monday granted interim bail for six months on medical grounds to ailing poet and activist Varavara Rao, an accused in the Elgar Parishad- Maoist links case. The court said it could not be a "mute spectator" and permit 82-year-old Rao's health condi- tion to deteriorate in custody. A bench of Justices SS Shinde and Manish Pitale said there existed no doubt that given his current medical con- dition, Rao would face "accel- eration and intensification of ailments" if he continued to remain in custody. It noted that medical facili- ties at the Taloja prison's hos- pital in neighbouring Navi Mumbai were inadequate. Rao is currently admitted in Nanavati Hospital, a private medical facility in Mumbai. No plan to impose curfew in State: Eatala K VENKATESHWARLU n HYDERABAD Telangana State Medical and Health Minister Eatala Rajender stated that the state government, unlike the neighbouring states, had no plans of imposing curfew as of now in view of increasing corona cases. He said that the corona cases were increasing in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Chandigarh. However, the government had alerted the officials concerned to concentrate on the borders of Maharashtra, he said. At present, there was no record of a huge increase in corona cases in Telangana, he said and informed that the state government had taken all possible measures in Gandhi, TIMS and NIMS hospitals to face any situation. He said that they would con- duct more tests to control the corona in the state. Congress expels Palvai Harish, woos Harsha Vardhan PNS n HYDERABAD TPCC Disciplinary Action Committee chairman M Kodanda Reddy on Monday expelled Dr Palvai Harish of Sirpur Kagaznagar con- stituency from the party for alleged ‘anti-party activities’, following complaints from leaders of the constituency. Reacting to the expul- sion, Telangana Congress Affairs in-charge Manickam Tagore tweeted saying “Gandhiji party cannot keep those persons who want to have relationship with Godse’s party. Good step by the Telangana Congress Disciplinary Committee towards a better and loyal Congress team”. Sharpest spike in active Covid cases PNS n NEW DELHI Active Coronavirus cases in India shot up by 4,421 in 24 hours - a spike of 3 percent - to go back over the 1.5 lakh mark for the first time in 17 days and register the steepest increase since end- November. On November 27, the active caseload was 4,55,555 - an increase of 3.85 percent from the 4,38,667 recorded on November 24. Monday was the fifth consecutive day in which active cases have increased; 13,506 new cases have been added in this period. T he under construction airport in Ayodhya will be named Maryada Purushottam Sriram Airport, Ayodhya after Lord Ram and a provision of Rs 101 crore has been made for it in the budget presented in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly on Monday. Besides the provision for the Ayodhya airport which will subsequently be made an international airport, the budget also provides for Rs 2,000 crore for increasing the number of airstrips at Jewar Airport from 2 to 6. Cities like Aligarh, Moradabad, Meerut will also be linked through air service soon, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath told reporters after the presentation of the budget by Finance Minister Suresh Khanna. TOP DOCTOR BODY CRITICISES HEALTH MINISTER PRESENCE AT CORONIL LAUNCH Y oga teacher Ramdev's claims on Patanjali's Coronil as the "first evidence-based medicine for COVID-19", made in the presence of Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, has drawn blistering criticism from the IMA. The medical body has questioned how the Health Minister could promote a "falsely fabricated, unscientific product" before the country. On Friday, Ramdev launched the Patanjali product in the presence of Harsh Vardhan and Nitin Gadkari. On a poster behind the trio were claims that the "medicine" was CoPP and WHO GMP certified - meaning it holds a certificate of pharmaceutical product. DADRA AND NAGAR HAVELI MP MOHAN DELKAR FOUND DEAD IN MUMBAI HOTEL M ohan Delkar, seven-term Lok Sabha member from Dadra and Nagar Haveli, was found dead in a Mumbai hotel on Monday, police said. The body of Delkar (58), Independent MP from Dadra andNagar Haveli Union Territory, was found at the sea-facing hotel in south Mumbai's Marine Drive area, a police official said. The official said a suicide note in Gujarati was also found along with the body. The cause of death will be known after autopsy, he added. An accidental death report was registered, the official said. Delkar was in May 2019 elected to the 17th Lok Sabha,his seventh term in the House. RS 450 CR IN UNDISCLOSED INCOME FOUND IN RAID ON CONG MLA'S FIRM O ver `450 crore in undisclosed income has been recovered from raids on business premises owned by the family of Madhya Pradesh Congress MLA Nilay Daga, the Income Tax Department said Monday evening. The raids had been carried out since February 18 across 22 locations in the state's Betul and Satna districts, as well as Mumbai and Kolkata. The raids uncovered unaccounted cash stores of `8 crore, unexplained foreign currency amounting to `44 lakh and information about nine bank lockers. AYODHYA AIRPORT TO BE NAMED AFTER LORD RAM 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 G. Chinna Reddy N. Ramachandra Rao Surabhi Vani Devi
Transcript of ‘FILM WITH RAVI HILARIOUS · 2021. 2. 22. · ML MELLY MAITREYI nHYDERABAD The Telangana...
HYDERABAD, TUESDAY FEBRUARY 23, 2021; PAGES 12 `3
www.dailypioneer.com
RNI No. TELENG/2018/76469
Established 1864Published From
HYDERABAD DELHI LUCKNOWBHOPAL RAIPUR CHANDIGARH
BHUBANESWAR RANCHIDEHRADUN VIJAYAWADA
*LATE CITY VOL. 3 ISSUE 123*Air Surcharge Extra if Applicable
@TheDailyPioneer facebook.com/dailypioneerFollow us on:
MONEY 8GLOBAL SHARES MOSTLY LOWER ASINVESTORS WARY OVER STIMULUS
ANALYSIS 7TIME FOR GOVT TO MAKE
A CLEAR-CUT CHOICE
SPORTS 12WTC WIN WILL BE SAME AS
WORLD CUP: ISHANT
}‘FILM WITH RAVIGARU WILL BE A
HILARIOUSENTERTAINER’
Page 11{
HYDERABADWEATHER
Current Weather ConditionsUpdated february 22 , 2021 5:00 PM
ALMANAC
TODAY
Month & Paksham:
Magha & Shukla Paksha
Panchangam
Tithi : Ekadashi: 06:04 pm
Nakshatram: Ardra: 12:31 pm
Time to Avoid: (Bad time to start
any important work)
Rahukalam: 03:23 pm – 04:50 pm
Yamagandam: 09:35 am – 11:02 am
Varjyam: 12:54 am – 02:33 am
Gulika: 12:29 pm - 01:56 pm
Good Time: (to start any important work)
Amritakalam: NIL
Abhijit Muhurtham: 12:06 pm – 12:52 pm
FFoorreeccaasstt:: Partly cloudyTemp: 32/17Humidity: 38%Sunrise: 06:38 amSunset: 06:20 pm
5
VSP privatisationdecision is conscien-
tious, beneficial
2
Sensex sinks 1,145points; Nifty drops
below 14,700
8
PM opens treasure
chest for Assam
ahead of polls
ML MELLY MAITREYI n HYDERABAD
The Telangana government'sbudget outlay for 2021-22 maytouch Rs 2 lakh-crore mark,given the optimism of the rev-enue generating departmentsbased on the clear revival in theState economy in the last twomonths and the government'sintent to give equal priority towelfare and development pro-grammes.
The revenue generatingdepartments feel that the worstmay be over with the Stateeconomy coming out of theshadow of pandemic and eco-nomic and trade activity pick-ing up every month. TillJanuary-end, the State's own rev-enue was over Rs 54,000 croreand it is expected to garneranother Rs 10,000 crore at leastbefore end of March.
In the last fiscal – 2019-20, theState's own tax revenue wasabout Rs 65,000 crore and theeffort would be to reach thatmark before the end of Marchthis year. “This in itself is anachievement as the government
is matching the revenue of lastfiscal effectively in only 10months this year, despite loss ofeconomic activity for about twomonths due to lockdowninduced by the pandemic,"sources said.
Sources point out that even in2020-21, when the precedingyear 2019-20 witnessed slow-
down in national economy andthe State's revenue growthreduced to 7 per cent making iteligible for GST compensationfor the first time from theCentre, TRS governmentbucked the trend and present-ed the budget outlay of Rs 1.82lakh-crore in 2020-21 with anincrease of 28 per cent over that
of revised budget estimates of2019-20 when the budget out-lay was Rs 1.47 lakh-crore.
However, soon after the bud-get presentation, the State gov-ernment had to contend withthe unexpected setback in theform of Covid-19.
The State's total revenuereceipts including borrowingsand Central allocations regis-tered a growth of 7.5 per cent tillJanuary -end over that of corre-sponding period last year.
This year, the CabinetSubcommittee on ResourceMobilisation, as part of pre-bud-getary exercise, proposed thatabout Rs 30,000 crore could bemobilised through monetisationof land bank given the revival ofland transactions, one-time set-tlement of pending dues inCommercial Taxes and otherdepartments, sale of idling assetsof government like RajivSwagruha, disinvestment insome institutions, allotment ofmining contracts through auc-tion by revising the rules andguidelines in Mines depart-ment.
Telangana budget outlaymay cross Rs 2 lakh-crore
Till January-end, the State's ownrevenue was over Rs 54,000 croreand it is expected to garneranother Rs 10,000 crore at leastbefore end of March
TelanganaState's totalrevenuereceiptsincludingborrowings andCentral alloc-ationsregistered agrowth of 7.5per cent tillJanuary-endover that ofrespondingperiod lastyear.
PNS n BENGALURU
The NIA filed a supplementarychargesheet before a specialcourt here on Monday againsttwo terrorists of Pakistan-basedterror group LeT for theiralleged involvement in a con-spiracy to commit subversiveactivities and wage a war againstIndia, besides killing key person-alities of the Hindu communi-ty in the country, an official said.
The chargesheet was filedagainst Dr Sabeel Ahmed ofBengaluru and Asadulla Khanof Hyderabad under Sectionsof the IPC and the UnlawfulActivities (Prevention) Act(UAPA), a spokesperson of thecountry's premier investigationagency said.
The case, initially registeredin August 2012 in Bengaluru,pertains to a conspiracyhatched by members of pro-
scribed terror organisationsLashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) andHarkat-ul-Jihad-e-Islami(HuJI) to commit subversiveactivities and wage a waragainst the government ofIndia, the NIA official said.
As per the chargesheet, theduo had procured illegal armsand ammunition for targeted
killings of important person-alities of the Hindu communi-ty in Karnataka's Bengaluruand Hubli, Maharashtra'sNanded and Telangana'sHyderabad to disturb commu-nal harmony and strike terrorin the society, the official said.
NIA chargesheet says terroristsplanned hit on Hyd, Bengaluru
‘Seasoned’ candidates in MLC polls up the stakesML MELLY MAITREYI n HYDERABAD
It is normally political partiesthat steal the limelight in anelection but this time, an arrayof seasoned political leadersand individuals with proventrack record may also end upinfluencing the outcome inpolls to the two LegislativeCouncil seats under theGraduate constituency.
It is the profile of candi-dates, carefully chosen by theruling TRS and oppositionBJP and Congress parties thathas changed the complexion
of the normally low profileMLC election into a keenlycontested electoral battle onthe lines of general Assemblyelection.
The socially aware graduatevoters may well weigh theprofile of candidates, theircontribution and performancebefore casting their vote, cut-
ting above the party lines, onMarch 14.
The voting pattern may notbe entirely on the basis ofpolitical party, say someobservers keenly watching thedevelopments and campaignby rival parties.
Former Minister and AICCgeneral secretary G. ChinnaReddy from the Congress, N.Ramachandra Rao, advocateand outgoing MLC from BJP,Surabhi Vani Devi, educa-tionist, social worker anddaughter of late PrimeMinister PV Narasimha Raoand former MLC Prof K
Nageswara Rao, Independentcandidate known for his inci-sive analysis socio political andeconomic issues, are promi-nent among those in the fieldfor MLC seat from Hyderabad,Ranga Reddy andMahbubnagr Graduate con-stituency.
The selection of Ms.VaniDevi as TRS candidate is seenas a deft move by TRS supre-mo to leverage the goodwill ofpeople for late PV NarasimhaRao and 'son of the soil ofTelangana'.
Hyd image as ‘vaccine capital ofworld’ further bolstered: KTRPNS n HYDERABAD
Minister K T Rama Rao onMonday said Hyderabad's posi-tion as the 'vaccine capital of theworld' was further bolstered fol-lowing the COVID-19 pan-demic. He said it is a matter ofpride that the world is lookingtowards the country andHyderabad.
The visit of foreign envoysfrom different countries andthat of Prime Minister NarendraModi to 'Genome Valley' in thecity is testimony to the cluster'ssignificance in the global con-
text, he said.Genome Valley is an organ-
ised cluster for life-sciencesR&D with a number of compa-nies located there.
"Our dream and vision ofgrowing the life-sciences indus-try in Telangana to over USD100 billion looks plausible andwe remain committed to it," hesaid while speaking at the inau-guration of BioAsia, an annualbiotechnology and life- sci-ences forum, organised by thegovernment of Telangana.
KTR upbeat overresponse to TRSmembership drivePNS n HYDERABAD
An upbeat TRS working pres-ident and MunicipalAdministration Minister KTRama Rao on Monday saidthat the TRS membershipdrive has met unexpectedsuccess ‘above and beyond’the target set by the party.
Reminding that member-ship drive is currently under-way across the state, KTRdirected the party workers totry and wrap up the member-ship drive by the month-end.
Participating in a telecon-ference with in-charges of themembership drive onMonday, KTR advised themto work simultaneously onthe membership drive as wellas digitalisation of the mem-berships. He sought details ofdistrict-wise membershipdrive.
In response, the in-chargesinformed KTR that theresponse from the peoplewas good. They said that themembership drive is contin-uing in several constituencieseven though the target set bythe party has been surpassed.
KTR expressed pleasureat this and thanked them.
Benami deals inAmaravati: Transcriptof conversation is notenough, says SCPNS n NEW DELHI
The Supreme Court Mondaysaid it cannot hold an inquiryas to what was there in thephone conversation betweenformer Andhra Pradesh highcourt judge Justice VEswaraiah and a suspendedtrial court magistrate withregard to various issues includ-ing alleged 'Benami' transac-tions related to the Amaravatiland scam case.
A bench of Justices AshokBhushan and R S Reddy alsoreserved its order on the pleaof Justice Eswaraiah seeking astay on the Andhra Pradeshhigh court order directing aprobe into his conversationwith suspended DistrictMunsif Magistrate.
The high court had saidthat their phone conversationhad allegedly disclosed a seri-ous conspiracy against thejudiciary.
This court cannot hold an
inquiry as to what is there inthe transcript of the conversa-tion and what is missed out. Letthe HC take a call, the benchsaid in the proceedings heldthrough video conferencing.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan,appearing or former HC judge,said that the high court orderneeded to be stayed as allega-tions have been made withouthearing the former judge.
Varavara gets bail on medical groundsPNS n MUMBAI
The Bombay High Court onMonday granted interim bailfor six months on medicalgrounds to ailing poet andactivist Varavara Rao, anaccused in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case.
The court said it could not bea "mute spectator" and permit82-year-old Rao's health condi-tion to deteriorate in custody.
A bench of Justices SSShinde and Manish Pitale said
there existed no doubt thatgiven his current medical con-dition, Rao would face "accel-eration and intensification ofailments" if he continued toremain in custody.
It noted that medical facili-ties at the Taloja prison's hos-pital in neighbouring NaviMumbai were inadequate. Raois currently admitted inNanavati Hospital, a privatemedical facility in Mumbai.
No plan to imposecurfew in State: EatalaK VENKATESHWARLUn HYDERABAD
Telangana State Medical andHealth Minister EatalaRajender stated that the stategovernment, unlike theneighbouring states, had noplans of imposing curfew asof now in view of increasingcorona cases. He said that thecorona cases were increasingin Maharashtra, Karnatakaand Chandigarh. However,the government had alertedthe officials concerned toconcentrate on the borders of
Maharashtra, he said.At present, there was no
record of a huge increase incorona cases in Telangana, hesaid and informed that thestate government had takenall possible measures inGandhi, TIMS and NIMShospitals to face any situation.He said that they would con-duct more tests to control thecorona in the state.
Congressexpels PalvaiHarish, woosHarsha VardhanPNS n HYDERABAD
TPCC Disciplinary ActionCommittee chairman MKodanda Reddy on Mondayexpelled Dr Palvai Harish ofSirpur Kagaznagar con-stituency from the party foralleged ‘anti-party activities’,following complaints fromleaders of the constituency.
Reacting to the expul-sion, Telangana CongressAffairs in-charge ManickamTagore tweeted saying“Gandhiji party cannot keepthose persons who want tohave relationship withGodse’s party.
Good step by theTelangana CongressDisciplinary Committeetowards a better and loyalCongress team”.
Sharpestspike in activeCovid cases PNS n NEW DELHI
Active Coronavirus cases inIndia shot up by 4,421 in 24hours - a spike of 3 percent- to go back over the 1.5lakh mark for the first timein 17 days and register thesteepest increase since end-November.
On November 27, theactive caseload was 4,55,555- an increase of 3.85 percentfrom the 4,38,667 recordedon November 24.
Monday was the fifthconsecutive day in whichactive cases have increased;13,506 new cases have beenadded in this period.
The under construction airport in Ayodhya willbe named Maryada Purushottam SriramAirport, Ayodhya after Lord Ram and a
provision of Rs 101 crore has been made for it inthe budget presented in the Uttar PradeshAssembly on Monday. Besides the provision for theAyodhya airport which will subsequently be madean international airport, the budget also provides forRs 2,000 crore for increasing the number ofairstrips at Jewar Airport from 2 to 6. Cities likeAligarh, Moradabad, Meerut will also be linkedthrough air service soon, Chief Minister YogiAdityanath told reporters after the presentation ofthe budget by Finance Minister Suresh Khanna.
TOP DOCTOR BODY CRITICISES HEALTHMINISTER PRESENCE AT CORONIL LAUNCH
Yoga teacher Ramdev's claims on Patanjali'sCoronil as the "first evidence-basedmedicine for COVID-19", made in the
presence of Union Health Minister HarshVardhan, has drawn blistering criticism from theIMA. The medical body has questioned how theHealth Minister could promote a "falselyfabricated, unscientific product" before thecountry. On Friday, Ramdev launched thePatanjali product in the presence of HarshVardhan and Nitin Gadkari. On a poster behindthe trio were claims that the "medicine" wasCoPP and WHO GMP certified - meaning itholds a certificate of pharmaceutical product.
DADRA AND NAGAR HAVELI MP MOHANDELKAR FOUND DEAD IN MUMBAI HOTEL
Mohan Delkar, seven-term Lok Sabhamember from Dadra and Nagar Haveli,was found dead in a Mumbai hotel on
Monday, police said. The body of Delkar (58),Independent MP from Dadra andNagar HaveliUnion Territory, was found at the sea-facinghotel in south Mumbai's Marine Drive area, apolice official said. The official said a suicidenote in Gujarati was also found along with thebody. The cause of death will be known afterautopsy, he added. An accidental death reportwas registered, the official said. Delkar was inMay 2019 elected to the 17th Lok Sabha,hisseventh term in the House.
RS 450 CR IN UNDISCLOSED INCOMEFOUND IN RAID ON CONG MLA'S FIRM
Over `450 crore in undisclosedincome has been recovered fromraids on business premises owned
by the family of Madhya PradeshCongress MLA Nilay Daga, the IncomeTax Department said Monday evening.The raids had been carried out sinceFebruary 18 across 22 locations in thestate's Betul and Satna districts, as wellas Mumbai and Kolkata. The raidsuncovered unaccounted cash stores of `8 crore, unexplained foreign currencyamounting to `44 lakh and informationabout nine bank lockers.
AYODHYA AIRPORT TO BE NAMEDAFTER LORD RAM
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G. Chinna Reddy N. Ramachandra Rao Surabhi Vani Devi
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hyderabad 02HYDERABAD | TUESDAY | FEBRUARY 23, 2021
EGG
RATES
` 47, 190 (10 gm)
` 10
GOLD
` 74, 400 (1kg)
` 600
HYDERABAD 397
VIJAYAWADA 506
VISAKHAPATNAM 480
RREETTAAIILL PPRRIICCEE `̀33..9977
SILVER
HYDERABAD
BULLION RATES
`̀//110000
CHICKEN
RATES
Dressed/With Skin `148
Without Skin `168
Broiler at Farm `102
`̀//KKGG
(IN HYDERABAD)
PNS n MULUGU
Panic gripped the villagesaround Kongala waterfall, assome villagers noticed theleopard perched atop a leaf-less tree.
Villagers of Kongala villagein Wazeed mandal of Mulugudistrict spotted a leopardrelaxing on a treetop about 2km from the village close tothe Kongala waterfalls in theforest area on Monday.
As the photos of the leop-ard on tree went viral, panicspread among people.
The forest officials imme-diately visited the spot but theleopard had left by then.They installed trap camerasin the surrounding area tocapture its presence.
Confirming the presence ofthe leopard near Kongala vil-lage, district forest officerPradeep Kumar Setty said theleopard is not a new spottingand it has been on record asa resident of the forest area for
two or three years. Pradeep Kumar Shetty
appealed to people not toharm the animal. Officialsbelieve that the leopard hadretreated deep into the forestand that it might not pose anythreat. However, people
should exercise caution whilemoving into the forest.
"It is good that we got vis-ibility today. We are creatingawareness among the vil-lagers regarding the move-ment of the leopard. The for-est officials concerned were
directed to remain availablein case of any need. We willalso take the assistance oflocal police and revenue offi-cials if needed. Most impor-tantly, we will take all therequired steps to see thatthere no man and animalconflict. Currently, the leop-ard has moved into the forestand there is no indication ofmovement near the village,"the District forest officer said.
The Forest department offi-cials made a fervent plea tovillagers in Venkatapur man-dal not to harm a leopard.
Meanwhile, the villagerswere terrified as the word ofthe leopard being spottedspread and are choosing toremain indoors until theyfeel safe.
Just in last October, vil-lagers spotted a tiger in theadjacent forest areas ofKannai Gudem mandal underEturnagaram wildlife sanctu-ary, which is on the other sideof River Godavari.
Continued from Page 1
The NIA re-registered thecase in November 2012 andhas filed chargesheets against17 accused.
LeT members Ahmed andKhan were involved in a crim-inal conspiracy, along withother accused, in supportingand furthering the cause of theterror outfit in Saudi Arabia'sDammam and Riyadh, theNIA spokesperson said.
They actively participated inmeetings, where terroristactivities like targeted killingsof important personalities ofthe Hindu community in
Bengaluru, Hubli and Nandedwere planned, the officialadded.
The special NIA court inBengaluru convicted 13accused in the case inSeptember 2016 and sen-tenced them to five years ofimprisonment for theirinvolvement in offences underthe UAPA, IPC, Arms Act andOfficial Secrets Act.
A trial is continuing againstthree accused who werenamed in an earlierchargesheet, the NIA officialsaid, adding that further inves-tigation against six abscondingaccused is underway.
NIA chargesheetsays terroristsplanned hit on Hyd...
Continued from Page 1
The TRS leaders oftenlamented that late PV was notgiven his due by the Congresshigh command for hisimmense contribution to thenational economy.
For Warangal, Nalgondaand Khammam Graduateconstituency, it’s former MLCRamulu Naik (Congress)Premender Reddy (BJP), PallaRajeswahar Reddy, outgoingMLC and chairman of FarmerCoordination Committee,and Prof Kodandaram presi-dent, Telangana Jana Samitiwho are sweating it out andinfluential among their con-stituents at grass root level.
In the changed politicalscenario, the three politicalparties are leaving no stoneunturned with their top lead-ers canvassing for theirrespective party candidatesand candidates themselvesactively meeting people andexplaining their party agenda.
Whatever may be the out-come, this time, the House ofElders will get two more can-didates who can contribute tomeaningful deliberations.
Chief Ministers in undivid-ed AP and Telangana ChiefMinister were on recordacknowledging the contribu-tion of Legislative Councilmembers for informed debates.
‘Seasoned’candidates inMLC polls up the...
Continued from Page 1
Justice Eswaraiah had movedthe Supreme Court against aHigh Court order directing aprobe into the phone conver-sation between him and asuspended trial court magis-trate on the ground that itallegedly disclosed a seriousconspiracy against the judicia-ry.
In an affidavit filed in thetop court, Justice (retd)Eswaraiah said he had soughtinformation from a suspend-ed judicial officer regardingthe benami transactions in aphone conversation, whichpurportedly pertained to cor-ruption allegations related toland deals in the state's newcapital region.
The affidavit was filed inpursuance to the apex court'sJanuary 11 direction askingJustice (retd) Eswaraiah toclarify his stand with regard tohis conversation with the sus-pended district munsif.
The special leave petitionhas been filed against theAugust 13 order of the AndhraPradesh High Court orderingan investigation into a privatephone conversation betweenthe petitioner and a suspend-ed District Munsif Magistrateof Andhra Pradesh, byterming the contents of theconversation to disclose a'serious conspiracy' againstthe Chief Justice of the AndhraPradesh, a senior sitting judgeof the Supreme Court andthereby to destabilize the judi-ciary, said the appeal filedthrough lawyer PrashantBhushan.
The former judge said thehigh court's order was madeon the basis of an applicationfor reopening and interventionfiled by the suspended DistrictMunsif Magistrate (SRamakrishna) in an unrelatedPIL pending there for seekingimplementation of the COVIDguidelines in the court build-ing and premises.
Continued from Page 1
He has been in custody sinceAugust 28, 2018, awaiting trialin the case, which is beingprobed by the NationalInvestigation Agency (NIA).
The bench granted bail toRao for six months, whiledirecting him to stay within thejurisdiction of the NIA court inthe city during this period.
Rao will be discharged fromthe hospital depending on hishealth condition and thenreleased on bail, as per the HC.
While granting Rao bail onmedical grounds, the HC dis-missed NIA's argument that hewas not entitled to relief onhumanitarian grounds.
However, the court imposeda host of stringent conditions onhis bail, including prohibitinghim from establishing contactwith his co-accused in the case.It also dismissed theMaharashtra government's sub-
mission that after dischargefrom the Nanavati Hospital,Rao would be shifted to theprison ward of the state-run JJHospital in Mumbai.
"We are of the opinion thatthis court, as a constitutionalcourt, cannot be a mute specta-tor to the undertrial (Rao)being sent to prison and then togovernment hospitals wherehis health deteriorates further.To be ultimately shifted to pri-vate super-speciality hospitals,upon intervention of courts...,"the HC said in its 92-pagejudgement.
The bench said given thematerial on record, it had con-cluded that sending Rao back tothe Taloja central prison wherehe was lodged as an undertrial,before he was shifted to theNanavati Hospital, would "cer-tainly endanger his life" andbreach his fundamental right tohealth and life.
The HC noted that in the
past, Rao's family had toapproach court to get informa-tion on his health conditionwhile in prison.
It also observed that while Raocontinued to suffer from multi-ple ailments in the prison andeven contracted the COVID-19infection, he was shifted to theNanavati Hospital only after theHC's intervention. "The under-trial's (Rao's) repeated admis-sions to government facilitieswhich have proved to be inade-quate (in the past), would lead tothe undertrial or his relativesrepeatedly approaching courtsfor appropriate directions fordealing with deterioration ofhis health if he is put back in cus-tody," the bench said.
"In the said process, the pos-sibility of casualty cannot beruled out," the court observed.It said Rao's medical reports inthe past pointed out that he suf-fered from several serious andage-related ailments.
Continued from Page 1
He advised people to be care-ful till the corona threat exist-ed. He said that the state gov-ernment was alert as thecorona cases were increasingacross the nation. The HealthMinister said that the stategovernment was going toenhance the funds meant tofight corona in the comingbudget.
While speaking to themedia on Monday, Eatalasaid that the centre had to
bring corona vaccine to themarket so that the peoplecould avail it and that thestate government was readyto take steps in this regard ifthe centre released coronavaccine to the markets. Hefurther said that the state hadreceived more than 11 lakhvaccine doses. There was aneed to administer the vac-cine to the persons, who hadcrossed 50-years and the per-sons suffering from chronicdiseases, he said.
No plan to impose...
Continued from Page 1
Meanwhile, Congress work-ing president A RevanthReddy began efforts to con-vince TPCC off icialspokesperson HarshaVardhan Reddy, to take backthe resignation he had ten-dered from the party earli-er in the day.
He also asked HarshaVardhan Reddy to withdrawhis nomination papers filedfor the Hyderabad-Rangareddy-Mahbubnagargraduate MLC constituency.
Revanth Reddy later saidthat the party will launch itscampaign for Dr G ChinnaReddy, who is contestingfrom Hyderabad-Rangareddy-Mahbubnagarconstituency from February24.
Congressexpels PalvaiHarish, woosHarsha Vardhan Continued from Page 1
The 3 percent increase in activecases is also double that record-ed this time last week - 1.5 per-cent - and a massive 2.9 percentbigger than two weeks ago,when active cases decreased by157.
The total number of newcases reported per day has alsoincreased - from a low of 9,121on February 16 to 14,199 today,with the seven-day movingaverage increasing by 13.8 percent. The spike in nationalnumbers comes as five states -Maharashtra, Kerala, Punjab,Chhattisgarh and MadhyaPradesh - report increased dailynumbers.
The Centre has warned allfive states that continued"adherence to Covid-appropri-ate behaviour" is critical tobreak the chain of transmission
and contain the novelCoronavirus.
"Over 74 per cent of activecases are in Kerala andMaharashtra... there has alsobeen a spike in Chhattisgarhand Madhya Pradesh... Punjaband Jammu and Kashmir arealso witnessing a surge in dailynew cases," the Health Ministrysaid Sunday. In Maharashtra,the worst-affected state, theseven-day moving average ofnew cases was 5,230 this morn-ing - the highest since 5,576 onDecember 2. This morning6,971 new cases were reportedin 24 hours - the most sinceOctober 24, when 7,347 weredetected.
In Kerala, the second worst-affected state, the seven-daymoving average of new caseswas 4,361 this morning and4,070 new cases were reportedin 24 hours.
Continued from Page 1
Though there is no indicationyet if the ruling party, in linewith its election promises, willbring down the age limit forAasara pensions from 65 yearsto 57 years or sanction unem-ployment dole in this Budget,Chief Minister KChandrasekhar Rao indicatedthat new ration cards and pen-sions will be issued soon topending eligible applicants.
There was also assurance toallot funds for loan waiverscheme to farmers and Rs1,000 crore to CM’s SCEmpowerment Scheme. Thatitself will increase the spend onwelfare schemes that now cost
more than Rs 50,000 crore. The Finance Department is
also taking into account addi-tional expenditure of Rs 4,200crore if pay revision to govern-ment employees even at 7.8percent fitment is finalised.This will entail at least 10 per-cent increase in budget outlayfor 2021-22 to touch Rs 2lakh-crore, it is said.
There are suggestions torationalise welfare schemeslike one kg subsidy rice schemewhich costs exchequer Rs3,200 crore annually to extendit to the deserving and alsolimit the Rythu Bandhuscheme to farmers with land-holdings below five acres andexclude persons of high
income groups, people's repre-sentatives and Income Taxpayers. The government earli-er had opted for 'Give it up'option from the well to doindividuals as it felt 80 percentof farmers who got benefitwere small and marginal farm-ers. But the 'Give it up' pro-gramme did not generatemuch response and the gov-ernment did not even save Rs100 crore.
Apart from 86 lakh whiteration cards in the State, anoth-er six lakh plus new applicantswere waiting for ration cardssince the last four years. Ofthis, about four lakh applicantsare found to be eligible, sourcessaid.
Telangana budget outlaymay cross Rs 2 lakh-crore
Continued from Page 1
Life-sciences sector in the statehas attracted new investments tothe tune of about Rs 3,700 crorein the last one year with anemployment potential foraround 14,000 people, Rama Raosaid. Meanwhile, Bharat BiotechCMD Krishna Ella said the citywould contribute significantly tovaccine production and relatedareas in the future.
A substantial chunk of vaccineproduction involving differentreputed companies comes fromthe city, he said.
However, it does not get muchpublicity, he said.
"The pandemic vaccines, any-thing in the future. It will comeonly from Hyderabad. That's alsoplease (be) assured (of) that.Whether it comes from BE orBharat Biotech. It doesn't matter.But, it comes from Hyderabad,"he said.
With major companies like DrReddy's Laboratories andAurobindo Pharma also enter-ing the area of vaccines, it is goingto be a bigger game, he said. Hewas speaking after receiving theGenome Valley ExcellenceAward for 2021.
The award given to him is notfor him alone but goes to allentrepreneurs, Ella said.
Hyd image as ‘vaccinecapital of world’ further...
Leopard spotted relaxing on treetop outside forest in TS
Benami dealsin Amaravati...
Varavara gets bail on...Sharpest spike inactive Covid cases
It’s ironic that some leaderswho have been givingemotional ‘Save
Visakhapatnam Steel Plant’speeches are the ones whohave looted Vizag city in oneway or the other.
Some of these leaders treat-ed the steel plant as their per-sonal property and amassedcrores of rupees. Some eveneyed lands of the steel plant,while others have built hugebuildings on the Beach Roadviolating rules.
Those who indulged innefarious deals left, right andcentre have been undertakingpadayatras for the steel plantand shedding crocodile tears.
None of them will talkabout who pushed VSP intolosses, or who drove peopledisplaced by it onto the streetsdespite promising a job toeach household. Who lootedpublic funds by escalatingthe tender value indiscrimi-nately? Who forced VSP
workers to fight at every stepto protect their rights?
Though the foundationstone for the steel plant waslaid in 1971, why were suit-able funds not allotted to itfor the next seven years?
Under whose regime, wasconstruction of the steel plantstalled in 1985? Who wantedto dispose of the Steel Plantas scrap after Rs 1,500 crorewas spent to build it? Whydid TDP and Congress gov-ernments fail to allot captiveiron ore mines to the steelplant?
Who caused a loss of Rs1,100 crore to the steel plantto satisfy Congress chairper-son Sonia Gandhi in thename of Raebareli WheelPlant?
So-called leaders weresilent when iron ore worthlakhs of crores was beingexported instead of beingallotted to domestic steelplants; they have now
launched the ‘Save VSP’ agi-tation.
Those who paved the wayfor privatisation of manyPSUs are now questioning theModi Government.
It is not true that thoughthe Centre gave the nod forthe steel factory in Kadapadistrict, the then state govern-ment failed to allot suitableiron ore mines to it?
The Minister for MajorIndustries told Parliamentthat 70 PSUs were in losses asof March 2019. The ModiGovernment took a policydecision on the PSUs. It
decided to implement mea-sures like reorganisation ofthe business, promotion ofjoint investments, modernisa-tion of the PSU, implement-ing better marketing strata-gem, corporate style of man-agement, appointing expertson the board and so on.
It is not limited to the steelplant alone, but to manyPSUs in the country.
The Modi governmentcontemplates equal partner-ship for both private andpublic sectors. What did thecountry achieve by givingmanagement of the PSUs to
IAS officials alone? Youthshould be provided with amajority of the opportunitiesand the private sector shouldbe respected as it is creatingwealth in the country, Moditold the Niti AayogGoverning Council.
Is it not true thatGovernments failed to use theeconomic and industrialcapacity fully ever since
license raj was done awaywith in PVNarsimha Rao’srule?
Is it right totake recourseto public fundswithout mobilisinginternal resourcesof the PSUs, without mod-ernising amenities and with-out augmenting the produc-tion capacity?
We should question our-selves whether is it proper toshut doors on foreign invest-ments ready to come to thecountry on a large scale?
Modi felt that tough deci-sions should be taken to cre-ate world-class basic ameni-ties in the country, to improveliving standards of commonman, to inject momentuminto our economy and tooksuch decisions. He favouredencouraging MSMEs andstart-ups.
Like previous regimes,
Modi does not want to prac-tise vote bank politics. It’s
not Modi’s policy tohoodwink people,make false promisesand discard them
once the purpose isserved.The Modi government has
set itself a policy objective togive the private sector achance since the public sec-tor alone is not able to attractmore investments into thecountry.
Maruti Udyog Corporationchairman RC Bhargava, in aninterview, said that the carcompany sold 1.20 lakh unitsin 1993 upon its privatisationin 1992. It reached the stageof selling 18 lakh car units by2019-20 and achieved cashsurplus of Rs 38,000 crore.Irrespective of the toughcompetition from other play-ers, Maruti cars constitute 50per cent of the total cars soldin the country.
Why PSUs, including theVSP, are not able to attractprivate investments and earnhuge profits like the MarutiUdyog?
Why should the govern-ment invest in productionbusiness and service sectorsinstead of lodging its funds inthe public welfare sector, infra-structural development, med-ical and education, housingsectors or to provide drinkingwater and other basic ameni-ties?
Disinvestment of public sec-tor investments and pumpingfunds by private sectors doesnot mean the governmentshirking its responsibility. TheGovernment is saddled withthe responsibility of coming tothe rescue of downtroddensections and ensuring fruits ofdevelopment reach them.
This is the objective of theModi’s government of mini-mum governance and maxi-mum administration.
Y SATYA KUMAR
BJP National Secretary
TRULY
SPEAKING
The Modi government contemplates equalpartnership for both private and publicsectors. What did the country achieve bygiving management of the PSUs to IASofficials alone? Youth should be providedwith opportunities, Modi told the Niti AayogGoverning Council.
VSP privatisation decision is conscientious, beneficial
HYDERABAD | TUESDAY | FEBRUARY 23, 2021 hyderabad 03
Due to the junctionwork on Krishnadrinking water supply
phase-II ring main-II underthe alignment of SRDPflyover and underpassfrom LB Nagar junction toBawarchi and forfacilitating the construction of the underpass, there will beshutdown of drinking water supply for 24 hours from 6 am onWednesday. Following this, there will be no water supply to thesome areas including Balapur, Maisaram, Barkas, Mekalamandi,Bholakpur, Tarnaka, Lalapet, Boudhanagar, Marredpally,Cantonment, Prakashnagar, Patigadda, Hashmathpet, Vaishalinagar,BN Reddynagar, Vanasthalipuram, Autonagar, Maruthinagar,Elugutta, Ramanthapur, Uppal, Nacharam, Habsiguda, Chilkanagar,Berrappagadda, Boduppal, Badangpet and Meerpet reservoir areas.On Sunday, Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and SewerageBoard has requested the consumers to use water conservatively toavoid inconvenience during the shutdown of water supply.
CITY LIGHTS
The spot admissions forvacant seats in five-year BA LLB course in
Telangana Social WelfareResidential Law College forWomen, Ghatkesar for theacademic year 2020-2021will be held on Thursday,February 25, according toTelangana Social Welfare Residential Educational Institutions Society(TSWREIS) here on Monday. Candidates who have qualified in TSLAWCET-2020 are eligible and will be admitted as per the meritsecured in TS LAWCET-2020. Spot admissions will be conductedfrom 10 am to 2 pm at the Residential Law College for Women inGhatkesar. Interested candidates can visit TSWREIS website(www.tswreis.in) for details.
PNS n HYDERABAD
Telangana reported 114 newCovid cases on Monday, tak-ing the state's tally to 2,97,712.
According to the healthdepartment, one more personsuccumbed to the virus duringthe last 24 hours, pushing thedeath toll to 1,625.
The fatality rate remained0.54 per cent against thenational average of 1.4 percent. According to the direc-tor of public health and fam-ily welfare, while 44.96 percent of the deaths occurreddue to Covid, 55.04 per centhad comorbidities. The dropin daily count of cases was onaccount of the fewer testsconducted over the weekend.Director of public health andfamily welfare said 14,744tests were conducted duringthe last 24 hours. While gov-ernment-run labs tested11,647 samples, the privatelabs conducted 3,097 tests.
With this the cumulativenumber of tests conducted inthe state rose to 84,71,684.Tests per million populationclimbed to 2,27,611. GreaterHyderabad saw the maximumnumber of cases at 24 followedby Rangareddy (12). Nine dis-tricts reported no cases whilethe number in the remaining22 districts was in single digit.A total of 143 people recoveredfrom the virus during theperiod, taking the cumulativenumbers to 2,94,386. Thestate's Covid recovery rateimproved to 98.88 per centagainst the national average of97.2 per cent.
Telangana logs 114 fresh Corona cases
PNS n HYDERABAD
With the spurt in cyber crimesin the villages too and city-based cyber criminals spread-ing their tentacles there, theTelangana State PoliceDepartment officials are gear-ing up and taking steps to tack-le the cyber crimes.
The incidents of cyber crimerange from hacking to datatampering.
A senior police officialacknowledged, "The police per-sonnel have no training till nowon how to tackle such crimes."
He stated that most policepersonnel loathed investigatingcyber crimes.
"People who have sufferedcyber crimes will find it diffi-cult to get their complaints reg-istered in any of the police sta-tions," he said.
With absolute focus to putbrakes to the ideas of cybercriminals, DGP MahenderReddy has organised specialonline training classes for thecyber warriors for one week,beginning Monday.
Cyber warriors are policepersonnels working in theirrespective police stations. Theywill be trained in investigatingcyber crimes.
In all, 1,950 cyber warriors
have been selected from all thepolice stations across the state.While two police personnelhave been chosen from every
rural police station, three per-sonnel have been selected fromeach semi-urban police stationsand five police personnel from
the tri-commissionerates -Hyderabad, Cyberabad andRachakonda. The main aim ofthe online training is to thwart
the attempts made by the cybercriminals to dupe people andto minimise the number ofcyber crimes.
In this one week the select-ed police personnel will betrained in solving cyber crimecases. The training includesidentifying the modus operan-di, steps to be followed insolving a crime, using of mod-ern technology in solving thecrime, safety steps to be fol-lowed and identifying howcyber criminals approach theirvictims.
Further, they will be toldabout the ways to make peopleaware about cyber crimes andcriminals, the types of cyberfrauds, ways the cyber crimi-nals use to approach the vic-tims and others. They will bealso trained in the ways of col-lecting data from the victims -the way they are approachedand finally robbed - and col-lecting other necessary data,which will be useful for inves-tigation.
A booklet will be providedonline to all cyber warriors forrevising the lessons taught inthe classes. These cyber war-riors will be linked to the dis-trict cyber crime cells for bet-ter results in stopping cybercrimes.
Gearing up to tackle cyber crimes
DGP Telangana Police (@TelanganaDGP)
For the first time in India #TelanganaStatePolicestarted a new initiative to curb #CyberCrimes. Providing training for 2 to 5 members from each police stationas #CyberWarrior (across the state) to prevent, to createawareness amongst people & to investigate #CyberCrimes.
PNS n HYDERABAD
Depressed reportedly overhaving no children, a home-maker allegedly jumped todeath from a building atKeesara on the city outskirtson Sunday night.
The victim woman identi-fied as K Satya Santoshini, 27,was married to Pavan threeyears ago and the couplelived in a flat in SrinivasaNagar colony.
On Sunday night the cou-ple reportedly had quarrelbetween them after which thewoman allegedly jumped onfrom the building.
The police are investigat-ing. The body was shifted toGandhi Hospital.
Woman falls off building, police suspect suicide
PNS n HYDERABAD
A racket in getting passportsusing fake documents hasbeen busted in Nizamabaddistrict of Telangana and sixpeople arrested in this con-nection, Police said.
Police were also probing ifany Bangladeshi nationalswere part of the racket.
Based on specific informa-tion, police busted the rack-et and it was revealed the sixfacilitated some people ingetting the passports by sub-mitting fake documents, theofficial said. “A detailed inves-tigation is going on...we areworking on who got the pass-ports...we are also probing ifBangladeshi nationals werealso part of this racket," theofficial said.
BJP leader DharmapuriArvind had earlier said pass-ports were obtained by sub-mitting fake documents inBodhan of Nizamabad.
Police bust fakepassport racket,arrest 6 persons
ANUSHA PUPPALAn HYDERABAD
Urban Hyderabad's protectionquotient declines marginally by1 point to 45 during Covid-19pandemic, city witnessesdecline in security level, lifeinsurance ownership revealsMax Life's India ProtectionQuotient 3.0. in its third edi-tion of flagship survey.
According to the survey,the city was also the onlymetro to register marginaldrop in life insurance owner-ship levels from 82 per centduring IPQ 2.0 to 80 per centduring IPQ 3.0. Mumbaidemonstrated highest lifeinsurance ownership at 91 percent, followed by Kolkata with89 per cent ownership. Thecapital city Delhi displayed anownership level of 81 per cent.
The survey also revealedthat the degree to which urbanHyderabad is aware about lifeinsurance products or theknowledge index remainedstagnant at 56 during the pan-demic.
In the backdrop of Covid,while Hyderabad's securitylevel plummeted, the city wasfound to be less anxious aboutfinancial commitments andwas more prepared to sustainlifestyle and expenses with
current earnings and providefor family's financial needs inthe absence of the breadwin-ner, in comparison to othermetro cities.
Furthermore, the surveyrevealed that while term insur-ance awareness remained stag-nant at 54 per cent inHyderabad, there was a notableincrease in the city's level ofterm insurance ownership. Asa result, Hyderabad witnessedthe highest term insuranceuptake of 9 per cent amongmetros. They survey revealedthat amidst total or partial joblosses, a promising 84 per centof Hyderabad respondents feltsecure about their job, highestin comparison to other metros.75 per cent of Hyderabadis feltthey could fulfil basic/luxuryneeds post retirement. Medicalexpenses involving highexpenditure, fulfilling fami-
ly's basic needs, child's educa-tion and marriage are some ofthe few facets that Hyderabadfelt financially secure about
On the back of health andfinancial challenges, the surveyrevealed that anxiety levels ofHyderabad stood at 49 percent, the lowest in comparisonto all metros including hyperanxious Kolkata (78%) andDelhi (71%).
Despite an environment ofincreasing worries and reduc-ing security, IPQ 3.0 revealedthat urban Hyderabadis are yetto become more proactiveabout financial planning, over-all health and fitness. In thebackdrop of Covid-19, only 41per cent of Hyderabadis saidthat they're proactive aboutfinancial planning and a pal-try 38 per cent said that theybelieve in saving more thanspending.
Hyd’s protection quotient dips
PNS n HYDERABAD
The sleuths of Central CrimeStation, Hyderabad, arrestedRaman Ramesh Babu fromCoimbatore, Tamil Nadu, whois said to have cheated peopleto the tune of Rs 4.43 crores.
The cops acted based on acomplaint by Daniel Solomonfrom Hyderabad. Dr Arphitaof Arpitha Diagnostics atHabsiguda approached AstlerMedicss, represented by itsmanager Ramesh Babu, for thesupply of GE 1.5 Tesla Super-con MRI equipment. Rameshagreed to supply the equipm-ent at a cost Rs 4,43,10,000.
The amount was paid by thecomplainant’s firm through aloan to the account of AstlerMedicss. The complainant said
that Ramesh did not supplythe equipment with malafideand dishonest intention tocheat the complainant firm.
The accused was on a runsince the FIR was registered."Inquiries revealed that hehas also taken about Rs 10lakhs from one Bala Muruganof Krishnagiri of Tamil Nadupromising to supply an X-raymachine and other equipmentwhich he did not supply," thepolice said.
“On receiving informationabout the movements of theaccused, a special team leadarrested him on February 20and brought him to Hydera-bad,” the police said. Theaccused was produced beforethe court and was remandedto judicial custody.
TN man held for cheating medical firm of Rs 4.43 cr
IPQ revealed that urban Hyderabadisare yet to become more proactiveabout financial planning, overall healthand fitness. In the backdrop of Covid,41% of Hyderabadis said that they'reproactive about financial planning and38% said that they believe in savingmore than spending
PNS n HYDERABAD
Telangana Chief SecretarySomesh Kumar has under-lined the need to have syner-gy between various depart-ments towards skill develop-ment.
A meeting on SkillDevelopment and Entreprene-urship programme was held atBRKR Bhavan on Monday.
Presiding over the meeting,the Chief Secretary discussedthe issues relating to skilldevelopment, entrepreneur-ship and training were dis-cussed at the meeting.
These issues will be broughtto the notice of the TelanganaChief Minister K Chandrash-ekar Rao for necessary instruc-tions. Officials from RuralDevelopment, Youth Services,Technical Education, Mepma,TASK , NAC Medical andHealth, SC, ST, BC and otherWelfare Departments made a
power point presentation high-lighting the skill developmentprogrammes being taken up bytheir departments.
Rani Kumidini, SpecialChief Secretary of LET&F,Arvind Kumar, PrincipalSecretary of MA&UD, SunilSharma, Principal Secretary ofTR&B, Jayesh Ranjan,Principal Secretary of ITE&C,S Ghosh, Principal Secretary ofYouth Services, SandeepKumar Sultania, Secretary ofPR &RD, Naveen Mittal,
Commissioner of TechnicalEducation, Sreenivas Raju,Secretary of YAT&C, Dr NSatyanarayana, CDMA,Raghunandan Rao,Commissioner of PR & RD,Rahul Bojja, Secretary of SCDevelopment, SAM Rizvi,Secretary of Health, KY Naik,Director of Employment andTraining, Bikshapathi, DG ofNAC, Dr S Chinnam Reddy,Director of NITHAM andother officials attended themeeting.
The Examinationswing on Mondayissued a notification
to all headmasters ofsecondary schools inTelangana, instructingthem to upload regularstudent data online. Theheadmasters can loginwith their school ID and password on the board websitewww.bse.telangana.gov.in to submit online application forms andprinted nominal roll. They have also been instructed to finish thisprocess as per the due date issued by the department.
Astudy was undertaken by Sulekha.com, India's leading AI-driven tech platform for expert services has unveiled interestingtrends and insights about the service categories that have seen
an increase in January 2021. This study is based on visits andsearches by nearly more than 3,00,000 users across the top eightcities that landed on Sulekha in January 2021. The top 3 servicecategories that have seen a spike in online searches includePlacement Consultancies, Domestic Help Services and PayingGuests. The top 5 cities that are leading in online searches acrossservice categories include-- Chennai Delhi and Bangalore followedby Hyderabad and Mumbai. In Chennai, the top 3 services that areleading include: Paying Guests, Domestic Help Services andPlacement Consultancies. These services have grown by 20 percent since December 2020. In Delhi, the top 3 services that areleading include Domestic Help Services, Placement Consultanciesand Job Training.
Somesh stresses need for synergybetween depts on skill development
Hyd among top 5 cities leading online searches in January '21
Telangana schools asked to upload student data online
BA LLB spot admissions for TSWREIS women's college
No water supply in some areas of Hyderabad on February 24
The Skywalk, which was built across Hi-Tec City metro station and IT offices givestravellers the opportunity to travel to the office without any hurdles. "This is a
great opportunity for those who are travelling to offices without anyhurdles from traffic and pollution issues,” said L&T Metro Managing
Director KVB Reddy. It is already known that the facility isalready available under the Panjagutta Metro Station. As
part of its transportation-oriented development, L& Thas not only built a few malls in the city but also
connected them to metro stations. Travellersare excited with introduction of Skywalk
with world-class amenities to the Greater
Citizens.
WORLD-CLASS AMENITY
PNS n HYDERABAD
A Sub-Inspector working atthe SR Nagar police station inHyderabad was trapped red-handed by the Anti-Corr-uption Bureau (ACB) sleuthson Monday when he alleged-ly demanded and accepted abribe of Rs 25,000 from a person.
The Sub-Inspector, BellanaBhaskar Rao, allegedlydemanded a bribe of Rs25,000 from one MohammedKhasim for not initiatingaction in a criminal case reg-istered at the SR Nagar policestation in the city and also toinfluence civil supplies offi-cials to release a vehicle seizedby them.
On a complaint made byMohammed Khasim, the ACBlaid a trap and caught the SIwhen he accepted the bribeamount of Rs 25,000 indenomination of Rs 500 cur-rency notes.
Bellana Bhaskar Rao wasarrested and was producedbefore court.
S-I held for takingbribe in SR Nagar
Conman takes CA for aride, flees with Rs 6 lakhPNS n HYDERABAD
A chartered accountant whoposted an advertisement to sellhis used bicycle on an e-com-merce site was duped by cyberfraudsters, reportedly to thetune of Rs 6 lakh.
The chartered accountantfrom Gachibowli had recent-ly posted the bicycle with aprice tag of Rs 3,500 andimmediately received a callfrom an unidentified personshowing interest.
Police said the duo negoti-ated on a price and the fraud-ster told the victim that hewould send a QR code to hisphone, which he had to scanto receive the advance pay-ment.
At f irst when the CAscanned the code, Rs 2 lakhwere debited from his bankaccount. When he informedthe same to the fraudster, hesaid he would resend Rs 2lakh and the advance moneynow and asked the victim to
rescan the code. When he did,another Rs 2 lakh was deduct-ed from the account.
The victim called backagain and the fraudster said itwas a technical glitch, andasked him to scan the QRcode again, for the third con-secutive time.
Rs 2 lakh was deducted forthe third time, making it atotal of Rs 6 lakh. When thevictim tried calling, the fraud-ster's mobile was switchedoff.
The chartered accountant,who realised that he wascheated, approached theCyberabad Cybercrime celland lodged a complaint.
A case was booked andinvestigation is on.
The CA, whorealised that hewas cheated,approached the CyberabadCybercrime celland lodged acomplaint
HYDERABAD | TUESDAY | FEBRUARY 23, 2021 hyderabad 04
ANUSHA PUPPALAn HYDERABAD
An interdisciplinary researchgroup of faculty at IndianInstitute of Technology-Hyderabad (IIT-H) has predict-ed the lifetime of SARS-CoV-2droplets on surfaces in differentenvironmental conditions, suchas ambient temperature, relativehumidity, and volume and com-position of droplets.
Under the same environmen-tal conditions, the drying time fordroplets on a smartphone screenis three times longer than that ona normal glass surface.
Respiratory infections suchas the SARS-CoV-2 virus spreadsprimarily by respiratory droplets(size > 10μm) of saliva or dis-charge from the nose of aninfected person during cough-ing/sneezing. Fluid dynamicsplays an important role in thestudy of the life of these dropletsmigrating in the air or deposit-ed on surfaces. Spread of virus isminimal after drying of dropletscontaining virus.
The study focuses on variousfactors affecting the drying timeof saliva droplets whereas earli-er studies were based on waterdroplets.
Saliva droplets consist of salt,protein (mucin), and surfactantin addition to water. These ingre-dients delay the evaporation ofrespiratory droplets significant-
ly as compared to pure waterdroplets.
Increase in humidity will makethe droplet to take longer than anhour compared to a dropletunder a lower humid environ-ment that will dry-up in minutes.Lower ambient temperature alsoincreases the drying time of thedroplet.
The angle made by a dropleton the surface (which is knownas “contact angle”) plays animportant role in the drying timeof the droplet and hence highlyhydrophilic surfaces may be lesssusceptible to prolonged conta-mination.
Saliva droplets consist of salt,protein (mucin), and surfactantin addition to water as reportedin the earlier study published in
the Journal of Royal SocietyInterface.
By conducting a theoreticaland numerical study, DrSaravanan Balusamy, Dr SayakBanerjee of the Department ofMechanical and AerospaceEngineering and Prof KirtiChandra Sahu from Departmentof Chemical Engineering of IIT-H showed that these ingredientsdelay the evaporation of respira-tory droplets significantly ascompared to pure water droplets.The work appears in theInternational Communicationsin Heat and Mass Transfer, aleading journal in this field.
Dr Balusamy said "A simpleclassical theoretical model devel-oped in this study that takes intoaccount the dynamic contact
angle and the insoluble surfac-tants is capable of accurately pre-dicting the evaporation timeunder different conditions."
“The time taken by salivadroplets to dry also depends onthe nature of the surface mater-ial on which it falls as it dictateshow far the droplet spreads out”,said Dr Banerjee.
Speaking about the findings oftheir study, Prof Sahu said,“While the lifetime of a small sali-va droplet of size 1 nanolitre isless than a 1 minute, a normalsize saliva droplet of 10 nanolitrestakes more than 15 minutes toevaporate at room temperatureand relative humidity of 50 percent. For high relative humidity,say of greater than 90 per cent,the droplet stays live on the sur-
face for significantly longer,about an hour. Of course, virus-es could still be alive in drieddroplets. This requires furtherresearch involving biologists.”
The longest drying times areobserved with the combinationof low ambient temperature andhigh relative humidity, while thedrying time progressively reducesas the humidity falls and the tem-perature rises. Researchers alsofound that for a fixed initial vol-ume of the droplet, increasing theinitial contact angle increases thedrying time.
This follows physical intu-ition, as a droplet with a smallercontact angle has a greater wet-ting radius and surface area forthe same volume resulting in alarger interface area over whichthe diffusion-driven evaporationcan occur. Thus, highlyhydrophilic surfaces may be lesssusceptible to prolonged contam-ination in comparison to lesshydrophilic surfaces, which issomewhat a counter-intuitiveresult.
The study conducted by IIT-H faculty shows the importanceof properly sanitising the contactprone surfaces in different sea-sons and air-conditioned indoorareas and advises following WorldHealth Organisation (WHO)guidelines, such as wearing facemasks and maintaining social dis-tance as the preventive measuresfor air transmission of Covid-19.
PNS n HYDERABAD
Leaders belonging to all thepolitical parties launched atirade against TRS Chief andChief Minister KChandrasekhar Rao for pick-ing up the daughter of formerPrime Minister PV NarsimhaRao to gain political mileage.
Congress, BJP and CPI havelashed out at the ChiefMinister for picking up SVani Devi as the TRS nomi-nee for Hyderabad-Rangareddy-MahbubnagarGraduate MLC constituencyelections. They alleged thatKCR picked up Vani Devi forthe election where the TRSdefinitely loses.
Congress working presi-dents A Revanth Reddy andPonnam Prabhakar have
alleged that the Chief Ministergave the MLC ticket whereTRS will not win.
Revanth Reddy asked KCRto field his family member ifhe feels that the party wouldwin Hyderabad-Rangareddy-Mahabubnagar GraduateMLC constituency polls. Heasked Vani Devi not to be partof the KCR’s conspiracy.
Ponnam Prabhakar askedthe TRS to give the Rajya
Sabha ticket or Governor’spost instead of MLC to VaniDevi if KCR has real lovetowards the PV’s family. Heasked the TRS not to use thePV’s family for their politicalbenefits. He asked Vani Devito think twice before contest-ing the elections on the TRSticket. On the other hand,PV’s grandson and BJP leaderNV Subash alleged that theTRS gave the ticket to his
aunty of losing constituency.He alleged that KCR deceivedthe PV’s family with conspic-uous politics. “It is nothing butan effort of dividing the votesof Brahmins”, he alleged.
Sitting MLC and BJP can-didate for Hyderabad-Rangareddy-MahabubnagarN Ramchander Rao allegedthat KCR is going to makePV’s daughter a scapegoat. Heexuded confidence that BJPwill win even if TRS workingpresident KT Rama Rao con-tests from the Hyderabad-Rangareddy-Mahabubnagarconstituency.
CPI national secretary KNarayana stated that KCRhas given the ticket to PV’sdaughter to get an edge overthe BJP after facing a drub-bing in the recent elections.
PNS n PEDDAPALLI
The police on Monday arrest-ed the fourth accused in thedouble murder of advocates,who supplied car and twoknives to the accused. Thepolice recovered a two-wheel-er used by one of the accusedChiranjeevi and his mobilephone.
Based on the informationprovided by the arrested KuntaSrinivas (A1), SivandulaChiranjeevi (A2) andAkkapaka Kumar (A3), thepolice arrested Bittu Srinu,who supplied car and knives tothe accused.
Additional DCP (Admin)Ashok Kumar is the maininvestigation officer in the case.People have been urged to pro-
vide any evidence with themrelated to the case for forgingahead in the case investigation,which is underway under thesupervision of Pramod Kumar,DIG Karimnagar Range.
PNS n HYDERABAD
Several candidates filed theirnominations on a penultimateday Monday of filing of nom-inations for the Graduate MLCelections to be held for twoconstituencies--Nalgonda-Khammam-Warangal andHyderabad-Rangareddy-Mahabubnagar --on March14. BJP candidate NRamchander Rao filed hisnomination for Hyderabad-Rangareddy-Mahabubnagarconstituency at the GHMChead office. Party leaders--Perala Sekhar Rao andAnthony Reddy participated.Earlier, Ramchander Rao wentto the GHMC office in a mas-sive rally from Barkathpuraparty office.
However, Telangana BJPgeneral secretary Gujjula
Premender Reddy filed hisnomination for Nalgonda-Khammam-Mahabubnagarconstituency at Nalgondatown. Telangana BJP chiefBandi Sanjay Kumar, formerminister and Telangana BJPCore Committee memberMothkupally Narsimhulu andothers were present. Speakingon the occasion, Bandi Sanjaysaid that Chief Minister KChandrasekhar Rao confinedto a farmhouse instead of solv-ing the problems of the people.
TPCC working president ARevanth Reddy, TPCC vice-
president Mallu Ravi, formerMP Anjan Kumar Yadavaccompanied Congress candi-date Chinna Reddy while fil-ing nomination at the GHMCoffice for Hyderabad-Rangareddy-Mahabubnagarconstituency. Revanth Reddyafter filing nomination askedthe graduate voters to ensurethe victory of Chinna Reddy.
On the other hand,Telangana Jana Samithi (TJS)chief Prof Kodandaram filedhis nomination for Nalgonda-Khammam-Warangal con-stituency at Nalgonda collec-torate office. New DemocracyState secretary Potu RangaRao, TJS leaders Badruddin,Gopal Reddy, P Srisail Reddy,Ratan Rao, Dharmarjun, BairiRamesh, Gopagani ShankarRao, Sridhar and others par-ticipated.
CAPSULE
Nizamabad : The three-dayUrs celebrations of the famousBada Pahad Syed ShadullaHussaini Dargah will be heldfrom Tuesday in Varni mandalof Nizamabad district.Thousands of devotees fromTelangana, Maharashtra andKarnataka will be participatingin these celebrations. Due toCovid-19, celebrations wereheld in a simple manner lastyear, devotees were notallowed to participate in thecelebrations. Officials areexpecting a huge turnout thisyear. Revenue department andWakf Board officials have madeelaborate arrangements forconduct of celebrations.Banswada RDO RajeshwarGoud and Varni tahsildar Vittalsupervised the arrangements.
PNS n HYDERABAD
Another Congress leaderFeroz Khan, too, will jointhe BJP, according tosources. He had contest-ed from the NampallyAssembly constituencyon the Congress ticket.Feroz Khan has reported-ly held discussions withTelangana BJP chiefBandi Sanjay Kumar, it islearnt. According to BJPsources, Feroz Khan mayjoin the BJP in a couple ofdays.
Bada Pahad Urs inVarni from Tuesday
Aggigundalau at Cheruvugattu
IIT-Hyderabad researchers predictlifetime of SARS-COV-2 droplets PNS n NEW DELHI
Union Minister of State forHome G Kishan Reddy onMonday urged Union Ministerfor Road Transport andHighways Nitin Gadkari toexpedite the work on the pro-posed Regional Ring Road(RRR) around Hyderabad bynotifying its southern part as anational highway.
The Union Minister, alongwith BJP vice-president DKAruna and the party's OBCMorcha president L Laxmanmet Gadkari in New Delhi tosubmit a memorandum. KishanReddy, who is a Member ofParliament from Secunderabad,urged Gadkari to consider sanc-tioning of two PIUs (ProjectImplementation Units) for RRR.
According to him, Gadkariassured the delegation that thework will be expedited on theproject subject to the landacquisition process is complet-ed on a fast track by the stategovernment. The proposedRRR will traverse aroundHyderabad at an average dis-tance of 40 km to 50 km and itwill have a length of about 340km. The overall cost of the pro-ject will be Rs 16,003 crore.
The northern and southernparts of the proposed projectwill connect Sangareddy-Narsapur-Toopran-Gajwel-Jagd e v pu r- C houtupp a l -S h a d n a g a r- S a n g a r e d d y.Important national and state
highways like NH-65 (Pune-Machilipatnam), NH-161(Sangareddy-Nanded-Akola),NH-765D (Hyderabad-Medak),NH-44 (Srinagar-Kanyakumari), SH-1(Hyderabad-Ramagundam)and NH-163 (Hyderabad-Bhopalpatnam) will also beconnected through this RRR.
The project is expected to caterto about 40 per cent of the pop-ulation of the state. The RRRwill also provide connectivity totourist places such as Yadadri.
Once this project is con-structed as an Access ControlledExpressway, the travel time andthe vehicle operating costs forthe commercial and non-com-mercial vehicles will be reducedby a great extent. Several indus-trial clusters, IT centres, logis-tic parks, pharma industries andrecreational facilities are expect-ed to be established around theproject road, which would pro-vide a big boost to the econo-my of Telangana.
The construction of the pro-ject road will also improve thecondition of the arterial roadsand other link roads connectedwith the project which willreduce the travel distance andtime.
Kishan urges Gadkari to expedite RRR works
n The Union Minister, alongwith BJP vice-president DKAruna and the party's OBCMorcha president LLaxman met Gadkari inNew Delhi to submit amemorandum. KishanReddy, who is a Memberof Parliament fromSecunderabad, urgedGadkari to considersanctioning of two PIUs(Project ImplementationUnits) for RRR.
Union Minister of State for Home G Kishan Reddy addresses the media in NewDelhi on Monday. BJP vice-president DK Aruna and BJP OBC Morcha presidentLaxman are also seen
PNS n MEDAK
Medak Municipal chair-man Chandrapal, coun-cillors and constituencyleaders greeted MedakMLA Padma DevenderReddy on her weddingan n ive rs ar y. Me d a kMu n i c ip a l C h ai r manChandrapal MLA accom-panied by councillorsVas ant R aj , Kishore ,Samiuddin , Sr in ivas ,l e a d e rs Ma d hu s u d anRao, Boddula Krishna,Prabhu Reddy, MuthyamGowd, Madhu, , SrinivasReddy, Venkat Reddyand others went to herhome in Hyderabad gavebouquets and wished thecouple.
GRADUATE MLC POLLS
TADURU KARUNAKARn KARIMNAGAR
Moved at the plight of poorfamilies in performing mar-riages of girls in the families,youth of a village floated a trustcalled Maa Voori Mahalakshmion Sri Rama Navami day in2018 to assist the families finan-cially in celebrating girl child’sweddings.
The trust was floated inKondayyapalli village ofGangadhara mandal ofKarimnagar district. Thereare 300 families in the village,whose population is put at1300. The majority of the vil-lagers migrated to eitherBhiwandi or Mumbai orGulf countries in search oflivelihood.
Spurred some unsavouryincidents that had taken place
in the village, the youth of thevillage floated the trust with theobjective that the girl child inthe family should not be a bur-den. The decision is helping thesave girl child movement in abig way. Rendla Srinivas wasthe founder of the trust whileAnganwadi activist MadupuGovindamma officiated as thechairperson of the trust. Thetrust has I Aruna, M Sunita, PMadhu, Gopu Raju as mem-bers. The trust has been func-tioning with the financial sup-port of the villagers settled inBhiwandi, Mumbai and Gulfcountries. The trust was float-ed to mitigate the plight of thefamilies having girl children.
A weaver from the familywith two girl children went toBhiwandi in Maharashtra forgreener pastures. The eldestdaughter was aged 10 when the
breadwinner in the family leftfor Bhiwandi. The father didnot even visit the village at leastonce as the girl turned 18 yearsand did not support the fami-ly financially. Therefore, the vil-lagers pooled money and per-formed the marriage of the girlfulfilling the responsibility of
the father. Another family fromthe village has two daughters init. The bread winner in the fam-ily has debt-ridden having cel-ebrated two weddings in thefamily. He took the extremestep of committing suicidecaught in debts on one handand unable to face the miserable
conditions on the other. In another incident, a person
from the village who was in thedire straits could not performthe wedding of the daughter,who married someone from adifferent caste. Feelingashamed, he took the extremestep of committing suicide.
Moved at these develop-ments, the youth of the familywas forced to think about giv-ing birth to Maa VooriMahalakshmi. The trustdeposits Rs 10, 000 – Rs 5000contributed by the trust andequal sum by the family - in thename of the girl child themoment the girl was born in afamily in the village under theSukanya Samrydhdhi Yojana.The relevant passbooks wouldbe given to the family members.
The trust has plans to depositRs 50,000 in the name of the girlchild in the future provided thedonors come forward and thefinancial position of the trustimproves, according toRevandla Srinivas, the trustfounder. In 2018, the trustdeposited funds in the name ofeight girls, while nine girlswere benefited in 2019.
This trust helps in performing marriages of poor girlsThe trust wasfloated inKondayyapallivillage ofGangadharamandal ofKarimnagardistrict
CM ridiculed for picking up PV's daughter
PNS n SANGAREDDY
District Collector MHanumantha Rao urged thepeople of the district to be vig-ilant following the rise in thenumber of Corona cases insome states, though the num-ber of cases has come down inTelangana.
People should not neglecttaking precautions assumingthat they are out of Coronathreat. It is suggested thatpeople should undergo tests ifthey find Corona symptoms.Beneficiaries, who registeredfor the vaccine, were told thatthe vaccine was safe and thatthey should be vaccinated atthe hospital that was allottedto them.The Collector clarified
that even after taking the vac-cine, wearing a mask, sanitis-ing and keeping physical dis-tance should be followed. Heurged the people to take allprecautions to keep Corona atbay and cooperate with thegovernment to prevent thespread of the virus.
Beware of Corona,cautions Collector
PNS n PATANCHERU
National Science Day (NSD)was celebrated every year onthe February 28 to commem-orate the discovery of theRaman Effect by SirChandrasekhara VenkataRaman. He went on to receivethe Nobel Prize for this discov-ery in 1930. The day is cele-brated to mark the importanceof contributions made by sci-entists towards the develop-ment of the nation and theworld as a whole. The themefor National Science Day 2021is ‘Future of STI: Impact onEducation Skills and Work’.
Schools of Science andTechnology, Gandhi Instituteof Technology andManagement (GITAM),Hyderabad, have been organ-ising ‘All India Essay Contest
on Science and Technology’ahead of National ScienceDay. The topics --‘Life duringCovid-19, ‘Online Teaching:Benefits and limitations andSocial Ethics, Morals andValues’.
In all, 121 students acrossthe country responded to thiscontest and 88 manuscriptswere accepted for considera-tion. A team of faculty evalu-ated the manuscripts and theyhad shortlisted 38 studentsfrom 14 states for online oral
presentation on February 13and 14.
Meera Venkatesh, formerDirector, Physical andChemical Sciences,International Atomic EnergyAgency (IAEA), and formerhead, Radio PharmaceuticalsDivision, BARC, will deliverthe guest lecture on ‘Scienceand its progress in India’ onMarch 1, followed by onlineoral presentation by contestwinners. Later, prizes will bedistributed to them.
Nalgonda : Aggigundalu(Firewalking), a ritual in whichdevotees walk on coal fire,during Sri Parvathi JadalaRamalingeshwara SwamyJatara celebrations atCheruvugattu of Narketpallymandal in Nalgonda district,attracted thousands ofdevotees on Monday.Amid chanting of Vedic hymnsby the temple priests, the ritualwas conducted at the hillshrinein the early hours of Monday.Aggigundalu would beconsidered as one of the keyrituals of annual jatara. As perthe tradition, the farmers alsooffered castor seeds andmillets cultivated by them tothe fire ignited forAggigundalu. The devoteescompeted to walk on the coalfire with bare foot by bearingthe palanquin of presidingdeities of Goddess Parvathiand Lord Jadala Ramalingeshwara Swamy on theirshoulders.
Medak municipalchairman greetsMedak MLA
National Science Day to be celebrated at GITAM
One more accused ofadvocates’ murder held
Cong leaderFeroz Khan to join BJP?
BJP, Cong candidates filenominations for MLC polls
n PV's grandson and BJPleader Subhash allegesKCR deceived their family
n TRS won’t winHyderabad-Rangareddy-Mahbubnagar even itfields KTR, says NRamchander Rao n Based on the information
provided by the arrestedKunta Srinivas (A1),Sivandula Chiranjeevi (A2)and Akkapaka Kumar (A3),the police arrested BittuSrinu, who supplied carand knives to the accused.
HYDERABAD | TUESDAY | FEBRUARY 23, 2021 nation 05
Ateam of CBI visited theresidence of TMC MPAbhishek Banerjee's
sister-in-law Menaka Gambhirin Kolkata on Monday toexamine her in connectionwith the coal pilferage case,officials said. Two womanofficers of the CBI examinedGambhir for nearly three hoursat her residence off EasternMetropolitan Bypass after a notice was served to her on Sunday, theysaid. The officers of the CBI's anti-corruption branch sought to ascertainher financial accounts, sources said. Gambhir is the sister of Abhishek'swife Rujira Banerjee who told the CBI earlier in the day that she will beavailable for examination in connection with the case at her residence inHarish Mukherjee Road between 11 am to 3 pm on February 23, theyadded. Abhishek, the Trinamool Congress's Diamond Harbour MP, is thenephew of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. The CBI had registered anFIR in November last year against the alleged kingpin of the pilferageracket Manjhi alias Lala, Eastern Coalfield Ltd General Managers AmitKumar Dhar (of then Kunustoria area now Pandaveswar area) andJayesh Chandra Rai (Kajora area), besides ECL Chief of ecurity TanmayDas, Area Security Inspector, Kunustoria Dhananjay Rai and SSI andsecurity in-charge Kajor area Debashish Mukherjee. It is alleged thataccused Lala is involved in the illegal mining and theft of coal fromleasehold mines of ECL in Kunustoria and Kajora areas, ources said.
The Income Tax Departmenthas detected about Rs 335crore undisclosed income
after it raided a Pune-basedbusiness group engaged inpackaging and sale of tobaccoproducts and related items, theCentral Board of Direct Taxessaid on Monday. The searches,which were launched at 34locations across Maharashtraon February 17, led to the seizure of "unaccounted" cash ofRs 1 crore, it said. "Profit on un-recorded transactions of saleof real estate amounting to Rs 9 crore has been accepted bythe assessee," the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), thebody that frames policy for the Income Tax Department, saidin a statement. "Total undisclosed income amounting to Rs335 crore has been detected so far," it said. The group isbased in Pune's Sangamner area and its entities are largelyengaged in packaging and sale of tobacco and relatedproducts, generation and distribution of power, sale ofFMCGs, and real estate development, the CBDT added.
INDIA CORNER
With neighbouringKerala and fourother states in the
country witnessing a surgein daily Coronavirus cases,the Tamil Nadu governmenton Monday said surveillancein districts bordering Keralahas been intensified and ithas been made mandatoryfor all returnees by flight tocompulsorily undergo RT-PCR test. The state health departmentcontinues to aggressively test for the virus and is involved intracing the contacts, as it is determined to further bring downthe cases, Health Secretary Dr J Radhakrishnan said. Expressingconcern over non-co mpliance by people, including those whogather for political rallies, he appealed to the people not to lowerthe guard as five states in India have recorded an increase incases. "Wearing of masks and maintaining social distancingshould strictly be followed. It was noticed during certain politicalmeetings that the cadres did not wear face masks or followsocial distancing. Such an offhand attitude could lead tounpleasant consequences," he said and pointed out to anincident in Amaravathy district in Maharashtra where a familyhas been infected by the virus. Maharashtra, Punjab,Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, apart from Kerala haverecorded a surge in daily new cases of COVID-19.
CBI visits Abhishek's sister-in-law in coal theft case
Surge of Corona cases inKerala: TN steps up vigil
Rs 335-cr black money foundduring raid on Pune firm
PNS n DHEMAJI
Opening the coffers of hisgovernment for election-bound Assam, Prime MinisterNarendra Modi Mondayslammed the successiveCongress dispensations thatruled the country sinceIndependence gor the"neglect" of the state and thenortheast for decades.
On his third visit to Assamin a month, Modi, whodedi-cated to the nation threemajor projects in the petrole-umsector worth over Rs 3,222crore, enumerated steps takenbythe state government led bySarbananda Sonowal and thecentreover the past few yearsfor its balanced growth.
He also inauguratedDhemaji Engineering Collegeand laid the foundation stonefor Sualkuchi EngineeringCollegewith initial projectcost of Rs 45 crore and Rs 55crorerespectively in this townon the northern bank of theBrahmaputra.
He had unleashed a majordevelopment offensive in
therun up to the state polls onFebruary 7 when he laid the-foundation of and dedicatedto the nation infrastructure-projects involving Rs 9,310crore.
Again, on February 18, he
had gifted a bouquet of devel-opment projects worth aboutRs 10,000 crore to the state.
"Those who ruled fordecades since Independencebelieved Dispur was too dis-tant from Delhi. 'Dilli ab
door nahi aapke darwaaze parhai' (Delhi is not far now, itstands at your doorstep," hetold a massive gathering.
The previous governmentsadopted "step-motherly"approach to the north bank
region and neglected connec-tivity, health, education andindustry, he alleged.
"I had come earlier toGogamuk in the state's north
bank and said that Assamand the northeast will becomethe new growth engine of thecountry and now we see thisbelief bear fruit," he said.
The prime minister saiddue to sustained efforts by theAssam government morethan 20 engineering collegeshavebeen set up.
Referring to the newNational Education Policy(NEP),he said its emphasis onteaching in local languageswill helpchildren from evenpoor families become doctorsand engineers.
Modi said hardly 40 percent families in Assam hadcooking gas connections till2014 despite the state beingrich in oil and natural gas andrefineries. Almost entire pop-ulation of the state has nowbeen covered under theUjjwala Yojana and one crorewomen have benefited, hesaid.
PM opens treasure chestfor Assam ahead of pollsSmriti Irani
buys land in Amethi PNS nAMETHI
Union Minister Smriti Iranion Monday bought a plot ofland in Amethi to make ahouse for herself and, in anapparent dig at Congressleader Rahul Gandhi, saidno MP from here ever madethe constituency his home.
Without taking names,she said the history is witnessto the fact that no AmethiMP ever built his house andstayed here.
"The people of Amethialways wondered if their MPwould ever reside here afterbuilding his house,” sheclaimed while talking toreporters. Irani had wonthe 2019 Lok Sabha electionsfrom Amethi after defeatingthe then MP, Rahul Gandhi.
“During the 2019 LokSabha polls, I had promisedthat I would make my househere and do all my workfrom here. For this I have gota plot of land registered," sheadded.
West Bengal notsingled out, says EC PNS n NEW DELHI
The Election Commission onMonday said that centralpolice forces are being sent toall poll-bound states and notspecifically to West Bengal,stressing that it is a routinepractice for several decades.
In a statement, the pollpanel said the CPFs are rou-tinely sent to all the states andUTs where Lok Sabha orassembly elections are to takeplace, for advance area dom-ination, especially in the crit-ical and vulnerable sectors.
It said these sectors areidentified by meticulousadvance reviews and concretefeedback from various sources,including political parties and
entities. This practice is goingon since the late 1980s, itobserved.
The Commission wasresponding to certain reportsclaiming that central forceswere being specifically sent toWest Bengal.
During the 2019 Lok Sabhaelections also, central forceswere sent to all states and UTs,and the same has been done inall assembly polls.
"In the instant case also, theCPFs have been sent to all thefour states namely Assam,Kerala, Tamil Nadu, WestBengal and the UT ofPuducherry where assemblyelections are to take place," thestatement said.
It also said that the or
Kolkata : Deputy ElectionCommissioner Sudip Jain,who is in charge of WestBengal, will be visiting the stateon Friday to oversee the pre-paredness for the upcomingassembly elections, officialssaid.
During his visit, Jain isscheduled to hold meetingswith district magistrates, policesuperintendents and othersenior officials of the state, theysaid. "Mr Jain is scheduled tocome this Friday to have a lookat the overall preparedness forthe assembly elections. He willalso take stock of the law andorder situation in the state. Thedistrict administrations have
been asked to preparePowerPoint presentations ontheir preparations for the elec-tions," a poll panel officialtold on Monday. Jain mayalso meet officers transferredto the different departments,mainly in the administrationand the
police, during his visit toWest Bengal, the official said.
"There have been severalshuffles in the administrationas well as in the police depart-ments recently. Mr Jain maymeet them as well as ADG(Law and Order), senior policeofficers, and the ChiefSecretary and HomeSecretary," he said.
EC official likely to issueguidelines for CRPF deployment
PNS n NEW DELHI
India is working hard toenhance its capabilities andcapacities in the defence-manufacturing sector at afast pace, Prime MinisterNarendra Modi said onMonday, noting that therewere hundreds of ordnancefactories before independencewith large-scale weaponsexport from the country inboth world wars but this sys-tem was not strengthened.
Addressing a webinar on
the effective implementationof the Union Budget's provi-sions in the defence sector,the prime minister listed aseries of measures taken byhis government to boost self-reliance in the defence sectorand rued the fact that thecountr y is amongst thebiggest defence importers inthe world.
"An India that has thecapacity to reach Mars couldhave made modern weaponsalso, but it became an easyway to import weapons from
abroad," he said. But now, thecountry is working hard tochange the situation and alsoto enhance its capacities andcapabilities at a fast pace, theprime minister asserted.
"Before independence, weused to have hundreds ofordnance factories. In boththe world wars, weapons atlarge scale were exportedfrom India. But for variousreasons, this system was notstrengthened as much as itshould have been after inde-pendence," he said.
India will enhance capabilitiesin defence manufacturing: PM
PNS n CHANDIGARH
With Punjab witnessing anincrease in the number ofCOVID-19 cases, health officialson Monday ascribed theupswing to people not adheringto safety guidelines like wearingmasks and maintaining socialdistancing.
According to the state healthdepartment data, Punjab hasrecorded daily cases between200 and 350 for the last severaldays. It added almost 5,000cases in a period of 21 days start-ing February 1. The number of
active cases on February 21stood at 3,019 as against 2,101on February 1, an increase of 44per cent, the data showed."People are not followingCOVID-19 safety precautionslike wearing masks and main-taining social distancing which
is the main reason behind thesurge in cases in the state," saidRajesh Bhaskar, Punjab's nodalofficer for COVID-19.
Officials stressed that peopleshould shed the casualapproach. They said some stu-dents and teachers testing pos-itive for coronavirus in ShaheedBhagat Singh Nagar, Ludhianaand other districts has also con-tributed to the infection tally.
Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagarhas the highest number of activecases in the state at 583, accord-ing to health department data.When the COVID-19 pandem-
ic first hit the country last year,SBS Nagar had emerged as oneof the hotspots. However, laterthe authorities successfully man-aged to contain infections.
Punjab Health Director G BSingh said, "We have sent a teamof experts to SBS Nagar to seewhy the cases are on the rise inthe district."
The state health departmenthas also sent some samples forgenome testing to the Instituteof Genomics and IntegrativeBiology, Delhi to check for thepossibility of another strain ofthe virus, he said.
SURGE IN COVID INFECTIONS
PNS n THIRUVANANTHAPURAM
In what could spell freshtrouble to the Left governmentin Kerala, opposition leaderRamesh Chennithala onMonday released a copy of thestate's letter to the Centreregarding a US-based firm,with whom he alleged that ithad earlier entered into a pactfor deep sea fishing.
In the purportedletter sentin December, 2019, statePrincipal Secretary K RJyothilal wanted the Centre toverify the credentials of theEMCC International, the US-based firm.
The official, in the letter,
had specifically mentionedthat the company was interest-ed in innovative technologydevelopment for the upgrada-tion and promotion of deepsea fishing in the state ofKerala.
In the letter, addressingJoint Secretary, Ministry ofExternal Affairs, he also said
that the firm had submitted aconcept note to the state gov-ernment regarding this.
Chennithala, at a press meethere, said the government waswell aware that the projectsubmitted by the companywas for deep sea fishing, whichhad been denied by ChiefMinisterPinarayi Vijayan andFisheries Minister JMercykutty Amma for thelast two days.
"They have been saying thatthe Chief Minister and otherministers concerned were notaware about the firm and itsproject. Then, how did thegovernment send such a letter-to the Centre?" he asked.
‘Kerala govt had sent letter to Centre on deep sea fishing’
PNS n JAIPUR
With the Narayanasamy gov-ernment losing power inPuducherry, Rajasthan ChiefMinister Ashok Gehlot onMonday accused the BJP ofgrabbing power by destabil-ising Congress governments.
The Congress governmentin Puducherr y fel l onMonday after Chief MinisterV Narayanasamy resignedahead of the confidence votesought by him in theAssembly after his govern-ment was reduced to aminority due to a spate ofresignations of party MLAsand a DMK legislator overthe past few days.
In a tweet, Gehlot said,“What has happened inPuducherry is most unfortu-nate and yet another case ofhow BJP is destabilisingCongress governments tograb power through unethi-cal means. First, they creat-ed problems in running theadministration through theLieutenant Governor andnow this has happened.”
“Luring Congress MLAs
has been their modusoperandi in all Congressruled states. We saw this inKarnataka, MP and now inPuducherry. They tried it inRajasthan but people ofRajasthan taught them a les-son,” he said.
Gehlot accused the BJP ofundermining democracy inthe country.
“The people are watchingwhat tactics BJP is adoptingand the party will be taughta lesson by electorates in thenext elections inPuducherry,” the chief min-ister added.
PNS n JABALPUR
A Public Interest Litigation wasfiled in the Madhya PradeshHigh Court on Monday seekingreduction in fuel prices, with thepetitioner claiming that con-sumers have to pay high leviesfor mixing of ethanol in petroland diesel. Petitioner ManishSharma, coordinator of NGONagrik Upbhokta MargdarshakManch, told tax on ethanol was
5 to 7 per cent but the levycharged from consumers is ashigh as 25 to 35 per cent per litreof petrol and diesel, whichmeans the buyer ends up pay-ing Rs 4 to Rs 5 extra as tax.
Oil companies blend 6 to7percent of ethanol in petrolanddiesel per litre under theNational Policy on Biofuels, hesaid, adding that fuel pumps donot mention the ethanol detailsin the purchase bill.
Fuel prices: PIL in MP HC claimsdiscrepancy in ethanol tax
PNS n LUCKNOW
With a target of makingUttar Pradesh 'atmanirb-har', the Yogi Adityanathgovernment on Mondaypresented a Rs 5,50,270.78crore budget for financialyear 2021-22 in the stateAssembly.
With Assembly electionsin the state less than a yearaway, the budget includesnew schemes of Rs27,598.40 crore, with infra-structure development bag-ging the lion's share.
The budget presented byFinance Minister SureshKumar Khanna, in the pres-ence of the chief minister, isover Rs 37,410 crore morethan the previous year'sbudget size, making it thelargest fund allocation in thestate. Reading out the bud-
get speech from a laptop,Khanna said the target wasto make Uttar Pradesh"atmanirbhar" and ensure allround development of thestate.
This is the Adityanathgovernment's first paper-less budget. The budget for2021-22, is also the last bud-get of the presentAdityanath governmentbefore the next UPAssembly polls.
The budget makes a pro-vision of Rs 101 crore for theunder-construction airportin Ayodhya which will benamed 'MaryadaPurushottam SriramAirport, Ayodhya' after LordRam and also earmarks Rs2,000 crore for increasingthe number of airstrips atthe Jewar Airport in Noidato six from two.
UP govt presents Rs 5,50,270-cr budget
Puducherry developmentunfortunate, says Gehlot
PNS n SRINAGAR
Security forces destroyeda suspected object,believed to be an IED,found by a patrol partyon the Srinagar-Baramulla highway nearNowgam area of the cityon Monday, police said.
Central Reserve PoliceForce (CRPF) personnel,patrolling the Srinagar-Baramulla highway,found a tin can by thebusy roadside atNowgam, a police offi-cial said.
Suspected IEDin Nowgamdestroyed
PNS n LUCKNOW
BSP president and formerUttar Pradesh chief min-ister Mayawati Mondaytermed the state govern-ment's budget "extremelydisappointing", saying itjust has promises for peo-ple but nothing to addressunemployment. TheAdityanath-led BJP gov-ernment presented a Rs5.5-lakh crore budget for2021-22 in the Assemblywith a target of makingUttar Pradesh self-reliant.
Mayawati termsUP budget‘disappointing'
CRPF DEPLOYMENT
Officials ascribe to people not following norms
President, Biden was personal-ly entrusted the task of yetanother troop pullout, thistime from Iraq (Biden had ear-lier voted for authorising mil-itary force in 2002, then as theChairman of SenateCommittee on ForeignRelations). This withdrawal of1,50,000 troops when the“enemy” was clearly not defeat-ed, was to prove fatal. It creat-ed a sudden vacuum and theAl-Qaida metastasized intoISIS and, within a couple ofmonths, the “caliphate” hademerged over most of theSyrian-Iraqi swathes. A newdimension of global terror,regional upheaval and reli-gious extremism was born —all fingers pointed towards apremature withdrawal of UStroops, among other factors.Importantly, Biden had thenpersonally punted on one of themost controversial, sectarianand irresponsible locals, Nourial-Maliki, to manage the showin the absence of US troops.The troops had to return to Iraqin 2014 to undo the damage ofwhat was clearly a wrong deci-sion to withdraw. Around thesame time, Biden was pushinghard for a similar scale-down ofthe US troops in Afghanistanwith a limited mandate ofcounterterrorism, like proposedin Iraq — however, President
Barack Obama heeded thecounsel of his Generals, whosuggested otherwise.
In 2021, President Bidenhas inherited Donald Trump’sdecisions for complete with-drawal of US troops fromAfghanistan and Somaliawhere, yet again, the “enemy” inthe form of Taliban (and affili-ates) and Al-Shabab, respective-ly, is waiting menacingly.Somalia withdrawal has alreadyhappened and the ravaged ter-ritory is again left precariouslypoised. Afghanistan as the hubof regional/global terror has analtogether different portent atstake. Clearly the deadline forcomplete withdrawal of thetroops by May 1, 2021, is star-ing in the face for the force ofabout 2,500 troops (down from1,00,000 in 2011) and the con-flated “peace agreement” withthe Taliban that underwritessuch a withdrawal, remainsroutinely and supremely violat-ed. The surge of maraudingTaliban towards an embattledKabul continues and herein toassume that 2,500 US troopswould be able to withstand pres-sures that a one-time composi-tion of 1,00,000 could not — letalone the situation when eventhis miniscule element departsas planned — is disastrous.
The practical logic of“counterterrorism level” pres-
ence does not hold good, as vet-ted by history. Blind adherenceto commitments withoutassuming inevitabilities willdeligitimise the cost in terms oflives lost, resources and ratio-nales invested in the last 20years, besides affording a terror-based sovereign. A recentbipartisan US Congress-appointed Afghan Study Grouphas concluded a damningassessment of the Taliban’s owncommitments towards condi-tionalities so far, and fore-warned of impending bloodycivil war, therefore suggestingthe abandonment/extension ofthe May 1 timeline. Bidenmust be guided by his memo-ry and experiences of the ear-lier US withdrawals and thesubsequent costs to the US. Itsglobal interventions have rarelysucceeded, however, leavingmid-course has always madesituations worse. Timing iseverything and, as things standin Afghanistan, currently itlooks ominous. Biden mustrethink withdrawal commit-ments and imperatives inAfghanistan — personal expe-rience should advise him so.
(The writer, a militaryveteran, is a former LtGovernor of Andaman &Nicobar Islands andPuducherry. The viewsexpressed are personal.)
It’s obvious for a party that has its origins in a mass movement to use a similaropportunity for expanding its base. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which rules theroost in Delhi, is now envisaging prop roots in the heartland of western Uttar Pradesh
(UP), also called Jatland, riding on its support for the farmers’ agitation. However,the road to power in the politically sensitive State is no cakewalk as, unlike in Delhi,here religion, regional, caste and traditional loyalties matter in elections. These fac-tors play a decisive role at the hustings. Besides, if the anti-incumbency factor comes
into play in next year’s Assembly elections,regional parties rather than the AAP are more like-ly to harvest it. Furthermore, any possible expan-sion of the party will be at the cost of satraps likethe Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), SP and BSP who counton their traditional vote banks. These regional play-ers will never allow an “outsider” to dent their votebanks. Even if the AAP forges an alliance with theseparties, they will most likely not offer it the“winnable” seats, certainly not at the expense oftheir vote bank.
Meanwhile, what leaves the BJP concerned afterthe Red Fort siege on Republic Day is that the agi-tation focus has shifted from Punjab’s growers to
the Jat cultivators of western UP and Haryana. The BJP well understands that if thestrong Jat community decides not to favour the party in the UP Assembly polls, itschances of retaining power would be next to impossible. It is for this reason that theBJP leaders, including Union Minister Sanjeev Balyan and many Ministers in the YogiAdityanath Government, are wooing influential khap leaders. They will definitely leaveno stone unturned to make the situation favourable for the party. On the other hand,AAP convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal recently met farm leaders overlunch to discuss the ongoing protest against the Centre’s farm laws. He will alsoaddress a Kisan Mahapanchayat in Meerut on February 28 to show solidarity withthe farmers. The AAP has already revealed its ambition by announcing that in thenext two years, it will contest elections in six States including UP and Uttarakhand.Well, there is no harm in trying one’s luck but whether the party is able to leave anyreal imprint or would end up as an “also-ran”, only time will tell. As of now, its prospectsdon’t seem too promising, at least not in UP.
The new year had brought relief to India from the pandemic and, as late as February11, the country had been consistently following a declining slope of COVID-19active cases with the load dropping to 1.41 lakh and 33 States and Union Territories
reporting less than 5,000 active cases. This, combined with the world’s largest vac-cination drive in the country, had given people the hope that we would soon be see-ing the end of the outbreak that had crippled our ailing economy and resulted in majorsalary cuts, job and business losses and long periods of isolation and mental dis-tress for millions of Indians. However, last week seems to have dashed all hopes ofrecovery from the contagion as we are seeing a surge in Coronavirus cases again.
India has reported close to 87,000 infections inthe last seven days, with the highest addition onSunday when the country saw 14,264 fresh caseswithin a span of 24 hours. More worryingly, Indianow has all three Coronavirus variants that havecaused a massive resurgence of cases globally,i.e. B.1.1.7 that was first discovered in the UK,B.1.351 which is dominant in South Africa and P.1from Brazil. These have a unique collection of muta-tions, which make them spread more readily orcheat vaccine immunity. Even though there hasbeen a spike in daily cases in Chhattisgarh, MadhyaPradesh, Punjab and Jammu & Kashmir, Kerala and
Maharashtra are the major worrying factors as they are bearing the brunt of the newstrains, with over 74 per cent of the nation’s active cases in the two States.
While in the last month, the average weekly cases in Kerala have fluctuated between34,800 and 42,000, weekly positivity in the State has ranged from 13.9 per cent to8.9 per cent. In Maharashtra, too, in the last four weeks the cases have increased from18,200 to 21,300 and weekly positivity has increased from 4.7 per cent to eight percent. The areas of concern are mainly in suburban Mumbai where the weekly caseshave risen by 19 per cent. In Nagpur, Amravati, Nashik, Akola and Yavatmal, the week-ly cases have increased by 33 per cent, 47 per cent, 23 per cent, 55 per cent and 48per cent, respectively. This has led to experts warning that the new strains could behighly transmissible and dangerous and could even cause re-infections in people whohave developed antibodies to the virus. In fact, AIIMS Director Randeep Guleria haswarned that herd immunity is a “myth” in the country because at least 80 per centpeople need to have antibodies for the whole of the population to be protected. So whatit effectively means for a poor country like ours, which is highly populated and wherea large part of the populace does not have medical insurance, is that we cannot letour guard down till we have seen the last of this pandemic. Either we follow the rulesor suffer yet another surge of the dreaded pandemic. The choice is ours.
COVID returns?
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/
HYDERABAD | TUESDAY | FEBRUARY 23, 2021
06
Harvesting votesThe BJP and the AAP, besides other satraps,
are wooing Jat farmers in western UP
Personal experience should guide Biden while deciding on US troopwithdrawal commitments and imperatives in Afghanistan
PICTALK
A fisherman fishes through a hole in frozen Walden Pond in Massachusetts AP
BIDEN MUST BEGUIDED BY HISMEMORY AND
EXPERIENCES OFTHE EARLIER
WITHDRAWALSAND THE
SUBSEQUENTCOSTS TO THE US.
ITS GLOBALINTERVENTIONS
HAVE RARELYSUCCEEDED, AND
LEAVING MID-COURSE HAS
WORSENEDSITUATIONS
BHOPINDER SINGH
Contrary to expectations, active cases are on the rise, especially in Kerala and Maharashtra
Questioning pullbackfrom Afghanistan
On January 3, 1973, 30-year-old Joe Biden gotelected for the firsttime to the United
States (US) Senate. On January27, 1973, just 24 days later, a face-saving “Agreement on Ending theWar and restoring Peace inVietnam” was signed with fullknowledge among the belligerentparties of what was inevitable.This sham “peace accord”enabled the battle-weary UStroops to withdraw and the lasttroops were airlifted on April 30,1975 — later that day, the US allyin southern Vietnam capitulatedand its leader Thieu was left fum-ing: “The US did not keep itspromise to help us fight for free-dom. It was in the same fight thatthe US lost 50,000 of its youngmen.” Then US President GeraldFord argued about opening thedoors to South Vietnamese whohad fought on the US side.However, the young Biden insist-ed that the US had “no obligation,moral or otherwise, to evacuateforeign nationals”. Biden’s youth-ful bravado aside, the US troops’withdrawal from the unpopularwar did not end as scripted in thepurported “peace accord”.
In 1995, the US troopsescorted out the final remnant ofthe UN peacekeeping force fromSomalia even as local militiamenwere firing upon the withdraw-ing force. Banalities from the UNSecretary General, that efforts tobring peace and aid to Somaliawould continue, flew in the faceof the ground reality of advanc-ing militias. Over 100 UN peace-keepers and 42 US troops haddied before the final withdraw-al. Importantly, the nemesis of theUN/US force i.e. ruthless warlordGeneral Aidid was still alive, andgaining ground. Expectedly,General Aidid soon declaredhimself the President of Somaliaand a full-fledged civil war brokeout. By now, Biden was no longera wet-behind-the-ears Senatorand had already run for the 1988Democratic presidential nomina-tion. Also, as a longtime memberof the US Senate Committee onForeign Relations, the immedi-ate impact of troop withdrawalfrom Somalia would not havebeen lost on Biden.
Cut to 2011. By now the Vice-
SOUNDBITEINVOLVE PRIVATE PLAYERS IN VACCINATION Sir—It is worrying that the number ofCOVID-19 infection cases is again on therise and States like Maharashtra and Keralaare the worst affected. With new mutantsof the deadly virus invading India, itseems that our vaccination programme willfall flat as against these new strains thereare no vaccines developed yet and if it startsto rapidly spread, then we will be facing acrisis more devastating than the first waveof infection.
For rapid vaccination, the Governmentmust involve private players, else thespread of infection will supersede the rateof vaccination and recoveries.TheGovernment should ask the private com-panies to divert their funds under theCorporate Social Responsibility (CSR) forthe cause. Rapid and mass vaccination is notpossible without private participation.
Further, instead of developing differ-ent vaccines for different mutations, the sci-entists must try to develop a single vaccinewhich should work against all the presentstrains and also future possible mutants.Also, all States must cooperate in terms oflogistics and resource sharing in fighting thepandemic. All the States who are failing tocontrol the spread of the pandemic mustbe penalised heavily and, if required, theCentre should impose President’s Rule cit-ing extraordinary situation or health emer-gency. On the other hand, people must takeall necessary precautions like wearing ofmasks, sanitising their hands, maintainingsocial distancing to keep the infection at bay.We cannot act carelessly at this juncture, it’sa question of life and death.
M Raghuraman | Mumbai
SHAME ON CHINA AND THE PLA Sir —This refers to the editorial ‘Chinesecheckers’ (February 20). Finally, the XiJinping-led Chinese administration admit-ted the loss of four soldiers during theGalwan Valley faceoff with India in Junelast year. It is a matter of shame for Chinathat it took the PLA eight months to recog-nise the demise of its soldiers and thatmust have sent an indication down to its
ranks that the Chinese Army does not carefor the martyrdom of its soldiers, unlikeIndia which honours its martyrs.
These exchanges and clashes at thefriction points are more of a perceptionbattle rather than being a stage for “war”,and it is more prudent to accept and leadswiftly with changing scenarios instead ofhiding the facts, ignoring the truths andbearing the brunt later.
Such instances by the Army andadministration might lower the morale ofsoldiers, which is evident on the Chineseside, but India is leading with high emo-tional quotient and the morale of ourArmy personnel is high as ever. It was alsoevident during the recent disengagementdialogue. The morale of our soldiers ismuch higher than that of their Chinesecounterparts.
Nischai Vats | Sultanpur
ALL MUST WALK FOR HEALTH Sir —It is not only for the elders to jog andwalk but even yongsters and people of
middle age should walk. It helps in main-taining the cholesterol level and burningextra body fat. However, it is seen thatmany people even take doctors’ advice forgranted and do nothing to control theirblood pressure and sugar levels except tak-ing medicines.
Lifestyle diseases are very commonthese days and lakhs of people die becauseof it. The urban lifestyle and extreme workpressure has given us a convenient life buthas taken a toll on our health.
The cause of concern is that lifestylediseases are irreversible and if a person fallsprey to these, s/he can lead a healthy lifeonly by taking precaution and medicines.While COVID-19 has devastated ourlives, it was witnessed that those having co-morbities were more vulnerable.Lifestyle diseases coupled with COVID aredangerous.
N Soumik | Bhubaneswar
Send yyour ffeedback tto:[email protected]
The sky-rocketing prices of petrol and dieselare also driving up the prices of essentialcommodities — as a consequential effect.
The common man, already battered by theadverse effects of COVID-19 pandemic and strin-gent lockdown, has been put into unprecedent-ed hardships by this price rise. The rising pricesof commodities on the one hand and loss ofincome on the other, is a double whammy that
the common man is unable to cope with. Even if we consider the previous
Governments’ failure to reduce the dependenceon the import of crude oil, what's about the hugetax imposed by both Centre and StateGovernments at present? While the Centre claimsthe fuel prices are deregulated, but it is only intheory.
The oil price decontrol is a one-way streetin India — when global prices go up, it is passedon to the consumer, who has to cough up morefor every litre of fuel consumed. But when thereverse happens and prices go down, theGovernment — almost by default — slaps freshtaxes to ensure that it rakes in extra revenues,even as the consumer, who should have ideal-ly benefited by way of lower pump prices, isshort- changed and forced to either pay what he'salready paying, or even more. The key benefi-ciary in this subversion of price decontrol is theGovernment. The consumer is a clear loser.
N Sadhasiva Reddy | Bengaluru
Govt has failed to control fuel pricesWe are correctingthe faults of the previous regimes. Ifthe policy is accurate,destiny would beperfect. Connectivity,health, education and infrastructuredevelopments were ignored by the previous Governments.
Prime Minister — Narendra Modi
On February 26,117,000 doses ofPfizer vaccines willarrive in the countryand the vaccines willbe administered tomedical staff
treating Coronavirus patientsstarting February 27.
South Korea PM —Chung Sye-kyun
I reached the top
two in Bigg Boss
and surprisingly I am
not sad that I have
not won. I am more
than happy that I
have played the game gracefully.
Singer—Rahul Vaidya
We have decided tolaunch a mass registrationand awareness pro-gramme for constructionworkers and labourersso that they can avail welfare schemes.
Delhi Deputy CM —Manish Sisodia
Life has always thrownchallenges. Haryanahas three spinners whohave already playedfor India. I always knewthat if I get an
opportunity, I must make it count. Cricketer
—Rahul Tewatia
LETTERS TO TTHE EDITOR
Time for Govt to makea clear-cut choice
I AM THE ONLY ONE WHO REFUSED TO DO ITEM
NUMBERS AND BIG HERO FILMS WHICH MADE THE
ENTIRE ‘BULLYWOODIA’ GANG TURN AGAINST ME.
—ACTOR
KANGANA RANAUT
LOVED YOUR DANCING IN THIS ITEM NUMBER
IN THE FILM RAJJO. YOU ARE A GREAT PERFORMER
AND A GREAT DANCER KANGANA.
—ACTOR
SWARA BHASKER
The State-owned Oil and Natural GasCorporation (ONGC) is forming a newwholly-owned subsidiary company with
the objective of sourcing, marketing and tradingnatural gas. The company is already into explo-ration and production of gas (besides crude oil)which it sells to a variety of industries manufac-turing fertilisers, power, chemicals, petrochem-icals, CNG, gas for household consumption andso on.
So what has prompted it to set up a sepa-rate company solely for the purpose of tradingand marketing of gas? It is not a simple case ofbusiness restructuring, but an attempt to circum-vent control on the price of gas imposed by theUnion Government. To understand how it seeksto do so, let us have a look at the extant pricingstructure.
Under the pricing guidelines effective sinceNovember 2014, for all domestic supplies fromfields given under the New Exploration andLicencing Policy (NELP), as also blocks given onnomination to ONGC and Oil India Limited(OIL) before the NELP, the price — call it nor-mal price — is a weighted average of prices at fourinternational locations in the US, the UK,Canada and Russia. It is revised every sixmonths in a financial year and the current price,from October 1, 2020, is $1.79 per million Btu(British thermal unit).
Also, under a special package for deep/ultra-deep, high-pressure/high-temperature (HP/HT)fields announced in March 2016, the supplies areallowed a market-based price, subject to a ceil-ing which is linked to the prices of alternate fuels,including fuel oil, naphtha and LNG. The cur-rent ceiling price is $4.06 per million Btu, knownas the “premium” price, the applicable price isarrived at based on competitive bidding — inwhich earlier, affiliates of gas producers were notallowed to participate. If the discovered priceexceeds the ceiling, then the buyer pays only theceiling price. From October 2020, the bar on par-ticipation of affiliates of the gas producing firmwas removed. This means that the producer canbuy its own gas (albeit through its affiliate) andsell it to third parties at a higher rate thereby cir-cumventing the ceiling price. Reliance IndustriesLimited (RIL), which produces gas from the KG-D6 field in the Krishna Godavari basin, did pre-cisely this. In an auction on February 5, offer-ing 7.5 mmscmd (million standard cubic meterper day) of new gas from this field, its subsidiaryReliance O2C Limited bought 4.8 mmscmd at aprice of $4.06 per million Btu and sold it for $6-7 per million Btu to GAIL India Limited (Ltd),Shell and others.
The ONGC wants to do a repeat of whatReliance has done by forming a wholly-ownedsubsidiary which will buy any new gas comingfrom the former’s deep/ultra-deep fields such asKG-D5 also in the KG basin (projected at about15 mmscmd) and in turn, sell it to firms such asMangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd(MRPL) at a price much higher than $4.06 permillion Btu. Being a company whose majority isowned by the Centre, any decision by theONGC Board could not have been taken with-out its prior approval. In other words, the Centreis amenable to the gas producer breaking the ceil-
ing (set by none other than theCentre itself) and selling at a high-er market discovered price. Putsimply, the Government’s initialdecision to put a cap on the pricegets nullified by its subsequentaction of allowing an affiliate of thegas producer to bid.
The supplies from fields givenunder the Open Acreage LicencingPolicy (OALP) (introduced in July2017) are already eligible for mar-ket-based pricing. This also appliesto unconventional hydrocarbonssuch as shale gas, coal bed methane(CBM) from the fields awardedunder the NELP. Further, suppliesfrom the so-called marginal fields(a total of 149) previously with theONGC and OIL and recently auc-tioned to private entities, alsoqualify for complete freedom ofpricing. Now, gas companies arebuilding pressure on theGovernment to alter the mecha-nism of fixing even the normalprice applicable to supplies fromfields given under NELP and nom-ination blocks to the ONGC andOIL before the NELP. The Ministryof Petroleum and Natural Gas hadagreed to look into this and evenset up a committee. That was inOctober, 2020 when an idea wasmooted to fix a floor price linkedto the Japan-Korea Marker (JKM)— a benchmark index used todetermine LNG tariff in North Asia—with a discount. This wouldhave yielded a floor of $4 millionBtu.
Putting all the pieces together,one gets a sense that gas firms will
receive price on an escalating scalewith a minimum of $4 per millionBtu and maximum, hitting anylevel depending on the demand-supply scenario. Is this what theModi Government had plannedfor?
It may be worthwhile to goback to 2014 when it had under-taken a review of the gas pricingformula finalised by the then UPAGovernment (January 2014) whichcould not be implemented in viewof impending general elections.Then Team Modi had categorical-ly rejected market-based pricing,arguing that domestic supply of gasbeing far short of demand, thiswould result in high price, whichusers, particularly the fertiliserindustry, power and city gas — theyaccount for nearly three-fourth oftotal gas use — can’t afford. In fer-tilisers, bulk of the gas is used forproducing urea, whose maximumretail price (MRP) is controlled ata low level to make it affordable tofarmers. The excess cost of supplyis reimbursed as subsidy to man-ufacturers. If gas is priced high,with the MRP remainingunchanged, this will result in high-er subsidy, which the Governmentwants to avoid.
Likewise, States want to payless on power subsidy even as theyorder a big slice of it to be suppliedat low tariff or even free to farm-ers and poor households, unrelat-ed to cost.
These overarching considera-tions weighed heavily on the rul-ing dispensation when it decided
to stick to price regulation. For thesame reason, it exercises controlover the allocation of gas. Of thetotal supply, 31 per cent is given topower, 24 per cent to fertilisers and22 per cent is allotted for city gas.Since then, nothing has changed asto warrant a move towards market-based pricing. Neither has theGovernment done away with con-trol on urea’s MRP nor do Stateshave any plans to shed supply offree power to key constituents.
In this scenario, if theGovernment allows gas producersto charge what they want, oneshudders to even think of where thefertiliser and power subsidy bill willreach (every one dollar per millionBtu hike in gas price increases ureasubsidy by about `4,000 croreannually). To accommodate the ris-ing subsidy, it may have to furtherloosen the already relaxed fiscaldeficit trajectory, outlined by theFinance Minister on February 1, forthe next five years (6.8 per cent ofthe Gross Domestic Product in2021-22 gliding down to 4.5 percent in 2025-26).
The Government needs tomake a clear-cut choice. If it feelsthat high price to gas producers isthe only way to make them deliv-er more supplies, then it shouldremove all controls on fertilisers,power and so on and let themadjust as per market forces. If itcan’t, it should regulate gas pricesand strictly adhere to theNovember 2014 guidelines —annulling all subsequent modifica-tions.
If the Centre allows gas producers to charge what they want, one shudders toeven think of where the fertiliser and power subsidy bill will reach
KALYANI SHANKAR
IF THE CENTREFEELS THAT
A HIGH PRICE TOGAS PRODUCERSIS THE ONLY WAY
TO MAKE THEMDELIVER MORE
SUPPLIES, THEN ITSHOULD REMOVE
ALL CONTROLS ONFERTILISERS,
POWER AND SO ONAND LET THEM
ADJUST AS PERMARKET FORCES.
IF IT CAN’T, IT SHOULD
REGULATE GASPRICES AND
STRICTLY ADHERETO THE NOVEMBER
2014 GUIDELINES
Funding is vital for a political party and more so for one that isnot in power. The Congress Party is going through a severe finan-cial crunch and has sought help from its Chief Ministers and office-
bearers. The forthcoming Assembly elections in Kerala, Assam, WestBengal, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry have increased pressure on theparty, which is in power only in Punjab, Rajasthan, Maharashtra,Chhattisgarh and Puducherry. The cash crunch in the ‘Grand Old Party’,which was in power for 56 years, is because of various reasons. Ithas been receiving fewer funds for the last six years because of aperception that the Congress is unlikely to resume its primacy. Second,the BJP has overtaken the Congress since 2014. Third, it is facinga leadership crisis and fourth, regional parties are also vying for dona-tions. Fifth, any party’s funding from private donors depends on pub-lic trust. Earlier the Congress had fund managers in each State, butthis system has collapsed now due to central control.
The party is in need of funds to run State units, headquarters,pay salaries to the staff, for election campaigns, for building a newparty office and so on. In 2018, it touched rock bottom and launcheda 40-day booth committee fundraising programme in October appeal-ing for funds. In fact, the Congress had to resort to crowdfunding.
Some of the most popular fundraising methods for political par-ties are individual and corporate funding. The BJP’s phenomenal abil-ity to capture a massive chunk of corporate donations is closely con-nected to the Congress’ sharp deceleration and financial woes. TheBJP has been occupying the pole position for long in tapping corpo-rate contributions, even when the Congress was in power, with thesaffron party allegedly cornering 90 per cent of the funding.
In recent years, the Modi Government has introduced three sig-nificant changes in political funding and parties can now receive for-eign donations. Any company can give any amount of money to apolitical party and third, any individual, group of people or firm candonate money anonymously to a party through electoral bonds. Thesebonds have been available since January 2018 and the gap in cor-porate donations between the BJP and the Congress is growing wider.Whatever be the reason, such a major gap in political contributionsbetween the ruling and the main Opposition party is not good for democ-racy.
The Congress received `139 crore as donations during 2019-2020, according to an Election Commission (EC) report. It is still thesecond most prosperous party but far behind the BJP. According tothe Congress’ constitution, the lawmakers and workers are supposedto pay one per cent of their income to the party but this does nothappen. It needs to encourage its members to donate more and emu-late Congress leader Kapil Sibal, who, in 2020 was the highest indi-vidual donor and had given ̀ 3 crore to the party fund. A political partymay acquire funds through donations during rallies, relief funds, thesale of coupons and other miscellaneous allocations. However, if pollexpenses are cut there is no need for a party to collect huge funds.
The EC has a long list of suggestions including reforms of polit-ical parties, auditing of accounts, checking black money and cap-ping of anonymous donations to 20 per cent. Several panels haverecommended poll reforms. This included the Goswami Committee(1990), the Vohra Committee (1993) and the Law Commission. Oneof the suggestions was State funding. The need of the hour is elec-toral reforms and it is time to push through these reforms to cleansethe electoral system so that money power becomes less. What isneeded is political will and a consensus on reforms.
(The writer is a senior journalist. The views expressed are personal.)
Today, human societieshave a wider array ofoptions towards making
lifestyle and economic choices.But it is becoming increasing-ly clear that all our choices needto remain within the 1.5ºCelsius Paris Agreement goals,for shaping our pathwaysresponsibly and leaving a clean-er environment as a legacy. Alltoo often, investments in theenvironment are seen as costsbut the reality is that spendingon green initiatives now wouldbe the biggest cost saving of alltimes. It is high time we realisedthat the economy is a subset ofthe environment and not viceversa and a green recovery willprovide thriving economicsand a safer planet for everyone.
World leaders have cometogether on the need to counterthe challenges of climatechange and the COP-26International Climate Summit,scheduled to be held later this
year, is going to be a pivotalmoment for the world to agreeon actionable steps to preventthe catastrophic warming ofour planet. India, being theworld’s fourth-largest carbonemitter with a population of 1.3billion people, requires signif-icant strides in greening itsenergy ecosystem with moresustainable and benign tech-nologies, including fast track-ing the adoption of renewableresources for propelling socio-economic development.
Our country’s transitionto a fully sustainable energy sys-tem shall be enabled by thepush for cleaner energy anddecarbonising the energy sec-tor, which accounts for a quar-ter of global emissions, will bevital for the same.
Fossil fuels make up 75 percent of India’s energy mix (withcoal as the major contributor),while the spectrum of renew-able power including hydro,
solar and wind energy withzero carbon emissions compris-es just 10 per cent, the restbeing biomass, urban andindustrial waste power. Adesired change in the energymix will depend on innovativetechnologies, growing energydemand, strong wind and solarresources, policy support andgrowing investments to ensuresmart, reliable, clean andaffordable energy to over a bil-lion people with an energy con-sumption rate growing fasterthan all major economies in theworld.
One of the key successindicators of any country ispositive balance of paymentswith exports in surplus toimports. Our economy is large-ly dependent upon the importof oil which is to the tune of`7.5 lakh crore annually (15 percent of the total import bill).Reduction in this will go a longway in fostering India’s energy
independence and a solidaction plan is required to grad-ually migrate from the use offossil fuels to renewablesources, including the usage ofhydrogen in the energy sector.
This will ultimately lead usto the basket of “Happy Fuels”i.e., a fuel bringing happiness toself, society and the nation byway of being economical, envi-ronment friendly, safer withmore affordability and betterreach.
To reduce petroleum use,greenhouse gas (GHG) emis-sions, air pollution, and con-
tribute to more diverse and effi-cient energy infrastructure, theCentre has focused on pioneer-ing initiatives like theInternational Solar Allianceand new initiatives like ‘OneSun, One World, One Grid’,World Solar Bank and so on.
Technological progress ison the cusp of making decar-bonisation economically viable.India’s story on solar energyencapsulates the economicargument to switch to cleanersources of power generation.The most recent auction forsolar energy received bids of arecord low of `2 per unit indi-cating that the transition to aneconomy with net-zero emis-sions can both be viable andsustainable. Green hydrogen asan energy resource is gainingmomentum. Already majordeveloped countries have for-ayed in this area, with Japanbeing the leader. Producedfrom renewable energy, green
hydrogen is a zero-emissionmultipurpose fuel used forlong-term energy storage andhelps decarbonise transport,heating and industrial process-es such as steel and cementmaking. With huge renewablepotential, India has a tremen-dous opportunity to explore thegreen hydrogen route to kick-off energy transition.
The Centre, in the recentBudget, announced the estab-lishment of a HydrogenMission, which is a step in theright direction. Several initia-tives to convert coal to gas areunderway and migration to thehydrogen economy needs to beramped up in the same way.
Significantly, businessesmust maintain a balance to pro-tect, sustain and enhancehuman and natural resourcesthat will be needed in thefuture. Organisations arerequired to shift from wealthcreation to value creation with
increased social responsibility.If we are to match the pace
of energy development in theworld, following a super-con-scious approach and methodsneed to be adopted. We mustdevelop a vision with a targetto become energy independentby 2047; develop a hybridmodel i.e., blending of conven-tional and renewable energysources and formulate anaction plan. There must beaggressive implementation forachieving scale and affordabil-ity, plus energy efficiency mustbe a Key Performance Area oforganisations. Schools, col-leges, civil society and organi-sations should partner andengage Generation Next inmaking a change for a bettertomorrow.
Energy independenceneeds to be a major focus areato shape India as a DESH i.e.,having Development, Energy,Security and Harmony.
Energy independence needs to be a major focus area to shape the country as a DESH, i.e. having Development, Energy, Security and Harmony
HYDERABAD | TUESDAY | FEBRUARY 23, 2021
07
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FIRSTCOLUMN
MUST REDUCE MONEYPOWER IN POLITICS
What is needed is political will and a consensuson reforms in the electoral system
UTTAM GUPTA
POINTCOUNTERPOINT
The writer is a New Delhi-based
policy analyst.The views expressed
are personal.
India must migrate to ‘happy fuels’ for a sustainable future
ASHUTOSH KARNATAK
The writer is Member,Appellate Tribunal for
Electricity. The views expressed
are personal.
HYDERABAD | TUESDAY | FEBRUARY 23, 2021 Money 08
MONEY MATTERS
Tyre maker CEAT onMonday announced the
opening of all-womenoperated customer servicecentre Shoppes at Bhatindain Punjab and said it plansto set up such outlets pan-India in the next few
months. The all-women CEAT Shoppes include women workforce forall service-related assistance to customers. This also includesmanual jobs like wheel changing, balancing and operating variousmachinery to service a vehicle, the company said in a release. CEAThad earlier this month said that these service outlets will work asfull-fledged customer service centres. At the time of the global crisisdue to the pandemic, many people have lost their jobs but with thisinitiative, CEAT Tyres is opening avenues for women and creatingmore employment opportunities. The first of such Shoppes hasbeen opened in Bhatinda, north India followed by introduction of 10Shoppes in the next few months across India, it said.
CEAT opens all-women operatedcustomer service centre
Vodafone Idea onMonday
announced thelaunch of PremiumVideo On Demand(PVOD) service onVi Movies and TVApp, in partnershipwith Hungama, as
the telco looks to strengthen its OTT play. The PVOD market inIndia is "premature but promising" as the Indian audiencecontinues to be price-conscious and choosy, Vodafone Idea(VIL) said in a statement adding such models are changing inthe new post pandemic era as consumers explore alternateoptions of entertainment from comfort of their homes. Thecompany said Vi Movies and TV Pay per view model a naturalextension of its entertainment offerings. The current offeringsallow users to watch content at no extra cost as per theirrecharge or post-paid plans.
Voda-Idea launches premiumVOD service on Vi Movies
Tata Motors expectsdomestic passenger
vehicles industry to grow indouble digits in 2021-22on the back of continuedrobust demand momentumdriven by shift towards per-sonal mobility in the after-math of COVID-19 pan-demic, coupled with a lowbase effect, according to a
top company official. Despite uncertainties over increasing com-modity prices and supply of semiconductors, Tata Motors expects itsgrowth in the upcoming fiscal to be better than that of the industry."There is a momentum which continues on the demand side becauseof the shift towards personal mobility. That will remain till everybodygets vaccinated. We don't know when everyone will get vaccinated,"Tata Motors President – Passenger Vehicle Business Unit ShaileshChandra told PTI. Still people will be cautious and therefore there isthis gravity towards personal mobility, he said.
Expect domestic PV industrygrowth in double digits in ’22
PNS n MUMBAI
Extending its losses for the fifthstraight session, equity bench-mark Sensex plummeted 1,145points on Monday, tracking heavylosses in index majors RelianceIndustries, HDFC and TCS amidnegative cues from global mar-kets.
The 30-share BSE index ended1,145.44 points or 2.25 per cent
lower at 49,744.32. The broaderNSE Nifty sank 306.05 points or2.04 per cent to finish at14,675.70.
Dr Reddy's was the top loserin the Sensex pack, sheddingaround 5 per cent, followed byM&M, Tech Mahindra, AxisBank, IndusInd Bank and TCS.
On the other hand, ONGC,HDFC Bank and Kotak Bankwere the gainers.
"India markets opened on aflattish note tracking mixed Asianmarket peers with China tradingin losses as PBoC kept interestrates unchanged while Japan wastrading with marginal gains,"said Narendra Solanki, Head-Equity Research (Fundamental),Anand Rathi.
During the afternoon session,markets started to drift lower andtraded in red as amid fresh con-
cerns over the increase in thenumber of COVID-19 cases con-tributed to the fears that the eco-nomic impact will be much larg-er than earlier estimates, henoted.
"Also, the major western mar-kets failed to provide any supportas it opened to trade in red withequity investors growing concernabout rising bond yields in recentweeks which could hurt high-
growth companies reliant oneasy borrowing," Solanki added.
Elsewhere in Asia, bourses inShanghai, Hong Kong and Seoulended on a negative note, whileTokyo traded with gains. Stockexchanges in Europe were alsotrading in the red in mid-sessiondeals. Meanwhile, the global oilbenchmark Brent crude wastrading 0.66 per cent higher atUSD 62.55 per barrel.
During the afternoon
session, markets started
to drift lower and traded in
red as amid fresh concerns
over the increase in the
number of Covid cases
contributed to the fears
that the economic impact
will be much larger than
earlier estimates
PNS n MUMBAI
The rupee gained 16 paiseto settle at 72.49 againstthe US dollar on Mondaysupported by sustainedforeign fund inflows andexpectation of improvedmacro-economic data.
At the interbank forexmarket, the local unitopened at 72.58 againstthe greenback and wit-nessed an intra-day highof 72.29 and a low of72.58. It finally ended at72.49 against theAmerican currency, regis-tering a rise of 16 paisefrom its previous close. OnThursday, the rupee hadsettled at 72.65 againstthe American currency.The forex market was shuton Friday on account ofShivaji Maharaj Jayanti.
Meanwhile, the dollarindex, which gauges thegreenback's strengthagainst a basket of sixcurrencies, advanced 0.04per cent to 90.40. "Rupeegained strength amidsteady FII inflows andexpectation of improvedmacro-economic data.India's GDP data is fore-cast to show that economyexpanded in Q3 FY21after 2 consecutive quar-ters of contraction," saidSaif Mukadam, Sharekhanby BNP Paribas.
Rupee surges16 paise toclose at 72.49against USD
PNS n MUMBAI
The massive spike in 2021-22borrowing target at Rs 23 lakhcrore, has led to a 31 basispoints rally in benchmarkbond yields to well over 6 percent since the announcementof Budget, and RBI needs tocontain the same by reining inthe short-sellers, says a report.
The Reserve Bank's assidu-ous support to the Centre'sdebt management has ensuredthat in the first half of 2020-21 the borrowing cost for theCentre was the lowest in past16 years as bond yields werebelow 5.75 per cent, thereport by SBI Researchsaid on Monday.
It primarily blamesshort-sellers, who are wor-ried over the large bor-rowing plans, for the sudden
spike in the yields and urgesthe central bank to rein themin.
The report expects theCentre's gross borrowing inthis fiscal year to touch Rs 13.9lakh crore, higher than therevised estimate of Rs12.8 lakh crore, andnet borrowing atRs 11.6
lakh crore, up from the revisedestimate of Rs 10.5 lakh crore.
The combined gross bor-rowings of the Centre andstates are seen at Rs 22.1 lakh
crore this year, higherthan the revised esti-
mate of Rs 21.5 lakhcrore, and net at Rs18.4 lakh crore, up
from Rs 17.8 lakhcrore, accordingto the report.
The reportalso sees gross
borrowingsof theC e n t r ei n c h i n g
down toRs 12.1lakh crore
next fiscalyear, and net
at Rs 9.2 lakh
crore but the combined grossdebt borrowing jumping toRs 23 lakh crore and net inch-ing down to Rs 18.1 lakh crore.
The current fiscal is aninteresting year with the twohalves having diametricallyopposite narratives. DuringApril-September(H1), bondyields were mostly below 6 percent (the lowest borrowingcost in the past 16 years) on theback of effective yield manage-ment by RBI. However, all thischanged after the Budget whenthe government upped its bor-rowing programme for thecurrent fiscal and announcedan aggressive one for 2021-22and with just over a month leftin 2020-21, the market is stillexpecting a consolidated bor-rowing amount of more thanRs 2.5 lakh crore, notes thereport.
After plunging to 16-yr low, yields soar 31 bps
PNS n TOKYO
Global shares were mostlylower on Monday, with Japan'sbenchmark rising but mostothers slipping despite hopesfor a recovery from the coro-navirus pandemic with theglobal rollout of vaccines.
France's CAC 40 slipped 1.1per cent in early trading to5,708.39, while Germany'sDAX dove 1.3 per cent to13,816.87. Britain's FTSE 100declined 1.1 per cent to6,554.12. U.S. shares were toopen lower, with the futurecontract for the Dow industri-als sliding 0.7 per cent to31,224. The S&P 500future fell nearly 1 per cent to3,865.12.
Benchmarks rose in Japanbut fell in South Korea,Australia and China. Investorsremain focused on the futureof global economies badly hitby COVID-19 and when andwhether there will be enoughstimulus to fix it.
But the U.S. USD 1.9 trillioneconomic package proposedby President Joe Biden also
heralds hope for export-reliantregional economies.
Japan's benchmark Nikkei225 gained 0.5 per cent to fin-ish at 30,156.03. South Korea'sKospi dipped 0.9 per cent to3,079.75. Australia'sS&P/ASX 200 edged 0.2per cent lower to 6,780.90.Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell1.1 per cent to 30,319.83,while the Shanghai Compositedropped 1.5 per cent to3,642.44. Japan began admin-istering vaccines for COVID-19 last week. It was the last ofthe Group of Seven industri-al nations to get started, begin-ning with health workers.Prospects for further ship-ments of vaccine remainuncertain, according to TaroKono, the Japanese ministertasked with overseeing theeffort. Vaccination drives areset to start soon in otherAsian nations, such asMalaysia, Vietnam and thePhilippines. Investors remainfocused on the future of glob-al economies badly hit byCOVID-19 and the potentialfor more stimulus to fix it.
Global shares mostlylower as investorswary over stimulus
PNS n SAN FRANCISCO
Federal aviation regulatorshave ordered United Airlinesto step up inspections of allBoeing 777s equipped with thetype of engine that suffered acatastrophic failure overDenver on Saturday.
United said it is temporari-ly removing those aircraft fromservice, as meanwhile Boeingrecommended grounding air-craft with that model engineuntil the Federal AviationAdministration sets an inspec-tion regime.
Pratt and Whitney, maker ofthe engine, said it was sendinga team to work with investiga-tors while coordinating withairlines and regulators. Theannouncements come a dayafter United Airlines Flight328 had to make an emergencylanding at Denver InternationalAirport after its right engineblew apart just after takeoff.
Pieces of the casing of theengine, a Pratt and WhitneyPW4000, rained down on sub-urban neighbourhoods.
The plane with 231 passen-gers and 10 crew on boardlanded safely, and nobodyaboard or on the ground wasreported hurt, authorities said.
The Federal AviationAdministration FAAAdministrator Steve Dicksonsaid in a statement Sunday thatbased on an initial review ofsafety data, inspectors “con-cluded that the inspectioninterval should be stepped upfor the hollow fan blades thatare unique to this model ofengine, used solely on Boeing777 airplanes.” Boeing said itsupported decisions by theJapan Civil Aviation Bureauand FAA to suspend operationsof all 777 aircraft powered byPratt and Whitney 4000-112engines.
It said there were 69 of theengines in service and anoth-er 59 in storage.
“We are working with theseregulators as they take actionswhile these planes are on theground and further inspec-tions are conducted by Prattand Whitney," it said.
PNS n NEW DELHI
Engineering and constructionmajor Larsen & Toubro (L&T)on Monday said its powertransmission and distributionbusiness has bagged largedomestic and overseas con-tracts across its spectrum ofofferings.
Though the company didnot specify the exact value ofthe contracts, as per its speci-fication a large contract rangesbetween Rs 2,500 crore and Rs5,000 crore.
The Power Transmission &Distribution (PT&D) Businessof Larsen & Toubro hassecured two engineering, pro-curement, and construction(EPC) orders to establish morethan 400 MW solar photo-
voltaic projects in Gujarat, thecompany said in a statement.
L&T is one of the leadingEPC players globally in therenewables space with a trackrecord of having built some ofthe largest solar plants.
The company said it hasalso received a 765kV doublecircuit transmission line pack-age in Rajasthan through aproject specific transmissioncompany.
In West Bengal, orders havebeen received to supply andinstall high voltage distributionsystems in certain districts ona turnkey mode, the companysaid adding that another orderto construct 220kV and 132kVtransmission lines has beenwon from the state transmis-sion utility.
The business has won a 400kV substation order in TamilNadu. This project is aimed tomeet the future load growth ofthe Coimbatore region and tostrengthen the evacuation sys-tem of an upcoming pumpedstorage power plant.
In Qatar, it said the businesshas won an order to install lineconnected current limitingreactors for the first time in thecountry's network.
L&T wins large contracts inpower transmission segment
PNS n MUMBAI
Export-Import Bank ofIndia (Exim Bank) onMonday said it hasextended a line of credit(LOC) worth USD 50million to the Republic ofMaldives for financing ofdefence projects in thecountry. An amendatoryagreement for repurpos-ing an existing LOC ofUSD 40 million to includeroad projects in Maldiveswas also signed betweenExim Bank and Maldivesgovernment last week, arelease said.
PNS n NEW DELHI
State-owned Coal India onMonday said it has signed apact with the Centre forRailway Information Systems(CRIS), a wing under the rail-ways ministry, for monitoringthe movement of rakes ladenwith fossil fuel and coaldespatch activity.
The first-of-its-kind datasharing offers Coal India Ltd(CIL) a bouquet of benefits
that help it in rationalising
the entire coal supply matrixthrough rail mode, accordingto the company. It will pro-vide precise details of load-ing, weighment and unload-ing along with turnaroundtime of rakes, it added.
Primarily, it is a hand-shake of freight operationinformation between the net-works of CIL and CRISregarding Coal India's railmovement of coal, the com-pany said, adding that it alsoincludes other logist ics
details. "For faster and cus-tomised automated access todata, through FreightOperations
Information System (FOIS)of Indian Railways, whichwould help Coal India...monitor movement of coalladen rakes and coal despatchactivity, the company onMonday entered a Memor-andum of Understandingwith Centre for RailwayInformation Systems," thePSU said in a statement.
Exim Bankextends LoCworth USD 50mn to Maldives PNS n MUMBAI
The Ministry of ExternalAffairs (MEA) will be holdinga three-day conferencefocused on geoeconomics dur-ing the coming weekend,which will have India's ForeignMinister S Jaishankar amongspeakers, the organisers saidon Monday.
The conference, being heldalong with the think-tankPune International Centre,will also see senior represen-tatives from the governmentsof Australia, Japan, Mauritius,Maldives and Bhutan speak-ing, they said.
It can be noted that theconference comes amid frosty
ties between India and north-ern neighbor China andattempts are on to reach agree-ments to contested borderlines which became ugly lastyear resulting in face-offs at icyheights. Retired diplomatGautam Bambawale, who hasserved as Indian Ambassadorto China till 2018 and is alsothe event convenor, toldreporters that the event hasrepresentation from acrossthe world and will steer clearof politics.
MEA to discusssocioeconomics
CIL inks pact with CRIS forsharing of coal freight data
PNS n MUMBAIMobile app-based lenderMyShubhLife (earlierShubh Loans) has raisedUSD 4 million (about Rs29 crore) in a fundinground led by Singapore-based Patamar Capitaland some of its existinginvestors.
Myshubhlife offersloans, savings productslike insurance, SIPs, e-gold, and e-filing taxes.
Myshubhlifegets $ 4mnfrom Patamar
FAA orders United toinspect Boeing 777s
Sensex sinks 1,145 points; Nifty drops below 14,700Sensex sinks 1,145 points; Nifty drops below 14,700Sensex sinks 1,145 points; Nifty drops below 14,700
e all love to lookgood, don’t we?Highly coveteddesigner outfits,expensive ones,jewelry that we
see in fashion magazinesand more! Fashion, attimes, becomes so self-consuming but for GenesLecoanet Hemant, it is allabout making the countrya better place through theirlatest sustainability initia-tive in collaboration withthe NGO — Silai Wali.
Happiness takes a newform as the apparel joinshands with the NGO tomake hand crafted dolls
for a nostalgic trip backto our childhood
days!Titled
‘TheJoy
Project’, it is aimed at cre-ating circular solutions byutilising off cuts from pastseasons and breathing newlife into them, infusingthem with the innocentquirks of growing up andthe splendid creative spiritof childhood. “There is theblend of social enterprisehere which brought us onboard for this project.Going ecological and greenis the new beckon. Thiswas an inspiring move, weweren’t aiming for a mar-ket competition but rathersend a joint-message ofempowerment with theaddition of hand crafteddolls,” shares HemantSagar, the co-founder ofthe apparel.
The dolls are made bysuch inspiring womenthrough a longstandingsocial campaign.Talking
more about the ‘silai-walis’who were successful inweaving fine hand-crafteddolls that one can’t taketheir eyes off from, he tells,“They are so good at whatthey do, very wonderfullythey used all the scrapwithout making use of anyexterior material becausethen what’s the point ofgoing sustainable. Theirhand-work along with thejudgment of the quality ofthe efforts they added wasso spectacular! When youtake a look at those dolls,it's highly different fromthe traditional ‘putlis’, thefinishing is so good. The‘silai-walis’ managed togive them a contemporary-cum-fresh outlook for anindividual to stop to defi-nitely take a glance at it.Additionally, they operateso methodically whilewalking all the way toattend their workshops inmorning, it’s praiseworthyto witness such sheer hard-work.”
Sustainability manifestsin different forms and itpivots around takingresponsibility to better theplanet and the communi-ties that share it at everystep along the way. ‘TheJoy Project’ is another stepin Genes Lecoanet Hemantcommitment towards sus-tainability through ‘closingthe loop’ for their fabricwaste. The donated postproduction fabric wastethat is hand sewn by theartisans into dolls exempli-fying the ethos of theGenesTribe.
The Joy Project redis-covers the joie de vivre,innately present in all of
us, a little bit ofchildhood thatwe always carrywith ourselves!“There is zero-commercial sagac-ity prevailing here,it’s a social act! Theartisans are the puremaster curators for it. Anideology is being pushedto the pinnacle to exposeconsumers to ecologicalintegrity and social jus-tice. We barely talk twocents about social evolu-tion! Having said that,sustainable fashion isthe sign of the timesand an uprising is yetto take place.Moreover, this project ishighlighting the unifi-cation of differentnationalities as theone who is initiatingthis venture is anIndian while the per-son who worksalong is Frenchand few of theartisans areAfghanirefugees,”the co-founder con-cludes.
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@TheDailyPioneer
facebook.com/dailypioneer
TuesdayFebruary 23, 2021
WSustainable is theway to go thisdecade and whenfashion labels takeit up, it onlypushes consumersto make moreinformed choicesfor the planet.The Pioneer's Shikha Duggaltalks to GenesLecoanetHemantabout theirnew greeninitiative.
Seeking refuge in
here are more trees onour planet than thereare stars in the galaxy,”marvels Dame JudiDench in her documen-tary series My Passion
for Trees. That makes the forestnothing short of a vast universewhere every orb is inexplicablylinked to the other. It is this mor-phology of an ecosystem thatunderlines the essence of GenesSpring Summer 2021!
Titled ‘A New Symbiosis’, the col-lection explores the innate beautyof the wilderness. The forest ismade of infinite elements, eachinteracting with the other in oftenmysterious ways. From embroi-deries that are inspired from thestructure of lichens to layeredprints resembling the cryptic pat-terns on wild mushrooms, theclothes tell the story of biologicalblueprints of these organisms.
As we delve deeper, the fabricand form reveal a nuanced slow-ness. A place of respite, wherelichens and magnificenttrees make space for eachother, effortlessly. Co-existence takes on anew meaning andharmony prevailsin its own naturalpace.Nourishmentis born out ofthat interde-pendenceand aconflu-ence
flourishes. Of the tangible form ofnature and the intangible facet ofits genesis.
For women, hues of eucalyptusgreen, amethyst, dandelion yellowand cinnamon are seen in quaintsilhouettes. The approach is clean,also reflected in the campaignimagery. Think quiet details mim-icking the shapes and forms of thebotanical world of the forestecosystem! Strappy dresses mirrorthe natural silhouette of wild crocusflowers. And signature poplin shirtsare embroidered with motifsinspired from the morphology ofwild mushrooms. Contoured dartsand floral organza appliques add anew dimension to form and feel.Whereas for the men, Genesbrings the spirit of wildernessto their summer wardrobes.Natural motifs play out in anunexpected mix of colours.Think warm peach, hazel yellowsand lavender. Polo tees are diversi-fied through fabric manipulationtechniques while classic shirts andjackets are kissed by a light crocus
flower print — a touch of sen-timentality in a
changing world. Texturedfabrics and a dexterousexecution of darts andtucks are reminiscent ofthe structure of wildmushrooms. Lichens leavea graphic signature on thepieces in the form of intu-itive typography. The clothesmark an innate explorationof the forest with a keeneye on the oftenoverlooked. ForGenes SpringSummer 2021,‘A NewSymbiosis’
celebratesmorphosis
and
interdependence. (The pricing of
the collection startsfrom INR 2,000.)
ow many ofus knewwhat a sani-tiser reallywas beforethe pandem-
ic? And even if we did,it goes without sayingnot many used it so fre-quently. In fact, formany, it was nothingbut a medical luxury.
However, COVID-19 taught us the impor-tance and necessity ofsanitation and hygiene.But long before thispeople like VikasBagaria have alreadybeen working towardsimproving the sanitaryconditions with innov-ative products andcampaigns such as PeeSafe.
“In 2013, my wifeand now the co-founder of Pee Safe suf-fered from UrinaryTract Infection becauseof using dirty publictoilets while travelling.It was then that werealised the importanceof maintaining sanitaryhygiene. That got usthinking and we decid-ed that the need of thathour was for a toiletseat sanitiser spraywhich is easy to carryand cheap enough tobuy. After a lot ofreasearch, it was in2017 that we finallyventured into femalehygiene and intimatehygiene for both menand women with anaim to improve theconditions in the coun-try regarding thisissue,” says Bagaria.
Although femininehygiene has been ataboo in the countryfor generations and notmany people prefer totalk about it in open,the recent years hasseen a change. With theyouth talking and dis-cussing such issues toraise awareness andcreate dialogue, the sit-uation is definitelyimproving, if not more.
“Since the youth hasalways been the driversof change, our targetaudience is also Gen Zand the millennials.They don’t beat aroundthe bush, they arevocal, bold, upfront andsocial media friendlyabout issues like sex,menstruation and inti-mate hygiene. This isexactly what we need. Itis to target these people
that we launch variouscampaigns including,Own the Red, in 2019,where for the first timewe depicted the men-strual blood in adver-tisements as red andnot the standard blue.It is absolutely impera-tive to acknowledgeand work on these littlethings to make biggerchanges,” he says.
Not only this, but thegrowing demand of theyouth insisted the hus-band-wife duo tolaunch their range offemale condoms. “Itwas on the demand ofthe consumers that welaunched our femalecondoms ‘Domina’.They are the ones whoencouraged us by say-ing that this is some-thing they want to talkabout, we worked pure-ly on their demand,” hesays.
The credit of the suc-cess of the brand andits campaigns has to begiven to the young anddynamic team thatBagaria has. “The veryreason behind such dif-ferent ideas, campaignsand products is thatour team consists ofextremely young andenergetic people. Theiraverage age is around23-25 and if they aregiven the freedom toexpress themselves onsocial media, theymake sure they makeevery post worth it. Allour campaigns are inhouse and all the creditgoes to the creativity ofthe team,” Bagariaadded.
The unfortunate partid that the high of sani-tation has gone downagain. “I believe weused to use more sani-tiser sitting at homethan we do now, butthe good news is thatthe pandemic madepeople concerned abouthygiene. I knowalthough awarenessregarding femininehygiene has grownimmensely, it will stillbe some time till itbecomes a householdtopic. Even the budgethas given a concessionto health and wellness,and anything thatemphasis awarenessand increases access isa good thing. I am pos-itive it will also boostthe sector of femininehealth because as longas our women arehealthy, our nation willremain healthy,” hesays.
VIKAS BAGARIA,founder of Pee Safe,talks about how the
pandemic has highlightedthe need of maintaininghygiene and feels that it
is high time thatfeminine hygiene is
given equalimportance
For a safe and hygienic
tomorrow
H
T
FASHION AND ART
Explore the innatebeauty of wilderness
Rules
ARCHIE
GARFIELD
SUDOKU
REALITY CHECK SPEED BUMP CROSSWORD
GINGER MEGGS
NANCY
l Each row and column cancontain each number (1 to 9)exactly once.
l The sum of all numbers inany row or column mustequal 45.
Yesterday’s solution
CALVIN AND HOBBES
FUN
10
Hyderabad Tuesday February 23 2021what’s brewing?
Shivani Mohan and Rina Hindocha curateda Yoga and Wellness program for MercureHyderabad KCP. A lucky few guests were
given the chance to indulge in an evening ofrelaxation in a serene environment, where theypartook in spa treatments at the newly-openedSomara spa outlet, followed by a healthy 5-course meal.
WELL AND GOOD
PARTY
Photos by SV Charyl Deepika l Divya l Soumitra
l Srivani
l Shivani
l Seetha
l Rina Hindocha
l Faridah Lakhani
he Telugu dubbed version ofacclaimed Tamil film SuperDeluxe, a crime black comedy-drama film with elements of sci-ence fiction and fantasy, will bereleased in Telugu states this
April. The Tamil drama, directed byThiagarajan Kumararaja, features the likesof Vijay Sethupathi, Samantha Akkineni
and Ramya Krishna in leadroles.
While Ramya and Samantha arepopular names here, Sethupathi haswon plaudits for his turn in the recentlyreleased box-office smash Uppena,prompting P Madhu Babu of SiddeswaraVaishnavi Films to acquire the dubbingrights and give it a release.
ew produc-tion houses
TicketFactory
and SOriginals
on Monday launchedtheir maiden produc-
tion venture withBrahmanandam,Rahul Vijay and
Naresh Agastya inthe lead roles.
Suma Kanakalasounded the clap-board for the first
shot while VenuUdugula directed it.
Written and directedby debutant Harsha
Pulipaka, the film, ananthology, also fea-
tures Divya Sripada,Sri Vidya, Vikas,
Uttej and Praanya PRao in supporting
roles.Harsha Pulipaka
said, “Every livingcreature needs the five
senses of touch, sight, hearing,smell and taste. The film’s story
is woven around them. Thestory and screenplay are honestand mirror the thought process
of today’s youngsters.”Sandeep Raj, who shot to fame
as a filmmaker with Colour Photo, is pen-ning the dialogues, while Prashanth R Viharihas been tapped to compose music.
The film’s first schedule-of 13 days inHyderabad-commenced on Monday. Later,the action will shift to Visakhapatnam andPuducherry.
11
tollywoodHyderabad Tuesday February 23 2021
n develop-ment forover a year,Ravi Teja’snext with the
successful writer-direc-tor duo of PrasannaKumar Bezawada andTrinadha Rao Nakkinawas finally made officialover the weekend.People Media Factorywill jointly be produc-ing it with AbhishekAgarwal Arts, with the
filming set to com-mence after Ravi wrapsup Khiladi with RameshVarma.
Speaking to us,Prasanna states that heinitially worked on aperiod drama for theactor but as it couldn’tbe madedue
to various reasons, henarrated another storywhich the actor green-lit 20 minutes into thenarration.
“The project gotdelayed because ofCOVID-19. It is an out-and-out entertainer andwill see Ravi garu play-ing dual roles. Peoplewho’ve heard the scriptso far have told me that
it’s tailor-made for theactor,” the writer says,while dismissing claimsthat the actor will beseen as a lawyer in thefilm. The writer hasbeen in touch with theactor for over a coupleof years and cherisheshis bond with him.“The story factor aside,he gives his nod to any-one who he believes is
passionate about hiscraft and realizes that hecan deliver a super hit.He was supposed to doa film with Venu Sriramsometime back but itwas shelved after thelaunch. He recommend-ed my name to the film’sunit as a dialoguewriter. I remember afterHello GuruPremakosame went tofloors, he invited me tohis place and said thatwe should work togeth-er. Admirers of CinemaChupista Maava (CCM)and Nenu Local kepttelling me that my leadactors were an extensionof characters Ravi Tejaplayed. In fact, duringCCM promotions I saidthat I like Ravi garu alot and since I couldn’tget him for my films, Isaw him in the leadroles I’ve written. Nowthat I have him in thisfilm, I will do what Ineed to,” the writerdeclares with an air ofconfidence.
He goes on, “When Istarted writing this film,Krack didn’t make it tothe screens yet, and hisprevious films failed tolight up the box-office.
So the idea was to notjust smash a six but amonster one at it suchthat the ball depositsoutside the stadium.The film is filled withsome six to seven hilari-ous episodes and I'mpretty sure that theaudiences will roll in theaisles watching them.Also, for the people whohave been missing theRavi Teja of Venky andKick, this untitled filmwill be a treat,”the writerpromises, signing off.
- NG
Film with Ravi garu willbe a hilarious entertainer:Writer Prasanna Kumar
The writer, whosebona fides include
Nenu Local and HelloGuru Premakosame,
tells us that Ravi Tejawill be playing dual
roles in the yet-untitled out-and-out
entertainer which rollsafter the actor wraps
up Khiladi
ilmmaker SSRajamouli, who is abig admirer ofChandra SekharYeleti’s body of work,believes that the lat-
ter’s Check will breach thebarrier between mass cinemaand class cinema. “As soon asCheck’s teaser was dropped, Ifelt the urge to catch it in the-atres as and when it opens. Ithas an interesting theme of aprisoner playing chess in aprison.
The audiences have beenexposed to world cinema dueto coronavirus and they arehungry for different subjectsnow. Check is a subject onsuch lines. I’m confident thatit will break the barrierbetween mass cinema andclass cinema. I believe thatdifferent films from now onwill attract the patronageequivalent to that of masscinema,” the leading directorobserved. He was speaking at
the pre-release event of theNithiin-starrer in Hyderabadon Sunday evening.Check, co-starring RakulPreet Singh and PriyaPrakash Varrier, tells thestory of a prisoner (playedby Nithiin) who is servingcapital punishment.During his time in theprison, he learns chessfrom an old prisoner andsoon emerges as a playerto beat while making acase for his mercy peti-tion to be accepted bythe president. Yeletihas directed it fromhis own script, whilethe likes of PosaniKrishna Murali,Murali Sharma,Tripuraneni Sai Chand,Sampath Raj,Harshavardhan, RohitPathak and SimranChoudary have played sup-porting roles. It debuts on thebig screen this Friday.
Check will break the barrierbetween mass cinema andclass cinema: Rajamouli
I
espite featuring in a stringof films like UuKodathara UlikkiPadathara, GundelloGodari and Happy
Wedding, it was Malli Raava thathelped Preeti Asrani to benoticed by one and all. Theactress later played the lead inPressure Cooker, receiving goodacclaim. Now, she is playing akey role in a thriller titled A.Directed by Ugandhar Muniand produced by Geetha
Minsala under the bannerof Avanthika Productions,
the film is scheduled torelease on March 5. The mak-
ers said that Preeti, who has beenpaired opposite Nithin Prasanna, has
got a meaty role and she will sur-prise the audience with her terrific
performance. The film’s trailer,released by Vijay Sethupathi
recently, has garneredgood response.
Preeti Asrani to surprise withher performance
in A: Makers
s he celebrated his birthdayon Monday, director Tejaannounced Chitram 1.1-sequel to his maiden direc-torial Chitram (2000). Hewill be introducing 45 news
faces with the film, a musical lovestory. Speaking to us, he said, “It has asimilar story to that of Chitram. RPPatnaik is scoring tunes right now andonce he gives the six songs, I will pro-ceed with the shoot. The film is set inHyderabad and I will complete theshooting formalities in 40 days. Themale face has been locked, while inanother couple of days I will reveal thenames of the leading ladies.”
The director was flooded with fancyoffers from various territories after theannouncement. “All the area-wise dis-tributions rights have been sold. WhenI asked the distribution parties whythey are acquiring it at the mereannouncement, they said since it isChitram 1.1 we are purchasing it.When I wanted to know what if thestory is not good, they said I’m a mas-ter of the genre,” the director, clearly
amused with the offers this early point-ed out.
That leaves us with the question onthe status of his proposed projectAlamelu Manga Venkata Ramana withGopichand. It was to go in front of thecameras this month. The director clari-fied that it is on but delayed.
“For a long time we couldn’t get theright actress for the film. The filmdepends a lot on her performance andwe tapped someone who even allotteddates from June. Once the paperworkregarding his participation is complet-ed, an official announcement will bemade,” he noted.
Brahmi and Rahul Vijay in an anthology drama
Teja announcesChitram 1.1 on his b'day
As soon as he madethe announcement,area-wise distributionrights of the film havebeen sold likehotcakes
F
N
T
A
D
Cashing in on the crazeof Sam and Sethupathi
sport 12HYDERABAD | TUESDAY | FEBRUARY 23, 2021
PTI n AHMEDABAD
England assistant coach Graham Thorpeon Monday said Ben Stokes should not
forget that he has the ability to putbowlers on the back foot as he tried to playdown the star all-rounder’s apparentstruggles against seasoned Indian off-spin-ner Ravichandran Ashwin.
Stokes was dismissed thrice by Ashwinin the first two Tests in Chennai. Thepower-hitter was, in fact, stifled quiteremarkably by the local favourite in thesecond game.
When asked about Ashwin’s commandon Stokes, Thorpe said, “It is a challenge.Ben actually has at times different stylesof playing. He can build into an inningsas well.
“I think Ben also has that ability to puta bowler on the back foot as well, that issomething which he certainly should notforget.”
Thorpe also hinted that all playersincluding Zak Crawley, who was ruled outof the first Two tests due to an injury, areavailable for selection.
“He (Crawley) is looking fit and I thinkwe have probably got a full complementof players to pick from, so he (Crawley) willbe certainly in the mix, and his injuryseems to have healed for me, watching himin the nets,” said Thorpe.
The assistant coach also said that theseamers could have more impact in theday-night Test despite the track beingexpected to favour slower bowlers.
“It is possible, I mean without lookinginto it, the crystal ball, but I would imag-ine that the ball generally does swing moreunder the lights,” he reckoned.
“They (India) don’t have a huge data-base of pink ball cricket in India, maybethe second one, so looking forward to it,it is a fantastic stadium. We have preparedas well as we can,” he added.
PTI n AHMEDABAD
The game may change ses-sion wise in the third Test,
reckoned Ishant Sharma onMonday, as India and Englanddive into an uncharted territo-ry made up of pink balls, newstadium, newly laid strips andfloodlights of different make.
India will take on Englandin a day-night Test at theSardar Patel Stadium, theworld’s largest cricket venuewith a seating capacity of1,10,000, from Wednesday.
Asked whether the Indianbowlers would use the short-ball tactic during the twilightperiod, Ishant said, “That weget to know once we play at thisground, because it is renovat-ed I can’t really say anythingnow.
“We can’t say what (will)trouble the batsmen and whatwill not, there will be a lot ofthings (that) we will have to see,we don’t know how we willhave to tackle all these things,there will be dew...”
Ishant, who is standing onthe cusp of playing his 100Tests, said each bowler willhave to take responsibility ses-sion wise.
“How the wicket is hereand how they (England) play,obviously under lights the ballswings, but you will have to seethe dew factor, so there will bemany things, and you cannotstraightaway say that whetherfast bowlers will remain in thegame or the spinners.
“I feel the game will changesession wise and each bowlerwill have to take responsibili-
ty session wise, who knows theball might turn in the begin-ning here.
“Who knows if the spin-ners come to play in first twosessions, but under lights, whenthere is dew, the ball does notswing, but skids and comesonto the bat.
“Then, spinners are not inthe game and fast bowlers are,so it depends on the situationand how the ball and wicket isbehaving at that time,” he said.
The veteran pacer backedthe team’s batsmen to comegood, saying they are capable ofdealing with the conditions.
“I am sure our batsmen arereally capable enough to tack-le all those things, how theyneed to go and build theirinnings, to go on through theTest match,” he added.
PTI n BENGALURU
On a comeback trail after the end of hisspot-fixing ban, pacer S Sreesanth on
Monday picked up his first five-wicket haulin List A cricket in almost 15 years to helpKerala pull-off a three-wicket win overUttar Pradesh in the Vijay Hazare Trophyhere.
The 37-year-old, who was not short-listed in IPL 2021 auction’s final list,returned figures of five for 65 in his firstList A game in more than eight years.
Sreesanth, who had returned to com-petitive cricket last month after his life banwas overturned, opened his account by dis-missing opener Abhishek Sharma.
He then returned in the death overs todismiss UP under 300 with wickets of skip-per Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohsin Khan,Akshdeep Nath, and Shivam Sharma enroute to his only the second five-for of hisList-A career.
On his List-A return, the former Indiapacer, who has played 27 Tests, 53 ODIs
and 10 T20Is, picked up two for 41 againstOdisha on Saturday.
In reply, Kerala sealed the chase in 48.5overs. Robin Uthappa (81 from 55 balls;8x4, 4x6) and Sachin Baby (76 from 83balls; 6x4, 1x6) gave the start before JalajSaxena (31) and MD Nidheesh (13 not outfrom six balls; 1x4, 1x6) sealed the chasewith seven balls to spare.
This was Kerala’s second successive winin Group C but they remained second intable behind Railways who thrashed Odishaby eight wickets at the M Chinnaswamy tobe ahead by net run-rate.
Defending champions Karnatakabounced back with a bang after their first-match loss with a 267-run rout of Bihar.
Skipper R Samarth led the charge withan unbeaten 158 from 144 balls (15x4, 1x6),while fellow opener Devdutt Padikkalsmashed a 98-ball 97 (8x4, 2x6) in a com-
manding 153-run opening partnershipafter Bihar opted to bowl at the Just CricketAcademy.
The only blip was youngster Padikkalmissing a century by just three runs afterbeing castled by Rahul Kumar as he onceagain failed to convert his fifty.
After Padikkal's departure, Samarthtook charge with Krishnamurthy Siddharthwho chipped in with a quickfire 76 (55balls; 5x4, 4x6) to propel them to a huge354/3.
In reply, Karnataka dismantled Biharfor 87 runs in just 27.2 overs with openerSakibul Gani being their top-scorer (37),while eight batsmen failed to reach dou-ble digits.
Prasidh Krishna was Karnataka’swrecker-in-chief (4/17) and had fine sup-port from Abhimanyu Mithun and ShreyasGopal who claimed two each.
PTI n SURAT
Hosts Gujarat recorded their secondsuccessive win after they beat Goa by
eight wickets in an Elite Group A gamehere.
Gujarat had started their campaignwith a three-wicket win over Chhattisgarh.
Opting to bat at the LalbhaiContractor Stadium, Goa were bundledout for 159 in 45.4 overs, with Gujarat’sslow-left arm spinner Hardik Patel (3/34)doing the bulk of the damage.
Gujarat then chased the target in 27.4overs with half centuries from PriyankPanchal (57 not out off) and BhargavMerai (57 off 55 balls).
In the other two league games, Barodarode on skipper Krunal Pandya’s unbeat-en 127 to beat Tripura by six wickets, whileHyderabad defeated Chhattisgarh byseven wickets.
HEBBAR’S TON UPSET TNIndore: Ashwin Hebbar slammed anunbeaten 101 and powered Andhra to a
seven-wicket win over Tamil Nadu inGroup B match at the Holkar stadium.
Andhra captain G Hanuma Vihariwon the toss and sent Tamil Nadu in tobat and the bowlers did very well to dis-miss the opponent for 176 in 41.3 overs.
Left-arm medium-pacer C Stephen(3/46), off-spinner Shoaib MohammedKhan (3/24) and right-arm medium-pacer Girinath Reddy (2/33) struck atregular intervals to restrict a strongTamil Nadu batting line-up, led byDinesh Karthik.
In reply, Hebbar was in crackingform and toyed with the opposition toattack to fashion a comfortable win. Hefound an able partner in Ricky Bhui (52not out, 41 balls, 6 fours, 2 sixes) andthe duo added 114 runs for the fourthwicket to power Andhra.
In other matches, Jharkhand beatPunjab by 2 runs in a nail-bitingencounter, while Madhya Pradesh losesecond consecutive game in span on 48hours after Vidarbha beat them by 4wickets.
Two in two for Gujarat
NEW DELHI: The planned eight-match series between India andSouth Africa women is likely tobe held from March 7, whichwill mark the return of thehome team to competitive crick-et after almost 12 months.
The series, comprising fiveT20Is and three ODIs, is likelyto be held in either Lucknow orKanpur in a bio-bubble, a BCCIofficial said on Monday. A 22-member Indian team has beenpicked for the contest.
With the fixtures of theseries yet to be announced, aCricket South Africa (CSA)source con-firmed thattheir team is set totravel to India thisweek. “The Covid testshave been done, the teamis ready to leave anytime,”the source said.
Both teams will have toundergo a six-day quarantinewhich means they will get aweek of training before theseries opener.
South Africa played recent-ly but India have not playedsince the T20 World Cup inMarch last year due to theCovid-19 pandemic. PTI
PTI n COLOMBO
In a dramatic turn of events, SriLankan pace great Chaminda
Vaas on Monday resigned as thenational team’s fast bowlingcoach due to a pay dispute withhis board, barely three daysafter being appointed to the post.
Vaas resigned just before theteam’s departure for a tour of theWest Indies.
“We could not agree to histerms so he resigned,” a senior
Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) officialsaid.
“It is particularly disheart-ening to note that in an eco-nomic climate such as the onefacing the entire globe rightnow, Mr Vaas has made thissudden and irresponsiblemove on the eve of the team’sdeparture, based on personalmonetary gain,” SLC said in astatement.
It was only last week thatVaas was appointed to replace
Australian David Sakar follow-ing the team’s poor show againstSouth Africa and England in therecent times.
Vaas incidentally was toleave for the West Indies with theteam on Monday night to playthree matches each of the twoshorter formats and two Tests.
One of the country’s finestpacers, Vaas has also resignedfrom his position as the SLCAcademy coach, a board officialadded.
PTI n AHMEDABAD
Veteran fast bowler JamesAnderson is pretty sure
that the newly laid track at theMotera Stadium will bedevoid of any grass for theupcoming Day/Night Testagainst India even thoughthere is a nice green cover onit at the moment.
The third Test underlights wil l start fromWednesday and for England’spremier fast bowler, he does-n’t expect it to behave muchdifferently from the secondTest track at the Chepaukwhich India won by 317 runs.
“The pitch, it has got grasson it but I am pretty sure it’snot going to be there when weturn up on the match day,”Anderson said with a wrysmile during a virtual confer-ence with British media onSunday.
“So we have to wait andwatch. As seam bowlers, wehave to be prepared to bowl asbest we can in any given con-dition. If it swings, it’s greatand if it does not, we still havea job to do,” Anderson said.
He felt that the pink SGTest ball that he bowled withduring the net sessions, swungmore than its red counterpart.
“Look this is the secondpink Test in India and first inFebruary so we don’t knowhow it would behave.”
He urged critics of themuch-debated rotation policyto look at the “bigger picture”,considering the massiveamount of cricket to be playedby the England team in thecoming days.
England did not playJonny Bairstow and MarkWood in the first two Tests buthave brought them back forthe final two games as part ofa rotation policy while first-choice keeper Jos Buttler isback home after the openingTest. The idea is to help play-ers cop up with life inside thebio-bubble.
“You have got to try andlook at the bigger picture.The idea was if I missed thatone, that would give me thebest chance of being fit andfiring for the pink-ball Test,”Anderson said during virtualpress conference.
Former players, especial-ly Kevin Pietersen, have crit-icised ECB’s thought process,saying the board must play itsbest players in a big series likethis against India.
Vaas resigns 3 days after being appointed SL bowling coach
India-SA serieslikely from March 7
AFPn CHRISTCHURCH
ADevon Conway battingmasterclass inspired New
Zealand to a 53-run win overAustralia in the opening T20International in Christchurch onMonday.
Conway smashed anunbeaten 99 off 59 balls as theBlack Caps overcame a shakystart to finish on 184/5 after los-
ing the toss and beingput in to bat.
In reply, thetourists were all out
for 131 after 17.3overs, with BlackCaps spinner IshSodhi taking4/28 to give thehosts an early
edge in thef i v e - m a t c h
series.J h y e
Richardson, freshfrom signing amulti-million dol-lar Indian PremierLeague contract,
was the pick of the Australianbowlers, taking 2/31.
But the tourists could notdislodge Conway, whose 59-ballknock included 10 fours andthree sixes, helping the BlackCaps bounce back.
Conway said he was “pret-ty chuffed” with his career-besteffort, even though he wasstranded just short of a centuryafter failing to take two runs offthe final ball.
The frustrated Australiansthen suffered a horror showearly in their innings, as seam-ers Tim Southee and TrentBoult tore through the top order.
Luckless debutant JoshPhilippe departed for two aftersending a top-edge skyward.
But old campaigners such asskipper Aaron Finch and GlennMaxwell also failed to deal withthe swinging ball and the touristswere soon 19/4.
Mitch Marsh top-scoredwith 45 and Ashton Agar con-tributed 23 a string of battingfailures gave New Zealand acomfortable win.
PTI n AHMEDABAD
On the cusp of becomingonly the second Indianpacer after the legendary
Kapil Dev to play 100 Tests,Ishant Sharma on Mondayattributed his remarkablelongevity in the game to under-standing what the “captain wantsfrom him”.
Ishant made his Test debutas a gangly 18-year-old inBangladesh when Rahul Dravidwas the captain and subse-quently was led by Anil Kumble,Mahendra Singh Dhoni, ViratKohli and Ajinkya Rahane dur-ing the last decade and half.
So which captain under-stood him the best in all these
years? “It is difficult to say whounderstood me the most as allof them understood me reallywell. But more than the captainunderstanding me, it was alwaysimportant as to how I under-stood the captain,” Ishant saidduring a virtual press conferenceahead of the third Test againstEngland, beginning here onWednesday.
“That’s very important.What does the captain wantfrom me specifically. If thosethings are clear, communicationbecomes easier,” said the manwho has 302 wickets from 99Tests so far.
Does he think that beingdropped from white ball squadsand also missing out on a cou-
ple of seasons of IPL helped himreach the milestone quickerthan many others?
“I normally treat this as ablessing in disguise. It’s not thatI don’t want to play white ball asthat’s what is the job of a sports-man but if he is not playing,what does he do? At best he cantrain.”
For him, it was importantthat he forgets what’s not thereand be grateful for what he has.
“I didn’t want my Test crick-et to get affected because of mynon-selection in ODIs. I shouldbe grateful that I am at least play-ing one format,” he said.
“May be it helped me incompleting 100 Tests. Havingsaid that, I don’t think had I
played three formats, I couldn’thave played 100 Tests. May be itwould have taken a bit longer. Iam only 32 and not 42.”
So does crossing Kapil Dev’s131 Tests cross his mind?
“(Crossing) 131 will take along time. I only want to thinkabout qualifying for the WorldTest Championship (WTC)final. This is my World Cupwhere if I win, I can have thesame feeling that others hadwhile winning the ODI worldCup.”
Ask him about JimmyAnderson playing at 38 and if hecould continue till that age, helaughs. “I will go one game at atime. You never know whatcomes next. Yes, I am more pro-fessional about my recoverynow. Earlier, I would train hardbut didn’t focus on my recovery.As you grow older, you need torecover well to bowl long spells,take care of your body.”
On who will be the leader ofthe pack once he leaves the
scene, Ishant picked JaspritBumrah.
“I think I don’t want to takeone name. You are good andthat’s why you play for India. ButI think, after me, it is JaspritBumrah, who will play mostmatches for India.
“I think he has to lead theway and also it will depend onhow he speaks to youngsters,take them under his wings,grooms them.”
For fast bowlers to blossom,one needs to understand theirskill sets and plan accordingly.
“(Navdeep) Saini has pace,(Mohammed) Siraj has con-trol. You have to understandpeople’s strength. Skill sets aredifferent and if you tell Saini tobowl one area and Siraj to hit140k, then you are not doing jus-tice to their strengths,” heexplained.
As a parting shot, Ishantadded: “As long as I can main-tain the intensity in my game, Iwill play for India.”
WTC win will be same as World Cup: Ishant
PTI n AHMEDABAD
Pacer Umesh Yadav was onMonday added to India’s
squad for the last two Testsagainst England after hepassed a fitness test, whileShardul Thakur was releasedto compete in the ongoingVijay Hazare one-dayChampionship.
“Team India fast bowlerUmesh Yadav appeared for afitness test on Sunday, 21stFebruary at Motera. He has
cleared his fitness test and hasbeen added to the squad forthe last two Tests of the ongo-ing Paytm India-England Testseries,” said the BCCI in astatement. “Shardul Thakurhas been released from thesquad to take part in the VijayHazare Trophy,” it added.
Yadav had suffered was acalf muscle injury during theMelbourne Test againstAustralia in December, rulinghim out for the rest of thatseries.
Fit again Umeshadded to squad
MANCHESTER: Ole GunnarSolskjaer is not giving uphope that Manchester Unitedcan challenge Manchester Cityfor the Premier League title,despite the scintillating formof the league leaders.
City have soared 10 pointsclear of their local rivals thanksto an 18-game winning streak inall competitions.
United’s own inconsistentform has helped open up thegap, but the Red Devils beatNewcastle 3-1 on Sunday to winfor just the second time in sixleague games.
“We’ve got to be there just incase,” said Ole. “Every time weget three points we’ve done ourjob and that’s what we’ve got todo and see what other teams do.”
Bruno Fernandes andMarcus Rashford were again ontarget on a night United need-ed their star men to paper overthe cracks of another unconvinc-ing performance.
“We had to find a way towin it in the second-half. Thefirst-half wasn’t up to the stan-dard that we wanted,” added Ole.“Maybe because of Newcastle,maybe because of what we didin the week. We asked them togo again after a high-intensitygame and it took us to half timeto get our legs and energy.”
A run of two wins in 14games has left Newcastle justthree points clear of the dropzone, but Steve Bruce remainsconfident his side will survive.
“Fulham have had a goodweek and won a couple ofgames, which at the bottom endof the table is big, but there area few of us: Brighton, Burnleyand maybe Crystal Palace look-ing over their shoulders,” saidBruce. AFP
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Conway's third nineties score in as many inningshelps Black Caps beat Australia by 53 runs
Deadly Devon Sreesanth’s fifer keeps Kerala perfect Solskjaer not givingup hope of catchingMan City
HUNDRED IS JUST ANUMBER FOR ME. IT'S LIKEHOW I PLAYED MY 99THMATCH, WITH THE SAMEFEELING, SAME INTENSITYAND SAMEAGGRESSIVENESS, I WILLGO INTO MY 100TH MATCH.I DON'T PLAY FORNUMBERS, I PLAY TO WIN.
—ISHANT SHARMA(ON HIS MOTIVATION AS HE
GOES INTO HIS 100TH TEST)
