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W ith all eyes on the Rajasthan High Court on Friday over the Rajasthan political impasse, Congress rebel leader Sachin Pilot on Thursday scored a point in the Supreme Court in his fight against Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot. The Supreme Court refused to stop the Rajasthan High Court from announcing its decision on a petition by Pilot and 18 other rebel MLAs challenging disqualification notices served to them for defying the Congress. The Rajasthan Speaker, who served the notices last week, had argued that the rebels cannot petition the High Court at this stage. The Rajasthan High Court’s ruling will, however, be subject to the final order of the Supreme Court, which will take up the case on Monday. Gehlot who wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi complaining him about conspiracy to topple his Government, asserted that the alleged audio tapes that has sur- faced with allegations of involvement of a Union Minister of payoffs to legislators is very much authentic and can be sent abroad for further authentication. “It is the matter of just one day. Why can’t you wait,” the Supreme Court asked the Speaker during arguments on blocking the Rajasthan High Court verdict. The judges also questioned why the Speaker, a neutral person, should approach the court at all. “Assume a leader has lost the faith of persons. While remaining in party they cannot be disqualified. Then this will become a tool and no one can raise their voice. The voice of dissent in a democracy cannot be suppressed like this,” said Justice AK Mishra, one of the three judges hearing the case, without referring to Rajasthan. Justice Mishra was responding to the arguments of senior lawyer Kapil Sibal defending the Speaker’s right to serve disqualification notices and ask the rebels why they skipped party meetings. “The High Court cannot give any protective order at this stage to the other camp. No court can intervene when the Speaker is deciding the case,” Sibal said. Speaker CP Joshi had served notices to 19 rebel MLAs, including Sachin Pilot, after they skipped two meetings of Congress MLAs called by Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot last week. The rebels argued in court that they do not intend to quit the party; they only want a change in the leadership. But Sibal said their act of not join- ing the meetings amounted to giving up their membership. The Speaker’s sudden move to seek the SC’s inter- vention reflects the Congress’s worry that a legal victory for the rebels may endanger its Government in Rajasthan. Ashok Gehlot’s Government has a narrow lead in the 200-member Assembly — just one MLA over the majority mark of 101. If the Rajasthan High Court decides the Speaker can continue the process of disqualifying team Pilot’s 19 MLAs, Gehlot can win more easily as the major- ity mark will come down. If the rebel MLAs win their case and get protection from disqualification, they can vote against the Congress Government and make it tough for Gehlot to retain power. I ndia on Thursday charged Pakistan with blocking all avenues for remedy in Kulbhushan Jadhav case and said it adopted a “farcical” approach in granting consular access. This strong statement came after Jadhav was denied con- sular access and Islamabad said July 20 was the last date for filing review petition by Jadhav against death sentence given to him. Making New Delhi’s stand clear, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said India had requested Pakistan 12 times for consular access to Jadhav and Islamabad has not provided “unhindered and unimpeded access”. Srivastava also said Pakistan adopted a “farcical approach” in handling the case, adding India is exploring avail- able options in the matter. “Pakistan has blocked all avenues for effective remedy available to India. It stands in violation of International Court of Justice (ICJ) judgment and its own Ordinance. India reserves its position, including right to avail of further reme- dies,” the Ministry said on the Pakistan Government moving Islamabad High Court to appoint lawyer for Kulbhushan Jadhav. The MEA Spokesperson further said India tried to file a review petition on July 18 for Jadhav but the lawyer appoint- ed by India was told he has no “power of attorney.” Pakistan had earlier this month said July 20 is the last date of filing a review petition by Jadhav against the death sentence awarded by a Pakistani military court. The 50-year-old retired Indian Navy officer was sen- tenced to death by the Pakistani military court on charges of espionage and terrorism in April 2017. India approached the International Court of Justice (ICJ) against Pakistan for denial of consular access to Jadhav and challenging the death sen- tence. The Hague-based ICJ ruled in July 2019 that Pakistan must undertake an “effective review and reconsideration” of the conviction and sentence of Jadhav and also to grant con- sular access to India without further delay. The Pakistan Government has claimed that Jadhav refused to file a review petition or an application to reconsider the verdict. Pakistan enacted the “International Court of Justice Review and Reconsideration Ordinance 2020” on May 20 under which a petition for the review of a military court’s decision can be made to Islamabad High Court through an application within 60 days of its promulgation. Srivastava said India already shared its concerns to Pakistan in June knowing the “inadequacies and shortcom- ings” in the Ordinance. I ndia on Thursday categori- cally asked China to “sin- cerely” work for complete dis- engagement and de-escalation on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh. Officials of the two Foreign Ministries under the aegis of the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Co-ordina- tion on India-China border Affairs (WMCC) are likely to hold talks on Friday to break the logjam and pave the way for another round of Corps Commander-level parleys. India’s latest assertion came against the backdrop of the Chinese troops not hon- ouring the agreements arrived at in the last round of talks between the two Commanders to withdraw additional troops from the front and “depth” areas. China is yet to start the process to pull back its 40,000 troops leading to heightened tension on the LAC and India also forced ramp up its troop strength. Moreover, the Chinese side has also not removed its heavy guns and weapons as agreed upon, sources said. This pact to thin out troops was projected as a major confidence building measure but the Chinese not with- drawing has raised alarm bells in the Indian security estab- lishment, they said.Given this actual scenario, the Ministry of External Affairs on Thursday said in order to bring restore normalcy, respecting and strictly abiding by the LAC is the basis of peace and tran- quility in the border areas. Several agreements concluded by India and China since 1993 firmly acknowledge this, Ministry spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said. Reiterating the point that China triggered the eight-week old stand offs, he said, “In my statement of June 26, I had noted that the conduct of Chinese forces this year, including the deployment of large body of troops and changes in behaviour, accom- panied by unjustified and untenable claims, has been in complete disregard of all the mutual agreements. “We have also made it clear that India is fully committed to observing and respecting the LAC and that we will not accept any uni- lateral attempts to change the status quo along the LAC.” Referring to important talks between National Security Adviser (NSA) Ajit Doval and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on July 5, he said both the sides then agreed to work towards complete disengage- ment of the troops along the LAC and de-escalation from India-China border areas for full restoration of peace and tranquility. Doval and Wang Yi are Special Representatives of their respective countries to address the boundary issue. R evered Shankracharya Swaroopanand Saraswati on Thursday said in Varanasi that the time chosen for the “bhoo- mi pujan” and laying the foun- dation of the Ram Temple is “inauspicious” as August 5 falls in the Dakshinayan Bhadrapad month and is the second day of Krishna Paksha. “In the Hindu scriptures, construction for home or temple is prohibited during the Bhadrapad month,” he said, and gave an example of Vishnu Dharma Shastra and the Naivagna Ballabh Granth to support his claim. However, the Kashi Vidhyat Parishad termed Shankaracharya’s claims as base- less, saying that Lord Rama is an universal hero and questions should not be raised on con- struction of the temple.Ram Janmabhumi temple chief priest Acharya Satyendra Das has chal- lenged the claim of Shankaracharya that Bhadrapada month is not auspicious for the bhoomi pujan of the Ram tem- ple. Similar views were present- ed by Mahant Parhamans Das of Tapasvi Chavni of Ayodhya, who said the entire Bhadrapad month is auspicious for any reli- gious work.The Ram Temple, once ready, will be 161-feet high. This would be an increase of 20 feet from the original design that was readied in 1988. It may be recalled that a five- judge bench of the SC led by then CJI Ranjan Gogoi had in November 29 ruled in favour of Ram Lalla Virajman and allotted the entire disputed land in Ayodhya for temple. Jaipur : Targeting Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Tuesday said the audio clips which indicate an alleged plot to topple his Government can be sent abroad for forensic tests. Without taking the min- ister’s name, Gehlot questioned why he is not coming forward to give a voice sample. “We can send it for FSL testing to America if they have no trust in the Rajasthan government,” the Rajasthan CM said, adding that the Congress also did not trust the Centre. Jaipur: A city court has direct- ed that the Rajasthan Police should probe a complaint alleg- ing the involvement of Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat in a credit society scam. The development comes amid allegations by the Congress that the minister is involved in a bid to topple the Ashok Gehlot Government. The SOG has already sent a notice to the Minister in con- nection with a probe into audio clips which indicate efforts to lure away Congres MLAs. W ith Telangana recording a bigger spike everyday, the State health officials have admitted that the State was passing through the stage of community transmission of the outbreak. Director of Public Health Dr G Srinivas Rao on Thursday said there were strong indica- tions to show the presence of Covid-19 in the community across Telangana. “The virus is in the com- munity and all of us are doing our best to contain it. The State Government is pulling out all stops to prevent the virus from spreading. The general public must be very cautious in the next four to five weeks. Masks, hand washing and physical distancing in every aspect of life are mandatory,” Dr G Srinivas Rao said in Hyderabad. Telangana has over 50,000 positive cases and nearly 450 deaths. The State faced huge crit- icism for not carrying out ade- quate number of test to track positive cases. Even now it is one of the worst States as far as testing numbers go. T he case of a Delhi police- man having a relapse of the coronavirus has baffled experts and the doctors treating him and has raised the question whether a recovered patient can con- tract the infection again. The policeman, 50, had tested positive for the virus in May and was treated at the Indraprastha Apollo hospi- tals between May 15 and 22. Thereafter, he had tested negative and resumed duty. However, on July 10, he again felt unwell with a fever and dry cough and got him- self tested on July 13. The report came positive through the rapid antigen test as well as the RT-PCR test, said Dr Rajesh Chawla, Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Apollo Hospitals.

Transcript of C( - 2 % + ˆ +&’&+’ , -+./( 0 +. $1 -!2 E E˙/˛’˛))˝ ˇ)06./˛0E˜0/˛ˇ ... ·...

Page 1: C( - 2 % + ˆ +&’&+’ , -+./( 0 +. $1 -!2 E E˙/˛’˛))˝ ˇ)06./˛0E˜0/˛ˇ ... · 2020-07-23 · Every child is important to us. This is the reason this year I am meeting

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With all eyes on theRajasthan High Court

on Friday over the Rajasthanpolitical impasse, Congressrebel leader Sachin Pilot onThursday scored a point in theSupreme Court in his fightagainst Rajasthan ChiefMinister Ashok Gehlot.

The Supreme Courtrefused to stop the RajasthanHigh Court from announcingits decision on a petition byPilot and 18 other rebel MLAschallenging disqualificationnotices served to them fordefying the Congress.

The Rajasthan Speaker,who served the notices lastweek, had argued that therebels cannot petition the HighCourt at this stage. TheRajasthan High Court’s rulingwill, however, be subject to thefinal order of the SupremeCourt, which will take up thecase on Monday.

Gehlot who wrote a letterto Prime Minister NarendraModi complaining him aboutconspiracy to topple hisGovernment, asserted that thealleged audio tapes that has sur-faced with allegations ofinvolvement of a UnionMinister of payoffs to legislatorsis very much authentic and canbe sent abroad for furtherauthentication.

“It is the matter of just one

day. Why can’t you wait,” theSupreme Court asked theSpeaker during arguments onblocking the Rajasthan HighCourt verdict. The judges alsoquestioned why the Speaker, aneutral person, shouldapproach the court at all.

“Assume a leader has lostthe faith of persons. Whileremaining in party they cannotbe disqualified. Then this willbecome a tool and no one canraise their voice. The voice ofdissent in a democracy cannotbe suppressed like this,” saidJustice AK Mishra, one of thethree judges hearing the case,without referring to Rajasthan.

Justice Mishra wasresponding to the arguments ofsenior lawyer Kapil Sibaldefending the Speaker’s right toserve disqualification noticesand ask the rebels why theyskipped party meetings. “TheHigh Court cannot give anyprotective order at this stage tothe other camp. No court canintervene when the Speaker isdeciding the case,” Sibal said.

Speaker CP Joshi hadserved notices to 19 rebelMLAs, including Sachin Pilot,after they skipped two meetingsof Congress MLAs called byChief Minister Ashok Gehlotlast week.

The rebels argued in courtthat they do not intend to quitthe party; they only want achange in the leadership. ButSibal said their act of not join-

ing the meetings amounted togiving up their membership.

The Speaker’s suddenmove to seek the SC’s inter-vention reflects the Congress’sworry that a legal victory forthe rebels may endanger itsGovernment in Rajasthan.

Ashok Gehlot’sGovernment has a narrow leadin the 200-member Assembly— just one MLA over themajority mark of 101. If theRajasthan High Court decidesthe Speaker can continue theprocess of disqualifying teamPilot’s 19 MLAs, Gehlot canwin more easily as the major-ity mark will come down.

If the rebel MLAs win theircase and get protection fromdisqualification, they can voteagainst the CongressGovernment and make it toughfor Gehlot to retain power.

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India on Thursday chargedPakistan with blocking all

avenues for remedy inKulbhushan Jadhav case and said it adopted a “farcical”approach in granting consular access.

This strong statement cameafter Jadhav was denied con-sular access and Islamabadsaid July 20 was the last date forfiling review petition by Jadhav against death sentencegiven to him.

Making New Delhi’s standclear, Ministry of ExternalAffairs (MEA) SpokespersonAnurag Srivastava said Indiahad requested Pakistan 12times for consular access toJadhav and Islamabad has notprovided “unhindered andunimpeded access”.

Srivastava also saidPakistan adopted a “farcicalapproach” in handling the case,adding India is exploring avail-able options in the matter.

“Pakistan has blocked allavenues for effective remedyavailable to India. It stands inviolation of International Courtof Justice (ICJ) judgment and

its own Ordinance. Indiareserves its position, includingright to avail of further reme-dies,” the Ministry said on the Pakistan Governmentmoving Islamabad High Courtto appoint lawyer forKulbhushan Jadhav.

The MEA Spokespersonfurther said India tried to filea review petition on July 18 forJadhav but the lawyer appoint-ed by India was told he has no“power of attorney.”

Pakistan had earlier thismonth said July 20 is the lastdate of filing a review petitionby Jadhav against the deathsentence awarded by aPakistani military court.

The 50-year-old retiredIndian Navy officer was sen-tenced to death by the Pakistani

military court on charges ofespionage and terrorism inApril 2017.

India approached theInternational Court of Justice(ICJ) against Pakistan for denialof consular access to Jadhavand challenging the death sen-tence. The Hague-based ICJruled in July 2019 that Pakistanmust undertake an “effectivereview and reconsideration”of the conviction and sentenceof Jadhav and also to grant con-sular access to India withoutfurther delay.

The Pakistan Governmenthas claimed that Jadhav refusedto file a review petition or anapplication to reconsider theverdict. Pakistan enacted the“International Court of JusticeReview and ReconsiderationOrdinance 2020” on May 20under which a petition for thereview of a military court’sdecision can be made toIslamabad High Court throughan application within 60 daysof its promulgation.

Srivastava said Indiaalready shared its concerns toPakistan in June knowing the“inadequacies and shortcom-ings” in the Ordinance.

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India on Thursday categori-cally asked China to “sin-

cerely” work for complete dis-engagement and de-escalationon the Line of Actual Control(LAC) in Ladakh.

Officials of the two ForeignMinistries under the aegis ofthe Working Mechanism forConsultation and Co-ordina-tion on India-China borderAffairs (WMCC) are likely tohold talks on Friday to breakthe logjam and pave the wayfor another round of CorpsCommander-level parleys.

India’s latest assertioncame against the backdrop ofthe Chinese troops not hon-ouring the agreements arrivedat in the last round of talksbetween the two Commandersto withdraw additional troopsfrom the front and “depth”areas.

China is yet to start theprocess to pull back its 40,000troops leading to heightenedtension on the LAC and Indiaalso forced ramp up its troopstrength. Moreover, theChinese side has also notremoved its heavy guns andweapons as agreed upon,sources said.

This pact to thin outtroops was projected as a majorconfidence building measurebut the Chinese not with-drawing has raised alarm bellsin the Indian security estab-lishment, they said.Given thisactual scenario, the Ministry ofExternal Affairs on Thursdaysaid in order to bring restore

normalcy, respecting andstrictly abiding by the LAC isthe basis of peace and tran-quility in the border areas.Several agreements concludedby India and China since 1993firmly acknowledge this,Ministry spokesperson AnuragSrivastava said.

Reiterating the point thatChina triggered the eight-weekold stand offs, he said, “In mystatement of June 26, I hadnoted that the conduct ofChinese forces this year,including the deployment oflarge body of troops andchanges in behaviour, accom-panied by unjustified anduntenable claims, has been incomplete disregard of all themutual agreements. “We have

also made it clear that India isfully committed to observingand respecting the LAC andthat we will not accept any uni-lateral attempts to change thestatus quo along the LAC.”

Referring to importanttalks between NationalSecurity Adviser (NSA) AjitDoval and Foreign MinisterWang Yi on July 5, he said boththe sides then agreed to worktowards complete disengage-ment of the troops along theLAC and de-escalation fromIndia-China border areas forfull restoration of peace andtranquility.

Doval and Wang Yi areSpecial Representatives of theirrespective countries to addressthe boundary issue.

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Revered ShankracharyaSwaroopanand Saraswati on

Thursday said in Varanasi thatthe time chosen for the “bhoo-mi pujan” and laying the foun-dation of the Ram Temple is“inauspicious” as August 5 fallsin the Dakshinayan Bhadrapadmonth and is the second day ofKrishna Paksha. “In the Hinduscriptures, construction for homeor temple is prohibited duringthe Bhadrapad month,” he said,and gave an example of VishnuDharma Shastra and theNaivagna Ballabh Granth tosupport his claim.

However, the Kashi VidhyatParishad termedShankaracharya’s claims as base-less, saying that Lord Rama is anuniversal hero and questionsshould not be raised on con-

struction of the temple.RamJanmabhumi temple chief priestAcharya Satyendra Das has chal-lenged the claim ofShankaracharya that Bhadrapadamonth is not auspicious for thebhoomi pujan of the Ram tem-ple.

Similar views were present-ed by Mahant Parhamans Das ofTapasvi Chavni of Ayodhya,who said the entire Bhadrapadmonth is auspicious for any reli-gious work.The Ram Temple,once ready, will be 161-feet high.This would be an increase of 20feet from the original design thatwas readied in 1988.

It may be recalled that a five-judge bench of the SC led by thenCJI Ranjan Gogoi had inNovember 29 ruled in favour ofRam Lalla Virajman and allottedthe entire disputed land inAyodhya for temple.

Jaipur : Targeting UnionMinister Gajendra SinghShekhawat, Rajasthan ChiefMinister Ashok Gehlot onTuesday said the audio clipswhich indicate an alleged plotto topple his Government canbe sent abroad for forensictests. Without taking the min-ister’s name, Gehlot questionedwhy he is not coming forwardto give a voice sample. “We cansend it for FSL testing toAmerica if they have no trust in the Rajasthan government,”the Rajasthan CM said, addingthat the Congress also did nottrust the Centre.

Jaipur: A city court has direct-ed that the Rajasthan Policeshould probe a complaint alleg-ing the involvement of UnionMinister Gajendra SinghShekhawat in a credit societyscam. The development comesamid allegations by theCongress that the minister isinvolved in a bid to topple theAshok Gehlot Government.The SOG has already sent anotice to the Minister in con-nection with a probe into audioclips which indicate efforts tolure away Congres MLAs.

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With Telangana recording abigger spike everyday,

the State health officials haveadmitted that the State waspassing through the stage ofcommunity transmission ofthe outbreak.

Director of Public HealthDr G Srinivas Rao on Thursdaysaid there were strong indica-tions to show the presence ofCovid-19 in the communityacross Telangana.

“The virus is in the com-munity and all of us are doingour best to contain it. The StateGovernment is pulling out allstops to prevent the virus fromspreading. The general publicmust be very cautious in thenext four to five weeks. Masks,

hand washing and physicaldistancing in every aspect of lifeare mandatory,” Dr G SrinivasRao said in Hyderabad.

Telangana has over 50,000positive cases and nearly 450deaths.

The State faced huge crit-icism for not carrying out ade-quate number of test to trackpositive cases. Even now it isone of the worst States as far astesting numbers go.

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The case of a Delhi police-man having a relapse of

the coronavirus has baffledexperts and the doctorstreating him and has raisedthe question whether arecovered patient can con-tract the infection again.

The policeman, 50, hadtested positive for the virusin May and was treated at theIndraprastha Apollo hospi-

tals between May 15 and 22.Thereafter, he had testednegative and resumed duty.

However, on July 10, heagain felt unwell with a feverand dry cough and got him-self tested on July 13.

The report came positivethrough the rapid antigentest as well as the RT-PCRtest, said Dr Rajesh Chawla,Respiratory and CriticalCare Medicine, Apol loHospitals.

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Delhi Chief Minister ArvindKejriwal and Urban

Development MinisterSatyender Jain on Thursdayinspected redevelopment planof Chandni Chowk.

During his visit, Kejriwalsaid Chandni Chowk area ishistoric and the entire area willbe reconstructed into a beau-tiful tourist attraction.

While the most of redevel-opment and beautificationwork have been done but roadconstruction is yet to be com-pleted.

Famous for the historyassociated with Delhi, the beau-tification project was targetedto end by March this yearhowever road reconstructioncould not be completed till Maydue to COVID lockdown.

Now, after Chief MinisterA rvind Kejriwal’s visit, thearea is expected to bereopened by the first week ofNovember.

After interacting with offi-cials associated with the pro-ject, Kejriwal said, the

The plan that was startedlast year shall be completed byOctober end, after which thearea shall reopen by Novemberfirst week.

“The historical glory ofthe Chandani Chowk area inOld Delhi will be brought backafter the completion of theredevelopment and beautifica-tion plan,” said Kejriwal,adding,” area will operate as anon-motorized vehicle streetfrom 9 AM to 9 PM.”

At an estimated cost of Rs90 crore, the Chandni Chowkredevelopment project willrevamp the path from RedFort to Fatehpuri Masjid.

Chief Minister Kejriwaland Jain visited the site. Afterinspection, Kejriwal said, “weare witnessing that the wholearea has been redeveloped.Chandani Chowk is a histori-cal place and it has been therefor ages.”

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The Gurugram Police hasrecovered 230 grams of

charas valued at Rs 10 lakhand 11 (4G) mobile sim cardsfrom the house of the deputysuperintendent of the Bhondsijail.The police have arrestedtwo accused including thedeputy superintendent jail.

The accused persons havebeen identified as DharambirChautala, the deputy superin-tendent of the Bhondsi jail,and Ravi alias Goldie a resi-dent of Lucknow, UttarPradesh currently resides atWazirabad.

According to the police,following secret inputs aboutsupply of mobile phones, sim-cards and noarcotics in the jaila team led by Sandeep Malik,ACP (sohna) and Raj Kumar,Incharge CIA sector-39 actingpromptly on the informationraid at the jail premises andfound the involvement of thedeputy superintendent andhis accomplice.

The police officials saidthat following directions of thepolice commissionerGurugram, KK Rao to keep aclose watch on the dreadedcriminals in jail they receivedthe tip-off and successfullyarrested the culprits.

Later in the day when theinvestigation team searchedthe house of the deputy super-intendent jail the police teamrecovered 230 grams of an ille-gal psychotropic substancedrug ‘charas’ of Rs 10 lakh and11 (4G) mobile simcards.

“Initial questioning of theaccused revealed that theyused to provide 4G SIM to thejail inmates, so that they coulduse in WhatsApp calling andother social media appthrough the internet.

They used to charge 20thousand rupees per simcardsfrom the criminals. Also theyabout to sell recovered 230grams of an illegal drug to thejail inmates for about 10 lakhrupees,” said Preet PalSangwan, ACP (crime).

He further said moreinformation is being obtainedfrom the DeputySuperintendent Jail and hisaccomplice during the policeremand. “During the policecustody, the accused will beclosely questioned about otherfellow accused involved inthis act. The case is underinvestigation,” Sangwan said.

The FIR was filed undersections of the Narcotic Drugsand Psychotropic SubstancesAct and other relevant sectionsof the IPC at the Bhondsipolice station.

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Setting a target to achieve 100per cent results in Delhi

Government schools, DeputyChief Minister and educationminister Manish Sisodia onThursday interacted with someof the Class XII standard stu-dents placed under ‘EssentialRepeat’ category to take theirfeedback and assured assis-tance to achieve better resultsfor next year.

Encouraging students,Sisodia, said, “This year two percent of students have not beenable to succeed. "If we look atit only as a figure, it is very less.We could have been satisfiedwith the 98per cent result. But,for us, these are our students,not just a mere statistical figure.Every child is important to us.This is the reason this year I ammeeting those children who,for some reason, have not beenable to succeed," he added.

Sisodia said, "We pay equalattention to every child. But iffor some reason, someone isn’table to get good grades, wehave to have faith in them. Wewill have to work really hard onthose students so that nobodylags behind. Mr. Sisodia saidthat many times failures comewith an opportunity. Therefore,we have started gearing up forthe next year."

He further said that if onemisses a bus, it doesn’t changetheir destination. There isalways another bus comingnext to take them to their des-tination towards success.

He encouraged studentsto ask many questions as theywant and whenever in-needthey should ask for help,“Today, we have not calledany principal or teacher so thatyou can speak to me as yourelder brother. There has beena drastic change in our schoolsbut if there is still somethingmissing, then we need yourhelp in fixing it. If a student isn’table to succeed, then we wantto understand what is stilllacking in our system. We wantevery single child to achievegreater heights and it will bepossible only when you willgive us these inputs. We knowyou are disheartened but youcan still help us,” the educationminister said.

“There is no such thing asfailure. This is not the end oflife, nor is it the destination. "Ifyou overcome your shortcom-ings, you may become a toppernext year," he said.The DeputyChief Minister said that the stu-dents of class 12th of the gov-ernment schools of Delhi gavea historic result of 98 percentthis year. Many students sharedtheir interesting stories yester-day in a meeting with ChiefMinister Arvind Kejriwal.Charu Yadav's story of Rohiniwas very inspiring. She left herstudies in mid-way as shecouldn’t succeed in class XI. Buther teachers encouraged herand this year she became a top-

per in Humanities.Sisodia suggested the stu-

dents to make a list of peoplearound them who are called"successful" in business, jobsetc. and have advised them tounderstand the kind of strug-gles such people had to gothrough in their lives. ShriSisodia said that people whohave achieved greater heightsalso have to go through thelowest phases in their lives. Hetold students to talk to himfrankly like an elder brother.

Students expressed them-selves openly during this inter-action. Students mainly talkedabout their family reasons orlack of interest in the subjectsthey took. Few of them hadfinancial issues and someonehad a single parent. There wasa student whose mother was illduring the examination, anoth-er one’s brother was goingthrough the mental depression.Somebody got sick himself.

Thinking seriously onthese topics, Sisodia said thatfamily issues like having a sin-gle parent may hinder chil-dren's learning, we need to cre-ate a comprehensive supportsystem for every child.Manystudents shared their experi-ences. Another student said shewanted to take Humanities butshe couldn’t take it due toparental pressure. This is thereason she underperformed.

Sisodia said that we willemphasize that after passingclass 10th, parents should alsobe counseled along with chil-dren so that every child isenrolled in the subject of theirinterest. Parents should alsounderstand it’s importance.

Atishi, former Advisor tothe MLA and EducationMinister, told students that it iswrong to say that a child hasfailed. Yes, it is necessary to getgood grades, but no students canbe fully assessed based on theresult of a three-hour examina-tion. Every child is unique. Ifanyone has failed, then we havefailed ourselves, our school hasfailed, which could not help youreach your destination.

HIGHLIGHTSOne student said - My sub-

ject was Commerce. To this,Sisodia said – Commerce was-n’t your subject. Commerce isstill your subject. Do not leavethe field easily.

What is missing in ourschool? On this question of Mr.Sisodia, a student said - Sir, theschool has given a lot of facili-ties. Nothing was lacking onyour part, there was a problemin our household.

NEW DELHI: A Delhi courtThursday allowed 198Indonesians to walk free onpayment of varying fines, afterthey accepted mild chargesunder the plea bargain process,related to various violationsincluding visa norms whileattending the Tablighi Jamaatevent here during the Covid-19lockdown.

Metropolitan MagistrateVasundhara Azad allowed 100Indonesians to walk free onpayment of a fine of Rs 7,000each, said advocates AshimaMandla, Fahim Khan andAhmed Khan, appearing forthem. Metropolitan MagistrateSwati Sharma allowed 98Indonesians to walk free onpayment of a fine of Rs 5,000each. The court directed the 98Indonesians to deposit theirfines to PM CARES Fund.TheSub-divisional magistrate ofDefence Colony, who was thecomplainant in the case,

Assistant Commissioner ofPolice of Lajpat Nagar andInspector of Nizamuddin saidthey have no objection to it.

However, one Indonesiandid not plead guilty to thecharges against them andclaimed trial before the court.

Under plea bargaining, theaccused plead guilty to theoffence praying for a lesserpunishment.

The Criminal Procedureof Code allows for plea bar-gaining in cases where themaximum punishment is 7-year imprisonment; offencesdon't affect the socio-econom-ic conditions of the society andthe offence is not committedagainst a woman or a childbelow 14 years.

The foreigners werechargesheeted for attendingthe religious congregation atNizamuddin Markaz event inthe national capital by alleged-ly violating visa conditions.PTI

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The extension of Metro railin the city which is one of

the longest pending projects ofthe district, was discussed at ameeting between BadshahpurMLA Rakesh Daultabad andsenior officials of HaryanaMass Rapid TransportCorporation Limited(HMRTC) in Chandigarh onWednesday.

Daultabad said that theproposed route of the Metroline was discussed at the meet-ing and has suggested the

appointment of an internalconsultant.

“The interim consultantwill identify the project workfor the proposed route such asacquisition of land, removal ofencroachments and shifting ofutilities can be carried out.

"Also, I will take up thematter before the chief minis-ter Manohar Lal Khattarhe forcabinet approval. Followingwhich it will be sent to theUnion urban developmentministry for the final approval,”Daultabad said.

Daultabad further said thatMetro Extension project whichawaits cabinet approval runsfrom HUDA City Centre toSubhash Chowk, Hero HondaChowk, Sector-9, Sector-10,Sector-4-5 Chowk, RezangLaChowk, Udyog Vihar to RapidMetro in DLF cyber city. Thisproject is like a circular City

metro.“Two more projects which

I had discussed are RezangLaChowk to Dwarka Sector-21,and Gurugram Railway Stationto Vatika Chowk. These twoprojects are in the early pro-posal stage for which presen-

tations shall be conducted atthe Chief Secretary level,” hesaid.

The MLA added thatapprovals from the home min-istry, railway ministry andPlanning Commission are alsorequired.

It is pertinent to mentionthat, whereas Delhi and Noidahave managed to rapidlyexpand their metro network,the Gurugram district hasn’tbeen able to go beyond theHuda City Centre metro stationsince 2009.

Meanwhile on the otherhand many changes have comein the project DPR over thepast several months. HMRTCfirst extended the metro routefrom Sector-9A towardsDwarka Expressway. Then itwas decided to extend themetro line from Sector-23 toCyber city via Udyog Vihar.

“One presentation in thisregard had already been givento the chief minister and nextweek the same would be pre-sented before top governmentofficials, “ he said.

“Soon the consultants forthis project would give a pre-sentation for the extension ofthe route from Palam Vihar toDwarka before senior govern-ment officials. We will take upthis project with the centralgovernment at all possibleaspects so that metro can beextended in the city at the ear-liest” Daultabad added.

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The work of smart rationcards is under process and

will probably be completed inthe next few months, said theDehradun district supply offi-cer (DSO) Jaswant SinghKandari.

According to him, the ben-eficiaries are filling the appli-cation forms to provide detailsfor the smart ration cards alongwith those who are correctingtheir incorrect details filled inthe forms earlier.

Furthermore, there arereportedly over 1000 fair price

shops which do not have bio-metric system installed for fin-gerprints authentication yet.Talking about this, Kandarisaid that most of the fair priceshops in the district have bio-metric system installed for fin-gerprints authentication andthose where these have notbeen installed yet will be hav-ing it installed soon.

Kandari informed that var-ious projects got delayed due tothe State-wide lockdown tocurb Covid-19 contagion butnow everything is on track andhopefully the projects will becompleted on time.

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Alarmed over the steadyincrease in the number of

COVID-19 cases across theState, Punjab Government onThursday enhanced the finesfor violating home isolationand social distancing norms.

From now on, theCOVID-19 patients violatinghome isolation instructions inPunjab will have to shell outRs 5,000 as fine, as per thenew guidelines announcedby the Chief Minister CaptAmarinder Singh.

As of now, there are 951patients in home isolationacross the State, and nearly200 have been challaned forviolating the home quarantineinstructions. Earlier, the stategovernment had imposed Rs2000 fine for violating homequarantine instructions.

Besides, the ChiefMinister also announcedimposition of Rs 5,000 asfine for owners of restau-rants and commercial eatingplaces violating social dis-tancing norms, as a deterrentagainst defiance of the restric-tions put in place to heck thespread of the pandemic in theState.

Further, violation of socialdistancing norms and socialgatherings of more than thepermitted strength will lead topenalty amounting to a whop-ping Rs 10,000, the ChiefMinister said at a videocon-ference meeting to review theCOVID-19 situation and pre-paredness in the State.

The fines or penaltiesannounced by the Chief

Minister are in addition tothose announced earlier, inMay, for not wearing a maskin public places (Rs 500),violation of home quaran-tine instructions (Rs 2000)and spitting at public places(Rs 500).Under the existingguidelines, shops or com-mercial places are liable to payRs 2,000 for violation of socialdistancing norms, while forbuses and cars such violationsare punishable by Rs 3000 andRs 2000 fine respectively, andin the case of auto-rickshawsor two-wheelers, the finestands at Rs 500.

The additional fines comeeven as instances of violationscontinue to be reported fromacross the state, with averagedaily challans for not wearingmasks standing at around5000, as per DGP DinkarGupta.Capt Amarinderdirected the police to takestern steps to ensure strictenforcement of mandatorywearing of masks, as per theguidelines issued by the StateGovernment.

The Chief Minister alsoappealed to the Heads andManagements of various reli-gious institutions to ensureenforcement of social dis-tancing restrictions and otherCOVID-19 safety guidelines,including masks, during vis-its to religious places in theState. He urged them to makeregular announcements inthis regard through publicaddress systems.CaptAmarinder reiterated his ear-lier appeal to the KisanUnions not to come out onthe roads to protest against

the central government’s anti-farmer Ordinances but todefer any such movements tocheck the spread of Covid.

INSTALL MASK VEND-ING MACHINES

In another initiative, theChief Minister has directedthat mask vending machinesbe installed at vantage pointssuch as bus stands etc.

SET UP TWO MOREPLASMA BANKS

Meanwhile, the ChiefMinister directed ChiefSecretary Vini Mahajan andhealth experts to work out themodalities for setting upPlasma Banks also in theGovernment MedicalColleges at Fardikot andAmritsar, in addition to

Patiala, where the state’s firstPlasma Bank was inaugurat-ed on July 21. On the first dayitself, four donors had giventheir plasma the Bank. Healso appealed to those alreadycured of COVID-19 to donatetheir plasma to help out thosefighting the disease.

The Chief Secretar yinformed the meeting thatIAS and PCS officers whohave recovered are also beingencouraged to lead the way bydonating their plasma. DGPDinkar Gupta said that threepolicemen, including onePunjab Home Guards jawan,had also donated convalescentplasma at Patiala and DMC.

Expressing concern overthe rising number of cases,the Chief Minister called forextreme caution and directedthe DGP to ensure strictenforcement of all the norms.

��Violating home isolation instructions Rs 5,000

��Owners of commercial eating places violating social dis-tancing norms Rs 5,000

��Violation of social gathering norms of more than per-mitted strength Rs 10,000

��Not wearing mask in public places Rs 500

��Spitting at public places Rs 500

��Buses violating social distancing norms Rs 3000

��Cars violating social distancing norms Rs 2000

�� Auto-rickshaws or two-wheelers violating social dis-tancing norms Rs 500

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Delhi DevelopmentAuthority (DDA) has

launched a new interactivemicrosite as “PublicEngagement Portal” for the

Master Plan of Delhi-2041 inorder to get feedback on howcapital shapes up in the next 20years.“The portal will shareinformation on preparation ofMPD 2041 as well as a numberof visioning and perceptionsurveys for citizens' feedback.

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The Delhi Police has arrest-ed a 25-year-old man for

allegedly posing himself as the‘personal secretary’ of UnionHome Minster and calling theLabour Minister of Haryanaand Law Minister of Rajasthanregarding a job for some-one.The accused has beenidentified as SandeepChoudhary, a resident of Alwardistrict in Rajasthan.

According to a seniorpolice official, on the complaintof the Home Ministry, a casewas registered that one personposing himself as PS to HMand was calling the labourminister of Haryana and lawminister of Rajasthan for giv-ing a job to someone.

“The accused was appre-hended from his village inAlwar. Interrogation revealedthat Chaudhary used to workin the Hero Honda company atDharuhera, but lost his job dueto COVID-19,” said the seniorpolice official.“The accused,Sandeep, thought of a plan toget a job in any of the factoriesin Rajasthan or Haryana. Heissued a SIM card in the nameof his girlfriend and madecalls,” said the police officialprivy to investigation.

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Page 3: C( - 2 % + ˆ +&’&+’ , -+./( 0 +. $1 -!2 E E˙/˛’˛))˝ ˇ)06./˛0E˜0/˛ˇ ... · 2020-07-23 · Every child is important to us. This is the reason this year I am meeting

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Despite the orders of theSupreme Court,

Uttarakhand High Court andState Government, the trans-port department allows theillegalities in the operation ofthree-wheeler vehicles likeVikram and electric rickshawsin Dehradun which is ques-tionable, said the president ofDehradun Mahanagar City BusSeva Mahasangh, VijayVardhan Dandriyal.

According to him, thedepartment has issued a noticeto the Vikram association stat-ing that all the operators willrun their vehicles as per thecontract carriage permit issuedto them and if anyone is foundto be violating the rules, thedepartment will take actionagainst them. Furthermore, thetransport secretary had alsosent a notice to the additional

regional transport officer(ARTO) Arvind Pandey con-cerning this matter and askedhim to investigate the matter,said Dandriyal.

However, he added, thedepartment takes suchmomentary decisions onlywhen they approach the offi-cials or else the situation con-tinues to remain dreadful. Thisclearly indicates the occur-rence of corrupt practices in thetransport department, allegedDandriyal.

He also alleged that theofficials of the transport depart-ment are providing protectionto the operators of Vikram ande-rickshaws which is leading tothe loss of the city bus opera-tors.

Talking about surrenderingthe city buses to the depart-ment, Dandriyal said that theassociation has given the list ofthe buses to the department

and after doing some paper-work like settling the remain-ing taxes, the operators willcommence surrendering thebuses in the next few days.

However, he said that dueto the lack of passengers, onlythree to four buses are currentlyrunning in the city while therest of the buses are standingstill at the operators' places formonths.

Moreover, he said that thedepartment has told him thatthey are taking action againstthe illegalities and the situationwill get better in a few days.Hence, when the situation willactually get better, the operatorswill resume the operation of thebuses, added Dandriyal.

He said that the associa-tion will be bound to approachthe High Court if the depart-ment fails to curb the violationof rules by the three-wheeleroperators in the city.

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The number of novelCoronavirus (Covid-19)

patients in Uttarakhandmounted to 5445 inUttarakhand on Thursdaywith the state health depart-ment reporting 145 new casesof the disease.

Three patients of the dis-ease were reported dead bythe authorities on the daywhich increased the deathtoll to 60 in the state. Theauthorities discharged 50patients from different hos-pitals of the state whichincreased the tally of recov-ered patients to 3399.

The recovery rate in thestate is now at 64.42 percentand the doubling rate is 17.31days. Death of a 63 year oldmale patient was reported atAll India Institute of MedicalSciences (AIIMS) Rishikeshon Thursday. At Sushila

Tiwari government hospitalHaldwani, an 80 year oldfemale patient succumbed tothe diseases she was sufferingfrom. One of them beingCovid-19. A 50 year oldfemale patient also died atGovernment Hospita lRoorkee on the day.

The authorities reported68 patients of the diseasefrom Dehradun district. It islearnt that a former MLAbelonging to the ruling partywas also found positive for thedisease.

Those found infected inDehradun include four healthcare workers and two CentralReserve Police Force (CRPF)personnel.

In Haridwar 32 patientswere reported while 31 sur-faced in Nainital . InUttarkashi seven patientswere reported while four andthree patients were found inTehri and Almora respective-

ly.On Thursday 31 patientswere discharged in Nainital,seven in Tehri, f ive inDehradun, three in Haridwar,two in Uttarkashi and oneeach in Chamoli and UdhamSingh Nagar districts.

Uttarakhand now has1948 active patients of Covid-19. Haridwar with 665 activecases is on top of the table ofin the list of active patients.

With 429 active casesUdham Singh Nagar is at sec-ond position. Dehradun nowhas 401 active cases and is inthird position.

Nainital has 270 activecases of Covid-19 now whileUttarkashi has 57 and Tehri49 active cases each. Almorahas 24, Pauri 22, Pithoragarhand Champawat 15 cases eachof the disease. Chamoli dis-trict has one active case nowwhile Bageshwar andRudraprayag have no activecases of the disease

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The UttarakhandGovernment has decided to

include treatment of the Covid-19 patients in its universalhealth insurance scheme, theAtal Ayushman UttarakhandYojana (AAUY).

Such patients who aregolden card holders of AAUYcan now avail cashless paymentfacility in the panelled hospitalsunder the scheme. For personsnot covered under the scheme,the hospitals have been askedto charge a minimum fee fortreatment of Covid-19.

The chairman of the StateHealth Agency (SHA) which isthe nodal body for implemen-tation and monitoring of theambitious scheme, D K Kotia

said that hospitals would beprovided payment on the ratesdecided for treatment of flu andrespiratory diseases.

He said that soon SHAwould issue a directive to thepanelled hospitals for treatmentof Covid-19. It is pertinent tomention here that SHA has sofar approved 3665812 goldencards for beneficiaries of thescheme. The agency has settled156800 claims since the incep-tion of the scheme under whicha sum of more than Rs 142Crore has so far been paid tothe panelled hospitals.

Under the scheme the ben-eficiary can undergo treatmentat any of 156 empanelled hos-pitals and a total of 1350 dis-eases are covered under thescheme.

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Chief Minister TrivendraSingh Rawat visited the

newly constructed Yog NagariRishikesh railway station builtas part of the Rishikesh-Karnprayag rail line project.

The CM planted a saplingat the site on the occasion andalso discussed infrastructuralfacilities of the railway stationwith officials of the Rail VikasNigam Limited (RVNL) duringhis visit.

The CM said that this rail-way station had been built in amodern form and special focushad been laid on environmen-tal conduciveness in its con-struction. Separate facilitieshave also been provided con-sidering the requirements ofsenior citizens and the differ-ently abled.

He said that completion ofthe Rishikesh-Karnprayag railproject will not only providetransport facility to people ofthe state but also ensure aconvenient experience for thedevotees travelling to Badrinathand Kedarnath. Stating thatPrime Minister Narendra Modihad granted many gifts toUttarakhand in the sphere ofinfrastructural development,

Rawat said that all types offacilities for transport will beavailable in the state after theconstruction of all weatherroad, air connectivity and raillines.

He further said that afterconstruction of the Doiwala-Uttarkashi rail line, all theChar Dham will be connectedby rail. After inspecting the rail-way station, the CM also madea surprise visit to the 7.5 MLDmultipurpose sewage treat-ment plant atChandreshwarnagar inRishikesh.

Built by the Peyjal Nigamunder Namami Gange missionat a cost of Rs 12 crore, this STPfilters effluents after taping of

Chandreshwar, Dhalwala andShamshan Ghat nalas. Thetreated water is released in theGanga river after meeting therequired standards. This 21metre high STP is the first inIndia to be made in a multi-storeyed building.

Rawat said that STPs arebeing constructed underNamami Gange at variousplaces in the state to ensure thecleanliness of the Ganga. Thetreated water from STPs willalso be used for irrigation pur-poses, he added.Vidhan Sabhaspeaker and Rishikesh MLAPremchand Agarwal, Rishikeshmayor Anita Mamgai and otherofficials concerned were alsopresent on the occasion.

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In a major developmentwhich would provide a big

boost to the health services inUttarakhand the union min-istry of health and family wel-fare has provided in principleacceptance to the proposal fora government medical collegein Kotdwar town of Pauri dis-trict.

The approval for the col-lege was recently given by theempowerment committee ofthe Union health ministry.The approval is significantsince the union health ministryhas already given its permis-sion for construction of med-ical colleges in Haridwar,Rudrapur and Pithoragarh.

Apart from them the con-struction work on building

and development of otherinfrastructure for MedicalCollege in Almora is almostcomplete. In Haridwar,Rudrapur and Pithoragarh theland for the medical college hasbeen earmarked.

At present there are threefunctional Government med-ical colleges in Uttarakhand,the Veer Chandra SinghGarhwali Government MedicalCollege Srinagar, GovernmentMedical College Haldwani andthe Government DoonMedical College (GDMC)Dehradun. After completion ofthe five approved colleges, thestate would have eight gov-ernment medical colleges.

The setting up of a full-fledged medical college is acomplex and long drawn outprocess. After approval by thegovernment the work on con-struction of buildings andother infrastructure is done.

An estimated budget of Rs350 Crore is needed for settingup a medical college. Apartfrom it the college should havean attached hospital with multispeciality treatment facility

and capacity to admit 300 IPDpatients. After construction ofcollege building, hospital andother set up the state govern-ment requests the MedicalCouncil of India (MCI) foraward of Letter of Permission(LoP). A high powered team ofMCI inspects the facility andon the basis of various para-meters approves or rejects therequest of LoP.

When the LoP is grantedthe ministry of health allowsthat particular college to admitstudents for the Ist year MBBScourse from the merit list ofNational Eligibility cumEntrance Test (NEET).

The LOP is provided tothe college by the Ministry ofHealth and family welfare,Government of India on thecondition that the collegewould have to continuouslyupgrade its facilities and invitethe MCI team for renewal ofpermission for next four years.

The college concernedwould have to continuouslyupgrade the facilities in theassociated hospital and med-ical college for these renewals.

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The Chief Minister TrivendraSingh Rawat would digital-

ly transfer a sum of Rs 143.50crores received as central grantunder the Government ofIndia’s 15th FinanceCommission to the bankaccounts of three tierPanchayati Raj system onFriday.

The additional secretaryand director Panchayati Raj, HC Semwal said the Governmentof India had sent the afore-mentioned sum under the tiedfund of 15th FC on July 15,2020. The state governmentreleased the amount on July 17and on July 23 the state treasuryhanded over the fund toPanchayati Raj department.

He said that showingpromptness the departmentwould now transfer the budgetreceived to the bank accountsof 7791 village Panchayats, 95Block Panchayats and 13 dis-trict Panchayats. Semwal saidthat under the digital India pro-gramme, the Panchayati Rajdepartment had organised an

orientation programme of dis-trict and block panchayat rep-resentatives on February 9,2020 at Haridwar. In this pro-gramme the funds of 14th FCcommission were digitallytransferred to Panchayati rajbodies by Union Panchayati RajMinister Narendra SinghTomar and CM Rawat.

Another digital transferwas made by CM on June 22this year when the first instal-ment of untied fund providedby the Central Governmentand the budget of state financecommission were transferred.

It is pertinent to mentionhere that all 7791 Panchayats inthe state are linked with thePublic Finance ManagementSystem (PFMS) platform ofonline transfer of funds. ThePanchayats would use theamount for various develop-ment and other projects in therural areas of the state.

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The Dobra-Chanthi bridgeconnecting New Tehri to

Pratapnagar is ready. Chiefminister Trivendra SinghRawat shared photographs ofthe bridge on social media, stat-ing that after a long wait of 14years, the occasion for whichthe residents of Pratapnagarwere waiting is going to arrivesoon.

Rawat stated,“Understanding the pain ofthe residents of Pratapnagarand the importance of theDobra-Chanthi bridge, weaccorded top priority to the

construction of this bridge.The State Governmentreleased lump sum budgetfor this project and theresult is there for all to see.”

The 440 metre longDobra Chanthi bridge builtacross the Tehri dam reser-voir is the nation’s longestmotorable single-lane sus-pension bridge. With theopening of this bridge, morethan three lakh local popu-lation will not have to coveran additional distance of100 kilometres to reach thedistrict headquarters fromPratapnagar and neigh-bouring areas.

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The State’s Tourism andCulture minister Satpal

Maharaj met the Union min-ister of Tourism, Prahlad Patelon Thursday and urged him torelease funds for the ongoingtourism projects inUttarakhand. Maharaj also pre-sented a model of Char Dhamto the union minister andthanked him for his continuedsupport and guidance for re-starting the Char Dham Yatrain the state.

Maharaj also requested theminister to sanction funds forthe Swadesh Darshan andPrasad schemes. He informedPatel that 98 per cent con-struction work of eco andadventure destination in Tehrihas already been completedunder Swadesh Darshanscheme and the remainingwork of construction of Tehriparking will be completed bySeptember 2020.

Similarly, the work ofKumaon heritage circuit hasbeen completed. Maharaj alsoinformed that the develop-

ment of infrastructure facilitieson Kedarnath road under thePrasad Yojana is going on atexpected pace and will be com-pleted by October 2020.

He further requested Patelto provide in principle approvalfor the Mahabharata circuitconcept note. He said that dueto excessive rainfall and snow-fall progress in execution of the

plan approved plan forBadrinath was limited in thepast but currently the con-struction work is underprogress with attempts beingmade to complete the workwithin the stipulated time.Under the Prasad scheme, in-principle consent has beenprovided for the developmentof tourism facilities in Gangotri

and Yamunotri. He alsorequested early approval to theproposal for centralisation ofState Institute of HotelManagement (SIHM) inUttarakhand and requestedrelease of the remainingamount of Rs one crore out ofthe approved amount of Rs 4.75crore for Food Craft Institute(FCI) based at Almora.

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Accusing the State govern-ment of deceiving the

Anganwadi workers, the statepresident of Anganwadi work-ers association, Rekha Negisaid that as a representative ofthe government, the Dehradunmayor had promised them thatthe workers will get theallowance for the time period oftheir protest but now it is beingdenied by the Government.

She said that recently theyapproached the State WomenEmpowerment and ChildDevelopment minister RekhaArya regarding the allowance ofhundreds of Anganwadi work-ers of the protest period butArya said that the departmentwill not pay anything for thatperiod because if it will, it willbe promoting the wrongdoingsof the workers that they did byprotesting against the admin-istration.

She said that at that time,they were asked to withdraw

their protest and as a represen-tative of the government, theDehradun mayor Sunil Uniyalalong with BJP’s Sitaram Bhattpromised that the allowance ofthe protest period will be paidby the Government.

The members of the asso-ciation said that they are againstthe decision of deducting theirallowances and they will takeaction if the government willnot pay them their two monthallowance.

Negi added they also talkedto Arya about lifting the restric-tion of the age for the promo-tions of Anganwadi workersbesides mentioning that noworker has been promotedsince the year 2012 and thosewho deserve the promotionwill not get it due to the age-limit restriction.

She said that Arya accept-ed that it is the department'smistake that it has not done anypromotions for several years butshe added that the promotionswill be given as per the rules thistime.

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The wall which had col-lapsed at Har ki Paidi on

Monday night had fallen dueto unrestrained excavation forunderground works. The threemember committee gave thisinformation to the districtmagistrate in its report late onWednesday.

Earlier, many were aver-ring that the wall had fallenafter being struck by lightning.Now, the Ganga Sabha is seek-ing action against the agencyresponsible for the excava-tions that led to the collapse.

Traders have already raisedobjections to the ongoinguncontrolled excavations forunderground power lines andgas pipe line in Haridwar.

The traders allege that theexecuting agency is carryingout the excavation in anunplanned manner which isposing risk to various struc-tures including homes andhotels. The holes are being dug

and left uncovered. Rainwateris filling such holes and seep-ing through to the foundationsof various structures as hap-pened in the case of the wallwhich collapsed late onMonday night.District magis-trate C Ravishankar said thatofficials of PWD, irrigation,district mining and geologistswere included in the team.The team's report does not

mention lightning. Duringinvestigation, the team foundthat the wall had collapsed dueto water leakage.

The DM said that properarrangements will be made todrain the water at the siteconcerned in the future. Afterthe committee’s report, GangaSabha members submitted anapplication to SeniorSuperintendent of Police,

Senthil Avoodai Krishna Raj Sand the DM demanding FIRagainst the company respon-sible for digging up roads forthe underground cable project.

Ganga Sabha secretaryTanmay Vashishtha as thereport clearly states that thewall collapsed due to diggingnearby, strict action should betaken against the agencyresponsible.

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Considering frequent increasein the number of Covid-19

positive cases in Dehradun dis-trict recently, district adminis-tration has adopted a new pre-cautionary measure to markthose who enter in the district byregistering themselves on SmartCity portal.

According to officials, peo-ple who register on Smart Citywebsite to enter district amidpandemic will also be marked asentered online on their arrivalwhich will make it easy to iden-tify them with one click in future.

Moreover, some people stillcontinue to ignore use of masksin public places in current Covid-19 contagion.

To discourage this, districtadministration team fined 170people for not wearing masks inpublic places on directions ofdistrict magistrate Ashish KumarShrivastava. on Thursday.

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Four men and a hotel ownerin Haridwar have been

booked in the alleged rape ofa 16 year old girl. The mainaccused had reportedly estab-lished a friendship with thevictim through the socialmedia and had then taken herto a hotel along with three ofhis friends.

She was allegedly raped inthe hotel and after the incidentshe informed her guardiansabout it, following which theylodged an FIR against theaccused.

Ranipur Kotwali inspectorin-charge Yogesh Dev saidthat a minor girl and theaccused had become friendsthrough social media. Themain accused Shahnawaz, whois a resident of Manglaur,came to the girl's house andtook her to Haridwar.

After reaching Haridwar,the accused called Sameer andtold him that he wanted a

room for three hours. He wastold to go to Hotel Mehfillocated at Jwalapur and citeSameer’s name to the hotelowner Sumit Walia.

Shahnawaz got a roomwhere he raped the girl whilehis three friends Asif, Vaibhavand Adab allegedly stood out-side the room guarding thedoor. When the girl began tocry, the four men reportedlygot scared and went awayafter dropping her near herhouse.

Seeing the seriousness ofthe case, the Haridwar SSPSenthil Avoodai Krishna Raj Sordered speedy action afterwhich the police filed a caseunder the IPC and POCSOAct.

Asif, Shahnawaz, Adaband Vaibhav – all residents ofManglaur along with Jwalapurresident hotel owner SumitWalia and Jwalapur residentSameer were arrested by thepolice and presented beforethe court.

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The Central paramilitaryforces have clocked over

9,700 Covid-19 cases with4,300 of them being activeones even as the test reports ofabout 600 personnel are await-ed. As many as 41 personnelhave so far succumbed to theinfection.

The Central Reserve PoliceForce (CRPF) has breached the3,000-mark in terms of numberof infected personnel and topsthe list with 3,241 personneltesting positive for the novelCoronavirus infection till now.Of this, as many as 220 cases ofinfection were reported duringthe last 24 hours. Currently,there are 1,583 active cases and1,643 patients have recoveredand 15 have died due to the pan-demic.

The Border Security Force(BSF) is just short of 49 cases intouching the 3,000 mark interms of Covid-19 infectionwith a total of 2,941 personnelbeing infected by the viral dis-eases. Out of 2,941 positive

cases reported so far in the BSFranks, 1,512 are active and1,429 have recovered besides 10casualties including patientswith comorbidities and a roadaccident victim who later test-ed positive for the viral disease.

Likewise, the CentralIndustrial Security Force (CISF)has a total case count of 1,524including 413 active cases and1,101 recovered patients besides10 casualties.

The Indo-Tibetan BorderPolice (ITBP) has reported1,038 Covid-19 positive cases tillso far of which 606 continue tobe active cases and 429 haverecovered and three have died.

The Sashastra Seema Bal(SSB) has reported 474 cases ofCovid-19 infection in its ranksof which 257 are active casesand 214 have recovered. TheForce has reported three casu-alties due to the viral disease.

The National SecurityGuards has reported 91 cases ofCovid-19 infection of whichonly seven are active and 84patients have recovered. TheForce has not reported a single

casualty due to the disease.The National Disaster

Response Force (NDRF) hasreported 384 Covid-19 cases inits ranks of which 80 are activeand 304 patients have recovered.Like the NSG, NDRF too hasnot reported any loss of life dueto the pandemic.

As many as 9,703 cases ofCovid-19 have been reportedacross the seven Forces till nowof which 4,458 continue to beactive and 5,204 have recoveredfrom the disease.

Covid-19 test reports ofsuspected cases of infection of596 personnel are awaited as ondate.

During the last 24 hours,495 cases of infection havebeen reported across the Forceswith the CRPF alone reporting220 new cases during the peri-od. The BSF and ITBP report-ed 62 and 61 new cases respec-tively during the last 24 hoursfollowed by 25 cases in CISF and15 cases in SSB. The NSGreported one new case and theNDRF tested six positive casesduring the period.

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Against the backdrop ofIndia’s bid to become

‘atmanirbhar’ (self-reliant), oneof the Government’s own bod-ies has maintained that reduc-ing dependency on the importof the Active PharmaceuticalIngredients (API) from Chinais not going to be an easy affair.API is a chemical compoundthat is the most important rawmaterial to produce a finishedmedicine. At present, 68 percent of India’s API need is ful-filled by China.

It pointed out that indige-nously-manufactured drugswould be 20 per cent costlierthan those available from theneighbouring country.

The Technology,Information Forecasting andAssessment Council (TIFAC),an autonomous body underthe Union Science andTechnology Ministry, in itsreport has now called forpreparing a national stockpileof generic medicines for crit-ical illness and ensure APIsecurity in view of changedglobal norms due to Covid-19pandemic and border tiff withChina.

The report also suggestedthat while India has the tech-nology for production of manyAPIs, the production costneeds to be optimised tomatch the global norms large-ly by scaling up of operations.“Towards this, common facil-ities such as solvent recoveryplant, distillation plant, powerand steam units etc. should beestablished in bulk drugparks,” said the report “ActivePharmaceutical Ingredients:Status, Issues, Technology“Readiness and Challenges” asit dwelt in detail on thestrength and limitation as wellas emerging market scenarioin the sector.

In 2019, India importedAPIs worth �249 billion ofwhich around �169 billionwere from China itself, withthe imports increasing steadi-ly from just 0.3 per cent in1991 to the current 68 percent.

“Two-thirds of the totalimports of APIs and drugIntermediates were fromChina. Out of the 373 drugs inthe National List of EssentialMedicines (NLEM), around200 are imported as APIS, thattoo mostly from China. Theimport value of bulk drugs and

drug intermediates fromChina to India increasedaround 23 per cent from 2016-17 to 2018-19,” said the report.

Despite a very strong base,due to low-profit margins andnon-lucrative industry, domes-tic pharmaceutical firms grad-ually stopped manufacturingAPIs and started importing,finding it a cheaper optionwith increased profit marginson drugs,

Dependence of India onChina for the imports of crit-ical key starting materialsKSMs, intermediates and APIShas increased over the period.India also imports commonraw materials, solvents etc,required for the production ofdrugs, said the report.

All the drug Intermediatesare imported to India, ofwhich 58 molecules are exclu-sively imported from China

The global pharmaceuticalmarket is USD 12 trillion withAPI market of USD 1,822 bil-lion.

The pharmaceuticalindustry in India is thirdlargest in the world, in termsof volume, behind China andItaly and fourteenth largest interms of value.

The Indian industry has a

network of 3,000 drug com-panies and about 10,500 man-ufacturing units with Indiandomestic turnover reaching�1.4 lakh crore (USD 20.03 bil-lion in 2019, with exports tomore than 200 countries in theworld:

Identifying a list of APIswhich need to be taken up forprioritized manufacturing, thereport compiled by scientistsand pharma experts said thatIndia needs a Mission modeChemical Engineering withdefined targets for uninter-rupted synthesis of moleculesand to create mega drug man-ufacturing clusters with com-mon infrastructure.

“For those few APIS, forwhich we don’t have technology, early stageresearch and developmentsupport should be provided forpilot development of APIs.

“At the same time, issuesrelated to land acquisition,ease of doing business. envi-ronmental clearance, taxation,and R&D need to be resolvedwhile a single window clear-ance system and prioritylicense renewal system forcompanies manufacturingAPIS need to be established,”said the report.

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New Delhi: In an effort tojointly combat the novel coro-navirus, Israel Thursday said itwill send to India on board aspecial flight a research teamwhich has been working withthe Indian side to develop arapid testing kit for COVID-19which can give a result within30 seconds.

In the coming weeks,Israel’s ministries of foreignaffairs, defence and health willlead an unprecedented anti-COVID-19 cooperation oper-ation between India and Israel,an Israel Embassy statementsaid.

A special planned flightfrom Tel Aviv to New Delhi isset to carry a high rankingIsraeli defence ministryresearch and developmentteam which has been workingwith India’s chief scientist KVijayRaghavan and DefenceResearch and DevelopmentOrganisation to develop rapidtesting for COVID-19 in under30 seconds, it said.

Merging Israeli technologywith Indian development andproduction capabilities aims toallow a swift resumption ofnormal life alongside the virus,the Israeli Embassy said.

The flight will also bringbreakthrough emerging Israelitechnologies for combatingCOVID-19, which have beendonated by Israel’’s foreignministry and private sectormeant to bolster India’sresponse to the outbreak.

“Finally, the plane willdeliver mechanical ventilatorswhich were given special per-mission by the Government ofIsrael for export to India,” thestatement said.

The past few years havecemented the strategic rela-tions between India and Israeland have included two histor-ical visits of the prime minis-ters in Israel and in India, theEmbassy said.

Since the outbreak of theglobal pandemic, Israeli Prime

Minister BenjaminNetanyahu andPrime MinisterNarendra Modihave held threetelephonic conver-sations in whichthey promisedmutual assistancein dealing with thevirus and committed to jointtechnological and

scientific research betweenthe countries, the statementsaid.

Noting that India is cur-rently facing over one millionCOVID-19 positive cases, theIsraeli side said India seeks tointegrate advanced technolo-gies in its hospitals as they pre-pare to treat massive waves ofCOVID-19 patients on anIndian scale.

The Israeli companies chosen by the three ministriesto be sent to India are poten-tially given unique access toone of the largest economies inthe world to provide moni-toring and treatment tech-nologies while significantlyreducing contact betweenpatients and medical staff, thestatement said. PTI

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Former Congress presidentRahul Gandhi on Thursday

once again targeted PrimeMinister Narendra Modi byalleging that the latter was “100percent focused on building hisown image” and did not have avision for the country that hadallowed China to take advantage.

“India’s captured institu-tions are all busy doing this task.One man’s image is not a sub-stitute for a national vision,” hetweeted along with his two-minute video as part of hisongoing series on differentissues.

Former Union MinisterAjay Maken at a Press confer-ence said since last one week,PLA is not withdrawing fromthe ‘depth areas’ as agreed infour rounds meeting of corps-commanders of India andChina.

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In a significant development,the HRD Ministry on

Thursday announced a relax-ation in the admission criteriafor NITs and Centrally-fundedtechnical institutions (CFTI) inview of the Covid-19 pandem-ic by doing away with therequirement of minimum 75per cent marks in Class 12board exams.

“Due to prevailing cir-cumstances, Central SeatAllocation Board (CSAB) hasdecided to relax the eligibilitycriterion for admissions toNITs and other centrally fund-ed technical institutions,”Union HRD Minister RameshPokhriyal ‘Nishank’ tweeted.

“JEE Main 2020 qualifiedcandidates will now only needto obtain a passing certificate inclass XII examination irre-spective of the marks obtained,”he further said.

For admissions in NITsand other CFTIs, apart fromqualifying the JEE-Main, theeligibility was to secure a min-imum of 75 per cent marks inClass 12 board exams or rankamong the top 20 percentile intheir qualifying examinations.

The Joint EntranceExamination (JEE)-Mains,which has been postponedtwice, will now be held fromSeptember 1-6.

Nishank had earlierannounced that the eligibilitycriterion for JEE (Advanced)2020 qualified candidates arebeing relaxed and a decisionhas been taken in this regard bythe Joint Admission Board(JAB). Several State Boardshave had to partially cancel

class 12 exams.Due to the COVID-19

pandemic, the exams couldnot be held as per the scheduleand the boards had to releasethe result on the basis of a newassessment scheme whereinthe average marks secured bythe students in the papers forwhich the exam was held weretaken into consideration.Students who wish to improvetheir scores will be given achance later.

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Prime MinisterNarendra Modi on

Thursday said India’snorth eastern regionhas immense poten-tial to become thegrowth engine of thecountry. He talkedabout the potential of thetourism industry in the regionand its development as a bam-boo industry hub.

Regarding the massivedevelopment works taken upin Manipur, the PrimeMinister said that the Imphal- Jiribam railways work isgoing on with an allocation of�14,000 crore while �3,000crore has been sanctioned forthe development of ImphalInternational Airport.

Laying the foundationstone of Manipur water sup-ply project via video confer-encing, the Prime Ministersaid that it has been designedto provide safe drinking waterto every household of theState for the next 20-22 years

and lakhs of people will getaccess to clean drinking waterand thousands of people willget employment.

Modi said that the mantraof peace, progress and pros-perity is echoing in theNortheast, and day by day myfaith is getting deeper becausepeace is now being estab-lished in the entire region.“While blockades in Manipurhave become a part of histo-ry and Assam has not wit-nessed any violence fordecades.

In Tripura and Mizoramtoo, youth have abandonedthe path of violence. NowBru-Reang refugees are mov-ing towards a better life,” hesaid.

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Due to a huge surge intransmission of coron-

avirus infections and deterio-rating flood situation in sever-al States, the ElectionCommission (EC) on Thursdayannounced the deferment ofby-polls to one Parliamentaryconstituency and sevenAssembly seats that werescheduled to be held bySeptember 7. Bye-elections aredue in 56 Assembly con-stituencies and one parlia-mentary seat. The remaining 49bypolls are due after September7.

The seats where the bypollshave been put on hold tillSeptember 7 are Valmiki Nagarin Bihar, Sibsagar in Assam,Thiruvottiyur and Gudiyattamin Tamil Nadu, Agar inMadhya Pradesh, Bulandshahrand Tundla in Uttar Pradeshand Chavara in Kerala. The EChas clarified that in any case,the deferring of eight by pollsis only up to September 7, 2020.Seven of the bypolls had beennecessitated by the deaths ofthe sitting legislators, while inTundla constituency in Uttar

Pradesh, the MLA was electedto Parliament.

As per the electoral law, EChas to hold bye-elections with-in 180 days (six months) of aseat falling vacant, anotherofficial pointed out. The six-month deadline to hold by-elections in these eight seatswas ending on different datesin July, August and Septemberrespectively. When the ECassessed the situation, it foundthat it is difficult to adhere tothe six-month deadline in theseseats, and approached theUnion law ministry to defer thepolls, EC officials said.

The EC said that theCommission has already takena decision to hold all bye-elec-tions as per provisions ofSection 151A of theRepresentation of People Act,1951.

The Commission will betaking up for discussion thematter of timing of the bypollsat its meeting to be held onFriday.

Sources said that flood sit-uation in Assam has deterio-rated due to incessant rainfall.Over 56.22 lakh population inover 6,000 villages have beenaffected in the state. Similarly,

Bihar, Tamil Nadu, UttarPradesh, Kerala and MadhyaPradesh where the bypolls weredue, witnessed huge surge inthe coronavirus infections,making it difficult for author-ities to engage poll duties andconduct of election precedures.

The continuing coron-avirus situation has cast a shad-ow on the upcoming Assemblypolls in Bihar, widely consid-ered the most important elec-toral event in the country thisyear.

Political parties had beencalling for deferment of thepolls in Bihar as many of theopposition leaders in the statehave said that having electionsduring the outbreak will put thelives of people at risk. NDA allyChirag Paswan also in favour ofdeferring the assembly polls inthe state due to coronavirusinfections that will be on peakduring elections in November-December.

Apart from these seats, 24seats in Madhya Pradesh are upfor by-elections due to Scindia’srebellion. As per Section 151-A of the Representation of thePeople’s Act, 1951, ECI willconduct by-polls to 22 seats bySeptember 10.

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The Union HRD Ministryhas conducted the first-

ever Indian ScholasticAssessment (Ind-SAT) Test2020 under its ‘Study in India’programme. Nearly 5,000 can-didates from Nepal, Ethiopia,Bangladesh, Bhutan, Uganda,Tanzania, Rwanda, Sri-Lanka,Kenya, Zambia, Indonesia andMauritius appeared for theexam conducted in the proc-

tored internet mode by theNational Testing Agency.

EdCIL (India) Limited, aPSU under the MHRD and theimplementing agency of SII,handled the registrations andother aspects of the examination.

Ind-SAT is an exam forgrant of scholarships andadmissions to foreign studentsfor studying in select Indianuniversities under the Study inIndia programme.

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The National InvestigatingAgency, probing the gold

smuggling through diplomaticroute in Thiruvananthapuram air-port, on Thursday started ques-tioning M Sivsankar, the sus-pended principal secretary ofChief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.

Sivsankar reached the PoliceClub in capital city where a teamof NIA sleuths were waiting forhim. The session between the IASofficer and the NIA officials wereprogressing even at the time ofgoing to Press.

It is after ten days of meticu-lous planning that the NIA teamsummoned Sivsankar. Last weeksaw Sivsankar, an official close toVijayan being subjected to amarathon grilling by the Customs

officials at Thiruvananthapuramwhich lasted for more than ninehours.

The NIA had interrogatedSarith, Swapna Suresh andSandeep Nair for many days beforethey took the decision to summonSivsankar. Though the Customsand NIA officials remained incom-municado till date about the entirecase, it is reported that they gotvaluable information linking theIAS officer with the trio in thesmuggling operation.

The day began with news thatMohammed Yousuf, theCommissioner of Customs, issuedan order transferring six superin-tendents and two inspectors prob-ing the case.

Within minutes news channelsaired the news that a cartel of busi-nessmen from Muvattupuzha inErnakulam district had smuggled1,500 kg of gold using diplomaticimmunity during the last threeyears. This is being seen as theshadow boxing happening in theCustoms House between seniorofficials.

The Enforcement Directoratetoo pitched in with their share andregistered the arrest of Sarith,Swapna and Sandeep in connectionwith the gold smuggling, makingit the third agency probing thecase. Meanwhile the CustomsDepartment has approached thespecial court in Kochi to slapCOFEPOSA charges on the threeaccused which, if approved wouldmake it difficult for them to get bailfor the next one year.

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In an unique initiative andperhaps the first of its kind in

the country, the BiharGoverment has started a directconnect with the vegetablegrowers and people involved infarming of vegetables only.

The movement titled'Sahkaari Se Tarkaari Vaarta'movement has been designedto facilitate the vegetable coop-erative unions and federation toregularly monitor the pulse ofthe farming community and toprovide the farmer members amuch-needed opportunity tovoice their concerns related tovegetable production, pricingand supply chain.

Vegfed Managing DirectorAnand Sharma said the'Sahkaari Se Tarkaari Vaarta' isan unique initiative by theVegfed which comes underthe Bihar State VegetableProcessing and MarketingScheme.

Sharma said with this ini-tiative, the Bihar CooperativeDepartment is trying to movean inch closer to the farmers.So far such schemes benefittingthe farmers are available forfood grains, milk production

and other agricultural produce. Some of the States likeMaharashtra have dedicatedinitiatives for single vegetableproduce like Onions but Biharhas become perhaps the first inthe country to start an initiative for vegetable growers.

The scheme was launchedearly this week by Sharmaunder the guidance of BandanaPreyashi (IAS), who is theSecretary, CooperativeDepartment, BiharGovernment and also theChairperson of Vegfed Bihar.

Sharma said the pupose ofthe scheme is to direct talk withthe growers and vegetablefarmers, to understand theirissues and then address their grievances which willultimately boost their morale.

“The State level officers aswell as District CooperativeOfficers (DCOs) of theDepartment are making effortsin keeping constant touch withthe farmer members. Thoughthe Covid-19 has limited theoperation, the Department hasnot lost the zeal, feel and theessence of the Cooperative sys-tem,” said the 2013 batch IASof Bihar cadre.

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For the second day in succession,Kerala diagnosed more than

1,000 persons afflicted with Covid-19.“Today also we have tested highernumber of patients with covid-19. OnThursday, 1,078 persons were diag-nosed with Covid pandemic. The dis-ease claimed five lives across the Stateduring the last 24 hours,” said ChiefMinister Pinarayi Vijayan in hismedia briefing on Thursday. OnWednesday, 1,038 persons were foundto be affected with Covid-19.

Out of the 1,078 persons testedpositive for Covid-19 on Thursday,798 were infected through contacts,said Vijayan. He also said thatThiruvananthapuram (222), Kollam(106) and Ernakulam (100) were thedistricts which tested higher numberof patients.

The State has 16,110 Covidpatients. Hospitals in the State have9,408 patients undergoing treatmentfor the pandemic. The day also saw432 persons getting discharged from

the hospitals after they were found tobe fully recovered.

The Chief Minister said that theCouncil of Ministers which met onThursday morning had asked theGovernor to cancel the one-day ses-sion of the Legislative Assemblycalled for next week. “This is becauseof the unusual situation prevailing inthe State and also due to the advancedage of some members of the legisla-tive assembly.

EP Jayarajan, the Minister forindustries and the second-in-com-mand to the Chief Minister whobriefed the media after the cabinetmeeting in the morning blamed themedia for spreading fake and falsenews about the Covid-19 situation inthe State.

“There are many Oppositionleaders who want the Covid-19patients in the State should increase.They don’t what the pandemic to sub-side and are interested in making political gains through thesufferings of the poor people,” saidJayarajan.

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Hopes of any kind of respite from the coronavirus pan-demic remained elusive in Tamil Nadu as 88 persons suc-

cumbed to Covid-19 in the last 24 hours while 6,472 newpersons tested positive on Thursday.

A release by the Government of Tamil Nadu said thenumber of active patients in the city reached 52,939 byThursday evening while the total number of covid-19 casesdiagnosed till date crossed the 1.92 lakh.

With Thursday’s 88 death, the fatalities in the State reached3,232. The only news that offered some relied was in the num-ber of patients getting cured and discharged from hospitals-5,210.

What was Thursday’s cause of concern was the hike inthe number of persons diagnosed with the pandemic inChennai and the three neighbouring districts. Despite theclaims by the Government officials that the number of patientsin Chennai were coming down, the Metropolis tested 1,336Covid cases on Thursday. For the last one week, Chennai’snew covid cases were contained in the 1100-1200 range.

Similarly, the neighbouring districts of Chengalpet ( 375)Kancheepuram (330), Thiruvallur (416) showed steep hikein the number of patients tested on Thursday.

The southern districts of Virudhunagar (480) andThoothukudi (415) too tested unprecedented number of pos-itive cases. The pandemic has reached the doors of Raj Bhavanin Chennai. A release by the Raj Bhavan said 84 personnel(mainly security and fire fighting staff) posted in the premis-es tested positive for coronavirus. But the Governor has notcome in contact with those who tested positive for the pan-demic, said the release.

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Within 48 hours of blowing the poll bugleBengal Chief Minister Mamata

Banerjee on Thursday effected a majorreshuffle in the ruling Trinamool Congressby infusing a mix of experience, youth, cleanimage and loyalty at the organisationallevel.

North Bengal and Jangalmahal in south-western part of the State where the TMCfared miserably— conceding a large bulk ofseats to an emerging BJP in 2019 Generalelections — have found special focus in thenew scheme of things.

Much in the line of the BJP’s “MargDarshan Mandli” a good number of TMCold guards who were functioning as districtpresidents’ have been “elevated” as 'chair-persons' of the respective district units — anew designation with unspecific politicalpotency.

The rejig exercise was conducted via avirtual meeting of senior leaders from theState and district, sources said.

Among the young leaders are formerIndia cricketer and Bengal captain, LaxmiRatan Shukla the present Sports Minister ofBengal. He has been appointed the presidentof Howrah city president removing power-

ful leader and Minister Arup Roy.MP and senior leader Sudip

Bandopadhyay who have been elevated as thechairperson of the North Kolkata districtcommittee has also been asked to continueas the party president of the district until anew appointee takes over.

While in South Kolkata Debashis Kumarcontinues to remain the party presidentNadia finds a new district chief in vocal MPMohua Moitra.

The BJP has come up in a big way inNadia which like North Bengal andJangalmahal has seen the entire former Leftleadership switching over to the saffronranks.

In North Bengal, prominent civil soci-ety member and former MP Arpita Ghoshhas been removed as the president of SouthDinajpur district which went into the handsof BJP in the parliamentary elections.

Further north Coochbehar has seen anew face in Partho Pratim Mitra replacingseasoned leader and Minister RabindraNath Ghosh as the district president.Similarly Shyamal Santra, Swapan Debnathand Jiten Tewari have been made the districtpresidents of Bankura, East and WestBurdwan districts while Ajit Maity has beengiven the charge in West Midnapore.

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In what has added more fuelto the fire burning the bridge

between the TrinamoolCongress Government and theRaj Bhavan, Bengal GovernorJagdeep Dhankhar has askedChief Minister MamataBanerjee to brief him about the“worrisome” law and order sit-uation in the State.

His letter to the ChiefMinister comes barely daysafter he returned from Delhiwhere he met Home MinisterAmit Shah and other leadersexpressing his concern aboutwhat he called the “worrisomesituation” in the State.

Asking the Chief Ministerto “urgently” meet himDhankhar on Thursday tweet-

ed, “given the enormity ofdecline in law and order Ihave urged Chief MinisterMamata Banerjee to urgentlybrief me.”

Expressing concern onattacks on the leaders of theopposition parties he wrote“political leaders and opposi-tion MPs and MLAs are beingvirtually hunted out of publicspace by partisan police actingas political workers. This can-not be allowed in a democra-cy.”

He further wrote that “as aGovernor of the state I amextremely worried. I requestedthe honourable Chief Ministerto come forward and have ameeting with me. I hope shewill give the highest priority tothis.”

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With apparent evidence that the Government meantbusiness in implementing the “broken lockdown” the

Bengal Police on Thursday ensured a complete closure ofthe State arresting about 650 people from various parts ofKolkata for breaking the lockdown protocols.

Bengal entered into a second phase of lockdown whichwill entail twice-a-week closure of business and offices saveessential services. State will remain closed on Saturday tooin this week. In the next week Wednesday will be a lock-down day.

The police were seen caning people who had aimless-ly ventured out of their houses not only in Kolkata but indistricts also. People were either sent back home or caseswere registered against them before they were taken intocustody. About 350 people were penalized for not wearingor “half-wearing” masks, sources said.

Apart from reinstituting twice-a-week lockdown theGovernment has been continuing with lockdown inextended containment zones. This apart, full one-week lock-down has been declared in a number of municipalities likeBarasat, Bongaon, Baduria, Barrackpore, Baranagar in North24 Parganaas district which is second to Kolkata in termsof severity of infections.

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Contesting SwambhimaniShetkari Sanghatana leader

Raju Shetti’s claim that theCentre was not increasing theprocurement prices of milkproduct prices because of itsdecision to import milk powder,BJP’s State Kisan Morcha pres-ident and former StateAgriculture Minister AnilBonde on Thursday denied thatthe Government had imported10,000 tonnes of milk powder aswas being alleged by Shetti.

Reacting to the recent state-ments by Shetti who had amongother things said that the milkbusiness in the state had beenaffected “because of the policiesof the central government”,Bonde that Shetty was wasspreading “false information”that the Central government hasimported milk powder to cover up the failure of the

Maha Vikas Aghaadi government to give fair pro-curement prices to milk pro-ducers,

“The BJP had recentlystaged a statewide agitation todraw the attention of the stategovernment to the demands oftroubled milk producers. RajuShetti, who supports the MahaVikas Aghadi government, alsostaged an agitation on July 21 forfair milk procurement prices. \

Shetti had said that becauseof the import of milk powder bythe central government it wasnot raising the prices of milkproducers,”Bonde said.

Bonde said that it wasmandatory under the GATTagreement to import 10,000metric tonnes of milk powder asper the GATT agreement, noimporter has been issued withexpression of interest and noimport license has been issuedto anyone.

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Jammu: The Union Territoryof Jammu & Kashmir Thursdayreported 718 positive cases ofcoronavirus while nine morepatients died taking the totaltally of cases to 16,429.

Out of these 718 cases, 98were travelers while 620 caseswere reported from differentdistricts of J&k. Significantly,three districts of Srinagar,Kulgam and Shopian reported158, 106 and 109 cases respec-tively.

According to the mediabulletin, “the fresh casesinclude 117 from Jammu divi-sion and 601 from Kashmir.According to official sources atleast 50 CRPF personnel test-ed positive before joining theirduties.

In Jammu division, Jammudistrict reported 47 fresh casesfollowed by Ramban fromwhere 20 patients tested posi-tive while Rajouri districtreported 15 cases.

Nine districts of Kashmirvalley observed complete lockdown while Jammu districtwill observe weekend lock-down from Friday evening till

New Delhi: Rajya SabhaChairman M Venkaiah Naiduon Thursday nominated newmembers to various DepartmentRelated Parliamentary StandingCommittees, a day after admin-istering the oath/affirmation tothem.

Jyotiraditya Scindia (BJP)has become a member of theParliamentary Committee onHuman Resource Development(HRD), while Congress memberDigvijaya Singh has been nom-inated to the Committee onUrban Development.

NCP leader Sharad Pawarhas been made a member of theCommittee on Defence. SeniorCongress leader MallikarjunKharge has been nominated tothe Standing Committee onCommerce, former Lok Sabhadeputy speaker M ThambiDurai to the Committee onHRD, and former Rajya Sabhadeputy speaker Harivansh to thepanel on Agriculture.

Former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda, who took oathas Rajya Sabha member, hasbeen nominated to theCommittee on Railways, whileformer Chief Justice of IndiaRanjan Gogoi has been made amember of the Committee onExternal Affairs. PTI

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The Pakistan Army on Thursday activatedseveral sectors along the line of control

(LoC) in Jammu & Kashmir and targeted civil-ian pockets in Poonch and Naugam sector ofBaramulla district.

In response, the Indian Army hit backstrongly and gave them a befitting reply.

Official sources on ground zero claimed,“for the last couple of days tha Pakistan Armyis aiming at upping the ante and desperatelytrying to push small batches of infiltratorsinside the Indian territory”. These sourcesclaimed, “the handlers of various terror outfitssitting across the LoC are desperate to sendfresh batches of terrorists to execute their sin-ister plot of targeting security forces and vitalinstallations during the first anniversary ofAbrogation of Article 370 and reorganisationof the erstwhile state of Jammu & Kashmir onAugust 5”.

To foil their nefarious designs the foot sol-

diers of the Indian army are maintaining a tightvigil.

Official sources said, “In the Poonch sec-tor, the Pakistan Army is repeatedly targetingseveral civilian pockets to disturb peace in theregion and trigger unrest among the local pop-ulation”. Five civilians have lost their lives intwo recent incidents of ceasefire violations inPoonch.

“The Pakistan army is also attempting topush small groups of infiltrators via traditionalroutes of infiltration in Poonch sector”, claimedsources on ground zero. The Pakistan armyprovides cover firing to these infiltrators todivert attention of the alert Indian soldiers.

Ministry of Defence spokesman in Jammu,Lt-Col Devender Anand said on Thursday, “twoincidents of 'unprovoked' ceasefire violationswere reported across Poonch district”. He saidthe first violation was reported around 11.00a.m in Qasba, Kirni sector and the second vio-lation was reported in the evening around 5.15p.m in Balakote sector.

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Maharashtra recorded thehighest-ever 298 coron-

avirus deaths on Thursday,even as many as 9,895 morepeople tested positive in variousparts of the State.

With 298 fresh deaths, thestate surpassed its earlier recordof 295 deaths recorded on July4. With Thursday’s fatalitytally, the total number of deathsmounted to 12,854.

With the 9895 positive casesreported on Thursday, the totalnumber of cases inched closer3.5 lakh mark to touch 3,47,502.Of the 298 deaths, Puneaccounted for 78 deaths, whileMumbai recorded 55 deaths.

Apart from 78 deathsreported in Pune and 55 deathsin Mumbai, there were47deaths in Thane, 25 deaths inPalghar, 15 in Nashik, 14 inJalgaon, 10 in Aurangabad, 6 inLatur, 5 in Sangli, 4 each inKolhapur, Nanded and Hingoli,

3 each in Raigad, Solapur, Beedand Jalna, 2 each in Dhule,Ratnagiri, Amravati andYavatmal and one death each inAhmednagar, Satara, Parbhani,Osmanabad, Akola andNagpur. In addition, six personsfrom other states died inMaharashtra.

With fresh fatalities andinfections in Mumbai, the totalnumber of deaths in Mumbairose from 5,875 to 5,930, whilethe total number of infectedcases rose by 1,245 to touch105,923.

With 81708 infected casesand 2193 deaths, Thane con-tinued to be the second worsthit district in Maharashtra.

Pune, which has emergedas the third worst affected dis-trict in terms of spread of thepandemic, has recorded 66538infections and 1592 deaths tillnow.

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The British Airways’announcement that it isgoing to retire its fleet ofBoeing 747s from commer-cial passenger services hit

many aviation fans pretty hard. I haveprobably flown more passenger milesin the British Airways’ 747 aircraft thanon any other airline. In the past fewmonths, two other iconic operators ofthe Boeing 747, Australian airlineQantas and Dutch airline KLM, alsoannounced that they flew their lastjumbo flights. In the last couple of years— thanks to the emergence of morepoint-to-point flying, higher frequen-cy and the sheer efficiency of moderntwin-jet aircraft like the Boeing 787 andAirbus A350 — more and more 747sare being retired across the world.

Air India withdrew the jumboflight’s operations a couple of years agobut has been using it for some Haj andUmmah-related duties. Most otherAmerican, Asian and European oper-ators have retired the plane from ser-vice. However, there are exceptions likeAir China, Lufthansa and Korean Air,which operate the newer 747-8 variant,and a couple of other airlines such asThai Airways that operates the older747-400. In fact, my last 747 flight wasunexpectedly on the Thai Airways fromNew Delhi to Bangkok and back lastyear in October.

The global aviation industry is ina meltdown after the Wuhan virus laidwaste to the global economy. Global avi-ation was a primary vector in the spreadof the virus and many nations sealedtheir land borders. Others like Indiabanned all flight operations though lim-ited repatriation flights are still beingcarried out.

Many airlines have read the writ-ing on the wall and they understand thateven if a solution, such as a vaccine tothis accursed pestilence is found, traf-fic will not recover for months, may beeven years. The Boeing 747 is too largean aircraft for reduced traffic. Thismeans higher operating costs. As forAirbus A380, airlines are quickly retir-ing these aircraft, too. Air France, theairline of the nation where the A380 isput together, just retired all of itsAirbus A380 fleet, the youngest beinga decade-old. Airlines will tell you thatit is cheaper to fly two Boeing 787Dreamliners than a single 747 orAirbus A380.

While cargo variants of the 747 arestill flying in great numbers, boththose built at the Boeing factory outsideSeattle, Washington, and those planesconverted from passenger operations tofreight, have halted operations. After all,the 747 was initially conceived as a cargoplane and the iconic “hump” on the air-

craft was there to allow the noseto be lifted up for the cargo to beloaded. Cargo operations withthe 747 are likely to continue formany, many years because thereis no direct replacement for it. Infact, most international air cargooperators still follow a “hub andspoke” model for cargo travellingbetween major airports.

The last convoy carryingfuselage and wing sections of theA380 has reached the finalassembly line in Toulouse and theaircraft will be completed in acouple of months. Even then, thesingle largest operator of theA380 aircraft, the Dubai-basedEmirates Airline, is retiring itsoldest twin-deck behemoths. Butit is ironic that the Boeing 747,which undertook its maidenflight in 1969, would have signif-icantly outlived the Airbus A380,a plane built with typicalEuropean arrogance to one-upthe US. The A380 is undoubted-ly an amazing engineering andtechnological achievement unlikethe Boeing plane, but is anunmitigated commercial disaster.

The Airbus A380 line willclose soon as the last nine planesare prepared for delivery. In the15 years since the factory openedits doors, a mere 251 enteredcommercial service. Boeing isexpected to close its 747 lines in2022, with 16 aircraft (all cargovariants) remaining to be deliv-ered. Around 1,558 planes havealready been delivered since1970. And while the currentoptions such as the 747-8 have lit-

tle in common with the earliestmodel —100 and 200 variants —just one look, and you know thatit is 747. I think (I do not believethat I am alone here) this is thesingle most important reason thatthe 747 is seared into our mem-ories; it looked unique when itwas first flown and it still doeswith the hump at the front andits sharply swept wings.

There was an aesthetic beau-ty in the 747, which the A380simply does not have. The latteris functional but not pretty. Truthbe told, I rarely got to fly in 747sof late, the move to withdraw itfrom service across the worldhaving begun in the early 2010s.Of course, those two flights toThailand were a pleasant sur-prise, a couple of British Airwaysflights across the “pond” stuck ina middle seat less enjoyable. ButI did experience that ultimate joyof an aviation fan. I have flownon the upper deck of a 747, whichis one of the single most funthings one can do.

The last time I did that wason a British Airways evening ser-vice from Chicago O’Hare toLondon Heathrow. As far as mymemory goes, I think I just sleptthroughout that flight. I neverknew it was going to be the lasttime. Even as global air travelboomed during the past decade,a lot of that was due to the riseof low-cost airlines, hopping andskipping around the world withtheir gigantic fleets of AirbusA320 and Boeing 737 aircraft.

While it will be interesting to

see what happens to these air-lines, even Indian ones, in theaftermath of the Chinese conta-gion, international air travel, too,has changed. In no small part,thanks to the emergence of morepoint-to-point flying and ultra-long-haul flights.

A decade ago, a non-stopflight to and fro from India to theUS was just about possible witha load of penalties. Today’sBoeing 777 and 787s and Airbus’A350 can make the crossingwith a full load in just 16 hours.Imagine travelling from NewDelhi to San Francisco in the1970s and 1980s when the 747had just begun service. An AirIndia or Pan American 747would have taken you to NewYork’s JFK after stopping at leasttwo-three times. You would haveto change planes at JFK and thenmake the cross-country hopacross the US, may be withanother stop or two. Travel timewith stop-overs may have beenaround two days.

Before the pandemic started,both Air India and UnitedAirlines had non-stop servicesbetween the two cities, 15 hoursfrom take-off to touchdown.Sure, that might seem like a lotof time without any “fresh air” butthere was no need to walk bleary-eyed with screaming childrenacross a strange airport, dealingwith security and waiting forhours through weather delaysand the risk of lost baggage,thanks to the multiple connec-tions. But without the Boeing

747, none of this would have hap-pened. The 747 made large-scale international commercialtravel viable; it democratisedtravel in a way that was previous-ly unimaginable. It is because ofthe Boeing 747 that there was ahuge wave of migration of engi-neers and doctors out of India inthe 1970s and 1980s.

The 747 made flying afford-able; it made global airportsimprove their facilities, jetbridgesthat connect planes to the termi-nal became a standard feature atairports as did massive automat-ed baggage handling. Airportsbuilt bigger runways and largerinfrastructure to cater to themasses that a single jumbo jetbrought in. The 747 changed air-craft design; the high-bypassturbofan engines developed forit transformed aviation. It led tothe development of the trijetsDouglas DC-10 and Lockheed L-1011 Tristar by rival companies.

It is the development of thehigh bypass turbofan, which lit-erally sips fuel compared to olderengines, that led to the creationof all modern planes such as theBoeing 777, which has the largestengine in commercial service.The 747 was the “Queen” and theworld of aviation comprised itssubjects. Even though fewer andfewer 747s remain in the skiesferrying passengers, the legacy ofthe Boeing 747 is one that willcontinue for a long time tocome.

(The writer is ManagingEditor, The Pioneer)

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Sir — This refers to the editor-ial, “A glimmer of hope” (July22). The news that early stageclinical trials of the OxfordUniversity COVID-19 vaccinehave proved that it is safe andinduces an immune responsegives the world hope at a timewhen we are facing one of thedeadliest pandemics in history.

Though more tests have tobe done before it is made avail-able for the public, there is hopefor mankind even as the pan-demic has already claimed morethan six lakh lives and infectedmillions of people around theglobe. Many other nations,including India, are also on thepath of developing a vaccine.There is something to rejoice asthe Serum Institute of India, oneof the premium immunobiolog-ical drugs manufacturers of thecountry, has entered into a man-ufacturing partnership withAstraZeneca once the vaccinetrial is successful.

The human trials will bedone in August and a con-firmed analysis will be possibleby October/November, accord-ing to the firm. If everything

goes well, the vaccine will beready by December. Let us hopethis vaccine and others, that arealso being tested, put an end tothe mental and physical miseryof the people.

M Pradyu Kannur

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Sir — This refers to the article,“Leave Lutyens alone” (July 21)by Yashovardhan Azad. Thewriter is right to raise alarm overthe Government’s plan to

restructure the Lutyens’ zone. Parts of this area have main-

tained a distinctive architectur-al heritage and urban character.The razing of buildings from theRashtrapati Bhawan to IndiaGate will rob the Lutyens area ofits beauty.

Instead of getting a facelift,the large open spaces may get obliterated. Many beautiful build-ings in the Lutyens’ zone addgrace and charm to the city. Onefinds it difficult to understand asto why such a restructuring isrequired at places which arebrimming with charm and beau-ty. The Government shouldinstead focus its energy on rede-veloping and beautifying the oldcity of Delhi and also perking upthe economy.

Devendra KhuranaBhopal

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Sir — The pandemic has led toseveral changes. But the judicialsystem has found it difficult toadapt to changing times. Infact, the pandemic has onlymade matters worse for ourcourts. Piled up cases, outdatedlaws, lengthy legal proceedingsand the lack of legal reforms aresome of the things that demandimmediate attention.

Rati JainVia email

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On April 22, the California-based US internetgiant, Facebook, announced its decision tobuy 9.99 per cent stake in Jio Platforms

Limited (JPL) paying more than �43,450 crore. JPLis a 100 per cent subsidiary of Reliance IndustriesLimited (RIL) and has in its fold a wide spectrumof businesses such as wireless broadband, homebroadband, enterprise broadband, narrowband,internet-of-things businesses, a bouquet of digitalapplications, e-commerce and so on.

This was followed by a flurry of investments withbig names such as General Atlantic, Silver Lake,Qualcomm, Intel, Vista, Google and so on, bring-ing in cumulative investment of over �1,00,000 crore,taking the total to �1,50,000 crore. In lieu of this cap-ital, they get aggregate shareholding of 30 per centor �5,000 crore for every one per cent, thus valuingthe company at a whopping �5,00,000 crore.

Even as foreign investors see value in every seg-ment of the business on this platform, at the centrestage is e-commerce, which is being powered byJioMart commerce platform — a unit of JPL. In fact,Facebook has come in primarily with an eye on tap-ping opportunities in this area and signed a com-prehensive agreement with JPL to exploit synergiesbetween the two conglomerates.

The duo intend to offer technology-enabledwherewithal to enable consumers access neighbour-hood stores and have products delivered at theirdoorsteps. About 30 million of these stores will beempowered to digitally transact with every customerin their neighbourhood (over 400 million-strongIndian database of WhatsApp — a 100 per cent sub-sidiary of Facebook — will come in handy).JioMoney — RIL’s payment platform — will be inte-grated into the JioMart venture to facilitate hassle-free seamless payment for transactions. The modeloperated by Reliance under JioMart is a combina-tion of online and offline retail. Apart from RelianceRetail Limited (RRL), which has thousands of retailstores spread all over India and gets hooked on tothe Jio platform, it will be serving tens of millionsof neighbourhood stores in a variety of ways viz. han-dling, procurement, storage, payment, deliveryand so on. Since all of this will be powered by a dig-ital eco-system, the model is a hybrid of online andoffline.

Two things are abundantly clear: RelianceIndustries is deeply entrenched in Indian retail —already through RRL and now increasing its foot-print exponentially through the Jio Platform. It isgetting a massive injection of Foreign DirectInvestment (FDI), with Facebook alone havingpumped �43,450 crore into JioMart. But this is outof sync with the extant policy in regard to FDI inretail. For the purpose of FDI, unlike the interna-tional practice where retail is treated as a singlehomogenous sector without any distinction, theIndian Government has divided retail into severalclasses. In India, we have Single-Brand Retail(SBR) and Multi-Brand Retail (MBR) and there aresub-categories within each. Here, we deal with MBRor retail — as it is known in common parlance.

Within MBR, there is the “physical” format oroffline, which takes two forms: The euphoricmom-and-pop stores, also nicknamed neighbour-hood stores, and organised retail. Then, we have theonline format, which has two sub-categories, themarketplace model and the inventory-based model.

In the physical format, as per a policy approvedby the then UPA dispensation in 2012, as much as51 per cent FDI is allowed but with a plethora of rid-ers such as 30 per cent local sourcing, minimuminvestment of $100 million and prior approval of theState where the retail shop is to be set up. In 2016-

17, an unprecedented 100 per cent FDI infood retail was allowed, subject to the for-eign retailer selling items which aresourced only from Indian farmers andprocessed locally. Besides, 25 per cent ofinvestment should be in agri-infrastruc-ture like irrigation, farm machinery/imple-ments and so on. In the online format, asper guidelines issued in early 2016, (PressNote 3) 100 per cent FDI is allowed underthe so-called marketplace model. Themarketplace is a platform where vendorssell their products to consumers even asits owner merely acts as a facilitator. Themarketplace owner provides servicessuch as booking orders, raising invoices,arranging delivery, accepting payments,handling rejections, warehousing and soon. But, s/he can’t hold inventory andundertake direct selling.

The permission for 100 per cent FDIin the marketplace is subject to two mainriders, that is “the entity cannot permitmore than 25 per cent of total sales on itsplatform from one vendor or its groupcompanies. Further, it can’t directly or indi-rectly influence the sale price.” Sans anyspecification as to “who the vendor is”, afirm linked to the marketplace (either itssubsidiary or a Joint Venture with anIndian company) is eligible.

Thus, contrary to the real intent of thepolicy, which disallowed the market-place owner from direct selling to individ-ual consumers, the fine print permittedthem to do so — albeit by its subsidiaryor JV. This is precisely what e-commercemajors such as Amazon andFlipkart/Walmart have been doing eventhough they came in as marketplace oper-ators. They are operating as direct sellers,controlling inventory, giving discounts andso on.

A clarification to Press Note 3 issuedon December 26, 2018 has not material-ly altered the position on ground zero. Itsays “the owner of the marketplace or itssubsidiary or its JV with Indian compa-

ny can’t have ownership of the seller.”Further, “a seller/firm on the platform can’tsource more than 25 per cent of its inven-tory from a firm connected with the lat-ter.” The marketplace owner can getaround both. First, by having less than 50per cent shareholding in the seller firm andargue, he has no control (albeit majority)over the latter and second through thewholesale arm continuing supplies to theseller but within the 25 per cent thresh-old.

The clarification has not deterred theirhold over Indian retail; they are dominantsellers themselves, giving little space to mil-lions of small vendors for whose benefitthis unique policy dispensation of the mar-ketplace was designed. Disingenuousbureaucrats allowed them to do so bycrafting policy architecture to suit them.

The small vendors, through theirumbrella organisations such as All IndiaOnline Vendors Association (AIOVA),Retailers Association of India (RAI),Delhi Vyapar Mahasangh (DVM) and soon, have petitioned judicial authorities atvarious levels seeking action againstAmazon/Flipkart for violation of FDInorms and indulging in unfair practicesbut have not got any relief. The sole rea-son is that the courts go by the fine printwhich suits these giants.

Unlike the marketplaces of foreign e-commerce majors, JioMart commerceplatform floated by RIL holds the poten-tial of giving a boost to the small vendors,but even this may not gel with the extantpolicy framework. Even as the mainthrust of the policy is on “complete pro-hibition of FDI in direct selling to indi-vidual consumers”, JioMart, which isdeeply entrenched in direct sales, hasreceived investment from Facebook — aforeign company.

Like Amazon et al, Reliance/Facebookmay get around by citing that foreignshareholding in the seller firm is less than50 per cent or a wholesaler linked to

JioMart owner Reliance/Facebook willkeep its supplies to the vendor within the25 per cent threshold. Or they may carveout a separate entity entirely for food retailwhere 100 per cent FDI is allowed. Thisway, the two would be able to demonstratethat they are not violating the rule book.But this is not the way to go.

Looking at what is happening onground zero, it is abundantly clear that theModi Government has no objection topermitting FDI in online retail and evenin offline retail (albeit without any riders)as amply demonstrated by the treatmentmeted out to Amazon/Flipkart earlier andnow to Facebook riding piggyback on RIL.If that be so, then why allow it to happenin a vague and convoluted manner? Whyshould the policy not be clear-cut andtransparent? Why should FDI not beallowed through the front door?

The Government should shun themarketplace model. It should allow 100per cent FDI in retail in both online andoffline without any riders (the special cat-egories such as 100 per cent FDI in foodretail should go). This will level the play-ing field for all, online vs offline, food retailvs non-food, marketplace vs inventory andso on and eliminate discretion of bureau-crats whose writ is all-pervasive when itcomes to grant of approvals.

It will help small traders by leading toall-round development of infrastructureand offering a wide range of choice forsourcing products. They can and will co-exist with big players — both foreign andIndian. It will be pro-consumer in thelong-run with many players catering totheir needs at competitive/affordableprice. Sans these policy changes, underbusiness as usual scenario, the consumerswill pay a heavy price in the medium tolong-term as Indian retail will be cartelisedby a few players viz. Amazon, Walmartand Facebook/RIL.

(The writer is a New Delhi-based pol-icy analyst)

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Amid the pall of gloom cast byCOVID-19 and the oppressiveheat, India was earnestly look-

ing forward to the arrival of the mon-soon. The Indian MeteorologicalDepartment (IMD) had forecast sur-plus rainfall in various parts of thecountry and sure enough, metropo-lises such as Mumbai and Delhi havereceived a healthy share of showers.

Mumbai, for instance, received 26per cent more rainfall as compared tolast year, while Delhi received 70 mmof rain on July 19 alone, which is thehighest in the last five years. But nomatter how heartening the rains

might be, every passing year theybring in their wake the ever-growingproblem of urban flooding.

This has been experienced fordecades in India but sufficient atten-tion has not been given to specificefforts to deal with it. In the past, anystrategy on flood disaster managementlargely focussed on riverine floodsaffecting large extents of rural areas.Urban flooding is significantly differ-ent from rural flooding as urbanisa-tion leads to developed catchmentsand in the event of heavy/high inten-sity rainfall, there is higher run-off,which increases the flood peaks from1.8 to eight times and flood volumesup to six times. Consequently, flood-ing occurs very quickly due to fasterflow times, sometimes in a matter ofminutes.

The recent death of a mini-truckdriver after his vehicle got submergedunder the Minto Bridge after a spellof rain in Central Delhi underlines thegrowing threat of urban flooding.While most of the time urban Indiapatiently endures huge volumes of

flooding and the resultant trafficsnarls, when people start losing lives,it is time for the citizens and theauthorities to consider the problemseriously and deal with it effectively.

Though large cities like Mumbai,Delhi and Chennai go through urbanflooding annually, the recurrence ofthe problem suggests that no lessonsare learnt and no infrastructure is builtor improved to prevent it. Just a fewhours of hard rain in metropolitancities can present a very embarrassingspectacle as daily life is thrown out ofgear and the cities become unwitting

examples for the developed world tolearn from. Another concerningaspect is that urban flooding increas-es the chances of contagious diseaseslike typhoid, cholera, leptospirosis,hepatitis and even COVID-19 spread-ing far more easily. For instance,floodwaters in Assam spread discard-ed medical waste and used PPE fromhospitals and COVID-19 care centres,raising fears of infection among peo-ple in inundated areas.

One of the major reasons forurban waterlogging are the archaicsewer systems in our cities that areheavily choked with silt and garbage.Indian metros not only need regularcleaning of sewers and storm waterdrains, particularly before the onset ofthe rainy season, they also require anadvanced system that is based on thelatest technology and satellite data thatcan calculate the quantities of waterrun-off every monsoon and accord-ingly estimate the load factor on thesewerage and storm water system.

Another reason for flooding ofcities is excessive concretisation and

paved areas in the urban landscape.This has not only resulted in exacer-bating the heat island effect andcausing a sharp spike in ambient tem-peratures but preventing rainwaterabsorption into the ground andrecharging of the water table. This, too,increases the rainwater run-off,putting undue pressure on thedrainage network.

The efforts to prevent urbanflooding will be incomplete unless theground water absorption rate of rain-water as compared to the run-off rateis balanced. Another issue pertainingto urban flooding is the role played byillegal construction and how it isimpacting the storm water drainagesystem across India’s major cities. Asurban sprawls increase rapidly, unau-thorised construction and unplanneddigging by civic agencies are becom-ing two major issues that are furtherimpacting our already overburdeneddrainage systems adversely. Floodingwill continue to trouble urban citizensunless these impediments areaddressed and removed.

We often marvel at infrastructureplanning of ancient India, especiallythe drainage system of the Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa cultures that dateback to 2400 BC. Sadly we are unableto replicate the excellence and successof the bygone era in today’s time.Urban flooding is avoidable and inorder to ensure safety of lives andproperty, it is essential for theGovernment to rapidly develop strate-gies that draw from the best of theworld’s benchmarking practices inurban rainwater management. Weneed city-wise protocols that cater tothe typicality of the demographics andgeography and automatically kick inwhen the area receives a certainquantum of rainfall.

Traffic snarls, waterlogging andthe loss of lives due to urban flood-ing are a painful indication that amanageable issue has been allowed todeteriorate and get out of hand. It istime authorities around the countrywake up.

(The writer is an environmentaljournalist)

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Joe Biden said on Wednesdaythat President Donald

Trump was the country’s “first”racist President.

The presumptiveDemocratic presidential nom-inee’s comments came duringa virtual town hall organised bythe Service EmployeesInternational Union.

When a questioner com-plained of racism surroundingthe coronavirus outbreak andmentioned the president refer-ring to it as the “China virus,” Biden responded byblasting Trump and “his spreadof racism.”

“The way he deals withpeople based on the colour oftheir skin, their national origin,where they’re from, is absolute-

ly sickening,” the former vicepresident said. “No sitting pres-ident has ever done this. Never,never, never. No Republicanpresident has done this. NoDemocratic president. We’vehad racists, and they’ve exist-ed. They’ve tried to get electedpresident. He’s the first one thathas.” Biden also suggested thatTrump is using race “as awedge” to distract from hismishandling of the pandemic.

Many presidents — includ-ing the nation’s first, GeorgeWashington — owned slaves.

President WoodrowWilson, the country’s 28thpresident, is having his nameremoved from PrincetonUniversity’s public policyschool after recent protestsagainst institutional racism andpolice brutality.

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The backlog for an Indiannational to get permanent

residency or Green Card ismore than 195 years, a topRepublican senator has said,urging his Senate colleagues tocome out with a legislativeresolution to address this prob-lem. A Green Card, knownofficially as a PermanentResident Card, is a documentissued to immigrants to the USas evidence that the bearerhas been granted the privilegeof residing permanently.

Senator Mike Lee said onWednesday that the currentGreen Card policy did nothingfor the child of an immigrantwhose dead parent’s GreenCard application was ultimatelydenied because his or her jobwas no longer available.

“Someone from India enter-ing the backlog today wouldhave to wait 195 years to receivean EB-3 green card. Even if wegive their children this limbostatus, none of them will havea prayer of becoming a US cit-izen,” Lee said on the Senatorfloor. In fiscal year 2019, Indiannationals received 9,008 cate-gory 1 (EB1), 2,908 category 2(EB2), and 5,083 category 3(EB3) Green Cards. EB1-3 aredifferent categories of employ-ment-based Green Cards.

Lee, the senator from Utah,was speaking on the legislationmoved by Senator Dick Durbinthat seeks to protect immigrantworkers and their childrenwho are stuck in the green cardbacklog.

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The US does not rule out thepossibility of closing more

Chinese diplomatic missions inthe country, President DonaldTrump has said, hours afterWashington ordered the clo-sure of Beijing’s consulate inHouston to “protect Americanintellectual property and pri-vate information.”

The US move came amid agrowing number of disputesbetween the two countries overBeijing’s increasingly aggressiveactions that have ledWashington to take strongactions, including closing theconsulate in Houston, accord-ing to senior Trump adminis-tration officials.

The consulate in Houston,Texas, is one of five Chinesediplomatic missions in the US,not counting the embassy inWashington DC.

The US move came afterthe Justice Department saidthat hackers working with the

Chinese Government targetedfirms developing vaccines forthe coronavirus and stole hun-dreds of millions of dollarsworth of intellectual propertyand trade secrets from compa-nies across the world.

“As far as closing additionalembassies, it’s always possi-ble,” Trump told reporters onWednesday during a daily pressbriefing at the White Housewhen asked if he is looking atclosing more Chinese diplo-

matic missions in the US.The US State Department

in a brief statement onWednesday said it has “direct-ed the closure of PRC (People’sRepublic of China) ConsulateGeneral Houston, in order toprotect American intellectualproperty and American’s pri-vate information.”

State Departmentspokesperson Morgan Ortagussaid the US will not tolerate thePRC’s violations of its sover-

eignty and intimidation of itspeople, just as it has not toler-ated the PRC’s unfair tradepractices, theft of Americanjobs, and other egregiousbehaviour. She said Trump“insists on fairness and reci-procity in US-China relations.”

During the press confer-ence, Trump referred to thenews reports of fire in theChinese Consulate in Houstonapparently due to burning ofdocuments in its courtyard.

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Democratic presidentialcandidate Joe Biden and

former President BarackObama stepped up their attackson President Donald Trumpand defended their time in theWhite House in a new videoshowing their first in-personmeeting since the coronavirusoutbreak began.

The 15-minute video, post-ed online Thursday, is the lat-est maneuver to get the formerpresident involved in the 2020campaign for his former vicepresident, as Biden tries torebuild Obama’s winning coali-tion in November.

The former president andvice president used the inter-view-style conversation toamplify Biden’s argumentsagainst Trump, with Obamaemphasizing Biden’s experi-ence and personal attributes.They pointed to their admin-istration’s signature health carelaw and blamed Trump forstoking division and animosi-ty among Americans from themoment he entered the 2016presidential race.

Washington: The FBI believes the Chineseconsulate in San Francisco is harboring aChinese researcher who is charged in fed-eral court in California with lying about hermilitary background. Tang Juan lied abouther military affiliation in a visa applicationlast October to work at the University ofCalifornia, Davis and again during an FBIinterview last month, according to JusticeDepartment criminal charges.

Agents found photographs of Tang ina uniform of the People’s Liberation Armycivilian cadre and news articles fromChina that identified her military affiliation.The FBI last month interviewed Tang, whenshe denied having served in the military orknowing the significance of the insignia ofher uniform, and also found more evidenceof her military affiliation when they latersearched her home, according to a crimi-nal complaint filed last month that chargesher with visa fraud. AP

Beijing: China said “malicious slander” is behindan order by the US government to close its consulatein Houston, Texas, and maintained on Thursday thatits officials have never operated outside ordinarydiplomatic norms.

Foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbinsaid the order to close the consulate “violates inter-national law and basic norms governing internationalrelations,” and “seriously undermines China-US rela-tions.”

“This is breaking down the bridge of friendshipbetween the Chinese and American people,” Wangtold reporters at a daily briefing.

The order this week to close the consulate, oneof China’s six missions in the United States, is seenas escalating tensions between the world’s two largesteconomies while President Donald Trump steersblame and punitive measures against China aheadof the November US election.

AP

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Laboratories across the U.S.are buckling under a surge

of coronavirus tests, creatinglong processing delays thatexperts say are undercutting thepandemic response.

With the US tally of con-firmed infections at nearly 4million Wednesday and newcases surging, the bottlenecksare creating problems for work-ers kept off the job while await-ing results, nursing homesstruggling to keep the virus outand for the labs themselves asthey deal with a crushing work-load. Some labs are takingweeks to return Covid-19results, exacerbating fears thatpeople without symptoms couldbe spreading the virus if theydon’t isolate while they wait.

“There’s been this obsessionwith, ‘How many tests are wedoing per day?’” said Dr TomFrieden, former director of theCentres for Disease Control andPrevention. “The question ishow many tests are being donewith results coming back with-in a day, where the individualtested is promptly isolated andtheir contacts are promptlywarned.”

Frieden and other publichealth experts have called onstates to publicly report testingturnaround times, calling it anessential metric to measureprogress against the virus.

The testing lags in the UScome as the number of peopleconfirmed to be infectedworldwide passed a staggering15 million, according to datacompiled by Johns HopkinsUniversity. The US leads theworld in cases as well as deaths,which have exceeded 1,42,000.

New York, once by far theUS leader in infections, hasbeen surpassed by California,though that is partly due torobust testing in a state withmore than twice the populationof New York. Guidelines issuedby the CDC recommend thatstates lifting virus restrictionshave a testing turnaround timeof under four days. The agencyrecently issued new recom-mendations against retestingmost Covid-19 patients to con-

firm they have recovered.“It’s clogging up the sys-

tem,” Adm. Brett Giroir, assis-tant health secretary, toldreporters last week. ZachreyWarner knows it all too well.

The 30-year-old waiterfrom Columbus, Ohio, wassent home from work on July 5with a high fever a few daysafter he began feeling ill. Hewent for a test five days later atthe request of his employer.

Almost two weeks and onemissed pay period later, he final-ly got his answer Wednesday:negative. Though Warner saidmost symptoms — includingfever, diarrhea, chest tightnessand body aches — stopped a fewdays after he was tested, he was-n’t allowed to return to workwithout the result.

It was “frustrating that I’vemissed so much work due totesting taking forever,” Warnersaid. “It is what it is ... (but) I’mglad I’m negative and happy tobe able to get back to work thisweek.” Beyond the economichurt the testing lags can cause,they pose major health risks,too. In Florida, which reported9,785 new cases and a rise in thedeath toll to nearly 5,500, nurs-

ing homes have been under anorder to test all employeesevery two weeks. But longdelays for results have somequestioning the point.

Jay Solomon, CEO of Avivain Sarasota, a senior communitywith a nursing home and assist-ed living facility, said resultswere taking up to 10 days tocome back. “It’s almost like,what are we accomplishing inthat time?” Solomon said. “Ifthat person is not quarantinedin that 7-10 days, are theyspreading without realising it?”

Test results that come backafter two or three days arenearly worthless, many healthexperts say, because by then thewindow for tracing the person’scontacts to prevent additionalinfections has essentially closed.“The turnaround times, par-ticularly across the South aretoo long,” Dr. Deborah Birx ofthe White House coronavirustask force said on Fox.

Birx said the U.S. had short-

er turnaround times in April,May and early June, but that“this surge and this degree ofcases is so widespread com-pared to previously,” she said.Dr Leana Wen, a public healthprofessor at George WashingtonUniversity said it’s reasonable totell people awaiting test resultsto isolate for 24 hours, but thedelays have been unacceptable.

“Imagine you tell a parentwith young children to self-iso-late for 10 days or more with-out knowing they actually haveCovid? I mean, that’s ridiculous.That’s actually absurd,” Wensaid. US officials have recentlycalled for ramping up screeningto include seemingly healthyAmericans who may beunknowingly spreading the dis-ease in their communities. ButQuest Diagnostics, one of thenation’s largest testing chains,said it can’t keep up withdemand and most patients willface waits of a week or longerfor results.

GENEVA: The World HealthOrganization said onThursday that the UnitedStates, Brazil and India,which are all suffering fastrises in coronavirus cases, can still get on top ofthe pandemic.

They are “powerful, able,democratic countries whohave tremendous internalcapacities to deal with thisdisease”, Dr Mike Ryan, headof the WHO emergenciesprogramme, told a Genevabriefing.

US coronavirus casesexceeded 4 million onThursday, with over 2,600new cases recorded everyhour on average, the highestrate in the world, accordingto a Reuters tally. Agencies

SINGAPORE: Scientists havedeveloped a rapid test todetect antibodies in COVID-19 patients that specificallyblock the novel coronavirus,an advance that may lead tofaster methods for estimatingthe population level infectionrate of the disease.

According to the study,published in the journalNature Biotechnology, a rapidtest to detect neutralising anti-bodies — capable of blockingthe novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 — is urgently neededto facilitate monitoring ofinfection rates, as well as todetermine vaccine efficacyduring clinical trials.

In order to facilitate this,researchers, including thosefrom Duke-NUS MedicalSchool in Singapore, devel-oped a new assay which ismuch faster than conven-tional tests for neutralisingantibodies, taking only one ortwo hours to complete. PTI

WASHINGTON: PresidentDonald Trump is castingwide blame for a nationwidesurge in coronavirus cases,pointing to racial justiceprotests, travelers fromMexico and young bar-goers. Holding his secondbriefing on the virus in asmany days after a three-month hiatus, Trump soughton Wednesday to explain therise in confirmed casesacross the nation’s South,Southwest and West.

Trump says cases amongyoung Americans first start-ed to rise “shortly afterdemonstrations.” He says theprotests following the death ofGeorge Floyd “presumablytriggered a broader relaxationof mitigation efforts nation-wide.” He also says a “sub-stantial increase in travel”around Memorial Day andsummer vacations was also adriver of new cases. AP

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China launched its mostambitious Mars mission

yet on Thursday in a boldattempt to join the UnitedStates in successfully landing aspacecraft on the red planet.

Engines blazing orange, aLong March-5 rocket took offunder clear skies from HainanIsland, south of China’s main-land, as space enthusiasts gath-ered on a beach across the bayfrom the launch site.

“This is a kind of hope, akind of strength,” said LiDapeng, co-founder of theChina branch of the MarsSociety, an advocacy group. Hewatched with his wife, 11-year-old son and 2,000 others on thebeach. Launch commanderZhang Xueyu announced tocheers in the control room thatthe rocket was flying normallyabout 45 minutes later. “TheMars rover has accurately

entered the scheduled orbit,” hesaid in brief remarks shown liveon state broadcaster CCTV.

China’s space agency saidthat the rocket carried theprobe for 36 minutes beforesuccessfully placing it on thelooping path that will take itbeyond Earth’s orbit and even-tually into Mars’ more distantorbit around the sun.

Liu Tongjie, spokesman forthe mission, said in a press brief-ing that the launch was a “keystep of China marching towardsfarther deep space.” He said thatChina’s aim wasn’t to competewith other countries, but topeacefully explore the universe.It marked the second flight toMars this week, after a UnitedArab Emirates orbiter blastedoff on a rocket from Japan onMonday. And the U.S. is aimingto launch Perseverance, its mostsophisticated Mars rover ever,from Cape Canaveral, Florida,next week.

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The chief of the World HealthOrganization (WHO) has

upbraided US Secretary of StateMike Pompeo for “untrue andunacceptable” comments,responding to reported allega-tions that included the healthagency chief having been“bought” by China.

Director-General TedrosAdhanom Ghebreyesus insist-ed WHO is focusing on “savinglives” as he lashed out Thursdayat the comments British mediahave reported that Pompeomade at a closed-door eventearlier this week in London.

Tedros’ response toPompeo represented some ofhis most defensive and full-throated statements yet in thewake of the Trump adminis-tration’s repeated criticism ofthe UN health agency in recentmonths.

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Hajipur: Ashok Kumar hastaken over the charge ofAdditional General Manager,East Central Railway,Hajipuron 23.07.2020. Prior to thisassignment, he was working asChief Administrative Officer(Construction) in this Railwayitself.Shri Ashok Kumarbelongs to IRSE(IndianRailway Service of Engineers)batch of 1984 exam batch.

Shri Ashok Kumar hasbegan his career on IndianRailways asAssistant Divisional

Engineer at Hapur, NorthernRailway in July 1986.

During his 34 years of longillustrious career, Shri Kumarheld important at Executiveand Managerial posts on IndianRailways.These include ChiefEngineer/North WesternRailway, Jaipur;AdditionalDivisional RailwayManager/North WesternRailway, Jodhpur Division andDivisional RailwayManager/South CentralRailway, Vijayawada Division.

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Equity benchmarks returnedto winning ways on

Thursday after a day’s breather,propelled by market heavy-weight Reliance Industrieswhich soared to its lifetimehigh.

After a subdued start, the30-share BSE Sensex gainedmomentum in afternoon tradebefore finally closing at38,140.47, up 268.95 points, or0.71 per cent.

The benchmark endedabove the 38,000-mark for thefirst time since March 5 thisyear. The wider NSE Niftyadvanced 82.85 points, or 0.74per cent, to finish at 11,215.45.

Reliance Industriesaccounted for the lion’s share ofthe Sensex’s gains, spurting

2.82 per cent to its record clos-ing high of �2,060.65, follow-ing reports that Amazon waseyeing a stake in the conglom-erate’s retail arm.

SBI, ICICI Bank, TechMahindra, ITC and KotakBank were among the otherwinners, advancing as much as3.28 per cent.

On the other hand, AxisBank, HUL, Infosys, TCS,UltraTech Cement and L&Ttumbled up to 3.80 per cent.

“Benchmark indices endedthe day with gains, followingpositivity in the global markets.Global markets set aside therising US-China tensions andfocused on potential vaccinedevelopments and better-than-expected earnings numbers.

“Domestically, except forIT, most major indices were inthe gains. Liquidity seems to bedriving the markets. Any diplooks like it will be bought intoand is likely to be short-lived,especially in the current moodof the markets when the neg-atives are being overlooked,”said Vinod Nair, Head of

Research at Geojit FinancialServices.

BSE energy, healthcare,realty, auto, oil and gas, bankexand metal indices ended up to2.36 per cent higher, while IT,teck and telecom closed withlosses. Broader BSE mid-capand small-cap indices surgedup to 0.98 per cent.

Global markets were

mixed as investors digestedcorporate earnings amid theoverhang of mountingCOVID-19 cases and US-China tensions.

Bourses in Shanghai, Seouland Tokyo ended in the red,while Hong Kong closed high-er. Stock exchanges in Europewere trading on a positive notein early deals. Meanwhile,

international oil benchmarkBrent crude futures rose 0.93per cent to USD 44.70 per bar-rel. In the forex market, therupee settled on a flat note at74.75 against the US dollar.

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After strong reactions fromits pilots, Air India on

Thursday said that no employ-ee of Air India will be laid off.“The meeting reiterated thatunlike other carriers whichhave laid off large number oftheir employees, no employeeof Air India will be laid off,” thenational carrier said on Twitter.It further added that there hasbeen no reduction in the basicpay, dearness allowance andhouse rent allowance of anyemployee.

“Allowances had to berationalised owing to the air-line’s difficult financial situationalready exacerbated by thenovel coronavirus pandemic,the statement added.

Air India further clarifiedthat its flying crew will bepaid as per the actual numberof hours flown and the Board’smeasures regarding allowanceswill be reviewed as domesticand international flight opera-tions expand gradually.

Earlier this month, India’snational carrier approved ascheme enabling itsChairperson and ManagingDirector Rajiv Bansal to placeemployees on compulsoryleave without pay for sixmonths or a period of twoyears, extendable up to fiveyears. The scheme wasapproved during the 102ndmeeting of Air India’s Board ofDirectors.

New Delhi: The Indian econ-omy is likely to rebound in thesecond half of 2020 as theimpact of the COVID-19 pan-demic recedes, and is project-ed to grow by 6.7 per cent inthe next financial year, IHSMarkit said on Thursday.

The pandemic resulted insevere disruptions in industri-al production and consump-tion spending in India duringApril and May.

“The severe negativeimpact is expected to result ina significant contraction inGDP in the April-June quarterof 2020, resulting in a recessionin the 2020-21 financial yearwith GDP expected to contractby 6.3 per cent year-on-year,” itsaid in its outlook on theIndian economy.

However, as lockdownconditions have been progres-sively eased, early signs ofrecovery were evident in themost recent economic data.

The IHS MarkitPurchasing Managers’ surveysfor India showed that eco-nomic momentum improvedin June, reflecting the easing ofCOVID-19 related restrictionsduring May and June.

India imposed a totallockdown beginning March 25and restrictions were easedfrom May. “IHS Markit forecastthat the Indian economy willrebound as the impact of thepandemic recedes, withimproving economic growthmomentum in the second halfof 2020 and positive GDPgrowth of 6.7 per cent in the2021-22 financial year,” saidRajiv Biswas, Asia Pacific ChiefEconomist at IHS Markit.

Despite the negative short-term shocks from the pan-demic, total foreign directinvestment into India hasremained buoyant. Foreigndirect investment by technolo-gy firms in the first sevenmonths of 2020 has alreadyreached around USD 17 billion,boosted by the USD 10 billionnew investment announced byGoogle in mid-July. PTI

New Delhi: IRDAI onThursday said sale, purchaseand pledge of equity in excessof 5 per cent of an insurancecompany’s paid-up capital willneed the regulator’s priorapproval, and any violation ofthe guidelines will attractaction. Issuing a clarificationon the ‘transfer of share of theinsurance companies’, theInsurance Regulatory andDevelopment Authority ofIndia (IRDAI) said the provi-sions related to sale and pur-chase of equity will also applyon creation of pledge or anyother kind of encumbranceover shares of an insurancecompany by its promoters.

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Billionaire Mukesh Ambani’sReliance Industries Ltd has

broken into the top 50 mostvalued companies globally afterit became the first companywith market capitalisation ofover �13 lakh crore.

The oil-to-telecom con-glomerate is ranked 48th inmarket cap globally, accordingto stock market data.

Globally, Saudi Aramco isthe company with the highestmarket cap of $ 1.7 trillion, fol-lowed by Apple, Microsoft,Amazon, and Alphabet.Reliance on Thursday closed at�2,060.65 on the BSE, up 2.82per cent over the previousday’s close.

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Gold prices went past �51,000 mark in the nation-

al capital, rising by �502 onThursday on strong interna-tional prices, according toHDFC Securities.

The precious metal rose by�502 to �51,443 per 10 gramfrom �50,941 per 10 gram inthe previous trade.

Silver, however, declinedby �69 to �62,760 per kg from�62,829 per kg on Wednesday.

“Spot gold prices for 24carat gold in Delhi hit new hightrading above �51,000, gaining�502 on strong internationalgold prices,” HDFC SecuritiesSenior Analyst (Commodities)Tapan Patel said. In theinternational market, gold wastrading higher at USD 1,875per ounce, while silver was flatat USD 22.76 per ounce.

New Delhi: Shares of special-ty chemicals manufacturingfirm Rossari Biotech made astellar debut on the bourses onThursday, and closed nearly 77per cent higher against its issueprice of � 425 per share. Thestock touched its highest trad-ing permissible limit for the dayon the BSE as well as NSE.

The stock listed at �670,registering a gain of 57.64 percent on its issue price on theBSE. During the day, it jumped89.17 per cent to �804 - itsupper circuit limit. It finallyclosed at �742.35, up 74.67 percent.On the NSE, it closed at�752, a gain of 76.94 per cent.During the day, it jumped88.96 per cent to �803.10

The company’s marketvaluation stood at �3,854.98crore on the BSE. In terms ofvolume, 30.27 lakh shares weretraded on the BSE during theday, while 3.57 crore shareschanged hands on the NSE.

“It has been a long hiatusin IPO for many months sinceCOVID epidemic started.Rossari Biotech’s success inretail, HNI and institutionalsegments brings a good omenand shows tremendous appetitefor good quality equity paper inIndian markets,” BSE CEOAshishkumar Chauhan CEOsaid on the listing. PTI

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The green shoots of recoveryare expected to grow faster

in non-metro markets due to“higher resilience” shown bynon-metro cities during theCOVID-19 pandemic, says asurvey by consultancy firmEY.

The EY survey, whichpolled over 4,000 respondentsequally divided between metroand non-metro markets, wasconducted to ascertain thepotential impact of pandemic-related disruptions on con-sumer sentiments, its reportsaid.

Categories like consumergoods, travel, entertainment,automobiles and white goodsare all expected to see increasedand faster recovery of demandfrom non-metro markets postthe lockdowns, it added. “Non-metro markets haveshown higher resilience thanmetro markets in our study andcould recover faster. The per-

centage of respondents whoexpected to spend more thanbefore on a majority of cate-gories was much higher innon-metro markets, indicatingthat when the lockdowns end,green shoots of recovery wouldprobably sprout faster in thesemarkets,” EY said.

Respondents in non-met-ros are expected to spend muchmore on consumer goods, trav-el, outdoor and automobiles ascompared to their metro coun-terparts, it said.According to EY India Partnerand Media & EntertainmentLeader Ashish Pherwani, theCOVID-19 pandemic has rad-ically shifted way of life.“However, despite uncertainand challenging conditions,our research shows that non-metros express a higher degreeof resiliency and a resolve tobounce back quicker com-pared to metros. We may seelong-term and even permanentchanges in consumption pat-terns,” he said.

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Citing higher prices and lowsupply, the Confederation

of All India Traders onThursday urged the Centre toextend the provision for com-pulsory gold Hallmarking bytwo years, so that leftover stockcan enter the market.

On Thursday, gold priceswent up to �51,500 per 10gram, while silver ended at�62,000 per kg, CAIT saidadding that the safe asset classhas gained demand as an out-come of the Covid-19 inducedeconomic turbulence.

Accordingly, the confeder-ation expects a sustaineddemand for gold and silver dur-

ing the festive season startingfrom Raksha Bandhan onAugust 3.

The confederation expectsgold prices to touch �55,000per 10 grams on Diwali.

According to PraveenKhandelwal, Secretary General,CAIT and Pankaj Arora,National Convenor of All IndiaJewelers and GoldsmithFederation, silver price isexpected to be in a range of�72,000 to �75,000 per kilo-gram. He was quoted as sayingin a statement: “Gold hasalways been the best and safestchoice of investment for thecustomers as gold prices gen-erally keep on increasingwhereas on the other hand, it

is also the most importantinvest ment for traders whichis quite safe.”

Prior to the lockdown, goldprices stood at �41,000 per 10grams and that of silver was at�40,000 per kg and now in aperiod of just 4 months thereis an increase of 28-30 per centin gold and in silver theincrease is of about 45 per cent,he said.The confederation saidthat to allow the jewellers to liq-uidate their old stocks, theCentre should provide a furtherextension of 2 years, in the viewof Covid-19 disruption. Earlier,the Centre had made‘Hallmarking’ on every golditem compulsory from January15, 2021.

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Reliance Jio topped 4G speedchart with an average

download speed of 16.5megabits per second (mbps) inJune, while Vodafone and Idealed in terms of upload speed,according to Trai data.Idea followed Jio in downloadspeed chart with 8 mbps speed,

the latest data published onTrai’s Myspeed portal showed.

The Telecom RegulatoryAuthority of India (Trai)recorded average downloadspeed of 7.5 mbps and 7.2mbps on 4G network ofVodafone and Bharti Airtel inJune.

For upload speed,Vodafone and Idea led the

chart with speed of 6.2 mbpseach. Jio and Airtel recordedaverage upload speed of 3.4mbps each.

Download speed helps inaccessing messages, pictures,videos, etc., sent by others,while upload speed helps sub-scribers in sending messages,pictures, etc., to their con-tacts.

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Government has askedPublic Sector

Undertakings (PSUs) to com-plete all their planned capex forFY21 on time and becomevehicles of growth for theeconomy hit by the coron-avirus pandemic.

With private investmenton a standstill, the Govt wantscompanies administered by itto change the mood in thecountry by stepping up expen-diture and generating eco-nomic activity that results inincome generation and jobcreation.At a review meetingheld by the Finance MinisterNirmala Sitharaman onThursday with Secretaries ofMinistries of Civil Aviation,Steel, and the ChairmanRailway Board along with theCMDs of 7 CPSEs belonging tothese Ministries, the FinanceMinister said that better per-formance of CPSEs can helpthe economy in a big way torecover from the impact of

COVID-19.In this regard, shesaid it is important that CPSEsensure that capital outlay pro-vided to them for FY21 is“spent properly and withintime”. Sitharaman asked secre-taries to closely monitor theperformance of CPSEs in orderto ensure capital expenditure tothe tune of 50 per cent of cap-ital outlay by Q2 2020-21.

She said that to achieve thisplanning should be done inadvance and all unresolvedissues should be brought beforethe ministry for immediatesolution.The concern this yearis that sluggish economic activ-ities on account of COVID-19and sagging demand condi-tions may also push PSUs tostep back on their invest-ments.In FY 2019-20, againstthe CAPEX target of �30,420crore for the 7 CPSEs, theachievement was �25,974 crorei.e. 85%. In Q1 (FY 2019-20)achievement was �3,878 crore(13%) and achievement of Q1(FY 2020-21) has slowed downto �3,557 crore (14%).

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Tax mop up in first quarterof the current fiscal is “very

encouraging” and indicatesthat the economy is recoveringsooner than what was antici-pated at the time of impositionof lockdown, Finance SecretaryAjay Bhushan Pandey said onThursday.

He said the RevenueDepartment wants to bring inself-compliance among tax-payers by making availabledata of all financial transactionsvia Form 26AS at the time offiling income tax (I-T) return.

Pandey, who is also theRevenue Secretary, said about70 per cent of the � 91,000crore Goods and Services Tax(GST) collected in June is onaccount of transactions in May.

“For the month of June,going by the current trends, wehave certain trend about howmany people have made pay-ment so far, and also the e-waybill...Truck movement...Allthese things are giving encour-aging signals that the economyis coming back to the realmsooner than what was beinganticipated when the lock-down was started in March,” hesaid while addressing a Ficcievent here.

Besides, income tax col-lection, by way of advance taxand TDS, in the April-Junequarter was about 80 per centof what was collected in thesame period last year. “Thesetwo numbers - GST andincome tax - are encouragingnumbers and also gives ussome hope that wherever pos-sible businesses are finding

ways to get started. But therewere certain sectors like hos-pitality, education, tourism,which are facing difficulty,”Pandey added.

The Government had inMay notified revised Form26AS which would have addi-tional details on taxpayers’high-value financial transac-tions like cash deposit/with-drawal, property purchasesundertaken during a financialyear, and would facilitate vol-untary compliance and ease ofe-filing of I-T returns.

Pandey said if aperson sees all his transactionat one place, it makes return fil-ing easy and helps honest tax-payers. It also sends a messageto those persons who are on theborderline, and they wouldalso try to be on the right sideof law.

“What we want to pro-mote is self-compliance insteadof somebody being sent anotice and then somebodygoing through some kind ofharrasment or difficulty, we aremaking all those informationavailable,” he added.

With regard to digitallending by banks, Pandey saidif tax-payment profile of aloan applicant is made availableto the banks, it would make iteasier for lenders to assesshow much loan can be extend-ed.

“...We have all these infor-mations, these information canbe shared in a secured man-ner...We are working on that,we had several sounds of meet-ings with several stakeholdersand we are working on this,” headded.

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Mumbai: The rupee gave upday’s gains to settle on a flatnote at 74.75 against the USdollar on Thursday amidconcerns over growing ten-sions between the US andChina. At the interbankforex market, the domesticunit opened on a strong noteat 74.65, but erased the gainsto finally close at 74.75,unchanged from its previousclosing.

During the session, thedomestic unit witnessed anintra-day high of 74.52 and alow of 74.87 against the USdollar.

Forex traders said theuptick in the rupee duringthe day was supported byweak greenback, foreign fundinflows and positive domes-tic equities, but rising ten-sions between the US andChina weighed on investorsentiment and restricted thegains.

Meanwhile, the dollarindex, which gauges thegreenback’s strength againsta basket of six currencies,rose 0.01 per cent to 94.99.

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When I look at some moderncars, I get reminded of

sharks. If you, like me, are an ama-teur shark scientist and lovedDiscovery Channel’s Shark Weekshows, you would know that thereare over a thousand species ofthem. When you think of sharks,you tend to think of the GreatWhite, leaping into the air a sealtightly grasped inside its jaw. Isn’tit? The fact is that the ‘agape’ lookon so many car grilles that I seetoday, reminds me of the Whale, thelargest fish in the world. An impres-sive one, of course, but thorough-ly harmless with a massive mouthat the tip of its head, not below likepredatory sharks, but at the tip.

When you see a picture of awhale shark feeding and then lookat what Hyundai has been giving usof late — the new Elantra comingin 2021 — will be interesting to saythe least. Even Maruti, the facelifton the Dzire, makes things bigger.The MG Hector and Kia’s ‘tigernose’ on the Seltos and Sonet aswell. Heck, Honda might stick achrome slab through its mouth likebraces on teeth, but they also havebig mouths. And of course, thereare the Germans. BMW’s signature‘kidney grilles’ have gotten a bit outof hand. Have you seen the BMW4-series concept? I actually don’tmind it on the 7-series and X7because of their huge size, so thereis a bit of proportionality. And then

there is Audi, the carmaker thatstarted the trend of wide-mouthedsedans and SUVs with their 2004line-up redesign starting with theA4 and A6.

Of course, larger grilles allowfor more area where designers canplay around or stick a humongouslogo, like MG and Mercedes-Benzdo. Or like in the case of BMW,where the kidney grilles are a sig-nature of the Bavarian carmaker.With three-dimensional lightdesign killing off the other signa-ture ‘Corona’ headlights, the grilleis it. While I know that in Indiatoday, China-bashing is in vogueand I have personally also beenguilty of that, here I really have toblame the Chinese. When theybuy a product, they are not subtleabout it. The Ralph Lauren logo ont-shirts grew bigger once that brandtook off in China. Similarly, thebrash Louis Vuitton logo, alsothanks to that market. The tragedyof Montblanc putting their logo oneverything from belts to wallets, yes,you guessed it, China. BMW onceadmitted this to me, during the 7-series refresh international drive inAlgarve, that the bigger kidneys andthe “12 per cent larger” nose logowas for the Chinese market. And

you know what? When that onemarket accounts for a third of yourglobal sales, making those changesis perfectly logical for a carmak-er.

There are friends of mine inautomotive journalism who like thebig kidney grilles on BMW. At theend of the day, we all have differ-ent aesthetic sensibilities. One les-son that I have learnt is that inIndia, we seek ‘value’ from a carrather than looks. The first-gener-ation Santro, particularly earlybuilds of that car were, for lack ofany other word to describe it, ugly.The first generation WagonRseemed as if the design team wasonly given a ruler and a brief toavoid any sort of curve. These carswere not at all aesthetically pleas-ing. The Daewoo Matiz on theother hand, was quite cute. But youknow the story, the Santro launchedHyundai allowing them to dazzleour eyes with the next-generationElantra that you will see next year.Don’t get me wrong, I love theproduct, but the next Elantra justlike the facelift on the Verna lookslike a Whale shark out of water.

Here is the funny thing, largegrilles made sense when you hadlarge naturally aspirated engines,big steel blocks with eight cylindersinside them. Those engines need-ed air and also a lot of cooling. Butthanks to emissions norms, thoseengines are dying out in all but

some supercars. And BMW them-selves have the F90 5-series whichis by far and away the best lookingcar they make because it doesn’tlook like it went through rhinoplas-ty to get a boxer’s nose. It is an aes-thetically pleasing car. At a levelthis is a bit like planes, the AirbusA380 is a tremendous piece of engi-neering, but it isn’t pretty. TheBoeing 747 just has somethingabout it, which is why it is calledthe ‘Queen’ of the skies and theA380, well, that is a whale (noth-ing against cetaceans by the way).When electric cars come along,what will happen to all theselarge grilles? Just look at Tesla’s —a clean, proportionate design, nofrills or huge kidney grilles. Imean, even BMW’s electric warriorthe i3 is not overdone on the nosefront. So why on god’s green earthdid BMW give us the Concept 4-series?

Being passionate about carsand writing about them will nec-essarily make you ardent about cardesign. I do not like the way manycars look these days. I’m not say-ing that there are not some prettycars out there but the attack of thelarge grilles is upon us. While I’msure I will be pummelled intoacceptance, as we all accepted thefirst-generation Santro, I’m notgoing down without a fight. Or inmy case, without writing suchcolumns.

Perhaps a visit to the salon for someself-grooming was the only thingone never felt lazy about in the

pre-COVID era. However, over thepast few months, with a pandemic athand, the touch therapy involved wasenough to scare many of us into depend-ing on household hacks. But they havenot been salon-perfect.

With salons getting back to businesspost an ease in lockdown restrictions,many have been waiting to return.However, risk-averse as we are, there iscertainly a great feeling of anxiety. Sosalons too are responding to thechanged mindset and bringing in amajor transition in their set-ups andfunctioning to assure that their servicesare safe. New hygiene protocols havebeen developed to ensure safety of thecustomer as well as that of the techni-cian’s. New tools and accessories arebeing used for contact therapies. Hereare a few ways how salons have gone fora makeover themselves before throwingthe door open.

����H���5��0������The don’t-touch-me policy has

become the new normal in publicspaces and is here to stay. Which bringsmany to the question — how willsalons do their usual chores withouttouching the customer? For instance,while combing the hair or a facial clean-up.

Experts suggest that a new safetyprotocol — zero-touch facial — canensure that the beautician doesn’t touchyour skin with bare hands. Rather, thebeautician needs to be enabled to deliv-er the same kind of service with thesame efficiency by using certain profes-sional tools and techniques. Many

brands are coming up with specially cus-tomised products like disposable appli-cators, gloves and a mask, which canensure that skin problems are attendedto in a hygienic manner. The sanitisedtools also allow for advanced exfoliationand radiant skin.

Vaijayanti Bhalchandra, co-founder,CTO Head HR YLG Salons, YLG @Home, talks about her use of newzero-touch products. She says, “The pastfew months have been extremely toughfor the business and we have missedwork. The Cheryl’s cosmeceuticals havehelped us adapt to the new normal withits zero-touch facial kit. Since gainingconfidence of customers for facial treat-ments is a major necessity in thesetimes, we also make sure the beauticianmaintains a certain distance from thecustomer while working and minimisetalking at all times. It has been only afew weeks since we have re-opened andnow, we are increasingly gettingresponses for clean-ups and exfoliationfacials.”

��6�61������������0�DP Sharma, director, Professional

Products Division at L’Oréal India,says, “Our network of salons is key to

our business and we have alwaysbelieved in them to offer only the bestof services to consumers. As salons haveslowly begun re-opening across thecountry, we have trained and upskilledour network with the strictest of hygieneand safety norms to be followed whileinteracting with the consumer. We havealso introduced Express Hair ColorServices, which not only support oursalons to get back to business safely butalso offer an innovative professional haircolour solution with sophisticated tech-niques to our consumers.”

As per Sharma, the service onlytakes 60 minutes, which is as less timeas it could take to colour the hair. It notonly “minimises a customer’s time atsalon” but also “erases all signs of thebad hair days you may have faced in thelast few months.”

������������������Beauty brands like Matrix have

also introduced programmes to ensurethe safety of consumers, anxious aboutreturning to a salon. Its ‘Safe Salon’ ini-tiative begins with an increased saniti-sation and fumigation of salonsarranged by it. All partner salons areequipped with a comprehensive hygienepractice guide that includes the pre-booking of an appointment, tempera-ture checks, sanitisation of surfaces, reg-ular washing of hands by staff, contact-less and digital payments, sterilisationof tools before and after a service, avail-ability of sanitisers and clean masks andgloves worn by the staff.

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To minimise contact, experts haverecommended a virtual consultationsession via smartphone with your beau-tician that should be mandated for everycustomer, prior to stepping in thesalon. Through this practice, if the ser-vice isn’t provided on the given day, anunnecessary visit could be avoided andin turn, crowding. Also, one can alwaysget the technician to diagnose the issuethrough an online consultation.

Niraj Killa, owner of Head Turner’sHair Spa & Beauty Salon, Kolkata,says, “All our staff has taken part in theSalon Hygiene and Safety E-Learningmodule offered by the brand to ensurewe can adapt to the newer requirementsof the changing world. It’s better if wenow move towards more digital prac-tices while customers consult us.”

����1����� Many salons have also used the

lockdown period to upskill and traintheir network to be equipped with all therequired protocols, to enable them to getback to business, following properguidelines. Digital educational traininghas helped salon owners and theirteams prepare a detailed hygiene check-list that they must adhere to while re-opening.The distribution of safety kitsby many cosmetic brands include dis-posable masks, gloves, bed sheets,shower caps and bed gowns to make thefacial service hygienic and safe.

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Actor Randeep Hooda hopes people will restartresponsibly after the COVID-19 lockdown, and feels

everyone has a part to play in making the planet healthy.Discovery India has brought him on board to urge Indiato exit the lockdown in a responsible manner with aunique campaign titled Restart Responsibly. The cam-paign video has Randeep taking daily routine, but impor-tant actions, including placing water for birds, riding abicycle, taking care of his pet and much more whileenlightening citizens about the impact that human actionhas had on environment.

“This campaign is close to my heart as we are notasking people to take a pledge without any specific out-comes. The campaign aims to inspire people to takethoughtful steps which can easily be added to their daily

routines in a more thoughtful waybecause if everyone does small things

right, then the overall impact on theenvironment will be huge,” saidRandeep.

“We all need to, and I can’t empha-size this enough, play our part to

ensure that we create less pol-lution to ensure better qualityair and water. An importantobservation we all need tomake is that humans are notcentre of the universe, we areall a part of it, along with allflora and fauna. If we all justrespect this fact and get onwith life, I am sure tomorrowwill be better,” added he.

“We wanted to present apowerful platform to tell crit-

ical stories, elevate cultural dis-course and do the right thing.Through this campaign, weaim to bring the importance ofindividual behaviour in shap-ing our environment. Often,we look at others for solutions,lets do our part — simple yetthoughtful steps — is our keymessage,” said Vednarayan

Sirdeshpande, Head ofMarketing, South Asia,Discovery.

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People nowadays don’twant to just clink glass-es with their friends

and family over an eveningget together, rather theywant to know more aboutthe dram, the whisky notes,food pairings and so muchmore. Here is the history,evolution of single maltwhisky, its relevance andGlenfiddich’s journey in themaking.

FROM THE ARCHIVESPopularly referred to as ‘water of life’,

whisky has a long and adventurous storyto tell. Whisky became an innate part ofScottish life and was even used for med-icinal purposes during the long coldharsh Scottish winters, apart from beingthere in the everyday social life ofScotland.

Gradually with the rise of whisky pro-duction, five groups of single maltsemerged from Scotland, includingHighland, Lowland, Speyside, Islay andCampbeltown. The banks of the RiverSpey on the eastern side of the Highlandsbecame home to around 50 distillerieswith many of them offering guided toursand the chance, of course, to sample theirproduce. The malts of Speyside were lovedfor their elegance and complexity whilstthe malts from the most beautiful Isle ofIslay are described in terms of their peatyquality.

It was in the late eighteens, a singlemalt brand known today, was born fromone man’s dream, William Grant. In 1886with the help of his nine children, Grantput the first brick in Glenfiddich distillery.Water, air and malted barley, a trinityexpertly crafted to make a Glenfiddichwhisky, created in a radical design of thetime, the triangular bottle. Up until 1960s,the world was consuming blended whiskyand cognac while single malt was aScottish secret. In 1963, the single malt

whisky was taken outside Scotland.The malt whisky was first called

‘Pure malt’ and then ‘Straight malt’.Eventually the term ‘Single malt’ wascoined which has stuck with us ever sincethen in our hearts (and glasses, of course).

HOW DID THE WHISKY GET ITSFLAVOUR?

Where a whisky is born, what it’smatured in and how old it is, all affects theflavour of the final product. With agecomes character and complexity. To qual-ify as a Scotch whisky, it must be aged inan Oak barrel in Scotland for minimumof three years.

Water also plays a significant role inthe making of the whisky. The WilliamGrant & Sons family have owned the landsaround the Robbie Dhu spring for a verylong time, safeguarding the water for allits whiskies including the The Balvenie,Monkey Shoulder and others. Whisky ismade entirely from barley. Barley from ourspecialist maltsters is ground into roughflour and mixed with heated Robbie Dhuspringwater.

The key is in the cask. With a lot offlavour coming from the cask, the quali-ty of the whisky depends on the qualityof the wood it’s matured in. A single maltmay see several casks. It’s a common mis-conception that single malt whisky is theproduct of one cask. In fact, two thirds ofthe flavour in a single malt comes fromcasks its matured in and is the product ofa single distillery and may come from sev-

eral casks within the same distillery. A lesser-known thing about single

malts is the angel’s share. Angel’s share is thatportion of whisky which evaporates duringthe maturation process. The name comesfrom a tongue-in-cheek belief that those

‘greedy angels’ must be blamed for the dimin-ishing level of tightly sealed whisky barrels.The approximate rate of loss of whisky dueto evaporation is two per cent per annum inScotland and nine to 10 per cent in Indiabecause of the warm weather conditions.

This means one can age a single malt inScotland for 50-60 years while in India theycan be aged for only 10-12 years.

Skills, craftsmanship, specialist knowl-edge and wisdom, all go into the making ofa whisky.

BUILDING IT ON Today, even in the twenty-first centu-

ry, single malts continue to be a preferredspirit and are growing year-on-year. But theway the spirit is perceived and approachedhas changed radically. While the singlemalt drinker continues to be one whoenjoys the finer things in life, they are nolonger restricted to an older audience.Women are becoming an integral part ofthe category not just as consumers but alsoas distillers, enthusiasts, brand ambas-sadors and bartenders. The love for whiskyis rising in younger people as well, they arereplacing other spirits with whiskies. Wesee a growing curiosity and interest amongthe younger drinkers in knowing moreabout their spirit. This is due to theincreased relevance being created bybrands promoting cocktails and serves thatmake it intriguing and aspirational for theyounger generation to opt for whiskies.

Innovation within the single maltcategory has been one of the key reasonsfor it to remain relevant through decades.Innovation across distilling, manufactur-ing, packaging and marketing have togeth-er played a crucial role. Experimental sin-gle malt variants have gained high promi-nence with the new age whisky drinkersthat are willing to play with their singlemalts. Distillers too have kept up with thisdemand by introducing unique cask fin-ishes such as beer, ice wine, tequila, mez-cal and French cuvée casks, that add to thevaried notes of the single malt.

The brands new experiments’ whichhave been done keeping in mind India’srich culture, have brought to life a specialIndia specific initiative that refined therules of traditional single malt serve byexploring and handpicking unique andexotic Indian ingredients.

It is great to be on the lookout to cre-ate out-of-the-ordinary experiences thatchallenge people’s perception and enthuseconsumers to try something different.

SAVOURING THE DRINK While, the art of truly enjoying your

single malt is a beautiful experience, it dif-fers for everyone. Experiential tastings andpairings have helped in continuous con-sumer awareness and interest in the sin-gle malt category. Consuming your singlemalt with food opens a world of aroma andflavour opportunities. The goal is to pairwith ingredients and spices that enhancethe flavour of the single malt rather thanoverpowering it. Single malts surprising-ly work well with desserts and fine teas.The varied styles of enjoying your singlemalts today are endless, be it through foodor unique serves, that have kept the spir-it from being enjoyed by both whisky andnon-whisky drinkers alike.

Neat or Not? It’s entirely up to you!Going neat may be the ‘purest’ way to enjoya single malt, but it’s not the only way.

I strongly believe, ‘To each its own!’Therefore, whatever you like is the best onefor you. However, the best dram is the oneenjoyed with friends and family over lotsof banter and fun.

(The writer is Glenfiddich India brandambassador.)

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FROM CASK TO

GLASS

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Liverpool manager Jurgen Kloppsaid having the opportunity tolift the Premier League trophy

at Anfield meant the world to himdespite having to do so in an emptystadium with fans shutout due to coronavirus.

The Reds sealed afirst top-flight title for30 years last month,but had to wait untilafter a thrilling 5-3win over Chelsea intheir final home game of the seasonto lift the Premier League trophy forthe first time.

“You make the best of what youcan,” Klopp told Sky Sports. “Todayour families are allowed to be therewhich is incredible. It means theworld to me. Everything would bebetter with fans but for months weknew that would be impossible. Afew months ago I thought it wasimpossible that we play football.

“I couldn’t be happier to behonest, it would be perfect if the sta-dium would be full but we cannotchange it. What we tried to do ismake it clear to the people that wereally do it for them. It’s an absolute-ly great moment.”

Despite pleas for fans to stayaway on the night Liverpool finallygot their hands on the trophy, sup-porters crowded around the stadiumeven prior to kick-off, while the sec-ond half was accompanied by the

constant crackling of fireworks lit byfans outside the ground.

On the field, Klopp’s menensured a memorable night wasaccompanied by a positive result afterjust two wins in five previous gamessince they clinched the title. And theGerman again promised the fans aproper party with a parade plannedthrough the city once restrictions arelifted.

“You have to prepare for a party,”he added. “When I don’t know,when this virus is gone then we willhave a party all together.”

The result had far bigger conse-quences for Chelsea as they slip tofourth and leaves Frank Lampard’smen still needing a point at home toWolves at Stamford Bridge onSunday to secure a place in theChampions League.

‘IN OUR HANDS’“It’s huge, we know the situa-

tion,” said Lampard. “It’s in ourhands to get a result against a verygood Wolves team.”

Chelsea have already bolsteredtheir attacking options for next sea-son with the signings of TimoWerner and Hakim Ziyech, whilethey are reportedly closing in on adeal for the 90-million euro ($103

million, £81 million) rated KaiHavertz of Bayer Leverkusen.

But it is at the other endLampard clearly has to find solu-tions as they completed an entireleague season with just one cleansheet away from home and havenow conceded 54 times in thePremier League this season.

Liverpool were 3-0 up inside 43minutes as sweet strikes from NabyKeita, Trent Alexander-Arnold andGeorginio Wijnaldum gave Chelseaa mountain to climb.

They nearly did so even afterRoberto Firmino scored his firstleague goal at Anfield all seasonrestored Liverpool’s three-goalcushion to cancel out OlivierGiroud’s strike just before half-timefor the visitors.

Christian Pulisic was surpris-ingly left on the bench by Lampardfrom the start and he changed thecame after he was introducedalongside Tammy Abraham andCallum Hudson-Odoi.

The American skipped pastfour challenges before squaringfor Abraham and then fired pow-erfully into the roof of the net withthe Liverpool defence all over theplace.

But Chelsea were undone againat the other end as a blisteringbreak from inside their own boxsaw Liverpool surge forward andAlex Oxlade-Chamberlain smashedhome Andy Robertson’s cross at theback post.

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The Indian 4x400m mixedrelay team’s Silver medal in

the 2018 Asian Games hasbeen upgraded to Gold follow-ing the disqualification of orig-inal winners Bahrain onaccount of a doping ban hand-ed to one of its runners.

Bahrain, which had toppedthe 4x400 mixed relay final, wasdisqualified after KemiAdekoya was handed a four-year ban by the AthleticsIntegrity Unit (AIU) for failing

a dope test.Besides this, Anu

Raghavan’s fourth-place finishin the women’s 400m hurdlesevent has been upgraded to

Bronze medal after the AIUannulled the results of Adekoya,who originally won the race.

The Indian quartet ofMohammed Anas, MRPoovamma, Hima Das andArokia Rajiv had clocked3:15:71 behind Bahrain(3:11:89). Raghavan hadclocked 56.92 to finish fourth inthe final race in Jakarta.

“The additional medaltakes our tally to 20, includingeight Gold and nine Silver,” saidAFI President Adille JSumariwalla.

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Fast bowler Jofra Archer hasreturned to the 14-member

England squad alongside JamesAnderson and Mark Wood for theseries-deciding third and final Test

against the West Indies starting at theOld Trafford here on Friday.

The 25-year-old Archer wasdropped from the second Test forbreaching the Covid-19 bio-secureprotocol and slapped with a financialpenalty of an undisclosed amount.

While Archer was dropped fromthe series-levelling second Test,Anderson and Wood were restedfrom the game.

Archer, Anderson and Woodwill compete with the pace trio ofStuart Broad, Chris Woakes andSam Curran for places in England’splaying XI.

It will be interesting to seeEngland’s pace attack for the thirdTest as the trio of Broad, Curran andWoakes has performed well in thesecond Test.

Liverpool: Chelsea managerFrank Lampard has saidPremier League championsLiverpool should not becometoo arrogant after being leftunimpressed with the behav-iour of their bench duringWednesday’s 5-3 defeat.

Lampard was involved inan exchange with Liverpool’sbench after a free kick wasawarded against Chelsea’sMateo Kovacic. TrentAlexander-Arnold found thenet from the free kick to makeit 2-0.

“For me it wasn’t a foul

from Kovacic,” Lampard toldSky Sports. “There were a lot ofthings that were ongoing andon the bench ... I’ve got noproblem with Jurgen Klopp, he’smanaged this team and it’s fan-tastic.

“Some of the bench, it’s afine line between when you arewinning — and they’ve wonthe league, fair play toLiverpool Football Club — butalso don’t get too arrogantwith it.

“That was my thing, but(it’s) done. In match play you getemotional and that was it.” AP

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Ole Gunnar Solskjaer urgedhis Manchester United

stars to seize a “fantasticopportunity” to qualify forthe Champions League afterMason Greenwood rescued a1-1 draw against West Ham onWednesday.

Solskjaer’s side fell behindto Michail Antonio’s penalty inthe first half at Old Trafford.

But teenage for wardGreenwood struck after theinterval to lift United intothird place in the PremierLeague.

They are ahead of fourth-

placed Chelsea on goal differ-ence after the Blues lost 5-3later at champions Liverpool.

United will finish in the

top four if they draw or win intheir decisive showdown withfifth-placed Leicester onSunday.

They are one point aheadof Leicester going into their lastgame of the season at the KingPower Stadium.

Solskjaer’s team were wellbelow their best against WestHam, but they are now unbeat-en in 13 league matches andwill complete an impressivesurge into the ChampionsLeague if they emergeunscathed at Leicester.

They can also qualify forEurope’s elite club competitionif they win the Europa Leaguein August.

West Ham’s point ensuredthey are mathematically cer-tain to avoid relegation.

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New Zealand Cricket(NZC) will issue No

Objection Certificates(NOCs) to all its six interna-tionals set to compete in theIPL but said the “due dili-gence” on health safety proto-cols will have to be done bythe players themselves.

The six New Zealandplayers who are set to play inthe IPL are Jimmy Neesham(Kings XI Punjab), LockieFerguson (Kolkata KnightRiders), Mitchell

McClenaghan and TrentBoult (Mumbai Indians),Kane Williamson (SunrisersHyderabad) and MitchellSantner (Chennai SuperKings).

“Regarding the IPL,NZC will be issuingNOCs to the relevant play-ers and it’s up to them todecide,” NZC spokespersonRichard Boock said.

While the NZC will beupdating its players aboutthe health safety protocolsand latest Covid-19 relat-ed developments, the

onus will be on the six indi-viduals to do due diligence.

“Well, yes, the issuingof NOCs is considered ona case-by-case basis andit’s rare that they are everrefused. However, the

due diligence is some-thing for the respectiveplayers to shoulder —

although we are happy topass on as much info as wecan to assist in these mat-ters,” Boock added.

Recently, New Zealandskipper Williamson, whoplays for Sunrisers

Hyderabad, spoke aboutwanting to know more aboutthe safety protocols that willbe employed considering thatthe event is likely to be shift-ed to the UAE, which has alesser Covid-19 case load thanIndia.

Boock also confirmedthat New Zealand A team’stour of India has been can-celled. “My information isthat the A tour of India willnot be happening. It was deci-sion taken by mutual agree-ment between both theboards,” Boock said.

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Pakistan left-arm pacer Mohammad Amir onThursday was cleared to join the national side

in England after his second test also returned neg-ative for coronavirus.

“The PCB will now be making arrangementsto send Amir and masseur, Mohammad Imranto England as soon as possible so that they canjoin the training camp in Derbyshire,” thePakistan Cricket Board (PCB) said in a release.

Amir, 28, left many people disappointedincluding the national team’s head coach and chiefselector, Misbah-ul-Haq when he announced hissudden retirement from Test cricket last year.

Former players are of the opinion that if Amiris available and fit, then he should also be con-sidered for the Test series against England.

Amir in a recent interview had said that hehad made a mistake playing all three formats afterhis comeback after a five-year ban for spot-fix-ing. “I should have first played one or two for-mats and checked to see how mybody is doing and whether I couldtake the strain.

I erred in playing immedi-ately in all three formats and itled to injury and fitness prob-lems. “At least now I am con-fident that I can nowcarry on playing foranother four to sixyears if I take care ofmyself,” he had said.

Lahore: Former Pakistanspeedster Shoaib Akhtar hasslammed the BCCI, allegingthat the Indian cricket boardplayed a role in the ICC post-poning the T20 World Cuplater this year to make roomfor the Indian Premier League.Akhtar also felt that the AsiaCup could have taken place.

“Asia Cup could havedefinitely happened, it wouldhave been a great chance for

India and Pakistan to playagainst each other. There aremany reasons behind this. Idon’t want to get into that,”Akhtar said while speaking toGeo Cricket on YouTube.

“T20 World Cup couldhave also happened, but Ihad already said earlier thatthey won’t let it happen. IPLshould not be damaged, let theWorld Cup go to hell,” Akhtarsaid.

Manchester: West BromwichAlbion won promotion back tothe Premier League after a two-year absence, joining LeedsUnited in the top flight next sea-son after a 2-2 home draw withQueens Park Rangers in a dra-matic finale to theChampionship season onWednesday.

The point for Slaven Bilic’sside was enough to ensure sec-ond place in England’s secondtier after Brentford blew theirchance by losing 2-1 at home tolowly Barnsley.

A win for Brentford wouldhave sent them into the top divi-sion for the first time since 1947.

Brentford will go into the play-offs along with Fulham andCardiff City but in a huge swingin fortunes, Nottingham Forestmissed out on goal differencewith Swansea City grabbing thelast slot in astonishing fashion.

At the bottom, Hull Cityand Charlton were relegatedalong with Wigan Athletic.

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Inter Milan’s goalless drawagainst Fiorentina on

Wednesday left Juventusneeding just one more win toclaim a ninth consecutiveSerie A title.

Juve are six points clear ofsecond-placed Atalanta and canclaim their 36th Scudetto onThursday with a win at strug-gling Udinese.

Antonio Conte’s Inter arethird, one point behindAtalanta with three games toplay, despite having dominat-ed for long periods under therain at the San Siro.

“Second place is forlosers,” said Conte, whocoached Juventus to three oftheir current run of eighttitles and then went on to win

the Premier League and FACup with Chelsea.

“I understand that thereare those who are satisfied withthis, but for me it is meaningless.When you leave points, it meansthat there are shortcomings.”

A Romelu Lukaku header

hit the woodwork after 18 min-utes with Alexis Sanchez alsomissing a chance for the winnerjust after the break.

Fiorentina goalkeeper PietroTerracciano pulled off a string ofsaves denying Nicolo Barella andLukaku from close range.

Inter’s place in theChampions League next seasonis assured but they could nowfinish fourth, with Lazio fourpoints back ahead of their matchwith 13th-placed Cagliari on

Thursday.Roma, mean-

while, move backfifth ahead of ACMilan, who beatSassuolo on Tuesday,

after routing already-relegatedSPAL 6-1.

Bruno Peres scored a sec-ond-half brace with CarlesPerez scoring his first Serie Agoal for the visitors withNikola Kalinic and NicoloZaniolo also on target.

Roma are two points aheadof Milan, with the two teamsalready assured of EuropaLeague football next season.

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Liverpool manager Jurgen Kloppbelieves his side will need to

keep improving to hold off thechasing pack next season after lift-ing the Premier League trophy.

Chelsea have already strength-ened ahead of next season with thesignings of a long-term Liverpooltarget Timo Werner and HakimZiyech.

Klopp also expectsManchester City and ManchesterUnited to bolster their squads. Butthe German believes there is stillimprovement for his players tomake despite becoming English,European and world championsover the past 14 months.

“We should not stop, we haveinternal challenges to improve,”said Klopp. “We have the chanceto make another step, but we haveto because the others will not sleep.Chelsea is such a talented team, wehad to bring everything on thepitch tonight. Man Utd, Man City(will contend), there are no guar-antees for anything, but we willtry.”

Liverpool also beat Chelsea tolift the Uefa Super Cup at the startof the season to go with thePremier League, ChampionsLeague and Club World Cup andKlopp admitted he will take timefor a special momento after anincredible run of success.

“We are champions ofEngland, Europe and the world.We won four trophies, really bigones, so I couldn’t be more proud,”

he added. “I’m usually not a per-son who needs pictures but I willhave a picture with all four trophiesbecause it doesn’t happen often, sowe should.”

Jordan Henderson had thehonour of becoming the firstLiverpool player to lift the PremierLeague trophy and the Reds’ cap-tain believes the manner of victo-ry over a Chelsea side, who need-ed a result to confirm their placein the Champions League next sea-son, bodes well for what can beachieved next season.

“It’s been a journey and to fin-ish it off like this is really special,”said Henderson. “After this, nextseason is going to be a big chal-lenge for us. But I thought tonightwe showed the mentality to comeand perform again and get theresult we did.”

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