RNI No. TELENG/2018/76469

Established 1864Published From

HYDERABAD DELHI LUCKNOWBHOPAL RAIPUR CHANDIGARH

BHUBANESWAR RANCHIDEHRADUN VIJAYAWADA

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ANALYSIS 7THE LIVES OF TRAIN

PASSENGERS MATTER

MONEY 8ECONOMIC RECOVERY YET

TO ATTAIN DURABILITY: ICRA

SPORTS 12SINDHU CRUISES INTO SECOND ROUND

OF SYED MODI INTERNATIONAL

HYDRABADWEATHER

Updated JANUARY 19, 2021 5:00 PM

FFoorreeccaasstt:: CLOUDYTTeemmpp:: 29oc

HHuummiiddiittyy:: 47%SSuunnrriissee:: 6:53 AMSSuunnsseett:: 6:00 PM

ALMANAC

TODAY

Month & Paksham:

Pausa,Krishna Paksha

Tithi : Dwitiya : Jan 19 06:54 AM to Jan 20 08:05 AM

Tritiya : Jan 20 08:05 AM to Jan 21 08:52 AM

Nakshatram : Ashlesha: Jan 19 06:42 AM to Jan 20 08:24 AM

Magha: Jan 20 08:24 AM to Jan 21 09:43 AM

Rahukalam : 1:50 PM to 3:14 PM

Yamagandam : 6:53 AM to 8:16 AM

Varjyam : 09:03 PM to 10:45 PM

Gulika : 9:40 AM to 11:03 AM

Amritakalam : None

Abhijit Muhurtham : 12:04 PM to 12:49 PM

INDIA TENNIS ACE SANIA MIRZA TORETIRE AFTER THIS SEASON

Indian tennis star Sania Mirza announced her intention to retirefrom the sport after the current season. Mirza made theannouncement after she and her Ukrainian partner Nadiia

Kichenok suffered an opening-round loss in the women's doublesevent of the ongoing Australian Open on Wednesday. Kaja Juvanand Tamara Zidansek of Slovenia defeated Mirza and Kichenok 6-4,7-6. "There's a few [sic] reasons for it. It's not as simple as 'okayI'm not going to play'. I do feel my recovery is taking longer, I'mputting my 3-year-old son at risk by travelling so much with him,that's something I have to take into account. -Details inside

INDIA CASES HIT 8-MONTH HIGH,TESTING PICKS UP AGAIN

India reported new coronavirus infections at an eight-monthhigh on Wednesday and a government scientist warned itwill take weeks before data on hospitalisations and deaths

will show how severe the latest wave driven by the Omicronvariant will be. Authorities have said Omicron was causingfewer hospitalisations and deaths than the Delta variant,which killed hundreds of thousands last year. But TarunBhatnagar from the ICMR-National Institute of Epidemiologyin Chennai said the impact of the current run-up in infectionswill show up with a lag.

‘AL-QAIDA'S LINKS WITH PAK-BASEDTERROR GROUPS CONTINUE TO GROW’

Al-Qaida's linkages with UNSC proscribed Pakistan-based terrorgroups like LeT and JeM has continued to strengthen, India'senvoy to the UN has said, underlining that the recent developments

in Afghanistan have only served to re-energise the terrorist group.India's Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador TS Tirumurtitold the International Counter-Terrorism Conference 2022 organised bythe Global Counter-Terrorism Council on Tuesday that the Islamic State(ISIS) has changed its modus operandi with its core focus is now onregaining ground in Syria and Iraq, and its regional affiliates arestrengthening their expansion, especially in Africa and in Asia.

MAJOR AIRLINES CANCEL US FLIGHTSDUE TO MEGA 5G ROLLOUT

Ahead of the mega 5G rollout in the US, major airlines likeEmirates, Air India, ANA and Japan Airlines haveannounced to cancel some flights over concerns that it

could potentially interfere with some instruments and may putflyers’ safety at risk. Emirates said it’s “suspending flights tothe following US destinations from 19 January 2022 untilfurther notice,” listing Boston, Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth,Houston, Miami, Newark, Orlando, San Francisco, and Seattle.The airline will continue to fly to New York JFK, Los Angeles(LAX), and Washington, DC (IAD), reports The Verge.

HYDERABAD,THURSDAY, JANUARY 20, 2022; PAGES 12 `3

At 3,000 feet, two Indigo flights’ collision averted by this manNEW DELHI: An alert approachradar controller closely monitoringthe airspace above Bengaluru'sKempegowda International Airportmay have saved the lives ofhundreds of passengers onboardtwo IndiGo jetliners that nearlyhad a mid-air collision shortlyafter both took off on January 7.

IndiGo flight 6E-455 fromBengaluru to Kolkata and 6E 246,from Bengaluru to Bhubaneshwar,both variants of the Airbus A320,had taken off simultaneously inthe same direction from parallelrunways when they camedangerously close to one another.Approach radar controller, 42-

year-old Lokendra Singh, "gave adiverging heading (to the aircraft)and avoided a mid-air collision,"says a preliminary report of theDirectorate General of CivilAviation, or DGCA. Both jetlinerswere believed to be at an altitudeof 3,000 feet when the incidenttook place. Bengaluru airport has

two runways, North and South.Earlier that day, both runwayswere in use. The North runwaywas meant for departures and theSouth runway for arrivals. This isstandard practice at this airport toensure the separation of aircraftdeparting and landing. On themorning of January 7, key

mistakes were made. A shift in-charge decided to use a singlerunway for operations - the Northrunway for both arrival anddeparture. "The South runway wasclosed but this was notcommunicated to the South towercontroller," the DGCA said in itspreliminary report.

TS govt functioning with 40% staffNAVEENA GHANATE n HYDERABAD

It looks like a de facto lockdown;for, government offices across thestate are reporting high levels ofabsence of staff attributed to Covid-19.

High placed sources said thatmost of the government offices inTelangana are functioning withonly 40 per cent staff. This has neg-atively impacted public services.The movement of files has beendelayed further. The affected officesinclude Secretariat, Collectorates,Police Stations, hospitals and busdepots.

Many of those absent are eithergenuinely down with Covid-19 orclaim to have come in contact witha person who had tested positive forthe virus.

Officials like Jayesh Ranjan,Sandeep Kumar Sultania, SrinivasRaju, S A M Rizvi, Ronald Rose,Vikas Raj, retired IAS officer ShivaShanker, Director of Public HealthDr G Srinivasa Rao are down withCovid-19 and have called in sick.

Sources said that some officialswanted a hospital admission just toavoid the calls they would other-wise get while being in 'isolation' athome. However, some officials,despite being at home, are report-

edly working and taking calls.Field visits have reduced, apartfrom increase in virtual meetings.

Chief Secretary Somesh Kumarhas reportedly directed officials toensure that Covid-19 norms are fol-

lowed strictly. Nearly 1,000 policepersonnel have reportedly beeninfected by Covid-19. In the DGPoffice itself, apparently 150 havebeen infected with Covid-19.

It may be mentioned here thateven in government hospitals hun-dreds of medics are falling ill.Even conductors and drivers inTSRTC are infected with Covid-19.

Employees have urged the stategovernment to implement 50 percent attendance at the Secretariat onalternate days to check the spreadof the virus. Already states likeOdisha, Haryana and UP haveimposed curbs on the number ofofficers attending office.

Seven more modules tosimplify Dharani portalML MELLY MAITREYI n HYDERABAD

The much-awaited simplification ofDharani portal, presently besetwith dozens of problems impedingonline transactions relating landrecords, is likely to be taken upsoon, with the Cabinet SubCommittee appointed by ChiefMinister K Chandrasekhar Rao toexamine issues and complaintsreceived from various sections ofsociety submitting its recommen-dations.

Drive to removemisconceptions T

he Cabinet Sub Committeehas emphasised the need for

a targeted awareness campaignto remove misconceptionsamong the public. The panel,headed by Minister Harish Rao,said it was important to giveconfidence to people that theState government wouldaddress their concerns by

KCR likely to play the free edu, health cardsSNCN ACHARYULUn HYDERABAD

Providing free education andhealthcare will create a greaterimpact on the people than otherwelfare schemes. This was revealedby studies conducted by econom-ic experts and political strategists.

In united Andhra Pradesh, thelate Chief Minister, YS RajasekharReddy, introduced free educationand free healthcare as per theadvice of economic experts andpolitical strategists.

In the 2009 Assembly elections,these two schemes played a key rolein enabling YS Rajasekhar Reddy toretain power. After bifurcation in theresiduary state of Andhra Pradesh,

Chief Minister YS Jagan MohanReddy is following the footsteps ofhis father, the late Chief Minister, YSRajasekhar Reddy, by implementing

both the schemes effectively.Now Telangana Chief Minister

K. Chandrasekhar Rao is alsogoing the same way.

Studies have revealed that morethan half of the income of the poorand the middle class is goingtowards meeting the educationand healthcare needs of their fam-ilies. If the government providesfree education and healthcare it willreduce the financial burden on thepoor and the middle class.

Nowadays, even the poor areadmitting their children in Englishmedium private schools and it hasbecome a burden on them. Keepingthis in view AP Chief MinisterJagan took the decision to provideEnglish medium in all governmentschools to lessen the burden on thepoor and the middle class.

Secunderabad Club topave way for skyway?PNS n HYDERABAD

In what is seen as a blessing in dis-guise, the blueprint for rebuildingthe recently gutted SecunderabadClub will make room for setbacksthat would help the Shamirpet-JBSflyover project see the light of theday.

The Secunderabad Club wasgutted on Sunday. The club's pres-ident has since announced plans torebuild it. However, as thingsstand, in order to rebuild thestructure, the Club has to leave set-backs.

Highly placed sources told ThePioneer that leaving setbackswould help pave the way for theconstruction of a flyover, for whichnearly 130 feet area is needed at the

Club. Sources said that the Clubhad been a hindrance in the con-struction of the skyway.

This is just one move for the 19-km-long skyway. Additional landparcels need to be acquired fromdefence authorities for the con-struction of the skyway.

It may be mentioned here thatMinister K T Rama Rao has urgedthe Center to give up defence landsfor the construction two of themost-awaited skyways for the city,one from Patny to Kandlakoya viaSuchitra Junction and the other,from near the Gymkhana CricketStadium or Jubilee Bus Stand inSecunderabad towards the OuterRing Road.

2.5 persons testing Covidpositive every minute in TSPNS n HYDERABAD

The third wave of the corona pan-demic is spreading like a wildfireand if we go by official bulletinsaround two people are testingpositive for the coronavirus everyminute.

About 148 people tested positivefor the coronavirus every hour inTelangana on Wednesday.

The hourly average of new casesin Telangana touched a new high of3,557 on Wednesday. Nearly 2.5 per-

sons are testing positive for coron-avirus every minute. This is thehighest reported since June 2021.

30% people lose vaccine-inducedimmunity after 6 months, finds studyPNS n HYDERABAD

Vaccine immunity is not long-termand people need to take precau-tionary dose against Covid-19.Nearly 30% of vaccinated individ-uals lose vaccine-induced immuni-ty after six months These individ-uals are majorly above 40 yrs usu-ally with comorbidities such ashypertension and diabetes.

Results of a study conducted byAIG Hospitals suggest that withage, immunity waning is directlyproportional. This means thatyounger people have more sus-tained antibody levels than elder-ly population.

Noted gastroenterologist Dr GNageshwar Reddy said, "Our studyresults were at par with otherglobal studies where we foundthat almost 30% individuals hadantibody levels below protectiveimmunity level of 100 AU/ml after

6 months. These individuals weremajorly above 40 years with co-morbidities like hypertension anddiabetes. Out of the total, 6% didnot develop any immune protec-tion at all".

Researchers involved in thestudy measured the IgG anti-S1and IgG anti-S2 antibodies to

SARS-CoV-2 in those 1636 indi-viduals. Those who had antibod-ies levels less than 15 AU/mlwere considered antibody nega-tive, which means they didn'tdevelop any protective immunityagainst the virus.

KTR’s dig at Modi’s gaffePNS n HYDERABAD

TS IT Minister K T Rama Rao onWednesday alluded to PrimeMinister Narendra Modi's gaffeduring his special video addressto the World Economic Forum'sonline Davos Agenda 2022 sum-mit on January 17.

The PM's 10-second silenceduring the address, attributed toa teleprompter failure by someand event managers' interjectionby others, triggered politicaldebates and had the social mediadivided with comments andmemes.

In a tweet, KTR said, "There areVisionaries and then there are theTeleVisionaries".

Security enhancedat BJP office in HydPNS n HYDERABAD

Security at the Telangana state BJPoffice here was beefed up ahead ofthe Republic Day and followingsecurity alert from the Intelligenceagencies, official sources said onWednesday. Additional police per-sonnel were deployed at the stateBJP office in view of the RepublicDay and the party officials werealso asked to remain vigilant ofstrangers entering the buildingpremises, a police official said.

Air India cancels 8 USflights; DGCA workingto overcome situationPNS n NEW DELHI

Air India cancelled eight flights onIndia-US routes from Wednesdayonwards due to deployment of 5Ginternet in North America whichcould interfere with aircraft'snavigation systems.

Meanwhile, DGCA chief ArunKumar told PTI that the Indianaviation regulator was working "inclose coordination with our car-riers to overcome the situation"that has arisen due to 5G inter-net's deployment in the US.

US aviation regulator FederalAviation Administration (FAA)had on January 14 said that "5Ginterference with the aircraft'sradio altimeter could preventengine and braking systems fromtransitioning to landing mode,which could prevent an aircraftfrom stopping on the runway".

Altimeter measures height ofthe aircraft above the ground.

5G SCARE UNDECLARED LOCKDOWN

Studies have revealed thatmore than half of the income

of the poor and the middleclass is going towards

meeting the education andhealthcare needs of their

families. If the governmentprovides free education andhealthcare it will reduce thefinancial burden on the poor

and the middle class.

TS enhances DA by 10.01% for govt employeesPNS n HYDERABAD

The Telangana State governmenthas enhanced the dearnessallowance (DA) for governmentemployees by 10.01 per cent --from the present 7.28 per cent to17.29 per cent of the basic pay withmonetary benefit from July, 2021.

As per the GO passed by

Finance Secretary RamakrishnaRao, this increase subsumes theinstalments of Dearness Reliefarising on 1.1.2020, 1.7.2020 and1.1.2021. The Dearness Relief forthe period from 1.1.2020 till30.6.2021 will remain at 7.28%only.

The GO Ms 4 dated 19January2020 is applicable for, 'The

employees who retired from serv-ice on or after 1.7.2018 and aredrawing pension as per the RevisedPay Scales, 2020. The employeeswho retired before 1.7.2018 andwhose pension was consolidated asper Government Orders G.O Ms55 dated 11.06.2021.

Many of those absent areeither genuinely downwith Covid-19 or claim tohave come in contact witha person who had testedpositive for the virus.

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hyderabad 02HYDERABAD | THURSDAY | JANUARY 20, 2022

EGG

RATES

HYDERABAD 425

VIJAYAWADA 447

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(IN HYDERABAD)

ML MELLY MAITREYI

n HYDERABAD

The first-ever 400 KV GasInsulated Substation construct-ed at a cost of Rs 1,400 croreat Raidurgam will be inaugu-rated soon by Chief Minister K.Chandrasekhar Rao.

Energy Minister JagadishReddy who visited the sub-sta-tion along with Transco andGenco Chairman andManaging Director D.Prabhakar Rao and TSSPDCLCMD Raghuma Reddy andother officials here onWednesday said they werestrengthening the power infra-structure keeping in mind therequirements of Hyderabadfor the next 30 to 40 years.

The Minister who planted

saplings at the sub-station dur-ing his visit said that in linewith the growth of Hyderabad,power infrastructure was beingupgraded in all areas of the city.

The 400 KV substation atRaidurgam with its first of itskind monopole towers willboost electricity supply to thewest zone housing the IT cor-ridor from Gachibowli, HiTechCity, Kondapur and Madhapurareas.

The monopole towers wouldsave space and can be put uprapidly compared to conven-tional lattice towers and cancarry high voltage electricpower lines, officials said.

The Minister said that antic-ipating the huge demand forpower from the IT corridor incoming days, the TS Transco

had constructed a400/220/132/33 KV substa-tion at Raidurgam and a con-nected network near the bio-diversity park.

He said the specialty of the

Gas Insulated Substation isthat it can be set up on fiveacres while a conventionalsubstation would require 100acres. The substation atRayadurgam would providebulk power to various loadcentres.

A 400 KV 3-km long under-ground cable has also beenprovided from GachibowliORR junction to Raidurgamsubstation.

The work supervised byTransco was carried out fastand the substation was com-pleted overcoming severalchallenges including the pan-demic.

The substation will help insupplying another 2,000 MWof power to the city, theMinister said.

CM to open 400 KV RaidurgamGas Insulated Substation

Nitin Gadkari announcesMedak Siddipet Highway PNS n HYDERABAD

Union Minister Nitin Gadkarion Wednesday announcedthe sanction of widening andimprovement of the existingcarriageway between theSiddipet section at a cost of Rs882.18 crore. Gadkarirevealed the news in a post onTwitter. BJP MLARaghunandan Rao thankedthe Union Minister for givingsanction to the project.

It may be mentioned here

that the other road projectswhich also got approval are:up-gradation to double lane(with paved shoulders) ofMacherla to Dachepalli sec-tion of NH-167 AD inAndhra Pradesh with a bud-get outlay of Rs 403.22 crore,widening of existing roadfrom the

intermediate lane and/ordouble lane to quadruple lanebetween Rakholi-Khadoli-Velugam section of NH-848 Ain Union Territory of Dadra

Nagar Haveli and Daman andDiu with a budget outlay of Rs163.06 crore, construction ofa bypass to Nayagarh townfrom NH-57 including landacquisition in the state ofOdisha has been sanctionedwith a budget outlay of Rs300.33 crore and constructionof bypass road to Gudiyathamtown including LA and shift-ing of NH-234 (Mangalore-Villupuram Road) (New NH-75) in Tamil Nadu with a bud-get outlay of Rs 221.03 crore.

2.5 personstesting Covidpositive...Continued from page 1

Around 1.11 lakh tests wereconducted on Wednesday.The GHMC has been record-ing the highest number ofcases.

On Wednesday 1,474 caseswere detected, that is, oneperson is testing positiveevery minute in the GHMCarea. Most of the cases arereinfection cases.

At present six of the 33 dis-tricts are reporting more than100 cases namely GHMC,Medchal Malkajgiri,Hanumakonda, RangaReddy, Sangareddy andKhammam districts.

With the Telangana HealthDepartment declaring thatCovid-19 cases will increase,the hourly average is going toincrease.

Seven more modules to...Continued from page 1

The Cabinet Sub Committeehas made several recommen-dations for simplifying theportal by adding modules forredressal of various kinds ofgrievances. The Committeereportedly suggested sevenmore modules to address 20main land-related issues.

The Cabinet SubCommittee, headed byMinister T Harish Rao andcomprising several Ministersas members, examined all therepresentations received frompeople as well as organisationslike CREDAI and TREDA,and made several suggestionsto simplify the Dharani portaland to resolve any kind ofland-related issue.

It is learnt that the CabinetSub Committee submitted itsreport to the State Cabinet,which met on Monday. TheCabinet is believed to havedeliberated on the recommen-dations for about four hours.The government has apparent-ly given its concurrence tobring some more modules toaddress issues pertaining toerroneous inclusion of pattadarlands as government lands,correction of errors in thename of pattadar, changes per-taining to land use, land cate-gory, correction of complaintsrelated to missing survey num-bers, mistakes in entry ofextent of land, and allowingmore than one buyer and sell-er in transactions etc.

Two of the seven new mod-ules have already been broughtinto use. The other modulesthat are being considered bythe government are for cor-recting errors in the names ofpattadars that were wronglyuploaded in Dharani. Thoseseeking correction in nameswould be given time to applyand the District Collectorswould be allowed to correctthem online.

In some land revenuerecords, pattadar lands wererecorded as 'Lavani' pattas,

while in other areas they wererecorded as Bhoodan/endow-ment lands. A module will beintroduced to carry out correc-tions where wrong entrieswere made. An exercise is onto correct if patta lands wererecorded as government landsby oversight.

A major complaint that hascaused distress to many landowners relates to missing sur-vey numbers. Several surveynumbers, sub-divisions weremissing in Dharani portal andon this issue alone, 34,666complaints were received bythe department. During landrecord upgradation pro-gramme, pattadar passbookswere not issue to these missingsub-divisions and survey num-bers. For this, a special mod-ule has been recommended by

the Cabinet Sub Committee.At present, Dharani portal

allows only one individual tosell or buy lands. There is aneed to update the software soas to allow more than one per-son for land transactions.There is room now forappointing a representative asspecial power of attorney andallow purchase. At present,the person purchasing the landshould be present in person. Inview of representations fromNon Resident Indians, the SubCommittee suggested that afacility be provided to appointa representative as specialpower of attorney. Such a pro-vision was allowed under theRegistration Act. For this too,necessary changes would haveto be made in the Dharani soft-ware.

Drive to remove misconceptions Continued from page 1

allowing changes and corrections in the data uploaded on Dharaniwith due diligence. Towards this end, it recommended the settingup of Dharani Help Desks manned by trained revenue officials sothat they could address the concerns of people. The governmentwants District Collectors to be tasked with creating awareness inthis connection at zilla parishad and municipal meetings. Aseparate module should be introduced that would track complaintsreceived every day, action taken, and the number of applicationsrejected, citing reasons, the panel said. A module should bebrought to show lands in agency areas as hereditary lands and theSub Committee made recommendations to make changes in themodule to reject transactions made prior to Dharani mentioningreasons. Out of over one lakh applications received from acrossthe State for removal of the lands included in the 'prohibited list' oflands by mistake, 84,949 were disposed of by District Collectors.The Collectors visited 6,327 villages by accepting the complaintssuo motu and removed 1,81, 521 sub division numbers from theprohibited list pertaining to 1,74,661 acres. The Cabinet SubCommittee said a new module should be developed to allowCollectors to include lands afresh in the prohibited list whenrequired. The other major recommendations include studying thethree writ petitions filed in the High Court, utilizing services ofexperts in resolving software issues, collection of stipulated feewhile accepting applications for resolution of Dharani-relatedissues, collecting biometric details of applicant, uploading ofrelated documents. The Collector should examine the documentssubmitted by the applicant and, if satisfied, then he should issueorders and they should be included in the Dharani and for this aData Management module be made available in Dharani portal, theSub Committee said.

TS enhances DAby 10.01% for...Continued from page 1

The Government also orderedthe revision of Dearness Reliefsanctioned to the state govern-ment pensioners, who aredrawing pension in the RevisedPay Scales, 2015 from 38.776%to 51.876% of the basic pensionwith monetary benefit from 1stof July, 2021. This increase sub-sumes the instalments ofDearness Relief arising on1.1.2020, 1.7.2020 and 1.1.2021.The Dearness Relief for theperiod from 1.1.2020 till30.6.2021 shall remain at38.776% only.

The government ordered therevision of Dearness Relief from17% to 28% of basic pension,with monetary benefit from1st July, 2021 in respect of thepensioners who retired whiledrawing UGC/AICTE PayScales, 2016. This increase sub-sumes the instalments ofDearness Relief arising on1.1.2020, 1.7.2020 and 1.1.2021.The Dearness Relief for the peri-od from 1.1.2020 till 30.6.2021will remain at 17% only.

The government alsoordered revision of DearnessRelief from 164% to 189% ofbasic pension with monetarybenefit from 1st July, 2021 inrespect of the pensioners whoretired while drawingUGC/AICTE Pay Scales, 2006and whose pension was notconsolidated as per UGC PayScales, 2016.

This increase subsumes theinstalments of Dearness Reliefarising on 1.1.2020, 1.7.2020

and 1.1.2021. The DearnessRelief for the period from1.1.2020 till 30.6.2021 willremain at 164% only.

As per the order, theGovernment also ordered therevision of Dearness Relief inrespect of Judicial Officerswho retired while drawingRevised Judicial Pay Scales,2006, from 164% to 189% ofthe basic Pension with mone-tary benefit from 1st July, 2021.This increase subsumes theadditional installments aris-ing on 1.1.2020, 1.7.2020 and1.1.2021 and the rate ofDearness Relief for the periodfrom 1.1.2020 till 30.6.2021 willremain at 164% only.

The revised DA/DR wouldbe paid to the employees andpensioners from the month ofJanuary, 2022 payable inFebruary, 2022.

The DA payments weredelayed for two years becauseof Covid-19 pandemic. As thepresent financial situation hasimproved, the State Cabinet hastaken a decision to pay threepending instalments of DA atonce.

The DA arrears from July 1,2021 to December 31, 2021would be credited to theGeneral Provident Fundaccount of the respectiveemployees.

For pensioners, the DAarrears from July 1, 2021 toDecember 31, 2021 would bepaid in six equated monthlyinstalments starting from April,2022 payable in the month ofMay, 2022.

30% people losevaccine-induced...Continued from page 1

Further, it was estimated thatantibody level of 100 AU/ml isthe minimum level for protec-tion against the virus, whichmeans any individual withless than 100 AU/ml anti-body level is susceptible toinfection.

One of the most importantresults of the study showedthat people above 40 yearswith co-morbidities likehypertension and diabeteshave significantly less antibodyresponse after six months ofgetting fully vaccinated.

Therefore, individuals above40 years with diabetes andhypertension of both gendersmay be at a higher risk ofSARS-CoV-2 infection and

these individuals should beprioritized for a booster doseafter 6 months.

"At present, the 9-monthgap for prevention dose ben-efits 70% of the populationwho can retain enough anti-body levels beyond 6 months.However, considering the scaleof our country, the 30% peo-ple, especially those with co-morbid conditions like hyper-tension, diabetes etc., who aremore prone to develop infec-tion after 6 months of gettingfully vaccinated, should also beconsidered for the preventiondose," Dr. Reddy added.

Of the 1,636 study partici-pants, 93% (1519/1636) hadreceived Covishield, 6.2%received Covaxin (n=102), and<1% received Sputnik (n= 13).

Air India cancels...Continued from page 1

The band on which altimeterworks is close to that onwhich 5G system works.

Total three carriers --American Airlines, DeltaAirlines and Air India --currently operate directflights between India andthe US.

American Airlines andDelta Airlines did notrespond to PTI's queriesregarding this matter.

Air India stated on Twitterthat it won't be operate eightIndia-US flights onWednesday "due to deploy-ment of the 5G communica-tions in the US".

These eight Air Indiaflights were: Delhi-New York,New York-Delhi, Delhi-Chicago, Chicago-Delhi,Delhi- San Francisco, SanFrancisco-Delhi, Delhi-Newark and Newark-Delhi.

KCR likely...Continued from page 1

The AP government addedseveral diseases to help thepoor and the middle class tothe YSR Arogyasri schemewhich provides free healthcare.

In Telangana too, the TRSgovernment is implementingthe Arogyasri scheme. NowKCR has decided to introduceEnglish medium in govern-ment schools like the AP gov-ernment. Once the govern-ment introduces English medi-um in government schoolseffectively the poor and themiddle class will admit theirchildren in governmentschools instead of private insti-tutions which are mintingmoney at the cost of the poorand the middle class. Sourcessaid the strategists advisingthe TRS had asked KCR tointroduce English medium ingovernment schools.

Secunderabad Club to... Continued from page 1

The two skyways were pro-posed in 2017 at cost of Rs5,000 crore, though there hashardly been any progress

since then. The aim is to decongest

traff ic in parts ofSecunderabad, provide has-sle-free movement in locali-ties fal l ing under the

Secunderabad CantonmentBoard, and ensure seamlesscommute for people enteringand exiting the city via theNagpur Highway andSiddipet.

‘Multilateral exercise Milan's 2022 edition expected to be largest’PNS n NEW DELHI

Biennial multilateral exerciseMilan's 2022 edition is expect-ed to be the largest one withlikely participation of navies of45-plus countries, the IndianNavy said on Wednesday.

Final planning conferencefor Milan 2022 was held onWednesday at New Delhi inhybrid format -- participantsattending virtually as well asphysically -- said the IndianNavy on Twitter.

Milan's 2022 edition is

scheduled to be held atVisakhapatnam from February25 to March 4, the Navy men-tioned.

Theme of Milan's 2022 edi-tion would be 'Camaraderie-Cohesion-Collaboration', itnoted.

Milan is a biennial multilat-eral event hosted by the IndianNavy since 1995.

"This 2022 edition of Milanis expected to be the largestwith likely participation ofmore than 45 countries," itmentioned.

KTR’s dig at Modi’s...Continued from page 1

Opposition parties had allegedthat the reason for the disruptionwas a teleprompter failure.Revanth Reddy, TPCC chiefsaid that as always Rahulji'sprediction about PM has cometrue that he can't even read fromteleprompter and on Twittertermed "This is embarrassing forall Indians #TeleprompterPM".

However, Alt News, professedfact-checking website, foundthat the reason why PM Modistopped speaking was because ofan interjection from the teammanaging the event. Alt News

said, "On WEF's YouTube chan-nel, at the exact moment whenPM Modi looked to his left,someone who was evidentlymanaging the event from theevent management team sug-gests that the PM should ask ifeveryone has joined in or not. Avoice in Hindi addresses PMModi, "Sir, ask them once ifeveryone has joined… It is onlyafter this that the PM enquireswhether his speech and theinterpreter's voice can be heard.Thus, the reason why PM Modistopped speaking was because ofan interjection from the teammanaging the event."

Security enhanced at BJP office in HydContinued from page 1Asked on the security alert, thesources said it could be gener-al in nature, adding security

was also enhanced at vitalinstallations including theinternational airport hereahead of the Republic Day.

Employees, teachers willrevolt if GO 317 is notwithdrawn, warns Revanth

PNS n HYDERABAD

TPCC President RevanthReddy on Wednesday accusedChief Minister K.Chandrashekhar Rao ofadopting a devilish attitudeagainst employees and teach-ers through GO 317 to pursuehis divisive politics.

He warned that the nearlyfour lakh employees andteachers would revolt againstthe KCR government if it didnot withdraw the controversialGO immediately.

He was addressing a meet-ing at Gandhi Bhavan on theoccasion of Teachers' Unionleader G. HarshvardhanReddy and his followers re-joining the Congress.

The TPCC President saidthat GO 317 has been causingimmense pain to employeesand teachers. He said thatteachers, who were supposedto go to schools to teach chil-dren, were forced to besiegePragathi Bhavan. They arebeing arrested and humiliatedon the streets by the KCR gov-

ernment.He accused KCR of playing

divisive politics by creating arift between seniors andjuniors. The TRS governmentis wrongly treating locals asnon-locals to harass employ-ees and teachers.

He said if KCR continues towork against the interests ofTelangana, the four lakhemployees would revoltagainst him. He said that GO317 has pushed the employeesand teachers into darkness.Instead of focusing on theirduties, they are forced to livein a state of uncertainty, hesaid.

Revanth ridiculedTelangana BJP PresidentSanjay's protest against GO317. He pointed out that theBJP government at the Centrewas a partner-in-crime withthe TRS government in bring-ing this controversial GO.

He said the order wascleared by the Union Cabinetheaded by Prime MinisterNarendra Modi and it alsowas cleared by the President.Therefore, both the TRS andthe BJP are responsible for thesufferings of the employeesand teachers through GO317.

He said if the BJP was seri-ously against the GO, then itcould have got it squashed bymaking a representation to thePresident.

The TPCC chief announcedthat the Congress would soonlaunch a massive movementdemanding job notifications.He condemned the police forblocking all the programmestaken up by the Congress.

Lata Mangeshkar isstable, says spokespersonPNS n MUMBAI

Singing legend LataMangeshkar, who was admit-ted in the ICU of a city hos-pital here, is stable, herspokesperson said onWednesday.

The 92-year-old singer test-ed positive for coronaviruswith mild symptoms and wasadmitted to the Breach CandyHospital in south Mumbai on

January 9."Lata Di is stable. Will

come home after the doctorsgive the nod," AnushaSrinivsan Iyer, the spokesper-son for Mangeshkar, said in astatement.

Two days ago,Mangeshkar's condition wasreportedly said to be deteri-orating and the spokespersonhad then dubbed the news asfalse.

Courts concerned with decision-makingprocess in judicial review proceedings: SCPNS n NEW DELHI

Courts are concerned withthe decision-making process,not the decision itself, injudicial review proceedings,the Supreme Court said onWednesday.

A bench of Justices K MJoseph and P S Narsimhamade this observation whiledismissing an appeal filed bya police constable against thePunjab and Haryana highcourt order junking his plea

seeking retrospective promo-tion.

The high court had dis-missed his plea on the groundthat such selection is not amatter of right.

“In judicial review pro-ceedings, the Courts are con-cerned with the decision-making process and not thedecision itself,” the benchsaid.

The constable's grievancein the plea was that he shouldhave been promoted in 2004

itself and the delay inappointing him in 2008 is ille-gal and arbitrary.

The appeal contended thatthe Inspector General ofPolice (IG) has no power tointerfere with the recom-mendat ion of theSuperintendent of Police, andIG does not act as the appel-late authority.

The apex court said it cannever be contended that mererecommendation of the SP atthe initial stage is sufficient to

claim a right for promotion.The apex court said the

contention of the petitioneris that the power of the IG is“not discret ionar y butmandatory” is also incorrectbecause rules clearly empow-er the IG to exercise thepower of scrutiny and grantapproval.

“The Single Judge as well asthe Division Bench for goodreasons refrained from goinginto the individual compara-tive merit,” the bench said.

hyderabad 03HYDERABAD | THURSDAY | JANUARY 20, 2022

PNS n HYDERABAD

The Aramghar-NehruZoological Park f lyover,stretching 4.08 km, will beready by the end of March2023, said Chief SecretarySomesh Kumar after inspect-ing the construction site. Heasked officials to speed upconstruction of the flyover.

The flyover, which is the

longest one, is being builtunder the Strategic RoadDevelopment Program(SRDP) at a cost of Rs 636crore.

Engineers said the construc-tion of the flyover was beinghampered by the need toacquire some more propertiesout of the 163 properties thathave to be acquired for con-structing the flyover.

Somesh directed officials tocoordinate with the powerdistribution company, biodi-versity and the water board toensure that construction of theflyover is carried out withoutany hindrance.

During the CS’s visit,Charminar ZonalCommissioner Ashok Samrat,S.E. Dattu Pant and other offi-cials were also present.

Aramghar-Nehru Zoological Parkflyover to be ready by March 2023

PNS n HYDERABAD

The Greater HyderabadMunicipal Corporation(GHMC) and Commissioner& Director of MunicipalAdministration (CDMA) arein the process of setting up apet registration mobile appand it will likely be launchednext month. The users of theapp can register their pets byuploading basic details of theirfurry companions.

Special Chief SecretaryArvind Kumar said in a tweetthat the focus of the app willbe on ease and convenience.The GHMC has alreadymoved pet registrations onlinebut the app will furtherstreamline the process andmake it easier for pet owners.Until a few years ago, theprocess was entirely offlineand the pet owners had tophysically visit the municipaloffice to register their pets.

GHMC to come out with petregistration app next month

PNS n HYDERABAD

The Smart City Living Lab ofIIITH, the Government ofTelangana and the NationalInstitute of Urban Management(NIUM) have announced thethree winners of the WaterChallenge.

Oceo Water Pvt. Ltd wasselected winner for its AI-enabled hydrological analyticsproduced using satellite photosthat will assist public utilities inaccurately detecting water leak-ages in their water supply net-works without having to bephysically present on theground.

The IIITH’s Smart WaterMeter Solutions has provideda viable replacement for expen-sive digital water metres as alow-cost retrofit for the digiti-sation of analogue watermetres.

Kritsnam Technologies Pvt.Ltd’s water flow meter can beused for monitoring bulk watersupply. This is an inline ultra-sonic flow metre which is anexcellent tool for monitoring

water flow in pipelines in realtime.

The contestants had todevelop solutions for monitor-ing non-revenue water (waterrevenue lost due to unaccount-ed water, pipe-breakage or lostin tanks or through pilferage,etc.), water quality and quan-tity monitoring, wastewaterindustrial/sewerage etc andrainwater, water drains andopen innovation.

The selected start-ups weregiven the opportunity to pre-sent their ideas to Smart CityTechnology MNCs and SmartCity officials during the two-month programme.

After comprehensive screen-ing, the panellists from acade-mia (IIITH), government enti-ties like the Ministry ofElectronics and InformationTechnology (MEITY), theHyderabad Metropolitan WaterSupply and Sewerage Board(HMWSSB), the NationalInstitute of Urban Management(NIUM), commercial consul-tants from World ResourcesInstitute (WRI), and the tech-

nology partners, EuropeanBusiness & Technology Center(EBTC), shortlisted three final-ists.The three winning start-ups deployed their solutions atthe smart campus of IIITH andwill be given an opportunity todo a PoC in one of the districtsin Telangana which will be sup-ported by NIUM and HMDA.

“The Smart City Living Labis an attempt to discover cut-ting edge innovations with

smart city use cases that canbenefit from research and thenetwork of partners,” saidRamesh Loganathan, Professor,Co-Innovation and HeadResearch/Innovation Outreach.

In December 2020, theSmart City Living Lab openedits doors. The Smart Campusis being built up, as well as thedata lake for live sensor data.Two roundtable sessions witha few Smart City CEOs and

other thought leaders havebeen organised. The LivingLab will assist start-ups inimproving their products andgaining market access.

The Smart City ResearchCenter at IIITH has been set upwith support from MEITY(GoI), Smart City Mission andthe Government of Telangana.

The research center includesa Living Lab, that is, a setupwith support from EBTC and

Amsterdam Innovation Arena.The Smart Campus at IIITH

Smart City Research Center hasthe following objectives.

There is a huge push forsmart cities in India under theSmart Cities Mission, a newinitiative of the Government ofIndia to drive economic growthand improve quality of life byenabling local developmentand harnessing technology.

In this ambitious project, 100cities are being covered for fiveyears with a budget of Rs 100crore per city per year.

The goal of the Living Labplan is to create an urban areaenhancing the three valuedomains of social, economicand environmental.The devel-oped Living Lab shall enablethe following: Get expertise inIoT for Smart Cities-relatedresearch and deployment, gen-erate data for research, createa viable innovation anddemand-driven ecosystem inuniversities, and provide a testbench for IoT-based SmartCity implementations for start-ups as well as big companies.

IIITH Smart City Living Lab picks water challenge winners

PNS n HYDERABAD

Education Minister SabitaIndra Reddy expressed happi-ness over Chief Minister KChandrashekar Rao decision tointroduce English medium ingovt schools from the next aca-demic year and termed it as`historical'.

The Minister spoke to presspersons at her chamber onWednesday and stated thatthe students' future depend onEnglish medium in schools.There has been a demandfrom the parents of poor andmiddle income sections forEnglish medium governmentschools. Though the privateschools are not maintaining

proper standards, people sendtheir children there as theyteach in English, she com-mented.

In the first phase, Englishmedium will be introduced in35 per cent of governmentschools from class 1 to 10 andthe system will be implement-ed in the state in a phased man-ner. It will also reduce thesupremacy by private schoolsin education sector, she said.

Sabita Indra Reddy clarifiedthat along with English medi-um, Telugu medium will alsobe continued and the studentscan choose their medium. ACabinet sub-committee wasset up to study issues likeshortage of teachers, basicamenities and providing train-ing to teachers in English.About 20,000 teachers are

already trained in English byAzim Premji Foundation andothers will also be trained, shesaid.

She further stated that thecomments made by oppositionleaders on English medium arenot correct. Instead of givingvaluable suggestions, the oppo-sition leaders are expressingunnecessary doubts. It is notproper to them to politicise theissue, the minister stated.

The Minister also statedthat Mana Vooru, ManaPranalika programme is awonderful one and it will beimplemented in 4 schools as apilot project and governmentis spending Rs 7,289 cr for theproject.

Minister lauds CM's decision onEnglish medium in govt schools

PNS n HYDERABAD

Education Minister SabitaIndra Reddy directed theofficials to prepare neces-sary plans to upgrade the100-year old Women’sCollege at Koti in the city asState University of Women.

In this connection, it maybe noted that the issue relat-ing to setting up of separateuniversity for women wasraised at the recent Cabinetmeeting and Chief MinisterK Chandrashekar Rao hadagreed for the proposal askedthe minister to prepare pro-posals. IT and IndustriesMinister K T Rama Rao alsolater stated that the 100-yearold Women’s College at Kotiwill be developed as univer-sity of women. Followingthis, Education Minister helda review meeting at her officein the city on Tuesday anddiscussed the issue with sev-eral officials who attendedthe meeting. She asked theofficials to prepare plans toprovide necessary teachingand non-teaching staff, basicamenities, arrangements formodern courses and other

facilities needed for develop-ing the college as university.She also asked the officials toform internal committees forpreparing proposals and toget clearances. The compre-hensive proposals have to besubmitted to the governmentat the earliest, she said. The

Minister also discussed thename of the new university.Two names – R aniRudramadevi Mahi laUniversity or Telangana StateUniversity of Women(TSUW) – are under consid-eration and final decisionwill be taken later.

The Women’s College atKoti is spread over 42 acresand presently about 4,000students are pursuing variouscourses at the college. If it isconverted into university, thenumber of students will beincreased and also teachingstaff.

Prepare plans for Women’s University: Minister

PNS n HYDERABAD

Anindita Sinha, Head,Corporate Communications,L&T Metro Rail (Hyderabad)Limited, released the NewYear calendar of The Pioneer,English daily in the city onWednesday. On the occasion,she said, My heartiest con-gratulations to The Pioneer,

English daily, one of India'slegendary newspapers. Withhigh journalistic credibility, ithas been publishing unbiasednews reports and balancedstories directly connected topeople, touching the lives ofevery stratum of society. Mybest wishes for its great suc-cess in Hyderabad andbeyond.

L&T Metro Rail officialcommends The Pioneer

PNS n HYDERABAD

Animal Husbandry andCinematography MinisterTalasani Srinivas Yadav direct-ed the officials to take steps tomake use of government landfor the benefit of poorer sectionsin the society. The Ministerheld a review meeting with offi-cials at his chamber in AnimalHusbandry Director' office atMasabtank in the city onWednesday. HyderabadCollector Sarman, Medchal-Malkajgiri district CollectorHarish and other officials werepresent at the meeting. He saidthat several poor people havebeen living at Ramgopalpetdivision in Sanathnagar,Vengalrao Nagar, Syamalakuntain the Sanathnagar Assemblyconstituency for several years.

Anindita Sinha, Head, Corporate Communications, L&T Metro Rail (Hyderabad) Limited

PNS n HYDERABAD

Hyderabad MetropolitanDevelopment Authority(HMDA) task force officialscontinued their demolitionwork against unauthorisedbuildings and illegal struc-tures in the city for the third

day. On Wednesday, officialsdemolished structures thatwere over 600 yards. 10 illegalbuildings, including 5-storeybuildings and 2-acre ware-houses, were demolished aspart of the special drive.

In the last 3 days, task forceteams took action against 33

illegal structures. The demolition work on

Wednesday included two ille-gal structures covering an areaof 2.25 acres in the Tumkuntamunicipality as well as an ille-gal structure covering an areaof 1.20 acres in Shamshabadmunicipality.

Demotion of illegal structurescontinued on 3rd day in city

PNS n HYDERABAD

Continuing its rise, the dailyCOVID-19 caseload inTelangana crossed the 3,000-mark on Wednesday with3,557 infections, and tookthe tally to 7,18,196 while thedeath toll rose to 4,065 withthree more fatalities.The Staterecorded 2,983 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday.TheGreater Hyderabad MunicipalCorporation (GHMC)accounted for the highestnumber of fresh cases with1,474 followed by MedchalMalkajgiri (321) and RangaReddy (275) districts, a bul-letin said while providingdetails as of 5.30 PM today.Atotal of 1,773 people recov-ered from the infection dur-ing the day. The cumulativenumber of recoveries till datewas 6,89,878.The active case-load stood at 24,253, the bul-letin said.A total of 1,11,178samples were tested todayand the total number exam-ined till date was 3,09,28,740.

Telangana sees3,557 newCOVID-19 cases,three deaths

PNS n HYDERABAD

Hyderabad and its surround-ings witnessed several chainsnatching incidents onWednesday, which includesone futile attempt. Three ofthese incidents were in theCyberabad police limits.

According to the police,chain snatchers struck at twoplaces in Petbasheerabad andsnatched gold chains fromwomen. At RaghavendraNagar, they targetedAnuradha, who was purchas-ing vegetables at a roadsidepushcart. When she resisted,she was dragged for somedistance by the assailants andshe fell on the road. Thesnatchers managed to pull offone of the two gold chainsfrom her.

Minutes later, snatchersstruck at a nearby colony andsnatched a gold chain weigh-ing around four tolas fromanother woman, Varalakshmi,who was walking on the road.

Chain snatchers also madea futile attempt to snatch agold chain from a woman,Umarani, at BhagyalaxmiColony. However, she man-aged to raise an alarm forcingthe man to flee from the spot.The police suspect members ofsame gang might be behind allthese incidents.

In the Hyderabad Policelimits, unidentified personssnatched gold chains fromtwo women. In the first case,a scooter-borne snatcherflicked a gold chain weighingtwo tolas from a woman atSuman Gardens Road inTukaramgate around 1 pm.The woman, aged around 60years, was walking on theroad when the offender camefrom behind and snatchedthe gold chain before escaping.

In the nearby Marredpallypolice station limits, the chainsnatcher fled with a gold chainweighing around five tolasfrom a woman in the after-noon.

Chain-snatchers strikeat different places

Women’s College at Koti in Hyderabad

Construct 2BHKhouses for thepoor: Minister

PNS n HYDERABAD

The Dabeerpura police havearrested a social activist, SyedSaleem of the old city onWednesday, on charges ofmorphing photographs ofAIMIM floor leaderAkbaruddin Owaisi and formaking derogatory commentsagainst a particular commu-nity. A complaint was lodgedat the Dabeerpura police sta-tion by a person who had stat-ed that Saleem, who is also aYoutuber, morphed a photo-graph of the legislator andposted derogatory commentstargeting a particular commu-nity. On the basis of the com-plaint, the police had bookeda case under Section 153A and469 of Indian Penal Code.

Man held formorphing photo ofAkbaruddin Owaisi

PNS n HYDERABAD

Those who seek the facilityhave to apply in advance to getexoneration Hyderabad

According to some provi-sions announced by the stategovernment, the students whowant to appear for SSC publicexamination can get exonera-tion (relaxation) in the age.Presently, students who havecompleted 14 years of age areeligible to appear for SSC pub-lic examinations.

However, certain provisionsallow the students to write theexaminations though they havenot completed 14 years of age.Accordingly, students can getage relaxation (exoneration) upto 2 years. In such cases, thosewho have completed 12 yearsof age can write the exam aftergetting exoneration.

The schedule for paying ofexamination fee to appear forSSC public examinations-2022was released recently and stu-dents are allowed to pay exam-ination fee up to March 3. Asper present rules, the students

who have born before 31-8-2007 are eligible to write theexams. That means that theyhave to complete 14 years ofage.

However, for the students ingovernment schools, the head-master of the school can exon-erate up to one-and- half yearsand the Director ofGovernment Examinationscan exonerate up to two years.Similarly, for the students inprivate schools, the DistrictEducational Officer (DEO)can exonerate up to one-and-

half years and DirectorGovernment Examinations upto 2 years. That means stu-dents, if they complete 12years of age can appear theexaminations if they get clear-ance for age shortage.

The students who want toavail age relaxation facilityhave to apply by paying

Rs 300 in the form of chal-lan. They have to submit med-ical certificate and proof fordate of birth to get the relax-ation, officials in the SSCBoard say.

‘Students can get age relaxationto appear for SSC exam ‘

04HYDERABAD | THURSDAY | JANUARY 20, 2022

PNS n WARANGAL

Women and Tribal WelfareMinister Satyavathi Rathodestated that the state MahilaCommission has been strivingto solve the problems beingfaced by women and laudedthe functioning of the com-mission during the last oneyear. She hoped that the com-mission would continue itsefforts for the welfare ofwomen and as per the wishesof Chief Minister KChandrashekar Rao.

The Minister participatedin a meeting organised tomark the first anniversary ofMahila Commission held atBuddha Bhavan here onWednesday. She congratulat-ed the commission ChairmanSunita Reddy and its members

for their hard work. As aminister and senior leader, theservices of Sunita Reddy willbe useful to the women, shesaid.The Minister said that`She teams', Bharosa centresand other facilities were

arranged for the protection ofwomen in the state. ChiefMinister strove to strengthenwomen on par with men indevelopment, she said andlauded the efficient function-ing of the Mahila Commission

in solving women's problems. At the Cabinet meeting,

when the issue of opening aseparate university for womenwas raised, Chief Minister KChandrashekar Rao immedi-ately accepted for it and

directed the officials to sendproposals, the Minister point-ed out and expressed thanksto the Chief Minister.Sathyavathi Rathode releasedthe annual report of theMahila Commission and

released a CD of songs on itsactivities. WomenCommission members, offi-cials and representatives ofnon-government organisa-tions participated in the meet-ing.

Minister lauds efforts of Mahila Commission inTelangana‘Naturopathic medicine gaining popularity’ PNS n MULUGU

State Minister for Tribal,Women and Child Welfare,Satyavathi Rathore, said

that despite the advancement ofscience and technology, theimportance and specialty ofnaturopathy in tribal and tribalchildren is increasing day byday. The popularity of thisnaturopathic medicine hasfurther increased during the

corona, and it is hoped that suchmedicine will be properlyrecognised and preserved forfuture generations. MinisterSatyavathi Rathod participatedand addressed a nationalworkshop on Tribal TraditionalMedicine held on Wednesdaythrough an online conference.Itis said that there are no sideeffects due to the healingproperties of the herbs found innature, so it is now gaining

popularity. Depending on theforest products found in theforest, it is said that people havelived for hundreds of years bygetting natural medicine whendisaster strikes, and have livedfor hundreds of years with goodliving standards. The meetingwas attended by officials of theCentral Tribal AffairsDepartment, officials, andexperts of the State TribalWelfare Department.

Minister for Tribal Welfare Satyavathi Rathode speaking at a meeting in Warangalon Wednesday

PNS n SIDDIPET

The medical facilities provid-ed by the government, espe-cially the KCR kits intro-duced by Chief Minister KChandrashekar Rao, stand asa role model to other states inthe country, said Finance,Medical, and Health MinisterT Harish Rao. Harish Rao,along with MLC Yadav Reddyand FDC Chairman VanteruPrathap Reddy , inspectedDistrict Government Hospitalin Gajwel of Siddipet districton Wednesday.

Addressing on the occa-sion, the Minister said thatwith the use of KCR kits,deliveries in government hos-pitals increased by 22 percent. He advised the peoplenot to have unnecessary wor-ries about the spread ofCovid-19. He said that 2 crtesting kits and 1 cr home iso-

lation kits are available in thestate to meet any emergency.Covid-19 tests will be con-ducted in all ANMs andPrimary Health Centres. Amajor part of the disease willbe cured by using home iso-lation kits, he said. TheHealth Minister also statedthat an adequate number ofICUs were arranged to pro-vide treatment to Covid-19patients and oxygen facilitieswere provided at the beds ofCovid-19 patients. The stategovernment has been strivingto take all measures to protectpeople from the pandemic, hesaid.

He inspected the generalward, children’s ward andCovid-19 testing centre atthe hospital and interactedwith the pregnant women atthe hospital. Harish Rao sug-gested that women to come togovernment hospitals for

deliveries as they can get aKCR kits and Rs 12,000 for amale child and Rs 13,000 fora female child.

A special ward with 100-beds is arranged at Siddipet

Medical College, the ministersaid.He advised people tofollow the guidelines to pre-vent the spread of Covid-19.The Minister appreciatedthe efforts being taken by the

medical and health staff atGovernment District Hospitalat Gajwel. `on average, 400deliveries are done at thehospital, the officials said tohim.

TS public health facilities in arole model for other states: HarishDeliveries in government hospitals increased by 22 per cent due to the use of KCR kits, he says

State pioneers in providingbasic facilities in villages

CPI demands payout for Gouravelli project evacuees

‘Will complete Palamuru-Rangareddy lift irrigation scheme’

PNS nJAYASANKARBHUPALAPALLY

Food Commission ChairmanKommula Thirumal Reddyexpressed his unhappiness andsaid that the members of vigi-lance committees do not pos-sess minimum knowledgeabout the implementation ofthe Food Security Act in thestate. He advised the officials ofthe committees to change theirstyle of functioning. He askedthem to strive to provide nutri-tious food to people.

He inspected Food SecurityAct implementation works(supply of essential commodi-ties to public etc) atMahadevpur in JayasankarBhupalapally district onWednesday. Earlier, he visitedKaleswara-Mukteswara Swamytemple and offered specialpujas. Temple priests and offi-cials welcomed him. After thedarshan, the priests presentedSwamy’s Seshavastram andprasadam to Thirumal Reddyat the Subhanandadevi templepremises. Later, he along withotherofficials, inspected the

supply of essential commoditiesto the people at KaleswaramDR Depot. He expressed hisunhappiness over the func-tioning of vigilance committeeheaded by Bhupalapally RDO.He was also not happy as thecommittees had not conductedinspections at Anganwadi cen-tres and civil supply shops.Local Tahsildar, MPP andSarpanches had not inspectedthe civil supply shops or

Anganwadi centres, he regret-ted. Thirumal Reddy alsoinspected the supply of essen-tial commodities throughGirijanCooperative Society atKaleswaram and interactedwith the beneficiaries.He wasalso not happy with the work ofDistrict Supply Officer GouriSankar. He later inspected PHCat Ambatipalli and was annoyedwith the functioning of medicalofficer Pramod.

FC Chairman annoyed withthe working of vigilance panels

PNS n MAHABUBNAGAR

There is a perceptibleimprovement in living stan-dards of people in TelanganaState because of developmen-tal and welfare measurestaken by the government,according to Minister forExcise V Srinivas Goud onWednesday.

The Minister along withMinister for Agriculture SNiranjan Reddy was inaugu-rating 36 newly-constructeddouble bedroom houses atKandur in Addakal mandal inthe district. Speaking on theoccasion, Srinivas Goud saidthe people

belonging to vaddera com-munity used to lead a miser-able life by breaking rocks andliving in decrepit houses atVaddepally village in the past.Now, he said, the govern-ment had built 36 doublebedroom houses for them toenable them to lead hon-ourable life.

Chief Minister KChandrasekhar Rao hadembarked upon the

mission to build doublebedroom houses for the poorto ensure that they hold theirheads high, the Minister said.The people in the State hadencountered difficulties witha lack of irrigation and drink-ing water.

Now, the farmers were pro-vided with irrigation and

round-the-clock free power,he said. He promised to takeup

several developmentalactivities in the Palamurudistrict and put the district onthe path to progress.

He vowed to complete thePalamuru-Rangareddy liftirrigation schemeDevarakandra MLA AVenkateswar Reddy presidedover the meeting which washeld on the occasion.Mahbubnagar MP ManneSrinivas Reddy, AdditionalCollector (Local Bodies) TejasNandlal Pawar, StateWarehouses CooperativeSociety president Sai Chandu,ZPTC member RajasekharReddy, sarpanches and otherstook part.

PNS n SIDDIPET

Telangana State has witnessedan impressive growth in pro-viding basic infrastructurefacilities only after ChiefMinister K ChandrassekharRao took over the reins of thegovernment, said Minister forFinance and Health T HarishRao on Wednesday.

Speaking at a meetingshortly inaugurating severaldevelopmental works takenup at a cost Rs 4.30 crore atPullurvillage under Siddipetmandal, he said the State gov-ernment had pioneered increating basic infrastructuralfacilities in villages. The Pullurvillage did not even goodroads when he was first elect-ed as MLA. New roads werelaid. A road was laid to helppilgrims to Sri Swayambhu SriLakshminarasimha Swamytemple. Drinking water andelectricity facilities had beenprovided to village, he saidand added that as much as 35lakh was sanctioned for relay-ing of bitumen road for Pullurold road.

He promised to sanctionbitumen road between SC

colony to Ramancha. He fur-ther said the ZP schools in thevillage were being renovatedand modern facilities wouldbe provided in it. The govern-ment could not sanction dou-ble bedrooms for the poor inthe villages because there wasno government land there.The government had nowdecided to release funds with-in 45 days to enable the poorto build 100 double bedroomhouses on their own lands, hesaid. Double bedroom hous-es would be sanctioned forthose who could not get fundsin the first phase. pension wasgranted to 950 beneficiariesand each was getting Rs 2016

per month, he said. Though the State govern-

ment suffered a dent in rev-enue due to coronavirus, itnever stopped the welfareschemes, Harish Rao said.The government hadincreased pension from Rs200 to Rs 2,000 and10 kg ofrice was being distributedfree to everyone, he said.

He appealed to the people totake two doses of vaccinationto curb the spread of thevirus. He said all facilitieswere created in GovernmentHospitals for the people, hesaid. Zilla ParishadChairperson V Roja Sharmand others were present.

‘Keep avenue plantations in good health’

‘Political turmoil if Centretouches KCR'Minister for Excise V SrinivasGoud on Wednesday warned thatpolitical turmoil would erupt inthe country if the BJPgovernment at the Centre daredto touch Chief Minister KChandrasekhar Rao. Speaking on the occasion oflaying foundation stones forseveral developmental activitiesin Devarakandra constituency,the Minister advised theOpposition parties to stopenacting dramas. He warned ofdire consequences unless theOpposition stopped tirade againstthe Chief Minister. Lakhs of

activists would not even hesitateto self-immolate if KCR gave acall. Jail walls too would bebroken, he warned. He said the TRS activists wouldteach a bitter lesson to critics ifthe latter continued their tiradeagainst KCR. Some people werebent upon sabotaging theprogress of the State under theleadership of KCR, he said. Aslong as people's blessings arewith the party, none can dare toharm the interests of the State,he said. He blamed the rulers inthe past for neglecting thedistrict.

PNS n SIDDIPET

CPI state secretary and formerMLA Chada Venkata Reddyalleged that the works ofGouravelli and Gandipelli pro-jects are delayed as funds werenot released due to negligenceby Chief Minister KChandrashekar Rao. He alsostated the payment of compen-sation to evacuees of the pro-ject is also delayed.

The former MLA participat-ed in the CPI district councilmeeting held here onWednesday. He also expressedhis resentment as he was notable to get Chief Minister’sappointment to discuss theissue.

He demanded that com-pensation be paid to the evac-uees of Gouravelli project afterdiscussing with revenue offi-cials. He suggested that a sur-vey in GudatipallyandGouravelli villages be con-ducted to identify those who could not get the compensation so far. CPI district secretary

Manda Pawan, state councilmember, Husnabad formervice-MPP Gadipe Mallesh,Party’s Akkannapet mandalsecretary Yedela Vanesh, dis-trict council members KohedaKomuraiah and others werepresent.

PNS nNIZAMABAD

District Collector C NarayanaReddy on Wednesday direct-ed the managements of busi-ness establishments and mar-riage halls on highways toprotect avenue plantations.He warned the managementsof action if they failed inkeeping the plantations ingood health.

The Collector on his way toDichpally found that muchcare was not taken to keep theplantations in good health.

He held a meeting with themanagements of petrol fillingstations, marriage halls, con-vention centres, granite mar-ble shops, automobile work-shops, car showrooms andothers. He told these businessestablishments that theyshould protect the plantationsat any cost.

Narayana Reddy said the

plantations were taken as partof Haritha Haram project toenhance green cover in theState. He was angry over theattitude of the managements ofthe business establishment forfailing to take interest in pro-

tecting the plantations. Hetold the managements of thepetrol filling stations that per-mission to run the stationswould be granted on conditionthat they would keep the plan-tations in good health.

District Collector C Narayana Reddy inspecting avenue plantation at Dichpally inNizambad district on Wednesday

PNS n MULUGU

CPI-Maoist secretary forJayashan kar, Mu lugu,Warangal and Peddapallyd iv i s ion committeeVenkatesh on Wednesdayclaimed that the Telanganaand Chhattisgarh policehad killed three Maoists ina fake encounter atKarriguttalu forest area inMu lugu d is t r i c t onTuesday.

In a press statement,Venkatesh said the Maoistparty called for a bandh ofMulugu district on January22. The police attackedthe Maoists and shot themwithout warning.

He said the deceasedwere ident i f i e d asMadakam Singe a l i a sShanta, Venkatapuram aeacommittee secretary, whohailed from ChhattisgarhState, Kommula Naresh,Yellandu-Narsampet squadcommender, and KovasiMooyal alias Kailas ofChhattisgarh State.

Maoists callfor ‘Mulugubandh’ onJan 22

CPI State Secretary Chada Venkata Reddy speaking at the party district council meeting at Siddipet on Wednesday

Minister for Finance Harish Rao inaugurating gym in Pullur village on Wednesday

PNS nNARAYANPET

The Ant i-C orr upt ionBureau (ACB) police onWednesday claimed to havecaught Marikal Tahsildar SSridhar red-handed at hisoffice while he was accept-ing Rs 20,000 bribe.

The officials, the ACBsaid, had demanded thebribe from a woman fortransferring agricultureland from her husband'sname to her name. Theofficials laid the trap andrecovered the br ineamount f rom theTahsildar's possession, theACB police said and addedthat the office had resort-ed to dishonesty to obtainundue advantage.

He was produced beforethe court.

Tahsildar inACB net

Minister for Health T Harish Rao interacting with patients in Government Hospital in Siddipet on Wednesday

Food Commission Chairman Thirumal Reddy inspecting supply of essentialcommodities to the eligible at Mahadevpur on Wednesday

Ministers V Srinivas Goud and S Niranjan Reddy at a meeting Kandur village in Mahabubnagar district on Wednesday

PNS nPEDDAPALLY

Ramagundam PoliceCommissioner SChandrasekhar Reddy onWednesday directed the policeofficers to evince interest insolving the pending cases.

The Police Commissioner,while reviewing the function-ing of the police in Mancherialzone, sought the details of thepending cases. He stressedthe need to speed up investi-gation into the pending cases.

He asked the police officersto ensure that the premises ofevery police station are keptclean. He stressed the need toensure visible policing.Patrolling should be increased,he said. The police officersshould make systematic inves-

tigation to see that the crimi-nals are punished. He askedthe officers to coordinate withthe prosecutors to speed upthe trial in pending cases.The police should keep vigi-lance on criminals and takestrong action against them.

He asked the officers tocreate awareness among thepeople on the need to installclosed-circuit television cam-eras which are essential to pre-vent crime.

He directed the police tocurb the menace of drugs, ifany. The police should bepolite with those who came tothe police station to file com-plaints, he said. He asked thepolice officers and men to becautious against fast-spreadingOmicorn.

CP asks officers to speed upinvestigation into pending cases

Chada Venkata Reddy demandedthat compensation be paid to theevacuees of Gouravelli project

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R IEDs recovered from J'khand forest

Apolice team on Wednesday recovered 15 pressure cooker bombs, suspected to havebeen planted by Maoists, along a non-metalled road in a forest in Jharkhand's Seraikela-Kharswan district, a senior officer said. Shortly after the explosives were detected in

Kaderango forest, a bomb disposal squad cordoned off the area and defused the IEDs, theofficer said. According to the officer, the district police force has launched a massive anti-naxal operation here, on the directive of Superintendent of Police Anand Prakash. "The policehad information that a squad led by CPI (Maoist) leader 'Anal da' planted IEDs in variousparts of West Singhbhum, Khunti,Ranchi and Seraikela-Kharswan tocause harm to security personnel," hesaid. A special team, comprising districtarmed police force personnel, CRPFjawans and members of its bomb dis-posal squad, carried out extensivesearch operations in Kuchai police sta-tion area among other places andrecovered the IEDs. Last month, in asimilar operation, security personnelhad recovered IEDs from Patradih andDodarda areas of the district.

‘No foreign head of state or govt aschief guest at R-Day this year: Sources

This year there will be no foreign head of state or government as the chief guest forthe Republic Day event, sources said on Wednesday. Amid the COVID-19pandemic continuing and the cases rising, this would be the second year in a row

when there would be no foreign leader as the chief guest at the Republic Daycelebrations. "This year there will not be a Foreign Head of State or Head ofGovernment as the chief guest for ourRepublic Day event," a source said.There would be no foreign leader asthe chief guest at the Republic Daycelebrations, but a day later PrimeMinister Narendra Modi will host thefirst India-Central Asia Summit in avirtual format on January 27. Thesummit will be held with theparticipation of the presidents ofKazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic,Tajikistan, Turkmenistan andUzbekistan.

84 IAS trainees at LBSNAA, Mussoorietest positive for COVID-19

Eighty-four IAS trainees at Mussoorie's Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy ofAdministration have tested positive for the ovel coronavirus infection, officials said onWednesday. Those infected have been isolated and the rest quarantined at the acad-

emy, Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Manoj Upreti said. A group of 480 IAS trainees, includ-ing those of allied services, arrivedhere on Sunday from Gujarat on way tothe Academy, he said. Reports of theirRT-PCR tests conducted at theDehradun Railway Station on arrivalhave come positive, he said.Meanwhile, 25 personnel at the statepolice headquarters here have alsotested positive for the infection. DGPAshok Kumar asked the infected per-sonnel to take precautions besides ask-ing those who had come into contactwith them to undergo RT-PCR testsand quarantine themselves.

PNS n AURANGABAD

The Congress has won amajority of seats in three nagarpanchayats in Nanded ditstrictand four nagar panchayats inLatur district of Maharashtra,results for which were declaredon Wednesday.

The Supreme Court onDecember 6 stayed till furtherorders the local body electionsin Maharashtra on seatsreserved for the OBCs. Theapex court later directed theState Election Commission(SEC) to notify 27 per cent ofseats in the local bodies, whichwere reserved for the OtherBackward Classes (OBCs), as ageneral category so that the pollprocess can be taken forward.

In Nanded's Naygaon nagarpanchayat, Congress has won

all 17 seats. The BJP won threeand 14 seats in Nanded andLatur, respectively, an officialsaid.

In Nanded, voting was heldfor 51 seats in three nagar pan-cyats of Mahur, Ardhapur and

Naygaon. Of these seats, Congress

bagged 33 seats. After winning all 17 seats in

Naygaon nagar panchayat andten out of 17 seats in Ardhapur,Congress secured an absolute

majority. The BJP won two seats in

Ardhapur, the official said. In Mahur nagar panchayat,

out of 17 seats, six are baggedby Congress, seven by theNCP and three by Shiv Sena.The BJP won one seat, headded.

In Latur, voting took placefor 68 seats in four nagar pan-chayats (17 seats each).

In Latur, BJP and NCP won14 seats each. The Congresswon the highest 23 seats, ShivSena and Prahar won six seatseach. Four seats went toIndependent candidates.

Medical Education MinisterAmit Deshmukh and formerchief minister Ashok Chavan(both from Congress) repre-sent Latur and Nanded districtsin the MVA government.

Maha: Cong wins majorityof nagar panchayat seats

PNS n GOLAGHAT (ASSAM)

The number of vulnerableeastern swamp deer in Assam'sKaziranga National Park andTiger Reserve has declined to868 due to flood, according toa statement.

A two-day census of the ani-mal from January 10 revealedthat there has been a "slightdecrease" in the number from907 in 2018, it said.

The latest eastern swampdeer count in the nationalpark was 868, which included173 males, 557 females and 138yearlings.

"The slight decrease in thepopulation was mainly due totwo floods in 2019 and 2020,"the statement issued onTuesday said.

The survey was carried outin the entire area of the worldheritage site for the first timeas the previous exercise wasrestricted to only a part of thesanctuary.

"Territory wise, 786 wererecorded in the Eastern Assam,62 in Biswanath and 20 inNagaon wildlife divisions," itsaid.

At least 29 enumerators and112 forest personnel were

involved in the exercise.A survey of wetland birds

was also conducted in thenational park from December21 to 27 last year.

"Altogether 66,776 birds of126 species were counted. Ofthese birds, 42,205 wererecorded in KazirangaNational Park area, 24,571 inLaokhowa and Burachaporiwildlife sanctuaries,” the state-ment said.

Bar-headed goose toppedthe list at 16,552, followed bynorthern pintail at 9,493, com-mon teal at 5,631 and ferrug-inous duck at 2,236, it added.

PNS n NEW DELHI

The Supreme Court Wednesdayagreed to consider listing a PILchallenging the Constitutionalvalidity of a provision of theRepresentation of People Actwhich had led to the introduc-tion of electronic votingmachines (EVMs) instead ofballot papers for polls in thecountry.

A bench comprising ChiefJustice of India (CJI) N VRamana heard the submissions

of lawyer M L Sharma, whofiled the plea in his personalcapacity, that the petitionrequired hearing in view ofupcoming assembly polls infive states -- Uttar Pradesh,Goa, Punjab, Manipur andUttarakhand.

“We will see it... I may list itbefore some other bench aswell,” the CJI said.

Sharma said Section 61A ofthe Representation of PeopleAct, which permitted the use ofEVMs, was not passed by

Parliament and hence cannot beimposed.

“I have filed the petitionwhich is supported with the evi-dence on the record. A judicialnote can be taken note of thecase...let the election be heldthrough ballot papers,” thelawyer said.

The plea, which made theUnion Law ministry a party,sought declaration of the provi-sion as “void, illegal and uncon-stitutional” as there was noprovision of EVM.

Fall in eastern swamp deer population in Assam's Kaziranga

PNS n THIRUVANANTHAPURAM

Kerala Health Minister VeenaGeorge on Tuesday cautionedpeople against the rapid spreadof COVID-19 in the stateduring the third wave and saidboth Delta and Omicron vari-ants of the virus are con-tributing to the ongoingunprecedented surge in dailycases.

Though its severity is less-er, Omicron variant has thepotential to spread the disease5-6 times more than the Deltavariant and so it should not betaken lightly. Every single per-son should adhere to COVIDprotocol strictly to keep thepandemic under control, shetold reporters here.

George also warned of strin-gent action against thoseunleashing false propagandaregarding the pandemic andvaccination through socialmedia platforms.

Stating that a section of peo-ple are spreading lies likeOmicron is a "natural vaccine"and so it was not dangerous tocontract the infection, shesaid such campaigns werebaseless.

Whatever be the variant, thebasic characteristics of thenovel coronavirus were thesame and people should takeextra care to keep the diseaseat bay, the minister said.

"Delta (variant) was thereason for more cases duringthe second wave. The thirdwave happened before it wascompletely over. Now, bothDelta and Omicron are con-tributing to the surge inCOVID cases," George said.

Making it clear that theinfectivity was very high thesedays, she said compared to thesecond wave, five percentmore cases were expectedduring the third wave.

SC to consider hearing PILchallenging use of EVMs

Mulayam tried to convince AparnaYadav not to join BJP: Akhilesh YadavPNS n LUCKNOW

Samajwadi Party patriarchMulayam Singh Yadav triedhard to convince his daughter-in-law Aparna Yadav to notjoin the BJP, party chiefAkhilesh Yadav said onWednesday and expressed hishappiness that the SP's social-ist ideology is expanding itsreach.

Akhilesh Yadav, who sent hissister-in-law best wishes for hermove to the BJP, also addressedspeculation on whether hewould contest the assemblyelections and said he wouldconsult the people of his par-liamentary constituencyAzamgarh.

“If I contest the assemblyelection, it will be after takingpermission from the people ofAzamgarh who have electedme as MP," he told reporterswhen asked if he would enterinto the electoral fray for thecoming elections.

In his first response toAparna Yadav joining the BJP,Akhilesh Yadav said he wouldlike to congratulate her andextend her his best wishes.

"I am also happy that oursocialist ideology is expanding.I hope that our ideology willreach there and work to savethe constitution and democra-cy," the SP president said.

"Netaji (Mulayam SinghYadav) tried very hard to con-vince her," he said when askedif efforts were made to stopAparna Yadav from joining theruling party.

Aparna Yadav is married toPrateek Yadav, the son ofMulayam Singh Yadav's secondwife, while Akhilesh Yadav ishis son from the first marriage.

She joined the BJP in thepresence of Uttar PradeshDeputy Chief Minister KeshavPrasad Maurya and its statechief Swatantra Dev Singh.Expressing her admiration forPrime Minister NarendraModi, she said the nation'sinterest has always been a pri-ority for her and praised sev-eral schemes of the BJP gov-ernment for cleanliness,woman empowerment andemployment.

There had been much spec-ulation about her joining theBJP, and the development high-lights the rift in the SP's rulingfamily at a time Akhilesh Yadavhas been working to rally theparty's base in the run up to thestate assembly polls beginningnext month.

Maurya was also quick toattack Akhilesh Yadav, sayinghe has not been successful inhis family and was also "unsuc-cessful" as chief minister andMP.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:

Kerala Chief Minister PinarayiVijayan on Wednesday saidcollective efforts of the educa-tion department, parents,teaching community and thesociety have helped to ensurethat the education process ofthe state continued unhinderedduring the time of COVID-19pandemic. He made theremark in the wake of a recentIndia Case Study on the effectsof COVID-19 on education,conducted by UNICEF, whichlavished praise on the south-ern state in this connection. Ina series of tweets, the ChiefMinister quoted some excerptsfrom the study report, whichmentioned the state's achieve-ment. "Kerala is an exception:about 70 per cent of parents ofboth younger & adolescentstudents believe that overalllearning progress is the sameor better than it would be inschool," he tweeted quotingthe UNICEF survey. "Kerala hasthe greatest technologyaccess, & it has also beenamong the most proactivestates in supporting students:it is the only state where nearlyeveryone who used remotelearning, reports that the gov-ernment has provided remotelearning resources," the studyfurther said. Vijayan thankedeveryone who stood by thechildren to overcome hurdlesand ensure hassle-free learn-ing during the time of the pan-demic. "Wholehearted thanksto everyone who has madethis possible. Education Dept.,teachers, parents & societyhave stood together with thechildren to overcome hurdlesand ensure that our educationprocess continues unhin-dered," he further tweeted.

UNICEF survey:Kerala CMthanks EduDept, parents

‘Both Omicron & Deltavariants causing surgein Covid-19 cases’

PNS n NEW DELHI

The third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in India may peakon January 23 with daily caseslikely to remain below the fourlakh mark, according to a scien-tist at the Indian Institute ofTechnology-Kanpur.

Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkatahave already reached their peakin case numbers in the past sevendays, said Manindra Agrawal, aprofessor at IIT Kanpur and oneof the researchers associatedwith the Sutra Covid model.

The Sutra model has beenused to track and predict Covidcase numbers in the countrysince the beginning of the pan-demic.

According to Agrawal,COVID-19 cases will peak inMaharashtra, Karnataka, UP,Gujarat, and Haryana this week,while states like Andhra Pradesh,

Assam, and Tamil Nadu maypeak next week.

“The daily peak cases areprojected to peak on January 23in India and stay below the fourlakh mark. Metro cities Delhi,Mumbai, and Kolkata havealready peaked,” Agrawal toldPTI.

“Trajectory with data up to11th indicates the peak on 23thJan with nearly 7.2 lakh cases per

day. The actual trajectory isalready deviating significantly,and the actual peak is unlikely tocross 4 lakh cases/day,” Agrawaltweeted on Tuesday.

Agrawal had earlier predictedthat the COVID-19 third wavewill peak by January end.

“Across the country, the trajec-tories are changing significantly.I speculated earlier that it is dueto ICMR guidelines for a

changed testing strategy.However, at many places, theseguidelines are not yet implement-ed and still, the trajectory haschanged!” he said.

According to a new govern-ment advisory, individualsundertaking inter-state domes-tic travel and contacts of con-firmed Covid cases do not needto get tested unless identified as“high risk” based on age orcomorbidities,

In his view, there are two plau-sible reasons for the change in theOmicron-led case trajectory inIndia.

“There are two groups in thepopulation, one with less immu-nity against Omicron and theother with more. The mutantfirst spread in the first groupcausing a sharp rise. Now thefirst group is exhausted and sothe spread is slower,” heexplained.

India's third Covid wave likely to peak on Jan 23, daily cases

First Covid vaccine dose given to95 pc people, 2nd dose to 62 pcPNS n NOIDA

The first dose of anti-coron-avirus vaccines have beenadministered to over 95 percent of the targeted popula-tion in Uttar Pradesh whilethe second dose adminis-tered to around 62per cent, ChiefMinister YogiAdityanath saidon Wednesday.

In the 15-17years age group,62.83 lakh vaccinedoses have beenprovided out ofthe target 1.40crore doses,Adityanath told apress conference in poll-bound Gautam Buddh Nagardistrict.

He said the vaccination pro-gramme was launched onJanuary 16, 2021 and 157crore vaccine doses were madeavailable across the country.

"Today, I am happy toinform that 23.75 crore doseshave been provided to thepeople in Uttar Pradesh andthe state fairs better than thenational average at present,"he said at the press conferenceheld at Government Institute

of Medical Sciences(GIMS), GreaterNoida.

"The first dosehas been adminis-tered to over 95per cent peopleand second doseto 62 per cent peo-ple. In the 15-17years age group,62.83 lakh doseshave been made

available out of the target1.40 crore doses. Separately,5.29 lakh precaution dose(booster dose) have alsobeen made available to peo-ple including senior citizensand frontline workers,"Adityanath added.

LOCAL BODIES’ ELECTIONS

Covid positivity rate not lowenough to lift curbs: Delhi MinPNS n NEW DELHI

Delhi Health MinisterSatyendra Jain on Wednesdaysaid COVID-19 positivity ratein the city is not low enough tolift the restrictions imposed tocontain the spread of the infec-tion and that the governmentwill monitor the situation forthree to four days.

He also said the city is like-ly to see around 13,000 caseson Wednesday, with a positiv-ity rate of around 24 per cent.

"The Covid positivity ratehas come down from 30 percent to 22.5 per cent in Delhi.But it is not that low that allthe curbs can be lifted sud-denly... The rate should behalf of it. We will monitor thesituation for three to fourdays," Jain said when askedabout some traders' protestover DDMA's odd-evenarrangement for opening ofshops.

Delhi had logged 28,867COVID-19 cases last

Thursday, the sharpest single-day spike since the beginningof the pandemic. The numberthen declined to 24,383 onFriday, 20,718 on Saturday,18,286 on Sunday, 12,527 onMonday, and 11,684 onTuesday.

The positivity rate stood at30.6 per cent on Saturday, thehighest in the ongoing wave ofthe pandemic so far, 27.9 percent on Sunday, 28 per cent onMonday, and 22.5 per cent onTuesday.

Goa wants a

change and the

AAP has been get-

ting a tremendous

response in the

coastal State.

Delhi Chief Minister

—Arvind Kejriwal

hostages at a synagogue,including the resident Rabbi— the hostage taker’s singulardemand was the purportedrelease of the incarcerated‘Lady Al Qaida’ Dr AarifaSiddiqui. The telltale symbol-ism and conflation of the syn-agogue, rabbi and hostagedrama for a convicted terror-ist of Pakistani descent pickedup from Afghanistan —usualadmixture, somehow com-mingling Israel/Jews into thesame, perhaps unwarrantedly.

Around the same time, aspart of the longstanding sec-tarian shadowboxing betweenthe Shia Iranian leadershipand the Sunni Saudi Arabianroyal family, an unprecedent-ed accusation by Gen AlirezaTangsiri, Commander ofIran’s Islamic RevolutionaryGuards Corps Navy, seeks toshame the other. He impliedthat the Saudi royal family isdescendants of Jews whofought the holy Prophet, “Wecannot bear to see injustice ina Muslim country that is per-petrated by the Zionists andthe seeds of the Jews”, adding,“These are the very sameJews, and I’d better sayZionists, whose hearts havenever aligned with Islam,and even with the Prophet inhis time”. Again, the politicalblame game within theUmmah was sought to be set-

tled by invoking the familiarwatermarks of Zionism andJews, following the taint andhate associated with the same,irrespective if factual historyor the modern-day State ofIsrael has anything to dowith the same.

Concurrently, anothereerie spectre of the fabledIsraeli connect (more indeliblyso this time) unfolded withinthe Ummah’s irreconcilableadherents with the mysteriouslanding of a private planebelonging to the notoriousLibyan warlord, Khalifa Haftar,at Tel Aviv’s Ben GurionAirport. Embroiled in violentclashes with various factions(backed by various interna-tional powers) for the spoils ofLibya in the post-Gadhafi era,Khalifa was supposed to besupported by powers like Syria,Russia and, incredulously, eventhe UAE, who would ratherhave a Gadhafiesque dictatorin Khalifa to keep the extrem-ists out. So, while Khalifa’snemesis and current LibyanPrime Minister AbdulhamidMohammed Dbeibeh isbelieved to have recently metMossad director David Barneato ‘normalise’ relations withIsrael — yet it is the surreallanding of Khalifa’s plane inIsrael to seek its support for hispresidential candidature, thatspeaks volumes of the Israeli

acquiescence in the Ummah’smuddle. The clear sign of theimportance of garneringIsrael’s support in any domes-tic power bid, even if thou-sands of kilometres away, isunmistakable.

Israel officially denies anypernicious role in the tumultwithin the Ummah, though ithas made strategic inroadswith the now-extremism-wary Sheikdoms in the Arabworld. It has tellingly openedan Embassy in the UAE andplans to do so in Bahrain andMorocco soon (it already hasone in Jordan and Egypt).Saudi Arabia’s heir apparent,Mohammad Bin Salman(MBS), also had to uncon-vincingly deny reports that helast year secretly met thethen Israeli Prime MinisterNetanyahu at the Red Seaport of Neon. Clearly, a lot ofbackroom plotting, machina-tions and emotions are vest-ed in the ‘Israeli connect’ thatunderlie the regional turmoil— how much of it is real orimagined, remains unan-swered but what is true is thatthe issue of Palestine is on thebackburner, and Israel looksstronger than ever.

(The writer, a military vet-eran, is a former Lt Governorof Andaman & Nicobar Islandsand Puducherry. The viewsexpressed are personal.)

PUBLIC INTEREST VS PERSONAL CHOICESir — The Centre’s statement in theSupreme Court that it does not want toimplement forced vaccination has sparkedoff a debate over balancing “public inter-est” with “personal choice”. TheGovernment further said that though theUnion Health Ministry urged everyone totake the anti-COVID vaccine, it neverforced anyone to get “vaccinated againsttheir wishes”. Likewise, the Centre does notadvise making a vaccine certificate manda-tory for any purpose. While the Centre’sstand on vaccination is fair in terms of peo-ple’s rights, it must be noted that manyStates have made vaccination more or lesscompulsory. The vaccination certificate iscompulsory in several parts of the coun-try where infection is on the rise.

Such restrictions are accepted bypeople because these are imposed in pub-lic interest. Hence, people need to com-ply with vaccination rules as well. Thereis no denying that people’s freedom andrights must be preserved. On the otherhand, reckless behaviour on flimsy pretextcannot be tolerated. While forcing peopleto get vaccinated without their consent isagainst personal liberty, being unvaccinat-ed poses a threat to public health. It mustbe understood that several countries havemade vaccination compulsory. Publicinterest and personal choice must be prop-erly balanced. There must be exemptionswhere required. Public safety is moreimportant than personal liberty whenthere is a health crisis.

Venu GS | Kollam

MUTED R-DAY CELEBRATIONSSir — There will be no chief guest for thesecond year in a row at the Republic Dayparade as the plan to host foreign leadershas been cancelled due to the COVID-19pandemic. According to news reports, theplan to host the heads of five Central Asiancountries — Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan,Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan— has been cancelled owing to the pan-demic conditions in India as well as inthese respective countries.

Meanwhile, the number of peoplepermitted to attend the Republic Day

parade this year is likely to be curtailedto approximately 5,000-8,000 due tothe health situation, which is quite dan-gerous and serious, with seats reservedfor construction workers, frontlinehealth workers and others, accordingto senior officials of the DefenceMinistry. This proves that the RepublicDay celebration is there now just forthe sake of name. With these develop-ments, it is high time that the RepublicDay celebration must be cancelledaltogether for the next few years, untilthe health scare goes away from ourcountry.

Bhagwan Thadani | Mumbai

EC’S HUMANITARIAN INITIATIVESir — The Election Commission hasshown a good gesture by accepting thedemand of all political parties to deferthe date of Punjab election fromFebruary 14 as the Guru RavidasJayanti falls on February 16, and lakhsof devotees visit Varanasi to pay obei-sance on Magh Purnima every year.

The Government must ensure that thedevotees follow all COVID protocolsproperly, otherwise it can prove to bea super-spreader. In addition to thisgesture, the EC has taken another goodinitiative which has remained largelyunnoticed and which needs to behighlighted for all voters in general andthe disabled in particular who want tocast their vote from home.

I am a disability activist and recent-ly nominated icon for persons with dis-ability (PwD) for the Assembly elec-tions to be held in February 2022. If anyPwD wants to vote from home, s/he cancontact the local BLO. This procedureis being adopted for the first time. Youridentification will be done by the BLOand your vote will be blocked, sonobody else can cast your vote. It is ourduty to cooperate with the EC tostrengthen democracy at the grassroots.

Yash Pal Ralhan | Jalandhar

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The ever-present shadow of Israel looms large over the goings-on in theIslamic world, sometimes for real and at other times only in imagination

ISRAEL OFFICIALLYDENIES ANY

PERNICIOUS ROLEIN THE TUMULT

WITHIN THEUMMAH, THOUGH

IT HAS MADESTRATEGIC

INROADS WITHTHE NOW-

EXTREMISM-WARY

SHEIKDOMS INTHE ARAB WORLD

LETTERS TO TTHE EDITOR

BHOPINDER SINGH

With Australia winning the Ashes inHobart, the cricketers were posingwith the ‘urn’ in front of the camera

amid a champagne shower. Noticing theabsence of Usman Khawaja in the huddle dueto his religious reservations about alcohol,captain Pat Cummins instructed teammatesto put the bottle away and invited him to joinin the celebrations! And now the frame hasno trace of champagne bottles; ratherKhawaja is seen embraced in the middle ofthe front row just beside the captain, withall heartily laughing and sharing the joy. Can

there be any better picture of divinity, human-ity and brotherhood in these communally viti-ated times where feelings of hatred withdominant mindset have been turned into syn-onyms of ‘masculinity’ and ‘nationalism’.

Recently, Ajaz Patel had praised theatmosphere in the New Zealand cricket teamand the country as a whole where his reli-gious sentiments are given special consid-eration, with his right to offer namaz fullyrespected. While Patel had taken birth inMumbai as an Indian Muslim, Khawaja wasborn in Islamabad. Yet both have beenembraced into Australian/New Zealand society warmly with due rights, equality anddignity. Instead of zealously beating theirtrumpet of ‘liberalism’, Indians should drawinspiration from such instances and learn totreat human beings as human beings by transcending the petty barriers of religion,ethnicity or nationality.

Kajal Chatterjee | Kolkata

Humans are humans, above all

The Ummah andits Israeli connect

Fixation with Israel hauntsthe Ummah (pan-Islamiccommunity), sometimescredibly so, other times

imagined rather creatively. Eventhe distant, multicultural andmulti-confessional (with Muslimmajority) Malaysia insists on itspassport with the inscription:“This passport is valid for allcountries except Israel.” With noterritorial or commercial dis-agreement besetting any Israeli-Malaysian dimension, yet formerMalaysian leader MohammadMahathir had called it a “State ofrobbers”, “the enemy” anddescribed Jews as “hook-nosed”,“rule this world by proxy” etc. Atthe heart of this deep-rootedangst is the emotive and unre-solved issue of Palestine by a nar-row stretch of country, Israel,with a population of less than 7million Jews, that irks and ran-kles many in the global Ummahof nearly 2 billion. Even as theUmmah itself remains mired indisagreements of sectarian, eth-nic and political nature —almost all within attribute theovert or covert hand of Israelisa la ‘Zionist Conspiracies’, thatcontextualises their perceivedproblems. Indeed, Israeli spyagency Mossad does play ahyper-intrusive role in safe-guarding its sovereign interests,but perhaps not as fantasticallyas popularly imagined.

Three recent, simultaneousand completely unrelated inci-dents in distant lands illustratethis Israeli-Jewish fascination. AUS citizen of Pakistani origin,MIT-trained neuroscientist DrAarifa Siddiqui, currently con-victed for 86 years in the US oncharges of shooting at US Armyand FBI officers while in custodyin Afghanistan, was at the cen-tre of a hostage drama. Theintensely followed and disputedtrial had all the elements ofintrigue, counterespionage andmurky trails and the PakistanGovernment was forced todefend her case publicly, in vain.However, during the long-drawncourt proceedings, she had triedto fire her lawyers as they wereJewish and she explicitly wrote tothe courts that Jews were “cruel,ungrateful and back-stabbing”people! Recently, a gunman in asmall town in Texas took four

SOUNDBITE

I thank Verizon and AT&T for agreeing to delay 5G deploymentaround key airports.

US President—Joe Biden

The youth wants to

stand on its feet

and these are the

things that make a

country strong.

Congress leader—Priyanka Gandhi

When you gotowards a stumpmic it doesn’t look good, so thatwas somethingavoidable.

Former India captain—Sunil Gavaskar

As the dates for Assembly election to five States steadily approach, the elec-toral arena is agog with activity in all quarters. The Election Commissionis busy taking swift decisions aimed at ensuring maximum voter participa-

tion while making sure that all the stakeholders are kept out of harm’s way, lurk-ing at every corner in the form of the highly transmissible Omicron variant of theCoronavirus family. The political players, as is their wont, are busy raking up mudat their opponents and running one another down, and the candidates are leav-ing no stone unturned to woo the voters and weighing their options to switch alle-

giance to another party that may form the nextGovernment in their State. From the looks of it, theBJP — which is in power at the Centre and in mostof the States going to polls over the next 50 days— is under considerable pressure because it hasthe most at stake. Even central leaders such asNarendra Modi and Amit Shah have been forcedto unleash their charisma in the hinterland as theywell realise that it is the vir tual semifinal before the2024 general elections.

Of course, the saffron party is playing covertly,too, to ensure that it has the upper hand in political

exchanges. After going through a series of setbacks in the shape of some of its OBCleaders recently joining the SP camp, it recently staged a coup of sorts when it tookinto the fold Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav’s daughter-in-law Aparnain Uttar Pradesh, the country’s most populous and one of the most politically cru-cial States. Meanwhile, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav is deeply involved in a fierce battleof the ballot and pulling out all the stops to cement the place of his party in the Assemblyand the Government. While the BJP is hesitant of naming any chief ministerial can-didates, apparently for fear of triggering a factional feud, the young AAP has goneahead and announced that its leader Bhagwant Mann would be the Chief Minister ifthe party comes to power in Punjab. To give it credit, the AAP national convener andDelhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal really went by people’s choice (or so he claims)after nearly 15 lakh people responded to the his party’s ‘Janta Chunegi Apna CM’drive, in which the party had asked people to name their choice for the Punjab CM.With just days to go for voting, it’s really down to the wire.

The Attorney General of India told the Supreme Court on Tuesday that no onedied of starvation in recent times. That is a sweeping statement considering,as the court pointed out, the officer was relying on old data. The court was

hearing a petition seeking a national community kitchen policy to avoid starvationdeaths. The officer replied that the Centre has to depend on the States reporting star-vation deaths, and they have not reported a single death in recent years. The courtcame back asking him about media reports on a starvation death in Tamil Nadu. Thelast reported starvation death occurred in Villupuram in Tamil Nadu on December19, 2021, where the victim was a five-year-old boy and the autopsy revealed no traceof food in the intestine; that meant the boy had had no food for at least two daysbefore his death. In July 2018, three children died of starvation in Delhi. Authoritiesperformed a second post-mortem to doubly confirm the cause of death. The chil-dren had not eaten anything eight to nine days before their deaths. There is no wayof saying that starvation deaths do not occur. Current data indicates the presence

of pre-starvation stages among children. A totalabsence of food leads to starvation. Intermittentavailability of food leads to hunger which in turnleads to malnutrition that harms children by stunt-ing their developmental milestones. What the hun-gry need is not just any food but nutritious food.

That is the key to India’s food security policy thatsees hunger as an aspect of malnutrition. A personhaving meals of only rice may not feel hungry butwill develop nutritional deficiencies. Millions of peo-ple are out there today who have to make do with asingle meal or skip meals altogether. The pandem-

ic has made access to food more difficult. Surveys show a shocking amount of foodand perishables are thrown away in Indian homes every year while tonnes of grainsrot in godowns across India. The Government must ensure diet diversity and adequateand subsidised animal source foods to the poor. An elementary, nutritious diet appar-ently costs around `30 per person per day. The cash transferred to the poor at pre-sent cannot sustain a family of four for a month. That is why the food policy must berational. India today has surplus food grains. The poor can, therefore, access thricetheir normal monthly rations, irrespective of ration or Aadhaar cards. The public dis-tribution system can expand from grain and pulses to include essentials such as eggs,milk and fruits. Some States already provide eggs to mothers and children through theAnganwadi system. It is worthwhile exploring alternative foods using millets and legumeswhich contain nutrients and can store for long periods. We can do without religiouscontroversies in making eggs mandatory in mid-day meal schemes; fruit or milk beingthe option for non-egg eaters. Nutrition, not merely food, is the great equaliser.

Food for thought

Poll heatAs the Assembly election battle enters the

last lap, the campaign is getting fiercer

PICTALK

Enthusiasts take part in a boat race at Dumas beach, in Surat PTI

Starvation deaths remain a stark reality even in thistime and age, and the Govt must not shut its eyes

Akshay Kumar still wakes upbefore anybodyelse ever wakes up in their life.

Actor— Lara Dutta

The lives of trainpassengers matter

DON’T THOSE GETTING EXCITED AT THE TECH GLITCH REALISE THAT THE PROBLEM WAS AT WEF’S END?—BJP LEADERTAJINDER PAL SINGH BAGGA

ITNA JHOOTH TELEPROMPTER BHI NAHIN JHEL

PAYA (NOT EVEN THE TELEPROMPTER COULD HANDLE SUCH LIES).

—CONGRESS LEADERRAHUL GANDHI

Even if a derailment does occur, in spite of all the precautions and measures,

the damage the coaches suffer should be minimal to reduce casualty figures

US Economist Milton Friedman had said that inflation is taxationwithout legislation. A price rise hurts most to those who sit atthe bottom of the pyramid in the social structure. Recent data

released by the government shows that consumer price index (CPI)has increased to 5.59 percent in December. If we just see the dataon the face of it then it will appear that rural inflation crossed 5 per-cent and food inflation has also peaked to 4 percent in December. Ina way this is worrying because CPI numbers are reaching the RBImandated upper limit of 6 percent. But the Devil lies in the details. Acloser look at the data reveals that inflation has gone down in Decemberas compared to previous month and the index has shown a declineof 1.18 percent. Despite the pandemic and the farmers’ protest, foodprices have increased moderately but skyrocketing prices of edibleoil needs to be kept under control. Initiatives like National Edible Oil

Missionare good for long run but immediate measures must be takento contain the increasing price. Providing free ration to large part ofthe population has certainly helped the lower class which faced issuesof job loss and decline in income. Wholesale price index (WPI) forDecember has shown price rise of 13.6 percent. The stark divergencebetween CPI and WPI is another point which indicates the strongdomestic demand. It can be taken as a positive indicator where Indianmanufacturers are using their pricing power and the volume is allow-ing retailers to make profit even after absorbing some of the whole-sale price rise. There can be counter arguments that such kind of diver-gence between these two indicators means retailers are losing theirprofit margin but the increased indirect tax collection doesn’t supportthis view. In pandemic, people used more goods as compared to ser-vices and therefore price rise in goods were more. WPI covers onlygoods and therefore this divergence includes this aspect also. All themajor economies of the world are facing inflationary trends and USinflation hit 39 years high in December when it touched 7 percent.There are concerns that Federal Reserve will hike the interest rate andpandemic era stimulus will be cut back. If this happens then it willimpact India also and capital outflow can be seen. Our foreign exchangereserves are sufficient to cover such short-term impacts.This situa-tion is not all bad from Indian perspective. Action taken by US Fedwill have impact on exchange rate also and in all likelihood, INR willweaken against USD, if RBI doesn’t intervene. This situation will befavorablefor Indian exporters, particularly IT and ITES industry.

RBI is entrusted with the responsibility of managing the inflationrate within the given range of 2 to 6 percent. Recent surge in infla-tion is transitory in nature and it is largely due to increase in inputprices (cost push)caused by interruption in global supply chain. Inthe current scenario, the central bank should continue to prioritizegrowth and employment over inflation. Real interest rate in India isnear to zero and a low borrowing cost is good for a developing econ-omy. The Government has increased the spending in the pandemicera and increased borrowing but RBI’s balance sheet expansion can-not continue forever in the same manner and debt management shouldbe one of the priorities for the government. The pandemic is still notover and therefore the low interest regime should continue to pushthe growth as governments alone can’t shoulder the expansion.

(The writer is a Chartered Accountant, and public policy analyst. The views expressed are personal.)

HYDERABAD | THURSDAY | JANUARY 20, 2022

07

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

FIRSTCOLUMNINFLATION MUST NOT

IMPACT ECONOMY

POINTCOUNTERPOINT

SHSHANK SAURAV

SUDHANSHU MANI

Debt management is a priority for the Government

Nine passengers died and near-ly forty were injured followingthe derailment of severalcoaches of Bikaner-Guwahati

Express around 5 PM on January 13 atDomahani in Mainaguri area of WestBengal’s Jalpaiguri district. The derail-ment caused many of the twelve coach-es which derailed to capsize or climbover another coach. Railways MinisterAshwini Vaishnaw announced that hewas personally monitoring the rescueoperations. Anex-gratia of `5 lakh eachto the kin of the deceased, `1 lakh forthose injured grievously and `25,000 forthose who sufferedsimple injuries wasannounced.

The safety record of Indian Railways(IR) has improved in recent years.Without going into the nitty-gritty ofstatistics, it is clearly seen that the num-ber of fatalities has come down drasti-cally if we leave aside run-over and levelcrossing accidents for which IR is notdirectly culpable. This has becomepossible due to many factors, likegreater stress on upkeep of track andallied infrastructure and large-scaleinduction of LHB coaches.

The LHB coaches were developed byLinke-Hofmann-Busch of Germany.They are considered to be “anti-telescop-ic”, which means they do not get turnedover or flip in case of a collision (chieflyhead-on). These coaches are made ofstainless steel and the interiors are madeof aluminium which make them lighteras compared to conventional rakes.They come equipped with “advancedpneumatic disc brake system” for effi-cient braking at higher speeds, Thesemodern coaches offer a higher carryingcapacity, have higher speed potential,lighter in weight and have increasedcodal life.

This accident has, however, broughtinto focus once again, the issue ofavoidable fatalities in an accident byswitching over to a safer coach design.The causes of the accident can be many,which incidentally, in this case is a trac-tion motor of the locomotive fallingdown, something which is rather bizarreas this equipment is secured very strong-ly. The idea should be that even if aderailment does occur, in spite of all theprecautions and measure, the damage itcauses to the affected coaches should beso controlled that it causes minimal casu-alties.

It is being said that had the train beenprovided with LHB type coaches insteadof the vintage ICF (Integral CoachFactory) type, no life would have beenlost. This premise in itself is correct assuccessive accidents have shown thatwhenever ICF type coaches are involvedin derailment at high speeds, coachesclimb and capsize causing heavy casu-alties whereas similar accidents withLHB coaches have practically no casu-alties and certainly no fatalities.

THE RAILWAYSCAN DECIDE TO USE ITS

FUNDS MOREMEANINGFULLY,TAKING THIS AS

AN OPPORTUNITYTO BITE THE

BULLET AND LETTHE OLD MAKE

WAY FOR THENEW, WHICH

WOULD NOT ONLYMEAN MORE LHB

TYPE COACHESBUT ALSO MOREMODERN TRAIN

SETS LIKE TRAIN 18 AND

THEIR UPGRADEDVERSION IN

ALUMINIUM BODY

IR principally employs twotypes of coaches. One is the ICFtype which is based on a designimported in 1950s. The other isthe LHB type which follows aGerman design imported in thelate 1990s. For common under-standing, the latter coaches aredesigned with a coupler, whichgets strongly interlocked withthe coupler of the adjacentcoach,preventing relative side-ways and vertical movements ofthe coaches with respect to eachother and, therefore, coaches donot climb or capsize, even if thereis a derailment. ICF type coach-es, on the other hand, have nosuch restraining arrangement,causing them to mount eachother or capsize individually whenfacing absorption of kinetic ener-gy in case of a derailment.At thesame time, the more recent Train18 type coaches are even saferwith their semi-permanent typecouplers, anti-climbing featureand safer structural designs.

After such an accident occurs,much ado follows berating the IRfor delaying faster proliferation ofLHB type coaches. Railways, how-ever, huffed and hawed on theissue till 2017, when a series ofsuch accidents forced it to stopmanufacture of ICF type coach-es, switching over completely toLHB types as far as new manufac-ture was concerned. The problemof a large legacy fleet of ICF typecoaches with years of useful life

still remained, given that an ICFtype coach has a useful life of 25years. As of today, the number ofcoaches on IR is around 40000ICF type and 25000 LHB typewhich means that a large numberof even faster trains run with ICFtype coaches.

The crescendo which has builtup, just as in the past when suchan accident took place, runs downICF type coaches calling themcoffins on wheels. This is anexaggeration as this type of coach-es have served the country wellsince 1950s. Lives of railway pas-sengers always mattered,but inrecent years, perhaps due to thepenetration of social media, theymatter much more and rightly so.Some drastic measures are, there-fore, called for. The solution israther plain. Scrap ICF typecoaches in a greater haste andincrease the pace of manufactureof LHB type coaches to replacethem.

The order is not tall; thanks tosome measures taken by railwayProduction Units, particularlyIntegral Coach Factory since2016, IR can be geared to manu-facture 9000 coaches per year. Ifthat is achieved from April 2022,as many as 25000 oldest ICF typecoaches can be replaced, prema-turely, by safer LHB type coach-es or train sets, relegating the bal-ance to inferior services which canthen complete their full useful lifewithout putting lives of passengers

to danger. IR is a large system andsome derailments of passengertrains would occur even if the railinfrastructure is improved furtherbut more and more LHB typecoaches would mean that therisk of fatalities in such derail-ments would be greatly reduced.

The inevitable question wouldbe about the extra `15000-20,000crore that it would cost. First ofall, it is not a big amount giventhat it would definitely save hun-dreds of lives in the years to come.Second, IR has shown unprece-dented haste in abandoning andstabling a large fleet of its func-tioning diesel locomotives, speed-ing up electrification and manu-facturing a large number of elec-tric locomotives to showcase itscommitment towards use of greenenergy; that the power consumedby its electric locomotives is hard-ly green is another matter.

IR can, therefore, decide touse its funds more meaningfully,taking this as an opportunity tobite the bullet and let the oldmake way for the new, whichwould not only mean more LHBtype coaches but also more mod-ern trainsets like Train 18 andtheir upgraded version in alu-minium body. Modern train setswould not only mean safer trav-el but also more comfortablepassenger experience. It is timefor IR to decide on a bold initia-tive to provide safer travel to itspassengers.

(The writer is a retiredGeneral Manager,Indian Railways.

The views expressed are personal.)

The committee set up bythe Union Governmentat the end of the long-

drawn farmers’ protest todecide on the issue of MSPshould consider dismantlingthediscriminatory price policyand instead adopt the AreaPlanning approach with aninbuilt guarantee of MSP.

This will reduce the hugeGovernment expenditure andhelp in optimum utilisation ofour scarce land and waterresources, fertilisers and otherinputs by controlling overpro-duction.

The practice of AreaPlanning, already adopted asthe alternative mechanism bydeveloped countries like theUSA, Australia and the UK,isa tested approach and hasproven its worth. In Australia,the departments of agricul-

ture and food provide informa-tion and advice to theAustralian PlanningCommission and local govern-ments to ensure strategic plan-ning at the farmers’ level for thegrowth of agriculture as perdemand of domestic humanand animal requirements andindustrial use and exports.

In the US and Australia,the zoning process regulates thetypes of activities that can beaccommodated on a givenpiece of land as well as theamount of space devoted tothose activities. Subsidies arealso linked to area allocatedunder a crop. In case of the UK,all farms above five hectareshave to get approval for use ofland,not only for growing cropsbut also for constructing build-ings, carry out excavations andengineering operations for

allied activities.In India, we have been

observing that the overproduc-tion of any commodity causesan abrupt fall in prices andheavy losses to farmers. If pro-curement is done by theGovernment, it leads to heavyloss to the exchequer wheninternational prices are lower.Implementation of AreaPlanning can take care of boththese problems and also saveon costs of inputs and post-har-vest management. Besides,

Area Planning will help inoptimising the use of scarceresources such as water and fer-tilizers by preventing a glut inthe production of individualcommodities.

Before appraising the newapproach, we have to under-stand the ground realities ofMSP at the all-India level. Asper the estimate reported byNSSO (77th round) in theSituation Assessment Survey(SAS) of agri-householdsforthe agricultural year July 2018to June 2019, just 8.8 per centof them sold any crop to thegovernment agencies atMSP.The value of that agri-pro-duce was just 8 per cent of thetotal value of agriculture (cropsplus livestock).

Going by the Census andNational Accounts data, thepercentages come down to5.6

and 2.2, respectively.At thenational level, that translates toless than one per cent in mostof North-Eastern states to ashigh as 50 per cent in Chattisgarh, 30 per cent inTelangana, 28 per cent in Punjab, and 23 per cent inHaryana.

Past experience indicatesthat farmers from Punjab andHaryana have benefitted themost from the MSP regimebecause they are more organ-ised and enjoy a lead inresources and production dueto the onset of GreenRevolution in the 1960s. Oflate, procurement has spread instates like Chattisgarh andTelangana for paddy andMadhya Pradesh for wheat. Ithas resulted in lopsided pro-duction. Even though MSPs areannounced for 23 commodi-

ties, the price support essential-ly runs for wheat and rice andthat too in selected states. Wesee a highly distorted picture ofincentive structure whichfavours the wheat and riceproducing states.

Agricultural economistsand experts say MSP distortsthe basic logic of the supply-demand mechanism,slowsdown the process of diversifi-cation and is economically avery expensive and inefficientpolicy instrumentbesides lead-ing to massive leakages andcorruption. It cannot augmentincomes of small and margin-al farmers who representalmost 87 per cent of the totalfarming community. With anaverage holding size of 0.9 ha,unless farmers move rapidlytowards high-value agricul-ture,there is not much scope to

achieve better incomes forsmall land holders in an eco-nomically efficient and sustain-able way.

It is much better to direct-ly help small and marginalfarmers with an income poli-cy or through a diversificationpackage towards high valueagriculture, the experts advise.

The issue of optimum util-isation of land, water, fertilis-ers, labour and other inputsalso needs to be considered.With a growing population, wehave limited land which meetsthe basicneedsofcereals, pulses,oils, milk, meat, fruits, vegeta-bles, clothing, fuel and shelter.The cropping system should betailored to local consumptionpatterns rather than for onlygetting the maximum price,irrespective of whether theproduce has a demand or not.

India’s experience with cropping patterns is overproduction of a commodity that causes an abrupt fall in prices and heavy losses to farmers

Area planning better alternative to guaranteeing MSP

BRIJENDER SINGH PANWAR

(The writer is a senior journalist and Chairman,

Panwar Group of Institutions,Solan, Himachal Pradesh. Theviews expressed are personal.)

HYDERABAD | THURSDAY | JANUARY 20, 2022 Money 08

MONEY MATTERS

Automobile dealership chainLandmark Cars Ltd has filedpreliminary prospectus with

capital markets regulator Sebi toraise Rs 762 crore through aninitial public offering. The publicissue consists of a fresh issue ofequity shares aggregating to Rs150 crore and an Offer For Sale(OFS) of up to Rs 612 crore,according to the Draft Red Herring

Prospectus (DRHP).The OFS comprises sale of shares worth up to Rs400 crore by TPG Growth II SF PTE Ltd, up to Rs 62 crore by SanjayKarsandas Thakker HUF, up to Rs 120 crore by Aastha Limited and upto Rs 30 crore by Garima Misra.The Initial Public Offering (IPO) alsoincludes a reservation for subscription by eligible employees. Proceedsfrom its fresh issuance worth Rs 120 crore will be utilised for paymentof debt and general corporate purposes.TPG-backed Landmark Cars isa leading premium automotive retail business in India with dealershipsfor Mercedes-Benz, Honda, Jeep, Volkswagen and Renault,.LandmarkCars, otherwise known as Group Landmark has a presence across theautomotive retail value chain, which includes sales of new vehicles,after-sales service and repairs, including sales of spare parts, lubricantsand accessories, and sales of pre-owned passenger vehicles. In FY21,Landmark dealerships sold 1,133 vehicles for Mercedes and more than4,000 vehicles for Honda and Renault. Overall, the company has soldover 1.3 lakh cars across all the brands it caters too.

Premium auto dealership chainLandmark files papers for Rs 762 crore

Dileep Sanghani has beenelected as chairman of theIndian Farmers Fertiliser

Cooperative (IFFCO). The electionwas held on Wednesday, IFFCOsaid in a statement.These elections were held due to

the demise of incumbentChairman Balvinder Singh Nakaiearlier on October 11, 2021.The elected board of directors of

IFFCO unanimously elected Dileep Sanghani as the 17th chairman ofthe Cooperative.He was earlier serving as the IFFCO vice-chairman.Sanghani was elected as the vice-chairman of IFFCO in the year2019. After getting elected, Sanghani said the IFFCO was committedto farmers and cooperatives and will continue to work for thefarmers on the lines of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of'Sahkar se Samridhi'.IFFCO Managing Director Awasthi said, "Wecontinue to perform in sync with our Prime Minister's vision ofAtmanirbhar Krishi and Atmanirbhar Bharat to fulfil the dream ofdoubling farmers' income."Dileep Bhai Sanghani is a senior co-operator from Gujarat and he is also the chairman of Gujarat StateCooperative Marketing Federation Ltd. (GUJCOMASOL), a post hehas held since 2017.He is a former minister of Agriculture, Co-operation Animal Husbandry, Fisheries, Cow-Breeding, Prison, ExciseLaw & Justice, Legislative & Parliamentary Affairs in the Cabinet ofthe Gujrat government.In 2021, Sanghani was elected to the positionof the President of the National Cooperative Union of India (NCUI),the apex body of the Cooperatives in India.

Dileep Sanghani elected as IFFCO chairman

Orient Green Power Company Ltd (OGPL) on Wednesday posted aconsolidated net profit of Rs 6.28 crore for the December 2021quarter, mainly on the back of higher revenues.

The company had reported a consolidated net loss of Rs 21.42 crorein the quarter ended on December 31, 2020, according to a BSEfiling.Total income during October-December 2021 rose to Rs 82.54crore, against Rs 53 crore in the year-ago period.Its Vice-Chairman TShivaraman said, "The resumption of REC (renewable energycertificates) trading during November 2021 resulted in an increasedcash inflow of Rs 42 crore during the quarter. The REC trading isexpected to be buoyant in the periods to come."He added that theefforts to reduce interest costs resulted in savings of Rs 4 croreduring the current period.

Orient Green Power Co posts Rs6.28-cr net profit for Dec quarter

PNS n NEW DELHI

State-owned CIL onWednesday said the actualcoal despatch under the five e-auction windows increasedby 31 per cent to 77.4 milliontonnes (MTs) in the April-December period of this fiscal.

The actual coal despatchunder the five e-auction win-dows by Coal India (CIL) wasat 59 MT in the year-ago peri-od, the PSU said in a state-ment.

Special forward e-auction,the exclusive window meantfor the power sector, account-ed for nearly 28 MTs of thetotal despatched quantity.

Coal supplied under othere-auction outlets, where pre-dominantly non-regulated sec-tor customers access coal,accounted for 49.5 MT.

Under this category CILlogged a growth of 21 per cent,compared to 41 MT of thesame period last year, and atwo-fold increase over 24.4MT in April-December 2019-20.

The volume increase in sup-plies under e-auction was

achieved even though CILpumped an all-time high ofalmost 391 MT of coal to ther-mal power plants duringApril-December period, clock-ing 23.3 per cent growth.

The increase in absoluteterms is 74 MT. In compari-son, the despatch to powersector was 317 MT April-December of the previous fis-cal.CIL's total off-take scaledup to 482 MT during the firstnine months of the fiscal inprogress, registering a year-on-year growth of 18 per cent.The increase in absolute termswas 72 MT compared to 410

MT April-December of theprevious fiscal.CIL has bookeda total of 83.7 MT of coalunder its five e-auction cate-gories during April-Decemberof this fiscal - a 2.3 MTincrease over 81.4 MT of cor-responding period last fiscal.

During the fourth quarter ofthe current fiscal, even if CILbooks the same quantity ofcoal in e-auctions that it didduring the same quarter pre-vious fiscal, which was 42.6MT, the company would stillsail past the record high e-auc-tion allocation of 124 MTachieved in 2020-21.

CIL's supplies under e-auction rises31 pc during Apr-Dec this fiscal

PNS n NEW DELHI

Fintech firm BharatPe onWednesday said its co-founderand MD Ashneer Grover hasdecided to take a voluntaryleave of absence fromBharatPe till March-end.

The development comesamid an ongoing tusslebetween Grover and his wife,and Kotak Mahindra Bank.

While BharatPe did notspecify a reason for Grover'sdecision, it said the co-founderhad on Wednesday informedthe Board of his decision totake a voluntary leave ofabsence from BharatPe tillMarch-end.

"Ashneer has co-builtBharatPe from scratch andhis decision is consistent withhis passionate commitmentto the future success of thecompany. The Board hasaccepted Ashneer's decision,which we agree is in the bestinterests of the company, ouremployees and investors, andthe millions of merchants wesupport each day," BharatPesaid in a statement.

It added that the companywill continue to be led by its

CEO Suhail Sameer and itsmanagement team.On January9, Kotak Mahindra Bank hadsaid it is pursuing "legal action"against Grover and his wifeMadhuri in connection withthe abusive call matter.Thelender acknowledged that thecouple had on October 30 senta legal notice to it, withoutelaborating on the reasons forthe same.

According to media reports,the couple had accused thebank of failing to securefinance and allocation ofshares in the Nykaa initialpublic offer (IPO) and soughtRs 500 crore in damages.Anaudio clip had surfaced onsocial media where a couple ispurportedly speaking to whatappears to be a relationshipmanager from a bank.

BharatPe MD Ashneer Grover takesleave of absence till March-end

PNS n NEW DELHI

IndiGG, a part of YieldGuild Games (YGG), onWednesday said it hasraised USD 6 mi l l ion(about Rs 44.7 crore) infunding f rom S equoiaCapital India, LightspeedVenture Partners and oth-ers.The round also saw par-t ic ipat ion f rom JumpCapital , Variant Fund,Dune Ventures, GriffinGaming Par tners ,Transcend Fund, AnimocaBrands, Play Ventures,Backed and Sfermion, IVC,Emfarsis and others, astatement said.Angelinvestors included Redditco-founder Alexis Ohanian,Alan Howard, co-founderof Brevan Howard AssetManagement and execu-tives from the Indian gam-ing and entertainmentindustr y, includingHungama, Nazara, WinZo,Hindustan Talkies andMobile Premier League(MPL), it added.

IndiGG raises $6mnfunding fromSequoia CapitalIndia, others

PNS n NEW DELHI

Broadband technology firmSterlite Technologies onWednesday posted a consoli-dated loss of Rs 137 crore onaccount of one-time provi-sioning for dues from a client.

The company had posted aprofit of Rs 86.64 crore in thesame period a year ago.

Sterlite Technologies man-aging director Ankit Agarwalsaid that the company's under-lying business continues tomaintain healthy momentum.

"India will see massive net-work build up for 5G. We areseeing interest from telecomoperators to build redundancy.Lot of demand is coming fromdata centres companies tobuild redundancy. We are also

looking at the wireless side aswell where we are developingradio equipment. We havestrong order books fromEurope and US as well,"Agarwal said.

Consolidated revenue of

Sterlite Technologies (STL)grew by 3.69 per cent to Rs1,370.96 crore during thereported quarter from Rs1,322.09 crore in the corre-sponding quarter of 2020-21.

STL chief financial officer

Mihir Modi said that theimpact on profit has been dueto one-time provision againstdues of a client which thecompany expects to recover infuture.

The company reported anorder book of Rs 11,700 crorecomprising 56 per cent fromIndia, 35 per cent from Europeand Middle East, 7-8 per centfrom US and balance from restof the world.

Agarwal said that the shareof orders from overseas busi-ness is expected to grow incoming quarters.

During the quarter STLwon multi-year contractsacross Europe, cumulativelyvalued at over around Rs 700crore in the new product lineof Optical Interconnect.

Sterlite Tech posts Rs 137 cr loss for Oct-DecPNS nMUMBAI

MatchLog, a container logis-tics optimisation platform,has raised USD 3 million(around Rs 22.3 crore) in afunding round from venturecapital fund Blue AshvaCapital, Rainmatter Climate,and early-stage investorCapital-A.

The capital raised in thepre-Series A round will bedeployed to developMatchlog's platform furtherfor AI and machine learning-based pairing of cargo, growthe multi-modal share in addi-tion to road transport andexpand its footprint to moreports around the world, thestartup said in a statement on

Wednesday."We will be expanding to

the Middle East, Africa andSoutheast Asian markets overthe next 12-18 months. Weaim to help reduce at least 100million tonnes of carbon overthe coming five years," DhruvTaneja, founder of Matchlog,said.

Matchlog is among the firstto offer a tool to turnarounda container from an import toexport cycle in a scalable man-ner, thereby eliminatingunnecessary empty runs toand from the container yards.

Satya Bansal, founder ofBlue Ashva Capital said, decar-bonisation is one of the keychallenges the shipping indus-try faces globally.

Container logistics startupMatchlog raises US $ 3 mn

PNS nMUMBAI

Rating agency Icra onWednesday said while there issome evidence of the eco-nomic recovery becomingbroad-based in the third quar-ter of fiscal 2022, it is yet toattain the durability beingsought by the Monetary PolicyCommittee (MPC) as a pre-cursor to policy transmission.

The agency expects the realGDP to expand 6-6.5 per centyear-on-year in the third quar-ter of FY2022 (+8.4 per cent inQ2 FY2022). It also sees theRBI maintaining the statusquo in the upcoming mone-tary policy review to be held inFebruary.

Its Chief Economist AditiNayar said economic activityrebounded in December 2021,even as many sectors contin-ued to trail the performancerecorded in October 2021.

Encouragingly, the quarter-ly data suggests a modestbroad-basing of the recoveryin Q3 FY2022, relative to Q2FY2022, when compared torespective pre-COVID-19 vol-umes.

"However, the onset of thethird wave of COVID-19 hastriggered state-wise restric-

tions, which have expectedlyinterrupted the momentumin the ongoing month, reiter-ating that the recovery is yet toattain durability," Nayar said ina report released onWednesday.

The agency said the y-o-yperformance of 10 of the 15high-frequency indicatorsimproved in December 2021compared to November 2021.

These include generation ofGST e-way bills, non-oil mer-chandise exports, electricitygeneration, two-wheeler out-put as well as aggregate

deposits and non-food creditof scheduled commercialbanks.

The report further said they-o-y performance of nine ofthe 15 high-frequency indica-tors in December 2021 trailedthe growth seen in October2021.

FASTag toll collections andretail payments rose to all-timehighs in December 2021, whilethe monthly mobility for retailand recreation rose above thelevel of baseline period for thefirst time since the onset ofCOVID-19, it said.

Nayar further said that fol-lowing the re-imposition ofstate-wise restrictions to curbthe third wave of COVID-19,the early data for January 2022is expectedly weak.

The daily average genera-tion of the GST e-way billsdipped to 2.1 million duringJanuary 1-16, 2022, from 2.3million in December 2021.

After a y-o-y growth inDecember 2021, the sales ofpetrol and diesel of state refin-ers slipped back to a contrac-tion in the first half of January2022. Even, the y-o-y growthin electricity demand eased to1.9 per cent during January 1-16, 2022, from 2.8 per cent inDecember 2021, she said.

The agency said that withthe fresh uncertainty triggeredby Omicron and the associat-ed restrictions, it expects a sta-tus quo on the stance of themonetary policy as well as thereverse repo rate in theupcoming RBI policy meeting,in spite of the rise in the retailinflation in December 2021.

The Consumer Price Index(CPI) accelerated to a six-month high of 5.59 per cent inDecember 2021, close to theRBI's upper tolerance band ofsix per cent.

Economic recovery yet to attain durability: Icra PNS n NEW DELHI

Government on Wednesdaydecided to infuse Rs 1,500crore in the Indian RenewableEnergy Development AgencyLimited (IREDA), raising itslending capacity to Rs 12,000crore.

A proposal in this regardwas approved by the CabinetCommittee on EconomicAffairs.

Briefing reporters after theCabinet meeting, Informationand Broadcasting MinisterAnurag Thakur said the deci-sion has been taken in thewake the RBI's lending norms.

The minister said the infu-sion of Rs 1,500 crore willenable IREDA to lend Rs

12,000 crore to the renewablesector.

The Cabinet decision will

help IREDA to create renew-able energy capacity of 3,500 to4,000 MW.

Cabinet approves Rs 1,500 crinfusion in IREDA

PNS nMUMBAI

Equity benchmarks Sensexand Nifty tanked around 1per cent on Wednesday due tosharp losses mainly in IT,banking and FMCG sharesfollowing a global rout inequities on rate hike worries.

The 30-share BSE Sensexdeclined by 656.04 points or1.08 per cent to close at60,098.82, with 23 of its con-stituents ending in the red.

The broader NSE Niftyplunged by 174.65 points or0.96 per cent to close at17,938.40 points as 35 of itsstocks closed with losses.Infosys fell the most amongSensex stocks, declining by2.85 per cent. Among otherIT stocks, TCS fell by 1.87 percent, Wipro by 1.52 per cent,and HCL Tech by 1.70 percent.Asian Paints by 2.71 percent, HUL declined by 2.41per cent, Bajaj Finance by 2.07per cent, and Kotak Bank by1.86 per cent.Foreigninvestors remained net sellersin the Indian equity marketsas they offloaded stocks worthRs 1,254.95 crore on Tuesday,according to stock exchangedata. Asian stock marketsdeclined in cautious tradingwith Tokyo's Nikkei 225plunging nearly 3 per cent fol-lowing losses on Wall Street.

Sensex, Nifty tanksaround 1 pc as ratehike worries hitglobal equities

PNS n NEW DELHI

Music label Saregama Indiaon Wednesday reported a37.78 per cent increase in itsconsolidated net profit to Rs43.54 crore for the thirdquarter ended in December2021.

It had posted a net profit ofRs 31.60 crore in theOctober-December quarter

of the last fiscal, Saregamasaid in a regulatory filing.

Saregama's revenue fromoperations was up 12.27 percent to Rs 150.34 crore dur-ing the period under reviewas against Rs 133.91 crore inthe corresponding period ofthe previous fiscal.

Total expenses of the RPSanjiv Goenka Group firmwere at Rs 100.45 crore in

Q3/FY 2021-22 as against Rs95.94 crore, up 4.7 per cent.

Its revenue from musicwas at Rs 133.33 crore and Rs15.58 crore from Film/TVserials.“During this quarter,Saregama acquired musicrights of Karan Johar's nextdirectorial film Rocky RaniKi Prem Kahani starringRanveer Singh and AliaBhatt.

Saregama India Q3 net profit up 37.8% to Rs 43.54 cr

PNS n NEW DELHI

The apex body for liquor firmsConfederation of IndianAlcoholic Beverage Companieshas urged the government togradually reduce customsduties on British alcoholic bev-erages under the proposedIndia-UK free trade agree-ment to support domestic play-ers.

India and the UK have for-mally launched negotiations foran FTA, under which dutieswould be reduced or eliminat-ed on several goods tradedbetween the two countries.

The Confederation of IndianAlcoholic Beverage Companies(CIABC) has also suggested thegovernment to ensure that theUK allows the selling ofdomestic whiskies as 'IndianWhisky', irrespective ofwhether they are made from

malt, grain spirits or molasses-based spirits.

They should also remove thecondition of a minimum threeyears maturation period forwhisky and rum, the bodysaid in a letter to the commerceministry."The domestic alco-holic beverages industry onlyseeks just and fair level playingfield for Indian producers andhelp them achieve global scaleand success...It is thereforevital that the interests of thedomestic industry are not com-promised, and opportunitiesare created for Indian productsto reach out and conquer theworld," CIABC Director-General Vinod Giri said.

He added that the alcoholicbeverages industry contributesRs 2.5 lakh crore annually intaxes to the states, employs 20lakh people and supports 50lakh farmers.

"We urge our government toensure (in the FTA) that Indianalcoholic beverage industry ispermitted a truly level playingfield by way of an effective cus-

toms duty that is reflective ofthe higher cost of productiondriven by the regulatoryrestrictions and capital cost inIndia; equal opportunities are

created for export of Indianproducts to the UK, and mea-sures are put in to preventdumping or predatory priceexports to India," Giri added.

CIABC urges govt to cut duties on British alcoholic beverages

PNS n NEW DELHI

JSW Energy on Wednesdayreported over two-fold jumpin its consolidated net profitto Rs 324 crore in December2021 quarter, mainly on theback of higher revenues. Theconsolidated net profit of thecompany was Rs 124 crore inthe year-ago quarter, a BSE fil-ing said. The total revenue ofthe company rose to Rs 1,984crore in the quarter from Rs1,659 crore a year ago.

JSW Energy netprofit jumps overtwo-fold to Rs 324 cr

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facebook.com/dailypioneer

ThursdayJanuary 20, 2022

Learn to sail with TS' champsSHIKHA DUGGAL

he sport of sailing is all aboutmaneuvering a sea-borne craft. And,for coach Suheim Sheikh, the pur-pose of the sail was always to powerthe craft since he was 10 years old. Asuccessful sailor himself, he knows

how to navigate his sailboat in different andchallenging wind conditions besides havinggood knowledge of the craft and an under-standing of how to maintain it in the best waypossible. This led him to the creation of YachtClub of Hyderabad Foundation where the latestdevelopment is that the young sailors VaishnaviVeeravamsham, 15, and Preethi Kongara, 17,from Telangana, has brought glory to us! Theyjust didn’t move into the senior category butmade the state proud with the largest haul ofmedals in history for sailing. “The foundation isall about opening up on new horizons andmanaging aspirations of budding sailors fromthe state. There’s nothing better than a giganticlake like a Hussain Sagar to sail. To run multipleinitiatives has been a hell of an excercise to me,required so much of my perseverance. But,championship after championship, we havecome to the top of Indian fleet now represent-ing Telangana state,” tells the coach. The yatchclub started with four kids and three little boatsand has now grown to about 150+ boats andabout 150 children. They largely work as a pri-vately funded foundation and since 2009, theirwork has focused on disadvantaged childrenfrom governmentschools.

“Our intense and scientific training withemphasis on economically challenged youthwho are picked in the age group of nine to tenyears is proving to be very effective. VaishnaviVeeravamsham is placed as India’s number twoin the laser radial category at the age of 15 yearsold and is rapidly improving her techniquedespite her age and lack of weight in the LaserILCA 4 class while getting trained under multi-ple International coaches!,” adds mentor-cum-founder. There’s something called ‘dignitythrough sports’ that the founder wanted to takeahead with the incorporation of a foundation

like this in Hyderabad city. He continues, “I have sailed for 30years, and in this journey, I under-

stood how sailing was consideredto be an exotic or a rich man’s

sport. Hence, the limited com-petition too. Given the factthere is a vast coastal line thatwe have in the country, theinfrastructure for watersports wasn’t adequate. Myfoundation fixed this prob-lem! Where for a span of 25years, there was no sailingamongst the kids, today thesame kids from Telangana are

getting us glory and medals.”The club also focusses on eco-

nomically challenged childrenfrom government schools and

sharpen their training capability tothe point of producing many nation-

al champions in the sub-junior andjunior categories with many medalists.

Orphans and deprivedchildren with diversebackgrounds likefarming and labourhave been trained totop levels and theireducation and nutritionfunded and monitoredby them! “The NaavikaProgram launched in 2016for the girl sailors and hasbeen a phenomenal success, hav-ing trained about 100 girls and select-

ed twelve of them for advanced high-performance training. Telangana pro-duced 100 medallists in the lastdecade and someone like Jhansi Priyataking part in international meets infive countries is itself a noteworthyfeat,” says the head coach.Durgaprasad joined the Yacht Club ofHyderabad in February, 2015, whenhe was just about 10 years old. Hisfather, Lingam, works at a photocopy-ing shop in Ramananthapur, and hismother, Sarala is a sweeper at amotorbike showroom. He wanted tobe a mechanical engineer, but it mightnot have been possible for his parentsto give him the best of quality in that

education. His little sister completedher matriculation, and the

parents thanked theincredible journey

Durga has chartedfor himself through

the club — as nar-rated by thefounder to us.“This has been afantastic year forus at the YachtClub ofHyderabad

Foundation &now we are deeply

encouraged tomobilise a large num-

ber of sailors fromacross the state to take them to these

heights of performances. Our ultimategoal is to provide them withtheir dream careers alongside!I still remember, while i wasin the college, the sweeperswere the most exploited onthe campus. Low salaries &no stability in their jobs. As amagazine editor for the cam-pus, I started giving them oddjobs to make some moremoney and one day fifty ofthem wanted me to representthem before the management.These deeds inspired me todo be who I am today andwhat I do for under-priv-eleged families.”

Today, the Yacht Club OfHyderabad Foundation boastof the largest floating pontoonfacility in the state and one ofthe largest in the country forsafe launching and landingand retrieval of sailing craft

with a 100 meter jetty ideal for training! He concludes, “The first sailing event that

happened was in Khadakwasla Lake with fivekids, we have had our share of celebrities too.Our very own Rana Daggubati had come downto learn a little bit of sailing, the very specialV.V.S Laxman, Rahul Dravid spent an entire daywith us sailing. We connect our sailors to tocareer counseling too, help admit them to betterinstitutions, fund bikes to get them to schooland the club, take them across the country andabroad to International championships.19 Boyshave been admitted to the Army and Navy BoysSports Companies after being trained at theYCH and 2 directly in the Navy.”

The foundation’s current sources of fundinghave been sponsors to an annual national levelregatta they run called the ‘Monsoon Regatta’and over the years, donations from friends andwell wishers who believe in the cause. Theyhave been actively supported by Deloitte andThe Marriott Hotel for many years too! So dis-cover sailing with the Yacht Club of HyderabadFoundation now & look at this incredible sportgoing international with the help of Telanganasailors.

t

hen Shreedhar BS (betterknown as Shred) wasapproached by the NGO Vihaanto make a film on trafficking, hetook the animation route. Theoutcome Reena Ki Kahani was

released on YouTube as, without a paywall,it was bound to have a better reach amongthe target audience. Shred will also beorganising a free screening of the film in1,000 Indian schools from the first week ofJanuary.

The nine-and-a-half-minute film focuss-es on the horrors of human trafficking andthe way agents, which lurk amongst us,trap victims. The film also talks about howto understand potential threats of humantrafficking and avoid them

Based on the real-life story of Reena, thefilm traces her path from being a girl withdreams to her entrapment into the fleshtrade and subsequent rescue. It also shedslight on the different vulnerabilities thatfacilitate such crimes, like false promisesand the lure of a better life for girls fromthe weaker sections of society. It showcaseshow traffickers connive to prey on possiblevictims. At another level, this film is also astory of survival, giving insights into howsuch situations can be detected and avoid-ed as well as the way to identify victims

and oppressors.It was not surprising that Vihaan, which

has rescued over 4,700 survivors of humantrafficking narrowed down on the directorof Shred Creative Lab Private Limited tomake this film to create awareness. Shredhas over 22 years of experience in films,television, digital content, branding, andmarketing. Known for innovative and dis-ruptive ideas, Shred has worked closelywith international brands such as TurnerBroadcast UK, National Geographic -International, Fox, Ford — APAC, BMW -India, Sony Motion Pictures -London/USA and many more.

The winner of 43 National andInternational awards for creative excel-lence, SCL embodies Shreedhar’s vision tocreate innovative and path-breaking visualcommunication. Shred earlier was thedirector of Salt Studios Private Limited andcreative director for the NationalGeographic Channel as well as FoxInternational Channels. Earlier this yearhis documentary, In Our World, whichhighlighted the lives of three autistic chil-dren was the official selection and pre-miered at the 51st International FilmFestival of India (IFFI) Goa. It also wasscreened in Bollywood Festival Norwayand NYC Virtual South Asia Film Festival

(SAFF) and is scheduled to screen in manyforthcoming film festivals globally.

Excerpts from an interview:

Why did you decide to take theanimation route for this film? Wasit to ensure that it reached morepeople?

It was animated because I wanted par-ents to see it and wanted them to encour-age children to see it. When the NGOapproached me for this film, the firstthought was to do a real-life documentaryon the rescue of these children. But laterthe thought was that such a film wouldnever reach children and they would notbe aware of the dangers that lurk or thekind of dangers that they are exposed to.So, it was a better idea to make it animatedwhile making it less morbid and more sen-sitive so that it could be seen by children.So, that was the entire thought behindmaking it an animation film.

So, is it primarily looking at chil-dren?

It is looking at everyone. Children, par-ents and adults. I didn’t want to isolate any-one when I was making it. I chose folk artas an art form for the animation so that itcould relate to the region where the inci-dent took place. Since it was in Bengal, wechose folk art from the State. We tried toconnect with the children from that regionand made it shorter because the virality ismore. It was released on YouTube so that atleast the link could be shared. It can bescreened on mobiles and in schools. So, wehad a lot of thoughts about the kind of artto use and the kind of animation to use.

How long did it take, from the sto-ryboard to execution to make thefilm?

It actually took us longer than wethought. It took three-four months. Eachof these boards was hand-drawn separately.Once the board was drawn, it was animat-ed. We had to make it sensitive and talkabout each topic that involves human traf-ficking. We had to do a lot of research,hear a lot of stories from them and findwhat kind of things had to be highlighted.So, we talked about all kinds of trafficking,what all leads to it. We chose Reena’s story

because she was one of the people whowere rescued and now she has moved on toa life of her own. We wanted to talk aboutsomething positive and bring the girl at theend of the film where she says that, ‘I amfine now. And people need to fight againstthis kind of crime,’ to give it some kind ofcompletion.

You have used folk art fromBengal. Did you get actual practi-tioners on board?

I have a team of artists but we did referto some artists in Mumbai who could drawthis and guide us. We asked them for help.

The film had a very nostalgicDoordarshan vibe where we werereminded of films like Ek Chidiya,Anek Chidiya and others. Was thatdeliberate?

We miss those films, don’t we? I wantedto go back to that. This was a consciouseffort where I wanted to make a film ofthat nature. It had to be linear storytelling.I did not want to dramatise anything. Theprimary audience was children. Weremember those films because they werenot too non-linear or classy. It was a linearnarrative and all of them taught us some-thing. There was always a moral at the end.These were in our minds when we weremaking it. I am not denying that.

Several reports indicate that traffickinghas increased during the lockdown as thefinancial situation became very desperateduring the lockdown.

A lot of desperation set in for too manypeople. Many did not have work, otherscould not go out and work. There wereseveral painful stories, that I heard fromthe NGOs, that parents gave away theirchildren thinking that the girl would earnsome money to run the house. The vulner-abilities were high during this period.People were available for exploitationbecause of a lack of money, parents losingtheir jobs. When emotional stress was highas parents wondered how they would runthe house, children volunteered to go andlook for work in Mumbai or Kolkata with-out realising the danger or what they aregetting into. Such situations put people in aplace where they are potential targets forthese guys.

Future projects?

I am writing a Malayalam feature filmon caste atrocities that happened in theearly 20th century. This is a horror thrilleris based on folklore. This is about the riseof communism and a police investigationinto serial killing.

A NINE-MINUTE MESSAGE

w

ractising all the DIYsthat you can, still losingyour hair? It can bebecause you are nottaking proper care ofyour wet hair. Yes, wet

hair care is as important as theothers. Here are some commonmistakes you must avoid forhealthy hair. ” Avoid rubbing or scratching

your hair when it is wet: Oneof the worst things you coulddo is rub or scratch your hairagainst anything, whether it betowels or clothes. If you areone who loves to play withtheir hair when wet, make sureyou are doing it very gently.This will help reduce theamount of breakage that canoccur. If you are experiencing alot of knots or tangles, tryusing a comb instead of yourfingers to take out any tanglesor knots until it is fully dry.” Wrapping your wet hair in atowel: Another popular waymany people choose to dry offafter washing their hair is bywrapping them up in a simplebath towel and sitting for 20minutes before proceedingwith the rest of their day.While this method may bequick and easy compared toother methods, it can alsocause damage and breakage tothe ends of your tresses if donetoo roughly.” Don’t rough dry: The bestand most preferred way to dryyour hair after washing it isusing a blow-dryer with a dif-fuser, even during the winter!While it may take longerthan wrapping your hair upin a towel, you will see thatthis method is less damagingand causes less frizziness aswell. If you do not own a dif-fuser attachment for yourblow-dryer make sure to usethe low setting and keep thenozzle about 12 inches awayfrom your head for optimaldrying time, while flippingyour hair up towards thenozzle for maximum airflow.

” Use towels made ofmicrofiber: Using materialsother than microfiber towelsfor your hair can cause yourlocks to become frizzy, tangledor worst of all — matted! ” Do not use rough brushes:When our hair is wet, it is waymore fragile than when it isdry. So, make sure you areusing a good quality brush thatwill not cause any extra dam-age. Using brushes made ofboar bristle or wood will helpdistribute the natural oils inyour scalp evenly throughouteach strand of hair, which pre-vents breakage and frizziness.” Avoid heat: While many peo-ple may turn on their curlingirons or straighteners whentheir hair is wet, many don’trealize the damage this causes.The best way to use heat onyour hair is by applying itwhen it has dried up about 80percent. This will help reducethe amount of breakage thatoccurs during this time.” Avoid using conditioner nearyour roots — a mistake manypeople make when washingtheir hair is to not only applythe shampoo to their roots butthe conditioner as well. Whilethis can be beneficial for somebecause it helps soften up andwork through difficult tanglesand knots, moisturizing toomuch in one spot can inducemore oil production in thatparticular area. That leads tooily roots.

(The author Dr. Navnit Haror is a certifieddermatologist at Derma Miracle Clinic)

How to handle wet hair

P

Rules

ARCHIE

GARFIELD

SUDOKU

REALITY CHECK CROSSWORD

GINGER MEGGS

NANCY

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

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

Yesterday’s solution

CALVIN AND HOBBES

SPEED BUMP

FUN

10

what’s brewing?Hyderabad Thursday January 20, 2022

PAR

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Ph

oto

s b

y S

V C

ha

ry

MRS. NUMBER ONE

l Baishali Panda l Indu Agrawal

l Sneha Chowdary

l Dr Apeksha

l Neha Bhargava

l Sudha Devi Naidu l Vijayeta Tirkey

Mrs. Baishali Panda was crownedMrs India Telangana 2021 in thegrand finale of Mrs India

Telangana and Mrs India AndhraPradesh. The pageant has been organ-ised by Mrs Mamta Trivedi. Mrs InduAgrawal won the title in the Classic (40to 60 years) category. Actor and awardwinning playback singer, Ila Arun,fielding coach of Indian Cricket Team,T.K Dileep and Ms Satya Pinjala, exec-utive director of Sri Shakti EducationalSociety, were the celebrity guests ofhonour who encouraged the contes-tants.

l Rajani Pydi

he 64th edition ofthe GrammyAwards will bebroadcast live fromLas Vegas on April3, the Recording

Academy has announced.Harvey Mason Jr, CEO ofthe Recording Academy,shared the update in a state-ment on Grammy’s officialwebsite.

The event, which was ear-lier scheduled to take placein Los Angeles on January31, will be held from theMGM Grand Garden Arenaon the new date. It will beaired on the CBS TelevisionNetwork and will also beavailable to stream live andon demand on ParamountPlus.

Trevor Noah, the EmmyAward-winning host of TheDaily Show, will return asmaster of ceremonies for“music’s biggest night”.

In early January, theRecording Academy post-poned the ceremony in thewake of the surge in Covid-19 cases due to the Omicron

variant. This will be the firsttime Las Vegas will host theGrammys. The LatinGrammy awards have beenheld in Sin City six timessince 2014. Mason Jr said theteam is excited to put on aworld-class show in LasVegas. “From the momentwe announced the postpone-ment of the original showdate, we have been inundat-

ed with heartfelt messages ofsupport and solidarity fromthe artist community. We arehumbled by their generosityand grateful for their unwa-vering commitment to theGRAMMY Awards and theAcademy’s mission. Weappreciate the leadershipCBS and our productionpartners at Fulwell 73 haveshown during these chal-

lenging weeks and the flexi-bility of everyone whoworked toward this solution,”he said in the statement.

Leading the nominationsin 11 categories is JonBatiste, with Justin Bieber,Doja Cat and H.E.R. up foreight trophies each. BillieEilish and Olivia Rodrigohave been nominated forseven awards each.

t

Grammys 2022 will now be held in Las Vegas

l Mamta Trivedi

hen it comes topersonal care forwomen, femi-nine hygiene,often neglected,is a highly essen-

tial aspect. While it takes abackseat amongst beautyand skincare, there are notwo thoughts about the factthat it needs to be welltaken care of. No matter theage, adopting the use ofhygiene products is becom-ing increasingly essentialfor every woman.

According to the firstpart of the latest NationalFamily Health Survey(NFHS-5), the percentageof women using sanitaryproducts and practisinghygiene during their men-strual cycle has increasedacross states and Union ter-ritories in the last decadeand a half. The importanceand usage of intimate wash,which is key to keep infec-tions away, is also picking

up especially in the metros.Female hygiene products

are in highdemand,promptingthe marketto offer morepersonalisedand environ-mentallyfriendlysolutions.According tovariousindustryestimates,the share offemininehygienegoods inIndia's over-all onlineretail is stillin the lowsingle digits.However, itis expanding.We bring toyou someoptions

from Vestige Marketingthat could be made a partof the everyday routine.

DewGarden foamingintimate wash

This is a soap-free andalcohol-free solution with apH of 3.7±0.5, which isideal for the female inti-mate area. It contains theextracts of blueberry, seabuckthorn and chamomileflower, which offer a pleas-ant and soothing fragrancewith an odour-block pro-tection power.

MRP: Rs 210 for 80 ml

Sanitary napkin

DewGarden SanitaryNapkin is an eight-layerednapkin embedded withanti-bacterial, Graphene-Anion chip and FarInfrared Ray (FIR) func-tion. This combinationhelps in inhibiting thereproduction of bacteriaand the production of foul

smell. Its 100% cotton toplayer keeps you comfortablefor longer hours. The superabsorbent polymer centre,non-toxic anti-bacterialpads with breathable bot-tom layer helps in reducingcramps during periods.

MRP: Rs 290 for onecycle pack of 10.

Panty liners

DewGarden Panty Lineris a hygienic napkin withanti-bacterial propertiesembedded with Graphene-anion chip and Far InfraredRays (FIR) function. It helpsyou stay fresh all day longon regular days, or on thedays before and after yourperiods. It quickly absorbsdischarge and menstrualspots to keep your pantyclean. Its 100% cotton toplayer keeps you comfortableand confident for longerhours.

MRP: Rs 175 for one cyclepack of 12.

w

Time to adopt hygiene products

11

tollywoodHyderabad Thursday January 20, 2022

‘Like many say, I consider

myself a ‘lucky artiste’’K RAMYA SREE

ollywood senior actor NareshVijaya Krishna aka Naresh, is cele-brating his birthday today. Apartfrom this, today also marks thegolden jubilee of Naresh as anactor. Moreover, its been 50 years

since the Vijaya Krishna Movies banner hasbeen established. On this occasion, theactor got candid with the media and spokeat length about his future projects, what onecan expect from Vijaya Krishna Bannerfrom now and more.

However, the actor has refrained fromcelebrating his birthday this year owing tothe death of Ramesh, the elder son ofSuperstar Krishna.

Having made his debut in Tollywood in1972 with Pandinti Kapuram, Naresh inthese 50 years added many feathers to hiscap. From politics to social service to join-ing MAA, Naresh has excelled in it all. Fiftyyears on and the actor says he is still greedyfor challenging roles in life. He apparentlytook inspiration from Jandyala garu andchallenged himself by becoming a characterartist during his second innings. “I am upto doing any kind of roles. I am happy thatyoung directors these days are coming upwith new concepts. The Telugu film indus-try is booming in India today. I am happyfor being a busy artist with handfull of pro-jects and I am thankful that directors stillconsider me while penning characters intheir scripts,” he tells.

What caught our attention is that theactor is coming up with a green studio withnext-gen infrastructure and technology.They are starting a studio after actressVijaya Nirmala. “The concept of prelit setsdoes not exist anywhere in India. We arebuilding this keeping in mind the futuregeneration. This year we have decided tocome up with some great movies under ourbanner. Many new directors will be intro-duced,” said Naresh who also wants to makenew generation entertainment movies,adding, “We want to fly the Vijaya KrishnaMovies flag again. Vijaya Krishna Movies is

going to entertain in movies and web seriesin the coming days. Many call me the LuckyArtist. Infact I condider myself the same asI came across really goos stories in mycareer and starred in many hit films. In therecent times, my characters havebeen completely differentfrom Jathi Ratnalu toDrishyam 2 to Bheeshmato Sridevi Soda Centre, Iam lucky that I am stillreceiving such roles.”

Apart from theabove, Naresh will nextbe seen in Nani’s AnteSundarangi, NandiniReddy’s Antha ManchiShakunamule, Varun Tej’sGhani, among others. Hewill also be seen essayinglead roles in the near future.

Reminiscing what his mothersaid when he was shooting forNalugu Sthambalu while he wasjust 17 years old, Naresh said,“When I was shooting forNalugu Sthambalu, mymother told me not toexpect respect from any-one. Infact I shouldrespect everyone on setsincluding light boys. Ifollow her words eventoday. I’m still at thetop of my gamebecause of all this.”

However howwe can we forgetthe controversiesthat came withthe actor.When askedabout themany con-troversies heis involvedin and hispoliticaljourney,Naresh said,“I never

got into politics hoping for positions. I wentthere to serve people. But at present, myfocus is all on movies. Nearly 22,000 fami-lies depend on the film industry. I want towork for them and do something for them.

So I am presently not thinking about poli-tics. 10 years into politics, I went

into depression as I missedmyself as an actor.”

Connected to the filmindustry, people, govern-ment, Naresh hopes that the

government and theindustry make a gooddecision together inregards to ticket pricingissue.

t

epublic starring Sai DhramTej in the lead role is all setto have its television pre-miere on January 23 onZee Telugu. Directed byDeva Katta, Republic, a

political thriller, shines the spotlighton the harsh realities of the systemwe live in. Deva Katta, the directorof the film shared, “The film res-onates with our thoughts on the cur-rent society, and I can say it hasinspired the majority of the people.The film tells that the truth breaks

the shackles we live in, and then itbecomes our driving force to moveforward. I hope that this movie willbe well-received by all the viewers.”While the movie’s plot will keep youhooked, wait till you witness SaiDharam Tej and Ramya Krishnan’skiller performance. Even more inter-esting is that not even one support-ing character is black or white. Everycharacter who Abhiram calls out forbeing corrupt has their backstory forbeing the way they are. Find out allthe realities in the riveting drama.

Republic coming toyour TV screens

Vishal impresses big timein Saamanyudu trailer

ction hero Vishal’supcoming actiondrama Saamanyuduis getting ready forits release. DebutantThu Pa Saravanan

has directed the film thatcomes up with the tagline ‘NotA Common Man’. Vishal him-self is producing the film onhis Vishal Film Factory (VFL)banner. The film’s teaser andother promotional contentgarnered massive buzz on thefilm in both Telugu and Tamil.On Wednesday, the makers ofthe film have unveiled thetrailer of the movie.As the title suggests, Vishalplays the role of a commoner.

The trailer starts off withVishal narrating an interestingcrime story. He says there aretwo kinds of people in thesociety. While he finds no faultin the justifiable homicide, heannounces fight against thepowerful people who destroycommoners for the power.The trailer is filled with actionsequences, though it has gooddose of romance. DimpleHayathi played Vishal’s loveinterest and the romantic trackwill appeal to youth. The trail-er has some stimulating andpowerful dialogues voiced byVishal. Vishal impresses bigtime with his power-packedperformance.

A

PragyaJaiswal’s love

track withSalman Khan

ctress Pragya Jaiswal isteaming up withBollywood’s bhai SalmanKhan for a love trackMain Chala sung by GuruRandhawa and LuliaVantur. It is going to be a

treat for music lovers and Salmanfans. Guru Randhawa is all parisefor singer Iulia Vantur.He says, “I’m very excited that Icould share this song with IuliaVantur, who is not just a wonder-ful artiste but also a warm person.

Her tone is very distinct and takesthe song to the next level. The

track has turned out to be beau-tiful and I’m confident peoplewill love it.”Starring Salman Khan andPragya Jaiswal, the lovesong has been directed byShabina Khan. It has beencomposed and penned by

Shabbir Ahmed. Adds LuliaVantur about her experience

of working with GuruRandhawa: “Main chala is avery soulful song, written with alot of love. We’ve put our heartsin it and I hope it will touchpeople’s souls. I’m grateful forit, I’m grateful to Guru forbelieving in it, for makingthis song special, in hisvoice. He is an amazing

artiste, I appreciate himvery much as a singerand as a person as well.I believe love will bewelcomed in every-one’s hearts withMain Chala.”Produced bySalman Khanand BhushanKumar, thesong will bereleased onT-Series’YouTubechannel on

January22.

a

llu Arjun whomade his Pan-India debutwith Pushpahas becomeBollywood’s

present crush.According to sources,the actor is in talks withone of the top produc-tion houses LycaaProduction for another

big-budget pan-Indiafilm. Lycaa recentlyacquired Allu Arjun’sPushpa distributionrights for a huge sumfor the Tamil Naduregion.

Inside talk is that AlluArjun will proceed withthis big-budget projectwith Lycaa after hewinds up Pushpa 2.

a

atural StarNani is ridinghigh on thesuccess ofShyam SinghaRoy and has

lined up interesting pro-ject for the year. Theactor is presently busyshooting for AnteSundaraniki and Dasara.

The first look poster ofDasara released recentlycaught everyone’s atten-tion.

According to a littlebirdie, we hear thatNani will be seen in anintense avatar and hisrole will have many neg-ative shades in Dasara.Reports are already

doing rounds that therewill not be any romanticscenes in the film. Thefilm that has KeerthySuresh as the leadinglady also starsSamuthirakhani, SaiKumar, Zarina Wahabin key roles. Music forthe film is scored bySantosh Narayanan.

n

r

Nani to have manynegative shades in Dasara

Allu Arjun lines upanother pan-India film?

PTI n MELBOURNE

Trailblazing India tennisstar Sania Mirza onWednesday announcedthat she will hang up her

racquet at the end of 2022 seasonas her body is "wearing down" andthe motivation and energy foreveryday grind is not the same any-more.

Winner of six Grand Slamtitles, including three mixed dou-bles trophies, Sania will retire asIndia's most accomplished womantennis player.

The 35-year-old made theretirement announcement afterlosing the Australian Openwomen's doubles first round withpartner Nadiia Kichenok.

They lost to Slovenia's TamaraZidansek and Kaja Juvan.

"There's a bunch of reasons forit. I do feel my recovery is takinglonger and considering my son isthree years old, I do feel I am put-ting him at risk by travelling somuch with him. Unfortunately thepandemic is making us take certaindecision for the well-being of our-self and family," Mirza said at thepost-match press conference.

"Also, my body is wearingdown. My knee was really hurtingtoday and I'm not saying that's thereason we lost but I do think thatit is taking time to recover as I'mgetting older," she said.

Sania, who became worldnumber one in doubles during hersuccessful partnership with Swisslegend Martina Hingis, said therewere a certain issues that influ-

enced her decision."Also for me to find that moti-

vation everyday to come out, theenergy is not the same anymore.Right this minute, it's there butthere are days where I don't feel likedoing that.

"I've always said that I will playuntil I enjoy that grind, the processand not just winning but you haveto enjoy the process and I am notsure I'm enjoying it anymore.

"I am enjoying it enough toplay this season. I've worked veryhard to come back, get fit, lose theweight and try to set a good exam-ple for mothers, new mothers tofollow their dreams as much asthey can. Beyond this season, Idon't feel my body doing it. It'sbeat," said the world number 68.

She reached top-30 in singleswith 27 being her career best rank.Sania quit singles after a wrist

injury to focus on doubles andenjoyed exceptional results.

Sania said she feels that she wasplaying at a decent level but shealways knew that 2022 will be herlast season and Wednesday's defeatwas no trigger for it.

"I am playing at a good level.First week in Adelaide (event), we(she and Kichenok) beat top-10, 20players. I am playing at a decentlevel. I was pretty sure this is mylast season, if I do finish it. I amsure I am not coming toMelbourne to play AustralianOpen again.

"I had great memories here,singles, doubles and mixed dou-bles.

It's been a great journey. I amnot looking forward to June or July,I am literally going week to week,with my body, with virus, there isso much uncertainty."

"Every timeI play, I feel Ihave a chanceto win, that'swhy I amhere."

"It isn o tbecause ofd i s a p -pointmentof today's match. Justthe way my body is. Iam not sure if I can fin-ish the season. I want toplay full season, I amstill (ranked) 50-60 inworld, I do feel I havethe level to play.

"As an athlete Ifeel I can go deep intournament. But I havea bit of a meniscus issuegoing on my right knee, I

woke up with wrist pain couple ofdays ago. There is nothing

wrong with it. "At 35, I am wak-

ing up with couple ofthings that I don'tknow where they'recoming from. I wantto finish the season,try to play until USOpen, that is mygoal. But I stillhave to take itweek-to-week,"she said.

T a l k i n gabout her firstround match,Sania said thec o n d i t i o n s

were tough butthey could have

handled the match bettertactically.

"Definitely conditions weretough, very gutsy, sometimes

it's not about tennis. Weshould have won the second

set. "When the wind isblowing one side and thestadium is on the otherside, the ball bounced onleave and changeddirections when I washitting the ball. It wastough conditions butwhen you come toAustralia, you canhave days like this.

"On days likethat, you should take

a little bit more chargeat net. That's where we

made a mistake."

SANIA MIRZATO END CAREERAFTER 2022 SEASON

sports 12HYDERABAD | THURSDAY | JANUARY 20 2022

PTI n LUCKNOW

Two-time Olympic medallist P V Sindhustormed into the second round of the

Syed Modi International Super 300 tour-nament with a dominating win over com-patriot Tanya Hemanth in the women' sin-gles competition, here on Wednesday.

The 26-year-old from Hyderabad,who lost in the semifinals at India OpenSuper 500 last week, thrashed Tanya 21-921-9 in a lop-sided contest at the BabuBanarasi Das Indoor Stadium.

A former world champion, Sindhu willsquare off against USA's Lauren Lam, whomanaged to get past a fighting Ira Sharma15-21 21-16 21-16.

In other women's singles matches,Samiya Imad Farooqui, who had won theBulgarian International and finished run-ners-up at Polish Open last year, overcamea stiff resistance from Shruti Mundada 17-21 21-11 21-10, while Sai Uttejitha Rao

Chukka, a quarterfinalist in 2018 edition,trounced Anjana Kumari 21-9 21-12 in all-Indian matches.

Samiya will square off against compa-triot Kanika Kanwal, who saw off USA'sDisha Gupta 21-15 16-21 21-6, while Saiwill cross swords with Aakarshi Kashyap,who had reached the quarterfinals atIndia Open.

Prerana Neeluri, Smit Toshniwal,Anupama Upadhyaya, Kriti Bharadwaj alsoentered the second round of women's sin-gles.

In the men's singles, KaushalDharmamer, Chirag Sen, MithunManjunath and Raghu Mariswamy alsomade winning starts to their respectivecampaigns.

While Kaushal stunned Singapore's JiaHeng Jason Teh 14-21 21-11 21-16, Chirag,elder brother of Lakshya Sen, registered aneasy 21-9 21-6 win over Ansal Yadav.

Mithun beat Alap Mishra 21-15 21-8

and Raghu edged out Siril verma 21-19 13-21 21-18 in another match.

Kaushal, who had won the MyanmarInternational series and MalvivesInternational challenge in 2019, will meetMalaysian June Wei Cheam.

Chirag, who claimed the KenyaInternational title in 2020, faces RussianSergey Sirant and Mithun is pitted againstMalaysian Soong Joo Ven.

Raghu takes on France's LucasClaerbout next. Lucas defeated SiddharthPratap Singh 21-15 21-8 in 33 minutes.

Seventh seed Indian pairing of TreesaJolly and Gayatri Gopichand Pullelabrushed aside Mahek Nayak and SaumyaSingh 21-1 21-4 in women's doubles com-petition.

Title contender Supanida Katethong,who had reached the finals of India OpenSuper 500 event last week, and fifth seed-ed Russian Evgeniya Kosetskaya alsoentered the second round.

AP n MELBOURNE

For the first set, Naomi Osaka's rediscov-ered love of the game meant it was any-

thing but fun for Madison Brengle in thethird round of the Australian Open.

The defending champion concededonly four points in the first four gamesWednesday and rifled forehand winnersseemingly at will as she breezed to 6-0 ina mere 20 minutes.

The second set started with Brengle cel-ebrating a service hold like she'd finisheda long-distance race, but gradually the No.54-ranked American ground down Osakato a stage in the seventh game where shefinally converted a break-point opportuni-ty — after missing her first nine chances.

That triggered a change in the formerNo. 1-ranked Osaka, who responded bybreaking back immediately and winning thelast nine points to complete a 6-0, 6-4 vic-tory. She will next face Amanda Anisimova,

a 20-year-old American who beat Olympicgold medalist Belinda Bencic 6-2, 7-5. Thewinner of that is likely to face top-rankedAsh Barty in the fourth round.

Osaka won the Australian Open lastyear, her fourth Grand Slam title, but thenwithdrew from the French Open andskipped Wimbledon as she took a break forher mental health. She then was ousted earlyat the U.S. Open.

After a long off-season to reset, she'sunbeaten in five matches in Australia thisyear. Asked how she rated her form, Osakasaid that's not how she's approachingthings. “Honestly I'm trying not to do that,”she said in an on-court TV interview.

"I'm a bit of a perfectionist. If I com-pare myself with the past, I'll never be sat-isfied. “The goal for me is just to have fun... (and) I think we're accomplishing that.”Since the draw for the first major of the yearwas made, a big focus has been on a poten-tial encounter between Osaka and Barty, the

2021 Wimbledon and 2019 French Openchampion who is aiming to be the firstAustralian woman since 1978 to win herhome championship.

Barty was front and center when thetournament celebrated its inaugural FirstNations Day, albeit only for 52 minutes asshe beat 142nd-ranked qualifier LuciaBronzetti 6-1, 6-1.

“It was nice for me to be a part of it ina way that I feel most comfortable,” Barty,who has Indigenous heritage, said of the daydedicated to the Aboriginal and Torres StraitIslander people of Australia.

"Out on the tennis court is how Iexpress myself as an athlete, it's how I'm ableto express myself as a person as well.

“On a day we're bringing culturestogether, bringing people together ... It wasgreat for me to be able to play a small roledoing what I love.”

Rafael Nadal didn't get it all his ownway in the subsequent match on Rod Laver

Arena, needing five match points beforebeating 126th-ranked German qualifierYannick Hanfmann 6-2, 6-3, 6-4.

The sixth-seeded Nadal, aiming for amen's record 21st Grand Slam singlestitle, had two match points on Hanfmann'sserve and two more on his own in the nextgame before finally clinching a spot in thethird round when his rival sent a forehandlong. Nadal converted only four of his 16break-point chances, including one ofeight in the third set, but only faced twobreak points on his own serve and fendedthem both off.

For the 35-year-old Nadal, after fatigueand injuries curtailed his 2021 season fol-lowing the French Open, time on court ismore important than anything else.

“I said here before the tournament start-ed, things are not going to be perfect, butevery day that I'm going to spend on court,the chances to play better are higher,” hesaid.

AP n DOHA

The cost of attending the World Cup finalis up to 46% higher in Qatar than the pre-

vious tournament in Russia, fans discoveredWednesday as tickets went on sale.

The steep rise in the prices for the FIFAshowpiece match contrasts with the groupstage seeing a reduction in the cost of sometickets, which fans can apply for online.

The most expensive tickets on general salefor the Dec. 18 final at Lusail Stadium are 5,850Qatari riyals ($1,607), up 46% from the$1,100 for the 2018 final won by France.

Category-two tickets are 3,650 Qatari riyals($1,003), up 41% from $710 for the final four

years ago. Category-three tickets — the cheap-est available for international fans — are 2,200Qatari riyals ($604), one-third more expensivethan the $455 last time. The category-four finaltickets for local residents soars from the equiv-alent of $110 in Russia to 750 Qatari riyals($206).

The cheapest seats on general sale inter-nationally to watch the host nation open theWorld Cup on Nov. 21 soar 37% to $302 (1,100Qatari riyals) from $220 in Russia. There's arise of 13% for category-two tickets to $440(1,600 Qatari riyals) from $390 and a similarjump from $550 in Russia to $618 (2,250Qatari riyals) for the most expensive opening-game tickets.

For other matches in the group stage,Qatari residents can buy tickets for 40 Qataririyals ($11) — the cheapest for locals since the1986 World Cup in Mexico. The cheapest tick-ets on international sale are the lowest pricessince the 2006 World Cup in Germany at 250Qatari riyals ($69). Category-one tickets haverisen marginally from $210 to $220 (800 Qataririyals) while the category two will remain at$165.

Supporters requesting to attend matchesat the Middle East's first World Cup will onlydiscover if they are successful based on a ran-dom draw at the conclusion of the first appli-cation phase which runs through Feb. 8.

PTI n NAVI MUMBAI

AFIFA World Cup play-offs spot within theirgrasp, hosts India would seek a winning start

against an under-prepared and lower-ranked Iranin their women's AFC Asian Cup campaign open-er here on Thursday.

Hosting the continental showpiece for the sec-ond time after 1979, India would look to scripthistory by qualifying for the quarterfinals of the12-team tournament, which will see some of Asia'sand world's best players in action.

India had finished runners-up twice -- in 1979and 1983 -- and third in 1981.

A win against Iran at the DY Patil Stadiumwill assure India of at least a third-place finish inGroup A. Besides the two top teams, two third-placed sides across the three groups will also qual-ify for quarterfinals.

Iran are the lowest ranked team in the groupwhich also has China and Chinese Taipei. Theyare ranked at 70th in the world as against India's55th. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, theIndian team had the luxury of a good number ofexposure tours and international matches last year,including against former World Cup runners-upside Brazil.

These international match experience isexpected to keep Thomas Dennerby's team ingood stead even though the hosts are playing with-out star striker Bala Devi who is recovering froma surgery.

On the other hand, debutants Iran, who begantheir journey in international football only in 2005,have not played any international match in thelast six months.

Dennerby understands the importance ofThursday's match in the home side's bid for aknock-out berth.

"Our first target is to get to quarterfinals, wehave a realisticchance to do that. Anything canhappen from there on," the experienced Swedesaid. "They (Iran) have strong defence and it'sgoing to be a challenge for us to score. It's not goingto be an easy game. We are hoping that with somecreative and good passing game, we can breakdown their defence," he added.

PTI n MUMBAI

COVID-19 breached the Indianwomen's football team's bio-

security bubble here onWednesday ahead of the AFCAsian Cup with two memberstesting positive for the virus, forc-ing the organisers to shift them toa medical facility for isolation.

"Two members of the IndianWomen's Senior National Teamfor the AFC Women's Asian CupIndia 2022 have tested positive forCOVID-19, and are currently inisolation at a designated medicalcare facility," the All India FootballFederation (AIFF) tweeted.

"The AIFF prioritises thehealth and safety of its players, andare following all the necessaryhealth protocols as have beenlaid down by the AFC," the organ-ising federation wrote in anothertweet.

One of the members (a play-er) would have featured in thestarting XI in the campaign open-er against Iran, a source close tothe AIFF said.

PTI n NEW DELHI

Atop Indian javelin thrower hasbeen provisionally suspended after

failing an out-of-competition dopetest and is awaiting a hearing by theNational Anti-Doping Agency'sDisciplinary Panel.

According tosources trackingthe develop-ment, the testwas con-ducted afterthe TokyoOlympicsw h e nthere wasno nation-al camp inoperation.PTI is with-holding theidentity of theathlete in ques-tion as no official iswilling to confirm it atthis point.

His name was there in the list ofathletes announced by the SportsAuthority of India for the camp fromOctober 15 to December 31. But he wasdropped when the camp was extend-ed till March 31 this year.

"He failed an out-of-competitiontest during the around two month peri-od from the end of Tokyo Olympics andstart of the national camp.

He is now under provisional sus-pension pending a NADA hearing," asource privy to the development told

PTI on condition of anonymi-ty.

It is learnt that theathlete is an Asian

C h a m p i o n s h i p smedallist and anOlympian as well.

The bannedsubstance foundin the javelinthrower's samplewas not known.It is also learnt

that the athlete hasbeen a part of the

Target OlympicPodium Scheme.

His samples weresent abroad for testing as

the National Dope TestingLaboratory (NDTL) was suspended

last year and that could be the reasonfor the delay in getting the results.

Nobody in the Athletics Federationof India (AFI) is willing to say anythingon the matter which is likely to be heardby the NADA Panel soon.

"I've alwayssaid that I willplay until Ienjoy thatgrind, theprocess andnot justwinning butyou have toenjoy theprocess and Iam not sureI'm enjoying itanymore.

With eye onquarterfinals spot,India seek winningstart against Iran

Sindhu cruises into second round of Syed Modi International

Two membersof Indian teamtest COVIDpositive on eveof tournament

Osaka, Barty advance toward Australian Open showdown

Osaka, Barty advance towardsAustralian Open showdownTicket price hike for World Cup final in Qatar reaches 46%

Top javelin throwerunder dope scanner