PNS n NEW DELHI

The government is likely toallow domestic and interna-tional flight operations inIndia in a staggered mannerafter the 21-day lockdown islifted on April 14 midnight,officials said on Sunday.

The aviation sector has beenhit hard by the coronaviruspandemic.

On Sunday, Air Deccanbecame the latest casualty ofthe crisis as it announcedindefinite suspension of flightoperations and asked allemployees to go on sabbaticalwithout pay.

"As the virus is still spread-ing in India, we are thinking

to permit domestic and inter-national flight operations postApril 14 in a staggered man-ner. Airlines are free to takebookings for any date postApril 14," a senior CivilAviation Ministry official said.

"However, if the lockdownis extended post April 14, air-lines will have to cancel thetickets booked for that timeperiod," the official noted.

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Jamaat incidentworsenedCovid-19 spread, says Govt

5

NGOs told toassist govt in relief measures

8

Govt will buyevery singlegrain from farmers: KCR

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2

AIR DECCAN CEASES ITS OPERATIONS,STAFF PUT ON 'SABBATICAL WITHOUT PAY'

The Multiplex Association of India (MAI) has appealed to landlordsacross the country to waive off rent and common area maintenance

(CAM) for all the multiplex operators during the period of the currentnation-wide lockdown. India is currently under thelockdown with around 1.3 billion people asked tostay home in view of the coronavirus outbreak.Formed under the aegis of FICCI in 2000, thenational multiplex trade body represents more than18 regional and national multiplex chains, includingPVR, INOX, Carnival and Cinepolis, and operatesmore than 2900 screens across the country.

26K QUARANTINED AFTER 10 FEASTATTENDEES CONTRACT COVID-19 Days after 10 people tested positive for coronavirus after attending a

funeral feast organised by a man on his return here in MadhyaPradesh from Dubai, over 26,000 of their contacts and family membershave been placed under home quarantine, officials said on Sunday. Theman, who worked as a waiter at a hotel in Dubai,returned to Morena from Dubai on March 17 aftergetting information about his mother's death, Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) R S Bakna said. "Heorganised a customary feast on March 20 to markthe 13th day of mourning after his mothersdeath," he said.

The government's dedicated WhatsApp chatbot MyGov CoronaHelpdesk, which aims to provide timely updates and help citizens

clear their queries on Covid-19, has been used by over 2 crore users.Artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot company HaptikInfotech Pvt Ltd, which is 87 per cent owned byReliance Jio, developed the MyGov Corona Helpdeskchatbot. "Misinformation & rumours are the primaryoutlets of panic. The @reliancejio & @haptik poweredofficial @mygovindia coronavirus chatbot has helpedeliminate these outlets for millions. Whatsapp+919013151515 for your queries," Haptik tweeted.

HAPTIK-POWERED CORONACHATBOT SEES OVER 2 CR USERS

MULTIPLEX ASSOCIATION APPEALSTO WAIVE OFF RENT OF OPERATORS

Regional airliner Air Deccan announced on Sunday that it is ceasing itsoperations until further notice and all employees are being put on

sabbatical without pay, the first Indian aviation company to succumb tothe coronavirus crisis that has led to a 21-day lockdown and virtuallyparalysed the sector. In an email to his employees, Air Deccan CEO ArunKumar Singh said, "In view of the recent global and domestic issues andsubsequent directive by the Indian regulator (to suspend allcommercial passenger flights till April 14), AirDeccan has no choice but tocease its operations untilfurther notice."

PNS n NEW DELHI

The Health Ministry hasreleased an aggressive con-tainment plan for large out-breaks of COVID-19, whichincludes buffer zones and seal-ing off areas for nearly amonth. The government madethe containment plan afterclusters posing high risk of fur-ther spread of COVID-19emerged in several states.

The strategy is meant tocontain the highly conta-gious disease caused bya novel coronavirus,first detected inChina in December,within a definedgeographical areaby early detectionof cases, breaking thechain of transmissionand thus preventing itsspread to new areas. A novelvirus is one that has not beenpreviously identified inhumans.

The 20-page document says

the aggressive containmentstrategy will be scaled downonly if no new cases ofCOVID-19 are reported for atleast four weeks after the last

confirmed test.Some of the stepsthe government

seeks to takeinclude sealingc o n t a i n m e n tareas and stop-ping movement

of people in andout of these areas.All suspect and con-

firmed COVID-19 cases will behospitalised and kept in isola-tion in hospitals dedicated tofighting the coronavirus, saysthe document available on the

Health Ministry's website.Patients will be discharged

only if two samples test nega-tive for coronavirus. Thosewith mild symptoms will bequarantined in stadiums, thosehaving moderate symptomswill be admitted to hospitalsmeant for COVID-19 care,and those with severe symp-toms will be sent to tertiary oradvanced hospitals.

Another step mentioned inthe strategy is closure ofschools, colleges and offices incontainment and buffer zones.There will be no public and pri-vate transport in these areas.Only essential services will beallowed to move.

Sealing off HOT ZONES for onemonth proposed, Hyd in the list

PNS n HYDERABAD

The HRD minister RameshPokhriyal ‘Nishank’ on Sundaysaid that the government willdecide whether to reopenschools, colleges on April 14after reviewing the coron-avirus situation.

“It is difficult to take adecision at the moment. Wewill review the situation onApril 14 and depending uponthe circumstances, a decisionwill be taken on whetherschools and colleges can bereopened now or have to beclosed for more time,” theminister told PTI in an inter-view.

“We are prepared to ensurethere is no academic loss tostudents if schools, collegesremain shut beyond April 14.The classes are already beingconducted online using vari-ous government platforms likeSWAYAM,” he added.

The HRD minister said thatthe government is regularly

reviewing the plan of actionthat is being followed by uni-versities and higher education-al institutions during lock-down.

PNS n HYDERABAD

AIMIM chief AsaduddinOwaisi has saidhis partyb e i n g"denied"participa-tion inthe pro-posed inter-action of PrimeMinister Narendra Modi onCOVID-19 was an insult tothe people of Hyderabad andAurgangabad, the two LokSabha constituencies repre-sented by it.

Exclusion of AIMIMan insult: Owaisi

PNS n NEW DELHI

PM Narendra Modi calledtwo former Presidents,Pranab Mukherjee andPratibha Patil and all senioropposition leaders of thecountry including formerPrime Ministers ManmohanSingh and HD Devegowda,to discuss the coronavirusoutbreak in the country,sources said. The other lead-ers he called included Sonia,Mulayam Singh and othersenior leaders. The round ofphone calls come roughlytwo weeks after PM declaredlockdown in the country tocurb the spread the virus.

PM Modi dials Soniato discuss COVID

NAVEENA KAVI n HYDERABAD

Companies lacking vision,internal resources, resilienceand fiscal cushion to weathermarket and other uncertaintiesseem to be taking the lock-down occasioned by theCovid-19 pandemic as a time-ly excuse to remove employeeswith the minimum possiblefinancial outgo. This comes ontop of the pay cut imposed bymany IT and non-IT firms,taking a cue from decisionstaken by several state govern-ments, including Telangana.

Recently A Rahul (namechanged), working in 'Smartmobility solution' company inHyderabad, got a call from hisoffice asking him to put in his

papers. He was informed thatby March 30, the full and finalsettlement would be done if heheeds their request. Rahul pre-ferred to given in to the demandas he did not want the otheroption: getting terminated. That

is, he did not want to have theinevitable blot of being 'fired' onhis experience letter.

This has been the case withmost of the people who areworking in various sectors,including food delivery, hotel,

and transportation. Another person, working

in online food ordering plat-form, also said that some of theteam members had been askedto leave. The impact of thelockdown has begun to take atoll on those employed in theprivate sector in the city.

On Sunday, a few employeesfrom Selectsys Pvt LtdCompany tweeted to theTelangana government, ITMinister K T Rama Rao overbeing terminated fromemployment. The employees

said, "Selectsys India Pvt Ltdjust fired all its employees.They deducted 30% of Marchsalary and now I just got callfrom HR team, stating I havebeen laid off indefinitely."

Not just software, the layoffsare impacting even mechani-cal field. A Jaswanth Dev said,"Layoffs have started inmechanical field as well. Wegot email stating that plants arenot running; so, there will belayoffs. Most of it seems to belike a temporary layoff."

I-T companies forcing employees to quit Flight operations in staggeredmanner post lockdown This comes on top of the pay cut imposed by

many IT and non-IT firms, taking a cue fromdecisions taken by several stategovernments, including Telangana

The 20-page document says the aggressivecontainment strategy will be scaled downonly if no new cases of COVID-19 arereported for at least four weeks after thelast confirmed test.

We are prepared to ensurethere is no academic loss

to students if schools, collegesremain shut beyond April 14. Theclasses are already beingconducted online using variousgovt platforms like SWAYAM

— RAMESH POKHRIYAL The HRD minister

FIFTH HIGHEST CASES IN COUNTRY

Telangana @ 334NAVEEN KUMAR n HYDERABAD

When Prime Minister NarendraModi called upon the people toswitch off lights and light diyas,candles and mobile torches for 9minutes from 9.00 pm onSunday, little would he haveimagined that enthusiastic peo-ple would build on his conceptof "removing darkness" by virtu-ally heralding Diwali - the Festivalof Lights - in mid-summer.

As the clock struck 9:00 pmon Sunday, lights went out inhouses and people gathered inbalconies, flashing mobile

lights. Many of them lit can-dles and diyas. What stood outin such observance was the

bursting of crackers on a scalethat is seen only during Diwali.

PNS n HYDERABAD

In all, 62 more Covid-19 pos-itive cases were reported inTelangana on Sunday. Withthis, the total number ofCovid-19 cases mounted to334 on Sunday. Of these, 289are being treated; while 33 arecured, 11 are dead.

Hyderabad, with 155 cases,tops the statewide caseload list,followed by Warangal with 24cases, Nizamabad with 18cases, Karimnagar andRangareddy with 17 caseseach. With 326 positive casesand going by dataavailable onM O H F W ,Telangana hasfifth highestnumber Covid-19 patients afterD e l h i ,Maharashtra,Tamil Nadu,and Kerala.Majority ofthese patientsare those who returned afterparticipating in a religiouscongregation conducted byTablighi Jamaat in Delhi lastmonth.

Medchal, Nalgonda andAdilabad reported 14,13 and10 cases respectively. The

other 15 districts reportedless than 10 cases. Districtscontiguous to or sharing bor-der with Hyderabad have beenaffected most.

So far, 23 districtsin the state have

reported corona pos-itive cases. Containment

activity has been takenup in all thedistricts where

positive caseshave been report-

ed.The Health Department

noted that there are 6 diagnos-tic labs in the state which arefunctional 24X7 to meet thediagnostic demand. It alsoappealed to any person whohas been a contact of any trav-eller from Markaz to access thenearest government healthcare facility in case they havesymptoms.

PNS n KAMAREDDY

Six government doctors inKamareddy district who hadquit over fears of contractingcoronavirus rejoined duty onSunday upon counselling dis-trict authorities and seniordoctors.

The six doctors had sub-mitted their resignation letterson Saturday, citing family

pressure as well.The doctors who have

rejoined duty are pulmo-nologists Dr Pravin Kumarand Dr Naren Kumar, physi-cians Ravi Teja and Sailu,anaesthetist Ramana andpaediatrician Dr MutyamNagender, all employed inthe district headquartershospital.

6 govt doctors who quit overCovid-19 fears rejoin duty

No major impact of lockdown onAP, Telangana GST collections L VENKAT RAM REDDYn HYDERABAD

Contrary to the claims beingmade by the governments of

Telangana and AndhraPradesh states over sufferinghuge revenue losses onaccount of Coronavirus lock-down, the latest data releasedby the Centre on GST collec-tions for March 2020 showed

that there was not muchimpact on the Telugu states.

TS witnessed just 9 per centdrop in GST collections inMarch 2020 when compared

with March 2019, while APrecorded even lower drop of 2per cent. TS recorded GST col-lection of Rs 3,563 crore inMarch 2020 against Rs 3,897crore in March 2019, a declineof 9 per cent. Similarly, AP'sGST collections stood at Rs2,548 crore in March 2020against Rs 2,589 crore in March2019, a decline of just 2 per cent.

People herald Diwali in April9 MINUTES THAT REFLECTED NATION'S FIGHTBACK AGAINST COVID-19

Hyderabad, with 155 cases,tops the statewidecaseload list, followed byWarangal with 24 cases,Nizamabad with 18 cases,Karimnagar andRangareddy with 17 cases each.

LIGHTING UUP HHUMANITY’S DDARKEST HHOUR: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whosuccessfully rallied the nation in expressing their collective will to tackle Covid-19 byhis call for “9 minutes of diya from 9:00 pm on Sunday”, lighting a lamp in New Delhi.

Decision onreopening schools,colleges on Apr 14

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Current Weather ConditionsUpdated April 05, 2020 5:00 PM

ALMANAC

TODAY

Month & Paksham:Chaitra & Shukla PakshaPanchangam:Tithi: Trayodashi: 03:51 pm Nakshatram: Purva Phalguni: 12:16 pm Time to Avoid: (Bad time to start

any important work)Rahukalam: 07:42 am – 09:14 amYamagandam: 10:46 am – 12:18 pmVarjyam: 06:33 pm – 07:57 pmGulika: 01:50 pm - 03:22 pmGood Time: (to start any

important work)Amritakalam: 06:35 am – 08:00 amAbhijit Muhurtham: 11:53 am – 12:43 pm

HYDERABADWEATHERForecast: Partly cloudyTemp: 39/26Humidity: 49%Sunrise: 06:06 amSunset: 06:30 pm

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HYDERABAD | MONDAY | APRIL 6, 2020 hyderabad 02

HC UPADHYAY n HYDERABAD

Perhaps it is possible to straight-en the tail of a dog; perhaps itis possible to tame the ferociousbull that has seen a red rag orperhaps it is also possible toinstil an element of wisdom ina Pappu. But alas! it is impos-sible to set right the fanatic ele-ments, self-styled as ‘jihadis’, totransform them as humans, letalone as the nation-loving.

This only could be the logi-cal conclusion of the prevailingsituation in the country, andpossibly throughout the world.It is surely for the first time inthe annals of history that a nat-ural disaster like Covid-19 hasbeen used by the fanatic jihadis,both educated and uneducated,rich and the poor, men and thewomen- with the ill-fanciedgoal of establishing the Islamicrule! And, lo! they are not con-cealing their evil designs. On theother hand, they are openlychallenging the authority of theState by all possible means –right from spitting on the policeand health workers to attackingthem violently as individuals aswell as mobs.

First, they experimented with

Shaheen Bagh; and now, buoyedwith its success, they are up inarms once again on a magnifiedscale. Their defiance or to saythe betrayal or revolt has notstemmed up from ignorance oflaw (which too, is not anexcuse), but from a strong com-mitment towards the ultimategoal of Islamisation.

And see, so far what our‘democratic’ State has done! Tosay the least, these poisonous,treacherous elements have beengiven a kid-gloves treatment.They have been cajoledand cuddled, and evenindirectly encouragedby not taking strin-gent action.Their moralegets boosted bythe plannedand well-orchestratedovert and covertsupport from thedefeated politicalparties, disloyalbureaucrats, andpaid ‘intellectuals’ in and outsidemedia. Otherwise, how thekingpin of Tablighi Jamaat,Maulana Saad Kandhalvi, couldvanish in the air right under thenose of the central government

just after a close-door meetingwith the National SecurityAdviser, Ajit Dobhal?

Unfortunately, today whenthe pro-and anti-nation, nay,humanity lobbies are at theirbest, it is the moral, ethical andConstitutional duty of all gov-

ernments to ensure thatthe pandemic isfought effectively

and decisively to savehumanity. In this context,

without going into the scienceand politics of the PrimeMinister’s clarion call to lightcandles and mobile-torcheson Sunday, the 5th of April, onething seems to be certain. And

it is, the show of national unity,which also will vividly exposethe people who are not withIndia and humanity at large.

Let’s hope, the authoritieswould be able to identify the

hotspot of pro-Covid-19 crea-tures and tackle them subse-quently in the manner theydeserve. Merely filing of casesunder softer sections of thecriminal laws so as to ensuretheir release easily after arrest isnot going to solve the mam-moth phenomenon.

Section 156 (3) Cr PCgives wide powers tomagistrate: SC

In an important judgementdelivered on March 20, theSupreme Court of India hasheld that under Section 156 (3)of the Criminal Procedure Code(Cr PC), the Magistrate enjoyswide powers in the matter ofregistration of an FIR and prop-er investigation of the case bypolice.

The bench, comprisingJustice N.V Ramana, Justice

Mohan M. Hantanagoudar andJustice Sanjiv Khanna, in M.Subramaniam and Anr. Vs. S.Janaki and Anr, held: “It iswell-settled that when a poweris given to an authority to dosomething, it includes suchincidental or implied powerswhich would ensure the prop-er doing of that thing. In otherwords, when any power isexpressly granted by thestatute, there is impliedlyincluded in the grant, evenwithout special mention, everypower and every control thedenial of which would renderthe grant itself ineffective.Thus, where an Act confersjurisdiction, it impliedly alsogrants the power of doing allsuch acts or employ suchmeans as are essentially neces-sary for its execution.”

The apex court, however,after quoting a catena of judge-ments, also decried the tenden-cy among litigants to rush to thehigh courts for registration ofFIR without following the dueprocess of law and rules madethereunder, which requires thatbefore approaching the highcourt in such matters, a personmust exhaust other remedieslike approaching the concerned

Superintendent of Police andthe Magistrate.

Citing Covid-19,Bombay HC refuseshearing of bail petition

“Release of an accused orconvict at the cost of breachingthe order of lockdown and at thecost of risking lives of many can-not be considered to fall with-in the category of ‘extremelyurgent matter”, stating this,Justice A.M Badar of theBombay High Court refused tohear the bail application of oneSopan Ramesh Lanjekar, anaccused in a cheating case inMumbai.

Elaborating the reasoning,the high court said, “Because oflockdown declared by the State,all offices, including offices ofthe court, are virtually closed. Bydeputation of bare minimumstaff, extremely urgent busi-ness is being transacted.Processing a bail order andconsequent release of anaccused/convict, as such, virtu-ally amounts breaching theorder of complete lockdown.Putting several employees andofficers to work, may put themto the risk of contracting Covid-19.”

Book lockdown vio-lators under criminallaws: Centre

The Home Secretary AjayBhalla on April 2 asked thestates to widely circulate infor-mation on penal provisions laiddown under the DisasterManagement Act, 2005 as wellas the Indian Penal Code andimplement the same “in letterand spirit, without allowingany exception.” He citedSections 51 to 60 of the DM Actas well as Section 188 of IPCwhich provide for punitiveaction. According to Section 51of DM Act, anyone whoobstructs government servantcan be punished with imprison-ment up to one year (two years,if it endangers life) or fine.Section 54 provides for up toone-year jail term for falsewarning; Sections 52 and 53provide for two years in jail forfalse claims and misappropria-tion of funds. Similarly, Section188 of IPC provides for up to sixmonths’ imprisonment and/orfine which is further extendableto two years if it endangershuman life, for anyone dis-obeying an order duly promul-gated by a public servant.

LEGALROUNDUP

And see, so far what our ‘democratic’State has done! To say the least, thesepoisonous, treacherous elements havebeen given a kid-gloves treatment.They have been cajoled and cuddled,and even indirectly encouraged by nottaking stringent action

Let the ‘sunday light's banish anti-national and jihadi Covid-19

Gold continues to be thefirst preference of investorsPNS n HYDERABAD

With the onslaught of coron-avirus vigorously continuingand causing havoc in almost theentire world, economic activi-ties took a back seat during theweek ended. According to theAsian Development Bank, sofar, the global economy has suf-fered a loss of 4.1 lakh crore dol-lars and nobody knows whereit will halt. Consequently, goldcontinued to be the first pref-erence of investors at US dollars1,616.45 (per oz). Silver alsoremained firm, and closed atdollars 14.39. Platinum andpalladium closed at dol-lars 726 and dollars 2,118(per oz) respectively.

Other economicparameters were asfollows: Foreignexchange rates:

US dollarRs.76.22, BritishPound Rs.93.77,Euro Rs.82.57, Swiss francRs.78.20, UAE dirham Rs.20.81,Saudi Riyal Rs.20.30, Canadiandollar Rs.53.75, Australian dollarRs.45.82. Kuwaiti Dinar Rs.245.63and Omani Riyal Rs.98.34.

Sensex and Nifty 50 closed atthe lower levels of 27,590.90 and8,083.80 points, while NY Mex

closed at 29. MCX gold andMCX silver closed atRs.43,722(per 10 gms) and Rs.41,259(per kg) respectively.

Brent closed at dollars34.65 (per barrel) and

crude oil dipped fur-ther and closed atRs.2,048 (per bar-

rel). Copperclosed at

R s . 3 8 0 . 1 0(per kg).

R e t a i lm a r k e t scontinuedto be under

lockdown. Due to strict vigil bythe authorities, gold smugglerstoo are restless.

COMMODITIES

The wholesale commoditymarkets have been permitted tocarry on business during thelockdown period. The move-

ments of food grains and essen-tial food items have been quitesmooth and there is no dearthof these commodities. Thehoarders have been put understrict vigilance.

True, there seems to be somedistribution-related problemsin the case of perishable goods,but in the given situation, theyare bound to be there. Barringsuch sporadic aberrations, themarkets have been quite coop-erative.

The NECC wholesale eggprice turned northward main-ly due to increasing tempera-tures. In Hyderabad, the week-end closing price recorded anincrease of Rs.5 at the closingprice of Rs.340(per 100). Thehighest price of Rs.400 wasrecorded in Burdwan,Midnapore and Surat, whileLudhiana recorded the lowestprice of Rs.215.

WEEKLY MARKET REVIEW

Consequently, gold continued to be thefirst preference of investors at USdollars 1,616.45 (per oz). Silver alsoremained firm, and closed at dollars14.39. Platinum and palladium closed atdollars 726 and dollars 2,118 (per oz)

It feels like somethinginscrutable came and put every-thing in its place. Suddenly the

price of fuel went down, pollutiondeclined, people started to havemore time so much so that they donot know what to do with it, par-ents are spending time with theirkids as a family and work is nolonger a priority. Nor is travelingor social life.

Suddenly we journey within andmake an effort to understand thesignificance of words like "solidar-ity", "love", "strength", "empathy"and "faith". We realize that we areall in the same boat, rich and poor;that the supermarket shelves areempty and the hospitals full. Newcars and old cars stand in thegarages, simply because nobodycan get out. Empty streets, cleanair and even the land breathes.Human beings have returned totheir origins, realizing that, with or

without money, the importantthing is to survive. Today, health isthe main thing.

It took just a few weeks for theuniverse to establish social equali-ty of sorts that until recently sound-ed Utopian. Fear is pervasive. Allof this points to the vulnerability ofthe human being. Nature, in its char-acteristically quiet way, is forcing usto clean up the mess we made.

Trying to be relevant in difficult times

Some leaders are doing every-thing within their means to be inthe news. They are trying tosound innovative for photo-ops.Since the outbreak of coronavirus,the focus has been on the far-reach-ing impacts of the pandemic that

has shaken all departments andministers. To be relevant amidst allthis, netas are trying to find waysof reaching out to people by distrib-uting food, trying to be active onsocial media, and by responding torequests. However, most of it isgoing unnoticed as the mediafocus has been on three persons:PM, CM and Health Minister,apart from frontline warriors likedoctors and the police. There arealso those who have preferred tostay at home and follow norms likeany other citizen. This has been thecase with start-ups. Trying to be rel-evant, T-Hub and TITA are com-ing up with hackathons. Except fordrone and aerosol design by T-works, most of the innovationswere otherwise hardly of any use.

Cloak of charity to move around

Under the cloak of charityinvolved in the distribution of freefood to the needy during the lock-down, some groups and trusts aresecuring ways to move aboutfreely in south Telangana districts.Although the administration istaking necessary measures andproviding ration, money andessentials to the needy among

migrants from other states, somegroups and trusts have latched onto this aspect mainly to moveabout freely in groups across thecity. The authorities, while appre-ciating genuine charitable ser-vices, are closely monitoringaspects relating to violation oflockdown rules.

Shopping every day dutifully

Lockdown has arrested themovements of free birds amongyouth and those who enjoy roam-ing here and there on one pretextof the other. Now they need tospecify the reasons for steppingout their homes. This aspect ofcourse has given scope for fami-lies to take to grocery shopping

every day and many employed sec-tions usually relying on monthlypurchases have started buyinggroceries on a day-to-day basis. Inmany towns, youths who used toinvariably decline domesticrequests to buy commodities withlame excuses are now jumping atthese 'offers'. They dutifully bringkirana items and vegetables, anynumber of times ungrudgingly.Although all of this is not givingthem the freedom they need, theyreason that something is betterthan nothing. Some youths inWarangal and Hanamkonda townsrue the washout of their eveninggossip period.

Photo-op amid pandemicWhen it comes to hog the

media limelight, political leadersgo out of the way. Still, a pandem-ic is expected to have a soberingeffect on such publicity-crazypoliticians. That seems to be miss-ing today. Ministers in AndhraPradesh were snapped ‘inaugurat-ing’ coronavirus treatment wardson Saturday, complete with rib-bon-cutting ceremony, this andthat. However, the pictures ofsuch openings have not gonedown well with many. They sayministers should instead ensurethat protective gears like masksandgloves should reach the hospitalsto ensure that frontline workersstay safe while serving patients.

(Contributed by Ch Pradeep,

Naveena Ghanate, Avinash Deepak Puli,

P V Kondal Rao, Sumit Onka)

REPORTERS’

D ARY

Nature is forcing us to clean up the mess we made

AFTER THE VIRUS

What world will we live in?PNS n PARIS

One day, the battle againstthe novel coronavirus will bewon. But the world thatemerges may look very differ-ent from the one we lived inbefore the pandemic began.Over 60,000 people have losttheir lives to Covid-19 andthere are a more than a millionconfirmed cases with the out-break yet to reach its peakacross the developed andemerging world.

But on top of the tragichuman toll, the coronavirusalso threatens incalculablesocial, economic and politicalcosts, and to trigger a wave ofchange that will shape ourworld for years to come. Theshutdown imposed to slowthe spread of the virus couldpush some economies intofull-scale meltdown. Financialmarkets may never recover topre-crisis levels.

Restrictions on movementwill help some governmentstighten autocratic control, andcivil liberties could be erodedin the name of gaining infor-mation on virus spread. Many

are already questioning themerit of multilateral organisa-tions such as the WHO or theUnited Nations given the per-

ceived lack of a coordinated,global response to an unprece-dented health crisis.

The changes could be

immense, say analysts, but alsounpredictable. “Is it going to bea headline or is it a trendline?”asked Aaron David Miller,Senior Fellow at the CarnegieEndowment for InternationalPeace. “Are we witnessing anevent that is going to reshapeinternational relations and rela-tions among states?”

Much will depend on howlong national economies man-age to withstand the storm, andthe performance of govern-ments in tackling the threat.China, where the virus isbelieved to have originated,proudly claims to have quelledthe outbreak. US PresidentDonald Trump initiallyappeared to shrug off the seri-ousness of the threat and isnow faced with a full-scale cri-sis.

While the official figuresfrom India remain far lessgrim than in the West, there isanxiety that much worse is tocome. “Is this leadership orabsence of leadership going toprovide opportunities or vul-nerabilities to various countriesaround the world?” askedMiller.

Many are already questioning themerit of multilateral organisationssuch as the WHO or the UnitedNations given the perceived lack of acoordinated, global response to anunprecedented health crisis

People heraldDiwali in AprilContinued from Page 1

For once, people started com-ing out to burst crackers andfire rockets, all the whilehowling on the streets duringthe nine-minute national taskrequested by the PrimeMinister. Social media plat-forms were flooded withposts of people across thecountry sharing photos andvideos of their own events attheir places. People gatheredon their terrace and outsidetheir residences to shout andchant slogans like "GoCorona, go" and "Bharat Mataki jai".

Law enforcers jumped intoaction and asked people toget back to their homes.

I-T companiesforcing...Continued from Page 1

This time, they are not gettingemails, but phone calls; ask-ing them to submit resigna-tion letters so that the com-pany can do a full and finalsettlement. Salary cuts andlayoffs appear to be the onlyways for companies seekingto mitigate the impact oflosses in the wake of thenationwide lockdown to con-tain the spread of Covid-19.

According to InformationTechnology EmployeesAssociation (ITEA), IT com-panies have started layoffsdespite having clear instruc-tions from the UnionMinistry of Labour andEmployment to refrain fromlaying off staff. The situationis such that employees canneither approach Court northe Labour Commissionerdue to the lockdown. Wehave received messages fromemployees of HCLTechnologies Hyd, RKTechnologies, UPAConsulting Hyderabad, NCRCorp, SelectSys about salarycuts and layoffs. They aredeliberately ignoring instruc-tions of Union Ministry.Employees should not give into pressure; they can show theGO and question them orreach out to us for help."

Decision onreopening ...Continued from Page 1

Moreover, the plan is readyfor conducting the pendingexams and evaluation oncethe lockdown is lifted.

“There are 34 crore stu-dents in the country, morethan America’s population.They are our biggest treasure.Safety of students and teach-ers is of utmost importance tothe government,” he added.

Various examinations werecancelled while some of theexams were postponed due tothe coronavirus pandemic.Moreover, the educationalbodies had to suspend theevaluation process immedi-ately due to the lockdownwhich will be resume onlyafter it is lifted.

Sealing off hot zones...Continued from Page 1

The containment plan willbe eased if no COVID-19cases are reported from thequarantine zone for at leastfour weeks after the last con-firmed test.

The Health Ministry docu-ment says the geographic dis-tribution of COVID-19 mim-ics the distribution of H1N1pandemic influenza, whichsuggests that while the spreadof COVID-19 in the popula-tion could be high, it's unlike-ly that it will be uniformlyaffect all parts of the country.

"This calls for differentialapproach to different regionsof the country, while mount-ing a strong containmenteffort in hotspots," the docu-

ment says. Large-scale mea-sures to contain COVID-19over large territories have beentried in China. Mathematicalmodelling studies have sug-gested that containment mightbe possible especially whenother public health interven-tions are combined with aneffective social distancingstrategy. At all times doctors,nurses and paramedics work-ing in clinical areas will wearthree-layered surgical maskand gloves.

Seventy-nine people havedied in India after beinginfected with COVID-19, theHealth Ministry said onSunday, adding that the coun-try recorded 472 cases in last24 hours that takes the total to3,374.

Six govt doctors who quit over...Continued from Page 1

"They were worried abouttheir family members and dueto increasing pressure, theythought of resigning. But wehave talked to them and coun-selled them, which yieldedresults. They have withdrawntheir resignation and said thatthey would work. In thisregard, they have given a writ-ten submission as well,"Kamareddy District MedicalHealth Officer (DMHO) Dr PChandrashekar said.

The doctors put in theirpapers to local authoritiesstating that they could not

perform duties anymore inthe isolation ward and theoutpatient ward. All the doc-tors, hired on contract basis,belong to the Vaidya VidhanaParishad (which managessecondary-level hospitals) inKamareddy district.

The workload in the out-patient department hasincreased enormously aspatients are flocking to gov-ernment hospitals with mostprivate hospitals playing itsafe. On an average, the hos-pital OP wing receives notless than 300 patients. Besidesthe workload, the doctorssay that there are under a lot

of stress. Moreover, peoplehaving symptoms of coron-avirus are visiting the OPDepartment. As peoplecrowd at the OP wing, it isnot easy to identify whetherone has symptoms of thevirus or not.

Therefore, out of fear ofcontracting coronavirus, thedoctors put in their papers.When contacted, district hos-pital superintendent Dr AjayKumar confirmed that the sixdoctors had resigned fromtheir posts. He and otherofficials later persuaded themto withdraw their resigna-tions.

No majorimpact of ....

Exclusion of AIMIMan insult: Owaisi Continued from Page 1

In a tweet, tagging PMOIndia's official handle, hequestioned whether the peo-ple of Aurangabad andHyderabad were lesserhumans because they chosethe AIMIM. Reaching out tothe Opposition amid theongoing country- wide lock-down due to coronavirus,Modi will interact with floorleaders of various parties viaa video conference on April8.

The Hyderabad MP soughtto know from the PrimeMinister why the partys rep-resentatives were not worthyof your attention.

Continued from Page 1

\Only Punjab, Haryana,Tripura, Meghalaya, Odisha,Gujarat andKarnatakaachieved higher collections inMarch 2020 even in the lock-down period when comparedwith March 2019.

Even when compared withthe GST collections inFebruary 2020, when therewas no lockdown, there wasnot much impact on theTelugu States. Telanganarecorded GST collections ofRs 3,667 crore in February2020 against Rs 3,563 crore inMarch 2020, a reduction of Rs104 crore.Similarly, AP regis-tered GST collections of Rs2,563 crore in February 2020against Rs 2,548 crore inMarch 2020, a drop of just Rs15 crore. At the national level,the GST collections for March,2020 stood at Rs 97,597 crore,lower than Rs 1.05 lakh-crorecollected in February, 2020, adecline of 8.4 per cent. GSTcollections had crossed ?1lakh-crore for four consecu-tive months, till February.

Disinfectant tunnelset up at DGP officePNS n HYDERABAD

A disinfectant tunnel called 3VSafe Tunnel to prevent localtransmission of Covid-19 wasinstalled at Telangana policeheadquarters.

Director General of PoliceMahender Reddy walkedthrough the tunnel to formal-ly inaugurate it on Sunday.

Installed by S3V VascularTechnologies Private Limited,it is the first-of-its-kind tunnelto be installed in Telangana.

Police personnel andhealthcare professionals arein the front-line in the fightagainst Covid-19 andinstalling this disinfection tun-nel is a step towards protect-ing them by minimising trans-mission, said the medicaldevice company that manufac-tures devices for the brain andheart.

According to Vijaya Gopalof S3V Vascular Technologies,the tunnel has been built tosanitise people within 20 sec-onds from any possible infec-

tant bacteria and virus.The tunnel uses an aerosol

technology wherein the disin-fectant solution is atomisedinto aerosol with a particle sizeof 1.5 microns to 20 microns.

The flow pattern of the dis-infectant solution is designedto provide maximum protec-tion to people passing throughthe tunnel in around 20 sec-onds. The atomised liquidspray saturates the environ-ment and thus disinfects allsurfaces, even those that arenot directly exposed to thenozzles.

The disinfectant used con-sists of a combination of awater-soluble polymer andiodine. The disinfectant isnon-volatile, having nodetectable vapor pressure,forms a film which releasesfree iodine, thus enabling pro-longed viricidal and bacterici-dal activity and sanitizing thesurfaces. The solution hasbeen proved to be effectiveagainst SARS, MERS andEbola viruses.

HYDERABAD | MONDAY | APRIL 6, 2020 hyderabad 03

Cyberabad Police Commissioner VC Sajjanar along with his family members light up a candle in the city following the call ofPrime Minister Narendra Modi to switch off all the lights of houses on Sunday at 9 pm for 9 minutes.

SYMBOLIC GGESTURE

Overview of undergoing re-carpeting works taken up by the GHMC near Cyber Towers Junction in the city on Sunday

OVERVIEW

RIMEORNERC

PNS n HYDERABAD

The Holy Week, or the weekbefore Easter, began Sundaybut Christians celebrated theoccasion with virtual prayers attheir homes in view of theongoing nationwide lockdownto prevent spread of coron-avirus.

On an appeal by their reli-gious groups and organisations,Christians did not gather atchurches to celebrate the PalmSunday but participated in themass organised live by somechurches.

Christians believe PalmSunday commemorates theentrance of Jesus into Jerusalem,when palm branches wereplaced in his path, before hisarrest and crucifixion on GoodFriday.

The Palm Sunday is celebrat-ed in many churches by proces-sions in which branches ofpalms are carried.

For a second consecutiveweek, Sunday mass was not heldat churches across Telangana

and Andhra Pradesh. Therewere no congregations or massprayers in view of the appealsmade by the churches in boththe Telugu states.

All churches in Hyderabadand Secunderabad, which havesizeable number of Christians,suspended worship service.

The worshippers were urgedto stay at home and participatein the prayers to be beamed liveon various social media plat-

forms.Centenary Methodist English

Church, Hyderabad asked thepeople to download the zoomapp on their mobile phones orlaptops to participate in PalmSunday service. They weredirected to follow the order ofservice sent on WhatsApp.However, the participation waslimited to 500 members.

The Methodist Church inIndia resident and presiding

Bishop MA Daniel has alreadyappealed to all churches to sus-pend all Sunday worship servicetill further notice. He asked pas-tors to follow measures taken bythe state and central govern-ments.

Federation of TeluguChurches (FTC) said all congre-gations at churches were put onhold till further orders. FTC offi-cials said some churches telecastlive Palm Sunday service onYouTube or other platforms forthe benefit of the worshippers.

All churches inHyderabad andSecunderabad,which havesizeable number of Christians,suspendedworship service on Sunday beingPalm Sunday

POLICE INJURED IN ATTACK BYUNIDENTIFIED MEN

Policemen and medicalprofessionals, who are in the

forefront to combat spread ofCovid-19, are becoming thetargets of the attacks by unrulyelements amid lockdown. In thelatest incident, a policeconstable on duty was injuredafter being attacked by twounidentified miscreants inHyderabad's Chandrayanguttaarea on Saturday evening.According to the police, theconstable was attacked with aniron rod by two men who cameon a motorbike. Praveen,attached with Chandrayanguttapolice station, was shifted toDRDO Apollo hospital fortreatment. The policeman wasdeployed at State Bank of Indiacustomer service centre tomanage the queue of elderlycitizens collecting their monthlypension. AssistantCommissioner of Police,Falaknuma, M.A. Majid visitedthe scene. He said the policewere scanning the footage fromCCTV cameras installed in thearea to identify the attackers.

Holy Week begins as Xiansmark Palm Sunday virtually

Kids empty piggy banks to join Coronavirus fightPNS n HYDERABAD

In a heart-warming gesture,children in Telangana, espe-cially in Hyderabad are emp-tying their humble piggy banksand donating their little savingsto help fight the coronaviruscrisis and provide relief topoor people affected by theongoing Coronavirus lock-down.

They have enthusiasticallyjoined the celebrities and busi-ness tycoons in donating theTelangana CM Relief Fundand PM CARES.

The PM CARES fund wasset up last month to raisemoney to deal with any emer-gency situation, like Covid-19now, and provide relief to theaffected people.

While 4-years-old Ayeshaand 7-year-old Ryfaida fromNarayanpet donated theirpiggy bank savings of Rs 5,100to the collector, two brothersVarshith and Nikhil donatedtheir piggybank savings of Rs120 to PM CARES fund andthey never went out of homesince March 22.

Another kid AadvithaGandhi from LB Nagar con-tributed Rs 444 to CRMF.

Many parents are proudlytaking it to twitter about theirkids contribution.

Inspired by donations beingmade on social media and tele-vision. Some of them aredonating it to the police likeWasef and Safura fromTolichowki donated theirmoney in piggy banks toGoldconda police and request-ed it to be to spent on peoplewho are in need because oflockdown.

As birthday celebrations arenot possible during the lock-

down, many kids are comingforward to contribute theamount their parents usuallyspend on their birthdays.While, Rajesh Singathi fromBoduppal on his birthday onSunday donated 1,000 toCMRF, another kid Rishiteshstudying UKG in Warangaldonated Rs1,050 to CMRF.He also declared that he won'tcelebrate his birthday on Aprilas all people are suffering fromCoronavirus.

Meanwhile, Minister KTRama Rao has been respond-ing to many parents acknowl-edging their kids contribu-tion.

K VENKATESHWARLUn HYDERABAD

Sunday saw sizeable crowds infront of mutton shops thatremained open acrossHyderabad city, despite warn-ings having been sounded byMinisters and officials alike.

However, many were forcedto return empty handed for dif-ferent reasons; some beat aretreat upon seeing the rushwhile the asking price was a bittoo much for others.

Mutton was sold between Rs800 and Rs 900 per kg onSunday, depending on the areaand the quality. Except on thecity outskirts like Chengicherla,where the slaughterhouse islocated, and some other places,

the shopkeepers had a field day,making a quick buck in theprocess.

They sold ‘potla’ mutton atover Rs 800 per kg and themeat from other goats at ataround Rs 800 per kilo.

It may be recalled thatAnimal Husbandry MinisterTalasani Srinivas Reddy hadimplicitly warned last weekthat action would initiatedagainst anyone selling muttonat higher than market prices.

He had said on the same daythat prices and sale of mutton,chicken and fish would bestreamlined in a few days.

When the lockdown wasfirst announced, there wasshortage in supply of theseitems. As a result, the traders

demanded and sold mutton ata premium.

After receiving complaints,the Minister conducted a high-level meeting on the non-veg-etarian items being sold onhigh prices as there is moreconsumption of mutton, fishand chicken in the city.

He instructed the officialsconcerned to check the sale ofthese items at higher prices.Talasani said as Chief MinisterK Chandrasekhar Rao hadannounced help for farmersand other communities, thetraders were warned of severeaction if they tried to takeadvantage of the situation.

Free fish seed was distrib-uted to villagers and the yieldwas likely to come in seven to

10 days.The department officials

were instructed to ensure thatnon-vegetarian food items aresold at normal prices.

However, the vendors appearto be least bothered about thewarnings of the AnimalHusbandry Minister.

A mutton vendor Rajaiah(name changed), who has ashop behind Nampally RailwayStation said that the business-men are not bringing the ani-mals (Jeevalu) in tune with thedemand. More so, the middle-men have hiked the prices oflive animals and hence they(vendors) had not option butto follow suit, he said.

Katepaga Anil Babu, a resi-dent of KH Market, Nampally,

said that he purchased headpieces (Thalakaya Kura)instead of meat after seeing theprice of the mutton.

K Sridhar, who lives atGurramguda, returned homewithout purchasing muttonafter seeing the rush and theprice board. Sridhar said,“Mutton vendor issued tokensto the customers seeing therush”. A mutton vendor con-firmed this, saying that issuedtokens to maintain the socialdistance. The customers col-lected the tokens and waited fortheir turn, he said.

Satheesh, a bachelor whostays at Gopanpally, alsoreturned without purchasingmutton as the price board dis-played Rs 800 per kilo.

PNS n HYDERABAD

Civil Supplies CorporationChairman Mareddy SrinivasReddy on Sunday distributedfree rice to the BPL cardhold-ers at FP Shop No. 638 alongwith city mayor BonthuRammohan and MusheerabadMLA Mutha Gopal.

Addressing the gathering inthis context, he said that therice was distributed in the statesince April 1 at record level. He

said that 50 per cent of the ben-eficiaries received the free ricetill 3 pm on Sunday.

Rice distribution com-menced on April 1. For twodays, there were snags which

halted the programme. Aftersolving the issues the distribu-tion of rice started again.

Of the 87.55 lakh families,45,11,849 families received 1.67lakh tonnes so far, which hedescribed as a record of sorts.The distribution will continuefor another 3 to 4 days beforeit will come to an end. SrinivasReddy said that Rs 1,500 wouldbe deposited in the bankaccounts of ration card holdersin two or three days.

PNS n HYDERABAD

Mayor Dr Bonthu Rammohandistributed daily need items to1100 families residents ofIndiramma Gruha Kalpa,Church Colony of Cherla PallyDivision. Each kit contains5kg rice, 1kg dal,1kg onions, 1kg oil, 250 grams tamarind.

Speaking on the occasion,Mayor said the above itemswere sponsored by DelhiPublic School, Pallavi Group ofInstitutions, PallaviEngineering College manage-ment.

GHMC along the help ofdonors about 1 lakh people

availing free food facility daily.As per the instructions of theChief Minister that no oneshould sleep hungry, accord-ingly GHMC arranging food

for 60,000 people daily throughAnnapurana free meals.Similarly GHMC distributingfood to 40,000 people dailywith the help of donors.

Mayor distributes essentialitems to 1,100 poor families

‘50% beneficiaries received free rice'

Official testspositive forvirus, bookedfor hiding itPNS n HYDERABAD

A Telangana governmentofficial working at theDRDA Jangaon, who wastested positive for Covid-19 has been booked for notdisclosing his attendanceat the Tablighi Jamaat con-gregation in Delhi lastmonth, police said.

The man was workingin the District RuralDevelopment Agency(DRDA) of Jangoan andhad participated in thereligious congregation inDelhi on March 15 with-out permission or leaveand returned three dayslater.

"Even upon returning,he did not take any precau-tionary measures andmoved in public as well asattended duty. Around 70people who came into con-tact with him since hisreturn from Delhi wereadvised home quarantine,"local police said.

A case under Sections269, 270 and 188 of theIPC was booked againstthe official.

The Telangana govern-ment had recentlyannounced that whoeverhad attended the religiousmeeting at NizamuddinWest in the national capi-tal should inform thehealth department offi-cials or police and under-go tests for coronavirus.

TS cops formWhatsAppgroups fordocs’ securityPNS n HYDERABAD

Police officials across thestate were Sunday directedto form WhatsApp groupswith doctors and otherhealthcare professionalsinvolved in dealing withCovid-19 cases to ensuretheir security.

A seamless communica-tion has been establishedbetween police and healthdepartment officials forresponding to emergingissues in real time and tak-ing effective action.

Director General of PoliceM Mahender Reddy onSunday directed the entirepolice force across the stateto ensure safety and securi-ty of all doctors and otherhealthcare professionalsinvolved in dealing withCovid-19 cases.

The police chief asked alldistrict superintendents ofpolice and commissioners ofpolice to form WhatsAppgroups between local juris-dictional police officers anddoctors and other healthcareprofessionals. All police sta-tions across Telangana havein turn formed WhatsAppgroups and establishedseamless communicationbetween police and healthdepartment officials.

All the jurisdictionalpolice officers have beendirected to be in constanttouch with the doctors andother healthcare profession-als dealing with Covid-19cases and ensure their safe-ty and security by takingstern action against peopleinvolved in attacks on doc-tors and other medical pro-fessionals.

46 of 1 housequarantinedafter mantests positivePNS n HYDERABAD

Panic gripped King Koti areaafter a 40-year-old was test-ed positive for COVID-19.The man who had attendedthe Tableeghi Jamaat meetingheld in Delhi in the month ofMarch, was traced two daysago and moved to quarantineat Nature Cure hospital inAmeerpet.

As per sources, along withhim, five others who had alsotravelled with him were alsoshifted to quarantine.

"We were later told that asmany as 46 persons wereresiding in the same housewhere the person who wastested positive was residing.Police and health officialshave directed the residents tostay under home quarantineand also appealed them tocooperate for conductingtests and further procedure"sources said.

The man and five othersresiding in the same buildinghad attended the TableeghiJamaat in Delhi and hadreturned to the city in thethird week of March. Samplesof other persons residing inthe home have been collect-ed and they are directed to bein home quarantine till theresults are out. Even if theyare negative also, the residentswere told to be under homequarantine for 14 days or tillfurther orders.

NIMS OP to be busy again from MondayPNS n HYDERABAD

The state government issuedorders declaring the Nizam'sInstitute of Medical Sciences(NIMS) as the non-Covid-19treatment facility and asked itto refer coronavirus cases, if any,to the Gandhi Hospital, whichsuspended all other cases anddevoted to the treatment ofcoronavirus patients.

Therefore, the NIMS super-intendent Prof NimmaSatyanarayana Rao issuedorders to various heads of gov-ernment department to alert

them on this. The NIMS management

took all measures to ensure thatthe institute goes about itswork normally from Mondayonwards.

On account of the state gov-ernment imposing lockdownon the state, patients visiting theNIMS has dwindled, leading to

otherwise busy OP Departmentwearing a deserted look.

The patients started visitingthe NIMS as the coronavirusthreat relaxed to an extentbecause of the lockdown. OnSaturday, OP Departmentreceived at least 250 patients.Also, two surgeries were con-ducted in the cardiologydepartment.

In the biology departmentlocated on the fifth floor of theMillennium block of the NIMShospital for the past two dayscorona diagnostic tests wereheld.

Mutton vendors ignore Minister’s warningMutton sold at Rs 800 per kg, many forced to return empty handed

PNS n HYDERABAD

Chief Minister KChandrashekhar Rao onSunday instructed the offi-cials concerned to take mea-sures that though there was alockdown in the State, thereshould not be any problem forharvesting the crop or procure-ment of the paddy.

The Chief Minister held ahigh-level review meeting onharvesting in the State and pro-curement of Paddy at PragathiBhavan here on Sunday.Agriculture Minister SNiranjan Reddy, ChiefSecretary Somesh Kumar,DGP Mahender Reddy,Principal Secretary toAgriculture B JanardhanReddy, Civil SuppliesCommissioner SatyanarayanaReddy and others participated.

“The entire public life cameto a standstill due to the lockdown. But yet the govern-ment has decided to procurepaddy from farmers so that the

farmers will not face any dif-ficulty or financial losses. Tostop crowding at the markets,the government has decided toprocure paddy at village andprocurement centres at thevillage level were formed.Harvesting and procurementof Paddy should be done at thefullest level. Create atmos-phere in the villages so thatfarmers use the harvestors’machines. Allow harvestormechanics with special passes.Give permissions to the shops

who sell spare parts to the har-vestors. Villagers should allowthe harvestors into their vil-lages. Ensure that farmers arenot swarmed at the procure-ment centres. Create awarenessamong farmers that theyshould reach the centres at thespecified date and time, whichis mentioned in their coupons.Make all the necessary arrang-ments at the procurement cen-tres. The government is readyto buy every single grain fromfarmers and hence the farmersneed get panic,” the ChiefMinister said.

Meanhile, the ChiefMinister requested the PrimeMinister Narendra Modi toopen the Gunny bags manu-facturing units in west Bengaland ensure that their trans-portation through special goodtrains to the state. The PM hadresponded positively to therequest made by the CM. ThePM assured the CM that hewould talk to the departmentsconcerned on the matter.

HYDERABAD | MONDAY| APRIL 6, 2020 hyderabad 04

(CLockwise) Finance Minister THarish Rao and his family members,Rajya Sabha member SantoshKumar, Power Minister JagadishReddy, former MP K Kavitha and herfamily members expressing solidaritywith India’s united fight againstCovid-19 by holding diyas andcandles in the nine minuteprogramme that was followed acrossthe country following the call byPrime Minister Narendra Modi

Change in rural folks dietary habitsPeople in rural areas across the state are now consuming more fruitsPV KONDAL RAOn WARANGAL

There's no research that sup-ports the use of any supple-ment that protects one fromthe novel coronavirus.However, the best way to keepthe deadly virus at bay is bymaintaining proper hygiene,self-isolating and social dis-tancing. And the people inrural areas across the state arestrictly following this. Theintake of fruits now hasbecome part and parcel of thefood habits of the people inrural areas, thanks to theCorona effect.

It may be recalled that ChiefMinister K ChandrashekharRao too asked the people toconsume fruits which are richin Vitamin C to keep the novelcoronavirus at bay. Followingthis, the sales of fruits, especial-ly, sweet lemon and orangeshave increased during the pastone week. When compared to

people in the neigbouring state-- Andhra Pradesh, peoplehere rely on consuming morespicy food with fewer vegeta-bles and rarely eat fruits.

Generally people living inrural areas consume rice, pick-les and red chili powder andtheir basic ailments are gross-ly identified to the gastro relat-ed issues. There are instances

of people catching flu or hav-ing chest related problems, butthat section is usually foundamong the handloom weaverscommunity, who inhale theparticles of threads duringtheir work process. Similarly,there are cases pertaining to theoccurrence of Asbestosis andSilicosis among the workingclass connected to Granite

industry and stone crushingunits.

Usually the locals consumevegetables but in less quantities,while they consume non-veg-etarian on a regular basis. Therural folk generally prefer breador double Ritu whenever theycatch fever or other ailmentsand some fruit juices are alsoconsumed when the patients intheir family are treated in thehospitals.

But the Corona effect hasalmost changed the food habitsof people living in rural areas.According to the traders, thesales of oranges and sweetlemon has increased manifoldin Warangal. "People from

rural areas are coming in largenumbers during free time tobuy fruits," said Ahmed, afruit vendor at the BEd college.

"May be because of the callgiven by Chief Minister KChandrashekhar Rao, the saleshave increased this time.Whatever, the rise in sales hasbecome a blessing for us," saidBarkhat Ali.

Reports from various partsof the districts reveal that theconsumption of fruits hasbecome a part of their regularfood habit for the past ten daysand many people are citing theexample of improving theirimmunity level through thisconsumption.

It may be recalled that Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao too asked thepeople to consume fruits which are richin Vitamin C to keep the novelcoronavirus at bay

All set for paddyprocurement: NiranjanPNS n NIRMAL

Minister for Agriculture SNiranjan Reddy on Sundayinaugurated the maize pro-curement centre at Ponkalvillage in Mamada mandal ofNirmal district along with theMinister for Forests AllolaIndrakaran Reddy and assuredthe farmers that the state gov-ernment would procure everygrain produced by the farmers.

Infusing confidence amongthe farmers at a time thenumbers of Coronavirus casesare on the rise in the state, theMinister said that the stategovernment took all precau-tions to boost the morale ofthe farmers and in the processprocuring maize and paddy.

To prevent traders and mid-dlemen exploiting the farmersat this hour, he said that amicro-level plan has been pre-pared to procure farm pro-duce. He put the area underthe maize in the state at 5.92-lakh acres, while the areaunder the paddy was 40-lakhacres. He said that the CivilSupplies Corporation, IndiraKranthi Patham, PrimaryAgricultural Cooperative

Society, Markfed will procuremaize and paddy at MSPthrough their procurementcentres.

The poultry sector was dev-astated following the outbreakof Coronavirus, he said pre-dicting the maize output in thestate to be around 14-lakhtonnes. The governmentshould pay Rs 3,213 crore toprocure maize. In all, 1,077maize procurement centres,including 91 in Nirmal district,have been set up across thestate. The MSP fixed formaize is Rs 1,760 per quintal.He asked the farmers not tostep out of their villages unlessit is absolutely necessary andadvised them to observe socialdistance.

PM’s appeal turnsinto mini-DiwaliNAVEEN KUMAR n HYDERABAD

At 9 PM on Sunday night,Prime Minister NarendraModi requested citizensfrom across the country toshow solidarity by turningoff the lights and lightingcandles or diyas for 9 min-utes.

However, there were thosewho took this as an excuse tocelebrate Diwali and in aridiculous turn of events,people began bursting crack-ers outside their houses at 9PM, completely mocking thewhole system of lockdown,quarantine and social dis-tancing.

In some places, peoplecame together in commonareas of their housing soci-eties to light diyas, mingle,chant ‘go corona go’ and‘Bharat mata ki jai’ claimingthat these measures pose anexistential threat to the coro-navirus. While the intentwas to pose a challenge tothe virus, the one provenmethod to stop its spread,social distancing, was notadequately followed as peo-ple congregated for the eventand even hugged each other.

The event went on wellbeyond the nine minutesthat Modi had stipulatedwith people stepping outand staying outside theirhomes bursting crackers,lighting diyas, and chanting

slogans. There was also a report of

a rally with about 50 mem-bers at Shivam Road inAmberpet where people withburning torches took to theroad and shouted slogansagainst "Chinese virus".Joining the lot was BJP MLAfor Goshamahal Raja Singhwith similar chants in agroup. The debacle of clap-ping should have been anexample to the governmentas to how people can disap-point and do something soopposite of what is told tothem as several cities sawcrowds mimicking weddingprocessions on March 22.

Several Twitter usersclaimed that people wereburning firecrackers, goingover and beyond Modi’smemo. Several also reportedconch shells being blown intheir neighbourhoods. At thetime when reports of air pol-lution drop surfaced afteryears of spike, a small requestshowed just how much wecare about the environmentand public health.

Similar scenes unfoldedacross several Indian cities. ATwitter user from Delhi'sVaishali Nagar even tweeteda video of a building thatcaught fire due to the burst-ing of crackers. Yet anotherfire was reported at SolapurAirport by former journalistand Congress workerSrivatsa.

Govt will buy every singlegrain from farmers: KCR

ImplementAyushmanBharat, saysRaja SinghPNS n HYDERABAD

BJP MLA Raja Singh Loath onSunday urged Chief MinisterK Chandrasekhar Rao toimplement Ayushman Bharatscheme in the state. He saidthat the scheme would help thepoor in a greater manner. Thepoor would get free treatmentif they affected with Corona atany hospital if the AyushmanBharat scheme is implement-ed in the state, he said.

On Sunday, Raja Singh alsoasked the AIMIM chiefAsaduddin Owaisi not to dopolitics over the issue. Healleged that NizamuddinMarkaz was the main reasonbehind the rise in number ofcases.

PNS n SANGAREDDY

Sanitation workers in the dis-trict have been protestingover the official apathy in giv-ing them gloves, masks andsanitisers as they cleargarbage from streets withtheir own hands under pre-vailing situation. There are atleast 210 sanitation workers inSangareddy municipality. Infact, three Corona virus caseshave been registered inSangareddy and Zaheerabadmunicipalities.

The sanitation workers inNarayanakhed took the denialof gloves, sanitisers and masksto them to the notice of the

RDO Rajeshwar and made itclear to him on Saturday thatthey would not be able towork under such harsh con-ditions. As they put forthvery strong demand, byevening the officials havesupplied them with glovesand other paraphernalia.

One of the sanitation work-er complained that the glovesare of so substandard qualityand are getting easily torn atthe time of wearing them. Inspite of Finance Minister

T Harish Rao going onrecord asking the officials toprovide quality material, atthe field level different situa-tion prevails.

Confronting lockdown through convergence ConcallPNS n HYDERABAD

The Departments ofAgriculture, Horticulture andMarketing are converting theCorona challenge into anopportunity. In the face ofrestricted physical movement,and the need to supplies veg-etables and fruits to the con-sumers and also to provideenabling environment for thefarmers to transport and get aright price for their produce,and above all to maintain sup-plies, the departmentsAgriculture, Horticulture andMarketing are using the con-vergence concall.

In this regard, On Sundaymorning, Sai Reddy, a farmerfrom Nalgonda, received phonecall from the Agriculture

Principal Secretary DrJanardhan Reddy. "How is yourcrop? Are you facing any prob-lems" he enquired.

The convergence meetingconvened on Sunday morning,in conference call mode, by theSecretary brought to the fore

the relevance and need of thismanagement tool at this time.Present were senior officers ofthe departments, estate officers,civil society representativesfarmers.

A key outcome was the pos-sibility of using MBA students

to be roped in to use the pre-sent situation as a live casestudy and put their manage-ment strategies to practice byusing mobility methodologiesin linking the farmers to thecustomers in the city and otherplaces.

Saidi Reddy, from Nalgonda,cultivating 10 acres reported ofless yield this time and receivedan assurance that the con-cerned officer will call him andhelp him out.

Next on line was, SrinivasaChari, from Tipparthi Mandalhaving mango orchard of 10years and 4 years. He confi-dently expressed satisfactionover the government agricul-ture programmes and said thatthere were no issues on water

and that he was using drip irri-gation methods.

The 37 minutes and 30 sec-onds Convergence ConCallmeeting was a treatise in man-agement on how and adversesituation can be converted intomeaningful and relevant actionoriented strategy benefitting allthe partners of development.Appropriately used theConvergence ConCall methodcould be the defining factor towin the corona battle.

The Convergence ConCall meeting was a treatise in management on howand adverse situation can be convertedinto meaningful and relevant actionoriented strategy

PNS n NALGONDA

As a precautionary measure,the officials are distributingAasara pensions at the govern-ment schools and panchayatoffices located on sprawlinggrounds to eliminate the needfor congregation of people.

Also, the benefinaries neednot log in their biometricattendance. Instead the branchpostmaster will affix his elec-tronic signature as a token ofproof of delivering the pension.In some villages, Aasara pen-sion is still being distributed atbranch post offices observingsome precautions like drawingboxes on ground to ensure

beneficiaries observe socialdistance.

In places where the Aasarapensions are being distrib-uted, the branch post master,village secretary and sarpanchhave been assigned the duties.

In Nalgonda district, thenumber of Aasara pensions is

put at 1,86,061. Of them 61,841are physically challenged per-sons. The other pensionersare widows (75,635), weavers(2,926), toddy tappers (7,541)and single women (7,344).Thetotal mount distributedtowards Aasara pensionsamong them is Rs 43 crore.

Donations pourin for CMRFPNS n HYDERABAD

Several prominent personali-ties on Sunday have donatedto the state government insupport of measures taken forthe prevention and spread ofCoronavirus in the State.

Pokharna group gave Rsone crore to the ChiefMinister. Pokharna groupchairman Gautam Jain hasgiven the donation to ChiefMinister K ChandrashekharRao. Minister ErrabelliDayakar Rao was also present.Nash Labs private Limitedalso gave Rs one crore. Nash

Labs MD BSN Reddy andDirector VVS Reddy gave thecheque to the CM. StateFarmers CoordinationCommittee chairman PallaRajeshwar Reddy was presentat the programme. NandamuriBalakrishna has donated Rs1.25 crore towards the fightagainst the ongoing coron-avirus pandemic. He hasdonated Rs 50 lakh each toCM relief funds of AP andTelangana, Rs 25 lakh towardsthe 'Corona Crisis Charity'welfare of cine workers ofTelugu filmdom, which wasinitiated by Chiranjeevi.

Chief Minister is all praise for Electricity DepartmentPNS n HYDERABAD

Chief Minister Sri KChandrashekhar Rao onSunday congratulated theElectricity Department forensuring that there was noproblem even if lights wereswitched off all over the Statein solidarity with the fightagainst the Corona virusspread. The CM congratulatedTelangana State Transco, GencoCMD Sri Prabhakar Rao, otherDirectors, and Engineers. TheCM said though the demandwas slipped beyond the esti-mated levels, the electricitydepartment worked with strat-egy and were able to balancethe situation.

Though in the entire state,lights were switched off onSunday at 9 PM, due to theperfect planning of the electric-ity department, no problemaroused. Both the Transco andGenco were successful, whenthere was drastic change in

demand and supply of powerconsumption and they wereable to strike a perfect balance.Transco and Genco CMD SriDevulapalli Prabhakar Raowas there in the Load Dispatchcentre in Vidyut Soudha fromSunday Morning and finalisedthe strategy for the suddendrop in demand at one go. Inaccordance with that theyacted from 9 PM for 9 minutes.Due to sudden switching oflights at one go, the demandwill fall to 300 to 500 MWs inthe State, the Central

Electricity RegulatoryAuthority estimated. Becauseof the switching of lights at goin the entire state the demanddropped to 1500 MWs.Monitoring the situation byminute to minute, the decreasein load was compensated atelsewhere with a strategy. Tocompensate with the decreasein demand, pump sets inNagarjuna Sagar generationstation and in Kaleswaramprojects were made opera-tional and electricity was con-sumed. Generation in Thermalunits was reduced. With this abalance between demand andsupply was achieved. Hence,there was no impact on theGrid. The demand startedincreasing after 9 PM and 9minutes. As a consequence, theusage at other places reducedand balance was maintained.With this, when the lightswere switched on after 9 amafter 9 minutes, there was noproblem.

Aasara pensions distributionat schools for social distancing

DIYAS BBURN BBRIGHT

Sanitation workers worksans gloves, masks

Though in the entirestate, lights wereswitched off onSunday at 9 PM, dueto the perfectplanning of theelectricitydepartment, noproblem aroused

‘9 BAJE 9 MINUTE’

HYDERABAD | MONDAY | APRIL 6, 2020 nation 05SHORT READS

Eye doctor inquarantine afterattending preparatorymeeting for TablighiHYDERABAD: Anophthalmologist at a state-runmedical institute has beenplaced under hospitalquarantine in Telagana after heattended the preparatorymeeting for the Tablighi Jamatcongregation in Delhi lastmonth and his test results areawaited, officials said here onSunday. The COVID-19 testreport of the eye specialist,working at the Rajiv GandhiInstitute of Medical Sciences atAdilabad, was awaited, theysaid. The man, who is also aJamat functionary and isreportedly an organisingcommittee member,had visitedDelhi on March 8, returned toAdialabad on March 10, asenior official said. He did notdisclose that he had taken partin the event and beganattending to patients fromMarch 12 to April 1, he said.

Unexploded mortarshell destroyed alongLoC in JK's Poonch

Tally of Covid-19patients in KalyanDombivali areas 28

3 kin of 93-year-oldMP man test positive

THANE: With four morepersons, including a minor,testing positive for coronavirusin the areas under KalyanDombivali MunicipalCorporation (KDMC), thenumber of such patients in theregion rose to 28 on Sunday,officials said. All the four newpatients are residents ofDombivali. One of them is aseven-year-old girl. Three otherpatients are women aged 75,54 and 24, an official statementsaid. The 24-year-old womanhad returned from Parisrecently, it added. All the fourpatients are currently beingtreated at Mumbai's KasturbaHospital, the statement said.

BARWANI (MP): Threepersons, including a 13-yeargirl, tested positive for novelcoronavirus in Barwani districtof Madhya Pradesh on Sunday,a senior official said, addingthey were kin of a 93-year-oldman who had arrived here fromUAE on March 13 and died onMarch 30. The elderly man, aresident of Sendhwa here, haddied in an Indore hospital and itis not known whether hissamples were tested forcoronavirus at the time, DistrictCollector Amit Tomar said.

JAMMU: The Army's anti-explosion experts on Sundaydestroyed a live mortar shell ina forward area along the Lineof Control in Poonch district ofJammu and Kashmir, officialssaid. The shell had remainedunexploded during the recentcross-border shelling byPakistani army and was noticedby some border residents nearGhani village in Krishna Ghatisector, the officials said. Theysaid the army experts rushed tothe scene and safely destroyedthe mortar shell.

PNS n NEW DELHI

The rate of doubling ofCOVID-19 cases in India is 4.1days presently but if the caseslinked to the Tablighi Jamaatcongregation would not havehappened, it would have been7.4 days, the Health Ministrysaid on Sunday.

Joint Secretary in the min-istry Lav Agarwal said therehad been 472 new COVID-19cases and 11 deaths sinceSaturday. The total coronaviruscases stand at 3,374 and thedeath toll now stands at 79. Hesaid 267 people have recovered.

However, a PTI tally of fig-ures reported by states direct-ly showed at least 106 deaths,while the number of con-firmed cases had reached3,624. Of the total, 284 havebeen cured and discharged.

There has been a lag in theUnion Health Ministry fig-ures, compared to the numbersannounced by different states,which officials attribute to

procedural delays in assigningthe cases to individual states.

Asserting that there was noevidence that COVID-19 wasairborne, an ICMR officialsaid, "We need to understandthat in science whoever doesexperiments some will have a'for opinion and some against'but we need to take a balanced,evidence-based approach.”

"For example, if it was an air-borne infection then in a fam-ily whoever has a contact theyall should come positivebecause they are living in same

surrounding as the patient andthe family is breathing thesame air. When someone isadmitted in hospital, otherpatient would have got expo-sure (if it was air borne) butthat is not the case,” the officialsaid. Talking about the TablighiJamaat congregation, Agarwalsaid, "If the Tablighi Jamaatincident had not taken placeand we compare the rate ofdoubling — that is in howmany days the cases have dou-bled, we will see that current-ly it is 4.1 days (including

Jamaat cases) and if the inci-dent had not taken place andadditional cases had not comethen the doubling rate wouldhave been 7.4 days."

CS Rajiv Gauba on Sundayheld a meeting on COVID-19with district magistrates, super-intendent of police, chief med-ical officers, state and districtsurveillance officers, statehealth secretaries and districthealth secretaries and chiefsecretaries, Agarwal said.

PNS n NEW DELHI/SRINAGAR

Human Intelligence, a weaponused for busting terror groupsin Jammu and Kashmir, hascome in handy to trace peoplewho concealed their travelhistory, besides in retracing thesteps of coronavirus positivepatients, in an operation thatled to tracking of over 1,000people who have since beenquarantined in various parts ofthe union territory.

Fighting this new battle,officials said the authoritiesroped in the state intelligencemachinery who were tasked totrack, identify and bring suchpeople to quarantine facilities.

The intelligence personnelalong with the regular police,which remain at the forefrontin the fight against terrorgroups in the union territory,were now complementing thedistrict administration in itsefforts to ensure the success ofthe lockdown, besides trackingpeople who hid their travel his-tory from the authorities.

According to a report sub-mitted to the Centre, over

1,000 people who had eithertraveled out of the state orabroad were brought to quar-antine centres between March15 and 31 and their identifica-tion and verification was goingon, the officials said.

Also, more than 28,000 peo-ple are under surveillancewhich included 10,600 whohave been either quarantinedat government facilities or inhome-isolation, the officialssaid. There have been 92 pos-itive cases so far in the unionterritory out of which twohave died.

A total of 34 hotspots have

been identified in Jammu andKashmir which include: sevenin Pulwama, five in Srinagar,and four each in Bandiporaand Budgam; two in Shopian,one each in Ganderbal andBaramulla in Kashmir division;and five in Rajouri, four inJammu and one in Udhampurdistrict of Jammu division.

"We knew that it's a chainreaction. He would have metone and the chain continues.So it was necessary to imme-diately break the chain," said anofficial of the JK administra-tion, spoking on condition ofanonymity.

Anti-terror mechanism used totrack people escaping quarantine

PNS n NEW DELHI

How do you explain to a childthe science of something thatis neither living nor dead?How do you tell her that some-thing invisible can kill people.What answer does a father havewhen his son asks whether hewill be able to celebrate hisbirthday in June. Then there isthe kid who is competes withhis parents for TV time – car-toons or grim news programs?And perhaps not surprisinglymany want to beat up China

Parents across the country,and the world, are grapplingwith an unprecedented chal-lenge of dealing with theirchildren who are too old to beshushed or placated and tooyoung to understand the inex-plicable situation the worldhas found itself in.

PTI journalists across Indiashared experiences and conver-sations with their childrenaged 2 to 13, which rangedfrom cute to poignant and

heart-wrenching to humor-ous, and some with sagacity farbeyond their age.

Here are some of the experiencesfrom around the country:

Niheer Waghmare, all of 2years 4 months, is a diehard fanof his father Aditya's RoyalEnfield motorcycle. A shortride around Aurangabad ismandatory every day. Whenthe lockdown started, this prac-

tice stopped. Now the bikeengine is started every morn-ing for him to sit on its petroltank and drink his milk.

His mother told him: “Thereis a threat called corona onroads outside. It will attack andinjure us”. He understood it'ssomething dangerous.

“He said, 'once corona ends,I will go to the hills'. For now,I show the hills to him from theroof of my house,” said

Waghmare. Three-year-old Ira was never

too keen to go to playschool.But since the lockdown she'sbeen insisting on being withher playgroup. So her mother,Arundhati Pattabhiraman,dresses up Ira every morningand lines up her toys to createan environment similar to herplay school.

To make her understandabout coronavirus, “we made itinto a story that it is a monsterwhich will catch her if she stepsout of the house or if she does-n't wash her hands. So nowevery time she speaks to hergrandparents, she ends the con-

versation with 'wash your handsor coronavirus will get you'.”

Anvay Deshmukh , 4,believes he can beat the“Corona-demon” in a fist fight.He also checks out the maingate of the house a couple oftimes in a day, thinking he mayspot the demon so that he canfight with him.

“We have informed him thathe is not supposed to touchhim and keep his hands cleanso that coronavirus will notrecognise him. He has startedjoyously clapping every timeafter washing his hands” saidhis father Nikhil Deshmukh inMumbai.

“We had to come up with astory of Corona-demon who ison the loose and is wanderingon the streets,” said Deshmukh.“He at times believes that.”

Ananya Jaiswal, who is 5,used to go on a horse cart rideevery weekend, followed byher favourite cheese dosa andwatermelon juice. Acceptingthat the horse cart ride is notpossible now, she has found analternative -- her soft toy, a hugeWinnie the Pooh, on which shesits and pretends to be on ahorse. As for the cheese dosa,“we try to make her happy bymaking her favourite delica-cies,” said her mother KomalPanchamatia in Mumbai.

The other day, she chose towear her party dress and gotready with matching acces-sories. She wore it throughoutthe day, said Panchamatia, wholike everyone else is workingfrom home. “Ananya has bynow understood that I have ateacher and I have been givenhomework to doevery day.”

In millions of homes, kids have questions about corona

Jamaat incident worsenedCovid-19 spread, says Govt

Parents across the country, and theworld, are grappling with anunprecedented challenge of dealingwith their children who are too old tobe shushed or placated and too youngto understand the inexplicable situationthe world has found itself in

PNS n NEW DELHI

As the world scrambles tofind a cure for COVID-19,health experts have suggestedboosting the body's immunesystem may help minimizethe affects and hasten therecovery from the disease.

They say ayurvedic herbssuch as tulsi, cinnamon, blackpepper, shunthi (dry ginger)and raisins and regular yogaare potent aids to increase thebody's immunity againstharmful viruses.

Prime Minister NarendraModi, too, recently highlight-ed the benefits of ayurveda andurged people to "have a look"at Ayush Ministry's protocol tostay fit, saying "good health isthe harbinger of happiness".

The ministry's protocol out-lined measures to build astrong immune system and itincluded: consuming warmwater, practising yogasana,pranayama and meditation for

30 minutes every day.It also advised usage of

turmeric, cumin, corianderand garlic in cooking, besidestaking 10 gm of chyavanprashin the morning. Jaggery, freshlemon juice too can be helpfulin the fight against COVID-19.

Sanchit Sharma, executivedirector of herbal products-manufacturer AIMIL Pharma,welcomed the prime minister'ssuggestion, saying immunitywill be "our saviour" againstthe virus. Also, a health

immune system will help inrecovery from the coronavirusinfection, Sharma added. Thefirm offers immunityenhancer herbal drug Fifatrol,a multi-drug combination ofayurvedic classical medicinesand herbs like mrityunjayrasa, sanjeevani vati, tulsi andgiloe, he said.

"The idea is that if youdon't have a potent weapon tocombat the enemy, a strongand effective shield is the bestbet to protect yourself."

Ayurveda helps boost immunityagainst Covid-19, say experts

PNS n KOCHI

Japan has lifted inspectionorder for Indian Black Tigershrimps after the export con-signments of this shrimp werefound free from any residue ofsynthetic anti-bacterial drugfurazolidone, MPEDA has saidhere.

This has been conveyed byFood Inspection and SafetyDivision of Japan's Ministry ofHealth, Labour and Welfare(MHLW) to the Embassy ofIndia in Japan, ExportInspection Council of Indiaand the Marine ProductsExport Development Authority(MPEDA).The MHLW hasalso reduced import inspectionsampling frequency for BlackTiger shrimp (Penaeus mon-odon) to 30 per cent from thecurrent 100 per cent.

The order related with fura-zolidone was implemented inaccordance with Section 3,

Article 26 of the FoodSanitation Act of Japan.

Black Tiger shrimp, com-monly known as the gianttiger prawn or Asian Tigershrimp, is a popular seafooddelicacy the worldover andalso forms an important seg-ment of India's marine prod-ucts export basket.

Japan consumes nearly 40per cent of India's Black Tigershrimp exports, while it enjoys

niche markets in the EU andUSA also. The MHLW, in aMarch 25 communication toits chiefs of Quarantine Station,has also conveyed that due tolifting of Inspection Orderrelated with furazolidone onIndian cultured Black Tigershrimp, the frequency of mon-itoring inspection will berevised to 30 per cent based onImported Foods Monitoringand Guidance Plan FY2019

and it is added to Schedule-2of monitoring notification.

A two-member expert teamhad surveyed the Black Tigershrimp hatcheries and farms,and processing units thatexport the variety duringMarch 2-6 ahead of this order,MPEDA said in a release here.

Welcoming the lifting ofinspection order by Japan, K SSrinivas, Chairman, MPEDA,said it is a validation of therelentless efforts undertaken bythe Authority in raising therequest at various platformsand through its trade promo-tion office in Tokyo.

He also said MPEDAthrough its field offices andsociety named National Centrefor Sustainable Aquaculture,had been constantly educatingfarmers on BMPs and the ill-effects on usage of unknowninputs which may containresidues of anti-microbial sub-stances like furazolidone.

PNS n BHUBANESWAR

Union Minister Pratap Sarangihas urged Odisha ChiefMinister Naveen Patnaik toprovide a compensation pack-age for priests and servitors,who are finding it difficult toearn livelihood, amid thenationwide lockdownimposed to slow the spread ofCOVID-19.

He also pointed out thattemples in Odisha, unlikemany other states, do not paysalaries to the priests andservitors, who mostly dependon offerings from devotees fortheir every day expenses.

In a letter to Patnaik, theUnion Minister of State forMicro, Small & MediumEnterprises said,"I request youto kindly issue instructions tothe state's Hindu ReligiousEndowment Authority tomake an assessment of theground situation and come out

with a compensation packagefor the priests and servitors ofthe temples under its charge,for their relief in these difficulttimes." In the wake of theCOVID-19 lockdown, admin-istration has shut down placesof worship across the state toprevent mass gatherings.

Sarangi said the priests andtheir attendants were findingit difficult to feed their fami-lies.

Union Minister writes toOdisha CM, seeks reliefpackage for priests, servitors

PNS n NEW DELHI

The Centre made a "grave mis-take" by announcing the lock-down without taking the statesinto confidence and it shouldnow spell out its plan after the21-day period ends to avoid"chaos", Congress leader MVeerappa Moily said on Sunday.

Asserting that access to test-ing should be "universal",Moily, a member of Congresstask force to deal withCOVID-19 pandemic inparty-ruled states, said thekey to fighting the pandemicwas large scale testing and theCongress-ruled states werefocusing on that aspect despiteconstraints.

"We (Congress-ruled states)have given high priority to test-ing. Until the testing is carriedout on a massive scale, I don'tthink we can tackle this issue,"he told PTI in an interview.

The former Union ministeris part of the Congress taskforce set up last month to

intensify efforts to deal withthe COVID-19 situation inparty-ruled states.

Besides Moily, the task forcealso includes P Chidambaram,Jairam Ramesh, andTamradhwaj Sahu — all chair-men of respective manifestoimplementation committeesin the Congress ruled-states ofPuducherry, Punjab,Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan.

Moily asserted that thestates should have been takeninto confidence before thelockdown was ordered.

Govt made ‘grave mistake',says Veerappa Moily

PNS n MUMBAI

Air India has asked passengerswho travelled in four of itsflights in March to follow nec-essary isolation or quarantineafter three passengers on thoseflights tested positive for coro-navirus.

Two of these flights werefrom Goa to Mumbai, onefrom Mumbai to Delhi andanother from Delhi to Patna.

In an appeal to passengerswho were onboard theseflights, the airline said it has gotthe information that three pas-sengers who travelled with thefights have been found infect-ed with coronavirus.

"As informed by DisasterManagement Department ofBihar, one passenger who trav-

elled from Mumbai to Delhi byAI-101 of March 22 and fromDelhi-to Patna on AI-415 onMarch 23 has been foundCOVID-9 positive on March31," the airline said in a tweet.

As appealed by the depart-ment, passengers who were onthis flight are required to fol-low necessary isolation/quar-

antine process.The national carrier also

made similar appeals to thepassengers of its Mumbai-Goaflights, AI 883 and AI 661, onMarch 22 and March 19,respectively.

"As informed by IntegratedDisease SurveillanceProgramme, Directorate ofHealth Services, Goa, one pas-senger who travelled fromMumbai to Panjim in Goa onAir India flight AI 661 onMarch 19 has been foundCOVID-9 positive.

As appealed by integrateddisease surveillance pro-gramme, Goa, passengers forthis flight are required to fol-low for necessary isolationquarantine," Air India said ina tweet on Saturday.

CORONAVIRUS SCARE

AI appeals flyers of 4 flights operatedin Mar to quarantine themselves

PNS n NEW DELHI

Only 57 per cent students in thecountry have required hard-ware like computer, router andprinter at home to attendonline classes being conductedduring the coronavirus lock-down, according to a survey.

The survey, with over25,000 respondents, alsopointed out problems beingfaced by students in sharingresources with parents who, asseen in many households, arealso working from home.

"Around 57 per centrespondents said they havehardware like computer, tablet,printer and router, required fortheir children to participate inonline classes from homewhile 43 per cent respondentssaid they do not have requiredresources," the survey con-

ducted by online platformLocal Circles said.

"This means that two inevery five parents do not havethe necessary equipment toenable their wards to take theonline classes which will startsometime in April. Some par-ents at schools where onlineclasses already started lastweek expressed how they wereletting their child use theircomputer for online classesand compromising on theirwork from home," it reported.

Some parents also men-tioned that they were havingproblems to divide theresources among their chil-dren. Several schools and col-leges have been conductingonline classes for studentsafter the government hadannounced closure of educa-tional institutions.

Only 57 pc students haverequired hardware toattend online classes

Japan lifts inspection order for Indian Black Tiger shrimps

There has been alag in the UnionHealth Ministryfigures, comparedto the numbersannounced bydifferent states,which officialsattribute toprocedural delays

Acruel irony plays out as thepowerful Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, USSTheodore Roosevelt, succumbsprecariously to what the US

President had cuttingly called the “Chinesevirus” or Coronavirus. The irony gets mag-nified with the ship’s call sign, “RoughRider” and its motto, Qui Plantavit Curabit,or, “He, who has planted, will preserve.”With more than 100 sailors infected withthe Novel Coronavirus, the mighty battleplatform has been rendered ineffective likenever before. The gargantuan warshipwith over 1,17,000 tonne displacementcapacity to carry 90 aircraft and 5,000 crewmembers had been leading a China-cen-tric strike group encompassing an air wing,cruiser and six destroyers before it figura-tively ran aground with the first COVID-19 case being reported on any US naval ves-sel deployed overseas. The sheer apathy andindecisions surrounding the crisis in the USNavy are obvious from the fact that the firstreported case came on March 24 and therequest to contain the predicament wentunheeded till it led to a spiralling of infect-ed cases aboard. An embarrassing SOS fol-lowed from the Captain of the battleship.

Captain Brett Crozier wrote a desper-ate and blunt four-page letter to the navalleadership asking for “decisive action”and warned that the continuing dilly-dal-lying was “unacceptable.” His movingwords, “We are not at war. Sailors do notneed to die. If we do not act now, we arefailing to properly take care of our mosttrusted asset — our sailors”, hit at the soulof the seafaring nation with a proud navaltradition. The US’s legendary politician, theformer Secretary of the Navy, Frank Knox,had famously said, “No matter what hap-pens, the US Navy is not going to be caughtnapping.”

Seemingly, it was caught napping inthis incident as the optics were almost sim-ilar to the Japanese civilian cruise liner,Diamond Princess. Confusion led to theonboard quarantining of the ship with 712out of the 3,711 passengers and crew infect-ed with Coronavirus. Inaction on the partof the US Navy in responding to the ini-tial request for containment measuresonboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt led toa similar multiplication of infection. The$10 billion platform has now become abreeding ground for Coronavirus.

Living conditions on these platformsare extremely constrained to say the least.Sailors are placed cheek-by-jowl across alabyrinth of decks lined by steep ladder-likestairs and very narrow corridors. Armedto the teeth, the free space available is at asuper-premium with up to 60 sailors shar-ing a sleeping compartment that is in bunkor rack formation, crammed together instacks of three. All 60 of them could besharing one bathroom with a very sparsecommon area. Workplaces are similarly

constricted. The space to main-tain the prescribed social dis-tancing or to have properdecontamination is not possi-ble without full evacuation.

However, evacuation hasbeen the bone of contentionwith the Captain suggesting aresidual force of 10 per cent or500 members to stay on boardto perform sustenance duties;whereas the Chief of Navaloperations has insisted on 1,000sailors in order to maintain the safety and security of theship.

At stake is the nuclearpower plant, four squadrons ofBoeing F-18 fighter aircraft,one squadron of Growler elec-tronic warfare aircraft, twosquadrons of Seahawk multi-mission helicopters, onesquadron of Grumman E-2Hawkeye early warning aircraftand another squadron ofGreyhound cargo aircraft.Besides, the aircraft carrier’sown munitions, including threePhalanx CIWS, two RIM-7Sea Sparrow weapons systemsand two RIM-116 infrared sur-face-to-air missiles. Securingthe operational worthiness ofthe ship has inadvertentlycounter-posited the same vis-à-vis the concern for the safe-ty of the sailors onboard. Whilethe US naval top brass is reject-ing allegations of either a lack-adaisical attitude or failure to

take care of its sailors, this inci-dent has highlighted the over-all lack of preparedness andsensitivity towards such exigen-cies — be it in the civilian or inthe military realm.

However, what will hauntthe hallowed institution of theUS armed forces much after theCoronavirus crisis has settled isnot so much the apparentdefencelessness from a medical or an infrastructuralperspective, as much as thereaction of its senior leadershiptowards the soldiers at theforefront.

Captain Brett Crozieralluded to this leadershipaspect when he stated thatkeeping the crew on the shipwas “an unnecessary risk andbreaks faith with those sailorsentrusted to our care.” Equally,the leak of the letter to the Presshas also diminished the prin-ciple of good order, restraintand discipline that behoves acombat leader, whatever thecircumstances.

Even a direct letter to theostensible Commander-in-Chief, as opposed to the Press,would have been construed tobe a lesser dereliction of theinstitutional traditions. Thisincident will trigger a debate onthe sacred covenant betweenthe soldier and service, whichalways prides that they “leaveno men behind.” Sometimes,

the practicality of the situationand the cruel principle of “larg-er good” lead to an unfortunatecompromise as it happened inthe US’ decision to drop atom-ic bombs over Hiroshima andNagasaki. This, knowing itfully well that occupiedAmerican prisoners-of-war(POWs) were held up in theselocations. Even if the initialdownplaying and non-evacua-tion of the Coronavirus riddenUSS Theodore Roosevelt was apractical necessity, it was nothandled with the required con-cern, alacrity and reassurancefrom the naval leadership.

Naval leaderships are givento the very finest and noblesttraditions that always put thehonour of the nation and thepeople under command abovethe interest of the leaders them-selves. The saga of IndianNavy’s captain, MN Mulla,who chose to go down with hisship in the India-Pakistan war,is the sort of DNA that profes-sional navies thrive on.

Therefore, the US Navywill be forced to navel-gaze onits own handling of the USSTheodore Roosevelt issue as themost visible, intimidating anddeadly “five acres of mobile USland.” Diplomacy cannot sinkto such lows.

(The writer, a military vet-eran, is a former Lt Governor ofAndaman & Nicobar Islands)

Dharavi, Asia’s largest and clusteredslum, has registered three cases ofCoronavirus and unfortunately, one

death as well, taking India’s battle against thevirus to another level altogether. AnArmageddon we are not ready to fight just yetbut our containment drill now will be to iden-tify, isolate and choke clusters considering thedensity of population and the less than stan-dard safety and hygiene protocols. Dharavi ishome to a whopping one million slum-dwellerscrammed in a roughly five-square-kilometre

maze of narrow lanes, ramshackle buildings, shanties and open sewers. Withfamilies of six-seven people packed like sardines in tiny quarters, social dis-tancing is a privilege none can afford. Such community clusters may just beour Achilles’ heel in the fight against the rapidly-spreading Coronavirus that hasferociously battered the entire human population of the planet. Given the rateof the disease spiral, community transmission is a given, at least in such con-tiguous settlements.

Urban slums are indispensable to the economy of the country as a vast per-centage of daily-wage labourers, industrial workers and domestic help live here,keeping the service economy going. They represent a valuable human resource.Water sources and sanitation facilities are shared by multitudes of people andexistence is by the brush of the skin. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation(BMC) has quarantined and stamped all the people who may have come in con-tact with the victim but tracing people who float in and out is still a humongouschallenge. The BMC swung into action quickly, in alliance with the police, firebrigade, doctors and healthcare workers called the Contain Dharavi Operation.This multi-pronged strategy didn’t let up for 24 hours at a stretch. They imme-diately separated people above 60 who were also suffering from some respira-tory diseases and tested them. In fact, if more positive cases show up, they willtest all 125 senior citizens in the vicinity. The affected, the senior citizens andthose with underlying health conditions will be moved to the district sports com-plex if need be. This micro pin-pointing is arduous and meticulous but is ouronly hope to stave off a human disaster. It is through non-pharmaceutical means,lockdowns, testing and isolation through which we can contain and confine themalaise, may be delay its inevitable spread. With even developed countries suchas the US, Spain and Italy being overwhelmed by the pandemic and their health-care facilities facing a crisis, we need intense community vigilance. With rapid-ly-increasing numbers of positive cases being reported every week, it is esti-mated that our hospitals will be overwhelmed by the end of May or even soon-er considering that the number of hospital beds per 1,000 people in India is only0.7, compared to 11.5 in South Korea. What’s equally alarming is the fact thatsome States could reach the point where they don’t have enough hospital bedsto treat critical COVID-19 patients much sooner than others, notably Kerala,Maharashtra, Delhi and Punjab. This is a time for sharing resources and exper-tise and while we have to shut out the world, States and the Centre need to poolin and share resources to save our communities.

As news begins to filter in that compa-nies are using the “conditional” part ofa “conditional offer” they made to grad-

uating students from India’s premier institutessuch as the Indian Institutes of Technology(IITs) and the Indian Institutes of Management(IIMs) to withdraw job offers, the young andtalented Indians might feel outraged anddespondent. But unlike the good times,when one rescinded offer meant 10 other goodones fell into one’s lap, this time round, offersmade by the elite “Fortune 100” companies

are falling by the wayside. Many jobs that involved moving to the UK or the UShave been put aside as businesses will try to work out the costs of the slow-down, which will inevitably come with a rise in nationalism as millions of localjobs will be lost. Post-Corona rebuild means each affected country prioritisesits own needs and people. In the US, for example, foreign nationals have suc-cumbed to the unfortunate yet unavoidable consequence, which is of unem-ployment. Thousands of techies and skilled workers, around 67 per cent fromIndia, holding a non-immigrant visa (the H-1B category) are now on a stickywicket. What’s worrying them more is the fact that they face the prospect ofbeing an illegal immigrant as visas for most professionals have lapsed. All theyhave is a 60-day grace period to find a new job. Frankly speaking, in these strainedtimes, it is an impossible task. An evacuation flight emergency operation, too,remains off the radar. This is why demand for a minor change in the H-1B rules— to allow a 90-day grace period — has been making headlines. The earlierhiccups of the US Government, where it had imposed curbs on the issuance ofH-1B visas notwithstanding, the Trump administration has been a vocal oppo-nent of the demands by technological firms lobbying to extend the programmethat would allow more immigration.

Thus, it might be years before India’s top export — that of talent — recov-ers. While the best graduates from the better schools and colleges will find jobseven in a weak economy, the sudden stopping of the brain drain faucet mustbe looked on as a positive. Instead of losing its best talent to the Silicon Valleyand the global financial sector, India will hold on to some of this talent. Maybefinally a Satya Nadella or Sundar Pichai could make it big in India instead of hav-ing to go abroad. That said, the glut of talent and the inevitable lack of jobs acrosssectors is going to mean that many of the average boys and girls, who gradu-ate, will not find worthy employment. With the service industry, too, in tatters,there will be a lot of stories of young, destitute people. This is why the Governmentwill have to spend, spend and spend not only to get the infrastructure sectorgoing but also the private sector. The job losses that will result from the viral cri-sis are expected to wipe out even the modest gains made by India in the pastdecade. Things are going to be tough and it will take exemplary leadership andeconomic planning to pull the country out of it, at least pull it out of this crisisbetter than the rest of the world. This cannot be done by the current political andbureaucratic leadership alone. India needs to set up war councils on the econ-omy. Councils that should not just have the country’s top industrialists and cor-porate leaders but also the finest brains in our country, many of whom teachabroad. We cannot avoid the economic desolation that the virus will leave in itswake but we should now start working towards the rebuilding and the reimag-ining of India’s economy for the next three to five decades. Only then can those,who find themselves jobless and without opportunity in the aftermath, can havesome hope for the future.

Worsening matters

Sir — If developed countries likethe US are struggling to cope withthe ever-growing demand of per-sonal protection equipment, thenwe can safely assume what wouldbe the condition of India, whichis poorly placed on the WorldHealth Organisation (WHO)standards. The world just needsto take a cue from Germany’sproactive approach — its virolo-gists started developing testingkits four months ago and can nowconduct 50,000 tests per week.

We should adopt Germanyand South Korea’s methods totrace, test and treat to contain thedamage, especially after theTablighi Jamaat episode. At thishour of crisis, both the public andprivate sector need to join handsto ensure that more companiescome forward to manufacturethese equipment to cater to grow-ing needs.

Bal GovindNoida

Beef up health apparatus

Sir — The spread of Coronavirushas caused mass destruction of

lives and livelihood across theworld. Sensible people will learnlessons from such disasters.

As for India, the most impor-tant takeaway is to undertake rad-ical healthcare reforms, which arelong overdue. Post the crisis, thepublic health system must bemade robust to cope with suchdisasters. As of now, it is incum-bent upon each one of us to riseto the occasion and do everything

possible to minimise the impend-ing fallout of Coronavirus.Necessary precautions regardingpersonal hygiene are important.

The Government, too, mustramp up COVID-19 testing andensure the availability of essentialequipment to doctors. Activeinvolvement of the private sectorand other healthcare providers isessential. Primary Health Centres(PHCs), Community Health

Centres (CHCs) and district hos-pitals can play an important rolein the fight against the pandem-ic. A proper communication planmust be devised so that messagesare conveyed without the spreadof false information.

More importantly, India muststrive to meet the norms set by theWorld Heath Organisation(WHO) with regard to healthworkforce density and infrastruc-

ture. Healthcare workers havebeen fighting a fierce battle againstthe virus. We must appreciate thegreat work they are doing.

Venu GSKollam

Stay united

Sir — The Tablighi Jamaat con-gregation in Delhi was the biggestin South Asia that led to such abig explosion of Coronavirus indifferent States and regions ofcountry. It has emerged as thebiggest hotspot, not only account-ing for one-fifth of the totalCOVID-19 cases so far but alsoof the 170 fresh cases linked to theevent. Why did the organisers notmake a call to the next door policestation or other concernedauthorities about the event? TheMinistry of Home Affairs, theDelhi police, too, should haveaccepted their failure. What hashappened has happened. People’scooperation is the best key to fightthe deadly infection. We muststay united.

Bidyut Kumar ChatterjeeFaridabad

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

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

op nionHYDERABAD | MONDAY | APRIL 6, 2020

06

Risking the sacred covenant

BHOPINDER SINGH

Even if the initial downplaying and non-evacuation of the Coronavirus-ridden USS TheodoreRoosevelt was a practical necessity, the US naval leadership did not handle it properly

The PM will speak his mind and Iwill speak mine. I cannot inter-fere in someone else’s matter. Ifyou think that the PM has saidsomething good, follow it...it is apersonal decision.

West Bengal CM—Mamata Banerjee

I do worry about my mother,but she is suddenly soundingextremely wise, saying shehas had a full life and has noregrets. It’s scary, listeningto such stuff.

Actor—Saif Ali Khan

We are now in recession, itis way worse than the global financial crisis of2008. This is a crisis thatrequires all of us to come together.

IMF managing director—Kristalina Georgieva

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

The test of mettle

This refers to the editorial, “Business unusual” (April40. COVID-19 is a task master, which is out to testthe mettle of countries, big and small, across the

world. Every nation, without any exception, can now beexpected to be looking inward for the next four to sixquarters in resetting priorities, policies and budgets. Forthe past two years, in one form or another, majoreconomies have already been doing precisely that, beit the US’ America First or the UK’s Brexit. But the long-established global interdependence of economies can-not be wished away. This aspect will start asserting itself,sooner than later, on the hollow notion of economic sov-ereignty of nation states to then rediscover the value ofinternational cooperation — of trade, economic blocsand so on. Wisdom lies in reanimating these platformsimmediately even as individual nations address theirdomestic concerns. We will require the very best in glob-al leadership to be better prepared for the nextinevitable universal cataclysm, be it natural disasters or

man-made pandemics.It’s sad that it cost us so many lives and resources

to discover the abject futility of the World HealthOrganisation (WHO). We cannot afford further costlylessons on the global economy, public health or any other.

R Narayanan Navi Mumbai

WHILE THE USNAVAL TOP BRASS

IS REJECTINGALLEGATIONS OF

EITHER ALACKADAISICAL

ATTITUDE ORFAILURE TO TAKE

CARE OF ITSSAILORS, THISINCIDENT HAS

HIGHLIGHTED THEOVERALL LACK OF

PREPAREDNESSAND SENSITIVITYTOWARDS SUCH

EXIGENCIES — BEIT IN THE CIVILIAN

OR IN THEMILITARY REALM

Send yyour ffeedback tto:letterstopioneer@gmail.com

The Dharavi project

Modiji is an excellent com-municator. Instead of thalitali, lighting candles anddiyas, he should win theconfidence of people bytelling them facts.

Congress leader—Digvijaya Singh

The Class of 2020 from premier institutes is going to suffer as much as the rest of the graduates

If the BMC does contain the virus spread in Asia’s largestslum cluster, then it would be a rescue template like no other

Jobs drying up

S O U N D B I T E

A ticking COVID bomb

I NEED YOUR NINE MINUTES AT NINE PM. LIGHT ACANDLE OR LAMP. THIS LIGHT WILL SHOW THAT WE

ARE TOGETHER IN THIS BATTLE. —PRIME MINISTER

NARENDRA MODI

SYMBOLISM IS IMPORTANT BUT SERIOUS THOUGHT TOIDEAS AND MEASURES IS EQUALLY VITAL. PEOPLEWERE EXPECTING ANOTHER FINANCIAL ACTION PLAN.—CONGRESS LEADER P CHIDAMBARAM

POINTCOUNTERPOINT

When pandemics hit, they usually hit thepoor the hardest, if not the first. Likethe months bygone, the next couple of

months are going to schlep through the loom-ing threat of the contagion bulging into the nextstage of community spread. This may precipitatethe exponential disease spikes and deaths in num-bers that we can very well speculate. They maybe in thousands if not millions, considering thepoverty and density of population. It is high timethat we stand up and walk with the Governmentand aid its efforts to fight the pandemic by notonly following its instructions on social distanc-ing and not hoarding essential commodities butalso by contributing intelligent observations andsuggestions.

We have seen so far that COVID-19 canquickly overwhelm the health systems of coun-tries, including those nations that are said to haveadvanced healthcare systems, like Italy and theUnited States (US). The ongoing rise in mortal-ity in such developed nations portends a verydark future for poorer nations with inadequatehealthcare facilities, including ours.

The first line of defence against any pandem-ic is surveillance: Monitoring human (and ani-mals where relevant) populations to spot out-breaks and containing them at the earliest. Incountries with overall impoverished infrastruc-ture, isolated outbreaks are likely to go undetect-ed longer and thus simmer and spread.

At the current stage, our public healthcaresystem is expected to detect where the virus isspreading and collect high-quality real-time datafrom various geographies and groups of people,identifying pockets of infection before they mul-tiply into larger outbreaks.

It is for our health systems to be able to fig-ure out which communities can expect to see arise in Coronavirus cases and where to allocateresources in anticipation of rising hospitalisations.

Without quality data, no one can respondappropriately to this fatal threat, neither as indi-viduals nor as a society. Nor can we learn whethercountermeasures adopted so far against the pan-demic are working or not. The most importantcomponent of the contagion data is informationfrom the laboratory tests detecting active infec-tions, past infections, immunity status of peo-ple as well as assessing herd immunity in com-munities. These present a real picture of theCoronavirus’ spread and status in the country.

The priorities of action plans for the roadback to normalcy would be maintaining arobust and vigilant healthcare system, a firmadministration with impeccable attention todetail regarding the nuances of the vulnerablegroups living at the edges (migrants and dailywage labourers) and an effective targetted (sen-tinel) surveillance system.

If the country’s systems function to their fullpotential, we would be able to learn where theCoronavirus is dormant. And once we know thelocation and size of the problem, we can startleaving our homes gradually, return to work andattend schools and universities, bring business-es back in shape and let people congregate formovies, meetings, weddings or mass prayers.

An observation, or rather a lesson learnt fromcountries battling the Coronavirus in anadvanced stage than ours, is that the threats posedby the virus have cast a spotlight on the short-comings in healthcare systems across the globe.The population of billions in India may be thenext battleground in the fight against the con-

tagion if proactive measures are notundertaken at this stage.

Home to one-third of the world’sslum-dwelling population, India islargely filled with people battling pover-ty and poor education (including healtheducation and general inadequateknow-how about things), existing co-morbid conditions and most impor-tantly hygiene challenges (i.e., limitedaccess to resources such as clean water,soap, disinfectants and so on).

The much-recommended measureof social distancing practised aroundthe globe to stem the spread of this pan-demic is almost impossible in manyparts of India. With a population den-sity of 2,77,136 people per square kilo-metre (sq km) in Mumbai’s Dharavislum to 1,25,000 people per sq km atthe Rasoolpura slum in Hyderabad, thedifficulty in observing social distanc-ing is self-explanatory. Slums are anintegral part of a city’s economy as thoseare where a majority of the labour forceand domestic help stays, all around thecountry. Now, with three cases ofCoronavirus cases appearing in theDharavi slum, these places are also aticking time bomb where the contagionis concerned.

The biggest challenge regardinghygiene is overcrowding around com-mon toilets — Dharavi slum has onetoilet per 1,440 residents. The COVID-19 virus is known to survive longer thanthree days in faecal matter, whichmakes crowding around toilets and liv-ing amid bad drainage a major threat.

The focus must now shift to proac-tive testing for asymptomatic andsymptomatic COVID-19 bearers, with-in the most vulnerable, high populationdensity pockets of India.

There are genuine capacity issuesbut we need mandatory COVID-19testing of all slum inhabitants across thecountry. Quarantine is a must for theasymptomatic and symptomatic bear-

ers of the Coronavirus in slum zones indifferent pre-identified, isolated loca-tions.

This test data is vital in enabling theright strategy to manage the next stepsof Coronavirus containment and erad-ication. The health system hence shouldencourage doctors to test liberally(without any out-of-pocket paymentfrom the people given their economicstatus).

About laboratory test data, we seethat unlike in developed nations, thedata is either incomplete or complete-ly unavailable in developing nations likeours due to poor infrastructure andcoordination issues. This makes itimpossible for administrators, scientists,healthcare professionals, researchersand the general citizen to assess theextent and significance of the testingefforts.

The other component of an effec-tive healthcare system of a low-incomecountry is to focus on serology tests.RT-PCR is the confirmatory test forCOVID-19 which is currently priced at`4,500 per test and takes more than aday for the result to be available. Theserology tests on the other hand aremuch cheaper and can be used exten-sively for screening. These are not con-firmatory tests and hence not used inclinical practice but these tests havevalue in epidemiology studies andherd immunity assessment.

These tests screen blood for theantibodies that confer immunity afterexposure to a pathogen. In publichealth management, this is essential fortailoring interventions and stoppinglocal spread of a disease, especially acontagious one. Serology is uniquelyuseful for defining specific anti-viralimmunity. If you know that a large per-centage of people have been exposedand developed some immunity, it mayallow for less-restrictive measures.These tests can be added to routine

blood draws with no additional hasslefor the patient.

For instance, in the US, ever sincethe Coronavirus outbreak began, manydifferent groups have ramped up theirefforts to develop a serological test.Should a test like this ever become avail-able to the public, it could radicallyshape how healthcare professionalsdecide who gets to leave home andreturn to some semblance of a normallife.

Considering the current status ofthe Coronavirus contagion, with theuncovering of 10 hotspots of the viralinfection within the country, a sentinelsurveillance system must now exist infull force and to the highest accuracy.

The Government needs to build itwith dedicated funding, perhaps as partof the next stimulus package. This willrequire an efficient data-collection sys-tem that allows cases/suspectedhotspots of the disease to be identifiedand tracked in real time (without over-burdening providers with data entryand case reports).

Many of our citizens have alreadycalled for the need for special financ-ing arrangements to support surveil-lance and preparedness for the worst-case scenario of a fierce outbreak.They have also underscored the impor-tance of incentivising the right type ofcapacity-building, including the rightresearch and evidence-generation capa-bility, to enable effective containmentof infection and other mitigation strate-gies. With funds coming in from var-ious sources and from the taxpayers’money that is directed towards theCOVID-19 response, India, even witha weak healthcare system should con-centrate on this and use all availableresources wisely until we come out ofthe pandemic, bruised but not totallydefeated.

(The writer is an author and a doc-tor by profession)

The much-recommended measure of social distancing practised around the globe to stem thespread of this pandemic is almost impossible in many parts of India

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

Virus disruptssupply chains

MEENAL JAGTAPSHARMA

SACHINJAGTAP

Organisations will have no choice but to redraw their sales and operations planning

and adjust to the new realities

SURAVI SHARMA KUMAR

WITH APOPULATIONDENSITY OF

2,77,136PEOPLE PER

SQUARE KILOMETRE(SQ KM) IN

MUMBAI’S DHARAVISLUM TO

1,25,000 PEOPLEPER SQ KM AT THE

RASOOLPURA SLUMIN HYDERABAD, THE DIFFICULTY

IN OBSERVINGSOCIAL

DISTANCING ISSELF-EXPLANATORY.

SLUMS ARE AN INTEGRAL

PART OF A CITY’SECONOMY AS

THESE ARE WHERE A MAJORITY

OF THE LABOURFORCE AND

DOMESTIC HELPSTAYS ALL

AROUND THECOUNTRY

India is in a lockdown till April 14. Whether it will help us stop the expo-nential spike in Coronavirus cases, only time will tell. Meanwhile there isan economic challenge that is already unfolding. In the beginning of March,

the only concern that corporates had was supply disruption, with criticalcentres in China, Italy and Korea being under lockdown. Now, the biggerconcern is the consumer being grounded and the supply pipeline being stran-gled. While we can afford to lock down the whole population for some time,we still need to keep the consumer goods flowing at all times.

The first impact of the Coronavirus crisis was the explosion in demandfor masks, sanitisers and hand-wash liquids. The availability of these itemsis still poor. People had already been stocking up on essential commodi-ties since mid-March in anticipation of shortages and lockdowns. PrimeMinister Narendra Modi’s announcement of a 21-day shut down sent peo-ple in a panic-buying frenzy. Not only did people order in excess online butthey also made a run on the nearest grocery stores. Some sense of thepanic buying can be gauged by the spike in sales of e-grocers just beforethe lockdown. Before the shut down, the average “basket value” on the BigBasket platform was around 20 per cent higher than regular days. The num-ber of orders on Grofers was 45 per cent higher, while the average ordervalue increased by 18 per cent.

However, as soon as the lockdown was imposed, the operations ofe-grocers came to a grinding halt as all delivery centres and staff were requiredto get local permissions for offering essential services and the process wasvery slow. The first week of the shutdown allowed e-commerce firms tocomplete backlog deliveries. In the second week of the lockdown ordersare still being accepted but with delayed delivery schedules.

Items such as food staples, comfort foods such as instant noodlesand essential home and personal care products like toothpaste, soap, sham-poo, dishwash liquids and so on, will continue to be in demand. There maybe a little drop in demand for a while once the hoarders feel content withtheir precious stock and start consuming as per regular needs. The newsis not so good for other categories though. Official data from China indi-cates that the lockdowns in January-February caused a 20.5 per cent fallin retail sales. Given how “conservative” data from China often is, this fig-ure could be much higher.

Experts believe that consumer sentiment is already taking a hit in Indiaas well. Fear of loss or fall in income and uncertainty over health and well-being is curbing all non-essential and discretionary spending. As the healthcrisis abates, hopefully in the next three months, we will be in a severe eco-nomic slowdown/recession which may last up to two years. Consumersentiment will thus continue to be low for some time to come, for all non-essential purchases. Major categories affected will be apparel, home decorand furniture, electronics and appliances, sports goods and automobiles.

However, the immediate and most pronounced impact will be on retail-ing as under lockdown and self-imposed social distancing, we will contin-ue to see an increase in online purchasing. The direct-to-home delivery chan-nels (including online) may actually see some sort of permanent shift intheir favour. For essential daily needs, the neighbourhood mom and popconvenience stores will continue to be vital. Open format supermarkets andhypermarkets will be major losers. This means companies will need to re-organise their distribution based on this new reality. As of now, even thesechannels are struggling because of overwhelming demand and restrictedlast-mile supply. The sudden nature of the shutdown has also created a lotof confusion on what is “essential” and what is not. The Delhi Government,in a notification dated March 26, listed all the e-commerce companies, diag-nostic labs and couriers that would be allowed to make deliveries, after ear-lier notifications left ambiguity on who could operate essential services. Inmost States such uncertainties are still being cleared and ironed out.

The possibility of an extended lockdown in the current form has beenruled out by the Government. However, some shut-in measures will remainbeyond April 14. Intermittent complete lockdowns in the coming monthsfor two-three weeks cannot be ruled out either. The altered consumer behav-iour and present last-mile and retail bottlenecks will also have a direct impacton distribution and transport. Hubs and distribution centres will be stuckwith a lot of non-moving inventory and may in some cases also face short-age of space for in-demand items. Till March 29, truck movement was severe-ly restricted till the Centre allowed highway movement of all commoditiesand not just essentials. Hopefully, this will ease the problems, though delaysand bottlenecks may still remain for some time. One thing is for sure, thiswill completely disrupt the warehouse throughput. Some warehouses willstarve for stocks as they do not receive supplies, while others will chokedue to the inability to distribute goods. Before the lockdown, there was asmall concern among consumer goods factories with raw materials/com-ponents coming from China and South Korea. Now as China is openingup, we have gone into a shutdown. As production re-starts, sourcing willbe an issue as different nations go into lockdowns. On the demand side,the consumption downturn will pose different challenges. Organisations willhave no choice but to redraw their sales and operations planning and adjustto the new realities. An important lesson that managers have learnt is totake supply chain risks more seriously.

(Sharma is Professor at TIPS, GGSIPU and Jagtap is a senior supplychain consultant)

In a series of documentaries forthe BBC, between the early 2000sand 2016, prolific documentary

filmmaker Adam Curtis demon-strates how, since the late 1970s —when the idea of social democracybegan to come under tremendousduress — politicians in Europe andthe US began to outsource theirresponsibilities to financial institu-tions.

Curtis links the evolution of thistendency to the demise of social

democracy and the rise of ideas suchas “neo-conservatism”, which even-tually mutated to become the strandof populism that swept across manycountries from 2014 onwards.

The weakening of the image ofa politician who existed to serve thepeople through reform was allowedto be overshadowed by “tech-nocrats.”

But as the old-fashioned politi-cian faded away, a new kind ofpolitician emerged. He was notonly against the old-fashionedpolitician but also against the tech-nocrat.

He was the new populist —charismatic, audacious, contradic-tory and almost demagogic in hisrhetoric. Yet, he came to powerthrough a democratic system.

He enjoyed a staunch base ofsupport which was unmoved by hiscontradictory behaviour. His disdainfor experts, intellectuals and oldstyle of politics was applauded by

many who began to see the old-fash-ioned politician as crooked andtechnocrats as cold, calculatingexploiters.

This was post-modernistmachoism: The muscular internal-isation of the self by linking it toindigenous ideas of faith, cultureand nationalism and the externali-sation of existentialist threatsthrough rhetoric against thosedeemed as outsiders or workingwith “hostile” external forces.

But just like most post-mod-ernist ideas that often wobble andfail to hold in the face of various uni-versalist ideas, post-modernist pop-ulism, too, found itself feelingentirely disoriented with the rapidglobal spread of a tiny virus and theconsequential disease.

Indeed, almost every regime isstruggling to grapple with the spreadof the Coronavirus. But one saw theneo-populist governments com-pletely lose their sheen and compo-

sure in this crisis. These includeItaly, India, the UK, the US,Pakistan, the Philippines, Iran,Brazil and Hungary, and/or coun-tries that had elected populists,even though Iran remains anauthoritarian theocracy.

Again, even non-populistregimes are facing criticism but thething about the neo-populists beforethe COVID-19 outbreak was thatthey were successfully riding out allother criticism in a world thatseemed to have been okay with theidea of romancing nationalist chau-vinism and even various forms ofbigotry and irrationality. Science,too, became a victim of this dispo-sition.

Nevertheless, regimes headed bypopulists are now facing a barrageof criticism that they cannot man-age to divert or neutralise. As peo-ple around them continue to catchthe virus and as economies crum-ble, social life has come to a halt and

the air of fear thickens each passingday.

Thomas Wright and KurtCampbell write in the March 5 edi-tion of Brookings that the dreadedvirus is “exposing the limits of pop-ulism”. They point out how certainpopulist regimes in developed coun-tries exposed their country’s suscep-tibility to the virus by cutting downhealth programmes and relatedfunding.

In an interview that he gave tothe science newsletter Nautilus(March 12), the well-known virol-ogist Dennis Carol laments thatmany countries today are governedby inertia. He said such viruses canonly be tackled through a globalresponse but populism has frag-mented the global networksrequired to face the challenge.

He gave the example of Trump’s“America first” mantra that express-es the kind of inertia which is dis-rupting the fight against COVID-19.

True to populism’s habit of external-ising the source of a problem,Trump seems to be more investedin blaming China for the virusrather than his own regime’s incom-petence in handling the pandemic.

On the website of the EuropeanCouncil of Foreign Relations, TCorratella writes that COVID-19 isweakening Italy’s brand of populism.The article adds that restrictivemeasures required to check thespread of the virus are antitheticalto the ideas of neo-populism thatmushroomed in many Europeancountries. That’s why authorities arestruggling to apply these restrictionsin countries such as Italy, France andthe UK.

However, Corratella says thatthe popularity of populist parties isplunging in those areas of Italy mosthit by COVID-19. Same is the casein Pakistan, where the populistGovernment of Prime MinisterImran Khan, though tough in its

rhetoric against “corruption”,seemed indecisive, even meek, whenpressed to take the COVID-19 chal-lenge head-on.

It is a simple matter of populistsfailing to recognise an enemy whichdoes not belong in the cannon ofthreats that their pre-COVID-19narratives had formed.

They can’t understand it. Andthe measures required to tackle it areat the opposite end of the post-mod-ernist worldview through whichthey understand their political, eco-nomic and cultural surroundings.

As John Harris writes in TheGuardian (March 15), populists allover the world had declared a waragainst civil servants, experts andscientific communities. But thecrises caused by COVID-19 havebrought these very communities atthe forefront. One can thus assumethat populism has become this out-break’s first ideological casualty.

(Courtesy: Dawn)

Populism the first ideological casualty?Regimes headed by populists are now facing a barrage of criticism that they cannot manage to divert or neutralise. As people around themcontinue to catch the Coronavirus and as economies crumble, social life has come to a halt and the air of fear thickens each passing day

NADEEM PARACHA

HYDERABAD | MONDAY | APRIL 6, 2020

www.dailypioneer.com

HYDERABAD | MONDAY | APRIL 6, 2020 money 08

CAPSULE

Toyota discontinuessale of Etios range,Corolla Altis inIndia

EPFO to acceptAadhaar as birthproof online fromsubscribers

Mutual fundsinvestment inREITs, InvITs climbs58 pc to Rs 980 crNew Delhi: New Delhi, Apr 5(PTI) Emerging investmentinstruments, REITs and InvITs,seem to be gaining pace, withmutual funds investing awhopping Rs 980 crore in suchunits in January 2020, a surgeof 58 per cent from thepreceding year. Fund managersinfused Rs 71 crore in realestate investment trusts(REITs) and Rs 909 crore ininfrastructure investment trusts(InvITs) in January this year,according to the Securities andExchange Board of India (Sebi).In comparison, an investmentof mere Rs 7 crore was seen inREITs in January 2019 and Rs611 crore in InvITs.

New Delhi: Retirement fundbody EPFO will accept onlineits subscribers' Aadhaar cardas valid proof to rectify theirdate of birth to ensure that theaccount is KYC compliant, thelabour ministry said onSunday. "In a move to extendthe availability and reach ofonline services in the wake ofthe COVID-19 pandemic, theEPFO (Employees' ProvidentFund Organisation) has issuedrevised instructions to its fieldoffices to facilitate PFmembers to rectify their dateof birth in EPFO records, thusensuring that their UAN is KYCcompliant," a ministrystatement said.

NEW DELHI: Japaneseautomaker Toyota has stoppedsale of Etios range as well asCorolla Altis in India as it looksto free up production capacityat its plant to bring in newproducts with bettertechnologies. Toyota KirloskarMotor (TKM), the joint venturebetween Japanese auto majorToyota and Kirloskar Group,had introduced Etios sedan in2010, followed by hatchversion Etios Liva in 2011. Thecompany sold a total of 4.48lakh Etios series vehicles inthe domestic market, andexported 1.31 lakh units toother markets. Similarly, itsold close to 1.16 lakh units ofCorolla Altis in India since itslaunch in 2003. "The month ofMarch 2020 witnessed the lastbatch production of the Etiosseries as well as the CorollaAltis, bringing an end to theiconic journeys both themodels have enjoyed in India,"TKM Senior Vice President -Sales and Service Naveen Sonisaid when contacted over thematter. He said the launch ofthe Etios range in the countryrepresented a significantlandmark for the company andthe model remained popularwith all types of customers,including fleet operators.

Covid-19: Co-workingsegment hit by lockdownPNS n NEW DELHI

Co-working segment, whichhas been growing at a rapidpace for the last few years, isfacing a challenging time post-lockdown, with operators get-ting requests for rental waiversas well as cancellation of leaseagreements from their clients,especially start-ups, freelancersand small enterprises.

Entire business activities,which involve taking co-work-ing spaces on lease from land-lords and then sub-leasing it toclients, have come to a grind-ing halt due to the lockdown toprevent spread of COVID-19(coronavirus), according toproperty consultants and co-working operators.

However, market expertsexpect the impact to be short-term, as demand for flexibleworkspaces would only rise intimes of uncertainties.

Co-working operators leased10.8 million sq ft office spaceduring 2019, up 26 per centfrom the previous year, accord-ing to property consultant

CBRE. "The impact ofCOVID-19 in India is likely tobe short-lived providing thevirus remains relatively con-tained.

"However, on the positiveside, health and wellness ofemployees could take centrestage for the majority of thecorporates with greater focus

on workplace hygiene, remoteworking policies and increasedadoption of flexible spaceoptions," said AnshumanMagazine, Chairman & CEO-India, South East Asia, MiddleEast & Africa, at CBRE.

Awfis co-founder and CEOAmit Ramani said, "...we arestriving to maintain a fine bal-

ance between our landlordsand members by passingthrough the waivers which weget on fixed rental paymentand our savings on variableoperating costs, to our cus-tomers in the form of conces-sions on monthly rentals."

The company is renegotiatingcontracts with its partners, whileassuring them to go back to orig-inal contractual terms once thecurrent situation stabilizes, hetold PTI.

Ramani expects a V-shapedrecovery for co-working seg-ment once the lockdown periodends as companies would laymore emphasis on cost opti-mization and prefer flexibleworkspace.

Smartworks founder NeetishSarda said, "As of now, for us, wehaven't received many requestsfor concession or paymentwaivers. Majority of our clientsare large enterprises and businesscontinuity is important to them."

"We do understand these arehard times and will follow theindustry norms for waivers ona case to case basis," he said.

Entire business activities, which involvetaking co-working spaces on lease fromlandlords and then sub-leasing it toclients, have come to a grinding halt

‘Complete collapseof economies' aheadas Africa faces virusPNS n KAMPALA (UGANDA)

Some of Uganda's poorestpeople used to work here, onthe streets of Kampala, asfruit sellers sitting on thepavement or as peddlers ofeverything from handkerchiefsto roasted peanuts.

Now they're gone and noone knows when they willreturn, victims of a globaleconomic crisis linked to thecoronavirus that could wipeout jobs for millions across theAfrican continent, many wholive hand-to-mouth with zerosavings.

"We've been through a loton the continent. Ebola, yes,African governments took ahit, but we have not seen any-thing like this before," AhunnaEziakonwa, the UnitedNations DevelopmentProgram regional director forAfrica, told The AssociatedPress.

"The African labour marketis driven by imports andexports and with the lock-down everywhere in theworld, it means basically thatthe economy is frozen in place.And with that, of course, allthe jobs are gone."

Tourism bodyIATO seeksfinancial reliefpackagePNS n NEW DELHI

The Indian Association ofTour Operators (IATO) onSunday urged the govern-ment to provide relief to thetourism industry as it hasexperienced heavy losses dueto the coronavirus pandem-ic and the survival of the sec-tor is at stake.

While IATO said it fullysupports the lockdown, thetourism industry has suf-fered heavy losses amid zerocash flow.

This has put the survival ofentire industry in question, itsaid in a statement.

"To tide over the crisis,IATO is seeking scrapping ofGST in entirety for period ofone year for all outbound,inbound and domestic book-ings," it said.

The tourism industry alsowants advances paid to hotels,airlines and to state govern-ments for luxury trains,wildlife safaris and road taxto be entirely refunded, IATOsaid.

PNB looks to tap marketin Q3 of FY21; mayraise capital via bondPNS n NEW DELHI

With the successful merger ofOriental Bank of Commerceand United Bank of Indiawith itself, Punjab NationalBank has started focussingon growth and planned aseries of capital raising initia-tives, including rights issueand FPO, in the third quarterthis fiscal.

At the moment, the bank isadequately capitalised withthe capital adequacy ratio of14.04 per cent at the end ofDecember 2019, PNBManaging Director S SMallikarjuna Rao told PTI.

The government providedRs 16,091 crore to PNB and Rs1,666 crore to United Bank ofIndia in September forenhancing the capital base ofthese two lenders.

Besides, Punjab NationalBank (PNB) raised Rs 1,500crore from Tier II bonds inDecember.

Going forward, Rao said,the bank plans to furtherinfuse capital during the cur-rent fiscal including throughfollow-on public offer (FPO).

Sharing details of the capi-tal raising plan, Rao said thebank is looking to raise Rs3,000 crore through addition-al Tier-I (AT-1) bonds in thenext couple of months.

"The board of the bank hasalready given approval andnow we are contemplatingapproval from the govern-ment of India," he said, addingthe bank is preparing to raiseAT-1 bonds during the firstquarter itself, depending onhow quickly normalcy isrestored.

PNS n NEW DELHI

The government's dedicatedWhatsApp chatbot MyGovCorona Helpdesk, which aimsto provide timely updates andhelp citizens clear their querieson Covid-19, has been used byover 2 crore users.

Artificial intelligence (AI)chatbot company HaptikInfotech Pvt Ltd, which is 87per cent owned by RelianceJio, developed the MyGovCorona Helpdesk chatbot.

According to Haptik, morethan 55 million messages havebeen sent by over 20 millionusers since the chatbot waslaunched by the governmenton March 20.

"Misinformation &rumours are the primary out-lets of panic. The @reliancejio& @haptik powered official@mygovindia coronaviruschatbot has helped eliminatethese outlets for millions.Whatsapp +919013151515 foryour queries," Haptik tweeted.

In two weeks since itslaunch, the coronavirus

helpdesk chatbot has beenused by over 2 crore users inIndia.

"The 'MyGov Coronahelpdesk' has alreadyprocessed over 28 millionconversations on WhatsAppfrom users across the countrywhile more than 20 millionusers have taken their queriesto the chatbot within the 13days since its launch," Haptikco-founder and CEO AakritVaish told PTI.

Within the first week of itslaunch, the chatbot registeredover crore users and processedover 1.4 crore conversations.

The service was initiallylaunched in English, andHindi language was addedlater to assist the millions ofHindi-speaking users in thecountry, Vaish said.

NGOs told to assist govt in relief measuresPNS n NEW DELHI

Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kanthas written to over 92,000NGOs appealing them to assistthe government in identifyingCovid-19 hotspots and deliver-ing services to vulnerablegroups.

Kant, who is heading theEmpowered Group (EG 6) oncoordinating with private sec-tor NGOs and internationalorganisations, has also writtento all chief secretaries urgingthem to instruct the localadministration at the districtlevel to utilise the physicaland human resources madeavailable by NGOs and civilsociety organisations (CSOs),an official statement said.

The government had onMarch 29 constituted 11empowered groups to suggestmeasures to ramp up health-

care, put the economy back ontrack and reduce misery ofpeople as quickly as possiblepost the 21-day lockdownimposed to contain the coro-navirus pandemic.

"CEO Niti Aayog has writtento over 92000 NGOs/ CSOsregistered on the Darpan por-tal of Niti Aayog, appealingthem to assist the governmentin identifying hotspots anddeputing volunteers and caregivers to deliver services to theelderly, persons with disabili-ties, children, transgender per-sons, and other vulnerablegroups; to create awarenessabout prevention, social dis-tancing, isolation, and combat-ing stigma; to provide shelterto homeless, daily wage work-ers, and urban poor families;set up community kitchensfor migrants," the statementsaid.

It further said that theempowered group (EG 6) con-ducted detailed deliberationswith 40-plus prominent CSOsand NGOs working in differ-ent parts of the country andwith different communities.

"Several challenges andissues raised by these CSOs

were addressed by the EG6 tofacilitate their working in thefield during this crisis," itadded.

The statement said the EG6has contacted start-ups, name-ly AgVa, Biodesign InnovationLab, Kaeaenaat, Qure AIDronaMaps, mFine, MicroGo andStaqu, working on innovativeventilator designs, testing tools,and tracking solutions to under-stand their scale and possiblecontributions.

Industry representatives andthe EG 6 deliberated in detail onseveral challenges on criticalissues of health-care interven-tion, pertaining to ramping up

production and procurement ofventilators, personal protectiveequipment (PPE), testing kits, incollaboration with several otherEGs; apart from ways to step upthe relief and rehabilitation andinformation dissemination, itadded.

Industry representatives havealso shared in detail the activi-ties undertaken in public advo-cacy, philanthropy and, CSR byway of running factory kitchensfor preparing, distributing freefood in coordination with localadministration; and makingavailable factory hospitals/premises/ guest houses as quar-antine and shelter facilities.

The govt had on March 29 constituted11 empowered groups to suggestmeasures to ramp up healthcare, putthe economy back on track

UK plans 7 special flights forBritons stranded in IndiaPNS n LONDON

The UK government onSunday announced the firstseven chartered flights nextweek to bring home Britishnationals stranded in Indiaamidst the international trav-el lockdown over the coron-avirus pandemic.

An estimated 35,000 Britishnationals are currently in India,out of whom over 20,000 havecontacted the British HighCommission to say they wishto return to the UK as soon aspossible. A set of 113 of the"most vulnerable" Britons wereflown out of Goa on an Irishflight on Saturday.

The special f lights toLondon include three sched-uled from Goa for next

Wednesday, Friday and Sundayand two each from Mumbaiand Delhi on Thursday andSaturday, with further flightsplanned later.

The British HighCommission told its citizens tocheck the government traveladvisory and visit the bookingportal for respective cities toreserve seats.

"We know how worrying thepast few weeks have been forBritish nationals in India. I

hope this announcement willbring relief, especially to thosein greatest need," said JanThompson, Acting HighCommissioner to India.

"Due to the large numbers ofBritish travellers involved, thescale of this operation is huge.The UK government continuesto work hard with our Indiancounterparts in New Delhiand London to arrange a safejourney back for as many peo-ple as possible," she said.

Corona chatbotsees 2 cr users

Data consumption in rural areajumps by100 pc within a monthPNS n NEW DELHI

Data consumption in ruralIndia on the network of CSCSPV jumped nearly 100 percent within a month - especial-ly during the lockdown period,a top official of the entity saidon Sunday.

CSC e-Governance ServicesIndia, which holds licence forproviding internet services,recorded an increase in dataconsumption to 4.7 terabyte(TB) as on March 30 from 2.7TB on March 10.

"Based on the growth trend,data consumption on the CSCSPV network is estimated tohave increased by close to 100per cent till date," CSC SPVCEO Dinesh Tyagi told PTI.

He said that a major spike indata consumption has beenrecorded since the time lock-down started.

"Beside the surge of data con-sumption in rural areas, therehas been a high demand ofFTTH (Fiber to Home). In themonth of March 20, more than

3 lakh subscribers registeredacross 50,000 Gram Panchayatsfor FTTH," Tyagi said.

CSC also provides wifihotspot in around 25,000 grampanchayats in the name of CSCWi-fi Choupal services.

According to the CSC data,Wi-Fi Choupal has more than12 lakh registered subscriberswho use this as a supplement totheir mobile connection.

"This clearly indicates the

high appetite of internet data inrural areas, which in future canbe pivotal in bridging DigitalDivide and If nurtured withregular organic feed of educa-tional and informational con-tent rural India can be DigitallyEmpowered and Transformed,"Tyagi noted.

There are more than 60 croreinternet users in India and outof this about 29 crore are inrural areas.

Starbucks competitor Luckinapologises for fraud scandalPNS n BEIJING

Luckin Coffee, China's biggestrival to Starbucks, apologisedon Sunday after it revealed atop executive may have faked2.2 billion yuan (USD 310million) worth of sales in 2019.

The company's former chiefoperating officer, Liu Jian, andseveral of his staff have beensuspended pending an internalinvestigation, it said in a USSecurities and ExchangeCommission filing last week.

"The company retains theright to take legal measuresagainst those suspected to beinvolved, it will not shieldthem or be lenient," LuckinCoffee said in a statement onWeibo Sunday.

Luckin Coffee added that itsstores would remain open as

usual, and acknowledged thatit relied on the support of itscustomers.

The company said in its fil-ing that fabricated salesextended from the second tofourth quarter last year, mak-ing up almost half of its esti-mated 2019 revenue of USD

732 million.Luckin Coffee has not yet

released its fourth-quarterresults.

After the bombshell wasrevealed Thursday, shares inthe NASDAQ-listed firmplunged more than 70 percent.

Slump in fuel demanddue to Covid-19PNS n NEW DELHI

Oil Minister DharmendraPradhan on Sundayspoke to US EnergySecretary DanBrouillette on thevolatility in interna-tional oil marketsand the slump indemand followingCovid-19 pandemic.

Since the outbreak of coro-navirus, countries across theglobe have placed restrictionsand announced lockdowns,which have shut businessesand stopped both air as well asroad travel. India tooannounced a 21-day lock-down from March 25 whichhas led to slump in fueldemand.

"Interacted with US EnergySecretary @SecBrouillette

through video conferencing.Expressed my deepest condo-lences, and concern, regarding

the COVID-19 situationglobally, and more

specifically in theU.S," Pradhan tweet-ed.

"We had discus-sions about demand

reduction due to Covid-19 response globally and

volatility of the oil markets,which are of concern to boththe countries. We both willwork towards a more stable oilmarket, and agreed to remainin contact," he added.

India's petrol sales havefallen 15.5 per cent in March,while diesel sale has slumped24.2 per cent. Asia's thirdbiggest economy has also seenjet fuel demand fall by 31 percent in March.

Deposits:HDFC buckstrend, reports7.41 % risePNS n MUMBAI

HDFC Bank has bucked whatwas emerging as a trend ofprivate sector lenders facing afall in deposit base during theMarch quarter.

The largest private sectorlender has reported a 7.41 percent increase in aggregatedeposits during the January-March period to Rs 11.46lakh crore, which was 24 percent higher as compared toMarch 31 last year.

HDFC Bank said itsadvances have risen by around21 per cent to Rs 9.93 lakhcrore as of March 31 and havegrown by over 6 per cent forthe March quarter as com-pared to December-end.

‘Govt canincreaseinsurancecoverage’PNS n NEW DELHI

The government can increaseinsurance coverage andimplement direct cash trans-fer, besides providing creditsupport to small and mediumenterprises as an immediateeconomic response to dealwith the disruption caused bythe Covid-19 pandemic,Deloitte said in a report.

These disruptions are like-ly to pose challenges notonly in the next two quar-ters, but could also linger forsome more time before theeconomy revives, given theuncertainty on how long thepandemic would last, itadded.

Monday April 6, 2020

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dailypioneer

RAP FOR A CAUSE

overnments, doctors and socialactivists are working hard to arrestthe spread of Coronavirus in thecountry. Despite the lockdown, itseems like some are still unawareof the potential danger that the

virus is. Police have been complaining aboutmany getting out of their homes for silly rea-sons. That’s when Telugu rapper PranavChanganty took it upon himself to do his bitto raise awareness on social distancing andstaying put at home.

Pranav composed a rap song titledLakshmana Rekha, which also is the world’sfirst-ever monosyllabic rap, sounding ‘a’ inevery syllable. For example: Kadalaka gada-pa. “It took me three days to pen the lyrics. Ithen shot the video on my terrace with thehelp of a friend of mine,” Pranav says. “Theworld is fighting the COVID-19 crisis. We arefortunate to have been able to control it bet-ter than most other countries. But some peo-ple have been defying the lockdown to comeout for invalid reasons which could result inirreparable damage. As a rapper, I wanted todo something about it and came up with theidea of making a song about the importanceof adhering to the lockdown. I completed theshoot on my terrace because I didn’t want tobreak the rules,” he adds.

Recently, Pranav also made a rap song inTelugu using two syllables ‘Na’ and ‘Ma’ andreceived great applause for his love for Telugulanguage. Pranav shares, “For years I’ve beenmaking rap songs on various social issues. Thepresent Lakshmana Rekha song is all about oursafety. Our Prime Minister requested us to bein homes for 21 days to fight this unexpect-ed battle. In the song, I explained what willhappen to our loved ones if we step out forsilly reasons. By stepping out, we are not onlyrisking our lives but also our loved ones’. I hopemy song inspires people to stay home to winthis battle against the deadly virus.”

Making a rap on any topic under the sunwithout any boundaries is easy. But makingone with limitations like getting a particularsound for every letter is very difficult. Pranavexplains, “Yes, it is not that easy to get wordswith the same sound for every letter in a song.That’s why it took me three days to completeit. Sometimes, I was stuck for hours for someletters.”

Pranav is also known for composing rapsongs for movies like Kaala. On a conclud-ing note, he shares, “It is always impor-tant for Telugu rappers like me toremember our roots. Every rap-per must strive to includehis or her culture andtradition to art toexcel at it.”

Rapper Pranav Changantyhas made history with hismonosyllabic rap — afirst-of-its-kind forTelugu. Titled LakshmanaRekha, the rap aims tospread awareness amongpeople on the importanceof staying home duringthe lockdown, finds V SATEESH REDDY

G

As a rapper, I wantedto do something about

the ongoing pandemic andcame up with the idea ofmaking a song about theimportance of adhering tothe lockdown.

ell us a little about yourselfand your experience as afood photographer.

I’m Rohith Rao and I runa studio called ‘Hand onHeart’ at Jubilee Hills. I

indulge in creating authentic and engag-ing images of different cuisines. Image-making is oxygen to my life and I fun-damentally believe, the amount of enjoy-ment I receive from my work will feedthrough the photographs I capture.

What is your creative process like?I buy ingredients, cook, and then pho-

tograph them. A lot of things like com-position, background drop, suitableprops, lights, and reflectors go into thepreparation for an appealing output. Theright setup, establishing the mood andfocus using good lighting is very impor-tant.

What are your thoughts on food pho-tography in India, since it’s derivedfrom a foreign concept? What got youinto this?

Well, the concept of food photographyin India is at an ideal stage and it exist-ed only in a few cities, where studios shotimages for menu launches and advertis-ing campaigns, it’s a different story now.I never planned on becoming a com-mercial photographer, I had a gapinginterest in baking and thatled me to pursue foodphotography.

How has foodphotographyevolved?

E ar l i e r,restaurantsi nHyderabadwould callin photogra-phers fromMumbai, butnow there is thisadvent of food pho-tographers in our citywho are practicing the differenttechniques and tricks of it. There hasbeen this sudden shot of photographersin the past few years, thanks to societynow being open to accepting and wel-coming new professions.

Which restaurants and cafés have youworked with? How important a role

does a food photographer play in giv-ing a restaurant’s cuisine a reboundlook?

I have worked with a lot ofbrands across the city like AlmondHouse, Avasa, Green Park, Concucafé, Roastery Coffee House, AliveCafe, Sneha Chicken, Park Hyatt, TajGroup, etc. A food photographer’sintrigued curation will take a restau-rant’s branding and marketing to atop-notch level. There has been anotable increase in sales because ourart can appeal to a consumer's emo-tions, making them want to stop

scrolling and have the urge to taste it.

Can you elaborate on the challenges afood photographer faces while con-structing an image?

Food photogra-p h y

always begins withempty plating so it gets difficult for usto imagine which shot or angle to pur-sue. We need to capture the food in theright lighting to evoke an emotionhence, I often end up rigging many kindsof lighting modifiers and unconventionaltools to make the right image.

Whate f f e c tdoes foodblogging haveon your profession?

Currently, this is the biggestdefiance we are facing. They shooteverything, right from the landscape viewand talk about the dish, it’s round orsquare. This has attracted several view-ers on social media. But I must say thatcreating a good food image takes muchmore effort than scantily clicking froma camera. We first conceptualise theimage according to the brand we areworking for and then go ahead.

Can you tell our readers about theimportance of plating while makingfood images?

Plating and dressing of the cuisine iseverything. It sets a mood and ambiancefor the dish according to the backgrounddrop of the restaurant or café. I edit thephotographs along with the team of therestaurant I am working with, includingtheir chefs, to have a good collection ofinputs.

Have you ever facedissues of plagiarism?

How do you dealwith them?

Yes, I did andI generally tend

to ignore them.Recreating animage fromscratchi s

okay,b u t

s t e a l -ing my

idea isi nte l l e c tu a l

theft, somethingI don’t appreciate.

Layer by layer, foodphotographer andfounder of

Hyderabad-basedstudio ‘Hand onHeart' RohithRao, constructsmarvelousphotographsthat are a treatto the eye. In

an exclusivechat with

SHIKHADUGGAL,he takes us onhis journeysinto therealms of

deliciousfood

T

PixelsON A PLATE

EARLIER, RESTAURANTSIN HYDERABAD WOULD

CALL IN PHOTOGRAPHERSFROM MUMBAI, BUTNOW THERE IS THIS

ADVENT OF FOODPHOTOGRAPHERS IN OUR

CITY WHO AREPRACTICING THE

DIFFERENT TECHNIQUESAND TRICKS OF IT.

Creating a good food image takes much more

effort than scantily clicking from a camera. We firstconceptualise the image

according to the brand we areworking for and then go

ahead.

Aditya, who broke out

on the Bollywood scene

with his 2019

blockbuster debut Uri:The Surgical

Strike starring

Vicky, is

once again

teaming up

with the

actor

10

Hyderabad Monday April 6, 2020 what’s brewing

irector Aditya Dhar sayschoosing Vicky Kaushal forhis next, actioner TheImmortal Ashwatthama wasa split-second decision asthe actor fit the bill perfect-

ly. Aditya, who broke out onthe Bollywood scene with his2019 blockbuster debut Uri:The Surgical Strike starring

Vicky, is once again teamingup with the actor.

Uri was an eventful filmfor the actor-director duo,who went on to win theirfirst National Film Award— best director for Aditya

and best actor for Vicky.The director, who has

begun pre-production workon Ashwatthama, said he

scouts for actors who share thesame passion and dedication

like him.“My criteria is

simple, Irequire fan-

tastic actors who are ready to givetheir best and are easy to workwith. I don’t like people with a lotof baggage and rather those whoare simple and straightfor-wardand their agenda is to make a brilliant film,” Adityatold PTI.

“If my priority is Ashwatthama,my actor’s priority should also beAshwatthama. Vicky fits the char-acter, it was a no-brainer for mebecause when he is doing a pro-ject then nothing else matters tome, he will give his blood andsweat for it, he did that with Uri...And he will remain my firstchoice for all my films,” he added.

The film, billed as a superheroaction film set in modern times,is being planned as a trilogy butAditya said they will make thethird one depending on theresponse to the first two.

Though the team has crackedthe basic idea for all the threeparts but they are concentrating

on the first one at the moment, headded.

“The film requires a lot of plan-ning because this is somethingthat has never been done before,it is huge. The work is on in termsof writing,” the director said,adding the team aims to startrolling by year end or early 2021.

Aditya believes spectacle filmssuch as The ImmortalAshwatthama with a touch ofIndian mythology must be servedmore to the audience.

As per the epic Mahabharata,Ashwatthama was the son ofguru Dronacharya, who foughtfor the Kauravas in the battle ofKurukshetra.

“It was high time we broughtsuch stories to the audience, thekind of fantastic stories we havein our mythology. I wonder whynobody made those into films inso many years. My idea is to cre-ate something that is at par witheverything that is around the

world or Hollywood.”The director said that Vicky is

currently busy prepping for Takht,which will in a way help the actorto work on Ashwatthama.

“It will be unfair for me to tellhim to do anything right nowrelated to Ashwatthama. I wanthim to give his 100 per cent forTakht. There is a huge prep for ourfilm but I don’t want to distracthim from Takht. Once he getsdone then he will have to concen-trate on our film.”

Besides Vicky, Aditya said theteam is looking for a female actorand a villain, who will have well-written arcs.

“It is one of the strongestfemale characters we have everseen but we haven't finalisedanyone yet, we also have a strongantagonist. We are looking acrossthe spectrum for it, like from thesouth. Maybe a newcomer, we arekeeping our options open,” headded.

ollywood singerKanika Kapoor, whotested positive forCoronavirus afterreturning to India

from London, has finally test-ed negative for the deadly virusin her sixth test.

“Her reports are now nega-tive but we will wait for onemore test before she is allowedto go home,” said Prof R.K.Dhiman, director of the SanjayGandhi Postgraduate Instituteof Medical Sciences (SGPGI) inLucknow where she is under-going treatment.

If her second test is also neg-ative, Kanika may be allowed togo home this week.

Kanika’s troubles, however,are likely to increase after sheis discharged from hospital.

Three FIRs have been filedagainst Kanika on charges ofnegligence for attending vari-ous social events in the citydespite being infected withcoronavirus and having beeninstructed by the authorities to

isolate herself at her home.She has been booked under

Sections 188, 269, and 270 ofthe Indian Penal Code (IPC) atSarojini Nagar police station inthe city. The FIR was lodgedbased on a complaint filed bythe chief medical officer(CMO) of Lucknow.

She is the first Bollywoodcelebrity to test positive for thedeadly virus in the country.

In a statement on Instagram,which she later deleted, Kanikanarrated how she developedsigns of flu on her return fromLondon. She claimed that shewas unaware of the Coronainfection till she tested positive.

The singer who had comefrom London on March 9 wasslammed by the media forinteracting with hundreds ofpeople at parties and otherevents in Lucknow.

She was admitted on March20 when her tests revealedthat she was Corona positive.

Her five consecutive reportsshowed her as Corona positive.

ctor Zac Efron says he has no desire toget back in the “good shapea that he wasin while filming the movie Baywatch”.

The High School Musical starappeared in an episode of Hot Ones with

host Sean Evans, and opened up about his careerin Hollywood as well as the body transforma-tion he underwent to star alongside DwayneJohnson in the 2017 film, reports foxnews.com.“That was actually a really important time to doBaywatch because I realised that when I wasdone with that movie, I don’t ever want to be inthat good of shape again. Really. It was so hard,”Efron admitted. “You’re working with almost nowiggle room, right? You’ve got things likewater under your skin that you’re worryingabout, making your six-pack into a four-pack.S**t like that it’s just not a it’s just stupid,” headded.

The actor confessed that he is glad hisphysique made the movie look good and evenadmitted he would do it again if the right pro-ject absolutely demanded it. “I’m happy that itworked, I’m happy that it got me through it. Imay do it again if it was something worthwhilebut we all wait till it gets to that,” the 32-year-old said. This isn’t the first time that Efron crit-icised his own body in Baywatch, which alsostars Priyanka Chopra Jonas. In May 2019, hecriticised his look from the movie during anappearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

ZAC EFRONnever wants to

get in Baywatchshape again

A b

SINGER KANIKAKapoor finally tests-ve for Coronavirus

D

Taking VICKY KAUSHAL for Ashwatthamawas a no-brainer: ADITYA DHAR

FUN

Rules

ARCHIE

GARFIELD

SUDOKU

REALITY CHECK SPEED BUMP CROSSWORD

GINGER MEGGS

NANCY

CALVIN AND HOBBES

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

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

Yesterday’s solution

NAGA SHAURYActor NagaShaurya, who gotbulked up for hislast releaseAswathama, willbe sporting a

chiseled and well-tonedbody for his next withSubrahmanyapuram direc-tor Santhossh Jagarlapudi.The actor plays an archer inthe film, which has beenshot for a couple of days lastmonth in Hyderabad, beforeCovid-19 outbreak called ahalt to the proceedings.

According to a well-placed source close to theunit, Shaurya, who knowsthe basic of archery havinghad a tryst with in the past,has already begun preppingfor the film. “The script hasgotten into the actor’s headso much so that he doesn’twant to put a foot wrongwith his prep. He is alsochatting with Santhoossh

frequently over what isexpected of him. He has hitthe gym but as his archerportions will be shot in thethird schedule, he will taketime to achieve the desiredlook,” the source says.

The source adds that thedirector has roped in inter-national archery coachRamesh as a consultant forthe film and his inputsabout the sport have beenincorporated into the script.“Ramesh will also train

Shaurya for a week to honehis skills on the sport, todevelop the right body lan-guage for an archerbesides helpinghim on hisphysique. Asthe film isthe f irstI n d i a nfi lm onarchery,the mak-ers haveb e e n

extra cautious on the scriptand the way the sport willbe presented. Which is whySanthossh has done eightmonths research for theproject. The techniques thatarchers employed some 150years wil l be used byShaurya in the film andsuch episodes will stand asa highlight of the film,” thesource informs.

The untitled film, a jointproduction venture betweenSharrath Marar, NarayanaDas Narang and RamMohan Rao, sees Ketika

Sharma alongsideShaur ya, while

Naseer and Satyaround off thes u p p o r t i n gdepartment.K a a l aBhairava hasbeen signed

on to ren-der tunes.

11

tollywood

THE DIRECTOR HAS ROPED ININTERNATIONAL ARCHERY COACHRAMESH AS A CONSULTANT FOR THE FILMAND HIS INPUTS ABOUT THE SPORT HAVEBEEN INCORPORATED INTO THE SCRIPT.HE WILL TRAIN SHAURYA FOR A WEEK TOHONE HIS SKILLS ON THE SPORT

Hyderabad Monday April 6, 2020

Mythri Movie Makersand team GeorgeReddy's helping hand

remier production houseMythri Movie Makers, whichhas already donated Rs 10lakhs each to CMRF of bothTelugu states to battle Covid-

19 pandemic, has now come to the res-cue of daily wage employees of theindustry. The production house tweet-ed indicating that they’ve sent a chequeof Rs 5 lakh to Corona Crisis Charitythat was formed by MegastarChiranjeevi to aid the daily wageemployees who have been hit hardbecause of the lockdown. Similarly, theteam of George Reddy — led by direc-tor Jeevan Reddy and lead actor Sandy— distributed essentials like cooking

oil, onion and pulses to 100 employeesof the industry who don’t possess avalid card recognised by the unions.The distribution took place inHyderabad on Sunday.

The actor plays an archer

in the film,which has

been shot for acouple of days

last month inHyderabad,

findsNAGARAJ

GOUD

to sport a well-toned andchiseled look for his next

A

p

Change ofguard forMAHASAMUDRAM

ven after he got the nod of Sharwanand tospearhead the film, director Ajay Bhupathi’sproblems to takeMahasamudramto f loors

seem to be far fromover. The latesttrouble that hitthe director, wehear, is the pro-duction house.Word in thefilm circles isthat SitharaEntertainments,which had agreedto pool in resourcefor the film backedout, leaving Ajay to rushto Anil Sunkara, who is on ahigh post the success of Sarileru Neekevvaru. The pro-ducer has evinced his interest to back the project buthe wants to check if it can be made in the budget. Heis believed to be taking a final call after the lockdownis lifted.

Mahasamudram, a love story set in the backdrop ofsmuggling, will be primarily shot in Visakhapatnam.Ajay Bhupathi also has to search for his female lead asSamantha is said to have exited the project due tounknown reasons. Chaithan Bharadwaj will be the film’smusic director.

E

GEORGE REDDY TEAMDISTRIBUTED ESSENTIALSLIKE COOKING OIL, ONIONAND PULSES TO 100EMPLOYEES OF THEINDUSTRY

FIRSTLOOK

s Ashok Galla turned a year older on Sunday, his first look from his maid-en film with Sriram Adittya (Bhale Manchi Roju fame) was unveiled.The untitled drama which went to floors last November is halfwaythrough with its filming. Padmavati Galla is producing the film underAmar Raja Media & Entertainment, while superstar Krishna and Galla

Aruna Kumari are jointly presenting it. The likes of Jagapathi Babu, Naresh, Satyaand Archana Soundarya are playing supporting roles, with Niddhi Agerwal asthe leading lady. Ghibran is the music composer.

a

Pujita Ponnadabegins with a bang in Tamil

ast seen in Dr Rajasekhar-star-rer Kalki, Telugu actress PujitaPonnada has a lot on her platethis year. Besides Telugu filmslike Miss India, Katha Kanchiki

Manam Intiki and Run, the actress hasgreen-lit three Tamil films — withBharat, Aari and Vimal — and what’smore interesting is that she is on thebrink of completing all of them. “I hada schedule left for each of my Tamil filmsand I’ve allotted dates this month andMay. Let’s see how the situation pans outbecause of the lockdown,” the Vizag girltells us, adding, “I’m playing the femalelead in all the three films. Film withBharat is a family drama with a lot ofthriller elements woven into the narra-tive, while film with Vimal is a remake

of Kannada romantic comedy Lucky(2012), starring Yash and Ramya. Aari’sfilm is a mythological thriller. It’s set inpresent day but the screenplay goesback in time as well. All the three pro-jects have given me roles with a lot ofweight.” — NG

lI’m pplaying tthe ffemale llead iin aallthe tthree ffilms. FFilm wwith BBharat iis

a ffamily ddrama wwith aa llot oof tthrillerelements wwoven iinto tthe nnarrative, wwhilefilm wwith VVimal iis aa rremake oof KKannadaromantic ccommedy LLucky ((2012), sstarringYash aand RRamya. AAari’s ffilm iis aamythological tthriller

sport 12HYDERABAD | MONDAY | APRIL 6, 2020

PTI n NEW DELHI

India has submitted its bid doc-uments for hosting the AFC

Asian Cup in 2027, a top official ofthe national federation confirmedon Sunday.

If India wins the bid, it will bethe first time the country will hostthe continental showpiece event.

“We have already submittedour expression of interest to theAFC (Asian FootballConfederation). That is what’srequired as of now,” All IndiaFootball Federation GeneralSecretary Kushal Das said.

Recently, the AFC had extend-ed the deadline to lodge expressionof interest by three months fromMarch 31 to June 30 in view of theCOVID-19 pandemic.

“The AFC had hoped toannounce the tournament hosts assoon as possible to give themmore time to prepare for the qua-drennial continental championship,which was expanded to 24 teams

for the 2019 edition in the UnitedArab Emirates,” the AFC said.

The AFC is expected toannounce the host country earlynext year.

Other than India, Saudi Arabia,which has won the continental titlethree times but never hosted the

tournament, is only nation to havepublicly announced their intentionto launch a bid for 2027 Asian Cup.

India had joined the race forthe 2023 AFC Asian Cup, alongsideThailand, Indonesia and SouthKorea, but pulled out early inOctober 2018.

Later, Thailand and SouthKorea also pulled out leaving Chinathe sole country to host the 2023tournament.

South Korea, which is hostingthe 2023 Women’s World Cup, isalso likely to join India in the bidfor the men’s 2027 AFC Asian Cup.China will host the 2023 showpiecetournament in 10 cities.

Since successfully staging themen’s U-17 World Cup in 2017,India was to host the U-17 women’sWorld Cup this November but hasbeen postponed to a later date dueto the worsening COVID-19 pan-demic.

India has also been awardedhosting rights for the 2022Women’s AFC Asian Cup in 2022.

IANS n NEW DELHI

Former India fast bowler Ashish Nehra feels that thefactor that helped MS Dhoni stand out among his con-

temporary wicketkeepers in the early part of his careerwas the fact that he made the most of the opportunitieshe got.

Dhoni scored his first international exactly 15 yearsago in an ODI against Pakistan in Visakhapanam. He ham-mered 148 off 123 balls and Nehra’s four-wicket haul laterin the match helped India win by 58 runs. Nehra said thatDhoni’s knock gave India the confidence that they toocould have a good wicketkeeper-batsman at a time whenthey were looking to relieve Rahul Dravid of wicketkeep-ing duties.

“That innings got the team to believe that we too couldhave a prolific wicketkeeper-batsman,” Nehra told theTimes of India. “Dhoni didn’t have a great time in his ini-tial matches. But when a confident man like him gets anopportunity and cashes in, then it’s hard to pull him back.

“Unwavering self-confidence is Dhoni’s strength. Thatinnings was like he had tasted blood and he yearned formore. He hardly ever batted at No 3 after that innings buthe had made a statement that day. We lost all the remain-ing four matches in that series but we discovered Dhoni.”

Nehra said that Dhoni was probably behind contem-poraries Dinesh Karthik and Parthiv Patel in wicketkeep-ing skills at the time but he was the best wicketkeeper-batsman among them.

“Dhoni wasn’t the best wicketkeeper around when hefirst came in. All those who played before him were real-ly good. He was certainly not a Kiran More or a NayanMongia. So it’s not that he was miles ahead of his con-temporaries as a wicketkeeper, but he made for a betterpackage. His discipline, passion, composure and confi-dence made him different.

“Dhoni did what DK and Parthiv couldn’t i.e., makethe most of his opportunities. Dhoni may not have beenthe best-looking batsman or a sound wicketkeeper but hecertainly was the best wicketkeeper-batsman. He workedhard on his game, knew what work for him and grew asan impeccable wicketkeeper.”

Nehra said that Rishabh Pant is the only player whohe sees as capable of coming close to Dhoni, whose cur-rent troubles with form reminds the 40-year-old of theformer Indian skipper in his early days.

“I don’t see anyone coming close to the impact he hashad as a wicketkeeper-batsman except for Rishabh Pant.Pant’s journey — though it is still early days — remindsme a lot of Dhoni,” he said.

PTI n NEW DELHI

Abatsman can do with yoga andweight training but for themerchants of speed, former

India pacer Ashish Nehra feels theabsence of running for more thanthree months at a stretch could comein their way of fitness.

According to him, the fast bowlerswill have to start running sooner orlater.

With sporting activities coming toa standstill, the elite athletes are con-fined to their homes, trying to remainfit while hoping for action to beginonce normalcy returns.

“Let’s consider a few situations.Even if the lockdown ends on April 15,it will take a lot of time for social lifeto become normal.

“If you ask me, I am not expect-ing any cricketing activity before July.So this is a long break but once actionstarts fast bowlers have the biggestchallenge to remain fit,” Nehra said.

Just like former India team physioJohn Gloster, Nehra also feels that thepaucity of space for most cricketers isa problem and more so for the fastbowlers.

“Lack of running time for fastbowlers is an issue. Now the situationis unavoidable. So whoever at least hasa garden with say 15 metres or 20metres space, they should do shuttlerun thrice a week unless they areallowed to train at grounds,” saidNehra.

Shuttle run comprises short stridesbetween 20 to 40 metres where play-ers run between points A and B.

“You can do as much of yoga orfree weights, fast bowler’s life is noth-

ing without good running time.There is a lot of difference with bats-men,” said Nehra, who has been a

bowling coach with IPL franchiseRoyal Challengers Bangalore.

Why does one need to run more

than say cycling or swimming?“It’s not just about heart-rate but

also about bowling muscles such as

hamstring, glutes, groin and calf, theyremain activated. Giving a choicebetween swimming, cycling and run-ning, as a cricketer I would say run-ning. Also a bit of shadow bowling canhelp in visualization,” said Nehra,who has played 164 internationals forIndia (17 Tests, 120 ODIs and 27T20Is).

He had a word of advice for thosewho have sprawling terraces withsoil and grass cover.

“It’s fine if you are doing SuryaNamaskar on terrace but if you startrunning and doing shuttle run, youwill end up damaging your knees andankles because of hard surface.Thevery reason that professional playersshould avoid playing tennis on hardcourts in five-star hotels. They arecement courts.”

Nehra said that he is confidentwhether it’s the BCCI or ICC, even ifthere is a semblance of normalcy byJune, they will give at least a month’stime to the players to prepare, as onecan’t suddenly start playing.

“And injuries can happen to any-one. The fast bowler who has trainedthe least might be fitter than fastbowler who has trained the most.Nature of sport is such. But yes, I hopethat if lockdown ends, they haveaccess to grounds,” said Nehra.

And he also had a word of cautionfor fast bowlers and professional play-ers in general.

“Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra,after this prolonged break, can affordto come back with a paunch. Notactive players. So break ka matlab yenaahi ki biryani khaani hain (A breakfrom sport doesn’t mean you will havebiryani).”

AFP n LONDON

Bernie Ecclestone says this season’sFormula One championship should

be cancelled because it appears unlike-ly that enough races can be completedfor it to be valid due to the coronaviruscrisis.

The opening eight rounds of the2020 season have been either cancelledor postponed, with doubts over a num-ber of the other 14 races as the pandem-ic continues to overshadow the sportingcalendar.

A minimum of eight races arerequired for the championship to bevalid, but former F1 chief executiveEcclestone believes that will not be pos-sible.

“We should stop the championshipthis year and start again next year, hope-fully, because I can’t see it’s going to bepossible to get the right amount of racesin that count for a championship,” the 89-year-old told BBC Radio.

“There’s got to be eight from mem-ory, and I can’t see them getting that in.

It’s a difficult situation.”Lewis Hamilton was this year aim-

ing to match Michael Schumacher’srecord of seven drivers’ titles, thoughthere have been suggestions a truncat-ed season would diminish the achieve-ment.

But Ecclestone, set to become afather for the fourth time, said: “I don’tthink it will make a lot of difference toLewis. He would win whatever the racenumber, whether it be eight, 16 or 20.

“If it’s a world championship and hewins, it would go on his record and sayhe has won a world championship. Theterrible thing is he would win all eightraces. It wouldn’t be a super champi-onship.”

IANS n SAU PAULO

Brazilian football great Kakasaid that he leans towards

Lionel Messi in the debate of whoamong the Argentine and hisarch-rival Cristiano Ronaldo is thebest player in the world.

“I played with Cristiano andhe’s really amazing, but I’ll go withMessi,” Kaka said when asked whohe would pick out of Messi orRonaldo during an InstagramLive Q&A for FIFA’s channel.

“He’s a genius, a pure talent.The way he plays is incredible.”

The debate has been one ofthe defining characteristics ofworld football for over a decade.Between 2008 and 2018, Ronaldoand Messi won the Ballon d’Oraward. Kaka was the last player towin the award before the pairstarted domination. He playedwith Ronaldo for five years at RealMadrid.

He said the two players areamong the greatest of all time inthe history of football. “Cristiano

is a machine. It’s not just the wayhe’s strong, powerful and fast; he’sstrong mentally,” said Kaka.

“He always wants to win andplay. To be the best. For me, that’sthe most incredible thing he has.

“In the history of sport, they[Messi and Cristiano] are definite-ly in the top five. We are very luckyto have been able to see both ofthem.”

NEW DELHI: The crack men’s doublespair of Chirag Shetty andSatwiksairaj Rankireddy is nowhoping to avail the services of a newforeign coach in their Olympicpreparation after sudden exit ofIndonesian Flandy Limpele.

Limpele was appointed till theTokyo Olympics. But, last month, hestepped down as India’s doublescoach, citing family reasons, becom-ing the fourth such foreign coach tohave resigned without completingthe tenure.

Chirag said the Olympics post-ponement will now give them moretime to deal with the departure ofLimpele, who was specifically hiredto prepare them for Tokyo Games.

“We will definitely get more timeto prepare now. Since it is more thana year, so I believe we will get a newforeign coach. If Olympics wouldhave happened this year, then wewouldn’t have got since for 3-4months it wouldn’t make sense. Butnow, BAI might get one to help us,”Chirag said.

Satwik said the departure of

Limpele in the Olympic year was abig worry.

“It is a worry for us because he(Limpele) left us before theOlympics. He is an experiencedcoach, he used to give us inputs inevery match and we trusted him alot. Since he left we didn’t know whatto do, what program to follow.

“But now we have a year, sohopefully we will get a new coachand again we will have to adjust tothe new regime. So in a way, we got

lucky with this postponement.”Badminton Association of India

general secretary Ajay Singhania saidthey will try to rope in a new foreigncoach once things return to normal.

“With the Olympic postpone-ment, we are keen to get a doublescoach in order to strengthen thecoaching staff. However, we have towait for the lockdown to get over firstso that we can discuss the issue withSAI and Sports Ministry,” he said.

Chirag and Satwik, the

Commonwealth Games Silvermedallists, were the first Indianmen’s doubles pair to win a Super500 in Thailand and also reached thefinals of Super 750 event at FrenchOpen last year. It also helped themto break into the top 10.

“If an experienced coach likecomes on board, it will make a bigdifference,” said Chirag.

“Now we are almost there, it isa matter of 2-3 points, say we are 90percent there and a really good coachlike for example Rexy Mainaky,who is the head coach of Thailandwould give us that extra 10 percent.A high-calibre coach can help us getinto world’s top 3.”

Mainaky, a 1996 Olympic Goldmedallist is one of the famous pairwith other being Ricky Subagja.

Satwik said: “We have coacheslike Dwi Kristiawan and NamrihSuroto, who can make a programfor us. Namrih used to handle uswhen Flandy was not availableand we have been training withDwi too, so they are also well-equipped to help us.” PTI

IANS n COLOMBO

Sri Lanka coach Mickey Arthur feels the T20squad needs some adjustments and a method

to win games, ahead of the World Cup later thisyear.

“Our T20 side is still going to take some fine-tuning and this was amplified against a verystrong West Indies team that simply had toomuch power for us,” Arthur said in a chat withSri Lanka Cricket (SLC) media unit.

“I think the most important thing is build-ing a method to win games based on theresources that you have at your disposal and thenmaking sure that the players are under no illu-sion as to what that method is based on ourstrengths,” he said.

Sri Lanka will be looking to add anotherWorld T20 title to their kitty after winning it in2014.

Sri Lanka lost to West Indies in two T20Islast month.

Arthur took over the reins in December andhis toughest test yet awaited in a two-matchhome series against England, but that was calledoff last month due to the coronavirus pandem-ic.

“It was really disappointing not playing theTest series against England although this will beplayed at a later date,” said Arthur, who has alsocoached South Africa, Australia and Pakistan.

“We had just worked out a brand that weknew would be successful against all teams, andI just hope that the momentum that we had builtup will not be lost with our Test team when westart up again,” he said.

“We have some very realistic goals with ourTest team and believe that we have now the play-ers and gameplans to have success both at homeand abroad in the future.”

NEW DELHI (IANS): FormerIndia cricketer Yuvraj Singhhas said that Rohit Sharmareminded him of Pakistan leg-end Inzamam-ul-Haq in hisearly days.

The flamboyant India vice-captain made his ODI debut inJune 2007 while his maidenT20 game came during theWC later that year againstEngland, where unfortunatelyhe didn’t get a chance to bat.

Asked about his firstimpression of Rohit, Yuvrajsaid the swashbuckling bats-man seemed like somebodywho had a lot of time to playhis strokes.

“I think when he came intothe Indian team, he looked likesomebody who had a lot of

time,” Yuvraj Singh said duringa YouTube chat show.

“He reminded me ofInzamam-ul-Haq, because,when he batted, Inzi had a lotof time (to play the bowlers).”

IANS n LAHORE

Former Australian bats-man Dean Jones and

Pakistan fast bowling greatWasim Akram noted the tal-ent pool that Pakistan bringsinto cricket, with the latterstating that the country is tothe sport what Brazil is tofootball.

“You’re (Pakistan) thetalent factory. We in Australiaalways used to say thatPakistan have so much talent,it’s just the matter of how youharness it,” Jones said in aninteraction with Wasim.

“Raw talent, it’s like Brazilof cricket,” Wasim said inreply.

Jones noted the innova-tions that Pakistan players,

particularly bowlers, havebrought into cricket over theyears.

“Pakistanis bring differ-ent techniques to internation-al cricket, different attitudes

fast bowlers like yourself(Wasim) and Waqar (Younis),Shoaib (Akhtar), and ofcourse Abdul (Qadir) andMushi (Mushtaq Ahmed)and all these great bowlersthat are coming through evennow,” he said.

Jones noted that whilecricket was always big in thecountry but the team’s dom-inance in the 1980’s and theirvictory in the 1992 WorldCup were important catalysts.

“Cricket is in the DNA,it’s been great for a long timebut really started to turn bigtime in the late 80s whenImran took over, when yourip England apart in front ofa 100 thousand people atMCG (in 1992) was amaz-ing,” he said.

AFP n WASHINGTON

President Donald Trumpon Saturday said he

believes US sports leagues hitby the coronavirus pandemicwould resume “sooner ratherthan later” but declined to seta timetable for their return.

On a conference call withthe commissioners of themajor professional sportsleagues, Trump told NationalFootball League commission-er Roger Goodell he believedthe season would kick off asscheduled in September.

US sports have beenupended by the coronavirus,with the NBA, Major LeagueBaseball, Major League Soccerand National Hockey Leagueall halting or suspending theirrespective seasons last monthas the pandemic erupted.

“I want fans back in thearenas...whenever we’re ready,”Trump told reporters at aWhite House briefing onSaturday.

“As soon as we can obvi-ously. I can’t tell you a date butI think it’s going to be soonerrather than later.”

Major League Baseballand NBA officials are report-edly studying plans to playgames without spectators atneutral venues to minimisethe risks of infection associat-ed with crowded arenas.

Trump, however, spokeoptimistically of fans eventu-ally being let back into stadi-ums.

“We’re not going to haveseparation for the rest of ourtimes on the planet,” Trumpsaid.

“We need it for this peri-od of time. But eventuallypeople are going to be able tooccupy those seats next toeach other. I’m not commit-ting to it. It would be great ifwe could.”

Long breaks pose big challenge for pacers

Indian pacers Jasprit Bumrah, Ishant Sharma and Mohammed Shami along with bowling coach Bharat Arun during nets session BCCI/Instagram

Dhoni’s Vizag knock felt likehe had tasted blood: Nehra

FormerPak skipper Imran Khan ICC

Arthur using break to buildplans for SL development

Pak is Brazil of cricket: Akram

Messi is a genius, pure talent: Kaka India submit bid to host AFC Asian Cup

Lionel Messi FCB/Twitter

Trump hopesvirus-hit sportswill be back‘sooner than later’

2020 F1 c‘ship should becancelled: Ecclestone

Chirag, Satwik hoping to get new foreign coach

Rohit reminded me of Inzamamin his early days: Yuvraj