...2020/10/24  · 2 &˘ ˆ ’ 3’ ˘ 4’" ˘ ˘ ’ " & "ˆ & ˘ ˘ ˘ & ˘ " # ’ ˚25.2678 In...

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I n a move that would go a long way in the conservation of snow leopards and prevent land degradation of the Himalayan ecosystem inhabit- ed by a large number of locals, India has identified three sets of landscape — Hemis-Spiti across Ladakh and Himachal Pradesh, Nanda Devi-Gangotri in Uttarakhand and Khangchendzonga-Tawang across Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh — for the restoration of the flagship species in the high-altitude region. “The Government is com- mitted to landscape restoration for snow leopard habitat con- servation and is implementing participatory landscape-based management plans involving local stakeholders,” Union Minister of State for Environment Babul Supriyo said on Friday on the eve of the International Snow Leopard Day 2020 on Saturday. He list- ed out the three landscapes. The iconic big cats’ con- servation status improved from “endangered” to “vulnerable” in 2017, as the Centre has been conserving the snow leopard and its habitat through the Project Snow Leopard (PSL), which was launched in 2009. According to an estimate, there are around 7,000 leop- ards, found in 12 countries — India, Nepal, Bhutan, China, Mongolia, Russia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. In India, the geographical range of snow leopards encom- passes a large part of the west- ern Himalayas including Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh. The landscape, covering around 47,000 sq km, has at least five national parks where wild animals including snow leopards can be spotted. Hemis National Park is situated in the eastern Ladakh region of Jammu & Kashmir while the Great Himalayan National Park, one of the nat- ural world heritage sites, is in Himachal Pradesh’s Kullu region. Turn to Page 4 D elhi’s air quality remained in the ‘very poor’ catego- ry on Saturday with the Air Quality Index recorded at 347. The Ministry of Earth Sciences’ air quality monitor, System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR), said that some locations entered ‘severe’ zone but that will be short lived as winds are expected to increase slightly. Some areas like Mundka, Wazirpur and Alipur recorded ‘severe’ levels of air pollution, authorities said. It said the air quality could improve on October 26. “The overall Delhi’s Air Quality Index (AQI) is in the very poor category with few Delhi locations entering at higher zone but that will be short lived,” it said. A iming to provide relief to taxpayers facing con- straints due to Covid-19, the Income Tax Department on Saturday yet again extended the deadline for individual tax- payers for filing their returns for Financial Year 2019-20 (assessment year 2020-21) by a month till December 31. For those taxpayers whose accounts need to be audited, the Income-Tax Return filing dead- line has been extended by two months till January 31, 2021. The Government had in May extended the date for fil- ing ITR for FY2019-20 from July 31 to November 30, to give compliance relief to taxpayers. In a statement, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) said, “The due date for fur- nishing of Income Tax Returns for the taxpayers [for whom the due date (i.e. before the exten- sion by the said notification) as per the Act was July 31, 2020] has been extended to December 31, 2020.” The due date for furnishing of ITR for the taxpayers, who are required to get their accounts audited (for whom the due date as per the I-T Act is October 31, 2020), has been extended to January 31, 2021, it added. The CBDT said the dead- lines have been extended in order to “provide more time to taxpayers for furnishing of Income Tax Returns”. I n line with the Supreme Court’s directions in view of the festival season and the Covid-19 pandemic, the Centre has finalised a scheme for grant of ex-gratia payment of the difference between com- pound interest and simple interest for six months of loans up to 2 crore. The move will cost the State exchequer 6,500 crore. The Supreme Court had directed the Centre to imple- ment such a scheme “as soon as possible”. As per the operational guidelines issued by Department of Financial Services, the scheme can be availed by borrowers in speci- fied loan accounts for a period from March 1 to August 31, 2020. “Borrowers who have loan accounts having sanctioned limits and outstanding amount of not exceeding 2 crore (aggregate of all facilities with lending institutions) as on February 29 shall be eligible for the scheme,” it said. Housing loan, education loans, credit card dues, auto loans, MSME loans, consumer durable loans and consumption loans are covered under the scheme. As per the scheme, the lending institutions shall cred- it the difference between com- pound interest and simple interest with regard to the eli- gible borrowers in respective accounts for the said period irrespective of whether the borrower fully or partially availed the moratorium on repayment of loan announced by the RBI on March 27, 2020. The scheme is applicable on those who have not availed the moratorium scheme and continued with the repayment of loans. The lending institutions after crediting the amount will claim the reimbursement from the Central Government. According to sources, the Government will have to shell out 6,500 crore for the imple- mentation of the scheme. Turn to Page 4 C oronavirus continues to hit the BJP in Bihar, the lat- est being the party’s election campaign incharge and former Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. Making it public, Fadnavis tweeted on Saturday, “I have been working every single day since the lockdown but now it seems that God wants me to stop for a while and take a break! I have tested #COVID19 positive and in isolation. Taking all medication & treatment as per the advice of the doctors.” “Those who have come in contact with me are advised to get Covid-19 tests done. Take care, everyone!” another tweet read. Fadnavis, who is also the leader of Opposition in the Maharashtra Assembly, was appointed as the BJP incharge for Bihar elections last month. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had on Friday during his rallies in the State termed it as the first major election in the world amid the corona pandemic”. Before Fadnavis, Bihar’s Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi and former Union Minister and star cam- paigner Shahnawaz Hussain had on Thursday announced about having tested positive. The instances of BJP lead- ers testing positive coinciden- tally continue to come when their party in its poll manifesto has promised to provide free vaccination to the State’s resi- dents triggering a major row. A lready suffering from the Covid-19-induced mis- eries, the “aam aadmi” is find- ing it tough to manage his household affairs with his kitchen budget having doubled or tripled due to soaring prices of vegetables, pulses and even wheat flour (atta). As if the wip- ing out of the annual festivities due to coronavirus wasn’t enough, the price rise has only added to the dampening of the festive spirits. The kitchen staples are burning a hole in the common man’s pocket. Prices of vegeta- bles are already high as onions cost 80-100 a kg, potatoes 50-60 a kg and tomatoes 60- 70 a kg while the retail prices of pulses have recently regis- tered a steep hike. There has been a sharp increase in prices of most pulses including tur (arhar), moong, masoor and urad that have crossed the 100 per kg mark in most cities across India. Interestingly, a significant population avoids consuming onions during the “navratra” period (for nine days) but despite the lower consumption the prices continue to be very high due to shortage of supply. Officials of the Agriculture Ministry said potato prices too have surged more than 62 per cent since May as production fell in key growing States and demand soared amid the Covid-19 pandemic. Traders in Uttar Pradesh, the largest pota- to producer in the country, said prices will remain on these lines at least till March. As for onions, according to Rajendra Sharma, a wholesale supplier of the bulb at Asia’s biggest vegetable and fruits market Azadpur, the supply has reduced from Maharashtra and Karnataka due to its shortage. “Of the 28 lakh tonnes stored in Maharashtra, around 10-11 lakh tonnes remain now. The yearly consumption of onions in India is slated to be 160 lakh tonnes with Maharashtra alone consuming around 4,000-6,000 tonnes per day,” he said. “The heavy rain in September not only destroyed the new crop in Karnataka but also took a toll on stored onions in States like Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat. Farmers in Maharashtra alone had mar- ketable onions, having stored the 28 lakh tonnes at the start of summer,” he added. The Ministry of Consumer Affairs has imposed a stock limit of two tonnes on retailers and 25 tonnes for wholesalers till December 31. The Ministry has also supplied 35,000 met- ric tonnes of onion to States and Union Territories to main- tain certain stability in prices. The national acreage for rabi onions last season was 10 lakh hectares as against 7 lakh hectares of 2018-19. But the additional wastage has con- strained supply. There are three main onion crops — kharif (June-July sowing, post- October harvest), late kharif (September sowing, post- December harvest), and rabi (December-January sowing, post-March harvest). The rabi crop has the least moisture con- tent, making it amenable to storage. Given the steep hike in the onion price, the Telangana Government on Saturday decided to sell the edible bulb at 35 per kilo at the Government-run “Rythu Bazaars”. Two kilos of onions would be sold per person and the consumers have to show any identity card. According to Suresh Agarwal, All India Dal Miller Association, there is a shortage of pulses in the country as farmers have switched over from pulses to wheat and soy- abean since 2018. Besides, the Government policies also led to this situation. Most pulses come to India from South African countries, Canada and Myanmar. India had imported 3.17 MT of puls- es in 2014. This rose to 5.8 MT in 2016. It further rose to 6.6 MT in 2017, followed by 5.6 MT in 2018. In 2018-19 though, the imports reduced to 2.527 MT. Turn to Page 4

Transcript of ...2020/10/24  · 2 &˘ ˆ ’ 3’ ˘ 4’" ˘ ˘ ’ " & "ˆ & ˘ ˘ ˘ & ˘ " # ’ ˚25.2678 In...

Page 1: ...2020/10/24  · 2 &˘ ˆ ’ 3’ ˘ 4’" ˘ ˘ ’ " & "ˆ & ˘ ˘ ˘ & ˘ " # ’ ˚25.2678 In a move that would go a long way in the conservation of snow leopards and prevent

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In a move that would go along way in the conservation

of snow leopards and preventland degradation of theHimalayan ecosystem inhabit-ed by a large number of locals,India has identified three setsof landscape — Hemis-Spitiacross Ladakh and HimachalPradesh, Nanda Devi-Gangotriin Uttarakhand andKhangchendzonga-Tawangacross Sikkim and ArunachalPradesh — for the restorationof the flagship species in thehigh-altitude region.

“The Government is com-mitted to landscape restoration

for snow leopard habitat con-servation and is implementingparticipatory landscape-basedmanagement plans involvinglocal stakeholders,” UnionMinister of State forEnvironment Babul Supriyosaid on Friday on the eve of theInternational Snow LeopardDay 2020 on Saturday. He list-ed out the three landscapes.

The iconic big cats’ con-servation status improved from“endangered” to “vulnerable” in2017, as the Centre has beenconserving the snow leopardand its habitat through theProject Snow Leopard (PSL),which was launched in 2009.

According to an estimate,

there are around 7,000 leop-ards, found in 12 countries —India, Nepal, Bhutan, China,Mongolia, Russia, Pakistan,

Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan,Kazakhstan, Tajikistan andUzbekistan.

In India, the geographical

range of snow leopards encom-passes a large part of the west-ern Himalayas includingJammu and Kashmir, HimachalPradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkimand Arunachal Pradesh.

The landscape, coveringaround 47,000 sq km, has atleast five national parks wherewild animals including snowleopards can be spotted.

Hemis National Park issituated in the eastern Ladakhregion of Jammu & Kashmirwhile the Great HimalayanNational Park, one of the nat-ural world heritage sites, is in Himachal Pradesh’s Kullu region.

Turn to Page 4

���������������� �25�.2678

Delhi’s air quality remainedin the ‘very poor’ catego-

ry on Saturday with the AirQuality Index recorded at 347.

The Ministry of EarthSciences’ air quality monitor,System of Air Quality andWeather Forecasting andResearch (SAFAR), said thatsome locations entered ‘severe’zone but that will be short livedas winds are expected toincrease slightly.

Some areas like Mundka,Wazirpur and Alipur recorded‘severe’ levels of air pollution,authorities said. It said the airquality could improve onOctober 26.

“The overall Delhi’s AirQuality Index (AQI) is in thevery poor category with fewDelhi locations entering athigher zone but that will beshort lived,” it said.

���� �25�.2678

Aiming to provide relief totaxpayers facing con-

straints due to Covid-19, theIncome Tax Department onSaturday yet again extended thedeadline for individual tax-payers for filing their returnsfor Financial Year 2019-20(assessment year 2020-21) by amonth till December 31.

For those taxpayers whoseaccounts need to be audited, theIncome-Tax Return filing dead-line has been extended by twomonths till January 31, 2021.

The Government had inMay extended the date for fil-ing ITR for FY2019-20 fromJuly 31 to November 30, to give

compliance relief to taxpayers.In a statement, the Central

Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT)said, “The due date for fur-nishing of Income Tax Returnsfor the taxpayers [for whom thedue date (i.e. before the exten-sion by the said notification) asper the Act was July 31, 2020]has been extended toDecember 31, 2020.”

The due date for furnishing

of ITR for the taxpayers, whoare required to get theiraccounts audited (for whomthe due date as per the I-T Actis October 31, 2020), has beenextended to January 31, 2021,it added.

The CBDT said the dead-lines have been extended inorder to “provide more time totaxpayers for furnishing ofIncome Tax Returns”.

���� �25�.2678

In line with the SupremeCourt’s directions in view of

the festival season and theCovid-19 pandemic, the Centrehas finalised a scheme forgrant of ex-gratia payment ofthe difference between com-pound interest and simpleinterest for six months of loansup to �2 crore.

The move will cost theState exchequer �6,500 crore.The Supreme Court had directed the Centre to imple-ment such a scheme “as soon as possible”.

As per the operationalguidelines issued byDepartment of FinancialServices, the scheme can be

availed by borrowers in speci-fied loan accounts for a period from March 1 to August 31, 2020.

“Borrowers who have loanaccounts having sanctionedlimits and outstanding amountof not exceeding �2 crore(aggregate of all facilities withlending institutions) as onFebruary 29 shall be eligible forthe scheme,” it said.

Housing loan, educationloans, credit card dues, autoloans, MSME loans, consumerdurable loans and consumptionloans are covered under the scheme.

As per the scheme, thelending institutions shall cred-it the difference between com-pound interest and simple

interest with regard to the eli-gible borrowers in respectiveaccounts for the said periodirrespective of whether theborrower fully or partiallyavailed the moratorium onrepayment of loan announcedby the RBI on March 27, 2020.

The scheme is applicableon those who have not availedthe moratorium scheme andcontinued with the repaymentof loans.

The lending institutionsafter crediting the amount willclaim the reimbursement fromthe Central Government.

According to sources, theGovernment will have to shellout �6,500 crore for the imple-mentation of the scheme.

Turn to Page 4

���� �25�.2678

Coronavirus continues tohit the BJP in Bihar, the lat-

est being the party’s electioncampaign incharge and formerMaharashtra Chief MinisterDevendra Fadnavis.

Making it public, Fadnavistweeted on Saturday, “I havebeen working every single daysince the lockdown but now itseems that God wants me tostop for a while and take abreak! I have tested #COVID19positive and in isolation. Takingall medication & treatment asper the advice of the doctors.”

“Those who have come incontact with me are advised toget Covid-19 tests done. Take care, everyone!” anothertweet read.

Fadnavis, who is also theleader of Opposition in theMaharashtra Assembly, wasappointed as the BJP inchargefor Bihar elections last month.Prime Minister Narendra Modihad on Friday during his rallies

in the State termed it as the firstmajor election in the worldamid the corona pandemic”.

Before Fadnavis, Bihar’sDeputy Chief Minister Sushil

Kumar Modi and formerUnion Minister and star cam-paigner Shahnawaz Hussainhad on Thursday announcedabout having tested positive.

The instances of BJP lead-ers testing positive coinciden-tally continue to come whentheir party in its poll manifestohas promised to provide freevaccination to the State’s resi-dents triggering a major row.

���������������� �����������

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��(��!��� ���� �25�.2678

Already suffering from theCovid-19-induced mis-

eries, the “aam aadmi” is find-ing it tough to manage hishousehold affairs with hiskitchen budget having doubledor tripled due to soaring pricesof vegetables, pulses and evenwheat flour (atta). As if the wip-ing out of the annual festivitiesdue to coronavirus wasn’tenough, the price rise has onlyadded to the dampening of thefestive spirits.

The kitchen staples areburning a hole in the commonman’s pocket. Prices of vegeta-bles are already high as onionscost �80-100 a kg, potatoes�50-60 a kg and tomatoes �60-70 a kg while the retail pricesof pulses have recently regis-tered a steep hike. There hasbeen a sharp increase in pricesof most pulses including tur(arhar), moong, masoor andurad that have crossed the�100 per kg mark in most cities

across India.Interestingly, a significant

population avoids consumingonions during the “navratra”period (for nine days) butdespite the lower consumptionthe prices continue to be veryhigh due to shortage of supply.

Officials of the AgricultureMinistry said potato prices toohave surged more than 62 percent since May as productionfell in key growing States anddemand soared amid theCovid-19 pandemic. Traders inUttar Pradesh, the largest pota-to producer in the country, saidprices will remain on theselines at least till March.

As for onions, according toRajendra Sharma, a wholesalesupplier of the bulb at Asia’sbiggest vegetable and fruitsmarket Azadpur, the supply hasreduced from Maharashtra andKarnataka due to its shortage.“Of the 28 lakh tonnes storedin Maharashtra, around 10-11lakh tonnes remain now. Theyearly consumption of onions

in India is slated to be 160 lakhtonnes with Maharashtra aloneconsuming around 4,000-6,000tonnes per day,” he said.

“The heavy rain inSeptember not only destroyedthe new crop in Karnataka butalso took a toll on storedonions in States like MadhyaPradesh and Gujarat. Farmersin Maharashtra alone had mar-ketable onions, having storedthe 28 lakh tonnes at the start

of summer,” he added.The Ministry of Consumer

Affairs has imposed a stocklimit of two tonnes on retailersand 25 tonnes for wholesalerstill December 31. The Ministryhas also supplied 35,000 met-ric tonnes of onion to Statesand Union Territories to main-tain certain stability in prices.

The national acreage forrabi onions last season was 10lakh hectares as against 7 lakh

hectares of 2018-19. But theadditional wastage has con-strained supply. There are threemain onion crops — kharif(June-July sowing, post-October harvest), late kharif(September sowing, post-December harvest), and rabi(December-January sowing,post-March harvest). The rabicrop has the least moisture con-tent, making it amenable tostorage.

Given the steep hike in theonion price, the TelanganaGovernment on Saturdaydecided to sell the edible bulbat �35 per kilo at theGovernment-run “RythuBazaars”. Two kilos of onionswould be sold per person andthe consumers have to showany identity card.

According to SureshAgarwal, All India Dal MillerAssociation, there is a shortageof pulses in the country asfarmers have switched overfrom pulses to wheat and soy-abean since 2018. Besides, theGovernment policies also led tothis situation.

Most pulses come to Indiafrom South African countries,Canada and Myanmar. Indiahad imported 3.17 MT of puls-es in 2014. This rose to 5.8 MTin 2016. It further rose to 6.6MT in 2017, followed by 5.6MT in 2018. In 2018-19though, the imports reduced to2.527 MT.

Turn to Page 4

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Page 2: ...2020/10/24  · 2 &˘ ˆ ’ 3’ ˘ 4’" ˘ ˘ ’ " & "ˆ & ˘ ˘ ˘ & ˘ " # ’ ˚25.2678 In a move that would go a long way in the conservation of snow leopards and prevent

�What is your role in the show?The show represents three generations

— grandfather, father and son. I playPratap Ratan Bansal who is the eldest in thefamily. He lives his life according to what hethinks is right. He doesn’t belong to the erawhere the father is not a friend but someonewho needed to be heard when he spokewithout being questioned. According to himeach relationship is defined and need not bemerged.�What is the best thing about yourcharacter?

It is his quirkiness that is interesting.It is not as if he is in a foul mood all thetime. However, the other person maythink otherwise. He is a fun person tobe with. He has fun with thisgrandson. But he has a grudge. Hewanted his grandson to be a cricketerbut he could be one. So, Bansal keepstaunting him about this. But he loveshis family.�Was it tough to go back to shootingafter the lockdown opened?

Yes, definitely. Before the show startedits shoot, we had a virtual meeting with adoctor. He told us that while on the sets, wemust always think that the person in frontof us is asymptomatic. He told us thatdespite all the precautions the productionhouse takes, we must not let our guarddown. But doing this was so tough andscary. When we reached the set, thenormal was to hug and greet each other.But on the first day, nobody exchangedmore than two lines. Each one of us wasscared that more conversation will meana hand on the shoulder and we had tomaintain distance. We avoided talking toeach other. It will take time to get thingsback to normal.�You have played the role of a father afew times, how is this different?

The first thing is that I have neverplayed a father who is from the 40s andthe 50s. Till now, I had played the roleof a progressive father. Here I play atraditional father which is interesting.Also, the way I deliver the dialoguesis different, language here is different.The character is Marwari. I don’t knowanything about the accent or how theybehave.�You have been in the industry for overtwo decades now. How have thingschanged?

Back then there were fewer people in theindustry but we managed to get things done.Now, there are a lot more people and jobsare defined. Earlier, a verbal agreement wasenough. Now everything has to be done viaemails — it has become a corporate set-up

now. This could be because there is farmore work involved.�Does this mean that competition

has increased?Yes, there is competition. But it also

means that there is much more work in theindustry. Many youngsters now don’t haveto struggle for work. There is theatre, thereis TV, there is web and films that offer allkinds of diverse work. There is no dearthof work today. This means one gets to dovaried work. Even cinema has changed. Thisis because the younger generation hasaccess to more information.�You have done TV shows and films. Howare the two different when it comes toacting?

There is no difference. For eachplatform, be it theatre, TV or films, I havealways done my work honestly. The only

difference is that in cinema, one gets moretime to prepare for the character. Thedirector has time to pay attention to how thecharacter needs to go forward. In TV, thisis not possible since the director has littletime. So here, I have to be prepared 90 percent before I reach the set.�How did your acting career begin?

It began with Marathi theatre. I metSatish Kaushik and ended up doing moretheatre. In time, I ended up with a Marathiserial. Since I didn’t have any Godfather myprevious work propelled me further.Wherever I am today, is due to the peopleI met in my work and I am grateful to themfor it.�What are your future plans?

I am working on two shows. One, ofcourse, Tera Yaar Hoon Main and the otheris Mere Dad Ki Dulhan on SonyEntertainment Television. In between, if Iget a film, I will do that as well. Also, I loveto work with newage directors. Working onweb series doesn’t involve too much timesince they are finite.

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First things first. Mirzapur has notreformed itself from beingperhaps one of the most violent,

sleazy, abusive and yet unashamedlyluring. Season 2 is even more so, atleast in the first three mentioned traits.

The disclaimer at the beginningattempts to assuage your alarm bysaying totally fictitious and the like.However, the knowledge of this sortof a scenario being a reality in the cowbelt of the nation, the unabatedgoondaism, the police criminal nexus,the impunity and violence with whichcriminals conduct their businesskeeps you on the hook all through the10 episodes of Season 2, which, by theway, has set itself up for a third season.

Personally, I eschew and cringe atpronounced screen violence and inthis one the bloodbaths are whatmakes for the story.

Mirzapur is India’s Game of

Thrones with just a tad less history toit. The man who will be King ofMirzapur has to be powerful, with nochinks of vulnerability in hisdemeanour. He should be able to killat will even if it is his favourite andloyal servant for decades or his ownfather! Corruption of the systemmatches up with the corruption of themind, boy and soul of all its maincharacters who have, come to think ofit, done a pretty good job if you hatethem all in equal measure.

Will not be able to call Mirzapurriveting but yes it draws your bloodto your temples, makes you curdle infear and cringe in disgust with suchpointed venom and force that itautomatically qualifies for a bingewatch.

The end is predictable and similarto the first season, the characters havematured and the violence here prevailsonly to push the story into a state ofno repair and the climax sets up thewindow for the next season with thepolish of a veteran.

Mirzapur will be watched in thethird season too. How watch-worthyis such content can be a topic fordebate on another platform.

Meanwhile waiting avidly for thesequel of The Family Man.

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The thing about short filmsis that they are fullyloaded second to second

to tell a story. In this format thestory has to be short but havethe potential of leaving a longterm impact. Stunning climax,an ending you may not havefathomed, and every framemeant to tell the story, orshould one say race to finish thestory because the director hasjust 14 minutes to leave a narkon you.

Laghushanka is of that

potent, telling and interestingcategory. It deals with the issueof bedwetting by an adult girlwho has a marriage staringdown her face, a hystericalfamily and the prospect of itcoming out in the open in hersasural.

The film has been treatedwith a lot of acumen, tenderloving care and slick productionwhich keeps you hooked fromthe beginning to the end.

It also delivers a powerfulmessage on human weaknessand ailments that are oftentreated with insensitivity andindifference.

This head turner film isneither insensitive norindifferent to the issue it has atand must watch.

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Many of us over the last 27 yearswould have tried to reach outto a copy of A Suitable Boy

only to baulk at the sheer size of thenovel — 1349 pages. Thisalone was a good enough fora large number of people tostay away from one of thelongest novels published in asingle volume.

But thanks to Mira Nair,one can now find out why thebook had created quite a stirwhen the book was out in1993. The subject was enoughto make it the talk of the town— a mother’s quest to look fora suitable boy for her youngestdaughter.

Even though there are a fewmisrepresentations of how womenbehaved back then and what they wore,one can give them a miss and insteadconcentrate on how Nair has broughtthe 1951s era alive once again on thescreen. The six-episode limited seriestakes one on a journey on what it waslike to live in a post-Independent India.A few clippings give us a sneak peekof what it was like when people votedfor the very first time. But the mini-series and the book is not about post-Independent India but the lives ofpeople in that time and how a mother

goes about choosing a husband for herdaughter and rejecting many becausethey are — of course — not suitable.A mother knows best the adage whichcomes across loud and clear.

Despite the fact that TanyaManiktala’s character keeps smilingeven though there is an internalturmoil, she does a great job as thedaughter who has to do the choosing.Tabu, Ishaan Khatter and Ram Kapoor

do a brilliant job in supporting roles.In fact, they are the backbone of thismini-series.

While many may not agree withthe whole concept with a motherlooking for a suitable boy given that weare living in the 21 st Century. But thetruth remains that arranged marriagesand a parent choosing husband/wifeis not such an alien concept even today.

Overall, the mini-series isentertaining and keeps you gluedwanting to know what comes next andwho is finally the suitable one.

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Many of us have either seen orread Rebecca by Daphne duMaurier. Hence, there are no

surprises when it comes to the climaxor what is to come next. What isdifferent here than the 1940psychological thriller directed by AlfredHitchcock is of course the way the twofilms have dealt with the same story.Then there is the whole black and whiteas opposed to colour. The chilliness andthe cold reserve that played out sobrilliantly in the Hitchcock version istotally missing here. There is LaurenceOlivier and Joan Fontaine as opposedto Lily James and Armie Hammer.

This Rebecca leaves you cold,unmoved and somewhat disconnected.Though it is never right nor fair tocompare two movies with the samestory as a viewer it is difficult to lookat this film without doing theunforgivable. However, for those whohave not seen the Hitchcock version, itwill be a treat to watch the book comealive.

While there is no way one can evencompare Laurence Olivier and JoanFontaine characters to Lily James andArmie Hammer’s, the latter manage tohold their ground well. James, who hasdone movies like Mama Mia, Here WeGo Again! and Cinderella, plays Mrs deWinter well. But instead of coming offas somebody who is naïve and innocent,she comes across as a person who ismore curious and we know where thatleads. Still one can’t ignore herperformance here which is deliveredwell. One however, finds it difficult tounderstand what her motive is especiallywhen she realises that her husband didkill albeit an accident and covered it up— is it because she realises that she isthe only woman her husband loved orit is something entirely different? ThisRebecca leaves the viewer to interpret thelast look of the second Mrs de Winter.

A movie to watch if not seenHitchcock’s version.

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There is something so sweetand cute about watchinganimation especially if it is a

fairy tale. There is a reason whyeven adults love watching them.

The whole idea of seeing a kidbelieve in fairy tales and living it,makes us relive the same and takeus back to times when we were kidsand believed in Santa Claus and theidea of an old lady who lives on theMoon and keeps herself busy byspinning. But as adults, we doknow that the dark patches on thisnatural satellite are actually deepcraters on its surface.

Over The Moon, is one suchsweet fairy tale even though it doesborrow a lot from Disney — acastle, a princess, a side kick andneon colours that covers the entirecanvas. But then Disney is thebenchmark when it comes toanimation and it is no wonder thatthe makers would want to be asclose as they can get to perfection.

This lunar adventure has

magical locations, fantasticanimation, good music and sweetcharacters. The stark contrastwhen the protagonist lands onMoon, makes one feel a bitdisconcerting but the vibrancyand positive life lesson — family iswhat matters the most — makesthis a must watch especially if onehas kids.

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The Chief Minister ArvindKejriwal on Saturday inau-

gurated the newly-constructedSeelampur-Shastri Park fly-over, which will be a majorrelief to commuters betweenWelcome in northeast Delhiand Kashmere Gate and DelhiUttar Pradesh border.

Congratulating the peopleof Delhi and the Public WorksDepartment (PWD) officialsand engineers for the comple-tion of the project, Kejriwal saidthat the sanctioned cost of theconstruction project was Rs303 crores but it was complet-ed in Rs 250 Cr and Rs 53 Crwere saved in the constructionof the high-quality infrastruc-ture.

Kejriwal said, "I want tocongratulate the residents ofEast Delhi for these two fly-overs. The people of East Delhi

used to face long traffic jamsfor longer hours but now, thejourney from ISBT to UP bor-der can now be completedwithin a span of 10 minuteswithout any traffic jams andwith a smooth ride.”

"We laid the foundationstone for the new state of the artwing, a 1500-bedded medicalblock at LNJP Hospital onFriday. In India, governmentsare known to build hospitalsworth ?1500 Cr with each bedcosting around Rs. 1-1.5 Cr. Forinstance, a 1000-bedded hos-pital would cost around Rs1500 Cr at a cost of Rs 1.5 Crper bed. But, we are building ahospital consisting of 1500beds, cutting edge technology,fully air-conditioned at perbed costing of only Rs 30lakhs,” he said.

“Now, these Rs 53 croreswhich are saved through thisconstruction, was earlier used

by ministers to fill their ownpockets or as bribes. This wasthe money that came from theinnocent citizens of Delhi. Butwe do not indulge in bribes andtake money from officials orengineers, and we are savingthe money of the citizens. It iswith this money of the peoplethat we save, that we are able toprovide free amenities, health-care, medicines and qualityeducation to our citizens,” hesaid.

The chief minister furthersaid “I am certain that these fly-overs will contribute furthertowards providing them a has-sle-free ride. In the last fiveyears, a lot of progress hastaken place in this area, includ-ing establishing water andsewer connections, etc,” hesaid.

PWD Minister SatyendarJain said, “Today two flyoverswere inaugurated by the chief

minister. The Azad market fly-over constructed by municipalCorporations took 10 years andcost Rs 700-800 Cr. Whereas,PWD took 1.5 years, out ofwhich if we exclude six monthsof Covid and three months ofGRAP (Graded ResponseAction plan), it took only 9-10months to build that itself is anachievement. The CM has alsoenvisioned a children’s parkunder the flyover and verysoon that vision too will betransformed into reality."

The foundation stone forthe newly-constructed flyoverwas laid on 10th February2019. Due to the rising levels ofpollution and the implemen-tation of GRAP guidelines in

2019, construction projectswere banned during the nightwhich brought the flyover con-struction to a standstill.However, the flyover was 70 percent completed until October2019 and despite the imple-mentation of anti-construc-tion guidelines and a six monthhalt due to the Corona lock-down, the project was com-pleted in a time duration of 19months.

The Shastri Park flyoverconsists of six lanes and is con-structed at a length of 700meters, whereas the Seelampurflyover is constructed at alength of 1200 meters andeases the commute of vehiclestraveling over the Dharampuracrossing towards Shahdara.The construction of the newflyover will bring relief toaround 1.5 lakh vehicles whichseem to travel through theroute daily.

���������������� �25�.2678

The eighth week of the 10Hafte 10 Baje 10 Minute

anti-dengue campaign will gar-ner support from celebritiesincluding Shankar Mahadevan,who will be encouraging thecitizens of Delhi to religiouslyfollow the dengue preventionguidelines.

Last year, similar cooper-ation and support fromprominent celebrities such asveteran cricketer VirenderSehwag and others had madethe campaign of the Delhigovernment a huge success.This year as well, the cam-paign seeks to engage severalcelebrities and social mediainfluencers, to take part in thecampaign by recording them-selves following the goodpractices advised during thecampaign and share the con-tent for the people throughvarious channels.

Kejriwal had also said that

with the collective efforts of allthe Delhiites, "We have to stopthe breeding of dengue mos-quitoes and protect our fami-ly and the entire Delhi fromDengue," he said.

Last week, Kejriwalencouraged the business andtraders to prevent dengue byinspecting their shops and sur-roundings for signs of accu-mulated water. He tweeted,"This time, the business com-munity of Delhi also took partin our fight against dengue bychecking at their shops and sur-roundings and changing thestagnant water. By doing so,they are protecting themselvesand their customers fromdengue. Delhi is defeatingDengue again.#10Hafte10Baje10Minute"

This year, the Delhi gov-ernment has also launched adengue helpline - 01123300012and WhatsApp helpline -8595920530 to assist the gen-eral public.

���������������� �25�.2678

Delhi Police Commissioner,S N Shrivastava on

Saturday held a Crime andCovid-19 review meeting todiscuss the law & order andsecurity arrangements for festi-val season and police responsi-bility in spreading Covid aware-ness in the National Capital.

During the meeting the CP

also rewarded personnel fromSpecial Staffs of North, Outer,North-West and Dwarka dis-tricts in recognition of out-standing and exemplary worksdone by them during the pastfew days.

With ongoing festive seasonand to ensure people while vis-iting markets follow COVID-19norms, the Delhi Police is focus-ing on security in the city’s high-

footfall markets. Police saidthey are also holding meetingswith market associations andurging them to ensure socialdistancing.

Khan Market, Karol Bagh,Chandni Chowk, Sadar Bazaar,Connaught Place, Janpath,Lajpat Nagar market andSarojini Nagar are among themarkets in the national capitalthat draw high footfalls.

���������������� �25�.2678

With the arrest of fourmembers of a family

including two women, theEconomic Offences Wing(EOW) of Delhi Police onSaturday claimed to have bust-ed a gang of cheats whoallegedly mortgated the prop-erty, which was acquired byDelhi Metro, to several banksby creating forged chain of

documents.The accused have been

identified as Ashwani Arora,Vijay Arora and their wives.

According to Dr O PMishra, the JointCommissioner of Police, EOW,a complaint was received fromZonal Manager of Punjab &Sind Bank, in which he allegedthat a Riya Enterprises availedODP (Overdraft againstProperty) limit of up to 70 lacs.

“This limit was releasedagainst the equitable mortgageof property which was in thename of Ashwani, who is alsothe guarantor in this loan.These limits were granted byPunjab & Sind Bank, KarolBagh, Delhi. Further, KunjAluminium Pvt. Ltd. (propri-etor Vijay and his wife) over theyears availed ODP limit ofRs.225 lacs on the same land,”said the Joint CP.

“The accused also availedhome loan, car loan, personalloan and loan against LIC poli-cies. Later on, complainantbank gave in writing that carloan and loan against LIC havebeen adjusted in the meantime.The complainant bank allegedthat the properties were alreadymortgaged with other banks.Hence, after enquiry the casewas registered and investigationwas taken up,” said the Joint CP.

“During investigation, itemerged that all the accusedpersons hatched a criminalconspiracy and prepared forgedchain of property papers andon the basis of these forgedchain of documents they suc-ceeded to register the proper-ty fraudulently before theRegistrar Office either in theirname or in the name of theirinterested persons,” said theJoint CP.

“Further on the basis ofthese chain of forged docu-ments they availed loan multitime on same property frommany banks. By the samemodus operandi they succeed-ed in availing loan from thecomplainant bank and aftersome time they stopped thepayment of interest to the Bankand duped the complainantbank to the tune of Rs sixcrores,” said the Joint CP.

���������������� �25�.2678

A42 year-old man was foundhanging inside a private

hotel room in Central Delhi'sPaharganj area. Police said thatthey have recovered a suicidenote which is being analysed bythe police team.

The deceased has been iden-tified as Balvinder Singh, a res-ident of Mandi in Himachal.

According to Sanjay Bhatia,the Deputy Commissioner ofPolice (DCP), Central district, apolice control room (PCR) callwas received from hotel Lal'sHaweli in which they statedthat a customer was not openinghis room's door since morningfollowing which a police teamwas dispatched for the spot.

“Upon reaching the hotel'sroom Balwinder Singh wasfound hanging from the ceilingfan with his turban. He wasrushed immediately to RamManohar Lohia Hospital where

he was declared brought dead,”said the DCP.

“Ligature material was seizedand deposited in the Malkhanaof police station. Suicide note,running 10 pages of a notebook,was also recovered wherein heinformed that no one is respon-sible for his death. Howeversuicide note is being analysed,”said the DCP.

“Police has initiated action

under section 174 of Code ofCriminal Procedure (CrPC) atNabi Karim police station andthe dead body has been pre-served at mortuary of RMLHospital for next 72 Hours,” saidthe DCP.

“Relatives of deceasedincluding his brother were exam-ined and statements were record-ed wherein no foul play wasexpressed by them,” said DCP.

���������������� �25�.2678

Delhi Chief Minister ArvindKejriwal and his Deputy

Manish Sisodia interacted withstudents of the DelhiGovernment schools, who haveperformed outstandingly wellin the NEET-JEE examina-tions and congratulated theparents and teachers for therecord-breaking achievementof the students.

Applauding students fortheir commendable perfor-mance in NEET - JEE despitethe on-going Corona crisis,Kejriwal said that the studentswho have gotten into IITs andhave secured top ranks inNEET-JEE exams must becomea role model for the entire gov-ernment education system.

“The entire educationdepartment is proud of theirachievements and they mustcontinue to contribute towardsthe betterment of the nation.”Sisodia said that 'ShikshitRashtra, Samarth Rashtra' is thedream of the Delhi govern-ment, and said that all passingstudents must take the respon-sibility of guiding their juniorsabout NEET-JEE exams.

This week, Kejriwal hadannounced that around 569students from schools run bythe Delhi government qualifiedfor the exam, out of which 379are girls.

Around 443 students fromgovernment schools clearedJEE Mains and 53 have quali-fied for JEE Advanced andhave secured a seat in IITs. Fourgirl students from Delhi gov-ernment schools have qualifiedJEE Advanced. Five studentsfrom RPVV, Paschim Viharhave qualified, which is thehighest from any single DelhiGovernment school.

Several students interactedwith the CM and the DeputyCM during the event. AyushBansal, from GovernmentSchool, Paschim Vihar, whose

father works in a book depot,secured 189th rank, hassecured admission inElectronics andCommunication Engineeringat IIT Roorkee.

He scored 95 percent inClass XII Board and said thathe could not have achieved suc-cess without the support of hisparents and teachers.

Raj from governmentSchool Surajmal Vihar, whosefather is a street vendor,secured 1819th rank and hassecured admission inComputer Science andEngineering course at IITRopar.

Shalu, a student of GovtSchool, Yamuna Vihar, whosefather is searching for a jobpost-COVID, has secured306th rank and admission inElectrical Engineering at IITMandi.

She said that she was the firstin her family to have been pur-suing Engineering. She says shehopes to study well in IIT, andsecure herself a well-groomedjob so that she can support herfamily during any crisis.

Akanksha Gupta, a studentfrom Govt School, Molarband,lost her parents at a young ageand lives with her uncle andaunt. She secured 10,239thrank in NEET and scored 90.4percent in Class XII Board.

Akanksha said, "It was myuncle's dream to see me in IIT.I want to thank him and all myteachers who have supportedme in my journey."

Himanshi, fromGovernment School, NandNagri, whose father works as adriver, secured 1,181st rank inNEET 89 percent in her 12thboard exams. She said, "Thetoughest phase is when youthink to yourself that you willnot be able to crack the exam.But when you get past thatphase, you always come out assuccessful. I wanted to be adoctor because if you can savea life, there is nothing more youcan want from your life."

Tamanna Goyal, a studentof government School inRohini, is a daughter of a sin-gle mother who works as ahousemaid and secured 11thrank in NEET. She credited hermother for her success and forkeeping her basic needs at thebackfoot to support her edu-cation.

Congratulating the stu-dents, Dy CM and EducationMinister Sisodia said, "I want tocongratulate the students formaking us feel proud, and offi-cials, teachers, etc for thisachievement. When the AAPgovernment was formed 5-6years back, the governmentschools were in a pitiable con-

dition. This time, the Delhigovernment school studentshave attained 99 percent inCBSE, and now our studentshave attained top ranks inNEET-JEE. We have tried toimprove the system of educa-tion in Delhi.

“ Our CM is himself anIITian, and now many of youwill be joining IITs. Your con-tribution to the service of thenation must not stop. This is along journey and many peoplehave worked hard to reachthis stage. Our dream is'Shikshit Rashtra, SamarthRashtra.' We will only be ableto strengthen our nationthrough a strong educationsystem, and not big democra-tic institutions and buildings inDelhi. I would also like torequest you all to guide yourjuniors, take responsibility forat least 10 children from fam-ilies just like you, and explainto them the significance ofNEET-JEE. When you becomea doctor or an engineer, pleasework with all honesty and ded-ication."

Kejriwal said, "You all area source of inspiration for us,and listening to the stories ofchildren, parents, and teachershave made us proud of all ofyou. I can understand how dif-ficult the journey must havebeen for each one of you,because of the circumstancesyou all have been in, your par-ents had to struggle to give youa good education and makeyou successful. You all passedthe exam without coaching, Ireminisce my time.”

Sharing his own experi-ences, Kejriwal said,”I appearedfor the JEE exam. I belong toHisar, and I remember thatonly 1-2 people were able toclear the exam every year in mytime. Today, a single school hasfive students clearing JEE and24 clearing NEET exams. Thismakes us and the entire Delhiproud.”

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Jammu: Violating the ceasfireagreement, Pakistan resorted tounprovoked firing and shellingon the Line of Control (LoC)on Saturday in J&K's Poonchdistrict.

At about 6.30 p.m. onSaturday Pakistan initiatedunprovoked ceasefire violationby firing with small arms andshelling with mortars along theLoC in Degwar sector ofPoonch district, said defenceministry spokesman ColonelDevender Anand.

The spokesman said Indianarmy retaliated befittingly.

So far this year, Pakistan

has violated ceasefire over 3,190times in which 24 civilians havebeen killed and over 100 havebeen injured near the LoC inJ&K. IANS

/�(�����,�'�����!����������'��2'���/''�!& New Delhi:The Delhi Police

has busted an IPL betting rack-et in Greater Kailash-1 here andarrested two persons.

The accused, identified asMohit Verma and DeepakVerma, used the ZOOM appon a LED TV, wherein the liverate of betting on the matchthat the other players wereoffering was being shown onthe top right corner of the TV.

During the interrogation,the accused revealed they alsoused betting assistance WMCapplication on the laptop.

A raid was conducted onthe intervening night ofThursday and Friday and twopeople were arrested for beinginvolved in betting during the

match between RajasthanRoyals and SunrisersHyderabad. A laptop, LED TV,router and six mobile phoneswere seized from the place, thepolice said.

"During sustained interro-gation, one of the accusedadmitted that he had taken thesaid premises, House No. 11,servant quarters on the secondFloor, Hemkunt Colony,Greater Kailash-I, New Delhi,on rent for Rs 27,000 permonth with his partner," saidAtul Thakur, DCP South Delhi.

The accused also revealedthat applications were beingrun through Internet with thehelp of a wireless router.

IANS

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New Delhi: According to theDelhi Government, everyIndian must get theCoronavirus vaccine free ofcost, whenever it is ready.

The BJP has included thepromise of providing theCovid-19 vaccine free of cost inits manifesto issued for theBihar assembly elections, stir-ring up a political controversy.

Delhi Chief MinisterArvind Kejriwal said onSaturday, "The entire countrymust get a free vaccine. It is theright of every citizen in thecountry," Kejriwal said on thesidelines of an event in whichhe inaugurated two flyovers.

Earlier, the Aam AadmiParty had said that those whodo not vote for the BJP mustalso get free vaccine.

More than 3.48 lakh coro-na infections have been report-ed in Delhi so far. Over 6,000persons have died of Corona inDelhi. There are more than26,000 active cases in thenational Capital.

Union Finance MinisterNirmala Sitharaman had saidin Bihar's election manifestothat every person in Biharwould be given free Covid-19vaccine once it is ready. IANS

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New Delhi: While greeting citizens onthe eve of Dussehra, President RamNath Kovind on Saturday wished fortheir protection from the evil effectsof the ongoing pandemic Covid-19.

In his message, the Presidentsaid, "On the auspicious occasion ofDussehra, I extend my warm greetingsand best wishes to all the fellow citi-zens in India and abroad.

"This festival symbolises the tri-umph of good over evi l . The festival is celebrated throughout Indiain different forms. This festivalstrengthens the cultural unity of Indiaand inspires us to live in harmony, fol-lowing the path of virtue and shun-ning evil."

This festival is also associated withthe life and values of Maryada

Purushottam Shri Ram. His life is ashining example of morality andrighteousness.

"May this festival of joy and hap-piness protect us from the evil effectsof the ongoing pandemic and bringprosperity and affluence to our coun-trymen," the President extends hismessage.

After dipping below 47,000 four

days back, a spike in daily freshcorona cases has once again beenrecorded on Saturday with a total of53,370 new infections and 650 deaths reported in the last 24 hours,taking India 's total ta l ly to 78,14,682, the latest data from theMinistry of Health and Family Welfaresaid.

IANS

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Shillong: After inter-state bor-der disputes between Assam,Mizoram and Tripura, variouspolitical parties including theBJP in Meghalaya have urgedthe Centre to resolve its borderissues with Assam, partysources said on Saturday.

Assam-Meghalaya shares885 km inter-state border. Withtwo legislators, Bharatiya JanataParty (BJP), an ally of theMeghalaya's National People'sParty (NPP) led coalition gov-ernment, has urged the Centralgovernment to resolve the longpending inter-state border dis-putes with Assam.

BJP MLA Sanbor Shullai ina letter to Union Home Minister

Amit Shah demanded Centralgovernment's intervention inresolving the long pending bor-der disputes with Assam.

Shullai in his letter said thatthe Centre's earlier decision toresolve border disputes amongthe northeastern states by 2021is a perfect step but Assam-Meghalaya border disputesmust be solved at the earliest.

"There are many patchesbetween Assam and Meghalayawhere border disputes are veryoften causing clashes, tensionand hostility among the peopleliving in both sides of the bor-der," the BJP MLA said addingthat people in the "disputedareas" are facing hardships.

"In some occasions theAssam-Meghalaya border dis-putes spills over into the otherparts of the state affecting livesof other people and disrupt theethnic harmony," the BJP law-maker said.

There are at least 12 dis-puted patches along the Assamand Meghalaya borders andboth states had earlier infor-mally decided that one statecannot carry out developmen-tal activities in these areas with-out informing the other.

Chief Ministers and ChiefSecretaries of Assam andMeghalaya have held a series ofmeetings but the issuesremained unresolved.

Besides Shullai, other BJPMLA is Alexander Laloo Hek,who is Health Minister ofMeghalaya, where the saffronparty is supporting theMeghalaya DemocraticAlliance government led byChief Minister Conrad KSangma, who is also thePresident of NPP.

The Regional DemocraticAlliance (RDA) and Hill StatePeople's Democratic Party(HSPDP) have recently meetSangma and suggested theurgent need for Meghalaya andAssam to resolve the borderissues between the two states,which has been a major bone ofcontention among the north-

eastern states.The RDA and HSPDP lead-

ers told the media in Shillongseparately that the Centreshould not remain silent on thevital issue. Assam shares 2,616km inter-state borders with sixnortheastern states excludingSikkim and with every statethere are border disputes.

Meanwhile, after a series ofmeetings and following theinterventions of the Centre,the fortnight long Assam-Mizoram border troubles ear-lier this week have been tamedas the border hitch took an uglyturn with around 20 shops andhouses being burnt and over 50people injured in the attacks

and counter attacks by the peo-ple living along the border onOctober 17.

Union Home MinisterAmit Shah also spoke to AssamChief Minister SarbanandaSonowal and Mizoram CMZoramthanga several times todefuse the crisis while UnionHome Ministry's Joint Secretary(North East), Satyendra KumarGarg took part in the meetingsheld in Assam and Mizoram.

Border tussle betweenMizoram and Tripura also wit-ness during the past two weeksforcing the two states to deployadditional forces along the bor-ders and promulgated pro-hibitory orders. IANS

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From Page 1To cool down the price of

pulses, the Centre recentlyreleased 40,000 tonnes of turfrom the buffer stock in openmarket sale (OMS) in smalllots, so that the releases mayreach the retail market at afaster pace and help in coolingoff rising prices. Dhuli urad isbeing offered at Rs 79 per kilofor K-18 (stock of kharif-2018),and Rs 81 per kilo for K-19.

Similarly, tur is offered forretail intervention at Rs 85per kilo.

According to the Ministryof Consumer Affairs data forOctober 24, the maximumprice of rice is Rs 55 a kg inPune and Tiruchirapalli. Wheatis selling at Rs 48 a kg inNashik. Atta is selling at Rs 55a kg in Port Blair while gramdal is being sold at Rs 96 inNashik. Tur and urad dal’smaximum price is reported atRs 130 a kg in Varanasi andTiruchirapalli.

Moong dal is selling at Rs138 a kg in Mumbai. As perdata, the maximum price ofonion is reported at Rs 95 a kgin Mumbai while tomato’s pricewas reported at Rs 80 a kg inRaiganj.

From Page 1Similarly, the Gangotri National Park in Uttarkashi,

Uttarakhand is home to 15 species of mammals that include someof the rare and endangered species such as snow leopard, ibex,tahr, bharal, Himalayan snowcock and Himalayan monal.

The Khangchendzonga National Park is one of the 18Biosphere Reserves of India situated in the North and West Sikkimdistricts. And the Namdapha National Park of Arunachal Pradeshis the third largest national park in India, in terms of area andone of the richest protected areas in terms of biodiversity. Thepark is home to a great diversity of mammal species includingthe 4 big cat species that includes snow leopards, clouded leop-ards, common leopards and tigers along with other large preda-tors such as dholes, wolves, and Asiatic black bears.

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From Page 1Hearing the matter on

October 14, the SupremeCourt observed that it wasconcerned about how thebenefit of interest waiverwould be given to borrowersand said the Centre has takena “welcome decision” by tak-ing note of plight of the com-mon man, but authoritieshave not issued any order inthis regard.

“Something concrete hasto be done,” a Bench headedby Justice Ashok Bhushanhad said, adding, “Benefits ofwaivers to borrowers up to Rs2 crore must be implementedas soon as possible.”

The top court, whichposted the matter for hearingon November 2, told the advo-cates appearing for the Centreand banks that “Diwali is inyour hand”.

The Centre had told theapex court that going anyfurther than the fiscal policydecisions already taken, suchas waiver of compound inter-est charged on loans of up toRs 2 crore for six monthsmoratorium period, may be“detrimental” to the overalleconomic scenario, thenational economy and banksmay not take “inevitablefinancial constraints”.

The top court is hearing abatch of petitions which haveraised issues concerning thesix-month loan moratoriumperiod announced due to theCovid-19 pandemic.

The Bench, also compris-ing Justices RS Reddy and MRShah, said when authoritieshave decided something thenit has to be implemented.

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Bengaluru: The KarnatakaState Natural DisasterMonitoring Centre(KSNDMC) on Saturday issuedyellow alert for 16 districts,including Bengaluru.

The KSNMDC also issueda thunderstorm warning inthese districts, while warning ofisolated heavy to very heavyrains likely over interiorKarnataka, Malnad and thecoastal regions.

For Bengaluru, the agencypredicted that widespread light

to moderate rains with isolat-ed places and heavy rains,associated with thunder activ-ity, likely over BBMP area fornext two days till October 26.

The alert was issued to theDeputy Commissioners ofBengaluru Rural, BengaluruUrban, Chikkaballapura,Chikkamagaluru, Chitradurga,Davangere, Ramanagara,Shivamogga, Tumkuru, DakshinKannada, Udupi, UttaraKannada, Belagavi, Dharwad,Gadag and Haveri. IANS

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In another first to its credit,Uttar Pradesh has secured

the first rank in implementingGovernment of India’s one ofthe most ambitious schemes –the PM Atma Nirbhar NidhiScheme (Swanidhi scheme).

The state was ranked firstin all the categories –Applications, Sanctions andDisbursements. The schemewas launched on June 1, 2020,by the Central Government tohelp the street vendors resumetheir livelihood activities thatwere impacted by COVID-19.

As per the official statisticsof UP, loans under Swanidhischeme will be disbursed to2.51 beneficiaries by October27, 2020 when the PrimeMinister will address the streetvendors and handlers of theState.

It aims at facilitating work-ing capital loan up to ` 10,000at a subsidised rate of interest,incentivising regular repay-ment of the loan and to rewarddigital transactions. Thescheme aims at providing ben-

efits to street vendors or hawk-ers in urban, pre-urban andrural areas.

As many as 6,22,167 appli-cations were received under thescheme in UP, the most in thecountry, out of which sanctionswere given to 3,46,150 appli-cants while the loans were dis-bursed to 2,26,728 beneficia-ries. Seven cities of UP also findplace in the list of top 10 citiesof the country with latest addi-tions of Ghaziabad and Kanpur.

Varanasi, Lucknow andAligarh are the top three citiesin the list even as other cities ofthe state include Allahabad(4th), Gorakhpur (7th),Ghaziabad (9th) and Kanpur(10th). Other Indian cities inthe list are Indore (5th), Bhopal(6th) and Hyderabad (8th). Asfar as the entire list of states isconcerned, MP is in the secondslot with loan disbursements toover 1.25 lakhs beneficiariesfollowed by Telangana (53,777),Gujarat (18,747), AndhraPradesh (15,992), Maharashtra(13,021), Chhattisgarh (8,993),Tamil Nadu (8,389), Jharkhand(6,413) and Rajasthan (5,533).

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Launched by Chief MinisterYogi Adityanath to ensure

safety, dignity and empowermentof women and girls, MissionShakti, completed its first phasewith active participation from 24government departments, pri-vate establishments, social organ-isations and NGOs. The ambi-tious programme was launchedon the first day of SharadiyaNavratra on October 17.

The Mission Shakti, to becontinued for the next sixmonths till Basant Navratra,witnessed a series of events inconformity with its theme andcreated awareness not onlyamong women but the society ingeneral.

An official communiquéconfirmed on Saturday thatsome major decisions andendeavours initiated during thefirst phase reaffirmed the CM’scommitment towards protec-tion of women’s rights and theirrightful place in the society.

At the outset, Yogi haddirected to identify 100 rolemodels among women and girlsin every district aiming to show-case their achievements andcontributions which could beinspirational for others to emu-late.

The communiqué said thata series of decisions were alsotaken to further the cause of

Mission Shakti like - WomenHelp Desk at all 1535 police sta-tions of the state, dedicatedWomen’s Help desk at all 350Tehsils to resolve revenue-relat-ed complaints of women anddeployment of women person-nel at these help desks.

Besides it was also decidedto have 20 percent of womencompulsarily in UP Police forcefor reaching out to women vic-tims.

The government also decid-ed to add regional languages inthe 112 emergency help line sothat people from differentregions and dialects could easi-ly convey their problems.

Even while appointment let-ters were given to 31,277 BasicEducation teachers and 3,317Secondary Education teachers,women in both categories out-numbered men.

Besides, the state govern-ment inaugurated ‘Pink Patrol’ inwhich 100 scooties and 10 SUVswere flagged off in Lucknwo with250 women cops to guard majorpublic places of the city. The PinkPatrol will be extended to othercities of the state in the secondphase.

Also Pink Booths were to beset up at sensitive and vantagelocations to facilitate women inevery distress or emergency.Pink booths were earlier atmajor crossings of Lucknow onOctober 17.

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Chief Minister YogiAdityanath said that Covid

-19 recovery rate in the statewas fast improving but negli-gence should be avoided till thevaccine arrived.

The chief minister said that all district officials havebeen directed to ensure thatCovid protocol was not violat-ed during festivals, especially inPuja and Ram Leela pandals,where a large number of peo-ple congregate.

Yogi also told officials toensure that no programmeswere held in Containmentzones and that the number ofvisitors to any venue be restrict-ed for ensuing social distanc-ing norms. The Chief Ministerappealed to the people that dueto the spread of Covid andDengue, they should keep theirlocalities clean to prevent anykind of pandemic.

Meanwhile, AdditionalChief Secretary, Health, Amit

Mohan Prasad said in Lucknowon Saturday that Covid 19recovery rate further improvedto 92.62 percent in the state andon Friday, a total of 1.39 lakhsamples were tested in thestate.

Prasad informed that 2277new cases were reported in thelast 24-hours taking the num-ber of total active cases to27,681 in the state. He said thatthe active case percentage hadalso dipped to 59.43.

The top official revealedthat in the last 24-hours, 2852patients were discharged and sofar, 4.33 lakh pateints were suc-cessfully treated. He said thattill now, 2.63 lakh patients gottreatment in home isolationand 2.50 lakh recopvered fully.

Prasad further said that1.46 lakh surveillance teamsvisited 4.32 lakh areas acrossthe state visiting 2.77 crorehomes and checked the healthof 13.63 crore people of thestate. Besides, 1.60 lakh wereprovided medical consultation

through E-Sanjeevani Portal. The officials said that the

government would also run aspecial drive in November tovaccinate 4 lakh children,who missed out in the lastphases.

“Between November 2 and11, a campaign against TB willalso be run in 31 districts of the

state. Earlier, 41 districts werecovered under similar cam-paigns. Those villages left to beincluded under AyushmanScheme will now be coveredthrough the special drive.Besides, residents of 7000 morevillages will be providedGolden Card in the nextmonth,” informed Prasad.

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The Yogi Adityanath gov-ernment’s crackdown on

the mafiosi in the state has leftsuch elements running fortheir lives. Many of them arebehind the bars and their ille-gal properties have beendemolished, showing them theplace they belong to.

In an official communiquéreleased on Saturday, the gov-ernment spokesman said thatthe Yogi Adityanath govern-ment’s steely resolve to elimi-nate mafia and their crimehave borne fruits in the recentpast.

The action againstMukhtar Ansari, Sunder Bhatiand now Atiq Ahmad has givena strong message for theseanti-socials in a big way.

Atiq Ahmad, presentlylodged in Sabarmati jail atAhmedabad, has cited variousailments, including kidneycomplications, high blood pres-sure and diabetes, to getexemption from personalappearance in court instead ofasking for court attendance inPrayagraj through video con-ferencing. Clearly, it indicateshis fear psychosis in the wakeof Chief Minister YogiAdityanath’s police action.

Atiq Ahmed has alsoreferred to the distancebetween Ahmedabad andPrayagraj (1,450 kms) in hisrequest for video conferencingthrough his lawyer.

It may be mentioned herethat last month, the districtadministration of Prayagrajhad razed the illegal propertiesof Atiq Ahmed’s associates.

The exercise included

demolishing of a two – storeylodge of one Bhutto and thehouses of Arshad and Kammu,all of which were illegally con-structed on state land.

Another house worth overRs 30 crore belonging to AtiqAhmed was also demolished bythe authorities in Prayagraj inSeptember and propertiesworth Rs 39.80 crores were alsofreed.

Besides Atiq Ahmed, thestate government is also busycracking the whip on mafiaMukhtar Ansari and his asso-ciates. In August last, RakeshPandey, one of his associatesand a co-accused in the 2005murder of Bharatiya JanataParty MLA Krishnanand Rai,was killed in a cross-firingwith the police in Lucknow.

An illegal slaughterhousebelonging to Ansari’s associateswas also razed in the Mau dis-trict in August and theGangsters Act was also slappedon Ansari’s wife, Afsa Ansari,and her two brothers, SharzalAnsari and Anwar Shahzad.Illegal properties of Ansariand his henchmen worth overRs 45 crore have also beenseized in eastern Uttar Pradesh,including Varanasi, Ghazipur,Mau, Jaunpur, Azamgarh andLucknow, the governmentrelease added.

Moreover, the gang’s annu-al earnings of over Rs 45 crorewas also stopped and 96 of hisgang members were arrested inthe recent past.

Besides the ongoing crack-down on these mafia and theirassociates, as many as 17mafiosi have been identifiedand marked by the authoritiesfor further action.

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China’s aggressive moves intheatres across the world,

including the South China Seaand the ongoing stand-off atthe Line of Actual Control(LAC)in Ladakh, will figureprominently during the 2+2dialogue here next week.

Given the growing profileof the 2+2 grouping and seri-ousness of the situation at theLAC, the foreign and defenceministers of the two countrieswill hold intense talks duringthe two-day conference begin-ning Monday.

Defence Minister RajnathSingh and External AffairsMinister S Jaishankar will haveextensive discussions on theentire range of strategic anddefence ties with their coun-terparts Mark Esper and MikePompeo.

The visiting ministers willalso call on Prime MinisterNarendra Modi and NationalSecurity Advisor(NSA)AjitDoval. Incidentally, the dia-logue takes place days beforePresidential elections in the USin early November. This will bethe third edition of the annu-al dialogue. The last one washeld in the US.

While the two sides willreview the whole range of bilat-eral ties, the ministers will alsodiscuss the growing aggressivestance and expansionist behav-iour of China on the LAC andthe South China Sea.

Beijing is also against theQuad formation and not infavour of Australian Navy join-ing the Malabar series of exer-cise. India, last week, howev-er, brushed aside China’s objec-tion and invited Australia totake part in the annual exercisein late November in the Bay ofBengal and the Arabian Sea. Inall four countries includingIndia, US, Japan and Australiawill take part in the exercise.

The two countries are like-ly to ink the Basic Exchangeand CooperationAgreement(BECA). It will facil-itate sharing of classified satel-lite and sensor data. Officialsfrom both the sides are nowfine tuning the final format ofthe proposed pact.

Meanwhile, a seniorTrump administration officialsaid in Washington on Fridaythe US is closely monitoringthe border row between India

and China and does not wantthe situation to escalate.

The official told thereporters during a conferencecall on Friday, ahead of the nextweek’s 2+2 India-USMinisterial in New Delhi, thatthe Trump administration wasproviding support to Indiathrough defence sales, jointmilitary exercises and infor-mation sharing.

“We as a Government arecovering the situation in theHimalayas closely, and under-standably. We certainly wantto ensure that the situationdoesn’t escalate,” the officialsaid. “These are all areaswhere we cooperate with theIndians on, and not just as itrelates to the tensions in theHimalayas,” the official said.

In response to a question,the official, who spoke on thecondition of anonymity, saidthe US was having an ongoingdialogue with India aboutincreased cooperation inSoutheast Asia, and not sim-ply about the South China Sea.

“And we encourage theirinvolvement. That cuts acrossdevelopment investments, it

cuts across security coopera-tion, and then it also involvespresence. So, we welcomegreater Indian participation inSoutheast Asia across all threeof those areas,” said the official.

The senior off icial’sremarks came in the midst ofa growing global concern overChina’s expansionist behav-

iour. The evolving situation inthe Indo-Pacific region in thewake of China’s increasingmilitary muscle-flexing hasbecome a major talking pointamong leading global powers.The US has been favouringmaking Quad a security archi-tecture to check China’s grow-ing assertiveness.

China is engaged in hotlycontested territorial disputes inthe South and East ChinaSeas. Beijing has also madesubstantial progress in mili-tarising its man-made islandsin the past few years.

Beijing claims sovereign-ty over all of the South ChinaSea. But Vietnam, Malaysia,

the Philippines, Brunei andTaiwan have counterclaims.In the East China Sea, Chinahas territorial disputes withJapan.

The South China Sea andthe East China Sea are statedto be rich in minerals, oil, andother natural resources. Theyare also vital to global trade.

Although the US lays noclaims to the disputed waters,it has challenged China’sgrowing territorial claims inthe South China Sea bydeploying warships and fight-er jets to assert freedom ofnavigation and overflightpatrols in the strategicallyvital region.

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Junior Home Minister GKishan Reddy on Saturday

said the ITBP has broken themyth that some countries havepowerful armies, in an obliquereference to China that is at thecore of the ongoing standoff ineastern Ladakh.

The Minister of State forHome was addressing thetroops of the mountain war-fare-trained border force on its59th Raising Day at the para-military’s facility in neigh-bouring Greater Noida.

Without taking names, theminister said while Indiabelieves in the philosophy of“vasudhaiva kutumbakam” orthe world is one family, the cul-ture of the country teaches it toworship both “shastra andastra” (sacred scriptures andweapons at the same time).

“This has taught us thatthe enemy can raise its headanytime, anywhere and weshould be fully prepared to faceany possibility. The ITBP is animportant pillar of that pre-paredness of the country,”

Reddy asserted.“The armies of some coun-

tries had a myth that they wereamong the powerful armies ofthe world, but during thedevelopments in the past fewmonths, the ITBP has brokenthat myth,” he added.

The country and its citi-zens are proud of the ITBP’s

valour and dedication, he said.The ITBP is the designat-

ed force to secure the 3,488-kmLine of Actual Control (LAC)on the Indo-China frontierthat runs from Ladakh toArunachal Pradesh in theNortheast.

Earlier, the ITBP had saidit “fought the whole night” and

gave a befitting reply to theChinese PLA troops during aviolent clash between the twosides on June 15-16.

“India is surrounded by ahostile neighbourhood andour enemy, time and again,puts obstacles to stop our eco-nomic development. Whenyou defeat these designs of the

enemy, you ensure the coun-try’s economic development,”he further said.

The minister asserted thatthe government is “deter-mined” to strengthen and“modernise” the Force andannounced certain sanctionsgiven to it recently.

“I am happy to inform thatthe ITBP has been given theapproval by the Ministry ofHome Affairs to establish 47border posts, uniform specialclothing and mountaineeringequipment for high-altitudelocations, latest weapons arebeing provided and work is onto prepare priority borderroads for the Force,” he said.

The minister said theCentre had approved a budgetof Rs 7,223 crore for the Forcefor financial year 2019-20.

“I assure you that there willbe no dearth of funds for theITBP,” he added.

ITBP Director General(DG) SS Deswal also spoke atthe event and lauded the brav-ery displayed by the troopsrecently in Ladakh under “verychallenging circumstances”.

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Facing criticism over theHathras rape and murder

case, the BJP on Saturdayreturned fire by attacking theCongress and its leadershipfor its silence over the rape andmurder of a 6-year-old child ofa Dalit migrant labourer fromBihar at Hoshiarpur in Punjab.

Union Finance Ministerand senior BJP leader NirmalaSitharaman on Saturday hitout at Congress’s “double-stan-dards” and the “silence” of the“brother-sister (Rahul Gandhiand Priyanka Gandhi)” on theincident in their party-ruledState and asked why there was“no picnic on this”.

She also sought to knowwhy RJD’s “Yadav-brothers(Tejashwi and Tej Pratap)” inthe poll-bound Bihar were“chup” on the issue. Sitharamanherself went on to explain the“silence” of the Yadav brothersas she quoted media reports in2008 saying the duo was them-selves accused of “chhed-chhad” (molestation) in NewDelhi.

The BJP leader condemnedthe Congress for suppressing“freedom of expression” by itsMaharashtra government andimposing emergency-like situ-ations and asked the left and

the extreme-left of “tukde-tukde-gang” to comment as towho was restricting the mediain the country.

Addressing a press con-ference here in the BJP head-quarters, the Union FinanceMinister alleged that theCongress is silent when it isabout voicing horrors fromStates ruled by them.

“A 6-year-old child of aDalit migrant labourer fromBihar is raped, killed andbody half-burnt inHoshiarpur (Punjab) and itdoesn’t shake the conscienceof the brother and sister whorush to every other placewhich can help them politi-cally,” she said.

She further attacked theCongress leadership say-ing,”Not a word from thetweet-friendly leader ShriRahul Gandhi. No tweets onthis (Hoshiarpur rape inci-dent), no outrage on this, andno picnic on this. A woman(Sonia Gandhi) heads theparty. Does this kind of selec-tive outrage suit the stature oftheir party?’

She questioned why RJDleader Tejashwi and his broth-er were silent on the issuewhen their alliance partnerCongress was running thestate of Punjab.

“Are you not answerableto that family in Punjab,” sheasked the Yadavs, sons of for-mer Bihar Chief Minister LaluPrasad, currently in Jail .

Union Information andBroadcasting MinisterPrakash Javadekar alsoattacked the Congress saying,“We demand strict actionagainst the culprits.

Instead of going on polit-ical tours, Rahul Gandhishould visit Tanda (Punjab)and Rajasthan to take cogni-sance of incidents of crimeagainst women.”

In the same vein, he tootargeted RJD leader Tejashawiand said: “Tejashwi Yadav issharing the stage and cam-paigning with the people whoare committing atrocities onBihar’s daughter. How will itgo?”

Sitharaman condemnedthe Congress and the RJDwhile herself maintaining thatrape “should not be politi-cised” and all political partiesshould do their best to miti-gate the situation.

When asked about thepromise to provide Covid-19vaccines free in Bihar, she jus-tified her party’s manifestoand said health is a state sub-ject and the party has everyright to make such a statementin the manifesto.

Answering a question oncases filed by MaharashtraGovernment, the finance min-ister said freedom is in dangerwherever Congress is in gov-ernance. She said the PrimeMinister and Home Ministerwere abused regularly but noaction was taken against them(by us) but now the liberaldiaspora has refused to speakon what is happening inMaharashtra, she said.

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India’s COVID-19 tallyclimbed to 78.14 lakh with

53,370 fresh cases in a day,while 70,16,046 people have sofar recuperated pushing thenational recovery rate to 89.78per cent on Saturday, the Unionhealth ministry said.

The total number of coro-navirus cases mounted to78,14,682 and the death toll to1,17,956, with the novel coron-avirus virus claiming 650 lives ina span of 24 hours in the coun-try, the ministry data updated at8 am on Saturday showed.

The COVID-19 case fatali-ty rate has further declined to

1.51 per cent.There are 6,80,680 active

cases of coronavirus infection inthe country which comprises8.71 per cent of the total case-load, the ministry data said.

According to ICMR, acumulative total of 10,13,82,564samples have been tested up toOctober 23, with 12,69,479 sam-ples tested on Friday.

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As the world marks theWorld Polio Day on

Saturday, the World HealthOrganization (WHO) andUNICEF are urging nations tostay vigilant in the fight againstpoliomyelitis (polio) and bol-ster vaccination services amidthe Covid-19 pandemic.

India was declared polio-free (wild polio virus) in March2014. This was a huge accom-plishment as India was con-sidered one of the most chal-lenging countries. Thoughpolio still exists in neighbour-ing underdeveloped nationslike Pakistan and Afghanistan,the instances have decreased byover 99% in comparison withthe 1980s,

Polio is a crippling andsometimes fatal disease withno cure. However, there aresafe and effective vaccines andinfection of polio can be pre-

vented through immunization.Eradication of polio is based onpreventing infection by immu-nizing every child until trans-mission stops and the country,region, and world is polio-free.Thanks to these vaccinationefforts, cases of polio havebeen reduced by about 99%over the past decade.

However, since March2020, the pandemic has dis-rupted life-saving immunisa-tion endeavours around the

world, putting millions of chil-dren at risk of diseases likepolio, diphtheria, and measles.

The disruption of suchroutine immunisation servicesmay be unprecedented sincethe inception of the expandedprogramme on immunisation(EPI) in the 1970s, in both gov-ernment and private sectors.

In order to successfullyeradicate polio, experts saidthat parents should get theirchild immunised with OPV

and IPV and also continue toget the vaccine administeredduring government polio dri-ves. Both vaccines are very safeand their use should be con-tinued. The governmentshould have campaigns tostrengthen the immunisationdrive.

The World HealthOrganization and UNICEF inJuly 2020 had warned of analarming decline in the num-ber of children receiving life-saving vaccines around theworld due to disruptions in thedelivery and uptake of immu-nization services caused bythe COVID-19 pandemic.

According to new data bythe two UN bodies, these dis-ruptions threaten to reversehard-won progress to reachmore children and adolescentswith a wider range of vaccines,which has already been ham-pered by a decade of stallingcoverage.

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The Centre on Saturday setup a high-level committee

headed by Prime MinisterNarendra Modi to commemo-rate the 400th birth anniversaryof Shri Guru Tegh Bahadur.

The mandate of the 70-member committee includesapproval of policies, plans, pro-grammes and supervision andguiding the commemoration,besides deciding broad dates fordetailed programmes of cele-bration.

The members of the com-mittee include former primeminister Manmohan Singh,Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla,Union ministers Rajnath Singh,Amit Shah, Nitin Gadkari,Nirmala Sitharaman, Hardeep

Singh Puri, Punjab ChiefMinister Amarinder Singh,chief ministers of Haryana,Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, WestBengal, Tamil Nadu,Maharashtra, Uttarakhand,Himachal Pradesh, Odisha andRajasthan.

Other members includeCongress leader Ghulam NabiAzad, Akali Dal leaders ParkashSingh Badal, Sukhbir SinghBadal, SGPC president GobindSingh Longowal, former chief ofIndian Army J J Singh, formerchief of Indian Air ForceBirender Singh Dhanoa, andsportspersons Milkha Singhand Harbhajan Singh.

Union Home SecretaryAjay Kumar Bhalla will be themember secretary of the high-level committee.

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About 31 per cent sur-veyed adolescents battled

extreme anxiety in the pastfew months worrying aboutthe impact of coronaviruspandemic on their family’sfinancial status, according toa survey of over 7,300 ado-lescents from four states ofJharkhand, Chhattisgarh,Bihar and Odisha

The survey on ‘What dothe Adolescents have to say?COVID-19 and its Impact’ byNGO Centre for CatalysingChange was conducted intwo rounds in the months ofApril, July and August.

Out of the 7,324 adoles-cents surveyed, 31 per centadmitted to battling extremeanxiety worrying about thepandemic’s impact on theirfamily’s financial status.

The survey also foundthat adolescent girls facedsignificant gender discrimi-nation in these months due tothe pandemic.

“Only 12 per cent of sur-veyed adolescent girls hadaccess to their own mobilephones to be able to attendonline classes, while 35 percent boys had access to their

own mobile phones,” the sur-vey found.

“Further, 51 per cent ofthe adolescent girls surveyedlacked access to essentialtextbooks in comparison toboys, highlighting how thepandemic had jeopardizedgirls’ access to education,” itsaid.

About 39 per cent of thegirls were found to be con-tributing to housework asopposed to the number ofboys at 35 per cent, it said.

Under the survey, theadolescent girls also statedhow their mobility has beencurbed, with only 39 per centgirls saying they were allowedto go out alone in comparisonto 62 per cent boys of thesame age who were allowedto go out alone.

“At the same time, only 36per cent adolescents knew thecorrect helpline numbers,while awareness about the useof the helplines was evenlower. Only 18 per cent wasaware that the helplines couldbe used in reporting domes-tic violence and only 22-23per cent knew that it could beused in reporting child labourand child trafficking cases,” itadded.

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Prime Minister NarendraModi on Saturday said his

Government is taking initia-tives to strengthen the agricul-ture sector in the country sothat farmers do not have to faceany trouble.

His statement comes amidopposition to the new farmlaws by farmers’ groups andpolitical parties.

Modi was speaking afterinaugurating three projects inGujarat- one each related toagriculture, healthcare andtourism development- viavideo conference from NewDelhi.

“In order to double thefarmers’ income and to reducethe production cost and theirtroubles, we will have toincrease our efforts with thechanging times,” he said.

“Whether granting free-dom to farmers to sell theirproduce anywhere in the coun-try or creating thousands of

farmer producer organisations,whether completing stalledirrigation projects or improv-ing crop insurance scheme or100 per cent neem-coating ofurea or soil health card...Theaim is to strengthen the agri-culture sector so that farmersdo not have trouble in farming.Initiatives like these are beingtaken continuously for it,” hesaid.

He launched the state gov-ernment’s Kisan SuryodayYojana (KSY) aimed at pro-viding day-time electricity tothe farmers in the state for irri-gation and farming purposes.

The PM also inauguratedPaediatric Heart Hospital at theU N Mehta Institute ofCardiology and ResearchCentre in Ahmedabad, devel-oped at a cost of Rs 470 croreby the state’s health and fami-ly welfare department.

Besides, he launched therecently-completed ropewayproject on Mount Girnar, amajor tourist and pilgrim sitenear Junagadh city in the state.

The 2.3-km long ropeway isbeing touted as the longesttemple ropeway in Asia.

Modi held the oppositionresponsible for the delay incompletion of the Girnar rope-way project.

The project was proposedin 1983, and was delayed dueto various reasons, most impor-tantly due to the environmen-tal concerns, before the UPAgovernment granted it condi-tional approval in 2011.

“Had they not created hur-dles in the Girnar ropeway pro-ject, it would not have gotstalled for so many years.People and tourists shouldhave got its benefit a longback,” he said.

“As a nation, we all shouldthink of the loss caused to thepeople and the country whensuch projects (Girnar rope-way) of public importance arestalled for a long time,” he said,adding that the new project willfacilitate the pilgrims andtourists, and create job oppor-tunities.

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Page 6: ...2020/10/24  · 2 &˘ ˆ ’ 3’ ˘ 4’" ˘ ˘ ’ " & "ˆ & ˘ ˘ ˘ & ˘ " # ’ ˚25.2678 In a move that would go a long way in the conservation of snow leopards and prevent

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Alert troops of the Indian Armyshot down a Pakistan Army

quadcopter along Line of Control(LoC) in Keran sector of Jammu &Kashmir's Kupwara district onSaturday.

In the evening, Pakistan initi-ated 'unprovoked' ceasefire viola-tion by firing with small arms andshelling mortars along the line ofcontrol in Degwar sector of Poonchdistrict. In response, the Indianarmy retaliated effectively.

It is after a gap of almost onemonth the Pakistani troops havemanaged to steer a quadcopteralong the line of control for recon-naissance of the forward posts.

In the past, Pakistani troopshad attempted to smuggle arms andammunition consignment and nar-cotics using drones in the region.Around half a dozen attempts havebeen reported across Jammu region

in the recent months. Confirmingthe report, Twitter handle of aSrinagar based Chinar Corps tweet-ed, “A quadcopter (DJI Mavic 2 Promodel) has been shot down todaymorning by the Indian Army inKeran Sector, Kupwara districtalong the Line of Control”.

Official sources revealed thequadcopter was on a reconnais-sance mission inside the Indian ter-ritory when it was shot downaround 8.00 a.m in the Keran sec-tor.

Indian army is already main-taining a tight vigil in the forwardareas to prevent any action by theBorder Action Team of the Pakistanarmy. Official sources said, “Efforts are also being made to infil-trate small batches of trained ter-rorists before the mountain passes are blocked due to seasonalsnowfall in the higher reaches ofNorth Kashmir in Kupwara dis-trict”.

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Arag-tag coalition of sixKashmir based regional polit-

ical parties 'unanimously' electedFarooq Abdullah, who is also a sit-ting member of Parliament fromSrinagar, as president of thePeoples' Alliance for GupkarDeclaration while PeoplesDemocratic Party (PDP) ChiefMehbooba Mufti was elected as itsvice president on Saturday.

In addition to this, the PeoplesConference Chairman, SajjadLone was named as spokesman ofthe alliance while CPI(M) leaderMY Tarigami was elected as itsConvenor and another JKNC MPJustice(Retd) Hasnain Masoodiwas elected as its coordinator. TheKashmiri leaders, gathered at theresidence of PDP Chief MehboobaMufti, also adopted the flag of the

erstwhile state of Jammu andKashmir as its party symbol.

All the participants whoattended the meeting also reit-erated their resolve to carry for-ward their struggle to ensurerestoration of Article 370 inJammu and Kashmir.

Announcing the decision soonafter the maiden meeting ended,Sajjad Lone told waiting mediapersons, “the flag of erstwhileJ&K will be the symbol of thealliance and on November 17,there will be a convention inSrinagar followed by another meet-ing in Jammu within two weeks”.

“A document will be preparedwithin a month via which we'llpresent facts behind the lies thatare being propagated.An impres-sion is being given that all the cor-ruption had happened in Jammuand Kashmir only,” Lone said. It'll

be a tribute to people of J&K whoare being slandered,” he said.

Addressing the media, DrFarooq Abdullah said, “It's not ananti-national Jamat, our aim is toensure that the rights of people ofJ&K and Ladakh are restored.”

He further said that attemptsof dividing them in the name ofreligion will fail and said that “It'snot a religious fight.”

The National Conferencepresident also said that they willissue a white paper or documentwithin one month to counter thepropaganda of the BJP.

Earlier, Farooq met Jammubased leaders of the NC at his res-idence in Srinagar and deliberat-ed on the prevailing politicalscenario. Later, he also paid a visitto the Durganag temple inDalGate area on the occasion ofMahanavmi.

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Under the cover of Bulgadi'sissue, the people doing

conspiracy to incite violence inthe state is under the target ofSTF.

STF has started investigat-ing both the case registered inthe chandpa police station andtook custody of the case diary.Conspiracy to create caste-based violence was plannedduring the uproar in Bulgadi.Police registered a case in 20serious sections including sedi-tion at Chandpa police station.Recently, in Mathura, PFI and4 members of his associationCFI were caught while going toHathras. The names of AtiqurRehman of Muzaffarnagar,

Siddiqui from Kerala, MasoodAhmed of Bahraich and Alamof Rampur has been registeredin this case.

Another case has been filedagainst Congress leader ShyorajJeevan who gave provocativestatements and he has also beenquestioned. STF has taken allthe documents regarding hiscase into their custody.

The CBI team again visitedthe victim's village and investi-gated there. QuestionedChhotu, who claimed to be theeyewitness of the incident. Theofficials of the team, who areinvestigating since 12 days, arehoping that frequent talks canreveal the truth of the incident.The team led by the investigat-ing officer, Seema Pahuja

reached the village and inspect-ed the crime spot. Talked to thepeople harvesting there. Theteam also visited Mitthan Singhof the village and questioned thewomen over there. After this,they visited the house of twoneighbors of the Victim andinteracted with the women.Later, they also visited the houseof the accused Sandeep, Ramuand Ravi.

Tehsildar Nidhi Bhardwajvisited the deceased house onand inquired about the gov-ernment's help from the father.The father of the deceasedwrote that he needs moneybecause his financial situation isnot good. His all work is off.Recently, the family demandedjustice.

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In the district, ration cardswill be issued to the sex

workers without their identitycards.

On the instruction of theDepartment of Food andDistribution, the departmenthas started identifying sexworkers. For this, the depart-ment is taking the help ofNGOs and NACO. Last year,ration cards were issued to halfa dozen families out of 21identified sex worker’s families,the process of issuing balanceration cards is starting again.

Following the order ofHon’ble Supreme Court, theFood and Distribution com-missioner Manish Chauhanissued a directive to all DMs

and DSO to issue ration cardsto all sex worker’s familiesidentified by NACO and dis-tribute ration to them as per the2003 Act.

Details of the sex worker’sfamilies identified by NACOavailable in the District LegalServices Authority and theUttar Pradesh AIDS ControllerSociety have to submit to thegovernment by 26th Octoberbased on 6 points. On receiv-ing this order, the departmenthas started collecting the infor-mation of sex workers. Afternot getting the informationfrom NACO's office in thedistrict, now the department'slast hope is the District LegalServices Authority from whereit can get the number of fami-lies of sex workers.

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For the first time in moderntimes, an organization has

come forward in Kerala exhort-ing all Indians who hold US cit-izenship to vote for DonaldTrump in the November 3presidential election.

Though presidential elec-tions in the US always evokeinterest in Kerala society, thediscussions were confined totea shops in village squares andin the studios of satellite TVnews channels, for which thereare no dearth in the State.

Christian Association andAlliance for Social Action(CASA), an umbrella organi-

zation incorporating var-ious sects of the Churchhas set up a giant bill-board at the busy JoseJunction in Ernakulam’sMG Road exhorting allpersons of Indian originin the US to vote forDonald Trump and hisdeputy Mike Pence.

In a release to themedia, Jenson, thespokesperson of CASA,said that for the contin-uation of world peace, itwas imperative thatTrump and Pence winthe 2020 election. “Whilehe declared his opposi-tion to war of any kind,

he remained steadfast in hisuncompromising stance againstterrorism. Globally, PresidentTrump set up new initiatives byholding peace talks with NorthKorean Supreme Leader KimJong un and paving the way forthe signing of the Arab-Israelpeace treaty,” said Jenson in therelease.

He also welcomed Trump’ssupport for pro-life movementsand his strong stance againstabortion. “The last four yearsof Trump administration sawthe US returning to the origi-nal Christian values. He wasfriendly with India. All USbased Indians with votingrights should vote for Trump

and Pence in this election sothat the Christian values couldbe saved and ensure that Indiahas a friend in the WhiteHouse,” said Jensen.

Roshni Rose, a law studentsaid that she was surprised bythe campaign undertaken bythe CASA.

Jaison Mazhuvancherry, aCatholic activist based inPerumbavoor said this was thefirst initiative of its kind inKerala. “There are many fam-ilies in the Christian commu-nity having links with people inthe US. We hope this messagewould reach US through thisrelations and yield good result,”said Jaison.

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Amaravati:Andhra PradeshState Road TransportCorporation (APSRTC) hasarranged special buses at allcheck-posts between the stateand Telangana to facilitate thehomeward journey of peopleinto the interiors of the state forDasara festival.

Transport Minister PerniVenkatramaiah said these spe-cial buses have been arrangedto facilitate the travel of peopleoriginating from AndhraPradesh.

The deadlock betweenboth the Telugu states' roadtransport corporations hasbecome an impediment to thetravel plans of hundreds of peo-ple rushing home for Dasara

festival, leaving them high anddry with no direct buses.

Passengers are disembark-ing at the border of both thestates to take another bus toreach their destinations in theneighbouring state.

At some places, people arepaying Rs 30 autorickshaw farejust for half a kilometre ride tocatch an APSRTC bus at a near-by bus station to reach home.

Dasara, Diwali andSankranti festivals are the timewhen thousands of AP peopleliving and working inHyderabad return home forcelebrations, generating a rushat all modes of transportation.

M e a n w h i l e ,Venkatramaiah justified the

state government's decision tohike traffic violations' penalties.

“It was unfortunate thatTelugu Desam Party (TDP)leaders and a section of themedia were crying hoarseagainst the move. The Centrehad amended 31 sections of theMotor Vehicles Act which givessome discretionary powers tothe state, which includes penal-ties,” he pointed out.

Questioning those peoplecriticizing the penalties, theminister asked if the govern-ment will ever penalize thosefollowing the rules, addingthat a section of the media wasunnecessarily creating an issueout of it and writing against thegovernment. IANS

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With 577 new Covid-19cases on Saturday, the

total tally in Jammu andKashmir crossed 91,000 mark.

A statement issued by theinformation and public rela-tions department said that with577 people tested positive onSaturday, the total number ofCovid-19 cases jumped to91,329 of which 82,219 haverecovered completely.

Out of 577 new cases, 213were reported from Jammudivision and 364 from Kashmirdivision.

733 patients were dis-charged from different hospi-tals on Saturday after recovery.

Amaravati: To protect farmers frommiddlemen, the Andhra Pradesh gov-ernment has enabled them to registertheir agricultural produce in advance tosell it at procurement centres, so that thesupport price can be credited directlyinto the farmers' accounts.

Some 75,805 farmers have alreadyregistered their crops on theComprehensive Monitoring ofAgriculture Prices and Procurement(CMAPP) portal for this kharif season.

Six crops such as maize, bajra, ragi,korra, cotton and onion have been reg-istered for crop procurement throughMarketing Federation Limited (MARK-FED).

“Due to heavy rains and floods,farmers are concentrating on safe-guarding their crops, considering whichthe government extended registrationdate till October 26,” said a seniorAgriculture Marketing department offi-cial.

The government expects more reg-istrations from farmers by the end of theregistration date, he added.

He said, “To enable farmers to selltheir agriculture produce at their villagelevel, Agricultural Marketing depart-ment is taking measures to set up morenumber of procurement centres acrossthe state.”

According to him, for the first timein Andhra Pradesh, 8,256 procure-ment centres have been set up in link-age with Rythu Bharosa Kendras (RBKs)across the state to procure crops in thecurrent kharif season.

Farmers are required to registertheir details at RBKs before selling theirproduce at the procurement centres.

Once the registration is done, farm-ers' details will be fed into the procure-ment centre's online database, followingwhich farmers will directly start receiv-ing information on their mobilephones. IANS

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The Opposition BJP suf-fered a jolt on Saturday, as

its supporting IndependentMLA Geeta Jain joined the rul-ing Shiv Sena.

Fifty-six-year-old Geeta,who had been elected to theMaharashtra Assembly fromMira-Bhayander constituencyof Thane district, called onchief minister UddhavThackeray at the latter’s privateresidence “Matoshri” andjoined the Shiv Sena in thepresence of Uddhav, who is alsoSena’s President.

Apart from Uddhav, partyleader and Tourism MinisterAditya Thackeray was also pre-sent on the occasion.

During her visit to“Matoshri”, Geeta had been

accompanied by Thane districtguardian minister EknathShinde and MLA PratapSarnaik.

A BJP rebel, Geeta hadwon from the Mira Bhayanderconstituency in October lastyear by trouncing the BJP's

Narendra Mehta. After hervictory, Geeta had announcedher support to the BJP.

An influential leader from

the business community, Geetais a popular leader in her con-stituency. Geeta’s entry to theShiv Sena came a day after aformer senior BJP leader andminister Eknath Khadse joinedanother ruling MVA con-stituent in the State—NCP.

Informed sources said thatGeeta had been in touch withthe Shiv Sena leadership for thepast several months and hadexpressed her desire to join theSena.

Geeta is the second MLAto have joined the Shiv Sena inthe recent months. Earlier,Krantikari Shetkari Paksh'sMLA and State WaterConservation MinisterShankarrao Gadakh, who hadwon from the Nevasa assemblyconstituency, had joined theShiv Sena.

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In a clear pointer to the flat-tening Covid-19 curve the

infections dropped to 6,417while the deaths came down toas low as 137 in Maharashtraon Saturday.

A day after Maharashtra onFriday logged 7347 new infect-ed cases and 184 deaths in var-ious parts of the state, the statehealth authorities heaved asigh of relief as the infectionsand deaths dropped further inthe state.

With 6,417 fresh infec-tions, the total infected casesjumped from 16,32,544 to16,38,961. Similarly, with 137deaths, the total number ofdeaths mounted from 43,015 to43,152.

As 10,004 more peoplewere discharged from varioushospitals in the state, the num-ber of people discharged fromvarious hospitals after fullrecovery since the second weekof March this year went up to14,55,107.

The recovery rate in thestate rose from 88.52 per centto 88.78 per cent.

Of the total 137 new deathsreported on Saturday, Mumbaiaccounted for a maximum of50 deaths, while there were 14deaths in Pune and 10 deathsin Thane.

In the lower range, therewere 8 deaths each in Solapurand Nagpur, 5 in Jalgaon, 4each in Sangli and Yavatmal, 3each in Ahmednagar, Latur,

Beed, Nanded, Wardha andChandrapur, 2 each in Raigad,Satara, Kolhapur, Sindhudurg,Jalna and Osmanabad and onedeath each in Palghar, Ratnagiriand Washim.

In addition, one personfrom outside the state died inMaharashtra.

With 50 deaths, the Covid-19 toll in Mumbai shot up from10,009 to 10,059, while theinfected cases rose by 1,257 totrigger a jump in the infections from 248,802 to250,059.

Meanwhile, the mortalityrate in the state stood at 2.63per cent. The number of “activecases” in the state droppedfrom 1.43,922 to 1,40,194.

Pune district, which con-tinued to be the worst-affectedcity-district in Maharashtra,saw the total number of casesincrease from 3,28,397 to3,29,205, while the total num-ber of deaths in Pune increasedfrom 6581 to 6595.

Thane district remainedin the third spot --after Puneand Mumbai – after the totalnumber of infections from2,16,596 to 2,18,352, while thepandemic toll rose from 5258to 5,268.

Out of 85,48,036 samplessent to laboratories, 16,38,961have tested positive (19.17 percent) for COVID-19 untilSaturday.

Currently, 25,03,510 peopleare in home quarantine while14,170 people are in institu-tional quarantine.

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Quad — comprising Japan,India, Australia and the

United States — is not analliance but a grouping ofcountries driven by sharedinterests and values and inter-ested in strengthening a rules-based order in the strategical-ly-important Indo-Pacificregion, a senior Trump admin-istration official has said.

The four countries had in2017 given shape to the long-pending proposal of setting upthe “Quad” or the Quadrilateralcoalition to counter China’saggressive behaviour in theIndo-Pacific region.

“There’s nothing about theQuad that it is an alliance. It isnot formalised. There’s no rec-iprocal obligation among thecountries who are involved. It’snot an organisation that solic-its membership,” a senioradministration official saidduring a conference call withreporters ahead of the nextweek’s 2+2 MinisterialDialogue between India andthe US.

US Secretary of State MikePompeo and Defence SecretaryMark Esper are travelling toIndia to hold talks withExternal Affairs Minister SJaishankar and DefenceMinister Rajnath Singh. The

visiting American officialswould also be meeting PrimeMinister Narendra Modi.

To a query, the officialsaid, the Quad ministerialmeeting that they had in Tokyoin October just demonstratedthe strong ties among the Indo-Pacific democracies.

“I would say it’s a groupingof countries who are interest-ed in strengthening a rules-based order in which allnations are sovereign, strong,and prosperous. It’s an oppor-tunity for us to carry out con-tinued dialogue and to worktowards mutually agreed-uponoutcomes.

“It’s a grouping of countries

that’s driven by shared interestsand values rather than bindingobligations. That’s an exampleof effective multilateralism at itsbest,” the official said, request-ing anonymity.

As the US, Japan, Australia,and India are getting togetherto cooperate on one issue oranother, if there are othercountries that want to partici-pate in those discussions orthose activities, the door isalways open, the official said.

The cooperation of the USand India on the Quad alongwith Australia and Japan real-ly reflect a convergence ofcommon values and interests inthe region, the official said.

“We’re the two largestdemocracies in the Indo-Pacificregion, and we have shared val-ues and interests with all fourcountries. It’s not an exclusivegrouping by any means. Allfour countries are interestedand eager in welcoming othercountries to the table for indi-vidual elements of cooperationthat we do, some of themunder the Quad framework butnot all of them. That’s forsure,” the official said.

“It is something that’s flex-ible and reflects our commonvalues and interests, and Ithink is really for the longterm,” the official said.

In November 2017, India,

Japan, the US and Australiagave shape to the long-pendingproposal of setting up the“Quad” to develop a new strat-egy to keep the critical searoutes in the Indo-Pacific freeof any influence.

In the midst of growingglobal concern over China’sexpansionist behaviour, theforeign ministers of the Quadmember nations met in Tokyoon October 6 and reaffirmedtheir collective vision for afree, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific.

The foreign minister ofthe four countries held theirfirst meeting under the ‘Quad’framework in New York in

September 2019.The evolving situation in

the Indo-Pacific region in thewake of China’s increasing mil-itary muscle f lexing hasbecome a major talking pointamong leading global powers.The US has been favouringmaking Quad a security archi-tecture to check China’s grow-ing assertiveness.

China is engaged in hotlycontested territorial disputes inthe South and East China Seas.Beijing has also made sub-stantial progress in militarisingits man-made islands in thepast few years.

Beijing claims sovereigntyover all of the South China Sea.

But Vietnam, Malaysia, thePhilippines, Brunei and Taiwanhave counterclaims. In the EastChina Sea, China has territor-ial disputes with Japan.

The South China Sea andthe East China Sea are stated tobe rich in minerals, oil andother natural resources. They are also vital to globaltrade. Although the US lays noclaims to the disputed waters,it has challenged China’s grow-ing territorial claims in theSouth China Sea by deploying warships andfighter jets to assert freedom ofnavigation and overflightpatrols in the strategically vitalregion.

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Prime Minister K P SharmaOli has been criticised by

netizens for deliberately notusing the updated map ofNepal, showing three Indianareas as part of its territory, inhis Dussehra greetings, a claimrejected by his office which saidthe revised map was not visi-ble due to its tiny size.

In June, Nepal’s Parliamentapproved the new politicalmap of the country featuringKalapani, Lipulekh andLimpiyadhura which is part ofPithoragarh district ofUttarakhand.

Oli in a Twitter message onFriday conveyed his best wish-es to the people of Nepal forVijayadashami or Dussehra.

Many people on socialmedia, including Facebook andTwitter, commented that thePrime Minister’s office delib-erately removed the updatedmap after his meeting withIndia’s Research and AnalysisWing (R&AW) chief SamantKumar Goel.

“How can we considerusing Nepal’s old map in thePM’s greeting without incorporating Limpiyadhuraas a simple error?” asked mainOpposition Nepali Congress spokesperson BishwaPrakash Sharma.

Many people in their socialmedia posts asked why did theprime minister’s office removethe government’s coat of armsfrom the map which includesLipulekh, Kalapani andLimpiyadhura.

In response to the criti-cism, Prime Minister’s PressAdvisor Surya Thapa in a state-ment claimed that the revisedmap was used in the primeminister’s message, but wasnot visible due to its tiny size.

“It is natural for the map toappear in such a manner due toits tiny size but the same map,if enlarged, may clearly showthe updated areas,” he claimed.

He also asked the peoplenot to be misled by such pre-planned efforts to spreadrumours about the map includ-ed in the greetings.

“There should not be anyconfusion that the map used inthe greetings is the updatedversion which was endorsed byNepal’s Parliament,” Thapasaid. The Press Advisor in hispress note issued through socialmedia also included anenlarged version of the map,which clearly shows the mapwhich includes all the three ter-ritories. The ties between thetwo countries came understrain after Defence MinisterRajnath Singh inaugurated an80-km-long strategically crucialroad connecting the Lipulekhpass with Dharchula inUttarakhand on May 8.

Nepal protested the inau-guration of the road claimingthat it passed through its terri-tory. Days later, Nepal came outwith the new map showingLipulekh, Kalapani andLimpiyadhura as its territories.

India too had published anew map in November 2019showing the areas as its terri-tories. After Nepal releasedthe map, India reacted sharply,calling it a “unilateral act” and

cautioning Kathmandu thatsuch “artificial enlargement” ofterritorial claims will not beacceptable to it.

In its reaction, after Nepal’slower house of parliamentapproved the bill, India termedas untenable the “artificialenlargement” of territorialclaims by the neighbouringcountry. India said Nepal’saction violates an understand-ing reached between the twocountries to resolve the bound-ary issues through talks.

Prime Minister Oli hasbeen asserting that Lipulekh,Kalapani and Limpiyadhurabelong to his country andvowed to “reclaim” them fromIndia.

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President Donald Trump hascasted his ballot Saturday

morning in West Palm Beach,Florida, and he tells reportersafterward: “I voted for a guynamed Trump.”

West Palm Beach is nearhis private Mar-a-Lago club. Heused to vote in New York butchanged his residency toFlorida last year.

There were several hun-dred supporters gathered withflags and signs outside thelibrary where he voted. Andthere were chants of “Fourmore years.”

The president wore a maskwhile voting but he took it offas he approached reportersafterward in the building.

He called it “a very securevote. Much more secure thanwhen you send in a ballot, I cantell you that.”

Democrat Joe Biden hasn’tvoted yet and it likely to do soin person in Delaware onElection Day, Nov. 3. Delawaredoesn’t offer early, in-personvoting like Florida.

Trump said at a Florida rallyon Friday that he likes being ableto vote in person. “I’m old fash-

ioned, I guess,” he said. ThePresident has a busy Saturday,

with rallies scheduled in NorthCarolina, Ohio and Wisconsin.

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Democratic presidentialcandidate Joe Biden has

pledged that if elected as pres-ident in the November 3 elec-tion, he will ensure freeCOVID-19 vaccination for allAmericans, laying out his pan-demic response plan just daysbefore the US presidential polls.

In a major policy speech onthe coronavirus in his homestate of Delaware, Biden onFriday flayed US PresidentDonald Trump for his policiesto combat the coronavirus pan-demic that has killed over220,000 people and has had adevastating impact on thecountry’s economy.

“President Trump saidwe’re rounding the corner, it’sgoing away, we’re learning tolive with it. They are quotes.But as I told him last night,we’re not learning to live withit. We’re learning to die with it.This is a dark winter ahead,”Biden, 77, said.

Already more than 220,000people in the US have lost theirlives to this virus. Worse yet, anew study from ColumbiaUniversity suggests that any-where between 130,000 and210,000 of those deaths wereavoidable, he said.

“Once we have a safe andeffective vaccine, it has to befree to everyone, whether ornot you’re insured,” the formervice president said.

He said that if elected, hewould direct the federal gov-ernment to “bulk-purchase asmany doses as necessary of theCOVID-19 vaccine so we canprovide it free to those who areuninsured, under-insured orMedicaid-eligible.” “COVID-19dwarfs anything we’ve faced inrecent history and it isn’t show-ing any signs of slowing down.The virus is surging in almostevery state. We passed 4.8 mil-lion cases. And when Trumpwas asked this week what he’ddo differently to get the pan-

demic response right from thestart his answer was and Iquote, ‘Not much. Not much’,”he said. Alleging that Trumpdoes not have a plan to fight thecoronavirus, Biden said thelonger he is the president, the“more reckless” he gets. “Wedon’t have to be held prisoner bythis administration’s failures.We can choose a different path.We can do what Americanshave always done: come togeth-er and meet the challenge withgrit, compassion, and determi-nation,” he said.

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Several teenagers sprayed graf-fiti on a piece of art outside

one of Berlin’s most famousmuseums and that the vandal-ism was unrelated to the dam-aging of more than 60 other artworks on the city’s MuseumIsland that were smeared withan oily liquid early this month,police said on Saturday.

A huge granite bowl infront of the Altes Museum,which is part of the Germancapital’s museum complex and

houses antiquities, was defacedFriday night by some teenagersand adults, Berlin police said.Two of the suspects were tem-porarily detained.

Museum Island is aUNESCO world heritage site inthe heart of Berlin and one of the city’s main touristattractions.

Dozens of other exhibits atthe Museum Island complexwere vandalized Oct. 3.Investigators said they hadwatched hours of surveillancecamera footage but not found

any obvious sign of anyoneapplying the liquid.

Museum experts have saidthe motive remains a mysteryand there appeared to be nothematic link between the tar-geted works. They expressedoptimism that the apparentlyrandom damage can berepaired.

Berlin police said the graf-fiti sprayed on the granite bowldid not have any political con-tent or appear related to thedamaging of the other artworks.

Warsaw: Polish PresidentAndrzej Duda said he feels welldespite testing positive for thecoronavirus, and he apologisedSaturday to everyone who mustquarantine because they hadcontact with him. Duda, 48, saidin a recording published onTwitter that he was experienc-ing no COVID-19 symptoms“but unfortunately, the testresult is absolutely unambigu-ous”. “I would like to apologiseto all those who are exposed toquarantine procedures becauseof meeting me in recent days,”he said. “If I had had any symp-toms of coronavirus, pleasebelieve me, all meetings wouldhave been cancelled.” AP

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UK Chancellor Rishi Sunakand three fellow ruling

Conservative Party members ofParliament from northernEngland have been “barred forlife” by a local pub and restau-rant in their constituencyregion after they voted againstfree school meals for childrenduring the holidays.

The Mill pub and its con-nected Il Mulino restaurant atStokesley in North Yorkshire,which falls within Sunak’s con-stituency of Richmond (Yorks),took to social media soon aftera vote in the House ofCommons earlier this week onextending the government’stemporary free meals forschoolchildren as part of acampaign led by England teamfootballer Marcus Rashford.

“The government votedagainst extending free schoolmeals. This is disgusting,” AlexCook, the owner of the eatery,posted on Facebook onThursday. “What’s worse Matt

Vickers MP, Simon Clarke MP& Jacob Young MP, Rishi Sunakall voted against the scheme.DISGUSTING! All 4 are nowbarred from The Mill & IlMulino for life. I don’t wanttheir business,” he said.

His angry post, which hasbeen shared over thousandtimes and signed off as “TeamMill”, begins by saying thatwhile he does not usually “dopolitics”, the vote against freemeals for children in need hadforced him to. “I have neverknown a government which isconsistently the wrong end ofevery argument. Forget thepoor handling of Covid for aminute and concentrate onwhat happened yesterday[Wednesday],” he said, in refer-ence to the Commons votewhich the government won by61 votes. The pub, meanwhile,has announced that it will deliv-er 100 freshly cooked healthymeals to three separate foodbanks in the Middlesbrougharea next week to try and makeup for the government decision.

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Joe Biden is confronting theharsh political realities of

combating climate change.The Democratic presiden-

tial nominee has spent monthstouting a $2 trillion plan toboost investment in clean ener-gy and stop all climate-dam-aging emissions from the U.S.economy by 2050. The planimplied that he would wean theU.S. off oil and gas, but Bidenwasn’t so explicit about theindustry’s fate — untilThursday night.

During the final momentsof the presidential debate,Biden said he would “transitionaway from the oil industry.”

President Donald Trump,

trailing Biden in many nation-al and battleground state polls,immediately sensed an oppor-tunity to appeal to voters incompetitive states like Texasand Pennsylvania that pro-duce oil and gas.

“Basically what he is sayingis he is going to destroy the oilindustry,” Trump said. “Willyou remember that, Texas?Will you remember that,Pennsylvania? Oklahoma?Ohio?” With less than twoweeks until the election, Biden’scomment is prompting a sud-den test of whether voters whoincreasingly say they are wor-ried about the climate crisis willembrace steps to confront it.During a season of worseningwildfires, hurricanes and other

disasters, scientists are issuingurgent warnings that big cuts inburning oil, gas and coal areneeded right away.

Republicans, eager to shiftfocus away from the presi-dent’s handling of the intensi-fying coronavirus pandemic,say Biden’s plan would costjobs. Biden “just killed pay-check(s) earned by hardwork-ing families in Texas,” TexasGov. Greg Abbott, aRepublican, tweeted afterThursday’s final presidentialdebate saw Trump and Bidenspell out their worlds-apartstances on climate-damagingfossil fuels.

“Joe just wants to transitionaway from Texas. Rememberthat on election day,” Abbott

wrote.Even some Democrats dis-

tanced themselves from Biden’scomment. Rep. Kendra Horn,a Democrat who flipped aRepublican seat in Trump-loyal Oklahoma in 2018, tweet-ed: “We must stand up for ouroil and gas industry.”

So did Rep. Xochitl TorresSmall, a first-term Democraticcongresswoman in a tossuprace in New Mexico, in the oil-and gas-rich Permian Basin.

“We need to work togeth-er to promote responsible ener-gy production and stop climatechange, not demonize a par-ticular industry,” she tweeted,adding that she was ready to“stand up to” the DemocraticParty.

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The death toll from the suicideattack Saturday in Afghanistan’s

capital has risen to at least 18 killedand 57 people wounded, includingstudents, the interior ministry said.

The explosion struck outside aneducation center in a heavily Shiiteneighborhood of western Kabul,Dasht-e-Barchi.

Interior Ministry spokesmanTariq Arian says that the attacker wastrying to enter the centre when hewas stopped by security guards.

According to Arian, the casual-ty toll may rise further as familymembers of victims of the suicidebombing are still searching the sev-eral different hospitals where thewounded have been taken.

No group claimed immediateresponsibility for the bombing. TheTaliban rejected any connection

with the attack.An Islamic State affiliate claimed

responsibility for a similar suicideattack at an education center inAugust 2018, in which 34 studentswere killed. Within Afghanistan, IShas launched large-scale attacks onminority Shias, Sikhs and Hindus,whom it views as apostates.

Hundreds of Sikhs and Hindusin Afghanistan fled the country inSeptember after a gunman loyal tothe militant group killed 25 membersof the shrinking community in anattack on their share a place of wor-ship in Kabul.

The U.S. signed a peace deal withthe Taliban in February, opening upa path toward withdrawingAmerican troops from the conflict.U.S. officials said the deal would alsohelp refocus security efforts on fight-ing the Islamic State, which is a rivalof the Taliban in Afghanistan.

There has been an upsurge inviolence between Taliban andAfghan forces in the country recent-ly, even as representatives from thetwo warring sides begin their ownpeace talks in Doha to end thedecades-long war in Afghanistan.

Earlier Saturday a roadside bombkilled nine people in easternAfghanistan after it struck a minivanfull of civilians, a local official said.

Ghazni province policespokesman Ahmad Khan Sirat saidthat a second roadside bomb killedtwo policemen, after it struck theirvehicle that was making its way to thevictims of the first explosion.

Sirat added that the bombingshad wounded several others, and thatthe attacks were under investigation.

No one immediately claimedresponsibility for the attacks. Theprovincial police spokesman claimedthe Taliban had placed the bomb.

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New Delhi: The governmenton Saturday extended the dead-line for furnishing GST annu-al returns for FY 2018-19 bytwo months till December 31.

The government had lastmonth extended the last datefor filing GST annual returnand audit report for the 2018-19 fiscal by a month tillOctober 31, 2020.

In a statement, the CentralBoard of Indirect Taxes andCustoms (CBIC) said the gov-ernment has been receiving anumber of representationsregarding need to extend duedate for filing Annual Return

(Form GSTR-9) andReconciliation Statement(Form GSTR-9C) for FY 2018-19.

The representations havebeen made on the grounds thatdue to the COVID-19 pan-demic related lockdown andrestrictions, normal businessoperations have still not beenpossible in several parts of thecountry, it said.

The statement said it hasbeen requested that the duedates for the same be extend-ed beyond October 31, 2020 toenable the businesses and audi-tors to comply in this regard.

"In view of the same, on therecommendations of the GST

Council, it has been decided toextend the due date for filing

Annual Return(Form GSTR-9/GSTR-9A)a n dReconciliationS t a t e m e n t(FORM GSTR-9C) forFinancial Year2018-19 fromOctober 31,2020 toDecember 31,2020," theCBIC said.

GSTR 9 isan annual return to be filedyearly by taxpayers registered

under the Goods and ServicesTax (GST). It consists of detailsregarding the outward andinward supplies made orreceived under different taxheads. GSTR-9C is a state-ment of reconciliation betweenGSTR-9 and the audited annu-al financial statement.

Furnishing of the annualreturn is mandatory only fortaxpayers with aggregate annu-al turnover of above Rs 2 crorewhile reconciliation statementis to be furnished only by theregistered persons havingaggregate turnover above Rs 5crore. PTI

New Delhi: After registeringrecord sales in the seven-dayperiod to kick off the festiveseason after pandemic-inducedlockdowns, ecommerce mar-ketplaces like Amazon andFlipkart have announced thesecond round of online sales tokeep up the momentum.

Amazon on Saturdayannounced �HappinessUpgrade Days' where cus-tomers will get special offers ona wide range of products acrosscategories from top brands tillOctober 28.

The e-commerce platformis offering up to 40 per cent offon latest smartphones from topbrands, 65 per cent off onlarge appliances and TVs andUp to 80 per cent off onAmazon fashion and homeand kitchen products.

The sale brings over 6,000deals on consumer electronicsand accessories, up to Rs 30,000off on laptops, up to 75 per centoff on headphones and up to 60per cent off on camera devices,the company said in a state-ment.

"The customers can savebig with a 10 per cent instant

bank discount on Axis Bank,Citibank and ICICI Bank cred-it and debit cards and EMItransactions.

They can get 5 per centinstant discount plus up to 5per cent reward points withAmazon Pay ICICI Bank cred-it card.

Flipkart has also startedDussehra sale from October 22till October 28 and after that,the ecommerce platform willbegin the �Big Diwali Sale'.

According to industryreports, the seven-day sales like-ly witnessed over $4.8 billion(nearly Rs 35,273 crore) in sales.

According to Bengaluru-based market research firmRedSeer, $3.1 billion (about Rs22,000 crore) of goods were soldonline from brands and sellersin the first four-and-a-half daysof the online sales event thatstarted from October 15.

Online retailers are expect-ed to generate approximately$6.5 billion (Rs 47,751 crore) insales during the festive month(October 15-November 15),with around 5.5-6 crore onlinebuyers participating, accordingto a Forrester report. IANS

New Delhi: The Insolvencyand Bankruptcy Code (IBC)has not only strengthened thebanking system by helpingthem resolve outstanding debtpiled over years but has alsocome as a big booster of con-fidence of national and foreigninvestors in the Indian econo-my, a senior SBI official said onSaturday.

In his address as the Guestof Honour in the inaugural ses-sion of the international con-ference (online) on "InsolvencyResolution Paradigm: GlobalHeadwinds and Responses",State Bank of India's ManagingDirector, Commercial ClientsGroups, Arijit Basu, said thatearlier banks only had "loanstructuring" option which usedto take five to six years.

"Now, the IBC has provid-ed equal opportunity to cor-porate sector and banks. It haschanged the relationshipbetween borrowers and credi-tors and provided a mechanismof insolvency.

"Unsustainable debt is asymptom of fundamentalissues in the 'business model' ofthe concerned company. Incase if you don't have a viableresolution plan, we (banks)have a viable resolution planunder IBC," he said.

However, Basu expressedsatisfaction that the big corpo-rate houses in India have effi-ciently managed their cashflow during Covid-19.

The event was organised bythe Indian Institute ofInsolvency Professionals ofICAI (IIIPI).

In his address, Institute ofChartered Accountants of India(ICAI) President Atul KumarGupta highlighted the role ofCAs being played in IBCecosystem as insolvency pro-fessionals (IPs).

"About 62 per cent of insol-vency professionals are CAs.Besides, IBC has opened sev-eral new opportunities for CAs

in the form of valuer, liquida-tor, technical experts in theNCLT, the NCLAT, high courts,and also the Supreme Court,and also various kinds of advi-sory services," he said.

Gupta also appreciated theinitiatives of the Central gov-ernment in helping businessesto wade through the econom-ic crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

In the session titled"Perspective on GlobalInsolvency Regime", JointSecretary, Corporate Affairs,Gyaneshwar Kumar Singh said:"IBC has not only served cor-porates but livelihoods also. Asper estimates, the total value ofinsolvency cases amount toabout Rs 5.63 lakh crore. If ithad undergone through liqui-dation, only about 7 per cent ofthe money would have beenrecovered. This would haveadversely impacted the Indianeconomy."

"With IBC in place, therewill be no sick companies andsick banks in the future".

In the same session, PaulBannister, Head (Policy),Insolvency Service, UK, appre-ciated the response of India inhandling the economic crisiscaused by Covid-19.

"These are very difficulttimes. We already have a world-class insolvency regime butwe are developing furtheragainst the context of crisis andchanging international con-text including Covid and UK'sexit from the European Union,"he said. IANS

New Delhi: The All India TradeUnion Congress (AITUC) onSaturday said the labour min-istry's move to revise base yearfor consumer price index forindustrial workers (CPI-IW) is"suspicious". The AITUC furthersiad that it is of the view that themove will lead to "depression" indearness allowance (DA) paid toworkers. The labour ministryhas recently revised the base yearfor CPI-IW to 2016 from 2001.

The retail inflation mea-sured in terms of CPI-IW is thesingle most important price sta-tistics with financial implications.

The CPI-IW is primarilyused to regulate the dearnessallowance of governmentemployees and the workers in theindustrial sectors.

It is also used in the fixationand revision of minimum wagesin scheduled employmentsbesides measuring the inflationin retail prices. In a statementissued on Saturday, the AITUCsaid that "the Centre's move toshift base year for calculating DAis suspicious". The LabourBureau of the Ministry of Laboursent out emails announcing revi-

sion of base year for calculatingCPI-IW from 2001 to 2016, onOctober 22, 2020, it claimed.

This decision follows theearlier pattern practiced by thelabour ministry: making a showof consulting stakeholders atthe eleventh hour and thencompletely ignoring the respons-es received, it alleged. Theentire lot of central trade unionshad opposed through a written,signed communication, the rec-ommendations of the LabourBureau point by point, only todiscover that they have simplybeen brushed aside, the AITUCsaid. The so-called consulta-tions on labour codes, includingrecommendations of theParliamentary Committee onLabour, met the same fate, itadded. "Since the present deci-sion of shifting the base year to2016, linking factor of 2.88, pro-portions of items of householdexpenditures, points of data col-lections, all are going to result indepression of dearness allowancepayable to industrial workers, theemployers stand to gain thatmuch as their profits," it opined. PTI

New Delhi: India's healthy debtto GDP ratio has created scopefor raising investment fundingfor 'National InfrastructurePipeline' through borrowingsfrom overseas markets.

According to SanjayAggarwal, President, PHDChamber of Commerce andIndustry, although, early signs ofrecovery are visible from therecent data on economic andbusiness indicators, the need ofthe hour is to put the policyattention on refueling con-sumption demand in the coun-try to regain the lost growthmomentum.

"Since the lockdown causedby Covid-19 in the month ofMarch 2020, Government hasvery well addressed the investors'and the industry's sentiments,the focus should now be onfuelling consumption growth,which is one of the key enginesof economic growth," Aggarwalwas quoted as saying in a PHDChamber statement.

"At this juncture, the nextstimulus package should priori-tise demand creation measuresto attain a positive growth tra-jectory in the later quarters (Q3/ Q4) of this financial year 2020-21."Besides, he said that demandcreation will have multipliereffects on the other sectors ofeconomy including enhancedproduction, increased invest-ments and employment cre-ation.

"The increased spending oninfrastructure will give a multi-plier effect to rejuvenate theaggregate demand in the econ-omy and to mitigate the daunt-ing impact of Covid-19 on theeconomy," said Aggarwal. IANS

New Delhi: With weakdemand from the power sectorin the wake of Covid-19 dis-ruptions, the country's largestcoal producer Coal India Ltdshifted its attention to the non-power sector to see around six-fold increase in the sales of thedry fuel.

In the first half of the cur-rent fiscal (FY21), CIL's fuelallocation under the exclusivee-auction scheme for the non-power sector rose close to sixtimes at 13.44 million tonnes asagainst a mere 2.31 milliontonne during the same periodof previous year.

Lockdown in various partsof the country and continuingsluggish economic conditionsdried up demand for the dryfuel pushing CIL to explorenew avenues for growth.

The government had ear-lier asked state-run power com-panies such as NTPC to reducecoal imports needed for blend-ing purpose and look more atthe domestic sources.

The CIL has also set upvarious washeries to supplygood quality coal that couldreplace imports. IANS

New Delhi: The pump pricesof auto fuels petrol and dieselremained unchanged onSaturday as softer global crudeand product prices prevented oilmarketing companies from car-rying out any revision in prices.

With this, Petrol priceshave now been unchanged for32 days at a stretch while dieselprices were the same for the 22consecutive days.

Price of petrol in the

national capital stood at Rs81.06 per litre. In Mumbai,Chennai and Kolkata, the fuelwas sold for Rs 87.74, Rs 84.14and Rs 82.59 per litre, respec-tively. Diesel prices in Delhi,Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkatacontinues to be at Rs 70.46, Rs76.86, Rs 75.95 and Rs 73.99,respectively.

Oil sector experts said thatwith global oil prices underpressure from slowing demand

in the second wave of Covid-19 pandemic sweeping severalwestern countries, crude pricecould fall in coming days. If thisholds on for a week or so, therecould be positive gains for

auto fuel consumers in India byway of a fall in retail price ofpetrol and diesel.

Global crude prices areholding close to $42 a barrelnow. It has been hoveringbetween $40-42 a barrel forover a month now. But withlower oil demand and risinginventory, there is fear amongoil producing companies thatcrude prices may start fallingagain. IANS

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Bengaluru: In a major victo-ry for investors, the High Courtof Karnataka on Saturdayrestrained Franklin Templeton(FT) India's decision fromwinding up its six debt schemeswithout obtaining the consentof unitholders.

Pronouncing the verdict inpetitions challenging the wind-ing-up of six debt fund schemesof FT, a division bench ofChief Justice A.S. Oka andJustice Justice Ashok S. Kinagidirected that trustees shouldnot take any action on thewinding up of the six schemestill a simple majority consent ofunit holders is obtained.

"We hold that no interfer-ence is called for in the decisionof trustees to winding up of thesaid schemes. We hold anddeclare that the decision of thetrustees to winding up the sixschemes cannot be imple-mented until consent from theunitholders is obtained inaccordance with Sub Clause Cof Regulation 15.

Hence, we restrain thetrustees to take any furthersteps based on the notice April23, 2020 and May 28, 2020,issued till the consent of theunitholders is obtained. It willopen for trustees to obtain theconsent of unitholders and totake further steps," the divisionbench stated in its 330-pageorder.

Market regulator SEBIshould have played a moreactive role in the matter and itfailed in its duty towards tak-ing prompt actions, the courtnoted, adding that the forensicaudit report in the case is ten-tative and doesn't include finalfindings.

In view of the SupremeCourt's vacation, the operationof the order has been stayed forsix weeks to give time to FT

India to appeal the order, theKarnataka High Court ruled,directing that status quo onrefund and redemptions shouldbe maintained till then.

It also restricted the assetmanagement company andtrustees from taking on anyfresh borrowings in the six debtschemes, which were shut inApril.

Reacting on the HighCourt order, FranklinTempleton said: "Court hasupheld the authority and deci-sion taken by the Trustees towind-up the schemes underregulation 39(2)(a). As per thejudgement, for operationalisingsuch a decision, approval of theunitholders will be required

under regulation 18(15)(c)."We are considering the

order and will take appropriatesteps in consultation with ourlegal experts in the best inter-est of the unitholders.

Our focus remains onmaximizing value for unithold-ers in these schemes andreturning monies as soon aspossible," said FT in a state-ment.

Notably, on April 23 amidsevere redemption pressureand illiquidity, FranklinTempleton had decided to shutdown its suite of six debtschemes, affecting 3,00,000investors adversely and assetsunder management of Rs26,000 crore. IANS

��������0������������E�������.�)��������������%�����)��������%�����������F�������

+/1 �������+����������/*1/����(����������+�%� ���'������G���������Chennai:Hailing the KarnatakaHigh Court's verdict thatupheld the rights of unit-hold-ers of the Franklin TempletonMutual Fund (FTMF), theChennai Financial Markets andAccountability (CFMA), aninvestor's protection organisa-tion, said it would approach theSupreme Court to safeguardthe entire interests of investors.

The Karnataka High Courthas directed FranklinTempleton Mutual Fund tonot proceed with the winding-up of its debt schemes withoutobtaining the consent of itsunit-holders. It clarified thatthe consent of unit-holders asper the regulations is to beobtained before going throughthe winding-up process.

Stating that the half-battle

was won wherein rights ofunit-holders are upheld by theKarnataka High Court,Nithyaesh Natraj, the counselfor the CFMA, noted: "Thereare few areas which the courthas not decided upon (which)may set a wrong precedent forthe Mutual Fund Industry."

He pointed out that it hasbeen rightly observed by thecourt that the SEBI has failedto be proactive in this case andreiterated that the CFMAwould challenge the order inthe apex court so that theentire interests of unit-holdersare protected further.

"Leaving the fate of threelakh unit-holders at the mercyof trustees without knowing thecontent of forensic audit will seta bad precedent," he added. IANS

Page 9: ...2020/10/24  · 2 &˘ ˆ ’ 3’ ˘ 4’" ˘ ˘ ’ " & "ˆ & ˘ ˘ ˘ & ˘ " # ’ ˚25.2678 In a move that would go a long way in the conservation of snow leopards and prevent

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Roopa is not anexception here. A3 0 - y e a r - o l dMangalore-basedManjula too has to

go through the same situationin life. But unlike Roopa, shehas been into this profession formore than three years now.

“It was when our familywas going through financialcrisis that I started collectingwaste from the landfill. A fewof my neighbours used to gothere to earn a living and that’show I began as well, since Ithought it’d be a good source ofincome,” Manjula, who liveswith her husband and a 14-year-old daughter, tells you.

Since most of her commu-nity is involved in the samekind of work, Manjula haven’tfaced any real indifference inthe society. “However, while Iused to collect waste from thelandfill many would show sym-pathy towards me and ques-tioned why I hadn’t tried outsome other profession, since Iwas educated till PUC,” shesays.

Like Roopa, her lifechanged and for the betterwhen Jayanthi, a member ofPlastics For Change reachedout to offered a job to her. “I amextremely grateful to Jayanthi

ma’am who gave me the oppor-tunity to work as a QualityEngineer. The job not onlysolved my financial worries butalso saved me from workinglong hours at the landfill,” shetells you.

Getting a role as a QualityEngineer has definitely causeda major positive difference inher life.

“The tuition classes and thenutritional food that they pro-vide to my daughter is anoth-er major help for my family. I’malso grateful to see the numberof other social schemes thatPlastics For Change and TheBody Shop is bringing to mycommunity,” she adds.

Only if one could imaginethe ordeal of these womenwaste pickers who spend morethan half of their day at thelandfill collecting all types ofwaste and then return homeonly to cook for their family.

“There is no chance thatanyone could like this work.But it was not as if we have anoption. It makes us feel likepuking. The smell sometimesbecome unbearable, especial-ly during the monsoon. If Iwould go on to describe thescenario, one would be left dis-gusted,” she explains and tellsyou that she used to spend

nothing less than five to sixhours daily at the landfill whilecollecting waste.

It goes without saying thatmany a times, Manjula thoughtof quitting this work, but it wasnot easy. “Like I said, I have afamily to take care of. Therewere times when I made up mymind that I would leave thiswork, but then I realised thatI couldn’t afford to. The rainyseason is the most hazardousfor us, not only because it is anuncomfortable time to work,but also because there are somany other risks involved.One can also meet with anaccident. Even when I recallthat time, a tear or two won’tstop from falling down myeyes,” Manjula, who earned�4000 a week, tells you.

She says that she was wellaware about all the risksinvolved at the landfill andhence, she took all the neces-sary precautions while work-ing. “I was aware of the risksthat collecting waste involved,and so I would be very cau-tious and ensure I wore bootsand gloves. I’d also take a bathand wash my clothes as soonas I returned from the landfill,”she tells you.

To be able to live a digni-fied life, she says, is the every-one’s right and women wastepickers should be no excep-tion. “Everyone should be ableto live a dignified life. I hopethat those who are still work-ing in landfills would be ableto gain better livelihood forthemselves and respect in thesociety,” she says.

While having a home tolive, clean water to drink andelectricity are nothing but ourdaily needs, for these wastepickers it is nothing less thana luxury that they have to askfrom the Government. “I hopethe Government can providesome support in helping mebuild a house for my family.And for my community it’d begreat if the Government couldset up public washrooms andtoilets, since there aren’t any, aswell as a stable power supply,”she tells you.

It shows how one of themost important part of oursociety are struggling hard tolive a normal life, which isobviously not so normal for them.

Plastic is merely a matter ofwaste for us, but to them it isas precious as it can be. Meet a23-year-old Mangalore-basedwoman waste picker, Roopa

who has been collecting waste from alandfill in Pachanady for about a yearnow.

A mother to a young daughter andhaving a big family to take care of, Roopahad no option but to join her mother inthe profession after her husband metwith an accident, that left him bed-rid-den.

“Collecting waste at the landfill isvery much a part of my family’s history— my grandparents used to do it, thenmy parents and finally I got into it aswell,” she says.

Fortunately, Roopa doesn’t have to gothrough a lot of indifferent behaviourfrom the society and doesn’t hold anygrudges against anyone, but there are afew incidents that did bother her at somepoint.

“I didn’t face any real issue from mycommunity, but when I would visit mygrandparents — during the time I usedto collect waste from the landfill — theirneighbours used to insult me. They calledme names. They asked me if I didn’t havea better job to do. Some even behavedlike we were untouchables. But I stoodstrong and doesn’t let their taunts makemuch difference in my life. I bravelystood my ground and told them thatwhat we were doing was honest labourand that there is nothing to feel ashamedabout. What kept me going all this whilewas the belief that no job is big or smalland every occupation deserves equalrespect,” Roopa tells you.

Spending atleast seven hours at thelandfills, surrounded by every kind ofwaste, under the scorching sun, earnedRoopa, not more than �500 a day. Onlyif we would be able to imagine the ordealshe had to go through

“All what we could do with thismoney was to eat food and cover our-selves,” she says.

During COVID, she says, the pricesof the material we would collect fromlandfills and sell to scrap shops plum-meted and so our income reduced dra-matically. We didn’t even have properrations at home.

Though there were a lot of appre-hensions in Roopa’s mind when she tookup the job, she never had any fear ofcatching infections. “Before COVID-19,it didn’t hit our mind that we could fallsick. It was only when the pandemic hitthat we realised about the danger that liesahead of us,” she explains.

Not that she never felt like quitting.There were a dozen times when shethought of giving up the job and dosomething else.

“Since I had completed my PUC, Ihad initially refused to go to the landfillbecause I wanted to get a better job, butbecause of our family’s financial cir-cumstances I was forced to help supportmy mother and start collecting wastealong with her. I did it with a heavy heart.There were quite a few times in betweenwhen I wanted to give up this job, butthen I was laid back each and every timebecause of these financial issues,” she tellsyou.

However, not all is lost in Roopa’sstory. Her life changed when Plastic forChange identified her and extended ahelping hand to her and family. “Plastic

For Change reached out to me andoffered me a job role as a QualityEngineer at their factory. Ever since Ihave started working with them, all theinsults that I had received in my life,stopped right then and there. I love mynew job and I couldn’t have asked formore. It gives me a feeling of pride thatI am able to do something different in lifenow and can make way for a bright futureof my children,” she tells you with a smile.

She adds that the initiative by TheBody Shop and Plastic For Change hashelped her in many ways. “Whether itwas the new jobs we were offered or thePPE kits we received and the installa-tion of the water supply — the inter-vention of these brands is making a dif-ference in our community,” she tells you.

Having seen all the hardships in herlives at an early age, Roopa feels thateveryone should be treated equally,regardless of their background. “I hopethat my children doesn’t have to gothrough all that I had to endure whilegrowing up. It is disturbing. It torns ourconfidence into shreds. I wish my chil-dren get best of the education and growup to do a job that they like. I just wantthem to make and earn a better life forthemselves with all the respect from thesociety and passion towards their work,”she says.

She has a request to make to theGovernment. “It’d be great if theGovernment recognise our work andcould provide some support in helpingme build a house for my family,” she says.

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Page 10: ...2020/10/24  · 2 &˘ ˆ ’ 3’ ˘ 4’" ˘ ˘ ’ " & "ˆ & ˘ ˘ ˘ & ˘ " # ’ ˚25.2678 In a move that would go a long way in the conservation of snow leopards and prevent

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Leg-spinner VarunChakravarthy dished out thebest bowling performance of

this IPL with a five-for after hisbatting colleagues stepped up instyle as Kolkata Knight Riders beatDelhi Capitals by 59 runs here onSaturday.

Promoted to open theinnings, Nitish Rana revelled in hisnew role as he overcame a person-al tragedy to smash a whirlwind81 and shared a game-changing115-run stand with Sunil Narine(64) to lift KKR to an imposing194/6 after being put in to bat.

Chasing a stiff target,Chakravarthy (5/20) and PatCummins (3/17) gave the DelhiCapitals batsmen a torrid time torestrict them to 135 for 9 in 20overs.

Cummins gave a perfect start,dismissing both the openersAjinkya Rahane (0) and in-formShikhar Dhawan (6) in his firsttwo overs.

Then Chakravarthy playedthe finisher’s act in the back-endof the innings to choke the DC runchase.

Coming on the back of a hor-ror batting show against RoyalChallengers Bangalore when theycrumbled to 84/8, KKR ticked allthe boxes to keep their playoffhopes alive by securing their sixthwin, with three matches left.

For DC, this was their secondsuccessive loss but they still main-tained the second spot.

Skipper Sheryas Iyer was thetop-scorer for DC with 47 as he,along with Rishabh Pant (27), heldon after Cummins’ twin strike.They took on the oppositionattack in the second half butKKR’s strategy to press inChakravarthy paid dividends.

The spinner opened hisaccount after Pant holed out atdeep square leg and in his nextover he got two in two, dismiss-ing Shimron Hetmyer (10) andIyer off consecutive balls.

Hetmyer fell while trying toclear the long on boundary, whileIyer could not connect well andwas caught by Kamlesh Nagarkotiat long on.

In his next over, Chakravarthydismissed Marcus Stoinis andthen picked his five-for in the fifthball, cleaning up Axar Patel witha straight one.

Earlier, new opener NitishRana made 81, while Sunil Narine,playing in her first match afterbeing cleared of suspect bowling,smashed a 32-ball 64 to propelKKR to 194 for 6 after being askedto bat.

Promoted to open, Ranasmashed 13 fours and one six inhis 53-ball 81, while Narine also

came out all guns blazing, smack-ing four sixes and six fours as KKRput behind their horror showagainst RCB to post a stiff total.

The left-handed duo stitchedtogether 115 runs from just 59balls to seize the momentum.

Having crumbled for 84 intheir last match against RCB,KKR once again were staringdown the barrel at 42/3 after 7.2overs.

Anrich Nortje grabbed thewickets of the under-performingShubman Gill (9) and RahulTripathi (13) inside the Powerplay,while Kagiso Rabada accountedfor Dinesh Karthik (3).

Just when KKR’s tale of bat-ting woes began to unfold, Ranacame into do the rescue act, tak-

ing the attack to the experiencedR Ashwin in an over that yielded13 runs.

Rana first smacked Ashwin’stossed up delivery for a six andfollowed it up with a boundary.

In the next over, Narinejoined in to continue KKR’s runfeast in the back-end of theinnings in an incredible partner-

ship.DC brought back Nortje but

there was no respite for them andRana brought up his fifty with anoutside edge.

He was then seen dedicatinghis half-century to his father-in-law, who died of cancer recently,by showing a jersey customised byKKR as a special tribute to him.

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Skipper Rohit Sharma’s fitnesswould be a concern for

defending champions MumbaiIndians as they aim to continuetheir dominant run, while adepleted Rajasthan Royalswould hope to stay afloat whenthe two teams clash here onSunday.

Mumbai roared back toform by crushing CSK by 10wickets on Friday after theirSuper Over loss to the Kings XIPunjab. RR, on the other hand,

lost to the SRH by 8wickets in their lastgame.

Table-toppersMI are on course tomake it to the play-

offs but the game is crucial forRoyals, who are languishing atseventh place and a loss wouldmean a step closer to exit.

Questions remain onwhether Rohit, who suffered ahamstring injury and missed thegame against CSK, will be avail-able on Sunday for MI.

But Rohit’s absence washardly felt on Friday as theyoung Ishan Kishan (261 runs)launched into CSK bowlers withgusto.

So did Quinton De Kock(368 runs), continuing his sub-lime run. In the event of Rohitmissing out on Sunday as well,the two will open again.

Mumbai’s middle-order hasalso been among runs — be itSuryakumar Yadav (243 runs),Hardik Pandya (164 runs),swashbuckling West Indian all-rounder Kieron Pollard (208runs) or Krunal Pandya (82runs).

With their big-hitting abil-ity, the Pandya brothers andPollard are a threat to any oppo-

sition.MI bowlers are also wreak-

ing havoc, especially NewZealand left-arm pacer TrentBoult and Jasprit Bumrah, whoare lethal upfront and in thedeath.

The two have accounted for33 wickets, while AustralianNathan Coulter-Nile (2 wickets)has supported the duo.

Spinners Krunal (5 wickets)and Rahul Chahar (13 wickets)are equally aggressive in themiddle overs.

For Rajasthan, the biggest

worry is the form ofskipper Steve Smith,who has made 265 runsfrom 11 matches and amis-firing top-order.

In the course of theseason, Rajasthan have madeconstant changes at the top andthat has hurt them badly.

The team does possess qual-ity players like Ben Strokes (110runs), Sanju Samson (272 runs)and Jos Buttler (271), but the triohas failed to deliver collectively.

With two crucial points atstake, the management would behoping that the three click onSunday, something which hasnot happened this season.

All-rounder Rahul Tewatia(224 runs and 7 wickets) hasbeen a revelation with both thebat and ball, but too much isbeing left for him to achieve.

On the bowling front too,RR lack consistency.

Only Jofra Archer (15 wick-ets) has been effective with hispace but has failed to get supportfrom fellow pacers KarthikTyagi, Jaydev Unadkat and AnkitRajpoot, who have 12 wicketscombined. Stokes, as a bowler,has also been unimpressive andhas failed to get a single wicketso far.

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Their house in complete dis-array after eight defeats from

11 outings, Chennai Super Kingswill look to give their forgettablecampaign a semblance ofrespectability when they take onin-form Royal ChallengersBangalore here on Sunday.

CSK, with six points from11 games, still have a theoreti-cal chance to make it to the play-offs, provided they do not loseany of their remaining threegames, improve their net run-rate and all other match resultsgo their way.

The three-time IPL winnershave struggled in all depart-ments of the game, leading toheavy criticism towards skipperMS Dhoni for not showingenough faith in the youngsters.

CSK brought in youngRuturaj Gaekwad and NarayanJagadeesan against MumbaiIndians but both batsmen per-ished without opening theiraccount.

The Super Kings batsmenwere rocked by Trent Boult andJasprit Bumrah’s devastatingpace-bowling spell, slipping to21 for five inside the powerplay.

Their bowlersalso failed to make animpact as the YellowArmy suffered itsfirst-ever 10-wicketdefeat on Friday.

Sam Curran’shalf century was the only savinggrace for the CSK. With 173runs and 10 wickets in 11 games,the England all-rounder hasbeen their silver in a devastatingseason.

CSK is expected to contin-ue giving opportunities to theyoungsters, treating the remain-ing three games as an auditionfor the next season.

“We have to make the mostof the next three games and it isgood preparation for the nextyear. Identify the batsmen, whowill bowl at the death and hope-fully the players will soak up thepressure,” Dhoni said after theloss to MI.

They run into a RCB squadwhich has grown in confidenceas the tournament has pro-gressed. Virat Kohli and his menare placed third on the pointstable with 14 points, the same as

the table toppers MI and DelhiCapitals.

They will aim to grab thetwo points on offer, while alsotrying to improve their net run-rate, which could play a vital rolein deciding the top two teamsheading to the playoffs.

RCB are coming on theback of two morale-boostingvictories against RajasthanRoyals and Kokata KnightRiders.

While AB deVilliers single-hand-edly fetched them thewin against theRoyals, pacerMohammed Siraj tor-mented KKR by

bowling a sensational spell,including a double-wicketmaiden, in the eight-wicket vic-tory over the two-time cham-pions.

The pacetrio of ChrisMorris, IsuruUdana andNavdeep Sainihave done wellfor the team, while spinnersWashington Sundar andYuzvendra Chahal have alsoproved effective.

RCB’s strong batting line-up led by captain Kohli has alsolived up to the billing. Youngopener Devdutt Padikkal haslooked in good touch, while deVilliers has been a key player.

The two team’s last gameagainst each other was also onthis ground, with RCB inflict-ing a 37-run defeat upon CSK.

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Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) onSaturday successfully

defended a measly target of 127and pulled off an extraordinary12-run win over SunRisersHyderabad (SRH) at the DubaiInternational Stadium.

With SRH taking their timechasing down the low target,KXIP kept the pressure on themand turned the screws in thedeath overs. They took as manyas seven wickets in the last fourovers and conceded just 15 runs.Chris Jordan and ArshdeepSingh bowled the last two oversin which they got two wicketseach.

With Arshdeep dismissingPriyam Garg to claim his secondconsecutive wicket in the 20thover, Khaleel Ahmed puzzling-ly defended the hat-trick ball tooff-side with SRH needing 13 towin off the last three balls. He

then dabbed the next ball topoint and started strollingtowards the non-striker's end. Hesped up only when he spottedthe fielder sprinting towards theball but by then it was too lateand he was run out.

Earlier, SRH turned thescrews in the last five overs, con-ceding just 38 runs and takingtwo wickets. KXIP ended theirinnings on 126/7 in their 20overs. KXIP have thus won theirfourth consecutive win of theseason and continue their pur-suit of a playoff spot.

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England Test skipper Joe Rootconsiders Virat Kohli as the

“most complete player” across allformats, saying he has an all-round game and his ability tochase down totals in white-ballcricket is “extraordinary”.

Root also called country-man Jos Buttler as the “mostcomplete white-ball batsman” inthe world currently.

It has been widely acceptedthat Kohli, New Zealand skipperKane Williamson, Australia’sSteve Smith and Root are cur-rently the leading batsmen inworld Test cricket.

“Virat isprobably themost completeplayer out of thethree of them acrossformats. His abilityto chase things downin the limited-oversformat and to pace itas well as he does asoften as he does andbe not out at the end isextraordinary,” Root wasquoted as saying byESPNCricinfo.

“He’s got a verygood all-round gamebut you wouldn’t say

he’s weaker against spin or pace.”Kohli followed up his disas-

trous 2014 tour of England byproducing 894 runs across thethree formats against the hometeam in 2018.

“He obviously struggled onhis first tour to England, but hescored really heavily when hecame back. And similarly, else-where in the world, he’s put inmassive performances. All thatwith the weight of India on hisshoulders, as well,” Root said.

The 29-year-old said hetries not to measure himselfagainst other players but likes to

watch the top three go abouttheir business.

“I try not to measuremyself against Kohli,

Williamson and Smith. ButI do watch a lot of how

they go about con-structing differenttypes of inningsacross the three for-mats.

“You’re looking atthree of the greatest

players the game hasseen. They’re three bril-liant people to watchplay and learn from. I’mnot sure I’d put myself intheir bracket, to be hon-est,” he added.

BLOCKBUSTERSUNDAY

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Kolkata Knight Riders skipperEoin Morgan on Saturday

said his team produced its mostcomplete performance of theseason so far when it upstaged thefancied Delhi Capitals by 59runs to stay alive in the IPL.

“I think the timing of thiscouldn’t be any better. Playingagainst a side who are secondcoming towards the business endof the tournament, two points ishuge,” Morgan said in the post-match conference.

“We had the most completeperformance as a group in thistournament so far. Until today, wefeel as if we hadn’t played our bestcricket. Today I think it wasclose to that,” he added.

It was Narine (64) andRana (81) who set it upfor KKR in a 115-runpartnership from 56 balls.Playing his first match afterbeing cleared of a suspectbowling action, Narine bat-ted at five and fired on allcylinders in his 32-ball 64.

“...I think that rubbed offon Nitish Rana as well.Watching them play with thefreedom that they did was out-standing.”

“Sunil has been an integralpart of this franchise for anumber of years now. His abil-ity as an all-rounder is key in

our team.“To have him back and come

in and perform not only with theball but with the bat, I think isoutstanding. He has just provedhow valuable he is to the team.”

He also spoke very highly ofmystery spinner Chakravarthywho returned with the first five-wicket haul of this season.

“He has gelled really well inthe team. I think he’s been one ofthe positive stories out of ourcampaign so far,” he said of theman who has been their leading

wicket-takerthis season

with 12from 10matches.

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Lewis Hamiltonclaimed a thrilling

last-gasp pole posi-tion on Saturday to give him the perfectlaunchpad for his bid to win a record 92ndFormula One race in Sunday’s PortugueseGrand Prix.

In denying his Mercedes teammate ValtteriBottas in the final seconds of qualifying,Hamilton moved to within three of his 100thcareer pole as his team claimed its 12th polefrom as many races this season.

The six-time world champion, who hadtrailed the Finn in all three practice sessions andin the two opening parts of qualifying, reeled

off a stunning best lap inone minute and 16.652seconds at the new

Algarve InternationalCircuit.

It was enough to out-pace the Finn by 0.102 sec-

onds and, as so often this year,to deliver heartbreak again after

the pair had swapped from soft tomedium tyres for their final runs.

Hamilton’s ninth pole of the sea-son sets him up to move clearof Michael Schumacher’s 14-year-old record of 91 race

wins which he equalled in theEifel Grand Prix at Nurburgring

last time out.“It’s amazing, I can’t tell you

how hard that was today,” saidHamilton. “I guess we have agreat car, but you have to drivethe nuts off it to pull out a lap.”

The Mercedes pair did bat-tle throughout while MaxVerstappen, who ended up inthird for Red Bull, tried andfailed to break up the F1duopoly.

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Real Madrid averted a crisisin the best possible way on

Saturday by beating Barcelona3-1 in the first empty Clasico,landing an early blow in LaLiga’s title race.

Barca had the chance toinflict a third consecutivedefeat on their rivals andincrease the pressure onZinedine Zidane.

Instead, Madrid’s winearns them a six-pointlead over the Catalans,having played one gamemore.

Sergio Ramos’penalty and a late LukaModric goal finished offBarcelona after FedericoValverde and Ansu Fati hadtraded early strikes in a fran-tic game that defied thoseexpecting further evidence oftwo heavyweights in decline.

Barcelona might feel harddone by, especially as Ramos’penalty was awarded after acheck by VAR and a hugelyexaggerated fall by Madrid’scaptain after Clement Lenglettugged his shirt.

But aside from an impres-sive spell in the first half,when an inspired Lionel Messithreatened to win the game onhis own, Madrid were domi-nant for longer spells andpulled away when it mattered.

This was Ronald Koeman’sfirst Clasico as Barcelona coachand some of the pressureZidane would have felt from aloss is now transferred to theDutchman, who has overseenonly three wins from his firstsix games in charge.

Barcelona face Juventuson Wednesday in theChampions League, withoutthe suspended Gerard Pique.

Every Barca set-back isnow seen through the lens ofMessi’s future too. TheArgentinian, who failed in hisattempt to leave last summer,has still to score from openplay this season.

MADRID REBORNIn the previous week, Real

Madrid had lost to ShakhtarDonestsk and newly promot-

ed Cadiz, while Barcelona werebeaten by Getafe last weekend.

Yet a dip in quality doesnot have to mean a drop indrama and any doubts aboutthe thrill of this fixture wereanswered in eight minutes, asboth teams had scored.

Madrid made the startthey dreamed of when KarimBenzema drifted deep into theright channel and was allowed

to turn, with the sprintingValverde going beyondhim.

Valverde piercedthe gap before liftinga curved shot pastNeto and into the farcorner.

Madrid celebratedas if their confidence

had been reborn, but withinthree minutes, Barcelona werelevel.

Messi, from almost left-back, chipped a ball over thetop freeing Jordi Alba whofired into the front post whereFati had nipped ahead ofRamos and turned in.

It was fast and open for therest of the half, with Messienjoying a golden spell. Heglided past Casemiro and thenswerved around Ramos, butonto his right foot, the finishstabbed into Thibaut Courtoisat the near post.

Benzema should havescored too. Madrid finishedthe stronger before half-timebut Barca were better after. Fatiflashed just wide and PhilippeCoutinho missed a free head-er at the back post.

Their momentum waschecked by Lenglet’s error, atug in the box clear enoughthat Ramos’ shirt wasstretched, even if the fall wascomically exaggerated. RefereeJuan Martinez checked themonitor. Ramos found thecorner.

Barca wanted a penaltythemselves when Ramos boot-ed a ball into team-mateRaphael Varane’s arm, but thistime there was no whistle.

Ramos and Valverde bothcould have made it three in thefinal minutes before substituteModric did, finishing beauti-fully after Neto rushed out.

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Edinson Cavani made his debut offthe bench as Manchester United’shome struggles continued with a

dour 0-0 draw against Chelsea in anunderwhelming Premier League clashat a rainy Old Trafford.

Marcus Rashford and Juan Matahad the best of the first-half chancesbut were unable to get the better ofEdouard Mendy, the latter’s attemptcoming after Harry Maguire con-tentiously avoided conceding a penal-ty for a clumsy challenge on CesarAzpilicueta.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer sent onCavani before the hour mark and the33-year-old striker, who was signed asa free agent on deadline day, almostscored with his first touch for United.

Neither side was able to find a win-ner, with Chelsea sitting sixth in thetable and United 15th, though they areonly separated by two points.

After a sluggish opening half anhour, the highlight of which wasMendy almost passing the ball into hisown goal, the game finally came to lifein the final 10 minutes of the openingperiod.

Mendy recovered from his earli-er error by using his foot to keep outa low drive from Rashford, beforespringing to his right to push a curl-ing attempt from Mata behind.

Those shots came either side ofAzpilicueta — who featured on theright side of a three-man defence —appealing for a penalty when Maguireclimbed over him, while Thiago Silvawent unpunished for clipping Rashfordin the area in the 41st minute.

Mata and Daniel James were sac-rificed for Paul Pogba and debutantCavani, who narrowly missed out onmaking an immediate impact when heflicked Bruno Fernandes’ cross into theside-netting.

Mason Greenwood returned forUnited as a late substitute and Mendy

produced another stunningsave to deny Rashford, whoproduced the first and onlyshot on target of the secondhalf in stoppage time.

FODEN RESCUES CITYPep Guardiola admitted concerns

over the points dropped by ManchesterCity after Phil Foden came off thebench to rescue a 1-1 draw againstWest Ham.

Guardiola’s side fell behind toMichail Antonio’s superb overheadkick in the first half at the LondonStadium.

Foden came on at half-time andproduced an instant equaliser, but Citycouldn’t deliver the knockout blow andhave now won just one of their last fourPremier League games.

Injury-hit City, withoutFernandinho, Aymeric Laporte,Nathan Ake and Gabriel Jesus,rarely reached peak form in thelatest of a growing list of incon-sistent displays.

While Arsenal and Portowere beaten in their previous two

matches, City still don’t seem to havecompletely recovered from their 5-2thrashing by Leicester in September.

They are already five pointsbehind leaders Everton, whoplay Southampton onSunday, and look morevulnerable than atany time sinceGuardiola’sfirst seasonin charge.

“ I ’ m

not a guy who can predict thefuture. We’ve already droppedseven points, which is a lot,”Guardiola said.

“We suffered in the last 10 or 15minutes of the first half. In the secondhalf we were better and scored early.

“We had the chances we neededto win the game, but unfortunately wecouldn’t score again.

“We’ve struggled a lot for manyreasons. We have to take things gameby game and see what happens.”

Adding to Guardiola’s problems,Sergio Aguero suffered a “muscu-lar injury” according to the Cityboss, who did not know howlong his star striker would besidelined for.

Aguero hasn’t scored inthe top flight since Januaryand is notoriously slow toreturn to his best afterinjuries.

Just back after sever-al months out followingknee surgery, theArgentine was replacedby Foden at the interval.

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Robert Lewandowski tookhis Bundesliga tally to 10

goals in five games this seasonwith a hat-trick as BayernMunich thumped EintrachtFrankfurt 5-0 on Saturday.

Lewandowski has scorednine goals in his last threeleague games andwrapped up his treblewithin an hour at theAllianz Arena.

D e f e n d i n gchampions Bayernhave scored 22goals this term— 10 morethan leagueleaders RBLeipzig who stayed top with a2-1 win over 10-man HerthaBerlin.

Bayern sit one pointbehind in second place.

In Munich, Leroy Sanemarked his return from injurywith the fourth goal during a

brief cameo, before EnglandUnder-17 midfielder JamalMusiala also came off thebench to net the fifth.

However, Bayern’s victorycould come at a price asCanadian left-back AlphonsoDavies was in clear distressafter going off early with anankle injury.

Lewandowski underlinedhis status as one of the world’sbest strik-ers last

sea-s o nb y

scoring a career-best 55 goalsin 47 games, including 34 inthe Bundesliga.

The Polish internationalopened the scoring on 10minutes when he fired homeafter a Thomas Mueller pass.

Frankfurt goalkeeperKevin Trapp couldn’t do any-thing to stop Lewandowski’sheader from a JoshuaKimmich corner in the26th minute.

Bayern had a penal-ty appeal turned downwhen Douglas Costa’scross clipped the hand ofFrankfurt’s Makoto Hasebe.

Lewandowski wrapped upthe victory on the hour markwith a clinical finish from

another Costa cross.After sitting out

the last two games,Sane ghosted past a

defender anddrove a shot intothe bottom cor-ner with 18minutes to play.

M a n u e lNeuer pulled off a

great save to denyFrankfurt striker Bas

Dost before Musialagrabbed the final goal as

the visitors suffered their firstleague defeat of the season.

LEIPZIG FIGHT BACKLeipzig came from behind

to seal a 2-1 win over Hertha,whose Colombian striker JhonCordoba scored in the eighthminute.

Leipzig drew level whendefender DayotUpamecano f iredhome from a free-kickon 11 minutes, butBerlin were reducedto 10 men after thebreak when substitute

Deyovaisio Zeefuik wasshown two yellow cards with-in four minutes of coming on.

Leipzig made the manadvantage count when MarcelSabitzer converted a penaltywith 13 minutes left.

Hertha were lucky not tofinish with nine men whenanother sub, Jessic Ngankam,scythed down Leipzig left-back Angelino and the refer-ee changed his decision to ayellow card having initiallyshowed a straight red.

At Signal Eduna park inDortmund, BorussiaDortmund beat Schalke 3-0 inRevierderby.

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Romelu Lukaku maintainedhis hot scoring streak as

Inter battled to a 2-0 victoryover Genoa at the Stadio LuigiFerraris to snap their three-game winless run.

Inter lost 2-1 to bitterrivals Milan last weekend,either side of draws with Lazioand BorussiaMonchengladbach, and theymade hard work of overcom-ing Genoa on Saturday.

The Nerazzurri failed toregister a single shot on targetin the first half of a league gamefor the first time underAntonio Conte, who has beenunder increasing pressure.

But Inter made the break-through thanks to Lukaku’s10th goal in eight matches thisterm for club and country,which Danilo D’Ambrosioadded to 11 minutes fromtime as the visitors moved upto third.

Inter defender DaniloD’Ambrosio discussed theNerazzurri’s important 2-0 winover Genoa in the Serie A in aninterview with Italian broad-caster Sky Sports Italiamoments after the game.

“In the Serie A no game is

easy. I agree with the coach, noone has ever dominatedus and so far, we havecollected less than we’vedeserved.

“Today we domi-nated for 90 minutes, wedid well in not conced-ing goals and for bring-ing home three pointsthat do us good.”

The Italian then com-mented on the importance ofteamwork when defending.

“To be able to push uphigh, you need teamwork on adefensive level. Not concedinggoals is important and does notmean playing defensively.”

Finally, D’Ambrosio spokeabout the Nerazzurri’s upcom-ing Champions League group

game against Ukrainian sideShakhtar Donetsk.

“Very importantgame. We have alreadyfaced and beatenShakhtar Donetsk, butthey have a lot of qualityespecially up front.

“We will have to facethem as we did in the

Europa League.”The 32-year-old Italian

defender, who is contracted tothe Nerazzurri until the end ofthe season, made his fourthappearance of this campaignunder coach Antonio Conte,with his total minutes nowbeing 281.

In that time, he has scoredone goal and helped the sidekeep one clean sheet.

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The Pakistan Cricket Boardhas shifted next month’s

three T20Is against Zimbabwefrom Lahore to Rawalpindi cit-ing the deteriorating air qualityhere.

The three T20Is, which wereearlier scheduled at the GaddafiStadium in Lahore, will now beheld at the Rawalpindi CricketStadium on November 7, 8 and10.

“Following the sudden dete-rioration in air quality and nowfurther expected air pollution inNovember, we have made aswift decision to move thematches scheduled in Lahore,”PCB chief executive WasimKhan said in a statement.

“The early onset of haz-ardous pollution and subse-quent poor air quality meantthat the risk to keep matches inLahore at this stage was toogreat.”

The rescheduling alsoaffects the remaining fourPakistan Super League matcheswhich will now be held inKarachi.

Earlier this month, the ODIleg of Zimbabwe tour, beginningon October 30, was movedfrom Multan to Rawalpindi dueto logistical and operationalchallenges.

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Anational table tennis train-ing camp, featuring four-

time Commonwealth GamesGold-medallist Sharath Kamalalong with 10 other players,will be held in Sonepat from28 October to 8 December, theSports Authority of India(SAI) said on Saturday.

SAI has sanctioned �18lakh for the camp, which willbe the first national camp forthe sport since the announce-ment of the nationwide lock-down in March.

“The Sports Authority ofIndia has approved the nation-al coaching camp for TableTennis, which will commenceon 28th October till 8thDecember,” SAI said in a state-ment.

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Marcelo Bielsa insistedPatrick Bamford deserves

all the credit for transforming hiscareer after the striker’s hat-trickinspired a 3-0 win over AstonVilla on Friday.

Bielsa’s side moved intothird in the Premier Leaguethanks to Bamford’s 19-minutetreble in the second half at VillaPark.

Bamford had one goal in 27Premier League appearancesprior to this season, but healready has six in six games thisterm. The hat-trick provided asweet moment for the 27-year-old, who endured a long andwinding road to the top endur-ing long-running criticism of hisfinishing.

Bamford had seven loanspells during his time as aChelsea youth academy gradu-ate before moving toMiddlesbrough, then finallyfinding his feet under Bielsa’stutelage at Leeds.

For Villa, their four-gamewinning run came to a halt asthey missed the chance to starta season with five successive vic-tories for the first time in theirhistory.

Villa only escaped relegationon the final day of last season,so the first defeat could serve asa reality check for Dean Smith’steam after their unexpectedlystrong start. Smith had told hisplayers they would get “a bloodynose very quickly” if they rest-ed on their laurels, but they didnot heed the warning asBamford delivered the knockoutpunches.

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Mendy, Maguire & masterclass

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It goes without saying that the year2020 has tested us on all levels —mental, physical and emotional.

While many of us lost a lot in theyear, be it jobs, businesses or ourloved ones, some did try to find hopeeven in the smallest of the joys.

And when one talk about losses,there is no way one can compensatefor a loss of a loved one. However,what we can do is to become a partof their sorrow and help them sailthrough it, if not more. Taking up thiscause, FernsNPetals launched a newventure — Last Journey, a servicewhich will help one conduct digni-fied last rites for their loved ones,while one mourn the loss.

Vikaas Gutgutia, Founder & MD,Ferns N Petals, tells you that profes-sional help is needed for anythingand everything and that is why theycame up with Last Journey. “I realisedthat there is a huge vacuum in funer-al organising segment. All the ritu-als are done by the families them-selves. But now with more nuclearfamilies coming up and time scarci-ty being a real issue, I thought pro-fessional help would be required forpeople to go through this processsmoothly,” he explains.

From transportation and ambu-lance facility to informing friends &relatives and from bookings andarranging items for cremation ser-vices to floral and freezer boxarrangement, everything is takencare of in the service.

“Not only this but the service alsocovers organising prayer meetings

such as chautha/tehravin ceremonies,hygienic food arrangement for theguests, booking of bhajan singers,personalised remembrance ceremo-ny, writing and publishing obituar-ies, priest/pandit booking andasthivisarjan services too,” Gutgutiatells you.

The cost of the services dependson what all facilities one is lookingforward to. They start from �5,000and go up to �5,00,000.

Every new business teaches onething or the other and so is the casehere. “There is a new learning withevery case that we handle. In theselast four-five months we have learntabout new rituals and traditions. Weare getting to know about the differ-ent communities and their way ofsaying goodbye to their loved ones,”he says. It goes without saying thatthe service caters to every religion,cast and community.

He tells you that initially whenthey started Last Journey, people werenot organising prayer meets becauseof the pandemic. But now, it has start-ed with limited numbers. “As wemove forward, we will actually get tosee the true colour of Last Journey.Also, at present the service is only forDelhi-NCR but in the coming fewmonths we plan to extend it to themetros first and then Tier-II andTier-III cities as well. May be we willtake the franchising route to expandthe services quickly,” he says.

With Last Journey, Gutgutia’saim is to be a game-changer in thesegment. “We are constantly working

on to improve the quality and fea-tures of everything. We see a lot ofpossibilities of newer ideas and inno-vation to make it smoother and moredesirable,” he says.

Till date, he says, the brand hasorganised at least 800 funerals.

“We are not handling Corona-related cases, that is solely theGovernment’s part to do. But thereare certain cases wherein a patientdied in home quarantine because ofsome complication so we do handlesuch cases. In fact, out of these 800cases one or two have been COVIDcases but otherwise it is under theGovernment only,” he adds.

He tells you that the team reach-es the place within an hour or as soonas possible depending on how far theplace is.

“We have a 24 hours hotline. Onecan call up and book the services any-time. One can book the service for aday or two or may be for more days,as per their requirement,” he says.

Gutgutia says he didn’t have anyapprehensions before launching theventure, even though it was duringCorona.

“There were no apprehensions assuch. Because it is the time people areexploring options that are easy andcan give them time and space tomourn the loss. On the contrary, theCorona situation has helped us growfaster,” he says.

He says that there is a kind ofthought process involved when oneenters into this business.

“There are some people who

would ask what kind of a business isthis? You are making money out ofsomeone’s death. But I feel that thisis a big business in foreign countriesand is widely accepted there. We cel-ebrate everything in life, but whendeath is considered it is nothing buta taboo. It is the time when a beau-tiful soul leaves the earth, it’s the finaljourney of a person and how can werun away from this fact of life. I feelwe are helping the grieving familieswith this service and people haveaccepted it nicely. In the coming fewyears, we wouldn’t be surprise to havemore funeral planners than weddingplanners in our country,” he tells you.

Ask Gutgutia if it is hard to han-dle so many deaths daily and he isquick to reply — not at all.

“Death is an emotion that weweren’t connected with at all. Butnow, the day you arrive into the worldand the day you leave, FernsNPetalsis with you all through. Death is nota taboo. You live everyday, but youdie one day. It is very important tocelebrate that day,” he says.

However, there are a few employ-ees in the team who are laid down byfear but others work just fine. “Therehave been a couple of employees whosaid: Sir, mujhey to shamshaan ghatke sapney aate hain main nahin karpaunga. We can’t do anything aboutthem and they are free to go but theothers are fine. And generally, wehave received positive feedback fromour clients and they feel that this ser-vice was very much required today,”he tells you.

� What is Nazarband about?It is essentially a love story. I was

reading short stories by AshapurnaDevi, an eminent author. Her stories arepredominantly indoors and deal withmiddle-class households. But this story,Chuti Nakoch is an outdoor story. The

story grabbed me by the jugular. I imme-diately got the rights to the story and start-ed developing a screenplay. It is a psy-

chological road movie. The two mar-ginal characters are an unlike-

ly pair of jailbirds who

embark on a harrowing and unpre-dictable odyssey drifting across Kolkata.The film is a visceral look at theirresilience and how they navigate differentkinds of oppression. It is a heartfelt explo-ration into the depths of companionshipand the meaning of rejection and accep-tance.� How tough a decision it was to put thefilm online for the Busan InternationalFilm Festival?

Busan is a physical festival, not virtual.The films will be screened in proper the-atres and Korean people will watch themon big screens. But Busan is unable to

invite international guests this yearbecause of the strict quarantine

rules. However, the directors willbe talking to the audience onlineimmediately after the screening.That’s great. But still feeling badfor not being able to be presentin the theatre for the worldpremiere. I decided to submitNazarband to very selectedfestivals, Busan is of courseone of the most important fes-

tivals in the world. An officialselection is a great boost for the

film. � You are a known face of the Civil

Society Movement in West Bengal.How much of this finds its way in your

movies?I am always a socio-politically active

person.I am aware of the socio-politicalparadigms or movements happening insociety. As an artist, I always try to findmy response to the burning debates orcontexts in my films and theatre works.It is inherent in the narratives I choose orthe characters that inspire me. I cannotremain passive or turn my face away fromsocio-political issues which are significantin our times. I think it is my primary dutyas an artist to participate actively in socio-political movements. But I must say theissues always don’t come, directly, butsometimes subliminally like Herbert andKangal Malsat have strong political over-tones. � You recently did a Zee5 original fea-ture film Posham Pa. Can you tell usabout the film?

The movie is a psychological thriller.The script is brilliantly written by NimishaMishra. The film stars Mahie Gill, SayaniGupta, Ragini Khanna, Imaad Shah, andShivani Raghuvanshi. The story of thefilm is based on a true story of serial killersAnjana, and her two daughters SeemaGavit and Renuka Shinde who kid-napped more than 40 children and mur-dered around 12 children. Seema andRenuka received the death penalty in 2014for committing the mass murder of 12

children while their mother Anjana diedin 1997 while serving her punishment atthe prison. � What is the reason why films thatfind their way in the film circuit, don'tdo so well when released commercial-ly?

A commercial release is a matter ofhuge money and resources. Small pro-ducers and independent films can’tafford to spend that money. Our distri-bution system is controlled by big moneyand the Government policy does not haveany provisions to support the indepen-dent films. There is no alternative systemto distribute the films bypassing the so-called industry parameters. I believe theseare predominant factors that block a sen-sitive or non-starrer film from cominginto attention of the audience. � If the film is unable to make money,why make them?

Unfortunately, our world is ruled bymoney. So, the success or failure of a filmis only judged by the yardstick of moneyit has made. But I think if we look at thehistory of cinema, it is evident that we canboast about the great cinematic achieve-ments globally where the films are notjudged by its financial success only. It’sa question of perception on how onewould value an artwork. � You have done theatre productions

ranging from European drama tomajor adaptations of Bengali works.Usually, adaptations lose their essence.Would you agree?

I disagree with this kind of generalinference that in adaptations the originalslose their essence. I believe that the para-dox lies in the question itself. When anadaptation happens from a literary piecefor stage or for films it is an act of tran-scendence, a grand metamorphosis. Onecan’t draw a simplistic comparativestudy. Does that mean Shakespeare’s orBrecht’s plays should not be staged at all?We have seen brilliant interpretations ofliterary works by master directors.� Is Bengali cinema changing?

Yes, it has gone through majorchanges. But I am quite not sure thesechanges are for good or bad. Becausefinally the films that came out throughthese changes are not exciting enoughexcept for a few. � What next?

I am working on Eyes and Feet (pre-viously titled as Paradise in Flames), basedin Kashmir. The script is done, now I amlooking for funds and seeking co-pro-duction. It is a very difficult film to make.I also have a long-cherished dream tomake a film on Manik Bandyopadhyay’snovel PutulNaacher Itikatha (Annals ofDolls’ Dance). I am working on that also.

� How did you go from working at KPMG as an engineer tobecoming a music director?

I always had one belief — dreams don’t work unless you do.I was making good money for my age while working with oneof the best firms in the world — KPMG. But I had bigger dreams.I was making music since childhood and it evolved into a con-crete passion. I wanted to pursue it. I also realised that I wouldnot be able to sail in two boats — work at KPMG and make music.I quit my job and went all out. I didn’t have anybody who couldguide me or show me the way. It was like being thrown into theopen sea — either I learnt how to swim or drown.� Was it tough to get a break?

Yes. It was beyond tough especially when you don’t have any-body in the industry. It was just me and had to figure everythingon my own. Sometimes it felt like why I was here and whetherI had taken the right decision. I believed in myself but there arepoints where one questions the challenges. Ten years back I hadno clue that I would end up in Bollywood one day. Now, 10 yearsdown the line, I am working on Hollywood projects. Now, thatI look back, it feels good but it was a tough decision to make.My first break was for a Salman Khan film in 2011 and workedon it for six months but it was shelved. Then I got Prague andmusic got noticed and started getting work.� Did you train professionally?

A lot in fact. When I stepped into composing, I knew thatI would be tossed all kinds of projects and genres and films. Iknew I had to have knowledge of all kinds of instruments andmusic from around the world. I couldn’t have the luxury to saythat I didn’t know something. My knowledge has made it pos-sible for me to sit here in New York. I trained for piano, guitar,Hindustani classical and Carnatic Classical to understand the dif-ference. There is so much to learn in each category. For exam-ple, I know every aspect of the flute and can instruct the flautistwhat I actually want. I have extensively trained and continue todo so.� You recently shifted base to NY. Any particular reason?

I wanted to explore the international market though I hadalready started working on international projects while in India.I had worked on two documentaries — one American, HornPlease and the other A Hero Comes Along, UK. Then I did Gift,a German project. I worked on a couple of games as well. I wouldvisit the US to increase my network. I met people who openedother gates and kept showcasing my music. But I still work onBollywood projects.� How did you come on board for the series NCIS: LosAngeles?

This was quite a shocker. I got a straight mail. It took threemonths to finalise though. Though I don’t follow the show, myfriends here in the US have been doing it for years. It is one ofthe longest running and popular shows on CBS network andgrabbed the opportunity. I knew it would open more doors andit did. I am working on other CBS projects.� You have worked in Bollywood and now working withHollywood and European films. Is there a difference?

There is a huge difference in the process of making musicand getting it through. The creative involvement here and inEurope is minimal. They hire you because you are the best fitfor that project otherwise, they won’t hire you. This elevates yourmorale since you are the captain of the ship. In India, the direc-tor is the captain of the ship and things work a bit differently.� What is the biggest challenge of working out of NY?

It is the best city that I have been to. I love it more than LosAngeles and comes with challenges. I have been here for the lastthree years and took me the first two of them figuring things out— like protocols to follow in the recording. Things here are dif-ferent. One thing that I have learnt is that while in India, we pre-pare but improvise when in the studio. Here, the cost is so high,one can’t enter without fully preparing. Not that one can’t impro-vise but one has to be sure of what one wants to do.

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The National Award winner director’s filmNazarband is being showcased at the 25th

Busan International Film Festival. He speakswith Shalini Saksena about what the film

is about, how he has gone throughmajor changes and his upcoming

project Eyes and Feet basedin Kashmir

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Traveling is definitely not on many peo-ple’s agenda due to the present pan-

demic but that doesn’t mean that one can’tsee the world. While for many it may notbe the same thing but it can give one asneak peek and get them interested intraveling to that country when things area lot better. With this aim in mind,Tourism New Zealand virtually launchedits campaign Messages from NewZealand.

The aim of the campaign, which waslaunched in the presence of StevenDixon, Tourism New Zealand’s regionaltrade marketing manager, Asia and DavidPine, New Zealand’s High Commissionerto India, is to feature a video message ofhope and care with their internationalfamily (whanau). Each video shared willpresent a unique Kiwi perspective aboutwhat is important to them.

The Tourism New Zealand partner-ing with its Indian family highlights theirown personal experiences and connec-

tions with the country. Dixon said thatsince the travel industry has been impact-ed by the COVID-19, it is important nowmore than ever, that we stay connected tovisitors and our travel trade friends inIndia. “New Zealand is a place whereguests become a family. These relation-ships are something that we are proud ofand want to celebrate and continue in per-petuity. Through this campaign we arestaying in touch with our internationalfamily and letting them know that we arewaiting to welcome them to our shoresagain when the time is right and bordersreopen, ”Dixon tells you.

An example of how Tourism NewZealand has been keeping connectionsstrong in India, is its response to a sur-vey conducted in May 2020 among trav-el trade representatives. The survey high-lighted that 99 per cent of travel trade con-tacts were interested in attending hostedwebinars during the lockdown period.And hence, conducted 10 webinars whichsaw 5,000 travel agents participationacross India.

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� What is Footfairy about?The film is about a hunt for a

serial killer. He specifically huntsgirls who travels along western rail-way line. He is a very smart killerwho doesn’t leave any footprints orfingerprints whatsoever. Thisbecomes a challenge for the copsto trace him down. The story isabout whether he gets caught ornot.� Why release it on TV?

This was absolutely the pro-ducer’s call and we felt this was theright direction to go towards. Aftermany years , a film has beenreleased directly on TV. We wereconfident that this movie has theright blend of everything and canbe released as &pictures original.

� Some memories from the sets.It was like a blast. The best I

could remember is that some-times we didn’t feel the pressure ofthe time or the budget constraint.It was like a well-oiled machine,everything was well-planned andexecuted. The actors performedbrilliantly and it helped me as adirector as well. The schedule of themovie was for 34 days, but we man-aged to finish it in 30 days only. Theentire process was fun. The mostfun part was that I got to shoot ata railway station and a full train wasunder my control. � Crime thrillers are one of themost popular genres. Whatmakes them so sought-after?

Mystery and crime thrillers are

popular for decades now. As a soci-ety we like to watch the dark partof the human behaviour. We don’twant to experience such a thing,but as a society we take pleasure inwatching such things. So is the casewith gangster movies. We getattracted towards bad things, butwe are only happy about it till wesee it from a distance. � What next?

I was busy shooting for InsideEdge Season 3 for Excel andAmazon. It is currently in the post-production stage and should be outsoon. There is another show whichI am developing for Viacom and isbased on Burari murder. Thenthere is a feature film which I can’ttalk about in detail right now.

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Ablanket of haze has been shroudingthe National Capital for some daysnow: the smog season is back. TheAQI has crossed 300, pushing airquality to ‘very poor’ level, which was

last witnessed in February. NASA images showclusters of fire in Punjab and Haryana, as thepost-harvest paddy stubble burning has started inthe farms.

Last year towards October end, the DelhiGovernment had to declare a ‘public health emer-gency’ for nine days, as Delhi experienced itslongest period of hazardous air pollution. Thisyear, as the world battles a pandemic, the smogsituation can wreak a havoc on the public health.The health experts warn that smog can increasethe time the virus can stay in the environment,increasing the infection rate. The increased num-ber of Covid cases in Delhi and Mumbai arealready being linked to the higher pollution levelof these cities. Pollution also affects immunity andlungs, thus placing the Delhi residents at higherCorona susceptibility and fatality risk.

���������� ���� ���������The trough like topography of North India

and meteorological conditions set by winter sea-son makes the pollution linger over it, creating thecondition for Delhi smog. With the onset of thewinter season, weather condition becomes con-ducive to pollution, as cold settles air closer to thesurface (inversion), wind speed drops and mois-ture goes up — so the pollution is not dispersed.Diwali firecrackers and stubble burning whichalso occur in the months of October-November,become contributory factors to the smog, as theyadd on to Delhi’s pre-existing air pollution. Asaround this time the wind direction also changesto north-westerly, the stubble burning pollution iscarried towards Delhi from its neighbouringstates.

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As the Government of Delhi, Punjab and atCentre, squabble over the contribution of stubbleburning to Delhi’s smog — while the Punjab CMcited the findings of IISER, to state that stubbleburning is not responsible for most of the Delhi’spollution — a look at other studies on the matteris merited.

A recent study undertaken by IIT Kanpur andDelhi Pollution Control Board links contributionof PM 2.5 as 38% to road dust, 20% to vehicularemission, 11% to industries etc; with stubbleburning merely adding on to the current load.Council of Energy, Environment and Water, aDelhi based think tank, which also arrives at simi-lar figures, agrees that local sources andunfavourable meteorological conditions are themain factors behind Delhi’s air pollution woes;with transportation and road dusts as the biggestculprits. Massive Earth Foundation, another thinktank, also undertook a research to find the impactof stubble burning, thermal power plants, Diwalicrackers and broken transportation of the air pol-lution; and found vehicular traffic as the biggestculprit, which has shifted base line of air pollutionin India from a desirable 60 AQI to unhealthy200.

According to Government’s analysis of Delhi

smog during 2019, the contribution of stubbleburning was variable, only peaking at 44% once.

However, it will be pertinent to quoteSupreme Court mandated agency, EnvironmentPollution (Prevention and Control) Authority(EPCA) on the issue, “even if it is not the onlycause of pollution in the region, there is no doubtthat the transportation of pollutants from burningfields is the tipping point that makes winter’salready unhealthy air quality into a public healthemergency.”

������������������The whole issue of stubble burning is based in

structural fault in the Indian agriculture system,which promotes wheat and rice crops throughassured MSP — even though India is the secondlargest producer of rice and wheat in the world,and a foodgrain surplus state. This is creatingmany ecological problems for Delhi’s neighbours— the erstwhile Green Revolution states, Punjab,Haryana and Western UP — like alarming rate ofground water depletion due to excessive waterintensive crop of paddy and stubble burning. Theuse of combined harvesters for paddy which iscommon in these states, leaves behind a nine-inchstubble in the farm. Moved by the Governmentassured economic returns, farmers in these statessow wheat after paddy harvesting — the timeduration between the two is a month or less; notenough for the stubble to decompose naturally,thus stubble burning, the cheapest option, isresorted to.

Not just is the stubble burning polluting, it isequally harmful for the soil itself, which losesmost essential nutrients like organic carbon,nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, sulphur withthe burning of the stubble. The heat destroys thebeneficial microflora and fauna from the soil andhardens it; thus affecting physical, chemical andbiological attributes of soil making it less fertileand vulnerable to weed and drought.

The long term solution to the problem lies incrop diversification: a move towards less waterintensive crops like soyabeans, pulses, corn —which are harvested by hand or can be harvestingmechanically earlier on, providing sufficient win-dow for the residue to decompose before the nextsowing. For the time being, the in-situ and ex-situsustainable management techniques for cropresidue are an alternative.

���������������������The Supreme Court (SC) has been quite

proactive on the issue of air pollution in Delhi;closely monitoring the situation since last year,when it criticised Punjab, Haryana and UPGovernments for failing to control stubble burn-ing. In February, SC directed Central and DelhiGovernment to take strong measure for stoppingstubble burning; and approved an action plan onthe matter, based on the affidavit of Ministry ofAgriculture — which included steps like settingup smog towers, smog guns in Delhi, and imple-menting other in-situ and ex-situ stubble manage-ment techniques which will be funded by CentralGovernment and implemented by the StateGovernments of Punjab, Haryana, UP and Delhi.In September, the SC had rebuked the Delhi andCentral Government for delay in setting up of theSmog Towers in Delhi. A few days back SC

appointed former judge, Justice Lokur as one mancommittee to monitor stubble burning in Delhi,and its neighbourhood, and report to SC directlyin 15 days.

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EPCA is monitoring the implementation ofthe SC approved Action Plan, by the Centre andthe States. It also suggests other measures to theStates like setting up control room, obtainingundertakings from big construction projects andred and orange category industries on pollution.Central Government is experimenting with PUSAdecomposer in farms in Delhi, Punjab, Haryanaand UP. It is also funding Smog Towers, in-situstubble management machines, farmer awarenesscampaigns and has set off 50 teams of CentralPollution Control Board for monitoring the situa-tion in Delhi and its neighbourhood.

The steps taken by Punjab, Haryana and UPas reported to EPCA, mentioned in its lastmonth’s report are: making in-situ stubble man-agement machines available to farmers at highlysubsidised rates through purchase by farmerdirectly, or on rental through village panchayatsand Farmer Producer Organisations by setting upCustom Hire Centres. A mobile app is also beinglaunched for creating awareness in the farmersabout the scheme. Ex-Situ management steps arealso being taken for converting stubble into bio-energy and power plants are being set up for thepurpose.

Despite of these steps by the CentralGovernment and the States, farmers especially ofPunjab and Haryana are complaining about notreceiving any help from the Governments, thusbeing forced to burn the stubble. Hence, theimplementation of these schemes seems to berather thin on the ground, also its being reportedthat the action against stubble fires has not beenas widespread this year, as before.

����� ������������ ���Delhi needs 65% reduction in PM 2.5 to meet

the desirable national standard. The strategy forthat has to be comprehensive and multi-pronged.First, adopting crop diversification, proper imple-mentation of in-situ and ex-situ residue manage-ment policies by States, creating a market for cropresidue, setting up crop residue collection systembased on municipal solid waste collection system— thus giving alternative options to farmers toopt out of stubble burning.

Second, to fix Delhi’s broken public transportinfrastructure. There has been four-fold increasein vehicles in Delhi between 2000-2018. The pan-demic has further aggravated this trend, pushingup the purchase and plying of private vehicles onthe road. Number of public buses in Delhi need tobe ramped up, while creating smooth connectivitywith the metro. Emission testing, which is only25%, must be pushed up. More incentives on e-vehicles like waiver of road fee and low interestloans must be provided. Third, controlling theroad dust by intensive roadside plantation of bigcrown trees, planting grass on the sideways andimproved solid waste management.

The writer is a public policy analyst,and a lawyer, an alumnus of National

Law University, Jodhpur

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��� ���!"� �#$��%&'�(�)�* +� �� Campaign called ‘Yuddh Pradhushan ke

Viruddh’� Green War Room for monitoring,

enforcement compliance, complaintredressal

� Green Mobile app for launching com-plaints

� Spraying PUSA decomposer for free infields for composting of stubble

� Smog towers to come up in ConnaughtPlace and Anand Vihar in few months

� Strict anti-dust policy for constructionand demolition sites

� Smog guns for hotspots� Transplantation policy for projects � Campaign ‘Red light on, Gaddi off ’� E-vehicle policy — by 2024, 25% new

vehicles be electric

,&!�-��(*! .(*!����*�� � ��!/�'� � %! 0� Comes into effect in Delhi and its

neighbouring towns based on theseverity of pollution

� Put in effect from October 15, byEPCA as AQI turned ‘very poor’

� Banning of electricity generators apartfrom essential and emergency services,was ordered under it

� Other measures include increasing busand metro services and raising theparking fee

� Steps when situation turns ‘severe’: clo-sure of brick kilns, water sprinkling,frequent mechanised cleaning of roads,maximisation of power from naturalgas

� ‘Emergency situation’ measures:odd/even scheme, banning construc-tion activity and entry of trucks inDelhi

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2������&�����������!��'��������"+9�!'"�#�!(US elections are a spectacle

and roller coaster ride parexcellence with their inter-twined doses of confetti and theminitiarised Star-SpangledBanner with the poignant BaldEagle in the background. It isall symptomatic of the oeuvreof symbolism, Americanhomeland’s verve and the patri-otic and the MAGA phenom-enon, (Make America GreatAgain). The US elections are anextravaganza normally but withthe Trump Administration bat-tling the Covid-19 pandemic,the spectacle and the largerverve of the exciting hustingshave been dampened a bit. But,no one can keep the palaverabout American Presidentialelections down for long, noteven a deprecatory Joe Biden,who leads by a slender marginof 10 per cent in the aftermathof the first presidential debatehosted by Wallace of Fox Newsa few days backs.

In the first televised debatebetween the twin candidates,Joe Biden, the Democrat can-didate, has raised questionsabout the anti-pandemic poli-cies and proclivities ofPresident Donald Trump. Hecontended aloud in the Fox TVmoderated debate, “TheAdministration should pro-vide masks and other para-phernalia to the American cit-izens. It’s a different matter totalk aloud about the measuresthe Government has under-taken. The functional aspect ofthe Administration should notbe relegated to the backburn-er in the light of hyperbole.”Another brick bat which JoeBiden utilised to beat theincumbent with was the alle-gation that the question ofremoving the race factor fromthe sensitivities list of the USMarines was a blunder whichthe presidential seat of powerwhich the White House hasindulged in. Thus in a mannerthe debate brought out contra-dictory aspects of US presi-dential elections but the chutz-pah attached with the elec-

tioneering extravaganzaremains subdued due to thepersistent essential evil of thenovel coronavirus which hastaken a heavy toll on the world’ssole surviving superpower.

US elections in the pastwere carried out in the grandold rail road and big businessera of the United States throughwhistle-stop tours carried on bythe candidates who addressedaudiences from the pulpits ofthe last coaches of the trains.Thus, apart from the foggy trailof the big bosses of the politi-cal parties, it can be ascertainedthat the spectacle still remainsthe core refrain of any USelections in the past era too.The strategy earlier was tosway the voters with the hiddenintent of President DonaldTrump that he will win theelections through the mod-icum of postal ballots whichwill be the praxis in a pandemicinfected scenario in the home-land’s domestic polity, societyand economy. It might be aclose race and PresidentDonald Trump has lived true tohis image of lambasting the leftliberal domain of theDemocrats, especially in theStates of California andMontana which need to bestrengthened as they are swingStates going by the nomencla-ture of the American elec-tions. This was one riposte can-nily advanced by a fighting andadversarial entrepreneur,President Donald Trump pre-sented in the televised debatewhen being riled for the case ofPeter Floyd in Charlottesville.

It was in 2016 that the pre-sumptive candidate, HillaryClinton, was leading till late inthe US elections but the whitecollared vote along with theecclesiastical support base ofthe WASP majority let him sailthrough with the flailing Star-Spangled Banner. Will it be thesame fate of the US elections inline with what transpired in the2016 contest with HillaryClinton? This happens to be amillion dollar question. Al

Jazzera has reported that Bidenis winning with the lot ofundecided voters while JoeBiden is also taking an expanseamid all kinds of voters. Thismight be early days but the USPresident has returned to theWhite House in the wake of histesting positive for coronaviruswhich might be what the doc-tors ordered for the electoralfortunes of President DonaldTrump. The Democrats areuselessly cranking up the factthat single mothers have beenhard hit by the novel coron-avirus retrenchment in an

unimaginative to ratchet up thesupport of the single womenwhich Hillary too had attempt-ed in the year 2016 to no avail.So it’s a known and tried strat-egy which did not work theway of the Democrats in 2016and is a fashionable tenet ofreferring to fake concerns of liftand liberals for spawning polit-ical gains in the Americanpolitical firmament. Al Jazzerareports, “The US SenateJudiciary Committeeannounced that it would opena confirmation hearing forPresident Donald Trump’s

Supreme Court nominee, AmyConey Barrett, on October 12,making clear that an outbreakof Covid-19 will not interferewith the election schedule.”Thus, the Opposition attemptsto ratchet up all possible per-mutations and combinationsand commissions and com-missions indulged in by theAmerican President in the2020 election trail.

As part of the process partof the US elections in 2020, theAmerican Embassy has toinform that, “Americans will goto the polls on November 3,

2020 to cast their ballots for theman who will serve as USpresident for the following fouryears, but first they must selectdelegates who will vote atnational conventions to deter-mine which candidates appearon those ballots.” TheDemocrats are also creating thewily canard that PresidentDonald Trump is a TeflonPresident and if Joe Biden doesnot come through as the victorthen the grand Americannation would crack up badlyand inimitably.

In the contemporary times,

the US elections are slated totake place in the month ofNovember, 2020. Joe Biden, theDemocratic presumptive can-didate, made an issue out of theCovid outbreak in the USwherein, he cannily, forecastedthat President Donald Trumpwould postpone the elections inthe light of the ravaging impactof the pandemic which wasdenied by President DonaldTrump and the Republic estab-lishment. The initiation of theIndian origin Kamala Harris isbeing posited a voice of theIndian diaspora in the UnitedStates but little is known of herin the sphere of foreign policymaking and decision-makingexperience. Kamla Harris hasmany times repeatedly stated,“I am a Negro and I am a Negrofirst and nothing more with myAmerican underpinnings.” Shehas never actively confabulat-ed with the public sphere in theUnited States concerning herIndian origins. She might bethe first non-white VicePresidential candidate but doesnot have many credentials toshow off herself, as being thesole feminine voice of theIndian diaspora in theAmerican homeland. In sum-mation it can be argued that astable but happening worldcomity of States chaperoned bythe American dreamers and thevishwa gurus might be thepanacea for what the doctorordered for the larger ecosys-tem of nation states in a to beturbulent and testy 2020. Withthe pandemic becoming a larg-er reality, it can be argued thatthe gaffes committed by theWhite House in the light ofcalling the novel coronavirus asa flu and a mild malady,President Trump might stillromp home with the backing ofthe global coalition of theQuad comity of nations and theglobal churn against China.

(The writer teaches atInternational Relations andInternational Organisations,IIPA, New Delhi)

������ �������������� �����#������The recently concluded New

Zealand parliamentaryelection has once again broughtback Jacinda Ardern to power.The election was scheduled forSeptember, but because of theCovid-19 pandemic, it waspostponed by a month. Sincethe introduction of the MMRin the 1996, the Labour Partyhas become the first ever partyto form Government on itsown, winning 64 seats out oftotal 120 in the House ofRepresentatives. Looking atthe results: Labour Party 64seats (49.1%), National Party 35seats (26.8%), ACT(Association of Consumersand Taxpayers) 10 seats (8%),Greens 10 seats (7.6%), NZFirst (2.7%), but no seat, MaoriParty 1 seat (1%) and others got7.7 % (no seat), it is clear thatthe centre-Left Labour hasrecorded a landslide victory.

With this thumping victo-ry, Ardern has spread the mes-sage of stability and certainty tothe people of New Zealand.

Jacinda’s foray into politicsis an interesting story. With herfather being a police officer andmother a school cook, Jacindahad a ground experience ofpoverty that her country wasfacing. When she was 17, shewas an active Labour Partyworker. After completing herdegree in CommunicationStudies in Politics and PublicRelations, she started workingfor Helen Clarke, the thenPrime Minister of the country.She also had the experience ofworking in the UK CabinetOffice when Tony Blair was thePrime Minister of the UK. By2008, she was back to hercountry from London andbecame an MP of the LabourParty. One of her most con-troversial political moves wasan attempt to introduce a Billto support gay rights in her

country. She even renouncedthe Church of Jesus ChristLatter-day Saints in her earlytwenties as the Church’s viewson gay rights clashed withhers. Thus, she is in favour ofequal rights for the LGBTs.

“Jacinda Mania” has final-ly worked. She has been award-ed an outright majority, with anapproval rating of 55 per cent.The election was set behind anextraordinary backgroundaccompanying three prongedcrises — the first being a terrorattack, second the natural dis-aster, and third the global pan-demic of Covid-19. She hasbeen able to handle all the threeissues much better than anyother leader of the country. Herunequivocal stand not todefend the white man accusedof the terror attack in theChirstchurch area that killed 50and wounded more than fifty inmid-March 2019 earned heradmiration of the people.

The mass shooter BrentonTarrant, an Australian whiteman driven by anti-immigrantand anti-Muslim sentiments,was temporarily based in thecountry before the incidenttook place. In fact, an unsignedmanifesto before the carnageon the Twitter and 8chan, anonline messaging platformwhich has been used by anony-mous accounts to shareextremist messages and cheeron mass shooters, was postedin Tarrant’s name. The attackthreatened the country, par-ticularly the Muslim commu-nity. Throughout the entirecrisis, Jacinda stuck to herstand that the white gunmanwas a terrorist and emphasisedthat he did not represent thepeople of New Zealand.

Second, when a volcaniceruption rocked the WhiteIsland or Whakaari, a smallvolcanic Isle in New Zealand’s

Bay of Plenty, on December 9,2019, it shocked the nation asCovid-19 was already grip-ping the world around thesame time. This was probablythe worst case scenario for theislanders that killed more than17 people. Jacinda joined anation-wide mourning on thisincident. The fact is that theWhite Island is a summit of acomplex submarine volcano.As the island is regularly visit-ed by tourists, the Governmentwas extremely careful in takingthe best of the post-volcanicdisaster management mea-sures.

Third, unlike many othercountries, the Covid-19 han-dling was too early and fol-lowed by extremely hardactions by the JacindaGovernment. Its success incontrolling the virus has beenwidely described as “crushingthe curve”. The island nation’sCovid strategy was based onspeedy testing, contact tracingand isolation, while adhering tostrict public health guidancenorms across the country.Indeed, the country benefittedfrom being a high income andan island nation with anadvanced health care system at

its best. But the best part of theGovernment was that it calledon its entire population tofight the menace as a “team offive million” to protect theirfamilies, friends and all theneighboring nations. AndJacinda has earned rare repu-tation and fame by taking suchpreventing measures to saveher people from this healthhavoc.

Her charisma is well appre-ciated. On record, she hasbecome a Labour leader justseven weeks before the 2017parliamentary election thatgave her a rare opportunity to

grab power at Wellington witha coalition Government withthe New Zealand First Partyand the Greens Party, althoughshe was able to score only sec-ond highest number of votes.But the country’s unique pro-portional representation sys-tem had helped her to form theGovernment with these twocoalition partners. Very soon,she was branded as an anti-Trump liberal icon at a timewhen the international com-munity witnessed a wave ofrightist nationalist leadersaround the world. Again shecame into prominence for

wearing a Maori cloak, knownas “Korowai”, while meeting hermonarch Queen Elizabeth-II inApril 2018.

Jacinda’s popular slogan“be strong, be kind” hasworked magic in this election.And she has become the thirdwoman Prime Minister of thecountry. She has driven a pos-itive message across.Considering her age, unlike theother Opposition leaders, shehas long and bright future inNew Zealand’s politics. Butthe critics and global politicalexperts say that the absolutemajority could be a problem forher, even as top Oppositionleaders like Judith Collins ofthe National Party has accept-ed her defeat and she hasvowed to play the role of arobust Opposition figure inParliament.

Much more than this, peo-ple have also voted on two crit-ical referendums; the first beingthe legalisation of euthanasiaand the second, for usingcannabis. The first will offer ter-minally ill patients to go forassisted dying. It is a bindingvote and if more than 50 percent voters say yes, this will beimplemented soon. The secondis related to the recreational useof cannabis making legal. Thisis not a binding vote whichimplies that even if more than50 per cent people say yes,cannabis can’t be made legal onthe basis of this referendum.The Jacinda Government has tobring a fresh Bill to legalise this.And finally when the results ofboth these referendums areexpected on October 30, thedecisions delivered by the vot-ers will make a lot for the entirenation and especially for thewidely popular Jacinda.

(The writer is an expert oninternational affairs)

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At the outset, I greet the valuablereaders on the solemn occasion ofShardeya Navaratri, which ends

today, following a nine days of intenseprayer regime. The beauty of this particu-lar festivity is that after spiritedly pursu-ing prayers, it ends in a celebratory modeon Vijaya Dashami — the day markedwith Lord Shri Ram’s victory overdemonic Ravana and freeing Sita fromhis captivity. The question now is: Is itjust remembrance of that singular auspi-cious event, or that it is supposed to offersomething relevant in today’s terms? If ithas some lessons for us in immediateterms, then it is time to assess, what wehave gained during the process.

Symbolically speaking, what does Sitabeing freed from captivity mean for us incontemporary terms? It needs to beremembered that potentially we are bornwith immense powers — in fact, divine.That however, doesn’t involuntarily playout, and mostly remains hidden within.We need to explore, identify, acknowl-edge, hone and then bring them out ofcaptivity of ignorance.

The process as such is not easy. Thechallenges are many. Remember, MotherGoddess Durga is visualised having 10

hands. In eight, she carries armouriesmade available by different Devtas, so asto combat evil forces coming from asmany directions. Only two hands carryaccessories marked with creative poten-tial — Conch shell in one and Lotusflower in the other. Conch shell whenblown gets tu ned to cosmic forces. Lotusflower marked with its beauty and splen-dour is symbolic of creativity. But whatare those evil forces expectedly comingfrom eight different directions? Are theynegative forces thrust by external factors,or are they within us? Of course, we shallhave to combat challenges thrown byexternal factors. But they can be spottedand countered, if we pool in all resourcesin hand and efficiently use them.

More challenging, however, are theevil forces playing from within — ourpreconditioned mind marked by ourunending cravings and temptations oflife, negative thought trends, lack of alert-ness necessary for timely initiatives andresponses, and habit tendencies. All themore because they stand in way of posi-tives within coming out in full play.Caught up in the usual flow of life, weseldom care to identify, acknowledge andaddress them within time. That makes it

incumbent upon us to first address theevil forces playing from within.

Nine days of prayer regime is stipu-lated with the above end in view. In theprocess, the primary focus is on MotherGoddess Durga, the epitome of Shakti.For, all aspects of our dynamic existenceare primarily driven by nature drivenenergy-orchestra (Shakti). And energyremains a double edged weapon. Whenjudiciously used for productive ends, it isrewarding and fulfilling. If, however,knowingly or unknowingly it gets misdi-rected — put to unbecoming acts — itcan prove self-defeating. How we applyour energies in real terms, depends onour unique character — positively or neg-atively oriented. We need to be on fullalert to consciously use our powertowards well-meaning purposes. Theirony, however, is that ordinarily, our flir-tatious mind remains caught up in thetempting influences of the glare and glit-ters of the seeming world. We keep pas-sionately chasing what lies at the surfacelevel, randomly jumping from one desiretrend to the other. In the process, we sel-dom remain alert enough to use ourpower base in a reasoned way, and withobvious consequences.

From the fourth day, we simultane-

ously pay attention to Mother GoddessLaxmi marked with our creative aspira-tions. This reminds us to remain focusedto our need based requirements. Nothing,however, would come through, if we don’tuse our resources intelligently. So, duringthe last three days, Mother GoddessSaraswati, the epitome of knowledge andwisdom is pursued. All through theprocess, our indwelling negatives willkeep playing from within, which wecould identify and acknowledge. We aresupposed to make offerings of suchunseemly tendencies at the altar ofMother trinity, so as to purify our mind.Following which, we gain access to fulllandscape of mind to come out with ourbest. We then look at the issues in hand,the aspirational urges, and challengescoming our way in right perspective due.That paves the way to negotiate with thecallings of life as an informed and wideawake person with ease and comfort,which may lead us to a better tomorrow.

Navaratri, thus, provides us with anoccasion to get periodically geared up totake on life ahead in all strength.

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