E xtremely severe cyclonic storm “Amphan” made a landfall at Digha in West Bengal on Wednesday, leaving a trail of destruction which led to the death of three persons in the State. The cyclone claimed three lives in Odisha also. The cyclone with wind speed of 160-170 kmph, gust- ing to 190 kmph coupled with heavy rain hit the Digha coast in East Medinipur district around 2.30 pm, officials said. The cyclone barreled through coastal districts of West Bengal, unleashing copi- ous rain and windstorm, blow- ing away thatched houses, uprooting trees, electric poles and swamping low lying towns and villages, officials said. High velocity wind speed up to 120 km per hour uproot- ed hundreds of tree, electric poles and telecom infrastruc- ture and flattening fragile struc- ture. Amphan reached Kolkata with wind speed up to 120 km per hour at 7 pm on Wednesday evening, damaging several buildings. As per reports, three deaths have been reported from Balasore, Bhadrak and Kendrapara districts while three person, including two women were killed in Howrah district and Minakhan area of North 24 Parganas district due to uprooting of trees. Reports arriving in Kolkata from North and South 24 Parganas and East Midnapore said roofs of thatched houses were blown away, and twisted electric poles and broken and uprooted trees bore testimony to the devastation. Streets and homes in low lying areas of Kolkata were swamped with rainwater. A wall collapsed in Howrah near Union Minister Babul Supriyo’s residence and damaged several vehicle parked there. The muddy Hooghly river was rising under dark skies, while in the coastal resort of Digha, large waves were pounding the shore. Three coastal districts — South and North 24 Parganas and East Midnapore — will be the worst affected, besides, vast swathes of South Bengal districts such as Kolkata, Howrah, Hooghly, West Midnapore were the worst affected. Areas such as Sagar Island, Kakdwip and Diamond Harbour in South 24 Parganas and Digha and Haldia in East Midnapore were battered by the storm, uprooting trees and electric poles and destroying many shacks. Despite losing its force a bit since Tuesday, the storm, which was categorised as super cyclone at one point of time, has left the two States on edge as it hollered on its destructive path over the Bay of Bengal. India Meteorological Department (IMD) Director General Mrityunjay Mohapatra, who jointly addressed the media with NDRF director general SN Pradhan, said the eye of Amphan, which is 30 km in diameter, has made landfall at around 2.30 pm between Digha in West Bengal and Hatiya Island in Bangladesh. I n further relaxation of lock- down rules, the Ministry of Civil Aviation is all set to start domestic flight operations from May 25 in a calibrated manner. Currently, only cargo and evacuation flight services are allowed. The Ministry will soon be announcing the stan- dard operating procedures (SOPs) for domestic air travel. In a tweet, Union Minister for Civil Aviation Hardeep Puri said all airports and air carriers are being informed to be ready for operations from May 25. The standard operat- ing procedures for passenger movement will be separately issued by the Ministry, Puri said. The Minister said only a small percentage of the total number of domestic flights will be operated at first and the number of flights will be increased later, depending on the initial experience. He said the option of keeping the mid- dle seats on flights vacant is not a viable one. “Even if you keep the mid- dle seat vacant, you’ll still have a situation where the pre- scribed distance for social dis- tancing isn’t followed. If you were to do it then you’d have to hike up the price of airline tick- ets by 33 per cent,” Puri said. The announcement came amid the fourth phase of the lockdown which was imposed by the Government on March 25 in order to combat the novel coronavirus outbreak in the country. The AAI on Sunday had also issued guidelines for pas- sengers once the flight services resume that include making mandatorily downloading of Aarogya Setu app on mobile phones for travelling by air, do a web-check in and carry a print out of their boarding pass before heading to the air- port to catch a flight. It also stated that air trav- elers must maintain a distance of four feet from co-passengers, wear a mask and other protec- tive gear, wash or sanitise their hands frequently and carry a 350 ml bottle of sanitiser all the time. The aviation sector has been hit hard by the pandem- ic as various countries, includ- ing India, decided to suspend commercial flights completely to curb the spread of the virus. Since March 25, Indian airlines have taken steps like fir- ing expat pilots, announcing pay cuts and leave without pay for employees to conserve cash. The first, second and third phase of lockdown were between March 25-April 14, April 15-May 3 and May 4-May 17, respectively. The fourth phase started from May 18 and would end on May 31. Cargo flights, medical evacuation flights, offshore helicopter operations and spe- cial flights approved by the avi- ation regulator DGCA have been allowed to operate as usual during the lockdown period. W ith Maharashtra witness- ing 2,250 new Covid-19 cases and 65 deaths on Wednesday, the country regis- tered total of 5,249 new cases 128 deaths. The total cases in India stood at 1,11,730 and 3,430 death with Uttar Pradesh yet to report till 11 pm on Wednesday night. Mumbai city alone witnessed 1,372 more cases with 41 deaths. Meanwhile coronavirus has infected more than 5 mil- lion people across the world. After Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu witnessed 743 cases, fol- lowed by Delhi 534 new cases and Gujarat 398 confirmed cases. Gujarat and Delhi had 30 and 10 deaths respectively. This was the biggest single day spike for Delhi. Apart from these States, out of the total around 5,249 new Covid-cases, 270 new cases were reported from Madhya Pradesh, 142 cases from West Bengal, 107 from Rajasthan. Andhra Pradesh witnessed 71 new cases. After registering low numbers for the last few days Kerala saw 24 new cases on Wednesday while Bihar reported 60 new cases. As per the latest data out of a total of 1,11,730 confirmed cases, 62,871 are active cases and 45,422 people have recov- ered till date. Out of the total 3,426 deaths in India, more than 40 per cent deaths (1,390) are from Maharashtra alone. After Maharashtra, Gujarat has witnessed the maximum num- ber of deaths with a total of 749. Madhya Pradesh has reported 267 deaths with 9 on Wednesday. West Bengal has seen total of 253 deaths, followed by Delhi 176 deaths and Rajasthan 143 deaths and Uttar Pradesh 143 deaths. Among the double digit deaths, Tamil Nadu’s tally reached 88 with three more deaths on Wednesday. Andhra Pradesh has a total death count of 53 and Telangana 38 and neighbouring Karnataka 41. Meanwhile situation is North Eastern region is in control with new 13 cases in Assam and 11 new patients in Manipur. Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand have 12 and 11 new patients on Wednesday. Jammu & Kashmir also have 73 new patients tested as positive with one death, taking the total death tally to 18. T aking into consideration the academic interest of large number of students, the Centre has decided to grant lockdown exemption to con- duct Board Examinations for Classes 10th and 12th. Home Minister Amit Shah said that the pending CBSE Class 10 and Class 12 board exams can be conducted dur- ing the nationwide lockdown in place to contain the spread of the coronavirus. Two days ago, the HRD Ministry announced the sched- ule of pending examination of the CBSE board exams for Class 10 and 12. The exami- nations will be conducted between July 1 to July 15 for 29 major subjects - including six exams for Class 10 students for North-East Delhi and 12 sub- jects for students of Class 12 to be held across the country. While wearing of face masks by teachers, staff and students will be mandatory, there shall be provision of thermal screening and sanitiz- er at the centres and social dis- tancing in all the examination centres. Taking to Twitter, Shah also said that the examination process has been exempted from the lockdown measures with few conditions like social distancing, wearing of face mask among others for the safety of the students and teachers. N epal Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has said the coronavirus coming from India is “more lethal” than those from China and Italy and blamed the rising number of Covid-19 cases in the Himalayan nation on those sneaking into the country from India, as the total number of Covid-19 cases jumped to 427 on Wednesday. Speaking about the pan- demic in Parliament on Tuesday, Oli said it has become very difficult for Nepal to con- tain the spread of the deadly virus due to the flow of people from outside. “Many coronavirus infect- ed patients have entered Nepal. The virus came from outside, as we did not have here before. We could not stop infiltration of people from outside the border,” he said. Oli said that the biggest challenge facing the country today is the rising number of coronavirus cases and blamed the rising number of coron- avirus cases on individuals breaking the nationwide lock- down, especially those sneak- ing into Nepal from India. “The coronavirus coming from India are more lethal than those from China and Italy,” he said. “Those who are coming from India through illegal channels are spreading the virus in the country and some local representatives and party leaders are responsible for bringing in people from India without proper testing,” Oli was quoted as saying by the Kathmandu Post. P olice have continued to bear the brunt of lock- down. In a new case on Wednesday, five Haryana police personnel were injured when some people from Delhi’s Kapashera allegedly pelted stones at them after trying to forcibly enter the State’s terri- tory, officials said. There were reports that some people, stated to be work- ers, wanted to travel to Udyog Vihar in Gurugram but were stopped by the Haryana Police at the Delhi-Gurugram border. However, some of them tried to force their way despite strict measures put in place by Haryana on its borders and clashed with the police. In the incident, five policemen were injured, the officials said. Haryana’s Home Minister Anil Vij said there has been a stone pelting incident at Delhi’s Kapashehra border with Haryana. He said some people tried to enter the border into Haryana but were stopped. “They wanted the borders to be opened for them to cross into Haryana. They pelted stones at Haryana police per- sonnel,” Vij said. “I said under no circum- stances will we open the bor- der. The Delhi High Court had given us directions to allow inter-state movement for cer- tain categories like doctors, drivers of vehicles with essen- tials, Delhi municipal com- mittee worker staff, medical staff etc,” he said. Noida: The Noida-Delhi bor- der will remain sealed except for movement of people asso- ciated with exempted services, the Gautam Buddh Nagar administration said on Wednesday in new guideline- sissued for the lockdown till May 31. More details for move- ment between Noida and Delhi have been sought from the UP Government and till then the status quo shall be in place,” the guidelines stated. New Delhi: The date for this year’s civil services prelimi- nary examination is likely to be decided on June 5, the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) has said. The test, which was scheduled to be held on May 31, has been deferred due to the Covid-19 lockdown. P unjab Congress leaders on Wednesday virtually mounted pressure on the Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh to act against the State Chief Secretary Karan Avtar Singh for his alleged “rude behaviour” even as the Chief Minister indulged in lunch diplomacy to apparently paci- fy them. Up in arms against the afsar-shahi and not happy with the way three Cabinet Ministers attended a meeting along with the Chief Secretary despite unanimous decision to boycott him, about a dozen Congress leaders, including state party chief Sunil Jakhar, Cabinet Minister Sukhjinder Randhawa, and some legisla- tors, on Wednesday, got together to discuss the pre- vailing situation. Already, several Congress MLAs have raised the demand to convene a Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meet- ing to discuss the develop- ments taking place in the State, including the Chief Secretary’s issue besides the Covid-19 sit- uation. Amidst pressure tactics by the party MLAs, the Chief Minister invited some of lead- ers for lunch at his Siswan farmhouse to resolve the dead- lock. Capt Amarinder report- edly said that he was seized of the Chief Secretary’s matter and would personally look into it. Even as the Punjab Government “officially” claimed that the Chief Secretary’s issue was just one of the many discussed during the lunch meeting, it has been learnt that the main agenda of the meeting was only to end the logjam. During the two-and-a- half-hour-long luncheon meet- ing, the state party president Jakhar, Randhawa, and three party MLAs — Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, Pargat Singh, and Sangat Singh Gilzian vehemently raised the issue of Chief Secretary’s alleged misbehaviour with the Cabinet minister during the meeting. It has been learnt that the Chief Minister has insisted that the issue should be over and done with now as the Chief Secretary has already apolo- gized. Besides, the Chief Minister contended that in the past three years of the Government, there was no complaint against the Chief Secretary. However, the leaders, it seems, refused to buy the Chief Minister’s contention, and remained firm on action against the Chief Secretary, apparently to send across the message against the babudom. Besides, Pargat Singh also insisted on start acting in the matters that concern the peo- ple and what the Congress had promised to the people before elections. “We talked about the Chief Secretary’s issue during the meeting. We gave the entire account, how the things hap- pened that day, and how the Chief Secretary behaved. We asked the Chief Secretary to immediately take decision in the matter and finish this dead- lock as soon as possible,” said Randhawa after the meeting. He said: “We told him that Chief Secretary’s attitude and behaviour that day was not acceptable. And such behaviour is not suitable with the elected representatives heading the Ministries.” The Cabinet Ministers had, past week, staged a walkout during a pre-Cabinet meet on the excise policy after the Chief Secretary allegedly misbehaved with them. A day later, all Ministers had unanimously decided to boycott the Chief Secretary and not attending the meetings in his presence. However, three Cabinet Ministers — Balbir Singh Sidhu, OP Soni, and Bharat Bhushan Ashu — attended a meeting convened by the Chief Secretary Karan Avtar Singh on Monday, which ruffled feathers within the State party unit. So much so, around a dozen of party MLAs had raised the issue with the state party chief Sunil Jakhar and even stressed on convening a CLP meeting at the earliest. Reacting on the develop- ment, Randhawa said: “We condemn the Ministers who attended the meeting and we asked the CM to take action.” The Chief Secretary’s issue, coupled with the excise revenue loss, has took the centre stage in the State already fighting a battle against the coronavirus. The leaders, including the MLAs and MP, have been demanding probe in to the rev- enue losses by the Excise Department in the past three years and removal of the Chief Secretary over his alleged com- ments with the Ministers. Continued on Page 2
landfall at Digha in WestBengal on Wednesday, leavinga trail of destruction which ledto the death of three persons inthe State. The cyclone claimedthree lives in Odisha also.
The cyclone with windspeed of 160-170 kmph, gust-ing to 190 kmph coupled withheavy rain hit the Digha coastin East Medinipur districtaround 2.30 pm, officials said.
The cyclone barreledthrough coastal districts ofWest Bengal, unleashing copi-ous rain and windstorm, blow-ing away thatched houses,uprooting trees, electric polesand swamping low lying townsand villages, officials said.
High velocity wind speedup to 120 km per hour uproot-ed hundreds of tree, electricpoles and telecom infrastruc-ture and flattening fragile struc-ture. Amphan reached Kolkatawith wind speed up to 120 kmper hour at 7 pm onWednesday evening, damagingseveral buildings.
As per reports, three deathshave been reported fromBalasore, Bhadrak andKendrapara districts whilethree person, including twowomen were killed in Howrahdistrict and Minakhan area ofNorth 24 Parganas district dueto uprooting of trees.
Reports arriving in Kolkatafrom North and South 24Parganas and East Midnapore
said roofs of thatched houseswere blown away, and twistedelectric poles and broken anduprooted trees bore testimonyto the devastation. Streets andhomes in low lying areas ofKolkata were swamped withrainwater. A wall collapsed inHowrah near Union MinisterBabul Supriyo’s residence anddamaged several vehicle parkedthere.
The muddy Hooghly river
was rising under dark skies,while in the coastal resort ofDigha, large waves werepounding the shore.
Three coastal districts —South and North 24 Parganasand East Midnapore — will bethe worst affected, besides,vast swathes of South Bengaldistricts such as Kolkata,Howrah, Hooghly, WestMidnapore were the worstaffected. Areas such as Sagar
Island, Kakdwip and DiamondHarbour in South 24 Parganasand Digha and Haldia in EastMidnapore were battered bythe storm, uprooting trees andelectric poles and destroyingmany shacks.
Despite losing its force a bitsince Tuesday, the storm, whichwas categorised as supercyclone at one point of time,has left the two States on edgeas it hollered on its destructive
path over the Bay of Bengal.India Meteorological
Department (IMD) DirectorGeneral MrityunjayMohapatra, who jointlyaddressed the media withNDRF director general SNPradhan, said the eye ofAmphan, which is 30 km indiameter, has made landfall ataround 2.30 pm between Dighain West Bengal and HatiyaIsland in Bangladesh.
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In further relaxation of lock-down rules, the Ministry of
Civil Aviation is all set to startdomestic flight operations fromMay 25 in a calibrated manner.
Currently, only cargo andevacuation flight services areallowed. The Ministry willsoon be announcing the stan-dard operating procedures(SOPs) for domestic air travel.
In a tweet, Union Ministerfor Civil Aviation HardeepPuri said all airports and aircarriers are being informed tobe ready for operations fromMay 25. The standard operat-ing procedures for passengermovement will be separatelyissued by the Ministry, Puri said.
The Minister said only asmall percentage of the totalnumber of domestic flightswill be operated at first and thenumber of flights will beincreased later, depending onthe initial experience. He saidthe option of keeping the mid-dle seats on flights vacant is nota viable one.
“Even if you keep the mid-dle seat vacant, you’ll still havea situation where the pre-scribed distance for social dis-
tancing isn’t followed. If youwere to do it then you’d have tohike up the price of airline tick-ets by 33 per cent,” Puri said.
The announcement cameamid the fourth phase of thelockdown which was imposedby the Government on March25 in order to combat thenovel coronavirus outbreak inthe country.
The AAI on Sunday hadalso issued guidelines for pas-sengers once the flight servicesresume that include makingmandatorily downloading ofAarogya Setu app on mobilephones for travelling by air, doa web-check in and carry aprint out of their boardingpass before heading to the air-port to catch a flight.
It also stated that air trav-elers must maintain a distanceof four feet from co-passengers,wear a mask and other protec-tive gear, wash or sanitise theirhands frequently and carry a
350 ml bottle of sanitiser all thetime.
The aviation sector hasbeen hit hard by the pandem-ic as various countries, includ-ing India, decided to suspendcommercial flights completelyto curb the spread of the virus.
Since March 25, Indianairlines have taken steps like fir-ing expat pilots, announcingpay cuts and leave without payfor employees to conserve cash.
The first, second and thirdphase of lockdown werebetween March 25-April 14,April 15-May 3 and May 4-May17, respectively. The fourthphase started from May 18 andwould end on May 31.
Cargo flights, medicalevacuation flights, offshorehelicopter operations and spe-cial flights approved by the avi-ation regulator DGCA havebeen allowed to operate asusual during the lockdownperiod.
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With Maharashtra witness-ing 2,250 new Covid-19
cases and 65 deaths onWednesday, the country regis-tered total of 5,249 new cases128 deaths. The total cases inIndia stood at 1,11,730 and3,430 death with Uttar Pradeshyet to report till 11 pm onWednesday night. Mumbai cityalone witnessed 1,372 morecases with 41 deaths.
Meanwhile coronavirushas infected more than 5 mil-lion people across the world.
After Maharashtra, TamilNadu witnessed 743 cases, fol-lowed by Delhi 534 new casesand Gujarat 398 confirmedcases. Gujarat and Delhi had 30and 10 deaths respectively.This was the biggest singleday spike for Delhi.
Apart from these States,out of the total around 5,249new Covid-cases, 270 newcases were reported fromMadhya Pradesh, 142 casesfrom West Bengal, 107 fromRajasthan. Andhra Pradeshwitnessed 71 new cases. Afterregistering low numbers for thelast few days Kerala saw 24 new
cases on Wednesday whileBihar reported 60 new cases.
As per the latest data out ofa total of 1,11,730 confirmedcases, 62,871 are active casesand 45,422 people have recov-ered till date. Out of the total3,426 deaths in India, morethan 40 per cent deaths (1,390)are from Maharashtra alone.After Maharashtra, Gujarat haswitnessed the maximum num-ber of deaths with a total of 749.Madhya Pradesh has reported267 deaths with 9 onWednesday.
West Bengal has seen totalof 253 deaths, followed byDelhi 176 deaths and Rajasthan
143 deaths and Uttar Pradesh143 deaths. Among the doubledigit deaths, Tamil Nadu’s tallyreached 88 with three moredeaths on Wednesday. AndhraPradesh has a total death countof 53 and Telangana 38 andneighbouring Karnataka 41.
Meanwhile situation isNorth Eastern region is incontrol with new 13 cases inAssam and 11 new patients inManipur. Himachal Pradeshand Uttarakhand have 12 and11 new patients on Wednesday.Jammu & Kashmir also have 73new patients tested as positivewith one death, taking thetotal death tally to 18.
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Taking into considerationthe academic interest of
large number of students, theCentre has decided to grantlockdown exemption to con-duct Board Examinations forClasses 10th and 12th.
Home Minister Amit Shahsaid that the pending CBSEClass 10 and Class 12 boardexams can be conducted dur-ing the nationwide lockdown inplace to contain the spread ofthe coronavirus.
Two days ago, the HRDMinistry announced the sched-ule of pending examination ofthe CBSE board exams forClass 10 and 12. The exami-nations will be conductedbetween July 1 to July 15 for 29major subjects - including sixexams for Class 10 students forNorth-East Delhi and 12 sub-jects for students of Class 12 tobe held across the country.
While wearing of facemasks by teachers, staff andstudents will be mandatory,there shall be provision of
thermal screening and sanitiz-er at the centres and social dis-tancing in all the examinationcentres.
Taking to Twitter, Shahalso said that the examinationprocess has been exemptedfrom the lockdown measureswith few conditions like socialdistancing, wearing of facemask among others for thesafety of the students andteachers.
' � � �.�4".(2&
Nepal Prime Minister KPSharma Oli has said the
coronavirus coming from Indiais “more lethal” than thosefrom China and Italy andblamed the rising number ofCovid-19 cases in theHimalayan nation on thosesneaking into the country fromIndia, as the total number ofCovid-19 cases jumped to 427on Wednesday.
Speaking about the pan-demic in Parliament onTuesday, Oli said it has becomevery difficult for Nepal to con-tain the spread of the deadlyvirus due to the flow of peoplefrom outside.
“Many coronavirus infect-ed patients have entered Nepal.The virus came from outside,as we did not have here before.We could not stop infiltrationof people from outside theborder,” he said.
Oli said that the biggestchallenge facing the countrytoday is the rising number ofcoronavirus cases and blamedthe rising number of coron-
avirus cases on individualsbreaking the nationwide lock-down, especially those sneak-ing into Nepal from India.
“The coronavirus comingfrom India are more lethalthan those from China andItaly,” he said.
“Those who are comingfrom India through illegalchannels are spreading thevirus in the country and somelocal representatives and partyleaders are responsible forbringing in people from Indiawithout proper testing,” Oliwas quoted as saying by theKathmandu Post.
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Police have continued tobear the brunt of lock-
down. In a new case onWednesday, five Haryanapolice personnel were injuredwhen some people from Delhi’sKapashera allegedly peltedstones at them after trying toforcibly enter the State’s terri-tory, officials said.
There were reports thatsome people, stated to be work-ers, wanted to travel to UdyogVihar in Gurugram but werestopped by the Haryana Policeat the Delhi-Gurugram border.
However, some of themtried to force their way despitestrict measures put in place byHaryana on its borders andclashed with the police. In the
incident, five policemen wereinjured, the officials said.
Haryana’s Home MinisterAnil Vij said there has been astone pelting incident at Delhi’sKapashehra border withHaryana. He said some peopletried to enter the border intoHaryana but were stopped.
“They wanted the bordersto be opened for them to crossinto Haryana. They peltedstones at Haryana police per-sonnel,” Vij said.
“I said under no circum-stances will we open the bor-der. The Delhi High Court hadgiven us directions to allowinter-state movement for cer-tain categories like doctors,drivers of vehicles with essen-tials, Delhi municipal com-mittee worker staff, medicalstaff etc,” he said.
Noida: The Noida-Delhi bor-der will remain sealed exceptfor movement of people asso-ciated with exempted services,the Gautam Buddh Nagaradministration said onWednesday in new guideline-sissued for the lockdown tillMay 31. More details for move-ment between Noida and Delhihave been sought from the UPGovernment and till then thestatus quo shall be in place,” theguidelines stated.
New Delhi: The date for thisyear’s civil services prelimi-nary examination is likely to bedecided on June 5, the UnionPublic Service Commission(UPSC) has said. The test,which was scheduled to be heldon May 31, has been deferreddue to the Covid-19 lockdown.
mounted pressure on the ChiefMinister Capt AmarinderSingh to act against the StateChief Secretary Karan AvtarSingh for his alleged “rudebehaviour” even as the ChiefMinister indulged in lunchdiplomacy to apparently paci-fy them.
Up in arms against theafsar-shahi and not happy withthe way three CabinetMinisters attended a meetingalong with the Chief Secretarydespite unanimous decision toboycott him, about a dozenCongress leaders, includingstate party chief Sunil Jakhar,Cabinet Minister SukhjinderRandhawa, and some legisla-tors, on Wednesday, got together to discuss the pre-vailing situation.
Already, several CongressMLAs have raised the demandto convene a Congress
Legislature Party (CLP) meet-ing to discuss the develop-ments taking place in the State,including the Chief Secretary’sissue besides the Covid-19 sit-uation.
Amidst pressure tactics bythe party MLAs, the ChiefMinister invited some of lead-ers for lunch at his Siswanfarmhouse to resolve the dead-lock. Capt Amarinder report-edly said that he was seized ofthe Chief Secretary’s matter andwould personally look into it.
Even as the PunjabGovernment “officially”claimed that the ChiefSecretary’s issue was just one ofthe many discussed during thelunch meeting, it has beenlearnt that the main agenda ofthe meeting was only to end thelogjam.
During the two-and-a-half-hour-long luncheon meet-ing, the state party presidentJakhar, Randhawa, and threeparty MLAs — AmarinderSingh Raja Warring, Pargat
Singh, and Sangat SinghGilzian vehemently raised theissue of Chief Secretary’salleged misbehaviour with theCabinet minister during themeeting.
It has been learnt that theChief Minister has insisted thatthe issue should be over anddone with now as the ChiefSecretary has already apolo-gized. Besides, the Chief Ministercontended that in the past threeyears of the Government, therewas no complaint against theChief Secretary.
However, the leaders, itseems, refused to buy the ChiefMinister’s contention, andremained firm on actionagainst the Chief Secretary,apparently to send across themessage against the babudom.Besides, Pargat Singh alsoinsisted on start acting in thematters that concern the peo-ple and what the Congresshad promised to the peoplebefore elections.
“We talked about the Chief
Secretary’s issue during themeeting. We gave the entireaccount, how the things hap-pened that day, and how theChief Secretary behaved. Weasked the Chief Secretary toimmediately take decision inthe matter and finish this dead-lock as soon as possible,” saidRandhawa after the meeting.
He said: “We told him thatChief Secretary’s attitude andbehaviour that day was notacceptable. And such behaviouris not suitable with the electedrepresentatives heading theMinistries.”
The Cabinet Ministers had,past week, staged a walkoutduring a pre-Cabinet meet onthe excise policy after the ChiefSecretary allegedly misbehavedwith them. A day later, allMinisters had unanimouslydecided to boycott the ChiefSecretary and not attending themeetings in his presence.
However, three CabinetMinisters — Balbir SinghSidhu, OP Soni, and Bharat
Bhushan Ashu — attended ameeting convened by the ChiefSecretary Karan Avtar Singh onMonday, which ruffled featherswithin the State party unit.
So much so, around adozen of party MLAs hadraised the issue with the stateparty chief Sunil Jakhar andeven stressed on convening aCLP meeting at the earliest.
Reacting on the develop-ment, Randhawa said: “Wecondemn the Ministers whoattended the meeting and weasked the CM to take action.”
The Chief Secretary’s issue,coupled with the excise revenueloss, has took the centre stagein the State already fighting abattle against the coronavirus.The leaders, including theMLAs and MP, have beendemanding probe in to the rev-enue losses by the ExciseDepartment in the past threeyears and removal of the ChiefSecretary over his alleged com-ments with the Ministers.
three health-related programs,including H1N1 VaccinationCampaign for Health Careworkers, Hepatitis-B ControlProgram under National ViralHepatitis Control Program andEye donation centres in 21District hospitals of the State.
With this, free of costHepatitis-B screening, diag-nosis, and treatment will nowbe available to the people of theState.
After inaugurating thethree programmes, AdditionalChief Secretary, Health andFamily Welfare Department,Rajeev Arora, addressed thecivil surgeons and representa-
tives of various hospitals fromdifferent districts of the statethrough video conferencingand said that the percentage ofpopulation suffering fromHepatitis B should be ascer-tained and directed them toprepare a work plan to dealwith it.
Arora said in the first phaseof Hepatitis-B control pro-gram, newborns, pregnantwomen and inmates in statejails should be covered. Also, itshould be implemented in dis-tricts like Sirsa, Hisar,Fatehabad, Gurugram andFaridabad, he added. He direct-ed the concerned officers toincrease the Hepatitis-B screen-ing facility in the state andcheck maximum number ofpeople in the affected districts.
The official said that afterpreparing a detailed actionplan of Hepatitis B controlprogram and National Programfor Control of Blindness andVisual Impairment, both theprogrammes will be dulyimplemented from the monthof August.
He said that due to Covid-19 pandemic as the HealthDepartment has come intofocus due to which there hasbeen mobilization of healthworkers across the State and
public awareness regardinghealth has also increased so thistime should be used produc-tively to achieve the goals ofthese programs.
Arora said that in India,since 2016 about 85000 personsare being infected by the H1N1virus and 4900 deaths haveoccurred in the last few years.India usually witnesses twopeaks, one during January toMarch and another in postmonsoon between August andOctober, he added. He said thatthis infection is primarilyspread through respiratorydroplets acquired throughcoughing, sneezing or touchingan object having droplets on it.H1N1 infection can affect anyage and gender, he added.
The Additional ChiefSecretary, Health said healthworkers fall in the high-riskcategory and require specialattention. Around 13,000health workers across the statewill be vaccinated as a cam-paign. For this, the vaccine thatis planned to be used is a sin-gle dose vaccine and is effectivefor a period of one year. Heinformed that all the 22 dis-
tricts in the state are being pro-vided free H1N1 testing, diag-nosis and treatment servicesalready. He also stressed on thesafety of health workers deal-ing with infections like H1N1and Covid-19, etc.
Arora said under theNVHCP program, hepatitis-Cis already being provided freetreatment, diagnosis and treat-ment facilities in all the 22 dis-trict civil hospitals and all thejails of the state which are des-ignated as treatment centres.He said that now the Hepatitis-B patients in the state will alsobe provided the same facilities.
He said that three new'Eye banks' will be started soonin Karnal, Khanpur and Mewatmedical colleges, stating that allthe 68 eye assistants in the statehave been trained in corneacollection to overcome theshortage of doctors.
Mission Director, NationalHealth Mission, PrabhjotSingh, Director General HealthServices, Suraj Bhan Kambojand Director, Health Services,Usha Gupta and other seniorofficers of the department werealso present.
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Chandigarh: The ChandigarhAdministration has directedthe private schools not to strikeoff the name of any studentwhose parents fail to depositthe fee in time due to financialhardships amid Covid-19 lock-down.
Allowing the privateschools to collect tuition fee onmonthly basis, theAdministration has directedthe schools that if any parent isnot in a position to deposit thefee in time even then the nameof the student will not bestruck off and online teachingwill also not be stopped.
In an order issued, theAdministration allowed theprivate schools to collect tuitionfees on monthly basis and par-ents can deposit fees of Apriland May till May 31 withoutany late fee. The monthly feefrom June onwards can bedeposited by 15th of themonth. There are around 77recognized private un-aidedschools in the city. PNS
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Punjab Drugs ManufacturersAssociation (PDMA) on
Wednesday expressed grati-tude to the Chief MinisterCapt Amarinder Singh foraccepting their demand forsetting up of a dedicated phar-ma industrial park crucial foroverall development and pro-motion of bulk drug manufac-turing industry especially inpost-Covid scenario.
"Accepting our long pend-ing demand, Capt AmarinderSingh had approved setting upof a 133-acre industrial phar-ma park in village Wazirabadof Fatehgarh Sahib District.The hi-tech industrial parksite is located strategically onthe Amritsar-Kolkata IndustrialCorridor (AKIC), facilitatingmovement of goods interstateand for exports," PDMA said ina statement.
Underscoring the highpotential of the forthcoming hi-tech facility, PDMA urged thestate government to speed upthe process of setting up thiscentre equipped with all com-mon facilities and CETP in atimely manner as with itsdevelopment the China basedPharma industries will also betempted and leveraged to shifttheir operations to Punjab,especially in the changed worldeconomic scene.
"Self-sufficiency in manu-facturing of bulk drugs is high-ly required as any disruptionsin supply chain will affect ourexports and the drug securityof the country. The industrialpark is a positive move andneed of the hour for companieswho want to setup their base inthe state and for other units,who are relocating their exist-ing location", the statementadded.
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From Page 1From the time the curfew was implemented in the State in
the wake of Covid-19 outbreak, it would be for the first time thatthe MLAs have personally met the Chief Minister. Notably, theMinisters and the MLAs had been sulking since March-end whenthe Chief Minister started talking to the MLAs and party lead-ers through video-conferencing.
The Government’s official statement maintained that theChief Minister discussed the dynamically evolving Covid situ-ation with some of his party colleagues and MLAs during an infor-mal lunch.
“The Chief Minister later said the party leaders had also raisedthe issue of the Chief Secretary and the alleged Excise Revenuelosses, to which he responded that he was apprised of the issueand was personally looking into it,” read the statement, in theend.
It also stated that discussions were held on the situation onthe ground across districts, particularly in the context of the largenumber of people returning to Punjab from abroad and otherstates. The party leaders congratulated the Chief Minister on thevarious steps taken to keep the spread of the pandemic undercheck, the smooth wheat procurement operations, the aug-mentation of health and testing infrastructure and the overallhandling of the situation by the state Government.
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Following the movement ofmigrant labourers, who wish
to go at their native homes, theDelhi Police on Wednesdaysaid that the Screening Centresfor migrant labourers havestarted full scale operations allover Delhi for speedy facilita-tion of transit of migrantlabourers going through trains.
According to police, theGovernment planned 25Shramik Trains departing fromthree different railway stations( New Delhi, Old Delhi andAnand Vihar Railway Station).Thirteen (13) trains are leavingfor UP and eleven (11) forBihar apart from those forTrivandrum and other places.
"To ease migrants distress,the government further creat-ed 30 screening centres forproper screening of migrantlabourers in all the 11 RevenueDistricts of Delhi Government.This gave a systematic platformfor speedy screening of pas-sengers for different destina-tions," said police.
"All these Screening Centresfor migrant labourers have start-ed full scale operations all overDelhi for speedy facilitation oftransit of migrant labourers.Migrant labourers already reg-istered are being called forscreening at the centers,' said aseniors police official.
"Adequate police arrange-ment has been made at each
screening centre which is beingsupervised by senior officersincluding Addl. DCsP andACsP. Few centres were inspect-ed by Joint CP/Ranges to ensurethat the entire process is smoothand proper care is being pro-vided. It is being ensured thatthe entire process is completedin an orderly manner with leasthardship to the migrant labour-ers. Proper queue managementand social distancing is beingensured at all these centres,' saidthe senior police official.
"Adequate facilities likefood and water have been pro-vided. After proper screening,the migrants are being taken todedicated buses in terms ofdestinations and further trans-ported to railway station. Localpolice alongwith staff ofDCP/Railways are assisting theentire process'" he added.
"Delhi Police has also takena positive step to facilitate theentire process. Those who havenot been able to register havebeen provided with relief atvarious schools, complexesidentified by the administra-tion. The local police has takenthe help of various groups likecorona volunteers, policemitras and representatives ofassociations in helping themigrants to register them-selves," said the senior policeofficial further added.
"The majority of themigrants belong to Bihar &Uttar Pradesh while somebelong to Rajasthan, WestBengal, Kerala and Jammu &Kashmir," said police.
�������%��������� ��� � �����%��� +��%�����'����7���New Delhi : The DelhiGovernment has instructedconductors, bus marshals anddrivers to not have more than20 passengers in a bus.
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'��� '4.(25�.64
The Chandigarh TransportUndertaking (CTU)
resumed bus services on selectroutes within the city onWednesday.
A total of 47 non-AC busesplied on 16 routes within thecity, a statement said.
The Union territoryadministration has also soughtpermission from the Punjaband Haryana governments torun local buses in peripheralareas falling within theirrespective jurisdictions, it said.
“After receiving permis-sions, the operations will bescaled up to run 159 buses on52 routes from 8 am to 6 pmdaily in the tricity (Chandigarh,Mohali and Panchkula),” thestatement added.
According to the standardoperating procedure (SoP), allthe buses will be sanitised
twice a day in morning andevening. Thermal screeningwill be done at entry points ofISBTs for passengers and buscrew in depots.
To help Punjabis comingback on special flights from
abroad to return to theirrespective districts in the Statewhere they will have to remainin institutional quarantine,Punjab Government has set upa Facilitation Centre at theIndira Gandhi InternationalAirport (IGIA), New Delhi.
“The transport facility hasbeen arranged by the Centre toensure comfortable return ofstranded Punjabis and NRIs totheir home districts, wherethey will be required to stay inquarantine for 14 days and willalso be tested for COVID,”said the Chief Minister CaptAmarinder Singh.
Those found negativewould be sent home for anoth-er two weeks of self-quarantinewhile those who test positivewill be shifted to isolation cen-tres for care or treatment, headded.
With 20,000 strandedPunjabis and NRIs expected toreturn home under the ‘VandeBharat Mission’, many of them
by flights arriving in NewDelhi, the Facilitation Centrewould ensure seamless coordi-nation, without chaos or con-fusion, said the Chief Minister.
Coordinators have alsobeen appointed in variouscountries to ensure safe returnof those who had registered forreturn to their native place inPunjab, on the lines of theNodal Officers appointed byhis government to facilitatethe to and fro movement ofmigrants via the specialShramik Trains, he added.
Elaborate arrangementshave been made to quarantinethese people in hotels in con-cerned districts, and free quar-antine facility would be givento those students or immi-grants who cannot afford thecost of hotels, said PunjabNRIs Affairs Minister RanaGurmit Singh Sodhi.
The state NRIs Affairs sec-retary Rahul Bhandari said thatthe Facilitation Centre at IGIA isworking 24 hours a day. Whileone flight arrived in Amritsarfrom USA a day before, severalmore are expected to bring
Punjabis or NRIs at New Delhiand Amritsar next week.
“The Facilitation Centreis coordinating with the StateTransport Department toenable smooth and timely ser-vices for taking the returneesback to their home districts inPunjab,” he said.
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Intensifying its frontline bat-tle against Covid-19, Punjab
Government on Wednesdaynotified an Ordinance to bringprivate clinical establishmentsinto the ambit of its fightagainst the pandemic.
The notification, undersub section (3) of section 1 ofthe Punjab ClinicalEstablishments (Registrationand Regulation) Ordinance,2020, will bring all clinicalestablishments having capaci-ty of more than 50 beds underthe provisions of the said ordi-nance.
This is in line with thedecision taken by the Councilof Ministers at its meeting onApril 10.
“The Ordinance wouldprovide a mechanism for reg-istration and regulation of clin-ical establishments in a pro-fessional manner, to ensurecompliance of minimum stan-dards of facilities and services,as well as transparency in thefunctioning of these establish-ments for fair and proper deliv-ery of health services to thecommon man,” said aspokesperson of the ChiefMinister’s Office.
To implement the provi-sions of the Ordinance, aPunjab State Council forClinical Establishments willbe set up under the chairman-ship of AdministrativeSecretary (Health and FamilyWelfare) with Director (Healthand Family Welfare) as mem-ber secretary.
Members will includeDirector, Health Service(Family Welfare); Director,Health Service (SocialInsurance), along withDirectors of various recog-nized systems of medicine ofthe State Government, includ-ing but not limited to theDirector Ayurveda, Head ofHomeopathic Department;President of Punjab MedicalCouncil; President of PunjabDental Council; Registrar ofPunjab Nurses RegistrationCouncil; and Registrar PunjabState Pharmacy Council.
Other members of theCouncil will include one rep-resentative each elected by theexecutive of the Board ofAyurvedic and Unani Systemsof Medicine, one representativefrom State Branch of IndianMedical Association, one fromfield of paramedical systems tobe nominated by the State
Government, two representa-tives from amongst the statelevel consumer groups orreputed Non-GovernmentOrganisations working in thefield of healthcare, to be nom-inated by the state govern-ment, and one Law Officer tobe nominated by the StateGovernment as its members.
As per the Ordinance, thePunjab State Council forClinical Establishments hasbeen mandated to maintain thePunjab State Master Register,besides sending monthlyreturns for updating theNational Register and repre-senting Punjab in the NationalCouncil, as required by theCentral Government orNational Council establishedunder Clinical Establishments(Registration and Regulation)Act, 2010.
In addition, a StateRegistration Authority has alsobeen constituted, with Director(Health and Family Welfare) aschairperson, along with aDeputy Director (Health andFamily Welfare), Law Officer,to be nominated by the StateGovernment, and NodalOfficer of Director Health andFamily Welfare as members, for
registration of clinical estab-lishments with 100 or morebeds.
Similarly, DistrictRegistration Authority in everydistrict would consist of theconcerned Civil Surgeon aschairperson while DistrictFamily Welfare Officer, onerepresentative of the DistrictAttorney and District NodalOfficer of the respective districtas its Members to dischargefunctions namely; registrationof all clinical establishments ofthe respective district, exceptthe clinical establishments hav-ing 100 or more beds.
The Ordinance also pro-vides for Punjab State AppellateAuthority headed by theAdministrative Secretary(Health and Family Welfare) aschairperson besides DirectorHealth Services (FamilyWelfare) and one Law Officerto be nominated by the stategovernment as members.
The Appellate Authorityhas been mandated to hearappeals against the orders ofState Registration Authorityand District RegistrationAuthority and perform suchother functions, as may bedetermined by the state gov-ernment.
almost two months after theirsuspension in the wake of theCovid-19 outbreak.
Buses of the state-ownedPunjab Roadways and PepsuRoad Transport Corporation(PRTC) plied on select routesin non-containment zoneswithin the state.
Punjab Transport MinisterRazia Sultana had on May 18announced resumption ofpoint-to-point bus servicesbetween major cities and dis-trict headquarters from May 20with 50 per cent occupancy.The state government has saidinter-state bus services will notresume till May 31.
The central governmenthas allowed buses to be plied inthe fourth phase of the coun-trywide lockdown (from May18 to May 31) to combat thespread of the novel coron-avirus.
Before the start of opera-tions, all buses were sanitised.Passengers had to undergotemperature screening at busstands before being allowed toboard buses, officials said.Social distancing norms werefollowed and it was ensuredthat passengers wore masksand their hands sanitised, theysaid.
There was no rush of pas-sengers at most bus stands inthe morning hours, but many
people expressed relief at theresumption of bus services. Ata few places, includingJalandhar and Amritsar, pas-sengers came to bus stands asearly as 5 am and complainedof not getting buses despitewaiting for long. Many pas-sengers complained that theywere made to wait till the bushad 50 per cent occupancy andstarted running.
At Hoshiarpur bus stand,Punjab Roadways duty inspec-tor Madan Lal said the bus ser-vices on five routes --Hoshiarpur to Mohali,Jalandhar, Ludhiana; Tanda-Batala; and Mukerian-Pathankot-Gurdaspur -- wereresumed. Officials said thebuses will not stop midway.
At Amritsar, the bus ser-vices resumed on three routes-- Amritsar to Dera BabaNanak, Amritsar to Pathankot,and Amritsar to Jalandhar. AtPatiala, the PRTC plied itsbuses on 10 routes whichincluded Patiala, Samana,Patran, Nabha, Malerkotla andJalandhar.
HARYANA TAKES BACKDECISION TO PLY INTER-STATE BUSES
Haryana government onWednesday took back its deci-sion of plying inter-state buses,but said its buses will contin-ue to run within the state.
The decision came afterstate Home Minister Anil Vijapprised Chief Minister
Manohar Lal Khattar that itwould be difficult to preventthe spread of Covid-19 oncepeople start travelling freelyfrom one state to the other.
"I met the chief ministerhere and I also wrote to him onTuesday stating that we are notprepared for running inter-state buses," Vij, who is also theHealth Minister, said.
He told the CM that itwould not be possible to con-duct tests of so many peopleand also cited the high numberof Covid-19 cases in someneighbouring states. "In Delhialone, there are so many cases.How can we manage and pre-vent infection? He agreed to mysuggestion and now Haryanawill not run inter-state buses.The chief minister also gavenecessary instructions to thestate's Transport Department inthis regard," Vij said.
However, HaryanaRoadways buses will continueto run within the state, he said.The move to resume bus trav-el to various states came afterKhattar's announcement onMonday. After this, theHaryana government had writ-ten to the transport depart-ments of at least six states andtwo Union territories, seekingtheir consent to start interstatebus services on 12 select routes.The majority of Haryana's 970coronavirus cases come fromfour districts bordering Delhi.These are Gurgaon, Faridabad,Sonipat and Jhajjar.
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Haryana Chief Minister,Manohar Lal Khatar on
Wednesday announced sever-al new initiatives like payingthree months’ interest on stu-dent loans by the StateGovernment.
Addressing the people ofthe state today during the'Haryana Aaj' programme,Khattar said there are manystudents who have taken loanfor their education. "HaryanaGovernment will pay the inter-est of three months of all thosestudents who are completingtheir education this year or whohave already completed theireducation in the previous year,but have not been able to starttheir jobs or business due tothis epidemic," he said, addingthat 36,000 students will bebenefitted with an amount ofabout Rs 40 crore.
Similarly, HaryanaGovernment will bear two per-cent of the total interest onloans of up to �50,000 under'Shishu Yojana' of Mudra LoanScheme of the CentralGovernment. They will not berequired to give any type of col-lateral for this loan. Under thisscheme, loan will be providedto 5 lakh persons of the state.
The Chief Minister saidthat Haryana Government willprovide loans of up to � 15,000to 3 lakh poor people for start-ing their own small business atonly two percent interest.These loans will be providedunder the Differential Rate ofInterest (DRI) scheme, inwhich banks charge four per-cent interest. Of this, two per-cent interest will be borne by
the State Government.Khattar said due to the
Covid-19 pandemic, econom-ic activity has been limited forthe last three months. As aresult, not only the familyincome has been affected butthe Government's revenue hasalso come down drastically. Hesaid that, the Government wasdetermined that in this crisis,not even a single person shouldsleep hungry. "Daily need offamilies will not suffer due tolack of family income. Withthis resolve in mind, financialassistance of �636 crore hasbeen provided to 15,09,108families in the last three
months in Haryana," he said,adding that this amount hasbeen directly transferred tothe bank account of the bene-ficiaries.
The Chief Minister saidfree ration is also being madeavailable to more than 27 lakhfamilies by the StateGovernment. Apart from this,3,70,925 families, who do nothave any ration card, are alsobeing provided free rationthrough Distress RationTokens. In addition, so far 2.62crore food packets and morethan 12,22,000 dry ration pack-ets have also been distributed.
Khattar said for lakhs ofmigrant labourers who areworking in Haryana, who wantto return to their native statesdue to lockdown, free of costarrangement of buses andtrains have been made forthem. "So far, we have trans-ported more than 2 lakhlabourers to their destinationfrom Haryana through a totalof 53 trains and 4257 buses," hesaid.
The CM said many relax-ations have been given duringlockdown since May 18 andmajority of economic activitieshave been allowed. However,many businesses need govern-ment assistance to resume theirwork.
He said banks will play aprominent role for restartingbusinesses. "Keeping this inmind, a portal is being devel-oped on which one can applyfor any kind of loan to start anew venture. The state gov-ernment will ensure that allsuch loan applications areapproved by banks withoutany delay," he added.
corona virus, taking the State'scumulative tally to 993 even as21 patients recovered fromvarious hospitals of the Stateover the last 24 hours.
Out of 29 persons testedCovid-positive in Haryana onWednesday, 22 are from theNCR districts of Faridabad,Gurugram, Jhajjar and Sonepat.
A total of 21 patients weredischarged from hospitals inthe state, taking the count ofrecovered cases to 648 andrecovery rate to 65.26 per cent.
Sirsa joined andYamunanagar in district withno active cases, as per the statehealth bulletin. The fertility ratefrom the virus is 1.41 per centin the State. The doubling ratein the State is 16 days.
The state's cumulativeCovid tally reached 993, ofwhich 331 cases are active.Haryana has so far reported 14corona virus-related deaths.
According to the State gov-ernment’s health bulletin, 29fresh cases were reported fromGurugram, Faridabad, Sonepat,Jhajjar, Panipat, Jind andKurukshetra.
Faridabad reported sevennew cases of the deadly disease,taking the total in the districtto 170. Jind reported a newcase of the deadly disease, taking the total in the districtto 22.
Gurugram on Wednesdayreported six more coronaviruscases in different areas, addingto the concerns of districtauthorities since some caseswere reported from new areas.
In Gurugram, a total of 226cases have been reported tilldate. Sonepat reported eightmore cases, taking the tally to147. Jhajjar reported one morecase, taking total to 91.
Two more cases reportedin Panipat, taking total to 42.Four more cases were report-ed in Kurukshetra, taking totalto seven.
As many as 21 patientswalked out of hospital from dif-ferent districts of the State onWednesday. So far, 648 patientshave been cured and dis-charged from hospitals inHaryana, including the 14Italian nationals.
The worst affected dis-tricts of the State with maxi-mum number of positive casesare Gurugram (226), Faridabad(170), Sonepat (147) and Jhajjar(91).
with 7,000 migrant labourerswith their family members forKatihar and Bhagalpur in Biharand Damoh, Sagar andTikamgarh in Madhya Pradeshon Wednesday.
A government spokesmansaid that on Wednesday specialtrain from Ambala RailwayStation took 1247 migrantworkers for Katihar of Biharwhile 1400 workers fromFaridabad for Bhagalpur ofBihar, 1500 labourers fromGurugram for Damoh ofMadhya Pradesh; 1400 workersfrom Panipat for Sagar ofMadhya Pradesh and 1440labourers for Tikamgarh ofMadhya Pradesh from RohtakRailway Station.
He said that around 6 000migrant labourers were alsosent to their native places inUttar Pradesh through 200buses. The spokesman furthersaid that 1247 migrant labour-ers have been sent to Katihar inBihar by special train fromAmbala railway station. 1247migrant laborers living in shel-ter home in Karnal districtwere brought to Ambala
Cantonment Railway Stationthis morning via roadwaybuses. These migrant workerswere also accompanied by 11children. On behalf of theadministration, these migrantworkers were provided waterbottles, masks and sanitisersalong with free tickets so thatthey do not face any problemduring their journey.
A special train carrying1400 migrant labourers and353 children from RohtakRailway Station left forTikamgarh (Madhya Pradesh).These include workers fromYamunanagar, Karnal, Sonipat,Sirsa, Narnaul, Fatehabad,Hisar and Hansi. Appropriatearrangements were made bythe district administration toensure that workers do not faceany kind of trouble.
Three people tested positivefor the novel coronavirus in
Punjab on Wednesday, takingthe number of Covid-19 casesin the state to 2,005, accordingto a medical bulletin.
One person each inAmritsar, Gurdaspur andJalandhar tested positive for thecoronavirus.
As many as 152 coron-avirus patients were dischargedfrom different hospitals in thestate after they recovered fromthe infection, taking the totalnumber of recovered patientsto 1,794, the bulletin said.
Eighty-eight patientsrecovered in Ludhiana, 30 inSBS Nagar, 15 in Patiala, eightin Fatehgarh Sahib, four inJalandhar, three in Mansa andtwo each in Gurdaspur andPathankot, it said. Punjab has173 active Covid-19 cases, asthe per bulletin.
Amritsar continued to leadthe Covid-19 tally in the statewith 308 coronavirus cases,followed by 210 in Jalandhar,155 in Tarn Taran, 169 inLudhiana, 125 in Gurdaspur,105 in SBS Nagar, 103 inPatiala, 102 in Mohali and 95in Hoshiarpur, it said.
The bulletin said 88 caseswere reported in Sangrur, 65 inMuktsar, 61 in Faridkot, 60 inRupnagar, 59 in Moga, 56 inFatehgarh Sahib, , 44 each inFazilka and Ferozepur, 41 inBathinda, 33 in Kapurthala, 32in Mansa, 29 in Pathankot, and21 in Barnala.
Of the total cases, 38 havedied, it said, adding that onepatient is critical and is on ven-tilator support.
A total of 57,737 sampleshave been taken so far in thestate, out of which, 51,956samples tested negative andreports of 3,776 samples areawaited.
Sanjeevani OPD forGynaecology services fromJune 1 to ensure the motherand child healthcare (MCH).As of now, the Department isproviding telemedicine for gen-eral medicine.
Telemedicine, to avoid rushat hospitals in the wake ofCovid-19, proved a boon forpatients across the State asmany people need day-to-daymedical advice and consultationfor prevalent chronic diseases.
“Punjab has already start-ed E Sanjeevani OPD servicesfor general medicine from 10am to 1 pm. However, pregnantwomen until first trimester ofpregnancy are at high risk ofcontracting infection from hos-pital and should avoid unnec-essary visits to hospital. So, toseek antenatal care and provideGynaecological services topregnant women and lactatingmothers, the PunjabGovernment is ready to start ESanjeevani OPD for MCH,”said the state Health andFamily Welfare Minister BalbirSingh Sidhu on Wednesday.
Highlighting the use of
online technology platform fortraining of doctors and staffnurses for improving MCHservices, the Health Ministersaid that various measures havebeen taken for maintainingsocial distancing during train-ing session.
It has become difficult togather people together for pro-viding routine training forimprovement of skills and dis-seminate instructions for man-agement of MCH services, soonline training sessions arebeing used by the Departmentof Health and Family Welfarewith the help of Eco Zoomplatform to connect to all theDoctors, Staff Nurses andParamedical staff to impartvarious training on healthcareacross the State of Punjab, headded.
Sidhu said that these ser-vices will be of great help topregnant women who will beadvised on medication, dietand general care during preg-nancy. “Timings ofGynaecology OPD will be from8 am to 9.30 am daily fromMonday to Saturday”, he added.
The Minister also appealedthat it is safe to stay at homeand avoid unnecessary visits tothe hospital.
Chandigarh: Following thelatest guidelines of CentralGovernment regarding dis-charge of patients from isola-tion health facilities, the PostGraduate Institute of MedicalEducation and Research(PGIMER) on Wednesday dis-charged 45 asymptomaticpatients, all from Bapu Dhamcolony and shifted them toSood Dharamshala, Sector 22.
This is the highest numberof single-day recoveries of pos-itive cases witnessed in the cityso far. A day before, 37 patientswere discharged from thePGIMER.
Though discharged, allpatients have been shifted toSood Dharamshala, Sector 22for another 7 days’ quarantineconsidering the fact that fur-ther isolation may not be a pos-sible in their congesteddwellings in Bapu Dhamcolony (BDC), which is a con-tainment zone in the city.
With 45 recovered wererecorded on Wednesday, twomore fresh positive cases werereported taking the total num-ber to 202 till the evening.
“A 26 years old male and 50years old male, both from BDChave been tested positive ofCoronavirus. The total numberof positive cases stood at 202,”stated Chandigarh HealthDepartment’s evening bulletin.
The active cases in the cityare now 63. 3217 samples havebeen tested so far and report of39 is awaited, the bulletinadded. The BDC has so farrecorded 132 positive casesout of total 202 in the city. PNS
11th worst-affected country inthe world. But since more than39.6 per cent of the confirmedinfection cases have recovered,the Union Health Ministry onWednesday said it shows that clinical management pro-tocols adopted by the countryare effective.
Compared to the globalscale, where there are 62.3 casesper one lakh population, Indiastill has only 7.9 cases/lakhpopulation. Similarly, for mor-tality rate per lakh population,while the global average is 4.2,India’’s figure is pegged at 0.2,said the Ministry.
Union Health MinisterHarsh Vardhan addressing theNon-Aligned MovementHealth Ministers’ meeting onWednesday, said India’s
response of “micro-identifica-tion, mass isolation and quicktreatment” prevented “largescale deaths and spread ofCovid-19.”
Lav Agarwal, JointSecretary at the HealthMinistry at a Press conference
here, said Covid-19 recoveryrate has been on continuousupwards climb and is morethan 39.62 per cent.
“When the first phase oflockdown started, the recoveryrate was around 7.1 per cent.During the second phase of
lockdown, it was 11.42 per centand rose to 26.59 per cent.Today, the recovery rate is39.62 per cent.”
The efforts for early iden-tification of Covid-19 caseshad helped in having a betterrecovery rate, he said.
“The focus on clinicalmanagement and recovery hasresulted in the improvement inthe recovery rate. More than39.6 per cent of the confirmedcases have recovered, bringing the total to 42,298recoveries as of today. This is areminder that the disease iscurable and the clinical man-agement protocols adopted byIndia are effective.”
Only 6.39 per cent Covid-19 cases need hospitalisation,which includes oxygen, venti-lator or ICU support, he said.
Giving a breakup, he saidthat 2.9 per cent of all the activecases under treatment require
oxygen support, about 3 percent of the active cases requireICU support and 0.45 per centof the active cases require ven-tilator support.
India has been concur-rently focusing on upgrading
the Covid dedicated healthinfrastructure.
Agarwal stated that Indiahas been relatively able todecelerate the pace of Covid-19spread and the impact can beseen in the data of cases.
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In a ‘Make-in-India’ initiative, Kerala-based Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute
for Medical Sciences and Technology(SCTIMST), an institute of nationalimportance under the Union Scienceand Technology Ministry, has devel-oped an innovative technology to iso-late RNA from swab samples andenhance the chances of identifyingCovid-19 positive cases.
Presently, a majority of RNA iso-lation kits is being imported.
The Thiruvananthapuram basedinstitute has filed for patent for thistechnology which is simpler thanimported ones. Developed by DrAnoop Thekkuveettil and his team, thekit Known as “Chitra Magna”, usesmagnetic nano-particle to captureand concentrate the ribo-nucleic acid(RNA) from the patient’s swab sampleand can be deployed for both PCR andChitra Gene LAMP-N, the muchcheaper and faster diagnostic kit devel-oped by the institute recently, for teststo detect the virus.
The same team had developedChitra Gene LAMP-N, said a scientistin a statement here.
The SARS-COV-2, the causativevirus of coronavirus pandemic, is avirus that uses RNA, a long singlestranded polymeric substance presentin all living cells and carries the genet-ic information of the organism neces-sary for life, explained the scientist.
One of the critical steps in detect-ing this virus is by confirming the pres-ence of the RNA of the virus in thesample taken from the throat or nose.
In the lab, the RNA of Covid-19 isextracted, converted into DNA andamplified using the PCR technique orLAMP technique.
“Chitra Magna” would give a sig-nificant advantage in the extraction aseven if some viral RNA disintegrates
during storage and transportation ofthe samples, all of it is captured by themagnetic bead-based extraction tech-nology, said the scientist.
The magnetic nano-particle beadsbind to the viral RNA and whenexposed to a magnetic field gives ahighly purified and concentrated levelof RNA. As the yield of PCR or LAMPtest is dependent on getting adequatequantity of viral RNA, this innovationenhances the chances of identifyingpositive cases, the scientist added.
‘Chitra Magna’ can be used toextract high purity RNA from patientsamples not only for LAMP testing, butalso for RT-PCR test, he said.
The technology of ‘Chitra Magna’has already been transferred to a pri-vate firm, Agappe Diagnostics Ltd atKochi. The company has already takenthe Chitra GeneLamp for identificationof the N gene of SARS-COV-2, apotential confirmatory test with accu-racy matching RT-PCR in its initialvalidation at National Institute ofVirology by the Indian Council ofMedical Research (ICMR).
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Ascientist from TripuraUniversity has developed a
robot from locally available andscrap materials to take care of theCovid-19 infected patients from adistant place, an innovation whichwould come handy for the frontlinehealthcare professionals working inthe highly contagious environment.
The remote-controlled robot‘Covid-19 Warbot’ can carry 10-15kilograms of materials, has anoperational range of 15-20 metres,and can deliver food, medicinesand other essential items to theviral infected patients.
The robot, regulated by a trans-mitter and a receiver, can work foraround 90 minutes after the leadacid rechargeable battery is givenfive hour’s charge.
“I have just spent Rs 25,000 andtook a week’s time to make therobot. Due to the ongoing lock-down, I could not collect the latestand modern devices and tools fromoutside Tripura, hence I have todepend on the local and scrapmaterials. I used the vital receiver of
the robot from an old toy of the sonof my relative,” said scientist HarjeetNath, holder of the prestigiousyoung scientist award in 2018.
He said that the robot can beof enormous help to the doctors,nurses and other health workers todeal with the patients of the high-ly contagious novel coronavirus.
In the robot, Nath has installeda two-way communication deviceof a Wi-Fi-controlled camera withinbuilt microphone and speaker tohelp both the doctors or nurses andpatients to communicate directly
with each other maintaining asafest distance.
Presently, frontline healthworkers including the doctors andnurses are at the risk of gettinginfected with the highly infectiousvirus as they have to closely takecare of the Covid-19 patients.
Nath palns to add many moreskills including thermal screeningof suspected patients, sanitising thehospital floors to the existing robotto make the machine many moreother health related jobs besidespurposeful.
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Noting that the initiativehas had a positive impact
on several lives, Prime MinisterNarendra Modi on Wednesdaysaid the number of people whohave benefited from the“Ayushman Bharat” scheme hascrossed the one crore-mark.
In September 2018, PMModi had launched thePradhan Mantri Jan ArogyaYojana-Ayushman Bharat. Ithas been termed as the biggestG ov e r n m e nt - s p on s o re dhealthcare scheme in the world.
“It would make everyIndian proud that the numberof Ayushman Bharat benefi-ciaries has crossed 1 crore. Inless than two years, this initia-tive has had a positive impacton so many lives,” the PrimeMinister wrote on Twitter.
He said during his officialtours, he would interact with Ayushman Bharat bene-ficiaries. “Sadly, that is notpossible these days but I didhave a great telephone interac-tion with Pooja Thapa fromMeghalaya, the 1 croreth ben-eficiary,” he said.
The Prime Minister sharedthe audio clip of the conversa-tion in which Ms Thapa, a sol-dier’s wife, explains about thesurgery she underwent inShillong using the AyushmanBharat facility.
Her husband is posted inManipur and could not bewith her due to the coronaviruslockdown. Her two small chil-dren are being taken care of bythe neighbours.
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Aplea has been filed in the SupremeCourt seeking a mechanism to check
Twitter content and advertisementsspreading hatred through fake news andinstigative messages via bogus accounts.
The petition, filed by BJP leader VinitGoenka, also a member of the GoverningCouncil (CRIS), said that there are hun-dreds of fake Twitter handles and bogusFacebook accounts in the name of emi-nent people and high dignitaries.
“These fake Twitter handles andFacebook accounts use real photo of con-stitutional authorities and eminent citi-zens. “Therefore, common man reliesupon the messages published from theseTwitter handles and Facebook accounts,”said the plea filed through advocateAshwani Kumar Dubey.
The PIL said that fake news is theroot cause of many riots, including theone in Delhi earlier this year, and bogusaccounts are used to promote casteismand communalism which endangers
fraternity and unity of the country.“It is submitted that presently total
number of twitter handles in India arearound 35 million and total number ofFacebook accounts are 350 million andexperts says that around 10 per cent twit-ter handles (3.5 million) and 10 per centFacebook accounts (35 million) areduplicate/bogus/fake,” the plea said.
Political parties use fake social mediaaccounts for self-promotion and imagebuilding and to tarnish the image ofopponents and contesting candidates,especially during the elections, the pleasaid. The plea has also sought directionsto make a law as per which an action canbe initiated against Twitter and their rep-resentatives in India for willfully abettingand promoting anti India tweets andpenalize them.
The petition further said that a rep-resentation to the concerned authority toact in accordance with the law of thecountry against social media giant Twitterwas filed but no action has been takenso far by the concerned authorities.
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The NIA has arrested the key con-spirator Rustam Ali of Kishtwar,
Jammu & Kashmir in the case relat-ing to murder of BJP State SecretaryAnil Parihar and his brother Ajeet.
Ali, 56, is an accused in theParihar brothers killing case. Pariharbrothers were killed at Kishtwar onNovember 1, 2018, by HizbulMujahideen terorrists.
“Accused Rustam Ali was alsowanted in another terror case ofKishtwar registered by NIA whichrelated to robbery of Insas rifle fromPSO of Advocate Nasir Hussain.
The Parihars murder cases wastaken over by NIA ON November 28,2018. The agency chargesheeted sevenaccused persons including three killedterrorists Osama bin Javid, Haroon
Abbas Wani and Zahid Hussain besides three arrested accused–Nisar AhmedSheikh, Nishad hmed Butt and AzadHussain. Ali wasalso named in the chargehseet filed ata designated court at Jammu on May15 this year
“Investigation of both the casesunearthed the larger conspiracy ofthese terrorists and thre over groundworkers (OGWs) of HizbulMujahideen who attempting to reviveterrorism in the region of Chenab val-ley i.e. districts of Doda, Kishtwr andRamban,” the NIA said in a statement
Accused Rustam Ali had beenabsconding since long and investiga-tion revealed that Rustam Ali had con-structed a hideout in the house ofaccused Nishad Ahmed Buttfor safehiding of accused pesons, the agencyadded.
New Delhi: All due transfers inthe 1.62 lakh personnel-strongCentral Industrial SecurityForce (CISF) have been can-celled till March next year inview of the Covid-19 outbreak,an order issued by the para-military force said onWednesday.
The measure will affectabout 12,000-13,000 personneland is aimed at “minimising”
their “hardship” and savingtransfer allowance worth a fewcrore of rupees that is given tothe under-transfer staffers tojoin the new place of their post-ing. An order issued by theforce has been accessed byPTI. It said, “Director GeneralCISF has issued the direction inorder to minimise the hardhipof personnel and to control thefinancial commitment on
account of transfer allowance.”It added that all transfers
due this year have been“deferred till March 31 nextyear”. The force had earlierpostponed all transfer ordersand movements for its per-sonnel, issued till March thisyear, in view of the ongoingnationwide lockdown and thecoronavirus pandemic.
A final decision has now
been taken.CISF chief Rajesh Ranjan
confirmed the move, saying thedecision has been taken “keep-ing in mind all administrative,operational and personnel wel-fare requirements in the timesof coronavirus outbreak”.
The order said the onlyexception to the latest directivewill be a transfer done on thegrounds of “genuine individual
grievance, medical, operationaland administrative require-ment with clear recommenda-tion and specific justification”by the supervisory authorities.
A senior official explainedthat going on transfer entails alot of human and administra-tive work and it was decided bythe DG that it was important tokeep the troops safe from theCovid-19 point of view. PTI
New Delhi: The SupremeCourt on Wednesday issued anotice to the Central govern-ment on five fresh pleas chal-lenging the constitutional valid-ity of the Citizenship(Amendment) Act, 2019 onvarious grounds including thatthe “specific exclusion” ofMuslims was against the rightto equality and secularismunder the Constitution.
The CAA, which was noti-fied on January 10, grantsIndian citizenship to non-Muslim minorities — Hindu,Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi andChristian — who migrated toIndia from Afghanistan,Pakistan and Bangladesh tillDecember 31, 2014, followingpersecution over their faith.
The top court, on December18 last year, had decided toexamine the constitutional valid-ity of the CAA while refusing tostay its operation. A Bench
comprising Chief Justice SABobde and Justices AS Bopannaand Hrishiksh Roy, in the pro-ceedings held through video-conferencing, issued the noticeon the pleas filed by TamilNadu Thoweed Jamath, Shalim,All Assam Law Students Union,Muslim Students Federation(Assam) and Sachin Yadav andordered their tagging with theearlier batch of PILs filed on theissue.
Indian Union MuslimLeague is the lead petitioner inthe case. Tamil Nadu ThoweedJamath, in its PIL, said it was rais-ing a “seminal important ques-tions related to the promulgationof CAA, wherein first time reli-gion is introduced as a referencepoint/condition for acquisition ofIndian Citizenship forillegal/undocumented migrantsfrom Afghanistan, Bangladeshand Pakistan.”
Citizenship is being extend-
ed to certain a class of migrantsbelonging to religion of Hindus,Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsisand Christians and such classi-fication violates Article 14 (rightto equality) and 21 (right toequality) of the Constitution.
“Moreover, the classifica-tion based on the religiousidentity of the individualoffends the fundamental prin-ciple of ‘Secularism’, which isenshrined as basic structure ofthe Constitution,” it said,adding that the benefit wasspecifically denied to “Muslimsby specific exclusion”. Otherfresh PILs also raised similarobjections to the CAA.
Prior to this, Centre onMarch 17 had filed its responseto the over 100 PILs against theCAA and had asserted that thelaw does not violate any funda-mental right or affect the legal,democratic and secular rights ofany Indian citizens. PTI
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The Union Cabinet onWednesday approved a
series of financial measuresand policy decisions, includingthe changes in coal allocationmethods, announced in thePrime Minister’s 20-lakh-crorepackage for the revival of economy hit by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Cabinet meetingchaired by Prime MinisterNarendra Modi gave post-factoapproval to ‘Atma NirbharBharat’ package on allocation offood grains to the migrant andstranded migrants, special liq-uidity schemes to non-bankingfinancial and housing finance,packages on fisheries sector,additional funding of threelakh crore through emergencycredit line guarantee scheme,which were recentlyannounced by the FinanceMinister in connection with theRs 20 lakh crore package.
The Cabinet meeting alsoapproved the second set oflaws in tune with Jammu &Kashmir Re-Organization Actin relation to the recruitmentrules for various services.
“The Cabinet Committeeon Economic Affairs (CCEA),
chaired by Prime MinisterNarendra Modi, has given its ex-post facto approval for waiver ofinterest of Rs 7.59 crore onGovernment of India loans ofHindustan Organic ChemicalsLimited (HOCL), as on March31, 2005 in addition to the‘Waiver of penal interest andinterest on interest up to March31, 2005’ that was earlierapproved by the CCEA inMarch, 2006 under the rehabil-itation package for HOCL,” saidGovernment in a statement.
The CCEA also approvedthe methodology for auction of
coal and lignite mines/blocks forsale of coal/lignite on revenuesharing basis and increasing thetenure of coking coal linkage.
This methodology pro-vides that bid parameter will berevenue share. The bidderswould be required to bid for apercentage share of revenuepayable to the Government.
“The floor price shall be 4per cent of the revenue share.Bids would be accepted in mul-tiples of 0.5 per cent of the rev-enue share till the percentage ofrevenue share is up to 10 percent and thereafter bids wouldbe accepted in multiples of0.25 per cent of the revenueshare. There shall be no restric-tion on the sale and/or utilisa-tion of coal from the coal mine.
“The methodology is ori-ented to make maximum coalavailable in the market at theearliest and it also enables ade-quate competition which willallow discovery of marketprices for the blocks and fasterdevelopment of coal blocks.Higher investment will createdirect and indirect employmentin coal bearing areas especial-ly in mining sector and willhave an impact on economicdevelopment of these regions,”Government said.
New Delhi: Union HealthMinister Harsh Vardhan is setto take charge as the chair-man of the World HealthOrganization (WHO)Executive Board on May 22.He would succeed Dr HirokiNakatani of Japan, currentlythe Chairman. The proposalto appoint India’s nominee tothe 34-member ExecutiveBoard was signed by the 194-nation World HealthAssembly on Tuesday. PNS
New Delhi: A coronaviruspositive case was onWednesday detected in theDirectorate General ofHealth Services (DGHS) inthe medical education divi-sion at the Union HealthMinistry, Nirman Bhawan.“Proper protocol for saniti-sation of entire area willtake place, contact tracinginitiated,” the Ministry saidin a statement here. PNS
At the time of Covid -19 pan-demic fear migrants are
returning to their native villagesby. A major humanitarian situ-ation India is facing. In this sit-uation the Railways have dis-tributed toys to children ofmigrant labourers to make themhappy and memorable.
In a novel gesture BengaluruDivision of South WesternRailway distributed over 700world famous Channapatna toysto children who have boardedShramik Special trains sinceMonday.
This initiative is the brain-child of Bengaluru DivisionalRailway Manager Ashok KumarVerma and is to bring smiles onthe face of these hassled chil-dren.
Lakhs of migrants are goingback to their native places andrailway has arranged specialtrains from InformationTechnology city Bengaluru.
A press release issued by theSouth Western Railways saidmany Kids Toy Store and other
agencies have sponsored thisinitiative and joined hands withRailways in making the trainjourney of migrant labourers andtheir families happy and mem-orable during Covid-19 crisis.
Channapatna lacquerwaretoys are GI (geographical indi-cations, approved by the gov-ernment) tagged and worldfamouse.
These toys are safe and goodfor children as they are made ofwood and natural colours. Thesetoys are atarctive and safe for thechildren.
Channapatna toys are a par-ticular form of wooden toysthat are manufactured in thetown of Channapatna nearBengaluru .
The origin of these toys canbe traced to the reign of TipuSultan, the erstwhile ruler ofMysuru province, who invitedartisans from Persia to train thelocal artisans in the making ofwooden toys. The initiative ofthe railways is also to supportlocal art and craft of Karnatakaand encourages business of localartisans and artists.
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In a major operation, theKarnataka forest department
officials have captured a maletiger outside the boundaries ofBandipur Tiger Reserve (BRT)in the Niligiri bio sphere.According to T Balachandra,Conservator of Forests andField Director, Project TigerBandipur a cattle eating injuredmale tiger has been capturedoutside Bandipur Tiger Reserveon Tuesday.
The four year old Tiger sup-posedly killed many cattle in thevillages of the vicinity of the for-est. “The tiger killed and ate 20domestic cattle. It made its ter-ritory outside the forest near ahuman habitation,” saidBalachandra.
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As the persons tested positive for coronavirus onWednesday shot up to 24 and the number of Covid-
19 patients in the State increased to 666, Chief MinisterPinarayi Vijayan blamed the expatriates who returnedto Kerala for the spike in pandemic.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Vijayan saidthat Kerala was facing a serious situation as the num-ber of coronavirus afflicted persons were on the rise.The State saw 12 persons testing positive for the pan-demic on Tuesday while the numbers doubled byWednesday evening.
“Out of the 24 persons tested positive on Wednesday,12 were expatriates who returned to the State while 11were those who returned from Maharashtra (eight) andTamil Nadu (three),” said the Chief minister. He saidthough the situation in the State is precarious becauseof the increase in the number of persons tested posi-tive, the Government has decided to conduct theSecondary School Leaving Certificate Examination fromMay 26. The Vocational Higher Secondary CertificateExamination too will be held simultaneously, he said.
The Government is tightening the rules in the back-drop of the hike in the number of persons tested posi-tive for covid-19, said the Chief Minister.
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The first Rajdhani Super-Fast SpecialTrain between New Delhi and
Chennai post-national lockdown willbegin its service on Thursday. TheTrain No: 02434 New Delhi-Dr MGRChennai Central Rajdhani SuperfastSpecial Train will leave New Delhi at4 pm on Mondays and Thursdays andreach Chennai at 8.40 pm on Tuesdaysand Fridays respectively, according toa release by B Guganesan, chief pub-lic relations officer, Southern Railway.
The release said that No: 02433 DrMGR Chennai Central-New DelhiRajdhani Superfast Special Train wouldleave Chennai Central at 6.35 am onWednesdays and Saturdays startingfrom May 23 and reach New Delhi at10.30 am on Thursdays and Sundays.
The trains will have stoppages atAgra Cantt, Jhansi, Bhopal, Nagpur,Warangal and Vijayawada in the jour-ney which takes 28 hours. Ticketscould be booked only through the web-site of the IRCTC or through MobileApp. The release by the Railways hasasked the passengers to carry their ownfood and drinking water. “Dry, ready-to-eat food and bottled water shall beprovided on demand, inside the trainson payment basis,” said the release.
IRCTC shall make provision for
limited eatables and packaged drink-ing water on payment basis.Information to this effect shall be madeavailable to passengers during time ofbooking ticket.
Indian Railways has made thepost-corona journeys stricter byenforcing stringent conditions. Allpassengers would be compulsorilyscreened and only asymptomatic pas-sengers would be allowed to enter/board the train.
The release further stated thatPassengers traveling by these specialservices should observe the followingprecautions : (a) Only passengers withConfirmed tickets will be allowed toenter the Railway station.
(b) All passengers should wear facecovers/masks at the entry and duringtravel.
(c) Passengers should reach the sta-tion at-least 90 minutes in advance tofacilitate thermal screening at the sta-tion. Only passengers found asymp-tomatic will be permitted to travel.
(d) Passengers should observesocial distancing both at the station andon trains.
(e) On arrival at their destination,the travelling passengers would have toadhere to such health protocols as areprescribed by the destination State/UT,said the release.
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Total number of coronaviruscases in Tamil Nadu
jumped from Tuesday’s 12,448to 13,191 on Wednesday, asteep hike.
On Wednesday 743 per-sons which includes 83 whoreturned from Maharashtratested positive for coronavirusin Tamil Nadu. This took thetotal number of persons testedpositive till date in the State to13,191. The number of personstested positive in the State onTuesday were 688 which meansthat there is no let up in thenumber of afflicted persons inTamil Nadu.
Number of persons whosuccumbed to the pandemicreached 87 in the State withthree more breathing their laston Wednesday. The only newswhich offered some solace wasthe number of persons dis-charged from hospitals onWednesday. The day saw 987
fully cured persons getting dis-charged from hospitals, thehighest ever figure till date.This means that 5,882 personshave been discharged fromhospitals till date.
The media release issuedby the directorate of publichealth and preventive medicinesaid that 3, 43, 793 personshave been tested till date. Outof the 743 persons tested pos-itive on Wednesday, 557 werefrom Chennai. The metropolishas 8,228 coronavirus patientsas on Wednesday, the highestin Tamil Nadu.
Dharmapuri (5),Krishnagiri (21), Nilgiris (14),Pudukottai (13) Sivagangai(26) continued to be less prob-lematic compared to other dis-tricts.
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The eastern suburbs of thecity -- Iblur, Bellandur,
Kaikondrahalli and Kodathi -- continue to show the signs oflockdown with very little traf-fic and shut shops, despiterelaxations.
“Only 30-40 per cent of mycolleagues are attending officedespite easing of lockdown.Many people are scared ofCovid-19 and are not comingout,” said Prabhas Chandra, 33,an employee at Reliance Jio,waiting for a bus near hisoffice at Bellandur bus station.
The private companyemployee from Paradip,Odisha, said the BengaluruMetropolitan TransportCorporation (BMTC) buseswere minimally occupied as itresumed services on Tuesdayafter nearly two months.
Empty buses with 3-4 pas-sengers were seen plying on theroads.
The scene was similar atAgara, Bellandur,Kaikondrahalli and Kodathibus stations, which used toteem with people awaiting
buses.Similar was the story with
autorickshaws, allowed to plywith limited passengers fromTuesday.
Feroze, 33, an autorickshawdriver from Dharwad, waitingopposite Wipro headquarterson the Sarjapura Road, didn'tfind many takers for his ser-vices on the first day. “I couldearn only �300. Only a fewpeople are asking for the ser-vice. I took out my autorick-shaw at 7 a.m,” said Feroze.
Even if a lot of people askfor services, Feroze couldn'ttake more than two in histhree-wheeler to maintainphysical distancing amid thepandemic. CorroboratingFeroze's views, not manyautorickshaws were plying, a farcry from the pre-lockdowntimes.
The Wipro headquartersentrance and the series ofshops opposite its main gatealways buzzed with activitywith many people buying foodand other necessities. Theentire complex is shuttered.There's no sign of the dosa sell-ers who cooked them on
embers.Near the Iblur flyover by
Agara lake, Harish, a Swiggydelivery boy, said orders in thatpart of the city had reduced to8-9 a day. “In the pre-lockdowntime, I could deliver more than15 orders a day. Everything ischanged now,” he told IANS.
Meanwhile, even as amicrobrewery on one of themain roads in the arearemained shut, an employeewas seen seeking buyers out-side for freshly brewed beer at� 500 a litre.
Similarly, a handful of peo-ple lined up maintaining phys-ical distance at the liquor shopon the Sarjapura Road to buysome bottles.
Further towards Sarjapura,a Maruti Suzuki Nexa show-room had opened a couple ofdays ago after nearly twomonths. The showroom, openonly till 6 p.m, is hoping to sellat least one car a day unlikefour earlier. “We had 24-personsales team. Currently, we haveonly 6-7,” said Jagdish Dihar,41, who manages the show-room.
At the entry point of
Carmelaram, opposite Siemensand Accenture office complex,Guntur Mess that served tra-ditional Andhra cuisine wasempty. “We are serving food to10-12 people a day. The lock-down effect is profound,” saidRayappa, a partner of the hotel.
Despite the lack of busi-ness, Rayappa said his mess wasarranging free food for peoplewalking on the road.
Across the 10-12 kmstretch from Kodathi to Iblur,a number of shops -- gro-ceries and others -- were open,and an equal number shut.People didn't venture out toresume pre-lockdown kind oflife.
The signature Bengalurutraffic was missing in this partof the city. Despite fewer vehi-cles, almost 90 per cent lessthan normal days, the trafficpolice were manning the junc-tions, regulating vehicle move-ment and traffic lights.
However, a few cars andtwo-wheelers were seen vio-lating the physical distancingrules, with some of them run-ning on full capacity with peo-ple without masks.
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A40-year-old farm labourer was found dead mid-way while walking from Pune to his native vil-
lage around 400 km away in Parbhani district inMaharashtra, police said here on Wednesday.
According to Ambhora Police Station inchargeDnyaneshwar Kuklare, Pintu Pawar's body wasfound on Monday near Dhanora village in Beed dis-trict.
“The body was highly decomposed, indicatinghe may have succumbed much earlier. We alsofound some packets of biscuits and snacks in hisbag. The body has been sent for autopsy to ascer-tain the cause of death,” Kulkare told IANS.
According to preliminary investigations, Pawarhailed from a village in Manwath tehsil of Parbhaniand worked as a seasonal sugarcane cutter in Pune.
After the lockdown was enforced on March 25,he stayed with his brother in Pune, but decided onMay 8 to return to his village on foot.
He reached Ahmednagar after four days andcontacted his family to inform them of his locationbefore starting for Beed.
Pawar continued walking till he reachedDhanora in Beed and took a break to rest near atin hut there, with over 200 km yet to be covered.
On Monday, locals complained to the policeabout stench in the shed's vicinity. Later, policefound Pawar's body.
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In yet another case of 'hit andrun' three motorbike borne
terrorists on Wednesday killedtwo jawans of Border SecurityForce (BSF) near Pandach areaof Central Kashmir'sGanderbal district.
The BSF jawans were tar-geted less than 24 hours afterthe elimination of youngest sonof Hurriyat Chairman and topcommander of HizbulMujahideen, Junaid AshrafSehrai in Nawakadal area ofSrinagar.
According to police, theBSF jawans were deployed onduty to assist CRPF jawans inthe area.
This is the second majorincident of 'hit and run' onparamilitary forces in Kashmirvalley this month.
On May 4, three CRPF
jawans were killed nearWangam stop in Qaziabadarea of Handwara by Lashkar-e-Toiba terrorists.
Inspector General of PoliceKashmir range, Vijay Kumar,told reporters, “two BSF jawanson deployment duty on 90-FtSoura Road had gone to anearby shop to purchase some-thing when three motorbikeborne terrorists opened indis-criminate firing, killing one ofthe BSF jawans on the spotwhile another was shifted to anearby hospital where he toosuccumbed due to fatalinjuries”.
IG, Kashmir said, the ter-rorists decamped with the ser-vice weapons of both the BSFjawans from the spot. He said,we have cordoned off the entirearea to track down the foot-prints of terrorists behind theattack.
Meanwhile, situation alongthe line of control in Poonchremained tense as Pakistaniarmy resorted to unprovokedceasefire violation at differentintervals in Kirni,Qasba andDeegwar sectors of Poonch.
According to Lt-ColDevender Anand, DefencePRO in Jammu, “the first inci-dent of ceasefire violation wasreported in Kirni and Deegwarsectors of Poonch at around9.30 a.m and after few hoursthe Pakistani Army trainedtheir guns towards Kirni andQasba sectors around 1.50p.m”. At both the locations,Indian army gave befittingreply to Pakistan army. Groundreports claimed, heavy shellingwas going on in the area sincemorning and it was intensifiedduring day time forcing thelocal residents to stay indoorsto secure their lives.
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Areconciled NCP chief SharadPawar said here on
Wednesday that the Covid-19would not be eradicated com-pletely in the near future and itwas necessary for policy makersto accept the corona as a part oflife and create awareness amongthe masses about healthcare.
In a series of tweets put outafter he held a discussion withMaharashtra Chief MinisterUddhav Thackeray on theCovid-19 situation in the state,Pawar said that he had deliber-ated with Uddhav on theCoronavirus situation in thestate, the challenges faced by theadministration and the preven-tive measures that needed to betaken to provide relief to varioussections of people.
“Corona disease will not becompletely eradicated shortly. Itis necessary to accept the coro-na as a part of life, beware of it
and create awareness among themasses about health care. InJapan, people wear masks, lookafter personal hygiene as part oftheir routine social life,” Pawarsaid.
“I urge people to wear gloves,use masks, sanitizers, wash theirhands with soap from time totime to prevent corona infection.It is my appeal to the InformationDepartment to spread socialawareness among the massesabout the preventive measures for#Corona,” the NCP chief said.
“The situation in the statewill have to be restored by relax-ing some of the conditions oflockdown. Arrangements shouldbe made to convey the informa-tion about the level of relaxationto the public at a fixed time everyday by the State Government,” theNCP chief said.
“Shops, offices, establish-ments in the private sector shouldbe opened in a staggered manner
with complete caution,” he said.Advising the State
Government to restore the dis-rupted transported services grad-ually, Pawar said: “The lock-down has disrupted transportservices. We need to take theright steps to gradually restoreroad transport within the stateand plan for the resumption of airand rail services”
“The pace of work in publicand private ports seems to haveslowed down. To increaseimports, exports and inland ship-ping, consultations should beheld with industrialist, entre-preneurs and expert officials inthe field,” he said.
“Earlier several incentiveschemes were operational forindustries in backward andunderdeveloped areas. In thesame vein, new policies forencouraging industrial growthshould be released to attract newinvestment in the state,” the NCPchief said.
gated the State BJP leaders forits “lack of commitment” toMaharashtra and said that the“black flag” agitation resortedto by it was an “insult” to coro-na warriors and people of theState.
Slamming the BJP forpoliticising the Coronavirussituation in the state,Maharashtra Pradesh CongressCommittee (MPCC) presidentand senior State MinisterBalasaheb Thorat said: “TheState BJP leaders are not com-mitted to Maharashtra, theircommitment lies with theirleaders in Delhi. The protestcalled by Maharashtra BJP isnot a save Maharahstra protestbut a save the party in the State”.
Deputy chief minister andsenior NCP leader Ajit Pawardid not also mince words whenit came to criticising the BJPleaders. “At a time when doc-
tors, nurses, para-medical staff,sanitary workers, police andcitizens of the state are fightingagainst Covid-19, the State BJPleaders – instead of being a partof the war against the pandemic– have resorted ot black flagagitation which is an insult toboth the Corona warriors andthe people of the state”.
“The black flag agitationcalled by the State BJP isuntimely and it will not do anygood for the Opposition partyin the state. I am surprised asto how anyone in the BJP canthink of a black flag agitationat this juncture,” Pawar said.
Singling out former chiefminister and current leader ofthe Opposition in the AssemblyDevendra Fadnavis, Thoratsaid: “Fadanvis had said recent-ly that during these difficulttimes we shouldn't engage inpolitics and rather work unit-edly. But, his actions are notmatching his words.....Ratherthan donating to the chiefminister’s relief fund, he donat-
ed to the PM's relief fund. Heshould have actually foughtwith his leaders in Delhi for thebenefit of Maharashtra”.
Alluding to the BJP leaders’meeting with MaharashtraGovernor Governor BhagatSingh Koshyari on Tuesday atwhich they complained againstthe Uddhav Thackeray aboutthe “ineffective handling” of theCovid-19 situation in the state,Throat said: “We would haveappreciated him immensely ifhe had got an economic pack-age approved from Delhi forMaharashtra. But, Fadnavisand his colleagues in the stateBJP are not interested in speak-ing to the government but aremore interested in going to theRaj Bhavan and talking to theGovernor”.
“We are ready to listen tothem, if they point out any flawwe are willing to rectify it, butrather than that, they are moreinterested in creating confusionin the state,” the Congressleader said.
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Aday after Jammu district was classified asOrange zone, the highest number of 20 cases
of coronavirus were detected on Wednesday. However, a total number of 73 cases, 36 from
Jammu division and 37 from Kashmir divisionwere detected taking the total tally in the UnionTerritory of Jammu & Kashmir to 1,390 cases.One more patient died in Srinagar, taking thedeath toll due to covid-19 to 18.
In Jammu, nine members belonging to a sin-gle family tested positive while a retired doctor,undergoing kidney treatment, and a lady policeconstable,posted in Chest disease hospital, alsotested positive.
The family members were close relatives of apatient, who died last week after he too tested pos-itive posthumously in Preet Nagar area of Jammu.
In Kashmir valley, out of 37 fresh cases,Kupwara recorded 17 cases, Baramulla 8 whileAnantnag and Kulgam reported five cases each.The police lines in Anantnag is turning out to thehot spot as 78 police personnel have tested pos-itive so far in the district.
In Jammu, the district administrationreviewed the ground situation after the marketswere reopened for the first time on day one offourth phase of lock down period. The shopsremained open till 5.00 p.m and markets witnessedrush of local residents in many pockets. Thepolicemen were seen making regular announce-ments and patrolling in the area to ensure proper social distancing in market places.
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The bus drivers deployed byCongress workers at the UP-
Rajasthan border to bring backmigrants to their native places, havealleged that they have not been givenfood and water since Tuesday.
BJP state president Satish Pooniashared a video on his Twitter handlein which a bus driver is seen com-plaining that “There is no arrange-ment for food and water and the storyremains same for all drivers standingbesides the parked buses. Amidscorching sun, we have been sittinginside our buses which seem to havebecome a furnace,” he said.
This driver further said that he isa BP patient and has not taken hismedicine since morning.
“The RTO officials gave me wrongjob description. Initially, I was askedto go Alwar then officials told me totake the bus to Bharatpur. Now, I amstuck here since yesterday for 36hours with no food and water, hesaid.
“Since morning, have not taken my BP medicine too,” he com-
plained.Poonia, in another tweet, accused
the Congress of playing politics bymisusing its resources.
“Migrants are absconding fromscene but bus drivers have beenbrought under pressure and those whoare standing here are starving whilecursing the state government,” hetweeted tagging Congress generalsecretary Priyanka Gandhi.
Poonia further shared a picture ofa fleet of buses parked at the borderin his tweet and said that “these buseswaiting for migrants expose lies ofPriyanka Gandhi. The migrants havewalked off on foot waiting for buseswhile Rajasthanis stuck in differentparts are still waiting for 4,000 busesto be run by chief minster AshokGehlot,” he said.
On the other hand, Chief MinisterAshok Gehlot in his tweet said, “Thestate government understood thepain of the workers returning homeon foot and sent them through trainsand buses, as well as arranged campsand food etc for them. Due to this, thenumber of workers walking home hascome down considerably.”
assets worth �143.26 crore is therichest among the nine MLCselected unopposed to the UpperHouse of the MaharashtraLegislature last week.
According to an analysis bythe Association for DemocraticReforms (ADR) released here onWednesday, Uddhav has movableassets worth �61,89,57,443 andimmovable assets worth�81,37,17,320 which amountsto a total of �1,43,26,74,763.Uddhav has declared highest lia-bilities worth �15.50 Crore.
Among the 9 MLCs electedlast week, the Opposition BJP’sGopichand Padalkar has the low-est assets amounting to �87.63lakh. her part, Shiv Sena’sNeelam Gorhe, who is current-ly the deputy chairperson of the
State Legislative Council, hasdeclared assets worth �7.70 crore,while the NCP’s Amol Mitkari(�1.17 crore), and Congress’Rajesh Rathod (�6.42 crore) havemodest assets of 1.17 crore and�6.42 crore respectively.
Another NCP’s newly elect-ed member Shashikant Shindehas declared an asset of �39.88crore.
From among the OppositionBJP MLCs, the richest isRanjitsinh V. Mohite-Patil (�50.21 crore), followed by RameshKarad (�8.17 crore) and PravinDatake (�2.56 crore), whilePadalkar is the only a lakh-patiin the BJP.
Only one among the ninenew MLCs possesses a post-graduate qualification, while twoare professional graduates, threeare graduates and two havepassed out High SecondarySchool.
remained above 50 inMaharashtra, as 65 more per-sons succumbed to Covid-19and 2,250 others tested posi-tive for coronavirus in theState. A day after Maharashtranotched a day’s highest-everdeath tally of 76 persons,Covid-19 claimed 65 lives andleft 2250 others infected in various parts of the State.
There were as many as 63deaths on May 18, while thestate recorded 51 deaths onMay 18. With the fresh fatal-ities and infections, the totalnumber of deaths rose to 1390and infected cases mounted to39297 in the State onWednesday
Of the 65 deaths reportedon Wednesday, Mumbaiaccounted for Mumbaiaccounted for 41 deaths, whilethere 13 deaths in Pune, threein Navi Mumbai, two each inPimpri-Chinchwad, Solapur,
Ulhanagar and Aurangabad. Of the dead today, 46
were men while 19 werewomen. Thirty two of themwere aged over 60 years, 31were from the age group 40 to59 years and 2 were agedbelow 40 years. “Forty eightout of 65 patients (74%) hadhigh-risk co-morbidities suchas diabetes, hypertension,heart disease,” a state healthbulletin said.
Out of 3,07,072 laborato-ry samples, 2,67,775 testednegative while 39,297 samplestested positive for COVID-19until Wednesday. There are1849 active containment zonesin the state currently. Total15,495 surveillance squadsworked across the state onWednesday and surveillance of65.11 lakh population wasdone. As many as 10,318patients have been dischargedtill date after full recovery.Currently, 4,04,692 people arein home quarantine and26,752 people are in institu-tional quarantine.
The Prime Minister’s announce-ment on May 12 of a monetarypackage of �20 lakh crore torevive the Indian economy pre-saged a roadmap for the many
reforms the Finance Minister would unleashduring the five consecutive days. The dom-inant theme emanating from Prime MinisterNarendra Modi’s communication was ofSankalp (oath) to shake off the pandemic —the paralysis of fear that had immobilised thenation since February — to think of a lifebeyond COVID, roll up our sleeves and getgoing. Undertones of cautious optimism weremuch needed as feel-good terms often usedby the Prime Minister had receded from hislexicon since the past few months. Take, forexample, the creation of “New India”, therecurrent goal-setting reminder of “achiev-ing a $5 trillion economy” or the virtues ofharnessing India’s “demographic dividend.”Seasoned economists read Modi’s zest fortransformational reforms as his “1991moment of economic inflection”, aimed atenthusing business sentiment locally and asan aggressive pitch for inbound ForeignDirect Investment (FDI).
Of course, the exigencies that triggeredthe 1991 reforms were different from the onewitnessed this year. Cut to the present, thecompulsion for announcing these reforms isentirely different. They have been necessitat-ed due to the pre-COVID overhang of a con-tracting global and national economy; de-globalisation; the much-anticipated pan-demic-led revenue losses to the exchequer;and a pressing need to implement political-ly sensitive reforms in “land, labour, laws andliquidity” to woo Global Value Chains(GVCs) exiting China. Certainly, this is afinite now-or-never window of opportuni-ty.
Looking at the breakdown of the pack-age, the liquidity support and credit guaran-tee measures accounted for nearly three-fourths of the economic support package,which was followed by monetary measuresat 15 per cent and fiscal support at 10 per cent.Hence, the upfront direct fiscal costannounced remained limited to 1.2 per centof the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).Exceeding fiscal deficit runs the obvious riskof downgrade by rating agencies becausewhen debt-to-GDP ratio breaches the 60 percent mark, sovereign borrowing costs esca-late.
When provisioning for higher borrow-ing, the Government would have to factor inpre-existing high debt-to-GDP ratio and lowtax-to-GDP ratio. It will also have to factorin negative economic growth forecasts for2020-21 due to stagnant growth and fallingrevenue estimates. However, as India is notthe only country which had to resort toexceed the budget fiscal deficit, rating agen-cies will be compelled to revise their assess-ment criteria by gauging each nation’smacro-economic fundamentals and how pru-dently the money is spent.
The biggest learning fromthe Corona pandemic for Indiais to stop looking for leadershipor overly rely on the “big two,”China for imports and the US forpatronage. It is in this contextthat the central theme of thePrime Minister’s prescriptionfor “atmanirbharta” or self-resilience and self-reliance isrelevant. It falls back on the time-tested Gandhian economics ofsupporting and buildingswadeshi brands. With India’sglobalisation index as high as 62per cent, the need is for a para-digm shift. We must lower ourdependence on global supplychains.
World over, economicnationalism, which is a self-preservation strategy to build andbuy local goods to foster localemployment, is being practised.With growing mistrust betweennations due to the spread of thepandemic as also the weakeningwrit of multilateral institutions,globalisation has been in retreatsince the past five years.
Modi’s 21st century reinter-pretation of “self-reliance” mustbe viewed as a “hybrid model” ofeconomic nationalism, one thatis not overly protectionist orinsular to inbound FDI. Nordoes “self-sufficiency” here implya regressive return to theNehruvian era of import substi-tution, which mollycoddled thelocal industry into mediocrityand complacency. Instead, re-packaging “brand” India is asvital as building strong brands.
For “brand” India to attractrelocating GVCs, we need to re-position and undertake an imagemakeover to promote India as abusiness destination that has an
investor-friendly Governmentwith no policy volatilities and hasrid itself of a menacing bureau-cracy. Because industries exitingChina are in the process of duediligence. They are evaluating therisk-rewards of relocation to anAsian country or are ready tocede to US President DonaldTrump’s admonition. The likes ofApple are contemplating to relo-cate to India.
For Indian brands tobecome a natural “first-choice”for domestic consumers as alsoto increase our export potential,indigenous products will have tobe benchmarked to meet globalstandards. We also need to main-tain a competitive edge in price,quality and delivery. This ishighly do-able. Think of tradi-tional brands like KhadiGramodyog, Amul, Patanjali,Dabur and Bajaj among others,which have become householdnames today.
The first tranche of theFinance Minister’s relief packagewas the most pertinent as itsought to infuse �50,000 croreequity into viable Micro, Smalland Medium Enterprises(MSMEs) and disallowed glob-al tenders in Government pro-curement up to �200 crore. Thiswill increase participation ofSmall and Medium-sizedEnterprises (SMEs) in infra-structure projects, which have anoutlay of �100 lakh crore over thenext five years. At stake are notjust 11 crore jobs but the futureof what makes up 45 per cent ofthe country’s total manufactur-ing output, 40 per cent of exports,and 30 per cent of the nationalGDP. However, the above onlystimulates the supply side.
To spur demand there existspent-up demand for non-essen-tials but potential buyers remainin cash conservation mode.Retail borrowers’ ability to ser-vice pre-existing loans remainschallenging despite extendedmoratoriums due to uncertainearning capacity. So even if theindustry resumes production atfull capacity, there is the risk ofinventory build-up, which maylead to dual defaults from bothretail borrowers and manufactur-ers. It may put pressure on thealready risk-averse banks despitea 20 per cent Government guar-antee to fund MSMEs.
Therefore, initially, onlyessential-spend services andproducts defined as catering tothe needs of a post-COVIDsociety will be resilient to bounceback. They constitute sunrise sec-tors, those which will have ahigher multiplier effect in creat-ing employment. Hence, fundingof these sectors will have a bet-ter risk-reward ratio and lowerinsolvencies. Other gainers willbe companies with strong bal-ance sheets. They will be at a van-tage to look at distressed assetsfor acquisitions.
The fastest rebound wouldcome from sectors like IT andtelecom, which became indis-pensable for virtual communica-tions during the lockdown; new-age sectors like fintech and dig-ital payments services thatbecame the contactless methodof financial transactions; pharmaand FMCG sectors, which sup-ply essential services; e-com-merce because it’s the most effi-cient form of contactless delivery;ed-tech platforms and telemed-icine to administer learning and
medical consultation; gadgetsthat are essentials for work fromhome like air conditioners, iPads,computers and smartphonesamong others.
The other propeller of eco-nomic activity is expectedthrough the Government-fund-ed affordable housing for bothrentals and purchase. India’s$180 billion real estate industryemploys 52 million people andcontributes six per cent to theGDP. Under PMAY, the afford-able housing segment has got anadditional fund infusion of�70,000 crore. Also, there are bigopportunities for labour-export-ing States such as Uttar Pradesh,Bihar, Bengal and Jharkhand tobecome low-cost manufacturinghubs should they seize themoment by offering lucrativeincentives to industries that canhelp absorb the 14 crore reversemigrants into their own homeStates.
I end on a reflective note andit is this: When confronted withan existential crisis, we eitheradapt or perish. Speedy recalibra-tion is needed at multiple levelsto adjust to the new normal,whether it’s about shiftingtowards faceless e-governancemodels, restructuring previous-ly lucrative business models ofthe “sharing economy” or evenairlines catering to cargo insteadof passengers. The crisis is aboutpersonal and economic survival.This should compel us to regen-erate like the proverbial phoenixby discovering creative solu-tions for revival and recovery.
(The writer is author, colum-nist and Chairperson for theNational Committee of FinancialInclusion at Niti Aayog)
Sir — While worldwide medicalexperts are busy tackling a surgein the COVID-19 pandemic, theworld’s leading non-medicalexpert, US President DonaldTrump, has been rather slow andineffective in his response to thevirus. Now, he has stated that theanti-malaria drug hydroxychloro-quine can ward off theCoronavirus even though warn-ings of serious, even fatal sideeffects, are already there.
Any treatment has to be well-researched, tested, checked for itsside effects and approved by theFood and Drug Administration(FDA) before it is made availableon the shelves.Hydroxychloroquine effectivelytreats malaria but at this moment,there is no proof that it works forCOVID-19. Some initial testingis being undertaken though.
Worse, Trump’s son, EricTrump, has attracted fierce criti-cism for attacking Joe Biden andthe Democrats by describing theepidemic as a “political smoke-screen.” This, to prevent his fatherfrom campaigning in the mannerhe considers the best approachwith large crowds and enthusias-
tic supporters. None of the 90,000people, who have died due to thepandemic will get to vote forTrump or anyone else. In times ofcrisis we must pay heed to med-ical experts and not the politicians.For, we do not know when the vac-cination will be available.
Dennis FitzgeraldMelbourne
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Sir — The Government’s alloca-tion of �40,000 crore to India’sjobs scheme under the MahatmaGandhi National RuralEmployment Guarantee Act(MGNREGA) is inadequate con-sidering the fact that lakhs of
migrants are still trudging theirpath away from urban sprawls onhighways and trains to reachtheir home States.
An increase in wage fromfrom �182 to �202 per person lastmonth, too, is a small raise.Besides, a scheme at the urbanspace is much-needed. The urbanlabour shortage will not be easy
to fix. Workers will not be will-ing to get back to the very citiesthat left them to their fate in timesof crisis. Their plight calls uponthe Government as well as theemployers to introspect and maketheir lives more secure.
Ayush DarukaVia email
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Sir — Only an independent andimpartial probe can unmask thetruth behind the spread of thevirus which has shaken the world.Allegations against China are notunfounded. Under the wilfulpatronage of the World HealthOrganisation (WHO), it kept onbefooling the world regarding thegenesis and dissemination ofCOVID-19. Nations must standunited to take on China.Imposition of tough economicsanctions and severing of interna-tional relations will break its back.The role of the WHO, too, mustbe probed. If found guilty, stric-tures should be passed against it.
Life had never been easy for Savitri of Gujarat’sRadhanpur village. Running the householdsolely on her income as a daily wage worker
was slowly becoming impossible. Demands madeby her alcoholic husband to finance his addictionwere eating into her paltry income and increasingdebts. Yet, the 40-year-old was reluctant to leave herhusband despite the frequent beatings and verbalabuse. Even her three children were not spared theonslaught. But in early March, the stress becametoo much to handle and Savitri decided to end herlife by ingesting poison. Fortunately, timely actionby her neighbour, who rushed her to RadhanpurHospital, saved Savitri’s life. She was also fortunatethat doctors recognised the signs of domestic vio-lence and referred her to the Mahila SahaytaKendra, a crisis intervention and support cell. Runby the Society for Women’s Action and TrainingInitiatives (SWATI), an Ahmedabad-based not-for-profit, this cell is embedded in the hospital. Aftercounselling by the Mahila Sahayta Kendra, Savitrifiled a police complaint against her husband. Butthe police let him off after summoning him to thestation. Soon after, the country was placed underlockdown to combat the Corona pandemic. Sincethen, Savitri has been stuck at home with her abuser.There has been little change in her husband’s behav-iour. With the alcohol de-addiction centre closingdown because of the lockdown, even the small rayof hope that Savitri had of a violence-free life is fad-ing fast. However, Savitri is not the only one liv-ing in fear amid the lockdown. There has been aspike in complaints related to domestic violencesince the shut down began in late March.
According to the National Commission forWomen (NCW), complaints received by them tillmid-April suggested an almost 100 per centincrease in domestic violence during the lockdown.
Gender-based violence tends to increase dur-ing a crisis as unequal gender power structures fueldissension. In a lockdown situation, women in anabusive relationship and their children are likely tobe exposed to a dramatic increase in violence asfamily members spend more time in close contactand families cope with additional stress andpotential economic or job loss, says the WorldHealth Organisation. Intimate partner violenceaffects the mental health of women, too, with pro-longed stress leading to chronic health problems.
Last month, the NCW announced a specialWhatsApp helpline number (7217735372) inaddition to the existing 181 helpline number, tomake it easier for women in distress to seek sup-port. While this is a step in the right direction, only38 per cent women in India own a mobile phone.
Data also show that a large number of womendon’t seek help when they face abuse because theythink that violence against them is warranted.According to the National Family Health Survey-4 (NFHS), over 26 per cent of girls and women(aged 15-49) think that the husband is justified inbeating a woman for going out of the house with-out permission. While 37 per cent women said athrashing was acceptable if a woman showed dis-respect towards her in–laws, 32.7 per cent citedneglect of household chores and children as a jus-tifiable reason and 11 per cent cited bad cookingas reasonable grounds for violence.
Since the prevalence of such social and cultur-al norms and lack of mobility are more pronouncedamong rural women, a good way to get around this
has been to leverage the power ofAccredited Social Health Activists(ASHAs). An integral part of the publichealth system, these women volunteers,usually between 24 and 45 years of age,interface between the community and thepublic health system. In fact, healthcareproviders are often the first point of con-tact for women experiencing violence asthey may access health services for treat-ment of physical and/or psychologicaltrauma, according to research on the roleof the health sector in addressing intimatepartner violence by the InternationalCentre for Research on Women (ICRW).
Thus, ASHAs are ideally placed toscreen, counsel, refer and support womenin their communities who experience vio-lence. A study by the Population Council,examining the feasibility of screening andreferring women experiencing maritalviolence by engaging frontline workersin rural Bihar, concluded that oncetrained, ASHAs played a vital role inbringing change. So SWATI’s decision, tomake ASHAs the pivot of the responsesystem to help identify domestic violenceand prevent it at the local level, was a goodone. Not only are ASHAs a part of thecommunity but they also visit everyhousehold in their jurisdiction (oneASHA for every 1,000 people in a village)at least once a month and can reach outto vulnerable women.
Moreover, ASHAs are part of anextensive network of health workersand play an important role as part of anupward referral system. At the villagelevel, ASHAs are supported byAnganwadi workers (AWWs), auxiliarynurse midwives (ANMs), medical offi-cers and village health and sanitationcommittees. While it is the ASHA super-visors who provide the requisite supportat the cluster level, it is the community
mobilisers who do so at the block and dis-trict level. Another advantage is the rap-port between ASHAs and block-levelCommunity Health Centres/tertiary carehospitals. Since they bring women forantenatal check-ups, ASHAs are knownat these faculties. So, if a violence preven-tion and support cell were to be locatedin a public health facility/hospital, therewould be greater chances of women inneed being able to get the necessary sup-port services related to their physical andmental health.
This is what prompted SWATI toinstitute the Mahila Sahayta Kendra inRadhanpur Hospital, to tackle domesticviolence in Patan, a predominantly ruraldistrict in Gujarat. This cell, a collabora-tive effort between the health departmentof the Gujarat Government and SWATI,is the first-of-its-kind in the State.Although it took SWATI almost threeyears after its institution in 2012 to get itgoing, recognition of the importance ofhealth workers in addressing violenceagainst women and including it in theGovernment training module for ASHAsin 2015 gave the initiative a big boost.
The initiative has incorporated sev-eral components common to the DilaasaCrisis Centre for Women, the first hos-pital-based crisis centre in India, designedto respond to the needs of women fac-ing violence within their homes and fam-ilies. This is a joint initiative of theBrihanmumbai Municipal Corporation(BMC) and Centre for Enquiry intoHealth and Allied Themes (CEHAT) andis located at Bhabha Hospital, in Mumbai,Maharashtra. SWATI has adapted fromthis model and added additional featuresthat specifically respond to the needs ofrural areas. Besides training ASHAs, thecapacity of medical staff at the hospital(where the cell is located) has been
improved to respond to thehealthcare/first aid needs of the victimsand survivors of domestic violence, sen-sitively and appropriately. This is howSavitri was referred to the cell when shewas brought to Radhanpur Hospitalafter her attempted suicide.
Even during the lockdown, theircounsellors are constantly in touch withabused women through phone, accord-ing to Neeti Singhal, Research andTraining Coordinator, SWATI.Depending on the case, SWATI alsoworks through ASHA workers to reachassistance required to the women, shesays. So far, over 550 ASHA workers infive blocks in Patan have been trained andthe Mahila Sahayta Kendra has now beenestablished in two more referral hospi-tals — General Hospital, Siddhpur andthe Medical College and Hospital atDharpur.
Clearly, ASHAs can make the differ-ence between life and death for womenwho cannot seek help because they haveno access to mobile phones or are tooscared to use one for fear of being caughtby the abusive partner. However, it isimportant to remember that ASHAs arevoluntary workers. They receive perfor-mance-based incentives for deliveringvarious healthcare services. But moreoften than not, these honorariums are notpaid in time. Sometimes, just a part pay-ment is made. The fact that they contin-ue to work despite being underpaidshould not be an excuse to undervaluethem.
The work of ASHAs is more criticalduring these unprecedented times. If pre-venting violence against women is a pri-ority, then those who are at the forefrontof such initiatives, like the ASHAs, mustbe respected and protected.
With the worldwide outbreakof COVID-19 resulting in acomplete lockdown in most
countries, it has resulted in hospitalsshutting down routine outpatientdepartments (OPD) and plannedsurgeries. While it was hoped that afew weeks into the lockdown, the sit-uation would improve in India, in real-ity the disease has only grown expo-nentially due to various underlyingreasons.
As of now, the number of positivecases in the country has swelled to1,06,886 and the number of casualties
has touched the 3,303 mark. This hasresulted in the delayed opening up ofregular healthcare facilities for non-COVID diseases, dealing an addition-al blow to a set of population alreadyreeling under economic hardshipbrought on by the extended lockdownand the resultant salary cuts and joblosses.
At present, most hospitals areopen for emergency services only.Government and private sector hos-pitals are reluctant to start regular OPDservices fearing the spread of theCoronavirus, as patients and their fam-ilies would crowd into the treatmentfacility, making social distancing dif-ficult to manage.
However, one has to be cognisantof the fact that many people sufferingfrom cataract, cancer, physically dis-abling spine problems, pain due to kid-ney or gall bladder stones and manyother illnesses have been denied treat-ment for far too long as these diseasesdo not need immediate and urgentattention under normal circumstances.
However, if one has a potentially life-threatening, disabling disease or pain,one always looks for early treatmentand relief. For the patient, it is anurgent need even if it doesn’t classifyas an emergency.
COVID-19 is here to stay and wewill have to live with it. Hospitals willhave to gear up to have a separate wingwith exclusive entry and exits or stand-alone buildings for treatment ofCoronavirus patients, since it is notadvisable to have non-COVID patientsunder the same roof due to high infec-tivity.
The treating healthcare staff willalso have to be exclusive to thesepatients while maintaining strict infec-tion-control protocols. All hospitaladmissions for planned surgery andtreatment will have to be done onlyafter COVID-19 testing to safeguardits healthcare staff, while those patientsneeding urgent care will need to beplaced in isolation wings of the hos-pital until their test results comeback. Unfortunately, all this is going to
escalate the cost of healthcare in thecountry. Another social impact thatthis virus has brought about is the lossof domestic help in most households,leading to further health and safetyissues for people suffering from ail-ments and senior citizens. With manyResident Welfare Associations prevent-ing the entry of domestic help withinthe colonies, the elderly have been leftto fend for themselves.
Many of these senior citizens livealone and have been dependent on thedomestic help for their day-to-day liv-ing. People with ailments and pregnantwomen and young mothers, too, aresuffering from the lack of domestichelp as traditionally the burden of car-ing for the family falls on the womenof the house.
Even with the lockdown, thenumber of cases was going up and itwasn’t the poor domestic help whobrought the disease to our borders. Butthe fact of the matter is that the poorare facing the brunt of the impact ofthe disease on our society.
However good a plan theGovernment comes up with, there willalways be a number of people who willoppose it with scientific reasoning andstatistical data. This is an unprecedent-ed crisis wherein everyone presumablyis trying to do his/her best under theprevailing circumstances and there isnever going to be a single “best solu-tion.”
One also needs to understand thatalthough COVID-19 is a highly infec-tious disease, close to 90 per cent peo-ple only have minor symptoms likefever, sore throat, body ache and onlyabout five to 10 per cent of the infect-ed patients actually need hospitalisa-tion. With a mortality rate of about 3.2per cent in India as per the data on theAarogya Setu app, it must be said thata road crash is 10 times more likely tokill than COVID-19.
According to data compiled bySaveLife Foundation, the fatality rateper 100 road accidents was around 30during 2019 and 381 patients had diedin 1,200 road accidents in the last two
months, translating to a fatality rate ofalmost 32 per cent.
As the Government may not be ina position to feed the poor for long, itis imperative to begin economic activ-ity soon as suggested by industryexperts. Although it is easy to keep thedisease at bay through social distanc-ing, maintaining simple social and per-sonal hygiene and practising it reli-giously without dropping guard, it isindeed worrying to see people lettinggo of social distancing norms with theeasing of the lockdown and puttingeverybody’s lives at risk.
We better learn to stick to all theguidelines issued by the Governmentto prevent the spread of theCoronavirus quickly, else we, as anation, would have to pay a heavyprice. The choice is ours. All we needto do is maintain distance from fellowbeings to keep ourselves safe. How dif-ficult can that be when your life is atstake.
(The writer is a consultantNeurosurgeon at Apollo Hospital)
Beijing: China on Wednesdaycredited its socialist politicalsystem for quickly bringingthe coronavirus outbreak undercontrol, ahead of its annualParliament session fromThursday.
China, which came underpressure at the just-concludedWorld Health Assembly(WHA) session for a probe intothe origins of the coronavirus,welcomed the unanimous res-olution passed by the worldbody, calling for an indepen-dent “comprehensive evalua-tion” of the internationalresponse to the COVID-virus.
China claimed the major-ity of the countries believe thefocus should be on the con-tainment of the pandemic,rather than investigating theorigin of the virus.
During a media interac-
tion, Spokesperson of adviso-ry body Chinese People’sPolitical ConsultativeConference Guo Weimin saidChina brought the COVID-19pandemic under control in ashort period.
China’s annual Parliament,comprising the CPPCC and theNational People’s Congress(NPC), was put off in March thisyear due to the virus outbreak.A truncated programme willheld from Thursday for a week.
During the session, over6,000 deputies would attend thesessions.
The NPC, often describedas the rubber stamp Parliamentwith over 3,000 members,would pass a host of new leg-islations, including approvalof Premier Li Keqiang’s annu-al work report and the annualdefence budget. PTI
London: British PrimeMinister Boris Johnson onWednesday dismissed any hopeof a review into what has beenbranded an “unfair” surchargeon foreign doctors, including Indians, working inthe UK’s state-funded NationalHealth Service.
A number of professionalassociations for doctors inBritain have been campaigningagainst the annual ImmigrationHealth Surcharge (IHS),imposed of foreign workers toraise additional funds for theNHS, as an additional burdenwhile they directly contributeto the health service.TheOpposition Labour PartyLeader, Keir Starmer, backedtheir campaign in the House ofCommons during the weeklyPrime Minister’s Questions onWednesday, when he askedJohnson if he thinks the sur-charge on NHS doctors and
nurses is “fair”.“I have thought a great deal
about this and I do accept andunderstand the difficultiesfaced by our amazing NHSstaff. I have been a personalbeneficiary of people and car-ers who have come fromabroad and, frankly, saved mylife,” replied Johnson, makinga reference to his COVID-19hospitalisation last month dur-ing which he was cared for byforeign medics.
“I know exactly theirimportance. On the other hand,we must look at the realities thatthis is a great national service,a national institution whichneeds funding and those con-tributions actually help us toraise about 900 million pounds.It is very difficult in the currentcircumstances to find alterna-tive sources, so I do think thatis the right way forward,” hesaid. PTI
Dhaka: Bangladesh has shiftedover two million people tostorm shelters and deployed themilitary to deal with the pow-erful cyclone ‘Amphan’ which isset to make a landfall on thecostal districts, Prime MinisterSheikh Hasina said onWednesday.
Authorities have alreadyraised the alert level to ‘greatdanger’ for some districts in thecountry as the cyclone, themost powerful storm sincecyclone ‘Sidr’ killed nearly 3,500people in 2007, was approach-ing the coastline.
“We have the preparations(to face cyclone Amphan). Weare taking all possible measuresthat we should adopt for pro-tecting the lives and propertiesof the people from the cyclone,”Prime Minister Hasina told ameeting of the NationalDisaster Management Council(NDMC) formed to review thepreparations in facing the pos-
sible assault of the supercyclone.
“Twenty lakh people haveso far been evacuated to thecyclone centres as part of theprior preparation,” Hasina wasquoted as saying by The DailyStar newspaper.
The Bangladesh Army,Navy and Air Force have madepreparations to tackle the supercyclone, Bdnews24.Comreported.
A Bangladesh Red CrescentSociety (BDRC) volunteerdrowned on Wednesday whena boat capsized while evacuat-ing villagers to safety in south-western Patuakhali, becomingthe first victim of Amphan. “Hewas on a boat along with fourothers when a sudden stormunder advancing Amphan’sinfluence overturned it. Threeothers managed to escape,”BDRC’s cyclone preparednessprogramme Nurul Islam Khantold PTI. PTI
Sidon: Twenty years afterHezbollah guerrillas pushedIsrael’s last troops from south-ern Lebanon, both sides aregearing up for a possible warthat neither seems to want.
Israeli troops are strikingHezbollah targets in neigh-boring Syria and drilling forwhat could be an invasion ofLebanon. Hezbollah is beefingup its own forces and threat-ening to invade Israel. Thebitter enemies routinelyexchange warnings and threats.
“We are preparing seri-ously for the next war. We’renot taking any shortcutsbecause we understand wehave to be extremely strong todefeat the enemy,” said Col.Israel Friedler, an Israeli com-mander who has been over-seeing a weeks-long exercisesimulating war with Hezbollahat a base in northern Israel.
Hezbollah emerged as aragtag guerrilla group in the1980s, funded by Iran to battle
Israeli troops occupying south-ern Lebanon. A protractedguerrilla war, characterized byroadside bombs and sniperattacks, eventually forced Israelto withdraw in May 2000. Withthe exception of an inconclu-sive, monthlong war in 2006,the volatile frontier has large-ly remained calm.
Since then, Hezbollah hasevolved into the most power-ful military and political enti-ty in Lebanon. The party andits allies dominate Lebanon’sparliament and are the mainpower behind Prime MinisterHassan Diab’s government.
“Domestically, Hezbollahhas emerged to become the pre-ponderant force in Lebanon,”said Hilal Khashan, a politicalscience professor at theAmerican University in Beirut.But regionally, he said, “theposition of Hezbollah is pre-carious” due to Israeli pressure,domestic turmoil and problemsfor its Iranian benefactors.
The group can ill affordanother massive clash withIsrael. The Lebanese economyis in shambles, around half thepopulation is now estimated tolive in poverty — including inHezbollah strongholds — andthe group’s finances are suffer-ing because of US sanctionsimposed on it and Iran.
The group also sufferedheavy losses in the Syrian civilwar, losing some 2,000 fighterswhile battling alongside theforces of Syria’s PresidentBashar Assad. Once seen as aliberation movement,Hezbollah is now seen by manyin Lebanon and the region asan Iranian pawn.
Qassim Qassir, an experton Hezbollah, says the grouphas no interest in going to warbut has been preparing for bat-tle for a long time. “The battlewill not be a battle of missilesonly,” he said, a reference thatHezbollah might try to invadeparts of northern Israel. AP
Seoul: South Korean studentsbegan returning to schoolsWednesday as their countryprepares for a new normal amidthe coronavirus pandemic.
In a reminder that returningto normalcy won’t be easy, stu-dents in some schools nearSeoul were quickly asked to leaveand return home after two stu-dents were found to have con-tracted the virus.
Health authorities onWednesday reported 32 newcases over a 24-hour period, thefirst time the daily jump hasbeen above 30 in more than aweek. Hundreds of thousands ofhigh school seniors enteredtheir schools after having theirtemperatures checked and rub-bing their hands with sanitizerson Wednesday morning. AP
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A60-year-old woman legis-lator of the ruling Pakistan
Tehreek-e-Insaf party inPunjab province died ofCOVID-19 on Wednesday,making her the first lawmak-er in the country to succumbto the virus that has killed over900 others in Pakistan.
Shaheen Raza, 60, wasadmitted to the Mayo hospitalin Lahore a few days ago aftershe was tested positive for thecoronavirus.
Her health deterioratedover the weekend followingwhich she was put on ventila-tor, Gujranwala DeputyCommissioner Sohail Ashrafsaid.
However, Raza succumbedto the viral infection in the hospital on Wednesday, he said.
She was also sufferingfrom other diseases like highblood pressure and diabetesand her situation deterioratedfast, officials said.
Prior to developing coro-navirus symptoms, Raza hadbeen inspecting various quar-antine centres.
Raza was the only PTImember from Gujranwala dis-trict in the Punjab Assembly.She was elected on a specialseat in 2018.
President Arif Alvi andPrime Minister Imran Khanexpressed deep grief and sor-row at her demise.
Washington: President DonaldTrump has said it is a “badge ofhonour” for America to “lead”the world with 1.5 millionconfirmed coronavirus casessince it means the US is testingmore people for the disease thathas killed over 300,000 peopleacross the world.
The US has 1.5 millionconfirmed coronavirus casesand over 91,000 deaths, boththe world’s highest.
“I look at that as, in a cer-tain respect, as being a goodthing because it means our test-ing is much better,” he said onTuesday at the White House ashe hosted his first Cabinetmeeting since the COVID-19outbreak began.
“By the way,” he toldreporters, “you know whenyou say that we lead in cases,that’s because we have moretesting than anybody else.”
“So when we have a lot of
cases,” he continued, “I don’tlook at that as a bad thing, Ilook at that as, in a certainrespect, as being a good thingbecause it means our testing ismuch better.” He added: “So Iview it as a badge of honour.Really, it’s a badge of honour.
Trump was responding toa question about whether hewas considering a travel ban onLatin America, Brazil in par-ticular. “It’s a great tribute tothe testing and all of the workthat a lot of professionals havedone,” the president said.
According to the Centersfor Disease Control, a federalagency, the US had conducted12.6 million coronavirus testsby Tuesday. PTI
London: Cambridge hasbecome the first university inBritain to cancel all face-to-facelectures for the 2020-21 acad-emic year because of the coro-navirus pandemic.
The university says all lec-tures will be held virtually andstreamed online until summer2021. Cambridge says it may bepossible to hold tutorials andother teaching in small groups- a key part of the university’ssystem - when the new acade-mic year starts in October, aslong as social distancing can befollowed. The pandemic hasalready upended student life.Cambridge moved all its teach-ing online in March, and examsare being held remotely.
British universities arewarning they will face a finan-cial crisis if students decidethey don’t want to pay tuitionfees - currently 9,250 a year(USD 11,300) in England - fora virtual experience. AP
Kabul: Gunmen killed 14 peo-ple in two separate attacks inAfghanistan while the Talibantargeted pro-government check-points in the northeast, killingnine militiamen, officials said onWednesday, the latest in relent-less violence that continues toplague the war-torn nation.
The attacks came against thebackdrop of renewed UN callsfor an end to violence and asWashington’s special peaceenvoy, Zalmay Khalilzad,embarked on another round oftalks with the Taliban to pressthem to start negotiating withthe newly reconciled Afghanpolitical leadership in Kabul.
In Parwan province, northof the capital, Kabul, anunknown number of gunmen
stormed a mosque late onTuesday, killing 11 worshipersand wounding several others,said Wahida Shahkar, spokes-woman for the provincial gov-ernor. Reports earlier in the dayhad eight killed.
Also late on Tuesday, gun-men in eastern Khost provinceattacked a family returninghome from a nearby mosque,killing three brothers, accordingto Adil Haidari, spokesman forthe provincial police chief. Inboth attacks, the gunmen fledthe scene. No one claimedresponsibility for either attackbut the Taliban promptly deniedinvolvement. The Islamic Stategroup, which has been increas-ingly active in Afghanistan aftersuffering battlefield losses togovernment and US forces, aswell as its Taliban rivals, has car-ried out similar attacks in thepast. Washington blamed the ISfor last week’s horrific attack ona maternity hospital in Kabulthat killed 24 people, includingtwo infants. In a third attack, theTaliban targeted checkpointsbelonging to a local pro-gov-ernment militia in northeasternTakhar province, killing ninemilitiamen, said Khalil Aser,spokesman for the provincialpolice chief. AP
Manila: Philippine police raid-ed a clandestine hospital anddrugstore that was secretlytreating Chinese nationals sus-pected of being infected withthe coronavirus, police officialssaid Wednesday.
Two people were arrestedand one patient was foundduring Tuesday’s raid at the res-idential villa that had been ille-gally turned into a seven-bedhospital and drug store, PoliceBrig. Gen. RhoderickArmamento said.
More than 200 suspectedcoronavirus rapid test kits andsyringes were recovered in trashcans at the villa, which has asmall canteen with stacks of beercases at the lobby entrancewhere a red sign welcomed vis-itors with well wishes in Chinese.
The hospital and drug-store are in a large room by theswimming pool at the back ofthe compound, according toArmamento and a police video.
The Chinese male patientwas moved to a Philippinehospital. Those arrested werethe Chinese administrator ofthe hospital, which may havebeen operating secretly forabout three months, and acompatriot who manned thedrugstore, he said. AP
Washington: Republican polit-ical operatives are recruiting“extremely pro-Trump” doc-tors to go on television to pre-scribe reviving the US economyas quickly as possible, withoutwaiting to meet safety bench-marks proposed by the federalCenters for Disease Controland Prevention to slow thespread of the new coronavirus.
The plan was discussed ina May 11 conference call witha senior staffer for the Trumpreelection campaign organisedby CNP Action, an affiliate ofthe GOP-aligned Council forNational Policy.
A leaked recording of thehourlong call was provided toThe Associated Press by theCenter for Media andDemocracy, a progressivewatchdog group.
CNP Action is part of theSave Our Country Coalition, analliance of conservative thinktanks and political committeesformed in late April to end statelockdowns implemented inresponse to the pandemic.
Other members of thecoalition include the
FreedomWorks Foundation,the American LegislativeExchange Council and TeaParty Patriots.
A resurgent economy isseen as critical to boostingPresident Donald Trump’sreelection hopes and hasbecome a growing focus of theWhite House coronavirus taskforce led by Vice PresidentMike Pence.
Tim Murtaugh, the Trumpcampaign communicationsdirector, confirmed to AP thatan effort to recruit doctors topublicly support the presi-dent is underway, but declinedto say when the initiativewould be rolled out.
“Anybody who joins one ofour coalitions is vetted,”Murtaugh said Monday.
“And so quite obviously, allof our coalitions espouse poli-cies and say things that are, ofcourse, exactly simpatico withwhat the president believes. ...The president has been out-spoken about the fact that hewants to get the country backopen as soon as possible.”
During an emergency such
as the current pandemic, it’simportant that the governmentprovide consistent science-based information to the pub-lic, said Dr. Wafaa El-Sadr, anepidemiology professor atColumbia University’s MailmanSchool of Public Health.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, thenation’s top infectious diseaseexpert and a member of theWhite House’s coronavirus taskforce, has been among themost visible governmentexperts warning that liftinglockdowns too quickly couldlead to a spike in deaths.
El-Sadr said having doctorsrelay contradictory informationon behalf of the president is“quite alarming.” “I find it total-ly irresponsible to have physi-cians who are touting someinformation that’s not anchoredin evidence and not anchoredin science,” El-Sadr said.
“What often creates con-fusion is the many voices thatare out there, and many ofthose voices do have a politi-cal interest, which is the huge-ly dangerous situation we areat now.” PTI
United Nations: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterreswarned Wednesday that thecoronavirus pandemic threat-ens Africa’s progress and couldpush millions into extremepoverty.
The UN chief said in avideo message launching a pol-icy report on “The Impact ofCOVID-19 in Africa” thatcountries on the continenthave responded swiftly to thecrisis, and as of now reportedcases are lower than feared withmore than 2,500 deaths.
The virus is present in allAfrican countries with mostrecording fewer than 1,000cases, the 28-page UN reportsaid.
The relatively low numbersof COVID-19 cases confirmed
thus far “have raised hopes thatAfrican countries may bespared the worst of the pan-demic,” the report said.
“Caution is warranted,however, as these are earlydays in the life cycle of a dis-ease that is still not fully under-stood and where we have seenrepeated patterns of first slow,then exponential growth inthe number of cases.”
The UN said the lownumbers could be linked tominimal testing and report-ing, pointing to a WorldHealth Organisation warningthat the pandemic “could killbetween 83,000 and 190,000people in 47 African countriesin the first year, mostlydepending on governments’responses”.extremism”. AP
Washington: US PresidentDonald Trump on Tuesdaydefended his taking anti-malarial drug hydroxychloro-quine as a “line of defence”against the coronavirus.
“I think it’s worth it as aline of defence and I’ll stay onit for a little while longer. I’mjust very curious myself, but itseems to be very safe,” Trumptold reporters at the WhiteHouse, a day after he disclosedthat he has been taking thedrug to ward off the deadlyinfection.
The US president said thedrug has gotten a bad reputa-tion only because ‘he was pro-moting it’.
“So, I am obviously a verybad promoter. If anybody elsewere promoting it, they wouldsay this is the greatest thingever,” he said. PTI
Nairobi: A crucial electionbegan on Wednesday in the EastAfrican nation of Burundi,where President PierreNkurunziza is stepping asideafter a divisive 15-year rule butwill remain “paramount leader”in the country that continues toreject outside scrutiny.
The vote is one of the mostimportant transfers of power inBurundi since independencein 1962.
Few face masks wereobserved, even on the rulingparty’s candidate, as voterscrammed close to each other inline. Some paused to wash theirhands.
Burundi’s government hasbeen criticized for not appear-ing to take the coronaviruspandemic seriously. Nkurunzizahimself attended crowded polit-ical rallies. The country has 42confirmed virus cases. “We are
not afraid because the organiz-ers did not require us to distance1 meter,” voter NdayishimiyeInnocent said. “They saw thatGod is with us.”
Regional observers are notpresent after being told thatarriving foreigners would face a14-day quarantine, and onWednesday citizens and jour-nalists said access to socialmedia was not possible withouta virtual private network.
“The government is cuttingsocial media so that we don’t tellthe world what is happening,”said one voter, Jean PierreBazikamwe. Ahead of the vote,government agents were accusedof harassing the main oppositionparty, the CNL, whose leaderAgathon Rwasa is believed to bein a close race with Nkurunziza’schosen successor in the rulingCNDD-FDD, EvaristeNdayishimiye. AP
New Delhi: RaviDadhich, a dynamicand result orientedbureaucrat of DAN-ICS (1996 batch) hastaken over asDirector (HR) ofDelhi TranscoLimited.
An alumnus ofMaharaja College Jaipur —University of Rajasthan,Dadhich has done his postgraduation in Sociology.
During his illustriouscareer spanning over twentyfive years, Dadhich has heldmany challenging postings inDelhi as well as inLakshadweep.
His first posting was asSDM — Preet Vihar Delhi.Among the other few impor-tant postings Dadhich has heldin Government of NCT of
Delhi include asOfficer on SpecialDuty to Hon’bleL i e u t e n a n tG o v e r n o r ,A d d i t i o n a lSecretary toHon’ble ChiefMinister, Member(Administration)
— Delhi Urban ShelterImprovement Board, Secretaryto Minister (Transport) andAdditional Commissioner(Food and Civil Supplies). InLakshadweep, he has beenAdditional District Magistrate,Director (Tourism) and CEO,District Panchayat.
Dadhich has also workedwith Delhi DevelopmentAuthority and New DelhiMunicipal Council and hasvast experience of urban devel-opment sector.
New Delhi: IT company L&TInfotech shares rallied nearly 7per cent on Wednesday after thefirm reported a 12.9 per centgrowth in consolidated net prof-it for the January-March 2020quarter.
Stock of the companyjumped 6.86 per cent to close at�1,783.60 on the BSE. Duringthe trade, it advanced 9.75 percent to �1,832.
It zoomed 5.31 per cent toclose at �1,759 on the NSE. L&TInfotech on Tuesday reported a12.9 per cent growth in consol-idated net profit to �427.5 crorefor the January-March 2020quarter. This is against a netprofit of �378.5 crore in the sameperiod a year ago, the companysaid. Its revenue was up 21.2 percent to �3,011.9 crore in thereported quarter from �2,486crore in the year-ago period,L&T Infotech (LTI) added. PTI
Dhaka: India and Bangladeshon Wednesday added five moreports of call that would aug-ment bilateral trade and pro-vide stimulus to the econom-ic development of the newlocations and their hinterland.
The five new ports of callin Bangladesh side areRajshahi, Sultanganj, Chilmari,Daudkandi and Bahadurabad,while in Indian side areDhulian, Maia, Kolaghat,Sonamura and Jogigopha, theDaily Star reported.
Bangladesh's ShippingSecretary Mezbah UddinChowdhury and Indian HighCommissioner to BangladeshRiva Ganguly Das signed theaddendum to the Protocol onInland Water Transit and Tradehere, the report said.
Under the protocol,presently there are six ports ofcall. They are Kolkata, Haldia,Karimganj, Pandu, Shilghat
and Dhubri on Indian side andNarayanganj, Khulna, Mongla,Sirajganj, Ashuganj andPangaon on the Bangladeshside.
Further, two more extend-ed ports of call – Tribeli(Bandel) and Badarpur onIndian side and Ghorasal andMuktarpur on Bangladesh side– have been added through thisaddendum.
Now, total ports of call are11 and there are two extendedports of call in both countries.The Inclusion of Jogigopha inIndia and Bahadurabad inBangladesh as a new port of callwill provide connectivity toMeghalaya, Assam as well asBhutan.
Jogigopha also becomesimportant, since a multimodallogistics park is proposed to beestablished there, said IndianHigh Commission in a state-ment. PTI
New Delhi: The finance min-istry on Monday said it has sanc-tioned �46,038.70 crore for Mayinstalment of devolution ofstates' share in central taxesand duties.
"These releases, similar toApril releases, have been calcu-lated based on tax receipts pro-jected in Budget 2020-21 & notas per actuals," the ministry saidin a tweet.
It added that theGovernment of India's primeobjective has been protectingstates' revenues and meetingtheir liquidity requirements intheir fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Budget had projectedthe share of the states in taxes atRs 7.84 lakh crore for 2020-21.The 15th Finance Commissionhad recommended the share ofstates at 41 per cent of the divis-ible pool and 1 per cent for thenewly-created union territoriesof Jammu and Kashmir, andLadakh. The 14th FinanceCommission had recommend-ed the states be given 42 per centshare in taxes. "Finance Ministryhas issued sanction orders for�46,038.70 cr today for the Mayinstalment of Devolution ofStates' Share in Central Taxes &Duties," the ministry said inanother tweet. PTI
New Delhi: The Centre hasreleased �15,340 crore GSTcompensation to the states andUnion territories so far in thecurrent fiscal, despite aninsignificant revenue mop upfrom goods and services taxowing to the nationwide lock-down, according to sources.
For 2019-20 fiscal (up toNovember 2019), the Centrehas released Rs 1,20,498 croreGST compensation, higherthan Rs 69,275 crore releasedin full 2018-19 and Rs 41,146crore in 2017-18. GST wasrolled out on July 1, 2017.
The cess collection in2019-20, 2018-19 and 2017-18fiscal was Rs 95,000 crore, Rs95,081 crore and Rs 62,611crore, respectively.
As the compensationrequirement of the states wasless than collection in the firsttwo years (2017-18 and 2018-19) of GST rollout, Rs 47,271crore GST cess collected hadremained unutilised in thecompensation kitty.
Finance Ministry sourcessaid since the end of August2019, the central governmenthas started realising theimpending precarious posi-tion in paying GST compensa-tion to the states and UTs as thecompensation cess require-ment was being double of the
average monthly cess collec-tion.
"On an average the month-ly GST compensation cessrequirement was to the tune of�14,000 crore while the cesscollection average was only inthe range of �7,000 to �8,000crore per month," a sourcesaid.
In the current fiscal year,the central government hasreleased Rs 15,340 crore to thestates and UTs as GST com-pensation despite an almostinsignificant collection practi-cally due to relief provided interms of filing of return andpayment of taxes owing to thelockdown caused by the out-break of COVID-19 pandem-ic, the source added.
With dwindling cess kitty,the options left with the GSTCouncil were to either bringmore items under the cessbase by expanding the base ofGST cess items or to increasecess rate on the existing items.
"Any increase in compen-sation cess on few items couldonly yield about Rs 2,000-3,000 crore a year. Therefore,the other options left were toeither forego full cess com-pensation which was increasingat the rate 14 per cent perannum or to go ahead withwhatever compensation is
available. One more optionwas to raise the tax rate onitems by rationalisation of ratesby shuffling slab rates," anoth-er source said.
For 2019-20 fiscal, despitelower GST revenue collection,the Centre has cleared com-pensation till November, 2019,without any discriminationbetween states. For the periodof December 2019-March2020, GST compensation pay-out is due.
Compensation is releasedon a pro-rata basis uniformlyfor all states without discrimi-nating among them, a sourcesaid, adding the calculation ofcompensation is done in trans-parent manner and is sharedwith the states.
Under GST law, states wereguaranteed to be paid for anyloss of revenue in the first fiveyears of the GST implementa-tion from July 1, 2017. Theshortfall is calculated assuminga 14 per cent annual growth inGST collections by states overthe base year of 2015-16. Underthe GST structure, taxes arelevied under 5, 12, 18 and 28 percent slabs. On top of the high-est tax slab, a cess is levied onluxury, sin and demerit goodsand the proceeds from the sameare used to compensate states forany revenue loss. PTI
New Delhi: The Governmenton Wednesday fixed the annu-al rate of return for PradhanMantri Vaya Vandana Yojana(PMVVY), a social securityscheme for senior citizens, at7.4 per cent for 2020-21, downfrom 8 per cent in the previousfiscal, as it extended the schemeby three years.
The Union Cabinetextended the PMVVY up toMarch 31, 2023 for a furtherperiod of three years beyondMarch 31, 2020 and alsoallowed "initially an assuredrate of return of 7.40 per centper annum for the year 2020-21 per annum and thereafter tobe reset every year", an officialrelease said.
In Union Budget 2018-19,the government had extend thescheme up to March 2020 withan assured return of 8 per cent,and also doubled the invest-ment limit per senior citizen to�15 lakh.
The release further said theCabinet also approved anannual reset of assured rate ofinterest with effect from April1 of financial year, in line withrevised rate of returns of SeniorCitizens Saving Scheme (SCSS)up to a ceiling of 7.75 per cent,with fresh appraisal of thescheme on breach of thisthreshold at any point. PTI
Mumbai: The nationwide lock-down to curb the COVID-19pandemic has impacteddemand for paper and paperboards which is likely to wit-ness a 10-15 per cent year-on-year decline in 2020-21,according to Crisil Research.
The extended lockdownto stem the COVID-19 pan-demic has dealt a nasty blow tothe highly fragmented paperindustry in India, CrisilResearch said in a report.
The demand has shrunk asschools and colleges are shut-down, while majority of officeshave also crimped demand forwriting and printing (W&P)paper.
Industrial paper usage hasalso crumpled because of weak-ness in FMCG, consumerdurables and apparel segments,which account for 50-60 percent of demand, it said.
The demand for paper andboards is expected to contract10-15 per cent this financialyear compared to the previousyear, the report said, adding allcategories of products will beaffected. Around 80 per cent ofthe nation's paper capacity of 25million tonnes (750-800 mills)is clustered around six statesthat account for half of India'sgross domestic product. PTI
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The finance ministry onWednesday exempted
companies with a turnover ofover Rs 50 crore and involvedin only B2B transactions fromthe requirement of acceptingpayments only by electronicmodes like RuPay or BHIM-UPI.
"It is clarified that the pro-visions of Section 269SU of theAct shall not be applicable toa specified person having onlyB2B transactions (i.E. Notransaction with retail cus-tomer/consumer) if at least95 per cent of aggregate of allamounts received during theprevious year, includingamount received for sales,turnover or gross receipts, areby any mode other than cash,"
the CBDT said in a circular.To encourage digital trans-
actions and move towards aless-cash economy, the gov-ernment inserted a new provi-sion, Section 269SU, in theFinance Act, 2019, requiring aperson carrying on businessand havingsales/turnover/gross receiptsfrom business of more than ̀ 50crore in the immediately pre-ceding previous year to manda-torily provide facilities foraccepting payments throughprescribed electronic modes.
Subsequently, in December2019, debit card powered byRuPay; Unified PaymentsInterface (UPI) (BHIM-UPI);and Unified Payments InterfaceQuick Response Code (UPIQR Code) were notified as pre-scribed electronic modes.
Mumbai: Benchmark indicesmarched higher for the secondstraight day on Wednesday asrobust gains in market heavy-weights HDFC twins and RILoffset lacklustre global cues.
The 30-share BSE Sensexclimbed 622.44 points or 2.06per cent to settle at 30,818.61,while the broader NSE Niftyrose 187.45 points, or 2.11 cent,to 9,066.55.
Traders said encouragingcorporate results bolsteredinvestor confidence, though ris-ing COVID-19 cases in Indiacapped the gains.
Further, media reports saidFinance Minister NirmalaSitharaman has not ruled outannouncing more measures tohelp the coronavirus-hit econo-my, which added to the buyingmomentum, they added.
M&M was the top gainer inthe Sensex pack, surging 5.92per cent, followed by HDFC,L&T, Tata Steel, Bajaj Finance,HDFC Bank and Sun Pharma.
Only four Sensex con-stituents ended in the red --
IndusInd Bank, HeroMotoCorp, Bharti Airtel andAsian Paints, shedding up to2.85 per cent.
"Domestic markets openedflat but gained higher later dur-ing the day led by buying acrossall sectors. Positive statementsfrom the Finance Minister alsocould have lifted markets (andshowed) that the governmentwas with industry and would doas much as possible dependingon how the coronavirus pan-demic will pan out, implying
there could be further stimulusahead," said Paras Bothra,President of Equity Research,Ashika Stock Broking.
BSE healthcare, capitalgoods, finance, consumerdurables and oil and gas indicesrallied up to 3.16 per cent, whiletelecom ended in the red.
Broader BSE midcap andsmallcap indices spurted up to1.49 per cent. Global marketswere largely subdued after newsreports cast doubts on someCOVID-19 vaccine trials. PTI
changemaker, Dia Mirza jug-gles her myriad roles with ease.But for a then 18-year-old Dia,the Hindi film industry was aworld far removed from hers.The journey actually beganwith the Miss India pageant. “Itfeels almost surreal to lookback 20 years. I was so youngwhen it all happened,” she saysas she reminisces on an expe-rience that made the innocent,young Hyderabad girl a house-hold name, popular for herendearing smile and positiv-ity. “The year 2000 marked anew millennium, bringingwith it a sense of hope,promise and excitement”,she adds.
Interestingly, Dia wasnever one who dreamt ofwinning a beauty pageant,but instead came from avery different world. “Ihappened to be spotted bya modeling agent whooffered me a part-time jobat 16. Everything hap-pened very quickly afterthat — advertising cam-paigns, fashion shows,editorial shoots. Onething led to another andI was selected fromHyderabad for the MissIndia pageant. I remem-ber my mother beingreally surprised that Iwanted to take part,”the actor recalls. Dia,who had never leftHyderabad before inher life, vividlyremembers adapting
to life in Mumbai. “Itwas a journey thatbrought love andencouragement,but was still verydaunting to be gothrough alone. Asan individual, Ihave neverbelieved in com-petition, so for meit was aboutputting my bestfoot forward,enjoying myselfand learning asmuch as Icould,” she said.Dia went on to
be crowned MissIndia - Asia Pacific
later that year, an importantstep in her dynamic journey ofbecoming an actor-producerand now an important voice ofenvironmental and wildlifeconservation.
Dia still remembers thefeeling and chaos of that win-ning moment. “We wereannounced the winners,crowned, wore our sashes, tookthat final walk, and had thou-sands of lights and camerasflashing in front of us —through all of that, I rememberthinking ‘where are my par-ents? I want to meet them’ Inthat moment I truly realisedhow happiness can be trulycherished when you have yourfamily to share it with.”
But as a winner justcrowned, she found herselfwhisked away for the iconicFemina cover photo-shoot withactor Shah Rukh Khan. “Thatwas a whole experience initself, as the camera caught melooking at him in complete aweand love,” she candidly added.
Another iconic momentwhich Dia remembers fondlywas when she got a chance toshare the stage for a big grouppicture with all the previousinternational title winners fromIndia — Aishwarya Rai,Sushmita Sen, Diana Haydenand Yukta Mookhey along withher and that year’s other twowinners — Lara and Priyanka.The three of them went on towin their respective interna-tional titles as well.
From being a regular girlfrom Hyderabad to living thedream in Mumbai, Dia cruisedalong the year 2000 gracefullyas she only aimed to stay trueto herself. Over the years hun-dreds of young women fromacross the country compete tobecome a beauty queen andforge for themselves a name inBollywood. “I recognised howlucky I was to be offered suchan opportunity and I couldn’ttake it for granted,” she says,ever grateful for her experience.Ask Dia what is the one thingthat has stayed with herthrough since then, and shesays without batting an eyelid,“Be yourself. Staying authenticand speaking my truth waswhat set me apart then andcontinues to define me evennow.”
While ringing in 2020, like everyyear, we made resolutions aboutleading a better lifestyle, creat-
ing a balanced mental canvas, visiting newholiday destinations and so on... Whowould have thought that the year wouldbe a harbinger of a phenomenon thatwould bring the world to a grinding haltleaving us wondering what had hit us?This time might be one of the toughestfor the world, but then it is human ten-dency to turn around adversity.Formulation of products that help thefrontline warriors and common peopleappears to be the perfect example of hownecessity and tough times can often leadto new inventions.
Stay home, stay safe — the mottotoday continues to be true for everyonewho can adhere to it and feel secure. Butit is not an option for those who are sta-tioned at forefront fighting the pandem-ic every day with faces buried insidemasks that make breathing cumber-some, wearing the protective clothing andtackling scary life situations day in andday out. In such a crisis, Desmania, thebrainchild of alumnus of NID, has comeup with the Full Face Mask D’Armor, aprotective face mask.
The product is primarily an amalga-mation of the mask and face shield,smartly crafted to snugly fit the face andget adjusted according to the facial con-tours. It is thoughtfully formulated toaddress issues faced by users. For instance,heavy breathing, fogging up of the shieldwhich reduces visibility, overall bulkinessof the equipment which makes quicktransitions difficult, are all taken intoaccount and resolved.
While the focus is on hygiene thesedays, the dumping of disposable maskscan eventually lead to biological hazardsin times to come. Backed up by profes-sionals at AIIMS and IIT Delhi, FaceArmor keeps this aspect in view as well.It’s washable and abides with the normsof sustainability. Much in line with thenano and N95 masks, this product can bereused without compromising safety orburning a hole in your pocket.
The brand is diligently conceptualis-ing other products for door to door ven-dors and delivery boys, who are at equalrisk. For instance, they have made a beltequipped with modular compartmentsthat can be adjusted as per the need. Ithas a place to keep a sanitiser bottle, hooktheir helmet and a cash collecting box sothat hygiene is not compromised.
Taking cognisance of the current sit-uation, Bata India Limited has launchedanti-bacterial shoes for children. MatteoLambert, chief collection officer of thebrand, feels that change in consumerbehaviour is bound to be a natural fall-out of the on-going crisis. In the post-pandemic world, health and safety wouldbe of paramount importance for every-one. He says, “Brands that employ the bestof safety measures, right from the produc-tion stage to the final delivery are goingto be in vogue. Fashion alone would notbe the deciding factor and that would bea game changer as consumers would becautious about what they are purchasingand the kind of risks they expose them-selves to. An increased receptiveness toproducts that are durable and offer moreprotection will be seen. These shoes canbe easily washed and sanitised, without
impairing their make and material.” “From what the consumers are eat-
ing to what they are wearing, everythingwill have to measure up to standardbenchmarks of safety and hygiene.Keeping these safety concerns in mind,Bata is planning to include feet sanitis-ers, wipes and face masks in the bou-quet of product offerings. Wewant to ensure that we are wellequipped in advance to meetthe evolving consumerdemands,” adds he.
To step up safe-ty standards forriders andd r i v e r s ,U b e rlauncheda compre-hensive set ofm e a s u r e s ,ramped up thedistribution ofmillions of PPEkits to drivers andintroduced safetyawareness education videocourses for them. Uber’s new in-app safe-ty feature will notify drivers to replenishtheir PPE supplies after they have com-pleted a predetermined number of trips.The notification will provide a list of con-venient pick up points and generate a QRcode once they select the preferred loca-tion. An Uber volunteer will scan the QRcode at the designated pick up locationand hand over PPE supplies to drivers.
In case drivers choose to source therequired PPE themselves, the brandpromises to reimburse the cost.
Distribution of PPE kits has been ongo-ing in Green and Orange zones since therelaxation of the lockdown. As a part ofits safety initiatives, the company has alsomade it mandatory for driver partners tocomplete ride-sharing specific education-al videos, highlighting standard operat-
ing procedures for vehicle disin-fection and other COVID-19
related safety protocols.Drivers can only take
trips, once they havewatched these videosto ensure they’re fol-lowing the safetyprotocols.
Pavan Vaish,head of Central
Operations, UberIndia, shares, “The
safety of every-one who usesour platform is apriority. Weordered mil-
lions of masksand sanitis-ers at anearly stage of
the pandem-ic. Our new distri-
bution technology ensures that driverscan get these safety supplies over a longperiod of time. As authorities lift the lock-down and millions prepare to get back towork, we will double our efforts to setindustry standards for safety.”
The pandemic has pressurised andoverburdened our healthcare systems andis challenging their preparedness to dealwith the emergency scenarios in an
unprecedented manner. Defence Instituteof Physiology and Allied Sciences(DIPAS), Institute of Nuclear Medicineand Allied Sciences (INMAS) and DRDOlaboratories have developed an UltravioletC Light-based sanitisation box. This canbe used to sanitise objects like keys andwallets. The organisations have alsodeveloped a handheld UV-C device witha wavelength of 254 nanometres.
On the same lines, nanotechnologystart-up, Log 9 Materials, has invented aneffective solution in the form of a disin-fection chamber — CoronaOven. Theproduct uses UV-C light (based upon thescientific principle of UltravioletGermicidal Irradiation) to kill the virusand other pathogens within 10 minutesafter an object is placed inside the box fordecontamination. It has been designedbased on the study done on SARS virus.It’s as easy to use as a microwave. Put yourproducts to be disinfected inside the box,turn it on for 10 minutes and they will bevirus-free.
The question that arises now is howmuch will such products last? Will theycontinue to be necessities even after weemerge from the pandemic? KartikHajela, co-founder and COO of thebrand, tells us that COVID-19 will defi-nitely lead to a consumer behaviour shift.“We anticipate hygiene and sanitisationbecoming one of the major categories andhence, the UV based sterilisation technol-ogy we are bringing to the market will beadopted even after the current situationstabilises,” says he.
Of course, humans will continue toshop but the whats and whys of the prod-ucts are all set to change.
The success of Paatal Lok isbecause of its content,” says
actor-producer Anushka Sharma,who has produced the series alongwith her brother, KarneshSharma under their productionhouse Clean Slate Filmz.
The show, created bySudip Sharma has got over-whelming appreciation fromcritics and audience. Peoplehave credited Anushka,who became theyoungest actor-pro-ducer at the age of 25with NH10, for giv-ing the country anamazing show.
Anushka says,“I’m overwhelmedwith the love andadulation thataudience andcritics have show-ered on our labourof love Paatal Lok.Its success isbecause of the con-tent. In today’s dayand age, superlativecontent is truly themost important yard-stick and Karnesh andI, have always looked togive audience somethingthat they might havenever seen before.”
She adds, “As a pro-ducer and an actor, Ihave only tried to entertainthrough innovative, high-ly engaging and clutter-breaking storytelling.Karnesh and I realised quiteearly that content landscapewas going to witness a mas-sive change as we getexposed to global con-tent. I have tried to bring
my learnings here.”According to the actor, the suc-
cess of the show validates the com-pany’s strategic focus on content
curation. “Despite being ayoung production house, wehave stuck our neck out andthankfully our instinctivecontent choices have stoodout. It has been a huge learn-ing experience for all of us atClean Slate Filmz as we have
taken baby steps intohaving a razor-sharpfocus on contentcuration. The suc-cess of Paatal Lok isa massive valida-tion of our beliefs,planning and cura-tion strategies,”says she and goeson to add: “We
share this incredi-ble moment with
our entire team, whohave shared our vision
and taught us manythings in the process. It is Sudip’s brilliancethat has captured the
underbelly from a lensthat’s unique, inspiring anddiscomforting.”
The actor adds that thedirectors of the show PrositRoy and Avinash ArunDhaware have starkly andbreathtakingly brought alivethe rawness of the script on
screen and the talented cast ledby Jaideep Ahlawat, NeerajKabi, Abhishek Banerjee andthe likes of Swastika Mukherjee,
Niharika, Jagjeet, Gul Panag,Ishwak, Asif Basra, among othershave poured their hearts out totranslate the magic of script toscreen.
NECESSITY, THE MOTHER OF MANY INVENTIONS �#%�������������%�������� ������%��� ����*%��� ��$����#&�����#�/��/���/*�'&%��#�� ��&%������%���������%%��% �������&��&��D7�3+ �(, �(31-3
The Rajiv Gandhi Kisan NyayYojna has been launchedtoday on the death anniver-
sary of former Prime Minister RajivGandhi by Chhattisgarh ChiefMinister Bhupesh Baghel throughvideo conferencing. The scheme willbenefit over 19 lakh farmers in thestate and encourage them to pro-duce more crops. It will comes as arelief to farmers during this time ofcrisis.
What it holdsUnder the scheme, �5,700 crore
will be transferred directly intoaccounts of farmers in four install-ments. More than 18 lakh farmers(approximately 18,34,834) will beprovided �1,500 crore as first install-ment for paddy crop.
The financial assistance calcu-lated on the basis of �10,000 per acrewill be deposited to each beneficia-ry account based on registered areaand area under cultivation duringKharif crop season 2019 as an agri-cultural assistance grant throughDirect Benefit Transfer (DBT) forprocuring crops like paddy, maizeand sugarcane (Rabi).
Purpose and aimRajiv Gandhi Kisan Nyay Yojna
is initiated in the state to assist agri-
cultural inputs with an aim toencourage crop production. Thescheme has been partially imple-mented from Kharif 2019 with ret-rospective effect.
Who are to be benefitted?For farmers planting paddy and
maize crops in Kharif 2019 throughthe medium of cooperative societiesor on the basis of input ratio, themaximum amount is �10,000 peracre.
It will cover around 9,53,706marginal farmers, 5,60,284 smallfarmers, 3,20,844 big farmers —from Raipur, Durg, Bilaspur,Surguja, and Bastar divisions.
Farmers of acquired maize cropare also to be benefitted under thescheme in Kharif 2019 throughCooperative Society. Data related toprocurement is being obtained fromthe concerned department. On thebasis of this, payment will be madeto farmers producing maize in thenext installment.
Providing support to sugarcanefarmers
Under the Rajiv Gandhi KisanNyay Yojana, for the year 2019-20,for crushing sugarcane crop pur-chased by the cooperative factory onthe basis of the quantity of sugar-
cane, the FRP amount is �261 perquintal and a total of 93.75 incen-tives per quintal that is, maximumof �355 per quintal will be paid.
Under this, more than 34,000 farm-ers of the state will get �73.55 crorein four installments.
Sugarcane factory-wise benefi-
ciary in crushing year2019-20 under thescheme are —Bhoramdev SugarF a c t o r y ,Kawardha; MaaMahamaya SugarF a c t o r y ,Ambikapur; MaaDanteshwari MayyaSugar Factory, Balod;and Loh Purush SardarVallabhbhai Patel SugarFactory, Pandaria.
Payment of outstanding bonusfor sugarcane
Payment of outstanding bonusof sugarcane crop crushing in theyear 2018-19 through cooperativesugar factory, depending on thequantity of sugarcane, incentive�27 crore will be given to 24,414farmers on the basis of �50 per quin-tal. Under this, �10.27 crore will bedistributed.
Inclusion of more crops from nextseason
State government has alsoincluded sugarcane crops, paddy,maize, soyabean, groundnut,sesame, pigeonpea, moong, urad,kulthi, ramatil, kodo, kotki and rabifrom kharif 2020 in the Yojna. It has
also been said that if farm-ers, taking the grant for
paddy crop last year,replace the paddywith other cropsincluded in thescheme this year,then, in such a situ-
ation, they will begiven an additional
assistance per acre.
Strengthening rural economyIn order to make the state econ-
omy dynamic and strong,Chhattisgarh government has trans-ferred an amount of �900 crore tofarmers in their accounts in timesof crisis under crop insurance andPradhan Mantri Kisan SammanYojana.
Earlier, under the leadership ofChief Minister Bhupesh Baghel,the state government had waived�8,800 crore loan for about 18 lakhfarmers and provided relief to farm-ers by taking steps like four-timecompensation on agricultural landacquisition, irrigation tax waiver.
Generating employment throughMNREGA and other ways (forestproduce)
During lockdown, theChhattisgarh government has gen-
erated employment under theMahatma Gandhi EmploymentGuarantee Scheme that has direct-ly benefitted 23 lakh villagers. Forpeople depending on forest produce,collection of 16.71 lakh standardsacks of tendu leaves has been fixedin the forest areas of the state. It willbenefit about 12.53 lakh collectors.
Chhattisgarh accounts for 98per cent of the total forest produceacross India. It is the major sourceof income for millions of families inthe state. In the current season, thegovernment has committed to pay�649 crore to people dependent onforest produce. The state govern-ment has announced an additionalincentive of �13 per kg for the fixedsupport price of Mahua flower at�17 per kg. Similarly, in addition tothe support price in the purchase ofKusumi lac, Rangeeni lac and Kullugum, additional incentive is beinggiven by the state government.
To increase the income of thetribals, the government has ensuredthe middle-market free system andpurchase of forest produce at theright price. Tendu leaf collectionrate has been increased to �4,000per standard bag. Also, the numberof forest produce purchased at sup-port price has been increased to �25from �7.
In view of various orders issued by the gov-ernment in the past, announcing lockdown
in the country for containment of the pandem-ic, it has been decided by the CompetentAuthority of the Council of Architecture thatthe first and second test of NATA 2020 exam-ination shall now be held on August 1 and 29respectively.
The revised NATA brochure with revisedimportant dates for both tests shall be uploadedshortly on the website of the councilwww.coa.gov.in as well on NATA websitewww.nata.in. The NATA portal shall bereopened shortly to facilitate students to applyfor registration of first and second test and forcandidate correction window for the saidtests.
The candidates and parents are advised tokeep visiting the said sites for latest updates. Forany further clarification, candidates may con-tact NATA helpdesk [email protected] and9319275557, 7303487773.
The Metropolis Healthcare Ltd hasbuilt a dedicated COVID-19 testing
laboratory in Thane, Maharashtra whichhas now been approved by IndianCouncil of Medical Research (ICMR)and accredited by the National accred-itation Board for Testing and CalibrationLaboratories (NABL).
In addition to its lab in Mumbai andin Pune, this third dedicated facility inthe state will now increase its testingcapacity to conduct COVID-19 tests.The daily capacity of all the three labsput together stands at 4,000 now.
Ameera Shah, promoter and man-
aging director, said, “COVID-19 testingneeds to increase exponentially and, tomeet the needs of the state, we haveadded this laboratory with an enhancedcapacity. Four of our labs across Indiaare ICMR approved. Our only focus insuch times is to support the local gov-ernment and municipal authorities toincrease the number of tests conductedeach day in order to fight this pandem-ic.”
It has become one of the first labo-ratories to be approved by ICMR forCOVID-19 testing and has been at theforefront since day one.
As we embraced 2020, little did weknow what is before us to deal with.
Coronavirus has taken over the world andis claiming lives across the globe.Presenting a new challenge for the glob-al healthcare industry, it is keeping themedical experts on their toes day-in andday-out. So far, the only solution for non-affected people is to quarantine them-selves and maintain social distancing toavoid contagion.
Concerned authorities have issuedvarious guidelines to spread awareness onhow to keep oneself safe and maintaincleanliness. Washing hands frequently,using alcohol-based hand rub and usingface mask have become a common prac-tice. However, the effectiveness of usinga mask as a preventive measure hasbecome a global debate.
Can wearing a mask help fight againstCOVID-19? What kind of mask is moreeffective? And more questions are bafflingpeople across the world. Various types ofmasks have flooded the commercialmarkets which are being bought in bulkup-front. Many households with noaccess to commercially available maskshave also come up with masks made withreadily available handkerchiefs or cottonclothes.
We will address three critical aspectsof wearing masks — are they effective inpreventing COVID-19? And which maskshould be used and why?
� Can masks prevent COVID-19?
Wearing a mask can protect one fromcoming in direct contact with virus-infected aerosol particles that are respon-sible for transmitting Coronavirus. Theseparticles, when entered via mouth, eyesand ears, can potentially attack the res-piratory system of a person. Hence, a facemask can obstruct the particles to enterthe mouth and nose. However, wearinga mask will not be effective if the personis not washing hands or using hand sani-tiser frequently. Wearing masks, along
with other hygiene routines, improves theeffectiveness of face masks.
� Type of masks to wear and why?It has been found that the virus that
results in COVID-19 can remain stableon solid surfaces and in aerosols for sev-eral hours. The life of the virus variesdepending upon the nature of the surface.For instance, the virus can live on a card-board surface for up to 24 hours and inthe air for up to 3 hours. Therefore, thevirus is airborne, but the chances of catch-ing it from the atmosphere are slim. Thesechances can be further reduced by wear-ing a mask. WHO emphasis that "youonly need to wear a mask if you are tak-ing care of a person with the suspected2019-nCoV infection." And other expertsclaim that the most effective masks areN95 & N99 respirators. They seal the noseand mouth sections completely. Also, theyare multi-layered that can captivate andrestrict the movement of the virus.However, it should be noted that even ear-ing a basic mask in public places can helpin avoiding virus transmission. JeremyHoward, a research scientist at theUniversity of San Francisco and owner offast.ai, conducted a study and found that34 scientific papers support the idea ofusing DIY masks to “flatten the curve.”Some other studies also indicate the wear-ing a surgical mask is more effective thanDIY masks.
(The writer is V Deekshith VaraPrasad, CEO, Air Ok Technologies.)
In compliance with government guidelinesfor partial lifting of lockdown, Delhi
Development Authority (DDA) has openedits sports complexes and Golf Coursestoday keeping in place restrictions and socialdistancing norms due to COVID-19.
The DDA sports complexes will adhereto the laid down protocol. Persons above 65years of age, children below 10 years of ageand persons with co-morbidity or those suf-fering from chronic disease will be prohib-ited entry. Sports which will be opened formembers are for tennis, badminton, tabletennis, golf-driving range, shooting range,archery, walking and jogging track. The tim-ings will be from 8 am to 6 pm.
Protocol for facilities which will beopened for members:��Tennis — Singles only��Badminton — (i) Alternate courts willbe opened for use by members; (ii) singlesonly��Table Tennis — Singles only�� Jogging track/walking — 50 membersonly�� Shooting Range — Alternate shootingbays to be provided (Keeping minimum dis-tance of six metres)��Archery — Alternate shooting bays tobe provided (Keeping minimum distance ofsix metres)��Golf Driving Range — Alternate bays tobe opened
Sports complexes will also allot slots formembers with timings for each facilitywhich is being opened. Only those memberswho have been allotted booking token willbe allowed into the sports complex.Members without booking will not beallowed entry inside the sports complex.
Where online booking is available,members will book online and slots withtoken will be allotted by complex manage-ment. Sports complexes which do not haveonline booking will provide offline book-ing and issue token. Complex managementwill place temporary receptions at themain entrance gate for this.
Sports complexes will provide entry tomembers and staffs through main entrancegate of the complex only. All other gates willbe closed and locked and notices will be putup.
Here are the mandatory accessories tobe carried by members:��Slot booking token�� Aarogya Setu App on mobile phone,which will be asked to show at the gate��Compulsory face mask and gloves��Pocket hand sanitisers��Every member will have to get their tem-perature check at the entrance�� Sanitising shoes at the entry of indoorfacilities��Drinking water bottle and towel��Sports equipment like badminton, ten-nis or table tennis rackets, shuttle cocks andtennis balls��No sharing allowed
Following facilities inside the sportscomplexes will not be available:��Lockers for player��Bathing room��Changing room��Coaching facilities
At this time, when the worldis facing a huge crisis due to
COVID-19 outbreak, SunaayyFoundation has come forward todistribute food and other reliefmaterials to migrant labourers,underprivileged children andtheir families. Everyone hascome forward to volunteer theirservices or with their valuablecontribution towards this greatcause.
The most remarkable onesare the participation of seniorschool students from India aswell as various parts of theworld who have come forwardas the volunteers for innovativefundraising activities, creatingawareness about various cultur-al aspects, bad effects of drugsand topics relevant to othersocial lacunas through onlineinteractive activities, conductingchess and art classes, designingand conceptualising social mediaand other collaterals, and manyother impactful work in theirown ways.
Anika Singh, a student ofgrade 9, Robbinsville HighSchool, New Jersey, USA, said,“Sunaayy Foundation and myfamily has a deep relation. I, mysister and my mother areengaged with it and it has some-how found a way in our lives. Iwork with Sunaayy to teach thekids, raise funds and spreadawareness related to the organ-isation, among friends andstrangers. Most recently, I ammaking efforts to raise awarenessand funds in these difficulttimes.”
Seattle, USA-based SionaWadhwanand, a student of grade10, University Prep School, said,“Even though away from India,
I do best and everything in mycapacity to help SunaayyFoundation through fundraising.Whenever I am there, I makesure to visit the schools and getfirsthand experience of theamazing work done by theorganisation and Richa (Prasant,founder) aunt, who has alsotaught me that passion anddetermination can change thelives of many. I had the oppor-tunity to engage in the numberof activities with the kids. We atecookies, drew butterflies, and Ieven helped hem read Englishalphabets. I was amazed to seethe eagerness among them tolearn and also the importancegiven to education and learning.”
Arnav Pandit, a student ofclass XI of Shriram School, NewDelhi, said, “My journey with thefoundation began when I was inthe seventh grade. It startedwith me volunteering at theweekly hobby club on Saturdays.I would teach the children chess.After some time, I became theorganiser for the hobby classesand continued teaching kidsalong with other volunteers. Ialso digitised their attendancerecords. Looking at all those reg-isters full of names of childreneager to learn really made me feelhappy. We had started runninginto some problems with thefunding for the hobby class. Solater, I also raised a fund of �1.5lakh to continue the classes. I amgrateful every day for what I havebeen able to contribute to theirorganisation. It has been a greatplatform for me to give to soci-ety.”
Also, New Delhi-basedShriya Chaturvedi (class 9,Sanskriti School) and SiddhantSharma (class 12, VVS), andSwitzerland-based Max Suter(grade 10) have set the examplesof how one could volunteer atany age, from any location, andwith any skill and not onlymake a social impact but alsosend a powerful message of vol-unteering to the whole world.
“We take huge pride in hav-ing an association of volunteerswhere individuals and groupscome together to offer theirselfless service to educate andnourish the underprivilegedchildren and make sure theyremain healthy. This is whatmakes this organisation, theSunaayy Foundation!” saidRicha.
Zinedine Zidane expressedadmiration at both the phys-
ical and mental form in whichhis Real Madrid players havereturned from the coron-avirus lockdown andvowed they would giveeverything to win a trophy.
“The players haveworked well from homeand that’s why they havecome back on great form,this is going to be crucial,”Zidane said of their individualtraining plans.
“This week has been greatbecause even working in smallgroups we can go further, workbetter, and next week will beeven better.”
Real are two points behind
Barcelona in La Liga and the 13-time European champions alsotrail Manchester City after thefirst-leg of their ChampionsLeague quarter-final.
Frenchman Zidane ledMadrid to threeChampions League titlesin his first tenure at thehelm and hopes to winsomething in his first fullseason back in charge.
“After almost 60 dayseveryone is happy to get
back here and catch up witheach other, and to play somefootball, which is what they alllove,” said Zidane.
“We’ll do everything to beready for the restart and witheleven games to go we want togive it absolutely everything towin something.”
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Liverpool manager JurgenKlopp is optimistic aboutthe chances of completing
the Premier League season as thechampions-elect returned totraining in small groups onWednesday.
Klopp’s side were just twovictories away from ending a 30-year wait to win the title whenthe English top-flight was shut-down more than two monthsago.
At the start of the outbreak,Klopp accepted football shouldbe suspended if it would helpsave even one life.
But the German believes itis now safe for players to returnto phase one of training.
“I always said we don’t wantto rush anything, but I don’tthink it is rushed. It is for the firststep, for this kind of social dis-tancing training,” Klopp told theLiverpool website.
“It was a long time, it is stillongoing, but the development isgoing with everything in theright direction and that helps.
“That football is closer tocoming back I think is really agood sign for people as well.”
Sheffield United managerChris Wilder is also heartenedthat just 0.8 percent of the testscarried out by the PremierLeague resulted in positive cases.
“A lot of people have beentested and the signs are encour-
aging,” said Wilder, whose sideare in contention to qualify forEuropean competition for thefirst time in their history.
The Premier League’s targetof restarting on June 12 has beencalled into question by players’concern for their welfare, bothfrom the threat of the virus andinjuries with little preparationtime after such a long layoff.
However, Wilder does notbelieve fitness should be anissue as players have been ableto maintain their conditioningduring the lockdown.
“They weren’t off to Dubaior Vegas eating and drinking
whatever they want,” Wilderadded.
“They’ve got a professional-ism about them and my playersare in absolutely brilliant condi-tion.”
‘LAB RATS’Newcastle and
England defender DannyRose though is angry atthe restart plans, arguingthat players are being treated like“guinea pigs or lab rats”.
“I could be potentially risk-ing my health for people’s enter-tainment and that’s not some-thing I want to be involved in,
if I’m honest,” said Rose on theLockdown Tactics podcast.
Watford’s Adrian Mariappaconfirmed he had tested posi-tive, with the bemused defend-
er telling the DailyTelegraph: “Ever since I gotmy positive result back onTuesday, I’ve been scratch-ing my head to try to workout how I might have gotcoronavirus.“It was a big surprise
because I haven’t really left thehouse, apart from some exerciseand the odd walk with the kids.”
Burnley had previouslyannounced that assistant man-
ager Ian Woan, who is asymp-tomatic, was another case withtwo more from one other clubyet to be revealed.
Meanwhile, Tottenham havelaunched another investigationinto one of their players afterdefender Serge Aurier appearedto flout social-distancing rulesfor a third time.
The Ivorian posted anInstagram photo on Tuesdayshowing off his new haircut andtagged the barber in his post.
Hairdressers are closed inBritain in line with theGovernment’s rules on socialdistancing.
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UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin isaiming to finish this year’s Champions
League by the end of August as football inEurope slowly starts to bounce back from thecoronavirus pandemic.
“Our plan is to finish it between now andthe end of August,” Ceferin said in an inter-view with Portuguese sports daily Record.
“I think that will work. You never knowwhat’s going to happen but things seem tobe calming down.
“Eighty percent of European leagues aregoing to restart, I don’t see why theChampions League and Europa Leagueshouldn’t take place.”
That end date for UEFA’s European tour-naments was widely reported but never offi-cially confirmed by the continent’s footballgoverning body.
Ceferin’s desired deadline gives clubs achance to finish their domestic competitionsbefore the Champions League restarts in earlyAugust.
In an interview with British daily TheGuardian, Ceferin added that he would beprepared to bet a million dollars on Euro 2020being played next year following its postpone-ment to 2021.
“Yes, I would,” he told the newspaper “Idon’t know why it (the tournament) would-n’t be (played).
“I don’t think that this virus will last for-ever. I think it will (change) sooner than manythink.
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Italy’s Serie A teams have been given thegreen light to resume group training but
will have to wait until May 28 to knowwhether the season can resume, SportsMinister Vincenzo Spadafora saidon Tuesday.
Spadafora told Italian televi-sion that Government scientistshad accepted the Italian footballfederation’s (FIGC) revised healthprotocol.
The Sports Minister also told that hehas scheduled a meeting on May 28 withFIGC president Gabriele Gravina andLega Serie A chief Paolo Dal Pino todecide on the return to competition.
“We will then decide if and when
Serie A will restart,” he said.“The important thing will be to
restart with the firm intention of complet-ing the championship, then the federa-tions will decide the modalities and for-mats to be adopted.”
The minister also said that acontroversial measure of isolatingteam members for two weeks atclub facilities to limit the risk ofcontagion has been withdrawn.
If a player tests positive he willbe quarantined for two weeks,
while the team will be placed in isolation,and monitored, but can continue to traintogether.
FIGC president Gravina welcomed a“decisive step on the path of restartingfootball in Italy”.
����+� Germany goalkeeperManuel Neuer has signed a newdeal with Bayern Munich that tieshim to the club until 2023.
The announcement ends weeksof speculation over the Bayerncaptain’s future, with widespreadreports that talks between playerand club had hit the rocks.
“During the weeks of the shut-down for the coronavirus pan-demic, I didn’t want to make a deci-sion because nobody knew if, whenand how Bundesliga football wouldcontinue,” Neuer said in a statement.
“I look to the future with greatoptimism. I feel very comfortableand at home in Bavaria.”
A World Cup winner in 2014with Germany, Neuer joined Bayernfrom Schalke in 2011 and has wonalmost everything with the Bavariangiants, with seven Bundesliga titles,five German Cups and ChampionsLeague to his name. AFP
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Top cricketers like Rohit Sharma andAjinkya Rahane will have to wait
longer to resume individual training inthe city due to its status of being aCovid-19 red zone, which rules outopening of sports facilities here for thetime being.
The Maharashtra Government hasallowed opening of stadiums for indi-vidual training in green and orangezones without spectators. This was afterthe Home Ministry offered relaxationin regulations for the fourth phase of thelockdown till May 31.
However, Mumbai and all it’sneighbouring areas like Thane, NaviMumbai, Mira Bhayandar, Vasai Virarand Kalyan Dombivili have beendeclared red zones. “We will strictlyadhere to the norms of the stateGovernment with regard to opening ofstadiums and sports facilities,” a seniorMCA official said on Wednesday.
What this means is that top crick-eters, who are residing in the city, likeRohit and Rahane will have to wait fur-ther to hit the ground.
MCA has three facilities — theWankhede Stadium, the Bandra KurlaComplex and the Sachin TendulkarGymkhana in suburban Kandivili.However, as per the Government direc-tives, these will remain closed.
Cricket practice won’t start even atthe Braboune Stadium, which is locat-ed off the Marine Drive.
A senior Cricket Club of India(CCI) official also said that they will waitfor the Government order on restart-ing of activities. “Till then nothing willbe resumed,” the official stated.
$����England bowlers areset to report for training onThursday, leading the way ascricket chiefs step up plans tostart a season heavily delayedby the coronavirus pandemic.
The global health crisishas put matches on hold inEngland until July 1 at the ear-liest while in other countriesthe season is already over.
Despite the pandemic, theEngland and Wales CricketBoard (ECB) is still planningto stage a full home interna-tional programme, startingwith a three-Test series againstthe West Indies, which wasoriginally scheduled for June.
The ECB has announcedthat up to 18 bowlers will beinvolved from Thursday.
Edgbaston, Hove, OldTrafford, the Oval, theRiverside, Taunton and Trent
Bridge will stage at least onesession, before batsmen andwicketkeepers becomeinvolved from June 1.
The bowlers’ identitieshave yet to be made public butthe choice of venues indi-cates that James Anderson(Old Trafford) and StuartBroad (Trent Bridge) will beamong the leading Englandbowlers training at their homecounty grounds.
Bowlers will have to bringtheir own kit, including desig-nated cricket balls, wash theirhands regularly, and clean anyequipment used with disinfec-tant wipes. AFP
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International hockey willbe played only after a
vaccine is developed tocure the deadly coron-avirus, the FIH hasannounced as the worldgoverning body revealed afive-stage process, devisedfor resumption of thegame at different levels.
The InternationalHockey Federation (FIH)believes global competi-tion among its membercountries will be possible only duringthe last stage of the process, the time-line of which cannot be set.
“These are very early days whenit comes to a return to action but,within its guidance FIH has pro-duced a five stage process showing theroute back to something resemblingnormality. This starts, as has been seenin the Netherlands and Belgium, with
a return to carefullymanaged training, stillwith social distancingmeasures in place,” theFIH said in a statement.
“The next stage willbe a resumption ofregional competition, fol-lowed by local travelbetween neighbouringnations. Trans-Continental competitionwill follow and, finally,once a vaccine is in place,it is hoped there will bea return to normal com-
petition.”“There is no time scale for these
stages to be reached and it will varyfrom country to country.”
FIH said when competition doesresume, organisers will need to behugely conscious of safety measuresthat will need to be implemented, inorder to keep the hockey workforceand the fans safe.
��$������ Australia’s premierfast bowler Pat Cummins whileaccepting the health risk associ-ated with the usage of salivaurged game’s custodians to comeout with an alternate option tostrike a balance between bat andball.
Cummins said applyingsweat or any external substancelike wax on the ball could be analternate option if usage of sali-va is banned.
“If we remove saliva, we haveto have another option,” the 27-year-old pacer was quoted as say-ing by cricket.Com.Au.
“Sweat is not bad, but I thinkwe need something more thanthat, ideally. Whatever that is,wax or I don’t know what.
“If that’s what that science istelling us, that it’s high risk using
saliva ... As long as we’re keepingother options open, whether that’ssweat or something artificial.”
Cummins, currently world’sNo1 Test bowler, said sweat is aviable option to keep the ballshinning.
“We have to be able to shinethe ball somehow so I’m gladthey’ve let sweat remain,” he said.
“We’ve just got to make sureat the start of the spell we’re sweat-
ing and we’re nice and warm.”Australian sports gear man-
ufacturer Kookaburra had earli-er this month claimed that it haddeveloped a wax applicatorwhich can keep the balls shin-ning without the usage of salivaor sweat.
Cummins, however, hopesthat they can return to the usageof saliva in future as it is the bestoption to shine the ball.“Hopefully we’ll get to a stagewhere saliva is deemed safe.Hopefully, we can go back tothat, to how it was,” he said. PTI
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In what could be the biggestnews for cricket fans across
the globe amid the Covid-19pandemic, the Board of Controlfor Cricket in India (BCCI) islooking at a possibility of host-ing the 13th edition of theIndian Premier League fromSeptember 25 to November 1,provided the country is able tolower the rate of coronavirusinfections.
Sources in the know ofdevelopments said that while itis still early days, the BCCI islooking to zoom in on the end-September to November periodto organise the cash-rich leagueto start India’s domestic seasonin the post-coronavirus era.
“It is still early days as a lotof other things have to fall inplace for this to materialise, butyes, the BCCI is looking ata September 25-November 1 window pro-vided the number of casesin the country come downand the government doesgive a go-ahead. As I said,a lot of things do need to fall inplace, but yes these dates arebeing talked about and contin-gency planning is on,” the sourcesaid.
An official of one of the IPLfranchises said that they wereindeed working on the road
ahead with an eye on the end-September to early-Novemberwindow as it would take at leasta month’s planning leading upto the league when it comes toadvertising and marketing.
“Yes, we have been told thatwe should plan with an eye onthese dates and in fact, we are
looking to plan ourbuild-up in such amanner. But thenagain, it all dependson the country’sposition with regardsto the pandemic.
There is no denying that we arekeeping our fingers crossed andhoping that the Governmentwill continue with the brilliantjob they have done and we willsee a drop in the number ofcases per day,” the official said.
Another IPL official said
that while the window is beingzeroed in on, a lot of clarity willneed to come as time progress-es with regards to logistics andthe on-ground preparations.
“Yes, we have been toldabout the window, but noth-ing yet on the venues or howto go about the logistics. Weneed to understand thosesides as part of the next stepof preparation as foreign play-ers will need to come in andwe have to ensure thatGovernment directives withregards to fighting the pan-demic are fully abided by. I amsure we will get more clarityas time moves forward aspreparations will start sayaround mid-August if we haveto play our first match aroundthe end of September,” theofficial explained.
����$+��The lone athlete to start out-door training after relaxation in lock-down guidelines, sprinter Dutee Chandonly has the “eerie silence” of the standsfor company as she tries “to wake” herbody up at the Kalinga Stadium inBhubaneswar.
The 24-year-old Dutee began out-door training on Monday after theOdisha Government gave permission asper relaxed guidelines for Covid-19lockdown’s fourth phase, stepping out forthe first time on a synthetic track in twomonths.
She was in Patiala to take part in theseason-opening Indian Grand Prix onMarch 20 but the event got cancelled dueto the pandemic and since then Duteehas been confined to her room at theKalinga Institute of IndustrialTechnology, though she was allowed touse the gym there.
“After two months, I am training out-
doors and it is a very nice feeling to expe-rience the air while running on the track.For a track athlete, there is no better feel-ing than this. At the same time I am alsoexperiencing an unusual feeling,” Duteesaid.
“Normally, there are a lot of traineesat the hostels inside the Kalinga Stadiumcomplex but all of them have left forhome due to this pandemic. So, I am theonly one training at such a big stadium.It is unusual, to experience this eeriesilence,” said the Asian Games Silver-medallist in 100m and 200m.
Another top athlete from the state,sprinter Amiya Kumar Mallick alsotrains at the stadium but only after Duteeends her daily stint. This has been doneto avoid simultaneous training of twoathletes.
The reigning World UniversityGames champion said as of now she isloosening up the muscles which weretightened by the confinement of the twomonths. She said it will take some timeto start full running on the 100m track.
Her aim is to maintain a certaindegree of fitness and form this season andplan some foreign training and compe-tition stints next year to qualify for theTokyo Olympics.
“I have started training but there isuncertainty all around. I will take part inthe national events planned by the AFIin September-October. These events arealso tentative. PTI
Liverpool manager JurgenKlopp believes his runaway
leaders will cope without the“best kick in your ass” of theirAnfield crowd should thePremier League season resume.
English top-flight playersreturn training this week and ifmatches do eventually takeplace again this season, they willbe behind closed doors andpossibly at neutral venues.
And German boss Klopp,having watched his nativeBundesliga resume last week-end without spectators atmatches, is confident his
Liverpool players can motivatethemselves without a crowd.
“The competition willmake the intensity,” he toldLiverpool’s website.
“So it’s not about ‘oh,Liverpool have to win twogames’. “By the way, we have towin two games when we start— it’s not ‘only two’, it’s two. Wehave to win them.”
The former BorussiaDortmund manager Kloppadded: “We have to do it, unfor-tunately, without the best boostin the world and the best kickin your ass in the right momentin the world, from the Anfieldcrowd.
����!�������������������������'���4 ������9����� )������� ���������������� ��� ,���� ������$+���India’s premier spin-ner Ravichandran Ashwin feelsputting saliva on the ball is a habitand it will take some practice toget rid of it when cricket resumesin the post Covid-19 world.
“I don’t know (when is) thenext time I go out there. It is nat-
ural for me to put saliva. It’s goingto take some practise (to not applysaliva). But I think, if we all haveto co-exist, which is the DNA ofhuman race, we will have to tryand adapt to this,” Ashwin saidduring an Instagram chat withDelhi Capitals. PTI
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