R ebel Congress leader Sachin Pilot on Thursday virtual- ly shut the door on the Congress and plunged into a legal battle against threat of dis- qualification with the help of top legal eagles considered close to the BJP. Pilot also paid no heed to advice by the Congress leader- ship to shun the “hospitality” of the BJP Government in Haryana, where he is camping with 18 other Congress MLAs in two different hotels under police protection. The Congress leadership feels that Pilot has gone too far to return after he hired senior lawyers Harish Salve and Mukul Rohtagi to contest his case in the Rajasthan High Court against the disqualifica- tion notice served on him and his associates by the Assembly Speaker. The case will come up before a division bench of the HC on Friday. The court move marks a widening of the rift between the Congress and Sachin Pilot, who has been in Delhi along with some 18 MLAs since he launched his revolt on Sunday. Congress sources said Pilot remains indifferent to all attempts made by the Gandhis to settle his differences with the party. “His (Pilot) intentions are clear now. His claim that he is still a Congress man and not joining the BJP was just a ploy to escape disqualification. He has just tried to buy time so that he could lure more MLAs to topple the Gehlot Government. Already he has booked more room in the Gurugram hotels for these MLAs,” said an AICC leader who has been making attempts for a patch up between Gehlot and Pilot. Sources said Congress gen- eral secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra spoke to Sachin Pilot even on Wednesday, but drew no positive response. This would be the Congress leader’s fourth direct outreach to the rebel, who has always been a Gandhi family favourite. Former party chief Rahul Gandhi has also been in touch with him, but through emis- saries. A division bench of the Rajasthan High Court has deferred the petition filed by Pilot and 18 other dissident leaders challenging notices from the Speaker over a Congress move to disqualify them from the State Assembly and will take it up at 5 pm on Friday. The two-judge Bench ruled that no action be taken against Pilot and the MLAs till 5 pm Friday. Rajasthan Assembly Speaker CP Joshi had issued notices after the party sought their disqualification from the State Assembly. Sacked Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot and the other MLAs were asked to respond to the notices by Friday. The notices were issued on Tuesday. Congress sources said Pilot and 18 other MLAs had defied a whip and did not attend its legislature party meetings. Salve was then NDA Government’s top law officer from 1999 to 2002 and is cur- rently based out of London, from where he fought India’s case against Pakistan in the Kulbhushan Jadhav matter. Rajasthan BJP unit is in “wait and watch” mode. Party leaders maintained that the BJP, as the main Opposition in Rajasthan, will take “every action to see that the Gehlot Government fails to prove (its) majority” in the Assembly. While Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra made several contacts with Pilot, former party chief Rahul Gandhi’s brief to his emissary KC Venugopal was to try to hold Pilot back. Party chief Sonia Gandhi also called Gehlot asking him not to speak anything against Pilot in pub- lic. Sources said Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala, who is part of the Central team sent by the Congress to Jaipur to handle the crisis, had a meeting with Gehlot on Thursday only to convey the Chief Minister that Rahul Gandhi wants to keep the doors open for Pilot. Sources said Gehlot told Surjewala he was not against that but Pilot would have to “leave the BJP camp”. G iving a ray of hope to international fliers, India has established individual bilat- eral “air bubbles” with France and the US that will allow air- lines of each country in the pact to operate international flights starting Friday. Under the agreements, Air France will fly 28 flights from July 18 to August 1 between Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Paris while American carriers will be flying 18 flights to India between July 17 and July 31. The civil aviation author- ities are working to make sim- ilar arrangements with Germany and the United Kingdom. According to Union Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, India is at “very advance stage” of negotiations with France, US and Germany under bilateral air bubbles. “International flights may resume under bilateral air bub- bles with other countries with certain conditions as many are imposing entry restrictions even now, including India due to coronavirus pandemic,” Puri said while addressing a Press conference on Thursday. The Civil Aviation Minister said Air France will operate 28 flights between Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore to Paris from July 18 till August 1 while United Air will operate 18 flights between Delhi, Mumbai to New York till July 31. “In case of the United States, we have an agreement with United Airlines to operate 18 flights between India-US between July 17 and July 31 but this is an interim one. “They (United) are flying a daily flight between Delhi and Newark and a thrice-a-week flight between Delhi and San Francisco,” Puri noted. U nidentified hackers broke into the Twitter accounts of technology moguls, politi- cians, celebrities and major companies Wednesday in an apparent Bitcoin scam. The ruse included bogus tweets from former US President Barack Obama, Democratic presidential front- runner Joe Biden, Mike Bloomberg and a number of tech billionaires including Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Celebrities Kanye West and his wife, Kim Kardashian West, were also hacked. The fake tweets tweets offered to send USD 2,000 for every USD 1,000 sent to an anonymous Bitcoin address. There is no evidence that the owners of these accounts were targeted themselves. Instead, the hacks appeared designed to lure their Twitter followers into sending money to an anonymous Bitcoin account. The Biden campaign, for instance, said that Twitter’s integrity team “locked down the account within a few min- utes of the breach and removed the related tweet.” Obama’s office had no immediate com- ment. The FBI said it was aware of Twitter’s security breach, but declined further comment. In a tweet, Twitter noted that it was aware of a “securi- ty incident impacting accounts on Twitter.” The San Francisco company said it is investigating and promised an update short- ly. It did not reply immediate- ly to requests for comment. The apparently fake tweets were all quickly deleted, although the Associated Press was able to capture screenshots of several before they disap- peared. I ndia has slammed Pakistan’s move to construct the China- backed Diamer Basha dam on the Indus river in Chilas in Gilgit-Baltistan of Pakistan- occupied Kashmir (PoK) con- tending it will submerge large parts of J&K and Ladakh. “India strongly protested against construction of Diamer Basha dam to Pakistan Government. It will lead to submer- gence of large part of land of Indian UTs of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh. We con- demn attempts by Pak to bring about material changes in Indian territories under its illegal occupation,” Anurag Srivastava, official Spokesperson of Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said. “We have shared concerns with both China and Pakistan on all such projects in Indian territories under Pakistan’s ille- gal occupation.” I ndia and China have agreed to continue the dialogue process as part of their agree- ment to restore peace at the volatile Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Eastern Ladakh. India feels the disengagement of is an “intricate process” and requires “constant verification.” The the Corps Commanders of the two Armies Lt General Harinder Singh and Major General Liu Lin during the 15-hour long talks on Tuesday also agreed to re-deploy troops towards their regular posts on their respective sides of the LAC as a confidence building mea- sure. External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said on Thursday the disengagement process is specifically aimed at addressing face-off situations and close-up deployments of troops. Moscow: The Russian defence Ministry has said that it has developed a “safe” coronavirus vaccine following clinical trials on a group of volunteers. The Ministry said 18 people had participated in the research and were discharged without “serious adverse events, health complaints, complications or side effects”. The results of the trials “allow us to speak with confidence about the safety and good tolerability of the vac- cine”, it said in a statement. London: Researchers at the University of Oxford believe they may have a breakthrough in their search for a Covid-19 vac- cine after the team discovered that the jab could provide “dou- ble protection” against the deadly coronavirus following early stage human trials. Blood samples taken from a group of UK volunteers given a dose of the vaccine showed that it stimu- lated the body to produce both antibodies and “killer T-cells”, a senior source from the trial was quoted by ‘The Daily Telegraph’ as saying. The vaccine could be fairly widely avail- able around September, said David Carpenter, chairman of the Berkshire Research Ethics Committee, which approved the trial. I ndia on Thursday said Pakistan violated all its assur- ances of giving “unimpeded” and “unconditional” consular access to Kulbushan Jadhav, the ex-naval officer who was sen- tenced to death by the country’s military court for alleged espi- onage activities in 2016. India on Thursday said when two of the country’s offi- cials in Islamabad visited Jadhav, they realised that he was under severe stress and that Pakistan had violated all its assurances laid out before the access was provided. After lodging a protest, the Indian officials left the venue. “It was evident from a camera that was visible that the conversation with Jadhav was being recorded. Jadhav himself was visibly under stress and indicated that clearly to the Consular Officers,” the official Government statement said. “We were assured that this consular access would be unimpeded, unhindered and unconditional. On the basis of this assurance by the Pakistani Foreign Ministry, two Consular Officers of the High Commission proceeded to the meeting with Jadhav. Moreover, Pakistani officials with an intimidating demeanour were present in close proximity of Jadhav and Consular Officers despite the protests of the Indian side,” the statement said. Officials said Pakistan’s approach to this matter con- tinues to be obstructive and insincere. “It has not only violated its assurance to the International Court of Justice to fully imple- ment the 2019 judgement, but also failed to act in accor- dance with its own Ordinance,” they said. I ndia’s Covid-19 case load crossed one-million mark (10,04,348) on Thursday as the country registered 34,421 fresh cases and 680 deaths. The overall death count also crossed the psychological figure of 25,000 on Thursday as several State Governments brought back the lockdown measures. India is adding one lakh cases now in four days and experts feel that in a fortnight the rate of daily growth in absolute terms could further spike. Several studies have pre- dicted that India could see more than three million cases by the end of the next month. The last few days have seen all-round spread of coro- navirus from north to south and east to west. Karnataka has emerged as the latest hotspot after suc- cessfully controlling the growth of the virus. But the State is now paying the price for reg- ulation violation of lockdown norms, massive wedding, tem- ple gathering, and gala parties, all in utter violation of social distancing norms. On Thursday, Karnataka recorded 4,169 new Covid-19 cases and 104 deaths, both being highest single day spike. Total number of cases stand at 51,422, including 19,730 recov- eries and 1,037 deaths. Bengaluru reported 2,344 new cases and 70 deaths in the last 24 hours. Meanwhile, Maharashtra reported 8,641 new cases and 266 deaths in the last 24 hours, taking active cases to 1,14,648 and death toll to 11,194. A total of 1,58,140 patients have recov- ered so far. As many as 1,498 new Covid positive cases and 56 deaths were reported in Mumbai on Thursday. Total number of positive cases rose to 97,751, including 68,537 discharged cases, 23,694 active cases and 5,520 deaths report- ed till now. Delhi reported 1,652 new cases and 58 deaths in the last 24 hours, taking active cases to 17,407 and death toll to 3,545. There are 658 containment zones in Delhi at present. According to a health bulletin, Delhi on Thursday had 11,545 vacant hospital beds. In Tamil Nadu, a total of 69 persons succumbed to Covid- 19 during the last 24 hours while 4,549 new persons were diagnosed with coronavirus across the State. A medical bulletin issued by the Department of Health and Preventive Medicine said there were 46,714 active Covid cases in the State as on Thursday evening. There is a positive news in this disclosure as there were 47,340 active cases as on Wednesday. The State has reg- istered a fall in the number of active cases which has brought some relief to health secretary J Radhakrishnan. T wo days after Punjab Rural Development Minister Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa tested positive for COVID-19, his wife and son were also found suffering from the novel coronavirus on Thursday. “The samples of Bajwa’s wife Rattneshwar Kaur and son were taken on Wednesday and today they tested positive,” said Punjab’s nodal officer for COVID-19 Dr Rajesh Bhaskar. It has been learnt that both are asymptomatic and have been quarantined at home. Notably, Bajwa had, on July 9, chaired a meeting of the Rural Development Department where he had come in contact with its direc- tor Vipul Ujjwal, who tested positive on July 10. The next day, the Minister underwent the RT-PCR test but was found COVID negative. However, on Tuesday, sources close to Bajwa said that he complained of flu-like symptoms following which he was advised to get himself test- ed again. A day after Bajwa’s test report came positive, the Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh and his Ministerial col- leagues including Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa and Aruna Chaudhary also gave their sam- ples. They all tested negative. Besides, three Congress MLAs — Parminder Pinki, Kulbir Zeera and Barindermeet Singh Pahra also gave their samples and tested negative.
Transcript
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Rebel Congress leader SachinPilot on Thursday virtual-
ly shut the door on theCongress and plunged into alegal battle against threat of dis-qualification with the help oftop legal eagles consideredclose to the BJP.
Pilot also paid no heed toadvice by the Congress leader-ship to shun the “hospitality” ofthe BJP Government inHaryana, where he is campingwith 18 other Congress MLAsin two different hotels underpolice protection.
The Congress leadershipfeels that Pilot has gone too farto return after he hired seniorlawyers Harish Salve andMukul Rohtagi to contest hiscase in the Rajasthan HighCourt against the disqualifica-tion notice served on him andhis associates by the AssemblySpeaker. The case will come upbefore a division bench of theHC on Friday.
The court move marks awidening of the rift betweenthe Congress and Sachin Pilot,who has been in Delhi alongwith some 18 MLAs since helaunched his revolt on Sunday.Congress sources said Pilotremains indifferent to allattempts made by the Gandhisto settle his differences with theparty.
“His (Pilot) intentions areclear now. His claim that he isstill a Congress man and not
joining the BJP was just a ployto escape disqualification. Hehas just tried to buy time sothat he could lure more MLAsto topple the GehlotGovernment. Already he hasbooked more room in theGurugram hotels for theseMLAs,” said an AICC leaderwho has been making attemptsfor a patch up between Gehlotand Pilot.
Sources said Congress gen-eral secretary Priyanka GandhiVadra spoke to Sachin Piloteven on Wednesday, but drew
no positive response. Thiswould be the Congress leader’sfourth direct outreach to therebel, who has always been aGandhi family favourite.Former party chief RahulGandhi has also been in touchwith him, but through emis-saries.
A division bench of theRajasthan High Court hasdeferred the petition filed byPilot and 18 other dissidentleaders challenging noticesfrom the Speaker over aCongress move to disqualify
them from the State Assemblyand will take it up at 5 pm onFriday. The two-judge Benchruled that no action be takenagainst Pilot and the MLAs till5 pm Friday.
Rajasthan AssemblySpeaker CP Joshi had issuednotices after the party soughttheir disqualification from theState Assembly. Sacked DeputyChief Minister Sachin Pilotand the other MLAs were askedto respond to the notices byFriday. The notices were issuedon Tuesday. Congress sources
said Pilot and 18 other MLAshad defied a whip and did notattend its legislature partymeetings.
Salve was then NDAGovernment’s top law officerfrom 1999 to 2002 and is cur-rently based out of London,from where he fought India’scase against Pakistan in theKulbhushan Jadhav matter.
Rajasthan BJP unit is in“wait and watch” mode. Partyleaders maintained that theBJP, as the main Opposition inRajasthan, will take “everyaction to see that the GehlotGovernment fails to prove (its)majority” in the Assembly.
While Congress generalsecretary Priyanka GandhiVadra made several contactswith Pilot, former party chiefRahul Gandhi’s brief to hisemissary KC Venugopal was totry to hold Pilot back. Partychief Sonia Gandhi also calledGehlot asking him not to speakanything against Pilot in pub-lic.
Sources said Congress chiefspokesperson RandeepSurjewala, who is part of theCentral team sent by theCongress to Jaipur to handlethe crisis, had a meeting withGehlot on Thursday only toconvey the Chief Minister thatRahul Gandhi wants to keepthe doors open for Pilot.Sources said Gehlot toldSurjewala he was not againstthat but Pilot would have to“leave the BJP camp”.
Giving a ray of hope tointernational fliers, India
has established individual bilat-eral “air bubbles” with Franceand the US that will allow air-lines of each country in the pactto operate international flightsstarting Friday.
Under the agreements, AirFrance will fly 28 flights fromJuly 18 to August 1 betweenDelhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru andParis while American carrierswill be flying 18 flights toIndia between July 17 and July31.
The civil aviation author-ities are working to make sim-ilar arrangements withGermany and the UnitedKingdom.
According to Union CivilAviation Minister HardeepSingh Puri, India is at “veryadvance stage” of negotiationswith France, US and Germanyunder bilateral air bubbles.“International flights mayresume under bilateral air bub-bles with other countries with
certain conditions as many areimposing entry restrictionseven now, including India dueto coronavirus pandemic,” Purisaid while addressing a Pressconference on Thursday.
The Civil Aviation Ministersaid Air France will operate 28flights between Delhi, Mumbaiand Bangalore to Paris fromJuly 18 till August 1 whileUnited Air will operate 18flights between Delhi, Mumbaito New York till July 31.
“In case of the UnitedStates, we have an agreementwith United Airlines to operate18 flights between India-USbetween July 17 and July 31 butthis is an interim one. “They(United) are flying a dailyflight between Delhi andNewark and a thrice-a-weekflight between Delhi and SanFrancisco,” Puri noted.
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Unidentified hackers brokeinto the Twitter accounts
of technology moguls, politi-cians, celebrities and majorcompanies Wednesday in anapparent Bitcoin scam.
The ruse included bogustweets from former USPresident Barack Obama,Democratic presidential front-runner Joe Biden, MikeBloomberg and a number oftech billionaires includingAmazon CEO Jeff Bezos,Microsoft co-founder Bill Gatesand Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
Celebrities Kanye West andhis wife, Kim Kardashian West,were also hacked. The faketweets tweets offered to sendUSD 2,000 for every USD1,000 sent to an anonymousBitcoin address.
There is no evidence thatthe owners of these accountswere targeted themselves.Instead, the hacks appeareddesigned to lure their Twitterfollowers into sending moneyto an anonymous Bitcoinaccount.
The Biden campaign, forinstance, said that Twitter’sintegrity team “locked down
the account within a few min-utes of the breach and removedthe related tweet.” Obama’soffice had no immediate com-ment. The FBI said it wasaware of Twitter’s securitybreach, but declined furthercomment.
In a tweet, Twitter notedthat it was aware of a “securi-ty incident impacting accountson Twitter.” The San Franciscocompany said it is investigatingand promised an update short-ly. It did not reply immediate-ly to requests for comment.
The apparently fake tweetswere all quickly deleted,although the Associated Presswas able to capture screenshotsof several before they disap-peared.
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India has slammed Pakistan’smove to construct the China-
backed Diamer Basha dam onthe Indus river in Chilas inGilgit-Baltistan of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) con-tending it will submerge largeparts of J&K and Ladakh.
“India strongly protestedagainst construction of DiamerBasha dam to PakistanGovernment.
It will lead to submer-gence of large part of land ofIndian UTs of Jammu &Kashmir and Ladakh. We con-demn attempts by Pak to bringabout material changes inIndian territories under itsillegal occupation,” AnuragSrivastava, off icialSpokesperson of Ministry ofExternal Affairs (MEA) said.
“We have shared concernswith both China and Pakistanon all such projects in Indianterritories under Pakistan’s ille-gal occupation.”
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India and China have agreedto continue the dialogue
process as part of their agree-ment to restore peace at thevolatile Line of Actual Control(LAC) in Eastern Ladakh. Indiafeels the disengagement of is an“intricate process” and requires“constant verification.”
The the CorpsCommanders of the twoArmies Lt General HarinderSingh and Major General LiuLin during the 15-hour longtalks on Tuesday also agreedto re-deploy troops towardstheir regular posts on theirrespective sides of the LAC asa confidence building mea-sure.
External Affairs MinistrySpokesperson AnuragSrivastava said on Thursday thedisengagement process isspecifically aimed at addressingface-off situations and close-updeployments of troops.
Moscow: The Russian defenceMinistry has said that it hasdeveloped a “safe” coronavirusvaccine following clinical trialson a group of volunteers. TheMinistry said 18 people hadparticipated in the researchand were discharged without“serious adverse events, healthcomplaints, complications orside effects”. The results of thetrials “allow us to speak withconfidence about the safetyand good tolerability of the vac-cine”, it said in a statement.
London: Researchers at the University of Oxford believe theymay have a breakthrough in their search for a Covid-19 vac-cine after the team discovered that the jab could provide “dou-ble protection” against the deadly coronavirus following earlystage human trials. Blood samples taken from a group of UKvolunteers given a dose of the vaccine showed that it stimu-lated the body to produce both antibodies and “killer T-cells”,a senior source from the trial was quoted by ‘The DailyTelegraph’ as saying. The vaccine could be fairly widely avail-able around September, said David Carpenter, chairman of theBerkshire Research Ethics Committee, which approved the trial.
India on Thursday saidPakistan violated all its assur-
ances of giving “unimpeded”and “unconditional” consularaccess to Kulbushan Jadhav, theex-naval officer who was sen-tenced to death by the country’smilitary court for alleged espi-onage activities in 2016.
India on Thursday saidwhen two of the country’s offi-cials in Islamabad visitedJadhav, they realised that hewas under severe stress and thatPakistan had violated all itsassurances laid out before theaccess was provided. After
lodging a protest, the Indianofficials left the venue.
“It was evident from acamera that was visible that theconversation with Jadhav wasbeing recorded. Jadhav himselfwas visibly under stress andindicated that clearly to theConsular Officers,” the officialGovernment statement said.
“We were assured that thisconsular access would beunimpeded, unhindered andunconditional. On the basis of
this assurance by the PakistaniForeign Ministry, two ConsularOfficers of the HighCommission proceeded to themeeting with Jadhav. Moreover,Pakistani officials with anintimidating demeanour werepresent in close proximity ofJadhav and Consular Officersdespite the protests of theIndian side,” the statementsaid.
Officials said Pakistan’sapproach to this matter con-tinues to be obstructive andinsincere.
“It has not only violated itsassurance to the InternationalCourt of Justice to fully imple-ment the 2019 judgement, butalso failed to act in accor-dance with its own Ordinance,”they said.
India’s Covid-19 case loadcrossed one-million mark
(10,04,348) on Thursday asthe country registered 34,421fresh cases and 680 deaths.
The overall death countalso crossed the psychologicalfigure of 25,000 on Thursday asseveral State Governmentsbrought back the lockdownmeasures.
India is adding one lakhcases now in four days andexperts feel that in a fortnightthe rate of daily growth inabsolute terms could furtherspike. Several studies have pre-dicted that India could seemore than three million cases bythe end of the next month.
The last few days haveseen all-round spread of coro-navirus from north to southand east to west.
Karnataka has emerged asthe latest hotspot after suc-cessfully controlling the growthof the virus. But the State isnow paying the price for reg-ulation violation of lockdownnorms, massive wedding, tem-ple gathering, and gala parties,all in utter violation of socialdistancing norms.
On Thursday, Karnatakarecorded 4,169 new Covid-19cases and 104 deaths, bothbeing highest single day spike.Total number of cases stand at51,422, including 19,730 recov-eries and 1,037 deaths.Bengaluru reported 2,344 newcases and 70 deaths in the last
24 hours.Meanwhile, Maharashtra
reported 8,641 new cases and266 deaths in the last 24 hours,taking active cases to 1,14,648and death toll to 11,194. A totalof 1,58,140 patients have recov-ered so far.
As many as 1,498 newCovid positive cases and 56deaths were reported inMumbai on Thursday. Totalnumber of positive cases roseto 97,751, including 68,537discharged cases, 23,694 activecases and 5,520 deaths report-ed till now.
Delhi reported 1,652 newcases and 58 deaths in the last24 hours, taking active cases to17,407 and death toll to 3,545.There are 658 containmentzones in Delhi at present.
According to a health bulletin,Delhi on Thursday had 11,545vacant hospital beds.
In Tamil Nadu, a total of 69persons succumbed to Covid-19 during the last 24 hourswhile 4,549 new persons werediagnosed with coronavirusacross the State.
A medical bulletin issuedby the Department of Healthand Preventive Medicine saidthere were 46,714 active Covidcases in the State as onThursday evening.
There is a positive news inthis disclosure as there were47,340 active cases as onWednesday. The State has reg-istered a fall in the number ofactive cases which has broughtsome relief to health secretaryJ Radhakrishnan.
Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwatested positive for COVID-19,his wife and son were alsofound suffering from the novelcoronavirus on Thursday.
“The samples of Bajwa’swife Rattneshwar Kaur andson were taken on Wednesdayand today they tested positive,”said Punjab’s nodal officer forCOVID-19 Dr Rajesh Bhaskar.It has been learnt that both areasymptomatic and have beenquarantined at home.
Notably, Bajwa had, onJuly 9, chaired a meeting of theRural DevelopmentDepartment where he hadcome in contact with its direc-tor Vipul Ujjwal, who testedpositive on July 10. The nextday, the Minister underwentthe RT-PCR test but was foundCOVID negative.
However, on Tuesday,
sources close to Bajwa said thathe complained of flu-likesymptoms following which hewas advised to get himself test-ed again.
A day after Bajwa’s testreport came positive, the ChiefMinister Capt AmarinderSingh and his Ministerial col-leagues including SukhjinderSingh Randhawa and ArunaChaudhary also gave their sam-ples. They all tested negative.Besides, three Congress MLAs— Parminder Pinki, KulbirZeera and Barindermeet SinghPahra also gave their samplesand tested negative.
In view of warning regardingpotential attacks of locust
swarms in several districts ofthe State after July 22, HaryanaGovernment has stepped upefforts to control locust swarmsand prevent losses due to cropdamage.
“Three drones are beingpurchased for aerial spray ofpesticide, fogging machinesare being procured andarrangements have been madeto stock additional quantities ofpesticide Lamda Cyhalothrin 5EC among other measures,said Haryana Additional ChiefSecretary, Agriculture andFarmers’ Welfare Department,Sanjeev Kaushal.
He said that locust swarmsin the region had become resis-tant to the commonly used pes-ticide Chorpyriphos. To pre-vent homogeneity in use of pes-ticides during repeated spray-ing, arrangements are beingmade to stock 20,000 litres ofLamda Cyhalothrin in additionto existing stocks of pesticide.
The Locust WarningOrganisation has warned ofmore high-intensity attacks indistricts Nuh, Rewari,Mahendragarh, Bhiwani,Charkhi Dadri after July 22,after large-scale locust breed-ing was observed in districtJhunjhunu in Rajasthan. Theseattacks are likely to be farmore severe than the ones thathave already occurred over13,038 acres in districts Jhajjar,Charkhi Dadri, Palwal, Sirsa,
Nuh, Rewari, Bhiwani andNarnaul between June 26 andJuly 16.
Kaushal said, “TheHaryana State CooperativeSupply and MarketingFederation Limited (HAFED)would stock an additional10,000 litres of LamdaCyhalothrin, Haryana SeedDevelopment Corporation(HSDC) would stock 4,000litres, and Haryana LandReclamation andDevelopment Corporation(HLRDC) would stock 6,000litres. HAFED, HLRDC andHSDC already have around48,000 litres of Chorpyriphosin stock, whereas HLRDCalready has 5,000 litres ofLamda Cyhalothrin.”
Three drones are also beingpurchased for aerial spray ofpesticide. As many as 66 firebrigade vehicles are available, aswell as 3,540 tractor-mountedspray pumps. The StateGovernment would alsoacquire fogging machines beingbought by the Centre from theUnited Kingdom (UK) for useon trees, he said. He further
said that the preparatory mea-sures put in place by the offi-cials of the Department hadprevented significant losses inmost districts during the locustswarm attacks recently.
Farmers in districts Jhajjar,Palwal and Nuh did not reportany losses due to damage tocrops by locust swarms.
While farmers in most dis-tricts suffered losses to thetune of five to ten per cent,quick action by officials of theDepartment ensured that thosein the worst-hit districts Rewariand Sirsa did not suffer lossesof more than 30 per cent, heclaimed.The senior officer alsosaid that the farmers in districtBhiwani reported losses of upto ten per cent, with 1,072 litresof pesticides sprayed over 1,246acres.
Locusts had attacked cot-ton, bajra, jowar, sugarcaneand fallow land in the district.Farmers in district CharkhiDadri reported losses of up to15 per cent, where 551 litreswere sprayed over 1,337 acreswith cotton, bajra, fodder andsugarcane crops.
Chautala on Thursday saidthat the State Government ispromoting digitization andit would set a benchmark inthe country by having entireland records digitized. Afterimplementing e-registry, theRevenue Department hasmade considerable progresstowards implementing cen-tralized registry system toreduce human interferenceto the bare minimum,Dushyant said. He said thatwith digitized land record,anyone can register their landfrom anywhere in the state.Directives have been issued tocomplete the work of digitiz-ing land records of 13 sub-tehsils at the earliest afterwhich Har yana wouldbecome first in the country tohave digitized land records,the Deputy Chief Ministersaid.
Haryana Minister of State forSainik and Ardh Sainik
Welfare, Om Prakash Yadav onThursday said that a software willbe developed to prepare theonline data of ex-servicemen andparamilitary soldiers, so as to pro-vide them benefits from theschemes related to them in thestate.
Yadav, while presiding over ameeting here also said that theconstruction work of SainikSchool Rewari should be com-pleted soon. The Minister of Statewas apprised that the constructionwork on the first phase of SainikSchool Rewari has been com-pleted at a cost of Rs 1473.83 lakh.It was informed in the meetingthat a total amount of Rs 1692.37lakh has been released for the sec-ond phase of construction workof hostel complex and mess blockis going on and 60 percent workhas been completed. Apart fromthis, an amount of Rs 529.55 lakhhas been released by the StateGovernment for boundary wall,main gate, and check post.
COVID-19 positive cases everyday, the total tally crossed24000-mark with 696 freshcases reported on Thursday.
The total number of posi-tive cases in the state stood at24002.
Three more deaths includ-ing two in Panipat and one inJhajjar were reported in thestate in the last 24 hours tak-ing the total toll to 322.
One of the worst-affectedFaridabad district, crossed6000-mark recording the high-est number of 170 positivecases in the last 24 hours.
In Ambala, Home-cum-Health Minister Anil Vij, hisfamily members and staff weretested negative for COVID-19,Ambala Chief MedicalOfficer(CMO) Kuldeep Singhsaid while adding that a total of45 cases were reported in thedistrict.
In Sirsa, one of the staffmembers of the Deputy ChiefMinister Dushyant Chautalawas tested COVID-19 positivefollowing which Chautala’sChandigarh residence was san-itized on Thursday and staffmembers have been put inquarantine and would under-go COVID-19 test. The staff
member tested positive hadheld meetings in Chandigarhthis week.
“Out of 696 fresh cases, amaximum of 170 cases werereported in Faridabad district.Gurugram reported 142 freshcases followed by 84 in Rewariand 59 in Sonepat,” statedHaryana Health Department’sevening bulletin.
Giving details of cases inthe three worst-affected dis-tricts, the bulletin stated thatGurugam has till date report-ed 7350 positive cases and 110fatalities. Faridabad district hasreported 6051 cases and 104deaths while Sonepat reported2229 cases and24 deaths so far.
Till July 16, 18185 patientsincluding 518 in the last 24hours have recovered and havebeen discharged from hospitalsin the state. There are a total of5495 active cases in Haryana,the bulletin added.
Among the patients in crit-ical condition in the state, 64patients are on oxygen supportwhile 20 are on ventilator, thebulletin stated. The case-dou-bling rate in Haryana stood at22 days, COVID positive rateat 5.94 per cent, recovery raterecorded at 75.76 percent. Thefatality rate recorded was 1.34percent.
As many as 4.09 lakh sam-ples have been tested till date
in Haryana. The report of 5712samples is awaited, the bulletinadded.
Notably, the state had onJuly 8 witnessed its biggestsingle-day spike with 691COVID-19 cases. A day before,Haryana had reported 678 pos-itive cases crossing the 23000-mark.
16 FRESH CASES INCHANDIGARH
Chandigarh on Thursdayreported 16 new COVID-19positive cases taking the unionterritory’s total tally to 636. Thefresh cases, which also includ-ed two infants, have beenreported from Sector 27, 31, 32,45, 46, 48, 52, Manimajra andDhanas in the city.
Of the fresh cases detected,11 were contacts of previouslytested positive patients. “Thetotal number of positive casesstood at 636. This includes 148active cases,” stated ChandigarhHealth Department’s eveningbulletin.
17 patients were declaredcured and discharged fromvarious treatment facilities inthe city. 476 patients have so farrecovered from the virus in thecity and the recovery rate stoodat 74 percent on Thursday, asper the bulletin.
Giving details of new pos-
itive cases, the bulletin stated,“Five residents fromManimajra including threemales aged 24, 27, 52 and twofemales aged 21 and 27 weretested positive for COVID-19.They are family contacts of pre-viously positive case in thesame house. A three year oldgirl child and 42 years old malefrom Sector 31 were tested pos-itive. They have four familymembers.”
A two-year old male childfrom Dhanas was also testedpositive. Two family membersincluding a 16 years old maleand 45 years old female inSector 48 were also foundinfected.
Among others tested pos-itive were a 42 years old malefrom Sector 52, a 26 years oldfemale from Sector-45, a 64years old male from Sector 27,52 years old female from Sector32, 24 years old female fromSector 46, 17 years old malefrom Manimajra.
Only a day before, the cityhad reported its 11th COVID-19 related fatality. 10244 sam-ples of city residents have so farbeen tested for the deadlyvirus.
Notably, the UTAdministration had onWednesday asked the PGIMERto start conducting random
sampling for COVID-19 ofthe patients coming to theemergency ward and OPDs. Inview of the surge in the posi-tive cases, the Administrationhad also banned physical pressconferences and directed theUT Police to lodge FIRs in caseof illegal gathering of any kindin the city.
ARMY, CAPF JAWANSAMONG 8 NEW COVID-19CASES IN HIMACHALPRADESH
The total number ofCOVID-19 cases in HimachalPradesh rose to 1,350 onThursday as eight more people,including an Army and threeCAPF jawans, tested positivefor COVID-19 in the state.
Additional Chief Secretary(Health) R D Dhiman saidfive fresh cases were reportedfrom Kangra, two from Mandiand one from Shimla.
In Kangra, an Army per-sonnel and three CentralArmed Police Forces (CAPF)jawans are among the five freshCOVID-19 cases. A 39-year-old Army jawan of Paniyalvillage in Dehra tehsil testedpositive. He returned fromNagaland on July 8 and isbeing shifted to a military hos-pital in Yol cantonment inDharamshala.
Besides three CAPF per-
sonnel, including a 51-year-oldChennai returnee of Vaidi vil-lage, a 35-year-old ArunachalPradesh returnee of BassaGudyala village and a 20-year-old Leh returnee of Tiara vil-lage, tested positive forCOVID-19. Similarly, a 45-year-old man of Raja Ka Baghvillage who is a primary con-tact of a COVID-19 patienttested positive. In Mandi, two
people, including a 37-year-oldKashmir returnee of Dyargi inBalh and an 18-year-old Delhireturnee of Takoli, tested pos-itive.
The virus has claimed 10lives in Himachal Pradesh,while 970 people have recov-ered and 13 have migrated outof the state, officials said. Fourmore patients have recoveredfrom the infection in the last 24
hours. The number of activeCOVID-19 cases in the statenow stands at 355.
Solan has the highestnumber of active cases in thestate at 160, followed by 41 inKangra, 32 in Una, 29 inKinnaur, 22 in Bilaspur, 19 inShimla, 16 in Chamba, 12 inHamirpur, 10 in Mandi, sevenin Kullu and seven in Sirmaur,Dhiman said.
fresh COVID-19 cases, takingthe state's death toll to 230and tally to 9,094.
Among the districts,Ludhiana reported maximumfour deaths out of total nine,and highest number of freshcases, 49, in the past 24 hours.The remaining deaths werereported from Jalandhar,where two people succumbedto the deadly virus, besidesone each from Gurdaspur,Patiala, Kapurthala, andJalandhar.
Fazilka 24, SAS Nagar(Mohali) 23, Bathinda 17,Moga 16, Sangrur 15,Fatehgarh Sahib 14, and SBSNagar (Nawanshahr) 12 — 11districts reporting cases indouble digit.
Of the total, 106 havethe contact history and 17have the travel history, while163 are the “new” caseswith no travel or contacthistory.
They include: svenhealthcare workers, one staffnurse, two police personnel,seven mill workers, two JailInmates, five Border SecurityForce (BSF) personnel, oneASHA worker, besides 41with Influenza-like Illness(ILI), 32 from the out-patientdepartment (OPD), and three
with Severe Acute RespiratoryIllness (SARI).
A total of 410 newpatients recovered and dis-charged on Thursday fromLudhiana (84), Jalandhar(122), Amritsar (13), Patiala(103), SAS Nagar (7),Gurdaspur (8), Pathankot(3), Hoshiarpur (6), SBSNagar (8), Faridkot (14),Fatehgarh Sahib (3), Moga(12), Kapurthala (13),Bathinda (13), and Barnala(1).
With this, total recoveriescount has reached up to 6,277at a recovery rate of 69 per-cent. The state now has 2,587active cases, of which 58patients are on oxygen sup-port and seven are critical andon ventilator support.
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Punjab Chief Minister CaptAmarinder Singh on
Thursday directed the stateDirector General of Police(DGP) to create specialCOVID Reserves by with-drawing police personneldeployed on non-essentialduties for the next few months.
Capt Amarinder, chairinga COVID-19 review video con-ference, asked the DGP DinkarGupta to tighten the nooseagainst violators of safetynorms, especially those foundnot wearing masks.
Expressing concern overthe increasing cases and fatal-ities in the state, the ChiefMInister also directed the DGPto instruct the Senior
Superintendents of Police(SSPs) of cities with large case-loads to strictly enforce allcurbs and norms to check fur-ther spread of the disease.
As deaths per million inPunjab increased to 7.7 permillion, Capt Amarinderdirected the HealthDepartment to identify con-tainment and micro-contain-ment zones more quickly andclamp down on them withspeed to check the spread of thepandemic.The state currentlyhas 38 micro-containmentzones in 12 districts and sevencontainment zones in six dis-tricts.The Chief Minister alsocalled for immediate action toincrease testing as per the tar-gets already decided by theState Government.
Underlining the need forextreme caution, even thoughthe State’s figures were stillbetter than the national aver-age, he also asked the DistrictAdministration to strictlyenforce all the latest guidelines,
especially with respect torestriction of five persons ingatherings.
Seeking the people’s sup-port to win the fight, the ChiefMinister said that DistrictAdministrations and theHealth Department shouldwork actively with local lead-ers to drive a community-ledeffort to check the spread ofCOVID-19.He pointed out thatin Amritsar, the work done byDistrict Administration, Police,Government Medical CollegeCommunity MedicineDepartment, HealthDepartment and other expertswas showing good results.
The Chief Minister alsolauded the work done by pri-vate institutions such as DMCLudhiana, which had tied upwith Ram Shriram Society toarrange more beds for Level Ipatients, with Ludhiana DeputyCommissioner andCommissioner of Police play-ing a key role in facilitating thepartnerships.
tions, Haryana has witnessed a26.71 percent fall in cases ofroad accidents during the firsthalf of 2020 in comparison tothe corresponding period oflast year.“From about 30 dailycases of mishaps reported in2019, the number fell to 22 in2020. Similarly, the road fatal-ities declined by 26.77 percentbetween January and Junewhile injuries to persons alsosaw an impressive dip of 26.88per cent,” said HaryanaAdditional Director General ofPolice (Law and Order),Navdeep Singh Virk.
Sharing the official fig-ures, Virk said that the numberof road mishaps betweenJanuary and June this yearcame down to 4024 from 5491in 2019, showing a fall of 1467cases. The incidents of casual-ties also went down by 678cases, from 2532 in 2019 to1854 in 2020.
The incidents of injuries topeople also saw an impressivedecline of 1247 cases. In total,3391 cases of injuries to per-sons were reported till June2020 as compared to 4638 lastyear, he added.
Virk further said thatreduction in road mishaps andfatalities has been possible withbetter traffic safety measures,improved enforcement of traf-fic regulations by the fieldunits as well as continuousawareness about road and traf-fic safety. However, the lock-down enforced to contain thespread of COVID-19 fromMarch 24 to May 31 also con-tributed to a significant dip inroad accidents in the state, hesaid.We are hoping that roadmishaps could be reduced fur-ther. The Police in consultationwith different stakeholdershave been working on remedi-al measures like identifyingblack spots and getting themrectified on priority, improvingthe conditions of roads andputting up signage, Virk added.
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Punjab Chief Minister CaptAmarinder Singh on
Thursday gave the go-ahead tobring a total of 9.5 lakh farm-ers and their families into theambit of health insurance coverunder the ‘Ayushman BharatSarbat Sehat Bima Yojana’ forthe year 2020-21, as againstaround five lakh covered in theprevious year.
The scheme, launched bythe State Government on for-mer Prime Minister RajivGandhi’s birth anniversary onAugust 20, 2019, with 45 lakhfamilies covered for 2019-2020,has proved to be highly bene-ficial to people of Punjab dur-ing the COVID-19 crisis, saidthe spokesperson.
The State Government hasalso capped charges forCOVID-19 treatment in hos-pitals empanelled under theAyushman Bharat Sarbat SehatBima Yojana.
The Chief Minister said
that the beneficiaries canapproach any of the 546empanelled private hospitalsand 208 government hospitalsfor treatment facility of upto Rsfive lakh for 1396 diseases,including major surgical treat-ments such as heart surgery,cancer treatment, joint replace-ment and accident cases underthe health insurance scheme.
The number of farmerscovered during the first year ofthe scheme stood at around fivelakh, as these had been issued‘J’ forms in 2015 by the MandiBoard. With 8.7 lakh farmersand 80,000 cane growers nowregistered with the MandiBoard as ‘J’ form holders, hav-ing sold their agricultural pro-duce on or after January 1,2020, and in November 1,2019-March 31, 2020, sugarseason, respectively, the farm-ing families eligible for coverduring 2020-21 has now goneup to 9.5 lakh, said thespokesperson.
With the Chief Minister
approving their inclusion in thescheme, all the 9.5 lakh willnow be covered with effectfrom August 20, 2020, addedthe spokesperson.
The Mandi Board will paythe entire premium for insur-ance cover of all farmers, whowill get cashless treatment facil-ity up to Rs five lakh perannum.
The Chief Minister hasasked Mandi Board chairmanLal Singh to direct the MarketCommittees to facilitate everyfarmer to avail this cashlesstreatment facility in a seamlessmanner.The Additonal ChiefSecretary (Development)Anirudh Tewari said that theMandi Board has invited appli-cations from the eligible farm-ers so as to ensure that everyfarmer is benefitted. “Thescheme is cashless and all theailments which require hospi-talization of more than 24hours or listed day care proce-dure are covered under thescheme,” he said.
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To nix the practice of over-charging and inconsistent
rates by the state’s private hos-pitals for treatment of COVID-19 patients, the PunjabGovernment on Thursday fixedthe rates for the same.
The rates, finalized for pri-vate hospitals and medical col-leges by Dr KK TalwarCommittee, cover isolationbeds, ICU treatment, and hos-pitalisation charges, per day ofadmission.
As per the orders — aimedat checking the profiteering byprivate hospitals during thecurrent pandemic, the ratesvaries from a minimum pre-scribed rate of Rs 8,000 a dayfor treatment of moderateCOVID-19 cases at non-NABH (National Accreditation
Board for Hospitals andHealthcare Providers) accred-ited hospitals to Rs 18,000 a dayfor treatment of critical patientsat private medical colleges.
For moderate sickness —requiring isolation beds,including supportive care andoxygen, the State Governmenthas fixed Rs 10,000 as dailycharge for all private medicalcolleges or NABH PrivateHospitals with teaching pro-gramme from NBE NationalBoard of Examinations (NBE).A rate of Rs 9,000 has beenfixed for for NABH accreditedhospitals (including PrivateMedical Colleges without PGor Diplomate of National Board(DNB) course), while the non-NABH accredited hospitals areallowed to charge up to Rs8,000 per day for such cases.
For severe sickness requir-
ing ICU care without a venti-lator, the daily rates have beencapped at Rs 15,000, Rs 14,000and Rs 13,000 respectively forprivate medical colleges,NABH accredited hospitals,and non-NABH accreditedhospitals.
For very severe or criticalpatients, these are fixed at Rs18000, Rs, 16500 and Rs 15000respectively.
All these rates are inclusiveof PPE (Personal ProtectiveEquipment) cost, said thespokesperson, adding that toencourage private hospitals tocater to mild sickness casesalso, the Dr Talwar Committeehas also fixed per day admis-sion rates for such cases at Rs6500, Rs 5500 and Rs 4500respectively.
The rates has been fixed on
the recommendation of apanel, set up by the StateGovernment under PGIMER’sformer director Dr KK Talwar,for fixing rates after receivingseveral complaints of over-charging. The government hadalso asked the committee todiscuss the issue with the pri-vate hospitals.
The decision wasannounced after a COVID-19review video conference meet-ing chaired by the ChiefMinister Capt AmarinderSingh, who had personally alsoreceived complaints on thiscount. Taking strong note, theChief Minister had asked DrTalwar committee and the stateHealth and Family WelfareDepartment to look into thematter and work out the ratesafter discussions with privatehospitals.
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To check the spread of novelcoronavirus and observe
social distancing norms amidstrising number of COVID-19cases across the State, thePunjab Government’s depart-ments are taking steps in termsof limiting office staff orrestricting public dealing.
Initiating the same step,Punjab Police on Thursdayissued orders stating that only50 percent staff would be pre-sent in the police stations andoffices “at a given time”.Similarly, the Punjab UrbanPlanning and DevelopmentAuthority (PUDA) has alsoissued orders restricting pub-lic dealing at its head office in
Sector 62 from July 20 toAugust 2.
As per the orders issuedby the office of DirectorGeneral of Police to all theHeads of Police Offices inPunjab regarding social dis-tancing in police offices and50 per cent attendance, only50 per cent staff would becalled to office at any timepresently “as a precautionarymeasure, and for effectiveenforcement of social dis-tancing in police offices inPunjab”.
“However, it should beensured that official work doesnot suffer,” read the order.
The order stated that allHeads of Police Offices andHeads of Wings in CPOs
shall take decision at theirlevel regarding the manner ofimplementat ion of thePunjab Government guide-lines, grouping of staff, stag-gering of entry or exit tim-ings etc.
“In case any Head of PoliceOffice or Wing feels that thework load requires the presenceof more than or less than 50percent office staff, appropriatedecision be taken at their lev-els, and no back references arerequired to be sent to the officeof DGP.
PUDA, in its official state-ment, stated that the publicdealing will be restricted up toonly the Single Window at theground floor of the building.For public convenience, in
addition to the Single Window,another counter will receivecomplaints and issue receiptson the same floor, however, nopublic visits will be permittedbeyond the ground floor.
“In case of the need for anurgent discussion, appoint-ments can be taken through e-mail ID —[email protected] — with the reason forvisit and name of official formeeting. Only people withapproved appointments willbe allowed to visit the officebuilding, said the spokesper-son.
The spokesperson said thatconsidering the rise in COVID-19 cases, the decision to reducepubic dealing was necessitated.
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Despite Covid-19 triggeredrecession and lack of
demand for new vehicles,“0001” registration number of“CH01-CB” series fetched ahighest bidding price of �5.45lakh against a reserve price ofonly �50000 in an e-auction offancy numbers held byRegistering and LicensingAuthority, Chandigarh.
Virgo Laminates Limitedmade the highest bid of �5.45lakh for the “CH01CB0001” inthe e-auction, said an RLA offi-cial. The number“CH01CB0007” received thesecond highest bid of �2.89lakh against the reserve price ofonly �30,000, he said.
Among other fancy num-
bers receiving higher bidsagainst the received price of Rs30,000 included“CH01CB0008” which was e-auctioned for �2.23 lakh,“CH01CB0009” went for �2.2lakh and “CH01CB0003” for�2.09 lakh. The RLA had heldan e-auction of fancy numbersof new series, CH01-CB, fromJuly 14 to 16.
Only those who have pur-chased vehicles at a Chandigarhaddress were allowed to par-
ticipate in the e-auction aftersubmitting the sale letter andother details.
Under the e-auctionprocess, the vehicle ownershave to deposit a registrationfee for participating in the e-auction and the reserveamount for the special/choiceregistration numbers at theoffice of the Registering andLicensing Authority inSector-17 here throughdemand draft .
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With no let up in COVID-19 cases in Punjab, the
state units of the Congressparty and the Bharatiya JanataParty (BJP) on Thursday decid-ed to suspend all party eventsand public activities in thestate for the time being.
Punjab Congress presidentSunil Jakhar said that thePunjab Government, underthe leadership of Chief MinisterCapt Amarinder Singh, wasworking diligently to save theState from the coronaviruspandemic and in such a situa-tion, it was imperative that allthe people cooperate in themission to prevent spread ofthe disease.
“A letter in this regard has
also been received from theChief Minister Capt AmarinderSingh,” said Jakhar.
He added that till the situ-ation improves, the partywould reach out to the peoplethrough virtual media.
“For the time being, nopublic programme or meetingwould be held,” he added whileappealing to one and all to fol-low the health-related guide-lines issued by the StateGovernment in letter and spir-it.
“Each one must use a maskat the workplace and whilemoving out of house, social dis-tancing and other advisoriesalso need to be ensured,” Jakharsaid.In the same way, PunjabBJP president Ashwani Sharmahas also banned all political
programs in the State till July31.Sharma called upon all thestate office bearers, districtpresidents and all activists ofthe BJP to postpone all pro-grams to be held for the next 15days in view of the corona out-break in the state.
“All the public programs, inwhich the gathering of five ormore is expected, have beenpostponed, but the organiza-tional activities will continueand the work to help the peo-ple will continue by the party,”said Sharma.
The state BJP chief has allthe party workers and leadersto follow the guidelines issue bythe Central and StateGovernments, and the Centre’sand State Health Departments.
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The teaching fraternity andopposition parties on
Thursday strongly condemnedthe decision of authorities inLudhiana to depute govern-ment schoolteachers for bring-ing foreign returnees from air-port to coronavirus quarantinecentres.Describing it as an“irrational and illogical” deci-sion, the teachers'' associationand political parties – the SAD,its ally BJP, and the AAP --sought rollback of this decision.
“Government schoolteachers in Ludhiana have beenasked to bring foreign returneesfrom the airport and then takethem to the quarantine centres.We strongly condemn thisdecision,” said Democratic
Teachers'' Front (Punjab)President Davinder SinghPunia. Earlier school teacherswere deputed at distilleries andbreweries at Gurdaspur tocheck liquor supply and tocheck illegal mining inPhagwara. However, both thesedecisions were withdrawn aftercriticism from teachers andopposition parties.Reacting tothe latest order, Aam AadmiParty legislator Aman Arorasaid it reflected a “negative atti-tude” of the state governmenttowards teaching and teachers.
“Earlier, teachers weredeputed at distilleries to checkillegal liquor supply, the workwhich could not be performedby the police and excise depart-ments. Thereafter, they weredeputed to check illegal mining.
Reaffirming their resolve torestore peace at the volatile
Line of Actual Control (LAC)in Eastern Ladakh, India andChina have agreed to continuethe dialogue process as the dis-engagement of troops is an“intricate process” and requires“constant verification.”
Defence Minister RajnathSingh, along with Army ChiefGeneral MM Naravane, willmake an on-the-spot assess-ment during their two-dayvisit to Leh and Srinagar start-ing Friday. Rajnath is alsoexpected to visit some for-ward areas in Ladakh. He wasscheduled to visit Leh on July3 but it was deferred.
The Corps Commandersof the two armies—Lt GeneralHarinder Singh and MajorGeneral Liu Lin—during the15-hour-long talks on Tuesdayhad also agreed to re-deploytroops towards their regularposts on their respective sidesof the LAC as a confidencebuilding measure. India alsomade it clear that any unilateralattempts to change the statusquo along the LAC are notacceptable.
Giving these main take-aways from the military leveltalks, external affairs ministryspokesperson AnuragSrivastava said here onThursday the disengagementprocess currently underway inthe Western sector (Ladakh) isspecifically aimed at addressing
face-off situations and close-updeployments of troops alongthe LAC.
Both sides have agreed atspecific points to re-deploytowards their regular posts ontheir respective sides of theLAC. These are mutuallyagreed reciprocal actions to betaken by both sides. “And as Ihave already conveyed, it is anongoing process. This mutualre-deployment should not bemisrepresented. There isabsolutely no change withrespect to India’s position onthe LAC. We are fully com-mitted to observing andrespecting the LAC. Any uni-lateral attempts to change thestatus quo along the LAC arenot acceptable,” he said.
Highlighting the fact thatboth the countries were hold-ing talks through establisheddiplomatic and military chan-nels to defuse tension, he saidSpecial Representatives (SRs) ofIndia and China on theBoundary Question – NationalSecurity Advisor(NSA)AjitDoval and State Councillorand Minister of Foreign AffairsWang Yi had a telephone con-versation on July 5. A meetingof the Working Mechanismfor Consultation andCoordination on India-ChinaBorder Affairs (WMCC) wasalso held on July 10.
In these meetings, the twosides agreed on complete dis-engagement of the troops alongthe LAC and de-escalation forfull restoration of peace and
tranquility in the border areasin accordance with bilateralagreements and protocols.
In this context, the Indianand Chinese Senior CorpsCommanders held their fourthmeeting at Chushul onTuesday. Giving the seriousnessof the matter, the high-poweredChina Study Group (CSG) onWednesday reviewed the latestdevelopments. The CSG meet-ing saw Doval and ExternalAffairs Minister S Jaishankaralong with top brass of thearmed forces analysing the sit-uation.
Sources said the nextround of talks between the twoCorps Commanders can takeplace as early as next week todiscuss different aspects of dis-engagement.
While the Chinese have,more or less, pulled back com-pletely from three “frictionpoints” including the GalwanValley, Hot Springs and Gogra,Pangong Tso(lake) andDepsang valley are yet to seefull-scale withdrawal. Thoughthe Chinese have startedretreating from these two sites,the pace is not commensuratewith the mutual agreementsbetween the two commanders,they said.
Negotiations are expectedto be more ticklish in theforthcoming round as the con-tinued presence of the Chinesein the Finger Area of Pangongand the Depsang sector couldbe the sticking point in thetalks, they said.
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With the number ofjehadis arrested in
Europe, especially France,recording a marked increase in2019 as per Europol data,concerns have emerged hereover the possibility of radical-isation of Indian studentsstudying there. Most of thearrested radicals there arefrom the refugee communitysettled there.
Timely formulation ofmonitoring and counsellingsuch students throughStandard OperatingProcedures (SOPs) could comein handy in keeping the vul-nerable Indian youth awayfrom radicalisation, officials inthe security agencies conced-ed.
According to Europol dataof the jehadis arrested last yearreleased late on Wednesday, asmany as 202 radicals werearrested in France followed by56 in Spain, 43 in Austria, 32in Germany, 27 inNetherlands, 21 in Denmark,18 in Italy and 11 each inBelgium and Bulgaria. In addi-tion, f ive jehadis have been nabbed from Ireland,three each in Greece andRomania, two in Poland andone each in Hungary andPortugal.
The age group of thearrested jehadis range between15 and 30 years. Most of thestudents from India are also inthe same age bracket and anyinterface between the two
groups can potentially be lead-ing to conversion and radical-isation.
The number of radicalsarrested in Europe in 2019 hassignificantly increased over2018 and the previous years.
A significant number ofIndian students particularlyprefer to study in France,Spain, Germany andNetherlands. The age group ofthe students is susceptible torebel sentiment and girl stu-dents are particularly vulnerable to con-version and radicalisation,officials in the security estab-lishment said.
The development has ledto calls for putting in place sys-temic measures to increaseawareness amongst the stu-dents returning after studiesfrom Europe.
The students should bemade aware of the pitfalls offalling into the radicalisationtrap and they should also beadvised to keep their familyand the respective Indian missions in loop on the radicalisation bid by any jeha-
di group during the course oftheir studies abroad.
Efforts should also bemade to sensitise the studentsas they could be a grazingground for hostile foreignintelligence agencies, they said.
Counter terrorism ExpertDr Rituraj Mate said,” Thespurt in the number of radicalsarrested in Europe, especiallyFrance, is a pointer to theimpending terror plot in theregion and enhanced efforts for radicalisation ofthe youth, inlcuding Indianstudents.”
An institutional mecha-nism or SOP should be rolledout to contain the threat ofIndian students getting radi-calised or falling into the ter-ror fold and also deradicalisethose who have already beenexposed to ulterior designs ofthe jehadi groups there, Matesaid, adding a detailed assess-ment of all such studentsreturning from abroad isrequired to be undertaken inaddition to counselling andconstant monitoring of theradicalised youths.
not to extend the facility ofpostal ballot to electors above 65years of age in the Assemblyelections in Bihar and by-elec-tions due in the near future cit-ing challenges and constraints oflogistics, manpower and safetyprotocols related to coronavirusto implement this rule. However,the postal ballot rules will beapplicable for voters over the ageof 80, disabled or those suffer-ing from novel coronavirus andare either in home or institu-tional quarantine. After theCovid-19 outbreak in India,Bihar will be the first state tohave assembly polls.
The EC said that it has beenmonitoring the electoral pre-paredness for the coming by-elections and General electionsof the Assembly in Bihar. It saidthat it had already limited thenumber of electors to one thou-sand for each polling station forease of voting, especially forelderly and vulnerable sectionsof electors, in Covid situations.The Commission also informedthat the state was creating addi-tional 34,000 polling stations(45% more), which will increasethe total number of polling sta-tions to around 1,06,000.
“This would entail formi-dable logistical challenges ofmobilising 1.8 lakh more pollingpersonnel and other additional
resources including require-ment of much larger number ofvehicles in the State of Bihar.Similar challenges would bethere for the coming by-electionsalso. Considering all these chal-lenges and constraints and inview of the decision to limit thenumber of electors at eachpolling station to 1,000, theCommission has decided not toissue the notification to extendthe facility of postal ballot to theelectors above 65 years of age,”the EC said.
In several Covid healthadvisories, people over the ageof 65 have been asked not toventure out as they are particu-larly vulnerable to catching thehighly contagious virus.
The Ministry of Law andJustice, dated June 19, has madecertain changes to theRepresentation of the PeopleAct, 1951, under the Conduct ofElections (Amendment) Rules,2020, recommending extensionof postal ballot to people over theage of 65 years which was ear-lier 80 years, and others vulner-able to coronavirus to cast theirvotes through postal ballots.
Six political parties—theCongress, the Rashtriya JanataDal (RJD), the CommunistParty of India (CPI), theCommunist Party of India(Marxist) (CPI(M)), DMK andthe Trinamool Congress(TMC)—have raised concernsover the move, with some call-ing it “unconstitutional”.
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New Delhi: The SupremeCourt on Thursday adjournedtill July 29 hearing on thehabeas corpus petition filed bythe wife of Congress leader andformer union ministerSaifuddin Soz challenging his"unlawful" detention by theJammu and Kashmir govern-ment.
A bench headed by JusticeArun Mishra adjourned thematter for hearing on July 29after the Jammu and Kashmirgovernment sought more timeto file a reply on the matter.
The apex court had earli-er issued a notice to Jammuand Kashmir government seek-ing their response on the mat-ter.
Challenging the detentionorder passed by theGovernment of UnionTerritory of Jammu andKashmir, Mumtazunnisa Sozhad filed habeas corpus peti-tion in the apex court for theproduction of her husbandbefore the court.
The petition, filed through
advocate Sunil Fernandes, saidthat Soz was informed of hishouse arrest by the securityguards of his house situated atShehjar, Srinagar on the morn-ing of August 5, 2019, when theUnion of India passed aPresidential order revoking thespecial status of the (erstwhile)State of Jammu and Kashmirgranted under the Constitutionof India.
Seeking quashing of thedetention order, the plea saidthat ten months have passedsince his detention started,and he is yet to be informed ofhis grounds of detention.
"All efforts by him toobtain a copy of the detentionorder(s) have been of no availdue to the illegal, arbitraryexercise of powers by Jammuand Kashmir government.
His detention is whollycontrary and perverse to theconstitutional safeguards laiddown under Article 21 and 22of the Constitution of India, aswell as the law on preventivedetention. Agencies
Thursday announced that ithas received responses from640 universities on the issue ofholding exams amid theCovid-19 pandemic.
"Universities wereapproached to inform the sta-tus of the conduct of exami-nations. Response receivedfrom 640 universities. Out ofthese, 454 have either con-ducted the examination or areplanning to conduct. 177 uni-versities are yet to decide onthe conduct of examination,"UGC said.
In case of 27 private uni-versities, which were estab-lished during 2019-20 to tilldate, the first batch is yet tobecome eligible for final exam-ination, it said.
On July 6, the UGC hadissued revised exam guide-lines mandating to hold finalexaminations in colleges anduniversities by the end ofSeptember stating that the academic credibility, careeropportunities and futureprogress of students werelinked to exams.
Earlier in the week, theDelhi High Court asked theCentre, UGC and DelhiUniversity to reply to a pleachallenging the guidelinesmaking it mandatory for col-leges to conduct final yearexaminations by September-end in view of the COVID-19pandemic.
The plea, by DU studentKabir challenged the UGC'sJuly 6 guidelines making itmandatory for colleges to con-duct final year exams bySeptember-end via offline,online or a blended method.
Taking to social mediaplatform, students and otherstakeholders have made uptheir mind to challenge theguidelines in the SupremeCourt seeking scrapping ofthe new UGC guidelines.
"Results of final-year stu-dents should be declared onthe basis of internal assessment(midsem, internal vivas, majorprojects/assignments) whichhas already been conducted byinstitutes+50% weightage canalso be given to previoussemester," a student shared.
Another said the guide-lines did not give due consid-eration to the infrastructuraland demographic limitationsof the education system. "Theiradamant insistence on con-ducting traditional pen andpaper exams during the pan-demic will spell doom for stu-dents," wrote another studenton twitter.
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With coronavirus startingto take a psychological
toll on the frontline healthcareworkers in the country, theGovernment has come outwith guidelines envisaging adesignated mental health sup-port network at all the Covid-19 treatment centres across theStates to protect the fraternity.
The Guidelines, “Caringfor Health Care Warriors men-tal Health Support DuringCOVID-19”, has been pre-pared by KarnatakaGovernment in collaborationwith the Centre of excellenceNational Institute of mentalHealth and Neurosciences
“As the battle becomeslong-drawn, the healthcareworkers (HCWs) in the front-line have become particularlyvulnerable to mental stress.
“Worries about risk ofinfection to self and their fam-ilies, adequacy of protection,long working hours, being inquarantine/isolation, and sep-aration from families can leadto severe psychological distressamong health professionals.If not effectively recognised
and treated, such stress cantransform into more persistentillness, even leading to suicidalthoughts and feelings,” as perthe document.
Though, this is for thefirst time that the Governmenthas prepared mental supportguidelines for the medical staff,the issue had been existing forlong time and individualresponses to address mentalhealth issues among HCWshave been patchy.
“Structured and confiden-tial mental health services forhealth workers exist in very fewsettings, primarily in high-income countries.
Organisational leadershiphas a crucial role to play inensuring good work-life bal-ance, incentivising healthybehaviours and providing anatmosphere of discussing men-tal health issues without stig-ma,” the Government has alsoadmitted in the document.
Given the likely magnitudeof the mental health difficultiesamong HCWs and the patchyavailability of specialist men-tal health care across the coun-try, it has become necessary forall non-psychiatric health care
professionals to be trained toprovide initial mental healthcare to the extent possible, asper the document.
The document defines indetail the framework foradministrators and health caresupervisors to address themental health needs of healthcare personnel in Covid-19treatment settings where HCWare encountering a consider-able degree of stress, anxiety,depression, insomnia due tothe pandemic.
It also provides technicalinput to guide health care per-sonnel to help themselves andtheir colleagues in distress.
Calling for strict imple-mentation in this direction, thedocument notes that if noteffectively recognised and han-dled, this can transform intomore severe distress, evenleading to suicidal thoughtsand feelings.
“It is thus a matter of pri-ority to address these concernsto ensure positive mentalhealth and early interventionsfor frontline personnel inCovid-19 treatment settings,”as per the guidelines.
Even though cases are con-stantly on the rise with the
total touching 9,68,876 and thedeath toll standing at 24,915,the good news is that the num-ber of recoveries have almostdoubled against the active casesat 3,31,146 in the country.
The Union HealthMinistry on Thursday attrib-uted this to a graded, preemp-tive and proactive approachadopted along with theStates/UTs for prevention, con-tainment and management ofCOVID-19. The collectiveefforts are regularly reviewedand monitored at the highestlevel.
“The targeted measureshave contributed to a steadydecline in the number of activecases. As on date, the actualcaseload of COVID-19 patientsin the country is only 3,31,146.These contribute to a littlemore than a third (34.18 percent) of total cases detected sofar.
“Actual case load ofCOVID-19 has remained lim-ited and manageable in thecountry due to proactive mea-sures of containment includinghouse-to-house survey,
perimeter control activities,timely contact tracing and sur-veillance of containment zones,aggressive testing and timelydiagnosis, and effective clinicalmanagement of the moderateand severe cases through a wellimplemented standard of careprotocol substantially increas-ing their chances of recovery,”said a statement here.
The joint efforts by theCenter and the State/UTGovernments of increasing thetesting capacity, ramping upthe health infrastructure, prioritising surveillance in theSARI/ILI cases, and ensuringmapping of the aged popula-tion and people with co-mor-bidities have led to a continu-ous improvement in the recov-ery rates seen across India, itsaid.
The hospital infrastruc-ture to treat Covid-19 consistsof 1,381 Dedicated CovidHospitals in Category I , 3100dedicated Covid HealthcareCentres in Category II, 10,367Covid Care Centres inCategory III. They togetherhave a capacity of 46,666 ICUbeds.
incubated startup ModulusHousing has developed a 15-bedded portable hospital unit‘MediCab’ that can be installedanywhere within two hours byfour people.
It is foldable and is com-posed of four zones – a doctor'sroom, an isolation room, amedical room/ward and atwin-bed ICU, maintained atnegative pressure.
‘MediCAB’ has beenlaunched recently in WayanadDistrict of Kerala where theunits are being deployed totreat Covid-19 patients.
This deployment in Keralahas been undertaken withgrant funds from Habitat forHumanity’s Terwilliger Centerfor Innovation in Shelter. Thestartup collaborated with SreeChitra Tirunal Institute forMedical Sciences andTechnology (SCTIMST) whichprovided inputs on the certifi-cations and customizationsnecessary for the project.
Founded by two IIT alum-
ni in 2018, Modulus Housingwas supported by IIT MadrasIncubation Cell and has avision to revolutionise housingthrough modular prefab struc-tures. They have re-purposedtheir designs to support thefight against Covid-19.
Emphasising the need forsuch innovations in Covid-19times, Shreeram Ravichandran,Chief Executive Officer,Modulus Housing, said, “Theoutcome of this pilot project inKerala will help in proving theapplicability of the technologyand advantages of micro hos-pitals, with MediCAB as aninstant infrastructure solution.It can be easily assembled ineight hours by four people.When folded, our collapsible
cabins are reduced five-fold,making it very cost-effectivefor transportation.”
Ravichandran said,“Unlike urban areas wherethere is plenty of existing infra-structure that can be convert-ed to hospitals, rural areas donot have a lot of infrastructure.It is difficult to construct build-ings from scratch as therequirement is immediate. Asthe rural population density isrelatively low, more micro hos-pitals help greatly in tacklingCOVID-19 cases.”
Post-Pandemic, these cab-ins can be remodelled intomicro-hospitals/clinics forrural places. They can be eas-ily shifted and placed there,said an official.
Children with disability runa huge risk of dropping out
of school unable to cope withthe switch to the online/digitalmedium of instruction duringthe Covid-19 pandemic-induced schools' closure,according to activists citingtwo surveys.
Conducted by Swabhimanand Disability Legislation Unitof Eastern India and partner ofCentre for Advocacy andResearch (CFAR), the surveynoted that an underlying real-ity was that children fromGovernment schools belongedto poor families, and a largeproportion of them were notusers or owners of smart-phones which are being usedfor online education.
The surveys found thatonly 56.5 per cent of studentswere “struggling yet attendingclasses” irregularly whilearound 77 per cent of studentssaid they would not be able tocope and would fall behind inlearning due to their inability
to access distance learningmethods.
Similarly, 71 per cent saidthey were finding it difficult tocope with the Covid-19 socialand educational scenario. Theparents of as many as 90 percent CwDs said teachers werenot giving them attention while86 per cent said they did notknow how to use technology.As many as 76 per cent ofmothers said they did notknow how to help as theythemselves did not understandtechnology.
Around 81 per cent teach-ers said they did not haveaccessible educational mater-ial, suitable for online learn-ing, with them while 64 percent of students did not havesmartphones or computers athome.
The surveys also foundthat 67 per cent of studentsexpressed their need for lap-tops, smartphones or tabletsfor educational purposes,while 77 per cent asked forstudy material in alternateformat suitable for children
with disabilities. Around 74per cent of them said theyneeded data/Wi-fi support foreducational purposes while61 per cent expressed a needfor scribes, escorts, readersand attendants.
The surveys also probedissues such as why studentswere not attending classes reg-ularly. Dr. Sruti Mohapatrafrom Swabhiman, a commu-nity-based organisation, saidthe first requisite is readingmaterial in alternate formats.“This is a non-negotiable.Alternate course material mustcater to different disabilities.Our recommendations includeempowering students, teachersand parents so that they canplay their roles more effec-tively,” she said.
The activists also calledfor focus on disabled stu-dents’ various requirements,the need to give equal statusand respect to special educa-tors, empowering parents sothat they are able to learn newtechnology and support theirchildren.
The custodial deaths of PJeyaraj and his son J Fenix
in Sattankulam in Thoothukudidistrict allegedly due to policetorture has been internation-alised by an evangelist organi-sation putting a blot in India’simage globally.
Though the investigationinto the deaths of the father-sonduo was transferred by theTamil Nadu Government to theCBI, India’s premier investi-gating agency and five copsincluding an inspector werearrested in connection with thecase, which was initially probedby the Central Crime Branch ofthe State Police, an organisationby name Evangelical Fellowshipof India has termed the wholeincident as a communallysponsored murders.
In a report titled “Hate andTargeted Violence AgainstChristians in India”, the EFI hasalleged that the custodial deathswere perpetrated by policemenbacking RSS elements in arival community.
This has shocked the entirepolice community in TamilNadu, known for their com-mitment to secularism andbrotherhood.
“The anti-Christian vio-lence in Tamil Nadu whichreported a horrendous custo-dial torture and murder of twoChristians of the Nadar com-
munity by policemen backingRSS elements in a rival com-munity, is traced to castesupremacist attitudes in villagesand their linkages with politi-cal elements. In most of the dis-tricts of the State the police arerecruited from the dominantcastes, which are inimical to theChristian community and itspastors, a large number ofwhom are from marginalisedcastes and economically poorand less affluent sections ofsociety,” charged the executivesummary.
The report alleges thatJeyaraaj and Fenix were “beat-en, brutally tortured,sodomised with rods”. It alsocharges that Magistrate PSaravanan supported the Policewhich continued to torture tillthe two collapsed. A veteranpolice officer said this was anattempt to tarnish the image ofTamil Nadu Police.
“We all know that the mur-ders of Jeyaraaj and Fenix weredastard acts. Even before theMadras High Court gave itsverdict in the suo motu peti-tion, Tamil Nadu governmenttransferred the case to the CBIand five cops have been sus-pended and arrested. Thereport being circulated by EFIis unfortunate and it is withulterior motives,” said the offi-cer who also felt that theGovernment of Tamil Nadushould initiate legal actionagainst such canards.
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Highest number of 16deaths due to Covid-19
were reported in Kashmir val-ley on Thursday while for thesecond consecutive day morethan 490 cases were also detect-ed in Jammu & Kashmir, tak-ing the tally of total coronaviruscases to 12,156.
With every passing day thesituation in Kashmir valley isworsening. The health careinfrastructure is also crum-bling, forcing the health admin-istrators to pool in their reservesto cater to the rush of patients,with more severe symptoms.
According to officialsources, the highest number of259 cases were detected inSrinagar district on Thursday.At least 19 policemen, deployedin Police headquarter premis-es tested positive during ran-dom screening while 96 pris-oners from Anantnag districtjail also tested positive, forcingthe authorities to segregateand shift some of the jailinmates to another location.
Half of Srinagar is alreadywitnessing complete lockdownin the wake of a fresh spike inthe number of cases of coron-avirus since Monday.According to official sources,Srinagar district alone account-ed for 37 per cent active posi-tive cases in Jammu & Kashmir.
According to the mediabulletin, “16 deaths werereported from Kashmir valleyon Thursday taking the deathtoll due to covid 19 to 222”. Sofar 18 patients have died inJammu and 204 in Kashmirvalley.
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Covid-19 which was oncetamed by the Kerala
Government has hit the Stateagain like an avalanche as thenumber of persons tested pos-itive for the pandemic onThursday crossed the 700mark forcing Chief MinisterPinarai Vijayan to warn thepeople that things are going outof control.
“While 722 new patientsadded to the Covid-19 table inthe State on Thursday, the cap-ital city of Thiruvananthapuramtested 339 positive cases. This isa major cause of concern as outof the 339 persons diagnosed inThiruvananthapuram, 301 wereinfested through contacts. OnWednesday, 61 workers in ahypermarket in the city, knownas a textile shopping hub, test-ed positive. We have to trackhundreds of customers whohad visited the shop at least onWednesday,” the CM said.
Vijayan said the total num-ber of active Covid-19 patientsin the city crossed the 10,000mark by Thursday. “Out of the722 persons tested positive forcoronavirus, 481 were infectedthrough contacts. The day also
saw the hospitalisation of 864patients,” he said.
The CM said the State hasdone everything under its dis-posal to check the spread of thedisease. “Our people shouldunderstand that coronavirus iseverybody’s problem and noone is exempted from the pan-demic. There is no guaranteethat healthy persons are pro-tected from the disease. Alwaysremember that when you go forshopping, you would comeback with coronavirus in yoursystem,” warned the CM.
As part of the beefing upthe anti-coronavirus measures,Kerala Government is openingFirst Line Treatment Centres inall Panchayats across the State,said Vijayan. “Each FLTCwould be a 100-bed hospitaland we will rope in doctorsfrom both government andprivate services,” he said.
Till date 2.68 lakh sampleshave been tested in the State.The day also saw two deaths inthe State because of Covid-19.The Chief Minister said he wasmore worried about the capi-tal city because of its closeproximity with Tamil Nadu.“Though there are restrictions,hundreds of people cross theborder daily and visitThiruvananthapuram for busi-ness purposes,” the ChiefMinister added.
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Two persons were killed and15 others rescued in two
building crashes that took placeat Fort in south Mumbai and atMalad in north Mumbai onTuesday afternoon.
In the first major mishapduring the current monsoon,two persons were killed and 13others rescued when a groundplus-two storey building col-lapsed at 2.38 pm MalvaniGate no.5 near Nuree Masjid atMalad (W) in north Mumbai.
In the second collapse, twopersons were rescued when aportion of a six-storey buildinglocated near ChhatrapatiShivaji Maharaj Terminus(CSMT) at downtown Fortarea in south Mumbai, crashedlate in the afternoon.
Identifying the two personskilled in the first mishap thattook place at Malad (west) as
Faizal Wahid Sayyad (Male 18years) and AnjumShahabuddin Shaikh (Female,
23 years) the fire brigade per-sonnel said that 13 others weretreated and allowed to go home
from the nearby Hayat Hospitalat Malad (E).
In the second mishap, thenorth side part of Ground plussix floor Bhanushali buildingcollapsed at the Mint Road nearthe CSMT at 5.27 pm.
Days ahead of the col-lapse, the State-runMaharashtra Housing AreaDevelopment Authority(MHADA) had vacated theBhanushali building and repairwork was going on at the timeof mishap. Even after theMHADA ordered vacation ofthe building, some familiescontinued to live there.
After receiving the col-lapse call, the Mumbai FireBrigade rushed its personnelalong with eight Fire engine,two rescue vans and otherequipment. “ Two persons wererescued and sent to a nearbyhospital,” a senior Fire Brigadeofficial said.
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Three months after twoSadhus and their driver
were lynched by an irate mobof villagers, Maharashtra’sCrime InvestigationDepartment (CID) sleuthsonThursday filed a comprehen-sive chargesheets against theaccused before a Dahanu courtin connection with the much-discussed lynching incident.
In its chargesheet — run-ning into 4,955 pages — filedbefore the court of JudicialMagistrate First Class (JMFC)at Dahanu in Palghar district,the CID sleuths named 126accused in connection withthe incident that took place onthe night of April 16.
The investigation team, led
by Deputy Superintendent ofPolice (CID) Vijay Pawar, filedthe two chargesheets afterexamining 808 suspects and118 witnesses to collect strongevidence against the accused.In all, 154 persons were arrest-ed and 11 juveniles were arrest-ed in connection with the inci-dent. None of the arrested+accused has been released onbail so far.
It may be recalled that onthe night of April 16, three per-sons were lynched by a 200-strong mob of villagers nearKasa town in Maharashtra’sPalghar district on suspicionthat they were thieves.
The villagers first hurledstones at the van, promptingthe driver to stop the vehicle.Later, they pulled three persons
out of the vehicle and beatthem to death inGadhchinchale village onDabhadi-Khanwel road, withsticks and rods. The deceased— identified as ChikneMaharaj Kalpavrukshagiri (70),Sushilgiri Maharaj (35) anddriver Nilesh Telgade (30) weretravelling to Surat. Of them onewas the diver, while two are res-idents of Kandivli in northMumbai. The place where theincident took place is approx-imately 120 km from Mumbai.
In their chargesheet, theinvestigators have said that theincident had taken place amidrumours that child-lifters wereroaming in the area during thelockdown. The villagersallegedly suspected the threedeceased to be child-lifters.
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Atotal of 69 persons suc-cumbed to Covid-19 dur-
ing the last 24 hours in TamilNadu while 4,549 new personswere diagnosed with coron-avirus across the State.
A medical bulletin issued bythe Department of Health andPreventive Medicine said therewere 46, 714 active Covid casesin the State as on Thursdayevening. There is a positivenews in this disclosure as therewere 47, 340 active cases as onWednesday. The State has reg-istered a fall in the number ofactive cases which has broughtsome relief to health secretaryJ Radhakrishnan and otherhealth professionals.
The day also saw 5, 106persons getting discharged
from hospitals across the Statefully cured. This has taken thenumber of persons cured tilldate to 1.07 lakh.
Underscoring the fact thatpeople suffering from chronicdiseases are the vulnerable lot,63 out of the 69 patients whosuccumbed on Thursday weresuffering from co-morbid con-ditions. Tamil Nadu’s missionto trace, test and isolate theCovid-19 cases is proceeding infull steam. There are 107 lab-oratories operating in the Statewhich tested 44,186 persons onThursday and this took thenumber of persons tested tilldate to 1.78 million. WhileChennai accounted 1157 ofthe 4,549 persons tested posi-tive on Thursday, the situationin other three neighbouringdistricts remained grim.
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The Government-RajBhavan conflict in Bengal
hit a new low with ChiefMinister Mamata Banerjee tak-ing on both Governor JagdeepDhankhar and the BJP-ledUnion Government for tryingto pollute democratic institu-tions of the country with “dic-tatorial” crudity.
Attacking the CentralGovernment for “covert ways”Banerjee on Thursday said “lesssaid about this BJP and the
Government in the Centre isbetter… normally I desist fromtalking about them as we wantto jointly fight the current cri-sis but I am seeing how shame-lessly they are taking advantageof widespread despair during thecorona times to push throughchanges in the existing laws.”
Attacking the Centre’scovert ways she said “whenpeople are trying to somehowremain afloat in this period ofdespair this Government issilently injecting dictatoriallaws … they are trying to bull-
doze the labour laws that pro-vide security to the commonemployees, workers both inGovernment and private sec-tor… “Instead of listening tothe senior economists who areasking the Government to pro-vide food and transfer cash intothe accounts of the poor thisGovernment has descendedtake advantage of the currentsituation when the people willnot be able to come out andprotest… they are selling all theprofitable ventures of theGovernment by brining FDI in
coal, initiating privatisation inIndian Railways, introducingbank mergers and even takingsteps to close down the BSNL.”
Asking all the trade unionsincluding that of the BJP tounite against “this nefariousdesign of the Government tosell away the workers’ intereststo the privateers,” she said“how can a popularly electedGovernment snatch the demo-cratic rights of the people … isit a democracy or dictatorship… everybody is afraid of thisGovernment.”
Banerjee’s immediate pointof reference was the conduct ofState Governor who had hoursbefore attacked the StateGovernment for politicisingthe campus and blamed theCM for ignoring his letters.
The Governor had reactedsaying the education system inBengal had been highly politi-cised and caged to which theBanerjee wondered “what theBJP Government had done tothe universities in Nalanda,Jamia and JNU,” adding “firstthey should look into what is
happening in these universitiescontrolled by the BJPGovernment before makingsuch remarks.” Infuriated by theabsence of the 23 ViceChancellors of the State uni-versities in a virtual meetingcalled by him the Governor saidearlier in the day that he hadtaken, “strong exception to thedeliberate absence of all ViceChancellors from the importantvirtual meeting to discuss thepresent state of affairs in thehigher education scenario of theState.”
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Uncertainty looms largeover the conduct of the
annual Amarnath pilgrimage inthe absence of formalannouncement of schedule ofAmarnath yatra by ShriAmarnath Shrine Boardauthorities till date.
Despite gearing up its menand machinery on ground zero,the Shrine Board authorities areyet to take a final call on hold-ing yatra this year especially inthe wake of prevailing situationarising out of Covid-19 pan-demic. Several districts ofKashmir valley, from where pil-grims are scheduled to passthrough during the yatra arecurrently witnessing the secondphase of lockdown.
According to officialsources, “the Shri AmarnathShrine board headed by Lt-Governor GC Murmu was
expected to take the final deci-sion after the reopening ofDurbar move offices in Srinagarfrom July 6. “10 days havepassed the Shrine board has notannounced its decision so far”.
Since July 5, Shri AmarnathShrine board has roped in ser-vices of the national broadcast-er to telecast special prayersfrom the cave shrine on variousplatforms of the Doordarshanand its youtube channel.
Interestingly, a DivisionBench of High Court compris-ing Chief Justice Gita Mittal andJustice Sanjay Dhar Wednesdaydirected Shri Amarnath ShrineBoard (SASB) to urgently takeall decisions regarding the yatrawhile complying with the orderof the Supreme Court as well astaking into consideration all therelevant issues and concerns pointed out by theapplicant, amicus curiae andrespondents.
The European Union (EU)sponsored an investigationand set up a commissioncalled the EuropeanEmergency Trust Fund,
which came to an end in 2018.Collaborators and researchers from dif-ferent parts of the world were part ofthis study. The commission examinedquestions related to “ethics dumping,”typically practised by rich nations hav-ing strict legal regimes on poorercountries with more lax regulations.American screenwriter DorisSchroeder, who led the trust, said thatwhile there were certain cases wherethere is a “lack of awareness”, there arealso others “where there was a definiteattempt to avoid legislation in Europeancountries.”
It is noteworthy that one of thecountries which is reportedly notoriousfor making itself available to this prac-tice of ethics dumping is China. Onesuch high-profile case was that ofSergio Canavero, an Italian neurosur-geon, who sought to perform headtransplants on humans. Unable toattempt such a procedure in Europe,Canavero approached Ren Xiaoping, aChinese orthopaedic surgeon fromHarbin Medical University, and carriedout his work on dogs and monkeys.Canavero also apparently planned tograft the head of a patient, who wasparalysed from the neck down afterbeing injured wrestling with a friend.He was reportedly stopped by China’sHealth Ministry before he couldattempt an experiment that had morein common with the fictionalFrankenstein’s monster than anythingrelated to medical science.
With tension along the Line ofActual Control (LAC) brewing and theIndian Government’s decision to ban 59applications from China, it is more thanobvious that India would like to dis-tance itself from China and has henceincreased focus on making the coun-try aatmanirbhar (self-reliant). It isimportant that India distances itselffrom the Chinese example of provid-ing lax medical standards that havemade the latter a popular territory for“ethics dumping.” In this context,recent examples show that we aretreading a dangerous path.
Take the example of Coronil, theayurvedic medicine manufactured byPatanjali, which claimed that “thoseadministered the medicine were fullycured and none died.” Patanjali furtherclaimed that 69 per cent of those whowere administered the medicine werecured within three days and a whop-ping 100 per cent recovered in sevendays. It almost sounded as if we hadfound a “miracle cure.” However, this
excitement and enthusiasmwere short-lived. On the face ofmounting criticism from thoseoutside Patanjali, including thecommon citizens and theMinistry of AYUSH amongothers, Patanjali came up witha clarification, saying it neverclaimed that Coronil was a curefor COVID-19. As more detailsbegan to emerge, the impossi-ble nature of Patanjali’s claimwas exposed.
As per reports that rely onresearch papers submitted byPatanjali to the AYUSHMinistry, it emerged that theAyurveda firm “did not testCoronil on any severeCoronavirus patient.” Clinicaltrials were conducted only on120 asymptomatic, mildlysymptomatic and moderatelysymptomatic patients betweenthe 15-80 year age group.
As someone familiar withthe sphere of medical scienceand one who knows about theprocess involved in approvinga particular drug to be admin-istered to patients, it was shock-ing that Patanjali made an out-landish claim on the basis oflimited data. Watching suchstandards, I am afraid that anumber of home remedies canqualify as “cures” forCoronavirus.
However, what’s moreshocking is that such out-
landish claims are allowed to gounpunished without such firmsgetting a serious rap on theknuckles. COVID-19 is one ofthe biggest threats to humani-ty in recent memory. Allowingsuch companies and individu-als to earn profit by creatingpanic and fear among the cit-izens is something that histo-ry will not look kindly on.
Another example is that ofItolizumab, a drug used tocure skin ailment psoriasis,which was approved by India’sdrug regulator to treat COVID-19 patients with moderate tosevere acute respiratory dis-tress. Typically, drugs areapproved after trials on hun-dreds of patients. However, inthis case, approval was givenwithout any phase-3 trials.Randomised clinical trial ofonly 30 patients was conduct-ed. Doctors from differentparts of the country are usingsimilar drugs that are alreadyavailable in the market onpatients who are experiencingmoderate to severe Coronasymptoms.
Doing away with thephase-3 trials for drugs couldopen the gates for the patientsto be used as guinea pigs. It isalso surprising that most of ourdiscussions are focussed onwonder drugs that are expen-sive. But drugs like dexametha-
sone, which is deemed to beextremely effective on COVID-19 patients on ventilators, isavailable at a much more rea-sonable cost. There has been lit-tle discussion on televisionchannels or newspapers aboutthis drug.
A large part of the respon-sibility falls on the manufactur-ers. We must demand morefrom them but is theGovernment acting withrestraint or responsibility?Unfortunately, expert bodieshave allowed such laxitythrough their conduct.
The most obvious exampleis of a letter dated July 2 by theIndian Council of MedicalResearch (ICMR). In this letterto the select institutes, wherethe clinical trial pf COVID-19is to be done, it states that itwants the institutions to “fast-track all approvals” and toensure that participants in thetrial of the vaccine are enrolled“no later than July 7” so that thelaunch of the vaccine can bedone by August 15. The letterfurther goes on to state that anynon-compliance to the orderwill be viewed “seriously.”
The contents of this letterare troubling. This, not mere-ly because of the fact that bydesignating August 15 —which is the day we celebratethe independence day — as the
date on which vaccine shouldbe launched, the ICMR isreducing a serious medical cri-sis to a potential political gim-mick.
It is all the more worrisomethat the ICMR, an organisationthat is meant to rely on science,has asked institutions to fasttrack all approvals. This wouldinclude getting relevantapprovals from the ethics com-mittees of these institutions.
This approach of potential-ly favouring a headline overobtaining relevant approvalsmust be criticised.Repercussions of such a movemay outweigh possible benefits.It is time for the ICMR to speakto the Government and the cit-izens instead of setting suchludicrous timelines.
Even optimists in the scien-tific community do not realis-tically expect a vaccine to beavailable till early 2021. In theevent, the ICMR needs to con-vince the Government of amore calibrated approach. It cancite the example of Canaveroand China and how Indiawould do well to not go downthat dark alley where medicalethics is considered “red tape”rather than a necessary checkon reckless scientific pursuit.
(The writer is a former IPSofficer, a former MP and cur-rently a member of the AAP)
Sir — The COVID-19 pandem-ic has disturbed the academicyear. At the same time, it hasgiven us a chance to introspectand bring some positive changesin life. As education becomesrooted in the family and homeenvironment, it’s a great oppor-tunity for parents to make use ofthis time to experiment. Earlier,parents used to complain thatthey do not know what is hap-pening in school.
Now there is an opportunityto get directly involved in class-es, which they must make use of.In online classes, there is a greaterneed for parents to fill the gaps inlearning. We had a situationwhere parents’ responsibility usedto end with dropping children toschool; now they can get direct-ly involved with their children’sstudies. The crucial factor here isthe parent-child relationship. Weneed to set boundaries for chil-dren and monitor them. Parentsmust sit through classes if possi-ble or monitor younger childrenin the initial phase and speak toolder children.
B Ahsanullah New Delhi
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Sir — The United StatesImmigration and CustomsEnforcement’s (ICE) decision to
rescind the TrumpAdministration’s order thatwould have required internation-al students to transfer schools orleave the country if their collegeshold classes entirely online next
semester because of the coron-avirus pandemic is welcome. Asit is, we are yet to come to termswith Kuwait National Assembly’sdraft expat quota Bill that wouldforce around eight lakh Indians
to leave that country. The ICE has regularly been
accused of arbitrary and discrim-inatory practices against immi-grants and citizens of colour inthe US. At a time when studentsacross the world are facingunprecedented challenges, evic-tion from the US would havemade thousands of students anx-ious about their future. Onehopes that such measures are notundertaken in the near future.
Kavya ShahUjjain
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Sir — This refers to the editori-al, “Digital reliance” (July 16).That so many firms have soughtan alliance with Jio speaks of theventure’s prospects. Google,along with Jio, plans to create aspecial operating system for low-cost devices to penetrate theIndian market. However, it’sworrying that there’s no directcompetitor in this space. Thiscan block space for innovation.
During my professional engagement withrural India, I found that one of the mostuseful resources at the grassroots level was
an Anganwadi worker. I would always begin myvillage exploration with a visit to an Anganwadiand would be rewarded with a finer introduc-tion to the local community. I have alwaysregarded Anganwadi workers as the most effi-cient last-mile connects. Their delivery on theground is both devoted and empathetic.
In normal times, India’s army of Anganwadiworkers is on the frontline of the country’s waragainst undernutrition. Today, it has joinedanother battle — the battle against COVID-19.This vast cohort is now at the forefront of com-munity surveillance, detection and preventionmechanisms, going door to door, recording peo-ple’s travel history, noting symptoms, advisingpeople on hygiene protocols and social distanc-ing to protect themselves against the virus.
These workers form an important part of thedisease surveillance and mitigation mecha-nism. Since they know their people well and haveintimate on-the-ground experience, this legionof Anganwadi workers is extensively used by dis-trict administrations in times of crisis. Dealingwith emergencies is, therefore, not alien to theircadre. Anganwadi workers are a resilient work-force and can adapt very quickly to difficult cir-cumstances. In Wanoja village in Chandrapurdistrict of central India, too, Anganwadi work-ers are leading COVID-19 work. Apart fromspreading awareness about the Coronavirus andconducting related surveys, they visit houses,looking for cases of cholera and keep track ofimmunisation, family planning, nutrition and soon. An Anganwadi worker is usually a local vil-lage woman, between 18 to 35 years of age andeducated up to class X. She gets paid around�4,500 per month.
An Anganwadi worker whom I have knownfor most of my professional life and who is stillactive in that role is Meera Chaudhary of Wanojavillage. I remember vividly my first encounterwith Meerabai. She lived in a primitive housewhich had a very low entrance. I had to bendalmost half to get into it. Meerabai had a goatwhich she milked on every visit to prepare teafor us. We became regular visitors and she alwayswelcomed us with great warmth. We wouldspend time discussing local affairs, the diverseoccupations and even politics although she hadlittle interest in it.
Since Meerabai was the primary interface ofthe village for development staff of theGovernment, she was familiar with the nicetiesto be done when entertaining visiting dignitaries.I found her a well-trained host.
Her husband Vasantrao had a hair salon inthe local town. When Meerabai became anAnganwadi worker in 1986, she received amonthly compensation of �125. For Meerabai,the job was purely a labour of love. AlthoughAnganwadis were the primary units of India’smainstream nutrition programme for womenand children, Anganwadi work was consideredmore of a social contract than a source of sta-ble income. Meerabai’s organising skills and herendearment to her people proved highlyresourceful to us. She would host our meetingsin her house and whenever the meetings werelarger, she would open the Anganwadi premis-es. While the Anganwadi was not part of ouragenda, we got involved in it. We helped theAnganwadi with a small donation for purchas-ing an audio player, a few tricycles and a collec-tion of modern toys.
Right from the beginning of her career as anAnganwadi worker, Meerabai carried an air of
seriousness and was very committed toevery task she undertook. This is thereason she was never allowed to retreatto the privacy of her home even whenshe was keen to take a holiday.
She juggled the Anganwadi jobeven as she saw through the educationand marriages of her three daughters.She saw several juniors join and leavethe Anganwadi on account of lack ofadequate monetary incentives. But shecouldn’t think of taking a reprievebecause parents would shudder at thevery thought of what the Anganwadiwould be like without Meerabai.
She has grown into a versatileresource primarily because she has han-dled practically every grassroot role forwhich there was no specifically-assigned Government worker. Therewas a time when the block administra-tion wanted to use Self Help Groups(SHGs) for promoting its nutrition mis-sion for children and pregnant moth-ers. We already had these groups formicro-finance. Meerabai provided us aplatform for using them as conduits forsocial and financial programmes.
How is it that when everyAnganwadi gets the same monthly sup-port from the Government, some per-form well while others lag behind. Onemajor reason is leakage at every levelwhere the aid is sponged off. As the aidtravels, only a small part reaches theactual beneficiary.
Indians have learnt to live with thisso called “chalta hai (it’s ok)” attitude.But you will get a better answer whenyou observe a typical day in Meerabai’swork schedule. She is meticulous abouthygiene and the quality of raw materi-als used for cooking mid-day meals forchildren. She pays attention to everyminute detail so that the overall ambi-ence of the Anganwadi is highly stim-ulating.
The children belong to a very sen-sitive age band (under six years), whentheir vital cognitive and behaviouralfunctions are being developed.Meerabai’s deep understanding of childbehaviour has made a huge difference.A child’s early years have a dispropor-
tionate impact on the rest of his/hersocial, mental and emotional life up toadulthood. That’s why Anganwadisare considered a cost-effective way toraise a generation of healthy, socially-adept and productive adults. It is farbetter than treating sick adults later.
Anganwadi workers do not haveany comprehensive manual on manag-ing their role. They are taught broadprinciples and it is left to their rawnative understanding and native wis-dom to flesh out the details. AnAnganwadi Worker (AWW) is entrust-ed with many non-Integrated ChildDevelopment Services (ICDS) tasks —such as preparing voter identity cards,conducting a census, employment orSwachh Bharat Mission (Clean IndiaMission) surveys and helming electionbooths — none of which is paid workexcept for election duty.
It may not be possible for theGovernment to provide formal salariesand other allowances to Anganwadiworkers on account of the country’sexperience with formal employment.But it can give frontline responders suchas healthcare workers and social serviceproviders guaranteed support and faircompensation. Many of these health-care workers, fighting the COVID-19on the frontline, are equipped only withcommitment, courage and the burdenof expectations.
One way of improving motivation-al levels of Anganwadi workers isthrough aligning their incentives withthe policymakers’ objectives. EachAnganwadi worker can be individual-ly made responsible for services at hercentre, thereby avoiding the problemsassociated with free-ridership. Paymentwould be made based on overall out-comes among all the children at eachcentre, incentivising each worker toallocate efforts among tasks in some-what the same way as payments toteachers for education outcomes arebased on improved test scores.
Focussing on outcomes createsincentives for workers to employ con-textual knowledge about the optimalallocation of available resources.
Performance pay in the healthcaresector usually targets the provision ofintermediate inputs such as clinic vis-its or other specific services .
Meerabai recalls the hardship sheendured in setting up the Anganwadiand the ordeals during the familyplanning programme, when stiff targetshad to be met for sterilisations. Sherecalls how “scary” it was when herinexperience landed the initial effortsin trouble, but her bosses rallied aroundand chipped in.
Anganwadis are the primary unitsof ICDS, the world’s largest State-pro-moted social programme. ICDS waslaunched on October 2, 1975, withabout 5,000 Anganwadis to deliverhigh-quality healthcare, nutrition, com-munity education and pre-school edu-cation services to vulnerable families.The centres are tasked with a range ofpublic health responsibilities includingproviding supplementary nutrition,informal preschool education, nutritionand health education, immunisation,health check-ups, and referral services for primarily children underthe age of six and pregnant and lactat-ing women.
Working alongside an army ofnearly three million Anganwadi work-ers are more than nine lakh AccreditedSocial Health Activists (ASHAs). TheASHA initiative was the result of the2005 National Rural Health Mission,affiliated with the Ministry of Healthand Family Welfare. A single ASHAworker looks after more than onethousand families in an administrativeunit.
With about 1.4 million Anganwadisin 7,000 blocks and around 2.8 millionfrontline personnel, Anganwadis con-tinue to be the backbone of India’sgrassroots social services platform forwomen and children. However, the realvalue of the programme can be realisedonly when the cadre has devoted work-ers. They are the most authentic mas-cots of this mission which would com-plete a half-century in a few years.
(The writer is a well-known devel-opment professional)
The ‘Make in India’ drive in 2013and the ‘Atma Nirbhar BharatAbhiyaan’ initiated this year by
the Government are critical steps for-ward in improving the manufacturinggrowth of India. Success in bothwould hugely depend on the real leapwe make in the ease-of-doing-business.One of the biggest challenges on thisfront is the growing emphasis on hir-ing of informal labour.
Trade unions do not represent theinformal labour force, which has nei-
ther employment nor social security.Such workers are neither coveredunder national labour legislation andsocial protection nor entitled toemployment benefits such as paidannual or sick leave, health insurance,contribution to the provident fund,bonus and so on. In other words, thequality of employment of the informallabour is relatively poor. In a develop-ing economy, the labour mix (formaland informal) employed in manufac-turing plays a significant role.
As per current estimates, 92 percent of approximately 500 millionworkers in India are informal. The pro-portion of informal employment in theorganised sector has increased from 41per cent in 1999-2000 to 58 per centin 2011-2012, thereby indicating dete-rioration in skill quality. This meansthat India has too many working
poor, who make enough money to livebut not enough to pull out of pover-ty. Additionally, as per the NationalSample Survey Office (NSSO), only 18per cent of the youth passing out ofvocational schools have regular jobsand 60 per cent of them are employedas informal workers. Our archaiclabour laws regulate the industriallabour environment. So an informalworker employed for more than 240days can claim a regular or permanent(formal) employment.
Companies hire informal labourbecause lower wages make itfavourable to manage the intenseglobal competitiveness. There is flex-ibility to play with staff numbers to getaround labour laws and managedemand-market volatility. There isincreased flexibility in retrenchment,irrespective of the performance of the
employee. The practice also reducesthe bargaining power of formal work-er unions during negotiations.However, an unusually high propor-tion of the informal labour force in amanufacturing set-up, in the long-term, is likely to lead to low produc-tivity and product quality due totime-bound exit of the informal labour,inconsistent quality and high cost ofquality due to low labour skill levels.There is an unhealthy industrial rela-tionship climate between the “top-floor” and the “shop-floor” that detersefficiencies.
Therefore, it is recommendedthat every manufacturing plant shouldoperate with the right balance of for-mal and informal labour. This is rati-fied by simulation runs to study thelong-term implications of informallabour hiring on manufacturing
growth using System Dynamics mod-elling.
Some of the useful inferencesfrom the analysis are: Beyond a criti-cal limit of informal labour mix, themanufacturing output, in the long-run,is likely to decrease. A small periodicconversion from informal labour toformal, based on high performance,significantly improves the perfor-mance trajectory of the manufactur-ing output.
All options with conversions frominformal to formal labour have showna speedy and a significant increase inthe output. Options with no conver-sion from informal to formal labourhave shown low plant capacity utilisa-tion. The recommended healthy labourflexibility range of formal-informallabour ratio may vary from 60:40 to80:20 with a conversion rate of five-
seven per cent per year. The policy ofperiodically moving a small fraction ofhigh performing informal workers intothe formal category would improvecompetitiveness among workers andfacilitate a long-term healthy industri-al relations environment in the produc-tion shop.
Gradually minimising and even-tually leading to equal work, equal pay,is recommended. Labour reforms areneeded by providing the employers theflexibility in labour recruitment andlay-offs. However, this ought to betransparent, performance-driven andwith a financial safety net in the formof insurance for upskilling or retrain-ing. To fulfil the dream of an AtmaNirbhar Bharat, we need labourreforms.
(The writer is Professor, Operations,GLIM, Gurugram)
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Kathmandu: With embattledPrime Minister KP SharmaOli refusing to resign or give uphis position as chairman of theruling Nepal Communist Party,talks aimed to strike a newpower-sharing deal betweenhim and former premierPushpa Kamal Dahal‘Prachanda’ failed to make anyheadway on Thursday on theeve of a crucial meeting of theparty.
Prime Minister and partychairman Oli, executive chair-man ‘Prachanda’ and formerpremier Madhav Kumar Nepalheld an informal meeting at thePM’s official residence atBaluwatar on Thursday, aheadof the meeting of the party’s 45-member powerful StandingCommittee.
However, the three leadersfailed to reach a deal after Oliand Prachanda, who is leadingthe dissident group, stuck totheir demands, said StandingCommittee member GaneshShah.
The trio tried to sort outdifferences between Oli and thedissident group. But, as the Prime Minister didn’taccept their condition of aone-man-one-post, the talksfailed, he said.
Oli and Prachanda havefailed to reach a power-sharingdeal even after at least eightrounds of talks in recent weeks.
Thursday’s talks took placejust ahead of the StandingCommittee meeting on Fridaywhich is expected to determinethe political future of the 68-year-old prime minister whohas previously alleged that hisdetractors were trying toremove him with India’s help.
Top party leaders, includ-ing ‘Prachanda’, have beendemanding Prime Minister
Oli’s resignation, saying hisrecent anti-India remarks were“neither politically correct nordiplomatically appropriate.”They are also against Oli’sautocratic style of functioning.
There could be a middlepoint for compromise even ifthe Prime Minister agreed toquit either of the two key posi-tions, which he did not accept,resulting in deadlock in thetalk, Shah said.
Prime Minister’s pressadvisor Surya Thapa also saidthat the talks remained incon-clusive though the leaders spentaround two hours together.
The differences grew fur-ther after Oli said that some ofthe ruling party leaders arealigning with the southernneighbour to remove him frompower after his governmentissued a new political mapincorporating three Indian ter-ritories.
The Prachanda-Nepal fac-tion rejected the allegations,saying it is them who haveasked for resignation, not India.They asked Oli to show evi-dence to support his allegation.
Prachanda has said that hewill not allow the party to splitand any attempt from any-where to weaken its unitywould hurt the fight against thecoronavirus pandemic and nat-ural disasters.
Last Friday, the meeting ofthe NCP’s Standing Committeeto decide Oli’s future was post-poned for a fourth time at thelast moment, citing floods andlandslides in the country.
Under mounting pressureto resign, Prime Minister Olihas downplayed the intra-party rift and said such dis-putes are “regular phenomena”that can be resolved throughdialogue. PTI
London: London-born IslamicState (ISIS) recruit ShamimaBegum on Thursday won theright to return to the UK andcarry on her legal fight againstthe UK Government’s revoca-tion of her British citizenshipon security grounds.
Bangladeshi-origin Begum,now 20, was one of threeschoolgirls who fled London tojoin ISIS in Syria in 2015.
Senior Court of Appeal UKjudges, including Indian-originLord Justice Rabinder Singh,ruled that she must be allowedto re-enter and fight her case.
“Fairness and justice must,on the facts of this case, out-weigh the national securityconcerns, so that the leave toenter appeals should beallowed,” said Lord Justice
Julian Flaux, who was part ofthe three-judge bench withLord Justice Singh and LadyJustice Eleanor King.
The judges also said thatthe national security concernsabout her “could be addressedand managed if she returns tothe United Kingdom”.
The UK Home Office saidthe decision was “very disap-pointing” and it would “applyfor permission to appeal”.
Begum, who was 15 yearsold when she secretly fled herhome in east London in 2015 tojoin the terrorist group in Syria,is living in a camp run byKurdish forces in northern Syria.The UK Court of Appeal saidshe had been denied a fair hear-ing because she could not makeher case from the camp. AP
Washington: Infighting overthe White House’s handling ofthe coronovirus pandemic isspilling further into publicview, with trade adviser PeterNavarro panning Dr AnthonyFauci as President DonaldTrump stands watch.
Fauci, the nation’s topinfectious disease expert, calledthe criticism “nonsense” and “abit bizarre.”
The long-simmering tiffescalated when Navarro wrote an op-ed in USA Todayskewering Fauci, writing thatthe doctor “has been wrongabout everything I have inter-acted with him on. ... So when you ask me whether I lis-ten to Dr. Fauci’s advice, myanswer is: only with skepticismand caution.”
In an interview with The
Atlantic, Fauci responded: “I can’t explain Peter Navarro.He’s in a world by himself. So I don’t even want to gothere.” And Trump, who hascomplained about Fauci pri-vately for months — and pub-licly in recent days — steppedin to referee.
Navarro “made a statestatement representing himself.He shouldn’t be doing that,”
Trump told reporters as hedeparted the White House forAtlanta. The president insistedhe had a “very good relation-ship with Dr. Fauci” and saidhis staffers were workingtogether.
The back-and-forth is thelatest episode of infighting in aWhite House that has beenriven by rivalries since its ear-liest days. AP
Washington: Facing a toughre-election battle, PresidentDonald Trump has replaced hiscampaign manager, on a daywhen opinion polls showedthat his Democratic rival JoeBiden has taken a double digitlead over him.
“I am pleased to announcethat Bill Stepien has been pro-moted to the role of TrumpCampaign Manager,” the pres-ident said in a Facebook poston Wednesday night.
Stepien, Trump’s formersecond-in-command, replacesBrad Parscale as the presi-dent’s campaign manager, some16 weeks before the November3 election.
The shakeup comes as theTrump campaign has sought torevive the momentum amid acoronavirus pandemic thatwreaked havoc on a oncebooming US economy and a
national reckoning over racefollowing African-AmericanGeorge Floyd’s custodial death.
Parscale is reported to havebeen sidelined in recent weeksafter Trump’s comeback elec-tion rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma,flopped.
Parscale had boasted thatmore than one million peopleregistered to attend Trump’srally, but less than 6,200showed up at the arena.
“Brad Parscale, who hasbeen with me for a very longtime and has led our tremen-dous digital and data strategies,will remain in that role, whilebeing a Senior Advisor to thecampaign,” Trump said.
“Both were heavilyinvolved in our historic 2016win, and I look forward to hav-ing a big and very importantsecond win together,” headded. PTI
Washington: The US ismulling over imposing asweeping travel ban on mem-bers of the ruling CommunistParty of China and their fam-ilies, a move that could furtherexacerbate the bilateral ten-sions, according to a mediareport.
The presidential procla-mation, still in its draft form,could also authorise the USgovernment to revoke the visasof CPC members and theirfamilies who are already in thecountry, leading to their expul-sion, the New York Timesreported on Wednesday, citingsources.
However, there was noofficial confirmation of thereport.
The move, if taken, willfurther exacerbate the tensionsbetween the two economicgiants which are at logger-
heads over several issues,including the coronavirus andChina’s implementation of acontroversial security law forHong Kong.
The Trump administra-tion blames China for notwarning the world of the coro-navirus pandemic earlier andhiding the extent of its out-break. Beijing has rejected theallegations.
The US has also lambast-ed China for suppressing thefreedom of Hong Kong, a semi-autonomous Chinese territorythat has a special trading rela-tionship with America, byimplementing the nationalsecurity law which allowsBeijing to tighten its grip overthe former British colony.
According to the NYTreport, the draft legislationwould be based on the samestatute in the Immigration and
Nationality Act used in a 2017travel ban on several predom-inantly Muslim countries,including Iran, Sudan andYemen. The Act gives the pres-ident the power to temporari-ly block travel to the US by for-eign nationals who are deemed“detrimental to the interests ofthe United States”.
The report, however, saidPresident Donald Trump mightalso reject the travel ban pro-posal.
It also pointed out somepractical difficulties to imposethe travel ban.
The CPC has 92 millionmembers. Almost three mil-lion Chinese citizens visitedthe United States in 2018,though the numbers haveplummeted because of thecoronavirus pandemic and thecurrent ban on most trav-ellers from China. PTI
Taichung (Taiwan): Taiwan’smilitary fired missiles fromthe air and the island’s shorefacing China on Thursday in alive-fire exercise to demon-strate its ability to defendagainst any Chinese invasion.
Assault helicopterslaunched missiles and fighterjets dropped bombs on targetsat sea, while tanks and missiletrucks fired from a beach todeter a simulated invading force.
“We want the world to seeour determination and efforts toprotect our country.” PresidentTsai Ing-wen said, observing theexercise in a helmet and greenmilitary uniform.
The drill was part of a five-day annual exercise that endsFriday. China regards Taiwan asa breakaway province that is partof its territory. The self-govern-ing island of 24 million peoplelies 160 kilometers (100 miles)off China’s southeast coast acrossthe Taiwan Strait. AP
Beijing: In the global race tomake a coronavirus vaccine, astate-owned Chinese companyis boasting that its employees,including top executives,received experimental shotseven before the Governmentapproved testing in people.
“Giving a helping hand inforging the sword of victory,”reads an online post fromSinoPharm with pictures ofcompany leaders it says helped“pre-test” its vaccine.
Whether it’s viewed as hero-ic sacrifice or a violation ofinternational ethical norms, theclaim underscores the enor-mous stakes as China competeswith US and British companiesto be the first with a vaccine tohelp end the pandemic — a featthat would be both a scientificand political triumph.
“Getting a COVID-19 vac-cine is the new Holy Grail,” saidLawrence Gostin, a global pub-
lic health law expert atGeorgetown University.
“The political competitionto be the first is no less conse-quential than the race for themoon between the US andRussia.” China has positioneditself to be a strong contender.Eight of the nearly two dozenpotential vaccines in variousstages of human testing world-wide are from China, the mostof any country. And SinoPharmand another Chinese companyalready have announced they’reentering final testing.
Both China and SinoPharmhave invested heavily in a tried-and-true technology — an“inactivated” vaccine made by growing the whole virus ina lab and then killing it, whichis how polio shots are made.Leading Western competitorsuse newer, less proven technol-ogy to target the “spike” proteinthat coats the virus. AP
Terre Haute (US): The UnitedStates on Thursday carried outits second federal execution thisweek following a hiatus ofnearly two decades, killing bylethal injection a Kansas manwhose lawyers contended hehad dementia and was unfit tobe executed. Wesley Ira Purkeywas put to death at the FederalCorrectional Complex in TerreHaute, Indiana. Purkey wasconvicted of kidnapping andkilling a 16-year-old girl,Jennifer Long, before dismem-bering, burning and dumpingher body in a septic pond. Healso was convicted in a statecourt in Kansas after using aclaw hammer to kill an 80-year-old woman who had polio. AP
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Hong Kong: China accusedthe United States of “gangsterlogic” on Wednesday afterUS President Donald Trumpordered an end to HongKong’s special status underU.S. law in response toBeijing’s imposition of newsecurity legislation on the ter-ritory.
Beijing’s Liaison Office inthe Asian financial hub saidthe move would only damageU.S. interests while havinglittle impact on Hong Kong.
“Unreasonable meddlingand shameless threats by the
United States are typical gang-ster logic and bullying behav-iour,” the office said in a state-ment.
“No external force canblock China’s determinationand confidence to maintainnational sovereignty and secu-rity for Hong Kong’s long-term prosperity and stability.”
The security law imposedby Beijing punishes whatChina broadly defines as sub-version, secession, terrorismand collusion with foreignforces with up to life inprison. AGENCY
Beijing: China reiterated onThursday that it does not seekto challenge or replace theUnited States and called onWashington to view Chinaobjectively and return to reasonin its policies towards Beijing.
Chinese foreign ministryspokeswoman Hua Chunyingtold reporters during a briefingthat if the United States thinksthat everything China does isa threat, such attitude wouldbecome self-fulfilling. Hua alsoinvited US Secretary of StateMike Pompeo to come toChina and visit Xinjiang to seefor himself that there are nohuman rights violations againstthe region’s Uighur Muslimminority. AGENCY
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London: The UK Governmenton Thursday accused “Russianactors” of seeking to interfere inthe December 2019 GeneralElection through illicitlyacquired documents and alsocondemned the alleged cyberattacks from Moscow to collectCOVID-19 vaccine data.
UK Foreign SecretaryDominic Raab told the Houseof Commons in a written state-ment that after extensive analy-sis the government was “almostcertain” that Russians sought tointerfere in the UK polls, whichresulted in a landslide win forPrime Minister Boris Johnson,through the online amplifica-tion of illicitly acquired andleaked government documents.
“Sensitive government doc-uments relating to the UK-USFree Trade Agreement wereillicitly acquired before the 2019General Election and dissemi-nated online via the socialmedia platform Reddit. Whenthese gained no traction, further
attempts were made to promotethe illicitly acquired materialonline in the run up to theGeneral Election,” Raab said.
“Whilst there is no evidenceof a broad spectrum Russiancampaign against the GeneralElection, any attempt to inter-fere in our democratic process-es is completely unacceptable. Itis, and will always be, anabsolute priority to protect ourdemocracy and elections. Thereis an ongoing criminal investi-gation and it would be inap-
propriate for us to say anythingfurther at this point,” he said.
The leaked documents ofUK-US trade negotiationsbecame a key part of theOpposition Labour Party’s elec-tion message on the NationalHealth Service (NHS) being atrisk under the rulingConservatives. The claim thatthe NHS was part of any US-UKtrade talks was denied by theTories at the time and an inves-tigation launched into the doc-ument leak. AP
Moscow: The Kremlin onThursday denied claims byBritain that “Russian actors”sought to meddle in last year’sgeneral election and thatRussian intelligence servicesmost likely hacked coronavirusvaccine research.
“We have no informationon who could have hacked
pharmaceutical companies andresearch centres in Britain,”Kremlin spokesman DmitryPeskov told the TASS newsagency. “We can only say this:Russia has nothing to do withthese attempts. We do notaccept such accusations nor thelatest groundless allegations ofinterference in 2019 elections.”
New York: The number ofopenly LGBTQ elected offi-cials in the United States hasmore than doubled in the pastfour years — and those rankscould soon grow, thanks to arecord field of LGBTQ candi-dates this year, according tonew data from an advocacyand research group.
The LGBTQ VictoryInstitute’s Out For Americareport, released Thursday, tal-lies 843 openly LGBTQ elect-ed officials across all levels ofgovernment at present, upfrom 417 in June 2016.
The institute says a record850 LGBTQ people are run-ning for office this year,
including several candidateswith strong chances of enter-ing Congress.
Yet the institute’s president,former Houston MayorAnnise Parker, says thatdespite significant progress,LGBTQ people “continue to beseverely underrepresented inevery state and at every levelof government.”
She said LGBTQ peoplemake up about 4.5 per cent ofthe U.S. Adult population, yethold only 0.17 per cent of themore than 510,000 electedpositions in the U.S., rangingfrom Congress and state leg-islatures to city councils andschool boards. AP
New Delhi: Northern Railwayhas completed the electrifica-tion work of 62 km long Dhuri-Jakhal & 68 km. of Dhuri-Lehra Muhabbat single linesection in Ambala Divisionduring lockdown period.
Intensive inspections ofthe sections were carried out bythe Chief Commissioner ofRailway Safety, Shailesh KumarPathak. He was accompaniedby Nikhil Pandey, Pr. ChiefElectrical Engineer, NorthernRailway, Pradeep Gaur, CMD, RVNL, Gurinder MohanSingh, DRM Ambala Divisionand other officers from head-quarter, division and RVNL.
Pathak conducted detailedsafety inspections of Dhuri-Jakhal and Dhuri-LehraMuhabbat sections usingMotor Trolley. Later currentcollection tests and speed tri-
als by electric locomotive werealso done. The Speed trialbetween Jakhal-Dhuri andLehra Muhabbat-Dhuri sec-tions with upto 120 km perhour was recorded successful-ly. The current collection testswere done using Oliver-Gtechnology. Oliver ‘’G’’ is atype of ‘over-head line’ inspec-tion with video recording andGPS marking system for cur-rent collection. It is highly reli-able technology for ensuringspark free current collection.
Several other structureslike ROBs, RUBs, level cross-ings and FOBs on the line werealso checked during the inspec-tion. The CCRS also inspectedthe Railway stations and theiramenities located on the sec-tions. Rajiv Chaudhry, GeneralManager Northern & NorthCentral Railways shared thatCCRS has expressed satisfac-tion on the electrification workdone and has accordedapproval for the use of the sec-tions by Railways.
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This evening, the GhaziabadMunicipal Corporation’s
Naval Squad has claimed tohave occupied five thousand sixhundred ten square meters ofland by the possession of theland mafia in Sihani SaddikNagar area near RajnagarExtension.
The price of this land hasbeen estimated at around Rs 16crore in the market. On thisland of the government, theland mafia were cutting illegalcolonies, and on this land theywere selling the plot by telling
the poor people their land. The entire action of cap-
turing government land fromland mafia was done under theleadership of AdditionalMunicipal Commissioner RNPandey.
The Additional MunicipalCommissioner said that thisland is registered on the Khasra
number six of Sadiq NagarSihani and is named after theMunicipal Corporation ofGhaziabad in government landaccounts. Some people hadinformed the corporationadministration about thecolony being cut on the gov-ernment land of the corpora-tion.
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Google and Facebook takingminority stakes in Jio
Platforms indicate that bothhave non-overlapping com-mercial arrangements with thecompany, are focused on non-competing partnerships andsee value and opportunities toco-exist, according to a report.
Google andFacebook are competitors inIndia with both controllingaround 80 per cent of the dig-ital ad market in the country,and the two also compete inother markets like cloud andpayments, said BofA Securities.
“Both taking minorityinterest in JPL (Jio Platforms)indicate both have non-over-lapping commercial arrange-ments with Jio, both arefocused on non-competingpartnerships and both see valueand opportunities to co-exist,”it said in a report. It is now lesslikely for Google to buy a stakein a competitor, it said, whilepointing to past reports whichhad suggested that the US techgiant could be eyeing a stake inanother telecom operator.
Google will invest �33,737crore to buy a 7.7 per cent stakein Reliance Industries’ tech-nology venture, Jio Platforms,adding to a series of invest-ments from marquee investorssince April.
The investment by Google
pegs Jio Platforms at an equi-ty value of � 4.36 lakh crore.With this, the total investmentfrom financial and strategicinvestors into Jio Platformsstands at �1,52,056 crore.
Alphabet Inc joinedFacebook, which opened theinvestment cycle in JioPlatforms by picking up 9.99per cent stake for �43,573.62crore, as well as chipmaker IntelCorp and Qualcomm Inc.
Pointing to nuances of thepartnerships - Google’s focuson phones and Facebook’s onsocial media/commerce -- theBofA report of July 15 said“balancing the interests of bothcompanies will likely havesome complications for Jio,both want access to users inIndia for their services, with afriendly gatekeeper.”
In another report, CreditSuisse noted that Jio will intro-duce entry-level 4G smart-phones to upgrade 2G cus-tomers and added that theGoogle partnership will be lever-aged to design an operating sys-tem for these smartphones.“These new smartphonesshould help accelerate the con-version of these 2G users to Jiousers. In our view, while theseusers have lower ARPU, thesame users can be monetisedthrough advertisements, etc.Which increases overall prof-itability of these users,” theCredit Suisse note said.
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The Finance Ministry onThursday said banks have
sanctioned loans of about �1.23 lakh crore under the �3-lakh crore Emergency CreditLine Guarantee Scheme(ECLGS) for MSME sector,reeling under the economicslowdown caused by COVID-19 pandemic. However, dis-bursements against this stoodat �68,311 crore till July 15under the 100 per cent ECLGSfor micro, small and mediumenterprises (MSMEs).
The scheme is the biggestfiscal component of the �20-lakh crore AatmanirbharBharat Abhiyan packageannounced by FinanceMinister Nirmala Sitharamanin May. The latest numbers onECLGS, as released by theFinance Ministry, comprisedisbursements by all 12 public
“As of 15 July 2020, thetotal amount sanctioned underthe 100 per cent EmergencyCredit Line Guarantee Schemeby #PSBs and private banksstands at �1,23,345.16 crore, ofwhich �68,311.55 crore hasalready been disbursed,” theFinance Minister said in atweet.Under the ECLGS, theloan amounts sanctioned byPSBs increased to �69,135.19crore, of which �41,819 crorehas been disbursed as of July15, she said.
At the same time, privatesector banks have sanctioned�54,209.97 crore and disbursed�26,492 crore.
“Compared to 9 July 2020,there is an increase of � 3,245.79crore in the cumulative amountof loans sanctioned & an
increase of �6,323.65 crore inthe cumulative amount of loansdisbursed, by both #PSBs andprivate sector banks combinedas on 15 July 2020,” Sitharamansaid. The country’s largestlender SBI has sanctioned�20,910 crore of loans anddisbursed � 14,362 crore. It isfollowed by Punjab NationalBank, which has sanctioned�9,121 crore. However, its dis-bursements stood at �4,032crore as of July 15.
On May 20, the Cabinetapproved additional funding ofup to �3 lakh crore at a con-cessional rate of 9.25 per centthrough ECLGS for MSMEsector.
Under the scheme, 100 percent guarantee coverage will beprovided by the National CreditGuarantee Trustee Company(NCGTC) for additional fund-ing of up to �3 lakh crore to eli-gible MSMEs and interested
Micro Units Development andRefinance Agency borrowersin the form of a guaranteedemergency credit line facility.
For this purpose, a corpusof �41,600 crore was set up bythe Government, spread overthe current and next threefinancial years.The scheme willbe applicable to all loans sanc-tioned under GECL facilityduring the period from the dateof announcement of the schemeto October 31 or till the amountof �3 lakh crore is sanctioned,whichever is earlier.
All MSME borroweraccounts with an outstandingcredit of up to �25 crore as onFebruary 29, which were lessthan or equal to 60 days pastdue as on that date, i.E., regu-lar, SMA-0 and SMA-1accounts, and with an annualturnover of up to �100 crore areeligible for GECL fundingunder the scheme.
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Equity benchmark Sensexrallied 420 points on
Thursday, led by stellar gains inIT major Infosys, even as glob-al markets faced selling pres-sure amid spiking coronaviruscases.
After a choppy start, the30-share BSE Sensex gainedmomentum towards the end ofthe session. It finally closed419.87 points, or 1.16 per cent,higher at 36,471.68.
Similarly, the NSE Niftysurged 121.75 points, or 1.15per cent, to end at 10,739.95.
Infosys was the top per-former in the Sensex pack, ral-lying 9.56 per cent, a day afterthe IT major posted a stronger-than-expected 12.4 per centrise in first quarter consoli-dated net profit to �4,272crore.
M&M, Nestle India,IndusInd Bank, Kotak Bank,HCL Tech, Bajaj Finance andAxis Bank were the other gain-ers, spurting up to 3.81 percent.
On the other hand, TechMahindra, ITC, NPTC,PowerGrid, Titan and ICICIBank finished with losses of upto 2.54 per cent.
According to traders, rallyin IT stocks led by Infosys keptinvestor sentiment positive,but a massive selloff in Chinesestocks and concerns overrecovery amid rising COVID-
19 cases induced volatility inthe session.
Bourses in Shanghaiplunged 4.50 per cent asinvestors seemed disappointedwith the pace of recovery in theworld’s second-largest econo-my.
China’s gross domesticproduct (GDP) expanded 3.2per cent year-on-year in the
second quarter of 2020, thecountry’s National Bureau ofStatistics said earlier in theday.
Following negative cuesfrom Chinese equities, bench-marks in Hong Kong, Tokyoand Seoul ended on a weaknote.
Stock exchanges in Europewere also trading in the red inearly deals. “In spite of negativeglobal cues, Indian benchmarkindices gained strength as theday went on, powered by the ITindex and Infosys in particular.Infosys reported better thanexpected numbers and wasbacked by good deal wins anddecent outlook.
“Ground realitiesremained little changed, as thevirus infections and geopoliti-cal tensions created uncertain-ty on the global economicrecovery. Investors need toremain stock specific and theearnings results and commen-tary should be watched out for,”said Vinod Nair, Head ofResearch at Geojit FinancialServices.
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Promising all support toindustry, Union Minister
Nitin Gadkari on Thursdayasked players to join handswith the Government to res-cue COVID-19-hit economyby taking up projects on pub-lic private partnership (PPP)mode.
At the same time, he sug-gested all stakeholders, includ-ing banks, financial institu-tions, infrastructure, MSMEs,agriculture and industries, tojointly create demand toaddress the need of liquidity inthe economy. “Presently oureconomy is facing lots of chal-lenges. Government is positiveand supportive and at the sametime as a facilitator, we arekeenly taking lots of decisionsregarding how we can be help-ful in promoting industry, tradeand business... This is the timewe need cooperation from allstakeholders,” Road Transport,Highways and MSME MinisterGadkari said.
He was addressingRenewable EnergyManufacturing Conference,organised by industry body CIIin association with the Ministryof New and Renewable Energy(MNRE) through video con-ferencing.
“The banks, financial insti-tutions, MSMEs, industries,agriculture, infrastructure,everywhere we need to plan
and with an appropriate visionwe need to move fast,” he said,adding there was liquiditycrunch in the economy and theneed of the hour was to createdemand through PPP projects.
He also asked industrybodies like CII to get in touchwith the Ministry ofEnvironment and Forests forearly clearances to projects.The Minister stressed that thereis a need to find out a systemfor self assessment of pollutionlevels by the industry and incase they are found guilty thefine amount could be manifold,including jail term in case ofrepeat offenders.
Gadkari said the PrimeMinister has accorded priori-ty to infrastructure develop-ment, and 22 green highwayswere on the anvil, including Rs1 lakh crore Delhi-MumbaiExpressway on a greenfieldalignment. The expressway willreduce the travel time to 28hours from the present 48 to 50hours.
He also underlined theneed for setting up industrialclusters along the highways todecongest metropolises anddevelop far-flung areas.
“We need to change ourtransport on LNG, which is thefuel for future. We will set upLNG and CNG stations onhighways. As compared todiesel there is 60 per cent sav-ing on these fuel,” the Ministersaid.
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Commerce and IndustryMinister Piyush Goyal on
Thursday assured the industryabout finding a solution forissues related to local taxes,such as electricity duty, as theymake domestic manufacturersuncompetitive.
The Ministry is taking upthe matter at all levels, he saidat a CII webinar on renewableenergy.
Goyal made the com-ments while replying to a ques-tion about Indian industrybecoming uncompetitive attimes while competing withglobal players because of vari-ous non-credible taxes, likeelectricity duty and taxes onfuel, and how the governmentis looking to adjust these under‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’.
“We are conscious of thisproblem particularly becauseother countries may not be
having a coal cess or mandi taxor electricity duty, and there-fore our manufacturers do getuncompetitive because of it.
“We have taken it up with-in the Government and we aretrying to assess what could bethe mechanism...Our Indianmanufacturers compete withlet’s say FTA (free trade agree-ment) imports or other importscoming from other parts of theworld, face this problem. Iassure you that my Ministry istaking it up at all levels and wewill find a solution to this,” theMinister said On increasinglocal content requirement inproduct manufacturing, he saidIndia is “not crazy about it”, butthe country will have to becomeself sufficient by strengtheningdomestic manufacturing.
“Let’s say there is a partic-ular component not available inIndia, it does not mean youimport the whole equipment.So we will take up a practical
and balanced view. We willhave to strengthen domesticmanufacturing in newer andnewer items so that we canprogressively move towardsmore domestic content, but wewill have to do it sensibly with-out compromising quality andmodern technology,” Goyalsaid.
He said all countries arelooking at balancing trade,adding that it should be a two-way process and all countriesshould get fair opportunitiesand reciprocity in terms ofaccess for goods and services.“Whichever country gives rec-iprocal access to their marketsin a fair and balanced andtransparent way, India wants toexpand that engagement. So weare not against imports, whatwe are against is unfair treat-ment of India in certain partsof the world....We want theworld to engage with us on fairterms,” he added.
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Moody’s Investors Serviceon Thursday said the
coronavirus-triggered globalrecession will continue to putpressure on non-financialcompanies in Asia-Pacific, andnegative credit trends will per-sist through the rest of 2020.
It said although fiscal andmonetary stimulus pro-grammes in both advancedand emerging markets havehelped stabilise financial mar-kets and provided temporaryrelief to companies, operatingperformance and financingcapability of companies arevulnerable to financial marketshocks, particularly if a secondwave of infections results inrenewed lockdowns.
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Similar to Alibaba andTencent which created tech-
based ecosystems in China,Reliance Industries Limited(RIL) is best positioned to cre-ate a similar ecosystem inIndia, according to BofASecurities.
It said that RIL is bestpositioned to create tech eco-system in India. “Similar toAlibaba and Tencent whichcreated tech-based ecosystemsin China, we find RIL best posi-tioned to create a similarecosystem in India,” it added.
“In 2-3 years, we expectRIL to have a captive mobilebase of 500 million users, fixedbroadband users of 15 millionand SME base of 5-7 million.The company has also acquiredstakes in 25 start-ups and islooking to lead India’s 4thIndustrial Revolution,” thereport said.
“We also find the compa-ny well placed to create Super-App (have 4-5 successful apps)and lead SME and kirana dig-itization. Also Jio unlike Bhartiand Vodafone Idea, doesn’tuse Chinese vendors,” thereport said.
The Indian Govt in the lastfew months has tweaked some
rules impacting China’s pres-ence in India telecom, mediaand technology (TMT) space.
The key changes areamended the FDI policy forcountries sharing a border withIndia by moving from the ear-lier automatic approval to thegovernment, banned 59Chinese apps to counter poten-tial threat posed on sovereign-ty and security, asked e-complatforms to display the coun-try of origin on products. Also,it has begun consultations onwhether it needs to banChinese vendors for 5G.
“We expect these changesto potentially lead to afreeze/reduction of Chineseinvestments in India’s techecosystem. We don’t see muchimpact as there seems to beadequate liquidity chasing thesestart-ups,” the report said.
“We note that China hasinvested $4 billion in the Indianstart-up ecosystem and 13 outof the total 28 Unicorns havebeen China funded. As of now,we also don’t see much impacton companies which are fund-ed by Chinese investments,” itadded.These are companiesrun by Indian founders andlargely agnostic to where thecapital comes from as long asreputation of investor is good.
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Gold prices declined by � 32to �49,986 per 10 gram in
the national capital onThursday amid a weak globaltrend, according to HDFCSecurities.
The yellow metal had
closed at �50,018 per 10 gramin the previous trade.
Silver also fell by �124 toRs 53,810 per kg from � 53,934per kg on Wednesday. In theinternational market, gold wasquoting lower at USD 1,805 perounce, while silver was tradingflat at USD 19.14 per ounce.
With no sight of when theatres will open in India,producers are resorting to streaming giants to
release their films. It was announced that Bhumi Pednekar and
Konkona Sen Sharma starrer Dolly Kitty Aur WohChamakte Sitaare is heading for a digital release withNetflix. Bhumi is welcoming this decision by her pro-ducers and feels the film will reach and entertain audi-ence worldwide.
“As an artist, I only look to entertain audienceeverytime I come on screen. I’m okay with any plat-form becoming the vehicle of my creative expression.At this day and age, producers will do what is need-ed and we must all support each other’s decisions. Weall need to run our own ego systems and I support thedecision of my producers wholeheartedly. I feel our filmwill reach out to a much larger audience with thismove,” says Bhumi, who has established herself as ahugely credible actor in terms of audience apprecia-tion and box office success within a short span of fiveyears.
The actor feels that the film will be a treat for theaudience. Bhumi says, “Dolly Kitty is a very special film.Konkona, as we know is a really, really phenomenalperson and actor and Alankrita (Srivastava) is a veryspecial director. Ekta (Kapoor) has always supportedcontent that has broken barriers. A very big reason whyI am fond of her. There couldn’t have been a better col-laborator for the film. So, for me, being a part of thisfilm was a super enriching experience.”
The versatile actor is a huge fan of Konkona’s bril-liance and Alankrita’s sensitivity. She says, “I haveadored Konkona’s work and it was simply mesmeris-ing to see her perform. Our scenes together in film arevery exciting and memorable. Alankrita is a very pow-erful voice in cinema today — she is strong, witty andhumane. I’m fortunate that I got the opportunity to cre-atively collaborate with her. I have learnt a lot from her.”
The film has already got rave reviews from crit-ics and audiences at various film festivals worldwide.Bhumi herself has won Best Actress Award at Busanfor the film. “Our film has been winning laurels at inter-national film festivals. We’ve garnered such love andrespect for it. I won awards at international platformsfor Dolly Kitty and I’m sure it will be liked by audi-ence here as well. I’m looking forward to see how peo-ple react. It was refreshing to play a girl, fresh out ofcollege, waiting to experience life. Our coming of ageis done in a fun yet relatable manner. Kitty is naive,sweet, ambitious and a survivor. The film is full of quirkand a pool of emotions. It has a different narrative andam excited,” she says.
Bhumi adds, “It celebrates womanhood, sisterhoodand all the drama that comes in between with love andwork. It very skillfully shows just how complex yetbeautiful women are.”
Hyundai launched theirupdated Tuscon Sports
Utility Vehicle this week. Wewould have done a test drive ofthat but because the carmakergets their cars registered inChennai and that southern cityhas gone back into a completelockdown, it might be a week orso before we get to experience thenew eight-speed automatic gear-box on the Tucson. That eight-speed gearbox is mated toHyundai India’s new introduc-tion, the ‘Nu’ 2.0 litre dieselengine with 185 horsepower, andthis made me wonder if it makessense to buy a diesel car anymore?
The reason I’m wondering isquite simple as diesel now costsmore than petrol in Delhi. Inmost of the states, the price dif-ferential between petrol anddiesel had come down under �5per litre when prices shot up lastmonth. This gap has increasedonce again, opening up to �8 perlitre in Mumbai. Now, given thatdiesel vehicles are more efficientthan petrol ones, but cost, onaverage across segments, at least�1,00,000 more ex-showroomprice at a similar specificationlevel. You could argue that dieselmakes more sense.
However, the problem is aswe have learnt, prices of fuels arenot steady, which means the cal-culations that you make today tojustify a diesel purchase over apetrol car is complicated. If youbought a diesel car in Delhi lastyear because you assumed dieselprices would stay far below thoseof petrol, well, your maths havegone awry. All thanks to theArvind Kejriwal government’sdecision to hike excise duties ondiesel. It would be dangerous tomake the assumption thatother states will not fol-low suit on diesel.One reason isthat in
many major cities, local publictransport is almost entirely pow-ered on CNG as is local goodstransport. The argument thatdiesel is the fuel of transport is abit harder to make now as eventhe Railways have electrifiedmost of their major freight lines.
For the purpose of my argu-ment, let us look at currentprices. I am currently driving aHyundai Elantra as my longterm vehicle, and since December2019, I have driven over 6,000kilometers, maybe a bit less thanI would have in normal times. Butyou don’t need me to tell youabout the times we live in. Thiscar, with Hyundai’s two-litre ‘Nu’petrol engine has given me anaverage of 11.5 kilometers a litre.Hyundai has fitted the 1.5 litre U2CRDi engine, the same as on theCreta and Verna and on this caras well. In city conditions, thatengine delivers around 16 to 17kilometers a litre (let us take16.5 kilometers as anaverage). Oncet h i n g s
return to normal and if youwork and live in Delhi withoutcrossing the borders, averagingaround a 1,000 kilometers amonth is normal.
At current fuel prices, thiswould mean I spend around�7,000 a month on petrol and�5,000 on diesel. Over the 60-month lifespan of the car, this�2,000 per month saving wouldwork out to �1.2 lakh which justcovers the �1.1 lakh ex-show-room price difference betweenthe engines. But on-road, itdoesn’t cover the difference.Now, one could argue that thediesel vehicle would have slight-ly higher residual value. Butkeep in mind that the SupremeCourt has mandated that dieselvehicles can only be run in theentire NCRfor tenyears,
which kills residual values fordiesels, whereas petrol cars havea 15-year lifespan.
Now, the math changes dra-matically i f you l ive inGurugram and work in Noidaor vice versa. You might easilycover 500 kilometers a week for2,000 kilometers. Diesel is still�5 per litre cheaper in Haryanaand at that milage, always fill-ing in Gurugram you wouldspend �9,000 a month on dieseland �13,700 a month on petrol.A huge �4,700 difference, amassive �2.8 lakh differentialover 60 months, which mighteven cover the lower residualvalue you would get for a dieselvehicle in the NCR when yousell it as Gurugram registered
diesel cars also have a
ten-year life span.But there is a catch there as
well. The math has been doneon the basis of today’s fuelprices. We have learnt the hardway that these prices are not sta-tic. They can shoot up whenev-er state or central governmentsneed additional revenues. It isquite likely that a global eco-nomic recovery following thevirus might see fuel pricesincrease again. And if air pol-lution increases in cities outsidethe NCR, the Supreme Courtmight extend their 10-year ruleregarding diesels, even farcleaner BS6 diesels to othercities.
During the Tucson launch,Hyundai India’s Tarun Gargrevealed that on the second-generation Creta, over 56 per centof orders and deliveries were fordiesels. This might seem impres-sive, but my takeaway there was
that 44 per cent of sales werefor petrol. In the first few
months of the first-generation Creta,
six years ago,almost 85 per
cent of saleswere ford i e s e l s .H o w e v e r,
now a bulk of the dieselvehicle demand is downin the southern statesand Maharashtra. Infact, in Maharashtra,petrol and not diesel istaxed excessively, so
even with the traffic jams andlower distances in a city likeMumbai, diesel makes sense.
There is also an irony aboutdiesel. From a purely carbonpoint of view, diesel-poweredvehicles are cleaner than petrol,more bang for the buck. Butdiesel, even BS6 diesels, do emitmore Sulphur, NOx and partic-ulates than petrol. This will bemitigated by the forthcomingBS6b norms in a couple of years,but those involve a SCR —Selective Catalytic Reductionsystem — much more expensivethat the particulate filter systemsused by some manufacturerstoday. An SCR based 1.5 litrediesel might cost �2.5 lakh morethan an equivalent petrol. Inaddition, as 48 volt battery sys-tems become the norm, I wouldexpect more and more hybrids tomake it to India. While thesehybrids might have only a 10-kilometre pure electric range,they would make petrol enginesfar more efficient. The Swifthybrid sold in Japan has aclaimed urban fuel economy ofupwards of 30 kilometres a litre,and the additional power fromthe battery would make it morefun to drive as well.
So it is not a simple answer.If you drive a lot, diesel still makessense, albeit barely, if you live inthe NCR. In Maharashtra, dieselis the king for the same reason itloses out in Delhi. Down inBengaluru, Chennai andHyderabad, the cleaner air (fornow) has led to fewer stricturesagainst diesel, although the high-er prices of BS6b diesels might killthat as well. And that is all on thebasis of today’s prices, whoknows about tomorrow.
Everybody wishes tospruce up their homesin a way that is youth-
ful and vibrant and breaks thestaid monotony. Particularly,when you are confined most-
ly indoors in pandemic times,a little bit of colour therapycan do wonders to your roomand help you reinvent yourspace. While this will helpyou bring about the much-
required dynamism, it wouldalso help you recycle, redoand rearrange availableresources at a time when weneed to inculcate sustainablepractices.
Can a case be made for diesel?D������ �� � ������ ���+ ������� �� ������ �%��� ����� � �� � �� �� ����������� � ����������9�.�� �����6 ���%�� � ��������� �9�6� ������+ �� �� ������������ � ����������� K
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YIN AND YANGToday, the kitchen area has become an
intimate space and a personal expression ofwhat makes you feel comfortable. When fur-nished with modern elements, you would feellike you are “with it” and love rustling up yourfavourite menu. For this urbane look, explorethe trending concept of closed cabinetryadorned in premium wooden laminates thatare resistant to surface wear and tear, consid-ering a kitchen’s heavy usage. Go for new lam-inates that are resistant to cracks, stain, heat,
scratch and easy to wipe down. Moreover, youcan build in a bit of excitement by alternat-ing the panel colours and tonalities.
There is no denying that a clean kitchenarranged neatly gives a refined look. Toachieve this, simply bring out your ceramiccrockery which can be placed on your coun-tertops for that classic touch. You can furtheraccentuate your interiors with metallic fixturesor metallic rimmed wall art in rose gold fin-ish. With this simple décor theme, get readyto experience a magnificent trance.
GIVE ME REDA powerful and an
empowering tone in itself,red radiates strong emotionsof passion, enthusiasm andwarmth. This versatilecolour is capable of instant-ly catching your eye andmakes up for any need tomake a statement. If you arelooking to incorporate thisshade neutrally, combine itwith earthy tones for a nat-ural look and feel. Forinstance, a red flame lami-nate can be combined withlight brown wooden tex-tures for a timeless contrast.
Since this laminate comeswith dimensional stability,you can use it in any climat-ic condition without worry-ing about replacing it sea-sonally.
Remember to keep youraccents minimal adorned ina glamorous mattifying orglassware coating. Here, trycombining refreshing vibeswith the scent of your oldbooks or other antiqueobjects close to your heart.The outcome will be a morepersonalised area puttogether in a cheerful set-up.
BE MELLOW-DRAMATICA pinch of drama in your
home can be a great self-start-ing inspiration. This is wheredark hues unite with subtlepops of light tints which beau-tifully weave a regal essence inyour space. In order to ace thislook, start with coupling thesoothing aura of muted blue onyour walls with the cocooningfeel of wooden floors in shadessimilar to spiced honey colourpalette.
To further add a breathtak-ing flair to your décor, go forlampshades or table clock inpure white to unleash sheeropulence when placed againstyour ornate blue backdrop.Complete this look by mixingyour open and closed cabinetsin wooden laminates that areruling the preference chart withtheir extensive life span. Lastly,layer it up with a self-made rugin your favourite pastel shadefrom old cloth materials for amellow and comfortable habitat.
(The author, Parul Mittal, isthe director of GreenlamIndustries Ltd.)
Every good party starts with a speechfrom the host. So, here it goes. A bighello to all the moms and dads at
this unique lunch-box party. I am UmaRaghuraman, lovingly known asMasterchefmom. How did I get thatnickname, you ask? Let’s take a trip downthe memory lane!
When this traditional TamBramteacher from Chennai married a corpo-rate executive, she had to move often tosupport his career. Thanks to thoserelocations, I got to learn a lot about dif-ferent cultures, people, habits, languagesand most importantly, food. The num-ber of restaurants we ate at in our firstyear together easily outnumbered thetimes I had eaten out in my entire lifebefore meeting him.
Just like my husband, our kids,Vishnu and Gayatri, believe we must ‘liveto eat’ rather than ‘eat to live.’ Thisencouraged me to be even more open andcurious to explore new cuisines andrecipes at home. But like many of you, asa working parent who’s also raising chil-dren, I wanted to address two challenges— ensure that my kids were eatinghealthy and limit the number of times weate out. This led to a personal mission ofconstantly coming up with creative dish-es that are both healthy and visuallyattractive to appeal to my fussy littleeaters. I’m glad to report that my exper-iments in the kitchen were a big hit!
I quit my job in 2014 and that’s whenI first let the world into my kitchenthrough social media. My close friendsand family members became my cheer-leaders. In fact, requests for me to sharedetailed recipes as well as the process andstories behind them started pouring in.As a result, my blog was born and I waschristened Masterchefmom by my chil-dren — a compliment I didn’t think twiceto adopt!
Adding to my glorious journey is MyGenius Lunch Box, which you now knowisn’t just a book in your hands. You are(will be) holding the sum total of my pas-sion. Every recipe you find in this bookhas been created with love and meticu-lously tested in my own kitchen. I hopethese ideas for wholesome, creative andinteresting lunches not only excite thechild eating them but also inspire the par-ent making them.
What are some of the top issues facedby every parent who has a school-goingkid?��Preparing the lunch box early in themorning and quickly too. ��Packing it with something new everyday so that your kids look forward tolunchtime.�� Making a delicious and nutritiousmeal that won’t tempt them to eat junkfoods or bring back a half-eaten lunchbox. ��Presenting everyday food attractive-ly, and in a way that’s easy to consumeon the playground or the bus.
If these issues and thoughts like‘What do I send in the lunch box tomor-row?’ pop into your head at bedtime, Iwant you to fully explore this book andrest easy because lunch will almost makeitself the next day.
When people ask me what I do, Ioften tell them I cook three healthy andtasty meals for my family and as easy as
some make it sound, let me tell you thatit is a full-time job I enjoy immensely. Ipersonally believe that the way to myfamily’s hearts is through their stomachs.
This book is the sigma of all my learn-ing and experience, coupled with numer-ous recipes that have been liked by thou-sands of parents across the globe. Goahead, make as many recipes as possible
and share the joy with your friends andfamily.
I want every parent who is packingtheir child’s tiffin box to do it with prideand remember that you are packing notjust a nutritious and tasty lunch but alsoyour love. Wishing you and your childrena genius lunch-box experience!
Happy cooking!Also.When you start using the recipes
from this book, you’ll soon realise that Ihave created each of them in a way thatthey can be customised to your family’sneeds. I have also made sure to incorpo-rate as many healthy ingredients as pos-sible. Here are some handy tips and tricksfor you to keep in mind as you dive intothis book to prepare lunch boxes or evenjust prep for your family’s meals: �� Stock up on fresh and seasonal veg-etables and fruits on weekends — thisensures that you will always have some-thing new to add to any dish. ��A little bit of prep, like grating or chop-ping fruits and vegetables and soakingdals and legumes, if done the previous
night, can reduce a significant amount ofcooking time and make the entire processsimpler.��You can also bake cookies, crackers ordry snacks a day or two earlier so that you’renever short of treats for the short break.�� Whenever you have some time tospare, you can toast your monthly stockof dry fruits and store them in separatejars. These come in extremely handy asa snack or a condiment.
A recipe:We all have recollections of our
mothers, grandmothers and aunts gettingtogether to make savouries like sev,shakarpara, chakli and laddoos. One of myfondest memories is of a winter afternoonwhen a friend came home for tea andmade pinwheels — her family’s go-tosnack. I instantly fell in love with thismedley of sweet and savoury. So here ismy version of Sushmaji’s pinwheels,which is sure to become your lunch-boxfavourite.
(Extracted from the book, My GeniusLunchbox, published by Penguin Books.)
Arsenal ended Liverpool’sbid to set a new PremierLeague points record
with a 2-1 win over the cham-pions, while Manchester Citypushed Bournemouth closer torelegation with a 2-1 victory onWednesday.
Jurgen Klopp’s side neededto win their final three gamesof the season to breakManchester City’s record of100 points set in 2018. They
were on course when SadioMane opened the scoring witha clinical finish from AndrewRobertson’s cross at theEmirates Stadium. But twocareless mistakes condemnedLiverpool to a third leaguedefeat this season.
Virgil van Dijk’s waywardbackpass went straight toAlexandre Lacazette, whorounded Reds keeper AlissonBecker to slot home in the 32ndminute.
Alisson was guilty of an
equally costly blunder when hispass out was intercepted byLacazette and he picked out 20-year-old Reiss Nelson for a coolclose-range finish. Liverpoolhave failed to win three of theirfive matches since clinching thetitle.
They have 93 points andwith just two games left andcan only reach 99 at the end oftheir first title-winning cam-paign for 30 years.
“Twice there was a massivelack of concentration. We took
a break after 1-0. Those twomoments killed the game forus,” Klopp said. “You can’t wingames when you concedechances like that. We have tolearn from it, 100 per cent.”
Arsenal climb to ninthplace as they chase qualificationfor the Europa League. MikelArteta’s side go into Saturday’sFA Cup semi-final againstManchester City in good spir-its after bouncing back fromSunday’s defeat at northLondon rivals Tottenham.
“In terms of energy andhappiness in the dressing roombefore the semi-final, it’s agood medicine,” Arteta said.“To beat this team you have tohave moments in the gamewhen you take your chances,defend and have a bit of luck.”
In Manchester, Guardiolaleft Aymeric Laporte, Kevin DeBruyne, Raheem Sterling andRiyad Mahrez on the benchagainst Bournemouth to keepthem fresh for Wembley, butCity still had too much quali-ty in the form of David Silvaand Gabriel Jesus.
Silva showed why he willbe so missed when he leaves atthe end of the season, the mid-fielder curling a free-kick in offthe underside of the crossbarafter six minutes. Jesus wasruthless in the 39th minute ashe wriggled between two weakBournemouth challengesbefore firing into the far cornerto score for the third consecu-tive game.
STUNNING STRIKECity finally conceded for
the first time in five homegames since the restart whenDavid Brooks turned homeCallum Wilson’s cross two min-utes from time. “It was a real-ly difficult game. We startedwell in the first 10 or 15 min-utes of the second half but thenwe had a problem in our build-up,” Guardiola said.
Defeat leavesBournemouth still three pointsadrift of safety from Watfordand West Ham, who face eachother on Friday.
Wolves remain three pointsadrift of the Champions League
places with just two games toplay after Chris Wood’s 96th-minute spot-kick gave Burnleya 1-1 draw at Turf Moor.
Tottenham won 3-1 atNewcastle to keep their chances
of European football next sea-son on track by moving up toseventh.
Son Heung-min’s shotcrept in at Martin Dubravka’snear post to open the scoring
for Tottenham. Matt Ritchiegot Newcastle’s equaliser, butHarry Kane restoredTottenham’s lead and theEngland captain added hissecond in the final minute.
