T he Defence Ministry has pulled out a document from its website giving details about the Chinese "transgres- sions" in Eastern Ladakh begin- ning early May. It was the first time that the Government offi- cially admitted that the Chinese Army had intruded into India leading to the ongoing stand- offs at the Line of Actual Control (LAC). The document was uploaded as part of the month- ly report on news section of the Defence Ministry website and was there since Tuesday. However, it was missing on Thursday. There was no official word from the Ministry on this deletion. Acknowledging for the first time that the Chinese had intruded into India, the report said the present situation aris- ing from "unilateral aggression" by China continues to be sen- sitive requiring close monitor- ing and prompt action based on evolving situation and the present standoff "is likely to be prolonged." "Chinese aggression has been increasing along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and more particularly in Galwan valley since May 5. The Chinese side transgressed in the areas of Kurang Nala, Gogra, and north bank of Pangong Tso on May 17-18," the Ministry said in its What's New section on the website. Prime Minister Narendra Modi in an all-party meeting in June regarding the volatile bor- der situation in Ladakh had said, "Neither has anyone intruded into our territory nor taken over any post. Our forces are doing what they have to do to protect the country, whether it is deployment, action or counter-action. Our patrolling capacity has increased due to newly built infrastructure, especially along LAC." Meanwhile, the deleted document said ground-level interactions were held between the Armed forces of both sides to defuse the situation. A Corps commanders' flag meeting was held on June 6. "However, a violent face-off incident took place between the two sides on June 15, resulting in casualties on both sides." Subsequently, said the doc- ument, a second Corps com- mander level meeting took place on June 22 to discuss the modalities of de-escalation. "While engagement and dia- logue at military and diplomatic level is continuing to arrive at mutually acceptable consen- sus, the present standoff is like- ly to be prolonged," the Ministry said. "The situation in Eastern Ladakh arising from unilater- al aggression by China contin- ues to be sensitive and requir- ing close monitoring and prompt action based on the evolving situation," the docu- ment noted. Incidentally, in an inter- view to some television chan- nel in early June, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh had acknowledged that China has moved troops in "significant numbers". Moreover, during his visit to Leh in July, Rajnath had said he cannot guarantee to what extent the issue with China would be resolved even as the talks are on at military and diplomatic levels. In an effort to break the logjam, the two countries have held five rounds of Corps Commander level talks since June but there is no noticeable improvement in the situation. China continues to dilly-dally in withdrawing troops from the contentious Pangong Tso (lake) leading to tension. This despite the fact that the two Corps Commanders on July 14 par- leys agreed for mutual and complete disengagement of troops from the friction points. A t a time when the Government claimed the coronavirus spread has been contained, the number of cases on Thursday crossed over 20 lakh mark in the country. With 20.21 lakh cases, India is behind Brazil which is second spot with more than 28.62 lakh cases and the United States which continues to be the worst affected nation with close to 50 lakh cases. India has added 10 lakh cases in just 20 days. Globally, over 18.82 million people have been reported to be infected by the novel coronavirus globally and 70,6779 have died so far. Brazil on July 17 Brazil crossed 20 lakh coronavirus cases with 76,000 deaths. India, the third-most- affected country by total cases and fifth by death toll, has added 30,3946 cases in the past six days alone. This is the ninth consecutive day that coronavirus cases have increased by more than 50,000. On July 28, India had recorded 15 lakh cases. The new five million came in nine days, with an average of 50,000 fresh cases logged each day. The country has reported over 57,000 cases and over 800 deaths in the last 24 hours. Meanwhile, the World Health Organization urged the mem- ber nations of its Southeast Asia region to maintain essential health services and accelerate resumption of healthcare facil- ities hit by the pandemic as an integral part of the Covid-19 response. As per the Government data, five most affected States by total tally of cases are Maharashtra (4,79779), Tamil Nadu (279,144), Andhra Pradesh (1,96,789), Karnataka (158254) and Delhi (141,531). Maharashtra reported highest single-day spike of 11,514 cases, followed by Andhra Pradesh 10, 328 fresh cases, Karnataka 6805 and Tamil Nadu 5,684 cases. As the virus claimed another 316 lives in Maharashtra, the State's death toll climbed to 16,792. Mumbai reported 910 fresh cases of Covid-19 and 57 deaths in the last 24 hours. After Maharashtra, racing closer to the two lakh mark, the coronavirus tally in Andhra Pradesh reached 1.96 lakh on Thursday as another 10,328 cases were added for the second consecutive day. Worsening further, East Godavari report- ed another 1,351 cases in the last 24 hours. Continued on Page 2 T he Rajasthan High Court on Thursday dis- posed off a petition filed in the case regarding the merger of six BSP MLAs in the Ashok Gehlot led Congress Government in Rajasthan giving some respite to Gehlot amid the ongoing political crisis in the State. A division Bench of Rajasthan High Court gave relief to Gehlot and the Congress which is battling rebellion within since over a month now. The BSP and BJP legislators had appealed seeking a temporary freeze on the merger of its six former legislators with Congress Government. The decision, expected on August 11, will have crucial implications for the Ashok Gehlot Government, which is struggling to hold on to its majority in face of the rebellion by Sachin Pilot and his 18 loyalist MLAs. Gehlot claims he has the support of 102 MLAs, one above the majority mark for the Assembly session scheduled on August 14. The BJP has 72 MLAs and with the rebel camp and three independents MLAs, the numbers of the other side will touch 97. Continued on Page 2 T elevision actor Samir Sharma, best known for his roles in “Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi” and “Left Right Left”, was found dead in his home in suburban Malad where he lived alone, police said on Thursday. The 44-year-old was found hanging from the fan of the kitchen on Wednesday night, police officials said. He may have been dead for two days before he was found hanging, they said. "We have not found any suicide note at the spot. It seems to be suicide case. It is suspected that he hanged him- self two days back. We have sent the body for an autopsy," Malad police sta- tion's senior inspector George Fernandes said. Sharma, who also worked in serials such as “Kahaani Ghar Ghar Ki”, “Yeh Rishtey Hain Pyar Ke” and “Wo Rehne Wali Mehlon Ki”, lived in a rented flat in Chincholi Bunder locality in Malad (West). His body was discovered by the building's watchman, who peeped through the kitchen- window and saw him hanging. Continued on Page 2 A fter the surprise exit of Girish Chandra Murmu as Lieutenant Governor of Jammu & Kashmir, President Ram Nath Kovind on Thursday appointed former Union Minister Manoj Sinha in his place to handle the adminis- tration of the trouble-torn union territory. A day after his resignation from the L-G post, Murmu was appointed as CAG by President on Thursday evening till November 21, 2024 as CAG, till age 65. The 1985 batch Gujarat Cadre IAS, hailing from Mayurbhanj in Odisha was Principal Secretary to Narendra Modi when he was Chief Minister of Gujarat. Before becoming the L-G, Murmu was Expenditure Secretray. He will take over CAG's post on August 9 after the retirement of current incumbent Rajiv Mehrishi The appointment of a grass root politician, who enjoys Prime Minister Modi's confidence, is expected to fill the 'political vacuum' in Jammu and Kashmir at this crucial juncture. Due to sustained anti-terrorist operations and elimination of top commanders of different terror outfits, the Centre is aiming to kick start the stalled political process, especially in the Kashmir val- ley in the coming months. A large number of main- stream Kashmiri politicians, already released from deten- tion, are growing "restless" in the absence of political activi- ty. They have even accused the Central Government of run- ning its political agenda with- out allowing them the space to operate and even preventing their movement out of their houses. "Presence of full time politician in the Raj Bhawan is expected to fill the vacuum and bridge the widening gap between the Government machinery and the common masses", said a political com- mentator. Continued on Page 2 T he CBI on Thursday regis- tered a case in connection with the death of film star Sushant Singh Rajput and entrusted the probe to a Special Investigation Team (SIT). Rajput's girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty among others is an accused in the case. Deputy Inspector General and IPS officer of Gujarat cadre Gagandeep Gambhir will supervise the probe into the sensational case that had led to a turf war between the Bihar Police and Mumbai Police over jurisdiction. Gambhir will report to Joint Director Manoj Sasidhar, officials said. The move comes after the Bihar Government recom- mended a probe into the mat- ter by the Central agency. "CBI has today registered a case relat- ed to the death of Rajput on the request of Bihar Government and further notification from the Centre and taken over the investigation of the case, earli- er registered at police station Rajiv Nagar, Patna vide FIR no.241/2020 dated 25-7-2020," the CBI said in a statement. The CBI further said the case was registered against six accused and others and investigation is underway. "We are also in touch with Bihar Police," a CBI spokesperson said. Taking cognisance of the Bihar Police FIR in this con- nection, the Enforcement Directorate has already launched a probe to investigate the money laundering angle in the case. Besides Bollywood actress Rhea Chakraborty, her relatives Indrajit Chakraborty, Sandhya Chakraborty and Showik Chakraborty also her associate Samuel Miranda and Shruti Modi and others have been named as accused in the case. The case has been regis- tered under Indian Penal Code sections relating to criminal conspiracy, abetment of suicide, wrongful restraint, wrongful confinement, theft, criminal breach of trust, cheating and criminal intimidation. Continued on Page 2 E ight coronavirus patients died in a fire inside the ICU ward of a private hospital in Ahmedabad city in the early hours of Thursday, officials said. A para-medical staff mem- ber of the hospital was injured in the tragedy. A cumulative compensation of Rs 6 lakh each for the families of the deceased was announced by the Centre and Gujarat Government. Continued on Page 2 A IIMS Director Dr Randeep Guleria told PTI on Thursday no clear mortality benefit of convalescent plasma therapy was seen during a trial conducted among 30 Covid-19 patients. The much-touted conva- lescent plasma therapy was hardly effective in reducing mortality risk among Covid-19 patients, according to an inter- im analysis of a randomised controlled trial done at AIIMS here to assess the efficacy of this mode of treatment. Continued on Page 2 I ndia on Thursday strongly rejected Pakistan's crit- icism of the launch of construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya and asked the neighbouring country to refrain from "communal incitement". External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava also asked Pakistan to desist from inter- fering in India's internal affairs. "We have seen the Press statement by the Islamic Republic of Pakistan on a matter internal to India. It should desist from interfering in India's affairs and refrain from com- munal incitement," Srivastava said. "While this is not a surprising stance from a nation that practices cross border terrorism and denies its own minori- ties their religious rights, such comments are nev- ertheless deeply regrettable," he added. He was responding to a question on Pakistan's criticism of the laying of foundation stone of the Ram temple in Ayodhya on the site of the Babri Masjid. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday laid the foundation of the Ram temple in Ayodhya at a grand ceremony. Last November, the Supreme Court paved the way for the construction of the Ram temple at the site where the 16th century Babri mosque was demolished in December 1992. Continued on Page 2 D elhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal visited the AIIMS on Thursday to enquire about the health conditions of a 12- year-old girl, who was alleged- ly sexually assaulted, and said his Government will provide a financial compensation of 10 lakh to her family. The girl is stable after surgery, says AIIMS doctor. Earlier, in a tweet, the Chief Minister said the incident has shaken him to the core, adding that such criminals roaming free cannot be toler- ated. Talking to reporters after his visit to the AIIMS, Kejriwal said the condition of the girl is serious, adding that he spoke to Police Commissioner S N Srivastava, who told him that the police are trying to nab the accused. He said the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Government will ensure strict punishment for the accused by engaging the best lawyers in the case. Detailed report on P3 S ending out a chilling reminder to the security forces "unidentified" terrorists on Thursday carried out yet another bloodiest attack on grass root Panchayat workers in which one BJP sarpanch was killed in Vessu village of Qazikund block in South Kashmir's Kulgam district. Police identified the slain BJP sarpanch as Sajad Ahmad Khanday who camping in a secured migrant camp. Detailed report on P5 B ihar police chief Gupteshwar Pandey on Thursday warned of legal action if an IPS officer, who had gone to Mumbai to probe actor Sushant Singh Rajput death case, was not released from "forcible quar- antine" by the end of the day. Pandey expressed bewil- derment over no positive response from the municipal authorities in Mumbai, whom he accused of keeping IPS officer Vinay Tiwari in virtu- al house arrest, despite being informed about the adverse remarks made by Supreme Court against their action. A fter the Defence Ministry's admitted that the Chinese troops have transgressed into the Indian territory in Eastern Ladakh, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday asked why the Prime Minister was lying over the issue. "Why is the PM lying?" Gandhi tweeted, renewing his attack on Modi on the issue of the standoff with China. Rahul has frequently attacked Modi on this issue, inviting sharp reactions from government minister and BJP leaders.
Transcript
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The Defence Ministry haspulled out a document
from its website giving detailsabout the Chinese "transgres-sions" in Eastern Ladakh begin-ning early May. It was the firsttime that the Government offi-cially admitted that the ChineseArmy had intruded into Indialeading to the ongoing stand-offs at the Line of ActualControl (LAC).
The document wasuploaded as part of the month-ly report on news section of theDefence Ministry website andwas there since Tuesday.However, it was missing onThursday. There was no officialword from the Ministry on thisdeletion.
Acknowledging for the firsttime that the Chinese hadintruded into India, the reportsaid the present situation aris-ing from "unilateral aggression"by China continues to be sen-sitive requiring close monitor-ing and prompt action basedon evolving situation and thepresent standoff "is likely to beprolonged."
"Chinese aggression hasbeen increasing along the Lineof Actual Control (LAC) andmore particularly in Galwanvalley since May 5. TheChinese side transgressed inthe areas of Kurang Nala,Gogra, and north bank ofPangong Tso on May 17-18,"the Ministry said in its What'sNew section on the website.
Prime Minister NarendraModi in an all-party meeting inJune regarding the volatile bor-der situation in Ladakh had
said, "Neither has anyoneintruded into our territory nortaken over any post. Our forcesare doing what they have to doto protect the country, whetherit is deployment, action orcounter-action. Our patrollingcapacity has increased due tonewly built infrastructure,especially along LAC."
Meanwhile, the deleteddocument said ground-levelinteractions were held betweenthe Armed forces of both sidesto defuse the situation. A Corpscommanders' flag meeting washeld on June 6. "However, aviolent face-off incident tookplace between the two sides onJune 15, resulting in casualtieson both sides."
Subsequently, said the doc-ument, a second Corps com-mander level meeting tookplace on June 22 to discuss themodalities of de-escalation."While engagement and dia-logue at military and diplomaticlevel is continuing to arrive atmutually acceptable consen-sus, the present standoff is like-ly to be prolonged," the
Ministry said."The situation in Eastern
Ladakh arising from unilater-al aggression by China contin-ues to be sensitive and requir-ing close monitoring andprompt action based on theevolving situation," the docu-ment noted.
Incidentally, in an inter-view to some television chan-nel in early June, DefenceMinister Rajnath Singh hadacknowledged that China hasmoved troops in "significantnumbers". Moreover, duringhis visit to Leh in July, Rajnathhad said he cannot guarantee towhat extent the issue withChina would be resolved evenas the talks are on at militaryand diplomatic levels.
In an effort to break thelogjam, the two countries haveheld five rounds of CorpsCommander level talks sinceJune but there is no noticeableimprovement in the situation.China continues to dilly-dallyin withdrawing troops from thecontentious Pangong Tso (lake)leading to tension. This despite
the fact that the two CorpsCommanders on July 14 par-leys agreed for mutual andcomplete disengagement oftroops from the friction points.
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At a time when theGovernment claimed the
coronavirus spread has beencontained, the number of caseson Thursday crossed over 20lakh mark in the country. With20.21 lakh cases, India isbehind Brazil which is secondspot with more than 28.62lakh cases and the UnitedStates which continues to bethe worst affected nation withclose to 50 lakh cases.
India has added 10 lakhcases in just 20 days. Globally,over 18.82 million people havebeen reported to be infected bythe novel coronavirus globallyand 70,6779 have died so far.Brazil on July 17 Brazil crossed20 lakh coronavirus cases with76,000 deaths.
India, the third-most-affected country by total casesand fifth by death toll, hasadded 30,3946 cases in thepast six days alone. This is theninth consecutive day thatcoronavirus cases haveincreased by more than 50,000.
On July 28, India hadrecorded 15 lakh cases. Thenew five million came in ninedays, with an average of 50,000fresh cases logged each day.The country has reported over57,000 cases and over 800deaths in the last 24 hours.Meanwhile, the World HealthOrganization urged the mem-ber nations of its Southeast Asiaregion to maintain essentialhealth services and accelerateresumption of healthcare facil-ities hit by the pandemic as anintegral part of the Covid-19response.
As per the Governmentdata, five most affected Statesby total tally of cases areMaharashtra (4,79779), TamilNadu (279,144), AndhraPradesh (1,96,789), Karnataka(158254) and Delhi (141,531).
Maharashtra reportedhighest single-day spike of11,514 cases, followed byAndhra Pradesh 10, 328 freshcases, Karnataka 6805 andTamil Nadu 5,684 cases. As thevirus claimed another 316 livesin Maharashtra, the State'sdeath toll climbed to 16,792.Mumbai reported 910 freshcases of Covid-19 and 57deaths in the last 24 hours.
After Maharashtra, racingcloser to the two lakh mark, thecoronavirus tally in AndhraPradesh reached 1.96 lakh onThursday as another 10,328cases were added for the secondconsecutive day. Worseningfurther, East Godavari report-ed another 1,351 cases in thelast 24 hours.
Continued on Page 2
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The Rajasthan High Court on Thursday dis-posed off a petition filed in the case
regarding the merger of six BSP MLAs in theAshok Gehlot led Congress Government inRajasthan giving some respite to Gehlotamid the ongoing political crisis in the State.
A division Bench of Rajasthan HighCourt gave relief to Gehlot and the Congresswhich is battling rebellion within since overa month now. The BSP and BJP legislators hadappealed seeking a temporary freeze on themerger of its six former legislators withCongress Government.
The decision, expected on August 11, willhave crucial implications for the AshokGehlot Government, which is struggling tohold on to its majority in face of the rebellionby Sachin Pilot and his 18 loyalist MLAs.Gehlot claims he has the support of 102 MLAs,one above the majority mark for the Assemblysession scheduled on August 14. The BJP has72 MLAs and with the rebel camp and threeindependents MLAs, the numbers of the otherside will touch 97.
Continued on Page 2
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Television actor SamirSharma, best known for his
roles in “Kyunki Saas Bhi KabhiBahu Thi” and “Left RightLeft”, was found dead in hishome in suburban Maladwhere he lived alone, policesaid on Thursday.
The 44-year-old was foundhanging from the fan of thekitchen on Wednesday night,police officials said. He mayhave been dead for two daysbefore he was found hanging,they said. "We have not foundany suicide note at the spot. It
seems to be suicide case. It issuspected that he hanged him-self two days back.
We have sent the body foran autopsy," Malad police sta-tion's senior inspector GeorgeFernandes said. Sharma, whoalso worked in serials such as“Kahaani Ghar Ghar Ki”, “YehRishtey Hain Pyar Ke” and “WoRehne Wali Mehlon Ki”, lived ina rented flat in Chincholi Bunderlocality in Malad (West). Hisbody was discovered by thebuilding's watchman, whopeeped through the kitchen-window and saw him hanging.
Continued on Page 2
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After the surprise exit ofGirish Chandra Murmu
as Lieutenant Governor ofJammu & Kashmir, PresidentRam Nath Kovind on Thursdayappointed former UnionMinister Manoj Sinha in hisplace to handle the adminis-tration of the trouble-tornunion territory.
A day after his resignationfrom the L-G post, Murmu wasappointed as CAG by Presidenton Thursday evening tillNovember 21, 2024 as CAG, tillage 65. The 1985 batch GujaratCadre IAS, hailing fromMayurbhanj in Odisha wasPrincipal Secretary to NarendraModi when he was ChiefMinister of Gujarat. Beforebecoming the L-G, Murmuwas Expenditure Secretray. Hewill take over CAG's post onAugust 9 after the retirement ofcurrent incumbent RajivMehrishi
The appointment of agrass root politician, whoenjoys Prime Minister Modi'sconfidence, is expected to fillthe 'political vacuum' in Jammuand Kashmir at this crucialjuncture. Due to sustainedanti-terrorist operations andelimination of top commandersof different terror outfits, the
Centre is aiming to kick startthe stalled political process,especially in the Kashmir val-ley in the coming months.
A large number of main-stream Kashmiri politicians,already released from deten-tion, are growing "restless" inthe absence of political activi-ty. They have even accused theCentral Government of run-ning its political agenda with-out allowing them the space tooperate and even preventingtheir movement out of theirhouses. "Presence of full timepolitician in the Raj Bhawan isexpected to fill the vacuum andbridge the widening gapbetween the Governmentmachinery and the commonmasses", said a political com-mentator.
Continued on Page 2
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The CBI on Thursday regis-tered a case in connection
with the death of film starSushant Singh Rajput andentrusted the probe to a SpecialInvestigation Team (SIT).Rajput's girlfriend RheaChakraborty among others isan accused in the case.
Deputy Inspector Generaland IPS officer of Gujarat cadreGagandeep Gambhir willsupervise the probe into thesensational case that had led toa turf war between the BiharPolice and Mumbai Police overjurisdiction. Gambhir willreport to Joint Director ManojSasidhar, officials said.
The move comes after theBihar Government recom-mended a probe into the mat-ter by the Central agency. "CBIhas today registered a case relat-
ed to the death of Rajput on therequest of Bihar Governmentand further notification fromthe Centre and taken over theinvestigation of the case, earli-er registered at police stationRajiv Nagar, Patna vide FIRno.241/2020 dated 25-7-2020,"the CBI said in a statement. TheCBI further said the case wasregistered against six accusedand others and investigation isunderway. "We are also in touchwith Bihar Police," a CBIspokesperson said.
Taking cognisance of theBihar Police FIR in this con-nection, the EnforcementDirectorate has already launched
a probe to investigate the moneylaundering angle in the case.Besides Bollywood actress RheaChakraborty, her relativesIndrajit Chakraborty, SandhyaChakraborty and ShowikChakraborty also her associateSamuel Miranda and ShrutiModi and others have beennamed as accused in the case.
The case has been regis-tered under Indian Penal Codesections relating to criminalconspiracy, abetment of suicide,wrongful restraint, wrongfulconfinement, theft, criminalbreach of trust, cheating andcriminal intimidation.
Eight coronavirus patientsdied in a fire inside the ICU
ward of a private hospital inAhmedabad city in the earlyhours of Thursday, officials said.
A para-medical staff mem-ber of the hospital was injuredin the tragedy. A cumulativecompensation of Rs 6 lakh eachfor the families of the deceasedwas announced by the Centreand Gujarat Government.
Continued on Page 2
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AIIMS Director Dr RandeepGuleria told PTI on
Thursday no clear mortalitybenefit of convalescent plasmatherapy was seen during a trialconducted among 30 Covid-19patients.
The much-touted conva-lescent plasma therapy washardly effective in reducingmortality risk among Covid-19patients, according to an inter-im analysis of a randomisedcontrolled trial done at AIIMShere to assess the efficacy ofthis mode of treatment.
Continued on Page 2
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India on Thursday strongly rejected Pakistan's crit-icism of the launch of construction of the Ram
temple in Ayodhya and asked the neighbouringcountry to refrain from "communal incitement".External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson AnuragSrivastava also asked Pakistan to desist from inter-fering in India's internal affairs. "We have seen thePress statement by the Islamic Republic of Pakistanon a matter internal to India. It should desist frominterfering in India's affairs and refrain from com-munal incitement," Srivastava said. "While this isnot a surprising stance from a nation that practicescross border terrorism and denies its own minori-ties their religious rights, such comments are nev-ertheless deeply regrettable," he added.
He was responding to a question on Pakistan'scriticism of the laying of foundation stone of the Ramtemple in Ayodhya on the site of the Babri Masjid.Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday laidthe foundation of the Ram temple in Ayodhya at agrand ceremony. Last November, the SupremeCourt paved the way for the construction of the Ramtemple at the site where the 16th century Babrimosque was demolished in December 1992.
Continued on Page 2
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Delhi Chief Minister ArvindKejriwal visited the AIIMS
on Thursday to enquire aboutthe health conditions of a 12-year-old girl, who was alleged-ly sexually assaulted, and saidhis Government will provide afinancial compensation of �10lakh to her family.
The girl is stable aftersurgery, says AIIMS doctor.
Earlier, in a tweet, theChief Minister said the incidenthas shaken him to the core,
adding that such criminalsroaming free cannot be toler-ated. Talking to reporters afterhis visit to the AIIMS, Kejriwalsaid the condition of the girl isserious, adding that he spoke toPolice Commissioner S NSrivastava, who told him thatthe police are trying to nab theaccused.
He said the Aam AadmiParty (AAP) Government willensure strict punishment forthe accused by engaging thebest lawyers in the case.
forces "unidentified" terroristson Thursday carried out yetanother bloodiest attack ongrass root Panchayat workers inwhich one BJP sarpanch waskilled in Vessu village ofQazikund block in SouthKashmir's Kulgam district.
Police identified the slainBJP sarpanch as Sajad AhmadKhanday who camping in asecured migrant camp.
Detailed report on P5
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Bihar police chiefGupteshwar Pandey on
Thursday warned of legalaction if an IPS officer, whohad gone to Mumbai toprobe actor Sushant SinghRajput death case, was notreleased from "forcible quar-antine" by the end of the day.
Pandey expressed bewil-derment over no positiveresponse from the municipalauthorities in Mumbai, whomhe accused of keeping IPSofficer Vinay Tiwari in virtu-al house arrest, despite beinginformed about the adverseremarks made by SupremeCourt against their action.
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After the Defence Ministry'sadmitted that the Chinese
troops have transgressed intothe Indian territory in EasternLadakh, Congress leader RahulGandhi on Thursday askedwhy the Prime Minister waslying over the issue.
"Why is the PM lying?"Gandhi tweeted, renewing hisattack on Modi on the issue ofthe standoff with China.
Rahul has frequentlyattacked Modi on this issue,inviting sharp reactions fromgovernment minister and BJPleaders.
site for a temple to be built by a trust, itordered that a five-acre site should be foundelsewhere in Ayodhya for a new mosque. Separately at a media briefing, Srivastava hitout at Pakistan for coming out with a newpolitical map of the country incorporatingJammu and Kashmir and parts of Gujaratas its territories. He said this type ofabsurd claims showed that Pakistan wantsto take control of more areas by using crossborder terrorism. On Tuesday, he haddescribed the Pakistani move as "politicalabsurdity" and said these "ridiculous asser-tions" have neither legal validity nor inter-national credibility. "We haveseen a so-called 'political map' of Pakistanthat has been released by Prime MinisterImran Khan. This is an exercise in politi-cal absurdity, laying untenable claims to ter-ritories in the Indian state of Gujarat andour Union Territories of Jammu & Kashmirand of Ladakh," he had said. PTI
From Page 1The area has been fol-
lowed by Kurnool 1,285 andAnantapuramu 1,112. Gunturregistered 868 fresh cases, WestGodavari 798, SPS Nellore 788,Visakhapatnam 781, Chittoor755, Srikakulam 682 andKadapa 604 till 10 am onThursday.
Karnataka is in the thirdplace with 6,805 new cases(including 2,544 in BengaluruUrban) in a single day and 93deaths, taking the total tally to1,58,254, including 75,068active cases, and 2,897 deathstill date.Uttar Pradesh record-ed its highest daily increase incoronavirus numbers with 61more deaths and 4,586 freshinfections. So far, 1,08,974cases, including 1,918 fatalities,have been reported from thestate. West Bengal recorded thehighest single-day spike of2,954 COVID-19 cases onThursday, which pushed thetally to 86,854.
With 1,299 fresh cases,Delhi's COVID-19 tally climbsto 1,41,531; death toll rises to4,059 with 15 more fatalities
reported.Among states withmore than 25,000 cases, the fivewith worst recovery rates atpresent are Karnataka(49.31%), Andhra Pradesh(55.97%), Uttar Pradesh(58.01%), Kerala (60.15%), andMaharashtra (65.25%).In gen-eral, large cities continue to bedisproportionately affected bythe coronavirus. Five urbancentres—Delhi, Mumbai,Chennai, Pune andHyderabad—alone account for29% of confirmed cases and40% of deaths nationally.Fifteen top cities account for38% of confirmed cases and53% of covid-related deaths inthe country.
Meanwhile, in southernIndia, coronavirus cases andrelated deaths are still risingfaster than most other states,but the pace has slowed downover the last week. The week-ly growth rate of the death tollin Andhra Pradesh has comedown to 42 percent, andKarnataka’s to 33 percent. Bothstates had witnessed muchsteeper spikes in fatalities lastmonth.
Karnataka has become thelatest state to surpass the deathtoll of Gujarat, which was until
May one of the biggest hotspotsof the virus. Andhra Pradeshhas become the eighth state tocross 1,600 deaths.Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu,Delhi, Karnataka and Gujarathave the highest tolls, with a75% share in the national deathcount.By now, the death tra-jectories of Delhi and Gujaratappear to have stabilized.Maharashtra’s trajectory,though not worsening, hasbeen rising at a stable rate.Death tolls are rising rapidly insome other states. In the lastseven days, the curve hasbecome steeper for Bihar andPunjab, where the toll rose 31%and 37%, respectively, duringthe period.
The northeast is the latestregion in the country where thecoronavirus has begun to pickup in the last few days.
Assam has the 10th high-est number of active cases,states such as Nagaland,Manipur and Tripura have alsoseen new outbreaks in recentdays. Their total case-load is asmall fraction of that in the restof India, but the four statestogether have recorded a 63%jump in active cases over thepast week.
From Page 1He then alerted members
of the society who informed thepolice.
Police rushed to the spotand took Sharma to a hospitalwhere doctors declared himbrought dead, another officialsaid. Efforts were on to get intouch with the family of theactor, who had been livingalone since February, he said.
Based on primary infor-mation, an Accidental DeathReport (ADR) has been regis-tered, Fernandes said, addingthat further investigations areunderway.
On July 27, Sharma postedhis last words on Instagramwith a poem on death anddreams. “I built my pyre andslept on it and with my fire itwas lit. And all that was me I
burned in it. I killed my dreamto wake up from it. Now mydream is gone,” he wrote on hispage. After that, he postedsome photographs but no writ-ten content. His bio onInstagram reads “Actor. Writer.Poet” and mostly has shots ofbeaches and videos of himdriving to scenic places.
Sharma's death comes at atime the entertainment indus-try is reeling from the shock ofthe death of Bollywood actorSushant Singh Rajput, whowas found hanging at his apart-ment in suburban Bandra onJune 14. Rajput's death, whichwill now be investigated by theCBI, exposed many faultlines inthe industry. "Depression is a lonely disease,"Sharma had posted afterRajput's death. “BiopolarDisorder, Depression, andSchizophrenia etc. Do youknow or understand what that
means or feels like? No youdon't, unless you've beenthrough it yourself. And any-body who hasn't, will neverever be able to understandwhat that feels like,” he wroteon July 22.
Bollywood star SidharthMalhotra, who worked withSharma in “Hasee toh Phasee”,condoled the actor's death.
Sharing a picture withSharma from the film,Malhotra wrote, “Really sadand unfortunate#RIPSameerSharma.”
Actor Varun Dhawan alsoshared a picture on hisInstagram stories and wrote“#RIPSameerSharma”.
On June 9, Rajput's formermanager Disha Salian jumpedfrom a high-rise building.The month earlier, on May 15,TV actor Manmeet Grewalhad hanged himself at hisMumbai home. PTI
From Page 1The halfway mark in the
200 member assembly will alsocome down to 97 from the cur-rent 101.
BSP and BJP had gone tocourt challenging the Speaker'sdecision in September 2019allowing the merger of the sixBSP MLAs with the Congress.The parties had demanded astay on the participation of thesix MLAs in the house pro-ceedings -- crucial if the AshokGehlot government has to takea trust vote. The merger of BSPMLAs to the ruling Congresswas a boost to the AshokGehlot-led government as ithelped increase the party's tallyof legislators.
Meanwhile, , UnionMinister Kailash Chaudharyclaimed the Congress govern-ment in Rajasthan would col-lapse and its countdown hasbegun.
Chaudhary said with the
fall of Gehlot government, theCongress's politics too wouldcome to an end in the State.Chaudhary, who is on a three-day visit to his parliamentaryconstituency Barmer, said thestate government has lost theconfidence of people and thechief minister has to confineMLAs to hotels.
"The Gehlot governmentwill fail to prove its majority inthe floor test in the Assembly.Not only the people ofRajasthan have lost faith in thegovernment, ministers andMLAs too are not happy withthe chief minister," Chaudharysaid.
Amid a political crisis inRajasthan, the MLAs support-ing Gehlot are staying in hotelsin Jaisalmer as the chief min-ister is trying to save his gov-ernment, following a revolt byhis former deputy Sachin Pilotand 18 other Congress legisla-tors.
From Page 1A section of political
observers feel, Murmu, whowas a man of a few words, wasstruggling for a long time to fillthe political vacuum especial-ly in Kashmir valley.
These observers claimed,"it is for the same reason cen-tre decided to shunt him mid-way and brought another sea-soned politician to bring backthe stalled political process ontrack".
The newly-appointed Lt-Governor has tasted grassrootpolitics since his students days.He remained President of theStudents Union in the Banaras
Hindu University and laterrepresented Parliamentary con-stituency of Ghazipur in east-ern Uttar Pradesh thrice in theLok Sabha. He lost last LokSabha polls to Bahujan SamajParty (BSP) candidate AfzalAnsari. He has also served asminister of communicationsand minister of state forRailways.
According to the officialsources, the oath ceremony ofthe newly appointed Lt-Governor Manoj Sinha isscheduled to take place inSrinagar on Friday.
Meanwhile, Sinha arrivedin Srinagar in the afternoonand was accorded warm wel-come and formal guard ofhonor at the technical airport.
Chief Secretary BVR
Subrahmanyam, DGP DilbaghSingh and Principal Secretaryto the Lt- Governor BipulPathak were present to receivehim.
He was later escortedunder tight security arrange-ments to the Raj Bhawan.
Earlier, late Wednesdayevening Lt-Gov GirishChandra Murmu tenderedhis resignation and the samewas accepted by the Presidentearly Thursday morning.
Before the arrival of newlyappointed Lt-Governor ManojSinha, Girish Chandra Murmu, who was camping in Jammu,returned to New Delhi alongwith his wife and children in aspecial BSF plane.
In the absence of any othersenior officer in Jammu,
Divisional Commissioner,Jammu Sanjiv Verma bid himfarewell at the airport by pre-senting a bouquet.
Speculations were also rifein the corridors of power overthe exact reasons behind GirishChandra Murmu's sudden exitfrom Jammu and Kashmir.
It is widely believed bothMurmu and Chief Secretarywere not on the same page fora long time. This was obvious-ly affecting smooth imple-mentation of the developmen-tal package in Jammu andKashmir.
According to theseobservers, Murmu also paid theprice for speaking 'out of turn'over certain contentious issues.
In a series of interviews todifferent media houses, Murmu
had openly favored the restora-tion of 4G network for the peo-ple of Jammu and Kashmir. Hisobservations prompted eventhe center to inform theSupreme Court that it will ver-ify the statement of theLieutenant Governor.
GC Murmu's assessmentover holding fresh Assemblypolls in Jammu and Kashmirhad also created ripples inNew Delhi.
This time, the ElectionCommission of India hadpulled up Murmu for his state-ment on the conduct of elec-tions in Jammu and Kashmirsaying holding polls is themandate of the Commissionand it was not the domain ofthe Lieutenant Governor.
From Page 1The blaze broke out around
3.30 am on the top floor of thefour-storey Shrey Hospital inNavrangpura area, officialssaid. It is one of the 60-odd`designated' private hospitalswhich have been authorised bythe Ahmedabad MunicipalCorporation (AMC) to treatcoronavirus patients.
"Eight coronavirus patientsadmitted in the ICU ward onthe fourth floor of ShreyHospital have died due to fire.41 other Covid patients whowere in the general ward onbottom floors were rescuedand shifted to SVP Hospital,"said Rajiv Kumar Gupta, anIAS officer.
Shrey Hospital was sealedfor investigation, said Gupta,who has been deputed inAhmedabad as an officer onspecial duty.
Preliminary investigationshowed that the fire was causedby a short circuit, he said.
Gupta, Municipal
Commissioner Mukesh Kumarand Principal Secretary(Health) Jayanti Ravi visited thespot.
"We have learned that anelectric short circuit led to ablast. The blaze spread in theward within minutes," saidKumar. According to ChiragPatel, a hospital attendant whosaved the lives of three elderlypatients, there were elevenpatients on the fourth floorwhen the fire broke out.
The deceased were identi-fied as Lilavati Shah (72), JyotiSindhi (55), Ayesha Tirmizi(51), Navneet Shah (80), ArifMansoori (42), Narendra Shah(62), Arvind Bhavsar (78) andManu Rami (82).
Additional Commissionerof Police R V Asari toldreporters that Bharat Mahant,a trustee of the hospital, wasbeing questioned. ChiefMinister Vijay Rupani orderedan inquiry by Additional ChiefSecretary (Home) SangeetaSingh and her counterpart inthe Urban DevelopmentDepartment Mukesh Puri.
The two IAS officers have
been asked to submit theenquiry report in three days,the Chief Minister's Office saidin a statement.
Deputy Chief MinisterNitin Patel said another atten-dant received 25 to 30 per centburn injuries while trying tosave the patients. The attendantand 41 patients were shifted toSVP Hospital, he added.
Prime Minister NarendraModi expressed grief over theincident and announced ex-gratia compensation of Rs 2lakh for the kin of the deceasedand Rs 50,000 for the injured.
"Saddened by the tragichospital fire in Ahmedabad.Condolences to the bereavedfamilies. May the injuredrecover soon.
"Spoke to CM @vijayru-panibjp Ji and Mayor @ibijal-patel Ji regarding the situation.Administration is providingall possible assistance to theaffected," the PM tweeted.
Chief Minister Rupani alsoannounced a compensation ofRs 4 lakh for the kin of thedeceased and Rs 50,000 for theinjured.
From Page 1The therapy involves tak-
ing antibodies from the bloodof a person who has recoveredfrom COVID-19 and transfus-ing those into an active coro-navirus infected patient to helpkickstart the immune system tofight back the infection.
AIIMS Director DrRandeep Guleria told PTI onThursday no clear mortalitybenefit of convalescent plasmatherapy was seen during a trialconducted among 30 COVID-19 patients.
During the trial, one group
of patients was given conva-lescent plasma therapy alongwith the standard supportivetreatment while the othergroup only received standardtreatment. The number of fatal-ities recorded in both thegroups was equal and there wasnot much clinical improve-ment in the condition ofpatients, he said.
"However, this is just aninterim analysis and we need todo a more detailed evaluationto see if any sub-group maybenefit from plasma therapy,"Dr Guleria said.
He also underlined thatplasma has to be tested for itssafety and should have suffi-
cient antibody to be useful toCOVID-19 patients.
The efficacy of convales-cent plasma therapy in mod-erate to severe coronavirus-infected patients was discussedin the third National ClinicalGrand Rounds (CGR) onCOVID-19 held onWednesday.
"Plasma is safe. As far as itsefficacy is concerned, we do nothave a green signal yet. So theclinical use has to be veryjudicious and within the ambitof national guidelines," DrMonish Soneja, additional pro-fessor in the Medicine depart-ment at AIIMS, said at thewebinar.
From Page 1The CBI said it is also in touch with Bihar Police."A Regular Case (FIR) is, therefore, registered
under Section 341, 342, 380, 406, 420, 306, 506, 120BIPC against (I) Rhea Chakraborty and her familymembers (2) Indrajit Chakraborty (3) SandhyaChakraborty, (4) Showik Chakraborty, (5) SamuelMiranda, (6) Shruti Modi & others and entrustedto Anil Kumar Yadav, Additional SP, CBI, AC-VI,SIT, New Delhi for investigation," reads the CBI FIR.
The CBI FIR also includes a six-page complaintof Rajput's father Krishna Kumar Singh (74) on thebasis of which the Patna police had filed the orig-inal case in the abetment to suicide case of thedeceased actor.
Apart from other things, Rajput's father allegedin the complaint that instead of unraveling the crimethe Mumbai Police was busy questioning less rel-evant people instead of grilling the prime accuseddespite a lapse of 40 days.
Apart from the IPC Sections clamped in the FIR,Singh had also sought probe under the MentalHealth Care Act.
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A12-year old girl who faceda barbaric assault in Delhi
on Tuesday is stable now."Police have arrested the 33year-old accused identified asKrishan on Thursday. He is alsofound involved four crminalcases including murder andattempt to murder. Furtherinvestigation is going on," saidShalini Singh, JointCommissioner of Police,Western Range.
Chief Minister ArvindKejriwal on Thursday paid a
visit to AIIMS to meet the 12-year old girl. Following his visitto the hospital, Kejriwal saidthat the girl was in a criticalstate and was unconscious.
Kejriwal also said that hehas spoken to the police com-missioner who has assuredhim that they are trying theirbest to nab the culprits. “TheDelhi Government will ensurethe toughest punishment forthe culprits in the court byappointing the best lawyerson the case,” he said.
Earlier in the day, Kejriwalhad tweeted, "The barbaric
incident with a 12-year old girlhas shaken me to the core. Suchpredators roaming free cannotbe tolerated. I will be visitingAIIMS in some time to meetthe girl."
Briefing the media follow-ing his visit, Kejriwal said,"The 12-year old little girl was
brutally attacked, and her con-dition is very critical now. Shehas suffered serious internalinjuries, which are very hard toeven describe,”
“She is currently in a state ofunconsciousness, and the doc-tor was telling me that she wasin a really bad condition whenshe was brought to the hospitalon Tuesday. She has undergonesurgery and the doctors are try-ing their best to save her. Itwould take around 24-48 hoursto know and assess whether shewill be out of danger. We hopethat she recovers fully here andgoes back to her home out of anydanger," he said.
Kejriwal said, "I have spo-ken to the PoliceCommissioner, who told me
that the police are trying theirbest to nab the culprits and theinvestigation is underway. Thetoughest punishment will begiven to the culprits on behalfof the Delhi Government. Wewill appoint the best of ourlawyers on the court case sothat the culprits get the strictestpunishment for their crime."
The Chief Minister hasalso announced financial sup-port of Rs 10 lakh for the fam-ily of the victim. "The Delhigovernment will offer the fam-ily of the girl financial assis-tance of Rs 10 lakh. This is avery brutal attack that cannothold any value, but this is justa means of providing monetarysupport to her family," headded.
Minister in Union Budget2020-21, Indian Railways is allset to introduce “Kisan Rail”, aspecial Parcel Train fromDevlali (Maharashtra) toDanapur (Bihar) on Friday.The train will provide a seam-less supply chain of perishableproduce.
The move is expected toprovide a great relief to thefarmers as freight will becharged as per parcel tariff ofnormal train at ‘P’ Scale
In the Union Budget 2020-21, the Minister of Finance hadmade an announcement ‘tobuild a seamless national coldsupply chain for perishables,inclusive of milk, meat, andfish’. It was also stated that theIndian Railways will set up aKisan Rail.
As announced in the cur-rent year’s Union Budget by theFinance Minister, IndianRailways is introducing thefirst “Kisan Rail” from Devlalito Danapur Friday fromDevlali.
The train will be flaggedoff via video conferencing byUnion Minister of agricultureand farmers’ welfare, ruraldevelopment and panchyatiraj Narendra Singh Tomar andMinister of Railways andCommerce and Industry,Piyush Goyal.
A senior railways officialsaid that the event shall be
attended by other dignitariesfrom Maharashtra. The trainwill reach Danapur at 18:45 hrson the next day covering thejourney of 1519 kms in 31:45hrs.
“The train will provide aseamless supply chain of per-ishable produce. This train isa step towards realizing thegoal of doubling farmers’incomes by 2022. IndianRailways aims to help doublefarmers’ income with thelaunch of Kisan Rail,” he said.
The official further saidthat this train will help inbringing perishable agricul-tural products like vegetables,fruits to the market in a shortperiod of time. The train withfrozen containers is expectedto build a seamless nationalcold supply chain for perish-ables, inclusive of fish, meatand milk, he said.
“Over Central Railway,Bhusawal division is primari-ly an Agro based division.Nasik and the surroundingregion produces huge quanti-ties of fresh vegetables, fruits,flowers, other perishables,onions and other agro prod-ucts. These perishables aremainly transported to areasaround Patna, Prayagraj, Katni,Satna etc,” he said.
This train has scheduledhalts at Nasik Road, Manmad,Jalgaon, Bhusaval, Burhanpur,Khandwa, Itarsi, Jabalpur,Satna, Katni, Manikpur,Prayagraj Chheoki, Pt.Deendayal Upadhyay Nagarand Buxar.
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Amid recent rift betweenIndia and China, the trade
associations have decided tolaunch ‘Quit India Movement’against China on August 9across the country.
The trade associations willraise the bugle for a movementagainst the across the coun-try and will make a loud slo-gan china Quit India" in about600 cities, the Confederationof All India Traders (CAIT).
B C Bhartia, national pres-ident and Praveen Khandelwal,secretary general of the CAITsaid that in view of the wayChina has occupied the retailmarket of India through chi-
nese products in the last 20years under a long strategicplanning and also the changedcircumstances, it is very impor-tant to liberate the country'sretail market from Chineseproducts and create a self-reliant Indian market and toreduce Country’s dependenceon China.
“The people of the coun-try supported the CAIT cam-paign of celebrating the recentRakshabandhan festival asHindustani Rakhi and com-pletely boycotted the ChineseRakhi as a result of China hassuffered a loss of Rs 4 thou-sand crores rupees. It is clearfrom the fact that if the peo-ple of the country take a res-
olution and boycott Chinesegoods, then India's businesscan get independence fromChina very soon and sevencrore traders of the countryunder the leadership of CAThave taken this resolutionfirmly,” they said.
Khandelwal announcedthat all the upcoming festivalscelebrated in the country willbe celebrated using Indiangoods and Chinese goods willnot be used at all.
They said that the upcom-ing festivals includeJanmashtami, GaneshChaturthi, Navratri, Dussehra,Dhanteras, Diwali, BhaiyaDooj, Chhath Puja and TulsiVivah.
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Corruption in the MunicipalCorporation is at the
height. The latest case relatedto the property tax departmentof the Municipal Corporationwhere no tax has been imposedon 60 per cent commercial andnon-commercial property tilldate, thus the corporation hasto pay fifty crores as tax evasionevery year.
Lime is being applied. Allthis is happening due to theconnivance of big municipalofficials and big property own-ers. House Councilor RajendraTyagi, leader of the BJP party
in Ghaziabad MunicipalCorporation, told a press con-ference here today that theUttar Pradesh government hasa clear directive that tax shouldbe levied on every propertyfalling in the corporation area,but the corporation officialsmet the property owners andtaxed them.
]He also handed over along list of evidences of tax eva-sion to the reporters. BJP'sFire Brand Councilor hasalleged that Divyansh FirstSociety in Indirapuram has200 flats, out of which only 11flats have been taxed by thecorporation officials.
A22-year-old man was beat-en to death allegedly by
two brothers who suspectedhim of stealing mobile phonesand cash from their truck.Police said the two accused,Sandeep (30) and Sanjeev (32)have been arrested by thepolice.
The deceased has beenidentified as Vishal, a residentof Haiderpur village in north-west Delhi. The incident wasreported to police on August 2.
The man was caught by thetwo brothers at the AzadpurMandi as they suspected thathe had stolen cash and mobilesfrom their truck.
After beating him up, theytied his hands and legs, threwhim in the truck and started forHimachal Pradesh's Bilaspurdistrict, from where they hail.
However, when the truckwas stopped by a policeman fortraffic violation on northwestDelhi's GTK road, the tied-upman was found in the back ofthe vehicle. The local policewere informed who in turnrushed the man to the BSAhospital where he was declaredbrought dead.
According to VijayantaArya, the DeputyCommissioner of Police(DCP), Northwest, police haveregistered a case at MahendraPark police station and both theaccused drivers have beenarrested and sent to jail.
Thursday sent a proposal foropening of hotels , gym andweekly baazar to LieutenantGovernor Anil Baijal.
Citing the health bulletinreports of health department,Kejriwal mentioned in his let-ter to LG Baijal that scare ofcorona are decreasing in thecountry’ Capital. In this way,hotels and gyms and weeklymarkets should be opened.
It may be recalled that ear-lier, Kejriwal’s government’sdecision to reopen the hotels
and weekly market was reject-ed by the LieutenantGovernor.
It was said that the situa-tion arising out of Coronaremains worrisome and thethreat has not yet been ended.
However, after this deci-sion of LG, Deputy ChiefMinister Manish Sisodia writea letter to Union HomeMinister Amit Shah instruct-ing LG Baijal to open hotelsand weekly markets.
According to Delhi gov-ernment statistics, till August5, a total of 140232 cases ofcoronavirus have been regis-tered in Delhi.
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Life-saving ventilators forCovid-19 patients are now
being embedded with GlobalPositioning System (GPS) chipsto ensure they are not misusedor diverted and their move-ment is tracked on a real-timebasis.
The Union HealthMinistry has created a dash-board for tracking the real-timestatus of the indigenously-manufactured ventilators beingdispatched, delivered andinstalled for monitoring andfeedback, said Union HealthSecretary Rajesh Bhushan.
“We can track the locationof each of these devices as eachventilator is geo-tagged. We willget to know in real-time if aventilator is changing loca-tion,” he said.
On the issue of giving nodfor export of ventilators, theofficial said that just about0.27 per cent of total activeCovid-19 cases are on a venti-lator across the country. “At anygiven time, not more than 1 percent of patients are sick enoughto need ventilator support,”said Bhushan.
The Government has setup a high-powered committeeto address issues and encour-age the domestic industry tomanufacture ventilators andramp up their production.
Based on expert projec-tions in March, the HealthMinistry decided to procureabout 60,000 ventilators forCovid-19 patients. About18,000 ventilators have been sofar supplied to states, centralgovernment hospitals, andDefence ResearchDevelopment Organisationfacilities, said the senior official.
They have been installed inat least 700 hospitals across thecountry. Bharat Electronics Ltd(BEL) rolled out the first local-ly-made ventilator on May 30.
Bhushan said about 96 percent of the 60,000 ventilatorsbeing procured are indigenousand most of them have beensponsored by the PM CARESFund established to fight theCovid-19 pandemic.
“The Make in India[indigenous] ventilators have ashare of more than 96 percent% by volume and morethan 90 per cent% by value.”
The ministry’s technical
expert committee has come upwith minimum essential spec-ifications for the basic ventila-tors manufactured in India. Allthe procurements are made
based on the committee’s rec-ommendations.
Public sector BEL hasmanufactured 30,000 ventila-tors and Andhra Med-Tech
Zone 13,500. The prices oflocally-made ventilators rangebetween �1.5 and �4 lakh perunit. Imported ventilators costbetween �10 and 20 lakh.
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Union Health MinisterHarsh Vardhan on
Thursday asserted that thespread of Covid-19 has beencontained in the country,pointing out how half the totalcases are from three statesonly and another 30 per centfrom seven others.
His comments come evenas India is all set to breach the20-lakh mark of Covid-19cases with over 40,000 deathsand record number of cases atover 50,000 infections beingreported daily in the past fewdays.
Dr Harsh Vardhan wasspeaking at a virtual meetingof WHO’s Regional Director,South East Asia, PoonamKhetrapal Singh with HealthMinisters from the region onmaintaining essential healthservices and public health pro-grammes in the context of theCovid-19 pandemic.
“The strategy of contain-ment has been successful inthat 50 per cent of the cases arefrom three states and 32 per
cent of the rest are from sevenstates. The spread of the virusthus has been contained,” hesaid.
The Minister said that thelockdown was effective inslowing down the rate ofgrowth of cases and gave thegovernment time to augmentthe health infrastructure andtesting facilities.
“From one lab in January,India has 1,370 labs today.Indians anywhere can access alab within three hours traveltime. 33 of the 36 states andUTs (Union Territories) exceedWHO’s recommendation oftesting 140 people per millionper day.”
Harsh Vardhan also saidthat the country was “prepar-ing for the pandemic as soonas China informed the WorldHealth Organisation onJanuary 7”, over three weeksbefore the first case emerged.
India had reported its firstcoronavirus case on January 30when a student from Kerala,who was studying in China’sWuhan University, came backto India and tested positive forthe deadly virus.
Harsh Vardhan alsostressed that earlier viral out-breaks like the Avian Influenza,H1N1, Zika and Nipah hadprovided institutional memo-ry in designing containmentand management strategies.
“India’s proactive andgraded multi-level institution-al response to Covid-19 madeit possible to have very lowcases per million and deathsper million in spite of havinga high population density, andlow fractional GDP spending,per capita doctor, and hospitalbed availability as compared toother developed countries,” hecontended.
Despite India’s populationand low fractional GDP, theproactive and graded multi-level institutional response toCOVID-19 by government hasmade it possible for the coun-try to maintain “very low casesand deaths per million” popu-lation, the Union HealthMinister said.
“India was preparing tofight the pandemic as soon asChina informed WHO aboutit on January 7, Dr HarshVardhan said.
The Centre has released�890.32 crore as the second
instalment of the COVID-19Emergency Response andHealth System Preparednesspackage to 22 States and UnionTerritories, the Union HealthMinistry said on Thursday.
The amount of financialassistance to each state andUnion Territories is based ontheir COVID-19 caseload.
Those who received finan-cial assistance in the secondinstalment includeChhattisgarh, Jharkhand,Madhya Pradesh, Odisha,Rajasthan, Telangana, AndhraPradesh, Goa, Gujarat,Karnataka, Kerala, Punjab,Tamil Nadu, West Bengal,Arunachal Pradesh, Assam,Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoramand Sikkim, the ministry saidin a statement.
Prime Minister NarendraModi had announced the Rs15,000 crore package as part ofthe ‘Whole of Government’
approach wherein the Centreis leading the COVID-19response and management,and supporting the states andUTs through technical andfinancial resources.
The second instalment ofthe aid will be used tostrengthen public healthinfrastructure for testing,including procurement andinstallation of RT-PCRmachines, RNA extractionkits, TrueNat and CB-NAATmachines, bolster infrastruc-ture for treatment and devel-opment of ICU beds, instal-lation of oxygen generatorsand procurement of bedsideoxygen concentrators amongothers.
It would also be used forengagement, training andcapacity building of necessaryhuman resources and incen-tives to healthcare workforceand volunteers, includingASHA workers on COVID-19duties, the Ministry said,adding that wherever neces-sary, volunteers registered on
the COVID Warriors portalmay also be engaged in coro-navirus duties.
The first instalment ofRs 3,000 crore was released inApril to all States and UTs toaid and enable them ramp uptesting facilities, augment hos-pital infrastructure, conductsurveillance activities alongwith procurement of essentialequipment, drugs and othersupplies, the Ministry said.
As part of this package,states and Union territorieshave been strengthened with5,80,342 isolation beds,1,36,068 oxygen-supportedbeds and 31,255 ICU beds.
Also, 86,88,357 testingkits and 79,88,366 VialTransport Media (VTM) havebeen procured by them. Asmany as 96,557 humanresource has been added andincentive has been given to6,65,799 human resources.
The package has aidedprovision of mobility sup-port to 11,821 staff, theMinistry said.
day health screening camp forits 4,500 members and their
families from August 4-6, 2020.The screening campaign ispart of the special initiative byTech Mahindra, a leadingprovider of digital transfor-mation, consulting and busi-
ness re-engineering servicesand solutions, to screen mem-bers for risk factors of COVID-19 through temperature andantibody test, blood pressureand blood glucose test.
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Referring to the coronaviruspandemic and floods’ havoc
in several parts of the country,a group of students onThursday filed a petition in theSupreme Court on Thursdayseeking postponement of JEE(Main) April 2020 and NEET-Undergraduate examinations,which are scheduled to be con-ducted in September.
The plea has sought quash-ing of July 3 notices issued bythe National Testing Agency(NTA), by which it was decid-ed to conduct Joint EntranceExamination (Main) April 2020and National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET)-Undergraduate exams inSeptember.
The plea, filed by 11 stu-dents belonging to 11 States,said that the authorities bedirected to conduct these examsonly after the normalcy isrestored. As per the publicnotices issued by the NTA, JEE(Main) April 2020 is scheduledfrom September 1-6, whileNEET UG 2020 exam is sched-uled for September 13.
The plea, filed through
advocate Alakh Alok Srivastava,has also sought direction to theauthorities to increase the num-ber of examination centres forthese exams. “Conducting theaforesaid examination acrossIndia at such perilous time, isnothing else but putting lives oflakhs of young students (includ-ing petitioners herein) at utmostrisk and danger of disease anddeath.
The best recourse at thisstage can be to wait for somemore time, let COVID-19 cri-sis subside and then only conduct these exams, in orderto save the lives of the studentsand their parents,” the pleasaid.
It claimed that NTA, whichconducts entrance exams foradmission in higher education-al institutions in India, hasdecided to conduct JEE (Main)April-2020 through onlinemode and NEET UG-2020exams through offline mode at161 centres across India.
It alleged that NTA hasindefinitely postponed theNational Council of HotelManagement Joint EntranceExamination-2020, which wasscheduled to be conducted on
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The EnforcementDirectorate on Thursday
questioned actress RheaChakraborty’s associate SamuelMiranda for the second con-secutive day in connectionwith a money laundering caserelating to film star SushantSingh Rajput’s death.
The ED questionedMiranda about the finances ofRajput, sources said.
ED had lodged a moneylaundering case against RheaChakraborty and her familymembers after Rajput’s fatherhad filed a complaint beforePatna police and accused thedeceased actor’s girlfriend ofswindling his funds to thetune of Rs 15 crore.
Earlier, the ED had regis-tered a case under thePrevention of MoneyLaundering Act after takingcognisance of the Bihar policeFIR.
Miranda’s questioningcomes a day ahead ofChakraborty’s grilling as shehas been summoned by theagency to appear before it onFriday in Mumbai.
Earlier, the agency hadgrilled Rajput’s CharteredAccountant Sandeep Sridharwho had in his statementbefore the Mumnai policeclaimed that no major trans-
actions were made to RheaChakraborty from the lateactor’s account.
Miranda’s statement wasrecorded under thePrevention of MoneyLaundering Act. Miranda hasbeen named as an accused inthe case.
Miranda was reportedlynamed by Rajput’s brother-in-law and IPS officer OP Singhin his WhatsApp message toMumbai Police DCPParamjeet Dahiya. OP Singhwanted the Mumbai police toinformally interrogate SamuelMiranda, according to Dahiya.
According to OP Singh, ifMiranda was kept in custodyinformally for a day, then hewould have spilled the beansabout Chakraborty who wasallegedly controlling Rajput’slife, reports said.
Miranda, according toallegations, was recruited byChakraborty as Sushant’shouse manager and was look-ing after the employees andhouse expenses.
New Delhi: A day after theSupreme Court reserved itsverdict, activist lawyer PrashantBhushan on Thursday moveda plea seeking to present addi-tional evidence if the court isnot satisfied with his submis-sions that the contempt was notmade out against him for histwo tweets allegedly againstjudiciary.
A bench headed by JusticeArun Mishra, which on July 22,
had issued show cause notice toBhushan after initiating thecriminal contempt against himfor his two alleged derogatorytweets against the judiciary, hadreserved the verdict onWednesday.
Senior advocate DushyantDave defended Bhushan beforethe bench, which also com-prised Justices R Gavai andKrishan Murari, and had saidon Wednesday that the tweets
were against the judges regard-ing their conduct in their per-sonal capacity and did notobstruct administration of jus-tice.
Referring to judgementsin support of the plea, Bhushansaid he had earlier submitted apreliminary reply to explain histweets and the law laid downon the issue to highlight thatthe contempt notice was notsustainable. PTI
forces ‘unidentified’ terroristsThursday carried out yetanother bloodiest attack ongrass root Panchayat workers inwhich one BJP sarpanch waskilled in Vessu village ofQazikund block in SouthKashmir’s Kulgam district.
Police identified the slainBJP sarpanch as Sajad Ahmad Khanday.
According to groundreports, “Sajjad Ahmad wascamping in a secured migrantcamp in the area for the pastseveral days. Early Thursday hestepped out of the camp and was20 meters short of his home
when ‘unidentified’ terroristsfired upon him”. “Bleeding pro-fusely he was rushed to thenearby hospital where doctorsdeclared him brought dead”,official sources said.
This is the second attack ona BJP worker in the last 48hours in the region.
Earlier, BJP Panch ArifAhmad was critically woundedafter terrorists fired at him inAkhran Qazigund on theevening of August 4. Since June2020 this is the fourth major ter-ror attack on Panchayat workersin Kashmir valley.
Last month, former BJPdistrict president Waseem Bari,his father and brother werekilled inside their shop afterterrorists fired on them from
close range in Bandipora. Barihad a 10-member police secu-rity and all of them were sus-pended and arrested becausethey were not with him whenhe was attacked.
On June 8, Congresssarpanch Ajay Kumar Panditawas killed outside his house atLokbhawan in Anantnag.
Meanwhile, fearing fortheir lives three more BJPWorkers of Kokernag con-stituency of Naropora WatnardVillage Thursday resigned frombasic membership of BJP party.These workers were identifiedas Shabir Ahmad Khan S/o GhRasool Khan, Reyaz AhmadRather S/o Ab Aziz Rather, AbKhaliq Sheikh S/o MohdSubhan Sheikh.
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Both the National Investigation Agency(NIA) and the petitioner (Swapna Suresh, the
kingpin in the gold smuggling racket throughdiplomatic channel at Thiruvananthapuram)completed their arguments before the SpecialCourt in Kochi on the bail application movedby the latter. The judge has reserved the ordersfor August 10.
While the lawyer representing Swapna toldthe court that though the gold was smuggledinto the country, the team probing the vase hasfailed to prove that it had any links with ter-rorism related activities.
“It is an offence which could be resolved byremitting the fine prescribed by the rule books,”said the lawyer. He also disclosed that each andevery gram of gold seized from Swapna’s lock-er had been accounted for and there was no ille-galities in her owning that gold.
But the NIA told in its reply that the accusedwas well aware of the implications of her actionand she had confessed to the agency that she was not bothered about the possibili-ty of the profitability from smuggling beingdiverted to anti-national activities and terrorism.
The revelations by the NIA to the court thatthe accused Swapna Suresh has close links withhigher officials in the Chief Minister’s Office(CMO) was a serious issue.
“She had approached her contacts in theCMO to get the gold released from the Customs.She was getting sufficient help from the police department of the State,” said the assis-tant solicitor general Vijayakumar who repre-sented the NIA.
The lawyer for Swapna is opposing the slap-ping of the UAPA in this case which would makeit impossible for the accused to come out on bailfoe the next one year.
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The dreaded coronavirusclaimed yet another polit-
ical victim when veteranMarxist leader, former RajyaSabha Member and an impor-tant member in Jyoti BasuCabinet Shyamal Chakrabartydied on Thursday. He was 77and is survived by a daughter.
He had tested positive forthe virus and, admitted to a pri-vate hospital on July 31, sourcessaid, adding he was sufferingfrom comorbidities like renalconditions.
He was one of the five“Young Turks” of the Leftmovement in the 1970s, includ-ing Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee,Biman Bose, Anil Biswas andSubhas Chakrbarty all of whomwere close friends and rose toprominence as mass leaders.
A senior Trade Union leaderwho started his political careerin the early 1960s from students’movement, Chakrabarty laterwent on to become CPI(M)’scentral committee memberknown for integrity, dedicationand gentleness, said CongressLok Sabha leader AdhirChowdhury.
The mortal remains of
Chakrabarty who had like JyotiBasu and other senior Marxistleaders had donated his body formedical research will howeverbe handed over to the KolkataMunicipal Corporation forfuneral in accordance withcorona protocols, both hisdaughter Ushashie Chakrabartyand CPI(M) State secretarySuryakanto Mishra said.
“CPI(M) expresses its deepsadness at the demise of com-rade Shyamal Chakrabarty aveteran trade union leader, aformer minister and a centralcommittee member,” a partyrelease said.
Condoling his death ChiefMinister Mamata Banerjee said“saddened at the passing awayof … Shyamal Chakrabarty. Mycondolences to his familyfriends and supporters.”
Meanwhile the BengalGovernment on Thursdayclaimed that about 87.6 percentof the total corona deaths in theState were caused due tocomorbidity. Briefing themedia the Chief Minister saidthere were “little more than50,000 active cases” in theState adding “some 87.6 percentof fatalities were caused due tocomorbid conditions.”
Lucknow: Amidst Met office forecast of rain orthundershowers at many places over eastern UPand at a few places over the western part of thestate over the next 24 hours, as many as 666 vil-lages have been affected by floods across 17 dis-tricts of Uttar Pradesh. According to the datareleased by the UP relief commissioner, majorrivers are flowing above the danger mark at someplaces in the state. The Sharda river at Palia Kalanin Lakhimpur Kheri, the Saryu at Elgin Bridgein Barabanki and Ayodhya and Turtipar in Ballia, and the Rapti at Birdghat in Gorakhpur are flow-ing above the red mark. PNS
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Aday after the Island city ofMumbai registered a
record rainfall in 46 years, thecountry’s commercial capitaland neighbouring area reeledunder the intense wet spell forthe third consecutive day onThursday, resulting in disloca-tion in bus and suburban trainservices and inundation of thelow-lying areas.
A landslide along upmarketPeddar Road, 15 wall collapses,360-odd tree falls and 47 inci-dents of electric short-circuitswere the highlights ofThursday’s monsoon reportcard for the metropolis put outby the BrihanmumbaiMunicipal Corporation (BMC).
In one of the major mon-soon-related incident that dis-rupted the traffic towards southMumbai, a portion of the landslid along with trees planted nearthe wall protecting the hillockalong the Peddar Road. Thelandslide took place in the earlyhours of Thursday, at the edgeof the Malabar Hill located justoff the Kemp’s Corner flyover.
The suburban train serviceservices on the Main andHarbour lines of the Central andCentral Railway were affected bythe continued rains and conse-quent inundation of tracks atseveral places. This was the sec-ond landslide within Mumbai inthree days — the other being theone reported earlier at Kandivliin north Mumbai along theWestern Express Highway.
For most part of the day,team of civic workers wereinvolved in clearing the piledup loose soil from the landslideand branches of the trees. As aconsequence, the main arteri-al road remained out of boundsfor the traffic movement forseveral hours.
Talking to mediapersonsafter visiting the spot,Maharashtra’s former ChiefMinister Devendra Fadnavissaid: “I visited the Peddar Roadin south Mumbai where theentire road got blocked due tolandslide. Not only traffic gotaffected but water supply too”.
Meanwhile, the Island cityof Mumbai recorded 331.8 mmof rains during 24 hours between
8.30 am on August 5 and 8.30am August 6, which incidentallywas the highest rainfall in 46years. The city suburbs record-ed a rain of 162.3mm during thesame period.
Of the 15 wall collapsesreported on Thursday, six werereported from the Island city,six incidents took place in theeastern suburbs, while theremaining three incidents werereported from western suburbsof the city.
Similarly, there were 361tree falls — 274 in the city, 40eastern suburbs and 47 in thewestern suburbs — were report-ed from across the metropolis,while 57 incidents of electricshort circuits were reportedfrom the different parts of themetropolis. Following the callby the weather bureau, the fish-ermen from the Coastal Konkanregion chose not to venture intothe sea.
Meanwhile, 16 fishermenwho were stranded off Arnalaoff Thane district were rescuedby Indian Coast Guard.
A crane in the JawaharlalNehru Port Trust collapsed
but no damage to any vesselwas reported, while windscaused extensive damage to theDY Patil Stadium in Nerul inNavi Mumbai.
In a related development,Kolhapur district in WesternMaharashtra has been put onhigh alert with the Panchgangariver flowing over the flood linein some places. ThePanchganga river is flowing at41.2 feet level whereas the alertlevel is 39 feet and dangermark is 43 feet
The movement on nineState highways and two dozenroads in the Kolhapur districtwere affected because of rain-fall since the last three days.
Maharashtra Chief MinisterUddhav Thackeray reviewedthe situation in Kolhapur, alongwith the neighbouring district ofSangli which had in July-Augustwitnessed deluge and floods.Uddhav advised Konkan andPune divisional commissionersto focus on overflowing of riversin Kolhapur, Raigad, Ratnagiriand shift local residents to safer places in view of flooding of rivers.
In a major spike in the num-ber of Covid-19 infections in
Maharashtra, an all-time dailyhigh of 11,514 people testedpositive for coronavirus onThursday, while 316 peoplesuccumbed to the pandemic invarious parts of the State.
Surpassing the earlierrecord daily tally of 11,147infections reported on July 30,the State witnessed a new highof 11,514 infections, takingthe total number infected casesto a staggering 4,79,779.
Breaching the 300 fatalitymark on the fourth consecutiveday in week, Maharashtrarecorded 316 deaths onThursday. Earlier, there were322 deaths on August 1, thestate recorded 300 deaths onAugust 4 and 334 on August 5.
With the 316 fresh deaths,the total number of deaths inthe state mounted to 16,792.
Of the total reported onThursday, Pune accounted forthe highest 62 deaths, followedby 57 deaths in Mumbai and 56deaths in Thane.
Apart from 62 deaths inPune, 57 in Mumbai and 56 inThane, there were 18 deaths inNagpur, 15 in Solapur, 13 eachin Nashik, Jalgaon andKolhapur, 10 in Palghar, 7 eachin Aurangabad, Parbhani andAmravati, 6 in Latur, 5 each inRaigad, Ahmednagar, Sangliand Nanded, 3 in Buldhana, 2each in Dhule, Satara andYavatmal and one death each inNandurbar, Ratnagiri andAkola.
With 57 deaths, the Covid-19 toll in the city rose from6591 to 6648, while the num-ber of infected cases went up by910 to touch 1,20,150.
On a day when 10854patients were discharged fromhospitals in the state after fullrecovery, taking the total num-ber of patients dischargedfrom various hospitals after full
recovery since the second weekof March this year to 3,16,375..The recovery rate rose to 65.94per cent. The mortality rate inthe state is 3.50 per cent. TheState health authorities peggedthe number of “active cases” inthe state at 1,46,305.
Pune, which has emergedas the second worst-affecteddistrict in terms of spread of thepandemic, has recorded1,04,353 infections and 2496deaths till now.
With 1,00,875 infectedcases and 2,823 deaths, Thanecontinued to be the second-worst hit district inMaharashtra.
Out of 24,87, 990 samplessent to laboratories, 4,79,779have tested positive (19.23 percent) for COVID-19 untilThursday.
Currently, 9,76,332 peo-ple are in home quarantinewhile 37,768 people are ininstitutional quarantine.
Meanwhile, MaharashtraGovernor Bhagat SinghKoshyari e-inaugurated a newCovid-19 testing lab atBhaktivedanta Hospital in MiraRoad, one of the Coronahotspots, in the presence of thehospital Chairman HrishikeshMafatlal, Mira-BhayanderMunicipal Corporation MayorJyotsana Hasnale and MLAGita Jain.
New Delhi: The NationalHighways Authority of India(NHAI) under the Ministry ofRoad Transport and Highwayson Thursday signed a MoUwith the Indian Institute ofTechnology (IIT) Delhi to setup a Centre of Excellence (CoE)for use of Artificial Intelligence(AI) in data driven decisionmaking and advance data man-agement system for Highways.
Under the partnership, IITDelhi will work with NHAI ondeveloping advanced analyticsbased on AI and ML, preparesimulation models, enhance datastorage and retrieval capacities tofurther strengthen NHAI’s capa-bilities in data-driven decisionmaking. The collaboration,according to a statement fromthe MoRTH, will be undertak-en on the identified thrust areaslike Project Management andData Management, HighwayNetwork Traffic Demand andIncident Management, Highway safety, Highway Work-zone Management,Highway PavementManagement System. PNS
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The Border Security Force(BSF) has dismissed a con-
stable from service for alleged-ly facilitating Pakistani smug-glers to sneak in contrabandlike weapons and drugs.
BSF constable RajendraPrasad was arrested along withtwo others by the Punjab Policeon July 28 from his nativeplace at Sriganganagar inRajasthan.
“As per the Punjab Policeinvestigation report, ConstableRajendra Prasad of 71 Bn BSFwas found guilty on the chargeof collusion with smugglers.Subsequently, on August 4,under the zero-tolerance poli-cy, Constable Rajendra Prasad(was) dismissed from the ser-vice under the provision of theBSF Act and Rule with effectfrom August 4,” reads the state-ment of BSF (Punjab Frontier).
Prasad, posted at a borderoutpost (BOP) in Chhina vil-lage in Taran Tarn district ofPunjab, was found to be thepart of cross-border drugs and weapons smugglingsyndicate busted by the Punjab Police.
The Punjab police hadrecovered a.30 bore pistol alongwith five live cartridges and Rs 24.50 lakh in cash fromPrasad and two of his accom-plices — Surmail Singh andGurjant Singh.
Punjab Police probe hadrevealed that Prasad had alleged-ly helped the syndicate in getting17 kg of heroin and two foreign-made pistols in May. Duringquestioning by the Punjab police,Prasad’s associates Surmail andGurjant had revealed that theywere working with a cross-bor-der smuggler, Satnam Singhalias Satta, a resident of TaranTarn district. Satta was closelylinked with Pakistan-basedsmugglers for getting heroinand weapons supplies fromacross the border to Punjab. Theduo had also disclosed thatPrasad was also involved in thesmuggling racket.
Kerala Governor ArifMohammad Khan hitthe nail on its head lastweek when he said thatsome people make the
mistake of equating culture withreligion. The former is about a con-sciousness and identity that set usapart as a people and wholly unre-lated to the individual faiths wemight practise. Yet some com-mentators look at things from aWestern or Semitic frame of refer-ence. The subject of logic has twobroad sections, namely deductiveand inductive. The former sectionbegins reasoning with a clear-cutpremise without any explanation.For example, Judaism asserts thatJehovah is god; Moses the Prophetand Torah the scripture. What fol-low are logical corollaries of thispremise, all of which the believermust expectedly accept duringhis/her journey to heaven, whichends on Doomsday.
Allah, the merciful, is the godof Muslims. Muhammad is the lastProphet and the Quran the finalmessage for all those who consid-er Abraham as the first Prophet ofall. The Quran is supplemented bythe Hadith or traditions and theSunnah, which records the lessonsof the Prophet’s life. Between thesescriptures, the momin or the faith-ful Muslim would get a completeprescription for how to live lifeindividually as well as collective-ly. There is, as it were, no need tolook left or right. The Islamicscriptures lay out all possible dosand don’ts, the halals and haraamsabout which the believer does notneed to ponder or hesitate. Thelogic of the religion flows like ariver.
Christianity preceded Islam,and among the Abrahamic reli-gions, has more followers thaneither Islam or Judaism on paper.Islam acknowledges Jesus but as aProphet and not as a son of God.Moreover, governance is covered byreligion; whereas the Bible assignspolitics to Caesar, as the emperorwas called in those days. As a result,separating the Church from theState was possible when the“Reformation” came in the 16thcentury. However, the religion ofChrist has grown into manydenominations, each having asomewhat different theologicalview. By contrast, Islam stoppedIjtihad or reinterpretation of theol-ogy, which was reflected in theSunni (about 90 per cent Muslims)attitude to the temple issue.
So what lies at the core of theHindu-Muslim equation inIndia? There are differing viewson the subject. MA Jinnah hadsaid that Pakistan was born theday the first Hindu was convert-ed to Islam. In contrast, MKGandhi had told the then BritishPrime Minister RamsayMacDonald in London in 1931that Hindu-Muslim riots arecoeval with British rule. The ruleended 73 years ago but riots stillcontinue; remember thePartition was meant to be a solu-tion to the problem. In that con-text, Jinnah’s separatism did takethe Islamic pressure off theother communities. He, howev-er, had in mind a completeexchange of population, asdesigned by the League ofNations and implemented in1923 between Greece andTurkey and between Bulgariaand Turkey. BR Ambedkarendorsed this proposal butCongress leaders paid no atten-tion to the idea.
Coming back to logic, thedeductive section is clearly up-down, given the premise fol-lowed by its corollaries and rea-soning. Abrahamic faiths followthis approach. Inductive logic isthe reverse; there is no givenpremise. The facts, data and sen-timents are gathered from theground, the people and the rea-soning move upwards until aconclusion is arrived at. This isfree reasoning; nothing is given.
Hinduism, Indic faith orwhat is often referred to as theSanatan Dharma, or eternalfaith or virtue, follows theinductive path. Which would
explain the multiplicity ofHindu denominations. One ofthe few common factors thatruns through all of them iskarma, leading to bhagya orfate; deed causes destiny. Thisequation is as near as faith canget close to science or physics;for every action, there is anequal and opposite reaction.
To illustrate the liberality ofthe inductive approach, let ustake a hypothetical example. Letus assume four Hindus fromfour directions of India dis-cussing the subject of “roses.”The person from the east couldclaim that “roses” are alwayswhite. One from the west couldcontend that “roses” are alwaysred and no other colour. Thenortherner would insist that heand his friends have only seenpink “roses.” The south Indianwould probably laugh and con-tradict all the three, saying“roses” are yellow and he hasseen none other. The argumentcould go on for a while butwould not lead to a quarrel.There would not be any agree-ment on the colour of the rosesbut the four would most likelyto agree to disagree.
If a person worshipping anAbrahamic religion were presentat the debate, he could insist thatroses are red; the other coloursare probably weeds or perhapsflowers other than roses.
This fundamental differ-ence between the deductive andinductive approaches is clear andsharp. The former insists on itsviewpoint and does not concedethe opposite contention; hencefights and wars have been fre-
quent. For the deductive to be atpeace with the inductive is moredifficult. This is the Hindu-Muslim syndrome. While theSultans and Nawabs ruled, therewas no way the Hindus couldriot. This violent civil phenom-enon began after these rulerswere brought down and anequalisation set in.
Remember that thedethroning work was per-formed by the British EastIndia Company; Robert Clive inthe east vanquished NawabSirajuddualla in 1757. LordWellesley saw the conclusiveend of Tipu Sultan in 1799while Lord Dalhousie pushedout Nawab Wajid Ali Shah forthe company to take overAwadh in 1856. These were thethree corners of India. Thewestern or fourth corner, com-prising Rajasthan and Gujarat,remained mostly with the localprincipalities. Gwalior, Indore,Kolhapur and others survivedas princely States until indepen-dence in 1947.
Uncannily, there have notbeen Hindu-Christian riotsalthough there have been inci-dents of Muslims killingChristians, especially in Pakistan.What the circumstance is in thatcountry we do not know. We doknow though that we needdomestic peace and there is noalternative but to co-existrespecting each other’s limitsthan being confrontationist. Andto do so is not too difficult. Aswe are bound by Indic culture.
(The writer is a well-knowncolumnist and an author. Viewsexpressed are personal)
Sir — This refers to the editor-ial, “Closure for Sushant”(August 6). The Centre’s deci-sion to order a Central Bureauof Investigation (CBI) inquiryinto Sushant Singh Rajput’sdeath has emboldened hopesfor justice. Despite having agood professional reputationand high integrity, the Mumbaipolice so far has not been up tothe mark in probing this case.It was surprising that theMumbai police and the BombayMunicipal Corporation (BMC)forcibly quarantined VinayTiwari, the officer from Biharwho came to Mumbai for adetailed investigation of thecase. People lost trust becauseof these feeble approaches,necessitating a CBI probe. Onehopes that justice shall prevail.
Tushar AnandPatna
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Sir — It is true that as far asAyodhya is concerned, “histo-ry is being made and crores ofIndians cannot believe that this
day has come.” There is nodoubt that the Ram temple willbe a symbol of modern Indiabut the reality cannot be wishedaway. The economy is in trou-ble; unemployment has affect-ed many households and busi-nesses have shrunk.Privatisation is on the rise andthere is trouble as far as Chinaand Pakistan are concerned.
Our leaders must follow SwamiVivekananda’s thought: “It is aprivilege to serve mankind, forthis is the worship of god. Godis here, in all these humansouls. He is the soul of man.”The Government must reassessits priorities, particularly whenthe enemy is at our door.
Bidyut Kumar ChatterjeeFaridabad
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Sir — This refers to the editor-ial, “Now Pak in map war”(August 6). That Pakistan hasreleased a territorially mislead-ing map, which includes muchof Kashmir and Junagadh into itsterritory, shows its desperation.Brazen actions like these smack
of Chinese connivance in thebackdrop of the standoff alongthe LoC. This move drew a sharpreaction from New Delhi as itdubbed it an “exercise in politi-cal absurdity.” But this time, weneed to firmly refute its claimsand reassert our territorial sov-ereignty.
Devendra KhuranaBhopal
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Sir — It seems only a matter oftime for India to attain the dubi-ous distinction of topping theglobal charts of daily COVIDdeaths. Delhi, Maharashtra andTamil Nadu, which reported thehighest number of cases untilnow, have managed to bend thevirus curve. Bihar, UttarPradesh and West Bengal arethe new hotspots. Sadly, manyof these States are less equippedto tackle the virus load. Centralcoordination and support willbe needed to fight the virus inthe hinterland.
In the last two decades, the gender landscapein rural India has been greening and womenare now on the cusp of a powerful social and
political revolution. The harbinger of this changeis a unique policy experiment in village-level gov-ernance, the Panchayati Raj Act, which hasbrought transformative results for the weakest ofthe weak: The village women. In a country thathas a bad scorecard in matters of gender equal-ity, India has set a stellar example by becominga crucible for one of social democracy’s mostinnovative experiments in gender justice. Womennow steer local governance in thousands of vil-lages.
This revolution led to the discovery of sev-eral hidden gems and one of them is ShalanShelke, an intrepid and passionate woman witha unique brand of earnestness and determina-tion. She has galvanised the poor, unletteredwomen in Sangamner, a remote corner of India’sdeep hinterland. Sangamner is the site of the con-fluence of three rivers: Pravara, Mhalungi andAdhala in Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra.
Now a 49-year-old firebrand, Shalan was oneof those emerging backyard leaders, who realisedearly on that powerful things could happen ifmarginalised communities were themselvesinvolved in finding solutions to issues plaguingthem. She is now a crusader for a number ofsocial causes. By giving marginalised women astake in the outcome of their communities,Shalan and her band of workers are trying tounlock human potential, both for themselves andfor thousands of women in villages aroundSangamner.
Shalan was 20, barely out of college, whenshe became a social activist and entrepreneur.Although she had mentors and friends to sup-port her, the journey was hard. She taught her-self advocacy and business skills in a male-dom-inated culture. “Being a woman in this space ischallenging,” says Shalan. She recalls how “scary”it was when her initial efforts landed her in trou-ble but relatives and friends rallied around andchipped in.
She had seen women of her mother’s gener-ation bearing multiple burdens. The drudge workthat goes into cultivation is mostly done bywomen. They till the land, sow the seeds, de-hullthe grains, attend to livestock and also act as pri-mary caregivers to their families, that include chil-dren and elders. We all are aware of this but dolittle to change some of the harsh realities of ourcountry. But Shalan was made of sterner stuff andinstead of being resigned to status quo, she decid-ed to upend it.
Shalan’s voice is one among many pushingfor women’s rights. In recent years, women havefelt more empowered to call out men’s wrongdo-ings, leading to conversations about the powerdynamics that women are subjected to in thehome and beyond. In many ways, it is still a man’sworld, yet women are working to change that intheir communities. Change is seldom easy. Thepatriarchal status quo is deeply entrenched, espe-cially in traditional societies where challengingthe system comes at a hefty cost.
Shalan’s journey began with the founding ofNirmiti Mahila Udyojik Sahakari Sanstha (calledNirmiti for short) in 2001 in Sangamner. It sup-ports local communities to transition from a sup-ply-led to a demand-driven approach and har-nesses resources from the departments of agri-
culture, tribal welfare and otherGovernment agencies. Through theirmultiple roles and responsibilities,women are learning, adapting andreinventing themselves along the way.The society now has about 900 mem-bers with a yearly turnover of about �90lakh.
A chance encounter in 2003 helpedShalan make her mark as a businessleader and also put me on a wonderfuljourney. I was posted in Mumbai tohead my bank’s State operations inmicro-finance. Shalan was heading afederation of self-help groups (SHGs)of women in Sangamner. She was alsoa prominent face on various platformsin Mumbai and Pune for rural women.I was amazed at her understanding ofglobal economics, particularly her abil-ity to analyse local issues in the inter-national context. I continue to marvelat the logical precision with which shepresents the economic and social caseof marginalised women.
It was around this time that Shalanand her colleagues decided to set up anorganic fertiliser manufacturing unit.One of the primary livelihood activitiesof women in her federation was the col-lection of neem seeds, which wereprocessed and then supplied to manu-facturers of fertilisers and pesticides.Shalan and her associates decided to setup their own production facilities toenhance employability for locals. Theloan processing was fast-tracked and themoney released in time, thanks toShalan’s perseverance. However, due toher lack of experience and the techni-cal inadequacy of the team to whom thejob of assembling the plant was out-sourced, the unit couldn’t take off.
It was a major setback but Shalanfought back. She and her partners did-n’t let the bank down either. They paidoff the entire loan from their own sav-ings. Shalan has grown wiser in theprocess and has preferred to spread herrisks evenly by opting for joint ventures.
While pursuing her entrepreneur-ship journey, Shalan didn’t lose sight ofher primary mission: Advocacy forbroader social issues of poor and dis-criminated women. In 2006, she start-ed a magazine to channel the voices ofthese women. It is named Bahina, aftera local poetess Bahinabai Choudhari,who was herself unlettered but com-posed inspiring verses. The coverage ofrural issues in the mainstream media isvery spotty and Bahina filled an impor-tant space. It has a distinct activistflavour and serves as a hyper-local plat-form. The region’s arid expanse over-flows with social and economic strife.This has been channelised into the mag-azine’s writings where issues are report-ed and analysed from a woman’s per-spective.
The magazine brought aboutimmense change in the lives of the read-ers. It has been able to capture thegroundswell of discontent and packagethe subtle nuances of the discourse ina highly palatable form. It has been ableto build the perspectives of women sothat they are equipped in their effort toupend the feudal system that kepttheir women ancestors trapped in servi-tude.
Shalan has also tapped businessopportunities for women to have a reli-able and consistent source of income.In 2011, the co-operative set up a can-teen at the girls’ hostel in the local uni-versity campus. The canteen caters to500 girls, providing nutritious, hygien-ic meals made from locally-growncrops and vegetables. Three years later,the Nirmiti started canteen services forthe students of the Lok PanchayatRural Technology College inSangamner. In 2016, Nirmiti set up itsown Co-operative Credit Society. It has1,237 members with a share capital of�20 lakh and fixed deposits of �1.25crore.
Shalan’s entrepreneurial dreamsfound sturdy wings when she collabo-
rated with an acclaimed food compa-ny to set up a bakery. Reema Sathe, awell-known entrepreneur, has mentoredthis project which provides employmentto farmers, workers at the baking unitand retailers. Nirmiti has also been ableto use the time-honoured native knowl-edge of seeds to build a cadre of “seedmothers” who are now the stewards ofbiodiversity, protecting the geneticwealth of the country through “seedvaults.” They are conserving the indige-nous seed heritage and preservingheirloom races of crops.
Now, more than ever, these women,many of whom escaped povertythrough the SHG route and knowwhat it is like to be destitute and poor,are living up to their motto of self-helpand solidarity. For these women andcommunities, crisis is not new. Theyhave lived through failed crops, unpaiddebts and recurring droughts whichthey have faced almost every single year.Nirmiti’s approach of self-reliance andself-empowerment has helped strength-en the innate resilience of these womenthat is steering them through theCOVID-19 pandemic.
Shalan has come a long way sinceshe started out. She shepherds a feder-ation of almost 350 SHGs, all of whichare actively engaged in a variety ofsocio-economic activities. Her successstory underscores the importance ofgiving poor people access to loans, sav-ings accounts and other financial ser-vices that can help them create business-es and reach their full potential. It isworth understanding that sheer grit anda helping hand can sometimes blazetrails where none seems possible. “Itfeels so good,” beams Shalan. “I reallyfeel like a seasoned business leader.”Women leaders like Shalan present uswith shiny, silver glimmers as they steertheir communities through these ten-uous times.
(The writer is a well-known devel-opment professional)
While crossing the KalindiKunj bridge over theYamuna in Delhi, have you
ever wondered about the reason forthe white, frothy foam floating on theriver’s surface? This toxic foam, thatis usually seen in abundance in July,prompted the National Green Tribunal(NGT)-appointed special committeeto instruct the Delhi Pollution ControlCommittee (DPCC) to submit areport to it on the issue. The reportconcluded that sewage flowing into theYamuna contained an abnormallyhigh amount of detergent. This, cou-pled with the churning of the watersat the barrage, led to the formation ofthe toxic foam on the river’s surface.The problem was compounded by the
presence of traditional laundries alongthe banks of the river and 23 drainsfrom Delhi directly dischargingsewage containing phosphate deter-gents and industrial effluents into it.
The two-member Yamuna mon-itoring committee got this informationwith the aid of the nine quality mon-itoring stations of the DPCC along thebanks of the river. Now that the causefor the toxic foam on the river’s sur-face has been found, it is for theGovernment to convert the findingsof the report into verifiable andmeaningful action.
Sadly, rivers in urban India havealways been the dumping ground forsewage, effluents from industries,riverside laundries and tanneries,ashes of the dead and even bodies ofthose who are not cremated. TheYamuna is no exception and hasendured pollution of all kinds, for cen-turies. The most visible form of a riverlodging a silent protest against pollu-tion is the appearance of the toxicfoam.
The Bellandur Lake in Bengaluruis another such water body that has
been in the news for spewing exces-sive white, toxic foam. The pollutionlevel in Bengaluru’s largest lake is anexample of the apathy and inefficien-cy of the Bangalore Water Supply andSewerage Board in managing sewagedisposal. To make matters worse, thedumped chemicals and oil in the laketend to float to the surface and alsocatch fire intermittently, thus addingto air pollution. This level of pollutionin our water bodies raises pertinentquestions about the role and efficien-cy of Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs)
that are primarily installed to treat thewater and ensure that the pollutionremains in a controllable range in ourwater bodies and rivers. In 2014, theMinistry of Environment and Forestsstated that 70 per cent of India’s STPswere dysfunctional and the mainreason for this was the high cost ofmaintenance and the ever-growinggap between the sewage to be treatedand the capacity of the STP to handleit. Six years down the line, the situa-tion is not any different. The facts pre-sent a grim picture and a break forIndia’s long-suffering rivers seemsfar off as nearly 70 per cent of thesewage treated in India does notmeet the acceptable standards andthere is a 78.7 per cent gap betweensewage generation and the STP’sinstalled capacity to treat it. Even if theadditional 1,742.6 million litres a day(MLD) of sewage treatment capacityis factored in, that is either in the plan-ning stages or under construction,there will still be a gap of 72.7 per centin the sewage treatment capacity in thecountry.
The situation is expected to get
worse, as according to a report by theCPCB, sewage generation in India is61,000 MLD or enough to fill 24,800Olympic-sized swimming pools daily.Against this, we have a paltry sewagetreatment capacity of 23,277 MLD.
Adding to the problem is theabsence of a centralised sewerage sys-tem that allows for correct channellingof sewage output. The 12th Five-YearPlan Report on Urban Developmenthighlighted that a shocking 4,861 citiesand towns in India do not have a basiccentral sewage system. Large citiessuch as Bengaluru find themselves inthis list as nearly 50 per cent of thecity’s households do not have a prop-er sewage system that is connected toa central system. This naturally meansthat these households channel theirsewage to the nearest water body.
The impact of all this pollution onwater bodies is devastating to say theleast. Aquatic life and biodiversity suf-fer irreversible damage and so dohumans who are dependent on thewater bodies for their livelihoods.
There is an urgent need for theGovernment to set up special action
committees that can look at theunderlying causes for the inoperableSTPs and those that require repairs tobe functional again.
To save our rivers, there is a needto attach top priority to the establish-ment of new STPs that can increasethe current 37 per cent treatmentcapability to at least 80 per cent of thesewage generated. This can be doneby opening the STP sector to entrepre-neurship platforms and providingthe necessary technical expertise,funding and subsidies on encourag-ing terms. This will serve the twin pur-pose of creating employment-gener-ating enterprises, besides also narrow-ing the gap between sewage generat-ed and sewage treated. India needs anaction-oriented initiative to turnaround the urban rivers and waterbodies that are plagued by pollutionsuch as the toxic white foam seen onthe Yamuna’s surface. Till such actionis taken the white foam on our riverswill be a reminder that we have failedour rivers.
Washington: The RepublicanParty and the Trump campaignhave collectively raised over$165 million in July, surpassingthe billion-dollar thresholdwith a total haul of $1.1 billion.
The joint re-election effortcontinues their cash in handadvantage, with an over $300million war chest, theRepublican NationalCommittee (RNC) announcedon Wednesday.
“With 90 days until victo-ry, our teams and supporters arein overdrive working to re-electPresident (Donald) Trump andRepublicans up and down theballot,” said RNC chairwomanRonna McDaniel.
According to the RNC,July's massive haul is not onlya record for the month, but alsoeclipses the total raised in anysingle month of 2016.
July was also the largestonline fundraising month everfor the re-election effort, it said.
"The enthusiasm behindPresident Trump's re-electioncontinues to grow as July's
massive fundraising totalsprove,” said Bill Stepien, Trump2020 campaign manager.
“Voters express their sup-port for President Trump inmany different ways and donat-ing to his campaign is one ofthe most personal, becausethey feel invested in his successand the future success of thecountry. The President's sup-port continues to increasewhile Joe Biden just posted adown fundraising month fromhis basement,” he said.
The RNC recentlyannounced the hiring of anadditional 300 field staffers,bringing the total Trump
Victory operation to over 1,500– double that of Biden's fieldoperation.
With a grassroots army of1.8 million Americans, theTrump Victory field effort is onpace to surpass the 2.2 millionvolunteers that helped re-electPresident Barack Obama in2012, the media release said.
Seeking re-election for hissecond consecutive term,Trump, 74, is pitted againstDemocratic presidential nom-inee Joe Biden, 77, in theNovember 3 presidential elec-tions. Most of the opinionpolls show that Biden is sever-al points ahead of Trump. PTI
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New York: The day afterDonald Trump's election inNovember 2016, the AmericanCivil Liberties Union posted amessage to him on its website:“See you in court.”
As president, Trump hasn'tpersonally squared off againstthe American Civil LibertiesUnion (ACLU) from the wit-ness stand, but the broaderwarning has been borne out.
As of this week, the ACLUhas filed nearly 400 lawsuits andother legal actions against theTrump administration, somemeeting with setbacks butmany resulting in importantvictories.
Among other successes forthe ACLU, it prevailed in a U.S.Supreme Court case blockingthe administration from plac-ing a citizenship question on the2020 census. It also spearhead-ed legal efforts that curtailed thepolicy of separating manymigrant children from theirparents.
“The assault on civil liber-ties and civil rights is greaterunder this administration thanany other in modern history,”said the ACLU's president,Anthony Romero.
“It's meant we've been liv-ing with a three-alarm fire inevery part of our house.” Sincethe day Trump took office, theACLU — according to a break-down it provided to TheAssociated Press — has filed237 lawsuits against the admin-istration and about 160 otherlegal actions, includingFreedom of Information Actrequests, ethics complaints andadministrative complaints.
Of the lawsuits, 174 havedealt with immigrant rights,targeting the family separationpolicy, detention and deporta-tion practices and the admin-istration's repeated attempts tomake it harder to seek asylumat the U.S.-Mexico border.
The other lawsuits addressan array of issues high on theACLU's agenda: voting rights,LGBT rights, racial justice andothers. In one long-runningcase, the ACLU succeeded inblocking the administration'spolicy of barring young immi-grant women in governmentcustody from getting abortions.
“Donald Trump has pro-vided a full employment pro-gram for ACLU lawyers on all ofour issues,” Romero said. AP
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Detroit (US): Joe Biden'sDemocratic presidential cam-paign has launched a newnational ad focused on BlackAmericans, urging them tostand up to President DonaldTrump the way their ancestorsstood up to "violent racists ofa generation ago."
The one-minute ad, whichwas shared exclusively withThe Associated Press before itsdigital and television release onThursday, is meant to drum upsupport among BlackAmericans, a key constituencyfor Biden, ahead of November'sgeneral election.
The ad, titled “BetterAmerica,” also takes a directswipe at Trump, without men-tioning the Republican presi-dent by name.
“We must choose to fightfor that better America,” the nar-rator states. “And just like ourancestors who stood up to theviolent racists of a generationago, we will stand up to thispresident and say, 'No more,'because America is better thanhim. So we choose to be bigger.We choose to be bolder. Wechoose to bring back justice,
respect and dignity to this coun-try. We choose Joe Biden to leadus all towards that Americanpromise together.” AfricanAmericans have largely sup-ported Biden's presidential bidand have been credited withsingle-handedly transformingthe Democratic presidentialrace and cementing his status asfront-runner after his decisiveprimary win in South Carolina.
But Black Americans, whoform one of the party's mostloyal voting blocs, have been hitdoubly hard by the COVID-19pandemic — they have diedfrom the virus at dispropor-tionate rates across the coun-try, and they've borne the bruntof its economic fallout.
And in recent months, his-toric protests against policebrutality and systemic racismhave changed the national dis-course around race, thrustingit into a national spotlight andat the heart of the presidentialcampaign. The ad is part of theBiden campaign's planned $280million digital and television adbuy that was announcedWednesday and will runthrough the fall. AP
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Washington: At the lastminute, President DonaldTrump and his Democraticrival, Joe Biden, are searchingfor places to impressively yetsafely accept their parties' pres-idential nominations as thespread of the coronavirus addsfresh uncertainty to the cam-paign for the White House.
Trump said Wednesdayhe's considering giving hisAug. 27 acceptance speech onthe grounds of the WhiteHouse, a move that could vio-late ethics law.
Biden, meanwhile,scrapped plans to accept theDemocratic nomination onAugust 20 in Milwaukee, wherethe party has spent more thana year planning a massive con-vention.
Presidential conventionsare a staple of American poli-tics and have played out againstnational traumas as signifi-cant as the Civil War andWorld War II. AP
Washington: Dr HiralTipirneni, an Indian-Americanemergency room physician, haswon the Democratic party pri-mary for the US House ofRepresentatives in the US stateof Arizona. New polling showedthat Tipirneni is just three pointsdown to the Republican incum-bent David Schweikert. Theseat is said to be a Republicanstronghold.
“I am honoured to be thenominee in Arizona's 6thCongressional District. Fornearly a decade, our district hasbeen represented by a DC politi-cian who puts the profits of hisspecial interest corporate donorsover positive change that willmake life better for workingfamilies here in Arizona,”Tipirneni said. Tipirneni wasthree years old when her fami-ly immigrated from India to thiscountry to pursue the Americandream. PTI
Washington: Facebook Inc hastaken down a post by USPresident Donald Trump,which the company said vio-lated its rules against sharingmisinformation about the novelcoronavirus.
The post contained a videoclip from an interview with Fox& Friends earlier onWednesday, in which Trumpclaimed that children are"almost immune" to COVID-19, the disease caused by thenovel coronavirus.
"This video includes falseclaims that a group of people isimmune from COVID-19,which is a violation of our poli-cies around harmful COVIDmisinformation," a Facebookspokesman said.
A tweet containing thevideo that was posted by theTrump campaign's@TeamTrump account andshared by the president was alsolater hidden by Twitter Inc forbreaking its COVID-19 misin-formation rules.
A Twitter spokesman saidthe @TeamTrump accountowner would be required toremove the tweet before theycould tweet again. AGENCIES
Washington: PresidentDonald Trump is still trying tooverturn “Obamacare,” buthis predecessor's health carelaw keeps gaining ground inplaces where it was onceunwelcome.
Missouri voters this weekapproved Medicaid expansionby a 53 per cent to 47 per centmargin, making the conserva-tive state the seventh to do sounder Trump.
The president readily car-ried Missouri in 2016, but theMedicaid vote comes as morepeople have been losing work-place health insurance in atreacherous coronavirus econ-omy.
That leaves only a dozenstates opposed to using the fed-eral-state health program forlow-income people as a vehiclefor covering more adults, main-ly people in jobs that don't pro-vide health care. AP
Colombo: Sri Lanka's power-ful Rajapaksa family-run SriLanka People's Party (SLPP)appeared to be heading for alandslide win in the country'stwice-postponed parliamen-tary election, according toearly results announced onThursday.
The SLPP has polled morevotes than its rivals, scoringover 60 per cent of the totalvotes in the 16 seats declaredso far from the South, domi-nated by the Sinhala majoritycommunity. The party won 13seats out of 16.
In Galle destrict, the SLPPwon seven out of nine seats onoffer while in the neighbour-ing Matara district they dideven better by winning six outof seven seats on offer.
The nearest rival is the newparty formed by former pres-idential candidate SajithPremadasa who has relegatedhis mother party, the UnitedNational Party (UNP), of for-mer premier RanilWickremesinghe to the fourthplace even below the Marxist
Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna(JVP).
The SJB has won onlythree seats from both districts.
In the polling divisionresults from other districtswhere counting is in progress,the SLPP has taken unassail-able leads, sources said.
In the Tamil minoritydominated north, the mainTamil party - Tamil NationalAlliance (TNA) - despite bag-ging a few polling divisionshad also suffered unexpectedreversals at the hands of SLPP'sTamil allies - the EelamPeople's Democratic Party(EPDP).
The counting began in themorning after the polls wereclosed on Wednesday.
As the counting of votesbegan, SLPP founder and itsNational Organiser BasilRajapaksa — who is theyounger brother of PresidentGotabaya Rajapaksa with theeldest being Prime MinisterMahinda Rajapaksa — saidthat the party is all set to forma new government. PTI
!��0��"��������:<������ �� ���#�*���" ������������������� ������� Hiroshima: The dwindling
witnesses to the world's firstatomic bombing marked its75th anniversary Thursday,with Hiroshima's mayor andothers noting as hypocriticalthe Japanese government'srefusal to sign a nuclearweapons ban treaty.
Mayor Kazumi Matsuiurged world leaders to moreseriously commit to nucleardisarmament, pointing outJapan's failures.
“I ask the Japanese gov-
ernment to heed the appeal ofthe (bombing survivors) tosign, ratify and become aparty to the Treaty on theProhibition of NuclearWeapons,” Matsui said in hispeace declaration.
“As the only nation to suf-fer a nuclear attack, Japanmust persuade the global pub-lic to unite with the spirit ofHiroshima.” His speech high-lights what survivors feel is thehypocrisy of Japan's govern-ment, which hosts 50,000
American troops and is pro-tected by the US nuclearumbrella.
Tokyo has not signed thenuclear weapons ban treatyadopted in 2017, despite itsnon-nuclear pledge, a failureto act that atomic bombingsurvivors and pacifist groupscall insincere.
The US dropped its firstatomic bomb on Hiroshima onAugust 6, 1945, destroyingthe city and killing 140,000people. AP
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Beirut: Lebanese officials tar-geted in the investigation ofthe massive blast that torethrough Beirut sought to shiftblame for the presence ofexplosives at the city's port,and the visiting French presi-dent warned Thursday thatwithout serious reforms thecountry would “continue tosink.”
The blast Tuesday, whichappeared to have been caused
by an accidental fire that ignit-ed a warehouse full of ammo-nium nitrate at the city's port,rippled across the Lebanesecapital, killing at least 135people, injuring more than5,000 and causing widespreaddestruction.
It also may have acceler-ated the country's coronavirusoutbreak, as thousands flood-ed into hospitals in the wakeof the blast. AP
Kabul: Afghanistan officialssay a traditional consultativecouncil will convene on Fridayto decide whether the last 400Taliban prisoners will bereleased as part of a peaceagreement, even as its HealthMinistry says half of Kabul's res-idents are infected with thecoronavirus.
The Taliban have rejectedany changes to the deal theysigned in February with the US.
That deal calls for 5,000Taliban prisoners to be freed byKabul and the Taliban to free1,000 government personnel,including security officials,ahead of the start of intra-Afghan negotiations to mapout a framework for a futureAfghanistan. The release of the400 prisoners is the final hurdleto the start of negotiations.
The Taliban have freed the1,000 prisoners they were hold-ing and US And NATO soldiershave already begun withdraw-ing troops in line with theagreement. AP
����������)�D!���������0�4����������������������������,�������)���"�����Beirut: All I could think aboutwas finding the cat.
It was an irrational senti-ment but I kept thinking: If Icould find Sunday, then every-thing would suddenly be OK.
I don't even normally likepets, and have no idea howduring lockdown, I fell in lovewith this ginger cat who's con-stantly swishing her bushy tail.I kept imagining that dramat-ic tail lying flat, her eyes glazedover, dead under a beam.
But if Sunday was alive, Idecided, then maybe my closefriend, a fellow journalist, was
too. Normally I would havebeen with him, speeding to thescene on his motorcycle likewe often do when news breaksin Beirut. So when I saw himtweet that the city's port wason fire, I grabbed my helmetand changed into a pair ofjeans.
My boyfriend asked why Iwas going. He said the fire did-n't seem like big news. "Whyare you wasting your time?" heasked as I walked into the liv-ing room. Then everythingblew up.
Every door inside my
apartment, hinges and all, wasripped out of the walls. So wasmy air conditioner. My big fan split right in half. Mymassive living room windowsflew at me. The glass didn'tjust shatter; the windowsthemselves flew clean off. Igenuinely, even now, have noidea how I am not dead. Istood in a whirlwind of nailsand glass and splintered wood.I saw Sunday for a split second.Then we heard loud hummingthat sounded like planes andwithin moments, the secondblast hit. AGENCY
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In view of the continued needto support the viable MSME
entities on account of the fall-out of Covid-19, the ReserveBank on Thursday extendedthe one-time debt restructuringfor small businesses by anoth-er three months to March2021.
Besides, the central bankhas also relaxed some of theexisting provisions for availingthis scheme by the micro, smalland medium enterprises(MSMEs).
With Covid-19 continuingto disrupt normal functioningand cash flows, the stress in theMSME sector has got accentu-ated, warranting further sup-port, RBI Governor ShaktikantaDas said while announcing thecentral bank’s bi-monthly mon-etary policy outcome. “Accordingly, it has been decid-ed that stressed MSME bor-rowers will be made eligible forrestructuring their debt under
the existing framework, pro-vided their accounts with theconcerned lender were classi-fied as standard as on March 1,2020.
This restructuring will haveto be implemented by March31, 2021,” he said. As per theexisting scheme, the borroweraccount had to be standard ason January 1, 2020.
Asset classification of bor-rowers classified as standardmay be retained as such,whereas the accounts whichmay have slipped into NPA cat-egory between March 2, 2020and date of implementationmay be upgraded as ‘standardasset’, as on the date of imple-mentation of the restructuringplan.
However, the RBI askedbanks to maintain additionalprovision of 5 per cent over andabove the provision alreadyheld by them for accountsrestructured under these guide-lines.
The RBI has also retained
the aggregate exposure limit ofthe existing guidelines. As aresult, the exposure limit alsoincluding non-fund based facil-ities of banks and NBFCs to theborrower should not exceed Rs25 crore as on March 1, 2020.The MSME sector plays animportant role in the growth ofthe Indian economy as it con-tributes over 28 per cent of theGDP, more than 40 per cent ofexports, while creatingemployment for about 11 crorepeople. Commenting on thescheme, PwC Partner KuntalSur said it is a good move bythe RBI and would helpMSMEs impacted by COVID-19 to get time and space to ser-vice debt when cash flows areunder pressure due to uncer-tainty. Noting that arestructuring framework isalready in place for MSMEs, hesaid it was subject to restruc-turing being implemented upto December 31.The schemehas provided relief to a largenumber of MSMEs, he added.
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Interest rate-sensitive bank,realty and auto stocks closed
on a mixed note on Thursdayafter the RBI left interest ratesunchanged but maintained anaccommodative stance to shoreup growth.
Shares of Bandhan Bankdeclined 3.57 per cent, RBLBank 0.49 per cent, Axis Bankdipped 0.43 per cent and SBI0.29 per cent on the BSE.
In contrast, City UnionBank rose by 2.50 per cent,ICICI Bank gained 1.97 percent, HDFC Bank 1.24 percent, Kotak Mahindra Bank0.44 per cent, IndusInd Bank0.39 per cent, and FederalBank 0.19 per cent. The BSEBank index closed 0.71 per centhigher. From the auto pack,TVS Motor Company rose by2.22 per cent, Tata Motors 1.13per cent, Maruti Suzuki India0.49 per cent, Hero MotoCorp0.26 per cent, and AshokLeyland 0.10 per cent.
However, Mahindra &Mahindra dipped 0.75 per cent,
Bajaj Auto 0.67 per cent andMRF 0.42 per cent.
The BSE auto index closedregistering a marginal rise of0.07 per cent.
Among realty companies,Prestige Estates Projectsjumped 8.49 per cent, SunteckRealty 5.48 per cent, OberoiRealty 2.94 per cent, Sobha 0.57per cent and DLF 0.21 per cent.
Godrej Propertiesfell 1.48 per cent, IndiabullsReal Estate 1.35 per cent andMahindra LifespaceDevelopers 0.31 per cent.The realty index closed with again of 1.15 per cent.
“The status quo was large-ly on the expected line. Theapex bank is closely monitor-ing the impact of various mea-sures announced in the pastand now prefers to wait and seehow the COVID situation pansout for further action.
Having said that, theiraccommodative stance andexpectation of easing in infla-tion keep the possibility of arate cut alive.
“Besides, the additional
measures announced to sup-port the stressed sectors werealso received well by the mar-ket,” said Gurpreet Sidana,chief operating officer, ReligareBroking Ltd. T h eSensex surged 362 points toclose at 38,025.45.
The MonetaryPolicy Committee (MPC),headed by RBI GovernorShaktikanta Das, left the bench-mark repurchase (repo) rateunchanged at 4 per cent.
“Given the uncertainty sur-rounding the inflation outlookand extremely weak state of theeconomy in the midst of anunprecedented shock from theongoing pandemic, the MPCdecided to keep the policy rateon hold,” Das said.
He said the centralbank would remain “watchfulfor a durable reduction ininflation to use the availablespace to support the revival ofthe economy.” The committeeunanimously decided to con-tinue to keep its accommoda-tive policy stance “as long asnecessary to revive growth”.
information about new part-nership opportunities with theIndian companies during thefive-day virtual annual suppli-ers conference that ended onJuly 31, said an official state-ment on Thursday. These opportunities with theIndian industry are in areas likespace, aeronautics, rotary andmission systems (RMS) andmissiles and fire control(MFC), the company said. “A highlight from the compa-ny’s RMS group is future workwith MH-60R (naval heli-copter) for India.
There is an offset require-ment for the programme, andso as part of that, LockheedMartin will put more indirectwork over in India,” it stated.During the February visit of USPresident Donald Trump, Indiaannounced that it will procure24 MH-60R helicopters, worth
around USD 2.6 billion.Lockheed Martin on Thursdaysaid its RMS team will workwith capable Indian companiesover the next 7-8 years andprovide opportunities to theindustry to integrate into theglobal supply chain.
“RMS’ Supply Chain teamalready works with severalindustrial partners in Indiaand plans to expand that list,strengthening its commitmentto the country,” it added.In April last year, the Indian AirForce issued an RFI (request forinformation) or an initial ten-der to acquire 114 multirolefighter aircraft at a cost ofaround USD 18 billion, whichis billed as one of the world’sbiggest military procurement inrecent years.
The top contenders for thedeal include Lockheed’s F-21,Boeing’s F/A-18, DassaultAviation’s Rafale, theEurofighter Typhoon, Russianaircraft Mig 35 and Saab’sGripen.
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Bata India ChairmanAshwani Windlass on
Thursday said it has not laid offany employee so far, but admit-ted that there is not much clar-ity on “where the footwearmajor is heading” amid the rag-ing Covid-19 pandemic.
As of March, the companyhad 9,762 employees acrossfunctions and locations, ofwhich 4000-4500 are on third-party contract, he said.
“There is no layoff till date.Bata has friendly HR policies,”Windlass told shareholders atthe 87th annual general meet-ing of the company.“I don’tthink we have complete clari-ty about where we are heading.Intermittent lockdowns andthe surging pandemic in somestates is of concern for us. Atthe end of the current quarter,we will be better placed toanalyse and calibrate our strate-gies,” he said.
The management hastaken a number of measures tosafeguard and reopen stores,while according top priority toemployee and customer safety,company officials said.“Actual demand recovery shallbe concurrent with the overallrecovery of the economy, whichis inching up now.
Complete reinstatement ofpre-COVID state of affairs isstill sometime away,” the chair-man said in his address at thevirtual AGM. Bata Indiahas achieved 35-40 per cent ofthe pre- COVID business lev-els, he said.
“Moreover, the RBI mora-torium will help bolster thehuge supply chain for Bata,”Windlass told PTI. Of thefootwear major’s 1,500 storesacross the country, around 85per cent are now open, he said,adding, the manufacturingunits are also operatingsmoothly, while adhering tohealth and safety protocols.
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Atotal of 12 proposals werepresented in the 156th
board meeting of the GDA onThursday, of the GhaziabadDevelopment Authority, mostof which were passed. Thespecial thing is that in theboard meeting, the sector ratewas freezed by 31 March 2021to dispose of the undocu-mented properties.
The mitigation policy 2020was also approved. The meet-
ing was chaired byMandalayukta and GDAChairman Anita SeenMeshram. In addition, theBoard approved the mitigationpolicy 2020.
GDA Vice President KanchanVerma said that the GDA
chairperson has given instruc-tions to make an inquiry on theproposal to terminate the inter-est due to non-intimation of theoutstanding amount to the
allottee in the Authority’sscheme and recover it from theemployee concerned. Decliningthe proposal to amend thecyber use of the proposed edu-cational land use in the map ofthe Kaushambi ResidentialScheme, dismantling the cyberhub in view of the land use ofthe land blocks to be kepteducational only and thedesired area for the cyber hubis not completed.
The proposal for has beenapproved. On the proposal
made in connection with theprogress of high-tech and inte-grated township schemes beingimplemented in Ghaziabad.
Thursday said that they havejoined hands to develop anddesign an online training andcertification course specifical-ly for the hospitality industry.
“The course will focus onredesigning the sanitisation
protocols and minimising per-son-to-person contact for ahotel in line with the standardoperating proceduresannounced by the tourismministry,” according to a jointstatement.
The course will help bud-get, mid-segment and bou-tique hotels and homestays inIndia as well as hospitalityprofessionals to maintain andimprove their safety andhygiene standards in line withgovernment and industrybenchmarks, it added.
OYO Hotels and Homesfounder and Group CEORitesh Agarwal said, “The cer-tification course will enablehospitality professionals andhotels across the country todetermine new ways of work-ing, understand governmentguidelines and align with bestpractices and re-imagine oper-ations in a manner that helpsboth customers and employeesfeel safe, secure and comfort-able.”FICCI will enable andsupport the implementationof information technology (IT)infrastructure and the onlinedelivery platform for the onlinecertification course, the state-ment said. OYO has developedand designed the course mate-rials for the programme, itadded. “This course hasbeen designed to help developa uniform set of self-regulatingguidelines,” FICCI SecretaryGeneral Dilip Chenoy said.
New Delhi:Business optimismfor the July-September quarterslumped to a record low due to
sharp rise in COVID-19 cases,the extension of lockdown incontainment zones and stag-
gered easing of restrictions,according to a report.
Dun & BradstreetComposite BusinessOptimism Index for the July-September quarter fell to arecord low of 29.4. The index registered a declineof 40.6 per cent over the lastquarter.The BOI covered about 350senior executives in June thisyear.
“The spike in the number ofpositive Covid-19 cases, theextension of lockdown in con-tainment zones and the stag-gered easing of restrictionsaffected the business optimismlevels,” said Arun Singh, GlobalChief Economist, Dun &Bradstreet.All six optimismindices -- volume of sales, netprofits, selling prices, neworders, inventories and employ-ees -- have registered a declineas compared to the previousquarter, the report said.
IT services major Wipro onThursday said it has part-
nered Intel to enable its LIVEWorkspace solution with thelatter’s vPro platform that willhelp customers drive businesscontinuity by enabling remote
IT support and solutions. Wipro integrated the Intel vProplatform into LIVE Workspace,a suite of digital workplace ser-vices to provide remote man-ageability of devices, a state-ment said.
This extends to users athome or in the office and pro-vides enhanced protection andsecurity against firmware-levelattacks, it added.
The combined solutionprovides practical businesscontinuity services to enableenterprises to rapidly design,deploy, and manage a trueremote work experience.
advisers, markets regulator Sebion Thursday said a wholly-owned subsidiary of a stockexchange can administer andsupervise such advisers.
Besides, the regulator putin place the criteria for grant ofrecognition to a stockexchange’s subsidiary and its
responsibilities.“Considering the growingnumber of registeredInvestment Advisers (IAs)...It isdecided to recognize a wholly-owned subsidiary of the stockexchange (stock exchange sub-sidiary) to administer andsupervise IAs registered withSebi,” the regulator said in a cir-cular.
Under IA Regulations, Sebican recognise any body or
body corporate for the purposeof regulating IAs. It furtherprovides that Sebi may, at thetime of recognition of suchbody, delegate administrationand supervision of IAs to suchbody or body corporate on cer-tain terms and conditions.
Sebi said the recognitionof stock exchange’s subsidiarywill be based on eligibility ofparent entity. The par-ent entity should be in exis-
tence for a minimum of 15years, should have a minimumnet worth of Rs 200 crore,should have nation-wide ter-minals as well as investor griev-ance redressal mechanism,including arbitration, the cir-cular said. Besides,the stock exchange needs tohave investor service centres(ISCs) in at least 20 cities.Sebi said the exchange willeither form a subsidiary or des-
ignate an existing subsidiary forthe purpose of regulating IAs.The subsidiary will put in placesystems for grievance redressal,administrative action againstIAs, maintain data, share infor-mation with Sebi.
The subsidiary needs tohave the necessary infrastruc-ture like adequate office space,equipment and manpower toeffectively discharge its respon-sibilities.
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Announcements made bythe Reserve Bank, partic-
ularly the one on resolution ofloans, have been welcomed bythe industry as well as marketplayers and experts.
The Reserve Bank of India(RBI) on Thursday
announced a loan restructuringwindow for corporates follow-ing the demand from bankersand the industry.
The restructuring will beallowed as per the prudential
framework issued in June 2019,RBI Governor Shaktikanta Dassaid.
Last week, Finance MinisterNirmala Sitharaman had said
that the government is workingwith the RBI on the need forrestructuring of loans to helpthe industry tide over theimpact of COVID-19.
Alot of love stories haveblossomed in last fewmonths of the lock-
down and the new couplesare eagerly waiting to meettheir loved ones. From theoutset, it’s hard to judgewhen this global health cri-sis is going to leave thecountry but one thing is forsure, love is unhinderedfrom the outside surround-ing and blooming like neverbefore.
A dating app, Gleeden,conducted a survey after thebeginning of ‘Unlock 1.0’and found out that about 75per cent of its users are will-ing to meet their love inter-ests if provided an opportu-nity. The survey was rolledout among 1,000 of its newlyjoined users and was con-ducted across metropolitancities like Mumbai, DelhiNCR, Bangalore, Chennai,Hyderabad and Pune. Thefindings from the survey arepretty exciting and it alsoaddresses the untouched sideof the reasons behind infi-delity. Here is a glimpse ofthe same.
The heart is always diceyCan you cheat on your
spouse and still love them at
the same time? Well, theanswer to this question is astricky as the question itselfand the users are no excep-tion. About 45.6 per cent ofthem think that their sharedintimacy won’t affect theircurrent relationship, while47 per cent of them believethat they cannot share thesame level of emotions withtwo different people. Aminute 7.4 per cent are inde-cisive about their stand onshared intimacy with theirspouses.
Why partners cheatInfidelity is considered as
a taboo worldwide and thereare a lot of factors leading upto the same. Lack of intima-cy and compatibility in a rela-tionship are just the kick-starters to the ultimate fate.Interestingly, it has been foundout that 37 per cent of peoplecheat their partners becausethey want to try out some-thing new or spice up theirexisting relationship. About 36per cent of people commitinfidelity because they are in
love with someone else otherthan their spouses, while forthe remaining 27 per cent, thedecision of committing infi-delity was taken when theyrealised that their currentpartner is not the right matchfor them both emotionally aswell as physically.
Blame it on the night It has been found that
people usually try to makenew connections whileattending a social gathering orat a club party; it can range
from an office function to areunion. About 23 per cent ofthe people admitted that theylook for new relationships orflings in a party gathering,while 22 per cent of the peo-ple would prefer it on a vaca-tion or while travelling. For 19per cent of them, the besttime is when their spouse isnot at home or is out for abusiness trip. Also, about 12per cent of the people are will-ing to find new connectionswithin their office premises,while the remaining 24 percent of the total users are will-ing to try out multiple mea-sures to find out their loveinterest.
Keep it casualIt seems that casual rela-
tionships are the need of thehour for 38 per cent of theapp users, who would liketo get into a new relation-ship without making seri-ous future commitments.About 23 per cent of theusers still believe in theold school romance andare looking for future lifepartners. Interestingly,about 39 per cent of usersare only interested in one-time affairs and are not look-ing for anything serious.
Two tests by AAA during thepast two years show that par-
tially automated driving systemsdon’t always function properly, sothe auto club is recommendingthat car companies limit theiruse. Researchers with AAArecently tested systems from fivemanufacturers over a distance of4,000 miles (6,400 kilometres),and said they encountered prob-lems every eight miles (13 kilo-metres).
Most of the issues involvedsystems designed to keep vehiclesin their lane, but the tests discov-ered that many had trouble spot-ting simulated broken-downvehicles in their path. Abouttwo-thirds of the time the testvehicles hit the broken-downcar, at an average speed of 25 mph(40 kph), according to the study.
It was AAA’s second round oftests on the systems. Researcherssaid little had changed from a testof four other vehicles in 2018,prompting the recommendationthat automakers stop includingthe technology on more models.
“AAA has repeatedly foundthat active driving assistance sys-tems do not perform consistent-ly, especially in real-world scenar-ios,” said Greg Brannon, AAA’sdirector of automotive engineer-
ing. “Automakers need to worktoward more dependable tech-nology including improving lanekeeping assistance.”
Also the systems, which com-bine control of acceleration, brak-ing and steering, often quit work-ing with little notice to drivers,AAA found. That could cause adangerous situation if the driverisn’t fully engaged and has tomake an emergency decision.
AAA tested five vehicles atseveral research centres with dri-vers and instruments monitoringtheir performance. Included thisyear were a 2019 BMW X7 SUV,a 2019 Cadillac CT6 sedan, a2019 Ford Edge SUV, a 2020 KiaTelluride SUV and a 2020 SubaruOutback SUV. Their systemshave names like Kia’s “HighwayDriving Assist,” Subaru’s“EyeSight,” Ford’s “Co-Pilot 360,”Cadillac’s “Super Cruise,” andBMW’s “Active Driving AssistantProfessional.”
The results were similar tothose found in 2018 testing byAAA of four other vehiclesincluding a 2017 Tesla Model Swith the company’s “Autopilot”system.
BMW, General Motors andSubaru issued statements sayingtheir systems aid drivers and arenot meant to be fullyautonomous. Messages were leftseeking comment from Ford and
Kia. Subaru said its system “isdesigned to assist the driver, notreplace the driver, when con-fronting hazards,” while GM saidit designed the Super Cruise sys-tem so it makes sure the driverstays engaged.
“Super Cruise undergoes rig-orous testing and validation, andwe continue to remain confidentin the system,” GM’s statementsaid.
BMW said it appears theX7’s system performed asdesigned in AAA’s testing. “BMWrequires that the driver remainfully at attention in order to inter-vene in the case of an emergencysituation (such as a car stoppedin the lane as simulated in theAAA study),” BMW said.
AAA said most owners man-uals explain that the systemshave trouble spotting stationaryobjects. The most recent testsshow that the systems aren’timproving much, even as
automakers move them intomore mainstream models.Brannon said that can be a prob-lem.
People who bought systemswhen they first came out gener-ally were early adopters whoknow more about technology,Brannon said. But as the systemsmake their way into more main-stream models, people who areless tech-savvy will be drivingthem, he said.
“People are really less famil-iar and less likely to really engagein understanding how the sys-tems work,” he said. “That justassume they do work. That couldbe a really dangerous assump-tion.”
Also, research has shownthat people become overly relianton the technology, which couldbe dangerous when the systemsdon’t work, he said. Also, there’sno standardised way for the vehi-cles to notify drivers that the sys-tems are disengaging. Some justhave a green light on the dash,while the Cadillac’s steeringwheel vibrates and a green lightgoes to flashing red, he said.
In real-road tests, all of thesystems had trouble keeping thevehicles in their lanes, and theycame too close to other vehiclesand guardrails, AAA said. Testtrack examinations of three vehi-cles, the Kia Telluride, BMW X7and Subaru Outback, found thatall had trouble spotting a simu-lated broken-down vehicle intheir lane most of the time,Brannon said.
The Cadillac system couldn’tbe tested on the track becauseGeneral Motors limits use todivided highways, while the Fordsystem also wouldn’t work on thetrack. But both systems hadproblems on real roads, Brannonsaid.
He said that problems withthe system could slow the adop-tion of fully autonomous vehiclesbecause owners who experiencethe driver-assist technology maynot trust it.
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Actor Tahir Raj Bhasin is an outsider with noconnections in the industry. He debuted with
Mardaani to show his acting prowess as a vil-lain and since then, Tahir is delighted about howhis career has been shaping up. After making amark in Mardaani, which earned him the BestSupporting Actor and Best Villain awards,Tahir decided not to look back. His powerful per-formances in the subsequent films like Manto,Chhichhore and many more made him grab pro-jects like 83 and Looop Lapeta. He is thrilledabout the fact that he has shaped his own des-tiny in the Bollywood.
“I’m very proud of the journey I’ve had inBollywood. When you start from the scratch, youvalue the recognition that your work gets andthe opportunities you’ve earned because they arebuilt solely on the basis of your talent. I consid-er the parts I’ve done so far to be a personal col-lage of experiences,” he says.
The actor credits the directors he has col-laborated with for having faith in him. “I’ve beenfortunate enough to work with some amazingfilmmakers. This has led to my growth as anactor and as a person. Every project has taughtme to focus on being true to the process. Whatmatters is making a part fun to watch andauthentic. The next exciting turn of my careeris going to be equally challenging. Looop Lapetais a thriller comedy and pairing up with a tal-ent like Taapsee (Pannu) is something I reallylook forward to.”
Tahir discloses his journey in cinema makeshim proud. “The part in YRF’s Mardaani chal-lenged me to stretch my abilities as I was a star-ing opposite an icon like Rani Mukerji. Theuniqueness of the part made it a great one forme. From doing that to shifting gears in a lighthearted college drama Chhichhore and now toa romantic lead in Looop Lapeta is incredibly ful-filling and gives me a sense of pride in the jour-ney so far,” he says.
Tahir also reveals who his biggest inspira-tions are. “People who I count as mentors in cin-ema aren’t always the ones with me on a day today but are magnetic people who I’ve briefly
crossed paths with. It’ssomething they’ve said
or did that left a deepimpression on me.Aamir Khan, who Ihad a chance to meetsoon after Mardaani,
said — never be in arush and never be afraid
to take chances. Itseemed cryptic back
then but as timepasses, it
m a k e smore andm o r esense. Myother cine-
ma mentori sNawazuddin
Siddique, whoI worked within Manto. Hiswork teaches
me to neverunderestimatethe power of theaudience,” saysTahir.
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The BCCI on Thursday sus-pended the IPL title spon-sorship deal with Chinese
mobile phone company Vivo forthe event’s upcoming editionamid the Sino-India border face-off.
The BCCI sent out a one-linestatement, without giving anydetails, to say that Vivo will notbe associated with the IPL thisyear.
“The Board of Control for
Cricket in India (BCCI) and vivoMobile India Pvt Ltd have decid-ed to suspend their partnershipfor Indian Premier League in2020,” the press release stated.
The company, on its part,stated that the association isbeing paused.
“The Board of Control forCricket in India (BCCI) and vivoMobile India Pvt Ltd have mutu-ally decided to pause their part-nership for the 2020 season ofIndian Premier League,” it stated.
Vivo won the IPL title spon-
sorship rights for five years from2018 to 2022 for a reported sumof �2190 crore, approximately�440 crore per annum.
It is learnt that the twoparties are now workingout a plan in which Vivomight come back for afresh three-year periodstarting 2021 on revisedterms. However, a topBCCI official offered a divergentview.
“Here we are talking aboutdiplomatic tensions and you
expect that after November, whenIPL ends and before the next IPLstarts in April 2021, there wouldbe no anti-China sentiment? Are
we serious?” the veteranofficial said.
The anti-China sen-timent in the countrypeaked after the violentface off between theIndian and Chinese
troops in eastern Ladakh. Indialost 20 soldiers in the clash, whileChina also acknowledged unspec-ified casualties.
The stand-off at the Line ofActual Control (LAC) causedoutrage across India with sever-al calls for boycott of Chinesecompanies and products.
The BCCI is now likely tofloat a tender for new IPL titlesponsors as mandated by its con-stitution.
However, the end of this(sponsorship) deal could spelllosses for the franchises as they geta substantial share from the spon-sorship pool.
Half of the annual Vivo spon-
sorship money is distributedequally among eight franchiseswhich comes to �27.5 crore.
“As of now, it will be very dif-ficult for the BCCI to match thesponsorship amount at such shortnotice. Therefore both BCCI andthe franchises should be pre-pared to lose out on some money— BCCI more but each franchisefrom Vivo’s exit will potentiallylose 15 crore,” the official said.
“This year will be difficult foreveryone but the show must goon,” the official said.
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Manchester United edgedLASK 2-1 and Inter Milan
beat Getafe 2-0 on Wednesdayin rescheduled ties due to thecoronavirus pandemic to clinchplaces in the quarter-finals ofthe Europa League.
United had a 5-0 lead fromtheir first leg played in Marchand will face Copenhagen whoenjoyed a 3-0 victory on thenight over Istanbul Basaksehir.
Antonio Conte’s InterMilan will face either StevenGerrard’s Rangers or BayerLeverkusen with the Germansholding a 3-1 lead going intoThursday’s match.
Despite United’s comfort-able lead from March 12’s firstleg, the visitors caused prob-lems early on.
Andres Andrade hit thecrossbar with a powerful head-er after 10 minutes at an almostempty Old Trafford beforePeter Michorl fired wide justafter the quarter of an hourmark.
The Linz-based outfit hadto wait until the second half tobreak the deadlock as defend-er Philipp Wiesinger rifled intothe top corner from outside thebox after 55 minutes.
Their celebrations wereshortlived as Jesse Lingardequalised on the counter-attackfor United three minutes later.
Anthony Martial claimedthe match-winner with twominutes to go despite LASKgoalkeeper Alexander Schlagergetting a foot to the Francestriker’s shot.
Inter’s meeting with the LaLiga side was played over just
one leg in Gelsenkirchen tosave time ahead of next week’slast eight to be held inGermany.
They advanced to the nextround as Romelu Lukakubecame the club’s first player toscore in five straight Europeanappearances since Brazilianstriker Adriano in 2004.
Lukaku slotted home afterAlessandro Bastoni’s long ball
after 33 minutes.The Spaniards were given
a chance to take the game topenalties with 25 minutesremaining as VAR said DiegoGodin had handballed in hisown box but veteran cente-for-ward Jorge Molina missed theresulting penalty.
Christian Eriksen madesure of Inter’s spot after 84 min-utes with his first touch afterDakonam Djene made a mess
of a clearance inside his ownarea.
Elsewhere, 2009 champi-ons Shakhtar Donetsk bookeda last-eight spot against Basel orEintracht Frankfurt after threegoals within the closing fourminutes clinched a 3-0 win overWolfsburg.
In other remaining gamesRangers head to Leverkusen,Wolves host Olympiakos, andSevilla face Roma in Duisburg.
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The heads of BCCI and CricketAustralia will be connecting vir-
tually to discuss the hosting of twoT20 World Cups in the next twoyears when the ICC’s all-powerfulboard meets on Friday.
The decision will also beimpacted by the stand of the twoboards on the next ICC chairman,the nomination process of which isyet to be announced formally.
It is expected that BCCI presi-dent Sourav Gangulyand secretary Jay Shahalong with CA’s EarlEddings and NickHockley will reach a con-sensus on the hosting of2021 and 2022 editions.
“The the main agen-da of the meeting isscheduling of ICC tour-naments including the
women’s ODI World Cup in NewZealand early next year. It is expect-ed that some decisions will be
taken,” an ICC Board membersaid.
The ICC World T20which was scheduled to beheld in Australia fromOctober 18 this year was post-poned due to the COVID-19pandemic, making way for thecash rich Indian PremierLeague, to be held fromSeptember 19 in the United
Arab Emirates.It is expected
that CricketAustralia will liketo host the T20World Cup inOctober 2021 as ithad already startedpreparations andwouldn’t like towait for two years
but BCCI also doesn’t want toforego its right to host the tourna-ment in 2021.
“The BCCI was originallyscheduled to host the T20 WorldCup in 2021 and they would like togo ahead. Another reason being,hosting a T20 World Cup in 2022and then a 50 over global eventwithin a gap of just one year. Itwould be an overkill,” another ICCboard member said.
However for Cricket Australia,it also has a few points in its favour.
“The ICC website states thatthose who have booked match tick-ets for Australia World T20 eventshould wait till further announce-ment. The reason being CA wantsto host the event next year,” he said.
It is also learnt that there is agood chance that the eight-teamWomen’s ODI World Cup in NewZealand in February-March 2021will go ahead as per schedule.
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Cricket Australia is contem-plating moving the tradi-
tional Boxing Day Test againstIndia from Melbourne toAdelaide due to rising COVID-19 cases in the state of Victoria.
According to a report in theSydney Morning Herald,Adelaide has emerged as a fron-trunner to host the December26-30 marquee fixture.
In this regard, CA chairmanEarl Eddings has called for anurgent convening of the nation-al cricket cabinet next week todiscuss ways for smooth conductof the series and avoid losing astaggering 300 millionAustralian dollars.
The situation in Victoria is
not good and a senior cricketofficial told the country’s lead-ing daily that there is no way thecurrent schedule can go aheadas planned with the state borderrestrictions in place amid theCovid-19 pandemic.
Victoria has so far reportedover 13000 positive cases for thecoronavirus besides 170 deaths.
As far as the otherAustralian states are concerned,New South Wales comes a dis-tant second with close to 4000positive cases. South Australia,whose capital is Adelaide, has sofar reported 457 confirmedcases with 445 of them recov-ered.
CA had earlier said that theexisting schedule is subject tochange.
�3�����3��3�� World No 2 shuttler TaiTzu-ying has said she didn’t have anyproblems with Tokyo Olympics gettingpostponed as according to her, she nowhas more time to prepare and end herdrought at the showpiece event.
Tokyo 2020 was initially set to behosted in July this year but due to coro-navirus pandemic, it will now take place
from July 23 till August 8 in 2021.Despite her constant successes on the
BWF circuit, Tai Tzu is yet to win a medalat senior international level whichincludes Olympics and World C’ships. AtLondon 2012 and Rio 2016, she crashedout in the last-16 round itself.
“I didn’t have a problem with (post-ponement). I can use this time as a peri-od of rest because it’s been a long and tightschedule of high-level competition,” TaiTzu said on the BWF’s BadmintonUltimate Feature. “It’s a good time to restand have even more time to prepare (forthe Olympics).”
Tai Tzu had earlier hinted that shemight call time on her career after the endof 2020 season. But with the badmintoncalendar destroyed due to coronaviruspandemic, all such retirement talks havebeen put to rest for the time being.
“I will play until the end of next sea-son before I revisit the decision. As of nowI want to finish next season’s schedule,”the former World No 1 said. IANS
��� ���� The PremierLeague will revert to a max-imum of three substitutionsin matches next season withEngland’s top division clubsdeciding to no longerallow two additionalchanges.
Clubs previouslybacked the use of fivesubstitutions to dealwith the congested scheduleafter the league’s pandemic-enforced 100-day shutdownended in June.
Despite the International
Football Association Boardallowing the temporary useof five substitutions nextseason, the league won’t beadopting it. The rule had
been seen to favor big-ger clubs with moredepth in theirsquads.
A maximumseven substitutes
will be allowed on thebench but only threecan be brought on when thenew season begins aroundSept 12. AP
���������� Former England captain NasserHussain feels it’s time the cricket world changesthe moniker ‘Fab Four’ to ‘Fab Five’ by includingPakistan’s Babar Azam in the same league as ViratKohli and Kane Williamson.
Australian run-machine Steve Smith andEngland captain Joe Root complete the quartet ofmodern day greats.
“They keep going on about the ‘Fab Four’(Kohli, Steve Smith, Kane Williamson and JoeRoot) — it’s the ‘Fab Five’ and Babar Azam is inthat,” Hussain said on Sky Sports.
Babar, who has been Pakistan’s best batsmanin the past few years, started the first Test againstEngland at Old Trafford on a bright note, scor-ing an unbeaten 69 off 100 balls by the time badweather stopped play on Wednesday.
“I think it is a real shame and it is in part aconsequence of Pakistan playing away fromhome, playing in the UAE all the time in front ofno one, Pakistan hiding in the shadow ofIndian cricket, not going overand playing IPL cricket, notplaying India.”
Babar’s cover drives havesome similarities with Kohli’sand some consider him evenbetter in his execution.
“If this lad was Virat Kohli,everyone would be talkingabout it but because it isBabar Azam, no one is talk-ing about it,” Hussainsaid during commen-tary. “He is young andhe is elegant. He hasgot all the swagger,” headded. PTI
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England’s top order was putto the sword as Pakistan’s
vibrant attack followed up ShanMasood’s 156 with a stirringdisplay on day two of the firstTest.
Masood spent almost eighthours at the crease as his career-best knock lifted the tourists to326 and the bowlers madegood use of the platform toleave England 92 for four atEmirates Old Trafford.
Openers Rory Burns andDom Sibley were then takencare of inside four overs asShaheen Afridi andMohammad Abbas dovetailedperfectly with the new ball. Thelatter struck a killer blow whenhe cleaned up Ben Stokes for aduck and by the time Joe Rootwas undone by Yasir Shah's leg-spin, his side were staring downthe barrel.
But Ollie Pope performedwith skill and heart to make apunchy 46 not out before theclose and will continue hisfightback on the third morning.
The thrilling late action —and that is the only way to
describe the boisterous,buzzing brilliance thatPakistan brought in thefield — owed much toMasood’s hard work in thefirst innings.
The opener battled withEngland for more than
107 overs, facing 319deliveries as he
made his third Testhundred in a row,a streak datingback toDecember and
including tons in Karachi andRawalpindi. Jos Buttler, whomissed a catch and a stumpingwhen he had just 45 to hisname on day one, will need noreminder of the debt he nowowes when he resumes on 15not out alongside Pope.
Play started with Pakistan139 for two, built in large partaround Babar Azam’s fluent69. He was unable to add to thathere, f lashing at JamesAnderson in the first over of theday.
That was the first blow in ameticulous, methodical morn-ing session that saw Englandpick off three wickets for theaddition of just 48 runs.Anderson and Stuart Broad’sinitial 11-over spell cost just 11runs and brought a secondbreakthrough when AsadShafiq pushed the latter to sec-ond slip.
Chris Woakes addedMohammad Rizwan with aneat away-swinger to make it187 for five at lunch but thecontinued presence of Masood,who had moved from 55 to 77,was a crucial factor. He flour-ished in the afternoon, upgrad-ing a hard-working inningsinto something of a class above.
Shadab Khan contributed abusy 45, but England madethemselves a soft target byserving up five overs of softspin at a cost of 27 risk-freeruns.
The return of Andersonand Broad barely improvedmatters, with the pair milkedfor 42 in eight overs with thenew ball. Masood brought uphis hundred from 251 balls,leaping with joy as his team-mates packed the players’ bal-cony.
A wild hack from Shadabagainst Dom Bess ended a 105-run stand, opening the door forBroad and Archer to take twoapiece as Pakistan’s last four fellfor 35. Masood clubbed a pairof sixes before he was ninthman down, lbw to Broad.
��"� ���� India ODI captainMithali Raj totally understands thefrustration of foreign internation-als on overlapping of T20 Challengeand WBBL dates but firmly believesthat BCCI “did its best” to fit in thefour-match tournament in theseunusual COVID-19 times.
While the foreign players, ledby Australian star player AlyssaHealy, questioned the timing of theexhibition games as it is clash-ing with the WBBL, the BCCIwas also criticised for notgoing ahead with thewomen’s tour of Englandin September.
Asked about herthoughts on the twosubjects, Mithalispoke her mind.
“I personally thought we maynot even get to play the Challengertrophy (domestic event) becauseeven the men’s IPL was in doubt butthese games are most welcome,”Mithali said.
On comments of top interna-tionals like Healy, Suzie Bates,
Rachel Haynes expressing theirdispleasure, the Indian legend
tried putting things intoperspective.
“I know a lot of people(foreign players) have
questioned the timingof it but these are
not normal cir-cumstances.
Nor ma l ly,the IPL
h a p -
pens in April-May and doesn’t col-lide with WBBL (in Australia).
“But these are unusual cir-cumstances, the window (tentative-ly November 1-10) was a short oneand the BCCI did the best it could.”
The WBBL is scheduled fromOctober 17 to November 29.
“It (their frustration) is under-standable. They (foreign players)also want to be part of the event. Itoo want the best players in theleague. “But the situation is not nor-mal. Right now, there is hardly anysporting activity in India and tohave the matches before the men’sIPL, it would require players to bein match mode. We are yet to starttraining.
“My own state has just allowedthe opening of gyms. So for me toget match ready will take time. TheBCCI has given us that window andwe will have to work around it thisyear,” she said. PTI
Manchester: TheChampions League is themissing piece inManchester City’s growing silverware collection,defender Aymeric Laporte said ahead of his side’slast-16 second leg against Real Madrid on Friday.
City have dominated English football inrecent years under Pep Guardiola, although theyfinished second to Liverpool in the PremierLeague this season, but have yet to add Europe’smost coveted prize to their trophy cabinet.
“City have unfinished business in theChampions League, we have been talkingabout it for a long time, it’s the thing we are miss-ing,” Laporte told Spanish newspaper AS onThursday.
“Last year we won four trophies in the sameseason but couldn’t win the Champions League,so if it’s our turn this year, perfect.”
City were knocked out in the quarter-finalslast year on away goals by Tottenham after hav-ing a last-gasp effort ruled out by a VAR review.They were beaten on away goals by AS Monacoin the last 16 in 2017.
“I don’t know what we’ve been doingwrong as the team has been the same in the lastfew years. Away goals have been key. Last yearTottenham scored the same number of goals asus but eliminated us,” added Laporte.
“We have all the ingredients to do greatthings. The team is really up for it, we don’t haveto change much, we just need a little more luck.We have lacked that final spark which I’m surewe’ll find soon.”
City hold a 2-1 lead over Real going intoFriday’s second leg at an empty EtihadStadium and will be without all-time top scor-
er Sergio Aguero through injury.Real will be missing captain
Sergio Ramos, who was sent off inthe first leg.
“Everyone knowsAguero, he’s an impor-
tant player to be miss-ing just like theirs.All the goals that hehas scored and the
career he’s had sincehe was young speak forthemselves,” added Laporte.
“He’s one of the beststrikers I’ve ever seen butwe believe in our otherteam mates. Sergio Ramos isalso a very important play-er but we want to show thatwe can play better thanthem.” Agencies
Sanchez has signed a three-yearcontract with Inter Milan, theItalian club announced onThursday.
No transfer fee wasinvolved in the deal asUnited seemed to be in ahurry to offload theforward who could-n’t reach the heightsof his previousyears at OldTrafford. He wasalso reportedlyearning in excess of500,000 pounds per
week at Manchester United.“Alexis Sanchez has joined
the Nerazzurri on a free trans-fer,” the Serie A side said in astatement.
The 31-year-old, who hadbeen on loan at Inter this sea-son, signed a contract until June30, 2023, the club added.
Sanchez scored four goalsfor Antonio Conte’s Serie A
runners-up behind Juventus. “Everyone at
Manchester United wish-es Alexis Sanchez all thebest in his future careeras he joins Inter Milanon a permanent transfer,”the Premier League club
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