T he sixth round of talks between the Centre and protesting farmers’ unions on Wednesday failed to break the impasse with the latter sticking to their position over the repeal of three farm laws and a legal guarantee for minimum sup- port price (MSP). But the two sides reached some consensus to address farmers’ concerns over rise in power tariff and exclusion of farmers from Air Quality Management Ordinance. Both sides have agreed to hold further talks on January 4. After nearly five hours of negotiations between three Union Ministers and 41 farm- ers unions, Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said at least 50 per cent resolution has been reached with mutual agreement on two of four items on the agenda. The Minister said talks were held in a cordial atmos- phere and the two sides have reached an agreement on two issues — one relating to the proposed electricity law and the other about an Air Quality Management Ordinance to keep farmers outside the ambit of the penalty clause (up to 1 crore) for the stubble burning ordinance. “Discussions on the three agriculture laws and the MSP as a guarantee for farmers will continue in the next meeting scheduled for January 4,” Tomar added. “First issue was an ordi- nance related to the environ- ment. Both sides agreed to farmers’ exclusion. Farmers feel that if reform is introduced in the Electricity Act, they’ll suffer loss. The unions wanted the electricity subsidy given to farmers by States for irrigation should continue. The consen- sus was reached on this issue also,” Tomar said. On farmers’ demand for a legal guarantee for procure- ment at MSP, the Minister said the Government has already said that it is ready to give a written assurance. Tomar assured the unions that MSP and the Mandi sys- tem will continue like before. The demand of the farmers’ unions for an MSP law and the difference between MSP and market rates for agricultural produce would be referred to a committee when it is consti- tuted. On the unions’ demand for the repeal of farm laws, the Minister said that this too can be referred to a committee which will study the constitu- tional validity and propriety keeping in mind the welfare of farmers. The Minister asked the Union leaders to put forward their proposals which the Government will study and discuss. This meeting came after a long gap as after the last meet- ing the situation hit a dead end with farmers stern on their demand for a complete with- drawal of the laws and the Centre not accepting it. While farmers have decid- ed to carry on their agitation till their demands are met, they have, however, deferred their proposed tractor march so that it does not clash with their next round of talks with the Government on January 4. Sources said that firm on backing the farm laws, the Government has offered to form a committee to look into farmers’ demands. Sources said the Government also explained to the farmers that the process of withdrawing laws is a long one. The Minister said the union leaders kept insisting on repeal of the three farm laws, but the Government side tried to explain them the benefits of the Acts and sought to know specific problems faced by the farmers. Tomar hailed the unions for maintaining peace and dis- cipline during their protest, but urged them to send the elder- ly, women and children back to their homes due to the extreme cold weather. Tomar was accompanied by Food and Railways Minister Piyush Goyal and Minister of State for Commerce Som Parkash at the meeting. Farmers’ leader Rakesh Tikait said that the farmers are insistent that the Government should repeal the farm laws and give legal guarantee for MSP. T hree Union Ministers joined farm leaders on Wednesday to share “langar” food arranged by protesting farmers during their sixth round of talks to resolve the deadlock over new farm laws. The langar (community kitchen) food arrived in a van at the meeting venue, Vigyan Bhawan, after around two hours of discussions had taken place and the two sides took a break for tea and snacks. Sources present at the venue said that Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, Food and Railway Minister Piyush Goyal and Minister of State for Commerce Som Parkash joined the farmer leaders to share their langar food during the break. A two-year-old girl who recently returned to Meerut with her parents from the UK has been found to be infected with the new Covid- 19 strain. With this, the num- ber of UK returnees found car- rying the new variant of SARS- CoV-2 has increased from 6 on Tuesday to 14 on Wednesday out of 107 positive Covid cases. As a preventive measure, the Centre has dashed off a missive to States asking them to curb crowding in the wake of New Year celebration and keep a strict vigil on all events that could be a potential super spreader. Of the 20 new UK coron- avirus mutant strain, 8 have been registered at the National Centre for Disease Control in Delhi, 7 at National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro- Sciences in Bangalore, two at Cellular and Molecular Biology in Hyderabad. One each has been logged at the National Institute of Biomedical Genomics near Kolkata, National Institute of Virology in Pune and CSIR Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology in Delhi. Of the total 107 cases, eight are from the national Capital. The new variant is con- sidered to be more lethal than the original coronavirus and is more transmissible among young people. Keeping in view the fresh surge of coronavirus cases in Europe and America, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhsuhan said in the letter to the States and UTs that there was still a need for maintain- ing comprehensive precaution and strict surveillance within India. “You will appreciate that in the wake of New Year and var- ious celebratory events associ- ated with it as well as the ongo- ing winter season, a strict vigil is required to be maintained to curb all potential ‘super spreader’ events and places where crowds may gather,” Bhushan said in the letter. A senior official with the Union Health Ministry said the two-year-old girl in Meerut and her parents, who have also tested positive for the new strain, had returned from the UK. The child is in an iso- lation ward with her parents at Meerut’s Subharti Medical College. I ndia will take a call on giv- ing approval to the three Covid-19 vaccines developed in the country on January 1. A high-level DCGI panel met on Wednesday to discuss the approval issue even as the UK became the first country to give nod to the Covishield shot from the stable of drug firm AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford. In India, Serum Institute of India is developing the vaccine in collaboration with Oxford University and pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca. The Union Health Ministry in a statement here said the Subject Expert Committee (SEC) in the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) had met on Wednesday to consider the Emergency Use Authorisation (EUA) request of Pfizer, Serum Institute of India (SII) and Bharat Biotech Pvt Ltd. “While further time was requested on behalf of Pfizer, the additional data and infor- mation presented by SII and Bharat Biotech Pvt Ltd was perused and analysed by the SEC,” said the Ministry. The analysis of the addi- tional data and information is going on. SEC will convene again on January 1, 2021, said the statement. However, sources said the approval by the UK is likely to pave the way for authorisation of the vaccine in several coun- tries. India successfully com- pleted two-day dry run of the Covid immunisation. India is hoping to launch the immunisation drive soon once vaccines are approved. Earlier this month, the SEC had sought more data on the safety and efficacy of Covid-19 vaccine candidates after deliberating on the com- pany’s application that sought emergency use authorisation. While considering the application submitted by Serum Institute of India, the committee had recommended that the firm should provide safety data of phases 2 and 3 clinical trials in the updated applications. The committed had also sought immunogenicity data from the clinical trial in India as well as in the UK along with the outcome of the assess- ments made by the MHRA. T he Covid-19 positives’ tally surged to 3,29,306 in the State on Wednesday following 305 more persons being affect- ed in 28 districts. Of the total cases, 174 were reported from quarantine centres and 131 were local contact cases. Sundargarh and Sambalpur districts recorded the day’s highest 28 cases each fol- lowed by Angul 26, Bargarh 25, Cuttack and Khordha 23 each, Jajpur 16, Baleswar 15 and Kendrapada 10. All other districts reported below 10 cases.Besides, six cases were reported from the State pool. The total active cases in the State stood at 2,607. Though Cuttack district reported only 23 cases, Kakudia village in Narsinghpur block in the dis- trict, which was declared con- tainment zone on December 27 following six villagers testing positive, reported 11 more infections on the day.Official sources said 363 villagers of the village had undergone test on Tuesday. Of them, 11 people have tested positive. But the symptoms of Covid-19 have not been iden- tified among the villagers who have tested positive for the virus, the Narsinghpur BDO said.However, local police and administration officials are camping in the village to keep a watch on situation, he added. They are also convincing vil- lagers having symptoms to go for test. Three more patients succumbed to virus on day, increasing total toll to 1,871. C hief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Wednesday announced his Government’s decision to establish a special wing in the Odisha Police to probe crimes against women and children. Addressing the valedictory session at the 62nd Senior Police Officers’ Conference here in virtual mode, Patnaik said the Government’s priori- ty is to reduce the number of crimes against women and children. The creation of a special wing in the police estab- lishment would provide qual- ity services to women and chil- dren, he said.Highlighting the Government’s concern over road safety, he said, “Road accident-related fatalities are very high in the State. There is a need to take up preventive and enforcement initiatives as well as public awareness campaign in coor- dination with other stakehold- ers like Transport, Works Department, etc., to bring down such fatalities.” Patnaik stressed on increasing the con- viction rate by taking the help of technology during investi- gations. He also announced that six new police stations were made functional from Wednesday, adding that 905 additional posts in various ranks have been sanctioned for strength- ening the police stations. “I am sure that the State police will come up with new ideas to improve its image by providing quality services,” he stated.Special family pension has been sanctioned to 38 next of kin of Covid warriors among police personnel. Besides, 29 next of kin have received Rs 50-lakh ex- gratia compensation and rest should be processed without any delay, he said. The CM praised the 930 police person- nel who have donated plasma for treatment of Covid patients.On the Maoist prob- lem, Patnaik said, “Families of the (police) martyrs should be taken care of by the police. The LWE problem is dynamic in nature and keeps changing; close monitoring and focused efforts should continue. I spe- cially commend the work of SPs, Malkangiri and Kandhamal in this connec- tion.” He also appreciated the efforts of SPs, Keonjhar and Angul for the overall improve- ment in the industrial atmos- phere. T aking stringent action against corruption and professional misconduct, the State Government on Wednesday gave compulsory retirement to six alleged taint- ed officials from their services with immediate effect. This followed an order of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.Of the six officials, four are engineers and two posted in Excise Department. They are Ajit Kumar Debata (Deputy Executive Engineer, Rural Works Division, Keonjhar), Jitendra Kumar Dalai (Assistant Engineer, Quality Control Department of R&B division, Cuttack), Bijay Parida (Assistant Engineer, Rural Works Section-1, Karanjia), Ganeswar Sethi (Assistant Engineer, R&B Division-II, Bhubaneswar), Jayadeep Patnaik (Deputy Superintendent of Excise, Sambalpur) and Rihaz Ahmed Beg (Excise Inspector, Sundargarh). As per the official release, Ajit Debata is accused of accumulating assets worth over Rs 1 crore dispropor- tionate to his known sources of income. Also, two Vigilance cases have been registered against him. Jitendra Dalai and Bijay Parida were forced to retire after graft charges were lev- elled against them. While two vigilance cases were lodged against Dalai, there are three cases against Parida on the charge of misusing funds dur- ing repairing works. S tate capital city Bhubaneswar on Wednesday registered 20 new Covid-19 positive cases, increasing its total count to 31,613. This included 263 active cases. The new cases were 14 local contacts and six quarantine cases.However, 28 persons recov- ered on the day, increasing the city’s total recoveries to 31,090. In Cuttack, 10 more positives were detected, with which the city’s total infection tally rose to 16,194. E ven as a cold wave is sweep- ing the State, the Regional Office of IMD here on Wednesday forecasted that temperature is likely to fall fur- ther in interior and coastal dis- tricts from December 31. The IMD said the mini- mum temperature (night tem- perature) might dip by 3 to 4 degree Celsius over the interi- or districts while it may plum- met by 2 to 3 degree over coastal districts. A yellow warning for cold wave condition has been issued at one or two places inr the dis- tricts of Jharsuguda, Sundargarh, Deogarh, Angul, Boudh and Kandhamal on December 31. “Dry weather to prevail in State for next five days and shallow to moderate fog might occur at some places. There will be no large change in mini- mum temperature over districts of Odisha during next 24 hours and it will fall by 3-4 degree Celsius over districts of interi- or Odisha and 2-3 degree Celsius over districts of coastal Odisha thereafter,” said IMD Regional Director HR Biswas. T he State Government on Wednesday allowed cinema halls and theatres to reopen from January 1 next adhering to the Covid-19 guidelines. As per the guidelines for the month of January, cinema hall, theatres have been allowed to reopen with up to 50% of capacity. Open-air theatres, jatra, entertainment parks would be permitted by the local author- ities to open subject to com- pliance of safety protocols such as mandatory mask wearing and physical distancing. Social, religious, sports and cultural functions and gatherings would be allowed with a ceiling of 200 persons.Marriage-related gath- erings shall be allowed with a ceiling of 200 persons and funeral/last rites related gath- erings with a ceiling of 100 per- sons. Business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-con- sumers (B2C) exhibitions would be allowed in exhibition halls with participants and vis- itors up to 50% of the hall capacity subject to a maxi- mum ceiling of 200 persons and compliance of Covid pro- tocols. International air travel of passengers, except as permitted by Central Government would continue to remain closed till January 31, 2021. However, lockdown would be enforced within containment zones.
protesting farmers’ unions onWednesday failed to break theimpasse with the latter stickingto their position over the repealof three farm laws and a legalguarantee for minimum sup-port price (MSP). But the twosides reached some consensusto address farmers’ concernsover rise in power tariff andexclusion of farmers from AirQuality ManagementOrdinance.
Both sides have agreed tohold further talks on January 4.
After nearly five hours ofnegotiations between threeUnion Ministers and 41 farm-ers unions, AgricultureMinister Narendra SinghTomar said at least 50 per centresolution has been reachedwith mutual agreement on twoof four items on the agenda.
The Minister said talkswere held in a cordial atmos-phere and the two sides havereached an agreement on twoissues — one relating to theproposed electricity law and theother about an Air QualityManagement Ordinance tokeep farmers outside the ambitof the penalty clause (up to �1crore) for the stubble burningordinance.
“Discussions on the threeagriculture laws and the MSP
as a guarantee for farmers willcontinue in the next meetingscheduled for January 4,”Tomar added.
“First issue was an ordi-nance related to the environ-ment. Both sides agreed tofarmers’ exclusion. Farmersfeel that if reform is introducedin the Electricity Act, they’llsuffer loss. The unions wantedthe electricity subsidy given tofarmers by States for irrigationshould continue. The consen-sus was reached on this issuealso,” Tomar said.
On farmers’ demand for alegal guarantee for procure-ment at MSP, the Minister saidthe Government has alreadysaid that it is ready to give awritten assurance.
Tomar assured the unionsthat MSP and the Mandi sys-tem will continue like before.The demand of the farmers’unions for an MSP law and thedifference between MSP andmarket rates for agriculturalproduce would be referred to acommittee when it is consti-tuted.
On the unions’ demand forthe repeal of farm laws, theMinister said that this too canbe referred to a committeewhich will study the constitu-tional validity and proprietykeeping in mind the welfare offarmers.
The Minister asked theUnion leaders to put forwardtheir proposals which theGovernment will study anddiscuss.
This meeting came after along gap as after the last meet-ing the situation hit a dead endwith farmers stern on theirdemand for a complete with-drawal of the laws and theCentre not accepting it.
While farmers have decid-ed to carry on their agitation tilltheir demands are met, theyhave, however, deferred theirproposed tractor march so thatit does not clash with their nextround of talks with theGovernment on January 4.
Sources said that firm onbacking the farm laws, theGovernment has offered toform a committee to look intofarmers’ demands.
Sources said theGovernment also explained tothe farmers that the process ofwithdrawing laws is a longone. The Minister said theunion leaders kept insisting onrepeal of the three farm laws,but the Government side triedto explain them the benefits of
the Acts and sought to knowspecific problems faced by thefarmers.
Tomar hailed the unionsfor maintaining peace and dis-cipline during their protest, buturged them to send the elder-ly, women and children back totheir homes due to the extremecold weather.
Tomar was accompaniedby Food and Railways MinisterPiyush Goyal and Minister ofState for Commerce SomParkash at the meeting.
Farmers’ leader RakeshTikait said that the farmers areinsistent that the Governmentshould repeal the farm laws andgive legal guarantee for MSP.
���� 5��,567&
Three Union Ministersjoined farm leaders on
Wednesday to share “langar”food arranged by protestingfarmers during their sixthround of talks to resolve thedeadlock over new farm laws.
The langar (communitykitchen) food arrived in a vanat the meeting venue, VigyanBhawan, after around two
hours of discussions had takenplace and the two sides took abreak for tea and snacks.
Sources present at thevenue said that AgricultureMinister Narendra SinghTomar, Food and RailwayMinister Piyush Goyal andMinister of State forCommerce Som Parkashjoined the farmer leaders toshare their langar food duringthe break.
Meerut with her parents fromthe UK has been found to beinfected with the new Covid-19 strain. With this, the num-ber of UK returnees found car-rying the new variant of SARS-CoV-2 has increased from 6 onTuesday to 14 on Wednesdayout of 107 positive Covid cases.
As a preventive measure,the Centre has dashed off amissive to States asking themto curb crowding in the wakeof New Year celebration andkeep a strict vigil on all eventsthat could be a potential superspreader.
Of the 20 new UK coron-avirus mutant strain, 8 havebeen registered at the NationalCentre for Disease Control inDelhi, 7 at National Institute ofMental Health and Neuro-Sciences in Bangalore, two atCellular and Molecular Biologyin Hyderabad.
One each has been loggedat the National Institute ofBiomedical Genomics nearKolkata, National Institute ofVirology in Pune and CSIRInstitute of Genomics and
Integrative Biology in Delhi. Ofthe total 107 cases, eight arefrom the national Capital.
The new variant is con-sidered to be more lethal thanthe original coronavirus and ismore transmissible amongyoung people.
Keeping in view the freshsurge of coronavirus cases inEurope and America, UnionHealth Secretary RajeshBhsuhan said in the letter tothe States and UTs that therewas still a need for maintain-ing comprehensive precautionand strict surveillance withinIndia.
“You will appreciate that in
the wake of New Year and var-ious celebratory events associ-ated with it as well as the ongo-ing winter season, a strict vigilis required to be maintained tocurb all potential ‘superspreader’ events and placeswhere crowds may gather,”Bhushan said in the letter.
A senior official with theUnion Health Ministry said thetwo-year-old girl in Meerutand her parents, who havealso tested positive for thenew strain, had returned fromthe UK. The child is in an iso-lation ward with her parents atMeerut’s Subharti MedicalCollege.
������ ��������������������������������� ����
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India will take a call on giv-ing approval to the three
Covid-19 vaccines developed inthe country on January 1.
A high-level DCGI panelmet on Wednesday to discussthe approval issue even as theUK became the first country togive nod to the Covishieldshot from the stable of drugfirm AstraZeneca and theUniversity of Oxford.
In India, Serum Institute ofIndia is developing the vaccinein collaboration with OxfordUniversity and pharmaceuticalcompany AstraZeneca.
The Union HealthMinistry in a statement heresaid the Subject ExpertCommittee (SEC) in theCentral Drugs StandardControl Organisation(CDSCO) had met onWednesday to consider theEmergency Use Authorisation(EUA) request of Pfizer, SerumInstitute of India (SII) andBharat Biotech Pvt Ltd.
“While further time wasrequested on behalf of Pfizer,the additional data and infor-mation presented by SII andBharat Biotech Pvt Ltd wasperused and analysed by the
SEC,” said the Ministry.The analysis of the addi-
tional data and information isgoing on. SEC will conveneagain on January 1, 2021, saidthe statement.
However, sources said theapproval by the UK is likely topave the way for authorisationof the vaccine in several coun-tries. India successfully com-pleted two-day dry run of theCovid immunisation.
India is hoping to launchthe immunisation drive soononce vaccines are approved.
Earlier this month, theSEC had sought more data onthe safety and efficacy ofCovid-19 vaccine candidatesafter deliberating on the com-pany’s application that soughtemergency use authorisation.
While considering theapplication submitted bySerum Institute of India, thecommittee had recommendedthat the firm should providesafety data of phases 2 and 3clinical trials in the updatedapplications.
The committed had alsosought immunogenicity datafrom the clinical trial in Indiaas well as in the UK along withthe outcome of the assess-ments made by the MHRA.
The Covid-19 positives’ tallysurged to 3,29,306 in the
State on Wednesday following305 more persons being affect-ed in 28 districts. Of the totalcases, 174 were reported fromquarantine centres and 131were local contact cases.
Sundargarh and Sambalpurdistricts recorded the day’shighest 28 cases each fol-lowed by Angul 26, Bargarh25, Cuttack and Khordha 23each, Jajpur 16, Baleswar 15and Kendrapada 10. All otherdistricts reported below 10cases.Besides, six cases werereported from the State pool.The total active cases in the
State stood at 2,607. ThoughCuttack district reported only23 cases, Kakudia village inNarsinghpur block in the dis-trict, which was declared con-tainment zone on December 27following six villagers testingpositive, reported 11 moreinfections on the day.Officialsources said 363 villagers of thevillage had undergone test onTuesday. Of them, 11 peoplehave tested positive.
But the symptoms ofCovid-19 have not been iden-tified among the villagers whohave tested positive for thevirus, the Narsinghpur BDOsaid.However, local police andadministration officials arecamping in the village to keepa watch on situation, he added.They are also convincing vil-lagers having symptoms to gofor test. Three more patientssuccumbed to virus on day,increasing total toll to 1,871.
���� �8�� �+
Chief Minister NaveenPatnaik on Wednesday
announced his Government’sdecision to establish a specialwing in the Odisha Police toprobe crimes against womenand children.
Addressing the valedictorysession at the 62nd SeniorPolice Officers’ Conferencehere in virtual mode, Patnaiksaid the Government’s priori-ty is to reduce the number ofcrimes against women andchildren. The creation of aspecial wing in the police estab-lishment would provide qual-
ity services to women and chil-dren, he said.Highlighting theGovernment’s concern overroad safety, he said, “Roadaccident-related fatalities arevery high in the State.
There is a need to take uppreventive and enforcementinitiatives as well as publicawareness campaign in coor-dination with other stakehold-ers like Transport, WorksDepartment, etc., to bringdown such fatalities.” Patnaikstressed on increasing the con-viction rate by taking the helpof technology during investi-gations.
He also announced that sixnew police stations were madefunctional from Wednesday,adding that 905 additionalposts in various ranks havebeen sanctioned for strength-ening the police stations. “I amsure that the State police will
come up with new ideas toimprove its image by providingquality services,” hestated.Special family pensionhas been sanctioned to 38 nextof kin of Covid warriors amongpolice personnel.
Besides, 29 next of kinhave received Rs 50-lakh ex-gratia compensation and restshould be processed withoutany delay, he said. The CMpraised the 930 police person-nel who have donated plasmafor treatment of Covidpatients.On the Maoist prob-
lem, Patnaik said, “Families ofthe (police) martyrs should betaken care of by the police. TheLWE problem is dynamic innature and keeps changing;close monitoring and focusedefforts should continue. I spe-cially commend the work ofSPs, Malkangiri andKandhamal in this connec-tion.”
He also appreciated theefforts of SPs, Keonjhar andAngul for the overall improve-ment in the industrial atmos-phere.
���� (78( 5"� 9
Taking stringent actionagainst corruption and
professional misconduct, theState Government onWednesday gave compulsoryretirement to six alleged taint-ed officials from their serviceswith immediate effect.
This followed an order ofChief Minister NaveenPatnaik.Of the six officials,four are engineers and twoposted in Excise Department.
They are Ajit KumarDebata (Deputy ExecutiveEngineer, Rural WorksDivision, Keonjhar), JitendraKumar Dalai (AssistantEngineer, Quality ControlDepartment of R&B division,Cuttack), Bijay Parida(Assistant Engineer, RuralWorks Section-1, Karanjia),
Ganeswar Sethi (AssistantEngineer, R&B Division-II,Bhubaneswar), JayadeepPatnaik (DeputySuperintendent of Excise,Sambalpur) and RihazAhmed Beg (Excise Inspector,Sundargarh).
As per the official release,Ajit Debata is accused ofaccumulating assets worthover Rs 1 crore dispropor-tionate to his known sourcesof income. Also, twoVigilance cases have beenregistered against him.
Jitendra Dalai and BijayParida were forced to retireafter graft charges were lev-elled against them. While twovigilance cases were lodgedagainst Dalai, there are threecases against Parida on thecharge of misusing funds dur-ing repairing works.
State capital city Bhubaneswaron Wednesday registered 20
new Covid-19 positive cases,increasing its total count to
31,613. This included 263 activecases. The new cases were 14local contacts and six quarantinecases.However, 28 persons recov-ered on the day, increasing thecity’s total recoveries to 31,090.In Cuttack, 10 more positiveswere detected, with which thecity’s total infection tally rose to16,194.
���� (78( 5"� 9
Even as a cold wave is sweep-ing the State, the Regional
Office of IMD here onWednesday forecasted thattemperature is likely to fall fur-ther in interior and coastal dis-tricts from December 31.
The IMD said the mini-mum temperature (night tem-perature) might dip by 3 to 4degree Celsius over the interi-or districts while it may plum-met by 2 to 3 degree overcoastal districts.
A yellow warning for coldwave condition has been issuedat one or two places inr the dis-tricts of Jharsuguda,Sundargarh, Deogarh, Angul,Boudh and Kandhamal onDecember 31.
“Dry weather to prevail inState for next five days andshallow to moderate fog mightoccur at some places. There willbe no large change in mini-mum temperature over districtsof Odisha during next 24 hoursand it will fall by 3-4 degreeCelsius over districts of interi-or Odisha and 2-3 degreeCelsius over districts of coastalOdisha thereafter,” said IMDRegional Director HR Biswas.
���� (78( 5"� 9
The State Government onWednesday allowed cinema
halls and theatres to reopenfrom January 1 next adheringto the Covid-19 guidelines. Asper the guidelines for themonth of January, cinema hall,theatres have been allowed toreopen with up to 50% ofcapacity.
Open-air theatres, jatra,entertainment parks would bepermitted by the local author-ities to open subject to com-pliance of safety protocols suchas mandatory mask wearingand physical distancing. Social,religious, sports and culturalfunctions and gatherings wouldbe allowed with a ceiling of 200
persons.Marriage-related gath-erings shall be allowed with aceiling of 200 persons andfuneral/last rites related gath-erings with a ceiling of 100 per-sons. Business-to-business(B2B) and business-to-con-sumers (B2C) exhibitionswould be allowed in exhibitionhalls with participants and vis-itors up to 50% of the hallcapacity subject to a maxi-mum ceiling of 200 personsand compliance of Covid pro-tocols.
International air travel ofpassengers, except as permittedby Central Government wouldcontinue to remain closed tillJanuary 31, 2021. However,lockdown would be enforcedwithin containment zones.
The people of the world areawfully busy coining the
choicest bitter words to con-demn the year 2020 onlybecause it witnessed a pan-demic due to an unruly virus.The social media has as manyamusing anecdotes and jokes toshow 2020 in the worst possi-ble light. So much news cover-age across 2020 has focused onthe Covid-19 deniers, the defi-
antly mask-less, the cluelessspring breakers, the anti-lock-down protesters, and the politi-cians who should have knownbetter. What has been unprece-dented in human history is thefact that millions of peopleworldwide were smart andresponsible and did their bestto comply with shifting publichealth guidelines in the face ofan invisible enemy.
Strange, as it may sound,the whole global load of thecrowned virus weighs less thantwo grams that knocked outnearly one billion human crea-tures each weighing an average40 kilos, young and old puttogether. All the same, avowedpositivists saw countless brightsides of the outgoing Gregorianyear. They say people wouldnever have become strongerthan ever before if the coron-avirus hadn’t happened.
The living planet is a muchhealthier place today, its floraand fauna much healthier andhappier than the whole last
century. The deadliest amongthe predators called ‘man’ isbeing taught a couple of lessonsto maintain the trans-speciesequilibrium. The evidentlyunruly virus took the humanrace by surprise. It is a slipperyand elusive one hardly recog-nisable with the available clin-ical acumen and devices athand. The havoc it heapedacross a full year is nounknown story.
People got to know a newtitle for a ultramicroscopicpathogen, ‘corona’, meaningcrown for its loathsome spikesthat cling to host human cellsmore easily than ordinary fluviruses. People also learned thatthis pathogen was not a DNA-but an RNA-based one.
Medical experts and sci-entists took time to come upwith a reasonably-effectivetreatment protocol just to con-tain the virus. Thus, manyhuman lives were lost. But forthe first time in human histo-ry, they came up with vaccines
in record time. The most hor-rific 40-year-old AIDS virushasn’t seen a vaccine yet; butcorona has forced mankind tomake at least sixteen vaccinesby now. Unlike the AIDS virus,corona does not grant muchtime to keep life going. It killsmost afflicted within a fort-night. AIDS takes between 5and 15 years to kill a normal-ly-healthy human.
The RNA vaccines fromModerna and Pfizer and moreelsewhere including India havearrived with a success rate of 95per cent. Until 2020, no vaccinehad ever been developed, tri-alled and approved in underfour years. Corona vaccinescame within twelve months.
2020 too was interestinglya year of the woman. The USelected its first female Vice-President. Prime Minister ofNew Zealand Jacinda Ardenled a nationwide effort to erad-icate the virus and become theworld's most Covid-resilientcountry. Taiwan got a female
President, Tsai Ing-wen.Angela Merkel in Germanyand Sanna Marin in Finlandalso won praise for their earlyresponses. Amusingly, the maleleaders, by contrast, were notonly more likely to flounder inthe face of a pandemic, theywere also more likely to getCovid themselves throughreckless behaviour, as BorisJohnson, Jair Bolsonaro andDonald Trump all demon-strated
Carbon dioxide emissionsfell by a record seven per centin 2020; they are very likely torebound in 2021 and beyond ifwe don't remain civilised. Astraffic dropped everywhere, sodid pollution.
The Mayor of Paris, anoth-er smart female leader, cruisedto re-election by promising toeliminate half of all on-streetparking spots and prioritisecyclists. Next up: turning majoravenues into pedestrian zonesand creating pedestrian ‘chil-dren streets’ around schools.
Barcelona has just announcedsimilar plans. Melbourne,Detroit, Portland: They're all onboard with the Paris-style planfor ‘15-minute cities’ wherethat's how long it takes toreach all the basic stuff youneed on foot, on bike or viatransit. Electric cars are speed-ing growth, not surprisingly.Declining oil demand is themost desired outcome acrossmany countries.
Globally, 10 per cent of allcars sold in 2020 were EVs, a28-per cent increase on 2019.It isn't that the world is gettinggreener in satellite photos;that's just the planet's plantmatter doing us a favour andsoaking up more of that carbondioxide in the atmosphere.
Most people may not havenoticed that 14 nations owning40 per cent of the world'scoastline just banded togetherto create the world's biggestocean sustainability initiative.Coastlines are now as clean asAntarctica. Surprisingly, the
pandemic ushered in a ‘wetfood market’ in Wuhan and hasforced indiscriminate flesheaters to rethink on treatmentof other species that goes farbeyond its point of origin.
China's Wildlife ProtectionLaw now applies at sea for thefirst time, reducing its vastfishing fleet's massive foot-print.Food trader ‘ImpossibleFoods’ reported its first unex-pected profit quite in May; its‘I-can't-believe-its-not-beef ’product is now being sold instores across China and the USwith fake pork coming soon.
Other food businesses alsotook advantage of a falteringUS meat supply chain with anew round of investment innon-meat trading. There isnews of their stock price rising.
The best-ever thing to havehappened is the ‘work-from-home’ culture. That one canperform magnificently on alocation away from the stereoworkplace has proven to be aboon for the productive
mankind. The internet passedits ultimate stress test. Ofcourse, such a radical shiftwould not have been possiblewithout apps like Zoom,Google Meet, FaceTime, Skypeand the whole gang.
More videoconferencingtook place in 2020 than at anytime in human history forwork and for socialising; and,amazingly, with a few smallexceptions, the infrastructureheld up. It's a myth that theinternet was designed to bedecentralised in order to with-stand a nuclear attack, but wenow know for a fact that it cansurvive a global pandemic.
The virus is trying to makea comeback, in vain, with a newstrain. Little does it know thatvaccines respond to the basicstructures without fail. Cloaksand covers will never work.Corona is vanquished for alltimes. The only unalterablenegative thing about corona isthat it made ‘positive’ the mostdreaded negative word forever!
Wednesday filed a fresh mis-cellaneous petition in theOrissa High Court in connec-tion with the sexual assault andmurder of five-year-old girlPari at Jadupur village inNayagarh district.
The petition, filed onbehalf of BBP State presidentSurendra Panigrahi, soughtconduct of polygraph tests ofthe persons named in the FIRby the deceased’s parents andbring them under the purviewof investigation.The BBP hasearlier moved the High Court
seeking a CBI probe into thecase and a compensation of Rs25 lakh for the deceased’s fam-ily.Pari’s parents had onNovember 24 attempted self-immolation outside the StateLegislative Assembly demand-ing justice for their daughter.
Alleging police inactionin the case, the couple accusedMinister Arun Kumar Sahooof shielding ‘accused’ BabuliNayak.
Probing case, the IPS offi-cer Arun Bothra-led SpecialInvestigation Team (SIT) of theCrime Branch recently arrest-ed one Saroj Sethy of Jadupurvillage for allegedly raping andkilling the girl.
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As many as 38 police stationsin State do not have wireless
communication systems, accord-ing to a report of the Bureau ofPolice Research andDevelopment (BPR&D) relatedto Data on Police Organisations.
The report further said thatfour police stations in State haveno vehicles while three police sta-tions lack telephones. Of 16,833police stations in India, 143 donot have wireless or mobileswhile 257 are without vehicles.It is a matter of concern whensuch infrastructures, which area good reliable system and areimportant for effective func-tioning of police organisation, aremissing from police stations in21st-Century India, report said.
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All departments of the StateGovernment and subordi-
nate offices in the twin cities ofBhubaneswar and Cuttack shallfunction with 75% strength ofemployees (all staffs includingGroup-A officers) during themonth of January, 2021, anorder of the GeneralAdministration & PublicGrievance Department said onWednesday. All StateGovernment offices wouldcontinue to remain closed onSaturdays, the order said.
The Departments/Headsof Offices in Bhubaneswar andCuttack may decide the man-ner of selection of the employ-ees who would attend offices.However, the essentialoffices/services such as SRCand OSDMA offices, police,Fire Services, health servicesand municipal services shallfunction in full strengths. Incase of detection of any Covid-19 case among the officeemployees, the concernedoffice would follow the proto-
cols issued by the Government.The officers/staffs, who havebeen provided with VPN, shallwork from home when notassigned roster duty. They mustbe available to attend to anyoffice work of urgent nature at
short notice and be available ontelephone at all times.Administrative departmentswould decide about the scalesof operations in subordinateand field offices, the orderadded.
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There shall be no groupmovements/congregations
at Government offices acrossthe State on the New Year’s Day(January 1, 2021), an officialorder of the GeneralAdministration & PublicGrievance Department said onWednesoday.
“Government issued advi-sories in order to adopt strictprecautionary measures forprevention of spread of Covid-19 in the State. As a result, thesituation has improved to a
considerable degree which isrequired to be maintained inview of the renewed threat ofinfection through a mutantvariety of the virus,” the ordersaid. Keeping this in view,group movements/congrega-tions on the New Year’s Dayshall be scrupulously avoided inGovernment offices.
The employees are encour-aged to use virtual means forconveying New Year greetingsto colleagues and seniors in theoffice premises. Social dis-tancing shall be maintained atall times, the order added.
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Legendary music directorShantanu Mohapatra passed
away at a private hospital herelate on Tuesday night. He was84.Mohapatra was sufferingfrom acute pneumonia andkidney-related ailments.
He was associated with theOdia music industry for almost60 years. He composed firstmodern Odia ballad “KonarkGatha” with lyrics by lyricistGurukrushna Goswami andsung by Akshay Mohanty.
Mohapatra has many firststo his credits in the field ofOdia music as a music com-poser like the first modern lul-laby in AIR (‘Soi pada re dhana’sung by Santilata Rout), firstqawali (ae ranga rahiba nahifrom Surjyamukhi), firstbhangra tune, and first fusionand jumping note (AgoChandrika by RaghunathPanigrahi).
He is the first from Odishato work with Hindi film greatslike Lata Mangeshkar(Surjyamukhi), Mohd Rafi(Arundhati), Manna Dey(Surjyamukhi), UshaMangeskar (Arundhati) and
experimented with other artistslike Suresh Wadekar, AnuradhaPaudwal, Usha Uthup, KavitaKrishnamurthy and others withhis Mumbai style orchestramusic and choral songs.
Mohapatra was born inNovember, 1936 in Baripada.By profession, he was a geo-physicist. The Utkal Universityof Culture had conferred hon-ourary DLitt on him in 2011.
Chief Minister NaveenPatnaik and many other emi-nent personalities condoledMohapatra’s demise. Hedescribed Mohapatra as an“unfading talent”.
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���� (78( 5"� 9
The Utkal Sammilani cele-brated its foundation day
by garlanding the statues ofUtkalgaurav Madhusadan Dasat Raj Bhavan Square andSammilan’s first presidentSriram Chanda Bhanja Deo atUtkal Sammilani Marg hereon Wednesday.
While Utkal SammilaniMancheswar branch presidentDillip Dashsharma presidedover the function, advisorsNiranjan Das and NimaiCharan Das, vice-presidentSital Chandra Mohanty, secre-tary Gobinda ChandraSubudhi and Rushi Patnaikspoke about the contributions
of the iconic leaders to the Stateunder the banner of the UtkalSammilani.
Among others, Samillanijoint secretary SidharhShankar Gadnaik, BasantiTripathy, Maheswar Biswal ,Khetroman Nayak,GopiMohant Patnaik, AkshayKumar Sethi and NiranjanPatra were present.
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The Union Cabinet onWednesday approved a pro-
ject of Rs 3,004.63 crore fordevelopment of the Paradip Port.The Cabinet approved deepen-ing and optimisation of theinner harbour facilities, includ-ing development of westerndock on the Build, Operate &Transfer basis under PPP modeto handle cape-size vessels at theport, informed MansukhMandaviya, Minister of State forPorts, Shipping & Waterways.
The estimated cost of theproject is Rs 3,004.63 crore, theMinister added.The ParadipPort's investment would be to thetune of Rs 612.50 crore towardsproviding common supportingproject infrastructure.
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The ‘One Nation, OneElection’ system can pre-
vent the impact of the modelcode of conduct on develop-ment works and humanresources, energy, time andfinancial resources can besaved, said BJP nationalspokesperson andBhubaneswar MP AparajitaSarangi here on Wednesday.“Besides, it will exert less pres-sure on the administrativemachinery and the loss to theGDP can be minimised,” sheadded.
In the election modelprevalent in the country from1951-1952 to 1967, the GeneralElection and the AssemblyElections had been held at a
time. At the later stages, Article356 of the Constitution wasmisused and electedGovernments were dismissed.,due to which the ‘One Nation,One Election’ system couldn’tbe held, the MP said. In 1983,the Election Commission hadargued in favour of one elec-tion. But due to lack of politi-
cal will it was not accepted. In2015, the ParliamentaryStanding Committee had sub-mitted a report to hold the LokSabha and Assembly Electionsat a time. Prime MinisterNarendra Modi has showninterest for one election andtaken steps for discussions onit, Sarangi said.
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The Chauliaganj police andCuttack Municipal
Corporation (CMC) officialson Wednesday seized morethan 100 kg of adulteratedpaneer in the city and arresteda person in this connection.
According to reports, copsintercepted a bus at the OMPSquare here that was on its wayfrom Kolkata to Cuttack andseized the paneer from thevehicle. “The seized paneer isspurious and has been preparedusing sulphuric acid, sodiummonostearate, flour, glycerine,urea, detergent powder,wastage milk, and palmoleinoil. If consumed, it will have
adverse effects on the digestivesystem and functioning of kid-ney,” a CMC Health Officersaid.“The accused used to pro-vide adulterated paneer totraders at cheap prices in thecity. A person has been appre-hended while efforts are on toascertain the involvement ofothers . We are also ascertain-ing the traders to whom suchadulterated paneer was beingsold,” a police official said.
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Samajwadiparty State pres-ident Rabindra Nath
Behera welcomed the decision
of the State Cabinet onMonday regarding reserva-tion to students ofGovernment schools in med-ical and engineering educa-tion. "This is a historic deci-sion of your Government andreflects your concern for theupliftment of the poor andrural population," saidBehera.
Behera requested the CMto go a few steps further inthis regard by taking steps likestr ingent action against
coaching centres for medicaland engineering fleecing stu-dents; reservation of 25 %seats in reputed coachingcentres like Allen, Fitzee,Aakash, Bidwan etc for poorand underprivileged groups;free accommodation to thepoor and meritorious stu-dents selected for coaching incities and towns and improve-ment in standard of educationin Government schools byfilling the vacant teacherposts.
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Former Assembly DeputySpeaker and advisor of
Odisha Agri Marketing BoardRama Chandra Panda visitedBirikote Panchayat of MohanaBlock to take stock of the cul-tivation of lemon grass, Tulsi,and production of oil fromlemon grass by the local tribalfarmers.
He was accompanied bySarapanch Musa Majhi, DeputyDirector of Horticulture,Gajapati, K Sudarshan, NGOPREM president JacobThundyil besides block officialsand local farmers. Panda was
widely greeted by the tribalfarmers and local party work-ers during his visit.
Mention may be made thatPanda during his extensivetour to Ganjam, Gajapati,Rayagada and other districtsduring last fortnight visited
several places to oversee theprogress of various develop-ment works, progress in farm-ing initiated by the StateGovernment, besides attendingvarious meetings and func-tions organised by the partyfunctionaries.
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East Coast Railway (ECoR)General Manager Vidya
Bhushan laid the foundation-stone for construction of aRail Heritage Museum atChandrasekharpur here onWednesday. The aim to estab-lish the museum is to pre-serve the old railway equip-ments, to showcase the richhistory of organisation inthis region, to enlighten thepublic about railways and itsachievements and to boosttourism.
Efforts would be made topreserve the long and vibrant
and rich history of IndianRailways as a whole and ECoRin particular. Old equipments,instruments, technologydevices and models wouldalso be preserved in the muse-um through an impressivedisplay of artefacts, modelsand photographs.
In the indoor section, var-ious documents, old manuals,railway maps, equipment, andphotographs from early daysof Railways in India are to beput on display. The outdoorsection of the museum wouldprovide old steam locomotives,coaches, wagons, signal systemsand many more.
���� (78( 5"� 9
Comptroller and AuditorGeneral of India (CAG)
Girish Chandra Murmu visit-ed the KIIT and the KalingaInstitute of Social Sciences(KISS) on Wednesday.
He assured help to set upa world-class Football Academyat KISS-Mayurbhanj.Felicitating him, KIIT & KISSfounder Dr Achyuta Samantasaid Murmu is the pride ofOdisha. Dr Samanta said, "Theacademy will help the risingfootball players not only fromMayurbhanj district but alsofrom other districts of Odisha.With world-class training, ourplayers will bring laurels to
Odisha and India at interna-tional level," said Samanta.Murmu said the KISS is theonly institute in the worldwhere more than 30,000 trib-al students are getting food,accommodation, healthcare,
sports facilities along with edu-cation free of cost. "It is not asmall thing. It is possible due tothe dedicated work of DrSamanta towards the holisticdevelopment of tribal chil-dren," he stated.
Presidents, former Prime min-isters and former top bureau-crats to write their memoirs.They write their memoirs col-lecting their thoughts, experi-ences and memories in thetranquillity of retirement.
They expose some explo-sive events and place them inthe public domain. The eventscontain some political situa-tions and some pressing issues.
Of course many of them areunverifiable. A memoir is notdifferent from autobiography. Itis rather a sub - category ofautobiography. While autobi-ography tells the story of a life,the memoir tells the story of aparticular event, or some turn-ing points of the author's life.It is all about speaking truth.
A genuine memoir doesnot accept fiction and bias. Butit is alleged, some authorsdeliberately make their workscontroversial to boost theirsale. Recently two memoirshave hit the headlines in Indiaand abroad.
One is the 'PresidentialYears' written by the formerPresident of India, PranabMukherjee, and other is 'APromised Land ' written byBarack Obama, the formerpresident of the United Statesof America. Pranab's book isyet to be released.
But it has become contro-versial in the beginning. Hisson Abhijit Mukherjee, a for-
mer MP and the daughter,Sarmistha Mukherjee, the pre-sent spokesperson of CongressParty, now spar over therelease of the book.
Son says, the book shouldnot be published without hisconsent and the daughterrequests her brother not to cre-ate unnecessary hurdles in thepublication of the book becausefather has checked the scriptwhen he was alive. Someexcerpts of the book, the 4thone in the series , leaked andfloated in different mediaforums , tell some critical com-ments given by Pranab aboutSonia Gandhi and DrManamohan Singh.
The former late Presidentreportedly in his book says,Congress party lost its politicalfocus after his elevation aspresident and the party lost theelections too in 2014 due toSonia Gandhi and ManamohanSingh as Mrs Gandhi did nottake interest in party affairand Dr Singh’s prolonged
absence in the House weakenedthe morale of the party MPs toface the challenges of the oppo-sition members. The formerpresident quoting his support-ers' view further says, theCongress's election debacle in2014 could have been avertedhad he become the PrimeMinister in 2004.
The Congress is in badphase now. If Pranab's book isreleased at this stage, it maycause more damage to theparty's prospects. Therefore,there is an attempt in some cir-cle to stop the publication ofthe book.
'A Promised Land' is amemoir by Barack Obama, theformer president of the USAfrom January 2009 to January2017. It is the 1st of Obama’splanned two volume series.
The book created massivehue and cry in India before itwas released in November last.The Indian TV channels car-ried prime time debates onsome comments made by
Obama about India and someIndian politicians. Nearly ninelakhs books were presoldbefore the release of the book.President Obama with his wifeMichelle made an official visitto India in January, 2010. Therewas Congress led UPA -2Government in India headedby Prime Minister DrManamohan Singh. Obama' sbook contains a little descrip-tion about his India -visit in justsix pages only in his 751 pagebook. The book carries some ofObama's observations aboutIndia, Mahatma Gandhi,Manamohan Singh, SoniaGandhi, Rahul Gandhi andsome critical comments aboutBJP and Nathuram Godsewithout mentioning Godse'sname.
India occupies a specialplace in his imagination,Obama tells. It may be due toits size, due to its 2,000 distinctethnic groups, or due to its 700languages spoken or it may bedue to Hindu tales of Ramayan
and Mahabharat which he lis-tened in his childhood days.But above all it is MahatmaGandhi, Obama confesses inhis book, whose ideologicalattractions brought him toIndia. Mahatma Gandhi is aunique personality, Obamasays. His satyagrah, nonviolentresistance, oneness of religion,recognising the dignity of allpeople are the core essenceswhich have influenced thethinking of Obama.
Despite his extraordinarygifts Obama laments, Gandhihad not been able to heal the'sub continent's religiousschisms and undo the India'sstiffening caste system'. But itis unfortunate that Gandhiwhile on his way to prayer wasshot at by a 'young Hinduextremist.'
Obama, in his book, looksvery candid about DrManamohan Singh. He says,the PM Singh is the chiefarchitect of India's economictransformation. He has won the
people's trust not by appealingto their passion, but by bring-ing about higher living stan-dard. Still across the country,Obama goes on speaking in hisbook that millions of peoplelive in squalor, in slums thoughthe Indian industrialists live thelives which the Rajas andMoguls of India's old ageswould have envied. Obama'scomments about Sonia Gandhiand Rahul Gandhi create bothoutrages and admiration inIndia.
The Indian media takesinterest in it. Both Sonia andRahul were present in the din-ner party hosted by the IndianPrime Minister for presidentObama and his wife Michelle.Sonia in traditional Indiansaree, though participating inthe discussion, was speakingless and was looking forceful,striking and shrewdly intellec-tual. And Rahul in his fortiesseemed to be smart andearnest. In discussing the futureof progressive global politics
there was marked nervousunformed quality in him lack-ing aptitude and passion tomaster the subjects. But in theend of his book Obama issceptical if batton can suc-cessfully be passed to Rahulamid the divisive nationalismtouted by BJP.
Obama's memoir, 'APromised Land,' receives bothpraise and criticism in India.Some say, some of the Obama'scomments about Indian politi-cians as a state guest are out ofcontext and unwarranted. Andsome say Obama has deliber-ately brought Gandhi family tothe ambit of his book toenhance the saleability of hismemoir.
In fact, a memoir is a his-torical document to be pre-served for future reference. Itwill be disastrous if the authoradds fiction and bias to it.
(A Gandhian author andcolumnist, lawyer, Puri. Phone:9861469328)
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Awoman was hacked todeath over the suspicion of
practising sorcery at Sarisua vil-lage under the Sarat policestation in Mayurbhanj districton Tuesday evening.
According to reports, thewoman, identified as KhairiMahanta, had gone to a tube-well to fetch water when KaliaMahanta and his brother Balia
attacked her with a sharpweapon killing her on the spot.The accused duo have fledfrom the village after com-mitting the crime.
On being informed, policereached the village with aforensic team, sent the body forpostmortem and began aninvestigation. Kalia and hiswife, who were childless sus-pected sorcery by the deceasedwoman as the reason behind it.
�����(78( 5"� 9
Most Indians think thatprotein deficiency is not
an important concern. Themost common myth aroundprotein is that it is only meantfor body-builders or gym-goers. Another protein myth isthat protein is the only nutri-ent that is difficult to digest bythe body. Some feel that cuttingon protein is a good way to loseweight.
A survey by the IndianMarket Research Bureau(IMRB) to ascertain the levelsof protein deficiency andawareness about protein inIndia showed 73 per cent of
urban rich is protein deficientwith 93 per cent of themunaware about their daily pro-tein requirements.
As Indians, proteinrequirements can be met byspreading them evenly acrossmeals, says Aditi Mehrotra, adiet consultant. This wouldmean combining dairy, pulsesand legumes, sustainable grainssuch as millets, nuts andoilseeds, along with egg andpoultry to give a perfect proteinintake for day, she adds.
According to anothernutritionist, even thoughIndians have shown animprovement in education lev-els and poverty elevation, veryfew are aware that body needsapproximately one gram ofprotein for every kilogram of
body weight every day. It isunfortunate that prosperity,which should have brought inawareness and a shift in nutri-tional culture of Indians, ishighly missing in them. Otherwesternised countries haveresponded very well in terms ofawareness of a rich protein diet,he added.
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Sports Minister TusharkantiBehera during a two-day
visit to Baleswar reviewedthe progress of the proposedintegrated sports complex inBaleswar. During his stay heaccompanied by the district
officials and MLA SadarSwarup Das and MLARemuna SS Parida visitedseveral sports grounds inBaleswar town and Remunaincluding Permit f ield,Chandmari padia andNaraharipur ground.
Later on he joined a meet-ing held at Nocci businesspark which was attended bydistr ict Col lector KSudharshan Chakrvarthy, SubCollector Sadar Asish IswarPatil, besides the two MLAsand deliberated on the pro-motion of sports in the dis-trict. He stressed on land
acquisition for the integratedsports complex at the earliest.Behera besides emphasizingon creating and strengthen-ing infrastructure for sportsin both rural pockets as wellas in urban areas also stressedon giving opportunities tothe budding sportspersonsby providing them infra-structure and scope at a timewhen the Chief Minister istaking much interest to pro-mote sports and sportsmenin the State. The Sports offi-cers and tehsi ldars ofBaleswar Sadar and Remunawere present.
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The district administrationon Tuesday felicitated the
next of kin of couple of deceasedCovid warriors of the district andalso disbursed ex-gratia amountof Rs 50 lakh each to them as perthe State Government’sannouncement in a functionorganised here.
District Collector SamarthVerma felicitated Manashi Rout,widow of deceased PrafullaKumar Rout who worked as theExecutive Officer of Andara andPenthapal GPs of Chandiagadiunder Aul police station andSandhyarani Bhuiyan, widow
of Biswabhusan Bhuiyan whowas working as Junior Engineerin Rajnagar Block of Dilwarpur.Rout got affected with deadlyvirus in October and died onOctober 21 while he was under-going treatment at Hi –TechMedical College and Hospital inBhubaneswar.
Similarly, Bhuiyan diedwhile he was undergoing Covidtreatment at Bhubaneswar-basedApollo Hospital. The StateGovernment is going to providespecial general family pension toduo families. Notably, duodeceased Covid warriors wereworking under Panchayat RajDepartment .
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Addressing the fourth con-vocation of the Odisha
State Open University (OSOU)here on Tuesday on virtualmode, chief guest former ViceChancellor of IGNOU andfounder VC of YashwantraoChauhan Open University,Maharastra, Prof Ram GKatwale stressed that educationshould lead to innovation, cre-ation and higher values ofhumanism to create new age
society after 2035. “Any uni-versity, formal or open, in NEP(National Education Policy)has to function two ways- to goup vertically to offer opportu-nities of learning at the high-est level of knowledge; and togo horizontally to include all sothat we raise bottom up orantyodaya to higher level,” saidProf Katwale.
“The future is challenging.Hence, let’s accept the futurechallenges and move aheadwith higher technology use,” headded. He further suggesteduniversities to create goal fortheir learners, teachers andsociety.Prof Katwale, with highwords, praised Odisha for itsrich cultural heritage.
Talking about the NEP -2020, Prof Kakwale furthersaid that the NEP 2020 hasgiven complete freedom to
design new models and processthat will achieve goals andmission. “If this freedom isgiven jointly to schools,autonomous colleges and uni-versities, then higher educationinstitutions (HEIs) will rise tothis challenge,” he said further.At the outset, OSOU VC ProfDr Srikant Mahapatra gave adetailed but glorious history ofthe new institution establishedsix years back.
“The OSOU has become adream and destination forabout 40, 000 learners (stu-dents) mostly belonging tosocially and economically dis-advantaged groups of the State,”Prof Mahapatra said. Keepingin view the Covid 19 guide-lines, strict arrangements weremade all through the celebra-tion to ensure safety for all theparticipants.
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The journalists in the Stateseem to be confronting a
State sponsored attack for quitesometimes now. Perhaps, theruling satrap is in an actionmode as journalists are diggingmany sensitive affairs," saidretired Justice Manas RanjanMishra addressing the jour-nalists, writers and poets hereon Monday
For last one year, hun-dreds of cases have occurredwhere many media personnelhave been an easy prey withsome even losing their valuablelives. And many have to run to
courts accused in crimes, headded. Joining as chief guest of‘The Media’, a Puri based forumfor working journalists andwriters, the former SessionsJudge gave the instance ofPritish Nandi Vs JanakibalabhPatnaik in ‘The IllustratedWeekly’ case.
He told that it is danger-ous trend that journalists arefound backtracking frombringing a truth to lightbecause of fear from the estab-lishment. Invited as chiefspeaker, Utkal SambadikaSangh’s State president BibhutiBhusan Kar expressed con-cerns over rising atrocities on
journalists and criticised theGovernment for not approvingto Centre for making laws.Boasting his demand of pen-sion to journalists at sixty yearsof age, Kar said, the OdishaGovernment here was silentwhereas eight States havealready sent approvals toCentre for laws on safety ofmediapersons.
Chairman of Odia BhashaPratistan, Prof HaraprasadMishra stressed the need ofunited efforts by journalistswhile facing injustice. The onlyreason of victimisation is thatthey are divided and opposedto each other. Prof Abhimanyu
Bhuyan, Prof Kartik KumarDas, Dr Balaram Dash,researcher MadanmohanMahapatra, lawyer PuskarMohapatra, Gopal Panda,Ratikant Pratihari, PratibhaTripathy and Tirthesh Rayargued in favour of a protectionmechanism for the journalists.
Forum’s chairman SarojKumar Mishra gave his wel-come address to invitees whileits State presidentLaxminarayan Patnaik chairedthe meeting.
Journalist Baba LalatenduKeshari placed a demand offinancial support byGovernment to small newspa-
pers and periodicals of theState. Among others, journal-ists Bijay Patnaik, Biswajit
Patnaik, Jupiter Das, PradipNayak, Nrusingha Mohantyand Satyajit Das spoke.
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Aseminar on “Role ofJournalists in Covid
Awareness” was held here onSunday. Kandhamala MP andfounder of KIIT & KISSAchyuta Samants graced theevent as chief guest. The day-long seminar was initiated andorganised by Kalinga TV.
Samanta said the scribesplay a significant role in thesociety which is crystal clearfrom the dedicated servicethey rendered in the recentCovid-19 pandemic to savevaluable public life.
The journalists sacrificingtheir life discharged theirduties with utmost sincerityand diligence, he added. "SinceGanjam district is the largestdistrict and one of the mostprosperous districts in theState, we are going to open abranch of KISS (KalingaInstitute of Social Sciences) atvillage Chamakhandi whichwill provide free education
and free accommodation formore than 200 poor studentsof Ganjam district," Samantasaid.
The speakers said theworking journalists played akey role in sensitizing the pub-lic through various awarenessprogrammes, timely bringingout the measures initiated bythe Government to the publicknowledge, making publicaware about the lockdown andshutdown restrictions includ-ing SoP during the unprece-dented Covid-19 pandemic inthe district.
Among others who joinedthe seminar includedBrahmapur MP ChandraSekhar Sahu, Aska MP PramilaBisoyi, Brahmapur MLABikram Panda, District BJDpresident Dr RCC Pattnaik,Subash Maharana; Prof JayantaMahapatra and CMD ofKalinga TV Himanshu SekharKhatua.
On behalf of theSoundhika Samaj, PrabhakarSahu and BhismacharyaChoudhury were felicitatedwith “Achyut Samanta CoronaWarrior” citation. Dr Samantawas also felicitated.
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Vigilance officials onWednesday recovered cash
of over Rs 18 lakh during raidsat multiple places in connectionwith allegations againstPrashant Kumar Nayak, DLRTypist, Lingaraj Law College,
Brahmapur, regarding posses-sion of assets disproportionateto his known sources ofincome.
Simultaneous searcheswere carried out at Nayak’striple-storied building-cum-motor spare parts shop at AskaRoad, another triple-storiedresidential building at BankColony, double-storied godownat Aska Road, his rentedgodown at Brundabati Nagarand his rented godown atBishnunagar, all in Berhampur.Till last reports came in, thesearches were underway.Vigilance officials also raidedmultiple places in
Jagatsinghpur district andBhubaneswar in connectionwith allegations againstRabindra Senapati, ASI ofPolice, regarding possessionof assets disproportionate to hisknown sources of income. Theraids were conducted at hisparental house at Panchapalli,his house at Mukundapur,Jagatsinghpur, and his flat atHanspal in Bhubaneswar.
So far, more than 10 pass-books, gold ornaments, threehouses worth over Rs 1.5 croreand a locker possessed bySenapati and his family mem-bers have been detected. Tilllast reports came in, the raids
and calculation of total value ofhis movable and immovableassets were underway. In yetanother disproportionate assets(DA) case, Vigilance officialson the day recovered gold bis-cuits and cash of Rs 16.32 lakhfrom the residence of BibhutiShankar Bindhani, JuniorAccountant, WESCO, Balangir.
The officials carried outsimultaneous searches at hisresidence near Circuit Houseand his office in Palace Lane atBalangir.Apart from cash, goldornaments and gold biscuitswere also recovered during theraids, which were underway tilllast reports came in.
abducted from a road side campnear NH 49 at Kamperkila roadside under Pallahara police sta-tion. A bridge over Mankadariver at a cost of Rs 8 crore isbeing constructed by firm underRD Department for last twoyears.
The supervisors identifiedas Sanatana Behera and NartamBiswal were staying in campalong with other workers.Sources said about 10- 12 mis-creants came to camp site atabout 1 am on Tuesday night intwo Bolero jeeps. They werearmed and assaulted a fewworkers first. Then they abduct-ed supervisors, besides 45 litersof diesel and fled spot.
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Ahead of the high-stakeWest Bengal Assembly
polls, Prime Minister NarendraModi is likely to visit WestBengal on January 23, which iscelebrated as Netaji SubhashChandra Bose’s birth anniver-sary.
The Centre has constitut-ed a high-level committee tocommemorate Bose’s 125thbirth anniversary as a mark ofhis contribution to India’sfreedom struggle.
Headed by Union HomeMinister Amit Shah, the com-mittee also includes experts,historians, authors, familymembers of Bose as well aseminent persons associatedwith Azad Hind Fauj.
This panel will decide on
the activities for the one-yearcommemoration startingJanuary 23, 2021.
Sensing the major trac-tion that the memory of Bosehas with people of Bengal, BJPhas already roped in ChandraKumar Bose in the party. He isthe grand nephew of NetajiSubhash Chandra Bose andgrandson of Sarat ChandraBose, elder brother of NetajiSubhash Chandra Bose.
He was at the head of acampaign for the completedeclassification of Bose-relateddocuments.
After coming to power atthe Centre in 2014, the Modigovernment had promised todeclassify all the secret docu-ments on the possible last daysof Bose, still shrouded in mys-tery.
Some documents weremade public but they hardlythrew much light on the cir-cumstances leading to thedeath of Netaji.
The BJP Government,
however, undertook new ini-tiatives towards preservingBose’s legacy, including settingup a museum at Red Fort andIn 2018.
Three islands in Andamanand Nicobar- the Ross Island,the Neil Island and theHavelock Island were renamedas Netaji Subhas Chandra BoseDweep, Shaheed Dweep andSwaraj Dweep.
Modi’s expected visit toWest Bengal assumes signifi-cance and set the pitch for theBJP campaign ahead of thestate Assembly elections due inApril-May 2021.
BJP is looking to makemajor inroads in the WB pollsbuoyed by its win in 18 out of42 Lok Sabha constituencies inthe 2019 General Election.
Both Union HomeMinister Amit Shah and BJPpresident JP Nadda haveexpressed confidence in theparty winning more than 200seats in the coming Assemblypolls.
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With men’s best friend—thedog—proving threat to
the wildlife in and around thecountry’s tiger reserves, theNational Tiger ConservationAuthority (NTCA) has for-mulated guidelines to keepthem at bay by treating them as‘street dogs’ which needs to besterlised and vaccinated.
But unlike those in theurban cities, the dogs found inthe tiger reserves should notbe released back in the big cats’habitat, indicates the StandardOperating Procedures (SOP),released by Minister of Statefor Environment, BabulSupriyo recently.
“All dogs within tigerreserves will be dealt with inkeeping with the Animal BirthControl (Dogs) Rules, 2001,but the clause that after ster-ilization and vaccination theybe released where they werepicked up from, will not beapplied in tiger reserves,”points out the SOP.
“Feral/stray dogs capturedfrom within tiger reservesshould under no circumstancebe released back and a suitablealternate site be selected fortheir rehabilitation,” it saidaiming to immunize thecanine against contagious dis-eases like canine distempervirus and controlling theirnumbers which are on the rise.
The dogs survive ongarbage thrown by villagerslocated inside the reserves aswell on the fringes. AS theymultiply rapidly they lose theirfear of humans and turn feralor free-ranging dogs, accord-
ing to experts. There havebeen instances of feral dogsmauling chinkaras and bigpredators like tigers as well.
In fact, in August, the lat-est tiger survey had foundmore dogs than tigers in 17reserves across the country.There are total 50 tigers in thecountry. The wildlife expertswarned that when tigers preyon them or consume the meatof animals dogs may havekil led, the virus can be transmitted to the big cats.
After sterlisation and vac-cination, the dogs have to berehabilitated at a suitable alter-nate site outside the tigerreserves say the guidelines.
The SOP has also asked allthe reserves to create immu-nization buffers around tigerreserves to keep wild animalssafe from being hunted by feraldogs and to avoid transmissionof diseases between them andwild animals.
“The aim is to ensure thatferal or stray dogs are handledinan appropriate manner toavoid disease spread and phys-ical injury to the tigers andother wild animals. Due tomany villages inside the tigerreserves, the menace is gravenot only at the fringers but alsowithin the reserves,” saidNTCA head SP Yadav.
As per the SOP, respectivefield directors will have to set
up a seven-member panelcomprising local veterinariansand NGOs, animal welfareactivists belonging to SPCA,panchayat representatives fortechnical guidance and imple-mentation of interventions,especially for planning andmanagement of dog controlprogramme.
It also asks to delineateareas of feral dog movementand areas vulnerable to staysand map them on the GISdomain and coordinate withthe local animal husbandrydepartment.
Vaccination of dogs isexpected to reduce the threatof transmission to wild ani-mals.
Abi Tamim Vanak, a con-servation scientist at theAshoka Trust for Research inEcology and the Environment(Atree), Bengaluru noted that,the free-ranging dogs posedthe biggest threat to wildlife, inRajasthan and across thecountry.
“Our data from Spiti,Himachal Pradesh, and Kutch,Gujurat, shows dogs huntinga range of wild species—fromblack-naped hare (herbivore)to red fox (carnivore). Feraldogs are even known to attackcritically endangered birdspecies such as the GreatIndian Bustard and Bengalflorican,” he said, as per areport.
Snow LeopardConservancy India Trust, awildlife conservation NGObased in Leh too has flaggedthe issue of the feral dog prob-lem, saying that it is acuteacross Ladakh, Jammu andKashmir, too.
scheme to provide bank loans atlower rates to distilleries pro-ducing ethanol for doping inpetrol, with a view to raisingIndia’s ethanol productioncapacity to suck out surplussugar as well as cut oil imports.
Oil Minister DharmendraPradhan said the Governmentis targeting to more than dou-ble blending of ethanol in petrolto 20 per cent by 2030, for whichdomestic production capacityhas to be augmented. Cabinetalso approved a multi-modallogistics and transport hub(MMTH) at Greater Noida inUttar Pradesh with a view tomaking India a strong player inthe global value chain.
The Cabinet Committeeon Economic Affairs (CCEA),headed by Prime MinisterNarendra Modi, approved amodified scheme for extendinginterest subvention to augmentethanol production capacity,he said.
The Government wouldbear interest subvention for fiveyears, including one-year mora-torium against the loan availedby project proponents frombanks, at the rate of 6 per centper annum or 50 per cent of therate of interest charged by banks,whichever is lower. The inter-est subvention would be avail-able for setting up new as wellas an expansion of existingmolasses or grain-based distil-leries and for units that will pro-duce ethanol from other feed-stocks such as sugar beet, sweetsorghum and cereals.
“Previously, �4,687 croreinterest subvention scheme was
approved and now �4,573 crorehas been sanctioned,” saidPradhan.
The Cabinet approved amulti-modal logistics and trans-port hub (MMTH) at GreaterNoida in Uttar Pradesh with aview to making India a strongplayer in the global value chain.The Union Cabinet alsoapproved a proposal to set upindustrial corridor nodes atKrishnapatnam and Tumakuruunder CBIC, said Minister ofInformation and BroadcastingPrakash Javadekar. “The pro-posals have a total estimatedcost of �7,725 crore and an esti-mated employment generationof more than 2.8 lakh persons,”he said.
The Cabinet also approveda �3,000 crore project to turnParadip Port into a world-classport by setting up a dock. Thedecision to set up a westerndock was taken by the UnionCabinet in its meeting held onWednesday, Ports, Shipping andWaterways Minister MansukhMandaviya said. Paradip port inOdisha is one of the 12 major
ports under thecontrol of theCentre.
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The entire Nagaland was onWednesday declared a “dis-
turbed area” for six moremonths by the CentralGovernment, enabling the con-tinuation of the controversialAFSPA which empowers secu-rity forces to conduct opera-tions anywhere and arrest any-one without any prior warrant.
The Armed Forces (SpecialPowers) Act (AFSPA) has beenin force in Nagaland for sever-al decades.
The Union Home Ministrysaid in a notification that theCentral Government is of theopinion that the area compris-ing the whole of Nagaland is insuch a “disturbed and danger-ous condition” that the use ofarmed forces in aid of the civilpower is necessary. “Now,therefore, in exercise of thepowers conferred by Section 3of the Armed Forces (SpecialPowers) Act, 1958 (No. 28 of1958), the Central Governmenthereby declares that whole ofthe State of Nagaland to be ‘dis-turbed area’ for a period of sixmonths with effect from 30thDecember 2020 for the purposeof the said Act,” the notification
said. There have been demands
from various organisations inthe Northeast as well as inJammu and Kashmir forrepealing the AFSPA, which,they allege, gives “sweepingpowers” to security forces. TheAFSPA has not been with-drawn even after a frameworkagreement was signed onAugust 3, 2015, by Naga insur-gent group NSCN-IM generalsecretary Thuingaleng Muivahand government interlocutor RN Ravi in the presence ofPrime Minister NarendraModi.
The framework agreementcame after over 80 rounds ofnegotiations spanning 18 years,with the first breakthrough in1997 when the ceasefire agree-ment was sealed after decadesof insurgency in Nagaland.However, the peace processhas been stuck for some timeas the NSCN-IM has beenpressing for a separate flagand Constitution, a demandrejected by the CentralGovernment.
Previous week NSCN-Kalso declared their intention fora ceasefire and engage in peacetalks.
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Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birlaon Wednesday called for a
high-level probe by an inde-pendent agency into the deathof Karnataka LegislativeCouncil Deputy Chairman S LDharme Gowda.
The 64-year-old DeputySpeaker was found dead onrail tracks in theChikkamagaluru district ofKarnataka in the early hours ofTuesday, with police sourcesclaiming that it was a case ofsuicide. He was a JD(S) MLC.
He was at the centre of ahigh drama on December 15in the legislative council,which saw BJP, JD(S), andCongress members hurlingabuses and pushing each otherover a row on a no-confidencemotion against Chairman KPratapachandra Shetty. Duringthe ruckus, Gowda was pulled
down from the Chair by someCongress legislators, whoaccused him of occupying it asDeputy Chairman againstrules, as part of the BJP’s planto unseat Shetty, who is fromthe Congress.
Referring to the incident,Birla said, “The unfortunateincident in the House, whenhe was in Chair, is a seriousattack on democracy. It isnecessary to have a high-levelprobe through an independentagency into his death.”According to an official state-ment, the Lok Sabha Speakersaid, “It is the duty of all of usto safeguard the prestige of leg-islative bodies and dignityand freedom of presiding offi-cers.”
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The India MeteorologicalDepartment (IMD) has
said that severe cold waveconditions sweeping acrossnorth and northwest Indiapushed mercury to sub-zerolevels at many places in Jammuand Kashmir, Punjab,Rajasthan and HimachalPradesh, Delhi and NCR onWednesday.
The severe cold wave con-ditions have intensified overthe region as icy winds withmoderate speed have beenblowing sharpening the windchill factor and therefore dropin the feel like temperature.
The IMD also warned ofcontinuing cold wave condi-tions across the Indo-Gangeticplains, Bihar, Odisha, MadhyaPradesh and parts of Gujarattill January 1.
Under the influence ofthe cold wave, some parts inGujarat and Odisha have beenreporting a significant drop inthe night temperatures.
Pahalgam (-9 degreesCelsius), Churu (-1.5 degreesCelsius), Kullu (-0.2 degreesCelsius), Amritsar (1.8 degreesCelsius) and Jammu city (2.9degrees Celsius) remainedamong the coldest places innorth India.
Wednesday was the cold-est December day for Churusince 2008. Similarly, Jammucity recorded one of its cold-est December daysWednesday. The plains ofJammu previously experiencedsuch conditions in 2014 (2.4degrees), and the city holds anall time record of 0.9 degreesin 1998. Pahalgam last report-ed such a cold December in2013, when the night temper-ature recorded was -9.6degrees Celsius.
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Khadi and Village IndustriesCommission (KVIC) lent
special focus on Khadi artisansin Jammu & Kashmir duringthe Covid-19 period. It dis-bursed �29.65 crore to KhadiInstitutions in the hilly terrainsof J&K alone, which has beenthe focus area of the CentralGovernment.
KVIC Chairman VinaiKumar Saxena said throughthis special drive, the paymentof Rs 29.65 crore released to 84Khadi institutions has directlybenefited 10,800 artisan fami-lies in J&K. This goes on tostrengthen the Prime Minister’sdream of making every weak-er section “Aatmanirbhar”, hesaid.
This amount was disbursedfrom May 2020 to September2020 to 84 Khadi institutions inJ&K under ModifiedMarketing DevelopmentAssistance (MMDA) scheme ofKVIC, which is directly linked
with the production activities.Under this scheme, money isdirectly transferred into thebank accounts of artisansthrough DBT.
During the Covid-19 lock-down period, a special drivewas also launched by KVIC tosettle 951 old MMDA claims ofJ&K Khadi institutions thatwere related to 2016-17 to2018-19, pending due to vari-ous technical reasons.
“Apart from ensuringfinancial assistance throughMMDA Scheme to KhadiInstitutions and artisans, KVICalso roped in thousands ofwomen artisans working inself-help groups in Jammu,Udhampur, Pulwama, Kupwaraand Anantnag in stitching ofKhadi face masks. Almost 7lakh Khadi face masks werestitched by these women arti-sans and supplied to the J&KGovernment,” Saxena said.
At present, 103 Khadi insti-tutions are working in J&K.
praised the newly designedvistadome coaches developedby the Integral Coach Factoryand said the comfort they willprovide will make journeysmore memorable.
The vistadome touristcoaches, which have largerviewing area including roof topglass and 44 seats for passen-gers that can rotate up to 180degrees, completed the 180kmph trial run on Tuesday.
“Comfort and cutting edgetechnology! Will make trainjourneys more memorable,”
the PM said in a tweet respond-ing to Railway Minister PiyushGoyal’s post on the microblog-ging site introducing the newcoaches.
“It is rightly said, ‘Journeyis best measured in terms ofmemories rather than miles’.Take a look at the newVistadome coaches of IndianRailways that will give anunforgettable travel experienceto passengers and will ensurethat they truly have a journeyto remember,” tweeted Goyal.
The coach also has a Wi-Fi-based passenger informationsystem and for the first time thevistadome coach has been builton the LHB platform, which issafer.
Among other stand-outfeatures of the new vistadomecoaches are that they areequipped with air-spring sus-pension in secondary stage forbetter ride comfort, large glasswindows and glass roof thatboast electrically controlledopalescence, transparent rooffor the passengers to get apanoramic view of their jour-ney, and observatory loungewith a larger window at oneend.
In the newly built coaches,a mobile charging socket hasbeen provided
for each passenger belowthe seat armrest, an entertain-ment system integrated withdigital display screens and
speakers for music lovers.“Content on Demand” Wi-fifacility has been provided onpersonal gadgets of passengers,wider entrance doors for per-sons with disabilities on wheel-chairs and automatic slidingdoors at the compartment’sentry on both sides.
The coaches are connectedwith GPS-based PublicAddress-cum PassengerInformation System (PAPIS),sunk-in type LED destinationboard, stainless steel multi-tier luggage racks outside thepassenger area, mini pantry toprovide refreshments to thepassengers, service area con-sisting of hot case, microwaveoven, coffee maker, bottle cool-
er, refrigerator and washbasin.The new coaches are also
equipped with a CCTV systemfor onboard surveillance andhave aesthetically designedinteriors and FRP panelling,FRP modular toilets with pres-surized flushing system and biotanks and automatic fire detec-tion with an alarm system forsafe travel.
The ICF will be manufac-turing 10 such coaches at pre-sent. Two coaches have beenrolled out and the remainingwill be finished before March31 next year.
The two coaches whichwere rolled out have gone to theCentral Railway, one of whichhad cleared the speed trials.
The External Affairs Ministry onWednesday launched the Global
Pravasi Rishta portal and app to con-nect with the nearly 3.12-crore strongIndian diaspora across the world.
Speaking at the launch of the por-tal and app, Minister of State forExternal Affairs V Muraleedharansaid it aims to create a three-way com-munication between the ministry,Indian missions and the diaspora.
“The government recognises theimportance of India diaspora and hasbeen engaging with them in variousways. One such innovative step is theglobal Pravasi Rishta portal and mobileapp through which Government ofIndia aims to connect with the over-seas Indian community, not just cer-emonially but at every step,” he said.
Muraleedharan said the mobileapp will be used by the diaspora andthe Indian nationals, while the portalweb interface will be used by the mis-sions.
“As of now, there is no effectivecommunication channel available withthe ministry to connect with theIndian diaspora worldwide.
Hence effective connect with ourdiaspora has been a challenge not onlyduring normal circumstances but alsoduring emergencies. This is to have athree-way communication betweenthe ministry, our missions and the dias-pora,” he said.
Muraleedharan said this portal iscreated to enable the registration ofIndian diaspora members i.E. NRIs,PIOs and the OCIs which is not justgoing to facilitate the Indian govern-ment to connect with the overseasIndian community but also facilitateNRIs, OCIs and PIOs community byconnecting them to various new andexisting government
“This portal and app will alsoassist during any crisis managementand lend a helping hand to the NRIsand PIOs. The rishta portal will enablecommunication with the diaspora ona realtime basis and will have the abil-ity to issue emergency alerts and advi-sories. It will also enable the diasporato reach the consular officers and ser-vices in time of emergencies,” he said.
Presently there are nearly 3.12crore overseas Indians globally ofwhich nearly 1.34 crore are PIOs and1.78 crore are NRIs, he said.
response from the AndhraPradesh Government on aplea challenging the con-dition which mandatesthree years of practice asan advocate to be eligiblefor appearing in exam forappointment as civil judgein the state.
A vacation bench ofJustices Indira Banerjeeand Aniruddha Bose alsoissued notice to theRegistrar (recruitment) ofthe Andhra Pradesh HighCourt seeking reply on thepetition which has alsochallenged the December3 notification invitingapplications for appoint-ment to the post of civiljudge (junior division) inthe Andhra Pradesh StateJudicial Service.
The apex court was
hearing a petition filed byR Venkatesh who haschallenged the December3 notification and ques-tioned the eligibilityrequirement of three-yearpractice as an advocate.
The petitioner hasalso challenged Rule5(2)(a)(i) of the AndhraPradesh State JudicialService Rules 2007, whichwas notified/amended bythe state government onJuly 28, 2017 and man-dates three years of prac-tice as an advocate to beeligible for appointment tothe category of civil judge.
“The petitioner has, inthe writ petition, alsochallenged Rule 5(2)(a)(i)of Andhra Pradesh StateJudicial Service Rules,2007 notified/amendedby the respondent No. 1(state of Andhra Pradesh)on July 28, 2017.
There is no such
urgency to entertain thiswrit petition in the vaca-tion.
Notice be issued tothe respondents in themeanwhile. Let the writpetition be listed for hear-ing on Tuesday, the 5thJanuary, 2021,” the benchsaid in its order.
The December 3 noti-fication, which has invit-ed application for gener-al recruitment to the postof civil judge (junior divi-sion), has said that recruit-ment process shall be gov-erned by Andhra PradeshState Judicial (Service andCadre) Rules 2007.
During the hearingconducted through video-conferencing, the peti-tioner’s counsel told thecourt that as per theDecember 3 notification,the last date for submis-sion of online applicationwas January 2.
has taken over the security ofRajasthan’s largest thermalpower plant located in theborder district of SriGanganagar, officials said onWednesday.
The plant’s chief engineer,B Kumar, handed over a cere-monial key of the facility toCISF Deputy InspectorGeneral Prabodh Chandra
He added that the planthas been provided with anarmed cover of the force “inthe light of the increased threat
perception to coal-basedsupercritical thermal powerplants situated across the coun-try”.
Hence, the power plant atSuratgarh is “inherently vul-nerable to threats from anti-nationals and saboteurs”.
A contingent of 191Central Industrial SecurityForce personnel led by a deputycommandant-rank officer willguard the facility, he said.
The power plant is thelargest in the state in terms ofcapacity and is located in theSri Ganganagar district thatshares its border with Pakistanalong the Thar desert.
Bengal Governor JagdeepDhankhar for around twohours during which he report-edly invited her to inspect theEden Gardens senior CPI(M)leader and former BengalMinister Ashok Bhattacharyaon Wednesday called on theformer India captain.
Bhattacharya a formerMayor of Siliguri MuncipalCorporation who had fordecades enjoyed a good chem-istry with Ganguli reportedlyrequested him not to join pol-itics as it was not a place meantfor people like him.
The former India southpaw reportedly enquiredwhether the CPI(M) MLAwould be contesting electionsthis time round. A picture ofthe two leaders chatting atGanguli’s Behala house waslater posted by the formerminister.
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The first play between BengalGovernor Jagdeep
Dhankhar and the MamataBanerjee Government onWednesday reached thePresident’s House with the rul-ing Trinamool Congress writinga letter of protest to PresidentRamnath Kovind urging him tocall back the Governor for hisunconstitutional ways.
Accusing the Governor’soffice of ‘serious breach of oathTrinamool MP SukhenduSekhar Roy wrote on behalf of
his party “We submit that theGovernor has failed to pre-serve, protect, and defend theConstitution, and repeatedlybreached law declared by SC.”
Apart from Roy the letterwas signed by TMC MPs likeSudip Bandyopadhyay, DerekO'Brien, Kalyan Banerjee andKakoli Ghosh Dastidar.
Even as the letter demand-ed immediate recall of theGovernor the BJP immediatelyretorted saying it was not theGovernor but the ruling partywhich was conducting itself inmost unconstitutional manner.
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Can Mamata Banerjee dobetter what Amit Shah
does? In an apparent bid to bal-ance out the Union HomeMinister’s lunching sessions attribal hutments during hisBengal visits the Chief Ministeron Wednesday engaged in “chaipe charcha” in villages en routeto Kolkata from Bolpur whereshe held a triumphant roadshow on Tuesday.
The Chief Minister madesudden halts at Ballavpur Dagaand then Sarkarpur Daga, twotribal hamlets nestled by theshrubby forests and engaged inprivate conversations withlocals and even cooked insidea shop.
Returning to her formerself that perhaps earned her thepopular adage‘ Didi,” the ChiefMinister made a sudden stopover at a tea stall atSarkarpurDaga, walked up to the earth-en oven where a woman wascooking an overflowing pan ofvegetable.
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In an embarrassment to ChiefMinister Pinarayi Vijayan, the
additional chief judicial magis-trate court in Kochi onWednesday dismissed the bailapplication petition filed by MSivsankar, the former principalsecretary in the CMO.
Sivsankar had approachedthe court with a bail plea in thecase filed by the Department ofCustoms in which the formerhas been accused of misusing hisofficial position to facilitate goldsmuggling throughT h i r u v a n a n t h a p u r a mInternational Airport. TheCustoms has also told the courtof Sivsankar’s close liaison withSwapna Suresh, the kingpin ofgold smuggling and her associ-ates Sarath and Sandeep Nair.
All four mentioned abovehave been arrested and impris-oned. The court observed that ifSivsankar was granted bail, thereare possibilities of him influ-encing the witnesses and derail-ing the investigation process.
The court also took intoconsideration the fact thatSivsankar had suppressed detailsabout his second mobile phonewhich the Customs had seizedin the course of investigation.The Customs Department hadtold the court that thoughSivsankar was aware of the ille-gal activities carried out by theofficials of the UAE ConsulateGeneral at Thiruvanantha-puram, he deliberately kept theinformation as a secret and didnot alert the Government ofIndia agencies.
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Initial trends indicate thatThe candidates backed by the
BJP have won a majority ofpanchayat seats in Karnataka asthe counting of votes pro-gressed on Wednesday.
Though these polls don'ttake place on party symbols, allpolitical parties have put inefforts to ensure that the can-didate supported by them wins,so as to have their hold ongrassroot level politics, whichmay prove advantageous for
them in taluk or zilla panchayatand even assembly polls when-ever it happens.
According to sources, theBJP has so far secured 4,228seats, followed by the Congresswith 2,265 seats, JD(S) 1,167seats and independents 678seats. Karnataka State ElectionCommission officials saidcounting was on at all 226 cen-tres at the Taluk headquartersby adhering to strict COVID-19 protocol of mandatorywearing of face masks, socialdistancing and hand hygiene.
Over 1,100 security per-sonnel have been deployed atthe counting centres, StateElection Commissioner B
Basavaraju said.During the election, ballot
papers were used in all districtsexcept Bidar, election officialssaid. The elections to 5,728 vil-lage panchayats had taken placeacross 226 Taluks of the statefor 82,616 seats.
They were conducted intwo phases on December 22and 27 where 78.58 per centvoting was registered.
As many as 2,22,814 can-didates contested the electionwhereas 8,074 candidates wereelected unopposed.
moned by the EnforcementDirectorate (ED) on Wednesdayin connection with a question-able land deal in Pune, hassought and obtained 14 days’time to appear before the ED,citing health reasons.
Less than a week after hewas summoned before the EDon December 30 in connectionwith the Pune land deal, said thathe was planning to appear beforethe central investigating agency,but he had sought and sought 14days’ time owing to his suddenindisposition. “Based on thesummons I had received, I wasto appear before the ED onDecember 30. But, on the mid-night of December 28, I sud-denly developed fever, cold anddry cough,” Khadse said in astatement issued here onWednesday.
“After medical examination,doctors told me that I hadsymptoms of Covid-19.Subsequently, I underwentCovid-19 and its report is await-ed. The doctors have advised me14 days’ rest. Accordingly Icommunicated to the ED which
has allowed me to appear beforeit after 14 days,” Khadse said.
Khadse went on to say thatonce he recovered from his ill-ness, he would extend his fullcooperation to the ED in itsinvestigations.
Khadse’s decision to skip hisdate with the ED came a dayafter Shiv Sena leader SanjayRaut’s wife Varsha sought timetill January 5 to appear before thecentral investigating agency inconnection with the PMC bankscam. Sixty-eight-year-oldKhadse, who had – while quit-ting the BJP and joining theNCP two months ago – said that
“if the BJP unleashes ED againstme, then I will release CDsagainst the BJP leaders”, con-firmed on Saturday last that hehad received summons from theED and he would appear beforethe investigating agency onDecember 30.
“I have received the sum-mons from the ED to appearbefore it on December 30. I willappear before the agency on thatday. I have already four inquiriesin this land deal. I will cooper-ate with the ED. As far as myreleasing CDs against the BJPleaders, I will do it at a laterstage,” Khadse had said.
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The gunfight which eruptedbetween the joint team of
security forces and a group of'unidentified' terrorists on theoutskirts of Srinagar nearLawaypora late Tuesdayevening ended with the elimi-nation of all three terrorists atthe end of the 15 hour longoperation on Wednesday.
However, within hoursafter the operation was oversome families from SouthKashmir staged demonstra-tions in front of PCR, Srinagarand claimed them to be theirwards.
Jammu and Kashmir policeidentified those killed in theoperation as Ajaz MaqboolGanie, Ather Mushtaq bothresidents of Pulwama andZubair Lone resident ofShopian.
Police also recovered OneAK 47 rifle & two pistols &ammunition and other incrim-inating material along withsome documents from theencounter site.
Interestingly, a policespokesman claimed, “the ter-rorists killed in today'sencounter were not mentionedin our list of terrorists “.Accordng to police records, twoof them were hardcore associ-ates of terrorists (OGWs).Police spokesman claimed, oneof the two is a relative of topHM commander RayeesKachroo who was killed in2017. Reportedly, a third might have joined very recent-ly. Police spokesman furtheradded, “generally parents don’thave an idea about the activi-ties of their wards. SeveralOGWs after committing terrorcrimes like grenade throwing &
pistol shooting etc stay nor-mally with their family”. Forinstance, one student fromPulwama who was takingcoaching in Srinagar wascaught for lobbying a grenadewith the help of CCTV’sfootage. His parents were total-ly unaware about his terroristactivities.
Police is investigating thecase and after thorough inves-tigation will come to the con-clusion soon on merits.
The police spokesman saidthe families have been sent toGanderbal for further identifi-cation and participation in lastrites in the presence of aMagistrate.
In this connection a caseunder relevant sections of lawhas been registered and inves-tigation has been initiated.Police spokesman also claimedin the past a few terror inci-dents have occurred in this arearecently and reportedly theseterrorists have also come fromSouth Kashmir to target a con-voy of security forces.
Earlier, briefing media per-sons in the premises of 2RRheadquarters in Srinagar,General officer Commanding(GoC) Kilo Force H S SahiWednesday said the killed ter-rorists were planning a bigstrike on the National highwayto gain publicity. The army offi-cer while sharing details of the15 hour long operation said“We were receiving intelligenceinputs on a regular basis aboutthe movement of terrorists onthe Srinagar-Baramulla high-way”. He said, on the receipt ofan intelligence input lateTuesday evening, a joint cor-don and search operation waslaunched in Lawaypora areanear HMT, Srinagar”.
Jaipur: Rajasthan HousingCommissioner Pawan Arorasaid the contractors are contin-uing to buy the properties of thehousing board in Malmas.
This Wednesday the auctionsold 246 properties in the fest e-bid submission and Apni Shop-Apna Business Scheme, result-ing in a revenue of Rs 34 crore50 lakh to the board.
He said that the residentialand commercial properties ofthe Board remained the centerof attraction for the people evenin this era of Malmas and Covid-49 epidemic. This Wednesdaysold 224 residential propertiesand 25 commercial properties.
Shri Arora said that 32properties were sold in JaipurCircle First, Second and Third,due to which the Board got rev-enue of 6 crore 67 lakhs, JodhpurCircle First and Second, 50properties were sold in whichthe board got revenue of 6 crore64 lakh rupees, 29 propertieswere sold in Kota circle, whichgot revenue of 4 crore 82 lakhrupees, 88 properties in Bikanercircle, which gave the board 8crore 45 lakh rupees.
unsung hero Mohd Shafi Khanwhile he was discharging hisduties on ground zero.
An ex-serviceman, MohdShafi was serving as SpecialPolice officer in Jammu andKashmir police and wasdeployed outside Governmenthospital,Anantnag to regulate
traffic. On Wednesday, MohdShafi suffered a heart attack anddied with his boots on.
Acknowledging his devo-tion towards his duty, SSPAnantnag Sandeep Choudharypaid rich tributes to him.
SSP Anantnag while shar-ing a picture of an-servicemantweeted, “Today we lost anextremely hardworking andkind gentleman colleague to aheart attack while on duty.
Mohd. Shafi Khan ji, an ex-ser-viceman was currently servingas SPO in Jammu and Kashmirpolice. He handled traffic out-side Govt Hospital, Anantnagfor more than a decade withgreat dedication”.
A young IAS officer fromKashmir, Athar Aamir Khanalso acknowledged his servicestowards the society even afterhanging his boots. “So sad andunfortunate. He was so dedi-
cated. One would always findhim there at that busy junctionmanaging the traffic as a lonewarrior. May his soul rest inpeace”. “He needs no intro, res-idents of in & aroundAnantnag township know himvery well for his dedication &honesty towards the job oftraffic regulation outsideDistrict Hospital Janglat MandiAnantnag from years” anothernetizen wrote while paying
The World HealthOrganisation (WHO) callsout a parallel and equallyserious challenge that
accompanies any medical crisis bycalling the same “Infodemic” anddescribes it as an “overabundanceof information — some of it accu-rate and some not”. From politicalleaders, opinion makers and quasi-medical practitioners to even yogagurus, the urge to partake the‘moment’ for personal, financial oreven political glory has been irre-sistible. Such a medical crisis alwaystests the patience of society towardsthe seemingly drab advisories thatare fact-based, science-based andempirically proven as opposed togetting drawn towards ostensible“cures” that are rooted in personalbelief-systems, word of mouth orunder the pretext of “age-oldnuskhas” that have a cure-all solu-tion. However, the COVID pan-demic has exposed the sham ofassorted televangelists, godmenand religio-cultural personalitieswho, in the initial days of the cri-sis, had claimed miraculouspanacea against COVID in com-plete defiance of medical scienceand all the necessary rigour thatought to have accompanied its test-ing.
However, one category of peo-ple who are still contributing to thepersistence of the “Infodemic”have been the publicly elected law-makers and leading politicianswho ought to have demonstratedthe highest levels of adherence,compliance and insistences towardssafety protocols — yet, many choseto be cavalier, reckless and simplyunconcerned about the personalexamples they were setting. Thebrazen trivialisation of all medicaladvisories — like social distancing,shunning congregations or simplywearing protective masks — intheir personal conduct contradict-ed the daily blast and beaming ofpublic messages that repeatedlyadvised uncompromised use of theface mask (and other safety/hygieneprotocols) as the literal vaccine, tilla proven vaccine actually came out.Some, like the outgoing UnitedStates President Donald Trump, notonly refused to wear a mask butwent on to ridicule his rival, JoeBiden, by saying that “every timeyou see him, he’s got a mask (on).He could be speaking 200 feet awayfrom them, and he shows up withthe biggest mask I’ve ever seen”,almost likening the mask to apolitical statement. But Trumpwent many steps further with hisirresponsibility and had dangerous-ly equated COVID to the season-
al influenza, promoted unproventreatments like hydroxychloro-quine (even injecting disinfec-tants!), politicised the vaccinedevelopment narrative andopenly disagreed from the sageadvice given by his own publichealth experts. Today, the UnitedStates is reeling as the worstimpacted nation by the COVIDoutbreak with approximately 18million cases and nearly 3,20,000deaths — that Donald Trump gothimself too infected while JoeBiden remained safe was madeworse by the fact that Trump lostthe presidential race as well toBiden.
Another leader who hasconstantly remained blasé aboutCOVID is Brazil’s strongmanand President Jair Bolsonaro.Like Trump, Bolsonaro too haddangerously downplayed theCOVID threat by calling it a “lit-tle cold” and pushed for earlyopening up with a standard “sowhat?” every time he was shownthe spiralling health numbersand the country’s worseningcrisis. The denialist attitude ofBolsonaro has ensured thatBrazil has approximately 7.3million cases and 1,87,000 deathsand is now widely castigated asthe latest global epicentre of thecurrent resurge. Unfortunately,this devastation was in the mak-ing with shockingly irresponsi-ble leadership of Bolsonaro, whohad disbelievingly stated: “All ofus are going to die one day.” Withtypical machismo, he said anoth-er time: “There is no point run-ning away from it, from reality.
We have to stop being a countryof sissies.” The imagined politi-cal muscularity of Bolsonarowas sooner or later going tomake Brazil pay dearly — and,like Trump, he too made a
mockery of the required safetysensitivities like wearing the facemask and punted on theunproven hydroxychloroquine.Soon enough, Bolsonaro toowas infected! Continuing hisunscientific tirade with pan-demic management of calling theuse of mask as the “last taboo tofall”, he had gone to the extent ofsaying that Brazilians shouldn’tbe required to take a vaccinewhen it finally becomes available.
Now, Bolsonaro has scalednewer heights of irresponsibilityby casting aspersions on the effi-cacy of the COVID vaccine, justwhen there seemed a glimmer ofscience-based hope to combat thevirus. In his bizarre and unsub-stantiated rant, he claimed: “Inthe Pfizer contract, it’s writtenvery clearly: ‘We are not respon-sible for any side effects.’ If youturn into a crocodile, that’s yourproblem.” He also invoked hissexist and chauvinistic side whenhe went on to add: “If youbecome superhuman, if a womanstarts to grow a beard or if a manstarts to speak with an effeminatevoice, they [Pfizer] won’t haveanything to do with it.” Hisboorish aversion to the vaccinehas a distinct political logic,besides sheer ignorance — itfeeds his rakish anti-establish-ment and devil-may-care image,allows him to focus on more pop-ulist moves like cash transfers asopposed to propagating the socialdistancing sobriety and, above all,deny the credit of a potential pan-demic savior to a political rivalwho is espousing a specific vac-
cine. Bolsonaro is clearly max-imising the truism that bad eco-nomics and bad scientificapproach often make for verygood politics in a polarised andstruggling society. Tragically, hisapproval ratings stay at the high-est levels, his irresponsible behav-iour notwithstanding.
It had taken a brave and con-scientious judge to call the bluffof Jair Bolsonaro by entertaininga plea which sought to criticisethe “irresponsible conduct ofthe President” and later decreedthat if the President did not weara mask in a public place, he wasliable to a fine. Despite facingaccusations like “lethal incompe-tence”, “homicidally negligent”and suchlike, Bolsonaro has yetto get into the nitty-gritties of adetailed and robust national vac-cination plan. A leading Braziliannewspaper was left fuming in itseditorial: “It’s time for him toabandon this criminal reckless-ness and at least pretend to havethe ability and maturity to lead anation of 212 million at such adramatic moment in its collectivehistory. Enough tomfoolery withthe vaccine!” This global pan-demic has regrettably exposed therisks of negligent and nonchalantleadership — as also of the igno-rant masses who still supportsuch a political leadership despitepaying the incalculably painfuland high personal price.
(The writer, a military veteran, is a former Lt Governorof Andaman & Nicobar Islands
��������� ����������Sir — Now when actorRajinikanth has decidedagainst floating a new politi-cal party and contest the elec-tions, it is clear that the realfight in the next Tamil NaduAssembly elections is going tobe only between the twoDravidian majors, the DravidaMunnetra Kazhagam (DMK)and the All India AnnaDravida Munnetra Kazhagam(AIADMK).While the DMK alliance thatwon the last Parliamentaryelections stands intact, fis-sures in the AIADMK allianceare apparent.
BJP was of the belief thatit could a l ign with theRajinikanth’s party in caseAIADMK refused it in thenumber of seats it wants tocontest.
Now the BJP has no otherway but to join the AIADMKalliance and accept the seatsthat are going to be concededto it by the AIADMK. It willa lso have to accept EPalanisami as the chief min-isterial candidate of thealliance.
Tharcius S. FernandoChennai
�� ���� ��������Sir — It is really delightful toknow that the Railways havecome up with a new designVistadome tourist coaches togive a breathtaking experience tothe tourists. The recent trial runof these coaches at 180 km perhour was successful and wascompleted without any technicalsnags.
New Vistadome coaches,having a plethora of tourist-friendly amenities, will be intro-duced on specific routes that aregood for sightseeing. As thesecoaches provide a panoramicviewing experience through largewindows and transparent roofs,passengers will get an exhilarat-ing travel experience.
The Vistadome coach will
also have an observation lounge,glass window and adjustableseats for a more comfortableand enjoyable journey for pas-sengers.
Operating trains havingVistadome coaches on moresuch routes will definitely boosttourism and benefit the economy.
M PradyuKannur
��������������Sir — Winning the civic elec-tions by handsome margins,women have broken through theglass ceiling to grab top jobs inmany corporations, municipal-ities and panchayats in Kerala.
21-year-old Arya Rajendranis the new Mayor ofThiruvananthapuram which isknown as the city of LordAnanda, alluding to the ShreePadmanabhaswamy templelocated in the city. Arya, whowas elected on Monday, madeheadlines for being the youngestin the country to hold the post.Another young leader, 22-year-old Saruthi is all set to assumethe office of panchayat presidentof Olavanna, a big panchayat inKozhikode. The list is quite long.
It is important for theseyoung women politicians toimbibe traditional leadershiptraits and also remain open-minded and innovative. Ofcourse, the inherent gentle nau-ture that women have will helpthem in establishing better rap-port in society.
For the healthcare sector, 2020 was all aboutbattling the Coronavirus. However, this yearalso taught us a lot of lessons as the pan-
demic brought into sharp focus the need forreforms that promote universal access to health-care at an affordable price. The Indian health-care sector faced incredible challenges this yearand will continue to do so well into 2021.
Given the piecemeal way in which ourhealthcare system is governed and the way thecitizens, particularly the poor pay for care, it wasno surprise that the sector unravelled in this timeof crisis. To begin with, the highest number ofpeople insured under Government-sponsoredhealth insurance schemes as well as under indi-vidual insurance plans, stood at a meagre 35 percent in 2018. A very low percentage of Indiansreceive health coverage through their employersand, with a record number of people paying fortreatment out of their pocket, millions foundthemselves without affordable and accessiblehealthcare in the midst of the largest pandemicin living memory. To address the panoply ofissues brought into the spotlight by the outbreakthis year, the Government should pass futuris-tic legislations in order to address the need forhealthcare reforms in the country. There shouldbe appropriate laws to provide critical assistancein clinical treatment, additional policies toensure that people can access affordable care asthe crisis continues.
Most of the health policy critiques and rec-ommendations this year primarily targeted theCentre, even though as per the Constitution, StateGovernments are mainly responsible for health-care delivery. However, as the management of theepidemic was delegated to the States, for the firsttime the State Governments took a leadership rolein managing the healthcare sector, making thisyear a landmark one in that sense.
The responses of the Centre and States to thecontagion exposed the fault lines in our publichealth governance system. The DisasterManagement Act, under which most executiveactions have been undertaken this year, is a cen-tral legislation though public health is a State sub-ject. The exact delineation of responsibilitiesbetween the Centre and the States has alwaysremained a work in progress and over the lastfew months that resulted in confusion (aroundquarantine rules, lockdown measures and so on)in the pandemic’s management. This is despitethe fact that we have been independent for overseven decades and at the time of the framing ofthe Constitution, parliamentarian HV Kamathhad expressed that health should be the top pri-ority of all governments in Independent India.
The loss of jobs, income and health insur-ance issues associated with the pandemic great-ly exacerbate existing cost challenges for many.The out-of-pocket healthcare expenses incurredby people impacted their decision to seek carein the middle of an outbreak and will continueto do so as the pandemic rages on. Failure to gofor testing and receive treatment because of thecost associated with it, harms not only the per-son concerned but society as a whole by prolong-ing the pandemic, increasing its morbidity andmortality and exacerbating its economic impact.
We need to bear in mind that this is acollective fight and the whole ofhumanity is pitched against the novelmicrobe.
Except for a few States like Delhi,most of the other State Governmentsdid not try to regulate hospital chargesor treatment/procedure pricing in theprivate sector before the pandemicstruck the nation. In India, the privatesector is the care provider for the major-ity of the population. It accounts for 82per cent of outpatient care, 58 per centinpatient care and 40 per cent of insti-tutional births. This year saw some his-torical changes taking place in thehealthcare sector of the country. ManyState Governments took strict measuresto control private sector hospitals. Outof 28 States, 16 brought out regulationsfor capping COVID treatment chargesand testing at private hospitals. Despitethe Central Government promulgatinghealth sector regulations, the onus ofregulating private hospitals has alwaysbeen on State Governments. However,this is a responsibility that many Stateshad been evading, till the outbreakforced their hand this year.
In the past three months, WestBengal alone brought out 11 differentrules to regulate the prices of COVID-19 treatment in private hospitals.Depending on the severity of the infec-tion and type of facilities, private hos-pitals can charge between �8,000 to�18,000 per day in Delhi andUttarakhand and �5,000 to �15,000 inTamil Nadu. Similarly, COVID testingis capped at �1,500 in Nagaland and�3,000 in Tamil Nadu. However, the sadreality is that even now 80 per cent of
families would be financially crippledif they had to pay the COVID treatmentcharges for even one family member.According to the National StatisticalOffice’s household expenditure report(2017-18) in Delhi, the average per per-son monthly expenditure for 80 percent of the population is around �5,000.In contrast, the lowest price of an iso-lation bed is around �80,000 for 10days. To make matters worse, thecapped cost for a COVID-19 ICU bedwould still come to several lakhs as thetreatment usually stretches over two tothree weeks or more.
Continuing with their agenda ofreforms in the private sector, manyStates issued strict directives for hos-pitals refusing COVID patients andmany other actively punished violatorsof these regulations, which was neverobserved earlier. The present experienceof price regulation in the private sec-tor may provide impetus and experi-ence for the regulation of other servicesimportant for public health, such astuberculosis. In the current scenario,States are actively managing public hos-pitals, ensuring smooth functioning ofsupply chains, coordinating as well asregulating the private sector.Recognition of the important role aState Government plays in steering thehealthcare sector will lead to the reori-entation of health policy research andcapacity building in the coming years.
The outbreak has highlighted therole public hospitals play in times of acrisis, drawing the attention of policy-makers and politicians. The epidemichas led States to create several middlemanagerial positions. These new roles,
activities and processes will probablypersist and strengthen the delivery ofpublic health services in years to come.
The year has also drawn attentionto healthcare planning, organisationand management of supply chains. Itbrought attention to the importance ofcoordination between public and pri-vate sector facilities like never before.Extensive coordination is beingobserved between the public and pri-vate sector hospitals for testing andreporting of Corona cases, bed avail-ability and treatment. Many Stateshave established committees orappointed officers to facilitate thiscoordination.
Data sharing, too, increased signif-icantly between the public and privatesectors this year, which is a welcomechange. Before the epidemic, apart fromsome basic data, there was little shar-ing of information and coordinationbetween the public and private sector,which negatively affected health plan-ning at the grass root level. Neverbefore has the interdependence of ourhealth, finances and social fabric beenso starkly visible. Never before has theneed for healthcare reforms that ensureuniversal access to affordable care forall been more apparent than this year.Our policies on health and healthcare,both during this pandemic and in thefuture, should reflect this reality and weshould not forget the lessons we learntthis year. We must use them to framethe healthcare policies and legislationof the future.
(The writer is an author and a doc-tor by profession. The views expressed arepersonal.)
Recently, Kamal Haasan, chiefof the Makkal Needhi Maiam(MNM), questioned Prime
Minister Narendra Modi regardingthe construction of the newParliament building. He asked Modito explain the rationale behind theproject worth hundreds of crores ata time when millions are going hun-gry and the nation is reeling underthe socio-economic impact of theCoronavirus pandemic.
The actor-turned-politician isnot the first public figure to ques-tion the Central VistaRedevelopment project. Earlier thisyear, Congress president SoniaGandhi, too, wrote a letter to Modiurging him to suspend it. However,this is not the only pet project of thePrime Minister (PM) which hasbeen questioned. Modi’s ambitious
bullet train project between Mumbaiand Ahmedabad had faced resis-tance, too. Many Opposition lead-ers and parties had criticised it.Some experts like E Sreedharan —the man behind the Delhi Metro —slammed the project for being high-ly expensive and designed to cateronly to the elite. In his view, whatIndia needs is a modern, clean, safeand fast rail system that caters to themasses and not just to the privileged.
The same happened when theworld’s tallest statue, the Statue ofUnity, was built and inaugurated.Some critics argued that the �3,000crore spent on building the statuecould have been put to more pro-ductive use. This makes one think,has the Modi Government been soinefficient in its use of publicresources? Is it so insensitive to thecriticism coming from not justpolitical leaders but also experts? Oris there something that these politi-cians and experts are missing inModi’s larger vision and purposebehind these pet projects?
The Modi Government’s trackrecord on infrastructure projectsdoesn’t seem to suggest that it hasbeen inefficient in the use of pub-lic money. For example, the Kundli-Manesar-Palwal Expressway project
that was stalled for years was com-pleted under the NDAGovernment’s watch. Similarly, theModi Government brought manyother stalled projects to fruition.Indeed, some of its own projectshave been completed before timeand with less than allocated budgets.
The nearly $17 billion bullettrain project is one of Modi’s petprojects. There is no doubt that it isexpensive and will not benefit thepeople from the lower incomegroup, initially. But if one thinks ofit objectively, the bullet train projectis not such a bad idea. The major-ity of the project’s funding (nearly90 per cent) is coming as a soft loanfrom the Government of Japan. Theloan is to be repaid over a 50-yearperiod with a moratorium of 15years. Not only are the loan termsquite attractive but the project willalso have huge spillover benefits forthe Indian Railways, which badlyneeds modernisation.
Most of these benefits will takethe form of the transfer of knowl-edge and technology. With high-speed connectivity, the project issupposed to connect the bustlingeconomic corridors of Gujarat andMaharashtra and facilitate econom-ic growth. It is also expected to cre-
ate job opportunities on a large scale.Those who are critical of this pro-ject need to examine it in a largercontext.
What holds true for the IndianRailways, also holds true for citymetros. Given the speed at whichIndian towns and cities are expand-ing, the country will probably needseveral new metros. Recently, thePM inaugurated the Agra MetroProject in Uttar Pradesh (UP). Thebenefits of having a rapid massurban transit system that is alsoenvironment friendly can’t beoveremphasised.
Similarly, the Statue of Unitybuilt in the honour of Sardar Patel,India’s first Deputy Prime Ministerand a statesman, is a landmark cre-ated to attract both domestic andinternational tourists. It is expect-ed to have a huge spillover benefitfor the local economy. Likewise,many tourist spots across the coun-try are being developed and promot-ed. The revenue potential of theStatue of Unity project must belooked at against this backdrop.Indeed, the promotion of travel andtourism has been high on Modi’sagenda to take India’s GrossDomestic Product (GDP) to the $5trillion mark by 2025. These pet pro-
jects of Modi will contribute towardsfulfilling this aspiration.
Unfortunately, travel andtourism is one of the worst hit sec-tors because of the ongoingCoronavirus pandemic. But this isonly a temporary setback and thesector will bounce back soonenough as “revenge tourism” hasalready started in the country andglobally, too. The cost of these pro-jects needs to be evaluated againsttheir benefits, in totality, to get a fullaccount of their worth.
However, as far as the CentralVista project is concerned there isa little difference. The redevelop-ment project envisages a new trian-gular Parliament building, a com-mon central secretariat and revamp-ing of the three-km-long Rajpathfrom Rashtrapati Bhavan to IndiaGate.
However, in the current sce-nario when the health of citizens hasassumed top priority and the eco-nomic fallout of the pandemicneeds urgent attention, the CentralVista project may look a little flam-boyant. Further, some experts haveraised red flags on its environmen-tal impact. For these and related rea-sons, multiple petitions have beenfiled in the Supreme Court. Pending
the apex court’s decision, no newconstruction or demolition activi-ty can take place on this project.According to some experts, theproject spells disaster for the envi-ronment and indigenous bird andplant species that stand to be dislo-cated and destroyed.
The Supreme Court hasrebuked the Centre and ordered theGovernment to halt all constructionactivities until it decides on a bunchof petitions challenging the megaredevelopment plan. On the otherhand, having world-class facilitiesfor the efficient functioning of theadministration of the country, mer-its a project like this.
Further, having an architectur-al icon may be consistent with theimage of a rising India and its“atmanirbharta (self-reliance).” Butthe timing of the project is bothgood and bad. While there is a casefor having the project ready whenIndia commemorates its 75th yearof Independence, initiating the pro-ject when the world is fighting theCoronavirus pandemic makes itill-timed.
Needless to say, theGovernment has accorded top pri-ority to fighting the pandemic.Those who have been closely follow-
ing the NDA Government’sresponse to the pandemic wouldknow the kind of attention, energy,and effort the NDA Governmenthas put into it. Even so, it has notlet other development activitiescome to a halt. Every other day, theCentre has been launching severalnew development projects. It istrying to convert the current crisisinto an opportunity to put India ona high growth trajectory. It has beenagile to usher in reforms to promotegrowth and development and tomake India “atmanirbhar” in manyaspects. Nevertheless, the ModiGovernment would do well to invitegreater discussion and debate on theCentral Vista project as severalDelhiites feel it will take away theirwide, open spaces and alter the lookof their beloved city.
Kamal Haasan is too smart to beignorant of the larger picture. Bybeing critical of Modi and question-ing him, the star seems to be tryingto gain some publicity. But thetruth remains that the Central Vistaproject should be made into a peo-ple’s project. The Government musttake the citizens along with it.
(The writer is a developmenteconomist and author. The viewsexpressed are personal.)
Buenos Aires: Argentina’sSenate has passed a law legal-ising abortion, a victory for thewomen’s movement that hasbeen fighting for the right fordecades.
Under Wednesday’s major-ity vote, abortion is legalised upto the 14th week of pregnan-cy, and is also legal after thattime in cases of rape or dangerto the mother’s life.The votewas passed with 38 votes infavor, 29 against and oneabstention, after a marathon12-hour session that beganlate Tuesday.
It was already approved byArgentinas Chamber ofDeputies and has the supportof President AlbertoFernández, meaning the Senatevote is its final hurdle.
Argentine senators debat-ed for hour after hour overlegalising abortion, wranglinginto the early hours ofWednesday before a vote thatmarked the culmination of adecades-long fight by women’sgroups in Pope Francis’ home-land and have repercussionsacross a continent where theprocedure is largely illegal.
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Jonathan Pollard, who spent30 years in US prison for spy-
ing for Israel, arrived in Israelearly Wednesday with his wife,triumphantly kissing theground as he exited the aircraftin the culmination of adecades-long affair that hadlong strained relations betweenthe two close allies.
Pollard was welcomed atIsrael’s international airport byPrime Minister BenjaminNetanyahu, who presented himand his wife Esther with IsraeliID cards granting them citi-zenship.
“Welcome back. How goodyou’ve come home,” Netanyahusaid, according to a statementissued by his office. He saidthey could start new lives inIsrael, “in freedom and happi-ness.” “We are ecstatic to behome at last,” said Pollard.
The statement also quotedPollard as saying he was “veryexcited to be home” after a 35-year ordeal. He thankedNetanyahu and the Jewish peo-ple for supporting him.
A video released byNetanyahu’s office showedPollard walking down the stairsof the plane and kissing theground.
Pollard, a civilian intelli-gence analyst for the U.S. Navy,sold military secrets to Israelwhile working at the Pentagonin the 1980s. He was arrestedin 1985 after trying unsuc-cessfully to gain asylum at theIsraeli Embassy in Washingtonand pleaded guilty. The espi-onage affair embarrassed Israeland tarnished its relations withthe United States for years.
Pollard was given a life sen-tence and U.S. Defense andintelligence officials consis-tently argued against releasingPollard. AP
Beijing: A Chinese court onWednesday sentenced 10 pro-democracy activists who soughtto flee Hong Kong by speedboatto between seven months andthree years in prison, in a casewith major political overtonesfor the territory.
The Yantian District Courtin the southern city of Shenzhengave the harshest sentence toone of the two accused organ-isers of the ill-fated Aug 23attempt to reach self-ruledTaiwan. Relatives said all defen-dants pleaded guilty, a moveapparently aimed at receivinglighter sentences.
The defendants are believedto have feared they would beprosecuted for their activities insupport of Hong Kongs pro-democracy movement. HongKong media reports said atleast one may have had a war-rant out for his arrest under atough new national securitylaw imposed on the semi-autonomous territory by Beijingin June.
The court said it had helda private hearing for two under-aged suspects and would notcharge the them for illegallycrossing the border even thoughthey pleaded guilty.
Another organiser wasgiven two years while other par-ticipants were given sevenmonths in prison.
Relatives of the accusedsaid they were prevented fromhiring their own lawyers andthat the charges are politicallymotivated.
The defendants could havebeen sentenced to up to a yearin prison for crossing the bor-der and seven years for organ-ising the trip.
They were picked up afterentering mainland Chinesewaters for crossing the maritimeborder without permission.
While Hong Kong is part ofChina, travelers must still passthrough immigration whengoing to and from the mainland,which surrounds Hong Kong byland and sea. AP
Washington: US VicePresident-elect Kamala Harrishas received the first dose of theModerna COVID-19 vaccinelive on television as part ofefforts to build public trust inthe inoculation and urgedAmericans to get vaccinated forthe virus.
Harris and her husbandDoug Emhoff were adminis-tered the vaccine at UnitedMedical Center in Washington,DC.”Let’s do it,” Harris saidbefore she received her shot onTuesday. She took the vaccineone week after President-electJoe Biden received his.
Describing the process as‘relatively painless’, Harrisurged all Americans to get vac-cinated. ‘It’s about saving yourlife, the life of your familymembers, and the life of yourcommunity,’ she said.”I trustscientists. And it is the scien-tists who created and approvedthis vaccine. So I urge every-one, when it is your turn, getvaccinated.” PTI
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Washington: The US has saidit is ready to take custody ofBritish-born al-Qaeda leaderAhmed Omar Saeed Sheikh,accused of kidnapping andmurdering American journal-ist Daniel Pearl, asserting thatWashington will not allow himto evade justice.
Acting US AttorneyGeneral Jeffrey A Rosen’sremarks comes days after aPakistani court ordered releaseof Sheikh and his three aides,convicted and later acquitted inthe kidnapping and murdercase of Pearl.
“We cannot allow him toevade justice for his role inDaniel Pearl’s abduction andmurder,” Rosen said on Tuesday.
Pearl, the 38-year-oldSouth Asia bureau chief for TheWall Street Journal, was
abducted and beheaded whilehe was in Pakistan investigat-ing a story in 2002 on the linksbetween the country’s power-ful spy agency ISI and al-Qaeda.
“We understand thatPakistani authorities are takingsteps to ensure that OmarSheikh remains in custodywhile the Supreme Courtappeal seeking to reinstate hisconviction continues,” Rosensaid in a statement released bythe US State Department.
“The separate judicial rul-ings reversing his convictionand ordering his release are anaffront to terrorism victimseverywhere,” he said.
“We remain grateful forthe Pakistani Government’sactions to appeal such rulingsto ensure that he and his co-defendants are held account-able. If, however, those effortsdo not succeed, the UnitedStates stands ready to takecustody of Omar Sheikh to
stand trial here,” he said. In a surprise move, a two-
judge bench of the Sindh HighCourt last week directed secu-rity agencies not to keep Sheikhand other accused under “anysort of detention” and declaredall notifications of the Sindhgovernment related to theirdetention “null and void”. Thecourt observed that the fourmen’s detention was “illegal”.
Days later the Sindhprovince government said ithas decided not to releaseSheikh and his three aides inview of a Supreme Court’sSeptember 28 order.
A three-judge apex courtbench headed by Justice MushirAlam, which is hearing theappeal by the Sindh govern-ment and the family of the slainjournalist against the acquittalof Sheikh by the Sindh HighCourt in April, on September28 noted that till the next dateof hearing, the accused shall notbe released. PTI
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Washington: President DonaldTrump lashed out at congres-sional Republicans a day afterthe House easily voted to over-ride his veto of a defence pol-icy bill.
A total of 109 Republicans,including Wyoming Rep. LizCheney, a member of GOPleadership, joined withDemocrats on Monday toapprove the override, whichwould be the first of Trumpspresidency. The Senate isexpected to consider the mea-sure later this week.
Trump on Tuesdayslammed GOP lawmakers onTwitter, charging that “Weakand tired Republican leader-ship will allow the bad DefenceBill to pass.?
Trump called the overridevote a “disgraceful act of cow-ardice and total submission byweak people to Big Tech.Negotiate a better Bill, or getbetter leaders, NOW! Senate
should not approve NDAAuntil fixed!!!?
The 322-87 vote in theHouse sends the override effortto the Senate, where the exacttiming of a vote is uncertain.
Senate Majority LeaderMitch McConnell wants a voteas soon as Wednesday, butVermont Sen Bernie Sandersobjected to moving ahead untilMcConnell allows a vote on aTrump-backed plan to increaseCovid-19 relief payments to$2,000. AP
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AdenYemen: At least 10 peo-ple were killed Wednesday asexplosions rocked Yemen’sAden airport moments after anew unity government flew in,in what officials charged was a“cowardly” attack by Iran-backed Huthi rebels.
“Dozens” more peoplewere wounded, a medicalsource told AFP, although allgovernment ministers werereported to be unharmed.
Plumes of smoke billowedfrom the airport building in thesouthern city as debris laystrewn across the area, withpeople rushing to tend to thewounded, footage broadcastby Saudi television channelAl-Hadath showed.
“At least two explosionswere heard as the cabinet mem-bers were leaving the aircraft,”an AFP correspondent at thescene said.Crowds who hadgathered on the airport apron
waiting to greet the new gov-ernment fled, terrified.Sporadicgunfire was heard soon after.
It was not immediatelyclear what had caused theexplosions.
Yemen’s internationallyrecognised government andsouthern separatists formed apower-sharing cabinet onDecember 18, forging a jointfront against the Huthi rebelswho have seized the capitalSanaa and much of the north.
Bihac(Bosnia-Herzegovina):Hundreds of migrants from aburned-out tent camp innorthwest Bosnia have spentthe night in buses after anattempt to relocate them failed,reflecting confusion in theBalkan country’s dealing withthe crisis.
Bosnian authorities sentbuses on Tuesday to transferthe migrants from the much-criticised Lipa camp to anarmy barracks in central Bosniabut this was canceled afterlocals there organised proteststo prevent the relocation. OnWednesday morning, migrantswere still inside the buses,local media reported.
The Lipa camp nearBosnia’s border with EuropeanUnion member state Croatiawas demolished in a fire lastweek and lacked basic facilitiessuch as running water or heat-ing. Some 1,000 migrants werestranded there for days duringa spate of snowy winter weath-er that followed the fire. AP
India’s current account sur-plus moderated to USD 15.5
billion or 2.4 per cent of theGDP in the July-Septemberquarter of the current fiscal.
The same was at USD 19.2billion or 3.8 per cent of theGDP in the preceding threemonths on account of a rise inthe merchandise trade deficit,the RBI said on Wednesday.
A current accountdeficit of USD 7.6 billion or 1.1per cent of the GDP wasrecorded in the second quarterof 2019-20.
India recorded a currentaccount surplus of 3.1 per centof the GDP in the first half of
the fiscal as against a deficit of1.6 per cent in the corre-sponding period of 2019-20.This was mainly on account ofa sharp contraction in thetrade deficit.
The narrowing of the cur-
rent account surplus in the sec-ond quarter of 2020-21 was dueto a rise in the merchandisetrade deficit to USD 14.8 billionfrom USD 10.8 billion in thepreceding quarter, the centralbank said.
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Niti Aayog member VKSaraswat On Wednesday
said that self-reliance will be thenew mantra of the Governmentto sail through the crisis causedby the Covid-19 pandemic.
Speaking at a webinarorganised by Merchants’Chamber of Commerce andIndustry, Saraswat said thatmost economists are expectingU-shaped recovery pattern forthe GDP which will be in theform of low short-term growthrate.
“In the current scenario,where an extended first wave ofthe pandemic could stifle eco-
nomic recovery, self-reliancewill be the new mantra to sailthrough the crisis,” he said.
Saraswat said that the gov-ernment is looking at flatten-ing the recession curve.
“Market functioninghas restored.
But economic recovery willbe incremental. Both discre-tionary and non- discretionaryspending are now taking place,”he added.
He said that due to theimpact of the pandemic, realGDP has fallen to its lowest insix years, while the lockdownhas brought economic activityto a standstill, the Niti Aayogmember said.
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The Union Cabinet onWednesday approved con-
struction of multi-modal logis-tics and transport hub atGreater Noida in Uttar Pradeshwith an estimated cost of�3,883.80 crore.
The Cabinet Committeeon Economic Affairs, chairedby Prime Minister NarendraModi, also approved proposalsof the Department ofPromotion of Industry andInternal Trade (DPIIT) forconstruction of various trunkinfrastructure components forKrishnapatnam Industrial Areain Andhra Pradesh andTumakuru Industrial Area inKarnataka at estimated costs of�2,139.44 crore and � 1,701.81crore, respectively.
The multi-modal logisticshub project will be developedas a world-class facility that willprovide efficient storage/tran-sitioning of goods to/from theDedicated Freight Corridors(DFC) and offer a one-stop
destination to freight compa-nies and customers, an officialstatement said.
The facility will not onlyprovide standard containerhandling activities but alsoprovide various value-addedservices to reduce logistics costwith improved efficiency ofoperations, it added.
The multi-modal trans-port hub project located nearthe already existing IndianRailways station of Boraki willact as a transport hub with pro-visioning of rail, road andMRTS accessibility for the pas-sengers in a seamless manner.
It will have space for interstate bus terminal, local bus ter-minal, metro, commercial,retail and hotel space and greenopen spaces. “The project willprovide world-class passengermovement facilities for thegrowing population of thecatchment zone catering toupcoming developments inUttar Pradesh, sub-region ofthe NCR and thus, decongestDelhi,” it added.
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The Sensex and Nifty racedto fresh record highs on
Wednesday as gains in finan-cials, auto and cement countershelped benchmarks extendtheir winning run for the sixthstraight session amid positiveglobal cues.
European equitiesmarched higher after the UKbecame the first country toapprove the COVID-19 vaccinedeveloped by AstraZeneca andOxford University.
Serum Institute of India(SII) termed the approval asencouraging news and saidthe company would now waitfor the final nod for the vaccinein India.
After succumbing to prof-it-booking in afternoon trade,the 30-share BSE Sensex closedup by 133.14 points or 0.28 percent at a record high of47,746.22. The barometerscaled its all-time intra-day
high of 47,807.85.Similarly, the broad-based
NSE Nifty rose by 49.35 pointsor 0.35 per cent to finish at itslifetime high of 13,981.95. Ittouched all-time peak of 13,997in intra-day trade.
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The Maharashtra Goods andServices Tax Department
(GST), which exposed a mas-sive tax evasion racket inNovember, has made its secondmajor arrest in the case, of aprominent businessman own-ing at least four companies, anofficial said here onWednesday.
Carrying out a raid at thehome of businessman Yogesh J.Kanodia, the GST Departmentsleuths seized various incrim-inating documents pertainingto the �185 crore scam beingprobed.
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Mumbai:Rising for the fifthstraight session, the rupee onWednesday appreciated by11 paise to close at more thantwo-month high of 73.31against the US dollar on theback of foreign fund inflowsand a weak greenback in theglobal markets.At the inter-bank forex market, thedomestic unit opened at 73.35against the US dollar and wit-nessed an intra-day high of73.26 and a low of 73.36.
deadline to file income taxreturn (ITR) for individualsby 10 days to January 10,2021.
The deadline for filing taxreturns by businesses too hasbeen extended till February15, the finance ministry saidin a statement.
This is the third time thatthe government has extendedthe deadline to file ITR -- firstfrom the normal deadline ofJuly 31 to November 30, 2020,and then to December 31,2020.
Also, the due date for fil-ing declaration under thedirect tax dispute resolutionscheme Vivad Se Vishwas hasbeen extended by a month tillJanuary 31.
Besides, the date for fil-ing GST annual return for2019-20 fiscal has beenextended by two months tillFebruary 28, 2021.
The extension of thedeadline till January 10 is for
filing ITR for 2019-20 fiscalyear (2020-21 assessmentyear) and is for those indi-viduals whose accounts arenot required to be audited andwho usually file their incometax return using ITR-1 orITR-4 forms, as applicable, thestatement said.
The deadline for othertaxpayers whose accounts arerequired to be audited(including partners of a firm)and/or those who have tosubmit report in respect tointernational financial trans-actions has been extended toFebruary 15, 2021.
Amid a blip in the num-ber of ITRs filed by individ-uals vis-a-vis last year, thefinance ministry said theextension in various deadlinewas given in view of the con-tinued challenges faced bytaxpayers in meeting statuto-ry compliances due to the out-break of COVID-19.
For companies, the datewas extended from October31 to November 30 and thento January 31, 2021.
It’s commonly said that whenlife gives you lemons, usethem to make lemonade and
cool it all down. Well, what if lifegives you an eventful year like2020? On the last day of this year,three students from differentstreams present their take onwhat they learnt from the year’sunpredictability and its abundantchallenges. Life, certainly, forthem, had taken a new turn asstudents had to adapt to newerand digital ways of education,and no socialising.
SHREYA SHARMA What is the life of a college
student all about? Certainly, it’sabout a good college, a greatgroup of friends to hang out andmake memories with, attendingand bunking lectures together,being part of extra-curricularactivities, having good conversa-tions about the future with fam-ily, meeting new people andwhat not. However, a question —what if one day you don’t get todo all of that? Well, this thoughtsounded irrational and did nottrouble me until the day it actu-ally came true. And as it hap-pened, over the last 10 months ofthe pandemic, I grew in many,unimaginable ways.
The very first lesson — life ishighly unpredictable. We allknow about this fact but do weactually consider it and live ourlife keeping in mind its unpre-dictability? I don’t think so. Allwe do is rant about our suppos-edly boring lives being fully sub-merged in our work, not enjoy-ing and savouring the momentswe encounter. We hardly take outtime to acknowledge our lovedones. This pandemic has takenmany precious lives and now,when we look back, we regret notbeing able to spend time with theones who mattered to us. This
unpredictability of life has beena driving force for me to savourevery moment. I have learnt howI can only seize the currentmoment; nor the past neither thefuture.
Second — importance ofhealthy relationships. Not onlywe should focus on buildinghealthy relationships with ourfamily and friends but also watchout for the toxic ones, whichheavily impact our mental health.This lockdown has been a bless-ing in disguise for me as it hashelped me improve my relation-ships with the people I careabout and form some new, valu-able ones. This in turn has taughtme to be understanding, apolo-getic, empathetic and supportiveas a daughter, a friend and anapprentice. Also, ending toxicrelationships did not just makeme stronger but also made merealise my independence. I nowknow who I am, what I want andI strive for it.
The third takeaway wasfound in self-awareness, which Ibelieve is the ultimate key to liv-ing a fulfilling life. Certain argu-ments with my friends and fam-ily made me realise how I needto change my sense of self. I havethe power to change only myselfand take a control of only mywords, thoughts and actions. Ican mould them in my way. I amaccountable for my doings. Ihave the key to modify myselfand become a better person.
The fourth lesson came withtechnology’s necessity. In thisnew normal, it has helped us inmore ways than one. I realisedhow I couldn’t just complete mystudies through it but also con-nect to the ones I haven’t beenable to catch up with in a longtime. It has reached masses andhelped millions of lonely peopleconnect with each other. Hence,
I understood the important ofconversations.
The concluding lesson is grat-itude. We, as humans, needs to bemore grateful for what we have.2020 is evidence of life’s unpre-dictable nature. One momentyou’re breathing, the next you’renot or you’re struggling on a hos-pital bed. Hence, I have started topay gratitude and every day, Ithank the mystic forces of thisuniverse for giving me such anamazing and fulfilling life. I nowaccept my flaws and aim to grow,become better and strongereveryday with whatever I have.
SRISH SRIVATSAWhat can be said about life?
That it happens. It is beautiful yethard. It presumably has a sourtooth because it always seems togive everyone lemons. That’s also
evident from Gabriel GarciaMarquez’ opening words in Lovein the Time of Cholera — “It wasinevitable” — much like Thanos.Well, life happens in its own ways,whether we approve of them ornot. Things will change irrespec-tive of our convenience. And thesame is happening in the currentpandemic.
However, even if one feels likeprisoner, being trapped insidehomes, cut off from people, socialroutines and a world which attimes acted as refuge from theeveryday realities, behind thoseshut doors, we became creative.We, humans, did allow a virus topush us back but we will bedoomed if we let it pull us down.
I felt stuck in my home withmy family until I realised thatthey were as stuck as I was. So,what do we do? Well, we talked,
and beyond the usual “Hello” and“How are you?” I was surprisingto see that it took a life-threaten-ing pandemic to actually makeme converse with my family. Weinvented new ways to talk to eachother. We came across some newobservations about each other.We learnt how even in the dark-est times, we could find light andkeep going.
During the lockdown, every-thing from my classes to my lifehad started to map out on mymobile phone. I was stuck inanother state, away from myfamily, and in those times, Iwould be worried about them. Atthe same time, the pressure ofmissing out on notes and studiesengulfed me as now everythinghad shifted to digital. Lectureswere being conducted on Zoom,Google Meet, MS Teams and Iwas gradually losing all my inter-est. It became too boring and evenmore exhausting than attendingcollege in person. We certainlyhad no other option than toendure.
Furthermore, amid the socialdistancing norms and constraintsof not talking to whoever we wantto, I could find out the people Icannot separate myself from andthe ones important to me. I alsosaw how it made my fellow class-mates and our teachers cometogether as if we had known eachother since long. It made us haveconversations with each other,which were not just related towork or studies but also abouteach other’s wellbeing and where-abouts. I certainly learn the valueof human interactions, even ifthey were over a screen.
We became the personifica-tion of the saying, “It ain’t abouthow hard you hit. It’s about howhard you can get hit and still, keepmoving forward.” We all unitedand cared for ourselves, our fam-ily, friends, the person livingnext door, even the stranger wepass by in the corridor.
ANURAG GUPTAEverything was just fine
when the world first knew thatCOVID-19 had been declared as
a pandemic. There were lock-downs and travel restrictionsthroughout the world. The air-ports were full of nurses in haz-mat suits conducting tests — asif replicating a scene fromResident Evil. Apart from becom-ing a chapter in future historytextbooks, this pandemic hastaught many lessons to everyoneand hit each person differently.
My key takeaway — stayingat and working from home is noteasy. There are many roles to playwhen the whole family is livingin the home at the same time. Onthe other hand, when it comes toworking, there are many peoplewho struggle for devices at homebecause they might not be suffi-cient for everyone. We had tofight each morning to come at aconsensus on device usage.Nobody was prepared for such astrict lockdown. I wondered howstudents in the rural landscapewould have struggled to findgood network and suitable gad-gets to be able to attend school,online.
Second, I started to valuefriendships and relationships.The sudden paradigm shift fromsocialising after classes or hang-ing out with friends to staying putat home, hugely impacted rela-tionships. However, it also madeus realise the importance ofhuman contact and interaction.Eventually, we started adapting tothe new normal. We now gotmore to spend time with ourloved ones at home as well aswith others away from us, virtu-ally.
Another lesson I learnt wasthat happiness comes from with-in. With devastating news com-ing from across the world, peo-ple losing their loved ones, strug-gling to earn a living or even ameal per day, it became difficultto stay positive and row againstthe flow of negativity. The pan-demic proved that no matterhow many material objects youmay own or how many followerson social media you may have,during the darkest storms, onlyyou can find the ray of hope andsail amid it.
With domestic travel witnessing asteady growth and people’s redis-
covered love for local attractions,tourists now have the chance of expe-riencing the rural charm of a Himachalivillage surrounded by thick canopies ofCedar trees. It’s the perfect spot for thoselooking for a break from the mundanecity life, in the untouched wilderness,amidst nature. It can be your home inthe hills. Welcomhotel — ITC Hotelshas now spread its footprint inHimachal Pradesh, launching its firstproperty in Shimla.
Tucked away in an unexplored vil-lage with experiential stays, lush greenexpanse and breathtaking views of thehills, Welcomhotel Shimla comes as theideal getaway destination for thosewanting to reconnect with nature. Asone leaves behind the bustling streets ofShimla city centre and drives uphill, thetranquil town of Mashobra is only halfan hour away and is a beautiful havenfor hodophiles.
With a 25-hour check-in andcheck-out, it gives you an additionalhour to explore more. It offers a viewof the green splendour from its 47rooms and suites overlooking the pic-turesque Mashobra valley. The views arepanoramic and unparalleled. The build-ing is laid out to receive maximum nat-ural light and all guest room windowsare designed at very specific angles toreceive incessant sunlight from dusk todawn.
The modern design philosophy haselements that add the old-world charm.The hotel is committed to sustainablemeasures. Its design team was mindfulabout the authenticity of the land.Aligning with its ‘Responsible LuxuryPhilosophy’ of conservation ofresources, all grey water is treated in-house and used for horticulture. Non-carcinogenic wooden materials areused around the property and intelligentcontrols have been built in the elevatorsto maximise movement efficiency.
Speaking on the launch, NakulAnand, Executive Director, ITC Ltd,
said, “With domestic travel and wellnessexperiences regaining popularity, webelieve it is the perfect time to launchour latest Welcomhotel outpost in‘devbhoomi’ Himachal Pradesh. Withstunning 360-degree mountain viewsand striking architectural and interiordesign, we aim to attract discerningleisure and business travellers withour heightened safety measures inplace and the quintessential hospitali-ty at the forefront.”
WelcomCafe Cedar, the all-daydining restaurant, offers fresh season-al specialties from the region along witha holistic menu with signature Indianand international dishes. Guests will bein for a culinary treat withWelcomSthalika, an assortment of pop-ular regional dishes that come on a sin-gle platter, strengthening the ‘Vocal forLocal’ cause. The ingredients are season-al and locally sourced, supporting thefarming community of the neighbour-hood.
With over 3,186 sq ft spacious,seamless, indoor banquet spaces and ahuge 3,477 sq ft outdoor venue calledthe ‘Sunset Garden’, surrounded by themajestic Himalayan range, the hotel canhost both social and corporate eventswith élan. For wellness, the hotel willsoon be opening ‘K by Kaya Kalp’. Thespa will offer signature, holistic thera-pies & personalised wellness experienceslike Yoga and Zumba.
Perfect for a leisurely family getawayin the lap of snowcapped mountains, thehotel has indoor and outdoor activitieslike chess, kids’ play room and guidedlocal tours. The outdoor golf area isopening soon. Adding to experiences isbird watching with a local expert, walkwith a local historian, cycling within theShimla Wildlife Sanctuary or picnicsand camping in the greens. For theyoung adults, ‘Ollies Club’ offers a rangeof activities like archery, skittle, croquet,badminton, table tennis, pool, boardgames and darts. Enjoy walks toCraignano Trail, Mashobra to KalyaniHelipad and Mashobra Valley Trail.
The world turns on lessons learnt,���������������"��������������"����������� ��� ,(=�
meeting considered 37 propos-als under the chairmanship ofArvind Kejriwal, CM, Delhi.The council approved the fol-lowing proposals:
NDMC has been adjudgedas the National CleanestCapital in Swachh Survekshan2020. The council has passeda resolution for declaringNDMC as a 7-star rated urbanlocal body.
The council has approvedthe proposal for payment of anamount of �200 to the studentsof class-10th and class-12th ofNDMC/Navyug Schoolstowards data package costthrough Direct BenefitTransfer (DBT) for attendingonline teaching learning activ-ities till the schools are closed.
The council has approvedthe proposal for going aheadwith redevelopment of KhanMarket Community Centre(KMCC), New Delhi.
The council has approvedfor revision of renewal ofHealth License to five yearsfrom three years at present.This is in order to achieve easeof doing business for all tradesand mentioned under Section-327 to 331 of NDMC Act1994.
The council has approvedfor sending a proposal toMinistry of Home Affairs forconsidering regularisation of63 contractual doctors byamending the existingRecruitment Rules of therespective cadre of doctors(i.e. Allopathy, AyurvedicPhysician and HomoeopathyPhysician).
The council has approvedthe revision of remuneration ofsalary and allowances to con-tractual doctors in NDMC asper 7th CPC pay scales.
The council has approvedthe proposal for constructionof 160 Type-III Flats at Sector-VI, Pushp Vihar, Saket, NewDelhi (Composite work).
There used to be a timewhen patients who were
referred from Keonjhar toSCB, Medical College andHospital (MCH), Cuttack,were completely on their own.When the patients, along withtheir attendants, reached SCB,they had to first understandthe cumbersome task ofadmissions in the hospital andfigure out different processesfor availing various health ser-vices. If you were an illiteratebelonging to the rural areas ofKeonjhar, the entire processwas daunting. There was nohelping hand for the poor andthe attendants of the patienthad an additional burden to
understand the entire processof the hospital along with thepain and agony of theirpatients. People lost a lot oftheir valuable time and moneyin the entire process.
This scenario is commonin almost all major hospitalsacross the country as manypatients who are referred tosuch hospitals are generallyunfamiliar with the place andsurroundings, which adds totheir misery. To address thisproblem, DMF Keonjhar cameup with a unique and novel
project called ‘DMFSanjeevani’, sanctioned for anamount of �1.45 crores.Karuna Trust was selected as a
partner agency to run theentire project and a team ofcoordinators were put in place.
Under the project, a PatientFacilitation Centre (PFC) wasestablished at SCB to guide andprovide logistical and hand-holding support to in-patients(IPDs) from Keonjhar and twoof their attendants during theirtreatment at SCB. The dedicat-ed team of patient facilitatorsprovide necessary guidance tothe patients 24 hours a day andthroughout the year. Alongwith the PFC, an Attendant
Accommodation Centre(AAC) was also established toprovide overnight accommo-dation and food (dailyallowance) for a maximum oftwo attendants per patient.
After the launch of the pro-ject in March 2020, the entirereferral process was reinvent-ed. The coordinators trackpatients after being referredfrom DHH/DSHs till the timeof arrival at Cuttack. Once thepatients reach SCB, the coor-dinators receive the patientsand guide them in the entire
admission process and ensurethat they are admitted inappropriate in-patient (IPD)ward or department.
The referred patients aregenerally critical in nature andthey require treatment for alonger duration. In such cases,the attendants go through atough time with no properfacilities for them in the hos-pitals. The ‘DMF Sanjeevani’project has provided great reliefto the patients and the atten-dants; and the services havebeen widely appreciated bythe people of Keonjhar. Theproject has facilitated morethan 1,100 patients since itslaunch.
The Directorate of Tourism,Jammu, has organised a
mega three days WinterCarnival 2020 at Patnitop toattract tourists. The three daysWinter Carnival coincides withthe New Year celebrations amidsnowfall season, which is amajor attraction for thetourists. The event was a con-fluence of local dogri art, eth-nic cuisines, cultural perfor-mances and fun activities.
The Director of Tourism,Jammu, RK Katoch, KAS,along with IGP JammuMukesh Singh, IPS inaugurat-ed the carnival. DIG RambanDoda Kishtwar range AbdulJabbar, IPS and SSP RambanHaseeb-Ur-Rehman, KPS alsograced the occasion with otherdignitaries. The festival start-ed with local dogri kud danceand geetru performancesamong other engaging per-formances by local artists. Themain attraction of the inaugur-al day was the musical eveningalong with song, dance and liveDJ performance which wasappreciated by all the tourists.
The Directorate ofTourism, Jammu, in collabora-tion with PatnitopDevelopment Authorityintended to showcase local art,
culture, artifacts, ethnic food tothe tourists visiting the snow-clad hills.
The inauguration cere-mony was attended by CEOPDA Sachin Dev SinghJamwal, KAS, Dy. DirectorTourism (Jammu) Anil KumarChandail, KAS, ADT NHW-Batote Dr Umesh Shan, KASamong other officials of theTourism Department, DistrictAdministration and PatnitopDevelopment Authority.
Large number of touristsfrom all over India, especial-ly UP, Gujarat, Kolkata,Punjab, Karnataka throngedthe main meadow and enjoyedall the activities during thesaid event. The tourists appre-ciated the efforts of theTourism Department for re-starting the tourism activitiesin the region and makingelaborate arrangements forthe celebration of snow festi-val on New Year’s eve. Thereis a huge rush of tourists atPatnitop and the footfall hasbeen increasing day by day.However, the said event isbeing managed by theTourism Department whileobserving and following all theprotocols which are in placeregarding COVID-19.
With the year drawing toa close, while tourism
is still strongly impacted bythe travel restrictions aroundthe world, MonacoGovernment TouristConvention Authority issending its best wishes toeveryone who loves to trav-el, whether they are alreadyfamiliar with the principali-ty or are planning to visitonce the crisis is over.Throughout this very specialyear, we have been keen tostay in touch with touristsaround the world.
We hope more than everto welcome tourists again.Monaco is a place for festiv-ities and fun! The principal-ity gets decked out in its mosttwinkling attire for NewYear’s eve. But keeping inmind the ongoing pandem-ic situation, Monaco isorganising mini-islands offestive joy for small gather-ings or in the open-air. Theprincipality is determinednot to let the health crisisruin the New Year celebra-tions. That’s why Monaco islooking to make advent atruly festive period this year.There will be illuminationsand traditional nativity
scenes to admire from yourcar or from behind a mask.Nobody will be able to saythat New Year has not beencelebrated in style!
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True to its reputation as
a land of innovation,Monaco is always keen toexplore new technologiesand the results are oftenhighly impressive. This isnever truer than during thefestive season. Two interac-tive applications are availableto the public: Playmagic and
Playcolor Monaco. The firstuses augmented reality to letusers take selfies with SantaClaus against a glitteringbackdrop or play with differ-ent personalities. The secondlets you become “master oflights” by changing thecolours of certain illumina-tions.
��� �������In Monaco, you can con-
tact Santa Claus himself byemail or letters sent via LaPoste Monaco. Every letterwill receive a reply!
���� ������� ��� �%���Don’t worry, avid skaters
will have their fill of fun thisyear! The ice rink remainsopen until March 7, 2021. Inaddition to the main icerink, there is also a smallerice rink for children to dis-cover the joys of the ice,accompanied by their par-ents, with mini-skates to
place on their shoes.
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In view of the ongoinghealth situation and theresulting organisationalrestrictions, the principalitywill be unable to maintainthe Christmas village in itstraditional format. Instead, amuch-reduced version hasbeen set up at the Port ofMonaco from December 4 toJanuary 3 with four attrac-tions for children — hook-a-duck, the traditionalCarousel, a new merry-go-round named Reindeer Ride,and another in the shape ofa Christmas tree.
Monaco is known for itsglittering reputation, be it theshine of the supercars to theshimmer of theMediterranean Sea via themany luminaries residinghere. New Year will be small-er but as festive as ever!
The Chief Minister ofChhattisgarh, BhupeshBaghel’s monthly radio
programme, Lokvaani, is gain-ing immense popularity acrossstates. So far, 13 episodes havebeen aired from all the centresof Akashwani. The 14thepisode will be aired onJanuary 10, 2021.
The programme is alsosimultaneously broadcastedon various FM channels andregional TV news channels.Through this programme,people of Chhattisgarh direct-ly connect with the ChiefMinister Baghel. Everyepisode is based on a differenttopic including agriculture,rural development, education,youth, health, maternal power,urban development, tribaldevelopment, women andequal opportunities, NyayYojana and sports.
The major part ofChhattisgarh’s population livesin forest regions, where nomode of mass communicationis available except radio.Under these circumstances,radio programme Lokvaani isthe only source of informationabout government schemesand policies for people there.People not only receive infor-mation from the CM but alsoasks direct questions regardinghis vision and action plan forfuture. The CM also gets thedirect feedback of the govern-ment schemes from the com-mon people. People in variouscities eagerly wait for thisprogramme to be aired as it isan important platform forthem to directly connect withthe Chief Minister.
Vishnu Paikra, a tribalfarmer of the vil lageMagarchaba in Balodabazardistrict, says that we listen toevery episode of Lokvaani,sometimes at home and othertimes at the farm. He said that
it is heartening to know thatthe government cares forfarmers and tribals. Megha, aClass 11th student of Janjgir,said that she received impor-tant information about theschemes being conducted forwomen’s empowerment andeconomic prosperity fromLokvaani. The state govern-ment is doing a great job ineducating women about theirrights and giving them equalstatus and opportunities.
Ward Councilor Amit Dasof Raipur, Mathpuraina, saidthat he got information aboutthe steps being taken by stategovernment towards provid-ing high-level health facilitiesin government hospitals acrossthe state. District President ofPanchayat Saja, OmprakashVerma, said that Lokvaani hasbeen started to communicatedirectly with the general pub-lic of the state.
Social activist SantoshVerma said that through theprogramme, Baghel patientlylistens to the views and queriesof the people. He gives detailedinformation about the workbeing done by the governmentfor the betterment of agricul-ture sector and rural economy.All the episodes of the radio-talk have been saved as a doc-ument on the website of PublicRelations Departmenthttp://dprcg.gov.in/. Theiraudio files as well as transcriptfile are available on the web-site. The aired episodes can beread and heard anytime any-where.
On the occasion of the 83rdbirth anniversary of the
noted Parliamentarian andLaureate Dr Shankar DayalSingh, the Shankar SanskritiPratishthan hosted a webinar onthe topic of Education, Cultureand Samskara in his memory.The programme’s chief guest,Manish Sisodia, Deputy ChiefMinister of Delhi, recalled hisfirst meeting with Dr Singh atthe Rajbhasa Committee, whenDr Singh was a celebrated writerand a politician, while Sisodiawas new to journalism. Heremarked what a coincidence itwas that today he was partici-pating in a programme hostedin the memory of him, now asa politician himself. In hisaddress, he stressed the need forpolicy measures that inculcate
emotional capabilities of stu-dents in the initial years and cre-ate an entrepreneurial mindsetin high school.
The other panelists includ-ed Dr Pramath Raj Sinha, thechairman of HarappaEducation, Dr MahashwetaMaharathi, the secretary ofRajgir Buddha Bihar Society, DrBal Ram Singh, professor,Institute of Advanced Sciencesat Dartmouth, USA.
Dr Sinha noted that eventhough in-person educationhas a lot of advantages, there isa lack of qualified and trainedteachers, especially in ruralIndia and in government-runschools. The best way to ensurequality education in such cir-cumstances might be to teachthrough technology. Digital is
the way forward, he believes. DrMaharathi talked about recog-nising the value of traditionaleducation in India that goesbeyond just academics. Fromcrafts, handlooms and sculptorsto traditional artisans, Indiahas a huge talent pool that cur-rently remains untapped andmust be made an essential ele-ment of when we talk abouteducation. Dr Bal Ram Singhalso noted the historic signifi-cance of India and its place inthe world, stressing upon theneed for more mainstreamingof traditional Indian knowledgesuch as ayurveda and yoga.
Shankar SanskritiPratishthan also congratulatedRanjit Singh Disale, the recentrecipient of Global TeacherAward 2020 and noted his con-
tributions made to the field ofeducation.
The programme wasattended by over 500 peoplefrom India and across theworld, garnering participantsfrom USA, UK, Germany,France, Poland, Austria,Philippines and Australia. It wasmoderated by the son of DrShankar Dayal Singh, RanjanKumar Singh, an author. It waslive streamed in Patna andacross different villages in Biharusing digital medium. Womenfrom self help groups congregat-ed at Kamta Seva Kendra inDeo, Aurangabad, the birth-place of Dr Singh, to pay theirregards and watch the pro-gramme live, a true demonstra-tion of bridging urban dividethrough the use of technology.
The Minister of State for Tourismand Culture (I/C), Prahlad Singh
Patel, took a review meeting of theAdopt A Heritage: Apni Dharohar,Apni Pehchaan project in New Delhi.Secretary Tourism Yogendra Tripathi,DG Tourism Meenakshi Sharma, JSCulture Sanjukta Mudgal, ADGTourism Rupinder Brar and represen-tatives of Archaeological Survey ofIndia were present in the meeting.
A detailed presentation was givenabout the present status and progressat various monuments. Patel laidemphasis on timely completion of theprojects and asked the officials toreview the amenities proposed underthe MoUs in discussion with thenodal departments from time totime.
He said that the project is a well-conceived initiative and hoped thatby leveraging CSR, this would helpin providing the basic amenities
such as cleanliness, safe drinkingwater, light and sounds in the lesser-known monuments.
The project, which runs underthe Ministry of Tourism,Government of India, is a collabora-tive effort by the Ministry of Tourism,Ministry of Culture, ArchaeologicalSurvey of India and State/ UTsGovernment. It aims to encouragecompanies from public sector, privatesector, trusts, NGOs, individuals andother stakeholders to becomeMonument Mitras and take up theresponsibility of developing andupgrading the basic and advancedtourist amenities at these sites as pertheir interest and viability in terms ofa sustainable investment model underCSR.
SEE YOU NEXT YEARIn the biggest sporting causality
of 2020, International OlympicCommittee and Tokyo 2020Organising Committee in a jointstatement on March 24, postponedthe Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 byan year .
Originally scheduled to be heldfrom 24 July-9 August 2020, theGames were moved to next year dueto the developing global situation inlight of the Covid-19 pandemic.However, they will retain the Tokyo2020 name.
The announcement came 122days before the planned OpeningCeremony at the newly-built NationalStadium in the Japanese capital.
While the Olympic Games havepreviously been cancelled duringwartime, this is the first postpone-ment of a Games.
LUCKY 13 TAKES NADAL TORECORD 20TH MAJOR
Rafael Nadal skipped the USOpen but there was no way theSpaniard was going to miss his sig-
nature event, the French Openwhich took place at a blusteryRoland Garros in a rearranged lateSeptember/early October slot.
Inevitably, and without drop-ping a set on the way, Nadal bull-dozed his way to the final where hemet Djokovic who was keen to atonefor his mishap at Flushing Meadows.It was barely a contest with Nadalwinning 6-0, 6-2, 7-5 to claim a 13thFrench Open title and matchFederer’s record of 20 major wins.
OSAKA SPEAKS OUT WITHHER MASKS
Naomi Osaka led the way forathlete activism in tennis in 2020with her stand for the Black LivesMatter movement.
She attended a peaceful protestin Minneapolis in the wake ofGeorge Floyd’s death, wrote an op-ed about racism and Black LivesMatter and later joined the USSports boycott. Memorably, shewore facemasks with differentnames of black victims of police bru-
tality at the US Open. After her firstmatch, she said she had preparedseven masks with the aim to reachthe final; and got the chance to sportthem all as she banished her demonsto win a thrilling US Open final forher third Grand Slam title.
DJOKOVIC’S SENSATIONALDISQUALIFICATION
World No 1 Novak Djokovicwent into the US Open looking foran 18th Major triumph in theknowledge that Roger Federer andRafael Nadal were absent. Goinginto his fourth-round match against20th seed Pablo Carreno Busta, theSerb had not lost a singles match in2020.
It all went wrong though whenthe 33-year-old vented his frustra-tion after dropping his service byhitting a ball behind him, striking
a female line judge in the throat.Djokovic immediately apologisedbut after a lengthy discussion, he wasdisqualified, leaving the field openfor Dominic Thiem.
SWIATEK TAKES POLE POSI-TION AT ROLAND GARROS
Iga Swiatek was ranked 54th inthe world when she travelled toRoland Garros. Two weeks later,after seeing off Australian Openchamp Sofia Kenin in the final, the19-year-old had risen to No 17 andhad become the first Pole to win aGrand Slam singles title.
It was a breathtaking fortnightfor Swiatek who capitalised on theabsence of world No 1 AshleighBarty and the early exit throughinjury of SerenaWilliams to becomethe youngest femalesingles winnersince MonicaSeles in 1992.
WIMBLEDON CANCELLED
Wimbledon organisers scrappedthe oldest Grand Slam tennis tour-nament for the first time sinceWorld War II because of coronaviruspandemic impact.
The only grasscourt major atLondon’s All England Club was dueto run for two weeks from June 29,but tournament chiefs bowed to theinevitable, saying in a statement onApril 1, that they had made the deci-sion with “great regret”.
Organisers had earlier ruledout playing the event behind closeddoors while postponing it wouldalso have created its own problems,with shorter days later in the Englishsummer.
LIN DAN CALLS TIME
Lin Dan, arguably the greatestbadminton player of the 21st centu-ry, announced his retirement fromthe sport. Lin, who won two OlympicGolds and five World titles, dominat-ed men’s singles badminton forabout a decade along with Malaysia’sLee Chong Wei.
Lin was at his best in the bigmatches and was the kind of
player who saved his best forthe biggest moments. In aneight year period between2006 and 2014, he wonalmost every major final heplayed in, including fiveWorlds, two Olympics andtwo Asian Games Golds.He was particularly domi-nant against Lee ChongWei and Chen Long, who
were easily the best players ofhis generation besides him.
ATHLETICS FINDS A NEW STAR
When pole vaulter ArmandDuplantis set a new world record of6.18m in an indoor meet in Glasgowin February a week after clearing6.17m, the sport of track and fieldhad a new star. The US-basedSwede with the teen movie looksthen produced the highest outdoorvault of all time (6.15m) and fin-ished the year undefeated in 16competitions.
HAMILTON MATCHES SCHUMACHER’S RECORD
When Michael Schumacherbowed out of Formula One, fewthought his record of 91 Grand Prixwins and seven world champi-onships would ever be matched. In2020, Lewis Hamilton did just that,winning 11 of the 17 races to takehis tally beyond Schumacher'srecord to 95, and equalling theGerman's seven titles.
The 35-year-old Briton certain-ly benefitted from the outstandingMercedes car at his disposal butthere is little doubt he has etched hisname firmly among the greatest ofhis sport.
Warner and Will Pucovski tobolster their under-fire battingline-up for the remainder ofthe Test series against Indiaand dropped struggling open-er Joe Burns.
Burns just has a half-cen-tury to show in his fourinnings and has been strug-gling for form for some timenow. He has managed scores of8, 51 not out, 0 and 4 inAdelaide and Melbourne. Theseries is locked 1-1 after Indiawon the second Test inMelbourne on Monday.
With Warner, who missedout a major chunk of the Indiaassignment due to a groininjury, looking fit for the job,dropping Burns was an easydecision to make.
“Joe Burns has beenreleased from the squad andwill return to the BrisbaneHeat. Unfortunately, Joe'sreturns haven’t been what he orthe selectors would like orwhat we consider he is capableof,” National selector TrevorHohns said in a statement.
“David Warner, Will
Pucovski and Sean Abbott willrejoin the squad in Melbournetomorrow evening in prepara-tion for the Sydney Test,” headded. Hohns said Warnerwould be given every chanceto be back in the XI for thethird Test starting January 7 inSydney.
“David has made strongprogress in his recovery frominjury and will be given everychance to play in Sydney withanother seven days until the
match. Sean has fully recov-ered from a calf strain and isalso available for selection.”
Talking about Pucovski,who suffered a concussionduring a practice game, Hohnssaid,"Will is in the final stagesof the graduated return toplay protocols and has beensymptom free for some time.He will be fit to play in Sydneysubject to completing thereturn to play protocols and anindependent assessment."
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The five-bowler strategy worked out perfectly forIndia in Melbourne but the Ajinkya Rahane-led
side has some tough calls to make in the battingdepartment, especially the opening slot, ahead of thethird Test against Australia in Sydney with RohitSharma available for selection.
His elevation as a Test opener in the homeseries against South Africa last year was ahuge success but lack of match practiceand the circumstances in which he hasarrived in Australia don't make Rohita certain starter at the top of the order.
“We will have a chat with him tosee where he is placed physicallybecause he has been in quarantine forthe last couple of weeks. Also got to seehow he feels before we take the call,” saidhead coach Ravi Shastri.
Rohit joined the squad inMelbourne on Wednesday.
With Shubman Gillshowing calmness andmaturity beyond his age inhis debut Test, the team islikely to fit in Rohit eitherat the expense ofMayank Agarwal at thetop or Hanuma Vihariin the middle-order.
Agarwal’s form hasbeen rather poor in theongoing series and hehas managed to touchdouble figures justonce. He hasn’t lookedthe solid batsman thatIndia discovered here
in 2018. But it would nonetheless be a huge call if theteam management decides to bench him.
The away series in New Zealand earlier this yearwould have been Rohit's first real test as an openerbut he got injured in the middle of the tour.
Considering he is coming back from anotherinjury and his last game was the IPL final onNovember 10, the challenge Down Under seems tobe much tougher, irrespective of his batting position.
Former chief selector MSK Prasad feels drop-ping either Agarwal, who has struggled so far,and Vihari seems to be the only way to accom-modate Rohit.
Though Rohit opened for the first time inhis tenure, Prasad is not sure if the champi-on batsman would be wanting to open due to
lack of match practice.“It will be a toss up between Mayank andVihari. Dropping Mayank will be a tough call
since he has scored hundreds and dou-ble hundreds over the last 18
months.“I am still not sure about
Rohit opening because he iscoming after a long break. Willhe prefer to open or bat in the
middle order? That is anoth-er question,” Prasad told
PTI.“And what kind of
role the team manage-ment is expecting fromRohit. That is also a fac-tor. Whether they wantto Rohit to give theteam a flying start oranchor the innings inthe middle?” headded.
New Zealand beat Pakistan by 101runs in the first cricket Test which
ended very late on the fifth dayWednesday, achieving their third straightwin in three home Tests this summer andtaking a 1-0 lead in the two-test series.
At the same time New Zealand over-
took Australia to claim the No. 1 worldranking in Tests for the first time in itshistory.
The victory wasn’t the emphatic oneNew Zealand likely had envisaged whenthey came to the fifth day of a test matchfor the first time this season holding asizeable advantage.
Having been set 373 to win, Pakistan
was 71-3 - still 301 runs behind - and theNew Zealand bowlers who had dismissedPakistan for 239 in its first innings to givethe home side a 192-run lead, still heldthe upper hand.
Pakistan finally was out for 271 at6.36 p.M. Local time with fewer than fiveovers left in the day’s play and a drawbeckoning.
Left-arm spinner Mitchell Santnerdismissed No. 11 batsman Naseem Shahto clinch the win after Naseem andShaheen Afridi had defied New Zealandfor almost eight overs as the number ofballs remaining in the day dwindled.
"For all money it was going to be adraw until late in the piece.
The final day didn’t unfold in quite
the way New Zealand had hoped or evenbegun to expect when Trent Boult dismissedthe overnight batsman Azhar Ali (38) in thesecond over of the day. The early blowseemed to make a quick resolution more like-ly. But Fawad Alam and Mohammad Rizwan,who came together when Azhar was out,took the script New Zealand had conceivedfor the day and almost turned it on its head.
