A iming to speed up the pace of the vaccination in the face of an alarming surge in Covid-19 cases, the Union Cabinet on Tuesday allowed the administration of coron- avirus vaccine to people above 45 years of age from April 1, irrespective of comorbidities. Talking to reporters soon after the Cabinet meeting, Union Minister Prakash Javadekar announced there will be no need for medical certifi- cates supporting co-morbidity conditions, as the Government had stipulated earlier for the second phase of vaccination. So far since the launch of the national vaccination pro- gramme, over 4.8 crore people have been inoculated with more than 32.53 lakh Covid-19 vaccine doses administered on Monday itself. These include health workers like doctors and nurses, frontline workers like police and municipal work- ers followed by those above 60 years and 45 years but with co- morbidities. However, now “everyone above 45 years of age with or without comorbidities will be able to get the Covid-19 vaccine from April 1 ,” Javadekar said. While announcing the Government’s decision, Javadekar appealed to all eligi- ble citizens to get themselves registered to get inoculated with the coronavirus vaccines. The Union Minister assured the nation that there is no shortage of Covid vaccine doses in the country. “We have enough vaccines. All eligible people should get registered as it is a shield against Covid-19. We appeal all above 45+ should get vacci- nated,” Javadekar said. The decision to widen the vaccine ambit comes amid the concern that the doubling time of Covid-19 cases in India has decreased from 504.4 days on March 1 to 202.3 days on March 23, with six States — Maharashtra, Punjab, Karnataka, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh and Tamil Nadu — reporting a surge in daily new cases and together accounting for 80.90 per cent of the new infections reported in a day. When asked to comment on the UK coronavirus variant cases found in Punjab, Javadekar said he was not a health expert, but can say that the virus erupts in several vari- ants. “More cases are expected. States which are noticing more case, we are in constant touch with them,” he added. As per the advice by sci- entists and world scientist bod- ies, the second dose can be administered between the sixth and eight week, particularly for Covishield. India has approved Covaxin developed by Bharat Biotech and Covishield from the Oxford- AstraZeneca and Serum Institute of India (SII). E ighty-one per cent of the latest 401 samples sent by Punjab for genome sequenc- ing have been tested positive for the new UK Covid-19 variant. Alarmed, the Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Tuesday urged the Prime Minister Narendra Modi to widen the vaccina- tion ambit to cover those younger than 60 as “the mutant has been found to be infecting young people more”. At the same time, the Chief Minister has also appealed to the people to get themselves vaccinated and strictly adhere to the Covid safety protocols. Detailed report on P2 Bhubaneswar: Odisha might have to stop its coronavirus immunisation drive for four days starting at the end of March because of a shortage of vaccine doses. The State does have vaccines for 4 days. Nagpur: Nagpur’s Covid-19 tally rose by 3,095 on Tuesday to touch 1,99,771, while the death toll increased by 33 and the recovery count by 2,136, an official said. I n a significant breakthrough in the alleged Mansukh Hiran murder case, Maharashtra’s Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Tuesday named arrested police officer Sachin Vaze as one of the sus- pected accused in the sensa- tional case and said that it would seek his custody in the coming days. Talking to media persons here, ATS Additional Director- General of Police Jai Jeet Singh said, “In our investigations, we have found evidence to suggest that Vaze was involved in the alleged murder of Mansukh Hiran. There are several suspects in the case. Vaze has denied his role in the murder. His statement does not hold water.” “As part of our ongoing technical investigations into the case, we have come to know that one of the arrested accused Naresh Gore had obtained a SIM card for anoth- er arrested accused Vinayak Shinde, a convicted police con- stable, from a person known to him from Gujarat. Vaze’s link to the case has been established on the basis of this SIM card. After we established this, we arrested Shinde and Gore,” ATS Additional DGP said. Meanwhile, the ATS has recorded the statements of sev- eral witnesses in the case. Singh said that the ATS would soon file a petition in the court seeking the custody of Vaze from the NIA. Vaze, who is an accused in the case involving the planting of an explosive laden SUV near industrialist Mukesh Ambani’s residence in south Mumbai on February 25, will remain in the custody of NIA till March 25. The ATS’ confirmation about Vaze’s alleged involve- ment came two days after the ATS arrested Shinde and Gore. It may be recalled that Hiran’s body was recovered from the marshy Reti-Bunder creek Mumbra in the neigh- bouring Thane district on March 5. Shinde is a dismissed policeman, who has been con- victed in the case involving the fake encounter of Ramnarayan Gupta alias Lakhan Bhaiya. Bhaiya was killed in a fake encounter on November 11, 2006. In 2013, a Mumbai ses- sions court had awarded life sentences to 21 people, includ- ing 13 Mumbai Police person- nel, convicted in the case. Shinde has been on parole. The investigations by the ATS have revealed that Shinde was in regular touch with Vaze and helped the latter in his activities. Among other things, the ATS Additional DGP admitted that the accused had either tried to destroy evidence or dis- pose off mobile phones, SIM cards and CCTV footages relat- ing to the case. T he Supreme Court will on Wednesday hear the plea by Mumbai’s former Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh seeking direction for immediate “impartial and fair” CBI probe into alleged corrupt malpractices of Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh. As per the Wednesday’s cause list uploaded on the apex court website, the petition would come up for hearing before a bench comprising Justices SK Kaul and RS Reddy. Singh, a 1988 batch IPS officer, has also sought quash- ing of the Government order transferring him from the post of Mumbai Commissioner of Police alleging it to be “arbi- trary” and “illegal”. As an interim relief, he has sought stay of the operation of his transfer order and direction to State Government, the Centre and CBI to immediately take in its custody the CCTV footage from the residence of Deshmukh. I n a major relief to borrowers, the Supreme Court on Tuesday directed that no com- pound or penal interest be charged for the six-month moratorium announced last year amid the Covid-19 pan- demic and the amount already recovered is to be refunded or adjusted in the next instalment of loan account. While refusing to extend the period of moratorium, the apex court said there is “no jus- tification” to charge interest on interest or compound interest for the period during the moratorium once the pay- ment of instalment is deferred by last year’s March 27 notification. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had on March 27, 2020 issued the circular allowing lending institutions to grant a moratorium on payment of instalments of term loans falling due between March 1 and May 31 of last year due to the pandemic. The moratorium was extended by three months till August 31. The top court delivered the verdict on a batch of petitions seeking reliefs, including exten- sion of loan moratorium, com- plete waiver of interest or inter- est on interest during the mora- torium period and sector wise relief packages. “However, it is directed that there shall not be any charge of interest on inter- est/compound interest/penal interest for the period during the moratorium and any amount already recovered under the same head, namely, interest on interest/penal inter- est/compound interest shall be refunded to the concerned borrowers and to be given credit/adjusted in the next instalment of the loan account,” a bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan said in its 148- page judgment. The apex court bench, also comprising Justices RS Reddy and MR Shah, noted that by a notification dated March 27 last year, the Government has pro- vided deferment of instalments due and payable during the moratorium period. “Once the payment of instalment is deferred as per circular dated March 27, 2020, non-payment of the instal- ment during the moratorium period cannot be said to be willful and therefore there is no justification to charge the inter- est on interest/compound interest/penal interest for the period during the moratorium,” the bench said. “Interim relief granted ear- lier not to declare the accounts of respective borrowers as NPA stands vacated,” the apex court said. O wing to the prevailing Covid-19 situation, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has extend- ed suspension of scheduled international commercial pas- senger flights till April 30. “However, international scheduled flights may be allowed on selected routes by the compe- tent authority on a case-to- case basis,” the DGCA added. Scheduled international passenger ser- vices have been suspended in India since March 23, 2020, due to the Covid-19 pandemic. But special international flights have been operating under the Vande Bharat Mission since May and under bilateral “air bubble” arrangements with selected countries since July. India has formed air bub- ble pacts with 27 countries, including the US, the UK, the UAE, Kenya, Bhutan and France. Under an air bubble pact between two countries, special international flights can be operat- ed by their airlines between their terri- tories. The DGCA circular also said that the suspen- sion does not affect the oper- ation of international all-cargo operations and flights specifi- cally approved by it. F ive police personnel were killed and 13 others injured as Maoists blew up a bus in which they were travelling in Chhattisgarh’s Narayanpur dis- trict on Tuesday, police officials said. The landmine explosion took place between Kanhargaon and Kadenar vil- lages in the Dhaudai police sta- tion limits. Personnel from the District Reserve Guard (DRG) were returning in the bus to Narayanpur town, 300 km away from Raipur, after a counter- insurgency operation, Inspector General of Police (Bastar range) Sundarraj P said. “Five DRG personnel, including the driver, were killed,” he said. On Monday, a joint team of security forces from Narayanpur and neighbour- ing Dantewada district had launched the anti-Maoist oper- ation along the inter-district border. Around 3 pm on Tuesday, forces belonging to Narayanpur returned to Kademeta camp in the district following which those belonging to DRG from the district headquarters left in the bus, Sundarraj said. Around 4.15 pm, the Maoists triggered three IED (improvised explosive device) blasts targeting the bus, which had around 25 personnel, near a culvert. In the impact, the bus fell into the culvert, he said.
Aiming to speed up the paceof the vaccination in the
face of an alarming surge inCovid-19 cases, the UnionCabinet on Tuesday allowedthe administration of coron-avirus vaccine to people above45 years of age from April 1,irrespective of comorbidities.
Talking to reporters soonafter the Cabinet meeting,Union Minister PrakashJavadekar announced there willbe no need for medical certifi-cates supporting co-morbidityconditions, as the Governmenthad stipulated earlier for thesecond phase of vaccination.
So far since the launch ofthe national vaccination pro-gramme, over 4.8 crore peoplehave been inoculated withmore than 32.53 lakh Covid-19vaccine doses administered onMonday itself. These include
health workers like doctorsand nurses, frontline workerslike police and municipal work-ers followed by those above 60
years and 45 years but with co-morbidities. However, now“everyone above 45 years of agewith or without comorbidities
will be able to get the Covid-19vaccine from April 1,”Javadekar said.
While announcing theGovernment’s decision,Javadekar appealed to all eligi-ble citizens to get themselvesregistered to get inoculatedwith the coronavirus vaccines.The Union Minister assuredthe nation that there is noshortage of Covid vaccinedoses in the country.
“We have enough vaccines.All eligible people should getregistered as it is a shieldagainst Covid-19. We appeal allabove 45+ should get vacci-nated,” Javadekar said.
The decision to widen thevaccine ambit comes amid theconcern that the doubling timeof Covid-19 cases in India hasdecreased from 504.4 days onMarch 1 to 202.3 days onMarch 23, with six States —Maharashtra, Punjab,
Karnataka, Gujarat,Chhattisgarh and Tamil Nadu— reporting a surge in dailynew cases and togetheraccounting for 80.90 per centof the new infections reportedin a day.
When asked to commenton the UK coronavirus variantcases found in Punjab,Javadekar said he was not ahealth expert, but can say thatthe virus erupts in several vari-ants. “More cases are expected.
States which are noticing morecase, we are in constant touchwith them,” he added.
As per the advice by sci-entists and world scientist bod-ies, the second dose can beadministered between the sixthand eight week, particularly forCovishield. India has approvedCovaxin developed by Bharat Biotech andCovishield from the Oxford-AstraZeneca and SerumInstitute of India (SII).
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Eighty-one per cent of thelatest 401 samples sent by
Punjab for genome sequenc-ing have been tested positivefor the new UK Covid-19variant. Alarmed, the ChiefMinister Capt AmarinderSingh on Tuesday urged thePrime Minister NarendraModi to widen the vaccina-tion ambit to cover thoseyounger than 60 as “themutant has been found to beinfecting young people more”.
At the same time, theChief Minister has alsoappealed to the people to getthemselves vaccinated andstrictly adhere to the Covidsafety protocols.
Detailed report on P2
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Bhubaneswar: Odisha mighthave to stop its coronavirusimmunisation drive for fourdays starting at the end ofMarch because of a shortage ofvaccine doses. The State doeshave vaccines for 4 days.
Nagpur: Nagpur’s Covid-19tally rose by 3,095 on Tuesdayto touch 1,99,771, while thedeath toll increased by 33 andthe recovery count by 2,136,an official said.
In a significant breakthroughin the alleged Mansukh
Hiran murder case,Maharashtra’s Anti-CorruptionBureau (ACB) on Tuesdaynamed arrested police officerSachin Vaze as one of the sus-pected accused in the sensa-tional case and said that itwould seek his custody in thecoming days.
Talking to media personshere, ATS Additional Director-General of Police Jai Jeet Singhsaid, “In our investigations,we have found evidence tosuggest that Vaze was involvedin the alleged murder ofMansukh Hiran. There areseveral suspects in the case.Vaze has denied his role in themurder. His statement does nothold water.”
“As part of our ongoingtechnical investigations intothe case, we have come toknow that one of the arrestedaccused Naresh Gore hadobtained a SIM card for anoth-er arrested accused VinayakShinde, a convicted police con-
stable, from a person known tohim from Gujarat. Vaze’s linkto the case has been establishedon the basis of this SIM card.After we established this, wearrested Shinde and Gore,”ATS Additional DGP said.
Meanwhile, the ATS hasrecorded the statements of sev-eral witnesses in the case.
Singh said that the ATSwould soon file a petition in thecourt seeking the custody ofVaze from the NIA.
Vaze, who is an accused inthe case involving the plantingof an explosive laden SUVnear industrialist MukeshAmbani’s residence in southMumbai on February 25, willremain in the custody of NIAtill March 25.
The ATS’ confirmationabout Vaze’s alleged involve-
ment came two days after theATS arrested Shinde and Gore.
It may be recalled thatHiran’s body was recoveredfrom the marshy Reti-Bundercreek Mumbra in the neigh-bouring Thane district onMarch 5.
Shinde is a dismissedpoliceman, who has been con-victed in the case involving thefake encounter of RamnarayanGupta alias Lakhan Bhaiya.Bhaiya was killed in a fakeencounter on November 11,2006. In 2013, a Mumbai ses-sions court had awarded lifesentences to 21 people, includ-ing 13 Mumbai Police person-nel, convicted in the case.
Shinde has been on parole.The investigations by the ATShave revealed that Shinde wasin regular touch with Vazeand helped the latter in hisactivities.
Among other things, theATS Additional DGP admittedthat the accused had eithertried to destroy evidence or dis-pose off mobile phones, SIMcards and CCTV footages relat-ing to the case.
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The Supreme Court will onWednesday hear the plea by
Mumbai’s former PoliceCommissioner Param BirSingh seeking direction forimmediate “impartial and fair”CBI probe into alleged corruptmalpractices of MaharashtraHome Minister AnilDeshmukh.
As per the Wednesday’scause list uploaded on the apexcourt website, the petitionwould come up for hearingbefore a bench comprisingJustices SK Kaul and RS Reddy.
Singh, a 1988 batch IPSofficer, has also sought quash-ing of the Government ordertransferring him from the postof Mumbai Commissioner ofPolice alleging it to be “arbi-trary” and “illegal”.
As an interim relief, he hassought stay of the operation ofhis transfer order and directionto State Government, theCentre and CBI to immediately take in its custodythe CCTV footage from the residence ofDeshmukh.
In a major relief to borrowers,the Supreme Court on
Tuesday directed that no com-pound or penal interest becharged for the six-monthmoratorium announced lastyear amid the Covid-19 pan-demic and the amount alreadyrecovered is to be refunded oradjusted in the next instalmentof loan account.
While refusing to extendthe period of moratorium, theapex court said there is “no jus-tification” to charge interest oninterest or compound interestfor the period during the moratorium once the pay-ment of instalment is deferredby last year’s March 27 notification.
The Reserve Bank of India(RBI) had on March 27, 2020issued the circular allowinglending institutions to grant amoratorium on payment of
instalments of term loansfalling due between March 1and May 31 of last year due tothe pandemic. The moratoriumwas extended by three monthstill August 31.
The top court delivered theverdict on a batch of petitionsseeking reliefs, including exten-sion of loan moratorium, com-plete waiver of interest or inter-est on interest during the mora-torium period and sector wiserelief packages.
“However, it is directedthat there shall not be anycharge of interest on inter-est/compound interest/penalinterest for the period duringthe moratorium and anyamount already recoveredunder the same head, namely,interest on interest/penal inter-est/compound interest shall berefunded to the concernedborrowers and to be givencredit/adjusted in the nextinstalment of the loan account,”
a bench headed by JusticeAshok Bhushan said in its 148-page judgment.
The apex court bench, alsocomprising Justices RS Reddyand MR Shah, noted that by anotification dated March 27 lastyear, the Government has pro-vided deferment of instalmentsdue and payable during themoratorium period.
“Once the payment ofinstalment is deferred as percircular dated March 27, 2020,non-payment of the instal-ment during the moratoriumperiod cannot be said to bewillful and therefore there is nojustification to charge the inter-est on interest/compoundinterest/penal interest for theperiod during the moratorium,”the bench said.
“Interim relief granted ear-lier not to declare the accountsof respective borrowers as NPAstands vacated,” the apex court said.
Directorate General of CivilAviation (DGCA) has extend-ed suspension of scheduledinternational commercial pas-senger flights till April 30.
“However, internationalscheduled flights may beallowed onselected routesby the compe-tent authorityon a case-to-case basis,” theDGCA added.
Scheduledinternationalpassenger ser-vices have beensuspended inIndia since March 23, 2020, dueto the Covid-19 pandemic. Butspecial international flightshave been operating under the
Vande Bharat Mission sinceMay and under bilateral “airbubble” arrangements withselected countries since July.
India has formed air bub-ble pacts with 27 countries,including the US, the UK, theUAE, Kenya, Bhutan andFrance. Under an air bubblepact between two countries,special international flights can
be operat-ed by theira i r l i n e sb e t w e e ntheir terri-tories.
T h eD G C Ac i r c u l a ralso saidthat thes u s p e n -
sion does not affect the oper-ation of international all-cargooperations and flights specifi-cally approved by it.
Five police personnel werekilled and 13 others injured
as Maoists blew up a bus inwhich they were travelling inChhattisgarh’s Narayanpur dis-trict on Tuesday, police officialssaid.
The landmine explosiontook place between
Kanhargaon and Kadenar vil-lages in the Dhaudai police sta-tion limits.
Personnel from the DistrictReserve Guard (DRG) werereturning in the bus toNarayanpur town, 300 km awayfrom Raipur, after a counter-insurgency operation, InspectorGeneral of Police (Bastar range)Sundarraj P said.
“Five DRG personnel,
including the driver, werekilled,” he said.
On Monday, a joint team ofsecurity forces fromNarayanpur and neighbour-ing Dantewada district hadlaunched the anti-Maoist oper-ation along the inter-districtborder.
Around 3 pm on Tuesday,forces belonging to Narayanpurreturned to Kademeta camp in
the district following whichthose belonging to DRG fromthe district headquarters left inthe bus, Sundarraj said.
Around 4.15 pm, theMaoists triggered three IED(improvised explosive device)blasts targeting the bus, whichhad around 25 personnel, neara culvert.
In the impact, the bus fellinto the culvert, he said.
Eighty-one per cent of thelatest 401 samples sent by
Punjab for genome sequencinghave been tested positive for thenew UK Covid-19 variant.Alarmed, the Chief MinisterCapt Amarinder Singh onTuesday urged the PrimeMinister Narendra Modi towiden the vaccination ambit tocover those younger than 60 as“the mutant has been found tobe infecting young peoplemore”.
At the same time, the ChiefMinister has also appealed tothe people to get themselvesvaccinated and strictly adhereto the Covid safety protocols.
Expressing concern overthe emerging situation, theChief Minister stressed theneed for the CentralGovernment to urgently openup the vaccination for a biggersection of the populace. “Theprocess needs to be expedited,”he said, pointing to the fact thatexperts had found the existingCovishield vaccine to be equal-ly effective against the UKvariant - B.1.1.7.
“It is essential to vaccinatemore and more people to breakthe chain of transmission,” headded.
Capt Amarinder also urgedthe people to strictly adhere toall Covid safety protocols,including wearing of masks andmaintaining social distancing.The State Government, whichhas already announced freshrestrictions, would be forced toimpose more curbs if the peo-ple do not follow the COVIDappropriate behaviour, hewarned.
The appeal from the ChiefMinister came after the state’sCOVID expert committeehead, Dr KK Talwar, apprisedhim of the developments on thenew variant in the State, whichhas been witnessing a surge inthe number of COVID-19 pos-itive cases during the last fewweeks.
The state HealthDepartment had sent a total of478 Covid positive samples toNational Institute of Biologicals(NIB), Institute of Genomicsand Integrative Biology (IGIB),and National Centre forDisease Control (NCDC) forgenome sequencing, of whichresults of 90 samples werereceived and those showedonly two samples for N440Kvariant.
Subsequently, a team fromthe Union Ministry of Healthand Family Welfare visited theState to review the increase inpositivity. The team wasinformed about the pendingresults of genome sequencing.Thereafter, 401 more samples,collected between January 1,2021, and March 10, 2021,were sent to NCDC for genomesequencing.
The result of these sampleswas worrying as it showedpresence of B.1.1.7 variant in326 COVID samples, said DrTalwar.
The Chief Minister saidthat he had been informed byDr Talwar that though this UKvariant B.1.1.7 is more infec-tious yet not more virulent.Further, the Oxford(Covishield) vaccine is equal-ly effective against this new UKvariant.
It is noteworthy that theB.1.1.7 variant is now spread-ing rapidly in many parts of theworld, representing 98 per-cent of the new cases in UKand 90 percent in Spain. UKauthorities have suggested it isup to 70 percent more trans-missible than the original virus.
CAPT REITERATES SUG-GESTION TO PRIORITIZECRITICAL PROFESSIONSFOR VACCINEHours after the Centreannounced to cover above 45years citizens from April 1,Punjab Chief Minister thankedthe Prime Minister NarendraModi for responding to hisrequest of widening the vacci-nation coverage. However, atthe same time, the ChiefMinister once again urged theCentre to accept his suggestionto prioritize the critical pro-fessions like teachers, judges,lawyers, bus drivers, conduc-tors, among others. “Thank you @narendramodi jifor responding to our request& opening #COVID-19 vac-cine to >45. I urge the Centreto also accept our suggestion toprioritise critical professions vizteachers, judges, lawyers, busdrivers, conductors etc as theycome in extensive public con-tact,” tweeted the ChiefMinister.
Notably, ramping up thenationwide inoculation drive ata time COVID cases havesurged in several states, includ-ing Punjab, the CentralGovernment on Tuesdayannounced that the people,who are 45 and older, can bevaccinated from April 1. Thedecision to expand the vacci-nation drive that started inJanuary, was taken by theUnion Cabinet. As of now,only the citizens who are above60 and those over 45 withother illnesses are allowed toget vaccination.
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Punjab’s seven districts have73 per cent of the state’s
total active cases. In fact, thesedistricts — Ludhiana,Jalandhar, Patiala, SAS Nagar(Mohali), Amritsar,Hoshiarpur, and Kapurthala —are currently account for 65per cent of the State’s totalCovid-19 confirmed positivecases and and 66 per cent ofthe state’s total fatalities.
In fact, 77.18 per cent ofthe total 2274 fresh cases ofthe novel coronavirus reg-istred in the State on Tuesdaywere reported from theseseven districts, besidesaccounting for 73.59 per centof the State’s total 53 fatalitiesreported in the past 24 hours.Total 39 deaths were reported
from the seven districts.The Punjab Government
have already initiated steps —including imposing night cur-few from 9 pm to 5 am,restricting gatherings, limitingcapacities in malls or cinemahalls, closing down all educa-tional institutions, among oth-ers — to check the furtherspread of the contagion inthese worst affected districts.
Displaying an upward tra-jectory in the daily newCOVID-19 cases since thestart of March, Punjab isamong the top COVID-hitstates which are accounting for80 percent of the daily cases inthe country, accounting for 75percent of country’s total activecases, besides accounting for80% of India’s daily deaths.
As per the media bulletin,Punjab on Tuesday registred
the positivity rate of 7.49 per-cent, and the case fatality rateof 2.96 percent, against therecovery rate of 88.13 percent.
Of the Tuesday casualties,whopping 14 were reportedfrom Jalandhar; followed bynine from Hoshiarpur; sixfrom Patiala; four each fromLudhiana and Nawanshahr;three each from Amritsar,Moga, and Mohali; two eachfrom Gurdaspur and Ropar;and one from Sangrur.
Among fresh cases,Ludhiana reported highest 364fresh cases including two cops,nine teachers, and three stu-dents. Jalandhar with 322 isclosely following, besides 263fresh infections from Mohali,246 from Amritsar, 220 fromPatiala, 192 from Hoshiarpur,148 from Kapurthala, 111 fromGurdaspur, 83 from Bathinda,
68 from Nawanshahr, 59 fromTarn Taran, 35 from Ropar, 29from Ferozepur, 21 fromMoga, 20 from Faridkot, 17each from Fatehgarh Sahiband Pathankot, 16 fromSangrur, 12 each from Muktsarand Fazilka, 11 from Mansa,and eight from Barnala.
With an increase in posi-
tive cases, the state’s activecases have also reached closeto 20,000 mark. Accounting for8.91 percent of the total case-load, the number of activecases in Punjab stood at19,403. Of them, 268 patientsare on oxygen support, while29 are critical and on ventila-tor support.
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A52-year-old woman, resi-dent of Dhanas died from
coronavirus in Chandigarh onTuesday as 214 fresh casespushed the infection count to24,881 in the joint capital ofPunjab and Haryana.According to a health bulletin,the number of people whodied from the infection in theunion territory has reached364. The number of activecases rose to 2066 on Tuesday,the bulletin said. A total of 126patients were discharged afterthey recovered from the infec-tion, taking the number ofcured persons to 22,451, it said.So far, 2,96,079 samples have
been taken for testing.Meanwhile, in view of the
surge of active cases of Covid-19, the DM, Chandigarh,Mandip Singh Brar saidrestrictions have been imposedin the city and the maximumnumber for indoor gatheringwill be 100 or 50 per cent of thecapacity of the venue whichev-er is lower. For outdoor activ-ity, the maximum number willbe 200 or 50 per cent of thecapacity of the venue.
4 DEATHS, 157 FRESHCASES IN HIMACHAL
Himachal Pradesh onTuesday reported 157 freshCOVID-19 cases and fourdeaths. “The death toll
reached 1012 while the totalcase tally crossed 61000-markand stood at 61035 in thestate,” stated Himachal’sevening health bulletin. In thelast 24 hours, two deaths eachwere reported in Kangra andUna.
There were 1455 activecases in the state till theevening. Of the 157 freshcases, a maximum of 57 werereported in Una followed by 27in Hamirpur. So far, 58550people have recovered fromthe virus in the state. 83 peo-ple have recovered in the last24 hours, it said. So far, over12.11 lakh COVID-19 testshave been conducted in thestate, the bulletin added.
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Three more persons suc-cumbed to Covid-19 as
895 fresh Covid-19 cases werereported in Haryana onTuesday.
With this, the state’s case-load surged to 281588 whilethe death toll stood at 3104 inHaryana. One death each wasreported in Karnal,Kurukshetra andYamunanagar due to Covid-19, the state’s HealthDepartment’s bulletin stated.
As per the health bul-letin, a maximum of 188 freshcases were reported fromGurugram followed by 139 inKarnal. There were 6149 activecases in the state till theevening.
441 people recovered fromthe virus in the last 24 hourstaking the total recoveries inthe state to 272335. Out of 106critical patients admitted inthe hospitals, 87 patients wereon oxygen support while 19were on ventilator, the healthbulletin said.The fatality ratewas recorded at 1.10 percentin Haryana. The COVID pos-itive rate was 4.64 per cent andrecovery rate was recorded at96.71 percent.As many as60.88 lakh samples have beentested till date in Haryana, thebulletin added.Meanwhile,Education Minister KanwarPal on Tuesday said that theCOVID-19 situation is undercontrol and the schools andcolleges will remain open inthe state.
Facing criticism from animalactivists over a major lacu-
na in Haryana GauvanshSanrakshan andG a u s a m v a r d h a n(Amendment) Act 2019,Haryana Gau Seva Aayog hassought legal opinion fromAnimal Husbandry andDairying Department forremoving the clause of allow-ing beef and beef products formedicinal purposes in the state.
Under the HaryanaGauvansh Sanrakshan andGausamvardhan Act, cow
slaughter is banned in the statebut beef and beef products canbe sold for medicinal purpos-es. Despite the fact that there isno evidence that beef and beefproducts have any medicinalvalue, Section 8 of the Actstates, “No person shall direct-ly or indirectly sell, keep, store,transport or offer for sale orcause to be sold beef or beefproducts except for such med-icinal purposes and in suchform as may be prescribed.”
The animal rights activistshave time and again raisedobjections over this provisionin the law and demanded thissection to be scrapped express-
ing concern over its misuse.Considering the demand,
the Haryana Gau Seva Aayog,Secretary has now written a let-ter to the Director General,Animal Husbandry andDairying Department seekinglegal advice and necessaryaction on the issue.
The letter stated, “Legaladvice and necessary actionshould be taken into thedemand of amendment in theexisting legislation omittingcow slaughtering on medicalgrounds, carry and consump-tion of beef products as diet onmedicinal grounds and repeal-ing the Haryana Prohibition of
Cow Slaughter Rules, 1972.”The issue was earlier raised
by Naresh Kadyan, ChiefNational Commissioner,National Authority for AnimalWelfare and animal rightsactivist. Kadyan while talkingto The Pioneer said that LalaLajpat Rai University ofVeterinary and AnimalSciences has confirmed thatbeef has no medicinal valuethen why cow slaughtering formedical purpose is beingallowed under Section 8 of theHaryana Gauvansh Sanrakshanand Gausamvardhan Act.
“Since the HaryanaProhibition of Cow Slaughter
Rules, 1972 adopted by theState Government also containsthe provisions of cow slaugh-ter for medicinal purposes andobtaining permission for thesame, the rules need to bescrapped,” Kadyan said.
“Not only in Haryana, cowslaughtering or consumption ofbeef products is allowed onmedicinal grounds in Punjab,Himachal, and Uttar Pradeshunder their respective lawsbanning beef and beef prod-ucts. Even as cow slaughteringis a sensitive issue, the StateGovernments have failed toremove this major lacuna intheir respective laws,” he added.
Notably, the BJP ledHaryana was among the firststates in the country to enactthe Gauvansh Sanrakshan andGausamvardhan Act in 2015,imposing a stricter ban on cowslaughter apart from curtailingsmuggling of cows outside thestate. It provides for a rigorousimprisonment ranging fromthree years to ten years for cowslaughter and provides for a finefrom Rs 30,000 to Rs one lakh.Later, the state had created“Haryana Gau Seva Aayog” forproper implementation of lawswith respect to prohibition ofslaughter and to work for thewelfare of innocuous cows.
Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattarand his Punjab counterpart Capt
Amarinder Singh on Tuesday paid homage tofreedom fighters Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev andRajguru and said their sacrifice will continue toinspire generations.
It was on this day that Bhagat Singh,Sukhdev and Rajguru were executed by theBritish government. March 23 is observed as‘’Shaheed Diwas’’ to pay tribute to the trio whowere hanged for killing British police officer JP Saunders. The trio wanted to avenge the deathof Lala Lajpat Rai, a great freedom fighter.
Khattar said the country will always remainindebted to these great freedom fighters for theirsupreme sacrifice for the nation’s sake. Theirsacrifice would remain a source of inspirationfor the coming generations, he said.
Paying his tributes, Capt Amarinder in atweet said, "Their unparalleled courage, whenthey gladly embraced death in the cause of India’sfreedom, will continue to inspire generations."
Khattar said the nation will always be grate-ful to these bravehearts who embraced gallowson March 23, 1931, to liberate the country fromthe British rule.
"The sacrifice of these great freedomfighters will remain an inspiration for every gen-eration of the country," the Haryana chief min-ister said in his address from Chandigarh dur-ing a webinar organised in Karnal. BhagatSingh’s nephew Abhay Singh Sandhu, Rajguru’snephew Satyasheel Rajguru and Sukhdev’sgrandson Anuj Thapar graced the occasion inthe programme held at Karnal district.
Haryana Govt has launched tatkalappointment service for the reg-
istration of land deeds across thestate.Additional Chief Secretary andFinancial Commissioner Revenue,Sanjeev Kaushal on Tuesday said aprovision had been made to enable anapplicant to book deed registrationappointment on a tatkal basis for get-ting the deed registered on an urgentbasis.
Those wanting to make use of thisservice can book tatkal appointmentsonline for getting the deed registeredby paying tatkal fee of �25,000 in theform of e-challan. Such an appoint-ment can be booked only on the dayof registration from 8.00 am onwards,he said.
In each tehsil, 10 appointmentslots have been reserved for tatkal ser-vice in addition to the 100 normalappointment slots, Kaushal added.
For making a tatkal appoint-ment, an applicant can visitegrashry.nic.in portal and click on thelink; pay tatkal appointment servicecharges. After this, details asked by thesystem should be entered to generatethe e-challan by paying �25,000online using net banking, debit cardetc. The portal will ask the type ofappointment i.e. normal or tatkal,choose tatkal and enter details of thee-challan, he added. On successfulbooking of the appointment, theapplicant will get SMS on the mobile.
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Punjab Government on Tuesday direct-ed the management of private schools
not to impose books, published by privatepublishers, on the students studying intheir schools. Instead, they have beenasked to recommend the books “only pub-lished by the certified institutes”.
The Director Education (SecondaryEducation) has issued letters to the man-agements of all private schools, affiliatedto the CBSE, ICSE, and Punjab SchoolEducation Board, with an aim to protectthe interests of the students, said aspokesperson of the Punjab SchoolEducation Department.
The spokesperson said that the man-agements of some of the private schoolsare imposing the books published by pri-vate publishers to the students studyingin their schools and the students are beingasked to buy these books and uniformsfrom “special shops”.
“Students and their parents have tobuy these books at exorbitant prices,”pointed the spokesperson.
“In view of the complaints received inthis regard, the Education Department hasissued instructions to the managementsof private schools not to directly or indi-rectly force the students and their parentsto purchase books and uniforms from spe-cial shops or firms. In case of doing so,the accreditation or no-objection certifi-cate of the guilty schools will be revoked,”said the spokesperson.
elections in the state, the officeof Punjab’s Chief ElectoralOfficer on Tuesday initiated adrive for continuous updationof voter list in view of 2022polls.
As per the existing policyof the Election Commission ofIndia (ECI), revision of elec-toral rolls with reference toJanuary 1 of the coming year asthe qualifying date is done inthe later part of each year in allStates or UTs (normally in thelast quarter of a year) so thatfinal publication of the electoralrolls could be made in the firstweek of January of the suc-ceeding year. “However, sinceassembly elections are going tobe held in the state of Punjabearly next year, the thrust is oncarrying out updation on acontinuous basis,” said thePunjab Chief Electoral Officer(CEO) Dr S Karuna Raju.
Under Systematic Voters
Education and ElectoralParticipation (SVEEP), a com-prehensive campaign is beingchalked out utilizing outreachprogramme, mass-media, andsocial media to make peopleaware of the campaign.
Dr Raju said that an accu-rate and error-free voter list isthe most important prerequi-site for a free and fair election.He appealed to the voters ofPunjab and the election offi-cials to ensure 100 percentregistration of the eligible cit-izens.
Talking about the cam-paign, the state’s AdditionalCEO Madhvi Kataria said:“Special campaigns are plannedto ensure 100 percent registra-tion of eligible voters, besidestaking appropriate steps forimproving the health of thevoter list.” Keeping the pan-demic situation in view, a mas-sive awareness campaign isbeing carried out with a thruston technology and focusing ondigital media, she said.
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To ensure that there is nodelay in payments to be
made to the farmers during theupcoming Rabi Season 2021-22commencing from April 1,Haryana Government hasdecided to pay nine percentinterest to the farmers if theirpayments are delayed.
“About 9 per cent interest(bank rate plus one percent)would be paid to the farmers iftheir payments are delayed.The payments would be madedirectly into the verifiedaccounts of farmers,” the ChiefMinister said while presidingover a review meeting of offi-cers engaged in the upcomingprocurement season held here.Deputy Chief MinisterDushyant Chautala was alsopresent in the meeting.
Manohar Lal said,“Farmers must receive pay-ment of their procured producewithin a stipulated time peri-od. Any delay in paymentwould not be tolerated.Responsibilities should be fixedto ensure that farmers aretimely paid.”
During the meeting, theChief Minister also reviewedthe arrangements being madefor the smooth procurement of
crops and directed the con-cerned departments and pro-curement agencies to ensurethat farmers do not face anyinconvenience while sellingtheir produce in different man-dis across the state.
“Hassle-free and time-bound procurement should beensured by making advancescheduling plans so that farm-ers do not face any problems”he directed. The Chief Ministersaid that in view of the suddensurge in COVID-19 cases, likelast year, the required numberof procurement centres shouldalso be increased ensuring has-sle free procurement.Procurement of wheat andmustard would commence inApril 1 while procurement ofother crops would commenceon April 10. Timely identifica-tion of places required for set-ting up these procurementcentres should be done at theearliest, he directed.
Manohar Lal while givingdirections regarding strength-ening of Mandi system said thatalong with making timelyarrangements for availability oflabourers in the Mandis, ade-quate number of weighingscales, gunny bags, sewingmachines, etc should also beensured.
Shimla:Himachal CM Jai RamThkaur on Tuesday directedthat the tariff of hotels underHimachal Pradesh TourismDevelopment Corporation(HPTDC) must be reviewedand revised by keeping an eyeon the tariff of the other hotelssituated in the vicinity.
“HPTDC must adopt aproactive approach and thinkout of box to ensure that all itsunits become profit makingventures,” the Chief Ministersaid while presiding over themeeting of Board of Directorsof HPTDC.
The Corporation hasearned revenue of Rs 35.56crore and incurred an expen-diture of �73.76 crore for the
period from April 1, 2020 toFebruary 28, 2021. This wasdue to Covid-19 pandemicwhich resulted in huge losses tothe tourism industry, he said.Thakur said that theCorporation must also re-engi-neer its menu by introducingnew dishes in its units andremoving unnecessary items.He said that this would help incompeting with other restau-rants in the vicinity. The CMsaid that the officers of theCorporation should studytourism units of other states tobring desired results. Stepsshould also be initiated toincrease occupancy of hotelsupto 50 per cent.
UK, South Africa and Brazilvariants in India has doubled inmerely five days from 400cases on March 18 to 795 tilldate. These three strains areconsidered to be more lethaland spread easily, even takingthe young people in its grip.
Ringing the alarm bell atthe fast spread of the mutat-ed strains, Punjab ChiefMinister Amarinder Singhsaid that 81 per cent of the 401samples sent by the State forgenome sequencing testedpositive for the UK Covidvariant. Presently, as per theCentre’s directions, just fivepercent of all positive Covid-19 samples from each State,five per cent are being testedfor genome sequencing inorder to identify potentialoutbreaks and related strainsas part of continuous surveil-lance.
Expressing concern overthe surging cases, the PunjabChief Minister stressed theneed for the CentralGovernment to urgently openup the vaccination for a big-ger section of the populace.The Union Cabinet has nowdecided to allow vaccinationof those over 45 and above,without any co-morbid con-ditions.
A genomic consortium of10 regional laboratories withthe National Centre forDisease Control (NCDC) asthe apex laboratory has beenestablished to perform genom-ic sequencing of the samplesfrom positive travellers and 5per cent of the positive testsamples from the community.
This comes against thebackdrop of Maharashtra,Punjab and Gujarat reportingan upsurge in Covid-19 cases.Maharashtra accounts for over60 per cent of the daily cases.
In fact, Minister of Statefor Health Ashwini Choubeyhad recently told the RajyaSabha that these three mutat-
ed variants also have thepotential to re-infect peoplewho have been previouslyinfected with SARS-CoV-2.
As of March 10, 2021, atotal of 19,092 RT-PCR posi-tive samples for SARS CoV-2have been received from var-ious states/UTs, in which 4,869samples have been processed.
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President Ram Nath Kovindon Tuesday said the Covid-
19 pandemic underlined theimportance of a quality health-care system accessible to everyindividual.
He said the year 2020 wasa watershed moment for health-care in India as well as aroundthe world.
In his message on the eve ofWorld Tuberculosis Day, whichis observed every year on March24, Kovind said that the entireNational TB EliminationProgram was at the forefront infight against COVID-19.
"Their commitmenttowards tackling the COVIDpandemic while continuingwith TB elimination efforts is
commendable. TheGovernment of India is com-mitted to achieving the goal ofUniversal Health Coverage asper the United NationsSustainable DevelopmentGoals," he said.
This is being implementedunder the aegis of AyushmanBharat Pradhan Mantri JanArogya Yojana, which is thelargest national health insurancescheme in the world, the pres-ident said.
"The year 2020 was a water-shed moment for healthcare inIndia as well as around theworld. The COVID-19 pan-demic underlined the impor-tance of a quality healthcare sys-tem accessible to every indi-vidual," Kovind said.
The president said he is
happy to learn that WorldTuberculosis Day is beingobserved on March 24 to raisepublic awareness about TB.
"On this day in the year1882, Dr.Robert Kochannounced the discovery ofthe bacteria that causes TB. Itpaved the way for diagnosis andcure of this deadly disease,"Kovind was quoted as saying ina statement issued by theRashtrapati Bhavan.
"I would like to complimentthe National TB EliminationProgram on their commendableachievements despite the diffi-cult circumstances. On thisoccasion, we should reinvigorateour efforts to achieve 'Health
for All', and create a brighterand healthier future for gener-ations to come," he said.
and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)raised a din in the Rajya Sabhaon Tuesday protesting againsta Bill that proposes to givemore power to the LieutenantGovernor (L-G) of Delhi.
For its part, the BJPdemanded the dismissal ofMaharashtra Home MinisterAnil Deshmukh and sought toraise alleged charges of cor-ruption against him. However,their demand was turned downby Chairman M VenkaiahNaidu.
The House witnessedrepeated adjournments as theCongress and AAP membersprotested against the‘Government of NationalCapital Territory ofDelhi(Amendment) Bill 2021’.
The uproar started whenDeputy Chairman Harivanshasked Minister of State forHome Affairs G Kishan Reddyto move a motion for the con-sideration of the Governmentof National Capital Territory ofDelhi (Amendment) Bill 2021.
Sanjay Singh (AAP)protested against allowing themotion, saying his notice hasbeen pending in the House.The Deputy Chairman assuredthe AAP member that hisnotice would be consideredafter the motion is moved, butSingh called it “unconstitu-tional.”
Leader of OppositionMallikarjun Kharge said theBill is dangerous and it willgrab rights of the electedGovernment of Delhi anddestroy democracy. He allegedthat the Government wantsthe L-G as government and theelected dispensation as his ser-vant.
The deputy chairmanadjourned the House till 5.24PM. As the House reassembled,the protest by oppositionmembers continued, prompt-ing the chair to adjourn theHouse for a second time till5.40 PM.
The Government ofNational Capital Territory ofDelhi (Amendment)
Bill, 2021, which waspassed in the Lok Sabha onMonday, seeks to make it clearthat the “government” in Delhimeans the “LieutenantGovernor.” The Bill also makesit mandatory for the Delhigovernment to take the opin-ion of the L-G before any exec-utive action. The AAP is inpower in Delhi.
Earlier, the AAPapproached all opposition par-ties requesting them to opposethe Bill in the Rajya Sabha.Party sources said most of theopposition parties support the
AAP’s stand against the bill andwill be raising their voiceagainst it.
As for the BJP demandingthe dismissal of Deshmukh itlead to an uproar in the Housefor a while.
Trouble started towardsthe end of the morning Sessionwhen BJP MP Sushil KumarModi said he had given a ZeroHour mention seekingDeshmukh’s dismissal. Thisled to noisy scenes in theHouse with members from theopposition benches objectingto it.
Sabha that deposit thresholdlimit raised to �5 lakh perannum in provident fund forwhich interest would continueto be tax exempt.
This would be applicableto those cases where no con-tribution is made by employ-ers to the retirement fund. Inher Budget presented toParliament on February 1,Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman had provided thatinterest on employee contri-butions to provident fund over�2.5 lakh per annum would betaxed from April 1, 2021.
Replying to the debate onthe Finance Bill 2021 in theLok Sabha, Sitharaman madethe announcement regardingraising the limit to �5 lakh incases where employers do notmake contributions to theprovident fund. The FinanceBill, which gives effect to taxproposals for 2021-22, wasapproved by voice vote. TheBill was passed after acceptanceof 127 amendments to theproposed legislation.
Finance Minister alsostressed that tax on interest onprovident fund contributionaffects only 1 per cent of thecontributors, and the remain-ing are not impacted as their
contribution is less than �2.5lakh per annum. Referring tothe issues raised by variousmembers on higher taxes onmotor fuel, Sitharaman saidshe would love to discuss theissue of bringing petrol anddiesel under GST in the nextGST Council meeting. Shealso sought to remind mem-bers that it was not just theCentre which taxes motor fueland States too impose levies.
The Finance Minister alsosaid rationalisation of customsduty structure will be under-taken to help domestic busi-nesses, especially the MSMEsegment. On taxes, she empha-sised on the need for wideningthe tax base. With regards tothe equalisation levy, she saidthis is meant to provide a levelplaying field to domestic busi-nesses which pay taxes inIndia.
In the debate, entire oppo-sition MPs said high prices ofdiesel, petrol and LPG arehurting the common manacross the country and askedthe Government to reducethem. Supriya Sule (NCP) saidexcise component in the pricesof petrol is close to �38 per litrewhile state value-added tax
(VAT) is about �19 per litre inDelhi. The Government shouldconsider slashing this highexcise duty, she said.
She urged the Government tobring down prices of petrol,
diesel and LPG cylinder. Sulealso raised concern over thepace of disinvestment and pri-vatisation of profit-makingpublic sector entities (PSEs).
Ritesh Pandey (BSP) tooraised the issue of high prices
of petrol and diesel “burning ahole in pocket of the poor”.“The government is imposing48 per cent as excise... And therising prices of petrol anddiesel are hurting the poor verybadly,” he said.
“Selling of PSUs and their pri-vatisation will impact reser-
vation policy for Dalits as pri-vate companies will not followreservation policy. Privatisationis going to have a long termimpact on poor and Dalits ofthe country,” he added.Equalisation tax is going tomake digital payment costlyand the government shouldrethink about this, Pandeysaid.
Nama Nageswara Rao (TRS)too demanded that petrol
and diesel prices be reduced.Rao also urged the governmentto consider lowering theimport duty on cotton. Thegovernment raised the importduty on cotton from 10 percent to 15 per cent in theBudget 2021-22.
As the farmers continue theirprotests and a resumption
of talks with them seems uncer-tain in near future, theGovernment on Tuesday onceagain defended the three farmlaws saying that new farm lawsare intended to facilitate directbuying from farmers in tradearea by traders, processors,exporters, Farmer ProducerOrganizations (FPOs), agricul-ture co-operative Societies so as
to facilitate farmers to get bet-ter price. The government saidthat the new farm laws also pro-vide farmers with cost effective,easy time bound dispute reso-lution system at local level withprovision of penalty againsttraders for contravention ofany provision to protect thefarmers including small andmarginal farmers.
“The farm laws will accel-erate more investment in mar-keting and value addition infra-structure including that in stor-
age facilities near to farm gatecreating more employmentopportunities for rural youth,”Union Agriculture MinisterNarendra Singh Tomar said ina reply to the Lok Sabha onTuesday.
The minister said that farmlaws provide additional mar-keting opportunities to farmersfor selling their produce outsidethe Agricultural ProduceMarket Committee (APMC)market yards such as at farm-gates, cold storages, warehouse,
silos, etc. to help farmers to selltheir produce to direct buyerswithout depending on middle-men thus reducing cost of mar-keting and improving theirgain.
The new farm laws alsoprovide farmers with a cost-effective, easy time bound dis-pute resolution system at locallevel with provision of penaltyagainst traders for contraventionof any provision to protect thefarmers including small andmarginal farmers.
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Despite facing odds like ten-sion at the borders,
cyclones and earthquakes dur-ing the coronavirus pandemic,India emerged stronger and theentire world realised its poten-tial, Prime Minister NarendraModi told BJP MPs onTuesday.
Addressing the BJP parlia-mentary party meeting, Modisaid he relished all these chal-lenges during the pandemicand the country also over-came them.
“Sharing his experiences ofthe pandemic, Modi told MPsthat during the period, thecountry was not only facing thechallenge of the virus, but onothers fronts as well. Therewere tensions on the LAC,cyclones, earthquakes and thenthere was locust swarm attackbut despite all these odds, Indiaemerged stronger and theentire world realised its poten-tial,” said Union minister Arjun
Ram Meghwal briefing aboutthe meeting.
Meghwal said the primeminister also mentioned that hehas been holding public officefor more than two decades, firstas the chief minister of a stateand now as the prime minister,and he has never taken a dayoff.
Besides Modi, FinanceMinister Nirmala Sitharamanand External Affairs Minister SJaishankar also addressed theBJP parliamentary party meet-ing.
Jaishankar asserted thatIndia’s stature rose in the worldduring the pandemic becauseof its medical diplomacy ofproviding antibiotics and test-ing kits to other nations earli-er and for its vaccine diploma-cy later, Meghwal said.
The external affairs minis-ter also shared details of theCentre’s Vande Bharat missionof bringing back strandedIndians from abroad, Meghwalsaid.
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The Government is plan-ning to launch ‘Poshan
Abhiyan’ to provide nutrition-al support to the indigent elder-ly population not staying in oldage homes and are victims ofsevere malnutrition, theMinistry of Social Justice andEmpowerment said on Tuesday.
Minister of State for SocialJustice and EmpowermentRattan Lal Kataria in a writtenreply said in the Lok Sabha thatthe scheme will focus onprocuring locally availablehealthy food material and serv-ing mid-day meals to the elder-ly.
“The gram panchayats and
urban municipalities are theimplementing agencies of thescheme. The funding for thescheme is from the SeniorCitizens Welfare Fund,” headded. Malnutrition is a con-dition where a person is defi-cient in nutrients, such as pro-tein, vitamins and minerals, ornot getting enough calories.This has many effects on healthand body function, includingincreased frailty, delayed woundhealing, and higher mortality.
Experts, however, say thatimproving nutrition alonemight not be the only answer tomalnutrition. “Old people mayneed better fitting dentures tohelp them eat and drink or foodshould be easy to chew andswallow.
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In a determined push to attainself-reliance in defence man-
ufacturing, the DefenceResearch and DevelopmentOrganisation(DRDO) in thelast three years has undertak-en 79 projects worth over �8,201 crores. These weaponsystems include cruise mis-siles, anti-ship missile, ammu-nition, radars and torpedoesbesides others.
These indigenouslydesigned and developed state-of-the art systems will beinducted into the three armedforces in the next three years,the Government informedParliament.
Giving details, minister ofstate for defence Sripad Naiksaid in a written reply in theRajya Sabha on Monday, dur-ing the past three years, 79 pro-jects amounting to �8,201crores directly pertaining todevelopment of new defenceequipments were undertaken.
These systems includedCruise Missile, Anti-ShipMissile, Surface-to-Air Missile,Air-to-Air Missile, ExtendedRange Anti-Submarine Rocket,Mounted Gun System,Ammunitions, ElectronicWarfare System, Radars,Torpedoes and HighEndurance AutonomousUnderwater Vehicle.
Some of the DRDO devel-oped systems which are like-ly to be available to defenceforces during 2021-23 areAstra missile, anti-drone sys-tem, SATCOM devices, sur-face to air missile, guidedbombs and NAG anti-tankmissile,
Many DRDO developedtechnologies such as BattleField Surveillance Rader(BFSR), Joint VentureProtective Carbine (JVPC)Jammers, 5.56 mm Rifle, 40mm Under Barrel GrenadeLauncher (UBRL)and OleoResin (OR) Grenade are beingutilized by the state police.
Moreover, the DRDO car-ried out upgrades including
Arjun Mk-1A main battletanks, Akash missile, LightCombat Aircraft(LCA) Mk-1A
Medium Power Radar-Extended Range PINAKA-Extended Range, GuidedElectronics &Communication System,Unified Mission Computerfor SU-30 MKI aircraft,Internal Electronic WarfareSystem for MIG-29 UpgradeAircraft and electronic warfaresystems for warships.
This comes at a time,when India’s imports in thelast nine to ten years droppedby more than 33 per cent.Moreover, Russia, the mainsupplier of arms to India, suf-fered in the process besidesthe US which had emerged asa big supplier of arms to Indiain the last one decade.
Noting these points in itsreport recently, the reputedinternational organizationStockholm InternationalPeace ResearchInstitute(SIPRI) also said thedecline took place due to anattempt by to reduce itsdependence on Russian armsand complex procurementprocesses.
Its arms imports reducedby 33 % between 2011-15 and2016-20, the report said. At pre-sent, more than 70 per cent ofinventory in the Indian armedforces is of erstwhile USSR andRussian origin. Moreover, theUS in the last one decade hadsupplied arms and ammunitionworth over 15 billion dollars.
granting reservation quota toMarathas and its decision isConstitutional as the 102ndamendment does not denude aState of the power to declare itslist of Socially andEducationally BackwardClasses (SEBC), the Centretold the Supreme Court onTuesday.
The 102nd Constitutionamendment Act of 2018 insert-ed Articles 338B, which dealswith the structure, duties andpowers of the NationalCommission for BackwardClass (NCBC), and 342A deal-ing with power of the Presidentto notify a particular caste asSEBC as also of Parliament tochange the list.
A five-judge Constitutionbench headed by JusticeAshok Bhushan was told bySolicitor General TusharMehta, appearing for theCentre, that in its view theSEBC Act, 2018, ofMaharashtra granting reser-vation to people of theMaratha community in thestate in jobs and admissions isConstitutional.
“The Centre is of the viewthat the Maharashtra SEBCAct is constitutional. We con-strue Article 342A givesenabling role to Central gov-ernment to determine theSEBC,” Mehta said, addingthat the Centre adopts thesubmissions of AttorneyGeneral K K Venugopal and it
should be considered as theview of the UnionGovernment.
On March 18, the AGhad told the top court that the102nd amendment to theConstitution does not deprivestate legislatures to enact lawdetermining the SEBC andconferring benefits on them.
Mehta said that the Article342A inserted by the amend-ment is an enabling provisionand does not denudes theStates of power to declareSEBC.
The bench however askedMehta as to why no notifica-tion of SEBCs has been issuedtill date by the Centre underArticle 342A as the Presidentin consultation with the gov-ernor has to issue the list.
“Will you not make it adead letter by not issuing thenotification for all times tocome? Doesn’t it means thatthere is a blank slate as ofnow?” the bench asked Mehta,to which he replied that theexisting list of SEBC contin-ues.
In that case, the existinglist of SEBC has to be a part ofthe Constitution AmendmentAct itself, the bench said,adding that it is not clear as ofnow as to what will be the cor-rect interpretation of Article342A, and what will be theeffect of not having a list.
Mehta said that all thesequestions will be answeredwhen the top court will con-sider the petition challengingthe validity of 102ndConstitution Amendment.
Controversial former judge,Justice C S Karnan, arrest-
ed in December last year forallegedly making vulgar com-ments against women andremarks against judges, wasgranted bail by the MadrasHigh Court on Tuesday.
As many as 10 cases werepending against the formerjudge of the Madras andCalcutta High Courts.
Accepting the undertakinggiven by Justice Karnan to theeffect that he would not indulgein any such activities, Justice VBharathidasan granted him therelief, that too a conditionalone.
He should furnish twosureties for Rs 50,000 eachand stay in the city, not tamperwith the witnesses and appearbefore the InvestigatingOfficers as and when required.
Any violation of the con-ditions would render the bailorder cancelled, the judge said.
Earlier, the abusive con-tents released in the form ofvideos uploaded in the socialmedia platforms had prompt-ed the Bar Council of TamilNadu and Puducherry, a statu-tory body, to lodge series ofcomplaints against JusticeKarnan
Upon taking cognizance ofthe same, 10 cases had beenregistered so far for offencesunder the IPC and theInformation Technology Act.
His earlier bail petitionswere dismissed by the HighCourt on February 16 thisyear. PTI
Jaipur: Chief Minister AshokGehlot said that late HarisinghMahuva was a leader associat-ed with and his personality andwork was different. He left anindelible mark while holdingvarious posts in the RajasthanLegislative Assembly, includingthe Chief Whip. He was com-mitted to ideas and remaineddedicated to the interests ofevery section of the society, irre-spective of caste and religion.
Gehlot established himselfin a newly constructedSadbhavana Park in KhedlaBujurg village of Dausa districtthrough video conference fromthe Chief Minister's resi-dence on Tuesday.Harisinghwas addressing onthe occasion of the unveiling ofthe statue of Mahuva. He saidthat if any person's statueis installed, then generationsremember the contribution ofthat person towards societyand country. Self With theinstallation of the statue ofHarisingh ji, the new generation
will get an opportunity to knowabout him. He raised his voiceagainst social evils and strivedfor the development of hisregion. Declaration to makeKhedla Dujurg a sub-tehsil
The Chief Minister saidthat in order to sustain his con-tribution in the development ofthe state and the region, he said.Harisingh Ji's ancestralvillage Khedla elderly wasnamed as Sub Tehsil and asports stadium in the villagewas named after him.Announced in the name ofHarisingh Mahuva. He saidthat the state government willnot have any shortage in thedevelopment of Mahuva andsurrounding areas.
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Farooq Abdullah has wornmany hats over the years in
his long political career. OnTuesday he became a 'motiva-tional' speaker and delivered a'fiery' speech on the occasion of40th foundation day of thePanthers Party in Jammu.
His presence on the stagealongside few Congress leadersfrom Jammu also created rip-ples as efforts were being madeto forge a 'united alliance' of likeminded parties to checkmateBharatiya Janta Party (BJP) inits strong bastion.
Dr Abdullah too used theopportunity to his utmostadvantage and went on to warnthe people of Jammu region tostay alert against all the 'divi-sive forces' bent upon creatinga communal divide in the soci-ety to further their politicalagenda.
Dr Farooq further saidthat “India belongs to everyoneirrespective of caste, creed orreligion. However, in presenttimes, Hindus, Muslims andSikhs are being separated.”
Referring to the currentscenario prevailing in Jammuand Kashmir, Dr Abdullahsaid, “Today is the situation that
our children will not getemployment, but employeeswill come from outside. Thenwhere our educated boys andgirls will go for jobs? Will theyget jobs in Haryana, Himachal,or Punjab? Will we go to themountains? What will happenwith the sons/daughters?” hequestioned in indirect referenceto the abrogation of special sta-tus which has opened local jobsin J&K to outsiders.
Without naming BJP, DrFarooq said, “We have seen slo-ganeering on development, butwhere our children will go(for jobs). Without Aadhaarcard, even you will not getration and that (ration) too, hasbeen decreased. How wouldpoor people get the ration?Where do they make suchrules?” Dr Farooq said it was an“attack on self respect” of thelocal residents.
“I have come here to say getunited and fight against thosewho want to create divisionamong us. Our Maharaja HariSingh was farsighted and hisGeneral Zorawar Singhreached upto Tibet to strength-en the erstwhile state whichnow has been divided (into twoUnion Territories),” he said.
“If this State, its unity andreligion have to be saved, wehave to sacrifice for the nation
(India) and for the people ofJ&K. We have to break the wallof hate,” he added.
Without naming any polit-ical party, Dr Abdullahappealed to the people ofJammu region to strengthenthe hands of Panthers Partyleaders.
On the occasion he didn'tspare a few Congress leaderstoo. Pointing fingers towardsthem he bluntly told them topull up their socks and workharder towards consolidatingtheir party's base in the region.
Dr Abdullah delivered thisspeech in the presence of ProfBhim Singh,President of theJammu and Kashmir NationalPanthers Party. He also paidtributes to the national heroesSardar Bhagat Singh, Rajguruand Sukhdev who were hangedon March 23, 1931 by theBritish Govt. in Lahore CentralJail. Last time When Prof BhimSingh sat alongside DrAbdullah during a meeting ofthe constituents of PeoplesAlliance for GupkarDeclaration in Jammu inNovember 2020 Panthers partyleader Dr Harsh Dev Singh hadexpelled its founder Prof BhimSingh from the party. OnTuesday he too was present onthe stage and attended theevent.
Aperson, who was dazed by the discon-nection of the electricity connection,
threw acid on the contract worker of theElectricity Department. A few drops of acidfell on the contractor's face, causing the faceto scorch. A report has been lodged againstthe accused in the case. However, the policeare talking about throwing chemical usedin cleaning of the idol in place ofacid.
Jeetu, son of Bhagwati Prasad, a resi-dent of the Shivdan Nagar, is working oncontract at the Hastapur Power Sub-stationin the Electricity Department. Accordingto Jeetu, he went to pick up the vegetableat the main intersection. Meanwhile, he metPannalal son of Podinaram, a resident ofAsawar.
He started accusing him of power-cut-ting of his house while abusing him. Therewas an argument between the two on this.It is alleged that after this Pannalal broughtacid and threw acid on him, which causedsome damage to victim's face. According tothe police, the case is being investigated andthe accused is being searched. On the otherhand, there is anger among the electricalworkers from the incident.
The ruling CPI(M)-led LDF in Keralasuffered an embarrassment on
Tuesday as a statement given by the primeaccused in the gold smuggling caseSwapna Suresh to the EnforcementDirectorate found its way to the media.This time the statement by SwapnaSuresh features P Sreeramakrishnan, theSpeaker of the Legislative Assembly,who has been dropped by the CPI(M)from the list of candidates for the April6 Assembly election.
Sreeramakrishnan had met the rulerof Sharjah during the latter’s visit toKerala in connection with his businessprojects to set up educational institutionsin the oil-rich kingdom. It was the UAEConsulate at Thiruvananthapuram thatfacilitated the meeting between theSpeaker and ruler. Swapna suresh was theliaison officer at the UAE consulate at Thiruvananthapuram andwas privy to the meeting that was heldin 2018.
She said the Speaker had consulta-tions with the ruler to get land at sub-
sidised rates in Sharjah for his proposededucational empire. Sreeramakrishnanhad plans to invest in educational insti-tutions in many West Asian countries,said Swapna Suresh in her statement tothe Enforcement Directorate.
The prime investigating agency wasin the process of summoningSreeramakrishnan for questioning abouthis role in the reverse hawala transaction.Swapna in her previous statement hadalleged that the Speaker had a role insending US dollars worth one millionfrom Kerala to UAE by hawala route.Sreeramakrishnan had denied all chargesmade by her in the past but he was notavailable for comments about the latestmedia leak about his West Asian businessmission.
Though Swapna had given statementsnaming Sreeramakrishnan andSivasankar ( former principal secretaryto Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan) fortheir roles in hawala transactions and goldsmuggling, she later retracted from theversions and alleged that the ED officialshad coerced and forced her to name ChiefMinister Pinarayi Vijayan as the master
mind behind these activities.
The Crime Branch of Kerala Policehad last week filed a FIR against ED offi-cials for forcing Swapna Suresh to lie tothem in order to tarnish the name of thechief minister. The latest leak came at atime when it looked like the CPI(M)-ledLDF has surged ahead in the race to theApril 6 poll. But the statement by TeekaRam Meena , chief electoral officer, thatthere were thousands of fake names in thevoters’ list in the State as alleged by Leaderof the Opposition Ramesh Chennithalahas shocked the front leaders.Chennithala had charged that there weremore than 4.5 lakh fake names in the vot-ers’ list in the State and he claimed thathe had submitted the documentary evi-dences to the Election Commission ofIndia.
Prof Stanly Sebastian, a maverickpolitician belonging to the BJP, who hasbeen campaigning against the influx ofillegal Bangladeshi immigrants to Keralaalleged that there were 20 lakhBangladeshi and Rohyanga illegal immi-grants in the State.
Going all guns blazing againstMamata Banerjee for run-
ning a Government of “goons,corrupt and extortionists,”Home Minister Amit Shah onTuesday asked the people ofSundarbans to throw the “syn-dicate and tolabaj (extortionist)Government out of power.”
Hitting the TrinamoolCongress where it hurt themost he first dangled carrotspromising a new district andhuge development package forthis tiger-infested delta zone andsecond he offered a probe intothe Amphan scam vowing toput all the culprits behind thebar. The South 24 Parganas, par-ticularly the Sunderbans was thehardest hit by the super-cyclonethat hit the State after a gap ofabout 200 years.
Alleging that “cut money,syndicate and tolabaji (extor-tion) were the benchmarks ofMamata regime the HomeMinister said Banerjee waswarning her chair for nephewand Diamond Harbour MPAbhishek Banerjee. WhilePrime Minister NarendraModi’s aim is to develop Bengal… while he works day and nightto improve the quality of yourlife Mamata Didi’s only aim is tosee the Bhatija (nephew) on theChief Ministerial throne.”
Shah was addressing a hugerally at Gosaba town at themouth of inhospitableSunderbans the world’s largestdelta.
Accusing the BengalGovernment of sitting on amountain of scams he said“while till date the ModiGovernment has launched 115schemes the TMC Governmenthas equal number of scams toits credit,” adding “the Centresent Rs 10,000 crore to help peo-ple hit by Amphan (supercyclone) but all that fund weremisappropriated by the Bhatijaand company.”
He said “after BJP wins theelections a Special InvestigationTeam will be formed to find outthe Amphan scamsters and allthose involved in the scam willbe jailed howsoever big he orshe is.” Elections to the 294Assembly seats will be held ineight phases from March 27 toApril 29. Votes will be countedon May 2.
Alleging that Banerjee wasconcerned only with the welfareof her nephew Shah said theChief Minister was blockingimplementation of centralschemes in the State likeAyushman Bharat and KisanSanman Nidhi.
Attacking the BengalGovernment for allowinguncontrolled infiltration he said“Mamata Banerjee Government
will never stop infiltration as itsuits its vote bank politics. Butonce the BJP Governmentcomes to power we will stopinfiltration … not even a birdwill be allowed to enter out ter-ritory.” The BJP Governmentwould implement the CAA toprovide citizenship to therefugees and identify the infil-trators once it came to power inBengal, he iterated.
Infiltration, border smug-gling and cow-racketingthrough a maze of rivers andinnumerable creeks at themouth of Bay of Bengal andSundrbans have been a majorproblem of this area for years.
Promising an overall devel-opment of this one of the mostbackward regions of the State hesaid once coming to power theBJP Government would notonly make Sundrebans a districtbut also form a Sunderbansdevelopment board with a pack-age of Rs 2 lakh crore.
Shah who took out a mas-sive road show at Midnaporetown later on Tuesday afternoonwill go all out in the final hoursof the first phase campaigningaddressing five rallies on March25, party sources said.
Asking the people not to getoverwhelmed by the TMCgangsters who capture boothsduring the elections he said hisparty was “ready to take on thegoons and syndicates” as “we
have to end this syndicate ruleof the TMC. We will end thisculture… don’t get afraid of thegoons come out and cast yourvote.”An irked Chief Minister hitback mounting personal attackon Shah saying, a “Gabdagobda… Hodol kutkut (Bengali slangfor a fat man) is threatening thepeople of Bengal but the peoplehere will unite and reject them.”
Alleging that the BJP wasplanning to bring in policemen in civil dresses from Statesruled by it to capture booths andrig elections, Banerjee asked thepeople to remain on guardagainst the outsiders.
“The BJP is bringing inpolice men from other states tocapture booths, they are alsoimporting criminals fromneighbouring States … I am toldthat some areas at Ayodhya hillsbordering Jharkhand are stillopen from where the criminalsare coming … we appeal to theElection Commission to seal theborders,” Banerjee told a rally atPara in Purulia district askingthe people to “remain alert andbrave and drive the outsidersout from your areas if they cometo rig elections.”
Attacking Prime MinisterNarendra Modi for peddling liesshe said “the Centre is selling offall the government concerns …only Prime Minister NarendraModi's ‘factory of lies’ willremain.
She said the BJP was mak-ing tall claims in its manifestobut they had forgotten about theprevious promises made beforethe Assembly elections inAssam and Tripura.
Saying that the BJPGovernment had not onlyslashed government vacanciesbut also sacked thousands ofgovernment employees in thenorth-eastern States she said“first ask them to fulfill thepromises made before the gen-eral elections and otherAssembly elections.”
Meanwhile, in what is beingseen as being hit by its ownweapon the TMC has drawn theattention of ElectionCommission alleging that
Suvendu Adhikari the BJP’smost high-profile candidatewho is contesting againstMamata Banerjee fromNandigram was “hiring crimi-nals and anti-social elements” torigh the polls.
Trinamool Congress leaderin Rajya Sabha Derek O'Brienwrote to the Commissiondemanding steps to filter out thecriminals being brought inNandigram.He game theapproximate number of allegedsuspicious outsiders who werestaying at various addresses forthe past several months inNandigram area and asked theCommission to flush out thesemen.
Guwahati: Anti-CAA activist Akhil Gogoi ina letter from jail on Tuesday alleged physi-cal and mental torture in custody and claimedthat he was offered instant bail by NIA inter-rogators if he joined either the RSS or BJP.
The letter released by Gogoi's newlyfloated political outfit Raijor Dal said that thepeasant leader was taken to Delhi onDecember 18, 2019 without the Court's per-mission. “At the NIA headquarter, I waslodged in lockup no 1 and was given onlyone dirty blanket. I slept on the floor in 3-4degree celsius of temperature,” he claimed.
During interrogation, the NIA officialsoffered him instant bail if he joined the RSS,the letter claimed.
“When I was arguing against the insult-ing offer, they came out with another pro-posal of joining the BJP. They said I could con-test the Assembly against a vacant seat andbecome a minister,” Gogoi claimed. TheRTI activist also alleged that he was offeredRs 20 crore to start an NGO by leaving thepeasant body Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti(KMSS) and work against conversion ofAssamese people into Christianity. “WhenI did not accept any of their proposals, theyoffered \ me a meeting with the chief min-ister and an influential minister of Assam. I
turned down that too,” Gogoi said.He alleged that when he accepted none
of the NIA offers, he was called a “disobe-dient citizen” as charged in extreme cases.
“I was threatened with dire conse-quences if I don't accept their proposals.Death threats also came. I was threatened withat least 10 years of imprisonment. With somuch physical and mental torture, I becamerestless on the night of December 20,” Ggogiwrote. He was admitted to Gauhati MedicalCollege and Hospital for treating COVID-19 and remains there for other ailments.
“I was threatened with dire conse-quences if I don't accept their proposals.Death threats also came. I was threatened withat least 10 years of imprisonment.
“With so much physical and mental tor-ture, I became restless on the night ofDecember 20,” Ggogi wrote.
The NIA had arrested him in December2019 for his alleged role in violent anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protests. He wasadmitted to Gauhati Medical College andHospital for treating COVID-19 and remainsthere for other ailments. When contacted, BJPspokesperson Rupam Goswami told PTI“These are all baseless allegations and noth-ing but cheap politics. PTI
In its latest report, theAssociation for Democratic
Reforms (ADR) has said that11 per cent of the 345 candi-dates contesting in the secondphase of the Assam Assemblyelections this year havedeclared criminal cases againstthemselves. After analyzingthe self-sworn affidavits of allthe 345 candidates contestingfor the second phase polls to beheld on April 1, the ADR saidthat of the 345 candidatesanalysed, 37 (11 per cent) can-didates have declared criminalcases against themselves and 30(9 per cent) serious criminalcases against themselves.
The ADR also gave thefinancial status of the contest-ing candidates, and out of the345 candidates, 73 (21 percent) are crorepatis.
It said 10 (29 per cent) outof 34 candidates analysed fromBJP, three (16 per cent) out of
19 candidates from the AssamJatiya Parishad, three (43 percent) out of seven candidatesfrom AIUDF, two (33 per cent)out of six candidates fromAGP, two (7 per cent) out of 28candidates from the Congressand one candidate each fromAIFB, United Peoples PartyLiberal and SUCI(C), havedeclared serious criminal casesagainst themselves in their affi-davits.
The report said three can-didates have declared casesrelated to crime againstwomen. Out of these, one can-didate has declared cases relat-ed to rape (IPC section 376).Three candidates have declaredcases related to murder (IPCsection 302) against them-selves, while two candidateshave declared cases related to'attempt to murder' (IPC sec-tion 307) against themselves, itsaid.
The report also mentionedthat two (5 per cent) out of 39
constituencies are 'red alert'constituencies. Red alert con-stituencies are those wherethree or more contesting can-didates have declared criminalcases against themselves.Among the major parties, thereport said, the average assetsper candidate for 34 BJP can-didates analysed is Rs 2.74crore; and for 28 Congress candidates, it is Rs4.78 crore.
It said 19 Assam JatiyaParishad candidates have aver-age assets of Rs 88.70 lakh;seven AIUDF candidates Rs21.25 crore, 6 AGP candidatesRs 1.13 crore and 13 SUCI(C)candidates Rs 25.43 lakh.About 209 (61 per cent) can-didates have declared theireducational qualifications to bebetween 5th and 12th standard,while 131 (38 per cent) candi-dates are graduates or above.Two candidates are diplomaholders and three just literate,it said.
New Delhi: The EnforcementDirectorate (ED) on Tuesdaysaid it has attached assets worthover Rs 7.5 crore of a Mumbai-based global recruitment firmand its promoters in a moneylaundering case linked to allegedcheating of 900 Kuwait-boundnurses.
The agency said it has issueda provisional order for attachinga duplex flat in Mumbai's JVPDscheme area, a plot of land inKerala and a Mercedes Benz carapart from Rs 4.55 crore in cashof P J Mathew and others.
The action by the ED hasbeen taken under the Preventionof Money Laundering Act(PMLA).In a statement, the EDsaid it has attached assets worthRs 7.51 crore belonging toMathew, the proprietor of theMumbai-based global recruit-ment firm MathewInternational, and some peoplelinked to him, including CelineMathew and Thomas Mathew.
The PMLA case was filedafter taking cognizance of aCBI FIR registered againstMathew and Mohammed NainaPrabhu, the promoter ofMumbai-based firm MunavvaraAssociates.
Mathew was also under thescanner of the Income TaxDepartment which had seizedRs 4.55 crore cash from hispremises in April-May 2015.
“P J Mathew with the helpof others recruited more than900 nurses who were to beemployed in Kuwait by chargingexorbitant service charges rang-ing from Rs 18.5 lakh to Rs 20lakh from each of the applicants,”the ED said in a statement.”Thisservice charge was in excess tothe stipulated charges of Rs20,000,” it said.
Mathew International “ille-gally and dishonestly” collectedapproximately Rs 205.71 crorefrom the emigrants through thecriminal activity, it said. PNS
New Delhi: The West BengalGovernment showed interest toimplement the Central schemePradhan Mantri KisanSamman Nidhi Yojana (PM-KISAN) just before the code ofconduct for Assembly electioncame into force. In a writtenreply to the Lok Sabha, UnionAgriculture Minister NarendraSingh Tomar on Tuesday saidthe PM-KISAN Scheme isbeing implemented success-fully all across the countrysince December 1, 2018.
“Implementation has notstarted in West Bengal as theState refused to provide verifieddata of farmers. Just before thecode of conduct for electioncame into force, theGovernment of West Bengaldecided to come on board, butthe process to be completed atthe level of the state was notfully complied with,” he said. PNS
New Delhi: The BJP on Tuesdaymade a scathing attack on the ShivSena-NCP-Congress Government inMaharashtra saying the three-partydispensation is “of extortion (vasuli),by extortion and for extortion”.
Senior BJP leader and Unionminister Ravi Shankar Prasad saidthe Uddhav Thackeray-led dispen-sation has lost the moral right togovern the state.
His attack came following for-mer Mumbai Police commissionerParam Bir Singh's allegation that thestate's Home Minister AnilDeshmukh had set a Rs 100-crorecollection target for the police everymonth.
Prasad said it was the first timein the country's history that a policecommissioner levelled such a chargeagainst a home minister. “When thetarget of one minister is Rs 100crore, how much will
it be of the remaining ministers,”asked Prasad.
Addressing a press conference atthe BJP headquarters here, Prasadsaid, “A 'khela' (game) is going on inMaharashtra. What's happening inthe state is not 'vikas' (development),it is 'vasuli' (extortion).”
Dubbing the Maharashtra dis-pensation as “the most confusedgovernment”, Prasad said the rulingcoalition partners themselves don'tknow what is happening in the stateand who is running the show.
Taking on NCP supremo SharadPawar, Prasad said the politicalcredibility of the senior leader hastaken a hit and that he was forcedto speak a patent falsehood fordefending his party colleague andstate home minister Deshmukh.Prasad further said Pawar's credi-bility can be restored only if heensures resignation of Deshmukh.
Days after he was shunted out,former Mumbai Police commis-sioner Singh wrote a letter toThackeray alleging that the statehome minister had asked SachinWaze, currently in custody of theNational Investigation Agency(NIA), and other police officers tocollect Rs 100 crore monthly, includ-ing Rs 50 crore to Rs 60 crore frombars and restaurants in Mumbai.Deshmukh had denied these alle-gations.
The NIA is probing Waze'salleged role in placing an explosives-laden SUV outside industrialistMukesh Ambani's residence onFebruary 25.
The SUV was in possession ofThane-based businessman MansukhHiran, who was found dead at acreek near Mumbai. The case relat-ed to the death of Hiran was alsohanded over to the NIA. PNS
Deshmukh’s removal over the“extortion” allegations,Maharashtra’s former ChiefMinister and senior BJP leaderDevendra Fadnavis on Tuesdayopened a new front against theMVA Government, by demandinga CBI inquiry into the allegedracket involving the transfers andpromotions of police officers rang-ing from inspectors to high-rang-ing IPS officers.
Talking to mediapersons hereahead of his visit to New Delhi tomeet Union Home Secretary tohand over the evidence on thealleged racket involving transfers,postings and promotions of policeofficers, Fadnavis charged that theMVA Government had not acted ona “top secret” report submitted to itin August last year by the then State
Intelligence Commissioner RashmiShukla through the then theDirector-General of Police SubodhJaiswal.
Fadnavis said that the thenState Intelligence Commissionerhad prepared a report after inter-cepting the call records of “influ-ential” politicians and IPS officersand submitted it to the then DGPJaiswal, who in turn wrote a letterto the then Additional ChiefSecretary (Home) Sitaram Kunte.
In his letter to Kunte throughhe submitted the Rashmi Shuklareport to the government, Jaiswalstated on August 26, 2020, Jaiswalwrote: “... It is recommended thatthis (report) be brought to thenotice of Hon Chief Minister at theearliest.
Fadnavis said that in his let-ter to the then State AdditionalChief Secretary (Home), Jaiswalhad recommended a CID inquiryinto the report prepared by
Rashmi Shukla. “No CID inquirywas ordered. But Rashmi Shuklawas transferred and appointed ina relatively insignificant post asthe DG (Civil Defence).. ThoughRashmi Shukhla submitted herreport to the state governmentthrough the then DGP on August25, 2020, the MVA governmenthas not taken cognisance of thereport,” he said.
“I have 6.3 GB of data thatincludes the call records and thetranscripts which I will hand overto the Union Home secretary as heis the custodian of IPS officers anddemand a CBI inquiry into thetransfer-posting-promotion racket,”Fadnavis said.
By seeking to “expose” trans-fers-postings-promotions of policeofficers, Fadnavis is making all outefforts to erode the image of theMVA government in general andState Home Minister AnilDeshmukh in particular.
Mumbai:Hours after senior BJPleader Devendra Fadnavis went totown about the alleged racket involv-ing the transfers, promotions andpostings of police officers, the NCPon Tuesday dubbed two top IPSofficers – former State Director-General of Police Subodh Jaiswaland ex-State IntelligenceDepartment Commissioner RashmiShukla - as “BJP agents” workingagainst the MVA Government.
“It is now established that(Jaiswal-Shukla) were working forthe BJP and against the MVA gov-ernment. After unsuccessfulattempts for 15 months to destabi-lize the MVA, the BJP is nowresorting to pressurising officers,”NCP Minister and the party’snational spokesperson Nawab Maliksaid.
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shown how neighbours cancohabit and thrive despite theups and downs. The upwardtrajectory commenced withSheikh Hasina’s return to powerin 2009. The focus has been onconnectivity in power grid,digital, road, railway, inlandwaterways and port facilities.The use of Chittagong Port,which Dhaka had earlierblocked, is now open connect-ing Agartala, 80 km away inTripura, over the Maitri Setubridge across Feni river mak-ing it the gateway to the North-East. A new railway servicefrom Dhaka to New Jalpaiguriwill augment the existing con-nectivity network. The aim is torestore and extend the pre-Partition rail-road-river systems.
Bangladesh’s economy isbooming. The World Bank inits latest report has noted thatenvironment-friendly projectswill enhance GDP — inBangladesh by 17 per cent andin India by eight per cent. Boththe countries have defused fric-tion points except the sharingof Teesta waters, vital for irri-gation in north-east Bangladeshduring the dry season. AChinese-funded project isassisting in the management ofTeesta. India and Bangladeshshare waters of 54 rivers, oper-ating under the Joint RiverCommission network. But it is
the people-to-people connectthat is at the heart of bilateralrelations. Sheikh Hasina callsIndia a “true friend”. Morethan 1.6 million visas are issuedto Bangladeshis annually, thehighest to any country. Both thecountries have evolved effective“differences-resolving” mecha-nism by high-level visits andconversations. The CAA andNRC are prickly issues thatwere smoothened out. TheRohingya issue has becomecomplex after the junta’s coup.India has donated two milliondoses of COVID-19 vaccine inaddition to five million doses tobe supplied commercially.
Commemoration of theLiberation War annually inNew Delhi, Dhaka and Kolkatahas been institutionalised. As anIndian soldier who helped theMukti Jodhas in theirLiberation War, I was a privi-leged invitee to Dhaka to cele-brate freedom and recall themarch to victory withBangladeshi colleagues, whichis a bonding in blood.
The father of Bangladesh,Sheikh Mujibur Rehman, cel-ebrates his centenary as BangaBandhu with Modi and Hasinajointly inaugurating the Mujib-Bapu digital exhibition andMujib being conferred theGandhi award. PresidentMohamad Abdul Hameed will
release the Sheikh’s memoirs torelive his political struggle cutshort by his assassination in1975 which led to an era of mil-itary rule. It was in this periodthat the seeds of anti-Indianismwere sown. As late as in 2013-14, on a visit to Dhaka, I discov-ered that the Bangladesh Armywas treating India as Red Landand China the high benefactor.
In his book, Zulfi Bhutto ofPakistan, Stanley Wolpert says:“If only Bhutto had abided byelection results, there wouldhave been no Bangladesh andany reason for India to inter-vene. India and the FederalRepublic of Germany facilitat-ed the return of 195 PoWscharged with war crimes bypersuading Mujib to be lenient.In 1973, German ChancellorWilly Brandt, through pro-tracted negotiations with emis-saries of Zulfiqar Bhutto andMujibur Rahman, succeeded inconvincing Mujib that heshould forego the trials. SheikhMujib displayed extraordinarycourage and wisdom towardsreconciliation with Pakistan.But that, alas, was shortlived.”
(The writer, a retired MajorGeneral, was Commander,IPKF South, Sri Lanka, andfounder member of the DefencePlanning Staff, currently theIntegrated Defence Staff. Theviews expressed are personal.)
Indisputably, Bangladesh hasturned out to be the sheetanchor of India’s“Neighbourhood First” pol-
icy, launchpad for “Act East” andIndo-Pacific strategy. Barringsome issues over the CAA andNRC, both the countries enjoymost stable and trusted relationsin South Asia. Prime MinisterSheikh Hasina has, in paybackmode, delivered on security —counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism since 2009 — besidesconnectivity, trade and otherbilateral issues. Insurgency in theNorth-East, down 80 per cent, isin its residual stage courtesy thecleansing of sanctuaries inBangladesh. The land and mar-itime boundaries have been set-tled, including the enclaves. Theonly problem remaining is shar-ing the Teesta waters whichmight be settled with a BJPGovernment in West Bengal.
Prime Minister NarendraModi is the chief guest in Dhakaon Friday for the historic triplecommemoration: 50 years of theLiberation War of 1971, 50 yearsof India-Bangladesh bonding andthe centenary of the founder ofBangladesh, Sheikh MujiburRehman. The joint Indo-MuktiBahini victory in 14 days with thesurrender of 90,000 POWs, includ-ing 195 Pakistani soldiers implicat-ed in war crimes, is a rare politi-co-military feat. It was the first warIndia was prepared to fight withdeft political and diplomaticmanoeuvres. Strategic thinkerand author Jaswant Singh woulddescribe Bangladesh as geogra-phy’s revenge over history andlament that Pakistan’s military sur-render in East Pakistan could notresolve the Kashmir dispute. NowPakistan-Bangladesh relations areat their lowest following diplomat-ic excesses, including Islamabad’sspying and trial in Dhaka of theJamaat-e-Islami members alignedwith the Opposition BangladeshNationalist Party (BNP) whowere not only involved in warcrimes but also opposed to inde-pendence and secession fromPakistan. A gentle apology fromPrime Minister Imran Khan anytime now would make a grandgesture of reconciliation.
New Delhi and Dhaka have
SOUNDBITE���������������� ��������Sir — India’s COVID vaccination drive haspicked up pace but it is not where it shouldbe — considering how the new variants ofthe virus can ramp up cases as they haveworldwide. The cases are rising and we aregoing back to square one. People haveabsolutely no regard for others; they are notwearing masks, social distancing has goneout the window and, moreover, hygiene hastaken a backseat. We cannot afford to goback to square one but it looks like we areheading towards it.
The new variants — that were discov-ered in the UK, South Africa and Brazil —pose a big challenge. But with the kind ofcapacity we have, the hope is there that manyin the coming months would get vaccinat-ed and the country could move towards nor-malcy. We need to vaccinate faster, or else,face another lockdown. However, a day afterwhen India detected around 40,000 newCOVID-19 infections, the Ministry ofHome Affairs on Tuesday issued an orderwith guidelines for controlling COVID-19which will be effective from April 1 andremain in force up to April 30. The guide-lines mandate the State and UTGovernments to strictly enforce the ‘Test-Track-Treat’ protocol in all parts of the coun-try. From April 1, all people above 45 yearsof age are entitled to get the COVID-19 vac-cine. Even people without comorbidity andabove the age of 45 years can get vaccinat-ed. But still we must not drop our guard asthere is no substitute to taking precaution.
Sean Colin Young | Delhi
����������������������������Sir — Many people gave their lives in orderto win Independence from the Britishrule. In order to pay homage to these heroes,India celebrates Shaheed Diwas. On March23, three freedom fighters — Bhagat Singh,Rajguru and Sukhdev — were hanged todeath by the Britishers. They fought for ourindependence and sacrificed their lives forthe cause. For many young Indians, they area source of inspiration.
Unfortunately, most of our political
leaders are corrupt and they don’t think ofthe nation and welfare of its people. For theseself-centred and greedy politicians, theirvested interests come first. During the Britishrule, the sacrifice of freedom fightersinspired many people to come forth andfight for their freedom. Therefore, in orderto pay real homage to the three of these rev-olutionaries, our leaders must take a pledgeto maintain probity and integrity in publiclife. India has progressed but still a lot moreis required to be done. There is still hunger,poverty, unemployment and malnutrition.These issues must be addressed, then onlythe dream of our freedom fighters would berealised.
Bhagwan Thadani | Mumbai
������� ����������� �������Sir — People must realise the importanceof water conservation. It is seen that peo-
ple are ignorant towards the issue of sav-ing water and tend to waste it. We shouldturn off the tap while washing our face,hands or brushing the teeth. This saves alot of water. In fact, the freshwater problemhas led experts to predict that some of themost densely populated Indian cities willbe uninhabitable in a couple of decade’stime. The only way we can prevent this cat-astrophe from befalling us is by mendingour ways.
We need to conserve fresh waterresources like rivers and ponds. We mustalso ensure that underground water does-n’t gets contaminated and spoiled. TheCentre is putting in efforts through its var-ious initiatives and programmes but wemust do our bit.
Amit Singh Kushwaha | Satna-������� ������8������;
Sabir Ahmad was sitting outside a tea shop inAttara market in Banda, Bundelkhand, whenthis reporter met him by chance on February
10. He lives in a nearby village and had come withhis friend Vinod Chaudhry to the market to pur-chase some goods. During the conversation, he casu-ally mentioned that he had got a house under thePradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY). “I mustthank Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for giving usa pucca house,” he said as his friend, who is also abeneficiary of PMAY, nodded in agreement. “I amhappy that Yogi, as the Chief Minister of UttarPradesh, is ensuring that Government benefits reachHindus and Muslims alike,” Ahmad said.
Yogi’s political image (constructed by hisrivals) is that of a Muslim-hater. When the BJPnamed him as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh(UP) in 2017, questions were raised whether a monkof a mutt would be able to control the politically-sensitive State. The Muslims reacted sharply. Theyfeared that Yogi had been selected to strengthen theparty’s Hindutva raj. The internal balance within theBJP, too, was tilted against him because Yogi wasbranded as a rabble-rouser and had revolted againstthe party leadership many a time. It was believedthat he would never be able to complete full termin office because of his domineering nature. Somepolitical pundits even believed that Keshav PrasadMaurya would replace him.
However, in the last four years, Yogi provedeveryone wrong. Yogi gradually gained stature inthe party and his hard work paid dividends. AfterNarendra Modi and Amit Shah, Yogi emerged asa top-ranking leader in the BJP. At the national level,people started talking about him having prime min-isterial calibre. At the administrative level, Yogi notonly controlled Hindu hardliners but also instilledconfidence among the Muslims. The cow vigilantegroups or the rowdy Bajrang Dal activists who wereusually active during Valentine’s Day have all butvanished. The police were given a free hand and evenRight-wing leaders were sent to jail once they wentto the other side of the law.
“The mantra of this Government is ‘sabka saath,sabka vikas’ and we are sticking to it. There is nodifference between Hindus and Muslims. TheGovernment is working for the welfare of all sec-tions of society,” the Chief Minister told this reporterrecently.
Yogi said that when the Government assumedoffice, the State’s coffers were empty, law and orderwas in a shambles. In many areas of UP, the situa-tion had become so bad that people were forced tosell their houses and settle in other places. The cur-rent Government has established the rule of law andgood governance. As a result, all the festivals are heldin an atmosphere of peace and harmony.
Yogi was sworn in as the 21st Chief Ministerof UP on March 19, 2017, and is the fourth fromthe BJP to occupy the top post. Before him KalyanSingh, Ram Prakash Gupta and Rajnath Singhserved as the Chief Ministers of UP. Yogi is thelongest-serving BJP CM and is likely to completehis full term even as none of the other BJP CMscompleted three years in office. In the last four years,he has been able to win the hearts of the people. Theperception of people has changed because of theimprovement in law and order and infrastructurefacilities. As a result, UP has become number onein programme implementation and is now a
sought-after destination for investors.MoUs worth �4.68 lakh crore weresigned at the Investor Summit heldin Lucknow in 2018. Out of these,projects worth overs �3 lakh crorehave been started. An investment of�50,000 crore was made in thedefence corridor set up inBundelkhand which will also createfive lakh employment opportunities.As many as 13 new MoUs worth�4,500 crore have also been signedat the Aero India show held inBengaluru recently.
The Yogi Government has ded-icated the last four years in tacklinginfinite challenges, exploring endlesspossibilities and realising the dreamsof the public. The mantra of “reform,perform, transform” adopted by theGovernment helped in restoringUP’s image as a State with infinitepotential and possibilities.
This has resulted in the creationof an atmosphere of development,trust and good governance in UP.The Government has set new stan-dards of development in every field.This has helped the Chief Ministerto change the perception of peopletowards UP and investors are com-ing to the State because theGovernment has introduced trans-parency in its working. That’s whyUP is second in the Ease of DoingBusiness index in the country. Policereforms, too, were pending for years.These were implemented to improvethe law and order machinery.
Perception has become the buzz-word now and Yogi talks aboutchange in perception in all hisspeeches. Addressing a series of ral-lies in Bengal and Assam, he talkedabout the change in perception and
how people of all castes, creed andreligion are marching forwardtogether because they have a beliefthat the BJP Government will pro-tect them. This change in perceptionhas helped big multi-national com-panies to set up their units in UP.Sugar mills, which were closed fordecades, have started operations andthe ambitious ‘One District, OneProduct (ODOP)’ scheme has givenwings to local artisans and they aregetting work in their villages only.
The Government’s dossiers claimthat the State has helped over 49 lakhMicro, Small and MediumEnterprises (MSME) units in UP toget a finance of over �1,84,000 crorefrom various banks in the last fouryears. This year alone, bankers havefinanced over seven lakh new MSMEunits. In the last four years, the econ-omy of the State has increased to�21,73,000 crore from �10,90,000crore taking UP to the second posi-tion in the country. UP is movingtowards becoming the biggest econ-omy in the country and its per capi-ta income has also almost doubled.According to the latest report by theCenter for Monitoring IndianEconomy (CMIE), the unemploy-ment rate in the State came down to4.1 per cent in February from 17.5per cent in 2017. This proves thatdespite the Coronavirus pandemicthat has delayed many projects,employment opportunities have beencreated in UP.
What has gone in favour ofYogi is his transparent style of work-ing. The Government has givenappointments to over four lakh peo-ple in the Government sector, with-out any complaints coming to the
fore. During Akhilesh Yadav andMayawati’s time, the Governmentappointments were mired in contro-versies and accusations offavouritism.
However, all these achievementscome with challenges. The biggestchallenge Yogi is facing now is to leadthe party in the Assembly electionsslated for early next year amid theOpposition’s charges that the suffer-ing of the people is being ignored byGovernment officials and politicalleaders. Recently, a video of LabourMinister Swami Prasad Maurya wentviral where he can be seen rebukinga woman who had come to him forhelp.
Ram Iqbal Singh, a lawmakerfrom Ballia, said recently in a BJPState working committee meetingthat tehsils and police stations havebecome centres of corruption.Surendra Singh, another lawmakerseconded it. Last week, Yogi’s officeissued notices to 25 DMs and SSPsfor not picking up calls from theCMO despite a clear directive fromthe Chief Minister that district offi-cials should attend all calls or callback if they missed any call.
Such ugly incidents could harmthe party in the next election. In theabsence of an effective Opposition,the BJP is almost ruling the roost.There could be a sense of complacen-cy that people will vote for the BJPin the absence of an alternative. Yogineeds to shrug it off and ensure thatinfrastructure projects actually takeshape before the end of this year. Heneeds to shepherd his resources andmanpower to a legitimate end. Thisis a big challenge and how Yogi meetsit, only the time will tell.
Lloyd Austin, the DefenceSecretary under the BidenAdministration, decided
to make an unscheduled stop atAfghanistan after concludinghis first foreign visit to meetclose allies in Asia. After meet-ing with his Japanese counter-part, Austin met key officials inKorea and in India where healso met Prime MinisterNarendra Modi. Post thisscheduled trip which aimed tobolster the US’ alliance network,the Pentagon chief took anunexpected detour to Kabul.Austin — a former four-starGeneral in the US Army whoplayed a key role in the exit ofUS forces from Iraq — went toAfghanistan ostensibly to “lis-ten to soldiers.” The visitassumes significance since by allindications the May 1 deadlineset for the withdrawal of USforces (and with it the NATOforces) is likely to be missed.During the intervening period
of the present flux and the newdeadline, there will be a lot ofbehind-the-scenes geopoliticaldevelopments where India canmake itself relevant by playinga more central role in decidingthe future of the troubled coun-try. Though there is little doubtthat the US forces will withdrawsoon since there is little politi-cal appetite for continuing theUS’ longest battle, the BidenAdministration is still in theprocess of fine-tuning its finalstrategy. This may delay thewithdrawal by anywherebetween a few weeks to a fewmonths (the US media report-ed a six-month extension)adding to the flux the war-torncountry is in.
Irrespective of the actualdate of the withdrawal of forces,it’s clear that the future ofKabul does not look too bright.The Taliban is stronger thanever before with a 80,000-1,00,000 strong force. It’s in con-
trol of most highways and hasalready given threats of a “reac-tion” if the May 1 withdrawal isdelayed. In all probability, theTaliban hints at a bloody springeven as it continues to havedeep links with the Al-Qaeda.Taliban’s benefactor Pakistan —which is a key part of decision-making for the future of thecountry — will not be able toresist the urge to use the groupagainst India. New Delhi andIslamabad announced a cease-fire after wholesale violations byPakistan. But after the Talibantakes control of the interimGovernment in Kabul and con-tinues to enjoy patronage ofother radical Islamist organisa-tions, will this agreement be ofany consequence?
India’s security challengesare likely to intensify after theTaliban takes control of theGovernment. Since the possibil-ity of holding elections soonlooks remote given the simul-
taneous challenges such anexercise would entail, theTaliban will become part of theinterim Government. So whileAfghan President Ashraf Ghaniis clear that he will make wayonly for a democratically-elect-ed Government, this clause isunlikely to be a deal breaker forworld powers. So, a strongerTaliban, which continues toenjoy patronage from otherradical outfits and becomespart of the Government, willmean a possible opportunity forIslamabad to identify ways to
hurt Indian interests.New Delhi has managed to
get a chair on the high tableafter successful backroomdiplomacy. But India needs toutilise this opportunity tobecome more vital to the entirepeace process. India has beenhistorically disadvantaged by itsstance of “no talks” with theTaliban and no boots on theground.
So, despite being one of thelargest donors ($3 billion ofaid), it does not commandmuch geo-strategic weight.While it cannot build inroadsin the organisation overnight,New Delhi needs to be realis-tic about how to address thechallenges. Not engaging at allhas brought diminishingreturns so far. But if the Talibanforms the next Government inKabul, New Delhi stands to loseby continuing its policy.
Austin’s surprise decision tostop at Kabul and the message
he gave to the soldiers posted inthe country seems to suggestthe possibility of the troopsbeing asked to hold fort forlonger. This means during theflux, India can build its bridgeswith other powers to play amore meaningful role. ComeApril, Turkey will play host toa crucial round of talks with allstakeholders to finalise thewithdrawal strategy. But mostof them would like to squeezeNew Delhi’s role, given theexisting tensions between Indiaand its hostile neighbours.
So, while Ankara will utilisethis opportunity to tide over adifficult diplomatic phase withWashington, it will also like tofurther marginalise India’s roleto come good on its stridentposturing. If there is no break-through in the proposed talks,for a number of reasons includ-ing the Taliban’s refusal to ful-fil the terms of the deal, NewDelhi should up the ante.
Afghanistan is fast becoming abattleground where geo-strate-gic priorities of Russia, Chinaand Pakistan are being aligned,one of which is to completelymarginalise India’s role.
New Delhi’s best bet is toalign its priorities and engage-ment with the US. The BidenAdministration is not in a sim-ilar hurry as the TrumpAdministration and the May 1deadline is not cast in stone. Butas the US leaves behind a veryvolatile Afghanistan, it will bea tinderbox for New Delhi tooand requires active engage-ment.
In a post-pandemic worldorder India envisions itself as aregional heavyweight againstChina. This vision cannot belimited only to the IndianOcean Region, but shouldextend to its regional neigh-bourhood, includingAfghanistan. Neither should itwait to “eventually play a role.”
The writer is a seniorjournalist and VisitingFellow at the UnitedServices Institution of India. The views
expressed are personal.
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London: UK-based pharma-ceutical giant AstraZenecasaid Tuesday it will release fur-ther data “within 48 hours” onUS trials of its Covid-19 vac-cine, after health officialsraised concerns about the ini-tial information disclosed.
The company pushed backagainst a statement from theUS National Institute of
Allergy and InfectiousDiseases (NIAID) which saidthat “outdated information”may have been used to con-clude that its vaccine washighly effective against Covid.
“We have reviewed thepreliminary assessment of theprimary analysis and theresults were consistent withthe interim analysis,”
AstraZeneca said in a state-ment.
“We intend to issue resultsof the primary analysis with-in 48 hours,” it added.
The US health agency’sevaluation comes afterAstraZeneca said on Mondaythat stage three US trials of thevaccine had shown it was 79percent effective. AFP
Dhaka: Fourteen Islamist mil-itants were on Tuesday givendeath sentence by aBangladeshi court here forattempting to kill PrimeMinister Sheikh Hasina in2000.
Judge Abu Zafar MdKamruzzaman of Dhaka’sSpeedy Trial tribunal-1 pro-nounced the verdict as nine ofthem were brought to the courtfrom jail to face the trial in per-son.
The rest five convicts areon the run. They were tried inabsentia and defended by state-appointed lawyers.
“The verdict will be exe-cuted by a firing squad to set anexample, unless the law barredit,” the judge said.
Otherwise, the convictscould be hanged in line withthe prevailing practice, follow-ing mandatory review of thedeath sentences by the High
Court Division of the SupremeCourt under the Bangladeshlaw, the judge said.
Under the Bangladesh law,the death sentences wouldrequire to be endorsed by theHigh Court following an auto-matic death reference hear-ing. The convicts are allowed tofile an appeal as well.
For the five convicts whoare at large, the judge orderedthe verdict to be executed aftertheir arrest or surrender.
All the convicts are opera-tives of outlawed HarkatulJihad Bangladesh (HuJI-B).
HuJI-B’s chief Mufti AbdulHannan, who was found to bethe mastermind of the plot, toowas indicted in the case but hisname was dropped from thetrial as he was executed in 2017in another case involvingattempted assassination of thethen Bangladeshi-origin BritishHigh Commissioner. PTI
Boulder (Colorado): A shoot-ing at a crowded Coloradosupermarket that killed 10 peo-ple, including the first policeofficer to arrive, sent terrorizedshoppers and workers scram-bling for safety and stunned astate that has grieved severalmass killings. A lone suspect wasin custody, authorities said.
Hundreds of police officersfrom throughout the Denvermetropolitan area respondedto the Monday afternoon attack,converging on a King Sooperssupermarket in a busy shoppingplaza in southern Boulder.
SWAT officers carrying bal-
listic shields slowly approachedthe store as others quicklyescorted frightened people awayfrom the building, some of itswindows shattered. Customersand employees fled through aback loading dock to safety.Others took refuge in nearbyshops.
One suspect was in custody,a tearful Boulder Police ChiefMaris Herold said late Monday.Authorities didn’t identify thesuspect, though Boulder CountyDistrict Attorney MichaelDougherty said the suspect wasthe only person injured and wasreceiving medical care. AP
Moscow: Russian oppositionleader Alexei Navalny’s allies onTuesday called for a new mas-sive protest across the country todemand his release from prison.
In a statement posted onNavalny’s website, they urgedRussians to sign up for a proteston an interactive map and saidthey will set a date for it whenthe number of people willing totake part reaches at least 5,00,000nationwide.
The organisers promisedin a statement that the rallywould the biggest that Russia hasseen.
The 44-year-old Navalny,who is President VladimirPutin’s most outspoken foe, wasarrested on Jan. 17 upon his
return from Germany, where hespent five months recoveringfrom a nerve-agent poisoningthat he blames on the Kremlin.Russian authorities have reject-ed the accusation.
Last month, Navalny wassentenced to 2 1/2 years inprison for violating the terms ofhis probation while convalesc-ing in Germany. The sentencestems from a 2014 embezzle-ment conviction that Navalnyhas rejected as fabricated — andwhich the European court ofHuman Rights has ruled to beunlawful.
Navalny’s arrest fuelled aseries of protests that drew tensof thousands to the streets acrossRussia. AP
Kampala (Uganda): Ethiopia’sleader on Tuesday said atroci-ties have been committed inTigray, his first public acknowl-edgment of possible war crimesin the country’s northernregion where fighting persistsas government troops huntdown its fugitive leaders.
“Reports indicate thatatrocities have been committedin Tigray region,” PrimeMinister Abiy Ahmed said inan address before lawmakers in
the capital, Addis Ababa.War is “a nasty thing,” Abiy
said, speaking the localAmharic language.
“We know the destructionthis war has caused.” He saidsoldiers who raped women orcommitted other war crimeswill be held responsible, eventhough he cited “propaganda ofexaggeration” by the TigrayPeople’s Liberation Front, theonce-dominant party whoseleaders challenged Abiy’s legit-imacy after the postponementof elections last year.
Abiy spoke as concern con-tinues to grow over the human-itarian situation in the embat-tled region that is home to 6million people.
The United States has char-acterized some abuses in theTigray war as “ethnic cleans-ing,” charges dismissed byEthiopian authorities asunfounded.
It also has urged Eritreantroops, who are fighting on theside of Ethiopian governmentforces, to withdraw fromTigray.
The Ethiopian prime min-ister, who won the Nobel PeacePrize in 2019 for his efforts tomake peace with Eritrea, facespressure to end the conflict inTigray as well as to institute aninternational investigation intoalleged war crimes, ideally ledby the United Nations. AP
Beijing: China on Tuesdaysaid it summoned foreigndiplomats in protest after theUnited States, the EuropeanUnion, Canada and Britainjointly imposed sanctions onsenior Chinese officials overalleged human rights abuses inChina’s far western Xinjiangregion.
Chinese Foreign Ministryspokesperson Hua Chunyingon Tuesday called the newsanctions a “slander and anaffront to the reputation anddignity of the Chinese people.”
“I admonish them thatthey should not underestimatethe firm determination of theChinese people to defend theirnational interests and dignity,and they will pay the price fortheir folly and arrogance,” Huatold reporters at a daily brief-ing.
That came hours after theChinese and Russian foreignministers denounced new wavecriticism and sanctions againstboth countries over humanrights.
At a news conference inthe southern Chinese city ofNanning, China’s Wang Yi andRussia’s Sergei Lavrov rejectedoutside critiques of theirauthoritarian political systemsand said they were working tofurther global progress onissues from climate change to
the coronavirus pandemic.“Countries should stand
together to oppose all forms ofunilateral sanctions,” Wangsaid. “These measures will notbe embraced by the interna-tional community.”
Russia is also underWestern sanctions over humanrights abuses and militaryaggression against Ukraine.Lavrov said Russia’s ties withChina grew stronger asMoscow’s relations with theEU suffered damage, whileaccusing the West of “impos-ing their own rules on every-one else, which they believeshould underpin the worldorder.”
“If Europe broke theserelations, simply destroyingall the mechanisms that havebeen created for many years ...Then, probably, objectively,this leads to the fact that ourrelations with China are devel-oping faster than what’s left ofrelations with European coun-tries,” Lavrov said.
In a joint statement issuedafter the meeting, the twoministers said no countryshould seek to impose its formof democracy on others.
“Interference in a sover-eign nation’s internal affairsunder the excuse of advancingdemocracy’ is unacceptable,”the statement said. AP
Yangon: Myanmar’s militaryjunta on Tuesday took theoffensive to justify last month’scoup and subsequent actionsagainst those opposed to it,even as street demonstrationscontinued against the takeover.
At a news conference in thecapital Naypyitaw, the militarypresented a video of a formerpolitical colleague of oustednational leader Aung San SuuKyi claiming he had handedover large amounts of cash andgold to her personally, in whatthe military has characterizedas corruption. Such allegationswere previously denied by herlawyer.
Many of the protestsTuesday were staged in a waythat avoided confrontationswith authorities, who have nothesitated to use lethal force tobreak up demonstrations. Somemarches were held before dawnin Yangon, the country’s biggestcity, and elsewhere and wentunmolested. Other protestsadopted the tactic of havingsignboards or other inanimateobjects lined up in the street toserve as proxies for humandemonstrators.
The independentAssistance Association forPolitical Prisoners has veri-fied 261 protesters’ deathsnationwide but says the actualtotal, including cases where
verification has been difficult,is probably much higher. It said2,682 people have also beenarrested or charged since thecoup, with 2,302 still detainedor sought for arrest.
In its news conference, themilitary presented displays ofseized homemade weaponsand videos of street battles toargue that the demonstratorsare violent and that its effortsto stop them are justified.However, in the weeks since theFeb. 1 coup, protesters onlybegan using organized vio-lence after more than 100demonstrators had been shotdead by police and soldiers.
The allegations against SuuKyi made by former Yangon
Chief Minister Phyo Min Theinwere first mentioned by themilitary several weeks ago.Last week the military-con-trolled Myawaddy TV stationaired a similar video with aconstruction magnate who alsoclaimed to have made largepayoffs to Suu Kyi. That videowas replayed at Tuesday’s newsconference.
No supporting evidencefor the allegations has beenoffered, and they are general-ly dismissed as an effort by themilitary to frame Suu Kyi soshe can be discredited andtried on a serious criminalcharge. She is already beingheld on several more minorcharges. AP
Jerusalem: Israelis returned topolling stations on Tuesday foran unprecedented fourth timein two years in what is beinglargely seen as a referendum onPrime Minister BenjaminNetanyahu’s continuance at thehelm of affairs amid his ongo-ing trial on corruption chargesas well as his handling of thepandemic. The elections werecalled barely seven monthsafter the last government wasformed after the Likud and Blueand White party failed to agreeon a budget by a December 23deadline. PTI
Manila (Philippines): TheUnited States said on Tuesdayit’s backing the Philippines ina new standoff with Beijing inthe disputed South China Sea,where Manila has asked aChinese fishing flotilla to leavea reef. China ignored the call,insisting it owns the offshoreterritory.
The US Embassy said itshared the concerns of thePhilippines and accused Chinaof using “maritime militia tointimidate, provoke, andthreaten other nations, whichundermines peace and securi-ty in the region.”
“We stand with thePhilippines, our oldest treatyally in Asia,” the US Embassyin Manila said in a statement.
Philippine DefenseSecretary Delfin Lorenzanaon Sunday demanded about200 Chinese vessels he saidwere militia boats leave theWhitsun Reef, a shallow coralregion about 175 nautical miles
(324 kilometers) west ofBataraza town in the westernPhilippine province ofPalawan.
Philippine officials saidthe reef, which they call JulianFelipe, is well within the coun-try’s internationally recognisedexclusive economic zone, overwhich the Philippines “enjoysthe exclusive right to exploit orconserve any resources.”
The Philippine coast guardspotted about 220 Chinesevessels moored at the reef,which Beijing and Vietnamalso claim, on March 7.
On Monday, a surveillanceaircraft spotted 183 Chinesevessels still at the reef, saidPhilippine military chief Lt.Gen. Cirilito Sobejana, whoreleased aerial pictures of theChinese vessels in one of themost hotly contested regions inthe strategic waterway.
The Philippines has filed adiplomatic protest over theChinese presence, Foreign
Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr.Said.
China insisted it owns thereef, which it calls Niué Jiao,and said the Chinese vesselsconverged in the area to avoidrough waters.
Beijing denied the vesselswere maritime militias.
“Any speculation in suchhelps nothing but causesunnecessary irritation,” theChinese Embassy said in astatement on Monday.
“It is hoped that the situa-tion could be handled in anobjective and rational manner.”
The US Embassy, howev-er, said “Chinese boats havebeen mooring in this area formany months in ever increas-ing numbers, regardless of theweather.” China, thePhilippines, Vietnam,Malaysia, Taiwan and Bruneihave been locked in a tense ter-ritorial standoff over theresource-rich and busy water-way for decades. AP
Mumbai:Providing serviceslike broadband connectivity,cable TV, enterprise solutions,and payment wallets is theneed of the hour for telcos, anda second wave of consolidationis upon the industry, a ratingagency said on Tuesday.
India Ratings and Researchsaid the sector, which was bat-tered following the aggressiveentry of Reliance Jio, will con-tinue showing signs of recoveryamid conducive regulatoryenvironment and maintained a“stable” outlook for the indus-try in FY22. The second roundof consolidation (Consolidation2.0) is kicking-in in the indus-try, which will bring a trans-formation in the business mod-els of telecom companies, lead-ing to the evolution of incum-bents from the providers of tra-ditional voice-only services tocomplete digital solutions forhouseholds, it said. PTI
����� 2&3�.&456
The Govt has exited TataCommunications Ltd
(TCL) by selling about 26 percent stake in the company forabout �8,846 crore as part ofthe disinvestment plan.
Public sector companyVSNL was privatised in 2002 bydisinvesting 25% sharehold-ing along with transfer of man-agement control to PanatoneFinvest Ltd, the strategic part-ner. Subsequent to the strategicdisinvestment, the name of thecompany was changed to TCL.“Disinvestment of governmentholding completed of 16.12% inTCL through OFS at �5,457crore and 10% to strategicpartner at OFS discovered pricefor �3,389 crore. With this, govtexits from TCL with total pro-ceeds of Rs about �8,846 crore,”DIPAM Secretary Tuhin KantaPandey said in tweet onMonday.
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Equity indices regained theirfooting on Tuesday, pro-
pelled by banking stocks whichsurged after the Supreme Courtdeclined to extend the the loanmoratorium period and saidcomplete waiver of interest isnot possible. Reversing lastsession’s losses, the 30-shareBSE Sensex ended 280.15points or 0.56 per cent higherat 50,051.44.
Similarly, the broader NSENifty advanced 78.35 points or0.53 per cent to close at14,814.75.UltraTech Cementwas the top gainer in the Sensexpack, rising 3.06%, followed byIndusInd Bank, ICICI Bank,HDFC Bank, Titan, Axis Bank,SBI and Reliance Industries. Onthe other hand, ONGC,PowerGrid, ITC, NTPC, M&Mand HDFC were among the lag-gards, shedding up to 2.28 %.
The apex court on Tuesday
refused to interfere with theCentre’s and the RBI’s decisionto not extend the loan mora-torium beyond August 31 lastyear, saying it is a policy deci-sion. A bench headed by JusticeAshok Bhushan said that thetop court cannot do judicialreview of the Centre’s financialpolicy decision unless it ismalafide and arbitrary.
It also directed that nocompound or penal interest becharged during the six-monthmoratorium period, but addedthat complete waiver of inter-est is not possible as it will havehuge financial implications.
Domestic market endedthe day on a strong footing sup-ported by a rally in bankingstocks amidst weak cues fromglobal markets. Sentiments inthe banking stocks were liftedpost Supreme Court’s orderagainst granting interest waiv-er and extension of moratori-um period.
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Non-performing assets ofbanks declined to �5.70
lakh crore in December 2020and the recovered amountstood at �2.74 lakh crore fol-lowing a slew of measurestaken by the Government,Union Minister Anurag SinghThakur told Rajya Sabha onTuesday.
During Question Hour,the Minister of State forFinance also said theInsolvency and BankruptcyCode (IBC) has helped in therecovery of NPA (Non-Performing Assets).
“There has been a reduc-tion in gross NPAs. The NPAs- which stood at �8.96 lakhcrore in 2018 - have reduced to�5.70 lakh crore in December2020. Recovery of �2.74 lakhcrore was also made,” Thakursaid while replying to a sup-plementary question in the
Upper House.According to him, the
occurrence of frauds, whichresulted in high NPAs, hasalso witnessed a sharp declineas a result of steps taken by thegovernment.
The incidents of fraudsreduced to 0.23 per cent from1.01 per cent in 2013-14, theminister added.
Further, Thakur said IBCbrought by the governmenthas resulted in major reformsand improving the debtor-creditor relation and betterrecovery rate.
Under the present regime,banking has vastly improved,from phone banking to digitalbanking, which has resulted intransparency and accountabil-ity, he noted.
In reply to a supplementaryquestion, Thakur said 7 out of12 public sector banks havetaken up on priority efforts tointroduce digital banking and
added that this will result incompetition with the privatesector banks and benefit con-sumers with better products.
The minister praised ini-tiatives like the SBI Yono ser-vice.
UPI Bhim was beingpraised by big companies likeGoogle and Facebook, headded.
In reply to another sup-plementary by Anil Desai (ShivSena) who wanted to knowwhether the platform for pro-viding and processing loans in59-minutes has miserablyfailed, Thakur said that themember came from the eco-nomic capital of the countrywhich resulted in an uproar.
Deputy ChairmanHarivansh said nothing will goon record except the answer.
Thakur said banks havealready sanctioned Rs 60,000crore on the 59-minutes plat-form.
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Increased economic activi-ties have resulted in higher
GST collection which stoodabove �1 lakh crore for fivemonths in a row since October2020, Minister of State forFinance and Corporate AffairsAnurag Thakur said in theRajya Sabha on Tuesday.
Thakur, during QuestionHour, said this could be possi-ble on the back of the measurestaken by the Government toboost economic activities overthe last year to deal with theCovid-19 pandemic.
“GST collection hasincreased. If you see e-way billdata, numbers... Activities have
increased,” the minister said.“GST collection has wit-
nessed above �1 lakh crore fora stretch of five months sinceOctober 2020... The GST col-lection during the period hasbeen higher than the collectionin the same period last
year,” he said. On theeconomy, Thakur said V-shaped recovery is being seenas the third quarter GDP num-bers are positive and trade isgetting better.
The Indian economy hadseen a contraction of 24.4 percent in the June quarter ofFY21, impacted by COVID-19.
After two consecutivequarters of contraction, the
country’s GDP entered into apositive territory with a growthof 0.4 per cent in the October-December quarter of the cur-rent fiscal.
“When COVID-19 pan-demic erupted... -24.4 growthrate was recorded in April-June.... Modi government hasinitiated several good stepswith a positive result and 0.4per cent growth was in thethird quarter,” Thakur said.
He also listed varioussteps taken by the governmentduring the pandemic to boostthe economy, including stimu-lus packages underAatmanirbhar Bharat pro-gramme, emergency credit lineand loan moratorium.
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The Government has col-lected �30,369 crore as div-
idend from Central PublicSector Enterprises (CPSEs) sofar in the current fiscal, accord-ing to a senior official.
In the revised budget esti-mate, the Govt significantlylowered the dividend receiptfrom the CPSEs to �34,717.25crore from �65,746.96 croreestimated earlier for this finan-cial year.”Dividend receipts ofGoI (Government of India)from CPSEs stand at about�30,369 crore in the currentfinancial year (as of 22.3.2021),”
DIPAM Secretary TuhinKanta Pandey said in a tweet.
The Department ofInvestment and Public AssetManagement (DIPAM) alsosaid that it has received multi-ple applications for BEML.
“Multiple Expressions ofInterest received for the pri-vatisation of BEML. The trans-action will now move to thesecond stage,” he said in anoth-er tweet. Last month, the gov-ernment extended the deadlinefor submitting preliminary bidsfor buying a 26 per cent stakein BEML till March 22.InJanuary, the government invit-ed Expression of Interest (EoI)for the strategic disinvestmentof a 26 per cent stake in BEMLalong with the transfer of man-agement control.
New Delhi:Domestic edibleoil prices have not increased asmuch as international rateswhich have been ruling veryhigh over the year, FoodMinister Piyush Goyal said onTuesday in Parliament.
As per the Govt data, theaverage retail price of ground-nut oil stood at �180 per kg onTuesday, higher than �120 perkg a year ago.
Similarly, retail mustardoil prices increased to �147 perkg to �110 per kg, soya oil to�130 per kg from � 90 per kg,while that of sunflower oil to�140 per kg from �105 per and
Palm oil price to �160 perkg from �82.5 per kg in the saidperiod.
Goyal, in his written replyto the Lok Sabha, said: “Theprices of edible oils are risinginternationally and sincedomestic production is inade-quate, domestic prices of edi-ble oils have risen during thelast year. “However, there is nocommensurate increase in thedomestic wholesale and retailprices of edible oils as com-pared with the internationalprices which have been rulingvery high over the year,” hesaid. PTI
companies for professionaland higher education hasannounced that it will behosting a webinar on how tobecome a full stack develop-er in 2021 on March 26, 2021.
The one-hour long livesession is free of cost and canbe attended by anyone who iswilling to understand thebasic concepts of full stackdevelopment and looking tokickstart a career as a fullstack developer.
The live session on “Howto become a full stack devel-oper” by Ritwik Raj, Trainerof Full Stack Developmentand expert in HTML, CSS, JS,Java, Python will shine aspotlight on the impact ofpandemic on the currenttrending technologies in2021. The instructor willintroduce the participants tothe concepts of full-stackdevelopment. Interested stu-dents can log in on :https://www.greatlearning.in/academy/learn-for-free/cours-es/how-to-become-a-full-stack-developer-in-20211.
One functional area that issought after by several MBAstudents is Financial
Management. In the recent past tech-nology has made sweeping changes inall aspects related to managing moneyand financial management. Here are afew emerging trends in FinancialManagement, which can’t be ignored-and B School must focus and impartknowledge in these areas in order tocreate an efficient workforce which isfuture ready.
Fintech: Today the influence ofdigital technologies on finance ispalpable and digital banks, wallets,blockchain tech, and more are becom-ing a reality. Digital finance is the termused to describe the impact of newtechnologies on the financial servicesindustry. It includes a variety of prod-ucts, applications, processes and busi-ness models that have transformed thetraditional way of providing bankingand financial services. To remain rel-evant in the future understanding allaspects of fintech and knowing howit is altering the landscape of financialservices can help in creating an effi-
cient workforce.Financial Analytics: Financial
analytics helps in shaping up businessgoals. Any organisation can improvethe decision-making strategies ofbusiness by getting deeper insightabout the financial status of its busi-ness and improve the profitability, cashflow and value of its business. DataScience and Financial analytics isbeing used in many financial institu-tions including insurance compa-nies, banks to understand the con-sumer to reduce losses by eliminatingbelow zero customers, to increasecross-sale and to measure the lifetimevalue of a customer. Financial analyticsis an important area which must bestudied by tomorrow’s force which candeal with financial management.
Artificial Intelligence in Finance:Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a pow-erful tool that is already widelydeployed in financial services. It hasgreat potential for positive impact ifcompanies deploy it with sufficientdiligence and care. AI is being imple-mented by banks to assess risks,detect and prevent payments fraud,
improve processes for anti-moneylaundering (AML) and performknow-your-customer (KYC) regula-tory checks. Artificial intelligence isleading the front of the digital trans-formation strategy in finance todayand its role is going to grow bigger inthe future. Adept proficiency in AI ismandatory for an efficient workforceof tomorrow.
Financial Fraud Detection:
Modern financial institutions facethe growing threat of fraud in its dif-ferent and ever-changing ways. Frauddetection is a set of activities under-taken to prevent money or propertyfrom being obtained through falsepretences. Fraud detection is appliedto many industries such as banking orinsurance. Data mining is used to clas-sify, cluster, and segment the data andit helps in automatically finding asso-ciations and rules in the data that maysignify interesting patterns, includingthose related to fraud. Experts usesuch intelligence systems to encodeexpertise for detecting fraud in theform of rules. This area is gainingimportance and is an emerging trendin the study of finance managementfor creating an efficient workforce.
Machine Learning in FinancialManagement: Today machine learn-ing algorithms are used to automatetrading activities and provide finan-cial advisory services to investors.Machine learning can analyse millionsof data sets within a short time toimprove the outcomes without beingexplicitly programmed. Supervised
learning, un-supervised learning,semi-supervised learning, andReinforcement learning is an emerg-ing trend in the study of finance man-agement and the future workforce canbe efficient if they develop expertisein this domain.
Blockchain-based modes oftransactions and financial services:A financial system underpinned byblockchain offers many opportunitiesfor the accountancy profession in thenear future. Blockchain technology isa decentralised, distributed, and pub-lic ledger that is used to record trans-actions across many computers with-in a network. In the finance industry,this underlying technology allowsthe transfer of currency with confi-dence that the transaction is secureand reliable. Block chain is for sure anemerging trend in the study of finan-cial management and will have a tan-gible impact across several financialservices. The future workforce mustcertainly be proficient and developexpertise in this domain.
With the rise of technology andthe world adapting to online
avenues in the new normal, skilldevelopment is not a static process,it is rather extremely important tocontinue undertaking these pro-grammes at all levels. You need tofit into more than just one role tokeep up with the competition. Thesurvival of many businesses isdependent on the aspect wherethey require their employees toupskill and/or re-skill themselves,and leverage the cutting-edge tech-nologies to convert their offices intoaugmented environments for learn-ing.
For a change to take place,organisations must take the rightdecisions and invest in continuouslytraining and upskilling theiremployees through various cours-es and training programmes.Employees can also take up cours-es on their own to up their gameand be a step ahead in this com-petitive world.
We have curated a list of vari-ous programmes that will help var-ious professionals to upskill them-selves in this highly progressivelandscape.
Post Graduate Diploma inGlobal Education
Aditya Birla EducationAcademy’s Post Graduate Diplomain Global Education helps educatorsdevelop their teaching skills andknowledge in accordance with bestglobal practices and become more
effective teachers. This online pro-gram also provides an opportunityfor working professionals to transi-tion into the education space andmake a smooth career switch. As thecourse is developed and delivered byglobally renowned academicians, itpromises academic excellence. Thesalient features of PGDGE arepracticum based teaching and learn-ing, internship opportunities inreputed Indian schools, and campusplacement assistance.
IIM Skills — Content WritingMaster Course
IIM SKILLS tops the list of insti-tutes that provide training for con-tent writing. The Content WritingMaster Course at IIM SKILLS showsyou how to excel in the art of con-tent writing. They offer the mostcomprehensive course that is a per-fect mix of content writing and con-tent marketing, which is the need ofthe hour for a lucrative job. Thecourse is entirely online, obliterat-ing the need for a commute to theinstitute. Also, they take in only alimited number of students facili-tating personal attention to everyparticipant, irrespective of yourprofession. The design is such thatanyone can learn and benefit fromit. The mentor/trainer ensures everycandidate understands all aspects ofthe training.
Great learning mastering BigAnalytics course
Big Data helps organisations tocreate new growth opportunities
and entirely new categories of com-panies that can combine and analyseindustry data. How is this hugeamount of data handled andthrough what medium or tools thedata is processed or stored? This iswhere Big Data comes into the pic-ture. Big Data Analytics coursecovers two important frameworksHadoop and Spark, which providesome of the most important tools tocarry out enormous big data tasks.The first module of the course willstart with the introduction to Bigdata and soon will advance into bigdata ecosystem tools and technolo-gies like HDFS, YARN, MapReduce,Hive, etc. In the second module, thecourse will take you through anintroduction to spark and thendive into Scala and Spark conceptslike RDD, transformations, actions,persistence and deploying Sparkapplications.
Data Science for BusinessDecision Making
Upgrad in collaboration withIIM Kozhikode has launched theprogramme Data Science forBusiness Decision Making for pro-fessionals from all backgrounds.Every business requires to use datain order to solve complex issues, sothere is a purpose why Data Sciencehas progressed as a lucrative andhigh-growth career option.Professionals can choose to upskilltheir career by exploring this alter-native, by undertaking a course inData Science.
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In order to provide world-class educationand promote high academic achieve-
ment for the students at all levels, largesteducational assemblage Tritya EducationalTrust has expanded their reach and start-ed an abroad-education wing TrityaOverseas Education. It provides compre-hensive training to those students withdreams of studying abroad and makesthem well-equipped with all material andextensive information regarding theirdream course.
Tritya Overseas Education offers com-prehensive classroom training for testssuch as MAT, GRE, SAT, TOEFL, IELTSand PTE. They provide a wide bouquet of
services including career counseling, over-seas study, immigration and funding,visa and admission in countries such asCanada, New Zealand, UK, Ukraine,USA and Australia.
“We feel education is the backbone ofany nation and our mission is to build thenation through education and beyond. Wemake the cumbersome admission processof overseas education smooth with TrityaOverseas Education. Our immigrationcounselors continuously guide the studentsto the right path keeping in mind theirpreferences and countries. Our workdoesn’t end here. We also provide post-admission care to the students,” saidCaptain Amardeep, Founder and Director,Tritya Group of Institutions.
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An online learning plat-form for Government
jobs, ixamBee, has raisedfunding for an undisclosedamount led by MumbaiAngles.
Dr NarendraShyamsukha from JITOAngel Network and exist-ing investor Keyur Joshi(co-founder MakeMyTrip)and few noted alumni ofISB, Hyderabad also par-ticipated in the currentround.
More than five millionstudents have been bene-fited by ixamBee. The plat-form is gaining populari-ty due to its high-qualitycontent that has con-tributed to the success ofthousands of students ingetting placed in variousgovernment jobs.
More than five crorestudents are preparing forgovernment job exams andmost of them come fromsmall towns and villages.Popularity of Governmentjobs has immensely
increased due to job loss-es and uncertainty in theprivate sector post Covid-19. Recruitment examshave started again after apause.
Chandraprakash Joshi,Co-Founder, ixamBeesaid: “Working fromhome, we recorded 100 percent plus revenue growthin the last two quarters.Also 99.7 per cent of ourwebsite traffic is organicthat reflects the populari-ty of ixamBee among stu-dents. Funding at this stage
will help us in creatingsuperior ixamBee’s learn-ing experience (iLX) andaccelerating our growth.”
Co-founded byChandraprakash Joshi(Ex-RBI and alumni ofISB, Hyderabad), ArunimaSinha (Ex-SIDBI) andSandeep Singh (Ex-MakeMyTrip) the plat-form has been focussingon providing completeonline learning experienceto the students to whomcoaching classes are notaccessible.
Universally, education formsthe backbone of a consciousand progressive society. The
values inculcated at an early age tendto stick with adults that much eas-ier. So when it comes to the biggestthreat to our generation — the cli-mate crisis — the world is instinc-tively turning towards the youngergeneration for a grassroots move-ment.
Today, if the climate strikes by,the likes of Greta Thunberg are get-ting noticed, it’s because the messageresonates with everyone. But theirgeneration did not just come to beclimate and nature conscious on dayone. It’s taken years of conscioussteps by policymakers, which has inturn been accepted and enforced bysociety, to create an environmen-tally-conscious nation.
Environmental consciousness— what’s exceptional’ to some, is thenorm in Sweden.
Consider Sweden, which is wayahead of the curve when it comes tounderstanding the natural world.Environmental education for themgoes much beyond theoreticalknowledge about nature. It aids inan evolved and action-orientedapproach to solving issues like cli-mate change, plastic pollution, etc.
The seeds of a green revolutionwere sown in 1969 when the gov-ernment introduced environmentaleducational policies into the cur-riculums. The teachings aren’t com-partmentalised or limited to aware-ness campaigns like bringing downour consumption of single-use plas-tics. It's holistic and everyone therecontributes equally.
Like Sweden, India also took an
initiative from the StockholmSummit in 1972 to integrate envi-ronmental policies with its estab-lishment of the Ministry ofEnvironment and Forests and othermeasures to move towards a green-er world. For instance, we have beensuccessful in educating a wholegeneration about the ill effects offirecrackers. The firecrackers indus-try has witnessed a steady declineover the years — 2019 saw a dropin 25 per cent to 30 per cent in sales.
India’s culture, lifestyle, and
philosophy are firmly rooted in theconcept of our coexistence withnature. Be it rivers, mountains,lakes, animals, flora, the mineralworld, or the stars and planets —India has an intrinsic relationshipwith nature, to the point that mil-lions worship it in various formssince time immemorial. This factwas echoed in a conversation I hadwith a leading conservationist fromthe USA. He remarked how road-kills are much less common inIndia and a large reason for it is
embedded in our cultural values.Across geographies, several big
and small steps have been taken toprotect the environment. A citizeninitiative like iamgurgaon, which isfocused on restoring Gurgaon’sgreen habitat has been a massive stepin the right direction towards pro-tecting the environment. It consist-ed of a group of concerned residentsstriving to make a difference.
We must laud every effort andcheer for every step that we taketowards an environmentally con-scious society. In a large country likeIndia, the impact of such actions aremassive. Yet much remains to bedesired. It’s limited to a minusculepopulation of hyper-aware individ-uals and organisations. What stepscan we take to address this gap ofawareness creation at the grassroots?
Environmental educationmust be holistic
It’s our collective responsibilityto do something about the naturecrisis. It’s not up to anyone individ-ual or entity. Taking a holistic lookinto creating transformations fromthe ground up will help India reachits 2050 Paris Agreement goals andturn into a truly sustainable society.
Environmental education isoffering us the audacity to hope fora brighter future. It’s time to join therevolution.
The IIHMR Universityinvites applications for MBAin Digital Health.
It is an interdisciplinarymaster’s programme in digitalhealth, aimed to develop high-ly qualified experts in areasrequiring interface betweencomputer science, IT and med-icine.
The programme enables instaying at the cutting-edge ofemerging health technology,including digital health, tele-health and health automation.
Duration: Two yearsHow to apply: Log on to
www.iihmr.edu.in.Last date to apply: March
25, 2021.
����"�������� �The School of Design and
Visual Arts (SDVA) at ApeejayStya University (ASU) invitesapplications for admissions to itsBachelor in Design programmefor the year 2021-22 with spe-cialisations in Fashion Design,Interior Design, Animation &Multimedia, and GraphicDesign.
After completion of thecourse, a student may work as aFashion Designer, FashionStylist, Costume Designer,
Interior Designer,Graphic Designer,
A n i m a t i o nFilmmaker, VFX Artist,or Creative Head in
reputed fashion & apparelbrands, design houses, mediahouses, or corporatehouses/institutions accordingto their specialisations.
Some students with anentrepreneurial bent of mindmay opt for setting up venturesin their respective fields.
Eligibility: Students need tosecure at least 50% aggregatemarks in Class XII in any streamfrom a recognised Board. Thosestudents who are going to attendtheir final exams this year mayalso apply; however, the finaladmissions will be held onlyafter they submit their boardcertificates with the minimumaggregate marks as mentioned.
All eligible applicants shallbe shortlisted based on theiroverall academic performancesand aptitude in the onlineentrance test followed by amock test.
How to apply: The appli-cation forms can be down-loaded from the University web-site: www.university.apeejay.edu.
Last date to apply: June 8,2021.
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FINANCESMANAGE YOUR
FINANCESMANAGE YOUR
A workshop was conductedon the theme of
‘Atmanirbhar Bharat throughExperiential Learning,Vocational Education,Internship, Apprenticeship andEntrepreneurship’ at theUniversity School of Education,GGSIP University in collabo-ration with MGNCRE,Department of HigherEducation, Ministry ofEducation on the March 23,2021.
The workshop was wellreceived by the target audiencewhich comprised of the prin-cipals and faculty of BEd col-leges affiliated to GGSIP
University. The welcomeaddress was delivered by ProfDhananjay Joshi Dean, USEand was steered by DrShatrughan Bhardwaj coveringall the aspects of pedagogicalinputs required to establish asynergy between experientiallearning, vocational education,internship, apprenticeship andentrepreneurship for makingBharat Atmanirbhar in the realsense.
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The 2020 was one of the biggestyears of transformations theeducation industry is wit-
nessing currently. The coronaviruspandemic rapidly forced our class-room learning process to com-pletely adhere to digital mediumsand at times blended education(partially online and classroom) inorder to have an uninterruptedlearning.
The COVID 19 pandemicimpacted the education sector heav-ily. With 1.26 billion children world-wide having gone education less asestimated by the UNESCO, out ofwhich 300 million children are justfrom India. The initial hiccups of thelockdown had compellednot onlystudents but also educators to comeout of their comfort zone and learnt
new skills to master online teachingplatforms among others.
The complete education systemhas gone through an unprecedent-ed growth in digital transformation,moreover, the education expertssuggest that this is just the begin-ning. As we move towards a newbeginning, we should be ready withnovel challenges including studentretention, student engagement, col-laborative learning requirementsas well as competitive models frominternational institutions. Edtech isgoing to play a pivotal role in solv-ing these challenges for higher edu-cation institutes. The key trends are:
!�������������One should not be surprised to
learn that the usage of videos for
online training (or video-basedlearning) will get a new momentumthis year to make the educationprocess interesting and increasestudent engagement.
No doubt videos are a high-impact medium, and it creates anengaging learning experience withhigh recall and retention. It alsoencourages microlearning, creativ-
ity and interactivity among the stu-dents.
There is a myth that video-based learning was created toreplace teachers and trainers, butactually it was created to enhancethe learning experience and increasethe accessibility of quality educationeven in the far-flung areas, wherethere is a dismal student and teacherratio.
����������� The Internet of Things,
Artificial Intelligence, MachineLearning, Virtual Reality andAugmented Reality are going to playa pivotal role in education in orderto enhance studentl earning andengagement.
It will reinvent the online learn-
ing space in the years to come.Through AI, student learning abil-ities will be estimated, which in turnwill help us to bring modificationsin the learning process.
But the biggest challenge inimplementing these evolved tech-nologies in the education is theinternet penetration especially in tierII and tier III cities. These technolo-gies have to be affordable so thatunderprivileged students can alsohave an access to them.
�"����"����� �With the onset of new strain of
muted coronavirus, looks like thefirst few months of 2021 would fol-low the new normal. In such a sce-nario, blended learning will play asignificant role for education sector.
For the past few years, blendedlearning has been a part of premierhigher education institutes such asIIMs and IITs. This form of learn-ing combines online educationalmaterials and opportunities foronline interaction with traditionalplace-based classroom methods.Since some courses involve practi-cal classes, blended learning iseffective for such studies. It helps inenhancing the access to educationand maximises flexibility to bothstudents and teachers. This kind oflearning process initiates studentinterest, interaction and satisfactionin the learning environment.Blended learning is no doubt thefuture of global learning.
cerns over his fitness level aheadof the tour of South Africa andZimbabwe, saying that his recentgood form would not have beenpossible if he was unfit.
Sharjeel’s selection in thePakistan T20 squad for the fourgames in South Africa andanother three in Zimbabwe hasbeen questioned by some formerplayers and critics who believehis fitness is not up to the levelrequired to play internationalcricket. He had performed wellin six matches in the recentPakistan Super League.
“I have been playing toplevel cricket for the last six toseven months in domestic sea-son. I have played around eightfirst class matches and other listA and T20 matches domestical-ly and in Pakistan Super League,”Sharjeel said during a mediainteraction.
“I am confident by the timethe matches come up in SouthAfrica my fitness will be better.But I don’t think I am unfit. I amfit. That is how I have playedconstantly in the last sevenmonths. I don’t think my fitnessis an issue.”
The hard-hitting batsmanalso dismissed reports that hehad been given specific tasks anddeadline to achieve a benchmarkfitness level to be in the Pakistanteam eleven.
“There is nothing negativeand I am doing my individualtraining. No one has given me
any deadlines. I myself want toimprove my fitness and amworking with the team trainer,”he said.
“I am also paying a lot ofattention to my skills and I bat-ted for two hours yesterday. Skilland fitness work together.”
Sharjeel said he is lookingforward at the coming tour as achallenge. “I know pitches willbe different in South Africa butI always try to play the ball onmerit and stick to my naturalgame,” said Sharjeel who will betouring South Africa for the firsttime.
Asked how difficult it wasfor him to make a comebackafter serving ban for two and ahalf year for spot-fixing, Sharjeelsaid everyone had a past and hedidn’t try to think too muchabout it now. “I have a past butafter my comeback I am just try-ing to focus on cricket, enjoy it,give performances, play my nat-ural game and help win match-es for the team.”
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World number one T20Ibatswoman Shafali Verma
blasted 60 runs off 30 balls afterleft-arm spinner RajeshwariGayakwad’s fine bowling displayto power India to a consolationnine-wicket win over SouthAfrica in the third and finalmatch here on Tuesday.
Gayakwad picked up threewickets for just nine runs tohelp India restrict SouthAfrica Women to 112 for 7and then Verma and captainSmriti Mandhana (48 not outoff 28 balls) shared 96 runs forthe opening wicket to canterto an easy win with nine oversto spare.
Shafali hit seven fours andfive sixes during his blisteringknock while Mandhana hadnine boundaries in his unbeat-en innings.
SA Women clinched thethree-match T20I series 2-1,having won the first twomatches.
Chasing 113 for victory,the 17-year old Shafali went ona rampage from the word go bypicking up 18 runs (3 fours anda six) off the first over bowledby Shabnim Ismail.
She kept attacking the
opposition bowlers andsmashed three more sixes inthe next three overs, includingtwo off Nadine de Klerk’s sec-ond over.
The South Africa bowlerscame in for severe punishmentfrom Shafali as she produced awide array of shots during heraudacious hitting show.
Nondumiso Shangaseended the young Indian open-er’s knock by having her caughtby Ismail in the deep in theninth over. But by then, thematch was as good as over inIndia’s favour.
Mandhana, who was like aspectator when Shafali wenton the rampage, showed herclass by producing the finalflourish, taking India to 114 for1 in 11 overs.
Earlier, Gayakwad (3/9) wasthe star performer as she bowledwith great control and guile toflummox the South Africanbatters while fellow slowbowlers Radha Yadav (1/24) andDeepti Sharma (1/22) chippedin with impressive displays.
Skipper Sune Luus was thetop-scorer for South Africawith 28 while Lara Goodallfinished with 25 not out from17 balls after they were askedto bat.
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The Gold rush continuedfor Indian shooters at the
ISSF World Cup on Tuesdayas Ganemat Sekhon andAngad Vir Singh Bajwaclaimed the skeet mixed teamtop honours here.
The 20-year-old Ganematand 25-year-old Angad, whohad topped the qualificationwith a score of 141, producedanother good show to beat theKazakh pair of Olga Panarinaand Alexandr Yechshenko 33-
29 in the Gold medal show-down. It was the only finallined up for the day.
With this, table-topperIndia’s Gold haul at the ongo-ing event went up to seven.The hosts have also won fourSilvers and as many Bronzemedals for a total of 15 medalsso far in the tournament.
Another Indian pair ofParinaaz Dhaliwal and MairajAhmad Khan, however,missed the Bronze medal by awhisker at the Dr Karni SinghShooting Range on Tuesday.
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Big-hitting teenage Indianbatter Shafali Verma rose
a rung to reclaim the topspot in the ICC women’s T20rankings, riding on her fineperformances in the ongoingseries against South Africa athome.
The 17-year-old, whograbbed the top position forthe first time after helping herside reach the knockout phaseof the T20 World Cup last yearin Australia, has leapfroggedAustralia’s Beth Mooney withscores of 23 and 47.
The Indian team, despitewinning the final T20 onTuesday, lose 1-2 to the visi-tors in the three-match series.
South Africa openerLizelle Lee is another one togain in the rankings eventhough the big-hitting open-er lost her top spot in the ODIrankings within a week ofreplacing England’s TammyBeaumont, the ICC said in a
statement.Lee has gained three slots
to reach 11th position amongT20I batters after a match-winning 70 helped SouthAfrica to a winning 2-0 leadon Sunday.
Laura Wolvaardt has risenfive places to 24th after guid-ing her team to victory withan unbeaten 53 in the secondmatch, while captain SuneLuus (up five places to 38th)and Nadine de Klerk (upthree places to 74th) are theother South Africans toadvance in the batting list.
For India,D e e p t iS h a r m ahas movedup four placesto 40th andteenager RichaGhosh has rocket-ed 59 places to 85thamong batters whileyoung all-rounderHarleen Deol hasprogressed in both
lists, up 262 places to 99thamong batters and up 76places to 146th amongbowlers.
Left-arm spinnerRajeshwari Gayakwad hasadvanced from 34th to 25th.
There have also been somenotable changes in the ODIrankings.
In the update to the longerformat, India captain MithaliRaj, a formerly top-ranked
batter, has moved up oneplace to eighth after an
unbeaten 79 whilePriya Punia hasmoved up to five
places to 53rd.Gayakwad is
up eightplaces to38th among
bowlers.The 4-1 series win
saw South Africa over-take England to secondposition in the ODIteam rankings whileIndia remain fourth.
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India batsman Krunal Pandyasmashed the fastest fifty by an
ODI debutant during the firstmatch against England here onTuesday and broke downremembering his father whodied in January this year aftersuffering a heart attack.
The 30-year-old Krunalwas handed the India cap by hisyounger brother and star all-rounder Hardik.
He reached the half centu-ry mark in just 26 balls, overtak-
ing John Morris (35 balls) ofNew Zealand.
Krunal broke down whilebeing interviewed by the hostbroadcaster after his blisteringunbeaten knock of 58 (31 balls),which was studded with sevenfours and two sixes.
“This one is for my father,”was all that Krunal could tellcommentator Murali Kartikwhen asked about his unbeat-en knock before being over-whelmed by emotions.
He was enveloped byHardik in a tight hug soon after.
India batsman Shreyas Iyerdislocated his left shoulder
while fielding in the first ODIagainst England here onTuesday, raising serious doubtsover his participation in the IPLbeginning April 9.
The incident happened inthe eighth over of the Englandinnings when Shreyas dived ona drive hit by Jonny Bairstowoff pacer Shardul Thakur. The26-year-old is unlikely to takepart in the remaining twoODIs.
“Shreyas Iyer subluxated(partially dislocated) his leftshoulder in the 8th over whilefielding. He has been taken forfurther scans and won’t takeany further part in the game,”said the BCCI in a medicalupdate.
“Rohit Sharma was hit onthe right elbow while battingand felt some pain later. Hewon’t take the field,” it added.
Shreyas looked in pain andwalked off the field while hold-ing his shoulder, raising con-cerns over his fitness ahead ofthe IPL in which he captainsDelhi Capitals.
The Mumbaikar had per-ished for just 6 while batting.
It could take as much as sixweeks to recover from shoulderdislocation and much longer incase a surgery is required.
Debutants KrunalPandya and PrasidhKrishna made the big
stage their own to give an all-round India a convincing 66-run victory over world cham-pions England in the first ODIof the three-match series hereon Tuesday.
After under-fire openerShikhar Dhawan deliveredwith a solid 98, Krunal (58 notout off 31) smashed the fastestfifty by a debutant to fire Indiato 317 for five followingEngland’s decision to field.
At 135 for no loss in the15th over, with Jason Roy (46off 35) and Jonny Bairstow (94
off 55) going strong, Englandseemed to be running awaywith the chase before Krishna(4/54) and Shardul Thakur(3/37) shared seven wicketsbetween them to script a win-ning comeback.
The 25-year-old Krishna’sfigures were the best by anIndian debutant as England’sinnings ended at 251 in 42.1overs.
“It didn’t start off well, andthey came hard at us becausewe bowled poorly, but we hadbelief,” said the Karnatakabowler, who had drawn highpraise from skipper Virat Kohlilong before making the squad.
Considering the nature ofthe surface, it was a com-
mendable effort from theIndian bowlers, who carried onfrom the T20 series to defendgettable targets with remark-able ease.
Krishna, who leaked 37runs in his first three overs,came back strongly and trou-bled the batsmen with his abil-ity to generate extra bounce.
Thakur once again provid-ed the breakthroughs when theteam needed and senior proBhuvneshwar Kumar toochipped in with a couple ofwickets towards the end.
England had the game inthe bag but were guilty ofthrowing it away, failing tobuild on the flier of a startgiven Bairstow and Roy.
Earlier, Dhawan and ViratKohli (56 off 60) shared 105runs for the second wicketbefore Krunal (58 not out off31) and K L Rahul (62 not outoff 43) sent England on aleather hunt with theirunbeaten 112-run stand off 57balls to take the team past 300.
Dhawan hammered 11fours and two sixes in his 106-ball knock while Krunal plun-dered seven fours and twomaximums in his entertaininginnings.
Rahul also got welcomeruns after a lean run in theT20 series.
Put into bat here, RohitSharma (28 off 42) andDhawan shared 64 runs forthe opening wicket.
After Rohit’s dismissal,skipper Kohli joined Dhawanand the two rall ied theinnings.
Dhawan brought up hisfifty with a maximum, a slog-sweep, off 68 balls, in the 24thover, and then changed gears.
et win in the second ODI againstBangladesh on Tuesday after astring of fielding errors dashedthe tourists’ hopes of victory.
Black Caps skipper TomLatham scored an unbeaten 110after being dropped twice withNew Zealand chasing 272 atHagley Oval.
New Zealand batsmanJimmy Neesham was also givena life, with the errors undoingBangladesh’s good work in mak-ing 271 for six after losing thetoss and being put into bat.
Bangladesh captain TamimIqbal was left frustrated after see-ing his side come close to amaiden victory on New Zealandsoil.
“We should have won thisgame. We created chances butwe just couldn’t hold on tothose dropped catches,” he said.
“We hardly ever win gamesbut in this kind of situation wehave to make sure that we doeverything 100 percent. I’m dis-appointed.”
Tamim top-scored for thetourists with 78 andMohammad Mithun con-tributed an unbeaten 73.
