C onfusion and chaos pre- vailed at several airports across India on day 1 of the resumption of the flights after two months of coronavirus- induced lockdown even as 630 flights were cancelled, includ- ing 82 to and from Delhi and 50 flights to and from Mumbai. The cancellations were caused by the West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh Governments refusing to relent to the requests by the Civil Aviation Ministry to allow flight services from Monday, and limited operations at major airports such as Mumbai, Chennai and Hyderabad. Consequently, many pas- sengers reached the airports on Monday only to be told by the airline staff that their flights have been cancelled. Many people took to social media to vent their anger. States like Maharashtra, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu, which are home to some of the busiest airports in the country, were reluctant to allow domestic flight services from their airports, citing swelling Covid-19 cases there. Fliers were taken aback upon their arrival at Terminal 3 of Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport, and vented their ire for not being informed beforehand. However, airport officials said the cancellation took place on account of several States telling the Centre that they were not in a position to operate flights agreed upon earlier. Delhi Airport had installed a scan-and-print boarding card system for contactless board- ing, however the scanner mal- functioned. The Delhi airport could handle 125 departures and 118 arrivals on Monday. Union Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Monday evening, “From no domestic passenger flights yesterday to 532 flights and 39,231 passengers today, action has returned to Indian skies. With Andhra Pradesh set to resume oper- ations from tomorrow & West Bengal from 28 May, these numbers are all set to increase further.” On May 22, bookings had opened for around 1,100 domestic flights for Monday. The airlines, which were allowed to operate one-third of their pre-lockdown domestic services, have been busy since Sunday night to further rework their flight schedules. T he Chinese Army has intruded at least three to four kms into the Hot Springs area of Eastern Ladakh and pitched tents there. India has ramped up its troop strength after the Chinese more than doubled their presence at all the four stand-off sites in the region. There are now about 4,000 Chinese soldiers at the face-off locations. Also, at most of the places especially Galwan valley, the Chinese have started construct- ing barracks for additional troops and heightened aerial surveillance though on its own side of the LAC by helicopters. While the Line of Actual Control (LAC) remains tense due to these ongoing stand-offs on for the past 20-25 days, the local commanders of the two armies of the rank of Brigadiers have held more than five rounds of talk including one on Sunday. However, these parleys, so far, have failed to defuse the situation. Diplomatic efforts are also on at various levels between the two countries to avoid the situation from esca- lating further. M aharashtra continues to dominate the Covid-19 spread with 2,436 new cases and 60 deaths on Monday, out of total 6,332 new cases and 148 deaths reported across India. Countrywide count of Covid- 19 cases stood at 1,44,868 and 4,172 deaths. Tamil Nadu spotted new 805 cases, followed by Delhi (635 new cases) and Gujarat (405). Tamil Nadu has now a total of 17,082 cases, Delhi 14,053 and Gujarat 14,468. West Bengal traced 149 new cases, taking its tally of cases to 3,816. Rajasthan reported 272 new cases for a total count of 7,300. After Maharashtra Monday’s death tally of 60, Delhi witnessed 15 deaths fol- lowed by seven deaths in Tamil Nadu and six deaths in West Bengal. Of the total 1,44,868 cases, 79,987 are active patients and 60,698 recovered persons. On Monday alone, across India 3,004 persons recovered. As many as 1,186 persons recov- ered in Maharashtra alone. Highly populated States such as Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh have 2,668 and 2,988 active patients with 3,660 and 3,571 recovery till date. No deaths reported from these two States on Monday. T he Centre on Monday announced to go for a mas- sive increase in the number of examination centres for the pending CBSE Class X and XII board exams. HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank said that the exams will be now spread to 15,000 centres instead of 3,000 test centre across the country to maintain social distancing norms. The pend- ing exams are to be held from July 1 to July 15, with results expected to be announced by late July . “Earlier, as per the direc- tion of Home Ministry the board was slated to hold the exams at only 3,000 exam cen- tres. However, the number of exam centres has been increased by 12,000 consider- ing the Covid-19 situation and the need for social distancing among students,” said a senior HRD Ministry official. O bserving that the Government should be more worried about the health of citizens rather than the health of commercial air- lines, the Supreme Court on Monday asked the Centre and the national carrier Air India to keep the middle seats vacant on its scheduled flights as a safety measure. The directive will become opera- tional after 10 days during which AI can fill up the mid- dle seat as well. The top court asked the Bombay High Court to decide the plea against Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) circulars expedi- tiously and said Air India and other airlines will have to fol- low the order given by the HC with regard to safety mea- sures, including maintaining of social distancing inside aircraft by keeping middle seats vacant between two passengers in a row. A Bench headed by Chief Justice SA Bobde conducted an urgent hearing on Eid holiday through video-conferencing to hear the appeals of the Central Government and Air India against the Bombay High Court order. “You should be worried about the health of citizens, not about the health of commercial airlines,” the Bench, also com- prising AS Bopanna and Hirshikesh Roy, told Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who appeared for the Centre. The High Court had on May 22 sought response from Air India and the DGCA on a petition of an AI pilot claim- ing that the airline was not fol- lowing safety measures for Covid-19 while bringing back Indians stranded abroad. The High Court had directed Air India and DGCA to file affidavits clarifying their stand and posted the petition for further hearing on June 2. The pilot, Deven Kanani, in his plea claimed that a cir- cular issued by the Government of India on March 23, 2020 laid some conditions to prevent the spread of Covid-19 while bringing back Indians stranded abroad due to the pandemic. However, the condition pertaining to keeping the mid- dle seat between two passen- gers empty was not being fol- lowed by the Air India, he said in the plea. Ghaziabad: The Ghaziabad administration on Monday sealed its border with Delhi again in view of the rising cases of the coronavirus in the dis- trict, according to an official order. Essential services includ- ing doctors, paramedical staff, police, bank employees and media personnel are allowed to move across the two cities after showing identity cards, the order stated. Shimla: Hamirpur and Solan districts in Himachal Pradesh will continue with the coron- avirus lockdown for a month after the current nationwide phase ends on May 31. In addition, section 144 of the CrPC, which prohibits gather- ing of people, will also remain in force in Shimla district up to June 30, an official said. Kathmandu: Criticising Indian Army Chief Manoj Mukund Naravane’s remarks on Kathmandu acting on “behest of someone” over the Lipulekh issue, Nepal Defence Minister Ishwor Pokhrel has said that the statement was an insult to the nation’s history and was made ignoring its social characteris- tics and freedom. “Such a statement is an insulting statement made by ignoring Nepal’s history, our social characteristics and free- dom. With this, the Indian CoAS has also hurt the senti- ments of the Nepali Gurkha army personnel who lay down their lives to protect India. It must now become difficult for them to stand tall in front of the Gurkha forces,” Nepal’s Defence Minister reacted to Indian Army chief’s statement during an interview with a local daily, The Rising Nepal, on May 22. On May 15, General Naravane had suggested that Nepal might be raising the issue of road construction via Lipulekh to Mansarovar at “behest of someone else” after Kathmandu protested against India’s newly-built road passing through Lipulekh area. During a webinar organ- ised by a think tank, General Naravane, without naming China, said on last Friday, “There is reason to believe that they might have raised this issue at the behest of someone else and that is very much pos- sible.” “The road constructed by the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) is on the west side of Kali river. So, I do not know what exactly they are agitating about,” he added. India had made it clear that there is no dispute over the new road built in Uttarakhand, connecting the Lipulekh pass with Kailash Mansarovar route in China. But, Nepal had protested against it and also deployed a security post near the area. “How professional is it for the head of the Army to make a political statement? We don’t have anything like that here. Nepali Army does not go vocal on such matter. The Army is not there to speak,” he said. “They may have been some shortcomings in similar talks held in the past on many occa- sion and in international treaties and agreements. As a close and friendly state of Nepal, India should give a pos- itive response. We will put forth everything in clear terms in a dialogue. Such a dialogue will be held not based on mind matters but with facts and evi- dences,” the Defence Minister added. Last week, Nepali Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli had also responded to Naravane’s comments saying it is “inap- propriate” to make the Army speak over border issues in between two neighbouring countries. Earlier this month, the Indian envoy was also handed over a diplomatic note by Nepal after a dispute arose over the construction of the road lead- ing to Mansarovar via Lipulek, a territory claimed by Nepal. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh had inaugurated the link road to Kailash Mansarovar yatra on May 8. Nepal said it has “consistently maintained” that as per the Sugauli Treaty (1816), “all the territories east of Kali (Mahakali) river, includ- ing Limpiyadhura, Kalapani LipuLekh, belong to Nepal.” ANI P rotesting against the State Government not accepting their certain demands, the MP Liquor Traders’ Association on Monday declared to close down their outlets indefinitely. The two warring factions have been busy discussing their demands for a while but the State Government did not bow down to the pressure exerted by the liquor traders prompting the latter to close their outlets. The decision was taken despite the fact that a petition on the issue is pending with the MP High Court and next hearing is scheduled on May 27. The liquor traders were repeatedly urging the MP Government to lower the licence fee in the wake of the shops remaining closed for well a month which adverse- ly impacted sales, according to them. The State Government did offer some relaxations but majority of the traders were not satisfied with these measures. In between the Excise department had also threat- ened to cancel contracts of these liquor shops. Sources also claim that a section of the traders are of the view that the shops should continue to operate while the other section is adamant on exerting pressure on the state government for accepting their demands including low- ering licence fee. The association repre- senting 90 liquor shops had recently announced not to reopen their shops in the rural areas, as allowed by the district administration. Amid lockdown 4.0, the Shivraj Government has allowed green zones to reopen liquor shops while those falling under red zone are yet to get the approval for liquor sale. I ntense hot conditions pre- vailed in the State and State capital on Monday; with day temperatures at 46.6 degree Celsius high in the State, 44.5 degree Celsius was the highest of the season in the State capital. Reeling under severe heat- wave conditions warning of severe heatwave conditions were issued for by Gwalior, Chambal, Rewa, Sagar and Shahdol divi- sions and Shajapur,Agar, Rajgarh, Raisen, Khandwa, Khargone, Balaghat, Katni, Narsinghpur, Chhindwara and Jabalpur districts. At present the intensity of heat is increasing every day in the States of Madhya Pradesh and adjoining States of Madhya Pradesh due to the prevailing dry northeast winds over the plains of northwest India, cen- tral India and interior parts of eastern India. The current heat- wave in Madhya Pradesh and other States including Madhya Pradesh is likely to continue in these areas with extreme inten- sity. East Madhya Pradesh and Vidarbha are likely to experi- ence a similar situation for the next two days and heat inten- sity in these areas relief could be witnessed by May 28. A sim- ilar situation is expected to con- tinue in western Madhya Pradesh during the next 2-3 days. Under favorable wind con- ditions in Central and adjoin- ing eastern parts of India including Madhya Pradesh, the heatwave conditions are likely to decrease from May 29 in these areas. The day temperatures con- tinued to record at extreme lev- els as Nowgong, Khargone and Gwalior recorded day temper- ature at 46 degree Celsius. Dry weather in Madhya Pradesh is likely to continue in some areas and intense heat condi- tions in some areas till the end of the month. RNI Regn. No. MPENG/2004/13703, Regd. No. L-2/BPLON/41/2006-2008
Transcript
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Confusion and chaos pre-vailed at several airports
across India on day 1 of theresumption of the flights aftertwo months of coronavirus-induced lockdown even as 630flights were cancelled, includ-ing 82 to and from Delhi and50 flights to and from Mumbai.The cancellations were causedby the West Bengal and AndhraPradesh Governments refusingto relent to the requests by theCivil Aviation Ministry to allowflight services from Monday,and limited operations at majorairports such as Mumbai,Chennai and Hyderabad.
Consequently, many pas-sengers reached the airports onMonday only to be told by theairline staff that their flightshave been cancelled. Manypeople took to social media tovent their anger. States likeMaharashtra, West Bengal andTamil Nadu, which are home tosome of the busiest airports inthe country, were reluctant toallow domestic flight servicesfrom their airports, citingswelling Covid-19 cases there.
Fliers were taken abackupon their arrival at Terminal3 of Delhi’s Indira GandhiInternational Airport, andvented their ire for not beinginformed beforehand.However, airport officials saidthe cancellation took place onaccount of several States telling
the Centre that they were notin a position to operate flightsagreed upon earlier.
Delhi Airport had installeda scan-and-print boarding cardsystem for contactless board-ing, however the scanner mal-functioned. The Delhi airport
could handle 125 departuresand 118 arrivals on Monday.
Union Civil AviationMinister Hardeep Singh Purisaid on Monday evening,“From no domestic passengerf lights yesterday to 532flights and 39,231 passengers
today, action has returned toIndian skies. With AndhraPradesh set to resume oper-ations from tomorrow &West Bengal from 28 May,these numbers are all set toincrease further.”
On May 22, bookings had
opened for around 1,100domestic flights for Monday.The airlines, which wereallowed to operate one-third oftheir pre-lockdown domesticservices, have been busy sinceSunday night to further reworktheir flight schedules.
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The Chinese Army hasintruded at least three to
four kms into the Hot Springsarea of Eastern Ladakh andpitched tents there. India hasramped up its troop strengthafter the Chinese more thandoubled their presence at all thefour stand-off sites in theregion. There are now about
4,000 Chinese soldiers at theface-off locations.
Also, at most of the placesespecially Galwan valley, theChinese have started construct-ing barracks for additionaltroops and heightened aerialsurveillance though on its ownside of the LAC by helicopters.
While the Line of ActualControl (LAC) remains tensedue to these ongoing stand-offs
on for the past 20-25 days, thelocal commanders of the twoarmies of the rank of Brigadiershave held more than fiverounds of talk including one onSunday. However, these parleys,so far, have failed to defuse thesituation. Diplomatic effortsare also on at various levelsbetween the two countries toavoid the situation from esca-lating further.
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Maharashtra continues todominate the Covid-19
spread with 2,436 new casesand 60 deaths on Monday, outof total 6,332 new cases and 148deaths reported across India.Countrywide count of Covid-19 cases stood at 1,44,868 and4,172 deaths.
Tamil Nadu spotted new805 cases, followed by Delhi(635 new cases) and Gujarat(405). Tamil Nadu has now atotal of 17,082 cases, Delhi14,053 and Gujarat 14,468.
West Bengal traced 149new cases, taking its tally ofcases to 3,816. Rajasthanreported 272 new cases for atotal count of 7,300.
After MaharashtraMonday’s death tally of 60,Delhi witnessed 15 deaths fol-
lowed by seven deaths in TamilNadu and six deaths in WestBengal.
Of the total 1,44,868 cases,79,987 are active patients and60,698 recovered persons. OnMonday alone, across India3,004 persons recovered. Asmany as 1,186 persons recov-ered in Maharashtra alone.
Highly populated Statessuch as Uttar Pradesh andMadhya Pradesh have 2,668and 2,988 active patients with3,660 and 3,571 recovery tilldate. No deaths reportedfrom these two States onMonday.
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The Centre on Mondayannounced to go for a mas-
sive increase in the number ofexamination centres for thepending CBSE Class X and XIIboard exams.
HRD Minister RameshPokhriyal Nishank said thatthe exams will be now spreadto 15,000 centres instead of3,000 test centre across thecountry to maintain socialdistancing norms. The pend-ing exams are to be held fromJuly 1 to July 15, with resultsexpected to be announced bylate July .
“Earlier, as per the direc-tion of Home Ministry theboard was slated to hold theexams at only 3,000 exam cen-tres. However, the number ofexam centres has beenincreased by 12,000 consider-ing the Covid-19 situation andthe need for social distancingamong students,” said a seniorHRD Ministry official.
more worried about thehealth of citizens rather thanthe health of commercial air-lines, the Supreme Court onMonday asked the Centreand the national carrier AirIndia to keep the middle seatsvacant on its scheduled flightsas a safety measure. Thedirective will become opera-tional after 10 days duringwhich AI can fill up the mid-dle seat as well.
The top court asked theBombay High Court to decidethe plea against DirectorateGeneral of Civil Aviation(DGCA) circulars expedi-tiously and said Air India andother airlines will have to fol-low the order given by the HCwith regard to safety mea-sures, including maintaining ofsocial distancing inside aircraftby keeping middle seats vacantbetween two passengers in arow.
A Bench headed by ChiefJustice SA Bobde conducted anurgent hearing on Eid holidaythrough video-conferencingto hear the appeals of theCentral Government and AirIndia against the Bombay High
Court order.“You should be worried
about the health of citizens, notabout the health of commercialairlines,” the Bench, also com-prising AS Bopanna andHirshikesh Roy, told SolicitorGeneral Tushar Mehta, whoappeared for the Centre.
The High Court had onMay 22 sought response fromAir India and the DGCA on apetition of an AI pilot claim-ing that the airline was not fol-lowing safety measures forCovid-19 while bringing backIndians stranded abroad.
The High Court haddirected Air India and DGCA
to file affidavits clarifying theirstand and posted the petitionfor further hearing on June 2.
The pilot, Deven Kanani,in his plea claimed that a cir-cular issued by theGovernment of India onMarch 23, 2020 laid someconditions to prevent thespread of Covid-19 whilebringing back Indians stranded abroad due to thepandemic.
However, the conditionpertaining to keeping the mid-dle seat between two passen-gers empty was not being fol-lowed by the Air India, he saidin the plea.
Ghaziabad: The Ghaziabadadministration on Mondaysealed its border with Delhiagain in view of the rising casesof the coronavirus in the dis-trict, according to an officialorder. Essential services includ-ing doctors, paramedical staff,police, bank employees andmedia personnel are allowed tomove across the two citiesafter showing identity cards,the order stated.
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Shimla: Hamirpur and Solandistricts in Himachal Pradeshwill continue with the coron-avirus lockdown for a monthafter the current nationwidephase ends on May 31. Inaddition, section 144 of theCrPC, which prohibits gather-ing of people, will also remainin force in Shimla district up toJune 30, an official said.
Kathmandu: Criticising IndianArmy Chief Manoj MukundNaravane’s remarks onKathmandu acting on “behestof someone” over the Lipulekhissue, Nepal Defence MinisterIshwor Pokhrel has said that thestatement was an insult to thenation’s history and was madeignoring its social characteris-tics and freedom.
“Such a statement is aninsulting statement made byignoring Nepal’s history, oursocial characteristics and free-dom. With this, the IndianCoAS has also hurt the senti-ments of the Nepali Gurkhaarmy personnel who lay downtheir lives to protect India. Itmust now become difficult forthem to stand tall in front of theGurkha forces,” Nepal’sDefence Minister reacted toIndian Army chief ’s statementduring an interview with a
local daily, The Rising Nepal, onMay 22.
On May 15, GeneralNaravane had suggested thatNepal might be raising theissue of road construction viaLipulekh to Mansarovar at“behest of someone else” afterKathmandu protested againstIndia’s newly-built road passingthrough Lipulekh area.
During a webinar organ-ised by a think tank, GeneralNaravane, without namingChina, said on last Friday,“There is reason to believethat they might have raised thisissue at the behest of someoneelse and that is very much pos-sible.”
“The road constructed bythe Border Roads Organisation(BRO) is on the west side ofKali river. So, I do not knowwhat exactly they are agitatingabout,” he added.
India had made it clear thatthere is no dispute over the newroad built in Uttarakhand,connecting the Lipulekh passwith Kailash Mansarovar routein China. But, Nepal hadprotested against it and alsodeployed a security post near
the area.“How professional is it for
the head of the Army to makea political statement? We don’thave anything like that here.Nepali Army does not go vocalon such matter. The Army isnot there to speak,” he said.
“They may have been someshortcomings in similar talksheld in the past on many occa-sion and in internationaltreaties and agreements. As aclose and friendly state of
Nepal, India should give a pos-itive response. We will putforth everything in clear termsin a dialogue. Such a dialoguewill be held not based on mindmatters but with facts and evi-dences,” the Defence Ministeradded.
Last week, Nepali PrimeMinister KP Sharma Oli hadalso responded to Naravane’scomments saying it is “inap-propriate” to make the Armyspeak over border issues inbetween two neighbouringcountries.
Earlier this month, theIndian envoy was also handedover a diplomatic note by Nepalafter a dispute arose over theconstruction of the road lead-ing to Mansarovar via Lipulek,a territory claimed by Nepal.
Defence Minister RajnathSingh had inaugurated the linkroad to Kailash Mansarovaryatra on May 8. Nepal said ithas “consistently maintained”that as per the Sugauli Treaty(1816), “all the territories eastof Kali (Mahakali) river, includ-ing Limpiyadhura, KalapaniLipuLekh, belong to Nepal.”
Protesting against the StateGovernment not accepting
their certain demands, theMP Liquor Traders’Association on Mondaydeclared to close down theiroutlets indefinitely.
The two warring factionshave been busy discussingtheir demands for a while butthe State Government didnot bow down to the pressureexerted by the liquor tradersprompting the latter to closetheir outlets.
The decision was takendespite the fact that a petitionon the issue is pending withthe MP High Court and nexthearing is scheduled on May27.
The liquor traders wererepeatedly urging the MPGovernment to lower thelicence fee in the wake of theshops remaining closed forwell a month which adverse-ly impacted sales, accordingto them.
The State Governmentdid offer some relaxationsbut majority of the traderswere not satisfied with thesemeasures.
In between the Excisedepartment had also threat-ened to cancel contracts ofthese liquor shops.
Sources also claim that asection of the traders are ofthe view that the shops shouldcontinue to operate while theother section is adamant onexerting pressure on the stategovernment for acceptingtheir demands including low-ering licence fee.
The association repre-senting 90 liquor shops hadrecently announced not toreopen their shops in therural areas, as allowed by thedistrict administration.
Amid lockdown 4.0, theShivraj Government hasallowed green zones to reopenliquor shops while thosefalling under red zone are yetto get the approval for liquorsale.
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Intense hot conditions pre-vailed in the State and State
capital on Monday; with daytemperatures at 46.6 degreeCelsius high in the State, 44.5degree Celsius was the highest ofthe season in the State capital.
Reeling under severe heat-wave conditions warning ofsevere heatwave conditions wereissued for by Gwalior, Chambal,Rewa, Sagar and Shahdol divi-sions and Shajapur,Agar,Rajgarh, Raisen, Khandwa,Khargone, Balaghat, Katni,Narsinghpur, Chhindwara andJabalpur districts.
At present the intensity ofheat is increasing every day inthe States of Madhya Pradeshand adjoining States of MadhyaPradesh due to the prevailingdry northeast winds over theplains of northwest India, cen-tral India and interior parts ofeastern India. The current heat-wave in Madhya Pradesh andother States including Madhya
Pradesh is likely to continue inthese areas with extreme inten-sity.
East Madhya Pradesh andVidarbha are likely to experi-ence a similar situation for thenext two days and heat inten-sity in these areas relief couldbe witnessed by May 28. A sim-ilar situation is expected to con-tinue in western MadhyaPradesh during the next 2-3days.
Under favorable wind con-ditions in Central and adjoin-ing eastern parts of Indiaincluding Madhya Pradesh,the heatwave conditions arelikely to decrease from May 29in these areas.
The day temperatures con-tinued to record at extreme lev-els as Nowgong, Khargone andGwalior recorded day temper-ature at 46 degree Celsius. Dryweather in Madhya Pradesh islikely to continue in someareas and intense heat condi-tions in some areas till the endof the month.
To fulfill the resolution ofChief Minister Shivraj
Singh Chouhan to provideemployment to every needy,more than 99% of gram pan-chayats of the State are gettingemployment-oriented workdone under Mahatma GandhiNational Rural EmploymentGuarantee Scheme (MNRE-GA).
There are 9 works inprogress in each gram pan-chayat, with an average of 100labourers working.In this way,out of 22809 gram panchayatsof the State, one lakh 86 thou-sand 12 employment-orientedworks are being conducted in22,484 gram panchayats, inwhich more than 22.44 lakhlabourers are getting employ-ment.
Among them, about threeand a half lakhs of migrantlabourers returned from otherStates.Additional Chief
Secretary Panchayat and RuralDevelopment ManojShrivastava informed thatsince the Government of Indiaissued the MNREGA guide-lines on April 20, employmentactivities in rural areas havebeen started more rapidly fol-lowing the Corona Protocol inMadhya Pradesh.
As a result of it, employ-ment activities have been start-ed in 99 percent of gram pan-chayats. Srivastava informedthat under MNREGA, instruc-tions have been given to startsuch employment-orientedworks which can be continuedeven during the rainy season,as well as water conservationand promotion works are alsobeing done under MNREGAon priority.
So far, an amount of�829.84 crore has been paid tothe labourers under theMNREGA. In this, an amountof �439 crore 84 lakh hasbeen paid for the current
financial year and for the lastyear wages of �390 crore hasbeen paid. In addition, mate-rial worth �391 crore has alsobeen paid.
Additional ChiefSecretary informed that underthe MNREGA, employment-oriented activities are beingconducted in all the grampanchayats of 4 districts of thestate-Ashoknagar, Indore,Katni and Panna.
Under this, 2874 works arein progress in all 334 grampanchayats of Ashoknagar dis-trict, in which 27,173 labour-ers are getting employment.
Similarly, 1,508 works arebeing done in all 312 grampanchayats of Indore district,in which 16,222 labourers areemployed, 5,335 jobs in all 407panchayats of Katni district, inwhich 59,549 labourers areemployed, 3223 works in 395gram panchayats of Pannadistrict, in which 28,178labourers are employed.
despite the success beingachieved in the efforts to con-trol the Corona in the State,there is a need to persevere.Collectors should keep an eyeon slums of district and con-duct random tests and keep thefever clinics working effective-ly in the settlement of the dis-trict.
Chief Minister Chouhansaid that immediately aftertaking positive cases in any areaof the district, all necessarysteps should be taken imme-diately by estimating the situ-ation of the coming days.Chouhan was reviewing theCorona control and treatmentefforts in the State today. It was
informed in the meeting thatthe recovery rate of thoserecovering from Corona infec-tion in the State is 51.3 per cent.It is continuously growing,which is a good sign. Thehighest recovery rate in theState is 63 per cent in Bhopal.
Testing, treatment, quar-antine arrangement of Covid-19 is being done better inBhopal. Keeping this condition,continuous attention is beingpaid to the containment areas.Chief Secretary Iqbal SinghBains and other officials werepresent in the video conferenceand the meeting.
Chief Minister Chouhansaid that it is necessary tomake supply system of essen-tial commodities effective.Operation of testing and trac-ing work should be done con-
tinuously. The areas which arelockable should have controlover the activities and the teamof officers should remain active.Chief Minister Chouhanobtained information fromBhopal Commissioner,Collector, IG and DIG.
Additional Chief Secretary,Public Health and FamilyWelfare Mohammad Sulemaninformed that till May 24,6,665 Corona cases have comeup in the State, out of which2967 are active cases. There are3408 recovery cases amongthem. The recovery rate of thestate is 51.3 per cent.
In Bhopal this percentageis 63. The order of doubling inthe State is now coming on the20th day, which is better thanother States. Despite 294 pos-itive cases on May 24, 141 cases
have been recovered due toimprovement in recovery rate.In 25 such districts in the Statewhere more than 10 cases havebeen found, 4,640 people havebeen quarantined in theirhomes and 2,109 have beeninstitutionally quarantined.
A total of 13.32 lakh peo-ple reside in 802 containmentareas of these districts. Nopositive cases have been report-ed in the last 21 days in somedistricts of the State like Harda,Chhindwara and Alirajpur.
The first positive case hascome to light in Narsinghpur.No case has been found inKatni district. Survey teams areactive in the districts whereactive cases are being seen andnecessary measures are alsobeing implemented by variousdepartments.
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Fuelled over old enmity a 22-year-old man was attacked
by miscreant with sharp-edgedweapon at Shivaji Ward underGandhi Nagar police stationlate in the night on Sunday.
According to the police, thevictim Piyush Bhusar, wasattacked by miscreant Tanuwith a sharp-edged weapon.The injured victim was rushedto a nearby hospital where hewas reportedly stable.
In the initial investigation,it was found that Piyush andTanu had old enmity overcatching of pigs and the twohad a fight in the night onSunday in which Tanu attackedPiyush with sharp edgedweapon in his stomach andescaped the spot.
In charge of Gandhi Nagarpolice station SS Sengar saidthat the two are involved in pig
catching. The victim wasattacked by Tanu and his aidesbut as victim was not in a stat-ed to record statement thedetails of others could not berevealed.
The victim lodged a com-plaint with Gandhi NagarNagar police and based on thecomplaint and after the pre-liminary investigation, thepolice have registered a caseagasint the accused and havestarted further investigation.The accused is yet to be arrest-ed.
Crime record of theaccused would be investigated.The accused and the victim areresident of the same area. Fewplaces were raided in search ofthe accused but failed to findthe accused. The family andfriends of the accused would bequestioned to determine thewhereabouts of the abscondingaccused.
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At least half a dozen para-medical staffer at the State-
level Hamidia hospital inBhopal fainted on Monday,after putting on low quality PPEkits.Sources in the hospitalclaimed that several paramed-ical staffers at Hamidia hospi-tal and those engaged in col-lecting sampling of patients invarious areas were reportingdiscomfort due to the thick PPEkits recently sourced by the hos-pital, which is responsible fordistributing PPE kits amongstaffers as well as those engagedin sampling.
One of the employees of theHamidia hospital said thatthose fainted on Monday werethe staffers of different hospi-tals who were engaged in col-lecting samples of covid19 sus-pects across the city andreceived protective kits fromHamidia hospital which alsohas a separate covid19 unit.
These outside staffers faint-ed and fell ill due to the newand thick PPE kits and we havealso complained of these pro-tective gears. Afterwards, thehospital has withdrawn thesekits and has offered fresh kits tothe para medical staff, said astaff nurse.
Those fell ill were giventreatment and were stablenow.With the commencementof Nautapa (an extremely hotnine days in summer), mercuryis soaring upwards constantly inBhopal as elsewhere. The Statecapital on Monday recorded amaximum temperature of 44.5degree Celsius, highest mark forthis season.
Amid such a situation,putting on PPE kits is becom-ing tougher for medicalstaffers.Besides those in hospi-tals, others including thoseengaged in surveys and screen-ing of suspected patients too arerequired to put on this protec-tive gear amid corona scare.
left every hockey lover inshock. Director of MadhyaPradesh State Sports and YouthWelfare VK Singh hasexpressed condolences on thedemise of Olympian BalbirSingh, India's renowned hock-ey player.
Balbir Singh died inMohali at the age of 96 onMonday. He was fighting pul-monary illness from past twoyears. Recalling the virtue ofBalbir Singh, who was part ofthe Indian team that won theOlympic Gold Medal threetimes, the Director of Sports,
Singh said that the countrywill never forget the unprece-dented contribution made bylate Balbir Singh in the field ofhockey. The Director of Sports,Singh has paid tribute to thedeparted soul by wishing him
to give peace and strength tothe family to bear the grief.It isnotable that in the LondonOlympics held in the year1948, Balbir Singh representedthe Indian team and gave thecountry a gold medal.
Similarly, in the gold matchat the Helsinki Olympics heldin 1952, Balbir Singh scoredfive goals against theNetherlands, which is still arecord. Similarly, in the year1956, Balbir Singh was includ-ed in the Indian team that wonthe gold medal at theMelbourne Olympics.
He was also the coach ofthe bronze medal winningIndian team in the SeniorWorld Cup 1971 and the man-ager of the Indian team thatwon the World Cup 1975.
ally assaulting a 28-year-oldwoman at Pragati Nagar;accused sexually exploited thevictim for the past fewmonths.Police have bookedSaurabh alias Sanjay for sexu-ally assaulting and exploitingthe victim.
A case was registered aftercomplaint was lodged by thevictim with the Ashoka Gardenpolice stating that the victimcame into contact with theaccused around a year ago andlater after developing relation-ship he and sexually assaultedher and by threatening her oflife and told to keep mum.
Later victim reachedAshoka Garden police andlodged complaint against theaccused.The accused is stillabsconding and search hasbeen intensified, said police.
The details of the accused areyet to be found. Based on thecomplaint the Police have reg-istered a case under sections376 and 506 of the IPC andhave started further investiga-tion. The accused is yet to bearrested.
During the investigationpolice found that the accusedwas victim’s neighbor anddeveloped friendship and laterwhen she was alone he sexual-ly assaulted her and continuedto threaten her.
After committing theheinous crime the accusedassured that he would marryher and later continued to sex-ually exploit her. Later whenthe victim asked to marry theaccused he refused and threat-ened her life if the victiminformed her family and policeabout the incident. But the vic-tim informed the incident tothe family and later lodged acomplaint with the police.
has organised a Webinar onSaturday on the topic "FutureProgrammes and SkillEducation after Kovid-19".
Prof Sanjay Kumar, ViceChancellor, SymbiosisUniversity of Applied ScienceIndore was the Chief Guest,Prof Rajesh Khambayat, JointDirector PSSCIBE Bhopal wasthe Keynote Speaker, ProfAshok K Gawa, DirectorEducation and Training,IGNOU, New Delhi was theDistinguished Speaker emi-nent speakers like Prof RKShukla, Devi Ahilya UniversityIndore, Prof Deepti Bhargava,Principal, Nath InstituteNathdwara Rajasthan andBharat Bhushan Shukla Indorewere also participated in theWebinar. Prof Asha Shukla,Vice Chancellor was theChairperson of the pro-gramme.
In the beginning, DrManisha Saxena, Convenorhas presented the introductionstatement of the webinartheme. Prof DK Verma whileintroducing the delegates andtheir subject expertiseexplained about the foresight ofthe programme focusing skill
education as the core subject. Prof Sanjay Kumar in his
speech spoke about the role ofuniversities by incorporatingthe context of skill education.He stressed the need of provi-sion of placements in univer-sities for students and studentsto be associated with the indus-try alongwith their studies, toorganise systematic skill plan-ning.
He also emphasise the needof gaining practical knowledgeby youth in skill educationafter Covid-19. Prof RajeshKhambayat in his speech talkedabout the futuristic plan to takevocational education fromschools to colleges and uni-versities.
He also referred to variousefforts being made by his insti-tute for promoting skill educa-tion and professionalism. Healso spoke on digital teaching-learning, new skills educationand related training materialshighlighting the importanceof the role of vocational cours-es.
Prof Ashok K Gawa talkedabout the role and importanceof vocational education and therole of educational institutions,keeping the after effects ofKovid-19 on the global econ-omy including India. Whileexplaining in detail the possi-
bilities and challenges of futurejob creation from Skill educa-tion, he gave three sutras -Efficiency, Utility andCommitment for future suc-cess.
Prof RK Shukla hasexpressed concern about thefuture of the migrant labourersreturning to their villages dueto lockdown and stress theneed to adopt training tech-niques and methods that wouldprovide employment or indus-try easily at the local level formake them self-reliant.
Prof Deepti Bhargavaspoke about making womenskilled and self reliant at thelocal level for increasing theirparticipation in Indian econo-my through skill educationand she also said that every sec-tions is playing an importantrole in the development of thecountry. Bharat BhushanShukla emphasised on pro-viding employment to thosesections who have beendeprived of their employmentat the present situation.
Prof Asha Shukla, ViceChancellor while deliveringher presidential addressreferred Skill education andVocational training as animportant positive factor look-ing to the challenges arising outof Covid Pandemic.
gious society Bhopal, contin-ues distributing grains, foodand water to more than thou-sands labourers and migrantspassing from Kokta bypassLambakheda and RaisenVidisha Square bypass road.
Appreciating the efforts ofsisters from Holy CrossLambekeda, Benedictine con-gregation, MPSSS, ANWCSocial service centre, FCC andHoly Family SistersArchbishop Most Rev LeoCornelio svd said that God isvisible among the poor andhelpless migrants.
God came to this world inthe form of a man to serve andnot to be served. Here trulyGod is present and no need tosearch for him any where inour life he added.Rameshwar,
MLA, visiting the distributionsite, lauded the sincere effortsof missionaries and asked themto carry on the good work.
Ram, one of the passing bymigrant said to the reporter "I am enlightened to receive thetimely help of the sisters asthere was no hope of anythingon my way." "I am not dis-couraged as long as thousands
of good will people are pre-sent," Laitha Bai said.On thedays of distributionArchbishop Leo Cornelio, FrKiran, the director of MPSSS,Fr Mathew VC, the vice pres-ident and the director ShajiChacko of ANWC and manymore volunteers were presentto witness the service ren-dered.
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Gandhi Nagar police havenabbed a bootlegger and
recovered illegally transported44 bottles of county-made liquoron Sunday.After the lockdownwas imposed illegal transport ofliquor surged in the state andnearby areas and strict vigilwas done by police and main-taining the same alertness act-ing of a tip a man was detainednear Pratap ward and when hewas searched 44 bottles of coun-ty-made liquor were recoveredfrom his possession.
The accused was identifiedas Raju Wasudev of PratapWardin Gandhi Nagar.Policesaid that in the initial investiga-tion the accused carrying liquorfailed to produce license regard-ing the liquor and was arrested.The source from which the hehad obtained the liquor andwhere it was scheduled to be
delivered would be investigat-ed.Based on the information ofillegal transport of liquor whenthe police started to search forthe miscreants of the provideddescription the accused tried toescape the spot after the policepersonnel spotted the accused.
A case under section 34(2)of the Excise Act was registeredand further investigation hasbeen started.Meanwhile, a 36-year-old man was assaulted andbitten by his neighbor over olddispute at Rhythm Park colonyon Sunday; Misrod police havestarted investigation.
The victim Atul Dongreand the accused Satbeer singhare neighbours and had disputein the past and on Sunday thetwo engaged in heated exchangeof words.
The police have registered acase under section 294, 324and 506 of the IPC and havestarted further investigation.
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To spread awareness aboutCOVID-19, an e-course is
launchedby AISECTUniversity.With the steady increase incases among all sections of soci-ety, it has become necessary thatevery citizen should understandcoronavirus disease and its man-agement.
To fulfill the objective ofbuilding understanding ofCOVID 19 and its management,AISECT has created a very sim-ple language e-course COVID19 Information and Preventionin both English and Hindi. This
course is helpful for a learner toplay an important role in pre-venting the spread of the disease,both in the community andamong family members. Thelearner will also receive a cer-tificate at the end of the course.
Learners who complete thecourse will be able to reach thecommunity effectively and cre-ate awareness about COVID 19and its management. This e-course is being provided free ofcharge.
This is a course of shortterm durations. It is approved bythe National Skill DevelopmentCorporation. Candidates can
enroll in the course by loggingon to www.covid.aisect.org forregistration. Th Informationand Rescue of COVID 19 coursehas also been shared withTransform Rural IndiaFoundation, an organisation ofTata Trusts.
They are offering this courseto the rural workers associatedwith institute. The students arealso being motivated by AISECTto study skill centers and facul-ty, employees from variouskiosks related to Employees andAISECT related to bankingkiosks, working faculty andtheir respective families.
connection with the examina-tion dates for undergraduate,postgraduate classes and othercourses under the chairman-ship of Governor Lalji Tandon.Chief Minister Shivraj SinghChouhan was also present inthe meeting.
It was decided in the meet-ing that final year / semesterexaminations of undergraduateand postgraduate classes andcourses of higher education willbe held between June 29 andJuly 31, 2020.
This system will also beapplicable to all private uni-versities / colleges. Regularexaminations of first year, sec-ond year classes / courses ofhigher education will be con-ducted subject to normalcy.
The final year / semesterexaminations of undergraduateand postgraduate classes andcourses will be held at theexamination centers in offlinemode. Social distancing pre-
cautions will be fully followedat the examination centers.Students in the first and secondyear / semester of postgraduateand undergraduate classes andcourses will be admitted to thenext class in the new semesterfrom September 1, 2020.
This year, the new sessionof the students seeking admis-sion in the first year / semes-ter of postgraduate and under-graduate classes / courses willstart from October 1, 2020.
The final year / semesterexaminations of undergraduateand postgraduate classes ofRajiv Gandhi ProudyogikiVishwavidyalaya will be con-ducted between 16 and 30June 2020.
Examination of final yearclasses / courses will be donethrough traditional system.Their results will be declared byJuly 15, 2020.In case the cir-cumstances are not normal, theexaminations will be conduct-ed in online mode. The totalduration of the online exami-nation will be two hours. Thequestion paper will be multiple
choices. All examinations willbe done in three shifts daily.Theexaminations of the students offirst, second and third yearclasses / semesters will be con-ducted by the universitythrough the offline pen-papermode between July 2 and July31, 2020.
The exam results will bedeclared by August 25, 2020. Ifa candidate is not able toappear for the exam due tounavoidable reasons, then aspecial examination will beconducted for him separately.
Principal Secretary HigherEducation Anupam Rajan,Principal Secretary TechnicalEducation Caralyn Khongwarand Governor's SecretaryManohar Dubey were also pre-sent in the meeting.
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Home Minister NarottamMishra has said that the
Government is equally sensitivewith the general public as wellas uniformed soldiers. He saidthat the government will ensurethat necessary reforms are doneto improve the system. MinisterMishra said that the govern-ment is going to allow thepolice to wear sports cap underspecial circumstances.
Mishra informed that atpresent, all the police offi-cers/employees of the policehave to work for 12 hourscontinuously due to Covid-19.During this long duty, policeofficers - employees are facingdifficulties due to the use ofBarrett cap which is woolly.
Currently, it is not possible towash and sanitise it. In the pre-sent situation, the use of BarrettCap does not seem appropriatein terms of performance andhealth.
Keeping in mind the healthand safety of the police per-sonnel, the government isgoing to take the decision thatthe officers from police con-stable to inspector level are inspecial circumstances. Permitto replace sports cap withBarrett cap.
He informed that sportscap can be used during duty oflaw and order, pandemic andrelief work. He informed thatunder normal circumstancesonly the Barrett cap will beworn with the working uni-form.
Mishra said that sports capwill remain in Cotton. Its colorwill be blue. In this, mono ofMadhya Pradesh Police will bein front and Madhya PradeshPolice written in back.
after a street dog was killed bythrowing him in pond aftertying him; accused postedthat the game is over afterdog was killed.
In a bizarre incident irkedover barking of a street dogwhen accused used to catchpigs, the miscreants havekilled the dog by throwing itin the pond. Those who com-mitted this act went viral onsocial media.
After this, the policearrested three accused,including two minors. Afterwatching this video on social
media on Sunday, membersof the People for the EthicalTreatment of Animalsemailed Ujjain SP ManojSingh from Delhi.
As soon as the incidentwas known, the SP informedthe cyber cell in gatheringinformation.The MadhavNagar police including CyberCell arrested three people,including Panchampura res-ident Sunny Boras and hiscousins who are minor.
SI Tarun Kuril said thatthe accused have two minors.Sunny admitted in the inter-rogation that the street dogused to bother a lot whilecatching pigs.
Therefore, after catching
him, he tied his feet andthrew him alive in the uni-versity pond at Kothi Road.A case has been registeredagainst the accused underSection-429 of IPC andSection 11 of the AnimalCruelty Act.
The accused also cap-tured the street dog and tiedhis feet with a rope, alsomade a video of it.
After throwing the doginto the pond, large stoneswere also thrown at him inthe water so that he could notget out. After Dog’s death,the accused also said thatnow its game is over and thenposted the video onFacebook.
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Chief Minister Shivraj SinghChouhan has said that
Madhya Pradesh has hadrecord production and pro-curement of wheat, thanks tohard work of farmers. Itassumes greater importance inview of Corona crisis, he added.
Chouhan has said that thefarmers of those districts wherewheat procurement has beendelayed due to Corona crisis,need not worry, as procure-ment will continue till May 31there.
Madhya Pradesh hassmashed all previous records ofwheat production due, mainlyto hard work of farmers, hesaid.The Chief Minister, in amessage to the farmers todaysaid that the situation was verydifficult two months ago withno arrangements for wheatprocurement in place. In avery short period the stategovernment has made all nec-essary arrangements for wheatprocurement in a systemic
manner.Despite the adverseconditions arising out ofCorona pandemic the statehas registered a record wheatproduction and the govern-ment has made record pro-curement.
The Chief Minister saidthat two months ago therewere no arrangements forwheat procurement in the state.From April 16 to May 25, total114.70 lakh MT i.e.11.47 crorequintals of wheat has beenprocured from 156.03 lakhfarmers. Private Mandis havealso been opened. Option of E-trading has been made avail-able. In places where wheat isyet to be procured, SMSs willbe sent to farmer and pro-curement will continue tillMay 31 there, he said.
Chouhan has urged thefarmers to reach procurementcentres only after receiving theSMS and to observe social dis-tancing there. They shouldwear face mask or towel tocover the mouth and nose forsafety against Corona. They
should also maintain a distanceof two yards from each other.
The Chief Minister saidthat the state government hastaken several important stepstowards welfare of farmers.Thestate government has takenthe initiative of paying lastyear's contribution of insurancefor 15 lakh farmers amountingto Rs 2200 crore. This facili-tated payment of Rs. 2900crore crop insurance amount tofarmers.
It was decided to pay insur-ance amount for year 2019-20.It cleared the docks for pay-ment of over Rs 4,000 crores tofarmers. Chouhan informedthat under Pradhan MantriKisn Yojana a sum of Rs 1362crore has been released to68.13 lakh farmers.
Chouhan said that last yearcrop loans on zero percentinterest were given to farmers.The last date for their repay-ment has been extended uptoMay 31. This has entailed afinancial burden of Rs 55 croreon the government.
Programme (FDP) wasorganised at RabindranathTagore University onResearch Methodologyand different technicaladvances in the field ofeducation.
The weeklong FDP qasorganised by GrandAcademic Portal (GAP) inassociation with BhopalSchool of Social Science,and Rabindranath TagoreUniversity on ResearchMethodology.
More than 200Teachers participated inFDP and learned the the-oretical as well as practicalinsights of research meth-ods and tools used for dataanalysis.
The eminent resourcepersons across India deliv-ered the session and gavea live demonstration on theresearch software likeSPSS, plagiarism softwareTurnitin, urkund and toolslike the web of science,
Scopus, Google scholarused as reference manage-ment tools.
The programme wasorganized and managedby Gurdutt Japee(Chairman, GAP), PreetiOza (Chairman, GAPAcademy), Lila Simon,(Associate professor, BSSS,Bhopal) and SangeetaJauhari (HOD,Management, RNTU).
Detail study material,the presentation was pro-vided to all the partici-pants.
Apart from the studymaterial GAP provided e-books on research and sta-tistics for the further in-depth study, which is oneof the unique point of thisFDP.
On the validatory ses-sion of the FDP RNTURegistrar Vijay Singh toldRNTU is committedtowards use of technologyfor the benefit of studentsas well as faculty we havealready organised series ofwebinar. This online FTP isnew initiative of Universityat the time of crisis.
In the backdrop of the com-mitment of Haryana Chief
Minister Manohar Lal Khattarto send back the willingmigrant labourers to theirhome states, 2.90 lakh suchlaboureres have so far been sentto Uttar Pradesh, Bihar,Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh,north eastern states and otherstates of the country by 77trains and 5,500 buses tillMonday.
An expenditure of over�10 crore has been made on thetransportation of migrantlabourers in a safe and sys-tematic manner, a governmentstatement said on Monday.
ADGP CID Anil Rao, whois also the Nodal Officer forcoordinating with other Statesfor ensuring the safe trans-
portation of labourers under aspecial campaigns Code namedas ‘Operation Sanvedna’ saidthat the migrant labourers whohave been sent to their respec-tive states also included thoseof neighbouring states ofRajasthan, Punjab, HimachalPradesh and Uttarakhand.
Rao said that as per thedirections of Chief Minister, theentire expenditure on the trans-portation of the willing migrantlabourers are being madethrough the Haryana CoronaRelief Fund set up to combatCovid-19 Pandemic. He saidthat it is the result of the deci-sion well taken in time by theChief Minister that migrantlaboureres in such a large num-ber have been sent to theirhome states free of cost.
He said that now onlyabout 15,000 laboureres are left
in the State who are willing toreturn and for them arrange-ment of trains and buses havebeen made in adequate num-bers. On Monday arrangementof 100 buses were made butonly 15 buses have left to theother States due to less numberof migrant labourers.
Rao said that after theresumption of economic andindustrial activities in Haryana,large number of migrantlabourers and workers haveopted to stay back here andstarted working in the indus-trial establishments as earlier.
The ADGP, however, clar-ified that since number of will-ing migrants are less so bus andtrain service to other Stateswould continue till May 27 andlabourers willing to return totheir home States could contactnodal officers and district
administration of their respec-tive areas.
Trains would be sent toJharkhand and Bihar in thedays to come, he added.However, on 27th May therewill be deliberation for any fur-therance of special trains andbus services. Normal Bus andtrain services are beingresumed in the state.
Rao said the StateGovernment is committed tosend every willing migrantlabourer back to their homestate. He said that somemigrants from Manipur locat-ed Delhi had also contacted theHaryana Government.Following which, they werebrought to Gurugram and fromwhere they have been sent toManipur by a train fromGurugram today on govern-ment expenditure.
from Gurugram, destined toJaribam in Manipur onMonday.
In this train everythingwas as normal as it was inother trains carrying themigrant labourers except aninitiative by the small childrenof Gurugram that moved allhearts at the station.
Mahi Jeph and her broth-er Aarav Jeph reached the sta-tion with toys, biscuits andchocolates for the toddlerstravelling in train. Officials atthe station helped these chil-
dren in accomplishing thiswonderful gesture.
Mahi, studying in classten and her brother Aaravstudying in class VI at The ShriRam School (Aravali)Gurugram did not take themoney to purchase these itemsfrom their parents. The twobroke open the piggy bank(gullak) meant to keep theirsavings, to purchase these toysand chocolates for the babiestravelling in the train.
Mahi and Aarav used tohelp the travelling kids withmigrant. Now, they brokeopen the piggy bank and spentabout Rs.10,000 to purchasetoys, biscuits and chocolatesfor the small children starting
their long journey. The giftswere enough to make over 100children travelling in the trainto Manipur.
Mahi and Arav were soexcited to hand over the giftsto the travelling children thatthey reached at 4.30 pm on sta-tion for the train that wasscheduled to leave at 6 pm.Many of the passengers wereseen wiping their tears onseeing the gesture of love andhumanity of these children.
Prior to sitting in train, thepassengers had to go througha medical test. They wereasked to sanitise their handsbefore being offered lunchand water. Thermal scanningwas done for all the passengers
and masks were provided.Travel was free of cost for
these migrant labourers.Deputy superintendent civildefence and tehsildar ofWazirabad Manish Yadav him-self distributed food packets tothe passengers. They were alsogiven snacks, biscuits, facemasks, soap and other essen-tials for the travel.
SDM BadshahpurHitendra Sharma was alsopresent on the railway station.He informed that the protocolset for the process of sendingmigrant laboureres by train orbus is being fully followed. Itis also ensured that the normsof social distancing are alsomaintained.
Haryana on Monday report-ed 29 new cases of corona
virus, taking the State's casetally to 1213 even as a total of 37patients have recovered fromvarious hospitals of the State overthe last 24 hours.
The total number of activeCOVID-19 cases in Haryana is395 while the number patientswho have been discharged are
802. The State has a recovery rateof 66.12 per cent, fatality rate at1.32 per cent while tests per mil-lion being conducted are 3,944.The doubling rate in the State is18 days.
While Gurugram has 284cases, Faridabad 211, Sonipat163 and Jhajjar has reported 93COVID-19 infections, making ita total of 751 cases in these fourdistricts which fall in theNational Capital Region. As per
the bulletin, 16 deaths havebeen reported so far in theState.Yamunanagar and Nuh arecorona free districts of the Stateas eight and 65 persons testedpositive for COVID-19 respec-tively in both the districts havebeen discharged from the hos-pitals, as per the state health bul-letin.
According to the State gov-ernment’s health bulletin, 29fresh cases were reported from
Gurugram, Faridabad, Sonepat,Jind, Karnal, Fatehabad, Hisar,Charkhi Dadri andKurukshetra.Gurugram report-ed highest 13 new cases of dead-ly disease, taking total in districtto 284. Faridabad reported twonew case of deadly disease, tak-ing total in the district to 211.Sonepat reported four morecorona virus cases, taking totalto 163.Karnal, Hisar, Fatehabadand Charkhi Dadri reported
one more case each, taking thetally to 33, 20, nine and seven.Jind and Kurukshetra reportedthree more cases each, taking thetally to 29 and 18 respectively.13 FRESH CASES REPORTEDFROM CHANDIGARH
13 fresh cases of COVID-19have been reported from BapuDham colony in Chandigarh tillMonday evening taking the totalnumber of positive cases to 269
in city. While six cases werereported late Sunday night, sevenwere reported during day. A daybefore, city had recorded itsyoungest ever Coronavirus fatal-ity of a three-day baby girl. So far,four Coronavirus related deathshave been reported in the city.The total cases stood at 266while active cases are 75 inChandigarh, stated ChandigarhHealth Department’s eveningbulletin.
faced in Jharkhand from aroundnine districts on Monday, healthofficials said. The findings takethe total count of Coronaviruscases in the State above 400, theyadded.
"Around 27 suspects testedpositive for COVID-19 today(Monday). Most of them aremigrant workers who werealready in quarantine," saidHealth Secretary Nitin MadanKulkarni. Out of the 27 cases, atleast 10 were reported fromRanchi – a district that hadrecently dropped its COVID-19red zone tag, officials from the
National Health Mission (NHM)said. As many as five cases werereported from Latehar and threefrom Simdega, they added.
The remaining cases werereported from Ramgarh,Garhwa, Khunti, EastSinghbhum, Palamu and Gumla,officials said.
According to figures withthe National Health Mission(NHM), at least 148 COVID-19patients have recovered inJharkhand so far. There aremore than 200 active cases inState as reported on Saturdaylate evening.
More than half of the 400odd people infected by COVID-19 virus so far in Jharkhand arein the age bracket of 11 to 30
years – a trend that highlightshow young people were as proneto the virus as their older coun-terparts, health officials said.
Out of the 400 cases, 221 arein the age bracket of 11 to 30years and 143 in rhe age brack-et of 31 to 50 years, an NHMreport said.
Most of migrant workerstesting positive for COVID-19are also under age of 40 years,said an NHM official.
As many as 222 migrantworkers have tested positive inJharkhand since May 5 – atrend that highlights how returnof migrant workers was turningout to become a reason forspurt in cases, health officialssaid.
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At least 450 passengers fromDelhi, Bangalore and
Hyderabad landed at the BirsaMunda Airport in Ranchi onMonday – the day passengerflight services resumed in Indiaafter a lull of two months, air-port officials said. All the 450odd passengers were put inhome quarantine, they added.
"Two flights from NewDelhi landed in Ranchi today.Besides, one flight each fromBangalore and Hyderabadlanded here," said AirportDirector Vinod Sharma. "Allthe passengers were screenedat the airport. The guidelinesissued by the Airport Authorityof India (AAI) were followed
religiously," he added. A major-ity of the passengers who land-ed in Ranchi airport onMonday came from New Delhi– a city that is among theworst-affected COVID-19regions in the country, airportofficials said. However, none ofthe passengers were put ininstitutional quarantine, theyadded.
Ranchi Sub DivisionalOfficer (SDO) Lokesh Mishrasaid that the passengers wereasked to stay quarantined athome for 14 days. "Wescreened all the passengers,and put them in home quar-antine," Mishra said. A flightfrom Mumbai was also sup-posed to land in Ranchi onMonday.
pandemic and other issuesduring the nationwide lock-down, procurement of wheatby Government agencies thisyear surpassed last year’s figuresof 341.31 Lakh Metric Tonnes(LMT) to touch 341.56 LMT ason May 24.
According to the ministryof food and consumer affairs,the the figure surpasses lastyear’s procurement by 25,000tonnes. Punjab is leading with125.84 LMT followed byMadhya Pradesh and Haryana.
Wheat harvesting general-ly starts towards end of Marchand procurement commencesin the first week of April everyyear. However, with the impo-sition of national lockdown onMarch 23, all operations cameto a standstill.
Since the crop was alreadyready for harvesting, the cen-tral government gave relax-ation to start agricultural andrelated activities during thelockdown period and the pro-curement could start fromApril 15 in most of theprocuring states, officials said.
The ministry said that outof the 341.56 LMT, over 125.84LMT of wheat has been pro-cured in Punjab, 113.38 LMTin Madhya Pradesh, 70.65 LMTin Haryana, 20.39 LMT inUttar Pradesh, 10.63 LMT inRajasthan, 31,000 tonnes inUttarakhand, 21,000 tonnes inGujarat, 12,000 tonnes inChandigarh and 3,000 tonnesin Himachal Pradesh.
Highlighting measurestaken for smooth procurement,the ministry said wheat har-vesting generally starts towardsthe end of March and procure-ment commences in the firstweek of April every year.
However, with the imposi-tion of the lockdown witheffect from March 24, all oper-ations came to a standstill.The crop had ripened by thenand was ready for harvesting.Considering this, the centralgovernment gave relaxation tostart agricultural and relatedactivities during the lockdownperiod, and the procurementcould start from April 15 inmost of the procuring states.Haryana started little late onApril 20, it said.
Stating that the biggest chal-lenge was to ensure that pro-curement is done in a "safe man-ner" during the pandemic, theministry said this was achievedthrough a multi-pronged strat-egy of awareness creation, socialdistancing and deployment oftechnology. The number of pur-chase centres was increasedsubstantially reducing the farmerfootfalls in individual purchasecentres. New centres were set upusing every facility available atgram panchayat level and thenumbers were increased sharplyin the major procuring states likePunjab where it went up from1,836 to 3,681, 599 to 1,800 inHaryana and from 3,545 to4,494 in Madhya Pradesh, it said.
Using technology, farmerswere provided specific datesand slots to bring their producewhich helped in avoiding over-crowding. Strict social distanc-ing norms were followed andsanitisation activities wereundertaken regularly, it said. InPunjab, every farmer was allot-ted specific spaces earmarked fordumping of stocks and no oneelse was allowed to enter thoseareas. Only people who weredirectly associated were allowedto be present during daily auc-tions. In addition to the threatof spread of virus, the ministrysaid procuring agencies facedthree major challenges.
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The India MeteorologicalDepartment (IMD) said on
Monday the heatwave is likelyto start subsiding fromThursday as easterly winds willstart blowing in northern partsof the country. The IMD hascautioned people not to step outduring 1-5 pm due to intenseheatwave.
The highest day tempera-ture in Rajasthan on Mondaywas recorded in Churu at 47.5degrees Celsius, whileAllahabad was the hottest placein Uttar Pradesh at 46.3 degreesCelsius. It had on Sundaysounded a red category alert forDelhi, Haryana, Punjab, westand east Rajasthan for heatwaveor severe heatwaves.
Kuldeep Srivastava, thehead of IMD's RegionalMeteorological Centre, said the
red warning has been issued tocaution people not to step outduring 1- 5 pm, when the inten-sity of the heat is the most. “Dustand thunder storms are likely inseveral parts of north India onMay 29-30, bringing the much-needed relief from the intenseheatwave,”the IMD said. Thewind speed is also likely to bearound 50-60 kilometres perhour during this period,Srivastava said, adding that thiswill bring relief from the intenseheat. A western disturbance isa cyclonic storm that origi-nates in the Mediterranean Seaand travels across Central Asia.When it comes in contact with
the Himalayas, it brings rains tothe hills and the plains.
"Heatwave will prevail inmany places and severe heat-wave in isolated places. Mainlyclear sky with strong surfacewinds (20-20 kilometres perhour)," the IMD forecast said.IMD’s bulletin said that heat-wave conditions were also like-ly over Uttar Pradesh, MadhyaPradesh, Vidarbha andTelangana during the next fourto five days. Similar conditionswere predicted in some pocketsover Chhattisgarh, Odisha,Gujarat, Maharashtra,Marathwada, coastal AndhraPradesh, Yanam, Rayalseemaand north-interior Karnatakaduring next three to four days.A red category alert impliesauthorities should take action toavoid health emergencies.
Meanwhile, RajendraKumar Jenamani, head of
Regional SpecialisedMeteorological Centre said thatIndia has seen the highest tem-perature of this year (47.6degrees Celsius) in the last 2days. The heatwave will startsubsiding from May 28 as east-erly winds will start blowing innorthern parts of the country,he added.
“Rains accompanied bythunderstorms will start occur-ring from May 29 due to east-erly winds in the northern partsof India and the temperature isexpected to go down to 40degrees Celsius,” Jenamani said.
Rajendra Kumar Jenamanialso said that the southwestmonsoon is likely to hit Keralanext week.“The southwest mon-soon is expected to arrive overKerala coast between June 1 andJune 5 and is likely to reachMumbai between June 15 andJune 20,” Jenamani said.
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The CRPF is working on aproposal to provide WiFi
facility at quarantine centresand Covid Care Centres toenhance mental peace andinduce positive sentimentamongst the inmates throughaccess to Internet.
Motivational videos byprominent speakers are alsobeing worked out to overcomedepression. Prominent per-sonalities are being reached outto deliver motivational talks,which can be seen and heard bypatients.
The diet charts of the quar-antined personnel are alsobeing proposed to includesprouts, Golden milk (turmer-ic milk) dry fruits andChyawanprash.
The Covid positivepatients and quarantined offi-cers/men were already pro-vided electric kettles, sugarcubes, hone, ginger and teabags for consumption.
The suggestions were madeat a meeting chaired by CRPFDirector General APMaheshwari earlier this monthto review the arrangementsmade at these centres to checkthe spread of the Covid-19 andthe preparedness to break thechain of spread of the pan-demic among the ranks acrossthe country.
The meeting was held in
the backdrop of the entire 31Battalion being quarantinedhereafter significant afflictionsto the disease by the paramil-itary personnel.
Adequate financial powershave been granted to the UnitCommandants to procuremasks, hand gloves and PPEkits but instances were dis-cussed in the meeting where-in procurement of such items
were not sufficient and as perqualitative requirements.Following this revelation, direc-tions were issued to scrupu-lously follow the guidelines ofthe Union Health Ministryand the Inspectors Generalwere asked to conduct randomcheck of quality of these itemsso that there is no compromisewith quality.
All Sector InspectorGenerals have also been direct-ed to ensure that there are suf-ficient Covid-19equipment likePPE kits, masks, hand glovesand sanitisers available at theirunits and hospitals at all estab-lishments under them.
Till now, the CRPF hasrecorded 363 Covid-19 positivecases which includes two casu-alties due to the infection. Outof the 363, as many as 220patients have recovered andthere are 141 active cases in theparamilitary. On Monday, fournew coronavirus patients werereported from the CRPF ranksin the national capital.
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The Government on Mondaydecided to send Central
teams to West Bengal to assessthe situation in CycloneAmphan-hit areas and the loss-es incurred. The Centre hasalready released �1,000 crore tothe Mamata Banerjee dispen-sation, as announced by PrimeMinister Narendra Modi, forcarrying out relief, restorationand rehabilitation measures.
The National CrisisManagement Committee(NCMC) met here underCabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba
and monitored the ongoingrelief and restoration of powerand telecom services at thecyclone Amphan-hit places.
“As announced by PrimeMinister after his aerial surveyand review of relief efforts withthe West Bengal Government, asum of �1,000 crores has already
been released to the State gov-ernment. “Chief Secretary WestBengal thanked the Centre forthe support provided for reliefand restoration. Restoration ofPower and Telecommunicationinfrastructure was stated to be apriority in the Cyclone-affectedareas of the State. While Telecom
connectivity has been restored inmost areas, damages to the localPower distribution network hasaffected the restoration of com-plete supply in someareas.Central agencies aredeployed in these efforts along-with teams from neighbouringstates. Meanwhile, Army hasbeen deployed in Kolkata, tohelp in carry out road clearancesalongwith teams of NDRF andSDRF,” the Ministry of HomeAffairs said in a statement.
Continuing with the coor-dination efforts and restorationmeasures in the areas of WestBengal affected by "Amphan",
the NCMC met for the fifthtime in connection with thenatural calamity. Taking note ofthe progress made in therestoration work, the cabinetsecretary advised that completepower connectivity, telecomservice and drinking watersupplies need to be restored ona priority basis.
The central agencies areready to provide any furtherassistance that may be requiredby the state. Adequate stocks offoodgrains have been keptready for supply. The cabinetsecretary also suggested thatthe West Bengal government
may indicate its additionalrequirements, if any, and direct-ed officers of central ministriesand agencies to work in closecoordination with the stategovernment to provide allrequired assistance expedi-tiously. The West Bengal chiefsecretary participated in theNCMC meeting throughvideo-conference. Senior offi-cers from the ministries ofHome Affairs, Power,Telecommunications, Food andPublic Distribution, Health,Drinking Water and Sanitation,NDMA and NDRF also attend-ed the meeting.
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As part of its new outreachprogramme, the Congress
is working towards tapping onthe migrant workforce, partic-ularly in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar,Jharkhand and MadhyaPradesh, to revive its fortunesin the Hindi heartland.
AICC sources said the topleadership of the party lastweek conducted a video con-ference meeting of the Stateunit leaders to work in thisdirection and engage the partyworkers and volunteers toextend all possible help to themigrants and labourers andturn the economic miseriesfaced by the poor amidst thetwo-month lockdown as anopportunity for the grand oldparty to restore faith and con-fidence in them. As per theHome Ministry records, thereare a total of about four croremigrant workers across thecountry.
The meeting chaired byAICC General Secretary KCVenugopal with PCC chiefs ofabout 18 States that has largenumber migrant workersresolved for an towards anaction-plan to extend assis-tance to the migrants who
were on move on roads toreach their destination.Venugopal alongwith RajeevSarav, in-charge for coordi-nating Covid-19 lockdownrelief works and PraveenChakravarti, AICC technologyand data cell chairman andRohan Gupta, AICC socialmedia cell chairman have beentasked by the leaders to devis-ing a strategy to tap on themigrants class.
In this effort, the party hasalso launched a Congresshelpline services and chatbotnamed 'Congress Mitr' in eachStates where migrant workersare being encouraged to reachout to the party for any kind ofassistance.
To accomodate withintheir database, the grand oldparty is seeking all details likename and contact details of themigrants, their place of domi-cile, members in family etc .
When contacted, AICCdata department chairmanPraveen Chakravarty told ET:“A helpline for each state wasset up by the respective PCCs.A very simple local languagechatbot was developed byManish Khanduri inUttarakhand to get basic infor-mation from migrants.
In UP this was launched as
UP Mitra by party generalsecretary Priyanka Gandhi.
The party is also makingfull use of social media whichit claims now that the Gandhiscion is now in the list of top10 Indian leaders with morethan 14 million followers onTwitter and this was increasedbetween the period of lastgeneral elections till date.
A dedicated workforce ofRahul Priyanka Gandhi Sena(RPGS) has been active duringthe lockdown period andreaching out to people likemigrants, poor, jobless andmeeting their requirements.
"In coordination with theDelhi Congress unit, our vol-unteers have been extending allpossible help to the affectedpeople during the lockdownperiod. While we gave themigrants tickets, transport andmedical facility, our workersalso shared cash amounts to theneedy who may need it duringthe travel period. All this is onhumanitarian ground andnothing political should beread in it. Am proud theCongress is working on itslegacy of welfare to all sectionsof society," said Arjun Puri,Spokesman, Rahul PriyankaGandhi Sena.
AICC sources said while
all other Congress frontlinewings like, Sewa Dal, MahilaCongress etc got defunct over the period due to decimating party cadre, offlatethe new wing of dedicatedand smart young workers inRPGS have taken the respon-sibility of boosting the fortune
of the party. In few months of its for-
mation with an aim to resur-rect the party cadre at grassroot level, Puri claimed thatover one crore members haveregistered and the figures ofvolunteers joining is increasingday by day.
"During the lockdownperiod the organisation saw ahuge jump in membership,"claimed Puri. He thanked thatthe new outfit has been gettingall support from party's otherfrontline organisation likeNSUI and Indian YouthCongress.
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The Central Warehousing Corporation(CWC), a PSU, which also offers pest con-
trol services besides storage and handling, is busymaking its contribution in the fight againstCovid-19.
Its technical staff comprising 700 personnelare working round the clock, majorly engagedin disinfecting the domestic and internationalflights every time its takes off as well as PSUoffices and airports and hospitals to keep theCovid-19 at bay.
A senior official at the CWC, an organisa-tion under the Union Consumer Affairs Ministrysaid that they are regularly getting calls for dis-infections on daily basis and they have to keepa slot for every organisations depending on theemergency as well as the staff availability.
And as the domestic flight operations haveresumed in the country, their major focus is ondisinfecting and sanitising terminal building ofthe Airports in cities. The Corporation has corecompetency in executing these kind of operations.
“We are following the protocol prepared bythe Union Health Ministry. We ensure that ourstaff has proper PPE kits and all necessary pre-cautions are adopted so that they do not getinfected with the virus while carrying out theirroutine job,” said the official.
As Covid-19 pandemic has swept the worldas also India, the CWC’s staff for the first timesince the organisation’s inception in 1957 is nowfocussed more on combating Coronavirus infec-tion than what it was previously ie termite treat-ment, rodent, mosquitoes, flies, termites, rodents,weed control, etc.
It has a range of clients of which prominentlocations are ministries, PSUs, State/CentralGovernment. offices, railway station and coach,workshop, ships, container, national museum,science center, aircraft, hanger, airlines, airportsof Airport Authority of India, AIIMS, hospitals,banks, Universities, MSTC, HAL, HCL, GAIL,RBI, UTI among others.
“To keep an edge over the private operators,we are also providing corona disinfection servicesin residential area at an economical rate,” said theofficial as in light of the Covid-19 Pandemic, theimportance of disinfection against communicabledisease and vector/pest control has become anurgency.
He explained that disinfection servicesshould be taken from the trained operator. Asper the Insecticide Act1968, the accreditation &PCS license is a must for disinfestation works.
The recommended frequency of disinfectionmay be daily or thrice or twice a week, as per theCommunicable Disease & Control guidelines, theofficial added.
down norms, a new study bythe Indian Council of MedicalResearch (ICMR) has recon-firmed that coronavirus hashigher transmission rate, ashigh as 65 per cent among closecontacts, as was found on thecluster of 23 Italian tourists whovisited India in March 2020.
In fact, the attack rate of thevirus was higher at 65.4 percent amongst close contacts of23 Italian tourist group thanthat of those at the DiamondPrincess Cruise Ship whichwas 19.2 per cent and in theGrand Princess Cruise Ship,which was 16.6 per cent.
The study outcome can bethe indicator for the risingnumber of new positive casesin the country each passing dayas migration of labours andtravellers begins at a largenumber. The Covid-19 tallyhas touched over 1.30 lakhs andif study outcome is taken intoconsideration, then India couldsee huge growth in the numberof Covid-19 cases in the nearfuture.
For this reason, expertshave been calling for publichealth measures such as phys-
ical distancing, personalhygiene and infection controlmeasures as necessary habits toprevent the spread of the virus.
The ICMR scientists saidthat "Our study cluster showeda higher attack rate than thatreported in existing literaturesuch as in Diamond PrincessCruise ship (19.2 per cent) andin Grand Princess Cruise ship(16.6 per cent) 13. This may bedue to the closed environ-ment, high and persistent expo-sure to index case during theirtour travel (average of six hoursdaily for eight days).”
From the group of 23Italian tourists who reachedNew Delhi on February 21,along with three Indians whovisited several tourist places inRajasthan, 17 had tested posi-tive for SARS-CoV-2 infec-tion by March 3, 2020.
"Of these 17 patients, ninewere symptomatic, while eightdid not show any symptoms.Of the nine who developedsymptoms, six were mild, one was severe and two werecritically ill. The median duration between the day of confirmation for Covid-19and RT-PCR negativity was 18 days (range: 12-23 days).Two patients died with a casefatality of 11.8 per cent," as per
the study.The index patient, 69-year-
old man, a resident ofLombardy Province, Italy andfamily physician by professiondeveloped fever, cough anddifficulty in breathing onFebruary 23. On arriving atJaipur on February 28, 2020 hefirst saw a private healthcareprovider and then visited a pri-vate hospital from where hewas referred to the SMSMedical College, Jaipur, forCovid-19 test. When he testedpositive he was isolated, hiswife (70), who did not have anysymptoms also tested positive.
The remaining 24 membersof the group (21 Italians and 3Indians) returned to Delhi onMarch 2 by the same coach andwere quarantined. All the 24individuals were initiallyasymptomatic. Their throat andnasal swabs were collected onMarch 3. Fifteen persons(including 14 Italian touristsand one Indian) tested positiveand were isolated. Of the 17patients, nine (52.9 per cent)had or developed symptoms,whereas eight (47.1 per cent)did not show any symptoms.
The ICMR stated that theepidemiological investigationof this cluster of 17 cases wasconsistent with person-to-per-
son transmission. The ICMRalso pointed out at two possi-ble conclusions of transmissionof Covid-19 in this cluster -"First, the index patient couldhave been infected during hismedical practice in Italy andlater transmitted the infectionto his co-tourists. According tothe WHO, there were onlythree Covid-19 cases reportedfrom Italy on February 21, butby February 28, Italy had 888cases including 21 deaths dueto SARS-CoV-2.
The ICMR added, "Mostcases had occurred in theLombardy and Veneto regionsof Northern Italy with localtransmission being the mainsource of SARS-CoV-2 infec-tions.
“Second, the tourists couldhave individually picked up theinfection from Italy beforestarting their trip to India.The first scenario appearsmostly likely, considering theduration of onset of symptoms(12 days since their arrival inIndia except for the indexcase), the duration of viralclearance being more than 14days in other tourists and nohistory of contact or exposureto any suspected or confirmedCovid-19 positive patients inItaly," said the study.
New Delhi: India and Israel onMonday discussed jointresearch and development onbig data and ArtificialIntelligence (AI) technology.
The discussion was a partof Prime Minister NarendraModi and his Israeli counter-part's vision for wide-rangingscientific cooperation betweenthe two countries.
"Defence ResearchDevelopment Organisation,Council of ScientificIndustrialResearch held discussions with Head of Israel'sDirectorate of RD, Israel'sAmbassador Ron MalkaIndia'sAmbassador Sanjeev Singlaabout high-level scientificcooperation to addressCOVID-19," the IsraelEmbassy here said on Twitter.
Modi and Netanyahu hadheld discussions on the novelcoronavirus outbreak and itspossible impact on the supplylines in Israel in March. Agency
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New Delhi: Contributingtowards the nation’s fightagainst COVID-19, theBharatiya Janata Party (BJP)has distributed 19.28 crorefood packets among the needyacross the country.
As per the official data bythe party, it has distributed19.28 crore food packets topeople till May 23 as againstthe target of providing foodpackets to five crore people.
The BJP has also distrib-uted 5.2 crore face coversagainst the target of five crores,the data states.
Besides this, as many as4.86 crore ration kits have
been distributed by the partyto the needy. After the lock-down was announced inMarch, BJP President JagatPrakash Nadda had instructedparty workers to provide foodpackets to five crore needypeople.
Moreover, 8.23 lakh partyworkers are also engaged inhelping those affected by thelockdown imposed as a pre-cautionary measure to containthe spread of COVID-19.
The party has also madespecialised groups to helpselected category of people.After the third phase of lock-down, more BJP workers were
asked to help at the grassrootslevel.
Currently, there are manygroups which are working onthe direction of the party chief.As many as 4.48 lakh partycadres are especially deployedto provide service to the oldand sick people.
In addition, BJP is con-ducting a programme to thankcorona warriors and people.The party is collecting signa-tures of common people tothank the medical workersand others fighting againstCOVID-19. As many as 12.87lakh workers are engaged inthis exercise. Agency
Till Monday evening, a total of 17, 082 per-sons were tested positive for coronavirus in
Tamil Nadu since the pandemic broke out inmid-January, according to Dr Vijaya Basker,Minister for health. Addressing the media, theMinister said 805 persons were tested positivefor the pandemic on Monday alone, the high-est number to be tested positive in a single day.
But the hike in the number of covid -19 casesin Tamil Nadu were aggravated by the arrivalof positive cases from other States, particular-ly Maharashtra, said Dr Baskar. He said the 712persons tested positive on Monday include 87who reached the State from Maharashtra. Outof the 712 persons tested on Monday, Chennaiaccounted for 549 cases.
While releasing the details of the coronavirusstatus of Tamil Nadu , the Minister said the Statehas recorded the highest number of tests car-ried out all over the country. “ A total of 4,21,480 persons have been tested in Tamil Nadu tillMonday. We have 68 laboratories functioning24X7 all over the State. The WHO has con-gratulated the State for the maximum number
of tests carried out and has asked us to contin-ue the testing with the same vigor,” said DrBaskar.
Seven persons died on Monday in varioushospitals in the State, taking the total numberof fatalities to 118. The day saw 407 personscured of the disease getting discharged from thehospitals, taking the total number of dis-charged persons till date to 8,731.
Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswamy hasconvened a high power meeting on Tuesday todiscuss the new situation arising out of the hikein the number of patients tested positive in theState.
Eminent physicians including Dr CVKrishnaswamy and Dr Kulandaiswamy told ThePioneer that there was nothing to be scared aboutthe hike in the number of coronavirus cases.
“The Government has undertaken anaggressive testing procedure and it is paying off.In another couple of weeks, the spread of thepandemic will subside,” said Dr Krishnaswamy,leader of the medical team that has developedan Ayurvedic drug to fight corona which is yetto be considered by the ministry of Ayush forclinical trials.
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The day after the subduedcelebrations of Ramzan, 49
persons tested positive forcoronavirus in Kerala. A releaseissued by the Government ofKerala said that the number ofhotspots in the State rose to 59.The new hotspots includePinarayi, the native town ofChief Minister Pinarayi Vijayanin Kannur district.
As on Monday, there are359 persons undergoing treat-ment in various hospitals in theState. Kasaragod topped the listof districts with highest num-ber of patients. There were 14new cases reported from thenorthern most district ofKerala.
What is of interest is the
news that out of the 49 personstested positive on Monday, 43were those who reached theState after the relaxation of thelockdown laws. While 18 per-sons were expatriates whoreached the State following theVande Bharat Mission, 25 werethose who returned from otherStates in the country.
Another cause of concernfor the authorities is the pub-lic examination for SSLC andPlus Two class students in theState numbering 13 lakhs.
The hotspots host manyexamination centres and thishas put the health of thousandsof students at stake. More than99,000,00 persons are underobservation in Kerala.
Hundreds of migrantworkers in Pathanamthitta laidsiege to the district committeeof the CPI(M) on Mondaydemanding travelling facilitiesto return to their home States.“We do not have work andhence we are not getting paid.No food is being supplied bythe administration and we arein real trouble.
The Government shouldmake arrangements for sendingus back to our States,” saidmany workers while speakingto channel reporters. Later, thepolice drove them off as part ofenforcing the social distancenorms and wearing face masks.
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If the recent statements madeby senior DMK leaders are
any indication, party cadrecould not be blamed for think-ing that the principalOpposition party in TamilNadu is squandering awaywhatever goodwill late MKarunanidhi and party chief MK Stalin commands among theelectorate.
Last Friday saw R S Bharati,MP and organising secretary ofthe party being arrested underthe charges of ScheduledCaste/Scheduled Tribe(Prevention of Atrocities) Act1989 for a speech he deliveredin February during a partymeeting held at Chennai. Thecomplainant, leader of an out-fit for ScheduledCaste/Scheduled Tribe chargedthat Bharati, a popular leaderwho is engaged in a series oflegal battles against the allegedcorrupt practices of theAIADMK, humiliated the
Dalits in the State using filthylanguages. The EgmoreMagistrate court granted himbail till June 1.
Even before the ink on thebail order could dry up, anoth-er case is coming up against theyouthful Dayanidhi Maran MP,nephew of Stalin, for his out-burst against the ChiefSecretary of the State.
Maran who led a delegationof DMK MPs to the secretari-at last week to mee KShanmugham, the soft-spokenChief Secrtetary, alleged thatthat latter treated him andmembers of the delegation as ifthey were Dalits.
A case in this regard hasbeen filed by leaders of Dalitoutfits which is expected totrouble the DMK leadership inmonths to come.
“This has resulted in thealienation of Dalit communityfrom the principal Oppositionparty,” said Kolahala Srenivaas,popular author and politicalcommentator. “The DMK
which had consolidated theMuslim votes with its agitationagainst the CitizenshipAmendment Act is losing thesupport of the Dalits because ofthe outbursts by leaders likeBharati and Maran. The nextone year is highly critical for theDMK because the assemblyelection is scheduled to takeplace during April-May 2021,”said Srenivaas.
VP Doraisamy, formerdeputy speaker (2006 to 2011)and Deputy General Secretaryof the DMK, a prominent Dalitface of the party joined the BJPlast week causing a majorembarrassment to Stalin. But KA Johny, a DMK watcher andauthor is of the view that theAIADMK had failed miserablyon all counts and the DMK isin a strong wicket. “TheAIADMK leadership knowswell that they do not stand achance against the DMK andthat is the reason for the arrestof Bharati on silly charges,” saidJohny.
Agra's death toll due to the dis-ease has risen to 33, even as thecity has recorded a steadydecline in the number of newcases in the past 10 days.
Six new cases till lateSunday evening took the totaltally to 857, of which 747patients have recovered. Thelatest casualties due to coron-avirus were reported onSunday.
The number of samplestaken for testing in the city hasgone up to 12,027.
Meanwhile, the districtadministration has againallowed the use of mobilephones in isolation wards andCovid-19 hospitals followingprotests over the move, butonly after recording details ina separate register.
District officials also saidthat the number of migrantworkers wishing to travel backto their native states had now reduced to a trickle,and just a few hundredremained at the Agra ISBT tobe transported out of the city.
In 10 days, more than15,000 workers from otherstates have been ferried back.
daughters to death merelybecause they were creating anoise. The residents of the vil-lage are so distressed at theincident that most of them didnot celebrate Eid on Monday.
The incident took place inBanethu village in Sant KabirNagar on Sunday night. Theaccused has been arrestedwhile the bodies have beensent for post mortem.
According to the policespokesperson, 35-year-oldZainul Abdeen had divorcedhis wife Shahida one and a halfyears ago but his daughtersMosiba, 5, and Alsiba, 2, werestaying with him.
“On Sunday night, thegirls were playing in the houseand making noise whichangered the father. Zainulpicked up a brick lying near-by and smashed the girls' heads tillthey died. The police reachedthe house on receiving infor-mation and Zainul has beenarrested,” the policespokesman said.
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“Water, water everywhere,and all the boards dis shrink;water, water everywhere, nor adrop to drink …” --- Coleridge
Nowhere is the ferocity ofnature more palpable than
these water-logged boondocksof North and South 24Parganas nestled in the belly ofSunderbans, crisscrossed by amaze of more than a hundredbig and small rivers that emptyin the turbulent Bay of Bengal.
Five days have elapsedsince super cyclone Amphantore down these southern tipsof Bengal formed out of amultitude of river-islands butthere is no sprout of hope forthe hapless millions who lost alltheir possessions to the rage ofthe twister. “We had a thatchedhouse and some 5 bighas ofland that would fetch us foodfor a good part of the year. Butnow we have nothing left. Thehouse has gone…” SandhyaRam says pointing at a thatchedstructure partially visible froma sea of water around.
“This is our land but it isfilled with brackish river waterwhich has now rendered theland uncultivable for the next4-5 years,” says Hiren Das aneighbor even as one looksaround to find a vast expanseof water hardly decipherablefrom the Raimangal river morethan a mile wide.
“In the night of storm theembankment was breached
and the river gushed in,” sayshe. River surfaces in a large partof this region are often higherthan the lands, which need tobe protected by bunds, localssay adding when cyclonescome some of these embank-ments get breached inundatinglarge parts of area.
“This was unprecedented”says Soma Das from NorthRangaberia village. “Even dur-ing Aila and Bulbul we experi-enced large-scale damage butnot like this. Now we have tobring drinking water from 15km away…” she says.
She has the luxury of secu-rity in her partially pucca house--- that stands like an islanditself --- where about two dozenvillagers have crammed forshelter throwing all norms ofsocial distancing to the winds.
Santosh Mandal fromGosaba in the South 24Parganas, which stands at con-fluence of Matla andRaimangal rivers both morethan a mile broad has beenpassing his nights on a boat asall his house other belongingshave either been washed awayor are in waist-deep water.
A fisherman by professionhe says, “This boat is my life-line … my house and will con-tinue to be so for coming 5-6months most. My wife and Ihave been living here since May21, a day after the storm robbedus of all we had.”
He can still move up on theembankment that separatesthe mighty Matla and his vil-
lage but “you never know in thenight you may become a preyfor the tiger or the crocodile,”he says adding there were 500houses in the area and “noth-ing remains.”
Incidentally the infamous“village of widows” is situatedin the Gosaba block. In that vil-lage there is not a single housefrom where one person has notbeen taken away by the dread-ed Royal Bengal Tiger.
At a village near Basanti,another block in the South 24Parganas Biswas Naskar says“for the past five days we havebeen surviving on water anddead fish floating here andthere. Many of them too are,“living in boats with a fear thatduring the low tide in nightwhen we are asleep” they can besucked into the mouth of thesea.” Still “we have nothing todo because we are poor people.
“We had repeatedlyrequested the irrigation depart-ment people to reinforce theembankments ahead of thestorm but they said that it wasall right. And when the banks
burst inevitable happened…This is the same story hap-pening for years and no one lis-tens to us…” says an elderlyperson refusing to reveal hisname.
“We are not allowed to votewhich is conducted by thepanchayat members’ men. Sothey don’t need to cater to ourneeds… Why does not thegovernment bundle us on aship and throw us in the sea!”
On whether they havereceived enough relief, comesa mixed reply. “Relief has beensent to some areas where youcan reach by vehicles. But whatabout the areas where youhave no communication saveboats? Even the rescue partieshave a fear for their lives,” saysPartiosh Haldar.
“Most of the people weretaken to the rescue shelters aday ahead of the storm. Buthow long can we live therewithout doing nothing? Whatwill happen to our lands whichwill lose fertility for 4-5 years.Why don’t the Governmenterect high, strong, pucca,
embankments like they havedone across the river,” pointsHaroon a local pointing at aspeeding motorbike across theriver in Bangladesh. Cut toRaidghi another village whereyou suddenly stumble upon aformer minister Kanti Ganguliof the Left era. “This districtcan give you a gold mine ofagriculture provided they comeout with a plan to construct
embankments --- a few hun-dred mile long covering thenumerous river islands.
After the 72-year-olf rush-es out on a motorbike toinspect interior villages a localreminisces how “this man dur-ing when he was a Ministerworked with us hand-in-handto repair a breached bund cut-ting and carrying on his headloads of earth.”
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Even five days after Amphanhit Kolkata literally raising
parts of the city to groundpower supply remained cut inmany parts from Behala thesouth-eastern parts of the cityto Santoshpur area leadingpeople from housing com-plexes to descend on the streetsdemanding immediate restora-tion of power supply.
“We don’t have power andwater for the past five days. Wehave patients in many houses.We have to preserve insulinand other medicines in ourrefrigerators and here theCalcutta Electric SupplyCorporation and the admin-istration has failed to restorepower supply,” said women atPrince Anwar Shah Road inSouth Kolkata even as theblockaded the boulevard.
Thousands of trees wereuprooted in large parts of themetro city taking along withthem power lines and cableconnection.
Even as the Governmentlooked helpless --- with ChiefMinister Mamata Banerjee onSunday telling the oppositionto “cut my head if by doing thatyou can bring things back tonormal” --- situation remainedunchanged leading even asenior State Minister to attackthe Kolkata Corporation won-dering why adequate measures were not taken toensure quick restoration ofservices.
“Reports of Amphan wasgiven days in advance butwhy the people in charge ofthings failed to arrange ade-quate amount of manpowerand instruments to handle thesituation?” he asked.
lines flew in and out of theMumbai airport catering to4,852 passengers, as the CivilAviation Ministry resumedflight operations on Monday,nearly two months after theGovernment resorted to lock-down in phases to combatCoronavirus across the coun-try.
As against the permissiongiven for the operation of 25flights to and from the Mumbaiairport, the Chhatrapati ShivajiMaharaj International Airport(CSMIA)—managed by GVK-Mumbai International AirportPvt Ltd (MIAL) – operated 47flights involving seven airlineswhich collectively catered to 14sectors
“Together, the seven air-lines catered to a total of 4,852passengers which include 3,752passengers at departures and1,100 at arrivals today. Thehighest passenger load capac-ity was seen on the Delhi routedeparting out of the Mumbaiairport,” a CSMIA spokesper-son said. “All the arriving pas-sengers are being stamped ontheir left hand for identificationand will have to compulsoryundergo home isolation forthe period of 7 days as per theprotocol by the BrihanmumbaiMunicipal Corporation(BMC),” the CSMIAspokesperson said.
According to thespokesperson, passengers whoare coming in for a short dura-tion and have planned for areturn or onward journey, willhave to share the details of thesame and will be exempted
from the isolation.“The airport has created
temporary isolation centres incase if any passenger showssymptoms of the deadly virusduring the screening process.Sanitization and fumigationare being constantly conduct-ed at the airport to curb thespread of the virus. We are lay-ing special emphasis on theneed for passengers to wearmasks and allowing passengersto carry 350ml hand sanitiser,”the spokesperson said.
Additionally, CSMIA hasstationed hand sanitizers at allthe touch-points at the airport“We are encouraging passen-gers to web check-in from thesafety of their homes. Wewould also want passengers tocheck the status of their flightsprior to arriving at the airport,”the spokesperson said.
Meanwhile, the CSMIAhas advised all the passengersare advised to download theAarogya Setu app on theirmobile devices and to submita self-declaration form upontheir arrival at the airport.“Passengers will be allowed todeboard or board in a staggeredmanner so that they don’tcrowd the screening area,” thespokesperson added.
In a formal announcementmade late on Sudnay eveningthe CSMIA, Mumbai, hadsaid “Starting May 25, 2020,CSMIA will resume 25 com-mercial passenger flight move-ments on departure and 25 onarrival. The initiative comesafter the directive issued by theMinistry of Civil Aviation aswell as the State Minister giv-ing a nod to recommencedomestic flight operations toand from Mumbai.”.
After two close family members ofone of the advisors to Lt-Governor
GC Murmu tested positive late Sundaynight, several senior officers, workingclosely with him in his office secretari-at, have decided to stay away from thecorridors of power in Jammu &Kashmir as they isolated themselves aspart of the protocol to prevent spreadof the coronavirus.
According to official sources, “wifeand son of one of the advisors, testedpositive on Sunday night and wereadmitted in the SMVD NarayanaHospital at Kakryal in Katra. “. They hadreturned from New Delhi and werescreened on their arrival in Jammu.
Following their admissions, contacttracing was launched at the highest leveland several senior Government officersand their office staff was sent foradministrative quarantine after col-lecting their samples.
The reports claimed, some of thestaff members were also screened in theoffice of Lt- Governor GC Murmu whilehe himself opted for self quarantine inRaj Bhawan premises.
Meanwhile, a total number of 52cases of coronavirus were detected inJammu & Kashmir on Monday.
According to official sources, 38 caseswere reported from Jammu and 14 fromKashmir division.
Jammu district, reported highestnumber of 21 cases.
On the other hand, a total numberof 170 stranded passengers arrived atJammu airport and 562 landed direct-ly in Srinagar on day one of theresumption of domestic airline services.
All the passengers were subjected to100 percent covid-19 testing on theirarrival at the airport and sent foradministrative quarantine in SRTCbuses to different locations.
Meanwhile, following fresh surge inpositive cases, three wards of TrikutaNagar, two villages each in Miransahib,Kanachak and one ward of GorkhaNagar in Jammu were declared as con-tainment/Red zones by the DistrictMagistrate late Monday afternoon.
On the other hand while address-ing a press conference in Jammu,Spokesperson of the Jammu and
Kashmir government Rohit Kansalclaimed, with the testing rate of over10,000 per million Jammu and Kashmirhas now become number one in coun-try in testing.
He said, the testing capacity in theUT has gone up from just about 100tests/day in March to 8000 tests/day onMonday. “In the last one month aloneit has gone up from 1800 tests/day to8100/day – an increase of 350%”, headded.
Sharing details of Covid-19 cases inJ&K, he said so far 1668 cases have test-ed positive, out of which 1374 are fromKashmir division and 294 are fromJammu division. The number of activecases are 836 of which 620 are inKashmir Division and 216 are in Jammudivision. As many as 809 recoverieswhich include young children and 23unfortunate deaths have also beenreported.
Referring to prevailing situation,Kansal pointed out there are enoughworrying factors in the situation. 15deaths have been reported in lastmonth alone. There is at least one dis-trict which has more than 200 activecases and at least one district with morethan 150 active cases. There are at least2 districts where the number of activecases per million are higher than 150.
At least half of the districts have a dou-bling rate less than 14 days. At least 2districts have seen a considerableincrease in cases even when there areno returnees. In fact, there are manyareas where the positivity rate of casesis much higher for local population thanfor returnees.” he said and added thata number of local, indigenous cases forwhich contact chains are not yet fullyclear have also been reported which isa cause of concern.
He said that over 90,000 strandedpersons have already returned to J&Kin the last 4 weeks alone, they include66024 persons by road, 25400 by 30Shramik special and Covid-19 specialRajdhani trains and 652 persons by air.“J&K is the one state/UT which hassmoothly completed more than 85% ofits evacuation process.
The Government has consciouslyadopted a policy of testing 100% of allreturnees. All the returnees are beingtested, and as a result of the strategy theadministration has been successful intracing 481 positive cases so far.”
By testing people at the entry pointwe are ensuring that positive cases aretraced and isolated at the entry pointitself, thereby avoiding any infectionsgetting into the community”, he added.
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Mumbai crossed the twinmilestones of 1,000
deaths and 30,000 infections onMonday, as the country’s com-mercial capital—with fresh 38fatalities and 1,430 infections -- accounted for a total of 1,026Covid-19 triggered deaths outa total 1,695 deaths and 31,972positive cases out of a total52,667 cases recorded so far inMaharashtra.
On a day when coron-avirus claimed 60 more livesand left 2,436 more personsinfected in various parts of theState, Mumbai walked away
with a lion’s share of 38 deathsand 1430 positives cases.
Of the total 52,667 infect-ed cases in the State, theaquthorities pegged the activecases in the state as 35,178.
Of the total 60 deathsreported across the state onMonday, Mumbai recorded 38deaths, while there were elevendeaths in Pune, three in NaviMumbai, two each in Thanecity, Aurangabad city and oneeach in Solapur, 1 in Kalyan-Dombivali, 1 in Ratnagiri.Additionally, one death of aBihar resident occurred inMumbai.
Of the total deaths report-
ed today, 54 deaths occurred inthe last two days and 6 are fromthe last week.
Of those dead, 42 weremen while 18 were women.Twenty seven of them wereaged over 60 years, 29 werefrom the age group 40 to 59years and 3 were aged below 40years. “Forty seven out of 60patients (78%) had high-riskco-morbidities such as dia-betes, hypertension, heart dis-ease,” a state health bulletinsaid.
There have been as manyas 696 Covid 19 triggereddeaths in Maharashtra duringthe last eleven days. The death
tally has been as follows: May15- 49, May 16 -67, May 17 -63, May 18-51, May 19 -76,May 20 -65, May 21 – 64, May22-63, May 23-60, May 24-58and May 25-60.
As Mumbai continued tobe worst-affected Covid-19 cityin the country, its hotspotDharavi slum accounted for 42new cases on Monday, takingthe total number of infectees to1,583 and 59 deaths till date.
Meanwhile, chief ministerUddhav Thackeray announcedthat by May 31, 2,475 Covid-19beds, many with ICU-Oxygen,will be operational at theupcoming jumbo hospitals in
Bandra Kurla Complex, NSCIWorli, and NESCO Goregaon,and in each Ward in Mumbai 100-bed hospitalswith 20 ICU beds have beentaken over.
In an interesting data putout by the BrihanmumbaiMunicipal Corporation(BMC),
40 per cent cases werefound in women and 60% inmen 37 per cent deaths wereobserved in Women and 63 percent in Men.
In Mumbai where 38deaths were reported onMonday, the major co-mor-bidity found was Diabetes
(26%), Hypertension (24%)and inØ 32% both Diabetesand Hypertension, Heart dis-eases 8% and other co-mor-bidities found were (10%).“Above 60 years has emerged asa risk factor as fatalityØ & co-morbidity are high. Even indeaths below 50 years 20 %comorbidity was found,” aBMC medical bulletin said.
Meanwhile, the BMCadvised the citizens are request-ed to continue the medicationsfor co-morbid conditions ifany and consult the doctorsregularly. Also follow social dis-tancing, use of masks and handhygiene regularly.
As the highly contagious COVID-19 torments the nation, some“eminent” economists advisedthe Centre to nationalise all pri-vate assets of above-poverty-
line citizens (cash, real estate, property andbonds among others) to fund their ideas. Onedoesn’t know if this negates that other greatpanacea for all economic ills — privatisationof public sector assets — but that’s anotherstory.
On May 22, former PlanningCommission member Abhijit Sen, formerChief Economic Advisor Deepak Nayyar, RNagaraj of the Indira Gandhi Institute ofDevelopment Research, economists PranabBardhan, Jean Drèze and others urged theCentre to provide free care for all COVID-19 patients, something done in Governmenthospitals. Yet this mundane advice was wel-comed by the usual bevy of “public intellec-tuals.” As the only novelty was the seizure ofprivate assets, one wonders if this was a “sig-nal” to foreign companies not to invest inIndia or part of a more chilling agenda ofdemolishing the middle class, even as the wiz-ards batten off Western patronage. After abrief excitement, the revolutionary idea wastamely withdrawn (May 24).
In Russia, analysts believe the pandem-ic is being exploited by global financial cen-tres to change the world economy (and poli-ty) and wipe out industry in several coun-tries, including China, Russia, India and evenEurope. The aim is to concentrate power ina new oligarchy and sharply reduce worldpopulation. Speaking with Business Gazeta,Vitaly Averyanov, conservative philosopherand co-founder of Izborsk Club, said RussianPresident Vladimir Putin announced polit-ical changes on January 15 after receivinginformation of a conspiracy by heads of sev-eral oligarchic clans and members of theMedvedev Government.
A mysterious shooting at the FederalSecurity Service (FSB) headquarters inMoscow on December 19, 2019, confirms theview that a coup d’état was averted. However,the Central Bank is still under the control ofglobal banking agents, which needs correc-tion; mercifully, the Russian law wasdecolonised through a Constitutionalamendment that asserts the supremacy ofnational law over international law, makinga potential ‘“colour revolution” more difficult.
The Coronavirus pandemic brokeamidst this power struggle. The deepeningrecession in the global economy and intel-ligence data on new moves by the globalfinancial elite suggest a cardinal shift in inter-national politics is under way. Within Russia,many elitists are shedding their dual citizen-ship and foreign accounts (handing them torelatives/proxies because the accounts areneeded to service foreign real estate). Thetransnational elite is using COVID-19 to exe-cute a carefully conceived plan X.
By mid-March, many top Russian scien-tists concluded that the virus is a new ver-
sion of the common SARS, lackof a vaccine is not lethal and thedevelopment of collective immu-nity is inevitable, a view sharedby Western scientists and theWorld Health Organisation(who). Oddly, 50 to 85 per centof the victims are asympto-matic. This strange propertysuggests the artificial origin ofthe virus: Infection can spreadrapidly and affect a relatively nar-row target group. Between con-tagiousness and numerous latentcarriers, quarantine or “stay athome” will fail to flatten thecurve of severe cases that needintensive care. This was the onlyrationale for freezing economicactivity anywhere with lock-downs.
Oxford epidemiologist TomJefferson was the first to pointout this disconnect. StanfordUniversity conducted a study inCalifornia, which showed thatthe number of infected people isat least 50 times higher than offi-cial figures. Unsurprisingly,attempts to curb infectionsthrough quarantine failed butdestroyed the industrial econo-my. As this data was not knownin January and February, thequarantine imposed in Wuhanwas presented as a solution bythe WHO and accepted by mostnations; the weightage given toCOVID-19 patients caused deepsuffering to patients with otherchronic ailments.
Only Sweden, Japan,Belarus, and partly theNetherlands, bucked the trend.The deaths from COVID-19,
even in the US and Italy, are lessthan 0.04 per cent of the totalpopulation and less than 0.2 percent of the number of infected.The millions of deaths predict-ed by epidemiologist NeilFerguson were gibberish. Infairness, mathematical modelscan be quite accurate if they arehonest but too often they are tai-lored to certain specifications.
Parallel developments in theworld of finance, oil and goldmarkets suggest that the globalhype is a cover for redistributingpower. Each week of a frozeneconomy destroys thousands ofenterprises. The goal of thishybrid warfare is de-industrial-isation: Pushing people out of themanufacturing economy, popu-lation reduction and the finaldestruction of the middle class.
Predictably, China’s produc-tion and sales chains were thefirst to be hit. The small andmedium businesses are theunloved stepsons of neo-liberalauthorities; the current crisiscould bury them. Estimates say70 per cent of production will gobankrupt; the service sector hasvirtually collapsed. This crisiscould evolve into a new GreatDepression.
Even in the Anglo-Saxonworld, only 100 or 200 familiesof the transnational elite willbenefit from this war. But,laments Vitaly Averyanov,Russia’s corrupt elitists see theactors of this hybrid war as theirallies (for India, read masters).They want to burn the nationaleconomy in the furnace of the
crisis, cut all budgets and bank-rupt Russia. However, the glob-al marauders have the experienceof several centuries of crises anddepressions; they have preparedall the escape routes; madeadvance plans how and in whatto convert their profits andincrease their power. Russianelitists have no idea of what kindof hole they are digging forthemselves by playing secondfiddle to the global elite. InIndia, too, eminent economistsdon’t understand that their util-ity ends once the global eliteachieves its goals.
In America, the forcesunleashed by the hybrid warthreaten President DonaldTrump’s re-election. Hence,Trump opposes the global finan-cial oligarchy and has deniedfunds to the WHO that is virtu-ally functioning as a branch ofthe transnational elite “club.”He supports “collective immuni-ty” and is not waiting for a mir-acle vaccine to resolve the crisis.
The mainstream globalmedia is projecting Bill Gates asa warrior against the pandemic.The Gates Foundation promotesvaccination, family planningand the spread of GMO crops inbackward countries. As realisa-tion dawns in world capitalsabout the damage done to theeconomies of nations, throwingmillions into almost irretrievableunemployment, the guttedeconomies must be put back onthe rails as quickly as possible.
(The author is a senior jour-nalist. Views are personal)
Sir — This refers to the editori-al, “Double degrees” (May 23).The University GrantsCommission’s decision to allowstudents to pursue dual degreesis aimed at improving the careerprospects of students, keeping inmind an increased demand in thejob market for multi-discipli-nary skills. However, pursuingdual degrees simultaneously willnot be easy for the students.
Only an extraordinarily bril-liant, intelligent, bright and hard-working student can embark onthis idea as it would requirehim/her to concentrate on morenumber of subjects. The draw-back of pursuing dual degrees isthat a student cannot be well-versed in all subjects. Singledegree persuasion with a limitednumber of subjects in itself isreplete with heavy syllabi.
Persuasion of a single coursecan help the students acquire athorough knowledge in a subjectthat he/she is interested in.Acquiring degrees one after theother helps them get an in-depthknowledge of the subject.
KV SeetharamaiahHassan
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Sir — The fourth phase of thenationwide lockdown will soonend on May 31. Once again,opinions are divided among thosewho want a complete lifting andthose who want to extend thelockdown. But the fact is thatlockdown or no lockdown, India
has already reached a tippingpoint in the war against thevirus. With a gradual lifting of thelockdown for the sake of theeconomy, there is restlessnessamong the people. Many areventuring out of their homes onflimsy grounds. Social distancinghas become a joke and people arefeigning ignorance.
What is sure, however, is that
life will never be the same when-ever the lockdown is lifted com-pletely. In view of this, an overhaulin the way we live is essential. Theonly way forward is to get accus-tomed to a new lifestyle. Given thesize of India’s population andpeople’s propensity here to floutrules, the number of cases isbound to see a rise. We need to bementally prepared for this. The
world is far away from developinga cure or a vaccine for the virus.People cannot stay in lockdown fora longer period of time. Periodiccycles of lockdown must becomethe order of the day.
Venu GSKollam
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Sir — It is unfortunate that ourpolitical leaders have sought togive political colour to theCoronavirus pandemic instead ofmaking it a larger communityhealth concern. The pandemichas exposed the ugly face ofpoorly functional health facilitiesand a lack of basic requirementsof survival.
Those who have been worsthit are the poor and the daily-wage earners. The coercive mea-sures taken by Governments tocontrol the pandemic have goneoff the mark as a large section ofsociety suffers at multiple levelssuch as economic, psychologicalas well as social.
Nothing in our experience in healthcarehad prepared us for what the Coronaviruspandemic had unleashed upon the coun-
try, particularly rural India. As the contagion-triggered lockdown suspended healthcare pro-grammes across the country, work at thousandsof Anganwadi centres, which served nutritious,cooked meals to lakhs of children, was disrupt-ed. Similarly, food distribution at the NutritionRehabilitation Centers (NRCs), which are facil-ities set up by the Government to treat victimsof severe malnutrition, also came to a grindinghalt.
Economic challenges brought on by COVID-19 and social distancing norms, which are hereto stay, are likely to complicate the issue ofaddressing severe malnutrition. But ironically,it makes the task of addressing severe malnutri-tion even more important than before.
Long-term social distancing norms meanthat in a post-COVID world, we have to rethinkand strengthen elements of community-basedmanagement of malnutrition through our front-line workers, who remain the lifeline of pro-gramme implementation. This reassessment alsobecomes relevant considering parents may bereluctant to bring their severely-malnourishedchildren to the NRCs for fear of infection. Whatmakes this task more difficult is the fact that evenbefore the Coronavirus struck the country, NRCwas not a place parents preferred to stay in withtheir children.
The intensity and manifestation of SevereAcute Malnutrition (SAM) in the form ofextreme thinness, morbidities and associatedhigh mortality could draw the Government’sattention earlier than stunting, which thoughlooming large, was not so visible. As a responseto the crisis, in 2011 the Central Governmentissued operational guidelines on facility-basedmanagement of SAM children within institution-al (hospital-based) settings with the use of ther-apeutic foods.
Subsequently, many Indian States establishedthese centres for in-patient care of severely mal-nourished children. These units function as perthe protocols prescribed by the World HealthOrganisation and the Indian Academy ofPaediatrics (IAP). Children with severe malnu-trition are referred to the NRC and on admis-sion, are required to stay at the in-patient facil-ities for a period of 14 days or more, until thechild recovers from infectious disease and gainsadequate weight as per the discharge criteria.
However in the practical experience of allGovernment healthcare workers dealing withSAM and NRCs, a majority of caregivers, espe-cially the mothers, find it unusually challengingto stay at the NRCs for over two weeks.
Hence the caregivers either show tacit resis-tance to treatment procedures or leave the cen-tre abruptly against medical advice. In either case,finally the child suffers and continues to remainacutely malnourished as the prescribed nutritiontreatment is rendered ineffective once the childis back in his/her home environment.
The reluctance to take the SAM child to theNRC and the decision of leaving the facility with-out completing the treatment can be attributedto a host of parenting challenges that womenface. Managing household chores, taking care oftheir other children and even the elderly become
impossible for a woman living in a NRCwith her SAM child. Due to theextreme poverty of the families thatthese children come from, there aretimes when even livestock, jobs or workin the family farm take precedence overthe child’s health for the women of thehouse.
This is an unfortunate but harshreality of our country that the prima-ry responsibility of all these tasks lieswith the mother of SAM children. Inaddition to this, the compensationoffered by the Government to stay atthe NRC is much lower than the per-ceived opportunity cost incurred by thefamily for treating SAM children.
This includes the travel cost to theNRC, the loss of working days aswomen contribute to family income,either by working under the variousschemes that come under the MahatmaGandhi Employment Guarantee Act(MNREGA), or by participating in agri-culture. Additionally, women also carefor the family, fetch water, wash clothes,cook and clean. Thus, all of theirhousehold responsibilities get disrupt-ed if they have to stay with the child atthe NRC.
What makes matters worse for par-ents and children are the living condi-tions at the NRC. Sometimes ill-treat-ment by the campus staff further dam-ages parental trust and perception of thequality of public health services.Women are often intimidated by theunfamiliar environment, as for many ofthem the visit to the centre is their first-ever experience of being so far awayfrom their home or village. They areusually anxious about their safety andface difficulty in communicating withNRC staff. All these factors add to their
distrust and discomfort.The pause COVID-19 has forced
upon us should be used to reflect andmake the NRCs more sensitive to theneeds of parents and children.Adequate staff with technical skills andan empathetic attitude towards the needof the child and the parent are a pre-requisite for SAM management at theNRC. This significantly enhances theperformance of in-patient facility-based healthcare centres. Attention tothese aspects also improves the com-munity’s confidence, trust and builds apositive perception of the healthcarefacilities. All of these improve compli-ance to the treatment.
Another component that helpsparents stay longer is the introductionof counsellors at the NRC, who canidentify psychological distress andoffer emotional support to the moth-ers, empowering them to care for theirown and their child’s nutrition and psy-chosocial needs. Enhancing the moth-er’s social network through engagementwith other mothers present at the cen-ter and facilitating interactions betweensub-groups in a way that mothersexperiencing similar psychosocial stres-sors and care-giving issues share andlearn from each other’s experiences,have been seen to be helpful in retain-ing SAM children at the centres. Suchsupportive sessions help mothers adjustwith routine procedures at the NRCand make their prolonged stay relative-ly comfortable.
Structured and thoughtfully-intro-duced innovations to improve infra-structure facilities like provision ofadditional side beds for fathers toaccompany the mother, arranging fortheir meals and providing basic facili-
ties for sanitation, entertainment andsafety at the centre can go a long wayin extending the stay at the NRC.
A vibrant and child-friendly envi-ronment has a magical effect on the list-less SAM child. Small changes such asa play area with outdoor activities, toys,games that are age and health-appro-priate help to overcome the stress andanxiety of hospitalisation and can helpreduce the risk of psychomotor andcognitive impairment in children. Theplay sessions also help in developingand firming the mother-child bond.
Despite the decline in the percent-age of children who are underweightfrom 42.5 per cent in the NationalFamily Health Survey-three (NFHS) to35.7 per cent in NFHS-four, the bur-den of childhood malnutrition in Indiacontinues to be significantly high.About 38.4 per cent children under theage of five are stunted. And the num-ber of children under five, who arewasted and severely wasted hasincreased to 21 per cent and 7.5 per centin NFHS-four from 19.8 and 6.4 percent respectively over the decade.These numbers are not likely toimprove post the COVID-19 crisis.
Reinventing our facility-basedmanagement model, so that our cen-tres are more sensitive, combined witha stronger community-based earlyidentification and follow-up approachfor managing SAM will prove effectivein ensuring completion of treatment,adherence to follow-up and sustainedweight gain for children who are suf-fering from severe malnutrition.
(The writer is a public health nutri-tionist who has worked with Statehealth, women and child developmentdepartments and specialises in SAM)
India is facing a humanitarian andeconomic crisis of epic propor-tions. As a result of the extended
lockdown, millions of hungry andpenniless migrant labourers arestranded in cities, desperately wait-ing for a seat on a bus or a train totake them home. Fed up of the end-less wait, the “atma nirbhar (self-reliant)” among them decided to takematters into their own hands andbegan walking back to their home-
towns and villages, hundreds ofkilometres away.
These workers, who form thebackbone of the informal economyof the country, are generallyemployed in Micro, Small andMedium Enterprises (MSMEs),restaurants, retail shops, constructionsites and other enterprises which shuttheir doors during the lockdown orare at the brink of closure, due to it.What a lockdown of over nine weekswould do to the economy of thecountry and consequently, the livesof daily-wagers is not beyond thescope of the imagination of thosewho are in touch with reality.
The so-called �20 lakh crore eco-nomic package was an exercise infutility, which did not offer anythingto the struggling migrant workers.Instead, the Government announcedmeasures to make it easier forIndians to travel to space. Perhaps,
the Government got it wrong. Peoplewant to travel to their States, notspace. Most analysts, rating agenciesand banks have placed the size of thefiscal stimulus announced by FinanceMinister Nirmala Sitharamanbetween 0.7 to 1.3 per cent of theGross Domestic Product (GDP) andnot 10 per cent as claimed by theGovernment. According to theGovernment’s own admission, a�8.01 lakh crore liquidity infusion bythe Central bank forms a part of this�20 lakh crore stimulus.
The outcome of the ReserveBank of India’s (RBI’s) MonetaryPolicy Committee (MPC) meeting,which decided to cut the repo andreverse repo rate further by 40 basispoints (bps) to four per cent and 3.35per cent respectively, came as no sur-prise. The consecutive rate cuts by theRBI are aimed at injecting more liq-uidity into the market. However, the
industry and retail borrowers are notgoing to benefit from this rate reduc-tion as there is no demand for cred-it. And for banks, liquidity is not anissue right now but risk aversion is.This risk aversion among banks iscreating a hurdle in increasing cred-it flow and ensuring the transmissionof rate cuts to the industry and retailborrowers. But these rate cuts willaffect the middle and lower-incomeclasses the most, with an expected fallin interest rates on their savings(Fixed Deposits) by around 0.5 percent in the days to come.
However, banks alone cannot beblamed for turning cautious onlending. The economy is passingthrough uncertain times and banksare trying to prevent non-perform-ing assets (NPAs). The primaryissue is the absence of demand forliquidity and to generate thisdemand, capacity utilisation, which
was 68.6 per cent (October-December 2019), has to be increased.Here comes the immediate need foradditional Direct Cash Transfer of�7,500 to each Jan Dhan, PM-Kisanand pensioner’s account. This trans-fer will generate demand in the ruraland semi-urban sector, which in turnwould force India Inc. to use theremaining 31.4 per cent capacity orgo for capacity enhancement whichmay require liquidity support frombanks. Just increasing liquidity in itscurrent form by the RBI is notgoing to translate into higher creditofftake.
Another major announcementby the RBI was the extension of themoratorium on loan repayment byanother three months. The RBI alsoannounced the conversion of mora-torium interest payment into a termloan, payable in the course of theFinancial Year (FY) 2021. These
measures could bring relief to bor-rowers but not for banks, as they willsee more pressure on their balancesheets. The Government shouldensure that in the endeavour tobecome atma nirbhar it does not endup making our banks and Non-Banking Financial Companies(NBFCs) “parmatma nirbhar(dependent on God).” In the last fewyears, we have already seen someexamples of this in the likes of PMCBank, Yes Bank and so on.
Another challenge for the coun-try is the consistent increase in thefood inflation rate. The unplannedlockdown resulted in major supplychain disruptions, which in turnincreased the food inflation rate to8.6 per cent in April. If proper plan-ning regarding supply chains is notdone before reopening the economy,food inflation will skyrocket. If foodinflation does not decrease, we will
have an economy with a high infla-tion rate and negative GDP growth.
Although the RBI has not pro-vided any concrete number for theprojected GDP for FY21, it predict-ed a negative growth rate. Already afew national and international ratingagencies have forecast a negativeGDP growth rate (minus five percent), which can also have huge fis-cal implications for India.
The only way to come out of thisdifficulty is to have large-scale directcash transfer at least for the next sixmonths to boost demand. This inturn, will generate jobs and increaseconsumption levels. Thereafter, ourdemographic advantage will acceler-ate the economic wheel of the coun-try.
(The writer is Professor of Financeand National Spokesperson, CongressParty. The views expressed are per-sonal)
Americans prepared to mark aMemorial Day like no other as the
coronavirus pandemic upended tradi-tional commemorations, while Greecesought to revive its crucial tourism sectorby restoring ferry services to its popularAegean islands.
US authorities warned beach-goers toheed social distancing rules to avoid aresurgence of the virus that has infected5.4 million people worldwide and killedover 3,47,000, including nearly 1,00,000Americans, according to a tally by JohnsHopkins University.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abelifted a coronavirus state of emergency inTokyo and four other remaining areas onMonday, but said that does not mean theend of the outbreak. He also unveiled a newstimulus package worth about 100 trillionyen ($930 billion) to provide financial sup-port for pandemic-hit companies. That’s ontop of an initial, 117 trillion yen package.
In New York City, honoring fallen mil-itary members will be done with car con-voys and small ceremonies this yearinstead of parades to conform with coro-navirus lockdown restrictions.
“It’s something we’re upset about, butwe understand,” said Raymond Aalbue,chairman of the United Military Veteransof Kings County, which usually puts on aparade in Brooklyn.
There’s “no reason to put anybody inharm’s way,” he said, adding “it’s really cut-ting quick to the heart of all the veterans.”Veterans, along with nursing home resi-dents, have made up a significant portionof those who died in the US outbreak.
After two days of playing golf,President Donald Trump is scheduled tomake Memorial Day appearances atArlington National Cemetery, where hewill lay a wreath at the Tomb of theUnknown Soldier, and then heads off tospeak at a historic fort in Baltimore.
Baltimore Mayor Bernard C “Jack”Young has criticised Trump’s visit, sayingthe city can’t afford the costs and the tripsends the wrong message about stay-at-home directives.
The White House, meanwhile, slappeda travel ban on Latin America’s most pop-ulous nation, saying it would deny admis-sion to foreigners who have recently beenin Brazil. The ban, which takes effectThursday, does not apply to US citizens orlegal permanent residents. With over3,63,000 reported infections, Brazil is sec-ond only to the US despite limited testing.
Greece’s low Covid-19 infection rateallowed the Government to restart thesummer holiday season three weeks ear-lier than previously planned. In additionto resuming ferries with new passenger
limits, it allowed cafes and restaurants toreopen under new social distancing rules.All this, of course, was for Greek holi-daymakers as foreign tourists aren’t expect-ed until after June 15.
“We will implement exactly what thestate has told us, whatever the doctors havetold us, first and foremost for the safety ofour customers,” said Spiros Bairaktaris,owner of an Athens restaurant that wasreducing capacity from 100 customers to 30.
Greece, which shut down quickly, hasonly 171 of Europe’s nearly 1,70,000 coro-navirus deaths and depends on tourism for10 per cent of its economy.
Islands such as Santorini, Mykonos,Corfu and Samos are major draws fortourists but have been mostly off-limitssince late March when the country’s lock-down took effect.
Hard-hit Spain reached a milestone onMonday as half the population — includ-ing those in the two biggest cities, Madridand Barcelona — were finally allowed togather, albeit in limited numbers. Outdoorseating at bars and restaurants alsoreopened. Madrid coffee bar ownerRoberto Fernández said the mood was bit-tersweet. Relaxations went a step furtherin the rest of Spain, where people can nowvisit beaches and nursing homes and holdweddings. Spain has recorded 28,700virus deaths.
But as lockdown restrictions wererolled back across Europe, fresh out-breaks were reported in a Czech coal mineand a Dutch slaughterhouse.
The Darkov mine near the CzechRepublic’s border with Poland haltedoperations after 212 people — mostly min-ers and family members — tested positivefor coronavirus. Testing was carried out on2,400 people.
Meanwhile, an outbreak among 657employees of a meat processing plant in theDutch city of Groenlo has spilled over intoGermany. Dutch authorities said Mondaythat 19 of the 147 employees who had test-ed positive live in Germany.
After seeing several coronavirus clus-ters among abattoir employees inGermany, the government has pledged tocrack down on poor working conditions.
In Russia, infections topped 3,50,000— the third highest in the world — ashealth officials reported 9,000 new casesand 92 new deaths, bringing the overalldeath toll to 3,633. Russia denies allega-tions that its death rate is suspiciously low,insisting that’s due to its effective con-tainment measures.
As millions of Australian childrenreturned to school, Queensland PremierAnnastacia Palaszczuk said Monday thatstudents and teachers had to observe onekey message: Stay home if you are sick.
“We’re not out of the woods yet. Wehave to take each day as it comes, eachweek as it comes and we keep our fingerscrossed that Queenslanders will continueto flatten that curve,” Palaszczuk said.
Chinese state media reported Mondaythat more than 6.5 million coronavirustests were conducted in the city of Wuhan— the country’s virus epicente e— over a10-day period in a bid to test all its 11 mil-lion residents.
Officials in California said most peo-ple were covering their faces and keepingtheir distance as they ventured out. ManySouthern California beaches were openonly for swimming, running and otheractivities, not sunbathing. At New York’sOrchard Beach in the Bronx, kids playedwith toys and people sat in folding chairs,wrapped up in sweaters and masks.
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South Africa’s coronavirus outbreak is goingto get much worse, President Cyril
Ramaphosa has warned, while announcingthat the lockdown measures would be eased toallow conditional sale of alcohol and certain eco-nomic activities from June 1.
The President has been under pressure toease the lockdown measures to restart the econ-omy. In an address to the nation on Sunday,Ramaphosa said the first 10 weeks of the nation-al lockdown has left South Africa in a much bet-ter state than most other countries that were sim-ilarly poised.
But most of the country’s metropolitancities, including three in the economic hub ofGauteng province, have been identified as Covid-19 hotspots which will receive special attention.There are now 22,583 confirmed coronaviruscases in South Africa, and around half of thoseinfected have recovered. A total of 429 people have
died due to the Covid-19. “We have known allalong that the lockdown would only delay thespread of the virus, but that it would not be ableto stop it. Until there is a vaccine available to all,the coronavirus will continue to spread in ourpopulation. This means that we must get used toliving with the coronavirus for some time to come.
“As scientists had predicted, the infectionsin our country have now started to rise sharply.One-third of the cumulative confirmed caseswere recorded in the last week alone. And weshould expect that these numbers will rise evenfurther and even faster,” Ramaphosa said.
The President said moving to level 3 of thefive-tier lockdown will result in opening up ofthe economy, but cautioned that there are partsof the country where the disease is concentrat-ed and where infections continue to rise.
“We will have a differentiated approach todeal with those areas that have far higher lev-els of infection and transmission. These areaswill be declared coronavirus hotspots.”
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Due to a decline in infectionrate, the team at Oxford
University developing a Covid-19 vaccine believe that thechances of the trial yielding “noresult” is now 50 per cent, TheTelegraph reported.
The University of Oxfordlast week announced that theadvance human trial of the vac-cine will involve up to 10,260volunteers across the UK.
While explaining when theresults of the trial will be avail-able, the university said that toassess whether the vaccineworks to protect from Covid-19, the statisticians inthe team team will compare the
number of infections in thecontrol group with the number of infections in thevaccinated group.
For this purpose, it is nec-essary for a small number ofstudy participants to developCovid-19.
“How quickly we reach thenumbers required will dependon the levels of virus trans-mission in the community. Iftransmission remains high, wemay get enough data in a cou-ple of months to see if the vaccine works, but if trans-mission levels drop, this couldtake up to 6 months,” the uni-versity said.
This is the reason whyrecruitment of those who have
a higher chance of beingexposed to the SARS-CoV-2virus is being prioritised, suchas frontline healthcare workers,frontline support staff andpublic-facing key workers, inan effort to capture the efficacy data as quickly aspossible.
“It’s a race against the virusdisappearing, and against time,”Professor Adrian Hill, directorof the university’s JennerInstitute, told the Telegraph.
“We said earlier in the yearthat there was an 80 per centchance of developing an effec-tive vaccine by September. Butat the moment, there’s a 50 percent chance that we get noresult at all.”
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The furore surrounding topDowning Street aide
Dominic Cummings’ perceivedbreach of the coronavirus stay-at-home lockdown rules bytravelling 260 miles to his par-ents’ home refused to die downon Monday.
The Opposition brandedBritish Prime Minister BorisJohnson’s defence ofCummings as an “insult” to allthe sacrifices made by theBritish public during the pan-demic, with a growing numberof parliamentarians withinJohnson’s own ConservativeParty calling for his ChiefStrategy Adviser to be sacked.
“This was a test of thePrime Minister and he hasfailed it. It is an insult to sacri-fices made by the British peo-ple that Boris Johnson haschosen to take no actionagainst Dominic Cummings,”said Keir Starmer, the Leader ofthe Opposition Labour Party.
His Indian-origin shadowforeign secretary, Lisa Nandy,added: “The Prime Ministerconfirms it’s one rule for his
friends and another rule for therest of us. All that sacrifice,stress and pain. What an insult.”
Acting Liberal Democratsleader Ed Davey said sackingCummings was a must torestore credibility around thegovernment’s public healthmessaging.
“The instruction the PrimeMinister gave us all to stay athome has been breached by histop adviser and that’s whatyou can’t get away from in this story, it’s pretty simple,” he said.
Scotland First MinisterNicola Sturgeon accusedJohnson of “putting his politi-cal interest ahead of the pub-lic interest”. “When trust in apublic health message and pub-lic health advice is as importantas it is right now the conse-quences could be very serious,”she said.
At the daily DowningStreet briefing on Sundayevening, Johnson had thrownhis weight behind his chiefadviser and declared that hehad followed the “instincts ofevery father” when he made thejourney to Durham in north-
east England on March 31 toensure child care for his youngson as he began displayingsymptoms of coronavirus.
“He acted responsibly,legally and with integrity, andwith the overall aim of stoppingthe spread of the virus and sav-ing lives,” Johnson concluded,after what he said was an“extensive” face-to-face meet-ing with his top aide.
UK newspapers havereported at least two furtherallegations of lockdown breach-es by his aide, with Johnsonsaying that “some” of the claimswere “palpably false” but refus-ing to elaborate.
However, besides a flurryof media questions right after,there was also an embarrassingrogue social media message onthe official UK Civil ServiceTwitter account, accusing theUK PM of arrogance.
“Arrogant and offensive.Can you imagine having towork with these truth twisters,”read the Tweet on@UKCivilService – which wastaken down after roughly nineminutes but not before it wasshared thousands of times.
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China has reported 51 newcoronavirus cases includ-
ing 40 asymptomatic infec-tions, majority of them in thecontagion’s first epicentreWuhan, where over six milliontests have been conducted inthe last 10 days, health officialssaid on Monday.
The country’s NationalHealth Commission (NHC)said that 11 new importedcases were reported on Sunday.
While no new domestical-ly-transmitted COVID-19cases were reported in Chinaon Sunday, 11 imported casesincluding 10 in the InnerMongolia Autonomous Regionand one in Sichuan provincewere reported, the NHC said inits daily report.
Out of the 40 new asymp-tomatic cases, 38 were report-ed in Wuhan, which is cur-rently undergoing mass testingof its over 11.2 million peopleafter a spike in the asympto-matic cases.
Currently, 396 people withasymptomatic symptoms areunder medical observation inChina, including 326 inWuhan, according to the healthauthority.
Asymptomatic cases referto the patients who have test-ed Covid-19 positive but devel-op no symptoms such as fever,cough, or sore throat. However,they pose a risk of spreadingthe disease to others.
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The coronavirus hasn’t beenkind to car owners.With more people than
ever staying home to lessen thespread of COVID-19, theirsedans, pickup trucks andSUVs are parked unattendedon the streets, making themeasy targets for opportunisticthieves.
Despite silent streets andnearly non-existent traffic,vehicle larcenies shot up 63%in New York and nearly 17% inLos Angeles from Jan. 1through mid-May, comparedwith the same period last year.
And many other lawenforcement agencies aroundthe U.S. are reporting anincrease in stolen cars andvehicle burglaries, even as vio-lent crime has dropped dra-matically nationwide in thecoronavirus pandemic. It’s alow-risk crime with a poten-tially high reward, police say,especially when many driversleave their doors unlocked ortheir keys inside.
“You might as well put asticker on the window that says‘come take my stuff,’ “ said an
exasperated Alex Villanueva,the Los Angeles County sher-iff.
In Austin, Texas, lastmonth, a whopping 72% of the322 stolen vehicles had theirkeys nearby. The total numberof auto thefts in April spikedabout 50% and burglaries tovehicles were up 2% from April2019.
The virus has created a“perfect storm,” said AustinPolice Sgt. Chris Vetrano, asupervisor in the 11-detectiveauto theft unit that investigatesstolen vehicle cases.
The elements for that storm:Drivers are at home and notusing or checking their cars reg-ularly. School’s out, so teenagersare trying their luck. Criminalsare out of work and have moretime on their hands or need fastmoney to support a drug habit.“You can get on the internetnowadays and learn how tobreak into vehicles just search-ing YouTube,” Vetrano said.
Salt Lake City Police Det.Greg Wilking said a 22% spikein vehicle burglaries therecould be from a few criminalsworking quickly on “carprowls.”
It’s not quite a case of coitusinterruptus, but efforts to
create a very special baby aredefinitely on hold. Blame thepandemic.
Groundbreaking work tokeep alive the nearly extinctnorthern white rhino sub-species — population, two —by in-vitro fertilization hasbeen stalled by travel restric-tions. And time is running out.
The two northern whiterhinos are female. The goal isto create viable embryos in alab by inseminating their eggswith frozen sperm from deadmales, then transfer them into
a surrogate mother, a morecommon southern white rhino.
As of January, threeembryos had been created and stored in liquid nitrogen.But further key steps now haveto wait.
“It has been disrupted byCovid-19, like everything else,”said Richard Vigne, managingdirector of Ol PejetaConservancy in Kenya, homeof the two remaining rhinos.“That is, the process of col-lecting more eggs from thefemales as well as the processof developing the technique tointroduce the northern whiterhino embryo into the south-ern white rhino females.”
Around 40 per cent compa-nies operating in the trav-
el and tourism sector are star-ing at the risk of complete shut-down over the next 3 to 6months, says a report, even asthe domestic flights resumeoperations after over 2-monthsuspension due to lockdown.
Also, nearly 36 per cent ofsuch companies are likely towitness a temporary shutdown,according to the report byBOTT Travel SentimentTracker in partnership withseven national associations likeIATO, TAAI, ICPB, ADTOI,
OTOAI, ATOAI and SITE.The report said that 81 per centtravel and tourism companieshave lost their revenue up to100 per cent while 15 per centof the companies have wit-nessed it slide up to 75 per cent.
The BOTT TravelSentiment Tracker survey wasdone online with over 2,300travel and tourism businessowners and company repre-sentatives across the countryover a period of 10 days.
“The pandemic has hit thetravel and tourism sector hardwith as many as 40 per centcompanies facing the risk ofcomplete shutdown in the next
3 to 6 months while another35.7 per cent might go for atemporary shutdown,” it said.
The survey report furtherrevealed that 38.6 per centtravel companies are going forjob cuts and another 37.6 percent of the companies are con-sidering the option with uncer-tainty looming large.
“The travel and tourismsector is going through a verybad phase. It has taken a severebeating due to the COVID-19outbreak with lakhs of peopledependent on it sufferingimmense losses and job cuts,”the report said.
This survey has further
confirmed fear that travel com-panies are staring at partial andcomplete shutdown in additionto job cuts, adjustment ofworkforce in form of pay cuts,deferment of salaries and ter-mination of contracts, accord-ing to the survey.
“This is an unprecedent-ed situation and the govern-ment should extend some relieffor the survival of thousands ofcompanies,” Travel AgentsAssociation of India presidentJyoti Mayal said.
As per the survey, 73 percent travel companies havegone for adjustment of work-force including pay cuts, defer-
ment of salaries, termination ofcontracts, while 67 per centhave gone for steps like reduc-tion of overheads.
About 49 per cent aredeferring their capital expen-ditures and interestingly, 41.6per cent companies are intro-ducing new services.
Meanwhile, 78.6 per centof travel and tourism compa-nies said they expect the gov-ernment to create a tourismrelief fund immediately, fol-lowed by 68.2 per cent whowant refunds of cancellationsand advances of travel agents and tour operators fromairlines.
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The Central Board ofIndirect Taxes (CBIC) on
Monday said it has sanctionedGST refund claims worth �11,052 crore in 47 days.
In a tweet, the CBIC saidit is “committed to ensuring liq-uidity to GST taxpayers espe-cially MSME sectors during thelockdown”.
The tweet added that29,230 refund claims amount-ing to �11,052 crore disposedof between April 8-May 24, theCBIC added.
Refunds have been sanc-tioned while ensuring workfrom home, it added.The Finance Ministry had onApril 8 said that to providerelief during COVID-19 it hasbeen decided to issue all pend-ing GST and custom refundswhich would benefit around 1lakh business entities, includ-ing MSME.
The total refund grantedwill be approximately �18,000crore, it had said.
The CBIC had earlierasked its field officers to avoidasking for physical submissionof documents from entitieswho are claiming GST andCustoms refunds and insteaduse official email for all com-munication.
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Union Minister NitinGadkari on Monday said
the Government agencies,public sector undertakingsand major industries owe anestimated �5 lakh crore inoutstanding payments toMSMEs.
The MSME minister saidthe Centre has decided that itsministries and public sectorundertakings will clear out-standing payments of MSMEswithin 45 days.
“State Governments, theirministries and public sectorundertakings, Government ofIndia, its ministries and under-takings, and major industriescombined owe an estimated �5lakh crore to MSMEs, moneythat is stuck and not cleared,”Gadkari said.
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Government proposes tofurther streamline and
simplify the processes to dealwith corporate and tax relatedfrauds by identifying and insti-tuting lead investigating agencyfor each case and only allowingthat body to undertake the pre-liminary work.
This is expected to improvethe overall quality of investi-gation while prevent interdepartmental issues fromresulting in delays.
At present, corporatefrauds including tax related andeconomic crimes see involve-ment of multiple investigativeagencies such as Income TaxInvestigation, Directorate ofAnti Evasion, EnforcementDirectorate (ED), SFIO, CBI,GST Investigation, Customs,DRI etc. This often results induplication of effort and con-fusion with case being tossedbetween one investigative arm to the other without cred-ible progress.
Sources said that
Government has discussedimplementing the concept oflead investigation at a high levelinter ministerial meeting andwill prepare a draft for imple-menting it once views soughtfrom other stakeholders come.
Several countries globallyhas the concept of lead inves-tigative agency that establishedpreliminary direction of inves-tigations and brings in otheragencies purely as a need basedapproach.
“Lead investigation agencyconcept is good. It needs studyabout the criteria for decidingthe lead investigation agency toavoid inter departmentalissues,” said a former top offi-cial of Central Board of IndirectTaxes and Customs (CBIC)who did not wish to be named.
Government has beenlooking at different ways toremove the clutter from tax andcorporate laws as part of itsefforts towards ‘Ease of DoingBusiness.’ As part of this,Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman recentlyannounced the decriminaliza-
tion of minor technical andprocedural defaults under theCompanies Act. She alsodropped a few compoundableoffences and put others to bedealt under alternative frame-work.
It is expected that theFinance Ministry in coopera-tion with other related min-istries will prepare detailedguidelines for institution oflead investigative agency for aparticular class of crime. Oncethis is put in place, every casewill be handled by only oneagency and others would beinvolved purely on need basedfor specialised support.
Also, as part of operationalstreamlining of investigativeprocess, database may also beprepared by one investigationagency and shared with otheragencies to avoid duplicacy.Like data sharing with GST,Banking and income taxdepartment, will minimiseduplicacies in investigations.
Moreover, all departmentwould require to have manualsfor investigation.
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Joe Biden worked out dealswith Senate Republican
leader Mitch McConnell. He defended Vice
President Mike Pence as a“decent guy” and eulogizedArizona Republican Sen. JohnMcCain’s “fairness, honesty,
dignity, respect.”When he launched his
presidential campaign, suchovertures to Republicans werecentral to Biden’s promise to“unify the country” and“restore the soul of the nation”after defeating PresidentDonald Trump.
Now that he’s the pre-
sumptive Democratic nominee,Biden is sharpeninghis tone, still pitching con-
sensus but touting a “boldagenda” aimed at mollifyingprogressives who remain skeptical he’ll deliverenough on health care, studentloan debts and the climate cri-sis.
The idea is to avoid repeat-ing the party’s 2016 defeat,when Hillary Clinton struggledto unite her moderate sup-porters and backers of BernieSanders.
The dynamics are differ-ent in 2020, with Democratsunited in their antipathytoward Trump.
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China’s proposed new secu-rity law to firm up its con-
trol over Hong Kong could runinto problems in courts, thecity’s Bar Association haswarned, stressing that Beijinghas no legal authority to enactits national security law for theformer British colony. In astrongly worded statement, theHong Kong Bar Associationalso expressed concern oversuggestions that mainlandsecurity agencies would be setup to safeguard national secu-rity within the city, saying it was“entirely unclear” how thatarrangement would complywith Article 22 of the BasicLaw, which stipulates thatBeijing departments not tointerfere in local affairs.
A draft bill on establishingand improving the legal systemand enforcement mechanismsfor the Hong Kong Special
Administrative Region(HKSAR) to safeguard nation-al security was tabled in China’sNational People’s Congress(NPC) on Friday. It is expect-ed to be passed on May 28.
The bill is regarded as apolitical bombshell for the for-mer British colony as China hasdecided to bypass localLegislative Council to bringabout a new national securitylaw tailor-made to take controlof Hong Kong which has beenwitnessing mass protests bypro-democracy groups sincelast year demanding autonomyand freedom from Beijing.
Thousands of people tookpart in mass protests in HongKong on Sunday. Police firedtear gas and water cannons atthe protesters.
The Hong Kong police isgearing up for another massprotests on Wednesday outsidethe local legislature.
“It is entirely unclear how
the proposed agencies set up inthe Hong Kong SpecialAdministrative Region(HKSAR) will operate underthe laws of the HKSAR,whether they will be bound bythe laws of the HKSAR,whether they have the power ofenforcement, and whether suchpowers as exercised will be lim-ited by the laws currently inforce in the HKSAR,” Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post quotedthe Bar Association statementas saying.
The Bar Association alsopointed out that there was noassurance that the proposedlegislation – given its status asa national law – would complywith provisions of theInternational Covenant onCivil and Political Rights towhich Hong Kong is a signa-tory, or that there would be apublic consultation before pro-mulgation.
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Housing finance firmHDFC Ltd on Monday
reported a 10 per cent declinein consolidated net profit to�4,341.58 crore for the fourthquarter ended March 31. Thecompany’s net profit (beforeadjustment of minority inter-est) was �4,811.26 crore inJanuary-March quarter of2018-19.
The board has proposed adividend of �21 per share of theface value of � 2 per unit,HDFC Ltd said in a regulato-ry filing. On standalone basis,the profit of HDFC during thequarter slipped by 22 per centat �2,232.55 crore as against �2,861.58 crore in the samequarter previous fiscal.
“After providing for taxof� 460 crore, the reportedprofit after tax for the quarterended March 31, 2020 stood at� 2,233 crore and for the wholeyear it was �17,770 crore.
“In the fourth quarter, thefactors that impacted the resultinclude — extra provisioningdue to COVID-19 require-ment, dividend income was �2 crore compared to �537 crore last year and prof-
it on sale of investments was �2crore as against �321 crore,”HDFC Ltd vice chairman andCEO Keki Mistry said via videoconference.
During the quarter, thenet interest income improvedto �3,780 crore compared to�3,161 crore in the corre-sponding quarter previousyear.
For the full fiscal, the netprofit on standalone basis near-ly doubled to �17,769.65 croreas against �9,632.46 crore.
However, HDFC Ltd in astatement said the profit num-bers for the year are not direct-ly comparable with that of theprevious year due to variousreasons, including additionalprovisioning for the impact ofCOVID-19 of �5,913 crore asagainst �935 crore in the pre-vious fiscal.
“The gross non-perform-ing loans as at March 31, 2020stood at � 8,908 crore. This isequivalent to 1.99 per cent ofthe loan portfolio.
The non-performing loansof the individual portfoliostood at 0.95 per cent while that of the non-individ-ual portfolio stood at 4.71 percent,” it said.
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The pilot of the PakistanInternational Airlines
(PIA)’s crashed plane ignoredthree warnings from the airtraffic controllers about theaircraft’s altitude and speedbefore the landing, saying hewas satisfied and would handlethe situation, according to areport on Monday.
The national flag carri-er’s PK-8303 tragedy on Friday,in which 97 people were killedand two miraculously survived,is one of the most catastroph-ic aviation disasters in thecountry’s history.
The Airbus A-320 fromLahore to Karachi was 15 nau-tical miles from the JinnahInternational Airport, flyingat an altitude of 10,000 feetabove the ground instead of7,000 when the Air TrafficControl (ATC) issued its firstwarning to lower the plane’saltitude, Geo News quoted anATC report as saying.
Instead of lowering thealtitude, the pilot responded bysaying that he was satisfied.When only 10 nautical mileswere left till the airport, the
plane was at an altitude of 7,000feet instead of 3,000 feet, it said.The ATC issued a secondwarning to the pilot to lowerthe plane’s altitude. However,the pilot responded again bystating that he was satisfied andwould handle the situation,saying he was ready for land-ing, the report said.
The report said that theplane had enough fuel to fly fortwo hours and 34 minutes,while its total flying time wasrecorded at one hour and 33minutes. Pakistani investigatorsare trying to find out if thecrash is attributable to a piloterror or a technical glitch.
According to a report pre-pared by country’s CivilAviation Authority, plane’sengines had scraped the runwaythrice on the pilot’s first attemptto land, causing friction andsparks recorded by experts.When the aircraft scraped theground on the first failedattempt at landing, the engine’soil tank and fuel pump mayhave been damaged and start-ed to leak, preventing the pilotfrom achieving the requiredthrust and speed to raise the air-craft to safety, the report said.
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President Donald Trumpdemanded on Monday that
North Carolina’s DemocraticGovernor sign off “immediate-ly” on allowing the RepublicanNational Convention to moveforward in August with fullattendance despite the ongoingCOVID-19 pandemic.
Trump’s tweets Mondayabout the RNC, planned forCharlotte, come just two daysafter the North Carolinarecorded its largest dailyincrease in positive cases yet.
On Friday, Governor RoyCooper moved the state into asecond phase of gradual reopen-ing with some further looseningof restrictions on hair salons, bar-bers and restaurants. But hesaid the state must continue toclosely watch virus trends andhas ordered entertainmentvenues, gyms and bars to remainclosed. “Unfortunately,Democrat Governor, @Roy-CooperNC is still in Shutdownmood & unable to guarantee thatby August we will be allowed...Full attendance in the Arena,”Trump tweeted Monday.
He added that Republicans“must be immediately given ananswer by the Governor as towhether or not the space will beallowed to be fully occupied. Ifnot, we will be reluctantlyforced...To find, with all of thejobs and economic develop-ment it brings, another
Republican NationalConvention site.” Cooper’soffice did not immediatelyrespond to an email seekingcomment on the tweets.
A week ago, RepublicanNational Committee chair-woman Ronna McDanielasserted on a call with reportersthat the convention slated forAugust 24-27 would be held atleast partly in person andvowed not to hold “a virtualconvention.” She said at thetime that the RNC has enlist-ed a medical adviser and thatthe party was consulting withthe Charlotte mayor and thegovernor.Several days later,during a visit to the Charlottearea, a top Trump administra-tion health official sounded lesscertain. Asked about whatpreparations Charlotte willneed to make to safely host theRNC, federal Health andHuman Services Secretary AlexAzar said increasing testingcapacity will be important.
However, he did not refer toa traditional in-person con-vention as a certainty, but rathernoted that “we’re severalmonths away from the possi-bility of the RNC.” BeforeMonday, Cooper and Trumphad yet to publicly spar duringthe pandemic. While Cooperhas urged the federal govern-ment to help North Carolina getmore testing supplies and pro-tective gear, he’s avoided criti-cising Trump by name.
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China’s first unmanned heli-copter drone designed to
fly in plateau areas and capableof firing and conductingreconnaissance from a highaltitude has made its maidenflight and could be deployedalong the country’s borderswith India, according to reportsin the official media here.
The AR500C unmannedhelicopter, which has the abil-ity to relay communicationfrom a high altitude, could helpsafeguard China’s southwesternborders with India in Tibet, thestate-run Global Times report-ed. The drone, developed bythe state-owned AviationIndustry Corporation of China(AVIC), successfully made itsmaiden flight on Wednesday atan AVIC base in Poyang in EastChina’s Jiangxi Province.
During the flight, it con-ducted several manoeuvresincluding hovering.
on Monday said the organisedretail sector has lost over �90,000 crore in the last twomonths, owing to the lock-down, and market players needmuch more than the repo ratecut and the loan moratoriumextended by the RBI.
In a statement, the indus-try body said that the ReserveBank of India’s (RBI) reliefmeasures are not adequate tosupport the liquidity needs ofthe industry.
According to the SCAI,there is a common miscon-ception that the shopping cen-tres’ industry is centred aroundmetros and large cities withinvestments only from largedevelopers, private equity play-
ers and foreign investors.“However, the fact is that
most malls are part of theSMEs or standalone develop-ers. i.e. more than 550 are sin-gle owned by standalone devel-opers out of the 650-oddorganised shopping centresacross the country and thereare 1,000+ small centres insmaller cities,” it said.
Amitabh Taneja, Chairmanof SCAI, said: “The organisedretail industry is in distress andhas not earned anything sincethe lockdown and their survivalis at stake. While the extensionof the loan moratorium talksabout some relief on repaymentbut won’t help the industry inliquidity.”
He said that a long termbeneficial plan from the gov-ernment is much required torevive the sector.
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Bharti Telecom is sellingupto $1 billion of its shares
in Bharti Airtel through a sec-ondary market block deal onTuesday.
Bharti Telecom is the hold-ing company of Bharti Airtel.Bharti Telecom holds 38.79per cent equity stake in BhartiAirtel which will reduce byupto 2.75% after the blockdeal. The total promoter share-holding as per exchange data islisted at 58.98 per cent.
Singapore Telecom is astrategic partner with BhartiAirtel, J P Morgan is the place-ment agent for the transaction.This will be a 100 per cent sec-ondary market placementthrough an accelerated book-build offering of equity shares.
The floor price is �558per equity share at a 6% dis-count to the close price of Rs593.20 as on May 22 on theNational Stock Exchange.
The deal size will be
around $ 1 billion for up to 150million equity shares compris-ing up to 2.75% of total sharesoutstanding as of March 31,2020. The seller in the trans-action is Bharti TelecomLimited and will include a lockup condition of no intention tosell for 90 days from the seller.
No guidance will be givenon pricing until the equityshares are crossed on the stockexchange on May 26, 2020.Investors should indicate thedemand sensitivities across theprice range.
There is no assurance thatany order for the equity shareswill be met in part or full, prin-cipally due to the operationalmechanics of the Indian stockexchanges. The allocation ofthe equity shares to foreignportfolio investors is subject tothe headroom available foracquisition of equity shares ofthe company by such investorsas per the investment limitsprescribed under applicableIndian laws.
&7<4"# "7�� Lemon Juice: 100 gramWater: 1 litre Activated Charcoal: 15 gram Hot water: 120 ml Sugar: 10 gram
+���� �Combine the
activated charcoal.and hot water,
mixing untilwellcombined.
�Make lemon-ade out of lemon
juice, waterand sugar.
�Combine the activated charcoalmixture and the lemonade.
�)��&�&����(����&� Lemon: Being a rich source of Vitamin C, helps in deal-
ing with respiratory disorders. And helps in curing throat infections due to its well-
known antibacterial properties.Antiseptic and natural medications.Activated charcoal helps in trapping toxins and chemi-
cals in the gut, preventing their absorption in the body.
Staying healthy during the COVID-19 pandemic is important tocombat the silent killer which is the most common comorbidi-
ties. India has already been facing a huge burden of non-commu-nicable diseases (NCDs). Now, with COVID-19- a highly commu-nicable disease — dealing with dual disease burden has becomethe most challenging tasks for healthcare providers. Awareness andprevention would go a long way to deal with both NCDs and com-municable diseases.
Hypertension is a chronic medical condition and common-ly known as high blood pressure (HBP). In this condition, theblood pressure in the arteries is persistently elevated. With hyper-tension, the force of the blood against the artery walls goes toohigh. High blood pressure is a silent killer. One may not feel thatsomething is wrong, but high blood pressure could be quietlycausing severe damage that can threaten the health and even life.Almost all ages of individuals can be affected by hypertensionranging from children to young adults to old age group.
However, several factors and variables can put you at greaterrisk for developing hypertension like family history, age, gen-der, diabetes mellitus, kidney disease, obesity, alcohol consump-tion, smoking, physical inactivity, unhealthy diet, stress.Concerning COVID-19, several reports and data so far revealthat hypertension is the most common comorbidities followedby diabetes and coronary heart disease. It is found that the mostfrequent comorbidities in patients with COVID-19 who devel-oped acute respiratory distress syndrome were hypertension.
Elder people are the mostvulnerable as hypertension isextensively prevalent amongthem. At a higher risk of beinginfected with the virus and ofexperiencing severe forms andcomplications of COVID-19,elderly needs to be extra careful.
Even though we do not haveenough evidence to correlateCOVID-19 deaths with hyper-tension, however, it is a clinicalfact that blood pressure controlremains an important consider-ation to reduce disease burden,even if it has no effect on suscep-tibility to the viral infection.Notwithstanding COVID-19,emergencies dont stop andelderly people are always at highrisk.
Seniors with high bloodpressure may be more suscepti-
ble to the coronavirus and more likely to develop more severesymptoms. Hence, they need guidance about keeping other con-ditions well-controlled and maintaining good health andhygiene. It is advisable to take prescribed angiotensin-convert-ing enzyme inhibitors (ACE-i) or angiotensin receptor blocker(ARB) medications for high blood pressure, heart failure or heartdisease.
These medications don’t increase the risk of contractingCOVID-19. They are vital to maintaining blood pressure levelsto reduce the risk of heart attack, stroke and worsening heart dis-ease.Hypertension patients are always at the risk of heart attackand stroke. In case of heart attack and stroke-like symptoms, everysecond matter. Quick access to medical treatment is the mostimportant factor in saving lives.
Prevention and care: Maintain a healthy lifestyle- eathealthy, quit smoking, restrict alcohol intake, get adequate sleepand keep physically active. Avoid or limit alcohol and caffeine.Physical activity should be strongly encouraged either in a homesetting or outdoor areas with social space and will also improvewellbeing. Yoga and breathing exercises are helpful. Continuewith prescribed medication for hypertension. Keep follow-upappointments. Hospitals are offering video consultancy. Seekmedical help immediately if blood pressure goes high. Do notneglect it. In case of emergency, visit nearby hospitals’ emergencyroom.
��*� � A papaya is a yellow-coloured fruit which is sweet intaste. It is rich in Vitamin C and has various health benefits.
Papaya is rich in fibre, Vitamin C and antioxidants whichprevent cholesterol build up in your arteries. It also helps in weightloss because the fibre content in papaya leaves you feeling fulland clears your bowel movement. It is also great for boostingimmunity.
Papaya is a rich source of antioxidants, phytonutrients andflavonoids that prevent your cells from undergoing free radicaldamage. Some studies have also linked the consumptionpapaya to reduced risk of colon and prostatecancer.
The presence of variousvitamins and nutrientsalso help in pre-venting theskin fromfree radi-cal dam-age there-by keepingall the signsof ageing at bay.
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Little had we known that scenar-ios like COVID-19 would pre-vail, we would have braced
ourselves to our fullest capacity. Notjust this pandemic has hit hard onthe economy at a global level but hasalso given a huge challenge of bal-ancing the mental health tohumankind, giving us an option tocome out either bitter or better andthe choice is completely ours!
Maintaining social distancingand self-hygiene are the only optionswe have in the present fettle in try-ing to curb the COVID-19 menacewhich indeed is proving prolific.Some regions across the countryhave been given the Government’snod to slowly bring life back to nor-malcy and after such a stringentlockdown, life seems to be comingback on track. Even if anytime soonwe are able to move as per our will,the offices resume, and we hop inour favourite restaurants but whenit comes to what we have seen at itsworst, it will take a long time for ourmental health to recuperate.
Regrettably, issues like mentalhealth are something which isinescapable and one needs to makeit their top priority before the situ-ation slips out of hands, and as theysay a stitch in time saves nine.
Paying attention to our physicaland mental health should be our pri-ority as that will pull us through thetimes to come sanely.
Social media boundaries:During situations like isolation,social media is the only option leftwith us to keep us entertained and
at the same time getting informationabout the outside world but somemiscreants do not make it happenas simple as it sounds. Social media,on one hand, is quite helpful in gath-ering the information but on theother hand, may have adverse effectson some people’s mental health. Inthe era where people are circulatingfake and misleading news on socialmedia, the sender might not getimpacted but there are people outthere who may end up losing theirhopes on visualising a better tomor-row.
Journaling/writing down yourthoughts: A serious impedimentthat will come in our way post thelockdown is to keep our mentalhealth in check and it’s better if westart working towards it from todayitself. Certain practices like medita-tion, writing a journal, and gettingsurrounded by people with positivethoughts that one can go for to keeptheir mental health in shape.
Need compassion and kind-ness: Even during these unprece-dented times, some people arebringing up caste and religion-related issues to create a nuisance inthe society but we should under-stand that this is not the rightapproach to fight this deadly diseasethat has claimed millions of lives sofar.
Talking mental health shouldnot be stigma: Seeking mentalhealth or openly asking for the sameis still a taboo in our country assome people think that doing so willharm their image in society. Despite
labeling these people in any manner,these should rather be encouragedto see a counselor and get a check-up if in case they are dealing withany of the problems. Expressing youremotions is important.
Realistic approach: Focus onthings you can control rather thanfocus on things that are not in yourcontrol. People should adopt a real-istic approach towards life which is
the need of the hour as today’s gen-eration especially the younger onesare slowly and gradually becomingthe victims of bleak thoughts, over-thinking, and anxiety. Your positiveattitude towards life will becomeyour biggest strength when facingdifficult times like these.
Martin Luther once said“Everything that is done in theworld is done by hope” and whichI strongly believe in. If we are opti-mistic about how we perceive thingsthen a lot can be achieved. A humanmind is a fold of magic and it is upto people on how beautifully theyunfold it as we are what we thinkand how we think.
It’s high time now that we startfocusing on our mental health andgetting ourselves enrolled in activ-ities that could keep us away fromdistractions and negative environ-ment. If you ever feel the need ofconsulting a mental therapist thenmake a move without hesitating andthat’s where you will make a first steptowards improving your mentalwellbeing. There will be challengesahead of you but once you gather thecourage of surpassing them, every-thing will start falling into place.Take a leap of faith as the finest steelgoes through the hottest fire.
Perhaps mental health is muchmore than being just depression-free, anxiety-free, or various psycho-logical issues, it is about having theutmost zest for living and seeking lifeout of moments.
One of the best ways to start your fitnessjourney is to start by conditioning your
body with the basics of working out andexercises. You need to condition yourmuscles to be able to bear the stress of exer-cising. That’s what most of your initial daysof joining a class or programme are spentin. With online trainings becoming atrend, it is important one equips him/her-self with good form to reduce the risk oninjury working out in the physical absenceof teacher/trainer. There is a way to get ajump start that process by incorporatingbasic body weight exercises.
Body weight exercises are strengthtraining and conditioning exercises whichutilise your own weight and provides resis-tance for the movements. Exercises likepush-up, squats, planks, crunches andpull-ups are all examples of body weightexercises.
Planks: Lie face down with your fore-arms extended and palms on the floor.Extend the legs behind the body and riseup on the toes. Keeping the back straightand hips in one line tighten the core andhold the position for 30-60 seconds mini-mum. For those who can, hold this posi-tion for as long as you can.
Do a minimum of three-four repetitionsof this posture with about 10-15 secondsbreak in between. With progress, aim atreducing your break time and increasingyour time holding the position. Alsoincrease your repetitions with practise.
Planks help with improving the flexi-bility of your posterior muscles, balance,posture, tones your stomach, strengthensyour core and reduces back pain to a cer-tain degree.
Squats: Stand with your feet parallel orturned out 20 degrees, whatever is morecomfortable. Slowly start bending the hipsand knees until the thighs are at least par-allel to the floor like sitting on a chair. Makesure your heels do not rise off the floor whilebending your knees and ensure your kneesdon't go beyond your toes.
To make sure you are doing this right,push your hips back while going down.Once you reach your maximum stretch,count to ten and start coming up slowly.Press the floor through your heels toreturn to a standing position. Do eight-10repetitions each turn and start by doingthree-four turns with 10-15 second breaksin between.
Squats are a great way to train andstrengthen your lower body muscles. Ittones your muscles and burns fat and cel-lulite effectively.
Push Up: Start in a plank position,slowly start lowering your body toward thefloor by bending your arms from theelbow. Ensure your elbows soft keeping theback straight and body parallel to theground. Once you reach your maximumlevel, hold for two counts and then startcoming back up slowly by pushing the floorwith your palms. Do eight-10 repetitionseach turn and start by doing 3-4 turns with10-15 second breaks in between.
Overreacting means havingan emotional reactionout of proportion to thesituation.Lack of sleep,
going too long without food orwater, lack of recreation and playcan leave your mind and body vul-nerable to exaggerated responses.For many of us , it’s easy to let ourown basic self-care take a back seatto the noble cause of taking care ofothers. Ironically, it is your lovedones who are most likely to end upon the receiving end of your emo-tional overreactions. Prioritizingyour own self-care will help mini-mize overreactions.
We all overreact from time totime, but it's not a great habit todevelop. If you find yourself gettingdisproportionately angry, upset, ordefensive at small things, here's howto stop.
Believe it or not, some forms ofoverreacting are so subtle that peo-ple aren’t aware that it’s an issue forthem. Overreacting can includeanything from a burst of sorrowfultears or a chip on your shoulder tocommitting a criminal offense. Ifsomeone takes your lunch from therefrigerator at work, a normal reac-tion may be mild anger or irritation.Rage, kicking the refrigerator, orfeeling so hurt and insulted that theremainder of your day is ruined—that is overreacting.
Overreacting can also damageyour relationships with people byinterfering with your communica-tion skills. If you walk around feel-ing hurt, resentful or bitter, thosearound you will definitely feel the
sting.You can’t adapt to somethingyou can identify, so awareness ofyour emotions is a critical first step.You need to know what is going oninside your mind and body. Thinkabout the last time you felt negativeemotion. What happened andhow did you really feel? Did youget butterflies? Did your heart ratespeed up? Was the emotion reallyjust anger? Or was there frustration,jealousy, fear, annoyance? Didyou feel useless, lonely, neglected,and powerless?
It's important to know the dif-ference between reacting and over-reacting because not all intenseresponses are overreactions. It'sperfectly fine to feel your emotionsand express yourself accordingly.Just like in physics, every action canhave an equal and opposite reac-tion. If something is truly upsetting,you can be upset. If somethingmakes you justifiably angry, you canbe angry.
The problem arises when youstart to react in a bigger way thanjustified. For example, if you forgotto pick up the milk, it's not a rea-son to scream at someone else. Youforgot it, not them, but moreimportantly : it 's just milk.Overreactions never make the sit-uation better. Say somebody elseforgot the milk and now the mealyou've been preparing is somehowruined. Yelling at them isn't goingto get you the milk, and nowyou've created a new problembetween you and the other person.Stress causes us to overreact, butoverreacting doesn't release any of
it. All it does is create more stres-sors in our environment.
For many people, the easiestway to stop overreacting is to takea mental time out. That meansinhale deeply and stop yourself“mid-thought.” Initially, you maynot be able to catch the very firstthought, or even the second, but tryto be more mindful and stop your-self as soon as you can.
It’s important to rememberthat a person’s thoughts, feelings,actions and reactions tell theirstory—not yours. If you’re a greatemployee but your boss doesn’t rec-ognize that, it speaks volumes
about the boss. If you overreact, itspeaks volumes about you.
Managing overreactions helpsto live a balanced, peaceful, and sat-isfying life and it stopped bouncingfrom high to low and back to highagain. When we respond instead ofreact we are able to respond withdignity and grace and maintain apositive reputation while enjoyingmore life.It is not the other personor their actions that cause you tofeel like blowing up, caving in ortaking off. Fortunately, the onlyperson with that much controlover your life is you.
If someone offends you, consid-er the possibility that the insult isnot about you. Maybe the neighborwho snapped at you was just givena pay cut at work and is feeling dis-couraged, or the person who cutyou off in traffic is rushing to thehospital to see the birth of his firstchild. Make up a back story thatmakes sense and puts a positivespin on whatever is triggering youremotional response.
The problem with overreactingis that it will let go of mindfulness,balance and even happiness everytime we react instead of respond-ing to life. Emotional reactionlooms larger-than-life and we tem-porarily lose sight of our purposeand intentions. We get swept up inthe moment and neglect what’simportant. Life has been a greatlearning experience and along theway we learn some great tools torefocus attention on what matterswhen we overreact.
It’s important to note that not
all intense emotional responsesare overreactions. The distinctionis whether your response matchesthe situation. In some instances, aquick and extreme response is nec-essary to protect our loved ones orourselves.
Your thoughts can make all thedifference in how you respond tosituations. For example, a frownfrom your boss might tell one per-son that the boss is having a bad dayand another that they’re about to getfired, go broke, and be homeless.Very few situations in life have dra-matic endings. If you continuallyjump to the worst conclusion, tryreframing the situation in yourmind.
People have "triggers," whichmay generate emotional overreac-tions. Common triggers includeenvy, rejection, criticism, and con-trol. By learning more about yourown triggers, you'll be more likelyto control your emotional reactionsto them.
Most of the time, we have spe-cific triggers that cause us to over-react. We all have a button andevery once in a while, someoneknows exactly how to push it.Preparation is the best way to pre-vent an overreaction, so thinkabout the things that really get toyou the most. If you know them,you can learn to be more in controlof yourself when those times arise.
Remember, not all intenseresponses are overreactions. Insome instances, a quick andextreme response is necessary toprotect ourselves or our loved ones.
Bayern Munich aim to con-tinue the Bundesliga’s cur-rent trend of teams win-
ning on the road behind closeddoors when they face BorussiaDortmund in a potential titledecider on Tuesday.
Leaders Bayern arrive atsecond-placed Dortmund fourpoints clear and on course for aneighth straight title.
“For us this is a very deci-sive week,” insisted Bayern for-ward Thomas Mueller.
“We’ve clearly set ourselvesthe goal of three victories thisweek and taking a giant step for-ward” towards the league title.
Bayern warmed-up by beat-ing Eintracht Frankfurt 5-2 atthe weekend and also host rel-egation-threatened FortunaDuesseldorf this Saturday.
Since the Bundesligaresumed ten days ago, behindlocked doors due to the coron-avirus, home advantage hascounted for little with 10 of the18 games played won by theaway team.
Bayern and Dortmund areamong only three clubs —theother being Hertha Berlin whothrashed neighbours FC Union4-0 on Friday — to have won athome since the restart.
Hansi Flick’s Bayern areeager to continue the trend andagain assert their dominanceover Dortmund, who they rout-ed 4-0 in Munich last November.
“We’re looking forward toTuesday - I hope that we canshow what makes us strong
and leave Dortmund’s stadiumwith a smile,” added Mueller.
Signal Iduna Park wouldnormally be packed with 82,000fans for a visit of Bayern, but theterraces will remain empty onTuesday.
“It will still be a hard day’swork,” Mueller added.
“We’re marching,Dortmund is marching.”
Dortmund winger RaphaelGuerreiro is in form with threegoals in his last two games andwas on the scoresheet inSaturday's 2-0 win at Wolfsburg.
The Portugal star also net-ted twice in the 4-0 rout of archrivals Schalke the previous week-end in the Ruhr derby.
Dortmund are waiting on
the fitness of key defender MatsHummels, who injured hisAchilles’ tendon at Wolfsburg.
In the Bayern camp, mid-fielder Thiago Alcantara has agroin strain while centre-backJerome Boateng picked up a legknock on Saturday.
Having beaten Bayern 2-0 athome in the pre-season SuperCup match last August and 3-2in the league in November 2018,Dortmund are eager to againsend the Bavarians home disap-pointed.
“I hope we can get the nextvictory,” said Dortmund's Swisscentre-back Manuel Akanji.
“Since I've been here, we’vealways lost to Bayern away, butwon at home.
I want to keep this seriesgoing.” Tuesday’s showdownwill also pit the league’s top-scor-er Robert Lewandowski, 31,who has scored 27 goals in 25games for Bayern, against hisformer club. For the hosts,Norwegian sensation ErlingBraut Haaland, 19, has scoredten goals in as many leaguegames since joining Dortmundin January from Salzburg.
Haaland and Lewandowskihave exactly the same record -41 goals from 35 games in allcompetitions this season.
England winger JadonSancho came off the bench to setup Achrif Hakimi for the secondgoal in Wolfsburg.
Dortmund coach Lucien
Favre has hinted the 20-year-oldcould start against Bayern.
On Wednesday, third-placed RB Leipzig host HerthaBerlin in the day’s key game.Germany striker Timo Werner
warmed up with a hat-trick inSunday’s 5-0 thumping ofMainz.
He had also scored a hat-trick in an 8-0 mauling of Mainzlast November.
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The Indian Premier League willhelp spread positivity and
change the mood of the peopleduring the COVID-19 pandemic,according to India opener ShikharDhawan, who is hopeful that theglitzy T20 tournament will takeplace this year.
The coronavirus outbreak,which has infected more than 55
lakh people while causing 3.4 lakhdeaths worldwide, has wreakedhavoc globally, bringing the sport-ing community to a standstill.
The IPL, which was originallyscheduled to be held from March29 to May 24, was indefinitely post-poned by the BCCI due to the out-break of the novel coronavirus inIndia and subsequent lockdownannounced by the government tocontain the fast-spreading disease.
“It’s very important that somesports return to improve the envi-ronment and mood. It will have ahuge impact if the IPL returns,”Dhawan said during an Instagramchat with Sri Lanka all-rounderAngelo Mathews.
“We have to take care of thesecurity of everyone so we need tobe very careful. If it happens, it willbe really good for us as it brings alot of positivity that can be spreadall over the world as a lot of peo-ple watch it,” he added.
There is speculation that the13th IPL might be conducted inOctober-November if the T20World Cup in Australia is post-poned.
“Hopefully, the IPL will hap-pen. I always think in a positivemanner. It will be really good if thetournament goes ahead,” he added.
Cricket boards across the worldare working out ways of resumingthe game, which includes match-es being held behind closed doorswithout spectators.
“We are going to miss playingin front of a huge crowd if tourna-ments take place behind closeddoors,” Dhawan said.
“The fans bring their owncharm and aura, but at the sametime, it would be an opportunity aswe have been sitting at our homesfor two-three months now.”
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Pakistan head coach and chief selectorMisbah-ul-Haq believes Babar Azam is
destined to be a world class player and is veryclose to being in the same league as Indiaskipper Virat Kohli and Australia’s SteveSmith.
“I don’t like comparisons but Babar iscurrently very close to being in the same classas Virat Kohli, Steve Smith or Joe Root,”Misbah said in an interview to Youtube chan-nel, Cricket Baaz.
“He believes in the work ethic that if youwant to better Kohli you have to work hard-er than him at your skills, fitness and gameawareness.”
The 25-year-old, who was named cap-tain of the Pakistan T20 team ahead of theAustralia series in October last year, wasrecently handed the reins of ODI team aswell. “Making him the T20 captain was atester. We wanted to see how he willrespond to this challenge. All of us agree thathe has done a very good job and his biggestplus is that being among the worlds top play-ers he leads by example,” Misbah said.
“If you are a performer like Babar thenit becomes easier for you to motivate the restof the team and get things done.
“Even when I was made captain in 2010my performances were here and there andI was in and out. But captaincy changed mygame and mindset and I became a more hardworking and motivated cricketer.”
Misbah said Babar always challengeshimself and would get better as a captain withexperience.
“He is in a zone of his own. He just does-n’t want to be in the team. He just doesn’twant to play for money. He wants to be thetop performer for Pakistan. He is always pit-ting himself against other top batsmen likeKohli or Smith,” he said.
“He loves challenges in the nets and on
the field. He has really matured as a playerand in time he will get better as a captain withexperience.”
Babar was the leading run-scorer of theT20I series against Australia last year. He alsoscored 210 runs, which included a hundred,at 52.50 in the Test series against the sameopponents.In the two-Test home seriesagainst Sri Lanka, Babar ended the serieswith 262 runs with an average of exactly 262.
Misbah feels Babar had changed as abatsman when he got runs in the Tests inAustralia.
“Before that he was getting runs in testsbut not consistently. In Australia and in thefollowing tests against Sri Lanka andBangladesh he changed,” he said.
“It is a learning process. Havingremained captain it is a big advantage forcoaching because you know the players andtheir mood swings. You know which play-er will respond in a given situation,whichplayer is feeling pressure in a scenario.
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Opener Dean Elgar hasexpressed his interest in
becoming South Africa’s nextTest captain, saying leadershipcomes naturally to him and hewould think “long and hard”ifapproached for the job.
Du Plessis had resigned asTest captain in February andQuinton de Kock was expected totake the reins but Cricket SouthAfrica ruled him out of the job,
saying they don’t want to overbur-den the wicketkeeper-batsman.
With a three-Test seriesscheduled against the West Indiesin July, CSA is still figuring out theTest captaincy conundrum.
“It’s definitely not an easyjourney being a Test captain butI think leadership is somethingthat comes extremely naturally tome,” Elgar said during an inter-view with Cricket South Africa(CSA) which was released onMonday.
“I’ve captained teams in thepast, right up from school level toprovincial level and at franchiselevel. I enjoyed it extremely andif I was asked to take on the cap-taincy, it’s definitely something Iwould think long and hard aboutbecause it would mean a lot tome.”
The left-handed batsman,who had captained the 2006 U-19 World Cup team in Sri Lanka,was the stand-in skipper in thefirst Test against England in 2017
after regular captain Du Plessishad missed the match due to thebirth of his first child.
Elgar had again captainedSouth Africa against Pakistan inJanuary last year when Du Plessiswas penalised for slow over-ratein the second Test and was sus-pended for the third and final Testof the series.
Aiden Markram and KeshavMaharaj had earlier expressedtheir desires to captain SouthAfrica.
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West Indies fast bowlerKemar Roach has come up
against some of the best batsmenin the world in the longest format,but he feels former South Africacricketer Jacques Kallis was the‘hardest batsman’ he came face-to-face with.
Kallis is widely regarded asone of the finest all-rounders tograce the sport and his statistics,both with bat and ball, is nothingshort of surreal. Roach hailedKallis’ technique and also spokeabout the ease with which heused to go about his job while atthe crease.
“Hands down, I would haveto say, Jacques Kallis. He was def-initely one of the tougher for sure.He was very technical very solid
in his approach. He played it veryeasily, especially in the homeseries in 2010. He is probably the
hardest batsman I have everbowled to,” Roach said during anInstagram live session withCricket West Indies.
Kallis also finds his name inthe exclusive club of players tohave hit in excess of 10,000 runsin both ODIs and Tests. With theball too, he picked up 273 and 292wickets respectively in the twoformats.
Due to his consistency, Kalliscommands so much respect fromothers players that rarely a teamgets assembled and Kallis’ nameisn't on it. Recently, India skipperVirat Kohli and former SouthAfrica captain AB de Villiersnamed a combined Ind-SA ODIXI during a conversation onInstagram and Kallis was thedesignated all-rounder in theirlist as well.
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Balbir Singh Sr, one of India’sgreatest hockey players who won
three Olympic Gold medals in a stel-lar career, died at a hospital inMohali on Monday after battlingmultiple health issues for over twoweeks.
The legendary centre-forwardwas 96 and is survived by his daugh-ter Sushbir and three sons Kanwalbir,Karanbir, and Gurbir. His sons aresettled in Canada and he lived herewith his daughter and grandsonKabir.
“He died at 6:17am this morn-ing,” Abhijit Singh, Director FortisHospital, Mohali, where he wasadmitted since May 8, told PTI.
His maternal grandson Kabirlater sent out a message stating,“Nanaji passed away this morning.”
The three-time Olympic Gold-medallist was in a semi-comatosestate since May 18 and had developeda blood clot in his brain after beingfirst admitted to the hospital for
bronchial pneumonia with highfever. He was tested for COVID-19but reports came out negative.
Singh suffered three cardiacarrests during the course of his treat-ment. Singh was cremated with fullstate honours and Kabir performedthe last rites on Monday evening.
A police contingent fired threeshots as a mark of respect to thedeparted soul. His body was taken tothe crematorium in a bedecked vehi-cle and former Indian hockey captainPargat Singh was also present at the
funeral.Senior officials of the Punjab gov-
ernment and Chandigarh adminis-tration laid wreaths on the body here.
One of the country's mostaccomplished athletes, Singh wasthe only Indian among 16 legendschosen by the International OlympicCommittee across modern Olympichistory. His world record for mostgoals scored by an individual in themen’s hockey final of the Olympicsstill remains unbeaten.
He had scored five goals in
India’s 6-1 victory over theNetherlands in the Gold medalmatch of the 1952 Helsinki Games.He was conferred with the PadmaShri in 1957.
That was the first time an athletewas conferred the prestigious civillianhonour. Singh’s three Olympic Goldmedals came in London (1948),Helsinki (1952) as vice-captain, andMelbourne (1956) as captain.
He was also the manager ofIndia’s only World Cup-winning sidein 1975.
It was the fourth time in the pasttwo years that the former captain andcoach was admitted to the IntensiveCare Unit (ICU).
In January last year, Singh spentmore than three months in hospitalbecause of bronchial pneumonia.
Considered at par with MajorDhyan Chand in skills, Singh wasamong independent India’s biggesthockey stars.
Singh and Dhyan Chand neverplayed together but are regarded asthe jewels of Indian hockey, whoinspired an entire generation ofhockey players.
While Dhyan Chand garneredmore recognition, especially since hisachievements came under the Britishrule, Singh's exploits were no lessimpactful.
Born in 1924 in Punjab's HaripurKhalsa village, he was spotted byHarbail Singh, who was the thencoach of Khalsa College and latercoached India to back-to-back goldmedals in 1952 Helsinki and 1956Melbourne Olympics.
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New Zealand Tennis saidMonday it was set to host
the southern hemisphere’s firstprofessional tournament sincethe COVID-19 shutdown.
The men’s Premier Leaguetournament in Auckland nextmonth will feature 24 playerscompeting in three teams atspectator-free arenas overthree weeks.
Tennis NZ high perfor-mance director ChristopheLambert said the tournament,which begins on June 3, wouldpit ATP veterans against someof New Zealand's rising stars.
“The NZ Premier Leagueoffers opportunities for ourbest players to have a home-base competitive environmentso they are ready to jump back
in when the pro circuit startsagain,” he said.
Britain’s world number 77Cameron Norrie, who grewup in New Zealand, and sev-eral of New Zealand’s DavisCup players are among thosetaking part. The internation-al nature of tennis means thesport has been hit hard by thecoronavirus shutdown.
Among the Grand Slams,the French Open has beenpostponed and the US Openis considering switchingvenues from New York if thevirus crisis in the city does notease.
The ATP is not planningto resume tournament playuntil early August, while theWTA hopes to restart its cal-endar in Palermo in on July20.
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Atletico Madrid winger AngelCorrea on Monday said
that a return to football “iswhat we all need” ahead of apossible La Liga restart in mid-June.
League president JavierTebas on Sunday said he hopesthe Spanish season can resumewith the Seville derby on June11, after Prime Minister PedroSanchez said La Liga couldreturn from June 8.
“With this crazy period thatwe are all living in, knowing thatwe will soon be playing again,resuming La Liga is an immensejoy," Correa told the Atleticowebsite after training onMonday.
“I think this is what we allneed, for football to resume, andthank God, it will happen veryquickly.” Spanish sides are cur-rently training in small groups,but should be able to return tofull training on June 1.
Atletico sit sixth in the La
Liga table with 11 games of theseason remaining, although onlyone point adrift of RealSociedad, who occupy thefourth and final ChampionsLeague spot.
“The whole team has beenworking at home, and now weare noticing that during train-ing,” added Argentinian interna-tional Correa.
“We’re training at a highlevel and that is what the teamneeds to be ready when La Ligaresumes.
“I’m very happy. I reallywanted to get back on the pitch,come back to train with myteammates. The lockdown wasa very difficult period, but that’sit, we are moving forward now.”
Atletico reached theChampions League quarter-finals shortly before the suspen-sion of the season by endingholders Liverpool’s title defence,although that match at Anfieldwas linked to "41 additionaldeaths" by a report published onSunday.
praised Borussia Dortmundcounterpart Erling Haaland asa player with great potential,and advised the Norwegian tostay in the GermanBundesliga. Before Bayern andDortmund face each other atthe Signal Iduna Park onTuesday, all eyes are on bothsides’ leading strikers.
Poland’s Lewandowskileads the Bundesliga scoringcharts with 27 goals, while 19-year-old Haaland has foundthe net 10 times in just sevenmatches following his Januaryswitch from Red Bull Salzburg.
However, rumors suggestthat Dortmund may be oblig-ed to sell Haaland at the endof the season due to a 75 mil-lion euro release clause in hiscontract, promptingLewandowski to suggest theNorwegian should stay put forthe time being.
“It would be better for him
to stay in the Bundesliga toincrease his skills. He has notonly great potential but alsomuch time to become an evenbetter footballer. I wouldn’tlike to put pressure on hisshoulders by my words but Ibelieve that he will reach thetop level if he works veryhard,” Lewandowski told
Meanwhile, formerBayern captain BastianSchweinsteiger comparedHaaland to Lewandowski inan interview for ARD onSunday.
“The Norwegian is ayoung striker who has theenergy to hurt his opponent.I’m looking forward to see hisclash against Lewandowskibut it seems that ChampionsLeague is more importantthan Bundesliga for the Pole.He has to prove that he is ableto lead the team to win theEuropean competition. I’mcurious if he will show hisstrength in the decisive gamesof the Champions League,”claimed Schweinsteiger.
