F armers’ Unions on Saturday wrote a letter to the Centre to resume their dialogue to find a solution to the ongoing dead- lock over the three contentious agri laws. The farmers union proposed to hold a meeting with the Government on December 29. The decision was taken at a meeting of Sanyukt Kisan Morcha, an umbrella body of 40 farmers’ unions protesting at various Delhi border points against the new agriculture laws. The unions also said that farmers will hold tractor march on Kundli-Manesar-Palwal highway on December 30. Meanwhile, the protesting farmers on Saturday blocked the main Delhi-Mohan Nagar road at UP Gate (Delhi- Ghaziabad border). In a letter to Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Vivek Aggarwal, the Sanyukt Kisan Morcha said, “We propose that the next meeting between the farmers’ representatives and the Government of India be held on December 29, 2020 at 11 am.” “As the Government is will- ing to hold talks with us and asking us for date and our issues, we have proposed to hold dialogue on December 29. Now, the ball is in the court of Government when it calls us for talks,” Bhartiya Kisan Union leader Rakesh Tikait said. Addressing a press confer- ence at Singhu Border, the Morcha said that they are ready for talks with the Government but they have to repeal the three farm laws and guarantee for MSP — Minimum Support Price at which the Government procures crops from farmers. “The Government should make it a part of the agenda for resuming talks with the Government. We have pro- posed for talks on December 29. The farmers have also decided to hold tractor march on the Kundli-Manesar-Palwal (KMP) highway on December 30 in protest against the Centre’s agri laws. We request people from Delhi and other parts of the country to come and celebrate New Year with protesting farmers,” said Darshan Pal Singh, farmers’ leader. “The farmers have decided to march from Singhu to Tikri to KMP. We also ask farmers of surrounding areas to join us and come in huge crowd on their tractors and trollies,” said Rajinder Singh, another farmer leader. “If the Government does- n’t want us to block the KMP highway, then they better announce the repeal of the three farm laws,” said Singh. Meanwhile, on Saturday morning around 9 am farmers at Ghazipur border blocked the National Highways 24 and 9 leading to a traffic jam between Delhi and Ghaziabad. Turn to Page 4 M ore than 150 Army jawans have tested posi- tive for coronavirus here. They were part of the contingent to take part in the upcoming Republic Day parade and the Army Day parade on January 15 here. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is the chief guest for the forthcoming Republic Day celebrations at the Rajpath. Giving details of the coro- na test, sources said, “The sol- diers who came in from outside to participate in various parades were tested before putting them into a safe bub- ble. Some of them tested pos- itive. Almost all except seven are asymptomatic.” These were among few thousand soldiers who have been tested, the source stated. Officials said the soldiers who tested positive were quaran- tined at the Delhi Cantonment where Covid-19 facilities have been set up since April. As regards the Republic Day parade preparations, they said protocols have been put in place for safe conduct of the parade. While unconfirmed reports suggested the upcom- ing Republic Day parade may be curtailed with minimal pub- lic participation, sources said plans to hold the parade on the Rajpath on January 26 this year are underway despite Covid-19 pandemic. It was also learnt that as of now there is no proposal to cut down the number of marching contingents. They also said the thrilling fly past by the fighter jets will also take place like every year. These contingents from the Army, IAF and the Navy besides the paramilitary forces and the Delhi Police march past the saluting base at the Rajpath and march for nearly ten kilo- metres to the Red Fort. The entire marching route is lined with spectators. However, in view of the raging pandemic, some restrictions may be enforced, it was learnt. Turn to Page 4 A s a preventive measure amid reports of UK-new Covid variants doing round in the country, the Government has decided to conduct genome sequencing of at least 5 per cent of the total Covid tests being conducted daily. This was decided at a meeting of National Task Force on Covid-19 on Saturday. The ICMR called the meeting to discuss evidence-based modi- fications in testing, treatment and surveillance strategies for SARS-CoV-2 in view of the recent reports of emergence of a new variant strain of the virus from the UK. The participants at the meet emphasised that since the UK strain was supposed to cause increased transmissibil- ity of the virus, it is critical to identify individuals infected with this strain and adequate- ly contain them to prevent its transmission in India. “At least, 5 per cent of the positive cases from all States/UTs will be tested for genome sequencing,” the com- mittee decided, as per an official from the Union Health Ministry. Turn to Page 4 A t least 32 more passengers from the United Kingdom who landed between November 25 and December 21 in India have been found positive for the coronavirus as concerns mounted over new virus strain. Of those who tested posi- tive, 14 have been reported in Karnataka, eight in Kerala, four in Tamil Nadu, three in Uttar Pradesh, two in Maharashtra, and one in Assam. Their samples have been sent to the National Institute of Virology, Pune for genomic analysis. In Rajasthan, over 800 British tourists entered the 28 districts of the State in the last one week. Tracking them will be a nightmare. The number of returnees from the United Kingdom, having tested posi- tive, are likely to increase fur- ther in the coming days. The Himachal Pradesh Government has issued an alert for 51 UK returnees to contact the local administra- tion and get themselves tested. Turn to Page 4 T he Shram Shakti Bhavan and Transport Bhavan in Lutyens’ Delhi will be the first two buildings to be razed to pave the way for the construc- tion of chambers of Members of Parliament there as part of Central Vista redevelopment project. An official from HCP Design, Planning and Management Pvt Ltd, which has prepared the masterplan of the ambitious project, said that offices for MPs will come up where Shram Shakti Bhavan and Transport Bhavan are cur- rently located on Rafi Marg and Sansad Marg respectively. The Government has iden- tified around four locations — in Gole Market, KG Marg, near Africa Avenue and near Talkatora Stadium — in Central Delhi for the tempo- rary shifting of offices of vari- ous ministries. The foundation stone for the New Parliament was laid by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on December 10. The new building will have 888 seats for members of the Lok Sabha, 384 for those of the Rajya Sabha. For joint meetings, the Lok Sabha Hall on the ground floor shall be able to house 1,272 members. The National Emblem will crown the new Parliament building. According to the plan, a tunnel would be constructed to connect the building with chambers of MPs in the Parliament complex. “The new Parliament will have six com- mittee rooms to conduct busi- ness,” the HCP official said. Sources said the demolition of buildings will be carried out in phases to ensure smooth func- tioning of ministry offices. To construct Common Central Secretariat for Ministry offices, several buildings like Shastri Bhawan, Udyog Bhawan, Nirman Bhawan and Krishi Bhawan among others are likely to be demolished. The project of Central Vista — the nation’s power cor- ridor — envisages a new tri- angular parliament building, a common central secretariat and revamping of the 3-km- long Rajpath, from Rashtrapati Bhavan to India Gate. A wary China is rushing a high-level delegation led by a vice minister of the Chinese Communist Party here to assess the ground situation and avert a vertical split in the ruling Nepal Communist Party, according to media reports on Saturday, nearly a week after embattled Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli got the House of Representatives dissolved. Nepal plunged into a polit- ical crisis last Sunday after Oli, known for his pro-Beijing lean- ings, in a surprise move, rec- ommended dissolving the 275- member House, amidst a tus- sle for power with former Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal “Prachanda”. Acting on Prime Minister Oli’s recommendation, President Bidya Devi Bhandari dissolved the House the same day and announced fresh elec- tions on April 30 and May 10, sparking protests from a large section of the Nepal Communist Party (NCP) led by Prachanda, also a co-chair of the ruling party. China is sending a high- level delegation led by Vice Minister of the International Department of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) Guo Yezhou to Kathmandu, The Kathmandu Post reported. “Leading a four-member team, Guo is scheduled to land in Kathmandu on Sunday morning on a regular China Southern Airlines flight,” the paper reported, citing sources in both factions of the NCP. Bishnu Rijal, Deputy Head of Department of Foreign Affairs of the NCP’s Prachanda-led faction, said that the Chinese side has com- municated about Gou’s visit to Kathmandu. “I don’t have much detail to share with you at this point of time,” Rijal was quoted as say- ing by the paper. The Chinese embassy here did not respond to its multiple calls and messages, it said. Although no specific details about the agenda of the visit are available, senior NCP leaders confirmed that Guo is scheduled to land in Kathmandu on Sunday morn- ing, leading a four-member delegation, My Republica newspaper reported. Observers here believe that the visit could be to assess the ground situation in Nepal fol- lowing the decision of Oli to dissolve the House of Representatives and the rival faction within the NCP taking to the streets, it said. Turn to Page 4 A fter quitting all Parliamentary forums as a protest against the new farm laws and slamming the Modi Government’s han- dling of the farmers agitation on the outskirts of Delhi, the BJP ally Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) on Saturday announced its exit from the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). RLP chief and the Jat leader from Rajasthan Hanuman Beniwal said, “I announce that I am leaving the NDA. I am breaking away.” The RLP is the second BJP ally after the Akali Dal to leave the NDA over the new farm laws. Turn to Page 4 New Delhi: India’s daily new Covid-19 fatality count was reported below 300 after over six months, taking the death toll to 1,47,343, while the infec- tion tally rose to 1,01,69,118, according to data updated by the Union Health Ministry on Saturday. A total of 251 more deaths and 22,273 new infec- tions were reported in a 24- hour period, the data updated at 8 am showed.
Farmers’ Unions on Saturdaywrote a letter to the Centre
to resume their dialogue to finda solution to the ongoing dead-lock over the three contentiousagri laws. The farmers unionproposed to hold a meetingwith the Government onDecember 29.
The decision was taken ata meeting of Sanyukt KisanMorcha, an umbrella body of40 farmers’ unions protesting atvarious Delhi border pointsagainst the new agriculturelaws. The unions also said thatfarmers will hold tractor marchon Kundli-Manesar-Palwalhighway on December 30.
Meanwhile, the protestingfarmers on Saturday blockedthe main Delhi-Mohan Nagarroad at UP Gate (Delhi-Ghaziabad border).
In a letter to Joint Secretaryin the Ministry of Agricultureand Farmers’ Welfare VivekAggarwal, the Sanyukt KisanMorcha said, “We propose thatthe next meeting between thefarmers’ representatives andthe Government of India beheld on December 29, 2020 at11 am.”
“As the Government is will-ing to hold talks with us andasking us for date and ourissues, we have proposed tohold dialogue on December 29.
Now, the ball is in the court ofGovernment when it calls usfor talks,” Bhartiya Kisan Unionleader Rakesh Tikait said.
Addressing a press confer-ence at Singhu Border, theMorcha said that they are readyfor talks with the Governmentbut they have to repeal thethree farm laws and guarantee
for MSP — Minimum SupportPrice at which the Governmentprocures crops from farmers.
“The Government shouldmake it a part of the agenda forresuming talks with theGovernment. We have pro-posed for talks on December29. The farmers have alsodecided to hold tractor march
on the Kundli-Manesar-Palwal(KMP) highway on December30 in protest against theCentre’s agri laws. We requestpeople from Delhi and otherparts of the country to comeand celebrate New Year withprotesting farmers,” saidDarshan Pal Singh, farmers’leader.
“The farmers have decidedto march from Singhu to Tikrito KMP. We also ask farmers ofsurrounding areas to join usand come in huge crowd ontheir tractors and trollies,” saidRajinder Singh, another farmerleader.
“If the Government does-n’t want us to block the KMP
highway, then they betterannounce the repeal of thethree farm laws,” said Singh.
Meanwhile, on Saturdaymorning around 9 am farmersat Ghazipur border blocked theNational Highways 24 and 9leading to a traffic jam betweenDelhi and Ghaziabad.
Turn to Page 4
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More than 150 Armyjawans have tested posi-
tive for coronavirus here. Theywere part of the contingent totake part in the upcomingRepublic Day parade and theArmy Day parade on January15 here. British Prime MinisterBoris Johnson is the chief guestfor the forthcoming RepublicDay celebrations at the Rajpath.
Giving details of the coro-na test, sources said, “The sol-diers who came in from outsideto participate in variousparades were tested beforeputting them into a safe bub-ble. Some of them tested pos-itive. Almost all except sevenare asymptomatic.”
These were among fewthousand soldiers who havebeen tested, the source stated.Officials said the soldiers whotested positive were quaran-tined at the Delhi Cantonmentwhere Covid-19 facilities havebeen set up since April.
As regards the RepublicDay parade preparations, they
said protocols have been put inplace for safe conduct of theparade.
While unconfirmedreports suggested the upcom-ing Republic Day parade maybe curtailed with minimal pub-lic participation, sources saidplans to hold the parade on theRajpath on January 26 thisyear are underway despiteCovid-19 pandemic.
It was also learnt that as ofnow there is no proposal to cutdown the number of marchingcontingents. They also said thethrilling fly past by the fighterjets will also take place likeevery year.
These contingents fromthe Army, IAF and the Navybesides the paramilitary forcesand the Delhi Police march pastthe saluting base at the Rajpathand march for nearly ten kilo-metres to the Red Fort. Theentire marching route is linedwith spectators. However, inview of the raging pandemic,some restrictions may beenforced, it was learnt.
Turn to Page 4
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As a preventive measureamid reports of UK-new
Covid variants doing round inthe country, the Governmenthas decided to conduct genomesequencing of at least 5 per centof the total Covid tests beingconducted daily.
This was decided at ameeting of National Task Forceon Covid-19 on Saturday. TheICMR called the meeting todiscuss evidence-based modi-fications in testing, treatmentand surveillance strategies forSARS-CoV-2 in view of therecent reports of emergence ofa new variant strain of the virusfrom the UK.
The participants at themeet emphasised that sincethe UK strain was supposed tocause increased transmissibil-ity of the virus, it is critical toidentify individuals infectedwith this strain and adequate-ly contain them to prevent itstransmission in India.
“At least, 5 per cent of thepositive cases from all
States/UTs will be tested forgenome sequencing,” the com-mittee decided, as per an official from the Union Health Ministry.
Turn to Page 4
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At least 32 more passengersfrom the United Kingdom
who landed betweenNovember 25 and December21 in India have been foundpositive for the coronavirus asconcerns mounted over newvirus strain.
Of those who tested posi-tive, 14 have been reported inKarnataka, eight in Kerala,four in Tamil Nadu, three inUttar Pradesh, two inMaharashtra, and one inAssam. Their samples havebeen sent to the NationalInstitute of Virology, Pune forgenomic analysis.
In Rajasthan, over 800British tourists entered the 28districts of the State in the lastone week. Tracking them willbe a nightmare. The number ofreturnees from the UnitedKingdom, having tested posi-tive, are likely to increase fur-ther in the coming days.
The Himachal PradeshGovernment has issued analert for 51 UK returnees tocontact the local administra-tion and get themselves tested.
Turn to Page 4
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The Shram Shakti Bhavanand Transport Bhavan in
Lutyens’ Delhi will be the firsttwo buildings to be razed topave the way for the construc-tion of chambers of Membersof Parliament there as part ofCentral Vista redevelopmentproject.
An official from HCPDesign, Planning andManagement Pvt Ltd, whichhas prepared the masterplan ofthe ambitious project, said thatoffices for MPs will come upwhere Shram Shakti Bhavanand Transport Bhavan are cur-rently located on Rafi Marg andSansad Marg respectively.
The Government has iden-tified around four locations —
in Gole Market, KG Marg,near Africa Avenue and nearTalkatora Stadium — inCentral Delhi for the tempo-rary shifting of offices of vari-ous ministries.
The foundation stone forthe New Parliament was laid byPrime Minister Narendra Modion December 10. The newbuilding will have 888 seats formembers of the Lok Sabha, 384for those of the Rajya Sabha.For joint meetings, the LokSabha Hall on the ground floorshall be able to house 1,272members. The NationalEmblem will crown the newParliament building.
According to the plan, atunnel would be constructed toconnect the building withchambers of MPs in theParliament complex. “The newParliament will have six com-mittee rooms to conduct busi-ness,” the HCP official said.Sources said the demolition ofbuildings will be carried out inphases to ensure smooth func-tioning of ministry offices.
To construct CommonCentral Secretariat for Ministryoffices, several buildings likeShastri Bhawan, UdyogBhawan, Nirman Bhawan andKrishi Bhawan among othersare likely to be demolished.
The project of CentralVista — the nation’s power cor-ridor — envisages a new tri-angular parliament building, acommon central secretariatand revamping of the 3-km-long Rajpath, from RashtrapatiBhavan to India Gate.
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Awary China is rushing ahigh-level delegation led by
a vice minister of the ChineseCommunist Party here toassess the ground situationand avert a vertical split in theruling Nepal Communist Party,according to media reports onSaturday, nearly a week afterembattled Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli got the Houseof Representatives dissolved.
Nepal plunged into a polit-ical crisis last Sunday after Oli,known for his pro-Beijing lean-ings, in a surprise move, rec-ommended dissolving the 275-member House, amidst a tus-sle for power with formerPrime Minister Pushpa KamalDahal “Prachanda”.
Acting on Prime MinisterOli’s recommendation,President Bidya Devi Bhandaridissolved the House the same
day and announced fresh elec-tions on April 30 and May 10,sparking protests from a largesection of the NepalCommunist Party (NCP) ledby Prachanda, also a co-chairof the ruling party.
China is sending a high-level delegation led by ViceMinister of the InternationalDepartment of the rulingCommunist Party of China(CPC) Guo Yezhou toKathmandu, The KathmanduPost reported.
“Leading a four-memberteam, Guo is scheduled to landin Kathmandu on Sundaymorning on a regular ChinaSouthern Airlines flight,” thepaper reported, citing sourcesin both factions of the NCP.
Bishnu Rijal, Deputy Headof Department of ForeignAffairs of the NCP’sPrachanda-led faction, saidthat the Chinese side has com-
municated about Gou’s visit toKathmandu.
“I don’t have much detail toshare with you at this point oftime,” Rijal was quoted as say-ing by the paper.
The Chinese embassy heredid not respond to its multiplecalls and messages, it said.
Although no specificdetails about the agenda of thevisit are available, senior NCPleaders confirmed that Guo isscheduled to land inKathmandu on Sunday morn-ing, leading a four-memberdelegation, My Republicanewspaper reported.
Observers here believe thatthe visit could be to assess theground situation in Nepal fol-lowing the decision of Oli todissolve the House ofRepresentatives and the rivalfaction within the NCP takingto the streets, it said.
Turn to Page 4
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After quitting allParliamentary forums as
a protest against the newfarm laws and slamming theModi Government’s han-dling of the farmers agitationon the outskirts of Delhi, theBJP ally Rashtriya LoktantrikParty (RLP) on Saturdayannounced its exit from theNational DemocraticAlliance (NDA).
RLP chief and the Jatleader from RajasthanHanuman Beniwal said, “I announce that I am leaving the NDA. I ambreaking away.”
The RLP is the secondBJP ally after the Akali Dalto leave the NDA over thenew farm laws.
Turn to Page 4
New Delhi: India’s daily newCovid-19 fatality count wasreported below 300 after oversix months, taking the deathtoll to 1,47,343, while the infec-tion tally rose to 1,01,69,118,according to data updated bythe Union Health Ministry onSaturday. A total of 251 moredeaths and 22,273 new infec-tions were reported in a 24-hour period, the data updatedat 8 am showed.
As vaccinations begin in one cornerof the world, marking the beginningof recovery from the pandemic, wecan’t forget that the majority is
fighting increasing hunger, poverty andexploitation. This blatant and brazeninequality of the world we live has beenexposed by the grossly unequal response ofthe world to the pandemic. Of the initial $8trillion that has been released as globalCOVID-19 relief, only 0.13 per cent has beenallocated to the poorest communities.
The rest has been used to bail out bigbusinesses that have multiplied their profitsin the midst of a global recession.The mostgrievous casualties of this injustice are ourchildren.
We witnessed that the Government, inpartnership with citizens, came forward tomitigate the immediate crisis of dry rations,medical aid and essential needs in the mostaffected communities at unprecedented scale,which is truly admirable.
I am proud of my children, the survivorsof child labour and trafficking living in BalAshram, came forth to make masks for lawenforcement, frontline workers andcommunities in Rajasthan. Several individualsand organisations stepped up at the time ofcrisis, risking their safety to provide life-savingrelief and care.
But with extremely limited access todigital education, overnight loss of householdincome, and no food on the plate for millionsof children, we have only barely touched thetip of the iceberg. While the pandemic did notcreate these inequalities, our response to it hasexposed and exacerbated them to the extentthat we risk losing an entire generation to childlabour, trafficking, child marriage and otherforms of exploitation. This will be an utter andcomplete breakdown of our moral, socio-economic, and democratic systems.
Now that we are looking towardsrecovery, it is important to understand thatcentral to finding the solution is theunderstanding that the children who areforced to work are the same children who aredenied education, and the same children whoare undernourished and starving. We cannot
leave our children to fend for themselves inthis time of crisis.
The need of the hour is that our childrenreceive their fair share — a fair share inpolicies, in budgets, and in protection. A fairshare for children is based on fundamentalprinciples of justice that our children deserve.In 2015, when the world came together andcommitted to the Sustainable DevelopmentGoals, they did so with the promise to ‘leaveno child behind’.
But we are failing at this. The samecommunities that have been discriminatedagainst for decades, including minorities,migrants, and farmers, are the samecommunities where children are deniededucation, nutrition and safety. They havehistorically and structurally been alienatedfrom global wealth and development, and wewill look back at this unprecedented periodas the time when the vulnerable were pushedover the edge into unending cycles ofdisenfranchisement.
To be able to break this chain ofintergenerational exploitation, Governmentsmust make a tangible and radical shift to aculture of fair share for the most marginalisedchildren and their families. That is the onlyway we can end child labour and exploitation,and build a world where our children learnand thrive.
The truest judge of how the world hasresponded to the pandemic, is the traffickedchild who collapsed dead on the road becauseof as she walked a 100 km to reach her home,the child who was dropped out of school andwas forcefully married because of lack ofaccess to digital education, and the childlabour who was trapped in factories as theiremployer deserted them during lockdown.Our children are the mirrors to the world weare building.
The year 2021 provides us with theopportunity to come together to commit a fairshare for children in the global wealthallocation for their development andwellbeing. 2021 has been declared as theUnited Nations Year for the Elimination ofChild Labour, with the objective to revitaliseand accelerate the global promise to end child
labour by 2025 under SustainableDevelopment Goal 8.7.
This was an ambitious target from thestart, but the devastating effects of thepandemic that have brought the world to itsknees and we are now facing the risk of thefirst ever increase in child labour in decades.We are at the precipice of losing the progressachieved over decades to reduce child labourand to ensure access to education for allchildren. This cannot be allowed to happen,and each one of us has a role to playincluding Governments, internationalagencies, businesses, faith leaders, media,schools and colleges and civil society.
Governments must realign their policies,politics, legislations and budgetary allocationsand accountability measures towards creatinga safety net for the most vulnerablecommunities through accessible and adequatesocial protection. International agencies mustuphold and enforce multilateral efforts tobridge the wealth gap between nations, andset global benchmarks for child protectionmeasures. Businesses must ensuretransparency, due diligence and complianceto create child labour-free supply chains. Faithleaders must unite to prioritise children withintheir communities as a moral responsibility.The media must highlight and question the
state of our children and hold all stakeholdersaccountable for the protection of our children’srights. Schools, colleges and civil society,especially the survivors and youth, must leadfrom the front in demanding change andaccountability, to give voice to the voicelessand forgotten children of the world.
This year has taught us many lessons thatwe have learnt, sometimes unwillingly.It hasplaced in front of our eyes the true and barestate of our world, to show us what we havelong ignored or forgotten. We have recognisedour inherent interconnectedness andinterdependence with each other.
But most importantly, the year 2020 hasproven that until each one of us is safe, nobodyis safe. If the people of the world are movingin diametrically opposite directions ofdevelopment, the world will be too stretchedto sustain itself.
We can only truly move forward if we doit together. Whenever the world was in peril,the inherent goodness of humanity ofindividuals has shone forth and we have comeour stronger. We have to reclaim ourhumanity and globalise compassion. And wemust begin with our children, because theyare all our children.
Businesses started off the yearwith regular expectations ofgrowth, with all their usualplans set in place. However,
going into March and the subsequentmonths, it became a different storyacross several sectors, with scores ofcompanies getting overturned due tothe impact of the lockdowns andrestrictions on movement.
Since March, people realised theeffects of excessive screen time, andthe toll it could take on them.Remaining indoors for longdurations, viewing phone andcomputer screens for hours at astretch, has led to exhaustion and ill-health. In contrast with this, audioappealed to millions of users, as theywere once again able to listen tocontent passively while performingother chores. It is reminiscent of ourexperience with radio, but with a lotmore options and quality content topick from.
We observed the trends closelyand aligned our content as per thegrowth we were seeing in each of thecategories. Since April, we witnesseda significant spike across all growthmetrics, as we were able to adapt touser requirements by providing theright content at the right time. Werecorded a growth of 300% in termsof our user base, while the number
of creators on Khabri grew by fivetimes user session time grew by morethan 200%, as users were listening toa greater number of content pieces.
While each of these platformscater to different interests, we havesucceeded at creating a holisticecosystem for the next generation ofcreators and users. Some of the keyareas of interest in our categories sinceApril have been in motivationalcontent, news, career information,and knowledge-based content. Whileit is a broad definition, they have beenprovided a plethora of contentchoices.
The pandemic has wreakedhavoc for students across the countryand blind students have beenimpacted the most. Their access toeducation had been cut off after thelockdowns, which made us identifythe challenges. We launched the#VoiceofBlinds campaign, as webelieve that every student needs
access to schooling andentertainment. We facilitated audio-based learning for the blind students,connected with the community,started a helpline, and increasedaccessibility for thousands of blindstudents. When it came to productfunctions, we introduced specialcontent experiences,recommendations, and playlistfeatures, in a bid to assist users withcurated listening lists, so that theylisten to better content. Influencerstoo find our content creation toolseasy to adopt.
The year 2020 has givenpodcasters and content creators aplatform that did not exist earlier, asthey had relied on YouTube even foraudio content. We expect morecreators to launch channels on ourplatform, as they can provethemselves and reach largeraudiences.
Delhi Police Commissioner, SN Shrivastava, onSaturday visited Singhu Border, where the
farmers have been protesting against the Centre’snew farm laws, and took stock of the law and ordersituation in the area.
“The law and order situation at Singhu bor-der is normal. There is no anticipation at this stagethat something will happen, but we are careful andadequate force is deployed at the border. We arein coordination with all agencies and forces. Wehave been sharing information. The traffic wingof Delhi Police is constantly sharing advisoryregarding the roads blocked,” said the CP.
Meanwhile, the Delhi Police Commissioneralso has issued an order and instructed his forceto avoid setting up non-permanent police pick-ets using barricades during peak hours as it leadsto traffic jams and hampers movement of emer-
gency vehicles.According to an official order dated December
25, the setting up of barricades on roads by thepolice for the purpose of checking at times, resultsin huge traffic jams. This causes inconvenienceto commuters and even hampers the movementof emergency vehicles.
“In the interest of the public at large, it isdesired that putting of non-permanent police pick-ets, with barricades, during peak hours should beavoided, unless under specific instructions fromsenior officers,” the order from office of theCommissioner of Police stated.
“Whenever such pickets are under operationand the police officials on picket duty observe thattheir checking has caused a traffic jam, then, insuch a situation the picket should be immediate-ly loosened to ensure the smooth flow of traffic.Generally speaking the jam should not exceed 6-7 metres,” it further stated.
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One person died while three others were rescued after a firebroke out at a mask manufacturing unit in Mayapuri area
of the National Capital on Saturday morning.The deceased has been identified as 45-year-old, Juggal
Kishore. According to Atul garg, the Director of Delhi FireServices (DFS), a call about the fire was received around 3.50AM following which six fire tenders were rushed to the spot.
“On reaching the spot, the team broke down the door ofthe factory and rescued three people, one of whom was uncon-scious. The man was taken to the Deen Dayal Upadhyay (DDU)Hospital, where he was declared brought dead, he said, addingthat he was identified as Jugal Kishor,” said Garg.
The fire broke out on the third floor of the factory wheremachines and raw materials are kept, Garg said.
The two people rescued who sustained injuries has beenidentified as Aman Ansari (18) and Feroj Ansari (24), officialssaid.
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Delhi Police on Saturday set upa solar energy-enabled modern
beat booth at the iconic India Gatein National Capital. The booth iswater, fire, dust and vandalismproof and it was inaugurated bySpecial Commissioner of Police(Law and Order), South Zone,Satish Golchha.
According to Anil Mittal, theAdditional Public Relation Officer(APRO), the booth is solar energy-enabled with a storagecapacity of 10 hours.
“It is remote wifi-enabled for digital dis-play of informative orawareness messages onLED panels installed ontop of it and has a pub-lic announcement sys-tem. The cabin isequipped with extremeweather regulator, mov-
able wardrobe, first-aid facility anda public facilitation desk,” said theAPRO.
“This model beat booth will notonly enhance the people-friendlyimage of the Delhi Police, but willalso provide a comfortable envi-ronment even in extreme weatherconditions to police personnelmanning it,” he said.
“Similar police booths withsolar-powered LED panels willalso be set up at other prominentplaces in Delhi,” he added.
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A32-year-old woman diedafter she allegedly fell from
the third floor of a DDA build-ing in west Delhi's Janakpuriarea on Saturday afternoon.Police said that a two-pageresume found near her bodysuggested that she was lookingfor a job and must have comefor an interview. Investigation isunderway to ascertain the facts.
The woman has been iden-tified as Snehdeep Kaur, a res-ident of Virender Nagar inJanakpuri. Police said that shehad done a B.Ed degree andpresently was working on apart-time basis at a privateschool.
According to DeepakPurohit, the DeputyCommissioner of Police (DCP),
West district, police received apolice control room (PCR) callat Janakpuri police station thata woman had fallen from theupper floors of the DDA build-ing no 5 following which anEmergency Response Vehicle(ERV) was dispatched for thespot.
“On reaching the spot, thewoman was found lying deadand blood was oozing from herhead. The body has been shift-ed to the mortuary at DeenDayal Upadhyay (DDU) hospi-tal for autopsy after which thebody will be handed over to thefamily,” said the DCP.
“An initial investigation sug-gested that the woman had fall-en from the third floor of thebuilding but further investiga-tion is underway to ascertainthe sequence of events,” theDCP said.
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Delhi’s minimum tempera-ture remained below five
degree Celsius for the fourthconsecutive day on Saturday, theIndian MeteorologicalDepartment (IMD) said.TheSafdarjung Observatory, whichis considered official represen-tative for the data , recordedminimum of 4.4 degree Celsius,three notches below normal.
However shallow fogreduced visibility to 1,000 metersat Safdarjung and 800 meters inthe Palam area, KuldeepSrivastava, the head of the IMD'sregional forecasting centre,said.
Meanwhile, the air qualityalso improved due to surface -level wind speed helping to dis-perse accumulated pollutants.
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The farmers at Ghazipurborder (UP Gate) on
Saturday blocked NationalHighway (NH)-9 to mark theirprotest against the Centre’snew farm laws. In the last twodays, the number of farmers atUP Gate has increased by thou-sands and day by day morefarmers from Uttrakhand andwestern Uttar Pradesh arearriving at protest site.
Protesting farmers blockedboth the carriageways ofNational Highway which led todiversion of several routes. Inview of the protest, police inGhaziabad and Delhi side hadto impose barricading to stopmovement of vehicles.
According to farmers, alarge number of farmers are
coming from UP andUttarakhand to join the move-ment, but these farmers are
being prevented fromcoming, due to which
there is a growing anger amongthe protesters.
At around 9AM on
Saturday morning,the protestersreached the flyoverand blocked thetraffic there. Thissudden blockcaused a longqueues of vehiclesand a traffic jam.
The trafficpolice diverted thevehicles towardsMohan Nagar.Rakesh Tikait,n a t i o n a lspokesperson ofBhakiyu said thatnow the govern-ment will have totake a decision in
this matter, if the farmer loses,the government will lose. “Butthe farmers will not returnwithout taking their rights,” he said.
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Aday after Aam Aadmi Party's nationalconvener and Delhi Chief Minister
Arvind Kejriwal claimed that the new agri-cultural laws will not benefit farmers in anyway and will do lot of harm, Bharatiya JanataParty (BJP) MP Manoj Tiwari on Saturdayinvited Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwalto his residence, offering to clear his “doubts”and explain him benefits of the Centre's threefarm laws.
Taking a dig at the Chief Minister, Tiwarisaid Kejriwal does not allow anyone to enterhis house and refrains from meeting publicrepresentatives or extending invitations.
Tiwari tweeted to Kejriwal, inviting theAAP convenor to his official residence onMother Teresa Crescent in Lutyens Delhi onSunday 3 pm to explain te benefits of farmlaws before mediapersons.
“Lets do constructive politics for farmers'benefit,” Tiwari said in his tweet.
Kejriwal and his Aam Aadmi Party havecome out strongly in support of protestingfarmers. Earlier this month, the chief minis-ter had visited Singhu border, one of theprotest sites, and reviewed arrangementsmade for farmers by the city government
“The BJP says that these laws will notharm farmers. But what is their benefit? They
say that now the farmers will be able to selltheir crop anywhere outside the market. Butoutside the market, the crop is sold at half theprice. How is this a benefit? The truth is thatthese laws will do a lot of harm and don't havea single benefit,” Kejriwal tweeted in Hindi onFriday.
Tiwari, former Delhi BJP president, saidthat Prime Minister Narendra Modi onFriday explained the benefits of farm laws andsenior leaders including Union Home MinisterAmit Shah and national president JP Naddahave repeatedly assured that MSP and Mandiswill continue as well.
“Still, if Arvind Kejriwal cannot find anybenefits in the three farm laws and has somedoubts he may accept my invitation. I will behappy to help him see the benefits of the farmlaws,” Tiwari said.
Farmers from various parts of the coun-try have been camping at different borderpoints of Delhi for four weeks now to demandrepeal of the three agri laws, which were votedthrough in Parliament in September amid strong protests by oppositionparties.
The three farm laws have been projectedby the central government as major reformsin the agriculture sector that will remove themiddlemen and allow farmers to sell their pro-duce anywhere in the country.
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Aheart harvested from a 41-year-old woman, who died
after suffering bleeding in thebrain, was transported fromGhaziabad to Delhi in just 18minutes through an over 23-kmgreen corridor and immediate-ly transplanted to a chronic car-diac patient, hospital authorities said on Friday. Thewoman's liver and two kidneys were also used in separatetransplant procedures.
The woman, a resident of Indirapuram in Ghaziabad,was rushed to Max Super Speciality Hospital, Vaishali withcomplain of headache and giddiness on December 19, thehospital said in a statement. She was suffering from imme-diate Aneurysmal bleed (bleeding from dilated blood ves-sels of the brain). Despite sustained efforts by the multi-disciplinary team of doctors, her condition continued todeteriorate and she was declared brain dead on Thursday,it said.
After counselling, the family agreed for organ dona-tion. Her heart, kidneys, and liver were harvested. Withclockwork precision, a green corridor was created by thepolice of Ghaziabad and Delhi between Max Hospital,Vaishali and Max Hospital, Saket for seamless transfer ofthe heart, the statement said.
The kidney was transplanted in a 37-year-old femalepatient from Ghaziabad, suffering from chronic kidney dis-ease. The liver was transplanted in a 59-year-old womanfrom Delhi who was suffering from chronic liver diseasewith hepato-cellular carcinoma. Both were transplantedat the Max Super Speciality Hospital, Vaishali, the hospi-tal authorities said.
The second kidney was sent to Artemis Hospital,Gurgaon in just 45 mins in an ambulance, they said. KewalKrishan, Director Heart Transplant & LVAD Program, MaxSuper Speciality Hospital, Saket said, “The heart has beentransplanted in a 56-year-old patient from Uttrakhand whosuffered end-stage heart failure. The recipient is underobservation and doing well for now.”
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The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)on Saturday organised the Kisan
Mahapanchayat in Delhi to supportthe three new farm acts imple-mented by the Modi Government.
Delhi BJP Co-incharge Dr.Alka Gurjar and Leader ofOpposition (LoP)Ramvir SinghBidhuri and other leaders addressedand informed farmers about thepositive changes in the lives with theimplementation of farm acts.
On this occasion StateOrganization General SecretarySiddharthan, State GeneralSecretary Kuljeet Singh Chahal,State Kisan Morcha President VinodSehrawat, NAFED Director andDistrict In-Charge Outer DelhiAshok Thakur, District PresidentBajrang Shukla, Former MLAManoj Shaukeen, District SecretaryGajendra Singh and many villagepradhan including farmers werepresent.
National Secretary, Dr Gurjarsaid that, the three new Farm Actsare historic step towards strength-ening and empowering the“Annadata”.” The three new FarmActs will give the rights to farmerswho are being suppressed by themiddlemen for years. The contract
will be only for crop and not forland, only the farmer will have theright to grow the crop in the field.Farmers can increase the quality offarming by connecting to technol-ogy, which will also increase thequantity of their product,” She said,adding, “while there are some farm-ers in the movement against theFarm Acts , but there are some peo-ple who are there for fulfilling theirpolitical interests, and are trying tomislead the farmers, but they willnever succeed because the people ofthe country understand who wantsto serve their own interests and whowants to work in publicinterest.”Attacking the Congress, DrGurjar said, “Over many years ofgovernance, the Congress hasworked to benefit the middlemenrather than the farmers and nowthey cannot see the benefits of thefarmers, hence they are adoptingevery tactic to ensure loss to thefarmers.”
LoP Bidhuri said that, duringthe tenure of Modi government,agricultural production hasincreased and farmers have beengiven good price for the crop.
“Under the Farm Acts, the MSPwill continue, the mandis willexpand but due to political ambition,opposition parties are opposing
these Acts.” “ The Kejriwal govern-ment also notified one of the threeActs on November 23, 2020, but inview of the Punjab elections, he istrying to prove himself to be farmerfriendly by opposing these Acts”
Adding the farmers of Delhi arethe worst sufferers across the coun-try, Bidhuri targeted Kejriwal gov-ernment, saying he did not imple-ment the Soil Health Card Scheme,Kisan Credit Card Scheme, PMKisan Yojana, Prime MinisterAgricultural Irrigation Scheme,Prime Minister Crop InsuranceScheme, Institutional AgriculturalCredit Scheme and Neem CoatedUrea Scheme because of politicalmalice in Delhi. This is the reasonthat the farmers of Delhi could notget the benefit of any of the aboveschemes brought by the PrimeMinister.
“Farmers of Delhi are notallowed to install tubewells, elec-tricity is also expensive and there isno irrigation system,” Bidhuri said,“in the political career of 50 years Ihave fought for the farmers and I amgiving my word that the threeFarm Acts will not harm the farm-ers, but they will get more benefits,which will also improve their eco-nomic condition and increase theirincome.”
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Taking a unique initiative, the South Delhi MunicipalCorporation (SDMC) has opened a Khilona Bank at
one of its Community Centre in Najafgarh Zone with anaim to distribute toys collected at this bank among needychildren living in this area.
Deputy Commissioner of Najafgarh Zone RadhaKrishan said that efforts are being made to improve rank-ing in Swachhta Survekshan-2021 and initiative to openKhilona Bank is part of it.
The deputy commissioner also said that four moreKhilona Banks will be opened in Najafgarh Zone wherepeople can donate toys. Radha Krishan urged people toparticipate in this drive so they could contribute to makethe environment clean.
SDMC Mayor Anamika said that the bank has beenopened keeping in view of Swachh Survekshan-2021 wherepeople can donate old and useless toys.
In result, Corporation can not only make a bank ofsuch toys and can provide for those children who can-not afford, she said.
Anamika informed that children come and play andeven take these toys along. This is a great initiative whichbrings smiles on the faces of innocent children. “At thesame time it reduces the generation of waste in the formof old and unused toys which otherwise get discarded asgarbage and waste. A unique way to promote rescue ofgoods and articles and reduce wastage of toys mostly madeup of plastic and fur,” she added.
BAREILLY: The Uttar Pradeshpolice has offered security totwo interfaith couples aftertwo Muslim women marriedyouths after converting toHinduism in Bareilly district.
“Both the women haveclaimed themselves to be adultson the basis of official docu-ments and married youths ofother community on their ownaccord. These incidents havenothing to do with love jihad,”Bareilly’s SeniorSuperintendent of Police RohitSingh Sajvan said on Saturday.
The term ‘love jihad’ refersto allegations that Hinduwomen are being converted toIslam in the name of love andmarriage. Security will beextended to them if they seekit, the SSP said.
The women who havemarried to youths after con-verting to Hinduism belong toRithaura and Bahedi areasrespectively in the district.
The brother of the woman
belonging to Rithaura hadrecently lodged a complaintwith the police alleging thatallured by a youth living intheir neighbourhood, his sistereloped with him on December22 after stealing Rs 98,000from the house.
The woman, however, con-tacted police through a videomessage and showed him doc-uments proving herself to be anadult and told the officer thathad eloped with him on herown accord and had married tohim in a temple after convert-ing to Hinduism, the SSP said.
Police later called bothparties, including the woman,her husband and her parents,and the matter was resolved,said SSP Sajvan, adding bothsides gave in writing that theyhad nothing against each otherand the complaint was with-drawn.
In the other case of Bahedi,a complaint was made to thepolice that two people forcibly
converted a woman and got hermarried to a youth belongingto another community.
The woman’s father said inthe complaint that she also alsotook away Rs five lakh andseven ‘tolas’ of gold with her-self.
After the matter reachedthe police, the woman who isan MBA issued a video statingthat she converted and gotmarried on her own accord andhad brought nothing from herparent’s house, the SSP said.
She also showed her mar-riage certificate issued inSeptember 2020 by an AryaSamaj temple.
The second couple too wascalled to the police stationwhere they also showed theirdocuments and said they wereleaving the district as theyfeared for their lives.
The couple will be givensecurity if they seek it, the SSPsaid, adding they were not inBareilly at present. PTI
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Guwahati: Prime Minister Narendra Modi'spolicy of development of North East has ledto its emergence as the growth engine of thecountry with all militant groups joining themainstream,Union Home Minister AmitShah said on Saturday.
Earlier, agitations and violence, separatistsand different armed groups were seen butnow they are all part of the mainstream, Shahsaid at a programme to launch four projectsat the Kumar Bhaskar Varma Kshetra atAmingaon here.
“All those youths have now joinedhands for Assam's development and are nowcompeting with the global youths throughstart-ups and other projects to make the statethe growth engine of the nation”, he said.Shah came down heavily on former PrimeMinister Manmohan Singh for not solving theissue of Rs 8000 crore outstanding dues of oilroyalty to the state.
Singh represented Assam for 18 years butcould not solve this issue, but “Modiji clearedthe outstanding dues even before the BJPcame to power in the state and also ensuredthat in future the amount will keep increas-ing and reach to the people of the region,” hesaid. Modi had said in 2013 that unless theNorth East develops, the nation cannotprogress and in 2014 after coming to power
he translated his promise into reality, hesaid.
“Assam's culture is not of its alone but isthe ornament of the entire nations and it wasAssam's saint Mahapurush Sankardeva whospent his entire life on the path ofBhakti,enriching it with literary works, tra-ditions, culture, relgious thoughts whichreceived recognition in the rest of the coun-try”, Shah said.
He said this on launch of the project forthe development and beautification ofBatadrava Than,birthplace of the saint.Sankardeva and Madhavdeva had unified theentire state and now the team of SarbanandaSonowal and Himanta Biswa Sarma have uni-fied the people of the state by upholding andpromoting the state's heritage and tradition,he said.
“The Congress did not think of devel-oping his birthplace but the BJP believes thatunless the language and culture are developed,the state cannot progress”, he said. Thereare more than one lakh 'Namghaars'(Vaishnavite prayer and community halls) inthe state spreading the message Sankardevaand the state government's decision to giveRs 2.5 lakh to eight thousand namghars is aunique step towards unification of the peo-ple, he said. PTI
Ahmedabad: Gujarat on Saturdayreported 890 new coronaviruspositive cases, taking the count ofinfections to 2,40,995, the statehealth department said.
With seven more personssuccumbing to the viral disease,including four in Ahmedabad andone each in Mehsana, Rajkot and Surat, the overalldeath toll in the state mounted to4,275, it said.
A total of 1,002 patients weredischarged after treatment inGujarat during the day, taking thecumulative number of recoveriesto 2,26,208, the department saidin a release.
Gujarat's COVID-19 caserecovery rate has improved to93.86 per cent, the departmentsaid.
With 53,539 new tests con-ducted in the last 24 hours, thetotal number of the tests con-ducted in Gujarat went up to93,84,030, the release added.
Ahmedabad recorded 185new cases, followed by Surat 164,and Vadodara 139.
Among other districts, Rajkotrecorded 78 new cases, whileGandhinagar and Kutch added 29cases each, Mehsana 24, Dahodand Bhavnagar 22 each, Bharuch20, Kheda 19, Panchmahal andJunagadh 17 each, Patan 14,Surendranagar and Jamnagar 13each, Sabarkantha 12, etc.
Gujarat now has 10,512 activecases.
Gujarat COVID-19 figuresare as follows: Positive cases2,40,995, new cases 890, deaths4,275, active cases 10,512 andpeople tested so far 93,84,030.
In the Union Territory ofDaman, Diu, Dadra and NagarHaveli, one new COVID-19 caseand two recoveries were report-ed on Saturday.
The UT's overall caseloadhas reached 3,342 while the tallyof recoveries stood at 3,331, offi-cials said, adding that the cumu-lative death toll stood at two.
The number of new tests andthat of total tests conducted in theUT was not available.The UT hasnine active cases. PTI
Sabarimala(Ker): Amid strict COVID-19Protocols, the auspicious Mandala puja washeld at the Lord Ayyappa temple here, mark-ing the end of the first leg of the 62-days-long annual pilgrimage season.
In the place of thousands of pilgrims,who queued up for hours on thetrekking-paths to offer prayers on this day in previ-ous years, only a moderate crowd was seenthis time due to the restrictions imposed inthe wake of the pandemic.
Chanting “swamiye saranam Ayyappa”mantra, devotees thronged the hill-top tem-
ple and waited patiently to witness the spe-cial pujas and rituals including “kalabhaabhishekam” and “kalasa abhishekam”. The'mandala puja' was held under the aegis ofthe head priest Kandaru Rajeevaru andMelshanti (Chief Priest) V K Jayaraj Potti aspilgrims chanted hymns of the Lord in uni-son.
The idol of Lord Ayyappa was adornedwith 'thanka angi,” the sacred golden attire,which was brought here on Friday eveningin a ceremonial procession from the SreeParthasarthy temple at Aranmula. PTI
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Karnataka Health MinisterK Sudhakar on Saturday
said his department will discusswith the Home Department onprevention and containment ofa new variant of coronavirusand come up with guidelinessoon.
A release from theMinister's office, quoting him,said there will be new guide-lines for New Year celebrationsand that he will hold a meetingwith the Home Departmentregarding this soon.
Regarding vaccine trials,Sudhakar said third stage trialsare being conducted in
various states including
Karnataka.“Anyone can volunteer to
take the vaccine at this stage.Ihave personally appealed tomany frontline warriors, espe-cially medical students to vol-unteer for trials,” he said.
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Keeping in account the prob-lems faced by the passengers
during the previous foggy sea-sons, Northern Railway has takenseveral steps for managing trainoperations during the upcomingwinter fog season.
Ashutosh Gangal, GeneralManager of Northern Railwaysaid that the railways will informpassengers through SMS on reg-istered mobile about train run-ning late status if the train is morethan one hour late. “Among mea-sures are taken including provi-sion of opening of catering stallson the platforms beyond thenormal sale hours, deployment ofadditional ‘Railway ProtectionForce’ (RPF) personnel on thestations for crowd managementand tackling security issues andcold weather patrolling of raillines to timely detect rail fracturesespecially during the night hours,”
he said.Gangal said that the occur-
rence of fog especially in NorthIndia during the winter monthsis a common weather phenom-enon. However, it has been expe-rienced that in recent years, thepattern and occurrence span offog in the sub-continent hasundergone changes with severalpockets of Western and Easternregions of the country now alsowitnessing the troublesomeweather effect, he said.
“The Fog often coupled withthe human-activity induced smogdrastically reduces visibility dis-rupting day to day life. It alsocauses repercussions on the RailTransport system. The move-ment of freight and coachingtrains is severely affected major-ly due to poor discernbility expe-rienced by the train drivers andthe safety protocols that are putin place that includes speedrestriction in the fog affected
areas,” he added.Gangal further said that as a
result the trains reach their des-tinations late and have to be oftenrescheduled for the return jour-ney or cancelled due to abnormallate running.
Speaking on the occasion, healso talked about various chal-lenges and problems faced by rail-ways and preparedness ofNorthern Railway for safe trainoperation such as rake imbal-ances due to abnormal late run-ning of trains, crew shortageresulting out of longer durationof working hours due to slowermobility and path constraints,complete disorientation of timetable, train berthing plans, main-tenance slots at washing linecomplexes etc due to late arrivalof trains, catering difficulties dueto out of schedule running oftrains and heavy crowding ofwaiting passengers on platformsat major terminals.
From Page 1The Delhi Police took to Twitter to inform
commutters about the traffic situation at the bor-ders.
“NH-9 & NH-24 closed from Delhi toGhaziabad due to farmers’ protests. People areadvised to take alternate route for Ghaziabad viaDND, ITO & Wazirabad,” Delhi Traffic Policetweeted. “Singhu, Auchandi, Lampur, PiauManiyari, Saboli & Mangesh borders closed. Pl takealternate routes via Safiabad, Palla & Singhu schooltoll tax borders. Traffic has been diverted fromMukarba & GTK road. Pl avoid Outer Ring Rd,GTK road & NH 44. “The chilla & Gazipur bor-ders are closed for traffic coming from Noida &Ghaziabad to Delhi because of farmer protests.People are advised to take alternate route for com-ing to Delhi via Anad Vihar, DND, Apsara, bho-pra & Loni borders,” it tweeted.
There was no immediate response from theGovernment to the agenda proposed by thefarmer unions for talks. An official said that theGovernment is ready for amendments, but main-tained that there is no question of repealing thethree farm laws.
On December 24, Aggarwal had written to the40 protesting unions and invited them for freshtalks, but made it clear that it would
not be “logical” to include in the agenda anynew demand related to the MSP, which is out ofthe purview of the three new farm laws.
In his letter, the officer had asked the unionsto suggest a date and time for the next round oftalks. In its letter to Aggarwal, the Sankyukt KisanMorcha said, “Unfortunately, your letter continuesthe Government’s attempt to mislead the public bysuppressing true facts about the deliberations inthe previous meetings. We have consistentlydemanded the repeal of the three Central FarmActs, whereas the Government has distorted ourposition as if we were asking for amendments tothese Acts.”
“If you are sincere about respectfully listeningto the farmers, as you say in your letter, theGovernment must not indulge in misinformationabout the previous meetings. The campaignlaunched by the entire State machinery to defameand malign the farmers’ movement must stop forth-with,” it said.
From Page 1Announcing his decision to leave the NDA,
Hanuman Beniwal alleged that his Covid-19 test reportwas “fudged” to keep him out of Parliament.
“The farm laws were brought in my absence. If Iwas present in the Lok Sabha when the farm laws werebrought, I would have torn them apart and thrownthem away,” Beniwal said. Beniwal, the Lok Sabhamember from Rajasthan’s Nagaur, had given a call fortwo lakh farmers to move towards Delhi in supportof the farmers’ agitation that has been on for the pastone month. Earlier during the day, Beniwal led farm-ers’ movement from Jaipur, Nagaur, Barmer, Jodhpurand other parts of Rajasthan into Kotputli on the wayto Shahjahanpur after earlier announcing that he willlead the agitation into Delhi in opposition to the threefarm laws brought by the Centre.
“Despite the farmers’ protests, the NarendraModi Government is not withdrawing farm lawsbecause it has 303 MPs. Farmers from 1,200 kilome-tres away in Rajasthan are moving towards Delhi tobe a part of the agitation,” he said.
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From Page 1Citing sources in the rul-
ing party, the paper said dur-ing his four-day stay inKathmandu, the Chinese viceminister is scheduled to meettop leaders of both factions ofthe party.
The development comesafter Chinese ambassador inNepal Hou Yanqi held a seriesof meetings with the presidentand top leaders of the NCP,including Prachanda andMadhav Nepal, who hasreplaced Oli as chairman of thePrachanda-led faction.
During her meeting withMadhav Nepal on Friday,Ambassador Hou, who wasconcerned about the split inthe NCP, inquired about thefuture political course of theruling party among otherthings, the paper quoted Rijal
as saying. Hou on Thursdaymet Prachanda, who claimscontrol over the ruling partyafter removing Prime MinisterOli from the posts of theparty’s parliamentary leaderand chair.
She had also met theStanding Committee mem-ber and former energy minis-ter Barsha Man Pun onThursday, the paper said.
Hou’s meeting withPrachanda came two daysafter she called on PresidentBhandari at the latter’s office inSheetal Niwas on Tuesday.
The envoy was said tohave discussed the latest polit-ical development followingthe president’s move to dis-solve the House ofRepresentatives and announcemid-term elections.
This is not the first time
that China has intervened inNepal’s internal affairs at atime of crisis.
In May, Hou held separatemeetings with PresidentBhandari, the prime ministerand other senior NCP leaders,including Prachanda, whenOli was facing mounting pres-sure to step down. In July,she again met a number of topleaders, including the presi-dent, prime minister,Prachanda, Madhav KumarNepal and Jhala Nath Khanaland Bamdev Gautam to saveOli. A number of polit-ical party leaders had termedthe Chinese envoy’s series ofmeetings with the ruling partyleaders as interference inNepal’s internal politicalaffairs.
Dozens of student activistscarrying placards with anti-
China slogans had staged ademonstration in front of theChinese Embassy here toprotest against Hou’s interfer-ence in Nepal’s internal affairs.
China’s political profile inNepal has been on the rise inthe recent years with billionsof dollars of investments underBeijing’s multi-billion-dollarBelt and Road Initiative (BRI),including the building of theTrans-Himalayan Multi-Dimensional ConnectivityNetwork.
Besides the investments,China’s ambassador to NepalHou has made open efforts togarner support for Oli.The Chinese CommunistParty and Nepal CommunistParty were regularly engagedin training programmes. InSeptember last year, the NCPhad even organised a sympo-
sium, inviting some leadersfrom the Chinese CommunistParty to Kathmandu to imparttraining to Nepali leaders onthe Xi Jinping Thought aheadof the visit of the Chinese pres-ident, his first to Nepal, thePost reported. In aguarded reaction to the fast-paced political developmentsin Nepal, India on Thursdaysaid it was an “internal matter”of the neighbouring nationand it was for the country todecide as per its democraticprocesses.
“We have noted the recentpolitical developments inNepal. These are internal mat-ters for Nepal to decide as perits democratic processes,”External Affairs MinistrySpokesperson AnuragSrivastava said in NewDelhi. PTI
From Page 1India has invited Boris Johnson as chief guest for
the parade which has been accepted. The Ministryof External Affairs has already clarified that the BritishPrime Minister will be visiting despite the scare of thenew virus strain in the United Kingdom.
Incidentally, the latest incident of soldiers testingpositive comes days after a Vice Admiral of the Navysuccumbed to the pandemic here. He was the seniormost personnel to fall victim to COVID-19 in thethree Services.
Vice Admiral Srikant died on December 15 dueto Covid-19-related complications. The vice admi-ral, the Navy’s senior-most submariner, was due toretire on December 31.
Expressing his condolences, Defence MinisterRajnath Singh tweeted, “Deeply pained at the untime-ly and sudden demise of Director General Seabird,Vice Admiral Srikant.”
The Ministry of Defence and the Indian Navy willalways remember his stellar contributions andremarkable service to the nation, Singh noted.
From Page 1Karnataka Health Minister K Sudhakar
on Saturday said 14 people who have cometo the State from the United Kingdom so farhave tested positive for COVID-19 and theirsamples have been sent for genetic sequenc-ing to find whether it is a new strain of virusthat has infected them. A total of 2,500 peo-ple have come (from the United Kingdom),of them 1,638 have been tested.
According to Kerala Health Minister KK Shailaja, eight people who recently returnedfrom the United Kingdom to Kerala have test-ed positive for coronavirus and their sampleshave been sent to the National Institute ofVirology, Pune for genomic analysis.
Four more people who returned toTamil Nadu from the United Kingdom havetested positive for COVID-19. Their sampleshave been sent to the National Institute ofVirology, Pune for genomic analysis.
In UP, three members of the same fam-ily in Meerut city who returned from theUnited Kingdom have tested positive forCOVID-19. All these three members returnedfrom London on December 14. HealthDepartment officials also fear that the threeforeign returnees may be infected by the newvariant of the virus that was detected in theUnited Kingdom.
In the ongoing door-to-door contact drive
being conducted by the Delhi government totest UK-returned persons for prevalence ofCOVID-19, eight have so far been foundinfected with the coronavirus. A total of 19passengers out of over 13,000 who landedfrom the UK at the IGI airport here betweenNovember 25 and December 21 have beenfound positive for the virus.
In Maharashtra a woman, who hadreturned to Aurangabad in Maharashtrafrom the United Kingdom in the last fewweeks, has tested coronavirus positive. Thewoman is among the 44 persons who arrivedin Aurangabad from the UK after November25. In another case, One of the over 50 per-sons, who returned to the Kalyan Dombivliregion in Thane district from the UnitedKingdom in the last one month, has testedCOVID- 19 positive.
In the past two weeks, around 102 peo-ple have come to Assam from the UnitedKingdom and one of them was found Covid-19 positive and his sample has been sent tothe National Institute of Virology (NIV) inPune to ascertain whether it is the same newvirus strain which hit Europe recently.
The new strain of the coronavirus wasfirst detected in the United Kingdom, lastweek. As per the experts, this strain is moretransmissible than other SARS-CoV-2 vari-ants.
From Page 1The NTF recommended
that in addition to the existingsurveillance strategies, it iscritical to conduct enhancedgenomic surveillance for SARS-CoV-2 especially in incomingpassengers from the UK.Besides, it will also be criticalto conduct genome sequencingin samples where there isdropout of the S gene in labdiagnosis, proven cases of re-infections etc. Routine genomic surveillanceof SARS-CoV-2 from repre-sentative samples all across thesamples needs to be a contin-uous and well planned activi-ty, said an official attending themeet.
However, the official saidthere was no need to changethe existing Treatment Protocolin view of mutations emergingin the strain. Further, sinceICMR has always advocateduse of two or more gene assaysfor testing SARS-CoV-2, it isunlikely to miss infected cases
using the current testing strat-egy.
It was decided that all pas-sengers who had arrived fromUK between 21st December -23rd December 2020 have beentested at the Airports, andonly after the RT-PCR testresult are available, the negativepassengers are permitted to exitthe airports
More than 50 samples ofUK returnees are currentlyunder sequencing at the desig-nated laboratories.
“It is proposed to continueenhanced genomic surveillancefor early detection and con-tainment of the UK variantSARS-CoV-2 strains. However,it is important to understandthat like all other RNA virus-es, SARS-CoV-2 will continueto mutate. The mutated viruscan also be contained by mea-sures like social distancing,hand hygiene, wearing masksand also by an effective vaccine,as and when available,” an offi-cial said.
For the first time after oversix months since June,
India’s daily Covid-19 fatalitycount was reported below 300,taking the overall death tally to1,47,343, while the infectiontally rose to 1,01,69,118,according to the Union HealthMinistry.
In the last 24 hours, 251more deaths and 22,273 infec-tions were reported, accordingto the latest data. The numberof people who have recoveredfrom the disease surged to97,40,108, pushing the nation-al recovery rate to 95.78 percent.
The exponential rise in
recoveries in tandem withlower daily new cases hasresulted in consistent decline inthe active cases and low mor-tality. India’s cumulative recov-eries are highest in the world.
The daily new recoveriesrecorded in the country havebeen more than the daily casesregistered since the last 29days.
India’s present active case-load of 2,81,667 consists of2.77 per cent of India’s total pos-itive cases.
According to the Ministry,73.56 per cent of the new recov-ered cases are observed to beconcentrated in 10 States/UTs.“Kerala has reported the max-imum number of single day
recoveries with 4,506 newlyrecovered cases. 1,954 peoplerecovered in West Bengal fol-lowed by 1,427 inMaharashtra,” said the Ministry.
On the other hand, 79.16per cent of the new cases arefrom ten States and UTs.
Kerala reported the high-est daily new cases at 5,397. Itis followed by Maharashtrawith 3,431 new cases. WestBengal recorded 1,541 newcases.
Ten States/UTs accountedfor 85.26 per cent of the newdeaths. Maharashtra saw themaximum casualties (71). WestBengal and Delhi follow with31 and 30 daily deaths, respec-tively.
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The Central Bureau ofInvestigation (CBI) has reg-
istered two separate cases ofbanking fraud to the tune ofabout �132 crore and conduct-ed searches at several locations.
The first case was registeredon a complaint from State Bankof India (SBI) against anAhmedabad-based private com-pany Krishna KnitwearTechnology Ltd., its directors,unknown public servants andothers on the allegations ofcheating the bank to the tune of�67.07 crore.
The accused company wasengaged in manufacturing ofcotton yarn, knitted grey fabricand finished garments.
“It was alleged that duringthe period 2011 to 2015, theaccused entered into a conspir-acy to cheat the SBI by way offorgery/falsification of accountsand diversion of funds,” theCBI said in a statement.
The company allegedlyavailed Fund Based WorkingCapital (FBWC) with SBI, MCB,Vapi Branch, Ahmedabad,Gujarat.
It was further alleged thatonly around 20 percent of its
receipts and payments from itsdebtors and creditors were rout-ed through banking channels,and the remaining amount wassiphoned off, it said.
Searches were conductedat 10 places including officialand the residential premises ofthe accused / private companyat Silvassa and Mumbai whichled to the recovery of incrimi-nating documents/articles.
The second case was regis-tered on a complaint fromPunjab & Sind Bank against aprivate company (borrowercompany) based at NewDelhi/Noida, Alpine RealtechPvt. Ltd. and others including itsdirectors, two other privatecompanies, unknown publicservants and others on the alle-gations that the said accused hadcheated the bank to the tune of�64.78 crore by way of diversion/ siphoning off bank funds,misappropriation and cheating.
Searches were conductedat nine locations in Delhi /NCR at the office and residen-tial premises of the accusedincluding the firm.
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The India MeteorologicalDepartment (IMD) has
said widespread rainfall orsnowfall is very likely overnorthern parts of India inJammu and Kashmir, HimachalPradesh and Uttarakhand dur-ing the next few days.
The IMD has also said thatcold wave to severe cold waveconditions would prevail oversome States due to the strength-ening of northwesterly/norther-ly lower-level winds fromDecember 29.
In a series of tweets, theIMD updated its forecasts fornorth Indian states till the endof December, saying the coldwave conditions are likely toextend to parts of western andcentral India towards the end ofthis month. “Under the influ-ence of the approaching WesternDisturbance Scattered to Fairlywidespread rainfall/snowfall isvery likely over Jammu,Kashmir, Ladakh, Gilgit,Baltistan & Muzaffarabad,” IMDsaid.
Similarly, Himachal Pradeshand Uttarakhand would alsoexperience rainfall or snowfalland thundershowers are expect-ed in Punjab and Haryana, onDecember 27 and 28, IMD said.Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh,Delhi, Rajasthan and West UttarPradesh are also set to experi-ence cold wave or severe coldwave conditions because of “thestrengthening of cold and dry
Cold day conditions arepredicted for these states onDecember 28 and 29 and onDecember 29 and 30 for north-ern Rajasthan. Dense to verydense fog during morning hoursis also expected during themorning hours in these statesfrom December 28 till the yearend. “Ground Frost conditionsare likely in isolated pockets overUttarakhand, HimachalPradesh, Punjab, Haryana,Chandigarh & Delhi, Rajasthanand West Madhya Pradesh dur-ing 28th-29th December, 2020,”IMD tweeted.
Towards the end ofDecember, these cold wave con-ditions are also expected tospread towards western India.“Northern parts of Saurashtra &Kutch and West MadhyaPradesh also likely to experiencecold wave conditions on thesedays,” IMD said.
The weather across Kashmirhas remained dry and cold sincethe snowfall on December 12,with the night temperature stay-ing several degrees below thefreezing point, IMD said.Srinagar, the summer capital ofJammu and Kashmir, recordeda low of minus 3.7 degreesCelsius, slightly up from the pre-vious night’s minus 4.3 degreesCelsius. In the south Kashmirtourist resort of Pahalgam, themercury settled at minus 4.5degrees Celsius, up from minus5.9 degrees Celsius the previous
night. The famous ski resort ofGulmarg in north Kashmir wasthe coldest place in the valley atminus 6.5 degrees Celsius, downfrom minus 5.6 degrees Celsiusthe previous night, according tothe IMD.
Qazigund recorded a min-imum temperature of minus 4degrees Celsius, Kupwaraminus 3.6 degrees Celsius andKokernag minus 4.0 degreesCelsius, the IMDsaid. Kashmiris currently under the grip of‘Chillai Kalan’— a 40-day peri-od of harshest winter when acold wave grips the region andthe temperature drops consid-erably leading to the freezing ofwater bodies, as well as thewater supply lines in severalparts of the valley. The chancesof snowfall are the maximumduring this period and mostareas, especially in the higherreaches, receive heavy snowfall,the IMD said.
Biting cold conditions pre-vailed in Haryana and Punjabon Saturday, with Hisar reelingat a low of 2.2 degrees Celsius.Hisar in Haryana was the cold-est place in the state, whileNarnaul too experienced a coldnight at 3 degrees Celsius, IMDsaid.
Among other places in thestate, Karnal, Sirsa, Rohtak,Ambala and Bhiwani recordedtheir respective minimums at 4degrees Celsius, 4.1 degreesCelsius, 4 degrees Celsius, 5.3degrees Celsius and 5.6 degreesCelsius.
Paper of Arunachal Pradesh –which was driven to extinction,has come to life once again,with the committed efforts ofKhadi and Village IndustriesCommission (KVIC ).
KVIC on Friday commis-sioned a Monpa handmadepaper making unit in Tawang,aiming to both reviving the artand engaging the local youthsprofessionally. The unit wasinaugurated by KVICChairman Shri Vinai Kumar
Saxena.The art of making Monpa
handmade paper originated inChina over 1,000 years ago.Gradually the art travelledacross to India and became anintegral part of local customand culture in Tawang, whichis just 30 km from China.Once produced in every house-hold in Tawang, this handmadepaper was a major source oflivelihood for the locals.However, the handmade paperindustry almost disappeared inthe last 100 years; promptingKVIC to plan revival of thisancient art.
The fine-textured hand-made paper, which is calledMon Shugu in the local dialect,is integral to the vibrant cultureof the local tribes in Tawang.The paper has great historicand religious significance as itis the paper used for writingBuddhist scriptures and hymnsin monasteries. The Monpahandmade paper, will be madefrom the bark of a local treecalled Shugu Sheng, which hasmedicinal values, too. Henceavailability of raw material willnot be a problem.
Back then, such was thescale of production that
Monpas used to sell thesepapers to countries like Tibet,Bhutan ,Thai Land and Japanas no paper making industryexisted in these countries atthat time. However, the localindustry gradually begandeclining and the indigenoushandmade paper was takenover by inferior Chinese paper.
An attempt for the revivalof the this handmade paperindustry was made in 1994 butfailed as it was a tough taskdue to various geographicalchallenges in Tawang.However, with the strongresolve of higher management
of KVIC, the unit was suc-cessfully established. On theinstruction of KVICChairman, a team of scientistsand officials of KumarappaNational Handmade PaperInstitute,(KNHPI) Jaipur, wasdeputed at Tawang to set upthe unit and training thelocals. Over six months of rig-orous efforts bore fruits and aunit has been commissioned atTawang.
Initially, the paper unit hasengaged 9 artisans who canproduce 500 to 600 sheets ofMonpa handmade paper perday. The artisans will be earn-
ing wages of per day Rs 400per day. To begin with, 12women and 2 men from localvillages have been trained tomake Monpa handmadepaper. KNHPI is a unit ofKVIC.
The most challenging taskfor KVIC officials was totransport the machines toTawang owing to its difficultmountainous terrains andinclement weather conditions.The Arunachal PradeshGovernment lent full supportto the project and offered abuilding on a nominal rent toset up the unit.
The KVIC Chairman saidreviving the Monpa hand-made paper industry andincreasing its commercial pro-duction was the key objectiveof KVIC. “Owing to its pecu-liarity, this handmade paperhas high commercial valuethat can be harnessed to cre-ate local employment inArunachal Pradesh. Byincreasing production ofMonpa handmade paper, itcan again be exported to othercountries and regain the spaceoccupied by China in the lastfew decades. This is a localproduct with great global
potential, which is alignedwith the Mantra of “Local toGlobal” given by the Hon’blePrime Minister,” Saxena said.
“The fatigue from the 15hours of road journey fromGuwahati to Tawang in thisdifficult terrain just vanishedon witnessing this paper unitcoming to life again. It is,indeed, a privilege to haveinaugurated the unit that willrevive this local art,” Saxenasaid while lauding the KVIC-KNHPI officials for their hardwork and Arunachal Pradeshgovernment for their supportto the project.
Half of the air samples takenfrom several hospital hall-
ways, ICUs, and a fifth frombathrooms had high levels ofcoronavirus, a study publishedin the JAMA Open Networkhas suggested. In fact, the airsampled in the ICUs werefound to be more contaminat-ed than the non-ICUs, said thestudy.
The study titled‘Assessment of AirContamination by SARS-CoV-2 in Hospital Settings’ waspublished on December 23.
For the study, theresearchers had collected airsamples from close patientenvironments, clinical zonesaway from patients, staff areas,toilets/ bathrooms, and sixpublic places.
Researchers found 17 per-cent of air sampled from closepatient environments to bepositive for SARS-CoV-2 RNAand one-quarter of all ICUrooms with COVID-19patients were contaminated.In fact, the air sampled insideICUs were more contaminatedwith the novel coronavirusthan the air sampled in non-ICUs.
As per the study, 82 of the471 air samples (17.4 percent)collected from close patient
environments were positive forSARS-CoV-2 RNA. The posi-tivity rate was significantlyhigher in intensive care unitswith 27 of 107 found to be con-taminated as against 39 of 364contaminated non-intensivecare units.
The study stated: “Amongthe 2,284 records identified, thepositivity rate was five of 21 airsamples (23.8 percent) in toi-lets, 20 of 242 (8.3 percent) inclinical areas, 15 of 122 (12.3percent) in staff areas, and 14of 42 (33.3 percent) in publicareas came back as positive.”
It added: “The results of thepositivity rate in ICU and non-ICU patient environments werehighly heterogeneous andappeared superior in the ICUwhen pooling the results. In theICU, seven of 12 studies did notfind SARS-CoV-2 RNA,whereas the remaining did,with 37.5 percent to 100 per-cent positive samples.”
The study, however, clari-fied that the level of severity ofpatients’ infections did notincrease the air contamina-tion.
faction of the Naga militantoutfit NSCN(K) are likely tojoin the national mainstream asthe group is finding it difficultto survive following enhancedcooperation between theIndian Army and theMyanmarese armed forcesalong the border, sources in thesecurity establishment said onSaturday.
The faction led by NikiSumi has decided to surrenderas a result of combined effortsagainst it by the Army, statesecurity forces and militaryintelligence in the last fewmonths, they said, adding it willbe a boost for the Naga peaceprocess.
The overall coordinationand cooperation between theIndian and Myanmaresearmies on the management ofthe Indo-Myanmar border hasimproved following a recentvisit to the neighbouring coun-try by Chief of Army Staff GenMM Naravane, they said.
“The diplomatic efforts inthe military domain by theChief of Army Staff during hisrecent visit to Myanmar havepaid rich dividends,” said anofficial on the condition ofanonymity.
In October, Gen Naravane,accompanied by ForeignSecretary Harsh VardhanShringla, paid a crucial visit toMyanmar during which Indiadecided to supply an attacksubmarine to the MyanmarNavy besides agreeing to fur-ther deepen overall militaryand defence ties.
Myanmar is one of India’sstrategic neighbours andshares a 1,640-kilometre-longborder with a number ofnortheastern states includingmilitancy-hit Nagaland andManipur.
The NSCN (Khaplang)and several other Naga mili-
tant groups have beendemanding the establishmentof a ‘Greater Nagaland’ com-prising all the Naga-inhabitedareas of neighbouring Assam,Manipur and ArunachalPradesh.
The sources said StarsonLamkang, a key leader of thebreakaway faction, along with52 cadres are currently in theprocess of surrendering to thesecurity forces in Phek districtof Nagaland.
They said eight morecadres of the group are alsolikely to surrender taking thetotal to around 60.
The group led by NikiSumi had broken away fromthe NSCN (K-Yung Aung).The total strength of the Nikifaction appears to be 60-65militants and its cadres decid-ed to surrender as surviving inMyanmar became very diffi-cult for them, the sourcessaid.
Sumi is an insurgentleader from the Sema tribe andbelongs to Zunebhuto districtof Nagaland, the sources said,adding he was a prominent“commander” in NSCN (K)group.
He is also a key accused inthe attack on an Army convoyin Manipur’s Chandel districtin June 2015 by the NSCN(K)in which 18 army personnellost their lives. He carries areward of Rs 10 lakh.
Days after the attack, theIndian Army had carried outan operation in areas near theIndo-Myanmar against theNSCN (K) militants.
India has been concernedover some militant groupsfrom the Northeast regiontaking shelter in Myanmar.The country has been assuringIndia that it would not allowany insurgent group to use itsterritory against India.
Various Naga militantgroups are currently holdingtalks with the Centre to resolvethe decades-old Naga issue.
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The CBI has moved theSupreme Court seeking to
question senior IPS officerand former Kolkata policecommissioner Rajeev Kumarin connection with the multi-crore-rupee Saradha chit fundscam case.
The central probe agency,which has been entrusted withthe task of probing the Ponzischeme cases in West Bengalby the apex court, has movedthe fresh plea to quiz thesenior police officer again,alleging that he has not beencooperating with it in theongoing investigation, a sourcesaid.
The Central Bureau ofInvestigation (CBI) said
Kumar’s further questioning isnecessary in order to unearththe larger nexus in the scam.
The plea is likely to betaken up for hearing on thereopening of the apex courtafter the winter break.
The Saradha group ofcompanies allegedly dupedlakhs of people to the tune ofRs 2,500 crore, promisinghigher rates of return on theirinvestments.
The scam was unearthedin 2013 during Kumar’s tenureas the Bidhannagar policecommissioner.
Kumar was part of theSpecial Investigation Team(SIT) set up by the West Bengalgovernment for probing thescam, before the SupremeCourt handed over the case to
the CBI in 2014, along withother chit fund cases.
In November last year,the apex court had sought theresponse of the IPS officer onthe CBI’s appeal challengingthe anticipatory bail granted tohim in the chit fund scam bythe Calcutta The probe agencyhad filed an appeal in theapex court against the
October 1, 2019 order ofthe Calcutta High Court,which had granted
Kumar the relief saying itwas not an appropriate case forcustodial interrogation.
The high court had direct-ed Kumar to cooperate withthe investigating officers andmake himself available beforethem for questioning on a 48-hour notice by the CBI.
to a convict for misleading itby producing a wrong copy ofa trial court’s verdict to get afavourable order which hadallowed him to walk free onpayment of a fine only in agraft case.
The top court, while issu-ing the notice to convict SShankar, asked him why itshould not recall the ordersparing him the jail term andtake “further suitable” actionfor the act of misleading it.
The SC, had on July 23,2019, allowed Shankar to walkfree in the corruption case onpayment of �1,000 after hislawyer argued that the AndhraPradesh High Court “wrong-ly construed” the operativeportion of the judgement of atrial court delivered in theyear 2000.
It was argued the trialcourt had not awarded a jailterm of one year to Shankarbut had only imposed a fine of�1,000 for offences of crimi-nal breach of trust and con-spiracy under the IPC andsome other charges under thePrevention of Corruption Act.
“Since we find that thetrial court had merelyimposed a sentence of pay-ment of fine of �1,000 on theappellant, the judgment ofthe high court is clarifiedaccordingly. In view of theabove, the appeal stands dis-posed of, making it clear thatno sentence of imprisonmentwas imposed on Accused No.5 (Shankar) … by the trialcourt and the high court…,”the top court had ordered,granting the relief.
However, a subsequentinquiry and a report of thesecretary general of the apexcourt indicated that primafacie, the convict “misled” thebench to avoid a jail term.
The Government’s move toseek comments for its draft
proposal aiming to set upUniversity of Disability Studiesand Rehabilitation Sciences inan inaccessible environmenthas drawn flak from the stake-holders particularly activists inthe sector.
With just ten days allottedby the Government to study theproposal, they termed it as yetanother “ill-conceived idea”which denied adequate time orspace for stakeholders torespond.
The University coveringdisability studies and rehabili-tation sciences in an accessibleenvironment has been pro-posed to be launched by theGovernment for which theDepartment of Empowermentof Persons with Disabilities(DEPwD), under the Ministryof Social Justice andEmpowerment, has invitedcomments from stakeholderson the draft bill.
In this regard, the DEPwDsaid, a draft bill namely theUniversity of Disability Studiesand Rehabilitation SciencesBill, 2021 for establishing theproposed university has beenprepared. The DEPwD said itintends to set up a Universityof Disability Studies andRehabilitation Sciences,Kamrup district, Assamthrough a separate act ofParliament.
“The proposed university,the first of its kind, will be aunique multidisciplinary aca-demic institution conductingresearch, programmes andcourses from bachelor’s levelonwards to cater to various dis-ciplines covering the entiregamut of disability studies andrehabilitation sciences in anaccessible environment,” theDEPwD said.
“The Department ofEmpowerment of Persons withDisabilities hereby invites com-ments from the public on thedraft University of Disability
Studies and RehabilitationSciences Bill, 2021 by January3, 2021.”
Prominent disabled rightsbody National Platform for theRights of the Disabled, how-ever, felt that time was too lessto study its proposed provi-sions.
“In this case, a mere ninedays have been given to elicitresponse to a 131-page docu-ment,” the NPRD said in astatement.
“All the more unacceptableis the fact that this universitywould be ‘self-sustaining’, intune with the thrust of the NewEducation Policy 2020. Withfinances being generated fromtuition fees, affiliation fees etc.students from the margin-alised sections will standdeprived,” it said.
“Rather than wasting hugeamounts of money on self-sus-taining segregated centres oflearning, it would do auger wellif the government adheres tothe guiding principles of theRights of Persons withDisabilities Act of equality andnon-discrimination and adoptsand promotes an inclusive,multidisciplinary approach,”the NPRD said.
Dr Satendra Singh too crit-icised the haste shown by thegovernment in such importantmoves which if implementedproperly can be game chang-er.
“But the Ministry keepsembarrassing itself. TheUniversity of Disability Studies& Rehabilitation Sciences Bill2021 confirms that none ofthem have any idea about whatDisability Studies means. Only10 days to submit comments,”Singh tweeted.
As per the proposal theUniversity will have eightdepartments such as disabili-ty studies, rehabilitation sci-ences, audiology and speech-language pathology, specialeducation, psychology, nurs-ing, orthotics, prosthetics andassistive technology; and inclu-sive and universal design.
Assembly segment in the neigh-bouring Sant Kabir Nagar districtwas on Saturday booked oncharges of cheating and forgeryon orders of a court for law-makers, police said on Saturday.
The criminal case against theMLA was lodged for submittinga suspected fake Covid infectioncertificate from a private labo-ratory to the special court ofAdditional Sessions JudgeDeepkant Mani to allegedlyavoid his appearance before it,said Khalilabad police station'sSHO Manoj Kumar Pandey.
Besides the MLA, the chiefmedical officer of a governmenthospital in the district, DrHargovind Singh, too has beenbooked on same charges for nottaking action against the MLAafter he was not found in homeisolation by the district's anti-Covid team, the SHO added.
The court ordered registra-tion of the FIR against the duoafter the CMO told the court that
the MLA went into home isola-tion after private test of COVID-19 but home isolation teammember, Dr Vivek KumarSrivastav told it that during thehome isolation period, the MLAwas not present at home andcould not be contacted on themobile phone either.
The case has been registeredagainst them under sections 419(punishment for cheating bypersonation), 420 (cheating anddishonesty), 467 (forgery ofvaluable security), 468 (forgeryfor cheating) and 471 (using afake document as genuine) of theIndian Penal Code, the SHOadded.
ASJ Deepkant Mani said inhis order that the MLA has notbeen appearing in the court forthe last four years in a case underhis jurisdiction. And when thecourt recently issued orders tohim to appear before it, he sub-mitted a medical certificatedeclaring himself to be infectedwith coronavirus, to evade hisappearance, hindering theadministration of justice, theSHO said, quoting orders.
Patna: As many as 103 newnagar panchayats and eightnew municipal councils got thegreen light in Bihar onSaturday.
The state cabinet during ameeting approved the forma-tion of the new local bodies.Apart from this, five municipalcouncils were changed intocorporations.
In the meeting chaired byChief Minister Nitish Kumar,the proposal to upgrade 32nagar panchayats to municipalcouncils was also approved.
The meeting approved theproposal to convert SasaramMunicipal Council, and theMotihari, Bettiah, Samastipurand Madhubani councils intocorporations.
The 103 city panchayatsapproved in the meetinginclude Punpan and Paliganj inPatna district and Harnaut,Sarmera, Rahui, Parwalpur,Giriyak, Asthawan,Ekangrasarai and Chandi inNalanda district. Of the 32nagar panchayats to be con-verted to city councils. IANS
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Responding to a diatribelaunched against him by
the Congress party, PrimeMinister Narendra ModiSaturday announced therecently concluded DistrictDevelopment council polls inJammu and Kashmir have writ-ten a new chapter in the region.
Referring to the people'sparticipation and the efficientmanner in which the samewere conducted across theUnion Territory, within oneyear after the Abrogation ofArticle 370, the Prime Ministeremphatically said it is a“moment of pride” for India.
Attacking the Congresswithout naming it, he saidsome people in Delhi offer himlessons in democracy day inand day out, and use “abuses”for him, but they have not car-ried out panchayat polls inPuducherry despite a SupremeCourt order.
In a recent attack on theModi government over thefarmers’ agitation against thethree new agri laws, Congressleader Rahul Gandhi hadclaimed that there is “nodemocracy” in India. TheDistrict Development Council(DDC) polls in Jammu andKashmir have seen people win-ning due to their work and notnames, the prime minister said.
Launching a scheme viavideo-conference to extend thebenefits of Ayushman Bharat toall residents of the union ter-ritory, Modi said the recentlocal body election in Jammuand Kashmir "strengthenedroots of democracy" and con-gratulated voters for exercisingtheir franchise in the eight-phase election.
"I would like to congratu-late the people of Jammu andKashmir for strengtheningdemocracy. I saw how theyoung and the old reached thevoting booths in the DistrictDevelopment Council (DDC)polls.
The people of Jammu andKashmir strengthened the rootsof democracy in the DDCpolls," PM Modi said TheCentre has undertaken all-round development of Jammuand Kashmir, he added.
Modi said a big mistake ofthose who were in power fordecades in the country was toignore the development of bor-der regions, including Jammuand Kashmir and the north-eastern states, but his govern-ment has rectified this.
After launching the schemethe Prime Minister also inter-acted with the beneficiariesfrom the region.
Talking about the Jammuand Kashmir Ayushman BharatPM-JAY SEHAT scheme, the
Prime Minister said that gettingfree treatment up to Rs 5 lakhunder this scheme wouldimprove the ease of living.
Right now about 6 lakhfamilies are getting the benefitof Ayushman Bharat Scheme.All 21 lakh families living inJ&K will get the same benefitafter the SEHAT scheme.
Another benefit of thisscheme would be that treat-ment is not limited to govern-ment and private hospitals inJammu and Kashmir only.Rather, treatment can beavailed from thousands of hos-pitals empanelled under thisscheme in the country, headded.
The Prime Minister laud-ed the UT administration forsteps of people’s welfare andaccentuating overall develop-ment in the region.
The Prime Ministertermed the extension of thecoverage to all the residents ashistoric and expressed happi-ness seeing Jammu andKashmir take these steps for thedevelopment of its people. Hesaid that development of thepeople of Jammu and Kashmiris one of the biggest prioritiesof his government.
During his address, theLieutenant Governor of Jammu& Kashmir, Manoj Sinhatermed the launch of SEHATScheme as a glorious chapter of
J&K's history. One crore resi-dents of J&K who were not eli-gible under Ayushman Bharatscheme would now be benefit-ted making it a first of its kindscheme in India, he added.
Underscoring the key fea-tures of the Health scheme, theLt Governor observed that theSEHAT Scheme will providefinancial cover upto Rs 5 lakhper family on a floater basis toall residents of the UT of J&Kwith benefits portable acrossthe country, without cap onfamily size. A beneficiary canavail free and cashless treat-ment in any public and privateempanelled hospitals acrossthe country, he said.
On behalf of the 1.3 crorepopulation of the UnionTerritory, the Lt Governorextended his gratitude to thePrime Minister for extendingthe Universal Health Coveragein J&K.
Speaking on successfulconduct of the recently heldDDC elections, the LtGovernor observed that forthe first time in the history ofJ&K, the 3-Tier Panchayati RajSystem in the UT has beenestablished empowering thegrass root democracy.
PM’s directions of holdingfree and fair elections wereensured and the DDC electionswere held smoothly and peace-fully in the UT, he maintained.
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Guwahati: The Prime MinisterNarendra Modi-led Central gov-ernment has a strong commit-ment to all round developmentand lasting peace in the north-eastern region, Union HomeMinister and senior BJP leaderAmit Shah said on Saturday.
While addressing a publicmeeting at Amingaon ParadeGround in Guwahati, Shah saidthat the entire eastern Indiacomprising Odisha, Bihar, WestBengal and the northeasternstates have turned into a growthengine for India. "If the north-east region is not developed,India's development wouldremain incomplete. PrimeMinister Narendra Modi has vis-ited all the states of the region 30times so far and taken the devel-opmental mission to newheights -- be it rail, road or airconnectivity or setting up vari-ous other infrastructure," headded.
"There was a time when ter-rorists used to give arms into thehands of the youths in thesestates (northeast). Almost allarmed groups have joined themainstream and the youths havelaunched startups competingwith other startups globally."
Laying the foundationstones of multiple develop-mental projects in the state, theHome Minister said that theNDA government headed byModi would make Assam atourism hub and has under-taken a series of steps and pro-jects to provide "Rozgar"(employment) to lakhs ofAssam youths.
In a significant step ahead ofnext year's Assam assemblypolls, he gave financial grants tothe tune of Rs 2.50 lakh to eachof the 8,000 Namghars (tradi-tional Vaishnavite monasteriesof Assam) under the AssamDarshan Programme.
Referring to the contribu-tion and significance ofAssamese seer SrimantaSankardev, Shah said thatAssamese culture is Indian cul-ture, the BJP government wouldtake the philosophy of SrimantaSankardev not only across thecountry but also abroad.Srimanta Sankardev was a 15th-16th century Assamese saint,scholar, poet, playwright, social-religious reformer and a figureof importance in the culturaland religious history of thestate. IANS
Guwahati: Union HomeMinister and senior BJP leaderAmit Shah on Saturday reiter-ated his appeal and urged theagitating farmers to hold talkswith the government to sortout their concerns.
While addressing a publicmeeting at the AmingaonParade Ground here, Shah said:"I request the farmers to holdtalks with the government toresolve their issues."
Farmers led by the leadersof nearly 40 farmers' organisa-tions have been camping on theDelhi borders since November26, demanding that three farmlaws enacted in September berepealed.
The three farm laws are --The Farmers' Produce Tradeand Commerce (Promotionand Facilitation) Act 2020; TheFarmers (Empowerment andProtection) Agreement of PriceAssurance And Farm ServicesAct 2020; and the EssentialCommodities (Amendment)Act 2020.
The Home Minister saidthat 16 lakh farmers in Assamget financial benefits underthe Pradhan Mantri KisanSamman Nidhi (PM-KISAN)and the financial assistancedirectly gets deposited to theirbank accounts.
The PM-KISAN schemewas launched by PrimeMinister Narendra Modi inFebruary last year to provideincome support to all land-holder farmer families acrossthe country.
Under this scheme, Rs 6,000per year is released in threemonthly instalments of Rs 2,000each directly into the bankaccounts of the beneficiaries.
Shah, who arrived inGuwahati on a three-day visitto Assam and Manipur onFriday night, told the gatheringthat the Assam government ledby the Bharatiya Janata Partyhas provided financial assis-tance directly into the bankaccounts of 7.20 lakh tea gar-den workers. IANS
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Two months after he quit theBJP and joined the
Nationalist Congress Party(NCP), the EnforcementDirectorate (ED) has sum-moned senior NCP leaderEknath Khadse to appearbefore it on December 30 inconnection with an allegedMIDC land scam in Pune.
S i x t y - e i g ht - y e a r- o l dKhadse, who had – while join-ing the BJP — said that “if theBJP unleashes ED against me,then I will release CDs againstthe BJP leaders”, confirmed onSaturday evening that he hadreceived summons from theED and he would appear beforethe investigating agency onDecember 30.
Talking to media persons athis Muktainagar residence inJalgaon district of northMaharashtra, Khadse said: “Ihave received the summons
from the ED to appear beforeit on December 30. I willappear before the agency onthat day. I have already fourinquiries in this land deal. Iwill cooperate with the ED. Asfar as my releasing CDs againstthe BJP leaders, I will do it ata later stage,”
“The land in the MIDCdeal has been transferred in thename of my wife. I haveabsolutely nothing to do withthis land deal. Earlier, the Anti-Corruption Bureau, Pune, theAnti Corruption Bureau,Nashik, Income Tax depart-ment and a judicial committeeheaded by retired Bombay HCjudge Dinkar Zoting, hadlooked into the allegationsagainst me. Now the ED hassummoned me for questioning.I will appear before it,” Khadsesaid.
Interestingly enough, whenhe joined the NCP on October23, 2020, Khadse had recalled
a conversation with State NCPpresident Jayant Patil and said:“In a conversation with JayantPatil some time, I hadexpressed my desire to join theNCP. Patil jocularly told me: ifyou join the NCP, then the BJPwill unleash ED against me.Then I told him: if the BJPunleashes ED against me, thenI will release CDs against theBJP leaders”.
Khadse, who was inciden-tally number two minister atone stage in the previous BJP-led Devendra Fadnavis gov-ernment, had gone to say thathe would expose them abouttheir alleged involvement inland scams.
“The BJP-led governmenthad harassed me by framingme in a land scam. Let somedays pass, I will expose all suchBJP who grabbed plots of landillegally... I will also demandaction against those whoslapped cases against me by
violating the rules,” Khadsehad said.
A judicial committee,headed by retired Bombay HCjudge Dinkar Zoting, appoint-ed by the Maharashtra gov-ernment earlier to probe theallegations of corruptionagainst Khadse, had earliergiven a clean chit to the Puneland deal case.
It may be recalled that onJune 4, 2016, Khadse hadresigned from his post as theState Revenue Minister overirregularities in the purchase ofa plot of land at Bhosari inPune district.
Acting on a directive by theBombay High court on March8, 2017, the State ACB had reg-istered a case against Khadsefor alleged misuse of office andcorruption sections 23 (1), 1(D), (2), (15) of Prevention ofCorruption Act and section109 (abetment) IPC and theACB had investigated the case
involving the purchase of a plotof land at Bhosari at a cheaperrate.
The charge against Khadsewas that he, his wife Mandakiniand son-in-law GirishChaudhary had hatched a con-spiracy and purchased a 3-acreplot of land at Bhosari nearPune owned MaharashtraIndustrial DevelopmentCorporation (MIDC) in thename of his kin for Rs 3.75crore as against the marketprice of Rs 40 crore. On hispart, Khadse had denied thathe had indulged in any wrongdoing in the Pune land dealcase.
Even the State ACB hadgone on to give a clean chit toKhadse. The ACB had evenfiled a final report before aPune court on April 30, 2018,stating that it had not been ableto prove the allegations of cor-ruption against Khadse in theland case.
In shocking development,Maharashtra’s Anti Terrorism
Squad (ATS) has arrested apoliceman posted at the high-security Arthur Road CentralPrison for allegedly helping twoincarcerated drug accusedthreaten a prosecution witness.
The policeman, whosename was not immediatelyknown, was arrested on Fridayand produced before a courtwhich remanded in ATS’ cus-tody till December 28.
The policeman’s arrest cameon the heels of the arrest of twogangsters Harish Mandvi/karand Sajid Electricwala, who weretaken into the custody by theATS from Arthur Road jail afterMandvikar threatened a wit-ness to give false evidence infavour of Electricwala in anoth-
er case.The ATS arrested the police-
man in connection with the2015 ATS (Charkop Unit) case,in which it had busted an illegaldrug manufacturing factory inAndheri west and seized 155kilograms of the bannedMephedrone and arrested sevenpersons, including the factoryowner Sajid Electricwala.
The ATS subsequentlyarrested three others -- gangsterHarish Mandvikar and hishenchmen, Sachin Kolekar andSujit Padwalkar.
Electricwala, the primeaccused in the 2015 case, waslodged at Arthur Road jail. Thetrial in the case got underway onNovember 26, 2020. Mandvikar,who was arrested in March2020, was lodged in a cell nextto that of Electricwala at ArthurRoad jail.
Both Electricwala andMandvikar became friends andin court they allegedly hatchedan alleged conspiracy to threat-en a prime witness whose depo-sition is currently underwaybefore the Special Court.
As part of the alleged con-spiracy, Mandvikar sent a hand-written chit from his cell to hishenchman Kolekar, asking himto intimidate and scare the primewitness, an act allegedly carriedout by Padwalkar.
The investigations revealedthat the arrested police officialdeployed outside the Anda Cellhad acted as the messenger topersonally pass on handwrittenchits from the jailed Mandvikarto his aides outside. “In fact, theconcerned police man hadpassed similar handwritten notesfor several months,” a senior ATSofficial said.
��#�� ��%��'"�� �(#$'� 0�'$Srinagar: Two unidentifiedterrorists have been killed in anovernight encounter with thesecurity forces in SouthKashmir's Shopian district,officials said on Saturday.
On Friday the gun battlebegan after security forces cor-doned off the Kanigam areaand launched a search opera-tion on the basis of specificinformation about militantpresence.As the security forceszeroed in on the hideout, theycame under a heavy volume offiring that triggered theencounter.Police said searchoperation is going on in thearea. IANS
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Aligarh: This time on New Year, the UP government has issueda guideline allowing it to celebrate the program with many restric-tions. It is mandatory for the organizer to take permission priorto any event from the district administration. Action will be takenagainst the organizer if the Corona Protocol breaks. More than100 people will not be allowed in an event.
Chief Secretary Rajendra Kumar Tiwari released the newyear's guideline. According to the guideline, prior to the eventto be held on New Year, the organizer will have to get permis-sion from the district administration. The name of the organizer,address, mobile number, number of people attending the pro-gram will be given at the time of permission application. Afterthis, the district administration will issue permission at its dis-cretion. Following the Covid protocol will be mandatory at thevenue and it will be the responsibility of the concerned organizer.Mask, sanitizer, thermal scanning, social distancing will bemandatory to follow. 50% of people will also be present duringthe event, relative to the rated capacity of any closed space suchas hall/room. Also, a maximum of 100 people can attend the pro-gram at a time. PNS
where a new variant ofCoronavirus was detectedrecently, tested positive in RTPCR tests conducted on theirarrival in Maharashtra from theUK, even as the number ofinfections dipped to 2854 anddeaths in Maharashtra camedown to 60 on Saturday.
The State health authorities,who have been subjecting the
passengers arriving from theUK to RTPCR tests ever sincethe detection of a new strain ofthe SARS-CoV-2 there, have sofar 1122 passengers.
Of those tested, 16 werediagnosed positive for Covid-19. Of those tested positive,four are from Nagpur, threeeach from Mumbai and Thane,two from Pune and one eachfrom Nanded, Ahmednagar,Raigad and Aurangabad.
“The samples of positivepatients will be sent to the
National Institute of Virology(NIV), Pune for genomicsequencing,” a state health offi-cial said.
“Close contacts of all pos-itive patients are being traced.Till today, out of 72 close con-tacts traced, two have testedpositive for Covid-19,” the offi-cial added.
Meanwhile, with 2854 freshinfections reported on Saturday,the total number of infectionsin Maharashtra climbed from19,13,382 to 19,16,236.Similarly, with 60 new deaths,the Covid-19 toll in the state
rose from 49,129 to 49189. As 1926 patients were dis-
charged from the hospitalsacross the state after full recov-ery, the total number of peopledischarged from the hospitalssince the second week of Marchthis year went up to 18,07,824.The recovery rate in the statedropped marginally from 94.4per cent to 94.34 per cent.
With 12 new deaths, thetotal number of deaths went upfrom 11,056 to 11,068, whilethe infected cases rose by 534to trigger a jump in the totalinfections from 289800 to290336.
Meanwhile, the number of“active cases” total cases in thestate rose from 56,823 to 58,091. The fatality rate in the statestood at 2.57 per cent.
Pune district, which con-tinued to be the worst-affectedcity-district in Maharashtra,saw the total number of casesincrease from 3,69,631 to3,70,049 while the total num-ber of deaths in Pune increasedfrom 7721 to 7725.
Thane district remainedin the third spot --after Puneand Mumbai – after the totalnumber of infections rose from2,52,273 to 2,52, 629, while thetotal deaths climbed from 5540to 5547.
Of the 1,24,51,919 samplessent to laboratories, 19,16,236have tested positive (15.39 percent) for COVID-19 untilSaturday.Currently, 4,64,121people are in home quarantinewhile 3,704 people are in insti-tutional quarantine.
Aligarh: Although Punjab hasalways been famous for drydrugs. Udta Punjab film alsobrought this matter to society.After the release of this film,Punjab started coming undercontrol. However, Aligarh hasstarted flying in a dry drug. TheDistrict Police's action against theintoxicating product testifies tothis fact. Police have started acampaign against the youthsand smugglers of Ganja,Diazepam, Doda powder. Inthis, the police have achieved amajor achievement in the year2020. 416 big and small smug-glers were arrested. Out of these10, big criminals were shortlist-ed and took action against them.
The lockdown also becamea major reason behind the sud-den increase in the business ofdry drug in the district. Becausethe addicts could not get alcoholduring that time, so they start-ed coming in contact with drydrug smugglers. When con-sumption increased in the dis-trict, supply started from here toNepal. PNS
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1��#��� ����������(�������)���/#�������������2�)����)��� ���PALM BEACH: Millions ofAmericans saw their joblessbenefits expire on Saturdayafter US President DonaldTrump refused to sign into lawa $2.3 trillion pandemic aid andspending package, protestingthat it did not do enough tohelp everyday people.
Trump stunnedRepublicans and Democratsalike when he said this week hewas unhappy with the massivebill, which provides $892 bil-lion in badly needed coron-avirus relief, including extend-ing special unemployment ben-efits expiring on December26, and $1.4 trillion for normalgovernment spending.
Without Trump’s signature,about 14 million people couldlose those extra benefits, accord-ing to Labor Department data.A partial government shut-down will begin on Tuesdayunless Congress can agree a
stop-gap government fundingbill before then.
After months of wrangling,Republicans and Democratsagreed to the package lastweekend, with the support ofthe White House. Trump, whohands over power toDemocratic President-elect JoeBiden on January 20, did notobject to terms of the dealbefore Congress voted itthrough on Monday night.
But since then he has com-plained that the bill gives toomuch money to special interests,cultural projects and foreign aid,while its one-time $600 stimu-lus checks to millions of strug-gling Americans were too small.He has demanded that be raisedto $2,000.
“Why would politiciansnot want to give people $2,000,rather than only $600?...Giveour people the money!” the bil-lionaire president tweeted on
Christmas Day, much of whichhe spent golfing at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach,Florida.
Many economists agreethe bill’s aid is too low but saythe immediate support is stillwelcome and necessary. Asource familiar with the situa-tion said Trump’s objection tothe bill caught many WhiteHouse officials by surprise.While the outgoing president’sstrategy for the bill remainsunclear, he has not vetoed itand could still sign it in com-ing days.
On Saturday, he was sched-uled to remain in Mar-a-Lago,where the bill has been sent andawaits his decision. Biden,whose November 3 electoralvictory Trump refuses toacknowledge, is spending theholiday in his home state ofDelaware and had no publicevents scheduled for Saturday.
London: Britain on Saturdaypublished the text of its narrowtrade agreement with theEuropean Union just five daysbefore it exits one of the world’sbiggest trading blocs in itsmost momentous global shiftsince the loss of empire.
The text includes a 1,246-page trade document, as well asaccords on nuclear energy,exchanging classified informa-tion, civil nuclear energy and aseries of joint declarations.
The “Draft EU-UK Tradeand Cooperation Agreement”means that from 2300 GMT onDecember 31, when Britainfinally leaves the EuropeanUnion’s single market and cus-toms union, there will be notariffs or quotas on the move-ment of goods originating ineither place between the UnitedKingdom and the EU.
Prime Minister BorisJohnson cast the deal as thefinal implementation of the willof the British people who voted52-48% for Brexit in a 2016 ref-erendum, while Europe’s lead-ers said it was time to leaveBrexit behind.
Michael Gove, a seniorBritish minister who cam-paigned alongside Johnson toleave the EU, said the dealwould allow Britain to putsome of the divisions of thenearly five-year Brexit crisisbehind it.
“Friendships have beenstrained, families were dividedand our politics has been ran-corous and, at times, ugly,”Gove wrote in The Times. “Wecan develop a new pattern offriendly cooperation with theEU, a special relationship if youwill, between sovereign equals,”Gove said.
The Brexit referendumexposed a United Kingdomdivided about much more thanthe European Union, and hasfueled soul-searching abouteverything from secession andimmigration to capitalism,empire and modernBritishness.
Such musings amid thepolitical crisis over Brexit haveleft allies puzzled by a country,the world’s No. 6 economyand a pillar of the NATOalliance, that was for decadestouted as a confident pillar ofWestern economic and politi-cal stability.
BREXIT DEALThe two sides finally
clinched a trade deal onChristmas Eve that explicitlyrecognises that trade andinvestment require conditionsfor “a level playing field foropen and fair competition.”
If, though, there are “sig-nificant divergences” on rulesbetween the two sides, then theycan “rebalance” the agreement.
Millions more people acrossdifferent parts of the UK
entered tougher lockdownrestrictions from December26, the day after Christmasmarked annually as BoxingDay, as part of plansannounced earlier this week tocontain the rapid spread of ahighly transmissible variant ofcoronavirus.
Around six million peoplein east and south-east Englandhave joined many others intoTier 4, England’’s highest Covidlevel which includes a “stay athome” order.
Lockdowns have also start-ed in Scotland and NorthernIreland, and measures havebeen reimposed in Wales after
being eased for Christmas Day,when the UK crossed anothergrim milestone of 70,000 coro-navirus deaths.
Under the toughest Tier 4restrictions, all non-essentialshops, bars and restaurants areclosed and people are notallowed to meet other house-holds, except in a support bub-ble or in an outdoor publicspace with one other person.Large parts of England werealready in this tier pre-Christmas, including London,after the new mutation wasfound to be spreading fastest inthose regions.
With the devolved admin-istrations setting their ownstrategies, Northern Irelandgoes into a six-week lockdownfrom Saturday with non-essen-
tial shops shut and hospitality open only for take-away services.
In a move similar toEngland’’s Tier 4 restrictions,Wales will be moving back intoLevel 4 measures which alsomeans non-essential shops,gyms and beauty salons mustclose and bars and restaurantscan only open for takeaways.And, Scotland is also enteringthe toughest tier of restrictionsfor at least three weeks withvery similar measures in place.
Meanwhile, France con-firmed the first case in thecountry of the more contagiouscoronavirus variant in a personwho was a French citizen in thecentral town of Tours who hadarrived from London onDecember 19.
It was among over 40countries to suspend travelconnectivity with the UK,including India, as the newrapid-spreading coronavirusvariant in England last weektriggered global concern.
Meanwhile, a further 570deaths in the UK were report-ed, taking the total number ofpeople dying within 28 days of a positive COVID-19test to 70,195.
This places the UK sixthafter the US, Brazil, India,Mexico and Italy in terms ofrecorded coronavirus deaths,according to Johns HopkinsUniversity,
The number of people whotested positive for COVID-19in England and Scotlandincreased by 32,725 on Friday.
5����������������%�������1��������������������� � 3�)�����(�����������������������������������������Paris: The European Unionbegan a vaccine rolloutSaturday, even as countries inthe bloc were forced back intolockdown by a new strain of thevirus, believed to be moreinfectious, that continues tospread from Britain.
The pandemic has claimedmore than 1.7 million lives andis still running rampant inmuch of the world, but therecent launching of innocula-tion campaigns has boostedhopes that 2021 could bring arespite.
Hours before the first vac-cine doses arrived in France,Paris’ health ministry con-firmed late Friday that it haddetected its first case of the newvariant in a citizen returnedfrom Britain.
Several countries havereported cases of the newstrain, which has sent jittersthrough already overstretchedhealth services.
There was little sign of theusual Boxing Day sale rush onthe streets of Sydney Saturday,as residents largely heeded thestate premier’s request theystay home faced with a newvirus cluster.
“Even when we enteredthe store there were less thanten people,” shopper LiaGunawan told The SydneyMorning Herald after queueingup for the sales.
Even as some Europeannations eye a post-Christmasreturn to harsh restrictions,China’s communist leadershipissued a statement hailing the“extremely extraordinary glory”of its handling of the virus thatemerged in the country’s Hubeiprovince last year, state newsagency Xinhua reported. AFP
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Hundreds of migrants onSaturday were stranded in
a burnt-out squalid tent campin Bosnia as heavy snow fell inthe country and temperaturessuddenly dropped amid a win-try spell of bad weather.
Migrants at the Lipa campin northwest Bosnia wrappedthemselves in blankets andsleeping bags to protect againstbiting winds in the region,which borders European Union
member Croatia. A fire earlierthis week destroyed much ofthe camp near the town ofBihac that already was harsh-ly criticized by internationalofficials and aid groups asinadequate for housingrefugees and migrants.
Authorities have failed tofind new accommodation forthe migrants at Lipa, leavingaround 1,000 people stuck inthe cold, with no facilities orheating and on meager foodparcels provided by aid groups.
“Snow has fallen, sub-zero
temperatures, no heating, noth-ing,” the InternationalOrganization for Migration’schief of mission in Bosnia,Peter Van Der Auweraert,tweeted. “This is not how any-one should live. We need polit-ical bravery and action now.”
Bosnia has become a bot-tleneck for thousands ofmigrants hoping to reachWestern Europe. Most are stuckin Bosnia’s northwesternKrajina region as other areas inthe ethnically divided nationhave refused to accept them.
KABUL: A series of explosions hit the Afghancapital on Saturday morning, killing at least fourpeople including two police officers, officialssaid.
The deaths were caused by a sticky bombattached to a police vehicle detonated in west-ern Kabul, police spokesman Ferdaws Faramarzsaid. The explosion wounded two civilians.
Two other police officers were woundedwhen a bomb attached to their car exploded ear-lier Saturday in southern Kabul, Faramarz said.
Maooma Jafari, deputy spokeswoman forthe health ministry, said that four corpses andfour wounded people were taken to hospital fol-lowing the two explosions.
A third sticky bomb detonated in easternKabul but caused no casualties, he said.
There were reports of at least two otherblasts elsewhere in the city but police had noimmediate details.
AP
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Britain’’s Queen Elizabeth IIchose a theme of diversity
and hope as she referenced allmajor festivals spent in lock-down this year as part of hertraditional Christmas Dayspeech.
The 94-year-old monarch,who spent her first Christmasin decades without a largerroyal family gathering, calledfor tolerance and mutualrespect and reminded people ofthe contribution made tonational life by people of manyfaiths and backgrounds.
“For Christians, Jesus is ‘thelight of the world’, but we can’tcelebrate his birth today inquite the usual way. People ofall faiths have been unable togather as they would wish fortheir festivals, such as Passover,Easter, Eid and Vaisakhi. Butwe need life to go on,” said theQueen in a pre-recorded mes-sage that is annually broadcastat 1500 GMT on December 25.
“Last month, fireworks litup the sky around Windsor, asHindus, Sikhs and Jains cele-brated Diwali, the festival oflights, providing joyousmoments of hope and unity, despite social distancing,”she said.
“Remarkably, a year thathas necessarily kept peopleapart has, in many ways,
brought us closer. Across theCommonwealth, my familyand I have been inspired by sto-ries of people volunteering intheir communities, helpingthose in need,” she noted.
In a nod to the success ofthe vaccine, she also high-lighted “the achievements ofmodern science” and paid par-ticular tribute to frontline nurs-es as she offered her condo-lences to all who had lost lovedones during a tragic year.
She also spoke of her pridein the way the UK has respond-ed to the coronavirus pan-demic with a “quiet,indomitable spirit” as she urgedpositivity and focused on thegood that has prevailed at theclose of a tumultuous yeardominated by the pandemicand lockdowns.
“We continue to beinspired by the kindness ofstrangers and draw comfortthat — even on the darkestnights — there is hope in thenew dawn,” she said.
The message was recordedin Windsor Castle’’s GreenDrawing Room where themonarch sat alongside a lonephotograph of her husband, 99-year-old Prince Philip – who isthe only other royal with themonarch at this year’s scaleddown festivities due to a strictlockdown across southernEngland.
/%���������������������'�����������!��������� ����������London: Scientists in the UKhave begun trials of innovativeantibody drug treatments thatthey hope could provide instantprotection against COVID-19.
The University CollegeLondon Hospitals NHS Trust(UCLH) said that theresearchers in the Storm Chasestudy believe a Long ActingAntiBody (LAAB) known asAZD7442, developed byAstraZeneca, may offer imme-diate and long-term protectionto people who have beenrecently exposed to the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus and preventthem developing COVID-19.
Telecom operator VodafoneIdea on Saturday said that
it has started using 3G spec-trum for 4G services inMumbai and claimed that cus-tomers in the metro city will gethigher data speed with therefarming of spectrum.Vodafone Idea has 5 megahertzof spectrum in 2100 Mhz bandwhich was being used for 3Gservices. “Supplementing theexisting 4G infrastructure withthe expansion on 2100 MHzlayer has brought aboutenhanced data speeds, besidesa better indoor network expe-rience for Vi customers inMumbai. We request all Vi 3Gcustomers to visit the nearestretail outlet at the earliest toupgrade to a 4G SIM, free ofcost and start experiencing the
full potential of Vi GIGAnet4G,” Rajendra Chourasia,Operations Director- Mumbai,Vodafone Idea said in a state-ment. Vi (Vodafone Idea) whoare on 3G connection can getfaster 4G experience whenthey use a 4G handset and a 4GSIM.
“This development comingon the heels of the deploymentof 5 MHz of 2100 MHz spec-trum band, means that Vi cus-tomers in Mumbai will get toenjoy higher download andupload speeds apart from bet-ter indoor coverage. The exist-ing 4G infrastructure, rampedup with the migration of 3Gspectrum to 4G, gives ViGIGAnet 4G the triple advan-tages of wider coverage, net-work quality as well as strongertraffic carriage capacity inMumbai,” the statement said.
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The mandatory requirementof 1 per cent cash payment
of GST liability with effectfrom January 1 would beapplicable to about 45,000 tax-payers, which is only 0.37 percent of the total businesses reg-istered in the Goods andServices Tax system, RevenueDepartment sources said onSaturday.
To curb tax evasion byway of fake invoicing, theCentral Board of Indirect Taxesand Customs (CBIC) had ear-lier this week amended GSTrules making it mandatory forbusinesses with monthlyturnover of over Rs 50 lakh tomandatorily pay at least 1 percent of their GST liability incash.
The new rule restricts useof input tax credit (ITC) for dis-charging GST liability to 99 percent effective January 1, 2021.
However, this restrictionwill not apply in cases wherethe managing director or anypartner have paid more than Rs1 lakh as income tax or the reg-istered person has received arefund amount of more than Rs1 lakh in the preceding finan-
cial year on account ofunutilised input tax credit.
Sources said data analy-sis indicates that out of the totalGST taxpayer base of 1.2 croretaxpayers, only around 4 lakhtaxpayers have monthly supplyvalue greater than Rs 50 lakh.Of these 4 lakh, only about 1.5lakh taxpayers pay less than 1per cent of their GST liabilityin cash.
“Now, when the exclu-sions in the rule are applied,then around 1.05 lakh taxpay-ers get further excluded fromthese 1.5 lakh taxpayers. Thus,the rule would apply only to
approx 40,000 to 45,000 tax-payers. This would be around0.37 per cent of the total GSTtax base of 1.2 crore taxpayers,”sources said.
Sources said the rules havebeen amended to curb themenace of GST fake invoicefrauds and fake firms/deviousfly-by-night operators whoavail and pass on input taxcredit (ITC) wrongfully. TheCBIC has booked about 12,000cases of ITC fraud and arrest-ed 365 persons in such cases sofar. During the last six weeksalone, more than 165 fraudstershave been arrested.
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The Finance Ministry onSaturday said it has per-
mitted Rajasthan to borrow anadditional Rs 2,731 crore afterthe state successfully undertookease of doing business reforms.
Rajasthan has now joinedthe five other states namely,Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka,Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Naduand Telangana, which havecompleted the reform facilitat-ing ease of doing business to beeligible for additional borrow-ing. These six states have beengranted additional borrowing
permission of Rs 19,459 crore.“Thus, the state
(Rajasthan) has become eligi-ble to mobilise additionalfinancial resources of Rs 2,731crore through open marketborrowings. Permission for thesame was issued by theDepartment of Expenditureon December 24,” the ministrysaid in a statement.
The ease of doing businessis an important indicator of theinvestment friendly businessclimate in the country. Thegovernment had in May decid-ed to link grant of additionalborrowing permissions to states
who undertake the reforms tofacilitate ease of doing business.
The reforms stipulated inthis category include comple-tion of first assessment of‘District Level Business ReformAction Plan’, elimination ofthe requirements of renewal ofregistration certificates/approvals/licences obtained bybusinesses under various Acts.In view of the resource require-ment to meet the challengesposed by the COVID-19 pan-demic, the government had inMay enhanced the borrowinglimit of the states by 2% of theirGSDP.
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The Covid-19 pandemic hada massive impact on the
Indian aviation sector in 2020and major airlines facing loss-es and challenging times laidoff employees, sent them onleave without pay, or cut theirsalaries.
The government also hadto extend the deadline for sub-mitting bids for Air India fivetimes during the year.
When the pandemic start-ed spreading across the coun-try, all scheduled internation-al flights and domestic pas-senger flights were suspendedfrom March 23 and March 25,respectively. Scheduled domes-tic flights were restarted in alimited manner from May 25.
The effect of this disrup-tion can be gauged by the lossfigures of India’s two largest air-lines. IndiGo incurred net loss-es of Rs 2,884 crore and Rs1,194 crore in Q1 and Q2 ofthis fiscal respectively. SpiceJet
posted net losses of Rs 600crore and Rs 112 crore in Q1and Q2, respectively.
The Govt, meanwhile, per-mitted special internationalpassenger flights under VandeBharat Mission since May andair bubble arrangements wereformed with around 24 coun-tries since July. However, sched-uled international flightsremain suspended in India.”Therevival of overseas travel isexpected to be slower and morechallenging than domestic. Thiswill hurt Air India in particu-lar as around 60 per cent of itsrevenue was earlier generatedfrom international operations,”said aviation consultancy firmCAPA in October.It estimatedthat just 50-60 million passen-gers -- 40-50 million domesticand less than 10 million inter-national -- would travel in2020-21.In 2019-20, approxi-mately 205 million air passen-gers -- 140 million domesticand 65 million international --travelled in India.
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An expected slowdown inforeign fund inflows along
with expensive propositionsand upcoming macro-eco-nomic data are likely to dentequities during the trade weekahead.
Lately, FIIs inflows havepowered the equities’ rally andgave an appreciation push tothe rupee. FIIs have so far thismonth invested over $6 billionin equities and $594 million inthe debt segment.
However, the ongoing hol-iday season is expected tolower the inflow volumes dur-ing the upcoming week.Besides, the new mutant strainof Covid-19 combined withhigh valuations might triggerbouts of profit bookings.
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The Uttar PradeshGovernment’s special cam-
paign “Mission Rojgar”launched on December 5, thataims at providing jobs to 50lakh youth by March 2021, hasso far employed 21,75,443youth in the state.
The campaign ranges fromregular appointments to out-sourcing, contracting, skilltraining, self-employment andcreation of man-days.
Various state governmentdepartments, development andindustrial development author-ities, commissions, corpora-tions, councils and boards, pri-vate firms and institutions pro-viding skills training and help-ing in self-employment willprovide these opportunities.
So far, the Micro, Small andMedium Enterprises (MSME)sector, Panchayati Raj, sports,fisheries, vocational educationand skills, labour, basic educa-tion and public works depart-ment have made remarkableprogress in creating employ-ment and man-days.
In order to provideemployment and self-employ-ment to more and more youths,
the government will campaignand organise beneficiary-ori-ented programmes along withawareness programmes in thepresence of public representa-tives at the district level.
The information depart-ment will ensure wide public-ity for the programme so thatyouth benefit from this cam-paign.At the local level, theMSME sector, which employsthe most with low capital, min-imum risk and infrastructure,will play an important role.
As more and more newunits are opened in this sector,old units are increasing theirproduction capacity throughtechnological upgradation andenhancing the quality of theirproducts as per the marketdemand. Additional ChiefSecretary (MSME) NavneetSehgal said that in the currentfinancial year, the target is togive Rs 75,000 crore loan to 20lakh new and old units. “So far,loans worth nearly Rs 30,000crore have been disbursed tomore than 11 lakh units. If anaverage of 4 to 5 people getemployment in a unit, then 80lakh to one crore people will getemployment in this sectoralone in this financial year.”
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The Government will givediscount in its forthcoming
gold bond scheme to investorswho apply online using the dig-ital mode.
Accordingly, the Centre inconsultation with the ReserveBank of India will allow dis-count of Rs 50 per gram fromthe issue price to investorsusing the digital medium forsubscription.
The issue price of the bondin the scheme which opens onDecember 28 is Rs 5,000 pergram. But investors gettingdiscount will be allowed to sub-scribe to the bond at Rs 4,950.
Sovereign Gold Bonds2020-21 (Series IX) will beopened for the periodDecember 28, 2020 - January 1,2021 with settlement date ofJanuary 5, 2021.
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The Income TaxDepartment’s search and
survey action against threeleading contractors of north-eastern India has led to thealleged unearthing of undis-closed income of nearly Rs 100crore so far. One of the groupsis into hospitality business.
The searches have beencarried out at 14 locations inDelhi, and Guwahati,Silapathar, and Pathsala inAssam.
The three groups wereaccused of making accommo-dation entries in the form ofnon- genuine unsecured loansand also securities’ premiumfrom dubious Kolkata-basedshell companies.
The three groups alsoallegedly suppressed net prof-its over the years and routedback the unaccounted income
into business through entryoperators based out ofGuwahati and Kolkata, thedepartment said in a statement.
During the course ofsearches, it was establishedthat the shell companies fromwhich loans/premiums hadbeen taken existed only onpaper and had no real businessand creditworthiness.
The entry operators, onquestioning, admitted that theunsecured loans/share premi-ums from shell companies tothe groups were not genuine.Evidence of the cash trail offunds routed through securi-ties’ premium was unearthedduring searches, the I-TDepartment said.
Around Rs 65 crore wasallegedly routed back into reg-ular books through shell com-panies, which actually repre-sented unaccounted incomes ofthe groups. Further investiga-
tion was on to detect the actu-al tax evasions through thismodus operandi.
One of the groups engagedin huge cash transactions inhospitality business which wasas high as 50 per cent, whichthe department is scrutinising.Some of the entities of thegroups engaged in purchase ofjewellery in cash, the source ofwhich is subject matter ofscrutiny.
Till now, jewellery to thetune of Rs 9.79 lakh and Rs 2.95crore in cash has been seized.The sources of acquisition ofremaining jewellery exceed-ing Rs 2 crore are underverificationThe departmentsaid that undisclosed income tothe tune of approximately Rs100 crore has been unearthedso far during the Search andsurvey operation. One lockerhas also been found, which isyet to be opened.
New Delhi:Even though theCovid-induced nationwidelockdown brought to a halt theoperations of all passenger,mail and express trains, thenational transporter will meetits operating expenditure fromits earnings, Railway BoardChairman V.K. Yadav said onSaturday.He was commentingon the health of the belea-guered railways which so farhas incurred a 87 per cent lossin passenger revenue in 2020 ascompared to last year.
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Consistent foreign fundinflows along with a Brexit
trade deal will lead furtherappreciation in Indian Rupee asthe currency ends 2020 on ahigh note.
However, rupee has been a
laggard in 2020, as the curren-cy did not appreciate muchdespite record inflows.
On the other hand, India’sforex reserves continued torise, indicating, an activeReserve Bank which has keptrupee in a check, to makeexports competitive.
The RBI is known to enterthe markets via intermediariesto either sell or buy US dollarsto keep the rupee in a stableorbit.India’s foreign exchangereserves rose by $2.563 billionduring the week endedDecember 18 to $581.131 bil-lion.
Besides, lesser interven-tion from the Reserve Bank isexpected after it was called outby the US Treasury
Department to curtail its mar-ket activities.These factorsalong with a continued supplyof foreign funds will lead to anappreciation move inrupee.Indian rupee closed flatfor the week close of 73.54 adollar.”Rupee appreciated is inline with continued foreignequity flows though the pacehas slowed down,” said SajalGupta, Head, Forex and Rates,Edelweiss Securities.
New Delhi:Petrol and dieselprices remained unchanged onSaturday as oil marketing com-panies continued to maintain await and watch stance amidrange-bound global oil prices.
Accordingly, the pumpprice of petrol remained at�`83.71 a litre and diesel �73.87a litre in Delhi on Sat. Acrossthe country as well the price ofthe two petroleum productsremained unchanged.The priceof petrol in Mumbai remains at�90.34 and diesel �80.51, thetwo fuels remains at �86.51 and�79.31 a litre respectively inChennai. The retail price ofpetrol remains at �85.19 and�77.44 a litre in Kolkata.TheOMCs have gone on a pausemode at a time when news ofsuccessful coronavirus andexpectations of big pick up indemand has kept crude on theboil with prices breaching $50a barrel mark.
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India will look to be moreinnovative in its approach to
garner additional investmentsworth Rs 1.75 lakh crore forhaving 35 GW of renewablepower generation capacity nextyear to meet the ambitious tar-get of 175 GW of clean energycapacity by 2022.
At present, the country hasa total installed renewable ener-gy capacity of 90 GW. Thisincludes 39 GW of wind and 37GW of solar generation capac-ity. Around 50 GW of renew-able energy capacity is underconstruction and there is alsoa strong pipeline of 30 GW fornew bids. “There is a fundrequirement of Rs 1.75 lakhcrore to achieve the balancecapacity of 35 GW (under bid-ding/ to be bid out/ auctioned)to achieve an overall target of175 GW,” Director General ofSolar Power DevelopersAssociation Shekhar Dutt toldPTI.
He also said that imple-mentation of renewable pro-jects and innovation in ten-dering them to attract investorswould play a key role in 2021.
According to him, Indianeeds to design innovative ten-
ders with the inclusion of wind,solar and energy storage toensure that renewable canreplace fossil fuels to a greatextent.This year has been chal-lenging for the renewable ener-gy sector but the industry hasbeen able to withstand the cri-sis caused by the pandemicwith support of the govern-ment. Moreover, confidenceof investors in the sector hassoared further as was evidentfrom solar power tariff breach-ing the psychological barrier ofRs 2 per unit.
Solar power tariff droppedto an all-time low of Rs 1.99 perunit in an auction of projects of500 MW capacity by GujaratUrja Vikas Nigam Ltd(GUVNL) in December.
Prior to that, the tariff haddeclined to a record low of Rs2 per unit in an auction for1,070 MW projects conductedby the Solar EnergyCorporation of India (SECI) inNovember.In July this year,solar power tariffs fell to a lowof Rs 2.36 per unit in an auc-tion of 2 GW capacities by theSECI. Now, in order the themaintain the momentum, thegovernment will have to bemore proactive and innovativeto attract investors into the sec-tor.India had set an ambitioustarget of having 175 GW ofrenewable energy capacity by2022. This includes 100 GWfrom solar, 60 GW from wind,10 GW from biomass and 5GW from small hydro power.
The provision of advice of home-opathic or other AYUSH systemswas and still is, conveniently,being equated to promotion of
risk increasing behaviour. The ministriesof AYUSH and of health made it clear thatall public health advice regarding preven-tion of COVID-19 was to be followed.Middle ground seemed to emerge wherecomplementary and alternative medicine(CAM) advice could be dispensed whileenforcing other measures.
Some titans of industry also feltcomfortable lending their voice to encour-age the consumption of homeopathy. Wewere keen to understand the protectiveeffect of our prophylaxis protocol.
It is disappointing that while a vac-cine was developed from scratch follow-ing the sequencing of the genomic codeof a new virus discovered just over 11months ago and run through multi-national trials involving hundreds ofthousands of participants; trials involv-ing homeopathic drugs which have been
in use for two hundred years and whichhave an impeccable safety profile have stillnot been completed.
The difference in pace may be attrib-uted partly to the almost completeabsence of interest by homeopathic phar-maceutical companies in conductingpeer reviewed research. Running a seriesof expensive trials involving commonlyavailable homeopathic drugs does notprovide any return on investment to thesecompanies.
India is the torch bearer of CAM for
the world. We should not take thisresponsibility lightly. Ayurveda is theancient Indian system of healing, buthomeopathy’s home has also been Indiafor many decades. The sheer popularityof the system amongst Indians is unpar-alleled. Policy makers should ensure thatthe allocation of resources to AYUSH sys-tems is equitable and rise above a mis-placed sense of patriotism.
In the context of COVID-19 and inthe practice of evidence-based medicinein general, the absence of evidence is notevidence of absence. This adage is beingapplied to conventional medicine andignored for CAM. CAM should not bewithheld from patients who are notresponding to conventional medicine orthose who are unable to take convention-al medicines because of co-morbidities orconventional drug interactions which pre-clude its use. Most importantly, the val-ues and preferences of patients shouldalways direct our clinical decision-mak-ing, rather than our personal bias.
Who could have thought that aninvisible virus could hold the worldto ransom? And that the trillions
of microbes inside us orchestrate our lives :literally determine who we are inside out!What we look like to how well we are!
Twenty five hundred years ago, whenHippocrates stated that: All disease beginsin the gut. He had an incredible intuition thatonly recently has been fully appreciatedbecause of new insights into the pathogen-esis of many chronic inflammatory diseases(CIDs) afflicting humankind. Until 30 yearsago, when the Human Genome Project wasstill in its planning stage, the general hypoth-esis was that genetic predisposition and expo-sure to an environmental trigger were bothnecessary and sufficient to develop CIDs,including infectious, allergic, neuroinflam-matory/neurodegenerative, autoimmunediseases, and cancer.
However, the epidemiological observa-tion showing a major surge of CIDs duringthe past four decades in the Western hemi-sphere coincident with the declining rate ofinfectious diseases was at odds with thegene/environment paradigm. This generat-ed the hygiene hypothesis supporting thenotion that we had made ourselves too cleanfor our own good and that people embrac-ing a Western lifestyle would slowly die ofCIDs instead of rapidly succumbing toinfectious diseases as still is happening indeveloping countries. (Alessio FasanoJanuary 2020)
It is now clear that the gut microbiota iscentral to the pathogenesis of immune sys-tem disorders .While multiple mechanismsare involved, the immune system clearly playsa special role. Indeed, the breakdown of thephysiological balance in gut microbial com-position leads to dysbiosis, which is then ableto enhance inflammation and to even influ-
ence gene expression. Many might be surprised to learn that
more than two-thirds of the immune systemis located in the gut. The function of this system is to try and eliminate an invader bycreating inflammation and activating anti-bodies to fight it. The immune system alsoeliminates the body’s own cells when theybecome diseased.
In order to perform these activities, thecells of the immune system need to be ableto tell friends from foes. Gut microbes againplay a central role in this: during digestion,they break down fibre into small moleculeswhich include short chain fatty acids(SCFAs). These SCFAs influence the immunefunction of the Gut and the activity of the
T cells, the informants whichhelp the body recognise friendfrom foe and decide whetheror not to attack a cell.
A disturbance in the gutmicrobiome directly affectsdiseases such as inflammato-ry bowel disease, diarrhoeaand many other digestive dis-orders. It can also be the start-ing point of several other chron-ic degenerative diseases outside thegut including asthma, skin diseases,autoimmune diseases and metabolicdiseases.
Professor Sarkis Mazmanian, Professorof Microbiology at CalTech, who has stud-ied the effect of Gut microbes on health formore than a decade, points out that: The bal-ance of different bacterial species in the gutcan influence whether the immune systembecomes activated or not.
The connection between probiotics andimmunity, although well-established in thescientific circles, is not easily understood bythe common person. Decoding the role ofprobiotics in building immunity can lead togreater acceptance of these foods.
Probiotic organisms exert a directantagonist effect on harmful microbes bydecreasing their numbers, impairing theirmetabolism, and also by directly stimulat-ing our immune system. Seventy per cent ofour immune system is governed by our gut(intestines). Clearly, the gut is not just a diges-tive organ but is also the largest immuneorgan. The discourse around the health ofthe heart, liver and lungs has always beenprevalent, but thanks to the pandemic, wehave begun to take gut health more serious-ly.
The simplest way to maintain a healthygut is to ensure an adequate supply of
macronu-trients (carbs,
proteins, fats) and micronutrients (vitamins,minerals) that can support the cells and tis-sues of the immune system. Besides awholesome balanced diet, regular con-sumption of probiotics is linked to goodimmunity. The immune response reliesupon the balance of the microbes residingin the gut. Manipulating the population ofthese microbes through the consumption ofprobiotics is a sureshot way to betterimmune health. Several strains of bacteria,including the genera lactobacillus and bifi-dobacterium, have been recognised fortheir ability to suppress pathogens andbuild up resistance to infections. However,it is critical to choose a scientifically provenand established probiotic strain for this pur-pose.
The modus operandi of probiotics intheir immunity-providing avatar is variedand complex. Explained in simple terms, onreaching the intestines, the probiotic bacte-ria get into a competitive mode to oust anydisease-causing and aberrant microbes.
Probiotic bacteria occupy the siteson the intestinal cell wall wherev-er adhesion is possible such thatthe disease-causing microbes donot get outnumbered.
All in all, probiotics augmentour defense through antibodyproduction, increasing natural
killer-cell activity and the processof engulfing of foreign matter par-
ticles.Today we know that all diseases
begin with inflammation in the gut andthat two-third of our immune system
resides here. The gut is the largest immuneorgan called gut associated lymphoid tissueand produces more antibodies than anyother tissue in the body — B&T lympho-cytes . If what we eat is wrong for our gutit is wrong for immunity. And that strength-ening our gut means strengthening ourimmunity.
With 25 years of my clinical practice thisconcept has stood the test of time . The recog-nition of food sensitivities and gut health hasmade it possible for me to treat almost all dis-eases from the root including Diabetes,coronary artery disease, thyroid disorders,arthritis, asthma , psoriasis , depression toname a few.
While the pandemic has thrown upuncertainties, gloom & despair the good newsis that it has also brought with it a positiveimpact by way of being a leveller & a timewhen immunity & diet have assumedunprecedented importance.
It’s the perfect time to begin taking a deep-er dive into the gut and heal your-
self to build a resilient body.�������������������������������
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We have all heard the saying,‘Sleep is the best medicine’ butdue to our ever increasing
deadlines, especially in the work fromhome era where work never seemsto stop and home has becomethe 24x7 office, we areincreasingly sacrificing oursleep. Getting 6-8 hours ofsleep every night can helpin restoring physical, men-tal and emotional health.
Along with good sleep,we also need to have a bal-anced, healthy diet andlifestyle. Ayurveda placesgreat emphasis on ahar (diet)and vihar (lifestyle). For example,you must have heard from elders to havekadha once a day for protection againstCoronavirus and boost immunity. Yogais also known to be beneficial for all sortsof health problems.
What is important to understand isthat the use of alternative medicine can
make us live happier and healthier lives.And during the pandemic, if we practiceall these things, we can have improvedrespiratory efficiency, less anxiety andbetter immunity.
The reason why Ayurveda is soeffective is that it treats the actu-
al cause of the disease. Itgoes to the root of the
problem. While main-stream medicine focus-es more on treating thesymptom of the dis-ease, Ayurveda cor-rects the root cause ofthe problem and
improves the overallquality of life.
So while you are regu-larly wearing your masks and
maintaining social distancing alongwith washing your hands, do not forgetto inculcate the ageold practices ofAyurveda, which can help in leading abetter life.
Dhananjaya de Silva and DineshChandimal put Sri Lanka in a
strong position on the first day ofthe first Test against South Africain Centurion on Saturday.
De Silva made 79 before retir-ing hurt and former captainChandimal hit 85 as Sri Lankareached 340 for six at the close.
De Silva suffered whatappeared to be a left hip injurywhile running between wicketsand was taken off the field on amotorised stretcher. It was notclear whether he would be able totake any further part in the match.
His injury ended a partnershipof 131 with Chandimal. Togetherthey stabilised the Sri Lankaninnings after a helter-skelter start inwhich they lost their first threewickets for 54 runs inside 11 overs.
De Silva played some flowingstrokes in hitting 11 fours and a sixoff 105 balls, while Chandimalplayed an anchor role, reaching hishalf-century off 116 balls in the lastover before tea.
Chandimal and NiroshanDickwella (49) added another 99runs before South Africa finallyclaimed a fourth-wicket whenChandimal was caught at slip whenhe gloved a ball from all-rounderWiaan Mulder which kicked off a
length. Chandimal hit 11 fours inhis 161-ball innings.
The medium-paced Mulderwas South Africa’s most consistentbowler and finished the day withthree wickets for 68 runs.
SOUTH AFRICANS RAISE FISTSSouth African players raised a
fist to acknowledge the country’sstruggle against apartheid butrefrained from taking the kneeassociated with the global Black
Lives Matter Movement just beforethe start of the first Test.
The players, led by Quinton deKock, raised their firsts aftersinging the South African nation-al anthem before the start of theopening day at the Super SportPark.
Pressure has been mountingon the Proteas to show their sup-port to the global BLM Movementby taking a knee, but the players ina statement said that the raised fistshave more historical context to theSouth Africans.
“The raised fist is a powerfulgesture in our own history, asexpressed in the iconic images of
Nelson and Winnie Mandela onMandela’s release from prison in1990,” the players said in a state-ment.
“In this context it was a pow-erful gesture of triumph, anacknowledgment of the struggleagainst apartheid, and a commit-ment to continuing to fight forequality, justice and freedom, whilealso honouring the religious andcultural responsibilities of everymember of our team.”
The players said the team had,on multiple occasions, declared its“unmistakable” support to theBLM campaign and committed tocontinue doing the same together.
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Jasprit Bumrah’s menace wasmatched by RavichandranAshwin’s guile as an inspired
India led by Ajinkya Rahaneshot out Australia for a sub-par195 to dominate the openingday of the second Test atMelbourne Cricket Ground onSaturday.
India then lost MayankAgarwal (0) to Mitchell Starcbut debutant Shubman Gill (28batting) survived a hostile spellto hit some delectable bound-aries in the day end score of 36for 1 in 11 overs.
Giving him company wasthe seasoned Cheteshwar Pujara(7 batting). The line-up wouldlook to exorcise the ghosts of theAdelaide game last week whenIndia were shot out for theirlowest ever Test score of 36.
As much as the daybelonged to the Indian bowlingunit for another fired-up show,new captain Rahane deservedequal credit for marshalling hisresources to perfection duringthe 72.3 overs that hosts batted.
Bumrah (4/56 in 16 overs)and Ashwin (3/35 in 24 overs)were the stars but debutantMohammed Siraj (2/40 in 15overs) also did his bit repayingthe faith shown in him withwickets of Marnus Labuschagne(48) and Cameron Green (12)with the old ball.
However, the Test series isincreasingly looking likeAshwin’s paradise as he onceagain made the opposition’sbest batsman Steve Smith (0)look ordinary, exploiting theturn and bounce that the firstday of the MCG track offered.
It was business as usual forBumrah as he beat the bat andgot those breakthroughs justwhen it mattered on a pitch thathad retained moisture. As itturned out, Rahane didn’t losea bad toss.
The Indian team lookedway more galvanised despitebeing without regular skipper
Virat Kohli, who is on paterni-ty leave. Some great catcheswere taken and the intent wasway more visible.
Rahane’s first punt wasintroducing Ashwin inside thefirst hour of play after Bumrahhad forced Joe Burns (0) to nickone to Rishabh Pant.
Ashwin, who varied thepace of his deliveries cleverly,got some turn and bouncestraightaway as he drewMatthew Wade into comingdown the track and skying onefor India’s best fielder Jadeja totake a well-judged catch run-ning backwards.
After bowling one thatjumped and turned beatingSmith and Pant, Ashwin keptthe next a tad straighter and theformer Australian skipper’s
glance was pouched byCheteshwar Pujara at leg gully.
All this while, Bumrahwas beating the bat at theother hand.
Interestingly, Rahane didn’tgive the debutant a single overbefore lunch break as he knewthat Siraj’s strength is generat-ing pace and movement withsemi-new and old ball.
Siraj initially bowled a bitshort at Labuschagne and TravisHead (38) as they added 86runs for the fourth wicket.
It was Bumrah, who pro-vided the post lunch break-through with a delivery thatheld its line and the left-han-der’s thick edge was taken byRahane at gully.
Siraj’s maiden wicket was alucky one as the ball was drift-
ing down the leg-side whichLabuschagne tried to whip butGill, stationed at backwardsquare leg, snapped it inches offthe ground.
The Hyderabad pacer’ssecond wicket was a muchfuller ball with a hint ofinward movement that caughtGreen plumb in-front.
Skipper Tim Paine (13)couldn’t script a rescue act likeAdelaide as a classical off-breaksaw him guide one straight intothe hands of Hanuma Vihari atbackward square leg.
Bumrah didn’t take muchtime after that as he andRavindra Jadeja (1/15) polishedoff the tail in a jiffy.
During the final hour of theday, Gill showed what the Indiancricket can expect of him in thenew decade. He displayed pos-itive intent and some dazzlingstrokes that would certainlyleave fans yearning for more inthe coming days.
An off-drive off PatCummins, a punch throughcovers and a flick off Starc wereexhilarating.
The cover drive offNathan Lyon had class writtenall over it.
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An unbeaten 94 by a gritty KaneWilliamson had New Zealand
at 222/3 in the face of a concertedPakistan attack at stumps on dayone of the first Test in MountMaunganui on Saturday.
Henry Nicholls was the othernot out batsman on 42 as NewZealand recovered from being 13/2after Pakistan’s Shaheen Afridiremoved openers Tom Latham andTom Blundell cheaply on a green,seaming wicket.
In a 120-run stand, filled withdetermination and concentration indifficult conditions, Williamsonand Ross Taylor pulled NewZealand back into the game.
Taylor hit 10 fours and a six ashe attacked the bowling whileWilliamson took a more conserv-ative approach.
After Afridi split the pair witha masterful piece of bowling toremove Taylor for 70, Williamsonand Henry Nicholls added a further89.
Taylor was set up to fall byAfridi who bowled full, short thena bouncer in successive deliveriesand followed with a good-length,
rising ball that Taylor could notresist slashing at. But he succeededonly in feathering the ball toMohammad Rizwan behind thestumps.
The 20-year-old Afridi, stand-ing 1.99 metres tall, also removedLatham for four and Blundell for
five to end the day with three for 55.Mohammad Abbas, while not
taking a wicket, kept the batsmenpinned down and conceded only 25runs off his 21 overs.
Taylor, in his 104th Test, couldnot help but be impressed withAfridi playing his 12th.
“When the ball was 50 overs oldit was still swinging and he couldpick and choose when he used itand he’s got a slippery bumper. He’s
only going to get better and Pakistanare going to see a very good bowlerin years to come,” Taylor said.
Afridi’s opening onslaught hadKiwis at two for 13 before Kane andTaylor combined in a century part-nership, their 10th together.
By stumps, Williamson hadfaced 243 deliveries after being inthe middle for all but the first threeballs before Latham was dismissed.
The closest Pakistan came todismissing the New Zealand captaincame before lunch with Williamsonon 18 when Shan Masood spilled adifficult one-handed chance low tohis left.
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Debutant pacer Mohammed Siraj onSaturday termed receiving the
India Test cap as his life’s “biggestachievement” and said he made it countby focussing on bowling dot balls tobuild pressure on the Australian bats-men.
Siraj, who lost his father last monthwhen he was already with the Indianteam in Australia, claimed two for 40on the opening day of the second Testafter receiving the Test cap from off-spinner R Ashwin.
“When I got the cap, I felt it was thebiggest achievement of my life. I gaineda lot of confidence speaking with Ajjubhai (Ajinkya Rahane) and Jassi bhai(Jasprit Bumrah),” Siraj, who becamethe 298th player to play Test cricket forIndia, told bcci.Tv.
Talking about the role played byRahane in his success, Siraj said: “... He(Rahane) told me to do whatever I havebeen doing for India A and domesticcricket. He asked me not to think toomuch that I was playing for India andbowl my normal stuff.
“I enjoyed a lot bowling withRahane as the captain. Because he gaveme the freedom to bowl the way I want-ed and set my own field. He was alsomotivating me if one or two balls went
bad. So, I was getting the confidencewith him,” he said in extra innings inSony Six.
The 26-year-old from Hyderabadsaid he was itching to get his hands on
the ball before stand-in skipper AjinkyaRahane introduced him into the attackafter the lunch break of the opening day.
“My hands were itching to bowl outthere, and after lunch when Ajju bhaitold me to bowl, I began warming up.Then he said to me ‘you’ll only bowl fortwo overs’,” he said.
“After lunch when I came in, it hadturned into a batting wicket and myplan was to bowl as many dot balls aspossible and build pressure.”
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Leicester came from behind twice todraw 2-2 against Manchester United
and keep hold of second place in thePremier League on Saturday.
Bruno Fernandes looked to besending United to its seventh straightaway win when he scored in the 79thminute, moving onto 10 goals in his firstfull season in the league.
If the visitors had held on, theywould have jumped above Leicester intosecond, but Vardy met a cross from sub-stitute Perez with a shot that was drift-ing off target before deflecting into thenet off the outstretched leg of Unitedsubstitute Axel Tuanzebe in the 85th.
“Disappointed we didn’t win today,”United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaersaid, “because we had loads of bigchances and we could’ve finished it off.”
Solskjaer was likely referring toMarcus Rashford, who squandered twoclear-cut chances either side of his23rd-minute opener at King PowerStadium.
Fernandes set that goal up bystretching out to flick the ball toRashford, who slotted home a low fin-ish. But the Portugal playmaker was atfault for Leicester’s first equalizer by giv-ing up possession sloppily in his ownhalf, leading to Harvey Barnes firing
home a left-footed shot from outside thearea.
“Marcus Rashford had a chanceearly on,” Leicester manager BrendanRodgers said, “but I thought over the firsthalf we were the better team. Bit of luckwent against us and Vardy does what hedoes, he’s a top-class finisher. “I thoughtit was the least we deserved.”
Leicester is three points behindLiverpool, which hosts West BromwichAlbion on Sunday. United is a pointbehind Leicester in third.
Indian batsmen would look tobe “confident without being
reckless” and take one sessionat a time, said pace spearheadJasprit Bumrah after a finebowling performance put thevisitors in command againstAustralia on the opening day ofthe second Test.
Asked what would be thevisitors’ batting approach hav-ing finished the day at 36 for 1and the memories of the firstTest’s 36 all out still fresh,Bumrah replied: “We are notlooking too far ahead. We arelooking at one session at a time.
“We don’t want to be con-servative in our mindset and bepositive. Control the control-lables. Not being reckless butplaying with confidence will bethe motive going forward,”added the bowler, well aware ofthe challenge ahead.
One of the striking movesby skipper Ajinkya Rahanewas introducing Ashwin in thefirst hour of play.
“When we were bowling inthe morning there was somemoisture on the wicket, so yousaw Ashwin and Jaddu (Jadeja)got some spin.
“...Because we wanted tomake the most of the moisture,we were trying to use them, he(Ashwin) was getting goodbounce,” Bumrah said after theend of the first day’s play.
Rahane’s field placementscame in for a lot of praise fromnone other than Shane Warneand Bumrah said that in thesecond session, the bowlersaltered the line knowing that
pitch was becoming easier tobat on.
“There was constant dis-cussions going on betweenbowlers and the captain. Thewicket changed after the firstsession. It got better to bat onin the second session and mois-ture went away.
“We were just trying tocommunicate what kind oflines we wanted to bowl so thatwe can set the field according-ly. When there was less help, wetried to change the line accord-ingly,” he said.
Bumrah, however, down-played any suggestions aboutthis being India’s best day 1bowling effort overseas Testssince he joined.
“We don’t think like thatand we just wanted to createpressure from both ends. Ash(Ashwin) bowled brilliantlyand so did Siraj. We were alltrying to help each other,” thespeedster said.
As a senior bowler,Bumrah was all praise for debu-tant Siraj, who was decent in hisfirst outing in the traditionalformat. “He has worked reallyhard and come up the ranks. Hewas eager to bowl in the firstsession itself. There wasn’t a lothappening after lunch and he(Siraj) bowled with a lot of con-trol,” he said.
“Suddenly he started get-ting some movement and want-ed to make the best of it.Playing his first Test match, hebowled really well and hadconfidence of using all hisskills. It’s a heartening sign forus and hopefully he will contin-ue doing that.”
Melbourne: More than threemonths after his death, DeanJones was paid another tributeat his home ground here byIndian and Australian players,who were joined by his wife,daughters and the legendaryAllan Border in rememberingthe effervescent former playeron Saturday.
Jones’ family and formerAustralia captain Border partic-ipated in the farewell during thetea break of the ongoing secondTest here.
Border, Jones’ wife Jane,and daughters — Augusta andPhoebe — took a long walkfrom the boundary of the
Melbourne Cricket Ground tothe centre, carrying his BaggyGreen, sunglasses andKookaburra bat and laid theitems to rest on the stumps at theGreat Southern Stand end of theground.
Later, 12th men from bothsides — KL Rahul (India) andJames Pattinson (Australia) —collected the items and restedthem on a seat by the boundary.The gesture was applauded bythe 30,000 spectators present atthe MCG.
Jones died in September thisyear at the age of 59 in Mumbai,where he was commentating forthe IPL, after suffering a stroke.
Earlier after winning thetoss, Australia skipper Tim Paineled from the front with with anumber of players entering theMCG wearing zinc on their bot-tom lips, a look that Jones wasfamous for. PTI
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��������) �8��� ���� &� � �8�80$'"��# #�� �$'�0$�( #'Karachi: Opening batsman Imam-ul-Haq has been ruled out of thesecond Test due to the thumbinjury and would be returninghome from New Zealand onSunday, Pakistan Cricket Boardsaid on Saturday.
Imam had sustained the injuryduring training sessions inQueenstown.
The PCB said Imam would bereturning home on Sunday and
would undergo rehab at the highperformance centre in Lahore.
Pakistan has been left to dealwith a spate of injuries with all-rounder Shadab Khan being ruledout of next month’s home seriesagainst South Africa starting onJanuary 26 due to a thigh injury.
Pakistan skipper Babar Azamis also on the injury list with athumb fracture and has missed theT20 series and first Test. PTI
Pacer Mohammed Siraj could notperform the last rites of his late
father last month as he was inAustralia with the national teambut he made him proud by makingIndia Test debut in Melbourne, hisfamily said on Saturday.
The 26-year-old Siraj lost hisfather Mohammed Ghaus, onNovember 20, around a week afterthe Indian team landed in Australiaand he could not return home dueto Covid-19 restrictions.
His brother Ismail said it washis late father’s dream to see Sirajplay for the country in Tests andfinally the dream was fulfilled onSaturday at the MCG.
“It was my (late) father’s dreamthat Siraj should represent India inTests ... He always wanted to seehim (Siraj) in blue and white jer-sey to represent the nation, so ourdream got fulfilled today,” Ismailtold PTI from Hyderabad.
The family members wereglued to the television since 4am towatch the proud moment of Sirajplaying for the country in a Test. Hehas already played one ODI andthree T20 Internationals.
“Since the team was announcedyesterday, we knew that he wasgoing to make debut. We did notsleep the entire night, we switchedon TV from 4am,” said Ismail, asoftware professional who nowworks as his brother’s manager.
So, what was their thoughtswhen Siraj did not bowl in theopening session.
“We were waiting eagerly whenhe will bowl ... Intezaar badhte jaaraha tha (our wait was gettinglonger) ... But after lunch break hestarted the first over and (the wait)ended,” Ismail said.
“It was a proud moment for us,”he said, adding it was an emotion-al moment for the family memberswho resides in Hyderabad.
Iwas in Australia covering the ICC women’s T20World Cup when we were beginning to realise analarming situation emerging globally. The rise inthe number of COVID-19 cases worldwide and
a discussion regarding the impact that it could cre-ate in India. As the numbers grew and the questionsof its emergence started gaining attention, it seemedmore a probable situation that the world may headtowards a lockdown mode. It was only a matter of timethat the day was nearing when we might not knowwhen we would even be able to step out of our house.
A day became a week and then months started get-ting counted as more and more postponement ofevents, daily activities stared happening. For mostsports people the reality of having to play the wait-ing game started the moment the first event got pushedforward to a later unidentified date. The Olympics wasthe biggest draw.
Here is a insight on how these delays, postpone-ments would have worked for different sports play-ers. An icon cricket player like MS Dhoni; who theworld could have seen in action playing for India atthe ICC T20 world cup decided to hang his India shirtand focus only on franchise cricket. He had alreadyretired from Test cricket and with no World Cupevents lined up after 2020 for men’s cricket, it mighthave been the last or second last opportunity to seehim in action in India blues.
Double Olympic Gold medallist and five-timeworld champion Lin Dan announced his retirementafter the decision of the Olympics getting pushed overto the next year came. It may be argued that Lin Danbeing of the sports greats was not getting younger anda call at the age of 36 was maybe the right one. But,would that announcement be made had the Olympicsbeen held on time. Possibly no! Maybe after the
Olympics.Momentum is important for sports people. You
train to be in the right rhythm, obtain the right fit-ness and skill level. And this training carries youthrough the tournament and provides youthe right momentum to peak towardsyour optimum performance. Nottoo early, never too late. It isnever easy to find the timingright and it depends on a lotof other factors as well,but as a sports personyou work towards find-ing that right balance.
It is often said thata sports person peakswhen he/she isaround their 30’s.Largely cause as aplayer; you tend tounderstand yourgame better. Oneunderstands thedemands of the profes-sional sport more and theskill levels required to dealwith high pressure situa-tions. Once you sail throughthe phase you are able to length-en your high-performance graph. Incricket — the ability to pick the ball early,judge its trajectory and speed helps in reducingthe individual’s reaction time. This requires constanttraining of mind and skills along with regular com-petition to be able to judge the performance. If thereis any lag, an imbalance, there can be a dip in the per-
formance. In some cases, you might even struggle tofind the right balance altogether after a hiatus.
It can affect a young high-performance athlete too.A break in the momentum can have an adverse effect
in the overall performance. You might berunning well and peaking nicely
towards your upcoming race. Buta break like this where there
is no surety of the nextcompetitive tournament
can lead you to tread inunknown territory.The FIFA U-17Women’s WorldCup in India was tobe played inNovember, 2020. Itgot cancelled. Thiscancelation tookaway the opportu-nity of many play-ers who may not
get a chance to playat all in this tourna-
ment. Either the tourna-
ment might not be helduntil next year or even if
later, a lot of players will notremain eligible to play in the age
group event. The inaugural ICC U19women’s cricket World Cup that is scheduled
to be held in 2021 will also be pushed to a later date.The fate of the young players hangs in a balance try-ing to remain eligible and probable for selections.
With the Indian cricket board — BCCI ensuring
the smooth conduct of Indian Premier League in theUAE, it has provided a fillip to sports to be conduct-ed with bio- bubbles and secure safety standards. Itis a tough standard but certainly a way forward. Yes,there were no crowds allowed into the stadiums dur-ing the IPL which is rare for a competitive sport butwith the Australian government allowing spectatorsduring the India cricket teams tour of Australia, it isa step towards restoring normalcy.
It is not an easy life inside a bio bubble. Livingwithin the parameters, interacting with the same setof people and not being allowed to step away fromthe same scenery for days can be mentally challeng-ing too. And especially if you are away from family.With the travel restrictions and regulations, one isalways away from home.
The one silver lining in having a long break withno sports activity happening is that you can take abreak from travel and spend time with yourself andwork on stuff that has been on the back burner. Nursea recurring injury, rest to recover well from ailments,build muscle strength and work on agility. There isalways scope for more in the sporting life of a sportsperson.
This year with all the restrictions and impacts hasbeen a mixed bag. It has been very challenging for thehuman race to survive yet given opportunities to fightthe scenario all together.
Maybe it was good too — to value our lives a bitmore. To value the things that we already have andwhat we aspire for. The impact has been felt by all.For some it might have been more than others. Forhow long it continues we are still unsure but as sportspeople we always look to start each day with the samezeal and enthusiasm.
2020 is definitely the year that willgo down in contemporary histo-ry as the year where our modernway of life changed forever. Yet,
this is not a piece about the never-end-ing woes that the year has brought uponus. Far from that. It is more likely a pieceabout what this year has helped bringabout in all of us.
Never has one person’s misery beenanother person’s entertainment, like it hasbeen this year. And you know where thisis headed, don’t you?
The pandemic came upon us inMarch and the lockdown soon after. Theeffects on our country were catastroph-ic, to say the least. However, my mandatehere is to write on the entertainmentindustry and thus I shall desist fromgoing off about migrant labour, theeconomy, the death rate, the TabligiJammat or any such deeply felt but unfor-tunately unrelated topics.
It is the job of the entertainment
industry to entertain and perhaps that’swhat we did, but at a great cost to our-selves .
In early June one of our very own,Sushant Singh Rajput was found dead athis suburban Mumbai residence. Atragedy of epic proportions. And thebeginning of several more tragic eventsthat were to follow soon after.
An actress, we know only too well,claimed that it was the burden of beingan outsider in an industry that abhorredoutsiders, that took his life.Unsubstantiated in its claim, but dra-matic. Names of popular filmmakerscame up that were said to be blamed forthe tragedy. The filmmakers became thescorn of the media and the social media.They were shunned by one and all,thrown into the abyss of infamy.
More unsubstantiated claims sprangup. The dead actor’s girlfriend surelykilled him. She was having an affair withher mentor after all? The guns that were
trained on the filmmakers were nowtrained on these new suspects. Themedia trial was the obsession of everyhousehold that was going through thegrind of the lockdown.
The manager of the dead actor,who had committed suicide a week ear-lier, was dragged into the conspiracy the-ory, albeit posthumously. There was aconnection between the two deathsinsisted a Facebook post that became thebasis of major inquiry. I forget to men-tion, this was part of the more unsub-stantiated claims.
Like a circle in a spiral, the theorieswent berserk with the aid of a news hun-gry media. Was it just murder or doublemurder? Was it poison or drugs? Was shea gold-digger?
On and on and on, more claims,more victims, more investigations, moretelevision debates, till I disconnectedfrom the goings on and preferred tospend my time mastering the Monaco
circuit on Formula One.The pandemic still rages in our coun-
try unabated. We feared it when it wasnascent and don’t give a damn about itnow that it is rampant. And as I write thisnone of the unsubstantiated claims havebeen proved by any agency. But morethan that virus outside that killed somany people, we inadvertently managedto kill something that is usually held inhigh regard, and that something is calledthe “Truth”.
If the year-end theme of this publi-cation is death and destruction thennothing has met its death more thanTruth has this year. Truth has beenreplaced by the perception of the Truthand what is more, it’s okay to destroy liveswith that perception.
The events of this year have seen theentertainment industry turn upon itselfto provide fodder for never endingdrama on prime time television. Weaccused each other, blamed each other
and in the end, sentenced our own in thecourts of the evening news.
Who is going to apologise to thefilmmakers who had nothing provedagainst them? To the grieving girl-friend? To the maverick filmmaker of theyesteryears? To the family of the deadmanager? No one I guess. If you are notresponsible for the Truth why would yoube responsible to the lives that you haveruined in the name of conspiracy theo-ries?
2020, to my mind, will be remem-bered as the year when the need for theTruth died and in its place the enter-tainment value of the perceived truth waspreferred. We will find vaccines for thevirus and we will prevail against it, buthow will we find a vaccine against thevirus in our heart that has taught us tobend the truth to suit our purpose?
Even if we vanquish the virus, thevirus will look at the mangled body of theTruth and have the last laugh!
��=� ���� '����The pandemic has been
destructive for mostindustries includingthe media. What peo-
ple don’t quite realise about ourindustry is that is has beenquite bad for us. This is becauseour industry is very heavilydaily wage dependent. Peopledon’t realise that apart from themain actors, the directors andHoDs, everyone else is paid perday. This is true even for thesmallest of films; it will have aminimum of 100 people work-ing per day. The impact oflivelihood on people has beensevere. The six months whenthere was no shooting, it hasbeen terrible for people.
In the midst of this was thehate campaign by certain newschannels against Bollywoodwhich all came to complete not.There is no substance to any ofthe accusations. One saw thekind of destruction that wasreeked — whether it was interms of an innocent girl beingarrested, or the harassment ofother people, the slander of theindustry, against the industry—it was very unfortunate. Theyear has been bad for theindustry; it has taken a beatingboth financially and econom-ically including the exhibitors
because the industry is facinghardships. The theatre businesshas been impacted. The yearhas been emotionally drainingas well. One has to look at thenumber of suicides to gaugehow draining it has been. Andit is not just Sushant (SinghRajput) — he got the mostamount of attention, it hasbeen an unfortunate year.
For the actors, it has beenbad if they have not been ableto tide over the lockdowndays. For me, I have been ableto use this time to go home tomy parents and spend timewith them. But this has notbeen the case for everyone.This has been a time of stressfor everyone in the industry.Luckily, for actors, since theOTT has opened up, this hasbeen good for us. But otherthan that, the real stress is howthe theatres and exhibitorswill pan out. When will thefilms start releasing here? Willaudiences come back? That iswhat is uncertain. Our wholestar system is completely struc-tured around Box Office. If theBox Office is not going to bethere, then there is no star sys-tem will change which meansthat Bollywood is going tochange in a very fundamental
way. We don’t necessarilyrealise how, at this point intime. If I had to answer thishow, it would all be specula-tion.
There is some good aswell. See the way OTT hascome up. It is a space wherenewer stories are being toldand newer kinds of charactersare being written. For peoplewho have had the wherewith-al and the means to ride thebad, this break has been great.As long as one has the finan-cial wherewithal to tide bythese times, one can use thistime and take an off and thinkabout other things and soforth.
For example, the pandem-ic was sort of good. I spendmonths with my parents afterbeing away from home for 10years. I also adopted a dog twodays before the pandemic. Sothere has been an addition inthe family. This was nice. I hadthree shows that released. Idon’t remember a year whereI have had three pieces ofwork releasing — be it Flesh onEros Now, or Rasbhari onAmazon Prime and latest —Bhaag Beanie Bhaag.
But one can’t look awayfrom the fact, that this has
been a time of extreme hard-ship for others. It is thought tosay that this time has beenequal for all actors. Actors areof homogenous category.There are background actors,there are actors who get lesswork, there are actors who arepaid per day and there areactors in theatre who are paidaccording to show per day.Mumbai is an expensive metro.I am sure it has been hard foractors who don’t make thekind of money stars do, and itis not just the actors, there aredancers too.
This is what people don’tunderstand the nature andmake up of Bollywood. Youthink of Bollywood and youthink Shah Rukh Khan andSalman Khan and couple ofother A-list actors and actress-es. This is not Bollywood.Bollywood is actually made upof labour, it is made up of peo-ple who are actively daily wagelabourers on the sets. We don’tthink of them and we don’tthink of the extras. We don’tthink of the crew — the light-ing, the art crew and the cam-eramen. We must think of allthese people as well when wetalk about Bollywood.
The British had placed a legislative stampon a process they had started moresubtly decades earlier: the assault onpastoral livelihoods and commonlyheld village land, and the replacement
of such land with individual, salable plots inter-spersed with government-controlled enclaves.
From Sacred Grove to Real Estate This process, which started on the Northern
Ridge, took a long time to spread southwards;indeed, the story is still unfolding at the far reach-es of the Southern Ridge and beyond. Here, onecan find traces of older ways of life, of the “reser-vation of wood-producing land... generally con-nected with religion”, which the British foundwhen they first entered the region. The mostremarkable example of this is the sacred grove ofMangarbani. The grove technically falls inHaryana, outside the bounds of the NationalCapital Territory of Delhi (a clear- cut boundarythat owes its contours to the British). Officially itis not part of the Delhi Ridge. But it is on theAravallis, so its underlying stones and soil areidentical to those of the Ridge.
What grows out of this stony soil has amazedobservers from Delhi. Mangarbani is denselyforested, and it is full of trees that have long disap-peared from the Delhi Ridge, most notably thegraceful, hardy dhau tree. The thriving forest ispart of common lands shared by the three villagesof Mangar, Bandhwari and Baliawas, which aredominated by the Gujjar community; these vil-lages maintain Mangarbani as a sacred grove inhonor of a holy man named Gudariya Baba whoused to roam these parts.
The very existence of such a remarkableecosystem in the midst of three Gujjar settlementsneatly refutes the argument originally put forwardby Maconachie and Beadon, and still echoedtoday by some government officials and environ-mentalists: that villagers, especially those withstrong pastoral traditions, like the Gujjars, do notcare about trees, and land must be taken awayfrom them and vested in the government if it is tobe protected.
Instead, Mangarbani suggests another lesson:that the ecological behavior of pastoralists ismolded by the larger systems in which they areensconced. For example, during Mughal times,the Gujjars living close to Shahjahanabad putexcessive pressure on their commons because ofurban demands for meat and milk; meanwhile,the Gujjars of Mangarbani, much further awayfrom city influences, left a more balanced ecologi-
cal footprint. This remained the case duringBritish rule as well, despite the compulsions ofBritish land settlement efforts and despite pocketsof quarrying. But, over the past several decades,Mangarbani has increasingly been drawn into theorbit of a rapidly expanding Delhi, a trend thathas threatened the survival of the grove.
Regular readers of Delhi newspapers may befamiliar with this story. On almost a weekly basis,one reads about a new threat to the old forest. Orabout threats to people in the forest. By far themost dramatic headline came on 31 March 2014:“Birdwatchers Thrashed at Mangar Forest”.
The events described in the article are a com-bination of the disturbing, the tragic, and theabsurd, a mix that characterizes much of theDelhi region in an era of runaway growth. Thebirdwatchers were from nearby Gurgaon-not toolong ago, a sleepy farming village and now anurban hub conjoined to Delhi and filled withautomobile factories, multi-national corporateoffices, small-scale garment industries, and aseemingly endless expanse of malls. (The city wasrenamed Gurugram in 2016, a Hindu nationalistnod to the Mahabharata sage Guru Dronacharya,who supposedly lived in this area thousands ofyears ago. However, for the sake of avoidinganachronisms, I will stick with “Gurgaon”, thename that was current when the following eventstook place.)
The birders had gone to Mangarbani to spotwinged wildlife in the native forests of the grove.When the first car reached the grove, they cameupon a man who said he was the priest at thelocal temple; he wanted to know what they weredoing there. Things got a bit heated, and the priesttook out his phone and made a call. Within min-utes, a group of young men sped onto the scene ina jeep. They jumped down, armed with sticks andiron rods, and attacked the birdwatchers, a groupwhich included an elderly woman and a youngchild. The attackers fled, though, when the rest ofthe birdwatchers, another four or five carloads,arrived on the scene.
The priest was later arrested, along with someof the assailants. Now, though, they are all out onbail, as the rusty machinery of the justice systemdoes its agonizingly slow work. Many of the newsreports after the attack asserted that the priest hasplayed a central role in real estate transactions inthe area. The British may have been the first tointroduce the idea of land as a commodity in theDelhi region, but now, centuries later, the idea hasbecome common sense. It is embraced with gustoby the wide range of players that make the real
estate industry tick, a group that, apparently,includes a temple priest and his hired muscle.
Real estate is now the shadow that hovers,unavoidably, over Mangarbani and the three vil-lages that surround it. This, though, is a relativelyrecent development, and it has gained tractiondue to the changing role of the Gujjar landownersin the villages. The fact that Gujjars are the domi-nant landowners suggests that, in this area at least,they long ago made the transition from nomadictribe to settled community. Pastoralism still playsa role here, but it has long been complemented byagriculture, and it has taken place around fixedvillage settlements. And Gujjars have integratedinto a caste-based village structure, finding them-selves in a powerful position within the local hier-archy.
The complexity of the caste system is in fullview with the Gujjar community. In most states inIndia, Gujjars come under the administrative cat-egory of Other Backwards Classes (OBC), whichputs them below the traditionally “high” castes,but above Dalits (administratively: ScheduledCastes or “SC”) and tribals (Scheduled Tribes or“ST”). It also makes them eligible for a range ofreservations made available by the state. But thiscut-and-dry state-imposed category hardly gets atthe nuances and the internal differences withinGujjar communities. In some parts of India, espe-cially in the Himalayan foothills, Gujjars still live amore tribal, nomadic existence, with little integra-tion into settled caste systems; however, in othercontexts, including Mangarbani, they are not onlyintegrated, they are also the most powerful com-munity in a given village.
While OBC may, then, be a wholly inadequateway to describe Gujjars, the designation is stillvitally important, given its link to reservations. Insome cases, Gujjars have demanded a lower sta-tus, so that they have access to more state benefits.These are the exigencies of modern-day caste pol-itics. While the impulse behind reservations is adeeply progressive one-to provide support andopportunities to groups that have historically beenexploited and marginalized-their application mustdeal with the messy terrain of competing commu-nities, internal discord, and intersecting layers ofprivilege and power.
Such complex dynamics often lead to explo-sive results. In 2007, in the state of Rajasthan, agroup of Gujjars began to agitate for the inclusionof Gujjars as a Scheduled Tribe (ST), in a sense astep “down” from OBC, but one which would pro-vide them with more state support. As theprotests gained momentum, they triggered state
repression. Within a span of four days in May2007, police opened fire on four different groupsof protesters, in conflicts which left 25 Gujjars andone policeman dead.
In early June, the protest turned national, asGujjar groups from around the country descend-ed on Delhi and other major cities, includingJaipur and Ahmedabad. In a remarkable show ofcommunity strength, the protesters successfullycut off all road access to Delhi, effectivelyblockading the national capital. While the agita-tion was largely non-violent, some protesters setfire to buses and trains. For the elite of Delhi, thisdestruction of property and interruption of theireveryday life could not be countenanced. All theslurs and all the urban disdain toward Gujjars,from Babur to the British, were dredged up. Amunicipal councilor in Delhi is on the record say-ing that, for Gujjars, “killing is in their blood”.Protests continued the next year, with 38 moreGujjars shot down by police. The agitation onlystopped when the government agreed to giveGujjars reservations, not as a Scheduled Tribe, butas a Denotified Tribe-the official post-colonialterm for groups that the British had dubbedCriminal Tribes.
At the height of the agitation, protesters fromRajasthan got strong support from leaders ofGujjar-dominated villages in the Delhi region, whoboth benefit and suffer from their proximity tostate power. Their strength at the village level givesthem significant pull in local elections, but despitethat they cannot compete with the real powerplayers of the capital. Economically, too, they havebenefited from the ever-expanding markets ofDelhi, but, except in rare cases, they have notfound a place at the table of the city's elite.
The traditional ruling classes in Delhi still seeGujjar-dominated areas as a backwards hinter-land, even though, with the expansion of the capi-tal, they are often right in the midst of the urbansprawl. If not physically, they are still metaphori-cally on the edge of an urban zone that houses afar more powerful set of elites. And it is increas-ingly not just an Indian elite housed in the Indiancapital, but an international elite housed in themultinational offices and luxury high-rises ofGurgaon. This is the larger context in which theMangarbani drama has played out, as the sacredgrove is being inexorably pulled into the capital'ssphere of influence.
Excerpted from Fractured Forest, QuartziteCity by Thomas Crowley, jointly published by
SAGE Publications and Yoda Press under the Yoda-SAGE Select imprint
It is said that history is written byvictors. This is a refrain which someattribute to Winston Churchill.Though there are disagreementsover who the author of this dictum
is, it has been stated by many historians,archaeologists and philosophers that thepower and mighty decide and manufac-ture history to suit their convenience.Hence robbers and dacoits get elevated asfreedom fighters and great warriors.
India is a victim of manufactured his-tory. Our political masters decided whatthe countrymen should and shouldn’tlearn as history. Much has been writtenby S L Bhyrappa about the manufacturedhistory from his personal experience. TheKarnataka scholar has written a trueaccount of how late G Parthasarathi, theadvisor to former Prime Minister IndiraGandhi played a pivotal role in gettingthe Indian history re-written to suit thepolitical convenience of his master.
Sir Henri Miers Elliot, English civilservant and historian who authored TheHistory of India, As Told by Its OwnHistorians has stated frankly that hisobjective while writing history was to“make the native subjects of British Indiamore sensible of the immense advantagesaccruing to them under the mildness andequity of the present rule”. Hence, he hadquoted only those portions from Persianand Arabic works which make theIndians feel that they were better servedby their colonial masters.
This has been reproduced by Dr K MMunshi, former union minister andfounder of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, in hisforeword to The History And Culture ofthe Indian People, the 11-volume series ofthe sub-continent’s story edited by thelegendary R C Majumdar. The patternwas blindly followed by the brown sahibswho manipulated and mis-interpretedfacts and documentary evidences to writehistory as per their whims and fancies.The result? Many fighters who foughtfrom the frontline battles againstinvaders, colonial masters and thugs whorobbed India of its spiritual and material-istic wealth ended up as unsung heroesand non-entities.
History students feigned ignorancewhen asked about Shivji Maharaj, TatiaToppe and Chapekar Brothers of Punewhose names evoked respect, adorationand admiration throughout the sub-con-tinent. Damodarpant Chapekar of Poonadid not think twice before eliminatingWalter Charles Rand, the special plaguecommissioner in Poona on June 22, 1897when all pleas by the citizens to save
them from the pandemic fell on deaf ears.Thousands perished in this pandemicwhich could have been averted had theBritish administrators showed some con-cern for Indian lives. This was the periodbefore the advent of MohandasKaramchand Gandhi, Vallabhbhai Patel,Jawaharlal Nehru, Subash Chandra Boseetc into the arean of the freedom move-ment. This was the era when the EastIndia Company and the British colonialmasters swindled India bare.
The shining star who led India’s questfor freedom from British exploitation andcoined the term self-rule too died unsung— Dadabhai Naoroji (1825-1917). Otherthan unofficially honoring him with thetitle ‘The Grand Old Man of India’, themotherland is yet to give due recognitionto this great son of the sub-continent whoresembled a commander-in-chief of theIndian freedom movement while strate-gising and devising ways and means toliberate India from the shackles of slaverywithout shedding a drop of blood or sac-rificing the lives of innocent agitators.
The sub-continent was blessed with a
galaxy of stars like Dadabhai Naoroji,Gopal Krishna Gokhale (1866-1915) BalGangadhar Tilak (1856-1920), ChetturSankaran Nair (1857-1934) who stood forliberating the country from the colonialmasters using intellectual prowess andknowledge. There is a common threadwhich united these personalities whostruggled for their objective beforeGandhi and Nehru entered the scene.Their motto was to educate the masses,especially women, and take on the Britishfrom a position of bargaining powerwithout giving them an option to bossover the Indians.
While we have sufficient literatureabout Gokhale and Tilak, there wasn’tmuch known published works on the lifeand times of Dadabhai Naoroji, born in apoor Parsi family in Gujarat and went onto emerge as a unifying force of theIndian National Congress in its Calcuttasession in 1906. Had it not been Naoroji,the Congress would have split verticallyin that session and subsequent the partywould have disintegrated into factionsand fractions.
It was Naoroji who set the IndianIndependent Movement in motion bytelling the world about the unashamedrobbery committed by the British mas-ters. Angus Maddison, the British econo-mist who specialised in quantitativemacro economic history found that Indiaand China were the world leaders, con-tributing more than 40 per cent share tothe global GDP before the Mughals andBritishers annexed the country.Maddison’s finding was sometime in 2006as part of a project he undertook for theOECD and European Union.
But Naoroji had established throughhis research between 1867 and 1880 thatIndian poverty and pestilence were thefall outs of the drain of wealth from Indiaby the “European leeches”. He took thefighting straight to the lion’s den —Britain. The white men had no answer tothe claims by the Parsi gentleman fromBombay. The story of Naoroji’s life andtimes has been retold in an immaculatestyle by Dinyar Patel, an Indian-born his-torian working as an assistant professor atthe University of South Carolina.
Naoroji: Pioneer of IndianNationalism authored by Patel is the firstauthentic biography of the Grand OldMan of India and it hits the bookshelvesacross the country 112 years after thedemise of the protagonist. Dinyar Patelhas done an excellent job in presenting tothe new generation of Indians the periodin which Naoroji lived and the challengeshe had to face.
Between the late 1860s and the early1880s, he produced a prodigious amountof literature — containing extensive cal-culations, international comparisons,compilations of historical evidence andrefutations of government pronounce-ments and statistics — highlighting thestark impoverishment of Britain’s Indiansubjects. Significantly, he established adirect link between poverty and Britishrule. “So far as my inquiries go at present,the conclusion I draw is that wherever theEast India Company acquired territory,impoverishment followed their steps”,argued Naoroji.
Naoroji famously contended that thedrain of wealth, whereby as much as one-
fourth of the annual tax revenue raised inIndia, went into British coffers ratherthan being reinvested in the country.
This inference was not based onGovernment statistics. It was arrived at bythe young students of Bombay’sElphinstone College, the topmost of thembeing Dadabhai Naoroji, who occupiesthe numero uno place in the list of theCollege’s Distinguished Alumni. It wasthe education which he received fromElphinstone College which helped him tounderstand the truth that the provincesthat had employed Indian bureaucratswere buffered from drain of wealth andwere economically more robust thanBritish India.
For Naoroji, national educationmeant mass public education. He dreamtof an India that was developed, progres-sive and prosperous as France which hevisited in 1855 during his trip to the UK.
Patel’s book reads like the script of afilm and he creates right in front of us aperiod in India, uncorrupted by digitaltechnology and greed. It is an era of inno-cence and love the theme of which wasManav Seva Madhav Seva.
As a mathematicalphysicist andresearcher in gen-eral relativity andcosmology, initial-
ly I was bit annoyed with thevery title of this book, and Ithought that Mitra was brag-ging, there could never beanything like a “fall” of theblack hole paradigm. But as Ifinished through the book, Irealised that even if we com-pletely ignore the peerreviewed research by Mitraand his few American col-leagues: The black hole para-digm has always been contro-versial as apart from AlbertEinstein, almost two dozengeneral relativists who haveargued that true mathemati-cal black holes should notoccur even within the contextof classical general relativity.
I was not aware that wayback in 1969, the noted Frenchrelativist Luis Bel had shownthat a true mathematical blackhole, assumed to be a sphere,should actually behave like apoint implying that its mass-energy is E=Mc2 =0. If this istrue, the black hole paradigmcertainly fell right in 1969 eventhough we mathematical physi-cists cannot accept such a trag-ic climb down. I was alsounaware of a 1988 researchpaper by two famed Indian rel-ativists Jayant Narlikar andThanu Padmanabhan in whichthey had argued that the“problems related to the source(black holes) could be avoidedif the event horizon did notform and that the universe
only contained quasi-blackholes.”
Mitra goes at great lengthsto explain what these “quasi-black holes” could be. For mostof the practical purposes, theypretend like true black holesand we certainly cannot ruleout the fact the Event HorizonTelescope detected the shadowof a black hole pretender andnot the same of a true blackhole possessing an event hori-zon.
I also learnt that post theresearch of Mitra, in the pasttwo decades, innumerable the-oretical physicists have arguedthat the formation of trueblack holes may be inhibitedby some quantum mechanical
or quantum gravity effects; andthe black hole mimickers couldresult from such unknownmysterious quantum gravityeffects. Mitra exerts that thereis not a single research paperwhich has ever shown howmassive stars composed of pro-tons , neutrons, electrons andradiation can turn into anExotic Compact Object com-prising negative pressure darkenergy bubble or seething ballof elementary strings.
On the other hand, Mitraemphasises that if formation oftrue black holes must be pre-vented, it must be due to somewell known generic effectwhich can be equally effectiveand inevitable for incipient
black hole mimickers havingeven billions of solar masses.And the only such knowngeneric effect is that, all kindsof light, heat and radiationmust get trapped by the rapidlyincreasing gravity of the col-lapsing star as it would beabout to become a true blackhole. Mitra then argues thatthe outward radiation pressureof the trapped radiation mustcounteract the inward pull ofgravity, and the massive starshoul turn into a quasi-staticball of fire supported entirelyby its radiation pressure.Though this ball of fire isalmost as compact as a mathe-matical black hole, it has noevent horizon and hence keeps
on leaking bit of radiation. Inthis sense, this ultra-hot ball ofradiation should keep on con-tracting eternally in order toachieve true black hole stateE=Mc2 =0 suggested by theBel’s 1969 paper. Mitra nick-named such an ever contract-ing ball of fire as EternallyCollapsing Object (ECO). As amathematical physicist, I donot understand all the finerpoints of this narrative but Irely on the fact the relevantpapers have been published inreputed journals like PhysicalReview (D), New Astronomy,Monthly Notices RoyalAstronomical Society ,andMonthly Notices RoyalAstronomical Society Letters.
Mitra and his Americancolleagues have argued thatECOs must be strongly magne-tized and should beMagnetospheric ECOs orMECOS. It is heartening to seethat, in 2006, Center forAstrophysics, Harvard, issued along Press Release on aresearch claiming that the so-called black hole at the heart ofa famous quasar should be aMECO. This press releaseadmitted that the concept ofMECO can be traced to theidea of ECO developed by theIndian astrophysicist AbhasMitra in 1998. While as anIndian, I feel proud to see thatan ivy league press release isrelated to an idea developed bya lone Indian battling innu-merable odds both within hisinstitution and outside world,my heart bled when I read thatCfA later removed its ownpress release later for reasonsbest known to them.
This book not only dis-cusses several critical issues onastrophysics and general rela-tivity in a layman’s language,but also reveals several anec-dotes on scientific intoleranceand herd mentality which tryto ostracise a minion non-influential researcher whorefuses to sing the mainstreamnarrative. A must read for notonly students of physics butalso for all professional astro-physicists and general rela-tivists.
��������� �����$%��(���&�����!�� ���Chinese President Xi Jinping
is known for his assertive-ness and aggression to installhis country at the top in theglobal pecking order. He hasstarted this long and arduousmission, with a usual clandes-tine Chinese vision, since hiscoming to power in 2012.
His gargantuan “ChinaDream” to rejuvenate thenation and the most ambitious“Belt and Road Initiative” (BRI)have together caused geopolit-ical concerns, particularly forAsian powers like India.
Undoubtedly, Xi couldrightly be called as the rein-carnation of late ChairmanMao Zedong. Xi has becomethe only Chinese leader whohas accumulated so muchpower and position, either inthe name of launching China asa global leader or curbing cor-ruption and misgovernanceboth within and outside theCommunist Party of China(CPC).
So today, what is fastunfolding in Pakistan’s GwadarPort, located in its westernprovince of disturbedBalochistan, is just the tip of aniceberg, which is uncovered infront of the international com-munity.
The very presence of Chinain this port city is absolutelydecried by the locals and espe-cially by the Baloch national-ists, who have already beenfighting a long war with thefederal Government ofPakistan, on various otherissues.
Gwadar Port is a warmwater deep seaport situated onthe Arabian Sea. It is strategi-cally located between SouthAsia, Central Asia and WestAsia at the mouth of thePersian Gulf, just outside theStrait of Hormuz. This criticalport has been leased to Chinaby the Pakistani Governmentfor a period of 43 years i.e. uptill 2059, starting from 2015.
As per Chinese mediareports, the port was upgrad-ed at a cost of $1.62 billion.Most importantly, Gwadar is at
the vortex of $50 billion (41 bil-lion Euro), much talked aboutand controversial China-Pakistan Economic Corridor(CPEC). Further, the CPEC isan integral part of Xi’s signatureinitiative of the BRI.
Gwadar Port came to lightway back in the year 1954.During the regime of formerPresident Pervez Musharraf, helaunched the construction ofthe port in 2007, at a cost of$248 million. However, in 2015,the port was made a part of theCPEC to connect westernChina and northern Pakistan.This port will also be a site fora floating liquefied natural gasas a part of the larger $2.5 bil-lion Iran-Pakistan gas pipelineproject, connecting Gwadarwith Nawabshah.
The CPEC is a 3,218 kilo-metre long route that is aimedto link Gwadar to XinxiangProvince in western China.And this corridor consists ofhighways, railways and gaspipelines that could trigger aneconomy of billion dollars onceit is completed.
The Gwadar SpecialEconomic Zone is built aroundan area of 2,292 acres near theGwadar Port. The project ofGwadar Sea Port became oper-ational on November 14, 2016during the time of formerPakistan Prime Minister NawazSharif. But it is worthwhile tosee how this port area couldserve China’s long term strate-gic interests.
In a China MaritimeReport on Gwadar, the port hasbeen described as a “StrategicStrong point” in the IndianOcean. The officials, militaryofficers and civilian analysts ofChina typically employ the“Strategic Strongpoint” con-cept to describe certain strate-gically valuable foreign portswith terminals and commercialzones owned and operated byChinese firms. The top Chinesepolicy-makers believe thatGwadar, an inchoate point infriendly Pakistan which maycertainly support as a majorplatform for their countries
economic, diplomatic and mil-itary interactions around thenorthern Indian region.
China’s strong presence inthe Gwadar Port area and inthe CPEC across the POK willboost Beijing’s security andbusiness interests in the longrun. In reality, China hasresponded to America’s grandIndo-Pacific strategy that hasbeen long there in place in thiszone, apart from its presence inGwadar Port, Beijing has takena number of crucial steps todevelop its own networkaround the Indo-Pacific andspecifically in the Indian OceanRim region. Further, the Indo-Pacific is a strategic areathrough which two-thirds ofthe global trade and 80 per centof the Chinese oil passes. Andthe most important element inthe Indo-Pacific is that all thecountries such as India, China,Australia, Japan and the USwhich are zealously guardingtheir interests here geographi-cally falls in the region only.
But now the fast-changinggeopolitical scenario has madeit so that India, Japan, Australiaand the US are coming togeth-
er under the banner of theQuad Group to counter Chinain the Indo-Pacific. USPresident Donald Trump haspushed the Sino-US rivalry toall time high. And in the midstof the Covid-19 global pan-demic and last American pres-idential poll, Trump has gotanother opportunity to brandChina as its grand enemy in theglobe. It is expected that evennow, under the President-electJo Biden, the Sino-US relationsmay not return to normalcy.However, the Team Biden mayeasily stitch up a working rela-tionship between Washingtonand Beijing for sure.
These all will have seriousimpact on Beijing’s futuregrand strategy towards expan-sionist game across the world,particularly along the BRInations. With a belligerent US,a constant border clash withneighbouring India and mas-sive disturbances constantlyemerging from Hong Kong,Xinjiang, South China Sea andfrom Taiwan, Xi will be cer-tainly bolstering his mission toreach out to countries such asSri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal
and of course Pakistan. Andherein, the developments inGwadar Port will be very crit-ical for China.
It is noted that Pakistan hasbeen gradually moving intoChinese arms. This has hap-pened both because of Trump’sdecision to cut all funding tothat country and an army-backed Imran KhanGovernment’s decision to playa junior partner role in China’sBRI. Regional experts say thatChina is soon replacingAmerica as its most importantsecurity partner and guarantor.What Beijing expects fromIslamabad is an unhinderedaccess to the Indian Ocean asthe former is trying to encircleIndia from all corners. It is esti-mated that Chinese invest-ment in Pakistan is going tocross $46 billion by 2030. It issimply a serious course changefor Pakistan as it is increasing-ly relying on China for its eco-nomic and military assistanceinstead of the US. This is agame-changing narrative inthe power positioning onIndia’s North-Western fron-tier.
The current GwadarFencing Project launched bythe Pakistani Governmentaround the CPEC corridor inthe city is sending strong neg-ative vibes to the locals. It isdone under the supervision ofthe federal and provincialauthorities. It is hoped that thefencing project, once complet-ed will completely change thesecurity dynamics of the portcity. The Balochistan ProvincialGovernment aims to fence offaround 24 square kilometrearea that is devoted to thebuilding of the CPEC project.It is learnt that there will beonly two entry points to thefenced parts of the city andnearly 500 surveillance cameraswill be installed to monitor themovements of people in andaround the project area. Thiswill turn the city into a fortress,ironically to secure Chinesebusiness and security interests,not to promote the welfare ofthe poor Baloch people.
The primary objective offencing is to safeguard theproject from the Baloch nation-alists who has been voicingconcerns against Chinese grand
strategy from the beginning.Again, this new design of secu-rity network might force manylocals to relocate from the portarea.
Now the raging argumentin Balochistan is that whyIslamabad is allowing Beijing tomake one of its provinces aChinese colony? Is that so thatthe Imran Government isintentionally pushing its bel-ligerent province of Balochistanto the debt-trap of China? It istrue that with strong Chinesepresence in the port city,Pakistan will be assured that forthe coming 43 years (leasetime period of the port), therewill some signs of developmentin the most neglected region ofthe country. Despite being themost resourceful province ofthe country, Islamabad hassimply ignored the concerns ofthe Baloch people for decadessince independence. Today,Balochistan is recorded as a lawand order problem in the lex-icon of Pakistan’s establish-ment. And it is the responsi-bility of the country’s “DeepState” i.e. the Army to oversee,manage and put down theflames of civil unrest in thispart of Pakistan. The successivecivilian administrations inIslamabad have directlyignored the local demands forwhich a constant rage againstthe federal Government hasgrown over the years.
Above all, when China haslanded up in Gwadar Port,one of crucial cities of theprovince, the locals see no endof their longstanding prob-lems. Rather, with increasingfortification of the city, will cer-tainly create an atmosphere offear and alienation among thepeople of the port city in par-ticular and the Baloch in gen-eral.
Truly speaking, it is a dis-turbing signal. Very soon,Pakistan will realise how it willturn out to be a new protec-torate zone of China.
(The writer is an expert oninternational affairs)
.����8�������� ���������������� ��������On this, even US President
Donald Trump’s mostfevered critics agree: he has lefta deep imprint on the federalcourts that will outlast his oneterm in office for decades tocome.
He used the promise ofconservative judicial appoint-ments to win over Republicanskeptics as a candidate. Then asPresident, he relied on outsideconservative legal organisa-tions and Senate MajorityLeader Mitch McConnell toemploy an assembly line-likeprecision to install more than230 judges on the federalbench, including the threenewest justices of the SupremeCourt. Trump never tired ofboasting about it.
Indeed, undeterred byDemocratic criticism, theSenate was still confirmingjudges more than a monthafter Trump lost his reelectionbid to Joe Biden.
“Trump has basically donemore than any President hasdone in a single term since(President Jimmy) Carter toput his stamp on the judiciary,”said Jonathan Adler, a law pro-fessor at Case Western ReserveUniversity School of Law inCleveland, Ohio, adding thatCongress created around 150new judgeships during Carter’spresidency.
The impact will be endur-ing. Among the Trump-appointed judges, who holdlifetime positions, several arestill in their 30s. The threeSupreme Court picks couldstill be on the court at the 21stcentury’s midpoint, 30 yearsfrom now.
Beyond the SupremeCourt, 30 per cent of the judgeson the nation’s court of appeals,where all but a handful ofcases reach their end, wereappointed by Trump.
However, numbers don’ttell the entire story. The real
measure of what Trump hasbeen able to do will be revealedin countless court decisions inthe years to come on abortion,guns, religious rights and a hostof other culture wars issues.
When it came to thePresident’s own legal chal-lenges of the election results,however, judges who have himto thank for their positionrebuffed his claims. But inmany other important ways, hissuccess with judicial appoint-ments already is paying divi-dends for conservatives.
When the Supreme Courtblocked New York from enforc-ing certain limits on attendanceat churches and synagogues inareas designated as hard hit byCovid-19, Justice Amy ConeyBarrett, the newest member ofthe court, cast the decisivefifth vote. Previously, the courthad allowed restrictions onreligious services over the dis-sent of four justices, includingthe other two Trump nomi-nees, Neil Gorsuch and BrettKavanaugh.
Five Trump appointeeswere in the majority of the 6-4 decision by the full 11th USCircuit Court of Appeals inSeptember that made it hard-er for felons in Florida toregain the right to vote. TheAtlanta-based court had amajority of Democratic-appointed judges when Trumptook office.
Last month, Judges BrittGrant and Barbara Lagoa, bothnamed by Trump, formed themajority on a three-judge 11thcircuit panel that struck downlocal Florida bans on therapythat seeks to change the sexu-al orientation of LGBTQminors. Other appeals courtsaround the country haveupheld the conversion therapybans.
In one early look atTrump’s appointees to federaltrial courts, political science
professors Kenneth Manning,Robert Carp and Lisa Holmescompared their decisions withmore than 1,17,000 opinionspublished dating back to 1932.
“Trump has appointedjudges who exhibit a distinctdecision-making pattern thatis, on the whole, significantlymore conservative than previ-ous Presidents,” the politicalscientists concluded in anOctober 2020 working paper.
The one constant of thepast four years — throughimpeachment, the coronaviruspandemic and Trump’s electionloss — has been his nomina-tion of and Senate confirma-tion of judges.
The President has had sev-eral partners in the judicialeffort, but none more impor-tant than McConnell, whotakes particular pride inreshaping the Supreme Court.
“I think it’s far and awaythe most consequential thingI’ve ever been involved in,’’ the78-year-old McConnell saidin an interview. “And it’s themost long-lasting accomplish-ment of the current adminis-
tration, by far.’’They might not have called
it a partnership at the time, buttheir mutually reinforcing workbegan even before Trump’selection in 2016.
Trump used the issue ofthe federal judiciary to wintrust with voters who mighthave questions about the con-servative credentials of a bil-lionaire real estate developerwho had once supported abor-tion rights and did not have atrack record in politics.
He put in writing a list ofpotential nominees, providedby the conservative FederalistSociety and HeritageFoundation, he would selectfrom in filling a Supreme Courtvacancy.
Kellyanne Conway, whoserved as his campaign man-ager in 2016, said it was a movethat people who had been inoffice for years and wanted toascend to the presidency “did-n’t have the courage to do,which is name names.”
As it happens, there was ahigh court opening at the time,following the death of Justice
Antonin Scalia in February.Enter McConnell. The
Republican blocked PresidentBarack Obama’s nomination ofMerrick Garland, refusing somuch as a hearing for therespected appeals court judgewhom Republicans had previ-ously identified as a high courtnominee they could support.
It was a gamble at a timewhen Trump’s electoralprospects seemed dim, but itpaid off with his stunning vic-tory over Hillary Clinton.
And the high court seatwasn’t the only one waiting tobe filled when Trump tookoffice in January 2017. Onehundred four judgeships wereopen after Republicans usedtheir Senate majority to grindthe nomination process to anear halt in Obama’s final twoyears in office. Only 28.6 percent of his nominees were con-firmed in that stretch.
The pace quickened almostimmediately. Republicansmoved with an urgency onconfirmations that hasn’t let up.In Trump’s first two years, theypushed through 30 appellatecourt judges and 53 districtcourt nominees. It was thehighest number of appellatecourt confirmations in a two-year period since RonaldReagan and nearly double thenumber that Obama secured inhis first two years.
McConnell and topRepublicans on the SenateJudiciary Committee elimi-nated rules that had allowedthe Opposition party to delayconfirmations, most notablyrequiring just a simple major-ity, instead of 60 votes, tomove Supreme Court nomi-nees. Democrats, bitter over thestalled Garland nomination,otherwise would have blockedGorsuch’s confirmation inApril 2017.
Senator SheldonWhitehouse, D-RI, a member
of the Senate JudiciaryCommittee and a sharp Trumpcritic, said Trump’s judiciallegacy “is a lot less about whathe’s done than what he’sallowed others to do in hisname.’’
Whitehouse said Trumpessentially “outsourced” judicialnominations to McConnelland the Federalist Society,specifically the group’s leaderLeonard Leo and former WhiteHouse counsel Don McGahn,a Federalist Society memberwho made judicial nomina-tions a top priority.
At the same time, theFederalist Society and otherconservative groups, includingthe Judicial Crisis Networkand Americans for Prosperity,have taken millions of dollarsin anonymous donations andwaged public and behind-the-scenes campaigns for right-wing judges, Whitehouse said.
Trump “opened the chan-nel for special-interest inter-ference in judicial selection.That I think is very novel andobviously lends itself to cor-ruption,’’ Whitehouse said.“Right-wing forces have fordecades sought the kind ofinfluence in judicial nomina-tions that the Trump adminis-tration outright gave them.’’
McConnell scoffed at thecriticism. “The reason a lot ofthem belong to the FederalistSociety is because that is sortof the core mission of theFederalist Society — to get thecourts back to doing whatthey’re supposed to do and notlegislate from the bench,” hesaid.
On the campaign trail andat White House events, Trumpwould often cite his record onjudicial appointments as anexample of accomplishment,while ignoring the obstructionsthat occurred during theObama years.
“You know, when I got in,
we had over 100 federal judgesthat weren’t appointed. Now, Idon’t know why Obama leftthat. It was like a big, beautifulpresent to all of us. Why thehell did he leave that? Maybe hegot complacent,” Trump boast-ed at one point, omitting theessential fact that McConnellhad blocked Obama’s nomi-nees.
The high court vacancy atthe start of Trump’s term was,in essence, a gift fromMcConnell. Justice AnthonyKennedy’s decision to retire in2018 allowed Trump to replacethe court’s swing justice withthe more conservativeKavanaugh, who survived hisown bruising confirmationhearings that included allega-tions he sexually assaulted awoman when they were both inhigh school decades ago.Kavanaugh denied the claims.
Less than two monthsbefore the 2020 election,Trump was handed anotheropening with the death ofJustice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.Trump and Senate Republicansdidn’t hesitate. He nominatedBarrett even before Ginsburgwas buried at ArlingtonNational Cemetery andMcConnell ensured the con-firmation was done before theelection.
The Senate has continuedconfirming Trump nomineeseven after his defeat for reelec-tion, breaking a norm that hasstood since 1900 with oneexception, said RussellWheeler, a visiting fellow at theBrookings Institution. Federalprosecutor Thomas Kirsch wasconfirmed as Barrett’s replace-ment on the federal appealscourt based in Chicago onDecember 15, on a mostlyparty-line vote.
The exception was theSenate’s bipartisan acceptancein 1980 of a former Senate staffmember as a federal appeals
court judge. That nominee wasStephen Breyer, now a SupremeCourt justice.
Along with the question oflegacy is whether Trump’srecord on judges spurs majorchanges to the judiciary.
Wheeler, at Brookings, saidone of the most striking fea-tures of the teamwork ofTrump and McConnell is thatthey acted as though they hadthe support of most Americans.They did not, he said.
“My main beef with thiscurrent group is that there’s justno mandate to turn the judi-ciary so far to the right,”Wheeler said. “Trump lost thepopular vote massively in 2016,but nevertheless has behaved asif he had a mandate to reshapethe federal judiciary at theSupreme Court and Court ofAppeals level and I think that’sjust unfounded.”
Liberal groups already havebeen pushing for changes at thehighest level, including expan-sion of the Supreme Courtand term limits for justices. Thepolitical prospects for bothideas are uncertain, at best. Butthere’s less doubt from anyvantage point about whatTrump has wrought.
The US “will be living withthe legacy of Donald Trump fordecades to come as a result ofhis judicial appointments,’’ saidBrian Fallon, executive direc-tor of Demand Justice, a liber-al advocacy group. People whoaccepted judicial appointmentsfrom Trump will “wear themoniker of ‘Trump judge’ forthe rest of their lives,’’ Fallonsaid.
Not so, in Conway’s view.“It will be one of the most last-ing pieces of his legacy, distin-guished and durable,” she said.
(Mark Sherman, KevinFreking and Matthew Daly con-tributed for the article for theAssociated Press)
Picking up threads from the previ-ous issue, let us first have a lookinto the construct and chemistry of
mind. For, it defines and drives throughthe functional mandate of a being. Thereare three functional tools of mind —Buddhi, Ahamkara and Manasa. Theydon’t have separate identity by them-selves. They are rather interwoven intoan integrated mechanism, all working insupport of each other.
Coming to individual attributes ofthe three, Buddhi is the faculty of dis-criminate intelligence. It lets you dispas-sionately analyse the issues in hand, andarrive at the right judgment to pick upthe right lead. But Buddhi doesn’t playout involuntarily. It has to be consciouslyinvoked by Ahamkara. With its inbuiltsense of ‘I’ consciousness, Ahamkaramandates how to go about in life. AndManasa, acting from the front acts twoways. It translates the indwelling desiretrends into action. Also, it gathers outerfield data. In both cases, Ahamkara issupposed to engage Buddhi for due dili-gence before taking any call. The irony,however, is that often Ahamkara takesthe inputs on their face value, whenManasa would react and respond on
instinctive judgment ending, which car-ries equal probability of ending up eitherway — rewarding or frustrating.
Now, coming to the chemistry ofmind. Mind takes off on the thoughtfeeds in store — the Karmic carryoverfrom the past. Mind does also respondto external promptings and influences.In both cases, Ahamkara is supposed toengage Buddhi for due diligence beforeallowing them a field play. The paradox,however, is that for those living unmind-fully, often Ahamkara takes the thoughtfeeds on their face value, when it doesn’tfeel the necessity of due diligence. It,thus, comes out that we fail to use ourempowerment tools optimally, and whenwe fail, we try to find escape in our des-tiny.
It may be pertinent to add here thatin store thought feeds in mind, precon-dition our minds. They bind you to itsinherent tendencies one is born with —desire trends, virtues and attributes, likesand dislikes, prejudices and obsessions,habits and attitudes. That restricts ourscope of vision to a limited mind-spacehaving in store only the thought feedscarried over from the past. We, thus lookat issues in hand within the scope of a
limited window frame, usually not opento look beyond for a reality check orexplore a better option available. Suchminds are seldom receptive to fresheducative inputs.
Another aspect of mind is thatunmindfully it continuously keepsbreeding thoughts, a good majority ofthem inconsequential, some of themeven negative. And mind keeps random-ly flirting with them like a monkey inthe wild, playfully jumping from onebranch of tree to the other. That furtherclutters our minds so much that it does-n’t leave scope to process an issue inhand or any fresh thought objectively,and with obvious consequences.Consequently, mind becomes so com-plexed that it can’t see simple truthslying in front. It keeps moving roundand round, but truth eludes its attention.Remember, you cognise only such thingswhere you pay attention. That makes itincumbent upon us to first come out ofthe limitations of mind, if at all wish toimprove our lot. But habits die hard.Even if you become aware of your inher-ent tendencies either through self-reflec-tion, which we are capable of, or bywhatever means, it is ordinarily difficultto come out of their bind. They involun-
tarily keep playing out. Here comes the role of a Guru. He
doesn’t play a magic wand. Having him-self addressed his limitations, andexpanded his vision, he would knowhow to lead you through towards a bet-ter tomorrow. He first makes you awareof your latent potential, which thoughimmense, remains untapped. He, thus,first encourages you to get betterempowered. The way forward is to trainyour mind to access its full landscape,where after it knows no limits, as it looksat issues in hand with an open mind,without any limitations whatsoever topick up the right lead. To make it hap-pen, the Guru first puts you through aprocess to clear off the clutters of mind.Sufficient mind-space thus becomesavailable to absorb fresh educativeinputs. Second, he make aware of yourinherent limitations and the way toaddress them. He then offers lessons inrealities of life, which when absorbed inthe deep realms of mind, finds reflectionin your usual conduct. You are thusgeared up to rewrite your own destiny.
