W hen it comes to death, Delhi has emerged as one of the most favorite hunting grounds for coronavirus across the globe. With a case fatality rate (CFR) of more than 5 per cent, the national Capital is now only behind Poland, Mexico, and Romania on the daily casu- alty chart. Delhi’s CFR is way above the national average of 1.2 per cent. While the caseload con- tinued to show a downward trajectory across the country, the rise in CFR is worrisome. On Saturday, Maharashtra too recorded a high CFR of 2.6 per cent. The daily Covid-19 infec- tions dropped further to 34,848 in Maharashtra, while the number of daily deaths surged to 910 in the State. Delhi’s neighbour Uttar Pradesh also recorded a rela- tively high case fatality ratio of around 2 per cent. The State logged in a caseload of 12,513 and a death tally of 281 during the last 24 hours. On Saturday, the national Capital recorded 6,430 new Covid-19 cases and 337 fatali- ties. This translates into a fatal- ity rate of 5.22 per cent, which is only behind Poland, Romania and Mexico in the global arena and way above the other States in the country. On Friday, Romania recorded 105 deaths as against 835 fresh Covid-19 cases for a case fatality rate of a whopping 13 per cent. Romania is fol- lowed by Poland which has a case fatality rate of 8.76 per cent. The country recorded 3,289 cases and 289 deaths on Friday. Poland is closely fol- lowed by Mexico which has a CFR of 8.56 pc (311 deaths and 3,632 cases). Continued on Page 4 A court in Geneva has fined Indian industrialist Prakash Hinduja 157 million francs ( 1,270 crore) for tax violations. According to Swiss news- paper Gotham City and Le Temps , the Geneva Court imposed the fine on Hinduja for claiming tax exceptions by showing his Monaco residen- cy, while he was actually living in Geneva. “The Geneva tax authori- ties suspect the billionaire of Indian origin Prakash Hinduja of staying in his villa in Cologny (GE) until April 2018, when he had officially settled in Monaco in 2007,” reported Gotham City. “In July 2018, the Geneva public prosecutor sought to collect information on Prakash Hinduja and members of his family on behalf of the cantonal tax authorities, in the context of criminal proceedings, according to a judgment of the Federal Court rendered on April 21 (5A_1042/2020). In April 2019, the Federal Tax Administration opened its own investigation into this case, which targets several indi- viduals. The following month, the Geneva tax authorities declared two receiverships, amounting to 154 million francs for cantonal and munic- ipal taxes, and 3 million for fed- eral taxes” reported Le Temps. Hinduja Group controls Ashok Leyland, IndusInd Bank and Gulf Lubricants. The Indian origin conglomerate having business across the world was started by late PD Hinduja in early 1940s. The Hinduja Group’s companies are controlled by holding com- panies situated in tax havens like Mauritius and Geneva. Continued on Page 4 P ouring water on the hopes of people on plasma thera- py for Covid-19 treatment, a study has found that it’s no sil- ver bullet and its usage is not effective on virus patients. In other words, it has no effect on disease severity or mortality. Plasma therapy is basical- ly using blood plasma from recovered patients and infusing it into newly infected patients. Doctors have been divided over its efficacy with several of them from across India have been recommending the ther- apy, asking the patients to arrange for plasma. They believe that it helps to transfer antibodies from recovered patients to new patients. It is said to boost the immune response of a new patient. However, a team of doctors after conducting the Randomised Evaluation of Covid-19 Therapy [recovery] trial, said in the “In recovery, the largest clinical trial of con- valescent plasma for any infec- tious indication, we did not find evidence that high-titre convalescent plasma improved survival or other pre-specified clinical outcomes in patients hospitalised with Covid-19. “Whether convalescent plasma would benefit other patient groups is unknown and would need to be evaluat- ed in other, adequately pow- ered, randomised clinical tri- als,” the study published in The Lancet said. The trial is underway at 177 NHS hospitals from across the UK. Earlier, other studies including India’s ICMR- PLACID Trial, as well as Argentina’s PlasmAr Trial have also shown that plasma thera- py has no benefit on hospi- talised Covid patients. Continued on Page 4 P rime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday took seri- ous view of reports about ven- tilators lying unutilised in stor- age in some States and direct- ed that an immediate audit of installation and operation of ventilators provided by the Central Government should be carried out. Chairing a high-level meet- ing to take stock of the Covid- 19 situation in the country, the Prime Minister asked for a dis- tribution plan for ensuring oxygen supply in rural areas where, he said the spread of virus must be prevented. The Prime Minister asked States to be “transparent” while reporting their cases “as high numbers does not mean that they have not done enough to contain the virus.” He said localised contain- ment strategies are the need of the hour and instructed that testing needs to be scaled up further, with use of both RT- PCR and Rapid Antigen tests, especially in areas with high test positivity rates. Modi asked for augmenta- tion of healthcare resources in rural areas to focus on “door to door testing and surveillance.” Continued on Page 4 A n Israeli airstrike on Saturday targeted and destroyed a high-rise building in Gaza City that housed offices of The Associated Press and other media outlets. Hours later, Israel bombed the home of Khalil al-Hayeh, a top leader of Gaza’s ruling militant Hamas group. The Israeli military said Al- Hayeh’s home served as part of what it said was the militant group’s “terrorist infrastruc- ture.” Al-Hayeh is a senior fig- ure in the Hamas political leadership in Gaza, and the attack marked a further esca- lation, signaling that Israel is going after Hamas’ top leader- ship, and not just military commanders. His fate after the strike was not imme- diately known. Earlier, AP staffers and other tenants safely evacuated the building after the military telephoned a warning that the strike was imminent with- in an hour. Continued on Page 4 I ndia’s Covid-19 situation remains hugely concerning, with several States continuing to see a worrying number of cases, hospitalisations and deaths, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Friday, warning that the pandemic’s second year will be “far more deadly” than the first for the world. Ghebreyesus added that the WHO is responding to the Covid-19 surge in India and has shipped thousands of oxy- gen concentrators, tents for mobile field hospitals, masks and other medical supplies. “India remains hugely con- cerning, with several states continuing to see a worrying number of cases, hospitalisa- tions and deaths,” he said at the daily media briefing. “And we thank all the stakeholders who are support- ing India,” the WHO Director- General said. Continued on Page 4 U K’s Cairn Energy Plc has brought a lawsuit in a US court that potentially can lead to seizing of Air India’s overseas assets such as air- planes to recover USD 1.72 bil- lion from the Indian Government which an inter- national arbitration tribunal had awarded after overturning levy of retrospective taxes. Cairn on May 14 filed a lawsuit in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York seeking declaration of Air India as the “alter ego of Indian Government” by virtue of control and as a state-owned company it “legally indistinct from the State itself,” according to a copy of petition reviewed by PTI. T he Delhi Government is setting up oxygen concen- trator banks for patients in home isolation. At least 200 oxygen concentrators will be set up in each of the 11 districts and oxygen will be delivered in two hours to patients in need, said Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday. “Patients who are not enrolled under the home iso- lation protocol of the Delhi Government may call 1031 and avail the oxygen concen- trator facility,” he said. Kejriwal said, “If patients in home isolation require oxygen, our team will ensure the oxy- gen concentrator reaches their home within two hours. A technician will also accompa- ny the team who will explain to the family members how to use the oxygen concentrator. However, our team of doctors will first ensure whether the person needs oxygen.” T he impact of aggressive campaign and massive mobilisation by political parties in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Assam and Puducherry in the run-up to the Assembly polls are seen as the principal reasons for massive spread of corona in these States and Union Territory. The judiciary, World Health Organization, and health experts have unequivo- cally agreed that the election-related mobilisation paved the way for a later day Covid-19 surge. Here is a reality check: W ith corona cases spiraling up by the day, Bengal health data experts have start- ed questioning whether March- May electoral extravaganza played the main villain in pushing up cases in the State. According to State Government reports, while in the second week of March when election campaigns had just started the rate of corona infections was just about 3-4 per cent of the total RT-PCR tests done, the figure leaped up to 31 per cent in the first week of May when the election process ended. “You do not need rocket science to prove that election rallies with thousands of peo- ple made a perfect recipe for disaster and the disaster is in front of you to see …Bengal had a pretty controlled affair till the month of March and the cases started jumping up with each electoral phase…,” said Dr Kajalkrisna Dey. Continued on Page 4 O n February 26, 2021, while then Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora addressed a nationally tele- vised Press meet to announce the poll schedule for the Assembly election to be held in West Bengal, Assam, Tamil Nadu and Kerala, and also the Union Territory of Puducherry, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan was in a relaxed mood. Kerala had almost recov- ered from the Covid-19 cases which shot up during the Onam and Christmas festi- vals. Minutes before he left for a public meeting at the Capital city to launch the State-wide election campaign of the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front, Minister for health KK Shylaja mailed him the details of the day’s Covid figures. It read that the State had diagnosed 3,671 new cases while 14 deaths were recorded from across Kerala. The posi- tive rate was 5.41 per cent. The figures, new cases or fatalities, were comparatively lower than the national average and the scenario on that Friday did not warrant any apprehension, member of the task force had told him. Continued on Page 4 T amil Nadu has seen both the extremes of the pandemic Covid- 19 during the last year. The State suc- ceeded in control- ling the transmis- sion of the pandemic in the initial days when delegates of Tablighi Jamaat con- gregation held at New Delhi returned to Tamil Nadu in the first week of March 2020. Though the pandemic peaked by mid-2020 the total lockdown, had helped the author- ities in bringing down the number of newly diagnosed cases from 40,000 in mid-2020 to below the 500 marks by February 2021. Continued on Page 4 O n February 26, when the Election Commission of India announced the schedule of Assembly polls, the Union Territory of Puducherry recorded just 29 Covid-19 cases and zero death. The total caseload stood 39,669 and the death figure at 667. Ten and a half weeks down the line, the UT has seen 60 times jump in corona cases. The UT is recording at an average of 1,800 new cases and 25 deaths every day during the last week. Continued on Page 4 A ssam lived with little trace of coronavirus till the electioneering picked up and lead- ers descended on the State from all parts of the country amid massive mobilisation of people and resources on the ground. When the poll schedule was announced on February 26, the State recorded just 34 cases and one death in a 24-hour period. People lived without any fear of Covid, which was just beginning to show an uptick in other parts of the coun- try in the early second week of February. But that was it. The poll fever changed it all. Continued on Page 4 M isuse of steroids is a major cause behind rising cases of black fungus, also known as mucormycosis infection, among vulnerable Covid-19 patients, including those suf- fering from diabetes, AIIMS director Dr Randeep Guleria on Saturday said, asking the doctors to follow Government protocol while dealing with such drugs. He said that patients who are diabetic or Covid-19 posi- tive and are taking steroids have an increased chance of con- tracting the fungal infection as it could lead to weakened immune systems. “It is thus all the more important to properly follow protocols of infection control practices at hospitals,” he said, indicating that during Covid-19, patients prescribed heavy and prolonged steroid doses can have weakened immune systems. Mucormycosis spores are found in soil, air, and even in food, said the AIIMS chief while addressing a press con- ference here on Saturday. He said that the black fungus can affect the face, infecting the nose, orbit of the eye, or brain, which can even cause vision loss. He added that it can also spread to the lung. In a new advisory over black fungus infection, the Centre has asked people to be extra careful regarding infec- tion protocols since the fungus enters the body through a cut, scrape, burn, or other types of skin trauma when the skin comes in contact with fungal spores in the envi- ronment. Dr Guleria also said that the mucormycosis fungal spores are of low virulence and usually do not cause infection. Continued on Page 4
of the most favorite huntinggrounds for coronavirus acrossthe globe. With a case fatalityrate (CFR) of more than 5 percent, the national Capital is nowonly behind Poland, Mexico,and Romania on the daily casu-alty chart. Delhi’s CFR is wayabove the national average of1.2 per cent.
While the caseload con-tinued to show a downwardtrajectory across the country,the rise in CFR is worrisome.On Saturday, Maharashtra toorecorded a high CFR of 2.6 percent. The daily Covid-19 infec-tions dropped further to 34,848in Maharashtra, while thenumber of daily deaths surgedto 910 in the State.
Delhi’s neighbour UttarPradesh also recorded a rela-tively high case fatality ratio ofaround 2 per cent. The Statelogged in a caseload of 12,513and a death tally of 281 duringthe last 24 hours.
On Saturday, the nationalCapital recorded 6,430 new
Covid-19 cases and 337 fatali-ties. This translates into a fatal-ity rate of 5.22 per cent, whichis only behind Poland,Romania and Mexico in theglobal arena and way above theother States in the country.
On Friday, Romaniarecorded 105 deaths as against835 fresh Covid-19 cases for acase fatality rate of a whopping13 per cent. Romania is fol-lowed by Poland which has acase fatality rate of 8.76 percent. The country recorded3,289 cases and 289 deaths onFriday. Poland is closely fol-lowed by Mexico which has aCFR of 8.56 pc (311 deaths and3,632 cases).
Continued on Page 4
��������������� �23�24�"
Acourt in Geneva has finedIndian industrialist
Prakash Hinduja 157 millionfrancs (�1,270 crore) for tax violations.
According to Swiss news-paper Gotham City and LeTemps, the Geneva Courtimposed the fine on Hindujafor claiming tax exceptions byshowing his Monaco residen-cy, while he was actually livingin Geneva.
“The Geneva tax authori-ties suspect the billionaire ofIndian origin Prakash Hindujaof staying in his villa inCologny (GE) until April 2018,when he had officially settledin Monaco in 2007,” reportedGotham City.
“In July 2018, the Genevapublic prosecutor sought tocollect information on PrakashHinduja and members of hisfamily on behalf of the cantonal
tax authorities, in the contextof criminal proceedings,according to a judgment of theFederal Court rendered onApril 21 (5A_1042/2020).
In April 2019, the FederalTax Administration opened itsown investigation into thiscase, which targets several indi-viduals. The following month,the Geneva tax authoritiesdeclared two receiverships,amounting to 154 millionfrancs for cantonal and munic-ipal taxes, and 3 million for fed-eral taxes” reported Le Temps.
Hinduja Group controlsAshok Leyland, IndusInd Bankand Gulf Lubricants. TheIndian origin conglomeratehaving business across theworld was started by late PDHinduja in early 1940s. TheHinduja Group’s companiesare controlled by holding com-panies situated in tax havenslike Mauritius and Geneva.
Continued on Page 4
���������� ��� �23�24�"
Pouring water on the hopesof people on plasma thera-
py for Covid-19 treatment, astudy has found that it’s no sil-ver bullet and its usage is noteffective on virus patients. Inother words, it has no effect ondisease severity or mortality.
Plasma therapy is basical-ly using blood plasma fromrecovered patients and infusingit into newly infected patients.Doctors have been dividedover its efficacy with several ofthem from across India havebeen recommending the ther-apy, asking the patients toarrange for plasma. They
believe that it helps to transferantibodies from recoveredpatients to new patients. It issaid to boost the immuneresponse of a new patient.
However, a team of doctorsafter conducting theRandomised Evaluation of
Covid-19 Therapy [recovery]trial, said in the “In recovery,the largest clinical trial of con-valescent plasma for any infec-tious indication, we did notfind evidence that high-titreconvalescent plasma improvedsurvival or other pre-specified
clinical outcomes in patientshospitalised with Covid-19.
“Whether convalescentplasma would benefit otherpatient groups is unknownand would need to be evaluat-ed in other, adequately pow-ered, randomised clinical tri-als,” the study published in TheLancet said.
The trial is underway at177 NHS hospitals from acrossthe UK. Earlier, other studiesincluding India’s ICMR-PLACID Trial, as well asArgentina’s PlasmAr Trial havealso shown that plasma thera-py has no benefit on hospi-talised Covid patients.
Continued on Page 4
����� �23�24�"
Prime Minister NarendraModi on Saturday took seri-
ous view of reports about ven-tilators lying unutilised in stor-age in some States and direct-ed that an immediate audit ofinstallation and operation ofventilators provided by theCentral Government shouldbe carried out.
Chairing a high-level meet-ing to take stock of the Covid-19 situation in the country, thePrime Minister asked for a dis-tribution plan for ensuringoxygen supply in rural areaswhere, he said the spread ofvirus must be prevented.
The Prime Minister askedStates to be “transparent” while
reporting their cases “as highnumbers does not mean thatthey have not done enough tocontain the virus.”
He said localised contain-ment strategies are the need ofthe hour and instructed thattesting needs to be scaled upfurther, with use of both RT-PCR and Rapid Antigen tests,especially in areas with hightest positivity rates.
Modi asked for augmenta-tion of healthcare resources inrural areas to focus on “door todoor testing and surveillance.”
Continued on Page 4
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An Israeli airstrike onSaturday targeted and
destroyed a high-rise buildingin Gaza City that housed officesof The Associated Press andother media outlets. Hourslater, Israel bombed the homeof Khalil al-Hayeh, a top leader of Gaza’s ruling militant
Hamas group. The Israeli military said Al-
Hayeh’s home served as part ofwhat it said was the militantgroup’s “terrorist infrastruc-ture.” Al-Hayeh is a senior fig-ure in the Hamas politicalleadership in Gaza, and theattack marked a further esca-lation, signaling that Israel isgoing after Hamas’ top leader-
ship, and not just military commanders. His fateafter the strike was not imme-diately known.
Earlier, AP staffers andother tenants safely evacuatedthe building after the militarytelephoned a warning that the strike was imminent with-in an hour.
with several States continuingto see a worrying number ofcases, hospitalisations anddeaths, WHO chief TedrosAdhanom Ghebreyesus saidon Friday, warning that thepandemic’s second year will be“far more deadly” than thefirst for the world.
Ghebreyesus added thatthe WHO is responding to theCovid-19 surge in India andhas shipped thousands of oxy-gen concentrators, tents formobile field hospitals, masksand other medical supplies.
“India remains hugely con-cerning, with several statescontinuing to see a worryingnumber of cases, hospitalisa-tions and deaths,” he said at thedaily media briefing.
“And we thank all thestakeholders who are support-ing India,” the WHO Director-General said.
Continued on Page 4
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UK’s Cairn Energy Plc hasbrought a lawsuit in a US
court that potentially can leadto seizing of Air India’s overseas assets such as air-planes to recover USD 1.72 bil-lion from the IndianGovernment which an inter-national arbitration tribunalhad awarded after overturninglevy of retrospective taxes.
Cairn on May 14 filed alawsuit in the US District Courtfor the Southern District ofNew York seeking declarationof Air India as the “alter ego ofIndian Government” by virtueof control and as a state-ownedcompany it “legally indistinctfrom the State itself,” accordingto a copy of petition reviewedby PTI.
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The Delhi Government issetting up oxygen concen-
trator banks for patients inhome isolation. At least 200oxygen concentrators will beset up in each of the 11 districtsand oxygen will be delivered intwo hours to patients in need,said Delhi Chief MinisterArvind Kejriwal on Saturday.
“Patients who are notenrolled under the home iso-lation protocol of the DelhiGovernment may call 1031and avail the oxygen concen-trator facility,” he said.
our team will ensure the oxy-gen concentrator reaches theirhome within two hours. Atechnician will also accompa-ny the team who will explain tothe family members how to usethe oxygen concentrator.However, our team of doctorswill first ensure whether theperson needs oxygen.”
health data experts have start-ed questioning whether March-May electoral extravaganzaplayed the main villain inpushing up cases in the State.
According to StateGovernment reports, while inthe second week of Marchwhen election campaigns hadjust started the rate of coronainfections was just about 3-4per cent of the total RT-PCRtests done, the figure leaped upto 31 per cent in the first weekof May when the electionprocess ended.
“You do not need rocketscience to prove that electionrallies with thousands of peo-ple made a perfect recipe fordisaster and the disaster is infront of you to see …Bengalhad a pretty controlled affair tillthe month of March and thecases started jumping up witheach electoral phase…,” said DrKajalkrisna Dey.
Continued on Page 4
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On February 26, 2021, whilethen Chief Election
Commissioner Sunil Aroraaddressed a nationally tele-vised Press meet to announcethe poll schedule for theAssembly election to be held inWest Bengal, Assam, TamilNadu and Kerala, and also theUnion Territory of Puducherry,Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayanwas in a relaxed mood.
Kerala had almost recov-ered from the Covid-19 caseswhich shot up during theOnam and Christmas festi-vals. Minutes before he left fora public meeting at the Capitalcity to launch the State-wideelection campaign of theCPI(M)-led Left Democratic
Front, Minister for health KKShylaja mailed him the detailsof the day’s Covid figures.
It read that the State haddiagnosed 3,671 new caseswhile 14 deaths were recordedfrom across Kerala. The posi-tive rate was 5.41 per cent. Thefigures, new cases or fatalities,were comparatively lower thanthe national average and thescenario on that Friday did notwarrant any apprehension,member of the task force hadtold him.
Continued on Page 4
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Tamil Nadu hasseen both the
extremes of thepandemic Covid-19 during the lastyear. The State suc-ceeded in control-ling the transmis-sion of the pandemic in the initial dayswhen delegates of Tablighi Jamaat con-gregation held at New Delhi returned toTamil Nadu in the first week of March 2020.Though the pandemic peaked by mid-2020the total lockdown, had helped the author-ities in bringing down the number of newlydiagnosed cases from 40,000 in mid-2020to below the 500 marks by February 2021.
Continued on Page 4
����� �23�24�"
On February 26,when the
E l e c t i o nCommission ofIndia announcedthe schedule ofAssembly polls, theUnion Territory ofPuducherry recorded just 29 Covid-19cases and zero death. The total caseloadstood 39,669 and the death figure at 667.
Ten and a half weeks down the line, theUT has seen 60 times jump in corona cases.The UT is recording at an average of 1,800new cases and 25 deaths every day duringthe last week.
Continued on Page 4
����� ��35�5�"
Assam livedwith little trace
of coronavirus tillthe electioneeringpicked up and lead-ers descended on the State from all partsof the country amid massive mobilisationof people and resources on the ground.
When the poll schedule wasannounced on February 26, the Staterecorded just 34 cases and one death in a24-hour period. People lived without anyfear of Covid, which was just beginning toshow an uptick in other parts of the coun-try in the early second week of February.
But that was it. The poll fever changedit all. Continued on Page 4
Misuse of steroids is a majorcause behind rising cases
of black fungus, also known asmucormycosis infection,among vulnerable Covid-19patients, including those suf-fering from diabetes, AIIMSdirector Dr Randeep Guleriaon Saturday said, asking thedoctors to follow Governmentprotocol while dealing withsuch drugs.
He said that patients whoare diabetic or Covid-19 posi-tive and are taking steroids havean increased chance of con-tracting the fungal infection asit could lead to weakenedimmune systems.
“It is thus all the moreimportant to properly followprotocols of infection controlpractices at hospitals,” he said,indicating that during Covid-19, patients prescribedheavy and prolonged steroiddoses can have weakened
immune systems.Mucormycosis spores are
found in soil, air, and even infood, said the AIIMS chiefwhile addressing a press con-ference here on Saturday. Hesaid that the black fungus canaffect the face, infecting thenose, orbit of the eye, or brain,which can even cause visionloss. He added that it can alsospread to the lung.
In a new advisory overblack fungus infection, theCentre has asked people to beextra careful regarding infec-tion protocols since the fungus enters the bodythrough a cut, scrape, burn, orother types of skin traumawhen the skin comes in contactwith fungal spores in the envi-ronment.
Dr Guleria also said that the mucormycosis fungal spores are of low virulence and usually do notcause infection.
It is a kids’ fantasy show where thereis the real world and the magical onewhich merge together. Sometimes ourcharacters are in the real one sometimesin the magical. It is about a girl, Nikki;it’s her story. Her father is a greatmagician and passes on his talent andworld to his father without him realisingthis.�What’s your character here?
I play the grey shade here —Jhanjharika. I am also a magician and apowerful one at that amongst the womenin the world of magic. She was not alwaysevil but then a competition took placeand she lost. She wanted the covetedbubble which has immense power andthe bubble went to Nikki’s father playedby Himmanshoo Malhotra. From hereon, my character becomes negative andI become the evil witch and my job is totrouble everyone.�How did you come on board theproject?
I was shooting for another project asan assistant intern. But I keep gettingscripts since I have done other shows. Ihave worked for Dheeraj Kumar earlieras well and my experience was good andsaw no reason to say no. I went and gavethe audition. After three weeks I got aconfirmation call. But I was shooting inGoa for a web series and told the teamthat once I am done, I will be on board.� It is a kid’s fantasy show, are youhaving lots of fun?
We had lots of fun. There are noadults in the scenes with me. There areadults but we are never in the sameframe. The good is that there is gossip,the atmosphere is stress-free. There is anegativity like there might be in other
adult shows — she got this costume, Ididn’t; she got this jewellery, I didn’t.There is no such thing here. Kids arenatural, they have no pretense. Theycome, shoot and go back to their studies.We spent a lot of time together andchatted and generally had fun. I learnta lot from them as well. They are so fullof energy.�Were there any challenges since youare working with kids?
There were no challenges workingwith the kids like I said the kids in theshow are extremely intelligent. I psychedmyself saying that it is a kids’ show so Ineed to have patience working withthem. But they are quick learners. Thechallenge came in the form of gettinginto the look. I have two —one thenormal and the other the evil witch.Switching and change in costume wastime consuming. �How did you get into acting?
I never had plans to get into acting.Acting chose me. I was 12 when mymother’s friend was coordinating for ashow — Tum Bin Jaaoon Kahaan onZee TV — that had a requirement fora girl with curly hair. It was a showby Aruna Irani ProductionHouse. I went for the auditionand got selected. The minute Istood in front of the camera theychose me since I fit their characterto a T. I shot 70-80 episodes. But thenmy Class VII finals came and I had toleave the show. But I kept getting worksometimes back-to-back.�Hero Bhakti Hi Shakti Hai was a roleyou did and grabbed eyeballs. Whatmade the show popular?
It was one of the few superheroshows. Back then, there was justShaktiman. Hero Bhakti… became
popular becausethe story wasinteresting andattracted the kids.Also, every week therewas a new characterthat kept the interest.Kids back thenwatched TV. Today,they are glued to theirmobiles, video gamesand social media.� Is there a role thatyou hated doing?
No, not really. Inever put myself in aposition where Iended up hatingdoing something.Acting is my profession.If I don’t love I can’t dojustice to thecharacters I havedone.� W h a tnext?
At present, I amnot willing to work onanything due to the pandemic. I was evenscared to go out to buy groceries let alonestep out to shoot. But I am committed toNikki Aur… so I will shoot for it but nonew projects for the time being.
assistance for municipal cor-porations in the nationalCapital to disburse salaries toemployees including health-care workers who have not paidfor long amid the pandemic.
“We hope that the MCD’sleadership will guarantee thisassistance is not used for anyother activities and diverted inany way but is used to pay thesalaries to employees involvedin Covid-19 duty,” said DeputyChief Minister Manish Sisodia.
The Deputy Chief Ministersaid that corporations havenot been distributing salaries to
their employees despite all thework they have been doing inthe midst of the pandemic.
This was due to theincompetence and corruptionthat were rampant in the cor-porations.
“It is unacceptable if theyare unable to pay the salaries ofthe medical staff, doctors andnurses who are putting theirlives on the line to save peoplein these unprecedented times,”he said.
Sisodia said that totalfinancial assistance earmarkedfor the MCDs was �1,051 crore,out of which �366.9 crorewould be given to the EastDelhi Municipal Corporation,�432.8 crore to the North Delhi
Municipal Corporation and�251.6 crore to the South DelhiMunicipal Corporation.
“Delhi’s Chief Minister,Arvind Kejriwal has ensuredaid and support to all dedicated frontline workerswho are on Covid duty despitethe scarcity of resources due toCovid-19,” he said.
Replying to Sisodia, DelhiBJP spokesperson PraveenShankar Kapoor said that theDelhi Government has releasedthe funds for the first quarterof the current financial year2021-22 for the three munici-pal corporations after a delay ofalmost 44 days.
“This fund should havebeen released on the first dayof April but the DelhiGovernment intentionallydelayed it and even today it hasbeen released after theLieutenant-Governor’s inter-vention,” he said.
Kapoor said that not onlysanitation and healthcareworkers but even teachersbesides other staff of theMCDs are deployed on Covid-19 duty as frontline workersand it would have been betterhad the Delhi Governmentgiven an additional �1,000crore as Covid-19 contingencyfund.
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Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)senior leader and MLA
Atishi said on Saturday that afresh stock of vaccines, includ-ing 1,73,760 doses ofCovishield arrived in thenational Capital for people inthe 45 plus age group and forhealthcare workers.
Presenting the vaccinationbulletin, the AAP leader saidthat Covaxin’s stock was deplet-ing fast and there were shotsleft for three days only.However, there was enoughCovishield stock for six days forthose in the 45 plus age groupand for healthcare workers.
For the 18-44 age group,the stock of Covaxin has finished and Covishield’s stockis available for eight days, shesaid, adding that the totaldoses administered remainedat 43,67,243 in Delhi untilnow.
Citing the position of theremaining stock of Covid vac-cines in Delhi, Atishi said: “Weall are aware of the fact thatDelhi has been one of themost severely affected States inthe pandemic and we are stillgrappling with the virus.
It is my humble appeal tothe Centre to supply sufficientvaccines, especially for those inthe 18-44 age groups.”
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The national Capital report-ed 337 more coronavirus
deaths and 6,430 infections onSaturday, even though the pos-itivity rate hit 11.32 per cent.
These 6,430 new casescame from 56,811 tests, includ-ing 46,774RTPCR/CBNAAT/True Nattests. As many as 11,592 peo-ple recovered from the infec-tion during the period, thehealth bulletin said.
According to the bulletin,there are 66,295 active casesand 42,484 of the patients arein home isolation. The numberof cumulative cases stands at13,87,411 and the death toll isat 21,244.
As per the data, over12,99,872 people have eitherrecovered, migrated or havebeen discharged from hospital.Of the 24,018 hospital beds forcoronavirus patients in thecity, 7,223 are vacant.
On April 22, a positivityrate of 36.2 per cent, the high-est so far, was recorded and thehighest number of deaths, at448 was reported on May 3.
A senior Government offi-cial said that a team of officersis working round the clock tomonitor the demand and sup-ply of oxygen in the nationalCapital.
“Real-time monitoring ofoxygen tankers is being doneby the team formed by theGovernment to mitigate the
challenges and obstacles in thesupply chain management ofoxygen in the national Capital.The Delhi Government hasalso deputed a team of officersto each of the oxygen plants tomake sure that there are noglitches and any administrativeobstacles in oxygen supply,” hesaid.
The AAP Government hasnot only ramped up testing buthas also worked relentlessly toincrease the number of bedsacross Delhi during the lock-down.
The Government is alsogiving an aggressive push to thevaccination drive, which willfurther help bring down thepositivity rate in the comingdays.
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Delhi Police has registered17 First Information
Reports (FIRs) and arrested 15people for allegedly pastingposters critical of PrimeMinister Narendra Modi’sdecision to send Coronavirusvaccines abroad as part ofIndia’s “vaccine diplomacy.”The posters, with the message“Modiji humare bachon ki vac-cine videsh kyu bhej diya (Modiwhy did you send the vaccines meant for our children to for-eign countries?)” were pasted in several parts of the nationalCapital.
According to a senior police officer, on Thursday, policereceived specific inputs regarding the posters, following whichpolice officials of all districts were put on alert.
“Based on further complaints received by the police acrossthe city, as many as 17 FIRs were registered under Sections 188(disobedience to order duly promulgated by a public servant)of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and other relevant Sections includ-ing Section 3 of the Prevention of Defacement of Property Act,across various districts,” said the senior police officer.
“More FIRs are likely to be registered if further complaintsare received in this regard. As of now, an investigation is under-way to ascertain as to on whose behalf these posters were beingput up at various places across the city and accordingly furtheraction will be taken in the matter,” the officer added.
Giving the details, police said three FIRs were registered inNorth East Delhi and two persons were arrested from there.
“Three FIRs were registered in West and another three FIRsin Outer Delhi while two FIRs were registered in the Central partof the city and four persons were arrested,” said police.
“Two FIRs were registered in Rohini and two persons werearrested, while one FIR was registered in East Delhi and four per-sons were arrested. One FIR was registered in Dwarka and twopersons were arrested,” police said.
Warrant’ (NBW) againstOlympic medalist, Indianwrestler Sushil Kumar, who isabsconding ever since his rolesurfaced in a brawl that led tothe murder of a 23-year-oldbudding wrestler. Sources saidthat a reward is likely to beannounced on information thatleads to his arrest.
“The Investigating Officer(IO) on Saturday moved anapplication before the court toissue an NBW against SushilKumar and six others which wasapproved,” said a senior policeofficer.
After the IO served a noticeto Kumar to join the investiga-tion, he switched off his phoneand has been on the run sincethen. Police teams are con-ducting raids in neighbouringHaryana and at his friends’ res-idences.
The Delhi Police on Fridayhad written a letter to the DelhiGovernment stating that theirofficial, Sushil Kumar, and hisassociate, Ajay Kumar, who is aphysical education teacher, havebeen named by the victims anddepartmental action should betaken against them. Kumar was
appointed ‘Officer on SpecialDuty’ at Chhatrasal Stadium bythe city Government.
Sources said that in order toavoid arrest Kumar, is changinghis location frequently. It hasbeen learnt that Sushil left forHaridwar and then Rishikeshafter the incident. He stayed atan ashram in Haridwar andlater, he returned to Delhi andis now constantly changinglocations in Haryana. He was atan ashram in Sonepat two daysago. Last week, a 23-year-oldwrestler Sagar Dhankad diedand his two friends — AmitKumar and Sonu — got injuredafter they were allegedly assault-ed by other wrestlers in theparking of the ChhatrasalStadium in the northern part ofthe city.
A quarrel had taken placeallegedly between Kumar, Ajay,
Prince, Sonu, Sagar, Amit andothers. Thereafter, police regis-tered a case under relevantSections of the Indian PenalCode (IPC) and Arms Act at theModel Town police station inthis regard. The victims havealleged that Kumar was presentat the spot when the incidenttook place.
The victims in their state-ments have added that Kumarand his associates abductedSagar from his house in ModelTown to teach him a lesson forbad-mouthing him in front ofother wrestlers, police said.
Police had apprehendedone Prince Dalal (24), a residentof Jhajjar in Haryana, in thiscase and had impounded adouble barrel gun. Police recov-ered two double barrel guns,seven live cartridges, two wood-en sticks and five cars.
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Haryana Chief MinisterManohar Lal Khattar will
inaugurate three temporaryCovid care centres inGurugram on May 16 and 17.With these three centres, 500extra beds will be available forthe treatment of Covid patientsin the city.
Deputy CommissionerYash Garg said that Khattar willinaugurate these hospitals atthe Tau Devi Lal Stadium inSector 38, Sector-67 and at theGovernment Girls College inSector 14, during his two-dayvisit to Gurugram.
Garg said that the 100-bedhospital at the Tau Devi LalStadium has been set up withthe help of the Vedanta Group.It will have 80 beds with oxy-gen facility and 20 beds withICU facility. The VedantaGroup has provided the med-ical equipment, while the doc-tors have been arranged by anNGO called ‘Doctors for You.’Apart from this, doctors fromthe Civil Surgeon’s Office willalso be present there.
Similarly, the 300-bedCovid Care Centre in Sector 67
has been set up with the jointefforts of M3M, the CII, theIndian Air Force and ‘Doctorsfor You.’ The Chief Ministerwill inaugurate both these facil-ities on May 16.
Apart from these, Khattarwill inaugurate a 100-bed tem-porary hospital in collaborationwith the Hero Group at the GovtCollege on May 17. This hospi-tal has been built in the collegeauditorium and oxygen-richbeds have been arranged forcorona patients. Here the districtadmin will fulfil the requirementof oxygen, but the Hero Grouphas also made arrangementsfor 100 oxygen concentrators,medicines and doctors in col-laboration with ‘Doctors forYou.’ The Civil Surgeon’s Officewill be supervising the opera-tions here. “Cleanliness and dis-posal of biomedical waste atthese centres will be handled bythe Municipal Corporation ofGurugram and the securityarrangements will be lookedafter by the district police. Thevolunteers of Gurujal Societyand civil defence will also coop-erate in the operation of thesecentres. If any patient becomesserious, then we will shift themto hospital,” Garg said.
Integrated Command andControl Centre (ICCC) againstCovid-19. With the integratedwar room, the Government willhave real-time data regardinghospitals, ICU beds, availabil-ity of oxygen and vaccines,tracking through GPS whichhelp in decision-making.
Delhi Chief MinisterArvind Kejriwal said, “All vac-cine, oxygen and hospital relat-ed data and informationregarding the number ofpatients in a particular area,how many of them are activeand how many have recovered,their geographical distribu-tion, all this data is being cap-tured and analysed on a real-time basis. This is a good startbecause if a Government takesdecisions in the air, then theyare never successful. If theGovernment takes those deci-sions based on data, then theywill be more successful, effec-tive and influential as it will beinformed decision-making.”
He said, “This is just thebeginning. This will be mademore robust as and when wecollect more data. I believe thatthis is a great initiative and Icongratulate all those officers
who have worked hard on this,to make it a success.”
This is inclusive of all pri-vate and Government hospitalsand Covid care centres. Thisdata will also be made availableto those departments of theGovernment that are workingon coronavirus-related infor-mation, through an app.
“If this data is not madeavailable to the officers, thenhow will decisions be taken? Itwill also be reviewed as to howmuch data will be given out tothe general public,” Kejriwalsaid.
On being asked about thepossibility of a third wave of thepandemic, Kejriwal said, “If
you are to see the second wave,the cases are reducing in Delhibut our efforts are not declin-ing.
On Friday, we started 500ICU beds in front of LNJPHospital. Similarly, three daysago we started 500 ICU beds.We are going to install newoxygen beds also. Our effortswill not decline no matterwhat, because we know noth-ing of this disease’s trajectory.So, our preparations will con-tinue. Even the Covid carecentres that were made after thefirst wave but some of whichwere closed down, will now bemade permanent and will bestrengthened even further.”
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A22-year-old woman wasallegedly gang raped by three
unidentified men in Faarrukhnagararea some 20 km away from theGurugram city late on Thursdaynight. The accused had filmed theact which prompted the police toregister a case and form teams toidentify and nab thesuspects.According to the police,the victim, a native of Samastipurdistrict in Bihar, was currentlyresiding with her sister in Sector-52in Gurugram.
The victim told the police thatOn Thursday she along with twomale friends from the muslim com-munity travelled to Judola village ofFaarrukhnagar area on their motor-cycle to looking for meat to cele-brate Eid on Thursday night ataround 11.00 pm."When wereached Jamalpur Chowk, wenoticed that three men in aMahendra Scorpio were chasing ourmotorcycle and later they forciblystopped our bike.
The three men stepped outsidetheir vehicle and thrashed myfriends Abul Shekh and Ajijul," thewoman told the police."Later the
three accused allegedly forciblydragged the trio inside the vehicleto a room located at an isolated plotin Judola village where three bedswere also present. there they heldwoman's male friends hostage andforced themselves on her in turn.They accused had also beat thewoman's friend Ajijul and forcedhim to rape her while doing so thethree men had also filmed thevideo of the incident," she told thepolice said.
"The victims told the accusedthat they were friends and lookingfor meat to celebrate Eid onThursday but theyforcibly raped herand snatched their mobile phonesand motorcycle and later theydropped them near Sapphire Mallin Sector-83 and fled the spot. Thevictims somehow informed thepolice" Poonam Hooda, stationhouse officer (SHO) of Manesarwomen police station said.Thepolice said that they have identifiedthe culprits who are all residents ofJudola village of Faarrukhnagarand one of them runs a road sidedhaba. The vehicle belongs to theirfriend and they were going toattend a marriage when they com-mitted the crime.
New Delhi: The Unique IdentificationAuthority of India (UIDAI) on Saturdaysaid in a statement that no one will bedenied vaccine, medicine, hospitalisationor treatment for want of Aadhaar.
The statement has come in the pre-sent Covid-19 pandemic situationsagainst certain reports suggesting thatvaccination and a few other essential ser-vices like hospitalisation were beingdenied to the residents for want ofAadhaar.
UIDAI said that in the Covid pan-demic circumstances, no one shall bedenied a service/benefit just becausehe/she doesn't have an Aadhaar.If onedoes not have Aadhaar or if Aadhaaronline verification is not successful dueto some reason, the concerned agency ordepartment has to provide the service asper Section 7 of Aadhaar Act, 2016 andthe Cabinet Secretariat OM dated 19thDec 2017, UIDAI said in a state-ment.UIDAI said that Aadhaar shouldnot be misused as an excuse for denialof any essential service.
There is a well established exceptionhandling mechanism (EHM) for
Aadhaar and it should be followed toensure delivery of benefits and servicesin the absence of Aadhaar.
If a resident does not possessAadhaar for some or the other reason,she/he must not be denied essential ser-vices as per Aadhaar Act.
UIDAI said that Aadhaar is meantto bring transparency and accountabil-ity in public service deliveries througheffective use of technology and there areexception handling regulations issued byUIDAI vide its circular dated October 24,2017 to ensure that no beneficiary isdenied of benefits/services for the wantof Aadhaar.Also, relevant provisions arethere in the Aadhaar Act under Section7 to ensure that there is no exclusion andno denials.
Further, the Cabinet Secretariat OMdated December 19, 2017 has clearlyexplained the exception handling mech-anism by using alternate means of iden-tification for extending benefits and ser-vices to the residents who do not poss-es Aadhaar or in cases where Aadhaarauthentication is not successful due toany reason. PTI
Itanagar: The ArunachalPradesh Government onSaturday extended the lock-down in the capital complex for14 days till 5 am on May 31 inview of the spurt in Covid-19cases in the region.
The capital complex region,comprising Itanagar, Naharlagunand Banderdewa areas, is cur-rently under a seven- day lock-down from May 10. CapitalDeputy Commissioner Talo Potom said the extension oflockdown will come into forcefrom 5 am on May 17 and con-
tinue till 5 am on May 31.
"The restrictions are beingimposed as a precautionary mea-sure to contain the sudden surge of Covid-19 inthe region," Potom said. Barring outlets of ration,meat, vegetable and dairy prod-ucts, all shops and businessestablishments will remain shutduring the period.
Certain shops in sectors andcolonies of the region will beallowed to open on a rotationbasis, he said. PTI
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Ahmedabad: The Covid-19 tallyof Gujarat reached 7,44,409 after9,061 cases were detected onSaturday, while the number ofpeople who were discharged dur-ing the day stood at 15,076, anofficial said.
The number of deaths fromthe infection on Saturday was 95,the first time the daily fatalitycount had fallen below the 100-mark since April 17, he pointedout. The state's toll stands at9,039, and the recovery count is
6,24,017, which is 83.84 per centof the tally, leaving it with an activecaseload of 1,11,263, including 791on ventilator support, the officialadded.
"Ahmedabad saw 2,460 cases,followed by 1,034 in Vadodara,806 in Surat, 476 in Rajkot, 433 inJunagadh among other districts.Of the deaths recorded during theday, Surat led with 14, followed byAhmedabad with 12, Rajkot 10,Vadodara nine, Jamnagar seven,"he said. PTI
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Avideo of a daily-wager car-rying the corpse of his 11-
year-old daughter on his shoul-ders in Punjab's Jalandhar hasgone viral on social media,prompting district authorities toorder a probe into the incident.
In the video, which was shotby some passersby on May 10,Dilip can be seen carrying thebody of his daughter Sonu on hisshoulders to the cremationground for her last rites. His sonwas also with him.
Talking to the media onSaturday, Dilip said his daughterhad not been well and he took herto a hospital in Amritsar for treat-ment on the advice of doctors ata Jalandhar hospital.
He said his daughter died onthe evening of May 9 at theAmritsar hospital. After hebrought the body to his room inRam Nagar in Jalandhar, hisneighbours did not come forwardto help him fearing that the girlwas a Covid-19 patient, saidDilip, who hails fromOdisha.
newspapers, London and Mauritiusnewspapers reported the charges byGeneva and Mauritius tribunals againstPrakash Hinduja’s son Ajay Hinduja.
The reports flagged the illegalities inholding companies in Mauritius whichcontrols the entire firms of HindujaGroup. Apart from the violations inMauritius, Sunday Telegraph of Londonreported in a case of alleged forgeryagainst billionaire businessman AjayHinduja, which has added to the woesof one of India’s richest families.
According to the story published onSunday (February 7), Ajay was subjectof a criminal order in a Geneva court inDecember 2019 on a charge of forginga document at a bank. The Swiss pros-ecutor believed there were grounds toproceed against Ajay Hinduja, who hasdenied any wrongdoing. The Geneva
prosecutor’s office confirmed that he hadchallenged and the matter is due to beheard in court, but has been delayed dueto Covid. The four Hinduja brothers --- Sirichand P Hinduja, GopichandHinduja, Prakash P Hinduja and AshokP Hinduja -- are for the past two yearsbickering over transfer of shares to thenext generation. It is mainly because ofthe e family tussles that Ashok Hindujaand Prakash Hinduja’s son Ajay are fac-ing legal troubles in Mauritius andGeneva courts.
According to lawyers, Sirichandand Gopichand are unhappy with thehandling the affairs of the operation ofthe companies across the World.
The family disputes started inNovember 2020, when Ajay stood for re-election as Director in the AnnualGeneral Meeting of the Mauritius-reg-istered company IndusInd InternationalHoldings Ltd or IIHL. His uncle, AshokHinduja who lives in India chaired theboard. Other elder brothers are settledin London and Switzerland.
From Page 1Some of the worst affected
nations like the USA and Brazilrecorded a CFR of below 3 per-cent on Friday.
The Delhi abnormally highCFR is by no means a case ofaberration. The same trendhas persisted for over a week.A week-long calculation showsthat the national Capitalrecorded 88,114 cases betweenMay 7 and 14 with an averageof 12,600 per day. During thisperiod, Delhi recorded 2,178cases. The CFR for the weeksstands 4 plus pc, which isagain very high on every countand comparison.
Compared to Delhi, Keralahas the lowest case fatality rateof .5 per cent even though theState is recording high number
of cases every day.The situation in the nation-
al Capital is baffling becausethe state government hasresolved the oxygen crisis andalso taken steps to ensure thatissues related to unavailabilityof beds don’t come in the wayof hospitalisation of any seriouspatients.
Incidentally, at the peak ofthe first corona wave inNovember last year, Delhi hadrecorded a CFR of around 1.2per cent. The national capitalrecorded 6,746 new Covid-19cases on November 20, 2020,with the day’s death count of121. At that time, severalexperts had claimed that therise in the death count was dueto pollution caused by stubbleburning. Now that there hasbeen a near three-fold rise inthe CFR, nothing on the sur-face explains this spike.
From Page 1Three heavy missiles struck
the 12-story building, collaps-ing it in a giant cloud of dust.
For 15 years, the AP’s top-floor office and roof terracewere a prime location for cov-ering Israel’s conflicts withGaza’s Hamas rulers, includingwars in 2009 and 2014. Thenews agency’s camera offered24-hour live shots as militants’rockets arched toward Israeland Israeli airstrikes hammeredthe city and its surroundingarea this week.
“The world will know lessabout what is happening inGaza because of what hap-pened today,” AP Presidentand CEO Gary Pruitt said ina statement. “We are shockedand horrified that the Israelimilitary would target anddestroy the building housingAP’s bureau and other newsorganizations in Gaza.”
“This is an incredibly dis-turbing development. We nar-rowly avoided a terrible loss oflife,” he said, adding that the APwas seeking information fromthe Israeli government andwas engaged with the US StateDepartment to learn more.
The building also housedthe offices of Qatari-run Al-Jazeera TV, as well as residen-tial apartments. The Israelimilitary said Hamas was oper-ating inside the building, astandard explanation, and itaccused the militant group ofusing journalists as humanshields. But it provided no evi-
dence to back up the claims.Hours earlier, another
Israeli air raid on a denselypopulated refugee camp killedat least 10 Palestinians from anextended family, mostly chil-dren, the deadliest single strikeof the current conflict.
The New York-basedCommittee to ProtectJournalists demanded Israel“provide a detailed and docu-mented justification” for thestrike.
“This latest attack on abuilding long known by Israelto house international mediaraises the specter that the IsraelDefense Forces is deliberatelytargeting media facilities inorder to disrupt coverage of thehuman suffering in Gaza,” thegroup’s executive director, JoelSimon, said in a statement.
Since Monday night,Hamas has fired hundreds ofrockets into Israel, which haspounded the Gaza Strip withstrikes. In Gaza, at least 139people have been killed, includ-ing 39 children and 22 women;in Israel, eight people have beenkilled, including a man killedby a rocket that hit in RamatGan, a suburb of Tel Aviv, onSaturday.
The latest outburst of vio-lence started in Jerusalem andspread across the region overthe past week, with Jewish-Arab clashes and rioting inmixed cities of Israel. Therewere also widespreadPalestinian protests Friday inthe occupied West Bank, whereIsraeli forces shot and killed 11people.
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To quote from BengalGovernment records, the State hadregistered a single day spike of 812cases with the death of two personson March 27 the first election day.By April 4 the number of daily spikehad reached 2,000. By April 11 it hadbreached 4,000 mark. And then ina week’s time it had more than dou-bled. In the next one week the totalnumber of daily cases had witnesseda near 100 per cent rise with morethan 15,000 cases.
While in the first week of Maythe figure was hovering around17,000 the number has crossed21,000 post Friday, HealthDepartment sources said, adding,however, that the percentage rate ofdaily spike had come down by afraction in the past few days to about30 per cent.
To hammer home their point,the Government health experts saidthe rate of increase has been high-er particularly in the areas that wit-nessed large rallies:
For instance North and South24 Parganaas, East Midnapore,Howrah, Nadia and Capital Kolkata.
The number of samples testedin the 24 hours interveningThursday and Friday for the firsttime exceeded 70,000 (70,473) withthe number of active cases going upto 1,28,684. Kolkata and North 24Parganas have recorded the highestnumber of 44 deaths. The death tollin the State has also mounted to12,993 after 136 more people diedon Friday.
“In the first wave, we managedto save rural areas of the state butthis time the situation is alarmingessentially because of rallies androadshows …the doctors had beenrepeatedly asking the politicians to
avoid large rallies but they would notlisten,” which is why we are in sucha mess … otherwise Bengal was ina comparatively better situation,”said Dr Sibashis Banerjee.
Criticising the ElectionCommission for holding elections in8 phases TMC MP Saugato Roy said,“We asked them to bring it down to3 or 4 phases because of the pan-demic situation but they would notlisten …everyone knows why …now the people will have to bear thebrunt.”
Congress Lok Sabha leaderAdhir Chowdhury too said, “We hadasked the poll panel to stop electionsafter the fourth phase till the situa-tion improved but they did not lis-ten to us.”
In fact it required two strongorders from Madras and CalcuttaHigh Courts for the elections to takesteps towards curbing big rallies. Butby then the damage had been done,experts said.
From Page 1On February 27, there were 3,792
new cases diagnosed in Kerala while thedeath figures stood at 18. The ChiefMinister asked the people in the Statenot to violate the protocols and guide-lines prescribed by the Governmentduring the campaign. It is not knownwhether the message has gone downwell with the people.
On March 15, the number of newpatients had come down to 1,054while the fatalities reported in that daystood at 11. “Since then the flood gateswere opened and there was no lookingback. While election campaign peaked,all leaders cutting across party linesthrew the protocols to the winds andthat’s why we are in a grave situationas on today,” said Dr Rajeeve, physician,who leads the rapid response team ofmedical doctors and health workers inErnakulam district. He said the openviolation of the dos and don’ts hasresulted in the triple lockdown of the
district and extension of lockdown inthe State.
Dr D Reghu, head of the depart-ment of pathology, GovernmentHomeopathy College, Trivandrum fullyagreed with Dr Rajeeve. “There shouldhave been stringent regulations inplace. The leaders themselves shouldhave set an example to the followers andcadres by observing these guidelineswith diligence,” said Dr Reghu, who isthe secretary of Arogya Baharati.
The figures for March 30 showed2,389 new cases with 16 deaths andTPR (Test positivity ratio) of four per-cent marked the arrival of Covid’s sec-ond wave in the State. The festival ofdemocracy came to a close on April 6while the festivities of Vishu ended onApril 15. “The balance sheet for April15 read 8,126 new cases, 20 deaths andTPR of 13 percent. Since then it was anorth-bound journey,” said Dr Madhu,senior Government Physician atErnakulam. He is of the view that theGovernment and the ECO shouldhave decided to postpone the polls tillthe pandemic subsided.
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From Page 1The campaigns, which
directly and indirectly, involvedtens of thousands of people ona daily basis, provided coronathe perfect manure for growth.On April 6 when the three-phase poll ended,
Assam was still recordinga two-digit caseload (92), butthe virus had spread far andwide during the six-seven weekof campaigning. With everypassing of day more and morecases began to surface and thedeath count also rose propor-tionately.
The State is witnessing4,000-plus cases and 75 deathsper day during the last oneweek. There will be fewinstances of such multiplicationof cases in any other parts ofthe country.
For example take the caseof Maharashtra, the worstaffected state in the country.On February 26 the Staterecorded 8,333 cases and 48deaths. Subsequently, the staterecorded nearly 70,000 cases atthe peak, which translates intoa below nine-time rise.Compare that with Assam’sphenomenal growth of nearly1,225 per cent, and the impactof poll mobilisation on thespread of corona is crystalclear.
From Page 1Puducherry has seen more
than 60-time rise in the num-ber of cases during this period,the better part of which was inthe throes of aggressive pollcampaigning. The poll in theUT took place on April 6.
While it’s true that on April6, the State was relatively safefrom the scourge of corona, butthe data were misleading. TheUT recorded no fatality on thatdate and the caseload on thatday was just around 225. Butthe bomb exploded after thepolls when infections began tospread. In the last one week, thenumber of new infections hasgrown by an average of 2.4 percent every day and the casefatality ratio is 1.4 percent,way ahead of country’s averageof around 1.2 per cent.
From Page 1The day the Chief Election
Commissioner announced thepoll schedule for the State,Tamil Nadu had logged 481new cases with five deaths.The State had 4,046 activepatients undergoing treatmentfor Covid-19.
Dr C V Krishnaswamy,eminent physician, who hadbeen monitoring the “progress”of the Covid-19 curve from dayone itself, had declined to makeany comment when the polldates were announced. “This isnot the ideal time to hold theelection in Tamil Nadu. But I donot know the nitty gritty of pol-itics and you may kindly leaveme alone,” Dr Krishnaswamyhad told The Pioneer on thatday.
On March 14, the Statediagnosed 759 new personswith pandemics. There werefour deaths recorded from allover the State with test positiv-ity rate of 1.13 per cent. ByMarch 21, the number of newpersons diagnosed with Covid-19 rose to 1,289 with 9 fatalities.Since then there was no goingback in Tamil Nadsu. By March28, the figures read 2.194 newcases, 11 deaths and TPR 2.58per cent. Campaigning wasapproaching the peak as facemasks had altogether disap-peared and there were no socialdistancing norms.
Data provided by theDirectorate of Health andPreventive Medicine in subse-quent days showed a steady andspeedy hike in the transmissionof the pandemic. While onApril 6, there were 3,645 newcases and 15 deaths, the TPR
rose to 4.54.By April 20, the figure for
new cases neared the 11,000mark (10,986 to be precise) and48 deaths were logged. The TPRwas 11.07 percent. On May 7,the State saw the number ofnew patients reaching 26,465with 197 deaths and 18.21 percent TPR.
Since May 9, the State hasdeclared total lockdown whichhas been extended to May 24.
“It was the peak of callous-ness and irresponsibility thatmade the authorities go aheadwith the election.
The free-for-all campaignin Tamil Nadu was notunknown to the authorities inthe State. They should not havegone ahead with the poll at thisjuncture,” said Dr T Jacob John,a renowned virologist whoheaded the Christian MedicalCollege Vellore.
From Page 1There were very few cases before Covid-19, but a large
number of cases are only being reported in recent timesdue to the coronavirus disease infection, which affectsimmunity. Since steroids like dexamethasone also repressthe immune system, it is necessary to be extra carefulregarding its use, now more so than ever.
The statement follows several deaths being reportedfrom the country due to infections caused by the black fun-gus.
Earlier in the day, the Haryana Health Minister AnilVij said black fungus has been declared a notified diseasein the state. “Now, if any cases of this disease are found,the doctors will have to report them to the concerned chiefmedical officer (CMO),” Vij said.
Dr Anoop Misra, Chairman. Fortis CDOC Hospitalfor Diabetes and Allied Sciences said, “physicians shoulduse steroids judiciously, and use insulin aggressively to con-trol sugar. Once that is done, black fungus will not occur.”
Experts say that those with compromised immune sys-tems, for example, those with blood cancer undergoingchemotherapy or bone-marrow transplant (BMT) patientswho can’t form neutrophils-a type of white blood cell thatdefends against infections-in the initial weeks, are vul-nerable to black fungus.
From Page 1There were reports that a high number of imported ven-
tilators have not even been unpacked weeks after they arrivedin the country. The PM further said that refresher trainingfor properly operating ventilators should be provided tohealthcare workers if necessary.
He also spoke about empowering ASHA & Anganwadiworkers with all necessary tools. Modi asked for guidelinesto be made available in easy language along with illustrationsfor home isolation and treatment in rural areas.
Top officials briefed the Prime Minister saying testinghas gone up rapidly in the country, from around 50 lakh testsper week in early March to around 1.3 crore tests per weeknow. Modi has been taking regular high-level meetings toreview of Covid19 situation with a focus on Oxygen supply,increased vaccination and ways to prevent spread of Covid19in rural areas.
From Page 1India is in the midst of a
deadly wave of the coronaviruspandemic, with 3,43,144 peo-ple testing positive for thevirus on Friday, taking thecountry’s caseload to2,40,46,809. The death tollstands at 2,62,317.
India’s Covid-19 tallycrossed the 10 million mark onDecember 19 and in under sixmonths it has doubled, sur-passing the grim milestone of20 million cases onMay 4.
Ghebreyesus pointed outthat the emergency-like situa-tion was not restricted to India.
“Nepal, Sri Lanka,Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailandand Egypt are just some of thecountries that are dealing withspikes in cases and hospitali-sations,” he said adding thatsome countries in the Americasstill have high numbers ofcases and as a region, theAmericas accounted for 40 percent of all Covid-19 deaths lastweek.
There are also spikes insome countries in Africa.“These countries are in height-ened response mode andWHO will continue to providesupport in all ways possible,” hesaid.
Noting that Covid-19 hasalready cost more than 3.3million lives across the world,Ghebreyesus said, “We’re ontrack for the second year of thispandemic to be far more dead-ly than the first.
From Page 1In the absence of any cure of Covid-
19, patients and their relatives havebeen desperately seeking plasma donors,making requests on social media liketweeter. In fact since last year during theCovid-19 spread, States like Delhi andMaharashtra set up the plasma bank, fordonors and needy.
However, the Union HealthMinistry’s AIIMS-ICMR National CovidTask Force guidelines issued on April 22had allowed the “off label” use of plasmatherapy at the stage of early moderate dis-ease, i.e, within seven days of the onsetof symptoms, and if there is availabilityof a high titre donor plasma.
Disagreeing with the Ministry’s pro-tocol, a group of 18 clinicians and pub-lic health professionals last week wroteto the Central Government asking it tochange guidelines in this regard.Agreeing with the study, Dr CS Pramesh,Thoracic surgeon and director of TataMemorial Hospital tweeted, “We have to
let science decide our treatment policy.Not personal opinions, eminence, orexperience. And based on very good sci-ence, we now know that#ConvalescentPlasma is not useful in#Covid-19.”
As per the study, between 28 May2020 and 15 January 2021, 13,127 (81 percent) of 16,287 patients enrolled into therecovery trial were eligible to receive con-valescent plasma. Of this, 1,569 (12 percent) were randomly assigned to theREGN-COV-2 group and are not includ-ed in the study. Of the remaining 11,558patients, 5,795 were randomly assignedto the convalescent plasma group and5,763 to the usual care group.
Outcomes were assessed at 28 daysafter randomisation, with additionalanalyses specified at 6 months.
The study found no significant dif-ference in 28-day mortality between thetwo groups: 1,399 (24 per cent) of 5,795patients died in the convalescent plasmagroup and 1,408 (24 per cent) of 5,763patients died in the usual care group. Themedian time to discharge was 12 days inthe convalescent plasma group and 11
days in the usual care group.“Patients in the convalescent plasma
group had a similar probability of beingdischarge alive within 28 days comparedwith the usual care group (3832 [66 percent] of 5,795 patients in the convales-cent plasma group vs 3822 [66 per cent]of 5,763 patients in the usual care group,”the study said.
Even in terms of progressing to sec-ondary outcomes, which include requir-ing intrusive medical ventilation, thestudy found no difference in the twogroups.
“The number of patients progressingto the pre-specified composite secondaryoutcome of invasive mechanical ventila-tion or death was similar in the twogroups (1,568 [29 per cent] of 5493patients in the convalescent plasmagroup vs 1568 [29 per cent] of 5,448patients in the usual care group,” the studysaid.
“The results of this large, randomisedtrial show that convalescent plasma didnot improve survival or other clinical out-comes in patients hospitalised withCovid-19,” the study said.
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Former Congress chief RahulGandhi on Saturday called
for a national vaccine strategyand claimed that theGovernment’s “disastrous”inoculation policy will “ensurea devastating third wave” in thecountry.
He also accused the primeminister of making “motherGanga cry” after bodies of sus-pected coronavirus victimswere found floating in theriver.
“The Government ofIndia’s (GOI’s) disastrous vac-cine strategy will ensure a dev-astating third wave. It can’t berepeated enough - India needsa proper vaccine strategy,” hesaid on Twitter.
Tagging media reportsclaiming that over 2,000 bod-ies have been found in 1140 kmarea along the Ganga, healleged, “One who used to say‘Ganga’ has called him hasmade Mother Ganga cry.”
Rahul and the Congresshave been attacking the primeminister and his governmentover its vaccine strategy andhandling of the pandemic.
Senior Congress leader andformer Union Finance MinisterP. Chidambaram too slammedthe government over theissuance of 1.23 lakh death cer-tificates between March 1 toMay 10 this year in Gujarat and
said that government, in con-junction with some state gov-ernments, is suppressing theactual numbers of new infec-tions and Covid-related deaths.
“The increase was analarming number of about65,000 death certificates. Thisincrease cannot be explained asa natural annual increase in thenumber of deaths. It can onlybe attributed to a pandemic orany other natural disaster,” theCongress leader said.
Hitting out at the govern-ment, Chidambaram said thatthe party’s suspicion on theactual death toll were confirmed by the fact thathundreds of unidentified bodies have been found floating on the river Ganga andnearly 2,000 unidentified bod-ies have been found buried onthe sands along the riverGanga.
“We have a strong suspi-cion that the Government ofIndia, in conjunction withsome State Governments, issuppressing the true numbersof new infections and 18Covid-related deaths,” healleged.
He said, “If our suspicionsare true, this is a grave misdeed
apart from being a nationalshame and a national tragedy.”
C h i d a m b a r a m said that Central governmentand the Gujarat governmentowe an explanation to the peo-ple of India. “We demandanswers and an explanation,” headded.
Chidambaram also saidthat the National HumanRights Commission shouldcollect the true numbers fromevery state about the death cer-tificate issued last year and thisyear.
In a separate tweet, RahulGandhi appealed to people tostay safe after cyclone Tauktaewarning was issued by thegovernment in many states. Healso appealed to Congressworkers to provide all assis-tance to those in need.
“May 15 Cyclone Alert hasbeen issued in Kerala,Maharashtra, Goa, Tamil Nadu,Gujarat and Karnataka.Cyclone Tauktae is alreadycausing heavy rains in manyareas.
“I appeal to Congressworkers to provide all possibleassistance to those in need.Please stay safe,” he said onTwitter.
cyclonic storm ‘Tauktae’ (pro-nounced as Tau’Te) in theArabian Sea have left a trail ofdestruction in Kerala’s coastalareas on Saturday, the IndiaMeteorological Department(IMD) said the cyclone‘Tauktae’ has intensified andlikely to intensify into a ‘verysevere cyclonic storm’ in thenext 12 to 15 hours with a windspeed of 120 to 130 kmph gust-ing to 145 kmph. It is alsoexpected to move north north-westwards and cross theGujarat coast betweenPorbandar and Naliya as avery severe cyclonic stormaround May 18 afternoon orevening. The IMD has placeda ‘cyclone watch’ for southGujarat and Diu coasts.
This is the first cyclonicstorm this year as India fightsa deadly second wave of Covid,which has led to a frighteningsurge in the country’s caseloadover the last two months.Many flights have been can-celled for Kerala, Mumbai, andAhmedabad due to bad weath-er on Saturday. Officials saidthat Tauktae intensified veryrapidly from a depression to acyclone on Friday. “There weretwo more cyclones in the pastwith similar tracks. One in1933 between May 13 to 19 andanother in 1975 between May20 and 21,” he said.
Prime Minister NarendraModi has reviewed the pre-paredness of states, centralministries and agencies con-cerned to deal with the situa-tion arising out of cycloneTauktae and asked them to takeevery possible measure toensure that people are safelyevacuated. He also called for
ensuring maintenance of allessential services such aspower, telecommunications,health and drinking and theirimmediate restoration in theevent of damages caused tothem, a statement said.
The IMD said the cyclonicstorm will be a very severecyclonic storm from May 16-18and cross the Gujarat coast onMay 18. Along with Gujarat,coastal areas of Goa,Maharashtra, Kerala,Karnataka and Tamil Naduhave been put on alert after theIMD said the impact of thecyclone will be felt in thesoutheast, east-central andnortheast Arabian Sea,Lakshadweep islands, Maldivesarea, triggering heavy rainfallin coastal and adjoining dis-tricts of all states.
“Very heavy to extremelyheavy rainfall “causing flashfloods and landslides” overthe coastal districts of Kerala,Karnataka and Goa till Sundayand Saurashtra, Kutch inGujarat on Tuesday andWednesday is expected, theIMD has said. Fishermen havebeen asked to avoid heading toArabian Sea till Tuesday,tourism activities have beenrestricted and necessary pre-cautions have been advisedfor naval operations in antici-pation of rough sea. Tidalwave of about 2-3 m above
astronomical tide is likely toinundate coastal areas ofMorbi, Kutch, DevbhoomiDwarka and Jamnagar dis-tricts and 1-2 meters alongPorbandar, Junagarh, GirSomnath, Amreli, Bhavnagarand 0.5 to 1m over the remain-ing coastal districts of Gujarat,IMD has warned. The cycloneis likely to cause rain - of vary-ing intensity -in parts of TamilNadu and Rajasthan too.
Due to the bad weather,Air carriers like Vistara andIndiGo have already issued atravel advisory to passengerstravelling to and fromC h e n n a i ,Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi,Bengaluru, Mumbai, Pune,Goa, and Ahmedabad. As perthe advisory issued by Vistaraon Saturday, flights to andfrom Chennai,Thiruvanathapuram, Kochi,Bengaluru, Mumbai, Pune,Goa and Ahmedabad might beimpacted till May 17 due to theadverse weather conditionsexpected over the Arabian Seatriggered by cycloneTauktae.Due to the adverseweather conditions expectedover the Arabian Sea, flights toand from Chennai,Thiruvanathapuram, Kochi,Bengaluru, Mumbai, Pune,Goa and Ahmedabad are like-ly to be impacted till May 17,2021,” it said. IndiGo alsoissued a travel advisory statingthat flights to and from Kerala’sKannur.The airline tweeted,“Travel Advisory: Due toCyclone Tauktae, f lightsto/from Kannur are impacted.You may visit Plan B to opt foralternate options or get arefund.”
According to the IMD,over Devbhoomi Dwarka,Kutch, Porbandar, Junagarh,Gir Somnath and Jamnagar
districts of Gujarat extensivedamage is expected on May 18.There could be total destruc-tion of thatched houses orextensive damage to kutchahouses; some damage to puccahouses; threat from flyingobjects; bending/ uprootingof power and communicationpoles; major damage to kutchaand pucca roads; flooding ofescape routes; minor disrup-tion of railways; overheadpower lines and signalling sys-tems; widespread damage tosalt pans and standing cropsetc. Similar damage is alsoexpected in Amreli, Rajkotand Morbi districts.
Visuals showed that fromThiruvananthapuram in thesouth to Kasaragod in thenorth, hundreds of familiesliving close to the sea have hadto abandon their homes andrush to relief camps set up bythe state government in the faceof massive sea-incursions.Several houses close to the seain districts like Kasaragod,Kannur, Kozhikode, Thrissur,Ernakulam and Alappuzhahave been partially or com-pletely damaged by the impactof the cyclone.
In cities like Kochi,Kozhikode andThiruvananthapuram, thereare widespread reports ofwaterlogging due to overflow-ing drains and canals.Rupturing of trees and electricposts have resulted in power outages and damage tovehicles,
Airports Authority of India(AAI) has took stock of the pre-paredness of western coastalairports in. Southern Regionand Western Region airportsthrough a Video Conferenceand directed the concernedairports to take all precautionsand plan preparedness.
cy coming into effect fromSaturday for its over 2 billionusers, including more than 400million in India, industryexperts emphasised that theGovernment must implementstricter data privacy rules andrestrain the Facebook-ownedapp as was done while banningChinese apps to protect thesovereignty of the country.
Giving an interim solacefor those who do not accept thenew policy, WhatsApp has saidthat its users will not immedi-ately lose their accounts or facecurtailed functionalities on theplatform on May 15, but theywill have to eventually gothrough limited functions ifthey fail to accept the newnorms in the due course oftime.
On Thursday, a seniorMinistry of Electronics andIT official said during anAssocham event that theGovernment is pro-activelylooking at a best possible actionover the new WhatsApp pri-vacy policy.
MeitY Special Secretaryand Financial Advisor JyotiArora stated that the ministryis aware about the fact thatGermany has banned the pri-vacy policy of WhatsApp.
“There is no judicial orderin favour of WhatsApp. Inview of the unlawful nature ofthis privacy policy, the gov-ernment should restrainWhatsApp as was done whilebanning Chinese apps to pro-tect sovereignty of India,” saidAdvocate Virag Gupta, who isarguing K.N. Govindacharya’smatter before the Delhi HighCourt for disclosure of detailsof designated officers of socialmedia companies.
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Union Health MinisterHarsh Vardhan on
Saturday said India will have51.6 crore Covid-19 vaccinedoses by July end including the18 crore doses already admin-istered.
Vardhan reviewed the pub-lic health response to Covid-19and progress of vaccinationwith Uttar Pradesh, MadhyaPradesh, Andhra Pradesh andGujarat.
These states are depictinga higher growth rate in thenumber of daily cases, rise inpositivity, high mortality andsaturation of healthcare capac-ity.
The Minister highlightedthe critical challenges faced bythe states.
Vardhan expressed a strongview that the present plateau-ing of Covid cases should notbe taken as a sign for compla-cency but as a breathing spaceto expand, revamp andimprove Health Infrastructure.
State health administratorswere advised to increase ICU
and oxygenated beds, under-take oxygen audits, take stockof availability of medicines inthe state and strengthen theirmedical workforce.
A common point of con-sensus among the state healthMinisters was that vaccineshad resulted in milder formsof Covid thereby preventingloss of precious lives.
Taking note of the fact thatall the states require morevaccines to expand their vac-cine coverage, Vardhan said,“Production is being steadilyramped up to cater to
increased demand while vac-cines that are being producednow continue to be equitablyapportioned and swiftly sent tostates/UTs.”
Detailing the ramping upof vaccine production, he said,“We will have 51.6 crore vac-cine doses by the end of Julyincluding the 18 crore dosesalready administered. Sputnikhas been approved.
This along with the slatedapproval of the new vaccine ofZydus Cadila, Serum Instituteof India- Novavax vaccine,Bharat Biotech’s nasal vaccine
and the Genova mRNA vac-cine will push the availabilityof Covid vaccines to 216 croredoses in the August-Decemberperiod.”
Union Minister of State forHealth, Ashwini KumarChoubey assured his col-leagues in states that the Uniongovernment will listen to alltheir requirements and try tofulfill them as per capacity.
States were advised toensure complete utilization ofavailable vaccination slots for45+ age-group, health careworkers, frontline workerswith awareness campaigns forconveying the importance ofcompleting the second dose ofvaccine.
It was reiterated that Statesneed to focus on reduction ofvaccine wastage as that will befactored in subsequent alloca-tions to that state.
States were advised to con-stitute a 2/3-member team atState level on the lines of thededicated team at UnionHealth Ministry to regularlycoordinate with manufactur-ers for timely supplies of vac-cine through ‘other than gov-ernment of India channel’ andalso to coordinate with privatehospitals for their procure-ment.
The Union HealthMinistry has already sharedthe list of private hospitalsalong with doses contractedand supplied with state/UTs.
Amid estimates of predictionof a third wave of Covid-
19, the CRPF headquarters hasdirected its medical directorateto prepare for this and keep theinfrastructure created duringthe first wave of the pandem-ic as also the equipment fullyoperational to face the eventu-ality.
The whole nation is hit bythe second wave of Covidand the CRPF has also notbeen left untouched by this.During the course of the pan-demic, the paramilitary hasput in all the efforts tostrengthen medical infra-structure which was devel-oped during the first wave andhas succeeded to some extent,officials said.
“Factoring in the predic-tion of the third wave, theCompetent Authority hasdesired that top priority mustbe given to maintenance ofinfrastructure/equipmentdeveloped so far and theyshould be kept functional andin working order, and regu-larly reviewed and audited ina compact manner, a seniorofficial said.
The headquarters has alsodirected all the sectors, med-ical directorates and compos-ite hospitals to take requisiteaction and submit a report ofaction taken for perusal of theDirector General KuldiepSingh, they said.
In a record of sorts, the3.25 lakh-strong force hascompleted the vaccinationagainst Covid-19 with boththe doses barring about 8,500personnel who could not be
administered the doses due totemporary postings or comor-bidities. Those left from vac-cination are being sought tobe inoculated in top priorityafter stabilising their comor-bidities fixing posting issues.
The CRPF is the leadagency for counter-insur-gency, anti-terror operationsand law and order duties. Ithas a strong deployment inJammu and Kashmir, Naxal-hit States and the Northeast.
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Senior Congress leader andformer Union Finance
Minister P Chidambaram onSaturday slammed the CentralGovernment over the issuanceof 1.23 lakh death certificatesbetween March 1 to May 10 thisyear in Gujarat and said that theGovernment, in conjunctionwith some State Governments,is suppressing the actual num-bers of new infections andCovid-related deaths.
Addressing a press confer-ence here virtually,Chidambaram said, “On May14, Divya Bhaskar, a Gujaratilanguage newspaper, publisheda news story that sent shockwaves throughout Gujarat andthe country.”
He said that the thrust ofthe story was that during theperiod March 1 to May 10 ofthis year (2021), Gujarat issuedabout 1,23,000 death certifi-cates as against about 58,000death certificates issued duringthe same period last year(2020).
“The increase was analarming number of about65,000 death certificates. Thisincrease cannot be explained asa natural annual increase in thenumber of deaths. It can onlybe attributed to a pandemic orany other natural disaster,” theCongress leader said.
He said that the Congresshad independently verified thetwo numbers referred to for theperiod of 71 days.
“We have collected thenumbers from 33 districts(including the cities), the sumof the number of the death cer-tificates nearly tallies with thenumbers published by DivyaBhaskar -- 1,23,873 in 2021 ver-sus 58,068 in 2020.
“During the period March1, 2021 to May 10, 2021, thegovernment of Gujarat hasofficially admitted to only 4,218Covid-related deaths,” he said.
“The difference betweenthe increase in the number ofdeath certificates (65,805) andthe official Covid-relateddeaths (4,218) must beexplained. It cannot beexplained as ‘natural annualincrease’ or ‘due to other caus-es’. We have a strong suspicionthat the bulk of the increasednumber of deaths is due toCovid and the state govern-ment is suppressing the truenumber of 18 Covid-relateddeaths,” Chidambaram said.
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With 11 States reportingover one lakh active
Covid-19 cases while eight haveactive cases between 50,000and one lakh and 17 have lessthan 50,000 cases, India is pre-senting a mixed trend of Covid-19 situation in the country evenas the Government on Saturdayasserted that overall, the situa-tion is stabilising.
India in a day recorded3,26,098 Covid-19 cases thattook the tally to 2,43,72,907,while 3,890 new fatalitiespushed the death toll to2,66,207.
The Central Governmentofficials at a press conferencehere also took a dig at the DelhiGovernment for reportingSingle-dose vaccination cover-age among healthcare workersbelow the national average of 89per cent.
“ Single dose vaccinationcoverage is 95 per cent inRajasthan, 96 per cent inMadhya Pradesh and 99 percent in Chhattisgarh. In Delhi,it stands at 78 pe cent, which is11 per cent below the nationalaverage. It should be taken toabove 95 per cent,” Dr VK Paul,
Niti Aayog (Health) membersaid.
Similarly, he said, overallsingle-dose vaccination cover-age among frontline workersstands at 82 per cent in thecountry. It is 93 per cent inGujarat, 91 per cent inRajasthan, and 90 per cent inMadhya Pradesh -- well abovethe national average. He said, itstands at 80 per cent in Delhiwhich has been complaining ofshortage of vaccines for its cit-izens.
Talking about the overallCovid-19 situation in the coun-try, he said it is stabilizing andthe government will worktowards ensuring further stabi-lization.
“ Some states have shown aclear pattern, in some statesthere are concerns and in someothers there is a trend towardsan increase. It is a mixed picture.But overall, the situation is sta-bilising and we hope and we willwork towards ensuring furtherstabilisation and rapid decline ofthis pandemic.”
He said that ten statesaccount for 85 per cent of thetotal coronavirus cases in thecountry.
The official said 11 stateshave over one lakh active
COVID-19 cases, 17 have lessthan 50,000 cases while eighthave active cases between50,000 and one lakh.
Maharashtra, UttarPradesh, Gujarat andChhattisgarh, which are record-ing a high number of novelcoronavirus cases, are alsoreporting decline in the numberof active cases.
Twenty-four states have aCOVID-19 positivity rate ofmore than 15 per cent whileDelhi, Chhattisgarh, Damanand Diu, Haryana and MadhyaPradesh have reported a majordrop in case positivity, he said.
The active cases havereduced to 36,73,802 and com-prise 15.07 per cent of the totalinfections, while the nationalCOVID-19 recovery rate hasimproved to 83.83 per cent, hestated.
Lav Agarwal, JointSecretary, Ministry of Health,said a total of 18.04 crore vac-cine doses have been adminis-tered so far in the country. Thisincludes 12.74 crore peopleabove the age of 45 years, 1.62crore healthcare workers, 2.25crore frontline workers and42.59 lakh people between theage of 18-44 years who havereceived their first dose.
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Aplea has been moved in theSupreme Court seeking
directions to utilise PM CaresFund for the purpose of instal-lation of oxygen plants, pro-curement of Covid-19 vaccinesand other essential equipmentat 738 district hospitals acrossthe country.
The plea added that it wasalready announced on April 25that PM Cares Fund would allo-cate money to set up 551 oxy-gen plants using pressure swingadsorption at public healthfacilities.
The plea has been filed byadvocate Viplava Sharma alsourged the top court to issuedirections to the states/UTs toensure that all the private/char-itable hospitals within theirjurisdiction to procure, installedand commissioned the subjectmedical plant with essentialbackups and thereby, havebecome self-sufficient in havingmore than adequate inhousebasic and essential life supportservice of medical oxygen with-in the shortest possible time.
The petitioner also sought
a stay on April 24 notificationissued by the Centre to theextent it capped the exemptionfrom import duty granted tomedical equipment, for a peri-od of three months.
The plea said: “Three-month time period is too shorta period from the standpoint oflogistics involved in importingthese highly sophisticated med-ical equipment in India by over300 concerned notable hospitalsthroughout the country.”
“Pass appropriate urgentdirections to the respondents toensure forthwith setting up ofelectric and all other kinds ofcrematoriums in all cities with-in their respective administra-tion and also they also forth-with undertake tomaintain/improve the existingelectric crematoriums all ofwhich have been used muchbeyond their respective capac-ities and may soon get non-functional”, added the plea.
The plea also asked the topcourt to direct states to set upelectric and other crematoriumsin all cities and additionally,maintain and improve the con-dition of existing facilities.
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The medical cadets of thearmed forces commis-
sioned as Medical Officers onSaturday have joined the battleagainst Covid-19. They will beleaving immediately to join asinterns in 31 Armed ForcesMedical Services (AFMS) hos-pitals across the country, whichare also designated for Covidcare.
The Defence Ministry said110 medical cadets, including21 female cadets, of the 55thbatch of the Armed ForcesMedical College were com-missioned as Medical Officersinto the Armed Forces MedicalServices (AFMS) on Saturday.The cadets were commissionedby Commandant, AFMC LtGen Nardeep Naithani in abrief ceremony. Ninety fourcadets were commissioned intothe Indian Army, 10 in theIndian Air Force and six in theNavy. The Passing Out Paradehad to be called off for the firsttime since 1982, keeping inmind the Covid-19 restric-tions.
In his commissioning
address, Lt Gen Naithani con-gratulated the newly commis-sioned officers for joiningAFMS which is the finest inte-grated medical organisation inthe country. He complimentedthe parents of the students forthe success of their children. Headded that it has the uniquedistinction of having the entirebatch that entered AFMC in2016 graduating together with100 percent success, which byitself is the best tribute to theteachers at AFMC.
The Commandantreminded the graduating batchthat they were joining the med-ical profession at a time whenthe country was passingthrough a difficult phase. Heexhorted them to use theirknowledge and skills acquiredat AFMC to provide the bestpossible care to their patients asthey join the nation’s battleagainst Covid-19.
Lt Gen Naithani expressedconfidence that given their aca-demic rigour and training, thenewly commissioned MedicalOfficers would always mea-sure up to the highest standardsexpected from military doctors.
about 22,000 cases per day, theBengal Government onSaturday announced a full lock-down till May 30.
“The Government hastaken the steps in view of ris-ing number of cases,” BengalChief Secretary AlapanBandopadhyay said
Bandopadhyay said theState would go for a full lock-down whereby all the privateoffices, schools and collegeswould remain closed. Thebazars selling vegetables, fruitetc would remain open as usualfrom 7-10 am every day whilethe local trains, metro ser-vices, inter-state bus and trainand ferry services wouldremain closed he said. The localtrains had already been sus-pended last week.
While intra-state goodstrucks movement would be
restricted to essential suppliesno private cars, taxis and automovement would be allowed,he maintained adding the autorepairing shops and petrolpumps would however remainopen. The banks would func-tion from 10 am to 2 pm andcinema, bars eateries, spas,malls and parlours would alsoremain closed he maintainedadding anyone violating the
orders would be dealt withstrongly under pandemic laws.
Meanwhile, Bengal ChiefMinister Mamata Banerjee onSaturday lost her second broth-er Ashim Banerjee to coronainfection. He was undergoingtreatment at a city private hos-pital in South Kolkata. He wascremated at the designatedNimtalla Mahasmashan (funer-al) Ghat.
Ahead of the arrival of thehigh level team of experts
from New Delhi to study thehigh mortality rate of Covid-19patients in Jammu, 63 morepatients succumbed to the dead-ly virus taking the tally of deathsto 3,090 while total active positivecases stood at 51,475 as 3,677 freshcases of coronavirus were detect-ed across the region on Saturday.
Significantly, 4,140 moreCovid-19 patients recovered andwere discharged from varioushospitals including 1,086 fromJammu Division and 3,054 fromKashmir Division.
Meanwhile, the corona curfewwas also extended by the UTadministration till May 24.
On the other hand to coverthe left over population in the agegroup of 45 plus across Jammudistrict special vaccination camps are being organised across100 centres in Jammu to vaccinatethem.
So far around 98% of esti-mated 45+ population in Jammu
given first shot till date.According to a statement
issued by the office of Principal,Government Medical College,Jammu, "As per the recentsequencing data analysis of posi-tive Covid-19 patients receivedfrom NCDC, New Delhi, B.1.617variant is responsible for therecent surge in Covid-19cases inJammu division.
Dr. Shashi Sudhan Sharmasaid that the Department ofMicrobiology at GMC, Jammubesides testing of Covid-19 sam-ples is also coordinating withNCDC New Delhi for routinesequencing of positive sampleand as per the latest reportreceived from them UK Variantwas reported in >60% samples inMarch, 2021.
However, in April the %age ofUK Variant dropped to 47% andB.1.617 increased from 5.8% to38%.
Dr. Sharma further addedthat till date 434 samples havebeen sent to NCDC from JammuDivision among which a report of64 samples is still awaited.
Jammu: Jammu & Kashmir on Saturday claimedto have averted a major tragedy by recoveringa 10-kg Improvised Explosive Device (IED) insouthern Pulwama district.
In a tweet, a police spokesman said that theyreceived inputs that Jaish-e-Muhammad ter-rorists were planning to carry out ‘spectacular’IED attacks. “On the basis of which few suspectswere questioned and on their admission an IEDweighing 10Kgs has been recovered at Pulwama,thus a major attack has been averted,” said thespokesman .PNS
Jammu: Jammu & Kashmir police onSaturday warned 'inimical' elementsagainst disturbing public peace andorder in the Kashmir valley in the garbof prevailing situation in Palestine.
A young mural artist, Mudasir Gul,was also picked up by the J&k police ashe had painted a wall graffiti on therequest of few local residents in Padshahibagh area.
Gul had reportedly painted a face ofa sobbing woman, wearing Palestine’s flagas the headscarf, and wrote “We ArePalestine”. Local reports claimed, Gul wasdirected by the local police officers todeface the graffiti on his own. Few otherresidents in the area who had participatedin raising slogans and attempted to stagea demonstration in solidarity withPalestine were also rounded up by thepolice. Posting a series of tweets J&K
Police said, " it is keeping a very closewatch on elements who are attemptingto leverage the unfortunate situation inPalestine to disturb public peace andorder in the Kashmir valley".
Claiming that restoring peaceremains their top priority J&K Police inanother tweet said, "We are a professionalforce and are sensitive to public anguish.But J&K police has a legal responsibili-ty to ensure law and order as well. It, how-ever, wouldn’t allow cynical encashmentof the public anger to trigger violence,lawlessness and disorder on Kashmirstreets". "Expressing opinion is a freedombut engineering and inciting violence onstreets is unlawful. All irresponsiblesocial media comments that results inactual violence and breaking of lawincluding Covid protocol will attract legalaction". PNS
Jaipur: Chief Minister AshokGehlot has expressed his deepconcern over the continuousincrease in the number ofCovid patients in the StateCapital, and directed the offi-cials to formulate a specialplan to prevent the spread ofinfection in Jaipur. He direct-ed to further strengthen thearrangement zone, more test-ing, contact tracing etc. in theentire district to control the sit-uation of Covid infection inJaipur.
Gehlot was conducting ahigh level review on Fridaynight through video conferenceon other related topics includ-ing Covid compression, lock-down and availability ofresources. He said the numberof active cases in Jaipur has
increased from 18 thousand tomore than 51 thousand in thelast three weeks and it is a mat-ter of great concern to keep thepositive rate around 30 percentcontinuously. “We need todevise a new strategy for effec-tive prevention on this.”
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Panaji: The Goa Government on Saturday decided to takeover the rights to admission in all the 21 private hospitalsin the State treating Covid-19 patients from May 17 citingvarious violations of norms.
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said the move will easethe load on facilities like the Goa Medical College andHospital (GMCH). A total of 75 Covid-19 patients had diedduring treatment at the GMCH in the last four days, ring-ing the alarm bells in the administration.
Explaining the rationale behind the State Government'sdecision, Sawant said private hospitals were not reserving50 per cent of their total beds for the treatment of Covid-19 patients. "We have also come across the instances where-in private hospitals were not providing Covid-19 treatmentunder the DDSSY scheme (the medical insurance schemeof the state government)," he told reporters.
There are instances wherein private hospitals were foundcharging patients exorbitantly, he said. Sawant said thegovernment will only take over the rights of admissions inthese hospitals while their management will remain with theirowners. "There are 21 private hospitals which have been pro-viding treatment to Covid-19 patients in Goa," he said.
The chief minister said Covid-19 treatment in privatehospitals would be covered under the DDSSY (Deen DayalSwasthya Seva Yojana) scheme. "We will ensure that 50 percent of beds in the private hospitals will be kept reservedfor treating Covid-19 patients. This will help to ease the loadon facilities like the Goa Medical College and Hospital,"Sawant added. PTI
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Goa on Saturday reported3,512 recoveries against
1,957 fresh coronavirus positivecases, while 58 patients died, ahealth department official said.
Goa's overall caseload nowstands at 1,34,542 while thedeath toll reached 2,056, hesaid.
A total of 3,512 patientsrecovered during the day, tak-ing the number of recoveries inGoa so far to 1,01,712, the offi-cial said, adding the coastalstate is now left with 30,774active cases.
With 5,571 new tests, thetotal number of samples exam-ined so far in Goa went up to7,53,271, he added.
Goa's Covid-19 figures areas follows: Positive cases1,34,542, new cases 1,957,death toll 2,056, discharged1,01,712, active cases 30,774,samples tested till date 7,53,271.
Agartala: Tripura ChiefMinister Biplab Kumar Debsaid on Saturday that no deci-sion has been taken yet onimposing lockdown in any partof the state, even as Covid-19cases continued to jump.
Speaking to reporters whilevisiting Covid care facilities inthe Sepahijala district, Debsaid such a decision is takenwhen healthcare experts andthe administration collectivelyfeel the necessity.
"There is no decision onlockdown yet," he said, addingthat all updates will be madepublic.
In the Sipahijala district,200 new beds have been pre-pared at two Covid care facil-
ities, and more than 1,400 bedsare being prepared at two othercentres.
Meanwhile, a door-to-doorsurvey has started in threecontainment zones in theAgartala MunicipalCorporation (AMC) area.
The State Government hasdecided to conduct rapid anti-gen tests in all houses in theAMC area, Health Departmentofficials said.
Tripura recorded 449 newCovid-19 cases on Saturday,pushing the tally to 40,055.
The number of active casesclimbed to 3,781.
With three more fatalities,all in the West Tripura district,the death toll rose to 426. PTI
Chennai: An expert team fromthe Indian Space ResearchOrganisation (ISRO) onSaturday visited Vedanta Ltd'scopper smelter plant SterliteCopper and suggested mea-sures to set right the technicalsnag that halted oxygen pro-duction, the company said.
Oxygen production atSterlite Copper located inThoothukudi in Tamil Naduwas stopped on Friday due to
a technical snag.According toVedanta, an expert team fromISRO came to the smelter plantto support the ongoing effortsand collaborate with the com-pany's technical team."Theyhave suggested some measuresto help rectify the productionsnag. This has helped fastrackthe repair process for which weare thankful to the local admin-istration, who was instrumen-tal in facilitating this coopera-
tive effort to recommence ouroxygen production," Vedantasaid.
On Friday the companysaid a technical snag had devel-oped in the cold box in the oxy-gen plant, leading to a tempo-rary pause in production.
"The possibility of minortechnical fluctuations wasanticipated given that the planthas been unattended for threeyears," the company said in a
statement.On Thursday the company
said one of its oxygen plantscommenced production fromMay 12."The first tanker car-rying 4.8 tons of liquid oxygenis going toTirunelveli/Thoothukudi. Wewill be dispatching two oxygentankers on a daily basis to beginwith, and gradually scale thisup as we expand production,"Vedanta had said. IANS
New Delhi: The Governmenton Saturday eases certainnorms under Gas CylindersRules, 2016 to fast trackapprovals for imported cylin-ders and pressure vessels forstorage and transportation ofmedical oxygen amid risingCovid cases.
The relaxations would bevalid for six months or till fur-ther orders of the Departmentfor Promotion of Industry andInternal Trade (DPIIT), anofficial statement said.\
The department said thatthe certification of Petroleumand Explosive SafetyOrganization (PESO) will notbe mandatory before importingconsignment of oxygen cylin-ders, and containers.
The certification of PESO willbe required before use of theoxygen cylinders, which entailsweight and hydro testing, itadded. "The Indian mis-sions should, however, ensurethat the oxygen cylindersshould comply with India orinternational standards beforeshipment," it said. In case offilled cylinders, the agencyexporting to India would haveto certify that the oxygen filledin the cylinder is of such puri-ty and concentration that is fitfor medical use.
The certification would beattested by the Indian missionin the exporting country andsoon upon arrival in India,such filled cylinders will beinspected on sample basis by an
empanelled agency of PESO."All the filled cylinders must beverified for quality of gas filledtherein under the supervisionof medical/ Food and DrugsControllers and if quality of gasconforms to their requirementof medical oxygen, cylindersmay be sent directly to hospi-tals for use," the departmentsaid.
Regarding PSA (pressureswing adsorption) installationsat hospitals with filling facili-ties or at COVID centres, it saidPSA plants where generatedoxygen is directly supplied tohospital and no filling of cylin-ders is taking place, in suchcases the facilities do not needany permission or licenseunder PESO rules. PTI
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Miffed by a letter written byformer chief minister and
senior BJP leader DevendraFadnavis to Congress presi-dent Sonia Gandhi advising herparty not to indulge in politicsover vaccination but to play therole of a constructiveOpposition, MaharashtraCongress president Nana Patoleon Saturday dared Fadnavis toshow courage and write a sim-ilar letter to Prime MinisterNarendra Modi over the Covid-19 situation in the country
Hours after Fadnavis shotoff a four-page letter to theCongress president, Patolecharged that by writing a letterto Sonia Gandhi, the BJP leaderwas trying to push under thecarpet the “sins” of PrimeMinister Narendra Modi ofconverting the country into acremation ground.
Charging that the Modigovernment had miserablyfailed in handling the Covid-19crisis in the country, Patole said:“Rahul Gandhi had warnedway back on February 12, 2020of a Corona Tsunami, but BJPleaders like Modi and Fadnavisdid not take him seriously. Theresult is that a staggering 4 lakhinfections and more than 4,000deaths are being reported every
day in the country. The Modigovernment’s arrogance andmismanagement of affairs isresponsible for the curry situ-ation in the country”
“By writing a letter to SoniaGandhi, Modi is trying to pushunder the carpet the “sins” ofPrime Minister Narendra Modiof converting the country into acremation ground.... Instead ofwriting a letter to the Congresspresident, Fadnavis should beasking his party’s chief ministeras to how `Navami Gange’ hasturned into `Shavami Gange”,”Patole said.
Dubbing Modi as a “liar”for claims that the Centre hadprovided more than stocks ofRemdesivir and Oxygen tostates, Patole said that theSupreme Court hadf called theBJP’s bluff by passing stricturesover its false claiming in han-dling the Covid-19. “TheCentre had claimed that utilis-ing money from the PM’s Carefund, it would set up Oxygenplants. But not even one planthas been set up in Maharashtra.In fact, Maharashtra whichneeds 1750 metric tonnes ofmedical oxygen, the state itselfproduces 1,200 metric tonnes ofOxygen. Such is the sad state ofaffairs that the Centre is not ableto provide the remaining 550MT ofg Oxygen to the state,” the
state Congress chief said.Charing that the BJP-ruled
states like Uttar Pradesh,Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh werehiding information relating toCovid-19 infections and deaths,Patole asked: “Please let us as tohow many Covid-19 tests inthese BJP-ruled states. Howmany patients are gettingOxygen? How many deathshave taken place in the BJP-ruled states?. Fadnavis shouldwrite a letter to the BJP presi-dent and statistics in thisregard”.
Patole said that there havebeen 1,23,871 deaths in just 71days in Gujarat, the governmentthere pegged the number ofdeaths at 4,218, and blamed theego and greed of the BJP gov-ernment at the Centre for themess. “The BJP-ruled state gov-ernments of Uttar Pradesh,Karnataka and Bihar are usingJCBs to remove bodies of thepeople who died of Covid. Andthe bodies are floating in riverGanga,” he said.
Patole said that while theCentre had claimed it hadmade an allocation of �35,000crore, the private vaccine man-ufacturers were selling vac-cines to the centre at �150 pervaccine, �400 per vaccine to thestate government and Rs 600 toindividuals.
Government, administrationand public dropped their guardwhich led to the current situ-ation, RSS chief MohanBhagwat said on Saturday andurged people to stay positiveand proactive to fight the pan-demic.
Addressing a lecture series‘Positivity Unlimited', Bhagwatsaid the country should stayunited and work as a team inthese testing times, instead ofpointing fingers at each other. "We are facing this situ-ation because, whether it wasthe Government, administra-tion or public, everyonedropped their guard after thefirst wave despite indicationsfrom doctors,” he said.
Bhagwat said there is talkof a third wave. But, “we willnot be scared. We shall standlike a rock.”
“We have to stay positiveand take precautions to keepourselves Covid-19 negative inthe present situation,” he said.
The RSS chief said that thisis not an appropriate time topoint fingers and all shouldavoid making irrationalremarks.
34,848 in Maharashtra, whilethe number of daily deathssurged to 910 in the State.
A day after daily deathsdropped from 850 to 695 andnumber of infections droppedfrom 42,582 to 39,923,Maharashtra logged 910 deathsand 34,848 new caes.
With 960 new deaths, thetotal number of deaths in thestate climbed from 79,552 to80,512 . Similarly, with 34,848new infections, the total num-ber of cases climbed from53.09,215 to 53,44,063.
As 59,073 patients weredischarged from the hospitalsacross the state after full recov-
ery, the total number of peopledischarged from the hospitalssince the second week of Marchlast year went up from47,07,980 to 47,67,053. Therecovery rate in the State wentup from 88.68 per cent to 89.2per cent.
The total “active cases” inthe state dropped from 5,19,254to 4,94,032. The fatality rate inthe state stood at 1.51 percent.
With 62 fresh deaths, theCovid-19 toll in Mumbaiincreased from 14,102 to14,164, while the infected caseswent up by a relatively low 1450to trigger a jump in the infec-tions from 6,84,845 to 6,86,295.
The situation in Puneimproved a bit as the “activecases”, which had come below
one lakh mark early this week,improved once again as the“active cases” dropped from96,028 to 93,245.
Nagpur with 36,560 activecases stood second in the state,followed by Mumbai (34,083),Thane (29,654), Ahmednagar(30,221), Satara (21,283),Nashik (20,218), Solapur(21,093), Beed (12,076),Jalgaon (11,016), Chandrapur(11,008), Latur (8799),Aurangabad (8043), Parbhani(7222), Jalna (7123),Osmanabad (6108) andBuldhana (6295). Of the 3,08,39,404140 samples sent to var-ious laboratories across theState so far, 53,44,603 have test-ed positive (17.33 per cent) forCovid-19 until Saturday.
An Israeli air raid in GazaCity killed at least 10
Palestinians, mostly children,early on Saturday in the dead-liest single strike since the bat-tle with Gaza’s militant Hamasrulers erupted earlier this week.Both sides pressed for anadvantage as cease-fire effortsgathered strength.
The latest outburst of vio-lence began in Jerusalem andhas spread across the region,with Jewish-Arab clashes andrioting in mixed cities of Israel.There were also widespreadPalestinian protests Friday inthe occupied West Bank, whereIsraeli forces shot and killed 11people.
The spiralling violence hasraised fears of a new Palestinian“intifada,” or uprising at a timewhen there have been no peacetalks in years. Palestinians wereset to mark Nakba(Catastrophe) Day on Saturday,when they commemorate theestimated 7,00,000 people whofled or were driven from theirhomes in what is now Israelduring the 1948 war sur-rounding its creation. Thatraised the possibility of evenmore unrest.
US diplomat Hady Amrarrived on Friday as part ofWashington’s efforts to de-escalate the conflict, and theUN Security Council was set tomeet Sunday. But Israel turneddown an Egyptian proposal fora one-year truce that Hamas
rulers had accepted, anEgyptian official said Friday oncondition of anonymity to dis-cuss the negotiations.
Since Monday night,Hamas has fired hundreds ofrockets into Israel, which haspounded the Gaza Strip withstrikes. In Gaza, at least 126people have been killed, includ-ing 31 children and 20 women;in Israel, seven people have been killed, includ-ing a 6-year-old boy and a sol-dier.
Rocket fire from Gaza andIsrael’s bombardment of theblockaded Palestinian territo-ry continued into earlySaturday, when an airstrike ona three-story house in a refugeecamp in Gaza City killed eightchildren and two women froman extended family.
Mohammed Abu Hatabtold reporters his wife and fivechildren had gone to celebratethe Eid al-Fitr holiday with rel-atives. She and three of the chil-dren, aged 6 to 14, were killed,while an 11-year-old is missing.Only his 5-month-old sonOmar is known to have sur-vived.
Children’s toys and aMonopoly board game couldbe seen among the rubble, aswell as plates of uneaten food from the holiday gather-ing.
“There was no warning,”said Jamal Al-Naji, a neighbourliving in the same building.“You filmed people eating andthen you bombed them?” he
said, addressing Israel. “Whyare you confronting us? Go andconfront the strong people!”
Shortly afterward, Hamassaid it fired a salvo of rocketsat southern Israel in responseto the airstrike.
A furious Israeli barrageearly Friday killed a family ofsix in their house and sentthousands fleeing to UN-runshelters. The military said theoperation involved 160 war-planes dropping some 80 tonsof explosives over the course of40 minutes and succeeded indestroying a vast tunnel net-work used by Hamas.
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Iran’s judiciary chief, a hard-line cleric linked to mass exe-
cutions in 1988, registered onSaturday to run in the IslamicRepublic’s presidential elec-tion next month, a vote thatcomes as negotiators struggle toresuscitate Tehran’s nucleardeal with world powers.
The cleric, Ebrahim Raisi,is among the more prominenthopefuls — he garnered near-ly 16 million votes in the 2017election. He lost that race toIran’s relatively moderatePresident Hassan Rouhani,whose administration struckthe atomic accord.
Raisi’s close ties to SupremeLeader Ayatollah Ali Khameneiand his popularity — due part-ly to his televised anti-corrup-tion campaign — could makehim a favorite in the election.Analysts already believe thathard-liners enjoy an edge asRouhani is term limited fromrunning again.
The public has widelygrown disenchanted withRouhani’s administration after2018, when then-PresidentDonald Trump unilaterallywithdrew America from thenuclear deal.
Raisi, wearing a black tur-ban that identifies him in Shiitetradition as a direct descendantof Islam’s Prophet Muhammad,offered fiery remarks to jour-
nalists at the Interior Ministryas he registered. He vowedthat if he wins the June 18 vote,corruption will be “dried up.”
“Those who founded andpartnered with the current sit-uation can’t claim they canchange it,” Raisi said. “Peopleare complaining about the cur-rent situation. They are upset.Their disappointment is on therise. This should be stopped.”
The 60-year-old sought tostrike a populist note, urgingthe public to donate to his cam-paign and “turn their homesinto election headquarters” ashe wasn’t wealthy.
“We need individuals whobelieve in change,” he said.
Raisi had been named as a
possible successor to Iran’s 82-year-old supreme leader, lead-ing some to suggest he would-n’t run in the race. His entryimmediately saw some hard-liners announce they wouldwithdraw, raising Raisi’s promi-nence further among the can-didates.
A February telephone sur-vey conducted by the ChicagoCouncil on Global Affairs andthe Toronto-based organizationIranPoll found Raisi with anapproval rating of 27 per cent,the highest among likely can-didates. The survey found 35per cent undecided; the pollinterviewed 1,006 Iranians andhad a margin of error of 3.09per cent.
been appointed as a senioradviser to US President JoeBiden, two months after shewithdrew her nomination asDirector of the White HouseOffice of Management andBudget due to stiff oppositionfrom Republican senators.
Tanden has been entrustedwith two tasks — launch areview of the US DigitalService, and plan contingenciesthat could result from theSupreme Court’s considera-tion of Republican lawsuitsseeking to strike down theAffordable Care Act.
Tanden, 50, is currently thepresident and CEO of a pro-gressive think-tank, Center forAmerican Progress (CAP). Sheexpected to join the WhiteHouse team on Monday.
“Neera’s intellect, tenacity,and political savvy will be anasset to the Biden administra-tion,” CAP founder and direc-tor John Podesta said.
He said the White Househas made remarkable progresscombating numerous once-in-a-generation challenges —from vaccinating millions ofAmericans to delivering real
economic relief from the coro-navirus pandemic, and fromstrengthening the AffordableCare Act to tackling climatechange.
“Many of these bold poli-cy solutions, which have bipar-tisan support from votersacross the country, were devel-oped and led by Neera at CAPover many years. The admin-istration’s efforts will be mag-nified with Neera Tanden onthe team,” Podesta added.
In March, she faced atough time for the confirma-tion of her nomination asDirector of the White HouseOffice of Management andBudget (OMB) over her past
social media outbursts againstseveral lawmakers, includingthose from her ownDemocratic Party. She becamethe Biden administration’s onlyCabinet nominee rebuffed bythe Senate.
Tanden previously servedas a senior adviser for healthreforms at the US Departmentof Health and Human Services.She worked with Congress andstakeholders on particular pro-visions of former PresidentBarack Obama’s signature leg-islative achievement, theAffordable Care Act.
Before that, Tanden wasthe director of domestic poli-cy for the Obama-Biden pres-idential campaign, where shemanaged all domestic policyproposals. Tanden also servedas policy director for HillaryClinton’s first presidential cam-paign. Before the 2008 presi-dential campaign, Tandenserved as legislative director inClinton’s office, and deputycampaign manager and issuesdirector for Clinton’s 2000Senate campaign.
United Nations: The UN chiefsaid foreign fighters and mer-cenaries remain in Libya in vio-lation of last October’’s cease-fire agreement and called fortheir withdrawal and an end toviolations of the UN armsembargo, saying these are “crit-ical elements” for lasting peacein the north African countryand the region.
Secretary-General AntonioGuterres said in a report to theUN Security Council obtainedFriday by The Associated Pressthat the smooth transfer ofpower to a new interim gov-ernment, which took power inMarch, “brings renewed hopefor the reunification of thecountry and its institutionsand for a lasting peace.”
But he said progress mustcontinue on the political, eco-nomic and security tracks toenable elections to go ahead onDecember 24. Libya has beenwracked by chaos since aNATO-backed uprising top-pled longtime dictatorMoammar Gadhafi in 2011,and split the oil-rich NorthAfrican country between aU.N.-supported governmentin the capital, Tripoli, and rivalauthorities based in the coun-try’’s east, each backed byarmed groups and foreign gov-ernments. AP
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Dozens of Japanese,American and French
troops landed amid pouringrain from a CH-47 transporthelicopter onto a grassy field ata training area in southernJapan, part of Saturday’’s jointscenario of defending a remoteisland from an enemy invasion.
The three nations’’ firstjoint drills on Japanese soil —dubbed “ARC21” and whichbegan Tuesday — come asthey seek step up military tiesamid growing Chineseassertiveness in the region.
Japanese soldiers and theircounterparts from the Frencharmy and the U.S. MarineCorps also conducted an urbanwarfare drill using a concretebuilding elsewhere at theJapanese Self-Defense Force’’sKirishima Training Area inthe southern Miyazaki prefec-ture. Around 200 troops tookpart in Saturday’’s exercises.
On Saturday, the threecountries were also joined byAustralia in an expanded navalexercise involving 11 warshipsin the East China Sea, where
tensions with China are risingaround the island of Taiwan.
The drills come as Japanlooks to bolster its militarycapabilities amid a deepeningterritorial row with China inregional seas. Japan is increas-ingly concerned about Chineseactivity in and aroundJapanese-claimed waters sur-rounding the Japanese-con-trolled Senkaku islands, whichBeijing also claims and callsDiaoyu. Since the end of WorldWar II, Japan’’s constitutionhas limited the use of force toself defense. Japan in recentyears has continued to expandits military role, capability andbudget.
Japan’’s Vice DefenseMinister Yasuhide Nakayama,who observed the exercise,stressed the significance ofFrench participation in thejoint exercises regularly heldbetween Japan and the U.S.,and often with Australia.
“It was a valuable oppor-tunity for the Japanese Self-Defense Force to maintain andstrengthen its strategic capa-bility necessary to defend ourremote islands,” Nakayamasaid.
Dubai: Saudi Arabia has calledfor foreign ministers of theworld’s largest body of Muslimnations to hold a meetingSunday. The gathering is to dis-cuss Israeli acts of violenceagainst Palestinians and theIsraeli police’s use of forceagainst protesters at Al-Aqsamosque in Jerusalem.
The kingdom will host thevirtual summit, gathering min-isters of the 57-nationOrganization of IslamicCooperation “to discuss theIsraeli aggression in thePalestinian territory,” particu-larly acts of violence in thevicinity of Al-Aqsa Mosque, thebody said Saturday.
The Saudi-headquarteredOIC includes countries Iran,Turkey, Indonesia and a rangeof Muslim majority nations.
The sanctity of Al-Aqsamosque, one of Islam’s holiestsites, is a sensitive and emotiveissue for Muslims around theworld. The OIC was formed 51years ago in response to aJewish extremist arson attackon the Al-Aqsa Mosque ineast Jerusalem. AP
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China on Saturday success-fully landed a spacecraft on
Mars after surviving “nineminutes of terror”, becomingthe second country in historyto have a rover on the red planet.
The rover, Zhurong,named after a god of fire inChinese mythology, success-fully landed at the pre-select-ed area in Utopia Planitia onMars, the official Xinhua newsagency reported on theCommunist giant’s latestachievement in its ambitiousgoals in space.
The six-wheel solar-pow-ered Zhurong rover weighsabout 240 kilogrammes andcarries six scientific instru-ments. It will be later deployedfrom the lander for a three-
month mission in search of lifeon Mars’ surface.
Tianwen-1, consisting of anorbiter, a lander and a rover,was launched on July 23, 2020.It was the first step in China’splanetary exploration of thesolar system, with the aim ofcompleting orbiting, landingand roving on the red planet inone mission.
The China National SpaceAdministration (CNSA) said ina statement that its rover hassuccessfully landed on Mars onSaturday after “nine minutes ofterror”.
The lander, carrying aMars rover, touched down at itspre-selected landing area in thesouthern part of UtopiaPlanitia, a vast plain on thenorthern hemisphere of Mars,at 7:18 a.M. (Beijing Time), theCNSA said.
West Palm Beach (US): Thestudent reporter who gainednational acclaim when he inter-viewed President BarackObama at the White House in2009 has died of natural caus-es, his family says. DamonWeaver was 23 when he diedMay 1, his sister, CandaceHardy, told the Palm BeachPost. Further details were notreleased. He had been studyingcommunications at AlbanyState University in Georgia.
Weaver was 11 when heinterviewed Obama for 10minutes in the DiplomaticRoom on Aug. 13, 2009, askingquestions that focused pri-marily on education. He cov-ered school lunches, bullying,conflict resolution and how tosucceed.
Weaver then asked Obamato be his “homeboy,” sayingthen-Vice President Joe Bidenhad already accepted.
“Absolutely,” a smilingObama said, shaking the boy’shand. He used that meeting tolater interview Oprah Winfreyand athletes like Dwyane Wade.
“He was just a nice person,genuine, very intelligent,”Hardy said. “Very outspoken,outgoing. He never said no toanybody.” Weaver got his startin fifth grade when he volun-teered for the school newscas-tat K.E. Cunningham/CanalPoint Elementary in a farmcommunity on the shores ofLake Okeechobee. AP
Paris: French riot police firedtear gas and used water can-nons Saturday in Paris as pro-testers supporting Palestiniansin the Gaza Strip defied a banon marching in the French cap-ital. Hundreds of peoplemarched peacefully in othercities in France and elsewherein Europe.
In Paris, protesters scat-tered and played cat-and-mouse with security forces in
the city’s northern neighbor-hoods after their starting pointfor a planned march wasblocked.
Paris police chief DidierLallement had ordered 4,200security forces into the streetsand closed shops around thekick-off point for the march ina working-class neighborhoodafter an administrative courtconfirmed the ban due to fearsof violence. AP
New Delhi:The annual gener-al meeting of Jet Airways,which suspended operationsmore than two years ago, willbe held on June 8, according toa regulatory filing.
The affairs of the full ser-vice carrier, which is current-ly undergoing an insolvencyresolution process, is beingmanaged by resolution profes-sional Ashish Chhawchharia.
The meeting, scheduled tobe held on June 8, will consid-er and adopt the company’saudited standalone financialstatements for the financialyear ended March 31, 2020together with the reports ofauditors.
PTI
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Power consumption in thecountry grew by around 19
per cent in the first fortnightof May to 51.67 billion units(BU) over the same period lastyear, showing recovery inindustrial and commercialdemand of electricity, accord-ing to the power ministrydata.
Power consumption in thefirst fortnight of May 2020 was43.55 BU. The power con-sumption in the entire monthof May last year was 102.08 BU.
During the first fortnightof May this year (from May 1to 14), peak power demandmet or the highest supply in aday touched the highest levelof 168.78 GW (on May 6,2021) and recorded growth ofover 15 per cent over 146.54GW (peak met) recorded inthe same period in 2020 (onMay 13, 2020).
The power consumptionin April grew nearly 40 percent to 118.08 BU.
Power consumption inApril 2020 had dropped to84.55 BU from 110.11 BU inthe same month in 2019, main-ly because of fewer economicactivities following the impo-sition of lockdown by the gov-ernment in the last week ofMarch 2020 to contain thespread of deadly COVID-19.
The power consumptionalso fell in May 2020 to 102.08BU from 120.02 BU in May2019.
Similarly, peak powerdemand met or the highestpower supply in a day alsoslumped to 132.73 GW inApril last year from 176.81
GW in the same month in2019, showing the impact oflockdown on economic activities.
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Amid a growing chorus overthe GST Council meeting
not being convened for overseven months, the UnionFinance Ministry on Saturdayannounced that the next meet-ing of the panel that decides ontaxes on goods and services willbe held on May 28.
After over a dozen centraland state levies such as exciseduty, service tax and VAT weresubsumed in a nationwideGoods and Services Tax (GST)in 2017, the Council, headed byUnion Finance Minister andincluding representatives of allstates and union territories, wasmandated to meet every quar-ter to deliberate on issues athand.
The GST Council last meton October 5, 2020 to finalisecontours of borrowings bystates to meet shortfall in taxrevenues. The meeting
got extended and ended onOctober 12.
Union FinanceMinister Nirmala Sitharamanwill chair the 43rd meeting ofthe GST Council on May 28,her office tweeted.
“Smt @nsitharaman willchair the 43rd GST Councilmeeting via video conferencingat 11 AM in New Delhi on 28thMay 2021. The meeting will beattended by MOS Shri@ianuragthakur besidesFinance Ministers of States &
UTs and Senior officers fromUnion Government & States,”it said.
Opposition party-ruledstates have been complainingabout not holding the GSTCouncil meeting in recentweeks. West Bengal FinanceMinister Amit Mitra earlier thisweek wrote to Sitharaman seek-ing urgent convening of themeeting to discuss the issue ofcompensation shortfall to states
and other pending items.“You are kindly aware that
the GST Council was mandat-ed to meet once in every quar-ter. Unfortunately, this solemnmandate has been violatedtwice over, by not calling ameeting of the Council fortwo consecutive quarters - noteven virtually.
“This has undermined afederal institution, where allstates are represented irre-spective of political parties,regions or size of population,along with the Government ofIndia. I fear that not holdingmeetings regularly also lead toa trust deficit,” Mitra wrote.
When GST was imple-mented, states were promisedthat they will be compensatedfor any shortfall in tax revenuesarising out of their taxes beingsubsumed in a national GST,for the first five years.
This was to be done by levyof a cess, on top of the GST rate,on certain luxury and singoods.
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State-owned NTPC has aug-mented COVID care facili-
ties across the country andadded more than 500 oxygensupported beds besides 1,100isolation beds at its plants indifferent states.
The company has set upCOVID care centres with facil-ities of 200 oxygen supportedbeds and 140 isolation beds inBadarpur, Noida and Dadri, itsaid in a statement.
It has also set up a 500-bedCOVID health centre atSundargarh in Odisha where20 ventilators have been pro-vided. “NTPC Ltd has addedmore than 500 beds with oxy-gen support and more than1,100 isolation beds acrossplants in various states to pro-vide support to the criticalCOVID care,” the statementsaid. Besides the COVID carecentres that are operational inDadri, Korba, Kaniha,Ramagundam, Vindhyachal,Barh & Badarpur, NTPC will
be setting up additionalfacilities at North Karanpura,Bongaigaon and Solapur aswell. Other hospitals are ontheir way to increase the num-ber of beds with oxygen facil-ities, it said. Meanwhile, NTPChas inoculated over 70,000employees and associatesacross its operations. The mas-sive vaccination drive contin-ues across plant locations.
NTPC has also started vac-cinating those who are in theage bracket of 18-44 at many ofits plant locations. Vaccinationdrives have been undertakenacross NTPC stations in coor-dination with respective stateadministrations. The companyis running 24X7 control roomsacross plants for better coor-dination for patients acrosssites which is coordinated by aspecial task force.
The task force also helpsin coordination for hospitalbeds and other treatment facil-ities across various empan-elled and non-empanelled hos-pitals. The control rooms alsocoordinate for procurement ofmedicines, hospital equipmentand services.
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Bharti Airtel has rolled out arange of Covid support ini-
tiatives for customers by lever-aging its digital platform.
With this, the telco joins agrowing list of companies thathave introduced digital tools tohelp people amid the deadlysecond wave of the pandemic.
Airtel has integrated easi-ly accessible bouquet of Covidsupport resources and relatedinformation in the AirtelThanks app’s Explore section,the company said in a state-ment.
“Covid SOS aggregatesverified and updated contacts
for important supplies such asmedicines, oxygen, plasmadonors, ambulance, hospitalbeds, and testing centres. Witha few clicks, the platform con-nects users to these serviceproviders/resources and tries toensure that users do not haveto waste precious time to accessthis data,” the statement said.
The information availableon ‘Covid SOS’ is verified bytheir teams,
it said and added the plat-form is powered by Airtel IQ.
“Airtel Thanks users canalso book a vaccination slot forthemselves and their lovedones through the app,” thestatement said.
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The India Cellular andElectronics Association
(ICEA) has welcomed the Rs18,100 crore ProductionLinked Incentive (PLI) schemethat has been approved forAdvanced Chemistry Cell(ACC) battery storage in thecountry.
In a statement, ICEA thatrepresents mobile and compo-nent manufacturers such asApple, Motorola, Nokia,Foxconn, Wistron, Flextronics,Lava, Vivo and others, said thatit would promote newer andniche cell technologies in thecountry.
“We at ICEA believes thatthe PLI scheme would givethrust to ‘Make in India’ ini-tiative and will attract hugeinvestments of Rs 45,000 croreplus in the coming years. Withthis push for ACC batteries, thesector would witness robustgrowth in the coming years,”said Pankaj Mohindroo,Chairman, ICEA.
ACC batteries are the newgeneration of advanced storagetechnologies which stores elec-tric energy as electrochemicaland convert it back to electricenergy as and when required.
The ACC covers majorsectors, which are consumerelectronics, mobiles, electricvehicles, advanced electricitygrids, solar rooftop etc.
Mohindroo said that weneed to work on securing theraw material supplies for thesecore technologies speciallylithium and cobalt.
“Our import burden of Rs20,000 crore will also turn intoa big opportunity and wouldmake the country a major hubin producing clean energy,” headded.
The ACC battery storagemanufacturers will be selectedthrough a transparent com-petitive bidding process.
The manufacturing facili-ty would have to be commis-sioned within two years. Theincentive will be disbursedthereafter over five years.
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All India Power EngineersFederation (AIPEF) has
written to Prime MinisterNarendra Modi and UnionPower Minister R.K. Singhrequesting that all the states bedirected to hold mass vaccina-tion camps to cover electricitypersonnel on top priority basisand be treated as frontlineworkers.
Shailendra Dubey ,Chairman AIPEF said as manyas 1,000 power sector employ-ees and engineers have suc-cumbed to Covid-19 and morethan 15,000 have been infect-ed from the virus.
In Maharashtra, a total ofmore than 7,100 poweremployees are Covid positiveand about 210 have died.While, in Uttar Pradesh, morethan 4,000 power sectoremployees are suffering fromcoronavirus and there havebeen 140 casualties.
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The fresh wave of Covid-19in the country has pushed
up sales of medicines andresulted in exponential growthfor the pharmaceutical sector.
According to total salesaudit data from world’s largestpharmaceutical marketresearch firm IMS Health, theIndian Pharma Market (IPM)grew 59 per cent yoy in April,2021 vs 16 per cent yoy inMarch, 2021 due to the lowbase effect in April, 2020 andsharp surge in Covid-19-relat-
ed sales.On the MAT (moving
annual turnover) basis, IPMgrew 9.6 per cent, primarilydriven by pricing growth of 4.3per cent and new productlaunch growth of 4.6 per cent.Volume growth was muted at0.8 per cent.
According to a report fromEmkay Global FinancialServices, all major therapiesposted high double-digitgrowth in April 21.
Within Chronic therapies,Cardiac therapy grew 22 percent.
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Aerospace major Boeing hastied-up with state govern-
ments along with NGOs to setup field hospitals in India totreat Covid patients.
Accordingly, the aerospacemajor has been in talks withfive state governments to pro-vide such facilities in theirjurisdictions.
In the last few days, BoeingIndia has reached out to UP,Chhattisgarh, Karnataka,Telangana and Tamil Nadustate governments.
The initiative as part ofBoeing’s India Covid reliefcommitment envisages settingup of such facilities in each offive states which are facing thepandemic resurgence.
As part of the programme,the funding, land and utilities,
facility, equipment, doctors aswell as medicines will be pro-vided through a partnershipmodel by the joint effort ofBoeing, the concerned stategovernment and NGO part-ners, ‘Doctors for You’ and‘Care USA’.
The state governments willprovide the infrastructure andutilities while ‘Doctors for You’will provide the medical infra-structure and staff.
The first such facility isexpected to come as soon aspossible.
“We are in conversationswith local and internationalrelief organisations to deployBoeing’s $10-million emer-gency assistance package tosupport India’s Covid-19response,” said Salil Gupte,president, Boeing India.
“As part of that effort, we’re
working with medical, gov-ernment and public healthexperts across India to providerelief, including medical sup-plies and emergency healthcare to communities mostimpacted.”
Last month, Boeingannounced a $10 million emer-gency assistance package tosupport India’s Covid-19response.
At present, Boeing has3,000 employees in India.
The company develops,manufactures and servicescommercial airplanes, defenceproducts for customers indomestic civil and militarysectors.Lately, India has beenheavily battered by record newdaily increases in coronavirusinfections, prompting lock-downs and restrictive mea-sures.
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Four pilots as well as cabincrew members of SpiceJet’s
Delhi-Zagreb flight had toreportedly spend 21 hours,almost a day onboard the air-craft they operated from Delhito Croatian capital Zagreb thisTuesday before flying theBoeing 737 back home as therewas a sudden change in rulesmaking negative RT-PCR testresults mandatory for anyonecoming from India.
The crew were not allowedto come out of the plane andthey conducted the returnflight to Delhi -- after the 21-hour rest period -- without pas-sengers or cargo. The two com-manders and as many firstofficers had to spend their lay-over inside the aircraft inZagreb airport before flying theplane back to Delhi withoutany passengers or cargo.
“Prior to departure from
India, email confirmation wasreceived from Croatian author-ities that RTPCR is notrequired for crew,” the airline’sspokesperson said. SpiceJetsays the crew was on board for21 hours.
On arrival in Zagreb onTuesday, the crew, includingfour pilots, as well as cabin crewmembers, was told that the
orders have changed. “Due tosudden and massive increase inCOVID cases in India, theywere then instructed thatRTPCR test is required. Thiscame as a surprise,” the airline’sspokesperson said.
SpiceJet had operated flightSG-9035 on May 11 on Delhi-Tbilisi-Zagreb with two sets ofpilots, meaning four pilots. As
the crew had not undergonethe mandatory RT-PCR test,Croatian authorities did notallow them to alight from theaircraft, said people in theknow.
Since the crew could not flyback immediately due theFDTL (flight duty time limita-tion) restrictions, bedding, foodand water was provided in theaircraft, according to thespokesperson.
“Aircraft was cleaned.DGCA (Directorate General ofCivil Aviation) permission wasobtained. Crew rested in theaircraft for 21 hours (as man-dated by regulation).
The unfolding Covid cata-strophe in India has seen somecountries suddenly changetheir rules for crew and pas-sengers from the country.Sometimes these changes hap-pen when aircraft are on theirway from India to those coun-tries.
We are stuck right in themiddle of what appearsto be a very lethal secondwave of COVID-19.With not less than 3.5
lakh cases per day, the curve seems to notflatten any time soon. However, the hor-ror doesn’t end here. Doctors, scientistsand experts have started predicting thethird wave of COVID-19 which is expect-ed to wreak further havoc. More so,because it may hit children in a hard way.
While this is a major cause of worry,the question here is how prepared are weto tackle the upcoming third wave? Theanswer might not be what we want tohear.
“Viruses hunt for a susceptible pop-ulation. With schools closed presently,children will be that group once the edu-cational institutes reopen. This will bringon the third wave which will hit childrenbig time,” Dr Arvind Taneja, MBBS, MD(Paediatrics), Diplomat of the AmericanBoard of the Paediatrics, Fellowship —Infectious Diseases and Chief Advisor-Senior Consultant, Paediatrics, RainbowChildren’s Hospital, tells you.
In the absence of an effective vaccinefor children, they become the most sus-ceptible group and masking and sanitis-ing is the only way out.
“When 70 to 85 per cent of the pop-ulation is immunised ‘herd immunity’kicks in to protect people, especially chil-dren. Till then masks, social distancingcontinues to be the norm for children too,”he advises.
The need, he says, is to speed up vac-cine trials in children. “If adults vaccinat-ed are safe so should children be. We haveexperienced this with polio, measles,mumps, rubella live viral vaccines for 60years and viral influenza for 40 years ininfants as young as months old,” Tanejaadds and tells you that pediatric trials ofvaccines are expected to be completed byOctober-December.
“However the onset of the third iswave unpredictable,” he says.
The disappointing fact is that wehaven’t emphasised enough on paediatriccare and as a result we are lacking in it.
“India’s preparation for paediatricCOVID-19 is woefully inadequate. Wehave very few paediatric hospitals in thecountry, very few paediatric critical carespecialists and pediatric trained nurses.In order to be prepared for the third wave,each major and medium sized city inIndia should have at least one dedicatedchildren’s hospital to care for this fragilepopulation so that we are ready when andif catastrophe such as COVID-19 strikes.This is expected to happen in the thirdwave,” he tells you.
However, the silver lining is that wemay expect a decline in cases by May end,as per the doctors.
“According to a study, we may
expect a decline in cases by the end of Mayin most States. There could be one or twomore peaks of Coronavirus cases but theymay not be as huge as the current wave.Different States may see peaks at differ-ent times. The prediction is that we maysee a declining trend by end of this weekin India all together. But if we are to checkas a nation, with all cumulative figures,we are either at our peak or are very closeto it. Different states will have different tra-jectories,” Dr Yash Javeri, Critical Care,Anesthesia and Emergency Medicine,Regency Superspecialty Hospital,Lucknow, tells you.
The third wave, he says, may hit a fewStates in the next two-three months.
“If we put strict measures in place, thethird wave may not happen at all placesor might not be as huge as the secondwave. It depends on how effectively con-trol measures are implemented at the locallevel in the States, districts and citieseverywhere. In a few months, when thenaturally developed immunity of peopleor the one with the help of vaccinationfades, the virus can strike again. The onlything that can stop the virus from bounc-ing back is how people are guarding them-selves,” Arya opines.
He adds that if people follow COVID-appropriate behaviour in the comingmonths which includes double masking,using hand sanitiser, maintaining socialdistancing and avoiding going out unnec-essarily then we can probably cut the peak.
“If we are able to vaccinate a major-ity of population then the magnitude ofthird wave will be decreased,” he says,
However, Dr Animesh Arya, Seniorconsultant in Respiratory Medicine, SriBalaji Action Medical Institute, is of theopinion that it is hard to predict thedeclining trend. “There is no definiteanswer as to when we can expect a declinein cases, but epidemiologists feel that withall peaks there will be a fall after two tothree months so decline is expected inJune. But we can be way off our predic-tions as in the past,” he says.
Many scientists, infectious diseasesexperts and people from economics andmodelling background are trying to pre-dict the third wave, but from a scientificpoint of view which is based on the pre-vious outbreak of severe epidemics espe-cially Spanish flu, the expectations are allin the press and it may be in September-October. “It is also being assumed chil-dren in the age group 12-15 are likely tobe affected largely in the third wave as theyare naive and the new mutant strain isvery potent and it challenges the immu-nity of people not naturally protected orpartially protected by immunisation,”Arya explains.
He adds that as we all know buildinginfrastructure of tertiary healthcare isessential to treat sicker patients and pre-vent mortality, we must not forget that pri-
mary aim to contain disease by earlydetection, extensive testing of all levels ofcontacts, isolating them and treatingthem well ahead of time of going into seri-ous complications and mortality remainsthe key.
With that being said, there are sev-eral doctors who believe that childrenmight not get affected as badly as it isanticipated, because all these predic-tions are based on statistics. Hence, par-ents need not angst too much. However,this doesn’t mean we can put down ourguards. All precautions have to be in place,both in the presence or absence of a vac-cine.
“There is no evidence that the thirdwave will hit children. It can happen, butthese are only predictions. Though, thesymptoms in children are usually mild tilldate, but this doesn’t affect the importanceof vaccination for them. We can’t antici-pate if the symptoms will turn severe inthe third wave. However, in the absenceof a paediatric vaccine, the only way outis to take precautions. Immunity isanother important thing. Children shouldbe given nutritious food, including lots ofgreen leafy vegetables and fruits in theirdiet. Keep them hydrated. Coconut water,twice a day, can do the job. Avoid junk atall costs. And last, but not the least,increase their Vitamin C intake,” DrSwetha Reddy P, Consultant Paediatrics,Apollo Telehealth, tells you.
Though several States Governmentslike Maharashtra have already startedprepping up for the third wave by settingup paediatric centres, the need is toincrease the number of paediatric hospi-tals, ICU beds and care centres to tide overthe third wave with less fatalities and morerecoveries.
“To curb the impact of the third wave,the need of the hour is to increase thenumber of ICU beds and hospitals forchildren, get more paediatric nurses onboard and also to make sure there areample doctors to attend to children. Ourhealthcare infrastructure basically needsa revamp, which is definitely not possi-ble at this hour. Hence, now focus shouldbe on building a robust healthcare system,well-equipped with proper staff so thatdoctors and nurses don’t have to deal withfatigue. The strategy should be to vacci-nate 100 per cent children before the thirdwave hits. Also according to observationsthe mutants have been severely affectingthe children,” Dr Aashish Chaudhry,Managing Director and SeniorConsultant, Dept of Orthopaedics &Joint Replacement, Aakash HealthcareSuper Speciality Hospital, Dwarka, says.
One of the many ways to prevent chil-dren from the risk of getting infected isto get the parents vaccinated quickly. “Itis not the children that carry the virus, itis their parents or families who pass onthe virus. There are no reports to back the
fact, but this is an observation that is madeduring the first and second wave. Hence,in order to prevent children from catch-ing the infection, the elders need to getvaccinated with both doses quickly. Withthe shortage of vaccine, this might seema Herculean task, however it is the onlyfeasible option to reduce the impact of apossible third wave,” Dr Gitali Bhagawati,Consultant and Head, Department ofMicrobiology and Infection Control,Dharamshila Narayana SuperspecialityHospital, tells you.
And apart from the rest of the mea-sures, we need to prepare an army ofyoung nurses and doctors on standby tomove from one city to the other based on
the COVID wave, to support busy hos-pitals. For this, we need to motivate andencourage them largely, because moneyalone, won’t motivate young people to risktheir lives in COVID ICU wards.
And lastly, mildly symptomaticpatients should be isolated immediately,in order to reduce the risk of them spread-ing infection. “In order to flatten the curveand reduce the exposure to vulnerablepopulation of children who are at thehigher risk due to lack of herd immuni-ty or passive immunity, mildly sympto-matic patients should be provided isola-tion facilities till they get infection freesince the infection rate this time is high,”Arya tells you.
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Sacked as women’s cricketteam coach, WV Ramanhas alleged that a “smear
campaign” against him hasgained unwarranted tractionand urged the BCCI presidentSourav Ganguly to stop it.
In a mail that has also beenmarked to National CricketAcademy head Rahul Dravid,Raman wrote it will be“extremely disconcerting” if hiscandidature was rejected due toreasons other than “my incom-petency as a coach”.
In a surprising move,Raman was not retained as thehead coach of the seniorwomen’s team by the CricketAdvisory Committee (CAC)which picked Ramesh Powar forthe top job.
It was under Raman thatIndian team cherished a runner-up finish at the women’s T20World Cup last year.
“I presume you might havebeen told different views aboutmy style of functioning andwork ethic. Whether thoseviews conveyed to the officialsof the BCCI had any impact onmy candidature is of no conse-quence now,” Raman wrote inthe letter.
“What is important is thatthe smear campaign seems tohave gained some unwarrantedtraction with some BCCI offi-cials which needs to be haltedpermanently. I am prepared togive an explanation should youor any of the office bearersrequire it.”
He said he was not used to“moaning and whining” butwas bringing up the issues incase the BCCI president wish-es to do a course correction.
“If I were to be rejected dueto my incompetency as a coach,there is no argument on a judg-ment call at all. But what will beextremely disconcerting is if mycandidature was rejected due toany other reasons,” said theformer India opener who played11 Tests and 27 ODIs between
1988 and 1997.“Especially if it was due to
allegations from people whowere more focussed on achiev-ing their personal objectives atthe expense of the overallhygiene and welfare of theIndian women’s team and thepride of the country.”
The stylish former left-handed batsman’s letter to thetwo former captains is sure toruffle a few feathers given thatit has always been the coacheswho have either stepped asideor sacked following falloutswith players, most notably ODIcaptain Mithali Raj.
While Raman’s letter didn’tname anyone, it is understoodthat he was writing about thestar culture that prevails in theteam, which he said is probablydoing more harm than good.
“If some people in the sys-
tem have been highly accom-modative to the extent of beingseemingly obsequious to anaccomplished performer foryears on end and if that per-former feels constrained toadhere to the culture, then Iwould leave it to you to decideif the coach was asking for toomuch.
“In a coaching career span-ning 20 years, I have always cre-ated a culture in which the teamalways comes first and insistedon no individual overridingeither the game or the team.”
He said “paying heed toonly one individual’s viewswhile disregarding everyoneelse’s over a long period of timehas resulted in gaping holes inthe process and the system”.
“The time has come for youtwo accomplished former leg-ends to salvage women’s crick-et falling which things couldgather momentum in thewrong direction,” he warned.
“I have some suggestionsthat might help in the improve-ment of women’s cricket. I willbe delighted to share those ifyou are interested,” he signedoff.
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England are unlikely to rushtheir Indian Premier League
players straight from quarantineto the Test squad against NewZealand as they would be lack-ing red-ball practice, accordingto reports.
This will mean that thelikes of Jos Buttler, JonnyBairstow, Chris Woakes, SamCurran and Moeen Ali, who areserving a mandatory 10-dayquarantine after returning fromthe currently-suspended IPL,are likely to miss the two Testsagainst NZ, starting on June 2.
Their isolation periodexpires at the weekend, leavinglittle more than two weeksbefore the first Test at Lord’s.
“The timeline is consid-ered too tight for the (IPL)
returning players, meaning callsup are expected for the likes ofOllie Robinson, Craig Overtonand James Bracey,” according toa report in BBC Sport.
“While fitness levels couldbe managed, the lack of red-ballpractice could be a concern —particularly with other optionshaving spent several weeks com-peting in the CountyChampionship,” said anotherreport in The Independent.
Head coach ChrisSilverwood on Tuesday willconvene his first selection meet-ing since taking full control ofthe process from Ed Smith.
England men’s cricket man-aging director Ashley Giles hadearlier hinted that players whoreturned from the suspendedIPL are unlikely to feature in theTest series against New Zealand.
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Rookie wicketkeeper-batterIndrani Roy from
Jharkhand was rewarded withmaiden Test and ODI call-upfor India’s tour of England nextmonth but senior left-armspinner Rajeshwari Gayakwadmissed out as she is recover-ing from Covid-19.
The 29-year-oldGayakwad is also nursing aninjury.
The Neetu David ledselection panel made a coursecorrection with teen battingsensation Shafali Verma andseasoned pacer Shikha Pandeymaking it to all three squadsafter their South Africa homeseries snubs.
“This time Neetu and hercolleagues didn’t go for anyoutrageous experiments.Shafali and Shikha were two ofthe earliest names listed in allthree squads. There was oneSwetha Verma of UP whosename was discussed but it wasfound that she hasn’t evenscored 200 runs in a season,”a source close to develop-ments said.
Sneh Rana and Indraniwere two stellar performersin the National One Daycompetition andthus got theircall-ups.
T h econtro-versial picks ofthe last time likeMonica Patel, CPrathyusha havebeen dropped fromthe squad altogether inthe team selectionmeeting which waskeenly followed byBCCI president
Sourav Ganguly and secretaryJay Shah.
Indrani was rewarded forher string of scores whichincluded 103 againstChattisgarh, 86 againstKarnataka and 49 againstRailways in the final.
Rana on her part was thePlayer of the Final for her all-round show while represent-ing Indian Railways.
As expected Mithali Rajwill lead the team for theone-off Test and three ODIswhile Harmanpreet Kaur willtake over the reins during thethree T20 Internationals.
Former Australian captainLisa Sthalekar has claimed
that the BCCI neitherchecked on VedaKrishnamurthy after the twintragedies in her family norcommunicated to thebereaved India cricketer itsdecision to not consider herfor the upcoming tour ofEngland.
Earlier this month, theflamboyant middle-orderIndia batter lost her elder sis-ter Vatsala Shivakumar toCovid-19, two weeks after hermother succumbed to thedreaded virus.
On expected lines, shewas not included in theIndian Test and ODI team fornext month’s tour of theUnited Kingdom, but ICC
Hall of Famer Sthalekar wasnot convinced with theBCCI’s handling of the wholeepisode.
“Whilst not selectingVeda for the upcoming seriesmay be justified from theirpoint of view, what angers methe most is that as a contract-ed player she has not receivedany communication fromBCCI, just to even checkhow she is coping,” Sthalekarsaid in a note on her Twitterhandle.
She added, “A true asso-ciation should deeply careabout the players that play thegame... Not focus solely onjust the game at any cost. So
disappointed.”Bengal’s wicketkeeper-
batsman Shreevats Goswami,who has also had stints in theIPL besides representing thecountry in the U-19 level,backed Sthalekar.
Goswami said state crick-et associations in India don’tcare about their players.
“I don’t think cricketAssociations caring abouttheir players are even thoughtby the management in India,Mental health & communicat-ing with players on drawing afuture guide for their playersdoesn’t even cross their mind,I can say this for domesticcricket,” Goswami tweeted.
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England head coach ChrisSilverwood will take a break after
his team’s two Tests against NewZealand, handing over the reins of theODI side to his assistants for the homeseries against Sri Lanka and Pakistan,starting late June.
Having been part of England’stours of Sri Lanka and India earlier thisyear, Silverwood said he will take abreak to refresh himself before return-ing at the helm for the marquee Testseries against visiting Indians, startingin August.
In Silverwood’s absence, his assis-tants Paul Collingwood and GrahamThorpe will take charge of the ODIteam for one series each in the home
matches against Sri Lanka andPakistan from late June to mid-July.
“I’ll be passing the reins on for theODI series. It’s not fair on the playersif I am operating at less than 100% andit is not fair on myself either,”Silverwood was quoted as saying by
the British media.“Thorpey will do one and Colly
will do the other and I’ll use it as mybreak to refresh and get ready for whatis ahead of us,” he added.
After the two-match home Testseries against New Zealand, starting onJune 2, England will play 12 white-ballInternationals at home. Their limitedovers home series against Sri Lankabegins on June 23 with the first of thethree T20Is, followed by three ODIs.
Then, Pakistan’s tour of threeODIs and as many T20Is begins onJuly 16. This will be followed by a five-match home Test series against Indiabeginning August 4, when Silverwoodwill return at the helm of affairs.
After hosting seven Tests as wellas the 12 white-ball Internationals,England is scheduled to tour Pakistanand Bangladesh ahead of the T20World Cup scheduled for October.
Joe Root’s Test team then travelsto Australia for the Ashes series, fol-lowed by a tour of the Caribbean at thestart of next year.
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Opposition to the OlympicGames will be there amidst
a raging Covid-19 pandemic butconducting the biggest sport-ing spectacle in Tokyo willsend out a strong messagethat the world is movingbeyond the catastrophic sit-uation, IOA PresidentNarinder Batra said onSaturday.
The Tokyo Olympics,which was scheduled to be
held last year, was postponedbecause of the pandemic.
The Indian Olympic
Association (IOA) President,who is also an InternationalOlympic Committee (IOC)member, is hoping that theGames will be held as scheduled,from July 23.
“Life has to move on andconducting the Olympics willgive a strong message that wehave moved beyond the Covid-19 pandemic,” Batra said.
“Opposition to the Gameswill always be there but it is nowup to the organising committeeof Japan and IOC to decide.
“But as far as Indian athletesare concerned we are taking allnecessary precautions and have
been preparing to the best of ourabilities to put up our best-everperformance in the Olympics,”the IOA chief added.
Batra’s comment has comeafter critics from Japan on Fridaysubmitted a petition, calling forthe Games to be cancelled as thehost nation fights a fourth waveof coronavirus infections.
The IOA chief assured thatthe travel ban imposed on Indiaby Japan wouldn’t affect coun-try’s participation in the Games.
Japan on Thursday sus-pended entry of foreign nation-als from 153 nations, includingIndia in the wake of the recentsurge in Covid cases across theglobe.
“This is a temporary travelban which has been issued bymany countries but when itcomes to Olympics, there aredifferent protocols in placewhich a member nation hasadhere to,” Batra said.
“I assure all the accreditedOlympics-bound Indian ath-letes that they will face no prob-lem in entering Japan. There areenough guarantees beingensured by the Organising com-mittee and IOC,” he said.
Cameron Bancroft, one of thethree central figures in the
infamous ball-tampering scan-dal, says it is “self explanatory”that apart from Steven Smith,David Warner and himself,Australian bowlers were alsoaware of the illegal tactics dur-ing the Newlands Test.
Bancroft was caught oncamera using sandpaper on theball in the third Test againstSouth Africa in 2018, a scandalthat had rocked Australian andworld cricket.
In an interview with TheGuardian, asked if some of thebowlers knew what he wasdoing, Bancroft replied: “Yeah,look, all I wanted to do was tobe responsible and accountablefor my own actions and part.
“Yeah, obviously what I didbenefits bowlers and the aware-ness around that, probably, isself-explanatory,” he added.
The Australian bowlingattack in the Newlands Testhad comprised pacers MitchellStarc, Pat Cummins, JoshHazlewood, Mitchell Marsh andspinner Nathan Lyon.
Bancroft, who is currentlyplaying for Durham in theCounty Championship, said hewanted to be “liked” by his team-
mates and in turn “lost control”of his values.
“I invested too much to thepoint where I lost control of myvalues. What had becomeimportant to me was beingliked, being well valued, feelingreally important to my team-mates, like I was contributingsomething by using sandpaperon a cricket ball.
“That’s something I don’tthink I even understood untilthat mistake happened. But it’spart of the journey and a hardlesson I needed to learn.”
The 28-year-old rued thathe was not able to make a bet-ter decision at that time.
“I guess one thing I learntthrough the journey and beingresponsible is that’s where thebuck stops (with Bancroft him-self). Had I had better awarenessI would have mad a much bet-ter decision,” said Bancroft.
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Auckland: New Zealand batsman Devon Conway issprinkling kitty litter on practice wickets to simulate spinbowling on the rough, hoping this will help him counterthe likes of Ravichandran Ashwin during the World TestChampionship final against India next month.
The 29-year-old has been named in the 20-mem-ber visiting NZ squad for the two-match Test seriesagainst England. The squad will then be trimmed to 15for the WTC Final in Southampton starting on June 18.
Conway, who impressed in his first Internationalseason for his adopted home country last summer inODIs and T20s, says he has been sprinkling kitty lit-ter on practice wickets to simulate spin bowling pitch-ing in the rough created by bowlers’ footmarks.
“Basically the idea is to get the ball to sort of spitout of the rough,” Conway, who has featured in threeODIs and 14 T20Is for New Zealand, told Spark Sport.
Kitty litter is granulated clay whichabsorbs waste products of pets likecat or dogs.
“It’s a bit harder to play, butgood practice. It’s about findinga gameplan to combat that and justpractice how you’re going to playin the game,” said the left-handedbatsman.
“When it does roughen upand the ball does spit and turna lot, it’s all about being posi-tive.”
Conway said he didn’twant to rely on just defendingagainst spinners. “If you’regoing to look to just defendthroughout, at some pointthere might be a ball that’sgoing to have your num-ber.” PTI
Robert Lewandowski,dubbed a “machine” byhis wife, has added theBundesliga record formost goals in a season to
the long list of major honours andachievements he has claimed in hisillustrious career.
Gerd Müller’s mark of 40 goalsin a campaign, set in the 1971/72season, had withstood the test oftime until Lewandowski converteda first-half penalty for BayernMunich at Freiburg on Saturday.
While Müller set his record over34 league games, Lewandowski hasscored his 40 goals in 28 matches,due to a knee injury last month andsquad rotation.
Lewandowski has scored fiveBundesliga hat-tricks this term,including a four-goal haul in a 4-3win over Hertha Berlin in October.
“I have to be honest, I am aston-ished. I thought Müller’s recordwould last for forever,” Bayernchairman Karl-Heinz Rummeniggesaid last weekend, afterLewandowski’s treble againstBorussia Mönchengladbach.
With 276 goals in 349 games forBayern and Borussia Dortmund,Lewandowski is already the second-most successful striker in Bundesligahistory after Müller, who scored 365in 427 matches.
Lewandowski was crownedFIFA’s best male player lastDecember, edging out superstarsCristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.
Lewandowski’s 55 goals in allcompetitions in 2019/20 were key toBayern winning the treble, as thePoland striker was the first playerto be top-scorer in the ChampionsLeague, Bundesliga and GermanCup competitions in a single sea-son.
He was recognised by FIFAafter proving himself in theknock-out stage of theChampions League last term.
But Lewandowski was side-lined by a knee injury for Bayern’squarter-final exit to Paris Saint-Germain last month, as the Frenchgiants avenged their 2020 finaldefeat in Lisbon.
He is set to be the Bundesliga’stop-scorer the sixth time in eightseasons, but Lewandowski was yetto inspire Bayern to European gloryuntil last year.
His four goals for BorussiaDortmund in the 2013 semi-finalfirst leg against Real Madrid helpedhis former club into the final, butthey were beaten by Bayern atWembley.
In Lewandowski’s first five yearsat the Bavarian giants, Bayern failedto reach the showpiece match.
But he was crucial to Bayern’srun last term.
He scored and set up SergeGnabry’s two goals in Bayern’s 3-0last-16 first-leg win at Chelsea.
When the return leg was played
nearly six months later,Lewandowski had a hand in all fourgoals — scoring twice and creatingtwo more — in the 4-1 win at theAllianz Arena.
He followed that up by scoringin the historic 8-2 quarter-final routof Messi’s Barcelona and nettedagain in the 3-0 semi-final win overLyon. He finished as the tourna-ment’s top-scorer with 15 goals, twoshort of Ronaldo’s record for a sin-gle season.
His five Champions Leaguegoals this term saw him pass RealMadrid legend Raul to leave him on73 Champions League goals, shortof only Messi, on 120, and Ronaldo,who has scored 134 times.
RAW TALENT TO SUPERSTAR Lewandowski was spotted as a
raw 21-year-old playing for Polishclub Lech Poznan, where he scored41 goals in 82 games, and joinedDortmund in 2010.
He made his breakthroughunder Jürgen Klopp, helpingDortmund win back-to-backBundesliga titles in 2010/11 and2011/12.
He scored a hat-trick in a 5-2drubbing of Bayern in the 2012German Cup final, but left forDortmund’s rivals two years later,having scored 103 goals for the club.
Lewandowski has now scored293 times in 328 games for Bayernin all competitions.
He is known for his disciplinedapproach to nutrition and training,resulting in his honed physique.
“My husband is a machine,” saidwife Anna, a former Polish karateInternational who serves as hispersonal trainer.
Lewandowski is rarely injuredand former Bayern captain OliverKahn sees him as “an absolutemodel of professionalism, a condi-tion for staying at the highest levelfor a very long time”.
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Sweden international ZlatanIbrahimovic has been ruled
out of Euro 2020 with a kneeinjury, the Swedish FootballAssociation confirmed onSaturday.
Ibrahimovic sprained hisknee a week ago playing forclub side AC Milan whorevealed earlier on Saturdaythat medical experts recom-mended “conservative treat-ment for six weeks”.
The 39-year-old forwardreturned to his national sidelast March nearly five yearsafter his international farewell.
Sweden open their Euro2020 campaign against Spain inSeville on June 14, before fur-
ther Group E games againstSlovakia four days later andPoland in Saint-Petersburg onthe 23rd.
Ibrahimovic’s treatmentwould last until June 26 at least.
“I have spoken to ZlatanIbrahimovic who unfortunate-ly has told me that his injurywill stop his participation in theEuropean Championship thissummer,” Sweden team coachJanne Andersson said in astatement.
“Of course this feels sad,most of all for Zlatan but, alsofor us,” Andersson added.
The veteran forwardinjured his knee last week dur-ing a 3-0 win over Juventus,and will not play again this sea-son for the club.
Ibrahimovic has 62 goalsfrom 118 appearances forSweden but has only scoredonce for Milan since Februaryafter missing games throughinjury and suspension.
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Zinedine Zidane hinted on Saturdayhe could leave as coach of Real
Madrid at the end of the season, sayinghe believes “there comes a time when it’sthe moment to change”.
Zidane’s contract expires in 2022 buthe has repeatedly refused to confirm hewill still be at the club next season.
The Frenchman has a history of sur-prises after resigning as coach unexpect-edly in 2018 before making a shockreturn a year later.
As a player, he initially announcedhis retirement from International foot-ball in 2004 before coming back for the2006 World Cup, after which he retiredfor good.
“You talk about me leaving in 2006and 2018 and it’s like you think I leavebecause I’m shirking responsibility orthat I quit when things get tough,” saidZidane in a press conference.
“It’s not, the only thing about me isthat what I do, I do to the end, and thenthere comes a time when it’s themoment to change. For everyone, notjust for me. For the club, for the goodof the club, for the people.
“I don’t leave because it’s easy. It’s notlike I turn away and don’t look back. No,there are moments when you have to bethere and there are moments when that’sit, it’s finished, it’s time to change. Butfor the good of everyone, not just forme.”
When it was put to him that it feltlike he was saying goodbye, Zidane said:“I can only say the same thing. I don’tknow what will happen. I’m here now,yes, and tomorrow we are going to play.Then we will have one match left.
“The rest, I don’t know what willhappen. This is Real Madrid. I don’tknow if it’s a strength but I am alwaysabout the day to day. It’s always been likethis.”
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Nine-time champion Rafael Nadaladvanced to the Italian Open final
for the 12th time on Saturday with a 6-4, 6-4 win over American ReillyOpelka.
The Spaniard will play eitherdefending champion Novak Djokovicor Italian Lorenzo Sonego in what willalso be his 52nd Masters final.
Playing his 500th clay-court match,Nadal staved off break points in thefourth game of the first set and did notlook back to win through in 1hr32min.
“It’s important for my confidenceto be back in a final,” said Nadal, whoexited early in Monte Carlo andMadrid.
“I did what I had to do today, it wasnot an easy or beautiful match to play.
“The work is done,” he added.
Two weeks before Roland Garros,Nadal had a tough run to the semi-finals,saving two match points in a 3hr 30minthird round battle with Canadian DenisShapovalov.
But the 34-year-old was rarely trou-bled by the towering American, who wasplaying his first Masters semi-final.
Nadal blasted down 11 aces and didnot drop serve against a player who hadnot dropped a set all week.
A break in either set, Opelka’s firstdropped this week, put the secondseed through to a possible fifth finalmeeting in Rome against five-timewinner Djokovic.
Nadal is looking to equal Djokovic’srecord of 36 ATP Masters 1000 titles onSunday.
He is also attempting to win 10 ormore titles at a single event for the fourthtime, after Roland Garros (13),Barcelona (12) and Monte Carlo (11).
PLISKOVA TO FACE IGACzech ninth seed Karolína Pliskova
booked her berth in a third consecu-tive Italian Open final on Saturday witha three sets win over Croatia’s PetraMartic.
Former world number one Pliskovawon through 6-1, 3-6, 6-2 in the semi-final as she bids to reclaim the title shewon in 2019 but lost last year after retir-ing injured while trailing Romania’sSimona Halep in the final.
Pliskova is the only top 10 playerleft in the draw and will next meetreigning French Open champion IgaSwiatek who beat American teenagerCoco Gauff 7-6, 6-3 in the other semi-final.
Earlier Poland’s Swiatek oustedfifth seed Elina Svitolina, a two-timeRome winner, 6-2, 7-5 in 1hr 36min inthe match which had been pushed backfrom Friday because of rain in Rome.
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Leicester won the FA Cup for thefirst time in the club’s 137-year his-
tory on Saturday as Youri Tielemans’ssensational strike beat Chelsea 1-0 infront of 22,000 fans at Wembley.
The largest crowd for a sportsevent in England since the coron-avirus pandemic hit 14 months agowere treated to a goal worthy to winany trophy as the Belgian midfielderblasted into the top corner on 63 min-utes.
Kasper Schmeichel produced astunning save to deny Mason Mountlate on and Chelsea also had a goalruled out by a VAR review for offside.
Five years after the Foxes stunnedthe Premier League’s giants to becomechampions, Leicester have nowclaimed English football’s other pres-tigious trophy at the fifth time of ask-ing.
Four times they had previously
lost the final, but the last of those was52 years ago.
A historic week for BrendanRodgers’s men could get even better
as they are on the verge of sealing aplace in next season’s ChampionsLeague.
The sides meet again in three
days’ time at Stamford Bridge in a piv-otal clash to decide who secures a top-four finish in the Premier League.
Chelsea need a quick responseafter losing for just the fourth time in27 games since Thomas Tuchelreplaced the sacked Frank Lampardin January.
The Blues also have a ChampionsLeague final to look forward toagainst Manchester City in two weeks’time, but could end the campaignwithout silverware or a place inEurope’s premier club competitionnext season.
Chelsea’s success under Tuchelhas come thanks to an excellentdefensive record, but their strugglesat the other end were again exposed.
Tuchel’s men dominated beforehalf-time but laboured to createclear-cut chances despite Leicester los-ing defensive lynchpin Jonny Evansto injury midway through the firsthalf.
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Ferran Torres scored his firstManchester City hat-trick
as the newly-crowned Englishchampions twice came frombehind to beat Newcastle 4-3 onFriday night.
With a third PremierLeague title in four years sealedwith three games to spare, PepGuardiola again took the chanceto hand a number of his fringeplayers an opportunity to shinetwo weeks ahead of theChampions League final.
Goalkeeper Scott Carsonwas handed his City debut at 35and a first Premier Leagueappearance for almost 10 years.
But it was Torres who madethe strongest case to be involvedagainst Chelsea in Porto on May29 with a trio of fine finishes.
Victory opens up City’sunassailable lead at the top of thetable to 13 points overManchester United.
Newcastle secured safety inthe top-flight last weekend and
remain in 16th.
LEEDS WIN 4-0Leeds extended Burnley’s
winless run at home to ninegames with a 4-0 victory onSaturday that bolstered theirbid for a top-10 finish.
Substitute Rodrigo scoredtwo late goals to give Leeds afour-point cushion over 11th-place Aston Villa, which plays atCrystal Palace on Sunday.
Mateusz Klich finished acounterattack by curling in ashot shortly before halftime,and Jack Harrison doubled thelead at the hour mark by gettinga touch to flick Ezgjan Alioski’slow shot into the net.
Burney, which won 2-0 atFulham on Monday to securetop-flight status for a sixth con-secutive season, hasn’t won atTurf Moor since a 3-2 victoryagainst Aston Villa on Jan 27.
In other match, NathanTella scored his first goal forSouthampton in a 3-1 win overalready-relegated Fulham.
Juventus kept alive its Champions Leaguequalification hopes by winning at Serie A
champion Inter Milan 3-2 on Saturday,when Atalanta clinched a place in Europe’spremier competition.
Antonio Conte’s Inter squad had alreadyended Juventus’ record run of nine straightSerie A titles, and it could have ended his for-mer team’s chances of reaching theChampions League.
Referee Gianpaolo Calvarese had a busygame, awarding three penalties and relyingon VAR for assistance. The first spot kick wasawarded to Juventus through VAR, whichshowed Matteo Darmian holding backGiorgio Chiellini with his arm. CristianoRonaldo took his second chance from therebound in the 24th after a poor first effort.
The Inter visitors equalized throughanother penalty, converted by Romelu Lukakuin the 35th, after Calvarese checked videoreplays that showed Lautaro Martinez fallingunder Matthijs de Ligt’s contact.
Cuadrado restored Juve’s lead with adeflected shot before the break.
Chiellini was again in the spotlightwhen he bundled the ball into his own netunder pressure from Lukaku in the 83rd.Calvarese initially awarded the Italy defend-er a free kick, then showed him a yellow cardand awarded the goal after checking replays.
But Cuadrado fell after running into theretreating Ivan Perisic and Calvarese award-ed another penalty. The Colombian stayedcool to keep Juve qualification hopes alive.
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The Women’s Champions Leagueofficially moves into a new era
next season with the overdue intro-duction of a group stage, but thisyear’s final in Gothenburg onSunday between Chelsea andBarcelona already marks a signifi-cant turning point.
After winning the competitionin each of the last five years, andseven times in the last decade,Lyon are conspicuous by theirabsence.
There has been a French orGerman Champions League winnerin each of the 13 years, since Arsenallifted the trophy in 2007, but thistime will be different.
Lyon lost in the quarter-finals toParis Saint-Germain, themselvesbeaten in the last four by Barcelona,the Spanish champions.
German hopes ended whenBayern Munich lost in the semi-finals to Chelsea, who have sincegone on to win the English Women’sSuper League (WSL) and are eyeingEuropean glory to go with it.
�Tell us about your experience ofbeing part of Bigg Boss 13.
That was of course, was back in2019. There was no Bigg Boss in 2020for obvious reasons. I would say that2021 is also turning out to be like 2020.To come back to Bigg Boss, the expe-rience was fantastic. It was not the firsttime that I was offered to part of thisreality show. I was offered Bigg Boss 1and since then it came to me almostevery year. But I kept turning it down.I was not ready to be part of the showtill 2019. It is a very intense game thatone needs to be ready for. When it cameto me again, my gut told to be go ahead
with it. I am glad that I did it since itis the only season to have the high-
est rating. I had a lotof fun of
d o i n git.
�What was the take away from it?Now that the season is behind me,
I can think of only good things itbrought me — the good changes. Itmakes you realise how important fam-ily is. One is cut off from the worldwhen one is in the House. You are liv-ing is a beautiful luxurious house butthere are a lot of restrictions and limi-tations. It is about survival of thefittest. One has to be prepared to be partof it because it can take a toll on youmentally.
�You kept refusing and said yes toSeason 13. What was the attraction?
I do follow my gut and intuitionwhen it comes to choosing projects.When I was offered the season, I wasready and there was something in methat told me to go for it. I had beenoffered so many times and felt this waslike a now or never for me.
�You did Nach Baliye as well.In Nach Baliye, I was in my zone.
I was known for my dancing. I think Iam the only one to have been part ofthe show twice. It was great to dancewith Parag, him being a non-dancer. Itwas tough to make him get up anddance and I have such love for it.
�You have done a few reality shows?What's your take on them? Does ithelp get noticed in the right circles?
The people who have already beenestablished are the ones who get an
opportunity to show another side toyou. Reality show are great but it is dif-ferent from a talent-based realityshow. Shows like this come to artistswho are somewhat established. Realityshows, on the other hand give you theopportunity to showcase your talentand get noticed. Bigg Boss does giveyou an opportunity to stand out, gar-ner attention and have a large fan fol-lowing. But matters is what you doafter that to achieve a high.
�Does it bother you that people stillthink of you are the Kaanta Lagagirl?
Not at all. Just the opposite. it iswonderful. People spend years to cre-ate an identity and with my very firstsong I was able to make such a strongone and no mater what I did after that,I would forever be the Kaanta Laga girland there is only one Kaanta Laga girlin the whole wide world. I am proudto have this tag. It makes me happy thatafter so many years, people still enjoythe song.
�Did you think that the song wouldbe such a hit?
Forget back then, it feels so surre-al that the song garnered so muchattention even today. I find it difficultto believe the popularity and success ofthe song. I was just a college girls whenshe was spotted outside her college andoffered the music. I had no aspirationsto be part of the industry. I did purely
because I wanted to be seen on TV.
�How did you end up doing a musicalbum?
I was sitting outside my collegewhen I was spotted by director duoRadhika Rao and Vinay Sapru. I wasnot even looking my best that day butthey probably felt I fit the bill. Back thensongs were made like films. We spenttwo-three months preparing. I was sucha spoilt brat and didn’t understand theseriousness of the work. It was onlywhen the song became hot that Iunderstood. It was such a fairy tale forme — a Gujarati girl from a middleclass family became a star overnight.
�What was about the album thatmade you join the industry?
I would say it was my calling. Thealbum was destined to happen becauseof the way things unfolded and itcarved a path for me. Once the songbecame popular I felt it was somethingthat I was good at, be a good dancerthan an engineer. From the dancer, Ibranched out and did two web seriesand looking forward to more projects.�Things have once again come to astandstill for the industry. How areyou coping?
I have understood that I need todeal with the situation since I am notalone. I do have a few projects but theyare on hold. Jaan hai to jahan hai.Money can be earned again. Stayingsafe is the need of the hour.
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�What is Zamaana, the EP, about?Basically, the EP has all the songs that are really close to me. They
talk about things that have happened and experiences that I have beenthrough over the course of time that I have been doing music like bul-lying, censorship and my faith in God. it is a mix of many things. WhenI am writing a song, it has many things; it is a journey. I ask myself aset of questions. For example, it could be about society. I then answerthese myself. That is how Zamaana was born.�The songs highlight issues the youth face like bullying, censorship,self-esteem, corruption and faith. Why choose these subjects?
I have faced a lot of bullying when I was growing up because theway I used to think about the world. My interests were different whenI was in school. I was an introvert. I would bunk my school to go tolearn music. I loved to spend time playing the instruments. Others kidswould make fun of me and say that I was weird. I was fat too that ledto bullying as well. Body shaming was so common. People would lookdown upon me because I am an artist. Where I come from Jammu. Thereis only one acceptable job, a Government job. People don’t understandart here. I was pressurised to take up a Government job but I rode allthat. �From Shayaan to Shen B, how did that happen?
I gave this name to myself. I could have just gone with Shayaan; Ilove my name. But I wanted to create a totally different persona for myself- one who is expressive and is an extrovert. When I became Shen B, itgave me the power to express myself. I had a few friends who supportedme. I had left music for four years to do m masters. I went to Mumbaiand worked there but then I came back home because I wanted peacein my life. My friends encouraged me to get back to music and here Iam. �How did you get into music?
It has been with me since I was a toddler. My grandparents weremusicians so I would say that music is in my blood. I come from anorthodox Muslim family and they don't encourage music. But I con-tinued to learn. It was only when I turned 22 when my mother told meabout our family's legacy but they stopped due to religious reasons. Igot into music because I saw a few people play guitar. I was hooked. Iwas in Class VIII. I joined them, became drummer and was part of theirband. �Why hip-hop?
If I could sing, I would. Unfortunately, I don't have the voice of asinger. I can just express myself. I had made a rap about a man whohad bullied me and it went viral in Jammu and that got me more inter-ested.�What is the hip-hop scene in the city?
It is growing but sadly, those in underground rap have never leftthe city. There is lack of exposure. But we are slowly getting there. Wehave gatherings; rappers from other cities come. Since there is no clubculture, the rap scene is slow. �What are the challenges faced to be a singer?
When I came back home in 2019, I didn't know much about rapbut I started putting up my music. During the lockdown, we had noInternet. I had to look for locations where I could get good receptionto post my music. I lost my mother due to COVID-19. She was my onlysupporter so things changed for me after that. I also don't get many gigs.But I am a graphic designer and earn enough to work on my music.
Last year, when the virusgripped the world and killedlakhs, a new ray hope camein the form of plasma thera-
py. Several people came forward anddid whatever they could to connectthe recipient with the donor.However, in 2020, the situation wasnot what it is today. Cut to April2021, the situation is just the oppo-site.
The demand for plasma dona-tion is sky high. This is when peo-ple like Adnan Shah and Chef SanjayRaina stepped in. The idea to createa Twitter handle — PlasmaNCR —was to field requests and expandplasma donor pools.
“It was quite a spontaneousdecision. When the COVID-19 hellbroke loose, we saw some requestson Twitter for plasma which werenot getting as much attention asrequests for hospital beds and oxy-gen cylinders. We decided that thiswould be our focus area andPlasmaNCR was born,” Raina says.And it began with him and AdnanShah, his friend, to assist fellowKashmiris in NCR in getting a hos-pital bed. But the moment they sawthe scale of unfolding disaster, theydecided to help whomsoever theycould.
And disaster it is. Shah andRaina work round the clock to helprecipients connect with the donors.Shah tells you that he and Raina sleeponly four hours each to handle thenumber of calls they get 24X7.
“I sleep from 12 am to 4 am;Raina sleeps from 4 am till 8 pm.That is how we manage to addressthe many calls as possible. So muchso that my number (07006946304)has now gone viral since then. Wewant to reach out to as many peo-ple as fast as possible in the short-est possible time because everyminute is crucial. People can reachout on our Twitter handle where thepatient or his family member canshare the details and fill out a con-cise form there. We then reach outto people who can come forward andbecome donors. At the same time,we are trying to create a donor pool.We started this social cause on theday things went out of control. OnDay 1 we got 100 calls and since thethe number has only been rising.Today, we are getting 1,000 requests.The minute there is a thumbs up ona request it means that we are work-ing on connecting the donor with therecipient. And it is not first come firstserve. It depends on the urgency andcriticality of each case,” Shahexplains.
However, it is not always possi-ble for the duo to close to request attheir end. That is when they reachout to others doing similar work tohelp them out. No request is closeduntil a recipient is connected with adonor.
“We have been working for thelast 26 days. To begin with we wereclosing 150 request. Today it is 200.The nation is in crisis and it is notpossible to give the exact number
since we are also not keeping track
of the numbers. When we startedthis initiative, we never realised thatwe would get so many calls; neverrealised that our work would berecognised in Delhi-NCR. Now, weget requests from Mumbai and theValley as well. We have a contact inMumbai. whatever calls we get fromthe city, we direct it to that person.Similarly, we have contacts inKashmir and ask them to help uswhen a request comes from thatState. We are also trying to lend ahelping hand in States where thereis a need,” Shah says.
Nitesh Singh, who started TeamSOS India in April 2020, tells youthat their initiative has 1,723 volun-teers spread all across the countrytoday. However, he tells you that thisis a small group given the numberof requests they get.
“Our team works till 4 am dailyto handle the cases we get. To makeit easy for us to meet requests, wehave three teams — North, Centraland South. On an average, we aregetting 500-600 requests for beds and2,000 plasma requests. When I start-ed this last year, it was on my per-sonal number but soon realised Ineeded a big team and createdTeam SOS India. The idea is to saveone person and in doing so, one issaving one’s soul,” Singh says.
He tells you that the situation atpresent is not good. “We are get-ting requests from placespeople would have neverheard of. Take an exam-ple —Tanuku, in WestGodavari district ofAndhra Pradesh orMachilipatnam. Last year,we weren’t getting anycases from the South.Today, we get five-sixrequests daily. Also, peopleare scared this time round,”Singh says.
The challenge or thegap that exists today isin Delhi-NCR.“There is somuch neg-a t i v i t ya r o u n d
in the Capital due to shortage of oxy-gen, medicines and beds. All thismakes people of Delhi scared. Thenthere is Black Fungus scare,” Singhtells you.
Another challenge he faces isthat not many donors come forwardas they fear they may test positiveagain. Also, they don’t want theirnumber to be given out.
“In such a situation, a person isassigned to the donor who are vol-unteers and their extended family.We coordinate everything. Justarranging the donor doesn’t solve theproblem. Donation has to gothrough too. The donor has to go tothe hospital where the recipient is,give the patient ID and donate plas-ma. Since we have been doing thisfor a year, things are in place,” Singhsays who is an educator by profes-sion and teaches students to preparefor JEE.
Singh is on a mission — Mission2024 — to ensure that nobody diesdue to lack of blood. “If I can get
10,000 people fromacross India who candonate blood, we canmeet the challenge ofany pandemic.”Singh says. BhawnaArora, founder ofKamla AroraB l e s s i n g sFoundation andbased out of London
tells you that her jour-ney began in 2017 when
her mother died due toa rare blood disease in
India. “I sawthe com-
plexities to get blood donors. Wehave been for the last three yearsworking in the donation campaign.Since the pandemic hit in March2020, we have been working tofetch a donor for the recipient. Wehave received over 60,000 calls sincelast year for plasma requests,” Arorasays.
Her number (8810618253) hasbeen circulated on social mediaplatforms and she gets WhatsAppmessages and Facebook. She and herIndia coordinator, Vivek Jain(9810063261) manage to attend tothe requests between the two onthem. “Looking at the demand, weare working day and night. Onedoesn’t look at the time when thereis a life involved,” Arora says.
She tells you that the need of thehour is to give the right advocacy tothe people so that they can forwardand serve humanity. “Second thereis a need to streamline communi-cation between all stakeholders. Welive in the time of AI. Why not useit to optimum. There is so muchinformation out there, some verifiedsome not. We need to structurise itmore so we can serve more people.It is necessary to motivate people todonate as well. There is a need tohave one large platform — we needone channel where the needs aremet, faith will develop and the peo-ple will come forward and do whatis required. Things have becomecompetitive today. There are somany people working trying tobring donor and recipient togetherbut we don’t know who is givingvalue output. The fraud and mistrustis too hampering donors from com-ing forward,” Arora opines.
Agrees Sarthak Verma of PlasmaConnect app. Back then he used toget one or two downloads. “Today,
there are over a 1,000 users. Alsoback then, few people knew aboutplasma therapy. Today, there is farmore awareness as it has become acritical treatment for COVID-19,”Verma says.
According to him the biggestchallenge is the authenticity of therequests made and the donors.“Many brokers have emerged and arecharging to connect them withdonors. We don’t want such people.It creates mistrust among the donors.When people come to my app now,a form has to be filled in. The infor-mation is then verified. This takescare of any false leads and we are ableto connect the correct donor with thecorrect recipient,” Verma says.
For Nikhil Chawla, in theCapital, it all started with a familymember needing plasma. “When Iwas running around trying toarrange for the same I realised thelack of infrastructure and the hugegap between the need for plasmaand donors. I contacted everyoneon my social media if they werewilling to donate plasma and thejourney began,” Chawla recalls.
And it has been a tough one forhim personally. In the last 15 dayshe has lost four immediate familymembers and had thought of giv-ing it up. But then he got a messagefrom a mother thanking him forhelping her get in touch with adonor that saved her daughter’s life.“When I lost two of my cousins,taiji and tauji, I thought all myefforts to create a data and puttingit out had come to not. But mes-sages like the one sent by themother keeps me going,” Chawlasays.
He tells you that a donor does-n’t have to go to the hospital todonate plasma. “There are bloodbanks. The donor can go there,donate blood and walk away withplasma. There are many banks thatgive plasma in lieu of blood. Thereis lack of awareness leading towrong information; people thinkthat if they donate plasma theirantibodies will reduce. This isincorrect. The only thing to remem-ber is that one can donate only oncea month,” Chawla tells you.
Initially, the idea was to helppeople around Delhi but he could-n’t turn down a request that camefrom another city. “It has becomean obsession to try and help asmany people as possible. I just man-age to sleep couple of hours atnight. My work is on hold for now.So I am trying to help whoever Ican. It brings me peace when I amable to people,” Chawla says.
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The Kaanta Laga girl, who was part of BiggBoss 13, speaks with Shalini Saksena about
how she ended up doing the music videothat propelled her into the industry.
The present scenario, with the rise inCovid-19 cases and deaths, is noth-ing short of a nightmare. Most peo-ple are experiencing mixed emo-tions and a lingering feeling of, “I
don’t feel like doing anything”. This is notonly because of the news and informationoverload on social media, but also the factthat people are losing their near and dearones without as much of a hint.
The pain, overwhelm, fears, anger, socialisolation and uncertainty are not only impact-ing the youth but even the kids. The years2020 and 2021 have changed not just how welive or work but also how our children studyand play. While the working youth seem to begrappling with the situation, whether it is lossof a job, business, medical facility, or life, thekids are a witness to it all. The impact is muchmore than what meets the eye. The confusedfeelings, unprocessed emotions, unclearthoughts and panicky actions are leaving adeep impact on our mental and emotionalhealth as well.
The immediate and the long-term mentalhealth impacts of the pandemic on the kids isdifficult to estimate. However, the cases of anx-iety, stress and depression amongst childrenbetween the age group of 5-16 years has seen ahuge spike in the last one year. While initiallythey felt relieved with the online classes, theseverity of the pandemic and the impact of thechanges in their lives (and that of their par-ents) soon began to dawn upon them. Thecommon complaints that I get from parentsthese days is lack of focus, lack of physicalexercise, over-eating, irritability, anxiety, boutsof anger, fears and sadness in kids.
Ironically, all this is being experienced bythe parents as well. No matter how we con-duct ourselves in front of our children, theyknow exactly what is happening around us.The TV, news, social media, conversations onphone and with each other, the quarantine ofa family member, life-threatening situations,the panic on our faces — they can sense it all.
The schools are rushing with the syllabusonline because the education of the child isimportant but are we considerate towardstheir mental health? How are the currentexperiences and unprocessed emotions goingto impact these children as adults?
Our mental health impacts how werespond, feel, think and act. Our behaviour,decision-making and physical health is alllinked to our mental health. Hence, it isessential to give love and assurance andimpart coping skills to not only the adults butalso to the children.
The pandemic has reshaped the worldbeyond imagination. The suffering in Indiahas gone to the level of basic requirements offood, shelter, medical facility and transportnot being met for a large part of the popula-tion. The situation is grim with high levels ofinsecurity and chaos.
Of late, there is propensity for blametowards the authorities. It’s never easy to losea loved one, never. The fear, anger, blame,guilt — the whole gamut of emotions is alljustified. But what is also important is topause for a moment and accept all these emo-tions and begin to process them. Situation isgrim for everyone (in some way or the other).What we need in today’s times is prayer, com-passion, love and gratitude.
The impact of the pandemic on the youthis disruptive. While they are actively helpingothers, they are also simultaneously dealing
with immense emotional turmoil of theirown.
The fact is that as a country we do nothave a strong medical infrastructure vis-à-visour population. We all know this (we knew itall along). But what we didn’t know is theseverity of the virus and how it could takeaway our loved ones away from us, forever,in a matter of hours. We are all guilty atsome level. We all have to take theownership for the present sit-uation in order to change it.Despite knowing the safetyprotocol, a large part of thepopulation didn’t follow it. Do wealways need a lockdown to exhibit appropriatebehaviour? Do we know someone who doesn’twear masks, someone who went for theDiwali party at a friend’s house with 20 oth-ers, someone who couldn’t wait to travel toGoa, Kerala, Maldives, someone who refutedthe existence of covid all together?
Now is not the time to find faults with selfor others but to change the focus to whatgood is happening around us and how can wemake it better. The brain is extremely power-ful in amplifying whatever we focus upon. Tillwe keep complaining about our present cir-cumstances, our mind will focus on it. Themore we talk about it, write about it or feelnegative about it, the more we reinforce thesame neural pathways in our brain that keepadding to the misery. To change this, let’sfocus on the good around us.
Look around, there are many people try-ing to help with oxygen cylinders, connec-tions in hospitals for beds, arranging plasma,food, support, counselling, therapies andmore. Not everyone is trying to bribe, black-mail or take advantage of the situation. It iscommendable how the youth is also comingforward to offer assistance, structure commu-nities and make a difference.
Research shows that over 70% of theyouth is deeply traumatised with the uncer-tainty the pandemic has created whether it iswith respect to life, relationships, social inter-actions, forms of expression, health and livesof their loved ones or the disruption in futureprospects for education and employment forthe youth.
In addition to the grief and loss, there isan impending feeling of doom as over 43% ofyouth are uncertain about their future careerprospects. Many even contemplate suicide.This darkness remains unnoticed as we arefighting to survive this situation.
Despite all odds, the youth is stepping up,raising their voice, offering support, structur-ing communities, enabling groups and volun-teering in ways more than one to fight the sit-uation.
While we should offer them social andpsychological support to deal with all this, weshould also come up with measures to protectthis generation from being permanentlyscarred by this crisis — physically, mentally,socially, emotionally, financially and behav-iourally. Initiatives by the government as wellas private sector organisations will help in thelong run though immediate support in theform of counselling, therapy, and open com-munication can go a long way.
The future of our nation lies with ouryouth and it’s of grave importance that we donot take this lightly by letting their life be in aquandary.
There are many people bracing and sur-viving the virus amidst all the deaths, there
are many who are offering relentless care andprayers for humanity at large There is helpand compassion in many places, if not all.Hold onto that and allow yourself to be a con-duit for more compassion, gratitude and assis-tance in any way possible instead of fear anduncertainty.
Coronavirus is probably going to be herefor a long time. But we have to move beyondit to create a life outside of it, responsibly.
Some points to take into consideration are:� Process emotions, don’t vent nor bottlethem up: Allow open communication toaddress the stressors. Listen and expressdeeply without judgments and in case ofchronic stress or anxiety, seek support froman expert.� Respond, don’t react: There is already alot going on in everyone’s lives. Don’t snap atpeople at home or even on other people’ssocial media feed. We can share our viewswithout attacking others.� Operate from love and compassion andnot fears and anger: Say a kind word, offersupport, just hold the space for others to bethemselves and accept the situation but donot cause panic with minute-by-minuteupdate of statistics.� Be responsible, not reckless: Follow thesafety protocol. Even if you have recoveredfrom Covid, do not act as if all is well. Ouractions inspire many others and by beingresponsible we save not just ourselves butmany people around us. The parties, socialgatherings, important meetings, can all waitor be done online. Life is precious.� Help in any way possible, don’t panic:When someone you know is in a crisis, getvalid connects, check the sources, be mindful,take precaution, help in every way possibleand pray for the best. This is all we can do
currently. Also, limit the news and socialmedia intake to up to 15-30 minutes a day tobe well apprised of the situation and not beengulfed by it.� Do your bit, refrain from judging selfand others: Judgment only takes us awayfrom action thereby delaying results. Beproactive and sensitive to the battles everyoneis going through.� Take care of yourself: You can’t pour froman empty cup. So, take care of yourself — eat-ing habits, sleep, exercise, breathing andmindfulness practices, get vaccinated and bein the attitude of gratitude.� Ask: “What can I do today to make a dif-ference?” instead of complaining.
It’s imperative we come together from thespace of love, compassion and gratitude tofight the pandemic. There’s no other way.
No act is small. No prayer is negligible.No support is trivial. Looking around andcomplaining and blaming will only causemore pressure on our emotional, mental andphysical well-being.
Operate from awareness and take care ofself and others. We are undeniably in a crisisand there are faults at every level — from theroot to the top. However, this is not the timeto find faults and indulge in blame-game.
It’s time to focus on “what can I do tomake a difference today?” and then purelyfrom a space of compassion, ACT; withoutworrying about the results.
Will we able to save the world? I don’tknow. But what I do know is that with thatone act a day, and thirty acts a month, we allcan create ripples of change. It all matters.Choose change over complaints. We alwayshave a choice.
The writer is a renowned Psychotherapist& the founder of Gateway of Healing
Let’s be honest to admit that we have not been able tohandle the pandemic as effectively as we should haveand perhaps could have. While citing reasons may pro-
duce long list of responses that were found missing, if wetry to get to the roots, we may come to just one conclusion.More than anything else it was a failure of character.Character of those responsible for policy making that is thepolitical class. But the bureaucratic machinery was also equal-ly responsible for not applying their mind, the job they aresupposed to do. It was also the failure of character of thecommon people who acted irresponsible enough to letCorona flourish the second time. What an irony. We knewwhat was required. Yet, we did what was not required. Thepoint is that this is not the first time a pandemic like thishas dealt a bloody blow. When are we going to learn? Maybenot as long as we are not honest to admit our mistakes, learnfrom them and let those who know the job do it. This is atypical Indian scenario. We always find the wrong man forthe right place. You need nothing else to invite a disaster.And so, it was. Saying that the common man erred may passon some portion of the blame to the scapegoat but that doesnot absolve the political class of their sin. Governance wasmore important than forming governments but people pre-ferred the latter. It took a higher judiciary to point out howcallous some institutions have become. If people are hon-est to admit mistakes and learn from them things couldimprove in the future. But hoping this is a tall order. Thechaos that has set in reminds of an old Gandhian quote —When wealth is lost nothing is lost, when health is lost some-thing is lost, but when character is lost everything is lost.The point he wanted to emphasise was that character is theall-important attribute. Character can help regain health andwealth even if we lose these. But the present times have noroom for character, as wealth and health occupy the frontseat. The results are there to see. We still can make up forthe lost ground if we pick up the moral courage to own ourmistakes. But for that there is need to shed the ego, the kingsize ego that always tells us that we are infallible. As the polit-ical class continues to pat its own back, situation is goingfrom bad to worse. Time for some soul searching. Gandhijihad talked about seven social sins in his weekly newspa-per Young India on October 22, 1925. It would be worth-while recollecting them, which were — Wealth without work,Pleasure without conscience, Knowledge without charac-ter, Commerce without morality, Science without human-ity, Worship without sacrifice and Politics without princi-ples. While all those sins are responsible for the present-daysituation, it may be prudent to identify the deadliest of thesins talked by Gandhi 95 years ago. It is politics without prin-ciples that has become the biggest curse of the present times.It is politics that is at the helm of everything. Though manydefinitions of politics are there power is Central to all of them.It is obsession with power that is the root cause of all evil.While thinking of principled politics may sound utopianonly that can lead us out of the morass we are in.
Imagine a world without God.Everyone is on their own. There isno karmaphala principle. Everything
is happening by chance, because withno God, who will enforce the cause andeffect rule which is also known as thekarmaphala principle. Some people gettogether like in a dictatorship andcontrol the masses by terrorising them.
You might say that this is happen-ing in several countries, as in the past.But you must remember that thefiercest of the dictators eventually bit thedust. So what does one make of that?Simple, there is someone far superiorthan any dictator howsoever powerfulhe/she may be. That is God. We areblessed to have God oversee everything.
Regarding their life span, no dicta-tor could survive for long. However,there are souls who live much beyondhundred years. Some of these specialsouls live even beyond that. To myknowledge there is a saint who is saidto be five hundred years plus old. Hecomes to attend the ‘Kumbha Mela’every twelve years. That is how theyhave estimated his age. He lives in theHimalayas. He is one example, I knowof. But, there must be others who havelived for longer years. How does it hap-pen? Because God allows them thisprivilege. They may wish not to be lib-erated just yet, having qualified for sucha privilege. God can allow them; andonly God can, because such souls ben-efit the mankind by their presence.
To understand this phenomenon,we must get the hang of the cosmicdesign. There is God, who isomnipresent, omnipotent and omni-scient. He is the basis of everything.Everything revolves around Him. He isthe one who creates, sets rules(‘maryadas’), which everyone is expect-
ed to follow. Those who do are reward-ed and those who do not, get punished.
These rewards and punishments arenot instantaneous. The Lord Himselfsets the example of following allmaryadas. Then, there are all of us,souls, all equal. Yes, our material or oth-erwise bodies differ as also where we areplaced in the hierarchy which is basedupon our ‘karmas’, good or bad. Oursmallness is intrinsic, but this does notprevent us from achieving very big taskslike some scientists do or enlightenedsaints do. Our smallness also does notprevent some of us from becomingdespots, for which we are punished indue course. As the arrangement is eter-nal, there is no rush for anything. Alldivine actions are well thought out andabsolutely fair.
Back to some souls turning rogueand causing mayhem with assistance ofsome other willing souls, their smallnesscomes in the way and they are helpless-ly punished. Therefore, there is no scopeof any soul becoming big at any time;
God is the only big soul, and will eter-nally remain so. This uniform smallnessof all souls also excludes giving unfairadvantage to any particular soul basedon different sizes of their bodies, theybeing temporary.
God is there to discipline any soul,that does not toe the line, and we shouldbe grateful for the protection granted bythe all-powerful God. The system is notcomplicated. You have done piousdeeds and earned privileges. You areexpected to make good use of them tomake progress in the eternal journey. Ifthese are misused, punishment is on theway once the good deeds have run out.We shouldn’t get fooled by some yearsof someone’s reign of terror; punishmentis coming but in a logical way — thekarmaphala way.
In conclusion, we can state thatthere is the omnipotent God to bothprotect us and reward us, some roguesouls notwithstanding.)���������!�����0��������������������
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Mantra is a sound, a cer-tain utterance or asyllable. Today, mod-ern science sees thewhole existence as
reverberations of energy, different lev-els of vibrations. Where ever there isa vibration, there is bound to be asound. That means, the whole exis-tence is a kind of sound, or a complexamalgamation of sounds — the wholeexistence is an amalgamation of mul-tiple mantras. The yogic scripturesoften compare mantras to a boat or abridge that an aspirant can use to crossthe sea of delusion created by theexternal world, which we call Maya,and to reach the centre of conscious-ness within. Yogis say that a mantrais like an eternal friend who accom-panies the meditator even after death,lighting the path in the realm wherethe light of the sun and the moon can-not penetrate.
In understanding what a mantrais and how a Mantra works, it is help-ful to look at its translation. The wordmantra is derived from two Sanskritwords, the first part is man, whichmeans mind; and the second part istra, which is the root of the Sanskritword meaning tool or instrument. Amantra is therefore literally, an instru-ment or tool of the mind that helps usto concentrate, intensify and spiritu-alise our consciousness.
������ ��� �������Chanting silently in the mind in a
meditative pose helps increase theaura.
At gurukuls, students were taughthigher-order mantras that were specif-ically created by sages of ancient India.Mantras generate sound vibrationsthat add to the aura or energy levelsof those who recite them. The mantras
of the Buddhist, Christian, Islamic,Jain and other faiths, also fall into thiscategory. However, mantras can beused positively as well as negatively.Positively, they can be used to heal,defend against spiritual attacks andstrengthen one’s aura. They also forma telepathic connection between theseeker and the collective power of thedeity or concept to which they areattributed. If the mantra is attributedto planets, it will connect to their raysas well. For example, the guru mantrawill connect to the power and conceptof guru, including the rays of Jupiter.If the mantras are attributed to adeceased saint, they will home in tohis energy field, which exists in anethereal dimension.
Mantras would be used in specif-ic circumstances and were to berecited while sitting in a specificasana or seat. For example, theGayatri Mantra was best recited whileseated on a kusha grass mat or deer-skin. The more advanced version ofthe mantra, known as the MahagayatriMantra, was to be recited whileimmersed in water. Several such per-mutations and combinations areusable in mantra vidya (the science ofmantras). The intent of such techni-calities is to ensure that the energyvibrations of the mantras are optimal-ly absorbed by the human body andlittle is dissipated into the atmosphere.A part of the dissipation adds to theaura or energy of the location. Someof it would be absorbed by the asanaor seat. It is for this reason that asanasare bad conductors of electricity, thatneither absorb nor discharge it quick-ly. As it is not possible to perform allthe suggested asanas on animal skins,we use blankets, pure cotton sheets orcotton mattresses, instead.
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A Japanese scientist, Dr. MasaruEmoto, conducted an interestingexperiment on the effect that soundvibrations had on water. Emotoobserved that when water wasexposed to music from Bach andMozart, beautiful crystals formed init. But when negative intentions weredirected its way, the water formedmalformed crystals. He concludedthat sound is vibration; and positivesounds have healing energy. Hisresearch also showed that thoughtsemit vibrations at frequencies we areyet to determine, and they too havethe power to heal. The question thatbegs an answer is: ‘How do mantraswork?’
The knowledge of sound affectingmatter is not new. Chanting mantrashas been a part of Indian spiritualpractices for thousands of years. Theancient rishis (sages) of India had adeep awareness of the potency ofsound.
According to QuantumPhysicists, whether audible or not,everything has a sound, a distinct andunique vibration. This sound iscalled resonance, the particular fre-quency at which an object naturallyvibrates. In his book ‘Silent Pulse’,George Burr Leonard writes, “At theheart of each of us, whatever ourimperfections, there exists a silentpulse of perfect rhythm, made up ofwave forms and resonances, which isabsolutely individual and unique, andyet which connects us to everythingin the universe.”
Sanskrit, the language in whichmany powerful mantras are com-posed, is described as a vibrationallanguage. The ancient Indian spiritu-al masters devised mantras to vibrate
at particular frequencies. Each mantrais composed to have a distinct effect.When you chant a mantra, you sendvibrations into the universe which cre-ates a powerful ripple effect. Mantrarecitation also helps you tune in to theuniversal sound that began creationand is still vibrating — the Anahat.Scientific research suggests, chantingmantras causes the left and righthemispheres of the brain to synchro-nise. It also helps oxygenate the brain,reduce our heart rate, blood pressureand assist in creating calm brainwaveactivity.
Mantras can rearrange your mol-ecular structure and adjust your expe-rience through the subtle vibrationsthe chanting causes in your being.This re-alignment allows you to expe-rience the benefits of the vibration.The more focused you are in chanti-ng a mantra, the greater will be itsimpact on your consciousness. Whenyou think negatively, you create a sub-tle vibration with the negative thought.The longer you think negatively, themore damaging it is for your mindand body.
With every passing day, there ismore scientific data to corroboratewhat the ancient rishis had a deepunderstanding of — sound has power.Words and thoughts, spoken andunspoken, are potent tools. Beingaware of this will allow you to payclose attention to the things you sayand think of yourself, and how thesewords and thoughts, especially thenegative ones, impact you. This aware-ness may serve as a trigger to changethe negative patterns into positiveones. It may also help you to let go ofhabits that impede your spiritualgrowth.
The sources of Krishna saga containvaried accounts that speak of his mul-tiple marriages. It is said Krishna was
married to 16,100 damsels. Most of thesemarriages were a consequence of his mili-tary expeditions in the far-east of India, themodern Assam. Krishna’s eight other mar-riages are referred to in the Puranas. Whilemost sources are silent over Krishna’s othermarriages, his marriage to Rukmini, hischief queen, is cited in almost all thesources of Krishna-saga — an argumentcited by many scholars to bracket him withthe popular monogamists of the age likeShri Rama, Nala, Satyavan and the others.
These scholars, to prove their view,quote a verse from the Mahabharata, whichequates Shri Krishna with the famousmonogamists of the age. It is said, Krishnacarried away Rukmini moved by her deeplove and desire to marry him. Later, theyduly wed at Dwarka. Next, during the sya-mantak-gem episode Krishna is cited tohave married Jambhavati and Satyabhama.Thereafter, it is said Krishna marriedKalandi, River Yamuna-incarnate. His mar-riage to four maidens — Shrutakeerti,Bhadra, Madri and Hemavati is mentionednext.
The river goddess, Kalindi, had beggedto marry Krishna, which reflects his influ-ence and power during the Dvapara-age.Philosophically interpreting Krishna’s per-sonae, it may be stated that Lord Krishnawith this bounteous grace undertook therole of a husband to all women, wholooked upon him to be their guardian andsaviour. At the same time, he is perceivedto be the father to all the men of the world[the second role makes the first role of theLord inevitable].
According to the Yoga system, there aresixteen thousand one hundred nerveswhich get united at a prime-place near theSushmna nerve, and a Yogi has to hold full
control of them for exercising and carryingout some specific Yogic sadhanas. ShriKrishna being an excellent Yogi used toinculcate such austere sadhanas by exercis-ing full control over his body with all thesenerves. He was styled as the Lord or theSwami [husband] and master of thesenerves, which probably was taken to implyhis wives.
In the symbolic context, his so manywives also imply his immumerable Vibhutisin this world, reference to which is made inthe Vibhuti — Yoga of Gita (when Krishnatells to Arjuna about this “ na asti anto medivyam vibhutanam”). Likewise, his eightchief queens including Rukmani are sym-bolically treated as implying three qualitiesof Sattva, Rajas, Tamas (in human body);the river Ganges, presiding goddess of theHimalayas, Samaveda-mantras personified,soul and the personified [Krishna] patientsvirtue in itself.
Mythological, the multiple wives of
Krishna represent the Apsaras of Heaven intheir former lives with as well as the multi-ple incarnation of goddess Lakshmi. TheApsaras assumed their next birth on earthto attain Lord Krishna as their sole hus-band. Besides, Param Purusha Krishna’smultiple wives are also symbolically viewedas the different forms of Prakriti. In thiscontext, the relation between ParamPurusha and Prakriti corresponds to thatbetween husband and wife. So, Krishna, thegod has sixteen thousand one hundredeight forms of Prakriti as his wives.Likewise, his eight chief queens are symbol-ically represent major energies of Prakritiknown as Mula (primary) Prakriti, namely— Tattva, Mahat, Ahamkara, Akasha,Vayu, Tejas, Apas and Prithvi.
The writer, a noted Indologist andauthority on Krishnaite Studies, was a regu-lar contributor to Agenda, The Pioneer. We
recently lost her to the pandemic. Her pres-ence in the form of writings will be missed
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headlines. In East Jerusalem,blood-stained streets and smolder-ing tyres are telltale signs of a goryfight between the Israeli securityforces and the Hamas. The region iswitnessing the worst violence sincethe 50-day war that took place in2014. Today, the bitter truth for Israelis that Hamas, an Islamic militantgroup, controls the sensitive Gazaregion.
Palestinians live under Israeli set-tler colonialism. Their fear is basedon experience of torture, daily boutof humiliations, constant denial ofbasic freedoms, absence of dignity oflife, living and labour, imprisonmentand finally maiming and killing. Soit is very natural that everyPalestinian born there will have thebasic instinct to fight against theIsraeli occupation. The hatred isgrowing towards Israel and its secu-rity forces. And if it goes like this forany longer, war-like situation will bea daily affair.
The moot point is what Israelwants? Israel wants total control overEast Jerusalem. The current conflicthas emerged because of the forcedexpulsion of Palestinian familiesfrom the occupied East Jerusalemneighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah.Some sources say the lands occupiedby these families were originallyunder Jewish ownership. But thePalestinians see this as an extensionof an Israeli policy to displace asmany Palestinians as possible fromJerusalem. The final aim is to reclaimand retain a majority Jewish identi-ty in the city.
Will Palestine ever get thedesired independent land? No, atleast for the foreseeable future. Itmust be said here that the struggleand jehad for Palestine will contin-ue. The Islamic resistance move-ments like the Hamas, meaningstrength, will keep challenging thevery identity of the Israeli state. Infact, the Hamas Covenant whichconsists of 36 articles clearly high-lights how the group will take theIslamic movement further. Article 15of the Covenant says that the jehadfor the liberation of Palestine is anindividual duty.
It says, “The day that enemiesusurp part of Muslim land, jehadbecomes the individual duty of everyMuslim. In face of the Jews usurpa-tion of Palestine, it is compulsory thatthe banner of jehad be raised. To dothis requires the diffusion of Islamicconsciousness among the masses,
both on the regional, Arab andIslamic ummah levels. It is necessaryto instill the spirit of jehad in theheart of the nation so that they wouldconfront the enemies and join theranks of the fighters.”
Palestinians have resisted Israelioccupation and colonisation fordecades now. Anger on thePalestinian street has grown. Peopleare raising the banner of protestagainst Israel. They claim that Israelis making concerted efforts to erasethe Palestinian identity from theland.
For now, Tel Aviv has rebuffedany discussion for ceasefire. It vowsto continue the offensive. BenjaminNetanyahu, the Prime Minister ofIsrael, is in favour of stepping up itsGaza strikes. He said, “At the con-clusion of a situational assessment,it was decided that both the mightof the attacks and the frequency ofthe attacks will be increased.”
He also commented that “Hamasand Islamic jehad paid… and willpay a very heavy price for their bel-ligerence… their blood is forfeit”.This indicates that Israel will con-tinue its offensive. There is a possi-bility that this will add fuel to the fireover the decade’s long crisis in WestAsian region.
The spokesman for UNSecretary General Antonio Guterressaid he is saddened by the increas-ingly large number of casualties,including children, from Israeli airstrike in Gaza and of Israeli fatalitiesfrom rockets launched from Gaza.He called for maximum restraint bythe Israeli security forces. The UNhas warned that the planned expul-sion of the Palestinian families fromEast Jerusalem by Israel couldamount to war crimes. But it alsolashed out at the Hamas for the indis-criminate launch of rockets andmortars towards Israeli populationcentres.
Meanwhile, the US postponed aUN Security Council meeting on theongoing flare-up between Israel andthe Hamas for the next week. Thediscussion was supposed to takeplace this week, but the US is tryingto make room for diplomacy so as toavert the worst situation in the con-tested Gaza territory. The US, a keyally of Israel, has confirmed onmultiple occasions that the latter hasthe full right to defend itself as theterrorist groups from Gaza havelaunched about 1,750 rockets into itsterritory. However, US Secretary ofState Antony Blinken has brushedaside all speculation that Washington
is trying to torpedo the crucial talksaltogether. President Joe Biden said,“One of the things that I have seenthus far is that there has not been asignificant overreaction.”
Around the same time, Israel hasbeen pummeling Gaza with airstrikes, levelling buildings leading tokilling of dozens of people. Biden hasalready touted Israel’s right to self-defense amid rocket attacks from theHamas that have killed dozens ofpeople. Thus the White House clar-ified that Jerusalem must be a placeof co-existence.
The European Union, a group of27 nations, too has criticised theHamas for the war, by saying thatPalestinian rocket attacks on Israelwere totally unacceptable. And theEU called on all sides to aim for de-escalation and to prevent more civil-ian casualties. At the same time, EUforeign policy chief Joseph Borrellcondemned eviction of Palestinianfamilies in East Jerusalem. He alsocalled the evictions illegal, saying itonly serves to fuel tensions.
British Prime Minister BorisJohnson aired his view that “the UKis deeply concerned by the growingviolence and civilian casualties andwe want to see urgent de-escalationof tensions”. Arab League chief
Ahmed Aboul Gheit called the Israeliair strikes indiscriminate and irre-sponsible.
However, Iranian SupremeLeader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, aknown bete noire of the Israel state,said “Zionists understand nothingbut the language of force, so thePalestinians must increase theirpower and resistance to force thecriminals to surrender and stoptheir brutal acts.” Meanwhile the 57-member group of the Organizationof Islamic Cooperation voiced itsconcern over the deteriorating secu-rity scenario in East Jerusalem.
Now, as international call forrestraint has been raised, both theHamas and Israel must understandthat they are simply killing innocentcivilians. War is not the solution tothe land problem. The current cri-sis is only offering the radical ele-ments on both sides a chance toadvance their agenda.
The massive deployment ofground troops by the NetanyahuGovernment on the border signals abroader offensive in the comingdays. Moving armed forces nearGaza raises the possibility of an inva-sion and a bloody war. The IsraeliDefence Forces (IDF) is preparing forall kinds of eventualities and an esca-
lation at the moment. Such deploy-ment of forces took place only in2014.
As the war continues, globalmedia reports that most of the rock-ets fired by the Hamas are beingblocked by Israel’s Iron DomeDefence System. However, some ofthe rockets that got through the supe-rior defence circuit killed only a fewpeople on the side of Israel. On theother hand, the attacks launched byIsrael through its air force overGaza have been more deadly, with areported death toll over 90 so far. TheIron Dome is designed to selective-ly deal with rocket attacks. And alsothis system intercepts those enemyrockets that head for populatedareas. The IDF claims that the IronDome is around 90 per cent effective.However, the sources say even a highprobability intercept rate can makethe Hamas efforts to destroy popu-lated areas purely ineffective. It is tobe noted here that the Iron Domesystem was made with Americanfinance.
The constant struggle forPalestine to establish its sovereignidentity has become a permanentirritant for Israel. On the otherhand, Israeli attempt to maintain itsstatus quo and further expand andalso to evict illegal Palestinian occu-pants (according to Tel Aviv) fromEast Jerusalem foment an evergreater war in the region. The Hamaswants the Jews dead and the state ofIsrael eliminated. For them, it is notabout Israel, but this is ultimatelyabout the Jews.
Today, situation in EastJerusalem is terribly unnerving. It istime for the Israeli garrison state totalk peace. The Hamas, only byworking as a proxy, will find it real-ly difficult to bring a solution to thePalestinians. Only result would bedeath of civilians. And the hawks willbe happy. When the deadly, Covid-19 is killing millions across theglobe, Tel Aviv and the Hamas mustnot venture out to take more livesanymore.
(Dr Makhan Saikia has taughtpolitical science and internationalrelations for over a decade in institutions of national and international repute across the country after specialisation in glob-alisation and governance from TataInstitute of Social Sciences, Mumbai.He is the chief editor of the Journal ofGlobal Studies, an internationalresearch journal)
(����$����1���-�������������$�����������The second wave of Covid-
19 has exposed our lack ofpreparedness for any medicalemergency as India has notbeen able to meet any basicmedical requirements that donot need complicated tech-nology or high investment i.e.medicines, oxygen, ventilators,PPE kits, vaccine, etc. Had wefaced any other medical emer-gency related to a virus dead-lier than SARS-Cov or someother deadly radiation (as facedby Japan after nuclear attack),probably Indian populationwould have halved by now.
Covid-19 has provided thenation an opportunity to intro-spect problems in our health-care system to effectively dealwith the ongoing pandemic(which doesn’t seem to getover before 2022), and anypotential health emergency inthe future. Rather than square-ly blaming any past or presentgovernment at the Centre orState, the purpose of this col-umn is to shake our policymakers to realise the systemicflaws and bottlenecks in theway of development of robustand inclusive health infra-structure in India.
First, we need to recognisethat the human health is inter-connected with his surround-ing environment, includingliving species i.e. various ani-mals, birds, etc. RudolfVirchow, a famous Germanphysicist and pathologist, alsoknown as Father of ModernPathology, coined a term calledZoonosis to refer to any infec-tious disease which is trans-mitted from animals tohumans. A zoonotic disease iscaused by virus, bacteria, fun-
gus, etc, and travels from ani-mals to human. He assertedthat there are no dividing lines,nor should there be betweenanimal and human medicine.
The UN Food andAgriculture Organization’sreport “World Livestock 2013”states an important fact that 60per cent of all new infectiousdiseases that emerged in lastthree decades are zoonotic dis-eases. Viral outbreaks in recentyears like nipahvirus, ebolavirus, swine flu (H1N1) virus,avian influenza (H5N1) virus,severe acute respiratory syn-drome (SARS CoV) are allzoonotic viruses. Accordingto World Health Organization(WHO), zoonotic pathogensrepresent a clear threat to glob-al health. The entire world is athigher risk of future pan-demics, primarily of animalorigin and combating it wouldrequire good co-ordinationamong medical science, vet-erinary science, environmentalscience and other biologicalsciences.
Realising the importanceof this coordination, WilliamOsler, the father of modernmedicine and founder of thediscipline of veterinary pathol-ogy, and Calvin Schwabe(chairperson of a newDepartment of Epidemiologyand Preventive Medicine atthe University of California)advocated “one medicine” forall.
The second systemic flawis more relevant to India. It isthe presence of an extremelyhigh educational hierarchy,which places MBBS course atthe top while degrading allother health professionals and
scientists. This mindset is sodeep rooted that any talentedstudent pursuing a course invirology, immunology, nursing,physiotherapy or non-allo-pathic medical courses, etc, isconsidered inferior because ofhis/her inability to secureadmission to an MBBS course.On the one hand, this hierar-chy demoralises other alliedfields, and on the other, itpaves the way for undue inter-ference by MBBS doctors in theother fields. This leads to a bar-rier in the development ofthese fields. Moreover, Indiandoctors despite their hugepotential, rarely take up med-ical research as it is less remu-nerating compared to consul-tancy, which is highly paid.
A lot of services that can betaken care of by these profes-sionals cannot be performed byMBBS doctors. When a newand unknown disease first hits
a country, the role of doc-tors/nurses becomes vital. Theyare expected to treat/carepatients with the existing med-ications/knowledge. When itbecomes difficult to treatpatients with the existingframework, then the role ofvirologist, geneticist, veteri-nary doctor, microbiologist,pharmacologist and immu-nologist becomes crucial tounderstand the properties andorigin of the new virus todevelop medicines and vac-cines. After developing vac-cines, nurses play an importantrole in vaccinating the people.Depending on the kind of dis-ease, if it causes complicationsrelating to mobility, muscularcontractures, etc, amongpatients, then the role of phys-iotherapist becomes impor-tant; and if complications makethe patient physically disabledor orthopedically handicapped
then begins the role of pros-thetist and orthotist to figureout devices to help them.
The risk of zoonosis hasincreased due to the presenthuman activities such as demo-graphic alterations, increasedmovement across various con-tinents, disturbing natural phe-nomenon and over exploitationof the environment. It bringsthe environmentalist into thepicture. Thus, it is clear that anintegrated approach toward apublic health emergency is aneffective way to deal with theunknown disease. Creating ahierarchy between the profes-sions of the same sector canweaken our fight against anydisease.
Moreover, these profes-sionals (virologists, immunol-ogists, orthotics & prosthetics,physiotherapist, occupationaltherapist) could have played avery crucial role during the
ongoing pandemic to meet theshortage of health workers, bybeing given a very short train-ing. It is worth mentioning herethat the educational coursesstudied by these professionalshave a lot of syllabi commonwith MBBS course.Unfortunately, we have failed toutilise their huge potential.
Thirdly, India has a hugeshortage of doctors which isreflected by the indicator ofpopulation served by a doctor,which is one of the highest inthe world. Despite availabilityof huge talent, this artificialshortage is due to unnecessarystringent rules to establish amedical college and limitedmedical seats. Devi PrasadShetty, one of the leading car-diologists in India, suggestedthat the Government can buildaround 300 new medical col-leges without any cost whichcan offer 30,000 new seats. Heargued that medical educa-tion can be provided to the stu-dents even in a single buildingand for practical training theycan be taken to hospitals.According to him most gov-ernments refrain from creatingnew medical colleges since itrequires an investment ofaround �450 crore and a timespan of around 5 years. Further,the annual maintenance cost ofa medical college is also around�150 crore. Educating medicalstudents in a simple buildingwithout health infrastructureand training them practically inhospitals is the simplest andmost cost-effective way ofmeeting the current demandfor doctors.
Lastly, gradual withdrawalof most successive govern-
ments from health infrastruc-ture has resulted in the short-ages of hospital beds, oxygen,ventilators, etc. We can clear-ly notice an obsession of allgovernments with health insur-ance schemes especially forthe last two decades, ratherthan expanding existing pub-lic health infrastructure. It isworth mentioning here thathealth insurance generate addi-tional burden on the existinghealth infrastructure ratherthan creating any new healthinfrastructure. If the sameamount that has been spent onhealth insurances by all gov-ernments in last two decadeshad been used to expand healthinfrastructure, it would haveexpanded our medical facilitiesby around 10 per cent, whichwould have not only provideda lot of jobs but also saved thelives of lakhs of people.Moreover, we can find numer-ous reports of misuse of insur-ance schemes by private hos-pitals by inflating bills throughunnecessary medical testing.This has depleted most of theinsurance coverage.
It is high time when allGovernments in India (Centreor State) should come togeth-er to prepare a roadmap toabolish all systemic flaws in ourhealth system. Let us learnfrom this pandemic and pre-pare ourselves better for anyother such threat to human lifein the future.
(The writer is currentlypursuing masters in prostheticsand orthotics from Pt DeenDayal Upadhyay NationalInstitute for Persons withPhysical Disabilities, New Delhi)
The Ganapati imagery and the storyline running around makes out aninteresting reading. He is perceived
as having the head of an elephant with asingle tusk. He has a small mouse as hismount. Animal forms have been exten-sively used in Indian tradition to enlight-en us on one or the other virtue, vital toqualitative existence, evident in the par-ticular animal’s behavioural pattern. Thefact that animal behaviour is in publicknowledge, it provides easy ground tomake an analogy.
Let us first have a brief run into thelegend pertaining to his origin. It isbelieved that Goddess Parvati, LordShiva’s consort, made a beautiful clay idolin human form. She then infused lifeinto it. He was named Ganesa.
The story suggests that our grossbodies are made of earthly matters.When the fundamental element of con-sciousness becomes available to theform-body, it becomes alive. It impliesthat left to itself, the gross body made ofearthly matter would remain a dead mat-ter. The paradox, however, is that most ofus just identify oneself with the grossbody, seldom realising that ourdynamism is actually rooted to the con-
sciousness element. This eternal truthneeds to be understood and acknowl-edged, is what comes out of this story.
In the above context, it is worthmentioning here once again that as perancient India’s perception, Lord Shivasymbolises the transcendent conscious-ness — the seed-potential to create life.His consort Parvati, by Herself no differ-ent from Lord Shiva, serves as His kinet-ic side, the immanent consciousness, thepower by which She makes life flow. Theabove legend needs to be understood inthis background.
The legend further states that onceGanesa stood guard with the instructionthat he should ensure that no body dis-turbs Parvati while bathing in her privatechamber. Meanwhile, Lord Shiva comesto join His consort. Ignorant of the factthat Lord Shiva is his mother’s spouse,Ganesa did not allow Him access andrather stood firm in His path. When allpersuasions failed, a battle followed inwhich, enraged Lord Shiva chopped offGanesa’s head. When Parvati learnt ofGanesa’s death, her ire got aroused. In afit of anger, having lost her sensibility,She could have destroyed the wholeUniverse. Everybody got alarmed.
To pacify Parvati, Narada was sent toher as a messenger. Parvati agreed torelent on two conditions: (a) that Ganesahad to be brought back to life and (b) heshould be granted Godly status with alldivine rights. In deference to Her wishes,first Ganesa’s headless body was bathedand cleaned. Meanwhile, the head waslost in the din of battle. Shiva then sentout his companions with the instructionto kill and bring the head of the first liv-ing being in sight. That happened to bean elephant with one tusk. The elephant’shead was transplanted on Ganesa’s body.Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, the God trin-ity personified, respectively assignedwith the functions of creation, suste-nance and recycling life, joined handsand brought back the dead Ganesa tolife. Shiva accepted Ganesa as His son.He also made Him the lord of His com-panions (the ganas), and so is also calledGanapati (the lord of gana-s).
Here, how true is the story, is not thepoint of deliberation. It is actually sug-gestive of the fact that be it an animal ora human existence, their dynamic exis-tence is rooted in a common factor —the consciousness element. Second, it isonly when all constituents of a form-
body are in place that the consciousnesselement would be manifest. But for aform-existence in place, the conscious-ness element would not be in reckoning.
Let us now look at the educativeimport inlaid with this particular sym-bolism. Elephant is one animal whichhas sensibilities and emotions akin to ahuman being. It lives in herd where theorder of their leader is strictly obeyed.They remain as possessive of their matesas human beings. They can be seenweeping following death of their fellowbeing. They are even believed to digground and bury their dead. They getenraged if ever their privacy is everencroached upon. And since they havelongest memory, the elephant hits uponthe person who encroached his privacy,if ever noticed much later. The elephantexactly remembers the track it followedin the past in search of food or water andwill try that option when faced withscarcity. Thus, goes the proverb: “ele-phantine memory” to mean infalliblememory.
