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MONEY 8‘AGRI EXPORTS UP 23.24% TO

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OPINION 6EYE ON

JERUSALEM?

SPORTS 11ROHIT, VINESH, RANI, MANIKA,

MARIYAPPAN PICKED FOR KHEL RATNA

VIJAYAWADA, WEDNESDAY AUGUST 19, 2020; PAGES 12 `3

}PRABHAS AS

ADIPURUSH INTANHAJI

DIRECTOR'S NEXTPage 12

{

RNI No. APENG/2018/764698

*Late City Vol. 2 Issue 288*Air Surcharge Extra if Applicable

Established 1864Published From

VIJAYAWADA DELHI LUCKNOW BHOPAL RAIPUR CHANDIGARH

BHUBANESWAR RANCHIDEHRADUN HYDERABAD

5

Dichotomy inIndian approach to persons of foreign origin

2

Govt consideringgiving MSME status to dealers:Gadkari

8

India negotiatingwith 13 countriesfor bilateral airbubble: Puri

Current Weather ConditionsUpdated August 18, 2020 5:00 PM

ALMANAC

TODAY

Month & Paksham:Shravana & Krishna Paksha

Panchangam

Tithi : Amavasya: 08:10 am,

Pratipada: 05:18 am (Next Day)

Nakshatram: Magha: 02:07 am

(Next Day)

Time to Avoid: (Bad time to start

any important work)

Rahukalam: 12:19 pm – 01:53 pm

Yamagandam: 07:37 am – 09:11 am

Varjyam: 03:07 pm – 04:35 pm

Gulika: 10:45 am - 12:19 pm

Good Time: (to start any important work)

Amritakalam: 11:55 pm – 01:23 am

Abhijit Muhurtham: NIL

VIJAYAWADA

WEATHERFFoorreeccaasstt:: Mostly cloudyTemp: 33/26Humidity: 67%Sunrise: 05.59 amSunset: 06.39 pm

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

The administration in the twoGodavari districts heaved a col-lective sigh of relief on Tuesday,after the floods in the river easeda little from the peak of 22.90lakh cusecs in the morning to22.40 lakh cusecs by afternoon,even as they remained appre-hensive of more rains in the nearfuture.

Meanwhile, tens of villages inthe two Godavari districtsremained inundated.

While the flood flow isexpected to further decline asthe water level at upstreamBhadrachalam fell by over sixfeet on Tuesday after touchinga high of 61 feet on Monday,Godavari was flowing far abovethe danger mark and the the sit-uation will depend on the low-pressure induced rains.

The water level at Kunavaramstation in EG district fell to 44.43m by Tuesday afternoon and isexpected to further fall byaround 20 cm to 44.20 m. Thestation is flowing over dangerlevel which is 39.24m.

In contrast, at Dowleswaramstation, the water level is steadyand may increase by night

slightly to 16.87 m from 16.74m while the danger level is16.08m. While there was lesserrainfall in Andhra Pradesh onTuesday, the upper reaches ofthe Godavari, Telangana andMaharashtra, continued to wit-ness excess rainfall.

As forecast, a fresh low pres-sure system has developed overthe north Bay of Bengal. It isvery likely to become moremarked during the subsequent24 hours and move westwardsgradually.

Covid-19 tally crosses three-lakh mark in StatePNS n VIJAYAWADA

Andhra Pradesh on Tuesdaybecame the third state in thecountry after Maharashtra andTamil Nadu to cross the threelakh mark in the overall num-ber of coronavirus cases. Thestate now has 3,06,261 casesafter 9,652 were added in thelast 24 hours ending at 10 am.However, the number of activecases is only 85,130 with2,18,311 patients havingrecovered so far,according to thelatest govern-ment bulletin.

It took 160days for thestate to gofrom one tothree lakh(cases) after thefirst person tested posi-tive for the contagion onMarch 12 but the last one lakhcame in quicker pace in just 11days. The state reached the10,000 cases mark on June 24,50,000 on July 20, one lakh onJuly 27, 1.50 lakh on August 1,two lakh on August 7 and 2.50lakh mark on August 12.

The Covid-19 toll in the statenow climbed to 2,820 after 88fresh deaths were reported inthe last 24 hours, according tothe latest bulletin. The infectionpositivity rate has been steadi-ly rising over the past fewweeks and has now touched10.34 per cent, much higherthan the national average of8.73 per cent.

However, the recovery rate

has improved to 71.28 per cent,though it is still below thenational average of 73.18 percent. In terms of mortality, APis one per cent less than thenational average of 1.92 per

cent, government data showed.The state so far has complet-

ed 29,61,611 sample tests at therate of 55,461 per millionpopulation, one of the highestin the country.

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

Confirming that Chief MinisterYS Jaganmohan Reddy wouldrelease the new Tourism Policyon Thursday, MinisterMuttamsetti Srinivasa Rao saidthat the State Tourism depart-ment has embarked upon anambitious plan to developtourism throughout the Stateincluding construction of threestadia of international standard.Speaking after a review meet-ing with officials of tourism,sports, culture and archaeolo-gy departments at the secretari-at here on Tuesday, the Ministersaid that a Buddhist Museumand a meditation centre wouldbe established at Thotla Kondaat Visakhapatnam.

He instructed the officials tohold talks with contractors toexpedite the work on varioustourism projects in the Statesince the tourists would beallowed to visit tourist sportsfrom the first week ofSeptember.

CM to unveilnew TourismPolicy onThursday

Judges being monitored , says Public Interest Litigation on phone tappingPNS n VIJAYAWADA

The State government onTuesday put up a strong argu-ment against admission of aPublic Interest Litigation peti-tion by the AP High Court onthe alleged telephone tapping ofsome judges based on a reportpublished by a media house.

A Division Bench of theHigh Court took serious noteof the phone tapping whilehearing the petition for a PILfiled by advocate SravanKumar.

The Division Bench, com-prising Chief Justice JitendraKumar Maheswari andJustice D Ramesh, heard the

writ petition which contend-ed that it was an invasion onthe privacy of the elite in thesociety to tap their phoneswhich was nothing butencroachment on their fun-

damental rights. The petitionalso stated that a top officerwas given the task of tappingthe phones of the judges.The movement of all thejudges was being monitored

every minute, the petitionstated.

When the Division Benchasked the petitioner whether hehad any evidence to prove hiscontention, Sravan Kumar stat-ed that he would file an affi-davit with all the details. Thepetitioner also stated that therewas a larger conspiracy todegrade the judiciary whichwas evident by the posts onsocial media humiliating thejudges and the revelations inthe audio tapes of formerJustice Eswaraiah. The petition-er demanded a comprehensiveinquiry by the CBI into thewhole episode.

AP to video record propertyregistrations to check frauds PNS n VIJAYAWADA

A pilot project for videorecording of the property reg-istration process is beinglaunched by the AndhraPradesh government, in amove aimed at putting an endto benami and fraudulenttransactions.

It also entails surveillance ofthe registration offices, whichearned notoriety for corrup-tion, through a central moni-toring system, highly placedsources in the RevenueDepartment said on Tuesday.

To be implemented in 20registrar and sub-registraroffices by the Registration andStamps department in comingweeks, this would be the first-of-its-kind project in the coun-try as so far only individualphotographs were being usedfor registrations, officialsources said.

Special Chief Secretary(Revenue) Rajat Bhargavasaid the project was part ofthe suparipalana (good gov-ernance) initiative of the

government. While elimi-nating the scope for any kindof fraud, the new initiativewill further help us in bring-ing in more transparencyand make the process hassle-free for the citizens, Bhargavasaid.

Commissioner andInspector General ofRegistration and StampsSiddharth Jain said the videorecording will prevent fraud-ulent registration of propertiesand check impersonationusing forged identities.

"We will offer video record-ing of the transactions to buy-ers and sellers that will serveas evidence and a second layerof protection,” Jain said.

In the first phase, the projectwould be implemented on apilot basis in 20 high revenueearning registration officessuch as Visakhapatnam,Vizianagaram, Vijayawada,R a j a m a h e n d r a v a r a m ,Kakinada, Eluru, Tirupati,Guntur, Nellore, Kadapa andKurnool, Jain said.

PNS n NEW DELHI

PM CARES fund has beenconstituted with an objective toextend assistance in the wakeof public health emergencylike COVID-19 and no excep-tion can be taken at this needof the hour in its constitution,the Supreme Court Tuesdaysaid. The apex court noted thatit was created as a dedicatednational fund with a objectiveof dealing with any kind ofemergency or distress situationas posed by the COVID-19pandemic and to provide reliefto the affected.

A bench headed by JusticeAshok Bhushan said it is for theCentral government to take thedecision as from which fundwhat financial measures are tobe taken and it is neither for

PIL petitioner to claim that anyfinancial assistance be madefrom particular fund nor thisCourt to sit in judgement overthe financial decisions.

The observations came on aPIL, filed by NGO ''Centre forPublic Interest Litigation, seek-ing a direction that all themoney collected under the

PM CARES Fund for theCOVID-19 pandemic shouldbe transferred to the NDRF.

The Centre had told the topcourt that Prime Minister is theex-officio Chairman of the PMCARES Fund and Minister ofDefence, Minister of HomeAffairs and Minister of Finance,Government of India are ex-officio Trustees of the Fund.

"The Chairperson of theBoard of Trustees (PrimeMinister) shall have the powerto nominate three trustees tothe Board of Trustees whoshall be eminent persons in thefield of research, health, sci-ence, social work, law, publicadministration and philan-thropy. Any person appointeda Trustee shall act in a pro bonocapacity," the Centre had sub-mitted.

Flood flow eases in Godavaribut villages remain inundated l Officials fear more rains triggered by another low pressure system

Accusing the YSRCPGovernment of trying

to hide the extent of spreadof Coronavirus in the State,Leader of the Opposition NChandrababu Naidu onTuesday alleged that fewertests were being conducted

so as to show that there isa decline in the numberof infections.

Naidu conducted anonline meeting withCovid warriors on

Tuesday, during whichhe demanded the State

Government step up mea-sures to contain the spreadof the virus.

The TDP chief expressedconcern over the reducedtesting — from 62,938 sam-ples on August 7 to 44,500at present — in AndhraPradesh. He said that thetesting must be expeditedimmediately if theGovernment was indeedcommitted to preventingthe spread of the virus.

Naidu pointed out that at

present, the number of infec-tions in AP have crossed thethree-lakh mark, with a 52per cent increase in thenumber cases reported in thelast 17 days.

The TDP chief allegedthat AP government reduced Corona tests to show adecrease in Covid-19 posi-tive cases which would ulti-mately do incalculable harmto the public. He alleged thatthe State Government hastotally failed to containCovid-19 which resulted incontinuous increase of pos-itive cases.

www.dailypioneer.com

Govt cannot distribute lands of eduinstitutions to poor, rules High CourtThe Andhra Pradesh gov-

ernment received anothersetback from the High Courtregarding distribution ofhouse sites to the poor.

Hearing a batch of petitions,the High Court in Tuesdaydirected the state governmentto halt distribution of govern-ment lands allotted forschools, colleges and univer-

sities to fulfil the ChiefMinister’s welfare scheme.

Deputy Chief MinisterNarayana Swamy had recent-ly found fault with the courtverdicts stating that the HChad been creating hurdles inthe welfare schemes of theState government.

"It is not correct for thecourts to stall distribution of

house sites to the poor,” he hadsaid as the State governmenthad prepared the ground togive away 26.6 lakh house sitepattas (registration forms) tothe poor. The houses in theplots, which would be in14,097 YSR Jagananna hous-ing colonies, would be builtover the next four years.

Jagan orders collectors to ensuresuccour reaches the flood-hit

Chief Minister YSJaganmohan Reddy on

Tuesday announced cashassistance of Rs 2,000 toevery household in the floodhit areas of East and WestGodavari districts that havebeen battered by heavy rainsin the last two days.

Jagan spoke to the

Collectors of East and WestGodavari districts via video-conference and directedthem to ensure that peopleshifted to relief campsshould get all necessary help,and there should be no dif-ficulty procuring essentialcommodities.

Fewer tests done to hideextent of spread: Naidu

PM CARES funds need not becredited to NDRF, says SC

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DREAM11 GETS TITLESPONSORSHIP RIGHTS FOR IPL 2020

CHINESE CENTRAL BANK INVESTMENTIN ICICI BANK RAISES EYEBROWS

After the disclosure of a holding in HDFC, the Chinese central bank PeoplesBank of China has now acquired an equity stake in ICICI Bank. The

government had in April notified new norms for FDI investments byneighbouring countries which would require approvals. It is not clear ifportfolio investments need to go through some vetting processor the government will continue with this open route till thetime no FDI approval is required. The investment by theChinese central bank in ICICI Bank is modest. It subscribedto the recent ICICI Bank's Rs 15,000 crore capital qualifiedinstitutional investors (QIP) placement and invested Rs15 crore.

AMIT SHAH ADMITTED TO AIIMSWITH COMPLAINT OF FATIGUE

Fantasy league platform Dream11 has got the sponsorship rights for thisyear's edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL). "BCCI has awarded the

title sponsorship of IPL 2020 to Dream11," sources close to thedevelopment confirmed to IANS. While the BCCI received Rs440 crore per year from Vivo, Dream11 may pay BCCIapproximately Rs 250 crore for the upcoming edition -which will be played in the UAE from September 19 toNovember 10, sources added. Meanwhile, Aditya Verma,Secretary of Cricket Association of Bihar (CAB), said that thedevelopment was against Prime Minister NarendraModi's 'Atma Nirbhar Bharat' agenda.

Ashok Lavasa, who was next in line to head the poll panel, on Tuesdayresigned as Election Commissioner and would soon be joining the

Asian Development Bank as vice president, sources said. Lavasa, thesources said, has sent his resignation to Rashtrapati Bhavan and hasrequested to be relieved on August 31. He would be joiningthe Philippines-based ADB sometime in September, theyadded. He was named the bank's vice president lastmonth. "The ADB has appointed Ashok Lavasa as Vice-President for Private Sector Operations and Public-PrivatePartnerships," the multilateral lending agencyhad said in a statement last month.

ASHOK LAVASA RESIGNS FROM POLLPANEL; TO JOIN ADB AS VICE PRESIDENT

Home Minister Amit Shah, who tested negative for COVID-19 last week, nhasbeen admitted to AIIMS in Delhi, the government hospital said in a

statement. The Home Minister has been "complaining of fatigue andbody ache for last three-four days", the hospital said. "Amit Shahhas been complaining of fatigue and body aches for last three-fourdays. He has tested negative for COVID-19. He has been admittedto AIIMS for Covid care. He is comfortable and is continuing hiswork from hospital," AIIMS media and protocol divisionchairperson Dr Aarti Vij said in the statement. Shah, 55, wasdischarged from the private hospital Medanta in Gurgaon lastweek after testing negative for COVID-19.

Printed and published by B Krishna Prasad for and on behalf of CMYK Printech Ltd., Printed at Sree Seshasai Enterprises, D.No. New 3-88, Old 3-22, Chandra Theatre, Gosala, Penamaluru Mandal, Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh - 521 151, Resident Editor: B Krishna Prasad, AIR SURCHARGE of Rs 2.00.

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VIJAYAWADA | WEDNESDAY | AUGUST 19, 2020 vijayawada 02

EGG

RATES

` 55,330 (10 gm)

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GOLD

` 68,950 (1kg)

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HYDERABAD 370

VIJAYAWADA 398

VISAKHAPATNAM 410

RREETTAAIILL PPRRIICCEE `̀44..2255

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CHICKEN

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Dressed/With Skin `158

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Broiler at Farm `109

`̀//KKGG

(IN VIJAYAWADA)

In any society people thinkdifferently in a natural way.Even essayist, parodist and

caricaturist Max Beerbohm,who had admirably analysedthe relationship among var-ious roles in society a cen-tury ago, might not havecome to a perfect conclu-sion with regard to thetype of emotions seenamong people in modernIndian society. KamalaHarris, presumptiveDemocratic vice-presidentialnominee for the US 2020 pollsand a person of Indian origin,happens to be the 'nucleus' ofthe latest issue having a bear-ing on people's emotions andthe dichotomy in theirapproach to politics.

Members of the Indian soci-ety, cutting across caste andcreed, are overjoyed to hearabout the candidature ofKamala, who was born to aTamil mother and a Jamaicanfather. No doubt, Kamala has

made her own markin public life. Still, if onedraws a parallel betweenthe euphoria overKamala's ascent and the

situation facingCongress leader Sonia

Gandhi in India, whatstands out is perhaps the nar-rowmindedness of Indian soci-ety. It is widely believed that aperson who wishes to occupyany official or constitutionalposition should invariably be anative of this country. Theepisode of Sonia Gandhi,Congress president and party'sparliamentary leader whocouldn't make her way to '7,Race Course Road', thoughher party got a comfortableposition to form the govern-ment at the Centre in the post-poll scenario of 2004, is a case

in point. Sonia Gandhi, anItaly- born lady who had mar-ried the son of the then primeminister of India Indira Gandhiin 1968, became an Indian cit-izen later. She had continued asa member of her in-laws' housein India till the early '80s. Herforeign origin had become apolitical weapon for theBharatiya Janata Party hereand its leader in Delhi Vijay

Kumar Malhotra who had goneto the extent of stating that aforeigner who had lived in thePrime Minister's house for sev-eral years could throw a chal-lenge to the internal security ofthe country. A similar sceneunfolded in the Congress partywhen three leaders viz SharadPawar, PA Sangma and TariqAnwar raised a revolt againstSonia on her foreign origin at

the CWC meet two decadesago and came out of the partyonly to float a new political out-fit viz Nationalist CongressParty. It is different matter that,after lapse of time, they came

forward to have truck with theCongress and enjoyed power atthe Centre during UPA-1&2regimes headed by theCongress party.

One thing is clear: Indiansociety does not allow any for-eign national to take up highpositions like prime minister'spost. Still, they welcome PIOsreaching high positions in for-eign soil. Several PIOs havebecome members of legislatureand heads of civic bodies in var-ious countries like the US andGermany. It appears to be an actof narrowmindedness on thepart of Indian people to hailKamala's attempts for becom-ing vice president in US pollswhile not allowing any foreignnational to occupy the highestpolitical position at home. Howdoes this dichotomy appear to

people of foreign nations? Howwould they react to the episodein which Congress presidentSonia Gandhi, solely because ofher foreign origin, was stoppedfrom becoming prime ministerof India? It is a known fact thatSonia Gandhi had to withdrawher plans of becoming politicalpremier of this country aftergetting dragged into a politicalcesspool out of a vicious cam-paign taken up by her politicalrivals. It is a different matter thatthe same person, being chair-person of UPA, had indirectlyruled the country for two con-secutive terms (10 years) by get-ting her trusted man appoint-ed as prime minister.

How do people of the USreact on this selection, partic-ularly after knowing the factthat Indian society had vehe-

mently opposed a person offoreign origin to become primeminister of the country? Whatwould be the fate of KamalaHarris if such tendency isdeveloped and worked in asilent way among the US peo-ple? It may expose the narrow-mindedness of Indian societyfor opposing one thing at homeand supporting the same thingon foreign soil. In the case ofSonia Gandhi, her politicalopponents had gone to theextent of demanding anamendment to the Constitutionfor barring persons of foreignorigin from holding high postslike prime ministership. It isvery strange to see that a per-son of foreign origin can't evenbecome a municipal councillorin India according to itsConstitution!

M D RATNA KUMAR

Senior Journalist

Sonia Gandhi, an Italy- born lady who had

married the son of the then prime minister

of India Indira Gandhi in 1968, became an

Indian citizen later. She had continued as a

member of her in-laws' house in India till

the early '80s. Her foreign origin had

become a political weapon for the BJP

PIN

POINT

Dichotomy in Indian approach to persons of foreign origin

Social media platforms tohelp in plasma donationC PRADEEP KUMAR

n VIJAYAWADA

Plasma therapy has become aboon for treating patients suffer-ing from the deadly Covid 19.The Indian Council for MedicalResearch (ICMR) has given per-mission to treat people infectedwith Coronavirus with plasmatherapy in July. As the vaccine forthe deadly Covid virus is stillunder trials in many countriesacross the world the doctors havefound that plasma therapy is theright way to treat the patientsinfected with Coronavirus.

Plasma of people, who haverecovered from Coronavirus,can be used to treat patients suf-fering from the Covid virus.Recovered patients can donatetheir plasma thrice within twomonths after they are totallyrecovered from the virus givinga fresh lease of life to three Covidinfected patients. The ICMRhas given permission to treatCorona infected patients throughplasma therapy.

By treating the people suffer-

ing from Covidinfection withplasma therapy,the patient devel-ops antibodies thatwill fight against thedeadly Covid infection.Speaking to The Pioneer,Covid Command Control spe-cial offer Dr Ch PrabhakarReddy said that Covid winnersbetween the age group of 18 and50 years should come forwardand donate their plasma to treatthe patients infected withCoronavirus. The Covid winner

can donate plasmathrice in twomonths after mak-ing a complete

recovery from theinfection. He

appealed to the Covidwinners to feel it as a respon-

sibility to come forward todonate plasma and save the livesof others suffering from theinfection.

BVS Kumar, Red Cross StateBlood Bank Committee mem-ber, said that all the Red CrossBlood Banks across the State are

being transformed into PlasmaCollection Centres to help theCovid patients through plasmatherapy. He said they are in theprocess of collecting the data ofpatients, who made completerecovery from Coronavirus.Plasma will be collected fromthem to treat Covid patients thatenable fast recovery from theinfection.

Rajini, an NRI, said that she,along with Santhosh Shan, livingin the US had created “Covid-19Plasma Donor-recipient HelpIndia Group’ to help patientsfamilies in India connect withplasma donors. She said thejourney of saving lives actuallybegan in the US in March serv-ing 60+ patients’ plasma requestsfor the US patients alone. Afterlooking at the Covid situation inDelhi, they extended helpthrough the Facebook page.Currently they have 12,000members on their platform.

She says that through theFacebook platform, 200+ plasmarequests have been served inHyderabad.

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

People of north Andhra willnot keep mum if TDP chief NChandrababu Naidu tries toderail the process of decentral-isation set in by the YSRCPgovernment under the leader-ship of Chief Minister YSJaganmohan Reddy, saidYSRCP MLA KaranamDharmasri.

Speaking to the media hereon Tuesday, the MLA askedwhy Naidu was against thedevelopment of north Andhraregion. He said the govern-ment has so far spent Rs59,425 crore towards welfareschemes for the poor. Naiduhad only spent Rs 44,000 croreduring his five-year term inthe State. He said the YSRCPgovernment has taken a boldstep of decentralisation ofadministration with the estab-lishment of Village Secretariatsand taking the governance tothe doorstep of people.

The MLA alleged that therewas no room for corruptionunder Jagan’s rule, while Naiduhad turned welfare schemesinto scams during his tenure.It was meaningless for Naidu

to write to Prime MinisterNarendra Modi that the pre-sent government was makingthe vigilance authorities spy onthe judges, said the MLA andadded that while in powerNaidu spoke against Modiand now he was trying to woothe BJP government at theCentre.

The MLA asked why Naiduwas jealous of the ruling party,which was successfully imple-menting welfare schemes forthe poor like Amma Vodi, YSRRythu Bharosa, Kapu Nesthamand other schemes covering allsections of society and now

when the government wasplanning to provide housesites to 30 lakh poor, Naiduwas obstructing by making hisstooges move the court.

Instead of helping the floodaffected people in Godavaridistricts, Naidu was sitting inHyderabad and making base-less comments against thegovernment through Zoomapp, said the MLA and addedthat everyone knows thedrama being enacted byNaidu. He said the people ofnorth Andhra would not for-give Naidu if he tries to thwartdecentralisation and the devel-opment of the region.

l YSRCP MLA KaranamDharmasri said the governmenthas so far spent Rs 59,425 croretowards welfare schemes for thepoor. Naidu had only spent Rs44,000 crore during his five-yearterm in the State

l The YSRCP government hastaken a bold step ofdecentralisation of administrationwith the establishment of VillageSecretariats and taking thegovernance to the doorstep ofpeople, he pointed out

Naidu against developmentof north Andhra: YSRCP

Policearrest 5 inland grabcasel Hyderabad womanclaims ownershipPNS n VISAKHAPATNAM

The MVP Colony policearrested five persons in con-nection with the land grab-bing case that took place inIsukathota area adjacent tothe National Highway inthe wee hours of Sunday.The circle inspector MShanmukha Rao said somemore would be taken intocustody.

All the arrested personshappen to be local persons,while eyewitnesses said thealleged intruders were fromRayalaseema area. The wit-nesses said the attackersclaimed that they were fromChittoor district while ran-sacking the marble godownrun by one Santosh Bucha,who took the land on leasefrom one K Srinivasa Reddy.The circle inspector said forlaw and order the premiseswas sealed.

“We are still investigatingthe case and taking legalopinion from advocates.Until we get orders fromhigher officials, we will notlet anybody enter the disput-ed area,’’ Shanmukha Raosaid.

Meanwhile, Gabu RaghaviReddy whose nameappeared in the billboardthat was put by the intrud-ers, told reporters that shewas the rightful owner of theland.

She said the land waspurchased by her grandfa-ther Pallakila Ramannaiduon June 13, 1921, whichwas later inherited by hersons Krishna Reddy andAchyutarama Reddy. Theyboth subsequently trans-ferred the land in her name.She said the land was occu-pied since she lived inHyderabad and rarely visit-ed Visakhapatnam.

TDP chief is known forbackstabbing politics: LPPNS n VIJAYAWADA

YSRCP leader andTelugu AcademyChairperson LakshmiParvathi said she wouldwrite a letter to theCentre to inquire intothe corruption chargesagainst TDP chief NChandrababu Naiduright from Polavaramproject to his involve-ment in managing sys-tems.

Speaking to themedia here on Tuesday, sheslammed Naidu for levellingfalse allegations of phone tappingby the government and demand-ed that he prove the allegations.When Chief Minister YSJaganmohan Reddy was strivingto containing the Covid pan-demic, Naidu was trying todefame the government withfalse accusations, she alleged.

She said that Naidu hadruined the democracy during histerm and it is absurd for Naiduto go on praising Central agen-cies for their work, while he wasthe one who stalled the CBI andED presence in the State. The

Prime Minister should accept herrequest and order for an inquiryon Naidu’s corruption, sheappealed.

Naidu should be ashamed oftaking a U-turn and writing a let-ter to Modi praising him, whilethe entire nation had witnessedhow he criticised Modi beforeelections and even taking a digon his personal life. Apart frommanaging the system and ruin-ing democracy, Naidu was alsogood at manipulating the mediaand playing evil politics andViceroy incident was one such inNaidu’s book of backstabbingpolitics, she said.

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

In an innovative move, theGuntur Municipal Corporation(GMC) has decided to appoint‘Community leaders’ to createawareness on the need of gettingtreatment in the benign stage topandemic Coronavirus. GMCofficials stated that still manypeople feared to come out fordiagnosis and treatment in theinitial stage, which further infect-ing Covid-19 to their contacts. Inthis backdrop, the GMC hasdecided to appoint Communityleaders to cope with the pandem-ic. The Community leaders willidentify and bring the suspect-ed persons for Corona diagno-sis and would counsel themabout the importance of treat-ment.

District Green Core coordina-tor Tirupathi Reddy said that 20persons came forward to createawareness among people aboutCovid-19 as Community leaders.He said anyone, including socialactivists and NGOs, interested toserve society can apply to workas Community leaders. He saidthat the response is good andmay get more calls from the

NGOs and others in the days tocome.

GMC Commissioner CAnuradha said that people, whoare interested, should contact9493443342 and register theirnames with details to work asCommunity leaders. She saidthat more than 15 per cent of thesuspected persons are not com-ing forward for testing, hence,the virus spreading to others andthey are becoming Corona car-riers in the city.

She said that GMC has decid-ed to appoint community lead-ers in their respective areas,who have contacts with localpeople and have a capacity tocounsel them for treatment. She

said that presently, 41 nodal offi-cers, 207 ANMs, 4,000 ward vol-unteers, 1,800 ward secretariesare working to trace the suspect-ed persons, primary and sec-ondary contacts linked withpositive cases in the city.

Anuradha said that morethan 43,000 persons identified aschronic patients of above 60years age group in the city andANM and Asha workers wereconducting checkups regularly.She said that the GMC willappoint NGOs, political leaders,members of Civil Right organi-zations if they come forward toserve and counsel the people,who are suffering fromCoronavirus symptoms.

Virus uses decoy strategy to evade immune system, says studyIANS n WELLINGTON

New Zealand scientists havediscovered more about howviruses operate and can evadethe immune system. Accordingto the study, published in thejournal mBio, the research teamis now using their discovery tohelp learn more about Covid-19.The recent study specificallylooked at the Oryctes rhinocer-os nudivirus (OrNV) virus, animportant biocontrol agentagainst the coconut rhinocerosbeetle, a devastating pest forcoconut and oil palm trees inSoutheast Asia and the Pacific

Islands.The researchers found the

virus used a "decoy" strategy to

evade the immune system andexplained that these findings area small step in the bid to better

understand infectious disease."We have used the same tech-nique to investigate changes incells infected with SARS-CoV-2 and are continuing work inthis area," said study author DrMihnea Bostina from theUniversity of Otago.

The research team used elec-

tron microscopy to investigatecellular changes occurring dur-ing nudivirus infection andfound a unique mechanism forhow the virus works. The studyrevealed that the virus acquiresa membrane inside the nucleusof the infected cell and it getsfully equipped to infect new cells

at this precise location.According to the researchers,

this is in contrast with otherenveloped viruses - likeCoronavirus, which is also anenveloped virus - which derivetheir membranes from other cel-lular compartments. "After itgets fully assembled, the virususes a clever tactic of passingthrough different environments,packed inside various mem-brane structures until it getsreleased at the cellular mem-brane," Bostina said.

Study researcher SaiVelamoor said that this strategyimplies that many of the virus-

es released by the infected cellswill be enclosed in a cellularmembrane while travellinginside the infected organism."This means they will be missedby the immune system and theycan use this membrane decoy topenetrate any other type ofcells, without the need of avirus-specific receptor," she said.

"It shows for the very firsttime a clever strategy availableto insect viruses. It will be inter-esting to find in what measureother types of viruses - like theones infecting humans - are alsocapable of carrying out a simi-lar process," Velamoor added.

l Study researcher Sai Velamoor said that this strategy impliesthat many of the viruses released by the infected cells will beenclosed in a cellular membrane while travelling inside the infectedorganism. "This means they will be missed by the immune systemand they can use this membrane decoy to penetrate any other typeof cells, without the need of a virus-specific receptor," she said

PNS n VISAKHAPATNAM

Kaushalendra KishoreKhadanga took over as thechief public relations officer(CPRO) of East Coast Railway,Bhubaneswar. Prior to hisassuming charge of CPRO,Khadanga was posted asdeputy chief mechanical engi-neer in Mancheswar work-shop. Khadanga is an alumnusof Waseda University, Tokyo,Japan, in M Tech, and belongsto 2010 batch of IndianRailways Service of MechanicalEngineer (IRSME) cadre. Hehas also worked in variousimportant posts in ADME andDME in Diesel Locoshed,Visakhapatnam. He alsoworked in various capacities inKhurda Division, Puri coach-ing depot and East CoastRailway headquarters.

ECoR getsnew CPRO

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

Home minister MekathotiSucharita alleged that TDPchief N Chandrababu Naidulevelled baseless allegationsabout phone tapping to divertthe attention of public frommulti-crore Amaravati scams.She said that they asked Naiduand other leaders to provideproof about phone tapping onMonday but Naidu and hisassociates failed to submit atleast one proof.

Sucharita claimed thatmulti-crore scams were regis-tered in the land pooling sys-tem for the construction ofcapital city Amaravati, hence,the government has orderedinvestigations to unearth thescam in which TDP leaderswere involved.

She said that the investiga-tion is under crucial stage,therefore, Naidu hatched aplan to defame the policedepartment with his baselessallegations. She claimed thatpolice department did notconduct any phone tapping asthere is no need to do suchthings to the YSRCP.

HM refutesphone tappingallegations

YSRCP leader and Telugu Academy ChairpersonLakshmi Parvathi addressing the media inVijayawada on Tuesday

Community leaders tocreate awareness on Corona

VIJAYAWADA | WEDNESDAY | AUGUST 19, 2020 vijayawada 03

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

Leader of the Opposition NChandrababu Naidu onTuesday expressed surpriseover how the Director Generalof Police Gautam Sawang couldask for proof on the allegationsof phone tapping of Opposition,advocates, journalists and socialactivists in the State.

Instead of initiating action toverify facts, the DGP wrote acounter letter seeking evi-dence, he wondered. He saidthat he had written many let-ters and submitted memoran-da on false cases filed againstTDP leaders in the past but theDGP never cared to respond.

Speaking to party leaders inan online meeting, the TDPchief said that it was surpris-ing that when he had writtena letter to Prime MinisterNarendra Modi, it was thebounden duty of the DGP toclarify what action he hadtaken against the culpritsresponsible for the attacks andfalse cases registered againstTDP leaders.

Naidu asked why the DGPmaintained a silence when hewas obstructed during his visitto Visakhapatnam. First, per-mission was given for Vizagvisit but later hurdles were cre-

ated, he reminded.The TDP chief said that

even when he was going to visitAtmakur, the front gates of hisbuilding were tied with ropesto prevent him from comingout of his house.

Naidu said that now eventhe phones of doctors werebeing tapped. Eventually, thefront line warriors were afraidof lifting phone calls of eventheir patients for fear of receiv-ing threats.

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

BJP leaders visited the Polavaramflood-hit villages and other lowlying villages hit by the four daytorrential rains. BJP State pres-ident Somu Veeraraju, vice-pres-ident Vishnuvardhan Reddy asone team and MLC Madhav,Kisan Morcha State president VSatyanarayana Raju as anotherteam toured all the rain-hit vil-lages on Tuesday. They inspect-ed the fields submerged in theflood water and houses hit byheavy rains.

Veeraraju visited houses,schools, temples and thatchedhouses submerged in the floodwaters in Old Polavaram town.He alleged that the ruling YSRCPgovernment was toeing the sameline that followed by the previ-ous TDP government in takingprecautionary measures for floodaffected villages, which are notyielding results.

Flood waters entered the lowlying areas due to the increase in

Copper Dam height. He assuredthat the flood situation will bebrought to the notice of the gov-ernment. There are breaches tobunds in Devipatnam mandal inEast Godavari district as 23 lakhcusecs of water entered theplace, he pointed out. He saidthat he would demand the gov-ernment to take immediateaction and provide financialassistance of Rs 5,000 to flood-hit families.

He said that transport facili-ty to 19 submerged villages is cutfrom Devipatnam and OldPolavaram town.

PNS n NEW DELHI

A survey among children in foursouthern states found that about94 per cent of the respondentsdid not have access to smart-phones or the internet for onlineeducation.

The study conducted by childrights body CRY in May-Junecovered 5,987 children inKarnataka, Tamil Nadu, AndhraPradesh and Telangana. Theinformation was collected byCRY's community organisersthrough telephonic interviews.

The objective of the study wasto embark on a fact-finding mis-sion on "internet accessibility ofchildren" in the age group of 11-18 years.

"With schools closed andmobility restricted due to theCovid-19 pandemic, CRY want-ed to envisage the ground real-ity of the potential for onlineeducation," it said.

The study found that most ofthe respondents from Karnatakaowned smartphones with nine

per cent of the 1,445 respon-dents answering in the affirma-tive, while only three per centout of the 1,740 children sur-veyed in Tamil Nadu had smart-phones.

"A further dipstick revealsthat the annual income of 95 percent of the families is less thanRs 1 lakh. Without substantialresources and with bare mini-mum affordability, having asmartphone is a luxury that

more than two-thirds of thesefamilies can only hope for," thestudy said.

About 94 per cent of the chil-dren surveyed in the four statesdo not have access to smart-phones or the internet for onlineeducation, the study found.While six per cent of the chil-dren own smartphones, 29 percent access their family mem-bers' phones, it said.

Also, 55 per cent of these chil-

dren get access to smartphonesonly for three days a week or less,while 77 per cent of them getaccess to smartphones for lessthan two hours a day. KarthikNarayanan, regional director atCRY South, warned that thestudy shows that children fromthe marginalised sections of thesociety are becoming more vul-nerable than ever before.

"Education is the key toensure a protective environ-ment for children. Going toschool not only sharpens achild's mind but buys crucialtime in their lives from beingdrawn into child marriage orchild labour. With convention-

al education becoming difficultand online education beingaccessible to only a few, the chil-dren from the marginalisedsections are becoming morevulnerable than ever before," hesaid.

The nationwide lockdowninduced by Covid-19 in Marchprompted schools and collegesto move to the virtual world forteaching and learning activities.But a weak internet penetrationhas turned e-education into adistant dream for many chil-dren in the rural areas.According to official statistics,there are over 35 crore studentsin the country.

94pc kids in southern states don'thave access to e-education: CRY

PNS n VISAKHAPATNAM

A real estate agent, KoteswaraRao, was allegedly robbed of Rs20 lakh by a broker near theinternational cricket stadium,PM Palem in the city onMonday. However, police areverifying veracity of the claimsto further investigation into thecase.

Police said that the com-plainant Koteswara Rao, a resi-dent of Vizag city, was carryingRs 20 lakh cash with him in hiscar. The cash was meant for themarriage of his brother’s daugh-ter.

On Monday, he went to PMPalem to meet a real-estate bro-ker, who asked him to come tosee some lands and house sites.The broker allegedly asked Raoto come near his house locatednear the stadium claiming thathe was sick and on medication.When Rao went near the bro-ker’s house and waited in his car,

all of a sudden a white colour carwith police siren came to thespot and stopped beside him. Aperson came out of the car andsnatched the cash bag fromhim and sped away in the samecar towards the city.

The broker was, however, inthat car. The police said that theywere verifying the CCTVfootage and other facts in thecase and the police are also ver-ifying how Rao has got the hugeamount. Police formed specialteams to investigate the mysterybehind the missing of the cash.

Real estate agentrobbed of Rs 20 lakh

n The study conducted by childrights body CRY in May-Junecovered 5,987 children inKarnataka, Tamil Nadu, AndhraPradesh and Telangana. Theinformation was collected byCRY's community organisersthrough telephonic interviews

n The objective of thestudy was to embark on a fact-finding mission on“internet accessibilityof children” in theage group of 11-18years

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

Double kidnap and repeatedrape of a minor girl came to lighton Tuesday in Guntur district.According to police, NutalapatiNavin Kumar alias Naveen ofKarlapalem kidnapped a 14-year-old minor girl ofMutyamsettipalem of Tenali andraped her. The victim went to herfriend's house to take shelterafter the incident as she wasunable to return home but sadlyhome guard Ashok Chakravarthyand Durga Rao raped her.

Addressing a press confer-ence at Tenali on Tuesday, DeputySuperintendent of Police KSrilakshmi said that the policearrested the accused Naveen,home guard Ashok Chakravarthyand his friend Durga Rao basedon a complaint of a minor girl andbooked a case under sections 5,6 of POCSO act and sections 366,376 (2) (i) under IPC.

The elders of the minor girlearlier had performed her mar-

riage with a person and she wasliving with her husband atKattavada village of Karlapalemmandal. The accused Naveenlured the girl on July 27 andbrought her on his motorbikefrom the village and raped her inthe fields near Yerravagu area.Naveen left the girl atVykuntapuram on the outskirtsof Tenali and forcibly handed overRs 200 to the victim. The victimwas saddened over the incidentand went to Perecherla to meether friend and to take shelter dur-ing the night.

She was standing in the busstand waiting for her friend.Meanwhile, Home guard AshokChakravarthy and his friendDurga Rao observed the minorgirl was standing alone at the busstand of Perecherla. Ashok intro-duced himself to the victim andenquired about her friend'saddress. He promised that he wastaking her to the police stationand to stay with a woman consta-ble without any fear. The victimbelieved his words and wentalong with him. But he took her,along with his friend Durga Raoto a room in Perecherla, and theduo raped the minor girl by keep-ing her in the room for two weeksby locking the room from outside.

The girl escaped from theroom on August 13 and narrat-ed her condition to her mother.She, along with her mother,lodged a complaint against threepersons. Police registered a caseand arrested three accused onTuesday and were conductingfurther investigation.

Kidnap, rape of minor bythree, including home guard

Man held forattempt tosexuallyexploit minor PNS n VISAKHAPATNAM

The Airport police onTuesday arrested an autodriver for his bid to sexual-ly exploiti a minor. Thearrested was identified asChiranjeevi. The victim losther mother a few years agoand her father deserted her.The girl has been stayingwith her maternal aunt inthe city. Chiranjeevi, who isthe paramour of the girl’saunt used to visit the housein the absence of the victim'saunt. Taking advantage ofthe girl being alone in thehouse, he tried to sexuallyassault the girl.

The girl narrated herordeal to her friend. The boyspoke to his parents, who inturn approached police andlodged a complaint. Basedon the complaint, policearrested the accused.

n Instead of initiating actionto verify facts on phonetapping, the DGP wrote acounter letter seekingevidence, he wondered.He said that he hadwritten many letters andsubmitted memorandaon false cases filedagainst TDP leaders inthe past but the DGPnever cared to respond

n The TDP chief said that itwas surprising that whenhe had written a letter toPrime Minister NarendraModi, it was the boundenduty of the DGP to clarifywhat action he had takenagainst the culpritsresponsible for theattacks and false casesregistered against TDPleaders

Govt cannot distribute ....Continued from Page 1

For instance, the Jagangovernment has preparedgrounds to strip the presti-gious Telugu University of itslands for the PedalandarikiIllu scheme. The universitywas set up by former chiefminister and doyen of Telugucinema NT Rama Rao in1989 in an endeavour to pro-mote Telugu language andculture. The university hasthree campuses atRajahmundry, Srisailam and

Hyderabad. TheRajahmundry campus wasallotted 45 acres and now theCollector issued orders totake back 20 acres for thehousing programme whichgoes against the spirit of theAP Reorganisation Act, 2014.

The university is not yetbifurcated and is the com-mon property of two Telugustates. The government isgoing to spend a whoppingRs 90,000 crore to implementhousing for all schemes in thestate.

Flood flow eases in Godavari ...Continued from Page 1

The system may trigger rainover Central India as it willmove nearly westward acrossGangetic West Bengal, Odisha,Chhattisgarh, MadhyaPradesh, Maharashtra, andGujarat over the next 4 days(August 20-23).

Heavy to very heavy rainsare expected along the entireswathe of the system saturat-ing central parts, runningalready in excess of the season-al average.

Chief Minister YSJaganmohan Reddy, whoreviewed the situation, direct-ed the Collectors of the twodistricts to immediately dis-tribute Rs 2,000 each to theflood-hit families.

The State DisasterManagement Authority hasasked people to remain cau-tious as the third warning sig-

nal continued at Sir ArthurCotton Barrage atDowleswaram nearRajahmundry.

In East Godavari district, 95relief camps have been openedwhere 14,477 people have beenaccommodated from flood-hit villages.

In all, 147 villages under 23revenue mandals in the districtremained marooned due to thedeluge, according to districtCollector Muralidhar Reddy.

Standing paddy crop in over2,385 hectares was inundatedin the district while cotton in225 ha and horticulture cropsin over 5,000 ha were alsoaffected.

Full-scale enumeration ofthe damage would be under-taken after the flood recedes.

In the neighbouring WestGodavari, 55 villages underthree mandals were still facingthe flood fury.

Continued from Page 1

“We are coming out withfoolproof hardware and soft-ware for the purpose. Eachoffice will be equipped withthree video cameras and otheressential accessories. We willget to keep a tab on manythings inside the registrationoffices using this system,” Jainadded.

The central monitoring sys-tem would enable departmentheads to keep a close watch onthe happenings in the offices inreal-time. “This will help usstreamline the working systemin the registration offices, mon-itor attendance of officers andstaff and also prevent entry ofunauthorised persons,”theCommissioner and IG said.

AP to videorecord propertyregistrations tocheck frauds

Fewer testsbeing done tohide extent ...

Continued from Page 1

TDP president NChandrababu Naidu saidthere was much vulnerabil-ity in villages because of theunpreparedness of the ruralpeople and also due to lackof access to better medicalcare.

Naidu called upon intel-lectuals, experts, frontlinewarriors and scientists toactively come forward increating greater awarenessof the best practices beingobserved around the world.

Sharing his experiences,Naidu told the Covid war-riors that in his long polit-ical career, he had neverbeen confined home butalways active and goingfrom place to place.

Continued from Page 1

The Chief Minister wouldconduct a review meeting onTourism on Thursday whenhe would release the newtourism policy, the Ministersaid.

“There is a proposal toundertake pending works inthe Tourism departmentunder public-private partici-pation (PPP) with the permis-sion of the Chief Minister. Ithad been decided to constructstar hotels at 12 places in theState to promote tourism.However, the final decisionwould be taken by the ChiefMinister,” Muttamsetti said.

Srinivasa Rao said thatthe state government wouldallocate Rs 3 crore for hon-ouring sports talent whoachieved medals at thenational level of which Rs 5lakh would be give to goldmedalists, Rs 3 lakh to silvermedalists and Rs 2 lakh tobronze medalists.

Continued from Page 1

Taking note of the submis-sions, the apex court said thePM CARES Fund is a publiccharitable trust and is not agovernment fund,.

The bench said it consistsentirely of voluntary contri-butions fromindividuals/organisations anddoes not get any budgetarysupport. The mere fact thatadministration of the Trust isvested in trustees, i.e., a groupof people, will not itself takeaway its public character, theapex court said.

It noted that the contribu-tions made by individualsand institutions in the PMCARES Fund are to bereleased for public purpose tofulfil the objective of thetrust.

"The PM CARES Fund is acharitable trust registeredunder the Registration Act,1908 at New Delhi on March27, 2020. The trust does notreceive any Budgetary sup-port or any Government

money."It is not open for the peti-

tioner to question the wisdomof trustees to create PMCARES fund which was con-stituted with an objective toextend assistance in the wakeof public health emergencythat is pandemic COVID-19," the bench also compris-ing justices R S Reddy and MR Shah, said.

Senior advocate DushyantDave, appearing for the NGO,had argued that he was notquestioning the bona fide ofconstitution of PM CARESFund.

He had submitted that PMCARES Fund should not havebeen constituted when NDRFis already in place to take careof disasters. Dave also saidthat NDRF is audited by CAGbut PM CARES Fund is notaudited by CAG rather by aprivate CharteredAccountant.

The apex court, however,sid that the nature of NDRFand PM CARES Fund areentirely different.

PM CARES fund createdin wake of public health ...

Judges beingmonitored ...

Continued from Page 1

However, AAG P SudhakarReddy pointed out that in anyPIL, the source of informationis absolutely important for itsmaintainability. In the presentpetition, the source of informa-tion is not reliable and appears‘childish’.

CM orderscollectors toensure succour

Continued from Page 1

He ordered timely distribu-tion of food, ration, medicationetc. in the camps and otherareas. The district Collectorsbriefed the Chief Minister onthe situation in both the dis-tricts. East Godavari collectorD Muralidhar Reddy said thatpeople, especially pregnantwomen and children, havealready been evacuated.

As many as 14,477 peopleare currently taking shelter ataround 95 relief camps, andapproximately 135 boats andnine motorboats are stationedin various areas.

CM to unveilnew TourismPolicy onThursday

DGP writing letters,no action: Naidu

BJP seeks succourfor rain-hit families

Man murdered by live-in partner, her loverPNS n VIJAYAWADA

A woman murdered the per-son with whom she had alive-in relationship with thehelp of her paramour andburied the body at house ofthe victim at Cherukupalli inGuntur district. Accordingto p ol ice , B a l lepa l l iChiranjeevi (40), who work-ing as an RMP, went missinga week ago. The victim’sfather Subba Rao lodged acomplaint with police. Policeduring investigation foundthat Chiranjeevi was mur-dered and was buried in hishouse. A woman who was inlive-in relationship withChiranjeevi committed themurder with the help of herparamour.

Addressing a press confer-ence in Guntur on Tuesday,Guntur Rural SP VishalGunni said that p ol icearres ted Vak ka lagaddaSaisirisha and KatakatlaBhanuprakash after investi-gation based on the com-plaint of Subba Rao.

The deceased Chiranjeevimarr ied Madhavi a l i asNagamani 16 years ago theywere blessed with two chil-dren. The couple was sepa-rated eight years ago due tofami ly d isputes .Furthermore, he was in alive-in relationship with oneSaisirisha.

Chiranjeevi agreed to payRs 15 lakhs to his wiferecently. So, he sold his med-ical shop at Cherukupallifor Rs 17.20 lakhs and paid

Rs 5 lakhs to Madhavi. Theremaining amount was keptin the almirah in a rentedhouse.

Saisirisha was working asan assistant in the medicalshop of Chiranjeevi. She alsoreportedly had a paramour,therefore, Chiranjeevi hadsuspected her fidelity andstarted harassing her. Hence,Saisirisha hatched a plan,along with her paramourBhanu Prakash, to murderChiranjeevi on the inter-

vening night of May 5 and 6in the deceased's house.

The duo attacked himwith an iron rod and knifewhen Chiranjeevi was sleep-ing in the house and he dieddue to severe injuries onthe spot. The duo buried hisbody on the backside of thehouse and stole Rs 12.20lakhs from the almirah andthey brought Rs 2 lakhsworth gold ornaments andstarted living together atKolluru.

The duo surrendered aftercoming to know about thep ol ice inves t igat ion onTuesday. The p ol iceexhumed the b o dy ofChiranjeevi from the houseand conducted autopsy inthe presence of the revenueofficials at Cherukupalli onTuesday. SP Vishal and DSPof Bapatla A Srinivasa Raoappreciated the circle inspec-tor B Srinivasa Rao andother policemen for resolv-ing the case.

n Saisirisha was working asan assistant in the medicalshop of Chiranjeevi. Shealso reportedly had aparamour, therefore,Chiranjeevi had suspectedher fidelity and startedharassing her. Hence,Saisirisha hatched a plan,along with her paramourBhanu Prakash, to murderChiranjeevi on the interven-ing night of May 5 and 6 inthe deceased's house

n The duo attacked himwith an iron rod andknife when Chiranjeeviwas sleeping in thehouse and he died dueto severe injuries on thespot. The duo buried hisbody on the backside ofthe house and stole Rs12.20 lakhs from thealmirah and they broughtRs 2 lakhs worth goldornaments and startedliving together at Kolluru

VIJAYAWADA | WEDNESDAY | AUGUST 19, 2020 04

Joe and Jill Biden keep social distance from Kamala Harris and her husband Doug Emhoff after their first joint appearance inWilmington -RReuters

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SHORT READS

Comptroller andAuditor General callson PM Modi

NEW DELHI: Comptroller andAuditor General of India GirishChandra Murmu called on PrimeMinister Narendra Modi onTuesday. Murmu, formerLieutenant Governor of Jammuand Kashmir, was sworn in asthe CAG on August 8. "ShriGirish Chandra Murmu,Comptroller and Auditor Generalof India called on PM NarendraModi," the PMO tweeted. Aformer bureaucrat, Murmu is a1985-batch IAS officer ofGujarat cadre. His tenure as thenew CAG will be up toNovember 20, 2024.

Visva Bharati to writeto PM, seek centralforces after violence

Elephants kill man inforest of Jashpur dist

JASHPUR: A 55-year-old manwas killed by a herd of wildelephants in Chhattisgarh'sJashpur district, a forestofficial said on Tuesday. Thevictim identified as Babulalwas attacked by tuskers nearSamdama village underTapkara forest range onMonday evening, saidSrikrishna Jadhav, divisionalforest officer (DFO) of theJashpur forest division. Thevictim and another villagerhad ventured into the forestfor some work, when theyencountered a herd ofpachyderms, the official said.While the other man managedto escape, the tuskers caughthold of Babulal and slammedhim on the ground, killing himon the spot, he said. Forestand police personnel rushedto the scene and sent thebody for post-mortem, hesaid. An instant relief amountof Rs 25,000 has been givento the kin of the deceased andthe remaining compensationof Rs 5.75 lakh will bereleased after completion ofnecessary formalities, the DFOadded.

BOLPUR (WB): Visva Bharatiauthorities have decided toseek Prime Minister NarendraModi's intervention fordeployment of central securityforces on its premises, a dayafter vandalism forced itsclosure, a top official of theprestigious institution said onTuesday. The heritage universityfounded by Nobel laureateRabindranath Tagore was shutdown indefinitely on Mondayfollowing violent protestsagainst Visva Bharati's decisionto construct a boundary wallaround the venue of PoushMela, a prestigious annualcultural event started more thana century ago. "The executivecouncil (of the university) hasunanimously decided to writeto the honourable chancellor(the prime minister) fordeployment of any of thecentral security forces to dealwith security issues on thecampus," one of its memberssaid. According to ShyamSingh, the Birbhum districtsuperintendent of police, ninepersons have been arrested forcampus violence.

PNS n NEW DELHI

IPS officer Rakesh Asthana onTuesday took charge as the newDirector General (DG) of theBorder Security Force thatguards India's fronts withPakistan and Bangladesh.

A 1984-batch Indian PoliceService officer of Gujarat cadre,Asthana (59) was handed overthe baton of the about 2.65 lakhpersonnel-strong force by ITBPDG S S Deswal in the morningat the BSF headquarters at LodhiRoad, a force spokesperson said.

Deswal, his batchmate fromthe Haryana cadre, has beenheading the BSF in an addition-al capacity since March 11 afterthe then DG Vivek Johri wastransferred to head the MadhyaPradesh Police.

The new DG was accorded aceremonial guard of honour bya column of troops before hetook charge, the spokespersonsaid.

Asthana is the 27th chief ofthe force and is expected to holdoffice till July next year, hisscheduled date for retirementfrom service.

The AppointmentsCommittee of the Cabinet head-ed by Prime Minister Narendra

Modi had on Monday issuedorders for the appointment ofAsthana, who has been servingas the DG of the Bureau of CivilAviation Security (BCAS) tillnow apart from heading theNarcotics Control Bureau in anadditional capacity.

As per the ACC order,Asthana will continue to holdthe NCB charge.

The police officer hasserved in various capacities inGujarat Police apart from serv-ing in various ranks of theCentral Bureau ofInvestigation (CBI).

Asthana, while serving asthe special director of the CBIin 2018, had a bitter feud withhis senior and CBI DirectorAlok Verma as they both lev-elled allegations of corruptionagainst each other.

Opposition parties slam BJP overGoa governor Malik's transferPNS n PANAJI

Attacking the ruling BJP overthe transfer of Goa GovernorSatya Pal Malik, the Oppositionparties on Tuesday said he wasshifted for speaking "truth"and taking a strong stand oncore issues like the COVID-19pandemic, environment andthe Mahadayi river water dis-pute.

Malik has been transferred asGovernor of Meghalaya, andGovernor of MaharashtraBhagat Singh Koshyari hasbeen asked to discharge thefunctions of Goa governor inaddition to his own duties.

Congress leader DigambarKamat said Malik was trans-ferred because he spoke truth.

"The governor stood bytruth, emotions and sentimentsof every Goan on the core issueslike Mahadayi water diversionby Karnataka, economic revivaland austerity measures, besidesthe government's handling andmanagement of the COVID-19pandemic," the Leader ofOpposition in the LegislativeAssembly said in a statement.

He said "truth and the BJPcannot go together".

Kamat said it was sad that anhonest and upright person likeMalik has been transferred at atime when Goa needed him themost.

He said Malik's actions werewith a sole intention of protect-ing the common man andenvironment and nature ofGoa. "Malik was always con-cerned about bad finances ofthe state and consistentlyadvised the government toadopt austerity measures and tostop wasteful expenditure," theCongress leader said.

He said every Goan must befeeling hurt with the transfer ofthe governor.

Goa Forward Party (GFP)

chief Vijai Sardesai said Malikspoke truth about the prevail-ing COVID-19 situation in thecoastal state.

"He had taken a strong standon the Mahadayi issue andother austerity measuresincluding opposition for newRaj Bhavan. He had called outthe Goa chief minister forbeing uncultured," Sardesaisaid in a statement.

The GFP chief also ques-tioned Mahharashtra gover-nor being given the additionalcharge as the governor of Goa.

"Malik's transfer was in a wayexpected as truth is despisedhere under the present dispen-sation.

US Universities scrambleto deal with virus outbreaksn RALEIGH

North Carolina's flagship uni-versity canceled in-personclasses for undergraduates justa week into the fall semesterMonday as college campusesaround the U.S. scramble todeal with coronavirus clusterslinked in some cases to studenthousing, off-campus partiesand packed bars.

The University of NorthCarolina at Chapel Hill said itwill switch to remote learningon Wednesday and makearrangements for students whowant to leave campus housing.

“We have emphasised that ifwe were faced with the need tochange plans — take an off-ramp — we would not hesitateto do so, but we have not takenthis decision lightly,” it said ina statement after reporting130 confirmed infectionsamong students and fiveamong employees over thepast week.

UNC said the clusters werediscovered in dorms, a frater-nity house and other studenthousing.

Before the decision came

down, the student newspaper,The Daily Tar Heel, ran an edi-torial headlined, “UNC has aclusterf—k on its hands,"though without the dashes.

The paper said that the par-ties that took place over theweekend were no surprise andthat administrators shouldhave begun the semester withonline-only instruction at theuniversity, which has 19,000undergraduates. “We all sawthis coming,” the editorial said.

Outbreaks earlier this sum-mer at fraternities inWashington state, Californiaand Mississippi provided aglimpse of the challenges

school officials face in keepingthe virus from spreading oncampuses where young peopleeat, live, study — and party —in close quarters.

The virus has been blamedfor over 170,000 deaths and 5.4million confirmed infectionsin the U.S.

In Boone, North Carolina,the faculty senate atAppalachian State University —part of the 17-member UNCsystem — passed a vote of no-confidence in school chancel-lor Sheri Everts on Monday, inlarge part for failing to shutdown the campus after a recentCOVID-19 outbreak.

Two existing drugs preventCovid in human cells: studyPNS n BOSTON

Two existing drugs inhibit SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causesCOVID-19, from infectinghuman cells in the lab, a study hasfound.

According to the study, pub-lished in the journal PNAS, bothdrugs, vacuolin-1 and apilimod,originally developed years ago,target a large enzyme calledPIKfyve kinase. Before this study,little was known about thisenzyme's role in COVID-19infection, the researchers said.

The work, which will need tobe replicated in human trials,suggests a potential new target forCOVID-19 therapies, they said.

"Our findings show that tar-geting this kinase through asmall-molecule antiviral againstSARS-CoV-2 may be an effectivestrategy to lessen the progressionor seriousness of COVID-19,"said study co-senior authorTomas Kirchhausen, a professorat the Harvard Medical School(HMS) in the US.

Kirchhausen said he discov-

ered vacuolin-1 16 years ago,while apilimod was developed bya company called LAMTherapeutics.

Kirchhausen performed cellbiology studies with SARS-CoV-2 virus in the lab of Sean Whelan,who had been part of the Centerfor Excellence team at HMS.

"Within a week, we knewapilimod worked extremely wellin preventing SARS-CoV-2infection in human cells in thelab," said Kirchhausen, who ini-tially published this discovery onthe bioRxiv pre-print website in

April 2020. That pre-print alsoincluded a review of apilimod'seffectiveness against Ebola andSARS-CoV-2. "We found thatlike apilimod, vacuolin-1 is a verystrong inhibitor for viral infectionin the lab," said Kirchhausen.

The HMS researchers notedthat an unrelated group haspublished a paper in the journalNature, showing that, in a screenof 12,000 clinical-stage or FDA-approved small molecules, apil-imod was one of the best drugsfor inhibiting SARS-CoV-2 virusreplication.

n NEW YORK

New York Governor AndrewCuomo has slammed USPresident Donald Trump forwidening the divisions inAmerica's body politic and for hisadministration's "dysfunctionaland incompetent" response to thecoronavirus pandemic.

Cuomo spoke on the first dayof the Democratic NationalConvention. The four-day con-vention was initially scheduled tobe held in Wisconsin but itbegan virtually on Monday amidthe ongoing COVID-19 pan-demic. Presumptive DemocraticNominee Joe Biden, 77, and hisrunning mate Kamala Harris, 55,will be formally nominated by

the DNC. Harris' nominationwill be historic as she will be thefirst-ever Black as well as the first-ever American of Indian andAfrican descent as a vice presi-

dential candidate by a majorpolitical party.

"We know that our problemsgo beyond the COVID-19 virus.COVID-19 is the symptom, not

the illness. Our nation is in cri-sis. And in many ways COVID-19 is just a metaphor. A virusattacks when the body is weakand when it cannot defend itself,"Cuomo said, in his address to theDNC. Cuomo, whose handlingof the COVID-19 pandemic inNew York State has been hailed,said over the past few yearsAmerican politics has beenweakened.

“The divisions have beengrowing deeper, the anti-semi-tism, the anti-Latino, the anti-immigrant fervour, the racism inCharlottesville, where the KKKdidn't even bother to wear theirhoods. And in Minnesota, wherea life was squeezed from Mr(George) Floyd.

Army begins probe in encounterkilling of 3 ‘militants' in JK's ShopianPNS n SRINAGAR

The army has begun its probeand recorded statements in con-nection with last month'sencounter in Shopian area ofSouth Kashmir after families inRajouri area of Jammu regionfiled a complaint with the Jammuand Kashmir police about itsmembers missing from the sameregion.

Srinagar-based Defencespokesperson Col Rajesh Kaliaissued a statement saying a high-level Court of Inquiry intoOperation Amshipora inShopian is under progress. "Statements of key witnesses arebeing recorded and progress isbeing monitored closely.Additional civil witnesses arebeing asked to depose before theCourt of Inquiry," he said.

The spokesperson said theDNA samples have been collect-ed from Rajouri by the Jammuand Kashmir police and sent for

matching with those of the ter-rorists killed on July 18.

Col Kalia said the army iscommitted to ethical conduct ofall Counter Terrorist operations.

"Cases where doubts are raisedare investigated under dueprocess as per the law of the land.Since the case is under investi-gation, further details will beshared periodically, as appropri-ate without affecting due legalprocess," he said.

The relatives of three youths,

belonging to Dhar Sakri villagein Kotranka of Rajouri area inPoonch, had lodged a writtenmissing persons report in thelocal police station after they lostcontact with their kin on July 17.

In their complaint, theyinformed the police that they hadlast spoken to the three, whowere mainly involved in appleand walnut trading, on July 16when the youths had informedtheir families that they had gota room at Ashimpora in Shopian.

US Senate resolution condemns Chinese aggressionagainst India, calls for diplomatic solutionn WASHINGTON

A bipartisan US Senate resolu-tion has condemned China'suse of military force to change thestatus quo at the Line of ActualControl (LAC) with India andcalled for a diplomatic solutionto the issue.

Indian and Chinese troopshave been locked in a bitterstandoff in several areas along theLine of Actual Control in easternLadakh since May 5. The situa-tion deteriorated after the June 15Galwan Valley clashes in which20 Indian Army personnel werekilled. The Chinese side also suf-fered casualties but it is yet to giveout the details.

The resolution, introduced bysenators John Cornyn and MarkWarner, commended India fortaking steps to secure its telecom-munications infrastructure fromChinese security threats andalso supported bilateral and mul-tilateral partnerships, such as the

Quadrilateral Security Dialogue(QSD), to promote a rules-basedorder in the Indo-Pacific.

The QSD, also known as theQuad, is an informal strategicforum between the US, Japan,Australia and India. The diplo-matic and military arrangementis widely viewed as a response toincreased Chinese economic andmilitary power in the Indo-Pacific region.

Cornyn and Warner are co-chairs of the Senate IndianCaucus. The resolution tabled on

the Senate floor last week hasbeen sent to the Senate ForeignRelations Committee for consid-eration. Cornyn is theRepublican Senate MajorityWhip, while Warner is the rank-ing member of the Senate SelectCommittee on Intelligence.

Condemning China's use ofmilitary aggression to change thestatus quo at LAC, the resolution,the text of which was released onMonday, said the US officiallyrecognises the McMahon Line,the state of Arunachal Pradesh

and encourages a diplomaticsolution to remaining contestedareas of the border betweenIndia and China.

The McMahon Line defines aclear boundary line betweenIndia and China. The India-China border dispute covers the3,488-km-long LAC. Chinaclaims Arunachal Pradesh aspart of southern Tibet whileIndia contests it.

The resolution said in themonths leading up to June 15,China increased troop deploy-ments, built new infrastructurein contested areas, and harassed

Indian patrols along multiple sec-tors of the LAC, particularlyaround the Depsang Plains,Galwan Valley, Hot Springs, andPangong Lake.

The events of June 15 thatresulted in the death of 20 Indiansoldiers raises serious concernsregarding the intent of theChinese government and itsmilitary, the resolution said, not-ing that the incident occurredduring bilateral diplomatic nego-tiations between the officials ofthe two countries who wereattempting to deescalate bordertensions.

Trump widened divisions in American politics: NY Guv

IPS officer Rakesh Asthanatakes charge as BSF DG

The QSD, also known as the Quad, is aninformal strategic forum between the US,Japan, Australia and India. The diplomaticand military arrangement is widelyviewed as a response to increasedChinese economic and military power inthe Indo-Pacific region

‘Mild Covid canproduce strongT cell response’LONDON: Mild cases of COVID-19can trigger the immune system'smemory T cells even in theabsence of detectable virus-specificantibodies, according to a studywhich says the response may playa significant role in preventingreinfection with the novelcoronavirus. According to theresearch, published in the journalCell, there is limited evidence ofreinfection in humans withpreviously documented COVID-19."In the absence of a protectivevaccine, it is critical to determine ifexposed or infected people,especially those with asymptomaticor very mild forms of the diseasewho likely act inadvertently as themajor transmitters, develop robustadaptive immune responsesagainst SARS-CoV-2," said studysenior author Marcus Buggert ofthe Karolinska Institutet in Sweden.

PNS n NEW DELHI

A total of 3,09,41,264 tests fordetection of COVID-19 haveso far been conducted in Indiawith record 8,99,864 testsdone in a single day, eventhough the positivity rateremained low at 8.81 per centcompared to the weeklynational average of 8.84 percent, the health ministrysaid on Tuesday.

The total num-ber of recoveriescrossed the 19l a k h - m a r kwith 57,937patients hav-ing recuperat-ed in a span of24 hours, thehighest recordedin a day so far, itsaid.

"A total of 8,99,864 sampleshave been tested on Monday,the highest in a day, taking thecumulative tests conductedso far to 3,09,41,264," theministry said.

"Even with such high levelof testing, the positivity hasremained low i.e. 8.81 percent compared to the weekly

national average of 8.84 percent," it said.

India also recorded thehighest single-day recoveriesof 57,937 in a span of 24 hours,according to the Union healthministry data updated at 8 amon Tuesday.

It is higher than the 55,079confirmed cases of coron-avirus added during the same

period, the ministry high-lighted.

With morepatients recover-

ing and beingd i s c h a r g e dfrom hospitalsand home iso-lation (in caseof mild and

moderate cases),the total recover-

ies have surged to19,77,779.

"With this the gap betweenrecovered patients and activecases has crossed 13 lakh as ondate (13,04,613)," the ministrysaid. Continuous increase inaverage daily recoveries has ledto India's COVID-19 recoveryrate rising to 73.18 per cent anda low case fatality rate (CFR)of 1.92 per cent, it said.

India records highest single-day recoveries of 58K

VIJAYAWADA | WEDNESDAY | AUGUST 19, 2020 nation 05

SHORT READS

Will ensure localpeople get governmentjobs: MP CMBHOPAL: Madhya Pradesh ChiefMinister Shivraj Singh Chouhanon Tuesday said necessary legalprovisions will be made toprovide government jobs tolocal people. He also saidresources of the state are meantfor residents of the state. "Thestate government has taken animportant decision thatgovernment jobs will be given toyouths of Madhya Pradesh. Weare making necessary legalprovisions for this. Resources ofMadhya Pradesh are meant forchildren of the state," Chouhansaid in a video statement. He,however, did not elaborateaboutthe proposed legal provisions. Inhis Independence Day speech,Chouhan had said preferencewould be given to locals ingovernment jobs. He had alsosaid his government will devisea mechanism to ensureemployment to youths on thebasis of their marksheets ofclasses 10 and 12.

Guj govt approvesconstruction of high-rises of over 70 floors

HC seeks Maha govt'sstand on reopeningtemplesMUMBAI: The Bombay HighCourt on Tuesday directed theMaharashtra government toclarify its stand on reopeningplaces of worship amid thecoronavirus-enforced lockdownin the state. A bench led byChief Justice Dipankar Dattawas hearing a Public InterestLitigation filed by a city-basedNGO seeking that the statereopen temples and permitlimited number of devotees at atime to enter the temples. Thecourt directed AdvocateGeneral Ashutosh Kumbhakonito file an affidavit clarifying thestate's stand over it.

AHMEDABAD: Gujarat ChiefMinister Vijay Rupani hasapproved construction ofbuildings of 70 floors or morein five major cities of the state,the government said onTuesday. As per the presentrules, the maximumpermissible limit for tallstructures in the state was 23floors. Now, the stategovernment has decided toamend the Common GDCR(general development controlregulations) to allowconstruction of high-risestructures of 70 or more floorsin Ahmedabad, Vadodara,Surat, Rajkot and Gandhinagar,an official release said. Newrules regarding tall buildingsapproved by the governmentwill be applicable to structureswhich are over 100 metres inheight. A special technicalcommittee will be set up to giveapproval to such projects, therelease said.

PNS n NEW DELHI

The latest controversy to hit AirIndia is about a "picnic" thatsenior officials from the Chennaistation are having in a Kozhikodefive star hotel even after the res-cue operations are over, as per theemployees union, which alsoclaims they are from the financewing whose head V. Hejmadi "isonly busy seeking an extensionfor himself".

The Air India EmployeesUnion, affiliated to the BharatiyaKamgar Sena, has written a let-ter to Air India Chairman andManaging Director Rajiv Bansalon the issue, demanding a probe.

"A team from Chennai head-ed by the ED-SR, C. Hemalathaalong with GM, Finance, SR, S.Ravikumar and others arrived atKozhikode on Saturday, August8 when all the rescue operationswere completed. Since then, theentire team of Chennai hadbeen staying in a five star hotelat Kozhikode. While some offi-cials, after a week of relaxation,returned back to Chennai onFriday, August 14, MadamHemalatha still continues to stayat Kozhikode and enjoy her

relaxed holidays," it said."What was the purpose of a

team from Air India Chennai togo to Kozhikode and enjoy a stayin a five star hotel for about 10days? Was this Chennai team ona picnic? Most importantly, whenthe incident is of an independentsubsidiary, Air India Express,whose CEO, Shyam Sundar wasalready present at Kozhikodealong with his officers, was thepresence of Air India's ED-SRrequired there for so many days?"the union asked.

It noted that Air India Express,being an independent subsidiary,is not accountable to the execu-tive Director, Southern Region,

of Air India. "The claims withregard to the incident of Air IndiaExpress aircraft, we understand,has to be dealt with by thefinance team of Air IndiaExpress, which has its own CFO,"the union said in the letter.

The Union said that they wereall are aware that Kozhikode is anonline functional station with acomplete set of staff from all therespective departments to takecare of the required formalities.

"Therefore, in this Covid sit-uation, it was not at all desirablefor this team from Chennai toremain in Kozhikode for such along period and now the joke isthat after enjoying a picnic of 10

days, some who have returnedback to Chennai are now in quar-antine for 14 days in their resi-dence at Chennai. MadamHemalatha continues to enjoyher stay at 5 star hotel at AirIndia's expense," the union said.

"Who is accountable andresponsible for unwarrantedexpenditures arising out of suchacts of omission and commissionby the senior executives such asHemlata and Ravikumar, bothbeing from Finance Departmentand under the control of Director,Finance, Air India, V. Hejmadi.Most importantly, when thecompany is going through finan-cial turbulence as well as a dis-

investment process, what leader-ship and direction has beenshown by Hejmadi to his subor-dinates," the union said.

It alleged that Hejmadi, whoseterm is coming to an end inOctober, "is desperately trying foran extension, and only shuttlingbetween Delhi and Mumbai andviolating all state regulations ofMaharashtra and Delhi forCovid". "Hejmadi has ensuredthat a large number of hisFinance team remain at Mumbai,so that he can keep on travellingDelh-Mumbai to ensure that heenjoys with his family who arewell settled in Mumbai," theunion has alleged.

Air India employees union seeksprobe into long 'picnic' in Kozhikode

PNS n NEW DELHI

The Ministry of Civil Aviationwill place a proposal for "further"privatisation of airports beforethe Union Cabinet onWednesday, Minister HardeepSingh Puri said. In the firstround of privatisation underthe Narendra Modi dispensation,the airports in Lucknow,Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Mangaluru,Thiruvananthapuram andGuwahati were cleared for oper-ation, management and develop-ment through public-privatepartnership (PPP) model inFebruary 2019. Subsequently,the Airports Authority of India(AAI) had in September 2019recommended the Civil AviationMinistry to privatise airports inAmritsar, Varanasi, Bhuban-eswar, Indore, Raipur and Trichy.

Puri said during a webinar onTuesday, "We are going to the

Cabinet tomorrow for further air-port privatisation. We have gotmany more airports lined up,dozens of them, and the 100 newairports we will build betweennow and 2030." The AAI, whichworks under the Ministry of CivilAviation, owns and managesmore than 100 airports across thecountry. Adani Enterprises hadwon the rights to run six airports— Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Jaipur,Mangaluru, Thiruvanantha-puram, and Guwahati — after acompetitive bidding process inFebruary 2019.

PNS n NEW DELHI

Prime Minister NarendraModi urged citizens onTuesday to take precautionsduring the ongoing monsoonseason, noting that this is thetime when tropical and vector-borne diseases spread.

The government is alsoclosely monitoring the situa-tion and ensuring care to

those affected, he said."This is the season of trop-

ical and vector-borne diseases.I urge you all to take the rightprecautions. The governmentis also closely monitoring thesituation and ensuring care tothose affected. Stay safe, behappy," he tweeted.

He also tagged a DD Newsreport on precautions to pre-vent vector-borne diseases.

People whose political base hasshrunk seek to dominate FB: BJPPNS n NEW DELHI

In a swipe at its critics over theFacebook row, the BJP said onTuesday that people whosepolitical base has "shrunk likeanything" seek to dominate dis-course on these platforms andasserted that everybody regard-less of his ideology has got theright to air his views there.

Senior party leader RaviShankar Prasad said formerCongress president RahulGandhi believes that anyorganisation that does notwork to his liking is actingunder the pressure of the BJPand the RSS.

A bitter war of words haserupted between the Congressand the BJP following a reportin the Wall Street Journalclaiming that Facebookignored applying its hate

speech rules to politicians ofthe ruling party in India.

Gandhi has accused the BJPand RSS of spreading "fakenews" using Facebook andWhatsApp to influence theelectorate, inviting sharp attackfrom the saffron party.

At a BJP press conference,Prasad, who is the Union lawand IT minister, said it is forFacebook to decide what to doas far as the story in the Wall

Street Journal is concerned. He said that hundreds of

pages of BJP supporters werealso removed by Facebook.

"If the platform is public,then every Indian regardless ofhis ideology and commitmenthas got the right to convey hisview. It is a hard fact we needto know that people whosepolitical base has shrunk likeanything seek to dominatediscourse on these platforms,"Prasad said. Hitting out atGandhi over his hate-speechbarbs at the BJP, he said theCongress leader's commentsduring the Delhi assemblypolls that youth will hit PrimeMinister Narendra Modi withsticks in six months if he does-n't address the issue of unem-ployment in the country, wasa "text book case of instigationfor violence".

PNS n NEW DELHI

India is negotiating with 13countries, including Australia,Japan and Singapore, to estab-lish separate bilateral air bub-ble arrangements for interna-tional flight operations, CivilAviation Minister HardeepSingh Puri said on Tuesday.

Under a bilateral air bubblepact, airlines of both the coun-tries can operate internation-al flights with certain restric-tions.

Since July, India has estab-lished such bubbles with thefollowing countries - the US,the UK, France, Germany, theUAE, Qatar and the Maldives.

Puri said on Twitter, "We arenow taking these efforts for-ward & are negotiating with 13more countries to establishsuch arrangements."

"These countries includeAustralia, Italy, Japan, NewZealand, Nigeria, Bahrain,

Israel, Kenya, Philippines,Russia, Singapore, South Korea& Thailand," he added.

Puri said air bubbles have

also been proposed with ourneighbours Sri Lanka,Bangladesh, Afghanistan,Nepal and Bhutan.

Cong writes to Facebook CEO overalleged ‘bias’; Demands probePNS n NEW DELHI

The Congress on Tuesday wroteto Facebook CEO MarkZuckerberg, accusing FacebookIndia of "interfering" with thecountry's electoral democracy,and demanded a time-boundhigh level inquiry into the con-duct of Facebook India leader-ship team, and their operations.

In a letter to Zuckerberg,Congress general secretary KCVenugopal also demanded thatpending the internal investiga-tion and submission of thereport, the company should"consider a new team to leadFacebook India operations so asto not influence the probe".

The Congress and other oppo-sition parties have attacked thesocial media giant after a WallStreet Journal report alleged thatFacebook did not apply its hate

speech rules to some BJP leaders."Set up a high level inquiry by

Facebook headquarters into theFacebook India leadership teamand their operations and submita report to the Board of Facebookwithin one or two months. Thereport should also be made pub-lic," Venugopal said in the letter.

Sharing the letter on his

Twitter handle, former Congresschief Rahul Gandhi saidFacebook needs to be ques-tioned by all Indians.

"We cannot allow any manip-ulation of our hard-earneddemocracy through bias, fakenews and hate speech. Asexposed by WSJ, Facebook'sinvolvement in peddling fake and

hate news needs to be questionedby all Indians," he tweeted.

On Monday, Facebook saidthe company's social media plat-form prohibits hate speech andcontent that incites violence,adding these policies areenforced globally without regardto political affiliation.

DST to launch programmeto scale up start-ups: SecyPNS n NEW DELHI

The Department of Science andTechnology (DST) is working tolaunch a programme that willhelp scale up start-ups in thecountry, a senior official said onTuesday.

Speaking at a webinar —'Millennium Alliance Round 6 &COVID-19 InnovationChallenge Awards' organised bythe FICCI, DST SecretaryAshutosh Sharma said the last sixyears have been exceptional forthe innovation ecosystem. TheDST established more incubatorsin the last six years than in theprevious 60 years, he said.

“Today, we support 150 tech-nology business incubatorsacross the country -- many ofthem in universities, IITs. Thereare around 4,000 start-ups inthese incubators. We want toscale them up,” he said.

Sharma added that in thecoming months, the DST wouldbe launching a new programmeand it will be a highly distributedinnovation system. The DSTplans to scale it up 5 times thecurrent number in the next fiveyears, the secretary said.

“We are working to start a

Programme on Entrepreneur-ship and Start-up,” Sharma said.

The secretary said science,technology and research will playa significant role in the fightagainst COVID-19 globally withinnovators, entrepreneurs, scien-tists and global companies mod-ifying and adapting existingtechnologies as well as develop-ing new ones across variousindustries in response to the pan-demic.

In such times, it is essentialthat India utilise its resources andexpertise to the maximumpotential to be able to tackle thishead on, Sharma stressed. “In thepast six months, we witnesseddynamic Indian innovators andstart-ups rise to the occasion todevelop new technologies/solu-tions across a wide spectrumsuch as diagnostic, prevention,sanitisation, etc. in response tothe pandemic,” he added.

SC judgement on PM CARES Funda ‘body blow to transparency': CongPNS n NEW DELHI

The Congress on Tuesday saidthe Supreme Court's judgementon the PM CARES Fund is a"body blow to transparency andaccountability" of the govern-ment to the people. Congresschief spokesperson RandeepSurjewala said the Apex Court letgo an opportunity to bring intransparency in the fund whichhas "its own opaque and murkyrules" and, thereby, deviatedfrom the belief that "sunlight isthe best disinfectant".

The Supreme Court onTuesday refused to direct theCentre to transfer the contribu-tions made to the PM CARESFund for battling the COVID-19pandemic to the NationalDisaster Response Fund(NDRF). A bench headed byJustice Ashok Bhushan said thatvoluntary contribution can

always be made to the NDRF asthere is no statutory bar underthe Disaster Management Act.

Reacting to the verdict,Surjewala said, "The SC judg-ment is a body blow to trans-parency & accountability ofGovt to people. It marks a sad let-ter day for responsibility &answerability of rulers to the elec-torate and remind them that theyare not 'Monarchs' but 'servantsof the people'."

"SC scrupulously believed that

'sunlight is the best disinfectant'.Today, the Court, in a departurefrom that tradition, passed up anopportunity to demand answerson the #PMCaresFund that seekspublic money but plays by itsown opaque & murky rules," hesaid in another tweet.

NGO Centre for PublicInterest Litigation, in its pleabefore the Supreme Court, hadsought a direction that all themoney collected under the PMCARES Fund for the COVID-19pandemic should be transferredto the NDRF.

In March, the Centre set upthe Prime Minister's CitizenAssistance and Relief inEmergency Situations (PMCARES) Fund with the prima-ry objective to deal with any kindof emergency situation like theone currently posed by theCOVID-19 outbreak and pro-vide relief to those affected.

Beware of tropical andvector-borne diseases: PM

PNS n NEW DELHI

The Election Commission(EC) would come up with"broad" guidelines within threedays for holding elections dur-ing the COVID-19 pandemic.

An EC statement said thematter of issuing broad guide-lines for elections and by-elec-tions during "COVID-19 peri-od" was discussed at the com-mission meeting on Tuesday.

The commission consid-ered the views and suggestionsgiven by the political parties. Italso considered the suggestionsand recommendations madeby chief electoral officers ofstates and union territories.

"After considering all these,the commission directed toframe broad guidelines with-in three days," it said.

The commission also direct-ed that on the basis of these

guidelines, chief electoral offi-cers of election-going statesshould also prepare a compre-hensive plan for state or districtconcerned for COVID-19related measures, taking intoaccount the local conditions,while holding elections.

The term of the Bihar leg-

islative assembly comes to anend on November 29 and pollsare likely to he held sometimein October-November.

Several bypolls were recent-ly postponed mainly due tocoronavirus and rains. Nofresh schedule has beenannounced as yet.

Mayawatiattacks UP govtover law andorder issuePNS n LUCKNOW

Bahujan Samaj Party supremoMayawati on Tuesday slammedthe state government over thelaw and order situation, sayingthe public does not see any dif-ference in the style of workingof the BJP government and theSP government in the past.

She also termed the crimecommitted on different sec-tions of the society especiallythe Dalits as "shameful".

In a series of tweets inHindi, Mayawati said,"Murders, rapes and harass-ment of different sections ofthe society especially Dalitshave proved to be shamefulfor humanity. The conditionof law and order in the stateis very poor. The governmentmust pay attention."

EC to frame guidelines forpolls within three days

Proposal on ‘further airportprivatisation' reaches Cabinet

"What was the purpose of a team from Air

India Chennai to go to Kozhikode and enjoy a

stay in a five star hotel for about 10 days?

Was this Chennai team on a picnic? Most

importantly, when the incident is of an

independent subsidiary, Air India Express,

whose CEO, Shyam Sundar was already

present at Kozhikode along with his officers,

was the presence of Air India's ED-SR required

there for so many days?" the union asked

India negotiating with 13 countriesfor bilateral air bubble: Puri

"We cannot allow anymanipulation of ourhard-earneddemocracy throughbias, fake news andhate speech. Asexposed by WSJ,Facebook's involve-ment in peddling fakeand hate news needsto be questioned by allIndians," he tweeted "These countries include Australia,

Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Nigeria,Bahrain, Israel, Kenya, Philippines,Russia, Singapore, South Korea &Thailand," he added

Sharma added that in the coming months,the DST would be launching a newprogramme and it will be a highly distributedinnovation system. The DST plans to scale itup 5 times the current number in the nextfive years, the secretary said

Alongside convertingthe Hagia Sophiamuseum in Istanbulinto a mosque,Turkish President

Recep Tayyip Erdogan has vowedto “liberate” the Al-Aqsa mosqueon Jerusalem’s Temple Mount.His appeal has not only been con-demned by an umbrella group of53 major Jewish organisationsbut has also triggered convulsivereactions inside Israel. Cases ofradical Jews storming into themosque to offer Talmudic prayershave increased since then. Theyare guarded by the Israeli policeto prevent any conflict. Suchunauthorised raids are, at best, alaw and order problem that couldbe sorted out. There is currentlyno bar on the Jews visiting the Al-Aqsa mosque but they are not per-mitted to pray in its premises.

There was a time between the13th and 18th centuries in theaftermath of the Crusades whenno non-Muslim was permittedinside the entire Temple Mountcomplex at whose edge the Al-Aqsa mosque stands. However,norms seem to have been relaxedduring the 19th century. A num-ber of Jews visited the TempleMount since then. These Jews,mostly from the West, were eitherinquisitive or seized withZionistic fervour. They wereeither ignorant of the protocol orcould not care less. Their actionalways scandalised the tradition-al Jews in Palestine, whometaphorically lived in the shad-ow of the Temple Mount.

Traditionalists believe thatthe Temple Mount is so sacredthat it can’t be defiled by one’s bod-ily presence. Since the cleansingritual — required for all Jewish pil-grims in antiquity — has been per-manently lost since the destruc-tion of the Second Temple in 70AD, a Jew visiting the TempleMount would risk succumbing tothe divine wrath. Though there isno statistics concerning the num-ber of Jews who actually lost orwrecked their lives to visit theTemple Mount, it is futile to argueagainst an entrenched belief.However, all Jews are encouragedto visit the Wailing Wall (Kosel)nearby to chant their prayers.The wall, which stands at theWestern periphery of the TempleMount, is a remnant of thedestroyed Second Temple.

Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa, literallymeaning the farthest mosque, is

considered the third holiest onein Islam after the Great Mosquein Mecca and Al HaramMosque in Medina. Themosque (estd 715 AD) is dulyadministered by the JerusalemIslamic Waqf, which is placedunder the control of Jordan’sMinistry of Awfaq, IslamicAffairs and Holy Placesthrough the Peace Treatysigned between Israel andJordan on October 26, 1994, inWashington DC. The mosquehas never been under adversepossession except when theCrusaders controlled Jerusalembetween 1099 and 1187 AD. In1187 AD, Salah ad-Din Yusufibn Ayyub, better known asSaladin the Great, expelled theCrusaders from Jerusalem.

More than seven centurieswere to lapse before anyChristian Army could retakethe Holy City. British FieldMarshal Edmund Allenby(1861-1936) capturedJerusalem from the Ottomansduring World War I. Allenbyentered Jerusalem on footthrough the Jaffa Gate onDecember 11, 1917, at thehead of the EgyptianExpeditionary Force, a BritishEmpire military formation.This victory— seen in conjunc-tion with the BalfourDeclaration announced by thethen British Government amonth earlier — prepared theway for the establishment of themodern state of Israel in 1948.

There exists no Jewish tem-

ple on Temple Mount. The Jewsnever had one since thedestruction of their SecondTemple by the Romans in 70AD. That act signalled the ces-sation of the ancient State ofIsrael. It triggered the disper-sion of the Jews to variousnations, most notably inEurope and Middle East, butless importantly to India andChina, too. Since then, syna-gogues or the assemblies ofcongregational worship havebecome the central institutionin Judaism; though they mighthave been of far remoter origin.

The Temple Mount, how-ever, evokes distinct emotion inevery Jewish heart. It is themost recognisable site pertain-ing to the foundation of theancient State of Israel. Thefirst temple of the Jews wasplanned on that height byBiblical king David. It goes tothe credit of David, whomoulded Israel into one nationout of a conglomerate of clansand tribes. He wrestedJerusalem from the Canaanitesto make it the capital of Israel.He wanted the sacred “Ark ofCovenant” to be enshrined inthe magnificent temple.However, the temple couldfinally be established bySolomon, his son and succes-sor. The Solomon’s temple,open to people of all nations,lasted until four centuriesbefore being destroyed by theBabylonians in 586 BC.

The invader viz, King

Nebuchadnezzar, carried offthe Jews to Babylon. The Jewscould only return to Israel inthe later part of the centuryafter the liberal Persian kingCyrus triumphed in 538 BC.Thereafter, the Jews built animposing Second Temple at thesite. It lasted up to 70 AD, whenit was destroyed by the Romansto quell a Jewish national insur-rection against Rome’s hegemo-ny.

Temple Mount is nowhome to a Muslim shrine viz,Dome of the Rock (built Circa690 AD), and a mosque viz, Al-Masjid Al-Aqsa (built Circa 710AD). Both of them are prod-ucts of the Arab epoch.Jerusalem under the Arabs(638-1072 AD) emerged as theQuds-al-Sharif (or Al Qud), thecentre of Islamic sanctity.

The Temple Mount is geo-graphically located in EastJerusalem, which Israel wrest-ed from Jordan during theSix-Day War in June 1967. Fora brief while, the Israeli flag washoisted over Temple Mount.Then it was quickly broughtdown under the orders ofMoshe Dayan, the thenDefence Minister and hero ofthe war. Then, in an astonish-ing act of concession, the sov-ereignty of Temple Mount wasconceded back to the Wakf that maintained the two Islamicsites.

Dayan feared anything lesswould have turned the Arab-Israel conflict into a full scale

jihad against the Jewish State.The Jews were happy to resumepraying at the Wailing Wall,prohibited during theJordanian occupation of EastJerusalem (1948-67), but had toforego sovereignty over TempleMount. Though it had greatlyhurt the Jewish sentiments,Israel has continued with the1967 decision. However,depending upon the securitysituation in East Jerusalem,admission to the Al-Aqsamosque is sometimes regulat-ed. Such temporary provisionsare internal matters, whichErdogan is ill-advised to com-ment upon. He himself wasallowed to visit Al-Aqsa inJuly 2015.

Thus from who doesErdogan propose to “liberate”Al-Aqsa mosque when its sov-ereignty is already with Jordan?Or is the “liberation” actually acall to resume Turkish rule overJerusalem? It is evident fromsome of his statements orapprobation of slogans by hisparty members in the recentyears. Is that only Jerusalem onhis wishlist, or his visionapproximates to Gamal Abdel’sNasser’s agenda of “wiping outIsrael from the face of theglobe?” History is testimony towho prevailed in all the Arab-Israeli Wars.

(The writer is an authorand independent researcherbased in New Delhi. The viewsexpressed herein are his personal)

It is official. The Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) andthe National Entrance Eligibility Test (NEET) exams willbe held on schedule in September. This finality came

after the Supreme Court dismissed a petition by 11 stu-dents from 11 States to postpone them on the plea thatthey could pose a health risk in the middle of a pandem-ic. A Bench, headed by Justice Arun Mishra, said thatstudents’ careers could not be jeopardised on mere threatperception and that life should go on. In the same breath,it advised the National Testing Agency (NTA) to “moveahead with all safeguards.” It further argued that “COVIDmay continue for a year more. Are you going to wait

another year? Do you know what is the loss to the country and peril to the students?”Though it is a good thing that the wheel of life is moving ahead, there are tough challenges.Most of the parents are facing financial distress in a sinking economy and would find bear-ing the costs of transportation, accommodation and the medical treatment of their wardsappearing for the exam a burden. Besides, what about the plight of lakhs of students belong-ing to the flood-affected States of Bihar, Assam and the North-east who would find it impos-sible to appear for the tests? Until now, the NTA had given the opportunity to all studentsto change their exam centres or cities to the ones most convenient to them in view of theCOVID situation. But given the scale of the outbreak, shouldn’t the NTA take a page out ofthe UP Government’s book — which recently successfully conducted JEE tests for B.Edin the State — and ensure that there is an examination centre in every district of the coun-try? This is so that the students, particularly women and divyangs, don’t have to traveltoo far from home, thus reducing their travel time, the danger of exposure to the virus andthe burden of accommodation on their families.

However, despite these misgivings, one cannot ignore the fact that the JEE NEET examsare important and postponing them further would have compounded the stress levels ofstudents, who have been preparing for them since Class X. Not holding the exams wouldhave meant the loss of an academic year. Under the University Grants Commission’s (UGC)revised guidelines, it’s mandatory for all universities to complete the final year examina-tions by the end of September 2020. Now that this matter has been set to rest by the apexcourt, the focus should shift to preparations of a safety net by everyone involved.

Many may argue that public interest litigations(PILs), intended to ensure rights for the under-privileged and the disadvantaged, have been mis-

used in recent times to push a certain narrative. Manymay argue that activists themselves have forgotten towalk the thin line between the cause they represent andthe advocacy by lobbies. Yet when the Supreme Courtconvicted activist-advocate Prashant Bhushan for twoof his tweets, which it claimed were “false and malicious”but which the latter claimed were intended to uphold thefundamental rights of a citizen, it seemed disproportion-ately weighing against him. And now over 3,000 citi-

zens — including lawyers, advocates and 12 former judges — have signed a statement,extending solidarity to Bhushan, arguing that his tweets were “a bona fide expression ofconcern regarding the functioning of the top court” and that criticism coming from a seniormember of the Bar “must be considered by the judiciary as an opportunity to introspectand strengthen the institution.” So the top court has taken a corrective move. It has saidcontempt of court proceedings initiated in 2009 against Bhushan, for his charge that halfof the 16 former CJIs were corrupt, had raised an important question on the proceduralvacuum for making a complaint against a sitting judge. In fact, it wondered if there shouldbe a code for members of the Bar (advocates) to make a complaint against a sitting judgebefore going public with their allegations, something which is prone to be sensationalisedand could affect the image of the judiciary. The Bench even referred to the Supreme Court’s1995 judgment in the C Ravichandran Iyer case, where it had laid down that if membersof the Bar had any material about “misconduct” of a judge, they should take their case tothe Chief Justice of the High Court or the Supreme Court for redressal.

The apex court’s decision to study and evolve a self-check and cleansing mechanismwill hopefully lead to a process that’s transparent and suitably addresses concerns thatcloud the independence of the judiciary. It also indicates its willingness to address largerconcerns raised by Bhushan, while reserving the right to rein him in on his methods ofdoing so. And hopefully, this is aimed at deflecting all kinds of criticism about its function-ing and upholding democracy as a key pillar. It owes such debate and discussion to itself,first. There is no denying that the Supreme Court has been entrusted by the Constitutionto protect a citizen’s rights, conduct itself impartially and keep the legislature and the exec-utive in check. Setting aside Bhushan’s case, there have been many concerns about theerosion of the institutional powers in general, and that of the judiciary in particular, in thecurrent dispensation. There’s no doubt that the heaving presence of the executive has dimmedthe majesty of the courts to act without fear and favour. In fact, the court should have dis-missed the petition against Bhushan much before as it had violated established practiceand been filed without the permission of the Attorney General of India. Besides, the courtdid not answer all the questions implied in Bhushan’s observation in the tweet that CJIBobde was riding a Harley Davidson belonging to a member of a political party when thecourt was in lockdown. The court rightly argued the photograph was taken on a week-end and that virtual hearings in key cases were on during the lockdown. So to suggestthat the court was non-functional amounted to “scandalising” its role and intent. But that’sa point of technicality. Besides, the court had many other representations from other peti-tioners on delay in hearing urgent cases, not just Bhushan’s. Can any citizen deny that thepicture, which was floating about in the media, raised uncomfortable questions about theprivate life of a public person? The worrisome part of the Bhushan judgment is that it prodsmore questions than answers. To what extent can criticism be freedom of speech and anassault on an institution? Can opinions be considered the result of free-thinking or moti-vated diabolicalness if they are negative about the establishment? What then would be thedefinition of free speech? Is the criticism of the Supreme Court illegal, considering four ofits judges held a press conference in January 2018, warning how the judiciary was fac-ing threats to its independence and criticising the then CJI? This judgment isn’t about curb-ing Bhushan’s adventurism. It has longer-term implications and could be interpreted asforbidding anybody from commenting on the judiciary, even if it is based on logic, evi-dence and justification. Even if it is done for the protection of citizens. For it can be dis-missed as an individual’s rootless claim intended to tar an institution. Who would thenassess judicial misconduct? Then there’s the issue of timing of the Bhushan verdict, inad-vertently making him look more like a victim simply because his hearings have been fast-tracked over sensitive matters related to civil rights in Kashmir and the petitions related tothe Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). In the end, the Supreme Court is the country’smost honourable institution, upholder of Constitutional morality and a protector of the cit-izen’s rights. And if it is indeed under attack, then its judges should set an example as towhy one should never attempt to defile it. If not, then they need to restore faith in its infal-libility in a manner that there is no room for doubt. Ever. Trust is earned when an institu-tion self-corrects and subjects itself to scrutiny.

SC’s trust move

Harris vs Trump

Sir — It is understandable whythe selection of Kamala Harrisas the Democratic Party’s vice-presidential candidate is beingconsidered a victory by Indian-American and African-American voters alike. Harris ison a history-making ticket,standing in opposition to aPresident who has deeplyoffended the minority com-munities. Unsurprisingly,Donald Trump has reactedadversely to the selection bycalling Harris “nasty”, “mean”,and “horrible.” The Senator, onthe other hand, criticisedTrump on his management ofthe COVID-19 pandemic.

There is no doubt thatHarris is a strategically smartchoice for the Democratic Party.Having run for both the Senateand the presidency, she hasalready been subjected tonational scrutiny. UnlikeTrump, who has consistentlydownplayed the importance ofclimate change, she has takenon the oil industry as theAttorney General of Californiaand campaigned for a Greennew Deal. Harris has prioritised

climate change. Her progressivepolitics will provide her with amuch-needed boost in theforthcoming elections.

Bidyut Kumar ChatterjeeFaridabad

Dhoni’s worth

Sir — This refers to the edito-rial, “Thanks for the memories”(August 18). No other cricketer

in sporting history can boast ofthree ICC trophies and topglobal Test rankings. Such wasthe aura of MS Dhoni’s achieve-ments that made him a greatcaptain. He could have extend-

ed his shorter-format interna-tional career had it not been forCOVID-19. Dhoni’s journeyfrom a small-town boy to oneof the most astute team leadersthe world has seen is nothingshort of a fairytale. Even thoughhe has retired from internation-al cricket, his brand will contin-ue to have a strong recall value.Since calmness and reliabilitydefine Dhoni, all those brandswhich associate with him andthese values will still bear fruit.

Bal GovindNoida

Ace cricketer

Sir — Chetan Chauhan was oneof our prolific opening batsmen.He will be remembered for hissuccessful opening partnershipwith the legendary SunilGavaskar in the 1970s. Over thecourse of his career, which last-ed 12 years, he representedIndia in 40 Test matches. Thisreveals he played for the teamand not for self.

Yugal Kishore SharmaFaridabad

P A P E R W I T H P A S S I O N

www.dailypioneer.comfacebook.com/dailypioneer | @TheDailyPioneer | instagram.com/dailypioneer/

op nionVIJAYAWADA | WEDNESDAY | AUGUST 19, 2020

06

Eye on Jerusalem?

PRIYADARSHI DUTTA

Al-Aqsa mosque is not under any adverse possession. Therefore, Erdogan’s call to liberate it

might mean recapturing Jerusalem, a century after Ottomans lost control of the city

Downfall, depression and set-backs are a norm in this indus-try. It happens to every actorthough the degree might bedifferent. One has to learn tomove on.

Actor—Karishma Tanna

For the China-India relationship, the two sides should jointly safe-guard peace and security in theborder areas and maintain a steady and sound development of bilateral ties.

Chinese spokesperson—Zhao Lijian

S O U N D B I T E

L E T T E R S T O TT H E E D I T O R

A win-win for India in the Middle East

This refers to the editorial, “Change in theMiddle-East” (August 17). The UAE-Israel dealaugurs well for the Middle East as other Persian

Gulf States like Saudi Arabia, Oman and Bahrain arealso likely to pitch in for peace. The UAE is the thirdArab country to have made peace with Israel afterEgypt did it in 1979 and Jordan in 1994. A brief his-tory of the Middle East turmoil shall give us a per-spective about the significance of this agreement. Eversince Israel’s birth on May 14, 1948, the Middle Easthas been on the boil as Arab nations rose as oneagainst the UN-sanctioned Jewish homeland carvedout of Palestine. This was taken as Palestinians’ sub-jugation and an affront to their collective pride. Within24 hours of its birth, Israel was attacked from all sidesby its five neighbours, namely Egypt, Jordan, Syria,Lebanon and Iraq. The war inflicted more wounds onArabian pride as Israel annexed the Palestinian ter-ritory, causing their exodus to West Bank and Gazastrip, then controlled by Jordan and Egypt respec-tively. Bloodbath in the Middle East continued withintermittent wars ignited either by Israel or the Arabs.Palestinian uprisings against Israel, morally and ide-ologically supported by the Hezbollah, Hamas andMuslim Brotherhood, also kept the region on tenter-

hooks. The current deal, which will pave the way forthe establishment of full diplomatic relations betweenthe UAE and Israel, is preceded by recent geopoliti-cal re-alignments and dwindling fortunes of oil as astrategic Arabian asset.

Since India enjoys considerable clout with bothJerusalem and Abu Dhabi, the deal will help us havegreater say in the security and stability in the Gulf.Pakistan runs the risk of further global isolation.Though the deal is a leg-up for peace, yet Palestiniansget a thumb-down and the “Incredible Hulk” Israelshall further pound them into submission.

SK PrabhakarGurugram

Send yyour ffeedback tto:letterstopioneer@gmail.com

JEE, NEET on time There was so much more to Dhoni than the long hair and thepower but back then who would have thought that he would end up making such a tremendousimpact on cricket?

Indian cricketer—Sanjay Manjrekar

Top court to study code for the Bar to make a complaint against asitting judge before going public with allegations

Court gives breather on tests but lays down strict code ofsafeguards for students and exam venues

Time to forge ahead in J&K

THIS MANUFACTURED OUTRAGE SHOULD BE SEEN AS

THE LEFT’S INTERNECINE WARFARE TO CONTROL AN

ALREADY-CONGRESS AND LEFT-LEANING PLATFORM.

—BJP MP

RAJYAVARDHAN SINGH RATHORE

FACEBOOK IN INDIA HAS ALWAYS BEEN LENIENT ON BJP.

THEY DON’T TAKE ANY ACTION ON PROXY COMMUNAL

PAGES RUN BY THE BJP. BECAUSE FB-BJP BHAI-BHAI.

—YOUTH CONGRESS NATIONAL CAMPAIGN IN-CHARGE

SRIVATSA

POINTCOUNTERPOINT

When it comes to the question of the erst-while State of Jammu and Kashmir(J&K), it is time to lay some myths to

rest that not only continue to haunt all discoursebut are major stumbling blocks to a peaceful res-olution of the issue. The first, of course, is regard-ing its status as a disputed territory and the issueof Pakistan being co-opted as a party to the dis-pute. Few may recall that the IndianIndependence Act of 1947, passed by the BritishParliament, not only brought into being the twodominions of India and Pakistan, but also abro-gated all treaties signed between Britain and the562 princely States that were not formallyincorporated into British India.

This implied that those States were no longervassals of the British, and in theory at least,reclaimed their sovereign status and expected tobe treated as independent nations. Obviously,realpolitik got in the way and these States eithervolunteered or were coerced into joining eitherone of the dominions. Among these States, a few,that included Balochistan, made up of the fourprincely States of Kalat, Kharan, Las Bela andMakran, and J&K, wished to retain their statusas independent States and to this end proposedthe signing of “Standstill Agreements” with theirlarger neighbours. This, in effect, would recog-nise the right of these States to continue as inde-pendent entities, much in the way they had underthe British.

It is now a matter of record that Pakistanaccepted these proposals and signed StandstillAgreements with the rulers of both these prin-cipalities. That it then went on to renege on itsword, going on to surreptitiously invade them,thus setting the gold standard for untrustwor-thy behaviour that prevails to this day, is alsowell-known.

The Government of India, on the other hand,was not enamoured of the proposal it receivedfrom the Maharaja of J&K. And, while not out-rightly rejecting the proposal, it requested fur-ther discussions which never materialised.Instead, Pakistan’s illegitimate actions changedthe prevailing ground situation and forced theMaharaja to seek assistance from India againstits invasion and depredations. This was provid-ed after he agreed to join the Indian Unionunconditionally, by signing the “Instrument ofAccession” on October 26, 1947.

This little snippet of history is relevantbecause it makes clear that by signing theStandstill Agreement, Pakistan acceptedMaharaja Hari Singh as the legitimate ruler ofan independent and sovereign J&K. This impliedthat the Maharaja’s subsequent decision to signthe Instrument of Accession and join the IndianUnion was perfectly legal as well and could notbe questioned. Furthermore, Pakistan’s treach-erous invasion and occupation of Kashmiri ter-ritory, much of which it continues to hold evento this day, was violative of the United Nations(UN) Charter and thus wholly illegal.

That it continues to hold on to occupied ter-ritories and considers itself a party to the dis-pute can be attributed to the myopic handlingof the issue by India’s first Prime MinisterJawaharlal Nehru and his misplaced belief in theability of the UN to set things right. However,in the long run, it is perfectly clear that Pakistanfinds itself facing an existential crisis of enormousproportions because of its intractable hostility

towards India over J&K. The endresult, eroding internal cohesion and animploding economy.

Another myth that needs to beexposed is the oft-proclaimed wishamong some, especially within the lib-eral set, for a return to the heady daysof “Kashmiriyat”, the centuries-oldindigenous secularism that prevailedwithin Kashmir before the troublesbegan. Not only do they seem to haveoverly-romanticised the concept ofKashmiriyat but they seem to have mis-read the hard realities that generationalchanges imply. The truth is that thoseborn after 1990 in the Kashmir Valley,now in their 30s, have probably neverseen, let alone interacted, with aKashmiri Pandit. They have little ideaof what secularism truly means orimplies, since all they have ever wit-nessed at first hand is the manner inwhich local Governments have consis-tently treated minority communitieswith extreme prejudice, given the coldreality of majoritarian politics.

Let us be clear, there were no inno-cents among those who inhabitedmainstream political parties and theyare wholly undeserving of our sympa-thy for the ill-treatment meted out tothem now. It is indeed ironic that leg-islation used to keep them confinedwere pushed through by these veryleaders to keep the opposition in line.Surely what is sauce for the goose is alsosauce for the gander!

It is undeniable that the constitu-tional changes that were brought aboutlast August were unavoidable if thecycle of violence that has existed sincethe 1990s was to be broken. There havebeen numerous periods during whichthe Army has ensured that militancywas at levels that permitted local gov-ernance to be effective. Yet politicalleaders refused to take advantage of theenvironment to introduce substantive

measures that would allow for recon-ciliation and resolution of all outstand-ing issues.

Anger and frustration followedand we were back to high levels of vio-lence. However, it also needs to benoted that violence has never spiked tolevels that existed in the mid-90s. At thepresent time for example, police reportssuggest that not more than 200 mili-tants are active within the Valley, com-pared to the 3,000-4,000 that were nor-mally active at any one time in the earlyand mid-90s.

It, therefore, is completely inexplic-able as to why the Central Governmenthas given in to its worst fears and, forall practical purposes, laid siege to theValley, especially after initiating land-mark political measures. Its emphasisto err on the side of caution has beenfurther exacerbated by the adverseimpact of the pandemic, especially oneconomic development within theregion.

Clearly, the next urgent step shouldhave been the revocation of the ArmedForces Special Powers Act, (AFSPA)except along the Line of Control (LoC),and shifting of the majority of theRashtriya Rifles and Army unitsdeployed for counter-insurgency oper-ations into the counter-infiltrationrole. Such a move would have freed upadditional forces that could then havebeen deployed for dealing with theongoing Chinese imbroglio.

There are those who believe thatany attempt at thinning out the Armyfrom the hinterland will create a vac-uum that is likely to be filled by mili-tants, as happened nearly a decade agowhen such a course was attempted.They may well be correct and in allprobability, militants will attempt to dojust that. But given their existing state,they can easily be dealt with by the localpolice assisted by the Central Armed

Police Forces (CAPF). The military’suse in sealing off the LoC wouldensure that infiltration attempts fromPakistan would be neutralised to a verygreat extent. Some may recall we fol-lowed this methodology very success-fully in Punjab at the height of insur-gency there. In any case, these troopswould not be out of the Valley and ifthe situation so demanded, howeverunlikely that seems, they can always beredeployed at short notice.

The Government must not losesight of the tremendous gains such acourse of action would have within theValley, as well as among the internation-al community, where our clampdownon the local population is beingfrowned upon. It is bound to reinvig-orate the local community, give aboost to tourism and put pressure onmilitants to surrender. The ultimateprize of statehood would then seemachievable.

Understandably, some within thesecurity establishment will be extreme-ly unhappy if such a course is adopt-ed, as any change in the status quo willgreatly increase attention on the func-tioning of the police and the CAPF andmake them more accountable.Undoubtedly sections within the Army,too, will be unhappy as it will dimin-ish their importance, apart from mak-ing a fairly large section redundant.

Prime Minister Narendra Modiwould do well to disregard the naysay-ers and go the whole hog in J&K. Thisis no time for incremental moves or forbeing held captive by our own fears, aswe seem to be in Ladakh. There, canreally be nothing more pathetic thanletting the tail wag the dog.

(The writer, a military veteran isconsultant with the Observer ResearchFoundation and a Senior Visiting Fellowwith The Peninsula Foundation,Chennai)

It is completely inexplicable as to why the Centre has given in to its worst fears and almost laid siege tothe Valley, especially after initiating landmark political measures

analysis 07F I R S T C O L U M N

KALYANI SHANKAR

CLEARLY, THE NEXT URGENT STEPSHOULD HAVE

BEEN THEREVOCATION

OF THE ARMEDFORCES SPECIAL

POWERS ACT,EXCEPT ALONG THE

LINE OF CONTROLAND SHIFTING OF

THE MAJORITY OF THE

RASHTRIYA RIFLESAND ARMY

UNITS DEPLOYED FOR

COUNTER-INSURGENCYOPERATIONS

INTO THE COUNTER-

INFILTRATION ROLE.SUCH A MOVE

WOULD HAVE FREEDUP ADDITIONAL

FORCES THATCOULD THEN

HAVE BEENDEPLOYED FOR

DEALING WITH THE ONGOING CHINESE

IMBROGLIO

The Democratic US presidential nominee, Joe Biden, tweetedrecently, “I have the great honour to announce that I’ve pickedKamala Harris — a fearless fighter for the little guy, and one

of the country’s finest public servants — as my running mate,”It was indeed a historic moment for both Kamala and the US.

The Los Angeles Times describes Kamala as: “Historic break-throughs have been a constant in Harris’ 17 years in politics. Shewas the first Black woman to hold every office she has won —San Francisco District Attorney and State Attorney General.”

In fact, she was also the first Black senator from California.If elected, it will be another coup for her to become the first womanand first Black Vice- President. Just two women, Democrat GeraldineFerraro (1984) and Republican Sarah Palin (2004) were nominat-ed as running mates earlier but both lost.

Interestingly, Biden also has an Indian connection. He revealedit during his 2013 visit to Mumbai. “It turns out,” Biden said, “mygreat, great, great, great, great grandfather,” by the name of GeorgeBiden, was a Captain in the East India Trading Company. After retire-ment, George Biden decided to settle down in India and marriedan Indian woman.” Five Bidens are now living in Mumbai.

Kamala’s story is the fascinating story of a changing, inclu-sive American democracy. She was the child of two immigrants— an Indian scholar and a Jamaican academic. Her motherShyamala brought up her two daughters as a single parent livingin a Black neighbourhood. Though the Indian-Americans are thrilledwith her nomination, speaking to The Washington Post last year,Kamala simply defined herself as American and she generally didnot struggle with issues surrounding her identity. Interestingly, otherfamous Indian-origin Americans like former Louisiana GovernorBobby Jindal and Trump’s UN envoy Nikki Haley did not make muchof their Indian origin either. Kamala, too, has highlighted more ofher Black heritage. “Harris grew up embracing her Indian culture,but living a proudly African-American life,” The Washington Postdescribed her last year. Though Kamala talks of her motherShyamala’s influence and claims, “My mother was very proud ofher Indian heritage and taught us, me and my sister Maya, to sharein the pride about our culture,” she rarely talks about her Jamaicanfather Donald Harris, a Professor Emeritus in Stanford University.

It is understandable why she is focussing more on her Africanheritage as Asian-Americans only account for five per cent of theelectorate, compared to 13 per cent Black voters. In the US, theracial division is on Black and White politics. Asian-Americans haveonly recently emerged in the last two decades and grown by 139per cent, making it the fastest-growing demographic of voters, ascompared to the White electorate which grew by seven per centin the same period. It would be foolish to expect that Kamala willreciprocate India’s enthusiasm, though she would like to woo theinfluential Indian-American voters. Her first preference would beto satisfy the domestic constituency and there it is White versusBlack.

As a Senator, she, like many other Democrats, was critical ofthe Kashmir issue. “We have to remind the Kashmiris that theyare not alone in the world,” she said. Kamala ticked off Indian ExternalAffairs Minister S Jaishankar last December, who had cancelledan interaction with the House Affairs Committee, after membersrefused to exclude Jayapal, a critic of India’s policies on Kashmir,from the meeting.

While the Indian Government may expect a Biden-Harris admin-istration to be stricter on human rights issues, they are also like-ly to take a more liberal stance on immigration, China and borderissues as declared by Biden last week. With the Indo-US ties reach-ing a high level of bipartisan support in the Congress, India is like-ly to get support on key issues.

With Kamala by his side, Biden had declared recently that ifelected, his administration would stand with India in confrontingthe border threats. He also called for strengthening the “bond”between the two countries and that he would work on big globalchallenges like climate change and global health security. He vowedto reform the H-1B visa system and assured continued partner-ship between India and Delhi. He referred to his support to Indiaafter the Pokhran blast in 1998 and the Indo-US Nuclear Bill in 2008.In her statement standing by Biden’s side, Kamala talked of MahatmaGandhi and pluralism and referred to her Chennai connection. Allthese give some hope to New Delhi.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has already shown his slant toTrump and the US President claims Modi as his “good friend.” NewDelhi will have a supporter in the White House whoever occupiesit. With Biden declaring that he will be a one-term President, thedoors are open for Kamala to become the Democratic nomineefor the presidential polls in 2024. Who knows what happens then?

(The writer is a senior journalist)

Although many picture youngIndian men smoking in socialsettings to be the quintessential

image of tobacco use in India, datasuggest differently.

According to data, smokelesstobacco — which consists of tobaccoproducts that do not have to beburnt or smoked in order to be con-sumed — is a significant part of thatpicture. India is the greatest consumerof smokeless tobacco products in theworld and by extension at the receiv-ing end of its resulting harm. Over afifth of all Indian adults — nearly 200million individuals — report usingsmokeless tobacco. They representover two-thirds of all smokeless tobac-co users globally.

The prevalence of smokelesstobacco use in India is 25.2 per centfor men and 24.5 per cent for womenaged 35 years and older. The numberof deaths attributable to smokelesstobacco use in India is estimated tobe 3,68,127 (2,17,076 women and1,51,051 men), with nearly three-fifth(60 per cent) of these deaths occurringamong women. In fact, the countryaccounts for over three-fourths of theentire global burden of diseases andsuffers over 3,50,000 deaths each yearas a result of smokeless tobacco use.Chief among this burden of diseasesis oral cancer, with India having amajority of all cases in the world.

An even more insidious part ofthe picture is smokeless tobacco useamong women in India. According tothe most recent iteration of the GlobalAdult Tobacco Survey, nearly 60 mil-lion women — more than the entirepopulation of England — reportusing smokeless tobacco in India. Suchuse among women in the countrydovetails along predictable socio-demographic lines, with a higher rateof use in rural areas, among older

adults and those with lower levels offormal education.

To make matters worse, the harmcaused by smokeless tobacco useamong women is often inter-genera-tional. As authors of a recent studynoted, smokeless tobacco use is strik-ingly high among expectant and nurs-ing mothers and this has been asso-ciated with a number of negativehealth effects for both the mother andthe baby. Maternal use of smokelesstobacco has been linked to lower birthweight, higher incidence of still births,higher rates of anaemia and lowernutritional outcomes for both themother and the child.

Despite the obvious need toreduce these dangers, the risks ofsmokeless tobacco use are often com-pounded by poor health literacy, lim-ited access to cessation services and adearth — if not outright absence —of cessation initiatives, products andtherapies that are culturally-sensitiveand tailored to women. This may part-ly explain why the few Indian women,who are able to kick the habit, reportdoing so with no assistance whatso-

ever. As public health experts seek tochange this reality, four pressing areasfor research into the intersection oftobacco use and women in India comeinto sharp relief: First, a greater under-standing of the epidemiology — theproverbial who, what, when, where,and why — of smokeless tobacco useamong women. Despite their wide-spread use, which products are usedby which women and why are poor-ly understood. The need for a morenuanced understanding of the epi-demiological contours of smokelesstobacco use among women is thusparamount.

Second, a detailed understandingof the toxicology of smokeless tobac-co products is needed as India is hometo a plethora of these products. Inaddition to understanding which onesare used by which women and why,greater insight into what ingredientsare present in each product and theirpotential to cause various diseasesmust be pursued.

Third, a more thorough under-standing of the barriers that womenface to tobacco use cessation is impor-

tant. To date, our collective under-standing of these barriers and how toovercome them is predicated on theexperience of men. Analogous insightsinto the experience of women who usetobacco must be gained and in turn,deployed to develop culturally-sensi-tive, women-focussed tools, therapies,and technologies for cessation.

Fourth, a deeper understanding ofthe ability of healthcare providers toprovide tobacco cessation counselling— especially for women — is needed.Many healthcare providers in Indiareport feeling inadequately trained todeliver existing and potential tools,therapies and technologies to thosewho use tobacco. Even more striking-ly, a substantial number of healthcareproviders in India report using tobac-co themselves. Research into why thisis so and how to facilitate change, forboth providers and patients alike, willbe critical.

Given the scale, scope and result-ing dangers of smokeless tobacco useamong people in India, particularlywomen, research into these areas isneeded now more than ever. It is

important to recognise, however, thatacknowledging the problem will notsolve it. Robust research into the areasabove will not coalesce spontaneous-ly and even if it did, the synergiesbetween them would likely go unre-alised.

As a result, it will be criticallyimportant to build and support a lit-eral and figurative community ofexperts to study tobacco use in India,exchange ideas and work together toidentify solutions.

Their collective ideas and experi-ences will serve as the tip of a spearinto a much larger body of work and,in turn will change the image of tobac-co use in India for the better. If suc-cessful, the picture of tobacco use inidea will no longer contain youngIndian men smoking in a social set-ting or a young mother using asmokeless product. Instead it will bereplaced by healthier, longer-livingIndian men and women in places andspaces free of smoke.

(The writer is research manager atthe Foundation for a Smoke-FreeWorld , USA)

Lift the veil on tobacco use by womenSmokeless tobacco use is very high among expectant mothers and this has been associated with negative health effects on their babies

ROMITA SHAH

VIJAYAWADA | WEDNESDAY | AUGUST 19, 2020

www.dailypioneer.com

DEEPAK SINHA

The Indianconnection

Whether Trump wins or Biden, New Delhiwill have a supporter in the White House,

no matter who occupies it

F O R E I G N E Y E

BELARUS WANTSTO BREAK FREE

The authority of PresidentAlexander Lukashenko isdraining away. Belarusiancivil society must be allowedto control the future courseof events. A nation energisedby speaking truth to poweris asserting itself. The brutalviolence unleashed onprotesters in the days afterthe election was answered atthe weekend by columns ofwomen wearing the red andwhite colours of theOpposition movement. Theywant to be free of a despot.(The Guardian editorial)

VIJAYAWADA | WEDNESDAY | AUGUST 19, 2020 money 08

CAPSULE

Rupee settles 12paise higher at74.76 against USDMUMBAI: The rupee settled 12paise higher at 74.76 againstthe US dollar on Tuesday asheavy buying in domesticequities and weak Americancurrency strengthened investorsentiments. At the interbankforex market, the domestic unittraded in a narrow range. Itopened at 74.78 and ended theday at 74.76, registering a gainof 12 paise over its previousclose of 74.88 against thegreenback. During the session,the local unit witnessed anintra-day high of 74.73 and alow of 74.89 against the USdollar. Forex traders saidpositive trend in the equitymarkets, weak Americancurrency and sustained foreign fund inflows supported the rupee, whileconcerns over risingCoronavirus cases weighed on investor sentiment.

Porsche drives in718 Spyder, 718Cayman GT4 NEW DELHI: Luxury sportscarmaker Porsche on Tuesdaysaid it has launched 718Spyder and the 718 CaymanGT4 in India, with prices of thetwo models starting at Rs 1.59crore and 1.63 crore (ex-showroom), respectively.Featuring a newly-developed420 PS six-cylinder enginemated to six-speed manualtransmission, the modelsappeal to the most hardenedsports car enthusiasts,Porsche said in a statement.Whilst the GT4 represents theentry-level GT road modelfrom Porsche, the Spyder isgeared towards open-top,dynamic driving, it added. "The718 Cayman GT4 and 718Spyder are about unrivalleddriving fun and sheeremotions. They are the perfectsports car for those who liketo push the limits and enjoy aracing pulse," Porsche IndiaHead of Sales Ashish said.

PNS n NEW DELHI

Apex transporters bodyAIMTC on Tuesday urged theReserve Bank of India (RBI) toextend the moratorium onpayment of loans for roadtransport sector till December31, saying the sector was reel-ing under financial crisis.

In March, the central bankhad allowed a three-monthmoratorium on payment of allterm loans due between March1, 2020, and May 31, 2020,which in May wasextended byanother threemonths tillAugust to pro-vide much-needed reliefto borrowerswhose incomehas been hitdue to the coro-navirus crisis.

"The road transportsector in India is highly dis-tressed, reeling in deep finan-cial crisis due to fallout of coro-na-induced lockdowns andthere is little hope of its revivalin the current FinancialYear...The critical conditionof the road transport sector isimpacting more than 20 crorepeople, directly and indirect-ly," AIMTC said in a letter tothe RBI Governor.

Urging it to extend themoratorium on payment of

loans, it said after theextension of cur-

rent moratoriumperiod tillAugust 31,2020, majorityof transportersare merely mak-

ing break-even,and that is only

because their EMIsare under moratorium.

"The throughput of inter-state lorries has dropped sig-nificantly due to lack of returnloads and paralyseddemand...The condition ofsmall operators across all seg-ments, both cargo and passen-gers, who constitute about 85per cent of the population, isindeed precarious," AIMTCPresident Kultaran SinghAtwal said in the letter.

The letter mentioned thatthe taxes, diesel price, corrup-

tion and toll continue toincrease the operating costs,but freight remains subdueddue to weak demand.

"At present, about 50 percent of the vehicles are still offthe road and once the currentmoratorium period is overthere would be spurt in NPAs(non-performing assets)," itsaid.

Reiterating that the trans-porters are unable to pay theirEMIs and the moratoriumprovided them little relief,AIMTC said they are beingpressurised "by the recoveryagents of Banks, NBFCs andFinanciers to pay up theirEMIs or face seizure of thevehicles".

All India Motor TransportCongress (AIMTC) is the apexbody for transporters repre-senting about 95 lakh truckersand entities.

AIMTC urges RBI to extendEMI for road transport sector

PNS n NEW DELHI

The government isconsidering accordingMSME status to dealersas it will enable them toavail benefits offered tomicro, small and medi-um enterprises, UnionMinister Nitin Gadkarisaid on Tuesday.

Micro, small andmedium enterprises(MSMEs) comprisingmanufacturing and servicesunits need to get registered toavail the benefits and subsidiesoffered under various govern-ment schemes.

Registered MSMEs are eligi-ble for tariff subsidies and taxand capital subsidies. The reg-istration also helps them in get-ting government tenders andenables easier access to loans atlow interest rates.

"Regarding MSME, we arethinking now of giving MSMEstatus to dealers also and theywill get benefit of it, that is alsounder consideration by whichthey will get the benefits,"Gadkari said. The ministeralso reiterated his appeal tomajor industries to clear the

outstanding dues to MSMEs ina timely manner.

"We are also requesting tothe Finance Ministry, theindustries who want to maketheir technology centers, train-ing centers, research centers,from Income Tax point of viewwhether we are in a position togive some more support tothem by which we can inspireand motivate them for moreresearch and innovation,"Gadkari said.

The Minister for MSMEand Road Transport andHighways was addressing avirtual exhibition on'Construction Equipment,Technology Components andAggregates'.

PNS n NEW DELHI

India's farm exports rose 23.24per cent in value terms to Rs25,552.7 crore during March-June period amidst theCOVID-19 pandemic, theAgriculture Ministry said onTuesday.

To promote farm exports, a"comprehensive action plan"has been prepared underwhich 'Export PromotionForums' are being created andexisting agri-clusters are beingstrengthened besides identify-ing certain destinations forpromotion of agriculturalexports, the ministry said in astatement.

Promotion of farm exportsis extremely important notonly for earning precious for-eign exchange for the countrybut also for achieving the goalof an 'Aatmanirbhar Bharat',for which self-reliant agricul-ture is critical, it added.

"Even during the difficulttime of pandemic lockdown,India took care not to disturb

the world food supply chainand continued to export," itsaid.

Exports of agri-commoditiesincreased by 23.24 per cent toRs 25,552.7 crore duringMarch-June 2020 as against Rs20,734.8 crore in the year-agoperiod, it added.

According to the ministry,"clear and proactive interven-tions" are required to be takento ensure India becomes a topexporting nation in agriculture

commensurate with the pro-duction.

India holds second rank inworld's wheat production, butranks 34th in exports.Similarly, despite being rankedthird in vegetable productionin the world, India's exportranking is 14th.

Same is the case for fruits,where India is the secondlargest producer in the world,but export rank is 23rd, thestatement said.

The ministry said productspecific Export PromotionForums (EPFs) have been cre-ated to lead agri exports to newheights.

EPFs for eight agriculturaland allied products -- grapes,mango, banana, onion, rice,nuri-cereals, pomegranate andfloriculture -- have been con-stituted under the Agriculturaland Processed Food ProductsExport Development Authority(APEDA).

Each EPF will haveexporters of the related com-modity as its members alongwith official members repre-senting concerned ministries ofthe Central and state govern-ments. APEDA chief will bethe chairman of each of theseforums, which will meet at leastonce in every two months.

The forum's recommenda-tions will be placed beforeproduct committee of APEDAand the forum will be in closecontact with the concernedorganisation of Ministry ofAgriculture.

RBI releases framework forretail payments systemsPNS n NEW DELHI

The Reserve Bank on Tuesdayunveiled the framework forsetting up umbrella entities foroperating pan-India retail pay-ments systems and invitedapplications from eligible com-panies by February 26, 2021.

As per the framework, thecompanies with a net worth ofover Rs 500 crore will be eligi-ble to set up an umbrella enti-ty which among other thingswill be permitted to set up,manage and operate new pay-ment systems in the retailspace comprising ATMs,White Label PoS, Aadhaar-based payments and remit-tance services.

"The Reserve Bank invitesapplications for the umbrellaentity which shall be submit-ted in the prescribed form(Form A) till the close of busi-ness on February 26, 2021,"said a central bank pressrelease. Among other things,the umbrella entity will be per-mitted to operate clearing andsettlement systems for banksand non-banks; identify andmanage relevant risks such as

settlement, credit, liquidityand operational; and preservethe integrity of the system.

It will also be expected tomonitor retail payment systemdevelopments and relatedissues in the country and inter-nationally to avoid shocks,frauds and contagions thatmay adversely affect the systemand/or the economy in gener-al, the RBI said.

"All entities eligible to applyas promoter/promoter groupof the umbrella entity shall beowned and controlled by res-ident Indian citizens'," it added.

In case of any foreign directinvestment in the applicant

entity, it will have to fulfil,additionally, the capitalrequirements as applicableunder FEMA (ForeignExchange Management Act),and necessary approval fromthe competent authority.

The guidelines also elaborateon the 'fit and proper' require-ments for promoters/promot-er groups.

"The umbrella entity shallhave a minimum paid-up cap-ital of Rs 500 crore. No singlepromoter/promoter groupshall have more than 40 percent investment in the capitalof the umbrella entity," theguidelines said.

‘Agri exports up 23.24% toover Rs 25,500 cr in Mar-Jun’

Govt consideringgiving MSME statusto dealers: Gadkari

World shares mixed as investors eye virus counts, stimulusPNS n WASHINGTON

Shares were mixed in Europeand Asia on Tuesday, after buy-ing of technology stocks nudgedthe S&P 500 closer to the recordhigh it set in February before thepandemic crunched the globaleconomy.

Britain's FTSE 100 slipped0.1% to 6,122.05, while theDAX in Frankfurt lost 0.2% to12,892.19. In Paris, the CAC 40lost 0.3% to 4,957.26. The futurefor the S&P 500 edged 0.1%lower, to 3,376.30. The future forthe Dow industrials lost 0.2% to27,734.00. Markets were buoyedby developments in Washington,after Speaker Nancy Pelosi called

the House back into session, cut-ting short the lawmakers' sum-mer recess for a vote expectedSaturday on legislation to pro-hibit changes in the US.

Postal Service amid growingconcerns that the Trump admin-istration is trying to under-mine the agency ahead of theNovember election.

The proposed package willalso include $25 billion to shoreup the Postal Service, which issuffering losses. But prospectsfor additional economic aid forAmerican workers and business-es remain uncertain after talkson a fresh stimulus packagestalled.

Investors say it's crucial thatthe support comes, particular-ly after $600 in weekly unem-ployment benefits and otherstimulus from the US govern-ment expired.

Without more help for the USeconomy, analysts say the recov-ery that investors have beenassuming is on the way won'tmaterialise. And that assump-

tion is a huge reason the stockmarket is as high as it is.

Still, on Monday the S&P 500picked up 0.3% to 3,381.99.Earlier in the day, it brieflycrossed above its record closinglevel of 3,386.15, which was seton February 19 before the pan-demic shut down businessesworldwide and created the worstrecession in decades.

“The markets are in 'show methe money' mode, perhapserring on the side of caution, notholding their breath for animminent deal in Congress,"Stephen Innes of AxiCorp saidin a commentary.

"Sadly, this leaves the US realeconomy waddling and many

businesses and millions of con-sumers getting the short shrift."

In Asia, South Korea's Kospiled regional losses, slumping2.5% to 2,348.24 amid worriesover surging coronavirus cases.

South Korean health officialssaid Tuesday they had found 457coronavirus cases linked to ahuge northern Seoul churchled by a bitter critic of thecountry's president, driving analarming rise in infections in thegreater capital area.

Director of South Korea'sNational Health Institute, saidthe outbreaks could create a sit-uation comparable to the “mis-erable scenes of the UnitedStates or European countries.

PNS n MUMBAI

Equity benchmarkSensex rallied 478points on Tuesday,driven by gains inindex majorsReliance Industries,HDFC Bank andICICI Bank amidpositive cues fromglobal markets and sus-tained foreign fund inflows.

The BSE Sensex ended477.54 points or 1.26 per centhigher at 38,528.32, while theNSE Nifty surged 138.25

points or 1.23 per cent to11,385.35.

UltraTech Cementwas the top gainer in

the Sensex pack, ris-ing over 3 per cent,followed by KotakBank, ICICI Bank,Asian Paints and

Tata Steel.Reliance Industries

and HDFC Bank addedmost to the gains on the index.

On the other hand, TechMahindra, HCL Tech, BajajAuto and Power Grid wereamong the laggards.

Sensex rallies 478 pts;Nifty tops 11,350

Lightspeed India raises new fundwith $275 million commitmentPNS n NEW DELHI

Venture capital firmLightspeed India Partners onTuesday said it has raised newfund with USD 275 million(about Rs 2,054 crore) of com-mitted capital.

Lightspeed India is focusedon accelerating disruptiveinnovations and trends in theenterprise and consumer sec-tors. It has invested over USD750 million in the country.

With the new fund--Lightspeed India Partners III--it will continue to partner andsupport bold entrepreneursbuilding for tomorrow, rightfrom inception throughgrowth stages, it said.

Since 2007, Lightspeed Indiahas backed entrepreneurs andcompanies, including OYO,Byju's, Udaan and Sharechat.

"Lightspeed India Partnershas raised its new fundLightspeed India Partners III– with a commitment of USD275 million from global insti-tutional LPs," the release said.

Lightspeed India said itremains sharply focused onearly stage seed and Series Ainvestments and will workwith its founders through thelifecycle including growth stageand global network support.

"This year began with a cri-sis like no other. It is alwaystough to start a company, itrequires passion and in thesetimes, it requires more couragethan ever before," it said andadded this is when the bestentrepreneurs and companiesof the future will emerge.

"Strong founders are utilis-ing the tailwinds of India's dig-ital ecosystem growth to buildout a new future andLightspeed is strongly commit-ted to backing these founders,"it said.

Lightspeed said it will con-tinue to focus on early stagesof innovation, and work withfounders to support themthrough their growth lifecycle,including the growth capitalpool of over USD 3 billionraised recently in its globalfunds.

PNS n NEW DELHI

MG Motor India on Tuesdaysaid it has partnered withZoomcar, one of the country'slargest personal mobility plat-forms, for vehicle subscription.

Through the tie-up, thecompany will leverageZoomcar's end-to-end tech-nology solution for its vehiclesubscription platform, MGMotor India said in a state-ment. The move will enable thecarmaker to penetrate deeperinto the subscription market,it added.

As part of the collaboration,

Zoomcar would now be man-aging the subscription pro-gramme on behalf of MGMotor."The subscriptionmodel will further make MGvehicles more accessible to allauto enthusiasts in India. We

are confident that our partner-ship with Zoomcar will gener-ate considerable thrust in themarket," MG Motor IndiaChief Commercial OfficerGaurav Gupta said.

The Zoomcar and MGMotor partnership will alsoprovide 24x7 support to theirsubscribers regarding bookingsand vehicle listings.

The customer experiencewill focus on enabling technol-ogy for customer support ser-vices including on-ground fleetmanagement, logistics sup-port, vehicle scheduling, andonboarding.

MG Motor india ties up withZoomcar for vehicle subscription

PNS n NEW DELHI

Union Minister Ravi ShankarPrasad on Tuesday said pro-posals worth Rs 12 lakh crorehave been received underthe new scheme toboost electronicsmanufacturing,and some manu-facturing lineshave movedfrom China toIndia during theCOVID-19 pan-demic.

The Minister for ITand Communications, whilespeaking at an industry event,also pointed out that close toRs 90,000 crore have beentransferred by way of directbenefit transfer.

"...All the top mobile man-ufacturers and their contractmanufacturers have applied inthat (PLI) scheme, includingfive global champions andfive national champions andcollectively, they havepromised to make mobile

phone and components worthRs 12 lakh crore in the com-ing five years, out of whichthey're going to export Rs 7lakh crore (worth of items)

and give direct and indirectjob to 12 lakh," Prasad

said.He added that

about 8-9 manu-facturing lineshave also shiftedfrom China to

India.The government

notified threeschemes on April 1 for

the promotion of electronics.These were schemes for man-ufacturing of electronic com-ponents and semiconductors,modified electronics manufac-turing clusters (EMC 2.0)scheme, and production-linked incentive (PLI) schemefor large scale electronics man-ufacturing. T h e s eschemes jointly offer incen-tives of around Rs 50,000crore over the period of nextfive years.

Text Mercatogets Rs 4.85 crin series-AfundingPNS n MUMBAI

Text Mercato, digital cata-loguing startup that serves e-commerce platforms, hasraised Rs 4.85 crore in seriesA funding from a clutch ofinvestors.

While the funding is led by1Crowd, others who haveparticipated include HongKong-based startup acceler-ator Betatron, and angelinvestors Andrew Dell - for-mer head HSBC Africa, andRaaj Shah, CFO of SequentSoftware, the startup said ina note.

Text Mercato was foundedby Kiran Ramakrishna andSubhajit Mukherjee in 2015,and serves the content needsof digital companies.

1Crowd is an early-stageventure investment fund anda platform - set up in 2015 -to provide an institution-alised approach to investingin startups, and has investedover Rs 100 crore in 31 star-tups across sectors, rangingfrom enterprise tech anddeep tech to B2C startups.

Axis launchesplatform toinvest in USstock marketsPNS n NEW DELHI

Axis Securities on Tuesdayannounced the launch of aplatform — Global Investing— that will provide an oppor-tunity to its customers toinvest in the US stock mar-kets. For this, Axis Securitieshas partnered with VestedFinance, an online invest-ment platform, the brokeragehouse said in a statement.

Investors can buy or sellshares of companies likeFacebook, Apple, Netflix andGoogle or invest in theme-based baskets or ETFs, itadded.

"India has witnessed a sig-nificant increase in demandfor international investments,particularly from tech-savvymillennials. With our GlobalInvesting, we aim to empow-er investors to be sharehold-ers of the most innovativeglobal companies and busi-nesses," said B Gopkumar,MD Axis Securities.

The platform empowersthe customers to invest as lowas USD 1 for high pricedshares by making invest-ments in less than one stock.Besides, customers can makeand manage investments inmore than 1,000 stocks.

‘Received proposals worthRs 12L-cr under PLI scheme’

WednesdayAugust 19, 2020

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out of the

BOX

riyanka Naidu, whois in the news for awhile now forannouncing her rela-tionship with co-starMadhu, made her

debut in the field of glamourwhen she was just 15 yearsold. She says, “When I was inClass X, my relatives organ-ised modelling shows. Theyasked me to visit once andasked if I would be interestedin walking the ramp too. Ihad no idea about modellingor acting then but visited thevenue and practised for threedays. Later, I won the ‘MissBanglore’ and ‘Miss BeautifulEyes’ trophies. After watch-ing me in the show, I wasoffered a lead role in theKannada remake of theTelugu film BheemiliKabaddi Jattu in 2009. LaterI went on to do the filmOscar. My interest in actingand films increased. I slowlygot good offers fromKannada but by then, I wasinvolved in serials so I couldn’t go back to doingKannada projects.”

Born and bred inKannada, Priyanka came toHyderabad 10 years ago. Shesays, “I came to Hyderabadafter I was offered a role inone of the films here. Butthat film didn’t take shape.After a while, I was offeredanother role by ETV for aserial. And that’s how I con-tinued acting, by taking tothe small screen.” Whenasked if she misses acting infilms, Priyanka replies, “I domiss acting in films prettymuch, but I have my guide-lines to stick to, when I act. Idon’t like wearing clothesthat show too much skin orinvolve intimate scenes. If ascript demands these, I don’tthink I will be offered lead

roles in films.”Sharing her journey in the

small screen here, she says,“For about two to three seri-als here, I was told I will beplaying the lead role, butwhen a new characterentered, my role was side-lined and my character wasgiven less importance despiteit being the lead character. SoI had to quit those shows.Later, I happened to come toHyderabad to shoot for aTelugu film. It is nice whenrecognise you outside andcall you by the character’sname, but I don’t think I waspart of any project that gaveme a good name or life. Butnow, Vadhinamma serial isgiving me all that.”

“I’m enjoying playing Sirion screen. I can relate to thecharacter with my real life. Isomeday hope to play diffi-cult roles like that of a blindperson, etc., like the charac-ter from the film Black,” sheadds. Taking us through herlove story with her co-star,Priyanka says, “Madhu and Iare family friends and haveknown each other sincechildhood. But in the past 10years, our friendship grew

and we fell in love witheach other. We hope totie the knot byDecember this year.”

Some womengo through

excruciating pain andperiod leave became our

company’s policy, changing theecosystem for the better. We as

female employees were lessstigmatised.

— SOFIA ASHRAFCREATIVE DIRECTOR

P

PERIOD LEAVES STAND INTHE WAY OF EQUALITY?

enstruation tomost women,comes withpainful cramps —they have toaccommodate pain

and discomfort in theireveryday life. During thistime, some suffer fromnausea, headaches, back-aches, etc. that make itdifficult to get out of thebed. Despite this notbeing the best-keptsecret, the past week sawseveral people railingagainst Period leaves,including eminent jour-nalists. Period pain iseasily dismissed andwomen are criticisedabout it. Some haveunsympathetic views,some others are for it.“I have seen severalwomen who seemed tobe more driven and dis-ciplined than most men -they will never misusetheir period leaves asassumed by many whenZomato announced thelong-awaited policy,”opines Dr Munjaal V

Kapadia, a gynecologist. Interestingly, this isn’t

the first time such a deci-sion has been taken orspoken against, in thecountry. Back in 2017,Culture Machine, amedia organisation alsoinitiated a monthly leavefor women employees forthe first day of their peri-ods. They attempted toovercome the taboo sur-rounding menstruationand allow the topic tobecome a part of ourdaily lives.

Sharing an uncommonexperience like this, oneof the employees fromCulture Machine, SofiaAshraf, tells DeekshaSharma, senior corre-spondent at The Quinton how women of thedigital company werefilled with certain appre-hensions whether theyeven needed somethinglike this or not — “Somewomen go throughexcruciating pain andperiod leave became ourcompany’s policy, chang-

ing the ecosystem for thebetter. We as femaleemployees were less stig-matised. I still rememberafter the HR meeting onperiod leaves, one of ourmale employeesapproaches me askingwhat’s going on and whywe were implementingthis. In pursuit ofexplaining to him whathappens to a woman onthe first day of her peri-od, the idea behind peri-od leaves led him tounderstand the horriblepain women go through,especially in his sur-roundings and he decid-ed to give a day off to hismaid. It touched myheart! Sanitary napkinswere being distributed in

the office, bringing a cul-tural difference as well.It’s a simple funda, don’tavail it if it’s not sopainful for you, but don’tdeny others’ pain onlybecause you are a flagbearer of gender equali-ty,” shares the creativedirector.

Dr Munjaal furtherthrows light on the med-ical conditions thataccompany menstruationand emphasises on whyis it important to allowperiod leaves which arequite harmless. “Rangingfrom PMS, amenorrhea,dysmenorrhoea, andmenorrhagia, periodscan be very unpleasant,disturbing a lady’s nor-mal functioning of the

body. These disordersmay last from a fewhours to days and theintensity can vary inindividuals. Ultimately,there should be noshame or stigma inapplying for time off,” he asserts.

In the early days ofwomen at the workplace,you had to be tougherthan the men to getahead. You could notshow signs of weaknessbecause if you did, youwere immediately putdown. In those days, noone discussed menstrua-tion publicly, theywouldn’t even go to theshop themselves, to buy asanitary napkin.

Even in 2020 pads arefurtively wrapped in anewspaper before hand-ing them over because‘no one must know’.Many believe these peri-od leaves will make iteasier for women whoare now confidentenough to demand theirrights.

The past weekend witnessed a lot of noise regarding Period leaves forwomen. While many lauded companies for taking a step toward

making work and life easier for their women employees, some othersfrowned upon the idea. Will it be a welcoming change for the women

who need it or will be considered as a step back for women whobelieve deeply in gender equality, asks SHIKHA DUGGAL as

she speaks to women from all walks of life from the city

M

‘Hope to tie theknot by December'

Priyanka Naidu has left many awe-struck with her performance asSiri in Vadhinamma, whereshe plays a pakka Telanganagirl in the film. The actresswho made her debut withfilms and made a shift to thesmall screen after workingfor two films. TheVadhinamma actressspeaks to K Ramya Sree abouther journey,quitting a fewshows, andmore...

ust when youthought celebra-tions were gettinga tad bit pre-dictable, interna-tional celebrity

engagement giantmyFanPark arrives inIndia to spice up theparty.

Imagine surprisingyour loved ones with spe-cially recorded videomessages from theirfavourite stars. That’sexactly what myFanPark,the South African start-up that connects fans totheir favourite celebritieshas in store as it launchesin India.

The platform allowsfans to request and pur-chase personalised, video-recorded messages fromsome of the country’smost popular personali-ties. Actors, musicians,sportsmen, and women,social media influencers,and celebrities across thecountry will now be just aclick away.

myFanPark was award-ed one of the top fivestart-ups of South Africain 2019, having experi-enced massive successwith personalised videomessages of motivation,inspiration, hope, and joy.These messages fromfamous sports stars andentertainment icons arebecoming a new way forpeople to surprise, andtreat one another. From

birthday, weddinganniversaries, motivatinga rising star in the familyto work hard, or sendingwell wishes to someoneyou care about —myFanPark has theanswer.

In India, the celebritieswho are already on boardmyFanPark include actorslike Esha Gupta, PrateikBabbar, Sophie Choudry,Jay Bhanushali, AshmitPatel, Delnaaz Irani,cricketer Manan Vohra,actor Shafaq Naaz, andplayers from the IndianSuper League, among ahost of other namesacross entertainment andsports fraternities.

Singer, Actor and HostSophie Choudry excitedlysaid, “This is going to befun! myFanPark gives theopportunity to connectwith my fans to createcontent and experiences.”

“My fans have beenalways been the best partof my journey as an actorand I can’t wait to con-nect with them onmyFanPark and createunique experiences withthem,” popular actor JayBhanushali said.

Cricketer MananVohra said, “I’m alwaysthankful and grateful tomy fans for their uncon-ditional love and support.I’m really excited to con-nect with them onmyFanPark and createexperiences.”

J

Connecting fans totheir favourite celebs

10

Vijayawada Wednesday August 19 2020

FUN

Rules

ARCHIE

GARFIELD

SUDOKU

REALITY CHECK SPEED BUMP CROSSWORD

GINGER MEGGS

NANCY

CALVIN AND HOBBES

l Each row and column cancontain each number (1 to 9)exactly once.

l The sum of all numbers inany row or column mustequal 45.

Yesterday’s solution

what’s brewing?IN

STA

GR

AM

RE

ELS

EM

ER

GE

ST

OP

CH

OIC

E I

N T

IK T

OK

'SA

BS

EN

CE

IN

IN

DIA

fter the depar-ture of TikTok,InstagramReels hasbecome the

most popular app foryoung Indians as sevenin 10 (18-29 age group)said they would like touse Reels as a platformfor video sharing, a newreport said on Tuesday.

In the absence of theChinese short-video-making app TikTok,nearly two-thirds ofurban Indians (65 percent) said they are likelyto turn to alternatives orstart using video appsthat are either Indian ornon-Chinese in origin,according to data pro-vided by YouGov, anInternet-based marketresearch and data analyt-ics firm.

Millennials (69 percent) were most likely toshow their readiness toswitch to Tik-Tok’s alter-natives, as compared toGenZ (54 per cent).

Likewise, men weremore likely than womento hold a similar view(70 per cent vs 59 percent).

“The government’sdecision to ban TikTokalong with otherChinese apps has pre-sented an opportunityfor homegrown playerswho are gearing up totake advantage of thissituation,” said DeepaBhatia, GeneralManager, YouGov India.

“It is, therefore,imperative to gauge theneeds of the audiencesand understand theirpreferences in thisspace,” she added.

Nearly 68 per centTikTok content creatorssaid they are likely toswitch to Indian or non-Chinese versions ofvideo sharing apps.

On being presentedwith a list of alternatives,Instagram Reels toppedthe list of apps mostlikely to be used by peo-ple in the future.

The platform, which isFacebook’s answer toTikTok, is welcomed bymore than six in 10 (62per cent) urban Indianswho claim to have triedit and are likely to con-tinue using it.

“Nearly as many havea similar view aboutSingapore-based appCheez (59 per cent),which has a higherappeal among tier-2users as compared totier-1 city residents,” said the survey.

Apart from these for-eign apps, more thanhalf claimed to havetried the homegrownapp Roposo and are like-ly to use it in the future(54 per cent).

Other regional socialmedia apps such as moj(47 per cent), Gana hot-shot (44 per cent), Josh(42 per cent), Taka tak(42 per cent), Mitron (40per cent) and Chingari(36 per cent) also appearto have gained ground,said the survey.

A

riyanka Chopra officially confirmedthat her memoir is ready, late onMonday night according to Indiantime.

“Finished. What an amazing feel-ing seeing these pages printed on

paper for the first time! #Unfinished...coming soon! @penguinrandom,” tweeted the actress on her official han-dle, @priyankachopra.

In an earlier tweet, Priyanka had spo-ken about how she was excited to shareher memoir, titled Unfinished, with herfans, and how the work was a result ofintrospection and reflection into her life.

“Unfinished is finished! Just aboutsent in the final manuscript! Wheee!Cannot wait to share it with you all.Every word in my memoir comes from aplace of introspection and reflection intomy life,” shewrote in atweet onAugust11.

Priyanka Chopratweets to confirmher memoir isready in print

P

Naseeruddin Shahdismisses insider-outsider debate,movie mafia narrative

eteran actorNaseeruddin Shah saidthat the conversationaround late actorSushant Singh Rajput’sdeath in June is

‘absolutely sickening’ and thatsome people have been using thetragedy to voice their frustra-tions with the film industry. Healso dismissed the insider-out-sider debate, calling it ‘bulls***’.

In an interview with IndiaToday Television, Naseeruddinsaid that ‘every person who hasany little frustration’ with theindustry has been talking to themedia about Sushant. “It isabsolutely sickening. I have notfollowed it. I felt deeply grievedwhen the young man died. I didnot know him but he had abright future and it was a wasteof a life. But I did not bother tofollow the nonsense that’s beingspouted by a whole lot of people.Every person who has any littlefrustration in his mind, in hisheart, about the commercialindustry, has been vomiting itout to the press. It is absolute-ly disgusting. I mean, keepthese complaints to yourself,no one is interested,” he said.

Naseeruddin said that onemust let the law take itscourse: “No one is interest-ed in the opinions of somehalf educated starlet whodecides to take it upon her-self to, you know, get justicefor Sushant. If there is jus-tice that needs to be done, I

think we need to havefaith in the

process of thelaw and if

it isnoneof ourbusi-

ness,

Ithink

weshouldnotcon-cernour-selveswithit.”

The insider-outsider debatehas also been reignited in thewake of Sushant’s death, withmany alleging that he wasshunned in Bollywood and lostout on films for being an out-sider. Since then, his angry fanshave started an online campaigncalling for the boycott of starkids.

Naseeruddin dismissed thedebate and said, “I don’t under-stand this insider-outsider non-

sense that’s going on. I mean, it’sa whole lot of rubbish and weshould be put an end to this, it’sbulls***. Why would not I, whohave had a secure happy life asan actor, encourage my son to gointo the same profession? Wouldnot an industrialist do it, wouldnot a lawyer do it, would not adoctor not do it? Would not any-body do it? You mean to say thatNusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s descen-dents should not have becomesingers?” He added that ‘nepo-tism gets you to a certain point’,after which it takes talent forsurvival.

Imaad Shah and Vivaan Shah,Naseeruddin’s sons, are bothactors. Imaad has acted in filmssuch as Dil Dosti Etc and LittleZizou, while Vivaan starred infilms such as 7 Khoon Maaf andHappy New Year.

Naseeruddin also said that the‘movie mafia’ does not exist.Most famously, actor KanganaRanaut has claimed that she wastargeted by the movie mafia forspeaking up about nepotism.

V

ollywood star Angelina Joliesays The One and Only Ivan,the upcoming Disney liveaction film deals with “heavyissues” in a charming way.

Jolie is on board as a pro-ducer and voices the ageing elephantStella in the Thea Sharrock directori-al.

It is an adaptation of the NewberyMedal-winning book written byKatherine Applegate and illustratedby Patricia Castelao.

The film centers on a silverbackgorilla named Ivan (voiced by SamRockwell) who lives in a cage in ashopping mall along with an ele-phant named Stella (Jolie) and astray dog called Bob (DannyDeVito).

Jolie revealed it was one of herchildren who brought the “special”book to her attention, reportedDigital Spy.

That was when she started to lookinto whether it was being made as amovie.

The actor also praised writer MikeWhite for developing the movie,which focuses on treatment metedout to animals by humans.

“Disney, Mike and everybodyinvolved really (understood) it has itsheart. It’s not a light film, it dealswith heavy issues, but it is charming,fun and full of life. But it’s deceptivein the packaging,” she said.

Jolie, 45, said she wanted to beinvolved with the project as she likedthe “messages” in the film.

Greenblatt plays Julia, daughter ofGeorge (Ramon Rodr guez) who is ajanitor at the Big Top Mall, owned byBryan Cranston's Mack.

Helen Mirren, Brooklynn Prince,Chaka Khan, Ron Funches, PhillipaSoo and Mike White also round thevoice cast.

The One and Only Ivan will startstreaming on Disney+ from Friday.

H

The One and

Only Ivan not a

light film, says

Angelina Jolie

PTI n KARACHI

Pakistan head coach andchief selector Misbah-ul-

Haq has advised the coun-try’s cricket board to appointYounis Khan as the full-time batting coach.

The Pakistan CricketBoard (PCB) had appointedthe 42-year-old former cap-tain as the batting coach forthe team’s ongoing tour ofEngland.

According to a reliablesource in the board, Misbahhas had a discussion withPCB CEO Wasim Khan onthe subject.

“Younis has beenappointed as batting coach ofthe senior team for only theEngland tour. But Misbahhas been very impressedwith the dedication and hardwork put in by Younis Khanwhile working with the bats-men in the team in England,”

the source said.“Misbah has asked

Wasim Khan to considergiving Younis a long-termcontract with the team as hefeels the former captain andteammate will only have apositive influence on thebatsmen in the team,” thesource added.

The source said the

board is likely to followMisbah’s advice and rope inYounis for a longer contract.

“Everyone has beenpleasantly surprised to seethe positive and cheerfulbehaviour of Younis althoughduring his playing days hewas known for his flashy

temperament and run-inswith the establishment,” thesource added.

Younis, who is Pakistan’shighest run-getter in Testcricket with the most cen-turies, had recently said he isenjoying his stint as the bat-ting coach.

11VIJAYAWADA | WEDNESDAY | AUGUST 19, 2020

ASIAN BOXING C'SHIP POSTPONED TO 2021New Delhi: The Asian Boxing Championship, whichwas to be held in India in November-December, hasbeen postponed to next year owing to the disruptioncaused by the Covid-19 pandemic, the nationalfederation's Secretary General Jay Kowli said onTuesday. The decision was taken at the Asian BoxingConfederation's (ASBC) Executive Committeemeeting held online on Monday.

DELHI CAPITALS REPLACE WOAKES WITH NORTJENew Delhi: IPL franchise Delhi Capitals on Tuesdaynamed South African pacer Anrich Nortje as areplacement for England all-rounder Chris Woakes,who has pulled out ahead of the upcoming edition.The team did not specify the reasons for Woakes'pullout. This will be Nortje's maiden IPL appearanceas the 26-year-old, who was with the Kolkata KnightRiders last season but was sidelined due to ashoulder injury.

REAL SOCIEDAD SIGNS DAVID SILVA Madrid: Real Sociedad signed former Man Cityplaymaker David Silva on a two-year contract. TheBasque Country club picked up Silva on a free transferafter his decade-long stint at City ended. Sociedadsaid the 34-year-old Spaniard will join the rest of thesquad in the coming days for preseason training.

USTA CANCELS JR EVENTS THROUGH OCT 12Washington: Due to the situation surroundingCovid-19, the United States Tennis Association hascanceled all national junior events through Oct 12.The USTA also has canceled all adult Category 1events, comprising the Adult, Open, Family, and Agedivisions, through the end of the year.

CSA APPOINTS WILLIAMS AS ACTING PREZJohannesburg: Cricket South Africa on Tuesdaynamed Beresford Williams as its acting presidentwhile also confirming that interim Chief ExecutiveOfficer Jacques Faul has stepped down from his post.The developments came after Chris Nenzani resignedas president with immediate effect on August 15.Williams will serve as president until the board'sannual general meeting scheduled for September 5.

LLIIGGUUEE 11 OOPPEENNEERR PPOOSSTTPPOONNEEDD DDUUEE TTOO VVIIRRUUSSMarseille: The first game of the French footballseason was postponed on Tuesday because of anoutbreak of Covid-19 cases at Marseille. The Frenchleague said in a statement that Marseille's home gameagainst Saint-Étienne on Friday was moved to Sept 16or 17. The decision came shortly after Marseilleconfirmed three positive cases among its first-teamplayers and staff.

BBRROOAADD MMOOVVEESS TTOO NNOO 22 IINN TTEESSTT RRAANNKKIINNGGSSSouthampton: Formerly top-ranked fast bowlersStuart Broad and James Anderson of England havemade advances in the latest ICC Test Player Rankingsafter some fine bowling in the drawn second Testagainst. Broad has moved up one slot to secondposition in the bowlers' list after a haul of 4/56 whileAnderson has moved up two slots to 14th withfigures of 3/60. India's premier fast bowler JaspritBumrah has moved down by a place and is currentlysituated at the ninth spot in bowler's rankings.

BBFFCC TTOO PPLLAAYY ‘‘HHOOMMEE’’ MMAATTCCHHEESS IINN FFAATTOORRDDAABengaluru: Following the Indian Super League'sdecision to host the entirety of the 2020-21 season inGoa, it has been announced that Bengaluru FC willplay its 'home' matches for the upcoming season atthe Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, in Fatorda. Decidedbased on last season's final League standings, theBlues will share their venue with current championsATK (now ATK Mohun Bagan) and 2019-20 Leaguewinners FC Goa. Agencies

SINGLES

PTI n NEW DELHI

Star cricketer Rohit Sharma,wrestler Vinesh Phogat, andwomen’s hockey captain Rani

Rampal were among an unprece-dented five sportspersons pickedfor the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna,while a whopping 29 were recom-mended for the Arjuna award bythe sports ministry’s selection com-mittee here on Tuesday.

Paddler Manika Batra and RioParalympic Gold-winning highjumper Mariyappan Thangaveluwere the other two recommendedfor the country’s highest sportinghonour by a 12-member selectioncommittee. Rampal was a lateaddition to the initial list of four.

For the Arjuna, India pacerIshant Sharma, teen shooting sen-sations Saurabh Chaudhary andManu Bhaker, sprinter DuteeChand, footballer SandeshJhinghan, woman cricketer DeeptiSharma, woman boxer LovlinaBorgohain and Indian luge legendShiva Keshavan are some of the bignames to be shortlisted, an officialsource said.

The 31-year-old Ishant hasplayed 97 Tests and 80 ODIs forIndia, grabbing over 400 interna-tional wickets.

This is the first time in the his-tory of awards that five athletes havebeen recommended for the topsporting accolade with the finaldecision resting on sports ministerKiren Rijiju.

In 2016, four athletes — starshuttler P V Sindhu, gymnast Dipa

Karmakar, shooter Jitu Rai, andwrestler Sakshi Malik — were col-lectively given this award.

The 33-year-old Rohit willonly be the fourth cricketer afterSachin Tendulkar, just-retired

Mahendra Singh Dhoni and cur-rent skipper Virat Kohli to be con-ferred with the Khel Ratna.

Tendulkar was the first Indiancricketer to get the honour in1998, followed by Dhoni in 2007

and Kohli in 2018. Kohli won itjointly with weightlifter MirabaiChanu.

The committee, comprisingthe likes of Virender Sehwag andformer hockey captain SardarSingh, met at the Sports Authorityof India (SAI) headquarters hereand finalised the names after delib-erations that took up the first halfof the day.

While Rohit has been recog-nised for his ever-rising accom-plishments with the bat, Vinesh hasbeen rewarded for her Gold medalsin the 2018 Commonwealth andAsian Games besides a Bronze inthe 2019 Asian Wrestling C’ships.

Terming it as one of the biggestmoments of her career, Vineshpromised to live upto the expecta-tions associated with the award.

“It’s a proud moment for me.It was a long wait but it was worth-while. If God permits I would liveup to the reputation associatedwith this award,” Vinesh said.

Thangavelu is being reward-ed for his Gold medal in the 2016Rio Paralympics in the T42 highjump category. T42applies to athletes withsingle above the kneeamputations or a dis-ability that is compa-rable.

Star paddlerManika was recom-mended for herremarkable perfor-mance in 2018, ayear during which shewon the Commonwealth

Games Gold medal and AsianGames Bronze in women’s singles.

Rani is the lone female hock-ey player to have been recommend-ed for the honour.

Before Rani, only DhanrajPillay (2000) and Sardar Singh(2017) won the prestigious award.Sardar, incidentally, was a part ofthe 12-member selection commit-tee this year.

“Rani’s name was a late inclu-sion after some members wanteda discussion on her nomination.After due deliberation, everyone feltthat she deserves the recognitionfor her achievements,” a sourceclose to the development said.

In a first, this year’s NationalSports Awards ceremony, whichnormally held at the RashtrapatiBhavan, is likely to be conducted

virtually due to the Covid-19pandemic, with all the

winners logging in fromtheir respective places tohear their names beingannounced on August29.

August 29 is cele-brated as the

National SportsDay to com-memorate thebirth anniver-sary of hockeywizard MajorDhyan Chand.

The KhelRatna comprises

a medallion, a cer-tificate, and a cashprize of `7.5 lakh.

The Arjuna award comes witha cash prize of ̀ 5,00,000, a Bronzestatue of mythological hero Arjunaand a scroll.

The National Sports Awardsalso include the Dronacharya andthe Dhyan Chand honours forachievements in coaching. They areconferred every year by thePresident of India.

LIST OF AWARDEESRajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Aaward:Rohit Sharma (cricket), VineshPhogat (wreestling), Manika Batra(table tennis), Rani Rampal (hock-ey).Arjuna Award: Ishant Sharma(cricket), Atanu Das (archery),Deepak Hooda (kabaddi), DeepkiaThakur (hockey), Divij Sharan(tennis), Mirabai Chanu(weightlifting), Sakshi Malik(wrestling), Akashdeep Singh(hockey), Lovlina Borgohain (box-ing), Manu Bhaker (shooting),Saurabh Chaudhary (shooting),Manish Kaushik (boxing), SandeshJhinghan (football), DattuBhokanal (rowing), Rahul Aware(wrestling), Dutee Chand (athlet-ics), Deepti Sharma (cricket), ShivaKeshavan (winter sports),Madhurike Patkar (table tennis),Manish Narwal (para shooter),Sandeep Chaudhary (parathlete),Suyash Jadhav (para swimmer),Chirag Shetty and SatwiksairajRankireddy (badminton), VisheshBharguvanshi (basketball), AjaySawant (tent pegging), Aditi Ashok(golf), Kale Sarika (kho kho),Divya Kakran (wrestling).

MUMBAI: Mumbai: India'shead coach Ravi Shastri feelsthat IPL in the United ArabEmirates is the "much need-ed chaos" that everyone needsin these times when COVID-19 has literally brought theworld to a grinding halt dur-ing first half of the year.

The BCCI has shifted theIPL to UAE where 60 gameswill be held in 51 days start-ing from September 19 toNovember 10.

"You know with thisCOVID thing happening,once this IPL starts in theUAE, you will see that chaosback again, which is muchneeded," Shastri said duringwebinar Arabian SeaDialogue' organised by the

Observer ResearchFoundation.

Shastri also said that inthese depressing times whenmost people are not able toventure out of their homesdue to safety reasons, IPL is

an enjoyment and welcomedistraction for 51 days.inthese times

"It's been depressing, itbeen unforeseen, the worldhasn't seen anything like thissince the second World war,to just get some sport action,back on television, day in andday out will lift the spirits ofa lot of people and it is muchneeded at this moment oftime," Shastri said.

Shastri said that UAE in2014 had shown that it is wellcapable of handling a tourna-ment of this magnitude.

"It is a great gesture byIndian government to takecricket to the UAE and theUAE government inresponding (to it). I remem-

ber, in 2014, when the IPLcame there (to the UAE), hisExcellency did not leave onestone unturned and ensuredthat it was a top-class IPL andthe public responded bril-liantly," Shastri said.

IPL is one big party that hesimply can't wait to get start-ed.

"So I think, it's going to beone helluva party and I am sohappy that it's gone to theUAE, because they put upsuch a good show last timearound.

"They know now what toexpect when we come withthe IPL and the eight teamsand I think it's (IPL) going tobe a runaway success COVIDor no COVID."

NEW DELHI: Vinesh Phogat, theonly Indian woman wrestler tohave qualified for TokyoOlympics, has pulled out of thenational camp citing healthsafety concerns amid theCovid-19 pandemic, a deci-sion which has irked thenational federation.

The rescheduled nationalcamp for Olympic weight cat-egory wrestlers is set to beginfrom September 1 in Lucknow(women) and Sonipat (men).

However, Vinesh is notcomfortable travelling toLucknow as she is fearful ofher health amid the ragingpandemic.

“I am not going toattend the camp. I am train-ing everyday with coachOm Parkash, who followsthe plan which my person-al coach Woller Akos sendsme every week. The situa-tion is not good to travel to

Lucknow,” Vinesh said.The 2019 World

Championship Bronze-medal-list said she “falls sick very eas-ily” so she does not want totake a chance with her health.

“My stomach is prettysensitive. You can’t go out ofthe SAI centre in Lucknow, soyou can’t get yourself a fewthings which you need. InLucknow, cases are rising butit’s safe in Haryana, so I ammore comfortable here.”

The WrestlingFederation of India (WFI) isnot impressed with reasonsgiven by the Asian GamesGold-medallist.

“The selection commit-tee will decide if Vineshwill get exemption or not.The camp is for players. Wewant preparation to kick offnow for Olympics,” said aWFI Assistant secretaryVinod Tomar.

“We are not running ashop for our benefit, thecamp is for players andwhen they express suchapprehensions, it’s a bit sur-prising,” he added. PTI

PTI n NEW DELHI

Suresh Raina was a“terrific team man”

who could haveamassed more runs ifhe had batted up theorder, said batting greatRahul Dravid, salutinghim for the role heplayed in India’s suc-cess in white-ball crick-et.

The 33-year-oldRaina surprised manywhen he followed hismentor MS Dhoni ininternational retirement,announcing his decision,just minutes after the for-mer India skipper called itquit on August 15.

Dravid, who hadpresented Raina withthe ODI and Test caps,on Tuesday paid glowingtribute to the left-handed

batsman.“A lot of success that India

had in white-ball cricket, a lotof great moments and memo-ries that India had over the lastdecade and a half, Suresh has

been a really big part of that.I think his contribution inwhite-ball cricket has been

fantastic,” he said in avideo posted by BCCI

on its Twitter handle.“He is a World

cup winner andChampionsTrophy win-ner. Hecontributed

so much onthe field, his

energy, the enthusi-asm he brought, the

way he raised the stan-dard of field ...”

A middle-order bats-man, Raina amassednearly 8000 runs repre-

senting India in 18 Tests, 226ODIs and 78 T20Is in an inter-national career spanning 13years.

“One thing we always feltis that Suresh did all the diffi-cult things,” said Dravid, whois the current NCA chief.

“For most part of hiscareer, he batted lower downthe order, fielded at difficultpositions and bowled somehandy overs and alwaysbrought a lot to the team. Aterrific team man, who alwaysgave his best, brought greatenergy to the game and a veryskillful batter.

“Honestly his numberscould have been a lot better ifhe had batted higher up theorder, that has been shown inthe success he had for CSK(Chennai Super Kings) in theIPL where he bats at No 3. Hehas been a phenomenal play-er for IPL.”

CHENNAI: Two-time World Cup-winningformer India captain Mahendra Singh Dhonihad nothing left to achieve and his interna-tional retirement is “close of an era”, said for-mer BCCI president N Srinivasan onTuesday.

“When Dhoni says he is retiring, it ismore than close of an era. He has captainedIndia to the 2007 T20 World Cup win, he hastaken India to 2011 World Cup win, inbetween there was a Champions Trophy. Hewas an outstanding leader, a great wicket-keeper, an attacking batsman. A person whomotivated the entire team,” Srinivasan said.

“What more is there for him to achieve?Every sportsperson knows that at some pointhe will call it quits. I am sad that he will notwear the India colours again. But I am gladthat he will continue to wear the CSKcolours,” he added. PTI

Rohit, Vinesh, Rani, Manika, Mariyappan picked for Khel Ratna

Vinesh pulls out of national camp citing health risk

MS’ retirement is closeof an era: Srinivasan

Appoint Younis as full-time batting

coach: Misbah advises PCB

Root would love to play in PakistanSOUTHAMPTON: Englandcaptain Joe Root has said he“would love” to play inPakistan but is unsure whenthe space could be found ina crowded schedule aheadof a planned tour in 2022.

England have notplayed in Pakistan since2005/06. “I’d love to go andvisit Pakistan,” Root said onMonday an echo of recentcomments made by coachChris Silverwood.

“It would be a great

opportunity to go and playthere personally.Unfortunately, it’s not mydecision to make but itlooks a wonderful countryto go and play cricket in.The wickets look nice andflat, which will be a nicechange to what we have justplayed on here,” the top-order batsman added.

Test cricket returnedto Pakistan in December,when Sri Lanka were thevisitors. AFP

Raina did all the difficult things

playing for India: Dravid

Ateam of researchers from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc)and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has

developed a sustainable process for making brick-like structureson the moon. It exploits lunar soil, and uses bacteria and guarbeans to consolidate the soil into possible load-bearingstructures. "These space bricks could eventually be used toassemble structures for habitation on the moons surface, theresearchers suggest," it said. "It is really exciting because itbrings two different fields biology and mechanical engineeringtogether,"says AlokeKumar,AssistantProfessor,IISc. WithEarth'sresourcesdwindlingrapidly,scientistshave onlyintensified their efforts to inhabit the moon and possibly otherplanets. The cost of sending one pound of material to outerspace is about Rs 7.5 lakh. The process developed by the IIScand ISRO team uses urea which can be sourced from humanurine and lunar soil as raw materials for construction on themoon's surface, it said.

Behemoth belly saves manfrom falling down a well

Lego piece falls from boy's nose after two years

Amissing piece of Lego has dropped out of a child's nose twoyears after he pushed it up. Seven-year-old Sameer Anwar of

Dunedin, in the south of New Zealand, inserted a tiny piece ofLego up his nose in 2018.Sameer's father, Mudassir, andhis wife became alarmed whentheir son told them he had lost apiece of Lego up his nose, andcouldn't find it. The concernedparents took their son to the GP,who was also unable to find, orremove it. With Sameer showingno signs of pain or distress, hisparents soon forgot about theordeal. Then last night, the"unbelievable" happened Anwarsaid. A plate of cupcakesprompted his son to lean downand take a great big sniff of them.Immediately, his nose began tohurt. Thinking he'd sniffed upsome cake crumbs, his motherhelped him blow his nose, hopingto thoroughly clear his nostrils.But instead of pink cake crumbs,out dropped a tiny piece of blackLego, covered in fungus.

Aman can thank his bulging midriff for saving his life afterhis sizeable belly got wedged in a well and stopped him

falling down, according to officials. The overweight 28-year-oldhas only been identified as Liu. He was trapped in his family'swell after breaking through wood used to cover it in hishometown of Fuliudian Village in Henan Province. An officialfire service video clip shared on social media showed rescuersarriving on the scene as the shirtless man patiently waited withhis arms crossed. He remained that way as gobsmacked localswatched ateam of atleast fivefirefighterstie a strongropearound hiswaist tofinallyheave himout tosafetycompletelyunharmedand unscathed, they said. Estimates of the man's weight variedfrom 300 pounds up to 500 pounds. Regardless, the forcesaid he only survived because he was "too fat" to fall down ashe seemingly jumped on the wood covering the well.

Flying squirrel that uses fur as parachute spotted

Scientists use urea to makebricks for buildings on moon

NEW

S

MostRead Woolly flying squirrel, that was thought to be extinct some

seventy years back, was spotted at Gangotri National Park inUttarakhand's Uttarkashi, informed Forest Research Institute, onMonday. "The Woolly flying squirrel was considered extinct 70years ago in the IUCN Red List. We spotted this squirrel in 13 ofthe 18 forest divisions of the state during a survey," said theinstitute. However, the scientists of Wildlife Institute of Indiasituated in Dehradun have spoken of the presence this squirrel inthe Bhagirath valley, and rare photographs of the have also beenfound. "Woolly flying squirrel uses its furry claws as a parachute tofly," Forest Research Institute told media.

IPL in UAE is much-needed "chaos"we need in our lives: Ravi Shastri

P Sailaja, sister ofrevered playbacksinger SP Bala-subrahmanyam,who is battlingCOVID-19 at

MGM Healthcare hospital inChennai, said that her elderbrother’s health condition isimproving day by day.“Doctors are happy with hisimprovement. He is off theventilator now. He is slowlyregaining consciousness,which is a good sign. He ispeeing regularly and doctorsare happy with it,” she said ina voice message on Tuesday.

As wishes for the singer’s

recovery and good healthcontinue to pour in fromacross the world, Sailaja isconvinced that Balu willcome out of the hospital inthe pink of health. “I knowthe whole world is prayingfor his speedy recovery andI'm sure he will get back tonormal health. I have theconfidence,” she noted.

On August 5, the 74-year-old singer had shared thenews of him contracting theinfection in a video messageon Facebook. He said he gothimself tested after experi-encing chest congestionalong with cold and fever.

However, hehad suffered asetback onAugust 13 andwas put on lifesupport.

Balu, who hasto his credit mul-tiple nationalawards for hisworks in Telugu,Tamil, Kannada andHindi in a career span-ning more than fivedecades, has recorded over40,000 songs in 16 Indianlanguages. He has also beenhonoured with the PadmaShri and Padma Bhushan.

ctress Nidhhi Agerwal says shehas been extra careful about stayingfit through the lockdown months.

“It’s been a productive lockdown forme. I have learnt a lot of fitness-relatedthings. I started doing yoga, and have done

some detoxing too. I feel all these things have helpedme develop beautiful changes in my body,” Nidhhi said.

Nidhhi, who turned 27 on Monday, says it felt great tobe able to spend the whole day on her birthday with fami-

ly, for a change.“I stayed at home, cut cakes and spent quality time

with family members. Spending quality time withmy closed ones is always on my wish list. I also

want to open a charitable organisation,” sheadded, sharing her birthday wish list.

Nidhhi, who is best known for MrMajnu and iSmart Shankar, has

four films coming up.

ontinuing hisfondness towardsone-film old direc-tors, Prabhas onTuesdayannounced his

new film with Hindi directorOm Raut, who made asmashing Bollywood debutearlier this year with AjayDevgn-starrer Tanhaji: TheUnsung Warrior (The Pioneerwas the first to inform youthat the actor expressed hisinterest in a story narrated byOm Raut on July 4th). Thiswould be the first time thatthe actor, who has developeda nation-wide following cour-tesy SS Rajamouli’s two-partBaahubali, will be teaming upwith a director from north fora pan-India film.

Titled Adipurush, it will bea screen adaptation of a chap-ter from an Indian epic(believed to be Ramayana,with Prabhas attached to playLord Rama) that revolvesaround the triumph of goodover evil. The title poster hasa silhouette of Lord Ram inthe middle aiming skywardswith his bow, and an image ofa stern Lord Hanuman in thebackground. The 10 heads ofRavana are also visible in thebottom.

To be shot inHindi andTelugusimultane-

ously and later dubbed intoTamil, Malayalam, Kannadaand other foreign languages,the film, a 3D action specta-cle high on visual effects, willbe a joint production ven-ture between BhushanKumar, KrishanKumar, Om Raut,Prasad Sutar andRajesh Nair.Presently in pre-productionphase, it willhave the cam-eras rolling nextyear, with a 2022global theatricalbow.

Prabhas wasfull of the joysof springspeaking aboutthe project, say-ing that portray-ing a characterlike this comeswith tremendousresponsibility andpride. “I’m excited toportray this characterof our epic, espe-cially the wayOm has

designed it,” he said.For Bhushan, who has

grown up listening to ourtales from history, Adipurushis a dream project. “When

Om narrated the script ofAdipurush, I instantly

knew I’m going to bea part of it. The

audience shouldget ready toexperience a

story theybelieve in, onthe big screenwith spectac-ular visualsand magnani-

mous charac-ters,” he point-ed out.

Raut isgrateful to

Prabhas foraccepting thepart and believ-

ing in the visionhe had for the

project. “Weembark on this

journey with prideand passion andpromise the audiencean experience like

never before,” heassured, while

thanking

Bhushan for his “uncondi-tional support” to realise hisdream project.

The makers have alsoinformed that talks areunderway with some bignames of Bollywood to playthe antagonist in the film.While the technical com-position is yet to befinalized, one namethat is confirmed as ofnow is that of KarthikPalani, the lensmanwho received plauditsfor his work in KeerthySuresh-starrerPenguin.

Meanwhile,Prabhas still needs towrap up more than 30percent of RadheShyam with Jil fameRadha Krishna. Aftercompleting this film,whose shoot is likelyto resume next monthin Europe, he will diveheadlong into thefilming of NagAshwin’s next, a scien-tific-thriller set againstthe backdrop of an imag-inary third world war. Itremains to be seen whenhe will begin Raut’s filmnext year as he is notknown to juggle between

sets.

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Vijayawada Wednesday August 19 2020tollywood

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To be shot in Hindi and Telugu simultaneouslyand later dubbed into Tamil, Malayalam,

Kannada and other foreign languages, the film,a 3D action spectacle high on visual effects, willbe a joint production venture between BhushanKumar, Krishan Kumar, Om Raut, Prasad Sutar

and Rajesh Nair, finds NAGARAJ GOUD

Prabhas as ADIPURUSHin Tanhaji director's

adaptation of Indian epic

Southern star SamanthaAkkineni has five new earpiercings that she is

flaunting on social media.

“New piercings”, she wrotealongside the picture.

Samantha recently shared thatshe is obsessed with the colourgreen, going by her recent

social media post.

SAMANTHAFLAUNTS FIVENEW PIERCINGS

Learnt a lot offitness-relatedthings duringlockdown:Nidhhi

Annayya'sconditionimproves:SP Sailaja

ctor Satya, who is known forhis comic turns in films likeKarthikeya, Ekkadiki PothavuChinnavada and the recentsuper hit Mathu Vadalara, isattached to play the lead in

Sundeep Kishan’s third productionventure, Vivaha Bhojanambu, accord-ing to reports. The film’s title was offi-cially announced on Monday, withSundeep revealing that “one of myfavourite actors will debut as a hero” with the project.

While the actor-producer had a planto introduce his main lead, it seems the

cat is out of the bag. A slice of life wed-ding comedy, Vivaha Bhojanambu willbe Drishti director Ram Abbaraju’ssecond project. He will be directing itfrom a script of Bhanu Bhogavarapu.

Presented by well-known producerP Kiran of Anandhi Art Creations, theproject will be a joint production ven-ture between Sundeep’s VenkatadriTalkies and KS Sinish’s SoldiersFactory. The film’s unit is yet to arriveat a suitable date to commence filmingin the wake of soaring COVID-19cases in Greater Hyderabad limits forthe past 45 days.

Comedian Satya to debut as a hero?

A

ith the shoot of his untitlednext with Rakul Preet Singhand Vaisshnav Tej set to rollnext month, Krish isassembling a strong techni-cal force. While we’ve

already told you that VS GnanaShekar, who has shot most ofKrish’s Telugu films fromKrishnam Vande Jagadgurum,has been signed on as the cine-matographer, we’ve now learntthat MM Keeravani has beenroped in as the music compos-er. This would the second timethat Krish will be working withthe picky venerated composer

after Vedam. In fact, for hisperiod drama with PawanKalyan as well, Keeravani isscoring the musical notes.

We further hear that musicsessions between Keeravani andKrish have started for the newproject, which will be shot inVikarabad forests in less than50 days in adherence with allCOVID-19 guidelines.Acclaimed lyricist Chandraboseis penning the songs. FirstFrame Entertainments is pro-ducing the venture, whose storydetails are kept are under atight lock and key.

W

Keeravani's tunes for Krish