2ConCerned over ban on Chinese apps, Xi govt reaChes out to india

10Current bowlers probably up against better batting units: Jayawardene

6analysing india’s options to aChieve ‘Chini Kam’

eu suspends paK airlines over faKe pilot liCenCe sCamNew Delhi/islamabaD: in a major setback to islamabad, the european Union has suspended Pakistan international airlines (Pia) for six months over its fake pilot licence scandal. in an official letter, the european Union aviation safety agency (easa) said that though the Pia claims that it has grounded all pilots that were part of the list of fraudulent licence holders com-piled by the Pakistani authorities, it does not mitigate its concern, as there are strong indications that a high number of Pakistani pilot licences are invalid.

india’s Core industrial output plunges by 23% in mayNew Delhi: Output pace of india’s eight major industries plunged in may 2020 by over 23%, official data showed on Tuesday. however, the rate of fall in the index of eight Core industries decelerated on a sequential ba-sis on account of partial opening of economic activities during may 2020. On a sequential basis, the index of eight Core industries for may 2020 declined by 23.4% (provisional) compared to decline of 37% (provisional) during the previous month of april 2020. The eight core industries include coal, crude oil, natural gas, re-finery products, fertilisers, steel, cement and electricity.

assam flood situation grim, 15 laKh people hit, 27 deadGUwahaTi: The current phase of floods in assam, triggered by heavy rains, remained grim on Tuesday claiming three more lives taking the death toll to 27 while affecting over 14.94 lakh people in 23 of the state’s 33 dis-tricts, officials said. according to assam state Disaster manage-ment authority (asDma) officials in the current wave of floods since early last week, 12 people have so far died in barpeta, Dhemaji, Udalguri, Goalpara and Dibrugarh districts taking the total death toll to 27 in the floods and 23 more people were killed in separate landslides since 22 may.

01 july 2020 | Issue 59 | new delhi

In his latest step to ensure that economic dislocation and pain caused by the Covid-19

pandemic are lessened and then eliminated, Prime Minister Nar-endra Modi on Tuesday assured each and every citizen of India that the government would ensure their well-being.

The scheme to give free food items to nearly 900 million citi-

zens belonging to lower economic strata, has been extended to the end of November and is estimated to cost a total of Rs 1.5 lakh crore this year alone. The higher fig-ure is because of Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s announcement of adding around 90 million more people (classified as ‘migrants’) to the public distri-bution system. Presumably, these citizens will also get the benefit of the extension of this scheme. This is a very welcome step that

ensures implementation of the National Food Safety Act 2013, mandating that 75% of the real population and 50% of the urban population needed to have their basic foodgrain needs covered by state action. Given that fully 50% of the urban population remain uncovered, and the fact that their living standards are scarcely bet-ter than that of their rural cous-ins, perhaps 75% level of coverage needs to be introduced for urban areas as well.

The PM showed that he recog-nised the immense contribution made by honest taxpayers in ensuring that welfare measures could be devised and implement-ed, by placing them alongside farmers and workers. This trio has, by their efforts, become ex-emplars of national will and resil-ience. In his address, he refused to join issues with discordant voices across the other end of the political spectrum, focusing only on what was done, and what needed to be

done, to ensure that (in the words of another leader) “every tear from every eye” was wiped away. From the start, Modi has considered himself not the topmost official in the country in terms of high responsibility, but as a “sevak” dedicated to the advancement of India. In his words, whether an individual be the village head or the Prime Minister, both are equal before the law. This was a direct reference to the longstanding co-lonial-era practice of a separation

between government and the gov-erned, caused as a consequence of different protocols and mecha-nisms depending on official rank, with non-officials nowhere in the reckoning. The message, that civil society was important in its own right, was a major takeaway of the 30 June address to the nation that began at 4 pm and lasted a little over 15 minutes of intense messag-ing to 1.29 billion people of India.

While the death rate in India has

every Citizen will be looKed after, pm modi assures the nation

hitting the bullseye!

Ace archers Deepika Kumari and Atanu Das during their wedding ceremony in Ranchi on Tuesday. ANI

tuesday speeCh

hit baCK

malware threat ‘Jugaad hall of fame’striCt aCtion

After Chinese apps, now it’s the turn of Chinese firms

India may face serious cyber attack via films

Mumbai’s first ‘home system’ auto a big hit in Covid times

Covid-reCovered patients Can now fly within three weeKs: aviation ministry

Prime Minister Narendra Modi announces the extension of PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana till November end, giving free food items to 900 million citizens belonging to lower economic strata.

After hitting China with a digital strike by banning 59 of its apps, including im-mensely popular TikTok, the Indian government is now planning to tighten the noose around the Dragon by chalking out a detailed action plan of a crackdown on Chi-nese companies, government sources told The Daily Guard-ian. As India plans for a 5G network, it is expected that the Modi government might exclude Chinese companies like Huawei from 5G spec-trum auctions. It is being said that this move would possi-bly upset the Xi Jinping-led

government in China.In a meeting of senior

Union ministers held on Monday, talks were held about Chinese companies like Huawei and others on whether to make them a part of 5G spectrum auction or not. Meanwhile, the Modi govern-ment has also asked telecom companies to not use Chinese equipment. A decision on the latest cellular network and possible banning of Chinese companies or products is expected soon. Apart from this, rules are also being for-mulated to reduce import of Chinese products.

The auction has been de-layed for at least one year due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Huawei has already lost the spectrum race in Singapore, with Nokia-Ericsson win-ning the race there. The US and Australia have already banned Huawei from the trial due to security concerns and it’s expected that the In-dian government is looking to follow the suit. The US has been pushing its allies like the UK and India to ban Chi-nese companies from bidding for 5G as there are suspicions that the compensation is col-luding with the People’s Lib-eration Army (PLA). Other bidders like Vodafone, Idea were also discussed in the meeting.

In the meantime, the gov-

Amidst tensions between India and China, cyber ex-perts believe that India may face a serious cyber attack. The Maharashtra cyber department has given out a list of 10 movies and 10 web series which one should not watch on free websites. If a person clicks on such free websites, a malware is downloaded without the knowledge of the person and all information either from computer or mobile is hacked. The hacker may sell the information to foreign

handlers or harass the per-son demanding ransom.

Nowadays, due to the lockdown, most people are at home, watching mov-ies, web series or online content. The Maharashtra cyber department said that the number of people using the Internet has increased these days. The cyber crimi-nals are taking advantage of this. When a person clicks on such free websites where movies, web series are up-loaded, a malware is down-loaded without the knowl-edge of the user and all the information from computer or mobile is hacked by the

cyber criminal.The Maharashtra cyber

department has given a list of movies and web series. The movies are: Mardaani 2; Zootopia; Jawani Diwani; Chhapak; Love Aaj Kal; Incep-tion; Bahubali; Rajnidandha; Gully Boy and Bala. The list of web series includes: Delhi Crime; Brooklyan Nine-nine; Panchayat; Akoori; Fauda; Ghoul; Mindhunter; Narcos; Devlok; and Lost.

The Maharashtra cyber department has filed total 512 cyber-related cases in lockdown; 273 people have been arrested till now. Dur-

this is the initial step in the path towards the Country's finest daily newspaper.

sharpest Kid on the bloCK

top of the day

The photographs of an au-torickshaw in Mumbai are going viral on social me-dia, where the driver has included several facilities in his vehicle, converting it into the “first home sys-tem” auto-rickshaw. This autorickshaw has a wash-basin with handwash dis-penser, hand sanitiser, mo-bile phone charging points, Wi-Fi, newspaper, grass mat, window garden and a desktop monitor.

Satyawan Gite, a 43-year-old resident of Mumbai, has named the vehicle “Mum-bai’s first home system autorickshaw”, which is imprinted on the vehicle. Taking “Swachh Bharat

Abhiyan” to another level, he has kept two dustbins for dry and wet waste in his autorickshaw. Also, dur-ing the Covid-19 pandemic, people are not opting for public transport but if the auto is this well-maintained then who wouldn’t go for it!“The reason behind doing this is to provide better ser-vices to passengers,” says Satyawan, adding: “In my

autorickshaw, riders can enjoy all the facilities that they have in their homes. I also don’t charge senior citizens for rides up to one kilometre.”Actress Twinkle Khanna

has also taken to Instagram to share the pictures of Satyawan’s autorickshaw and wrote, “Equipped with a window garden, washba-sin and a desktop monitor, this genius Mumbai rick-shaw belongs in the Jugaad Hall Of Fame.” Actor Ak-shay Kumar too admired his innovative rickshaw.Asked if he has received

any appreciation from the government, Satyawan answers, “I am looking for-ward to it and wish that the government notices my ef-forts and encourages others.”

As the coronavirus caseload in India exceeds the 5-lakh mark with over 3 lakh recov-eries, the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) on Tues-day updated its earlier order and has allowed recovered patients to fly within three months of recovery instead of two months. According to the previous order, pas-sengers had to give a dec-laration that they have not tested Covid-positive in the last two months. The norms have been eased to allow recovered patients to travel without any hardships.“With regard to the evolving Covid-19 situation, where

new cases that have been cured are in large numbers, a need has been felt to up-date this provision to avoid hardships in the matter of air travel to the persons cured/recovered from Cov-id-19. It has accordingly been decided to update the provi-sion (Covid-negative for last three weeks instead of two months) and recovered persons fulfilling this condi-tion will be allowed to travel upon showing a recovered/discharged certificate from any institution dealing with Covid-19 subjects,” Avia-tion Ministry joint secretary Usha Padhee said.

This decision comes at a time when the Ministry of

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Maharashtra cyber department issues list of movies, web series one should not watch on free websites.

Huawei may lose 5G bid as Modi govt tightens noose around Chinese companies.

Satyawan Gite with actor Akshay Kumar.

every Citizen will be looKed after, pm modi assures the nation

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battling virus

fighting pandemiC

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After Chinese apps, now it’s the turn of Chinese firms

India may face serious cyber attack via films

Covid-reCovered patients Can now fly within three weeKs: aviation ministry

2 news t h e da i ly gua r d i a n0 1 j u ly 2 0 2 0n ew d e l h i

Frontline corona warriors like doctors, nurses and police personnel have been hailed

for working during the pandemic. A group of workers who have largely gone unnoticed but have equally been at the frontline of the fight against the virus are ASHA workers and Civil Defence personnel. ASHAs (accredited social health activists) are local women trained to act as health educators and promoters in their communities. The Civil Defence per-sonnel have been deployed to stand with the ASHA workers and ensure rules, regulations are followed by all individuals. 

During the nationwide lockdown, these workers were working to con-duct surveys, visit homes of quar-antined individuals to stick posters and even home deliver medicines

to Covid-19 positive patients. With no proper salary structure, both ASHA workers and Civil Defence personnel live off the work done by them during the month i.e. commis-sions. When the pandemic hit and the nation went into lockdown, both groups were thrust into the frontline with one of their major tasks being to conduct surveys so as to establish contact tracing of Covid-19 positive patients and deliver essentials to those in quarantine.

Seeing the extreme danger that these workers were putting them-selves in, the Centre as well as state governments had offered incen-tives to these warriors for their self-less service. The on-ground reality, though, remains entirely different.

“Since March we haven’t been paid our dues. They said something about incentives to work during co-rona but now we are left asking for our basic pay. We get paid Rs 753 a

day. Our job is to ensure the safety of ASHA workers and maintain law and order. Now we’re been pushed into doing the same job as an ASHA worker. We are giving medicines to Corona positive patients, we con-duct surveys and we are even stick-ing posters outside homes,” said Artee Chowdhury, a civil defence service person.

The ASHA workers also tell a simi-lar tale of how they’ve not been paid their dues and have been offered abysmally low incentives. “We earn only Rs 3,000 a month, we were told a Rs 33 incentive for each day of working since March. Even if you keep aside the fact that we haven’t been paid, do you think Rs 33 a day is enough to ensure I can get immu-nity boosting medicines for my chil-dren? Do you think it is enough for me to buy a mask and gloves daily? We aren’t given any protective equip-ment,” said Shiksha Rana, an ASHA

worker in Delhi’s New Ashok Nagar. Maharashtra-based Priyanka

Praveen Kudle too has a similar sto-ry. “I live and work in a village called Nerle, in Maharashtra’s Sangli. I take great pains to ensure my family stays safe. I enter through the back door and my husband keeps a bucket of hot water outside. I wash my clothes, take a bath there itself and only then enter my house,” she said. Kudle was sent to a 7-km-away nearby vil-lage of Islampur, where 11 corona-positive patients were detected. She was tasked with contact tracing and helping quarantine the individuals. She was assured Rs 250 a day up to a maximum of Rs 2,000, she hasn’t been paid since March.

We tried to reach out to Delhi Rev-enue Minister Kailash Gahlot, but he did not respond to our queries and state health minister Satyendra Jain is currently unavailable as he’s recov-ering from Covid-19 himself.

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CorreSponDentNew Delhi

China found a taste of its own medicine when the In-dian government banned 59 Chinese apps. On Tuesday, it reached out to India, ex-pressing anxiety about the ban imposed by India on popular app like TikTok and WeChat, among others.

During a news briefing on Tuesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said in Beijing, “China is strongly concerned about the relevant notice issued by the Indian side. We are checking on and verifying the situation. We want to stress that the Chinese gov-ernment always asks the Chinese businesses to abide by international and local laws and regulations.

Zhao said that India also has a responsibility to up-hold the rights of Chinese businesses. “The practical cooperation between China and India is actually mutu-ally beneficial and win-win,” he added.

In a diplomatic reaction to the Chinese aggression along the Line of Actual Control in Ladakh, where 20 Indian soldiers and an unknown number of Chinese troops were killed two weeks ago, India on Monday banned over 50 Chinese mobile ap-plications.

The government in its statement said that the 59 applications were prejudi-cial to the sovereignty and

integrity of India, defence of India, security of state and public order. “This move will safeguard the interests of crores of Indian mobile and internet users,” the Indian IT ministry statement said.

Since the violent face-off and aggressive posturing of Beijing, there has been a vocal sentiment against the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) regime in India.with AGency imputS

Concerned over ban on Chinese apps, Xi govt reaches out to India

ing analysis, it was found that

196 cases were regis-tered for forwarding offensive WhatsApp

messages; 213 cases for sharing of-fensive Facebook posts; 28 cases for TikTok video sharing and Twitter. There have been 11 cases of offensive tweets, four cases of making incorrect posts on Insta-gram and 60 cases of misuse of

other social media (audio clips, YouTube) and 273 accused have been arrested so far. Of these, 108 objectionable posts have been tak-en down.

Cyber expert Ankur Puranik said: “Every time, these cyber criminals use a new modus ope-randi or technique to reach your mobile. They always try to put malware software inside your mobile phone. They try to know

your passwords and OTP. They send messages by different of-fers, links which have free Netflix subscription, free data, and Paytm verification. As soon as you click on such links or messages, a virus is installed in your mobile phone or computer and all your data is leaked to the cyber criminal. Pura-nik added: “Always keep backing up. Use different mobile phones if option is available. Most impor-

tantly, don’t keep all applications open; keep other applications off while running one application. In Paytm, keep the limit of payment. Most importantly, install antivirus, anti-malware software in your computer and mobile.”

The Maharashtra cyber depart-ment has urged all citizens to avoid watching movies or web series on such free websites. If one has downloaded such a movie or web

series and it asks for some permis-sion before playing it, such per-mission should not be given and the file should be deleted, the de-partment has advised. Preferably movies or web series from official and convincing websites should be watched. If any charges are in-volved, they should be paid. It has been advised to install the latest antivirus software on one’s mobile and computer.

Civil Avia-tion has given its nod to increase the capacity of

domestic flight operations to 45% from 33% allowed at present and also suspended international operations further till 15 July. However, Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) permitted few international flights to resume on selected routes

on a case to case basis.Minister of Civil Avia-

tion Hardeep Singh Puri had earlier said that more than 2 million passengers had been ferried on close to 23,000 flights since domes-tic air operations resumed from 25 May. The relaxation in norms and increased do-mestic air capacity would encourage more people to travel by air.

been kept low by various measures, it was pointed out that

lack of discipline in following the rule book (needed to en-sure lowering of the spread of Covid-19) had resulted in an increase in cases after Unlock 1.0 was announced. In a few hours, Unlock 2.0 will begin. Specifically, it was essential to wear masks in public places, wash both hands often and thoroughly and avoid locations where community spread is a risk, especially in designated “hot zones” which are witness-ing a spike in the number of cases. From the start, Prime

Minister Modi has trusted the people, and at the very start of his first term, he re-moved the requirement that a gazetted officer needed to attest the statement of a citi-zen, making only the signa-ture of the citizen necessary for official purposes.

As pointed out in his 30 June address to the nation, overall citizens complied with the measures necessary to bring down the number of cases, a few had not. This small and socially irrespon-sible segment of the popula-tion was gently warned by PM Modi that their behav-iour could harm the nation, and was not acceptable. The

three steps recommended by him have been shown to bring down the risk of infec-tion up to fifty times in popu-lations surveyed, provided of course that face masks were kept clean through washing and drying rather than be al-lowed to accumulate toxins.

Apart from ensuring public health, lower rate of infections and Covid-19 fa-talities, the economy was at the centre of his attention. It was clearly indicated that a resurgence of economic ac-tivity will be among the top priorities of the Prime Min-ister. Given the move away from PRC-based logistics chains—especially in ser-

vices and manufacturing—the opportunity for India to become a global manu-facturing and services hub has opened up. In 1947-51 as well, the destruction of Japa-nese capacity and the much lower capacity of countries neighbouring India had of-fered a similar chance at middle income status in record time. However, the strangulation of private in-dustry (except that of a few close to the power structure) from the 1950s to much of the 1980s prevented that. As a consequence, the per capita income and produc-tion of India is still abysmal-ly small in comparison with

several countries to its east and north. It is clear from his address to the nation that he is seized of the need to ensure that the adminis-trative structure be reset in a manner that would facili-tate enterprise and innova-tion. The expected cabinet reshuffle as well as measures to be announced will show the roadmap devised by the Prime Minister for this long-delayed makeover of the governance mechanism to reflect the needs of growth rather than the hunger for control of a bureaucracy that has grown exponentially over the years at immense cost to the taxpayer. Such a

reform would ensure that the “Vocal for Local” catch-word of the Prime Minister becomes a reality.

The 1.29 billion people of India have what may be called “great expecta-tions” from Modi 2.0. The momentum lost due to Co-vid-19 needs to be made up, and existing gaps in public welfare to be bridged. The period ahead will witness the many steps that Prime Minister Modi will be tak-ing to ensure that the “India Dream” does not remain a “Bollywood fantasy”, but be made through systematic policy initiatives part of the everyday life of the citizen.

ernment is looking to licence imports (non-tar-iff measures) of

10-12 China-made products. Work had begun on this front several months ago but it gained momentum after the recent LAC tensions. Initially, the list included products like incense sticks, tires and palm oil but now air condi-tioners and TVs are also be-ing included in the list. The government is also focusing on reducing imports and in-

creasing domestic produc-tion. Steel, aluminium, foot-wear, potatoes, oranges, etc, are among the local products that will be given incentives to be made locally.

The Indian government is pushing domestic produc-tion of a wide range of prod-ucts, which includes items like lithium ion batteries, antibiotics, petrochemicals, auto and mobile parts, toys, sports goods, TV sets, solar equipment and electronics integrated circuits.

With the recovery rate of Covid-19 patients in the country nearly 60%, the Union Ministry of Health & Family Welfare has at-tributed the fact to the collective and focussed efforts of the Centre and states for containment and management of the pandemic. As on date, there are 1,19,696 more recovered patients than Covid-19 active cases. The number of active Covid-19 cases stands at 2,15,125, while 3,35,271 patients have been cured/discharged. A total of 13,099 Covid-19 patients have re-covered in the last 24 hours. The country›s total number of Cov-id-19 cases stands at 5,66,840.

Maharashtra has been the most affected in the country by this epidemic. In the last 24 hours, 4,878 new cases have been regis-tered in the state and 245 people

have died, the total number of people affected has increased to 1,74,761 and the death toll from this deadly virus has increased to 7,855. While 1,951 patients dis-charged in a single day takes the total to 90,911 Covid-19 patients discharged after full recovery, the recovery rate in the state is 52.02%. In Maharashtra, out of 9,66,723 laboratory samples, 1,74,761 have been tested positive (18.07%) for Covid-19. Currently in the state, 5,78,033 people are in home quarantine and 38,866 people are in institutional quar-antine. Lockdown in Maharash-tra has been extended till 31July.

Followed by Maharashtra, Delhi remains the second worst affected state. In the past 24 hours, Delhi recorded 2,199 cases of Covid-19; the total number of cases has now increased to 87,360. In the past 24 hours, 62 patients died, taking the total number of deaths in Delhi to

2,742.In the past 24 hours, 2,113 people recovered, taking the total number of those recovered till date to 58,348.

In Tamil Nadu, 3,943 fresh Cov-id-19 positive cases were identified and 60 deaths have been reported in the last 24 hours. The total num-ber of cases rose to 90,167, includ-ing 38,889 active cases, 50,074 dis-charged cases and 1,201 deaths. In Gujarat, too, the corona outbreak is in full swing and the number of infected has reached 32,639 with 620 new cases reported during the last 24 hours -- 20 patients have lost their lives taking the total death due to Covid-19 in the state to 1,848.

Meanwhile, the country›s “first” indigenous Covid-19 vaccine CO-VAXIN, developed by Bharat Bio-tech in collaboration with ICMR and NIV, has got the nod for hu-man clinical trials from the Drug Controller General of India.

Project PLATINA, the world’s largest convales-cent plasma therapy trial-cum-treatment project for severe Covid-19 patients, was launched on Monday by the Medical Education and Drugs Department (MED). Chief Minister Ud-dhav Thackeray inaugurated the project and allocated Rs 16.85 crore for the project through CM Cares Fund. The government intends to benefit and save around 500

lives of critically-ill Covid-19 patients.

As per health department, convalescent plasma thera-py is now being considered as one of the most impor-tant methods in the treat-ment of severe Covid-19 patients in the absence of definite treatment drugs for the same. The trial will be carried out in 17 medical colleges under the Maha-rashtra Medical Education and Drugs Department (MED), Maharashtra gov-ernment and four BMC medical colleges in Mumbai

(21 centres). All critical pa-tients will receive two doses of 200 ml of convalescent plasma. The plasma of re-covered patients contains antibodies against corona-virus thereby fighting the infection and helping criti-cally-ill patients greatly.

The entire plasma therapy treatment will be free for all Covid-19 patients admitted in the above centres. Donors are available in large num-bers and have no weakness whatsoever after plasma do-nation as RBC are returned to the patient.

A petition filed in the Delhi High Court has sought directions to the Delhi government to constitute a nodal agency to regulate and manage plasma donors to aid treatment of Covid-19 patients.

The petition, moved by Advocate Mujeeb Ur Rehman, wants to mandate donation of plasma by every patient who has success-fully recovered from Covid-19 and coordi-nation with requests of plasma needed for treatment.

It seeks sharing of all the required data of recovered Covid patients with hospitals in view of the exponential rise in the num-ber of cases, at a time when finding plasma donors is getting difficult in the absence of alternative remedies. The petition also seeks extraordinary steps to save maximum lives during an unprecedented pandemic, espe-cially when it is hard to approach Covid-re-covered patients and hospitals for plasma donation.

chinese Foreign ministry spokesman Zhao lijian.

Recovered Covid cases near 60%: Health Ministry

World’s largest plasma therapy trial for Covid patients launChed

pil seeKs nodal agenCy to regulate plasma donors for Covid treatment

As lockdown closed 1.3 billion Indians inside their homes,

one confronts an unprec-edented choice between life and money. What is life with-out money and what mean-ing is money if life slips away! “Yes, money is Alladin’s lamp,” as Lord Byron puts it and mankind’s strongest signature through crisis. Co-vid-19 pandemic has turned the world upside down as no other catastrophe could do in the last many centuries. The most sacred meaning of mon-ey is that it makes you what you are. Covid-19 transforms world economy in which the much despised consumer-ism and materialism have given way to simplicity and frugality. Yet, this becomes a cause for recession and sub-sequent depression of the world economy in which the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal Agenda for 2030 is most severely hit.

The current pandemic has been a disaster on global and national economies which are passing through their worst contraction since

World War II. This would mean that money flow, jobs, per capita income and GDP are set to decline. This con-traction is estimated to be more than 5% by the World Bank, but most economists as well as the projections from Goldman Sachs and Crisil put this higher than 15% as they find the mar-ket severely handicapped in the absence of required labour, Gross Value Added and lack of demand. Lately, the IMF has also revised its earlier estimate of 3% drop to a much higher 4.9% within a month. This may result in a cumulative loss of $9 tril-lion to global GDP by 2021 which is greater than the economies of Japan and Ger-many combined. India has so far not applied for the $100 billion Rapid Credit facility (RCF) and Rapid Financing instrument (RFI) of IMF to support Covid-affected countries. Bangladesh, Ne-pal and the Maldives have al-ready received financial sup-port under this IMF facility. Under these circumstances the Rs 20 lakh crore stimulus package of the government may not immediately help most MSMEs as it does not inspire a demand stimulus in the market which is a ma-jor cause of worry, starting much before the pandemic.

With unemployment rate shooting up from a pre-lock-down 6.74% to almost 27% by mid-May, pushing more than 40 crore people into abject poverty, it is impossible to see the demand rising with-

out releasing an appropri-ate amount of money in the hands of the maximum num-ber of consumers. The service industry is devastated with no signs of bouncing back as labour participation rate (LPR) fell from above 42% in late February to less than 39% by May, with cities hurt more directly than villages. The sudden mass exodus of 90 lakh migrant daily wagers who do not wish to return in near future suggests that problems are here to stay longer.

The pandemic has dented many lives. Wage labourers and domestic helpers pulled back their children from city schools and seemed deter-mined never to return. The UNICEF and ILO reports highlight that more than 320 million children are affected by school closures and more than 94 millions of them would now be pushed to work due to Covid-19. It’s sad that all efforts of government and communities against

child labour for almost two decades is lost in a stroke as children leave schools to return to factories. The pan-demic has also brought to surface an embedded gender disparity caused by bringing classrooms to the Internet. As per NSSO data of 2017-18, only 16% of girls have access to the Internet as compared to 36% of boys who become the selected beneficiaries of obtaining education. The job market also reveals that wom-en are the first to lose jobs vis-à-vis men and within the first lockdown period alone 220 million women lost jobs. For every 13 men there are 36 women being laid off from work during the pandemic.

The government will be faced with precarious choices at the face of slug-gish economy and distressed communities. The key chal-lenge for the moment is to balance economic sustain-ability alongside Covid-19 policy measures of social distancing, travel curbs

and health management. A multipronged approach to governance reforms which could invest in R&D, health sector, training in manage-ment of biological disasters, in communication and arti-ficial intelligence could bring some hope. Government has been making efforts to ensure flow of money in the market and bring focused reforms. However, market demands rise with festivals and mar-riage seasons which continue throughout the year and en-sure institutional release of money in the form of loans, bonuses and incentives keep transactions positive. This demand-driven market had been in relative silence for the last two years as the top 20% key spenders were holding on to their money in anticipation of uncertain markets.

Under these circumstances the government should be in-creasing the flow of money at the lowest levels of income to push demands through schemes like MNREGA. The

government has also released a Rs 15,000 crore package to provide a boost to the health sector. This may only be step one. The next step is towards bailing out sectors which are labour-intensive such as the construction sector as it alone employs more than 12% of the country’s labour. Step three would be an opening of all educational institutions and let young people learn the art and science of co-existing with Covid-19. The future of this country is rusting with accumulating mental agonies of remaining locked up for too long. The young would definitely learn to move from physical distancing to social responsibility much faster than the adults. A bottom-up approach with greater inclusivity at all levels of governance builds up a strong community resilience system with ability to co-exist with Covid-19.The writer is Professor of Admin-istrative Reforms and Emergen-cy Governance, JNU.

A bottom-up approach needed to fight Covid-19Such an initiative with greater inclusivity at all levels of governance builds up a strong community resilience system with ability to co-exist with the virus.

The ongoing standoff along the Line of Actual Control in Ladakh is a clear case of external aggression and based on our ancient texts the government should not shy away from giving a strong military response.

LAC fACe-off

Life Vs LiVeLihood

The hospitality sector is clearly the worst hit dur-ing the lockdown, and the opening up has come with too many riders to expect a quick revival. As we move towards Lockdown 2.0, let’s do a reality check. The re-opening happened on 8 June but the footfalls at restaurants and cafes are only 10-15% of the pre-Covid days. Much of this is because of the 9 pm curfew (now extended to 10 pm) which means dinner is off the menu and the ban on serv-ing alcohol. As Navneet Kalra, Partner, Townhall, Public Affairs, Mr Choy restaurants, told me on my weekly show Roundtable on NewsX, “These days, with all the sanitisation protocols in play, it is safer to visit a restaurant than a chemist shop.” As for the ban on alcohol, he pointed out (and with impeccable logic if you ask me) “that a customer undertakes the same amount of risk when he has a meal outside as to whether he has the meal with a glass of wine or without it”. So, the plea from the industry is that the government should reconsider both the ban on serving alcohol and also increase the curfew limit to 11 pm.

Another panelist on the show, Raaj Sanghvi, CEO, Culinary Culture, India’s first authorita-tive restaurant rating organisation (also known as India’s answer to the Michelin Guide), added, “When lockdown was announced there was some hope, the restaurateurs were looking at the prec-edents from other countries. For instance in the UK, the government stepped in and was paying part of the wage bill… In India I don’t think we have found a viable solution as yet. Restaurants were allowed to reopen but at 50% capacity and a 9 pm curfew. Many restaurateurs say that 70% of their business comes from dinner, so the situ-ation is grim.”

A key component of any service sector is the people, and with travel yet to take off this has had a domino effect on the hospitality sector. Prashant Pitti, Executive Director of EaseMyTrip.Com, pointed out: “Although domestic flights have reopened since end May, so far the only 30-40% passengers of the pre-Covid load have returned. Of these only 10-15% is the discretionary traveler.” While Pitti is not so hopeful of seeing the busi-ness traveller back in the air any time soon, to paraphrase an earlier chat I had with Ajay Singh of SpiceJet Airlines -- he was of the view that busi-ness travel would pick up as the nature of most meetings is not just a structured conversation with one person but to network at a larger scale, and sometimes more informal scale, than what hap-pens during Zoom calls.

Whichever form it takes, first travel has to pick up and then only will tourism and allied services get a boost. India is still to allow foreign airlines back, though negotiations are on. But travel will take a while to take off, with even the most opti-mistic estimate stating it won’t be before October at the very least. Which means either the govern-ment steps in with much more comprehensive support measures than announced so far, or the hospitality sector steps out.Priya Sahgal

perspectiveLockdown woes

UNLoCKiNG The hosPiTALiTY seCToR

India is currently facing a violent standoff with China that may lead to a limited war. There is a clear attempt from the Chinese side to in-timidate India, create new ground facts along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and grab Indian territory -- all of which are guided by Chinese

expansionist policies rooted in their civilisational vision of tianxia.

Since India, like China, is a civilisational state and the current Chinese threat is rooted in Chinese civilisa-tional vision, it is vital that we examine whether we can derive any guiding principles from our civilisational texts to tailor our response to the present threat.

While evolving a compre-hensive Indic strategy to Chi-nese threat is a multi-pronged process, we would limit our focus in this article to only one question: How should a ruler/government respond to external aggression?

Every government faces a huge dilemma in the face of external aggression on

whether to militarily escalate the crisis or resort to diplo-macy for de-escalation. The choice is never easy. How-ever, a lack of conviction and clarity in thought and a lack of confidence in one’s own strength among the political leadership lead to obfuscation and indecision. This is a dilemma caused by despondency, a dilemma that affected the mighty Arjuna as well before the Mahabharata war.

When a Kshatriya par-excellence like Arjuna can feel the weight of dilemma caused by despondency, then it is not a surprise that we find the current Indian political class being affected by the same tendency.

It is interesting to note that Lord Krishna opens his re-sponse to Arjuna’s lamenta-tions by straight-away dele-gitimising Arjuna’s concerns by calling it as being rooted in ignorance and petty weak-ness of the heart and desig-nating it a sign of unmanli-ness (Bhagavad Gita 2.2-3). From this it becomes clear that in the face of aggression,

there is no scope for endless negotiations, appeasement or indecision -- all of which are rooted in ignorance and weakness.

How then should a gov-ernment act in the context of aggression? What are the duties of the ruler in a war-like situation?

Hindu texts give consider-able attention to “Raja-Dhar-ma” or the duties of the king, with respect to both peace and war. In fact, Kautilya’s Arthashastra (7.1.2) desig-nates waging war as one of the six elements of state policy. In verse 2.10.47, it speaks about four methods of diplomacy that a ruler must employ: Sama (negotiation), Upapradaana (inducement), Bheda (causing dissension), and Danda (war). Further, in verse 9.7.68, it suggests that in case of trouble from neigh-bouring rulers, one must adopt the policy of causing dissension and war.

Let us now look at some of the verses from Hindu Smritis regarding duties of a ruler in the face of external aggression.

“While protecting his peo-ple, if the king is challenged by enemies, either equal in strength, or stronger, or weaker, he shall not shrink from battle, bearing in mind the duty of the Kṣhatriya. Not shrinking from battle, pro-tecting the people, and at-tending on Brahmanas — are the best means of securing happiness for kings.” (Manu Smriti 7.87-88)

“Neither for the sake of friendship, nor for the sake of a large gain of money, should the king let off the perpetra-tors of violence, who cause terror to all living beings.” (Manu Smriti 8.347)

“When who has been at-tacked by his foe, he shall protect, his own realm to the best of his power.” (Vishnu Smriti 3.43)

“A Kshatriya should, with weapons in hand, protect the earth righteously while en-suring the safety of his sub-jects by very strongly pun-ishing (the evil doers) and by conquering the armies of the enemies.” (Parashara Smriti 1.57)

To summarise, in the face of

external aggression, the In-dic civilisational texts urge a government to:1. Not shy away from a battle, when challenged by the en-emy, either by way of stealth attack, propaganda, or direct aggression. 2. Employ all available means to subdue the enemy.3. Never hesitate to use force, whether the enemy is supe-rior, equal or inferior.4. Never ignore or let go of the aggressor due to any considerations whatsoever -- be it friendship or financial concerns. 5. Protection of the subjects by meeting external aggres-sion with aggression, subdu-ing the enemy by conquering their armies, their territories and inflicting complete de-feat -- these are considered duties of the ruler in power.

From this, it becomes clear that use of coercion and force is the only strategy left when facing an enemy who is ag-gressive and repeatedly caus-ing troubles. This is echoed by Lord Krishna when he says: “There is nothing else better for a Kshatriya than a

righteous battle. Happy are the Kshatriyas who come across this kind of a battle, which presents itself un-sought for and which is an open gate to heaven. On the other hand, if you will not fight this righteous battle, then, forsaking your own duty and fame, you will incur sin.” (Bhagavad Gita 2.31-33)

That is, when an opportu-nity arises to fight a righteous battle, it is the duty of a ruler to fight the battle. When such a battle presents itself on its own, then the ruler is even more obligated to wage war. Not doing so implies forsak-ing of his duty by the ruler.

As for the current India-Chi-na standoff, Successive Indian governments have misread the Chinese. Instead of counter-ing their expansionist designs, India has followed disempow-ering policies like non-align-ment and appeasement of the enemy and projected itself as a weak state. The current stand-off at Ladakh is a direct result of this continued appeasement policy.

However, if we were to resort to Indic civilisational

ethos as our guiding light in foreign policy, then it is very clear that China has to be treated as an enemy state and Kautilyan methods have to be employed to subdue them.

The current standoff in La-dakh is a clear case of external aggression and a provocation for war and as such, our civili-sational texts are very clear, the government must not shy away from giving a military response inflicting severe punishment on the enemy. Further, we must use this unsought war to proactively reclaim the geography we lost previously to China.

To not engage China mili-tarily at this juncture not only constitutes a grave failure on the part of the government in discharging its supreme duty of protect-ing this country, but also constitutes a breach of trust of its people.The writer is a practising Hindu, author, speaker and Editor of IndiaFacts. He is also Chief Cu-rator, Advaita Academy. Aditi Banerjee, Priyank Chauhan and Rupam Das contributed to this article with their inputs.

Countering Chinese threat: An Indic civilisational perspective

3comment & analysisthe daily guardian01 july 2 020

new delhi

opinionAmitA Singh

opinionnithin SridhAr

A healthcare worker screens the body temperature of a person during a door-to-door survey for Covid-19 in mumbai. (Ani Photo)

Punjab Director General of Police (DGP) Dinkar Gupta on Tuesaday disclosed that state police have foiled a major bid by Pakistan-backed terrorists to target socio-religious leaders and disturb the communal harmony of the state with the arrest of three members of Khalistan Liberation Front (KLF).According to DGP, the terror module, busted on Sunday, was operating in various parts of Punjab at the behest of pro-Khalistani elements based in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and UK. Gupta

said that one .32 bore pistol, along with 7 cartridges, has been recovered from the al-leged terrorists, identified as Sukhchain Singh, Amritpal Singh, and Jaspreet Singh.Another of their associates, Lovepreet Singh has already been arrested recently by Delhi Police, along with other KLF members, he added. Giving details of the case, the DGP said that the three men had come into contact with one other through social media. They further came in touch with Pakistan-based handlers who provoked them to target socio-religious leaders, and also disturb Punjab’s peace

and law and order.The DGP said that Amritpal Singh was instrumental in connecting and motivating Sukhchain and Lovepreet Singh in taking the danger-ous agenda forward. Initial investigations show that their Pakistan-based handlers also invited these men to visit Pakistan for planning the future course of action. One of the foreign handlers, based in Saudi Arabia, promised to provide them shelter once they execute their actions on ground, he said. DGP Gupta claimed that with this, the Punjab Police has busted nine ter-ror modules in six months.

PUNJAB POLICE BUSTS PAK-BACKED KLF TERROR MODULE, 3 ARRESTEDAnil BhArdwAjChAnDIGArh

OUr COrrESPOndEnTnEW DELhI

Jagjit Singh Majha is an inspiration to many in the real estate sector. This

post-graduate in Political Sci-ence & a law graduate, apart from being an entrepreneur, is a nature lover and social worker. He shares his tips to NewsX A-List on how to be part of real estate and what all the sector needs during lock-down from the government.

Talking about how the sec-tor has been impacted due to the lockdown and what needs to be done, the real estate sec-tor leader who is popularly known as “voice of real estate sector” in Punjab says, “The lockdown has adversely af-fected the sector, there is a massive slowdown. What the sector needs is a real push from the government.” The agriculture sector too has felt the impact and being the President of CREDAI Punjab and National Zonal Secretary North he has first-hand ex-perience of the same.

“Real-estate has the ability to jumpstart and would play a vital role in the growth of the economy. What we need is real help from the govern-ment, what we have received

so far is a drop in the ocean. Being a part of the sector for many years, I know the po-tential and growth this sector has”, says Jagjit Singh Majha.

“Real estate has well accept-ed all new norms, be that GST or the new norms due to Co-vid -19. Change is inevitable and I have always received it well, what I am looking at is some new reforms. As a real-estate leader, I am looking at the sector getting an industry Status, a lower rate of interest on home loans. These will au-tomatically help people who are wanting to buy homes and that will help the real

estate sector.”Talking about what needs to

change for the betterment of this sector, Majha says: “First and foremost is lesser paper-work, that is a huge burden which is to be borne by the sector. The sector’s prospects

are bright, we just need some basic changes which will help the sector flourish.”

Giving advice to entrepre-neurs and people who want to be a part of the real estate sector, he says: “What we need right now is to care

about values. This pandemic has taught us that for sure. We need to care about our workforce. Our workers who have gone back home need to see how we can get them back and restart life. Just like how a sunflower on a dull day looks towards each other rather than looking down, we need to do the same.”

“We need to take care of one another rather than thinking it’s all over. The end is no way close. We need to keep our spirits high and keep doing our best. The future is bright for the real estate sector,” he adds.

ThE vOICE OF REAL ESTATE SECTOR IN PUNJAB

TERROR FILESINTERvIEw

news plus the daily guardian01 july 2020new delhi4

Jagjit Singh Majha says the sector has been adversely affected by lockdown and needs a real push from the government.

Jagjit Singh Majha.

“Real estate has the ability to jumpstart and would play a vital role in the growth of the economy. What we need is real help from the government, what we have received so far is a drop in the ocean.”

Bail Jurisprudence

legally speakingthe daily guardian01 july 2020

new delhi 5

In the past few years, there have been sig-nificant legislative and

judicial developments to deal with the complexi-ties of economic offenses and those accused thereof. However, the special stat-utes such as the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (“the Act”), and their central tenets, such as bail under Section 45 of the Act continue to remain highly controversial, particularly after the Finance of Act, 2019. Even the Finance Minister, in her speech in Parliament for amend-ments in 2019 quoted that “Difficulties have been ex-perienced in the interpre-tation of certain provisions of Act of 2002 as some of the provisions are being misconstrued resulting in defeating the very object and legislative intent of the Act.” With the increase in economic offenses, Pre-sumably, the intent of the legislature for the 2019 amendments was to re-move ambiguity by impos-ing stricter provisions and assist in the investigation of the alleged transactions. However, the amendments incorporated raise more questions than answers and violates the basic te-nets of the right to freedom and liberty.

History of tHe LegisLation and section 45In the late 20th Century, with growing concerns of an increase in transna-tional economic offenses and a lack of effective na-tional laws to tackle orga-nized crime and proceeds thereof, the Government of India introduced the Pre-vention of Money Launder-ing Bill 1998 in Parliament on 4th August 1998. The ‘Bill’ received the assent of the President and became the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 on 17th January 2003, and ef-fective from 1st July 2005. The Act has been amended five times since enactment and was last amended as recently as in 2019. The Act consisting of 10 chapters containing 75 sections, pri-marily intends to prevent money laundering and to provide for confiscation and seizure of property obtained from laundered money or any other issue of money laundering in India.

However, since inception, the Act has persisted to be highly complex and contro-versial, particularly with arrest and grant of bail to a

person accused under the Act.

Law of arrest Section 19 of the Act  em-powers the investigating agency/ED to arrest any person who is guilty of money laundering under the Act. it requires that be-fore making an arrest, on the basis of the material collected during investiga-tion there must be ‘reason to believe’ that the accused person is ‘guilty’ of the of-fense of money laundering and the ‘reason to believe’ must be ‘recorded in writ-ing’ before making such an arrest. It is relevant to note that the primary dif-ference between Section 19 of PMLA and arrest by police under Section 41 of the Cr.P.C. is that arrest under PMLA has been put on a higher pedestal by the Legislature and requires sufficient evidence to form a ‘reason to believe’ that the person is ‘guilty’ of the of-fenses under PMLA, while an arrest by Police may be made on ‘mere suspicion’. In other words, the provi-sion provides that an Ar-rest must only be made after investigation when there is sufficient reason to believe that the person is guilty of such person and such reason is recorded in writing.

Yet, in practice, arrests are being made by ED of-ficials regularly without adhering to the conditions enunciated in Section 19, i.e., arrests are being made for investigation purposes and not after ‘sufficient evidence to form a reason to believe that the person is guilty’. In a recent trend, it is also observed that ar-rests are being made for ‘non-cooperation’ during the investigating stage. In Navendu Babbar vs. State of N.C.T. of Delhiv, Justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani, dealing with the issue of ‘non-cooperation’ rightly held that

“We must remember that under our system of crimi-nal jurisprudence, an ac-cused has a right of silence, apart from a fundamental right against self-incrimi-nation under Article 20(3) of the Constitution. What would happen if an accused says that no other mate-rial is available, whereas the I.O. thinks or says that other material exists and must be delivered-up be-fore the accused is granted bail? In such a case, would the court be persuaded to keep an accused in judi-cial custody endlessly, till this impasse is resolved? Consider another scenario: what if an accused wants to produce some exculpa-tory evidence in his defense during the trial; and fears, that if the exculpatory ma-terial is shared with the I.O. during an investigation, the I.O. may either not pro-duce such material before the court or destroy it, so that it is not available to the

accused for his defense? While in theory, the I.O. must collect all evidence, whether inculpatory or exculpatory, during an in-vestigation and to place it before the court, it would be naive for a court to as-sume that this theory is put into practice by investigat-ing agencies. It is also well within the rights of an ac-cused to bring-out defense evidence only during trial. This is one of the reasons why, in a criminal trial, an accused is not required to furnish a written state-ment of his defense nor to file any affidavit disclosing the evidence he proposes to adduce during the trial. The I.O., therefore, can-not be heard to say that till the applicant hands-over to him every shred of evi-dence, which the I.O. think exists, the applicant should be kept in prison as an un-dertrial.”

Law of baiL Section 45 of the Act deals with bail, and imposes an embargo on bail by way of ‘twin conditions’, i.e., the public prosecutor must be allowed to oppose any ap-plication for release on bail and if he does so, the court shall be satisfied that there are reasonable grounds for believing that the accused is not guilty of such offense and that he is not likely to commit any offense while on bail. Simply put, it pro-vides that bail shall only be granted when the accused can prove that there exists no reasonable ground for believing that the accused person has committed the offense. Other Statutes, i.e., offences under Companies Act that are investigated by the ‘Serious Fraud Investi-gation’ (“SFIO”), Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 or Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act, 1999, dealing with a more seri-ous class of offenses also impose similar ‘twin condi-tions’ on the grant of bail to an accused person.

Initially, when the Act was tabled before the Par-liament Section 44 which corresponds to Section 45 of the present Act provided that offenses punishable under the Act were to be cognizable, and the twin conditions for release on bail would apply only inso-far as the offenses under the Act itself were concerned. However, in 2005, at the time of notification, there was a dramatic change in the provisions of the grant of bail, and that bail would be granted only if the twin conditions under Section 45(1) are satisfied with, where the offense was pun-ishable for a term of impris-onment of more than three years falling under Part A of the Schedule for the predicate offense. It is per-tinent to mention that such conditions on bail have nei-ther been adopted by other judicial systems nor recom-mended by the Financial Action Task Force.

Consequentially, due to the anomaly between the jurisprudence of Bail and the application of such ‘twin condition’ on the predicate offenses, in 2017, the constitutionality of Section 45(1) of the Act was challenged by way of

a Writ Petition in Nikesh Tarachand Shah vs. Union of India & Anr before the Supreme Court. It is per-tinent to mention that the law of bail in India has been manifested by Justice Krishna Iyer in the State of Rajasthan vs. Balchand as ‘Bail is the rule, and Jail is an exception’.

This challenge in Nikesh Ta r ach a n d Sh a h wa s broadly based on four grounds. Firstly, the stipu-lated threshold of three years and above in Sec-tion 45(1) of the Act was manifestly arbitrary and discriminatory and with-out any basis and therefore violative of Article 14 of the Constitution of India. Sec-ondly, such classification resulted in anomalous situ-ations where a person was being denied bail because of the ‘twin conditions’ on the predicate offense while being tried under PMLA. Thirdly, a person may be

enlarged on anticipatory bail for a scheduled offense but can only be enlarged on bail under PMLA only after the satisfaction of the ‘twin conditions’.

Lastly, The twin condi-tions were arbitrary, dis-

criminatory, and against Article 21 of the Constitu-tion on India, since they required the accused to disclose their defense at the stage of arrest itself.After due consideration of numerous possible or foreseeable scenarios, the Court held that Section 45 is discriminatory particu-larly against those accused persons, who are being tried for a scheduled of-fense having punishment of more than three years coupled with an offense under PMLA in compari-son to a person being tried for an offense merely under the provisions of PMLA. In the words of the Court:

“All these examples show that manifestly arbitrary, discriminatory and unjust results would arise on the application or non-appli-cation of Section 45, and would directly violate Ar-ticles 14 and 21, in as much as the procedure for bail

would become harsh, bur-densome, wrongful and discriminatory depending upon whether a person is being tried for an offense which also happens to be an offense under Part A of the Schedule or an offense

under Part A of the Sched-ule together with an of-fense under the 2002 Act. The grant of bail would de-pend upon a circumstance that has nothing to do with the offense of money laun-dering. On this ground alone, Section 45 would have to be struck down as being manifestly arbitrary and providing a procedure which is not fair or just and would, thus, violate both Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution.”

In terms of Right to Liber-ty and bail, the Court held that the provision for bail goes back to Magna Carta and reiterated the obser-vations of Justice Krishna Iyer as “... the issue of bail is one of liberty, justice, public safety and burden of the public treasury, all of which insist that a devel-oped jurisprudence of bail is integral to a socially sen-sitized judicial process.” In its pursuit to protect the

Right to Liberty enshrined in the Constitution, the bench of Justice Rohinton Nariman and Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul also held that the anomaly between the grant of anticipatory bail and regular bail which is

created by section 45 would also lead to manifestly ar-bitrary and unjust results, and therefore declared the draconian embargo of ‘twin condition’ imposed under Section 45(1) of the Act to be violative of Article 14 and 21 of the Constitution. amendments (2018 and 2019)On 19.04.2018, the legis-lature amended section 45 PMLA via Finance Act 2018, whereby the phrase “punishable for a term of imprisonment of more than three years under Part A of the Schedule” was replaced with “under this Act”. This Amendment failed to men-tion anything about the applicability of the ‘twin conditions’ for bail causing an extreme lack of clarity amongst Courts and law-yers.

However, with continuing complexities, the govern-ment introduced another amendment in August 2019. In this amendment, an Ex-planation was inserted after section 45 of the Act of 2002 to clarify that the expres-sion ‘Offences to be cogni-zable and non-bailable’. This amendment is critical as it also widened the scope of term ‘proceeds of crime’, i.e., even possession of pro-ceeds of crime has been criminalized implying that an accused person would have to resort to predicate offense and show that the possession is not proceeds of crime, making the law similar to that before the judgment of Nikesh Tara-chand and resurrecting one of the fundamental prob-lems that the accused will have to disclose its defense at the stage of bail itself.

The 2019 Act further broadens the power of the Enforcement Directorate by also deleting the proviso contained in Sections 17(1) and 18 (1) and empowering the ED to undertake search actions and arrest even in the absence of a report under Section 157 Cr.P.C.

tHe JudiciaL approacHThe issue of applicability of twin conditions post the amendment first came up before the Bombay High Court in the case Sameer M. Bhujbal, wherein Justice P. D. Naik was pleased to hold that since the Supreme Court unequivocally struck down Section 45(1) of the Act as a whole and there is no mention of Retrospective applicability of the amend-

ment to the Act rigors of two conditions cannot be deemed to be revived or resurrected. Interestingly, in this case, the Ld. ASG, appearing on behalf of the agency submitted that:“In view of the amend-ment to Section 45 (1) of the PMLA Act which came into effect from 19.4.2018, the original Section 45(1)(ii) has to be inferred and treated as it still exists on the stat-ute book and holds the field even as of today for deciding an application for bail by an accused under PMLA Act. He further submitted that by amending Section 45(1) of the Act and by insert-ing words ‘under this Act’ the judgment delivered by the Supreme Court in the case of Nikesh Shah (supra) has become ineffective and therefore the prayer for bail of the applicant has to be considered in view of the amended provisions of Sec-tion 45(1) of the PMLA Act.”

However, the Court dis-carded this argument and aptly held that “the origi-nal Subsection 45(1)(ii) has therefore neither revived nor resurrected by the Amending Act and there-fore, as of today there is no rigor of said two further conditions under original Section 45(1)(ii) of PMLA Act for releasing the ac-cused on bail under the said Act.”

A similar view was also taken by Justice P.K. Jaisw-al of the Madhya Pradesh High Court in Dr. Vinod Bhandari vs. Enforcement Directorate, and by Justice Mukta Gupta of the High Court of Delhi in Upendra Rai vs. Directorate of En-forcement, and by Justice C.S. Singh of the Patna High Court in Ahilya Devi vs. The State Of Bihar on 28th May 2020, wherein the Court was pleased to hold that the amendment does not resurrect twin conditions provided for under section 45(1) which were struck down by Su-preme Court in 2017 and therefore, for deciding bail applications under the Act, only considerations are, prima facie material avail-able to fortify commission of an offense, gravity of the offense, severity of punish-ment, chances of fleeing and tampering with evi-dence. In other words, only section 439 Cr.P.C has to be considered. It is also perti-nent to note that, a Bench comprising of Justice Ro-hinton Nariman and Justice S. Ravindra Bhat of the Su-preme Court also dismissed the Petition filed by the ED for cancellation of bail in Directorate of Enforcement vs. D. K. Shivakumar in which one of the grounds invoked for cancellation of bail was the applicability of Section 45(1) PMLA.

All in all, the Prevention of Money Laundering Act has undergone significant changes since its inception. However, various High Courts across the country have settled the position that mere substitution of the word ‘under this Act’ will neither revive nor resurrect the application of twin con-ditions, which have been declared unconstitutional as a whole by the Supreme Court.Adv. Pramod Kumar Dubey is a practising lawyer in Delhi.

‘Bail’ under Prevention of Money Laundering Act post amendment: A reviewSection 45 of the Act continues to remain highly controversial, particularly after the Finance of Act, 2019.

opinionPramod Kumar dubey

The issue of applicability of twin conditions post the amendment first came up before the Bombay High Court in the case Sameer

M. Bhujbal, wherein Justice P.D. Naik was pleased to hold that since the Supreme Court unequivocally struck down

Section 45(1) of the Act as a whole and there is no mention of retrospective applicability of the amendment to the Act rigors of two conditions cannot be deemed to be revived or resurrected.

China, while seeking global hegemony, must support mili-

tary expansionism and an aging population, with a contracting economy, in a deglobalising environment of falling exports, withering manufacturing, collapsing BRI and weak internal con-sumption. It portends an authoritarian China rapidly reverting to revisionism. Si-multaneously, the Pakistan Army will continue to own a failed and bankrupt state whose existential identity of “Not Being India” con-stantly reinforces revision-ism. A democratic India is destined to live with its revisionist neighbours in a friendless relationship. The India-Pakistan relationship is along known curves and slopes. However, a dramatic reappraisal is needed for the new Sino-Indian situ-ation. With this in view a SWOT analysis of China was carried out in the first part of ‘Chini Kam’.

If the Wuhan virus is a wa-tershed in global geopolitics, the Galwan incident is a wa-tershed in Sino-Indian ties. In this environment, India should be prepared to han-dle China on its own. It has the military capability in the Himalayas and IOR as well as comprehensive po-tential otherwise to hold its own. Simultaneously, India must not hesitate to form al-liances/relationships with other nations to deal with China, which is grossly vio-lating a rules-based world order after dropping its

“Invisibility Cloak” of peace. India must put its interests first and do what is best for its people in all cases. There is a need to stop appeasing China and deal with it firm-ly in a calculated manner.

Contrary to cultivated myths, Chinese history in-dicates cycles of rise and de-cline over the past century and a half. An aging China has peaked. It is now set to decline, hastened by its own virus. Isolation followed by decline is inevitable in the coming decade. Histori-cally, an isolated China has always been troublesome. The stigma of the Wuhan virus and the grouse of per-ceived denial of its rightful place will invigorate its trouble-making capabil-ity. While the current crisis is foremost in everyone’s view, it will not end soon. It is just a starting point of a long haul ahead with

“gloves off”. India needs to plan for this tectonic shift. Very importantly, the loss of face for China is going to be proportional to the length of this confrontation. Options being suggested here are for the inevitable long term. However some immediate action and pushback must be taken to ward off the bull from the China shop. We

must also not lose sight of the fact that giving a bloody nose and stalemating China is a victory for India. Gun for that. Anything more is a bonanza.

China has embarked on this misadventure with a relativity logic. China may have weakened, but oth-ers have weakened more. That logic is slowly un-ravelling. Two key shifts are taking place. As per Der Spiegel, “Beijing is ruthlessly expanding its power. But resistance is growing around the world

-- and Germany will soon play a key role.” As per South China Morning Post,

“ASEAN leaders are wary of putting all their eggs in the Chinese basket.” This adds to the stances of the US, UK, Australia, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea and India. The degree of iso-lation is increasing. Con-tinued confrontation with India will only enhance it. Reappearance/persistence of the virus anywhere will reinforce it. The military is in a two-front situation. It is with this background that we must consider the options. However, we must never forget that China, de-spite everything, remains a formidable opponent.

Political oPtionsInternal: India has already conveyed that it will not back down. This signal must be continually rein-forced and demonstrated. Dealing with China re-quires internal political consensus and unity. So far it is superficial. Un-less internal solidarity is achieved, a unitary China will undermine us politi-cally. Exposing proximity to China/ CCP competitive-ly by political parties is its harbinger. A singular mes-sage to all political parties is

– decide who is the enemy. Each other or across the Himalayas? In this connec-tion I think the ruling party has the onus to take every-one along. The media has a role to play to develop this harmony. As of now self-goals are being presided over by a TRP-driven me-dia. India is underutilising the proven nuisance value of the Indian Media. It can get under the skin of the Chinese amazingly fast. Weaponise this potential. It will do well to whittle down Chinese influence, deflate their hyped-up im-age, and build positive na-tional sentiment through influence ops. The Virus is great firepower against the Chinese. We are soft-pedalling it. We also need to develop internal stability by controlling the virus to revive our economy. Some-how that seems to have gone off the boil.

Tibet, Xinjiang, Gilgit and Baltistan: If China can use Pakistan and Nepal as cat-spaws and develop a string of pearls, why can we not return the compliment? High time we did so. His-torically, China exercised suzerainty over Tibet and not sovereignty. The Ti-bet buffer separated our civilisations. If China can claim Arunachal Pradesh

as South Tibet which never existed even in imagination till 2006 and lay claim on the entire Galwan Valley now, India can revive Tibet and East Turkistan. There are many ways of doing it. Develop the old silk route. Raise the Uighur factor. An outreach to Gilgit and Bal-tistan will target three birds with one stone. Religion worries China. All it needs is political clarity and will. Start small but start. Com-bine it with Hong Kong and Taiwan, the potential is nuclear.

Civil Military Fusion: There is a dire necessity to develop civil military fu-sion. That is how the US de-veloped into a superpower. That is what China is at-tempting to do. This needs political initiative. It is be-yond the Indian military which cannot even procure weapons for itself. It must be an inter-ministerial thrust where the military is integrated with our space, nuclear and disruptive technology research, and development. As China re-lies more on 5G systems, we need to enhance our cyber capabilities as part of civil military fusion. The pity is that Indian talent is being exploited by the Western societies.

Soft Power: India has a huge reservoir of soft pow-er — democracy, religion, culture, diversity, tourism et al. For unfathomable reasons we have underu-tilised it. The projection of Indian soft power has been

‘soft’. Often, we have used it

against ourselves! It is time to deploy it in a planned and methodical manner.

Military oPtionsTactical Options: The Indi-an Army should continue to be firm and show clear offensive intent in dealing with the Chinese. It has the option of executing a quid pro quo incursion at a time and place of its own choosing since China does not have any major de-fenses constructed along the LAC. The fight can also be taken into the Chi-nese rear. Their buildup of mechanized forces leaves their tail vulnerable in Ak-

sai Chin especially with the onset of winter. A lot of in-frastructure in depth is on permafrost. A simple tem-perature inversion will put spokes in wheels. Innova-tion is the name of the game. Use General Winter intel-ligently. Overall we should not put pressure on field commanders as to what to do. Let them do their tasks and they will deliver.

Influence and Media Ops: Influence ops and media need synergy. For example, Chinese soldiers are con-scripts who join the Army

for post-service prospects. They lack combat experi-ence. Exploit it. Their men-tal state will be weak. After Galwan it will be worse. Nothing like old-fashioned propaganda operations. Target their political com-missars. Target families of PLA and increase anxiety levels. Penetrate Weibo and WeChat through Taiwan and Hong Kong. We need to expand our thinking.

CPEC: China has high stakes in the CPEC. I have always maintained that the CPEC is the third and weak-est front of Pakistan. It can be targeted easily. It is two birds with one stone.

Capability Development: Infrastructure develop-ment must continue cease-lessly. In the Himalayas, the main fighting capability is Air Force, infantry, artil-lery, special forces and ISR with armour in a few areas. Focus on development of these capabilities to reach well into Tibet and be able to interdict the highways at a place of own choos-ing. A well-defined and publicised programme to dominate the IOR should be embarked upon. This includes regular exercises

to be effective at choke points, enhancing capa-bilities on the A&N Islands, enhancing anti-submarine capabilities and so on. In the short term, pose a threat to China’s energy security and maritime trade unambigu-ously. There is angst that the Mountain Strike Corps raising has been stalled. However we have the capa-bility to convert the exist-ing strike corps into moun-tain capable reserves by a simple re-organisation of shedding the mechanised elements to pivot corps and equipping the balance with mountain capable artillery and infantry. It is internal

and at no cost. Let us start thinking differently and not reinforce a costly planning failure.

Refocus on East Ladakh: In my opinion, India and the US should develop op-erational synergy where-in, India should focus on eastern Ladakh and the US should focus on western Pacific. A lot of lessons can be drawn from the present crisis for future implemen-tation. A hammer and anvil approach will leave China at strategic X roads. If this idea is the core of the QUAD,

then China is in real trouble. This strategy can be syner-gised today. It needs recip-rocal visits by high-level military officials to PACOM and HQ CIDSS.

DiPloMatic oPtionsIf we aim to be a global power, our diplomacy has a lot of work ahead. We need to redefine our narratives.

‘One China’ should remain a dream. Turfs to exploit are many — Hong Kong, Tai-wan, Tibet, and Xinjiang. In addition, leverage G7 plus, QUAD, India-Australia, US, Vietnam, and Japan ties. Cash in on the wariness of ASEAN. Develop defence and cooperation ties with South Korea. Stir up Gilgit-Baltistan. Revamp ties with Myanmar, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Enhance mili-tary diplomacy quotient with our immediate neigh-bours. Nepal needs special attention. Regain Africa where we have tradition-ally deep ties. Limit Chi-nese influence in the UN and WHO. Pakistan needs special focus as always. Diplomatically raise issues concerning CPEC and the new Diamer Bhasha Project. Our diplomats have done an excellent job without being

“Wolf Warriors”. Expand the diplomatic corps.

EconoMic oPtionsPrinciple: If the Chinese economy shrinks by an X percent, its focus will re-main internal. While it is difficult to predict that X, India can contribute to it individually or as part of a

group. Leveraging Markets: India

has the capability to lever-age markets and weapon-ise trade. China is doing it blatantly with Australia. However it needs to be done sensibly. Some knee jerk reactions and public anger are good to convey a point. Such emotional responses have limits. Without viable alternatives, boycotting is only sloganeering. There are many aspects to lever-aging trade. Imports from China must be reviewed holistically to reduce them with a layered approach on a need basis. For imports/FMCG goods of other countries, local sourcing/non-China sourcing can be made mandatory. In critical sectors like software apps and communications, Chi-nese goods must be exclud-ed. All Chinese contracts can be reviewed. At an indi-vidual level, if I can buy one Chinese item less that is my contribution for the overall X. Every reduced penny counts.

Decoupling Benefit: 30% global decoupling from Chi-na in five years is realistic. India must derive its benefit. It will not happen unless a special drive is undertaken at state and national levels. This is the “1991 moment” for India again with a dif-ference. Every business set up here is that much less for China. We have the know-how to rope in businesses exiting China. After all, software and automotive majors have huge Indian hubs here for global mar-kets. We need to leverage our own models and make a concerted effort. Go in for the big ones. Aim high.

Aatmanirbharta Abhiyan: Clear policy initiatives and directions to include ways, means and ends must be put in place with execution and monitoring mecha-nisms. Otherwise it will go the Make in India way to remain a slogan. This must be coupled with a concerted effort to close the Sino-Indian technology gap on a mission mode. Local industry bodies, economic and technology forums will have a huge role to play in all economic options and must be tapped. The bot-tom line is clear thinking and sustained execution.

conclusionThe options outlined above are not original but a broad range which are available. They can be varied and ex-panded situationally. Some can start now some later. However the Galwan action has taught us a lesson. The Chinese can be beaten if we stand together and believe in ourselves not as Biharis, Punjabis, Sikhs or Tham-bis but as Indians. Let us do that. United as Indians.

Lt Gen P.R. Shankar was In-dia’s DG Artillery. He is highly decorated and qualified with vast operational experience. He contributed significantly to the modernisation and in-digenisation of Artillery. He is now a Professor in the Aero-space Dept of IIT Madras and is involved in applied research for defence technology.

LT GEN P.R. SHANKAR (RETd.)

Bottom Line

6 defence t h e da i ly gua r d i a n0 1 j u ly 2 0 2 0n ew d e l h i

AnALysing indiA’s options to Achieve ‘chini KAm’If the Wuhan virus is a watershed event in global geopolitics, the Galwan incident is a defining moment in Sino-Indian ties. In this environment, India should be prepared to handle China on its own.

Army convoy moving towards eastern Ladakh from Leh on Tuesday. (ANI Photo)

The Indian Air Force carrying out sorties in Leh on Friday. The air activity has gone up after the standoff with China on the Line of Actual Control. (ANI Photo)

An Indian Air Force helicopter is seen against the backdrop of mountains surrounding Leh on Sunday. (ANI Photo)

If China can use Pakistan and Nepal as catspaws and develop a string of pearls, why can we not return the compliment? High time we did so. Historically, China exercised suzerainty over Tibet and not sovereignty. The Tibet buffer separated our civilisations.

Presence of Banking is identified and rec-ognized since vedic

period irrespective of sub-ject of transaction. Banking system can be identified in barter system to digitized credit transactions. The first notable statute to reg-ulate banking in India is the Negotiable Instruments Act 1881. Post- indepen-dence considered banking as crucial weapon to regu-late economy and enacted Banking Regulation Act 1949. But the actual pitch of banking stepped-in during the Fourth Five Year Plan (1969-74) where the Indira Gandhi government na-tionalized fourteen major banks in India.

It is undoubtedly traced that amendments in Com-panies Act 1956 was the result of arrays of scams. Afterwards J.J. Irani Com-mittee was appointed to insert full swing corporate governance in the laws reg-ulating companies, hence the Companies Act 2013. Throughout the amend-ment period the Banking Regulation Act 1949 re-mained intact.

Fire For the Amendment 2020Realization for amendment of Banking Regulation Act 1949 is the latest Punjab and Maharashtra Co-oper-ative (PMC) Bank scam and crisis in 2019. PMC bank has 137 branches across seven states out of which more than eighty branches are concentrated in the rural area of the State of Maharashtra. The custom-ers of PMC belong to small businesses, housing societ-ies and institutions. The al-legations include:\

Promoters collude with bank management to draw loans without classifying it as non performing ad-vances.

73% of the all the bank’s advances of sum of rupees six thousand five hundred crores was not serviced.

Fictitious accounts of companies borrowing small sum and created fake reports hiding from regula-tory supervision.

It produced false figures with respect to net profit, advances and NPA which were attractive to future customers.

Initially case was charged against HDIL for money laundering and then the RBI-appointed adminis-

trator extended charges by adding forgery, cheating and criminal conspiracy. Bank’s Managing Director and other top management employees were arrested. The reason why I briefly discussed the said crisis in detail is to help you for better understanding as to how and why said amend-ments in Banking Regula-tion Act 1949.

The Banking Regulation Amendment Bill 2020 was introduced in March 2020 and the Ordinance was promulgated by the President of India, on 26th June 2020. The Bill focus to incorporate corporate governance, transparency, accountability, protection of investors and depositors in the co-operative Bank. In this regard ss.3, 45 and 56 of the banking Regula-tion Act is amended. Let us analyze the amendment of each section in detail.

Section 3: Act not to Apply to certAin cooperAtive SocietieSPre amendment structure of this section narrates that, the provisions in the Banking Regulation Act is not applicable to a primary agricultural credit soci-ety (PACS), a co-operative land mortgage bank and any other corporative soci-ety except in manner and extent specified in Part V. Part V was incorporated in 1969 amendment to incor-porate corporative societies under banking Regulation Act, 1949. This is the way through which the co-op-erative banks are regulated both by the State and Cen-tral Registrars and the Re-serve bank of India.

Through amendment, the section has given a new mode of application i.e. even if anything is con-tained in NABARD Act, 1981, the act shall not ap-ply to PACS, a co-operative society whose primary ob-ject and principal business is providing of long term finance for agricultural de-velopment. And such soci-ety does not use the words “Bank”, “Banker”, “Bank-ing” and does not act as drawee of cheques.

It signifies that a co-op-erative society is exempted only if it does not carry out any sort of business by act-ing as drawee of cheques of its customers. It exempts banks aiding long term ag-

ricultural developments with a view to provide ease operational services to farmers and allied role players, and foreseeing “Make in India” in long run for transforming India to a self sufficient nation.

Section 45: rBi’S power to Apply to centrAl Government By BAnkinG co. And to prepAre Scheme For reconStitution or AmAlGAmAtionIn the pre-amendment, sub-section.1 of the section gives power to RBI to ap-ply to central government for an order of moratorium only if RBI has good reason to believe; in respect of a banking company. Sub-section. 2 empower Cen-tral Government to order moratorium if it is satisfied with reasons stated by RBI. This moratorium will stay commencement or contin-uance of actions and pro-ceedings against the bank for a fixed period based on terms and conditions fixed by the government and can extend and modify terms. The period shall not ex-ceed six months. As per Sub-section 3 moratorium the Bank is barred from making payments and dis-charge of liabilities.

Sub-section 4 says dur-ing Moratorium RBI can prepare scheme for recon-struction and amalgama-tion with other banking company/ institution, if it is satisfied that in the pub-lic interest or depositors’ interest or to secure proper management of the bank-ing company or in the in-terest of banking system in the country as a whole.

As per cl.5 the following matters shall be included in the scheme.

The constitution, name and regd. Office, capital assets, powers, rights, in-terests, authorities and privileges, liabilities, duties and obligations of banking company on reconstruc-tion.

In case of amalgamation, details of business, prop-erties, assets and liabilities transferring shall be given in detail.

Change in Board of Direc-tors, addition of new direc-tors and time for appoint-ment shall be specified.

Alteration as to MOA and AOA

Payment to depositors and creditors with respect of rights and interests against the banking company.

Details as to allotment of shares before reconstruction or amalgamation and details with regard to reduction of shares.

Details as to pay or grant sanctioned by central gov-ernment before expiry of three years.

The section further nar-rates a huge description as to reconstruction. At the end, Sub-section (15) states that banking institution means any banking company and include State Bank of India or subsidiary bank or a cor-responding new bank.

By the amendment, the word “reconstitution “con-tained in the marginal head-ing is substituted by the word

“reconstruction”. The word reconstruction gives wider scope for the section as the word includes mergers and acquisitions and takeovers or demergers. This will en-able banking companies to expand in a short span and shall procure least NPAs.

Sub-section 3, adds that on moratorium, not only dis-charge of liabilities shall not be made to creditors but also grant of loans or advances or make investments in any credit instruments.

In subsection 4 it is modi-fied that not only during moratorium but also any other time, the Reserve Bank can prepare scheme based on public interest and other factors as already stated in the sub-section. It provides the Reserve bank extensive power to supersede the man-agement of the banking com-pany. This enables proper governance of stability in banks, thereby ensuring ac-countability to its depositors and stakeholders.

As already stated sub-sec-tion (5) narrates contents of the scheme for amalgama-tion. In the said, cl. (e), (i) and (j) instead of “during period of moratorium”, “re-construction and amalgama-tion” shall be inserted. This points extension of time for proceedings and actions, which provides relaxations and amicable time to inter-ested parties to act on amal-gamation or reconstruction. It also provides transferee company amicable time to arrange finance to help pro-vide payments of all forms to its employees. The aim of this amendment is to bring down the damages to employees with respect to employment and increase chances to com-pliance. Further sub-section (6), word “amalgamation” is substituted by “reconstruc-tion and amalgamation” widens scope of the section as already said.

Sub-section (15) omits the word “subsidiary bank” from the definition of banking institution. By this the leg-islation intends to curtail all fictitious subsidiary banks and accounts made with the blanket name of the parent bank. This enhances internal governance and protection of depositors.

Section 56: Act to Apply to co-operAtive SocietieS SuBject to modiFicAtionS This section has undergone

maximum amendments in the Banking Regulation (Amendment) Ordinance 2020. This can be regarded as key amendment for ex-tra inclusion of cooperative banks under the control of the Reserve Bank of India. The preliminary portion has amended by substituting “The provisions of this Act, as in force for the time being” with “Notwithstanding any-thing contained in any other provision” in order to widen the scope of interpretation of terms narrated i.e.

Banking company or com-pany can be construed as co-operative bank.

Commencement of the Act as “Banking Laws (Applica-tion to Co-operative Societ-ies) Act, 1965”

In addition three terms are inserted by this amend-ment; Memorandum and Articles of Association in the Act shall be interpreted as bye-laws; provisions of law where bank is registered and Registrar as Registrar of Co-operative Societies/ Central or State Registrar.

Section 5A of the Bank-ing Regulation of Act deals with Act to override memo-randum, articles if any of the same act repugnant to the provisions of this Act is void. Before Amendment, this provision was included in section 56 by substitut-ing Board of Directors etc with Co-operative societies. Its further interpretation is given in clause (e). The amendment has omitted both clause (d) and (e).

Under clause (f), it is said that the words “Bank”, “Banker” and “Banking” shall be used only by co-operative bank and no co-operative society except primary credit society, co-operative society for the protection of mutual inter-est of co-operative banks and co-operative society for by employees of bank-ing Co, State Bank of India etc. In the amendment, the words “co-operative land mortgage bank” is omitted from I in cl. (b) and II in clause (c). Therefore co-op-erative land mortgage bank is not under exception.

Section 8 and 9 of the Banking Regulation Act 1949 deals with Prohibition of trading and Disposal of non-banking assets respec-tively. And section 56 says that Clauses (fi) and (fii) of the section substitutes ss.8 and 9 of the Act. This is omitted in the new amend-

ment.Omission of a provision

omitting some provision indicates its application. Clause (g) omits sections 10, 10A, 10B, 10C and 10D. The amendment omits clause (g). Hence all the said provisions are appli-cable to co-operative societ-ies. i.e.a. S.10: Prohibition of Em-ployment of Managing Agent and restrictions on certain forms of employ-ment;b. S.10A: Board of Direc-tors to include persons with professional or other experience;c. S.10B: Banking Compa-ny to be managed by whole time chairman;d. S.10C: Chairman and certain directors not to hold qualification shares; ande. S.10D: Provisions of 10A and 10B to override all oth-er laws and contracts.

The omission adopted in the present amendment paves way to better internal management, accountabil-ity and strong application of law over agreements and byelaws.

Section 56 (i) omitted sec-tions 12, 12A, 13 and 15 to 17 of the Banking Regulation Act 1949. The amendment mandates to substitute the above with “Issue and regulation of paid-up share capital and securities by co-operative banks”. Thus a co-operative bank can call shares by public issue or private placement with prior approval of the Re-serve Bank. It can call for equity shares, preference shares, special shares on face value or at premium and issue bonds and un-secured debentures with original or initial maturity of not less than ten years. Reserve bank can impose limits on persons or opera-tional members in the co-operative bank. Further no person shall be entitled to demand payment towards surrender of shares issued to him by a co-operative bank. Also the bank shall not withdraw or reduce its share capital superseding the conditions imposed by the reserve bank.

Clause (l) deals with re-striction of loans and ad-vances by co-operative banks. Through amend-ment this clause is omit-ted, which means the sec-tion 20 will apply without substitution i.e. as it is.

Substitution of “any one party” against words “any one company, firm or as-sociation” under section 21 of the Banking Regulation Act is stated under clause (n) which is omitted in the amendment. Section 24 of the Act deal with main-tenance of percentage of assets. With regard to co-operative banks, the same is dealt under clause (q). The substitution made un-der clause (q) is omitted by means of this amendment which indicates that the provision will apply to co-operative banks as such. Further clause (r) states that section 25 is omitted. Amendment omits this clause and hence s.25 of the Banking Regulation Act 1949 is applicable.

Clause (ria) is omitted wherein substitution of banking company un-der section 26A with “co-operative bank” is stated and therefore the section will apply as such. S.26A deals with establishment of depositor education and awareness fund. This will enable consumer aware-ness and increase of pro-tection. It is already said that the consumers of co-operative banks are small business holders, institu-tions etc and therefore education is compulsory to make reach of the account-ability that the bank serves for them.

Clause (sa) deals with au-dit of a co-operative bank where the provision is the substitution of section 30 of Banking Regulation Act deals with audit. Hence the provisions of audit will ap-ply on co-operative banks as such.

Under s.56 (t) (i) the time period of three months giv-en under s.31 is substituted with six months which is omitted in this amend-ment. Hence the section 31 will apply as such. S.31 of the Act deals with sub-mission of returns. The reduction of time period to submit returns will ensure accountability in day to day transactions and mainte-nance of registered.

Clause u states that sec-tions 32 to 34 shall be omit-ted. Section 32 and 34 deals with copies of balance sheet and accounts to be sent to registrar and display of au-dited balance sheet by com-panies incorporated out-side India. The amendment has omitted the clause and hence the sections will be applicable as such. This is a great step taken by legisla-ture to increase regulation of co-operative banks ir-respective of place of regis-tration to be monitored by the Reserve bank. Publica-tion and filing of statement of accounts is the key for transparency.

Under Clause v, s.34 (3) is omitted which is omit-ted through the amend-ment and hence the provi-sion has direct application. Through amendment cl. (x), (y), (z) and (za) are omitted whereby section 35A (Power of reserve bank to give direction), s.35B (Amendments of provi-sions relating to appoint-ments of managing direc-tor etc. subject to previous

approval of RBI), s.36 (Fur-ther Powers and functions of reserve bank) and s.36A (certain provisions of the Act not to apply to certain banking companies) shall apply in full and complete sense. It directly shows the increasing regulatory pow-ers of reserve bank over the co-operative banks.

Amendment of Clause (zaa) of section 56 man-dates substitution of “multi state cooperative bank” with “co-operative bank” under s.36AA which deals with Power of Reserve bank to remove managerial and other persons from of-fice. Amendment brings in a proviso to sub-section (1) i.e. “If in case of co-opera-tive banks registered under Registrar of Co-operative Societies of a state, then RBI shall issue orders in consultation with state gov-ernment seeking its com-ments within the specified time period”.

The amendment also states that s.36ACA will not apply and 36AAB so inserted shall be omit-ted. From clause (zb) Part IIC is omitted from other omission and hence it is applicable to co-operative banks. Further sub-clause of clause (zc), (zd) are omission clauses which is omitted gives applica-tion of s.46 (Penalties)and s.47(cognizance of offenc-es) on co-operative banks. Clause (zf) deals with ap-plication of deposits with-drawable by cheque are omitted with the present amendment. This can be regarded as the most strin-gent rule to maintain the character of co-operative banks from other co-oper-ative establishments.

This amendment substi-tute’s central government as central registrar or regis-trar of Co-operative societ-ies under s.49B said under clause (zg). This confirms the intact and unaffected role of states vide this amendment. Apart from these, the amendment Act omits clause (zh).

Clause (zj) deals with section 53 which is the power to exempt in certain cases. After this section, the amendment Act put forth new section i.e. s.53A which narrates on Power to exempt co-operative banks in certain cases which an important step is showing the element of relaxation provided.

It can be analyzed that amendment is made on the basis of the character of PMC Bank scam and crisis. Education and awareness provision is congratulat-ing, which opens a scope to include more custom-ers from rural sector. Ear-lier the dual power RBI and state were regulating simultaneously without proper identification as to exercise of powers, but the amendment has brought in clarity for this. Now Reg-istrar will regulate the ad-ministrative part whereas the Reserve bank regulates the functional side of the co-operative banks. Adv. Anu Bhuvanachandran is Partner, Outsay Legal; Adv. Dhanya C. practises at Karna-taka High Court, Bangalore.

The Banking Regulation (Amendment) Ordinance 2020: A ReviewThe Banking Regulation Amendment Bill 2020 was introduced in March 2020 and the Ordinance was promulgated by the President of India on 26 June 2020.

cO-OPERATIVE BANKS

opinionanu Bhuvanachandran &

dhanya c.

policy & politicsthe daily guardian01 july 2020

new delhi 7

8 educationally speaking the daily guardian01 july 2020new delhi

Great LearninG to heLp universities Go onLineGreat Learning, an ed-tech com-pany for professional education, has announced its new offering ‘Olympus Digital Campus’, an end-to-end cloud-based technology so-lution for online learning delivery and programme management, on a subscription basis to colleges and universities across the country in a bid to help them deliver online and blended learning programmes. It is a seamless solution that supports all aspects of learning including live learning, time-tabling, proctored ex-ams, assessments, grading, student collaboration, attendance, content development, progress/engagement tracking, and faculty feedback. Digi-tal Campus is a proprietary state of the art technol-ogy system that enables all aspects of delivery and management o f c o l l e ge/university programmes for students, faculty, and administrators. Built and per-fected in India over the last 7 years, the Olympus Digital Campus has been designed using highly scal-able, secure, and world-class cloud technologies. It has enabled over 25 million hours of learning to 100,000 students and deliver high impact pro-grammes offered in partnership with universities like Stanford University, UT Austin, and Great Lakes Institute of Management among others. With this, universities can deliver a world class, high-quality and engaging on-line learning experience to learners on both desktops and mobile in both synchronous (live) and asynchro-nous (recorded) modes.

Maharashtra’s second cLuster varsity Launched Mumbai’s three colleges — K. C. College, H. R. College and Bombay Teachers’ Training College (BTTC) which are part of a 70-year-old Hy-derabad (Sind) National Collegiate

Board — have come together to form Maharashtra’s second cluster uni-versity named as ‘HSNC University’. The university is established under the Rashtriya Uchchatar Shikshan Abhiyan (RUSA) scheme, a funding agency under the Central govern-ment. Bhagat Singh Koshyari, Gov-ernor of Maharashtra, inaugurated and dedicated this state’s second cluster university to the nation. CM Uddhav Thackeray and state Minis-ter of Higher and Technical Educa-tion Uday Samant were also present at the launch event. Thackeray called it a dream project and emphasised that a blend of art and culture with new age education systems will rev-olutionise it further. He added that university would set a new norm of uninterrupted education that will go on even in challenging times.

iit roorkee’s biG ‘GLobaL connectivity’ Move

IIT Roorkee is launching a Global Network of IIT Roorkee Alumni to establish an extensive connection with its large number of alumni spread across the world. It will fulfill a longstanding need of the institute and its alumni for a com-prehensive alumni database. Sev-

eral alumni have been asking for a network that can help them search and connect with fellow alumni and also facilitate interfacing with the institute through a single window. The Global Network aims to address this need. The Global Network of IIT Roorkee Alumni will be run by alumni volunteers. Provisions will be built in the implementation of the network so as to ensure that the pri-vacy concerns of the members are fully taken care of. The members of the network will have the flexibility to subscribe and unsubscribe mes-sages and services as per their wish. Special care will be taken to ensure the security of the database. revised dates of rbi’s Grade b exaM out

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has released the revised schedule of its Grade B Recruitment 2019 exami-nation. All the candidates can check the RBI Grade B 2020 new interview dates on the official website, the link for which is rbi.org.in. The candi-dates shortlisted for the interview are advised to note the revised schedule for the said interviews against their earlier corresponding interview dates. For example, candidates who were scheduled to be interviewed on 20 April 2020 will now be inter-viewed on 5 August 2020. Earlier, the interview round was scheduled to be held from 4-7 May. In case of further change in date/s of interview for reasons beyond the control of the Board, new dates for the Interviews will be informed to the candidates on the Bank’s website,” the official no-tice adds. Further, all the shortlisted candidates for RBI Grade B interview round are advised to check regularly the Bank’s website www.rbi.org.in for details and updates.

As per the draft of the National Edu-cation Policy, the

target for Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) for the year 2035 is set at 50%. We are currently less than 30% in terms of GER. Currently, six Indian states — Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Karnataka — account for 54% of the total student enrolment in higher educa-tion. The college density in India stands at mere 28 per lakh population and there is a huge spatial diversity in terms of access to higher education.

The opportunity cost for higher education in middle India (household income greater than Rs 25,000 and less than Rs 150,000 per month) as well as for bottom India (household income greater than Rs 8,000 per month) is very high in terms of hostel and commute fees as well. We need holistic planning to get to the targets of GER in 15 years, and we need it right now.

The primary challenges today are access and cost as it is evident from the data above. This is where digital learning has its scope. The

move to provide complete online degrees earlier this year was a welcome initia-tive. Restricting the initial base to top 100 colleges also made sense, since the quality wouldn’t be compro-mised. These programmes can bring down the costs as well for the students as you are not taking other over-heads with respect to run-ning an offline classroom setup. A lot of edu-tech players are capitalising on the wave as well to create positive change. They are typically known as OPMs or Online Programme Manag-ers. They own any of these

things — student recruit-ment, curriculum, career services, and the degree is certified by the college.

There are more than 50,000 higher education in-stitutes in India. The cost of opening a higher education establishment can range anywhere from a few lakh rupees to crores, depending on the size of the institution. This cost subsequently then affects the cost of getting an education for a child. Apart from that, the cost of getting books, traveling, and other miscellaneous expenses that lead to education is one of the major expenses in a

person’s life. This is where online higher edu-tech plat-forms have a huge scope, all you need to start learning online is a good Internet connection and a decent computer. A key advantage of the online learning indus-try is the self-paced learn-ing approach. The learners get the benefit of doing the courses at their own pace and according to their own schedules. Sometimes the learning is supplemented with live classes, webinars, presentations, but usually, it’s very self-paced.

There is a big disconnect between the colleges and

the industry. Even with the best of efforts, organisations have not found a compre-hensible solution to bridge this increasing skill gap but a few edu-tech startups might be onto something. Upskilling and reskilling have now become an in-nate part of the edu-tech sector. A few of them have been able to find opportu-nities in the industry by in-troducing skill-based and realistic knowledge-based experience sharing type of learning, which has led to a decrease in the skills gap. The students need to take supplementary courses for

specific skills apart from plain vanilla degrees even if they are enabled online to gain jobs.

Additionally, there are few challenges before digi-tal learning as well. Not every student is the same and has the same level of self-learning motivation to sit through long hours of online courses, especially when their attention spans are also decreasing year by year. This has led to a low user engagement within online classes, some stu-dents are more motivated and some are less motivated. Every student is unique but

the education sector has al-ways struggled to treat stu-dents that way. More than a challenge, this is an oppor-tunity to devise customised solutions based on indi-vidual learning goals and aptitude. Imagine a learning platform like Netflix, where your learning dashboard is unique to you and they’re based around your interests. Teaching practices will have to be innovated and evolved to make sure that the tradi-tional “one-size-fits-all” ap-proach to education is not continued.

A classroom builds inter-personal skills in a student,

whereas edu-tech is unable to do that. It’s impossible for technology to imitate the human aspect of schools, the friendships that blossom in school, the student-teacher interaction in schools, and more. These are the very real benefits of a school education, which are rarely spoken of, but which are perhaps the most important from the point of view of the psychosocial development of a young student.

Although the future does look interesting, there are few areas that need inter-vention while setting up a digital model of education While there are tonnes of tools for live video stream-ing, managing students, conducting tests, etc, a fact is that network latency in India is way too high as compared to the US and China, especially in ru-ral areas. Imagine learn-ing through an app where video buffering takes most of the student’s time. Our country’s technological in-frastructure is not evolved enough to support this gap in the edu-tech industry. Al-though, there are a few ways through which these issues can be tackled.The author is the co-founder of a career tech startup, Board Infinity.

The nationwide lockdown hit the vul-nerable community the most. There are many lives on hold. Millions of chil-dren from poor families studying in government and municipal schools in the country are staring at disorders in their studies without access to mobiles, Internet and laptops or desktops. Farana Tamboli, education coordinator, Miracle Foundation India, speaks to The Daily Guardian and talks about challenges, steps and future of underprivileged children’s education in India.Q. What are the challenges faced by under-privileged children in terms of education dur-ing this pandemic?A. The biggest challenge being faced by these kids is a lack of access and knowl-edge of technology. Especially for the children who have gone back home, con-nectivity is a big issue as well due to poor internet access. There is also a lack of awareness about online education and e-learning opportunities within the com-munity. Additionally, several children and their families do not have smart-phones. In some cases, the children are also facing a shortage of educational aids like books, stationery, etc. Regular education was disrupted suddenly in the month of March. Uncertainty of when their classes will resume has also led to anxiety amongst the children which we are helping them through by providing counselling support.Q. What topics are covered under the educa-tion programme being run by your NGO?

A. We are giving priority to ensure that no child drops out of education during this time. We are making efforts to keep the children engaged in educational ac-tivities. Teachers, trainers, and instruc-tors are conducting sessions remotely. The children have access to the com-puter lab and some children who have gone home have smartphones. For the children who do not have smartphones, we are attempting to get donors to sup-port them for the same. Computer classes are being held online by the computer instructor through Skype or Zoom. Revision of syllabus taught prior to the pandemic is also done. Wherever possible, aptitude testing, career coun-selling is also continuing online. Online career counselling has especially been conducted for children who have taken their 10th class examinations. Children are encouraged to take up online spo-ken English courses and brush up their conversational skills. Smart classes are being conducted remotely by coaching teachers. They connect through What-

sApp group or video calls and guide the children through their lessons.Q. Tell us about the methods/steps being taken to teach the students during the lockdown.A. Peer group learning is being prac-ticed for the younger kids within the Child Care Institute (CCI) along with having the older children guiding them. House parents are also involved in the process of engaging the kids to prevent a setback in academic progress or a loss of interest in studying. Social workers conduct quiz, debates, art and craft ses-sions, story reading sessions, dance and drama competitions to keep the children productively occupied. All activities are conducted keeping in mind the social distancing norms. Coaching teachers record their lessons and post them on WhatsApp groups. The children then study through these videos, note down their queries and send these to the teach-ers in the form of written messages or short videos. For those who do not have smartphones, the teachers assign home-work by SMS. A lot of the kids who have gone back to their families do not have phones and often use their neighbour’s phones. To ensure that the children are engaged, we also ask them to make vid-eos representing different topics like their hobbies, showcasing talent, etc. Additionally, computer instructors are conducting sessions on cyber bullying and security.Q. What safety precautions are you taking to avoid risks of Covid-19 infection?A. We are actively taking measures to create awareness regarding hygiene and social distancing to keep the children and staff safe. Repeated training and aware-ness sessions are being conducted on Co-vid-19, the importance of hand-washing and social distancing, maintaining clean-liness and hygiene, and frequent saniti-sation of campus. In many CCIs, the local doctors conducted these sessions. The CCI staff is supervising and ensuring that all learnings from these training are implemented and the same is followed during mealtimes and other activities. We conduct WASH programmes (Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene) in all CCIs as a series of training modules and follow-up is being conducted remotely.

How digital learning can reshape higher education

In BRIEFS

OPPORTUnITIES & CHALLEnGES

InTERVIEW

A key advantage of the online education industry is the self-paced learning approach. The learners get the benefit of doing the courses at their own speed and according to their own schedules.

Trying to ensure no child drops out of school during Covid-19 pandemic: FaranakunaL royNew Delhi

suMesh nairNew Delhi

A classroom builds interpersonal skills in a student, whereas edu-tech is unable to do that.

Farana Tamboli, education coordinator, Miracle Foundation India.

Shivani MiShraMuMbai

Once again it is lights, cam-era and action in the television

industry as many shows have resumed shooting on the sets

during Unlock 1.0. With many guidelines and norms, there are

still many challenges before the TV industry during the coronavirus pan-

demic and it looks like the impacts of the lockdown are not going to leave it easily.

Not only actors but production houses

too are facing problems to shoot while carrying masks and maintaining other directives given by the government. Earlier this month, the Ma-harashtra government al-lowed TV shows to resume shootings across the state. It also issued a list of SOPs, com-pletely barring work in contain-ment zones. The television sets are sanitised on a daily basis. Also, only 33% of cast and crew are allowed to work dur-ing this situation.

Producer Nitin Jai Shukla said, “We shot Bhalla Calling Bhalla

during the lockdown with the phones of the respective actors. I am sure people will adapt new ways of working. Things will get back to nor-

mal after a period of time as people will come back on tele-

vision content again. Slowly and steadily viewers will accept this new

storyline. It will be difficult for actors to shoot and writers to write the story ac-cording to the demand of the scenario.”

Govt Guidelines impose new challenGes before TV producers as shooTing resumes

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n ew d e l h i

Priyanka SharMaNew Delhi

Priyanka SharMaNew Delhi

entertainment

As their debut film Refugee com-pleted 20 years on Tuesday, Ab-hishek Bachchan and Kareena Ka-poor penned a “thank you” note, expressing their gratitude to all

those people who helped them climb up the ladder of success.Abhishek wrote on Instagram, “It is a

blessing and a privilege to be able to look back and recount the last 20 years. Any

actor will tell you, getting to make a film is a huge honour. Surviving 20 years seems un-imaginable. The best part is, I feel like I’m just

getting started. I have so much more to prove. So much more to do and I can’t wait.”

Kareena shared, “My first shot was at 4 am. I woke up this morning at 4, looked in the mir-ror, and said to myself that this was the best decision I could have ever taken. 20 years of hard work, dedication, and self-confidence.” She further expressed her gratitude to her fans for all their love, support, and strength.

Cut to 2020, Abhishek is now gearing up for his digital debut with Amazon Prime’s web series Breathe: Into The Shadows and will be seen in films like The Big Bull, Ludo and Bob Biswas. Kareena is all set to reunite with Aamir Khan on-screen in Laal Singh Chaddha and has signed Karan Johar’s Takht.

As some of the most anticipated films like Laxmmi Bomb, Bhuj: The Pride of India and Sadak 2 head towards OTT, the makers of Ranveer Singh’s 83 and Ak-shay Kumar’s Sooryavanshi confirmed a theatrical release on Tuesday. In a bid to welcome audiences back in the theatres, Sooryavanshi is scheduled to release on the occasion of Diwali, while 83 is gearing up for a Christ-mas release.

“Yes, both Sooryavanshi and 83 are confirmed for Diwali and Christmas, respectively. We are committed to bring both Sooryavanshi and 83 in theatres whenever the exhibitors are open and whenever the audiences feel safe and comfortable to come back to cinemas.

We feel and we hope that by Diwali and Christmas, the situation will be normal,” said Reliance Entertainment Group CEO Shibashish Sarkar.

Sooryavanshi, starring Akshay Ku-mar and Katrina Kaif, was expected to release in theatres on 24 March but was postponed indefinitely due to Covid-19 outbreak. Similarly, Ranveer Singh’s 83, which also stars Deepika Padukone, Pankaj Tripathi, Harrdy Sandhu, Saqib Saleem, among oth-ers, was slated for a 11 April release but had to be postponed.

abhishek, kareena pen emotional notes on 20 years in bollywood

hathaway reVeals nolan doesn’T allow chairs on seTs

LOS ANGELES: Hollywood actress Anne Hathaway says filmmaker Christopher Nolan does not allow chairs on his sets as he feels that “if they’re sitting they’re not working”.Hathaway was seen as Batman’s nemesis Catwoman in Nolan’s 2012 movie

The Dark Knight Rises. In an interview for Variety’s Actors on Actors issue, Hathaway talked with actor Hugh Jackman about the conversations she had with Nolan before starting her work as Catwoman. Jackman worked with Nolan in 2006’s magician drama The Prestige.

“You know how you have those jobs and you just go, ‘I don’t know how I’m going to work again because this was such fun’. I’m such a director nerd. I love just seeking out the best directors I can and then just watching them. Chris’ whole approach to filmmaking is one of my favourite ones. He’s broken it down to its most minimal, but also his movies are just so huge

and ornate. That combination of really being intentional about what it was that we were doing — and also, he’s just so inspiring,” she

said. Hathaway also recalled a specific detail from Nolan’s movie sets. “He doesn’t allow chairs, and his reasoning

is, if you have chairs, people will sit, and if they’re sitting, they’re not working... I think he’s

onto something with the chair thing,” she said.

makers of sooryavanshi and 83 confirm theatrical release

Former Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene feels it would be unfair to compare the modern day bowlers with their predecessors as probably the Jasprit Bum-rahs and Kagiso Rabadas are up against better batting units.

“If you look at the top 10 wicket-takers in modern day cricket all of them played in that era (first half of his ca-reer). I missed out on Walsh and Kapil as I started just af-ter that.

“There was (Mutthiah) Murali ( Muralitharan), (Shane) Warne, (Glenn) Mc-Grath, Anil (Kumble), Bhajji (Harbhajan Singh), Saqlain (Mushtaq), Wasim (Akram), Waqar (Younis), their num-bers speak for themselves,” Jayawardene said during an ESPNcricinfo videocast with Sanjay Manjrekar.

“We are yet to see if the current crop of bowlers will hit the numbers that their predecessors did... The pres-ent bowlers are probably up against better batting units,”

said batting ace Jayawardene who played 652 matches for Sri Lanka across formats during a career spanning close to two decades.

Jayawardene also spoke about Muttiah Muralith-aran, saying the spin great and his former teammate was a difficult bowler “to convince to do something he didn’t want to”.

“Murali was a champion bowler even though he went about his game differently

to others. Warne probably didn’t have the variety that Murali had. Murali knew exactly what he was doing and believed in grinding a batsman down.”

On Kumar Sangakkara, Jayawardene said: “”He changed the way he batted over the years. The last six-seven years the numbers that he put on the board was phenomenal. I don’t think any modern day cricketer has done that.”

Joe Root will not be playing for England in their first Test against the West Indies and all-rounder Ben Stokes will be leading the team in his place, the England and Wales

Cricket Board announced on Tues-day. Root will be with his wife for the birth of their second child.The ECB further said that wicket-keeper batsman Jos Buttler will be vice-captain to Stokes. Buttler is vice-captain of the England limited-overs sides.

“England Test captain Joe Root will leave the training camp at the Ageas Bowl on Wednesday after-noon to be with his wife, Carrie, who is expecting their second child later this week,” said the ECB in its statement.“He will miss England’s three-day

intra-squad warm-up match start-ing tomorrow and the #RaiseTheBat first Test against West Indies com-mencing on Wednesday 8 July at the Ageas Bowl. “Root will commence a seven-day self-isolation period at home once he leaves hospital with his family. He will join up with the

England squad ahead of the second Test at Emirates Old Trafford on Monday 13 July.“Durham all-rounder Ben Stokes, who has been Root’s Test vice-cap-tain since his appointment last July, will captain the side for the first time in Southampton. Lancashire’s

Jos Buttler will assume vice-cap-taincy duties.”England’s first Test against West Indies will start on July 8 in South-ampton. This is the first cricket series to be played since the sport went into a freeze mid-March due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Mahela feels today’s bowlers May be up against better batting units

Joe root to Miss first test against wi, stokes to lead english teaM in his absence

Q. How are you dealing with the pressure of “Tokyo Trials”?A. There is always pressure in the back of your mind be-cause everyone has expecta-tions from you. So in this situ-ation, you need to think about your preparations instead of thinking about the result you will get. And working hard you end up with a good result. Focus is the key.Q. Tell us about your training routine?A. For the Olympic trials, I am working on various factors like mental focus, physical fitness, nutrition, sleep, and training. Coach plays an im-portant role because he recti-fies you every moment. And I also prefer “quality training over quantity”. Three hours in a day and 5 days a week —

I think this is enough for me.Q. Did the postponement of the Olympics affect you in any way?A. We have one whole year to get stronger and better. No matches or tournaments are going on, so we can use this time to work more on our mental strength, which is very vital for a sport like shooting.Q. How do you work on your mental fitness?A. I do yoga thrice a week and indulge in meditation daily. While playing for a crucial point, it is very important to hold your nerves under the pressure.Q. How do you see the competi-

tion in the upcoming Olympic trials?A. I think instead of anyone, you should compete with yourself. You can’t work over anyone’s strategies, you can

only change what is in your hands.Q. Do we have enough facilities in India?A. We have limited quality shooting ranges in our coun-ty — Delhi, Pune and Kerala

only. We need to build ranges in every corner of the country. So that’s how more shooters will come up with the best of their talent. Going abroad and training there is not an afford-able option for everyone.Q. The Birmingham Common-wealth Games is excluding shoot-ing. How do you think about this?A. It was very shocking to me. If they are hosting all the events why would they ex-clude shooting? Every sport should be prioritised equally.Q. Is there anything you want to do after winning a medal in the Olympics?A. One thing that I want to do after winning a medal is fashion. Right now I am hav-ing some free time so I am do-ing online courses related to it. I am interested in fashion. I want to pursue fashion as well, though shooting will al-ways remain a part of my life.

‘We have limited quality shooting ranges in India’

cricket

test series

interView

Ace shooter Gauri Sheoran talks about her preparations for the Olympic trials and her itch to pursue a career in fashion.

Ace shooter Gauri Sheoran.

Former Sri Lankan cricketer Mahela Jayawardene.

Neev Goswami nEW DELHI

sports the daily guardian01 july 2020new delhi10

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