I n his much anticipated address to the nation on Thursday night, Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged people to observe social dis- tancing to reduce the spread of coronavirus and called upon them to observe “Janata Curfew” on Sunday, March 22, from 7am to 9pm by staying inside home, barring those working in essential services sector. In his 30-minute long tele- vision address, Modi reiterat- ed there is no need for panic buying of commodities and asked people not to hoard any item like medicines or food or essential commodities and also avoid hospital visits related to routine checkups. Modi said that the COVID-2019 pandemic has affected more countries than those affected during the World Wars. Giving the example of a “blackout” during times of war, Modi appealed to people to exercise caution regarding the novel coronavirus pandemic and said citizens over 60-65 years must not step out of their homes. “People should observe janata curfew. Which means it is a curfew imposed on people, by themselves, for themselves. Avoid travelling out of the house unless it is essential travel. On Sunday, while you are observing the janata curfew, at 5 pm, for five minutes, we must stand outside our hous- es or in our balconies and clap for those in essential jobs work- ing for us during this pan- demic,” Modi said praising the services of professionals like doctors, nurses, medical staff, police, media and others. “I request the countrymen to avoid visiting hospitals for routine checkups. If you have appointment for any non- essential surgery, please post- pone for one month. We should keep in mind that pres- sure should not come on hos- pitals,” Prime Minister Modi said. Urging people to give their time for a few weeks, Modi said every citizen should make oth- ers aware of the corona pan- demic. The Prime Minister said that while world powers are struggling with the coron- avirus pandemic, developing countries like India will find it a big challenge to tackle and curb the infections. I ndia will cut itself off from the rest of the world to tack- le the coronavirus outbreak as the Government on Thursday took extreme measures ranging from banning all internation- al commercial passenger flights from landing here from March 22 for one week and asking the States to enforce work from home, even in private sectors. The Government also directed suspension of conces- sional travel, except for stu- dents, patients and divyang. In the meantime, the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) postponed Class X and XII examinations, which were to start from Thursday itself. The Government has also advised the citizens above 65 and children below 10 to remain indoor even as it assured the general public there is no community transmission of the disease in the country so far and there are sufficient medical devices like masks for safety. In the meantime, the States continue to report the viral cases which surged to 197 including four fatalities, the lat- est one from Punjab on Thursday. There were more than 20 fresh cases in last 24 hours with Chhattisgarh and Chandigarh reporting their first COVID-19 patients early on Thursday. One Indian who tested positive for coronavirus died in Iran while other infect- ed Indian citizens are being provided treatment and taken care of by the Iranian Government. The Government has also asked railways and Civil Aviation Ministries to suspend all concessional travel on trains and flights, except for stu- dents, patients and divyang. The Centre has requested the States to enforce work from home for private sector employees, except for those working in emergency and essential services. “State Governments shall issue appropriate directions so that all citizens above 65 (other than for medical assistance) except for public representa- tives or Government servants or medical professionals are advised to remain at home,” the Government statement noted. To reduce huge gatherings, all group B and C category of Central Government employees will be asked to attend offices on alternate weeks, and there will be “staggered timings” for all employees. The move comes after the Central Government allowed its 50 per cent employees to work from home and remain- ing to have staggered working hours. The Ministry said the Pharmaceutical Department and the Ministry of Consumer Affairs have been asked to take necessary action against anyone charging exorbitant prices for masks, sanitisers and health-related materials. T ightening measures further to stem the spread of coro- navirus, the Delhi Government on Thursday ordered the clo- sure of eating joints in the national Capital till March 31 and banned the gathering of more than 20 people. However, takeaway and home delivery services from the eating joints will continue. Social, cultural and politi- cal gatherings with more than 20 people are not allowed across Delhi, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said. “Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal has asked all Government departments, autonomous bodies and PSUs to segregate activities and sus- pend non-essential services,” Kejriwal told the media. Non-essential Government services will be discontinued from Friday, he added. “We have succeeded in keeping coronavirus at the contain- ment stage and it is not at com- munity level,” he said. The CM also asked those directed to undergo quarantine to follow rules or strict action may be taken against them. The coronavirus has claimed one life in Delhi and infected 10 people. Kejriwal said, “Stay at home as much as you can and work from home. I want to appeal to the private sector institutions to allow their employees to work from home. “Senior citizens are the most vulnerable of all, and I want to appeal to all the senior citizens to stay at home and avoid going out at all hours. Senior citizens need to be the most cautious of all.” B eleaguered Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamala Nath has just 24 hours to win back the 16 Congress rebel MLAs. The Supreme Court on Thursday directed Madhya Pradesh Assembly Speaker NP Prajapati to con- vene a special session of the House on Wednesday for con- ducting the floor test of the Kamal Nath-led Congress Government. The test must be concluded by 5 pm. A division bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud and Hemant Gupta ordered video recording and possible live streaming of the Assembly proceedings when the floor test is conducted. The bench directed the police chiefs of Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka to pro- vide security to the 16 rebel Congress MLAs if they choose to appear in Assembly for trust vote. The bench also ordered that the Assembly will have a single point agenda of the floor test and no hindrance is to be created for anyone. It asked the State Assembly Secretary to ensure that there is no breach of law and order. Earlier in the day, the SC suggested that the Speaker should interact with the rebel Congress MLAs through video link or the court can appoint an observer to allay the fear that the legislators are in captivity. However, the Speaker refused to accept the proposal. The bench said it can cre- ate conditions to ensure that “exercise of volition” of the rebel MLAs is “truly voluntary”. “We can appoint an observer to Bengaluru or some other place so that the rebel MLAs can connect with the Speaker through video confer- encing after which he can decide,” the bench said. F ormer Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi on Thursday took oath as a nominated member of Rajya Sabha amidst chant of “shame, shame” and walkout by the Oppositions MPs. This is the first time ever that the House witnessed slo- gan shouting and walkout dur- ing an oath taking. House Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu ordered that the slogan shout- ing will not go on record. “It is very unbecoming of members of Parliament. No, this is not the way. Nothing will go on record. (It is) very unfair, very unfair,” Naidu said as Opposition members greeted Gogoi with chants of “shame, shame”. Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, who was among the first to greet Gogoi when he entered the House minutes before the proceedings began, said what Opposition members did was grossly unfair. After taking oath, Gogoi walked up to the chair to greet Naidu, who responded to his greetings with folded hands. Naidu said members have the liberty to express their views outside the House on the issue. T he four death-row convicts of the December 16, 2012 Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case will hang on Friday at 5.30 pm inside Tihar jail where they have been lodged since their arrest. Ram Singh, the elder brother of convict Mukesh, who was arrested along with the four other accused — Vinay Sharma, Akshay Singh, Pawan Gupta and Mukesh Kumar — had committed sui- cide in the jail, while a juvenile, who subjected the 23-year-old paramedic girl to unimagin- able physical torture, was freed after getting a mild punish- ment of three years in a Juvenile Remand Home in the national Capital. Earlier, a Delhi court on Thursday dismissed the plea of three of the convicts seeking stay on the execution. Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Dharmender Rana dis- missed the plea of Akshay Kumar, Pawan Gupta and Vinay Sharma seeking stay on the death penalty, who wanted further delay in hang- ing claiming that the second mercy plea of one of them was pending. The court was informed by the public prosecutor that second mercy pleas of Akshay and Pawan were rejected on the ground that the first such plea was entertained and con- sidered on merit. He told the court that advocate AP Singh, counsel for the convicts, was giving false information stating second mercy plea of Pawan was pending and said that all the convicts have exhausted their legal remedies. Singh also said convict Akshay’s wife has filed for a divorce in a city court in Bihar which was pending, to which the special public pros- ecutor said any other petition does not fall under the purview of legal remedy in the case. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court on Thursday refused to entertain the plea of Mukesh, who challenged a Delhi High Court order which rejected his claim that he was not in the city when at the time of crime on December 16, 2012. A Bench of Justices R Banumathi, Ashok Bhushan and AS Bopanna said the convict has exhausted all his legal remedies and no fresh evidence can be entertained at this level. The Bench said it does not find any merit in the plea and it cannot be entertained. The Delhi High Court had on Wednesday said there were no grounds to interfere in the detailed and reasoned order of the trial court. On Tuesday, the trial court dis- missed Mukesh Singh’s plea and asked the Bar Council of India to appropriately sensitise his counsel. Amaravati: The famous hill shrine of Lord Venkateswara in Tirumala and all other major temples will be out of bounds for devotees while malls and cinema halls would be closed down in Andhra Pradesh till March 31 to check the spread of coronavirus, the State Government announced on Thursday. Detailed report on P6 RNI Regn. No. MPENG/2004/13703, Regd. No. L-2/BPLON/41/2006-2008
Thursday night, PrimeMinister Narendra Modi urgedpeople to observe social dis-tancing to reduce the spread ofcoronavirus and called uponthem to observe “JanataCurfew” on Sunday, March 22,from 7am to 9pm by stayinginside home, barring thoseworking in essential servicessector.
In his 30-minute long tele-vision address, Modi reiterat-ed there is no need for panicbuying of commodities andasked people not to hoard anyitem like medicines or food oressential commodities and alsoavoid hospital visits related toroutine checkups.
Modi said that theCOVID-2019 pandemic hasaffected more countries thanthose affected during the WorldWars. Giving the example of a“blackout” during times of war,Modi appealed to people toexercise caution regarding thenovel coronavirus pandemicand said citizens over 60-65years must not step out oftheir homes.
“People should observejanata curfew. Which means itis a curfew imposed on people,by themselves, for themselves.Avoid travelling out of thehouse unless it is essentialtravel. On Sunday, while youare observing the janata curfew,at 5 pm, for five minutes, wemust stand outside our hous-es or in our balconies and clapfor those in essential jobs work-ing for us during this pan-demic,” Modi said praising theservices of professionals likedoctors, nurses, medical staff,police, media and others.
“I request the countrymento avoid visiting hospitals forroutine checkups. If you haveappointment for any non-essential surgery, please post-pone for one month. Weshould keep in mind that pres-sure should not come on hos-pitals,” Prime Minister Modisaid.
Urging people to give theirtime for a few weeks, Modi saidevery citizen should make oth-ers aware of the corona pan-demic. The Prime Ministersaid that while world powersare struggling with the coron-avirus pandemic, developingcountries like India will find ita big challenge to tackle andcurb the infections.
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India will cut itself off fromthe rest of the world to tack-
le the coronavirus outbreak asthe Government on Thursdaytook extreme measures rangingfrom banning all internation-al commercial passenger flightsfrom landing here from March22 for one week and asking theStates to enforce work fromhome, even in private sectors.
The Government alsodirected suspension of conces-sional travel, except for stu-dents, patients and divyang.
In the meantime, theCouncil for the Indian SchoolCertificate Examinations(CISCE) postponed Class X andXII examinations, which wereto start from Thursday itself.
The Government has alsoadvised the citizens above 65and children below 10 toremain indoor even as itassured the general public thereis no community transmissionof the disease in the country sofar and there are sufficientmedical devices like masks forsafety.
In the meantime, the Statescontinue to report the viralcases which surged to 197including four fatalities, the lat-est one from Punjab onThursday. There were morethan 20 fresh cases in last 24hours with Chhattisgarh andChandigarh reporting theirfirst COVID-19 patients earlyon Thursday. One Indian who
tested positive for coronavirusdied in Iran while other infect-ed Indian citizens are beingprovided treatment and takencare of by the IranianGovernment.
The Government has alsoasked railways and CivilAviation Ministries to suspendall concessional travel on trainsand flights, except for stu-dents, patients and divyang.
The Centre has requestedthe States to enforce work fromhome for private sectoremployees, except for thoseworking in emergency andessential services.
“State Governments shallissue appropriate directions sothat all citizens above 65 (otherthan for medical assistance)except for public representa-tives or Government servantsor medical professionals areadvised to remain at home,” theGovernment statement noted.
To reduce huge gatherings,all group B and C category ofCentral Government employeeswill be asked to attend officeson alternate weeks, and therewill be “staggered timings” forall employees.
The move comes after theCentral Government allowedits 50 per cent employees to
work from home and remain-ing to have staggered workinghours. The Ministry said thePharmaceutical Departmentand the Ministry of Consumer
Affairs have been asked totake necessary action againstanyone charging exorbitant
prices for masks, sanitisers andh e a l t h - r e l a t e d materials.
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Tightening measures furtherto stem the spread of coro-
navirus, the Delhi Governmenton Thursday ordered the clo-sure of eating joints in thenational Capital till March 31and banned the gathering ofmore than 20 people.
However, takeaway andhome delivery services fromthe eating joints will continue.
Social, cultural and politi-cal gatherings with more than20 people are not allowedacross Delhi, Chief MinisterArvind Kejriwal said.
“Lieutenant Governor AnilBaijal has asked allGovernment departments,autonomous bodies and PSUsto segregate activities and sus-pend non-essential services,”Kejriwal told the media.
Non-essential Government
services will be discontinuedfrom Friday, he added. “Wehave succeeded in keepingcoronavirus at the contain-ment stage and it is not at com-munity level,” he said.
The CM also asked thosedirected to undergo quarantineto follow rules or strict actionmay be taken against them. Thecoronavirus has claimed onelife in Delhi and infected 10people.
Kejriwal said, “Stay athome as much as you can andwork from home. I want toappeal to the private sectorinstitutions to allow theiremployees to work from home.
“Senior citizens are themost vulnerable of all, and Iwant to appeal to all the seniorcitizens to stay at home andavoid going out at all hours.Senior citizens need to be themost cautious of all.”
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Beleaguered MadhyaPradesh Chief Minister
Kamala Nath has just 24 hoursto win back the 16 Congressrebel MLAs. The SupremeCourt on Thursday directedMadhya Pradesh AssemblySpeaker NP Prajapati to con-vene a special session of theHouse on Wednesday for con-ducting the floor test of theKamal Nath-led CongressGovernment. The test must beconcluded by 5 pm.
A division bench of JusticesD Y Chandrachud and Hemant
Gupta ordered video recordingand possible live streaming ofthe Assembly proceedings whenthe floor test is conducted.
The bench directed thepolice chiefs of MadhyaPradesh and Karnataka to pro-vide security to the 16 rebel
Congress MLAs if they chooseto appear in Assembly for trustvote.
The bench also orderedthat the Assembly will have asingle point agenda of the floortest and no hindrance is to becreated for anyone. It asked the
State Assembly Secretary toensure that there is no breachof law and order.
Earlier in the day, the SCsuggested that the Speakershould interact with the rebelCongress MLAs through videolink or the court can appoint anobserver to allay the fear thatthe legislators are in captivity.However, the Speaker refusedto accept the proposal.
The bench said it can cre-ate conditions to ensure that“exercise of volition” of therebel MLAs is “truly voluntary”.
“We can appoint anobserver to Bengaluru or someother place so that the rebelMLAs can connect with theSpeaker through video confer-encing after which he candecide,” the bench said.
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Former Chief Justice of IndiaRanjan Gogoi on Thursday
took oath as a nominatedmember of Rajya Sabha amidstchant of “shame, shame” andwalkout by the OppositionsMPs.
This is the first time everthat the House witnessed slo-gan shouting and walkout dur-ing an oath taking. HouseChairman M Venkaiah Naiduordered that the slogan shout-ing will not go on record.
“It is very unbecoming ofmembers of Parliament. No,this is not the way. Nothing willgo on record. (It is) very unfair,
very unfair,” Naidu said asOpposition members greetedGogoi with chants of “shame,shame”.
Law Minister Ravi ShankarPrasad, who was among thefirst to greet Gogoi when heentered the House minutesbefore the proceedings began,said what Opposition members did was grosslyunfair.
After taking oath, Gogoiwalked up to the chair to greetNaidu, who responded to hisgreetings with folded hands.Naidu said members have the liberty to express theirviews outside the House on theissue.
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The four death-row convictsof the December 16, 2012
Nirbhaya gangrape and murdercase will hang on Friday at 5.30pm inside Tihar jail wherethey have been lodged sincetheir arrest.
Ram Singh, the elderbrother of convict Mukesh,who was arrested along withthe four other accused —Vinay Sharma, Akshay Singh,Pawan Gupta and MukeshKumar — had committed sui-cide in the jail, while a juvenile,who subjected the 23-year-oldparamedic girl to unimagin-able physical torture, was freedafter getting a mild punish-ment of three years in aJuvenile Remand Home in thenational Capital.
Earlier, a Delhi court onThursday dismissed the plea ofthree of the convicts seekingstay on the execution.
Additional Sessions Judge(ASJ) Dharmender Rana dis-missed the plea of AkshayKumar, Pawan Gupta andVinay Sharma seeking stayon the death penalty, whowanted further delay in hang-ing claiming that the secondmercy plea of one of them waspending.
The court was informedby the public prosecutor thatsecond mercy pleas of Akshayand Pawan were rejected onthe ground that the first such
plea was entertained and con-sidered on merit.
He told the court thatadvocate AP Singh, counsel forthe convicts, was giving falseinformation stating secondmercy plea of Pawan waspending and said that all theconvicts have exhausted theirlegal remedies.
Singh also said convictAkshay’s wife has filed for adivorce in a city court inBihar which was pending, towhich the special public pros-
ecutor said any other petitiondoes not fall under thepurview of legal remedy in thecase.
Meanwhile, the SupremeCourt on Thursday refused toentertain the plea of Mukesh,who challenged a Delhi HighCourt order which rejected hisclaim that he was not in thecity when at the time of crimeon December 16, 2012.
A Bench of Justices RBanumathi, Ashok Bhushanand AS Bopanna said theconvict has exhausted all hislegal remedies and no freshevidence can be entertained atthis level.
The Bench said it does notfind any merit in the plea andit cannot be entertained.
The Delhi High Courthad on Wednesday said therewere no grounds to interferein the detailed and reasonedorder of the trial court. OnTuesday, the trial court dis-missed Mukesh Singh’s pleaand asked the Bar Council ofIndia to appropriately sensitisehis counsel.
Amaravati: The famous hillshrine of Lord Venkateswara inTirumala and all other majortemples willbe out ofbounds ford e v o t e e swhile mallsand cinemahalls would beclosed down in AndhraPradesh till March 31 to checkthe spread of coronavirus, theState Government announcedon Thursday.
Service Scheme Unit ofAISECT college. The campwas organised at Village Narela,Bhopal.
The inauguration of thecamp was attended by seniorcitizens of the village ManoharTiwari, Babulal Tiwari, GumanSingh Thakur, Kishan SinghThakur, Kamal Kishore Tiwari,Arjun Singh Thakur, KamleshPrajapati, Ashok Narvariya,Sunil Tiwari, Ramesh Narwariaand Chandra Singh Prajapati.
At the camp, 50 volunteersunder the leadership ofNational Service Planning Unitofficer Nitin Dhimole, ProgramOfficer Roshni Gaur workedon various activities in thecamp including cleanlinessdrive, Prabhat Pheri, yoga exer-cises.
Apart from this, peoplewere first made aware of thecorona virus in the projectwork. In the intellectual ses-sion, lectures on Health andCitizenship Law were given byNitin Mod. On the second daythe cultural programme
Sunderkand was organised,while on the third day PrabhatPheri and Yoga started withexercises and parades. In theproject work, the volunteersgave lectures on child protec-tion to the villagers.
In the intellectual session,Yogendra Chauhan gave a lec-ture on financial literacy cam-paign to villagers and volun-teers. Yogacharya Roshni Gaurtaught various types ofpranayama on the fourth day.The villagers were made awareof financial literacy in the pro-ject work.
In the intellectual session,all the volunteers wereinformed and made aware ofthe National Service Scheme bythe State Camper volunteers.On the fifth day, all the volun-teers were told by NitinDhimole sir about the processof shakarma, pulse treatment.
All the children in the pro-ject work made the villagershealth conscious. CollegePrincipal Satyendra Khare,Deputy Principal YogendraChauhan, DepartmentPresident Umesh Kumar andChief Guest CP Mishra werepresent during the session.
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After a dispute, a 22-year-oldThird Year Engineering
student was attacked withsharp-edged weapons by hisclassmate at a boys’ hostelunder Kamla Nagar police sta-tion on Wednesday.
Police said that later, theyouth was rushed to a hospital.The injured was identified asVicky Gupta who was attackedby his classmate Dheeraj.
Both the victim and theaccused were identified as thirdyear students of Radha RamanCollege.
In-charge of Kamla Nagarpolice station, Vijay Sisodia,said that the two had a heatedargument which turned into afight. The victim was attackedin his stomach on left side bythe accused with a sharp-edged weapon. On Thursday,the victim was operated uponand is reportedly stable, headded.
Sisodia further added thatthe accused escaped from thespot and is still missing. Thevictim and the accused are res-idents of Bihar and belong tothe same area.
Based on the complaint,the police registered a caseunder section 307 of the IPC.
The reason behind thefight and attack was notrevealed but it was found thatthe two has old enmity overdominance in the college.
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As soon as the informationwas received about the
suspected patients of novelcorona virus in a hotel locatedin Maharana Pratap Nagar,Bhopal, the Chief MedicalOfficer took prompt actionaccording to the guidelines ofthe Central Government.
All rooms on this floor,including the room where thecustomer stayed, have beenvacated immediately.
The health check-up of allthe employees working in thehotel was conducted by thedoctors, in which all theemployees were found to behealthy. The four suspectedpatients have been kept undersurveillance and isolation.
It may be mentioned thatno positive case of novel coro-na virus disease has been foundin the state so far. The state gov-ernment has strengthened themeasures for monitoring andprevention of the disease.According to the informationreceived from the StateSurveillance Unit, 1,000 pas-sengers arrived from the novelcorona virus affected countrieshave been identified till date.
Out of these passengers,541 have been kept in isolation
in their homes and surveillanceof 382 passengers has alreadybeen completed.
Samples of 43 suspectedcases had been sent for inves-tigation to NIV Pune, IndiraGandhi Government MedicalCollege-Nagpur, AIIMS-Bhopal and NIRTH – Jabalpur,out of which 29 reports havebeen found negative and 14reports are yet to come.Passengers from affected coun-tries are being screened atIndore, Bhopal, Jabalpur,Chhatarpur and Gwalior air-ports.
Till date 12 thousand 32passengers have been screenedat Indore, Bhopal, Gwalior,Chhatarpur and Jabalpur air-ports.
So far, 1,764 calls havebeen received at the state-levelcall center 104 for informationand advisories on the disease.
country, all the Board exams ofclass 10 and 12 have beenpostponed.
The Madhya PradeshBoard of Secondary Education(MPBSE) released an officialnotice on Thursday. Besides,Central Board of SecondaryEducation (CBSE) has alsocancelled the 10 and 12 boardexams across the country.
According to the noticereleased by MPBSE and CBSE,all the board exams of classes10 and 12 have been cancelledtill March 31. The exams thatwere scheduled between March20 and March 31 have beencalled off.
The school authorities havebeen instructed to spread themessage with immediate effect.Besides, the exam evaluationwork has also been called offkeeping in view the criticalhealth situation of the country.
According to the notice, allthe question papers have tokept in tight security andshould not be touched untill
further notice. The MPBSEwill soon announce the newdates for the cancelled exams.
It is to be noted that exam-ination of Biology, History,Accounts and Book keeping,Chemistry, Geography, PoliticalScience were scheduled in thesedates for class 12 for MPBSE.
For class 10 CBSEComputer Science exam wasscheduled on March 20.Besides, for class 12 CBSE theexams of Sociology,Biotechnology, ComputerScience, Hindi, Geography andBusiness Studies were sched-uled on these dates.
The Central Board ofSecondary Education (CBSE)has also directed that all eval-uation work related to boardexams be stopped till March 31.The notice further stated thatthe fresh dates will beannounced after the re-assess-ment of the situation.
Moreover, the JEE Mainshave also been cancelled byHumar Resource andDevelopment Department. TheJEE Mains were scheduledfrom April 5 to 11.
With this, the JEEAdvanced exam dates will alsobe rescheduled.
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Chunabhatti police hasdetained three suspects in
connection with the murder ofa 46-year-old woman at Kolarshanties late in the night onWednesday.
Sensation prevailed in thearea after a woman was founddead at Kolar shanties late in thenight.
The deceased, Radha Yadav,a resident of Panchvati Colony,Karond, was killed by silting herthroat by unidentified miscre-ants. Radha was declared deadwhen she was taken to hospital.
The locals informed thepolice and acting on the infor-mation, a team reached thespot and started investigation.
The deceased used to lendmoney on interest and policesuspect that she was killed overmoney dispute but it could not
be ascertained as the accusedinvolved in the murderremained unidentified.
During probe, it was foundthat she used to lend money oninterest and would collect therepayment from the borrowers.She had gone for some moneymatter which her family mem-bers are yet to reveal.
Her throat was slit with asharp-edged weapon. Otherinjury marks would be revealedafter the post-mortem report isreceived.
On the spot, no signs ofstruggle were found in theinvestigation.
The body was sent for thepost-mortem after the prelim-inary investigation. Police reg-istered a case under section 302of the IPC and started furtherinvestigation. Till the filing ofthe report, nothing vital wasfound in the investigation.
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From wooden to bambooand from antique to con-
temporary, the furniture showhas it all. Being put up atGauhar Mahal, the furnitureshow 2020 showcases the bestand new in trend furniture.But, due to the Coronavirusoutbreak, exhibition is notrecieving a satisfactoryresponse.
At Gauhar Mahal, a hugerange of furniture for dininghalls, drawing rooms, bedrooms and living rooms is dis-played at the emporium.Besides, having a variety ofindoor furniture the exhibition
displays the furniture for theexteriors of the house. Differentvariety of rugs are also availableat the exhibition.
It is to be noted that theexhibition-cum- sale will con-tinue till March 21. One of thevendors, Ramesh said, "Dudthe virus spread, limited foot-fall is seen at the exhibition."People usually go during daytime to chose the best fit fortheir home. During eveningslimited crowd is noticed.
There are varieties of sofasets, dining tables, stools andcorner tables of wood, bambooand iron. Besides, the furniturecollection also exhibits jutehammocks, wooden show
pieces and other decorativepieces in glass and crystals.
Besides, to make the fur-niture show more magnificentthe exhibition cum sale alsoexhibited the wooden andbamboo sculptures, wall hang-ings, wooden indoor and outdoor swings as well.
One can also find a varietyof bed sheets, curtains andcushions in cotton, shimmer,bagh and linen.
The prices of bamboo fur-niture begin from �300 andwent up to �6,000. Similarlyone could find the price ofwooden, iron and glass furni-ture lowest from �500 till�8,000.
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Chief Minister Kamal Nathhas appealed to the citi-
zens of the State to consumefood that helps to developimmunity in order to avoidthe spread of Novel Coronavirus. He has said that if nec-essary, doctors’ advice anduseful medicines should alsobe taken.
Kamal Nath told the citi-zens that the vigilance and
caution you have takentowards prevention of thisdisease and the awarenessyou have shown is com-mendable. This should becontinued further. The ChiefMinister said that there is noneed to panic. There is aneed to be vigilant in thecoming days.
Chief Minister KamalNath said to the citizens thatyou are all familiar with thespread of Novel Corona virus
and its dangers. We are wit-nessing the influence ofCorona all over the world. Ithas also been declared a pan-demic. It has also beendeclared contagious inMadhya Pradesh.
Chief Minister KamalNath said that cities likeIndore and Bhopal havereached the top level in thecountry in cleanliness due tothe disciplined behaviour andefforts of citizens. This disci-
plined and restrained behav-ior will help prevent Corona.
Kamal Nath said that thestate government has adopt-ed all measures to prevent thespread of Corona infection, asper the advice of theGovernment of India andhealth experts.
Everyone must also followthis. Do not assemble unnec-essarily at one place. Avoidtraveling unless it is extreme-ly necessary.
Maintain cleanliness inand around houses. Washhands with soap and water.Cover the nose and mouthwhile sneezing. Avoid contactwith people affected by coldand flu.
Citizens who havebecome aware about the pre-vention of Corona virus infec-tion and its spread, shouldalso spread its scientific andother related information tocitizens. The state govern-
ment has made completepreparations. We will be ableto stay safe from Coronainfection with the coopera-tion of people.
The Chief Ministerinformed that all possibleefforts are being made by theMadhya Pradesh governmentto stop the spread of NovelCorona virus.
It has been decided toclose schools, colleges, cine-ma halls, marriage halls, pub-
lic libraries, water parks,g yms, swimming pools ,anganwadis, etc. until fur-ther orders.
The system of biometricattendance of employees inoffices has been discontinued.Cultural celebrations, publicceremonies, official visits andtraining programmes havebeen postponed.
Local public representa-tives and religious leaders arebeing asked to make people
aware about the spread ofNovel Corona virus throughpeace committee meetings atblock level. Religious leadershave been urged to limit reli-gious ceremonies.
Along with this, legalmeasures are also being takento stop meetings of morethan 20 people.
Besides, all necessaryarrangements have also beenmade in Government andprivate hospitals.
AState-level meeting of theroad safety cell was organ-
ised at the Police Training andResearch Institute under thechairmanship of AssistantInspector General of PoliceAmrit Meena.
Meena said that effortsshould be made to make peoplestrictly adhere to the road safe-ty rules in actual terms. Heasked the nodal officers to pro-vide information about theefforts being made by theirnodal departments to reduceaccidents.
Amrit Meena asked thedepartments to get informationabout the latest status from thedistrict level also. He told toapprise the lead agency con-stantly with updated informa-tion.
He said that informationabout awareness and trainingprogrammes should also beobtained. Meena said Vision-2020 should be prepared and
presented by the Nodal Agency.He said that riding in a tractor-trolley is a punishable offenseand indicators should be put upin rural areas to make peopleaware in this regard.
A two-minute silence wasobserved and tributes were paidon the death of Public WorksDepartment-National Highwayofficer Mithilesh Pandey duringthe meeting. Nodal officers of
Public Health and FamilyWelfare Department, PublicEducation, Transport, PublicWorks, NH&B & R, Excise,Public Relations, MadhyaPradesh Rural RoadDevelopment Authority, RoadDevelopment Corporation andNational Highway Authority ofIndia and members related to thelead agency were present in themeeting.
organised where in artists arecreating tribal paintings.
The art camp is beingorganised by the Directorate ofCulture in the Ravindra Bhavancampus. The art camp willcontinue till March 21 to com-memorate the year of GondArt.
The painting camp includ-ed Bhili painters Bhuri Baiand Ladou Bai. Apart fromthese, Bhil painter ThawarSingh of Alirajpur was also pre-sent. Gond artists are also par-ticipating in the camp, includ-ing Sahadev Pusham,Patangarh, Mangala Maravi,Dindori, Manoj Tekam,
Bhopal, Agresh Careketta,Bhopal, Jambu Singad, Bhopal,Kala Bai Shyam, Bhopal, Seniorceramist Devi Lal Patidar wasalso present on the occasion.Other attendees includeVandana Pandey, P.K. Jha,Naval Shukla were alsoinvolved. The time of the campis from 11 am to 5 pm.
In tribal paintings, theartist makes sure to draw theinner as well as outer lines withas much care as possible so thatthe perfection of the lines hasan immediate effect on theviewer. Lines are used in sucha way that it conveys a sense ofmovement to the still images.Dots and dashes are added toimpart a greater sense of move-ment and increase the amountof detail.+������$�������'� ���'��������������'�����'�������������'���� �!����������� ���������������������������� ������ �������
Ondoor store at Saket Nagarwho escaped with �1.15 lakhcash from the store in themonth of Februar y andrefused to return money.
Police said that theaccuseed, identif ied asPurusharth Jain, was bookedfor fraudulently escaping with�1.15 lakh from the store onFebruary 10.
The complainant, HRHead, Praveen Kumar, lodgeda complaint with the policeand based on the complaint,the accused was booked. In
his complaint the com-plainant stated that Jain usedto work as a manager at theSaket Nagar store and wouldmanage the transactions ondaily basis of the store alongwith the reserve amount butOn February 10, he took�93,000 cash of sales and�21,000 cash of reser vemoney and never returned.The staff contacted but herefused to return the moneyand later switched off themobile phone.
After the staff and com-pany failed to persuade him toreturn money and laterunable to track him when heswitched off his mobile phone
a complaint was lodged by thecompany.
Based on the complaintafter the preliminary investi-gation the police have regis-tered a case under section 406of the IPC and have startedfurther investigation.
At the time of the fraudaccused used to l ive atJatkhedi Misrod which wasalso raided along with otherplaces by the police in theinvestigation but failed tonab him.
The search for theaccused has been started andhis family members andfriends would be questioned.
the Census done on February26, 27 and 28, 2020 in VanVihar National Park of Bhopal.On the basis of census this year,there are currently 1485 wildanimals in Van Vihar. Thisnumber was 1442 in the year2019 census and 1388 in 2018.The number of tigers, turtles,cheetal, sambhar, nilgai andblackbuck has risen this year.The number of wild animalskept in enclosures this year hasalso increased to 113 comparedto 96 of last year.
According to this year’scensus, Van Vihar has 11 tigers,one white tiger, 6 lions, 10
leopards, 23 bear, two Indianbison, two hyenas, 13 crocodiles,3 alligators, 9 mountain and 33aquatic turtles. The number ofwild animals that roam freely inquarantine, including 5 turtles,is 1367. Among the wild ani-mals who roam freely are 549cheetal, 385 sambhar, 94 nilgai,43 wild boar, 47 jackals, 93 blackbuck, 65 peacocks, 5 chausing-ha, one chinkara, 37 langur, 20sehi, 6 Kharha, 4 mongoose, 15reindeer and 3 wild cats.
The number of tigersincreased to 7 in the year 2018,9 in the year 2019 and 11 in theyear 2020. Compared to lastyear, 3 mountain turtles and 10aquatic turtles, 46 cheetal, 71sambhar and 25 each of blackbuck and nilgai have increased.
While the number of lions hasincreased from 4 to 6, crocodilesh a v eincreased from 12 to 13 andreindeer has increased from 14to 15.
The number of wild boarhas decreased from 54 to 43,jackals have decreased from 94to 47 and that of the langurs hasreduced to 37 from 73.
The Census also records thepresence of 6 Kharhas, 4 mon-goose and one chinkara thisyear.
At the same time, thenumber of white tigers, leop-ards, Indian bison, hyenas,alligators and wild cats is thesame. No monkey was foundduring the census at Van Vihar.
After a lull phase of few daysof normal weather condi-
tions, abrupt weather condi-tions have been witnessed atseveral places in the State forthe past two days. Severalplaces have recorded rainfalland thundery activities in thepast 24 hours and harshweather conditions are likelyto be witnessed in the next 24hours as warning of speedywinds, thundery activities andhailstorms has been issued byMet department.
State Capital witnessedclear sky weather conditionson Thursday with day tem-perature reaching at 33 degreeCelsius. The night temperaturewas recorded at 18.6 degree
Celsius.Among the nearby areas
Hoshangabad recorded daytemperature at 36.7 degreeCelsius and night temperatureat 20.8 degree Celsius.
The day temperatures havesoared and highest day tem-perature was recorded at 39degree Celsius on Wednesday.The coldest place of the statewas Rewa which recordednight temperature at 13 degreeCelsius.
Khandwa recorded thehighest rainfall at 2 cm in thepast 24 hours, Seoni,Pandhana and Begumganjrecorded 1 cm rainfall eachwhich were among the regionswhich recorded good rainfalland several areas have receivedlittle rainfall for brief periods.
Met department hasissued warning of thunderyactivities, speedy winds rang-ing 30-40 km/hr and hail-storm for brief periods inShahdol and Rewa divisionsand Sagar, Damoh, Jabalpur,Narsinghpur, Katni, Vidisha,Raisen and Mandla.
The regions for whichwarning of thundery activitiesand speedy winds ranging 30-40 km/hr has been issued areChhindwara, Seoni, Balaghat,Panna, Tikamgarh,Chattarpur, Sehore, Betul andHoshangabad.
Ujjain and Rewa divisionsrecorded significant increasein day temperatures. The nighttemperature recorded signifi-cant decrease in Jabalpur divi-sion.
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The State Government hasissued instructions to all
district collectors to regular-ly review the quality, avail-ability and prices of masksand hand sanitizers used inthe prevention of NovelCorona virus. PrincipalSecretary, Food-Civil Suppliesand Consumer ProtectionSheo Shekhar Shukla has senta letter to the collectors stat-ing that under the provisionsof the Essential CommoditiesAct 1955, masks (2 ply and 3ply surgical masks, N95masks) and hand sanitisershave been included in the newschedule.
All district collectorshave been asked to organisea meeting of the representa-tives of Mask and HandSanitiser manufacturers andtraders working in the dis-trict and make them aware of
the amended provisions ofthe Essential CommoditiesAct 1955 and the Preventionof Black Marketing andProvis ions of Essent ia lCommodities Act, 1980.Also, they should be givennecessary instructions tomaintain general availabilityof these items.
Availability and prices ofmasks and hand sanitisers inthe district should be regu-larly reviewed and moni-
tored. The Principal Secretary
said that raids should beconducted against hoardersby developing informationsystem.
Stocks should be regu-larly checked. Strict actionshould also be taken in caseof irregularities and theDirector Food, Civil Suppliesand Consumer Protectionshould be made aware of theaction taken regularly.
Vivekananda Library can beissued by the members fromSaturday. Keeping in mind themembers of SwamiVivekananda Library. Manybooks in this new collectionare brand new. As many as 25books are included in thecollection.
A new collection of bookswas launched at SwamiVivekanand Librar y onSunday. The books of TheEconomics of Inequality byThomas Piketty and Plasseyby Sudeep Chakraborty areincluded in this collection inNew Books Collection.
To increase interest inthe books of members, thiscollection is being brought tothe Swami VivekanandaLibrary. Supported by SwamiVivekananda Librar y.Manager Yatish Bhatele saidthat the collection of 50World's Greatest Short Storiesand Series of 50 World'sGreatest Poems has beenincluded in this collection.The purpose of the library isthat members should also beencouraged to read books.This time new books havebeen put on display in thelibrary.
The names of the bookscollection include TheEconomics of Inequality byThomas Picketti, Plasi by
Sudeep Chakraborty, Originsby Lewis Dartnal l ,Reimagining Pakistan byHussein Haqqani, 50 World'sGreatest Short Stories, 50World's Greatest Poems,Punjab by Amandeep Sandhu,Watershed 1967 IndiaForgotten Victory over Chinaby Prabal Dasgupta, I reallyneed this today bh HondaKotab, The Mountain of theMoon by Bibhuti BhushanBandyopadhyay and more.
Total 25 books collectionis being put in this collection.The collection is supported bySwami Vivekananda Library.Manager Yatish Bhatele saidthat it was put on display onSunday. Members can reservethem and members will issueon next Saturday.
The Koh-e-Fiza police hasnabbed two snake smugglers
near Halalpura bus stand andrecovered rare two-headed ‘SandBoa’ snake worth � 10 lakh fromtheir possession on Thursday.
Police said that two personswho were trying to sell ‘SandBoa’ snake were trapped byteam. The accused were nabbedposing as customer waiting tobuy the rare two-headed snake.
The accused were arrestedafter police team swung intoaction on the receipt of the infor-
mation of persons moving fromSehore to Lalghati and werenabbed near Lalghati and whenthe team reached the spotaccused tried to escape but werenabbed.
The nabbed accused wereidentified as Sanjay KumarYadav (37) and Sonu Jathav(23). The two are residents ofLalta Nagar Kolar road.
In the operation the buyerswere not nabbed as the accusedwere nabbed before they couldsell it to the buyers. The detailsof the buyers would be investi-gated in the further investiga-
tion.The crime record and
involvement in smuggling of‘Sand Boa’ by the accused wouldbe investigated. Sonu Jathav hasbeen booked for assault byKolar police.
The officials of forestdepartment were informed afterthe accused were nabbed werehanded over to the departmentwith seized sand boa snake forfurther investigation.
The accused revealed thatrare two-headed ‘Sand Boa’ wascaught from forest in Jhabuaregion.
Following the coronavirus out-break, Delhi's Deputy Chief
Minister Manish Sisodia onThursday directed private andGovernment schools to post-pone the ongoing exams andremain closed till March 31.
According to the circularissued by Director of Education(DoE) on Thursday, the heads ofschools, teaching and non-teach-ing staff and students of theGovernment, aided, private andlocal bodies have been instruct-ed to remain at home till 31stMarch.
"The ongoing annual exam-inations have been also post-poned from March 19 to March31," read the order issued by theDoE. The notification also clari-fied that evaluation work ofannual exams would continue tobe carried out by the concernedteachers from their homes.
The DoE also informed thatthe revised schedule of annualschool examinations in districtsincluding North East and EastDelhi also stands postponed tillMarch 31.
Referring to an earlier orderissued by the CBSE pertaining topostponement of board exams,
the DoE said, "CBSE Boardexaminations will be rescheduledafter March 31, 2020. CBSE hasfurther informed us that the re-examinations rescheduled forNorth-East Delhi has been fur-ther rescheduled."
The DoE directed the allhead of schools to disseminate theinformation among the teaching,non-teaching staff, students andparents through messages andphone calls.
The head of schools were fur-ther directed to remain availableon phones for students and theircolleagues to reach out to themwhen in need of clarification.
Thursday chaired a meeting atRaj Niwas to review the pre-paredness measures to containcoronavirus outbreak in Delhi.The meeting was also attendedby Delhi Chief Minister ArvindKejriwal, his Deputy ManishSisodia and Health MinisterSatyendra Jain.
At the outset of meeting,Secretary (Health and FamilyWelfare) made a detailed pre-sentation regarding present sta-tus of COVID-19 in Delhi,action taken, availability ofquarantine facilities, availabili-ty of hospital beds, steps alreadytaken and other proposed mea-sures to contain coronavirus.
In the meeting it wasagreed that all activities ofDelhi be segregated into essen-tial and non-essential. All non-essential activities shall remainsuspended. However, allemployees to be available forwork from home telephonical-ly and online if need be.
According to an official,directions were issued for theprevention and control of thecoronavirus. "Mandatory ther-mal screening at public placeslikes malls, courts, offices, hotels,hospitals, residential complexesto be done. Efforts should also
be made for thermal scanning ofevery person going in publicspace," the L-G directed.
"It is mandatory reportingof suspected positive cases ofcoronavirus at helpline num-bers. The CATs ambulancesshould be available for pickingup of suspects at thermalscreening points if that personreports that he or she may havehad recent contact with personwho returned after visitingCOVID-19 affected countries,"said the L-G said.
""Permission for home quar-antine people should be givenonly after stamping on hand andon undertaking do's and don'tsnotified by the Government.Resident Welfare Associations(RWAs) office bearers, neigh-bours may be informed aboutthe persons under home quar-antine in that residential com-plex or area. A workable mech-anism to make the neighboursand people aware may bedevised," said L-G.
First Information Report(FIR) to be registered for vio-lation of conditions by homequarantine person under sec-tion 188 of Indian Penal Code(IPC) as prescribed underRegulation 18 of the DelhiEpidemic Diseases, COVID-19Regulations, 2020 issued byHealth and FamilyDepartment", the LG added.
"Private sector companiesare also advised to work fromhome wherever possible. Thereshould be contactless digitaltransactions. Public should beadvised to practice social dis-tancing and unnecessary trav-el unless emergency, particularlysenior citizens, person affectedwith hypertension, diabetes,respiratory diseases," the L-Gdirected.
"Traffic police should stopusing breath analyser whilechecking. There should be waiv-er of tax for hotel rooms forquarantined persons. A fine tobe imposed on people spitting
in public places," the L-G fur-ther directed.
"Information, Educationand Communication (IEC)activities to be intensified by var-ious means to contain the epi-demic. Intensive public aware-ness campaigns and sensitizationdrives to be continuous to dis-seminate the modality of spreadand prevention from infection,"the L-G directed.
"Preparations should bemade to map availability ofIntensive Care Unit (ICU)beds and ventilators in gov-ernment and private hospitals,"said the L-G.
Further, L-G advised thatconcerned district magistrateslooking after quarantine of pas-sengers may be strengthened bydiverting staff from other dis-tricts and departments.
"Provision of mobile vanswith essential commodities ofdaily use with essential medicalitems at different residentialareas may be explored whichwill decrease the need of thepeople to visit market," L-G said.
"All Shopping Malls in cityshould be disinfected daily andshall also make provisions ofavailability of ample number ofhand sanitisers at main entranceand individual shops for visitors.All entry should be allowed onlyafter cleaning of hands withhand sanitisers," the L-G said.
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With Coronavirus casesincreasing with every
passing day, the DelhiGovernment on Thursdayextended the disinfection drivefacility for Public ServiceVehicles (PSVs).
Till now, Delhi Transportdepartment has issued 11,081certificates of disinfection toPSVs so far. Transport depart-ment officials said that disin-fection of PSVs can now bedone anytime whereas it was intwo shifts earlier.
Transport Minister KailashGahlot said, "We have receivedan overwhelming response for
our 'Disinfection Drive'. Due towhich, we have decided toextend it for the entire day. Ourmotive is to disinfect as manyvehicles as possible."
Notably, the DelhiGovernment had initially start-ed disinfection drive for DTCand Cluster Buses, the facilitywas later extended to otherPublic Service Vehicles likeAuto-Rickshaw, Gramin Sewa,Phat-Phat Sewa, Maxi Cab, Eco-friendly vehicles for free of cost.
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A22-year-old woman, a res-ident of Palam Vihar, test-
ed positive for the novel coro-navirus on Thursday, taking thetotal count of Covid-19 infect-ed patients to four in Haryana.She was a student in Londonand had returned to India onMarch 14.
The authorities onThursday officially confirmedabout the four confirmed casesin the city. Senior officials con-firmed that her sample tested inDelhi was positive.
The third patient is the wifeof a Nirvana Country resident.The 56-year-old patient, admit-ted to Safdarjung, tested posi-tive for Covid and was shiftedto Delhi.
On Wednesday a 44-year-old businessman who is a res-ident of Sector 50 had testedpositive for coronavirus andhad recently returned fromLondon.
"He had returned on March7 and went to RML in Delhi toget himself tested on March 9and has sadly been tested pos-itive for coronavirus, but we areyet to receive the report," saida health official, adding that ateam from Delhi also visited hisresidence to collect samples ofhis family members for testing.The victim is currently admit-ted in an isolation ward ofDelhi's Safdarjung hospital.
The first case of coron-avirus in Haryana was con-firmed from Gurugram district,
with officials from the healthdepartment stating that a 29-year-old woman tested positivefor the deadly disease onSaturday.
On the other hand, theGurugram police is going toform a special task force (STF)to deal with the COVID-19 out-break. The personnel of the STFwill help and spread awarenessamong the police personnelaround the quarantine centreand hospitals.
"The task force will bearmed with mask, sanitisers andgloves. They will be given train-ing by a designated doctor tofollow instructions to keepthem safe from the deadlyvirus. The duties of the cops willbe changed every 15 days andafter the duty hours, they willhave to undergo necessaryscanning. The department isalso obtaining details of thepolicemen who have been onduties at the hospitals andquarantine centre," said NikitaGehlot, DCP (Headquarter).
Also, ForeignersRegistration Branch (FRO) ofthe Gurugram Police has been
directed to maintain healthdata of foreign national andpeople returning from abroadand inform the health ministry,she said.
The local authorities havealready ordered to shut shop-ping malls, gymnasiums, swim-ming pools, spas and weeklybazaars to till March 31.
Moreover, religious, social,political, academic, sports andmass gatherings, includingweddings were restricted to 50people.
The district health depart-ment on Saturday designatedSGT medical college as a quar-antine centre which has around300 beds as a precautionarymeasure in the wake of thedeadly coronavirus outbreak.The department is also plan-ning to prepare 500 beds in anisolation centre at Sector-9 PGcollage.
"We have quarantine wardsin Sector-10 hospital and tiedup with private hospitals in thecity for carrying out quarantineprocedures," said Dr JS Punia,Chief Medical Officer (CMO)Gurugram.
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Ensuring enough supply ofration and essential needs
amid coronavirus spread inthe national Capital, the Foodand Supply Minister ImranHussain reviewed the situa-tion with senior officials andration dealers association onWednesday.
In the meeting, Hussaindirected the Food and SupplyCommissioner (F& CS) toensure availability of masks,hand sanitizers in variousoffices of FCS Department.The minister also directedthat FPS dealers should wear
masks and use hand sanitizerswhile distributing the ration tobeneficiaries.
Hussian also directed theRation Associations to main-tain hygiene at FPS premises.Hussian also directed Foodand Supply Commissioner toextend necessary support tothe FPS dealers in fight againstthe global pandemic threatposed by Corona Virus.
Meanwhile, the officebearers of Delhi SarkariRation Dealers Associationassured to take all requiredprecautions to maintain safeand healthy environment forthe customers and employeesat ration shops.
frisks lakhs of passengers atairports across the Country hasasked its personnel to adopt a'minimum touch' approach inview of the COVID-19 outbreak.
According to CISF official,the CISF personnel have alsobeen asked to maintain a dis-tance of 2.5 cm from passengersduring frisking.
The CISF chief RajeshRanjan and head of airportsecurity of the force, M AGanapathy visited the IndiraGandhi International (IGI)Airport on Thursday to takestock of facilities provided topassengers.
The DG also reviewed thearrangements made for CISFpersonnel who frisk and inter-act with thousands of travellerseveryday, a senior official said.
The force has also directedits intelligence wing personnel,who are present in mufti at theairport, to keep a check on"potentially infected and sickpassengers" so that health andsecurity officials can quicklysegregate them from others.
"CISF personnel deployed at63 domestic and internationalairports have been sensitised toadopt 'minimum touch' conceptand also wear masks and not totouch any item of the passenger,"a force spokesperson said.
In a partial clampdown in thewake of coronavirus scare,
Punjab Government onThursday announced to take offroad, as a temporary preventivemeasure, its public transportservices, including buses, autorickshaws, from Friday mid-night, banning dining in restau-rants, hotels and dhabas, besidesrestricting public gatherings toless than 20, across the State.
The State has also post-poned all Board examinations ofClasses X and XII till March 31,besides calling off all publicdealings in the Governmentoffices with immediate effect.
Already, the State hasdeclared the closure of all edu-cational institutions, shoppingcomplexes, malls, museums, the-atres, and local weekly kisanmandis to check the spread ofcoronavirus.
The decisions were takenduring the meeting of Group ofMinisters (GoM) taking seriousnote of the COVID-19 which isspreading its wings in the coun-try, especially after the staterecorded it first death. The GoMdecided to take stringent actionsto prevent the public to move outof their houses without anyemergency.
“We have decided to put aban on plying of all public trans-port, including Government andprivate buses, from midnight onMarch 20,” said the CabinetMinister Brahm Mohindra fol-liwng the GoM meeting held toreview the emergent situation inview of rise of suspected cases inthe State.
“GoM has decided that thereis urgent need to prevent people
to come out of their houses with-out any emergency. For thisend, we have decided to stop theoperation of all public transport(government and private buses)from midnight on March 20 butthe taxis and rickshaws havebeen exempted from the ban,” hesaid. In another important deci-sion, the GoM has decided toincrease the number of isolationwards set at different public, pri-
vate hospitals and medical insti-tutions and to strengthen the ser-vices by ensuring availability ofmedical and paramedical staffand adequate stock of medicines.
Similarly, routine OPD ser-vices in the hospitals have alsobeen postponed but emergencyservices at all the hospitals andprimary health centres (PHCs)will be continued 24X7. TheGoM has also decided to close
all Dental Colleges and Hospitalswith immediate effect till March31. The classes of first and sec-ond year students in MedicalColleges have been postponedwhile the classes of third andfourth years would be continued.
“Likewise, the classes of firstyear students in Nursing Collegeshave been called off till March 31but the classes of nursing stu-dents from second year onwardwould be continued,” he said. Incase of any eventuality, the stu-dents of Medical Colleges inthird and fourth year are beinggiven first-hand training sessionsto tackle with COVID-19patients.
“GoM has also decided torestrict the gathering for anyfunction like marriages andfunerals up to 20 persons.Organizers of such functionshave been advised to adhere tohand washing protocol andproper cleanliness,” he said.
Close on the heels of notifi-cation issued by the CBSE, it hasalso been decided to postpone allthe Board examinations of 10thand 12th standard postponed tillMarch 31.
Besides, the GoM has alsodecided to strictly implement thehome quarantine protocol for allthe NRIs, passengers who camefrom any country in last 15 daysto remain in isolation at theirhomes up to 14 days.
It has also been decided todo mandatory stamping withindelible ink of all such NRIs andpassengers in a bid to identifythem in case they go out. GoMhas also generated appeal for allthe citizen of the State to keep acheck on the movement of anyNRIs and passengers came fromother countries.
country, Punjab Chief MinisterCapt Amainder Singh onThursday urged the CentralGovernment to allow privatehospitals and labs to conducttests in order to ensure accessto all the people.
Calling for a national levelfight against the pandemic ona war footing, Capt Amarindersaid that he would take up theissue of testing by private hos-pitals or labs with the PrimeMinister on Friday during thelatter’s proposed video confer-ence with all the ChiefMinisters.
With the number ofCORONAVIRUS cases increas-ing, the Centre has to consid-er reviewing its policy, stressedthe Chief Minister, making itclear that he did not agree withthe current policy of theGovernment of India in thisregard.
Given the fact that Punjabhad private labs in all majorcities, it was not logical for acorona suspect to have to trav-el to Chandigarh or some otherplace to get himself tested froma government facility only, saidCapt Amarinder, adding thatonly in case of doubt shouldsuch a person be required to goelsewhere for a second test.
CAPT URGES CENTRE TOALLOW DISTRIBUTION OF20 MLN GRAIN STOCKSTO POOR
The Chief Minister alsosuggested that the Centreshould allow the food stocks,currently stored in Punjabgodowns, to be distributed to
the poor whose earnings wereimpacted due to theCoronavirus outbreak insteadof letting them rot in the stor-age areas.
Since the stocks belongedto the Government of India, itwas in their purview to take adecision in this regard, he said,adding that the 20 milliontonnes of food grains thatFood Corporation of India(FCI) had yet to lift from thegodowns could be put to bet-ter use by feeding the peoplenot just in Punjab but wherev-er needed. Such a move wouldbe a life saver for the people ofIndia in the current crisis, headded.
Underlining the need forstrong measures to check fur-ther spread of the COVID-19disease, the Chief Minister saidthat his Government hadalready initiated a series of stepsto fight the problem. The State’sfinancial crunch would not beallowed to impact the efforts ofhis Government, said CaptainAmarinder, adding that allnecessary funds would be madeavailable to ensure adequatetesting, isolation and treat-ment facilities.
EXAMS POSTPONED,SCHOOL STAFF RELIEVEDTILL MARCH 31
Punjab Government onThursday announced to post-pone school examinations,besides relieving the staff of allschools till March 31.
The State School EducationMinister Vijay Inder Singlasaid that to avert the threat ofvirus contamination, PunjabGovernment has decided torestrict the activities of allGovernment, semi-
Government and privateschools in the State. “Apartfrom postponing the examina-tions, the school staff has alsobeen relieved with immediateeffect,” he added.
The Cabinet Minister saidthat to curb the contaminationof Covid-19, the StateGovernment has been workingtirelessly as the Chief Ministerhas also been personallyreviewing the situation controlthe threat of the virus spread.
He added that theEducation Department has alsodecided to voluntarily offerthe school buildings for isola-tion wards as per the require-ment in case of any critical sit-uation. Once the health depart-ment requisites the building, itwould be immediately evacu-ated, he said.
Singla said that apart fromrestricting the movement in theschools, an intensive awarenessdrive has also been launched inthe state from Thursdayonwards. The teams, led byHealth Department staff andother officials, were visitingeach and every household invillages and cities as well tomake the residents aware of thecoronavirus.
NEWLY-MARRIED FOUNDSYMPTOMATIC, QUARAN-TINED
A patient with symptomsof coronavirus has been quar-antined at the Ropar CivilHospital. The newly-marriedpatient had visited Dubai on hishoneymoon and returned onFebruary 28.
Though he was sufferingfrom symptoms of coronavirus,he was self-medicating using
over the counter medicinesand reported at the hospitalonly Wednesday evening, saidthe Civil Surgeon HN Sharma.
The patient and his wifehave been quarantined at thehospital and his samples sent toPGI, Chandigarh.
PSHRC SEEKS REPORT ONSTATE’S PREPARATION
Punjab State HumanRights Commission onThursday sought a detailedreport from the StateGovernment, through theChief Secretary, to explain thesafety measures taken and to betaken by the State by April 1 todeal with the novel coron-avirus outbreak.
Considering the impor-tance of the safety measures forthe health of the general pub-lic, the Commission, compris-ing of its chairperson JusticeIqbal Ahmed Ansari and mem-ber Justice Ashutosh Mohunta,took cognizance of the publicissue and requisitioned a reportfrom the State of Punjabthrough the Chief Secretary,Home Department, Punjab.
“The State of Punjab shallexplain the safety measures takenand to be taken by the State ofPunjab, in detail, in the report.The report shall be submitted, intriplicate, seven days prior to thenext date of hearing,” stated theCommission, while adjourningthe matter to April 8, 2020.
The Commission notedthat COVID-19 has beenspreading all over the world,including the state of Punjab,and “precautionary measuresare needed to be taken to pre-vent the genesis of the deadlydisease”.
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Two more cases of novelCoronavirus were report-
ed from Uttarakhand onThursday. With these thenumber of cases of theCOVID-19 in the Statemounted to three.
The swab samples of twotrainees of the Indian ForestServices (IFS) officers atIndira Gandhi NationalForest Academy (IGNFA)were found posit ive onThursday.
The samples were testedat Government MedicalCollege Haldwani. The firstcase of the disease inUttarakhand was also fromamong the IFS trainees ofIGNFA.
Incidentally all the threecases which have been foundpositive in Uttarakhand arefrom among the IFS traineeswho had gone to Spain for astudy tour.
In view of the concentra-
tion of the cases in a partic-ular area, it is learnt that theadministration is planningto impose a lock-down of theForest Research Institute(FRI) where IGNFA is locat-ed.
The director general(DG) of state health services
Dr Amita Upreti said that atotal of 114 samples havebeen collected so far forCOVID-19 testing out ofwhich results of 85 have beenreceived and three cases havebeen found positive. Sheadded that till date 938 per-sons from China and other
affected countries have beenidentified and placed undersurveillance.
A total of 454 personshave completed 28 days ofobservation. On Thursday,samples of 19 suspectedpatients were taken and sentfor testing.
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March is the month whenthe mountain state of
Uttarakhand begins to moveaway from the long wintermonths towards a lot of activ-ity and excitement regardingpreparations for the tourist sea-son whether it be pilgrim,adventure, wildlife or leisuretourism.
This year, the winter hasbeen indeed long with more than25 rounds of snowfall. The heavy
rains and hail storms have affect-ed the crops, causing alarm tofarmers. Just as people werethinking of dealing with theseconditions, the fear of the novelcoronavirus took over and threwa pall of gloom on all tourism–related activities. The Jhande kaMela that gives a good boost tothe economy of Dehradun everyyear had to be brought to anabrupt halt as it led to massivegatherings of devotees of theRam Rai Darbar in the old city.It could have created great dan-ger had it gone on for a monthor so. The same fate has met the
famous Purnagiri Mela ofTanakpur and Chaiti Mela ofKashipur.
And not just this, a shadowof uncertainty has now fallen onthe many yatras that begin in thestate from April onwards-theChar Dham Yatra, the KailashMansarovar Yatra and theHemkund Sahib Yatra besidesothers. Nothing seems to be cer-tain regarding all the majoryatras and events in the state onwhich its economy is greatlydependent. The Corbett nation-al Park, Rajaji National Park , theDehradun Zoo and other pro-
tected areas in the state have beenclosed till March 31 at themoment. Even temples likeSiddhbali in Kotdwar wherepeople gather in large numbershave been closed for devotees.
There is no chance that thestate government wants to takeas far as checking the spread ofthe virus is concerned. Peoplehave been advised to stay homeas far as possible. As tourisminvolves a large number of peo-ple moving about at variousdestinations in the state, it hasbeen hit badly just at the begin-ning of the tourist season.
Centre on Thursday saidit is premature to say whois responsible for therecent violence in JamiaMillia Islamia in thenational capital.
The Government can-not divulge much infor-mation about this incident inthe Upper House as the matteris subjudice, HRD MinisterRamesh Pokhriyal Nishanksaid in Rajya Sabha during theQuestion Hour.
He was asked if the gov-ernment will set up an enquiryto investigate role of the DelhiPolice and recover damagefrom them.
"When such incidents hap-pen, there are many facts andevidences. It is premature to saywho is responsible. The HomeMinister has said the culpritwill not be spared," Nishanksaid in the Upper House.
Responding to anotherquery if the government willtake videos as evidence toprove Delhi Police's allegedhand in vandalism, the minis-ter said: "I have already said thematter is subjudice. However,
many questions and doubtsare raised on videos circulated."
Asked if the Centre willcompensate for damagesincurred by the university, theminister said, "All central uni-versities are fully funded by thecentral government throughUGC. If funds are required, theuniversity can reach out to theUGC."
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The Centre has approved aninvestment of �6.16 lakh
crore so far under the PradhanMantri Awas Yojana (Urban)with the committed centralassistance being �1.65 lakhcrore. Union Min of State forHousing and Urban AffairsHardeep Singh Puri onThursday told the Lok Sabhathat no data regarding proper-ty-less people is maintained bythe ministry. PMAY(U) seeksto provide all weather puccahouses to beneficiaries in eco-nomically weaker sections inurban areas.According to him,poverty alleviation is also afocus area. "The total invest-ment approved underPMAY(U), so far, is �6.16 lakhcrore with committed centralassistance of �1.65 lakh crore,"he said in a written reply.Housing sector contributes sig-nificantly to the country'sGross Domestic Product withdirect impact on employmentgeneration, he added.
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Amid the Covid-19 out-break, the CRPF has begun
restricting movements of itsadministrative personnel tocheck the spread of the dead-ly virus. However, operationalunits will be allowed movementfor various internal securityand anti-insurgency roles.
Keeping in view the threatof Coronavirus disease(COVID-19), all adm. (admin-istrative) movements are to bestrictly restricted Only ops.(operational) movements areallowed and that too with allprecautions/proper sanitations(use mask and sanitisers)against Coronavirus disease.The personnel returning afteroperational duties should sani-tise themselves properly, readsan order issued by the 221Battalion of the CRPF.
The companies of the 221battalion are deployed inRanchi, Jaipur, Bhopal,Mumbai and Kerala, officialssaid. Similar advisories arebeing issued by other battal-ions, sources said.
The advisory also suggeststhat the personnel living withfamilies (either in Governmentquarters or outside) should bebriefed to restrict their move-ments specially in crowdedareas.
It has further directed thepersonnel to avoid consumingeatables from outside andshould not allow visitors/gueststill April 15. The personnel willnot be issued outpass/stationleave till April 15.
The CRPF with a strengthof 3,25 lakh personnel is thebiggest paramilitary force in theworld and has cancelled allleaves except in cases ofextreme emergency to checkthe spread of Covid-19,declared a pandemic by theWorld Health Organisation .The leaves of personnel whoare already on vacation will beextended till April 15. In caseof extreme emergency, the per-sonnel will granted leave for aperiod not less than 30 days.
In an advisory issued bythe CRPF headquarters here onThursday and circulated to allthe formations, the paramili-tary discontinued the practiceof grant of audience of the per-sonnel with the CRPF DGfrom March 23 till furtherorders in order to prevent thespread of the virus.
The medical wing of theUnion Home Ministry throughan advisory to all the 7 para-military forces on Wed statedthat the novel Corona virus isthe most infectious virus theworld has seen in recent times.
The medical wing also saidIndia is already in the middleof a pandemic and NationalDisaster Act has been put inplace. The Indian Council ofMedical Research has given anestimated 30 days to prepare.The only thing that is likely toslow the exponential growthand spread of the infection ismeasures for prevention ofcommunity transmission, saidthe advisory titled "Covid-19Outbreak: Roles and responsi-bilities for occupational safetyand health of force personnel.
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The Union HRD Ministryand educational boards
including the UGC have takenmeasures to restrict the exam-inees and examiners in thecurrent spate of corona scareacross the country. WhileHRD Minister RameshPokhriyal Nishank announcedfor launch of e-classes onSwayam Prabha DTH chan-nels for school students inview of coronavirus outbreak,CBSE and ICSE announced topostpone the remaining exam-inations of higher and schooleducation systems across thenation.
While the university reg-ulator directed all universitiesand affiliated colleges to post-pone examinations till March-end, the Joint Entrance Exam(JEE-Main) for admission toIITs and engineering colleges
too stand postponed accordingto the HRD Ministry'sNational Testing Agency(NTA) directives.
The Staff SelectionCommission (SSC) too post-poned its key recruitmentexaminations as a preventivemeasure to check the spread ofnovel coronavirus.
UGC in a directive saidthe evaluation works too willbe suspended during the peri-od too.
"All universities and affil-iated colleges should post-pone exams till March 31 andsuspend evaluation work.Further schedule should bedecided following a review ofthe situation," the commissionsaid in an order.
The Joint Entrance Exam(JEE-Main) for admission toIITs and engineering collegesscheduled from April 5-11has been postponed and thenew date will be decided inaccordance with the boardexams schedule and othercompetitive exams to ensurethere is no clash. The CBSEand ICSE board postponedclass 10 and 12 examinationsdue to the novel coronavirusthreat as was certain changesin evaluation policy. "Marking of answer scriptsshould take place at the resi-dences of examiners duringthe allocated time period.
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Maintaining that "very fast"movement was being
made on PM Narendra Modi'sproposals put forward duringa SAARC nations' video-con-ference on coronavirus, theMinistry of External Affairson Thursday said the emer-gency fund of US $ 10 millionto combat the pandemic in theregion has been opera-tionalised and the quantum ofassistance, which has beenrequested (from India) so far,has already crossed $1 million.
"I can announce that weare moving very fast on mostof those proposals andannouncements. On the emer-gency fund, it is already up andrunning. We have received
many requests from otherSAARC countries for assis-tance in the form of masks,shoe covers, gloves, disinfec-tants and other items," MEASpokesperson Raveesh Kumarsaid.
"The quantum of assis-tance, which has been request-ed (from India) so far, hascrossed USD 1 million.Supplies to Bhutan and theMaldives have been dis-patched. Requests from otherSAARC countries are undervarious stages of process," headded.
The SAARC nationsvowed on Sunday to jointlycombat the coronavirus asModi proposed an emergencyfund with an initial offer ofUSD 10 million from India.
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In a fresh directive, theCentre on Thursday allowed
50 per cent of its employees towork from home and theremaining to attend officeevery day besides implement-ing different time slots forworking hours in its effort tofurther check the spread of thecoronavirus disease.
An order issued by thePersonnel Ministry directedthe Heads of Departments(HoDs) to ensure that 50 percent of Group B and Cemployees are required toattend office every day and theremaining 50 per cent staff isinstructed to work from home.
"All HoDs are advised todraft a weekly roster of dutyfor Group B and C staff andask them to attend office onalternate weeks. While decid-ing the roster for the firstweek, HoDs are advised to
include officials who are resid-ing in close proximity to theiroffice or use their own trans-port to travel to the offices," itsaid.
The order further saidthe working hours for allemployees who attend officeon a particular day should bestaggered.
It suggested that threegroups of employees beformed and asked to attendoffice during three time slots- 9 AM to 5.30 PM, 9.30 AMto 6 PM and 10 AM to 6.30PM, the Ministry said. "Theofficials who are working fromhome on a particular day asper the roster drawn upshould be available on tele-phone and electronic means ofcommunication at all times.They should attend office, ifcalled for any exigency ofwork," it said.
These instructions shallnot apply to the offices and
employees engaged in essen-tial/emergency services andthose directly engaged in tak-ing measures to control spreadof COVID-19, the Ministrysaid. The Department ofFinancial Services (DFS) andDepartment of PublicEnterprises (DPE) may issuesimilar instructions regardingfinancial institutions and pub-lic sector undertakings, it said.
The decision came afterthe Personnel Ministry onTuesday asked all CentralGovernment departments totake precautionary measures."Discourage, to the maximumextent, entry of visitors in theoffice complex. Routine issueof visitor/temporary passesshould be suspended withimmediate effect. Only thosevisitors who have proper per-mission of the officer whothey want to meet, should beallowed after being properlyscreened," it had said.
Taking strong exception toPakistan raising the Kashmir
issue during a SAARC video-con-ference of heads-of-state of mem-ber nations on Sunday last, Indiaon Thursday slammed Islamabadsaying the neighbour "misused" theoccasion as it was "not a politicalplatform but a humanitarian one".
Making New Delhi's standclear on the issue, ministry of exter-nal affairs spokesperson RaveeshKumar said here Prime MinisterNarendra Modi had called for theSAARC nations' video-conferenceto formulate a joint strategy tocombat the coronavirus in thespirit that a crisis of this magnitudedid not recognise borders.
Asked about Pakistan using theoccasion to raise Kashmir, Kumarsaid "We believe that the platformwas to bring the countries of theregion together to address thepandemic.
This was not a political plat-form, but a humanitarian one, andPakistan misused it."Kumar's asser-tion came in the backdrop ofPakistan's State Minister of HealthZafar Mirza on Sunday during thevideo-conference in which headsof states of SAARC countries wereparticipating called for an imme-diate lifting of the "lockdown" inJammu and Kashmir to allow viruscontainment measures.
Apart from Mirza and PrimeMinister Modi, Sri LankanPresident Gotabaya Rajapaksa,Maldivian President IbrahimMohamed Solih, Nepalese PrimeMinister K P Sharma Oli,Bhutanese premier Lotay Tshering,Bangladeshi Prime Minister SheikhHasina and Afghan PresidentAshraf Ghani had participated inthe video-conference.
The Pakistan minister hadsaid "Equity in health is a funda-mental principle of public health.
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From a request to curtail the Budget Session in viewof the coronavirus threat to setting up a pharma
city in Hyderabad, Rajya Sabha saw a number of issuesbeing discussed on Thursday.
Congress MP BP Bhattacharya made a demandfor curtailment of the ongoing Budget session giventhe outbreak of coronavirus but member in RajyaSabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu said adjournmentis no solution.
Through a Zero Hour mention, Bhattacharya saidofficial business papers supplied to members everymorning pose a risk to MPs as it is not known whohas handled them and if they have been sanitised.
"We have requested the prime minister to adjournthe House but unfortunately it is not being done," hesaid.
The House, he said, should be adjourned withoutany further delay. But Naidu said "adjournment is nosolution" and went on to state that hand sanitisers havebeen given to people dealing with papers.
Thursday questioned RelianceGroup Chairman Anil Ambanifor over nine hours in connec-tion with a money launderingprobe against Yes Bank pro-moter Rana Kapoor and others.
The ED has asked thebusinessman to appear beforeit again on March 30.
Essel Group Chairmanand Rajya Sabha MP SubhashChandra, who skipped his firstappearance on March 18 owingto his engagement in the ongo-ing Parliament session, hasalso been issued a fresh sum-mon to appear before the inves-tigative agency on March 21.
Officials said the statementof Ambani, 60, was recordedunder the Prevention of MoneyLaundering Act (PMLA).
Ambani arrived at theagency's office at Ballard Estatein Mumbai around 9:30 AMand left around 7 PM record-ing his statement.
Ambani's nine group com-panies, that were reportedlyunder "stress", are stated to havetaken loans adding up to about�12,800 crore from the crisis-hit private sector bank.
Ambani was first called forquestioning on Monday but hesought exemption fromappearance on personalgrounds. The agency thenissued him fresh summons toappear on March 19.
As many as 44 companiesbelonging to 10 large businessgroups reportedly accountedfor bad loans of �34,000 croreof Yes Bank.
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In a boost to firepower of theinfantry soldiers especially
those deployed on the Line ofControl (LOC) facing Pakistan,India has signed a contractworth over �880 crore forprocuring 16,479 light machineguns(LMG)with an Israelimanufacturer. This ends thelong pending requirement ofthe Army to equip the foot sol-dier with latest and lethal guns.
The deal for the Negev7.62mm LMGs was inked onThursday with Israel WeaponsIndustry. The contract wasinked by the acquisition wingof the Defence Ministry withthe approval of DefenceMinister Rajnath Singh, offi-cials said here.
The contracted Negev7.62X51 mm LMG is a combatproven weapon and currentlyused by several countriesaround the globe. LMG willgreatly enhance the lethality andrange of Indian soldier vis-a-visthe presently used weapon.
The provisioning of this
operationally urgent and verycritically needed weapon willboost the confidence of thefrontline troops and providemuch needed combat power tothe Armed Forces. This dealcomes a year after India inkeda major deal for 72,400 assaultrifles for the infantry. The �700crore deal with Sig Sauer of UScame almost 15 years after theArmy proposed to replace itscurrent rifles.
Separate tenders are underway for 5.5 lakh assault riflesand 3.5 lakh carbines, bulk ofthem to be procured from theIndian industry under 'Buyand Make (Indian)' categoryand a small share from theOrdnance Factory Board .
In January 2018, theDefence Acquisition Councilapproved initial approval forthe procurement of 72,400assault rifles and 93,895 car-bines at an estimated cost of?3,547 crore on fast track basis.The assault rifles are of 7.62mmcalibre while the Carbines willbe of 5.56mm calibre.
demanded that Prime MinisterNarendra Modi makes a state-ment in the House on theefforts to combat coronavirus.
Soon after the QuestionHour, Sudip Bandhopadhyay(TMC) said while the PrimeMinister is addressing thenation this evening on theissue of coronavirus, he shouldalso make a statement in theHouse.
His party colleague AsitKumar Mal also demandedthat a statement from the PrimeMinister in the House.
The Prime Minister
addressed the nation at 8 pmon Thursday on coronavirusand efforts by the Governmentto combat the threat.
Congress leader in LokSabha Adhir RanjanChowdhury urged theGovernment to ensure that
Indians stranded outside thecountry at various airportsshould be brought back.
Shiv Sena's Arvind Sawantreferred to the 58 Indian stu-dents struck at Singapore air-port and urged theGovernment to bring themhome.
He said out of the 58, 25 arewomen and they should notremain stranded there.Dayanidhi Maran (DMK) saidwhile the Government is mak-ing efforts to contain the spreadof the virus, it seems to have a"partial" approach towardsParliament.While he did notexplain his remark, SpeakerOm Birla did not allow him tospeak.
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To meet the current chal-lenges of increased demand
of hand sanitisers in the coun-try in view of coronavirus pan-demic, the Drugs ControllerGeneral of India (DCGI) hasdirected the State drugs con-trollers to expedite the licens-ing of manufacturers of suchproducts and monitor qualitystandards of the products as perthe relevant law.
Amid CV scare in India,the hand sanitising gels whichare licensed under drugs andCosmetic Rules, 1945 is van-ishing from the market.
A few days ago, the
Government had notifiedmasks (2plyand 3ply surgicalmasks, N95 masks) and handsanitisers under EssentialCommodities Act, 1955 to reg-ulate their production, quality,distribution and logistics.
"In light of existing cir-cumstances arising out of coro-navirus outbreak, it is requiredthat the regulatory activitiesshould be intensified to keepstrict vigil in the matter so thatthe people can be protectedfrom malpractices, said DCGIin a letter to State drug author-ities on March 17. The Stateshave also been asked to submitthe list of manufacturers whoare manufacturing hand sani-
tisers under their jurisdictionalong with product details andfurther exercise strict vigil andregulatory oversight on manu-facturing and distribution ofsuch products. Similarly, statedrugs controllers have alsobeen directed to expedite thelicensing process for manufac-turers of hand sanitizers by tak-ing proactive measures to meetthe present challenges ofincreased demand of suchproduct in the country.
The DCGI has furtherasked all zonal and sub zonaloffices of CDSCO to coordinatewith state and Union territorydrugs control authorities inthe matter.
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The Haryana Government'sdecision to close all farm-
ers' bazars and vegetable mar-kets till March 31 to avoid largegatherings in view ofcoron-avirus outbreak may affect thenational capital regionincludingDelhi. The closure ofvegetable and farmers' mandimay spike vegetable prices notonly in Haryana but also inDelhi, Punjab and HimachalPradesh.
It is estimated that 20-30per cent of fruit and vegetablescome to Delhi and NCR areasfrom Haryana. "All farm-ers/vegetable markets shallremain closed till March 31 to
avoid large gatherings in viewof coronavirus," read the orderissued by the Haryana StateAgriculturalMarketing Board.
Traders across the whole-sale markets said it's a doublewhammy forthem over thelast few weeks.
Firstly, there has been a dipin thesale/auction of agro pro-duce, which has resulted inmany perishablecommoditiessuch as fruits and vegetablesrotting in the open.
Politics is the art of governancewhere the responsibility to improvethe living conditions of the people
rests with the ruling party. But in reali-ty, Indian politics has to do more with theaccumulation of power at institutions togovern them. Here, both the ruling as wellas Opposition parties jostle to deriveauthority that comes along with power-ful positions. Of late, politics in the coun-try is completely centred around politi-cians and their cronies enjoying the fruitsof powers by hook or crook.
In State after State, our legislators,faced with a quirky situation, havebecome a laughing stock as they contin-ue switching party loyalty for money andhigher positions, including the mostsought-after job of a Minister. Politicaldefections in our country have reachedalarming proportions, making a mock-ery of democracy itself. Our leaders havethrown all sense of “decency” and“Constitutional values” into the dustbin.All they are concerned about is self-inter-est. The rule book of our Constitution is,perhaps, the worst victim amid theongoing political chicanery.
Things were set right with theBommai case, where the Supreme Courtput an end to the arbitrary dismissal ofState Governments by a hostile CentralGovernment. But power games betweenthe BJP and the Congress continued.More recently, Uttarakhand, ArunachalPradesh, Karnataka and now MadhyaPradesh have exposed the erring knotsof our polity. The Kamal NathGovernment is now facing a survival cri-sis as some of its MLAs, those belongingto the Congress and others from alliancepartners, have rebelled against the Stateleadership. The Congress has accused theBJP of trying to bribe its MLAs to switchsides. Our courts, the Supreme Court aswell as various High Courts, and some-times even the Speaker and Governorsgleefully enjoy watching political partiessquabbling with each other. If such inci-dents become routine, the apex court willhave to spend a chunk of its time in set-tling such mundane matters. It may getdistracted from performing its funda-mental duty to dispense justice to the peo-ple.
But the question is, why do our leg-islators switch loyalties? Even after threedecades and more, politicians have timeand again violated the spirit of the 1985anti-defection law. This law, referring tothe Aaya Ram, Gaya Ram culture, wasintroduced as a bold move to deter thedefection of lawmakers, who are lured bythe promise of office, cash or other con-siderations. Since then, the law has beenamended several times to suit the poli-tics of the day, yet horse-trading remainsthe norm. Our leaders as also other officebearers, like the Speaker and the
Governors, continue to exploitevery loophole in it.
As of now, the anti-defec-tion vests more powers with theSpeaker. It is he who takes thefinal call on the resignations ofthe dissident MLAs. His decisionis subject to judicial review butjudicial reviews of the enforce-ment of the anti-defection laware a developing arena.According to the law, theSpeaker has to act on merit andbe impartial. But there have beenmany examples where it hasbeen seen that presiding officershave not acted as impartialumpires. It is also expected of theGovernor to play a non-partisanrole but here, too, s/he has beenfound to be sympathetic to theruling party.
It’s quite clear that the KamalNath Government in MadhyaPradesh has been reduced to aminority after 22 of its MLAsresigned from the Assembly. It’strue that horse-trading hasbecome an intricate part of pol-itics because of a downward slidein ethics. The hallmark of Indiandemocracy is such that it callsthe party/leader, who secures amajority, to form theGovernment. But once the sup-port diminishes, the best coursefor the falling Government is totender resignation in a dignifiedmanner and allow the democra-tic process to take over. But thisrarely happens as our politiciansare hell-bent on the democracyturning into a mobocracy.
Democracy can surviveonly when the executive, legis-lature and judiciary work har-
moniously, independently andwith a deep commitment toupholding the larger publicinterest. The ruling Governmentmust initiate debate and discus-sion on how to promote value-based politics in the country.People are now fed up with divi-sive politics based on caste,creed and religion. By now it isclear that the anti-defection lawlacks the strength to tackle cor-ruption. This is why we need toreview the functioning of ourConstitutional objectives. As afirst step, the Constitution mustbe amended. The scope to definecorruption (beyond monetaryaspect) must be widened.Misuse of Government fundsmust be strictly prohibited andincluded as an offence. Second,no one should be allowed tomake his/her own interpreta-tions on Constitutional provi-sions and rules. Bureaucrats arepast masters in this and, thus,misguide the politicians inpower. This is why we need totake a re-look at the anti-defec-tion law.
There have been many com-missions and panels, includingthe Dinesh GoswamiCommittee on ElectoralReforms and the ConstitutionReview Commission, whichhave stressed the need to doaway with the Tenth Scheduleprovision regarding exemptionfrom disqualification in case ofa split. Some have even recom-mended that the President andthe Governor should decide ondisqualification in coordinationwith the Election Commission.
The anti-defection law should bescrapped in its present form orshould be amended and madestraight. The cardinal principleof majority support should bethe only criterion to determinesupport.
Only the Governor shouldbe given the power to compul-sorily order floor test in theAssembly, that, too, within a spe-cific time. Third, the divisive pol-itics played by regional satrapsis a threat to political stability.Regional parties must lose theirrecognition for violating certainidentified norms of governance.Fourth, a check on arbitrarinessis a must while doling out post-retirement jobs to the bureaucra-cy. There’s also the need toenlarge the kitty of choosingexperts beyond a coterie asthere are several qualified peo-ple available in all fields.
The Modi Government, too,is faltering in bringing swiftreforms. It is following the pol-icy of nepotism and crony cap-italism, which led to the previ-ous UPA Government facingembarrassment from theirappointees quite often.Networking around the powersthat be and hitting a connectionin the Delhi coterie are the onlycriteria today. The fact remainsthat unless our national charac-ter improves, no reforms willhelp. However, eternal hope isthe cause of sustaining theIndian civilisation as we have thewherewithal to overcome suchhiccups in nation-building.
Sir — In times when the veryexistence of humanity is underthreat due to the spread ofCoronavirus, rumour-monger-ing seems to be a bigger problemthan the virus itself. Variousconspiracy theories are doing therounds. This has made it difficultfor people to separate facts fromfiction. Even those users, who donot have any intention to spreadfalse information, are unknow-ingly pushing vital informationthat is frequently untrue. Severalracist and insensitive jokes, too,are being circulated.
Such unverified informationnot only leads to creating fear psy-chosis among the public but mis-leads patients about possible curesto the disease. While social mediadoes expose us to new ideas, it hasalso made us vulnerable tomanipulation. These are timeswhen we should exercise self-restraint. Before forwarding anymessage, we must take out timeto first verify it. Remember to besceptical about every bit of infor-mation we get and make thatscepticism a habit.
Yashasvi SinghLucknow
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Sir — Even as scientists are rac-ing to identify the source of theCoronavirus that is causing havocaround the world, researchers at
the South China AgriculturalUniversity in Guangzhou havesuggested pangolins (long-snout-ed, scaly, ant-eating mammals) asthe animal source for the spreadof COVID-19.
The researchers said they
had found a Coronavirus insmuggled pangolins, which wasa 99 per cent genetic match to thevirus circulating in the people.
In 2000, China had issueddetailed regulations for morethan 1,700 protected species,
including the pangolins,acknowledging them to havebiological, scientific and socialvalues. In 2007, the sale of pan-golin products outside certifiedhospitals and clinics was out-lawed but none of these helped.As of January 2019, nine tonnesof pangolins were seized in a sin-gle shipment in Hong Kong.The next 33 tonnes of pangolinmeat were seized in Malaysia andSingapore in April 2019.
It is a matter of grave concernthat China has wildlife tradingbans on the books for threedecades now but even these havenot prevented pangolins frombecoming the most traffickedmammal in the world. Besides, theregulatory framework in Chinadoes not specify what wildlifeentails. Further, enforcement hasbeen lax and there are exceptionsanyway for licensed retailers for thesale of pangolins. The latest ban,too, has loopholes, which willallow the trade of wildlife for med-icines or research to flourish. In areview of this epidemic, there hasto be a holistic view of all factors.
When the new Coronavirus genomesequence was posted on an online data-bank in January, scientists in several
biotechnology laboratories around the globe sawits close similarity to the SARS (Severe AcuteRespiratory Syndrome) virus and thereby sev-eral teams started work on vaccine development.Internationally, experts are of the opinion thatthe world will “need the vaccines” to contain thecurrent pandemic as it is very possible that thisoutbreak will not just fizzle out (considering itsepidemiology and pattern) like the outbreaks ofthe last few decades but could return. In fact, itcould come back with a vengeance (with muta-tions and antigenic shifts and drifts).
Large pharmaceutical companies such asMerck, Johnson & Johnson and Sanofi, as wellas comparatively lesser-known biotechnologyfirms like Gilead, Regeneron, Inovio andModerna, are pursuing vaccines and chemicalsto fight the Coronavirus and the estimate is thatat least 40 other biotechnology companies, smalland big, are on one or the other research anddevelopment (R&D) mission for a vaccine or adrug to save the world at this time of a crisis.During the SARS pandemic, a research team atBoston was able to secure investments and there-by work progressed to clinical trials. The team,in all likelihood, could have accomplished all thephase trials for vaccine development. And hadthat been done during the 2002-2003 epidem-ic, we could have potentially been equipped witha vaccine to use in China in the initial days ofthe outbreak. This could have saved the worldfrom the current pandemic and its resultant fall-outs.
"This is the problem with the whole vaccineinfrastructure, it is reactive and not enoughanticipatory. Oh, SARS is gone now, let’s forgetthe fight we were on and just move on to otherprojects”, says one of the prominent scientistsfrom the biotechnology industry.
The last decades have seen myriad vaccineR&D work in progress trailing off after outbreaksof infectious diseases which were Coronaviruscousins, like the SARS and the Middle EastRespiratory Syndrome (MERS), fizzled out.Whenever a “mysterious” new illness emergesand public alarm is at its peak, there’s a race todevelop a way to prevent or treat the disease. Butby the time a promising candidate is ready, it’soften too late and the outbreak is on the wane.The world has seen this happen with the out-breaks of Zika, Ebola, SARS, MERS interspersedbetween epidemics of H5N1 and H7N9 avian,swine and H1N1 influenza.
The reasons for such incomplete work arevaried — the potential patient pool for clinicaltrials dries up once an infectious outbreak sub-sides and the pool of medical customers for adrug also disappears as an epidemic disappearsquite unpredictably, offering little chance torecover an investment of what could be hundredsof millions of dollars. Currently, various R&Dworks have been going on in parallel. The oneat the most advanced stage is at its first humantrial in Kaiser Permanente Washington HealthResearch Institute in Seattle, where four patientsreceived jabs — the first being a 43-year-oldmother of two. This vaccine developed atModerna therapeutics uses pre-existing technol-
ogy and is made to a very high stan-dard. The company claims it can’t causethe disease as genetic code copied fromthe virus that causes the disease is usedand not a “real virus” extract. It isnamed Mrna-1,273 Vaccine and is veryunlike the usual vaccines in use that areprepared from weakened (live) orkilled viruses.
Scientists working at Moderna saythe vaccine has been made using a triedand tested process. And at the sametime experts reiterate that it will takemany months to know if this vaccinehas served the intended purpose or not.The main goal of this first set of testsis to find out if the vaccine is safe. If itis, later studies will determine how wellit works. Such rapid development of apotential vaccine is unprecedented, andit was possible because researchers wereable to use what they already knewabout related Coronaviruses that hadcaused SARS and MERS.
Besides this advancement, there areothers on the job for the benefit ofhumanity. In a suburb south of Boston,robots are manufacturing a potentialvaccine. Another candidate vaccine —development work for which startedwhen SARS terrified the world in early2000s — sits in deep freeze in a repos-itory ready to be thawed and formu-lated into thousands of vials for furthertesting. Yet another is being put togeth-er at facilities in San Diego andHouston, with projections that it couldbe tested on people by the summer of2020. Another laboratory in San Diego,the Inovio, is using a new type of DNAtechnology to develop a potential vac-cine. It is named INO-4,800 and isplanned to enter human trials by the
summer. For any vaccine to be deployed
after development takes at least a yearbecause of the time needed to run clin-ical trials and attain regulatory permis-sions. Hence in all probability theremay be an approved therapeutic drug(to treat COVID-19) long before sci-entists actually arrive at a licenced,marketable vaccine.
Several drug makers, most promi-nently Gilead Sciences (California) —an anti-HIV drug company andToyama Chemical (Japan) are testingmedicines developed for other diseasesas a possible Coronavirus treatment.The most promising, broad spectrumanti-viral drug that has come up isRemdesivir, the same drug that wastried in controlling the Ebola virus out-break with poor results.
Gilead and health authorities inChina are racing to test it on people incontrolled trials. This US-basedbiotechnology company had alreadyshipped this drug to China to be usedon the patients even without FDAapproval on requests from treatingphysicians.
Another drug Kaletra — a combi-nation of two anti-HIV drugs frompharma group AbbVie is in trials. Theanti-malarial drug Chloroquine isanother relatively safe drug with highactivity against the Coronavirus,though this needs some definitiveclinical trials to mark its efficacy.
The laboratory of Beth Israel incollaboration with Janssen is workingto accelerate another vaccine. This lab-oratory is using a common cold virusto deliver a Coronavirus antigen intocells to stimulate the immune system.
This laboratory has earlier used a sim-ilar approach to make over a milliondoses of a vaccine for the Ebola virusthat has yet to be licenced. The workdone against Coronavirus is in the stageof testing multiple versions of the vac-cine on mice, ferrets and Rhesus mon-keys exposed to the Coronavirus with-in a research facility.
Historically, the promise of break-through medicines and treatmentsappears to rest with private companies,and not the federally-sponsored man-ufacturing sites. Drug companies areoften seen to be reluctant to developvaccines because more often than notsuch epidemics dissipate long before avaccine can pass through the regula-tory lines and be approved. And thefinancial implications of such R&Dwork are too high on the companies tohandle, once the disease and the cus-tomers dissipate quite suddenly.
Charitable donations are beingused to support prominent pharmagroups and promising projects and theleading player in this is the Coalitionfor Epidemic Preparedness Innovations(CEPI). This is supporting Inovio andModerna groups for vaccine develop-ment and its co-founders are theGovernments of Norway and India, theBill and Melinda Gates Foundation andthe Wellcome trust.
For future disaster preparednessagainst infectious disease outbreaks weneed funds from Governments andphilanthropic organisations to supportpharmaceutical groups not just intheir basic research but for the late stagedevelopments as well.
Many of you would have seena cartoon doing the roundsof social media which shows
a man sitting on a couch with a lap-top and an accompanying captionwhich reads, “Oh that meeting wasjust an email!” Some of you readingthis now might have gotten used tomusic streaming in from your neigh-bour’s house, as you sip on yourfavourite beverage while on a videocall with 30 of your colleagues incasuals. The new workplace is hereand chances are it will change theway humans will ever work, that isif they stay long enough, to rebootplanet Earth. The global pandemichas ensured a new world of cars
parked in garages, cleaner city air,occasional wildlife appearances indeserted streets and fishes and dol-phins being spotted in rivers andoceans closer to cities. Many pointout that large technology companiesand global corporations, whichalready have flexible work options,superior cybersecurity fixes andstreamlined work from home poli-cies, will be the first ones to deliverlarge chunks of jobs home. The ques-tion is what happens to smallerfirms and micro-firms that do nothave access to these high-end solu-tions and seek maximum efficiencyfrom (in many cases) shoestring bud-gets and minuscule employeestrength. These firms will find it dif-ficult to manage productivity. Thereare many more likely outcomeswhich will need fresh thinking, par-ticularly in the areas of urban spaceplanning, power management,human resource management andmany integrated policy issues.
When companies realise thatthey can perform optimally withremote workers, they are most like-
ly to vacate plush commercial spaces.Real estate valuations for most ofthese spaces will undergo a hugedowngrade as anchor corporationsexit. This will impact financial firms,banks and developers with exposureto office properties. Long-term leas-es are also most likely to comeunder stress. Shift to a home work-station also means daily power con-sumption patterns will shift geogra-phies within cities. Traditionally,during weekdays, power demandpeaks in office complex zones shift-ing to residential complexes at nightand entertainment zones like malls,shopping complexes hotels and so onduring the weekends. However, witha likely crumbling of traditionalcubicles, power consumption pat-terns will even out across thecityscape all the days of the week.This will also stem demand for bet-ter broadband and network connec-tivity, 24/7 demand for electricity andchic meeting joints in residentialneighbourhoods.
A crucial aspect of modernoffice work is earned sick leave for
employees. While most global cor-porations and Government staff willhave access to substantial number ofearned leaves per year, it is the medi-um small size and micro-firmswhich will have to rethink their poli-cies. Most small firm employeeswould lament lack of earned leavesin their respective set-ups for fear oflosing jobs.
The situation becomes far graverfor a country like India which has farmore Micro, Small and MediumEnterprises (MSMEs) and familyfirms employing less than ten peo-ple. Add to this the support staff likehousekeeping, cleaners, drivers,maids, office delivery persons whomake up a vital part of any office.Most of them today would be fear-ful of reporting a fever or a season-al illness and in turn spread diseasesacross communities, homes andoffices. With global trends shifting tothe work from home culture, a freshclamour for some kind of groupinsurance for the unorganised sectorand mandatory earned leaves, spe-cially for a country like India, will
continue to grow. The Uttar Pradesh Government
has done a commendable job byannouncing a certain fixed amounttransfer for daily wage earners andlabourers, who are likely to lose liveli-hoods for some days due to tempo-rary shutdowns of cities and towns.This initiative should trigger similarmoves by other State Governmentsbut it will still leave out a huge chunkof the urban workforce in the unor-ganised sector. Think of your domes-tic help, cooks, delivery agents andso on, who are mostly considered atemporary workforce. Traditionallythey do not have earned sick leave ormedical insurance and post-retire-ment benefits.
Threats like COVID-19 shouldbe a wake-up call foremployers/employees to demandgroup insurance for micro and smallfirms and seek recognition of tem-porary workforce for benefits on thesame lines as their permanentcounterparts. Contrary to popularbelief, this may actually bring downcosts for many employers as preven-
tive measures could prove a hundredtimes better than a cure in the longrun. This is also more likely to bringa sense of professionalism foundlacking in many workers in theunorganised sector as additionalanswerability, including regularhealth checks will foster discipline.Finally, many core company policieslike creating new work protocols forremote workers, telecommuting,remote access and cybersecuritypolicies, remote recovery, crisis man-agement, virtual private networkmanagement and many such willneed an overhaul.
Pandemics don’t need passportfor entry into geographies. It maycreate a temporary shutdown ofborders and may give strength tovoices opposed to a globalised world.However, one should remember thatpandemics require multinationalcooperation to formulate an integrat-ed strategy for citizen safety andhealth. This should bring nationscloser, now more than ever.
(The writer is Country Manager,India, ITI Council)
Gangtok: Sikkim ChiefSecretary SC Gupta onThursday said all non-essentialwork in Government offices betemporarily suspended to avoidmovement of people even asprohibitory orders underSection 144 of the CrPC wereimposed in East district inview of the novel coronavirusoutbreak.
Gupta, while reviewingpreparedness to deal with thecoronavirus outbreak, saidfunds have been transferred tothe health department from theChief Minister’s Office for pur-chase of equipment and essen-
tial goods at isolation wards.The chief secretary asked
the district collectors to seekadditional funds, in necessary,from the health department forupgrading facilities in the quar-antine wards.
He also directed the offi-cials concerned to restrict themovement of labourers and putup travel advisories on taxisplying between Gangtok andWest Bengal’s Siliguri.
Gupta instructed the trans-port department to deploy amedical team at the SikkimNationalised Transport com-plex in Siliguri to screen
tourists coming to the state.This measure will prevent
overcrowding at Rangpo andMelli check-posts, he said.
The chief secretary saidstudents in transit to Sikkimwill have to report to authori-ties and will be home quaran-tined.
He advised the studentswho are in other states to staythere and avoid travelling toSikkim.
Meanwhile, East districtCollector Raj Yadav issued theprohibitory orders banningassembly of more than five persons at a public place. PTI
Srinagar: Over 160 students,who were returning fromBangladesh amid coronavirusfear, allegedly refused to under-go isolation and created aruckus at the airport, beforethey were brought under con-trol and sent to a quarantinefacility on Thursday, policesaid.
“Today, a few studentsarrived from Bangladesh atSrinagar International Airport.As per the directions of theBudgam district magistrate,these students were to be quar-antined as precautionary mea-sure vis-a-vis spread ofCOVID-19 (coronavirus),” apolice official said.
He said the medical
authorities at SrinagarInternational Airport request-ed these students to cooperatefor the quarantine process towhich they did not agree andstarted a protest, breaking win-dow/glass panes of airportarrival area.
“At the same time, parentsof these students also startedprotest outside arrival terminalof airport. Airport authorityand the CISF then called inlocal police for resolution of theissue,” he said.
The police team alongwith magistrate reached thespot and tried to pacify the pro-testers, but, they did not budgeand continued with the van-dalism, the official added. PTI
Jaipur: Rajasthan ChiefMinister Ashok Gehlot onThursday directed shutdown ofall Government and semi-gov-ernment departments,autonomous institutions andstate corporations till March 31in the wake of the rising casesof coronavirus.
However, departmentsrelated to essential services willcontinue to work, he said.
Gehlot also directed offi-cials concerned to postponeexaminations in all schools andcolleges till further orders.
He said appropriatearrangements should beensured promptly, takinglessons from Italy to contain thecoronavirus pandemic. PTI
Amaravati (AP): The famoushill shrine of LordVenkateswara in Tirumala andall other major temples will beout of bounds for devoteeswhile malls and cinema hallswould be closed down inAndhra Pradesh till March 31to check the spread of coron-avirus, the State Governmentannounced on Thursday.
The restrictions wouldcome into force from Friday,Deputy Chief Minister forMedical and Health AKKSrinivas (Nani) said briefingreporters here after a high-levelmeeting on COVID-19,chaired by Chief Minister Y SJagan Mohan Reddy.
The daily rituals in allthese temples will, however, beperformed by the priests. Onlythe devotees will not beallowed, he said.
Besides the cash-rich LordVenkateswara temple nearTirupati thronged by devoteesfrom across the country, othersthat would be barred for pil-grims’ entry include theKanaka Durga shrine inVijayawada, Srisailam (LordShiva), Annavaram(Satyanarayana Swamy) andKanipakam (Vinayaka).
Similarly, major places ofworship of other religionswould also be closed, theDeputy Chief Ministersaid.
Andhra Pradesh is the lat-est to join a number of states,including Kerala, Karnatakaand Tamil Nadu, that haveannounced a virutal lockdownand the announcement came
on the day when it reported itssecond positive case of coron-avirus.
Srinivas said theGovernment took this decisionto check the spread of thedreaded virus though relative-ly the incidence of COVID-19was low in Andhra Pradesh.
Malls and cinema hallswould be closed down whilebars and restaurants were beingasked to maintain social dis-tancing, he said.
The Government suggest-ed that IT professionals couldwork from home.
The Deputy CM asked thepeople to cooperate with thegovernment in COVID-19 mit-igation measures. Srinivassuggested that people put offmarriages and other functionsto avoid large gatherings. PTI
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With rumors of a completeshutdown and possible
scarcity of daily essentials grip-ping the market, Bengal ChiefMinister Mamata Banerjee onThursday warned the rumormongers of strict action for“spreading false and fake infor-mation.”
“Some people are spread-ing rumor about a completeshut down and a possiblescarcity of essential items in theface of corona scare but I wantto warn these elements to desistfrom making false, fake andirresponsible information …The police have been instruct-ed to take stringent actionsuch people who are spreadingsuch rumor,” Banerjee said.
“All shops are open and will
remain open and there is noneed to fear. Though the bor-ders with some States havebeen sealed there is enoughstock with us and the situationis normal,” she said adding theGovernment was in firm con-trol of the situation.
Bengal Government hasmade elaborate preparations todeal with situations related toCorona outbreak Banerjee said.The Chief Minister who helda lengthy meeting with privatemedical facilities and the nodalagencies of the Governmentsaid that Corona was a chal-lenge and her Governmentwas determined to win it.
“Corona is a challenge andwe will definitely win it,”Banerjee said appealing to theprivate players to come forwardand contribute towards the
fighting the pandemic.“This is not time for busi-
ness. We will have to stand bythe people together and fightagainst this disease which hascome as a threat to themankind,” Banerjee said alleg-ing her Government has notbeen getting the kind of sup-port it requires from the cen-tral government to erect a pre-paredness against any possibleoutbreak of the disease. “We arewaiting for the kits from theCentre but they have not sentus the kits,” she said.
Presently out of 399,469people screened and 77 sam-ples tested in the State only oneperson—a son of a bureaucratwho recently returned fromLondon — has tested positive,the Chief Minister said.
She said 25 people have
been kept in isolation and17,500 people have beenadvised home surveillance.“We are procuring 2 lakh spe-cial suits for the nurses whoinvolved in corona care …besides this orders have beenplaced for 300 ventilationmachines” she said adding ,about two lakh gloves and asmany numbers of masks werebeing procured.
Apart from the isolationbeds kept available at BeleghataID Hospital and ChittaranjanCancer Institute, Rajarhat, 50beds have been kept ready atRG Kar Hospital and 150 bedshave been earmarked at MRBangur Hospital, she said. Thisapart, district hospitals atSiliguri in North Bengal,Midnapore, Burdwan are beingreadied to tackle emergency,
she said.The Chief Minister on
Wednesday had ordered a 50percent reduction in staff atten-dance at Government offices.“Daily till next circular the staffwill be allowed to leave officeby 4 pm instead of 5 pm in theevening so that there is lessrush in trains and buses,” shesaid.
Meanwhile, the TrinamoolCongress and the Left blamedthe BJP for mingling politicswith relief work even as theworkers of that party wentabout distributing saffronmasks among the people.
“This is obnoxious, dirtythat people of some party willplay politics when the countryis facing such unprecedentedcrisis,” a senior Minister in theGovernment said.
Jaipur: Rajasthan GovernorKalraj Mishra on Thursdayasked people not to be scaredof the coronavirus outbreak buttake all preventive and pre-cautionary measures.
“Do not be afraid of coro-na. Some caution is needed. Donot go to the crowded places,do not go too close to people,”he said in a message to the peo-ple of Rajasthan.
“Those who have a coldand fever, (they must) takemedicines and be very careful.Do not shake hands. Washhands with soap frequently. Usea sanitiser. Put a mask whengoing out,” he said in his mes-sage. PTI
Pune: At least 16 shop owners in Maharashtra’s PimpriChinchwad city faced police action on Thursday for defy-ing the collector’s orders to keep their establishmentsclosed in view of the COVID-19 outbreak.
The district collector had issued an order under theEpidemic Act directing all shops, barring those provid-ing essential services, to remain shut.
“We had informed shop owners in Chikhali area tokeep establishments that do not come under the essen-tial services category shut,” said senior inspector SatishMane of Chikhali police station.
Despite the announcements, at least 16 shops andestablishments, including electronic shops, restaurantsand tea kiosks, remained open on Thursday. “We haveregistered a case against 16 shop owners under section188 of the Indian Penal Code,” he said. Earlier onWednesday, the collector had issued an order banningreligious events, cultural ceremonies, festivals, fairs, sport-ing activities in private or public places where five or morepeople come together. PTI
Jaipur: Rajasthan BJP presidentSatish Poonia and Deputy Leaderof Opposition in the AssemblyRajendra Rathore on Thursdaymet External Affairs Minister SJaishankar in Delhi and soughtimmediate return of Indian stu-dents stranded in several coun-tries, including the Philippines,due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Jaishankar assured that thegovernment is monitoring thesituation. Necessary guidelineshave been given to the Indianembassies in this regard, theRajasthan BJP leaders said in astatement.
The External Affairs Ministeralso said wherever possible, everyeffort will be made to bring thestudents to the country and,
where it is not possible, they willbe taken care of, according to thestatement.
Rathore said hundreds ofRajasthan students are stranded inthe Philippines and are unable tocome to India due to the shut-down of air services. Studentsstudying there are scared, theirparents are worried and they areasking for help to come to India,he said.
The Deputy Leader of theOpposition in the RajasthanAssembly said the Indian Embassyofficials in the Philippines shouldcontact the stranded students andprovide all possible help to them.
Sikar MP SumedhanandSaraswati was also present duringthe meeting. PTI
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The Gujarat Governmentsaid on Thursday that those
undergoing 14-day home quar-antine for suspected coron-avirus infection will have towear a coloured wrist band.
The announcement wasmade by Deputy Chief MinisterNitin Patel in the Assemblyhere.
Patel, who handles theHealth portfolio, said this wasnecessary to stop such personsfrom violating home isolationnorms and going out which canbe harmful for others.
“In some states such per-sons are stamped on their
hands,” he said, referring to thepractice in Maharashtra.
“On the same lines, wehave decided to put colouredbands on the wrists of sus-pected patients who are under14-day home quarantine uponreturn from abroad,” Patel toldthe Assembly during a discus-sion on the coronavirus.
“People can report to theauthorities if they spot anybodywith this band on the wrist inpublic,” he added.
All international travelersarriving at Ahmedabad andSurat airports are beingscreened for the virus infection,the deputy CM furthersaid.
Thiruvananthapuram:Kerala Chief MinisterPinarayi Vijayan on Thursdaysought the support of localbody institutions to check thespread of coronavirus in theState, where 24 peopleincluding two foreigners,have so far rested positive forthe virus and over 25,000 areunder surveillance.
In a video conferencemeeting held with local bodymembers and officials acrossthe State, he said an “unusu-al” situation was prevailing inthe State and even a minorlapse would worsen it.
Though the presentrestrictions imposed to checkthe further spread of theinfection would cause some
temporary difficulty, every-one should cooperate con-sidering the emergency situ-ation, he added.
“The Government willmake all possible steps toensure adequate supply offood and medicines. Localbody representatives have asignificant role to play inensuring normal life to thoseunder surveillance,” Vijayansaid.
Pointing out the respon-sibilities of the civic bodiesand its members, the ChiefMinister said they shouldinitiate special awareness dri-ves among migrant andMNREGA workers who havesuffered job loss due to thevirus outbreak. PTI
Puducherry: In the wake of thespread of coronavirus, theCentrally sponsored JIPMER inPuducherry on Thursday askedonly patients with critical ail-ments and requiring tertiarycare should visit the hospital.
Making this appeal througha circular, JIPMER (JawaharlalInstitute of PostgraduateMedical Education andResearch) said this was part ofthe precautionary steps to savepatients from the spread of thenovel COVID-19.
The hospital said around10,000 patients visit the hospi-tal every day for treatment. So,it is likely that the patientsinclude those having symp-
toms of the virus.“There is, therefore, a real
risk of those visitingJIPMERcatching the infection,”the circular said.
It said patients with minorailments seeking medical adviceare discouraged from visitingthe hospital in view of dispro-portionately high risk of expo-sure to infection, includingCVID-19, in the crowded hos-pital.
Specifically, elderly personswith such chronic ailments likediabetes, hypertension, cancerand heart diseases who are onregular and continued medica-tion should avoid coming to thehospital simply for receivingdrugs. PTI
Gearing up its machineryacross all the district head-
quarters, the Jammu &Kashmir administration onThursday imposed strictrestrictions in both Jammuand Srinagar on the movementof general public and alsoordered closure of all shopsexcept those supplying essen-tial commodities to containspread of coronavirus.
So far four positive caseshave been reported in Jammu& Kashmir, three in Jammuand one in Srinagar.
In Jammu, DeputyCommissioner Jammu SushmaChauhan directed differentteams along with local police tostrictly enforce the orders onground zero. All the markets inthe walled city of Jammu were
closed down to restrict move-ment of general public.
Majority of areas of down-town in Srinagar also observedcomplete shutdown followingstrict restrictions. A 67-year-old lady was tested positive inKhanyar area on Wednesday.The district administration hadconstituted over 20 medicalteams to screen local residentsin the area and detect any sus-pected case of coronavirus whomay have come in contact withthe lady, with a travel history toSaudi Arabia.
Meanwhile, Katra town,base camp of Mata VaishnoDevi Shrine, wore a desertedlook on Thursday followingsuspension of yatra. The trainsreaching Katra ferried less than100 passengers, many amongthem were local residents.
All the hotels and guest
houses across Reasi districtwere also directed to closedown commercial operationsafter the suspension of yatra tillMarch 31. Section 144 was alsoimposed in different districtheadquarters of Kulgam,Pulwama, Bandipore, Kupwarain Jammu & Kashmir to restrictAssembly of more than fourpersons at one place. Separateadvisories were also issued bydifferent deputy commission-ers urging public to avoid vis-iting crowded places includingBanks, public parks, and avoidtravelling using public trans-
port buses.District Magistrate
Srinagar Dr Shahid IqbalChoudhary said restrictionsare a preventive measure aimedat containing spread of theinfection in the district.
The restrictions orderStates that public movementincluding pedestrian and trans-port and operation of businessand other kinds of establish-ments will be restricted acrossthe district till further notice.
Dr Shahid said the restric-tions order is an extension ofthe order issued earlier underthe disaster management act2005 adding that all instruc-tions issued under both ordersmust be implemented in letterand strict. He said violationswould constitute a criminaloffence and attract strict penalaction.
Meanwhile, Jammu &Kashmir Government onThursday informed that 356persons have completed their28-day surveillance period and,so far, only four cases have beentested positive in Jammu &Kashmir.
According to the dailyMedia Bulletin on NovelCoronavirus (COVID-19),3146 travellers and persons incontact with suspected caseshave been put under surveil-lance while as 2337 persons areunder home quarantine.
Persons who are in hospi-tal quarantine stand at 34 and419 persons are under homesurveillance.
Further, the Bulletin saidthat 156 samples have been sentfor testing, of which 144 test-ed as negative and only fourcases have tested positive.
Fifty-year-old Nandagopal,a businessman who is also
the district level office bearer ofHindu Makkal Katchi, hadeverything, he aspired for. Asuccessful businessman, Nanduas he was known, drove aroundin a swanky limousine andowned a beautiful house inTirupur. He was a familiarface in all public meetings heldacross Tirupur thanks to the24X7 news channels.
But Nandu aspired formore. When he saw armedcommandoes from Tamil NaduPolice guarding senior officebearers like Arjun Sampath, theHMK president, he too felt theneed of cops to surround himwhen he made his publicappearances. It is a status sym-bol worth displaying, Nanduand his associates felt.
Though he tried to get theservices of armed cops for hispersonal security, the Districtadministration and the
Government of Tamil Naduwere of the view thatNandagopal does not qualify tobe guarded by commandoes.That’s when it happened. Lastweek, while he was on his wayback from a party function, agroup of people waylaid himand assaulted him which leftNandu ‘injured seriously’.
The Tiruppur Police prob-ing the case were tense asinstances of skirmishes betweenIslamists and activists of SanghParivar were on the high in thedistrict following the recentmurder of a Hindu activist. Butthe cops smelled a rat in thecomplaint filed by Nandagopalas they always ‘mistrust theobvious’ in all cases. The inves-tigation by the police and ques-tioning of Rudramoorthy, dri-ver of Nandu at the time ofattack, spilled the beans.
According toSuperintendent of Police DishaMittal, the attack was plannedand conceived by Nandagopaland associates to gain politicalmileage and some cheap pub-
licity. The driver confessed tothe special teams probing thecase that Nandagopal thoughtthat the assault story would helphim to get the ultimate statussymbol, the armed policeguards! But Rudramoorthy wasnot trained in answering thequestions put to him by thepolice.
A case has been registeredagainst Nandagopal for tryingto disrupt public order and tocreate enmity between variousreligions. The HMK had calledfor a hartal to protest theattacks on its office bearers andactivists by political rivals. Butfollowing the investigation bythe police, the bandh callevoked no response.
On his part, ArjunSampath, president, HMK, hasordered a probe by a team ofindependent professionalsincluding a retired policesuperintendent into the affair.“If it is found that Nandagopalwas staging a drama, he wouldbe expelled from the organisa-tion,” said Sampath.
Thane: A special MCOCAcourt acquitted 14 persons in a2012 attempt to murder case inMaharashtra's Thane city.
In his order on Wednesday,judge SS Bahalkar held that theprosecution had failed to proveall charges against the allegedaccused under relevant sectionsof the Indian Penal Code,Arms Act, Maharashtra PoliceAct and Maharashtra Controlof Organised Crime Act.
The 15th accused in thecase died during the penden-cy of the trial.
According to the prosecu-tion, on the night of July 13,2012, victim Rajesh Ghatgewas shot at by the accused atThane's Kopri area, where oneof the men also attacked him
with a chopper.The victim was severely
injured in the attack and wasrushed to a nearby hospital.
The alleged accused held agrudge against the victim,which let to the attack, theprosecution stated.
The defence pointed outthe loopholes in the prosecu-tion's argument and the judgeaccepted their contention, fol-lowing which they were acquitted. PTI
Bengaluru: Leader of theOpposition in KarnatakaAssembly Siddaramaiah onThursday sought to taunt ChiefMinister BS Yediyurappa byraising questions about hisGovernment's longevity andsaid there was no guaranteeabout the ruling BJP continu-ing in power for remainingthree years.
The former Chief Ministercited “political developments”in the BJP for his doubts.
While speaking aboutincrease in loans availed by theGovernment and consequencesthat may arise in the future,Siddaramaiah said “assumingfor argument sake that you(BJP) will continue (in power)for three years...”
Immediately respondingto this, Yediyurappa said “wewill be here (continue inpower)..”
Siddaramaiah then said “ifyou are continuing... happy
Mr Yediyurappa, what troublewill I have, but we don't haveguarantee that you will con-tinue or not, because lot ofthings are happening withinyour party, we will not getinvolved into those things or doanything.”
Participating in the dis-cussion on the Budget, he said“there are lot of political devel-opments that are happening.”
As someone from BJP said,there were political develop-ments within the Congressalso, Siddaramaiah said: “thatmeans similar developmentsare happening among you(BJP) right? see it is admittedby themselves (BJP MLAs)now.
What happened here(Congress), is happening therealso.”
Several times in the pasttoo Siddaramaiah has raisedquestions about the longevity ofYediyuraapa-led Governmentthat came to power after thecollapse of the Congress-JD(S)coalition Government headedby HD Kumaraswamy last year,due to “internal disgruntle-ment.”
According to BJP sources,the win of 11 disqualifiedCongress-JD(S) legislators onBJP ticket and ten of thembeing inducted as Ministers hasgiven much need stability to theGovernment.
But “disgruntlement”among some party seniors andloyals who failed to get Cabinetberth and their displeasureover Yediyurappa's style offunctioning, has posed freshchallenge to the Government,sources said. PTI
Bengaluru: Congress leaderDigvijay Singh on Thursdayaccused Karnataka ChiefMinister BS Yediyurappa ofputting pressure on the Statepolice to not allow him to meetrebel party MLAs fromMadhya Pradesh staying here.
Singh said he was confi-dent of taking back most of thelegislators if he gets an oppor-tunity to personally talk tothem. Accusing the BJP andUnion Home Minister AmitShah of “scripting and execut-ing” the ongoing political cri-sis in the central Indian state,he appealed to the rebel legis-lators not to take any step thatwill favour the JP Nadda-ledparty.
“I have full sympathy withthe DGP Karnataka as he isunder tremendous pressure,and my allegation is that thepressure is from the ChiefMinister of KarnatakaYediyurappa.
I charge Yediyurappa thathe has pressurised the DGP, notto allow me to meet myCongress legislators,” Singhsaid.
Speaking to reporters here,he alleged police were notallowing him to meet, talk orsend letters to MLAs, who arehis voters in the Rajya Sabhapolls,scheduled for March 26.
Terming the developmentsas “power game” that the BJPhas scripted in the country,Singh said it was “conceivedauthored and executed” by theparty under Amit Shah.
“You people call it as oper-ation lotus, it is nothing butoperation money bag. There arehuge sums of money, it hap-pened in Karnataka in the past.
I don't know how many ofthe 22 MLAs have taken themoney, so I'm not levellingcharge against them, but I havethe phone recording of ex-BJPCM Shivraj Singh Chouhanand ex-Minister NarottamMishra offering money toCongress MLAs,” he said.
High drama had unfoldedon Wednesday morning nearthe resort where rebel MLAsare staying as Singh staged aprotest accusing the police ofnot allowing him to meet thelegislators. PTI
Muzaffarnagar (UP): AnSpecial Investigation Teamprobing the violence that brokeout during a protest against theCitizenship Amendment Act(CAA) here last year filed acharge sheet against 38 peoplein a court on Thursday.
The court of Chief JudicialMagistrate Ravi Kant Yadavordered the accused to appearbefore it on March 31.
Of the 38 accused, 17 havegot bail. According to the pros-ecution, the accused werearrested for their allegedinvolvement in the violenceduring an anti-CAA protesthere on December 20 last year. PTI
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Lok Sabha on Thursdaypassed a Bill which seeks to
accord the status of institutionof national importance to aJamnagar-based cluster ofayurveda institutes. TheInstitute of Teaching andResearch in AyurvedaJamnagar will be granted insti-tution of national importanceby conglomerating the clusterof Ayurveda institutes atGujarat Ayurveda Universitycampus in Jamnagar.
Many MPs while support-ing the bill demanded thatmany Ayurveda institutes inKerala and other South Indianstates must also get prefer-ence. Moving the Institute ofTeaching and Research inAyurveda Bill
for passage, the Minister ofState for Ayurveda, Yoga andNaturopathy, Unani, Siddhaand Homoeopathy (AYUSH)Shripad Yesso Naik said peopleacross the globe are now show-ing greater interest in ayurve-da which has its origin inIndia.
Some amendments movedby Opposition members weredefeated by voice vote.
The three institutes whichwould be clubbed are Instituteof Post Graduate Teaching andResearch in Ayurveda,Gulabkunwerba AyurvedaMahavidyalaya and Institute ofAyurveda PharmaceuticalSciences
Thursday laid stress on min-imising crowds in Governmentand private offices, on boardtrains public transport busesand at places of worship andstrict enforcement of “workfrom home” policy, and vowedto win “war against virus”, asthe confirmed Coronaviruscases climbed to 49 in theState.
On a day when the ChiefMinister addressed the peoplein the state live through socialmedia and appealed to themnot to panic and hoard essen-tial commodities and drugs, thestate authorities announcedthat they would screen peoplefor Covid-19 at railway stations,Mumbai-Pune ExpressHighway and old Mumbai-Pune highway.
Maharashtra HealthMinister Rajesh Tope said thatif the people did not complywith the Government advi-sories and appeals to reducecrowds at public places, thestate government would haveno alternative but enforce atotal lockdown in the State.
With four more personstesting positive for Coronavirusin different parts of the state onThursday, the total number of
confirmed Covid-19 rose to 49.Pune and the neighbouringPimpri-Chinchwad haveaccounted for a maximum of19 cases, the break-up of pos-itive coronavirus cases else-where in the State is: Mumbai-11, Nagpur-4, Yavatmal-3, NaviMumbai-3, Kalyan-3, Panvel-1,Thane-1, Ahmednagar-2,Aurangabad-1 and Ratnagiri-1.
In his social media addressto the people across the state,Uddhav said: “What we are wit-nessing a world war againstvirus. With the full support ofthe people across the state, ourgovernment has been able tocontrol the pandemic. We willmake all-out efforts to win thewar that we are waging in thestate.”
The Chief Minister saidthat he had earlier in the dayspoken to Prime MinisterNarendra Modi and UnionHealth Minister HarshVardhan, who had promisedhim that the Centre wouldextend its support toMaharashtra. “I appeal to peo-ple not to panic and hoardessential commodities anddrugs,” he said.
A day after hisGovernment decided to restrictthe attendance of employees ingovernment offices to 50 per
cent and asked the Railwaysand other public transportoperators to limit the servicesto half the normal capacity, theChief Minister once laidemphasis on minimisingcrowds at public places. “Afterour appeal to the people, thecrowds at the places of worshiphave come down drastically.Though we have taken decisionto reduce attendance at gov-ernment and private offices, Istill appeal to the people not toventure out of their home ifthere was no need. Whereverpossible, work at home policyrigorously”.
“Though we are takenremedial measures in a satis-factory manner, we will have totake a lot of precautions sincethe virus is spreading fast,” thechief minister said.
Uddhav appealed onceagain to the people with symp-toms of Covid-19 to take allprecautions. “ The patientswho have been stamped andquarantined at home not tostep out of their homes,” hesaid.
Heaping praise on the doc-tors, medical staff and volun-tary organisations engaged infighting in what he called as“War Against Virus”, Uddhavsaid: “Our doctors, nurses, bus
drivers and voluntary organi-sations are our soldiers. Theyare working day and night tohelp us out. Can’t we extendour co-operation to them byconfining ourselves to ourhomes?”
Calling for fighting thepandemic in a united manner,the chief minister said: “Themedical disaster that we arecombating is independent ofreligion and caste that we rep-resent. We have to fight thepandemic as one entity. Weshould not indulge in anymindless acts at this juncture.Immediately after the outbreakof Coronavirus in China, thegovernment there took sever-al stringent measures to com-bat the pandemic. No wonderthat China has by and largetided over the medical crisis.We also have to tide over thiscrisis. I request the people toco-operate with theGovernment in our efforts tofight Covid-19. We shall alsoovercome this crisis”.
In a related development,the Chief Minister’s officetweeted: “CM UddhavBalasaheb Thackeray has spo-ken to Hon’ble FM Smt@nsitharaman to consider thepostponement for the follow-ing: 1. 31/3/2020 last date to filebelated return for financialyear 18-19 2. 31/3/2020 lastdate to file revised return for
financial year 18-19”.“3. 31/3/2020 last date to
pay advance tax to save 234Binterest 4. 30/4/2020 last dateto pay TDS of March 2020 5.22/3/2020 last date to file GSTR3B (GST return for February2020) and to waive off all theinterests, fees, penalties on latecompliance of the above dead-lines,” the chief minister said inanother tweet.
Meanwhile, State HealthMinister Rajesh Tope said thatto prevent a rapid spread of thecoronavirus, the MaharashtraGovernment was contemplat-ing enforcing total lockdown inMumbai.
“To ensure against rapidspread of Covid -19, we areconsidering a total lockdown inMumbai. Currently, there ispartial lockdown in Mumbai. Ifwe choose to go in for a totallockdown, we should have analternative system in place. IfMumbaikars do not complywith the advisories we haveissued to them for reducingcrowds, we will have no alter-native but to enforce a totallockdown in Mumbai,” Topesaid, while participating in aninteractive programme organ-ised by a leading Marathi tele-vision channel.
Meanwhile, Mumbai’sfamed dabbawalas have sus-pended their tiffin box servicestill March 31.
points and the Nifty gave upthe 7,900 level in opening ses-sion on Thursday as globalgloom over the Covid-19 pan-demic continued to hammerequities.
The rupee too depreciat-ed 60 paise to 74.87 against USdollar in morning session.
After sinking over 2,152points, the BSE barometer wastrading 1812.19 points or 6.28per cent lower at 27,057.32 at0930 hours.
Similarly, the NSE Nifty
was trading 520.85 points, or6.15 per cent, down at 7,947.95after dropping below 7,900 inearly session.
In the previous session, the30-share BSE index closed1,709.58 points or 5.59 percent lower at 28,869.51. Onsimilar lines, the broader NSENifty plummeted 498.25points, or 5.56 per cent, to endat 8,468.80.
Bajaj Finance was the toploser, tanking up to 12 per cent,followed by HCL Tech, IndusIndBank, Kotak Bank and M&M,while PowerGrid and NTPCwere the only gainers.
According to traders,
European Central Bank's(ECB) EUR 750-billion stimu-lus package failed to liftinvestor sentiment, stoking thealready-peaking fears of aneconomic recession.
Faced with a growing eco-nomic shutdown amid the newcoronavirus (Covid-19) pan-demic, the ECB on Wednesdayannounced a surprise EUR750-billion scheme to pur-chase government and corpo-rate bonds, as it joined othercentral banks in stepping upefforts to contain the econom-ic damage from the new coro-navirus (Covid-19).
Bourses in Shanghai,
Hong Kong, Seoul and Tokyoplunged up to 8 per cent.
Incessant foreign fundoutflow also kept domesticmarket participants risk-averse,traders said.
On a net basis, foreigninstitutional investors soldequities worth Rs 5,085.35crore on Wednesday, data avail-able with stock exchangesshowed.
Meanwhile, Brent crudeoil futures rose over 1.61 percent to USD 25.28 per barrel.
The number of globalCovid-19 infections has shotpast 2,00,000. Worldwide fatal-ities topped 8,000.
New York: Wall Street stocksplunged again Wednesday as theeconomic toll from the coron-avirus mounts and analystswarn of a deep recession.
The Dow Jones IndustrialAverage tumbled 6.3 per cent, ormore than 1,300 points, to closethe day at 19,898.92, its firstclose below 20,000 since 2017.
The broad-based S&P 500dropped 5.2 per cent to finish at2,398.10, while the tech-richNasdaq Composite Index tum-bled 4.7 per cent to 6,989.84.
The Dow fell as much as 10percent during the early after-noon, but stocks rallied some-what near the end of the sessionas the US Senate passed a USD100 billion emergency packagefor free coronavirus testing,sick pay and other benefitsrelated to the crisis.
Economists are slashingtheir forecasts as more sectorsshut down. A note fromJPMorgan Chase projected USactivity would shrink 14 per
cent in the second quarter,while Europe's output wouldplunge 22 per cent.
"These outcomes are worsethan were recorded during theglobal financial crisis or theEuropean sovereign crisis," thenote said of the second quarter.
Petroleum-linked sharessuffered an especially brutalround as US oil prices plunged24 percent to USD 20.37 a bar-rel, its lowest price since 2002 ona demand outlook that worsensby the day.
US automakers were anoth-er hard-hit industry, withGeneral Motors losing 17.3 per-cent and Ford 10.2 percent asthe "Big Three" shuttered theirAmerican production plantsbecause of the virus.
Simon Property Group, agiant in the shopping mallindustry, plunged 23.7 per centas it announced that it wouldclose all of its shopping mallsthrough March 29 due to thevirus. AFP
New Delhi: Shares of RelianceIndustries continued to tradewith losses for the fourth con-secutive session on Thursday,falling further by over 5 percent. RIL stock tanked 5.34 percent to close at Rs 917.10 on theBSE. During the day, it dropped8 per cent to Rs 891 -- its 52-week low. At the NSE, itdeclined 5.24 per cent to closeat Rs 917.70.
A heavy sell-off in theequity market since past fewdays has pulled down RIL'sshare price as well as its mar-ket valuation sharply. This isthe fourth consecutive sessionof fall for RIL shares whichhave dropped 17.14 per cent tillThursday and lost about Rs1,20,311.78 crore from its mar-ket valuation during this time.
On Wednesday, TataConsultancy Services went pastReliance Industries (RIL) tobecome the most valued Indianfirm by market valuation.
TCS continued to maintainlead over RIL in market valu-ation chart on Thursday also.At close of trade, the marketvaluation of TCS was at Rs6,13,927.66 crore. PTI
Geneva: Up to USD 200 billionis needed to rescue the world'sairlines during the coronaviruscrisis, the global aviation associ-ation said Thursday, appealingespecially to African and MiddleEastern countries to provideemergency assistance.
"Support measures areurgently needed," theInternational Air TransportAssociation said in a statement,adding that "on a global basis,IATA estimates that emergencyaid of up to $200 billion isrequired". Airlines worldwideface an unprecedented existen-tial threat as the COVID-19 pan-demic, which has killed morethan 9,000 people around the
world, shuts down global travel."Stopping the spread of is
the top priority of governments,"IATA chief Alexandre de Juniacsaid in the statement. "But theymust be aware that the publichealth emergency has nowbecome a catastrophe foreconomies and for aviation," hesaid, pointing out that "the scaleof the current industry crisis ismuch worse and far more wide-spread than 9/11, SARS or the2008 global financial crisis."
"Airlines are fighting forsurvival," he said, warning that"millions of jobs are at stake."IATA expressed particular con-cern for the situation in Africaand the Middle East, where
many routes have been sus-pended, and where demand hasfallen by as much of 60 percenton the remaining routes.
It pointed out that the airtransport industry's economiccontribution in Africa alone isestimated at $55.8 billion, sup-porting 6.2 million jobs and con-tributing 2.6 percent of the con-tinent's gross domestic product.
In the Middle East, the con-tribution stands at $130 billion,some 4.4 percent of GDP, sup-porting 2.4 million jobs, it said."Airlines need urgent govern-ment action if they are to emergefrom this in a fit state to help theworld recover, once COVID-19is beaten," Juniac said. AFP
Hong Kong: Asian equities sank again Thursdaywhile the dollar surged as a European CentralBank plan to spend more than USD 800 billionto buy bonds failed to instil optimism in traderswho fear that the world is heading for a virus-fuelled economic catastrophe.
In what one analyst said could be a "gamechanger" for the coronavirus-wracked eurozone,the ECB's so-called Pandemic EmergencyPurchase Programme aims to give financial mar-kets some much-needed liquidity as investors pullthe plug on markets.
It said the 750-billion-euro (USD 820-billion)programme was temporary and will be haltedwhen the coronavirus crisis is judged to be over"but in any case not before the end of the year".
After announcing the move, ECB bossChristine Lagarde tweeted that "extraordinarytimes require extraordinary action. There are nolimits to our commitment to the euro." AFP
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Gold on Thursday gained Rs31 to Rs 40,718 per 10
gram in the national capitalamid sharp rupee depreciation,according to HDFC Securities.
On Wednesday, it hadclosed at Rs 40,687 per 10gram. Silver, however, declinedby Rs 190 to Rs 35,444 per kgagainst the previous close of Rs35,634 per kg.
"Spot gold for 24 Karat inDelhi were trading up by Rs 31thanks to sharp rupee depre-ciation and steady interna-tional gold prices," HDFCSecurities Senior Analyst(Commodities) Tapan Patelsaid.
In the international mar-ket, both gold and silver weretrading flat at USD 1,482 perounce and USD 11.97 perounce, respectively.
Meanwhile, the domesticequity market continued totrade weak, with its BSE bench-mark index trading over 500points lower minutes before thefinal closing. PTI
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Apex agriculture financialinstitution NABARD has
extended Rs 42,313 crorefinancial support during 2019-20 for building rural infra-structure.
The financial institutionhas so far this fiscal disbursedRs 20,869 crore in addition toproviding Rs 5,686 crore forrural connectivity, a statementby NABARD said.
Recognizing that the socialaspect of economic develop-ment is equally important,NABARD has been supportingthe Centre's programmes toprovide “housing for all by2022” under Pradhan MantriAawas Yojana – Gramin as wellas clean water and sanitationunder Swachh Bharat Mission– Gramin.
During the current year,the National Bank forAgriculture and RuralDevelopment (NABARD) hasreleased Rs 10,935 crore to sup-port these initiatives, it said.
The other segments sup-ported by NABARD are drink-
ing water supply, renewableenergy, storage and dairy infra-structure, etc.
These efforts have rein-forced and supported theCentre's initiatives for improv-ing the rural economy, multi-ply job opportunities in therural market and thus stabilizeincome, it said.
During the last five years,NABARD has disbursed Rs1,98,485 crore for all-roundeconomic growth of rural Indiawith a view to improving thestandard of life of rural poor.
PTI
New Delhi: The government on Thursdaysaid 76,359 jobs have been created in the tele-com sector since 2018-19. While replying toa question in the Rajya Sabha, Minister ofState for Telecom Sanjay Dhotre said of thetotal jobs created in the sector, 28,424 weredirect jobs while 47,935 were indirect.
"76,359 jobs have been created since2018-19 in telecom sector," Dhotre informedthe House.
A total 40,445 jobs were created in 2018-19 and 35,914 jobs in 2019-20.
Dhotre said job data was provided bymajor telecom service providers to the extentmaintained by them.
The minister said the government underNational Digital Communications Policy-2018 envisages creating 40 lakh additional jobsin the digital communications sector by 2022.
popping sums into markets andapplying emergency policyremedies as they try to salve theimpact of the coronavirus pan-demic on the global economy.
The pandemic which hasupended all normal life hasseen markets crash as worldgrowth faces its biggest crisissince 2008, and so far investorshave largely shrugged off thestimulus efforts as the outbreakengulfs the West.
However, stocks in Europeand the US stabilised onThursday following new initia-tive from the European CentralBank, which has faced criticismfor not acting more aggressive-ly so far, and another interven-tion by the Bank of England.
AFP surveys responses bymajor economies as the coron-avirus has spread from China toinfect the rest of the world,enforcing national lockdownsand crippling businesses.
After China, Europe isnow the epicentre of theCOVID-19 coronavirus out-
break and governments havescrambled to open the spendingtaps while also closing their bor-ders.
The ECB announced late onWednesday a surprise $820-billion scheme to buy govern-ment and corporate bonds,boosting funds in the system soas to help contain the econom-ic damage from the virus.
The eurozone bank is reviv-ing crisis-era measures toencourage bank lending to com-panies, but caused some disquietlast week by keeping its bor-rowing rates on hold.
Meanwhile the Bank ofEngland cut Thursday its maininterest rate to a record-low 0.1percent from 0.25 percent, onlyeight days after having choppedthe interest rate from 0.50 per-cent. It also plans to buy an addi-tional $235 billion in govern-ment and corporate debt.
European governmentshave stepped up with their ownplans, with Chancellor AngelaMerkel warning Wednesday thatGermany faces its biggest testsince World War II.
Berlin has unveiled 550 bil-lion euros in government-
backed loans "for starters", andsuspended legal obligations forfirms facing acute liquidity prob-lems to file for bankruptcy.
Britain its providing 330 bil-lion pounds of government-backed loans to businesses,while France will guarantee 300billion euros in loans to firmsand has announced a separateaid package worth 45 billioneuros to help businesses andemployees cope.
In hardest-hit Italy, the gov-ernment has promised to deliv-er a "very strong injection of liq-uidity" into the financial systemto generate 340 billion euros incash flows.
Spain plans to guarantee upto 100 billion euros in corporateloans.
Switzerland's central banksaid Thursday it would intervenemore strongly to stabilise itsfranc, while Norway is alsoconsidering intervention as thekrone plunges.
Russia is using its foreigncurrency reserves to prop up theruble and is also compensatingoil producers directly when oilprices fall below $25 per barrel,as they did on Wednesday.
Beijing: China on Thursdayreported no new domestic trans-missions of coronavirus for thefirst time since the deadly virussurfaced three months ago,achieving a milestone in its bat-tle against the pandemic that hasbrought the country to a grind-ing halt and caused an unprece-dented global health crisis.
While no domestic caseswere reported, Wuhan, wherethe outbreak began, still has6,636 people in hospitals includ-ing 1,809 in severe condition and465 in critical condition, localhealth commission said.
China now faces a greaterthreat of infections of importedcases, which jumped by 34 onWednesday with large numberof Chinese and foreigners arriv-ing back to join their duties.
While zero domestic casesis a major milestone, whichheralds the end of domesticallygenerated Covid-19 cases,China, however, continues tograpple with mounting death tollwhich climbed to 3,245 onWednesday with eight morefatalities.
The overall confirmedcases on the mainland reached80,928 by the end ofWednesday highlighting thescale of the cases China dealtwith, making coronavirus per-haps the worst health tragedyin the country’s history.
The total included 3,245
people who died of the disease7,263 patients still undergoingtreatment and 70,420 patientsdischarged after recovery.
By the end of Wednesday,192 confirmed cases includingfour deaths had been reportedin Hong Kong, 15 confirmedcases in the Macao and 100 inTaiwan including one death,China’s National HealthCommission (NHC) said.
Over 42,000 medical per-sonnel including hundreds of
doctors and nurses drawn fromdifferent parts of the countryand the military were deployedin Wuhan and Hubei to bringthe virus under control.
Over 3,000 medical staffwere reported to have contract-ed the virus with 10 deaths.
Over 56 million peoplebelonging to area continued tolanguish in lockdown situationwith a ban on all public andprivate transportation sinceJanuary 23. PTI
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Berlin: Germany has recorded10,999 cases of the novel coro-navirus, official data showedThursday, with the number ofnew reported infections risingby 2,801 in a single day.
Twenty people have diedfrom the viral infection, datafrom the disease control agencyRobert Koch Institute (RKI)showed. North Rhine-Westphalia remains the worst-hit state, with 3,033 COVID-19cases, up 661 from a day ago.
The data is compiled fromregional authorities of casestested for the virus. Butdepending on an individualstate’s policies, many other
possible cases may not havebeen tested because they showonly mild symptoms or havenot been in contact with aknown case.
With the contagion show-ing no signs of abating author-ities have ordered schoolsclosed, non-essential shopsshut and made repeated callsfor Germans to stay home.
With the pleas appearing tofall on the deaf ears of some,two small Bavarian villageshave imposed a lockdown.
Leaders in bigger citiesand regions have also warnedthat they may be forced to taketougher action. AFP
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Rome: The Chinese city wherethe coronavirus first took holdreported no new homegrowncases on Thursday, while thedeath toll in Italy was poised toovertake that of China in a dra-matic illustration of how the out-break has pivoted toward Europeand the United States.
The worldwide death tollcrept toward 10,000 as the totalnumber of infections topped220,000, including nearly 85,000people who had recovered.
French Prime MinisterEdouard Philippe pleaded forpeople to keep their distancefrom one another to avoidspreading the virus, even as the
crisis pushed them to seek com-fort. “When you love someone,you should avoid taking them inyour arms,” he said in parlia-ment. “It’s counterintuitive, andit’s painful; the psychologicalconsequences, the way we areliving, are very disturbing — butit’s what we must do.” Italy, acountry of 60 million, registered2,978 deaths Wednesday afteranother 475 people died. Giventhat Italy has been averagingmore than 350 deaths a day sinceMarch 15, it’s likely to overtakeChina’s 3,249 dead — in a coun-try of 1.4 billion — whenThursday’s figures are releasedat day’s end. AFP
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New York: Mayor of NewYork Bill de Blasio has cau-tioned that the number ofCOVID-19 cases in the citycould increase substantially toabout 10,000 very soon andcalled for “urgent interven-tion” by the federal govern-ment to help slow down thetrajectory of the coronaviruspandemic.
The United States has atleast 8,736 cases of coron-avirus and 149 deaths, accord-ing to state and local healthauthorities and the Centers forDisease Control andPrevention.
New York is by far theworst-hit state, with more
than 2,900 cases and 21deaths. The city added nearly1,000 cases of individualsinfected by the virus in a spanof just one day.
“So, a hundred plus newcases yesterday…that is whatI’m seeing as a kind of a gal-lop now. This morning, thelatest news, 923 cases, butwe’re going to top a thousandtoday undoubtedly. We’regoing to be at 10,000 not solong from now,” de Blasiotold NBC.
He said the exponentialincrease in the number ofcases will put a strain on thecity’s hospitals, particularlythe ICUs. PTI
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Tehran: Iranian authorities onThursday announced 149 newdeaths from the novel coron-avirus, raising the toll to 1,284in a country that is one of theworst hit by the pandemic.
While Thursday’s deathtoll surpassed that of the pre-vious day’s — 147 were report-ed on Wednesday — the num-ber of new cases has fallen,according to figures provided
by Deputy Health MinisterAlireza Raisi.
A total of 18,407 peoplehave contracted the disease inIran, with 1,046 new casesconfirmed in the last 24 hours.
“In 11 provinces” out of 31,“the number of infections hasdecreased because people havefollowed our guidelines”, Raisisaid, renewing the call forIranians to stay home. AFP
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Beijing: Police in China’s virusepicentre Wuhan on Thursdayapologised to the family of adoctor, who was reprimandedfor trying to issue the firstwarning about the deadlycoronavirus outbreak, after aChinese government investi-gation found that their actionagainst the whistleblower was
not appropriate.Li Wenliang, 34, con-
tracted the virus while work-ing at Wuhan CentralHospital.
Li, an ophthalmologist, hadsent out a warning to fellowmedics on December 30 butpolice told him to stop “mak-ing false comments”. PTI
Washington: US congress-woman Tulsi Gabbard droppedout of the Democratic presi-dential nomination race onThursday and immediatelyendorsed rival Joe Biden as flagbearer heading into theNovember election againstPresident Donald Trump.
“Today, I’m suspending mypresidential campaign andoffering my full support to vicepresident Joe Biden in his questto bring our country together,”the lawmaker from Hawaii saidin an online video message.
“Although I may not agreewith the vice president on everyissue, I know that he has a goodheart, and he is motivated by hislove for our country and theAmerican people.”
Her move leaves frontrun-ner Biden and leftist SenatorBernie Sanders as the finaltwo candidates in theDemocratic race.
Gabbard’s endorsementcomes as somewhat of a sur-prise, given that she was afierce supporter of Sanders in2016 and supports his Medicarefor All plan for a governmenthealth system to cover everyAmerican.
But Sanders is undermounting pressure to drop outafter performing poorly in sev-eral recent primaries includingthree states swept by Biden thisweek.
“After Tuesday’s election, it’sclear that Democratic primaryvoters have chosen vice presi-dent Joe Biden to be the personwho will take on PresidentTrump in the general election,”Gabbard said.
“I’m confident that he willlead our country, guided by thespirit of ‘aloha,’ respect andcompassion, and thus help healthe divisiveness that has beentearing our country apart.” AFP
Jerusalem: With the Israeligovernment enacting a seriesof emergency measures tostem the spread of the newcoronavirus, Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu is facinggrowing accusations that he isexploiting the crisis toentrench himself in powerand undermining the coun-try’s democratic foundations.
Amid a wave of sweepingrestrictions that have put Israelin near shutdown mode,Netanyahu has managed topostpone his own pendingcriminal trial, authorizeunprecedented electronic sur-
veillance of Israeli citizensand block parliament frompressing ahead with legislationaimed at pushing him fromoffice.
The moves, on the heels ofthe country’s third inconclu-sive election in less than a yearand under the shadow ofNetanyahu’s corruption indict-ment, sparked leading oppo-sition figure Yair Lapid to tellIsraeli citizens that they “nolonger live in a democracy.”
“There is no judicialbranch in Israel. There is nolegislative branch in Israel.There is only an unelected
government that is headed bya person who lost the election.
You can call that by a lotof names, it isn’t a democracy,”he said in a recorded video.
The new coronavirus hasspread to more than 100 coun-tries, infected more than217,000 people worldwide andkilled more than 8,700. Formost people, it causes onlymild or moderate symptoms,such as fever and cough. Forsome, especially older adultsand people with existinghealth problems, it can causemore severe illness, includingpneumonia. AP
Colombo: Sri Lanka onThursday indefinitely post-poned parliamentary electionsthat were scheduled for nextmonth in the wake of the coro-navirus pandemic.
The Chair of the ElectionCommission, MahindaDeshapriya, said the pollsscheduled for April 25 cannotbe held as planned due to theprevailing situation over thecoronavirus outbreak in thecountry
“The new date will beannounced after March 25 anddepends on how quickly thevirus can be tackled,”Deshapriya told reporters.
The Election Commissionaccepted nominations frompolitical parties and indepen-dent groups to contest theApril 25 election to appoint anew parliament of 225-mem-
bers.Over 16 million people
are eligible to vote.The election was called by
President Gotabaya Rajapaksaon March 2, six months aheadof the schedule.
Since Sri Lanka’s detectionof its first COVID-19 case twoweeks ago, the island nation hasbeen struggling to cope with thegrowing threat. There are over50 confirmed cases with over200 people being hospitalised.
The country has closed itsinternational airports and hasannounced partial lockdown tocurb the spread of the newcoronavirus.
The Government onWednesday imposed a curfewin the Western coastal areas -identified as one of the hotspotswhere the deadly coronaviruswas at risk of spreading. PTI
The shutdown of English footballwas extended until at least April
30 on Thursday after the PremierLeague and English Football League(EFL) held crisis meetings.
“We’ve collectively agreed thatthe professional game in Englandwill be further postponed until noearlier than Thursday 30 April,” saida joint statement by the EnglishFootball Association, PremierLeague, EFL, players and man-agers’ bodies.
UEFA’s decision to postponeEuro 2020 for 12 months earlier thisweek could allow games to be com-pleted over the summer if strictrestrictions on travelling and massgatherings to halt the spread ofCOVID-19 are lifted in time.
The leagues still hope to finishthe season once play can be restart-
ed rather than accepting the currentstandings as final or declaring thecampaign null and void.
“We’re united in our commit-ment to finding ways of resumingthe 2019-20 football season andensuring all domestic and Europeanclub league and cup matches areplayed as soon as it is safe and pos-sible to do so,” added the statement.
Even if play can commence inearly May, that could mean match-es stretching beyond the June 30goal UEFA agreed on for finishingthe season on Tuesday.
The end of June is when manyplayers’ contracts and loan dealsexpire. However, the English author-ities are putting no limit of when the2019/20 season must be finished by.
“The FA’s Rules and Regulationsstate that ‘the season shall terminatenot later than the 1 June’ and ‘eachcompetition shall, within the limit
laid down by The FA, determine thelength of its own playing season’.
“However, The FA’s Board hasagreed for this limit to be extend-
ed indefinitely for the 2019/20 sea-son in relation to ProfessionalFootball.”
One option could see the endof the 2019/20 and beginning of the2020/21 come together with no timefor an off-season break.
“Players may need to get theirsummer break in now before we fin-ish what was the 19/20 season androll it right into the 20/21 seasonwithout a break,” Brighton strikerGlenn Murray said.
“Everyone loves sport, everyoneloves watching football but I reallythink the right decision was madein bringing it to a halt.
“At this moment in time it’spretty irrelevant, people’s health isfirst and foremost. Once we get over
this crisis we can look at sport andgetting the Premier League andFootball Leagues back in action.”
The sudden shutdown, though,could have long-lasting conse-quences for many lower leagueclubs worrying if they will even beable to survive the next couple ofmonths with no income from gatereceipts.
A £50 million ($58 million)short-term relief package wasannounced by the EFL to helpstricken clubs on Wednesday.
However, there has sofar been no bailout fromthe Premier League toensure those furtherdown the pyramid sur-vive.
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Skepticism is sweeping throughthe world but the Indian
Olympic Association on Thursdaybacked the IOC’s assertion that theupcoming Tokyo Olympics willweather the COVID-19 pandem-ic and be held on time without aglitch.
The International OlympicCommittee (IOC) and the TokyoGames organisers are adamantthat the Games will start on July 24as scheduled despite the coron-avirus pandemic crippling healthcare systems and destroying
economies across the world.“The coronavirus is creating
havoc throughout the world but weare hopeful it will be contained inone or two months. It has alreadybeen controlled in China, the epi-center of the disease, and we areexpecting the Olympics to be heldwithout any hindrance on itsscheduled time,” a senior IOAoffice-bearer said.
“But having said that IOC isour parent body, we will have toabide by what the IOC decides. Ifthe IOC says the Olympics will goon we will have to participate irre-spective of any threat,” he said.
The IOC’s stance has angeredmany athletes, who have accusedit of putting them at risk. Someofficials have also expressed theirapprehension.
Responding to the criticism,the world body on Wednesdayconceded that there are no easysolutions for the current situation.
The pandemic has wreakedhavoc on Olympic preparations ofathletes, including those fromIndia. Several qualifiers have beensuspended and training tripsabroad are off the table thanks totravel restrictions.
The IOA admitted that coun-
try’s preparations have been hithard but should the Games hap-pen, it is nonetheless expecting anunprecedented double digit medalhaul from the athletes.
“Yes, it is true our preparationshave been hit with many Olympicqualifiers, Test events and prepara-tory camps abroad being post-poned or cancelled because of thecoronavirus,” the official said.
“But it is not just India, everycountry is facing the same situa-tion so, the impact is same forevery competing nation. So, ourexpectations still remain the same— 10 or more medals in Tokyo,” he
asserted. He said the IOA is close-ly monitoring the situation with allthe stakeholders in the country.
“We are monitoring all ourathletes’ preparations as well as
their well-being. We are also closely working
with the Government of India,Tokyo Games orgainsers as well asIOC in this tough time,” he said.
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All men’s and women’s professionaltennis tournaments through June 7 are
being called off because of the new coro-navirus pandemic.
The ATP and WTA announced thatthe entire clay-court circuit “will not beheld as scheduled” — a day after the startof the French Open, also played on thatsurface, was postponed from May toSeptember.
The tours had said last week theywould suspend play until late April or earlyMay.
The tournaments affected by the tours’suspensions include combined men’s andwomen’s events in Madrid and Rome.
Also being scrapped are upcomingWTA tournaments in Strasbourg, France,and Rabat, Morocco, along with ATPevents in Munich; Estoril, Portugal;Geneva; and Lyon, France.
Both tours also said that their rankingswill be frozen “until further notice.” TheInternational Tennis Federation also put ahalt to its lower-tier events until June 7.
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The sports ministry on Thursdayadvised all national federations to
refrain from conducting tourna-ments and selection trials till April 15besides asking them to ensure thatOlympic-bound athletes are isolatedfrom anyone who is not a part of theirtraining camp.
“All sport organisations and theiraffiliate units are advised againstholding any sports events, includingcompetitions or selection trials till15th April, 2020,” the ministry saidin a letter to the Indian OlympicAssociation and NSFs, including theBCCI.
It also asked federations to notallow any non-camper athlete, coachor support staff in Olympic trainingcamps without following properquarantine protocols for COVID-19.
The ministry’s two-point direc-tive states: “No exposure to athlete beallowed from outside in the campuswhere training is underway.
“No coach, technical/supportstaff athlete etc presently not intraining camp and not staying in thetraining campus be allowed to inter-act or mingle with trainee athleteswithout following quarantine proto-cols.”
Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju saidall precautionary measures are inplace to ensure that athletes are pro-tected by the deadly virus.
“We will ensure that no athlete,coach or support staff travel so as toavoid coming in contact with anyone.Any mass gathering is completelyprohibited,” he said.
“We have made exceptions onlyfor those who have qualified for theOlympics or are very close to quali-fying. They are very, very criticalbecause if they miss their training,then it will have a huge impact on ourpreparations for Tokyo Olympics,” headded.
“For that also, outsiders are pro-hibited and strict guidelines arebeing issued to ensure that.”
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Greece on Thursday handedover the Olympic flame to
Tokyo 2020 organisers at a cer-emony held behind closeddoors.
In the absence of spectators,Olympic gymnastics championLefteris Petrounias ran a lap
with the flame and Olympicpole vault champion KaterinaStefanidi lit a cauldron inside theall-marble Panathenaic stadium,where the first modernOlympics were held in 1896.
The flame was then hand-ed to Tokyo 2020 representativeNaoko Imoto, a swimmer whocompeted in the Atlanta 1996
Olympics. Imoto, a UNICEFrepresentative, was reportedly alast-minute appointment as shealready lives in Greece and didnot have to travel from Japan.
Greek President KaterinaSakellaropoulou in a state-ment said the ancient Olympicvalues of “concord, goodwill,brotherhood... are the weaponto use” against the virus.
Last week’s flame lightingceremony in ancient Olympiawas also carried out withoutspectators as Greece regis-tered its first death from thevirus.
“Regretfully the COVID-19 outbreak made us takehard decisions and change ourinitial plans. We deeply regretthat you... were not able totravel to Greece and join ushere today,” Greek OlympicCommittee chairman SpyrosKapralos said, addressingTokyo organisers absent fromThursday’s ceremony.
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Australian Olympic chiefs on Thursdayreaffirmed plans to send athletes to
Tokyo 2020, even as a former top officialwarned it looked impossible to hold theGames.
Australian Olympic Committee chiefMatt Carroll said his organisation was doingeverything possible to “fulfil the dreams ofAustralian athletes in incredibly difficult cir-cumstances”.
“The AOC does not live in a bubble,” hesaid, after a worldwide phone conference withIOC president Thomas Bach.
“There is a global health crisis. Werecognise that people are suffering. Things arechanging every day and we must adapt.”
“We gain confidence from the IOC’s over-riding principles regarding staging the Games.Namely, to protect the health of everyoneinvolved and support the containment of thevirus,” he added.
His comments came as Australia’s chef demission at the London 2012 Olympics, NickGreen, told the Sydney Morning Herald hedoubted the Games can proceed as planned.
“A couple of weeks ago, I was as confidentas everyone else, saying the Olympics wouldgo ahead, no problem,” said Green, anOlympic rowing champion.
“I’m pretty robust about it but I don’t havethe same robustness in my thinking now. Iactually can’t see how the Games can go ahead,to be frank.”
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Formula One will observe its mid-seasonshutdown in March and April instead of
late summer due to the ongoing coronavirusoutbreak, while the organisers of the 24Hours of Le Mans have announced a post-ponement of the iconic endurance race fromJune to September.
“In light of the global impact of theCOVID-19 currently affecting the organi-sation of FIA Formula One WorldChampionship events, the World MotorSport Council has approved a change to the2020 FIA Formula 1 Sporting Regulations,moving the summer shutdown period fromJuly and August to March and April andextending it from 14 to 21 days,” theFederation Internationale de l’Automobile(FIA) said in a statement.
The F1 season was supposed to beginlast Sunday in Melbourne with the AustralianGrand Prix, but the race was called off justbefore the start of free practice.
China, where the coronavirus outbreakoriginated, had already postponed theChinese Grand Prix. Upcoming races inBahrain and Vietnam have likewise been puton hold.
“All competitors must therefore observea shutdown period of 21 consecutive daysduring the months of March and/or April.The change was supported unanimously byboth the F1 Strategy Group and F1Commission,” the FIA said.
The rules require the teams to forgo allrace and car-related activity during the shut-down and are even barred from communi-cating with each other about anything per-taining to performance.
Advancing the shutdown creates thepossibility for holding some postponedraces in July and August.
Automobile Club de l’Ouest, whichorganises the 24 Hours of Le Mans, said onWednesday that it decided, based on con-sultation with the FIA and the WorldEndurance Championship (WEC), to post-pone the 88th edition of the race from June13-14 to September 19-20.
“Postponing the 24 Hours of Le Mansfrom the original dates in June is now themost appropriate way forward in the currentexceptional circumstances,” club presidentPierre Fillon said.
Putting off the Le Mans event willrequire adjustments to the WEC andEuropean Le Mans Series (ELMS) schedules.
“It is the right decision to delayin light of the current situation.
We are now working on revis-ing our WEC and ELMS calen-dars for the remainder of this
season, and for the WEC’sSeason 9, which
was due to startin September
2020. We willcome back
to you inthe com-ing dayswith more
news forboth the FIA WorldE n d u r a n c eChampionship andthe European LeMans Series,” WECand ELMS chiefGerard Neveu said.
The 24 Hoursof Le Mans, first
run in 1923, is tradi-tionally held during
the 24th week of theyear.
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The Athletics Federation of India onThursday cancelled the Indian
Grand Prix hours before it was to begin,paying heed to the government’s direc-tive.
The event was scheduled to be heldat NIS Patiala.
Next month’s Federation CupNational Senior Championships (April10-13), a qualifying event for the TokyoOlympics, has been postponed to a laterdate.
The development came after hoursafter the Sports Ministry advised allnational federations to refrain fromconducting competitions and selectiontrials till April 15.
Indian athletics’ High PerformanceDirector Volker Herrmann said that theAFI will have to abide by the govern-ment’s directive.
“The Indian GP at Patiala will notbe held on Friday. It is unfortunate forthe athletes who are trying to qualify forthe Olympics but the health of Indian
people is more important than sports.So, with regret we took the decision tocancel the first Indian GP on Friday.The second GP (also to be held inPatiala on March 25) has also beencancelled,” Herrmann said.
“All sporting events has beensuspended till April 15 and the AFIrespects the government’s decisionin the larger interest of the countryand the health and well being of itspeople,” the German added.
Asked about the status of theFederation Cup, scheduled forApril 10-13 in Patiala, he said,“There is no other way for the AFI thanrespect the government’s decision.Since the suspension of all sportingevents remains till April 15, theFederation Cup is postponed.
“We will try to hold the FederationCup in May or June, depending on thesituation (of the COVID-19 pandem-ic). We cannot say now when it will beheld but we have to still keep theoptions open as the Olympics is stillon.”
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Keen to avoid unnecessary travelwhile maintaining social contact,
Bayern Munich have set up ‘cyber-training’ sessions where players work outtogether online by following exercises streamed fromthe club’s headquarters.
“We all have to try to deal with the situation ina positive way,” Bayern coach Hansi Flick told the club’swebsite.
“Yesterday (Wednesday) at 11 am, we had our first‘Cyber Training’, where the team were coachedremotely. Everyone was motivated, everyone did verywell.” The state of Bavaria has not yet introducedmandatory confinement measures, but Bundesligaleaders Bayern have decided to keep their players athome in order to best respect the instructions fromhealth authorities.
Flick contends that keeping players in touch ona regular basis is just as essential as the training itself.
“It will be important that we are in contact withone another daily. The whole group is there for train-ing,” said Flick, who directs the sessions which play-ers can follow via their tablets.
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Sports Minister KirenRijiju on Thursday said
athletes arriving back fromhigh-risk COVID-19 affect-
ed countries will have to be inmandatory quarantine butrefused to be drawn intospeculation surrounding theIPL and the Tokyo Olympics.
Spelling out the protocolfor athletes arriving from the
most-affected countries China,South Korea, Iran, Italy, Spain,France and Germany, Rijiju saidthey will have to follow what hasbeen mandated for everyone else.
“Athletes who are coming backfrom countries which are veryprone to coronavirus will be quar-antined as per the government pro-visions. There will be no exceptions.Anybody who has come fromabroad is being put in isolation and
athletes also have to adhere to it,”Rijiju said while talking to reporters.
Currently, chess aceViswanathan Anand has self-isolat-ed in Germany after travel restric-tions delayed his return to India.Wrestler Vinesh Phogat and javelinthrower Neeraj Chopra are amongthe sportspersons to have cut shorttheir training stints in parts ofEurope to head back due to theCOVID-19 pandemic.
They have put themselves inisolation after returning.
He was also asked about Indianboxers, who have been seen at pub-lic events since returning from theAsian Olympic Qualifiers in Jordanafter training in Italy before that.
“They have been tested andgiven coronavirus negative certifi-cates by the International OlympicCommittee. They are not in anydanger but it is advisable that theystay in isolation,” he said.
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World athletics chief SebastianCoe admitted on Thursday
that the Tokyo Olympics could bemoved to later in the year by thecoronavirus outbreak, but said itwas too early to make a definitivedecision.
International OlympicCommittee chairman ThomasBach said earlier this week thatstarting on schedule on July 24remained the organisation’s goal.
But Coe, who is a member ofthe Tokyo Olympics GamesCoordination Commission, con-ceded in an interview with the BBCthat a delay was possible.
“That is possible, any-thing is possible at themoment,” said Coe whenasked whether the Gamescould be postponed toSeptember or October.
“But I think the posi-tion that sport has certain-ly taken, and it was cer-tainly the tempera-ture of the roomin the con-versationI had theo t h e rday withthe IOC
and our other federations, is thatnobody is saying we will be goingto the Games come what may.
“But it isn’t a decision that hasto be made at this moment.”
Coe, who played a pivotalrole in securing the Olympics forLondon in 2012, said postponingthe Games until 2021 could presentproblems.
“That seems on the surface ofit an easy proposition, but mem-ber federations actually avoidOlympic years often to have theirworld championships,” he said.
“On a global frontwe have other priori-ties and I think the
Olympics should at thevery least be saying weshould postpone orindeed just cancel atthis stage and we’ll talkabout postponementlater on,” he told theBBC.
Staying awake at work can bedifficult at times, especial-ly when working late ordoing tedious tasks. Feelingtired at work is common,
but it could harm productivity andperformance.
Many people drink another cupof coffee with lunch to help stayawake at work. This works well forsome people, but other thingsbesides coffee could help keep thebody energised throughout the day.
Caffeine is a very popular stim-ulant in coffee that helps the bodyto stay awake. The issue many peo-ple have with coffee is that it seemsto cause an energy crash after theeffects wear off.
Some people choose to replacecoffee with other drinks with lesscaffeine, such as black or green tea,in these cases. Tea may have a gen-tler stimulating effect, which mayhelp reduce the dips and peaks inenergy someone experiencesthroughout the day.
The need for stimulants like caf-feine may be due to a poor sleepschedule or erratic sleep pattern.Most adults need between 7 and 9hours of sleep each night. This canvary, but getting around the sameamount of sleep each night may helpthe body balance its energy levels.
It may also help to go to bed andwake up around the same time eachday. Having a regular schedule mayhelp the body get more rest, whichcould help the mind stay alert andactive throughout the day.
The circadian rhythms of the
body that help regulate the sleep andwakefulness cycles take their cuesfrom the levels of daylight. It mayhelp to spend some time outside inthe daylight each day when tryingto reset circadian rhythms to find abalance in the sleep cycle.
Some people find that the blueearly morning light is best, but if thisis not possible, simply spending a bitof time outdoors each day may bea helpful start.
An engaging conversation oftenleaves little room to feel tired, andpeople who regularly converse witha colleague or friend may be morealert than others.
Choosing conversations overemails whenever possible may alsobe more engaging and could helpimprove workplace monotony.
Playing music at work or inheadphones may also help the brainstay active. The type of music is per-sonal preference, though very calm-ing or relaxing music may simplymake a person more tired. In com-parisons, choosing something live-ly could be stimulating instead ofsleep-inducing.
Stretching the arms over thehead, rolling the neck side to side,or doing some torso twists may besimple ways to loosen up tightmuscles and keep blood flowing andthe body energised.
Drinking extra water during theday can help avoid dehydration,which could make it hard to focusand stay alert throughout the day.The types of food eaten throughoutthe day may also play a part in stay-
ing alert or feeling sluggish.Healthful snacks may use less
energy to digest or help keep bloodsugar more balanced than eatingjunk food or sugar-sweetened bev-erages.
It can be difficult to fully inflatethe lungs when sitting for long peri-ods of time. Taking time to practicedeep breathing each day mayincrease the amount of oxygen inthe body and help reduce fatigue.
Even taking a few slow, deepbreaths into the abdomen may beenough for a person to feel tem-porarily rejuvenated and alert. Aquick nap during lunch or before alate work shift may also help resetthe brain and keep the body ener-gised throughout the work shift.
For people working in themorning to afternoon, this could beas simple as taking a quick 10 to 20minute nap in the car. People work-ing an evening or night shift maywant to take a nap before they headto work.
Keeping the workspace bright-ly-lit may also help keep the mindawake and alert. Adding a brighterlight bulb to the desk or openingextra windows to let light in may dothe trick. During night shifts, it maybe helpful to turn on extra lights.
Splashing very cold water onthe face and hands may help wakethe body and brain up, as the bodymust then work to replace the lostheat.
Removing a jacket or otherouter clothing that is keeping some-one warm or turning the air-con-ditioning on a little stronger mayalso cool down the body and keepthe mind more alert.
Sharp or pungent smells mayhelp wake up the senses and makea person feel more alert. he scent ofbrewing coffee may also be enoughto make a person feel alert. Even ifno one is planning on drinking it,brewing some extra coffee just tohave the scent in the air may helppeople feel alert.
While the mentioned solutionsare good in a pinch, the ideal solu-tion may be for a person to makesome long-term changes in theirlifestyle to avoid symptoms offatigue and sluggishness.
Lifestyle changes might includehaving a more healthful diet, exer-cising more, getting more qualitysleep, or any other suggestions thatbecome long-term changes.
The stimulating effects of tea,coffee, and chocolate may be greatduring the day, but they couldmake it harder to get to sleep or stayasleep. So, it is best to avoid havingstimulating or energising foodsand drinks later in the day to allowthe body to wind down naturally.
A small nap during the day mayhelp reset the body and keep it fromfeeling sleepy. If naps are helpful, tryscheduling a nap each day to keepthe body in a consistent pattern andhelp regulate sleep habits.
As mentioned, blue light helpsthe body adjust its circadianrhythms to stay awake. This isgood during the day, but getting toomuch blue light at night may workagainst the body and mind. It maykeep the body and mind awake andalert during a time when a personis trying to rest and recuperate.
Reducing exposure to blue lightat night involves cutting how muchtime is spent in front of a comput-er, television, or smartphone screen.It may also be helpful to avoidbright lamps in the home or havea spare lamp with softer light in thebedroom.
It was in 1973 when Jack Nilles, aNASA engineer, coined the term“telecommuting”, which implies using
electronics to work remotely. Who knewit would become a necessity or a medi-um of precaution today? In a time ofCoronavirus or COVID-19, home hasbecome the new workplace. Employees,managers and other office staff in metrocities — especially Delhi-NCR — arebeing asked to work from home to avoidmovement and in turn, the spread of thedeadly disease. However, making such aprotocol work properly could be challeng-ing. Here are a few mantras by differentCEOs to do so efficiently.
Roma Priya, founder of Burgeon Law,believes that getting organised, beingmindful of creating boundaries betweenwork and personal life are the key toworking from home efficiently. She says,“One needs to identify when to work andwhere to work without getting pulled intodomestic chores or personal matters. Startyour day early and stick to your regularworking schedules every day. Laying outclear guidelines for employees will helpemployees meet deadlines and check themaximum items of his/her task list.Another important factor is to plan thebreaks accordingly and not take leewayor stretch these breaks. One can alsoutilise the time spent on ordinary dayscommuting to and fro from work infavour of family time or self-care.”
This is the best option for organisa-tions to ensure that only a few employ-ees have travelled or are in contact withthose who have recent travel histories,says Neha Bagaria, founder and CEO,Jobsforher. She adds, “Gather a cross-functional team together that includesbusiness-line leaders, IT, HR, communi-cations and facilities to plan for differentscenarios and optimise execution toensure that there is minimal impact onthe business when everyone connectsremotely. Ensure that employees have therequired equipment at home.”
The absence of face-to-face commu-nication could be frustrating and man-aging coordinations from different cor-ners are taxing. It’s better to use sharingtools such as G-Suite (drive, sheets,docs, slides) to collaborate live on docu-ments.
Narayan Mahadevan, founder ofBridgeLabz, says, “The general notionabout working from home is looked uponas less-productive as compared to regu-lar workplace environment. However, ifyou give a defined start to the day andplan all the tasks as per a time-sheet,achieving targets will become easier.Taking short breaks while staying con-
nected to your colleagues always helps inremote working culture. It’s important toset reasonable daily goals and not tomulti-task to get the maximum output.Also, to map the progress, one should cre-ate and update a to-do list regularly.”
Well, the key driver of change in theway we work is technology, without whichit wouldn’t have allowed us to completetasks and attend meetings from anywherein the world, points out Sandip Chhettri,chief operating officer, TradeIndia. Hesays, “We have developed proper report-ing and tracking software to make sureour employees remain focussed on theirwork. We have also developed a SalesForce Automation App to monitor theactivity of our SalesForce, which helpsthem to work remotely. Working fromhome not only benefits employees byeliminating their daily commutes but alsoincreases productivity and leads to health-ier lifestyles. It’s a win-win situation andemployees have more flexibility.”
Shalini Sharma, CEO and founder ofMUMYU, who has led two different ven-tures while working from home and tak-
ing care of kids from past eight years, says,“We are backed by a team of 450 WFHwomen employees and four mainlineones. A WFH setup can be exceptional-ly successful, only if well executed. Thekey is communication, which includestransparency among the team, properflow of information, aggressive approachto connectivity and a regular follow-up.The actual work hours at home can actu-ally turn out to be better than office set-up because of the home environment andsupport system. We should remember tonot let the habit-breaking barrier takeover. It takes almost 40 days to get intothe habit of working from home but itonly takes five to seven days to start fallingin routine of it. If you can bear this tran-sition time, you will get through the restof it.”
Aarti Gill, co-founder of Oziva, says,“Work from home is usually not a verypopular choice and implementing itcould be challenging for many. However,while we are at it, given the need of thehour, implementing and following acouple of work etiquette remotely can
help in efficient working. Most importantand effective way to focus on work andbe productive at home is treat it like youreveryday routine and freshen up anddress and sit for work. You can alsodeclutter and organise your space andturn it into a workstation. Be in touchwith your colleagues online.”
Bharath Sastry, CEO of Vistaprintwho worked from home for 1.5 years atthe beginning of her career when she setup her own startup. She learnt along theway. She says, “It is is essential to be pre-pared with adequate equipment. Haveproper infrastructure for yourself andteam, namely laptops, wifi, video/ audio,a suitable chair and table at home.”
Moreover, creating an office-like setup is important. She says, “Work duringthe day exactly as you would do other-wise at office. Start off at the same time,go through your meetings and actionsand end the day as you would do at theoffice.” And last but not the least is theelement of trust when working remote-ly. “Believe that your team is also work-ing), and trust me they will be,” she adds.
Amid the rapid spread of the newcoronavirus across Europe, the hall-
mark Marseille tradition of soap-mak-ing is enjoying a renaissance, as theFrench rediscover an essential localproduct.
Serge Bruna’s grandfather entered thethen-booming business in the southernport city more than a century ago. Hisfather followed suit, although the fami-ly enterprise was requisitioned duringWorld War II, when soap was consideredan essential commodity.
Today, Bruna sells soap from thesame shopfront on Marseille’s Old Port— wearing a sanitary mask and skintightgloves. “Even though we work in a fac-tory full of virus-repellent soap, it is goodto take precautions,” he said.
Bruna’s Savonnerie de la Licorne,which runs four soap shops on the OldPort, a museum and a small factory inthe heart of Marseille, has seen its shopsales increase 30 percent and deliveryorders quadruple since Italy declared astate of emergency over the coron-avirus.
Julie Dinot wears a mask as sheattends to customers at the Savonneriede la Licorne shop on Marseille’s Old Portin Marseille, Southern France. “We hadfewer tourists or none at all in our stores,”he said. “On the other hand, (Marseillesresidents) were much more frequent vis-itors and some even came to stockpile.”
The COVID-19 illness causes mildor moderate symptoms in most of thoseinfected but severe symptoms are morelikely in the elderly or people with exist-
ing health problems. The vast majorityof those infected recover.
As the public rushed to buy suppliesto last during a looming quarantine,Bruna and his artisans continued mak-ing soap by hand, filling the port-viewshops as well as boxes destined for export.
With an abundance of local oils, sodaand salt, Marseille boasts a lengthy tra-dition of producing the natural soapsonce prized throughout Europe. But onlya handful of businesses are still active.
Since French shops were orderedclosed this week as a public health pre-caution, the Savonnerie de la Licornenow only carries out deliveries, supply-ing pharmacies across France and han-dling individual orders made online.
“I’m not sure that making our soapsis more important than before, but Iwould say that people who have lost thehabit of using Marseille soap have all ofa sudden rediscovered its properties,” hesaid.
The Indian automotive industry hada torrid time in 2019. With new
safety regulations driving up prices fol-lowed by the need to meet the strictBharat Stage 6 emission norms, theindustry found sales collapsing. Whilecertain models surprised with strongsales, the Kia Seltos, Hyundai Venue andthe Maruti-Suzuki Ertiga stood out, sev-eral hitherto popular cars saw salesdecline. As diesel and petrol pricesmoved towards parity levels and withBS6 impacting small diesel engines, theproduct mix of manufacturers was alsodefying planners expectations. Therewere some positives though, Hyundai-Kia group’s promotion of small, pow-erful turbo-petrol engines on theircars, consumers not just adopting auto-matics but also recognising the differ-ence between types of technology aswell as the move to safer cars.
However, the industry had hopedthat as 2019 turned to 2020, the third
decade of the millennium would bekinder to them. They lined up a wholeslew of exciting new cars, from the sec-ond-generation Hyundai Creta andthe fifth-generation Honda City toseveral new cars and brands showcasedat the Auto Expo that took place in earlyFebruary. But by then, word was alreadyspreading of a new viral infectiondoing the rounds in China, the Wuhanfever or what we know as SARS-CoV-2 today. It almost led to the cancellationof the Auto Expo but with some safetymeasures in place including masksand enough hand sanitiser, the eventcarried on. It would not have been pos-sible to have held such an event today.
Even six-seven weeks ago, specula-tion began to rise on whether theChinese would be able to contain their‘disease’; many of us who are frequenttravellers doubted that. Gradually, itbecame a pandemic. Germany, theUnited States and the United Kingdomare all suffering from severe outbreaksbut a few nations have suffered morelike Italy and Iran. And where illnessand death are concerned, the lack ofsales is actually an irrelevance but theIndian auto industry really didn’t needthis to happen in 2020, especially afterthe way it suffered in 2019.
Understandably, a few major mediadrives that were scheduled for this weekitself, that of the Honda City and theHyundai Creta did not happen. This, ofcourse, has had a knock-on impact on
the aviation sector and hotels. The auto-motive sector spends a lot on promo-tion and marketing. Thanks to the scareof the virus spreading and the talk ofsocial distancing, very few people arevisiting showrooms right now. WhileHyundai India’s SS Kim told me at thelaunch of the new Creta that the com-pany is bolstering online sales, the factis that buyers would want to go checkthe newer cars at least at a showroom.On the Creta, for example, how will youexperience the central arm-rest mount-ed touch controls for the Air Purifier,which is pretty cool. It is possibly worsefor Honda, which unlike Hyundai didnot even take part at the Auto Expo andthus, could not even showcase the newCity.
While most of us are sure thatthings will tide over with regards to thevirus sooner rather than later, I wouldwarn folks not to treat March 31 as asort of end-date. The auto industry willnot get a reprieve for a while yet. Onereason is the globalised nature of thisindustry and with the contagion con-tinuing in Europe and the UnitedStates, the Geneva Motor Show will notbe the only major show to get cancelledthis year. Forget media drives, themovement of executives, men andmateriel will come to a shuddering halt.And even if sales pick up, after a tepid2019 and weak overall economic sen-timent, 2020 already seems like a yearbest forgotten.
Last summer, I travelled toIreland to learn about Irish
whisky, a spirit I knew relative-ly little about. The Irish drinkI knew better was Guinness,which I enjoyed occasionallyand use to make my favouriteChocolate Chocolate Cake.Turns out, I am not alone in myunfamiliarity with Irish whisky.Today’s Irish whisky industry isrelatively young. It all but diedout after Ireland gained inde-pendence from Britain in 1922.In 1980, there were only twodistilleries, Bushmills andMidleton, makers of Jamesonand other well-known brands.Today there are 31. Irish whisky,like other whiskeys today, isbooming.
Distilleries now are makingbalanced and nuancedwhiskeys that are best sippedslowly like a good scotch, bour-bon or rye. Before I got toIreland, I wondered if Irish cof-fee there is like GermanChocolate Cake in Germany —an American creation. Butalmost everywhere we went, wewere served an Irish coffee. Andthey were delicious. Way betterthan anything I had experi-enced in the States.
These Irish coffees wereserved in glass Irish coffeemugs, some plain, some fancyand one even cut crystal. Thetransparent glass and the mug’stelltale shape signaled that itwas time for a pick-me-up.
Some versions of Irish cof-fee in Ireland were simple andplain, strong with whisky.Others had been accessorisedwith a sprinkle of cocoa or cin-namon and sweetened withvanilla-bean syrup, chocolate orcaramel like a fancy coffeedrink. They were all good, butfor me, one stood out.
After lunch oneday, we went to theStag’s Head pubin Dublin. It sitsat the end of apedestrian streetand has been abeloved part ofthe Dublin land-scape for 250years this year. It isa warm, convivialspace, the perfectplace to experiencea neat Irish whiskywith ½-pint ofGuinness on the side— my favourite orderduring my trip.
After consumingmy first round, Iordered an Irish
coffee “in the name of research.”I was not disappointed. The cof-fee was flavourful but light, notbitter at all. It complementedand softened the sharp Irishwhisky; when you sipped itthrough the rich pillows offresh, thickened cream, thebite of the whisky was tamed,and it was heavenly.
The Irish Coffee was soexceptional that I asked themanager of the pub for thesecret. He was hesitant at firstto tell me, and then said Iwouldn’t believe it. I anticipat-ed that he was going to say itwas Ireland’s exceptional cream.But that wasn’t it.
The secret to a great IrishCoffee, it turns out, is instantcoffee. That’s right, the instantcoffee you can get at the grocerystore. He told me you can’t usecoffee that is too strong, tooflavourful or, in his words, too“good.” Those coffees will upsetthe balance of the drink.
So, you need instant coffee,Irish whisky and the best creamyou can find, thickened but notwhipped. Layer the coffee,whisky and cream in that orderin a tall mug. In Ireland, theyuse a heatproof glass mug soyou can see all the layers. I suc-cumbed and purchased an IrishCoffee mug so I could recreatethe experience at home, but youcan serve it in any heatproofmug.
When I came home, I start-ed making the Dublin pub’sIrish Coffee with instant espres-so powder because that’s whatI had on hand. A spoonful ofthe powder mixed with 5ounces of boiling water madethe base. I added 1 ounce ofIrish whisky and a big dollop of
thickened, heavy cream. It’simportant that thewater is boiling,
because the cream iscold and will cooloff the coffee asyou drink it.
This IrishC o f f e e
couldn’tbe easi-er, feelslike at r e a t ,and is
b o t hr e l a x i n g
and invigorat-ing, a welcome
change from hot tea andhot chocolate when you
come in from thecold.
I)$
Indians have expanded their culi-nary boundaries in all direc-tions. Taste and preferences
changed along the way and theaudacity of experiments rose.With growing urbanisation andmillennials staying away fromtheir families, dining at restau-rants and cafes that remindedIndian foodies of a meal rus-tled up at home became thepreferred choice. Decline indaily cooking at home due tochanging social dynamics andattitude towards cooking hasalso brought about this trans-formation and thus poweredthis longing for ‘ghar kakhaana.’ However, these are justsome trends that have created anew normal.
Reaching out to over 150 experts— chefs, thought leaders and foodinfluencers across major cities — areport by Godrej provides on-ground insights on food trends fromthe four directions — north (Delhi),south (Chennai and Bengaluru),east (Kolkata) and west (Mumbai).Data has been collected from vari-ous celebrity chefs, home chefs,professional chefs, food bloggers,health professionals, media profes-sionals, mixologists, nutritionists,restaurateurs, sommeliers, food pro-ducers, and many more, who shareddeep insights about their respectiveareas of expertise.
��$Think of the north India and
invariably Delhi crosses the mindfirst. The place is synonymous withbutter chicken. This was the been thecase, at least until a decade ago. Butthe past few years have seen a hugeshift in the dining habits of northIndians. Regional cuisines haveflourished. Punjabi, Sindhi, Khatri,Bihari, Muslim, Kayastha, Baniya,Bengali, North Eastern and evenSouth Indian flavours are beingexplored in the metros and savouredin smaller towns.
While there is an entire new fooduniverse that has mushroomedwhich includes concept kitchens,casual diners, clubs, pubs, breweries— you name it and they have it.However, as a region, the north con-tinues to patronise dining out atrestaurants and street food outletsbut the home chef-driven pop-upconcept never took off here.
Even though Delhi remains the
e p i -centreand trend-setter when itcomes to the foodindustry, but, the past fewyears have also seen smaller cities inthe north discovering their ownculinary identities. Lucknow is happyto pay a premium for Baghare baigannow, while Chandigarh continues tocelebrate Sarson ka saag. Dehradunand Nainital have woken up to thebeauty of Jakhiya aloo and Bhang kichutney and Bihar’s Litti-Choka issetting tongues on fire. Delhi mean-while is happy to indulge everyone— whatever their preference maybe.
Global warming and pollutionhave been issues in focus, and thishas led to a big shift in focus on sus-tainability, demand for organic foodand back-to-roots dining. Urbanfarmers are bringing long overduefocus on clean crops and millets;organic grains, and local ingredientsare being celebrated, albeit at aniche level.
���$South India comprises the culi-
nary diversity of Kerala, Tamil Nadu,Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.Here is a region steeped in rich culi-nary traditions that continues toinfluence the dining culture, along-side celebrating new age trends.
All across the South, there hasbeen an inward focus and nativemicro-cuisines are being celebrated;
f r o mthe Temple
cuisine ofTamil Nadu, to the
Gowda cuisine of Karnataka, fromthe Mapilla food of Kerala, to culi-nary traditions of Rayalseema inTelangana and more. Large scalemovements like Karnataka spear-heading the revival of traditionalmillets recently or even Kerala’sjackfruit that has become synony-mous with the global vegan trend,characterise the region’s food.
Dining, both in and out, havebeen dynamic here. Bengaluru, cel-ebrates pan-Indian and global trendsin equal measures, while adding itown innovative spins. You will findDonne Biryani on brewpub menusjust as easily as you would findNikkei-styled ceviches in Asianrestaurants. Chennai, a bastion oftraditional food cultures, is increas-ingly known for great Asian andJapanese cuisine options. Micro-brewing has taken the south, partic-ularly Bengaluru by storm, withHyderabad picking up pace. Acrossthe Southern states provenance offood is being given importance,alongside a demand for both tradi-tional and modern experiences forthe diner to explore.
These experiences range frompop-ups by celebrity internationalchefs or home chefs championing alesser known micro-cuisine. It
includes thematic tableswith story-telling; pairingswith a range of beverages
and even take-home chefs,pre-prepped food kits andmore. Going back to rootswith traditional home cook-ing, right down to the use ofcookware particular to a dish
or region is also common today.
� �As Eastern and North Eastern
cuisines — be it Assamese, Bihari orOriya — gain prominence nation-wide, within the region, nativecuisines are being revisited by homecooks and chefs alike, who are dig-ging deeper into region’s culinary andcultural repertoire, breaking existingmoulds, challenging stereotypes andpresenting a fresh, more nuancedperspective on these cuisines.
Local ingredients and indigenousproduce are coming into the limelightnot just in the home-dining space butalso in the restaurant kitchen. Forinstance, in Bengal the mountinginterest in reviving and espousing theregion’s mind-boggling indigenousrice diversity, has encouraged Kolkatarestaurants to put a Tulaipanji or aDudheswar on the menu, instead ofthe ubiquitous Basmati.
At the same time diners have alsogrown more inquisitive about thewhat, how, wherefrom and why of thefood they eat. There’s also a growingproclivity for experiential diningwith a focus on story-telling. Thestory behind the food — a slice of his-tory, an anecdote or even a few wordson the source of ingredients — is asimportant as the dish itself. Thegrowing mindfulness around foodhas also encouraged the spirit ofrevivalism. Overall it seems that thekey to move forward is to look backand dig deep.
+��How far we’ve come! We’ve
moved on from Italian, Chinese
and coastal cuisine — to Neapolitan,Cantonese, and seasonal sustainableseafood. And this not only in thebusiest urban centres of westernIndia, but also in Bhavnagar and inRaigarh, in Udaipur and inMangalore.
Mumbai, as the commercial andculinary capital of the region, hasbeen long known for its urbane din-ing scene. It’s a city that knows howto eat well, on and off the streets, athome and outside, in front of thetelevision, at solo tables, at sit-downmulti-course dinners, and at deca-dent half-day-long brunches. Inrecent years, we enjoy celebrity chefpop ups, we love being fed by talent-ed regional home cooks, we enjoyfancy catering events that offer usflavours from across the globe. Andwe ask for and have all of this, with-out taking ourselves too seriously.
But delightful dining can befound beyond the Millenium cityand all over the region. Ahmedabadhas restaurants and traditional foodfestivals that are destinations untothemselves; Goa’s restaurant scenehas never been more thrilling;Nashik is where we make some ofour best wines; Jaipur recently hada chocolate festival.
And so it follows, that, in the lastdecade, we’re asking for more fromour food industry, and we’re gettingit. As purveyors and diners, we haveaccess, talent, curiosity and interest.We have knowledge and pride in ourregionality and in the quality of ouringredients, as well where they (andwe) come from. Mumbai has LatinAmerican and Ethiopian restaurantsnow, yes, but indeed, we also haveSindhi eateries and food festivalsserving Assamese silkworm pupaeright alongside our burgeoning craftbeer and gin scene.
In the last decade, we’ve gottenbetter at understanding food, andwe’re continuing to get better atunderstanding ourselves throughwhat we eat.
The COVID-19 pandemic notwithstand-ing, the Indian women’s hockey team is
going ahead with its plans to resume“intense training” from next week, withstriker Navneet Kaur eying an outing at anOlympics which look doubtful at themoment.
The team is grouped in Pool A for the2020 Tokyo Olympic Games where they willplay against top ranked teams such as theNetherlands, Germany, Great Britain,Ireland apart from South Africa.
“We will play our first match against theNetherlands at the Olympics and quitefrankly, we are really excited to play againstthem because we have not faced them in thepast,” an optimistic Kaur said.
“We don’t fear playing against theseteams and are focused on preparing well. Weare currently undergoing a week-long recov-ery which involves light gym session,stretching and swimming pool recovery.
“Resting well is also emphasised beforewe resume intense training from nextweek,” she added.
She attributed the Indian team’s upswingin recent times to a “change in attitude”.
“Apart from winning important match-es, I think there are a lot of other factors thathave contributed to this change and one ofthem being chief coach Sjoerd’s style of play.
“He likes aggression, he has instilled thatbelief in us that we are a team that can play
with good speed in our attack,” she said.“The chief coach always tells us it’s not
over until the last whistle. Even during thehalf-time of the Olympic Qualifiers, he saidwe will begin the third quarter as though thescores are 0-0. We have been instilled withthat fighting spirit,” she explained.
Fitness had been one of the key factorsin the team’s recent performance and Kaursays the team has great awareness about fit-ness, recovery and diet.
“I also believe our improvement in fit-ness has been another big factor. Every girl(including new comers) is aware of theimportance of fitness, recovery and diet,”added Kaur who scored 10 goals last year.
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India’s chief badminton coach PullelaGopichand believes the Tokyo
Olympics should be postponed giventhe unprecedented crisis that theworld is facing due to the COVID-19pandemic.
“I have my doubts about theOlympics. It is not like it is far away.The preparation has to start now. So,the IOC has to take a call now foreveryone to relax,” Gopichand said.
“I think, in the present scenario,with the health scares and all the trav-el restrictions and all, it is a tough timeand at the moment the whole worldis thinking about health and safety forits citizens, so I think given the situ-ation it is better if the Olympics arepostponed,” he added.
The Badminton World Federationwas severely criticised for conductingthe All England Championship earli-er this month, despite the rapidspread of the deadly disease.
International players, includingSaina Nehwal, slammed BWF sayingplayers’ safety was compromised forfinancial gains and Gopichand alsodidn’t mince any words.
“Definitely, I think it was a wrongdecision on BWF’s part to put theplayers at risk by hosting the AllEngland,” said Gopichand, who is cur-rently in self-isolation after returningfrom Birmingham.
There have been calls to extendthe Olympic qualification period,which ends on April 28, following thepostponement of a number ofOlympic qualifiers.
Gopichand, however, feels thereare no easy answers and BWF is in atough spot.
“I think BWF is in a tough spot,any decision will be criticised. Whenyou extend Olympic (qualification)period, you are talking about a lot ofthings like accreditations, visas, sup-port teams, local associations.
“So it is not easy and there areconstraints. Unfortunately it is anunprecedented situation, so we haveto follow whatever decision theytake.”
The SAI-Gopichand academy inHyderabad has been shut down tillMarch 31 to contain the virus follow-ing the directive of the Telangana stategovernment.
Asked if it will affect the prepa-rations of the Olympic-bound players,Gopichand said, “The players who hadcome from All England via variousplaces like Dubai, they have to bequarantined. They don’t have anytournaments in April, so till the timeit is a two week break from trainingit is fine. If it extends further then wewill have see.
“The players also need some rest,so it is better to stay home and workon fitness.”
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Cheteshwar Pujara findsthe constant fuss overhis strike rate a tad
unfair and wants to clarifyonce and for all that he has gotfull backing of the team man-agement which understandsthe “importance” of his styleof play.
In the age of slam-bangcricket, Pujara brings delightto the purists of the game bybatting on and on withoutworrying too much aboutthe strike-rate. But to appre-ciate someone who epitomis-es patience in Test cricket ismay be asking for too muchfrom the “millennials”.
Last week, the soft-spo-ken 32-year-old from Rajkotfound himself at the receivingend again on social media ashe laboured his way to 66 off237 balls in the Ranji Trophyfinal against Bengal.
To his credit, he overcamefever and throat infection toshare a game-changing stand
with Arpit Vasavada, helpingSaurashtra to their maidentitle on the basis of firstinnings lead.
Whether it is playing forSaurashtra or India, Pujara isused to constant chatteraround his strike-rate.
“I don’t think there is toomuch talk (on the inside). Inmedia, it is described differ-ently but the team manage-ment has been backing me onthis completely. There is nopressure from the captain,coach or anyone else,” Pujara,who is currently gettingmuch-needed family timedue to the COVID-19 out-break said.
“I just want to clarifythat when it comes to strikerate people start pointingtowards team management’stake on it but there is no pres-sure on me at all. The teammanagement understands mystyle of play and its impor-tance.”
For someone who aver-ages 48.66 in 77 Tests, percep-
tion counts for little.“The question that was
asked on social media (dur-ing Ranji final) was ‘why amI taking so long to score Xnumber of runs’? Whether Ipay attention to that, no, Idon’t. My job is to make surethat the team wins at alltimes.
“People have this ten-dency to pinpoint one personbut it is just not about me. Ifyou look at any Test serieswhere I have scored runsand taken little bit of time, theopposition batsmen, most ofthem, have consumed samenumber of balls.
“I know I can’t be a DavidWarner or Virender Sehwagbut if a normal batsman takestime there is nothing wrongin that.”
The entire batting unithad a tough time in NewZealand with the 0-2 loss inTests marking the end of theinternational season. Pujaracollected five half centuries
this season, including one inNew Zealand, but could notadd to his 18 hundreds.
“People expect big knocksfrom me. I always challengemyself to score a 100 but toaverage close to 50 in Testsmeans you are scoring a half-century almost every secondinnings.
“My standards are alwayshigh and I am not satisfied withthe season that I had but Iwould not call it bad one at all.”
With uncertainty over theupcoming county season in theUK due to the COVID-19 out-break, Pujara has no gametime lined up in the near future.The biggest internationalassignment for him this seasonis the tour of Australia and hecan’t be more fired up for that.
Rather than focusing onthe loss in New Zealand, Pujaralooked at the Australian chal-lenge, especially after India’s his-toric triumph Down Under lastyear. “It is one of the mostimportant series for us.”
On playing a full-strength
Australia this time, he said:“They (Smith and Warner) areimportant players but if weplayed the way we played in thelast series, we should be able tobeat them.
“Fast bowlers have to befresh and ready for that seriesand I am sure their workloadwill be managed. Best partabout the tour is that we recent-ly played in Australia (2018-19).I feel that is the biggest advan-tage for us.”
Pujara acknowledges thatno team, including India, isdoing consistently well overseasand picked the reducing pool ofquality Test cricketers as thereason for this trend.
“The importance of limit-ed overs cricket has increasedsignificantly. You are not gettingtoo many quality Test players.Earlier, there was a lot of impor-tance given to a Test series.Players used to take ample restbefore that. Now we see somany injuries during the sea-son.
“If you look India,
Australia, England, the pool ofplayers will be not more than20-25 whereas if you talk about10 years ago, India used to have30-50 players who were readyfor Test cricket. I am not say-ing there are no players avail-able. But if they are ready forTest cricket or not, that is the
question.”Over the past 24 months,
India have lost Test series inEngland, South Africa andNew Zealand. Pujara said thebatsmen’s shot selection couldhave been better in NewZealand where they were com-pletely outplayed.
,��� < �# �
England fast bowler James Andersonfears the global coronavirus pandem-
ic could see the domestic and internation-al cricket season abandoned completely.
The England and Wales Cricket Boardare due to meet with the 18 first-class coun-ties, possibly by teleconference, in a bid tosee whether the existing structure for the2020 summer can be maintained.
The County Championship is meantto start on April 12 but a delay looksincreasingly likely given other sports havecalled a halt following British governmentadvice to avoid mass gatherings.
“Cricket and sport is not the be all andend all but it is my livelihood, it’s all I know,”Anderson told the BBC’s Tailenders pod-cast.
“The season is unlikely to start. It’s stilla little bit hazy as to what’s going to hap-pen. There’s a chance we might not evenbowl a ball this summer.”
Anderson made the last of his 151 Testappearances against South Africa in CapeTown in January before a broken rib sawhim miss the last two matches of the series.
The 37-year-old was not selected forthe Sri Lanka series in the hope he wouldbe fully fit for the start of the home sea-son. The Lancashire paceman, England’sall-time leading Test wicket-taker, added:“I feel a little bit anxious. Just the not know-ing is giving me a bit of anxiety.”
England postponed their tour of SriLanka last week. They are next meant toplay the West Indies in a three-Test homeseries, starting on June 4.
But if that is not possible, Cricket WestIndies have offered to stage the series in theCaribbean.
CWI chief executive Johnny Grave saidon Wednesday he had held talks with ECBcounterpart Tom Harrison.
���� ��<� �:���
Australia’s ODI skipper AaronFinch has said that his coun-
try’s cricketers risk getting a mas-sive financial jolt if the IPL andtheir home season are halted bythe COVID-19 pandemic butthey have to accept the situationas “we’re all in this together”.
Cricket Australia has alreadysaid that it may review the NOCsgiven to the players for IPL andnow the government has imposedunprecedented travel restrictions,which are likely to jeopardise theAustralian players’ participationin the postponed T20 league. Theevent which was to start onMarch 29, has now been set forApril 15.
“That’s the risk you takewhen you have the revenue-sharemodel, when the organisationtakes a hit then so do we. Weunderstand we’re all in this
together,” Finch told radio stationSEN.
“I’m sure in the long run,everything will be back to normalat some stage. It’s just hard to saywhen.”
Prime Minister ScottMorrison has announced a blan-ket “do not travel overseas” advi-sory that will remain in placeindefinitely, to help contain thecoronavirus pandemic.
At least 17 cricketers havelucrative IPL contracts and anumber of off-field positions arealso at stake. Australia are alsoscheduled to host India for a Testseries and the men’s T20 WorldCup later this year.
Finch, who was scheduled tojoin India skipper Virat Kohli atthe Royal Challengers Bangalore,acknowledged the travel adviso-ry and expressed helplessness inthis extraordinary situation.
“We’ve never seen anything
like this. That (travel advice) haschanged over the last couple ofhours. That could change in twoweeks or three weeks, it’s hard toplan anything,” he said.
Pacer Pat Cummins hadbecome the highest-paid cricketerduring the IPL auction whileSteve Smith, David Warner andGlenn Maxwell also grabbed
lucrative deals.Ricky Ponting is head coach
of the Delhi Capitals, while cur-rent men’s team assistant coachAndrew McDonald has the reinsfor the Rajasthan Royals.
Former Test batsman SimonKatich is coach of the Kohli-ledRCB and is assisted by TasmanianTigers chief Adam Griffith.
���� +4:4�9"�
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB)on Thursday claimed that all the
128 COVID-19 tests it conducted onthe players, support staff, match offi-cials, broadcasters and team ownersinvolved in the PSL have come nega-tive.
The PCB had conducted the testson March 17. Additionally, MultanSultans underwent 17 COVID-19 testson Monday and results of that werealso negative.
“It was absolutely critical for theintegrity and credibility of the HBLPakistan Super League and thePakistan Cricket Board that all play-ers, support personnel, broadcastersand match officials, those who haddecided to stay back till the end of thetournament, tested negative forCOVID-19,” PCB Chief ExecutiveWasim Khan said.
“In this background, the PCB ispleased with the outcome of the resultsand happy that all these players andofficials have rejoined their familieswithout any health and safety doubtsor concerns.”
������@�������&����&� �� ����������2#�2��Big-hitting Australianbatsman Matthew Wade onThursday abandoned plans toplay with English county sideSomerset after being advised torest an injured knee.
The 32-year-old had beenscheduled to pad-up for the firsthalf of the English summer, butsaid Cricket Australia had toldto him to recuperate.
“It’s a big blow,” said wick-et-keeper batsman Wade, who isa regular in the Australian Testteam.
“I was looking forward tothe challenge of playing countycricket... But after discussionswith the Cricket Australia med-ical team, regrettably, it becameclear that I wouldn’t be in a posi-tion to join Somerset.” AFP
"������*����)�����(��������������������������*S��������)�$�5�����������# ����������$� �� �� The International HockeyFederation on Thursday extended its sus-pension of all Pro League matches, includ-ing fixtures involving India, to May 17 owingto the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Based on the latest developments of theCOVID-19 outbreak and in particular of theresponse to it by the relevant public author-ities globally, FIH, with the support of allparticipating National Associations, hastoday decided to extend the postponementperiod of the FIH Hockey Pro League to 17May,” the sport’s world body said.
“Consequently, all matches currentlyscheduled until 17 May are on hold. FIH willkeep on monitoring the situation closely, fol-lowing the recommendations of the WorldHealth Organization and the decisions of thepublic authorities.”
The Indian men’s team was scheduledto play against Germany in Berlin on April25 and 26 before taking on Great Britain inLondon on May 2 and 3.
India are then scheduled to host NewZealand on May 23 and 24 before travellingto Tucuman, Argentina for matches on June5-6. India’s last tie in FIH Pro League isagainst Spain in Valencia on June 13 and 14.
New Zealand and Australia had alreadydecided not to travel to Europe. PTI
,��� 9 �;�+ �;
The Olympics goingahead in Tokyo this year
is “highly unlikely”, the bossof Asian golf said, and pro-ceeding as planned couldcost players the chance toqualify.
Asian TourCommissioner and CEOCho Minn Thant confirmedthat all tournaments acrossthe continent had been sus-pended until at least theend of May, in line with theUS PGA and EuropeanTours.
“I think everyone rightnow is more in a state ofshock, just trying to figureout what they do with them-selves,” said Cho, speakingfrom Asian Tour headquar-ters in Singapore.
With the prospect ofscarcely any competitive golfbefore the Olympic rankingsqualifying cut-off on June22, Cho said it would beharsh on players fromunheralded golf nations.
“Our plan initially wasto have about 16 or 17 tour-naments before the Olympic
cut-off,” Cho said. “Today,we probably have only aboutfour or five Asian Tour play-ers eligible for theOlympics.”
On current rankings,only Thailand’s JazzJanewattananond and GunnCharoenkul, the Indian pairof Rashid Khan and UdayanMane plus Miguel Tabuenaof the Philippines wouldrepresent the Asian Tour inthe 60-strong Tokyo field.
“Given the amount ofgolf that was left to beplayed, we were hopeful thatmore players from nationslike Bangladesh, Malaysia,
Indonesia and thePhilippines would have theopportunity to get into theOlympics over the next twoor three months,” said Cho.
“Obviously, that’s notgoing to happen.
“I can understand whythey would want to push for-ward with the Olympics —there’d be huge revenue ram-ifications on the economy ofJapan — but it seems high-ly unlikely now in my opin-ion.”Cho said that he hadn’tyet heard of any players suf-fering financial hardship butacknowledged that a longlayoff could have an impact.
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With the sporting activities either suspend-ed or postponed due to the COVID-19
pandemic, athletes including badminton dou-bles specialist Ashwini Ponappa are utilisingthe “free” time to work on their fitness andgame.
“The Covid 19 has definitely thrown
everything off track. The first focus would beto stay healthy and be safe during this period.As we’ve travelled so much, I am not going outand mostly sticking to staying at home,”Ponappa, a Red Bull athlete, was quoted as say-ing in a statement issued here on Thursday.
Ponappa, a two-time Olympian, is work-ing on her finger power and would be doingracket drills in this period.
“In this day and age doing fitness at hometo stay fit is possible. So definitely going to bedoing exercises using loop bands and thera-bands and racket drills at home to stay fit andwork on some finger power until we can getback on court,” she added.
Likewise, India’s hockey skipper ManpreetSingh is also focusing on his training in theOlympic year.
“We’re all very much aware of the currentsituation, but the important thing for us is toconcentrate on what's to be done right. We'veall been briefed by doctors and our supportstaff in the best way possible, and currentlywe’re in the middle of our training camp, wherewe are undergoing training as usual,” said the27-year-old Jalandhar-born player.
“Being an important phase in our prepa-rations for the Olympics, we are not lookingat the things which are not in our control, theonly thing that is in our control is to train well,and make sure we're following all the instruc-tions,” he added.
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The Turkish FootballFederation plans to suspend
the Super Lig for one month afterreceiving criticism for insistinggames go ahead despite thecoronavirus pandemic, localmedia reported Thursday.
TFF chief Nihat Ozdemirwould inform Sports MinisterMehmet Muharrem Kasapogluof the TFF executive board'sdecision later on Thursday,Turkish sports daily Fanatiksaid.
The final decision is expect-ed to be announced after theirmeeting, the newspaper said.
Super Lig games have beengoing ahead behind closed doorsbut the TFF U-turn comes afterformer Nigeria internationalJohn Obi Mikel quit Turkishfootball club Trabzonsporbecause he did not want to playin the midst of the pandemic.
Other players and coaches,including legendary managerand ex-player Fatih Terim, havecalled on the TFF to suspend thechampionship, like most othercountries.
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