VIJAYAWADA, WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 11, 2020; PAGES 12 `3 www.dailypioneer.com RNI No. TELENG/2018/76469 Established 1864 Published From HYDERABAD DELHI LUCKNOW BHOPAL RAIPUR CHANDIGARH BHUBANESWAR RANCHI DEHRADUN VIJAYAWADA *Late City Vol. 3 Issue 6 *Air Surcharge Extra if Applicable @TheDailyPioneer facebook.com/dailypioneer Follow us on: MONEY 8 STATES LIKELY TO CUT CAPITAL OUTLAY ON INFRA DUE TO PANDEMIC: ICRA ANALYSIS 7 BIDEN’S BHARAT POLICY SPORTS 11 MIGHTY MI WIN 5TH TITLE } RASHMIKA SINGS PRAISES ABOUT MIDDLE CLASS MELODIES Page 12 { Congress requires overhaul, not repair PNS n HYDERABAD Given the outcome of the Dubbak bypolls, the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC), which once again failed to make an impact, requires an overhaul. Mere rit- ualistic reshuffle is not enough. This is the gut feeling of TPCC-watchers, consider- ing that top party leaders, in spite of camping in Dubbak, could not influence the poll outcome. In stark contrast, the Bharatiya Janata Party, despite having a small force at the ground level, could stop the TRS in its tracks, say some insiders in the Congress. The Congress seems to be drifting with no clear goal. The party has nothing to claim, except the fact that it hap- pened to be instrumental in the grant of statehood to Telangana. It is not able to have any demonstrable impact in politics. Whatever be the elec- tion, the party has been tast- ing defeat after defeat. The TPCC had shifted gears following the appointment of Manickam Tagore as the TPCC in-charge. However, the outcome of the Dubbak by-elections is sure to put chest-thumping Congress leaders and cadre in self- defensive mode. PNS n WASHINGTON President Donald Trump will push ahead on Tuesday with longshot legal challenges to his loss to Democratic President-elect Joe Biden in last week’s election, as Republican officials at the state and fed- eral level lined up behind him. Pennsylvania Republican state lawmakers plan to call for an audit of the results in the state that gave Biden enough electoral votes to win, the day after U.S. Attorney General William Barr told federal prosecutors to look into “substantial” allegations of irregularities. Trump for months before the election made repeated claims without providing evidence that results would be marred by fraud and has kept up those unfounded allegations over the past week. Trump challenges Joe Biden victory PNS n NEW DELHI The All India Majlis-e- Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen, which was given tags like 'vote cut- ter' and spoiler in the Bihar Assembly polls, appeared set to win five Muslim-dominat- ed seats on Tuesday and said its critics have got a befitting reply from the people. With the election results on a knife's edge, AIMIM could play a key role in the forma- tion of the next government in case there is a hung Asse- mbly, having captured a size- able number of seats in the Seemanchal region, which was seen as a stronghold of the grand opposition alliance. Our critics got a strong reply, AIMIM chief Left and Right: Red flag flies high CPI(ML) wins 5 seats in Bihar PNS n NEW DELHI With a win in five seats and leads in 11 others, the CPI(ML) is all set for an impressive performance in the Bihar Assembly elections whose results will be declared late on Tuesday. Inarguably the biggest gain- er in the Grand Alliance, the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist), often wor- king in the margins of main- stream politics, had 19 candi- dates in the fray, most of them students and youth leaders. According to the trends at 8.30 pm on Tuesday, the Left parties -- CPI(ML) has won five of the 19 seats they fought on and is leading in seven seats; CPI(M) which compet- ed on four seats has won one and is leading in one seat; and the CPI which contested in six seats has won one seat and is leading in two others. In the 2015 Assembly elec- tion, the CPI(ML) had bagged three seats. It had won seven seats in the 2005 polls. The party secured six seats in the 2000 election and in 2010, it failed to get any seat. MI beats DC to win IPL VIJAYAWADA WEATHER Current Weather Conditions Updated November 10, 2020 5:00 PM ALMANAC TODAY Month & Paksham: Ashwin & Krishna Paksha Panchangam Tithi : Ekadashi: 12:40 am (Next Day) Nakshatram: Purva Phalguni: 06:28 am, Uttara Phalguni: 04:25 am (Next Day) Time to Avoid: (Bad time to start any important work) Rahukalam: 12:00 pm – 01:24 pm Yamagandam: 07:47 am – 09:11 am Varjyam: 01:03 pm – 02:31 pm Gulika: 10:35 am - 12:00 pm Good Time: (to start any important work) Amritakalam: 09:50 pm – 11:18 pm Abhijit Muhurtham: NIL Forecast: Sunny Temp: 30/23 Humidity: 74% Sunrise: 06.19 am Sunset: 05.41 pm Are Vizag-Vizianagaram the new twin cities? SUMIT ONKA n VISAKHAPATNAM Going by the rapid expansion of Vizag city towards its north it appears that not in the dis- tant future, Vizag and Vizianagaram will become twin cities, just like Hyderabad and Secunderabad in Telangana. This seems all the more possible after the YSRCP gov- ernment made known its plans on the Executive Capital, Bhogapuram airport, flyovers and a ring road. Vizag and Vizianagaram are around 60 km from each other and are located along the National Highway. Well-placed sources say most of the govern- ment establishments could mushroom towards Vizianagaram because of the proposed Executive Capital. Tagarapuvalasa, the border limit for the two cities, is like halfway-mark along the NH. And, institutions, vehicle show- rooms and residential plots have already sprung up owing to the spontaneous develop- ment of the business capital of Andhra, Vizag. Further, the Executive Capital boost is credited with pushing up property prices in Vizag city. The skyrocketing property prices could force people to buy apartments around its periphery or in Vizianagaram. The proposed Executive Capital would create direct and indirect employment with- in no time, according to Vizianagaram Chambers of Commerce representatives. The working population may stay in the neighbouring dis- trict and juggle between the two cities. n Metro rail, flyovers, six-lane bypass drastically improve urban mobility, may bring 2 cities closer together Govt to spend Rs 600 crore for boundary marker stones SNV SUDHIR n VIJAYAWADA The State Government will be spending around a whopping Rs 600 crore only to provide boundary stone markers to the landholdings that are going to be resurveyed across Andhra Pradesh as part of its land- resurvey project. The State Cabinet that had met recently has given admin- istrative approval for the expenditure that will be incurred for the resurvey pro- ject, which the State Government says is taken up for the first time in the state in 100 years. Such a mammoth and a comprehensive land survey was done by the British in 1930 in the state. After that, no gov- ernment had taken up resur- vey. Andhra Pradesh will also be the first state in the country to take up such a grandiose com- prehensive exercise using hybrid technology including drones, rovers, Continuous Operating Reference Stations (CORS) Network at one go. The government had esti- mated that the total expendi- ture for the lands resurvey will be Rs 987.4 crore and out of it lion’s share of the spending Rs 600 crore will be on procuring these border marker stones. The Government needs at least six crore such stones across the state, each such stone costing around Rs 100, including transportation. The Government plans to procure these stones in two sizes, one with 60 cm in height and the other 90 cm tall. The other expenditure would be Rs 81 crore for engaging drones survey, Rs 100 crore for Field equipment of CORS network and GNS Rovers. Rs 21.21 crore will be spent on training the survey staff, Rs 2.59 crore on logistics, Rs 182.4 crore was estimated to be recurring cost. Centre releases Rs 6,195 cr to 14 states PNS n NEW DELHI The Centre has released Rs 6,195 crore to 14 states as mo- nthly instalment of post devo- lution revenue deficit grant. The 14 states are Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Punjab, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Uttarakhand and West Bengal. Punish guilty in Salam family suicide case: PK PNS n VIJAYAWADA Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan on Tuesday demanded the fa- cts behind the suicide of Abdul Salam and his family be made public and stern action taken against those responsible for the most painful incident. In a statement here, Pawan Kalyan said while the actions of the government appear to be dramatic, they are bereft of commitment. “It is most unfortunate that auto driver from Nandyal Abdul Salam committed sui- cide along with his entire fam- ily. We all need to understand how much pressure and men- tal stress they had experi- enced from the fact that he took the extreme step along with his wife and children. The suicide took place after Abdul Salam and his wife were bro- ught to the police station as part of an inquiry into a case. Is the inquiry taken up in such a manner? Who created the situation that led to an entire family committing suicide? Facts have to come out,” he stated. l 70 base stations are required for the survey and a few are already being established l Necessary steps were being taken to solve the pending land disputes through mobile courts in villages 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 BJP blooms in Dubbak L VENKAT RAM REDDY n HYDERABAD The Bharatiya Janata Party scripted history in Telangana on Tuesday by winning the Dubbak Assembly bypoll, with the ruling TRS losing its bas- tion by a whisker. In the triangular con- test, which saw TRS, BJP and the Congress play for high stakes, the BJP pulled off a victory by a wafer- thin margin of 1,079 votes over the ruling TRS in the counting held till the last 25th round. Interestingly, BJP was leading by 1,431 votes till the end of 23rd round. However, counting had to be stopped after the remaining four EVMs, in which 1,669 votes had been polled, faced glitch- es. Later, officials count- ed VVAT slips in two of the EVMs in 24th and 25th rounds, after which BJP's majority was 1,079. Thereafter, officials stopped counting of votes in the remaining two EVMs since there were only 897 votes polled in them and the BJP candi- date had by then secured a majority of 1,079 votes. They declared BJP candi- date M Raghunandan Rao as the winner. While the initial rounds clearly went in favor of the saffron party, the TRS nar- rowed the gap by gaining momentum in the later rounds -- from 13th to 17th. Till the final results were announced, anxiety gripped both TRS and BJP camps as the voting could have tilted either way. In the final tally, Solipeta Sujatha polled 61,553 votes, while Raghunandan won the seat by securing 62,984 votes. Congress secured only 22,054 votes. The BJP had pinned high hopes on Raghun- andan Rao although he had lost the 2018 Assembly and 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The Congress had field- ed Cheruku Srinivas Reddy (son of late former minister Cheruku Muthyam Reddy), who polled 22,054 votes. Raghunandan's victory clearly showed that the sympathy factor did not work in favour of Sujatha. TRS appeared to be confident of retaining the seat by fielding Solipeta Sujatha, wife of Ram- alinga Reddy, whose death in August neces- sitated the bypoll. The BJP's cam- paign was led by Minister of State for Home Kishan Reddy, while TRS deployed its mas- ter strategist and Finance Minister T Harish Rao to retain the seat in a fiercely fought bat- tle. NDA RETAINS BIHAR, CONG SPOILS TEJASHWI’S PARTY PNS n PATNA The NDA looked all set to retain Bihar after a spirited fight put up by the Mahagatbandhan that was bogged down by the Congress, even as counting of votes contin- ued well into Tuesday night. As of 11:00 pm on Tuesday, the ruling NDA maintaining a slen- der edge over the RJD-led Grand alliance, winning or leading in 122 seats, the exact number need- ed to retain power, while the RJD, the opposition alliance's spear- head, in 114 seats. Leading the Mahagatbandhan fight, Tejashwi Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal looked to have bagged 77, the most number of seats while the Congress ahead in 19 seats. The lacklustre show by the Congress in Bihar seems to have proven costly for the Maha- gatbandhan, as it dragged down the RJD too from the government formation in the state. While the Congress lost ground in Bihar, it also suffered significant electoral losses in Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat, losing a majority of bypolls in key states that saw the BJP surging ahead. In Bihar, the Congress's tally dropped from 27 in 2015 to nearly 20 as per the latest trends available that saw the RJD-led grand alliance narrowly lag behind the BJP-led NDA. Though the Congress improved its vote share from 6.66 per cent in 2015 to 9.46 per cent in this election, its strike rate this time was less than 30 per cent as against 66 percent last time. The grand old party had contest- ed in 70 seats this time with its ally RJD contesting in the majority seats. In 2015, the Congress had contested in 41 seats. The JD(U) has won four seats and is lead- ing in 37 places, in a major slide for the party that had won 71 seats when it fought the 2015 asse- mbly polls in alliance with the RJD. The VIP has won two seats and its can- didates are leading in two more, while the HAM has won the Imamganj seat and is leading in two con- stituencies. The NDA has won or is leading in 122 seats, just seven more than the Grand Alliance. If the current trend continues, the NDA could end up with the 122 seats required for a simple majority, but there could be many a slip between the cup and the lip with the opposition alliance rapidly closing the gap. Not only has the RJD edged past the BJP in terms of numbers but also garnered more votes. While the BJP polled 19.39 per cent votes, the RJD clinched 23.43 per cent. Hyderabad-based AIMIM is emerging as a surprise package, winning four seats and leading in one other. It had won a seat in a by-elec- tion in Bihar earlier, but appears to be making significant inroads in the Seemanchal region which has a large presence of Muslim voters. Target: 122 NDA 124 -1 ALLIANCE RESULTS CHANGE MGB 111 +1 LJP 1 -1 243 / 243 BIHAR ASSEMBLY ELECTIONS AWAITED 0 OTH 7 +1 BJP candidate Raghunandan Rao spring a surprise by by bagging 1,079 more votes TRS loses its bastion by a whisker A peerless Rohit Sharma led defending champions Mumbai Indians to their fifth IPL title with a one-sided demolition of Delhi Capitals here on Tuesday, closing an immensely successful tournament that had to be played in a controlled environment amid the raging Covid- 19 pandemic. MI chased down a target of 157 in just 18.4 overs. Report on Page 12
Transcript
VIJAYAWADA, WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 11, 2020; PAGES 12 `3
www.dailypioneer.com
RNI No. TELENG/2018/76469
Established 1864Published From
HYDERABAD DELHI LUCKNOWBHOPAL RAIPUR CHANDIGARH
BHUBANESWAR RANCHIDEHRADUN VIJAYAWADA
*Late City Vol. 3 Issue 6*Air Surcharge Extra if Applicable
@TheDailyPioneer facebook.com/dailypioneerFollow us on:
MONEY 8STATES LIKELY TO CUT CAPITAL OUTLAY
ON INFRA DUE TO PANDEMIC: ICRA
ANALYSIS 7BIDEN’S BHARAT
POLICY
SPORTS 11MIGHTY MI WIN
5TH TITLE
}RASHMIKA SINGS PRAISES ABOUT MIDDLE
CLASS MELODIES
Page 12{
Congress requiresoverhaul, not repairPNS n HYDERABAD
Given the outcome of theDubbak bypolls, the TelanganaPradesh Congress Committee(TPCC), which once againfailed to make an impact,requires an overhaul. Mere rit-ualistic reshuffle is notenough. This is the gut feelingof TPCC-watchers, consider-ing that top party leaders, inspite of camping in Dubbak,could not influence the polloutcome. In stark contrast, theBharatiya Janata Party, despitehaving a small force at theground level, could stop theTRS in its tracks, say someinsiders in the Congress.
The Congress seems to be
drifting with no clear goal. Theparty has nothing to claim,except the fact that it hap-pened to be instrumental inthe grant of statehood toTelangana. It is not able to haveany demonstrable impact inpolitics. Whatever be the elec-tion, the party has been tast-ing defeat after defeat.
The TPCC had shifted gearsfollowing the appointment ofManickam Tagore as theTPCC in-charge. However,the outcome of the Dubbakby-elections is sure to putchest-thumping Congressleaders and cadre in self-defensive mode.
PNS n WASHINGTON
President Donald Trump willpush ahead on Tuesdaywith longshot legalchallenges to his lossto DemocraticPresident-elect JoeBiden in last week’selection, as Republicanofficials at the state and fed-eral level lined up behindhim. Pennsylvania Republicanstate lawmakers plan to call foran audit of the results in the
state that gave Biden enoughelectoral votes to win, the dayafter U.S. Attorney General
William Barr told federalprosecutors to look into“substantial” allegationsof irregularities.
Trump for monthsbefore the election made
repeated claims withoutproviding evidence that resultswould be marred by fraud andhas kept up those unfoundedallegations over the past week.
Trump challengesJoe Biden victory
PNS n NEW DELHI
The All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen, whichwas given tags like 'vote cut-ter' and spoiler in the BiharAssembly polls, appeared setto win five Muslim-dominat-ed seats on Tuesday and saidits critics have got a befittingreply from the people.
With the election results ona knife's edge, AIMIM couldplay a key role in the forma-tion of the next governmentin case there is a hung Asse-mbly, having captured a size-able number of seats in theSeemanchal region, whichwas seen as a stronghold ofthe grand opposition alliance.
Our critics gota strong reply,AIMIM chief
Left and Right:Red flag flies high CPI(ML) wins 5 seats in BiharPNS n NEW DELHI
With a win in five seats andleads in 11 others, theCPI(ML) is all set for animpressive performance in theBihar Assembly electionswhose results will be declaredlate on Tuesday.
Inarguably the biggest gain-er in the Grand Alliance, theCommunist Party of India(Marxist-Leninist), often wor-king in the margins of main-stream politics, had 19 candi-dates in the fray, most of themstudents and youth leaders.
According to the trends at
8.30 pm on Tuesday, the Leftparties -- CPI(ML) has wonfive of the 19 seats they foughton and is leading in sevenseats; CPI(M) which compet-ed on four seats has won oneand is leading in one seat; andthe CPI which contested in sixseats has won one seat and isleading in two others.
In the 2015 Assembly elec-tion, the CPI(ML) had baggedthree seats. It had won sevenseats in the 2005 polls. Theparty secured six seats in the2000 election and in 2010, itfailed to get any seat.
MI beats DC to win IPL
VIJAYAWADAWEATHER
Current Weather ConditionsUpdated November 10, 2020 5:00 PM
Are Vizag-Vizianagaram the new twin cities?SUMIT ONKA n VISAKHAPATNAM
Going by the rapid expansionof Vizag city towards its northit appears that not in the dis-tant future, Vizag andVizianagaram will become twincities, just like Hyderabad andSecunderabad in Telangana.
This seems all the morepossible after the YSRCP gov-ernment made known its planson the Executive Capital,Bhogapuram airport, flyoversand a ring road.
Vizag and Vizianagaram arearound 60 km from each otherand are located along the
National Highway. Well-placedsources say most of the govern-ment establishments could
mushroom towardsVizianagaram because of theproposed Executive Capital.
Tagarapuvalasa, the borderlimit for the two cities, is likehalfway-mark along the NH.And, institutions, vehicle show-rooms and residential plotshave already sprung up owingto the spontaneous develop-ment of the business capital ofAndhra, Vizag.
Further, the ExecutiveCapital boost is credited withpushing up property prices inVizag city. The skyrocketing
property prices could forcepeople to buy apartmentsaround its periphery or inVizianagaram.
The proposed ExecutiveCapital would create directand indirect employment with-in no time, according toVizianagaram Chambers ofCommerce representatives.The working population maystay in the neighbouring dis-trict and juggle between thetwo cities.
n Metro rail, flyovers, six-lane bypass drastically improve urban mobility, may bring 2 cities closer together
The State Government will bespending around a whoppingRs 600 crore only to provideboundary stone markers to thelandholdings that are going tobe resurveyed across AndhraPradesh as part of its land-resurvey project.
The State Cabinet that hadmet recently has given admin-istrative approval for theexpenditure that will beincurred for the resurvey pro-ject, which the StateGovernment says is taken upfor the first time in the state in100 years.
Such a mammoth and acomprehensive land surveywas done by the British in 1930in the state. After that, no gov-ernment had taken up resur-vey.
Andhra Pradesh will also bethe first state in the country totake up such a grandiose com-prehensive exercise usinghybrid technology includingdrones, rovers, ContinuousOperating Reference Stations(CORS) Network at one go.
The government had esti-mated that the total expendi-ture for the lands resurvey willbe Rs 987.4 crore and out of itlion’s share of the spending Rs600 crore will be on procuringthese border marker stones.
The Government needs atleast six crore such stones
across the state, each suchstone costing around Rs 100,including transportation. TheGovernment plans to procurethese stones in two sizes, onewith 60 cm in height and theother 90 cm tall.
The other expenditurewould be Rs 81 crore forengaging drones survey, Rs 100crore for Field equipment ofCORS network and GNSRovers. Rs 21.21 crore will bespent on training the surveystaff, Rs 2.59 crore on logistics,Rs 182.4 crore was estimated tobe recurring cost.
Centre releases Rs 6,195 cr to 14 statesPNS n NEW DELHI
The Centre has released Rs6,195 crore to 14 states as mo-nthly instalment of post devo-lution revenue deficit grant.
The 14 states are Andhra
Pradesh, Assam, HimachalPradesh, Kerala, Manipur,Meghalaya, Mizoram,Nagaland, Punjab, Sikkim,Tamil Nadu, Tripura,Uttarakhand and West Bengal.
Punish guilty in Salamfamily suicide case: PKPNS n VIJAYAWADA
Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyanon Tuesday demanded the fa-cts behind the suicide of AbdulSalam and his family be madepublic and stern action takenagainst those responsible forthe most painful incident.
In a statement here, PawanKalyan said while the actionsof the government appear tobe dramatic, they are bereft ofcommitment.
“It is most unfortunate thatauto driver from NandyalAbdul Salam committed sui-
cide along with his entire fam-ily. We all need to understandhow much pressure and men-tal stress they had experi-enced from the fact that hetook the extreme step alongwith his wife and children. Thesuicide took place after AbdulSalam and his wife were bro-ught to the police station aspart of an inquiry into a case.Is the inquiry taken up in sucha manner? Who created thesituation that led to an entirefamily committing suicide?Facts have to come out,” hestated.
l 70 base stations arerequired for the survey and afew are already beingestablished
l Necessary steps were beingtaken to solve the pendingland disputes through mobilecourts in villages
2
2
2 2 2
22
BJP blooms in Dubbak
L VENKAT RAM REDDYn HYDERABAD
The Bharatiya Janata Partyscripted history inTelangana on Tuesday bywinning the DubbakAssembly bypoll, with theruling TRS losing its bas-tion by a whisker.
In the triangular con-test, which saw TRS, BJPand the Congress play forhigh stakes, the BJP pulledoff a victory by a wafer-thin margin of 1,079 votesover the ruling TRS in thecounting held till the last25th round.
Interestingly, BJP wasleading by 1,431 votes tillthe end of 23rd round.However, counting had tobe stopped after theremaining four EVMs, inwhich 1,669 votes hadbeen polled, faced glitch-es. Later, officials count-ed VVAT slips in two ofthe EVMs in 24th and25th rounds, after whichBJP's majority was 1,079.Thereafter, officialsstopped counting of votesin the remaining twoEVMs since there wereonly 897 votes polled inthem and the BJP candi-
date had by then secureda majority of 1,079 votes.They declared BJP candi-date M Raghunandan Raoas the winner.
While the initial roundsclearly went in favor of thesaffron party, the TRS nar-rowed the gap by gainingmomentum in the laterrounds -- from 13th to17th. Till the final resultswere announced, anxietygripped both TRS and BJPcamps as the voting couldhave tilted either way.
In the final tally,Solipeta Sujatha polled61,553 votes, whileRaghunandan won theseat by securing 62,984votes. Congress securedonly 22,054 votes.
The BJP had pinnedhigh hopes on Raghun-andan Rao although hehad lost the 2018Assembly and 2019 LokSabha elections.
The Congress had field-ed Cheruku SrinivasReddy (son of late formerminister CherukuMuthyam Reddy), whopolled 22,054 votes.
Raghunandan's victoryclearly showed that thesympathy factor did not
work in favour of Sujatha.TRS appeared to be
confident of retaining theseat by fielding SolipetaSujatha, wife of Ram-alinga Reddy, whosedeath in August neces-sitated the bypoll.
The BJP's cam-paign was led byMinister of Statefor Home KishanReddy, while TRSdeployed its mas-ter strategist andFinance MinisterT Harish Rao to
retain theseat in afiercelyfoughtb a t -tle.
NDA RETAINS BIHAR, CONGSPOILS TEJASHWI’S PARTYPNS n PATNA
The NDA looked all set to retainBihar after a spirited fight put upby the Mahagatbandhan that wasbogged down by the Congress,even as counting of votes contin-ued well into Tuesday night.
As of 11:00 pm on Tuesday, theruling NDA maintaining a slen-der edge over the RJD-led Grandalliance, winning or leading in122 seats, the exact number need-ed to retain power, while the RJD,the opposition alliance's spear-head, in 114 seats.
Leading the Mahagatbandhanfight, Tejashwi Yadav’s RashtriyaJanata Dal looked to have bagged77, the most number of seatswhile the Congress ahead in 19seats.
The lacklustre show by theCongress in Bihar seems to haveproven costly for the Maha-gatbandhan, as it dragged downthe RJD too from the governmentformation in the state.
While the Congress lostground in Bihar, it also sufferedsignificant electoral losses inMadhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradeshand Gujarat, losing a majority ofbypolls in key states that saw theBJP surging ahead.
In Bihar, the Congress's tallydropped from 27 in 2015 tonearly 20 as per the latest trendsavailable that saw the RJD-ledgrand alliance narrowly lagbehind the BJP-led NDA.
Though the Congress
improved its vote share from 6.66per cent in 2015 to 9.46 per centin this election, its strike rate thistime was less than 30 per cent asagainst 66 percentlast time.
The grand oldparty had contest-ed in 70 seats thistime with its ally RJDcontesting in themajority seats. In 2015,the Congress hadcontested in 41seats.
The JD(U) has wonfour seats and is lead-ing in 37 places, in amajor slide for theparty that had won71 seats when itfought the2015 asse-m b l ypolls inalliancewith theRJD. TheVIP has wontwo seatsand its can-didates are leading in twomore, while the HAM haswon the Imamganj seat andis leading in two con-stituencies.
The NDA has wonor is leading in 122seats, just sevenmore than theG r a n dAlliance.
If the current trend continues,the NDA could end up with the122 seats required for a simplemajority, but there could be manya slip between the cup and the lipwith the opposition alliance
rapidly closing the gap.Not only has the RJD edged
past the BJP in terms ofn u m b e r s
but also
garnered more votes. While theBJP polled 19.39 per cent votes,the RJD clinched 23.43 per cent.
Hyderabad-based AIMIM isemerging as a surprise package,winning four seats and leading inone other.
It had won a seat in a by-elec-tion in Bihar earlier, but appearsto be making significant inroadsin the Seemanchal region whichhas a large presence of Muslim
voters.
Target: 122
NDA 124 -1
ALLIANCE RESULTS CHANGE
MGB 111 +1
LJP 1 -1
243 / 243
BIHA
R
ASSEMBLYELECTIONS
AW
AIT
ED
0
OTH 7 +1
BJP candidate Raghunandan Rao spring asurprise by by bagging 1,079 more votes
TRS loses its bastion by a whisker
A peerless RohitSharma led defendingchampions MumbaiIndians to their fifth IPLtitle with a one-sideddemolition of DelhiCapitals here onTuesday, closing animmensely successfultournament that had tobe played in acontrolled environmentamid the raging Covid-19 pandemic.MI chased down atarget of 157 in just18.4 overs.
Report on Page 12
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vijayawada 02VIJAYAWADA | WEDNESDAY | NOVEMBER 11, 2020
EGG RATES
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(IN VIJAYAWADA)
Irrespective of the outcomeof the Dubbak Assemblybypoll, it is clear that
more challenges from theBJP await TRS president K.Chandrasekhar Rao in thedays to come.
Suffice to say, this situ-ation is of KCR’s ownmaking —he was the onewho wilfully allowed theBJP to expand its base inTelangana by systematicallyweakening the Congress soonafter taking over reins of thenew state.
Not satisfied with a totter-ing Congress, KCR continuedhis ‘mission’ in his secondterm, unwittingly creatingspace for the BJP to grow andemerge as a viable force. Thiswas clear from its victory infour Lok Sabha seats in 2019.
Unlike the Congress, theBJP is an ideology-based polit-ical outfit that has very suc-cessfully made inroads in stateafter state by creating a reli-
gious ‘vote bank’ — polarisa-tion of votes on thelines of religion. The BJP draws
people to it by way oftaking up issues andgiving them a religious
touch. The RamJanmabhoomi move-ment, considered the
biggest-ever religiouslymotivated programme, gath-ered steam only after the BJPtook it up. Religious fervourand an ‘easier to influence’populace makes makinginroads into Telangana easierfor the BJP than in Andhraregion. This was true evenwhen the state was undivided.
Jana Sangh, the earlieravatar of the BJP, had legisla-tors in the Assembly of theundivided state half a centuryago — in 1967, C. Janga Reddywon from Parakala inWarangal district. The sameJanga Reddy defeated formerPrime Minister PV Narasimha
Rao (then member of theRajiv Gandhi Cabinet) fromthe Hanamkonda Lok Sabhaseat in 1984.
While the downfall of theCongress has much to do withthe BJP’s rise in Telangana, itis not the only reason. The BJPhas painstakingly worked hardto implement its plans to growpolitically in south India, andits backing of the separateTelangana agitation was onesuch move.
The BJP national leadershipplayed a role in Parliament ingetting the AP ReorganisationAct-2014 passed by voice vote.Thereon, it began seekingvotes by projecting itself as acrucial player in getting thedream of separate Telanganarealised. To buttress this claim,it began saying that a separateTelangana state wouldn't havebeen possible without its sup-port in Parliament.
Prominent BJP leader
Sushma Swaraj began describ-ing herself as 'Chinnamma'and started comparing herselfwith UPA chairperson SoniaGandhi whom Congress cadreaddressed as 'Amma' who gaveT-state.
The separate Telanganamovement came in handy forthe BJP to expand its base in
Telangana since the party stateunit had unanimously resolvedfor bifurcation of AP at its July13, 1997 state-level meeting inKakinada.
While the BJP has alwayslooked at the separateTelangana issue from a polit-ical mileage angle, the partyhad no hesitation to dump theissue for the support of TDPthat won 29 Lok Sabha seats inthe 1999 General Election.Vajpayee’s Premiership hingedon TDP’s political supportand since Chandrababu Naiduwas an integrationist, the BJPwillingly agreed to put the sep-arate Telangana issue on theback-burner.
Subsequently, it had to facesevere criticism of double-standard on the issue, butthen again, public memory isshort.
After bifurcation, the TRSopted to contest the 2014alone, instead of the much-expected alliance with the
Congress. To justify this, KCRclaimed that he was ill-treatedby the Congress.
The TRS got a simplemajority in the Assembly butnot satisfied with his party'svictory over the Congress,KCR set out to weaken the lat-ter. With almost single-mind-ed dedication, KCR has almostemptied the CongressLegislature Party. This ulti-mately led to the Congress los-ing the status of principalopposition in the Assembly.
This was the opening theBJP needed, and it set out toimplement its strategy of reli-gious polarisation to get votesin its favour.
The reason behind BJP'shopes is the considerable pres-ence of the AIMIM inTelangana, and Hyderabad inparticular, that has been win-ning the Hyderabad Lok Sabhaseat since 1984. The BJP realis-es that there is much scope forit to polarise Hindu votes in
places where Muslims havesome political influence.
In fact, many leaders hadopposed separate Telangana,saying that they feared anypossible upsurge of BJP wouldlead to religious polarisationand ultimately Muslimsbecoming the target forHindutva forces. With the for-mation of Telangana, BJP'splans are being implementedon these lines slowly, butsteadily. This is evident fromthe political atmosphere thatprevailed in the run-up to theDubbak Assembly bypoll.
It may be safe to say that thepolitical situation would havebeen different had KCR notwilfully weakened theCongress. Resultantly, the TRSnow faces a political rival thatit would not be able to tackleas easily as the Congress. Thiswould ultimately leave KCRrepenting his concentratedefforts of weakening theCongress.
M D RATNA KUMAR Senior Journalist
PIN POINT
Dubbak result leaves KCR repenting for weakening Congress It may be safe to say that thepolitical situation would have beendifferent had KCR not wilfullyweakened the Congress. Resultantly,the TRS now faces a political rivalthat it would not be able to tackle aseasily as the Congress. This wouldultimately leave KCR repenting hisefforts of weakening the Congress
Less than 40K cases reported in aday for second time in NovemberPNS n NEW DELHI
The number of new coron-avirus infections reported inIndia in a span of 24 hoursdropped below 40,000 for thesecond time this month, asIndia's Covid-19 caseload roseto 85.91 lakh while the totalnumber of recoveries neared 80lakh, according to the UnionHealth Ministry data updatedon Tuesday.
The Covid-19 caseloadincreased to 85,91,730 with38,073 new infections beingreported in a day, while thedeath toll climbed to 1,27,059with 448 fresh fatalities, thedata updated at 8 am showed.
The number of people whohave recuperated from the dis-ease surged to 79,59,406 push-ing the national recovery rateto 92.64 per cent, while theCovid-19 case fatality ratestands at 1.48 per cent.
The number of active casesremained below six lakh for thetwelfth consecutive day. Thereare 5,05,265 active cases ofcoronavirus infection in thecountry as on date which com-prise 5.88 per cent of the totalcaseload, the data stated.
India's Covid-19 tally hadcrossed the 20-lakh mark onAugust 7, 30 lakh on August 23and 40 lakh on September 5.
It went past 50 lakh onSeptember 16, 60 lakh onSeptember 28, 70 lakh onOctober 11 and crossed 80 lakhon October 29.
According to the IndianCouncil of Medical Research(ICMR), a cumulative total of11,96,15,857 samples have beentested up to November 9 with
10,43,665 samples being testedon Monday.
The 448 new fatalitiesinclude 85 from Maharashtra,71 from Delhi, 56 from WestBengal, 25 from Uttar Pradesh,22 from Kerala and 20 fromPunjab.
Total 1,27,059 deaths report-ed so far in the country include
45,325 from Maharashtra fol-lowed by 11,410 fromKarnataka, 11,362 from TamilNadu, 7,350 from West Bengal,7,231 from Uttar Pradesh,7,060 from Delhi, 6,802 fromAndhra Pradesh, 4,338 fromPunjab and 3,765 fromGujarat.
The health ministry stressed
that more than 70 per cent ofthe deaths occurred due tocomorbidities.
"Our figures are being recon-ciled with the Indian Councilof Medical Research," the min-istry said on its website, addingthat state-wise distribution offigures is subject to further ver-ification and reconciliation.
Clean fuel bid slowed by cooks' belief in firewood, finds studyPNS n LONDON
India's transition to clean cook-ing fuels may be hampered bythe users' belief that using fire-wood is better for their fami-lies' well being than switchingto Liquefied Petroleum Gas(LPG), a study conducted inAndhra Pradesh has found.
Researchers at theUniversities of Birmingham inthe UK and Queensland inAustralia conducted focusgroup discussions with womenin four villages in the Chittoordistrict of the State.
Two villages mostly usedfirewood whilst the other twocomprised of mostly LPGusers, who had switched from
using firewood. Theresearchers published theirfindings on Monday in 'NatureEnergy'.
"Despite India's aim ofswitching to clean fuels, the
scale of solid fuel use in ruralareas signals that widespreaduptake and sustained use ofclean fuels is a distant reality,"said study co-author Dr RosieDay, Senior Lecturer in
Environment and Society at theUniversity of Birmingham.
"Whilst cooking is not sole-ly a woman's job, the reality isthat, in rural India, women areconsidered the primary cooks.It is, therefore, critical to unrav-el how women see the relation-ship between wellbeing andcooking fuel if India is to makeprogress in transitioning toclean fuels," she said.
Those cooks using firewoodknow it causes health problems,but feel that it contributesmore to wellbeing than cook-ing with LPG would, althoughLPG users who previouslycooked with firewood claimtheir new fuel has improvedwellbeing, the study found.
The University ofBirmingham notes that Indiahas more people relying onsolid fuels for cooking than anyother country in the world andproviding universal access toclean cooking fuels has beenidentified as one of the UN'sSustainable DevelopmentGoals (SDGs), to which thecountry is a signatory.
Firewood users believed thatcooking with this fuelimproved their financial well-being because selling firewoodgenerated income, whilst col-lecting the fuel gave them anopportunity to socialise and isa tradition they would like tocontinue.
They viewed LPG as a finan-
cial burden that gave food anundesirable taste and feared afatal canister explosion.
LPG users told researchersthat their fuel allowed them tomaintain or improve socialstatus, as well as making it eas-ier to care for children andother family members.
Cooking with LPG freed uptime which they could use towork outside the home andearn money. They also enjoyedextra leisure time with theirfamily.
“We have gained importantunderstanding of women'sviews in this setting, but furtherresearch is needed to analysethe perceived relationshipbetween women's fuel use and
multidimensional wellbeing inother settings this will help toincrease our understanding ofhow social and cultural factorscome into play in transition toclean fuels,” added Dr Day.
Researchers suggest thatfuture interventions to promotenew fuels should activelyinvolve women who used solidfuels and clean fuels, openingdiscussion about the benefits ofeach and allowing cooks toobserve different cooking prac-tices.
Interaction programmescould inform firewood usersabout the positive wellbeingoutcomes of LPG, address con-cerns, and promote learningfrom each other.
Provide rationsfor aged sexworkers, AP toldPNS n VIJAYAWADA
Vimukti and the State chap-ter of the Indian LeadersForum Against Traffickingon Tuesday appealed to theState Government to distrib-ute free ration as directed bythe Supreme Court to theaged sex workers as there wasno customer base for themdue to their age.
In a representation to theWomen Development andChild Welfare department,they urged a new welfarescheme or plan to extend itssupport services to different-ly-abled and those sufferingfrom chronic diseases andalso for the welfare and pro-tection of aged sex workers.
AP adds 1,886 new Covid casesVijayawada: AP added 1,886 new coronavirus cases, saw 2,151recoveries and 12 more deaths, the state government said on Tuesday.Consequently, the total confirmed cases of the pandemic touched8,46,245 in the state so far. The total recoveries increased to 8,18,473while the overall toll stood at 6,814, the latest bulletin for the 24 hoursending 9 am on Tuesday said. The state now has 20,958active cases. After 87.92 lakh samples were tested for theCovid-19 infection, the overall positivity rate stood at9.62 per cent as against the national average of 7.18 percent. Chittoor district reported 291 fresh cases, WestGodavari 282, Guntur 275, Krishna 269 and EastGodavari 227. Prakasam district added 111 more cases.
VIJAYAWADA: Krishna districtauthorities have declared fournew places as containment zonesafter fresh Covid-19 cases werereported from these areas.District Collector A MD Imtiazsaid that hamlets inVenugopalapuram of Salempalemin Koduru mandal, Mariiyapuram
of Y Kothapalem in Nagayalankamandal, R Gollapalem ofNelakurru in Machilipatnammandal and LN Puram of Ilaparruin Nandivada mandal have beendeclared as fresh containmentzones. He said that the Covidregulations would be strictlyimplemented in these villages and
appealed to people not to comeout of their houses unlessabsolutely necessary. Imtiaz saidthat there are 3,140 activeCoronavirus cases in 512containment zones in the districtand people should cooperate withthe officials in containing thespread of the pandemic. He said
that five villages in the districtwere declared Covid-free, sinceno cases were reported fromthem over the last 28 days.Munnaluru village inKanchikacharla mandal,Podduturu in Kankipadu mandal,Angaluru in Gudlavalleru mandal,Buruguduem in Reddigudemmandal and Peddavaram inTiruvuru mandal were declaredCovid-free.
4 villages in Krishna district declared containment zones
Congress requires...Continued from Page 1
Manickam Tagore hadentrusted responsibilities toparty leaders mandal-wise,including N Uttam KumarReddy, Revanth Reddy andMallu Bhatti Vikramarka.These leaders camped in theirallotted areas and campaignedvigorously for the party can-didate. Yet, the poll outcomehas been hopeless for thegrand old party. The state-levelleaders failed to perform effec-tively, if the Dubbak results areany indication.
The results have shockedthe Congress cadre too. For,
compared to the Congress, thecadre and leaders of the saf-fron party are far less. In spiteof it, the BJP displayed a fight-ing spirit that is absent amongthe Congress leaders.
In the last minute, theCongress had allotted theparty ticket to late Congressleader Cheruku MutyamReddy's son CherukuSrinivasa Reddy; yet, his entrydid not have any impact on theelectorate. Besides, top lead-ers of TPCC camped inDubbak but failed to achievethe desired results. Undo-ubtedly, this would tarnishthe image of the party further.
Trumpchallenges JoeBiden victory Continued from Page 1
Judges have tossed outlawsuits in Michigan andGeorgia, and experts sayTrump’s legal efforts have lit-tle chance of changing theelection result.
But Congress’s top Repub-lican, Senate Majority LeaderMitch McConnell, on Mo-nday lined up behind Trump,saying that he was “100%within his rights to look intoallegations of irregularities,”without citing any evidence.
The dispute is slowing Bid-en’s work in preparing for thework of governing, as a Trumpappointee who heads theoffice charged with recogniz-ing results has not yet done so.
Our critics gota strong reply,AIMIM chief Continued from Page 1
AIMIM national spokes-person Asim Waqar told PTIthat a final decision on whothe AIMIM could back incase of a hung Assembly willbe taken by Owaisi, but ruledout supporting the BJP,asserting that his party's fighthas always been against thesaffron party.
Ahead of the polling in thethird phase of the polls, theCongress had dubbed theAIMIM as the BJP's "B-team"and had accused the party ofcolluding with the BJP.Congress' Bihar unit chiefMadan Mohan Jha had saidAIMIM will not have any sig-nificant impact on theAssembly polls as people willnot "waste" their votes.
Asked about the assertionof the Congress and theMahagathbandhan calling ita "vote cutter", Waqar said,"Those calling us that havegot a befitting reply and theirmouths will now be shut inthe future as well."
On whether his party waslikely to go with Mahagatban-dhan or the NDA, he said,"The decision will be taken byAsad (Owaisi) sahab, but thereality is that our fight isagainst the BJP and for thecountry. So the BJP and itsalliance do not appear any-where in our list."
Left and Right...Continued from Page 1
“The leads so far are onexpected lines and we hope tocatch up in three more seats.This was a different kind ofelection. This was more apeople's movement. Webanked on young candidateslike student leaders, candidateswho were part of farmer strug-gles and working class people.That seemed to have worked,”party general secretaryDipankar Bhattacharya said.
Party leaders highlight howcadres worked among thepoor, became first respondersin crisis among their con-stituents and led movementsagainst unemployment, cor-ruption in education and farmrights to gain the trust of thevoters.
“We have been working
with the poor in the state sincethe 1990s, mainly with theDalits and the EBCs. We haveplayed the lonely vocal oppo-sition voice in the VidhanSabha on the rights of thepoor. Over the last five years,we have built an image whichis based on goodwill and faith.Electoral victories are not justabout numbers, it is aboutchemistry. This election, wher-ever the RJD and CPI(ML)have come together, the GrandAlliance has done well,” NBalaji, the national president ofthe party's students' wingAISU said.
On the CPI(ML)'s decisionto go with the RJD despitebeing opposed to the party ear-lier, Balaji, said the party cur-rently led by Tejashwi Yadavand the one led by Lalu prasadwere two different entities.
Are Vizag-Vizianagaram...Continued from Page 1
Metro Rail connecting theport city to the Greenfield air-port in Bhogapuram—north-east to Vizag and just 17 kmfrom Vizianagaram — couldfurther make the mobilityeasy and convenient. Once thisis ready, people would be ableto travel between the twoplaces in less than an hour.
Demand for land in andaround Bhogapuram hasalready picked up. Theincrease in property prices, insome places by over 20 percentspeaks volumes. The con-struction of the road leadingto the new airport has alreadybegun.
Coming to the road connec-tivity, the National Highwaylinking the two cities havebeen expanded and the fly-overs will further reduce thetraffic woes. The travel timebetween the cities will reduce.
The six-lane bypass roadlinking Anandapuram andAnakapalle, which is expect-ed to be complete in anothersix months, will largely help inimproving the mobilitybetween the two cities. It willprevent entry of heavy vehiclesinto Vizag city.
The Visakhapatnam Met-ropolitan Region Develo-pment Authority will also playa key role in the developmentof the region.
Govt to spend Rs 600 crore...Continued from Page 1
The Government decided toprocure these stones at the loc-al level wherever the survey isbeing held with the specifica-tions given by the authorities.
“Every Survey Number orplot will be given a uniqueidentification. Both digitalboundary markers of latitudeand longitude and Physicalboundary marker JaganannaBhoo Raksha stones will bemade available to the landown-ers. The programme will com-mence from January 1, and theentire resurvey programme isenvisaged to be completed byJune, 2023,” said a senior gov-ernment official.
This survey will not only bedone for agriculture fields butvillage habitation sites inMunicipal Areas as well.
So far, a pilot survey projectis being conducted atTakkellapadu in JaggayyapetaMandal of Krishna district,with the latest technology.
The pilot survey projectrevealed that the count of sur-vey numbers was more thanthe landholdings. The landholdings number has gone upfrom 182 to 631 while thecount of survey numbers wentup to 829, the officials said.
The officials said that nec-essary steps were being taken
to solve the pending land disp-utes. While 52,866 disputes arepending in revenue courts, adrive has been taken up to rec-tify 79, 405 issues pertaining toweb land, the officials said.
In one of the review meet-ings on the land resurvey pro-ject, the Chief Minister direct-ed officials to provide land reg-istration services of SubRegistrar office in all Villagesecretariats across the State forquick redressal and updating ofrecords.
Centre releases Rs 6,195 cr to 14...Continued from Page 1
Based on the 15th FinanceCommission interim recom-mendations, the Centre hasreleased Rs 6,195.08 crore to14 states on account of theeighth equated monthlyinstalment of Post DevolutionRevenue Deficit Grant, Officeof Finance Minister tweetedon Tuesday.
A similar amount wasreleased as grant in April-October period of the currentfinancial year.
The Finance Commissionprovides a mechanism for theCentre to compensate for re-venue loss incurred by states,referred to as post devolutionrevenue deficit grant.
l The entire survey will be held in three phases
l All the survey details will be updated online on a regular basisdirectly from the drones and rover along with a picture with a GIS tag
l Across the state, the survey will be taking place in 1.22 lakh sqkm, where 4,500 survey teams will be surveying simultaneously
vijayawada 03VIJAYAWADA | WEDNESDAY | NOVEMBER 11, 2020
CAPSULE
VIJAYAWADA: A constable wascaught red-handed whilesmuggling liquor bottles onMonday. Vatsavai policearrested the constable andseized 244 liquor bottles thatwere being smuggled from theneighbouring Telanagana in acar. Nandigama DSP DRamamanurthy told the mediapersons that Vatsavai PoliceStation SI Someswar Rao andhis team were conductingchecks at Bhimavaram crossroads and when they foundthat a constable of ChillakalluPolice Station M Peddasrinuwas coming from Telangana ina four wheeler and on checkingthe vehicle they found a hugequantity of liquor bottles in thecar. They seized the car and theliquor bottles. A case wasregistered against theconstable. The DSP said thatas per the instructions of SPRavindranath Babu strict vigilwas laid by the police to checkliquor smuggling. Stern actionwill be taken on illegalactivities, said the DSP.
CONSTABLE BOOKED
FOR SMUGGLING
LIQUOR
VISAKHAPATNAM: PJ Neware,a 1988 batch of Indian NavalArmament Service Officer fromMaharashtra, has taken over asChief General Manager of theNaval Armament Depot (NAD)in Visakhapatnam. He replacedP Upadhyay, who is moving toNAD, Mumbai. PJ Neware is anelectrical engineering graduatefrom Shivaji University,Kolhapur. He has got expertiseon the maintenance of all kindsof armament and ammunition.During his career of over 30years, he had headed NAD(Sunabeda) for four years andwas General Manager of NAD,Trombay. He was serving asthe General Manager of NAD,Visakhapatnam since January,2020 prior to the presentappointment.
NEW CGM FOR
NAVAL ARMAMENT
DEPOT
PNS n VIJAYAWADA
Drilling of free borewells forirrigation has commencedacross the State from Tuesday.It may be recalled that onSeptember 28, Chief MinisterYS Jaganmohan Reddylaunched a scheme to drill twolakh borewells free of cost forfarmers in the agriculturallands under the YSR Jala Kalascheme. This was to supportneedy farmers, who do nothave irrigation water sourcesother than borewell water. Thescheme was launched with anexpenditure of Rs 2,340 croreto be implemented in the nextfour years.
Arrangements have beenmade to start drilling work ofborewells in agricultural landsin 162 constituencies exclud-ing those in urban areas in theState. As part of the pro-gramme, the local MLA will bethe chief guest for the firstborewell drilling in theirrespective constituencies.
In addition to drilling theborewell free of cost, the gov-ernment will also provide amotor, or pump set free of cost.The government aims at bring-ing five lakh acres of agricul-tural land under cultivationthrough this scheme in thecoming four years benefitting
more than three lakh farmersunder this scheme.
The government has madeall arrangements to providerigs for drilling bores, for eachAssembly constituency.District authorities wereinstructed to make all arrange-ments for the commencementof the drilling and clearly stat-ed that the first bore drillingworks should be conductedunder the auspices of localMLAs in their respective areas.
Minister for RuralDevelopment Peddireddy
Ramachandrareddy onTuesday said that till evening4 pm 50 borewells have beendug. Till now more than onelank farmers have applied forfree borewells across the State.The Chief Minister wasextending support to farmersin the State by providing var-ious schemes as per thepromise made to them duringthe padayatra before the elec-tions. Jagan was taking stepstowards transforming the Stateas farmer-friendly, said theminister.
PNS n VIJAYAWADA
The government has extendedthe YSR Aarogyasri services byincluding more medical proce-dures under its ambit andbringing in six more districtsunder its cover where all treat-ments that cost over Rs 1,000would be free.
While the scheme was beingimplemented in seven districtsit was extended to Srikakulam,East Godavari, Krishna, SPSNellore, Chittoor andAnantapur to cover the entireState, the number of procedureswere increased by 234 takingthe total to 2,434.
Speaking on the occasion,after the launch here onTuesday, Chief Minister YSJaganmohan Reddy said,"Perhaps Andhra Pradesh is theonly State, which has broughtCovid and post Covid careunder the purview ofAarogyasri, and all treatmentsthat cost more than Rs 1,000 iscovered by Aarogyasri."
The Chief Minister said thatthe government is movingahead in strengthening thepublic healthcare system andthus initiated to bring 16 newmedical colleges across theState, with three cancer hospi-tals, two kidney centres and sixmulti-specialty hospitals in trib-al areas.
He said that one nursing col-
lege and a teaching hospitalwould be set up in every par-liament constituency. The ChiefMinister stated that the govern-ment knows the real value ofpeople's lives.
Aarogyasri has been madeavailable in over 130 super-spe-cialty hospitals in Hyderabad,Bengaluru and Chennai cities.The government mooted toconduct free eye-checkups,along with high-end treatmentsfor 95 per cent of familiesacross the State. Under AarogyaAsara patients, who undergo
surgeries, are being given finan-cial help of up to Rs 5,000 permonth during their restingperiod. Special pensions up toRs 10,000 per month are beinggiven for those suffering fromchronic ailments like tha-lassemia, cancer and kidneydisorders.
Also, 1,088 new ambulanceshave been included in 108 and104 services this year andrecruited 9,712 medical staff forgovernment hospitals like neverbefore.
The Chief Minister directedofficials to pay special attentionto the implementation ofAarogyasri scheme and ensurethat Aarogya Asara is beingpaid to the patients duringtheir rest period. He told theauthorities to set up AarogyaMitras in all Aarogyasri empan-eled hospitals by December 10and create awareness among thepublic.
The Chief Minister launchedthe Aarogyasria in English andTelugu languages. Deputy ChiefMinister Alla Kali KrishnaSrinivas, Minister BotsaSatyanarayana, Chief SecretaryNilam Sawhney, PrincipalSecretary of Health DepartmentAnil Kumar Singhal,Commissioner of Health andFamily Welfare KatamaneniBhasker, Aarogyasri CEOMallikarjun and other officialswere present at the event.
Govt extends YSR Aarogyasricover to more procedures
Chief Minister YSJaganmohanReddy said,"Perhaps AndhraPradesh is the onlyState, which hasbrought Covid andpost Covid careunder the purviewof Aarogyasri, andall treatments thatcost more than Rs1,000 is covered byAarogyasri"
The government aims at bringingfive lakh acres of agricultural landunder cultivation through thisscheme in the coming four yearsbenefitting more than three lakhfarmers under this scheme
YSR JALA KALA SCHEME
Drilling of free borewellscommences across State
PNS n VIJAYAWADA
The Guntur urban policeunravelled the mystery behindthe disappearance of a womanafter two years. The lover ofthe missing woman was arrest-ed by the police. During inter-rogation the accused con-fessed to committing theheinous crime.
The spine chilling incidentdepicted the gruesome murderof Neeraj Grover, a televisionexecutive working for SynergyAdlabs, a Mumbai based pro-duction house. He was founddead in May 2008, a crime forwhich actress Maria Susairajand her boyfriend LieutenantEmile Jerome Mathew werearrested. Maria and her boyfriend Mathew cut theGrover's body into pieces anddumped it after putting theminto polythene covers.
Addressing a press confer-ence on Tuesday, GunturUrban SP RN Ammi Reddysaid that 28-year-old SkNazima went missing from herhome on May 25, 2018 and hermother Meerabi had lodged acomplaint with police, but theinvestigation was pending.Recently, the case wasreopened and police led byDSP B Seetaramaiah with CIR Suresh Babu and SI TNagaraj team cracked the mys-tery behind the missing.
Police during reinvestiga-tion found Nazima and SkKarim alias Nagur were class-mates while studying poly-technic in 2009 and theirfriendship blossomed into lovewhile they were pursuing engi-neering.
But parents of Nazimarefused to perform marriagewith Nagur after completion ofstudies and she had joined aprivate showroom as a recep-tionist where she hadbefriended another employeeRafi. Angry over friendship,Nagur had forced her to leave
the job. On May 25, 2018Nazima on the directive ofNagur had come out of herhome on the pretext of goingto the marriage of her friendand did not return.
Nagur took her to his roomwhere the former had satisfiedhis carnal desire while Nazimademanded Nagur to marryher. Heated arguments ensuedbetween the duo over refusalof marriage proposal, enragedNagur assaulted Nazima andhit her head to the wall and asa result she died on the spot.Later, Nagur cut the bodyinto pieces with an electricfloor cutter and stuffed themin a bag and threw it nearSuddapalli Donka. After twodays, Nagur went there andburnt the bag with petrol andspread rumours that Nazimahad eloped.
SP Ammi Reddy said thatpolice arrested Nagur, whoconfessed to committing thecrime. The SP congratulatedpolice for cracking the murdermystery.
The Visakhapatnam SteelPlant has conducted off-sitemock drill creating a scenarioof chlorine leakage from thetoppled toner on the road. Thedrill was conducted under theguidance of J ShivasankaraReddy, Joint Chief Inspector ofFactories (JCIF), at MadhinaBagh, Islampet village nearSteel Plant.
The RINL/VSP providedemergency services like check-ing and arresting of chlorinegas leakage, medical assis-tance, ambulance and FMD.The NDRF provided thesearch and rescue operation.Mutual aid partners ofRINL/VSP namely NTPC &
Hinduja Power Plant activelyparticipated in the mock drill.Local residents of MadhinaBhag and village secretary,village president, participatedin the mock drill enthusiasti-cally.
The off-site mock drill waswell organised by the SafetyEngineering department ofRINL/VSP.
A review meeting was con-ducted at the spot by JCIF,along with GM(S&E) I/c,MSV Krishnaiah, and valuablesuggestions were given to vil-lagers in handling the emer-gency situations. Factoriesdepartment appreciated theefforts of RINL/VSP for organ-ising a public awareness pro-gramme. Mock drill being conducted under the aegis of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant in Vizag on Tuesday
Mock drill conducted to handle chlorine gas leak
PNS n VISAKHAPATNAM
A 20-year-old-man tried to loot an ATM of CentralBank of India, located at Midhilapuri VUDA Colony,under PM Palem Police Station limits in Vizag city,but his attempts proved futile and he was nabbed bypolice.The arrested was identified as Lakshman Barik ofOdisha's Khordha district. Lakshman is a barber byprofession. DCP (Crime) V Suresh Babu said onNovember 8, Lakshman entered the ATM of CentralBank of India and attempted to open the chest of themachine to steal the cash. However, the manager ofthe bank got an SMS soon after the machine wasopened and in turn, he alerted the police.But, by the time the police reached the spot, theperson managed to flee. The police said that basedon the CCTV footage, the accused was nabbed andthe accused has no previous history and hecommitted the offence for easy money.
BOOTY SEIZED FROM BURGLAR
In another incident, police arrested a burglar AKalyan Kishore (23) and recovered stolen goldornaments worth Rs 1.75 lakh from him.The accused Kishore gained entry into the house ofone K Nooka Ratnam on November 9 night anddecamped with gold ornaments when all weresleeping. The Kancharapalem police nabbed theaccused within 24 hours after the crime andrecovered the stolen property.
TOBACCO PRODUCTS SEIZEDThe city task force police seized banned tobacco products worth Rs 6.5 lakh in two separate incidents and nabbed three persons. Based on the specific information, they carried out the raids at Marripalem and Gajuwaka andseized over 93,000 sachets of the Gutkha and Khaini packets from the trio.
Odisha man's bid to loot ATM foiled
n Guntur Urban SP RNAmmi Reddy said that28-year-old Sk Nazimawent missing from herhome on May 25, 2018and her motherMeerabi had lodged acomplaint with police,but the investigationwas pending
n Police duringreinvestigation foundNazima and Sk Karim
alias Nagur wereclassmates whilestudying polytechnic in2009 and theirfriendship blossomedinto love while theywere pursuingengineering
n Karim had murderedNazima when shedemanded him to marryher. Later, he hadspread rumours statingthat she had eloped
PNS n VIJAYAWADA
Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyanwished his brother andMegastar Chiranjeevi to getwell soon. Chiranjeevi wasdetected with Covid 19 recent-ly and informed that he will begoing into self-isolation. "Mybrother Chiranjeevi has notonly taken many precautionssince the announcement oflockdown but also createdawareness for everyone. He hasbeen taking up various serviceactivities as a social responsibil-ity. Having complete knowl-edge about public health, hetakes many precautions for hishealth too. In the process, weare all shocked whenChiranjeevi was inflicted withCorona. There are no symp-toms, but it showed positiveresults. I pray to God for theearly recovery of my brother,"said Pawan Kalyan in a state-ment.
He also wished the experi-ments being carried out forCoronavirus vaccine to becomefruitful soon. "The whole worldis eagerly waiting for the vac-cine. On the other hand, theyhave been hearing the warningsby the health experts that theremay be a second wave ofCovid. I appeal to people to becautious in taking precautions,"Pawan Kalyan said.
Pawan wishesbro Chiru aspeedyrecovery
PNS n VISAKHAPATNAM
Vizag Navy Children School won the overallchampion of the Inter-NCS Debate competition.The online Inter-Navy Children School Englishdebate competition Disputandum was conduct-ed by the NCS (Vizag). Six NCSs from Delhi,Goa, Mumbai, Kochi, Port Blair and Vizag tookpart in the competition. Students debated overthe topic 'Likes and Approvals from SocialMedia Sites like Facebook and Instagram playa major role in developing one's personality.'
The competition consisted of proposition,opposition and an additional round namedProtestant. Venkat Syamala Rao, an education-alist, Aparna Jaiswal, an entrepreneur, and CaptR Desikan were the judges for the event.
In spite of being conducted online, the enthu-siasm with which students debated on this con-
temporary topic was admirable. Winners werejudged based on their content, persuasiveskills and confidence. Harsh Chauhan, NCSVizag, Pratyush Singh, NCS Delhi and SourishPanda, NCS Vizag have been adjudged as thebest in proposition, opposition and protestorrespectively.
Vizag Navy School winsInter-NCS debate contest
Guntur Urban Superintendent of Police RN Ammi Reddy addresses a pressconferene in Guntur on Tuesday
A student takes part on online Inter- Navy Children SchoolEnglish debate competition in Visakhapatnam on Tuesday
PNS n VIJAYAWADA
TDP Chief N ChandrababuNaidu demanded that theprobe into the Salaam familysuicide be handed over to theCentral Bubureau ofInvestigation (CBI) to bringthe true facts to light.
He also demanded that aspecial court should be formedto deal with the Nandyal sui-cide case. The police respon-sible for the family suicideshould be dismissed from theservice.
Addressing a meeting ofthe paty presidents of 25 LokSabha constituencies here onTuesday, Naidu said that thegovernment's ruthlessnessagainst Muslims was evidentfrom the pathetic incidentsinvolving Abdul Salaam inNandyal, Abdul Sattar familyin Bommuru and minor girlcase in Rajahmundry.
He asked the TDP leaders totake out protest rallies and can-dle light demonstrations acrossthe State for the coming threedays. Special prayers should beoffered for the deceasedSalaam family. He also askedparty cadre to take out rallieson Wednesday. Candles shouldbe lighted in front of the hous-es on Thursday evening.Special Friday prayers shouldbe offered in mosques, hesaid.
Stating that the Jagan rule islike a 'stone in a mad man'shand, Naidu said that the Statehad never witnessed beforesuch family suicides, gangrapes, murders,tonsures, sui-cides and molestationattempts. So many countlessfalse cases, false arrests andhouse arrests and harassmentswere not there before underany regime.
State president KAtchannaidu alleged that theYSRCP leaders harassed theAbdul Salaam family for one
year and this forced the fami-ly to commit suicide. Hedemanded that Chief MinisterYS Jaganmohan Reddy tenderan apology to Muslims forharassing and carrying attackson minorities.
Telugu Mahila State presi-dent Vangalapudi Anitha said,"Chief Minister YS JaganmohanReddy, who describes himselfas a brother to minorities andweaker sections, should explainhow policemen could get bailso easily.
Anitha wondered why theChief Minister did not utter aword of sympathy on theSalaam family suicide despitethe fact that he always boasts ofhaving total support of minori-ties and weaker sections."
TDP demandsCBI probe intofamily suicide
n Naidu said that thegovernment'sruthlessness againstMuslims was evidentfrom the patheticincidents involvingAbdul Salaam inNandyal, Abdul Sattarfamily in Bommuru andminor girl case inRajahmundry
n He asked the TDPleaders to take outprotest rallies andcandle lightdemonstrations acrossthe State for thecoming three days.Special prayers shouldbe offered for thedeceased Salaamfamily
PNS n VISAKHAPATNAM
As there is a huge demandfor sand in Andhra Pradeshowing to shortage of it,attempts are being made tobring sand from Odisha. Asthe mining of sand hasexorbitantly increased overthe last year, women fromsome villages of Odishabordering Andhra staged aprotest demanding theauthorities concerned totake immediate action.
They also stopped all thesand laden tractors. Theyalleged that the sand minedat the upper stream of theBansadhara river, whichmeets the Bay of Bengal atKalingapatnam, is leadingto floods in their area andpollution. Andhra policehave been seizing vehiclestransporting sand illegallyfrom Odisha.
The illegal quarrying andsale of river sand along theAndhra-Odisha Border(AOB) continuesunchecked despite a seriesof enforcement measuresand has risen since theshortage of sand in theState. Check posts havebeen also set up to curbsand smuggling. Sand isbeing transported fromOdisha to Srikakulam alongthe border.
The AP government hasordered officials to curbgraft in mining and trans-porting of sand, apart fromensuring that it is availableto people at a reasonablecost. Chief Minister YSJaganmohan Reddy hadalso stressed that everyoneshould be able to pay theprescribed amount in theform of a challan and col-lect sand at a fixed rate.
He asked sleuths of theSpecial EnforcementBureau to be vigilant andcurb sale of sand at exorbi-tant prices.
Odisha womenprotest againstillegal sandsupply to AP
PNS n VIJAYAWADA
The credit of implementing90 per cent of the welfareschemes promised duringthe padayatra goes to ChiefMinister YS JaganmohanReddy, said BrahminCorporation Chairman andMLA Malladi Vishnu.
Vishnu on Tuesday tookpart in a padayatra 'PrajalaKosam Nadu - PrajalaKosam Nedu' to mark threeyears of Praja Sankalpa Yatrain the division 23 of the city.He visited the area and spoketo the residents about theirproblems and later inspect-ed road and developmentworks in the division.
On the occasion, he saidthat the government wasimplementing welfareschemes and delivering themto all eligible beneficiariesacross the State irrespectiveof party, caste, religion byrendering justice to every-one. He said that houses tothe poor was all set for dis-tribution, but the oppositionTDP leaders were creatinghurdles by filing false casesin the court. The govern-ment has implemented 50per cent reservation towomen in all sectors in theState.
Vishnu takes part in ‘Prajala Kosam Nadu-Nedu'
VIJAYAWADA| WEDNESDAY | NOVEMBER 11, 2020 telangana 04
Sales of dry fruits, gifts see boom PNS n HYDERABAD
With the festival of lights arou-nd the corner, citizens pick upthe most impressive hampersfor their near and dear ones.
From dry fruits, chocolatesto creative festive hamper con-cepts, the seasonal Diwali giftshave garnered much attention.
The culture of giving giftboxes to friends, relatives, fam-ily members and emplo.yees onthe occasion of Diwali hasbeen going on for some years.Gift boxes are sent to them aweek before the festival.
This led to a surge in sales ofdry fruits boxes in the BegumBazaar wholesale market.Designed in beautiful packsand sold in packs of 250, 500,750 grams. Prices range fromRs 250 to Rs 3,000.
Particular attention is paid topacking due to the Coronavirussituation. Shop owners areallowing the employees only
after sanitising and thermalscreening.
"In the northern states thereis a culture of giving gifts dur-ing the festival. Even in the cityright now, employees and mer-chants are giving gifts. Wedesign and sell attractive pack-aging in various sizes to meetthe demand of the people incity. Already sales are booming.
People are carrying gift boxesin bulk," says Rajkumar, ownerof Kashmir House.
Gifts with personalisedtwists give in a different glitterto the Diwali hampers. "It givesa very unique look and the giftsstand apart when you add in alittle creative touch," says AnitaGupta, who makes her person-alised gifting ideas for festive
hampers with her own themesfor family and friends. Thisyear she has simple themes tolight up the hampers. "I am
planning to keep the dry fruitsin two small crystal glasses andpresent it along with a scentedcandle. My idea is to wrap the
gift with handmade paper andpaste two sparklers and a tealight on it, which are symbol-ic for Diwali," says Anita.
Dos and don'ts for DiwaliHyderabad: With the cloud of Covid-19 pandemic hanging over Diwali celebrations, ophthalmologists inHyderabad have urged families to be cautious if they decide to celebrate by lighting firecrackers.
The eye-care specialists said that taking basic safety measures will go a long way in avoiding serious damageto eyes during lighting of the firecrackers. Dr Muralidhar Ramappa, senior cornea specialist, LVPEI said thatchildren must be supervised by adults when lighting firecrackers. Apart from urging people to avoid massgatherings, public health officials have urged families to continue to take precautions like wearing masks, handhygiene and maintaining physical distancing.
FESTIVAL OF LIGHTS
Do's: n Buy fireworks only from authorised manufacturers.Dry them in the sun for 2 days.n Never leave children alone while playing withfirecrackers.n Only one person should light a firecracker at atime; others should watch from a safe distance.n Light crackers in an open area.n Always use a long candle for lighting crackers.n Keep two buckets of water handy. In case of burns,pour lots of water on the affected area.
Don'ts:n Light crackers while holding them in your hand.n Bend over the crackers while lighting them.n Light crackers inside a container, like a bottle, tincan or overturned pot. This can be very dangerous.n Wait for a while before approaching crackers thatdo not light immediately.n Store them near burning candles, diyas or agarbathis.n Wear synthetic clothes; wear only thick cottonclothes, when lighting crackers.
Covid recoveries outnumber new cases, tally up to 2.52 LPNS n HYDERABAD
The number of Covid recover-ies in Telangana outnumberednew cases in the last 24 hoursas the state's overall tallyincreased to 2,52,455.
A day after the weekly dropin daily count of infections dueto fewer tests, the numberssurged again on Tuesday.
According to Director ofPublic Health and FamilyWelfare, 1,267 new cases weredetected. In the last 24 hoursending 8 pm on Monday, 1,831patients recovered, taking thetotal such cases to 2,32,489.
Four more patients suc-cumbed to the virus, taking thestate's death toll to 1,385.
The state's fatality ratestands at 0.54 per cent asagainst the national average of1.5 per cent. Health officialssaid 44.96 per cent deathswere due to Covid and 55.04per cent due to comorbidities.
The recovery rate nowstands at 92.09 per cent, slight-ly lower than the nationalaverage of 92.5 per cent.
Of the new cases, GreaterHyderabad accounted forhighest 201, followed by
According to HealthDepartment bulletin, 42,490more samples were tested dur-ing the last 24 hours, of which41,004 were conducted in gov-ernment-run laboratories.
There are 18 governmentand 47 private laboratoriesconducting RT-PCR/CBNAAT/TRUENATtests. There are also 1,076Rapid Antigen testing centresrun by government.
The cumulative number oftests rose to 46,84,766. Samplestested per million populationsurged to 1,25,866.
Out of total 2,50,331 positivecases so far, 70 per cent(1,76,719) were asymptomaticand 30 per cent (75,736) symp-tomatic. The data shows that63.92 per cent of total caseswere aged between 21-50,22.91 per cent aged above 51,while 13.18 per cent werebelow 20. The bed status in 61government-run hospitalstreating Covid patients showsthat 7,398 out of 8,561 beds arevacant. In 225 private hospitals,6,963 out of 8,587 beds arevacant.
‘Form sub-committee tofocus on women safety'PNS n HYDERABAD
Chief Secretary SomeshKumar,IAS., presided overmeeting of Committee onSafety and Security of Womenand Girl Children at BRKRBhavan on Wednesday. TheCommittee was constitutedas per the instructions ofChief Minister KChandrasekhar Rao.
The women officersexplained various issues facedby women and proposed cer-tain actions for addressingthem. They also recommend-ed forming certain sub-com-
mittee to focus on specificareas such safety of women athome, work place, travel andothers. The Chief Secretaryagreed to the same and askedthem to come up with theirrecommendations.
Secretary to Chief MinisterSmita Sabharwal, Secretary toSC Development Yogita Rana,Secretary to Tribal WelfareChristina Z Chongthu,Commissioner of FamilyWelfare Karuna, Secretary toWomen & Child WelfareDivya, OSD to Chief MinisterPriyanka Verghese and DCPSumathi attended the meeting.
KCR announces Rs 50L financial aid, job to kin of slain soldier PNS n HYDERABAD
Telangana Chief MinisterK Chandrashekhar Rao onTuesday announced Rs 50lakh financial assistance tothe family of an army jawanfrom Nizamabad district,who was killed in an anti-ter-ror operation in Jammu andKashmir.
Expressing shock over RMahesh's death, KCR said hewould be remembered inhistory as the one who sacri-ficed his life for the countryand the state governmentwould stand by and supportthe family.
In an official release, KCRsaid one member of the fam-ily would be offered a govern-ment job, based on the qual-ification, besides a house siteto the kin. Besides, Mahesh,three security force person-nel, including an Army offi-cer, and three militants werekilled during a failed infiltra-tion bid by the ultras alongthe Line of Control (LoC) inMachil sector of Jammu andKashmir on Sunday.
Dalit activists disappointedover the high-level meetingDURGA PRASAD SUNKUn HYDERABAD
Dalit activtists are not happywith the state level high powervigilance and monitoring com-mittee meeting which was heldfour days ago. They allege thatit didn't serve the purpose forwhich it has been constituted.Importantly the state govern-ment bypassed the SC/STPrevention of Atrocities Actand the meeting which had tobe held twice a year was heldafter four years after the firstmeeting in 2016 allegedactivists.
According to the SC/STPrevention Act, Chief MinisterK Chandrashekar Rao had topreside the state level highpower vigilance and monitor-ing committee meeting as its
chairman. In 2016, the govern-ment brought out a GO con-stituting adhoc state level highpower vigilance and monitor-ing committee.
Speaking the gross injusticeto dalits, Batthula Ram Prasad,an activist said, "Although thepolitical members were elect-ed, twice the government did-n't get the time to appoint theChief Minister as chairman ofthe committee. This amountsto bypassing the SC/St actprovision and shows negli-gence towards the SC/ST. Sixyears after the formation of theTelangana state, the meetingwas held only twice. Accordingto the Act, meetings should beheld twice a year, by now itshould have completed 12meetings." He further addedthat review on the implemen-
tation of provisions of the Actand schemes of the rights andentitlements of the victimsand witness in accessing jus-tice, relief and rehabilitationfacilities provided to the vic-tims, prosecution of aces underthe act and review of variousreports received by the stategovernment should be dis-cussed. But, during the meet-ing various other matters werediscussed which are of no use.It was held to boast aboutachievements rather than dis-cussing the solutions to bestrictly implemented for vic-tims. The meeting was held forname sake.
An NGO, which works forsocial and ecological justicesaid, "In the last six years var-ious atrocities happened ondalits and tribals."
‘Be prepared for timely fire fighting measures'PNS n HYDERABAD
The Principal Chief Conser-vator of Forests R Sobha onTuesday released a new dedi-cated helpline number9803338666 on which infor-mation pertaining to forestfires can be reported.
This is in addition to regu-lar forest crime control toll freehelp number 18004255364which also can be used by thepublic to provide any informa-tion including complaints.Public can use either numberto intimate any incident offires and other forest offencesat any time.
The state level monitoringcommittee on forest fire pre-vention held in AranyaBhavan discussed the modal-
ities and preparedness of fireprevention for the 2020-21 fireseason in the state. The com-mittee also discussed the pre-paredness of field staff to tack-le high and medium fire proneareas in the state for necessaryaction after receiving fire alertsfrom Forest Survey of India.
Since majority of fires occurfrom January onwards, thestaff was directed to be pre-pared to take timely fire-fight-ing measures, and to deployquick response teams in vul-nerable areas. All fire preven-tion activities like creationand maintenance of fire lines,removal of hazardous mater-ial, intensive patrolling bystaff and base camp watchersinvolving local villagers are tobe taken up on priority.
PNS n HYDERABAD
The Yadadri bus stand will beconstructed in such a way thatthe spiritual aesthetics will beseen. At the same time for thepilgrims who are coming fromdifferent parts of our countryand also from foreign coun-tries to visit Yadadri temple,transportation will bearranged with shuttle servicesin coordination with YTDA,said Transport MinisterPuvvada Ajay Kumar onTuesday.
Ajay Kumar along withMinister for Roads andBuildings Vemula PrashanthReddy, Government whipGongidi Sunitha, TSRTCmanaging director SunilSharma inspected the YadadriBus Station and took someconstructive and immediate
decisions to modernise in aspiritual sense.
Speaking on the occasion,Ajay Kumar said that as perthe vision of the ChiefMinister K ChandrashekharRao, Yadadri temple is beingrenovated in a magnificentand holistic way and withthat apt facility are being pro-vided.
He also said that the infra-structure will be developed insuch a way that there will benight halts for 150 buses whichcomes to Yadadri depot.
FIREFIGHT ON BORDER
Army pays tributes to martyrsn SRINAGAR
The Army on Tuesday paidfloral tributes to three soldiers,including a Captain, who werekilled as troops foiled an infil-tration attempt by militantsalong the Line of Control(LoC) in Keran sector ofJammu and Kashmir.
A BSF jawan and three mil-itants were also killed in thefirefight on Sunday.
Tributes were paid toCaptain Ashutosh Kumar,Havildar CH Parveen Kumarand Sepoy Ryada Maheshwarof 'The Madras Regiment' wholaid down their lives in theoperation in Keran sector innorth Kashmir's Kupwara dis-trict, an Army spokespersonsaid.
"In a solemn ceremony atBadami Bagh Cantonment, LtGen BS Raju, Chinar Corps
Commander, and all rankspaid homage to the gallant sol-diers on behalf of the proudand grateful nation," he said.
Captain Kumar (24) wascommissioned into the Armyin June 2018. He was an alum-nus of Sanik School,Bhubaneshwar and the presti-gious National DefenceAcademy, Khadakwasla.
He hailed from Parmanpurvillage in Bihar's Madhepuradistrict and is survived by hisparents, the spokesperson said.
Havildar CH Kumar (36)
hailed from Reddivari Palle vil-lage in Andhra Pradesh'sChittor district and had joinedthe Army in 2003. He is sur-vived by his wife, son anddaughter, he said.
Sepoy Maheshwar (25)joined the Army in 2014 andbelonged to Komanpalle vil-lage in Telangana's Nizamabaddistrict. He is survived by hiswife, he added.
The spokesperson said theChinar Corps, headquarters ofthe Srinagar-based 15 Corps ofthe Army, also acknowledgesthe sacrifice of Constable SudipSarkar of Border SecurityForce (BSF), who laid down hislife in the same operation.
"The mortal remains of thebravehearts were taken for lastrites to their native places,where they would be laid torest with full military honours,"he said.
Ajay Kumar: Yadadri busstation to be modernised
The mortal remains ofthe bravehearts weretaken for last rites totheir native places,where they would belaid to rest
Devout take part in Laksha Kumkumarchana virtuallyPNS n VIJAYAWADA
As the annual KarthikaBrahmotsvams are set to beperformed in Ekantam atTiruchanoor temple fromNovember 11 to 19, LakshaKumkumarchana has beenperformed in the temple onTuesday.
A total of 603 devoteestook part in this ritual via vir-tual platform. The Grihasthadevotees who took part in thisfete will beget one blousepiece, uttariyam, vermilion,turmeric sachets, two holythreads, sugar candy packetand sacred rice Akshatathrough the postal depart-ment as 'Prasadam'.
The utsava murty of
Goddess Sri Padmavathi seat-ed in Sri Krishna MukhaMandapam and Lakshakumkumarchana has beenperformed chanting thedivine namas of Goddess byarchakas from 8am ti l l12noon.
According to the acharya
purushas, this fete is usuallyobserved to appease MotherGoddess to bless and carryforward the annual mega fetein a smooth manner.
TTD EO Dr KS JawaharReddy, JEO P Basanth Kumar,DyEO Jhansi Rani and othersalso participated.
Cops exchange fire with Maoists in TSPNS n HYDERABAD
An exchange of fire took placebetween a group of Maoistsand police personnel in a for-est area of JayashankarBhupalpally district ofTelangana on Tuesday, policesaid.
According to a senior policeofficial, based on informa-tion on presence of Maoists inPedhampet forest area, policeparties were combing theregion when members of thebanned outfit CPI (Maoist)fired on the personnel, who
retaliated. Following the firing,the ultras escaped, the officialsaid, adding no casualtiesoccurred on both sides.
Police searched the area fol-lowing information thatMaoists with an intention tocreate law and order problemsby threatening and extortingmoney from businessmen andcontractors, was moving in theforest area, the official said.
Police seized one .303 rifle,eight kit bags, kitchen items andother articles from the scene.Asmany as 20 police parties weresearching for the escaped Maoists.
How Amazon picked Hyd for data center?NAVEENA GHANATE n HYDERABAD
Amazon web services set asideTamil Nadu while consideringto set up an AWS Region inHyderabad. Highly placedsources said that the cloudcomputing firm's top choicewas reportedly Tamil Nadu.Sources indicated that beforefinalising Hyderabad, the firmscouted other places as welland have possibly evaluatedMaharashtra and Karnataka.
Andhra Pradesh was report-edly never taken into consid-eration for setting up a datacenter. However, the overallatmosphere and offerings weremore conducive for biggestever FDI investment inHyderabad than any otherstate.
Being a power surplus statewas one of the key reasons
apart from availability of landand customer base.
Data centers are powerintensive and need continuouspower supply. In a bid toensure the investment comes toTelangana, the governmentwas reportedly open to reim-burse the costs the company
would incur if they have to usebackup power supply ever.
Highly placed sources saidthat the Telangana govern-ment was willing to getpenalised if the company facedpower cuts apart from reim-bursing the outage costs. Whilethis reflects the confidence of
the government, there was nosuch mention in the finalagreement.
Another brownie point forthe state was availability of landbanks. The land parcels wereidentified and finalized with-in just two weeks, which isnearly impossible in otherstates where land acquisition isoften disputed. The three datacentres will come up on 132acres on the outskirts ofHyderabad.
Digital Telangana initiativeapart from flourishing e-com-merce and BFSI sector arealso reasons.
According to official releaseAWS chose Hyderabad becauseof the support provided by thegovernment of Telangana,robust policy framework, andbecause it best met the rigor-ous requirements for an AWSRegion.
Couple held for cheating publicPNS n HYDERABAD
A couple was arrested onTuesday for allegedly cheat-ing the public under theguise of operating a chit fundbusiness in Srirampur. Threemore accused are still atlarge.
Police said the accusedwere Mutyam Sudhakar, anemployee of SCCL, and hiswife Sulochana, residents ofCCC in Naspur mandal.Their sons, Prithviraj, SaiMadan and Akhil, who werealso booked in the offence,are still at large.
Sudhakar and Sulochanaconfessed to collecting Rs 3crore from 85 personsbelonging to CCC and differ-ent parts of Naspur under theguise of running chit fundbusiness.
VIJAYAWADA | WEDNESDAY | NOVEMBER 11, 2020 nation 05
INDIA CORNER
BJP candidate Oinam LukhoiSingh won the by-election to
the Wangoi seat, while Y AntasKhan, an Independent candidatesupported by the saffron partybagged the Lilong seat inManipur, officials said Tuesday.BJP candidates Paonam BrojenSingh and Ngamthang Haokipwere leading from WangjingTentha and Saitu seats respectively, they said. Oinam Lukhoi Singhwon the Wangoi seat by defeating his nearest rival Khuraijam LokenSingh of the National People's Party by 257 votes, as per the ECIwebsite. In the Lilong seat, Y Antas Khan won by defeating hisnearest rival Mohd Abdul Nasir by 3,078 votes. Paonam BrojenSingh was leading over his nearest rival Moirangthem HemantaSingh of the Congress by over 1,560 seats in the Wangjin Tenthaseat. In Saitu constituency, Ngamthang Haokip was ahead ofhis Congress rival Lamtinthang Haokip by 4,297 votes.
After the ruling NDA took an initiallead from the grand alliance in poll
trends for Bihar, Congress leader UditRaj on Tuesday raised questions onthe reliability of EVMs asking whythey cannot be hacked if satellites canbe controlled from the earth. He alsoasked if Donald Trump could havelost in the US elections had EVMsbeen used. "If the direction of satellites to Mars and Moon can becontrolled from the earth, then why can't EVM be hacked," Udit Rajsaid in a tweet in Hindi. "If elections were held in America with EVMs,could Trump have lost," he asked. Dalit leader Udit Raj is theCongress party's national spokesperson. He was a former BJP MPfrom Delhi. In another tweet, he took a swipe at the BJP, saying it hasbeen able to sideline Nitish Kumar with its performance in Bihar.Initial trends in Bihar showed the NDA taking the lead in the electionto the 243-member assembly. The BJP appeared set to outperformits senior alliance partner JD(U) headed by Chief Minister NitishKumar, according to trends available so far.
Tragedy struck a 28-year oldman and his fiancee when
they drowned in Cauvery riverfollowing a mishap during a pre-wedding photoshoot in Talakad inMysuru district in Karnataka,police said. The mishap occurredas the 20-year old woman lostbalance and fell into the riverwhile posing for a photo on a
coracle and the man attempted to rescue her on Monday.According to police, civil contractor Chandru and Shashikala, whosewedding was fixed for this month end, went to Mallikarjuna Swamytemple at Mudukuthore for a pre-wedding photoshoot with theirrelatives and photographers. On their way back, they decided to takesome photos in Cauvery river at Talakadu on a boat. Since the boatwas not there, they opted for a coracle ride, accompanied byChandru's friend. In the middle of the river, Shashikala reportedlystood up on the coracle. As she lost balance and fell into theriver, Chandru jumped in to save her. Both did not know swimmingand drowned even as the coracle capsized in the melee, police said.
In a stern message to Chinaand Pakistan, Prime MinisterNarendra Modi on Tuesdaysaid all member nations of theSCO should respect each oth-ers' sovereignty and territorialintegrity.
The remarks by Modi at avirtual summit of the eight-member SCO came in thebackdrop of the Sino-Indiaborder row in eastern Ladakh,as also Islamabad's attempt tointernationalise Kashmir issueand indulge in cross-borderterrorism against India.
The Prime Minister deliv-ered the message in the pres-ence of Chinese President XiJinping, and Pakistan PrimeMinister Imran Khan, who
were among the heads of gov-ernments attending the sum-mit, chaired by RussianPresident Vladimir Putin.
Referring to India's partici-pation in strengthening con-nectivity among nations, Modisaid,"India believes that to
enhance connectivity it isimportant that we move for-ward while respecting oneanother's sovereignty and ter-ritorial integrity."
The PM also hit out at thosemaking repeated attempts to"unnecessarily" bring bilateral
issues to the SCO in violationof the grouping's foundation-al principles, in an oblique ref-erence to Pakistan.
"India has always been res-olute in working in sync withprinciples laid out in the SCOcharter. But it is unfortunatethat there have been repeatedefforts to unnecessarily bringbilateral issues in the SCOagenda which is in violation of
the SCO spirit," Modi said.Referring to COVID-19,
Modi said India will use itscapacity in production anddistribution of vaccines to helpthe entire humanity in fightingthe pandemic.
In this difficult time ofunprecedented epidemic,India's pharma industry sentessential medicines to over150 countries, he said.
We should respect sovereignty,territorial integrity: PM at SCO
The PM also hit out at those makingrepeated attempts to "unnecessarily"bring bilateral issues to the SCO inviolation of the grouping'sfoundational principles, in an oblique reference to Pakistan
PNS n BENGALURU
Indian Institute of Scienceclaimed on Tuesday thatresearchers led by RaghavanVaradarajan, Professor at IISc'sMolecular Biophysics Unit,are working towards develop-ing effective vaccine strategiesagainst two viruses: SARS-CoV-2 and HIV.
In two studies published inthe past week, they reportedthedesign of a 'heat-tolerant'COVID-19 vaccine candidateand a rapid method to identi-fy specific regions on the HIV
envelopeprotein that are tar-gete by antibodies, which canhelp design effective vaccines,an IISc press release said.
The studies were publishedin the Journal of Biological
Chemistry and theProceedings of the NationalAcademy of Sciences respec-tively, according to Bengaluru-based IISc.
The COVID-19 vaccinecandidate contains a part of thespike protein of the novelcoronavirus called the
Receptor Binding Domain(RBD) - the region that helpsthe virus stick to the hosts cell.
It is being developed byVaradarajans lab in collabora-tion with Mynvax, a startup co-founded by him and incubat-ed at IISc, as well as severalother institutes.
"When tested in guineapig models, the vaccine candi-date triggered a strongimmune response", the state-ment said.
"Surprisingly, it alsoremained stable for a month at
37C, and freeze-dried ver-sions could tolerate tempera-
tures as high as 100C.Such 'warm' vaccines can
be stored and transportedwithout expensive coolingequipment to remote areas formass vaccination - most vac-cines need to be storedbetween 2-8C or even coolertemperatures to avoid losingtheir potency", it said.
Compared to newer typessuch as mRNA vaccines, mak-ing a protein-based vaccinelike this can also be scaled upeasily n India where manufac-turers have been making sim-ilar vaccines for decades, IIScsaid.
Indian researchers workingtowards developing vaccine
Dare Devils Captain Dishant Kataria attempts to set the world record for the longest ramp jump with a motorbike by jumpingover 65 people, in Jabalpur on Tuesday
SETTING NNEW RRECORDS
PNS n NEW DELHI
Fifteen members of a gangwere arrested for allegedlystealing two-wheelers and laterusing it to commit robberiesand snatchings across Delhi,officials said on Tuesday.
The arrests were done afterit was observed that there wasa nexus between auto-liftersand snatchers, who were usingstolen motorcycles to commitcrime in Outer District area. Atotal of 125 stolen two-wheel-ers and six mobile phones havebeen recovered from differentlocations, police said.
The auto-lifters providedstolen bikes to snatchers onrent or commission basis,police said.
The team apprehendedthree persons, riding on amotorcycle at Old MacchiChowk in Sultanpuri, whenthey tried to flee during check-ing. They were identified asSumit, Ajay and Vikas, and thetwo-wheeler seized from them
was found to be stolen fromSultanpuri area, Koan said.
They stole motorcycles fromSultanpuri and adjoiningareas, and used these for com-mitting snatching or robberies.They also lend these vehiclesto other criminals involved instealing of two wheelers,snatching and robberies.
They disclosed that theyhad parked many stolen vehi-cles at different locations inSultanpur. They revealed thatthey are members of a syndi-cate headed by one Sagar,who is involved in 33 cases oftheft, snatching and auto-lift-ing, the DCP said.
Congress candidate Indu RajNarwal on Tuesday defeated
his nearest rival and BJPnominee Yogeshwar Dutt inthe Baroda assembly seat ofHaryana with a margin of over10,000 votes, said officials.Theopposition Congress hasretained the Baroda seat. This
is the second time that Olympian wrestler Dutt has lost the pollsfrom this constituency. Dutt had lost the 2019 assembly poll byabout 4,800 votes to Congress candidate Krishan Hooda.The Barodaassembly seat fell vacant in April following the death of Hooda, whohad won it thrice in the 2009, 2014 and 2019 assembly pollsHaryana Congress chief Kumari Selja said with their decision, thepeople of Baroda have given a “befitting reply” to “anti-farmers andanti-labour forces”. “The victory of Indu Raj Narwal is a win offarmers and labourers. I assure residents of Baroda that theCongress will live up to their expectations,” tweeted Selja.
Baroda: BJP's Yogeshwar Duttdefeated by Congress nominee
PNS n PATNA
The Congress today looked likethe weak link as the TejashwiYadav-led Mahagathbandhanseemed set for second place inthe Bihar election despite exitpolls predicting an oppositionvictory.
Did Tejashwi Yadav mess upseat-sharing and end up givingthe Congress more than itdeserved?
The Congress contested 70seats, the most after theRashtriya Janata Dal (144). Asfor the Left parties, CPM wasgiven four seats, the CPI sixand the CPI (ML), 19.
Every party showed a betterstrike rate than the Congress.Among the major players, thegrand old party was set to belimited to the fourth place.
Congress leader RahulGandhi campaigned in Biharbut it was not a patch onTejashwi Yadav's massive ral-lies.
Last year, their partnershipflopped in the national electiontoo - the NDA swept the polls,
winning 39 of 40 seats, and theCongress got one. The RJDscored a duck.
"We have to acknowledgethat the Congress is the small-er party in the state. RahulGandhi ji did his bit by cam-paigning across the state, but
yes, there are things that needto be done to strengthen ourorganizational machinery," saidthe party's Rajya Sabha mem-ber Nasir Hussain.
Prominent Congress candi-dates, including Sharad Yadav'sdaughter Subhashini SharadYadav and actor-politicianShatrughan Sinha's son LuvSinha, were trailing in count-ing. "It is clear that there is justno alternative to (Prime
Minister) Narendra Modi. TheCongress is in no position tocreate any sort of dent to himand the BJP. In fact, we knowthat RJD, after much push-and-pull, agreed to give theCongress a maximum of 48seats, but then political arm-twisting got them more. We allcan see what Congress hasdone about it," said formerJanata Dal United leader PavanVarma.
Cong flop show spoils Tejashwi-led alliance's chancesThe Congress contested 70 seats, themost after the Rashtriya Janata Dal(144). As for the Left parties, CPM wasgiven four seats, the CPI six and theCPI (ML), 19. Every party showed abetter strike rate than the Congress
PNS n BENGALURU
BJP candidate N Munirathnaon Tuesday won the byelec-tion to Rajarajeshwari Nagarassembly constituency inKarnataka, officials said.
Munirathna, who joinedBJP last year, defeated hisclosest rival Kusuma H of theCongress by a margin of over57,000 votes, they said.
JD(S) ended up distantthird. The bypoll for RRNagar, held on November 3,was necessitated after theseat fell vacant due to disqual-ification of the then CongressMLA Munirathna underanti-defection law.
This is the third consecu-tive victory for Munirathnasince 2013 and his first as theBJP candidate.
Amid speculation over hisfuture political move, WestBengal minister SuvenduAdhikari on Tuesday took adig at the ruling TMC fororganising simultaneous rallyhere to mark "NandigramDiwas", saying that a few peo-ple are visiting the area after13 years as the assembly elec-tions are approaching.
Adhikari, who has beenmaintaining a distance fromthe party's top leadership forthe last few months, wasaddressing a rally to payrespects to martyrs of BhumiUchhed Pratirodh Committee(Land Eviction ResistanceCommittee), who died onthis day in 2007 during theanti-land acquisition move-ment, and said he wouldannounce his next course ofaction from apolitical plat-form. The minister also saidhe would never use the BUPCplatform for "vested politicalinterests". "The Nandigrammovement was a people'smovement. It was not of anyparticular individual. I have
been with the people ofNandigram. After 13 years, afew people are now cominghere as the elections areapproaching.
"I want to tell them if theyare coming before polls, theywill have to come after elec-tions too," Adhikari said at theBUPC rally that did not haveposters of Chief MinisterMamata Banerjee or the TMCflags. The minister did nottake names of the party andits supremo, and said he"never believed in using theplatform of BUPC for hispolitical gains". "I used tocome alone during those daysand stood by the people," hesaid.
His comments came in the
backdrop of the TMC'sannouncement that it is
going to hold a rally here tomark "Nandigram Divas".
Posters of the chief minis-ter and the party's flag wereseen at the ground where theTMC is scheduled to holdarally later in the day to markthe 13th "Nandigram Diwas".
"Whatever I will have to sayregarding my next course ofaction, I will say from a polit-ical platform," he said.
West Bengal minister andsenior TMC leader FirhadHakim, who is scheduled toaddress the party's rally heresaid, "It would have beengood had Suvendu addressedthe rally under the banner ofthe TMC."
TMC: After years, some nowstarted visiting Nandigram
15 of gang held overauto-lifting racket
PNS n NEW DELHI
Republic TV Editor-in-ChiefArnab Goswami moved theSupreme Court Tuesday seek-ing interim bail in the 2018case of alleged abetment tosuicide of an interior design-er. The Bombay High Courthad refused to grant interimbail to Goswami and two oth-ers on Monday and askedthem to move to the localcourt for the relief.
The appeal against the highcourt order has been filed inthe top court through lawyerNirnimesh Dubey.
Besides the Maharashtragovernment, Goswami who isin Taloja jail, has made theCentre, the SHO of Alibaug
police station, Mumbai PoliceCommissioner Param BirSingh and Akshyata AnvayNaik as parties to his appeal.
The state government,through advocate Sachin Patil,has also filed a caveat in thetop court to ensure that noorder is passed on Goswami'splea without it being heard inthe case.
PNS n NEW DELHI
Former union minister M JAkbar Tuesday told a Delhicourt that journalist PriyaRamani did not make “defam-atory” statements for the pub-lic good but out of vengeance.
Akbar made the statementbefore Additional ChiefMetropolitan Magistrate(ACMM) Vishal Pahujathrough his lawyer during thefinal arguments in a criminaldefamation complaint filed byhim against Ramani.
In the wake of #MeToo
movement, Ramani in 2018accused Akbar of sexual mis-conduct around 20 years agowhen he was a journalist.
Senior advocate GeetaLuthra, appearing for Akbar,told the court that, “Ramanididn't make these statements(termed by Akbar as defama-tory) for the public good, shemade them out of vengeance.She didn't even apologise for afactually incorrect statement.”
“Ramani didn't produce anylandline records, parkingreceipts, no CCTV footage,nothing. She didn't produce
any evidence to prove herstory,” the counsel said.
The counsel claimed thatRamani wrote a fictitious piecein the magazine -- Vogue -- incontext of #MeToo move-ment with a mala fide inten-tion as she “intended to tarnishthe reputation of Akbar.”
“Wreckless statementsagainst Akbar were put in apublic place without any careor caution... The per se effectof Ramani's statements wasdefamatory, damaging the rep-utation of Akbar,” the counselsaid.
‘Priya Ramani made ‘defamatory'statement out of vengeance’
PNS n PATNA,
With the NDA leading in 128of the 243 seats in Biharassembly, BJP state chiefSanjay Jaiswal said there is nodispute regarding who willlead the government if thealliance returns to power inthe state. A party or a coali-tion requires 122 seats toform the government inBihar.
"The issue has been clearedby Prime Minister and partychief J P Nadda much beforethe elections," he said, whileresponding to a query wh-ether CM Nitish Kumar willlead the NDA government ifthe alliance secures a major-ity in the assembly.
Without naming RJDleader and Grand Alliancechief ministerial candidateTejashwi Yadav, Jaiswal tooka swipe at him, saying,"People are intelligent enougho distinguish between truthand falsehood."
Earlier in the day, theJD(U) exuded confidencethat the NDA will again forma government in Bihar underKumar. "I have been sayingthis for a long time that theNDA will form the govern-ment under the leadership ofCM Nitish
No disputeregarding NDAleader inBihar: Sanjay
BJP wins 1 seat, Independentbacked by BJP wins 1 in Manipur
Congress leader Udit Rajquestions reliability of EVMs
Arnab Goswamimoves SC for bail
The minister also said he would neveruse the BUPC platform for "vestedpolitical interests". "The Nandigrammovement was a people's movement.I have been with the people ofNandigram. After 13 years, a fewpeople are now coming here as theelections are approaching.
The sight of a rattledNitish Kumar inhis public appear-ances during therecently held
Assembly election campaignsin Bihar intrigued manyobservers because of hisimage of a cool, suave andwell-mannered politician,who hardly ever breached thedecorum of public life. But inhis speeches, he not onlylost his poise but also becamepersonal in his commentsagainst his adversaries. Thismade people wonder as towhat went wrong with him,given his reputation as a sea-soned and confident leader.These days though, the par-ties and leaders actually getto know the real mood of thepeople only during election-eering due to defunct organ-isational networks and, there-fore, the sight of leaders los-ing balance during the elec-tion should not surprise us.
So, when post-COVID tra-vails of the people startedunravelling themselves in themidst of an election in Bihar,Nitish would have definitelysensed the slide of his popu-larity, the erosion and limita-tion of his brand of social jus-tice politics. Political analystsbelieved that it was LokJanshakti Party (LJP) leaderChirag Paswan, who wasseen by many as the BJP’sproxy to keep him in checkand Rashtriya Janata Dal(RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav’spopulist job promise thatunsettled him. But thingsappear much deeper and tounderstand the whole gamutof it, one needs to take asnapshot of Bihar politics,particularly the period inwhich the game of socialjustice got played out.
Ironically, Nitish seems tobe both a beneficiary and vic-tim of social justice politics.He and RJD chief LaluPrasad Yadav have been itsarchitects for the last threedecades. Together, they haveevenly shared the rulingyears, setting the politicalnarrative and even forcingthe national parties like theCongress and the BJP tobend backwards and playsecond fiddle to them in
order to survive in the State.They rode on the high tideof Mandal politics withfinesse and dismantled thecultural-political hegemo-ny of the upper castes inBihar’s social fabric.
Since Bihar had not wit-nessed a social reformmovement like some otherregions of India during thecolonial period, their politicsstruck a responsive chordwith the backward castes.The social justice politics,which they spearheaded,resulted in the much-await-ed course correction in theState and they became therecipient of its political div-idends. But one day thispolitics had to hit its deadend and if the people’s ireagainst Nitish, and this notgoing out rightly in favour ofTejashwi in the currentAssembly election, is anyindication, then it seems tohave already reached thatmoment. The COVID crisisonly precipitated thisprocess by exposing theunderbelly of the State, withthe sight of lakhs of belea-guered migrant workersparading and dying on thehighways and their imagesgoing viral through socialand electronic media.
But does this mean thatthe politics of social justice,which promised both digni-ty and livelihood to theunder-privileged, has out-lived its utility and has comeof age in Bihar? And towhat extent is Nitish culpa-ble in the derailment of thisproject of social justice?
Why did this discourse fal-ter in adding economic con-tent to the rhetoric of reser-vation and representation?
It would be unfair to saythat the second generationsocial justice politics basedon economic agenda didnot take off at all in Bihar.Lalu, no doubt, will be fault-ed for squandering theopportunity. But this maynot apply to Nitish. He start-ed his innings with apromise to take the politicsof social justice to a higherpedestal and add the miss-ing economic content to it,without abandoning theprocess of political empow-erment of the backwardcastes, which had been set inmotion. Rather, he tried tomake political empower-ment more institutionalisedand broad-based, comparedto the Lalu era.
He not only made thelocal bodies as new sites ofempowerment by reservingpolitical posts for extremelybackward castes, women,Mahadalits but also deftlydovetailed the agenda ofdevelopment and good gov-ernance with caste arith-metic.
Therefore, his first five-year tenure definitely heldout hope for all and sundrywith the law and orderimproving in the State andthe GDP hovering above thenational average. He evenlowered the anti-upper castetirade of Lalu’s regime. Andthis was not an ordinaryachievement, given his con-straints, which included the
loss of mineral-richJharkhand, empty coffersand the tattered administra-tion bequeathed by his pre-decessor.
The much hyped econom-ic growth of his era was notgoing to last long, with con-struction activities contribut-ing substantially to thisgrowth story without addingmuch in the manufacturing,agriculture and other keysectors of the economy. Theresult was that Nitish’s goodgovernance agenda floun-dered on generating employ-ment, arresting migrationof workers and turningaround agriculture and alliedactivities, which could haveacted as the engine foremployment and economicgrowth. The infrastructuredefinitely improved, partic-ularly the roads and electric-ity. But this was not enoughfor the new aspirational class,which was in the makingamong the backward castes,in particular, due to severalfactors, including the affir-mative action programme.
Problems for Nitish fur-ther got compounded whenhe started vacillating politi-cally in the aftermath ofNarendra Modi’s rise to thenational scene. This took aheavy toll on his politicalcredibility and severely con-strained his manoeuvrabili-ty. The astute politician inhim must have sensed thatsomewhere along the way hehad lost the plot, with peo-ple restive about unemploy-ment in a resource-starvedState, the populist andmajoritarian politics stackedagainst him and his advanc-ing age not on his side.
Does this mean that Biharis heading for a post-socialjustice era in politics?Though, looking at the cur-rent election result, it is tooearly to write an obituary ofsocial justice politics in theState. But in search of a newmeaning, the old style poli-tics based on pure castearithmetic of the Mandalera will not work. Tejashwi’sfailure to cash in on Nitish’ssliding popularity, largelydue to his father’s legacy andRJD’s poor track record ondevelopment and economicjustice, is indicative of thatfact. Therefore, one can saythat an add-on to the iden-tity politics in economicterms and a credible politi-cal face to deliver it areimportant takeaways fromthis election in Bihar.
(The writer is AssociateProfessor in Political Science,Aryabhatta College,University of Delhi)
The vaccine that was supposed to hand a beleaguered USPresident Donald Trump his second term in office is finally herebut it is a tad too late to be of any help to him. Pfizer and German
biotechnology company BioNTech have announced that theirCoronavirus vaccine was more than 90 per cent effective in phasethree large-scale clinical trials. It has been developed outside theWhite House’s Operation Warp Speed programme, although theTrump administration placed an initial order for 100 million of thefirm’s vaccine doses for $1.95 billion in July. Operation Warp Speedpumped billions of dollars into six other pharmaceutical companiesintended to accelerate vaccine development. Even as there was apolitical storm over the timing of the announcement, President-elect
Joe Biden, who made his criticism of Trump’s handling of the pandemic a centrepiece of his elec-tion campaign, congratulated the “brilliant women and men” involved in the research. But he didn’tgo overboard and urged the nation to continue wearing masks and maintaining protocols as it wouldbe “many more months before there is widespread vaccination.” Biden’s appeal assumes signifi-cance because Trump had repeatedly mocked the former for wearing the face cover during electioncampaigns. Many Conservatives even contended that masks infringed on their individual freedom.This stubbornness to ignore the advice of experts on Corona protocols has been widely blamed forthe fact that the US remains the worst-hit country in the world.
Coming close on the heels of the mandate, the US President, who will be legally challengingthe vote count on the grounds of it being a fraud, will also be using the vaccine claim as part of aconspiracy theory. In a renewed push to justify his victimhood, he felt that the US Food and DrugAdministration (USFDA) was politically motivated and should have announced it earlier to save lives.Of course, he disregarded the fact that the scientific community across the world had sworn thatthey would not be compromised by political arm-twisting and would declare results after they wereabsolutely sure of trials. The findings may have come in the natural and ethical course of proto-cols but Trump is not going to let go of the opportunity to claim he fast-tracked them and nowwas being cheated out of the credit due to him. Vice-President Mike Pence, too, was quick to pointout that the vaccine was a result of the Trump administration’s “public-private partnership” initia-tive. Be that as it may, the fact remains that Trump and Co are responsible for the Corona soupthe US is in today and the verdict of the people was against that and the divisive policies basedon ethno-nationalism. As far as Biden is concerned, the vaccine will be the cherry on the cake.But will he get rid of “Trumpism” that will dog every move he makes?
Call him an upstart, a late bloomer and a maverick but he hasindeed been, to borrow an often used punchline, “sabse Tej.”And as the cliffhanger called the Bihar election plays out,
Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav has single-han-dledly and valiantly taken on the heft of the BJP and effected a changein Bihar’s political landscape. One that has made RJD the prime chal-lenger of the BJP, sweating it out to the wire, squeezing victory mar-gins to less than a thousand in some seats. But in the end, therewill be the wistfulness of an “if only.” What would the result havebeen if only Tejashwi had gone it alone than allocate 70 seats to theCongress, which has been nothing short of a drag on their alliance?Could Tejashwi, as the face of anger against the establishment, indeed
have led a raging revolution if the negative vote against the BJP-Janata Dal (United) combine had notbeen fragmented by smaller, like-minded parties working at cross-purposes with each other? But asthings stand now, he has more than a pop-up value; he has created his space on his terms. Thoughhe is blessed with the mantle of legacy and the ear-to-the-ground wisdom of his father and social jus-tice patriarch Lalu Prasad Yadav, he has also been aware of the costly burden of the latter’s incarcer-ation over corruption. Which is why he smartly played down the social justice card, acutely awarethat those it empowered, namely the Muslims and Yadavs, would not turn back on Lalu. And he triedto dissociate himself from the inherited legacy of “jungle raj” by promising economic justice to thejobless youth, pledging 10 lakh jobs. In fact, he described his “economic justice” plank as a version2.0 of “social justice,” at once disconnecting himself from his father’s legacy while staying connect-ed to the movement he espoused. He swung the youth along, tried a rainbow umbrella by bringing inupper caste candidates, brought in the Left parties to the forefront and made the elections about theright of all Biharis to aspire for their El Dorado. But he just needed to punch a bit more above his weightto cruise past the finish line. Or may be voters wanted someone with a clean slate, not weighed downby questions of credibility.
The BJP, which has had a good day at the office, considering it is likely to form the Governmentin Bihar and has mopped up most of the byelection seats to its satisfaction, had a decelerator thanksto its ally and chief ministerial candidate Nitish Kumar. The anti-incumbency was so strong againsthim that the BJP was worried at one time. But the biggest takeaway for the party is that of Prime MinisterNarendra Modi emerging to be some sort of faith icon for voters in the heartland at least, managingto cast a spell similar to 2019 despite the challenges thrown up by the pandemic. For all the fury overthe reverse migration, the tyranny of the lockdown, the insufficient economic relief and a tanking GDP,issues which hurt the voters the most, he still was trusted to steer the State out of its morass withCentral inventions and packages. It means that the common voter has by and large endorsed his larg-er economic relief packages and bought into his populism. Modi further seems to have supplantedthe need for a federal leader, shrinking the JD(U) and making its leader Nitish Kumar more dependenton him. Bihar seems to be okay with the idea of becoming an extension counter of the Central Governmentand being ruled by anybody it chooses, even if it is Nitish, as long as he is a BJP tag-along. The otherbig story of the election concerns the spoilers, the smaller parties that got about 18 per cent of thevote and ended fragmenting the negative vote significantly to the BJP’s advantage, notable among thembeing the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP), which hurt both the JD(U) and the RJD. If the BJP indeed usedLJP and its young Dalit leader Chirag Paswan to undercut JD(U) and make the latter beholden to it, asis being speculated, then the strategy has worked. The AIMIM, led by Asauddin Owaisi, has similarlychipped away the Muslim vote to the RJD’s disadvantage. The biggest loser has got be the Congress,which has had the worst strike rate in converting seats contested to wins, with the Left stealing a marchover it while contesting in far lesser seats. One cannot discount the X-factor, the women, who turnedout more than men, by five per cent, and along with Nitish’s prohibition may have been swayed byCentral schemes to swing the arc for the BJP-led combine.
Does the verdict mean the end of the social justice era in Bihar where the BJP typifies changedaspirations across classes and a stability that have taken the voters out of silos? Caste is still impor-tant but, as Tejashwi understood rather late in the day, it needed to graduate to the next level of eco-nomic empowerment. Hence he made the unconditional offer of 10 lakh jobs. The BJP, while lettingthe public discourse be determined by what Nitish did or did not do, had worked armada-like on arith-metic and last mile conversion. Significantly, it worked silently on increasing its own presence, lettingthe social justice forces battle it among themselves. It improved its prospects in areas like West Champaranand Seemanchal, while in Kosi, Mithila and Tirhut regions, it counter-polarised the votes. True, it didneed Nitish at one time to widen its span across social and caste groups and win acceptability throughthem but now seems to have achieved some unanimity of appeal. But though it may harbour ambi-tions of assuming chief ministership, it won’t hasten its run, being careful not to appear as an oppor-tunist. Unless Nitish wants to step down on his own. For Tejashwi, who has attempted to cross thecomfort of RJD bastions and venture into the rural belt, the job is cut out. He started rather late in theday but now needs to take his appeal deep into the soil and invest time and effort to convert the mag-netism of optics to a bonafide verdict next time round. As for Nitish, this could be his last tenure ofchief ministership given his age and perhaps that’s one of the reasons that the BJP may indulge himawhile. Besides, Nitish’s soft image can act as a buffer for its ambitions.
Bihar tug of war
ISRO launches EOS-01Sir — The Indian SpaceResearch Organisation(ISRO) has launched anearth observation satellite,EOS-01, along with ninecustomer satellites onboardits polar rocket from theSatish Dhawan Space Centrein Sriharikota. This is India’sfirst space mission in almosta year.
With this, ISRO has suc-cessfully overcome manyconstraints to meet thedeadline during the ongoingCOVID-19 crisis.
EOS-01 is a RadarImaging Satellite (RISAT)that will work together withRISAT-2B and RISAT-2BR1launched last year and isintended for applications inagriculture, forestry and dis-aster management support.It will aid in providing all-weather surveillance usingSynthetic Aperture Radar(SAR).
Also, there are indica-tions that ISRO could belaunching ten such satel-lites in this series in quicksuccession.
M PradyuKannur
Diwali gloom Sir — The decision to ban fire-crackers during Diwali byseveral State Governments isa welcome step. However, thisshould have been done muchearlier as across the country,thousands of families dependon this seasonal business fortheir livelihood and in placeslike Sivakasi in Tamil Nadu, it
is the mainstay of the econo-my. Prior to the ban, productshad already been shipped todifferent States but paymentswere yet to be made. Now,with the ban being imple-mented, they would notreceive the due credit amountand the workers will be left ina lurch. Keeping in view therising number of COVID-19cases and the high level of air
pollution across India, theState Governments shouldhave taken the decision beforethe stocks even arrived in themarket.
M Raghuraman Mumbai
Farmer-friendly projectsSir — The UnionGovernment is workingtowards boosting the food
processing industries byapproving 21 projects, lever-aging investment worth ̀ 443crore supported with a grantof `189 crore under thescheme for Integrated ColdChain and Value Addition.Also, eight projects, leverag-ing investment worth `62crore with a grant of ̀ 15 croreunder the scheme forCreation of Backward andForward Linkages, wereapproved. These are likely togenerate employment fornearly 12,600 people and ben-efit around 2,00,592 farmers.The projects are spread across10 States — Punjab, AndhraPradesh, Gujarat, Jammu andKashmir, Himachal Pradesh,Nagaland, Kerala, Punjab,Uttarakhand, Telangana,Nagaland.
These will provide effec-tive and seamless backwardand forward integration forthe processed food industryby plugging the gaps in thesupply chain in terms of avail-ability of raw material andlinkages with the market.
Social justice & moreAn add-on to the identity politics in economic terms and a credible political
face to deliver it are important takeaways from the Bihar elections
The BJP is a disciplined party,functioning on the support of itsworkers. The Congress is a partyrun by leaders. In the comingdays, the Congress is going todisintegrate more and more.
BJP parliamentarian—Narhari Amin
Battleground Bengal
The Assembly election in West Bengal, scheduledto be held in 2021, is going to be a fierce bat-tle between the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool
Congress (TMC) and the BJP. The current politicalsituation indicates that the Left parties, which haveruled the State for about three decades before theTMC dislodged them, have lost the political ground.And the Indian National Congress party's conditionis no better. This has fuelled BJP's ambitions to occu-py the political space against the ruling TMC.
Buoyed by its impressive performance in 2019general elections, winning 18 Lok Sabha seats andsecuring 40.64 per cent votes, which were just threeper cent less than TMC, BJP is high on hopes to con-quer the politically significant State in eastern India.On the other hand, Banerjee's rule hasn't lived upto the expectations of the people. The catchy TMCslogan “Parivartan” (change) in 2011 Assembly elec-tions, promising a turnaround in the State, has provedhollow. Bengal hasn't witnessed substantial changes
in terms of rate of development, law and order, cor-ruption, political murders and other key parameters.The legacy left behind by the Left parties has beencontinued by the Banerjee Government. In this con-text, West Bengal, which has a huge potential to grow,needs a change of Government.
Tejashwi chases BJP and Nitish to the finish line and proves he is here to stay. BJP scores with Modi magic
Trump is challenging the timing of Pfizer’s COVID vaccine aspolitically motivated, says he is being robbed of credit due to him
SATISH K JHA
I will leave the presidentialpalace and go to myhome. History and thePeruvian people will judgethe decisions that eachone of us makes.
Peruvian President —Martin Vizcarra
L E T T E R S T O TT H E E D I T O R
S O U N D B I T EWe have to respect the fact he(Virat Kohli) wants to be there forthe birth of his first child. We'relooking forward to seeing himhere (in Australia) for seven out of the 10 matches.
Cricket Australia CEO—Nick Hockley
NITISH SEEMS TOBE BOTH A
BENEFICIARY ANDVICTIM OF SOCIAL
JUSTICEPOLITICS. HE AND
LALU PRASADYADAV HAVE
BEEN ITSARCHITECTS.
TOGETHER, THEYHAVE EVENLYSHARED THE
RULING YEARS,SETTING THE
POLITICALNARRATIVE AND
EVEN FORCINGTHE NATIONAL
PARTIES TO PLAYSECOND FIDDLE
TO THEM
op nion 06
Biden’s Bharat policy
IF THE DIRECTION OF SATELLITES TO MARS AND
MOON CAN BE CONTROLLED FROM THE EARTH, THEN
WHY CAN’T EVM BE HACKED?
—CONGRESS LEADER
UDIT RAJ
TIME TO STOP BLAMING EVMS. THERE HAVE BEEN
DOUBTERS IN ALL PARTIES, PARTICULARLY WHEN
THE RESULTS DON’T GO IN THEIR FAVOUR.
—CONGRESS LEADER
KARTI CHIDAMBARAM
POINTCOUNTERPOINT
If all goes well and President Donald Trump doesnot have his way in the courts, then on January20, 2021 the White House would have a new
occupant. President Trump will vacate the same towelcome President-elect Democrat Joe Biden as the46th President of the United States of America(POTUS). The US elections this time were followedworldwide because of the impact incumbentPresident Trump had over global geopolitics withhis peculiar style of functioning.
Though Biden defeated him with a convinc-ing majority, Trump is unhappy and making wildaccusations of electoral fraud has approached thecourts. In all fairness, Biden will succeed and Trumpwill have to concede. In the process Trump will beremembered as the first sitting POTUS who failedto secure a second term apart from his numerouscontroversial decisions. Biden will inherit anextremely divided US, a fallout of the “America First”policy of Trump. Soon, the process of transition willbegin when the outgoing administration will handover power to the transition team of Biden, who, too,will commence the process of announcing his trust-ed colleagues. The choice of members of his teamwill be the first indication of the mindset of the newPOTUS with relation to burning domestic and glob-al issues. Biden, more than experienced at 77, willnot only decide the future of US citizens but wouldalso have the capacity, capability, authority andresponsibility to shape global destiny. It is no won-der then that in India as well the election was fol-lowed very closely as it has traditionally enjoyed abipartisan relationship with the US.
Though change of presidency in the US has notmade much of a difference in the past irrespectiveof the party in power, this time the situation is dif-ferent because of the ongoing stand-off with anexpansionist and aggressive China as well as certaincontroversies at home leading to polarisation.
The nomination of Senator Kamala Harris asa running mate by Biden created a concern in thepower corridors in India due to her perceived anti-India stance and critical statements relating to abro-gation of Article 370 and the CitizenshipAmendment Act (CAA). Incidentally, both Bidenand Harris have a connection with India but it ishighly unlikely that it would have any effect on theirpolicy-making or relations with us. However, onething is certain, Biden is a friend of India and histrack record from his early days as a Senator till hisVice- Presidency under Barack Obama bears testi-mony to this fact.
Trump has left many problems for the newGovernment and naturally, Biden will prioritise thesequence and manner in which he decides to resolvethem. Going by the Democratic Party Platform (adocument akin to manifesto) India is not in the pri-ority list of the party. It refers to China, North Korea,Iran, the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific but doesnot mention India specifically. However, theDemocrats realised soon that ignoring India maycause them loss of critical Indian-American votesand the Biden campaign released a separate policypaper on Indo-US relations. Considering India’sstrategic location dominating the Indian Ocean, itssize and economy, no Government can afford toignore it.
Significantly, Biden has always espoused India’scause in the US and lobbied for its interests as anadmirer of the world’s largest democracy. He has alsobeen an advocate of deepening strategic engagement
with India, cooperating with New Delhion meeting global challenges as well asenhancing trade relations. He hasremained a strong believer of the fact thatIndia and the US are natural partners andhad a stellar role to play in approving theUS-India civil nuclear deal in 2008. It wasduring the Obama-Biden administra-tion that the US, for the first time,declared its support for the permanentmembership of India in an expanded andreformed United Nations SecurityCouncil. During the same administration,India was named as a “major defence part-ner,” making it eligible to be treated at parwith closest US allies as regards advancedand sensitive technologies needed tostrengthen our armed forces. There arefears that since more than 80 per centAmerican-Muslims voted in his favour,Biden’s policies may be pro-Muslim.However, any apprehension of the USinterfering in Kashmir is highly unfound-ed as Biden and Harris have both spokenout against human rights violations andthe Democrats have always been support-ive of India on Kashmir. Though in hisAgenda for Muslim-AmericanCommunities, Biden had condemned theNarendra Modi Government’s new citi-zenship Act and a separate attempt to builda population register that could providefuture justification to expel or target for-eigners, at the same time he had also com-mitted to strengthening Indo-US ties.
“The US and India will stand togeth-er against terrorism in all its forms andwork together to promote a region ofpeace and stability, where neither Chinanor any other country threatens its neigh-bours,” he wrote in an op-ed in anIndian-American newspaper in October.He is unlikely to change the Americanstance on Al Qaeda, the ISIS and other
radical jihadi organisations. Significantly,the Modi Government’s action againstmany foreign-funded NGOs and banningof Amnesty International has not gonedown well with many Democrats. Thereare bound to be differences of opinion onmany issues just like during the TrumpAdministration, but mutual discussionswould ensure that these do not affect thecooperation between the two nations onmany critical issues of mutual importance.
China’s expansionist policies, tradeand certain global problems like terrorismand climate change are the issues of con-cern for India. There is no doubt that onthese issues the Biden administration andIndia will have convergence. It is unlike-ly that Biden will release the pressure builton China by the Trump Administration.But he favours a consensus-basedapproach in dealing with Beijing as com-pared to the confrontationist stanceadopted by Trump.
Biden is in favour of strengtheningthe QUAD, the Indo-Pacific policy as wellas providing support to Taiwan andHong Kong. He wants to strengthen tieswith US allies, too, meaning the NATOand countries like Australia, Japan, thePhilippines and South Korea, proposinga grand Indo-Pacific Alliance. He has alsocommitted to strengthening militarycooperation between the US and India. Itis important to note that both nations hadsigned three agreements for closer mili-tary cooperation in the backdrop of thegrowing tension with China under Trump.Biden has a very different approach to cli-mate change which is likely to benefit Indiain terms of green funding.
As far as trade is concerned, Biden isgoing to be less obtrusive than Trump.India already enjoys a trade surplus withthe US. It accounts for nearly five per cent
of US’ services imports from the world,too. The US is the fifth-largest source ofForeign Direct Investment (FDI) in Indiaand the Indian stock market is alreadyshowing a positive impact like the WallStreet.
There may not be much change in theH1-B visa regime but the informationtechnology industry is likely to benefit.Despite good personal relations betweenTrump and Modi, the much-awaitedtrade deal between the two countries couldnot be finalised. Keeping in view thepromised focus of Biden on rebuilding theCOVID-hit economy of the US, chancesof expecting any concessions appear dim.
Biden, however, had been an advocateof strengthening trade relations and Indiawould expect restoration of theGeneralised System of Preferences (GSP)benefits from his Government. However,it remains to be seen if the new adminis-tration uses the same as a leverage for itsdifferences on certain issues with the ModiGovernment. Even Modi expressed thesame hope in his congratulatory messageto the President-elect. He tweeted, “As the(Vice President), your contribution tostrengthening Indo-US relations was crit-ical and invaluable. I look forward toworking closely together once again to takeIndia-US relations to greater heights.”
India has embarked on the path ofAtmanirbhar Bharat to meet the challengesof a post-COVID era. Despite temptationsand provocations, our nation has so farresisted joining any camp but instead hascontinued with its strategy of need-basedbilateral or multilateral agreements inkeeping with its national interests. Wemust continue on the same path.
(The author is a Jammu-based veter-an, political commentator, columnist, secu-rity and strategic analyst)
The President-elect has always espoused India's cause in the US and lobbied for Indianinterests as an admirer of the world's largest democracy
07F I R S T C O L U M N
A fine mess inEthiopia again
GWYNNE DYER
In only a week, it has worked its way up from localclashes to air strikes. This is so reckless that itmakes US politics look demure by comparison
ANIL GUPTA
DESPITETEMPTATIONS
ANDPROVOCATIONS,
INDIA HAS SO FAR
RESISTEDJOINING ANY
CAMP BUTINSTEAD HAS
CONTINUED WITH ITS
STRATEGY OFNEED-BASED
BILATERAL ORMULTILATERAL
AGREEMENTS INKEEPING WITH ITS
NATIONALINTERESTS.
WE MUSTCONTINUE
ON THE SAME PATH
Americans should congratulate themselves. Their election sys-tem is definitely better than Ethiopia’s. In fact, it works sowell that there’s unlikely to be another American civil war.
The US, a federal country with a complex and decrepit voting sys-tem, has nevertheless just held a national election despite abouta quarter-million of COVID-19 deaths. President Donald Trump isfinding it hard to process his defeat, but the system itself workedfine despite the pandemic.
Ethiopia, another federal country with one-third of America’spopulation but less than one-hundredth of the US’ COVID deathrate, should have held its scheduled election this autumn too, butPrime Minister Abiy Ahmed postponed it “because of theCoronavirus pandemic.” That was a very serious mistake.
The Government of the Tigray region of Ethiopia accused Abiyof needless delay, and when he refused to change his mind, it wentahead and held the election in Tigray anyway. Abiy said the newly-elected Government of Tigray (same as the old Government) wasillegal because he had postponed the elections. On its part, Tigraysaid the Federal Government was illegal because it had unilater-ally extended its mandate instead of holding the elections, and bothsides went to war.
In only a week, they’ve worked their way up from local clash-es to air strikes. This is so stupid and reckless that it makes USpolitics look positively demure by comparison. To be fair, though,Ethiopia has only recently emerged from 45 years of revolution,White and Red terror, renewed tyranny, more revolution, and prac-tically non-stop civil and international war. Ethiopia is a really hardplace to govern. When Abiy Ahmed was appointed Prime Ministertwo years ago by the ruling coalition, the Ethiopian People’sRevolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), he was the first Oromoever to govern the country, even though the Oromo are the largestof Ethiopia’s many ethnic groups (a third of the population). Theyhave been unhappy for a long time, so that was a plus.
So was the fact that he was the son of a Christian-Muslimmarriage, useful in a country that is two-thirds Christian, one-thirdMuslim. And Abiy’s intentions were good: He immediately set aboutto dismantle the stranglehold on power of the various ethnic mili-tias that had fought and won the long war against the Derg, theprevious Communist dictatorship. The most powerful of those mili-tias is the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).
Tigray, the country’s northernmost province, has only six mil-lion people, a mere five per cent of Ethiopia’s population, but Tigrayansoldiers and politicians have dominated the EPRDF coalition andGovernment for most of the last 30 years because of their his-toric role in the war against the Derg.
The Tigrayan political elite’s privilege was widely resented, andit was time for it to end. Last year Abiy tried to do that by merg-ing all the ethnic militia-based parties into a single Prosperity Party,but the TPLF leadership wouldn’t play ball. They had always livedin the castle, and nobody was going to make them go and livewith the commoners. It is, alas, as simple as that, and perhaps amore accomplished civilian politician could have finessed it: Cabinetposts, ambassadorships and/or fat lifetime pensions for the moreflexible Tigrayan leaders, discreet but massive bribes for the greed-ier ones, and a couple of fatal “accidents” for the hardest nuts tocrack.
Abiy Ahmed, despite a background in Intelligence work thatshould have given him good political skills, is inflexible and con-frontational. The cascade of threats, counter-threats and ultima-tums between him and the TPLF leadership is now culminatingin what amounts to a Tigrayan war of secession. It could be a longfight because Tigrayans are over-represented in the armed forcesand much of the army’s heavy weapons and equipment, whichwere based in Tigray because of the border war with Eritrea, hasfallen into the TPLF’s hands. The TPLF has no air force, but it canmatch the federal army in everything, up to and including mech-anised divisions.
Ethiopia is Africa’s second-biggest country, very poor but witha fast-growing economy. The very last thing it needs is yet anoth-er civil war, which in current circumstances could also lead to otherregions trying to secede. Even if the TPLF was trying to provokea war (which looks quite likely), Abiy Ahmed’s first duty was toavoid it at all costs. They gave Abiy Ahmed the Nobel Peace Prizelast year for bringing Ethiopia’s 22-year border war with Eritrea toa formal end but that award has been going downhill ever sinceHenry Kissinger got one. They even gave one to Myanmar leaderAung San Suu Kyi, who now goes around condoning genocide.Maybe we also need a Nobel Booby Prize.
(Gwynne Dyer’s new book is ‘Growing Pains: The Future ofDemocracy and Work’)
For those of us living in metropo-lises and other urban areas, weath-er forecasts are mostly a dreary
flow of information on temperature,humidity levels and possibilities of rain-fall. Urban dwellers are more worriedabout pollution levels, the ambient AirQuality Index (AQI) and whether thenext few days will see the cityenveloped in choking smog. Keepingabreast of the smog quotient is vital forurban dwellers as it not only impactstheir health and outdoor activities butwould also mean kicking in of theGraded Response Action Plan (GRAP),which includes measures such as pro-hibition on entry of trucks, ban on con-struction activities, introduction ofodd and even scheme for private vehi-cles, shutting of schools, closure of brickkilns, hot mix plants and stone crush-
ers, shutting down of power plants, banon diesel generator sets, bonfires andgarbage burning in landfills and so on.But apart from concerns about smogand the AQI in the winter months,weather forecasts are not so vital for citydwellers. In fact, during the monsoonseason they are a butt of jokes owingto the inaccuracy of predictions.
But in other parts of India, awayfrom the towering skyscrapers and pol-lution, where the highest landmarks areeither trees or mountains, weatherforecasts are a vital source of informa-tion. The farming community of Indiarelies heavily on weather inputs andgrowers plan their crop cycles, rotationpatterns, pesticide use and so on,based on them. Thankfully, over thedecades, the dissemination of weather-related information has made majorprogress. And owing to vast cellular net-works and affordable smartphone tech-nologies, farmers in many remoteparts of India have weather data liter-ally on their fingertips.
However, these conditions, asheartening as they may seem, do notexist uniformly throughout the realmof Indian agriculture and some seriousanomalies exist in the form of stark eco-nomic disparities within the agricultur-
al community. Even as farmers withsizeable land holdings, access to funds,quality seeds, livestock and farm equip-ment struggle to make a profit, the con-dition of small and marginal farmersremains abominable and seems to getworse with each passing year. Evendecades of economic progress of thenation do not seem to have improvedthe lot of these underprivileged farm-ers whose fragmented landholdings areunable to produce bumper crops.
This ensures that the farmerkeeps getting deeply entangled in thecomplex web of debt and falling pro-duce. Knee-jerk policies, such as therecent farm Acts, that raise doubtsabout the welfare of the growers, make
matters worse. Given these trying con-ditions, information on what the weath-er will bring in coming days is truly aGod-sent facility for all farmers.Particularly given the fact that climatechange-related disasters are wreakinghavoc on the farm sector. In 2019-20,extreme weather events adverselyimpacted 14 million hectares of farm-land in India. A recent survey by theNational Council of Applied EconomicResearch (NCAER) underscored theimportance of timely delivery of weath-er-related information to growers andconcluded that it had a significantlypositive impact on their income.
The survey, based on interviewswith nearly 4,000 agriculturalists,
helped gauge the economic impact ofIndia’s investments in the NationalMonsoon Mission (NMM) and High-Performance Computing (HPC) facil-ities. The findings showed that mitiga-tion, risk-avoidance and precautionaryactivities undertaken on the basis ofweather information paid off for thefarmers.
Similarly, the IndianMeteorological Department (IMD) inassociation with the Indian Council forAgricultural Research (ICAR) sentAgrometeorological Advisories to 22million farmers, through a network of130 agro-met field units. It was foundthat 80 per cent of the farmers who hadutilised these advisories could avoidsevere crop-related losses. However, theflow of information through theseadvisories is also not without problems.
In February 2018, the IMD issuedstorm and thundershower warnings forMaharashtra’s Nashik belt, which is tra-ditionally a grape-growing region withnearly 1,00,000 tonnes of grape exportto its credit each year. The advisorycompelled the grape farmers to advancetheir harvest process to escape theweather event. But soon, the IMD with-drew its forecast, resulting in prematuregrape harvest in the region and heavy
expenses were incurred by the farmerson labour for the same. These instancesspoil the credibility of the IMD andalienate farmers. In order to avoid theseconditions, the department must workon firming up its forecast ability andensure that retractions are not com-monplace as they play havoc with thefarming community’s fortunes.
Additionally, weather advisories aresometimes generic and lack district-level specifications, leaving the grow-ers confused whether or not to takeaction to protect their crop. The IMDmust overcome this flaw so that agri-culturalists are able to derive full ben-efit of a properly-issued forecast that ishigh on both minutiae details and accu-racy. There is information available onhow farmers are gaining because ofweather data availability but there is nocomprehensive data on how much theyhave lost due to a hastily-issued andretracted weather forecast or other fore-cast-related negligence. No informationdoes not mean that it has not happened.The Government must compile authen-tic data in this regard so that the extentof the problem is realised and counter-measures are taken.
(The writer is an environmentaljournalist)
Accurate weather forecast a mustThere is information on how farmers gain because of data availability but there is no data on how much they have lost due to a wrong forecast
KOTA SRIRAJ
VIJAYAWADA | WEDNESDAY | NOVEMBER 11, 2020
www.dailypioneer.com
F O R E I G N E Y E
TV viewing has remainedpopular due to its ability tocreate a communityexperience when we areisolated at home.“Escapism” is a word oftenused pejoratively, but smalldoses are necessary; theymake the larger bleaknesseasier to face. It is worthnoting that a fifth of the UKbarely uses the internet. Forthem, the BBC and Channel
4 are essential companions.What we are seeing may bea redefinition of publicservice broadcasting.
(The Guardian editorial)
TV VIEWING ISCHANGING
analysis
VIJAYAWADA | WEDNESDAY | NOVEMBER 11, 2020 Money 08
MONEY MATTERS
Gold prices tanked Rs 662to Rs 50,338 per 10 gram
in the national capital onTuesday, according to HDFCSecurities. In the previoustrade, the precious metal hadclosed at Rs 51,000 per 10gram. Silver prices alsotumbled Rs 1,431 to Rs62,217 per kilogram from Rs63,648 per kilogram in the previous trade. "Correction in gold pricesin India may attract festival buying ahead of auspicious'Dhanteras'," HDFC Securities Senior Analyst (Commodities) TapanPatel said. In the international market, gold was trading in thegreen at USD 1,886 per ounce, while silver was quoting flat at USD24.31 per ounce. "Gold prices earlier witnessed sell-off on vaccinehopes. However, prices recovered today on supportivefundamentals with dovish stance from central banks amid slowereconomic growth and ongoing lockdown in Europe," Patel added.
Gold tanks Rs 662, silver tumbles Rs 1,431
PNS n NEW DELHI
Impacted by the COVID-19pandemic states are likely to cutcapital outlay on infrastructureby up to 40 per cent, ratingagency ICRA said on Tuesday.
States account for 37-40 percent of the total infrastructurecapital expenditure, it said.
The rating agency said majorstates together had a budgetedcapital outlay of over Rs 5.7lakh crore for 2020-21 asagainst revised estimate of Rs5.1 lakh crore in 2019-20.
"However, with COVID-19severely impacting revenuesof state governments, and addi-tional expenditure towardshealthcare and public welfare,the capital outlay on infrastruc-ture by states could decline 10-40 per cent in FY2021," ICRAsaid in a statement.
It said some states could wit-ness a steeper decline depend-
ing on the extent of addition-al borrowings, which is availed.
With COVID-19 and therelated slowdown in the eco-nomic activities, states are star-ing at a significant decline intheir revenues, which in turncould push them to cut downon discretionary expenditureincluding deferment of capitaloutlay.
"Furthermore, of the Rs 111trillion worth infrastructureinvestments planned underthe National InfrastructurePipeline (NIP), about 40 percent is from state governments.
"NIP envisages the state'sbudgetary outlay on capitalinvestments to be around 1.7per cent of GDP and states areexpected to fund 24-26 per
cent of the total expenditureunder NIP," the statement said.
Shubham Jain, Senior Vice-President and Group Head,Corporate Ratings, ICRA saidwhile on one hand states willgenerate lower revenues, theywould also need to increaseexpenditure towards healthcareand social welfare.
Various policy measures inresponse to COVID-19 couldcost over 0.3 per cent of GDP.
"Hence, to reduce the impactstates are likely to curtail somerevenue expenditure as well ascapital expenditure. In the
past, states had cut their capi-tal expenditure by an averageof 0.5 per cent of GDP to meetfiscal deficit targets.
"Given the current fiscalposition, it is likely that stateswould cut the capex by a high-er proportion in FY2021.However, capex in health andeducation sectors couldincrease,” Jain said.
To bridge the shortfall, states'unconditional borrowing limithas been raised from 3 per centof gross state domestic product(GSDP) to 4 per cent of GSDPfor 2020-21, the statement said.
States likely to cut capital outlayon infra due to pandemic: ICRA
With Covid and the related slowdownin the economic activities, states arestaring at a significant decline, whichin turn could push them to cut down ondiscretionary expenditure includingdeferment of capital outlay
PNS n MUMBAI
Extending its winning streakfor the seventh straight session,equity benchmark Sensexsoared 680 points to scaleanother lifetime high onTuesday, tracking a globalmarket rally driven by Pfizer'sCOVID-19 vaccine trials data.
After touching its lifetimepeak of 43,316.44 during theday, the 30-share BSE indexended 680.22 points or 1.60per cent higher at 43,277.65.
The broader NSE Nifty tootouched a fresh intra-day highof 12,643.90. It ended at12,631.10, up 170.05 points or1.36 per cent.
Bajaj Finance was the topgainer in the Sensex pack,surging around 9 per cent, fol-lowed by IndusInd Bank, L&T,Bajaj Finserv, HDFC, SBI,ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank,ONGC and Axis Bank.
On the other hand, TechMahindra, HCL Tech, Infosys,Nestle India, Sun Pharma and
TCS closed in the red. "Announcements by
BioNTech and Pfizer aboutsuccessful phase 3 trial ofCOVID-19 vaccine instilledconfidence among investorsand possibility of sustainedeconomic recovery led sharpbuying in beaten down stocks,"said Arjun Yash Mahajan,Head Institutional Business atReliance Securities.
Favourable global marketsand NDA's surprising lead inBihar assembly elections also
supported the rally, he added.However, champions that
emerged during pandemic likeIT and pharma stocks wit-nessed sharp profit booking, henoted.
Pfizer and BioNTech onMonday said their vaccinecandidate was found to bemore than 90 per cent effectivein preventing COVID-19.
Elsewhere in Asia, boursesin Hong Kong, Seoul andTokyo ended with gains, whileShanghai settled lower.
Procter & Gamble Hygiene andHealth Care on Tuesday
reported a 85.51 per cent jump inprofit at Rs 253.86 crore for thefirst quarter ended September.The company had posted a profitof Rs 136.84 crore in the year-agoperiod, it said in a regulatoryfiling. The company follows July-
June financial year. Total income during the quarter under reviewstood at Rs 1,019.01 crore as compared to Rs 863.16 crore in theyear-ago period, a growth of 18.05 per cent. The companyattributed the increase in profit to "focus on productivity, one-timehurt in the corresponding quarter of the previous year, and a one-time help in the current quarter". Madhusudan Gopalan, ManagingDirector, Procter & Gamble Hygiene and Health Care Ltd said: “Wedelivered strong top and bottom-line results in a challenging marketenvironment. With the easing of the lockdown, we are witnessinggradual market recovery in the health and hygiene categories."Shares of the company settled 10.91 per cent higher at Rs11,344.20 apiece on BSE.
The Uttar PradeshCommercial Taxes
Department has unearthedthree shell firms involved inbogus sale of mentha oil, anofficial said on Tuesday.Of these three bogus firms,two were from Bareilly andone from Shahjahanpur, theofficial said. AdditionalCommissioner of
enforcement team RK Pandey said 18 firms in Shahjahanpur andBareilly were probed by the department. "Two bogus firms in Bareily-- MS Enetrprises and Shyam Traders -- and Hindustan Traders ofShahjahanpur, existed only on papers. All the documents of thethese firms relating to sale and purchase are being probed," Pandeysaid.
Three shell firms detected in UP
TVS Supply Chain Solutions onTuesday said Japan-based Mitsubishi
Corporation has made investments foran 'undisclosed sum', picking upminority stakes in the company. Theinvestment in TVS Group company byMitsubishi Corporation is through asecondary market transaction allowingTata Opportunities Fund to secure a'partial exit,' a company statement said.The Tata Opportunities Fundwhich came on board as a minority partner in TVS in 2015, hasmade multiple rounds of further investments in TVS Supply ChainSolutions to further its growth. With the investment by MitsubishiCorporation, Tata Opportunities Fund would continue to hold a'residual stake' besides remaining a 'key strategic investmentpartner' for TVSSupply Chain Solutions. "TVS SCS has successfullypivoted into new segments and addressed opportunities arising outof COVID through customer-focused offerings...," companymanaging director R Dinesh said. "Our innovative solutions anddifferentiated approach make TVS Supply Chain Solutions apreferred supply chain partner to our clients. Through ourpartnership with Mitsubishi Corporation, we aim to accelerate ourgrowth in the years to come," he added. The latest round ofinvestment (by Mitsubishi Corporation) would further strengthenTVS Supply Chain Solutions' leadership position to a much largerfootprint, extending the complete suite of digital supply chainsolutions and value added services, the statement said.
Mitsubishi picks up minority stakein TVS Supply Chain Solutions
PNS n NEW DELHI
Gold exchange-traded funds(ETFs) witnessed an inflow ofRs 384 crore in October, a dropof 35 per cent from the preced-ing month, as investors are opt-ing to invest money directlyinto equities.
This also marked uninter-rupted inflow for the seventhconsecutive month, althoughthe pace of investment intogold ETFs have been trendingdownwards since July.
Such instruments saw aninflow of Rs 922 crore in July,Rs 908 crore in August, Rs 597crore in September and Rs384 crore in October, datawith the Association of MutualFunds in India (Amfi) showed.
With the latest inflow, net
infusion in a gold exchange-traded fund or ETF categoryhas reached to Rs 6,341 crorein the first eight months(January-October) of the year.
"Though the net inflowscontinue to remain positive, the
pace has decreased consider-ably. This trend can be corre-lated with the trends in equi-ties. Increasing economic activ-ity, buoyant equity markets,uncertainty ending with USpresidential elections, hopes of
a coronavirus vaccine are push-ing investors to opt for riskierinvestments, through directequities," said GopalKavalireddi, head of research atFYERS.
Gold, considered a safehaven and a hedge againstother riskier asset classes, hastaken a back seat at the currenttime.
"After an excellent year in2019 and in the first half of2020, capital flows have shift-
ed into equities," he added.Harshad Chetanwala of
MyWealthGrowth.com said thecontinuous surge in gold pricescame to a halt in the first weekof August. From there on, goldprices started receding andlater remained range-boundfor a couple of months.
"In the last six months,August had seen the highestinflows in gold ETF as a dropin the gold price was lookedupon as an opportunity by
investors because they antici-pated gold prices to increase infuture," he said.
However, in subsequentmonths the prices haveremained between Rs 50,000and Rs 52,000. This hasimpacted the inflows asinvestors have witnessed surge,drop and volatility in gold,which is very much like howgold prices have behaved in thepast, he added.
old has the tendency to dowell during the crisis and thenremain flattish for quite sometime.
The inflows meant assetsunder management (AUM) ofgold ETFs climbed to Rs 13,862crore at the end of October,from Rs 13,622 crore atSeptember-end.
Inflow in gold ETF’s drops 35 pc to Rs 384 cr in Oct
PNS n NEW DELHI
Suitors for the troubled non-banking finance companyDewan Housing FinanceCorporation (DHFL) haveraised their offer price in therevised bids submitted for thecompany, sources said.
Adani Group, PiramalEnterprises, US-based Oaktreeand Hong Kong-based SCLowy have submitted 10-70 percent higher price for either astake in the company or buy-ing out some of its assets.
Oaktree Capital has raised itsbid price for the entire portfo-lio to Rs 33,000 crore from Rs27,800 crore earlier, sourceswith knowledge of the develop-ment said.
Piramal has significantlyrevised its bid for the retailbook to Rs 26,500 crore fromRs 15,000 crore offered earlier.
Adani Properties has alsoraised its bid for the wholesaleand Slum RehabilitationAuthority (SRA) assets to Rs3,000 crore from Rs 2,200crore earlier. It has also offered
Rs 50 crore for the slum rede-velopment book, they said.
SC Lowy has upped its bidfor the non-SRA book to Rs2,300 crore from Rs 1,550crore earlier. he new bids havebeen submitted after thelenders asked the bidders torevise their offer.
DHFL promoter KapilWadhawan had proposed totransfer the rights, title andinterest in at least 10 projectsvalued at Rs 43,879 crore and
settle the dues with banks.Wadhawan has written to theReserve Bank of India-appoint-ed administrator Subraman-iakumar saying that their offerwould ensure maximum valuefor the assets that have beenput on the block.
Promoters hold about 39.21per cent stake in DHFL.Bankers want promoters' staketo fall below 10 per cent afterthe stake sale as part of the res-olution plan.
A Committee of Creditors,overseeing the resolution plan,is expected to meet next weekto finalise the bidder.
The CoC was hoping tofinalise the resolution plan byNovember 16 before it couldsend it to the RBI for review.
ast month, the NationalCompany Law Tribunal(NCLT) had allowed 90 daysextension for the resolutionprocess till January 5.
ources said both OaktreeCapital and the PiramalGroup's offers factor in a littleunder Rs 10,000 crore cashfrom DHFL's books.
Currently, DHFL has cash ofalmost Rs 8,000 crore on itsbooks, which is expected to riseto Rs 10,000 crore by March -and this entire amount wouldbe used to repay lenders as perthe plans submitted so far.
DHFL's liquidation value isexpected to be around Rs25,000 crore, and the earlieroffers were not significantlyhigher than the amount,prompting lenders to call forrevised bids.
Adani, Piramal revise offers for DHFL
PNS n MUMBAI
The rupee depreciated 3 paiseto close at 74.18 (provisional)against the US dollar onTuesday, as higher crude oilprices and stronger dollaragainst key global currenciesweighed on sentiment.
The rise in crude oil priceshad a negative impact on thedomestic unit, but robustdomestic equities supportedthe rupee and restricted thefall, experts said.
At the interbank foreignexchange (forex), the domes-tic currency opened higher at74.04 a dollar, but could nothold the momentum andfinally settled 3 paise lower at74.18 against the greenback.
uring the session, thedomestic unit reached a highof 74.02 and touched 74.30 atthe lower end.
On Monday, the rupee hadlost 7 paise to close at 74.15
against the US dollar.The dollar index, which
gauges the greenback'sstrength against a basket of sixcurrencies, strengthened 0.17per cent to 92.87.
Meanwhile, Brent crudefutures, the global oil bench-mark, rose 1.34 per cent toUSD 42.97 per barrel.
In the equity market, the 30-share BSE Sensex ended680.22 points or 1.60 per centhigher at 43,277.65. It touchedits lifetime peak of 43,316.44during the day.
Similarly, the broader NSENifty too hit a fresh intra-dayhigh of 12,643.90. It ended at12,631.10, up 170.05 points or1.36 per cent.
"Rupee traded weak afterthe Reserve Bank of India(RBI) intervened in spot andthen paid in forward to neu-tralise liquidity a kind of swapseen when market needs tobalanced.
Rupee falls 3 paiseagainst US dollar
PNS n NEW DELHI
Gonuts, a celebrity commerceplatform, on Tuesday said ithas raised Rs 3.5 crore in seedfunding led by marqueeinvestors, Sweta Rau andArchana Priyadarshini.
9Unicorns, AngelList, LetsVenture, Pankaj Chaddah(Zomato co-founder)Ramakant Sharma, (LivSpaceco-founder), IIM IndoreAlumni Fund, Harshal Morde(Morde Foods) and other mar-quee angels and founders alsoparticipated in this round, astatement said.
Founded by VinamraPandiya, Mayank Gupta andJoji George in March this year,GoNuts aims to bridge the gapbetween celebrities and theirfans, and democratise talent tothe Indian and expatriateIndian diaspora.
Gonuts has a long termvision of creating India's largestcelebrity experience e-com-merce platform. It has a port-folio of over 700 celebritiesacross categories like films,television, sports and music.
his includes names likeShankar Mahadevan, Hans RajHans, Shaan, Kailash Kher,Sukhbir, Talat Aziz, ShibaniKashyap, Hariharan, Sivamani,Shivin Narang, Jonty Rhodes,Sumeet Verma, Ranveer BrarAshish Vidyarthi and Vicky
Ratnani. This gives users adiverse range of celebrities tochoose from to convey person-alised messages to their lovedones. he plan is to strengthenmarket leadership and followthrough on Gonuts' vision tobe Asia's largest and mostinfluential celebrity commerceplatform, Gonuts founderVinamra Pandiya said. We aimto on-board over 5,000 of themost influential and celebritiesby the next financial year andbe the unicorn out of India inthis category for the rest of theworld," Pandiya added.
PNS n NEW DELHI
Markets regulator Sebi hasset up an expert group toreview the framework ofshare-based employee benefitand issue of sweat equity.
The seven-member expertgroup would be chaired bySandip Bhagat Partner at S&RAssociates, an update withthe Securities and ExchangeBoard of India (Sebi) showed.
he expert group wouldrevisit the framework of share-based employee benefit andsuggest policy changes.
urther, the panel has beenmandated to revisit the frame-work of sweat equity regula-tions vis-a-vis the CompaniesAct, and recommend any pol-icy changes.
They have to suggestwhether it is advisable to com-bine both the regulations. Incase, these norms can be com-bined, the panel would providedraft rules in this regard.
Sweat equity shares, gener-ally, issued by a company to itsemployees at a discount or forconsideration other than cash.
Other members of the panelare Santosh Haldankar, com-pany secretary of HDFC Bank;Vikram Shroff of NishithDesai Associates and NarayanShankar, company secretary ofMahindra & Mahindra.
Further, Pavan Vijay,founder of CorporateProfessionals; M SanaullaKhan, company secretary ofWipro; and Sebi's ChiefGeneral Manager JeevanSonparote are also members ofthe panel.
PNS n NEW DELHI
IDFC Ltd on Tuesday report-ed narrowing of its consoli-dated net loss to Rs 146.68crore in the second quarterended September 30.
It had posted a net loss ofRs 407 crore in the corre-sponding quarter of the pre-vious financial year.Sequentially, the losseswidened against Rs 26.46crore in the first quarterended June 30.
However, Its total incomeduring July-September 2020grew 41.39 per cent to Rs91.54 crore as compared withRs 64.74 crore in the year-agoperiod, IDFC Ltd said in aregulatory filing.
Expenses during the sec-ond quarter of 2020-21 stoodat Rs 55.70 crore, against Rs65.95 crore a year ago.
On November 7, 2019, thegroup executed definitiveagreements with DharmeshMehta and other investors forthe sale of its entire invest-ment in IDFC Securities Ltd.
Gonuts raises Rs 3.5 cr fundingfrom Sweta Rau and 9Unicorns
IDFC net lossnarrows to Rs 147 cr inSept quarter
Gonuts has a longterm vision of creatingIndia's largestcelebrity experiencee-commerce platform
Sebi forms groupto review norms
Procter & Gamble and Health Q1net up 85.51 pc to Rs 254 crore
Instruments saw an inflow of Rs 922crore in July, Rs 908 crore in August,Rs 597 crore in September and Rs384 crore in October, data with theAmfi showed
WednesdayNovember 11, 2020
Follow us on
@TheDailyPioneer
facebook.com/dailypioneer
alki, who grabbedeveryone’s atten-tion with the roleshe plays on screenand rose to never-before fame with
his comic-romantic role inGundamma Katha, is allpepped and excited aboutplaying a contradictory roleas a Nagin in Nagabhairavi.The urge to see himself onscreen has made him quit hiswell-paid job and join an act-ing school. Taking usthrough his journey, Kalkishares, “After I finished myMA, I worked for ICICI.Despite having a well-paidjob, my heart was alwaysbeating for acting. After Isaved some money, I joined afilm institute run by lateDevadas Kanakala garu.After undergoing training fora month, I gave an auditionfor a serial. I got a call fromthe director of the serial say-ing, ‘Your audition is Ok, butI found your features andexpressions suitable for ahero’s role.’ He said he wouldgive me a month’s time andwould hire me in the leadrole if he finds any improve-
ment in my acting skills.That’s how I bagged my firstserial Kranthi. Later, I wenton to do many serials.”
Sharing one of the encoun-ters with a fan of his recently,the actor says, “I bumpedinto a woman recently andshe called me Cherry. Cherryis the name of the character Iplayed in Muddhu Bidda,many years ago. She said shenamed her son after my char-acter. It was overwhelming toreceive such love fromthe audience. In fact,I almost forgot thename of my char-acter until shereminded me.”
For Kalki,Gundamma Katharemains to be hisbest project so far.It’s one of the top-rated serials inthe afternoonslots currently.The actor saysthe characterhe plays, Ram,is so close tohim as it sym-bolises himoff-screen.
Kalki who plays a comic andromantic role in GundammaKatha is seen in an extremelyserious role, a Nagin’s charac-ter, in Nagabhairavi. Howdifficult was it for him toshift to a role that’s polesapart from the ones heplayed before? He tells us,“Even I wasn’t sure how wellI was faring. But, I have done
my homework. I watchedfilms like Punnami
Nagu andlearnt about
the expres-sions of a
Nagin,andthedirec-
torof
Nagabhairavi gets the bestout of someone. We did dothe groundwork for each andevery character before gettinginto this. I’m so immersed inthis character now thatsometimes even the peoplearound me are terrified bymy looks and remind me thatI’m Kalki and not a Nagin.”
For most of the actors, see-ing themselves on the silverscreen is an ultimate dream.Did Kalki too have any suchdream? He tells us, “AfterMudhu Bidda, I took a two-year break and made my tri-als to get into the film indus-try. But somewhere I felt Icouldn’t succeed there andreturned with GundammaKatha to the small screen. Igot a lead role in one of thefilms and 60 per cent of thefilm was done. Because ofdemonetisation, the film wasshelved. You need to get abreak to succeed in films. Ialso missed out on a fewgood films because of dateclashes with on-going serials.I don’t care if it’s a hero’scharacter or that of a villain,I will definitely give the audi-ence a good ride with myfilm in the future.”
Speaking about OTTbecoming new theatres, Kalkisays, “OTTs have openeddoors to many actors whocouldn’t succeed on the bigscreen. It gave employmentto many people and became ahaven for young directorsand actors. Even the serialsthat we miss on Televisioncan be watched there. Serialsaired on OTTs are also gain-ing good viewership now.”
IS REFINED OIL REALLY FINE?
oo One of the reasons for the extensive increaseof cancer in the body can be attributed toover-heated refined oil.
oo Preservatives added during the refiningprocess are bad for our digestive system andcan potentially cause ulcers, gastricproblems and tumours.
oo Increased oxidation and rancidity in edibleoil can affect our respiratory system.
oo The high temperature involved in the refiningprocess removes all the natural andbeneficial substances from it increasing thetrans-fats which is detrimental to yourheart's health.
Now you know what to look for, when buyingedible oils, one of them being, to definitely ruleout refined ones!
hen it comes to eat-ing healthy, it startswith what are you’recooking with. Withendless choicesstored in shelves, it’s
hard to figure what tochoose. Butter, extra virginolive oils or refined oilslike canola and vegetableand what not! It’s a knownfact that heating vegetableoils lead to oxidation,which in turn forms intotrans fats or mega transfats. These two fats areresponsible for the genera-tion of free radicals thatare pro-inflammatory asthese fats are unsaturated.
When it comes to havinga healthy diet the first andforemost healthy transfor-mation is done by chang-ing the type of oil you usefor cooking. Normally,where you start talkingabout cooking oils,whether it is refined orunrefined, most peoplereact like it’s no big deal as
most see every oil in themarket as edible and harm-less. We are bombardedwith different kind ofadvertisements regardingedible vegetable oils. Farfrom educating us, they doa really good job at confus-ing us! The expectations ofmost customers these daysare a specific goldencolour, odour-free andflavour-free oil, which hasa long shelf life. But is thatall? Are these preferenceseven right?
“When free-floatingfatty acids increase in ourbody, they distort manycells and one such vitalfunction triggers dysfunc-tion of the muscle cell.When fatty acids interferewith the formation ofsomething called the‘microtubule’, they areresponsible for musclecontraction. When micro-tubules are not built ade-quately inside the cell andfat build-up increases,
then the cell enters a stateof decay called ‘lipo-apop-tosis’. This leads to inflam-mation and cell death,which is extremely danger-ous! It’s important to strikethe right balance betweenyour real food mission andreality,” enlightens DrHaseeb Jafferi, a pharma-cognosist, who helps usunderstand the dangersand side effects of con-suming refined oil.
The market is full of refined oilstelling you they’re good for yourgut. You also hear that unrefinedoils are the best. But what's thetruth? Dr Haseeb Jafferi, apharmacognosist, in conversationwith The Pioneer’s SHIKHADUGGAL, answers them all
W
Smooth shift from boy-next-door to a Nagin
Raja, popularly known as Kalki Raja, synonymous with playing boy-next-door and soft characters, has now taken up the challenge of playing a male-Nagin , acharacter he has never done before. Kalki, who also turned producer with ZeeTelugu’s Nagabhairavi, talks to The Pioneer’s K RAMYA SREE about his roles,wanting to get into the film industry, the OTT platforms and more
K
out of the
BOX
ANAYA SHAH IN AROMANTIC TRACK
naya Shah,who was lastseen inFikraan, will befeaturing in asong sung by
popular playback singerAnkit Tiwari. No matterhow hard we try to definethe word ‘love’, it's justwon’t suffice. More impor-tantly, saying ‘I Love You’to the one we want to, getseven tougher, so thanks tothe thousands of romanticsongs that make it easierto express what we can’tput into words.
Sometimes, all we needis that right romantictrack to connect with ourheart and Anaya Shah’snew song could be just theone for you. The song isgoing to take you to azone of two parallel emo-tions — romance-cum-tragedy. It is currentlybeing shot at GoraiBeach, Maharashtra.The song also featuresrenowned YouTuberMahesh Keshwala,who has been
making
headlines for his spoofcontent online.
Anaya shares, “I amvery excited about thisopportunity. Featuring ina song sung by Ankit sir isa dream come true. Hehas a beautiful voice andthe song is even morebeautiful. It will take lis-teners on a nostalgia tripand probably even makesome of them shed crazytears. It’s going to be out
reallysoon
and it’s getting tougher bythe day for me to holdthese butterflies insideme.”
The pain, the love andthe feeling of wantingsomeone is sure to makelisteners realise the beautyof this track. Anaya Shah,who has a huge socialmedia fandom, looksextremely gorgeous in thestills released from thevideo. The music videowill be directed by acedirector Sidhaant Sachdevand is produced by VoilaDigi. Only a song createdby such maestros can dowonders, adding that extraessence to it!
A
10
Vijayawada Wednesday November 11 2020
FUN
Rules
ARCHIE
GARFIELD
SUDOKU
REALITY CHECK SPEED BUMP CROSSWORD
GINGER MEGGS
NANCY
CALVIN AND HOBBES
l Each row and column cancontain each number (1 to 9)exactly once.
l The sum of all numbers inany row or column mustequal 45.
Yesterday’s solution
CELEBS GET ‘CO-ORDINATED'
rom KanganaRanaut, DeepikaPadukone to AliaBhatt, Bollywood’sleading fashion-istas make impec-
cable statements withtheir unique fashionsense.
Despite their style ofdressing being polesapart, off late, one trendseems to have caught thefancy of them all e ‘co-ords’. Many actresses havebeen spotted flauntingthe coordinated look,which is created by wear-ing a matching two-pieceset. From skirt sets, suit-ed-up, pant suits, co-ordsare probably the trendiestoptions this season. Getinspired by these looks:
Deepika Padukone
Deepika makes a boldstatement in a pair of co-ordinated black leatherpant and a matching tur-tle-neck in leather. A pairof black pumps and withher hair pulled back in asleek ponytail, she showsshe means business.
Soman Kapoor Ahuja
The biggest fashionistaamongst them all, SonamKapoor, looks millennialcool in an icy-blue ath-leisure suit. A pair of blue
sneakers and shades com-pletes the trendy look.
Ananya Panday
The Bollywood newbielooks pretty as a daisy inher chocolate brown co-ords. She turns up theheat with a bandeau top,matching silk pants andhair carelessly thrownover her shoulders inbeachy waves.
Alia Bhatt
Alia looks trendy in herblue and white chequeredco-ord set. The crop topwith plunging necklinewith matching lose pantsare perfect for a balmywinter afternoon. Don’tforget to accessorise witha pair of heart-shapedsunnies.
Kangana Ranaut
The ‘Queen’ who courtscontroversy can’t beblamed for this chicensemble. The starrecently posted a pictureof herself, dressed in acharcoal grey woollenskirt with a matchingcardigan. Keeping herhair naturally curly andmake-up neutral withsmoky eyes, the TanuWeds Manu actor is per-fectly dressed for the win-ter.
F
ctress KanganaRanaut has a mes-sage for peoplewho often ask herto be quiet onTwitter, saying
they have the option tounfollow her. She addsif they do not use thatoption, then they areobsessed with her.
“All the fans whokeep checking mytweets all day and keepdeclaring they arebored/tired and ask meto stay quiet shouldMute/unfollow or Blockme, if you don’t thenyou are clearly obsessed.Don’t love me like ahater but if you don’tknow any better then gofor it,” Kangana tweeted.
Back in August,Kangana joined socialmedia, taking overaccounts that were orig-inally run by her team.Since then, she uses themedium to express herstate of mind, give heropinionon
several issues and sendout professionalupdates.
Recently, the actresstweeted support forKamala Harris, the USvice president-elect.
“Not sure about GajniBiden whose data crash-es every 5 minutes, allthe medicines they haveinjected into him hewon’t last more than ayear, clearly KamalaHarris will run theshow. When one womanrises, she makes the wayfor every woman.Cheers to this historicday,” she posted.
Kangana will soon beseen in Thalaivi, whichis an upcoming bilin-gual biopic of lateJayalalithaa. The filmtraces the journey of thelate Tamil leader fromsilver screen to politics.It is directed by ALVijay, and also starsArvind Swami, PrakashRaj, Madhoo andBhagyashree.
The actress also hasTejas and Dhaakad
coming up.
Kangana repliesto people askingher to be silenton Twitter
A
what’s brewing?
Beyonce's daughterBlue Ivy Carter turns
narrator for audiobooklue Ivy Carter, daughter ofBeyonce and Jay-Z, will nar-rate the audiobook for HairLove, which is based on anOscar-winning short film byMatthew A. Cherry.
Cherry announced the news onTwitter with a clip that samples thefour-minute long audiobook.
Cherry’s film follows an AfricanAmerican father who is attemptingto do his daughter’s hair for the firsttime. The film took home anAcademy Award in 2020 for BestAnimated Short Film. Cherry wrote,directed and co-produced the filmwith Karen Rupert Toliver.
Hair Love will also be developedinto an animated TV show titledYoung Love, for soon-to-be launchedHBO Max. Eight-year-old Carter hasalready made her name and wonnumerous accolades. She won theBET Her Award in 2020 for the songBrown Skin Girl, making her theyoungest recipient of a BET Award.She also won an NAACP ImageAward for the same single, which is acollaboration with Beyonce, WizKidand Saint Jhn. Carter also appearedin Beyonce's visual album Black IsKing.
B
inger Miley Cyrusdid a nude shootfor a photographybook by IndianAmerican fashionphotographer Vijat
Mohindra.The pop star posed in the
buff in a yellow coffin in onephoto. Cyrus wore a shoul-der-length blonde wig andused yellow and white flowersto cover her modesty. Sheposed with her arms foldedacross her chest, looking intothe camera, reports daily-mail.co.uk.
Mohindra posted the image
on Instagram, and in the cap-tion said proceeds from saleswould go to Cyrus’ HappyHippie foundation that helpshomeless LGBTQ youth.
The blurb for the book saysit “includes all the imagesthat made him famous, aswell as new photos shotexclusively for this book”.
Cyrus has also posed onthe cover of the book dressedas the devil, and has writtenthe foreword.
Later this month, Cyruswill release her seventh stu-dio album titled PlasticHearts.
S
Miley Cyrus poses nudefor Indian American
lensman's photobook
KL Rahul 670 runs
Kagiso Rabada 29 wickets
VIJAYAWADA | WEDNESDAY | NOVEMBER 11, 2020
11
It feels great to pick a fifer, but isn't niceto not be on the winning side. I workedvery hard on my bowling and I think itshows was playing consistently even inthe lockdown and I was in touch
I just told the girls that these arethe last 20 overs of thetournament. Because of theCOVID-19 situation we don'tknow when we'll come out next,so we wanted to give it our all
The injury isn't that bad. It wasreally tough for me; whilefielding only I got hurt but youhave got to be there for theteam. I tried my best butcouldn't win it for the team
PTI n MUMBAI
Amazon Prime Video on Tuesdayannounced its debut into live sports in
India by acquiring the India territory rights forthe New Zealand Cricket through 2025-2026.
With this announcement, Amazon PrimeVideo becomes the first Indian streaming ser-vice to secure exclusive live cricket rights froma major cricketing board.
The multi-year deal between Amazonand the New Zealand Cricket Board will givePrime Video the right to stream all internation-al cricket matches to be played in NewZealand for both men's and women’s cricket,across ODI, T20 and Tests formats starting late2021.
The deal also includes Team India’s tour ofNew Zealand in early 2022, and a second tour,the dates for which will be announced later. Therights for 2020-2021 season starting later thismonth is intended to be syndicated by Amazon.
Gaurav Gandhi, Director & CountryGeneral Manager, Amazon Prime Video saidthe team is looking forward to bringing India’sfavourite game to the streamer.
PTI n NEW DELHI
Kings XI Punjab are likely tocontinue with the captain
and coach combine of K LRahul and Anil Kumble evenafter finishing sixth in a close-ly-contested 2020 IndianPremier League.
A team source told PTI thatthe owners want Rahul andKumble take the team forwardin the 2021 edition, scheduledin less than six months.
Rahul, who captained theteam for the first team this sea-son, had another stellar seasonwith the bat, amassing 670runs at an average of 55.83. Itwas Kumble’s first season withthe franchise.
KXIP, who have never hada settled unit, have finallyfound a core group of playersaround whom a team can bebuilt.
That group includes Rahul,Mayank Agarwal, NicholasPooran, Mohammad Shami,Chris Gayle and youngsterslike Ravi Bishnoi and ArshdeepSingh.
The management wants toplug the gaps in the middleorder and bowling department,which has been an issue for anumber of years.
“The owners are happywith captain and coach. Rahulwas exceptional with the batand team scripted a remarkablecomeback in the second half ofthe season. Had that short runnot being called in the firstgame (against DC), the team
would have been in play-offs.“The good thing is a core
group has been identified. Gapsneed to be plugged in the mid-dle-order where the team needsa power hitter and also a worldclass fast bowler to supportShami,” the source said.
After losing the six out oftheir first seven games, KXIPwon five in a row to find them-selves in contention for a play-off spot but lost their lastleague game against CSK tobow out of the competition.The last time KXIP made theplay-offs was in 2014.
Maxwell, Cottrell likely tobe released
KXIP had paid big moneyfor the likes of Glenn Maxwell(10.75 crore) and SheldonCottrell (8.5 crore) but both didnot do much to write to homeabout, especially the Australianwho made 108 runs in 13games at 15.42. The team hadbought back Maxwell after let-ting him go following the 2017season.
“Their performance wasnot on expected lines and it willbe tough to continue withthem,” the source added.
A call on their future willbe taken at the team’s reviewmeeting.
A lot also depends on thesize of the auction ahead of the2021 edition if it is held at all.If not a mega auction, KXIPwould like to have a mini auc-tion where they can solidifytheir middle-order and deathbowling.
PTI n SHARJAH
Trailblazers’ skipperSmriti Mandhana says
she always believed in herteam’s potent spin attack todefend a low total in theWomen’s T20 Challengefinal, which her side won by16 runs against Supernovashere.
Despite a fiery start,Trailblazers could post onlya modest 118 for eight onMonday but Mandhanasaid she knew the slownature of the surface wouldhelp her side.
“t was an amazing per-formance. We tried to get to130-140 but somewhere welost track. Wicket wastough to bat so I knew anytotal around 120 would bea fighting total. We havegood spin attack and I wasreally positive from firstball,”said a beamingMandhana at the postmatch press conference.
Off-spinner SalmaKhatun took three wicketsin the penultimate over,dismissing rival skipperHarmanpreet Kaur in theprocess and Mandhanaacknowledged her effort.
“She was brilliant.Those spells win youmatches. She is anexperienced campaign-er. I just told her tobelieve in herselfand she deliv-ered. Herspell was thew i n n i n gspell,” shesaid.
Thai cricketerN a t t h a k a nC h a n t h a mimpressed one andall with her agilityon the field and itwasn’t a surprisethat Mandhanapicked her for spe-cial praise.
C h a n t h a mwas a live-wire onthe field. Theboundary shesaved with her
acrobatic effort was a goodadvertisement for women’scricket. She also took astunning catch in the coverregion.
“There were 2-3 bril-liant fielding efforts, espe-cially Chantham. I havenot seen a girl field likethat.”
Mandhana herself wasplayed a key role in herside's total as she strokedher way to a brilliant 68.
Talking about her owninnings, the captain saidshe was in good rhythmand all she needed was tofind the gaps.
“I was timing the ballwell (even) in the last matchbut unfortunately I wasfinding the fielders buttoday it was a consciouseffort to hit the ball in thegaps. That was the onlything I was thinking.”
Playing cricket after along seven-month gapobviously made the playershappy, she said.
“We were looking toplay and meet everyone.We did not meet for 7months, that is very rare.Last six months were toughfor whole world. It wasworth to come and play. Ithank BCCI for organis-ing this. Hopefully we(will) keep playing, it
keeps us happy,” shesaid.
Sup ernovas’senior playerShashi ka laSiriwardene
also thankedthe BCCI for conduct-ing the event in chal-lenging times andsaid the tournamentwas a great platform
for tthe youngsters.“We can play and
watch in bio bubble,they have planned it, soI thank BCCI. We haveto do some sacrificedue to COVID-19. Girlswill be motivated tocome to sport and itimpacts women’s cricket.”
PTI n MELBOURNE
CCricket Australia chief executiveNick Hockley is not surprised by
Virat Kohli's withdrawal from threeTest matches here as he prepares forfatherhood in January, taking solacefrom the fact that the superstar willbe there for a major part of theeagerly-awaited showdown acrossformats.
Kohli and his actor wifeAnushka Sharma are expecting theirfirst child in January. The BCCI hasgranted Kohli a paternity leave andhe will return to India after theopening Test, scheduled fromDecember 17 in Adelaide.
Hockley, who is CA's interimchief executive, said that Kohli miss-ing a major part of the Test serieswas expected but he is glad that thestylish batter will be available forthree T20 Internationals and asmany ODIs starting November 27.
"When they announced theirpregnancy earlier, I think it was
always on the cards," Hockley toldSydney radio station SEN.
"We're thrilled Virat is coming
out for three ODIs, three T20s, thefirst ever day-night Test againstIndia and we have to respect the fact
he wants to be there for the birth ofhis first child."
"Clearly, (he is) one of thegame's absolute superstars. We'relooking forward to seeing him herefor seven out of the 10 matches," hesaid.
Hockley said both teams haveenough stars to ensure that cricketfans will be hooked to the series.
"You've got a good number ofplayers from both sides who playedthe last series in Australia whichIndia won. There'll be a hugeamount to play for ... It will be fas-cinating series."
Hockley said it looks highlyunlikely that Kohli could get back toAustralia to play the latter part of theseries.
"I think it's pretty challenged (forhim to return). Obviously a manda-tory 14-day quarantine period," hesaid.
"Logistically it's very much morecomplicated and being brutal it'smuch harder than normal."
AP n RAWALPINDI
Pakistan thumpedZimbabwe by eight wickets inElton Chigumbura’s farewellinternational match andswept the Twenty20 series 3-0 on Tuesday.
The 34-year-oldChigumbura received a guardof honor from the Pakistanplayers when he came out tobat for the last time. The vet-eran Zimbabwe batsman last-ed four balls before he wascaught behind for just 2 runsin a below-par total of 129-9.
Legspinner Usman Qadirstunted Zimbabwe hopes of achallenging total by taking 4-
13 and finishing his debutT20 series with eight wickets.
Pakistan raced to 130-2 inonly 15.2 overs against a list-less Zimbabwe bowlingattack.
Abdullah Shafiq, promot-ed on debut as an openerahead of captain Babar Azam,went 41 not out, andKhushdil Shah, playing inhis fourth T20, smashed 30not out off 15 balls with threefours and three sixes.
Zimbabwe captainChamu Chibhabha achievedhis top score in the series of31, but his teammates wereoutfoxed by Qadir’s googliesand sharp legspin.
PTI n KARACHI
Pakistan Cricket Board onTuesday sacked Azhar Ali as
captain of the Test team, replacingthe experienced player with white-ball skipper Babar Azam ahead ofthe upcoming tour of NewZealand.
PCB confirmed the develop-ment in a statement.
Babar, 26, is now Pakistan cap-tain across all three formats and hisfirst assignment will be the ICCWorld Test Championship fixturesagainst New Zealand, which willbe played in Mount Maunganuiand Christchurch from December26-30 and January 3-7.
Azhar has been replaceddespite PCB in May backing himas Test captain for the entire2020-21 international season.
Azhar, 35 and Pakistan’s mostexperienced Test player in the cur-rent side with 81 appearances, hasalways been seen as the fall-guy inPakistan cricket and he wasinformed about the PCB’s decisionafter meeting with chairmanEhsan Mani on Tuesday in Lahore.
Azhar also led Pakistan in
ODIs from 2015-2017 beforedeciding to step down due to poorresults.
His removal came after he wasappointed as Test captain lastyear and Babar captain in white
ball formats in October followingthe decision by the board to sackwicketkeeper-batsman SarfarazAhmed from all formats.
Azhar led Pakistan in eightTests since last year but losing theseries in England this summer ledto his sacking although he scoreda captain's century in the final Test.
"I want to thank Azhar Ali forstepping up last year by captain-ing the side in what was a historicfirst home Test series in over adecade.
“I believe Azhar still has a lotof cricket left in him and Pakistancricket can continue to make thebest use of his experience andknowledge as a specialist top-orderbatsman moving forward,” saidMani in a statement.
Talking about Babar, he said:“Babar Azam was identified at avery young age as a future leaderand as part of his progression anddevelopment, he was appointedwhite-ball captain last year.
“With his consistent perfor-mance and leadership skills, he hasdemonstrated that he is ready totake on the additional responsibil-ities of a captain.”
PTI n DUBAI
Apeerless Rohit Sharma led defendingchampions Mumbai Indians to an unpar-alleled fifth IPL title here on Tuesday, dis-
mantling Delhi Capitals in the summit clash withhis famously elegant batting and tactical shrewd-ness.
If last year's one-run win over ChennaiSuper Kings was an absolute cliffhanger,Rohit's aristocratic 68 off 51 balls made it ananti-climax with Mumbai Indians chasing thetarget of 157 in 18.4 overs. "We know it's a dif-ficult time, everyone is stuck at home. We'relucky that we could come to work and enter-tain people watching at home," said MI's starpacer Jasprit Bumrah, who went wicket-less onTuesday but snared 27 overall this season.
Five IPL titles are certain to make Rohit theundisputed 'Numero Uno' player-cum-leaderin the IPL Universe. This edition was mademore challenging by the COVID-19 pandem-ic and the bio-bubbles that players had toendure.
He has played way better knocks than thisin the past and will play a few more special onesin the future.
But he might never play a more significantone considering the little whirlpool of contro-versy that his "once damaged and now on themend hamstring" created.
The 'Hit-Man' has given an altogether newmeaning to what has one known till now aboutcrushing pain barriers.
A hamstring injury can be very painful butthe manner in which India's regular white-ball
skipper exploded inside the'Ring of Fire' at the DubaiInternational Stadium, he wasfighting a battle of his own.
The cover drive was about his class, thewhiplash behind square was his swagger andthe so very familiar "Rohit Sharma pull shot"was an assurance to BCCI president SouravGanguly that "All Is Well".
And to prove a point, he fetched those dou-bles, tap and run singles including a misjudgedone that saw Suryakumar Yadav (19) sacrific-ing his wicket for his skipper and rightly so.
The carrom ball bowled by Ashwin wasdeposited to point fence with a crackingsquare cut and the straight six off leg spinnerPraveen Dubey was "Boss Man" written all overit. There has never been an edition where ateam has looked in a different league compared
to seven others.As Rohit had said earlier, it's not rocket sci-
ence but investing in pure match-winners thathas given Mumbai Indians such a menacinglook.
Rome wasn't built in a day and neither achampion outfit that has now won five titlesout of the six finals it has played.
If Jasprit Bumrah wreaked havoc in theQualifier one, Trent Boult (3/30) decided thatfinal was his turn to inflict the damage and hedid it with a first ball beauty that Marcus Stoiniswill remember for years to come.
Rohit's batting only finished what lookedinevitable but it was his captaincy that set it up.
Mumbai Indians came out with a dominating showto win the IPL as the Rohit Sharma-led side beat DC
1. Marcus Stoinis first ball duck off Boult.
2. Trent Boult picks wickets in first two overs and then in last over.
3. Jayant Yadav inclusion inplace of Rahul Chahar inplaying XI, and he justifiedby packing in-formDhawan's bag in 4th overof the powerplay.
4. Pant back in form finally with a well deserved fifty
5. Nathan Coulter Nile's breakthrough to discuss Pantafter fifty and then Axar in the final over.
6. Jasprit Bumrah wicketless.
KEY HIGHLIGHTS
Khatun’s spell won
the game: MandhanaAmazon Prime bagsIndia right for NZ cricket
Kohli's absence from Tests was expected: Hockley
Pak whitewash Zimbabwe
Babar replaces Azhar as Test captain
KXIP likely to stick with
KL-Kumble combo
Babar, 26, isnow Pakistan
captain acrossall three
formats and his first
assignment will be the ICC
World TestChampionship
fixtures againstNew Zealand
Mighty MI win 5th title
ashmika Mandanna, whounveiled the trailer of AnandDeverakonda and VarshaBollamma-starrer MiddleClass Melodies along withVijay Deverakonda on
Tuesday, sang praises about the film.Taking to Twitter, she expressed her lovefor the lead characters and congratulateddirector Vinod Anantoju on a winner. “Iloved it.. Best wishes to the team from thebottom of my heart. @ananddeverkon-daand @varshabollammaI love your film.I love your characters. I love you both.And I'm confident that the audiencewill do too. Congratulations directoron this winner.. God bless! Sic),” shewrote. In another tweet, she said thatshe laughed a lot and the narrationhad all her attention. “I watched it..Laughed a lot.. Was gripped by thefilm.. Couldn’t believe two of myfriends were actually on that bigscreen.. Watching them do theircraft made me feel happy, protec-
tive and loved (sic),” she posted.Set in Guntur and pro-duced by Bhavya Creations,
Middle Class Melodies is aslice of life drama surround-
ing a multitude of charac-ters, their dreams,struggles and hopesnarrated through alight-hearted lens.
12
Vijayawada Wednesday November 11 2020tollywood
rowing up, movieson TV had a lot ofinfluence onAditya Mandala,the director ofSiddhu
Jonnalagadda and SeeratKapoor-fronted Maa VinthaGaadha Vinuma (MVGV),who’s recently released teaserpacked quite a punch onYouTube. The fact that hisfamily would visit cinemahalls in Visakhapatnam everyweek to catch a new releasemeant that Aditya was “quitefascinated” with the world ofcinema. “Slowly, the seedstarted growing inside meand I wanted to tell stories. Imet Ravikanth Perepu whenI was 15. We both shared asimilar passion for filmmak-ing and storytelling, becom-ing friends quickly. After Ifinished my fourth year engi-neering in 2012, I packed mybags to Hyderabad alongwith him to realise our film-making dreams,” he remi-nisces fondly in a conversa-tion with The Pioneer.
The duo started to grabany opportunity that cametheir way by staying inMadhapur. And once Perepuwas offered to directKshanam, headlined by AdiviSesh, Aditya joined the teamas an associate director andlater doubled up as a setdesigner as well.“Kshanam gave mea full-fledgedopportunity towork on a film.As it was shoton a shoe-string budget,
everyone had their task cut-out. It was an importantlearning curve. Among manyother things, the experiencehelped me a lot to under-stand work management,how to discharge duties as ahead of a department andhow to tell a story grandlyunder a compact budget,”Aditya informs, adding thathe even chipped in on thesets of the recent hit Krishnaand his Leela whenever
Perepu needed moremanpower.
AfterKshanam,
Perepu andAditya
werework-ing on
something when Siddhupitched them the story ofMVGV to seek their feed-back. “Siddhu is a good nar-rator and his story cast a spellon me. It occupied my headspace for the next two days,driving me to dial him andtell the impact it had on me.Back then, he already narrat-ed it to a producer. However,10 days later, he phoned meand said, ‘Rey, I’m searchingfor a director, will you directit?’ I immediately jumped atthe opportunity,” he recallsgleefully.
Interestingly, while mostyoung filmmakers tend todebut with their own stories inTelugu cinema, Aditya choseto translate someone else’svision. Is he following the
career trajectory of Perepu,who directed Kshanam from ascript by Sesh? Smiling, hemaintains, “It’s a crazy coinci-dence. Ravikanth always want-ed to debut with a romantic-comedy as romance is hisforte, whereas I wanted todebut with a dark and grittythriller. It happened that hedebuted with a dark and grittythriller and me with an easy-breezy rom-com.”
Continuing in the samebreath, he goes on to explain,“When something good ishappening, you let it happen,right? During the process ofdirecting MVGV, I realisedthat story writing is a differ-ent role to that of direction.To write a new story isextremely difficult, let me behonest. Now, if someonecomes up with a good story, Iwill not hesitate to take it up.It will make my life easier onsets. That aside, it gives me afresh perspective towards thestory. Instead of attachingmyself to the story that I’vewritten, emotionally, I cansee the story from the lens ofexecution. A great directorlike Steven Spielberg hasnever directed his own storyin his storied career. On topof it, the joy in directing oth-ers stories is immense.”
The best part of MVGV, heasserts, is its simplicity.“From day one, our intentionwas to make an entertainingfilm with which people canescape from their reality for acouple of hours. It is about anengineering guy Siddhu(played by Siddhu) who fallsin love with Vinitha (Seerat)
of the same classroom. Ittakes nearly three years forhim to convince her to getinto a relationship with him.Any class has that one girlwho is unapproachable forboys and she is Vinitha in thefilm. He does manage to wooher but then an impulsiveand emotional decision bythem leads to a screw up thataffects their lives. There’s alsoa social media angle we cov-ered,” he shares.
While he has a fetish fordark thrillers, Aditya hastremendous respect for thework of Jandhyala andadmits to have the legendarywriter-director’s influence onhim. He particularly is a fanof how Jandhyala coated hisfilms with a social message ordiscussed a taboo withoutgoing preachy. “In Aha Naa-Pellanta, he demonstratedhow greed for money cantake over a person, subtly.There is a line that when youlaugh, you can learn. He usedit on the audience. Throughthat film, he told the audi-ence that there is more to lifethan money.”
Another filmmaker whohad an influence on him isSingeetham Srinivasa Rao.“In fact, I’m named after histime-travel adventure Aditya369. I’m a big fan of hisother works like MichaelMadhana Kama Raju andPushpaka Vimanamu. OnceI was exposed to westerncinema, I was attracted tothe dark thriller space. Theblame goes to QuentinTarantino for it,” he con-cludes, smiling.
The best part of MVGVis its simplicity: Aditya
The debutant director spoketo NAGARAJ GOUD on
how his fascination for filmsbegan, bonding with
Ravikanth Perepu,experience on Kshanam,
landing Maa Vintha GaadhaVinuma and influences
G
Rajasekhar dischargedfrom hospital
ctor Rajasekhar, who has beenbattling COVID-19 for the pastone month at Citi NeuroCentre, Hyderabad, has beendischarged from the hospital onMonday after his latest test
proved to be negative. The actor’s wifeJeevitha extended her sincere thanks to thehospital for the care they’ve shown intreating Rajasekhar. “The hospital ensuredthat as a family we could monitorRajasekhar garu round the clock. I extendmy thanks to Krishna garu and the groupof doctors who worked with him to helpus facilitate it. We are leaving the hospitalafter a month of joining. In fact,Rajasekhar garu said that he will missKrishna garu and other doctors,” she said.
She added, “The hospital treated us likefamily. Rajasekhar garu is out of thebiggest crisis and it was possible because ofthe hospital.” She also thanked fans, well-wishers, colleagues who prayed for theactor’s recovery.
Post his complete recovery, the actor isset to start the filming of Joseph Teluguremake under Neelakanta’s direction. Thefilm will tell the story of a retired cop whois unexpectedly pulled into a criminal caseinvolving organ harvesting. He is knownfor his investigative prowess.
A
he suspense surroundingthe leading lady ofNandamuri Balakrishna’snext with Boyapati Sreenuwas finally answered onTuesday. Malayalam
actress Prayaga Rose Martin, whowas the initial choice to play thefemale lead, has been replaced withSayyeshaa Saigal. While PragyaJaiswal was rumoured to be thereplacement, Boyapati seems to havepreferred Sayyeshaa, who after herTelugu debut, Akhil, failed to landother projects in spite of her poten-tial as an actor and dancer.According to the grapevine, she willbe seen as a mother to a toddler inthe film, which is on sets inHyderabad right now.
An action-entertainerwith an underlying
social message,the film, an MRavinder pro-duction, willsee Balayya indual roles- ofwhich one roleis that of anaghora.
Thaman isthe music
director.
Sayyeshaa'scomeback withBalayya's next
T
KIE Gaming, aMumbai basedonline gamingplatform, is all setto receive invest-ment muscle and
celebrity star power as it wel-comes on board actress KajalAggarwal as a strategic part-ner. While the amount of theinvestment is not disclosed,she will be joining OKIEGaming as a board memberand 15% equity stake in thecompany.
Founded by Jitin Masand,OKIE Gaming is a self-fund-ed company under OKIE.Working in line with PrimeMinister Narendra Modi’sappeal to create gamesinspired by Indian culture,the platform has unveiled afirst of its kind ‘Desi SportsLeague’ for the Indian audi-ences.
Commenting on the part-nership, Kajal Aggarwal, said,“I am thrilled to have comeaboard OKIE Gaming. Thegaming industry is boomingat this time, this is the rightmoment to be part of it. Apassionate gamer myself, wehope to bring the finest userexperience with our innova-tive and quirky games. WithOKIE Gaming, I also hope toinfluence and open newavenues for women gamers inIndia.”
The app will soon be avail-able for download from theGoogle Play Store forAndroid devices and AppleStore for iOS devices.
O
Kajal invests
in gaming app
RASHMIKA sings praises about Middle Class Melodies
