DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA
JOURNALISM OF COURAGE
TUESDAY, JUNE 16, 2020, NEW DELHI, LATE CITY, 14 PAGES
THE EDITORIAL PAGE
WHERE’S THE
LEADER?
BY PRATAP BHANU MEHTA
PAGE 8
THE IDEAS PAGE
WHYSOUTHCHINA
SEAMATTERS
BY VIJAY GOKHALE
PAGE 9
Two missing
staffers in Pak
return after
India protests
SHUBHAJIT ROY
NEW DELHI, JUNE 15
TWO STAFFERS of the Indian
High Commission in Pakistan,
who went “missing” for most of
Monday, have “returned” after
India summoned Pakistan’s
Acting HighCommissionerSyed
Haider Shah and issued a
demarche, sources told The
Indian Express.
Pakistani media reports
claimedthatthetwostaffershad
been arrested in Islamabad after
their vehicle hit a pedestrian.
Sourcessaidthetwo“wentmiss-
ing in the morning”, but later re-
turned and have undergone a
medical examination.
Sourcessaidthedemarche—
a protest lodged through diplo-
matic channels — “to the
Pakistan CDA (charge d’affaires)
made clear that there should be
no interrogation or harassment
of the Indian officials”.
“Responsibility for the safety
and security of the diplomatic
personnel lay squarely with the
Pakistani authorities. The
CONTINUED ON PAGE 2
WORLD
JOURNALIST MARIA
RESSA CONVICTED
IN PHILIPPINES
LIBEL CASE PAGE 11
BUSINESS AS USUAL
BY UNNY
PAGE 1
ANCHOR
Kerala joins hands for its children to access online classes
SHAJU PHILIP
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM,
JUNE 15
WHEN“FIRSTBell”,Kerala'svirtual
classroom project to tide over the
lockdown, rang on June 1, the
biggest challenge was a number:
2.42lakh.That,accordingtoastate
survey, was the number of stu-
dents who did not have access to
onlineclassesathomes.
Thatevening,thechallengegot
a face — that of a Class 9 Dalit stu-
dent from Malappuram who set
herselfablaze.Herparentssaidshe
wasupsetaboutnotbeingableto
attend the classes as the family
BOUNDARY ROW STRAINS RELATIONS
Delhi reaches out to Kathmandu:
Pause map process, come to table
Wehaveroti-betities,canneverbesevered,willtalk:Rajnath
SHUBHAJIT ROY &
KRISHN KAUSHIK
NEW DELHI, JUNE 15
MOVING TO check the slide in
ties with Nepal, government
sources indicated Monday that
NewDelhiiswillingtoholdtalks
with Kathmandu on the bound-
ary dispute if the KP Sharma Oli
government there creates a
“conducive atmosphere” and
“positive situation”.
Sources said feelers have
been sent to the Oli government
to pause the process of getting
parliamentary sanction for the
country’s new map and come to
the table for talks.
On Monday, Defence
Minister Rajnath Singh too
reached out to Nepal, saying the
relationship between the two
451 missing deaths in
Mumbai, BMC updating
records after mismatch
TABASSUM
BARNAGARWALA
MUMBAI, JUNE 15
ATLEAST451deathsof Covid-19
patients in Mumbai were not re-
ported by the Brihanmumbai
Municipal Corporation (BMC), a
massive data reconciliation
exercisebyMaharashtragovern-
ment has shown.
As of Monday, Mumbai had
59,293 cases and 2,250 deaths
(of Maharashtra’s total of 1.10
lakh cases and 4,128 deaths).
BMC data show eight other
Covid-19 patients died of some
other illness.
Sources said the BMC has
told the state government that
three of the 451 had actually
In April, 50-70% drop in
transactions through credit
& debit cards, cheques
SUNNY VERMA
NEW DELHI, JUNE 15
PAYMENT TRANSACTIONS con-
tracted by a massive 46 per cent
in value in April over the previ-
ous month as the nationwide
lockdownaffectedeconomic ac-
tivity across the board.
Latest data from the Reserve
Bank of India (RBI) shows that
didn’t have a smartphone, and
theirTVwasnotworking.
And so began a mass move-
ment, cutting across party lines
and WhatsApp groups, involving
the government, businesses,
alumni associations, MLAs, MPs,
andlocalcivicbodies,tobringthe
school to as many homes as pos-
sible,andarrangecommonstudy
roomseveninremotevillages.
“Thisunprecedentedinterven-
tionhashelpedreducethatnum-
berto1.20lakh.Inthecaseof oth-
ers, common classrooms have
been arranged and are on track
fromMonday.Withinthelasttwo
weeks, we have ensured that on-
lineclassesreacheveryschoolstu-
Defence Minister Rajnath
Singh at the virtual rally in
New Delhi on Monday. PTI
countries is not an ordinary one,
butonethat is boundby“roti aur
beti” (livelihood and marriage)
and can never be severed.
Nepal has fast-tracked the
passage of a constitution
E
E X P L A I NE D
Data
● mismatch
WHILE SURGE in cases
means updating of data
could be taking time,
some of these unre-
ported deaths date back
to April. Experts have un-
derlined how lack of real-
time data hampers policy
decisions on capacity
building.
died due to unnatural causes
(suicideoraccident),andthat 20
othernameswereduplicationin
CONTINUED ON PAGE 2
transactions and payments
through various banking chan-
nels — cheque payments, ATM
withdrawal, NEFT and RTGS, fell
between 26 per cent and 71 per
centinApriloverMarch,depend-
inguponthemodeoftransaction.
Thesoleexceptionwasdirect
benefit transfer (DBT) payments
by the government using the
Aadhar-enabled platforms,
CONTINUED ON PAGE 2
dent in the state,” says the state's
SarvaShikshaAbhiyanprojectdi-
rectorDrAPKuttikrishnan.
In some villages, WhatsApp
groups and alumni associations
donated money to buy TVs or
smartphones.Inothers,localbusi-
nessmenprovidedTVsetsaspart
of a “TV challenge’’ launched by
thestate'sIndustriesDepartment.
The government, meanwhile,
allowedMLAstousetheirlocalde-
velopment fund to buy TVs and
laptops for students. And the
state’slocalself-governingbodies
steppedintocompletethechain.
Whathelped,sayofficials,was
that almost all villages in Kerala
haveatleastonecommoncentre,
SINCE 1932
amendment Bill to approve its
newmapthatincludesKalapani,
Lipulekh and Limpiyadhura.
These are areas in Uttarakhand
but Nepal claims ownership.
The Bill, which has been
passed by the Nepal House of
Representatives, is now in the
RastriyaSabha,theUpperHouse.
Members are calling for early di-
alogue with India.
On June 13, the Ministry of
External Affairs, reacting to the
passage of the Bill in the House
of Representatives, dismissed
“this artificial enlargement of
claims” as “not based on histor-
ical fact or evidence” and “viola-
tive of our current understand-
ing to hold talks on outstanding
boundary issues”.
The government’s willing-
ness now to talk to Kathmandu
CONTINUED ON PAGE 2
Home Minister Amit Shah during his visit to LNJP Hospital, in New Delhi on Monday. PTI
Shah visits LNJP, says recovered
should get good-health certificates
ASTHA SAXENA &
MALLICA JOSHI
NEW DELHI, JUNE 15
UNION HOME Minister Amit
Shah made a surprise visit to the
Delhi government's largest ded-
icated Covid-19 facility on
Monday, and offered sugges-
tions such as increasing testing
at the institute, making the ad-
missionprocesseasier,installing
CCTV cameras in each ward, and
issuing ‘good health’ certificates
upon discharge.
Shah's visit to Lok Nayak
Hospital around 4 pm came a
dayafterhemetwithDelhiChief
Minister Arvind Kejriwal to dis-
cuss the Covid-19 crisis in the
capital, and hours after an all-
A TV set donated by an NRI collective from Brisbane is
handed over to a student in Ernakulam district
LAC talks on, but Army
told to act as per need
RAVISH TIWARI
NEW DELHI, JUNE 15
AS MILITARY and diplomatic
talks look to lower tensions
along the Line of Actual Control
ineasternLadakh,Indiawillcon-
tinue to assert its military
strength at the field level till it
reaches an honourable under-
standing with China, highly
placedgovernmentsourceshave
told The Indian Express.
China, sources said, has al-
teredthestatusquointheregion
andbroughtinadditionaltroops.
“We have to demonstrate our
strengthontheground.Onlythen
will they come to the talking
table,”sourcessaid,adding“there
CITY
SINK DIFFERENCES TO
FIGHT VIRUS, SHAH
TELLSPARTIES
PAGE 3
party meeting with representa-
tives of the AAP, BJP, and
Congress in Delhi.
Shah was accompanied at
Lok Nayak by AIIMS Director
Dr Randeep Guleria, who has
been appointed by the Centre to
assess the state of the health in-
frastructure in the capital.
The 2,000-bed hospital in
central Delhi was the first to be
converted into a Covid-only fa-
cility, and has 763 patients at
`6.00 (`8 PATNA & RAIPUR, `12 SRINAGAR) WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM
is no need to show aggression,
only our strength”. The Indian
Army,atopsourcesaid,hasbeen
given emergency powers to act
according to the situation on the
ground and assessment.
“Army has been given emer-
gency powers for deployment
there as per needs and new situ-
ations without looking towards
Delhi,” the source said, suggest-
ing that this allows the Army to
demonstrate its strength on the
ground.
The source also indicated
thatthenextroundof talksatthe
LtGenerallevelwillhappenonly
after disengagement at
Patrolling Points 14, 15 and 17 in
the Galwan and Hot Springs
CONTINUED ON PAGE 2
present. During his 45-minute
visit, Shah interacted with doc-
tors, nurses and other medical
staff at the hospital.
“He was encouraging, and
applauded our doctors and
nursesfordoingacommendable
job. The morale of all healthcare
workers is high after his visit. He
has given several suggestions to
make the admission process
hassle-free,andtoensurethatall
the patients are discharged
timely,” Medical Director Dr
Suresh Kumar said.
“He also suggested that a
'good health' certificate should
be provided to each patient after
discharge. All suggestions were
extremely positive, and we will
definitely implement them in
CONTINUED ON PAGE 2
be it an anganwadi, a reading
roomorasportsclub,fortheedu-
cation department to set up a
classroom. Here, teachers of gov-
ernment and aided private
schools were placed in charge.
For instance, in Wayanad,
which had the largest number of
students without individual ac-
cess to online classes, common
study centres were set up for
9,200 children.
“Laptops, projectors and TV
setshavebeentakenfromschools
to the common centres. In many
homes, the parents have smart-
phones which they carry to their
workplaces. We are sharing the
onlineclasseswiththem,fortheir
New Delhi
Airlines can fill middle
seats: Bombay HC;
Mumbai airport can
run 100 flights now
even if it were to be left vacant,
OMKAR GOKHALE & social distancing norms may not
PRANAV MUKUL be followed.
MUMBAI, NEW DELHI, JUNE 15 While the US Centre for
Disease Control and Prevention
IN A relief to both domestic and had said sitting within six feet of
internationalairlines,theBombay
High Court on Monday allowed
each other for hours “may in-
crease” the risk of exposure to
them to fill up middle seats, but coronavirus, it noted that “most
soughtstrictcompliancewiththe viruses and other germs” did not
May31circularoftheDirectorate spreadeasilyonflightsbecauseof
General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) how air is circulated and filtered.
requiring passengers to wear Adivisionbenchof JusticesSJ
wrap-around gowns in addition Kathawalla and S P Tavade
to a face shield and a mask. Monday passed the judgment
TheCentrehadallalongbeen through video-conference on a
against keeping the middle seat pleafiledbyAirIndiapilotDeven
vacant. Civil Aviation Minister Kanani,whoallegedthatnational
Hardeep Singh Puri had, in May, carrier Air India had violated so-
said airlines the world over had cialdistancingnormswhileevac-
decided not to keep the middle uating Indians stranded abroad
seat empty, taking into account on special flights.
their commercial viability, and Meanwhile, the Ministry of
also cited experts’ opinion that CONTINUED ON PAGE 2
TRACKING INDIA’S COVID CURVE
LOCKDOWN
CASES: RECOVERED:1,69,797 | DEATHS:9,520
DAY
83 3,32,424 TESTS:57,74,133 | DOUBLINGRATE:19.11**
KEYSTATES TOTAL SURGEIN 7-DAYAVG. DOUBLING
TOWATCH CASES 24HRS GROWTH* RATE **
■ Maharashtra 1,07,958 3,390 3.31% 21.78
■ Gujarat 23,590 512 2.32% 31.09
■ Delhi 41,182 2,224 5.17% 13.92
■ Tamil Nadu 44,661 1,974 5.03% 14.30
■ Bihar 6,475 186 3.56% 20.25
4.43%
■ West Bengal 11,087 389 16.26
* Compounded Daily Growth Rate over last 7 days ** Calculated over 7-day growth
CONCERN CAUTION A GLIMMER
LADAKH: More UTTAR KERALA: The
than 100 new PRADESH: Nearly second surge seems
cases for third 500 cases every to have peaked.
straight day. Total day. May be the Daily numbers
550 cases now next trouble state coming down
Based on daily data by Centre, ICMR, state governments
children to access when they re- by purchasing 10 tablets. People
turnfromwork,’’saysVJThomas, joined the movement by donat-
district co-ordinator of Kerala ing more...a group of fishermen
InfrastructureandTechnologyfor donatedonetablet.Therearepro-
Education (KITE), the nodal fessionals working abroad who
agencyforICT-enablededucation havetakenupthechallenge.Over
in state schools. 200 tablets have been handed
The classes are being telecast over to the Education
on the educational channel Department,’’ says Eden.
IT@School Victers channel. And The ruling CPM's MLA, C K
one of the MPs who has joined Saseendran, who represents
the initiative to ensure that they Wayanad's Kalpetta, “arranged
reach every home is the 1,331 common study centres,
OppositionCongress’sHibiEden, mainly in tribal colonies”. “We
who has launched a “tablet chal- have been on a massive mission,
lenge” in Kochi. ensuring power connections and
“Theonlineclassesbroughtto TVs. All facilities will be available
focus the digital divide in the in the common study centres by
state.Ilaunchedatabletchallenge theendof thisweek,’’hesays.
 2 THE SECOND PAGE
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Assam prepares for
more floods amidst
rising Covid cases
ABHISHEK SAHA
GUWAHATI, JUNE 15
AS ASSAM prepares for its annual floods and readies
relief camps for the displaced, there is one more thing
the government has to account for — the high num-
ber of coronavirus cases in the state.
As of Monday afternoon, Assam had reported over
4,100Covidcases,of whichover2,100wereactive.This
was in stark contrast to the number on June 5: a total
of 2,243 cases.
The state government has issued a set of new
guidelines to the districts to provide flood relief while
keeping in mind constraints due to the pandemic. The
guidelines,acopyof whichwasaccessedbyTheIndian
Express, say, “Ensure 7 sq m of area per person instead
of 3.5 sq m to validate social distancing of at least one
meter between any two camp inmates.”
The guidelines also state that buildings and spaces
which are already in use as quarantine centres for
Covid-19 “shall not be identified as relief camps”.
Varnali Deka, the District Collector of Goalpara —
one of the worst-hit districts in the May floods — said,
“Every year Assam faces floods and people are lodged
in relief camps. This year, along with the usual meas-
ures,wealsohavetoimplementadequatesafetymeas-
ures against Covid in the relief camps.”
SC declines to stay Centre’s
suspension of PCPNDT rules
New Delhi: TheSupremeCourtMondaydeclinedtostay
theCentre’sdecisiontosuspendcertainrulesof thePre-
Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques
(Prohibition of Sex-Selection Rules), 1996 (PCPNDT) till
June 30 this year.
A bench headed by Justice U U Lalit told Senior
AdvocateSanjayParikh,whoappearedforpetitionerSabu
Mathew George, “See the kind of difficult situation the
countryisin...lotofmedicalprofessionals,doctorsarere-
quiredforallthiswork...weareinanationalemergency...”
The bench also noted that the relaxation is only till
June30andsaidthepetitionercanapproachthecourtif
it is extended beyond this date.
The Department of Health and Family, in an April 4
notification, suspended the implementation of the Rule
8, 9(8) and 18 A (6) of the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal
Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex-Selection
Rules). ENS
EXPRESS EDUCATION
Contact for Advt. Booking: M/s Friends Publicity Service
23276901, 23282028 (M): 9212008155, 9212665841.
EXCLUSIVE
WEB
■4.6
FROM PAGE ONE
Transactions
whichrecordeda138percentjump.
Transactionsthroughissuanceof
cheques–apaperinstrument–saw
the sharpest contraction of 71 per
cent in April to Rs 1.63 lakh crore
from Rs 5.65 lakh crore in March.
The RBI-operated Real Time
GrossSettlement(RTGS)system,the
largest mode for online high value
transactions,recordedacontraction
of 46.5 per cent in value to Rs 64.43
lakh crore in April from Rs 120.47
lakh crore in March.
Amongtheotherhighlyusedon-
line payment mode, the National
Electronic Fund Transfer (NEFT)
recorded a fall of 42.7 per cent in
transaction value to Rs 13.06 lakh
crore in April, down from Rs 22.83
lakh crore in March.
Together, RTGS and NEFT ac-
count for a little over 90 per cent of
total payments in the country.
Transactions under RTGS are
processedcontinuouslyonrealtime
basis,whereasNEFTtransactionsare
processed in half-hourly intervals.
With a lockdown in force, ATM
withdrawals through debit cards
slumped to Rs 1.27 lakh crore from
Rs2.49lakhcrore—acontractionof
49 per cent. Peoples’ need for cash
droppedsinceitwasusedmostlyfor
buying essential items or meeting
healthneeds.Thisalsosuggestspeo-
ple hardly spent on discretionary
items.
The data show that other digital
modes of payment also witnessed
sharpfallinvaluetransactedduring
the month. Transactions through
IMPS — or immediate payment
service — also fell by 40 per cent to
Rs 1.21 lakh crore in April from Rs
2.01 lakh crore in March. Unique
payment interface or UPI transac-
tions fell 26.8 per cent during the
same period.
Point-of-sale(POS)machinesor
POS-based credit card transactions
valuecontractedby69.7percentto
Rs 26,656 crore in April from Rs
8,052 crore in March.
The exception was APBS
(Aadhaar Payment Bridge System),
whichisusedbythegovernmentto
transfer funds/subsidies under var-
iousheadsdirectlyintoAadhaar-en-
abled accounts of beneficiaries.
Value transacted under APBS
jumpedby138percenttoRs18,996
crore from Rs 7,951 crore. The RBI
startedcapturingtheAPBSdatasep-
arately from November 2019.
Thiscouldbebecauseofgovern-
menttransferringfundstobenefici-
aries’ accounts under the Pradhan
MantriGaribKalyanYojanathatwas
announced on March 26 to provide
income support to the poor during
the lockdown period.
Aspartof theRs1.7lakhcroreof
relief package, the government had
announced that 2.40 crore women
Jan Dhan account holders will be
given Rs 500 per month for three
months.Firstinstalmentof Rs2000
due to farmers in 2020-21 was also
paidinApril,amongothermeasures.
TheRBI’spaymentsdataforApril
mirrors the industrial production
datareleasedbythegovernmentfor
the same month last week, which
showed that factory output con-
tracted by a record 55.5 per cent in
April. Industrial activity had con-
tracted 16.7 per cent in March.
Thesedatasetspointoutthatthe
Gross Domestic Product for April-
June quarter will be severely im-
pacted.
Two staffers
Pakistansidewasaskedtoreturnthe
two officials along with the official
car to the High Commission imme-
diately,” sources said.
Pakistan TV channel Geo News
claimed that Islamabad Police had
arrestedthetwostaffersforallegedly
attempting to flee after the "acci-
dent".
Initsreport,GeoNewscitedeye-
witness accounts to claim that “a
BMW car hit a pedestrian who was
walking on the embassy road at
around8amandattemptedtoflee”.
The report claimed that while
“thepedestrianwascriticallyinjured
andshiftedtoahospital...thecarwas
stopped by a huge crowd of people
who handed over the two men to
WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM
CUT OUT BY COVID-19, FILM INDUSTRY DAILY WAGERS FIND HEROES IN TOP STARS
Amidthecoronaviruspandemic,theplightofthoseinthelowestrungoftheworld’slargestfilmindustry
movedthoseattheverytop
VIDEO OF THE DAY
SHAH CHAIRS MEETING
ON SITUATION IN DELHI
BJP, Congress, AAP and
BSP among those in
attendance
Delhi reaches out to Kathmandu
is,however,incumbentontheOli
government’s response to the
Indian offer.
If theOligovernment,sources
said, does not follow through
with the passage of the Bill in the
Upper House, it would be seen as
“creating a conducive and posi-
tive atmosphere”.
Even if the Bill is passed, offi-
cial procedures include its sign-
ing by the President and notifica-
LAC talks on, but Army told to act as per need
region – on June 6, XIV Corps
Commander Lt General Harinder
Singh met South Xinjiang
Military District Commander
Major General Liu Lin at the
Chushul-Moldo border point.
“They (Chinese) appear ready
for another round of meeting at
the senior military level (Lt
General). We are waiting for dis-
engagement at Patrolling Points
14, 15 and 17 before we go for an-
other round of talks at the senior
military level,” the source said,
adding that the military dialogue
will continue.
Last Saturday, Army chief
General MM Naravane said “dis-
engagement” has begun in the
Galwan area, and both sides “are
disengaginginaphasedmanner”.
HetoldreportersinDehradun
that military talks between the
two sides have been “very fruit-
ful” and “the situation will keep
improving as we go on”.
Islamabad Police”.
The latest incident comes 10
daysafterreportsemergedofISIper-
sonnel chasing a vehicle in which
India's Acting High Commissioner
Gaurav Ahluwalia was travelling in
Islamabad.
SourcesinNewDelhihadsaidat
the time that the harassment of
Indianpersonnelandobstructionin
discharge of their normal function-
ingis“beingtakenupthroughestab-
lished diplomatic channel”.
Earlier, on May 31, India had ex-
pelled two officials of the Pakistan
High Commission in New Delhi on
charges of spying -- the first time
since 2016 that such a move was
taken.
The Ministry of External Affairs
(MEA) had identified the two
Pakistan officials as Abid Hussain
andMuhammadTahirandsaidthey
were “were caught redhanded by
police while obtaining documents
of a Indian security establishment
from an Indian and handing him
over money and an iPhone”.
Subsequently, Pakistan’s Acting
High Commissioner Shah was is-
suedademarcheinwhicha“strong
protest”waslodgedontheactivities
of theseofficials“againstIndia’sna-
tional security”.
India andPakistandowngraded
their diplomatic ties in August last
year, after the revocation of special
statustoJammuandKashmirunder
Article370--bothcountriesrecalled
their High Commissioners. Their
HighCommissionsarecurrentlyled
by Deputy High Commissioners.
InOctober2016,amidanatmos-
phere marked with suspicion and
mistrust, New Delhi and Islamabad
had expelled each other's High
Commission officials.
Airlines
Civil Aviation on Monday allowed
doublingthenumberofflightsatthe
Mumbaiairportto50arrivalsand50
departures. “The move will also see
anincreaseinthesectorsthatweare
currently handling,” the Mumbai
airport said in a statement. The civil
aviation ministry also plans to in-
crease the capacity on domestic
routes gradually from 33 per cent
now.
The division bench of the
Bombay High Court had, on June 4,
reserveditsfinalorder.Intheinterim
order, it had, however, directed all
FULL COVERAGE
tion of the amendment. If these
processes are not followed
through and is not given logical
conclusion, then it could also be
seenascontributingtoanatmos-
phere where bilateral talks can
take place, sources said.
Meanwhile, Rajnath Singh
told a Jan Samvad virtual rally of
BJP workers in Uttarakhand that
“if thereisanymisunderstanding
amongNepal’speoplebecauseof
“We have started from the
north, from the area of the
Galwan river, where a lot of dis-
engagement has happened.”
GeneralNaravanesaidthataf-
ter the June 6 meeting between
the Corps Commanders, there
havebeen“anumberof meetings
at the local level between com-
manders of equivalent ranks. As
a result of this, a lot of disengage-
ment has taken place, and we are
hopeful,thatthroughthiscontin-
ued dialogue that we are having,
all perceived differences that we
have will be set to rest.”
The Army chief did not com-
ment on the situation in Pangong
Tso where the faceoff continues
on the north bank of the lake.
The Indian establishment is
conscious of the change in the
ground situation at Pangong Tso.
Chinese troops have stopped
Indian patrols at Finger 4, eight
kilometreswestof Finger8which
domestic and international airlines
to comply with the DGCA rules till
its final hearing.
In its 50-paged judgement
Monday, the court observed, “We
are of the prima facie view that the
safety and health of the passengers
onboard the aircraft qua Covid-19
virus is adequately taken care of
evenifthemiddleseatoftheaircraft
isnotkeptvacantonaccountofpas-
senger load and seat capacity.”
“However, the Respondent Air
Indiaandallotherflightoperatorsin
thecountryshallduringtheairtravel
ofpassengers,strictlyfollowandim-
plement the Order dated 31st May,
2020aswellastheapplicableSOPs,”
it said.
On May 22, the high court had
‘primafacie’ observedthatAirIndia
wasinviolationoftheguidelinesand
had sought a detailed explanation
with the names of passengers who
were allotted vacant seats and a list
of theflightstheytook.Aviationau-
thorities later moved the Supreme
Court against the high court order.
FollowingaMay25orderbythe
Supreme Court, the DGCA on May
31 asked carriers to try to keep the
middleseatsonflightsvacantorpro-
vide “wrap-around gowns” to pas-
sengers who were allotted such
seats.
On June 2, the high court had
askedDGCAandAirIndiatoprovide
data of Indians, who were not in-
fected while they boarded special
flights under the Vande Bharat
Mission, but tested positive for
Covid-19 after landing in India.
The Central government had
submitted that at least 227 of the
58,867 Indians (0.38 per cent), who
boarded special flights to return
home,testedpositiveforthevirus.It
alsosaidthatsincethesecaseswere
revealed during the institutional
quarantine period, there was no
prooftocorroborateiftheyhadcon-
tracted the infection on the flight.
After perusing the details given
bytheauthorities,thehighcourthad
soughtaclarificationfromanexpert
committee of the Civil Aviation
Ministry to confirm whether the
virus can be transmitted by touch.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta
submittedtothecourtaclarification
note by the high-level expert com-
mittee, which rejected the peti-
tioner’sclaims.Thenotesaidthatthe
transmission of Covid-19 through
touchcouldhappenonlyundercer-
COVID: NEW TOOL FOR
SELF-ASSEMENT
IISc develops
self-assessment tool
for workplaces
the road built from Dharchula to
Lipulekh,Ithinkwecanfindares-
olution to that by sitting to-
gether”.
“No matter how many wires
areputaheadof Dharchula,these
ties cannot be severed. The rela-
tionship between India and
Nepal is not an ordinary relation-
ship. It is a relationship of roti aur
beti,” he said.
It was Singh’s inauguration of
India says marks the LAC.
At the moment, the establish-
ment believes that this situation
has arisen due to differences in
perception about the LAC in the
region. The Chinese side too, the
source said, did not indicate any
other motive for this change in
status quo during the June 6 mil-
itary talks.
“If there is any other motive
behind this transgression, it was
not made obvious during the Lt
General level talks. Nor will it be
communicated during military
level talks,” the source said.
Given this backdrop, the
sourcesaid,thesituationdoesnot
warrant political calls for any
show of aggression or acts of jin-
goism. “It’s a sensitive situation
and it does not call for any adven-
turism. China plays at multiple
levels. Whether this is about ter-
ritory or some other ulterior ob-
jective,wearestillnotquitesure,”
taincircumstanceswhenprotective
gearsarenotwornandhandsarenot
being disinfected.
Justice Kathawalla said, “Upon
disembarking,thermalscreeningof
all passengers is again carried out
and they are thereafter compulso-
rilyplacedunderinstitutionalquar-
antine for 7-14 days. It is not estab-
lished till date that any passenger,
who is tested positive, has been in-
fected on board an aircraft.”
Mumbai deaths
data.Officialsalsosaidthatoverthe
lastweek,theBMChadreported57
of the 451 deaths in a staggered
manner.Sourcessaidthiswasdone
after top state officials asked the
BMC to “come clean” at a meeting
last week.
Thatmeantthereportingof 371
deaths remains pending now, offi-
cials said.
The mortality rate in Mumbai
currently is 3.7%, which is much
higher than the national average of
2.8%. The mortality rate may rise to
4.5% now.
Healthofficialssaidthe“discrep-
ancy”cameupduringanexerciseto
matchCovid-19figuresoftheIndian
CouncilofMedicalResearch(ICMR)
portalwiththeMaharashtragovern-
ment’s.Theexercise,whichspanned
several days, ended on June 6. It
analysedeachcase,removeddupli-
cation and updated patient details
forthoserecovered,stillinfectedand
thosewhohadsuccumbedtothein-
fection.
On June 10, each district was in-
formed if there was a mismatch in
figures, and the next day, state
Health Secretary Dr Pradeep Vyas
wrote to all to submit the updated
data, with the deadline 5 pm,
Monday (June 15). “Any data mis-
match brought to notice subse-
quently would beviewed veryseri-
ously,” the notification stated.
“We found that 451 patients in
Mumbai had no update,” a state
healthofficialsaid,adding,“Further
inquiry found these patients had
diedbutwerenotincludedintheof-
ficial Covid count.”
According to ICMR guidelines,
thedeathofanycoronaviruspatient
hastobenotifiedasCoviddeathun-
lessthepatienthasterminalillness,
ordiesduetopoisoning,accidentor
suicide.
Maharashtra Chief Secretary
New Delhi
WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM
THE INDIAN EXPRESS, TUESDAY, JUNE 16, 2020
Why India doesn’t have
any leverage with
China right now
NEWEPISODEEVERYDAY
In today’s episode of the 3 Things podcast,
we talk about the ongoing India-China
standoff and why it will be difficult to
restore status quo ante
an 80-km road from Dharchula
to Lipulekh on the Mansarovar
Yatra trail on May 8 that led to
protests across Nepal.
“We will find a resolution
through talks. I can say with full
confidence that people of India
can never have any bitterness to-
wards Nepal. Our relationship is
so deep. We will find answers to
all the problems by sitting to-
gether,” he said.
the source said. Keeping this in
mind, top BJP leaders too have
been careful with their choice of
words in public remarks.
On Sunday, Defence Minister
Rajnath Singh, addressing a vir-
tual rally, said: “While China has
expressed the desire to resolve
the (LAC) issue through talks, our
effort too is to find a solution to
the trouble between China and
Indiathroughtalksatthemilitary
and diplomatic levels.''
“Wewillnotkeepanyoneinthe
dark, neither Parliament nor any-
one else. We will disclose every-
thing at an appropriate time,’’ he
said, referring to questions being
asked by the Opposition Congress
on the LAC situation.
“India is no longer a weak na-
tion; its power has increased. But
we do not want to use this
strength to frighten anyone. It is
only to secure our country,” he
said.
AjoyMehtatoldTheIndianExpress,
“We intend to remain transparent
on the cases and death numbers.
Once the entire reconciliation exer-
cise is over, the data will be scruti-
nised and official cases will be up-
dated.” Mehta added that they will
probe why there was a discrepancy
in figures. “If it is human error, it is
alright,butiftherewasmalafidein-
tention, we will take action accord-
ingly.”
While BMC spokesperson Dr
Daksha Shah, Additional Municipal
Commissioner Suresh Kakani and
Commissioner Iqbal Chahal did not
respondtocallsandmessages,state
epidemiologist Dr Pradeep Awate
said the gap in Mumbai deaths
“couldpossiblybeduetohumaner-
ror in reporting” the figures. In
March when the pandemic began,
districtsweresupposedtomanually
feed data and report each case and
death to the state government. In
May,theCentreintroducedacentral
onlineportalcalledCVAnalytics.All
laboratories and district officials
were asked to enter data into that
portal.Officialssaidthedatadiscrep-
ancy emerged through this portal.
Figuresprovidedbylaboratoriesdif-
fered from those updated by the
BMC. In several cases, there was in-
completeinformationonpatientsin
Mumbai on the portal.
Awate added, “Mumbai and
Maharashtra are recording thou-
sandsofcases.Itisnoteasytomain-
tain updated data.”
TheBMC’sstaggeredupdatingto
include the missing deaths is re-
flected in its numbers the past few
days.OnJune13,forinstance,thetoll
putoutbythecivicbodyincluded19
deaths that had occurred between
May27andJune10.Thenumberon
June 12 too included some deaths
that had taken place between May
20 and June 9. Requesting
anonymity, a civic official said “re-
porting all deaths at once may trig-
gerpanic”andhenceadecisionwas
taken to include a few of the unac-
counted numbers every day.
On Monday, Leader of the
Opposition Devendra Fadnavis
wrote to Chief Minister Uddhav
Thackeray raising concern over the
“unreporteddeaths”inMumbai.He
claimed around 500 Covid deaths
acrosshospitalsinMumbaiwereyet
to be referred to the death audit
committee.
A member of the seven-mem-
berBMCdeathauditcommitteesaid
they meet daily or at least twice a
week to scrutinise each deceased
patient’s medical documents. “We
only opine on whether or not it is a
Covid-19death.Accordinglytheepi-
demiologycellreportsthesefigures.
We do not maintain a tally of
deaths.”
Amit Shah
thecomingdays,”DrKumaradded.
This was Shah's first visit to a
Delhihospitalsincethebeginningof
theCovid-19outbreak.Overthenext
fewdays,threeteamsappointedby
theCentrewillvisitallstate-runhos-
pitals to take stock of facilities.
Sources said the Delhi Chief
Secretary, who accompanied Shah,
wasinformedofthevisitshortlybe-
fore it began. Over the past three
days,Shahhasheldseveralmeetings
with political and administrative
units in the city, indicating the
Centre’s inclination to get more in-
volved in the capital’s Covid re-
sponse.
“The Centre has indicated that
with cases rising, it wants to be in-
volved in the day-to-day decision-
making.Delhiisthenationalcapital
and if the situation unravels here, it
makesnewsevenabroad.TheDelhi
government has given its full sup-
port to the Centre, considering the
rate of spread, and the speed at
whichfacilitiesneedtobeprepared,”
a Delhi government official said.
Dr Kumar informed Shah that
thehospitalhasprovideddialysisto
1,040 patients, and that more than
100deliverieshavetakenplaceeven
during the pandemic.
“Union Home Minister also di-
rectedtheDelhiChiefSecretarythat
back-ups for canteens supplying
foodshouldbeestablishedsothatif
there’s an infection in one canteen,
patients can continue to get food
withoutdisruption,”aspokesperson
for the Ministry of Home Affairs
(MHA) said.
“Healsodirectedthatpsycho-so-
cial counselling of doctors and
nursesshouldbedone.Thiswillen-
surethatnotonlyaretheyphysically
but also psychologically fit to fight
the pandemic,” the spokesperson
said.
FollowingShah’svisit,AAPRajya
Sabha MP Sanjay Singh said: “He
scrutinisedinfrastructureandother
medicalarrangementsatthehospi-
tal... He motivated doctors and told
them to continue saving the lives of
thepeople.Healsotoldthemtoput
outoftheirmindsthenewsthatap-
peared in the media a few days ago,
and to concentrate on their duties. I
believe his visit to the hospital is an
independent initiative.”
Lok Nayak made headlines last
weekaftertheSupremeCourtcited
areportbyaTVnewschannelonthe
conditionsatthehospital,andpulled
up the Delhi government over its
Covid response.
At the all-party meeting earlier
in the day, ways to increase testing
forthenovelcoronavirus,useofnew
technology for spot testing, and the
arrangementsforlargernumbersof
isolationandoxygenbedsweredis-
cussed.
The meeting, which continued
from 11 am to 1 pm, was attended
by Sanjay Singh, Delhi BJP chief
Adesh Kumar Gupta, and Delhi
CongresspresidentAnilChaudhary.
Shah urged all parties to keep aside
political differences and fight the
virus unitedly.
Sources present at the meeting
saidcapsonthecostoftestinginpri-
vate laboratories and treatment at
private hospitals was discussed.
There was a proposal to create a
“force of volunteers” consisting of
thosewhohaverecoveredfromthe
disease, to help in hospitals and
other places, Singh said.
Also discussed was the new
rapidantigendetectiontestthatwas
approved by the Indian Council of
Medical Research (ICMR) late on
Sunday evening. “This test will be
available for Rs 450 and results will
beknownin15minutes,”Singhsaid.
TheBJP'sGuptasaidhispartyde-
manded that the cost of testing be
halved from the present Rs 4,500.
“Thisdemandhasbeenapprovedby
the Minister,” Gupta said.

3 THE OUTBREAK
THE INDIAN EXPRESS, TUESDAY, JUNE 16, 2020
Patients not denied
admission to Lok
Nayak: Govt to HC
PRITAM PAL SINGH
NEW DELHI, JUNE 15
THEDELHIgovernmentMonday
submitted in the Delhi High
Courtthat there have been nois-
sues of Covid-19 bodies lying in
corridors or any serious patient
being denied admission at Lok
Nayak Hospital.
The state government’s
Health and Family Welfare
Department said this in its sta-
tus report, apprising that a team
fromtheNationalHumanRights
Commission (NHRC) visited the
hospital on June 11 for an on-
the-spot assessment of Covid
care facilities in view of the alle-
gations against the hospital.
The government, in their re-
port filed through Additional
Standing Counsel Sanjoy Ghose
before a bench headed by Chief
Justice D N Patel, further said
the backlog with regard to the
bodies are being cleared on a
“war footing”.
It apprised the bench that
“between May 30 and June 12,
328 bodies were received in the
hospitalmortuary,and338bod-
iesweresentforlastrites(crema-
tion/burial), out of which 333
bodieswerereceivedbyrelatives
(in two cases police accompa-
niedtherelatives);fourbodiesof
unknownidentitywerereceived
bypolice;one bodywasreceived
by local MLA (Malviya Nagar).”
The matter has been ad-
journed for hearing on June 29,
in view of the fact that the
Supreme Court is seized with a
similar issue.
The status report was filed in
thebackdropof thecourt’squery
on slow disposal rate of bodies.
Thepreviousstatusreportwas
At Lok Nayak Hospital on Monday. Anil Sharma
BRIEFLY
HCseeksgovt
replyonGanga
RamFIR
New Delhi: The Delhi HC
Monday sought the re-
sponseoftheDelhigovern-
mentonapleabySirGanga
Ram Hospital seeking
quashing of an FIR for not
using RT-PCR app while
collectingCovidsamples.
Stonepelting
onmosque
New Delhi: For the second
time in four months, a
mosque situated in
Dwarka Sector 11 was al-
legedlypeltedwithstones
Sundaynightbyunknown
people. DCP (Dwarka)
Anto Alphonse said, “We
have registered an FIR.”
Khattar:Find
vacant buildings
Gurgaon: Haryana CM
Manohar Lal Khattar has
directedofficialsinthedis-
trict to do a survey of va-
cant buildings to isolate
Covid-19 patients. ENS
filed in a PIL initiated by the High
Courtonitsownaftertakingcog-
nisance of a news report that in-
sidetheCovid-19mortuaryofLok
Nayak Hospital, there were 108
bodies—all80storagerackswere
full and 28 bodies were on the
floor, piled on top of each other.
The government affidavit
said, “The (NHRC) team inter-
acted with hospital administra-
tion, doctors, staff and some at-
tendants of patients. The team
visited the emergency and the
ward having beds for Covid pa-
tients. In its preliminary report,
theNHRCteamnotedthatnose-
rious patients were denied ad-
mission, and as such only those
patients are being admitted
whose condition is serious; oth-
ers having minor symptoms are
beingadvisedhomequarantine.”
Thereportfurthersaid,“Itwas
also noted that the hospital was
beingreferredpatientsbyvarious
doctors without any proper pro-
tocol,whichwasleadingtosome
confusion among patients…”
Ontheallegationthatseveral
beds were lying vacant, the hos-
pital administration has in-
formed the team that this was
part of the requirement for the
days ahead and that even addi-
tional equipment such as dialy-
sis machines and ventilators
have been kept ready for emer-
gencies. “About 23% of doctors
and paramedical staff have been
kept ready for deployment on a
needs basis,” it said.
The report added: “It may be
noted that the NHRC team vis-
ited the emergency and other
wards having beds for Covid pa-
tients, and no issue of bodies ly-
ing in corridors, or patients not
being attended to has been
flagged.”
DELHI ALL-PARTY MEETING
Sink differences, Shah tells parties;
AAP’s Singh refers to cheaper tests
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE
NEW DELHI, JUNE 15
HOME MINISTER Amit Shah on
Mondaymetwithrepresentatives
of all political parties in Delhi to
discuss the strategy of contain-
ment and treatment of Covid-19.
Themeeting,whichtookplace
between11amand1pmatNorth
Block, was attended by Sanjay
Singh of the ruling AAP, Delhi BJP
chief Adesh Kumar Gupta, and
Delhi Congress president Anil
Chaudhary, sources said.
Representatives of some other
parties including the Bahujan
Samaj Party were also present.
The Home Minister had held
a meeting on the Covid situation
in the national capital with Chief
Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Lt-
GovernorAnilBaijal,UnionHealth
Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan, and
AIIMS Director Dr Randeep
Guleria on Sunday.
According to the Home
Ministry, Monday’s meeting dis-
cussedwaystoincreasetestingfor
thenovelcoronavirus,useofnew
technology for spot testing, and
thearrangementsforlargernum-
bersofisolationandoxygenbeds.
Shah urged all parties to keep
aside political differences and
fight the virus unitedly. He asked
the party representatives to ask
their workers to ensure that the
government’s steps towards in-
creasing testing and arranging
more beds are implemented on
the ground.
“We all have to stand united
under the leadership of Prime
Minister Narendra Modi in this
fight against the pandemic.
...Political unity will create confi-
denceamongthepublicandlead
toimprovementinthepandemic
situation in the capital. We have
to improve Covid-19 testing ca-
pacitywithnewertechniques.We
will overcomethepandemic and
win the battle by being united,”
Shahsaidduringthemeeting,and
appealed to all parties to over-
cometheirpoliticaldifferences“in
the interest of the people”.
Shahassuredthepartyrepre-
sentativesthattheUniongovern-
ment would take all necessary
stepstocheckthespreadinDelhi,
the Ministry said.
“TheUnionHomeMinisterin-
formed the all-party meeting of
key decisions taken during a
meetingconvenedbyhimyester-
day (Sunday) and appealed to all
politicalpartiestoensurethatde-
THE CITY
fare of the people of Delhi,”
Ministry spokesperson Nitin
Wakankar said.
AccordingtotheMinistry,the
leaders attending the meeting
gave proposals on fighting the
virus, and assured full support to
the central and Delhi govern-
ments and the three Municipal
Corporations of Delhi.
At Sunday’s meeting it was
decided to immediately provide
500convertedrailwaycoachesto
the Delhi government to house
Home Minister Amit Shah at Lok Nayak Hospital. Express patients, add 8,000 beds, carry
out house-to-house health sur-
veys to map contacts in contain-
ment zones, double testing over
CORONAVIRUS IN THE CAPITAL thenext48hours,andtrebleitin
six days.
TOTAL CASES: 42,829 | NEW CASES: 1,647 Itwasalsodecidedthatacom-
mitteeledbyDrVKPaul,Member
NITIAayog,wouldsubmitareport
Cases Recovered Deaths Tests
on Monday on making available
June 13 2,134 1,547 57 5,776 60percentofdedicatedCovid-19
June 14 2,224 878 56 7,353 beds in private hospitals at lower
June 15 1,647 604 73 6,105 rates,andfixingthecostoftesting
and treatment. The Home
Total 25,002* 16,427 1,400 2,96,697 Ministrydidnotconfirmwhether
*Total active cases this report had been submitted.
Delhi BJP Chief Adesh Gupta
said the procurement of ventila-
cisions are implemented in theirpartyworkerstohelpimple- tors and other equipment was
earnest at the ground level. He ment the decisions taken by the also discussed at the meeting.
called on the parties to mobilise central government for the wel- AAP Rajya Sabha MP, Sanjay
New Delhi
WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM
Singh said the ramping up of bed
strength was among the focal
points of discussion.
“It is clear to everyone that
this fight has to be fought in col-
laboration with each other. The
key things that were discussed
were enhancing Delhi’s bed ca-
pacity, as part of which the
Centre-runhospitalswillreserve
2,000 more beds, the Delhi gov-
ernment will reserve 1,900, and
8,000 will be reserved as isola-
tion beds in railway coaches,”
Sanjay Singh of AAP said.
“The increase in testing infra-
structure was also discussed.
Political parties offered to deploy
volunteersinhospitalstohelplike
theyhelpedindistributingration
andfood.Theideathatthosewho
haverecoveredbeaskedtovolun-
teer their services in hospitals or
otherareas,sincetheystandavery
low chance of getting infected
again,wasalsodiscussed,”hesaid.
Singhsaidthenewrapidanti-
gen detection test that was ap-
proved by the Indian Council of
Medical Research (ICMR) late on
Sunday evening, will be available
for tests in soon.
“This test will be available for
Rs 450 and results will be known
in 15 minutes,” he said.
 WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM

4 THE OUTBREAK
THE INDIAN EXPRESS, TUESDAY, JUNE 16, 2020

170-180 ISOLATION COACHES TO ADD TO BED CAPACITY
Doctor’s cabin to mosquito nets: Anand
Vihar rly station is readied for Covid care
SUKRITA BARUAH
NEW DELHI, JUNE 15
ATANANDViharonMonday,the
last few trains rolled in and out
of the station. According to a
Northern Railways notification,
the five pairs of trains for which
Anand Vihar served as the ter-
minal would now be shifted to
Old Delhi Railway station.
The Northern Railways has
suspended operation of all train
servicesfromAnandViharstation
in East Delhi to dedicate the ter-
minal to housing 170-180 isola-
tioncoachesforCovid-19patients.
On Monday, empty isolation
coaches were parked in the sta-
tion’s coachyard — yet to be
cleaned, medically equipped,
and sanitised.
According to a Northern
Railways spokesperson, each
coachwillbeequippedwiththree
oxygen cylinders: “We are also
providing water, electricity and
charging facilities, PPE kits and
RPFstafftoensureonlyauthorised
personnelcanenter.Onceallthat
is in place, we will hand the
coaches over to the state govern-
ment. We had already handed
over 57 coaches at Shakurbasti
and it is up to the Delhi govern-
ment to begin using them.
Tomorrow,wewillhandover170-
The Northern Railways has suspended operation of all train services from Anand Vihar station. Amit Mehra
180 coaches at Anand Vihar, and
20moreatanotherstation.Weare
looking to finalise the location of
the remaining 250 coaches.”
According to a Home
provide 16 beds. In HC, panel backs
Ministry order, each coach is to
In each of the empty coaches
prepared for isolation, the first
cubicle has been separated from
the rest with a plastic sheet and
designated as ‘Doctor’s Cabin’.
According to an official at the
station,twotrainswhichwerein
the yard had come in from
Lucknow with basic fittings:
“Theyjustneedtobecleanedand
areyettobesanitised.Wecanex-
pect to hand them over by
Tuesdayafternoon.Therewillbe
around180isolationcoachesac-
commodated at this station. The
rest will be across other stations
such as Shakurbasti, Safdarjung,
and so on.”
Each coach has been
equipped by the railways with
27 dustbins, six soap dispensers,
THE CITY
a bucket, a mug, and so on. The
beds onthecoacheslaybare,not
yet fitted with linen. The win-
dows of all the sleeper and sec-
ond-class coaches — since they
don’thavesealedglasswindows
like the AC coaches — have been
lined with mosquito nets. In the
heat of the afternoon sun, two
railwaysworkersinspectedeach
windowandtapedthemosquito
nets wherever they came loose.
A Delhi government
spokesperson said the details of
how these trains will be med-
ically equipped is still under dis-
cussion and will be undertaken
as a joint effort by the state and
central governments.
As per government guide-
lines,theisolationcoachescanbe
used for very mild cases that can
be clinically assigned to Covid
Carecentresasperguidelinesis-
sued by Union Health Ministry.
The isolation coaches are made
as Covid-care level 1 centres.
The order to allot coaches to
Delhi was issued by the MHA
Sunday, following a meeting be-
tween Home Minister Amit
Shah, Chief Minister Arvind
Kejriwal and Lt-Governor Anil
Baijal. It directed that “500 rail-
way coaches with medical and
paramedical staff, oxygen cylin-
ders, etc, to be deployed by the
Ministryof RailwaysbyJune15”.
Over insurance for
kin, man pays to
get himself killed
SOMYA LAKHANI
NEW DELHI, JUNE 15
FIVE DAYS after the body of a
35-year-old East Delhi business-
man was found hanging from a
tree in outer Delhi’s Ranhola,
Delhi Police has arrested three
men and apprehended a juve-
nile for his murder — which the
victim himself allegedly com-
missioned and paid for.
The man, Gaurav Bansal, ran
a wholesale ration shop in East
Delhi’s Karkardooma and lived
in IPExtension.Hewentmissing
on the afternoon of June 9. A day
later, his body was found hang-
ing from a tree, with his hands
tied at the back. A murder case
was registered.
PoliceclaimedBansalhadmet
the accused via Facebook. DCP
(Outer) Dr A Koan said, “During
inquiry,thejuvenilerevealedthat
Bansalhadgotintouchwithhim
onsocialmediaandhadpaidhim
tokillhim.Thedeceasedhadsaid
his family will get insurance
money if they kill him.”
DCP Koan said the juvenile
roped in his friend Manoj (21), a
vegetable vendor, who then
brought on board Suraj (18) and
Sumit (26), who stitches bags.
WhileSumitwasearlierarrested
in connection with a rape case,
the other three have no police
record. “The accused, it appears,
didn’t have much work in the
last few months,” police said.
A team led by ACP Nangloi
Anand Sagar investigated the
case and made arrests.
A police officer said Bansal
was under financial duress. The
officer said, “He had at least two
loans to repay — one was of Rs 6
lakh. He also had some financial
troubles after a fallout with a
relative. Business wasn’t doing
very well.”
Bansal is survived by his wife
and two sons, aged nine and
seven.ApoliceofficersaidBansal
allegedlybefriendedthejuvenile
onFacebookaround20daysago.
“The Facebook chats show
Bansal had proposed this plan to
the juvenile, which he earlier re-
fused. Heconvincedthe juvenile
and promised a sum of over Rs
80,000,” a police officer said.
A senior police officer said
the accused had discussed “ef-
fectivemethodsof killinghimon
Facebook”. Around 2.45 pm on
June 9, Bansal went missing
fromhisshop,andhisfamilyreg-
istered a missing person com-
plaint at Anand Vihar police sta-
tion. A case of murder has been
registered against the accused.

18k tests a day by June 20, No plans for lockdown, says move to turn hotels
some concerns on pendency CM; city sees 1,647 new cases into Covid hospitals
SOURAV ROY BARMAN
NEW DELHI, JUNE 15
A DAY after the Union govern-
mentdecidedtorampuptesting
inthecapital—10,000testsdaily
by June 16; 15,000 by June 18;
and 18,000 by June 20 — the
DelhiHealthDepartmenthasdi-
rected district magistrates to
send as many samples as possi-
ble to labs daily. This, however,
raised concerns of a further rise
in pendency of test results.
According to ICMR’s June 14
report, Delhi has 42 labs — 18
government and 24 private. Of
the government-run labs, three
are under the Delhi government
and the rest under the Centre.
Health Department data
shows that between June 1 and
June10,anaverageof 2,390sam-
ples collected by government
bodiesremainedpendingatvar-
iouslabsdaily.Duringthisperiod,
anaverageof4,897sampleswere
processed in these labs daily,
against a sanctioned capacity of
8,600 — 2,900 by government
labs and 5,700 by private labs, as
told to the Delhi High Court.
“Thetaskofcollectingsamples
won’t be difficult. The West dis-
trict has been collecting an aver-
ageof700samplesadayandnow
itcaneasilycollect1,000samples.
Likewise, South district can also
collect1,000samples,asopposed
todailyaverageof 600.Butwhen
sanctioned capacity to process
samples is 8,600 a day, sending
more samples to labs will only
cause a rise in pendency,” said a
senior Delhi government official.
As of June 15, Delhi is con-
ducting 14,693 tests per million
population, among the highest
in the country, and has carried
out 2,96,697 tests in total.
Initsorder,issuedafterUnion
Home Minister Amit Shah’s
meetingwithCMArvindKejriwal
and L-G Anil Baijal, the Delhi
Health Department said there
will be “no upper limit” in terms
ofsendingsamplestoprivatelabs,
provided they process them in
24-48hours.Itadded,“Alllabsto...
further ramp up testing capacity
onprioritytomeettheincreased
demand of processing”.
Delhi Health Minister
Satyendar Jain told reporters
Monday that the Centre is ex-
tendingfacilitiesofitstestinglabs
to the state. He did not elaborate
if more Centre-run labs will
process samples or existing ones
willenhanceprocessingcapacity.
Thedipinprocessingsamples
wasalsobecausethedepartment
had barred DMs from sending
samplestolabsof theCentre-run
National Centre for Disease
Control due to pending reports,
which has been revoked now.
Meanwhile, ICMR DG Balram
Bhargava Sunday wrote to Union
HealthSecretaryPreetiSudanthat
ICMR recommends use of “stan-
dardQCOVID-19Agkits”(antigen
detection kits) at Delhi’s contain-
mentzonesandhospitalsincom-
bination with RT-PCR tests.
“Symptomatic individuals who
test negative should be tested se-
quentially by RT-PCR to rule out
Covid-19.Apositivetest...doesnot
need reconfirmation by RT-PCR
test,” he said, adding that Delhi
should deploy these kits in con-
tainment zones “at the earliest”.
An official said without
broadening scope of testing pa-
rameters, as laid down by ICMR
on May 18, spread of infection
will remain unclear.
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE
NEW DELHI, JUNE 15
CHIEFMINISTERArvindKejriwal
Monday said there are no plans
toenforceanotherroundof lock-
down in Delhi, scotching ru-
mours that the city will once
again enter a shutdown mode
duetotherisingnumberofCovid
cases.“Manypeoplearespeculat-
ingwhetheranotherlockdownin
Delhi is being planned. There are
nosuchplans,”Kejriwaltweeted.
As many as 1,647 fresh Covid
cases were recorded in Delhi in
the last 24 hours, taking the to-
talnumberof confirmedcasesto
42,829.Thecityalsorecorded73
deaths in a day, the highest sin-
gle-day toll so far. As many as
1,400peoplehavesuccumbedto
the illness in the city, resultingin
a mortality rate of 3.2%.
ThePressInformationBureau
also tweeted on Sunday: “There
is no such plan under considera-
tion.” Delhi Health Minister
SatyendarJainhadalsolastweek
ruledoutanypossibilityof alock-
down. He had said enforcing re-
strictions would not help in ar-
CM Arvind Kejriwal dismissed the rumours
restingthespikeinpositivecases.
Thestategovernmentalsoor-
dered all hospitals to install
CCTVsatCovidwardsin24hours
for efficient management and
monitoringof patients.Theorder
comes on the same day that
UnionHomeMinisterAmitShah
visited Lok Nayak Hospital and
suggested cameras be installed
in the hospital’s Covid wards.
Meanwhile, a meeting of the
Delhi Disaster Management
Authority,scheduledforTuesday,
to review the Covid situation in
the capital has been postponed.
Lt-Governor Anil Baijal was to
chairthemeetinginthepresence
of Kejriwal, Deputy CM Manish
Sisodia,Chief SecretaryVijayDev,
Delhi Police Commissioner SN
Shrivastava, among others.
Issues that would have been
up for assessment at the meet-
ingincludestateof preparedness
of medical infrastructure,
preparing makeshift hospitals,
empoweringRWAstocreateiso-
lation facilities, fixing price cap
for treatment at private hospi-
tals,reducingchargesfortesting,
drivethroughCovidtests,andre-
cruitment of medical personnel
to meet any projected shortfall.
PRITAMPALSINGH
NEW DELHI, JUNE 15
ACOMMITTEEof AIIMSDirector
RandeepGuleriaandNITIAayog
member Dr V K Paul Monday
told the Delhi High Court that it
is“advisableaswellasinfrastruc-
turallyfeasible”tousetwohotels
— Hotel Suryaa in New Friends
ColonyandHotelCrownPlazaat
Okhla— as extended Covidfacil-
ities.
They disclosed the same in
theirreportplacedbeforeJustice
Navin Chawla, who, on June 11,
had requested them to visit the
hotels and give a report on the
“advisability/feasibility” of the
premisesbeingusedasextended
Covid hospitals. The court had
soughtthereportafterthehotels
challenged the Delhi govern-
ment’s move to convert them
into Covid facilities to augment
existing hospital infrastructure.
Themembers,whotookhelp
fromexpertsandinteractedwith
representativesof thehotels,said
“these hotels are ideally suitable
for use as Covid care centres”.
The committee, in its report,
said, “It is pertinent to note that
HotelSuryaahasthreehugeban-
Hotel Suryaa in New Friends
Colony had moved the High
Court against the govt’s
decision to turn it into a
Covid facility. Abhinav Saha
laxis and appropriate PPE for all
its healthcare workers and hotel
staff on Covid duty...”
Additional Solicitor General
Sanjay Jain, appearing for the
Delhi government, submitted
thatthecommittee’sreportisac-
ceptable to the government and
promised to take all steps before
making the hotels operational.
Thecounselforthehotelsalso
submittedthattheydonotpress
for any order of interim injunc-
tion against the Delhi govern-
ment, and would cooperate.
They, however, have expressed

Both Centre and state to add more beds

quet halls which can easily ac- certain concerns regarding the
PUBLIC NOTICE commodate approximately 50- compensation payable, timely
GOVERNMENT OF HARYANA 60 patient beds, and a central payment of the same, supply of
EXCISE & TAXATION DEPARTMENT lobby which can act as a central PPE kits, staff availability, etc.
NOTICE FOR INVITING e-TENDERS FOR ALLOTMENT OF Singh, who attended the all- tal of almost 12,000 beds (as for. With the decision to in- nursing station.” Taking note of which, Justice
REMAINING ZONES OF RETAIL LIQUOR VENDS OF FIVE MALLICA JOSHI party meeting with Union per the Economic Survey of crease capacity in these hospi- “Similarly,HotelCrownPlaza Chawla, in his order, said: “The
DISTRICTS FROM THE GENERAL PUBLIC FOR THE YEAR NEW DELHI, JUNE 15 Home Minister Amit Shah Delhi 2019-20), the Centre-run tals, people of Delhi will heave hasonebanquethallwhichcould petitioners(thetwohotels)shall
2020-21 IN THE STATE OF HARYANA Monday, said the number of and autonomous institutions a sigh of relief,” said a senior accommodateapproximately25 beatlibertytofilerepresentatio-
It is hereby notified for the information of general public that E- CENTRE-RUN HOSPITALS in the Covid beds in Delhi will go up have around 11,000. government official. patientbeds.Thesebanquethalls n(s)...with the government of
TENDERS for ALLOTMENT of zones of remaining retail liquor city, which have 1,410 beds set in the coming weeks as the Of the 1,470 beds reserved Of the Centre-run hospitals, can be appropriately equipped NCT of Delhi, which shall...com-
vends of five districts against which these zones are mentioned aside for Covid patients, will add Centre and state are working in Centre-run hospitals, 1,148 Lady Hardinge Medical College and converted into dedicated municate its decision...within
below, are invited for the year 2020-21:- 2,000 more beds in the coming together to create capacity. are occupied. AIIMS Jhajjar has had reserved 60 beds, all of Covidhealth centres...,”itadded. four weeks... List on July 29,
Sr. No. Name of Distt. Zone Numbers days, while Delhi government Atpresent,theDelhigovern- the highest number of vacant which are occupied. Safdarjung Italsostatedthat“apartfrom 2020.”
1. Gurugram (East) ZGRE-08, 18, 19, 29, 45, 46, 67 & 69 hospitals have been asked to in- menthasreserved4,324bedsin beds, at 264. “So far, the num- Hospital, which admitted the clinical care, the attached hospi- On May 29, the government
2. Gurugram (West) ZGRW-06, 07, 11, 13, 14, 22, 36, 53, 66, crease their Covid beds by its hospitals, while the Centre- ber of beds reserved by the first Covid patient in Delhi, re- tal must ensure training of hotel asked hotels, Sheraton at Saket,
68 & 70 1,900. At present 4,324 beds are run hospitals have 1,410 beds, Centre was much lower than served 283 beds, 277 of which staff in infection control prac- Crown Plaza, Suryaa, Siddharth
3. Jagadhri ZJAG - 39 setasideforthesepatientsinfive including those at AIIMS Jhajjar. their capacity, and a bulk was are occupied. RML Hospital too tices, including donning/doffing at Rajendra Place and Jivitesh at
4. Panipat ZPNP-03, 09 & 17 Delhi government hospitals. While the Delhi govern- available in Jhajjar, which peo- is nearly full with only five beds process. The hospital must en- Pusa Road, to be converted into
5. Sonepat ZSNP-08, 14, 24 & 27 AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay ment-run hospitals have a to- ple are not very keen on opting available at present. sure availability of HCQ prophy- Covid-19 hospitals.
Schedule for invitation and evaluation for e-Tenders for
remaining Zones of retail liquor vends
1. Starting date and time for placing 17th June, 2020
e-tenders. (from 09.00 A.M. onwards)
2. Closing Date and time for placing 17th June, 2020 LOK NAYAK SAYS WILL INFORM FAMILY
e-tenders. (till 05.00 P.M.)
3. Evaluation of e-tenders. 17th June, 2020 (06.00 P.M.)
1. These e-Tenders will be submitted online as per public notice issued
by the Department (published on 07th/8th March, 2020) in the
leading newspapers inviting e-Tenders for allotment of retail liquor
For woman, 2-week search for hospitalised husband
licenses of Zones of vends for the year 2020-21. The public notice breathlessness. word about her husband, an of- Exasperated, she went to When contacted, Dr Ritu
is available on the departmental website i.e. www.haryanatax.gov.in.
2. The list of remaining Zones of vends in the Districts and venue for JIGNASA SINHA He was taken to Deep Chand ficial from the help desk told her Kamla Market police station for Saxena, DMS, Lok Nayak
evaluation of e-Tenders shall be conspicuously displayed in the office NEW DELHI, JUNE 15 Bandhu Government Hospital, he was in the surgical ward. A help. “The policemen spoke to Hospital, acknowledged on
of DETC (Excise) & DETC (ST) concerned. The list shall also be where she saw him last on May doctor, she said, scribbled the the doctors but nothing Sunday night that there were
available on the departmental website i.e. www.haryanatax.gov.in. FOR THE last two weeks, 27. Since then, all she has is a re- information on a piece of paper. changed,” she said. gaps in communication.
3. The process of inviting tenders shall be continued by reducing the PoonamDev(54)hasbeenmak- ceipt which says her husband She left, hoping to see him the An officer confirmed she She told The Indian Express
original reserve price as per Excise Policy 2020-21 and as decid-
ed by ETC, Haryana. ing the journey from her home has been transferred to Lok next day. When she returned, had visited the station: “The that Ram Dev was at their hos-
4. The e-Tenders shall be received and the Zones of vends shall be in Ashok Vihar to Lok Nayak Nayak Hospital after he was however, she said she was again woman and her son did come. pital.“ThepatientwasintheICU
allotted in the manner prescribed in the Excise Policy for the year Hospital every day, looking for tested for Covid. not told the ward number A constable then went to the until now. He is a Covid patient
2020-21 and the Punjab Excise Act, 1914 (as applicable to the an answer to just one question: The couple have a son and where he was. hospital and spoke to a few doc- andisinward30.Wewillinform
State of Haryana), the rules framed thereunder. Where is my husband? twodaughters,andRamwasthe “Is he in the Covid ward, ca- tors. He gave them details of the the family soon and also help
5. The allotment shall be subject to the approval of the Excise and
Taxation Commissioner, Haryana. He may reject, without assign- According to Poonam, her only earning member. At 7 am sualty, or the mortuary?” she patient and told them the fam- others. We have a coordination
ing any reason, any allotment in public interest as the case may husband Ram Dev (60), who every day, she and her son set asked, as her son broke down. “I ily is worried. The doctors said cell where families can speak to
be within 10 days of the date of allotment. sold tea in Mangolpuri till the off, spending Rs 200-250 on e- Poonam Dev has been don’t know where to go and the patient is at the hospital but officials about the patient’s
Excise & Taxation Commissioner, stall was shut down in March, rickshaws and autos. travelling from Ashok Vihar what to do. It’s been more than there are a lot of other patients health.Therehasbeensomede-
81279/HRY.
Haryana. started feeling unwell on May On Saturday, when she to the hospital every day two weeks now, I want to know and doctors need time to look lay but we are improving the
24, with complaints of fever and asked doctors if they had any where he is.” for him.” system,” she said.

New Delhi

5 THE OUTBREAK
THE INDIAN EXPRESS, TUESDAY, JUNE 16, 2020
PANCHKULA:3PM
Amit at his tailoring shop in Sector 9. With sales down to
25%, he has taken heed of a customer’s advice to stitch
masks to boost income. Jaipal Singh
KHARAR: 1.45PM
With few orders, Jagdish Chand (59), a blacksmith, is earning
barely a fourth of his previous income after Unlock-1. “Hope
work will pick up pace soon,” he says. Jasbir Malhi
Aftersurge,12-daylockdowninChennai,3dists
ARUNJANARDHANAN
CHENNAI,JUNE15
DAYS AFTER Tamil Nadu Chief
Minister E K Palaniswami dis-
missed reports of an impending
lockdown in the state as “false
news”, his government Monday
declaredan“intenselockdown”in
four districts, including Chennai,
for 12 days from June 19 to 30 to
curbthesurgeinCovidcases.
Following a state cabinet
meeting and a briefing by an ex-
pertadvisorypanel,Palaniswami
said the decision to impose the
lockdown in Chennai, and the
7 Goa panchayats
impose lockdown,
CM says not
in their power
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE
PANAJI, JUNE 15
AT LEAST SEVEN panchayats in
Goa have imposed lockdowns in
their jurisdictions over fears of a
Covid-19 spread — a move that
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant
said on Monday is not within
their jurisdiction.
The development comes
amid ongoingprotests in several
villages against the govern-
ment’s decision last week to set
up Covid care centres at Primary
Health Care facilities.
Several of the panchayats
thatcontinuewiththelockdown
have the support of the ruling
MLAs, including at least 4 BJP
legislators.VillagesinNorthGoa,
including, Agarwada-Chopdem,
Aldonha, Nachinola and Merces
had imposed lockdowns, with
thepanchayatsallowingvehicles
to cross the villages but with re-
strictions on the operation tim-
ings of shops.
Chief Minister Sawant, how-
ever, said, “Those who willingly
wanttostayathomecan,butone
cannot impose lockdown.
Panchayats do not have the
power.”
Meanwhile,protestsbrokeout
inColvavillageonMondayagainst
the government’s decision to set
up a Covid care centre there.
OnMonday,507of Goa’s592
confirmedcaseswereactive.The
state also discharged 11 patients
witha totalof 85patientshaving
recovered so far.
EFLU extends
application date
Hyderabad: The English and
Foreign Languages University
(EFLU)hasextendedthelastdate
forsubmissionofapplicationsfor
faculty positions, advertised un-
der a recent notification, till June
23, 6 pm.
The decision was taken in
viewof thecircumstancesdueto
Covid-19, and requests from the
applicants, EFLU said.
The university had issued a
notification for filling up 58 fac-
ulty positions in various depart-
ments on May 23. There are 18
professor vacancies, 27 associate
professorvacanciesand13assis-
tant professor vacancies at the
university headquarters in
Hyderabad, and its Shillong and
Lucknow campuses.ENS
neighbouring districts of
Chengalpattu, Kancheepuram
andThiruvallur,was“basedonthe
recommendationof medicaland
health experts”.
Inthesefourdistricts,officials
said, only essential medical serv-
ices, private vehicles for emer-
gency use, government offices
andbankswithastaff strengthof
33 per cent, and shops selling es-
sentialitems,willbealloweddur-
ing the lockdown.
Whilepublictransportwillre-
mainshut,officialssaiddomestic
air operations at the Chennai air-
port will not be affected. Those
travelling from and to these four
Centre to states: Engage
pvt sector for critical
care at reasonable rates
KAUNAIN SHERIFF M
NEW DELHI, JUNE 15
AS AVAILABILITY of hospital
beds and the high cost of treat-
ment for coronavirus at private
hospitals continue to remain a
concern, the Centre on Monday
directed state governments to
engagewiththeprivatesectorto
augment healthcare infrastruc-
ture and make available critical
care at reasonable rates.
Union Health Secretary
Preeti Sudan wrote to state Chief
Secretaries and asked them to
consult with local private sector
healthcare providers and arrive
at reasonable rates.
“In order to ensure that pa-
tientsreceiveprompt,goodqual-
ityandcareatreasonablerates,it
has been suggested to States to
have consultations with the lo-
cal private healthcare providers
and arrive at reasonable rates,
while factoring in cost elements
for personal safety equipment
for healthcare providers,” the
letter said.
Thecommunicationcomesa
day after the Union Home
CISCE to HC: Students
may take exams or be
graded on past scores Average fare Rs 600 per person,
OMKARGOKHALE
MUMBAI,JUNE15
THE COUNCIL for Indian School
CertificateExaminations(CISCE)
on Monday informed the
Bombay High Court that it will
not force students to appear for
the remaining exams for Class X
and XII in July.
TheCouncilsaidithasdecided
to offer students two options —
theycanappearfortheremaining
papers as per the revised sched-
uleortheycouldoptout,inwhich
case final results will be based on
their performance in internal as-
sessment or pre-board exams.
TheCouncilsaiditwillsooncome
upwiththemethodologyforthis.
Last month, CISCE said it will
conduct the remaining exams
startingJuly1.TheboardsaidClass
X exams will be held from July 2
toJuly12andClassXIIexamsfrom
July 1 to July 14.
RajivSharma(37)andhisfatherAshwaniSharma(64)makeboxesforhosieryproductsattheirhomeinShivPuri.Ashwani
uses aclothtocoverhisfacewhilehissonusesa mask.No sanitisersareneededasallinteractionsareonphone,theysay.
Salesaredown —from60boxestoeightaday—and dailyincomeislessthanRs100. Gurmeet Singh
districtsbyroadcandosoonlyaf-
ter obtaining a permit from the
government,theysaid.Privateve-
hicles and autos will be allowed
only for emergencies.
Officials said vegetable and
grocery shops, and fuel stations,
willbeopen between 6am and 2
pm, while restaurants will be al-
lowedonlytakeawayservicesbe-
tween6am and8pm. Thepopu-
lar Amma canteens run by the
government and community
kitchens run by local bodies will
be allowed to function.
The government’s decision
followedamassivesurgeincases
in the four districts since the
Ministry, during the review
meeting on the Covid-19 situa-
tion in Delhi, said that the com-
mittee led by NITI Aayog mem-
ber Dr V K Paul will submit a
report on making available 60
per cent of dedicated Covid-19
bedsinprivatehospitalsatlower
rates, and also on fixing the cost
of testing and treatment.
The Centre stated in its letter:
“States have also been asked to
proactively engage with private
sector health providers and con-
siderpoolinginpublicandprivate
healthcare facilities, as this will
help in providing prompt, good
quality and reasonable health
care to COVID-19 patients.”
The communication, the let-
terpointsout,comesintheback-
dropof reportsof shortageof ICU
beds and overcharging by
healthcare providers. Similarly,
atthereviewmeetingchairedby
Modi last Saturday, a detailed
discussion was held on the chal-
lenges, especially in urban
hotspots and the requirement of
beds to meet the daily surge of
cases.
FULLREPORTON
www.indianexpress.com
A plea by advocate Arvind
RaghunathTiwari,alsotheparent
of anICSEstudent,soughtacourt
directiontotheauthoritiestocan-
celtherescheduledexamsinview
of the pandemic and declare re-
sultsonthebasisofpastperform-
ance in the papers for which ex-
ams have not been held yet.
On Monday, responding to
the plea before the division
bench of Chief Justice Dipankar
Datta and Justice S S Shinde,
CISCE submitted its decision
through senior counsel Darius
Khambata.
Afterhearingthesubmissions,
the bench said, “The decision (by
CISCE) prima facie appears to us
to be fair and reasonable.”
However,thecourtsaidthatit
will consider other intervention
pleas during the next hearing.
The bench also directed the
state government to file an affi-
davit on Tuesday and posted the
case for hearing on Wednesday.
SMALL STEPS
LUDHIANA:3.04PM
emergence of a clusterof cases at
theKoyambeduvegetablemarket
in Chennai early last month.
While announcing the lock-
down,Palaniswamipromisedcash
supportofRs1,000toallrationcard
holders in the areas under lock-
down. He said that a similar
amount will be handed over to all
members of unorganised and
otherwelfareboardsintheseareas.
Thelatestmoveincludes“com-
pletelockdowns”ontwoSundays
(June 21 and 28), when only milk
supply,hospitals,pharmacies,am-
bulance services, emergency and
funeralhearsevans,andprivateve-
hicles used for medical emergen-
Local train services resumed for essential service workers in Mumbai on Monday. Deepak Joshi
Commuters seek clarity as
Mumbai local trains resume
IRAM SIDDIQUE
MUMBAI, JUNE 15
NEARLY 60,000 people – all in-
volvedinessentialservices–trav-
elled on Mumbai's suburban
trains on Monday after both
Central and Western Railway re-
sumed operations for the first
time since March 23.
Atotalof362servicesthatop-
eratedonMondaywereexpected
to ferry 1.25 lakh employees.
However, confusion at railway
stations on the first day, along
60 lakh migrants ferried so far: Rlys
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE
NEW DELHI, JUNE 15
THEAVERAGEfareperpersonon
Shramik Special trains was Rs
600, the Railways estimated, in-
dicatingthatitearnedaroundRs
360 crore while ferrying 60 lakh
migrants so far.
Thetransporterhasrun4,450
Shramiktrainsandthecostofop-
erating each special train was Rs
75-80lakh,RailwayschairmanV
K Yadav said.
“The average fare of Shramik
Special trains is Rs 600 per pas-
senger... We carried 60 lakh pas-
sengers... We, however, man-
aged to recover only 15 per cent
of cost of operations, 85 per cent
of the cost is being borne by the
Centre,” Yadav said.
cies,willbeallowed.
On Friday, denying reports
about a lockdown, Palaniswami
had said that “false news was be-
ingspreadaboutthegovernment
planning to impose intense lock-
down measures to contain the
spreadof COVID-19.”Hehadalso
warned that “stern legal action
will be taken against those who
spread such rumours”.
Officials said the government
changeditsstanceafterMonday's
briefingbytheexpertcommittee,
comprisingdoctorsandscientists
tracking the outbreak, and their
recommendation of a “more
stringent”lockdownforChennai.
with many essential service
workersbeingturnedawayfrom
outsidethestationbypolicemen,
sawareducednumberof people
commuting on the trains.
Many employees of private
hospitals,banksandgovernment
were left fuming over confusion
on who constituted essential
service workers.
Therewaslowturnoutofpas-
sengersforthemorningservices.
The10trainsthatleftfromKarjat
between 5 am to 9 am averaged
about 10 passengers each.
Thepassengerflowincreased
CASE COUNT
THE CHANGING PICTURE
A look at how Covid-19 case counts in states
are changing as migrants return home
KEY SAMPLES
STATES TESTED
■ Tamil Nadu 18,403
■ Rajasthan 10,376
■ Kerala 4,491
■ Andhra Pradesh 15,173
■ Karnataka 5,362
■ Punjab 8,966
States’ data for last 24 hours, updated up to 9 pm on June 15
The committee recom-
mended strict quarantine norms
forthecityanditsmostvulnerable
areas,andaskedthegovernment
to ensure adequate number of
beds, oxygen supply and key
equipment like pulse oximeters.
The committee asserted that
the spike was expected and
warned that the state may wit-
ness a second wave as in China.
“Possibly the only way before us
toarrestthespreadisbyensuring
hand hygiene, use of masks and
social distancing,” said Dr V
Ramasubramanian,aseniorinfec-
tious disease expert, who is a
member of the committee.
in the second half, with several
employeestakingthetrainsback
home. Between 4 pm and 6 pm,
there was a long queue outside
CSMT and at Churchgate.
When contacted, GRP
Commissioner Ravindra
Sengaokar said further clarity is
needed on who are essential
service workers.
"Wehave written to thestate
government to give clear in-
structions if employees in pri-
vate hospitals, banks and postal
service are allowed to travel," he
added.
POSITIVE MIGRANTS FOREIGN
CASES ENTRANTS
1,843 41
287 101 NA
82 23
304 52
213 103
127 17
Ali Mohammad Dar (45), a driver from Sader Koot Payeen, is
out of work since August last year. He says he will be in dire
straits if business doesn’t resume soon. Shuaib Masoodi
RaviKumar(54)saystradeisdownto10%athislighting
boutique.Heisnowfastidiousaboutusingmasksand
sanitisers,andeats onlyhome-cookedfood. Tashi Tobgyal
ICMR clears cheaper,
faster testing kits for
containment zones,
healthcare facilities
KARISHMAMEHROTRA
NEW DELHI, JUNE 15
AS THE country ramps up its
Covid-19 testing, the Indian
Council of Medical Research
(ICMR) has approved a new on-
site diagnostic kit for contain-
ment zones and healthcare set-
tings, which can produce rapid
resultswithoutneedingalabora-
tory and cost much less.
Unlike the RT-PCR test used
for diagnosis now — requiring
heavy laboratory work to mul-
tiply the genetic material of the
virus — the rapid antigen detec-
tion test is reliant on the amount
of virus, or the virus load, in a
nasal swab. It can give a result in
30 minutes. An antigen means
any toxin in the body which pro-
duces an immune response.
Laboratories usually take a day
to give results in case of an RT-
PCR test.
On Monday, the coronavirus
case count in India stood at
3,32,424. A total of 57,74,133
samples have been tested, of
them more than 1,15,000 in the
past 24 hours.
In containment zones, the
rapid antigen test would be used
forallpeoplewithhighfeverand
cough (influenza-like illnesses)
andallcontactsof acasewhoare
direct, asymptomatic, and have
high co-morbidities.
Inhealthcaresettings,thetest
will be used for all patients of in-
fluenza-like illnesses (ILIs) who
aresuspectedof havingCovid-19
and asymptomatic patients who
are immunosuppressed, have
had transplants, or are undergo-
ing chemotherapy, have a malig-
MAHARASHTRA ALREADY IN LIST
Compulsory quarantine
for Delhi, TN returnees,
says Karnataka govt
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE
BENGALURU, JUNE 15
WITH 40 more people admitted
inICUsinamatterof24hours,the
Karnataka government on
Monday returned to a strategy of
institutional quarantine for peo-
plearrivingfromhigh-prevalence
states of Delhi and Tamil Nadu.
The mandatory quarantine
was earlier limited to returnees
from Maharashtra.
Explaining the new SOP for
quarantining of new arrivals,
Karnataka Chief Minister B S
Yediyurappasaid,“Peoplecoming
from Maharashtra will have to
spend seven days in institutional
quarantine followed by seven
13 days of home quarantine. Those
coming from Chennai and Delhi
49 willhavetogoforthreedaysofin-
stitutionalquarantineand11days
6
of home quarantine.”
23 He said, “Cases are increasing
0 in the state due arrival of people
fromotherstates.Wehavetocon-
trolpeoplecomingfromoutside;
we have to tighten measures.”
New Delhi
WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM
BANDIPORA:1.30PM
DELHI:4.30PM
nant disease, or other co-mor-
bidities.Thetestwillalsobeavail-
able for asymptomatic patients
undergoingcertainproceduresor
interventionssuchasneurosurg-
eries, dental work, dialysis and
bronchoscopies,
However, the rapid test has
been found to have a higher
chance of false negatives. So,
whilepositiveresultswillbecon-
sideredconfirmed,incaseofneg-
ativeresults,anRT-PCRwouldbe
done for reconfirmation.
On May 9, the US’s Food and
Drug Administration had given
emergencyauthorisationforuse
of such an antigen test kit. Japan
approved a similar test kit four
days later. Some experts world-
widehaveconsidereddeploying
these tests as home-kits in the
future.
As per the Indian Journal of
Medical Research (IJMR), out of
all people eligible for testing un-
der the ICMR criteria, asympto-
matic direct and high-risk con-
tactsofacasemadeupthelargest
chunk of both confirmations
(25%) and tests (20%) between
January 22 and April 30.
While the above category
was added for testing by the
ICMR only on March 20, it had
expanded the categories on
May 18 to include hospitalised
ILI patients, indicating a con-
cern over contracting coron-
avirus in hospitals.
Another low-cost test kit,
TrueNat,originallydevelopedfor
tuberculosis,isbeingdeployedat
less-equipped district hospitals.
Officials said 77 TrueNAT ma-
chines are in use currently.
FULLREPORTON
www.indianexpress.com
Nearly 70 percent of 7,213
coronavirus cases recorded in
Karnataka have involved re-
turneesfromMaharashtra—allof
them since May 8, when inter-
state travel began.
On Monday, the state saw a
sudden jump in number of pa-
tients requiring intensive care –
from 16 on Sunday to 56, includ-
ing seven patients requiring ven-
tilator support.
Most people requiring inten-
sive care are from Bengaluru and
Kalaburagi — the numbers
jumped from six and eight to 17
and 18, respectively.
Most patients in ICU are peo-
ple who have returned from
Maharashtra, a few from Tamil
Nadu, as well as several patients
with influenza-like illnesses but
no history of travel or known
source of contact.
Delhi has Covid-19 incidence
rateof2,198casespermillionpop-
ulation,Maharashtrahas900per
million, Tamil Nadu 564 per mil-
lion. The incidence rate in
Karnataka as of June 13 was 111
per million.
 6 EXPRESS NETWORK
Classifieds
PERSONAL
I Aman Kumar S/o Shiv Shankar
Kamat R/o D-2/142, Upper
Ground Floor, Jeevan Park,
Uttam Nagar, Delhi-110059,
have changed my name to
Aman Veer. 0070706723-1
I Amit Chaubey S/o Uma
Shanker Chaubey R/o 27F/4B,
Chak Daud Nagar, Naini,
Prayagraj, UP-211008, have
changed my name to Sai Amit
Chaturvedi. 0070706710-1
I Bhishma Tamang Kancha S/o
Narbir Tamang R/o Rangpoo
New Division, Rangpo Forest,
Darjeeling, WB-734315, have
changed my name to Bhishma
Tamang. 0070706713-1
I Hakeem Pasha S/o Hydersab
R/o 9-7-1359, Near Roshan
Function Hall, Degloor Naka,
Devi Nagar, Itwara Nanded TQ
Dist Nanded, Maharashtra-
431604, have changed my
name to Sayed Hakeem Pasha
Sayed Hydarsab
0070706705-1
I Kalpana Kumari Alias Kalpana
Rawat D/o Nakul Singh and
W/o Ashu Rawat R/o 481,
Block-E, DDA Flats, Bindapur,
Delhi-110059, have changed
my name to Kalpana Rawat
0070706699-1
I Kamini Devi D/o Hukkum
Chand R/o Village Bara
Bhuien, Shillihar (27/60),
Bhuntar, Kullu, HP-175125,
have changed my name to
Kaamini Singh Thakur.
0070706690-1
I Lakshmi Kumari Poptani D/o
Dayanand Sindhi R/o 60, Near
Katla Masjid, Teli Mohalla
Kekri, Ajmer, Rajasthan-
305404, have changed my
name to Lakshmi Poptani
0070706717-1
I Makwana Hiteshbhai S/o
Makwana Khushalbhai R/o
Vankar Vas, Bhoj, Vadodara,
Padra, Gujarat-391445, have
changed my name to Joseph
for all purpose. 0070706703-1
I Mayank s/o satish kumar R/o
3/A/70 N.I.T Faridabad have
changed my name to Mayank
Dawra for all future refrence.
0070706721-1
I Melroy Gabriel Lucas S/o
Mervyn Oscar Lucas R/o
Arunima Apartment, H/11/B,
Tagore Park, Tiljala, South 24
Paraganas, WB-700039, have
changed my name to Melroy
Lucas . 0070706694-1
I Munna Lal Alias Munna Lal
Tiwari S/o Raja Ram R/o 24/84,
Trilokpuri, Chilla Saroda
Khadar, Delhi-110091, have
changed my name to Genda
Lal. 0070706686-1
I, Visshnu Mittal, S/o Sh.Bihari
Lal Mittal R/o-109,3rd-Floor,
Gujrat-Vihar, Delhi-
110092.have changed my
name,from Vishnu Mittal to
Visshnu Mittal,for all,future
purposes. 0040539393-11
I, Sarjeet Singh,S/o Sh.Lal
Singh, R/o-RZF-508, Raj-Nagar-
2,Netaji Subhash-Marg,
Palam-Colony,New Delhi, is
also known as Sarjeet Singh
Yadav.Both Names are of same
person. 0040539393-4
I, Sanjogat, D/o Ram
Niwas,Add=G18/A shiv-
mandir nizamuddin,wast new-
dehli-110013,HAVE changed
My name to Sanjogata,for
all,future purpose.
0040539393-5
I Rikhu Ram S/o Shakti Chand
R/o Tehsil Baijnath, VPO
Gandhi Gram Buhla, Distt-
Kangra, HP-176125, have
changed my name to Sanjay
Kumar. 0070706701-1
I, RENUBALA KAR W/O-
14625387M
HAV/DVR(MT)KRUSHNA
CHANDRA DWIBEDI R/O.VILL-
BARI ARANGABAD, PO-BARI
CUTTACK,TEH-BARI
ARANDABAD,DISTT-
JAJAPUR,PIN.NO-755003,have
changed my name,from
RENUBALA KAR to RENU
DWIBEDI,for all,future
purposes. 0040539393-7
I,Hitherto known as Kusum W/o
Sanjay Kumar Garia Residing
at-14B, Pocket-4,EHS Mix
Housing Flats,Mayur
Vihar,Phase-3, Delhi-
110096,have changed my
name and,shall hereafter be
known as Kusum Garia.
0040539408-1
I, Pardhuman Puri S/o Tilak Raj
Puri R/o D-51, Gujranwala
Apartments, J-Block,
Vikaspuri, New Delhi-110018,
that name of mine has been
wrongly written as
Pardhuman Raj Puri in my
Passport B5112909. The actual
name of mine is Pardhuman
Puri. 0070706712-1
I, Neeraj Kumar S/o Surender
Singh R/o RZ-3/404, Gali No-15,
Shiv Puri, Sagar Pur, Delhi-
110046, have changed my
minor son’s name from Aditya
Kumar Tondak aged 12 years
to Ronit Rajput forever.
0070706708-1
I, Naveen Kapoor S/o Ashok
Kapoor R/o-4/50, Old-Double-
Story, NirmalPuri,
LajpatNagar-4, N.Delhi-110024,
have changed my name to
Navin Kapoor Permanently.
0040539393-3
I, Mansoori Mehjabeen
Mohammad Javed W/O-Amir
Hamza, R/O.Flat.No-
108,Golden-Heights, Pocket-8,
Sec-12, Dwarka, N.Delhi-
110075.Have Changed My
Name to MEHJABEEN HAMZA.
0040539393-6
I, Manisha Bhardwaj W/O Shri
Vipin Bhardwaj R/O 87-A,
South Anarkali Extn. Krishna
Nagar,Delhi-110051,have
changed my name to Manu
Bhardwaj. 0040539408-2
I, Gagan Ashok,S/o Chebankottil
Ramakrishnan Ashok R/o-A-
2/54-C, Pocket-A-2, Mayur-
Vihar, Phase-III, Delhi-
110096,Have changed my name
to Gagan Chebankottil
Ashok,Permanently.
0040539393-2
I, Brijendra Singh Bhuie also
spelled as Bhoote S Brijendra
Singh S/O Gurinder Singh Bhuie
R/o Jaypee Aman,Tower N-19,
Flat No-2105, Sector-151, Noida
- 201301 (U.P) confirm that they
are the same person.
0040539403-1
I, Bhawan Singh S/o Prem Singh
R/o B-58, Mazor Bhola Ram
Colony, Pochanpur Gaon,
Delhi-110077, have changed my
name to Bhawan Singh Negi for
all purposes. My father name
wrongly written in my service
record as Prem Singh instead
of Prem Singh Negi.
0040539405-1
I Robin Yadav S/o Surender
Yadav R/o Plot No-536, 2nd
Floor, Sector-3F, Vaishali,
Sahibabad, Ghaziabad, UP-
201010, have changed my name
to Robin Singhal. 070706679-1
I Rahul Kushwaha S/o Sh.Lal
Singh Kushwaha R/o H.No.3718,
Chowk Charkhe Walan, Delhi-
110006 have changed my name
to Vikram Singh Kushwaha for
all purposes. 0040539370-1
I Rabi Kumar Surolia S/o Murli
Dhar Surolia R/o Khardah,
Adarsh Pally, HNo-24/18, BT
Road, Shivam Appartment, BD
Sopan, North 24 Paraganas,
WB-700116, have changed my
name to Ravi Surolia
0070706725-1
I Prikshit Khokher S/o Madan
Pal Singh R/o K-6D/12C, Khasra
No-771/1, K-Block, Gali No-
6D/2, Mahipal Pur, Delhi-
110037, have changed my name
to Parikshit Khokher
0070706715-1
I Prabhsimran Kaur Malhotra
D/o-Harpreet Singh Malhotra ,
R/o. J-9/41,Rajouri-Garden,
Tagore garden, Delhi -
110027.Have Changed My
Name To Prabhsimran Kaur.
0040539393-1
I Narinder Singh Alias Narinder
Singh Billing S/o Swaran Singh
R/o Post Office Dhamai, Tehsil
Garhshankar, Dhamai,
Hoshiarpur, Punjab-144532,
have changed my name to
Narinder SIngh Billing
0070706698-1
It is intimated that I Sunita Mishra
w/o SUB Govardhan Prasad Mishra
Presently residing at H. No. J2/21,
Shankar Vihar, New Delhi-110010
have changed my name from Sunita
Devi to Sunita Mishra, due to my
name mentioned as Sunita Mishra
in all my records.
LOST & FOUND
It is notified for the information
that my Original Qualifying
Examination Certificate of
Main, Secondary & Senior
Secondary Examination of Year
1998 & 2001 with Roll No.
6127783 and 4219936
respectively issued by CBSE
has been actually lost. Name of
the candidate: Amandeep
Singh Kaler, Full Address:WZ
66/8 1st Floor, Manohar Nagar,
New Delhi - 110018, Tel.
9899689438. 0050165525-1
My original Property DEMAND
LETTER for file no.6(198)-
83HBM-NP-LIG dated 19-02-
1983. H.NO 94-A LIG flats
Rampura, Delhi-110035 has
been lost. Finder please
contact, Azad Singh(Ph-
9582766955) S/O Jagmal Singh
R/O 93-C LIG flats, Rampura
Delhi-110035. 0070706726-1
PUBLIC NOTICE
IT IS FOR INFORMATION OF GENERAL
PUBLIC THAT MY CLIENT SATPAL JAIN S/O
LATE SARDARA MAL JAIN AND SMT. LATA
JAIN W/O SH. SATPAL JAIN BOTH R/O E-20/
127-128, SECTOR-3, ROHINI, DELHI,HEREBY
DECLARE THAT THEY HAVE SEVERED OFF
ALL THEIR SOCIAL, FAMILY AND FINANCIAL
RELATIONS WITH THEIR ONLY DAUGHTER
MS. PRIYANKA JAIN AGED 24 YRS., AND
HAVE DEBARRED HER FROM ALL THEIR
MOVABLE AND IMMOVABLE PROPERTIES,
AS SHE IS NOT UPTO THEIR
EXPECTATIONS. ANYONE DEALING WITH
HER , WILL DO SO AT HIS/HER RISK AND MY
CLIENTS WILL NOT BE RESPONSIBLE FOR
THE SAME IN ANY MANNER.
Sd/-
AJAY KUMAR
ADVOCATE
Enrl D/2032/2006 RU-367, Pitam Pura
Delhi-110034 Ph 9811140559
PUBLIC NOTICE
Be it known to all that our client Sh.
Vinod Bangwal, S/o Sh. M.R. Bangwal,
R/o D-25/1, South Ex. Part II, New
Delhi is going to purchase entire ground
floor and first floor of the property
bearing no. 29, part of Khasra no. 121,
situated at Amrit Nagar, Kotla
Mubarakpur, New Delhi constructed on
a plot of 261sq. yds. from its owners Sh.
Yash Kumar Dher, S/o Dr. Prem Kumar
Dher, R/o 29 Amrit Nagar, Kotla
Mubarakpur, New Delhi by virtue of the
Sale Deed.
Further anybody else having any sort of
interest or lien in the said property or
any part thereof can file his/her/its
objections within 15 days of the
publication. Failing which the same
shall not be binding upon my client and
my client shall proceed to complete the
transaction as per the agreed terms.
Sd/-
SANGITA KALRA, ADVOCATE,
265 LAWYERS CHAMBER,
DELHI HIGH COURT, DELHI-110003
PUBLIC NOTICE
Be it known that my client MR. OM
PRAKASH S/O SH. JAGDISH PRASAD
R/o 1122, MANGOL PUR KALAN,
HARIJAN BASTI, PANNA MOHALLA,
Delhi-110085, has disowned and
severed all their relations with their son
MR. MOHIT debarred them from their
moveable and immovable properties/
assets and their personal life. Anybody
dealing with them in civil and criminal
matter shall be doing at his/ her/ their
own risk, cost and responsibility.
Sd/-
PARKASH CHAND
ADVOCATE
Chamber: 914, IX Floor,
Lawyers Chambers
RohinI Court Complex Delhi-85
PUBLIC NOTICE
Be it known my clients (1) DAVENDER
SHARMA S/O SH. MADAN GOPAL
SHARMA (2) NARESH SHARMA W/O SH.
DAVENDER SHARMA BOTH R/O D-278,
GALI NO. 3, SWAROOP NAGAR, DELHI-
110042 PRESENTLY RESIDING AT D-283,
GALI NO. 3, SWAROOP NAGAR, DELHI-
110042 have disowned and severed all their
relation with their son namely HITESH
SHARMA and debarred him from their
movable and immovable properties/assets
due to his misbehavior, unfamiliar activities,
intolerable act, misconduct and going against
my cleints. Anybody dealing with him in civil
and criminal matter shall be doing at his/her/
their own risk, cost and responsiblility and my
client’s family shall not be liable for his any
act.
Sd/-
KAMAL SINGH (Advocate)
Enrl. No. D-748/14
PUBLIC NOTICE
My client BIMLA SHARMA W/O Shri
SATINDRA SHARMA R/O Sector- B, Pocket
7, HNo.5037, vasant kunj New Delhi-110070
do herby disown/ debar her son Rajat Sharma
from all his movable and immovable
properties with immediate effect and sever
her all relations with him due to his
misconduct and misbehave with my client . if
anybody dealing with them in any manner
shall be doing so at his/her/their own cost,
risk and responsibility thereto and my client
shall not be responsible for any act done by
him.
Sd/-
LEELA SUMAN
ADVOCATE
Enl. No. D-1400A/12
Office: Chamber no.363 High Court,
New Delhi, Mobile :9811908599
81274/HRY. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION KINDLY VISIT: www.haryanaeprocurement.gov.in or www.etenders.hry.nic.in
81278/HRY.
PUBLIC NOTICE
My clients Smt. Pushpa Rani W/o Shri Charan
Singh and Shri Charan Singh S/o Late Sh.
Mahavir Singh both are R/o Flat No.14, Pocket-
24, Sector-24, Sangam Apartment, Rohini, Delhi-
110085 do hereby disowned/ debarred their son
Lovenish Kumar and daughter-in-law Ms. Pooja,
from all their movable & immovable properties for
being disrespectful, quarrelsome and disobedient
towards my clients and my clients has henceforth
severed all their relations with them. If the son
and daughter-in-law of my clients mentioned
above are found/ involve in any illegal and
unlawful activities at any point of time, my clients
shall not be responsible for the same in any
manner whatsoever and anybody dealing with
them shall do at their own cost and risk.
Sd/-
Sunil Kumar
Advocate
Resi-cum-off: 248, Vidya Vihar,
West Enclave, Pitampura, Delhi-110034
''IMPORTANT''
Whilst care is taken prior to
acceptance of advertising
copy, it is not possible to verify
its contents. The Indian
Express (P) Limited cannot be
held responsible for such
contents, nor for any loss or
damage incurred as a result of
transactions with companies,
associations or individuals
advertising in its newspapers
or Publications. We therefore
recommend that readers
make necessary inquiries
before sending any monies or
entering into any agreements
with advertisers or otherwise
acting on an advertisement in
any manner whatsoever.
TENDER NOTICE
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION KINDLY VISIT: www.haryanaeprocurement.gov.in or www.etenders.hry.nic.in
WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM
THE INDIAN EXPRESS, TUESDAY, JUNE 16, 2020
1 in 5 people may have health condition Assam: Man
picked up during
that raises risk of severe Covid-19: study search operation
lying health conditions.
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE In India, at least 21.5 per The authors based their esti- dies in custody
PUNE, JUNE 15 matesondiseaseprevalencedata
cent of the population from the Global Burden of ABHISHEKSAHA
ANESTIMATED1.7billionpeople, is estimated to have Diseases,InjuriesandRiskFactors GUWAHATI,JUNE15
or 22 per cent of the world popu- these underlying Study(GBD)2017,UNpopulation
lation, have at least one underly- estimates for 2020 and the list of A 30-YEAR-OLD man who was
inghealthconditionthatcouldin- conditions underlyinghealthconditionsrel- pickedupduringacounter-insur-
creasetheirriskofsevereCovid-19 evant to Covid-19, as defined by gency search operation by the
if infected, according to a model- current guidelines. ArmyandpoliceinAssam’sJorhat
lingstudythatusesdatafrom188 population(349millionof7.8bil- “As countries move out of district on Sunday died while in
countries,publishedinTheLancet lionpeople)wouldrequirehospi- lockdown,governmentsarelook- custody,districtadministrationof-
Global Health journal. talisation if infected, suggesting ing for ways to protect the most ficials said.
According to the study, in that the increased risk of severe vulnerable... We hope our esti- The man’s relatives alleged
India, at least 21.5 per cent of the Covid-19 could be quite modest mateswillprovideusefulstarting foul play and torture by security
country’spopulationisestimated for many with underlying condi- points for designing measures to personnel, a person close to the
to have underlying health condi- tions. protect those at increased risk of family said.
tions that may increase their risk Guidelines published by the severedisease.Thismightinvolve Assam’sAdditionalDGP(Law
of severe Covid-19 if infected. WHO and by public health agen- advising people with underlying andOrder)GPSinghsaid,“Acase
Although the estimates pro- ciesintheUKandUSidentifyrisk conditionstoadoptsocialdistanc- has been registered.”
videanideaofthenumberofpeo- factorsforsevereCovid-19,includ- ingmeasuresappropriatetotheir Deputy Commissioner of
plegovernmentsshouldprioritise ingcardiovasculardisease,chronic level of risk, or prioritising them Jorhat district, Roshni Aparanji
forprotectivemeasures,notallin- kidney disease, diabetes and for vaccination in the future,” Korati, ordered a magisterial en-
dividuals with these conditions chronic respiratory disease. The AssociateProfessorAndrewClark quiryandsoughtareportwithin
would go on to develop severe new study provides global, re- from the London School of 10 days. There was no statement
symptomsifinfected.Theauthors gional and national estimates for Hygiene&TropicalMedicine,UK, fromtheArmytillthetimeof go-
estimate that 4% of the world’s thenumberofpeoplewithunder- said in a statement. ing to press.
On Sunday, sol-
diers of 244 Field
Regiment based in
Charaideoconducteda
search operation in
Jorhat district assisted
by police. The Army
came with a requisi-
tion informing about
the presence of a
memberofULFA-land
NSCN-IM in Borholla.
According to Korati,
JayantaBora,whosefa-
therwasanex-service-
man, was appre-
hendedbytheArmyas
a“suspectedcadre”.
Bora was brought
to Borholla police sta-
tion and the Army
team “reported that
thepersonwasfeeling
uneasy”. He was ad-
mitted to Borholla
community health
centre,fromwherehe
was referred to Jorhat
MedicalCollegewhere
hewasdeclareddead,
Koratisaid.
SEARCH FOR MISSING
General public is hereby informed that a
man namely Mukesh Yadav, S/o Laxmi
Narayan Yadav R/o B-2/38, Sec-18,
Rohini, Delhi has been missing has been
missing since 08.05.2020 from his house.
In this regard a D.D. No. 28-A, dated
11/05/2020 has been registered at P.S.
Samaipur Badli, Delhi. Sincere efforts
have been made by the local police to
trace out the missing man but no clue has
Mukesh Yadav
come to light so far. The description of the
missing man is as under:
Name: Mukesh Yadav, Gender: Male, Age: 37 years, Height:
5'11”, Complexion: Fair, Face: Oval, Built: Normal, Wearing:
GOVERNMENT OF MEGHALAYA Yellow colour shirt and blue colour track pant and slippers in his
feet.
Meghalaya Infrastructure Development & Finance
Corporation (M.I.D.F.C) If anyone has any information regarding this missing Man,
kindly inform SHO/Samaipur Badli, Delhi.
Meghalaya, Shillong
No: MIDFC-Procurement-2020-30-472 E-mail : cic@cbi.gov.in
Ph.: 011-24368638, 24368641
Dated Shillong the 15th June 2020 Fax : 011-24368639 SHO
P.S. Samaipur Badli, Delhi.
NOTICE INVITING Expression of Interest (EOI) DP/260/ON/2020 Ph. No. 011-2785 4799, 7065036326
Meghalaya Government intends to engage a professional
and competent Agency from India to Design, Engineering,
Supply, Installation, Testing, Commissioning of
Prefabricated structures for Farm gate Infrastructure for
storage of farm or agriculture produce in multiple locations
in state of Meghalaya.
MIDFC (on behalf of Government of Meghalaya) seeks
proposals from agencies whose services shall be availed
by Meghalaya Infrastructure Development & Finance
Corporation Ltd.
Interested Parties are requested to download the
Expression of Interest (EOl) document from
http://mbda.gov.in/tenders and submit their EOI in
prescribed format complete in all respect to Chief
Operations Officer (C.O.O.) Meghalaya Infrastructure
Development Finance Corporation Ltd. (MIDFC)
Meghalaya House, No.9, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam Road, New
Delhi-110011 by 17:00 hours on 06/07/2020
Phone No:7629898737/8837023352
Sd/-
(Shri B.M. Syiem)
Chief Operations Officer (COO),
MIPR NO. 279 DT. 15.06.2020 MIDFC
TENDER NOTICE
New Delhi
 WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM

7 EXPRESS NETWORK
THE INDIAN EXPRESS, TUESDAY, JUNE 16, 2020

Armytweaksbattlephysical Jaishankar to hold

talks with China,
DELHI CONFIDENTIAL
testpolicyforwomenofficers
5-km run, 60 m sprint and jump across 6-ft ditch part of test for all women
Russia on June 22
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE
NEW DELHI, JUNE 15
jumping across a 6-feet ditch. for women officers below 30 tween July and October.
MAN AMAN SINGH CHHINA TheIndianExpresshasaccessed years should be 30 minutes or When contacted, a senior of- EXTERNAL AFFAIRS Minister S
CHANDIGARH, JUNE 15 directionsissuedbytheDirectorate less for ‘Excellent’ grading, 31 ficeratArmyHQssaidthiswasbe- Jaishankaris expected to join his
General of Military Training of minutes 30 seconds for ‘Good’ ingdonebecauseundergoingthe Chinese and Russian counter-
THE ARMY has changed its pol- ArmyHeadquarters,NewDelhi,is- grading and 33 minutes for coursewasamandatoryrequire- parts at a virtual conference of
icy regarding the applicability of sued on May 12, 2020. The letter ‘Satisfactory’grading.Incompar- mentforpromotiontotherankof the Russia-India-China (RIC) tri-
Battle Physical Efficiency Test states, “The standards will be ap- ison, earlier norms stipulated 32 Colonel.“Manyof thewomenof- lateral on June 22, sources said
(BPET) for women plicabletoallcategoriesofwomen minutes for ‘Excellent’, 33 min- ficers would be considered for on Monday. S Jaishankar
officers/women cadets/women entries and trainees in all training utes 30 seconds for ‘Good’ and promotiontotherankof Colonel. ThetrilateralmeetingonJune
recruits and has made it manda- academiesandregimentalcentres 35 minutes for ‘Satisfactory’. Therefore, they need to do this 22 was scheduled to be held in
tory for all women officers, in- of all arms and services with im- In another move, after the coursewhichwasearliernotcom- March, but had to be postponed implementationof the7,200-km
FUELLING FIREPOWER cludingthosecommissionedbe-
fore 2009 and above 35 years of
mediateeffectirrespectiveof date
ofjoiningtrainingestablishments/
Supreme Court order on
February 17, 2020, granting per-
pulsoryforthem,”theofficersaid.
Respondingtotheinclusionof
due to the coronavirus crisis.
The meeting, being con-
International North-South
Transport Corridor (INSTC) link-
WHILETHECongresshasbeenattackingthegovernmentover age who were exempt from it. commission/enrollment.” manent commission to all womenofficersabove35forBPET, vened at the initiative of Russia, ing India, Iran, Afghanistan and
its handling of the coronavirus pandemic, and its response to BPET is a series of physical The new directions have also women officers with all conse- a woman officer said, “Why has is expected to deliberate on a Central Asia with Europe.
the Chinese incursion along the Line of Actual Control in tests meant to test the physical laid out new standards which quential benefits, the Army has this been done only after the SC range of key issues, like ways to “Itwillbeagoodopportunity
Ladakh, the party is now opening new fronts to put the gov- fitness of an officer or jawan to haveto be met by women on the starteddetailingwomenofficers gave a favourable ruling for per- collectively tackle the coron- for all the three countries to
ernmenton the mat. One gets to hear that Congress president perform military tasks. For Army, including the time in of the rank of Lt Colonels for manent commission to women avirus pandemic and address come together and discuss re-
Sonia Gandhi herself is planning to raise the issue of increase women officers, this includes a whichtheyhavetocompletethe JuniorCommandcourseatArmy officers?Isitamovetoensurethat common security threats, gionalissuesinordertosynchro-
in petrol and diesel prices. She could flag the issue in a letter 5 km run, 60 m sprint, climbing tasks etc. War College, Mhow. Women of- womeninhigheragebracketwho sources said. nise our views to contribute to
to the Prime Minister. The sense among leaders is that the vertical rope up to a certain Asperthenewdirections,the ficers have been asked to attend have not been doing BPET due to The three foreign ministers regional stability,” a source said.
party needs to raise the issue consistently, as the hike in fuel height, traversing horizontal time taken to run 5,000 thecoursestobetentativelycon- the2011ordersfailandareforced are also expected to deliberate The RIC meet comes against
pricespinchthemiddleclassandfarmersthemost—two sec- rope up to a certain distance and feet/1500metresinagecategory ducted at the institution be- out of service?” extensively on the evolving po- thebackdropof aborderstandoff
tions which had moved away from the Congress. liticalsituationinAfghanistanaf- betweenIndianandChinesemil-
ter the US inked a peace deal itaries in several areas along the
Anamika Shukla with the Taliban in February. Line of Actual Control (LAC) in
CLEAN CHEATS fraud row: Main
The meeting of the RIC for-
eignministersisalsoexpectedto
eastern Ladakh for over five
weeks. Both countries are hold-
THECBI,whichhasregularlyissuedalertstoallagenciesabout delve into key connectivity proj- ing talks at military and diplo-
online frauds related to Covid-19 overt the months, has now accused among ects in the region including the maticlevelstoresolvethedispute.
issued an alert that might upset the hand sanitiser market.
Following inputs received from Interpol, the CBI has warned three arrested
law enforcement agencies across the country that unscrupu-
by UP STF Sarpanch ‘seeks Pitch to continue
lous manufacturers may be using methanol to make spuri-
ous hand sanitisers. In a communication, the CBI has stated, forgiveness’: J&K online classes for
cops probe video IIT next semester
“Instances have been reported in other countries where due
to huge demand for hand sanitizers...use of methanol was de- EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE
tected to produce counterfeit hand sanitizers. Methanol can LUCKNOW, JUNE 15
be highly toxic and dangerous for the human body.”
THEUTTARPradeshPoliceSpecial ADIL AKHZER EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE
SRINAGAR, JUNE 15 NEW DELHI, JUNE 15
HOME-ASANA
Task Force (STF) on Monday ar-
restedthreepeople,includingthe
mainaccused,inconnectionwith J&K POLICE said they have regist- A SUB-COMMITTEE of the IIT
EVERSINCEtheBJP-ledNDAcametopower,YogaDayonJune the “Anamika Shukla” scam in ered a case after a video purport- Council has suggested that the
21 has been a major event, celebrated with much fanfare. But Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s daughter Veena T got married to DYFI president P A which several teachers got ap- edly showing a sarpanch seeking “continuing” undergraduate stu-
with the pandemic forcing the event to be held virtually, the Muhammed Riyas in Thiruvananthapuram on Monday. The wedding was held at the official pointedinKasturbaGandhiBalika forgivenessandsayingshewillre- dents or those already enrolled
HealthMinistryplanstoorganise'YogaAtHomeandYogawith residence of the CM in accordance with Covid-19 protocol. Governor Arif Mohammed Khan Vidyalayas (KGBVs) across the sign went viral. The video, suspe- should continue their classes in
Family' through digital platforms this year. Other ministries, visited the CM’s residence and wished the couple. state with the documents of one ctedtohavebeenshotbymilitan- theonlinemodeinthecomingau-
departments and private companies have been asked to par- person. With this, seven people ts in north Kashmir’s Sopore, tumn semester. Their laboratory
ticipateinthevirtualevent.TheAYUSHMinistry,alongwiththe have been arrested in the case. comesafterasarpanchwaskilled experiments can be completed

Have employed 57.13 lakh

Indian Council of Cultural Relations, has also announced a The police identified insouthKashmir’sAnantnag. whenever it is safe for them to
video-blog competition — “My Life My Yoga” — in which par- Pushpendra Singh, who was While the video shows the come back.
ticipants have been asked to make a three-minute video per- posted as assistant teacher in sarpanch purportedly saying she Thepanelofdirectorshasalso
forming yoga asanas and post them on social media. Farrukhabad, as the primary ac- will resign, a man is heard saying suggested that the first-year stu-

under MGNREGA: UP govt

cused.TheothersheldareAnand, this is a last warning. SP, Sopore, dentsoftheMastersandPHDpro-
a district coordinator at the office Javid Iqbal said, “There was no grammes should be inducted
of the Basic Shiksha Officer in complaint.Butwehaveregistered formallyoncampusinDecember-
BHIMA KOREGAON VIOLENCE Jaunpur, and Ramnath, a senior a case.As perherstatement, they January.Forfirst-yearMastersstu-

Nine working for release

view the lockdown and coron- theirliving.Withtheonsetof the clerk at the BSA office in Hardoi. are believed to be militants. Inv- dents,thepanelhasproposedthe
MAULSHREE SETH avirus situation, Chief Minister nationwide lockdown, about 6 STF Inspector General estigationison.”Hesaidthesarp- IITscompletetheirprogrammein
LUCKNOW, JUNE 15 Yogi Adityanath has ordered to lakh workers were engaged in Amitabh Yash said the three had anch was on her way to Srinagar three semesters instead of four.

of accused were targets THE UTTAR Pradesh govern-

provide MGNREGA jobs to 10
lakh more people,” Awasthi said,
April, which increased to about
41 lakh till last week with the
plotted the scam. They were ar-
rested near the new High Court
Friday when she was stopped.
“Shewastakentoanorchardand
“Whenever it is safe for students
to return, the IITs should bring

of spyware: Amnesty
ment on Monday said it has en-
gaged 57.13 lakh workers under
the MGNREGA, thereby emerg-
ingasthetopstateinthecountry
adding that UP is followed by easing of the lockdown. building here after the police re- the video was recorded. She was back the PhD students first,” said
Rajasthan, which has engaged The Indian Express hadearlier ceived a tip-off. The STF claimed then allowed to go,” said Iqbal. a committee member.
53.45 lakh workers. Andhra reported that UP witnessed the to have recovered two cell
Pradesh with 36 lakh workers highest increase of 21.88 lakh phones, a licensed pistol, and

KARISHMA MEHROTRA
licious Windows program that
wouldinstallNetWireonthede-
to give employment under the
rural employment guarantee
and West Bengal with 26 lakh
workers.
workers(33.22lakhinMay2020
against 11.34 lakh in May 2019)
otheritems,includingRs1,180in
cash, from the accused. Report: India, China,
NEW DELHI, JUNE 15

NINE ACTIVISTS working for the

release of those imprisoned af-
tertheBhimaKoregaonviolence
were targeted with malicious
emails in 2019, an Amnesty
International report in partner-
ship with Citizen Lab has found.
Three of these nine were also
targeted by Pegasus Software
through their WhatsApp appli-
cationslastyear.Theemailscon-
tained links that, when opened,
installaspywarecalledNetWire.
“That some of these individ-
uals were targeted multiple
times shows that there is a dis-
turbing pattern of spyware at-
tacks against human rights de-
fenders (HRDs) involved in the
Bhima Koregaon case,” the re-
port said.
The investigation found 12
“spearphishing” emails — per-
sonalisedemailstoconvincetar-
gets to open spyware on their
computer or mobile — between
JanuaryandOctober2019.Inthis
case, the emails had attach-
ments that resembled PDF doc-
uments but were actually a ma-
vice. NetWire would allow the
attacker to monitor the devices’
actions and communications.
“The spearphishing emails
and spyware suggest that this is
not a cyber-crime attack, but a
spyware campaign trying to
compromise devices of HRDs ...
Ourinvestigationwasnotableto
conclusively attribute the attack
to a particular group with high
confidence," the report stated.
The group called for a “full, inde-
pendent and impartial investi-
gation intothese attacks,includ-
ing by determining whether
thereare links betweenthisspy-
warecampaignandspecificgov-
ernment agencies”.
The spyware called Netwire
is available for purchase online
for $15 a month and has been
developed by a company called
World Wired Labs in 2012.
The emails targeted
Nihalsing B Rathod, Degree
Prasad Chouhan, Yug Mohit
Choudhary,RaginiAhuja,Partho
Sarothi Ray, P K Vijayan, an
anonymous journalist, Isha
Khandelwal and Jagdalpur Legal
Aid Group.
scheme.
Additional Chief Secretary
(Home) Awanish Kumar
Awasthi said UP now accounts
for 18 per cent of the total work-
ers employed under MGNREGA
inthecountryandhasgenerated
7.93 crore man-days.
“These57.13lakhworkersare
engaged across 56,981 panchay-
ats out of the total 58,000 pan-
chayats. During a meeting to re-
Rajput laid to rest, cops record statements of 6 persons
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE
MUMBAI, JUNE 15
THE LAST rites of actor Sushant
Singh Rajputwere conductedon
Monday in the presence of his
family members and close
friends from the film and TV fra-
ternity. The actor was cremated
atMumbai’sPawanHanscrema-
torium around 4.30 pm.
The Mumbai Police, mean-
while, have recorded the state-
ment of six persons during their
investigationintoRajput’sdeath.
Last financial year, the high-
est single-day engagement of
labourers stood at 14 lakh, and
around the same time last year,
an average of about 9 lakh work-
ers were engaged under the
MGNREGA, officials said.
With job losses and return of
more than 20 lakh migrant
workers to the state, thousands
of rural households are relying
on MGNREGA now to eke out
Maharashtra Home Minister
Anil Deshmukh has said that the
police will probe all aspects of
the case, including whether pro-
fession rivalry played a role in
Rajput commiting suicide.
“While the post mortem re-
port says actor @itsSSR commit-
ted suicide by hanging himself,
therearemediareportsthatheal-
legedly suffered from clinical de-
pression because of professional
rivalry. @MumbaiPolice will
probethisangletoo,”hetweeted.
Deputy Commissioner of
PoliceAbhishekTrimukhe(Zone
in May this year.
Principal
(Panchayati Raj & Rural
Secretary
Development) Manoj Kumar
Singh said that in the past few
days, about 15 lakh more work-
ers have been added to the list.
According to officials, the
maximum number of workers
have been engaged in Sitapur
district (about 1.91 lakh), fol-
lowed by Basti (1.60 lakh).
XI) said, “We have so far
recorded the statement of his
sister, two managers, a cook, tel-
evisionactorMaheshShettyand
a key maker who was called to
to open his bedroom door.”
Police added that they learnt
that Rajput was depressed and
had sought counselling. He,
however, was not taking any
medication.
Shetty’s statement was
recorded since his was the last
number that Rajput had dialled.
Shetty told police that he was
Rajput’s good friend.
Thethreearefacingchargesof
fraud and other offences as the
realAnamikaShuklalodgedacase
at the Kotwali police station in
GondaonJune11.Shukla’seduca-
tional documents were used in
thescamthatspansninedistricts.
“Police will produce all three
accusedinalocalcourt of Gonda
tomorrow (Tuesday),” said
Additional Superintendent of
Police, STF, Vishal Vikram Singh.
“Rajputcalledhiminthewee
hours on Sunday but as he was
sleeping, he could not answer.
However, when he reverted his
call on Sunday afternoon, Rajput
did not answer. We believe that
he must have taken the extreme
step by then,” said an officer.
“Wehavealsoapproachedthe
family members and asked
whethertheyhaveanycomplaint
against anyone... they said they
would come and talk to us once
the final rites are over. We will
soon start recording their state-
mentsaswell,”theofficeradded.
Pak increased nuclear
stockpile in past year
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE
NEW DELHI, JUNE 15
INDIA, ALONG with both its nu-
clear-armedneighboursPakistan
and China, has increased its nu-
clearstockpileinthepastyear,ac-
cording to the latest report pub-
lished by a think tank that tracks
globalarmament.BothChinaand
Pakistanhavealargerstockpileof
nuclear weapons compared to
India, the report said.
The Stockholm International
Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), a
Swedishthinktankthatresearches
internationalarmamentandcon-
flict, has updated the number of
nuclearwarheadsinitslatestyear-
bookpublishedonMonday.Asper
thelatestdata,thetotalnumberof
nuclear warheads in the nine nu-
clear-armed countries has gone
down from 13,865 in 2019 to
13,400 in 2020. However, most of
thisdeclinehasbeenbecauseofre-
duction by the US and Russia ---
which together still account for
more than 90 per cent of the nu-
clearwarheadsintheworld.
Theninenationsthathavenu-
clear weapons include the US,
Russia, UK, France, China, India,
Pakistan, Israel and North Korea.
However, the report has not
counted the North Korean num-
bers—between 30 and 40—in its
countofglobalnuclearwarheads,
because, it said, the numbers for
thecountryare“highlyuncertain”.
While India had 130-140 nu-
clearwarheads in 2019, it has 150
in 2020, according to the report.
Pakistanhad150-160lastyear,and
now has 160. China had 290 such
warheadsin2019,nowishas320.
SIPRI mentioned that China,
India and Pakistan are also mod-
ernising their weapons. “China is
inthemiddleofasignificantmod-
ernisation of its nuclear arsenal.”

As Cong MLAs enjoy films, satire at Jaipur resort, BJP may check in today
HAMZA KHAN
JAIPUR, JUNE 15
FROMMORNINGwalkstocricket
matches, and Richard
Attenborough’s Gandhi to satire,
the Congress leadership has
plannedapackedagendatokeep
the MLAs sequestered by it at a
five-starresortontheJaipur-Delhi
highway entertained, ahead of
RajyaSabhaelectionsonJune19.
Apart from Congress MLAs,
led by Chief Minister Ashok
Gehlot, legislators of other par-
ties as well as 13 Independents
– more than 100 in all -- are
housedattheJWMarriottresort.
Deputy CM Sachin Pilot rejoined
them on Monday after spending
Sunday in Delhi with his mother
who had suffered a fracture.
With three days to go for the
voting, the BJP too is expected to
herd its MLAs to a resort on
Tuesday.
The tweets and photos trick-
lingoutof JWMarriotttellastory
of what’s happening inside. In
one,DuduMLAandformermin-
ister Babulal Nagar and Revenue
Minister Harish Choudhary can
be seen on morning walk to-
gether; Niwai (Tonk) MLA
Prashant Bhairwa is making
good use of a cycling track in an-
other; while Youth Affairs and
Sports Minister Ashok Chandna
can be seen using an overcast
day for a spot of cricket, along
with Rafeek Khan, Independent
MLA Sanyam Lodha and AICC
secretary (organisation) Qazi
Nizamuddin, among others.
Observersareporingoverthe
tweetsforhiddenclues,forexam-
ple the fact that Nizamuddin
postedaphotoshowing Minister
of State for Health Subhash Garg
too at the cricket match, only to
deleteitlater.Garglatertweeteda
photo of himself batting, with a
captionsayingheenjoyedfootball
and cricket with his colleagues in
thecouncilofministersandMLAs.
Thatbackfired,withreactions
questioning the MoS, Health, for
“enjoying”himself amidstapan-
demic. One of those tweets, call-
ingGarg’sactionsa“shame”,was
liked by Tourism Minister
Vishvendra Singh. Both of them
areMLAsfromBharatpurdistrict
(Garg from Bharatpur Assembly
seat and Singh from Deeg-
Kumher), and not on the best of
terms.Earlier,Singhhadpublicly
taken on Garg for the condition
of health facilities in Bharatpur.
A photo of Women and Child
Development Minister Mamta
Bhupesh showed her attempt-
ing a pull shot. CM Gehlot has
also turned up in the photos, at-
tempting to hit a football as oth-
ers crowd around him – a viola-
tionof socialdistancing,asnoted
by some.
On Saturday, AICC leader
Randeep Singh Surjewala ad-
A photo of Women and Child Development Minister Mamta dressed a two-and-a-half-hour
Bhupesh from inside the JW Marriot resort. Express workshop in the afternoon on ‘6
saal, 6 bhrantiyan (six years, six
misconceptions)’ on the Modi
government at the Centre. Later
in the day, satirist Sampat Saral
hosted a show targeting the BJP.
Sunday saw the screening of
Gandhi – those close to Gehlot
say it is one of his favourite
movies.
The ministers claim the
working of the government has
not been affected, and that they
are overseeing offices remotely.
On June 12, Gehlot laid the foun-
dation stone for a drinking wa-
ter project via a video confer-
ence.
The Congress has claimed
that the CM had to move the
MLAs to the resort after coming
to know of BJP plans to offer
them money to cross-vote in the
Rajya Sabha polls. The Congress
is set to win two seats, and the
BJP one, in the elections. The BJP
has fielded a second candidate,
and requires additional votes of
over two dozen MLAs.
In the Assembly of 200, the
Congress enjoys the support of
107MLAs.ThetwoCPI(M)MLAs
are also expected to vote in its
favour, leaving its candidates K C
Venugopal and Neeraj Dangi
well-placed.
A major hiccup in its plans is
Food and Civil Supplies Minister
Ramesh Meena, who has stayed
away from the resort and is said
to be “unhappy”.
The BJP has 72 MLAs, and is
supported by the Rashtriya
Loktantrik Party’s three.

New Delhi
 WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM

8
THE INDIAN EXPRESS, TUESDAY, JUNE 16, 2020
WORDLY WISE

THE EDITORIAL PAGE

The frequent attempt to conceal mental pain
increases the burden: it is easier to say “My tooth is
aching” than to say “My heart is broken”. — C.S. LEWIS

Where’s the leader?

FOUNDED BY
§

§
RAMNATH GOENKA
Covid to China, economy to society, there’s a politics of
BECAUSE THE TRUTH INVOLVES US ALL
illusion and evasive silence

GET TO THE TABLE Pratap Bhanu Mehta

Nepal's Oli government is displaying brinkmanship. But Delhi THEREPUBLICOFIndiais facinga leadership them.Itisalwaysinformatswherehecannot divided cannot stand. Our leader positions
crisis. The economic hardship faced by mil- be questioned; where he is above a demo- himself as the house divided.
must take larger view, urgently engage with Kathmandu lions of Indians is severe. Hard won gains in cratic conversation, above public reason, not Even on the pandemic, the prime minis-

N
povertyreductionareatrisk.TheCOVIDpan-
EPAL SHOULD HAVE paused to reflect on the wisdom of rushing to its par- demic has not peaked. If the evidence of the
liamentforaconstitutionalamendmenttorevisethenewmapof thecoun- last few weeks is anything to go by, we are
try, which now officially includes the areas of Lipulekh, Limpiyadhura and nowhere near the state of readiness which
Kalapani, territory that is part of the Uttarakhand state's Pithoragarh dis- was within our capacity to achieve. The ca-
trict. The constitutional stamp on Nepal's claim will make it doubly difficult to resolve the pacities of our health care system are going
to be severely tested now. The immediate
issue when the two sides sit down to talk about it, as they must and surely will. Nepal and
military environment is turning adverse. No
India are bound in manifold ways, and Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Oli should have ex- one is quite sure where the Chinese logic of
ercisedcircumspectionratherthanplungeintothisbrinkmanship,butitseemsheletnar- showing India its true place will end. They
rowpoliticalintereststaketheupperhand.Histerminofficewasontherocksamonthago, are clearly testing India’s resolve, and at the
and he was able to retrieve it just in time through the activism of Beijing's envoy to moment, the sum total of our objective is to
Kathmandu, who patched up differences between him and his rivals in the Nepal avoid a domestic public embarrassment.
Nepal’s ability to dare India is a sign of our
Communist Party, Pushpa Kamal Dahal “Prachanda” and Madhav Kumar Nepal. Yet this
diminished power and diplomatic hubris.
careless attitude towards what is unarguably Nepal's most important and vital relation- China may be losing international credibil-
shipinSouthAsiaisperplexing.WithnoothercountrydoesNepalhavethekindof tiesthat ity very fast. But India is also, in its own way,
it has with India, not even with China. Leveraging ties with one side to extract benefits becoming a less attractive power because its
from another is legitimate diplomacy, but also a fine art. It is useful only as long as the bal- growth story is stalling and its democracy is
becoming less exemplary.
ance can be maintained.
For India, the task is now cut out. Delhi was unwise to have kept Nepal hanging after
These crises are challenging. But they are
made more intractable by the fact that India
it complained about the November 2019 map that was published mainly to show the has a leadership deficit at the top. India’s po-
new arrangements in Jammu & Kashmir. The Oli government reiterated its concerns last litical tragedy is that even the depth of the
month when India inaugurated the road to Lipulekhpass on the border withChina. There crisis cannot be acknowledged. The govern-
is an element of disingenuity in Nepal raising this post-facto objection to a road that was ment fully understands that to even ac-
years in the making, in plain sight. But Delhi must look beyond this and act to bring down knowledge any elements of the crisis would
be to puncture its legitimising myth, that
tensions. When Prime Minister Narendra Modi first came to power, his “neighbourhood
Indiais in the hands of a powerful leadership
first” policy signalled that his government was preparing a substantive new outreach in
that was going to be the sole vehicle for its
South Asia that would address other countries’ economic, political and other concerns vis manifest destiny. Whereas the blunt truth is
avistheirbiggerneighbour.Sadly,theinitial promiseof thatpolicyfizzledoutquickly,and that there has almost never been a time in
relations with Nepal were an early casualty, over a blockade of that country that could not India’srecenthistorywhenitwassobereftof
leadership.
have lasted all the months that it did without the tacit approval of Delhi. The ministry of
external affairs must now dial into the large reserves of goodwill that it continues to have The surest sign of this is the fact that the
in Kathmandu, to schedule an early high-level meeting of both sides, instead of putting
entire energy of government is geared to-
wards the preservation of the legitimising
it off for “after COVID”. mythof theleaderbypropaganda,diversion,
After all, India has been engaged with China through both diplomatic and military repression. Leaders require the dissemina-
channels over the LAC standoff in Ladakh. Nothing should come in the way of similarly tionof ideasandachievements.Butitisprob-
urgent engagement with Kathmandu. It may need Prime Minister Modi to signal that ablyawisemaximinanydemocracythatthe
scale of propaganda required to sustain a
such engagement has political backing at the highest level.
regime is in inverse proportion to the capac-
itiesof itsleaders.Thisgovernmentdismisses
Nehru as an elitist. But Nehru was a democ-
The pat response to this
criticism is often that this
prime minister has often been
name-called; and is often
subject to elite snobbery.
There is truth in this
complaint. But the overuse of
this argument to create a self-
serving protective shield itself
displays the lack of leadership.
For a prime minister of six
years standing, with a historic
mandate, with no real
opposition, to constantly play
victim is either a sign of a deep
insecurity that is
incompatible with leadership,
or a play act that
contemptuously believes that
inducing a little dose of self
guilt in his constituents is a
good way to prevent them
from asking tough questions.
Don't question the handling
part of it.
This regime, and many of us, criticised
ManmohanSinghforhisevasivesilences,es-
pecially in the face of an emerging plutoc-
racy that corroded the UPA from within. But
India is, arguably, facing its deepest crisis in
three decades, and except an occasional
acronym or unmeaning phrase, can you re-
member one speech in recent times from
this prime minister that seriously energised
thenation,broughtittogetherand,most im-
portantly,laidoutreasoningandcontentthat
showed a sense of vision? Speaking a lot is
not the same thing as saying a lot. The delib-
erate and cumulatively evasive silences of
this prime minister now far outweigh the si-
lence of any other prime minister.
The pat response to this criticism is often
that this prime minister has often been
name-called; and is often subject to elite
snobbery. There is truth in this complaint.
But the overuse of this argument to create a
self-serving protective shield itself displays
thelackof leadership.Foraprimeministerof
six years standing, with a historic mandate,
with no real opposition, to constantly play
victim is either a sign of a deep insecurity
that is incompatible with leadership, or a
play act that contemptuously believes that
inducing a little dose of self guilt in his con-
stituents is a goodway to preventthemfrom
asking tough questions. Don’t question the
handlingof the economy. Don’t question the
strategicbrilliancethathasmadeIndia’sbor-
ders more secure.
But, more seriously, you would imagine
that given the magnitude of the crisis, the
first task of genuine leadership would be to
bring the country together. But on every sin-
gle aspect, the divisiveness of the commu-
nalism and authoritarianism of pre-pan-
demic politics continues.Both are ondisplay
in the way in which anti-CAA protestors are
beinghounded.Sucharetheprioritiesof this
government that in the middle of a pan-
ter has not brought the nation together.
Instead of the nation dealing with this chal-
lenge with resolve and the resources com-
mensurate to it, we set up a weirdly divisive
dynamic. Everyone understood the pan-
demic is a difficult challenge. Most citizens
were willing to go to inordinate lengths to
support the effort. But we managed to con-
vert the governance of the pandemic into
free fall. At the root of this is the culture of
perception management that insecure lead-
erships at the top create. So, rather than ac-
knowledging the depth of the challenge,
many states, from Gujarat to Delhi to Bengal,
actively mimicked theCentral government’s
emphasis on managing their image rather
than confronting reality. They suppressed
testing so that their scorecard looks good.
You would have thought that at this point
testing would be freely available, and on de-
mand, rather than doled out in rationed
doses. Most state leaders, like Vijay Rupani,
Mamata Banerjeeand Arvind Kejriwal are to
blame as much as the prime minister, but
they mimicked his style.
Youcannothelpwonderinghowmuchthe
cultureofleadershiphasbeentransformedto
the point where the old-fashioned expecta-
tions of leadership have disappeared. What
hastheprimeministerreducedleadershipto?
Insteadof confrontingreality,denyit;instead
of encouraging criticism, suppress it; instead
of socially mediating differences, exacerbate
them;insteadoftakingresponsibility,takethe
creditandpawntheblame;insteadof appro-
priateempathy,revelinakindof cruelty;and
insteadofpreparingthenationforchallenges,
constantly trap it in diversions.
The prime minister evokes a deep adula-
tion in his supporters. But it should be clear
by now that whatever that adulation is, it is
not on account of his leadership. His leader-
shiphasbeentotallymissing. Whathasbeen
putinitsplaceisapoliticsof illusionwehave
all too easily internalised. India is heading

TOO MANY TAXES

rat in the respect that mattered the most. He
did not doubt the intelligence of the people
andtheneedtoexplainhimself,andthelogic
of his actions, right or wrong, to them. Modi,
GST council needs to reexamine indirect tax architecture, the man of the people, talks at people, not to
of the economy. Don't
question the strategic
brilliance that has made
India's borders more secure.
demic it is obsessed with branding idealistic
youngstudents,fighting,perhapssometimes
overzealously, against discrimination, into
enemies of the state, while hate mongers go
free. A leader knows, as Lincoln said, a house
into uncharted waters with no leadership at
the helm, just the simulacra of one.
The writer is contributing editor,
The Indian Express

reduce exemptions and tax slabs

I
N YET ANOTHER instance that underlines the continued complexity of the indi-
rect tax regime in India, the Authority of Advance Ruling, Karnataka, has differen-
tiated between a parota and a chapati for the purpose of levying of GST taxes. The
authority has held that frozen (and preserved) parota, wheat and Malabar, sold in
ambient and frozen form with a shelf life of three to seven days, is distinct from a khakhra
or a chapati. The former will attract a GST rate of 18 per cent, while the latter is taxed at a
A GRASSROOTS ECONOMIST
lower rate of 5 per cent. In shifting to the GST architecture, the hope was that switching A Vaidyanathan’s pioneering work on agriculture remains a reference point
to fewer tax slabs would put to rest such problems of classification that had plagued the
erstwhile indirect tax regime. But, as instances such as this one underline, in practice the
new indirect taxregimehasbeen neither as “good”noras “simple” aswas initially touted. Ramesh Chand
The tax system continues to remain complex and complicated. And instead of the prom-
ise of “one country, one tax”, the country still has a plethora of tax rates. A VAIDYANATHAN, WHO passed away last Institute of Development Studies, Chennai, committee on agriculture for the 10th Five-
week,belongedtothefirstgenerationofpost- whereheguidedandmentoredalargenum- Year Plan. The committee was chaired by
The promise of doing away with the multiplicity of taxes at the central and state lev-
Independence economists, who formulated berofstudents,whonowplayimportantroles HanumanthaRaoandIwasgiventherespon-
els was one of the most appealing aspects of the new tax regime. It was argued that the the public policies that addressed the formi- in academia and economic planning. He was sibility of drafting the report. The main focus
reduction in the number of tax slabs would, by putting an end to classification disputes, dablechallengestheyoungrepublicfaced,in- actively engaged with development policies ofthecommitteewastoprepareaframework
reducethediscretionarypowerof officialsandcutdownrent-seeking,makingthetaxsys- cludingfacilitatingeconomicgrowthandgen- both at the national and state level — besides to achieve 4 per cent growth in agriculture. I
tem simpler and hassle free. Part of the complexity stems from the government's desire eratingemploymentaswellastheeradication serving as a member of the Planning can never forget the insights provided by
to ensure a progressive indirect tax system, rather than ensuring the progressivity of the ofhunger,poverty,andotherdeprivations.He CommissioninDelhi,healsoworkedwiththe Hanumantha Rao and the guidance given by
worked with stalwarts such as B S Minhas, V Tamil Nadu State Planning Commission in Vaidyanathan in preparing a quantitative
tax as a whole. Now, rulings such as the one in Karnataka may well end up encouraging
M Dandekar, K N Raj, C H Hanumantha Rao Chennai. framework to achieve the goal. I also had the
businessestopushformoreclarityonclassifications,bringingmoresuchissuestothefore, andmanyotherstorealisethedreamsofinde- Vaidyanathanwroteextensivelyonallim- opportunity to review his 2010-book,
thereby increasing bureaucratic discretion, instead of reducing it, and opening the door pendent India. portant aspects of Indian agriculture and on Agricultural Growth: the Role of Technology,
for more rent seeking, not less. Vaidyanathan’s focus was on rural and rurallabour,water,ruralcreditandagricoop- Incentives and Institutions, that addressed
At various points over the past few years, there has been talk of rationalising the tax agriculturaleconomyandthegrassroots-level eratives.Hispioneeringworkonirrigationand many issues confronting Indian agriculture,
structure, and moving towards a fewer number of tax slabs. But inadequate progress has issuesthatweregenerallyneglectedbutwere waterresourcemanagementisamajorrefer- including the neglect of dryland agriculture
been made so far. The GST Council must deliberate on resolving these issues. The tax sys- importantforthedevelopmentofthecountry. encepointforallresearchers.Hewasastrong andnaturalresourcesinagriculturalresearch.
His well-known study, Bovine Economy in He was a strong supporter of supporteroftheco-operativecreditstructure Vaidyanathan managed the affairs of the
tem should be moving towards fewer exemptions, and even fewer tax rates.
India,isrepresentativeof thekindof issueshe as he was concerned about the access small- Indian Society of Agricultural Economics for
worked on. He possessed the rare ability to the co-operative credit holders had to institutional finance. nineyearsasitspresident.Hewasactivelyin-
capture the minutest aspect of an issue in a structure as he was Vaidyanathan served as member or chair of volvedindevelopingIndia’sstatisticalsystem
meticulous way, and then express it in the concerned about the access severalhigh-levelcommitteesandtaskforces andhadastrongbeliefinthecredibilityofdata

MOTH AND FLAME

context of macro issues while offering solu-
tions.
After completing his PhD from Cornell
University, Vaidyanathan began his profes-
Sushant Singh Rajput managed not only to break big into the sionalcareerattheNationalCouncilofApplied
Economic Research (NCAER) in 1956. From
movies, but to achieve what all aspirants hanker after here, he moved to join the perspective plan-
smallholders had to set up by the government of India. He was a
memberof thecelebratedKNRajCommittee
institutional finance. onTaxationofAgriculturalIncome(1969-70).
Vaidyanathan served as He chaired the Task Force on Revival of
member or chair of several CooperativeCreditInstitutionsin2004,which
still serves as a valuable guide to strengthen
high-level committees and
the cooperative credit system. The recom-
toarriveatanymeaningfulconclusion.Hewas
feeling increasingly concerned about the de-
cline in the quality of official data, especially
onagriculture.Hehighlightedtheseconcerns
inthe2011reportoftheExpertCommitteeon
Agricultural Statistics that he chaired.
Vaidyanathanwillbefondlyrememberedby

T
ning division of the erstwhile Planning task forces set up by the mendationsof theVaidyanathanCommittee agricultural economists and policy planners
HE SIREN CALL of showbiz is strong and it draws an endless stream of young
Commission of India and worked there from government of India. He was Report on Pricing of Irrigation Water (1992), for improving our understanding of agricul-
hopefuls to it, like moth to flame, even when so few emerge on the other side. It 1962 to 1972. Thereafter, he worked at the submitted to the Planning Commission, re- tural development, water resources, rural
becomes doubly difficult when you are a rank outsider. Sushant Singh Rajput,
a member of the celebrated K
World Bank before joining the faculty of the main valuable for India to avert the looming labour and livestock through his scholarly
whoseuntimelydeathisbeingwidelymourned,managednotonlytobreakbig Centre for Development Studies,
N Raj Committee on water crisis. works.
into the movies, but to achieve what all aspirants hanker after: Fame, popularity, stardom. Thiruvananthapuram,Kerala.Healsospenta Taxation of Agricultural I had the opportunity to work with
Like any other industry, Bollywood has its rules. Star-kids get an easy pass into excit- majorpartofhisprofessionallifeattheMadras Income (1969-70). Vaidyanathan as a member of the steering The writer is member, NITI Aayog
ing offers from established studios, with nothing other than lineage to recommend them.
For outsiders like Sushant, those gatekeepers could have been a formidable barrier, but
he came riding on a massive wave of popularity: In the glut of a hundred serials which
looked and sounded the same, Sushant stood out. He already had a huge fan club before JUNE 16, 1980, FORTY YEARS AGO
Bollywood took him in, and they stayed fiercely loyal. In his debut 2013 feature, Kai Po
Che,Sushantwas oneof threeleadingmen(theothertwowereRajkummar Rao andAmit PRESIDENT'S RULE quickly, the genocide in Tripura would not BRITAIN NUCLEAR DEAL
Sadh). Within a couple of years, he was the solo lead in two Yashraj films: Contemporary PRESIDENT'S RULE MAY be imposed in have taken place. BRITAIN HAS QUIETLY signed a nuclear deal
Tripura if the situation so warranted. This with China which could earn the country a
rom com Shuddh Desi Romance, and period saga Byomkesh Bakshy!. His authentic play-
ing of M S Dhoni in Neeraj Pandey’s bio-pic Dhoni, won him plaudits. A couple of below
was indicated by the U nion Minister of State VAJPAYEE ADDRESS multi-millionpoundtradebonanzaandatthe
for Home, Yogendra Makwana, at a news ATAL BIHARI VAJPAYEE, president of same time provoke a major row with the
par performances in less than average films did not dim his light. conference in Delhi. Answering questions, Bharatiya Janata Party, said in Delhi that the Russians over the dangers of spreading nu-
Sushant wasn’t the first to traverse this path of Delhi professional college-TV serials- Makwana blamed the Tripura government character of the Congress party had com- clear know-how, according to the Sunday
movies. A quarter century back, another “outsider”, Shah Rukh Khan, had pioneered the for the trouble in that state and charged the pletely changed after the 1980 elections and Express. The mass circulated British weekly
track. Would Sushant have reached the same dizzying heights as SRK? We will never Communists with having incited tribals to that"elementsignorantof theconceptof so- saidBritishscientistswerecloselyinvolvedin
attack non-tribals. The Centre, he said, had ciety have come into power"; Vajpayee was a feasibility study for China's first nuclear
know.Whatwedoknowisthatfameisatrickymistress.Onemomentyouareup,thenext,
warnedthestategovernmentof theimpend- addressing the first conference of the Delhi power station which is likely to be built in
out. And that some outsiders never become insiders. They are shown around inside, but ing trouble, but the state authorities did not Pradesh Bharatiya Janata Party. He said that Gurgaongprovince.Permissionforthescien-
never offered a seat. Amongst his last films was Nitesh Tiwari’s Chhichhore, about a young payanyattention.Makwanasaid"our warn- not only was the nation facing the danger of tiststotakepartintheprojectwasgivenearly
man who is shown that dying is not the only option. Living is, too. In the kind of irony ing" was based on intelligence bureau re- dictatorship but also that of an ineffective in May by the UK Energy minister, David
only the movies are capable of, Sushant chose not to. ports and had the state government acted government. Howell.

New Delhi

9
THE INDIAN EXPRESS, TUESDAY, JUNE 16, 2020
THE IDEAS PAGE
Why South China Sea Matters
It is not China's sea, Indians have sailed its water for centuries. Delhi has stakes in commerce, peace
and security in Indo-Pacific, it must now play the long game
Vijay Gokhale
THE SINGAPORE PRIME Minister Lee Hsien
Loong’s perceptive essay in the latest issue of
Foreign Affairs cogently spells out the
dilemma that confronts Singapore, and in-
deed the rest of us in the Indo-Pacific, as the
two most consequential powers of the
world, the United States, which PM Lee calls
the “resident power”, and China, which he
says is “the reality on the doorstep”, are en-
gaged in a fundamental transformation of
their relationship. Almost nobody any
longer thinks that China will conform to the
US worldview, or that China’s rise from
hereon will be unchallenged.
The Indo-Pacific has prospered under
American hegemony for the previous 40
years not just because of their huge invest-
ments — $328.8 billion in the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) alone and
a further $107 billion in China — but also be-
cause of the security blanket that it provides.
China might have replaced the US as the pri-
mary engine of growth in the last decade,
but it has come with a cost — the assertion
of Chinese power.
Difficult as it might be to admit, the truth
is that the benign American military pres-
ence has afforded countries the opportunity
to pursue economic prosperity without sub-
stantial increases in their own defence ex-
penditures or having to look over their
shoulders. No group of nations has benefit-
ted more from the presence of the US than
the ASEAN.
Chinese military postures, on the other
hand, give cause for concern ever since they
unilaterally put forward the Nine-Dash Line
in 2009 to declare the South China Sea as
territorial waters. Their territorial claim it-
self is tenuous, neither treaty-based nor
legally sound. They act in ways that are nei-
ther benign nor helpful for long-term peace
and stability. In the first half of 2020 alone,
Chinese naval or militia forces have rammed
a Vietnamese fishing boat, “buzzed” a
Philippines naval vessel and harassed a
Malaysian oil drilling operation, all within
their respective EEZs. Since 2015, they have
built a runway and underground storage fa-
cilities on the Subi Reef and Thitu Island as
well as radar sites and missile shelters on
Fiery Cross Reef and Mischief Reef. They con-
ducted ballistic missile tests in the South
China Sea in June 2019 and continue to en-
hance naval patrols to enforce area denial
for others.
PM Lee is absolutely correct in that go-
ing forward, the US and China face funda-
mental choices. But then, so do the rest of us
living in the Indo-Pacific. America’s role in
the preservation of the region’s peace and
security should not be taken for granted. As
COVID imposes crushing costs on all
economies, the US may also be weighing its
options. Finding justification for Chinese ac-
tions in the South China Sea, even as coun-
tries in the region help themselves to
Chinese economic opportunities while shel-
tering under the US security blanket, is also
fraught with risk. Accommodation may
have worked thus far but regional prosper-
K P Nayar
THE UNITED STATES Commission on
InternationalReligiousFreedom(USCIRF)has
never had it so good in its 22-year-long his-
tory. And it must thank Indians for its wind-
fall fame and sudden “relevance”.
From the year it was set up, in 1998, it has
been the Commission’s fantasy to acquire
some legitimacy in India, the second-most
populous country and home to many reli-
gions.
Formorethantwodecades,itremaineda
fantasy,butthisyearthatdreamwasrealised
beyond the panel’s wildest expectations.
Towardstheendof 2019,followingtheadop-
tion of India’s new Citizenship Amendment
Act,theUSCIRFacquiredaprominentplacein
thiscountry’spublicdiscourse.Itsplaceinthe
consciousness of Indians expanded in April
when the USCIRF proposed in its annual re-
port that the Donald Trump’s administration
shouldsanctionidentifiedIndianofficialsand
freeze their assets for severe violations of re-
ligious freedom.
In recent months, the Commission has
hogged prime time television slots in this
country’s English and vernacular channels.
The print media has featured the USCIRF’s
statements and reports on their front pages
and given serious consideration to them on
their op-ed pages.
For years, the Ministry of External Affairs
(MEA)hadstandardtextsinreactiontoorgan-
isationsliketheUSCIRFandtheOrganisation
of Islamic Cooperation, when they attacked
ity has come at a mounting cost in geo-
strategic terms. The South China Sea is ef-
fectively militarised. In the post-COVID age,
enjoying the best of both worlds may no
longer be an option.
Yet nobody should expect that ASEAN
will suddenly reverse course when faced
with possibly heightened Sino-US compe-
tition. China is a major power that will con-
tinue to receive the respect of ASEAN and,
for that matter, many others in the Indo-
Pacific, especially in a post-COVID world
where they are struggling to revive their
economies. ASEAN overtook the European
Union to become China’s largest trading
partner in the first quarter of 2020, and
China is the third-largest investor ($150 bil-
lion) in ASEAN. The South East Asians are
skilled at finding the wiggle room to accom-
modate competing hegemons while ad-
vancing their interests. This does not, how-
ever, mean that they are not concerned over
Chinese behaviour in the South China Sea.
They need others to help them in managing
the situation.
A robust US military presence is one
guarantee. A stronger validation by the lit-
toral states of the South China Sea helps the
US Administration in justifying their pres-
ence to the American tax-payer. Others who
have stakes in the region also need to collec-
tively encourage an increasingly powerful
China to pursue strategic interests in a legit-
imate way, and on the basis of respect for in-
ternational law, in the South China Sea. The
real choice is not between China and
America — it is between keeping the global
commons open for all or surrendering the
right to choose one’s partners for the fore-
seeable future.
How the South China Sea situation plays
out will be critical for our security and well-
being. In the first place, the South China Sea
is not China’s sea but a global common.
Second, it has been an important sea-lane
of communication since the very beginning,
and passage has been unimpeded over the
centuries. Third, Indians have sailed these
waters for well over 1,500 years — there is
ample historical and archaeological proof of
a continuous Indian trading presence from
Kedah in Malaysia to Quanzhou in China.
Fourth, nearly $200 billion of our trade
Much ado over a report
ReligiousFreedomreportshavelittlesayinUSstatedepartmentpolicies
Indian government policies. These texts are
pulledoutofMEAarchivesandreleasedtothe
publicyearafteryearbyrote.Thatpracticeun-
derlinestheirrelevanceoftheseorganisations
and shows that they are inconsequential in
the framing or conduct of India’s policies.
This year, the coronavirus pandemic pre-
sented the USCIRF with a new situation. The
USCIRF promptly exploited it and got a lot of
publicity by questioning Indian medical pro-
tocols. South Block, the MEA headquarters,
exploded in rage and borrowed a stick from
the Commission’s armoury to condemn the
organisation.
South Block’s reaction to the USCIRF is in
markedcontrasttohowitrespondstotheUS
State Department’s practice of putting to-
gether its annual report on international reli-
gious freedom. On June 10, the State
Departmentreleaseditslatestreportfor2019,
whichofferstheusualhomiliesthattheThird
Worldislong-usedtogettingfromdeveloped
Western nations on issues such as human
rights,fairtrade,religiousfreedomandmore.
But, unlike with the USCIRF, the Indian
government engages the State Department
on all issues, including religious freedom,
while maintaining that there is “no locus
standiforaforeigngovernmenttopronounce
on the state of our citizens’ constitutionally
protectedrights.”TheJune10reportlistsseven
instances of engagement by and at the in-
stance of the State Department with the
Indiangovernment,religiousgroupsandcivil
We have historical rights
established by practice and
tradition to traverse the
South China Sea without
impediment. We have
mutually contributed to each
other’s prosperity for two
thousand years. We continue
to do so. The proposition
that nations that have plied
these waters in the centuries
past for trade and other
peaceful purposes are
somehow outsiders who
should not be permitted to
engage in legitimate activity
in the South China Sea, or
have a voice without China’s
say, should be firmly
resisted.
society, which went into the compilation of
its chapter on India.
Furthermore,theUSCIRFreliesalmosten-
tirelyonopensources,suchasaccountsinthe
media, for its reports on India. The
CommissionascribesthistoNewDelhi’scon-
sistentrefusaltogiveitsmembersvisastovisit
India.
This writer’s earliest acquaintance with
the USCIRF was in the year 2000, shortly af-
ter arriving in Washington as a foreign corre-
spondent. Ever on the vigil for publicity, the
Commission’s staff reached out and was ea-
ger to plant stories portraying then Prime
Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee as a religious
bigot masquerading as a liberal.
For the foreign media in Washington, the
USCIRF was a new body then, only a year in
existence with a full complement of 10 com-
missionersappointedbytheUSPresidentand
Congressionalleadersonabi-partisanbasis.It
was an open secret in Washington that the
International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA),
the legal foundation for the USCIRF, was leg-
islated by the US Congress in collusion with
President Bill Clinton, who was then under
the shadow of his sexual misconduct with
White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
Sanctimonious exaltation of religion af-
forded Clinton one of several much-needed
diversions from the scandal and it gave
Congressional Democrats a cause célèbre for
their re-election campaign. The IRFA was not
something the Republican religious right
C R Sasikumar
passes through the South China Sea and
thousands of our citizens study, work and
invest in ASEAN, China, Japan and the
Republic of Korea. Fifth, we have stakes in
the peace and security of this region in com-
mon with others who reside there, and free-
dom of navigation, as well as other normal
activities with friendly countries, are essen-
tial for our economic well-being. In short,
the South China Sea is our business. We have
historical rights established by practice and
tradition to traverse the South China Sea
without impediment. We have mutually
contributed to each other’s prosperity for
two thousand years. We continue to do so.
The proposition that nations that have plied
these waters in the centuries past for trade
and other peaceful purposes are somehow
outsiders who should not be permitted to
engage in legitimate activity in the South
China Sea, or have a voice without China’s
say, should be firmly resisted.
In return, we too have to be responsive
to ASEAN’s expectations. While strategic
partnerships and high-level engagements
are important, ASEAN expects longer-last-
ing buy-ins by India in their future. They
have taken the initiative time and again to
involve India in Indo-Pacific affairs. It is not
as if our current level of trade or investment
with ASEAN makes a compelling argument
for them to automatically involve us. They
have deliberately taken a longer-term view.
A restructuring of global trade is unlikely to
happen any time soon in the post-COVID
context. Regional arrangements will be-
come even more important for our eco-
nomic recovery and rejuvenation. If we in-
tend to heed the clarion call of “Think Global
Act Local”, India has to be part of the global
supply chains in the world’s leading growth
region for the next half-century. It is worth
paying heed to the words from Singapore’s
prime minister, who writes that something
significant is lost in an RCEP without India,
and urges us to recognise that the value of
such agreements goes beyond the economic
gains they generate. Singapore is playing the
long game. Are we willing to do so, even if it
imposes some costs in the short-term?
The writer was India’s Ambassador to China
and Foreign Secretary
could oppose. Two decades ago, the USCIRF
wasuntestedinitsswayandcorrespondents
inWashingtonwerewillingtogiveittheben-
efit of the doubt.
Cleverly, the Commission’s officials, pro-
ficientinthewaysof Washington’spublicre-
lations machines, led many of us to believe
thatthereportswhichtheUSCIRFwouldsoon
issue were meant to provide the cue for US
State Department’s weighty annual reports
compiled by the Department’s Office of
International Religious Freedom.
However,thatwasnottobe,exceptinthe
case of America’s commonly acknowledged
enemiesorcompetitorslikeIran,NorthKorea,
Russia,China,Cubaandafewothers.Whenit
comes to “enemies of the nation,” all of
America’s institutions close ranks and there
are no partisan divisions.
India always gets away lightly in the State
Department’s report unlike with the USCIRF.
ThatistrueofWednesday’sreporttoo.Butthe
USCIRF will not give up. It has already
launched a campaign to get India designated
by the State Department as a Country of
Particular Concern, the lowest rank in
America’s religious freedom index.
TheTrumpadministrationhas90daysaf-
terthereleaseofitsannualreporttotakesuch
action.Itishighlyunlikelytodoso,buttillthen
theUSCIRFwillhaveitsthreemonthsoffame.
The writer was a foreign correspondent
based in Washington for 15 years
WHAT THE OTHERS SAY
“Covid-19 may be new, but the inequities it gives rise to are not. If we want to
prevent these from recurring then the conditions that heighten the health risks
must be tackled.”
A statement
of power
ItisnotchangeinJ&K’sstatus,butgrowing
powerdifferential,thatliesbehind
China'sassertioninLadakh
RAJA MANDALA
by C Raja Mohan
AN INTERESTING NEW argument coming
out of China these days is that Beijing has
been compelled to insert itself into the
KashmirdisputebecauseoftheIndiandeci-
sion last year to alter the constitutional sta-
tus of Jammu and Kashmir.
The Chinese arguments proffered on
various occasions since last August have
beensummarisedbyWangShida,aChinese
scholar in Beijing. Wang argues that India’s
movelastAugusthas“forcedChinaintothe
Kashmir dispute, stimulated China and
Pakistan to take counter-actions on the
Kashmir issue, and dramatically increased
the difficulty in resolving the border issue
between China and India”.
Official Delhi rejects the argument that
India’s action has “posed a challenge to the
sovereigntyof ChinaandPakistan”.Itpoints
out that the constitutional changes altered
thenatureoftherelationshipbetweenDelhi
and Kashmir within the Indian Union, and
that it has no impact on the current territo-
rialdispositionwithChinaandPakistan.The
government’srenewedclaimoverPakistan-
Occupied Kashmir and China-occupied
Aksai Chin is simply a restatement of long-
standing Indian positions.
It is ironic that the charge of unilateral-
ism comes from Beijing, which has turned
criticalpartsof theSouthChinaSeaintoad-
ministrativedistrictsof Chinaandmatched
those moves with physical steps to gain ef-
fective control over the disputed waters.
Delhi has taken no such action in Kashmir,
nor does anyone believe India is in a posi-
tion to gain control over the territories con-
trolled by either Pakistan or China.
For most Indians, it might be baffling to
hear the argument that Delhi has “forced”
Beijing into the Kashmir dispute with
Pakistan. In their view, China is very much
part of the Kashmir dispute. After all, China
occupies large parts of Kashmir, including
Aksai Chin and parts of Ladakh and sits on
the Shaksgam valley ceded to Beijing by
Pakistanin1963.Itisimportanttonoteanu-
anceinChina’s articulation.The competing
claimsofDelhiandIslamabadoverKashmir
are rooted in their shared understanding
thattherewasaprincelystateofJammuand
Kashmir in undivided India. For Beijing, the
territories it claims have never been part of
J&K but belonged to Tibet and Xinjiang.
ThatPakistanhaslargelyswallowedthe
Chinese argument is reflected in the 1963
agreement on the boundary between
“China's Sinkiang and the contiguous areas
thedefenceofwhichisundertheactualcon-
trol of Pakistan”. Not entirely surprising,
since Pakistan’s primary focus is on getting
the Indian-controlled areas of Kashmir
ratherthanclaimalltheoriginallandsofJ&K.
Whileitsclaimtobeoutsidethedispute
hasbeenconsistent,China’sapproachtothe
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
I FEAR FOR NEPAL
I MUST EXPRESS my sense of deep dis-
may that Prime Minister Oli has moved
the country into an irreversible con-
frontational posture vis-a-vis India de-
spite the long, profound relations be-
tween our two countries. Whatever
impact this move may or may not have
on India, I fear that the consequences
for Nepal will not be favourable for the
people of that beautiful country.
However, we should never have al-
lowed the situation to deteriorate.
Although the dispute in question is a
long-standing one it was, if I recall cor-
rectly,raisedbyNepalinNovember last
year. Surprisingly, we did not seem to
take the matter seriously. We should
have immediately initiated Foreign
Secretary-level talk and then, if neces-
sary, raised them to the level of Foreign
Minister or even the Prime Minister.
This appears to be a serious diplomatic
lapse, the consequences of which are
before us.
Karan Singh, New Delhi
BOTH FAILED
Thisreferstotheeditorial,‘AsDelhifum-
bles’ (IE, June 15). Both Centre and state
government were ill-prepared to deal
withtheCOVID-19.ThefailureoftheAAP
government’shealthcareinfrastructure
to cope with the worsening situation
pales in comparison with PM’s call to
scare away the deadly virus by beating
thalisandlightinglamps.Themeasures
New Delhi
WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM
— THE GUARDIAN
Kashmir question has seen considerable
variation over the last seven decades and
more.Somerecentresearchhasdelvedinto
NationalistChina’sactiveeffortstodrawthe
Hunza region of the Gilgit district into a
unionwithChinaduring1947-48.TheMirof
Hunza, Jamal Khan, opened negotiations
with officials of Xinjiang, but in the end,
opted to accede to Pakistan. Communist
China did not abandon the efforts of the
Nationalist government and continued to
show Hunza as part of its territory until the
early 1960s.
In the 1950s, at the height of the “Bhai-
Bhai”phase,Chinaavoidedtakingaposition
ontheKashmirquestion.Afterthe1962war,
China’s position aligned with Pakistan’s as
Beijing called for “self-determination” in
Kashmir.AftertheMaoisteracametoaclose
and Deng Xiaoping took charge in the late
1980s,ChinabegantomoderateitsKashmir
position and find a better balance in its bi-
lateral relations with India and Pakistan.
Inthemid-1990s,inasignificantsetback
to Islamabad, Beijing urged both India and
Pakistan to putaside theKashmir issueand
focus on developmental cooperation. But
China’spositionontheboundarydisputein
generalandtheKashmirquestioninpartic-
ulartendedtohardenagainstIndiasincethe
late2000s,whenBeijingbecamemorecon-
scious of the widening power differential
with all its neighbours, including India.
It’s a pity that India’s debate on the
LadakhcrisisisfixatedinfindingChina’smo-
tives, including the argument that India’s
constitutionalchangeswerethetrigger.The
groundrealityhasnotbeenalteredbyIndia’s
constitutional changes. It is being changed
by the PLA’s growing military capabilities
and the political will to use them.
India’sconstitutionalchangesmight,in
the end, look like a minor defensive move
amid China’s continuing gains in Kashmir
across the India-Pakistan divide. Although
BeijinghasletPakistankeepHunzafornow,
ithasnotreallygivenupitsclaimsonthere-
gion under the 1963 agreement. The CPEC,
which enters Pakistan through Hunza, has
laid the foundation for ever-larger Chinese
economic influence in Gilgit-Baltistan.
Meanwhile, China’s ability to nibble
awayattheLACinLadakhwillonlygrowas
themilitarybalancecontinuestoshiftinthe
PLA’s favour. While India’s significant cur-
rentmilitarydeploymenttocounterChinese
mobilisationmayyethelppersuadeBeijing
tostepback,thereisnoescapingthelonger-
term trend. If Delhi can’t redress the grow-
ingmilitaryimbalanceandasIslamabadbe-
comes even more dependent on Beijing,
China will loom larger than ever on the en-
tireKashmirregion.Thatistherealmessage
from the new Chinese affirmation that it is
now part of the Kashmir question.
In raking up the issue at the UNSC, rais-
ing economic presence in the Northern
Areas and probing India’s military and po-
litical vulnerabilities, China is highlighting
its new salience for Kashmir. This is part of
China's growing geopolitical impact all
across the Great Himalayas.
The writer is director, Institute of South Asian
Studies, National University of Singapore
and contributing editor on international
affairs for The Indian Express
IDEAS
ONLINE
ONLY IN THE EXPRESS
● THE CALL OF HOME:
MILOON KOTHARI AND
RAMESH SHARMA
● SURVIVING
EARTHQUAKES:
AJAYPAUL
www.indianexpress.com
announced by Amit Shah should have
been in place much earlier.
Tarsem Singh, Mahilpur
MONSOON DANGERS
THIS REFERS TO the editorial, 'The
Downpour' (IE, June 15). The infrastruc-
tureinMumbaiissettocrumble.Allcivic
works—desiltingdrains,fillingpotholes,
fogging—willbeaffected,withtheentire
BMCinvolvedinCOVID-19relatedactiv-
ities.Acomprehensiveapproachtotack-
lingthepandemicismissing.In2019,the
monsoon brought dengue to Mumbai
residents, and in 2020, it is not ready to
facethedelugeof water-bornediseases.
The city’s people, it seems, will weather
this season “Ram bharose”.
Rajiv Boolchand Jain, Zirakpur
 E EXPLAINED
WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM

10
THE INDIAN EXPRESS, TUESDAY, JUNE 16, 2020
@ieExplained
#ExpressExplained
If there are questions of current or contemporary relevance that you would like
explained, please write to explained@indianexpress.com

How rapid antigen test detects coronavirus, where it will be used

KAUNAINSHERIFFM
NEWDELHI,JUNE15
ON MONDAY, the Indian Council of Medical
Research (ICMR) approved one more kind of
test for diagnosis of Covid-19. The rapidanti-
gen detection test is to be used in specified
settings, and kits from only one manufac-
turer have got approval.
Whatistherapidantigendetectiontest
forCovid-19?
It is a test on swabbed nasal samples that
detects antigens (foreign substances that in-
duce an immune response in the body) that
are found on or within the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
Itisapoint-of-caretest,performedoutsidethe
conventionallaboratorysetting,andisusedto
quicklyobtainadiagnosticresult.InIndia,the
ICMRhasallowedtheuseofantigendetection
kits developed bythe South Koreancompany
SDBiosensor,whichhasamanufacturingunit
in Manesar. The kit, commercially called
StandardQCOVID-19Ag detection kit,comes
with a with an inbuilt Covid antigen test de-
vice,viralextractiontubewithvirallysisbuffer
and sterile swab for sample collection.
HowisitdifferentfromtheRT-PCRtest?
RT-PCRiscurrentlythegoldstandardfront-
line test for the diagnosis of Covid-19. Like RT-
PCR,therapidantigendetectiontesttooseeksto
detectthevirusratherthantheantibodiespro-
ducedbythebody.Whilethemechanismisdif-
ferent,themostsignificantdifferencebetween
thetwoistime.AstheICMRhaspointedout,the
RT-PCR test takes a minimum of 2-5 hours in-
cluding the time taken for sample transporta-
tion.“Thesespecificationslimitthewidespread
use of the RT-PCR test and also impedes quick
augmentationoftestingcapacityinvariouscon-
tainmentzonesandhospitalsettings,”theICMR
advisorystates.Inareliablerapidantigendetec-
tiontest,themaximumdurationforinterpret-
ingapositiveornegativetestis30minutes.
WhyhasonlythekitbythecompanySD
Biosensorbeenallowed?
Veryfewreliableantigendetectionkitsfor
Covid-19 diagnosis are available worldwide.
On May 9, the US Food and Drug
Administration(FDA)authorisedthefirstanti-
gen test, with US-based Quidel’s antigen kit
calledtheSofia2SARSAntigenFIA.OnMay14,
Japan’sMinistryofHealth,LabourandWelfare
approvedtheuseofTokyo-basedFujirebioInc’s
antigen test kit.
InIndia,theICMRconductedanindepend-
enttwo-siteevaluationoftheSDBiosensorkit,
at ICMR and AIIMS.
The results revealed that the kit had a
very high specificity, or the ability to detect
true negatives, ranging between 99.3% and
100% at the two sites. The sensitivity of the
test, or its ability to detect true positives,
ranged between 50.6% and 84%, depending
upon the viral load of the patient. The higher
the ability to detect true negatives, the more
reliable is any positive result.
Having allowed SD Biosensor to market
its kit commercially, ICMR has also asked
other manufacturers/developers who have
antigendetectionassaystocomeforwardfor
validation.
Wherewillthetestbeused?
As of now, the kit will be used in contain-
ment zones or hotspots and healthcare set-
tings. In both settings, the ICMR, has advised
that the test will be performed onsite under
strictmedicalsupervisionandmaintainingthe
kit temperature between 2° and 30°C.
In containment zones, the test can be
conductedonallsymptomaticinfluenza-like
illnesses.Asymptomaticdirectandhigh-risk
contacts with co-morbidities (lung disease,
heart disease, liver disease, kidney disease,
diabetes, neurological disorders, blood dis-
orders) of a confirmed case are to be tested
once between day 5 and day 10 of coming
into contact.
In healthcare settings, it can be used in
three categories. First, in all persons present-
ing influenza-like symptoms in a healthcare
setting and suspected of having Covid-19 in-
fection;second,inasymptomaticpatientswho
are hospitalised or seeking hospitalisation, in
the following high-risk groups — those
chemotherapy, immunosuppressed patients
includingthosewhoareHIVpositive,patients
diagnosedwithmalignantdisease,transplant
patients,elderlypatients(overage65)withco-
morbidities—andthird,inasymptomaticpa-
tients undergoing aerosol-generating surgi-
cal/non-surgical interventions such as
elective/emergency surgical procedures like
neurosurgery,ENTsurgery,dentalprocedures,
and non-surgical interventions like bron-
choscopy and dialysis.
Isthetest aconfirmatoryonefor
diagnosisof Covid-19?
AccordingtotheICMRguidelines,ifthetest
showsapositiveresult,itshouldbeconsidered
as true positive, and does not need reconfir-
mation. However, those who test negative in
therapidantigentestshouldthenbetestedby
RT-PCR to rule out infection.
Whatarethelimitationsof anantigen
test’sresults?
Whenitgaveemergencyauthorisationfor
the first antigen kit, the US FDA pointed out
thatantigentestsareveryspecificforthevirus,
butarenotassensitiveasmolecularPCRtests.
“Thismeansthatpositiveresultsfromantigen
tests are highly accurate, but there is a higher
chance of false negatives, so negative results
do not rule out infection. With this in mind,
negativeresultsfromanantigentestmayneed
to be confirmed with a PCR test prior to mak-
ingtreatmentdecisionsortopreventthepos-
sible spread of the virus due to a false nega-
tive,” the USFDA said.
Also,theICMRhassaidthatoncethesample
is collected in the extraction buffer, it is stable
only for one hour. “Therefore, the antigen test
needstobeconductedatthesiteofsamplecol-
lectioninthehealthcaresetting,”ICMRhassaid.
SDBiosensorhassaidanegativetestresult
may occur if the level of an extracted antigen
in a specimen is below the sensitivity of the
test or if a poor quality specimen is obtained;
anegativeresultmayalsooccuriftheconcen-
tration of antigen in a specimen is below the
detection limit of the test or if the specimen.
Also,thecompanypointsout,childrentend
toshedthevirusforlongerperiodsthanadults,
which may result in differences in sensitivity
between adults and children.

SIMPLY PUT
CORONAVIRUS DASHBOARD

298,310
United Kingdom
THE WORLD
237,290
Italy 189,876
Iran
536,484
Russia
Sports inside a bubble
There has been talk about IPL resuming with players, officials, broadcast staff isolated in bio-secure
194,153 bubbles. As sports events resume around the world, a look at the new protocols in place
France
2,100,749
US
SHAHID JUDGE
229,736 NEW DELHI, JUNE 15
Peru 332,424
India
867,624 ONMAY5,anine-year-oldtookcentrestageat
Brazil 244,109 theSuwonBaseballStadium,SouthKorea.He
Spain had been given the privileged task of throw-
ing the first pitch to mark the resumption of
the country’s baseball league that had been
TOTAL CONFIRMED: 7,960,856 DEATH COUNT: 434,388 halted because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Source: Johns Hopkins University, updated at 11 pm on June 15 . JHU’s India tally and Theboywasplacedinsideaplasticbubble
Health Ministry’s tally (below) may sometimes not match. designed to look like a baseball, which was
madetorolltowardsthehomeplate.Inmany
ways,that‘bubble’isthesymbolforsocialdis-
tancing is a metaphor for what the sporting
Survey finds sleep is longer in world will need to do to fight the pandemic.
And with the use of a ‘bio-bubble,’ there are

lockdown, but quality poor

nowplansformajorcompetitionstoresume.
A bio-bubble is essentially the securing
of a sanitised area that can be accessed by
ASURVEYconductedat Our cycle of work only a certain set of people — all of whom
the University of Basel, and leisure is often at a need to be clear of coronavirus. The bubble
Switzerland, and the mismatch with our in- has been tested briefly in the last few
university’s Psychiatric ternalbiologicalclock.If months,overexhibitiontenniseventsinvolv-
Hospital has investi- the differences in sleep ing players who live near the stadium, and
gated how sleep has
changed during the
PAPER timinganddurationbe-
tween work days and
even in the German Bundesliga, where play-
ers are to stay at a hotel seven days prior to a
Covid-19 lockdown.
Researchers surveyed CLIP days off become too
large, this can lead to
match. Now several major competitions are
poised to resume, with protocols in place. FSV Mainz 05 players on the pitch before the match wearing protective face masks, as play in German Bundesliga resumes
435 individuals; most “social jetlag”. The sur- behind closed doors following the outbreak of the coronavirus disease. Reuters
reported sleeping NEW RESEARCH vey found that a relax- NBA (basketball)
longerwhilesleepqual- ationofsocialrhythms– Basketball’smarqueeleaguehasdecided
itydeteriorated.Thestudyispublished for example, through more flexible toresumetheseasonbymovingallteamsstill andfacilitiesfor trainingand testing. Players’ training questionnaires daily. rooms at its home ground, Signal Iduna Park.
in the journal Current Biology. working hours – led to a reduction in in the running for the playoffs — 22 out of 30 movementinNewYorkwillberestrictedbe- For the first phase of training, players are During matches, reserve players will not be
Researchers conducted the six- “social jetlag”. —tothe25,000-acreDisneyworldinFlorida. tween the hotel and the stadium. prohibited from coming in contact or tack- in the dugout, but in the first row of the
weekonlinesurvey betweenMarch23 The researchers feel this suggests Atthemoment,theparkhasbeenshuttothe The draw will remain of 128 players, but ling, and they are to drive to training them- stands with masks.
andApril26.The435respondents(75% that the sleep-wake patterns of those public, and will open its gates only for the 22 therewillnoqualificationround,nojunioror selves and not use public transport. Foreachmatch,therewillbenomorethan
of them were women) were surveyed surveyed were guided by internal bio- teams, that are expected to follow staggered legendsevents,andthedoublesdrawmaybe The league has confirmed that leaders 322peopleallowedinandaroundthestadium
in Switzerland, Austria and Germany. logical signals rather than social travel plans to Orlando. Inside the venue is reduced to 24 teams (from the original 64). Liverpool, just six points away from securing complex. This includes eight groundkeepers,
Morethan85%oftherespondentswere rhythms. the220-acre ESPNWide World of Sports — a As for the French Open, as reported by the title, will be allowed to win the league at threephotographers,fourballkids,fourmed-
working from home at that time. Source: University of Basel sports complex with three arenas, each ca- Spanish newspaper Marca, the major which their home stadium Anfield. This is despite icalpersonnel,securityguards,dopingcontrol,
pable of fitting 20 courts, and equipped with isscheduledtotakeplaceaweekafterthecon- reservations from police, who fear fans may journalists, police and support staff.
facilitiesforbroadcasting.Allmatcheswillbe clusion of the US Open (September 20) will flock outside the stadium to celebrate. The
INDIA COUNT: 3,32,424 (9,520 DEATHS) playedwithoutspectators.Thereisawidear-
ray of hotels for players, although the NBA is
startwithadrawof96insteadoftheusual128
for the men’s and women’s singles events.
police have also listed several ‘high-risk’
matches–includingManchesterUnitedver-
La Liga (football)
The Spanish top flight returned on June

TOP 10 STATES REST OF INDIA

AndamanandNicobarIslands 38
AndhraPradesh 6163
expected to house players in just one.
Withallteamsatonevenue,iteliminates Windies in England (cricket)
susSheffield United,Tottenham versus West
Ham and West Ham versus Chelsea.
11 after a 91-day break. Training had re-
sumed early in May, with all players, coach-
7,208 ArunachalPradesh 91 theriskof playersbeinginfectedduringtravel. The 25-player and 11-person support ing staff and team doctors tested daily, and
Haryana 41,182 Delhi Assam 4049 PriortocomingtoOrlando,guidelineshave staff of the West Indies team has left for German Bundesliga (football) remaining personnel involved at least three
Bihar 6470
Chandigarh 352 been issued. Teams are scheduled to assem- England, in two chartered planes, after hav- In the month before the May 16 resump- thrice a week. Starting May 4, players were
12,694 Chhattisgarh 1662 bleattheirrespectivebasesbyJune30,where ing tested negative. Upon arrival in tion,playersweretestedatleasttwiceaweek allowedtotrainonlyindividually,andaweek
Rajasthan 13,615 UP DadarNagarHaveli 36 players are expected to be tested. Only those Manchester, the team will stay at an on-site and quarantined for a week ahead of the later, no more than 12 players were allowed
Goa 564
HimachalPradesh 518 who test negative will be allowed to travel. hotel at Old Trafford, where they will self- opening game. The German federation will totrainatagiventime—sixononepitch.The
JammuandKashmir 5041 Thereon, teams — with no more than 35 per- isolate for two weeks, but will be allowed to pay for the 20,000 tests that the Bundesliga full squad was allowed practice a week after
Jharkhand 1745
10,802 Kerala 2461 sonnel, including players and support staff — train once they clear a follow-up test. The will conduct — approximately 0.4% of the that, with members being tested constantly.
23,544 MP Ladakh 549 willtraveltoOrlandonolaterthanJuly7,where players are expected to play a three-day and country’s capacity — to complete the season. Players were to come to training grounds
Gujarat Manipur 458 they will be in quarantine for 36 hours. a four-day matches among themselves. In AccordingtoSportsIllustrated,conductingthe individually, in a staggered manner, already
Meghalaya 44
Mizoram 112 the meantime, they are not allowed to leave remainingeightgamesperteamtocomplete dressedintheirkits.Playersweregiventrain-
1,07,958 11,087 Nagaland 168 US Open (tennis) the stadium or hotel. For the first Test in the league has around $800 million at stake. ing kits a day earlier in biodegradable bags.
Maharashtra West Bengal Odisha 3909
Puducherry 194 It is still unclear if the United State Tennis Southampton from July 8, the England and Players, additionally, are barred from in- After going home they would place the dirty
7,000 Punjab 3140 Association (USTA) will cancel the US Open, Wales Cricket Board has planned the bubble teractingwith visitors at home or usingpub- kits in the bags, and bring them for washing
Karnataka 44,661 Sikkim 68 but the governing body has put forward toincludeahoteladjoiningthestadium,with lic transport. They are to be kept under secu- totheclubthenextday,accordingtotheBBC.
Tamil Nadu Telangana 4974
Tripura 1076 plans in case the events fall into place. everybody being tested and nobody to leave rity around the clock, and are not to share Onlythreeplayerswereallowedperdressing
Uttarakhand 1819 Since most players are abroad, the USTA the bubble throughout the duration. hotel rooms. They are to sit at least two me- room, and their kits and boots were placed
UnionHealthMinistryupdateasof 11pm,June15.Somestatesmayhave will help organise chartered flights. To board tres apart during meals, and will enter ho- far apart. Meanwhile, food was placed in in-
the plane each player (and the one member Premier League (football) tels using exclusive entrances where their dividual bags in the canteen.
reportedhighernumbers.Onlystates/UTswithatleastonecaselistedabove.
of theirentourage they are allowed to bring), Theleague is expected toresumeon June temperatures are checked each time. In the Players who had tested positive earlier
1,29,313 PATIENTS DISCHARGED IN 33 STATES AND UNION TERRITORIES will need toundergo a Covid-19 test and also 17. Thestrict protocolin thelead-up includes team bus, they will all sit metres apart. were to go into isolation prior to resumption
be symptom-free. Once in New York, play- sanitisation of corner flags, goalposts, balls, Schalkehasarrangedthepurchaseof gro- of training. If a player tests positive after the
Have a question on the COVID-19 outbreak and what you should/should not do?
erswillundergotemperaturechecksandfol- conesandpracticepitchesaftereachtraining ceries for all its players, which will be left in restart,theentireteamwillbeplacedinquar-
Write to explained@indianexpress.com low-up tests, and will be ferried to a desig- session.Playersaretobetestedtwiceaweek, sanitised baskets for them to take home. antine, and if there is a second outbreak, the
nated hotel equipped with physiotherapists, and undergo temperature checks and pre- Borussia Dortmund will use multiple locker league will be stopped.

The pangolin: can the protection upgrade by China curb its trafficking?
SRINATH RAO
MUMBAI, JUNE 15
CHINARECENTLYaccordedthepangolinthe
highest level of protection. The animal is
widelybelievedtobetheintermediatehost
between bats and humans in the transmis-
sion of the novel coronavirus SAR-CoV-2.
The State Forestry and Grassland
Administration issued a notice upgrading
its protection of pangolins and banning all
commercialtradeof theendangeredmam-
mal., the state-run Health Times reported.
InFebruary,Chinabannedconsumption
of wild animals including pangolins. Over
the last one year, China has removed health
insurance cover to Traditional Chinese
Medicine (TCM) recipes containing pan-
golin products. Pangolin meat is a delicacy
in China and its scales are claimed to im-
prove lactation and blood circulation.
Faith Hornor, an analyst at C4ADS, an
Americannon-profittrackingandanalysing
globalconflictandtransnationalsecurityis-
sues, said: “Recent reporting suggests that
At a rescue centre in eastern China. AP
coronaviruses likely cannot be transmitted
throughtheconsumptionof pangolinscales.
If this is true, solely eliminating pangolin
scalesfromTCMmaynotpreventtransmis-
sion of diseases such as COVID-19.”
Trafficking
The pangolin is the world’s most widely
traffickedanimal.Eightpangolinspeciesare
distributedacrossAsiaandAfrica.Theyhave
been hunted over generations for their
meat and scales. Two of these species are
found in 15 states in India.
Their alleged health benefits saw large-
saleillicitexportofscalesfromAfricaoverthe
past decade. In 2017, the Convention on
International Trade in Endangered Species
enforced a global ban on pangolin trade.
A2018studybytheinternationalconser-
vation group TRAFFIC had found 5,772 pan-
golinshadbeendetectedbylawenforcement
agencies in India between 2009 and 2017.
After China’s move
The immediate impact, said Dr Saket
Badola of TRAFFIC India,would be pangolin
scales losing legitimacy in TCM. However,
Jose Louies, Deputy Director & Chief,
Wildlife Crime Control Division at Wildlife
Trust of India,said the history of bans of
wildlife trade in China is not encouraging.
Peter Knights, CEO of WildAid, a US or-
ganisationworkingtoconserveendangered
species, hailed China’s decision as the “sin-
gle greatest measure that could be taken to
save the pangolin”. Yet he warned that
questions remain about what it means for
approvedpatentmedicines.“Pangolintrade
will not disappear overnight,” he said.

New Delhi

11 THE WORLD
THE INDIAN EXPRESS, TUESDAY, JUNE 16, 2020
TOPOFTHE
WORLD
An ankle strap, called
“alcoholmeter”, can
measure alcohol
consumption from
sweat. Reuters
NETHERLANDS
Dutchdrink
offenderstoget
anklebracelets
Amsterdam: People in the
Netherlands convicted of
crimes related to alcohol
abuse will have to wear a
special ankle bracelet to
monitor their drinking
habits once the govern-
ment has passed the nec-
essary legislation. The
Dutchjusticeministryhas
saidtheelectronicbracelet
ortagwillkeeptrackofany
sign of alcohol consump-
tionbyanalysingthesweat
of the person wearing it.
Datafromthebraceletwill
be sent to a central server
once a day, giving proba-
tion officers a clearer pic-
tureofthewearer’sbehav-
iour than the current
system which relies on
bloodorurinetestswhich
are done twice a week.
USA
USAirForce
planecrashes
intoNorthSea
London: A US Air Force
fighter plane with one pi-
lot on board crashed into
the North Sea on Monday.
The pilot remains missing.
The F-15C Eagle from the
48th Fighter Wing was on
a routine training mission
from RAF Lakenheath
when it crashed at 9.40 am
local time. The cause of the
crash wasn’t immediately
clear. British search and
rescue authorities are tak-
ing part in the search of the
crash site. Lakenheath is a
Royal Air Force base that
hosts the US Air Force’s
48th Fighter Wing, known
as the Liberty Wing. The
base is about 130 kilome-
tre northeast of London.
CHINA
Australiavoices
worryoverman
sentencedtodeath
Canberra: Australia’s prime
minister on Monday said
his government is "very
sad and concerned" by
China's sentencing of an
Australian man to death
for drug trafficking, and
that he had repeatedly
raised with China the case
of the 56-year-old former
actor and motivational
speaker. Karm Gilespie
was arrested in 2013 at
Baiyun Airport in the
southern Chinese city of
Guangzhou on charges of
attempting to board an in-
ternational flight with
more than 7.5 kg of
methamphetamine in his
check-in luggage. The
Guangzhou Intermediate
People’s Court announced
Saturday Gilespie had
been sentenced to death.
‘BLACK LIVES MATTER’ MOVEMENT
The US-Indian former software engineer who leads protests in Seattle
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA
WASHINGTON, JUNE 15
A 46-YEAR-OLD Indian-
American formersoftware engi-
neer is at the forefront of “Black
Lives Matter” protests in Seattle
to permanently oust city police
officials from the downtown
area that has now been desig-
nated the Capitol Hill
Autonomous Zone (CHAZ), ac-
cording to media reports.
New threats of US lockdowns as
experts warn Covid-19 will persist
In Britain, many stores open for first time in three months; but Beijing reinstates more restrictions
THE NEW YORK TIMES
NEW YORK, JUNE 15
LEADING INFECTIOUS disease
experts in the United States are
warning that the coronavirus
will be making life difficult for
the foreseeable future.
Andasstrictsocialdistancing
wanes, leaders in New York and
Texas are threatening renewed
lockdowns in an effort to get
people to take the persistent
threat of the virus seriously.
“This virus is not going to
rest”untilitinfectsabout60per-
cent to 70 percent of the popu-
lation, said Dr Michael
Osterholm,directorof theCenter
for Infectious Disease Research
and Policy at the University of
Minnesota, in an appearance on
“Fox News Sunday.”
Experts have estimated that
without a vaccine, about 70 per-
cent of the population will need
tobeinfectedanddevelopimmu-
nity in order to stop the virus’s
spread, a concept called herd im-
munity. The current number of
confirmed cases in the United
Statesisover2million,lessthan1
per cent of the US population.
Meanwhile, in Britain, the
clothing stores are open, but the
fitting rooms remain closed.
Bookstoresareallowingbrowsing,
but any item touched and unpur-
chasedwillbeputin“quarantine”
toensurenoviruslivesonthesur-
face.Dealersofhigher-endjewelry
willuseultravioletboxestodecon-
taminate diamond bracelets and
gold necklaces. Stores in England
that sell nonessential goods re-
opened on Monday for the first
timeinnearlythreemonths.
However, several districts of
Chinese capital Beijing put up
checkpoints, closed schools and
orderedpeopletobetestedforthe
novelcoronavirusonMondayaf-
ter an unexpected spike of cases
linked to the biggest wholesale
food market in Asia.
MAJOR VICTORY FOR GAY, TRANSGENDER RIGHTS
Civil rights law protects LGBT
workers: US Supreme Court
ADAM LIPTAK
JUNE 15
THE SUPREME Court ruled
Monday that a landmark civil
rights law protects gay and
transgender workers from
workplacediscrimination,hand-
ing the movement for LGBT
equality a stunning victory.
Thevotewas6-3,withJustice
Neil Gorsuch writing the major-
ity opinion. He was joined by
Chief Justice John Roberts and
Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg,
Stephen Breyer, Sonia
Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.
ThecaseconcernedTitleVIIof
theCivilRightsActof1964,which
barsemploymentdiscrimination
based on race, religion, national
origin and sex. The question for
thejusticeswaswhetherthatlast
prohibition—discrimination“be-
cause of sex”— applies to gay and
transgender workers.
The decision, covering two
cases, was the court’s first on
LGBT rights since the retirement
in 2018 of Justice Anthony M.
Kennedy, who wrote the major-
ity opinions in all four of the
court’smajorgayrightsdecisions.
Those decisions were
grounded in constitutional law.
Kshama Sawant, the Seattle
City Councilwoman, is encour-
aging activists in the CHAZ “to
hold out on giving back the
precinct to cops or allowing of-
ficers inside the barricaded re-
gion”, according to Fox News.
Widespread protests have
beentakingplaceforweeksacross
the US following the death of 46-
year-oldAfricanAmericanGeorge
FloydinMinneapoliswhilehewas
in police custody. Protesters have
sparredwithpoliceforweeks.
Outside a store in London on Monday. Non-essential stores were allowed to reopen in Britain
on Monday as the country eases more coronavirus curbs. AP
US FDA revokes emergency use
of malaria drugs for Covid-19
MATTHEW PERRONE
WASHINGTON, JUNE 15
The US Food and Drug
Administration is revoking its
emergency authorization for
malaria drugs promoted by
President Donald Trump for
treating Covid-19 amid growing
evidence they don’t work and
could cause deadly side effects.
TheagencysaidMondaythat
the drugs hydroxychloroquine
and chloroquine are unlikely to
be effective in treating the coro-
navirus. Citing reports of heart
complications, the FDA said the
drugs pose a greater risk to pa-
tientsthananypotentialbenefits.
At a rally to call attention to violence against transgender
people of colour in Brooklyn on Sunday. NYT
The new cases, by contrast, con-
cerned statutory interpretation.
Lawyers for employers and
the Trump administration ar-
gued that the common under-
standingof sexdiscriminationin
1964 was bias againstwomen or
menanddidnotencompassdis-
crimination based on sexual ori-
entation and gender identity. If
Congress wanted to protect gay
and transgender workers, they
said, it could pass a new law.
Lawyers for the workers re-
sponded that discrimination
against employees based on sex-
ualorientationorstatusmustasa
matteroflogictakeaccountofsex.
Pune-bornSawanturgedpro-
testers to hold strong to the six-
blockregionthey’vedesignateda
“no cop” zone, the report said.
Sawant has said she will in-
troducelegislationtoconvertthe
precinct into“acommunity cen-
tre for restorative justice”.
“Our movement needs to ur-
gentlyensureEastPrecinctisnot
handed back to police, but is
turned over permanently into
community control. My office is
bringing legislation to convert
The move means that
shipments of the drugs,
hydroxychloroquine
and chloroquine,
obtained by the federal
government will no
longer be distributed to
local health authorities
The decades-old drugs, also
prescribed for lupus and
rheumatoid arthritis, can cause
heartrhythmproblems,severely
low blood pressure and muscle
or nerve damage.
Thecourtconsideredtwosets
ofcases.Thefirstconcernedapair
oflawsuitsfromgaymenwhosaid
they were fired because of their
sexualorientation.Thesecondwas
about a suit from a transgender
woman, Aimee Stephens, who
saidheremployerfiredherwhen
she announced she would em-
bracehergenderidentityatwork.
Most federal appeals courts
have interpreted Title VII to ex-
clude sexual orientation dis-
crimination. But two of them, in
New York and Chicago, have
ruledthatdiscriminationagainst
gay men and lesbians is a form
of sex discrimination. NYT
East Precinct into a community
centre for restorative justice,”
she tweeted on Friday.
The move means that ship-
ments of the drugs obtained by
the federal government will no
longer be distributed to state and
localhealthauthorities.Thedrugs
arestillavailableforalternateuses,
soU.S.doctorscouldstillprescribe
them for Covid-19 — a practice
known as off-label prescribing.
On Thursday, a National
Institutes of Health expert panel
reviseditsguidelinestospecifically
recommendagainstthedrug’suse
exceptinformalstudies.
Trump aggressively pushed
the drug beginning in the first
weeks of the outbreak and
stunned medical professionals
whenherevealedhetookthedrug
preemptivelyagainstinfection. AP
Pak court orders
case against US
blogger over
Benazir remarks
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA
ISLAMABAD, JUNE 15
A PAKISTANI court here has di-
rectedthecountry’stopinvestiga-
tion agency to register a case
againstPakistan-basedAmerican
bloggerCynthiaRitchieformalign-
ing late former prime minister
Benazir Bhutto on social media, a
mediareportsaidonMonday.
The direction by the
Islamabad's District and Session
CourttotheFederalInvestigation
Agency (FIA) came after the city
policelastweekrefusedtoregister
a case against Ritchie, saying that
it was a case of cybercrime and
only the FIA was authorised to
deal with it, Geo News reported.
Ritchie had alleged on social
media that Benazir condoned
rape culture in Pakistan, accord-
ing to Pakistani media reports.
Ritchihasalsolevelledallega-
tions of harassment against sen-
iorleadersofthePakistanPeoples
Party,includingformerPMYusuf
Raza Gilani and ex-interior min-
ister Rehman Malik. On June 10,
GilanisentalegalnoticetoRitchie,
seekingRs100millionindamages,
andMalikalsosaidhewouldsend
heralegalnoticeaftershealleged
he raped her in 2011.
Kshama
Sawant at a
protest in
Seattle. Reuters
On Tuesday, she also partici-
pated in demonstrations calling
todefundthepoliceandallowed
UNITED NATIONS
UNHRC TO EXAMINE RACISM IN US
The top UN human rights body will hold an urgent debate on allegations of “
systemic racism, police brutality and violence against peaceful protests” in the US
on Wednesday, a statement said. The decision by the UN Human Rights Council
followed a request last week by Burkina Faso on behalf of African countries.
Germany to take
stake in vaccine
maker CureVac
HOLGER HANSEN
& RENE WAGNER
BERLIN, JUNE 15
GERMANDRUGMAKERCureVac,
in which the government is tak-
ingasizeablestaketohelpfunda
Covid-19 vaccine, is planning an
initial public offering in the
United States next month, a fi-
nance ministry document seen
by Reuters on Monday showed.
The German government
plansto invest 300 million euros
($338.5million) ina23%holding
inpreviouslyunlistedCureVacto
aid the further development of
the biotech company’s vaccine
againstthediseasecausedbythe
novel coronavirus.
The finance ministry said in
a letter to Parliament’s budget
committee dated June 15 that
CureVac“currentlyhasabigcap-
ital requirement and plans a
flotation on the Nasdaq in New
York in July 2020.”
European biotech firms pre-
fer the Nasdaq because the US
capital market offers a critical
mass of highly specialised bio-
pharma investors, analysts say.
German biotech firms
BioNtech and Morphosys have
recently sought US listings.
The ministry added in its let-
ter that the decision to acquire a
stake in CureVac had to be made
quicklygivenlegalrequirements
attached to the planned flota-
tion, which is expected to take
place in mid-July.
Economy Minister Peter
Altmaier on Monday confirmed
an earlier Reuters report that
Germany will take a stake in the
unlisted biotech company. The
deal values the firm at 1.3 billion
euros. REUTERS
Atlanta police shooting of black
man was homicide, says coroner
SHARON BERNSTEIN
JUNE 15
THE DEATH of Rayshard Brooks,
ablackmankilledbyawhitepo-
lice officer in Atlanta on Friday,
was a homicide caused by gun-
shot wounds to the back, the
Fulton County Medical
Examiner’sofficesaidonSunday.
Brooks’ death reignited
protests in Atlanta after days of
worldwide demonstrations
againstracismandpolicebrutal-
ity prompted by the death of
George Floyd, an African
American, inMinneapolispolice
custody on May 25.
An autopsy conducted on
Sunday showed that Brooks, 27,
died from blood loss and organ
injuries caused by two gunshot
wounds, an investigator for the
medical examiner said in a
statement. The manner of his
death was homicide, the state-
ment said.
Brooks’ fatal encounter with
police came after an employee
of a Wendy’s restaurant in
Atlanta phoned authorities to
say that someone had fallen
asleep in his car in the restau-
rant’s drive-through lane.
Caught on the officer’s body
camera and a surveillance cam-
era, the encounter seemed
over a thousand demonstrators
into City Hall in a late-night
protest calling for Mayor Jenny
Durkan to resign.
More than 1,000 protesters
spent an hour talking about de-
funding the Seattle Police
Department, banning chemical
weapon use by police, and rail-
ing on Mayor Jenny Durkan, de-
manding she step down imme-
diately, the report said.
Even though social distanc-
ing was non-existent, everyone
New Delhi
Maria Ressa, executive editor and CEO of Philippine news
website Rappler, at the Manila City Hall. Reuters
Journalist Maria
Ressa convicted in
Philippines libel case
JASON GUTIERREZ &
ALEXANDRA STEVENSON
MANILA, JUNE 15
A COURT in the Philippines on
Monday convicted Maria Ressa,
a veteran journalist and outspo-
ken critic of President Rodrigo
Duterte, of cyber libel, in the lat-
est blow to press freedoms in
the country.
The decision stems from a
2017 case filed against Ressa by
prosecutors after a business-
man disputed an article that he
said inaccurately linked him to
a top-level judge and tied him
to the drug world. But the case
was portrayed by Ressa and her
news outlet, Rappler, as the
Duterte administration’s latest
attempt to brush back freedom
of the press.
ThecourtdeclaredRappler,the
company,tohavenoliability.Ressa
and Rappler employee Reynaldo
Santoswerebothsentencedtobe-
tween six months and up to six
years over the charges. It is not
clear whether they will go to
prison,becausethecourtmayyet
allowthemtopostbail.
Speaking last week by tele-
phone, Ressa denied the charges
andsaidtheywereanattemptto
silence Rappler, which has been
criticalof Duterte andhisbloody
crackdown on drug dealers and
users. “Corrupt, coerce, co-opt.
You’re with usor against us,”she
said. “If I’m convicted, then it’s
codified into law.” NYT
Eva Snow and Joseth Jett after spray painting ‘RIP Rayshard’
on a wall in Atlanta Sunday. AP
friendly at first, as Brooks coop-
erated with a sobriety test and
talked about his daughter’s
birthday.
“I watched the interaction
with Mr Brooks and it broke my
heart,” Atlanta Mayor Keisha
Lance Bottoms said on CNN.
“This was not confrontational.
This was a guy that you were
rooting for.”
The Brooks family’s lawyer
notedonNBC’s“Today” showon
Monday that Brooks was shot
from a distance, carrying what
the officers knew to be a non-
lethalweapon,andcouldn’thave
gotten away, since they had his
driver’s licence. REUTERS
wore masks and the evening re-
mained peaceful. Assistant
PoliceChief DeannaNollettealso
said no laws were broken, so of-
ficers did not respond, it added.
Born to Vasundhara and H T
Ramanujam in 1973, Sawant
grew up in Mumbai where she
studied computer science and
graduatedfromtheUniversityof
Mumbai in 1994.
Shethenmarriedandmoved
to the US. In the US, she began to
pursue study in economics due
WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM
Corrupt, coerce, co-opt.
You’re with us or against
us. If I’m convicted, then
it’s codified into law.”
— MARIA RESSA
JOURNALIST IN THE PHILIPPINES,
ON THE CASE AGAINST HER
Controversialuse
ofcyber libellaw
THECASEagainstMariaRessa
relatestoa2012reportonher
Rapplerwebsitethatalleged
linksbetweenabusinessman
anddrugtrafficking.However,
shewasconvictedundera‘cy-
berlibel’lawthatcameintoef-
fectmonthsafterthereport
waspublished.Thelawwas
criticisedatthetimeforthrea-
teningfreedomof expression
online,butwaspushedasabid
totargetcybercrime.Ressa,a
high-profilecriticof Duterte,
wasconvictedunderthislaw
afterprosecutorssaidacorrec-
tionmadetothereportin2014
—fixingatypo,accordingto
theBBC—meantthe‘cyberli-
bel’lawwouldbeapplicableto
thiscasethoughtheoriginal
articlewaspublishedbefore
thelawwaspassed.
Britain to have
anti-racism panel
London: British Prime Minister
BorisJohnsonhasannouncedhe
will establish a commission to
look at racial equality in the UK,
after two weeks of protests
spurred by the death of George
Floyd in Minneapolis. Writing in
the Daily Telegraph newspaper,
Johnson said the body would
look at “all aspects of inequality
-- in employment, in health out-
comes,inacademicandall other
walks of life.” Tens of thousands
have taken to the streets across
the UK since Floyd’s death. AP
to what she described as her
own “questions of economic in-
equality”. She entered the eco-
nomics programme at North
Carolina State University where
she earned a PhD. She became a
US citizen in 2010.
Sawant joined the Socialist
Alternative in 2006 and became
a councilwoman in 2013 after
defeating a 16-year incumbent,
Democrat Richard Conlin, to be-
come the first socialist elected in
a major US city in decades.
 12 WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM
THE INDIAN EXPRESS, TUESDAY, JUNE 16, 2020

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d½f¢MXûdSX¹ff ´ffIÊY, ¸fZSXNX any manner whatsoever.
A»´fIYf»fe³f BÊX-d³fd½fQf Àfc¨f³ff
OFFICE OF THE CHIEF ENGINEER PROJECT PHED JODHPUR
Telephone: 0291-2651700 email: rj_cejod@nic.in
d³fd½fQf d½fdVfáeI S¯f Àfa£¹ff: ´fd½fd½fd³fd»f/¸fZ/¸fb./02/Swift Dzire/ Tours/Tata Tigor/2020-21 IZ £fb»f³fZ I e
d°f±fe dQ³ffaI 15.06.2020 ±fe dªfÀfI û A´fdSWf¹fÊ I fS¯fûÔ ÀfZ dQ³ffaI 25.06.2020 °fI d½fÀ°ffdS°f dI ¹ff ªff°ff W` Ü NMDC Limited
(A Government of India Enterprise) (An ISO-9002 Company)
d³fd½fQf I e d³f¹f°f ½f Vf°fZÊ ¹f±ff½f°f SWZ¦feÜ
NOTICE INVITING TENDER No. 1/ 2020-2021 WXÀ°ff./- Bailadila Iron Ore Mine, Kirandul Complex, Kirandul-494556, Distt.-South Bastar Dantewada, Chhattisgarh
Online tenders are hereby invited on behalr of the Governor of Rajasthan for the following works from Gram : IRONORE, Fax : 07857-255226, 255227, 255225 CIN : L13100TG1958GOI001674
Contractors enlisted in AA Class of Rajasthan and Contractors enlisted with CPWD/ Postal, Telecom, A²feÃf¯f Ad·f¹f³°ff (¸fb.)
Railway. MES, other state Govt. / Central Government undertaking/ organizations equivalent to ‘AA’ class IÈY°fZ ´fi¶f³²f d³fQZVfIY No. Ser(Mech)/BIOM(K)/5266/2020-21 PRESS NOTIFICATION Dated: 14-06-2020
of Rajasthan provided they meet out prescribed eligibility criteria, after giving prescribed earnest money. SXfáÑX dWX°f ¸fZÔ d¶fªf»fe ¶f¨ff¹fZÔ kkd¶fªf»fe ¨fûSXe IYe Àfc¨f³ff WZX»´f»ffBÊX³f ³f¸¶fSX ´fSX QZÔ: 1800-180-3002 (¸fZSXNX), BIOM, Kirandul Complex, Kirandul, invites SEALED TENDERS in TWO BID SYSTEMS for the following work(s), from firms
Detail of this tender notification and pre-qualification criteria can also be seen in NIT exhibited on website 1800-180-8752 (»f£f³fDY)ll meeting the PQC requirements. The Tender Documents can be purchased from the Office of Deputy General Manager
http://sppp.raj.nic.in and www.eproc.rajasthan.gov.in. Tenders are to be submitted online electronic ´fÂffaIY:- 4817 dQ³ffaIY 15.6.2020 (Finance), NMDC Ltd., Kirandul Complex, Kirandul, on any working day during office hours (Wednesday is weekly rest day).
format on website http://eproc.rajasthan.gov.in and will be opened online in the office of the Chief Sale of Tender Documents will be available at Kirandul only. However tender documents can be downloaded from the
Engineer Project, PHEDJodhpur. Website mentioned below:
1 Work Description Operation and Maintenance of Complete Water Supply System
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including Civil, Mechanical, Electrical, Instrumentation works, Ii ¸ffaI /AfBÊ.E¸f.Me.AfBÊ./»fZJf-I/2020-21/4864-66 dQ³ffaI /3.6.2020 No. Cost (In Money Period SaleofTender ofSubmission of Tender Tender
switchyard/GSS, Inlet Structure at ROLC, Intake & Inlet Wells in ÀfaVfû²f³f-1 BÊ d³fd½fQf Àfc¨f³ff IiY¸ffaIY 1 ½f¿fÊ 2020-21 Lakhs) Deposit (in months) Document of Tender Opening Documents
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CWPH and Pipeline etc complete system of "Re-Org. UWSS dI ¹ff ªff°ff W` Ü QSK-38C engine fitted in 137.42 1,38,000 from the date of To 3:00 PM 3:30 PM (Including
Jodhpur: Surpura Based Water Supply Project'', for Five Years Hitachi EX 1900-6 hydraulic Lakh handing over of 14-07-2020 14-07-2020 14-07-2020 GST)
period on Single Point Responsibility Basis. d½f½fS¯f ´fc½fÊ BÊ d³fd½fQf Àfc¨f³ff Ii ¸ffaI 1 ½f¿fÊ 2020-21 ÀfaVfû²f³f-1 Àfc¨f³ff A³fbÀffS
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2 Estimated Cost Rs. 888.15 Lacs For NOTICE INVITING TENDER, Pre-qualifying conditions, other tender conditions and for Complete Address and Details, etc,
3 Earnest Money Rs. 17.76 Lacs d³fd½fQf OfC³f»fûO/A´f»fûO I S³fZ I e d³f²ffÊdS°f Ad³°f¸f 08.06.2020 15.06.2020
intending Bidders are requested to visit on our Website www.nmdc.co.in. Corrigendum and Addenda if any will be posted on our
4 Cost of Tender document Rs 10,000/- plus Rs 1000/-
d°fd±f E½fa Àf¸f¹f (Àffa¹f 06.00 ¶fªfZ °fI ) (Àffa¹f 06.00 ¶fªfZ °fI ) NMDC website only. The prospective bidder should visit our NMDC website from time to time to note the Corrigendum and
and processing fee I f¹ffÊ»f¹f ¸fZÔ d³fd½fQf Vfb»I , ´fiûÀfZdÀfa¦f R eÀf E½fa ²fSûWS 09.06.2020 16.06.2020 Addenda if any.
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BIOM, Kirandul Complex.
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Opposite Collector Office, Near Ahinsa Circle Pali- 306401 Tel. 02932-222147
d³fd½fQf ´fiI fVf³f I e d°fd±f 16.06.2020
Email sepali.wr@rajasthan.gov.in,
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Dated 18.05.2020. Following amendments are made in this E-Bid:
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S.
No.
Particulars Previous period & date
mentioned in E-Bid
Revised period & date as
per amendment ¸f¹f 3 ½f¿fÊ I f I ¸´fiZWZ d³Vf½f A³fbS Ãf¯f I f I f¹fÊÜ ´fid°fVf°f ªfeEÀfMe
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E¸´fe¹fS, dSdªfO MfB´f I ³fZ¢MS I e Af´fcd°fÊÜ document Hours Hours
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Bid
17.06.2020 Time 15.00
Hours
29.06.2020 Time 15.00
Hours ³f¦fSX d³f¦f¸f, ´fi¹ff¦fSXfªfÜ ³f¦fSX d³f¦f¸f, ´fi¹ff¦fSXfªfÜ
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The UBN No. of E-Bid on sppp.rajasthan.gov.in is WRJ2021WSOB00003
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07-2020: 1. BÊ-d³fd½fQf Àfa£¹ff- IZ .½fe. C´fIZ ³ýi ¸fbS fQf¶ffQ ´fS E»f.E¸f.-6 www.dipr.rajasthan.gov.in, https://eproc.rajasthan.gov.in.
Sd/-
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Date: 10/06/2020
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Khajpura Patna, Jagdev Path Chauraha, Patna-800014

Possession notice For (immovable ProPerty)
Whereas:
The undersined being the authorised officer of the Indian Bank under the Securitisation and Reconstruction
of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest Act, 2002 and in exercise of powers conferred under
section 13(12) read with Rules 3 of the Security Interest (Enforcement) Rules, 2002, issued a Demand Notice
u/s 13(2) on the date noted against the Account as mentioned hereinafter, calling upon the borrower to repay
the amount mentioned in the notice within 60 days from the date of receipt of the said notice.
The Borrower having failed to repay the amount, notice is hereby given to the borrower and the public in
general that the undersigned has taken possession of the property described herein below in exercise of
powers conferred on him/her under Section 13(4) of the said Act read with rule 8 of the said rules.
The borrower in particular and the public in general is hereby cautioned not to deal with the property and any
dealings with the property will be subject to the charge of the Indian Bank for an amount and interest thereon.
The borrower's attention is invited to the provisions of sub-section (8) of section 13 of the Act, in respect of
time available, to redeem the secured asset.
Sl. Name Name of the Description of the charged/mortgaged Date of Amount
No. of the Borrower/ property (all the part & parcel of the property Demand outstanding
Account & Guarantor consisting of) Notice as on the
Branch (Owner Date of date of
of the Possession demand
property) Notice notice
1. Shri Shiv Shri Shiv All that part and parcel of the residential 30.01.2020 `
Shankar Shankar economical Flat on 3rd Floor, in D Cruze 12.06.2020 27,71,961.00
Chaurasia Chaurasia Residency (Apartment) bearing its Flat No.303 in (Rs. twenty
S/o Shri S/o Shri the name of Shri Shiv Shankar Chaurasia S/o Shri seven lac
Harinandan Harinandan Harinandan Prasad measuring super build up seventy one
Prasad Prasad area 1005 sq.ft (approx) along with reserve Car thousand
B/o: Parking Space No.303, Sale Deed No.65 dated nine hundred
Khajpura 05.01.2016, bearing Book No.1, Page No.223- sixty one
Patna 244, Khata No.295, Survey Plot No.3487(P), only)
Tauzi No.5123/14267, Thana No.1, Constructed/
Situated at Mauza-Keshwerpur, Digha, PS-
Phulwari present Digha, Sadar & Sub Registry
Patna, District-Patna, Bihar, Bounded as under
(as per Deed): North- Set back of Building, South-
Set back of Building, East-Staircase Lift & Lobby,
West- Set back of Building.
Date : 12.06.2020 Authorised Officer
Place : Patna (Indian Bank)

New Delhi

13 ECONOMY
THE INDIAN EXPRESS, TUESDAY, JUNE 16, 2020
As COVID cases rise,
Sensex falls over 550 pts
tracking global peers
ENSECONOMICBUREAU
NEWDELHI,JUNE15
STOCKMARKETSMondayfell1.6
per cent with weak global cues
and rising number of COVID-19
infections in India and across the
world hitting the sentiment. The
Sensex fell 552.09 points to
33,228.80andtheNiftyIndexfell
159.20 points to 9,813.70.
VinodNair,headofresearchat
Geojit Financial Services, said,
“Indianmarketsopenedtheweek
on a negative note, in sync with
theglobalmarkets,”Moreover,FPI
net inflows into equity were also
negative in the last two sessions.
“After a smart recovery on
Friday, the bears were back in
30 claims under process
for `50 lakh healthcare
workers’ insurance
GEORGEMATHEW
MUMBAI,JUNE15
NEW INDIA Assurance (NIA),
which has covered 22.12 lakh
public healthcare workers under
theCentre’sspeciallylaunchedRs
50 lakh COVID-19 personal acci-
dent policy, has paid six claims
within 48 hours of receiving the
clamdocuments.NIAiscurrently
processing another 30 odd eligi-
ble claims under the scheme.
The policy has covered across
grades including Asha workers,
paramedicsandnurseswhomay
have to be in direct contact with
COVID-19 patients. The tailor-
made policy is intended to pro-
vide personal accident cover in-
cluding accidental loss of life on
accountofcontractingCOVID-19.
Theschemeisfundedthroughthe
HealthMinistry’sNDRF(National
Disaster Response Force) budget.
However,despitebeingawell-
publicised scheme, awareness of
25%
Have received non-binding return
before Q1 2023
letter of intent from Clix India as an investment
destination: Even as many in
Capital: Lakshmi Vilas Bank will
India believe that the country
emerge as a big investment
Mumbai: Lakshmi Vilas Bank
(LVB) on Monday said it has re-
ceivedapreliminarynon-binding
letter of intent (LoI) for an invest-
ment from Clix Capital Services
and Clix Finance India. This is the
embattledlender’ssecondpublic
attemptatraisingcapitalafterthe
RBIturneddownaproposalforits
merger with Indiabulls Housing
Finance in October last year.
BRIEFLY
‘Bezoswilling
totestify’
Washington: Amazon.com
IncsaidMondayitsfounder
andCEOJeffBezosiswilling
to testify to a congressional
panelinvestigatingpotential
violationsofUSantitrustlaw
by big technology compa-
nies. REUTERS
CBIClaunches
e-Office
New Delhi: TheCentralBoa-
rdofIndirectTaxesandCust-
oms (CBIC) Monday launc-
hed ‘e-Office’ in over 500
GST and customs offices.
FMmeetspvt
banks’heads
NewDelhi:FinanceMinister
Nirmala Sitharaman on
Monday held meeting with
heads of 20 major private
banks, and asked them to
ensureeffectiverolloutofRs
3-lakh crore ECLGS for the
MSME sector. PTI
EGMsallowed
tillSept30
New Delhi: The Corporate
AffairsMinistryhasallowed
companies to hold extraor-
dinary general meetings
(EGMs)forkeybusinessde-
cisions via videoconferenc-
ing till September 30. ENS
SENSEX: 33,228.80 ▼ 552.09 NIFTY: 9,813.70 ▼ 159.20 NIKKEI: 21,530.95 ▼ 774.53 HANG SENG: 23,776.95 ▼ 524.43 FTSE: 6,030.39 ▼ 74.79 DAX: 11,784.33 ▼ 164.95
RIL rights
shares gain
8.48% on listing
Mumbai:RelianceIndustries’
(RIL) partly paid shares,
whichwereofferedinthere-
cent mega rights issue, on
Monday listed on stock ex-
changes with a 7 per cent
premium at Rs 689 on the
BSE. The shares closed with
a gain of 8.48 per cent at Rs
700.85 on the BSE. ENS
charge and dominated the move
tilltheend.cent,”saidAjitMishra,
VP—research, Religare Broking.
theinsurancecoverappearstobe
littleamongstsomeofstatenodal
agencies,asasubstantialnumber
of some75claimslodgedtilldate
areoutsidethepurviewofthepol-
icy on account of either the de-
ceasednotbeing ahealthworker
or the deceased having died of
other than corona related ail-
ments,saidAtulSahay,Chairman
and MD, NIA.
“Wehavebeenabletoservice
the claims seamlessly so far
though only a limited number of
eligibleclaimshavebeenreceived
so far. The claim process requires
simple documents, duly verified
by the respective state govern-
ment authorities,” Sahay said.
“We expect that we will be
able to receive necessary docu-
mentations in the remaining 30
odd eligible claims so far during
this week and we intend to dis-
pose of the claims during the
week itself,’’ he added.
Full report on
www.indianexpress.com
Respondents who
feel activity will not
The announcement came
during market hours and the
bank’s stock ended 4.94 per cent
higher than its previous close on
the BSE. Under the non-binding
LoI,theproposeddealissubjectto
completion of due diligence,
whichthebankandtheintending
parties will be carrying out and
will be subject to regulatory and
other customary approvals. FE
Despite high share of MSME a/cs, coop banks
not covered under credit guarantee scheme
MOHAMEDTHAVER
MUMBAI,JUNE15
DINESHGAJRIA—theMDofPrint
PlusPrivateLimited,whichman-
ufactures paper and its products
atapressinBhiwandiemploying
200 people — is having a hard
time running his business amid
the lockdown in spite of the slew
of steps announced by Finance
Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to
boost micro, small and medium
enterprises (MSMEs) last month.
The reason — cooperative
DoT says only 50% staff
per division must come
AASHISH ARYAN
NEW DELHI, JUNE 15
WITH THE number of COVID-19
positive cases in government of-
fices ontherise, theDepartment
of Telecommunications (DoT)
has asked only 50 per cent of the
total staff from each section or
division of the telecom ministry
to attend office every day.
Following the Ministry of
Home Affairs’ (MHA) orders on
lockdown relaxations, DoT em-
ployees below the rank of
deputy secretary had started
coming to the office. However,
instead of 50 per cent staff from
each section attending office on
alternate days, entire sections of
telecom ministry would attend
the office, DoT officials said.
BRITISH ARM JLR SUFFERS Q4 LOSS OF 501 MILLION POUNDS
TataMotorsposts`9,894crloss
inQ4asindustryfacesheadwinds
ENSECONOMICBUREAU
MUMBAI,JUNE15
WITH THE economic slowdown
and the coronavirus-induced
lockdown hitting demand, Tata
MotorsonMondayreportedaloss
ofRs9,894croreduringthefourth
quarter ended March 31, 2020,
compared to a profit of Rs 1,117
crore in the corresponding year
ago period. Total income for the
automobile manufacturer de-
clined by 27.75 per cent to Rs
63,057croreinthefourthquarter
ofFY21fromRs87,285croreinthe
year-ago quarter.
As a result of the lower sales,
thecompany’sBritisharmJaguar
LandRover(JLR)sufferedalossof
501millionpoundsinQ4and422
millionpoundsforthefullyearon
revenuesof5.4billionpoundsand
23billionpounds,respectively.In
FY20, Tata Motors reported a fall
of 35.1percentinwholesales(in-
cludingexports)to475,207units.
Guenter Butschek, CEO and
MD, Tata Motors, said, “The auto
industryfacedstrongheadwinds
in FY20 amidst a slowing econ-
omyduetomultiplefactors—liq-
uidity crisis, high fuel prices,
changes in axle load norms and
BS-VI transition — all leading to
weak consumer sentiments and
subdued demand across seg-
COVID IMPACT
Only 2.6% of Fortune 500 CEOs feel India
presents best investment opportunity
The COVID-19 pandemic, which has had the biggest impact
on the global economy over several decades, is expected to
have deeper impact on businesses worldwide, a survey of
Fortune 500 CEOs conducted by Fortune showed
52.4% Respondents
who feel
economic activity will return to
pre-pandemic levels only in the
first quarter of 2022
destination for companies
looking to shift out of China,
CEOs of Fortune 500
companies do not seem to
believe that
Business travel: Over half of the respondents said that
business travel at their company will never return to levels
that it was prior to the crisis. However, a fourth of them
said that it would regain those levels in Q1 2022
banks are not included in the
Centre’screditguaranteescheme.
Gajria said, “... we were in-
formed that only public and pri-
vate sector banks had been in-
cluded in the credit guarantee
cover.Cooperativebankshavenot
beencovered.Thisisoddbecause
nearly70percentofMSMEshave
accounts in cooperative banks.”
Jyotindra Mehta, president of
NAFCUB (National Federation of
Urban Cooperative Banks and
Credit Societies), in a letter to the
FinanceMinisterseekingthatco-
operative banks be included un-
“The intention of the guide-
line is for around 50 per cent of
the sanctioned strength (de-
pending on functional require-
ment) at each sectional level to
be present at a time in the office
so that social distancing at the
relevant workplace is facilitated.
Calling the entire strength of a
section at a time on a day for a
few days a week is not in the
spirit of the guidelines,” the DoT
said in a fresh notice to the em-
ployees.
In the new notice, the DoT
hasalsoaskedtheemployeesat-
tending office to mandatorily
wearmasksinsideoffices,failing
which administrative action
couldbetakenagainstthem.The
DoT had earlier sent a notice in
this regard to all its employees
on June 9.
First quarter to be
bad, recovery by
end of FY21
WHILETHEoutlookremainsuncertainfortheautoindustry,
TataMotors hopesforagradualrecoveryof salesand
improvingcashflowsfortheremainderof theyearand
expectstoendFY21withpositivefreecashflows.With peak
lockdownsinthefirstquartersofar,itexpectssignificantly
lowersalesandnegativefreecashflowof aboutRs5,000
croreinQ1of FY21,aroundRs3,500croreof whichisrelated
toonetimeworkingcapitaloutflows.
TataMotorssaiditwillfocusonconservingcashby
managingcostandinvestmentspendstoprotectliquidity.It
hascalledouta costsavingsprogrammeof Rs1,500crore
andcashimprovementprogrammeof Rs6,000crore.
ments. Disruption in the supply
chain induced by the pandemic
and the nationwide lockdown in
mid-March 2020 added to the
problems.”
“Disappointingly, even with
our relentless focus on retail ac-
celeration,‘MissionZero’onBS-IV
inventory and stringent cost re-
duction initiatives, we have not
been able to mitigate the impact
onourfinancials.Currently,weare
operationalatallourplantsandat
most of the dealerships with a
strict adherence to safety and
74.3% CEOs who voted for US
9%: CEOs who voted for China
11.5%: CEOs who voted for
Asian countries except China
2.6%: CEOs who believe India
presents the best investment
opportunity next year
Whythis isimportant: The
survey highlights how the top
CEO’s across the world are
facing the pandemic and how
they plan to emerge out of it.
Their view on revival of capital
investment and rise in economic
activity holds key to the revival
of world economy
derguaranteecover,saidthatout-
standing loans to MSMEs by the
urbancooperativebankingsector
is of the order of Rs 82,000 crore.
Whencontacted,FinanceMi-
nistry spokesperson Rajesh Mal-
hotra said details about the steps
announcedhadbeenupdatedon
the Ministry website and that an
emailwillbesentifthequerywas
still unanswered. An email to
Secretary (Financial Services)
DebasishPandaforcommentwas
unanswered till Friday evening.
Full report on
www.indianexpress.com
Diamond
trade veteran
Arun R Mehta
passes away
Mumbai: Arun R Mehta, doyen of
India’s diamond industry and
founderofRosyBlue,passedaway
in Mumbai on Monday. Mehta,
80,issurvivedbyhiswifeRajnika,
son Russell and two daughters.
Mehtawasoneofthepioneers
of the diamond industry’s mod-
ernisation and rapid growth
phase in the late 1970s, allowing
himtonotjustgrowthecompany
hefounded—RosyBlue—butalso
the industry as a whole. His par-
ticipationandeffortsinanumber
oftradeorganisationscontributed
immensely to the growth of the
whole industry. He was a mem-
ber of the managing committee
oftheBharatDiamondBoursefor
a long period. ENS
WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM
GOLD RUPEE OIL SILVER
`47,900 `76.03 $39.40 `48,200
Note: Gold, silver rates at spot markets in Delhi; gold per 10g, silver per 1 kg; Brent crude as of 2300 IST
International market data till 1900 IST
Sale, registration of
BS-IV vehicles: SC
pulls up automobile
dealers for ‘violation’
“The registration of the
Loss widens to EXPRESSNEWSSERVICE vehicles which were to be
NEWDELHI,JUNE15
`70.9 cr for HCL sold out of 10 per cent
Infosystems THE SUPREME Court on Monday cannot be made without
New Delhi: HCL Infosystems
pulledupautomobiledealerssay-
ing they had flouted relaxations
the permission of this
Court and without giving
Mondaysaiditsconsolidated granted in view of the lockdown particulars as ordered by
loss widened to Rs 70.94 for sale and registration of vehi- this Court in the
crore for March 2020 quar- cles made to Bharat Stage IV (BS-
terfromRs43.90croreinthe IV)pollutionstandardsandsaidit
aforesaid order”
year-ago period. Its revenue willnotpermitregistrationof ve- SUPREME COURT
from operations also de- hicles beyond what had already
creased to Rs 227.71 crore in beenpermittedinitsearlierorder. tion and was required to be ob-
January-March2020quarter Hearing a plea by Federation served punctually and affidavits
from Rs 875.60 crore a year of Automobile Dealers’ Associ- were required to be filed”, the
ago, the company said. ation (FADA), a Bench headed by Bench said.
JusticeArunMishrasaidithadon The SC said that for the 10 per
March 27 allowed registration of cent vehicles allowed to be sold
1,05,000 two-wheelers, 2,250 after the end of lockdown, regis-
Pfizer Ltd Q4 passenger vehicles (PVs) and
2,000commercialvehicles(CVs),
trationcouldnothavebeenmade
without giving it details of sales.
net profit falls
which had already been sold. It “The registration of the vehi-
health norms,” Butschek added. had also allowed sale of 10 per cles which were to be sold out of
“The company responded 6% to `103 cr cent of a total 7,00,000 unsold 10percentcannotbemadewith-
quicklytothecurrentsituationby
implementingatemporaryshut-
downofallitsplantsandrigorous
New Delhi: Pfizer Ltd on
Mondayreporteda5.90per
two-wheelers,15,000unsoldPVs
and 12,000 CVs.
TheBenchsaidithaddirected
out the permission of this Court
and without giving particulars as
orderedbythisCourtintheafore-
cost and investment controls to cent decline in net profit at thatvehiclessoldtillMarch31can said order. Engine and chassis
conserve cash as much as possi- Rs103.01croreforthequar- be registered till April 30 in the numberswerealsorequiredtobe
ble. The company is now seeing ter ended March 31, 2020. “special circumstances”. furnished and the date of sale.
encouraging recovery in China The company had “Our order was clear and did There is clear cut violation of at
with all its dealers now open and posted a net profit of Rs notmakeanydifferencebetween least the second part of the order
with sales of 6,828 vehicles in 109.47 crore in the corre- the members of the association passed by this Court. Incomplete
April,downonly3.1percentyear sponding period of the pre- and the non- members. It was in affidavit has been filed on
on year and 8,068 in May, up 4.2 vious fiscal, Pfizer said in a general for all those who are the 13.06.2020”, the SC order stated.
percentyearonyear,”TataMotors filing to the BSE. PTI members of the association and Thecourtwillhearthematter
said in a statement. not the members of the associa- next on a June 19.
Wholesale Exports decline 36.47%
prices fall to
in May, trade deficit
4.5-year low;
WPI deflation narrows to $3.15 billion
at 3.21% in May ENSECONOMICBUREAU
duringthetwomonthsofthecur-
rent fiscal. Trade deficit stood at
NEWDELHI,JUNE15 $9.91 billion during the two
ENSECONOMICBUREAU months of the current fiscal.
NEWDELHI,JUNE15
WHOLESALE PRICES fell to a 4.5-
CONTRACTING FOR the third
month running, India’s exports
declined36.47per cent inMayto
Oil imports stood at $3.49 bil-
lioninMay—71.98percentlower
compared to $12.44 billion in the
yearlowlevelinMay,recordinga $19.05 billion, mainly on account same month last year. Gold im-
WHENDOCEOsEXPECT deflation of 3.21 per cent, due to of drop in shipments by key sec- portsinMaydipped98.4percent
BUSINESSTRAVELAT sharp decline in fuel and power tors such as petroleum, textiles, to $76.31 million.
THEIRCOMPANYTO
RETURNTOLEVELSITWAS
itemsevenasfoodarticlesturned
expensive. The Wholesale Price
engineering, gems and jewellery.
Imports too plunged 51 per
Meanwhile, the country’s
servicesectorexportsdipped8.92
BEFORETHEPANDEMIC?
Q12021 14.3%
Index(WPI)hashititslowestlevel
since November 2015, when de-
cent to $22.2 billion in May, leav-
ing a trade deficit of $3.15 billion,
per cent to $16.45 billion (about
Rs1.25lakhcrore)inApril,Reserve
flation was 3.7 per cent. compared to $15.36 billion in the Bank of India (RBI) data showed
Q12022 25.0% “The annual rate of inflation, same month previous year, ac- onMonday.Servicesreceiptorex-
basedonmonthlyWPI,stoodat(- cordingtothedatareleasedbythe ports during April 2019 stood at
Q12023 4.8% 3.21percent)(provisional)forthe CommerceandIndustryMinistry. $17.56billion.Theestimatedvalue
Never 4.8% monthofMay,2020ascompared During April-May 2020, the of services imports for May is
to 2.79 per cent during the corre- exportsfell47.54percentto29.41 $8.57 billion. The RBI releases
Other 51.1% sponding month of the previous billion, while imports shrank by monthly data on India’s interna-
year,”theCommerceandIndustry 5.67 per cent to 439.32 billion. tional trade in services with a lag
Ministry said in a statement on Tradedeficitstoodat$9.91billion of around 45 days. WITHPTI
Monday.
Source: However, inflation in food ar-
Fortune 500 ticlesduringMaystoodat1.13per
cent, as against 2.55 per cent in
April. WITHPTI
Regd Office: PSEB Head Office, The Mall, Patiala - 147001
CIN: U40109PB2010SGC033813, Website: www.pspcl.in
SXfªfÀ±ff³f ÀfSXIYfSX
e-Tender Enquiry No. 7177/P-1/EMP-11469 dated 11.06.2020 &
ID: 2020_POWER_48613_1
Scope of Work: PROCUREMENT OF VEHICLE BATTERIES FOR
IYf¹ffÊ»f¹f d¨fdIY°Àff A²feÃfIY Àf½ffBÊ ¸ff³fdÀfaWX d¨fdIY°Àff»f¹f, ªf¹f´fbSX GGSSTP, ROOPNAGAR.
Qty: As per NIT
BÊ-¶fû»fe Af¸faÂf¯f Àfc¨f³ff (NIB) (UBN MCJ 2021GLOB00022)
SfªfÀ±ff³f IZ Sfª¹f´ff»f ¸fWûQ¹f I e AûS ÀfZ d³f¸³ffadI °f Àff¸f¦fie IZ C´ff´f³f WZ °fb Qû ½f¿fÊ I e
EMD: @2% of Tender value
Date & Time upto which Tender shall be Received: 13.07.2020 &
11.00 A.M.
QS Àfad½fQf IZ d»f¹fZ d³f¸ffÊ°ffAûÔ/Af¹ff°fI ûÔ ÀfZ EI »f ´fiIi ¸fe dõ ·ff¦f ´fðd°f ¶fû»fe dQ³ffaI Date & Time of Opening of Tender: 15.07.2020 & 11.30 A.M.
08-07-2020 Àff¹fa 05:00 ¶fªfZ °fI Af¸fadÂf°f I e ªff°fe W` Ü Tender specification can only be downloaded from PSPCL website
IiY. IYf¹fÊ IYf d½f½fSX¯f A³fb¸ffd³f°f ¶fû»fe ¶fû»fe BÊ-´fiûÀfZdÀfa¦f UBN https://eproc.punjab.gov.in & no hard copy of the same will be
issued by this office.
Àfa. »ff¦f°f ´fid°f·fcd°f QÀ°ff½fZªf Vfb»IY No NOTE:
(SXfdVf SXfdVf (÷Y´f¹fZ Vfb»IY (÷Y´f¹fZ) 1. In case any difficulty regarding uploading of the tender the prospec-
»ffJûÔ ¸fZÔ) »ffJ ¸fZÔ) (÷Y´f¹fZ) tive bidders are requested to get clarification from this office and or
01 Rate Contract Supply MCJ2021 e-procurement System Government of Punjab. Contact No. +91-
200.00 400000/- 1000/- 1000/-
(172)- 2970284/63. lt is also requested to get their digital signature
of LDPE/HDPE Bio GLOB well in time so as to submit tenders through e-tendering only.
medical waste collec- 00022 2. It is informed that In case tender process is not completed due to
tion bags for two year
NIB I f d½f½fS¯f, ¶fû»fe I e Vf°fZË, ¶fû»fe QÀ°ff½fZªf E½fa ¶fû»fe I e dQ³ffaI B°¹ffdQ Sfª¹f »fûI
any reason, no corrigendum will be published in newspapers.
Details regarding corrigendum may be seen on website.
eproc.punjab.gov.in
C´ff´f³f ´fûMÊ »f http://sppp.rajasthan.gov.in
http://eproc.rajasthan.gov.in ´fS QZJf E½fa OfC³f»fûO dI ¹ff ªff ÀfI °ff W` Ü
E½fa RTP-26/2020
35200/Pb
Sd/-
Dy. C.E./Monitoring, GGSSTP, Roopnagar.
WXÀ°ff./- Office of Project Director
d¨fdIY°Àff A²feÃfIY Rajasthan Urban Infrastructure Development Project
(A unit of RUDSICO)
Ii ¸ffI : 341 dQ³ffaI 10/6/2020 AVS Building, Jawahar Circle, JLN Marg, Jaipur - 302017
DIPR/C/4289/2020 Tel No.: 0141-2721966, Fax No.: 0141-2721919
SOCIAL JUSTICE AND EMPOWERMENT DEPARTMENT
Email: mail.ruidp@rajasthan.gov.in; web site: www.ruidp.raiasthan.gov.in
Invitation for Bids No: RSTDSP/OCB/NTL/14
ADB Project No. and Title: 42267-031-IND; Rajasthan Secondary Towns
Head Office: Directorate, Social Justice and Empowerment
Development Sector Project (RSTDSP)
Department, Rajasthan
Ambedkar Bhavan, G 3/1, Rajmahal Residency Area,
Contract Package Number & Name: RSTDIP/KTR/03; Construction of
Civil Lines, Jaipur
Works of Water Supply Production and Distribution Network Improvements
with house service connections for nonrevenue water reduction and
Phone - 0141-2220258, 0141-2220217 continuous water supply and Providing Sewer Network with House
E-Mail : raj.sje@rajasthan.gov.in connections, and construction of Sewage Treatment Plant and all allied
Ref. : F7(2)()G.H/Cycle supp./SJED/2020/31765 Date: 10.06.2020 Works and operation services of the entire system for 10 years at Khetri
NOTICE INVITING e-BID (NIB No. 05/2020-21) (Jhunjhunu) (Estimated to Rs. 74 Crores)
For Hostels under SJED All over Rajasthan 1. Rajasthan Urban Infrastructure Development Project (RUIDP) invites
Open Tender Sealed Single Stage, Two-envelopes unconditional online Bid online bids on e-proc website from eligible bidders for the contract
for Two year rate contract, are invited on behalf of the Governor of package named above. Online bidding is invited under Open Competitive
Rajasthan for the procurement and supply of Complete MTB unibicycle Bidding (OCB) - National procedure of ADB which is open to all bidders
frame bicycles (black colour) for unisex from the Producers/ from eligible source countries of ADB.
Manufacturers registered under relevant authority for providing such items.
Estimated bid value is Rs. 3.50 crores and Estimated Quantity 10,000 No’s
2. Bid document would be available at e proc website
www.eproc.rajasthan.gov.in starting from 9th June, 2020. Deadline for
Cycle. bid submission is 15:00 hours on 16th July, 2020.
The Bid documents containing the terms and conditions can be download 3. Pre-bid Meeting will be held at 15:00 hours on 25th June, 2020. All the
from the website of State Public Procurement Portal, prospective bidders are advised to participate in the Pre-bid meeting.
http://sppp.rajasthan.gov.in or e-Procurement Portal http://eproc.raj 4. Any addendum, clarification to the bidder's queries and corrigendum etc.
asthan.gov.in, from http://sppp.rajasthan.gov.in. The last date of online will be published on the e-proc web sites and will not be published in
submission of Bid is 10-07-2020 up to 18:00 hours. Newspapers.
UBN NO SOC2021GLRC0009 5. Bidders may contact Additional Project Director, RUIDP (0141-2548404),
Sd/- Jaipur for any information on bidding process.
Director Sd/-
Social Justice and Empowerment Department DIPR/C/4197/2020 Project Director
DIPR/C/4209/2020 Rajasthan, Jaipur
UID 2021 WS0B00009
New Delhi
 WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM

14 SPORT
THE INDIAN EXPRESS, TUESDAY, JUNE 16, 2020
CA CHIEF EXECUTIVE MAY LOSE JOB
Cricket Australia (CA) is set to part ways with its chief executive
Kevin Roberts, at a time when it is under severe financial stress in
the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Sydney Morning
Herald reported that Roberts’ departure will be announced “later
this week.”

In vogue: Distance learning Games minus fans gave away

Pandemic has forced sportspersons to innovate with remote coaching as the short-term solution
MIHIR VASAVDA
NEW DELHI, JUNE 15
VINESH PHOGAT’S training follows a rather
different pattern these days. The wrestler is
at her village in Kharkhoda, Haryana; her
coach, Woller Akos, in Budapest, Hungary.
But Phogat and Akos have found an alterna-
tive way to keep the coaching schedule on
track: a mobile phone app.
At the beginning of every week Akos
feeds a plan into the athlete monitoring app,
including the number of weight-training
sets, wrestling technique, repetitions, rest
period and so on. After each session, Phogat
and her team of physios and sports science
experts key in all the vital stats. In an instant,
Akosaccessesthesenumbersandgivesfeed-
back. Phogat and Akos have been using this
app since the time they joined hands, which
wasaroundfiveweeksbeforethe2018Asian
Games. Ithas, however,never come in hand-
ier than now.
“I don’t know when I will be able to visit
India or she can come here. It is a difficult sit-
uation but I try to monitor as much as I can
remotely from here. This app, which is used
by Olympic Gold Quest, has been helpful,”
Akos tells The Indian Express.
For an athlete preparing for the post-
ponedTokyoOlympics,thesearerestlessand
desperatetimes.Mostof themhavenotbeen
able to train for more than 80 days, the ones
who have resumed practice are doing so
withsevererestrictions,manyareawayfrom
their coaches and all of them have been told
they cannot travel outside India for training
for the rest of the year.
“So you will have to be innovative in na-
ture,” says Beijing Olympics gold medallist
Abhinav Bindra. “A lot of athletes have been
reliant on coaches from overseas and there
will be scenarios where those coaches will
not be able to travelto India for a fair amount
of time. So, you have to start embracing sci-
ence and technology.”
Angad Vir Bajwa, a joint world record
holder in skeet shooting, has done exactly
that.Bajwahasasimulatorfittedinaroomat
his private range in Dera Bassi, near
Chandigarh. The simulator replicates the ef-
fect of being on a shooting station, with im-
agesof arangeprojectedonthewallandclay
Wrestler Vinesh Phogat is at Sonepat. Her coach Woller Akos gives her the weekly
training regimen and feedback over an app from Budapest. Suvajit Dey
UNLOCKING SPORT
AN EXPRESS SERIES
targets flying around, and Bajwa has been
trying to perfect his mount, or in simple
terms, the positioning of the shotgun.
“It (simulation) cannot replace actual
practice but it is a valuable tool,” Bajwa says.
“A coach cannot hand-hold you all the time.
Mycoach,ToreBrovold,isinOsloanditwon’t
be possible to train with him for some more
time. I am in constant touch with him but
eventually, I have to put some effort myself,”
Bajwa says, adding that Brovold helped him
with the simulator.
Bajwaisamongthosewhoareconstantly
on the road, either for training or competi-
tion. He has made peace with the fact that
travelling will not be possible this year and
has made the sprawling range at Dera Bassi
his base for the time being.
From Georgia, eye on Sonepat
Others, with space constraints, are im-
provising. Wrestler Bajrang Punia, who lives
in an apartment very close to the Sports
Authority of India’s Sonepat campus, has
made his own little akhara in the commu-
nity hall of the complex.
Thestrict14-dayquarantineruleforthose
enteringaSAIfacilitymeansPuniaiscontent
to train by himself even though his coach,
Shako Bentinidis, is in Georgia. Recently, he
got a wrestling mat from his village and has
laid it in the basement. Along with it, he pro-
cured fitness equipment from Jalandhar to
prepare a makeshift gym. Bentinidis, mean-
while, monitors his sessions from Georgia.
It is not just about the distance. Javelin
thrower Neeraj Chopra and his German
trainer Klaus Bartonietz live inside the same
campus at the National Institute of Sport in
Patiala. However, because of the Sports
Authority of India’s guidelines, which do not
allow coaches above 65 to go outdoors,
Bartonietz has not been able to monitor
Chopra’s sessions. So, they have been rely-
ing on WhatsApp video calls to communi-
cate for the time being.
Remote coaching might be the mantra
right now, but athletes realise this cannot be
a long-term solution. “You do not get com-
placent when the coach is around,” Phogat
laughs. “But if a coach is present, he can spot
thetiniestof things.Atourlevel,themistakes
might not be glaring and you need a trained
eye to spot if something is wrong. It is tough
to have the same level of training when the
coach is far away.”
The travel restrictions, it is feared, will
compoundtheirproblems.PhogatandPunia
usually travel to Europe for better quality
sparring. It is the same with boxers, who
were among the most-travelled lot last year
and even in 2020, until the pandemic struck.
It is believed that in these two sports,
India’s bench strength is so strong that find-
ing quality partners within the country will
not be a major hurdle, as well as finding the
right infrastructure, with some even consid-
ering to train in the sanitised environment
attheInspireInstituteof SportinVijayanagar.
For a few, however, options are few.
Shooters, for instance, need to travel abroad
not just for training, but also for testing and
buying ammunition because India-made
stuff is considered far below the world stan-
dard.Shooter Sheeraz Sheikh,who routinely
travels to Italy for training, says the only op-
tion he will be left with is to drastically cut
downonpracticeif thesituationremainsthe
same. “Weareallowedtoimport15,000car-
tridgesperyear.Whenwegoforoneweekof
training in Italy, we use around 4,000-5,000
cartridges. It will be impossible to last the
whole year on this,” Sheikh says. “The only
solution,unlessthingschange,willbetotrain
less. So, instead of shooting around 500-700
shots per day, we may have to cut down to
100-125 shots to last this period.”
Akos puts it more succinctly. “We are
planning for every day and every week, and
monitor everything from here using tech-
nology. But in a contact sport, how do I teach
her a technique online, with zero contact?”
Despite the ideas and innovations, that’s
precisely the problem for Phogat: practising
acontactsport,withoutanyphysicalcontact.
teams higher win percentage
Home teams have won just 21 % of ‘ghost games’ compared to 43% earlier. File
Clubswhodemandedtherighttoplaygames
at home when the English Premier League
restarts may live to regret that stance after
data from the Bundesliga shows how home
advantage in Germany has been wiped out
by empty stadiums.The Premier League re-
turns without fans on Wednesday after a
three-month break -- featuring a fractious
debate about the use of neutral venues amid
the novel coronavirus pandemic.However,
data from Germany's "ghost games" shows
such a radical swing that away teams now
hold the advantage as the percentage of
home wins has been sliced by more than
half.DataproducedbyGracenoteshowsthat
before the Bundesliga closed down, home
Trump tweets, Fifa defends
FIFA appealed for “tolerance, mutual respect
and common sense” after U.S. President
Donald Trump denounced the annulment of
a policy that required soccer players to stand
during the national anthem. “I won't be
watching much anymore!" Trump tweeted
on Saturday. It was United States captain
Megan Rapinoe kneeling in support of Colin
Kaepernick that led to the US Soccer
Federation adopting the rule in 2017. It was
annulled last week after American soccer
leadersacknowledgedachangeinsentiment
among the public since the death of George
Floydsparkedglobalanti-racismprotests. AP
teams won 43% of the 223 games played,
with35% beingawaywinsand22%draws.In
56 ghost games, home wins have plum-
meted to 21% while away teams have won
50% and draws are up to 29%. The figure of
just 12 home wins from a 56-game sample,
including a match on March 11 before the
complete suspension of the campaign, has
been matched only once in the 58-season
history of the league -- in December 2009.
Without fans, home teams have had 12%
more free kicks and 15% more fouls given
againstthem.Theyhavealsoscoredfarfewer
goals(1.23permatch,downfrom1.74before
the league's suspension) in silent stadiums.
REUTERS
Barty worried about US Open
Ash Barty has joined the ranks of high-pro-
file players concernedover the stagingof the
US Open. The women's No. 1 hasn't had the
chance to defend her French Open title be-
cause all tennis competition is shuttered.
Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal have aired
reservations about the potential restrictions
on players. “I have concerns too,” Barty said
in an e-mail. “I understand the tournaments
are eager to run but keeping everyone safe
has to be the priority.” A decision from the
USTennisAssociation’sboardaboutwhether
to hold the Grand Slam tournament in New
York in August could be made this week. AP

OVER THE HEDGE by Michael Fry & T Lewis

CROSSWORD 4145
ACROSS
1 Teach me to twist the knife (7)
5 Am given little scope (5)
8 Acoustic device for discovering
the directors’ opinion?
(8,5)
9 Attack currency returns
(3,2)
10 Don’t allow bitterness to
remain (7)
11 It’s material to enquire after
one parent (6)
12 They check the movement of
aircraft on the ground
(6)
15 Rock singer learning what
Rumanians use for
money (7)
17 Bottled spirits (5)
19 Application that is just what
the peroxide blonde needs?
(4,9)
20 Still producing cheerful songs
(5)
21 He may be prepared to sell his
land (7)
SolutionsCrossword4144:Across: 1Vapid,8Semitone,9Shied,10Restorer,11
Flute,12Par,16Kettle,17Abacus,18Act,23Jelly,24Toasters,25Music,26
Cavilled,27Petty.Down:2Achilles,3Identity,4Peseta,5Ditty,6Gourd,7Heart,12
Pea,13Rat,14Madesure,15Duellist,19Career,20Stick,21Valve,22Stall.
JUMBLED WORDS
DAY TODAY
ARIES (Mar 21 - Apr 20)
Sometimes it’s
necessary to get on
with the art of daily
survival as honestly
as possible. Today that means
dealing with money, looking
after resources and asking
close partners exactly what
they think. You’ll do much
better if you’ve got the majority
on your side.
TAURUS (Apr 21 - May 21)
You should still be
able to make the
running. The only
doubts in your mind
CALVIN & HOBBES by Bill Watterson may concern your financial
circumstances, and whether
you can actually afford to pay
for all that you would like. If you
reassure yourself on this score
then everything else should fall
into place.
DOWN
GEMINI (May 22 - June 21)
1 Flight leader? (5)
You may still be
2 General or private trials
making plans which
perhaps (6-7)
are better kept to
3 Fairytale ones should be happy
yourself, at least
(7)
until they’re clear in your own
4 Resent having to change one’s
mind. By tomorrow you will be
name (6)
ready to be more open, and to
5 Blame fracture for mount’s
lay down the law. Of course,
pace (5)
there’s no guarantee that
6 Statistics may be vital in
other people will listen. So,
obtaining the result of it
what’s new?
(6,7)
7 It’s old news (7) CANCER (June 22 - July 23)
11 Not happy with old fuel that MARVIN by Tom Armstrong You have now
has to be replaced experienced one
(7) moderately testing
13 Afternoon meal served by phase. You’re about
airlines? (4,3) to pass through another, but it
14 Manage without an will be fairly mild and
intermediary concerned only with your need
(6) to sort out your dreams —
16 Plant that means a great deal to which are to be put into
us (5) practice and which left on the
18 Bury for most of the winter shelf? Plus, of course you’re
(5) now a little older — and
much wiser.
LEO (July 24 - Aug 23)
Venus, planet of love,
is about to step up its
role. The broader
significance of
potentially fruitful meetings
and news is that you’re
DifficultyLevel1s
approaching a period during
SOLUTION SUDOKU 4140
BY PETER VIDAL
LIBRA (Sep 24 - Oct 23)
It seems as if you
are about to be
called upon to make
a decision which
could symbolise a complete
change of direction in your
most intimate affairs.
Everything is now bound
up with the next set
of lunar patterns, so
don’t expect perfect
clarity today.
SCORPIO (Oct 24 - Nov 23)
You must consider
the material or
financial advantages
to be gained from
putting your plans into
practice. If you have any reason
to doubt others’ responses and
reactions, keep your ideas to
yourself for a few more days.
Also, give a loved one time to
digest recent news.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov 24 - Dec 22)
If partners have
been keeping out of
your way or
avoiding your gaze,
everything is likely to change
this evening when you realise
just what your relationships
mean to you. Use the day
constructively to settle as
many routine affairs as you
possibly can.
CAPRICORN (Dec 23 - Jan 20)
You have been
misinformed or
misled in the past,
but there may be
nothing that you can do about
it now. Probably the only way
to turn the tables on
other people is to out-do
them at work. But you
might well decide that you
really can’t be bothered. That’s
OK too.
AQUARIUS (Jan 21- Feb 19)
Others’ attitudes and
behaviour are their
business, and you
should let them go
their own sweet way rather
than trying to control them. It is
increasingly clear that you

which you must finally settle should lead by setting an

Instructions with all outstanding example, not by preaching!
Givenbelowarefourjumbledwords.Solvethejumblestomakeproperwordsandmovethemto TosolveaSudokupuzzle, partnership issues. Hopefully Eventually other people should
therespectivesquaresbelow.Selectthelettersintheshadedsquaresandjumblethemtoget everydigitfrom1to9 the people you meet now will get the message.
SUDOKU 4141

theanswerforthegivenquip. mustappearineachofthe make you happy.

___isso__thatitisdelightfultotellit.-EmilyDickinson(5,.,4) PISCES (Feb 20 - Mar 20)
nineverticalcolumns,in VIRGO (Aug 24 - Sep 23) Put your thinking
eachoftheninehorizontal Your change in mood cap on today, and be
BHAER EIOPTT rowsandineachofthe should take you from sure to explain
nineboxes. a position which is yourself to other
relatively laid-back people in a sound, sensible
to one which is rather more and unsentimental manner.
REPRO AGNTHU DifficultyLevel
ambitious. According to your By this evening you may
natural cycle your energy level once again be wondering
1s=Veryeasy;2s=Easy; could actually increase as the what to do about a dilemma
3s=Medium;4s=Hard; hours pass. But, then, you might at home. And tomorrow
5s=VeryHard;6s= feel your vitality drop if you do you might work out how to
Genius too much too early. solve it.

Vol LXXXVIII No. 187 Regd.No. DL-21046/03-05

R.N.I. No.506/57. Printed and Published by R.C. Malhotra on behalf of The Indian Express (P) Limited and Printed at The Indian Express (P) Limited Press, A-8, Sector-7, Noida - 201301 and Published at The Indian Express (P) Limited, Mezzanine Floor, Express Building, 9 & 10,
Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, New Delhi-110002. Editorial office: The Indian Express (P) Limited, Mezzanine Floor, Express Building, 9 & 10, Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, New Delhi-110002. Phone: 0120-6651500. Advertising office: The Indian Express (P) Limited, B1/B, Sector - 10,
Noida - 201301. Phone: 0120-6651291. Chairman of the Board: Viveck Goenka, Chief Editor: Raj Kamal Jha, Editor: Unni Rajen Shanker, Editor (Delhi): Rakesh Sinha ** **Responsible for selection of News under the PRB Act. Copyright: The Indian Express (P) Limited. All rights re-
served. Reproduction in any manner, electronic or otherwise, in whole or in part, without prior written permission is prohibited. The Indian Express ®

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