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A mid the continuing stand-
off between
Government and the protesting
his
farmers, demanding rollback of
new farm laws, Prime Minister
Narendra Modi on Tuesday
assured farmers that their land
is “protected” and expressed
confidence that “farmers across
the country” would “teach a
lesson” to the Opposition par-
ties “misleading” them on the
agriculture reforms initiated by
the Centre.
“I am confident that when
the honest intentions and
efforts of Government are
blessed by all farmers across the
country… (then) the strength
of it will defeat those mislead-
ing and making use of farmers
for their own ends,” said the
Prime Minister while inaugu-
rating a project in Kutch,
Gujarat.
Citing example of highly
profitable dairy business in
the Kutch region which he
said is free from any
Government control, the Prime
Minister said Government
likewise “does not intend to
interfere in the agriculture
related business.”
Modi, thereafter, went on
to attack the Opposition which
he said is “misleading farmers
around Delhi that their land
will be taken away by the
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I n an apparent rebuff, India
on Tuesday did not take part
in a high-level bilateral dia-
logue at the diplomatic-level
with Canada claiming that the
date was inconvenient. This
came days after Prime Minister
Justin Trudeau backed the
protesting farmers in
India.
India had termed the
remarks by Trudeau as “unwar-
ranted” and conveyed its dis-
pleasure while issuing a
demarche after summoning
Canadian High Commissioner
to New Delhi. External Affairs
Minister S Jaishankar last week
also pulled out of a Canadian-
led initiative to fight coron-
avirus pandemic.
Jaishankar did not attend
the December 7 meeting
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Launched with much fanfare
by the Narendra Modi
Government, the lateral entry
scheme for senior-level officers
drawn from various professions
and expertise suffered a setback
when one of the nine Joint
Secretaries appointed about a
year ago called it a day and
chose to get back to an MNC
abroad.
Appointed as a Joint
Secretary in the Ministry of
Commerce last year, Arun Goel
has resigned from Government
of India, DoPT sources
said.
While sources close to Goel
said the private executive-
turned bureaucrat left the pow-
erful job after having served for
about a year due too much of
“bureaucratic grind” in the
system, said the Government
sources, adding that he chose
to go back to private sector for
a “fat package”.
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traders”.
“Does any one take away
the buffalo of dairy seller or the
land of a fruit seller if you strike
a contract (business)?” he asked
seeking to dispel “doubts” of the
agitating farmers that the
traders will seize their lands in
new contract system. The
Prime Minister assured farm-
ers that their land will remain
“protected” and asked why
foodgrain producers should
not have a freedom that is avail-
able to those engaged in animal
husbandry?
Modi said in the past farm-
ers have been demanding that
foodgrain production should
be freed from Government
control and Opposition polit-
ical parties too favoured farm
reforms whey they were in
power at the Centre, he said.
“Today same political par-
ties have come together to
mislead farmers...‘kisano ke
kandhon per bandook chalan
rare hain.’ I appeal to the farm-
ers that Government is ready to
remove all their doubts…”, said
the Prime Minister saying his
Government has been working
to increase farmers’ agriculture
produce and the income.
“Those spreading lies will
be defeated by farmers and
taught a lesson,” said Modi.
After the function, the
Prime Minister interacted with
a body of Sikh representatives
organised by Canadian Foreign
Minister Francois-Philippe
Champagne to formulate
strategies to combat the glob-
al pandemic. “Scheduling
issues” were cited as the reason
for Jaishankar for not taking
part in the meet. Incidentally,
he had attended the last meet-
ing in November.
As regards the latest devel-
opment, the diplomatic-evel
talks were to be held between
Riva Ganguly Das, Secretary
(East) and Canadian counter-
part.
Foreign Minister S
Jaishankar had last week
skipped the Ministerial
Coordination Group of Covid-
19 organised by Canadian
Foreign Minister Francois-
Philippe Champagne to for-
mulate strategies on the coro-
navirus pandemic.
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and some farmers in Kutch.
The Prime Minister’s
comments have made it clear
that his Government would not
scrap the new farm laws, which
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W ith talks between farmers
and the Union
Government failing to resolve
the crisis, the protest against the
Centre’s new farm laws looks
set to intensify as farmers hard-
ened stance and said they are
determined to win this fight no
matter what.
Addressing a Press confer-
ence at Singhu border, farmers’
leaders said the fight has
reached a stage where we are
determined to win no matter
what. “We are sure that we will
make the Government repeal
these laws. We are not running
away from negotiation, but the
Government has to pay heed to
our demands and come for-
ward with concrete proposals,”
said Jagjeet Dallewal, a farmer
leader.
Several other farmer lead-
ers also addressed the Press
conference and said they will
completely block the Chilla
Border between Delhi and
Noida on Wednesday to press
for their demands.
The farmers’ leaders also
called upon people to pay trib-
utes on December 20 to those
X]bcPVaP\R^\SPX[h_X^]TTa RNI Regn. No. MPENG/2004/13703, Regd. No.
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is the principal demand of the
farmers, resulting in a deadlock
and escalation of protests on
the outskirts of the Delhi bor-
ders.
farmers who have lost their
lives during the ongoing
protests.
Farmer leader Rishipal said
one farmer has died every day
on an average since the protest
started in the last week of
November.
“A Homage Day
(Shraddhanjali Diwas) for all
the farmers who lost their lives
and became martyrs in the
ongoing protest will be organ-
ised across the country in vil-
lages and tehsil headquarters
on December 20 from 11 am to
1pm,” said another farmer
leader.
Meanwhile, following the
protest, the Delhi Traffic Police
took it on to Twitter and
informed commuters regarding
the traffic closed.
Police said Singhu,
Auchandi, Piau Maniyari,
Sabholi and Manges borders
were closed, and commuters
have been advised to take alter-
native routes via Lampur,
Safiabad and Singhu school toll
tax borders while traffic has
been diverted from Mukarba
and GTK road.
Outer Ring Road, GTK
road and NH-44 can be avoid-
ed, they said.
?X^]TTa?W^c^
BC055A4?>AC4AQ =4F34;78
T he national Capital on
Tuesday witnessed cold
conditions with the icy winds
blowing from snow-covered
western Himalayas bringing
the minimum temperature
down to 4.1 degrees Celsius,
the lowest in the city this sea-
son so far.
The maximum tempera-
ture also dipped to 18.5 degrees
Celsius, more than four notch-
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ing from protest sites near
Delhi borders were killed in
two separate road accidents on
Tuesday while one died of
heart attack. According to
Sanyukt Kisan Morcha, at least
22 farmers have died in the last
20 days. Eight of these farmers
have died in road accidents
while returning to their home
while 12 died of heart attack
and two succumbed to cold.
In the first incident, two
farmers were killed and four
others were injured after a
truck hit their tractor-trolley
near Taraori flyover in Karnal
in the wee hours of Tuesday.
The farmers were returning to
Patiala after participating in the
protest against the farm
laws.
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T he Centre on Tuesday said
the Winter Session of
Parliament will not be held this
year in view of the Covid-19
pandemic and that it will be
appropriate to convene the
Budget Session in January.
This has invited sharp reac-
tions from the main
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from the date of issue of letters
?=BQ
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B ritish Prime Minister Boris
Johnson will be the chief
guest at the Republic Day next
year. Making this announce-
ment here on Tuesday, visiting
British Foreign Secretary
Dominic Raab said Johnson
has accepted India’s very “gen-
erous” invitation to honour
the occasion.
es below normal, said , the
India Meteorological
Department (IMD).
At 4.1 degrees Celsius, the
minimum temperature at
Safdarjung Observatory, which
provides representative data
for the city, was five notches
below normal on Tuesday
morning. At Jafarpur, the mer-
cury dipped to 3.6 degrees
Celsius. The Ayanagar and
Lodhi Road minimum
dropped to 4.2 degrees Celsius.
?=BQ =4F34;78
T he Union Ministry of
Health on Tuesday did not
rule out possibility of an
adverse event following immu-
nisation whenever Covid-19
vaccination programme is
launched and has asked the
States and Union Territories to
strengthen the mechanism at
district level to deal with these.
“Adverse events following
immunisation (AEFI) is a crit-
ical aspect. Even during uni-
versal immunisation pro-
grammes, which have been
going on for decades, some
adverse effects are seen in chil-
dren and pregnant women
after vaccination.
“So, we can’t deny the pos-
sibility of an adverse event
when the Covid-19 vaccination
begins. The countries where
inoculation has already started,
especially in the UK, adverse
events took place on the very
first day. So, it is essential that
States and Union Territories
prepare for this too,” Union
Health Secretar y Rajesh
Bhushan said at a presser here.
The apprehension of AEFI
is realistic given that this is an
adult vaccine. “Our AEFI sys-
tem was targeted to children
and women and those vacci-
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Opposition party Congress.
The Opposition questioned
the motive behind not calling
the Session when elections and
huge public rallies were allowed
and even schools and colleges
have been permitted to be
opened.
In a letter to leader of
Congress in Lok Sabha Adhir
Ranjan Chowdhur y,
Parliamentary Affairs Minister
Prahlad Joshi said, “Winter
months are very crucial for
managing the pandemic
because of recent spurt in cases
during this period, particular-
ly in Delhi. At present, we are
in the middle of December and
BC055A4?>AC4AQ 17>?0;
Avirtual meeting of the
Cabinet held on Tuesday
under the chairmanship of
Chief Minister Shivraj Singh
Chouhan. The Cabinet grant-
ed approval to extend the oper-
ation of Dial 100 scheme with
the pre-contracted firm at the
approved rates of tender in the
contract period for six months
i.e. from 1st April to September
30, 2020 and again for six
months i.e. October 01, 2020 to
March 31, 2021.
The Cabinet granted
approval to amend the Madhya
Pradesh Sand (Mining,
Transportation, Storage and
Trading) Rules 2019. The
amendments will ensure unin-
terrupted supply of sand min-
erals in the state. This will
speed up construction work
and create employment oppor-
tunities for workers. It will
also have an impact on the rev-
enue income of the state gov-
ernment.
According to the amend-
ment, the period of sand min-
ing in the sand mines approved
in the state will be calculated
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nations take place in a certain
way, starting with hospitals
and then into the
communities.
“But when we deal with
adults, certain practical aspects
have to be tackled. Secondly,
these vaccinations are in mul-
tiple new platforms that bring
in complexity. If a EUA (emer-
gency use authorisation) is
given, it calls for more respon-
sibility,” added Dr VK Paul, Niti
Aayog member (Health).
Detailed instructions on
infection prevention and con-
trol practices during vaccina-
tion and management of
minor, severe, serious (AEFI)
have been issued, he said.
Around 29,000 cold chain
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a Covid vaccine is expected
very soon.”
Slamming the Government
for its decision to not hold
Parliament’s Winter Session in
view of Covid-19, the Congress
said the “decimation of
Parliamentary democracy is
of intent in place of the date of
contract. If the contract is not
executed even after having
obtained all the statutory per-
missions by a tenderer of the
sand group, then the security
deposit which deposited by
him as penalty will be seized.
For the approval of miner-
al storage license a radius of 5
km from the mine has been
restricted. After this, the con-
tractor of sand mineral group
and the contractor of sand
mineral authorized by the gov-
ernment can be granted min-
eral storage license outside the
5 km limit and within 8 km
radius from the approved mine
in their favour. Government
departments can be granted
permission for extraction of
sand mineral from the mines of
the sand mineral groups are
vacant in order to ensure sup-
ply of sand minerals in the
works.
The Cabinet has approved
a scheme for recovery of min-
eral revenue pending under the
Department of Mineral
Resources.
Continued on Page 3
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points, 240 walk-in coolers, 70
walk-in freezers, 45,000 ice-
lined refrigerators, 41,000 deep
freezers and 300 solar refrig-
erators will be used to store
Covid-19 vaccines .
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New Delhi: The Supreme
Court on Tuesday expressed
shock after learning the
Gujarat Government collect-
ed around C90 crore in fines
for not wearing face masks,
yet it was not able to enforce
the guidelines on Covid-19-
appropriate behaviour.
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complete” and asked if election
campaigning can be done amid
the pandemic then why can’t
the session be held. Senior
Congress leader and party’s
chief whip in the Rajya Sabha
Jairam Ramesh said Leader of
the Opposition in the Rajya
Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad was
not consulted on the
matter.
Joshi in his communication
to Chowdhury said he had
informally contacted floor lead-
ers of various political parties
and “they have expressed their
concerns about the ongoing
pandemic and opined of doing
away with winter session”.
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BC055A4?>AC4AQ 17>?0;
C hief Minister Shivraj Singh
Chouhan has said that the
ministers should also give pace
to the activities of the
Corporations, Boards attached
to their departments. Schemes
should be implemented on
time in the interest of the
common man. They must keep
a constant watch over the activ-
ities of their departments. They
must work hard day and night
to fulfil the goal of
Atmanirbhar Madhya Pradesh.
Chouhan was addressing
the Cabinet members today
through a video conference
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BC055A4?>AC4AQ 17>?0;
T he orientation programme
of first batch of Public
Relations officers of MP
Government concluded today
in Makhanlal Chaturvedi
National University of
Journalism and
Communication, Bhopal. In
the valedictory function,
Director, Public Relations,
Ashutosh Pratap Singh said a
public relations officer must be
updated with changing media
technology and trends and
update his or her skills as per
the requirements.
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T B
A collection of fiction and
non-fiction books was
launched at Swami
Vivekananda Library.
A new collection of books
suggested by the members in
the Swami Vivekananda
Library and a collection of
new books in the Swami
Vivekananda Library is put up
every Monday.
In this collection, subjects
like Business, Political Science,
Research Methodology,
Mythology, Health, Economics
have been included.
Swami Vivekananda
Library manager Yatish Bhatele
told that every week new books
are launched in the library.
Library members can reserve
these books. This collection is
being launched in view of the
increasing interest in non-fic-
tion. Members can reserve
them and members will issue
on next Saturday. The library
has new books / DVD releas-
es every Monday and English
books are included in this col-
lection.
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from Mantralaya. Before the
Cabinet meeting, Chief
Minister Chouhan told the
ministers to hold discussions
about the benefits of the new
agricultural laws during their
tours, interaction with the pub-
lic, meetings and programmes.
All sections along with farmers,
should be informed about the
significant steps taken through
the new agricultural laws
towards the economic devel-
opment of the country.
Chouhan described the
action taken in the New
Farmers (Empowerment and
Protection) Agreement on
Price Assurance and Services
Act, 2020 to provide the high-
est value of paddy to farmers in
Hoshangabad district as ideal
and hoped that such steps are
taken in other districts also.
The details of the provisions of
these laws made for improving
the economic condition of
farmers should also be made
available to the public. For
Twitter has been a major
platform to redress public griev-
ances. He also called upon pub-
lic relations officers for blogging.
Chairing the session, Vice
Chancellor Prof KG Suresh said
the orientation programme was
a forum for idea exchange.
Human interest stories related
with success of government
programmes can be placed in
media. Third party endorsement
should be made in press releas-
es. The Vice Chancellor said that
the University will develop a
training centre for public rela-
tions officers of not only Madhya
Pradesh but across the country,
VHL]HVLOOHJDOOLTXRUZRUWKC/
The books like Heart Less
Author Marissa Mayer, Fact
fruit ness author swan rolling,
Love and other thoughts exper-
iments author Sophie Ward,
One Hundred Years of Solicit
Author Gabriel Garcia, The
Over Story Author Richard
Powers, The End of Time
Author Julian Barbour, The
Cuckoos Calling Author
Robert Galbraith, The Old
Scene Author named Serpall,
The End of Loneliness Author
Benedict Wells, The Haunting
of Hill House Author Shirley
Jackson, The Exorcist author
William Peter Blatti and more
are included in this collection.
It is noteworthy that this
collection also contains books
suggested by the members.
These books will be on display
in the library for a week. Yatish
Bhatele told that Swami
Vivekananda Library has start-
ed a new facility for the mem-
bers. If a book is not in the
library's collection, then a
library member can suggest
that book. The library will
include a book suggested by the
library members.
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this, the ministers should take
the lead and complete this
work.
The Chief Minister
informed that on December 18,
relief amount will be trans-
ferred in the accounts of farm-
ers across the state. The relief
amount for the loss of soyabean
at its new campus.
Before the valedictory
function, experts of different
fields addressed sessions, and
interacted with participants.
Joint director (news) of
Doordarshan centre Bhopal,
Puja P Vardhan, Editor of
Bansal News Sharad Dwivedi,
Director and Founder of
GreyMatters Communication
Navneet Anand, HoD of New
Media Technology Department
Prof P Sasikala, former DG of
Doordarshan Veena Jain, Dean
of Jagran Lake City University
Diwakar Shukla addressed the
sessions.
BC055A4?>AC4AQ 17>?0;
he Bhopalites enjoyed the
calm devotional Bhakti
Sangeet and folk music on
Tuesday at Madhya Pradesh
State Tribal Museum. The per-
formances were held under
Gamak series.
Saras Katha spokesperson
Guru Prasanna Das (Satna)
performed 'Bhakti Sangeet' and
Dharam Singh Barkade
Dindori performed Gond trib-
al 'Bana Vadan-Gaon'.
The presentation com-
menced with devotional music
by Guruprasandas and associ-
ates, in which after the first
Ganesha Vandana, the four-
footers of Shri Ram
Charitmanas and the satsang
"WT[SU^aZXS]P__X]VaP_X]V"ha^[SVXa[U^a !SPhb
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C hhola Mandir police have
booked three miscreants
for kidnapping and sexually
assaulting a 30-year-old girl for
the past 12 days at Prem Nagar;
accused practices witchcraft
and victim used to visit seek-
ing solution to problems.
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crops and other crop losses will
also be included this year in
this in addition to the previous
arrears. Rs 1600 crore are also
being deposited in the accounts
of 35.50 lakh farmers of the
state.
Chouhan said that he him-
self will transfer the amount in
BC055A4?>AC4AQ 17>?0;
M e Ki Gai, a page-turner
fictional novel, authored
by serial entrepreneur Atul
Khekade, shares the tale of a
young man discovering 'ikigai',
happiness, love, and riches.
Ikigai is a Japanese concept
about the reason for
being.
Atul Khekade is a writer,
Financier, and Entrepreneur. As
a serial entrepreneur, Atul has
built a global distribution sys-
tem for Air Charter Industry
and an executive education
platform. Atul has led a start-
up to build a fraud prevention
system in the Banking and
without any creature, Sadgati
mati paana kya jane Look, do
not believe in Nayanva, nor do
you offer hymns like
Ghanshyam to you, and you are
awakened by boat boat
Guru Prasnandas from the
age of about eleven years, aban-
doned the family life from
Mahant Ram Bhushan Das and
took initiation of the saint and
received education up to
Acharya in Sanskrit. You have
been staging Ram Katha,
Bhagwat Katha recitation and
Ramlila at international level for
almost thirty five years.
In the presentation he was
accompanied by Nagendra
Pandey and Ghanshyam on
tabla, Yogesh Pandey on violin,
Vivek Tiwari on keyboard and
According to the police, the
victim was sexually assaulted
by the accused Shyamlal who
used to practice witchcraft in
Om Nagar basti and he along
with Teju and Vijay kidnapped
and sexually assaulted the vic-
tim.
The victim came into con-
tact with the accused after one
Vidisha. In the remaining dis-
tricts, ministers will take part
in these programmes. The
Chief Minister’s Office and the
Agriculture Minister are decid-
ing in coordination for the
ministers to go to the districts.
Local MLAs and MPs will also
join the programme and
express their views.
Chouhan said that many
important instructions have
been given to senior officials in
public interest at the collector
commissioner’s conference
held this month. This mantra
has been implemented while
tightening the administration,
for public welfare.
A similar conference will
be held again on January 4 in
which the concerned ministers
will also be present during the
discussion of the particular
department.
The Minister should also
ensure that action is taken in
terms of points of discussion of
the department.
?X^]TTa?W^c^
Ratnesh Tiwari on Manjire.
The second performance
was given by Dharam Singh
Barkade and fellow, Dindori
from a Gond tribal narrative
focusing on Raja Heera Khan
by singing it through the tra-
ditional musical instrument
Bana.
The chronological history
of the Gond tribe of Madhya
Pradesh has preserved con-
sciousness and form as
Gondwana for centuries. In
this, the singing singer Gond
has been reciting the fame and
fame of his deities and char-
tered heroes. Along with their
livelihood, these singer-players
have been playing the role of
preserving their memory and
transferring it to generations.
of her neighbour shared details
and victim who was facing
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ilkharia police has nabbed a
miscreant from Gairatganj
forest area and recovered illegally
transported 132 bottles of liquor
worth Rs 1.1 lakh on Monday
carried in a car; one woman
escaped spot. According to the
police when a car was signalled
to stop a woman jumped from
the car and escaped while driver
was nabbed by police who was
identified as Maharaj Singh alias
Chotu(29). In the initial investi-
gation when the was searched,
132 bottles of liquor were recov-
ered from the car.
The nabbed accused
revealed that the escaped woman
was Susheela Bai who is involved
financial issues and wished to
become rich started to visit the
accused. During the visit
accused started to like her and
with the help of Teju kid-
napped her and kept her at
Prem Nagar in Chhola Mandir
area later she was raped twice
by accused Shyamlal while
Vijay used to keep an eye on
8Q^T\__]=U\Q" "
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BC055A4?>AC4AQ 17>?0;
A handloom exhibition cum
sale ‘Handloom Mela 2020’
is evoking a good response by the
shopaholics of the city.
From traditional to new
trends all are available at the
handloom exhibition cum sale.
The exhibition cum sale is being
put up at Gauhar Mahal. The
exhibition is all about handicraft
and handloom material and will
continue till December 25.
Bhopalites are enjoying
exploring and having a look at
the colourful and fizzy shades of
the State. Other than the most
renowned dress materials of the
State i.e. Chanderi and
Maheshwari, one could find the
huge collection of handloom
materials made up of jute, paper-
mache and much more.
Besides, ladies’ stuff is a
major part of this exotic shop-
ping fair. As women love to buy
Finance industry. In the years
to come, Atul plans to work
close to the grassroots level to
ensure Fintech/Blockchain-
based banking reaches every
person in the world enabling
financial freedom.
"As a first-generation
entrepreneur, I have had my
own share of struggles. Though
there are some books on ikigai,
they make it look like it's some
sort of a quick fix or magical
wizard that can change your life
suddenly.
Finding one's free flow is
more like a journey. My book
'Me Ki Gai' presents this con-
cept in the form of a fiction
novel," said Atul
in drug peddling and trans-
porting of liquor illegally.
Police said that the accused
carrying liquor failed to produce
licence regarding the liquor. The
source from which the two have
obtained the liquor and where it
was scheduled to be delivered
would be revealed after the
absconding woman would be
nabbed as she was aware of the
delivery of liquor.
Susheela hired Chotu and
took him to Gairatganj and
loaded liquor provided by a
man and was on her way when
they were spotted by police and
liquor was seized. A case under
section 34 (2) of the Excise Act
was registered and further inves-
tigation has been started.
the victim.
On Monday victim man-
aged to escaped and reached
her home informed the fami-
ly members and lodged com-
plaint with the police.
Based on the complaint
and after the preliminary inves-
tigation, the police have regis-
tered a case under sections 376
?X^]TTa_W^c^
stuff for their houses they could
not only buy decorative items
but, imitation jewellery for them-
selves. The mela also shares a
major collection of dress mate-
rials, enthralling the ladies. The
stalls of household decoration
would captivate a big crowd at
the spot. Dress materials embed-
ded with zari zardozi, lucknowi
chicken, mulberry silk and more
could be explored at the mela.
One could find a wonderful
collection been designed in dif-
ferent patterns and prints. There
are printed materials beautiful-
ly embroidered with Batik Print,
Dabu Print, Hand-Block Print
and one of the most renowned
and loved in all seasons, Bagh
Print there.
A variety of decorative items
like rugs, carpets, imitation jew-
ellery, dress materials, ladies
hand-bags, metal crafts, bamboo
showpieces and sculptures of
metal are also on display.
Khekade.
The book gives us a clear
vision of what we really want to
do in life, whether a person will
be happy doing it, whether
there is a commercial scope.
One can get to know them by
connecting to a higher-level
consciousness.
This can be self-realization
or conversation with an exter-
nal person who has explored
that depth in life. In some cases,
it can be a godlike person cre-
ated through a figment of one's
imagination, or maybe the god
itself depending on what the
person believes in and what
works in the case of that indi-
vidual.
The accused were carrying
liquor over a scooter bearing reg-
istration number MP04CS4896
which was seized and details of
which would be investigated as
the car belongs to a private ser-
vice provider.
Meanwhile, the Gautam
Nagar police has nabbed a drug
peddler near Nariyalkheda
square and recovered Cannabis
worth Rs 50,000 from his pos-
session; police have registered
case and started investigation.
Police said that acting on a tip-
off regarding a man carrying
drugs was nabbed near
Nariyalkheda square and when
he was searched 5 kg of Cannabis
was recovered from his posses-
sion.
and 506 of the IPC.
After the complaint was
lodged, the police registered a
case. At the time of filing this
report, all the three accused
were on run. Police suspects
that Shyamlal have exploited
other victim devotees who
would visit her seeking help to
resolve their problems.

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T earing into the Bharatiya
Janata Party (BJP) over the
farmers’ protest, the Shiromani
Akali Dal president Sukhbir
Singh Badal on Tuesday
accused party’s former ally of
being “the real tukde-tukde
gang” and destroying the
national unity by maliciously
“pushing patriotic Punjab into
communal flames” for political
gain.
“BJP is the real ‘tukde-
tukde’ gang in the country
today. It has been splitting the
country into pieces by setting
one community against anoth-
er. So desperate it is for power
and has no scruples about tak-
ing the communal polarization
route and setting the country
on communal flames,” he said
while talking to the mediaper-
sons at Bathinda.
Sukhbir said: “The BJP
first set the Hindus against the
Muslims. Now, it is determined
to replay that evil game and re-
enact the same tragedy in
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T he crime branch police of
Bhopal has nabbed two
miscreants near Lalghati when
accused was doing recce on
Monday; accused confessed
committing four robberies and
1 burglary in past one month,
valuables worth Rs 3.1 lakh
were recovered from his pos-
session.
Police said that acting on a
tip off miscreant was who was
doing recce at Lalghati area and
when he quizzed robberies
and burglary was confessed by
him.
The accused identified as
Abhishek alias Karan Malviya
of Bihari Colony. Accused is an
automobile mechanic and to
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T he contagious pandemic
Covid-19 has so far taken
a toll on the lives of 1373 peo-
ple in Uttarakhand. On
Tuesday, the state health
department reported the death
of 11 patients of the disease.
The department also reported
496 fresh cases of the disease on
the day which increased the
tally of the patients of the dis-
4>FPaaTbcb[^P]PVT]cU^a >A 4RSZ_Ve in force till January 31, 2021. If
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From Page 1
has provided
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T he Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Delhi Police has arrest-
ed a 66 year-old loan agent for allegedly siphoning of public
money. The accused has been identified as Gayase Ram, a resident
of Mukhmail Pur in Delhi and he was loan agent of Delhi Nagrik
Sehkari Bank Limited (DNSBL). According to Dr O P Mishra, the
Joint Commissioner of Police, EOW, the complainant Rajiv Gupta
of DNSBL alleged that one Rajbir Singh obtained loan of Rs. 4.5
lakh from their Lajpat Nagar branch on the basis of forged and fab-
ricated documents of the property. “Further the ITR of surety Dinesh
Kumar and salary slip of another surety Ishwar Singh were found
to be forged. The accused Gayase Ram being loan agent facilitated
other accused persons for obtaining loan from DNSBL by filing
forged and fabricated document of property and ITR record with
loan application,” alleged the complainant.
Punjab also. It is conspiring to
set our peace-loving Hindu
brethren in Punjab against
their Sikh brethren with whom
they have shared strong bonds
of blood for centuries. The BJP
wants to replace those bonds of
blood with bloodshed.”
Continuing to train guns at
the BJP, he said that the saffron
party has been resorting to
dangerous conspiracies to sab-
otage the hard-earned atmos-
phere of peace and communal
harmony just for the realization
of petty political goals. “BJP
leadership must realize that
their party today has become
the most powerful divisive
force. It has been resorting to
dividing the country and its
people by spreading hatred in
the name of religion,” he said.
Referring to the ongoing
farmers' movement, Sukhbir
said that the whole country,
except that BJP, gratefully
acknowledges the debt which we
owe to our patriotic farmers and
soldiers. “The BJP is provoking
the people to deny that debt. It
7_fdd_`b_fYTUQccYcdQ^SUd_
repay borrowed money he
started to commit robberies
and burglary.
Later, in the investigation
the accused confessed three
robberies in Koh-e-Fiza and
one in Gandhi Nagar area.
One burglary was committed
in Koh-e-Fiza area.
Police have recovered four
mobile phones, one purse, Rs
10000 cash, one motorbike
and one scooter worth Rs 3.10
lakh.
Meanwhile, a 22-year-old
married woman was robbed of
her purse carrying mobile
phone, cash and documents
near Data Colony under Koh-
e-Fiza police station area late in
the night on Monday.
According to the police
ease to 83502. The authorities
discharged 534 patients from
different hospitals of the state
following their recovery on
Tuesday. A total of 75049
patients have so far recovered
from the disease and the recov-
ery percentage now stands at
89.88 percent.
Two patients of Covid-19
each were reported dead at
Sushila Tiwari government
hospital Haldwani, Mahant
Indiresh hospital and the
Kailash hospital Dehradun on
Tuesday. One patient each suc-
cumbed at Himalayan hospital,
Synergy hospital Dehradun,
HNB base hospital Srinagar,
Jaya Maxwell hospital and
believes only in emotionally
exploiting the farmers’ sacrifices
but remains so ungrateful to
them that it is painting them as
anti-national,” he said.
“Today, it is the farmers.
Nobody knows what the BJP
might say even about soldiers
tomorrow if it suits that party.
The farmers are hurt and angry
against the BJP and not against
the Government,” he said.
Later, in a statement issued
from the party headquarters in
Chandigarh, Sukhbir said:
“SAD deems its national duty to
caution the countrymen against
BJP’s desperate and destructive
game-plan in Punjab.”
“This party is desperate for
power that it has no qualms
about making Punjabis thirst
for one another’s blood and
destroy the fabric of unity and
fraternal love which has been
bequeathed to us by the great
Guru Sahiban and by great
saints and seers like Kabir
Sahib, Baba Farid , Jaidev ,
Namdev and others,” he
added.
?X^]TTa?W^c^
the victim Yasmeen was robbed
while she was on her way back
to home with her husband
Ubed.
A complaint was lodged by
the victim with the police and
in her complaint she stated that
when she reached near Data
Colony she was attacked by
bike borne miscreant and
robbed her bag carrying a
mobile phone, Rs 700 cash and
documents.
The incident took place at
around 11.30 pm. The victim
and her husband were not able
to notice the registration num-
ber of the motorbike of mis-
creant. The police have regis-
tered a case under section 392
of the IPC and have started fur-
ther investigation.
District hospital Rudraprayag.
The authorities reported
177 new patients of the disease
from Dehradun, 104 from
Nainital, 60 from Pithoragarh,
25 from Udham Singh Nagar,
24 from Uttarkashi, 18 from
Haridwar, 17 each from
Chamoli and Pauri, 16 from
Almora, 13 each from
Champawat and Tehri, eight
from Bageshwar and four from
Rudraprayag. Out of 524
patients discharged, 140 are
from Dehradun, 77 from
Nainital, 61 from Pithoragarh,
57 from Haridwar, 43 from
Almora, 40 from Pauri, 32
from Udham Singh Nagar, 21
from Champawat, 19 from
rebate on interest in pending
mineral revenue of the year
1960-61 to 2009-10. Similarly,
the entire interest in the out-
standing amount of Rs 5 lakh
from the year 2010-11 to the year
2017-18 has been exempted. As
much as 18 percent exemption
has been given on the interest in
the pending amount of Rs 5 lakh
to more than Rs 1 crore in this
period.After the rebate, recovery
of Rs 45.14 crore with interest
against the original outstanding
amount of Rs 43.81 crore will be
ensured. The scheme will remain
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W orld develops with time,
but never changes for
women. Women are exploited
even today, just the methods
have changed," said the ace
actor of Bollywood Annu
Kapoor.
The actor was in Bhopal on
Tuesday to talk about his
upcoming web series
Purushpur. Known for his bril-
liant work in movies like
Tezaab, Vicky Donor, Jolly LLB
2 and many more, the actor will
now be spreading his charm in
the upcoming web series
'Purushpur'.
Talking about the series,
Annu Kapoor said, "Women
have been exploited for cen-
turies and even are exploited
today, just the methods of bus
exploitation have changed. Our
upcoming web series
'Pauruspur' is also based on the
exploitation of women."
He said that Purushpur
will unveil the topics like love,
lust, blood-soaked swords,
royal vengeance, patriarchy
and power fight and gender
struggle. "Wonderful dialogues,
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C hilling cold conditions pre-
vailed after rainfall faded
away in the past 24 hours in the
state capital, foggy conditions
were witnessed in early morn-
ing hours while difference in
day and night temperatures
increased on Monday.
Apart from the state capi-
tal weather conditions of other
parts of the state remained
unchanged. The temperatures
have reported steep dip and
trend would continue in the
?=BQ 270=3860A7
P unjab’s four farmers, who
were returning from the
protest sites near Delhi borders,
were killed in two separate road
accidents on Tuesday, while
another one died of a heart
attack in Delhi.As the number
of farmers dying during the
protest increasing with each
passing day, Punjab Chief
Minister Capt Amarinder
Singh on Tuesday assured assis-
tance to the families of the
deceased farmers.
In the first incident, two
farmers from Patiala were
killed early morning after their
tractor-trolley was hit by a
Tehri, 15 from Rudraprayag
and five from Uttarkashi.
The state now has 6089
active cases of the disease.
Dehradun is maintaining its
lead at top of the table of
active cases with 1897 cases
while with 834 active cases
Nainital is at second spot.
Haridwar is at third spot with
517 active cases. Pithoragarh
has 434, Pauri 389, Almora 349,
Chamoli 327, Tehri 319,
Udham Singh Nagar 293,
Uttarkashi 260, Bageshwar 191
and Rudraprayag 146 active
cases of the disease. With 133
active cases of Covid-19,
Champawat is at the bottom of
the table
a court case against the mineral
dues is prevalent, then the
amount can be withdrawn if the
amount is deposited under this
scheme. Recovery of pending
dues will be ensured from the
scheme.The Cabinet has grant-
ed approval for MoU between
state government and the
Government of India for the
implementation of the light
house project under the Pradhan
Mantri Awas Yojana Urban. In
addition, according to the pro-
posal presented by Indore
Municipal Corporation, the state
government has approved to
provide a sum of Rs 10.24 crore
on the basis of contribution of Rs
one lakh per house. The Ministry
1A845
=^cTSPRc^a0]]d:P_dacP[ZX]Vc^\TSXP_Tab^]bX]1W^_P[^]CdTbSPh
brilliant sets and the questions
being raised on society are the
USP of this web series," he
said.
Talking about the movies,
he said, "The cinema will return
to its charm soon. As soon as
we will overcome this pan-
demic the movies will be back
in theatres." He further said,
"It's not that the web series has
overtaken the film world, but
it is the new wave of enter-
tainment."
About censorship, Annu
next 3-4 days.
Met department has issued
warning of shallow to moder-
ate fog in Chambal division,
Raisen, Bhopal, Ujjain,
Shajapur, Guna, Ashoknagar,
Gwalior, while Jabalpur and
Chattarpur districts would
witness moderate to dense fog.
The forecast of rainfall and
thunder showers have been
made for Bhopal, Rewa divi-
sions and Dhar, Ujjain, Betul,
Shajapur, Agar, Guna,
Annuppur, Katni, Mandla,
Damoh and Sagar districts.
Rainfall has been witnessed in
Katni which recorded 2 cm of
rainfall while Damoh, Gadakota
and Kewlari recorded 1 cm of
rainfall in the past 24 hours.
The Met department told
truck in Haryana’s Karnal dis-
trict. In the accident, which
took place on Taraori flyover in
Karnal, a third farmer was
seriously injured while some
others sitting on the trolley
escaped with minor injuries.
Taraori police station’s
SHO Inspector Sachin said
that the two deceased were
aged around 24 years and 50
years respectively.Police further
said that one of the farmers,
travelling in the tractor trolley,
told them that the truck driver
appeared to have fallen asleep
behind the wheels which led to
the accident.The truck driver
managed to flee from the spot,
said the police, adding that a
case under relevant provisions
of law has been registered in
connection with the incident.
The farmers, who were
returning from Delhi, belonged
?=BQ 347A03D=
T he Covid-19 pandemic has
been like a churning out of
which both poison and nectar
have emerged. It has also taught
many that one basically needs
three things- getting back to
parents/family, essential com-
modities like food and clothes,
and a WiFi connection to stay
in touch with the world. Noted
actor Anupam Kher said this
after releasing his book ‘Your
Best Day is Today!’ at the
Natraj Bookshop here on
Tuesday. He said that this was
the first occasion when he was
physically releasing his third
book anywhere and had chosen
of Housing and Urban Affairs
has designed a light house pro-
ject under the Global Housing
Technology Challenge to pro-
mote new building construction
techniques under the Pradhan
Mantri Awas Yojana Urban. Its
objective is to complete projects
in minimum time using new
innovative manufacturing tech-
niques and to promote these
technologies for future use. As
many as 22 towns of 14 states
took part in the scheme. Out of
these, Indore city has been select-
ed from the state in total six cities
in the country. About 1024
E.W.S. houses with pre-fabricat-
ed sandwich panel system tech-
nology will be constructed in the
project.
?X^]TTa?W^c^
Kapoor said, "Censorship on
the OTT platform is a matter
under consideration. Self-con-
trol is more important than
censorship. There has been
too much obscenity."
On asking about
Purushpur, he said, "Bhopal has
never been governed by such
cruel leaders and this web
series has no connection with
Bhopal." Annu Kapoor was
born in Bhopal. He has been
working in the industry for
more than 30 years .
that in the next two days night
temperatures might dip by 4 to
6 degree Celsius which would
be a significant fall in the sea-
son and create extreme cold
conditions in the state. Gwalior
was the coldest place in state
recording night temperature at
10 degree Celsius.
A Western Disturbance is
over North Pakistan and
adjoining areas while cyclonic
circulation. exists over the cen-
tral parts of the South Arabian
Sea and the adjoining area of
the Central Arabian Sea, a
trough existing from south-east
Madhya Pradesh through
south-central Arabian Sea and
far Maharashtra coast up to
southwest Madhya Pradesh has
lost its intensity.
to Saphera under Sadar Police
station in Patiala.
In another road mishap,
two more farmers from Punjab
died while seven others were
injured when their vehicle col-
lided with a truck near
Bhagomajra in Mohali on
Tuesday.The police officials
said that deceased Deep Singh
was a resident of Mohali district
while Sukhdev Singh Dadiana
was a native of Fatehgarh Sahib
district.
Out of the injured farmers,
four, who were wounded seri-
ously, have been referred to the
Post Graduate Institute of
Medical Education and
Research (PGIMER) and a
government hospital in
Chandigarh, said the officials,
adding that the three others
were admitted to a hospital in
Mohali.
the oldest bookshop in
Dehradun for this purpose.
Speaking about the book
he said, “I learnt about the pan-
demic when I flew back from
New York to Mumbai on
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caPX]X]VfX[[QTUaTT^UR^bc4]VX]TTaX]VbcdST]cbfX[[Y^X]cWTcaPX]X]V
f^aZbW^_^]3TRT\QTa 'P]S?^[hcTRW]XRbcdST]cb^]3TRT\QTa (
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Tg_aTbbTSWXbR^]S^[T]RTb^eTacWTST\XbT^U?PcT[;PcTAPYZd\Pa
<P[eXhPYX?X_[XhPfP[T2WXTU<X]XbcTa2W^dWP]\TccWT\T\QTab^U
cWTQTaTPeTSUP\X[h7T^UUTaTSU[^fTab^]cWT_^acaPXc^U<P[eXhPP]S
_PXSW^\PVT
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TQicQW_^QRRUT
BC055A4?>AC4AQ 17>?0; the same. The two had a fight
three years ago and from then
G autam Nagar police have
nabbed two miscreants
who opened fire at 30-year-old
accused was pressurising the
victim.
On the day of incident
victim at Indra Sahayta Nagar
three days ago; victim escaped
accused opened fire at the vic-
tim in which he was injured in
with bullet injury in the attack, his leg. A case under sections
police have seized pistol and
scooter used in the attack.
307 and 34 of the IPC and in
the investigation police arrest-
Police nabbed Aftab Ali ed the two accused and recov-
alias Sonu and Waqar Ullah ered firearm used in the crime.
who opened fire at Sadiq Ali in In the investigation it was
which Sadiq escaped with
injuries. The two are cousins
have old enmity over property
found that the accused attacked
with the intention to kill but
victim managed to escape the
and after the dispute was not attack and got injured. The
settled amicably accused father of main accused Sonu
attacked to kill the victim in was a notorious criminal Irfan
which victim escaped the Baccha.
attack. The police would investi-
SHO of Gautam Nagar gate details of procurement of
police MK Mishra said that the firearm and people who have
victim used to run a shop and help accused during abscond-
accused who is cousin of the ing. Police have recovered red
victim wanted share in the coloured scooter which was not
shop and demanded money for having registration number.
VQ]Y\YUc_VTUSUQcUTVQb]Ubc
Chief Minister Capt
Amarinder Singh, expressing
Amarinder said: “Punjab
Government will provide all
grief over the death of five
farmers, said that the State
Government will provide assis-
due assistance to the families of
deceased farmers as well as take
care of treatment of all the
tance to the families of injured (sic)”.
deceased farmers as well as take Meanwhile, the farmers’
care of treatment of all the organizations on Tuesday
injured. announced that tributes would
“Saddened to learn of be paid on December 20 to the
demise of our five farmers. farmers who lost their lives
Labh Singh Ji and Gurpreet during the farmers’ agitation.
Singh of Patiala met with an “On December 20, from 11 am
accident in Karnal, Sukhdev to 1 pm, in all the villages of the
Singh and Deep Singh of country, tributes would be paid
Fatehgarh Sahib near Mohali, to the farmers who were mar-
and Makkhan Khan of Moga tyred during the agitation,”
who died of a heart attack in said a farmers’ leader address-
Delhi (sic),” he said in a tweet. ing the media at
In a related tweet, Capt New Delhi.
to be in after returning changed
the scenario. I am basically an
optimistic person and see a ray
of hope in even the worst sit-
uations. A few days into my
quarantine in Mumbai, I heard
birds chirping and on hearing
a koel I whistled back in reply.
The birds chirping and a clear
blue sky were something sel-
dom
Mumbai.”
experienced in
Kher further opined that
with their arrogant ways,
March 20 and saw the fear of humans had spread mayhem in
an invisible disease in the peo- the world. “However, during
ple. In my 36 years as an actor the pandemic even death
I have never taken a holiday became a figure sans feelings.
from work but the Covid pan- In my experience it removed
demic and the quarantine I had the fear of death.
17>?0; kF43=4B30H k3424<14A %!! ]PcX^]#
4`gZUTRdVdUVReYd 43UX[TbRWPaVTbWTTc ?d]YPQ7PahP]P7?9:X]Rda[^bb
`_eYVhR_VZ_:_UZR PVPX]bc7XaPZ1X^cTRW
;cSd]STa?<;0
?=BQ =4F34;78
T he Government on Tuesday
said that Covid-19 cases
and deaths are declining in
India which is “a very reassur-
ing trend”, but cautioned the
citizens not to let their guard
down as an overwhelming pro-
portion of the country’s popu-
lation is still “very very sus-
ceptible” to the virus and the
situation may escalate unex-
pectedly.
“While there is a continu-
ous increasing trend in Covid-
19 cases and deaths globally,
particularly in America and
Europe and the situation in the
world is becoming worrisome,
in contrast the scene in India
is satisfying as the cases and
deaths are declining,” Dr V K
Paul, member (health) at NITI
Aayog, said at a presser here.
More than 94 lakh patients
have recovered from Covid-19
in the country, while present-
ly there are only about 3.4 lakhs
active cases and it is declining
further.
“Mortality is declining and
it is well below 400 per day.
5^a6^ecRa^]hRP_XcP[Xbcb³QTbcUaXT]Sb´ 5XabcbTbbX^]^U944 0]PT\XPR^]cX]dTbc^QT\PY^a
_a^cTbcX]VUPa\Tab:WP[XbcP]Xb)APWd[ <PX]bc^cPZT_[PRT R^]RTa]P\^]Vf^\T]RWX[SaT]
?=BQ =4F34;78
F ormer Congress president
Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday
alleged that for the Modi
Government, crony capitalists
are “best friends” and protest-
ing farmers are Khalistanis.
His attack on the Government
comes at a time when thou-
sands of farmers have been
protesting for more than two
weeks on the borders of Delhi,
demanding withdrawal of three
new farm laws.
“For Modi Govt:
Dissenting students are anti-
nationals. Concerned citizens
are urban naxals. Migrant
labourers are Covid carriers.
Rape victims are nobody.
Protesting farmers are
Khalistani. And crony capital-
ists are best friends,” Rahul
Gandhi said in a tweet.
Farmers are protesting
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_aX]RT[hBcPcTbfXcW8]SXPfX[[
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?C8Q =4F34;78
V ice President M Venkaiah
Naidu on Tuesday paid
tributes to India’s first home
minister Sardar Vallabhbhai
Patel on his death anniversary,
saying his unparalleled effort in
integrating more than 560
princely States with the Indian
Union will forever inspire every
citizen.
Patel is credited with uni-
fying hundreds of princely
states with the Union of India
following independence
through a mix of persuasion,
dialogue and even use of force
^UC"$RaSPhSdTc^UPa\Tab´bcXa
Cases have come down to
almost 22,000. This is the kind
of number we all experienced
in July. So that is very reassur-
ing. As a nation, we seem to be
now doing very well.
“We are saving lives. But
remember, this cannot be taken
for granted. An overwhelming
proportion of our population is
still very very susceptible to the
virus. And the situation can
escalate unexpectedly,” Paul
said while cautioning against
any laxity.
He further said the reas-
suring thing is that people are
saying the R0 has come below
one which means the pan-
demic is shrinking. “So we
should be happy about that but
cautiously happy,” he said as he
added that “looking at the pre-
sent global scenario, a second
or third peak may occur in
India, though it is impossible to
do a definite prediction.”
Dr Paul specially men-
tioned that Uttarakhand,
Nagaland and Himachal
Pradesh have a high proportion
of cases that needs to be con-
trolled.
against the Farmers
(Empowerment and
Protection) Agreement of Price
Assurance and Farm Services
Act, Farmers Produce Trade
and Commerce (Promotion
and Facilitation) Act, and the
Essential
(Amendment) Act.
Commodities
Enacted in September, the
three farm laws have been pro-
jected by the Central
Government as major reforms
in the agriculture sector that
will remove the middlemen
and allow farmers to sell any-
where in the country.
However, the protesting
farmers have expressed appre-
hension that the new laws
would pave the way for elimi-
nating the safety cushion of
Minimum Support Price and
do away with the mandi sys-
tem, leaving them at the mercy
of big corporates.
Senior Congress leader and
a former Finance Minister, P
Chidambaram, asked the gov-
ernment to repeal the new
agri laws, which have sparked
protest by farmers, and bring in
a fresh bill after reaching an
agreement with the agitating
peasants. The farmers’ agitation
against the three agriculture
laws has reached almost a
?PcT[XbRaTSXcTSfXcW
d]XUhX]VWd]SaTSb^U
_aX]RT[hbcPcTbfXcW
cWTD]X^]^U8]SXP
U^[[^fX]V
X]ST_T]ST]RT
cWa^dVWP\Xg^U
_TabdPbX^]SXP[^VdT
P]STeT]dbT^U
U^aRTfWT]aT`dXaTS
when required.
“My humble tributes to
the leader I admire most — the
Iron Man of India, Sardar
Vallabhbhai Patel —on his
death anniversary. His contri-
bution to the Indian freedom
struggle and his unparalleled
effort in integrating more than
560 princely states with the
Indian
Union will forever inspire
every Indian,” the vice presi-
dent secretariat tweeted quot-
ing Naidu.
Noting that Delhi has
made progress, he said, “We
congratulate the Delhi
Government as also all the
other governments who have
done so well in contributing
towards such a significant con-
trol (in cases) in recent times.”
Dr Paul, however,
expressed concern over the
Covid-19 situation in some
states like Uttarakhand,
Nagaland and Himachal
Pradesh and stated all efforts to
control the spread are being
made in collaboration with
these governments.
Union Health Secretary
Rajesh Bhushan said that more
than 15.55 crore tests have
been conducted so far for
detection of coronavirus infec-
tion in the country, and the
cumulative positivity rate has
declined to 6.37 while the aver-
age daily positivity rate during
last week was 3.00 per cent.
India’s Case Fatality Rate
(CFR) is also among the low-
est in the world. At present,
India’s CFR is 1.45 per cent,
whereas globally it is 2.26 per
cent, Bhushan said.
month, with many of them sit-
ting in the cold and blocking
traffic on the national highways
around Delhi.
“Government should climb
down from its high horse and
reach an agreement with the
farmers quickly,”
Chidambaram said on Twitter.
“The simple way forward is to
Repeal the present laws and Re-
enact a new law based on the
agreement. Repeal and Re-
enactment is a well-known
legislative tool,” he also said.
The former finance minis-
ter said it is obvious that any
agreement between farmers
and the government will nec-
essarily require a new bill to be
passed by Parliament. “It is
shocking that after 20 days of
farmers’ protests in the bitter
winter of Delhi, the govern-
ment continues to stick to the
‘no repeal’ stand,” he also said.
Opposition parties have
also appealed to President
Ram Nath Kovind to intervene
and ensure the laws are with-
drawn. The Government has
been defending the laws, say-
ing they will open new market
avenues for farmers and raise
their incomes, besides usher-
ing in new technologies in the
sector.
?C8Q =4F34;78
bserving that COVID-19
has affected normal life
since March and children did
not had the opportunity to
attend classes, the Supreme
Court on Tuesday directed all
the States to provide C2,000 a
month for the education of
2^]V_PhbcaXQdcTbc^BPaSPa?PcT[APWd[ =Paa^faT_aTbT]cPcX^]Pc[TPSTabWX_[TeT[b^U
bPhb]TTSc^ZTT_WXb_aX]RX_[TbX]\X]S D=RWP[[T]VTc^XcbRaTSXQX[Xch)9PXbWP]ZPa
?C8Q =4F34;78
T he Congress on Tuesday
paid tributes to India’s first
deputy prime minister Sardar
Vallabhbhai Patel on his death
anniversar y, with Rahul
Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi
Vadra underlining the impor-
tance of remembering his prin-
ciples at a time when farmers
are protesting against the new
agri laws.
Patel, a freedom fighter
who also became India’s first
?=BQ =4F34;78
T he Enforcement Directorate
(ED) has filed a prosecution
complaint (chargesheet) before
the Special Court, PMLA,
Ahmedabad against Hirak
Biotech Ltd and its directors
Pratik R Shah and Niketa
Baldevbhai Dave under
Prevention of Money
Laundering Act (PMLA) in a
loan default case of Ahmedabad
Peoples Cooperative Bank Ltd.
Besides Hirak Biotech Ltd
and its directors, Platinum
Corporation Ltd. were involved
in the siphoning of bank loan
availed from Ahmedabad
Peoples Cooperative Bank Ltd.,
the ED said.
On December 8, a provi-
sional attachment order was
issued under PMLA on identi-
fication of Proceeds of Crime in
the form of 16 plots located at
village Sachana, Taluka
Viramgam in Ahmedabad dis-
trict worth Rs 10.07 crore .
These attached assets were held
in the name of Hirak Biotech
Ltd, Ahmedabad, the agency
said.
ED initiated investigations
under PMLA on the basis of a
charge sheet filed by CID,
Gandhinagar against various
Ua^\5TQ!!c^!$
?=BQ =4F34;78
T he National Testing
Agenc y on Tuesday
(NTA) announced that the
first session of the Joint
Entrance Exam Main (JEE
Main) 2021 will take place
from February 22 to 25, 2021.
As per the NTA notification
the registration for JEE Main
2021 started on Tuesday.
NTA has made multiple
changes to the engineering
entrance exam to ensure its
smooth conduct and to facil-
itate students who have stud-
ied under different state
boards that may have altered
their syllabi due to the
COVID-19 pandemic.
The JEE Main 2021 will
be held in 13 languages --
English, Hindi, Assamese,
Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada,
Marathi, Malayalam, Odia,
Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu and
Urdu. While exams in Hindi,
English and Urdu will be
held across the country, other
regional language papers will
be held in the respective
each child who was in a child
care institution (CCI) and has
now been restored to his or her
family during the pandemic.
The apex court was told that
2,27,518 children were in CCIs
when the COVID-19 pandem-
ic started and 1,45,788 have been
restored with their families or
guardians.
?PcT[´bSTPcWP]]Xe
home minister, is credited with
unifying hundreds of princely
states in to the Union of India
following independence
through a mix of persuasion,
dialogue and even use of force
when required.
“On his death anniver-
sary, we pay solemn tribute to
India’s Sardar, the man behind
a united India, Shri
Vallabhbhai Patel,” the
persons for commission of
offences Indian Penal Code
Sections relating to criminal
conspiracy, criminal breach of
trust, cheating and forgery
among others.
“The said charge sheet dis-
closes that Pratik R Shah in con-
spiracy with other accused
fraudulently availed loan/over-
draft facility against FDs from
the bank and also increased
overdraft limit without any res-
olution and withdrew beyond
the overdraft limit without any
security. In this manner the
accused defaulted the loan sanc-
tioned by APCBL and thereby
causing loss of C25.25 crore to
the bank, it said.
Investigation under PMLA
revealed that accused Shah and
Niketa Baldevbhai Dave, direc-
tors of Hirak Biotech Ltd. tried
to transfer/dispose off 16 plots
held in the name of Hirak
Biotech Ltd. Accused Dave, was
arrested on October 13 this year
and is in judicial custody. Now,
after attachment of the Proceeds
of Crime to the tune of C10.07
crore, Prosecution Complaint
has been filed before the Special
Judge for confiscation of the
attached assets apart from
awarding punishment to the
accused persons, it added.
states.
NTA has increased the
number of attempts in JEE
Main 2021. The JEE Main
2021 will be held in February
2021 followed by three ses-
sions in March, April, and
May 2021.
“This is being done to
ensure that the JEE
(Main)2021 does not interfere
with the Board examinations,
which may be held at differ-
ent times across the
States/UTs,” NTA said.
The pattern of JEE Main
has been changed to accom-
modate students who may
have studied under school
boards that changed the syl-
labus due to the lockdown.
The questions papers will
have choices. Candidates will
now have 30 questions in
each subject, divided into
two sections. Section A will
have 20 questions and section
B will have 10 questions. Out
of the 10 questions in Section
B, candidates will have to
answer any five, the NTA
notification said.
Taking note of the plight of
children who are residing in
CCIs during pandemic period,
the top court stressed on the
need to provide them requisite
infrastructure for education and
said that states should ensure
that required number of teach-
ers are made available to teach
them.
Congress said on its official
Twitter handle.
“As a brave freedom fight-
er & the nation’s first Deputy
PM, his innumerable contri-
butions to nation-building
inspire countless of Indians
even today,” the party said.
In a Facebook post in
Hindi, Rahul Gandhi shared
Patel’s quote that “my only wish
is that India should be a good
producer and no one in this
country should shed tears
while being hungry”.
A094B7:D<0AQ =4F34;78
IHimachal
n a blow to the financial
health of Punjab, Haryana,
Pradesh and Jammu
and Kashmir, the farmers
protest has resulted in daily loss
of C3,500 crore. This means
these States reported to have
incurred over C70,000 crore
due to the ongoing protest. A
traders body in Delhi has esti-
mated over C5,000 crore loss
while the Northern Railway has
incurred losses worth roughly
C2,000-C2,400 crores due to the
ongoing farmers’ protest.
According to top industry
and commerce federations, a
daily loss of C3,000 crore to
3,500 crore is resulting in
economies of the region from
the value chain and transport
disruption because of protests.
They said the detours due to
blockades of highways are lead-
ing to 50 per cent more time
and distance for movement of
goods that can lead to 8-10 per
cent increase in logistics costs,
thus leading to rise in prices of
daily items and essentials.
‘’The size of the combined
economies of Punjab, Haryana,
Himachal Pradesh and J&K is
about C18 lakh crore. With the
ongoing farmers’ agitation and
blockade of roads, toll plazas
and railways, the economic
activities have come to a halt,”
said ASSOCHAM President
Niranjan Hiranandan said on
Tuesday. Assocham urged the
Government and farmers’
organisations to resolve the
impasse over the new agri-laws
as the disruption caused by
farmers’ protests was resulting
in a huge daily loss.
Though the economies of
Punjab, Haryana and Himachal
Pradesh are predominantly
based on agriculture and hor-
ticulture, several industries like
food processing, cotton textiles,
automobile, farm machinery,
?=BQ =4F34;78
A naemia among women and
children continues to be a
cause of concern. As per the 5th
National Family Health Survey
(NFHS 5) data released by the
Ministry of Health and Family
Welfare recently, more than
half of the children and women
are anaemic in 13 of the 22
States/UTs in the country.
Not only this, anaemia
among pregnant women too
has increased in half of the
States/UTs compared to NFHS-
4, in spite of substantial
increase in the consumption of
IFA tablets by pregnant women
for 180 days or more. Doctors
believe that provision of iron
and folic acid supplements in
health programmes will not
solve the problem of anaemia.
Anemia is a condition that
develops when there is iron
deficiency or lack of healthy red
blood cells or haemoglobin in
the blood.
They said that supplemen-
tation of only iron and folic
acid is inadequate to prevent or
correct anaemia among ado-
lescents. Other haemopoietic
(blood forming) nutrients are
equally important in managing
A bench headed by Justice
L Nageswara Rao also said state
governments should provide
necessary infrastructure, includ-
ing books and stationery, to
CCIs for the online classes of
children living there on the
basis of recommendation from
district child protection units
within 30 days.
?C8Q =4F34;78
T he narrow representation at
the leadership levels of the
United Nations is a challenge to
its credibility and effectiveness,
External Affairs Minister S
Jaishankar said on Monday,
making a strong pitch for
reformed multilateralism.
Speaking at the Global
Technology Summit, Jaishankar
said for obvious reasons the UN
is equated with multilateralism
and the world body is now 75-
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IT have become their lifeline.
Besides, vibrant services sectors
including tourism, trading,
transport and hospitality, have
added to the strength of the
regions, known for their enter-
prising farmers, entrepreneurs
and innovators.
While the Confederation of
Indian Industry (CII) said the
disruption in supply chain and
logistics due to the agitation by
farmers in many parts of India
will have a bearing on the
economy over the coming days
and may impinge the ongoing
recovery from the economic
contraction due to Covid-19
pandemic.
The CII said the farmers’
protests, which have intensified
over the past couple of weeks,
have led to obstruction of traf-
fic and road blockades across
multiple checkpoints in the
northern states of Delhi-NCR,
Punjab, Har yana, Uttar
Pradesh and Rajasthan, and in
smaller measure, in many other
States.
As per the estimates, the
it. In addition to iron, there are
other nutrients that prevent or
reduce anaemia and these
include vitamin B6, vitamin B2,
vitamin B12, vitamin C, folate
and proteins. These nutrients
are actively involved in the
process of blood formation
(haemopoiesis), pointed out
various studies.
In fact, a study conducted
by Metropolis Healthcare,
found that six in 10 women
from 36 cities of India have low
haemoglobin levels, indicat-
ing anemia.
The incidence of anemia
was reported highest in the age
group of 20 to 50. The study
was conducted for 17,00,000
girls and women across India,
including 11,41,600 girls and
women from Mumbai alone,
over a period of two years. The
most common signs to watch
out for anemia are lethargy,
unexplained fatigue, pale skin
The top court said that it
might be necessary for the states
to nominate a teacher for a batch
of 20-25 children in CCIs so that
they could get education during
the pandemic time.
The bench, also comprising
Justices Hemant Gupta and Ajay
Rastogi, said states would pay
C2,000 per month for their edu-
years-old with the number of
members it has about four
times to what it was when the
world body began.
“So if any entity, any prod-
uct is 75-years-old and has
changed four times over, you
would not deny that it is essen-
tially anachronistic.
Now, the problem we have
today about the narrow repre-
sentation at the leadership lev-
els of the UN, I think in many
ways is a challenge to its credi-
bility and to its effectiveness,” he
impact of the agitation is more
acute for industries in hilly
regions of Himachal Pradesh,
Uttarakhand, and Jammu and
Kashmir which are dependent
on transport of the goods by
road.
There are fears that the
uncertainty around the trans-
portation of farm products to
the major markets of Delhi-
NCR could lead to significant
losses to the farm sector in
these States.
During winters, tourism
sector is a major revenue and
livelihood source in these con-
tiguous States. But there is
apprehension that the farmers’
protest is likely to adversely
impact the sector this winter.
The period from December to
March is critical due to the
vacation period and the snow-
fall in the mountains.
On the other hand, the
Confederation of All India
Traders (CAIT) said in the last
20 days, trade and other activ-
ities of about C5,000 crore have
been affected in Delhi and its
surrounding states. According
to an estimate, about 30 to 40
percent of the goods coming to
Delhi have been affected by the
movement of farmers, which is
adversely affecting the trade
and other activities of Delhi
and neighbouring States, the
traders’ body stated.
and pale eyes.
The NFHS latest data per-
tains to 17 states — including
Maharashtra, Bihar, and West
Bengal — and five Union
Territories (including J&K)
and, crucially, captures the
state of health in these states
before the Covid pandemic.
Phase 2 of the survey, which
will cover other states such as
Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and
Madhya Pradesh, was delayed
due to the pandemic and its
results are expected to be made
available in May 2021, said a
senior official from the Union
Health Ministry.
The data also shows that
for both women and men,
there is a lot of variation in the
high or very high random
blood glucose levels across
States/UTs.
“Men are more likely to
have slightly higher blood glu-
cose levels in the range of high
or very high compared to
women. The percentage of
men with high or very high
blood glucose is highest in
Kerala (27 per cent) followed
by Goa (24 per cent).
Prevalence of elevated blood
pressure (hypertension) among
men, is somewhat higher than
in women,” as per the data.
cation and this amount has to be
given at the recommendation of
the district child protection unit,
keeping in mind the financial
position of the children’s fami-
lies.
The bench said extra class-
es are necessary for these chil-
dren to prepare for the exams in
March next year.
said.
“Obviously India has an
interest in the matter, but I
would urge you to even look at
a continent like Africa. If 50 plus
nations don’t have a voice just
think in terms of what is their
sense of ownership of the work-
ings of this organisation,” the
minister said.
Jaishankar pointed out that
the P5 nations — the US, the
UK, Russia, France and China
— are beginning to lose elec-
tions in the UN.
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A mid reports that the
Ministry of Home Affairs
could send a notice to Bengal
Chief Secretar y Alapan
Bandopadhyay seeking clarifi-
cations as to why the three IPS
officers requisitioned on
Central deputation were not
released by the State
Government, Chief Minister
Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday
called the BJP a party of dacoits
and slammed it for subverting
federal norms.
The three IPS officers ---
an IGP, a DIG and an SP-
ranked officers --- in question
were in charge of BJP nation-
al president JP Nadda’s securi-
ty when his convoy was
attacked by alleged Trinamool
Congress men on December 10
while he was going to attend a
meeting at Diamond Harbour.
“The security remains on
high alert whenever there is a
VVIP movement … but one
has also to explain why there
would 50 vehicles in the VVIP’s
convoy and why vehicles of
criminals including a convict-
ed person should follow him,”
Banerjee said at a rally in
Jalpaiguri in North Bengal.
Wondering as to why the
Central Government would
interfere in law and order mat-
ters which was exclusively a
State subject Banerjee said it
went against the federal norms.
“The question is why should
the Central Home Ministry call
IPS officers of a State cadre on
deputation without the State’s
permission … why the State
Government should be coerced
to release the said officers,” she
asked.
The Bengal Chief Secretary
and Director General of Police
had skipped an appearance in
the Home Ministry after being
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summoned by it. This apart the
State administration also failed
to release the three IPS officers
--- in charge of Nadda’s secu-
rity --- called on central depu-
tation.
Raising the pitch of her
attack the Chief Minister called
the BJP a party of dacoits say-
ing “they always accuse others
of corruption and theft but I
must say the BJP is the biggest
party of thieves… in fact it is
a party of dacoits …”
Stopping short of naming
leaders like Nadda and his
party colleague Kailash
Vijabargiya who have Madhya
Pradesh connections Banerjee
said “truth to be told the BJP is
a party of Chambal dacoits who
have come to loot Bengal and
ravage its unity by creating divi-
sion among the people of this
State.”
Despite being a party of
outsiders the BJP won all seats
the seats in North Bengal in the
2019 general elections,
Banerjee grudgingly told her
audience. “They came from
outside and won all the seats in
North Bengal while TMC did
not win a single seat... I want
to ask what was our fault …
Are they Ramakrishna
Paramahansa or Swami
Vivekananda … no they are not
… they only spread hatred
and divide people,” Banerjee
said.
Slamming the saffron out-
fit for giving false employ-
ment promises to the people of
Bengal, the Chief Minister
asked, “on what surety they are
distributing employment cards
to the people… my question is
what will this job card to …
what validity it has,” alleging
during the BJP’s tenure the
national employment had
shrunk by 40 percent.
“During their rule
employment has shrunk by 40
percent and here they have
come with job cards to lure the
people. This will not serve any
purpose as the people will
reject them,” she said.
On Darjeeling Gorkha
issue she said “the BJP has been
creating divisions not only
among religions but also in the
Hills by giving false hope to the
Gorkha population about the
creation of a new Gorkhaland
… but the leaders like Bimal
Gurung have seen through
their ploy and returned to the
Trinamool fold after sitting in
their lap for six years.”
B0D60AB4=6D?C0 Q :>;:0C0
R ebel Trinamool Congress
leader and former State
Minister Suvendu Adhikari is
likely to join the BJP in a week’s
time his close aides said. In fact
Adhikari, rated as the most
powerful mass leader in the
TMC after CM Mamata
Banerjee may join the BJP as
early as on Friday, sources said.
According to sources
Adhikari — who held an apo-
litical rally at Haldia on Tuesday
— would first resign his mem-
bership in the State Assembly
before flying to Delhi on
Thursday. On Friday he was
likely to join the BJP in presence
of senior leaders like Amit Shah
and JP Nadda before flying
back to Kolkata the next day
with the Union Home Minister.
The two leaders might hold a
joint rally at East Midnapore on
Saturday. Shah is coming to
Bengal in a two-day visit.
Adhikari who addressed a
huge rally at Haldia on Tuesday
is the son of powerful Trinamool
Congress satrap and former
Union Minister Sisir Adhikari,
also an MP. His younger broth-
er Divyendu is also a TMC MP.
Dropping hints about
Suvendu Adhikari’s saffron plans
his close aide Kanishka Panda
who was last week expelled
from the party said “Bengal, par-
ticularly the western part of the
State will see a saffron storm in
2021 Assembly elections.”
On Adhikari’s joining the
saffron outfit he said we have
already been with the saffron
ideals as this colour stands for
sacrifice and there is no other
leader in Bengal who has done
a bigger sacrifice than him.”
Meanwhile, Chief Minister
Mamata Banerjee for the first
time since Adhikari’s rebellion
on Tuesday made a circuitous
reference of him and many
other leaders who had recently
either left the party or had been
singing rebellious tunes saying
there were people who after
profiting from the party for all
these years were ditching it.
Apparently referring to
Adhikari’s differences with her
nephew Abhishek Banerjee, she
said “The question is not of hier-
archy we but of serving the peo-
ple… will stand by people and
fight for them. That is our
resolve... After profiting from the
party and the Government some
people are hobnobbing with
other parties.”
Apart from Adhikari a
number of TMC leaders includ-
ing his former ministerial col-
league Rajiv Banerjee, Asansol
Mayor and MLA Jitendra
Tewari, other Legislators like
Mihir Goswami, Sil Bhadra
Dutta etc, Coochbehar MLA,
Basunia have openly expressed
decent in the party. In fact
Goswami has already joined
the saffron outfit.

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;=3`_\\cY^=QbSX STR^SX]VRXaRdXcbU^acX\T[hSTUdbP[^U843b bUce\dcd_TQiR_dX
Kolkata: In an abrupt move the
Trinamool Congress Government has
written to the State Election
Commission seeking arrangement of
Kolkata Municipal Corporation polls
in the month of March which will be
roughly a month and a half ahead of
the Assembly elections likely to be held
in the month of April-May.
According to sources the State
Government has said that the rectifi-
cation of electoral rolls were in progress
and would be completed soon, where
after the polls could be held.
The SEC sources said the proposal
would be sent to the Supreme Court
for its directives.
The BJP however demanded
simultaneous elections not only in
Kolkata but all the civic boards which
had gone defunct and had been placed
under administrators following post-
ponement of polls in pandemic situa-
tion.
The TMC Government’s sudden
move is seen as a four-pronged ploy to
understand its base vis a vis the BJP.
Besides, the party also wants to reju-
venate its organizational base.
Apart from this the KMC elections
would also provide a scope to under-
stand the loyalty lines in the party. This
apart the party which has earned a bad
name for rigging polls to rampant vio-
lence also wants to clean that image by
holding peaceful polls.
Meanwhile in a separate develop-
ment the BJP leadership have
approached the central Election
Commission seeking early deploy-
ment of central forces to dominate the
pre-electoral atmosphere in the after-
math of attack on BJP national presi-
dent JP Nadda, party sources said.PNS
<>78C:0=370A8Q 90<<D
I nstructors at the Corps battle
school, Sarol in Rajouri are busy
decoding Improvised Explosive
Device (IED) circuits of a different
kind this winter season to ensure
smooth movement of army convoys
in the hinterland.
Faced with new challenges espe-
cially when it comes to use of IED as
a potent weapon to target the securi-
ty convoys in the hinterland across
Jammu and Kashmir, the instructors
at the school are continuously work-
ing on new designs/circuits to time-
ly defuse the IED's and protect the
lives of soldiers.
After the dastardly Pulwama ter-
ror strike, Pakistan based terror out-
fits have attempted to target the secu-
rity convoys on number of occasions
but failed to do so with the timely
detection of IED fitted circuits along
their route by the alert security per-
sonnel.
Whenever ground troops are
faced with a big challenge of neutral-
ising any IED detected on the road
side they fall back on the large inven-
tory of counter IED equipment avail-
able with the Indian army and utilise
it optimally to minimise the damages.
The Corps Battle school, Sarol has
a large inventory of IED's in its Model
Room. Instructors rely on these IEDs
to educate the troops on the types of
IEDs being employed by the adversary
and the terrorists to target convoy
vehicles.
The Corps Battle school also
imparts training to jawans and offi-
cers inducted in the counter -terror-
ism grid in the region to hone their
fighting skill set.
The main objective and aim of the
instructors at the CBS, Sarol is to min-
imise the collateral damage especial-
ly when they are tackling the threat
in any civilian area.
In addition to this, the jawans at
the CBS, Sarol also undergo rigorous
training during their stay and learn
tactical exercises and battle drills.
They also do shooting practice in the
firing range and get hands on train-
ing on neutralising terrorists during
an encounter /or neutralising any
hostage crisis.
Since its inception, Corps Battle
School, Sarol has been training a large
number of troops varying from 24,000
to 30,000 annually. AT any given point
of time, more than 1000 troops
receive training ahead of joining reg-
ular duties in the forward areas.
<46E46S_^VYTU^d
:D<0A274;;0??0=Q :>278
C ounting of votes in the
three-phase election to the
local bodies in Kerala would
take place on Wednesday as the
CPI(M)-led LDF and the
Congress-headed UDF exude
confidence. The BJP-led NDA
too claims that it would make
strides in this election though
it may not sweep the polls as
claimed by the CPI(M) leader
Kodiyeri Balakrishnan.
Why this election is impor-
tant in the State is that it is a
precursor to the Legislative
Assembly election to be held in
the months of April-May 2021.
“Usually the results of the
its ways, said Oommen Chandi,
former chief minister. “They
should have worked to regain
the trust of the people but what
happened was that the elec-
torate got further away from
them,” said Chandi who had to
face a number of cases filed by
the CPI(M) and which turned
out to be fakes.
The Congress is confident
because as of today, there are no
other forces in the State to chal-
lenge them. “The situation is
voters in the State do not have
an alternate other than the
LDF or the UDF. If the BJP suc-
ceeds in making some dent in
some districts, then there is the
possibility of a Third Force

- . *RYWLQYLWHV,PWLD]$OL
assembly election would be a emerging in the State and that
=APX[fPh6<QaXTUbPQ^dcbcPcdb^UDB1A; BWPaYTT[8\P\´b repeat of the Local body elec-
tion and this is the reason
is the need of the hour,” said
septuagenarian P Rajan, former
_a^YTRcbWPaTbAPX[fPhbeXbX^]U^a9: QPX[_TcXcX^] behind the confidence of the senior editor, Mathrubhumi, a

WRSURPRWHDUWDQGFXOWXUH
Congress,” said K Sudhakaran, Malayalam daily.

_^bc_^]TS]Tgc
MP and veteran Congress The CPI(M) candidates for
Jammu: Ashutosh Gangal, leader. the local body election have
Northern Railway General The Congress-led UDF deliberately avoided their party
?8>=44A=4FBB4AE824Q
90<<D
translated into best
cinematic presen-
Manager, who is on a visit to
see the Railway work sites in
WTPaX]V^]3TR & had swept the Lok Sabha elec-
tion held in 2019 May and most
symbol (hammer and sickle)
and this has surprised many
tations. He said that J&K held a press conference in Aligarh: The hearing on the of the seasoned political com- followers of the party. “It is due

T he Union Territory admin-

istration in Jammu and
Kashmir has roped in noted
Director, producer and writer
Imtiaz Ali to promote local art
and culture by providing nec-
essary platforms to the local
artists and youth through
workshops and related activi-
ties.
Ali, who had directed the
famous bollywood film Jab We
Met, Rockstar, had also shown
keen interest in making films
casting local artists using local
themes, music, art and locales.
Interacting with the media
here in Jammu, Director
Imtiyaz Ali claimed that he is
in awe of the culture, art and
talent found among J&K artists.
He remarked that the richness
of culture is so deep here that
it would take many initiatives
to showcase it fully. Secretary
Culture & Tourism, Sarmad
Hafeez; Director Archaeology
& Museums, Munir-ul-Islam
were also present on the occa-
sion.
He proposed that the vast
pool of talent found here is
diverse and encompassing
every sphere of cinematic
requirement so it would take us
nothing to search here from
beginning to climax of the
film.
Ali further said that he is
fully convinced that the old,
traditional folklore offers so
many stories that could be
the efforts made
earlier has not been
enough so bringing
more themes to
fore would be our
main focus.
Secretary
Culture and
Tourism Sarmad
Hafeez said that
this initiative is one
among many to
bring J&K back on the top of
creativity in the entertainment
industry, theatre, culture, art,
crafts and literature which it
once enjoyed in the past.
He said it would be a great-
est confidence booster for our
youth who can get carried
away towards other socially evil
forces in absence of such an
environment here. He said that
art can bring the best out of
them and the platform we pro-
pose to give them would be
national one.
Jammu on Tuesday. Briefing
the media, Gangal said that
work at all sites in the remain-
ing Katra-Banihal section of the
USBRL National Project has
resumed after an interlude.
The two districts of Reasi
& Ramban in which the rail
section is situated was catego-
rized as Covid Red zones due
to which work was hampered.
He also said that in spite of the
Covid set back unprecedented
work has been accomplished in
the past months.
He also shared with the
media the developmental plans
Railways has laid out for pro-
viding better and convenient
freight and passenger facilities
in Jammu & Kashmir.
Revamping and remodeling of
important stations in both
Jammu region as well as
Kashmir valley has become
imperative as the number of
people using this facility has
increased many folds over the
past few years. More and more
trains are being introduced,
thereby traveling to this region
from any place in India has
become convenient. He added
that Railways is aiming to bet-
ter its freight performance, for
this BDUs have been set up at
Divisional levels, we are set to
create more facilities like goods
sheds and increasing loading
points for the easy movement
of freight in and out of this area.
Answering to the queries of
the media persons the General
Manager shared that Railways
is committed to providing a
reliable all weather mass trans-
portation system to this
Himalayan region for the con-
venience of the people and over
all development of the union
territory.
bail petition of JNU student
Sharjeel Imam could not be
heard. There was a strike in the
court regarding the nomination
of the bar election.
Due to this, the hearing was
postponed again. Now the case
will be heard on 17
December.
A protest was held at the
AMU on January 16 over the
Citizenship Amendment Act
(CAA). In this, JNU student
Sharjeel Imam gave a statement
to divide the country. On 26
January, a case of sedition was
filed at the Civil Line police sta-
tion in Aligarh after its video
went viral.
Lawsuits were also filed in
Delhi and Assam. Delhi Police
arrested Sharjeel Imam from
Jehanabad in Bihar on January
28 and sent him to Tihar Jail.
Assam police took
Sharjeel with him before the
lockdown.
mentators do not see much dif-
ference in the assembly election
to follow shortly. “There is a
strong anti-incumbency feeling
against the Government led by
Pinarayi Vijayan and at no
point of time in the history of
the State we have seen such
resentment towards a ruling
party. I am not at all surprised
because the CPI(M) had gone
berserk immediately after the
2016 election which they won
with big majority,” said K
Surendran, president of BJP’s
Kerala unit.
Even after they were rout-
ed in the Lok Sabha election
(having lost 19 out of the 20
seats), the CPI-M did not mend
5DWLRQGHDOHUZLOOFROOHFW
GHSRVLWHOHFWULFLW\ELOO
?A0344?B0G4=0Q 0;860A7
to fear of losing that they have
decided not to contest under
party symbol. In some of the
municipalities like Aluwa, the
entire CPI(M) candidates have
opted for symbols like umbrel-
la and pots,” said Jayashanker,
political commentator.
The local media has report-
ed that the Pinarayi Vijayan gov-
ernment is likely to quit if the
results of the local body polls are
not favorable. But there is a una-
nimity among all political par-
ties in the State that no other
governments which had ruled
Kerala in the past had faced the
number of allegations charges
which Pinarayi Vijayan gov-
ernment is facing.
Kumar Soni told that UPPCL

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C=A067D=0C70Q <D<108
T he Covid-19 situation con-
tinued to be very much
under control in Maharashtra
on Tuesday, as 3442 people test-
ed positive for Coronavirus
and 70 more people died of the
pandemic in various parts of
the state.
A day after Maharashtra
recorded 2,969 infected and 60
fatalities, the number of infec-
tions went up by 473, while the
deaths rose by 10 in the state.
With 3442 fresh infections,
the total infections climbed
from 18,83,365 to 18,86,807.
Similarly, with 70 new deaths,
the Covid-19 toll in
Maharashtra went up from
48269 to 48,339.
As 4,395 patients were dis-
charged from the hospitals
across the state after full recov-
ery, the total number of people
discharged from the hospitals
since the second week of March
this year rose to 17,66,010.
The recovery rate in the state
rose marginally from 93.54
per cent to 93.60 per cent.
With seven new deaths, the
Covid-19 toll in Mumbai went
up from 10,984 to 10991, while
the infected cases went up by
521 to trigger a jump in the
0[XVPaW)CWTaTb_^]bXQX[Xch^U 0[XVPaW) CWT=PcX^]P[?T]bX^] to deposit electricity bills of Wallet mobile app which will be
b^RXP[PdSXcWPbQTT]VXeT]c^cWT BRWT\TVXeTbP]^__^acd]Xchc^ their homes, shops, the factory installed on the dealer’s mobile.
QSSecUTQRcS_^TY^W 0[XVPaW<db[X\D]XeTabXch0<D
^]cWTX\_[T\T]cPcX^]^U
X]eTbcP]SPRRd\d[PcTbPeX]VbP]S
VTc[d\_bd\P\^d]cPbaTVd[Pa
here. For this, the login ID of the
E-Wallet will be given to all 1352
Its login ID and password will be
given to the ration dealers. After
Firozabad (UP): A 10-year-old At the time, a 20-year-old V^eTa]\T]cbRWT\TbPccWT X]R^\TcWa^dVWP]]dXch_[P]^] ration dealers of the district. this, the dealers will recharge
girl was allegedly raped by a man from the same village bRW^^[aTbXST]cXP[bRW^^[1B0 aTcXaT\T]cbPXS?a^U<BWPZTT[ The dealers will receive a their E-Wallet, after which he
youth in a village in Uttar caught her and raped her, ^UUXRT01B0^UUXRT1[^RZ 0W\TSBP\SP]X3TP]5PRd[ch^U commission of Rs. 17 per bill for will charge from the public the
ATb^daRT2T]cTa1A2^UcWT ;Pf0[XVPaW<db[X\D]XeTabXch
Pradesh's Firozabad district,
police said on Tuesday.
The incident took place
Jasrana police station SHO
Jitendra Kumar Dwivedi said.
An FIR was registered on
3T_Pac\T]c^U1PbXR4SdRPcX^]
PRa^bbcWTSXbcaXRcCWT0<DcTP\
0<D7TfPbST[XeTaX]VP[TRcdaT
^]=PcX^]P[?T]bX^]BRWT\TP]S
depositing a bill ranging from
Rs. 1 to Rs. 10,000. At the same
time, if the amount of the bill is
cash bill for their electricity bill
and deposit the bill through his
E-Wallet app. For this dealer will
on Monday night in Jasrana Tuesday based on a complaint fX[[TeP[dPcTP]SeTaXUhcWT 6^eTa]\T]cX]cWT]PcX^]P[ more than this, he will get a get a commission of Rs 17 per
total infections from 2,91,113 area when the girl was going to by the girl's family members, he PePX[PQX[Xch^U_Ph\T]cP]SR^]cT]c fTQX]Pa^aVP]XbTSQhcWT commission of 0.5 % to the total bill ranging from Rs 1 to Rs
to 2,91,634. her home after attending a said adding that attempts are on \PSTR^]RTa]X]VbRWT\TbX] 3T_Pac\T]c^UI^^[^Vh?6 amount. From this week, this 10,000 and above it will be
Meanwhile, the number of party hosted by a former village to arrest the accused, who is :PbcdaQP6P]SWXATbXST]cXP[ 2^[[TVTBWXZ^WPQPS5Xa^iPQPS plan is ready to be implement- given as 0.5 percent of the billed
“active cases” total cases in the head. absconding. PTI BRW^^[b1A2P]S^UUXRTb DccPa?aPSTbW ed. District supply officer Rakesh amount.
state dropped from 72,383 to
71,356. The fatality rate in the
state stood at 2.56 per cent.
Pune district, which con-
tinued to be the worst-affected
city-district in Maharashtra,
saw the total number of cases
increase from 3,62,793 to
3,63,284, while the total num-
ber of deaths in Pune increased
from 7631 to 7642.
Thane district remained
in the third spot --after Pune
and Mumbai – after the total
number of infections rose from
2,48,028 to 2,48,371, while the
total deaths climbed from 5404
to 5408.
Of the 1,18,06,808 samples
sent to laboratories, 18,86,807
have tested positive (15.98 per
cent) for COVID-19 until
Tuesday.
Currently, 5,24,059 peo-
ple are in home quarantine
while 4316 people are in insti-
tutional quarantine.
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ebel News, a Canadian
$LU,QGLDKDVEHHQKROORZHGRXWE\PDVVLYHURXWHULJKWVDOORWWHGWR$UDELDQDLUOLQHVZKRVH far right news network,
JURZWKKDVEHHQSUHGLFDWHGRQWKH,QGLDQSDVVHQJHU:KLOH$LU,QGLDKDVSOD\HGDPDMRU has obtained 34 pages
of documents called
UROHLQWKHUHSDWULDWLRQRI,QGLDQFLWL]HQVIURPIRUHLJQFRXQWULHVVLQFHWKHSDQGHPLFEHJDQ ‘China Files’ establish-
DQGPDQ\RWKHUHYDFXDWLRQH[HUFLVHVRQRFFDVLRQVHYHQHDUOLHUHVSHFLDOO\ZKHQ6XVKPD ing that Canada has been training
6ZDUDMZDVWKH0LQLVWHURI([WHUQDO$IIDLUVWKHDLUOLQHKDVPDGHDSUHWW\SHQQ\IURPLW the Chinese People’s Liberation
Army (PLA) in cold-weather war-
$QGWKDWZLOOQRWVXEVWLWXWHDVDSROLF\RQFHWKHSDQGHPLFEHJLQVWRZHDURIIDQGDLUWUDY fare at its military institution in
HOEHJLQVLQHDUQHVWDJDLQ%XWWKHIODJFDUULHUDLUOLQHLVQRWFRPSHWLWLYHGRPHVWLFDOO\DQG Kingston, bases in Ontario and at
ZKLOHLWPLJKWJDLQRQLQWHUQDWLRQDOVHFWRUVZLWKWKHULVHRIQRQVWRSSRLQWWRSRLQWWUDYHO the Canadian Forces College,
Toronto. Further, it sent to China
LWIDFHVULVNVIURPRWKHU,QGLDQFDUULHUVVXFKDV,QGL*RDQG9LVWDUD+RZHYHUPDNHQR flag-rank Canadian officers to
PLVWDNH$LU,QGLDLVDSRZHUIXOEUDQGDQGRQHZRUWKVDYLQJHVSHFLDOO\LIWKH*RYHUQPHQW teach PLA officers tactics and
RI,QGLDWDNHVDPDMRUKLWDQGDEVRUEVPXFKRIWKHGHEWDVVRFLDWHGZLWKWKHDLUOLQH$IWHU techniques in high-altitude fight-
DOOZK\ZRXOGDQ\VDQHSHUVRQEX\DQDVVHWZKHUHKHLVFULSSOHGE\SULRUGHEWZKHQLW ing. Nearly 200 Canadian soldiers
participated in the October 2019
ZRXOGEHFKHDSHUWRFUHDWHDQDOOQHZDVVHW,IWKHXQGLVFORVHGELGGHUVIRU$LU,QGLDJLYH World Military Games at Wuhan
WKH*RYHUQPHQWDIDLUSULFHIRUWKHDLUOLQHDQGDEVRUEVRPHRIWKHORVVHVDQGPRVWRIWKH and Canadian sailors and naval
HPSOR\HHVLWFRXOGZHOOEHDZLQZLQIRUHYHU\RQH6XUHZULWLQJRIIWKRXVDQGVRIFURUHV ships celebrated the PLA Navy’s
70th Raising Day at Qindhao.
RIGHEWPLJKWEHDKDUGSLOOWRVZDOORZEXWLWLVDORWEHWWHUWKDQFRQWLQXLQJWRDEVRUEORVV Defence and security relations
HVRUVKXWWLQJGRZQWKHDLUOLQHFRPSOHWHO\ORVLQJDQLFRQLF,QGLDQEUDQGDQGWKRXVDQGV between the countries were par-
RIMREV7KHUHDOUHDG\KDYHEHHQLQWKHSDVWGHFDGHPDVVLYHOD\RIIVDQGPDQ\OLYHVUXLQHG ticularly active during 2018-19
despite the Chinese taking two
ODUJHO\RZLQJWRWKHIDLOXUHVRIDLUOLQHVOLNH.LQJILVKHUDQG-HW$LUZD\VDQGWHQVRIWKRX Canadian civilians hostage. It
VDQGVRIFURUHVRISXEOLFPRQH\KDVEHHQORVWLQWKHVHSULYDWHDLUOLQHVDVSXEOLFVHFWRU seems that the Canadian
EDQNVKDYHERUQHWKHEUXQWRIEDGORDQVWRWKHDYLDWLRQLQGXVWU\ Government under Premier Justin
Trudeau was keen to maintain
:KLOHWKH*RYHUQPHQWRI,QGLDKDVQRWGLVFORVHGWKHLGHQWLW\RIWKRVHZKRKDYHH[SUHVVHG warm relations and not to dis-
LQWHUHVWLQELGGLQJIRUWKHDLUOLQHLWKDVEHHQVXVSHFWHGWKDWDJURXSRIHPSOR\HHVRIWKH please the Chinese overlooking
DLUOLQHDORQJZLWKDSULYDWHHTXLW\ILUP,QWHUXSVDQG7DWD6RQVDUHDPRQJWKHVXLWRUV$V objections raised by the Trump
Administration over unintended
WKH0DKDUDMDJRHVXQGHUWKHKDPPHUVRXUFHVLQWKH*RYHUQPHQWKDYHFRQILUPHGWKDWLW consequences of transfer of
KDVUHFHLYHGPXOWLSOHH[SUHVVLRQVRILQWHUHVW:HVWLOOEHOLHYHWKDWVHOOLQJ$LU,QGLDSLHFH knowledge and information to the
PHDOPLJKWEHDZD\IRUWKH*RYHUQPHQWWRUHDOLVHDGGLWLRQDOYDOXHIURPWKHDLUOLQHEXW Chinese though Canada’s Five
Eyes partners were not perturbed.
WKRVHLQSRZHUEHOLHYHWKDWVXFKDVWHSZLOORQO\GHOD\DQGQHHGOHVVO\FRPSOLFDWHWKHVDOH The news network obtained
:HFDQQRWXQGHUVWDWHWKHLPSRUWDQFHRIWKHDYLDWLRQLQGXVWU\IRU,QGLDDQGZKLOHWKH5DLOZD\V redacted documents, some classi-
KDYHEHHQWKHOLIHEORRGRIWKH,QGLDQSDVVHQJHUWUDQVSRUWV\VWHPIRUGHFDGHVLQDFRXQ fied secret and for Canadian eyes
only, 19 months after it sought
WU\WKHVL]HRI,QGLDDQDIIRUGDEOHUHOLDEOHDVZHOODVDSURILWDEOHDYLDWLRQLQGXVWU\LVYLWDO them on a Freedom of
QRWMXVWIRUFRQQHFWLQJSHRSOHDQGHQDEOLQJWKHHFRQRP\EXWPRVWLPSRUWDQWO\LWLVRQH Information request but as the
RIVWUDWHJLFLPSRUWDQFH$ODUJHFLYLOLDQDLUIOHHW³PXFKOLNHDODUJHFLYLOLDQPHUFKDQWIOHHW documents were not properly
redacted, they were legible. When
LQFHQWXULHVSDVW³LVDZD\WRPRYHPLOLWDU\DQGRWKHUVWUDWHJLFDVVHWVTXLFNO\0DQ\ there was resistance to implement-
KDYHDUJXHGWKDWWKLVLVZK\,QGLDVKRXOGUHWDLQDSXEOLFDLUOLQHEXWPDQ\ODUJHQDWLRQV ing the exchange programmes —
SDUWLFXODUO\WKH8QLWHG6WDWHVGRQRWKDYHDQ\DLUOLQHFRQWUROOHGE\WKH*RYHUQPHQW,Q the Chief of Defence Staff put on
hold one joint section-level exer-
IDFWDSURIHVVLRQDOO\UXQ$LU,QGLDZKLFKLVSURILWDEOHDQGQRWDWD[SD\HUVXEVLGLVHGRSHU cise in winter warfare in Canada
DWLRQWKDWFRPSHWHVZLWKWUXHSULYDWHDLUOLQHVZLOOOHDGWRDOHYHOSOD\LQJILHOGDQGWKHRYHU — orders were given that no
DOOJURZWKRIWKH,QGLDQDYLDWLRQVHFWRU+RZHYHUDVWKHVD\LQJJRHVWKHUHLVRIWHQDVOLS training was to be suspended
without consulting the Chief of
EHWZHHQWKHFXSDQGWKHOLSDQGLWUHPDLQVWREHVHHQZKHWKHUWKHVDOHJRHVDKHDG Privy Council. These documents,
made public last week, clearly tell
India that the Chinese had been
22AdR^SZeZ`_
preparing for high-altitude war-
fare since 2018-19 — especially in
the winter of 2019 — and have
received training, expertise and
+DYLQJHVWDEOLVKHGLWVHOILQ'HOKLFUHGLWDEO\WKHSDUW\LVQRZ equipment from Canadian
Defence Forces during bilateral
SODQQLQJWRWHVWWKHZDWHUVLQ83$VVHPEO\HOHFWLRQV military exchanges in China and
7
Canada. The Trudeau
Security Review Commission
report of December 1 which
describes the eight-month-long
India-China standoff along the
Line of Actual Control (LAC) as
the most severe border
crisis in decades and accuses
China of planning the Galwan
clash with the blessings of
Defence Minister Gen Weng
Fei. Two weeks before the clash,
Global Times warned that India
would suffer a devastating
blow if it got involved in the
US-China rivalry. The report
notes that while the “Chinese
Government might deem its
Ladakh venture to acquire ter-
ritory a success, it failed to dis-
suade India from building infra-
structure or aligning with the
US, where results have been
counterproductive”. The Indian
Government, though, has
denied both loss of any
territory or alignment with the
US. Although no clinching evi-
dence was presented in the
report, tell-tale signs were there
that China was working to a
premeditated grand design of
forcibly altering the LAC in
Ladakh for which preparations
had started in mid-2019, if
not earlier, as the ‘China Files’
indicate. These predate the
Mahabalipuram/Chennai
psyche. Foreign Minister S
Jaishankar has said that the
Chinese have given India five
differing explanations for
deploying large forces along the
LAC. In its latest response to
Jaishankar speaking at a virtu-
al session with Sydney-based
Lowy Institute where he blamed
China for the standoff and
breakdown in relations, Beijing
Foreign Office repeated its
standard response: “The mer-
its of the situation are very clear.
India is totally responsible for
the situation.” The standoff has
hit an impasse with no prospect
of any thaw this winter; the
Chinese and Indian tanks are
just 20 metres apart near
Kailash range. The Chinese
cancelled the joint release of a
stamp on the 70th anniversary
of bilateral relations. The date
for the ninth military dialogue
has not been communicated by
Beijing and while channels of
communication remain in sus-
pended animation, both sides
are talking at each other.
Russia, which enjoys the
best of relations with both
India and China, has entered
the fray not in helping to break
the logjam but adding fuel
to the fire by accusing the
West of “anti-China games”.
mine Russia’s partnership with
India. His remarks were direct-
ed at the US which has been
threatening India with sanc-
tions under the Countering
America’s Adversaries Through
Sanctions Act (CAATSA) for
the purchase of $5.4 billion
S400 air defence system from
Russia. This is a direct challenge
to India’s strategic autonomy
and one of the sticking points
in the India-US Defence
Partnership on which the
Trump Administration
remained discreetly silent.
Although India is still sit-
ting on the fence in deference
to China, it has indicated to
Beijing both in words and
deeds the options available to it
for crossing the Rubicon. US
Democratic lawmaker Mark
Warner, speaking last week at
the Hindustan Times
Leadership Summit, said: “India
should join a ‘Coalition of the
Willing’ with the US and other
democracies to confront China’s
model of State-sponsored
authoritarian capitalism.” Just as
Trudeau wants to be nice to
China, India does not wish to
offend Beijing as it cannot
independently deter Chinese
coercion on the Himalayan
frontiers due to conspicuous
rebutted that “there has been an
enormous military response in
our force deployment”, deflect-
ing the initial omissions of any
counteractions following
delayed detection of intrusions.
The Government is making a
virtue of necessity in its counter-
deployment. In the same inter-
view, he said the standoff could
go the Sumdorong Chu way
(1986) which took nine years to
resolve. But then while the
geopolitical context and limited
scale of deployment were vast-
ly different, India was tactically
in a commanding position hav-
ing surrounded the PLA intru-
sion at Wangdung which was
beyond the Indian limit of
patrolling. Still Wangdung was
an Intelligence lapse!
The Intelligence and oper-
ational failures on the LAC this
year are compounded by the
Rebel News revelations of the
Chinese getting winter warfare
training from the Canadian
armed forces in 2018-19. In a
similar situation in 1984, India
got a tip-off that Pakistan was
buying snow clothing in Europe
and pre-emptively occupied
Siachen. The last GOC Ladakh
Sub-Area, Maj Gen Yash Mor
who was there at the time of
intrusions, lamented this week
KH$DP$DGPL3DUW\$$3DIWHULQLWLDOKLFFXSVLQ Government’s record of sensitiv- summit and are akin to Prime Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov power asymmetry. about “our repeated failures to
LWVDPELWLRQVWRVSUHDGLWVZLQJVQDWLRQZLGHOHDUQW ity towards India’s security con- Minister AB Vajpayee’s historic set the cat among the pigeons Jaishankar’s continuing read Intelligence”.
cerns has at best been lax, given Lahore visit coinciding by saying that the western pow- reliance on diplomacy stems (The writer, a retired Major
WKHKDUGZD\WKDWLWKDGWRILUVWHVWDEOLVKLWVSROLWL that its Defence Minister and with Gen Musharraf ’s plan- ers were promoting Indo- from ground reality and realpoli- General, was Commander, IPKF
FDOOLIH·VORQJQHVVZLWKSURRIRILWVJRYHUQDQFHVNLOOV7KLV Leader of the Opposition are ning of Kargil. Pacific Strategy and tik. When asked by a journalist South, Sri Lanka, and founder
LVZK\LWDEDQGRQHGLWVSDQ,QGLDHIIRUWVFRQVLGHULQJLWV both Khalistani sympathisers. Lies and deceit are Quadrilateral Security Dialogue about India’s reaction to Chinese member of the Defence Planning
These revelations fit in neatly ingrained in the Chinese to engage India in anti-China intrusions being diplomatic Staff, currently the Integrated
OLPLWHGDSSHDODPRQJWKHFLYLOVRFLHW\DQGFRQFHQWUDW with the US-China Economic, Communist Party and PLA’s games and also trying to under- rather than a pushback, he Defence Staff)
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‘Now, hunger strike’ (December WXbaTUTabc^cWTPacXR[T²0bfXUcT]Sc^UPa\Tab´bcXa John Le Carre, whose real name
YDFXXPFUHDWHGE\WKH&RQJUHVV%XWWKHTXHVWLRQLVZKHWKHULWZRXOGEHRSHQWRDOOLDQFHV 15). The protests against the agrar- STbXaPQ[T³ 3TRT\QTa $ Qh :P[hP]X BWP]ZPa was David Cornwell and who
FP[ZX]VS^f]cWT\T\^ah[P]T^]cWTU^^SRaXbXbX]
WRSXVKXSLWVWDOO\DQGUHOHYDQFH$OUHDG\6DPDMZDGL3DUW\63FKLHI$NKLOHVK<DGDYKDV ian laws represent a significant
movement in mass political mobil-
VDLGWKDWKLVSDUW\ZRXOGIRUPDQDOOLDQFHZLWKVPDOOHUSDUWLHV+LVUHDVRQKLVH[SHULHQFH isation in India. The Government,
KDVQRWEHHQJRRGZLWKWKHELJJHUSDUWLHV7KH$$3LVQRZDOVRH\HLQJ3XQMDEZKHUHLW on the other hand, believes that the
KDVVLJQLILFDQWSUHVHQFHZLWK0/$V,WKDVDOUHDG\ZRQRIWKHVHDWVLQ'HOKLZLWK movement has been taken over by
“political” elements.
DYRWHVKDUHRIQHDUO\SHUFHQWDIHZRIWKHPRQ3XQMDELGRPLQDWHGVHDWV$QGQRZLW While the movement’s
KDVWKURZQLWVORWZLWKWKHIDUPHUV·DJLWDWLRQGRPLQDWHGDVLWLVE\DJULFXOWXULVWVIURP3XQMDE strengths are clear, the problem with
DQGHYHQWKURZQEDUEVDW&RQJUHVV&KLHI0LQLVWHU&DSW$PDULQGHU6LQJKIRUWRQLQJGRZQ it is not too much of politics but too
little of it. Politics entails different
KLVDWWDFNGHVSLWHWKHLQLWLDOIXU\2IFRXUVH6LQJKKDVEHHQDWWKHIRUHIURQWRIWKHIDUPHUV· elements and agitation is only one
DJLWDWLRQSDVVLQJDPHQGPHQW%LOOVWRWKHWKUHH&HQWUDOIDUP$FWVLQWKH$VVHPEO\LQVLVW of them. Good politics also involves
LQJRQPHHWLQJWKH3UHVLGHQWDQGVHQGLQJKLVOHJLVODWRUVWR'HOKLWRVWDJHDGKDUQD+HKDV the ability to negotiate, reconcile the
demands of a movement with the
EHHQRQHRIWKHOHDGLQJ&RQJUHVVYRLFHVLQDUWLFXODWLQJSURWHVWVDJDLQVWWKHIDUP$FWV possibilities of what can be attained,
+RZHYHUWKH$$3KRSHVWRPDNHJDLQVIURPWKHDQWLLQFXPEHQF\IDFWRUDJDLQVWKLP recognition of the balance of power,
8]SXP_^bc8]ST_T]ST]RTc^XcbbT[UbdUUXRXT]RhPUcTacWT
passed away recently aged 89,
will probably be known as the
6aTT]ATe^[dcX^]fWXRWfPbQa^dVWcPQ^dcSdaX]VcWT greatest spy writer of any era,
[TPSTabWX_ ^U U^a\Ta ?aX\T <X]XbcTab ;P[ 1PWPSda anywhere.
BWPbcaXP]S8]SXaP6P]SWXcWTfaXcTaWPbc^dRWTSd_^] Before him, it was Ian Fleming
TeTahbXV]XUXRP]cSTeT[^_\T]cRPdbX]Vd_bP]SS^f]bX] and his flamboyant spy character
cWTR^d]cah³bPVaXRd[cdaTbTRc^aP[[cWTbTSTRPSTbfWX[T James Bond, who ruled the roost.
WTab^[XRXcdST^eTacWT^]V^X]VbcP]S^UUQTcfTT]cWTD]X^] Le Carre was a wholly different
6^eTa]\T]cP]S"^SSUPa\Tad]X^]bU^[[^fX]VcWT_a^ story, no bang-bang stuff but
\d[VPcX^]^UcWT]TfUPa\[PfbP[b^bcP]SbYdbcXUXTS cf^cWPcbTT\bc^WPeTRd[\X]PcTSX]cWT^]V^X]VbcXa provoking reflection. Le Carre’s
CWXbXbaTP[[hP\PccTa^UVaTPc_dQ[XRR^]RTa]cWPc 7T]RTcWTfaXcTa³b^QbTaePcX^]cWPccWTb^^]TaPbfXUcb^[d intricate plots came from the Cold
\P]hPa^d]S^UcP[ZbQTcfTT]cWTUPa\Ta[TPSTabP]S cX^]c^cWT_a^cTbcbXbU^d]ScWTQTccTaW^[SbV^^SP]S War, in which for a time he was
cWT 6^eTa]\T]c P]S cWT bXTVT Pa^d]S cWT ]PcX^]P[ \TaXcbPccT]cX^]X]cWT]PcX^]P[P]S_dQ[XRX]cTaTbc himself a participant as a junior
2P_XcP[³b Q^aSTab WPeT aT\PX]TS X]R^]R[dbXeT TeT] Pb 5Pa\Tab WPeT P[fPhb Q^a]T cWT Qad]c ^U ]PcdaP[ British spy. Le Carre shunned lit-
\P]h]PcX^]P[RT[TQaXcXTbUa^\ePaX^dbUXT[SbWPeTSTRXS RP[P\XcXTb[XZTU[^^SbSa^dVWc^a\PaPdSX]VP]X\P[bP]S erary awards and State honours.
TSc^aTcda]cWTXaBcPcTW^]^dabX]PbW^f^Ub^[XSPaXch cWTh[PQ^daT]S[Tbb[hX]X]R[T\T]cfTPcWTa8c³baTP[[hP When the Cold War ended, he
DQGEHQHILWIURPWKHHURVLRQRIWKHEDVHRIWKH6KLURPDQL$NDOL'DO6$'7KRXJKWKHODW and when to declare victory. This fXcWcWTPVXcPcX]VUPa\Tab _XchcWPccWTbTP]]PSPcPb cWT\bT[eTbWPeTc^bXc^]a^PSb wrote grippingly, fluently and with
element of politics is missing in the 8a^]XRP[[hcWT2T]caT³bR[PX\cWPccWT]TfUPa\[Pfb c^VTccWTXae^XRTbWTPaS understated eloquence, following
WHUKDVQRZZDONHGRXWRIWKH1DWLRQDO'HPRFUDWLF$OOLDQFH1'$RYHUWKHIDUPODZVLW movement. Once the protests esca-
KDVEHHQWRROLWWOHDPRYHWRZUHVWFRQWUROLQWKH6WDWH7KH$$3ZDQWVWRXVHWKLVGLVDS lated and the Government had no
SRLQWPHQWZLWKWKH6$'WRLWVDGYDQWDJH.HMULZDO·VSDUW\KRZHYHUVWLOOKDVWRZRUNRQLWV choice but to engage and offer con-
cessions, good political leadership
EDVHLQ3XQMDE,WKDVWRUHEXLOGFRQQHFWZLWKWKH0DOZDUHJLRQ³WKHHSLFHQWUHRIDJUDU among the protesters would have
LDQGLVWUHVV³ZKLFKLWKDVORVWVLQFH7KH$$3KDVWRWDNHFDUHRIIDFWLRQDOLVPLQ meant leveraging the movement.
WKH6WDWHXQLWZKLFKKDVQRWEHHQTXLWHDWSHDFHZLWKWKHFHQWUDOOHDGHUVKLS,IWKHSDUW\LV But no group wants to be seen
VHULRXVDERXWSXVKLQJLWVHOIWRWKHIRUHIURQWLWKDVWRZRUNRQFRQVROLGDWLQJDSROLWLFDOEDVH as “compromising” for fear of being
seen as “sold out” to the
WKDW·VGLIIHUHQWIURPWKHH[LVWLQJSOD\HUVZKRKDYHEHHQVHHQDVFKDPSLRQLQJWKHLQWHUHVWV Government or corporates or has
RIWKHHOLWH7KLVKDVDOLHQDWHGPXFKRI3XQMDE·VPDVVHVIURPWKHSROLWLFDOFODVVDQGWKH the courage to tell the farmers that
$$3ZDQWVWRVSHDUKHDGWKDWFKDQJH7KHIDUPHUV·SURWHVWVDUHMXVWWKHEHJLQQLQJ7KH the deal on offer is reasonable.
N Sadhasiva Reddy
TXHVWLRQLVFDQLWZUHVWWKHDOWHUQDWLYHVSDFH" Bengaluru
PaT\TP]cU^acWTP\T[X^aPcX^]^UUPa\TabP]ScWT[PccTa Azhar A Khan his deep on-location research
]TVPcX]VXcd]STabR^aTbP²\Xbd]STabcP]SX]V³QTcfTT]cWT Rampur about the drug trade, big pharmas
and torture in the wake of
icy is leading to a fast-changing ities — including reservation ben- America’s questionable interven-
E^VUddUbUT`_`e\QdY_^ demography in the country where efits, freebies, subsidies, tions in Iraq and its ‘war on terror’.
Sir — It refers to the Health the population of a particular Government jobs and He was among the rare breed
Ministry unexpectedly opposing minority community is increasing service/promotions — may be of writers whose characters
the much-required two-child at a faster rate and thus decreas- auto-terminated on the birth of teetered on the fine line between
norm when, in an affidavit filed in ing the population percentage of the third child in a family. Such right-wrong and good-bad.
the Supreme Court, the Ministry the majority community. parents should be barred not Shovanlal Chakraborty
stated that any such step could be At least the incentives given only from the right to contest elec- Kolkata
counter-productive leading to for small families should be tions but also the right to vote.
BT]Shh^daUUTTSQPRZcc^)
demographic distortions. replaced by disincentives for larg- Subhash Chandra Agrawal
The absence of any such pol- er families. All Government facil- New Delhi [TccTabc^_X^]TTa/V\PX[R^\
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PDVVSURWHVWVSDUWLFXODUO\E\ZRPHQ6RWKH*RYHUQPHQWWULHG he Narendra Modi-led Union Government is
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cracking the whip on tax evaders in the coun-
try to ramp up Goods and Services Tax (GST)
collections. Nationwide raids by the Directorate-
General of GST Intelligence unearthed 4,586 fake
entities registered under the GST regime.
Countrywide 132 people were arrested in 1,430 cases
related to illegally availing or passing on of bogus
Input Tax Credit. Plus, more than six months’ default
7KHODWH3RSHDQG6DLQW-RKQ3DXO,,LVUHYHUHGDVWKHRQO\
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SHUFHQWRI3ROHVQRZKDYHDSRVLWLYHYLHZRIWKH&DWKROLF&KXUFK
DQGDPRQJWKH\RXQJLW·VGRZQWRQLQHSHUFHQW:LOOWKLVHQGXS
UHVKDSLQJ3ROLVKSROLWLFV"3UREDEO\\HV$QGLQ$UJHQWLQDWKH/RZHU
+RXVHRI&RQJUHVVKDVMXVWSDVVHGD*RYHUQPHQWEDFNHG%LOOWR
OHJDOLVHDERUWLRQFXUUHQWO\FRQVLGHUHGDFULPHLQDOPRVWDOOFLU
FXPVWDQFHV(YHQZRPHQZKRKDGVSRQWDQHRXVPLVFDUULDJHV
KDYHEHHQDFFXVHGRIDERUWLRQDQGMDLOHGIRUKRPLFLGH
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ODVW)ULGD\WRJUHHWWKHSDVVDJHRIWKHOHJDOLVDWLRQRIDERUWLRQ$
ORFDOQHZVZHEVLWHFDOOHGLWD´WVXQDPLRIMR\µ7KH\ZLOOEHRXW
DJDLQLQVWUHQJWKODWHUWKLVPRQWKWRHQVXUHWKDWWKH6HQDWHSDVV
in filing monthly tax returns led to the cancellation
of GST registrations of 1,63,042 entities.
Tax evasion in the country is rampant and strong
anti-evasion measures are needed as GST collections
are way below expectation and potential. This is at
a time when the economy of the nation, which was
already in the red, has taken a crippling blow due
to the Coronavirus pandemic. The Government,
which is trying to combat the pandemic, needs all
the money that it can garner to keep the anti-COVID
momentum going.
The Lok Sabha was informed in March that GST
evasion of C70,207 crore had been detected between
July 2017 and January this year, of which C34,591
crore had been recovered. The Directorate-General
HVWKHQHZODZZKLFKLWSUREDEO\ZLOO³DQGWKDWZLOOXQOHDVK
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WLRQLQFDVHVRIUDSHRUULVNWRWKHPRWKHU·VOLIHWKDQNVWRWKHWUD
GLWLRQDOSRZHURIWKH&DWKROLF&KXUFK8QWLOQRZRQO\&XEDDQG
8UXJXD\KDYHDOORZHGDERUWLRQRQGHPDQG%XWIRUWKHPDMRULW\
RI/DWLQFRXQWULHVZKHUHPRVWSHRSOHDUHQRORQJHUUXUDOSHDV
DQWVWKHZULWLQJLVQRZRQWKHZDOO
:KLFKEULQJVXVQDWXUDOO\WRWKH86ZKHUHYHU\IHZSHR
SOHWKLQNRIWKHPVHOYHVDVSHDVDQWV7KHODQGVFDSHLVTXLWHVLP
LODUZLWKHYDQJHOLFDO&KULVWLDQVHYHQPRUHPLOLWDQWO\RSSRVHGWR
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of Analytics and Risk Management has identified
over 12,900 business entities suspected of availing
Input Tax Credit since July 2017 through bogus
invoices worth over C1,00,000 crore till March this
year.
Collection from taxes subsumed in the GST was
about six per cent of the Gross Domestic Product
(GDP) in 2016-17. In contrast, the GST collections
to GDP ratio was 6.25 per cent in 2018-19 and six
per cent in 2019-20. GST collections were about
C7,40,650 crore in 2017-18, C11,77,370 crore in 2018-
19 and C12,22,131 crore in 2019-20.
GST collections were about C32,000 crore and
C62,000 crore during April and May. The next four
months saw an average collection of C90,000 crore
per month, which improved to C1,05,000 crore per
month in the last two months, showing a robust
recovery.
If the GDP at factor cost (proxy for the total base
05C4A5D;;
0DC><0C8>=8B
03>?C431H gates of factories and godowns the E-Way no longer be necessary. The tax returns can deregistration by some Central Excise-
C0G?0H4AB4E4= Bills system was rolled out in April 2018 be generated by a system that matches exempt units located in the Himalayan/
²0BB4BB<4=C³0B to track the movement of taxable goods. invoices. North Eastern States whose business
D=34ABC>>38= This also reduces Income Tax evasion by Tax evasion can be detected by apply- became unviable under the destination-
C74<0=D0; transporters as they need to get registered. ing analytical tools and Artificial based GST. Some 82 lakh registered sell-
BHBC4< Capturing the vehicle registration num- Intelligence to the massive data that ers filed detailed returns for November
<0H=> bers into a trackable IT system, the E-Way crores of invoices generate. In fact, the GST and over 20 lakh GST taxpayers opting for
;>=64A14 Bills and the FASTag system help check system should reach the same maturity in the Composition Scheme are exempt from
other malpractices. For instance, in the terms of providing visibility of Input Tax filing detailed returns. As a taxpayer facil-
=424BB0AH Bihar fodder scam, the Comptroller and Credit as is now available for verification itation measure, almost 94 lakh small GST
C74C0G Auditor General (CAG) detected that cer- and tracing of TDS/TCS credits by taxpayers are now allowed quarterly fil-
A4CDA=B tain vehicles supposedly used for fodder Income Tax assesses. ing of return with monthly payment.
20=14 transport were actually registered two- One common problem, especially for The GST rate rationalisation is also on
64=4A0C43 wheelers, proving fake procurement. small businesses, is that the GST system course. Almost 99 per cent of all com-
ZRPHQSHUFHQWZLOOJHWDQDERUWLRQDWVRPHSRLQWLQWKHLU
OLYHVPRVWZKHQWKH\DUHLQWKHLUV
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OLIHFLUFXPVWDQFHV7KUHHILIWKVRIWKHPDOUHDG\KDYHDWOHDVWRQH
FKLOGDQGKDOIRIWKHPDUHOLYLQJEHORZWKHSRYHUW\OLQH$OOWKDW
ZRXOGKDSSHQLIDERUWLRQZHUHPDGHLOOHJDOLVWKDWWKHEDFNVWUHHW
DERUWLRQLVWVZRXOGUHDSSHDUDQGORWVRIZRPHQZRXOGGLHRUHQG
XSPDLPHGLQVRPHZD\
863UHVLGHQW'RQDOG7UXPSLVJRQHQRZZLWKWKH(OHFWRUDO
&ROOHJHSXWWLQJ-RH%LGHQILUPO\LQWKH:KLWH+RXVH%LGHQIRU
PDOO\ZRQ(OHFWRUDO&ROOHJHYRWHVDVHOHFWRUVYRWHGLQ6WDWH
FDSLWDOVDURXQGWKH86HLWKHUYLUWXDOO\RULQSHUVRQIXOILOOLQJDSUR
IRUPDUHVSRQVLELOLW\WKDWZRXOGQ·WKDYHUHFHLYHGVRPXFKSXEOLF
DWWHQWLRQEXWIRU7UXPS·VUHIXVDOWRDFNQRZOHGJHKLVGHIHDW7UXPS
H[SHFWHGO\ZRQ+RZHYHUHYHQWKRXJK7UXPSLVRXWKHKDV
SDFNHGWKH866XSUHPH&RXUWVL[WKUHHZLWK&RQVHUYDWLYHVZKR
DUHWKRXJKWWREH´SUROLIHµ,IWKH\GHFLGHWRUHEDQDERUWLRQWKH\
ZLOOFHUWDLQO\XQOHDVKPDVVSURWHVWVRQDVFDOHWKDWWKH86KDV
QRWVHHQEHIRUHMXVWOLNHLQ,UHODQGDQG3RODQG7KH´SUROLIHµPRYH
PHQWLVQRLV\EXWSHUFHQWRI$PHULFDQVVXSSRUWDERUWLRQULJKWV
$EDQLQWKH86PLJKWHYHQWULJJHUDZRPHQ·VJHQHUDOVWULNH7KH
ULJKWLVDOUHDG\UDGLFDOLVHGLQWKH86EXWWKHUHVWRIWKHFRXQWU\
LVULSHIRULWWRR
$ERUWLRQLVFXUUHQWO\DQLVVXHLQPDQ\FRXQWULHVDQGLQDOPRVW
HYHU\RQHRIWKHPWKHUH·VDPDMRULW\LQIDYRXURILWDPRQJWKH
\RXQJHUSRSXODWLRQ:KDWPHVVDJHGRHVWKLVKDYHIRU5LJKWZLQJ
JRYHUQPHQWVWKDWFOLQJWRSRZHUE\ZDJLQJ´FXOWXUHZDUVµWRFRE
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,WZLOOH[SORGHLQ\RXUIDFHV
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of indirect taxes) is assumed to be C160 lakh crore
and 60 per cent of this GDP pays an average GST
of 15 per cent, the GST revenue should be C1,20,000
crore per month. Obviously, at the moment, the GST
revenue is below expectations and its potential.
The Centre and State Governments across the
country are taking steps to overcome resistance to
formalisation and digitalisation, rationalisation of
GST rates and curbing tax evasion through claims
of fake or excess Input Tax Credits, misinvoicing or
undocumented sales. The GST system includes cer-
tain checks on tax evasion like mandatory audits,
matching of returns, E-Way Bills, reverse charge
mechanism and invoice matching. These are being
gradually introduced. To check the practice of set-
ting up shell firms for fraud, the Government has
mandated Aadhaar authentication for GST registra-
tion. The GST law permits deemed registration 21
days after an application is filed. Authorities will now
physically inspect and verify entities obtaining
deemed GST registration without Aadhaar.
Ever since the Economic Administration
Reforms Commission, chaired by LK Jha in 1984,
highlighted how 80 per cent of Excise manpower
then guarded gates of low revenue yielding facto-
ries, tax administration in India has been moving
away from physical controls to self-assessment.
However, the truth is that a trust-based tax assess-
ment system is effective only when there is the deter-
rence of test checks and fear of penal action on detec-
tion of breach of faith in test checks.
Otherwise, the tax system will be no different
than managing the collection boxes placed in reli-
1H0BHBC4< Officials have found lakhs of E-Way
C70C<0C274B Bills being cancelled within a few hours,
8=E>824BC0G indicating undocumented delivery to
4E0B8>=20=14 intra-city or nearby destinations or mul-
34C42C431H tiple trips being made against a single E-
Way Bill to transport excess undeclared
0??;H8=6 goods. To curb misuse, E-Way Bills are
0=0;HC820; now being integrated with the FASTag sys-
C>>;B0=3 tem being used for electronic collection
0AC858280; of tolls on National Highways and the
8=C4;;864=24 Vahan database, too.
C>C74<0BB8E4 There have been instances where
30C0C70C unscrupulous dealers have used fake
2A>A4B>5 invoices for inputs not received to claim
8=E>824B undue Input Tax Credit. Such invoices
64=4A0C4 don’t have any corresponding supply of
goods/services or not to the full extent and
do not involve actual payment of GST on
them. This practice also leads to defraud-
ing of banks by exaggerating turnovers and
money laundering.
The July 2019 CAG report on GST,
expressed concern over the continuing
delay in the full invoice matching system
which has made the system prone to Input
Tax Credit frauds. The system was intend-
ed to be designed based on 100 per cent
invoice-matching to ensure system-veri-
fied Input Tax Credit, correct settlement
of the Integrated Goods and Services Tax
and for minimising direct human inter-
face with assessees. After full automation
is adopted by taxpayers, even “assessment”
is not designed to distinguish a sale on full
upfront payment and a sale on credit and
a sale on Equated Monthly Installments.
Why force a seller to pay GST even before
he gets paid for the supplies? Even allow-
ing quarterly filing of GST returns with
monthly payments does not address this
problem.
Small businesses selling to big buyers,
including governments and Public Sector
Undertakings, routinely face payment
delays though some progress has been
made recently. It would be desirable if in
a GST2.0 upgrade, a receipt-based GST
system can be implemented where the
GST would be payable to the Treasury
only on receipt of full or pro rata payment
for the supplied goods/services. One the-
oretical option to implement this, at least
for small businesses, could be to allow
them to opt for Cash Accounting rather
than Accrual Accounting. However, that
will create problems when they grow and
have to leave the small business tag. A bet-
ter option will be to introduce payment
tracking, whose benefits will go beyond
the GST sphere in checking defaults and
delinquencies.
It is a creditable achievement that the
number of registered businesses under
taxes subsumed in the GST has increased
from 72 lakh to 1.28 crore, despite signif-
icant de-registrations due to increased
modities are now taxed with GST at the
rate of 18 per cent or lower. Consumers
tend to compare GST rates with erstwhile
Sales Tax/Value Added Tax (VAT) rate not
realising the basic fact that the GST sub-
sumes Central Excise which has been hid-
den in the price of products on which VAT
was applied. When the invisible Central
Excise and other taxes are subsumed in the
visible GST, it is bound to be seen high-
er than VAT.
For instance, the pre-GST taxation of
goods was a typical standard VAT at the
rate of 14.5 per cent, Central Excise at the
rate of 12.5 per cent and CST at the rate
of four per cent. With the cascading effect
of tax on tax, the total levy paid by the end
consumer was over 30 per cent. Inclusion
of petroleum products in GST, if neces-
sary by adjusting non-GST taxes like
Customs duty, allowing Input Tax Credit
across full value addition chains, further
lowering of rates with continuing strict
action against tax frauds can make GST
more acceptable and yield more revenues.
Digitalisation and formalisation of
businesses poses some short-term costs
and hassles, but it is inevitable and it alone
holds the promise of giving long-awaited
justice to the overtaxed. GST rates can
come down when compliance improves
for this grand tax reform.
(The writer is former Special Secretary,
'HPRFUDF\DQG:RUN· gious places. Since tax inspectors no longer guard as understood in the manual system may thresholds for registration and voluntary Ministry of Commerce and Industry)

$MXVWFDXVHEXULHGLQWKHVDQG
6GRKYZOTOGTYRUUQ[VZU9G[JO'XGHOGGYZNKUTR_XKSGOTOTMGRR_OTZNKOXJXKGSULGNUSKRGTJH[ZZNKLXOKTJYKKSYZUHKHKZXG_OTMZNKS
namely Bahrain, the UAE and Sudan.
However, one issue that remains
unaddressed that can have ubiquitous
ramifications for peace and stability in
West Asia and the Middle East is the
two-State solution. The normalisation
agreements have covertly sidelined the
issue of the Palestinians.
Transformation of West Asian
politics: One thing that is very clear
@B1>1I;E=1BB7><4
from the normalisation agreements
between Israel and the Gulf Arab States
To undermine the impact of the
agreements, Iran stitched a $400 bil-
lion strategic partnership with China
in late September. Iran approved
China’s access to its defence and
financial systems so much so that Iran
is now a de jure part of the Belt and
Road Initiative (BRI) much to India’s
chagrin. The scales appear firmly tilt-
ed in Israel’s favour however. With the
change of regime in the US, it will be
very interesting to see what happens
result of these diplomatic agreements
was the Palestinians being left high and
dry. For decades they have been fight-
ing for the two-State solution. First,
Britain betrayed them through the
Balfour Declaration of 1916, then the
Sykes-Picot Agreement, followed by
the formation of Israel in 1948 with
utter disregard for the rights of the
Palestinian people. These agreements
have not only alienated the Palestinians
who are almost facing an existential
international community gave a muted
response to all this. However, despite
the opprobrium from the UK and
Germany, Israel continues to violate
Palestinian rights. The United Nations
is powerless to act as the West calls the
shots at the world body. Perhaps it is
pretty clear that Palestinians will face
further rights violations in the coming
years.
Saudi recognition of Israel a
potential death knell?: The recent
5>A486=4H4
The hush-hush Saudi recognition
of Israel signals a paradigm policy shift,
for it could lead to the creation of new
history and may signal a dramatic
change in the way the Jewish-Muslim
relations evolve. What, however, needs
to be remembered is that Palestinians
look up to Saudi Arabia as the only C74F>A;38B
remaining ally in their dream of a
homeland and their ally seems to be F0C278=6
slowly betraying them. 1TXYX]VQT[XTeTbcWPccWT
As of now, there appears little hope
Va^cTb`dTWd\P]aXVWcb

T
he last few months of the outgo-
ing Trump Administration were
very hectic, especially seen from
the foreign policy perspective. In an
otherwise turbulent and highly-frag-
ile four years of the Trump presiden-
cy marked by foreign policy disasters,
the last six months were landmark vis-
à-vis Trump’s West Asia policy. In early
August, the Trump administration
oversaw the signing of the Abraham
accords which are a series of peace-
cum-normalisation agreements
between Israel with three Arab States,
is that the politics of West Asia has
undergone drastic transformation. It
will not be the same any more. Henry
Kissinger in his famous book ‘World
Order’ wrote that geopolitics and
strategic considerations triumph reli-
gious issues.
These diplomatic agreements are
symptomatic of a Zionist-Sunni
alliance against Shia Iran. Iran finding
itself isolated is desperately trying to
find a way out of this stranglehold
because Arab-Zionist bonhomie is
clearly in the US’ strategic interest.
with the new Biden Administration.
Should it choose to follow a more
reconciliatory policy towards Iran
and think about resurrecting the Iran
nuclear accord, it would end up alien-
ating Israel and the Sunni Gulf monar-
chies. If Biden follows a hard line
towards Iran, the outcome will be a
recalcitrant Iran pursuing a virile pol-
icy using its proxies to destabilise the
entire Middle East and West Asia. In
such a context the old fissures in West
Asia will be aggravated.
No justice for Palestinians: The
crisis but also point to a deeper
schism within the Muslim world.
The Palestinian cause has been
jettisoned by the Gulf monarchies who
earlier were the most vocal endorsers
of the two-State policy. In fact, the
height of irony is the volte-face by the
Gulf monarchies vis-à-vis the Israeli
occupation of West Bank. Israel
promised to postpone the building of
new settlements as a part of the recog-
nition agreement considerations but
never said anything about bringing the
construction work to a halt. The
“esoteric” meeting between Israeli and
Saudi officials and the subsequent
allowance given to Israeli flights to use
Saudi airspace, generated a new churn
in West Asian geopolitics. However,
when seen from the prism of the
Palestinian cause, it potentially signals
its death knell. The primary reason for
this is the fact that Saudi Arabia is the
core State in the Islamic world despite
the emergence of fissures in Muslim
unity, following the emergence of a
parallel grouping led by Malaysia,
Turkey and Pakistan.
for the Palestinian cause. The only
remedy for them is perhaps an urgent
course correction by the internation-
al community. The new liberal US
leadership under Joe Biden must pres-
surise Israel into halting all settlement
building works and ask the Jewish State
to respect Palestinian rights. If that fails,
the international community should
think about imposing sanctions on
Israel. One thing is very clear,
Palestinians have to dig in and fight for
their cause.
(The writer is a columnist)
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Washington: US President-
elect Joe Biden has told elec-
tion-weary Americans that it is
time to “turn the page”, after the
Electoral College affirmed his
triumph over President Donald
Trump, who has refused to
concede and filed a litany of
legal challenges to overturn the
poll results.
The 538-member Electoral
College on Monday pushed
Biden past the 270-vote thresh-
old to win the bitterly-contest-
ed race for the White House. It
was one of the crucial steps
required for the 78-year-old
Democrat to take office on
January 20 as the 46th US
President.
Under the US system, vot-
ers actually cast their ballots for
electors, who in turn, formal-
ly vote for candidates weeks
after the presidential election.
Biden won the November 3
election with 306 electoral col-
lege votes to incumbent
Republican President Trump’s
232.
The Electoral College votes
will now be sent to Congress to
be counted formally next
month. Though some House
Republicans have indicated
they will object to the results in
key states, they can do little
more than delay the process
during a joint session of
Congress on January 6.
2d^\^ST]XTbU^a\Ta
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Albany: New York Govoner
Andrew Cuomo has denied a
former aide’s allegations over
that he sexually harassed her by
making inappropriate com-
ments about her appearance.
Cuomo told reporters on
Monday the claims that former
economic adviser Lindsey
Boylan made in a series
of tweets Sunday were “not
true.”
“I fought for and I believe
a woman has the right to come
forward and express her opin-
ion and express issues and
concerns that she has,” the 63-
year-old Democrat said, mak-
ing his first comments on the
allegations. “But it’s just not
true.” Cuomo’s press secretary
previously denied the claims on
his behalf. AP
86EODPHV,UDQIRUDEGXFWLRQ
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2^[[TVTU^a\P[[hT[TRcTSWX\Pb?aTbXST]c
In a speech from his home-
town of Wilmington, Delaware
after the announcement of his
victory in the election, Biden
said the US democracy had
been “pushed, tested and
threatened” and “proved to be
resilient, true and strong”.
He criticised President
Trump’s attempts to overturn
the result and said the “will of
the people prevailed”.
“The rule of law, our
Constitution and the will of the
people prevailed” over Trump’s
efforts to undo the results of the
election, the former US vice
president said.
“The flame of democracy
86$WWRUQH\*HQHUDO $XVWUDOLDQ30VD\V
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Washington: US Attorney
General William Barr, who of
late had publicly differed with
President Donald Trump on
allegations of voter fraud in the
November 3 presidential elec-
tions, has resigned.
Trump has appointed his
deputy Jeff Rosen as the Acting
Attorney General.
“Just had a very nice meet-
ing with Attorney General Bill
Barr at the White House. Our
relationship has been a very
good one, he has done an out-
standing job! As per letter, Bill
will be leaving just before
Christmas to spend the holi-
days with his family...,” Trump
announced on twitter Monday
night.
“Deputy Attorney General
0?
was lit in this nation a long time
ago. And we now know noth-
ing, not even a pandemic or an
abuse of power, can extinguish
that flame,” Biden said.
“In this battle for the soul
of America, democracy pre-
vailed. We the people voted.
Faith in our institutions held.
The integrity of our elections
remains intact. And so, now it
is time to turn the page. To
unite. To heal,” he said.
Biden said the election
outcome should be celebrated,
not attacked, that more than 81
million votes were cast for him
and Vice President-elect
Kamala Harris. PTI
Jeff Rosen, an outstanding per-
son, will become Acting
Attorney General. Highly
respected Richard Donoghue
will be taking over the duties of
Deputy Attorney General.
Thank you to all!” Trump said
as he tweeted the two-page res-
ignation letter of Barr.
Barr, in his letter, said, “As
discussed, I will spend the
next week wrapping up a few
remaining matters important to
the administration, and depart
on December 23.” PTI
,QDILUVWOHDGLQJ5HSXEOLFDQV
FRQILUP%LGHQSUHVLGHQWHOHFW
Washington: For the first time,
a groundswell of leading
Republicans have said that
Democrat Joe Biden is the
winner of the presidential elec-
tion, essentially abandoning
President Donald Trump’s
assault on the outcome as the
Electoral College certified the
vote.
With states affirming the
results, the Republicans faced
a pivotal choice — to declare
Biden the president-elect, as the
tally showed, or keep standing
silently by as Trump wages a
potentially damaging campaign
to overturn the election.
Senate Majority Leader
Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., was
quiet on the issue Monday. But
a number of senators said the
AFE:?4@?8C2EF=2E6D3:56?
0?Q <>B2>F
R ussian President Vladimir
Putin on Tuesday congrat-
ulated Joe Biden on winning
the US presidential election
after weeks of holding out.
Putin’s message to Biden
Canberra (Australia):
Australia’s prime minister said
Tuesday that China would be in
breach of World Trade
Organization rules as well as a
bilateral free trade agreement if
it banned Australian coal.
Prime Minister Scott
Morrison was responding to a
report in the Chinese state-
owned Global Times newspa-
per that the Chinese National
Development and Reform
Commission had given power
plants approval to import coal
without restrictions except for
Australian coal.
Morrison said he was treat-
ing the report as “media spec-
ulation” because the Chinese
government had yet to clarify
its position.
“If that were the case, then
that would obviously be in
breach of WTO rules,”
Morrison told reporters.
“It would be obviously in
breach of our on free trade
time has come to move on.
“At some point you have to
face the music,” said Sen. John
Thune of South Dakota, the
second-ranking GOP leader.
“Once the Electoral College set-
tles the issue today, it’s time for
everybody to move on.”
Sen. Roy Blunt of Missouri,
the chairman of the inaugural
committee, said the panel will
now “deal with Vice President
Biden as the president-elect.”
Just last week, the Republicans
on the inauguration committee
had declined to publicly do so.
He said Monday’s Electoral
College vote “was significant.”
Texas GOP Sen. John Cornyn
said barring further legal chal-
lenges it appears Biden will be
president. AP
came a day after the Electoral
College confirmed Biden as the
nation’s next president, ratify-
ing his November victory in an
authoritative state-by-state
repudiation of President
Donald Trump’s refusal to con-
cede that he had lost.
agreement and so we would
hope that’s certainly not the
case.” Coal and iron ore are
Australia’s most lucrative
exports. But Australian exports
appear to have suffered due to
deteriorating bilateral relations
since Australia called for an
independent inquiry into the
coronavirus pandemic.
Trade Minister Simon
Birmingham said Australia was
close to finalizing a complaint
to the World Trade
Organization over Chinese tar-
iffs imposed on barley.
“We see these reports and
obviously are deeply troubled
by them,” Birmingham told
Australian Broadcasting Corp.
Referring to the reported coal
import ban.
“They, if true, would indi-
cate discriminatory trade prac-
tices being deployed by
Chinese authorities and we
would urge them to rule that
out swiftly,” he added. AP
Washington: The Trump
administration for the first time
has formally blamed Iran for the
presumed death of retired FBI
agent Robert Levinson, publicly
identifying two Iranian intelli-
gence officers believed respon-
sible for his abduction and
imposing sanctions against
them.
Levinson disappeared in
Iran under mysterious circum-
stances more than a decade ago,
and though US diplomats and
investigators have long said
they thought he was taken by
Iranian government agents,
Monday’s announcement in the
final weeks of the Trump
administration was the most
definitive assignment of blame
to date.
%RNR+DUDPFODLPV *OREH
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Lagos (Nigeria): Nigeria’s Boko
Haram jihadist rebels have
claimed responsibility for the
abduction of hundreds of stu-
dents in an attack on a boys
school in northern Katsina
State, a Nigerian online news-
paper says.
More than 330 students are
missing from the Government
Science Secondary School in
Kankara after gunmen with
assault rifles attacked their
school Friday night.
The Daily Nigerian said it
received an audio message
from Boko Haram leader
Abubakar Shekau saying that
his group abducted the school-
boys because Western educa-
tion is against the tenets of
Islam.
>R]UZgVdT`_dZUVcdSfcjZ_X
=R_\R>fd]Z^dUjZ_X`W4`gZU
Colombo (Sri Lanka): The
Maldives president’s office says
it is discussing how to provide
a “humane response” to a
request from neighbouring Sri
Lanka to allow burials for
Muslims who die of Covid-19.
Presidential spokesman
Ibrahim Hood said on Tuesday
that President Ibrahim
Mohamed Solih has received a
request from Sri Lanka to look
into the possibility of allowing
such burials.
“The request has been
received. At present we are con-
sidering and discussions are
ongoing with regard to what
would be the appropriate and
DTZV_eZdedhRc_`W
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New York: Scientists have
called for action to remove the
oil from an abandoned taker in
the Red Sea that holds approx-
imately one million barrels of
oil — four times the amount
contained in the Exxon Valdez
tanker which had a disastrous
environmental oil spill in 1989.
According to the analysis,
published in the journal
Frontiers in Marine Science,
the tanker named Safer is a
floating storage and offloading
unit (FSO) abandoned for years
in the Red Sea.
“The time is now to prevent
a potential devastation to
the region’s waters and the liveli-
hoods and health of millions of
people living in half a dozen
countries along the Red Sea’s
coast,” said co-author Karine
Kleinhaus, Associate Professor
of the School of Marine and
Atmospheric Sciences (SoMAS)
at Stony Brook University in the
US. PTI
The announcement is the
latest in a series of tough actions
the Trump administration has
taken toward Iran as it works to
cement an aggressive posture
that may complicate any efforts
by incoming President Joe
Biden and his national securi-
ty team to radically change
course once they take office next
month. US officials pre-emp-
tively made clear Monday that
no deal with Iran should be
finalised without providing for
the release of Americans who
remain detained there.
Besides calling out two
high-ranking intelligence offi-
cers by name, US officials also
said the Iranian regime sanc-
tioned the plot that led to
Levinson’s abduction and lied
“What happened in
Katsina was done to promote
Islam and discourage un-
Islamic practices as Western
education is not the type of
education permitted by Allah
and his Holy Prophet,” the
paper quoted Shekau as saying.
There has been no inde-
pendent verification of the
audio message but Shekau has
in the past released video and
audio messages on Boko
Haram’s behalf.
Nigerian presidential
spokesman Garba Shehu said
in a statement Monday that
“the kidnappers had made con-
tact and discussions were
already on, pertaining to the
safety and return” of the chil-
dren to their homes. AP
humane response,” Hood told
The Associated Press.
There was no immediate
confirmation from Sri Lanka of
such a request. Sri Lanka’s gov-
ernment in March announced it
will cremate the bodies of all
people who die of Covid-19, say-
ing the coronavirus could con-
taminate underground water.
Sri Lankan Muslims have
urged the government to allow
burials, citing their religious
beliefs. They accuse the gov-
ernment of denying Muslims a
basic right without scientific
grounds, since many countries
in the world allow burials.
Sri Lanka’s confirmed cases
for years about its involvement
in his disappearance through
disinformation campaigns
aimed at deflecting responsi-
bility and covering up the gov-
ernment’s role.
“The abduction of Mr.
Levinson in Iran is an outra-
geous example of the Iranian
regime’s willingness to commit
unjust acts,” Treasury Secretary
Steven Mnuchin said in a state-
ment.
The Iranian intelligence
officers, Mohammad Baseri
and Ahmad Khazai, are alleged
to have been involved in
Levinson’s abduction and prob-
able death. Under the sanc-
tions, any property or assets
they hold in the United States
would be frozen. AP
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since March reached 33,477 on
Tuesday, including 154 fatalities.
In other developments in
the Asia-Pacific region: —
Authorities in Sri Lanka said on
Tuesday that more than 3,000
Covid-19 cases have been
detected in the country’s high-
ly congested prisons, as infec-
tions also surge in the capital
and its suburbs. They said that
2,984 inmates and 103 guards
have been confirmed to have
the disease in seven prisons
around the country. Sri Lankan
prisons are highly congested,
with more than 26,000 inmates
crowded in facilities with a
capacity of 10,000. AP
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I ndustry body Assocham on
Tuesday urged the Centre
and farmers’ organisations to
resolve the impasse over the
new agri laws, saying that the
protests are inflicting a heavy
blow to the economies of
Punjab, Haryana, Himachal
Pradesh and J&K.
“A daily loss of C3,000-
3,500 crore is resulting in the
economies of the region from
the value chain and transport
disruption because of the
protests,” according to a rough
estimate by the chamber.
Assocham President
Niranjan Hiranandani said,
‘’The size of the combined
economies of Punjab, Haryana,
Himachal Pradesh and J&K is
about Rs 18 lakh crore. With
the ongoing farmers’ agitation
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T he Reserve Bank would
have limited options for
policy easing of interest rates as
inflation would continue to
remain at elevated levels in the
current fiscal, analysts tracking
the development have said.
According to a research
report by Emkay Global
Financial Services, while infla-
tion may have peaked, consis-
tent supply shocks have meant
the inflation series is estimat-
ed to average around 6.3 per
cent in FY21. This is well
above the RBI confront zone
and would shape easing in
FY22 for some policy action to
come into play by the RBI.
According to the Emkay
report, retail inflation is expect-
ed to trend towards 5.8 per cent
by the end of March, 2021.
However, the report said that
favourable base effect, the wide
output gap and rebalancing of
effective demand-supply
dynamics will further help
inflation ease to 4.8 per cent by
FY22.
The RBI has projected CPI
inflation at 6.8 per cent for the
third quarter, 5.8 per cent for
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F acebook on Tuesday said
that it is committed to help
India quickly recover econom-
ically and socially in 2021 from
the pandemic-hit year, by
deepening support for small
businesses and test and roll its
new features from the country
to the rest of the world.
The social networking plat-
form said the ‘Nayi Shuruaat’
campaign launched during its
‘Fuel for India’ event is an ode
to the resilience of small busi-
nesses amid crisis.
Facebook said it will con-
tinue to work closely with key
partners to build a stronger
and blockade of roads, toll
plazas and railways, the eco-
nomic activities have come to
a halt.”
On Monday,
Confederation of Indian
Industry (CII) had said the
the
farmer agitation has led to
supply chain disruptions,
which will impact the econo-
my in the coming days and
may impinge upon the ongo-
ing recovery from the eco-
nomic contraction due to
COVID-19.
Assocham’s Hiranandani
observed that industries such as
textiles, auto components, bicy-
cles, sports goods which cater
significantly to the export mar-
kets would not be able to ful-
fil their orders, ahead of
Christmas, harming the indus-
try’s goodwill among the glob-
al buyers.
the fourth quarter 2020-21;
and 5.2 per cent to 4.6 per cent
in H1 of 2021-22.
While growth concerns
and sub-optimal fiscal response
may keep the MPC’s stance
accommodative and liquidity
adequate, the inflation trajec-
tory still remains above four
per cent in FY22 and thus,
hints at dimming chances of
further rate cuts in the coming
year, the brokerage report said.
CPI inflation surprised in
November 2020 with better-
than-expected moderation at
6.93 per cent, driven by sharp
easing in sequential food infla-
tion, while core inflation was
down marginally. Food inflation
dropped to below 10 per cent,
helped by easing in vegetables
and cereals. The seasonal easing
in perishable vegetable inflation
is likely to continue as suggest-
ed by high-frequency mandi
prices, and should add further
to the disinflationary momen-
tum in food. However, cost-
push factors like demand-sup-
ply mismatch, higher opera-
tional and labour costs, and
higher administrative fuel costs
continue to keep core inflation
relatively stickier.
ecosystem for small business
growth in the country by
investing in skilling pro-
grammes such as Boost with
Facebook, entering in key
partnerships such as with ven-
ture capital funds for the VC
Brand Incubator program, and
by giving people new ways to
support small businesses such
as the Instagram Food
Stickers.
“India’s building local capa-
bilities and tech capacity to
power innovative new business
models and provide the citizens
access to digital financial inclu-
sion,” said Facebook CEO Mark
Zuckerberg via a virtual
Recovering from the harsh
COVID-19 blow, the Indian
economy needs to double
down on growth which is pos-
sible only with a conducive
environment for industrial
activities, investment including
the Foreign Direct Investment,
Assocham stated.
The Confederation of All
India Traders (CAIT) said in
the last 20 days, trade and other
activities of about Rs 5,000
crore have been affected in
Delhi and its surrounding
states.
According to an estimate,
about 30 to 40 per cent of the
goods coming to Delhi have
been affected by the movement
of farmers, which is adversely
affecting the trade and other
activities of Delhi and neigh-
bouring states, the traders’
body stated.
?C8Q =4F34;78
A s India gets ready to roll
out one of the largest vac-
cine programmes, billionaire
Mukesh Ambani on Tuesday
said his group is working with
authorities to provide tech-
nology tools and backbone for
mass inoculation against
Covid-19.
Ambani’s telecom ven-
ture Jio was rolled out four
years back, offering free voice
calling and dirt-cheap data.
Today, Jio is India’s largest tele-
com operator with over 400
million users, each connected
to the internet.
At a Facebook event,
Ambani said the government’s
digital push kept the country
running even during the pan-
demic and is now helping in
the rollout of one of the largest
vaccination programmes.
Good digital and internet
access allowed people to work
from home and helped busi-
nesses to run without disrup-
tion.
“Sometimes I wonder that
if the pandemic had struck
India just four or five years ear-
lier, we would not have been in
address during the event.
“So, decisions that are
made here shape the global
discussion about how tech-
nology can drive more eco-
nomic opportunity and better
outcomes for people,” he
added.
In order to support small
businesses move online seam-
lessly, Facebook recently
reached out to 9 million small
businesses across India with a
local SMB Guide available in
both Hindi and English.
The largest communities
for Facebook and WhatsApp
are in India and Instagram is
getting there.
?C8Q =4F34;78
S &P Global Ratings on
Tuesday raised India’s
growth projection for the cur-
rent financial year to (-)7.7 per
cent from (-)9 per cent esti-
mated earlier on rising demand
and falling Covid-19 rates.
For the next financial year
2021-22, S&P projected growth
to rebound to 10 per cent. Its
revision in growth forecast for
the current fiscal reflects a
faster-than-expected recovery
in the September quarter.
“Rising demand and
falling infection rates have
tempered our expectation of
COVID-19’s hit on the Indian
economy. S&P Global Ratings
has revised real GDP growth to
negative 7.7 per cent for the
year ending March 2021, from
negative 9 per cent previously,”
as good a shape as what we are
today, with all the connectivi-
ty we have,” he said.
Ambani, who heads the
oil-to-retail-to-telecom con-
glomerate Reliance Industries
Ltd, said the credit for this must
go to the Prime Minister’s
Digital India vision, where he
motivated the entire industry to
roll out broadband in the five
years of his first term.
This digital push helped
transfer cash to bank accounts
of 20 crore needy during the
pandemic, he said.
“And now we are ready
and pretty much at par with the
world, to roll out one of the
largest vaccine programs in
the first half of 2021.”
Technology has also
helped deliver health services.
“We are working very
closely with all the authorities
to make sure that we provide
the technology tools and back-
bone for even vaccination in
the coming quarters using tech-
nology,” he said.
Earlier this month, Prime
Minister Narendra Modi too
had spoken of using mobile
technology for mass inocula-
tion against COVID-19.
QdC'# "Sb
New Delhi:Investment in
mutual funds through system-
atic investment plans dropped
to a 31-month low of Rs 7,302
crore in November amid chal-
lenging economic environ-
ment. However, investment
through the Systematic
Investment Plans (SIPs) route
had risen in October after six
months of continuous
decline.The 44-player mutual
fund industry witnessed an
inflow to the tune of Rs 7,302
crore through SIPs in
November as compared to Rs
7,800 crore in the preceding
month.
S&P said in a statement.
A faster recovery keeps
more of the economy’s supply
side intact and can set India up
for more prolonged above-
average growth during the
recovery phase, it added. India’s
gross domestic product (GDP)
fell 7.5 per cent in the July-
September quarter, against a
contraction of 23.9 per cent in
the April-June quarter.
Earlier this month, Fitch
Ratings also revised its growth
forecast for India to (-)9.4 per
cent, from (-)10.5 per cent, on
signs of economic revival, while
the Asian Development Bank
said the economy is likely to
contract 8 per cent as against
the earlier forecast of 9 per cent
contraction, on faster recovery.
Last month, Moody’s upped
India’s growth forecast to (-
)10.6 per cent for the current
=^RWP]VTX]_Tca^[
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New Delhi:Oil marketing com-
panies continued to hold back
any change in the retail price of
petrol and diesel continuing
with their wait and watch
stance that has kept the prices
of two auto fuels static for the
past eight days.Accordingly,
there was no change in retail
price of auto fuels on Tuesday
with price of petrol remaining
at Rs 83.71 a litre and diesel Rs
73.87 a litre in Delhi. Across the
country as well the price of the
two petroleum products
remained unchanged.OMCs
have gone on a pause mode at
a time when news of success-
ful coronavirus and expecta-
tions of big pick up in demand
had kept crude on the boil with
prices breaching $ 50 a barrel
mark. IANS
financial year, from its earlier
estimate of (-)11.5 per cent.
In the statement, S&P on
Tuesday said India is learning
to live with the virus, even
though the coronavirus pan-
demic is far from defeated.
However, the reported cases
have fallen by more than half
from peak levels, to about
40,000 per day. “It is no surprise
that India is following the path
of most economies across Asia-
Pacific in experiencing a faster-
than-expected recovery in
manufacturing production,”
S&P Global Ratings Asia-
Pacific Chief Economist Shaun
Roache said. Manufacturing
output was about 3.5 per cent
higher in October 2020 when
compared to the year-ago peri-
od, while the output of con-
sumerdurables rose by almost
18 per cent.
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?C8Q =4F34;78
E -commerce major Amazon
India on
announced the launch of
Tuesday
Amazon Saathi, a peer men-
torship programme that will
help sellers to exchange knowl-
edge and share best practices.
Amazon Saathi enables
sellers on Amazon and small
and medium businesses
(SMBs) across India to get
access to a wealth of content
presented by experienced sell-
ers on the marketplace, a state-
ment said.
Established Amazon sellers
can engage with over 7 lakh
sellers to share their learnings
and experiences of operating an
online business, and help the
seller community scale their
businesses on Amazon, it
2U^SX]Qb[cY^SX
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?C8Q <D<108
E quity benchmark Sensex
recovered from early losses
to end marginally up at its new
closing record on Tuesday, led
by gains in index majors HDFC
twins. The 30-share BSE index
ended 9.71 points or 0.02 per
cent higher at 46,263.17.
Similarly, the broader NSE
Nifty rose 9.70 points or 0.05
per cent to close at its fresh all-
time high of 13,567.85.Bajaj
Finance was the top gainer in
the Sensex pack, surging
around 5 per cent, followed by
Bajaj Finserv, HDFC, Tech
Mahindra, HDFC Bank,
UltraTech Cement and Tata
Steel. On the other hand, HUL,
Nestle India, ICICI Bank, Axis
Bank, SBI, TCS and ITC were
added.
“We remain committed to
enable every motivated seller to
reach customers across India
and the world, and our
approach from Day 1 has been
centered on what our sellers
need. We are launching
Amazon Saathi after a lot of
research and feedback from
sellers on having a platform for
knowledge sharing and net-
working amongst them,”
Amazon India Director MSME
and Seller Experience Pranav
Bhasin said.Amazon Saathi
brings over seven lakh sellers
on Amazon.In together as a
community, where new and
existing sellers can lean on
their peers for guidance, and
share from their experiences to
accelerate their business growth
on Amazon, he added.
among the laggards.
S&P Global Ratings on
Tuesday raised India’s growth
projection for the current fis-
cal to (-) 7.7 per cent from (-)
9 per cent estimated earlier on
rising demand and falling
COVID-19 infection rates.
Meanwhile, retail inflation
declined to 6.93 per cent in
November on softer food
prices, though it remained
above the comfort level of the
Reserve Bank, official data
released after market hours on
Monday showed.
C VNLGVSDLVH
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Mumbai:The Indian rupee
depreciated by 8 paise to set-
tle at 73.63 against the US
dollar on Tuesday, taking
cues from weaker Asian peers
against the American cur-
rency. Besides, subdued trad-
ing in domestic equities also
put pressure on the domestic
currency, forex traders said.
At the interbank forex mar-
ket, the domestic unit opened
at 73.62 against the US dol-
lar and witnessed an intra-
day high of 73.59 and a low
of 73.67.The local unit final-
ly closed at 73.63 against the
American currency, register-
ing a fall of 8 paise over its
previous close. “The Indian
rupee depreciated marginal-
ly against the dollar this
Tuesday tracking weakness in
most regional currencies as
risk appetite waned as many
countries are imposing fresh
COVID-19 restrictions
which could derail a global
economic recovery,” Sriram
Iyer, Senior Research Analyst
at Reliance Securities, said.
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25
A
midst rising vulnerabilities in the pan-
demic-hit world economy, atmanirb-
harta (self-reliance) is a recovery-cum-
growth strategy not only for countries but also
for the working professionals. Both business-
es and employees are facing tough competi-
tion in the market today. In such a turbulent
S_\\UWU\YVU
time, entities with advanced and futuristic
skills are incredibly exceptional.
Willingness to learn is the way forward to
T he curtain ‘The Grand
Beginning of College Life
‘unfolds,
upcoming opportunities. Those who contin- The gladness wave keeps
ue updating themselves seldom encounter fail- gushing leading to so much
ures. Today, to counter the ramifications of delight all around
COVID-19 on the world economy, there is an New campus, new friends,
urgent need to adopt an open talent economy new style of learning and
based on intellectual & skill collaborations. The training&lifestyle too,
onset of e-learning platforms has enabled com- There will be so much
panies and human resources to adopt cutting- happening around you, in
edge skills from certified coaches and indus- you and through you,

E@D?
try experts. The user-generated content on Some of you may be care-
these platforms plays a pivotal role in business free, some overly busy and
learning in the current scenario, especially for some make history!
businesses interested in digital transformation. Blended learning, cutting
The competency level of a business across disciplines is an art for
depends on how competent its employees are. you to explore,
That’s why the HR managers of progressive Classes, labs, clubs, fests

firms always show interest in candidates
equipped with advanced professional skills and
are willing to up-skill themselves further. As
per the latest study by Robert Half, a global
staffing firm, 84 per cent HR managers pre-
fer hiring employees whose skills can be honed
easily through training. Sometimes, candidates
willingness to learn new skills helps them to
secure a desired job despite lacking the exact
job qualifications. Here, HR managers believe
that a persona proclivity for developing skills
matters more than his/her qualifications to
accept additional responsibilities.
Digitalisation of businesses has increased
the role of technology in various operations to
manifolds. From marketing to manufacturing,
almost every business activity today is man-
aged by technology. Hence, to make their
employees tech proficient, companies are
facilitating learning for them. On the other
hand, many traditional businesses which have
heavily borne the brunt of the current pan-
demic have no better option than going dig-
ital to compete in the market. This is where
e-learning programmes for entrepreneurs and
managers are ensuring a smooth transition for
them. By pursuing these skill-oriented cours-
es, the victims of layoffs are re-entering into
the job market.
E-learning training programmes are use-
ful in developing both hard and soft skills
among employees. Business skills such per-
taining to Data Analysis, Financial Accounting,
41D5
all of many a kind, competi-
tions and programs galore
Including networking,
industrial visiting, camping, 3a00]STa[TT]3
3XP]P;;PiPadb??WX[X\Xb
representing, winning and- 0bbXbcP]c?a^UTbb^aBA<8BC
losing,
Also learn new languages, Ensure your resume is
skills, art and explore your tal- exclusive to attract the best
ents while you are here, prospects available,
It may keep you occupied, Bring out the author, poet,
preoccupied too but will aid to dancer, lyricist, researcher,
career building. and the player in you
Some under estimate you You will certainly enjoy
Networking, Decision-making, Negotiation, lose its valuable and essential people because and some overdo, but never the thrill as you fill your
and Leadership Skills, which every successful their presence is imperative to achieve long- worry about it heart, soul and mind.
professional needs can be acquired and pol- D?B:8;;8=68B=><>A4 term goals and objectives. But, to keep them You don’t have to be the Soon it will be time to bid
ished through bespoke e-learning programmes.
They are useful in developing both hard and
0=4G?4=B8E40=3 engaged and motivated, the employer must
ensure their personal and professional growth.
version of their opinions! Your
goal to be your priority!
adieu to your alma mater and
move on
soft skills among employees. BCA4=D>DB05508A Upskilling is no more an expensive and stren- Make good memories, eat The curtain ‘The End of
Detailed and interactive videos by the sea-
soned trainers can be viewed again and again C70=:BC>C74 uous affair. Thanks to the digitisation of com-
munication that has made learning and
well, exercise, learn new
things regularly,
College Life’ will drop and
there’d be no replay,
by an individual to derive maximum from a 3868C8B0C8>=>5 upskilling immensely affordable for both Also plant saplings, con- So be prudent and engage
course module. Besides, s/he has the option to
choose more than one online coach or subject 2><<D=820C8>=C70C companies and individuals. Availability of e-
learning content in various formats and in dif-
tribute to animal care and
engage in research too
in craftingthe supreme version
of you.
matter expert. The content can be further cus- 70B<034;40A=8=6 ferent languages is greatly benefiting them Above all never shy away Serve the society whole-
tomized to topics of business relevance while serving well-informed and sophisticat- as participation will endorse a heartedly and do it free as far
depending on an organisationrequire- 0=3D?B:8;;8=6 ed customers. Also, accessing industry lead- nice learning. as possible;
ments.Moreover, with the unprecedented 8<<4=B4;H055>A301;4 ers and thought leaders is no more a luxury It’s a demanding world out For to live in the happy
developments in region-specific virtual train- for small businesses. Like corporates, small there and to have an edge over memories of people is one
ing programmes, the industry is receiving 5>A1>C72><?0=84B businesses too can empower their employees others, great form of victory.
immense benefits of localised content in ver-
nacular languages.
0=38=38E83D0;B with the experience and insights of eminent
personalities and consultants.
You need to be the best of
yourself! So, explore and
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hile work and business has
moved to operating virtually,
the pandemic also has impacted on
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employee growth and learning.
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ing limits in effect, eLearning has
become the norm, and workplace
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training has turned into webinars
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and online classrooms. ver the last decade, new tech-

ELearning gives the benefit to
learn anytime and anyplace. The
biggest advantage that eLearning
provides for organisations is flexi-
bility. Over the last decade,
eLearning has found its way in the
corporate circuit and now will
become a necessity. A LinkedIn
Learning report points how 66% of
learning and development profes-
sionals say that their roles within
their organisations have grown sig-
nificantly since COVID-19 out-
break. Around 68% respondents also
indicated that employers have
stressed on learning programmes
and improve internal collabora-
tion. The appetite for learning pro-
grammes along with the remote
working scenarios has pushed for
companies to develop and prioritise
eLearning. Further, upskilling of
employees using virtual and
eLearning has become necessary in
the wake of coronavirus crisis.
There has been a need to enhance
learning mechanisms for employees
while working remotely.
Companies are already on this
path. The learning and development
approach has also gone completely
digital and virtual. Some examples
include virtual instructor led train-
ings, or webinars or webcasts and
podcasts- virtual collaborations is
T;TPa]X]V\TcW^SbbPhb?A0B>>==860<
helping employers train employees,
but also in make it interactive and
a two-way process. Some companies
are also enabling personalised or
customised learning and trainings to
help employees learn specific skills
to graduate to new roles. There is
also been a transition to rejig the
standard presentation and excel
handout content and digitalise it and
make it more interesting and inter-
active.
The pandemic scenario has also
brought mental and psychological
health in the spotlight. Many com-
panies as a part of their new L&D
initiatives are also helping employ-
ees to expand their skillset and
explore new capabilities online.
Whether it is via massive open
online course (MOOC), sabbaticals
and external coaching — these
avenues are enabling employees
stay high-spirited during the chal-
lenging times.
With time, even eLearning is
evolving. Companies are blending
newer ways to create an interesting
mix of eLearning methods — to
keep the workforce motivated and
enthused. Gamification or Game-
based learning is being used to both
engage and educate.
Given the uniquity of eLearning
and making any piece of content
available, there are no limits to the
possibilities and benefits of
eLearning. It is not just enriching for
employees but for organisations
too, by saving operation costs and
time investments. It is an opportu-
nity to develop new skills and pro-
mote creativity, making the employ-
ees feel more empowered in the
roles.
However, good eLearning is
not just about content curation and
delivering it but speaks of the organ-
isation’s overall competence devel-
opment agenda. While organisations
have transitioned to eLearning to
suit the needs of the present sce-
nario, a solid eLearning strategy is
a must to make employees fit for bet-
ter and higher roles. With the objec-
tive to nurture future ready skill sets,
it would be key to witness how com-
panies chalk out their eLearning
strategies that helps employees har-
ness the eLearning opportunities.
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nology has transformed
almost every aspect of our
lives. In every home, each hand, on
every desk, transportation to medi-
tation, Artificial intelligence and cod-
ing has proved to be humanity’s
greatest innovation of man and
machine partnership. With the pro-
gressing world, we know it is never
too late for anything. As in the field
of coding, well, the doors of new
learning are always open.
The practice of programming
learning and coding is not limited to
any age. It is a secure career option in
the new world and develops an
appreciation for how things work
therefore helps mind growth in a pos-
itive direction. Some studies show that
the coders develop high cognitive
skills and they have lesser chances of
having memory loss.
It improves the coders brain
health and lets them think actively.
Other studies have revealed that
coding uses parts of the brain asso-
ciated with memory, language pro-
cessing, attention and logic. It acts as
a good brain exercise although many
believe that coding is just logic and
math but it is much more than that,
it involves memory, logic, math, cre-
ativity, language and attention. Few of
the points say that coding is essential
for the brain and it is a good brain
exercise.
Coding helps in shaping your
mental models
When choosing the language of
coding be it Java, Python, C, Cobol,
Fortran, or Basic you have to be care-
ful. Starting with the language can be
very hard, but once you start with one
language, the coding dictates and
helps in thinking about data struc-
tures, algorithms, etc. The language
helps your mind work in a constant
way that one can tell who wrote it just
by looking at the anonymised code.
Coding isn’t just about Math
and Logic
Many believe that coding is all
about math and logic but it is not lim-
ited to this. The area spans more than
this. The coders also need to have bet-
ter creativity, attention, reasoning, and
language. It involves constant use of
brain parts for different functions of
coding. As coders also learn other
programmers code, they try to write
it again with a new way. So in this way
coding also keeps the brain active.
As all these studies prove that
coding is good for cognitive devel-
opment it is essential for the young
students to learn it from an early age.
Coding keeps the mind active and
running all the time. Coders often
program while hiking, jogging, bik-
ing, or even eating. Also, as you keep
on coding your mind gets familiar to
the language and you will find it less
essential to refer to the guide. This
brain exercise lets you be creative and
lose your burdened mind.
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?=BQ =4F34;78 subjects even for those students who may
not have an option from the school for the ?=BQ =4F34;78 Director, MLBM, said: “The The course focuses on varied ?=BQ =4F34;78 with Turnitin in order to make

When the education scenario has turned

digital globally and remote learning
is the new the norm in students, leading
competitive exams Crest Olympiads has
made it possible for the school students to
be a part of the prestigious Olympiad exams
from the comfort of their homes during the
unprecedented times of coronavirus pan-
demic. Through this online platform, the
students also have the liberty of choosing
the date and time for appearing in the exam
according to their convenience.
The Crest Olympiads, considered to be
the foundations of exams like JEE, NEET,
among others, has been conducting online
Olympiads for quite some time in various
same. It conducts exams in Mathematics,
Science, English, Logical Reasoning, Cyber,
and Spell Bee for students of classes 1 to 10.
There is something for little kids from
Prep/KG as well. They can appear for Math,
Science and English Olympiads.
Students from more than 4000 schools
in over 25 countries participate in the
Olympiads conducting by them. Crest
Olympiads has helped students to maintain
continuity even in the pandemic. The plat-
form enables the students to view the answer
keys and, more importantly, allows chal-
lenging them. This way, the students can rec-
tify themselves and can evaluate where they
went wrong.
T he International School of
Design launches a Masters
Diploma programme in Luxury
Brand Management. The course
aims to help students learn and
adapt the skills essential for under-
standing the journey of a luxury
product and giving it a voice
through branding elements. The
course duration is 12 months and
is starting from mid-January 2021
at the INSD Paschim Vihar
Campus.
Speaking on the launch of the
course, Harsh Mann, Program
Luxury Brand Management is a
new concept for the education
industry in India. It is one of the
least explored segment as it is con-
sidered to be expensive, few col-
leges able to offer high quality edu-
cation. There is a lack of qualified
individuals with a solid foundation
in technical and managerial skills.
We at INSD, have turned it as an
opportunity for students where we
are bringing courses that will help
carve a niche for oneself and
impart first-hand knowledge
regarding the rapidly proliferating
Asian and Indian luxury markets.”
luxury verticals individually and
extensively — fashion, hospitality,
lifestyle, automobile, and real
estate. These courses will offer
intricate working of the luxury
industry around the world and the
psychology behind why it is a cov-
eted thing.
The fee structure is competi-
tive in the market and registration
has already started where the stu-
dents will have to go through a reg-
istration process by getting them-
selves registered on
insd.edu.in/luxury-brand-man-
agement.
T ypeset, an integrated plat-
form for writing, collabo-
rating, and publishing
research papers has joined
hands with Turnitin to
become a full-service plagia-
rism checking resource for
writers, researchers, educa-
tors, and students.
The integration creates an
authoring platform for setting
up scientific or educational
papers, complete with text
similarity checks. Typeset
made the move to integrate
the writing process easier.
With over 100,000 journal
templates, researchers and
authors can write papers and
articles in the appropriate and
expected format—without the
need to worry about typeset-
ting and style.
“It has been a true pleasure
partnering with Turnitin. We
are especially thankful for
Mark Harnor at Turnitin, who
helped us through the inte-
gration workflow,” said
SaiKiran Chandha, Founder
and CEO of Typeset.
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T
he COVID-19 pandemic is
a paradigm of humans
learning to adapt new ways
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of life and change nature of day

to day operations. The way online
space has taken over academic
and non-academic learning, busi-
ness operations, exchange of
information, there is no going
back for most.
E-learning has effectively
blended institutional learning as
well as professional upskilling,
while maintaining a nuanced
approach for all. The openness of
individuals and corporates to
understand and analyse the
impact of edtech has broaden the
scope for the industry. While the
platforms have a gush of cours-
es, selecting the right fit can be
challenging.
With the help of this checklist,
you will be able to set yourself on
the path of a successful online
learning experience.
GOAL SETTING
Assess and opt for an online
course that elevates your growth
trajectory. Finding a course that
meets all expectations can be a
tedious process, hence it is
important to filter your criteria.
It is important that individuals
should be able to determine the
reason for choosing a particular
course — to become employable,
to crack a competitive exam or
just a new hobby. This will ensure
that the time and amount spent
is adequately used.
Whereas, corporates and
entrepreneurs should evaluate
who needs the course and why,
for example, a marketing team
might need a training for digital
marketing while leadership might
need resilience training.
Think about why do you
need a certain course and how
will it strike your growth ambit
in the short or long run.
COURSE CREDIBILITY
Accreditation is like a pro-
tective layer for your online
course and can help you mark a
difference between good and
brilliant coaches and platform.
Identify your skill gap and look
for a skill set that will enhance
your capability and augment
your operations.
Picking up non-academical
course help in adding an edge to
overall persona, hence select a
platform that offer certified
course of courses by certified
coaches. The course must offer
valuable course material, inter-
active classes and a more trust-
ed experience with personalised
attention.
EXPERTS AND METHODOLOGY
While browsing the e-learn-
ing learning platform, keep an
eye on course variety and its ped-
agogy. It is ideal to enroll into
non-traditional courses like
Artificial Intelligence, Data
Science, Machine Learning
alongside leadership and soft
skills. While researching, look for
platforms that offer live courses
with expert coaches instead of
just pre-recorded lectures. Live
courses amplify learning and
ensures effective engagement
between the learner and the
coach.
Coaches are the backbone of
any e-learning platform, there-
fore seek for coaches who are
CWTT\TaVT]RT experts in the domain and whose
^U\d[cX_[T insight is not only academic but
offer comprehensive insight.
X]Sdbcah_[PhTab
WPbT]PQ[TS FLEXIBILITY & AFFORDABILITY
The online platforms foster
[TPa]Tabc^ independent learning. Online
platform should be able to design
XST]cXUhP]S a course journey for the learner.
SXbcX]VdXbW Considering factors like user
interface, course accessibility
_[PcU^a\bX] post completion, course avail-
PRR^aSP]RTfXcW ability in low internet band-
width, etc. are imperative as it
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_aXRT;TPa]Tab ence. To ensure effective learning
for corporates, platform should
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STcTa\X]X]VcWT industry players has enabled
ch_T^UR^dabT learners to identify and distin-
guish platforms in accordance
with quality and price. Learners
should calculate the ROI by
determining the type of course.
For example, due to
increased demand, digital mar-
keting courses have suddenly
surged prices, however, explore
platforms that offer the same
course at competitive prices.
Very often there are hidden costs
embedded into the format of a
course, hence one must read
reviews and do a diligent research
before investing.
Often online learning plat-
forms overpass the approximately
15 per cent of the billion popu-
lation in the world, this popula-
tion is specially-abled who need
dedicated coaches and platforms
for better future. Talented indi-
viduals with certain disability are
masters of multiple traditional
and non-traditional subjects.
Find platforms that carter to
varied audience to experience
holistic learning. An excellent e-
learning course is an eminent
opportunity to be in control of
your destiny.
CWTfaXcTaXb24>BcaPcTVXR6a^fcW
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T
he COVID-19 pushed entire
India into lockdown in March
including schools and colleges, to
prevent the spread of the deadly virus.
The entire education system was
brought to a halt. Now, the lockdown
has been lifted gradually but there is no
certainty in when the educational
institutions will re-open.
The present pandemic has opened
the gateway to a new wave in the edu-
cation industry. While most sectors are
struggling to keep up with lesser
demands in the pandemic, the edtech
industry is seeing a significant increase
in their consumer base.
The new changes in the National
Education Policy (NEP) rolled out by
the UC are prominent aspects of this
wave. The policies have altered the
entire education system that was being EXeTZ6
6Pda
followed in the country since decades 24>R^U^d]STa^U?aT_>][X]T
by modifying the existing 10+2 model
by 5+3+3+4 format. Another major dents to be enriched in multiple disci-
change is diminishing the rigid bound- plines. The digital shift is influencing
aries between the three streams- arts, parents and students to enrol in tech-
commerce, science, now students are oriented short-term courses such as
free to choose their set of subjects. All designing, coding, and many more.
these changes have created a new type With the current situation and con-
of learning — experimental learning sumer behaviour patterns, concise
which emphasizes on critical thinking learning is certainly the future.
with discovery-based, discussion-based Concise learning helps students in
and analysis-based learning, eliminat- practical learning and improves their
ing the concept of carrying heavy
books to schools.
understanding, self-organisation and
time-management. It keeps them
The new wave of education has engaged and motivated and enhances
come as a breath of fresh air for most
students but also as an obstacle for oth-
independent learning. Concise learn-
ing benefits students by improving their
ers. Quality education for all sectors of active learning, it eliminates the time
society has been an on-going battle in that is wasted while passively studying.
India. UNESCO stated that around 320 Students do not feel the need to cram
million learners in the country have their books and ultimately ace their
been impacted by the pandemic, the exams. With concise learning, students
majority of them belong to socially dis- can focus more on topics that are dif-
advantaged backgrounds. ficult for them to understand instead
On the other hand, concise learn- of going through the entire lesson. It
ing and the freedom of choice has given also maintains the curiosity in students
a chance for students to elect their
courses, teachers, and tune into video
and motivates them to solve problems.
In other words, concise learning is
lessons according to their needs. With effective and meaningful learning.
the abundance of courses that are
available online, learning more in less
We offer online live classes, along
with class and subject-specific course
time is the need of the hour. Parents, content and Test series. The dedicated
the key decision-makers want their
children to stay ahead of time and
and experienced team of tutors sup-
ports students through both online and
expand their learning capacities. offline mediums with its course mate-
Education is no more limited to a sin- rial available on the app, YouTube and
gle field of study; current times ask stu- the website.

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T
he British Council
invites applications for
scholarship to support
women and girls in STEM
around the world. Each of
these scholarships covers full
requirement.
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Return to your country of
citizenship for a minimum of
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P__[XRPcX^]fX[[WT[_cWTUPa\TabX] WPbQTT]cTbcTSU^acWT_PbccWaTT
two years after your scholarship
award has ended.
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You are required to show in 2>;;464 PRcXeXcXTbQhcWTR[XRZ^UPbX]V[TQdcc^] TbcPcTb=TPa[h!$UPa\TabWPeTP[aTPSh
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tuition fees, monthly stipends,
a return economy class ticket
and other study-related costs
like IELTS exam fee, visa appli-
cation, NHS surcharge and
study materials.
No of scholarships for
Indian students: 1
your application that you are
active in the field with work
experience or with a proven
interest in the programme area
you are applying for.
You are willing to demon-
strate future contribution to
capacity-building and socio-
>
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Eligibility: To be eligible
for the scholarships for women
in STEM, you must: Be a
woman (cis-gendered or trans)
or identify as non-binary.
Be a passport holder and
permanent resident of one of
the eligible countries — India.
Have submitted an appli-
cation to study on one of the
eligible University of
Strathclyde postgraduate pro-
grammes.
Have completed all com-
economic advancement
through the benefits achieved
after graduating from UK high-
er education and returning
your home country.
You must demonstrate a
plan and passion to engage
other women and girls in
STEM from your home coun-
try.
You agree that your per-
sonal data being shared with
the British Council as a condi-
tion of applying for the bursary.
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ponents of an UG degree that
will enable you to gain entry
onto a PG programme at the
University of Strathclyde.
Demonstrate a case for
financial support need via a
means-test conducted by the
University of Strathclyde.
Have not previously stud-
ied at degree level or higher in
the UK or lived recently in the
UK.
You must not be in receipt
If you are awarded a schol-
arship, you agree to maintain
contact with the British
Council and act as an ambas-
sador for the UK and engage
with activities as part of a
STEM alumnus. Any involve-
ment in these activities during
your study in the UK will take
up no more than five hours per
term.
Application deadline: It
is March 1, 2021.
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T he legendary Sunil Gavaskar feels the

Indian team management should pre-
fer an aggressive Rishabh Pant over a tech-
nically sound Wriddhiman Saha for the
how Gill has shaped up.
“I’ve been in Sydney the last couple of
days, watching the Indian team against
Australia A. I was impressed with Gill,” said
the former Australia captain.
“I really think he’s got something
wicket-keeper’s role in the four-match Test about him, his technique. I know he’s young

F
ormer Australia captain
Allan Border believes a
fully fit Jasprit Bumrah
will be the key to India’s
prospects of retaining the four-
match Test series Down Under.
Calling himself a big fan of
the India pace spearhead,
Border said Bumrah has the
potential to make a difference
between the two sides in the
much-anticipated rubber, start-
ing in Adelaide from Thursday.
“Well I am a huge fan of
Bumrah. If he keeps himself fit.
We are talking of a guy who can
win games for you fellows. I
worry about him because on
our pitches you get a little bit
of bounce and sideways move-
ment,” said Border.
“For India to win, I am
worried about Bumrah. If he
fires up like he did last time, get
important wickets, ruffle a few
feathers with the ball, I reckon
he could be the real difference,”
he added ahead of the series.
Bumrah accounted for 21
wickets in four matches in
2018-19, playing a key role in
India’s first-ever Test series
win in Australia.
“You always think that
your batting line-up will get
enough runs, you need the 20
wickets to win the Test. If he
stays fit, he is the one who is
going to be a key,” the former
Australia skipper added.
From Australia’s point of
8]SXP]_PRTa9Pb_aXc1d\aPWRT[TQaPcTbPUcTaWTSXb\Xbb0dbcaP[XP]QPcb\P]BWPd]<PabW[QfSdaX]V"aSCTbc^U! ' (
1^aSTa6PePbZPaca^_WhbTaXTbPc<T[Q^da]T2aXRZTc6a^d]S
“So he will want to hit the
ground running at Adelaide
and try and get India off to a
flying start and see what hap-
pens from there,” he said.
“It’s hard to replace anyone
like him. So we have to wait
and see the impact it has but
0?5X[T??XRcdaT
surely the Aussies will be
favourites for the games where
he is not playing. That is for
sure.”
series against Australia, starting Thursday.
Gavaskar said that with a blistering 73-
ball 103-run knock in the second warm-up
game under his belt, Pant will give India
more flexibility in the first Test, the only day-
night game, to be played in Adelaide.
“It is going to be a tough one for the tour
selection committee because Rishabh played
in all the 4 Test matches four years ago. He
also got a hundred and seemed he got under
the skin of the Australian players with his
chirping behind the stumps.
“...When you just came off a hundred
few days earlier, he would be the choice of
the management I think,” Gavaskar said.
Gavaskar said he preferred Pant over a
more-accomplished keeper in Saha, as
Australian pitches are not so demanding
when it comes to keeping wickets.
“When you are playing on pitches
where the wicketkeeper has to stand upto
the stumps, where the ball turns out a lit-
tle bit that’s when you tend to take your best
wicketkeeper, in which case Wriddhiman
Saha would be the obvious choice,” he
explained.
“But here, India will having pacers
where you can stand behind and have lit-
tle more time, my feeling is that they will
go for Rishabh,” Gavaskar said while pre-
viewing the series named after him and
Allan Border.
Both Gavaskar and Border batted for
Shubman Gill over Prithvi Shaw to open
along side Mayank Agarwal in the series.
“...India is a little bit shaky at the top of
the order. They don’t know who they are
going to go with. Mayank Agarwal is of
course a certainty. But who’s the other open-
er — Shubman Gill or Prithvi Shaw?” said
Gavaskar.
“So with uncertainty at the top, they
would like to strengthen their batting and
so Rishabh Pant will play. I am hoping he
(Rishabh) plays at 6 because then that will
allow you to pick 5 bowlers to try and get
20 Australian wickets,” he added.
In the two warm-up games, Gill’s
scores — 0, 29, 43, 65 — got better with
every knock while Shaw — with scores of
0, 19, 40, 3 — looked out of sorts.
And Border was mighty impressed by
so he can play a few rash shots here and
there, but he looks a seriously good play-
er, this kid. He would be my pick out of the
guys I saw.
“I know you guys (rate) Shaw but it
seems to me like he plays a shot-a-ball.
Against the new ball, he looks good on flat
tracks, but in Australia, you’ve got to be a
little bit more watchful about your shot
selection,” he added.
Gavaskar agreed with Border and said
Shaw needs to get back to the drawing board
and work on his weaknesses — inconsis-
tency and poor shot selection.
“I think he’s (Shaw) got to spend a lit-
tle more time assessing his batting. Because
as an opening batsman, you’ve got to give
yourself time to see what the pitch is doing,
see what the bowlers are doing,” he said.
“Trying to bat the way he’s batting at the
moment is not going to make him a con-
sistent player. Yes, he’s going to make runs
once in a while but he’s got to tighten up
his defence.”
Gavaskar, however, was pretty sure
about other opener, saying Mayank Agarwal
is the player to watch out for in the series.
“For me the player to watch out for
from India will be Mayank Aggarwal. He
came to Australia for the last couple of Test
matches two years ago and he actually,
showed the way because till then India had
not got any start,” the Little Master said.
“He showed how to tackle Nathan
Lyon. He has gone from strength to
strength. Look at the season he had last year,
where he scored a double hundred against
South Africa.
“So he’s the guy I really am looking for-
ward to in this series,” Gavaskar added.

C]YdX\UQfUc`bQSdYSU :HKDYHDWWDFNWRJHWZLFNHWV 5DKDQH

view, Border picked young
all-rounder Cameroon Green
as the player to watch out for
in the series.
“For Australia, Cameroon
Green, he is a really good
young cricketer. He is some-
one to watch. He ia big tall lad
and his batting is really good,
gives the ball good whack
and he’s got great technique,”
he said.
B order also said the
Indians will feel the absence of
Virat Kohli once he returns
home after the opening Test to
attend to the birth of his first
child.
“I agree, there will be a
huge gap in that line-up — just
his (Kohli’s) presence around
that team and out on the
field. I think the Aussies will
really enjoy that they don’t
have to bowl to him for three
of the Test matches.
UQb\iTeUd_c_bURQS[
Adelaide: Australia’s batsman
Steve Smith on Tuesday missed
a crucial net session due to a sore
back as the home team’s tumul-
tuous build-up to the four-
match Test series experienced
another major injury scare.
After having warmed up for
10 minutes with his teammates
by doing a few stretching exer-
cises and running drills at the
Adelaide Oval, Smith skipped
the routine football session and
headed straight to the dressing
room in some discomfort after
tweaking his back while bend-
ing down to pick up a ball.
The day-night first Test
starts here from Thursday and
Smith is not expected to return
to training until at least
Wednesday. According to the
Australian media, a team
spokesman said the 31-year-old
is likely to bat at the nets on
Wednesday and there is no
doubt about his availability for
the much-anticipated series
opener. PTI
?C8Q 034;0834
I ndia vice-captain Ajinkya
Rahane on Tuesday conced-
ed that pacer Ishant Sharma’s
absence is a “big miss” but side-
stepped queries on his team’s
possible first XI combination for
the opening Day/Night Test
against Australia.
“I think, we do really have
a strong attack but yes we will
definitely miss Ishant, being the
senior fast bowler,” Rahane,
who is expected to lead in the
last three Tests after regular
skipper Virat Kohli goes on
paternity leave, said during a
virtual press conference.
Ishant is recovering from a
rib injury sustained during the
IPL.
Rahane, however, is confi-
dent that despite Ishant’s
absence, the pace attack com-
prising Jasprit Bumrah and
Mohammed Shami will step it
up for the Australians.
“The guys who are here
Umesh (Yadav), (Navdeep)
Sani, (Mohammed) Siraj with
Jasprit (Bumrah) and
(Mohammed) Shami, they are
all really good and experienced
and they know how to bowl in
these conditions,” he said.
“...This is a new series start-
ing with the Pink ball, so it is all
about getting that momentum,
but I do believe that we have the
attack to get 20 wickets,” he said.
On the possible opening
combination among the four
available options (Mayank
Agar wal, Prithvi Shaw,
Shubman Gill and KL Rahul)
and two options for wicket-
keeping (Wriddhiman Saha
and Rishabh Pant), Rahane
said a decision will be taken
on the eve of the match.
“See, we have still not
decided what’s our combina-
tion going to be. We will sit
tomorrow (Wednesday),
there is another day to go, one
more practice session to go,
we will sit tomorrow
(Wednesday) and discuss
what’s our combination,”
Kohli’s deputy said.
“...But see whoever plays, it
is going to be like, everyone is
equally there, everyone is equal-
ly talented, whoever plays, they
can win the match for us, so it
is all about trusting our players,”
Rahane said.
He also didn’t give any
definitive answer on what
would be senior spinner
Ravichandran Ashwin’s role
although he did acknowl-
edge that his all-round skills
will be very handy going into
the first Test.

8UUXc6aTT]fX[[STQdceb8]SXP GUµ\\XQfU_eb`\Q^cY^ D:?8=6D

?C8Q 034;0834 to show faith in opener Burns
— who has managed a meagre `\QSUV_b;_X\Y* <Q^WUb
P romising all-rounder
Cameron Green will make
his Test debut against India in
62 runs in nine innings this sea-
son.
“He is a very good player,
?C8Q 034;0834 know how important he is for India as
a leader and as a batsman. So, we will
the series-opening day-night
match here if he clears the con-
cussion protocols, Australian
you don’t lose your talent
overnight, he also understands
that runs are the greatest cur-
A ustralia coach Justin Langer on
Tuesday asserted that his team will
“have plans in place” for Indian talis-
have our plans in place.
“The next trick is to execute them,
hopefully, keep him out of the game
coach Justin Langer said on rency or value to any player. man Virat Kohli as cricket’s heavy- with his runs. At the end of the day,
Tuesday. “He has been a bit lied on, weights renew one of the sport’s great- that’s where he is going to have the
While Langer has still not but we will have a look, get eyes est rivalries with the opening day-night biggest impact. We’ve seen a lot of him
ruled out the woefully out of on him today, we will see how Test. now, and he has seen a lot of us too,” =TfITP[P]S_[PhTab0\hBPccTacWfPXcT[TUc;TPCPWdWdaXVWc
P]SU^a\TaP[[a^d]STaAXRWPaS7PS[TT_^bTP[^]VbXSTcWT822
?d]cTabcXRZX]V form Joe Burns, Matthew Wade
is shaping as a potential open-
er if Green does not make it.
he is going, have a chat with him
today and we will make our
decision on who is going to
The four-match series
opener at Adelaide Oval on
Thursday will be the only
Langer said.
Langer also made it clear that
his team will focus more on the
F^\T]bF^a[S2d_!!!Ca^_Wh^] CdTbSPh /RaXRZTcf^a[SRd_
SCHEDULE ANNOUNCED FOR 2022 WOMEN'S WC
fXcW1da]bU^a Green suffered a mild con-
cussion after being hit on the
open in the next day or so,” said
Langer.
time Kohli will play Test
Down Under this summer
skill part and look for ways to get
Kohli out instead of needlessly
Dubai: 8]SXPfX[[^_T]cWTXaRP\_PXV]X]cWTaTbRWTSd[TS
F^\T]b>38F^a[S2d_PVPX]bcP`dP[XUXTa^]<PaRW%

bcCTbc head by a shot from Jasprit

Bumrah in the pink ball warm-
up match. He was replaced
The former Australia play-
er also made clear that Marnus
Labuschagne would not open
as he will return home
after the game to attend
the birth of his first child.
engaging with him.
“What we talk about is
how to get Virat out. He
!!!PcCPdaP]VPb1Ph>eP[X]=TfITP[P]SPRR^aSX]V
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?C8Q <4;1>DA=4 under the sport’s concussion the batting. Langer, however, is is such a great player, we ^]<PaRW !P]S<PaRW!!PcBTSS^]_PaZ7P\X[c^]X]
rules and has since been mon- “Talking about Marnus, he determined to stop Kohli don’t talk about whether cWT TXVWccTP\ a^d]Sa^QX] U^a\Pc TeT]c 0\^]V cWT

F ormer Australia skipper

Ricky Ponting wants the
team management to show faith
in under-fire Joe Burns and
retain him in the Test series
opener against India.
The 31-year-old Burns has
been going through a terrible
phase, having scored just 62 runs
at 6.89 with a highest score of 29
in his last nine first-class innings.
He scored 4, 0, 0, 1 in his last
itored by Cricket Australia’s
medical staff.
“If he’s passed fit he’ll defi-
nitely play,” Langer said.
“We are just going through
the protocols. He had another
test this morning which we got
good news on. He’s a terrific
,W¶VWLPH6PLWKUHWXUQVDV
young bloke, obviously an excel-
lent talent, he’s earned the right
for selection through his perfor-
mances.
Another call that the home
team needs to make is whether
won’t be opening, he has done
an amazing job at number
three. Steve Smith does an
amazing job at number four.
We’ll try and stay as settled as
possible while Davy (Warner) is
injured. We’ve got some tough
decisions to make.”
?X]ZQP[[iX_b\^aTd]STa[XVWcb)2d\\X]b
from setting the tone
for the series.
“He is a great
we taunt him or not.
That’s rubbish... We play
on the skill, not on emo-
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4]V[P]S ^] <PaRW % 8]SXP fX[[ cWT] UPRT 0dbcaP[XP Pc
player and an equally tions, at least we try to.” 4ST]?PaZ0dRZ[P]S^]<PaRW (QTU^aT[^RZX]VW^a]b
great leader. I have got “There is obviously emo- fXcW B^dcW 0UaXRP ^] <PaRW !& Pc 7PV[Th >eP[
so much respect for him but tion in the game, no doubt 2WaXbcRWdaRW CWT TeT]c fWXRW fPb _^bc_^]TS SdT c^
we are going to be really well about that, we are going to cWT2^eXS (_P]ST\XRX]5TQadPah<PaRW!! fXcWcWT
planned for him because we control our emotions.” bP\T bXg W^bc RXcXTb P]S eT]dTb aTcPX]TS fX[[ QT WT[S
QTcfTT]<PaRW#P]S0_aX["!!!
YUVI, SREE IN PROBABLES FOR MUSHTAQ ALI
New Delhi: F^a[SRd_fX]]X]VU^a\Ta8]SXPP[[a^d]STa

2]FDSWDLQ 0DUN :DXJK

four innings during the two
warm-up games ahead of the
four-Test series against India.
“I’m sticking with Joe Burns.
I’ve heard a lot of suggestions
that he hasn’t scored enough
runs to stay in the side but I’m
keeping him in there,” Ponting
said on Channel Seven.
“He made 40 in his last Test
innings, he’s made four Test hun-
dreds, averages almost 40 — I’m
sticking with him and showing
some faith. I think he’s good
enough to get through it.”
“What Marcus Harris has-
n’t done is score (Test) hundreds
— (his) highest score is 70-odd,
(whereas) Joe Burns can score
Test match hundreds. I’m stick-
ing with him,” Ponting said.
Ponting also believes that
wicketkeeper-batsman Matthew
Wade should be elevated to the
opener’s role, which will pave the
way for 21-year-old all-rounder
Cameron Green’s inclusion in
the playing XI.
Melbourne: Former batsman
Mark Waugh believes Steve
Smith has repented enough for
his role in the ball-tampering
scandal and needs to be hand-
ed Australia’s Test captaincy
after the retirement of incum-
bent Tim Paine.
Smith was removed from
captaincy due to his involvement
in the scandal in 2018.
However, ahead of the four-
Test series against India, there
has been discussions and debates
on whether it was time to rein-
state Smith as captain.
“I would have made Steve
Smith captain. He is one of the
best players in the team, so he
is always going to be picked in
the team,” Waugh said on Fox
Sports’ Heavy Roller Podcast.
“Plus he has captained
Australia for a number of years.
He’s got a great cricket brain and
I think he is a leader, so why
not?”
Smith had captained
Australia in 34 Tests, 51 ODIs
and 8 T20Is between 2015 and
2018 before being banned.
“I know a lot of people say
why should he captain again?
But hang on the crime has been
paid for as minor as I thought
it was,” Waugh said.
“He’s paid his penance there,
so he gets back to captain. I think
he is a pretty good captain.”
However, spin legend Shane
Warne believes Smith’s time as
captain is up and he should just
focus on amassing runs for the
country.
“I wouldn’t (make him cap-
tain), I think Steve Smith has
had his time. I would go with
someone else as captain. Steve
Smith we want to bat and bat,”
Warne said. PTI
?C8Q 034;0834
A ustralia pace spearhead Pat
Cummins feels the series open-
er against India will test the tactical
acumen of the captains as day-night
matches move at a “slightly different
pace” with the pink ball zipping
around a bit more under lights.
Australia have won each of
their four day-night Test matches so
far. India, on the other hand, have
played just one pink ball Test, win-
ning it convincingly against
Bangladesh last year.
Cummins, who played for
Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL,
said there is always a sense of excite-
ment when they approach a pink ball
Test. “... We are just a little bit, won’t
say nervous but excited, knowing
that the game moves at a slightly dif-
ferent pace to a normal Test match.
You can have some sessions under
the lights where the balls just zip
around,” Cummins told kkr.In.
“After dinner, when the light
takes effect, just for whatever reason
it seems like the ball zips around a
bit more.
“You can have some periods in
a Test match a bit like a one-dayer,
where the ball doesn’t swing, does-
n’t seam and all of a sudden out of
nowhere, it starts zipping around
under the lights.
“It’s just another dynamic of the
game. It’s a tactic that the captains
have to manage — when to bat and
when to bowl,” Cummins said.
India had registered their first-
ever Test series win on Australian
soil in 2018-19. But the home side
didn’t have two of their top batsmen
— David Warner and Steve Smith —
in that series as they were serving
their ball-tampering bans.
Cummins said with the duo
back in the squad, it will hold them
in good stead in the series.
“We like to pride ourselves in
winning all our home series. So yeah,
definitely been looking forward to
this one for a couple of years now.
India had a better side than us a cou-
ple of years ago ... Even though we
shared patches I think overall, we
were outplayed by them in that
series,” he said.
“David and Smith coming back
into the side, they are two of the best
batters in the world, so of course it
helps. We’ve also got a couple of
younger guys who have now become
really mature players like Travis
Head, Marnus Labuschagne etc. So
that’s a big help.”
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