MUMBAI/METRO
Monday, February 15, 2021
n VOL. XVII NO. 38
{ FIRST TIME SINCE JANUARY 6 } 39-DAY HIGH
Maha reports over
4K new Covid cases
Swapnil Rawal
swapnil.rawal@hindustantimes.com
MUMBAI: Maharashtra on Sun-
day recorded 4,092 Covid-19
infections, first in excess of 4,000
since January 6, taking its tally to
2,064,278. The 39-day high came
after the state averaged around
3,500 new cases for the past four
days. Mumbai, meanwhile,
reported over 600 cases after 31
days with 645 fresh infections.
The city last saw over 600 cases
in a day on January 14. The rise
is particularly noticeable in the
Mumbai Metropolitan Region
(MMR) and it is being attributed
to resumption in local train ser-
vices, lifting of most curbs and
laxity in Covid-appropriate
behaviour.
As of Sunday, there were
35,965 active cases in the state.
The positivity rate in the state
has been over 13% for the past 18
days, data showed. Mumbai’s
total tally rose to 314,076, while
the city’s active cases count
stood at 4,193.
The state reported 40 fatali-
ties on Sunday, taking the toll to
51,529. Mumbai reported four
deaths, taking its toll to 11,419. Of
the 40 deaths reported, 15
occurred in the past 48 hours
Uttarakhand: 12 bodies found,
no trace of 154 people still
Kalyan Das
kalyan.das@htlive.com
DEHRADUN: Rescue personnel
on Sunday recovered the bodies
of five people trapped in the
1.7-kilometre-long main tunnel
of NTPC Limited’s hydropower
project in Uttarakhand’s Cham-
oli district, and found seven
more elsewhere, taking the con-
firmed death toll to 50 in the
devastating flash floods trig-
Ashwin puts India in driver’s seat
India’s R Ashwin appeals for the wicket of England’s Dom Sibley during the 2nd day of the second
Test match in Chennai on Sunday. India built a commanding lead of 249 after the spinner helped
skittle the visitors for 134 in their first innings.
ACTOR-BIZMAN
HELD IN MONEY
LAUNDERING CASE
Sachiin Joshi HT FILE
Vijay Kumar Yadav
vijaykumar.yadav@htlive.com
MUMBAI: The Enforcement
Directorate (ED) on Sunday
arrested businessman and actor
Sachiin Joshi, 36, for his alleged
involvement in laundering ₹100
crore in the business activities of
Omkar Developers, one of the
key builders in Mumbai, said
sources.
The ED has been questioning
Joshi for two consecutive days
and he has been charged under
relevant sections of the Preven-
tion of Money Laundering Act
(PMLA).
He will be produced in the
PMLA court on Monday.
continued on →7
A health worker takes a swab sample of a passenger at Mumbai
Central on Sunday.
and seven in the past week. The
remaining 18 deaths were from
the period before last week.
Cases in MMR, including
Mumbai and cities like Nagpur,
Nashik and Pune, have wit-
nessed a spurt over the past two
weeks.
The daily caseload of MMR
touched 1,141 on February 14, up
from 592 on February 1. The rise
in these two weeks in Pune (353
from 102), Nashik (122 from 45)
and Nagpur (437 from 200), too,
was sharp.
continued on →10
gered by a rockslide and the for-
mation of a glacial lake in the
mountainous terrain.
At least 154 more people are
still missing exactly a week after
the flash floods, which were
immediately followed by the
launch of the rescue operation.
Around 35 people had been
trapped inside the main tunnel
and a smaller underground tun-
nel located beneath it.
The five bodies in the tunnel
{ IMPEACHMENT TRIAL } SENATE VOTES 57-43
Trump acquitted,
hints at return
to public life
Yashwant Raj
yashwant.raj@hindustantimes.com
WASHINGTON : Former president
Donald Trump was acquitted on
Saturday, with not enough sena-
tors voting to convict him of
inciting the riot at the US Capitol
on January 6. He will still go
down in history as the only
American president to have
been impeached twice, and
acquitted twice.
The motion to convict Trump
for the riot received 57 “guilty”
verdicts, with seven Republicans
joining all the 50 Democrats; and
43 “not guilty”, by all the remain-
ing Republicans. A conviction,
which would have barred him
from holding any federal office
in future, required 67 votes, or
two-thirds of the 100-member
chamber.
“While the final vote did not
ANSHUMAN POYREKAR/HT PHOTO
GETTING BACK
ON TRACK
Some things have
changed: timings are
staggered, Covid-19
protocols are in place.
Some things haven’t:
people still crowd the
footboard. A fortnight on,
5 Mumbaiites explain what
it feels like to use the city’s
lifeline after nearly a year
of suspended service. →P4
were recovered after the rescue
workers cleared slush inside to
a distance of about 130 metres.
Chamoli’s district magistrate
Swati S Bhadauria said: “In the
morning two bodies were first
recovered inside the tunnel
after clearing the muck to a dis-
tance of about 125-130 metres.
Following that, three more bod-
ies were recovered till Sunday
afternoon.”
continued on →10
Story on page 12 PTI
Donald Trump REUTERS
lead to a conviction, the sub-
stance of the charge is not in dis-
pute,” President Joe Biden said.
“This sad chapter in our history
has reminded us that democracy
is fragile. That it must always be
defended. That we must be ever
vigilant. That violence and
extremism has no place in
America. And that each of us has
a duty and responsibility as
Americans, and especially as
leaders, to defend the truth and
to defeat the lies.” →P10
 MUMBAI
MONDAY
FEBRUARY 15, 2021

Number Theory
Rural demand engine
choking once again?
By Roshan Kishore
When India announced an almost complete lockdown beginning on
March 25, 2020 to prevent the spread of Covid-19 infections, economic
activity suffered a sharp disruption. So much so that even the nation’s
air and rivers became the cleanest they had been in years. The only
sector that was an exception to this disruption was agriculture. With
expected growth of 3.4% in 2020-21, it has emerged as a critical buffer
for an economy that is set to suffer its biggest contraction ever in the
financial year ending March. Agriculture’s performance has been
critical for both maintaining supplies as well as sustaining rural
demand. Recently released high-frequency indicators suggest that the
rural demand story might be heading into rough weather once again.
The biggest reason for this seems to be the usual culprit, a worsening
of the terms of trade against farmers. However, the weakness in labour
markets in the cities is also contributing to the crisis. Here are four
points that explain these trends.

Food inflation has collapsed, but non-food

1 prices continue to rise
According to the Consumer Price Index
(CPI) data for January, which was
FOOD AND NON-FOOD INFLATION GROWTH
released on February 12, food inflation YoY Change (in %) CPI Food CPI Non-Food Component
has collapsed in the past two months.
20
It grew 9.5% in November 2020, 3.4% in
December 2020 and fell to 1.9% in
15
January 2021. Non-food inflation, on
the other hand, continues to increase,
the respective numbers being 5.2%, 10
5.4% and 5.5%.
The developing situation is the stark 5
opposite of what existed in the past
year or so when food inflation had 0
been higher than non-food inflation.
This entails a worsening of the terms -5
of trade, or the ratio of prices of
products they sell and buy, for the Jan-12 Jan-21
farmers. Source: CMIE

2 Fall in food inflation is being driven by items

which matter in the agri-production basket
The sharp moderation in food prices, to be sure, is not a secular trend. While prices of vegetables have fallen sharply,
and cereal prices remain flat, prices of other food items such as pulses, edible oils and meat products continue to rise in
double digits. This means that the economic pain of worsening terms of trade vis-a-vis the food sector is confined to
those who produce cereals and vegetables. An analysis of crop-wise share in the value of output in agriculture shows
that cereals and vegetables are the most important component: they account for more than half of India’s agricultural
production basket. This means that the numbers of farmers who would gain from a rise in prices of pulses and edible
oil would be much smaller than those who are suffering because of the weakness in vegetable and cereal prices.

CATEGORY-WISE FOOD INFLATION AND SHARE IN VALUE

OF OUTPUT IN THE CROP SECTOR
Inflation YoY growth in January 2021 (in %) Share in crop-wise value of output (in %)
Oils and fats 19.7 Fruits & Vegetables 28.2
Pulses and products 13.4 Cereals 27.2
Egg, fish and meat 12.6 Oilseeds 8.0
Spices 9.0 Sugars 6.4
Fruits 5.0 Pulses 5.3
Milk and products 2.7 Condiments & spices 4.8
Cereals and products 0.1
-0.3 Sugar and condiments
-15.8 Vegetables Source: CMIE Source: National Account Statistics, 2018-19 values

3 Real rural wages have been contracting

for four months now
Monthly data on rural wages is the only
government statistic to track labour markets
REAL RURAL WAGES
on a high-frequency level. Given the practice of YoY growth (in %)
large-scale rural migration of unskilled workers, Real agricutlural wage Real non-agricultural wage
rural wages are considered to be a good proxy 4
of conditions in urban labour markets as well.
Real rural wages have been contracting 3
continuously between August 2020 and
November 2020 − the latest period for which 2
data is available. When read with the fact that 1
the October and November contraction has
come on the back of an already low base, real 0
rural wages contracted continuously between -1
October 2019 and March 2020, the situation
seems to be even more alarming. That -2
non-agricultural wages have been falling at a
-3
faster pace than agricultural wages suggests
that continuing weakness in urban markets – it -4
is non-agricultural work which these labourers
-5
go and perform in cities – might be generating
Jan-18 Nov-20
headwinds for wages in rural areas. Source: CMIE

4 RBI consumer confidence survey data corroborates

the urban labour market weakness story
While India does not have an official source of
high-frequency data on employment, the Reserve Bank
CURRENT PERCEPTION ON INCOME
of India’s Consumer Confidence Surveys (CCS) offer an AND EMPLOYMENT
insight into prevailing sentiment vis-a-vis employment Percentage responses
and incomes in the cities. The CCS is conducted every
Improved Remained same Worsened
two months in the 13 biggest cities of India, the latest
round having been done in January 2021. Among other 100
things, the CCS seeks responses on perception around
incomes and employment compared to a year ago. On 80
both these counts, the share of respondents who
reported a deterioration far exceeded those who 60
reported an improvement, dragging the net perception
into negative territory. The fact that things have not
improved despite removal of lockdown restrictions and 40
economic activity related private indices such a
Purchasing Managers’ Indices and the Nomura India 20
Business Resumption Index doing very well suggests
that employment and wages continue to be weak even 0
though production might be improving. Sept-12 Jan-21
Source: RBI

To be sure, experts have underlined the upside bias many
high-frequency indicators including quarterly gross
domestic product ( GDP) numbers could have. “Quarterly
GDP data is less representative of informal sector, it could
underestimate the extent of economic disruption and
permanent scarring”, said a note by Samiran Chakraborty,
chief economist India of Citi Research, while upgrading
the growth forecast for 2020-21 GDP. Nomura economists
Sonal Varma and Aurodeep Nandi noted that “labour and
weak private capex conditions remain drags over
(growth in) the medium term”.
“A collapse in vegetable prices and cereal incomes
being flat at a time when non-food prices are rising
will put a squeeze on farm incomes and hence rural
demand. The fact that increased duties in petrol-diesel
are major contributors to non-food prices suggests
that this worsening of terms of trade for agriculture is
partly policy inducedm” said Himanshu, an associate
professor of economics at the Jawaharlal Nehru
University. “We will do well to not become complacent
about rural demand when the rest of the economy is
still on thin ice,” he added.
hindustantimes.com
f @hindustantimes t @httweets i @hindustantimes l @hindustantimes
n VOL.
XVII NO. 38 n PRICE ₹4.00 n 14 PAGES + 2 PAGES OF HT CITY (FOR MUMBAI ONLY). AREA SPECIFIC PAGES EXTRA.
Modi leads tributes
to Pulwama soldiers
On 2nd anniversary
of attack, indigenous
Arjun Main Battle
Tank handed over
to the Indian Army
Divya Chandrababu
letters@hindustantimes.com
CHENNAI: On his first visit to
Chennai after the Bharatiya Jan-
ata Party (BJP) affirmed its alli-
ance with the ruling All India
Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazha-
gam (AIADMK) in election-
bound Tamil Nadu, Prime Minis-
ter Narendra Modi on Sunday
launched a raft of infrastructure
projects, even as he paid tributes
to 40 Central Reserve Police
Force (CRPF) troopers killed in a
terrorist attack in Pulwama in
2019.
At Chennai’s Jawaharlal
Nehru stadium, Modi quoted
Tamil philosopher Subramania
Bharati to recall the Pulwama
terror attack that took place two
years ago, leaving 40 CRPF men
dead.
“Inspired by his (Bharati’s)
vision, India has undertaken a
massive effort to become self-re-
liant in the defence sector,” Modi
said after handing over the
indigenous battle tank Arjun
Mark 1A to the Indian Army.
“A tank made in Tamil Nadu
will be used in our northern bor-
ders to keep the nation safe. This
showcases India’s united spirit –
Bharat’s Ekta Darshan.”
The Prime Minister said the
country was proud of its security
forces as he paid tribute to the
CRPF troopers killed in the ter-
ror attack in Pulwama two years
back.
continued on →10
→RELATED REPORTS, P6
Pangong disengagement
results in Naku La easing
Shishir Gupta
letters@hindustantimes.com
NEW DELHI: The impact of the
disengagement by the Indian
Army and the People’s Libera-
tion Army (PLA) of China on
Pangong Tso has apparently led
to an easing of tensions on Naku
La, which saw friction and a
face-off between the two milita-
ries since May 2020. Situated
south-west of the Kanchenjunga
peak, the over 14,000-feet-high
pass in north Sikkim had seen
fisticuffs between the two armies
on May 9, 2020, and as late as
January 20, 2021, with injuries to
troopers on both sides. While the
Narendra Modi government is
AT ₹95.21/LITRE,
PETROL PRICE AT
ALL-TIME HIGH
IN MUMBAI
Aroosa Ahmed
aroosa.ahmed@htlive.com
MUMBAI: Prices of petrol and
diesel increased for the sixth
consecutive day and reached an
all-time high in Mumbai on Sun-
day. The price of one litre of pet-
rol is now ₹95.21, while that of
A
diesel is ₹86.04. This is the high-
est rise in fuel prices in the city
till date.
→FULL REPORT, P4
22-yr-old activist held for protest ‘toolkit’
HT Correspondent
letters@hindustantimes.com
NEW DELHI: Delhi Police’s cyber
crime unit has arrested 22-year-
old climate activist Disha Ravi
from her house in North Benga-
luru for allegedly sharing on
social media the toolkit related
to the farmers’ protests against
the laws aimed at opening up
trade in agriculture, police said
on Sunday.
Delhi police on Sunday said in
a tweet that it was Ravi who had
Modi visits poll-bound Tamil Nadu, Kerala
ON PULWAMA
No Indian can
forget this day.
Two years ago,
the Pulwama
attack happened.
We pay homage to all
the martyrs. We are proud of
our security forces and their
bravery will continue to
inspire generations
ON COVID PANDEMIC
The last one year,
the country
faced enough
challenges.
Powered by 130
crore Indians, our
fight against Covid-19 has
been spirited. The whole globe
is watching us now
Forces follow drastically different
protocols, deploy drones for intel
Neeraj Chauhan
and Ashiq Hussain
letters@hindustantimes.com
NEW DELHI/SRINAGAR: Two
years since Jaish-e-Mohammed
(JeM) suicide bomber Adil
Ahmad Dar rammed an explo-
sive-laden car into a bus trans-
porting CRPF troopers on the
national highway in Pulwama,
killing 40 men, a lot has changed
in terms of convoy movement
and the way troops secure their
camps in the Kashmir valley.
Immediately after the deadly
India, China take a step back at Naku La
Fisticuffs on May 9 NAKU
LA
last year and Jan 20
escalated tensions on
the Sikkim border
Sikkim
Nepal
INDIA
Bangladesh
tight-lipped about Naku La, HT,
after talking to top military com-
manders and diplomats, has
learnt that just like the Pangong
Tso disengagement, the easing of
{ OMAR ABDULLAH } FORMER J&K CM
P Stressing that the Congress
This is the “naya/
new J&K” after Aug
2019. We get locked
up in our homes
with no explanation
Related story on page 6
shared the toolkit document
with Swedish environmental
activist Greta Thunberg and
later asked the latter to remove
the document after its incrimi-
nating details accidentally
became public knowledge.
Ravi was arrested on Saturday
night. Ravi, who was booked for
sedition, promoting enmity and
criminal conspiracy, among
other offences, was produced at
a city court on Sunday after
which she was sent to five days
in police custody.
ON FISHER COMMUNITY
Currently, there is
no Indian
fisherman in Sri
Lankan
custody… Our
government has
always taken care of the
welfare and aspirations of our
Tamil brothers and sisters in
Sri Lanka
ON NRIs
India is proud of
its diaspora in
the Gulf.
During my
visits to some of
the countries like
Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the
UAE, I had meals with them
and interacted to know
their problems
attack, the CRPF decided to over-
haul its standard operating pro-
cedure (SOP) for convoys mov-
ing on the highways. Instead of
moving in large convoys, it was
decided that personnel will
move in smaller contingents
with a maximum of 40 vehicles.
CRPF inspector general
Deepak Ratan said that the road
opening parties, which would
provide security to the highway,
have been given new training
coupled with new SOPs. “CCTVs
have been installed... drones are
also being used,” he said. →P6
CHINA
Bhutan
tensions on Naku La has been
dictated by the highest levels in
Beijing with a renewed effort to
build trust, normalise relations.
continued on →7
Delhi police’s additional
spokesperson Anil Mittal con-
firmed that Ravi had been
arrested from Bengaluru by a
team of the special cell that is
probing a conspiracy angle
related to the toolkit document.
“Investigation has revealed
that she was one of the editors of
the Google toolkit document and
a key conspirator in the docu-
ment’s formulation and dissemi-
nation,” Mittal said, adding that
further investigations in the case
were in progress. Police have not
MUMBAI/METRO
Monday, February 15, 2021
ON SELF-RELIANCE
Inspired by this (Tamil
philosopher
Subramania
Bharati’s) vision,
India has undertaken a
massive effort to become
self-reliant in the defence sector. A
tank made in Tamil Nadu will be
used in our northern
borders to keep
the nation safe.
This showcases
India’s united
spirit – Bharat’s
Ekta Darshan.
Taliban head killed
in Pak: reports
NEW DELHI: Afghan Tali-
ban leader Haibatullah
Akhundzada was killed in
a blast in Pakstan’s Balo-
chistan province last year,
a section of the Afghan
media reported on Sun-
day, even as senior Taliban
leader Ahmadullah Wasiq
described the reports as
“false news”. HTC
WON’T ALLOW CAA
IMPLEMENTATION:
RAHUL GANDHI AT
GUWAHATI RALLY
GUWAHATI: On his first cam-
paign visit to poll-bound Assam,
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi
said on Sunday that his party
won’t allow implementation of
the Citizenship (Amendment)
Act, or CAA, that has sparked
protests in the past in the north-
eastern state.
Addressing a rally in Sivasa-
gar, Gandhi said the legislation,
which seeks to grant Indian citi-
zenship to religious minorities
from the Muslim-majority
nations of Bangladesh, Pakistan
and Afghanistan, was a Bharat-
iya Janata Party (BJP) ploy to
divide the people.
“Illegal immigration is an
issue, but Assam’s people have
the capability to resolve this
problem together with talks,”
Gandhi said. There’s fear among
a large section in Assam that if
CAA is implemented, it would
lead to large-scale influx of peo-
ple from Bangladesh.
will uphold and defend the
Assam Accord, signed in 1985
after a six-year agitation against
illegal immigrants from Bangla-
desh, Gandhi said the BJP was
trying to do away with the
accord and implement CAA.→P9
w
READ: CAA to be
enforced after
vaccination drive, says Amit Shah
ruled out a possibility of more
arrests in the case.
Delhi police on February 4
registered a first information
report (FIR) under sections 124A
(sedition), 153 (wantonly giving
provocation with intent to cause
riot), 153A (promoting enmity
between different groups) and
120B (criminal conspiracy) of the
Indian Penal Code (IPC) after
Thunberg tweeted the toolkit
while expressing her support to
the farmers’ protest in India.
continued on →7
02 MUMBAI
MONDAY
FEBRUARY 15, 2021

Page One Plus

{ SPORT } DEBUT AT 16? { MY MUMBAI } AIRCRAFT ROW { MY INDIA } 4 CHILDREN INJURED { MY INDIA } SETTING THE BAR { WORLD } OLYMPUS MONS

Nagaland leggie on Koshyari meets 14 pilgrims en route Ajmer How Allahabad HC Hope probe sends
IPL teams’ radar Amit Shah in Delhi killed in road accident in AP stood for civil rights first pics from Mars

Kra-vi-toe’ it is,” Khrievitso Kense said over a
phone call from Chennai. Quarantining in Chennai
ahead of the Vijay Hazare Trophy one-dayers, the 16-
year-old leg-spinner is used to people not getting
that ‘h’ and ‘s’ in his first name are silent. And then he
is asked about his roots. Kense comes from Dimapur,
Nagaland’s biggest city. His forefathers belonged to
Angami Naga ethnic group who were once into
cultivation and livestock-rearing. Kense has no idea
about the tribe’s past. “I don’t know what my name
means,” he said with a sheepish laugh. What Kense
does know is how to spin the ball, fast. So impressed
were some Indian Premier League (IPL) talent scouts
that the leg-spinner made the 292-player shortlist
from 1194 applicants for the auction in Chennai on
February 18. Come auction-day, Kense his five
siblings, parents, grandfather will be hoping for a
cricketer from Nagaland to break into IPL. →P12
Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari
reportedly met Union home minister Amit Shah in
Delhi in an unscheduled visit to New Delhi, on
Sunday. He met Shah in the morning in a closed-door
meeting before leaving for Mumbai in the afternoon.
The details of the meeting are still under wraps. The
Governor returned to the city in the evening after a
gap of three days.The move is significant in the
backdrop of the controversy over denial of the
state’s six-seater Cessna Citation XLS airplane, to
travel to Dehradun by the chief minister Uddhav
Thackeray. Koshyari, who was expected to return to
the city on Saturday, changed his plans and reached
Delhi on a commercial flight the same day. Governor
is locked in a bitter tussle with MVA government,
which is now deepening with new issues. →P3
As many as 14 people, part of a group of pilgrims on their way to
Ajmer dargah in Rajasthan, were killed and four others grievously
injured after the tempo they were travelling in collided with a truck on
the Hyderabad-Bengaluru national highway-44 in Andhra Pradesh’s
Madarpuram village in Kurnool district early on Sunday, officials said.
The tempo van, which was carrying 18 people, hit the road divider at a
high speed, jumped the divider and rammed a truck coming from the
opposite direction. The impact was such that the van was crushed under
the wheels of the truck, Kurnool collector G Veerapandian said. While 14
people, including eight women and a child, died on the spot, four other
children sustained injuries. “It appears the driver was feeling drowsy at
that time and he had lost control over steering,” district superintendent
of police Dr Fakeerappa said. Chief minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy
announced an ex gratia of ₹2 lakh each to the kin of the deceased. HTC
On January 25, the Supreme Court reminded the
Uttar Pradesh government that a high court is also a
constitutional court and cannot be taken lightly. The
observation followed a raft of significant judgments
and orders delivered by the high court when people
knocked on its doors for having their fundamental
rights protected. The Allahabad HC has risen to the
occasion each time, reaffirming the importance of
the rights to privacy and autonomy. Some instances
of how the HC took a stand include ordering the UP
government to immediately remove banners put up
to recover damages from those involved in anti-
CAA protests; granting bail to a person booked for
cow slaughter and expressing concerns over the law,
and quashing an FIR lodged against a Muslim man
whose wife converted to Islam before marriage. →P11
The UAE’s “Hope” probe sent back its first image
of Mars, the national space agency said on Sunday,
days after the spacecraft successfully entered the
Red Planet’s orbit. The picture “captured the largest
volcano in the solar system, Olympus Mons,
emerging into the early morning sunlight,” it said in a
statement. The image was taken from an altitude of
24,700 km above the Martian surface on Wednesday,
a day after the probe entered Mars’ orbit. “The first
picture of Mars captured by the first-ever Arab probe
in history,” said Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-
Maktoum, UAE Prime Minister and Dubai’s ruler,
while sharing the coloured image on Twitter. “Hope”
will orbit the Red Planet for at least one Martian year,
or 687 days, using three scientific instruments to
monitor the Martian atmosphere. It is expected to
begin transmitting more information back to Earth in
September 2021. AFP

{ ‘EPIDEMIC SITUATION’ } SEVEN CONFIRMED CASES

3 Ebola deaths in Guinea raise concerns

The SD SAT satellite will be launched from the Satish Dhawan
Space Centre in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh.
The head of Guinea's health agency said Sunday that the country was in the midst of an Ebola
"epidemic situation" with seven cases confirmed, including three deaths, the first possible
resurgence of the disease there since the world's worst outbreak in 2013-2016
MALI
LATEST CASES
The patients fell ill with diarrhoea, vomiting and bleeding after
attending a burial in Goueke sub-prefecture. The five still alive have GUINEA
been isolated in treatment centres, the agency ANSS said on Sunday. It
was not clear if the person buried on February 1 – a nurse at the local CONAKRY
PTI health centre who had fallen ill – had also died of Ebola.
SIERRA

New satellite to
LEONE
LAST MAJOR THE VIRUS 100 km
Nzerekore
OUTBREAK The Ebola virus causes severe
vomiting and diarrhoea and is spread LIBERIA

carry Bhagavad
The last major outbreak of
Ebola in West Africa started
in Guinea. It went on to kill
at least 11,300 people with
the vast majority of cases in
through contact with body fluids. It
has a much higher death rate than
Covid-19, but unlike coronavirus it is not transmitted by
asymptomatic carriers. The 2013-2016 outbreak sped up
the development of a vaccine against Ebola, with a

Gita, PM’s photo Guinea, Liberia and Sierra

Leone. Vaccines and
improved treatments
helped efforts to end the
global emergency stockpile of 500,000 doses planned to
respond quickly to future outbreaks, the vaccine alliance
Gavi said in January.

Anonna Dutt added the name and photo- second-largest Ebola

letters@hindustantimes.com
NEW DELHI: A copy of the Bhag-
avad Gita, a photograph of
Prime Minister Narendra Modi,
and the names of 25,000 indi-
viduals will be carried to space
by the Satish Dhawan Satellite,
or SD SAT, which will be
launched at the end of the
month by the polar satellite
launch vehicle (PSLV).
The nanosatellite, named
after one of the founding fathers
of India’s space programme and
developed by SpaceKidz India,
an organisation dedicated to
promoting space science among
students, will also carry three
graph of the prime minister on
the top panel with the words
Atmanirbhar mission. This sat-
ellite has been completely devel-
oped and fabricated in India,
including the electronics and
circuitry,” she said.
The names of Indian Space
Research Organisation (ISRO)
chairperson Dr K Sivan and sci-
entific secretary Dr R Umama-
heswaran have been etched on
the bottom panel.
The satellite will be trans-
ported to the spaceport at Sriha-
rikota on Sunday after some
design changes were made fol-
lowing recommendations by
ISRO. “We are conducting last-
outbreak on record, which
was declared over in
Democratic Republic of
Congo last June after nearly
two years and more than
2,200 deaths. Congo reported
three new Ebola cases this
month in one of the
epicentres of that epidemic
in eastern North Kivu
province. The World Health
Organization has eyed each
new outbreak since 2016 with
great concern, treating the
most recent one in the
Democratic Republic of
Congo as an international
health emergency.
WHAT NEXT?
A World Health Organization representative
said the agency would rapidly send assistance.
Health workers are working to trace and
isolate the contacts of the cases, ANSS said.
It said Guinea would contact WHO and
other international health agencies to
acquire Ebola vaccines. The vaccines
have greatly improved survival
rates in recent years.
"WHO is ramping up readiness &
response efforts to this potential
resurgence of #Ebola in West
Africa, a region which suffered so
much from Ebola in 2014"
— WHO's regional director for Africa,
A team picks up a suspected Ebola case from Forecariah
MATSHIDISO MOETI
in Guinea on January 30, 2015. REUTERS FILE PHOTO

scientific payloads — one to minute checks before sending

study space radiation, one to
study the magnetosphere, and
another that will demonstrate a
low-power wide-area communi-
cation network.
“There is a lot of excitement
in the group right now. This will
be our first satellite to be
deployed in space. When we
finalised the mission, we asked
people to send in their names
that will be sent to space. And,
within a week we received
25,000 entries. Of these, 1,000
names were sent in by people
from outside India. There is a
school in Chennai that sent in
the names of everyone. We
decided to do this because it will
spark interest of the people in
the mission and space science,”
said Dr Srimathy Kesan,
founder and CEO of SpaceKidz
India.
The people who sent in their
names were given a “boarding
pass”.
Kesan added that they
decided to send a copy of the
Bhagvad Gita to space on the
lines of other space missions
that have carried holy books
such as the Bible. “We have also
{ AK ANTONY } FORMER DEFENCE MINISTER
P duction brewery in the world.”
For the first time, India
is facing two-front
war-like situation —
one from Pakistan
and now China
becoming more
belligerent...
over the satellite. We had to
re-do the solar panel on the sat-
ellites after testing at ISRO
because there was a problem
with the resin and there was
bulge on a few cells. But it was
thought that the entire thing
might ooze out in space in two
to three days,” said Kesan.
This is one of the two satel-
lites developed by Indian start-
ups that will be launched for the
first time by ISRO after the
country opened up the space
sector to private entities in June
last year.
The PSLV-C51 mission,
scheduled for February 28, will
carry Brazil’s earth observation
satellite Amazonia-1 as the pri-
mary satellite along with 20
co-passenger satellites, includ-
ing a nanosatellite from ISRO,
three UnitySats by an academic
consortium, and a demonstra-
tion satellite by another
start-up, Pixxel (incorporated as
Syzygy Space Technologies).
Pixxel plans to create a con-
stellation of 30 earth observa-
tion satellites by December 2022
that will provide global cover-
age every 24 hours.
{ ARCHAEOLOGY } WORLD’S OLDEST BREWERY
Ancient beer factory
found in Egyptian city
Agence France-Presse
letters@hindustantimes.com
CAIRO: A high-production brew-
ery believed to be more than
5,000 years old has been uncov-
ered by a team of archaeologists
at a funerary site in southern
Egypt, the tourism ministry said
Saturday.
The site containing several
“units” consisting of about 40
earthenware pots arranged in
two rows was uncovered at
North Abydos, Sohag, by a joint
Egyptian-American team, the
ministry said in a statement.
The brewery likely dates back
to the era of King Narmer, it
quoted the secretary general of
Egypt’s Supreme Council of
Antiquities, Mostafa Waziry, as
saying, adding it believed the
find to “be the oldest high-pro-
Narmer, who ruled more than
5,000 years ago, founded the
First Dynasty and unified Upper
and Lower Egypt. British archae-
ologists first discovered the exis-
tence of the brewery at the
beginning of the 20th century
but its location was never deter-
mined, the statement said.
The joint Egyptian-American
team “was able to re-locate and
uncover its contents”, it said.
According to Waziry, the
The remains of a row of vats used for beer fermentation, in a complex in Abydos.
40 earthenware pots arranged in
two rows. A mixture of grains
and water used for beer produc-
tion was heated in the vats, with
each basin “held in place by lev-
ers made of clay placed vertically
in the form of rings”.
Archaeologist Matthew
Adams of New York University,
who heads the joint mission with
Deborah Vischak of Princeton
University, said studies have
shown that beer was produced
at a large scale, with about
22,400 litres made at a time.
facilities of the kings of Egypt”,
the statement quoted him as say-
ing. “Evidence for the use of beer
in sacrificial rites was found dur-
ing excavations in these facili-
ties,” the statement said.
Evidence of beer-making in
ancient Egypt is not new, and
past discoveries have shed light
on such production. Fragments
of pottery used by Egyptians to
make beer and dating back 5,000
years were discovered on a site
in Tel Aviv, the Israeli Antiqui-
ties Authority said in 2015.
AFP PHOTO
ples, such as that of Seti I. In
2000, a team of US archaeolo-
gists brought to light in Abydos
the earliest known example of
an ancient Egyptian solar barge,
dating back to the first Phara-
onic dynasty 5,000 years ago.
Egypt has announced several
major new discoveries which it
hopes will spur tourism, a sector
which has suffered multiple
blows. A mission working near
Alexandria discovered several
mummies from around 2,000
years ago bearing golden-
More than 27% prison
inmates in country
‘illiterate’: Govt data
Press Trust of India
letters@hindustantimes.com
NEW DELHI: As many as 132,729
(27.37%) of the 478,600 prison
inmates in the country are “illit-
erate” while 5,677 hold a techni-
cal degree or diploma, according
to Union ministry of home
affairs (MHA) data.
The prison statistics pre-
sented by minister of state for
home affairs G Kishan Reddy
recently in Parliament were
based on a compilation of data
by the National Crime Records
Bureau (NCRB) updated till
December 31, 2019.
The data on education of
prison inmates showed that the
maximum number of 198,872 (or
41.55%) prisoners are educated
below Class 10 level.
It showed that 132,729
(27.37%) prison inmates were
illiterate, while 103,036 (or
21.52%) studied beyond class 10
but below graduate level.
According to the data, 30,201
(6.3%) prison inmates were
graduates, while 8,085 (1.68%)
were post graduates and as
many as 5,677 (1.18%) held a
technical degree or diploma.
Uttar Pradesh, the country’s
most populous state, houses the
highest number of prisoners at
101,297. Uttar Pradesh also
houses the highest number of
prison inmates who are illiterate
(31,927), educated up till Class 10
UP HOUSES THE
HIGHEST NUMBER
OF PRISONERS AT
101,297. THE STATE
IS ALSO HOME TO
THE HIGHEST
NUMBER OF
PRISONERS WHO
ARE ILLITERATE
showed.
West Bengal had not fur-
nished prison statistics for 2018
and 2019 because of which its
figures from 2017 were used in
the data, while Maharashtra’s
category-wise break up was “not
available”, the data mentioned.
‘Over 67% prison inmates
Hindu,
nearly 18% Muslim’
Over 67% of the 478,600 prison
inmates in the country are
Hindu while nearly 18% Muslim,
according to the data.
The data showed that 321,155
(or 67.10%) prison inmates were
Hindu, 85,307 (or 17.82%) Mus-
lim, 18,001 (or 3.76%) Sikh, 13,782
(or 2.87%) Christian, and 3,557
(or 0.74%) “others”.
A category-wise break-up of
data showed that there were
478,600 prisoners across jails in
the country of which 315,409
(65.90%) belonged to the Sched-
uled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe

A
brewery consisted of eight large
Related story on page 6 areas which were used as “units
for beer production”.
Each sector contained about
The brewery “may have been Abydos, where the latest dis- tongued amulets — thought to (36,390), beyond class 10 but (ST) and Other Backward
built in this place specifically to covery was unearthed, has have been placed in the mouths below graduation (21,269), grad- Classes (OBC) categories while
supply the royal rituals that were yielded many treasures over the of the dead to ensure they could uates (8,151), post graduates 126,393 fell in the “Others”
taking place inside the funeral years and is famed for its tem- speak in the afterlife. (2,635) and techies (925), it group.
MUMBAI
MONDAY
FEBRUARY 15, 2021
Family functions, vacations new super spreaders
With lifting of curbs,
many have stopped
wearing masks, social
distancing leading to
rise in Covid-19 cases,
say city doctors
Rupsa Chakraborty
rupsa.chakraborty@htlive.com
MUMBAI: Amid the lifting of
curbs, family gatherings for
weddings and birthday parties,
holidays at nearby tourist desti-
nations and visiting families
and friends outside Mumbai
have now become Covid-19
super-spreader events, accord-
ing to doctors.
With the starting of the
interstate trains and airport
flights capacity increased to
85%, health care experts said a
large number of Mumbaiites
have started heading out for
mini vacations. “People are
also attending family dos. Also,
the number of people who can
be invited for wedding recep-
tions has increased from the
initial 50 to 200. People are
tired of being indoors for
almost a year and have
dropped their guard. This is
leading to violation of social
distancing norms, not wearing
masks during family function.
If people had been more care-
ful, the number of new cases
could have been reduced by
half,” said Dr Deepak Baid,
president of Association of
Medical Consultants (AMC).
A case in point is a 33-year-
old Borivli resident, who visited
her sister in Pune in early Janu-
ary, after 10 months. While she
largely stayed indoors, her sis-
Actor crowdsources
money for wife’s
cancer treatment
Rupsa Chakraborty
rupsa.chakraborty@htlive.com
MUMBAI: The Covid-19 pan-
demic has impacted the liveli-
hood of hundreds of people
across the country. One among
them is a 44-year-old actor —
Talib Mehdi — who is struggling
to arrange money for the treat-
ment of his wife, a cancer
patient.
Mehdi has worked in several
Hindi movies and OTT series like
Saala Khadoos, Allah Ke Banday
and Mirzapur among others.
Everything went smoothly for
the actor until January 2020
when his wife Sarita was diag-
nosed with cancer in her uterus.
She was immediately admitted
to a private hospital where she
underwent her first surgery. But
soon, it was discovered that she
had developed another cancer-
ous tumour.
To add to their misery, Cov-
id-19 struck in March 2020 and
the whole nation came to a
standstill for months together.
All of Mehdi’s movie projects
were stalled and he was left
without any monthly income.
“Since March, I haven’t earned
any single penny due to the pan-
demic. In the midst of all this, I
spent over ₹20 lakh for the treat-
Guv meets Amit Shah
after state aircraft row
HT Correspondent
htmetro@hindustantimes.com
MUMBAI: Maharashtra Gover-
nor Bhagat Singh Koshyari
reportedly met Union home
minister Amit Shah in Delhi in
an unscheduled visit to New
Delhi, on Sunday. He met Shah
in the morning in a closed-door
meeting before leaving for
Mumbai in the afternoon. The
details of the meeting are still
under wraps. The Governor
returned to the city in the even-
ing after a gap of three days.
The move is significant in the
backdrop of the controversy
over denial of the state’s six-
seater Cessna Citation XLS air-
plane, to travel to Dehradun by
the chief minister Uddhav
Thackeray.
Koshyari, who was expected
to return to the city on Saturday,
changed his plans and reached
Delhi on a commercial flight the
same day. The Governor is
locked in a bitter tussle with the
Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi
(MVA) government, which is
now deepening with new issues.
The Governor had to face an
While vaccination process has begun, experts say citizens need to follow all Covid-safety measures
till everyone gets the shot.
ter employed at a non-govern-
ment organisation had to step
out for work thrice a week. All
was well till January 12, when
she returned home. She devel-
oped fever with sore throat.
Barring her senior citizen par-
ents, three from the family,
including her, tested positive
for Sars-CoV-2 and spent eight
days at Bhagwati hospital, Bor-
ivli.
“Throughout the pandemic,
I have been extremely careful
as my parents suffer from dia-
betes. After staying indoors for
almost 10 months, I visited my
sister for a vacation. Despite
taking all precautionary meas-
ures, we still don’t know how
we got infected,” she said.
With the city’s Covid-19 pan-
demic curve flattening, the
state started to ease restrictions
that were imposed to break the
chain and control the spread
Sarita with Talib Mehdi.
ment of my wife. But, even after
undergoing three surgeries, she
hasn’t recovered completely.
There are 5-10% of tumour cells
still existing in her body,” said
Mehdi, a resident of Mira-Bha-
yander.
Due to her severe health con-
dition, she cannot undergo
chemotherapy. Thus, the present
tumour cells in her body are
growing faster. “To control the
growth of the tumour, she has
been undergoing immunother-
apy which costs us around ₹1
lakh a month. Even though we
see a little improvement, her
condition is still fragile. Her
weight also has reduced to 43kg.
She does not eat that much due
to loss of appetite,” said Mehdi.
For the treatment of his wife,
Mehdi needs over ₹20 lakh. But
as he has lost his source of
income in the pandemic, he has
started a crowdsourcing cam-
paign on the portal, Ketto.
embarrassment on Thursday as
he went to the Chhatrapati Shiv-
aji International Airport and
boarded a state’s aircraft for
travelling to Dehradun but had
to deplane and take a commer-
cial flight since the chief minis-
ter’s office (CMO) had not
approved use of state’s plane.
The incident led to a blame
game between the Raj Bhavan
and CMO as the latter has said
the former should have ensured
that they had permission to use
the aircraft before the Governor
departed from his official resi-
dence. Chief secretary Sanjay
Kumar said the state govern-
ment will also seek a report
from the secretary to Governor
Santosh Kumar by the state gen-
eral administration department.
Sena mouthpiece ‘Saamana’,
in its editorial on Saturday,
termed it as a personal tour.
“The Governor was informed a
day before his scheduled depar-
ture that he cannot be permit-
ted to use the aircraft as his tour
was a personal trip. Despite
that, he went to the airport out
of his stubbornness,” the edito-
rial stated.
and transmission of the virus.
“Sars-Cov-2—the virus that
causes Covid-19 – spreads
through air droplets. The virus
can remain on surfaces for
hours. While travelling, if peo-
ple don’t wear masks and con-
tinue touching their faces fre-
quently, the chances of getting
infected are high. While travel-
ling, it is not possible to sani-
tise all door handles and rail-
ings, so individual precautions
are compulsory,” said Dr
Vikrant Shah, infection special-
ist, Zen Hospital.
“Currently, we are observing
that a majority of new cases are
of those with recent travel his-
tory or those who attended a
family gathering. We are get-
ting more group infections
among family members,” said
Bhagyashree Kapse, ward offi-
cer of the R/C ward that covers
Borivli.
RAINFALL LIKELY IN
MAHA ON TUES;
MUM TO STAY DRY
MUMBAI: India Meteorological
Department (IMD) has pre-
dicted rainfall activity Tuesday
onwards in parts of Mara-
thwada, central Maharashtra
and Vidarbha owing to a
trough in lower-level easterlies.
The weather conditions are
likely to persist for three days.
However, Mumbai and its
neighbouring areas will remain
dry.
Meanwhile, on Sunday, San-
tacruz weather station of IMD
recorded a maximum tempera-
ture of 31.4 degrees Celsius,
while Colaba recorded a maxi-
mum temperature of 29.5
degrees Celsius. HTC
My Mumbai
ANSHUMAN POYREKAR/HT PHOTO
In yet another incident, in
October, 2020, 14 people got
infected when they participated
in a birthday party at Andheri.
As per a family member, a sen-
ior citizen who had a mild fever
was present throughout the
celebration. The person who
was a carrier of the pathogen of
Covid-19 infected 14 of them.
One of the infected couples
spread the virus to their par-
ents when they went back
home.
“A total of 16 people were
infected and six had to get hos-
pitalised. One of them was kept
on oxygen support due to
breathing difficulty. The rest
were home quarantined,” said
a family member, requesting
anonymity.
Over the past seven days,
Covid-19 cases in the city grew
at a rate of 0.13%. However,
nine wards in the city, covering
Traffic snarls on highway,
commuters blame FASTag
Pranab Jyoti Bhuyan
htmetro@hindustantimes.com
NAVI MUMBAI: The Sion-Panvel
highway has been witnessing
traffic snarls near Vashi toll naka
over the past few weeks. Motor-
ists have complained that
despite having balance in their
accounts, they are not able to
pay the toll, and they end up pay-
ing cash. Some others said that
even as they make the payment
through FASTag, the process
takes a longer time, resulting in
traffic snarls on the highway.
Farhan Azmi, restaurateur
and politician, on Saturday,
tweeted, “Over 3km long ques at
the gates of #mumbai Vashi Toll.
03
20 pvt hospitals in city
Mulund, Vikhroli, Bandra,
Khar, among others, have
recorded higher growth rates
of 0.14% to 0.21%. As per ward
officers, new Covid-19 cases are
mainly from non-slum areas. In
Mumbai, 1,880 buildings are
currently sealed and K/W ward
can vaccinate their staff
that covers Andheri west tops Eeshanpriya MS and frontline workers as part of staff. Suresh Kakani, additional
the list till February 12. phase two of the drive, which municipal commissioner in
eeshanpriya@htlive.com
Medical officer health, Dr began on February 4. charge of the public health
Gulnar Khan from the ward MUMBAI: Twenty private hospi- Until Saturday, 114,207 bene- department, said, “All 20 pri-
said, “Over 40% of the new tals across south Mumbai have ficiaries have been adminis- vate hospitals qualified. We
patients have a history of vaca- now been permitted by Brihan- tered the first dose of the Cov- have invited their staff for train-
tion or family functions.” mumbai Municipal Corporation id-19 vaccine across 23 hospitals ing sessions on how to adminis-
“Household transmission (BMC) to start vaccination cen- and jumbo Covid-19 facilities in ter the vaccine. Five staffers per
during parties can be a major tres for coronavirus, to inocu- the city. Of these 90,034 are booth, per hospital, will be
source of infection. One doesn’t late their healthcare staff. These healthcare workers, and 24,173 trained by BMC. Whosoever
know if an invited guest is vaccination centres at the are frontline workers. BMC will comes up, can attend the train-
infected or not. So the infected selected private hospitals will start administering the second ing. After which, they can start
particles may remain floating not be open for any other dose of the vaccine to health- the vaccination centres.”
in the atmosphere of the house walk-in beneficiaries or the gen- care workers on Monday, which Global Hospital, SL Raheja
which can infect others if they eral public, as per the decision marks 28 days from the day they Hospital, Breach Candy Hospi-
don’t wear masks,” said Dr taken by the civic body. These started receiving their first dose. tal, Kokilaben hospital, Bombay
Lancelot Pinto, an epidemiolo- hospitals will start vaccination On Sunday, a team of officials Hospital, Jaslok Hospital, ESIC
gist. centres for their staff either from civic public health depart- Hospital, are among the private
Dr Anita Mathew, infectious from Tuesday or Wednesday. ment conducted inspections of hospitals permitted after Sun-
disease specialist, Fortis Hospi- BMC is currently vaccinating 20 private hospitals across day’s drive. Space, technical
tal, Mulund, said, “We need to healthcare workers as part of south Mumbai, to check if they manpower and storage capacity
understand that to control the phase one of the vaccination qualify to become vaccination for vaccine vials were the main
pandemic, we need a vaccine, drive that began on January 16, centres for their healthcare criteria for the qualification.
but we can protect ourselves
with basic measures such as
wearing a mask, washing
hands and maintaining the
required physical distance at
work and family functions.”
Health experts seek strin-
gent rules for defaulters.
“During the start of the lock-
down, the civic body was issu-
ing fines to people who weren’t
wearing masks. But now, no
such action is being taken
against defaulters. Until all get
vaccinated, it is essential for
the civic body to remain strin-
gent and issues guidelines for
travellers and family func-
tions,” said Dr Abhijit More, a
health activist.
Most of the #Fasttag scanners
are malfunctioning! Even
though the account shows bal-
ance, you end up paying cash.
Absolute chaos!! Why are we still
paying #toll ? #stoppayingtoll
#SpeakUp (sic).” BN Kumar, 65, a
resident of Kopar Khairane said,
“On Saturday, I was on my way
to Mumbai from Vashi. I paid
through FASTag, however, it
took me 25 minutes to cross a
stretch of two-kms before reach-
ing toll naka.” Kamlakar Phand,
chief general manager of
MSRDC (toll), said, “New FASTag
system may take some time due
to technical glitches. We are
upgrading the system and it will
take 15 days to complete it.”
04 My Mumbai
MUMBAI
MONDAY
FEBRUARY 15, 2021

Some things have changed: timings are staggered, Covid-19 protocols are in place. Some things haven’t: people still crowd the
footboard. A fortnight on, 5 Mumbaiites explain what it feels like to use the city’s lifeline after nearly a year of suspended services

Mumbai gets back on track (almost)

Aroosa Ahmed
{ SANDEEP GAIKAR, 45 } DABBAWALA { JYOTI NAIR, 44 } PERSONAL ASSISTANT

‘My commute has come

aroosa.ahmed@htlive.com

t least 15 million people have travelled by

A local trains on the Central, Western and

Harbour lines since February 1 when the
suburban train network allowed general
commuters after nearly a year. All 1,774 Central
Railway trains and 1,367 Western Railways trains in
down from 7 hours to 2’
“There is no Mumbai if there are no she also had to leave her home early. “I
the network were stopped on March 23, 2020, to local trains operating,” Jyoti Nair, a res- would get up by 3am to do the house-
prevent the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. ident of Dombivli, Thane said, as she hold work before heading to the office.
Four months later, in July, chief minister Uddhav took a seat in the train compartment I developed a back pain travelling on
Thackeray allowed essential care workers like doc- last week. She has been travelling by the bad roads,” she said.
tors, nurses and medical staff to use local trains. In local trains on the Central and Western Then, in October, Nair was robbed
the following months, women, persons with disa- lines for the past 20 years. close to the bus stop near her house.
bilities, and lawyers were also allowed to travel. The 44-year-old works as an office “I have never had such a terrifying
Now, with everyone back on the trains, restric- assistant in a private firm that sells pipe experience. Somewhere near the bus
tions have been put in place in an effort to prevent valves, located in Masjid Bunder. Her stop, a few people snatched the chain I
the spread of the coronavirus. The timings are stag- husband works with the Brihanmum- was wearing,” Nair recalled.
gered and it will be so till the government takes a bai Electric Supply and Transport Now that Nair takes the local, she
call on complete resumption of services: 4.45am to (BEST) as a depot manager and her son said, her life is easier. She still leaves
7am; 12pm to 4pm; 9pm to 11.30pm. Those found goes to school. early — she takes the train in the earli-
without a mask are fined ₹200 by the Government When Nair resumed office in August, est time slot — but she’s saving on both
Railway Police. Railway Protection Force personnel her commute often took up to seven time, and money.
have been deputed to control the crowds. hours. “I am not just saving money but also
A fortnight on, the positivity rate in Mumbai has “I began to take a bus to work. The travelling time. My commute time has
begun to rise — experts cite the crowding in trains journey took two hours in the morning come down to two hours,” said Nair.
as one of the factors responsible — we speak to five and nearly five hours in the evening What would help is if more trains
Mumbaiites to ask them why they’re boarding the because of the evening rush hour. It begin to ply, Nair said.
local. Read their profiles: was simply horrific,” Nair said. Nair is not worried about crowds, she
Not only was it expensive — Nair said. “Crowding inside local train com-
Sandeep Gaikar at Sanpada station, Navi Mumbai. BACHCHAN KUMAR/HT PHOTO would spend ₹400 every day travelling partments is bound to happen. I take
in the AC bus — it also meant that she precautions, wear a face mask and use

‘Normalcy once all offices open’

{ RAKESH PATIL, 32 } COORDINATOR would barely get a few hours of sleep hand sanitizer,” she said.

Train commuters often kept time with
the 5,000-strong network of dabba-
walas who delivered home-cooked food
to office goers from Ambernath and
Virar to Colaba and Churchgate
between 12.30pm to 1.30pm every day
(except Sundays). However, once the
nationwide lockdown came into effect
on March 25, the dabbawalas went out
of work.
Sandeep Gaikar, who has been a dab-
bawala for 30 years, missed his itiner-
ant lifestyle. “I travelled everywhere by
the local train to deliver tiffins across
the city. I travelled on the Central and
Harbour lines,” said the 45-year-old.
Though Gaikar’s landlord waived his
₹5,000 rent for some months during
the lockdown, his family faced hard
days. The Kalyan resident was the only
earning member of his family till the
pandemic hit. As his monthly income,
which ranged at around ₹15,000 came
down to zero,
Gaikar eventually moved back to his
village in Junnar in Pune district —
which he had left at 15 to work in the
big city — where he farmed on his fam-
ily’s small landholding. Gaikar returned
to Mumbai in three months and took up
a part-time gig as a security guard.
Gaikar’s wife, Kavita (37) now works
in a small tailoring unit while daughter,
Pratiksha (18), will begin college this
year. Son, Sahil (16) will now attend
school in the village.
“The cost of education is high in
Mumbai,” Gaikar said.
“It is a blessing that the local train
services have finally resumed for the
general public. We have suffered for
one year as no other mode of public
transport is possible for moving the
number of tiffins we do,” Gaikar said
when we met him at Sanpada station.
It’s not the same however, he said.
“Many dabbawalas have returned to
their village. People are working from
home, so there are not many tiffins to
deliver,” he said.
“Earlier, one dabbawala would carry
30 tiffins. Now we carry barely eight,”
said Gaikar, who collects tiffins from
Kalyan and delivers them to the Agri-
cultural Produce Market Committee in
Vashi.
The staggered timings do not affect
Gaikar. In fact, he said, he often finds
the trains empty enough for him and
his tiffin stand. But he isn’t happy about
it.
Only after all offices resume, our
work will get back to normal,” he said. Jyoti Nair at CSMT station. BHUSHAN KOYANDE/ HT PHOTO

{ VISHWA SHAH, 22 } STUDENT { NIRMAL JAIN, 62 } BUSINESSMAN

‘I’m worried about putting ‘Traffic made travelling by road a horror’

Rakesh Patil at Thane station. PRAFUL GANGURDE/ HT
my grandmother at risk’ The local train has been Kalbadevi res-
ident Nirmal Jain’s trusted mode of
transportation since he started his

‘It’s impossible to garment wholesale business. His busi-

ness takes him to Santacruz and
Thane frequently besides other parts

board the train’ of the city, visiting shopkeepers and

Rakesh Patil, a 32-year-old resident of
Kasara, works as a coordinator in the
district collector office in Thane.
“My work involves a lot of travelling,”
said Patil, who lives with his wife
Sadhna, 28; daughter Sarah, 4; and his
brother’s family.
Patil’s work involves inspection visits
to forest sites. He is also required to
meet officials from different govern-
ment agencies like Thane Municipal
Corporation (TMC), Kalyan Dombivli
Municipal Corporation (KDMC).
Though this involves a good deal of
travelling, Patil uses the bus and other
public transportation modes quite regu-
larly. So the staggered timings do not
affect him, he said.
“It’s the people coming from far away
areas like Igatpuri to reach Kasara sta-
tion who are most affected by the
restricted timings. I live close to the sta-
tion,” he said.
Patil has been travelling by local
trains for 16 years — as a student, and
later, for work — so he was excited
when the trains resumed on February 1.
But he gets worried when he sees
crowds, Patil said. “It’s almost impossi-
ble to board a train,” he said.
“It is not possible to avoid crowds
completely. I wear facial masks and
wash my hands regularly. It is neces-
sary to take precautions and I follow the
protocols,” Patil said.
Vishwa Shah in a train in Kandivli station.
“Travelling by local trains is a compul-
sion and no passenger follows the coro-
navirus protocol,” 21-year old Vishwa
Shah said, on her way to Bandra.
A student of clinical psychology at
RD National College, Shah has been a
regular commuter on the local trains
since her school-going days.
Now, a whole year after she last
boarded the train, Shah, a resident of
Kandivli’s Mahavir Nagar, has begun
travelling to college to submit her
assignments in person. Physical classes
will resume on February 15 at 10am
sharp, Shah said.
Once classes resume, Shah will have
to leave in the first slot (4.45am to 7am)
of staggered timings — a full three
hours before her first class. Her classes
will end by 8pm, which means Shah
SATISH BATE/HT PHOTO
will have to wait an hour before she
takes the train back home. Shah said
the other option of travelling by auto
and cab is too expensive — she will have
to shell out ₹500 both ways.
“I don’t have any other option.”
For Shah, this is all the more worri-
some as she lives with her grandparents
(both 75; her grandmother is on medi-
cation for hypothyroidism) and her par-
ents (her father aged 51 is diabetic; her
47-year-old mother does not have any
co-morbidities).
Travelling frequently by local trains
will increase her exposure to the virus,
and in turn put her family at risk, she
said.
“At least I follow all the coronavirus
protocols and wear gloves and masks
during commuting,” she said.
increasingly, online sellers.
But when the lockdown was
announced in end-March 2020, thou-
sands of businessmen like Jain were
affected. The 62-year-old began to use
his Hero Honda motorcycle to make
his rounds once restrictions on move-
ment were eased.
From spending two hours in the
local, his commute went up to four
hours a day on road. “I could not travel
everyday because of the cost of fuel,
which increased significantly.” said
Jain. “I was forced to spend four to five
hours commuting. Traffic in the west-
ern suburbs and on the Eastern Free-
way made travelling a horror,” he said.
Now that the trains are back on
track, albeit with staggered timings,
Jain is happy. The lone breadwinner of
his family— he lives with wife, Manju,
children Swagat and Prashansa and
daughter-in-law, Sohi—Jain is happy
that he’s back to saving money on trav- Nirmal Jain on board a train passing Lower Parel station. PRATIK CHORGE/HT PHOTO
elling.
On average, Jain said that he spent from Marine Lines railway station. I the virus but there are incidents of
up to ₹1,000 every day on fuel, travel- visit multiple shops and online store crowding inside compartments. All
ling from his south Mumbai home to owners throughout the day and return passengers want to board at once,”
the western suburbs and Thane. home at night,” Jain said. Jain said.
“The fuel cost was double of what a Jain said that a majority of his fellow Nevertheless, he is happy the trains
railway pass costs. Initially I had to dip passengers stick to the protocols, but have resumed. “Even with restricted
into my savings for this additional crowding is a difficult issue to manage. timings the local trains are a boon.
cost,” Jain said. “A few passengers do not wear Like me there are other businessmen
The local train timings work well masks inside the compartment but who are saving time and cutting down
for Jain as he begins his work day only they are immediately told off and on travelling costs. The city will come
after lunch and returns late. “I finish asked to mask up by the others around back to normalcy as the markets
my meal and then take a local train them. People are knowledgeable about slowly open,” he said.

{ GREATSHIP ROHINI FIRE }

Bodies of 3 trapped At ₹95.21/L, petrol price 1 DEAD, 1 HURT IN

crew members found at an all-time high in city
Manish K Pathak
manish.pathak@hindustantimes.com
MUMBAI: The Indian Coast
Guard (ICG) has recovered the
bodies of three crew members
who were reported trapped
inside the engine room of the ill-
fated offshore supply ship
‘Greatship Rohini’ which caught
fire on Saturday. The bodies
were found on Sunday morning,
in a search operation conducted
jointly by 19 persons, including
eight crew members of Great-
ship Rohini and 11 members
from ICG.
The bodies of two seafarers
found from the tween deck area
are burnt beyond recognition
and the third seafarer found
from the engine control room is
reported to have sustained burn
injuries, said director general of
shipping Amitabh Kumar.
An inquiry has been ordered
and an official of the rank of joint
director general, technical (prin-
cipal officer MMD, Mumbai),
will conduct an inquiry, said
Kumar. “The cause of the fire
will be known after proper
investigation,” added Kumar.
The ship was 92 nautical miles
off Mumbai coast when the fire
broke out near the NQO plat-
form of Mumbai High. A total of
18 crew members were on-board
the vessel at the time of the inci-
dent. The fire started in the
engine room. An electro-techno-
logical officer, Gurbeender
Singh, sustained burn injuries
and was evacuated in a chopper
and shifted to a hospital. He is
out of danger, said ICG officer.
Aroosa Ahmed
aroosa.ahmed@htlive.com
MUMBAI: Prices of petrol and
diesel increased for the sixth
consecutive day and reached an
all-time high in Mumbai on Sun-
day. The price of one litre of pet-
rol is now ₹95.21 while that of
diesel is ₹86.04. This is the high-
est rise in fuel prices in the city
till date. Citizens and transport-
ers have reacted strongly on the
constant rise in prices and urged
the Central government to
reduce excise duty on petroleum
products. They have also asked
the Maharashtra government to
intervene and reduce Value
Added Tax (VAT) on petrol and
diesel to give them some relief
from skyrocketing prices.
Earlier, the highest rise in fuel
prices was seen in 2018 when the
price of petrol and diesel crossed
₹90 and ₹80, respectively. The
highest price of petrol was
recorded at ₹91.34 for one litre.
Following the constant rise in
fuel prices, the All India Motor
Transport Congress (AIMTC), an
apex body of transporters, on
Saturday gave a 14-day ultima-
tum to the Central government,
demanding immediate reduc-
tion in central taxes in diesel and
to issue advisory to the states to
bring down VAT on fuel prices.
“The road transport frater-
nity, in its general council meet-
ing, vented out their resentment
at the deteriorating conditions of
the road transport sector and the
government’s apathy towards it.
We demand immediate reduc-
tion of diesel prices by bringing
down central taxes. We want the
Centre to issue an advisory to
states to cut down VAT, bring
uniformity of diesel prices
across the country and its quar-
terly revision etc.,” said Bal Mal-
kit Singh, chairman, AIMTC.
“We also demand immediate
resolution of issues related to
e-way bills, rationalisation of
presumptive tax and discussion
on scrapping the policy of vehi-
cles with the transport fraternity
before its roll-out. We have given
a 14-day notice to the Centre for
implementation, else we will
declare complete suspension of
transport services across the
country,” he added.
Residents have also urged the
state government to intervene by
reducing VAT on petroleum
products in the state.
ACCIDENT; TRUCK
DRIVER BOOKED
MUMBAI: One person died and
another got injured in a road
accident on Western Express
Highway, near Andheri on Sat-
urday evening. Their bike alleg-
edly hit a truck, which was dou-
ble parked, and fell. The truck
driver has been booked.
According to the police, Pra-
mod Kalekar, 42, and his friend
Mukesh Mishra, 28, were on
their way towards Byculla when
they hit the truck. The truck was
unloading paver blocks without
taking any measures to ensure
safety of vehicles passing by.
The truck driver fled the spot,
said a police officer.
The two were taken to a hos-
pital. Kalekar was declared dead
on arrival. Mishra is undergoing
treatment at Sir JJ Hospital.
A case of death due to negli-
gence has been registered
against the driver. HTC
Man arrested for
rape in Navi Mum
HT Correspondent
htmetro@hindustantimes.com
NAVI MUMBAI: Belapur police
on Saturday arrested a social
activist for allegedly raping a
woman from Navi Mumbai
whom he met through a social
messaging group. The accused
was the admin of the group
formed for social causes, while
the woman was a member of
the group.
The accused has been identi-
fied as Bapu Patil, 39, a Solapur
resident and admin head of
World Maratha Organisation.
He met the complainant two
years ago and asked her to han-
dle group activities in Navi
Mumbai. The two were in con-
stant touch over different activ-
ities of their group.
A police officer said, “During
the lockdown, he shared his
financial problem with the
complainant, following which
she lent him ₹72,000.”
The officer added, “In Janu-
ary, the accused asked her to
meet in a hotel in Belapur to
return her money. He also
asked her to attend a confer-
ence in the hotel to enhance
her business skill. When the
woman went to the hotel room,
he allegedly raped her, clicked
her pictures in compromising
state. He used the same photos
to threaten her saying that he
would circulate it on social
media if she lodges complaint
against him.”
Senior inspector Anil Patil
confirmed that Patil has been
arrested under section 376
(sexual assault) of the Indian
Penal Code.
MUMBAI
MONDAY
FEBRUARY 15, 2021
{ PERSONAL FINANCE }
Retirement
plan mistakes
you must avoid
Abeer Ray
letters@htlive.com
If you’ve been reading these
pieces, you’ll know that we
are a keen follower of taking
a long view when it comes to
financial planning. Take
retirement, for instance. It’s
not something to take lightly,
because it involves acute
planning and we make many
mistakes along the way. Here
are a few common ones:
Delayed savings
One of the foremost rules of
retirement planning is to
start investing early. Invest-
ing money early in life means
that you allow more time to
let it grow. Raj Khosla,
founder and managing
director, MyMoneyMantra,
an omnichannel financial
services marketplace, said,
“One of the best friends for
your retirement financial
planning is ‘compounding
interest,’ i.e., the earlier you
start your savings, the better
yield you will fetch.” What’s
more, long-term investments
in equity markets help to
average investments and cre-
ating a corpus for retirement.
Starting earlier also helps
you make the best returns
from equity-linked invest-
ment products. According to
Vivek Jain, head-Invest-
ments, Policybazaar.com, an
online portal for insurance
purchase, products that
promise guaranteed returns
are best given the fluctuating
market scenario and low-in-
terest-rate environment.
“The rate reduction in inter-
est on bank deposits has
greatly impacted financial
planning of millions of
households. Some invest-
ments that guarantee
returns, irrespective of the
changes in market condi-
tions and interest rates, also
have an inbuilt ‘life protec-
tion’ component,” Jain said.
Lack of clarity
Confusion over your own
financial goals — and being
unsteady in your investment
— is a big impediment to
building your retirement cor-
pus. As your income and
allowances increase, so do
your expenses and responsi-
bilities. Plan to pay for big
ticket expenses like higher
education, home and vehicle
loans, weddings etc, through
short-term or liquid invest-
ments. Add to this expendi-
ture during emergencies and
you will be able to gauge how
much money you would need
each month post retirement.
Any kind of cash flow projec-
tion requires making correct
assumptions about your
financial status in future
based on what you have
earned, saved and invested
till date. Sometimes, life may
throw you a curveball like a
job loss — we dealt with that
in a previous piece on finan-
cial planning for an emer-
gency.
Savings not in sync
with current lifestyle
Your lifestyle matters while
deciding to save for retire-
ment. While planning for
retirement, you must save to
maintain your current lifes-
tyle. According to Khosla,
“To ensure the current lifes-
tyle after retirement you
should create a financial
plan at least 30 years in
advance, factoring in your
life expectancy, inflation and
cash flow requirements.
After retirement, your focus
should be on health-related
expenses and monthly
expenses as most of the other
financial commitments such
as loan repayment, child
education etc will be over by
then.”
Zero legacy planning
Do you discuss your finances
with your spouse? Most cou-
ples do not realise how
retirement can affect their
relationship, especially, in
the face of zero earnings and
limited investments. Also,
not many understand the rel-
evance of including their
partners in their investment
making decisions. This can
impact your perspective
regarding savings that must
last for both of you in the last
years of your lives.
The first step is to discuss
how much you can save and
invest keeping in mind your
mutual goals. The concept of
legacy seems far-fetched, but
must be discussed and
decided. Decide on what and
how much you wish to set
aside for your children.
Buying a life insurance
policy with an adequate pol-
icy term can also be another
way to leave behind a legacy
for your children to cherish.
“Term insurance helps you
avail a high sum assured
cover at a low premium. The
plan pays a lump sum benefit
in case of a person’s prema-
ture death or disability.
Thus, it provides one cost-ef-
fective insurance against all
the liabilities and ensures the
family is taken care of finan-
cially even in one’s absence
or incapacity,” Adhil Shetty,
CEO, BankBazaar, an online
market place for financial
products, said.
Personal Finance is a
weekly feature that aims to
provide our readers pertinent
and helpful financial infor-
mation.
{ CODING COURSES PICK UP PACE AMID PANDEMIC }
‘Code’ word is caution, say
experts on trend among kids
Programmes cost
between ₹6K and
₹5L; experts say firms
fleecing parents,
who expect kids to
develop app, websites
Ankita Bhatkhande
ankita.bhatkhande@htlive.com
MUMBAI: For eight-year-old
Aashna Sheth, the lockdown
period turned out to be a time to
learn new things online. Aashna,
who studies at a south Mumbai
school, learnt mandala art and
also took up a coding course for
beginners. Over the past few
months, she has created her own
website and is also working on
developing an app to address the
problem of hunger in India.
With children cooped up in
their homes owing to the pan-
demic and the resultant shift to
online learning since March
2020, parents are insisting that
children learn coding. “We
wanted to take up an activity,
and coding seemed to be an
interesting option because she is
really interested in computers,”
said her mother, Namrata.
Several experts are, however,
worried about the negative
repercussions that programmes
offered by ed-tech companies
could have on young minds.
Over the past one year, several
engineers and technology enthu-
siasts have been publicly flag-
ging concerns about coding pro-
grammes that are currently
being offered in the market.
In mid-2020, engineer Prad-
eep Poonia and Dr Malpani
started a social media campaign
aimed at creating awareness
among parents about what they
said were false claims made by
ed-tech firms to sell their coding
programmes. “Indian parents
might get swayed to get the first
movers’ advantage, thinking that
their kids will get an edge over
other children, but that won’t
happen. What these six-year-
olds will learn in a year, a high
school kid can learn in a couple
of days. And coding won’t make
‘PM’s andolanjeevi
remark an insult to
freedom movement’
Swapnil Rawal
swapnil.rawal@hindustantimes.com
MUMBAI: The Shiv Sena targeted
Prime Minister (PM) Narendra
Modi over his andolanjeevi
remark in the Parliament and
said that it was also an insult to
India’s freedom movement. Sena
leader and chief spokesperson
Sanjay Raut, in his weekly col-
With kids cooped in homes owing to the pandemic since March
2020, parents are insisting that they learn coding. SHUTTERSTOCK
anyone smarter. When compa-
nies claim they can teach kids
machine learning and AI (artifi-
cial intelligence), it’s a complete
sham. Without subjects like cal-
culus, probability etc. which are
taught in Class 11 and Class 12, no
one can actually understand the
mathematical models behind the
codes,” said Poonia.
Poonia’s campaign on social
media, which made a reference
to advertisements released by
WhiteHat Jr that promised big
fat packages for students who
learnt coding, became a hit. The
company then filed a ₹20-crore
defamation suit against Poonia,
and the case is still being heard
in Delhi high court. It also sued
Dr Malpani over the matter.
Coding programmes cost
between ₹6,000 and ₹5 lakh,
depending on the difficulty level
of the course and the number of
sessions opted by the child. Sev-
eral companies offer ‘free trial
classes’ and ‘easy EMI’ options to
lure parents into taking up the
programmes. These pro-
grammes are offered to children
between the ages of three and 15.
In many cases, parents are
promised that coding would
make their children eligible for
the top paying tech jobs in the
Silicon Valley in the future.
Dr Malpani, an angel investor
who funds social impact start-
ups, said ed-tech companies are
Ex-CJI’s remarks on
judicial system
concerning: Pawar
MUMBAI: Days after PM
Narendra Modi lauded
the judiciary for safe-
guarding peoples’ rights,
NCP chief Sharad Pawar
on Sunday taunted him
My Mumbai
fleecing parents by repackaging
freely available content with
tacky advertisements and false
claims. “If a child is genuinely
interested in trying out coding,
they can use open source web-
sites like code.org which are free
to use and can teach them the
concepts required at their own
pace. The programmes offered
by ed-tech companies are not
even teaching real coding to the
kids. They are just teaching them
to move blocks in an assisted
environment. Even if the child
learns something, the content
that the firms are teaching has
already become obsolete,” added
Dr Malpani.
Most ed-tech companies
which are offering coding for
students have seen a surge in the
demand for its various pro-
grammes after the lockdown in
March 2020. For instance,
Toppr, an ed-tech platform, has
seen a 500% surge in the
demand for coding programmes
post lockdown. Super coders, a
programme launched by
Vedantu in April 2020, already
has over 100,000 students. Of
them, over 50,000 students have
already taken coding classes
through the portal. WhiteHat Jr,
a company which runs four dif-
ferent levels of the programme –
Beginner, Intermediate,
Advanced and Professional – for
students of Class 1-9, has over
150,000 students across globe.
Swati Popat Vats, president of
the Early Childhood Association
who has written a book about
coding for kids, said that while
coding opens up a lot of possibil-
ities for higher order thinking
among children, a fair amount of
caution in how it is taught is the
key. “Coding is a language, and
like in any language you teach
the sounds, letters, speaking first
before writing an essay. Simi-
larly in coding, children should
be taught the hands-on basics of
sequencing, algorithms, debug-
ging, conditionals etc. with activ-
ities before they can use these to
programme,” she added.
Psychiatrist Sagar Mundada
said, “Kids can instead be taught
to build social skills by taking up
hobbies and pursuing group
activities instead of remaining
glued to the screen and taking up
coding. Parents shouldn’t obsess
about something just because
everybody seems to be doing it.
This would put an additional
burden on the kids.”
Abhit Kalsotra, co-founder,
GTROPY Systems, a location-
based analytics company, has
worked with some big tech com-
panies such as Microsoft and
Nokia in the past. He said, “If
everyone is getting a job in Sili-
con Valley, why do we need
entrance exams to get into top
engineering colleges?”
Karan Bajaj, founder and CEO
of WhiteHat Jr, believes that any
seismic shift in a field is met with
some resistance. “Coding is a
tool which allows a child to cre-
ate things, empowers and makes
them confident of their natural
destiny as creators. The outcome
is not that significant as much as
the process. While there are
many open platforms available
to learn coding, there is a differ-
ence between a personalised
training and self-learning as
children need feedback, recogni-
tion, and encouragement during
their early years which self-
learning can be limited to offer.”
Poonia said lack of awareness
about such programmes espe-
cially among rural and less
wealthy parents might have dis-
astrous consequences.
BARC designs first
research reactor
through PPP model
Priyanka Sahoo
Priyanka.sahoo@htlive.com
MUMBAI: The Bhabha Atomic
Research Centre (BARC) has
designed a research reactor that
can make radioisotopes availa-
ble at low costs to medical and
other industries.
In a first, the premiere nuclear
research organisation of the
department of atomic energy
(DAE) will share the technology
with industries through a public-
private partnership model. This
is expected to bring down cost of
cancer treatment in India.
The reactor is expected to
come online in five years after
the construct begins, said DAE.
Radioisotopes are radioactive
isotopes that have an unstable
atomic nucleus. They emit
energy and particles when they
change to a more stable form.
Radioisotopes are widely used in
nuclear medicine for diagnostics
and to treat diseases such as can-
cer. The industrial uses of radioi-
sotopes include identifications of
flow malfunctions, measure-
ment of flow parameters, evalua-
tion of design of chemical reac-
tors, monitoring product quality
and process efficacy.
In India, all major radioiso-
topes are produced by BARC,
which houses research reactors
in its Trombay campus and an
accelerator in Kolkata. Some
radioisotopes are imported.
Radioisotopes in India can be
Project to improve
teaching in schools
Ankita Bhatkhande
ankita.bhatkhande@htlive.com
MUMBAI: Maharashtra state
education department will
implement the ‘Strengthening
Teaching- Learning And Results
for States’ (STARS) initiative in
order to improve the overall
teaching learning process in
schools across the state.
The STARS initiative is a USD
500-million project funded by
the World Bank to improve the
quality of learning in schools
05
procured and handled only by
the users duly authorised by the
radiological safety division
(RSD), atomic energy regulatory
board (AERB). Private entities
that are willing to invest in the
construction of the reactor and
its processing units will get
exclusive rights to process and
market the radioisotopes pro-
duced by the reactor.
The demand for radioisotopes
for nuclear medicine is on the
rise. Between 2018 and 2020, the
number of nuclear medicine
departments in the country’s
hospitals has grown from 293 to
349, according to AERB.
“Research reactors have facili-
ties such as radioisotope produc-
tion, testing of structural materi-
als for its use in nuclear reactors,
making neutrons available for
material science studies etc. The
reactor planned by BARC prima-
rily has facilities for radioisotope
production. Provisions are also
made for producing radioiso-
topes for industrial use like
Cobalt-60, Bromine-82 etc,” read
a statement from the office of KN
Vyas, secretary, DAE.
The proposed research reac-
tor is expected to bring down the
cost of nuclear medicine. “As the
radiopharmaceuticals will be
made indigenously, it is expected
that increased self-sufficiency
will lead to cheaper radiophar-
maceuticals, and consequently
reduce cancer treatment cost,”
read the response from Vyas.
across six states in India. The
state cabinet recently approved
its implementation, which will
take place in a phased manner
over the next five years.
The initiative will work on
strengthening the pre-primary
education system with emphasis
on aanganwadis by providing
them with quality infrastructure,
training teachers etc.
The project will be imple-
mented under Samagra Shiksha
Abhiyan. “The total cost will be
₹976 crore,” said an official.

A
l umn Rokhthok in Saamana, said
39 wanted accused
held in op ‘All out’
MUMBAI: The Mumbai
Police on Saturday night
carried out combing
operation and arrested 39
wanted accused. The
combing operation named
‘All out’ was carried out at
259 places across 12 zones
on the eve of Shiv Jayanti
and Valentine’s Day.
According to the police,
during the operation, 1,278
accused were traced. These
accused had been arrested
in the past to ensure law-
and-order situation in the
city was maintained.
Operation ‘All Out’ is
carried out every month
across the city before any
major event on the
directions of Mumbai Police
commissioner. “The
operation was undertaken
under the supervision of
joint commissioners of law
and order, deputy
commissioner of police,
assistant commissioners
and senior inspectors.
Maximum manpower
available with each police
station was deployed,” said
an officer. HTC
Dredger breaks 2
piers on Naigaon
bridge, 2 booked
PALGHAR: A dredger, used
to transport river and creek
sand, broke two piers of the
Western Railway’s bridge at
Naigaon early on Sunday
after its pilot lost control of
the vessel. The unidentified
owner and pilot of the
dredger have been booked.
Train movement was not
hampered due to the
incident. RAM PARMAR
Cop shoots self at
police station
NAVI MUMBAI: A 35-year-
old assistant police
inspector died by suicide on
Sunday after he shot
himself with his service
revolver in the police
station at Navi Mumbai. He
was rushed to a hospital but
was declared dead on
arrival. The reason behind
the step is unknown. HTC
Man arrested with
MD worth ₹21 lakh
MUMBAI: The anti-
narcotics cell (ANC) of
Mumbai Police’s crime
branch arrested a 32-year-
old man for alleged
possession of mephedrone
worth ₹21 lakh from
Dharavi on Saturday. Th
accused has 19 cases,
including of murder, filed
against him. HTC
that the Bharatiya Janata Party
(BJP) would not have reached
this level in the country, had it
not been for various agitations
including Ram temple move-
ment, removal of Article 370 and
agitation against inflation.
“When PM Modi ridicules
protesters as ‘andolanjeevi’, the
freedom movement is also
insulted,” Raut wrote in the col-
umn published in Saamana on
Sunday. He added that the coun-
try has a history of agitations
and Mahatma Gandhi and Dr
Babasaheb Ambedkar were the
biggest ‘andolanjeevi’.
{ OVER NEW JERSEY RESIDENT } IN MURDER PLEA
HC issues notice
to US embassy
KAY Dodhiya
abbas.dodhiya@htlive.com
MUMBAI: The Bombay high
court (HC), on February 9,
directed the court registry to
issue notice to the American
embassy and directed the state
to send the nonbailable warrant
(NBW) issued against an accused
residing in New Jersey, the
United States, to the embassy.
The court has sought a report
from the state within two weeks.
The court has also directed com-
missioner of police, Thane to
execute the NBW against
another accused residing in Bar-
oda. The directions came after
the court was informed that both
the accused, who were acquitted
of a 2003 murder case, were not
appearing for the hearing of the
appeal against their acquittal
filed by the state in 2004.
The court also directed issu-
ance of a lookout notice against
the accused and to circulate the
over the statements made
by former chief justice of
India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi.
Gogoi had criticised the
judicial system and said
the judiciary in India is
“ramshackled”.
“Last week I read that
the country’s judicial sys-
tem is the best. The state-
ment was made by PM.
But the remarks made by
former CJI Gogoi are
shocking. I don’t know if
he tried to bring out the
fact but it is a matter of
concern,” said Pawar.
FAISAL MALIK
same to airports to ensure their
presence for the hearing.
On February 9, a division
bench of justice Sadhana Jadhav
and justice Nitin Borkar, while
hearing an appeal filed by the
state of Maharashtra against the
acquittal, was informed that the
state wanted to adduce further
evidence in the case, and hence
the appeal against the acquittal
should be heard. The appeal was
filed in 2004 wherein both the
persons had been represented by
their respective lawyers.
The matter has been posted
for hearing on March 9.
Advocate Ashraf Ahmed
Shaikh said as per section 105 of
the Criminal Procedure Code,
reciprocal arrangements were
made by the Centre with foreign
governments, and in light of this
the ministry of home affairs on
February 11, 2009 issued com-
prehensive guidelines with
regards to service of summons/
warrants/judicial processes.
06
CRPF personnel proceed to lay a wreath at a memorial for the Central Reserve Police Force troopers killed in the 2019 Pulwama attack, at the battalion headquarters in
Lethpora, Pulwama, on Sunday.
Small convoys, new SOPs: How
Pulwama changed CRPF tactic
Fresh training, use of
bulletproof bunkers,
drones and CCTVs are
among a few changes
adopted to avoid a
repeat of the attack
Neeraj Chauhan
and Ashiq Hussain
letters@hindustantimes.com
NEW DELHI/SRINAGAR: Two
years since Jaish-e-Mohammed
(JeM) suicide bomber Adil
Ahmad Dar rammed an explo-
sive-laden car into a bus trans-
porting Central Reserve Police
Force (CRPF) troopers on the
national highway in Pulwama,
killing 40 men, a lot has changed
in terms of convoy movement
and the way troops secure their
camps in the Kashmir valley.
Immediately after the deadly
attack, which pushed India and
Pakistan to the brink of war, the
CRPF decided to overhaul its
standard operating procedure
(SOP) for convoys moving on the
highways.
Instead of moving in large
convoys, like the one on Febru-
ary 14, 2019 with 78 vehicles, it
was decided that personnel will
move in smaller contingents
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in peace.
A
At kisan mahapanchayat
in Haryana
PROPERTY
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URGENT SALE !!! 1Lac sq ft
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NOTICES
PUBLIC NOTICES
THE GENERAL public is informed
that shri Naresh Nathumal Jain,
(resi at Kalyan,), owner of the
property shop gala No 1
admeasuring 328 sq. ft. [Built-up] on
the ground floor in "AMRUT
APARTMENT" constructed on the
gaonthan land bearing C.T.S. No.
2101, 2102, 2100/1 to 2100/6
admeasuring 431.40 Sq. meters,
lying, being and situate at kalyan,
Tal. Kalyan, Dist. Thane, is planning
to mortgage the above said
property at the bank. Naresh jain
has purchased the above said
property by way of agreement of
sale dated 22/3/2004,from Shri
Devichand Sumermal Bohra, who
acquired the said property through
will of his father Sumermal Pukhraj
Bohra & Sumermal Bohra purchased
the same from M/S Chiranjeev
Enterprises. If anyone has any claim
or objection upon the said property,
he/she may lodge objection to me in
writing with all documentary proof
within 7 days from the publication
of this notice. Vinod Balraj Panjwani
, Advocate High Court Nagar, News
Office, A-99/594, Ulhasnagar
421001. Mobile No: 9220822222.
with a maximum of 40 vehicles.
A Superintendent of Police rank
officer started commandeering
the convoys and troops were
ordered to strictly adhere to the
“passenger manifest discipline”
for each vehicle in the convoy.
Fresh trainings, new SOPs,
control of civilian traffic and use
of bulletproof bunkers, drones
and CCTVs; these are some of the
strategic changes which the Cen-
tral Reserve Police Force has
made in these two years to avoid
a repeat of the devastating 2019
Lethpora Pulwama attack, IG
CRPF Deepak Ratan said on Sun-
day on the second anniversary of
the attack.
CRPF inspector general
Deepak Ratan said that the force
had made many changes in
these two years.“There has been
a change in our SOP and our
equipment have also improved,”
he said. Training has been modi-
fied keeping mind the contingen-
cies that can crop up in Jammu
and Kashmir. “ll of them have
been kept in mind so that when-
ever terrorists strike they will get
a befitting response,” he said.
The IG said that the road
opening parties (ROP) which
would provide security to the
highway have been given new
training coupled with new SOPs.
“It was done to prevent and
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stop the incidents (like Pul-
wama), the way a civilian vehicle
filled with explosives had struck
our convoy causing heavy dama-
ges. That is why the traffic on
road during convoy movement is
controlled, convoy limit has also
been contained,” he said.
“CCTVs have been installed at
many points on the highway,
drones are also being used. The
movement of our vehicles gener-
ally takes places in bulletproof
bunkers. Enough precautions as
well as equipment have been
installed to avoid such a type of
incident,” he said.
Since the attack, the majority
of vehicles used for convoy
movements have been upgraded
to withstand bullets and low-in-
tensity improvised explosive
devices (IEDs).
The ROPs (road opening par-
ties), which are placed before the
convoy moves on the highway,
have been strengthened and
trained for early warning mech-
anisms in identifying suspects
who could attack the moving
vehicles. Subsequently, there is
better coordination between
central intelligence agencies,
Jammu and Kashmir police and
the army on possible terror
threats, people familiar with the
developments said.
A major decision taken after
PM dedicates ₹6k-cr
complex to country
HT Correspondent
letters@hindustantimes.com
T H I R U VA N A N T H A P U R A M :
Prime Minister Narendra Modi
dedicated to the nation on Sun-
day the ₹6000 crore petro-
chemical complex of oil major
Bharat Petroleum and Ro-Ro
vessels of Inland Waterways at
Willingdon Islands in Kochi,
asserting that these projects
will fuel the country’s growth.
On a brief visit to the poll-
bound state, the Prime Minister
also inaugurated the Interna-
tional Cruise Terminal “Sagar-
ika” at Cochin Port; Marine
Engineering Training Institute,
Vigyana Sagar, Cochin Ship-
yard Limited and laid the foun-
dation stone of Reconstruction
of South Coal Berth at Cochin
Port. Elections in the state are
due in April-May this year.
Addressing a public meeting
in Kochi, the PM said actions of
today will shape the country’s
growth trajectory in years to
come. “Our people have shown
that with right opportunities
they can do wonders. Let’s keep
working towards creating more
opportunities. Together, we
will create an Aatmanirbar
Bharat,” he said.
The PM also hailed the sup-
port of the country’s citizens in
fight against Covid-19 pan-
demic. “The last one -year the
country faced enough challen-
ges. Powered by 130 crore Indi-
ans, our fight against the Covid
has been spirited. The whole
globe is watching us now,” he
said.
He further exhorted start-
ups to come up with innovative
projects to boost domestic
tourism.
The PM also reached out to
the Indian diaspora in the Gulf,
My India
HT PHOTO
the Pulwama attack was to
restrict the movement of civilian
vehicles on the highway when
the convoys of security forces are
on the move.
The government has also
allowed all personnel to take a
flight to Srinagar from either
Jammu or Delhi; air courier ser-
vice for the central paramilitary
forces has been increased by
adding flights from Delhi to Srin-
agar via Jammu and back.
“We keep changing our strat-
egy depending on the ground sit-
uation. The convoys are safe
now,” CRPF spokesperson
Moses Dhinakaran said. “Also,
large numbers of terrorists have
been neutralized in the last few
years and there is constant
watch on terror groups.”
Similarly, security at military
and paramilitary camps in
Jammu and Kashmir camps has
been reinforced by all forces in
the last two-three years. People
familiar with the development
said that since the 2016 Uri
attack and the Pulwama attack
of February 14, 2019, the perime-
ter or outer cordon security at
most camps in Kashmir has
been doubled and most person-
nel have been equipped with the
latest arms and ammunition and
night vision devices.
The vehicles are now not
Narendra Modi
particularly a large number of
Keralites working there, saying
that: “India is proud of its dias-
pora in the Gulf. During my
visit to some of the countries
like Saudi Arabia, Qatar and
UAE I had meal with them and
interacted to know their prob-
lems.”
Kerala chief minister Pinar-
ayi Vijayan, governor Arif
Mohamad Khan, petroleum
minister Dharmendra Pradhan
and his deputy Mansukh Man-
daviya and Minister of State for
external affairs V Muraleed-
haran also attended the meet.
Speaking at the occasion,
Vijayan said, “This is a happy
occasion for us Keralites. A
handful of projects are coming
to life in our state today. While
some are being dedicated to the
nation, the foundation stone is
being laid for others. Both state
and central government are
working together in all these
projects.”
Meanwhile, security agen-
cies foiled an attempt of the
Democratic Youth Federation
of India, ruling CPI(M) youth
wing, activists to release black
balloons to protest recurring
fuel price hike.
(With agency inputs)
allowed to park outside security
forces’ camps and there is regu-
lar audit of personnel, vehicles,
arms and ammunition and intel-
ligence is shared in real time
with all camps/headquarters and
offices.
As the paramilitary force paid
homage to the 40 troopers who
lost their lives in the Pulwama
attack, CRPF director general Dr
A P Maheshwari said:“We have
inherited bravery which flows
like blood in our veins. While
every gallant deed and sacrifice
is the pride of the force, the force
has a glorious history of script-
ing sagas of exemplary bravery”.
The CRPF said in a tweet that
it didn’t forget and wouldn’t for-
get the sacrifice of the Pulwama
martyrs. “Did not Forgive, will
not Forget: Salute to our broth-
ers who made the supreme sac-
rifice for the nation in #Pulwa-
maAttack. Indebted, we stand
with the families of our valiant
Bravehearts,” the force said in a
Twitter post.
v
WATCH: PM
pays tribute to
Pulwama jawans, hands over
Arjun Battle Tank to Army
CENTRAL GOVT
STAFF TO ATTEND
OFFICE: MINISTRY
NEW DELHI: All central govern-
ment employees have been
asked to attend office on work-
ing days, according to a person-
nel ministry order.
The decision comes amid a
significant decline in the num-
ber of active Covid-19 cases in
the country, including in the
national capital. However, all
officers and staff residing in
containment zones shall be
exempted from coming to office
till their containment zone is
de-notified, the statement said.
Until now, officers of the level of
under secretary and above were
only attending office due to the
coronavirus-induced restric-
tions imposed in March. PTI
{ BUDGET SESSION } NORMALCY RETURNING
As first half records near-zero Covid
cases, House hopes for better attendance
Saubhadra Chatterji
letters@hindustantimes.com
NEW DELHI: The first half of the
budget session of Parliament
showed signs of normalcy
return on the health front. Cov-
id-19 cases in parliament,
among lawmakers and officials,
dropped to near-zero — an
encouraging trend for the two
Houses. According to officials
involved in the management of
Covid-19 in Parliament, as many
as 4,700 reverse transcription
polymerase chain reaction
(RT-PCR) tests, known as the
gold standard for diagnosis of
the viral disease, were con-
ducted on MPs, officials, media
and security personnel before
session started on January 29.
“Out of the 4,700 tests, only
three MPs tested positive. All
others results were negative,”
an official said, requesting ano-
{ ATTACK AVERTED } PULWAMA ATTACK ANNIVERSARY
6.5kg IED found near
bus stand in Jammu
Ravi Krishnan Khajuria
letters@hindustantimes.com
JAMMU: On the eve of the sec-
ond anniversary of the Pulwama
terror attack, the police recov-
ered an improvised explosive
device (IED) weighing 6.5 kilo-
grammes from a member of the
al-Badr terrorist group in the
always crowded Jammu bus
stand on Saturday, and claimed
to have averted a major attack
“For the past three to four
days we were getting Intel inputs
that on the anniversary of the
Pulwama attack, terror groups
wanted to carry out a big attack
in Jammu. Therefore, we were
on a high alert,” inspector gen-
eral of police (Jammu zone)
Mukesh Singh said.”Late Satur-
day, our patrol nabbed a man
from the bus stand area with a
bag and recovered a 6.5 kg IED
from it.”
The terrorist, a student of a
nursing college in Chandigarh,
has been identified as Suhail
Bashir of Pulwama.
Sunday marked the second
anniversary of the Pulwama
bombing in which a car packed
with explosives rammed a bus
that was part of a Central
Reserve Police Force (CRPF)
convoy, killing 40 troopers, in an
attack that brought India and
Pakistan to the brink of an
armed conflict.
IGP Singh said that during
questioning Suhail revealed that
Pakistan-based handlers of the
al-Badr had assigned him the job
Ladakh disengagement
is akin to surrendering
to China, says Antony
HT Correspondent
letters@hindustantimes.com
NEW DELHI: Former defence
minister AK Antony alleged on
Sunday that disengagement by
Indian and Chinese soldiers
from Galwan valley and Pang-
ong Tso in the Ladakh theatre
amounted to a “surrender” by
India and cautioned that the
process “should not be at the
cost of national security”.
The Congress leader also
maintained that “in a situation, if
China wants to create mischief,
China can help Pakistan to cap-
ture Siachen Valley”.
After the defence ministry
said outstanding problems with
the Chinese army at Depsang,
Hot Springs and Gogra — fric-
tion points on the contested bor-
der in eastern Ladakh — will be
tackled after full disengagement
by rival soldiers in the Pangong
Tso area and claimed that India
did not cede any territory to
China, Antony and Congress’s
communication head Randeep
Surjewala said “disengagement
and buffer zone means surren-
der of our land.” “The border dis-
engagement is at what terms and
what cost? That is important.
These both disengagements-
Galwan disengagement and also
Pangong Tso lake, is surrender.
Disengagement is good, releas-
ing tension is good, but it should
not be at the cost of national
security,” said Antony.
The former defence minister
of the United Progressive Alli-
ance regime said: “These two
disengagements are surrender.
Surrendering our controlled
nymity The results, officials
added, were in sync with a
sharp drop in number of active
cases in India. The country
reported only 13,082 new posi-
tive cases on January 29, the
day the budget session started, a
steep fall from 86,508 new cases
on September 23 when the
monsoon session was cut short
by eight days. The first half of
the session ended on Tuesday.
Apart from 888 lawmakers in
the two Houses, Parliament has
more than 4,000 officials and
staff. It also houses a large force
of the Central Reserve Police
Force (CRPF) to enforce secu-
rity. Since mid-January, a large
number of construction work-
ers have also been present in
the complex for building the
new parliament house.
More MPs felt safe enought to
attend House proceedings and
join meetings of various parlia-
mentary committees. The
P claimed responsibility for the
Raghunath Temple,
Jammu railway
station, general bus
stand and
Lakhdatta Bazaar
(jewellers’ market)
were the targets
MUKESH SINGH, Inspector
general of police (Jammu zone)
of planting the powerful IED in
any of three to four areas of
Jammu city. “Raghunath Tem-
ple, Jammu railway station, gen-
eral bus stand and Lakhdatta
Bazaar (jewellers’ market) were
the targets, “ he said.
After planting the IED he had
to take a flight to Srinagar where
a top leader of the al-Badr, Athar
Shakeel Khan, was to receive
him. The IGP said that two more
men — Qazi Waseem from Chan-
digarh and Abid Nabi — who
had information about the
planned attack, had also been
arrested. “Had the IED exploded,
it would have caused mass
destruction,” he said.
Director general of police
(DGP) Dilbag Singh said that the
police had recently also arrested
Hidayatullah Malik and Zahoor
Ahmad Rather, the self styled
chiefs of the Lashkar-e-Mustafa,
an offshoot of the Jaish-e-Mo-
hammad terrorist group that
AK Antony
area, areas, which were tradi-
tionally under our control. Sud-
denly, we are surrendering our
rights.”
On Friday, the defence minis-
try said: “Outstanding problems
with the Chinese PLA at Dep-
sang, Hot Springs and Gogra —
friction points on the contested
border in eastern Ladakh — will
be tackled after full disengage-
ment between rival soldiers in
the Pangong Tso area, where
mutual withdrawal of front-line
troops is underway.”
The ministry also rejected
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s
allegation that the PM had given
away Indian land to the Chinese.
MEA spokesperson Anurag
Srivastava said the agreement
was reached after several rounds
of sustained negotiations at the
military and diplomatic levels.
But Antony contested the
claims. “Everybody thought the
government would protect our
territory... but disengagement
was there and they created a
buffer zone. Result was the Chi-
nese army was there, already on
their permanent location, they
did not go back, but Indian army
was withdrawn from our patrol-
ling point to create buffer zone.”
House panels were plagued by
low attendance for a large part
of 2020 as many MPs, who live
outside Delhi, were reluctant to
fly down to the national capital
amid soaring a surge in Covid-19
cases. Officials added that in the
past few months, attendance in
parliamentary panel meetings
had improved vastly from last
year For l lack of quorum, many
meetings were cancelled at the
last minute, resulting in loss of
time and public money.
The next half of the session is
scheduled to start from March 8
and officials added that another
round of RT-CPR tests would be
conducted before it starts. They
also added that health safety
protocols, including social dis-
tancing, dispersed seating
arrangements and mandatory
use of masks shall continue
until the union health ministry
officially declares that the pan-
demic is over.
MUMBAI
MONDAY
FEBRUARY 15, 2021
Pulwama attack, and the Resist-
ance Front, an offshoot of Lash-
kar-e-Taiba, from Jammu.
“Their arrest, recovery of IED
and arrest of al-Badr militant are
three big achievements of
Anantnag, Jammu and Samba
police, “ he said.
The DGP also said another
terrorist, Ashiq Nengroo, who
used to transport terrorists to
Kashmir after receiving them on
the international border in
Jammu, via tunnels and intru-
sions,had escaped to Pakistan
with his family via one such tun-
nel in December 2019 and had
been given the task of fuelling
terrorism in Jammu and Kash-
mir. The IED recovery comes
close on the heels of the arrest of
two top terrorists from
Kunjwani in Jammu and Bari
Brahmana area of Samba.
Zahoor Ahmad Rather, a top
terrorist affiliated with the
Resistance Front , who was
wanted in connection with the
killing of three Bharatiya Janata
Party (BJP) workers and a police-
man in south Kashmir last year,
was arrested in Bari Brahmana
area of Samba on Saturday.
On February 6, the self-styled
commander of the Lashkar-e-
Mustafa, Hidayatullah Malik,
alias Hasnain, was held from the
Kunjwani area of Jammu. “Obvi-
ously there are now attempts by
Pakistan and various terror out-
fits to create disturbances in the
Jammu region”, said a senior
police officer.
National Conference leaders
Farooq Abdullah (left) and
Omar Abdullah. FILE PHOTO
OMAR CLAIMS
HE, FAMILY
PUT UNDER
HOUSE ARREST
HT Correspondent
letters@hindustantimes.com
SRINAGAR: Former chief minis-
ter of Jammu and Kashmir and
National Conference vice presi-
dent Omar Abdullah alleged on
Sunday that he and his family
have been put under house
arrest by the administration,
terming it “the new J&K”.
The police, however, said the
movement of protected people
was “discouraged” due to adv-
erse inputs on the second anni-
versary of the Pulwama attack
that killed 40 CRPF troopers.
“This is the “naya/new J&K”
after Aug 2019. We get locked up
in our homes with no explana-
tion. It’s bad enough they’ve
locked my father (a sitting MP)
& me in our home, they’ve
locked my sister & her kids in
their home as well,” Omar
Abdullah tweeted, along with
photographs showing police
vehicles outside the gates of his
residence in the Gupkar area of
the city.
On August 5, 2019, the Centre
had abrogated the special status
of the erstwhile state of Jammu
and Kashmir and divided it into
union territories of Jammu and
Kashmir and Ladakh.
Abdullah further termed the
move as a new model of democ-
racy.
“Chalo, your new model of
democracy means that we are
kept in our homes without
explanation but on top of that
the staff that works in the house
aren’t being allowed in and then
you are surprised that I’m still
angry & bitter.” “There shall be
no Road Opening Party on
ground. Due to adverse inputs,
movement of VIPs/Protected
Persons has been discouraged
and all concerned were
informed in advance not to plan
a tour today,” a police spokes-
person said.
In a joint statement later, sev-
eral leaders, including NC gen-
eral secretary Ali Muhammad
Sagar, denounced confinement
of the party chief and the vice
president at their residence and
termed the measures a “gross
violation of human rights” and
“highly condemnable”.
OMAR ABDULLAH
TERMED THE MOVE
AS A NEW MODEL
OF DEMOCRACY
MUMBAI
MONDAY
FEBRUARY 15, 2021
{ FROM PAGE 1 }
PANGONG...
The decision-making author-
ity in the PLA’s case is the Cen-
tral Military Commission headed
by President Xi Jinping, who is
also the commander-in-chief of
China’s defence forces.
“The speed at which the PLA
has moved its troops beyond Fin-
ger 8 on the north bank of Pang-
ong Tso towards Srijap plains
and beyond as well as with-
drawal of no less than 220 Chi-
nese light tanks from south
banks of Pangong Tso clearly
shows that the instructions have
come from the highest level in
Beijing,” said a former army
chief. It is understood that Chi-
nese disengagement is more or
less complete on the north bank
and the exercise on south banks
is to move from the lake to the
Kailash Range.
According to a top Indian dip-
lomat, Beijing’s decision to dis-
engage from Pangong Tso start-
ing on February 10 was not
because its military positions
were not tenable but to stop the
downward spiral in bilateral
relations since former Western
Theatre Commander, General
Zhao Zongqi, went on aggressive
mode at Pangong Tso last May.
“China had invested a lot in
removing the 1962 conflict from
Indian memory by making delib-
erate efforts to improve bilateral
relations. All this went for a toss
last May and a new generation of
Indians born in the new millen-
nium has again witnessed the
perfidy of PLA and mistrust with
China. Perhaps the disengage-
ment is part of an effort to stem
the rapid slide in bilateral ties,”
said a senior official.
According to senior military
officers, Indian Army command-
ers raised the question of severe
mistrust with their PLA counter-
parts, citing the continued fric-
tion at Naku La while the Pang-
ong Tso disengagement agree-
ment was reached on February
10. It is learnt that just to prove
that the PLA was committed to
genuine disengagement with the
Indian Army, a battalion com-
mander sought a meeting with
his Indian counterpart at Naku
La on the same day, assuring no
further transgression from the
Chinese side.
In the past six years, PLA
patrols have tended to come
down the ridge past the Indian
perception of the Line of Actual
Control (LAC) in the Naku La
area as a result of which there
have been physical face-offs.
Although the Chinese base is
well behind the ridge line, the
PLA in the past has made an
effort to cross Naku La and reach
a wall constructed by local
Indian graziers.
“The face-off around Naku La
has been a new development of
past six years and any easing of
tension bodes well for bilateral
ties. Reports indicate that the
PLA has gone back to its perma-
nent base, a template used in dis-
engagement in Galwan and
Pangong Tso,” said the former
army chief cited above.
22-YR-OLD...
The police have claimed that
the toolkit was put together by a
“pro-Khalistani group” named
Poetic Justice Foundation. Thun-
berg later deleted the original
tweet. The FIR was registered
against the people who created
and spread the toolkit.
On Sunday, Delhi police, in a
series of tweets, said that Ravi
had started a WhatsApp group
and collaborated in the effort to
prepare the toolkit document.
One of the tweets read, “Disha
Ravi, arrested by CyPAD Delhi
Police, is an Editor of the Toolkit
Google Doc & key conspirator in
document’s formulation & dis-
semination. She started What-
sApp Group & collaborated to
make the Toolkit doc. She
worked closely with them to
draft the Doc.”
One tweet said Delhi Police
had taken cognizance of a
‘Toolkit Document’ found on a
social media platform that pre-
dates and indicates a copycat
execution of a conspiracy behind
the January 26 violence in the
capital during a tractors rally
organised by protesting farmers.
The call was to wage eco-
nomic, social, cultural and
regional war against India, the
tweet said.
Another tweet said, “In this
process, they all collaborated
with pro Khalistani Poetic Jus-
tice Foundation to spread disaf-
fection against the Indian State.
She was the one who shared the
Toolkit Doc with Greta Thun-
berg.”
The police also said that “she
(Ravi) asked Greta to remove the
main Doc after its incriminating
details accidentally got into pub-
lic domain. This is many times
more than the 2 lines editing that
she claims.”
Ravi is founder of a group
named Fridays For Future (FFF)
and has a bachelor’s degree in
business administration.
According to the Delhi Police
officials, Ravi is a key lead in the
“toolkit” case as she had admit-
ted during the initial interroga-
tion to editing, adding some
things in the toolkit and spread-
ing it further.
Last week, Delhi Police sent a
communication to Google seek-
ing registration details and activ-
ity log of the account through
which a “toolkit” related to the
farmers’ protest was created and
uploaded on the social media
platforms.
Two e-mail IDs, one Insta-
gram account, and one Uniform
Resource Locator (URL) were
mentioned in the toolkit and
police had sought details from
the respective platforms.
Farmers have been protesting
at different border points of the
national capital since November
26 against the three newly
enacted farm laws: Farmers’
Produce Trade and Commerce
(Promotion and Facilitation)
Act, 2020; the Farmers Empow-
erment and Protection) Agree-
ment on Price Assurance and
farm Services Act 2020 and the
Essential Commodities (Amend-
ment) Act, 2020.
They claim that the laws
would weaken their bargaining
power, leave them at the mercy
of powerful agribusinesses and
potentially lead to the dismant-
ling of government-run farm
produce markets and the system
of minimum support prices for
agricultural commodities.
The Coalition for Environ-
mental Justice in India said in a
statement signed by at least 78
activists from across the country
on Sunday: “Delhi Police’s
actions are all the more sinister
because the 21-year old was
taken to Delhi from Bengaluru
with no disclosure about her
whereabouts, not even to her
parents, an action that can be
termed extra-judicial abduc-
tion.”
Ravi sent to five days of police
custody
A city court on Sunday
allowed the police five days of
custody to interrogate the
22-year-old.
Metropolitan magistrate Dev
Saroha remanded Ravi to cus-
tody of the Special Cell of the
Delhi Police following her arrest
from Bengaluru. The police had
sought a remand of seven days to
“unearth her connections with
the organization, Sikhs for Jus-
tice and its founder Patwant
Singh Pannu.”
Ravi was not represented by
My India
any private counsel during the
hearing, following which the city
court provided her a Delhi State
Legal Services Authority
(DSLSA) lawyer.
During the hearing, she broke
down and refuted allegations
that she was conspiring against
the government. She said she
edited “just two lines” as she sup-
ported the farmers.
ACTOR-BIZMAN...
Recently, income-tax officials
raided Joshi’s house in Mumbai,
however, the agency did not
reveal the details of its ongoing
probe.
The money laundering case
against Omkar Group is based on
the FIR registered by Auranga-
bad Police in March 2020 for
alleged cheating and criminal
breach of trust. The ED has
stated that Omkar Realtors and
Developers Pvt Ltd and its direct-
ors had bought a firm Surana
Construction, which had slum
rehabilitation authority (SRA)
rights for redevelopment of
Anand Nagar SRA Cooperative
Housing Society, Wadala, Mum-
bai. Omkar and its promoters did
not pay back the due amount to
seller and also mortgaged future
FSI of the said SRA project and
took huge amounts of loans. ED
officials state they diverted ₹410
crore taken in loans. Omkar
Group’s spokesperson had previ-
ously said that the Omkar Group
is not in violation of any lending
norms and slum approvals. Pre-
viously, promoters of Omkar
Group – Babulal Varma, 50, and
Kamal Kishore Gupta, 62, were
arrested on January 27 under the
provisions of the PMLA.
Joshi was also in the news for
buying fugitive offender Vijay
Mallya’s Kingfisher Villa for
₹73.01 crore. Joshi’s website
describes him as “the man
behind the Viiking Mission,
entrepreneur, businessman,
actor, sports enthusiast, fran-
chise and team owner and movie
producer”.
Actor and producer Joshi is
known for his works in Tolly-
wood and Bollywood. Joshi has
done number of films in Hindi,
Tamil and Telugu languages. He
was also a lead in the 2013 film
Jackpot, in which he starred
opposite Sunny Leone and Nas-
eeruddin Shah. His most recent
film is ‘Amavas’, which he self-fi-
nanced and co-stars Nagris Fak-
hri.
In October 2020, the Cybera-
bad police in Hyderabad had
registered a cheating and Trade-
mark Act violation case against
Joshi and his father for allegedly
running a gutkha manufacturing
unit at Gaganpahad on Hydera-
bad’s outskirts. Joshi also owns
the Dambulla franchise of the
Lanka Premier League (LPL)
called as Dambulla Viikings.
0.25% HEALTH
WORKERS FULLY
VACCINATED: GOVT
Rhythma Kaul
letters@hindustantimes.com
NEW DELHI: India has fully vac-
cinated 0.25% of its nearly one
million health care workers
against Covid-19, shows latest
data from the Union ministry of
health and family welfare
released on Sunday.
An estimated 92,61,227 health
care workers were identified by
the government to be vacci-
nated against Covid-19 under
the national immunisation
drive on priority, of which
23,628 have completed the two-
dose regimen as per the provi-
sional data available till Sunday
morning.
CTCs likely to be
tweaked as govt
eyes labour codes
Zia Haq
zia.haq@htlive.com
NEW DELHI: The labour minis-
try has finalised rules under the
four labour codes, or laws, and
is likely to notify them to take
effect from April. The country’s
most wide-ranging labour
reforms in decades will have an
impact on both employers’
outgo and employees’ take-
home salaries.
Once implemented, the new
labour codes will prompt com-
panies to restructure employee
compensation packages or “cost
to company” (CTC). Firms have
will have to restructure salaries
because, under the new rules,
all allowances, such as leave
travel, house rent, overtime and
conveyance, have to be capped
at 50% of the CTC.
The Code on Wages 2019 has
revised the definition of ‘wages’
which will now include three
components: basic pay, (infla-
tion-linked) dearness allowance
and retention payment.
According to the new defini-
tion, “wage” will exclude statu-
tory bonus, pension and provi-
dent fund (PF) contribution,
conveyance allowance, house
rent allowance (HRA), overtime
and gratuity.
If any of these exclusions, in
aggregate, are in excess of 50%
of an employee’s CTC , barring
special allowance, the excess
amount will be added back to
the wage for calculation of
social security benefits.
A wider definition of basic
07
pay will likely increase social
security contribution because
firms compute their social secu-
rity contribution on the basis of
how wages are defined. This
could however result in lesser
net take-home for employees,
analysts say.
Since basic pay could be
higher because monetary allow-
ances will be capped at 50% of
CTC, companies may have to
incur increased costs towards
provident fund and gratuity,
which are calculated on the
basic pay.
Employers in the private sec-
tor generally either contribute
12% of an employee’s basic sal-
ary and dearness allowance to
the provident fund.
During recent consultations
between the labour ministry,
representatives of firms and
employee unions, employers
had expressed concern over the
possible impact of the new defi-
nition of wages on a company’s
outgo. “However, there will be
no change in the definition of
wages. It will remain as it is,” an
official of the labour ministry
said, on condition of anonymity.
Parliament has passed four
labour codes, or laws, one each
on wages, industrial relations,
occupational safety health and
working conditions and social
security, bringing changes to a
large number of labour laws,
some dating back to the pre-In-
dependence era. The changes
have simplified, rationalised
and amalgamated 29 central
labour laws into four codes.

Guj CM collapses on
stage at Vadodara Rally
Press Trust Of India
letters@hindustantimes.com
VADODARA: Gujarat chief min-
ister Vijay Rupani collapsed on
stage on Sunday while address-
ing a rally for upcoming civic
polls in Vadodara’s Nizampura
area, BJP leaders said. Rupani
was given first aid on the stage.
This was Rupani’s third politi-
cal rally during the day in Vado-
dara.
“The chief minister collapsed
while he was addressing a pub-
lic meeting. He was given first
B2B Solutions
aid and is being taken to airport
from where he will go to a hos-
pital in Ahmedabad,” BJP leader
Bharat Danger told a news
channel. “Rupani’s health was
not good for the last two days,
but instead of cancelling his
public meetings, he preferred to
go ahead,” Danger said, adding
that Rupani is fine now. PM
Narendra Modi also spoke to
Rupani and inquired about his
health. According to an official
statement, the PM asked
Rupani to get examined and
take rest.

Hindustan Times Media Marketing Initiative

Athena : an Inter
school fest 2020-21
“You already know what to do you can see far,
you can see true, you can see within.
All the answers you are seeking are hidden inside you.”

The unstoppable, enigmatic
and thriving Goddess of Wisdom,
courage, inspiration, arts, crafts and
skill - ‘Athena’, graced the portals
of N L Dalmia High School by her
exemplary high-flying virtues for the
5th consecutive year!
At N L Dalmia we believe that,
“Education is not the filling of a
pail, but the lighting of a fire.”
(W.B. Yeats)
Education should not be restricted
just to dispense the curriculum in a
mechanical fashion but must ignite
minds. The young, ignited minds of
our society are our greatest assets. In
view of this idea, we cherish these
youngsters and encourage them
to explore their true potential and
thus our school organized its much
awaited quintessential inter-school
event ‘Athena 2020-21’ on January
9th and 10th in its endeavour to
provide children with a virtual estrade
to unleash their talents and imbibe the
positive spirit of the event.
The event commenced with the
Declaration of Ceremony Open by
the CEO and Principal of N L Dalmia
Educational Society Ms. Seema
Saini, followed by her address to
the virtual gathering. Though a very
challenging task indeed, Learning
does not stop and Athena went
virtual too evading all the jerks of
this pandemic said Ms. Seema Saini.
With heart-felt gratitude, Ms. Seema
Saini welcomed and thanked the
Schools which participated with such
exuberance. The Core Committee was
then welcomed with floral bouquets.
This was followed by the auspicious
lamp lighting ceremony and a heart-
felt prayer to God Almighty.
The Student Coordinators then
welcomed the 26 participating
Schools with an elegant display of
each School’s name. The Teacher
and Student Coordinators walked
the ramp welcoming yet another
magnificent Athena (2020-21)!
The event was flawlessly conducted
on a virtual platform for two
consecutive days. It comprised 8 main
events namely: Elegance, Artholics,
Brain Boosters, Fast Track, Lights
Camera Action, Master Chef, Rhythms
and Teach o Tech. The Competitions
were a fusion of talent, imagination,
creativity and alertness. The passion
and fervour with which each student
participated was noteworthy. Indeed,
all the participating schools exhibited
great passion and zest in each event
only uplifting the spirits of Athena
2020-21!
The Closing Ceremony ushered
in with the introduction of the Core
Committee, the guest and address by
Ms. Seema Saini. This was followed
by a mellifluous rendition by the
Music Teacher Mr. Abhinav. The
highlight of the closing ceremony
was the much-awaited Prize
Distribution Ceremony of each event.
The announcement of Mst. and Ms.
Athena and the Award for the Best
School were something that everyone
looked forward to! Athena 2020-21
came to a closure with the Vote of
Thanks being delivered by one of the
student Coordinators and singing of
the National Anthem.
It is pertinent not to lose sight
of one’s goal and to forge ahead
unhampered by the distractions that
constantly vie for their attention.
On this positive note we hope that
Lady Athena will bless the student
fraternity to continue achieving their
results undaunted!
Compiled by: Lynn Carvalho &
Shuchismita Dutta
08 MUMBAI
MONDAY
FEBRUARY 15, 2021

Opinion

{ OUR TAKE }
E STA B L I S H E D I N 1 9 24
Delhi must take the
The lessons long view on Dhaka
from Pulwama The relationship is
robust, thanks to Sheikh
taken for granted in countries with dia tilt mean that Dhaka has decided
chequered civil-military relations. to overlook these issues. But they feed
The current stability offers an oppor- into the often violent Islamist-versus-
A hard response on terror is a part of Hasina. But to rely only tunity to take a hard look at the struc- secular nationalist debate within
tural risks the India-Bangladesh rela- Bangladesh. Despite the Awami
State policy. But there are risks on the skills of one leader tionship faces. League’s secular attractiveness for India must continue supporting Sheikh Hasina. But it should undertake a
may not be enough Competition between religious and India, the party has struggled to deal sustained mass outreach and political diversification in Bangladesh,
secular nationalisms in both coun- with Islamists. In recent years, it has including with moderate religious formations

T
wo years ago, on February 14, the terror MOHD ZAKIR/HT PHOTO

A
tri-service military con-
outfit, Jaish-e-Mohammad, attacked a tingent from Bangladesh
Central Reserve Police Force convoy in south participated in India’s
Kashmir’s Pulwama, killing 40 security 72nd Republic Day
parade. Given the impor-
personnel. The attack provoked a strong Indian tance of the occasion,
response in the form of the Balakot airstrike at a and the fact that 2021 is the 50th anni-
terror camp, an aerial incursion by Pakistan into versary year of Bangladesh’s libera-
tion, the signal of an “irreversible
Indian territory, the capture and subsequent release partnership” is unmissable.
of an Indian fighter pilot, and eventually shaped the When viewed in conjunction with
course of the Lok Sabha elections. The government the recent visual summit between
Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and
framed the airstrike as a continuation of the Sheikh Hasina, sustained high-level
surgical strike after Uri in 2016, and portrayed it as visits by top diplomats, signing of
an example of “new India’s” tough approach to seven Memorandums of Understand-
ing, restoration of the Haldibari-Chi-
terror. lahati railway line that was severed in
There is now enough distance to look back at the 1965, a joint celebration of “Banga-
event — and the larger Indian policy on terrorism. bandhu” Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s
legacy along with Mahatma Gandhi in
There is little doubt that like preceding a digital exhibition, and Modi’s
governments, the Narendra Modi government has planned visit to Dhaka in March, it
taken a strong position against cross-border terror. becomes clear that this relationship is
on stable ground.
It has also gone a step forward in determining that But with the historically cyclical
unless there are costs inflicted on Pakistan for its nature of this relationship — on an
continued support to terrorists, the incentive upswing when Hasina’s Awami
League is in power, and a downswing
structure for Pakistan’s military-intelligence with the Bangladesh Nationalist Party
complex — which protect these groups — won’t (BNP) — how long will this bonhomie
change. This has taken the form of aggressive last? As the military coup in Myan-
mar shows, civilian power cannot be
Indian diplomacy at the Financial Action Task
Force, a military response to terror attacks, cutting
off official dialogue with Islamabad unless it shows { STRAIGHTFORWARD }
tangible action in terms of cracking down on terror,
putting the South Asian Association for Regional Shashi Shekhar
Cooperation (Saarc) in deep freeze and evolving
regional mechanisms which don’t include Pakistan,
and continued international mobilisation against
Islamabad-Rawalpindi’s dubious ways. Coupled The significance of the
with more effective internal security mechanisms,
this has had the impact of forcing Pakistan to think
hard before it engages in its adventurism.
upcoming state elections
At the same time, the Pulwama-Balakot episode ill the ongoing farm agitation
showed the danger of both sides stepping on to an
W change political equations in the
tries is a powerful conditioning factor. conceded ground to Hefazat-e-Islam
This manifests in politically charged — an Islamist umbrella organisation despite his pro-India, secular, and In this context, China’s promise of
debates and violence around the issue that rose to prominence in 2013. socialist credentials — failed to recon- big finance (being resisted by Dhaka
of cross-border migration in India’s Another issue is Bangladesh’s cile the country’s socio-political cleav- for now,) and its role in curating a
Northeast, and pervasive increasingly one-party char- ages, leading to a violent pushback. thaw between Dhaka and Islamabad,
anti-India sentiment inside acter under Hasina. This has Contrary to Indian expectations, pop- should give India pause. To rely on the
Bangladesh. enabled efficient decision- ular reactions to the event were mark- existence, skills, and charisma of a
India’s recent push to making as witnessed in edly lukewarm. single leader might put India in a diffi-
redefine citizenship along Bangladesh’s economic suc- Mujib’s privileging of personal loy- cult situation in a future political cri-
religious lines required pro- cess and effective manage- alty over professional institutions cre- sis. If the BNP succeeds in reviving
active diplomatic manage- Avinash ment of big power rivalries. ated foreseeable problems. Declassi- itself before the 2024 elections by
ment in Dhaka. As Bangla- Paliwal In the process, Hasina has fied documents demonstrate India’s mobilising Islamists and military offi-
desh’s foreign secretary neutralised the BNP and frustration over its inability to secure cers disillusioned with Hasina — with
recently stated, there is “no co-opted the military. But the “hardcore” of pro-India elements Beijing and Islamabad’s support —
immediate reason” for such moves create pockets of and help Mujib better manage inter- that might complicate India’s Hasina-
Dhaka to be concerned about the Citi- enduring resistance as the Islamists nal conflicts. centric strategy.
zenship (Amendment) Act-National retain street power, and jihadist mili- But what stands out is a paramount To be clear, India must continue
Register of Citizens issue. He was tancy refuses to die out. concern about another wave of forced supporting Hasina. But it should
careful not to give the impression that There is an ever-present risk of migration, and the loss of Bangladesh undertake a sustained mass outreach
the issue is settled for good. such violence percolating into India. to Pakistan less than four years after and political diversification in Bangla-
Recent calls in India to support This is witnessed in, among other liberation. desh, including with moderate reli-
Hindu enclaves in Bangladesh is cases, the recent arrests of Jamaat-ul- Unlike India, where a change of gious formations. The aim should be
another sensitive issue with a histori- Mujahideen Bangladesh radicals in government doesn’t alter New Delhi’s to develop something akin to a bipar-
cal precedent — witnessed in the Assam. Couple this with the fragile, calculus vis-à-vis Bangladesh, the tisan consensus in Dhaka wherein all
demand for “Bangabhumi” by Bangla- tragic, and exploitable (by the jihad- reverse is not true. Ziaur Rahman, parties agree that good relations with
deshi Hindu separatists allegedly ists) humanitarian situation of the who came to power in 1975 and India are their national interest.
operating from Indian soil till the Rohingyas, and the picture looks formed the BNP in 1978, never got
mid-2000s. This doesn’t bode well in bleaker. along with India. Neither did his wife, Avinash Paliwal teaches at SOAS,
the long-term either, even if such calls As India supports the revival of Khaleda Zia, who led the BNP ever University of London and is
don’t have official sanction. Mujib’s legacy, it will be useful to since Zia’s assassination in 1981. A dip the author of My Enemy’s Enemy:
Power asymmetry between the two revisit the circumstances around his in Hasina’s political fortunes or per- India in Afghanistan from the
countries, India’s diplomatic assuran- assassination in 1975. Increasingly sonal health, then, risks undermining Soviet Invasion to the US Withdrawal
ces, and Hasina’s historically pro-In- embattled and authoritarian, Mujib — India’s interests. The views expressed are personal
{ NARENDRA MODI } PRIME MINISTER
P
The issue of Tamil rights has
been taken up by us
consistently with Sri Lanka.
We are committed to
ing elections. It has been relentlessly holding
ensuring that they live with
rallies and raising the issue of what it terms equality, justice, peace

escalatory spiral, with unpredictable consequences.
India may have conventional military superiority
and has done well in calling Pakistan’s nuclear bluff.
But, at a time when India faces a threat from China,
and the situation in Kashmir remains fragile, this
strategy must be used in a calibrated manner. It is
also important to recognise the heterogeneity
within Pakistan, and perhaps have a form of back-
channel dialogue mechanism to ensure that events
don’t spiral out of control. Responding to terror is
essential; ensuring this response is smart and
proportionate remains equally important.
country? The upcoming assem-
bly elections in four states —
Assam, West Bengal, Kerala and Tamil Nadu
— and the Union Territory of Puducherry
could provide some answers. In any event,
these elections are of significant political
import.
In Assam, the National Democratic Alli-
ance (NDA) government had made provi-
sions for the controversial National Register
of Citizens (NRC) and the Citizenship
(Amendment) Act (CAA) at the beginning of
its second term. This resulted in a range of
protests across the country, the most notable
one being at Shaheen Bagh in Delhi. Subse-
quently, the Delhi riots took place, which led
to the loss of dozens of lives.
The provisions were meant to address the
A
the Trinamool’s politics of “minority
appeasement”. The BJP’s aggression has paid and dignity.
off and it is the Trinamool’s main rival today.
The Congress and the Left hardly feature in
the fray. However, it is still not all smooth
sailing for the BJP given the hurdles that the
Trinamool will put in its way.
About 62% of Bengal’s voters are in nine of
its 23 districts. Of the total of 294 assembly
seats, 185 are in these nine districts. These
In its centenary year,
will dictate the course of the election. The
Trinamool claims that the BJP is shaky in
these districts. About 30% of the state’s vot-
ers are Muslims. Once Left supporters, they
the Communist Party of
have largely shifted their loyalties to Mamata
Banerjee. But, now Asaduddin Owaisi’s All
India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen has
China’s revisionist history
made an entry into Bengal after its impress- n July, the Communist Party of China cal events in order to capture the essence of

Republicans falter,
issue of the influx of Bangladeshi migrants.
But it soon became evident that the laws
would affect not just Bangladeshi migrants
but also natives of Assam. The government
ive performance in Bihar earlier. Will this
have an effect on the Muslim vote?
In Kerala, over the last 40 years, the state
has voted alternatively for the Left Demo-
I (CCP) will celebrate its centenary. This “red history.” In these narratives, there are
is the most important event in the CCP’s heroes and martyrs, who, driven by revolu-
political calendar. It presents an oppor- tionary zeal, overcame adversity to forge
tunity for the leadership to highlight devel- the “New China”. For example, earlier this

yet again, on Trump was forced to put the proposals on hold, but
with elections around the corner, these
issues have come into the spotlight again in
the state.
onald Trump will go down in history as the
cratic Front (LDF) and the United Demo-
cratic Front (UDF). Former Congress presi-
dent Rahul Gandhi represents the Wayanad
opmental achievements, which are seen as month, Gao Xiang, president of the Chinese
critical to its legitimacy. Economic develop- Academy of History, argued that as soon as
ment, however, is one of many factors that it was established, the CCP “took up the his-
seat in the Lok Sabha, giving the party some feed the algorithm of legitimacy. Viewing torical mission of achieving the great reju-

D
only United States (US) president to have faced
impeachment proceedings twice, and the only
one to have been subject to impeachment even after
demitting office. The Senate acquitted him on
Saturday — a conviction would have disqualified
him from running for public office — but this was a
function of Republican senators unwilling to
antagonise their hardline pro-Trump base. Fifty-
seven senators, including seven Republicans, found
Mr Trump guilty of “incitement of insurrection”, but
this fell short of the required two-thirds majority.
There was a view that since Mr Trump was no
longer in office, the impeachment was a distraction,
and it was time to look ahead. But this takes away
from the fact that holding Mr Trump accountable for
undermining the sacred democratic tenet of peaceful
transfer of power, and then encouraging a violent
attack on the home of US democracy, was an ethical
and political imperative. It also offered an
opportunity to the Republican leadership to make a
decisive break with Mr Trump; send a signal to
supporters that political contestation must take
place within democratic rules of the game; and chart
out a new political trajectory of moderate Right-of-
Centre politics — rather than the far-Right politics
represented by Mr Trump.
But clearly, the Republican leadership did not
want to take the risk. It wanted to hold on to Mr
Trump’s base while pretending to wash its hands of
his actions. The costs of this strategy have already
become clear, and a clean break was essential to
bring America back to normal politics and boost the
faith of the world in US democracy. The Republicans
failed, yet again.
Will the Congress-led coalition, which was
in power in the state till 2016, be able to
assume power in Guwahati? As in other
states, the grand old party is facing internal
strife as it takes on the Bharatiya Janata
Party (BJP) with its strong platform of major-
itarian nationalism. The BJP’s veteran lead-
ers such as party president JP Nadda and
home minister Amit Shah are going all out to
ensure the party’s victory. Prime Minister
Narendra Modi himself has begun address-
ing rallies in the state.
In West Bengal, the BJP is facing an
aggressive Trinamool Congress with a feisty
Mamata Banerjee at the helm. This is why
the BJP, with considerable foresight,
deployed a fiery leader such as Kailash Vijay-
vargiya in the state five years ago. He has
been able to win over several leaders consid-
ered loyal to Mamata Banerjee to the BJP.
The BJP’s signature move under Amit Shah
has been the fracturing of local parties dur-
The BJP’s signature move under Amit
Shah has been the fracturing of local
parties during elections
cause for hope. But the LDF has performed
well in many areas over the last five years. It
did well in handling the floods of 2018, 2019
and 2020 and its initial handling of the Cov-
id-19 pandemic was impressive.
The Congress and Left are rivals here,
though they have come together in other pla-
ces in the country. This may be confusing for
the voters but, then again, such political
conundrums are nothing new to India.
Tamil Nadu is going into the elections this
time without stalwarts such as the All India
Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam
(AIADMK) leader J Jayalalithaa and the
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) leader
M Karunanidhi. While Karunanidhi had
handed over the reins of the party to his son
MK Stalin, the AIADMK has no successor to
Jayalalithaa. This has made it prone to inter-
nal rifts and vulnerable to poaching by other
parties. The announcement by Jayalalithaa’s
long-time companion, Sasikala — after her
release from jail in Bengaluru — that she is
entering politics has complicated the picture.
But it is not clear how much support she
enjoys in the party or how effective she will
be in improving its electoral prospects.
While the Lok Sabha elections are still far
away, each assembly election going forward
will have a bearing on national politics. After
all, 116 Members of Parliament (MPs) come
from these five states. Muslims make up 28
to 32% of the electorate in Kerala, West Ben-
gal and Assam. This gives the BJP the oppor-
tunity to play the politics of polarisation, but
it equally gives the Congress a chance to con-
solidate its old voter base. These five states
are also going to shape the destiny of the Left
and regional parties. While many things are
still up in the air, one thing is certain: These
elections will have a crucial bearing on the
politics of the future and will provide much
fodder to political analysts.
Shashi Shekhar is the editor-in-chief, Hindustan
PTI The views expressed are personal
the question of legitimacy simply from a venation of the Chinese nation”. He claims
transactional prism of the party ensuring that the party “united and led the Chinese
developmental outcomes in exchange for people in a bloody battle” against the Japa-
obedience is reductive, resulting in a misun- nese “imperialists” and “reactionary”
derstanding of what sustains CCP rule in Kuomintang.
China. History, or more precisely, building The reality, however, is far messier, and
and guiding a supportive histori- to say that these stories embellish
cal narrative is crucial too. the past is a gross understatement.
Soon after assuming power as But their goal is not to provide fac-
CCP general secretary in late tually accurate accounts. The
2012, Xi Jinping clamped down objective is to frame a unitary view
on what he warned were “nihilis- of the past while building linkages
tic” views of history. Since then, to the present.
Manoj
there has been an effort to weed
Kewalramani ping This is something that Xi Jin-
out deviations from the party’s has proven rather adept at
historical canon. The CCP’s ver- throughout his time in power. For
sion of history draws upon the instance, in October 2017, after the
narrative of the century of humiliation to 19th party Congress, he travelled to Shang-
then present a neat classification of periods hai to the site of the first party Congress,
within which China has “stood up, grown which was held in 1921. Likewise, the 2019
rich, and is becoming strong” under CCP campaign of staying true to the party’s orig-
rule. inal aspirations focused on ensuring that
Such simplistic framing overlooks the the cadre maintains “unity in thought, polit-
different visions of the directions that post- ical orientation and action”. Often, the
Qing China could have taken, the grave fail- party’s discipline or anti-corruption cam-
ures of Mao Zedong’s time in power, and paigns draw on lessons from periods of
the policy contestation that led to and fol- “self-revolution”. These refer to instances of
lowed the start of reform and opening up. intense internal contestation and purges.
These rarely ever get reflected in official This is evident again in repeated references
public discourse, for doing so would under- to the Yan’an rectification movement since
mine the notion of a party driven by a “his- last year, as Xi moves to consolidate power
torical purpose” and vision towards a desti- across law enforcement organs.
nation called national rejuvenation. As Ouy- In essence, for the party, history serves
ang Song, former director of the Party many purposes. It is a tool to glorify, vilify
History Research Office, argued in a recent and mobilise when needed; an instrument
People’s Daily piece, it is important to stick to reinforce the inevitability of its rise; a
to the “main line” of party history. Forming trend that is driven by certain “laws,” grasp-
the “correct view of history,” for him, also ing which can ensure greater and continued
requires the party to focus on Xi’s thought power; a bestower of legacy; an instructive
as “the fundamental guide.” guide for self-revolution; and of course, a
Ouyang Song’s piece was part of the cen- battlefield in which defeat can present an
tenary propaganda push that the People’s existential challenge.
Daily began in January to highlight the
“century of struggle” while emphasising the Manoj Kewalramani is fellow, China
“new struggle” that lies ahead. Since then, Studies, at the Takshashila Institution
every day, the paper has discussed histori- The views expressed are personal

RNI No. MAHENG/2005/15186, Air Surcharge : Ahmedabad, Nagpur and beyond by Rail or Road - Rs. 2 /-.
Printed and published by DINESH MITTAL for and on behalf of HT Media Ltd., 9th Floor, Tower 3, Indiabulls Finance Centre, Senapati Bapat Marg, Elphinstone Road (West), Mumbai-400013 at
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Executive Editor: SACHIN KALBAG
MUMBAI
MONDAY
FEBRUARY 15, 2021
Allahabad HC orders that set an example
From coming down
heavily on UP govt’s
action against CAA
protesters to scrutiny
of anti-conversion
law, nine times the
high court stood tall
Utkarsh Anand
utkarsh.anand@hindustantimes.com
O
n Monday, January
25, the Supreme
Court reminded the
Uttar Pradesh gov-
ernment that a high
court is also a consti-
tutional court and cannot be taken
lightly. The observation by Chief
Justice of India SA Bobde followed
a raft of significant judgments and
orders delivered by the Allahabad
high court when people knocked
on its doors for having their funda-
mental rights protected.
The Allahabad high court has
risen to the occasion each time,
reaffirming the importance of the
rights to privacy and autonomy
while safeguarding civil liberties. It
has set an example of how a con-
stitutional court must act when
justice delivery is an imminent
necessity and not a luxury that can
wait. Amid a challenging political
and social atmosphere in Uttar
Pradesh, the Allahabad HC has
stood tall. Here are some instances
in corroboration of how the high
court took a stand:
Anti-CAA protesters’
posters/banners
The HC had in March 2020 taken
strong exception to banners being
put up by the state government to
recover damages from those alleg-
edly involved in the destruction of
public property during protests
against the Citizenship (Amend-
ment) Act,or CAA, in Lucknow.
The court came down heavily on
the “name and shame” policy of
the government and called it
“undemocratic” besides an
infringement of the right to pri-
vacy.
“In the present case, the cause is
not about personal injury caused
to the persons whose personal
details are given in the banner but
the injury caused to the precious
constitutional value and its
shameless depiction by the admin-
istration. The cause as such is
undemocratic functioning of gov-
‘Come what may, CAA won’t happen’:
Rahul kicks off Assam poll campaign
Utpal Parashar
utpal.parashar@htlive.com
GUWAHATI: On his first cam-
paign visit to poll-bound Assam,
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi
said on Sunday that the party
won’t allow implementation of
the Citizenship Amendment Act
(CAA) that has sparked protests
in the past in the northeastern
state.
Addressing a rally at the
Boarding Field sports facility in
Sivasagar, he said the legisla-
tion, which seeks to grant
Indian citizenship to religious
minorities from the Muslim-
majority nations of Bangladesh,
Pakistan and Afghanistan, was a
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
ploy to divide the people.
“We are wearing a gamcha
(traditional Assamese towel)
today where letters CAA have
been written and marked with a
cross. It signifies that come
what may, CAA won’t happen.
Illegal immigration is an issue,
but Assam’s people have the
capability to resolve this prob-
lem together with talks.”
There’s fear among a large
section in Assam that if CAA is
implemented, it would lead to
large-scale influx of people from
{ NO ARREST YET } 12 VILLAGERS BOOKED
Couple from Maharashtra faces social boycott
Ram Parmar
htmetro@hindustantimes.com
PALGHAR: Twenty-three-year-
old Saurabh Jadhav and his
newly wedded wife Gaurvi are
facing social boycott from their
community in Ratnagiri dis-
trict’s Devrukh town.
Jadhav, who is now residing
in a rented flat at in Vasai near
Mumbai with his wife, parents
and brother, said he is facing
the boycott because in his vil-
lage at Patgaon, men and
women from for the same com-
munity cannot get married.
“The villagers of the commu-
nity say members of the same
community can’t marry each
other as, according to them, all
members are brothers and sis-
ters. But I do not believe in
such diktat and I married
Gaurvi because I love her,” said
Jadhav.
ernment agencies which are sup-
posed to treat all members of the
public with respect and courtesy
and at all times should behave in a
manner that upholds constitu-
tional and democratic values,” a
strongly worded HC order read.
Calling the state government’s
move an “absolute encroachment
on personal liberty,” the HC
ordered the UP government to
immediately remove the hoard-
ings and submit a compliance
report to the court.
Dr Kafeel Khan’s
detention under the NSA
Six months after he was being on
one charge or another, it was in
September 2020 when Kafeel
Khan got off the hook with the
high court quashing his detention
under the National Security Act.
The HC ordered his immediate
release, saying the UP government
had done a “selective reading” of
his allegedly anti-CAA speech at
the Aligarh Muslim University. It
emphasised that the medical doc-
tor had called for national integrity
and not incited violence while also
noting there were no grounds to
impose the NSA on him and
extend his detention.
“A complete reading of the
speech prima facie does not dis-
close any effort to promote hatred
or violence. It also nowhere threat-
ens peace and tranquillity of the
city of Aligarh. The address gives a
call for national integrity and unity
among the citizens. The speech
also deprecates any kind of vio-
lence. It appears that the district
magistrate had selective reading
and selective mention for few
phrases from the speech ignoring
its true intent,” stated the HC
order.Khan has been a vocal critic
of the Bharatiya Janata Party gov-
ernments at the Centre and in UP.
Expresses concern over
misuse of slaughter law
In October, the high court had
expressed concerns over the mis-
use of the Uttar Pradesh Preven-
tion of Cow Slaughter Act, 1955 to
target innocent persons and lack
of forensic evidence to prove that
recovered meat was beef.
While granting bail to Rahmud-
din, a person who had been
booked for cow slaughter, the HC
said: “The Act is being misused
against innocent persons. When-
ever any meat is recovered, it is
normally shown as cow meat
(beef) without getting it examined
or analysed by the forensic labora-
Rahul Gandhi
Bangladesh. Violent protests
against the legislation in the
state in December 2019 claimed
five lives. Stressing that the Con-
gress will uphold and defend
the Assam Accord, signed in
1985 after a six-year agitation
against illegal immigrants from
Bangladesh, Gandhi said the
BJP was trying to do away with
the accord, divide the state and
implement the CAA.
Accusing the BJP-led govern-
ment of Assam of exploiting tea
garden workers and giving ben-
efit to businessmen from Guj-
arat, Gandhi promised that if
the Congress comes to power in
the state it would increase daily
wage of tea workers from
present ₹167 to ₹365.
“A mere ₹167 to tea workers
P invited to any functions, such
The villagers of the community say
members of the same community can’t
marry each other as according to them all
members are brothers and sisters. But I
do not believe in such diktat... I love her.
SAURABH JADHAV
Devrukh police have booked
12 persons in the case, though
no arrests have been made
yet.
“We fear for our lives as the
community members may
harm my father Vijay, Gaurvi,
brother Kaustubh and mother
Sonali. We seek justice,” said
Jadhav.
He works as an engineer in a
private firm in Vasai, while
Gaurvi, 22, also works in the
Allahabad HC delivered a raft of significant judgments and orders.
tory. In most of the cases, meat is
not sent for analysis. Accused per-
sons continue to remain in jail for
an offence that may not have been
committed at all.”
It observed that there was a
need to take care of old or non-
milking cows which are aban-
doned by owners if the law against
the slaughter of cows is to be
implemented in letter and spirit.
Right to choose life partner
a fundamental right
Days before the UP government
notified the anti-conversion ordi-
nance amidst a clamour against
so-called love jihad, the high court
delivered a landmark verdict on
the sanctity of inter-faith marria-
ges in November 2020.
“Right to live with a person of
his/her choice irrespective of reli-
gion professed by them is intrinsic
to right to life and personal lib-
erty,” said the court, adding inter-
ference in a personal relationship
would constitute a serious
encroachment into the right to
freedom of choice of the two indi-
viduals. “To disregard the choice
of a person who is of the age of
majority would not only be anti-
thetic to the freedom of choice of a
grown up individual but would
also be a threat to the concept of
unity in diversity,” said the HC, as
it quashed an FIR lodged by a man
against his daughter’s husband,
whom she married after conver-
sion to Islam.
The court also observed that its
two previous rulings against mar-
riages performed after alleged
conversions were not good in law
since they failed to take into
account the rights of liberty, equal-
and tea gardens to Gujarat busi-
nessmen. That’s why BJP wants
to divide the state so that its
resources can be stolen and
given to others,” he said.
Gandhi recalled how he
learned a lot about Assam’s
diverse communities, languages
and cultures from former chief
minister Tarun Gogoi (who
passed away in November) dur-
ing his visits to the state.
“The BJP government at Cen-
tre has hurt the people of Assam
by putting Gogoi, who gave his
entire life for the state in the
same category of Padma awar-
dees list with a bureaucrat who
had served the Prime Minister
Modi’s office. This was not a
right thing,”
Gogoi was named as a recipi-
ent of Padma Bhushan, the third
highest civilian honour in the
country, this year. Retired
bureaucrat Nripendra Mishra
who served as a principal secre-
tary to the Prime Minister
between 2014 and 2019 was also
given the same honour.
Gandhi continued with his
recent jibe, ‘Hum do, Hamare
Do’ (We two, Our two) and said
that the country was being run
by four people at present. With-
out taking names he added that
same firm in another depart-
ment.
They married on February 3
last year.
“As the news of my marriage
reached Patgaon village in Dev-
rukh, the elders had a meeting,
during which it was decided
that my family will be boy-
cotted. Our community in
Mumbai was also directed to
boycott us and we have been
socially ostracised. We are not
ity and privacy.
Women have right
to live on own terms
By a judgment in December, the
Allahabad high court reunited a
Hindu woman with her Muslim
husband, underlining that “she
has a choice to live her life on her
own terms”. The court decided a
habeas corpus plea filed by the
man, who complained his wife
had been sent to her parents
against her wishes by the Nari
Niketan or Child Welfare Commit-
tee (CWC).
“As the corpus (woman) has
attained the age of majority and
she has a choice to live her life on
her own terms and she has
expressed that she wants to live
with her husband, she is free to
move as per her own choice with-
out any restriction or hindrance
being created by third party,” held
the court in its judgment. The
court also quashed an FIR regis-
tered against the man for allegedly
abducting the woman.
Abuse of power in
Tablighi Jamaat case
The high court was critical of the
invocation of Section 307 (attempt
to murder) under the Indian Penal
Code against a person from Mau
who had attended the Tablighi
Jamaat congregation at Delhi’s
Nizamuddin in March 2020.
“From a perusal of the material,
charge sheeting the applicant
under Section 307 IPC prima facie
reflects abuse of the power of law,”
said the HC as it stayed the crimi-
nal proceedings against the man
concerned.
The court also directed the
like in the Centre, two persons
were controlling everything in
Assam. “We are a people’s
party. If we come to power, the
hatred being spread by BJP will
disappear. We will take every
section of the people irrespec-
tive of their caste, religion, lan-
guage and status along with us
and will create jobs for youths
of Assam,” he said.
“Remote control might be
good for a television, but not
when it comes to running a
state like Assam. The present
chief minister is remote con-
trolled from Nagpur and Delhi
and take orders from there.
That’s why we want to remove
this government,” he added.
Chhattisgarh chief minister
and party observer for Assam,
Bhupesh Baghel, the Congress
party’s state in-charge Jitendra
Singh, Lok Sabha MPs Gaurav
Gogoi, Pradyut Bordoloi and
Abdul Khaleque, party state
president Ripun Bora and other
senior leaders attended the
rally. Gandhi’s rally comes three
weeks after Prime Minister Nar-
endra Modi addressed a rally at
Jerenga Pathar in Sivasagar dis-
trict on January 23 and distrib-
uted land allotment certificates
to 106,000 landless families.
as marriage, in our community
or even allowed to purchase
groceries from stores in Pat-
gaon. My grandmother died on
December 10 last year and my
mother Sonali was banned
from entering the village for
the last rites, though she was
her only daughter,” said Jad-
hav.
“The accused who issued the
social boycott order are booked
under the Maharashtra Protec-
tion of People from Social Boy-
cott (Prevention, Prohibition
and Redressal) Act, 2016, and
sections 120(b) (conspiracy),
149 (unlawful assembly) and
153 (provocation to rioting) of
the Indian Penal Code (IPC),”
said senior inspector Nisha
Jadhav of Devrukh police sta-
tion.
“We are probing the case fur-
ther,” she said.
My India
SHUTTERSTOCK
police officers to file personal affi-
davits to justify invoking Section
307 from the facts of the case.
Govt drops anti-conversion
charge after HC protection
In December, the high court
restrained the state government
from arresting a 32-year-old Mus-
lim man from Muzaffarnagar dis-
trict -- one of the first to be charged
under UP’s controversial anti-con-
version law. The man was charged
with having an affair with the wife
of a Hindu man. The court had
then said: “Victim is admittedly an
adult who understands her well-
being. She, as well as the peti-
tioner, have a fundamental right to
privacy and being grown-up
adults who are aware of the conse-
quences of their alleged relation-
ship.”Later, in January, the state
government told the high court
that the police had dropped char-
ges against him since no evidence
was found during investigation.
“During investigation no evidence
was found that the accused
Nadeem was having any illicit
relation with the woman.
Further, during investigation,
no evidence was found in support
of the allegation that Nadeem was
trying for her religious conversion
as alleged by the complainant,” its
affidavit stated.
Notice before inter-faith
marriages not mandatory
Delivering yet another progressive
ruling earlier this month, the high
court ruled that the publication of
a notice of intended marriage
under the Special Marriage Act
(SMA) and inviting objections was
not mandatory. The court said that
FIRST VOICE
TO RAISE THE TRUTH,
LAST WORD
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any additional burden in law on a
couple only on account of having
an inter-faith marriage would be a
violation of their right to equality,
dignity and privacy.
Interpreting the SMA in the
backdrop of the recent Supreme
Court judgments on privacy and
liberty, the HC said that it shall be
optional for the parties to the
intended marriage to make a
request in writing to the marriage
officer to publish or not to publish
a notice for inviting objections
from the public at large.
“Making such publication man-
datory would invade in the funda-
mental rights of liberty and pri-
vacy. It would also affect the cou-
ple’s freedom to choose marriage
without interference from state
and non-state actors”, held the HC.
Anti-conversion
ordinance scrutiny
The high court has shown its
resolve to examine the constitu-
tionality of the UP Prohibition of
Unlawful Conversion of Religion
Ordinance, 2020, despite repeated
attempts by the state government
to take away the issue from its jur-
isdiction. Responding to a bunch
of petitions, the state government’s
additional advocate general had
first requested the HC not to exam-
ine the law because similar peti-
tions were pending before the
Supreme Court. But to no avail.
The HC not only shot down a plea
for adjournment, but it also asked
the government to file its affidavit
in response to the petitions in
order to bring its stand on record.
The UP government had to then
submit its affidavit.
Getting no relief from the HC,
the state government took
recourse to the Supreme Court
and filed a transfer petition. It
requested the top court to stop the
HC from scrutinising the ordi-
nance.
But this endeavour also failed.
On Monday, the top court declined
to entertain its transfer petition
and directed the state to go before
the HC on February 6 when the
case will be heard next.
While it is yet to rule on the con-
stitutional validity of the contro-
versial ordinance against forced
conversion, the Allahabad high
court, by frequently stepping in to
underscore the significance of fun-
damental rights, has undoubtedly
been able to generate a sense of
confidence about due legal process
culminating in a justice-oriented
decision.
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BJP’s Bengal election
campaign to focus on
central govt schemes
Smriti Kak Ramachandran
smriti.kak@hindustantimes.com
NEW DELHI: The Bharatiya Jan-
ata Party (BJP) is preparing to
launch an information blitz-
krieg in poll-bound West Bengal,
particularly in Trinamool Con-
gress (TMC) strongholds, to
draw the people’s attention to
the loss of benefits resulting
from the non-implementation of
central schemes in the state.
According to party functiona-
ries privy to the details, the BJP
is keen on pivoting the election
campaign in Bengal on eco-
nomic development and wants
to highlight the discrepancies in
the implementation of schemes
such as housing for the poor,
water supply and gas connec-
tions for the poor.
“In TMC strongholds such as
Kolkata Uttar, Kolkata Dakshin
and parts of Jadavpur, the party
will carry out targeted canvass-
ing, reaching out to women, the
poor and Scheduled Castes and
the Scheduled Tribes who have
been deprived of the benefits of
the schemes,” said a senior party
leader aware of the campaign
strategy, requesting anonymity.
The BJP is seeking to attract
the 35.9 million women voters
who make up 49% of the elector-
ate, the SC communities that
account for 23.51% of the popula-
tion and the STs that are 5.8% of
the population, according to the
2011 census.
In the 2019 general elections
as well as a clutch of assembly
Bengal far-right group
floats party to fight polls
KOLKATA: A far-right group,
Hindu Samhati, on Sunday
announced the formation of its
own political party, Jana Sam-
hati. The party will contest at
least 170 of the 294 seats. The
organisation, formed in 2008,
observed its foundation day on
Sunday.
“Hindu Samhati will continue
to work as an independent orga-
nisation. The Jana Samhati,
which has been registered as a
political party, will contest 40
seats in north Bengal and 130 in
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09
polls including in Bihar last year,
the BJP accrued electoral gains
from leveraging the response to
schemes that offered subsidised
housing for the poor, free gas
connections for households that
relied on wood and other pollut-
ing fuels for cooking, rural elec-
trification and construction of
toilets to end open defecation.
Since women voters were per-
ceived to have played a key role
in the party’s performance; it
wants to create a constituency of
women supporters as well.
Union minister for Jal Shakti
Gajendra Singh Shekhawat told
HT in an interview that the West
Bengal polls will be contested on
the plank of development for the
first time. Lashing out at the
TMC government, he said nearly
7 million small and marginal
farmers in the state had lost out
on cash transfers of ₹6,000 per
year. While the TMC has been
supportive of the ongoing farm-
ers’ protest for a repeal of three
contentious farm laws, the BJP
has drawn attention to how for
about 25 months now, the state
government has refused to pass
on the benefits of the Kisan Sam-
man Nidhi programme.
The TMC says it has several
schemes aimed at providing
health-care and empowerment
of women and the economically
weaker sections. “Our party has
walked the talk on empower-
ment for women. We gave more
representation to women in elec-
tions...,” said a TMC requesting
anonymity.
the south Bengal... We sup-
ported the BJP [Bharatiya Jan-
ata Party] in the 2019 but there
has been a paradigm shift in its
position since then... Hindus are
losing their faith in the BJP,”
saidDebtanu Bhattacharya,
president of the Jana Samhati.
Samik Bhattacharya, chief
spokesperson of the BJP’s Ben-
gal unit, said any party can join
the race but it will remain a
bi-polar contest between the
BJP and the ruling Trinamool
Congress. HTC
www.hindustantimes.com
10
Virus data row:
China slams US
BEIJING: China fired back on
Sunday at the US over allega-
tions from the White House
that Beijing withheld some
information about the corona-
virus outbreak from World
Health Organization investiga-
tors.
White House national secu-
rity adviser Jake Sullivan said
the US had “deep concerns
about the way in which the
early findings of the Covid-19
investigation were communi-
cated and questions about the
process used to reach them.”
China responded with a
statement from its Washington
embassy on Sunday, saying the
US had already “gravely dam-
aged international cooperation
on Covid-19” and was now
“pointing fingers at other coun-
tries who have been faithfully
supporting the WHO.”
Meanwhile, CNN reported
the WHO investigators had dis-
covered that signs of the out-
break were much wider in
Wuhan in December 2019 than
previously thought.
The lead investigator, Peter
Trump not guilty, again
After a day of drama,
Senate votes 57-43 to
acquit former US prez
over attack on Capitol
Yashwant Raj
yashwant.raj@hindustantimes.com
WASHINGTON : With not enough
senators voting to convict him of
inciting the riot at the US Capitol
on January 6, Donald Trump has
been acquitted, but will still go
down in history as the only
American president to have
been impeached twice, and
acquitted twice.
The motion to convict Trump
for the riot received 57 “guilty”
verdicts on Saturday, with seven
Republicans joining all the 50
Democrats; and 43 “not guilty”,
by all the remaining Republi-
cans. A conviction, which would
have barred him from holding
any federal office in future,
required 67 votes, or two-thirds
of the 100-member chamber.
“While the final vote did not
lead to a conviction, the sub-
stance of the charge is not in dis-
pute,” President Joe Biden said.
“This sad chapter in our history
has reminded us that democracy
is fragile. That it must always be
defended. That we must be ever
vigilant. That violence and
extremism has no place in
America.”
This was the largest biparti-
san vote ever in the impeach-
ment trial of a US president. And
it reflected the growing disaffec-
tion with Trump in the party.
Seven Republicans declared him
guilty this time, compared to
only one during his first
impeachment trial in January
2020. Ten House Republicans
had voted to impeach him this
time, compared to none the last
time, in December 2019.
Many of the Republicans who
voted “not guilty” stressed they
MAHA...
Health experts, who are also
on state government panels and
task forces, have attributed the
rise in cases to increased move-
ment of people post unlocking,
resumption of trains in Mumbai
and MMR, and Covid fatigue in
wearing masks and sanitising.
Dr Subhash Salunkhe, advisor
to the state government on Cov-
id-19 and former director-gen-
eral of health services, said that
he was “warning” of a possible
surge in daily cases. He said, “I
was warning about it for the past
few days. The daily cases that we
were seeing for the past few
weeks fluctuated. But there was
no declining trend week-on-
week. Now we are seeing an
upward trend.”
Dr Shashank Joshi, member
of the Covid task force in the
state, said, “Kerala and Maha-
rashtra are outliers. And it has
coincided with three things, full
unlocking, gram panchayat elec-
tions, and some degree of
schools and colleges. All these
three things have a significant
role. In geographies like Mum-
bai, MMR, the floating popula-
tion of trains is increasing. These
are the reasons that are prop-
ping up the cases and needs to be
looked at urgently.”
Ben Embarek, told CNN that
the team is urgently seeking
access to hundreds and thou-
sands of blood samples from
the city that China has not so
far let them examine.
On Sunday, the UK affirmed
its plan for schools to reopen
from early next month as the
nation’s vaccine programme
looks set to meet its first target.
The country is moving to the
next phase of inoculations as it
neared a target of giving vacci-
nes to 15 million of the most
vulnerable people.
New Zealand’s most popu-
lous city, Auckland, went into a
snap three-day lockdown from
Sunday midnight after three
members of one household
were diagnosed with the virus.
Japan gave formal approval
to the Pfizer vaccine, in its first
go-ahead for shots against the
coronavirus. Japan is expected
to begin inoculations this week,
starting with medical profes-
sionals. The government has
agreed to buy the vaccine from
Pfizer for 72 million people this
year. AGENCIES
had done so only on a technical-
ity — that the American consti-
tution does not provide for con-
victing a president who is no
longer in office. They denounced
him roundly for his role in incit-
ing the insurrection. Among
them was Mitch McConnell, the
top Senate Republican, who said
Trump was “practically and
morally responsible” for the
Capitol invasion.
Trump thanked his lawyers
and supporters in a statement
and sought to play the victim,
saying the trial was “yet another
phase of the greatest witch hunt
in the history of our country”. He
also indicated he will be back —
“soon we will emerge with a
vision for a bright, radiant, and
limitless American future”.
The acquittal may not, how-
ever, mark the end of Trump’s
legal troubles.
“President Trump is still liable
for everything he did while he
was in office as an ordinary citi-
zen,” McConnell pointed to it in
his floor speech explaining his
vote to acquit him. “He didn’t get
away with anything. Yet.”
A Georgia county opened a
criminal investigation last week
into efforts by Trump to pressure
election officials in the state to
overturn his defeat. New York
district attorney is investigating
financial dealings regarding his
signature Manhattan properties,
a probe that started two years
ago with the payment of hush
money by the Trump campaign.
And the Southern District of
New York has been investigating
a non-public probe, according to
Trump’s former lawyer Michael
Cohen.
The House of Representatives
had impeached Trump on Janu-
ary 13 on the solitary charge of
inciting insurrection at the US
Capitol on January 6, when a
mob breached the seat of Ameri-
can democracy to prevent a joint
session of Congress from verify-
ing Biden’s election victory.
Salunkhe added that resump-
tion in local train services could
be a danger for Mumbai if peo-
ple remain lax in following Cov-
id-appropriate behaviour.
“Mumbai could get into trouble
with local trains starting and
flow of people from its sur-
rounding areas. The numbers
were expected to rise as people
are lax in Covid-appropriate
behaviour. We are seeing a simi-
lar rise in Pune district as well as
people are behaving as the pan-
demic has passed,” Salunkhe
said.
Dr Joshi added that the train
traffic has gone up from 2 mil-
lion to 3.4 million after the gen-
eral public was allowed to use
trains from February 1. “We defi-
nitely need to remain on a red
alert and should avoid compla-
cency,” said Joshi.
The experts added that
increased public awareness is a
key factor in preventing the
spike to turn into a surge.
Besides that, they said the
administration needs to ramp up
community testing and tracking.
“Community testing has gone
down drastically. We need to
restart it and tell people that it is
their responsibility to follow
Covid-appropriate behaviour.
There is Covid fatigue that is set
Snowstorm turns the Netherlands into a big skating rink
Skaters glide on the ice near windmills in Kinderdijk village. The Netherlands had its first proper snowstorm in over a decade on the weekend, bringing out skaters
as water bodies and land froze up. Skating is a Dutch national obsession, with nearly everyone said to have a pair of skates ready for when the canals freeze over. AFP
What the future holds
What's next for Donald Trump, the Republican Party and Joe Biden
after the former president’s acquittal in Senate impeachment trial?
Donald Trump
The acquittal could be a
rallying cry for Trump and
his supporters.
Trump, who said after the
Senate verdict that the
movement to Make
America Great Again “has
only just begun”, had
flirted with the idea of
running for the White
House again in 2024.
Despite the acquittal, his
legacy may be that of the
Capitol siege of January 6,
and that could carry over
to his private sector
activities, with possible
boycotts and social media
backlash, experts said.
This may mean he has
no choice but to
continue to be in
politics, they
pointed out
in for lack of masking. It should
be told to the people that if they
do not want another lockdown,
they have to start stringent Covid
appropriate behaviour and
remain on guard,” said Joshi.
Salunkhe added that the vac-
cination drive is progressing
slowly and it will take time for
herd immunity to build after
inoculation. He said, “The vacci-
nation is happening at a slow
pace. The inoculation of the gen-
eral public (above age 50, and
with comorbidities) will start
only next month. Till that period
at least, people have to remain
vigilant.”
UTTARAKHAND....
“The administration has kept
seven ambulances and a chop-
per on standby in case any of
the workers is found alive from
the tunnel,” Bhadauria added.
A team of rescue workers is
trying to drill its way to the
smaller tunnel to rescue about
30 workers trapped inside, she
said.
“On Saturday, the rescue
workers finished drilling verti-
cally in the main tunnel to reach
out to a small underground tun-
nel beneath it at a depth of 12.7
metres. They, however, hit slush
after drilling to the required
World
JOE With the trial over, the Senate
will now be in a position to
BIDEN swiftly confirm Biden's cabinet
and work on his legislative
agenda. Biden has done a very
good job of separating himself
from the impeachment trial
proceedings, but Trump remains
a force to be reckoned with. In
the coming days, Biden may face
more protests, demonstrations
and activism from the far-right
Republican Party
Most of GOP senators voted to acquit Trump, in a clear signal of the grip he
retains on the party. "The party is his. It doesn't belong to anyone else,"
Georgia Representative and Trump loyalist Marjorie Taylor Greene said last
week. But several Republicans, including Indian-origin former UN envoy Nikki
Haley, have distanced themselves from Trump and are lining up to take their
own shot at the White House in 2024. Haley also dismissed speculation Trump
will seek the presidency in 2024. "I don't think he can. He's fallen so far," she
said. But Republicans advocating a complete break with Trump are in the
minority and most remain fearful of the power he holds over his base. GOP
senators who voted to acquit him may be protecting themselves against
primary challenges from the more extreme wing of their party in 2022, or even
2024, observers said. A group of anti-Trump former Republican officials has
raised the idea of creating a centre-right third party, without much traction.
{ }
depth, which they have been
pumping out to get inside to
search for workers trapped
inside it,” she said.
Rescue workers recovered
seven other bodies including six
from Reni village near the Rishi
Ganga hydel power project,
which was the first one to be hit
by the flash floods in Sunday’s
disaster. One body was recov-
ered from the Alaknanda river
in Rudraprayag.
Nilesh Anand Bharne, deputy
inspector general of police(law
& order), said that out of the 50
bodies recovered so far, 25 have
been identified.
“Of the 50 bodies, 41 were
recovered from Chamoli dis-
trict, seven from Rudraprayag
and one each from Tehri
Garhwal and Pauri Garhwal dis-
tricts,” said Bharne.
“Apart from the bodies, the
rescue workers also recovered
23 human body parts. DNA
samples of all the body parts
and dead bodies have been col-
lected to ascertain their identi-
ties.”
The police officer said rescue
workers have so far “cremated
32 bodies and 11 human body
parts with complete rituals and
respect.
The rescue agencies have
“What we saw…was a
cowardly group of
Republicans who
apparently have
no options,
because they
were afraid to
defend their
job.”
NANCY PELOSY
– House speaker,
on trial verdict
also videographed and photo-
graphed the jewellery, tattoo
and other identity marks of the
bodies found.”
“The rescue workers are
working tirelessly to recover the
remaining bodies. The family
members can contact helpline
numbers- 01372-251487 and
9084127503 for any queries or
help,” said Bharne.
On Saturday night, an
eight-member team of the state
disastert response force, which
had gone to gather information
about the glacier lake about 8
kms above Reni village in Rishi
Ganga, returned to Tapovan.
They said the 350 metre
lake was posing no threat of
any more flash floods; water is
continuously being drained out
of the lake in the form of a
stream.
MODI...
“No Indian can forget this day.
Two years ago, the Pulwama
attack happened. We pay hom-
age to all the martyrs. We are
proud of our security forces and
their bravery will continue to
inspire generations,” he said at a
function. He said the country’s
armed forces had shown time
and again they were fully capa-
ble of protecting “our mother-
Earthquake off Fukushima was an
aftershock of 2011 disaster: JMA
Agencies
letters@hindustantimes.com
TOKYO : The Japan Meteorologi-
cal Agency (JMA) said the 7.3
magnitude earthquake of Satur-
day was believed to be an after-
shock from the magnitude 9.0
quake on March 11, 2011 that set
off a tsunami, killing nearly
20,000 people along a wide
swath of northeastern Japan.
That disaster had also led to
the Fukushima nuclear plant
meltdown, the world’s worst
such accident in 25 years.
JMA warned of aftershocks
for several days from the week-
end temblor.
Residents on Sunday cleaned
up debris in stores and homes
after the quake set off a landslide
on a highway, damaged build-
ings and parts of bullet train
lines and caused power black-
outs for thousands of people. It
shook the quake-prone areas of
‘Taliban’s Akhundzada
killed in Pak in 2020’
NEW DELHI : Conflicting reports
emerged on Sunday about the
fate of Afghan Taliban leader
Haibatullah Akhundzada, with a
section of the Afghan media
reporting that he was killed in a
blast in Pakistan’s Balochistan
province last year.
However, senior Taliban
leader Ahmadullah Wasiq
described the reports as “false
news and baseless rumours” and
contended the Taliban chief was
alive.
If the reports of Akhundzada’s
death are accurate, he will be the
third Taliban chief after Mullah
Omar and Mullah Akhtar Man-
sour to have died in Pakistan.
Akhundzada was killed
“months ago”, with Mullah Mati-
ullah, the Taliban’s intelligence
chief, and Hafiz Abdul Majeed,
land”.
“Time and again they have
also shown that India believes in
peace, but India will protect sov-
ereignty at all costs. Sainya
shakti and dhairya shakti
(strength and courage) of our
forces are remarkable,” the PM
said.
Modi’s speech stressed “Aat-
manirbharta” (self-reliance) in
the defence and infrastructure
sector and of the provision in the
Union Budget for Tamil Nadu of
₹63,000 crore for Phase 2 of the
Chennai Metro Rail. He said the
Metro rail network was “one of
the largest projects sanctioned
for any city in one go”.
He praised Tamil Nadu’s
farmers “for record foodgrain
production and good use of
water resources”, quoting Tamil
poet Avvaiyar on water conser-
vation, which he said was a
global issue. Modi’s speech high-
lighting central schemes that
have benefitted Tamil Nadu indi-
cates that the BJP will adopt
development as its main plank in
the assembly elections due to
take place in April-May. BJP
chief JP Nadda affirmed the alli-
ance with the AIADMK at a rally
in Madurai on January 30.
Modi often quotes Tamil phi-
losophers and poets at official
A landslide caused by the earthquake covers a road.
Fukushima and Miyagi prefec-
tures, and injured more than 140
people, mostly through falling
objects and cuts while stepping
on broken glass. Three people
were confirmed with serious
injures but there were no reports
of deaths, chief cabinet secretary
Katsunobu Kato said.
the group’s head of finance, in a
blast at a safe house in Quetta,
the capital of Balochistan, Hasht-
e-Subh newspaper reported, cit-
ing its sources.
The house belonged to
Majeed. While Akhundzada and
Matiullah were killed almost
instantly, Majeed died “two or
three days later in a Pakistani
military hospital”, the report
said.
People familiar with develop-
ments said on condition of ano-
nymity the blast was believed to
have occurred in April 2020. The
people confirmed that the blast
had occurred in a house belong-
ing to Majeed.
They added that some more
senior Taliban leaders were
believed to have been killed in
the blast. HTC
functions on his visits to Tamil
Nadu, his party’s defence against
criticism that it is essentially a
north Indian party. In January,
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi
attacked Modi, the BJP and its
ideological mentor, the Rash-
triya Swayamsevak Sangh, for
allegedly disrespecting Tamil
people. Modi announced that
the Centre had accepted a
demand by members of the Dev-
endrakula Velalar community
that they should be known by
their heritage name, a day after a
bill to modify the list of Sched-
uled Castes in Tamil Nadu was
introduced in the Lok Sabha.
The Constitution (Scheduled
Castes) Order (Amendment) Bill
2021, proposed by the state gov-
ernment, would group together
seven castes to be known as the
Devendrakula Velalar.
“I can never forget my meet-
ing with representatives of the
(community) in 2015 in Delhi,”
Modi said. “Colonial rulers took
away their pride and dignity...
They told me they pleaded and
pleaded with governments, but
nothing changed. I told them
one thing. I said that their name
Devender rhymes with my own
name – Narendra. I understand
their emotions. This decision is
more than a change of name. It
MUMBAI
MONDAY
FEBRUARY 15, 2021
MORE PROTESTS
AGAINST COUP
IN MYANMAR AS
TROOPS DEPLOYED
YANGON: Security forces in
Myanmar opened fire to dis-
perse protesters at a power plant
on Sunday and armoured vehi-
cles rolled into major cities as
the new army rulers faced a
ninth day of anti-coup demon-
strations that saw hundreds of
thousands on the streets.
Soldiers were deployed to
power plants in the northern
state of Kachin, leading to a con-
frontation with demonstrators,
some saying the army intended
to cut off electricity. Armoured
vehicles appeared in the com-
mercial capital of Yangon, Myit-
kyina and Sittwe, the capital of
Rakhine state. The US embassy
warned of troop movements and
possible “telecommunications
interruptions” in Yangon.
Thousands of mostly silent
demonstrators marched in cen-
tral Tokyo on Sunday to oppose
the coup, many carrying photos
of detained leader Aung San Suu
Kyi in what organisers said was
the largest such march in Japan
to date. The junta, meanwhile,
warned people against hiding
fugitives. AGENCIES
AP
Tokyo Electric Power Co, the
utility that runs the Fukushima
Dai-ichi nuclear power plant
that was hit by the March 2011
disaster, said the water used to
cool spent fuel rods near the
reactors had spilled but there
were no radiation leaks or other
irregularities.
A
l
WH aide quits over
threat call to scribe
WASHINGTON: White
House deputy press
secretary TJ Ducklo has
resigned. He was earlier
suspended for making a
threat to “destroy” a
reporter who probed his
relations with another
journalist. AGENCIES
2 Indian Americans
get key US posts
WASHINGTON: Sonali
Nijhawan was named
director of AmeriCorps
State and National, while
fellow Indian American
Sri Preston Kulkarni
became external affairs
chief of the federal
agency for volunteering
and service. AGENCIES
is about justice, dignity and
opportunity.”
Speaking on the longstanding
problems faced by Tamil Nadu’s
fishermen on the high seas,
Modi said that during his tenure,
more than 1,600 fishermen had
been released after being appre-
hended by Sri Lanka. “Currently,
there is no Indian fisherman in
Sri Lankan custody,” he said.
He announced that the Jaffna
Cultural Centre built by India
would open soon
(with inputs from PTI)
AT JAWAHARLAL
NEHRU STADIUM,
NARENDRA MODI
QUOTED TAMIL
PHILOSOPHER
SUBRAMANIA
BHARATI TO
RECALL THE
PULWAMA TERROR
ATTACK THAT
TOOK PLACE 2
YEARS AGO,
LEAVING 40 CRPF
MEN DEAD
MUMBAI
MONDAY
FEBRUARY 15, 2021
LOW CUSTOMS
DUTY, IRON ORE
COSTS MAY MELT
STEEL PRICES
Tanya Thomas
tanya.t@livemint.com
MUMBAI : Steel prices are
expected to fall by as much as
10% from their January highs
over the next few months, indus-
try analysts said, retreating from
a runaway rise that led end-con-
sumers to seek government
intervention.
Softening of inputs costs,
especially of iron ore, and
increased competition from
cheaper imports with India cut-
ting customs duty on steel will
likely drive down steel prices.
Domestic prices of hot-rolled
(HR) coil, a flat steel product that
is further processed and used in
transport, construction, ship-
building and capital goods
surged 54% from a year ago in
the December quarter amid a
robust recovery in domestic
demand and mirroring higher
global steel prices.
Prices of HR coil climbed to
₹58,000 a tonne this January
from ₹36,250 a tonne last June,
prompting an outcry from the
associations of builders and con-
struction firms and even Union
minister Nitin Gadkari.
In the budget, finance minis-
ter Nirmala Sitharaman
announced a reduction in cus-
toms duty on flat steel products
to 7.5% from 12.5%, and on long
products to 7.5% from 10% ear-
lier, making imports cheaper.
With HR coil prices currently
settling below ₹56,000 a tonne,
analysts at credit rating firm Icra
predict a 10% decline in domestic
prices from the highs of January
as the duty cut would make
imports more competitive and,
in turn, exert near-term pricing
pressures on domestic steelmak-
ers. “The reduction in duties will
not affect imports from coun-
tries like South Korea and Japan,
with which India has a free trade
agreement (FTA),” said Jayanta
Roy, senior vice-president and
group head, corporate sector rat-
ings, Icra. “However, imports
from China and other non-FTA
countries will become more
cost-competitive.”
“Chinese export HRC prices
have seen a 10% drop in January
on lower domestic demand. Con-
sidering the lead time of about
two months for imports to
arrive, domestic HRC prices
could correct by up to 10% by
end-March to align with global
prices and stay competitive in
the domestic market,” Roy said.
Another factor contributing to
lower HR coil prices is the cost of
iron ore, a key input in steel pro-
duction. State-run miner NMDC
Ltd cut iron ore prices by ₹600
per tonne or about 10–12% in
January, the first price cut in
nine months, according to a
report by brokerage Motilal
Oswal.
Tata Motors to
focus on CV biz
under new CEO
Malyaban Ghosh
malyaban.g@livemint.com
NEW DELHI: Tata Motors’ new
chief executive and managing
director Marc Llistosella will
take over the company’s India
business at a time that its com-
mercial vehicle sales have been
hit hard by the economic slow-
down that has come as a fallout
of the Covid-19 pandemic and
the management is scouting for
a strategic investor for its pas-
senger vehicle business unit. The
Mumbai-based company has
also embarked on a stringent
cost-cutting programme to turn
profitable in the next few years
and reduce debt.
The appointment of Llisto-
sella indicates that Tata Sons, the
parent of Tata Motors, will focus
on the commercial vehicle seg-
ment to drive the profitability of
its India operations. It also
shows the conglomerate’s aspi-
rations to improve its presence
in the export markets, especially
in Asia and Africa, to reduce
dependence on the domestic
market as demand for commer-
cial vehicles tends to be cyclical
in India.
Llistosella’s experience in
India, as the head of Daimler
India Commercial Vehicles Ltd,
will help Tata Motors increase its
volumes in the premium trucks
and bus segments, something
that has been eluding the com-
pany for the past few years. His
experience of having worked at
one of the world’s largest com-
mercial vehicle manufacturing
firms will also help guide Tata
Motors’ investments in electric
buses and light commercial
Corpearningsgathered pace
in Dec quarter despite Covid
Analysis of 2,485 cos
shows that net profit
grew at fastest pace
in at least 25 quarters
Nasrin Sultana and
Ravindra Sonavane
nasrin.s@livemint.com
MUMBAI: Corporate earnings
grew at a robust pace in the
December quarter in a bright
spot for the Indian economy
that is seeking to ride out of the
brutal effects of the pandemic.
Out-of-home consumption,
festive demand and improved
consumer sentiment, besides
benefits of tight cost control led
to better-than-expected earn-
ings growth during the quarter.
A Mint analysis of 2,485 pub-
licly-traded companies, which
reported earnings for the three
months ended December 31
showed that net profit after
adjusting for one-time items
grew at the fastest pace in at
least 25-quarters, at 71.95% from
a year earlier, according to data
compiled by Capitaline. That
compares with a 34.88% rise in
the September quarter and a
contraction of 12.93% in the
December quarter of 2019.
The review excludes banks,
financial services and insur-
ance, and oil and gas companies
as they follow a different reve-
nue model.
During Q3FY21, net sales
growth of these set of compa-
nies grew 7.07% from a year ear-
lier—a seven-quarter high. This
{ NANA MURUGESAN }
MD (INTERNATIONAL MARKETS), SNAP INC
P
2020 was a really strong
year for us and we are
thrilled with the
momentum we’re
seeing. We
reached more
than 60 million
users in India
A
in Q4 2020.
Tata Motors CEO and MD Marc
Llistosella. REUTERS
vehicles, in view of the govern-
ment encouraging automakers
to develop more electric vehicles
to reduce vehicular emission.
Tata Motors needed someone
with relevant experience to
spearhead its India business in
the post-pandemic era and Llist-
osella fits this role with his vast
experience in markets across
Asia, according to a senior
industry executive. “It is very
apparent that the appointment
has been made with an eye on
the commercial vehicle business,
a segment where Tata Motors is
the leader. Through this
appointment, the management
is also making another attempt
to expand its presence in other
emerging markets. The commer-
cial vehicle business forms the
lion’s share of the India business’
bottomline,” he said requesting
anonymity.
The passenger vehicle busi-
ness will chart its own course,
with the launch of the new sub-
sidiary and the possible entry of
a strategic investor, though
majority control will still be with
Tata Motors, the executive said.
Business
Improved prospects
Out-of-home consumption, festive demand, improved consumer sentiment, and tight cost
control led to better-than-expected earnings growth during the quarter.
Financials of 2,485 listed companies, excluding BFSI, oil and gas
120
Net sales
21.09
(Year-on-year % change)
80
40 30.65
0 0
-40
-80
-120
Sep 2018
is a recovery from a 1.8% decline
in the September quarter, and a
2.13% drop in the December
quarter of FY20.
“Broadly, earnings across
most sectors have been quite
robust this quarter and have
continued to surprise consensus
estimates. Earnings for most
metal stocks have been very
strong backed by high realiza-
tions; within the construction
sector, execution has almost
normalized to pre-Covid levels
and also saw very strong order
inflows; this trend was also
reflected in strong volume
RENEW POWER
EYES US LISTING
THROUGH SPAC AT
$4 BN VALUATION
Anirudh Laskar
anirudh.l@livemint.com
MUMBAI: ReNew Power Pvt. Ltd
is planning to list its shares in
the US through the fast-emerg-
ing SPAC (special purpose acqui-
sition company) route at a valua-
tion of almost $4 billion, two
people aware of the develop-
ment said.
The company, one of India’s
largest renewable energy firms,
is in talks to merge with RMG
Acquisition owned by Nasdaq-
listed SPAC Riverside Capital
Management, the people cited
above said on condition of ano-
nymity. ReNew Power had
shelved its Indian initial public
offering plan in 2019 amid mar-
ket volatility. As per Securities
Exchange Commission rules,
while Riverside will hold up to
20% in the newly listed avatar of
ReNew Power, Goldman Sachs
along with CPPIB, ADIA and the
company’s founder-cum-chair-
man Sumant Sinha will hold the
rest 80%, one of the two people
cited above said.
“The due diligence process for
the listing of ReNew Power
through SPAC has already begun
and once completed, it will mark
the largest ever listing of an
Indian company in the US
through SPAC route,” this per-
son said. “In the case of ReNew
Power, SPAC Riverside is
expected to put in $300 million
through equity and another $150
million through warrants.”
Emails sent to Riverside and
ReNew Power remained unan-
swered, while a Goldman Sachs
spokesperson declined to com-
ment. ReNew is one of India’s
largest renewable energy inde-
pendent power producers with a
capacity of 10.14GW, of which
5.73GW is operational.
Adjusted net profit (Left-hand scale)
growth for the cement sector.
Pent up demand drove volumes
for discretionary stocks in
Q2FY21, strong volume growth
continued into Q3FY21 as well
and the information technology
sector continued to see strong
deal wins,” said Amish Shah,
India Equity Strategist, BofA
Securities.
A buoyant festive season,
pent-up demand, strong rural
growth and consolidation in
favour of organized players also
helped overall-demand growth,
he added.
Net profit margin of these
SEBI MULLS
CYBERSECURITY
FUSION CENTRE
Press Trust of India
feedback@livemint.com
NEW DELHI: Markets regulator
Sebi is in the process of setting
up a cybersecurity fusion centre,
a move aimed at detecting cyber
threats faster and resolve such
incidents efficiently and effec-
tively.
In its annual report for
2019-20, Sebi noted that cyber
attacks and threats attempt to
compromise the confidentiality,
integrity and availability of the
computer systems, networks
and databases in the markets
ecosystem. Establishing a cyber-
security fusion centre or a cyber
lab is part of Sebi’s three-tier
structure for monitoring cyber-
security-related events in the
securities markets and taking
actions as deemed necessary in
the interest of protection of the
securities market. The three-tier
structure would strengthen the
cybersecurity preparedness or
resilience of the entire securities
market ecosystem.
Under the tier-1, high-pow-
ered steering committee on
cybersecurity chaired by a
whole-time member of Sebi has
been set up and a cybersecurity
fusion centre would be estab-
lished under the tier-2, the regu-
lator said.In the tier-3, division of
technology and cybersecurity on
Sebi would coordinate with the
steering committee, cyber secu-
rity lab security and operations
centres at the respective market
infrastructure institutions
Indian-origin founders lead hottest startups in US
Tarush Bhalla
tarush.b@livemint.com
BENGALURU: Two startups have
become the talk of the town in
Silicon Valley, the global capital
of innovation—financial trading
app Robinhood and voice-led
social media app Clubhouse.
Both are led by Indian-origin
entrepreneurs.
Baiju Bhatt and Rohan Seth,
co-founders of Robinhood and
Clubhouse, respectively, are both
Stanford alumni and in their 30s.
They are part of a growing
army of Valley-based Indian-ori-
gin entrepreneurs who are grab-
bing investor attention and cre-
ating billion-dollar firms with a
difference. The secret sauce per-
haps for both is to democratize
technology to reach more users.
Bhatt, a first-generation immi-
grant and part of the American
Indian billionaires’ club, spear-
headed Robinhood to an $11.7
billion valuation with its latest
billion-dollar funding round.
Seth’s Clubhouse turned unicorn
Powered by
30
71.95 20
7.06 10
-10
-20
-30
Dec 2020
Source: Capitaline
firms expanded to 9.15% in the
three months to December from
7.51% in the preceding quarter
and 6.34% a year earlier.
Likewise, operating profit
margin widened to 23.76% in Q3
from 22.53% in the preceding
quarter and 19.98% in Q3FY20.
“The Q3FY21 earnings season
has maintained the momentum
of the second quarter results–
continued big beats and
upgrades, and upbeat corporate
commentaries across sectors
and companies,” said Gautam
Duggad and Jayant Parasramka,
analysts at Motilal Oswal Finan-
Vodafone Idea Q3 net loss
narrows to ₹4,532 crore
Ishita Guha
ishita.g@livemint.com
NEW DELHI: Vodafone Idea Ltd
(Vi) reported a net loss of ₹4,532
crore for the December quarter,
lower than the ₹6,439 crore a
year ago, driven by higher 4G
wireless customer additions,
improved service quality and
cost optimisation. India’s third-
largest telecom operator by mar-
ket share had posted a net loss of
₹7,218 crore in the September
quarter.
The company said in a state-
ment that its board has also
approved fundraising of up to
₹25,000 crore in debt and equity.
The company is currently in
“active discussions with poten-
tial investors”, it added.
Vi reported a revenue of
₹10,891 crore in October-Decem-
ber, down from ₹11,089 crore a
year ago. However, sequentially,
it clocked a marginal 1%
improvement in revenue from
₹10,791 crore, due to higher aver-
age revenue per user (Arpu).
The company’s Arpu rose to
₹121 in the three months ended
December from ₹119 in the Sep-
tember quarter. It had reported
Arpu of ₹109 in the year-ago
period. “Revenue is up 1% q-o-q
(quarter-on-quarter), supported
by improving subscriber mix
with higher 4G additions. Supe-
rior network performance and
launch of unified brand Vi
helped in improving subscriber
Baiju Bhatt (left) and Rohan Seth, co-founders of Robinhood and
Clubhouse.
in 2021 in less than a year and
counts technology and Holly-
wood bigwigs Elon Musk, Drake,
Tiffany Haddish and Mark Zuck-
erberg as members.
“Indians are part of the cul-
tural fabric of Silicon Valley
today, and there is a mild stereo-
type that an Indian will be suc-
cessful owing to their legacy
with tech in the Valley. In the
80s, Indians did face heavy dis-
crimination, and they were con-
sidered ‘outliers’. But the com-
cial Services.
To be sure, analysts cau-
tioned that some of the cost
rationalization measures by
companies are likely to reverse
as the economy starts to open
up. Rise in prices of major com-
modities is feared to hit gross
margins.
Analysts expect companies to
offset the impact through prod-
uct price increases and cost-sav-
ing initiatives.
Prices of major commodities
surged in the December quar-
ter. Crude oil prices jumped
26.5%, while aluminium, copper
and zinc rose 14-16%, increasing
raw material costs for these
companies.
“Rising commodity prices is a
risk for volume growth and
margins. Some sectors such as
automobiles and consumer
durables have already started to
take price hikes to pass on the
cost pressures from high com-
modity prices—its impact on
volume growth would be a key
factor to watch going ahead,”
said Shah.
Shah added that earnings for
Nifty companies is likely to rise
37% in FY22, upgraded from
33% in FY21 on the back of the
positive earnings surprise seen
for most sectors and stocks, and
a growth-focused Union budget.
Though improvement in the
overall economy has not been
able to catch up with the fast-
paced recovery in corporate
earnings, analysts are optimistic
that the budget proposals with a
focus on capital expenditure
and infrastructure investments
will be beneficial, going ahead.
The company’s Arpu rose to ₹121 in the three months ended
December from ₹119 in the September quarter.
retention,” the company said.
In September, the company
had announced the launch of the
unified brand Vi, over two years
after the merger of erstwhile
Vodafone India Ltd and Idea Cel-
lular Ltd in August 2018. Till the
brand integration, the two com-
panies catered to different sets of
customers, with Vodafone hold-
ing a premium appeal and Idea
largely serving the rural user
base. In the December quarter,
Vi’s 4G subscriber base
expanded to 109.7 million from
106.1 million in July-September
and 104.2 million in the year-ago.
Re-farming of 2G and 3G spec-
trum to 4G and upgrading net-
work to 4G also supported cus-
tomer additions, the company
munity came together and
uplifted each other,” said India-
American technology entrepre-
neur and academic Vivek
Wadhwa. In the 1980s, American
venture capitalist and
co-founder of Sun Microsystems,
Vinod Khosla, became one of the
first Indians to make it big in the
Valley. While Indians are now
part of the ‘Big Boys’ club at Sili-
con Valley, women and African-
American founders still face dis-
crimination, Wadhwa said.
EPF payments
of 4 million
staff held up
Prashant K Nanda
prashant.n@livemint.com
NEW DELHI : Interest payments
to around 4 million people regis-
tered with the Employees’ Provi-
dent Fund Organisation (EPFO)
have not been credited though
one-and-a-half months have
elapsed since the government
announced its decision to make
the payments for 2019-20.
This is because of a KYC mis-
match of employees at the
employers’ end, and the retire-
ment fund manager’s field offi-
ces are reaching out to these
establishments, the authorities
said. EPFO credits provident
fund (PF) interests, organization-
wise instead of individually, two
government officials said seek-
ing anonymity.
This has put the spotlight on
EPFO, which has been in the
news for the delay in interest
payment for 2019-20 even before
this KYC problem. In 2020, the
fund manager delayed the sale of
some of its equity investments to
pay the announced 8.5% interest
for 2019-20 as the stock market
fell as a result of the imposition
of the lockdown amid the pan-
demic. EPFO had said it would
credit the 2019-20 interest by 31
December, and the labour minis-
try announced the credit in the
last week of December.
“Yes, some 8-10% of EPF sub-
scribers’ interest payout for
2019-20 FY has not happened as
yet. There was some mismatch
in employee KYC details. EPFO
credits interest (in batches)
establishment-wise instead of on
an individual subscriber basis,”
said one of the two official. “If
said. “We continue to invest in
4G to increase our coverage and
capacity. We have also started to
actively upgrade our 3G network
to 4G. During the quarter, we
added about 12,000 4G sites pri-
marily through re-farming of
2G/3G spectrum to expand our
4G capacity,” it added.
Vi aims to achieve an annual
cost savings target of ₹4,000
crore by the end of 2021. It has
achieved around 50% of annual
savings by the end of Q3FY21, it
said. “We remain focused on
executing our strategy, and our
cost optimization plan remains
on track to deliver the targeted
savings,” said Ravinder Takkar,
managing director and chief
executive, Vi.
While eight-year-old Robin-
hood disrupted brokerage fees
through concepts of free and
fractional trading focused on
millennials, Clubhouse is bring-
ing access to free-speech and
making power figures more
accessible to global audiences
through its app. Through frac-
tional trading, Robinhood
allowed users to invest in top
stocks of Amazon Inc., Alphabet
Inc. (parent of Google) for as lit-
tle as $1. “The authenticity of
what founders are building
shows in the Clubhouse product.
With the medium, it is taking
distractions away from video
and giving access to global free
speech. Inclusivity is the theme
for Robinhood as well, giving
access to individuals to invest
freely, democratizing the mar-
ket. These firms are changing
user behaviour in a big way,”
said Priya Rajan, managing
director, Silicon Valley Bank,
which has invested in more than
30,000 startups with $116 billion
in assets.
11
EPFO BLAMES
MISMATCH IN
EMPLOYEES’ KYC
DATA AT
EMPLOYERS’ END
FOR DELAY
there is a mismatch between
employee details provided by
employer and the one with EPFO
even for a few employees, the
payout is held up for the estab-
lishment. Initial estimate shows
around 4 million subscribers are
yet to get them,” said a second
official. However, the official
was puzzled as to why the delay
has happened “when every
transaction is happening using
technology”.
An email from Mint seeking a
response from the labour minis-
try spokesperson on the exact
number of such people and the
reasons for such a delay
remained unanswered. Mint also
tried to reach out to the central
PF commissioner over the phone
but did not receive a response. In
response to a WhatsApp mes-
sage seeking a response and per-
spective on the issue, CPFC said
he has asked the financial
adviser of EPFO to respond, but
Mint has not got a response.
The first official cited above
said they are trying to make sure
the development does not lead to
any problem for subscribers
during withdrawal. Also, they
are working to make sure sub-
scribers do not face much prob-
lem on account of compounding
of interest as 2020-21 is about to
end.
NBFCS SEEK
RELAXATIONS TO
NEW RULES
PROPOSED BY RBI
Gopika Gopakumar
gopika.g@livemint.com
MUMBAI: Non-banking finance
companies (NBFCs) have asked
for the same benefits as banks
while the central bank looks to
harmonize regulations for all
lending institutions. These len-
ders have also sought relaxa-
tions to new norms for NBFCs
proposed by the Reserve Bank
of India (RBI) last month in a
discussion paper.
In a letter to RBI on the
paper, the industry body for
NBFCs, Finance Industry Devel-
opment Council (FIDC), said
that there is a need for uni-
formity in regulation since
these companies perform the
same credit function as banks.
The FIDC said RBI should
allow NBFCs 3-4 years to shift
from 180 to a 90-day bad loan
recognition rule. This was one
of the recommendations made
in the discussion paper for
NBFC Base Layer (BL) category.
The discussion paper pro-
posed classifying NBFCs into
four categories based on their
size and risk perception—NBFC
BL, NBFC Middle Layer (ML),
NBFC Upper Layer (UL) and
NBFC Top Layer (TL).
NBFCs with assets of up to
₹1,000 crore will fall under the
BL category. MLs will consist of
non-deposit taking NBFCs that
are systemically important and
deposit-taking NBFCs. The ULs
could include as many as 30
systemically significant NBFCs,
which will be regulated like
banks.
“We appreciate the need to
harmonize IRAC (Income Rec-
ognition and Asset Classifica-
tion) norms across banks and
NBFCs. However, given the
huge impact of this on these
companies, we would recom-
mend making this shift over a
period of 3-4 years from 180
days to 150, 120 and then to 90
days in order to cushion the
impact of this change on these
entities,” FIDC said in its letter.
The industry body has also
requested RBI to relax the new
rules proposing net owned
fund (NOF) requirement of ₹20
crore to ₹10 crore for NBFCs.
FIDC has sought a five-year
time frame to increase their
NOF requirement.
The RBI discussion paper
had suggested raising NOF
requirements for NBFC BL cat-
egory to ₹20 crore from ₹2
crore earlier.
FIDC has also sought relaxa-
tion in the risk weights to be
kept for different NBFCs
depending on the asset class.
For instance, the risk weight on
all NBFCs, both secured and
unsecured, currently stands at
100%.
12
Ashwin spins his web, England in tatters
India off-spinner
takes second fifer in a
row as hosts push for
victory over England
in the second Test
in Chennai on Day 2
Aditya Iyer
aditya.iyer@hindustantimes.com
CHENNAI: At the top of his bowl-
ing mark, Ravichandran Ashwin
whirled the ball in his palm and
then proceeded to canter in from
round the wicket for what
should’ve been the final delivery
before lunch. Only, at the high
point of his delivery stride, Ash-
win refused to release the ball.
Instead, he unleashed some
mind games—making England’s
No.3, Dan Lawrence, wait a little
longer before he would get res-
pite from both the pitch and the
turning ball on Day 2 of this
Chennai Test.
Amid loud cheers from his
home crowd, Ashwin walked
slowly back to the top of his
mark and there he tossed the
ball in his palm for a while more,
adjusting the various positions
of the close-in fielders with his
free hand. A pitch-length away
Lawrence continued his wait
with plenty of time at hand to
think about the skew of the pitch
and ostensibly even worry over
what shrewdness Ashwin had in
store for him.
When the ball was finally
bowled, a good minute after the
fifth ball of that over was, it
turned and bounced more than
Lawrence had anticipated, and
clipped the glove of his shy poke
and lobbed safely into Shubman
Gill’s hands at short-leg. Even as
Lawrence fell to his knees in dis-
appointment, the MA Chidam-
baram Stadium erupted; as had
the entirety of England’s top-or-
der, now lying in smithereens.
In the space of just 18 overs,
the potency of England’s first
innings reply had all but faded,
what with them reeling at 39/4.
The wickets of openers Rory
Burns (0) and Dom Sibley (16),
followed by captain Joe Root (6)
and now Lawrence (easily the
biggest resistance thus far, hav-
ing occupied the crease for 52
WEST INDIES SEAL
17-RUN WIN TO
SWEEP TEST SERIES
VS BANGLADESH
Agencies & HTC
sportm@hindustantimes.com
DHAKA: Rahkeem Cornwall
took centre stage as spinners
picked up all 10 wickets in the
West Indies’s thrilling 17-run
victory over Bangladesh in the
second and final Test on Sunday
to complete a series whitewash.
Cornwall took 4/105 while
Kraigg Brathwaite (3/25) and
Jomel Warrican (3/47) grabbed
the remaining wickets as Bang-
ladesh were bowled out for 213
on the fourth day. Mehidy
Hasan hit two sixes and three
fours late in the day to add
drama before the final wicket.
Brief scores: West Indies 409
& 117 in 52.5 ov (T Islam 4/36, N
Hasan 3/34) beat Bangladesh
296 & 213 in 61.3 ov (T Iqbal 50; R
Cornwall 4/105) by 17 runs
Miller blitz in vain as
Pakistan beat SA
LAHORE: Pakistan beat South
Africa by four wickets in the
third and final T20I in Lahore
on Sunday, taking the three-
match series 2-1.
Chasing 165, Pakistan
romped home in 18.4 overs after
David Miller had blasted an
unbeaten 85 off 45 balls.
Brief scores: SA 164/8 in 20 ov
(D Miller 85*; Z Mahmood 3/40)
lost to Pakistan 169/6 in 18.4 ov
(B Azam 44; T Shamsi 4/25) by
4 wickets
1,000-plus turn up again
for MCA under-19 trials
MUMBAI : For the second
straight day, more than 1,000
players turned up for MCA’s
under-19 open selection trials at
the BKC ground on Sunday.
Those who didn’t get an
opportunity on Saturday were
told to report on Sunday and
were given a token. But it was to
no avail as more players who
weren’t present on the first day
turned up at the venue. On Sun-
day, players were made to stand
on the road outside the ground
before being let in. The Kiran
Mokashi-led selection panel will
see another 500-odd players on
Monday. “What if numbers
keep swelling tomorrow (Mon-
day) as well? When will the
selectors prune the list if they
have to look at so many kids in a
day?” said an MCA member.
Rishabh Pant, who took two spectacular catches on Sunday, dives to dismiss Jack Leach.
balls) ensured that eight wickets
had fallen during the first ses-
sion of the second day, after
India’s tail left Rishabh Pant
stranded on 58 explosive runs.
Pant and India would’ve
scored even more than India’s
eventual first innings total of 329
had the wicketkeeper farmed the
strike when the tail-enders were
about. But 329 would soon prove
to be more than enough for
England’s hapless batsmen—
bundled out on a spinning track
for 134 runs in less than 60 overs.
Critics will tell you that was due
to the pitch. But Ashwin (who
collected his 29th five-wicket
haul (5/43) in Tests in the space
of 24 overs) and debutant Axar
Patel (2/40) would like to disa-
gree, and rightly so.
Much has been made of the
wicket, especially by former
English cricketers (Michael
Vaughan even called it a
“stinker” on BBC), but the truth
is the challenge of facing spin on
a turner in India adds to the
Djokovic battles injury to
enter quarters, Thiem out
Agencies
sportm@hindustantimes.com
MELBOURNE: Eight-time winner
Novak Djokovic fought through
what he had described as a tour-
nament-ending injury to beat
Milos Raonic and reach the
Australian Open quarter-finals
on Sunday.
Naomi Osaka and Serena
Williams survived scares to go
through but US Open champion
Dominic Thiem, also not at his
“100 per cent”, was a major
casualty as he fell to Bulgaria’s
Grigor Dimitrov 6-4, 6-4, 6-0.
Simona Halep avenged her
crushing French Open defeat by
Polish teenager Iga Swiatek to
set up a meeting with Williams,
while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei
reached her first Slam quarter-
final at the age of 35.
Djokovic, the world No. 1, had
raised the alarm over an
abdominal injury after his five-
set battle with Taylor Fritz, but
he showed few outward signs in
his 7-6(4), 4-6, 6-1, 6-4 win on
Sunday. But the 17-time Slam
winner said he had spent “every
single hour” since Friday’s win
trying to recover, and wasn’t
sure he would play until he
warmed up before the match.
“If it was any other tourna-
Nagaland leggie on IPL teams’ radar
Rasesh Mandani
rasesh.mandani@htlive.com
MUMBAI: Kra-vi-toe’ it is,”
Khrievitso Kense said over a
phone call from Chennai. Quar-
antining in Chennai ahead of the
Vijay Hazare Trophy one-dayers,
the 16-year-old leg-spinner is
used to people not getting that ‘h’
and ‘s’ in his first name are
silent. And then he is asked
about his roots.
Kense comes from Dimapur,
Nagaland’s biggest city. His fore-
fathers belonged to Angami
Naga ethnic group who were
once into cultivation and live-
stock-rearing. Kense has no idea
about the tribe’s past. “I don’t
know what my name means,” he
said with a sheepish laugh.
diversity of Test cricket. Just as
English green tops do, on which
matches are more prone to end
within three days. Ashwin said it
as it is in the press conference—
implying that just because
England were not able to score
runs doesn’t make it a bad
wicket, especially when India
have. “Look, we’re about to put
in another batting perform-
ance—we’re 54/1 as we speak
(after 329 in the first innings),”
Ashwin said with a shrug.
“It’s about being patient like
when you’re playing on a seam-
ing wicket. You need to really
tide through the early phase and
start putting runs on the board
once you’re over it. The same
kind of benchmarks needs to be
set when you play spin on a chal-
lenging wicket. Unfortunately,
when it comes to spin, people
want conditions in their favour—
they want to drive and cut...”
The driving and cutting were
at a premium when Ashwin was
doing his thing. Or come to think
Dominic Thiem
ment than a Grand Slam I
would retire from the tourna-
ment, that’s for sure,” said Djok-
ovic, who becomes just the sec-
ond player after Roger Federer
to win 300 Slam matches.
Djokovic will next meet Ger-
man sixth seed Alexander
Zverev, who beat Serbia’s Dusan
Lajovic 6-4, 7-6(5), 6-3.
TV Timing: Live on Sony Six,
Ten 2 & 3, 5.30am & 1.30pm
Gundogan fires brace for
City; United falter
MANCHESTER: Ilkay Gundogan
scored two goals for the second
straight week as Premier
League leaders Manchester City
powered to a record-extending
16th successive win in all com-
petitions, 3-0 over Tottenham.
The midfielder took his season’s
goal tally to 13 by adding to
Rodri’s 23rd-minute penalty.
Khrievitso Kense. HT
What Kense does know is how
to spin the ball, fast. So
impressed were some Indian
Premier League (IPL) talent
scouts that the leg-spinner made
the 292-player shortlist from
1194 applicants for the auction in
Chennai on February 18. Come
auction-day, Kense, his five sib-
lings, parents, grandfather will
be hoping for a cricketer from
Sport
BCCI
of it, even when India’s pacers
were in the attack, given that
both Ishant Sharma and
Mohammed Siraj struck in their
first overs—Ishant in the first
over of the innings with the
wicket of Burns (LBW) and Siraj
much later with a first-ball dis-
missal of Ollie Pope.
The pacers were on the but-
ton, no doubt; but this 15-wicket
day undoubtedly belonged to the
genius of Ashwin.
He opened the bowling along
with Ishant, and nearly struck as
quickly as his new ball partner
had an over ago. In his very first
over, turn and bounce had Sibley
nicking one to Virat Kohli at leg
slip, who dived forward in vain.
So, when the same ploy came to
fruition three Ashwin overs
later, catcher Kohli lifted the off-
spinner in joy even as Sibley
walked away in frustration.
In the next over, the ninth of
the innings, Kohli introduced
Axar into the attack. The debu-
tant was on the mark from the
On Sunday, Manchester
United’s faltering title challenge
suffered another blow in a 1-1
draw at West Brom as Wolves
earned a 2-1 victory against
Southampton.
TV Timing: West Ham v
Sheffield United, 11.30pm,
Chelsea v Newcastle, 1.30am
(Tue); both Live on Star Sports
Select 1 & HD 1
Messi leads Barcelona to
big win against Alaves
MADRID: Barcelona might not
be able to catch Atletico Madrid
in La Liga but they may fancy
their chances against Paris
Saint-Germain in the Champi-
ons League after Lionel Messi
scored twice in a 5-1 thrashing
of Alaves on Saturday.
Messi fired in two sensational
long-range efforts and would
have had a hat-trick at Camp
Nou had a dubious VAR deci-
sion in the first half not ruled
Antoine Griezmann offside.
Other results: La Liga: Real
Madrid beat Valencia 2-0; Serie
A: Spezia beat AC Milan 2-0;
ISL: NorthEast United beat
Odisha FC 3-1, ATK Mohun
Bagan beat Jamshedpur FC 1-0;
TV Timing: Mumbai City FC v
Bengaluru FC, 7.30pm, Live on
Star Sports 1, 2 & HD
Nagaland to break into IPL.
Nagaland coach Kanwaljit
Singh has helped Kense catapult
from U-16 to Nagaland’s T20 side
in Syed Mushtaq Ali trophy this
year. ”I had told our captain
Jonathan (Rongsen) to bring any
youngster he finds exciting to
the trials. The moment I saw
Khrievitso, I found his fastish
leg-breaks very exciting. We
drafted him in the team straight-
away,” he said.
Kense lived up to Singh’s faith
by picking seven wickets in four
matches in the Mushtaq Ali
meet. It is Singh’s second opin-
ion the Mumbai Indians’ talent
scouts sought before Kense was
called for their pre-auction
trials. Since then, Rajasthan Roy-
als too have trialled Kense.
word go. The first ball found the
outside edge of Root’s blade and
streakily ran away for two runs.
The next was even better—the
ball spinning past the face of
Root’s bat, the spinner’s equiva-
lent of beating a batsman all
ends up. It made for incredible
viewing: the most in-form bats-
man in the world with 684 runs
in his last three Tests struggling
to keep away a debutant’s first
over in Test cricket.
Root for starters
It got as good as it gets in his sec-
ond over as Axar slid in from the
Pattabhiraman End and made
Root his first Test wicket—for a
single-digit score, no less, easily
the most prized dismissal of the
tour so far. A sweeping Root had
misread the heavy away turn on
the ball and the top-edge was
snapped up by Ashwin at short
fine-leg. Axar roared with
delight and later snuffed out the
innings of Moeen Ali too, who,
incidentally, had scored 146 in
the first innings of the Chennai
Test of 2016.
“Axar has been playing first-
class cricket for a while now,
which has held him in good
stead coming into Test cricket,”
said Ashwin. “Getting Root as
his first Test wicket must’ve been
really special for him—very
important wicket in the context
of where the game stands. I think
he’ll go really well in the second
innings as well.”
Second innings in Chennai
(anywhere in India for that mat-
ter) tend to be a paradise for left-
arm spinners. But it was Ashwin
who shone at that hour in the
first Test with a six-for. While
that came in a losing cause,
the five-for this time around
has put India on the brink of vic-
tory, especially after he cleaned
up the dangerous Ben Stokes
right after lunch.
Stokes had just about got his
eye in, having been cautious for
32 balls. And had he cut loose,
the day could well have had a
different story. But the one Ash-
win scripted involved Stokes
playing all around a full ball to
peg back the all-rounder’s off-
stump, and England’s slender
hope of a counter-attack.
TV timing: 2nd Test, Day 3, Live
on Star Sports 1 & HD 1, 9.30am
KANPILLEWAR,
ARJUN, ALMEIDA
SHINE IN MIG WIN
HT Correspondent
sportm@hindustantimes.com
MUMBAI: Pragnesh Kanpille-
war’s 75-ball 112, Kevin
Almeida’s 96 and Arjun Ten-
dulkar’s unbeaten knock of 77
and three-wicket haul helped
MIG CC beat Islam Gymkhana
by 194 runs in the Police Invita-
tional Shield on Sunday.
Brief scores: MIG CC 385/7 in 45
ov (P Kanpillewar 112, K Almeida
96, A Tendulkar 77*) beat Islam
Gymkhana 191 in 41.5 ov (M
Agarwal 77; A Tendulkar 3/41) by
194 runs, DY Patil SA 268/8 in 45
ov lost to Parsee Gymkhana
272/7 in 44.3 ov (V Auti 71) by 3
wkts, CCI 127 in 34 ov lost to
Mumbai Police Gymkhana
128/2 in 27.1 ov (S Patil 70) by 8
wkts, Bombay Gymkhana 242
in 43.4 ov (V Thakur 5/49) lost to
Parkopene Cricketers 243/4 in
39.5 ov (J Randhawa 91) by 6
wkts, National CC 266/9 in 45 ov
(S Gill 95) beat PJ Hindu
Gymkhana 247 in 42.3 ov by 19
runs, New Hind SC 233/9 in 40
ov lost to Karnatak SA 237/5 in
39.4 ov (S Mangela 100) by 5 wkt,
Sponsor XI 305 in 42 ov beat
Shivaji Park Gymkhana 267 in
43.4 ov (J Pokhare 91; R Prabhu
5/60) by 38 runs, Payyade CC
312/5 in 45 ov (R Sharma 66) beat
MCA Colts 283/5 in 45 ov (N Patil
112) by 29 runs
“When I was seven-years-old,
I would play cricket with the ten-
nis ball my friends,” Kense said.
“The first ball I bowled with the
leather ball was when I was 12.
My leg-spin began to come out
well. In Nagaland, football is
very popular. I also play football
and table tennis, but on TV, I
only watch cricket.”
Kense often dreams of bowl-
ing like his idol Rashid Khan in
the IPL. “I have not seen him
succumbing to pressure. I don’t
see a reason why he will falter
against any big names,” said
Singh. “He is blessed with his
trajectory and control. Even
when he is hit, he finds a way to
comeback. I can say one thing,
whichever team picks him, they
won’t regret it.”
Indian batsmen show
how to tame the turn
Somshuvra Laha
somshuvra.laha@htlive.com
NEW DELHI: A pitch looks playa-
ble as long as a batsman makes it
to be. India, so far, have been
better at it than England in the
second Test. For all their produc-
tive patience shown on a flat
pitch in the first Test, England
may not be skilled enough to
tackle this one. It’s to India’s lik-
ing though. Don’t be surprised if
Cheteshwar Pujara steps out to
Moeen Ali again on Monday.
Skipping down a few yards is an
aggressive but popular way of
forcing the spinner to drop it
shorter from the rough on the
pitch. And considering how the
game has panned out, this may
well dictate the contrasting for-
tunes of England and India.
Sweeping helps too but on
pitches with variable turn and
bounce, it isn’t always a percent-
age shot. Approaches vary, said
R Ashwin after his five-wicket
haul. But the off-spinner feels
getting stuck in defence doesn’t
help. “Rohit’s been sweeping
very well, he has been using his
feet very well too. Puji (Pujara)
uses his feet really well. On the
other hand, someone like Joe
Root likes sweeping and uses his
feet a little less,” said Ashwin
after play on Sunday. “At the end
of the day, I feel playing on a
wicket where there is a bit of
help, even for the quicks, you
need to take those percentage
and calculated risks.”
Barring Ben Foakes and Dan
Lawrence, no England batsman
faced more than 50 deliveries.
And only Foakes tried to rotate
the strike. “The pitch was play-
ing tricks. I just tried to play the
ball late,” Foakes said. Playing
the ball late also demands
proper defensive technique.
England fell short on that front.
Dom Sibley and Root got out
to the sweep, Daniel Lawrence
tried forward defence at a
sharply turning and bouncing
{ THE CROSSWORDS }
CRYPTIC CLUES
Across
1 Unqualified bird sound (5)
8 and 19 Down: They take a turn for the
better (8,6)
9 A lighthouse casts it across the vessel (5)
10 Dog Latin as a composition (8)
11 Cheers up with fringe benefits (5)
12 Consumed tea after stirring (3)
16 Highly decorated lid for a new dish (6)
17 Found out the new rental (6)
18 Reputedly wise light sleeper (3)
23 A game that calls for silence (5)
24 Mummy would soon go to pieces were it not
for him! (8)
25 Tolerate resistance (5)
26 Stumbling upon clue for ‘disconnect’ (8)
27 It propels a ship’s complement heading
south (5)
Down
2 It’s always used up when needed (8)
3 Nuts go well with cheese (8)
4 Odd assortment of biblical characters (3,3)
5 Empty vault (5)
6 Take off - it’s also used for landing (5)
7 Look around in the river (5)
12 Spot of bother in the head office (3)
13 A well-cut length of cloth? (3)
14 It’s pitiful when dad gets the twitch (8)
15 Could be nine seas in tumult (2,1,5)
19 See 8 Across
20 Rolled up for the opening (5)
21 Surprised a defender (5)
22 A fine meal (5)
Cryptic
{ WEATHER }
TEMPERATURE HIGH LOW
MONDAY TUESDAY
Mainly clear sky Mainly clear sky
31°c I 21°c 32°c I 20°c
MUMBAI
MONDAY
FEBRUARY 15, 2021
Compare their approach to
SCORECARD India’s, particularly Pujara’s
India 1st innings attempts to meet the ball down
(overnight 300/6) the pitch, and you know staying
R Pant not out 58 back has its pitfalls. Being
A Patel st Foakes b Ali 5 overtly defensive isn’t helping
I Sharma c Burns b Ali 0 either. According to CricViz,
K Yadav c Foakes b Stone 0 defensive strokes induced a miss
M Siraj c Foakes b Stone 4 or an edge 27% of the time on
Extras 0 Day 2, compared to 22% on Day 1.
Total (95.5 ovs, all out) 329 This will worsen. That explained
Fall of wickets: 7-301, 8-301, India’s urgency in making the
9-325. most of loose deliveries.
Bowling: Broad 11-2-37-0, Intent thus becomes crucial
Stone 15.5-5-47-3, Leach 27-3- on a pitch like this. Till just
78-2, Stokes 2-0-16-0, Ali 29-3- before the end of Day 2, India
128-4, Root 11-3-23-1 had attacked 23% of the deliver-
ies, playing a false shot to 16%.
England 1st innings England attacked 15% of their
R Burns lbw b I. Sharma 0 deliveries, playing a false shot to
D Sibley c Kohli b Ashwin 16 23%. It reflects in their scoring as
D Lawrence c Gill b Ashwin 9 well. Over 56% of India’s runs in
J Root c Ashwin b Patel 6 the first innings came in fours
B Stokes b Ashwin 18 and sixes. In England’s case, that
O Pope c Pant b Siraj 22 was around 39%.
B Foakes not out 42 There is no debate Rohit
M Ali c Rahane b Patel 6 Sharma has made the difference
O Stone c R. Sharma between the sides. The best exec-
b Ashwin 1 utor of the sweep shot this Test,
J Leach c Pant b I. Sharma 5 he has also been the most attack-
S Broad b Ashwin 0 ing batsmen at home in recent
Extras (b4, lb4, nb1) 9 years. Outside India, his attack-
Total (59.5, all out) 134 ing strokes average 41.06. In
Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-16, 3-23, India, they average 127.87.
4-39, 5-52, 6-87, 7-105, 8-106, 9- On Sunday, Rohit whipped,
131. flicked and sliced the ball with
Bowling: I Sharma 5-1-22-2, aplomb. Perhaps the only big
Ashwin 23.5-4-43-5 (nb1), Patel occasion when he wanted to
20-3-40-2, Yadav 6-1-16-0, Siraj defend in the second innings
5-4-5-1 turned controversial when
England appealed for leg-before
India 2nd innings after Sharma stretched full-
R Sharma batting 25 length, bat hidden behind the
S Gill lbw b Leach 14 front pad, contending he was not
C Pujara batting 7 playing a shot.
Extras (b5, lb3) 8 Barring that, the game has
Total (18 ovs, 1 wkt) 54 pretty much gone India’s way.
Fall of wicket: 1-42 Thanks to India’s big first-in-
Bowling: Stone 2-0-8-0, nings lead, England are more or
Leach 9-2-19-1, Ali 7-2-19-0. less set to play the pink-ball Test
in Ahmedabad with the series
tied 1-1. For that, they have them-
Ashwin delivery, Ben Stokes selves to blame. India had risked
missed a full in-dipping ripper preparing a surface that would
from Ashwin and Moeen Ali require the highest skill-level to
poked at an Axar Patel delivery play spin. After two days, it’s
that was drifting away. clear why they took that gamble.
PUZZLE 15823 ©Gemini Crosswords 2018 All rights reserved
QUICK CLUES
Across Down
1 Chief (5) 2 Act of retaliation (8)
8 Opponent of recourse to 3 By hand (8)
war (8) 4 Central American
9 Overturn (5) country (6)
10 A fruit tree (4,4) 5 Female fox (5)
11 Last (5) 6 Essential (5)
12 An opening (3) 7 Impression (5)
16 Tuberous flowering
12 A fossil fuel (3)
plant (6)
13 Use diligently (3)
17 Room to manoeuvre (6)
14 Turncoat (8)
18 For example (3)
15 Disadvantage (8)
23 Lanky (5)
24 Unlucky (8) 19 Reach journey’s end (6)
20 Fortunate (5)
25 Shrivel with heat (5)
21 Scrutiny (5)
26 Using great tact (3-5)
22 Expand (5)
27 Entice to do wrong (5)
SOLUTIONS FOR 15822
Quick
ALMANAC TEMPERATURE IN
Today is 15th FOUR METROS
February 2021
Delhi
2 Rajab 1442
l
29°c I 11°c
l Magha, Shukla Paksha, 4
l Samvat 2077
Mumbai
WEDNESDAY Sunset: Monday 31°c I 21°c
Partly cloudy sky at 06:38 p.m.
Kolkata
Sunrise: Tuesday
31°c I 19°c
at 07:06 a.m.
Moonrise: Tuesday Chennai
at 10:04 a.m. 31°c I 22°c
33°c I 20°c Moonset: Tuesday
at 10:37 p.m.
MUMBAI
MONDAY
FEBRUARY 15, 2021
BASKING IN LOVE:
V-DAY DIARIES
Varun
Dhawan
with
Natasha
Dalal
alentine’s Day is
V undoubtedly one of
the most romantic
days of the year, and
love surely was in the air as
evident from the social media
accounts of many Bollywood
celebrities. From Kareena
Kapoor Khan and Anushka
Sharma to Rajkummar Rao,
Varun Dhawan and Farhan
Akhtar, many posted warmth
and appreciation-filled
messages for their partners,
celebrating their love, journey
and relationship. Here’s a
glimpse into some of them.
Farhan Akhtar with Shibani Dandekar
Rajkummar
Rao with
Patralekhaa
Anushka Sharma with Virat Kohli PHOTOS: INSTAGRAM
Gina Carano
says her voice
is ‘freer than
ever before’
ollywood actor Gina
H Carano is already hard
at work on a new project
with a conservative website.
“The Daily Wire is helping
make one of my dreams—to
develop and produce my own
film—come true,” she shared .
“I cried out and my prayer was
PHOTO: AP
answered. I am sending out a
message of hope to everyone
living in fear of cancellation by
the totalitarian mob.”
Gina continued, “I have only
just begun using my voice,
which is now freer than ever
before, and I hope it inspires
others to do the same. They
can’t cancel us if we don’t let
them.” While specific details
about the project are being
kept private, The Daily Wire
said Gina will develop, pro-
duce and star in the upcoming
film.
On February 10, a spokes-
person for the production
company behind The Mandal-
Donald Glover, Phoebe
Waller-Bridge to star in
Mr & Mrs Smith series
ollywood stars Donald
H Glover and Phoebe
Waller-Bridge will be
putting a new spin on Mr.
and Mrs. Smith. According
to Variety, the series, which
is based on the 2005 hit New
Regency film, is due in 2022.
Glover and Waller-Bridge
will star in and executive
produce the series. The hit
Donald original ‘Mr and Mrs
Glover and Smith’ from Doug
Phoebe Waller- Liman starred Brad Pitt
Bridge and Angelina Jolie and
PHOTOS: AFP grossed almost USD 500
million worldwide.
ANI
time out
‘Direction isn’t about
branching out, it
comes from passion’
Kareena
Kapoor Khan Juhi Chakraborty
with Saif Ali juhi.chakraborty@htlive.com
Khan
aving recently made her
H directorial debut with a
short film, Rubaru, actor
Tisca Chopra is now looking
forward to taking it up a notch
with a feature film next.
Talking about when the
direction bug bit her, Chopra
tells us, “It started when I
began working on short film
Chutney (2016), which I
co-wrote, produced and
starred in. I was part of the
whole process, from start to
Neha Kakkar finish. It was then that I
with decided that it was something
Rohanpreet that I would like to dabble
Singh with. I realised I enjoy working
behind-the-camera, too.”
In Rubaru, she portrays an
ageing female actor. “While
directing it, I felt like being in
love for the first time. I was so
charged and full of energy
every single day. I used to
jump out of bed and get going,”
she adds.
Actors often decide to
branch out to other career
prospects because of dearth of
HTC
roles, but the 47-year-old, who
has starred in films such as
Taare Zameen Par (2007),
Qissa (2013) and Rahasya
(2015), says that was, however,
not the case with her. “My deci-
sion to direct is solely out of
{ BLAKE LIVELY } ACTOR
P front can leave you heartbroken.
I really don’t like the gym. I
like experiences,
so I take any
chance I get to
go on a bicycle
or on a hike.
On her fitness
routine
A
James
Corden
PHOTO:
REUTERS
CARANO WAS
FIRED FROM A
TV SHOW FOR Corden
HER OFFENSIVE
POSTS.
embarked on a
health journey,
orian confirmed that Gina is
not employed by Lucasfilm.
“Her social media posts deni-
grating people based on their
cultural and religious identi-
ties are abhorrent and unac-
ceptable,” their statement
despite facing
read. HTC
stigma
ritish talk show host James Corden
B
got candid with Oprah Winfrey
about his decision to embark on a
heath journey with WW, the new name
for Weight Watchers.
As per a report by EOnline, he shared
that one of the things holding him back in
his wellness journey was the stigma
against men working on getting healthier.
“As a man, it’s historically seen as [not]
very sexy to say that you’re on a diet, or
it’s not very manly somehow to want to
make changes in your own health,” he
explained.
“Because men drink beer, and we go
out, and it doesn’t matter what you look
like, and all those things,” he added.
James shared that he has since
changed his attitude. “I actually think, I
think it is the single most positive and
sexy thing you can do to say, ‘I would like
to be a bit healthier. I would like to be the
healthiest person’,” he said. HTC
13
Tisca
Chopra
passion. It wasn’t about
branching out. Some people
give up and go back. Being here
and doing what you want to do
is tough,” she notes.
Both of her short films have
been unconventional, and
Chopra assures that even her
feature directorial debut will
be distinctive. “I am hoping,
this year, I will end up directing
the film,” she ends.
{ DAILY HOROSCOPE }
Monday, February 15, 2021
Dr Prem Kumar Sharma (Astrologer & Vaastu expert) can be contacted at:
Delhi: 011-47033152, 40532026 (Sat to Mon); Panchkula: 91-172-2562832, 2572874
(Tues to Thurs); Mumbai: 09716145644 (Last week of every month)
ARIES LIBRA
(MAR 21-APR 20) (SEP 24-OCT 23)
A l
You will have the money to set Opportunities to earn good
up something new on the busi- money knock on your door. You
ness front. Travelling will help will manage to manoeuvre
refresh old contacts. You are yourself to a position of power.
likely to boost your academic LOVE FOCUS: Something said in
performance. You will be able jest may get lover upset.
to maintain your popularity on the social front. LUCKY NUMBER: 7 LUCKY COLOUR: Dark Pink
LOVE FOCUS: False promises on the romantic
LUCKY NUMBER: 22 LUCKY COLOUR: White
SCORPIO
(OCT 24-NOV 22)
TAURUS
S
This is the right time to invest.
Those staying away may get a
(APR 21-MAY 20) chance to come home. Property
T
Money given up as lost is likely
to be returned. Your perform-
matters can be taken up today.
LOVE FOCUS: A romantic evening
ance in a creative field will
impress those who matter. Your
will prove loads of fun.
LUCKY NUMBER: 3 LUCKY COLOUR: Cream
ideas may not find favour with
parents. Improved performance
on academic front will boost your self-esteem.
LOVE FOCUS: A casual meeting with someone
promises to blossom into romance.
SAGITTARIUS
(NOV 23-DEC 21)
LUCKY NUMBER: 3 LUCKY COLOUR: Beige
s
Doing something with family
will be fun. Efforts to meet work
GEMINI targets will succeed. A property
deal turns out favourable.
LOVE FOCUS: An exciting time is
(MAY 21-JUN 21)
likely to prove most fulfilling.
G
Good handling of tax matters LUCKY NUMBER: 4 LUCKY COLOUR: Off White
will help you save. Happiness
prevails on the family front, as
someone close pays you a visit.
CAPRICORN
Plans for a short vacation are
likely to be finalised. (DEC 22-JAN 21)
LOVE FOCUS: Your romantic endeavours prove
c
fruitful, as you spread your charm! A good investment promises
LUCKY NUMBER: 17 LUCKY COLOUR: Violet handsome returns. Those trying
to sell property may find a
lucrative offer they can’t miss.
CANCER LOVE FOCUS: Blowing hot and
cold cannot be ruled out.
LUCKY NUMBER: 1 LUCKY COLOUR: Baby Pink
(JUN 22-JUL 22)
C
Financially, you will remain in
the pink of health. Taking short-
cuts at work may tarnish your
image. Good times are foreseen
on the health front. You will
find the family most supportive BIRTHDAY TODAY
of your endeavours. Randhir Kapoor: The
LOVE FOCUS: Getting entangled in an affair actor, producer and
during a vacation is possible. director, recently seen in
LUCKY NUMBER: 7 LUCKY COLOUR: Magenta Ramaiya Vastavaiya and
Super Nani, turns 74 today.
LEO AQUARIUS
(JUL 23-AUG 23)
(JAN 22-FEB 19)
L
Things brighten up on
the financial front. On Worries about money may disappear. You
the work front, you will may be praised for solving a crisis on the
do well to refurbish your work front. Weather is likely to add to your
image. A property is likely enjoyment in a long drive.
to give you good returns. LOVE FOCUS: The one you are showing
LOVE FOCUS: Young couples are likely to come interest in is likely to reciprocate.
closer by planning exclusive time together.
LUCKY NUMBER: 8 LUCKY COLOUR: Parrot Green
LUCKY NUMBER: 4 LUCKY COLOUR:
Indigo
VIRGO
(AUG 24-SEP 23)
PISCES
I
You enjoy good health. You will
manage to boost your career (FEB 20-MAR 20)
P
prospects. Gains from a side Profits accrue and promise to
business may start pouring in. make your wealth grow. A
Some positive signs may be
received regarding a property.
LOVE FOCUS: Someone you know for long may
workable solution by you on the
work front will be appreciated.
LOVE FOCUS: A promising turn of
try to come closer. events will warm your heart.
LUCKY NUMBER: 2 LUCKY COLOUR: Fuchsia LUCKY NUMBER: 8 LUCKY COLOUR: Purple
{ CALVIN AND HOBBES | BILL WATTERSON }
Monday, February 15, 2021
Mithila Palkar:
I was just very
greedy to
be an actor,
medium
didn’t matter
Juhi Chakraborty
juhi.chakraborty@htlive.com
or Mithila Palkar, opting for pro-
F jects on the digital medium way
back in 2016 wasn’t about taking
a risk, but rather another oppor-
tunity to showcase her talent and carry
forward her love for acting. The actor,
who has been a part of web shows such
as Little Things, Girl in the City and web
films such as Chopsticks and Trib-
hanga, says she never looked at it as tak-
ing a plunge into the unknown.
“When I started working I just
wanted to be an actor. Of course, when
you grow up in India you want to be a
part of Bollywood because that’s the
example we have in front of us. So, I’ve
grown up hoping to be a film actor. But
as I was growing to be an actor, I was
just craving to act,” she says.
The 28-year-old also has had a few
theatrical films including Katti Batti
(2015), Muramba (2017) and Karwaan
(2018), and she reveals how her love for
acting was amplified during her stint as
an organiser of a youth theatre
festival.
“There I saw so many people of my
age putting up such phenomenal work
while I was working behind the scenes.
Artistes
are
becoming
huge
without the
help of
Bollywood,
says
KR$NA
Juhi Chakraborty
O
ne of the first Indian rappers,
Krishna Kaul, best known as
KR$NA, is happy to see the evolu-
tion of the rap culture in the country.
“The Indian rap scene has exploded
over the past few years. Being one of the
first rappers here, it makes me really
proud to see hip-hop music come so far
in India. I think we are just going to get
bigger as a genre, which has been the
global trend. Young people gravitate
towards hip-hop, no matter which
country it is in the world,” he says.
Talking about the music industry in
India, the rapper says that he lauds how
it is no longer dominated by Bollywood
as much now, which mostly used to be
the case earlier.
“There is a lot of freedom in terms of
music discovery and publishing —
artistes can distribute their own music
and don’t have to be dependent on
labels, films etc. There is a huge choice
of artistes and genres to choose from at
I want
ed
P
on the to be
becau sta
se I th ge
that’s oug
where ht
belong I
.
M ITHILA
PALKA
R ,
Actor
I asked myself why? I wanted to be on
the stage because I thought that’s where
I belong. I was just very greedy to be an
actor, to be doing what I always dreamt
of doing and whatever presented itself
as an opportunity to me, I grabbed it
with both hands,” she recounts.
Palkar further adds that for her, con-
tent is king and that is all that matters.
“I didn’t see what medium I was work-
ing in, that didn’t matter to me. I still
want to be a better actor than what I
am,” she maintains.
Being an actor has also helped her
grow as a person, she reveals, and adds
how being a part of her latest film, Trib-
hanga — directed by Renuka Shahahe —
was one such experience.
“I think it is very important to change
your perspective before judging people,
and playing the role of Masha really
helped me with that attitude a lot more.
Most of the characteristics and charac-
terisation is in the writing. It just helps
to have the same person as writer and
director because the vision is clearer. I
definitely think that when a woman
directs a story about women, it is more
sensitive because the way a woman
understands a woman is very different
from the way a man understands a
woman,” she says.
peoples fingertips and they can listen to
what they like instead of just Bollywood
songs being force fed to them,” he
shares. He also notes that the transition
from listeners having a Bollywood
obsession to increase in indie musicians
is already quite prominent.
“The transition from Bollywood’s
dominance to indie music finding its
feet is already happening. Bollywood
picks up a lot of music that becomes
popular ‘independently’ nowadays,
and then reworks it into movies,”
KR$NA explains.
While the rapper, who recently col-
laborated with Badshah on Roll Up,
appreciates the Hindi film industry for
giving a platforms, he is quick to add, “I
think Bollywood has for the longest
time been the biggest platform for an
artiste or music producer to find mass
popularity. That is now changing;
artistes are becoming huge without the
help of Bollywood as well and are no
longer seeking as much validation from
the film industry.”
n.
f @HTCITY t @HTCITY i @HTCITY y /USER/HT. ENTERTAINMENT & PROMOTIONAL FEATURES
City Mumbai
Rishabh Suri
rishabh.suri@htlive.com
A
Kriti Kharbanda ctor Kriti Khar-
banda, like every-
says that the year one else in the
film industry, had
2020 was the to overcome her
fear of stepping out to
lowest point of resume work amid the Cov-
id-19 pandemic. However,
her life because she had to overcome more
than one obstacle.
of the pandemic She says, “I finished one
film during the pandemic,
and her brush
with malaria
and it feels good because I
didn’t think I’d be working
in 2020. After the initial 21
days of the lockdown,
everyone was thinking
‘HIGHEST POINT everything would be fine,
but then it became two
months, then four and
eventually six. We all had
OF MY CAREER
given up after a point.”
And when it was finally
time to resume work, she
was emotional to be facing
the camera again. “I was
IS TO FACE THE grateful. The initial few
days were extremely taxing.
Emotionally, too, we all
were coming to terms with
CAMERA AGAIN’
the fact that we’ve to con-
stantly sanitise and wear a
mask. While everyone
around you is covered, you
feel extremely exposed as
an actor because you’re in
front of the camera,” shares
the 30-year-old.
Dia weds Vaibhav:
What added to the risk
was Kharbanda suffering
Vaibhav Rekhi from malaria, and being
and Dia Mirza advised to not venture out.
Scan the QR
It’s confirmed!
PHOTO: INSTAGRAM/ “My immunity was at an all
POOJADADLANI02 code to read time low. Doctors had
more about advised me to not even step
how Kriti out of the house. But I just
ctor Dia Mirza is set to tie the knot to Kharbanda had to work. Fortunately,
A Mumbai-based businessman Vaibhav
Rekhi. In an Instagram post, actor Shah
Rukh Khan’s manager Pooja Dadlani put up a
coped with the
year 2020
nothing went wrong, and
we successfully completed
our film,” she says.
picture of the couple, from the party, and Mirza In a career spanning 12
reacted to it with a heart emoji. Dadlani wrote in years, Kharbanda has done
the caption: “Welcome to our crazy family a lot of work, and has had a
@diamirzaofficial.. we all love you”. Dia also had bittersweet experience. But
a pre-wedding bash on February 13 night with she calls 2020 the lowest
her friends. HTC point of her career. “I’ve
always been a workaholic.
But now, I had so much
time and I didn’t know what
to do with it. It wasn’t easy
‘Saraswati ma ke alawa Anurag Basu;
(inset) with
Katrina Kaif
and we all went through
that,” she admits.
sab mask me rahenge’
FILE PHOTO: WASEEM
GASHROO/HT AND PHOTO: INSTAGRAM/JANETJACKSON
PRODIP GUHA
STOP PRESS
Naina Arora childhood. I’m just continu-
naina.arora@htdigital.in
ing the tradition.”
“Close friends, assistants,
ushpanjali, aarti, bhog and relatives will come and
P and star presence —
Anurag Basu’s annual
Saraswati Puja is one such
attend [this time]. It’ll not be a
sarvajanik puja. Fewer people
will attend the puja. And I’m
occasion that sees the who’s getting messages from people
who of Bollywood. Attended
in the past by actors such as
Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Kat-
saying ‘Facebook (pe live
stream) kijiye, hum dek-
henge’. So a lot of people will
rina Kaif, Abhishek Bachchan attend the puja virtually on
and the likes, this puja has February 16,” adds Basu.
been a do that most celebs in
Bollywood have visited at
Talk of the annual tradi-
tion, at his home, in the pre
After
receiving support
some point. But this year,
Basu shares that it “will be an
intimate affair” due to the
Covid-19 pandemic.
pandemic times and “fond
memories” come rushing
back to Basu. “My friends
and musicians would come
online following Justin
Timberlake’s apology for not
“Saraswati ma ke alawa sab
mask me rahenge,” says the
filmmaker, who has been
organising the event in Mum-
and perform. Pritam (musi-
cian) would sing two-three
songs of my forthcoming
movies. This year also, we
taking onus for the infamous
“wardrobe malfunction” during
bai since 1997. He hosted the
puja, on a small scale, last
year, too, and says that this
look forward to the night
before the puja when we do
the preparations, decor and
the 2004 Super Bowl, Janet
Jackson reacted to Tinashe’s
heartwarming message
year, it’ll be “private”. “It’s the cut vegetables. Kareeb 100 se
biggest puja in my family, and 150 kilo bhog banta hai! Raat
in most Bengali families. In ko friends, assistants come about her with a black
school, we used to have a hol- and cut vegetables and I, then,
heart emoji and hug
iday on Saraswati Puja. It’s
imbibed in our system since
start cooking the morning
after, at 4.30 or 5am!” emoji.
PHOTOS: SHUTTERSTOCK
Pandemic kills buffet culture?
Prerna Gauba Keeping the pandemic times
prerna.gauba@htlive.com
in mind, we are trying to
reduce wastage at all the res-
n pre Covid-19 times, res- taurants. Our motto is mini-
NOTE TO
READERS: Some
I taurants and cafes would
lay out a lavish food buffet
for the guests to enjoy a wide
mum wastage of food hence,
we have a la carte or set
menus available for guests,”
of the coverage
range of delicacies. But the says Kanishk Tuteja.
that appears on pandemic changed a lot of The number of guests com-
our pages is things including the trend of ing in for buffets is also poor
paid for by the buffets. Most of the restau- as people are hesitant to eat
concerned rants are now wary of laying with others. “People usually
brands. No out buffets. They say it is to ask for a la carte and avoid
sponsored keep the safety of guests in owner of Made in Punjab. buffets at a time like this. We
content does or mind. “A set menu is available Many also believe it reduces see lesser walk-ins. Servers
shall appear in
any part of HT
and we serve the guests at the wastage of food. “When we wearing masks and gloves
without it table to avoid rush at the buf- used to serve buffet during serve the food on the table and
being declared fet counters and to maintain Sunday brunches at Qutub, people are more comfortable
as such to our safe social distancing,” says many a times, we would end with that,” says Avantika
valued readers. The pandemic seems to have spelled death for the trend of buffets restaurateur Zorawar Kalra, up with a lot of leftover food. Sinha of Kampai.