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Parliamentary Committee
A on Information
Technology headed by
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor
on Friday told Twitter that it
must follow the law of the land
even as the official represent-
ing the microblogging site
maintained that they follow
their own policy.
According to sources, dur-
ing the meeting, the panel
members made it clear that the
social media site was not above
the law and warned that Twitter
may face hefty fines if viola-
tions continue. “Does Twitter
think their policy is above
law?” The representatives were
asked. To which Twitter repre-
sentatives said, “We follow our
own policy.” They went on to
add that their policy was as
important as the Indian
Government laws.
At the meeting, Twitter
India was represented by its
legal counsel Ayushi Kapoor
and senior manager for public
policy Shagufta Kamran.
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he Supreme Court on
T Friday said the bail grant-
ed by the Delhi High Court to
three student-activists in Delhi
riot cases will continue but the
bail could not be treated as
precedent in cases under the
Unlawful Activities
(Prevention) Act (UAPA).
Solicitor General Tushar
Mehta, representing the Delhi
Police, argued that the Delhi
HC’s bail order given to JNU
students Natasha Narwal and
Devangana Kalita and Jamia
student Asif Iqbal Tanha had
totally turned upside down
the UAPA provisions. This bail
order has gone like a mini trial
on the UAPA enacted by
Parliament, said Mehta.
The vacation bench of
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ith the aim of fighting the
W modern-day war cohe-
sively, the Government has
formed a committee of three
Vice Chiefs to find ways to
expedite the formation of the-
atre commands.
In the beginning, there
will be two such units includ-
ing the Maritime Theatre
Command and Air Defence
Command. The US and China
have such organisations to
meet any challenge.
The committee will hold
discussion with other
Ministries, including Home
and Finance, to realise the ulti-
mate objective of winning the
war using all resources opti-
mally in a seamless manner.
The final recommendations of
the committee will then be con-
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The agenda for Friday’s
meeting was “to hear the views
of representatives of Twitter fol-
lowed by evidence of repre-
sentatives of MeitY on “safe-
guarding citizens’ rights and
prevention of misuse of
social/online news media plat-
forms, including special
emphasis on women security in
Justices Hemant Gupta and V
Ramasubramanian termed as
“troubling” that the High Court
has written 100 pages dis-
cussing the entire anti-terror
law UAPA while deciding the
bail applications in the case and
said it will require interpreta-
tion by the apex court. While
refusing to stay the High Court
verdicts granting bail to the
three accused, the bench said
that these judgments will not be
treated as precedent by any
party before any court.
“It is clarified that release
of the respondents (Narwal,
Kalita and Tanha) on bail is not
interfered with at this stage,” the
bench said. Taking note of
Solicitor General Tushar
Mehta’s submission that the
sidered by the Cabinet
Committee on Security (CCS).
Apart from the Maritime
and Air Defence commands,
the plan is to have three other
such units. They are Northern
Land Theatre (Jammu and
Kashmir, Ladakh and Central
sector), Western Land Theatre
(Pakistan) and Eastern Land
Theatre. The Northern and
Eastern commands will focus
on China, besides Pakistan. A
proposal is also there for hav-
ing a logistics and training
command.
Continued on Page 2
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the digital space”.
Twitter representatives
were also questioned about
their appointment process for
the post of a compliance offi-
cer and who is competent
authority to decide. To which
Twitter representatives said
they will respond in writing
and that they need to consult
UAPA has been “turned upside
down” by the high court in
granting bail in the case, the
bench said that the issue is
important and can have pan-
India ramifications.
“We would like to issue
notice and hear the other side,”
said the bench. Mehta urged
the apex court to stay the high
court verdicts saying the find-
ings arrived at in these judg-
ments “virtually record acquit-
tal for these accused” and other
co-accused would also seek
bail relying on them. “The
way the Act has been inter-
preted, probably it will require
interpretation by the Supreme
Court. That is why we are
issuing notice,” the bench said.
Continued on Page 2
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ndia is likely to be hit by a
IOctober,
third wave of Covid-19 by
and the pandemic
will remain a public health
threat for at least another year,
according to a Reuters news
agency’s poll of medical
experts.
The June 3-17 snap survey
of 40 healthcare specialists,
doctors, scientists, virologists,
epidemiologists and profes-
sors from around the world
showed a significant rise in vac-
cinations will likely provide
some cover to a fresh outbreak.
Of those who ventured a
prediction, at least 85 per cent
of respondents, or 21 of 24, said
the next wave will hit by
October, including three who
forecast it as early as August
and 12 in September. The
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before answering because they
are not competent authority.
On non-compliance with
the Government’s interim
guidelines, Twitter said it is
working on the issue and had
appointed an interim chief
compliance officer. The com-
mittee pointed out that Twitter
had been fined in Ireland ear-
lier.
Twitter was also quizzed
about the criteria based on
which it tags tweets as “manip-
ulated media”. To this, Twitter
said it is an intermediary, and
“whatever we think is not good
for society, we tag them”.
Following the meeting, the
social media giant issued a
statement saying: “Twitter
stands prepared to work with
the committee on the impor-
tant work of safeguarding cit-
izens’ rights online in line with
our principles of transparency,
freedom of expression & pri-
vacy. We will also continue
working alongside the Indian
Government as part of our
shared commitment to serve
and protect the public conver-
sation”.
The meeting comes as the
Centre is at loggerheads with
the microblogging site over
the new Information and
Technology (IT) rules and the
alleged “Congress toolkit” case.
Continued on Page 2
elhi Chief Minister Arvind
D Kejriwal on Friday dis-
cussed the action plan and
roadmap with the Lieutenant
Governor Anil Baijal in view of
the possible third wave of
Covid-19 infection in the
national Capital.
The Delhi Government is
making its preparations based
on the possibility of likely
37,000 and maximum 45,000
corona cases per day during the
possible third wave.
“A State-level task force,
more healthcare staff and a spe-
cial task force for treatment of
children are part of the Delhi
Government’s action plan to
deal with the third wave,” the
Chief Minister’s office tweeted.
A presentation inclusive
of all the extensive prepared-
ness measures was made to the
L-G, highlighting the enhanced
healthcare infrastructure that
the Delhi Government has
been persistently building since
the pandemic.
According to a senior offi-
remaining three said between
November and February.
But more than 70 per cent
of experts, or 24 of 34, said any
outbreak would be better con-
trolled compared with the cur-
rent one, which has been far
more devastating — with short-
ages of vaccines, medicines,
oxygen and hospital beds —
than the smaller first surge in
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larmed by the violation of
A Covid-19 protocols in var-
ious markets in the national
Capital, the Delhi High Court
on Friday observed that such
breaches will only hasten the
third wave and asked the
Centre and the Delhi
Government to take strict mea-
sures, sensitise shopkeepers,
and hold meetings with mar-
kets and vendors associations
in this regard.
A vacation bench of
Justices Navin Chawla and
Asha Menon took note of cer-
tain photographs sent to one of
the judges of the high court by
an AIIMS doctor showing
scant regard for Covid-19 pro-
tocol by street vendors in mar-
kets. The images received via
WhatsApp showed people
without masks not following
other Covid-19 safety protocol
such as social distancing.
Taking suo motu cogni-
sance of the photographs, the
HC initiated a PIL, directing
the Centre, the Delhi
Government and the Delhi
Police to file status reports.
cial, the Chief Minister dis-
cussed in detail about the State-
level task force constituted by
the Delhi Government to
increase the number of health
workers and pediatric task
force to streamline effective
treatment of children from
corona.
The Chief Minister also
informed the L-G about
“Pressure Swing Adsorption”
(PSA) oxygen plant, Cryogenic
Plant, LMO Storage Plant,
Oxygen and bed management
in hospitals, arrangement of
medicines and vaccination.
Continued on Page 2
infections last year.
“It will be more controlled,
as cases will be much less
because more vaccinations
would have been rolled out and
there would be some degree of
natural immunity from the
second wave,” said Dr Randeep
Guleria, director of All India
Institute of Medical Sciences.
Continued on Page 2
“We have paid a huge price
in the second wave. We don’t
know if there is any household
which has not suffered in the
second wave, closely or remote-
ly,” the bench observed.
The court observed that
there is a need for stricter
measures in the national
Capital to prevent a further
spread of Covid-19. “The
memory of the second wave
has not left us, yet people
behave in this manner. This is
very unfortunate,” the court
remarked.
The court also directed
the deployment of civil defence
personnel and police personnel
in markets to enforce social dis-
tancing. A status report was
also been called for. The mat-
ter will be taken up for hearing
on July 7.
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tudies among healthcare
S workers have shown that
following vaccination the
chances of hospitalisation
reduce by 75-80 per cent, while
oxygen requirement comes
down to 8 per cent even after
contracting Covid-19, the
Government said on Friday.
Addressing a Press confer-
ence, NITI Aayog Member
(Health) Dr VK Paul said in
these studies, which have been
conducted among healthcare
workers who fall in the high
risk group, also showed that the
risk of ICU admission remains
only 6 per cent and the pro-
tection against infection was 94
per cent.
“Lives of thousands of
healthcare workers have been
saved by vaccination. Studies
show that chances of hospital-
isation reduce by 75-80 per cent
after vaccination if they con-
tract Covid. The possibility of
oxygen requirement is around
8 per cent and the risk of ICU
admission is only 6 per cent.
The protection is 94 per cent.
These are reasonable sample
size studies and they have been
conducted in age groups where
maximum risk is there,’’ he said.
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Paul said in one particular
study, there was one death out
of 7,000 cases and it was also
because the person had comor-
bidities.
“Similar studies in other
countries have also shown the
protection vaccine gives. I
request people to please accept
the vaccine and not hesitate...
people might get infected even
after that but it will not turn
severe, lives will not be lost and
by vaccination thousands and
thousands of lives can be
saved,’’ he added.
Paul said the new guide-
lines for vaccination to be
implemented from June 21
under which 75 per cent vac-
cines will be procured by the
Centre and distributed free of
cost to States and the role of
private sector in procurement
of 25 per cent is “well defined’’.
Continued on Page 2
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ndian sprint legend Milkha
Imonth-long
Singh died on Friday after a
battle with Covid-
19, during which he lost his for-
wife Nirmal Kaur to the same
ailment.
The Padma Shri awardee
was 91 and is survived by his
golfer son Jeev Milkha Singh
and three daughters.
“He breathed his last at
11.30pm,” a family spokesper-
son told PTI.
20?BD;4
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he Central Government is
T
likely to hold discussions
with all regional parties in
Jammu & Kashmir before the
end of this month as part of its
initiatives to bolster political
processes, including holding
assembly elections, in the
union territory, officials said
here on Friday.
The Central leadership
may even invite National
Conference chief Farooq
Abdullah, PDP chairperson
Mehbooba Mufti, Altaf
Bukhari of the Jammu &
Kashmir Apni Party, People’s
Conference head Sajjad Lone
for talks, the officials said.
Both Abdullah and
Mehbooba had served as Chief
Minister of the erstwhile State
of Jammu & Kashmir.
The meeting is likely to be
chaired by Prime Minister
Narendra Modi and attended
by Union Home Minister Amit
Shah and other central leaders.
Asked about the prospect
of talks with the Centre,
CPI(M) leader and spokesper-
son of the People’s Alliance for
Gupkar Declaration MY
Tarigami said there has been no
word from New Delhi.
Continued on Page 2
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ecRTVd`W4`gZUZ_ New Delhi: Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Friday
said that while the coronavirus mutated and evolved, citi-
zens let their guard down and all this led to a spike in cases, ?=BQ =4F34;78 blind, involving public sentiments.
7PaSTT_BX]VW?daX

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recent study by researchers
A at the Indian Institute of
Technology (IIT) Gandhinagar
has established the presence of
coronavirus in water samples
from the Sabarmati river and
two lakes in Ahmedabad city of
Gujarat.
While the study, funded by
the UNICEF, did not reveal if
the genes of coronavirus found
in the water samples were dead
or alive, Professor
Manish Kumar, who led the
research, has emphasised the
need for further probe on the
subject to avert any future
tragedy.
Following the revelation,
the Ahmedabad Municipal
Corporation (AMC) has decid-
ed to send samples from these
water bodies to the Gujarat
Biotechnology Research Centre
(GBRC).
"The GBRC is the autho-
rised agency of the AMC for
water analysis. We have been
sending samples to them since
the last one year and they sub-
mit their report to the state
government. We have no idea
about the IIT's research.
However, we will now send
samples of these water bodies
to the GBRC
for a similar analysis," said
Harpalsinh Zala, the AMC's
city engineer for Water
Resources.
snowballing into the second wave. There was no eye witness in this case. New Delhi: Union Minister Hardeep Puri on
He made these remarks after distributing masks among he Special Judge (POCSO), Shimla, Scene of the crime was in a dense for- Friday said PM Cares Fund is financing Oxygen
frontline workers at the Union Health Ministry.
The Minister stated that although this gesture was sym-
T on Friday, sentenced accused Anil
Kumar alias Nilu to undergo life impris-
est with the least human encroachment.
The accused did not belong to the area
plants in Punjab's 41 locations of which 13 would
be ready by June and rest would be "fully operational"
bolic, people from various industries and corporate hous- onment till remainder of his natural life of scene of crime and also frequently by August 15. Addressing a press conference here,
es, and political leaders holding office could start a virtu- and imposed a fine of C10,000 in the changed his location after the said Puri said the Central Government has been pro-
ous chain by emulating the exercise, eventually amplifying case related to rape and murder of a crime. viding Covid19-related assistance to all the States,
the Jan Andolan to protect everyone from Covid-19 minor girl at Kotkhai (Himachal The involvement of the accused in including Punjab, in a true federal spirit.
through Covid appropriate behaviour, a Ministry statement
said. The aim of the exercise in the health ministry is to dis-
Pradesh).
The CBI had registered the case on
the crime was established through
DNA profiling, along with other evi-
The Union Minister said the centre provided
anti-corona medicine Remdesivir to Punjab 631 per
tribute masks to all employees, starting with the frontline July 22, 2017 following an order by the dence,” the CBI said in a statement. hundred thousand in comparison to UP 264 - a state
workers and eventually moving to other staff. Himachal Pradesh High court. The case After thorough investigation, the with many times more population -and Assam 300
"The government worked round the clock to stop Covid- related to allegations of rape and mur- agency filed a chargesheet in the court with almost equal population to Punjab .
19 last year. Under the leadership of Prime Minister der of a minor girl in the forest of of Special Judge (POCSO), Shimla "Anyone saying the Centre not giving legitimate
Narendra Modi ji, we were immensely successful in decreas- Halaila, Kotkhai. Six persons were against the accused Anil Kumar. CBI share of the state is a falsification", he said
ing the active caseload to a minimum. arrested by the local police in the case. investigation also revealed that the six He said O2 plants would set-up in 41 locations
"However, with the arrival of vaccines early this year and The case was being monitored by accused arrested by the State Police ear- in Punjab of which 13 would be ready by June and
things returning to normal, people gradually invited laxity the High Court through the status lier, were not found involved in the rest be operational by August 15.
in their adherence to the simple code of Covid appropriate reports which were placed before it crime. Against the backdrop of the ongoing farmers agi-
behaviour. “ from time to time. During investigation, After considering all the oral, doc- tation , he said government is open to any dialogue
Explaining the importance of the event, he said, "With it was found that the victim was raped umentary, scientific, medical and cir- with the farmers.
many corners of India gradually moving towards unlock from and murdered by the accused Anil who cumstantial evidence on record, the trial He claimed record procuremen of rice and wheat
the second wave, we cannot afford laxity and any further was also known by aliases NiIu and court found the said accused guilty and and pointed out that C26,000 crore went directly to
increase in cases again."He drove home the point that masks Kamlesh (a woodcutter/Chirani by convicted him on April 28 but the quan- the bank accounts of farmers, disproving 'disinfor-
are the simplest, most potent and the most powerful weapon profession). tum of punishment was pronounced on mation' on the MSP and attempt at abolition of the
against all variants of the coronavirus. PNS “The case was very challenging and Friday. 'Mandi system'. PNS

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he owner of south Delhi’s
T ‘Baba ka Dhaba’, 81 year-old
Kanta Prasad, allegedly
attempted suicide on Thursday
night. Police said that he is
undergoing treatment at the
Safdarjung Hospital and the
reason behind his extreme step
is not yet known.
Prasad shot into the lime-
light last year when a video of
him tearfully talking about the
lack of customers at his eatery
and his financial woes went
viral, triggering an outpouring
of support in cash and kind
from all over the country. The
video was shot and uploaded
by YouTuber Gaurav
Wasan.According to Atul
Kumar Thakur, the Deputy
Commissioner of Police
(DCP), South district, on
Thursday at 11.15 PM, a police
control room (PCR) call was
received from the Safdarjung
Hospital that Prasad was
admitted there.
“Police reached the hospi-
tal and collected MLC
(medico-legal case) which
mentions the intake of alcohol
and sleeping pills as the cause
of unconsciousness,” said the
DCP.The statement of Prasad's
son Karan was recorded.
T
seem to die down any soon as the Central
continues to see the political sta- What’s happening is that our media friends
tus quo in the State as the 'best option' even have developed a misunderstanding because Acourt has ordered that Candia Carrette George
NEW DELHI: With the arrest of
seven people, the Delhi Police on
Friday claimed to have busted a
fake call centre, involving in dup-
ing foreign nationals by posing as
members of Amazon’s technical
support team.
The accused have been iden-
tified as Gaurav (24), Amit Anand
(46), Ajneesh Rana (37), Aryan
Saxena (21), Yogesh Prasad (28),
Naveen Kumar (22), and Aman
Preet Kaur (24).According to
Urvija Goel, the Deputy
Commissioner of Police (DCP),
West district, specific inputs were
received that the accused were
running an international online
cheating racket in west Delhi’s
Tilak Nagar and were engaged in
using illegal techniques and VOIP
calling to dupe people. SR
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WTbPXS wave, State Level Task Force
“There’s no political crisis or confusion.
as 'Lingyat Mahasabha' also announces its full
support to Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa.
BJP General Secretary Arun Singh who
was on a three-day 'probing mission' to
Karnataka and met with Anti-Yediyurappa fac-
tion leaders but failed to pacify them wanting
removal of Yediyurappa.
Yediyurappa himself showed his political
clout to the BJP's Karnataka-in-charge sug-
gesting there is no substitute to his leadership
in the State.
'Akhila Bharata Veerashiva Mahasabha',
one of the most influential 'Lingyat' body,
chaired by Shamanur Shivashankarappa who
is the oldest 'Lingyat' Congress MLA and for-
mer Minister has extended its full support to
the Chief Minister.
After three-days marathon meetings with
Singh, the Chief Minister asserted that there
was "no political crisis" in the State in the wake
of dissidence activities seeking his ouster.
5V]YZe`eR\V >`UZe`TYRZc lies with New Delhi and
The Chief Minister also
informed the L-G in detail
about the cryogenic bottling
plant, “Liquid Medical
Oxygen” storage plant along
with the PSA oxygen plant
which has been established in
different areas of Delhi and
will be set up in the coming
few days. The CMO office
tweeted, “Regarding the
preparations for the possible
third wave of Covid-19, today
Chief Minister
@ArvindKejriwal had a meet-
ing with the Lieutenant
Governor, in which the action
plan and roadmap for future
challenges was discussed. In
order to prepare for the future
of the Delhi Government,
increase in the number of
health workers, Special
Pediatric Task Force for effec-
tive treatment of children
have been included in the
action plan. Oxygen and bed
management, along with
arrangement of medicines
and vaccination were also
discussed in the meeting.”
Kejriwal informed the L-
G that in a worst-case sce-
nario of possible third wave
and the general situation,
other preparations including
augmentation of beds is being
done. “If there is a possible
third wave of corona and the
situation in Delhi becomes
extremely distressing, the
Government is working con-
tinuously for how many oxy-
gen beds and ICU beds will
be required during that time.
In view of this, the Delhi
Government has formed a
committee to enhance and
strengthen the health infra-
structure. This committee is
doing the work pertaining to
it,” he said.
made a plea before
Dominican magistrate Chief Magistrate
remanded but his attor-
neys presented a medical
report to the court which
of 1-2 people,” Yediyurappa told newspersons. fugitive Indian businessman to have the fugitive indicated that his health
Senior BJP MLC AH Vishwanath and one Mehul Choksi, who is wanted diamantaire brought has deteriorated and as a
of the most vocal critic of Yediyurappa has, in India for C13,500 crore PNB before a Magistrate every three result, he was unable to attend.
however, levelled corruption allegations against
Yediyurappa and his son citing the example of
credit fraud case be remanded
in the Dominica State Prison
days to be remanded until he
is discharged from hospital, the
However, Magistrate
Williams ordered that Choksi
a tender worth C20,000 crore in the water despite decline in his health. Dominican news outlet report- be remanded at the State Prison
resources department. The order came despite ed. The application for Choksi's as she stated, based on the law,
He sought Yediyurappa’s ouster alleging Choksi pleading not guilty to production before a Magistrate she does not have the jurisdic-
no file in the government moved without kick- illegal entry into Dominica every three days was pursuant tion to remand the accused to
backs. and was earlier remanded in to Section 212 of the Magistrate the hospital every three days.
Vishwanath claimed that a majority of police custody at the Dominica code of procedure. Dissatisfied with her deci-
party leaders, who Singh met with , feel that China Friendship Hospital This application came sion, three of Choksi's attorneys
leadership in state should be changed other- (DCFH) where he has been a under review by Magistrate who were present in court -
wise the party shall neither survive nor come patient since May 29, Carribean Williams on June 11, however, Julien Prevost, Zena Moore-
back to power. Island news portal Dominica she reserved her ruling as a bail Dyer and Gina Dyer-Munro-
"They are not saying it openly. Yesterday News Online reported. application for Choksi was objected, claiming that their
more than 80 per cent who met him said that On June 2, at Choksi’s first being heard in the High Court client is now in a bad State of
leadership (in State) must be changed other- court hearing where the charge on the same day. health and the decision to
wise party won't survive and we won't come of illegal entry into Dominica Late on Thursday (India remand him to the state prison
back again (to power). Many leaders, even min- was read to him, Acting time), Choksi was expected to is appalling as bleeding in the
isters, said this," said the BJP MLC. Director of Public Prosecution appear before the court for head is one of his conditions.
6&+&EDLOWRVWXGHQWV CWTPcTaR^\\P]Sb
From Page 1
nowhere else," he added.
The Jammu and Kashmir units From Page 1
From Page 1
The theatre commander may be from
But he added that if it of the BJP and the Congress are Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the stu- any of the three services and will lead spe-
happens, it would be wel- also likely to be part of these dent activists, said there is no doubt that the apex court cific units of the Army, navy and air force
comed. "We have never closed discussions, which are being should consider the ramifications and interpretation forming that theatre. Similarly, some com-
our doors for meaningful seen as part of efforts to of the UAPA so that there is a judgement on the issue mands will also absorb paramilitary forces
engagement with the Centre. strengthen normal political from the top court. “We are dealing with bail appli- which are controlled by the home ministry.
Though I have no information processes in the union territo- cations,” Sibal said. Also, the Coast Guard will be part of the
about any dialogue, if it hap- ry. “That is what is troubling us. It is surprising that Maritime Command.
pens, it will be welcomed," The officials said the in a bail application, there is 100-page judgment dis- Giving details of the efforts on to have
Tarigami told PTI from delimitation commission under cussing the entire law,” the bench said. the theatre commands, sources said here
Srinagar. the leadership of Justice (retd) “There are many questions which arise as legali- on Friday the decision to form the com-
PAGD is an alliance of Ranjana Desai, which was set ty of the UAPA was not challenged before the high mittee was taken earlier this week.
some parties in Jammu and up immediately after the pas- court. These were bail applications,” the bench The concept of the theatre commands
Kashmir, including the NC sage of the Jammu and observed. The top court issued notices to these stu- was mooted three years back to effective-
and the PDP, that was formed Kashmir Reorganisation Bill in dent activists and said that the matter would be heard ly use resources of all the three Services and
in the aftermath of the abro- Parliament, is likely to expedite in the week commencing July 19. At the outset, Mehta other related organisations. At present, the
gation of its special status and its work and submit its report. referred to the judgments of the high court and said Army, Navy and IAF have their own com-
its bifurcation into union ter- The commission was set up in that “the entire UAPA has been turned upside down mands totaling 20 besides the joint tri-ser-
ritories. February 2020 and has been on its head”. vice Andaman and Nicobar Command
JKAP president Bukhari given an extension of one year He argued that after these verdicts, technically the and the Strategic Forces Command.
said, "I welcome, if and when, in March this year. trial court is required to place these findings in its order The latter command looks after the
the talks take place. This vin- Barring Bukhari, other and discharge the accused in the case. nuclear arsenal. The proposal is to merge
dicates our position of March leaders have served a spell of Mehta said that 53 persons died and over 700 were some of the commands of the three ser-
2020 when we had made it detention following the August injured during the riots which took place at a time vices into one entity for better utilisation
clear that dialogue is the only 2019 decision of the Centre to when the then US President and other dignitaries were of assets and manpower and avoiding
mechanism to restore democ- abrogate special status of here. wastage. As regards the need for wide rang-
racy and statehood for Jammu Jammu and Kashmir and bifur- “The high court has made wide ranging obser- ing discussions by the committee, sources
and Kashmir." cating the erstwhile state into vations,” said Solicitor General, criticizing heavily the said since paramilitary forces are in the
"Better late than never as union territories -- Jammu and Delhi High Court’s Judgment passed the Bench of jus- domain of the home ministry, their views
the solution to all our problems Kashmir, and Ladakh. tices Siddharth Mridul and Anup J Bhambhani. have also to be taken.
UG&RYLGZDYH “All local Governments must be
allocated their grants as recom-
inequities that may result from dif-
ferential fiscal and capacity contexts,” DYRaVfa`cdYZa`fe
From Page 1 mended by the Fifteenth Finance they added. From Page 1
Meanwhile, a set of experts have Commission to ensure they have the Given that community partic- Recently, Twitter lost its legal protection in India
recommended that decentralisation resources to augment COVID-19- ipation has played a vital role dur- after failing to comply the new Information
of essential health services such as related health services in their juris- ing the first and second Covid-19 Technology guidelines.The microblogging site had
ambulances, oxygen and essential dictions.” waves, the community engagement faced backlash when it refused to delete objection-
medicines, a transparent pricing Yet another suggestion includ- and public participation must lie at able tweets which the Government had asked to
policy and wider spread of clear and ed adoption of clear, evidence-based the heart of India’s Covid-19 remove regarding farmers’ protests and their attack
evidence-based information on the information on the management of response. Grassroots civil society has on Red Fort. Recently, it briefly removed the “blue
management of Covid-19 to prevent Covid-19. “This information should historically had a crucial role in peo- tick” verification badge from the personal account
its resurgence. include suitably adapted interna- ple’s participation in health care and of Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu and of sever-
These are among the eight sug- tional guidelines for home care and other development activities, such as al senior RSS functionaries, including its chief Mohan
gestions that a battery of experts the treatment, primary care, and district in strengthening the Covid-19 Bhagwat and labelled BJP leader Sambit Patra’s tweet
likes of Biocon’s Kiran Mazumdar hospital care in local languages that response in Mumbai, they added. on Congress toolkit as “manipulated media”.
Shaw, cardiac surgeon Dr Devi incorporate local circumstances and Also, said the expert panel that Earlier this week, The Uttar Pradesh Police has
Shetty and microbiologist clinical practice. The guidance must there must be transparency in gov- also included Twitter in a first information report
Gagandeep Kang have for the also emphasise what not to do, and ernment data collection and mod- for not removing posts about the assault of an elder-
Centre. ensure that only evidence-based elling to enable districts to proac- ly Muslim man in Ghaziabad district on June 5. The
Authored by 21 experts, a com- therapeutics are used,” they said. tively prepare for the likely caseloads company has been booked for “intent to a riot, pro-
mentary on the website of medical All available human resources in the coming weeks. “Health system moting enmity and criminal conspiracy”. The
journal ‘Lancet’ said that the essen- across all sectors of the health sys- personnel require data on age and Ghaziabad Police has sent a legal notice to Twitter
tial health services must be decen- tem, including the private sector, sex disaggregated COVID-19 cases, India Managing Director Manish Maheshwari in the
tralised. “A one-size-fits-all approach must be marshalled for the Covid- hospitalisations, and mortality rates; case. Maheshwari has been asked to appear at the
is untenable since the numbers of 19 response and adequately community-level coverage of vacci- Loni Border police station in Ghaziabad within seven
Covid-19 cases and health services resourced, particularly with suffi- nation; and community-based track- days to get his statement recorded. Delhi Police had
differ substantially from district to cient personal protective equip- ing of the effectiveness of Covid-19 earlier received a complaint against actress Swara
district,” said the health experts. ment, guidance on the use of clini- treatment protocols and long-term Bhaskar, Twitter India MD Manish Maheshwari and
Also, they added, “there must cal interventions, insurance, and outcomes,” they said. others connected with social media posts about an
be a transparent national pricing pol- mental health support. Last but not the least, the experts attack on an elderly Muslim man in Ghaziabad on
icy and caps on the prices of all The experts suggested that cen- suggested that amidst gloomy sce- June 5 A Delhi Police Special Cell team had visited
essential health services-eg, ambu- tral systems to procure and distrib- nario, the profound suffering and Bengaluru on May 31 to question Twitter India man-
lances, oxygen, essential medicines, ute Covid-19 vaccines free of cost risk to health caused by loss of liveli- aging director in connection with the Congress
and hospital care. Hospital care should be established in a departure hoods should be minimised by toolkit. Earlier, Delhi Police had sent a notice to
should not require any out-of-pock- from the current policy of decen- making provisions for cash transfers Twitter, seeking an explanation of how it described
et expenditure and costs should be tralised procurement through state by the state to workers in India’s vast an alleged “Congress toolkit” against the Central gov-
covered by existing health insurance governments. informal economy who have lost ernment as manipulated media and a team of Delhi
schemes for all people, as has been “Such an approach would opti- their jobs, as is being done by some police visited the Twitter India offices in Delhi and
done in some states. mise prices and minimise cross-state state governments. Gurgaon on May 24 over the toolkit issue.

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BC055A4?>AC4AQ =4F34;78
he Delhi Government on
T Friday increased the min-
imum wage for daily wagers.
The revised rates of minimum
wages shall be applicable in
respect of unskilled, semi-
skilled and skilled categories in
all scheduled employments,
with effect from April 1, 2021.
The minimum wages of
Delhi now are the highest in
comparison to any other State
in India.
As per Government’s order,
Labour Department, unskilled,
semi- skilled and other work-
ers to get relief with increase in
dearness allowance
Deputy Chief Minister
Sisodia said, “These steps have
been taken in the interest of the
poor and working class who
have suffered disproportion-
ately due to the current pan-
demic. This order shall also
benefit those in clerical and
supervisory jobs.”
He added that people in
the unorganised sector who are
employed on minimum wages
should not be deprived of dear-
ness allowance. “Factoring in
the dearness allowance, revised
rates of minimum wages have
been announced,” he added.
Under the dearness
allowance, the monthly wages
for unskilled labourers have
been increased from Rs 15492
to Rs 15908. For semi-skilled
labourers, their monthly wages
have been enhanced from Rs
17069 to Rs 17537. For skilled
labourers, the monthly wages
have been increased from Rs
18797 to Rs 19291.
Additionally, minimum
wage rates for the supervisor
and clerical cadre of employees
have also been increased. The
monthly wages for non-matric-
ulate employees have been
increased from Rs 17069 to Rs
17537 and for matriculate
employees, from Rs 18797 to Rs
19291. For graduates and those
with higher educational qual-
ifications, monthly wages have
been increased from Rs 20430
to Rs 20976.
"Although we have had to
cut down on many expendi-
tures, keeping in mind the
interests of our working class,
this decision has been taken".
Every section of the society has
been adversely affected due to
the pandemic. Adding to the
woes of the masses is the soar-
ing prices of daily essentials
such as oil and pulses. "I hope
that this increase in wages will
provide some relief to our
labour brethren,” Sisodia said.
#STPcWbX]!#W^dab
he Ministry of Consumer
T Affairs, Food and Public
Distribution has written to the
Food and Civil Supplies
Department of the Delhi
Government, asking it to take
steps to fulfil key provisions of
the National Food Security Act
(NFSA) 2013. As it would enable
transparent distribution of food
grains under both NFSA and
‘Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan
Anna Yojana’ (PMGKAY) to all
the beneficiaries in Delhi includ-
ing the migrants through One
Nation One Ration Card
(ONORC) plan.
“The NFSA came into
force on July 5, 2013 and the
Delhi Government had adopt-
ed the act from October 2013.
However, compliance of the
some key provisions/sections of
the Act remains pending in
Delhi till date section 12, 28
and 38 of the act,” the letter
reads.
DK Gupta, Director (PD)
further said in the letter that
section 12 of the NFSA states
that the Central and State
Government shall endeavor to
progressively undertake nec-
essary reforms in the ‘Targeted
Public Distribution System’
(TPDS) that include doorstep
delivery of food grains to the
TPDS outlets, application of
information and communica-
end-to-end computerization
in order to ensure transparent
recording of transactions at all
levels and to prevent diversion,
leveraging "Aadhaar" for
unique identification, with bio-
metric information of entitled
beneficiaries for proper target-
ing of benefits under this act
and full transparency of
records.
“We have been continu-
ously pursuing the implemen-
tation of ePoS distribution of
food grains from all FPSs of
Delhi for the last three years.
More than 12 letters/DOs have
been written to the Delhi
Government from all levels.
However, the distribution of
food grains in Delhi is still being
done using old/manual register-
based mechanisms,” he said.
Further, this non-compli-
ance is also blocking the imple-
mentation of One ‘ONORC’ for
numerous migrant beneficia-
ries in the National Capital, he
added.
Gupta further said that
section 28 of the act states that
every local authority as may be
authorized by the State
Government shall conduct
periodic social audits on the
functioning of Fair Price Shops,
TPDS and other welfare
schemes, and cause to publicise
its findings and take necessary
action in this regard. However,
in place any such machinery
and no social audits are being
conducted.
The Delhi Government
has not set up vigilance com-
mittees at the FPS level which
is the most important level for
monitoring implementation of
NFSA at the grass root levels.
Gupta further stated that
directions were issued to all
State Governments under
Section 38 of the Act to main-
tain data on NFSA beneficiaries
under the Scheduled Caste
(SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST)
category.
“Since all the ministries are
mandated to allocate a certain
proportion of their fund allo-
cation towards SC/ST welfare,
data on the same is now
required to be maintained to
ascertain that the benefits of the
Act are reaching these vulner-
able Sections. The Government
of Delhi in this case seems to
be insensitive to needs and
rights of this vulnerable section
of the society and to ensure that
the benefits mandated under
the Act are reaching them,” he
said in the letter.
The ministry has directed
the Delhi Government to ful-
fil the pending obligations of
Section-12 of the NFSA imme-
diately and compliance to this
effect may be sent back by 30th
June 2021.
BC055A4?>AC4AQ =4F34;78
he national Capital record-
T ed 165 fresh Covid-19 cases
and 14 more fatalities on Friday
while the positivity rate further
dipped to 0.22 per cent.
With 165 new cases, the
total number of active cases in
the city reached 2,445 of which
698 are in home isolation,
according to data shared by the
health department.
According to the bulletin,
the city has reported more
than 14 lakh cases till now. A
total of 76480 tests, including
53724 RT-PCR tests, were con-
ducted a day ago, the bulletin
said.
In order to deal with the
“possible” third wave of Covid-
19, the Delhi Government has
speeded up revamping several
existing hospitals to increase
the number of beds and also
building new hospitals.
Delhi currently has suffi-
cient stock of coronavirus vac-
cines for inoculation of bene-
ficiaries in the 45-plus as well
as 18-44 age groups for over a
week, AAP MLA Atishi said on
Wednesday. Issuing the daily
vaccination bulletin, the MLA
from Kalkaji said as of
Thursday, Delhi has 7,44,000
doses available for people in the
45-plus category, and approx-
imately 2,34,000 for those in
the 18-44 category.
"So for the 45-plus catego-
ry, we have enough stock of
Covaxin and Covishield to last
for seven days and 42 days
respectively. For the 18-44 cat-
egory, six days and 10 days
worth of Covaxin and
Covishield stock is available
respectively, she said. "As on
today, Delhi has sufficient stock
of vaccines, she added.
Delhi Chief Minister
Arvind Kejriwal had also
announced plans to create a
buffer stock of important med-
icines besides other initiatives
to deal with the ‘possible’ fur-
ther outbreak..

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elhi Deputy Chief

Till now, irrespective of the
accolades they win in sports,
sportspersons need to choose
tion of various sports,'' he
said.
The minister said through

BC055A4?>AC4AQ 6DAD6A0< Dr Karan Juneja said we junior doc-

eeping in view the increasing cases of
K violence against doctors in various
parts of India, a group of Indian Medical
Association (IMA), Gurugram, staged a
protest and demanded Central Protection
Act for health workers here.
Dr Vandana Narula, President IMA
Gurugram, on Friday said we demand a
zero tolerance on violence against health
workers.
"Around 1,500 doctors have died in
Covid pandemic and it is now time for a
Central Protection Act for health workers
so that anyone who attacks a doctor or
breaks property in a hospital will be arrest-
ed under non bailable charges," she said.
Doctors from IMA Gurugram wore
black masks and during the protest in
leisure valley park and created awareness
about the situation of doctors in India.
Dr Sarika Verma IMA Gurugram
secretary said 88% doctors are afraid of
violence at their workplace and every
death becomes a cause of stress in the
hospital.
"No one can ensure all patients will
remain alive and it is important to under-
stand that doctors are doing a very diffi-
cult job. There is no role for violence in a
civilised society," Verma said.
tors have spent 15 months wearing PPE
kits and working in Covid duty when even
patients own family members would not
look after their patients. Nurses, cleaners,
technicians, ambulance workers and junior
doctors looked after patients till their last
breath. Whenever one doctor gets hit, it
impacts the mental health of doctors all
over the country.
"Several doctors are hesitant to make
their children doctors because of fear of
assault inside hospitals. This violence has
gone on too long and has to end now," said
a doctor.
IMA members also submitted a mem-
orandum to the Prime Minister via DC
Gurugram asking for Central Protection
Act to be made. Doctors in Gurugram
wore black masks and black armbands in
their hospitals on Friday.
D Minister Manish Sisodia
on Friday reviewed the
progress of Delhi Sports
University (DSU) and said the
university have world-class
facilities and will provide train-
ing to students who want to
become sports professionals
and participate in Olympics.
'The Delhi Spor ts
University shall be a unique
institution in the world of
sports, and shall confer
degrees up to the PhD level.
another discipline to get an
academic degree. Otherwise,
applying for a job becomes
difficult. Now, sportspersons
will not need a degree in any
other discipline,'' Sisodia said
in the review meeting.''
They shall be conferred
degrees based on their sporting
performance. A team of the uni-
versity shall decide on the course
structures, after due considera-
Delhi Sports University, the
Government's aim is to train
players who will bring home 50
gold medals from the
Olympics. ‘The university shall
make India proud in the field
of sports, globally. It shall nur-
ture players to showcase India's
sporting potential at interna-
tional tournaments and bring
umpteen medals to the coun-
try,'' he added.
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autioning that coronavirus
C is “present and the possi-
bility of mutati on is also there”,
Prime Minister Narendra Modi
on Friday said India needs to
stay prepared to meet the chal-
lenges and training one lakh
frontline workers is a step in
that direction.
Launching the ‘Customised
Crash Course programme for
Covid-19 frontline workers’,
Modi said the second wave of
the pandemic illustrated the
kind of challenges that the
virus may present to us.
The Prime Minister
informed that the top experts
of the country have designed
B^]XP[XZT[hc^X]cTaeT]T
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ith the deadlock in
W Rajasthan politics con-
tinuing, Congress president
Sonia Gandhi is now likely to
intervene in the year-long polit-
ical feud between Rajasthan
Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot
and rebel leader Sachin Pilot.
This even as Congress General
Secretary Incharge of Rajasthan
affairs Ajay Maken sought to
dispel rumours that no leader
from the party high command
was talking to Pilot to placate
him. Maken asserted that
Congress General Secretary
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has
been speaking to Pilot.
Sonia’s intervention, sources
said, has been necessitated as
Gehlot is playing the hard ball
and has made himself unavail-
able on health grounds for the
next two months to delay the
entire process of inducting
Pilot’s loyalists in his council of
ministers. More so, since
Gehlot’s stance came despite the
party high command assuring
Pilot of meeting his demands
and asking the Chief Minister to
go for his Cabinet expansion at
the earliest.
Maken said Pilot is a senior
leader of the Congress and that
it is impossible he will not get
any appointment from any
leaders of the party as the for-
mer Union Minister is a big
asset for the grand old party
and always star campaigner.
“Priyanka has not been in
Delhi for the last 10 days but
she has been constantly talking
to Pilot. AICC General
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o improve the medical sup-
T ply chain in remote areas
having tough terrain and no
road connectivity, a trial of
beyond visual line of sight
(BVLOS) was started on Friday
in Gauribidanur district near
Bengaluru in Karnataka to
provide medicines to patients
via drones. If the 45-day pilot
study from June 21 yields
results, then like America and
China and other advanced
countries, Karnataka will also
supply emergency medicines
via drones.
A similar pilot project is
being launched in Telangana
on June-21-22. The purpose of
these drones is to achieve faster
vaccine delivery straight to cit-
izens' doorsteps and improve
healthcare access.
The consortium of firms
these six courses as per
demands of the states and
union territories. This training
should be over in two-three
months, he said
The training will be
imparted to Covid warriors in
six customised job roles name-
ly Home Care Support, Basic
Care Support, Advanced Care
Support, Emergency Care
Support, Sample Collection
Support, and Medical
Equipment Support. This will
include fresh skilling as well as
upskilling of those who have
some training in this type of
work. This campaign will give
fresh energy to the health sec-
tor frontline force and will
also provide job opportunities
Secretary Organisation K C
Venugopal and I have also
been engaged with Pilot,”
Maken said at the backdrop of
reports about Pilot failing to
meet Priyanka during his visit
to national Capital last week-
end.
Asked about the demand of
the Pilot camp for an expansion
of the State cabinet and polit-
ical appointments, Maken said
discussions are on with the
Chief Minister, State Congress
president Govind Singh
Dotasara, Vidhan Sabha
Speaker CP Joshi, Pilot and the
cabinet ministers. He said the
interests of all groups and sec-
tions of the society will be kept
in mind while executing
changes in the cabinet and
carrying out political appoint-
ments.
As attacks and counter-
attacks between the Gehlot
and Pilot camps have placed
the differences within the
Rajasthan Congress out in the
open, the AICC General
Secretary advised the MLAs
against making public com-
ments.
Maken's statement gains
significance in the backdrop of
Pilot and his loyalists making
their restlessness evident with
regard to promises made to
them by the party high com-
mand.
Among the expectations of
the Pilot camp is adequate
representation in the Gehlot
cabinet and appointments in
boards and corporations,
besides being prominently
placed in the organisation.
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led by Bengaluru’s Throttle
Aerospace System (TAS) had
got Directorate General of Civil
Aviation (DGCA) approval for
object delivery experiments as
early as March 2020.
As per the blue print of the
pilot project, a patient and his
family has to raise the request
on software developed by TAS.
After examining the claims, the
medicines will be loaded into
to our youth.
The Prime Minister said
that the Corona period has
proved how important the
mantra of skill, re-skill and up-
skill.
Modi said that the pro-
gramme would be available at
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aking cognisance of inci-
T dents of violence and
attacks against doctors and
health staff from various parts
of the country, the Union
Health Ministry on Friday
6-(0LQLVWU\RSHQVFURVVGLVDELOLW\HDUO\LQWHUYHQWLRQFHQWUHV
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ith an aim to provide
W support to infants and
young children at risk of or
with disabilities, the Union
Social Justice and
Empowerment (SJE) Ministry
has launched 14 cross disabil-
ity early intervention centres
across the country.
SJE Minister
Thaawarchand Gehlot virtual-
ly inaugurated the centres
recently that are located at
seven national institutes and
seven composite regional cen-
tres of the Department of
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VQb]\QgccQic7_fdbUQTi
he Enforcement Directorate (ED) has issued an order under Prevention
T of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) against one Subrahmanya Srinivas
Pinninti, freezing his investments worth Rs 88 lakh made in India out of
the proceeds of crime acquired in Qatar.
The freezing order was passed after search action under PMLA which
was initiated following a Letter Rogatory (judicial request) received from
the Embassy of Qatar here. Money laundering investigation by ED revealed
that Pinninti had transferred suspected funds from his Doha National Bank
account to his Indian bank accounts with Axis Bank and HDFC Bank.
“The money trail revealed that he has invested Rs 45 lakh out of these
funds in various mutual funds in the name of his wife and self. And he also
acquired a few landed properties,” the agency said in a statement.
On Tuesday, the ED had conducted a search operation at Pinninti’s res-
idence in Seethammadhara, Visakhapatnam and it was found that he had
acquired three residential plots in his name in Vizianagaram and
Visakhapatnam districts, Andhra Pradesh. The current guidance value of
the three plots is approximately Rs 43 lakh, the agency said.
the drones by the hospital. 4G
technology is used in operating
the drone. This drone can fly
and manage to avoid trees,
buildings and towers. It can
also withstand gusty winds
and reach the desired location.
The drones, named
MedCopter, come in two vari-
ants for medical purposes. A
1kg weight MedCopter can fly
up to 15kms to deliver medi-
cines whereas a 2kg weight
drone will cover 12kms at
40km speed. As per Director
General of Civil Aviation
(DGCA) rules, 100 hours of
accident-free delivery should
be recorded for go ahead, and
for that purpose, every day, the
drone will fly for 6 to 7 hours.
The TAS is planning to cover
125 hours and submit the
report for review.
During the pilot study, the
authorities will examine what
111 training centers across 26
states in the country. The
Union Minister of Skill
Development and
Entrepreneurship Mahendra
Nath Pandey was also present
during the launch.
This course is designed
under the Central Component
of Pradhan Mantri Kaushal
Vikas Yojana 3.0 and the total
sanctioned amount for this
programme is C276 crore.
The Prime Minister
reminded us that the pandem-
ic has tested the strength of
every country, institution, soci-
ety, family and person of the
world. At the same time, this
alerted us to expand our capa-
bilities as science, government,
asked all States and Union
Territories to review in detail
and ensure prompt steps for the
safety and wellbeing of health-
care workers while strictly
implementing the amended
Epidemic Disease Act.
“Healthcare workers are
the most crucial resources in
Covid-19 management on all
fronts,” said Joint Secretary in
the Union Health Ministry
Lav Agarwal in a letter to
additional chief secretaries,
principal secretaries and health
secretaries of all states and
Union Territories.
The Government move
came after a series of protests
by the medical fraternity led by
the Indian Medical
Community and other doctors
associations like FAIMA
against the attack on their col-
leagues by the relatives of the
patients.
“Our endeavours to man-
age Covid-19 are replete with
examples of commitment by
our healthcare workers at all
levels. While the country at
large has applauded the efforts
of the health fraternity, there
Empowerment of Persons with
Disabilities (DEPwD).
Through the centres, which
have been started as a pilot,
Andhra Pradesh, Bihar,
Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Himachal
Pradesh, Kerala, Madhya
Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha,
Tamil Nadu, Telangana,
Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh
and West Bengal are covered.
All its 21 composite regional
centres would have early inter-
vention centres gradually, said
an official from the DEPwD.
“Research studies suggest
that early childhood [0-6 years]
is a time of remarkable brain
kind of medicines can be sent,
the challenges and the feasi-
bility of the system.
According to officials,
drones will cost only Rs 500-
600 to deliver vaccines or goods
at a distance of 30 km in just
20-30 minutes. In India, a
number of places have no road
connectivity. During monsoon,
bikes or cycles are being used
to deliver medicines or vaccines
in remote areas. With the use
of drones, medical aids could
be provided much faster
In Telangana, E-commerce
major Flipkart has partnered
with the government to lead a
consortium tasked with the
development and execution of
the drone deliveries of medical
supplies to remote areas under
the 'Medicines from the Sky'
project. As part of the consor-
tium, Walmart-owned Flipkart
will deploy drones and enable
society, institution or individ-
uals, he said adding India took
up this challenge and status of
PPE kits, testing and other
medical infrastructure related
to covid care and treatment
bears testimony to the efforts.
Modi pointed out that far-
flung hospitals are being pro-
vided with ventilators and oxy-
gen concentrators. More than
1,500 oxygen plants are being
established at war footing.
Amidst all these efforts,
skilled manpower is critical.
For this and to support the cur-
rent force of corona warriors
one lakh youth is being trained.
This training should be over in
two-three months, said the
Prime Minister.
were examples of them being
stigmatized and even violence
resorted to against healthcare
workers,” Agarwal pointed out.
Recently, there have been
reports of physical violence
against doctors, healthcare
workers and other profession-
als particularly from Assam,
West Bengal and Karnataka,
Agarwal said.
“Such incidents impact the
morale of our healthcare work-
force who have shown exem-
plary commitment against all
odds in COVID-19 manage-
ment.
“Considering the impor-
tance of the issue, it is request-
ed that all states may undertake
a detailed review and ensure
that prompt and necessary
steps are taken for healthcare
workers safety and wellbeing
besides strict implementation
of the amended Epidemic
Disease Act,” he said.
The Centre had brought an
ordinance and later notified it
as an act, under which violence
against healthcare personnel is
a non-bailable and cognisable
offence.
development… Early inter-
vention can provide specialised
support and services for infants
and young children at-risk or
with disability and/or devel-
opmental delay and for their
families to help them in their
overall development, well-
being and participation in fam-
ily and community life,” said
Gehlot.
Minister Gehlot further
said that there is a need to iden-
tify children with disabilities or
infants who are at risk of devel-
oping a disability, and provide
them early assistance, so as to
ensure optimal development of
d_bUce]UdQ\[c_^`b_fYcY_^c
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nion Agriculture Minister Narendra
U Singh Tomar on Friday ruled out
repealing the three new farm laws but said
the Government is ready to resume
talks with protesting farmer unions on
provisions of the legislations.
“Government of India is ready for talks
with farmers. Except for repeal, if any
farmers' union wants to talk on provisions
of the Act even at midnight, Narendra
Singh Tomar will welcome it,” the agri-
culture minister said in a video posted on
his Twitter account.
The government and unions have
deliveries of vaccines and med-
ical supplies.
Across the world, drones
have been delivering medical
goods for several years now,
with charity Doctors Without
Borders (MSF) testing them
during a tuberculosis outbreak
in Papua New Guinea in 2014,
and to help tackle Ebola in
Liberia. Five years ago, in 2016,
a nationwide drone delivery
programme for medical sup-
plies was launched in Rwanda.
In March 2021, the world’s first
drone delivery of Covid-19
vaccines took place in Ghana.
During the coronavirus pan-
demic, Zipline drones have
also been dropping off
AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vac-
cines in Ghana, and will soon
start delivering them in
Rwanda and the United States,
with Nigeria also planned for
later this year.
QHFHVVLW\VD\V2P%LUOD
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escribing the new
D Parliament building as a
“necessity”, Lok Sabha Speaker
Om Birla on Friday said no
lawmaker had raised an objec-
tion when a request for it was
made by both the Houses —
Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha —
to the Centre. He regretted that
some of the MPs were object-
ing to it now.
About MPs from
Opposition parties including
former Congress chief Rahul
Gandhi opposing the project,
Birla said it was both the Lok
Sabha and Rajya Sabha which
had requested the Central
Government for a new parlia-
ment building. “When the
request for a new parliament
building was made by both the
houses, no MP had objected to
it. No one has approached me
opposing it,” Birla said.
Opposition parties and the
BJP are engaged in a political
slugfest over the construction
of the new building. The oppo-
sition parties say the project
should be stopped to save
funds for management of the
Covid-19 pandemic.
Birla said the construction
activities are going on at a good
pace and is presently running
16 days behind the scheduled
completion date October 2022.
“We were (initially) 27 days
ahead of schedule. But after the
outbreak of the Covid-19 pan-
demic (second wave), the con-
struction is now 16 days behind
schedule,” Birla said during
the special offline media brief-
the child.
“In 2022, we are also work-
ing towards setting up such
centers in all CRCs. As a result
of which the facility of Cross
Disability-Early Intervention
Centers will be available in
about 25 States and Union
Territories,” the Minister said.
Screening of children and
referral to appropriate rehabil-
itative care; speech therapy,
occupational therapy and phys-
iotherapy; parental counselling
and training and peer coun-
seling are among various ser-
vices being provided at these
Centres.
held 11 rounds of talks, the last being on
January 22, to break the deadlock and end
the farmers' protest. Talks have not
resumed following widespread violence
during a tractor rally by protesting farm-
ers on January 26.
Thousands of farmers, mainly from
Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar
Pradesh, have been camping at Delhi's
borders for more than six months in
protest against the three laws that they say
will end state procurement of crops at
MSP. The Supreme Court has put on hold
the implementation of the three laws till
further orders and set up a committee to
find solutions.
/RN6DEKDSROOV
?=BQ =4F34;78
he Election Commission
T (EC) has brought out an atlas
on the 2019 Lok Sabha polls
which carries all the data and sta-
tistical figures of the massive
electoral exercise. The atlas also
shares interesting facts, anecdotes
and legal provisions related to the
Indian elections.
The atlas, which has 42 the-
matic maps and 90 tables depict-
ing various facets of the election,
was released on June 15 by
Chief Election Commissioner
Sushil Chandra and Election
Commissioners Rajiv Kumar
and Anup Chandra Pandey.
Since the first Lok Sabha
elections in 1951-52, the com-
mission has been publishing
compilations of electoral data in
the form of narrative and statis-
]PcX^]#
ing at Parliament Annexe to
count on his two years in the
office as Speaker.
Birla said the existing
building cannot be expanded
and does not cater to the needs
of changing times. “The exist-
ing building is a historical one.
Many historic decisions were
taken in this building. But it
cannot be expanded further
and therefore a new building is
a necessity,” he said.
Birla mentioned the new-
age green building is being built
at a cost of about C900 crore.
“We have been saving money in
Parliament workings and over
C400 crore has been saved so
far in two years by cost cutting
measures,” he said.
On the Lok Sabha produc-
tivity ever since he assumed
charge in the current Lok
Sabha, he said the lower house
has operated at 122 percent
productivity. “107 bills have
been passed,” he said. Birla said
that legislative business has
increased and discussions have
lasted longer than the sched-
uled time over the years. “A his-
toric number of issues have
been raised in the House and
Secretary, DEPwD, Anjali
Bhawra explained that disabil-
ity in children is a matter of
serious concern. According to
the 2011 Census, there are
more than 20 lakh children
with disabilities in the age
group of 0-6 years, who belong
to the categories of visually
impaired, hearing impaired,
locomotor disability etc. “This
means that around 7 percent of
children in this age group suf-
fer from some form of disabil-
ity. These are expected to
increase with the enactment of
the Rights of Persons with
Disabilities Act 2016, as there
tical books.
The 17th Lok Sabha polls
conducted in 2019 was the
largest democratic exercise in
human history which witnessed
the participation of 61.468 crore
voters at 10.378 lakh polling sta-
tions spread over 32 lakh square
kilometre territory of India, it
said. In Indian elections, electoral
data is primarily collected dur-
ing the preparation of electoral
rolls by electoral registration
officers and also in the process
of the conduct of the polls by
returning officers.
This data is then collated by
these statutory authorities. After
the culmination of the electoral
process, the Election
Commission collects the elec-
toral data and prepares various
reports for compilation, record
and dissemination purposes.
3Xb_dcTX]_PachXbbdT
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peaking on the faction
S(LJP),
war in Lok Janshakti Party
Lok Sabha Speaker
Om Birla said a dispute in the
party is an issue out of the
purview of the Speaker’s
office. “Their Parliament
leader, the chief whip, filed a
plea that five members have
elected a leader. We record-
ed the change. We don’t look
at who the president of the
party is. They stay with LJP.
We can’t act till a petition is
received under the anti-
defection law and is dis-
posed of,” Birla said.
90% of them were replied to by
the ministers. In these two
years, on one day, 161 members
raised issues of public concern,”
said Birla. On the occasion he
mentioned that 440 Lok Sabha
MPs have informed the Lok
Sabha that they have taken
Covid vaccines.
are now 21 categories in the
disability category instead of 7,”
she added.
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he Congress on Friday
T demanded that the Gov-
ernment make a full disclosure
of the nature of black money
and names of the individuals
who have stashed it in Swiss
banks, and asked it to bring a
white paper on how much of
it has been brought back to the
country in the last seven years.
Congress spokesperson
Gourav Vallabh said the gov-
ernment should also come
out with a complete list of
measures that it has under-
taken to check the stashing of
black money in foreign banks.
The demand came after
Switzerland's national bank -
— Swiss National Bank —
released data of funds parked
in Swiss banks that showed
that deposits by Indians
increased to 286 per cent in
2020, the highest in the last 13
years. Congress's chief
spokesperson Randeep
Surjewala also demanded
answers from Prime Minister
Narendra Modi on his
promise to bring back black
money and shared a video of
the PM before he assumed
power. “Money deposited in
Swiss banks is now Rs 20,700
crore. 286 per cent increase
between the year 2019-20,
the maximum money in Swiss
banks in last 13 years. “Modiji
please reply -- What hap-
pened to the promise to bring
back black money in three
years? It's been seven years
now. Is there no will power or
money belongs to friends?” he
asked on Twitter.
Vallabh said the divide
between the rich and the poor
has widened in the country
under the Modi government
as this disclosure comes at a
time when the Centre for
Monitoring Indian Economy
(CMIE) says close to 97 per
cent Indians became poorer
during the last year and on the
other hand, the data of funds
in Swiss banks for 2020 shows
another side.
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n a bizarre development, the
IFriday
Trinamool Congress on
sought the transfer of a
case related to Chief Minister
Mamata Banerjee’s election from
a designated Calcutta High
Court judge’s bench mentioning
his past alleged saffron leanings
and speculating over his “pos-
sible” neutrality while passing a
judgment in the case.
Posting a picture where the
said Judge is seen attending a
BJP meeting as a former advo-
cate of the Calcutta High Court
TMC Rajya Sabha MP Derek
O’Brien tweeted, “Who is that
person ‘circled’ in both pics? Is
he Justice … of Calcutta High
Court? Has he been assigned to
hear the Nandigram election
case? Can the judiciary sink any
lower?,” letting a large number
of legal luminaries from Kolkata
to wonder whether the Bengal
ruling party leaders knew “ABC
of how the judiciary runs,” and
whether “the corridors of judi-
ciary should be kept away from
dirty politics.”
$PLW6KDKUHYLHZVGHYHORSPHQWSURMHFWVLQ- . 3XYbQWQ``b_QSXUc
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nion Home Minister Amit
U Shah on Friday reviewed
various development projects of
Jammu & Kashmir here with a
high-level team comprising Lt.
Governor Manoj Sinha and top
officials of Central and the
Union Territory. The Home
Minister appreciated the 90
percent reach of the Central
Government's schemes in J&K
and congratulated the
Lieutenant Governor and his
team for the Covid-19 vaccina-
tion drive with 76 percent cov-
erage in Jammu & Kashmir and
100 percent in four districts.
“The Home Minister
impressed upon speedy com-
pletion of the Prime Minister's
development package, flagship
and iconic projects and indus-
trial development projects. The
Union Home Minister directed
to ensure the benefits of the
refugee package to all the
refugees from PoJK, West
Pakistan and those who had to
.HUDOD
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he widely publicised Semi
T High Speed Silver Line
Project of the Kerala
Government that proposed to
connect Thiruvananthapuram
in the south with Kasaragod in
the north in four hours has
come under the scanner fol-
lowing reservations expressed
by eminent technocrats like E
Sreedharan, former head of
Metro Rail and environmental
experts like C R Neelakantan.
The Left Democratic
Front-led Government claims
that the state-of-the-art railway
line would change the eco-
nomical and social life of
Kerala once the Silver Line
Project to be executed at a cost
of Rs 63, 940 crore. The yet to
be named Silver Line Express
would traverse the 529.45 km
distance in four hours chugging
at a speed of 200 km per hour.
There are 11 stations, out of
21B4 STeT[^_X]V_^acP[c^
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he CBSE on Friday issued
T a notification to all the
school principals regarding the
Information Technology sys-
tem being developed in-house
to aid them.
“This system will ease
down the calculation work,
reduce time taken and so many
other hassles. This system will
also pre-populate the marks of
Class X of the students passed
from CBSE. Efforts will also be
made to take other Boards’
Class X data,” said the notifi-
cation. The portal to check and
update Class 10 results for all
students will be available from
Monday, while other software
modules for the other compo-
nents will be provided after
that.
According to the tabulation
policy, schools have been asked
to form their Results
Committees by June 23, and
upload all marks — including
Class 11 theory scores and
Class 12 unit tests and pre-
board scores — by July 15. The
final results will be declared by
The Chief Minister had on
Thursday filed a petition in the
Calcutta High Court challeng-
ing the election of Opposition
Leader Suvendu Adhikari from
Nandigram seat from where he
defeated Banerjee by a wafer-
thin margin of 1,900 votes.
In her petition the Chief
Minister doubted the neutrali-
ty of Election Commission offi-
cials in letting Adhikari go off
with the victory badge. Earlier
she had claimed that an EC offi-
cial was coerced by Adhikari’s
men to fudge the counting
process and declare him the
winner.
TMC spokesperson Kunal
Ghosh went a step ahead of
O’Brien demanding the transfer
of the case from the said Judge’s
bench. “We do not have any-
thing personal against the hon-
ourable Judge … but as things
stand today and going by his
past political affiliations we are
sufficiently apprehensive of the
fate of the case … In such a case
the honourable judge should by
himself release the case from his
court or the case should be
53S\QY]Y^Wd_RU<:@
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migrate from Kashmir to
Jammu at the earliest,” said
MHA in a statement.
National Security Advisor
Ajit Doval, Union Home
Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla,
Intelligence Bureau Chief
Arvind Kumar, R&AW Chief
Samant Goel, CRPF Chief
Kudiep Singh and J&K DGP
Dilbagh also attended the high
level meeting.
Shah asked for the comple-
which three are to be built on
elevated platforms, one to be
underground and the remain-
ing ones to be in ground level.
All these points are music
to the ears while the Kerala
Government has kept a studied
silence on the economic, eco-
logical, environmental and
social impacts the stand-alone
rail route would cause, points
out C R Neelakantan, an engi-
neer-turned-environmentalist.
John Peruvananthanam,
noted environmentalist, told
The Pioneer that he shudders
at the thought of the ecologi-
cal and environmental disasters
waiting to happen in the State
once the Government moves
ahead with the construction.
The project requires 1,383
hectare land for completion of
the rail route. Neelakantan said
that out of the total land
required, 1,200 hectare land
was with private people. “The
land acquisition would dis-
the CBSE on July 31. The
Board will not publish any
merit list of the top 0.1% of stu-
dents this year, nor will it issue
merit certificates.
The Centre had on
Thursday announced the cri-
teria for the cancelled class 12
CBSE Board exams by adopt-
ing a 30:30:40 formula for
evaluation of marks based on
the results of class 10, 11 and
12 respectively. The results will
be declared by July end.
The Government informed
the Supreme Court that 30 per
cent marks will be based on
class 10 board exam, another
30 per cent from class 11 and
40 per cent marks based on the
performance in the unit, mid-
term and pre-board tests of
class 12.
The Supreme Court
accepted the formula of CBSE
and CISCE to evaluate the
Class 12 students, whose board
examinations were cancelled
due to the Covid-19 pandem-
ic. CISCE has though formed
a different criteria to evaluate
the marking system of the class
12 students.
transferred to some other judge’s
bench.” Before he took up his
present assignment the stated
judge had been the additional
solicitor general of India.
Meanwhile, the hearing of
the case was deferred till next
Thursday.
Reacting to the TMC’s alle-
gation senior advocates of the
High Court including Bikash
Ranjan Bhattacharya, a CPI(M)
Rajya Sabha member said “if the
picture referred to pre-dates
the judge’s appointment as a
judicial officer then there is no
reason to question his neutral-
ity … legally the demand to
remove the case from his court
holds any water.”
Reacting to the issue Bengal
BJP president Dilip Ghosh said
“the question that is being raised
by the Trinamool Congress can
also be raised when you talk of
other such constitutional posts
as the Speaker of a House … can
you legally challenge the neu-
trality of the Speaker … this is
simply making a fuss by deni-
grating the status and prestige of
the judiciary.”
?C8
tion of many other development
schemes including the Prime
Minister's Development
Package, industrial develop-
ment projects at a fast pace. He
also directed starting the 3000
MW Pakal Dul and Keeru
hydroelectric projects and fast
tracking other 3300 MW pro-
jects. “For strengthening of
Panchayati Raj Institutions and
Urban Local Bodies, Shah
directed officials to immediate-
place 25,000 to 35,000 people
from their land. Where will
they go? Does the government
have alternative arrangements
to rehabilitate and resettle these
people in this land starved
State?” asks Neelakantan.
John adds that the 1,200
hectare land to be acquired
belong to minimal, small and
medium farmers. “The unique-
ness of this land is that it is fer-
tile where farming operations
could be held round-the year.
While the Government takes
over the land, it is robbing the
poor farmers of their liveli-
hood. The Government will
not be able to offer them fer-
tile land in return for the land
which is acquired,” said John.
The project in its current
form would destroy 135 km
long ever green farm land in
three districts of Alappauzha,
Kottayam, Pathanamthitta and
part of Kollam district, point-
ed out John and Neelakantan.
EXbXc^abPccWT6PcTfPh^U8]SXPX]<d\QPX^]5aXSPh
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T he BJP on Friday petitioned Bengal Assembly Speaker upreme Court Judge Justice iving a fresh impetus to the
Biman Banerjee seeking the disqualification of Trinamool SIndira Banerjee on Friday Grecruitment process which
Congress leader Mukul Roy as a member of the State recused from hearing a plea had slowed down in wake of
Assembly because he had defected to the TMC after win-
ning his seat from the Krishnagar North seat on a saffron
ticket. State Opposition Leader Suvendu Adhikari submit-
ted the petition to the
Speaker --- through party MLA Manoj Tigga --- seek-
ing the disqualification of Roy under anti-defection laws.
In the petition Adhikari sought the disqualification Roy,
and wrote “I request you to dispose of the same (case) as soon
as possible…” Roy a former BJP national vice president who
crossed over to that party from the TMC (an outfit he co-
founded with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee) in 2017. In
2021 Assembly elections Roy won the Krishnagar
North Assembly seat on BJP ticket and within a few days
of the elections he defected to the Trinamool Congress before
being appointedits national vice president.
Earlier attacking the TMC he said “the Trinamool can-
not get away with by engineering such defections because I
know how to get the anti-defection laws implemented… if
the Speaker does not take a decision then we will move the
court to get justice.” He had also said, “Todna-Jodna (break-
ing and joining) is part of TMC’s dirty politics. They have
been doing this for the past 10 years and nobody opposed
it. But it is being opposed now and action will be taken under
the anti-defection law… We will get this law implemented
… and whosoever wants to change parties is free to do so
but before that one should resign the post of MLA.
New Delhi: A five-member
delegation, led by Chirag
Paswan, on Friday, met
Election Commission officials
and claimed the party symbol
saying he was elected as party
chief in 2019 for a period of five
years.
Talking about his meeting
with the EC officials, he said he
requested them to allow him
ly organize training for the 'another chance' so that he can
members, making proper sitting produce all the documents that
arrangements for them and they need to ascertain his posi-
providing equipment and other tion as the party president in
resources to the personnel for the parliament.
smooth functioning of these Chirag said they apprised
bodies. the EC that in 2019 he was
Along with this, he also elected the national president
directed the Panchayat mem- of the LJP and the national
bers to visit various parts of the executive has passed the reso-
country, so that they can get lution for the same. Chirag said,
information about the working "I was elected as LJP President
of developed Panchayats of the for a period of five years and
country,” said the statement. after every five years, the elec-
The 135 km stretch of the
rail passes through Thrissur,
State Government hurriedly
pushing the semi speed Silver
Palakkadu and Malappuram Line Project, for political gains,
districts and this too would
lead to the destruction of envi-
is a misadventure. The align-
ment chosen is flawed and not
ronment and ecology, said
Neelakantan. John says the 70
km long mangrove (popularly
accepted by the Railways.
Railways have not approved the
technical parameters. Its cost
known as kandal kaadu) which has been brutally suppressed.
saves northern Kerala from More than 25,000 families will
soil and sea erosion too would be displaced. In its present
be chopped away to facilitate form the Railway Board will
the constriction of the high not clear this project. I find no
speed railway. “No social and future for the Silver Line
ecological impact has been Project,” Dr Sreedharan told
held by the Kerala Government The Pioneer much before he
till date . An agency with dubi- contested the last assembly
ous track record was entrusted election.
with the task of completing the There are more issues for
ecological impact. The people which the State Government
are not convinced with the owes the people explanations
assessment made by this body,” and reasoning, said
said Neelakantan. Neelakantan. He said the pro-
Dr Sreedharan, who could ject has begun just now and he
be regarded as India’s last word along with others would come
on railway projects is of the out with disclosures about the
view that the Silver Line Rail unviability of the Silver Line on
Project is a misadventure. “The another occasion.
0XPEDLFRSVDUUHVWSHUVRQV
IRUYD[IUDXGLQ+6* VRFLHW\
C=A067D=0C70Q <D<108
he Mumbai police on
T Friday arrested five persons
for allegedly defrauding a city
housing society and fleecing
money from its residents while
organising a Covid-19 vacci-
nation camp on its premises on
May 30.
Three days after the resi-
dents of Hiranandani Heritage
Society alleged a fraud in the
vaccination camp held by a pri-
vate agency in their housing
society, the police arrested five
persons –identified as
Mahendra Kuldeep Singh (39),
Sanjay Gupta (25), Chandan
Singh (32), Karim Akber Ali
(21) and Nitin More (32) in
connection with the alleged
fraud.
Confirming the arrests,
Additional Police
Commissioner (Mumbai
North) Dilip Sawant said that
the organisers had not taken
any permission from the
?C8 Brihanmumbai Municipal
?>;;A4;0C43E8>;4=24
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filed by the kin of two BJP
workers, who were killed in
poll related violence on May 2
in West Bengal, seeking court
monitored probe and
transfer of cases to CBI or
Special Investigation Team
(SIT).
As soon as the matter was
taken up Justice Indira
Banerjee said, “I have
some difficulty in hearing this
matter. Let this matter be list-
ed before another
bench”.
The vacation bench also
comprising Justice M R Shah
ordered, “List the matter before
another bench in which Justice
Banerjee is not part”. Justice
Banerjee started her career
from Kolkata High Court
thought of rescuing from the
politically sensitive case from
her home state, said many
legal experts.
tion for the party chief is held."
“Before me, the party
founder Ram Vilas Paswan
was the party President and his
tenure was till 2020, but due to
his health issues he stepped
down from the post as he was
also having responsibilities as
an Union Minister.
"Thus he resigned from
the post and the national exec-
utive gave me the charge of
party chief," Chirag said,
adding that he apprised the poll
panel about the same.
Chirag said they apprised
the Commission that 10 peo-
ple, including five MPs have
been suspended from the party.
Refuting Chirag, his uncle,
Pashupati Paras, however,
claimed his election as the
new LJP president was com-
pletely valid as per the party's
constitution. PNS
C=A067D=0C70Q <D<108
he Covid-19 infections
T dropped marginally to 9,738
in Maharashtra on Friday, even
as the State logged 642 pandemic
deaths.
A day after the state record-
ed 9830 infections and 636
deaths, the fresh cases went
down to 9738, while the deaths
rose marginally by six. Of the
deaths registered on Friday, 198
were fresh ones and 454 were
“old and unaccounted” fatalities.
With 642 deaths reported on
Friday, the Covid-19 toll in the
state jumped from 1,16,026 to
1,16,674. With 9,738 fresh infec-
tions, the total infections in the
state rose from 59,44,710 to
59,54,508.
As 14,347 patients were dis-
charged from the hospitals
across the state after full recov-
ery, the total number of people
discharged from the hospitals
since the second week of March
Corporation (BMC) to hold a
private vaccination camp at the
Hiranandani Heritage Society
at Kandivali (west) in north
Mumbai on May 30.
The arrests came 72 hours
after the office bearers of
Hiranandani Heritage
Residents’ Welfare Association
(HHRWA) lodged a complaint
with them, ther Kandivli police
arrested the five persons
behind the alleged fraud..
The HHRWA office bear-
ers had earlier told the police
that the three alleged fraudsters
collected Rs 4.92 lakh from 390
residents, housekeeping staff,
security guards, drivers or
domestic helpers on May 30 for
conducting a vaccination camp.
The camp was conducted
by three facilitators, including
Rajesh Pandey and Sanjay
Gupta, who claimed to repre-
sent leading private hospitals
like the Kokilaben Dhirubhai
Ambani Hospital (KDAH) and
the Nanavati Hospital. They
agreed to provide 400 vaccine
]PcX^]$
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the ongoing Covid pandemic,
Lieutenant Governor, Manoj
Sinha Friday approved the pro-
posal of recruitment of 800 Sub
Inspectors in the Jammu &
Kashmir Police.
In the same go, the Lt
Governor also approved the
selection process of all Non-
Gazetted level posts in all the
three departments i.e., Police,
Prisons and Fire & Emergency
Services departments through
the Services Selection Board
(SSB).
The selections to the posts
will be based on written and
physical test. The Committee
for physical endurance test
shall be constituted by the SSB
in consultation with the
Government and the number
of people to be called for phys-
ical fitness test will be based on
the pattern adopted by some of
the States/Union Territories.
The entire process for fitness
test shall be duly video-graphed
for the purpose of transparen-
cy.
Further, to address the
long standing issues of senior-
ity hampering the career pro-
gression of police officials at
different levels, now a common
seniority of the Sub Inspectors
(SIs) recruited against the
CP\X[=PSd2WXTU<X]XbcTaP]S3<:_aTbXST]c<:BcP[X]^]5aXSPh\Tc2^]VaTbb
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last year increased from
56,85,636 to 56,99,983. The
recovery rate in the state
dropped from 95.64 per cent to
95.73 per cent. The total “active
cases” in the state dropped from
1,39,960 to 1,34,747. The fatal-
ity rate in the state went up from
1.95 per cent to 1.96 per cent.
Mumbai recorded 19 deaths
and 758 infections. As a result,
the Covid-19 toll in the metrop-
olis increased from 15,247 to
15,266, while the infected cases
in Mumbai went up from
717590 to 7,18590.
Mumbai with 18,764 cases
emerged as the first in the state
in terms of maximum number
of “active cases” in the state,
while Pune with 17,888 stood
second, followed by Thane
(13,970), Kolhapur (11,453),
Sangli (10,545), Ratnagiri (7766)
Satara (7149), Sindhudurg
(5372), Nagpur (4745), Nashik
(4502), Ahmednagar (4247) and
Raigad (4210),
doses for around C1,260 each,
for which the society paid
around C4.92 lakh. However
the vaccination facilitator did
not provide receipts for the
money taken.
On their part, the KDAH
and the Nanavati Hospital had
distanced themselves from the
questionable vaccination camp
by saying that they had noth-
ing to do with the vaccination
camp conducted at
Hiranandani Heritage Society.
They said that they were not
approached by the housing
society.
The residents got suspi-
cious after as none of the ben-
eficiaries were given the vacci-
nation certificates. They also
noticed that the vials used for
vaccination camp bore 'Not For
Sale' stamp. The society mem-
bers approached one of the
facilitators Sanjay Gupta for
vaccination certificates.
However, Gupta said that the
certificates would be given
after 3-4 days.
Direct Recruitment vacancies
in the Armed and the Executive
Wing, through a combined
examination, will be main-
tained for ensuring smooth
career progression of the Police
officers.
Pertinently, the announce-
ment of recruitment comes
two days after the Lt Governor
noted that the UT administra-
tion is moving ahead in direc-
tion of expediting the process
for recruitment of the 25,000
promised jobs in the public sec-
tor/government departments
to empower the youths of
Jammu & Kashmir. He
observed that around 18,000
posts have been advertised by
Services Selection Board (SSB)
for recruitment in various
departments and more posts
are being identified gradually.
Outlining that the youth of
J&K have a key role to play in
the overall development of the
region, the Lt Governor assert-
ed that J&K Government is
planning to reach out to 50,000
youth for financial assistance
under the next leg of Back to
Village program, the details of
which would be finalized soon.
He noted that, as on date, the
Jammu and Kashmir Bank has
advanced more than Rs 340
crores to as many as 19,600
youth from across the UT,
empowering them financially
to pursue their dreams and to
create livelihood opportuni-
ties for others as well.
?C8
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RPbTb(
STPcWb
Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala
on Friday reported 11,361 new
coronavirus cases and 90 more
deaths, taking the caseload to
27,85,304 and the death toll to
11,833.
A total of 12,147 persons
recuperated from the disease,
taking the number of those
cured to 26,65,354.
Currently, there are
1,07,682 persons under treat-
ment, and 4,69,522 under
observation of which 27,905 are
in isolation wards of various
hospitals.
State Health Minister
Veena George said 1,11,124
samples were tested in the last
24 hours and the test positivi-
ty rate (TPR) was 10.22 per
cent.
Till now 2,17,32,157 sam-
ples have been tested.
Among the districts,
Thiruvananthapuram recorded
the highest number of positive
cases today--1,550, followed
by Kollam with 1,422 and
Ernakulam with 1,315 cases.
"Of those found infected
today, 64 reached the state
from outside while 10,667 con-
tracted the disease from their
contact.The source of infection
of 567 is yet to be traced and 63
health workers are also among
the infected," the minister said
in a release.
According to the health
department, there are 178 local
self government bodies with
TPR over eight per cent, 633
LSGs with TPR betweeneight
and 20 per cent, 208 LSGs with
TPR between 20 and 30 per
cent and 16 LSGs with over 30
per cent TPR. PTI
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LRXU"+DYHQRWWKHOHVVRQVIURPWKHSUHYLRXVZDYHV French and had joined the next.
RIWKHFRURQDYLUXVEHHQOHDUQWDWDOO"$SSDUHQWO\QRW Then suddenly lightening struck.
7DNHWKHQHZVUHSRUWRIDQ8WWDUDNKDQG0/$LQ'HKUDGXQ$SROLFHPDQIRXQGKLPDQG Covid the dreaded addition to the
KLVIDPLO\VWUROOLQJRQWKHVWUHHWGHI\LQJFXUIHZDQGZHDULQJWKHLUPDVNVLPSURSHUO\+H vocabulary of fear had arrived!
Initially I assuaged my agitat-
SURPSWO\LVVXHGDFKDOODQ7KHQH[WGD\KHZDVWUDQVIHUUHGWRDUXUDODUHD ed mind thinking that this con-
,QVSLWHRIPHGLDUHSRUWVRISHRSOHLJQRULQJVDIHW\SURWRFROV6WDWH*RYHUQPHQWVDUH finement is temporary. But as days Indian city. The initial fear of hurriedly deleted. But damage hood friend in Delhi in the
\HWWRJHWLQWRDPDVVPHVVDJLQJPRGHRQVDIHW\7KH0DKDUDVKWUD&29,'7DVN)RUFH went by, the figures of infections, Covid that had seized me gave was already done. Other class- evenings to share news normal-
WRRNWKHOHDGLQZDUQLQJWKH6WDWHWRSUHSDUHLWVHOIIRUD´WKLUGZDYHµLIWKHSHRSOHFRQ the number of deaths, the ‘Long way to an inner light. I prac- mates including my indubitable ly negative and depressive in
March’ by migrants all took away ticed more intensely the professor had read it. Well I was the stressful atmosphere. The
WLQXHWRLJQRUHWKHSURWRFROV7KHQHZZDYHFRXOGEHZRUVHZLWKDKLJKO\YLUXOHQWVWUDLQ any hope of freedom from con- Vipassna meditation. The ego, ripe for punishment for a little world around me transformed
RIWKHYLUXV'HOWD3OXVZDLWLQJWRVWULNHWKLVWLPHLWVDLG7KHWDVNIRUFHH[SHFWVWKH finement. It was a life I had never the bubble that so meticulous- romantic foray into the and got lost in the haze of
ZDYHWROHDYHHLJKWODNKDFWLYHFDVHVLQLWVZDNHRIZKLFKSHUFHQWFRXOGEHFKLO experienced, or thought of other ly we build through life, burst. extremely romantic language missed aroma and taste of life.
GUHQ7KDWLVDODUPLQJEXWQRWDODUPLVWJLYHQWKHJHQHUDOLQGLIIHUHQFHWRVDIHW\7KHVHF than if put behind bars. For there was no one to impress French. My professor demand- Like Marcel Proust’s evocative
What was the State of my your thoughts on, your clever- ed that I write everyday a aroma of Madeleine dipped in
RQGORFNGRZQZDVDVSODQQHGDQGVFLHQWLILFDVWKHXQORFNKDVEHHQ,WZDVQHLWKHULPSRVHG inner being? I was like a charac- ness and your intelligence. You paragraph of a serialised story tea I missed the smell of coffee
QRWZLWKGUDZQDOORIDVXGGHQWRHQVXUHDVOLWWOHGLVFRPIRUWWRWKHSHRSOHDVSRVVLEOH ter from the stream of conscious- were in an uncertain, isolated for the next three months. in the café at L’Alliance
,QUHWXUQWKHSHRSOHDUHH[SHFWHGWREHUHVSRQVLEOHWRRDQGUHDOLVHWKDWEHLQJPDVNHG ness novels of Virginia wolf or space internally as well as exter- With all types of bizarre and Francaise du Madras and with
DQGGLVWDQFHGLVWKHQHZUHDOLW\DQGWKHUHLVQRJHWWLQJDZD\IURPLWWRUHPDLQVDIHDQG James Joyce. Thoughts ran riot
unconnected, memories good
nally. The fragility, the
ephemeral, the ‘passing’ of all C74E0;D4 shameful mistakes of syntax
and grammar I wrote a roman-
it the great joy of the wobbly
words and sentences in French.
LPSRUWDQWO\NHHSRWKHUVVDIH and bad coursed on the Autobahn, the existence never appeared so >5<>=4H tic tale of a Paris ballerina and How suddenly the small joys
absurd irrationalism surmounted, real, so magnified, and so
6>C34<>C43 an artist every day as part of my that you miss out become so
?82D1<;
and to wrap it all the fear of dying imminent. The Buddhist com- obligatory promise. Gracefully precious! How random choic-
struck like a sledge-hammer.
The ghost of Covid had
passion which is essential for
deconstructing a preoccupied
8=<H my professor never pointed
out my mistakes and I had to go
es the virus makes! We do not
know who will suddenly be
snatched away the parameters of self became more clear to me <8=38 on writing. Thus at B1 i.e. stuck and then survive or be
life. But then as time passed I
found a new meaning, a new
in living all the time in a 20 ft
X15 ft room. People who need 2>>:43>=0= third level of French language
studies, I looked forward each
deprived of life.
I spent six month in this
vision and an ability to override help in these difficult times 4;42CA82 day to carry forward the French new world that I created
the fear and the confined life.
Maybe I was changing…meta-
must be helped by me, I
thought. 2>>:4A0=3 romance between two artists in
my devastatingly poor French.
around me in that room which
I occupied in Chennai. Then
morphosing into a Gregor Samsa
of Franz Kafka! No more the sales-
The value of money got
demoted in my mind. I cooked
=44343 But the good was that all the
autumn brown evenings that I
with air space opened for flights
and with positive encouraging
man caught in an annoying rou- on an electric cooker and need- ;8CC;45>>3 had spent in Paris by the Seine words from my friend, I took
tine of life, rather maybe like
Samsa I had become a giant spi-
ed little food. You had no need
to dress for the world.
H>D703 rushed back to me, the paint-
ings of Modigliani laced me
a flight to Delhi. It was a great
realisation and discovery anew
der stuck on a wall in a room! I Meanwhile my French classes =>=443 with a great feminine charm, of the people, the things and
now had time to look at the sky
to see its changing chromes, its
became online, a virtual world
as near as my imaginary world C>3A4BB the expressive sculptures of
Rodin overwhelmed my soul
the feelings that I had hither-
to taken for granted.
variable moods; I smelled the cool
sea air that blew in the morning
that I mostly inhabited. A
small imaginative paragraph
5>AC74 and I relived the fragrance of
France in my little romantic tale.
(The writer is a painter,
author, director and curator,
and evening, I observed the birds that I wrote in French to a F>A;3 This was another creative gift India Asia, European Artists
who sang on the trees in joy and friend got misdirected to the that my Covid-19 confinement Association Velbert Essen
for first time in life I enjoyed the WhatsApp group of my class. bestowed on me. Germany. The views expressed
silence even while being in a big When I realised the mistake I I would telephone my boy- are personal.)
2WX[SaT]Ua^[XRX]cWTaXeTac^QTPccWTWTPcX]cWT7^^VW[haXeTaX]FTbc1T]VP[^]5aXSPh ?C8

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7ULYHQGUD6LQJK5DZDWKDVULJKWO\FDOOHGIRUDMXGLFLDOSUREHLQWKHIUDXGDQGVDLGWKDWLW need for community awareness.
ZDVDNLQWRDWWHPSWWRPXUGHU,WLVIULJKWHQLQJWRWKLQNWKDWWKHUHVXOWVRIWKH573&5 Amit Singh Kushwaha | Satna
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washing hands constantly with soap, and research and development of the Covid vac- QTbT[U[TbbP]S
maintaining physical distancing. All of cine. The affidavit also states that the WT[_P]h^]TfW^
these must be continued relentlessly till our Indian Council of Medical Research spent [^^Zb[XZTcWTh³aT
about C44 crore for clinical trials and the
country achieves vaccination coverage of at X]]TTS^UXcCadbc
least 80 per cent. Government paid about C2,520 crore by way \TS^X]VcWXbfX[[
UTT[V^^S
Ranganathan Sivakumar | Chennai of advance to purchase the vaccine on May
10. Discarding the Government’s own affi-
0Rc^a
davits the Prime Minister told the nation ¯?P]ZPYCaX_PcWX
49665B5>DF?935C
Sir — Doubts arise over the Prime Minister’s
that they funded thousands of crores for
development of vaccines. We do hope that H^d³eTV^cc^_[Ph
assertions about funding of research and in the next submissions, the Attorney-
development of vaccines by the Central cWT\X]SVP\Tb
General will correct his statements and let fXcWEXaPc8f^d[S
Government. What the Prime Minister said the country know about the thousands of
and what was submitted by the [TcWX\Z]^fcWPc
Government’s law officers to the Supreme
crores spent for the development of the vac- 8³\V^X]Vc^R^\T
cine programme. PcWX\P]S8³SfP]c
Court do not match. The affidavits filed by WX\c^cahP]S_d[[QTRPdbT8UTT[
CK Subramaniam | Mumbai
the Government in response to its May 2 [XZTcWPc³bWXb1VP\T
order allegedly said that no governmental
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public reaction was that of disbelief.
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tine. Unfortunately, the pandemic turned out to

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world, became the order of the day.
Life changed completely between phases of
strict lockdown and subsequent relaxations.
Work From Home became routine; schools and
colleges, too, started teaching online. But the
human race rose to the occasion remarkably well
and the world soon learnt new ways of living.
The new life was particularly hard on the
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sports fraternity. With the postponement of the
Tokyo Olympics, the sports world began to
understand that it was facing its greatest chal-
lenge for survival since World War II. Sports
activities came to a standstill everywhere. Most
sports coaches in schools, practically all over the
world, lost their jobs.
Sports organisations representing popular dis-
7KH1DWLRQDO(GXFDWLRQ3ROLF\1(3SURYLGHVDVSDUNIRU ciplines soon came up with ‘damage control’ steps,
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7KHSROLF\IRFXVHVRQRXWFRPHEDVHGHGXFDWLRQ7KHPRWLYDWLRQWR ing in online versions of their sports. However,
the online versions proved to be quite different
from the real ones. Online play required complete-
ly different qualities in sports like cricket, foot-
ball or tennis.Online versions, in general, failed
to meet the requirements of the sports fans.
Chess, however, drew a completely different
response. Unlike other sports, playing chess online
was in existence for over two decades due to por-
tals such as Chess.com, Li-Chess, Chess24,
Internet Chess Club (ICC), etc. Membership of
these portals was hassle-free, quick and inexpen-
sive.As a result, online chess tournaments and
training already existed before the pandemic hit
the world.
UHGLVFRYHUORVWZLVGRPLVDSURPLQHQWIDFWRUWKDWKDVSURPSWHGWKH The major difference between online chess
0LQLVWU\RI(GXFDWLRQWRHQFRXUDJH,QGLDQNQRZOHGJHV\VWHPVWKDW and other sports is that the skill set is the same
DLPWRSURPRWHLQWHUGLVFLSOLQDU\UHVHDUFKEDVHGRQWKHFRXQWU\·VULFK in chess for the original sport and the online ver-
sion. The world soon sensed that playing chess
KHULWDJHDQGWUDGLWLRQDONQRZOHGJH:RXOGLWWKHQPHDQWKDWWKHUH
online was no different from playing in person
GLVFRYHU\RIVFLHQWLILFSULQFLSOHVLQRXU9HGDV DQG3XUDQDV LVUHJUHV
and this resulted in the beginning of “achhe din
VLYHRUWKDWRXUVFLHQWLILFSXUVXLWZLOOEHHPEROGHQHGE\WKHDGGLWLRQ (good days)” for chess globally.
RIDQFLHQWZLVGRP",IWKHUHLVDQGLVDJUHHPHQWRQDFFRXQWRIWKHIRU The president of the International Chess
PHUWKHQLWLVLQGHHGDPLVFRQFHSWLRQWKDWUHMHFWVHYHQRXUFRQWULEX Federation (FIDE) Arkady Dvorkovich was
WLRQRI¶]HUR·WRWKHZRUOG%XWLIWKHGLVDJUHHPHQWLVRQDFFRXQWRI quoted by the ‘New York Times’ in May, 2020 as
WKHODWWHUWKHQLWLVLURQLFWKDWFKDQJHLWVHOILVEHLQJIHDUHG7KHWUDGL saying that the number of online chess players had
WLRQDO,QGLDQV\VWHPZDVEDVHGRQVNLOOVZLWKKDQGVRQH[SHULHQWLDO at least doubled by the first six months after the
pandemic began. This is because in March-April
OHDUQLQJ0DQ\VWXGHQWVZLWKGLSORPDVLQWKHV\VWHPKDYHDGPLUDEO\ 2020, most chess portals started conducting online
H[FHOOHGLQWKLVILHOG7RGLVFRXUDJHWKHPRUGLVDOORZWKHLUSURJUHVVLV tournaments round-the-clock and that enabled
DVHYHUHEORZWRRXUQDWLRQDOSURVSHFWV7DNHWKH,,7VIRULQVWDQFHZKHUH the world to start a new connect with the mys-
PHULWLVWKHVRXORIWKHLUEUDQGVSXWWLQJVWXGHQWVIURPWKHWUDGLWLRQDO tery of 64 squares.
V\VWHPDWDGLVDGYDQWDJH+RZHYHUWKHUHDUHVWXGHQWVZLWKDSWLWXGH To understand the reason for such an
ZKRWKRXJKZHDNLQ03&PD\KDYHREWDLQHGWKHWKUHVKROGFXWRII upsurge in the number of players one also needs
PDUNVDIWHUDWWHQGLQJDSUHSDUDWRU\FRXUVH,QQRZD\GRHVLWEHOLWWOH to refer to surveys conducted by chess organisa-
tions from time to time. The one by former world
WKHLUDELOLW\WRVKLQH6WXGHQWVPXVWEHDEOHWRGHYHORSFDSDELOLWLHVWR chess champion Anatoly Karpov is the most rel-
SXUVXHVWXGLHVLQHQJLQHHULQJDQGWHFKQRORJ\UDWKHUWKDQILUHZDOOWKHP evant. Karpov and his team deduced that over 30
ZLWKD¶GHQ\DOODOORZVRPH·SROLF\7KH$,&7(·VFKDQJHVLQWKH$SSURYDO per cent of the population of developed countries
3URFHVV +DQGERRN DLP IRU JUHDWHU LQFOXVLYLW\ WKURXJK SUDJPDWLF played chess reasonably well (way back in 2008)
DSSURDFKHVWRDSWLWXGHVDQGVNLOOVDQGLQFOXGHDPRGHOFXUULFXOXP and that it was only their inability to go and play
WKDWDGYRFDWHVIRXUPDWKHPDWLFVFRXUVHVWZRSK\VLFVFRXUVHVDQG in chess tournaments that had kept them away;
that is why the low participation in tournaments
DFRXUVHHDFKLQFKHPLVWU\DQGELRORJ\7KH0DVVLYH2SHQ2QOLQH
did not really reflect the true picture of chess’ pop-
=>FC70C
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5A0C4A=8CH
70BBD2244343
8=2A40C8=60
2>=C8=D>DB;H
8=2A40B8=6
02C8E4 sion. Work From Home and online
academic education provided all the
?;0H4A extra time needed to start some-
10B4 thing new and it was online chess
8C8BC8<4 that attracted large sections of the
C>2>=3D2C society.
<>A4 The proactive role played by the
7H1A83 FIDE during the pandemic has
274BB been commendable and an inspi-
ration to chess organisers all over
C>DA=0<4=CB
the world. While both, the
0=3
International Olympic Committee
2A40C4 and the FIDE were compelled to
=4F indefinitely postpone the 2020
270<?8>=B Olympic Games (Japan) and 2020
Chess Olympiad (Russia), respec-
tively, the FIDE immediately came
up with an ingenious alternative —
Online Chess Olympiad. The Chess
Olympiad format was modified to
suit all sections of players with the
inclusion of women, boys and girls
in national teams. (The Online
Chess Olympiad 2020 was jointly
won by Russia and India.)
Online Chess has its disadvan-
tages too. Chess-playing engines are
more formidable than the strongest
chess players these days and that
tempts many players to use engines
to win games by unfair means.
Though there were no instances of
cheating in the Online Olympiad,
the online World Youth Chess
Championships, unfortunately, saw
several instances of wrong-doings.
The writer is an Indian The FIDE took prompt measures
chess Grandmaster and
against both cheating and the pan-
that players from one city gather at
one place and play under surveil-
lance of International Arbiters.
At the moment, most of the city
and district chess associations in
India are not able to provide venues
for such tournament, but eventual-
ly hybrid tournaments are going to
be the major form of the game in
future primarily because it is cheap
on account of negligible travel and
accommodation costs. The All
India Chess Federation (AICF) is
committed to create ‘hybrid chess
arenas’ in all the major cities in the
country.
The greatest individual contrib-
utor to chess during the pandem-
ic is none other than world cham-
pion Magnus Carlsen who not only
sponsored several online tourna-
ments but also facilitated mega
events like Meltwater Champions
Chess Tour, with 10 major online
tournaments scheduled between
November 2020 and October 2021,
with the participation of most of
the top players. The tour has seen
emergence of several young talents
reaching the highest level. Former
world champion Garry Kasparov,
too, made a great contribution in
assisting the direction of the Netflix
series ‘The Queen’s Gambit’, the
story of an orphan American girl
becoming a world champion by
defeating the mighty Russians in
the 1960s.
campaign and has already conduct-
ed chess training webinars for
over 1,500 trainee coaches. The day
is not far when every Indian child
will learn chess in his/her school.
The high point for chess so far
is that PogChamps 3, hosted by
Chess.com in February, 2021, saw
the participation of 7.5 million
players, a number unparalleled in
any other sports discipline. Chess
has indeed reached its peak and the
pandemic has contributed a great
deal to its growth.
However, one should not be
complacent about the boom. In
March, 2021, the ‘Chess Insider’
cautioned that all is not as well
because “the new-found popular-
ity is diluting the game’s essence”.
I perfectly agree with this view as
I too see certain (avoidable) dan-
gers involved. In order to curb the
incidences of cheating, all chess
portals are conducting more and
more Blitz (3 minutes) and Bullet
(1 minute) tournaments, but none
with regular and classical time con-
trol. In such rapid tournaments,
factors like speed of internet con-
nection, efficiency in handling
the mouse and chess reflexes out-
weigh chess skills. A serious chess
player, therefore, should refrain
from playing Blitz and Bullet
games regularly. Now that the
chess fraternity has succeeded in
creating a continuously increasing
&RXUVHV022&IRUHOHDUQLQJRQDFUHGLWV\VWHPLVDQRWKHULQQR ularity.
seven-time national chess
demic by coming with an innova- In India, the newly-elected active player base, it is time to con-
YDWLRQIRUREWDLQLQJDIRUPDOGHJUHH&RXUVHVDUHEHLQJWUDQVODWHGLQWR champion. He is also an
With chess portals starting regular, online Arjuna awardee. tive concept of a ‘hybrid Chess tour- members of the AICF has begun its duct more Hybrid Chess
HLJKWUHJLRQDOODQJXDJHVWREHPDGHDYDLODEOHRQWKH6:$<$0SODW tournaments since March, 2020, these latent chess The views expressed nament’ — which is basically an term with a bang. The AICF is all Tournaments and create new
IRUP)URPWKHDFDGHPLF\HDUHQWU\OHYHORSWLRQVDUHDYDLO players got an opportunity to pursue their pas- are personal. online tournament with a difference set to launch its ‘Chess In Schools’ champions.
DEOHWRSURYLGHDOHYHOSOD\LQJILHOGIRUEULJKWVWXGHQWVIURPVPDOOWRZQV
DQGUHPRWHDUHDVGLVDGYDQWDJHGE\ORZFXUULFXODRUHGXFDWLRQVWDQ
GDUGV7KH\FDQQRZWDNHSUHUHTXLVLWHDGGLWLRQDOFRXUVHVHLWKHURQ
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t the recent G7 summit,
A US President Joe Biden
promised to distribute
500 million doses of Covid-19
vaccines free to the poorer
countries by the middle of next
year. That’s more than a drop in
the bucket, but not much more.
A tablespoon in the bucket, per-
haps.
And the other six ‘Gs’
(Canada, France, Germany,
Italy, Japan, and the UK) have
pledged around the same num-
ber of free jabs for poor coun-
tries on the same timetable. So
around a year from now the
seven richest Western countries
will have given out around one
billion free doses of Covid vac-
cines. Pretty generous, no?
No. China leads all the G7
countries combined in the
number of doses it has delivered
7GI>>53H4A
Gwynne Dyer’s new book
is ‘Growing Pains: The
Future of Democracy
(and Work)’. The views
expressed are personal.
to poorer countries in Asia,
Africa and Latin America. Most
are sold at close to cost price,
and sometimes, for the poorest,
with cheap credit as an added
attraction. Around half of all the
doses going to the less-devel-
oped countries are Chinese.
China is not sacrificing its
own people for this: It has
already vaccinated about 40 per
cent of its population, roughly
the same ratio as the US. Yet its
share of the vaccines used in
developing countries is likely to
rise even further.
Well, good for China. Sure
it is buying influence with its
generosity, but what’s wrong
with that? If the G7 countries
want to counter it, they should-
n’t resort to cheap propaganda
about Chinese vaccines being
ineffective (they’re not), and
=0=0?0C>;4
they shouldn’t claim that they
have to vaccinate all their own
people first. Instead, try being
equally generous.
But generous is actually
the wrong word. ‘Self-interest-
ed’ is a better word, because
leaving large populations
unvaccinated anywhere guaran-
tees that new variants will arise,
some of them more infectious
and/or more deadly, and will
spread into the countries that
think they have made them-
selves safe.
Take India, for example. It
had a quite good first wave, with
apparently low Covid casualties.
Everybody knew that there
was some under-counting of
fatalities, but the worst-case esti-
mate was that the real Indian
death rate might be five times
higher — which would still be
no worse than France.
Only three per cent of
Indians are vaccinated, but
Prime Minister Narendra
Modi’s Government got so
cocky that it authorised all
sorts of crowd events like elec-
tion campaigns and religious
festivals — and then in early
2021 the ‘Indian variant’
90H0=C?0C8;
arrived. (Modi doesn’t like that
phrase, so we’re now supposed
to call it ‘Variant D’.)
The new variant swept
through India like a scythe, with
daily death tolls as high as Brazil
or the US in their worst
moments. But of course India
has four times as many people
as the US, so it wouldn’t really
be all that extraordinary even if
its true death toll from Covid-
19 were up to five times high-
er.
Recently, however, an
enterprising Indian data jour-
nalist called Rukmini S, writing
for the online news site Scroll.in,
checked out the official statis-
tics in the State of Madhya
Pradesh. It turned out that
total recorded deaths from all
causes, known or unknown,
had tripled in April and May.
Since there was no war, no
natural disaster, no other plague
striking Madhya Pradesh at
that time, it makes sense to
assume that the huge surge in
deaths was mostly due to
Covid-19. But on that assump-
tion, Covid deaths in Madhya
Pradesh in May were not five
times higher, but up to 42
times higher than the recorded
Covid mortality figure.
Rukmini S did a similar
investigation for the State of
Andhra Pradesh, and got sim-
ilar results (34-fold higher).
This is what happens when you
have a still largely unvaccinat-
ed population and you take
your eye off the ball. The virus
mutates, and it spreads like
wildfire.
Even a half-vaccinated pop-
ulation is not safe. The first
‘Variant D’ infection was only
detected in England in April,
but it already accounts for 90
per cent of new infections
there, and the UK has just
extended its lockdown mea-
sures for another month.
Nobody is safe until every-
body is safe. Relative safety
would require having 40 per
cent of the world’s population
vaccinated by January, and 60
per cent by mid-2022 — at a
total cost, according to the
International Monetary Fund,
of around $50 billion.
The billion doses promised
by the G7 for mid-2022 just
don’t cut it, and even an extra
billion from China is not
enough. Two doses each for five
billion people is what’s needed.
Or we can choose to live with
the killer variants instead.
=4F34;78kB0CDA30H k9D=4 (!!
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sserting that the House of
A Representatives was dis-
solved as per the constitution-
al provisions, Nepal’s President
Bidya Devi Bhandari has told
the Supreme Court that it can-
not overturn her decision on
the matter or subject it to a
judicial review.
President Bhandari, at the
recommendation of Prime
Minister K P Sharma Oli, dis-
solved the lower house for the
second time in five months on
May 22 and announced snap
elections on November 12 and
November 19. Prime Minister
Oli is currently heading a
minority government after los-
ing a trust vote in the House.
President Bhandari, Prime
Minister Oli and Speaker Agni
Sapkota separately presented
their clarifications in writing to
the apex court on the govern-
ment’s May 21 decision, The
Khadmandu Post reported.
The Constitutional Bench
on June 9 had asked them to
furnish their clarifications in
writing.
While the President and
Prime Minister defended their
decisions, Speaker Sapkota has
called the House dissolution an
unconstitutional move.
Sheetal Niwas, the presi-
dential office, even argued that
the President’s decision cannot
be a subject of judicial review.
“Any action carried out by
the President as per Article 76
of the Constitution cannot
81SURSRVDOVHHNVDUPVHPEDUJR
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he UN General Assembly is
T expected to approve a res-
olution calling on Myanmar’s
junta to restore the country’s
democratic transition and for
all countries “to prevent the
flow of arms into Myanmar,”
diplomats said.
The draft resolution also
condemns deadly violence by
security forces and calls on the
junta to unconditionally release
the ousted civilian leader Aung
become a subject of any peti-
tion and this cannot be an issue
for a judicial review,” the
President said in the clarifica-
tion presented to the court
through the Office of the
Attorney General.
“While taking the deci-
sion, the President ascertained
whether the prime minister to
be appointed as per the Article
76(5) could get a vote of con-
fidence or not. This can be
done only by the President and
that’s exactly what the President
did.”
President Bhandari
referred to Clause 16 of the
Remunerations and Benefits of
the President and Vice
President Act-2017 that gives
immunity to the President.
Clause 16 of the Act states
that no cases would be prose-
cuted in any court of law on the
actions taken by the President
while administering his/her
duties whether the person
holds office or is retired.
“So the court cannot take
San Suu Kyi, President Win
Myint “and all those who have
been arbitrarily detained,
charged or arrested.”
The 193-member assembly
is scheduled to consider the
resolution, which has more
than 50 co-sponsors, on Friday
afternoon and its sponsors are
hoping it will be approved by
consensus to send a strong
message to the military of
global opposition to its Feb 1
takeover and support for a
return to Myanmar’s democ-
any action on a decision taken
by the President based on the
Constitution without the rec-
ommendation of anyone,”
President Bhandari asserted.
“And the court cannot issue
a mandamus order to appoint
a certain person. To make such
a demand itself is an issue
against the Constitution.”
Oli, 69, on his part, said
government formation is a
political process and that the
court cannot decide on this
matter.
“The court has the author-
ity to interpret the
Constitution, but it cannot
play the role of the legislature
or the executive,” said Oli in his
response.
“Forming governments
based on parties’ claims is the
fundamental characteristic of
the parliamentary system. Our
Constitution does not imagine
party-less practices. If we run
Parliament and the govern-
ment as demanded by the peti-
tioners, this could revive a
party-less system like the
Panchayat.”
As many as 30 petitions
have been filed at the Supreme
Court against Oli’s House dis-
solution move. One of them
was filed by the Opposition
alliance led by Nepali Congress
President Sher Bahadur Deuba.
The court is set to start the
final hearing from June 23, but
it has said the hearing on other
petitions would resume after
finalising the petition filed by
the opposition alliance.
ratic transition, though any
nation can call for a vote.
>jR_^RcVieV_Ud
UVeV_eZ`_`WFD
[`fc_R]Zde7V_deVc
Bangkok: A court in Myanmar
has extended the detention of
American journalist Danny
Fenster for another two weeks,
while the US State Department
urged that it be granted con-
sular access to him.
Online news and business
magazine Frontier Myanmar,
where Fenster is managing
editor, said he faces a charge
that carries a potential three-
year prison term. The charge,
used frequently against dissi-
dents and journalists. AP
3DOHVWLQLDQVFODVKZLWK,VUDHOSROLFH
0?Q 94ADB0;4<
alestinians protested after
P Friday prayers at the Al-
Aqsa mosque compound in
Jerusalem and briefly clashed
with Israeli police, leaving three
demonstrators wounded.
A series of far more violent
clashes at the site in April and
May helped ignite last month’s
11-day Gaza war. The site is the
third holiest in Islam and the
holiest for Jews, who refer to it
as the Temple Mount because
it was the location of the bib-
lical temples.
It has frequently been the
scene of Israeli-Palestinian vio-
lence. This time, the police
refrained from entering the
compound and appeared to act
with more restraint, possibly on
the orders of Israel’s newly
sworn-in government. The Red
Crescent emergency service
said two Palestinians were
wounded by rubber bullets
and a third by a stone that was
thrown.
Young Palestinians could
:cR_g`eVdZ_acVdZUV_eZR]a`]]
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0?Q 3D108
ran voted on Friday in a pres-
Ifavour
idential election tipped in the
of a hard-line protege of
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei, fuelling public apa-
thy and sparking calls for a boy-
cott in the Islamic Republic.
State-linked opinion
polling and analysts put hard-
line judiciary chief Ebrahim
Raisi as the dominant front-
runner in a field of just four
candidates. Former Central
Bank chief, Abdolnasser
Hemmati, is running as the
race’s moderate candidate but
hasn’t inspired the same sup-
port as outgoing President
Hassan Rouhani, who is term
limited from seeking the office
again.
If elected, Raisi would be
the first serving Iranian presi-
dent sanctioned by the US
government even before enter-
ing office over his involve-
ment in the mass execution of
political prisoners in 1988, as
well as his time as the head of
Iran’s internationally criticized
judiciary — one of the world’s
top executioners.
It also would firmly put
hard-liners in control across the
Iranian government as negoti-
ations in Vienna continue over
8baPT[XbTRdaXchU^aRTbcPZT_^bXcX^]bSdaX]VR[PbWTbfXcW?P[TbcX]XP]bX]Ua^]c^UcWT3^\T^UcWTA^RZ<^b`dTPccWT0[0`bP
<^b`dTR^\_^d]SX]9TadbP[T\´b>[S2Xch^]5aXSPh
be seen throwing stones at
police stationed at an entrance
to the compound, who fired
stun grenades and rubber-
coated bullets.
Hundreds demonstrated
after Friday prayers in response
to a rally held by Jewish ultra-
nationalists on Tuesday in
which dozens had chanted
0]8aP]XP]f^\P]RPbcbWTae^cTSdaX]VcWT_aTbXST]cXP[T[TRcX^]PcP_^[[X]VbcPcX^]
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trying to save Tehran’s tattered
nuclear deal with world pow-
ers, as it enriches uranium to
the closest point yet to
weapons-grade levels.
Tensions remain high with
both the U.S. And Israel, which
is believed to have carried out
a series of attacks targeting
Iranian nuclear sites and assas-
sinating the scientist who cre-
ated its military atomic pro-
gram decades earlier.
Polls opened at 7 am local
time for the vote, which has
seen widespread public apathy
after a panel under Khamenei
barred hundreds of candidates,
'HOWDYDULDQWRQLWVZD\WREHFRPLQJ
GRPLQDQWYDULDQWJOREDOO\:+2RIILFLDO
United Nations/Geneva: The
Covid-19 Delta variant, which
was first identified in India, is
becoming the dominant variant
globally because of its signifi-
cantly increased transmissibil-
ity, WHO chief scientist
Soumya Swaminathan said on
“Death to Arabs” and “May
your village burn.” The
Palestinians protested against
insulting Islam’s Prophet
Muhammad, after online video
showed some of the partici-
pants in the Tuesday march
denigrating him.
Tensions have remained
high since an informal cease-
0?
including reformists and those
aligned with Rouhani.
Khamenei cast the ceremonial
vote from Tehran,
where he urged the public to
take part.
“Through the participa-
tion of the people the country
and the Islamic ruling system
will win great points in the
international arena, but the
ones who benefit first are the
people themselves,” Khamenei
said. “Go ahead, choose and
vote.” But by mid-day, turnout
appeared far lower than Iran’s
last presidential election in
2017.
Friday. According to the Covid-
19 Weekly Epidemiological
Update issued by the WHO on
June 15, the Delta variant is now
being reported in about 80
countries around the world.
Another 12 countries and areas
are “reporting the detection of
f^a[S'
0?
fire halted the Gaza war on
May 21.
Tuesday’s rally was held to
celebrate Israel’s capture of east
Jerusalem, including the Old
City and its holy sites, during
the 1967 war. Police forcibly
cleared Palestinians from the
route of the march and pro-
vided security as many in the
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ecretary General Antonio
S Guterres on Friday pledged to
“do everything” in his power
during his second innings as the
UN chief to contribute to a bet-
ter future for all as the Covid-19
pandemic revealed the world’s
shared vulnerability, inter-con-
nectedness and absolute need for
collective action.
Guterres said this soon
after the 193-member UN
General Assembly appointed
him as the Secretary General
for a second five year term
from Januar y 1, 2022-
December 31, 2026.
President of the 75th ses-
sion of the General Assembly
Volkan Bozkir administered
the oath of office to the 72-
year-old former Portuguese
prime minister.
“This is a solemn moment.
I find myself experiencing a
whirlwind of emotions and
thoughts. I am deeply hon-
oured and grateful for the trust
you have placed in me to serve
as the Secretary-General of
the United Nations for a second
term. Serving the United
Nations is an immense privi-
lege and a most noble duty,”
Guterres said in his remarks to
the General Assembly after his
oath of office.
B.1.617 without further speci-
fication of lineage at this time.”
The B.1.617.2 Delta variant
was first detected in India
around October 2020.
“The whole situation is so
dynamic because of the variants
that are now circulating and...The
Delta variant is well on its way to
becoming the dominant variant
globally because of its signifi-
cantly increased transmissibility,”
Swaminathan said. PTI
crowd made racist chants.
In Gaza, meanwhile,
activists mobilised by the ter-
ritory’s militant Hamas rulers
have sent incendiary balloons
across the frontier into Israel,
setting fields and farmland
ablaze.
Israel launched airstrikes
on Wednesday and Thursday,
targeting what it said were
Hamas facilities.
There were no casualties
from the strikes, but the vio-
lence risked unraveling the
truce brokered by Egyptian
mediators, who have been
meeting with both Israel and
Hamas to solidify it.
Israel swore in a new gov-
ernment last weekend, ending
Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu’s 12 years in power.
It relies on a fragile coalition of
parties from across Israel’s
political spectrum, and is
expected to try and sideline the
Palestinian issue as much as
possible.
Israel captured the West
Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem
in the 1967 war, territories the
Palestinians want for a future
state. The peace process ground
to a halt more than a decade
ago.
0?Q 94ADB0;4<
srael said Friday it will trans-
Isoon-to-expire
fer around 1 million doses of
coronavirus
vaccines to the Palestinian
Authority in exchange for a
similar number of doses the
Palestinians expect to receive
later this year.
Israel, which has reopened
after vaccinating some 85% of
its adult population, has faced
criticism for not sharing its vac-
cines with the 4.5 million
Palestinians in
the occupied West Bank and
Gaza.
The agreement was
announced by the new Israeli
government that was sworn in
on Sunday. It said it would
transfer Pfizer vaccines that will
expire soon, and that the PA
would transfer a similar num-
ber of vaccines when it receives
them from the pharmaceutical
company In September or
October.
Israel has carried out one of
the most successful vaccination
programs in the world, allow-
ing it to fully reopen business-
es and schools. This week,
authorities lifted the require-
ment to wear masks in public,
one of the last remaining
restrictions.
2decRKV_VTR6F
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Brussels: A Belgian court ruled
Friday that coronavirus vac-
cine-maker AstraZeneca had
committed a “serious breach” of
its contract with the European
Union amid a major legal battle
over delivery obligations that has
tarnished the company’s image.
The court ordered
AstraZeneca to deliver a total
of 80.2 million doses to the EU
from the time the contract
was agreed up until Sept. 27.
The ruling said the company
did not appear to have made a
“best reasonable effort” to meet
the delivery schedule because
it had not used its UK
Production sites.
But the Anglo-Swedish
company claimed victory, say-
ing that this was far fewer
than the 120 million doses
that the EU’s executive branch,
the European Commission,
was seeking in total by the end
of June. AP
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isinvestment-bound Air
D India is looking to raise
C200 to C300 crore by selling
commercial and residential
real estate assets in different
parts of the country.
Air India on Friday sought
bids for a slew of properties,
including flats and plots.
"Air India through MSTC
invites e-auction bids for sale of
the properties located across
India," according to a public
notice.
A residential plot and a flat
in Mumbai, five flats in New
Delhi, a residential plot in
Bangalore, and four flats in
Kolkata, are among the prop-
erties that have been put on
sale.
Besides, a booking office
and staff quarter in
Aurangabad, a residential plot
along with Airline House in
Bhuj, six flats in Nashik, book-
ing office in Nagpur and a res-
idential plot in
Thiruvananthapuram and two
flats in Mangaluru are for sale,
as per the notice.
"We are expecting the auc-
tion of these properties should
fetch around Rs 200-300 crore
for AIAHL," a senior official
told PTI.
Ad_TTb]P_b'SPh
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he rupee on Friday broke
T its eight-session losing
streak to end 22 paise higher at
73.86 against the US dollar, tak-
ing cues from stronger Asian
currencies and lower crude oil
prices.
At the interbank foreign
exchange market, the domestic
unit opened lower at 74.10 per
dollar from the previous close
of 74.08.
It touched a low of 74.27
during the day following a
weak trend in domestic equi-
ties, before clawing back lost
ground to end at 73.86.
The domestic currency had
lost 128 paise in the last eight
trading sessions till Thursday.
Meanwhile, the dollar
index, which gauges the green-
back's strength against a basket
of six currencies, was trading at
91.93, up 0.05 per cent.
"In the last couple of days,
the rupee has seen risk on
account of higher crude oil and
the stronger dollar index. After
falling for eight consecutive
days, the rupee gained taking
cues from stronger Asian cur-
rencies and lower crude oil
prices.
"There was aggressive dol-
FRPSDQLHV
V rience, LIC Cards Services
UROORXW
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Vellore :With a record 9,381
placement offers rolled out by
740 companies for the 2021
graduating batch, Vellore
Institute of Technology (VIT)
emerges yet again as the top
institution in India for Campus
Recruitment.
For the third successive
year, more than 700 companies
have visited Vellore Institute of
Technology (VIT) for campus
placement and the number of
offers provided this year is the
highest for VIT since its incep-
tion. This number is nothing
short of a milestone consider-
ing the severe impact of the
prevailing COVID 19 pan-
demic. This record number of
offers include Super Dream
and Dream offers through the
campus recruitment held vir-
tually.
Students belonging to all
the four campuses of VIT –
Vellore, Chennai, Amaravathi
(Andhra Pradesh) and Bhopal
(Madhya Pradesh) took part in
the centralised campus recruit-
ment process.
The Campus Recruitment
was held for the first time at
Bhopal and Amaravathi cam-
puses and more than 90% of
the students from these cam-
puses have received placement
offers from top MNCs. PNS
WZLQVFRPHWRUHVFXH?C8Q <D<108
The bids would be open on
July 8 and close on July 9.
The government is in the
process of deciding on the
final contours for the disin-
vestment of loss-making Air
India.
A special purpose vehicle -
- Air India Assets Holding Ltd
(AIAHL) -- has been set up to
hold the non-core assets of Air
India group.
AIAHL was set up for
warehousing accumulated
working capital loan not
backed by any asset along with
four subsidiaries -- Air India
Air Transport Services Ltd,
Airline Allied Services Ltd,
Air India Engineering Services
Ltd (AIESL) and Hotel
Corporation of India Ltd (HCI)
-- and various non-core
assets.
lar selling from few foreign
banks and IPO related inflows
well supported Rupee," said
Dilip Parmar, Research
Analyst, HDFC Securities.
Parmar further noted that
near-term focus will remain on
crude oil, dollar index and
capital flows for the rupee
trend.
On the domestic equity
market front, the BSE Sensex
ended 21.12 points or 0.04 per
cent higher at 52,344.45, while
the broader NSE Nifty fell 8.05
points or 0.05 per cent to
15,683.35.
Brent crude futures, the
global oil benchmark, fell 0.64
per cent to USD 72.61 per bar-
rel.
Foreign institutional
investors were net sellers in the
capital market on Thursday as
they offloaded shares worth Rs
879.73 crore, as per exchange
data.
"The USD-INR spot is at
an inflection point, though
optimism over Fed rate hikes is
keeping the USD-INR afloat,
the price activity suggests that
revaluation of positioning is
currently taking place," said
Rahul Gupta, Head Of
Research- Currency, Emkay
Global Financial Services.
3RZHUJULG
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New Delhi: Power Grid
Corporation of India Limited
(POWERGRID) has posted
total income of . C40,824 crore
and Profit After Tax of C12,036
crore on consolidated basis for
the financial year ended March
31, 2021, registering a growth
of 6 % and 9% respectively over
corresponding amounts for FY
2019-20. On a standalone basis,
the Company achieved Total
Income of . 40,527 crore and
Profit After Tax of . 11,936
crore registering a growth of
6% and 10% respectively over
the previous financial year.
For the fourth quarter (Jan-
March, 2021), the Total Income
and Profit After Tax on con-
solidated basis are . 10,816
crore and . 3,526 crore respec-
tively, while on standalone
basis, the Total Income and
Profit After Tax are . 10,705
crore and .3,516 crore respec-
tively.
During the financial year
FY 2020-21, the Company
incurred a Capital Expenditure
of . 11,284 crore and capitalized
assets worth . 21,467 crore
(excluding FERV) on consoli-
dated basis. POWERGRID’s
Gross Fixed Assets on a con-
solidated basis stood at .
2,41,498 crore as on March 31,
2021 as against . PNS
eserve Bank Governor
R Shaktikanta Das has
pitched for policy support from
all sides -- fiscal, monetary and
sectoral -- to nurture recovery
of the economy hit by the sec-
ond wave of the coronavirus
pandemic.
The dent on economic
activity due to the second wave
of the pandemic during April-
May necessitated continuation
of monetary measures to sup-
port the process of economic
recovery to make it durable,
Das had said while participat-
ing in the meeting of the
Monetary Policy Committee
(MPC) earlier in the month.
"Overall, the second wave
of COVID-19 has altered the
near-term outlook, and policy
support from all sides – fiscal,
monetary and sectoral – is
required to nurture recovery
and expedite return to nor-
malcy," Das said, as per the
minutes of the meeting released
on Friday.
Going forward, the gover-
nor said the pace of vaccination
and the speed with which the
second wave can be brought
under control will have con-
siderable bearing on the evolv-
ing growth as well the inflation
trajectory.
The Reserve Bank remains
committed to undertake pro-
Bd__[h^UU^^Sc^_aTbRW^^[b
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upplying food to schools
S under mid-day meal
scheme, pre-schools and
anganwadis is exempt from
GST, the Central Board of
Indirect Taxes and Customs
(CBIC) has said.
Issuing a set of clarification
on certain decisions taken by
the GST Council in its 43rd
meeting on May 28, the CBIC
said it had received representa-
tions regarding applicability of
GST on the issues as to whether
serving of food in schools under
mid-day meals scheme would
be exempt if such supplies are
funded by government grants
and/or corporate donations.
Under the goods and ser-
vices tax (GST), any catering
service, including mid-day
meals, provided to an educa-
tional institution is exempt
from the levy. The CBIC said
this would cover serving of any
food to a school, including pre-
school. Further, an anganwadi
;822B;[Pd]RWTb[XR 2< 6TW[^c)6^ecfX[[_a^eXSTbT_PaPcT
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^]ad_Ph_[PcU^a\ Jaipur: Chief Minister Ashok the Chief Minister's residence
Gehlot has said that the State on Thursday with the aim of
o make gifting a more per-
T sonal and enriching expe-
Limited (LIC CSL) has
launched a contactless prepaid
Gift Card - 'SHAGUN' in col-
laboration with IDBI Bank on
RuPay platform. The purpose
of this card is to expand the
Gift Card market by replacing
the Cash Market to Plastic
Market and to e-Gift Cards in
future and also to contribute
towards digital India.
The LIC Gift Card - SHA-
GUN powered by IDBI Bank has
been launched by Shri M R
Kumar, Chairman, LIC of India
in presence of Managing
Directors, LIC and Chief
Executive, LIC CSL. Shri Rakesh
Sharma, MD & CEO, IDBI
Bank and Shri Dilip Asbe, MD
& CEO, NPCI along with their
team members were also
present.
Presently, LIC Gift Card
'SHAGUN' is rolled out for
internal consumption of LIC
and its subsidiaries/associ-
ates.
PNS
active conventional and uncon-
ventional measures and to
effectively channelling the sys-
temic liquidity to alleviate stress
of critical sectors which have
borne the brunt of the second
wave, he said.
Das, and the other five
members of the MPC --
Shashanka Bhide, Ashima
Goyal, Jayanth R Varma,
Mridul K Saggar and Michael
Debabrata Patra -- had voted
for keeping the policy repo rate
unchanged at 4.0 per cent.
RBI Deputy Governor
Patra observed that unlike in
the first wave, supply condi-
tions have remained relatively
resilient in the second wave, but
aggregate demand barring net
exports has been dented and
needs counter-pandemic poli-
cy support.
Even the turnaround in net
exports is fragile and heavily
dependent on the strength of
the vaccination propelled
revival in external demand,
which may be partially offset by
the terms of trade loss on
account of the rise in interna-
tional commodity prices, par-
ticularly crude oil, he
noted.
Patra further said the MPC
has created the necessary con-
ditions for supporting growth
by maintaining the policy rate
at its lowest level ever.
"The onus is on the Reserve
inter alia provides pre-school
non-formal education and
hence, anganwadi is covered by
the definition of educational
institution (as pre-school).
"...It is clarified that services
provided to an educational
institution by way of serving of
food ( catering including mid-
day meals) is exempt from
levy of GST irrespective of its
funding from government
grants or corporate donations.
"Educational institutions as
defined in the (GST) notifica-
tion include anganwadi. Hence,
serving of food to anganwadi
shall also be covered by said
exemption, whether sponsored
by government or through
donation from corporates," the
CBIC said on June 17.
EY Tax Partner Abhishek
Jain said the clarification by the
government that the GST
exemption on catering ser-
vices provided to educational
institutions will have a wide
ambit will be much appreciat-
ed by the stakeholders.
Government will provide sep-
arate funds for development
works to the Gram Panchayats
doing excellent work in the
field of Covid vaccination. The
Chief Minister has instructed
the officers that a plan should
be prepared soon to encourage
the Panchayats leading in the
vaccination work.
Gehlot was addressing a
video conference organised at
Bank to operationalize the
MPC's guidance on an ongoing
basis by ensuring congenial
financial conditions across the
system as well as for specific
sectors, instruments and insti-
tutions," he said.
RBI Executive Director
Mridul K Saggar said the solace
is that economic growth has
not fallen off the cliff in Q1 as
it did a year ago.
It is possible that that ini-
tial GDP estimates do not pro-
vide full visibility and the
impact on informal and unor-
ganised economy may be deep-
er, he said.
Also, if the economy does
expand by 9.5 per cent this year,
the output level in 2021-22 will
be just 1.6 per cent higher than
in the pre-pandemic year 2019-
20, he added.
He further said inflation is
expected to stay elevated from
the target but below the upper
tolerance level through the
year. The government has
tasked the RBI to retain infla-
tion at 4 per cent with a mar-
gin of 2 per cent on either
side.
External MPC member
Jayanth R Varma said inflation
rates have been consistently
well above the mid point of the
tolerance zone for an extend-
ed period and are forecast to
remain elevated for some
time.
3T_c^U?T]bX^]
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^aVP]XbTbcWTXabTR^]S
ePRRX]PcX^]RP\_
T he Department of Pension
& Pensioners' Welfare on
Friday carried out their second,
in a series, vaccination camp to
protect their staff and officers
from the Corona virus. During
this camp officers, staff and their
family members from 18 to 44
years of age were administered
the Covishield vaccine. The
Department in order to ensure
safety of the staff and officers
undertook this task and includ-
ed the family members as well,
in order to make the protection
drive of the employees more
effective. Dr Jitendra Singh,
MoS(PP) graced the occasion in
the presence of Secretary
Pension & Pensioners' Welfare
and other officers and staff of
the Department.
About 150 people were
vaccinated during this drive
which was organised in the
CSOI premises of the Ministry
of Personnel, PG & Pensions.
The camp was organised in
open air sprawling lawns in
order to reduce the chances of
infection.
increasing awareness and par-
ticipation in covid vaccina-
tion. . Up to ward level public
representatives, social workers,
voluntary organizations, NCC,
NSS, scout-guides, sportsmen,
self-help groups, including
intellectuals who have influ-
ence in the society, will have to
play social responsibility in
the vaccination
campaign. PNS
?C8Q <D<108
he BSE Sensex staged a
T smart recovery to end in
the positive terrain after diving
over 722 points during the
session on Friday, as heavy-
weights Reliance and HDFC
duo saved the day for the
benchmark.
After swinging over 985
points during the day, the BSE
gauge ended 21.12 points or
0.04 per cent higher at
52,344.45.
On the other hand, the
broader NSE Nifty slipped 8.05
points or 0.05 per cent to close
at 15,683.35. Intraday, the index
touched a high of 15,761.50
and a low of 15,450.90.
In the Sensex pack, 18
shares suffered losses and 12
ended with gains. ONGC was
the top loser in the Sensex
pack, shedding around 4 per
cent, followed by NTPC,
PowerGrid, M&M, Nestle
India, SBI and HCL Tech.
On the other hand, HUL,
Bajaj Auto, Bharti Airtel, Bajaj
Finserv and IndusInd Bank
were major gainers. Index
heavyweights Reliance
Industries as well as HDFC
Bank and HDFC too logged
gains – helping the Sensex end
in the green.
5HWDLOLQIODWLRQIRUIDUP
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?C8Q =4F34;78
etail inflation for farm and
R rural workers rose to 2.94
per cent and 3.12 per cent,
respectively, in May as certain
food items turned
costlier.
The inflation rates in April
had stood at 2.66 per cent and
2.94 per cent, respectively.
"Point-to-point rate of
inflation based on the CPI-AL
(Consumer Price Index for
Agricultural Labourers) and
CPI-RL (Consumer Price Index
for Rural Labourers) stood at
2.94 per cent and 3.12 per cent
in May 2021," the labour min-
istry said in a statement.
It added that the inflation
rates based on CPI-AL and
CPI-RL in April 2021 had
stood at 2.66 per cent and 2.94
per cent, respectively; and 8.40
per cent and 8.12 per cent dur-
ing May 2020.
Food inflation based on
CPI-AL and CPI-RL stood at
1.54 per cent and 1.73 per cent,
respectively, during May 2021.
They had stood at 1.24 per cent
and 1.54 per cent, respective-
ly, in April 2021; and 10.40 per
\^]Th(
Sectorally, power, utilities,
metal, oil and gas, basic mate-
rials and realty indices fell up
to 2.77 per cent.
While, BSE telecom,
FMCG and consumer durables
indices ended with gains.
Broader midcap and small-
cap indices dropped up to 0.89
per cent.
During the week, the
Sensex declined 130.31 points
or 0.24 per cent, while the Nifty
fell 116 points or 0.73 per
cent.
"The market continued to
be in the consolidation phase
witnessing broad-based selling,
taking cues from the Fed pol-
icy and mixed global markets.
US bond yields have cooled off
from its high as global markets
seem to have digested the lat-
est Fed comments,” said Vinod
Nair, Head of Research at
Geojit Financial Services.
China's plan to sell metal
reserves to check recent price
hikes has pulled down the sec-
tor's sentiments, he added.
Elsewhere in Asia, bours-
es in Hong Kong and Seoul
ended on a positive note, while
Shanghai and Tokyo closed
lower.
Stock exchanges in Europe
were largely trading with loss-
es in mid-session deals.
cent and 10.21 per cent in May
last year.
All-India CPI-AL and CPI-
RL for May this year rose eight
notch each to 1,049 and 1,057
points, respectively.
The major contribution
towards the rise in general
index of agricultural labour-
ers and rural labourers came
from food, with (+) 6.67
points and (+) 6.16 points,
respectively. This was mainly
due to a rise in prices of
wheat atta, meat goat, fish
fresh, mustard oil, groundnut
oil, pulses, and vegetables and
fruits.
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arkets regulator Sebi on
M Friday extended the
deadline till July 20 for sub-
mitting public comments on
the suggestions made by the
technical group on social stock
exchange in the wake of ongo-
ing coronavirus pandemic.
Earlier, public comments
were sought till June 20.
"In view of the requests
received from stakeholders
seeking extension of timeline
for submission of comments
due to COVID-19 pandemic, it
has been decided to extend the
timeline for seeking public
comments to July 20, 2021,"
Sebi said in a notice.
A Sebi-appointed panel in
May suggested a detailed
framework for onboarding
social enterprises and non-
profit organisations on the
proposed social stock
exchange.
Under the framework, cor-
porate foundations, political
and religious organisations,
among other entities should not
be allowed to be on the bourse.
The panel had also listed 15
broad activities that will make a
social enterprise (SE) eligible to
be onboarded on the exchange.
In its report to Sebi, the
panel, under the chairman-
ship of NABARD former chair-
man Harsh Kumar Bhanwala,
had deliberated on aspects
related to the ecosystem devel-
opment, especially on social
auditors.
SEs eligible to participate in
social stock exchange should be
entities -- non-profit organisa-
tion (NPO) and for-profit
social enterprise (FPE) having
social intent and impact as their
primary goal.
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OLD STORIES,
NEW VOICES
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he storytelling tradition,
T Dastangoi, comes from two
Persian words Dastan, mean-
ing ‘story’, and goi, meaning ‘to tell’.
Traditional bards, called dastango in
Persian, acted out tales in parts of
the Arab world, Persia and India.
Yaar Julahay, a new offering by
Zee Theatre brings to life the stories
of progressive Urdu and Hindi writ-
ers like Gulzar, Saadat Hasan Manto,
Ismat Chughtai, Munshi
Premchand, Amrita Pritam,
Qurratulain Haider, Balwant Singh,
Asad Muhammad Khan, Ghulam
Abbas, Rajinder Singh Bedi and
Intezar Hussain through dramatic
readings. The name of the series is
inspired by a Gulzar poem and pays
a tribute to writers who craft stories
with the deftness of master weavers.
Pakistani actor, Mahira Khan
featured in the opening episode of
the 12-part series, reading Ahmad
Nadeem Qasmi’s classic story,
Guriya. Some names who will be
featured in the series are Sarmad
Khoosat, Sarwat Gilani, Nimra
Bucha, Fawad Khan, Sania Saeed,
Irfan Khoosat, Yasra Rizvi, Samiya
Mumtaz, and Faisal Qureshi.
Humsafar maker Sarmad, who
has directed Yaar Julahay with his
sister Kanwal Khoosat also appears
in the second episode with a rendi-
tion of Qurratulain Haider’s Nazara
Hai Darmiyan, talks to us during a
break as he recovers from COVID-
19.
QWhile a post pandemic world
has encouraged the growth of
audio-visual media through the
internet, Dastangoi is an intimate
and somewhat personal art form.
With it being “interpreted in a con-
temporary way” for Yaar Julahay,
how was the essence of Dastangoi
retained during the series?
As far as retaining the essence
of Dastangoi in this audio-visual
medium which is not theatre, is con-
cerned, I think, we started right at
the beginning with getting the basic
expression right. The way it is
made, makes it theatrical for the
actors because for them the tech-
nique is very similar to a live per-
formance. So it’s not shot in broken
segments and has that flow in a per-
formance which is essential for the-
atre. It has that sort of an uninter-
rupted kind of delivery which is a
very important aspect of theatre and
we retained it through rehearsals
and the performance exercises.
Clearly, we had to shoot the sto-
ries for the camera but the basic dis-
cipline which has kind of become
redundant for TV and screen, was
retained. Also I feel, people are so
overstimulated by visuals and
imagery that the essence of a story
gets lost. Stories have to be heard in
a pure, direct way, I feel. Storytelling
essentially comes wrapped in the
process of listening, especially in
Dastangoi where the spoken word is
the primary force.
What we have done in Yaar
Julahay is to open a new avenue for
the audience which may not have
discovered the magic of Dastangoi.
So even if the stories are recorded,
the audience ‘listen’ to them as
opposed to say, watching film or TV
shows that offer so much visual
stimulation. We do have sets and
props but there is only one actor and
the atmosphere is not flashy. What
remains in the end is the story that
has been told without any distrac-
tions or interventions in a consis-
tently minimal environment.
Q Your sister and you are
known to approach a project with
a certain artistic sensitivity and
deep respect for the material you
are working with. For a project as
unique as this on what premise
were the storytellers chosen, apart
from their mainstream appeal?
With artists, what really matters
is how much time you can spend
CPWXaaTbd\TbbW^^cX]V
ctor Tahir Raj Bhasin is
A delighted that he has
resumed working in
Mumbai, a city that was
forced to shut down due to
the second wave of the
Coronavirus pandemic. With
the rise in cases, the projects
that Tahir was filming for,
had all shifted their shooting
locations outside Mumbai.
He is finally back in the city
after three months and has
started dubbing for his forth-
coming release Looop Lapeta.
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with them on the journey to collec-
tively execute a certain idea with
integrity and purity. We are lucky to
be acquainted with a lot of celebrat-
ed, seasoned and experienced actors
who we know are on the same wave-
length as us. These are people we
have worked with and who are
known for their command on the
craft regardless of their mainstream
appeal. For some, this format was
new because they do not come
from the background of theatre but
they were note-perfect after spend-
ing enough time in the preproduc-
tion phase and rehearsals. I think we
have a very interesting blend of per-
formers. Also what made things eas-
ier was that the narration style was
not didactic and did not need to be
projected towards a live audience.
Everyone wore microphones and
though the format was unfamiliar
for many, every single actor brought
something personal, unique and
special to their narration.
QYour biopic on Manto, which
achieved critical acclaim back in
2015, is said to have piqued the
interest of the masses towards the
life and works of one of the finest
Urdu writers of the 20th century.
Fast forward to 2021, Yaar Julahay
also features a story by Manto.
Tahir says, “It really feels dubbing for Looop Lapeta. As
great to be back in Mumbai
and start working after the
soon as I finish this, I will be
starting to work on a new
country was engulfed in the project that I’m supremely
deadly second wave. excited about. I have been
Mumbai has a very different also finishing my brand
energy and I have loved commitments here before I
every bit of my time here. It dive into my film commit-
is a city that has given me ments. I had left the town to
wind beneath my wings to shoot in different parts of the
aspire and soar creatively country as cases spiked. So,
and I’m eternally thankful to it’s great to see Mumbai
the city for helping me to coming back to normalcy
chase my dreams.” and for the industry to
He adds, “I have started restart.”
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What would you put down your
fascination with Manto to?
I think my fascination or almost
obsession with Manto is no secret
anymore and I don’t think about it
too actively. It’s almost like ‘ishq’ and
it is here to stay and nothing can
change it. I also think Urdu litera-
ture, of the subcontinent in partic-
ular, cannot be complete without his
works. His work is like a pillar that
other literary movements and writ-
ers lean against and derive inspira-
tion from. The flavour of his writ-
ing is very unique and there’s no one
like him. Writers like Manto,
Rajinder Singh B edi, and
Qurratulain Hyder give us a very
interesting insight in terms of our
history and their works are not
about nationality or geography but
all of us, all sorts of people, commu-
nities and characters who have
inhabited this region. So Manto of
course was not to be missed. The
journey of curating other stories was
also an interesting process of discov-
ery and rediscovery. I re-read Bedi
and was floored and with Amrita
Pritam, I had mostly read her
Punjabi poetry and went on to dis-
cover her short stories. And then I
explored the works of contemporary
writers like Asad Muhammad Khan
sahab and many more. But Manto
Tahir says he felt disori-
ented when the shooting
had to be paused in Mumbai,
the home to the Hindi film
industry.
He says, “This is a city of
dreams and it’s always on
every second of the day.
That’s the charm of Mumbai.
So it’s disorienting to have
seen it shut, for the industry
to be paralysed and for peo-
ple to not have work.”
Tahir will be seen in
Looop Lapeta as a romantic
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for me is like this door which takes
me to all these other incredible trea-
sures. I started reading him at a very
young age and for me he was my
introduction to serious literature.
QUndoubtedly, choice works of
some of the most prolific Urdu and
Hindi writers were handpicked
for this project. But which one of
them do you hold most dear,
putting Manto and Qurratulain
Haider’s Nazara Hai Darmiyan
aside?
As they say in Hindi and Urdu,
meri kya aukaat. Who am I to
choose from such great legends or
create a hierarchy of preferences?
Each one has something so unique
and extraordinary to offer. But if I
were to choose anyone apart from
Manto and Qurratulain Haider, it
would be Asad Muhammad Khan
for his story ‘Kokon’. His work
belies the perception that Urdu fic-
tion and literature have not grown
beyond a certain decade post the
Partition. Writers like Asad
Muhammad Khan are still alive and
not only experimenting with their
craft and genres but creating incred-
ible literary milestones. Their work
is so easily relatable and for the lack
of a better word, so modern and
postmodern. Their work generates
hope because it is evolutionary and
shows that more diverse experi-
ments in Urdu literature can still
unfold . So I would choose, Kokon
for its content, storytelling, style and
particularly for its genre which, in
my limited knowledge, is not
explored often enough.
QHow relevant are the stories
showcased in Yaar Julahay in the
present day context?
As far as the relevance is con-
cerned, I think, one needs to contex-
tualise what kind of relevance are we
talking about. In any case, relevance
is an essential quality of great liter-
ature and every memorable story
stands the test of time. These stories
have stayed with us for decades and
some have been told and retold for
over a century now. They do speak
of different generations and connect
with different people differently but
at their core, there is always a uni-
versal human emotion. Such narra-
tions of real life and even fictional
works come from sensitive, univer-
sally resonant observations. When I
compare my 14 years of compulso-
ry education of history, which is
mandatory in Pakistan, to even just
a bunch of short stories written by
Manto, I think the latter inculcated
much more empathy and under-
standing of historical events in me.
The experience of reading these writ-
ers is richer than what you can find
in many history books put togeth-
er. Literature and art have that
power of conveying meaning and
substance in a way that is timeless
and stays with you forever.
QDo you foresee a scope for
such collaborations which tran-
scends the Indo-Pak borders in the
future?
I don’t know if I foresee a scope.
I wish there was one. I wish there
were more collaborations. I wish the
exchange the two nations started a
few years ago, had continued. It’s
almost tragic that art which aims to
transcend borders and boundaries
and is essentially about connecting
and bonding people, is subjected to
such harshness and unfairness. I
hope there are opportunities for
artists and creative people on both
sides of the border, to connect and
work together.
(Yaar Julahay will be screened on
DishTV D2H Rangmanch Active
throughout this week.)
hero opposite Taapsee
Pannu, in Bulbul Tarang
opposite Sonakshi Sinha and
Yeh Kaali Kaali Ankhein, in
which he has been paired
with Sweta Tripathi. He will
also be seen in the Ranveer
Singh starrer 83, directed
by Kabir Khan, in which he
plays the role of the leg-
endary Indian cricketer Sunil
Gavaskar. With four good
projects under his belt, Tahir
is set to charm the audience
with his acting skills.
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une 20 is the day when we absence? How can he find
Jacknowledge
celebrate fatherhood and
the important
solace in a world that has
denied him the protection and
role that fathers play in shap- warmth of a father figure? Will
ing our lives. Here is our pick fate intervene? How will he
of the films that will remind help heal his grieving mother?
you of the warm and caring This Aijaz Khan directorial
paternal presence in your life. starring the luminous Rasika
KD: This 2019 Yoodlee produc-
Duggal, Vikas Kumar and
young Talha Arshad Reshi in a
tion was critically acclaimed for
refreshingly humanising a
national award winning role is
a stirring adaptation of the play
patriarch rather than glorifying Phone No. 786 by Mohd. Amin
him as a Bhat. Its heart-breaking and yet
proverbial uplifting narrative reminds us
pillar of
strength.
of the unaddressed pain of
bereaved children when
There is an
inner child
tragedy deprives them of the
sheltering presence of a father
within our figure.
70-some-
thing pro- Piku: This sweet and salty
tagonist
Karuppu
Durai (Mu
2015 Shoojit Sarkar directori-
al captured the highs and lows
of a co-dependent relation-
Ramaswamy) who wakes up
from a long illness and escapes
from his home and children
who are all set to euthanize
him. The joy he feels when an
eight- year-old wisecracker
Kutty (Nagavishal in a National
award-winning role) bonds
with him, shows us how wrong
we are when we look at old age
as an ending rather than a
beginning of new adventures.
Directed with wit and sensitiv-
ity by Madhumita, this engag-
ing Tamil film is a heart-warm-
ing and eye-opening reflec-
tion on relationships, life and
death. It is an affirmation that
age does not extinguish the ship between a hypochondriac
desire to fulfil dormant ambi- father and his spunky daugh-
tions and should not prevent ter. There is a certain role
anyone from enjoying life’s lit- reversal here as the father
tle and big pleasures. monopolises the attention of
his daughter while she has to
Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil parent his mood swings, com-
Girl: This 2020 Dharma pro- plaints and bouts of anxiety
duction, essayed a father’s sup- about little and big things. The
port for his daughter beautiful- two constantly fight, bicker
ly in a world where patriarchal and talk over each other but
attitudes more often than not also share a bond that nothing
and nobody can weaken.
Produced by N P Singh, Ronnie
Lahiri and Sneha Rajani, the
film reminds the audience that
there will come a time when a
parent who has always been the
source of strength will grow
older, weaker and will need
care, time, patience and uncon-
ditional love. The film starred
Deepika Padukone in the titu-
lar role along with Amitabh
Bachchan and Irrfan Khan.
Hindi Medium: This 2017 Saket
Chaudhary directorial was a
good-natured critique of the
irrational ambitions of parents,
snuff out the dreams and ambi- especially when it comes to the
tions of young women. The education of their children. The
Sharan Sharma directorial voice of reason in this film
based on the life of Gunjan belongs to Raam Batra, the eter-
Saxena, one of the first Indian nally caring husband and father
female Air Force pilots in com-
bat, had a sterling performance
by Pankaj Tripathi who plays
the wind beneath his daughter
Gunjan’s (Janhvi Kapoor)
wings. Calm, soft-spoken, wise
and nurturing, he stands up to
his wife and son to encourage
Gunjan to soar and proves
that fathers, too, can play an
important role in empowering
their daughters.
Hamid: This 2019 Yoodlee
production is a moving story
about what happens when a
loving father and husband goes who is happy with the success of
missing. How can a young his boutique in Chandni Chowk
child make sense of his and content with his family life.
However, egged by his wife’s
desire to admit their daughter to
a prestigious school, he is will-
ing to go through any amount of
stress till he can no longer
ignore the truth. The film starred
the effortlessly brilliant Irrfan
Khan with Saba Qamar, Deepak
Dobriyal and Dishita Sehgal
and commented on not just the
warped education system but
how unhealthy the obsession to
keep up appearances can be. The
film was produced by Dinesh
Vijan and Bhushan Kumar.
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t the age of 50, on May 22, 2019, whelmed by the admiration and adulation is now used to train management folks. “I was documenting almost every crit- Rights and You), an NGO which has

A Aditya Gupta was coming to terms

with the overwhelming joy of being
at the summit of Mount Everest. Just five
days after being on top of the world, he was
back home in Delhi and could not help but
revisit the memories of the past few
weeks. Replaying the dicey situations, he
tells us that things could have gone south
real quick.
“Climbing Mt Everest is a constant bat-
tle. You are walking past dead bodies which
serve as landmarks for those who are alive.
It teaches you that there is something
deeply unexplainable which is helping you.
It also serves the reminder that you are not
alone while enforcing the power of good
wishes of my family and friends. You know,
it is not recommended for people to stay
on the summit for more than 10-15 min-
utes, because getting there is only half the
job. The summit push can’t be regarded as
a successful one until you get back, but I
was spellbound, and could not help
myself. Since I am an avid photgrapher I
was constantly looking around, overcome
by gratitude since we were treated with
clear skies on side while the other half of
the sky was cloudy. It was an extraordinary
view and we ended up staying on the sum-
mit for over half an hour. We should not
have overstayed, however, God was kind
and we made it back without any untoward
incident,” Aditya recounted.
Ace mountaineer, TEDx speaker and
founder of a leading sustainable home-
grown decor brand, Aditya was over-
that came his way after getting back, but
he quickly got over it. He told us that he
wanted to do a lot more with his experi-
ence than just acknowledging compli-
ments.
“As someone who had a considerable
reach on social media, I quickly got accus-
tomed to people congratulating me. I had
climbed Mt Everest and yes, it was no mean
feat, ‘thank you very much’ but I remem-
ber thinking that surely there was a lot
more that I could do with my experience.
Following up on this though process, I
accepted offers to give talks at
schools and other organisa-
tions. After I came back and
put up my story on social
media, someone from
Baroda reached out to
me, seeking permission
to use my experience in
the formulation of a
management based game.
I eagerly agreed and they
successfully developed that
gamified experience, which
Such interactions happened to be very ful-
filling and lent substance to the purpose
of sharing my experience. Thinking back,
even three months after coming back I
could not not get over my feat and kept
thinking that I need to do more. That is
when I decided that I should put togeth-
er a book highlighting my journey,” said
Aditya thoughtfully.
In August 2019, he started piecing
together his experience, bit by bit. And he
tells us it was not as easy as it might have
seemed. Shortlisting over 300 photographs
from 3,500 - 4,000 was just one
humongous task among many
others but, behind the scenes,
he felt that the book was
about so much more than
scaling Mt Everest.
ical juncture on the way to the top.
Revisiting those images rekindled my
memories. Whole thing was playing in my
mind. The weeks that led to the climax of
the summit push, all those dicey situations.
That is when I realised that the book could-
n’t simply be about climbing Everest. Okay,
Everest is the content but the context is
about life, in a larger sense. And when I
went down this path, I did not realise the
effort it would take. It was like climbing
another mountain altogether. It took me
more than a year to finish the whole thing
and the pandemic slowed the process
down, but I am glad I took my time since
it helped enhance my vision. It is just like
that saying, ‘all good things take time’,”
Aditya shared with a smile.
On April 2021, amid the raging pan-
demic, he launched 7 Lessons from Everest,
as a colourised, coffee table book. While
the book in itself was about so much more
than scaling the highest peak on the plan-
et, Aditya’s appreciation for life was under-
lined by the fact that all proceeds from the
sales of the book went to CRY (Child
been helping vulnerable children survive
and thrive in a post-Covid world. We ask
him whether there is any one lesson that
he would say is more prominent than the
others. His response?
“I cannot possibly explain how hard it
is to pick, which is why I just elaborated
on seven. I could have just as easily men-
tioned 25 lessons. You have to understand
that the prominence of the lesson depends
on the circumstances you are dealing with.
Everest is just a metaphor. The book serves
the notion that life need not be about
climbing a mountain called Everest. It is
about taking on large goals which others
would not even consider pursuing.
Bottomline is, if someone as ordinary as
me could climb Everest with a body that
was half a century old, anyone can do any-
thing. You just need to apply yourself
according to the need of the moment,”
Aditya wrapped up nonchalantly.
That last statement piqued our curios-
ity and we can’t wait to flip through his
book to see what other pearls of wisdom
he has in store for us.

GBTQ+ activist, performer
L and the winner of 2014 Mr
Gay India, Sushant Divgikar
says it is “preposterous that
some people think dehumanis-
ing an entire community of
people is “funny and that it is
OK to do so.”
The singer and drag icon
also released and featured in a
music video titled Diamond
and has recently crossed a mil-
lion followers on social media.
The influencer-activist is
also known under his drag alter
ego Rani Ko-He-Nur. Divgikar
joined the country’s singing
competition, Sa Re Ga Ma Pa,
which was broadcast on nation-
al television in 2018 — the
same year the Indian Supreme
Court repealed the Section 377
law criminalising homosexual-
ity.
´<_fUQ^T\Ud\_fUµ
even people in remote villages
and smaller towns, understand
what drag is.
Despite homosexuality
being decriminalised, there
remain cultural and psycho-
;61C@PRcXeXbcBDB70=C38E68:0AbPhbcWPcaTVPaS[Tbb^U logical barriers to its accep-
tance. Your thoughts.
fWTcWTah^d³aT_Pac^UcWTaPX]Q^fUP\X[h^a]^c[XeTP]S[Tc[XeT This is because some peo-
ple in power (not generalising)
against time and time again, you all. What are your thoughts are extremely toxic and don’t
will instantly realise that a queer about the song and video? want to accept ground realities.
person’s life is met with by Yes, that’s right. I thought of They would rather be blissful-
struggles and hurdles at every creating Diamond, along with ly unaware about things they
juncture. We need to be more my fellow bandmate, amazing don't know that confront what
mindful and be more inclusive musician and dear friend, makes them uncomfortable —
as well as empathetic to sexual Arthur Lobo along with our uncomfortable because they
minorities and other minority manager Niki (Parambir Kaur). don’t have a clear conscience.
groups that are glazed rather We have spent a lot of time on I agree. The psychological
subconsciously by toxic patri- this baby and we wanted people and cultural acceptance has
archy, toxic preconceived to experience what I personal- still to grow in India but I
notions and unsettling, contin- ly have experienced more than believe that day is not far. Till
uous conditioning! once, empowerment. that day comes, I just want to
Empowerment because of self tell trolls and haters that your

Don’t compare formats: Swara

ulshan Devaiah and Swara Bhaskar
G appear in the short film Dobara Alvida,
and we struck up an interesting conversa-
tion with the duo about the notion of audi-
ence span getting shorter by the day.
“If you are good with your craft, you
can create the effect using any short format
— whether it is a short film, ad-film, poet-
ry or Haiku. One shouldn’t compare
between formats because every format,
whether it is feature or short, brings its
magic. I think these days, the short format
of storytelling works better because people
consume content on the move more. Also,
people’s attention span is shorter,” Swara
says.
Gulshan adds, “If we look at advertis-
ing or ad-films, we can see the power of
storytelling in short format, as short as 15
seconds. So, yes, the short format of sto-
rytelling surely does create an impact accu-
rately. I think overall creating impact
through storytelling depends on skill of the
storyteller and not on the format. With a
web series or a feature film, the challenges
are different — like raising money — and
for a short film it is about bringing popu-
lar actors on board. Also, a format of any
story has everything to do with the story.
One cannot concise a story that demands
a feature format into a short film!”
Gulshan does not agree that people
have a shorter attention span these days,
as many believe. The actor explains, “I
think it is nothing but a myth that people
have a shorter attention span now. A sec-
tion of people always has a shorter atten-
tion span. There were always TV serials
and feature films as well as short films. In
the last few years, we have also started
adopting the habit of binge-watching and
that is how web series are giving us
changes to show elaborate characters. I
think the whole jazz of ‘people have short
attention span’ is a marketing strategy and
how content creators want to monetise
their videos or short stories. If you want
5,000k views within two hours, obviously
you need a two-minute content that goes
viral with repeat view. It is all about cre-
ating trends.”
Gulshan and Swara’s short film Dobara
Alvida is directed by Shashank S Singh, and
has released on the digital platform Royal
Stag Barrel Select Large Short Films as well
as on YouTube. 80=B
Having been in the enter-
tainment space since a decade
and a half, Divgikar has been
roped in by corporate houses
and non-profits alike to discuss
equality and equity and support
their respective inclusion and
diversity campaigns. Using his
art to break barriers and by
embracing his masculine and
feminine side, he inspires peo-
ple from all over the world to
find courage to live their life
fiercely and freely. He is also an
industrial psychologist. Excerpt
of the interview:
You have been an active
part of the entertainment and
lifestyle industry for quite a
few years. Would you say the
journey to fame and success is
more challenging for people
with non-cishet identities?
Yes. Now that you remind-
ed me , it’s been 15 years I have
been actively part of the enter-
tainment industry. I wouldn’t say
one person’s struggle is more or
less than another’s but if you see
an entire section of society such
as the LGBTQIA+ community,
that has constantly been dehu-
manised and discriminated
Do you find enough main-
stream representation of peo-
ple from the LGBTQIA+ com-
munity? What are some stereo-
types we can do away with?
Absolutely not! Queer peo-
ple are, in fact, misrepresented
nearly all the time. We need to
do better, collectively! We have
a lot of blood on our hands
because of the way we have so
conveniently made queer char-
acters in mainstream pop cul-
ture and media, the laughing
stock at every given opportuni-
ty. It is preposterous that some
people think dehumanising an
entire community of people is
'funny’ and that it is OK to do
so.
One of the certain stereo-
types we need to do away with
is that every queer person
should only be shown as over-
ly flamboyant. Another ridicu-
lous and catastrophic stereotype
we have we do away with is
queer characters made to look
like their libido is constantly
touching the ceiling and that
they will throw themselves at
every person in the room. I
especially detest instances where
some filmmakers have shown
gay characters literally looking
like sexual predators and being
disrespectful and bitchy all the
time.
You have released your
music video Diamond this
year. It speaks of rising above
‘labelling’ and acceptance of
love and self acceptance. The
song speaks of identifying one’s
self worth and then celebrating
it to become the truest, most
authentic version of themselves.
Each and every one of us is a
diamond in our own right and
that's what the song portrays.
Do you think ‘Drag’ as a
concept is understood in India
outside designated safe spaces?
Yes I do. I actually think we
don’t give as much credit to our
audiences as we should give. We
are quick to judge the audience
without even understanding
that they are open to learning
and understanding the content
they consume. More often than
not, we put forth rubbish, sense-
less and mediocre content for
them to consume because we
think, they might not be evolved
enough to understand intellec-
tual and stellar content. But
how can we judge the audience
when we haven’t even tried?
My audience didn’t know
what drag is. But today with the
power of art, social media and
other mediums of communica-
tion, such as radio, television
and print media, I have made
opinions and statements about
me or anyone else, can never
and will never dictate our real-
ities.
People from the communi-
ty often have trouble finding
LGBTQIA-friendly psycholo-
gists and therapists. Being a
psychologist too, how do you
view this inaccessibility to
non-judgmental mental health
care for people who are often
even more sidelined by the sta-
tus quo?
Mental health professionals
who judge their clients should
immediately resign! That’s all.
There’s nothing more or less to
add or subtract. Plain and sim-
ple. It is against ethics to judge
and discriminate against your
client, especially if you’re a
mental health professional.
On the occasion of Pride
Month, do you have any mes-
sage for those who are reading
this?
I just want to tell everyone
out there, regardless of whether
you’re part of the rainbow fam-
ily or not. Live and let live and
love and let love.
80=B
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Depay, Dumfries do it for Dutch
'HQ]HOVFRUHVLQQGVXFFHVVLYHJDPHDIWHU0HPSKLV
A tearful Neymar inspired hosts Brazil to
become the first side to qualify for the Copa
America knock-out stages following a 4-0 win
HDUO\SHQDOW\WRFRQILUPODVWSODFHIRU1HWKHUODQGV
over Peru in Rio de Janeiro on Thursday. 05?Q 0<BC4A30< Budapest for a last-16 tie on June
Goals from Alex Sandro, Neymar, Everton 27 against a third-place finisher.
Ribeiro and Richarlison gave the holders a emphis Depay’s early De Boer said coming into the
ninth straight win and a perfect six points from
two games in Group B as Peru dropped to the bot-
tom.
M penalty set
Netherlands on the way
to a 2-0 win over Austria in
the Euro that the 1988 champions were
“between the fourth and eighth-
best team” and already they can see BfTST]b4\X[5^abQTaVaXVWcRT[TQaPcTbfXcWcTP\\PcTEXZc^a2[PTbb^]PUcTabR^aX]V
There was little between the two sides in the Amsterdam on Thursday, their their path opening up to the quar- WXbbXSTb^_T]X]VV^P[SdaX]VVa^d_4\PcRWPVPX]bcB[^ePZXP 0?
first half but Brazil’s greater quality made the dif- second straight victory at Euro ter-finals.

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ference after the break as talisman Neymar 2020 securing qualification for They will still need to improve
inspired them to an ultimately comfortable vic- the last 16 already as winners of if they are to stand a chance of
tory. Group C. going any further, but they appear
“It’s emotional for me because many things Depay made no mistake from to be finding their feet in the 3-5-
happened in these last two years that were diffi- the spot in the 11th minute after 2 system that De Boer has contro- 05?Q BC?4C4AB1DA6 It was Sweden who almost
cult, complicated,” said Neymar as the tears David Alaba’s foul on Denzel versially opted for. made the breakthrough twice
flowed. Dumfries was spotted by the Israeli As for Austria, they can nev- mil Forsberg’s second-half before the hour mark, as
Two years ago he missed Brazil’s Copa tri-
umph on home soil through injury, although
referee only after he had come
across to review the images.
ertheless still qualify for the last 16
with a game against Ukraine to
E penalty sealed Sweden a 1-0
win over Slovakia in Saint
Newcastle stopper Dubravka
tipped away Ludwig
before the tournament began he was accused of Dumfries, so impressive in the come. Whoever comes second in Petersburg on Friday as the Augustinsson’s header and
rape, a case that was dismissed over a lack of evi- thrilling opening 3-2 win over this group will play the Group A Scandinavians moved top of Marcus Danielson nodded over
dence. Ukraine, added another midway winners — either Wales or Italy — Euro 2020 Group E. from the resulting corner.
His 68th goal in 107 games for his country through the second half, his sec- in London on June 26. Janne Andersson’s men, who Sweden continued to press
took him to within nine of the record set by Brazil ond goal of the tournament. played out a goalless draw with for the winner, as Alexander
great Pele. The Dutch were comfortable ERIKSEN LEAVES HOSPITAL Spain in their opener, now look Isak’s header looped onto the
“It’s an honor for me to be part of the Brazilian at home in the Johan Cruyff Arena Denmark midfielder Christian set to reach the knockout stage roof of the net. Isak then almost
national team history. To be honest, my dream and Frank de Boer’s side are so far Eriksen has been discharged from for the first time since 2004. scored one of the great Euro
was always to play for the Selecao, to wear this making a success of their first hospital following a ‘successful A point in their final game goals, weaving past four defend-
jersey. I never imagined achieving these numbers.” major tournament appearance operation’ six days after suffering against Poland at the Krestovsky ers before seeing a low strike
Earlier, Venezuela held out under intense since the 2014 World Cup. a cardiac arrest at Euro 2020, the Stadium on Wednesday would saved by Dubravka at his near
pressure in a fractious local derby against Ukraine beat North Danish Football Union (DBU) be enough to be sure of a top- post.
Colombia to secure their first point at the Copa Macedonia 2-1 earlier in Bucharest announced on Friday. two finish in the group. Sweden finally forged ahead,
America after a 0-0 and, with head-to-head the first “The operation went well, and Slovakia could have quali- though, in the 77th minute, as
draw in Goiania. tiebreaker, the Dutch now cannot I am doing well under the circum- fied with a game to spare with a RB Leipzig midfielder Forsberg
Goalkeeper be caught at the top of the group. stances,” Eriksen said in a state- win, but still have their fate in beat Dubravka from the penal-
Wuilker Farinez They have six points, while ment. “Thank you for the massive their own hands ahead of their ty spot after the ‘keeper had
made a string of fine Austria and Ukraine have three number of greetings-it has been final match against Spain in brought down substitute Robin
saves, particularly in and North Macedonia nothing. incredible to see and feel.” Seville. Quaison.
the closing stages, to That means De Boer can rest Eriksen was able to visit his Both sides had spells of Slovakia laid a late siege on
keep out the players for the final group game team-mates at their training base pressure in the first half without their opponents’ goal, but saw an
Colombians, who against North Macedonia on in Helsingor, north of the Danish creating many chances, perhaps optimistic late penalty appeal for
saw a late Miguel Monday, safe in the knowledge that capital. He will now return home in the knowledge a point would handball turned down as
Borja goal ruled the Dutch will be going to 3T]iT[3d\UaXTbRT[TQaPcTbPUcTabR^aX]VCWT=TcWTa[P]SbbTR^]SV^P[ 0? to spend time with his family. be a reasonably good result. Sweden held on.
out for offside.
Colombia
also finished
the game
with 10
3b_QdYQS_]UVb_]RUXY^Td_UQb^!cd`_Y^d
m e n 05?Q 6;0B6>F asked Carlos del Cerro Grande to check
after Luis the pitchside monitor in the first half.
Diaz was van Perisic rescued a 1-1 draw for Perisic levelled early in the second
sent off
deep into injury time.
Ileading
Croatia after Patrik Schick became the
scorer in Euro 2020 with a con-
period to earn a vital point for the 2018
World Cup finalists.
Colombia fin- troversial penalty. The Czech Republic now has four
ished the game Schick scored a decisive double, points in the group, while Croatia has one
with 23 shots to including a stunning long-range strike, in from its two matches.
just two — includ- Czech Republic’s opening 2-0 Group D win Croatia played better against the
ing none on tar- over Scotland at Hampden Park and put Czechs than they did against England, but
get — from his side in front from the spot at the same the team still lacks the spark that took it
Venezuela but venue. to the 2018 World Cup final.
the ‘Red Wine’ Croatia were understandably aggriev- The Croats will next face Scotland on
held out for a ed that Dejan Lovren was penalised for Tuesday at Hampden Park, needing a win. B_PX]R^PRW;dXb4]aX`dTcWXaSUa^\aXVWc^]5aXSPhfT[R^\TbQPRZ;PA^YP RP_cPX]BTaVX^
much needed seemingly accidentally catching Schick on The Czechs will play England at Wembley 1db`dTcbfW^cTbcTS]TVPcXeTU^a2^eXS (^]CWdabSPhP]SfPbP[[^fTSQPRZfXcWcWTcTP\PUcTa
point. the nose with his elbow after the VAR 2iTRW´b?PcaXZBRWXRZRT[TQaPcTbPUcTabR^aX]V 0? Stadium. QTX]VX]Xb^[PcX^]bX]RTcTbcX]V_^bXcXeT^]9d]T% /BT5dcQ^[

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Shafali keeps India in game

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uration levels, after a bout with
Covid-19, in the Intensive
Care Unit of the PGIMER
hospital.
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Swithhafali Verma continued to
amaze the cricketing world
her audacious stroke-
the third interruption, the
umpires called for tea and
that was the end of the day’s
19 last month and tested neg-
ative for the virus on
Wednesday when he was shift-
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women’s Tests to smash two sant rain. Ua^\FX\Q[TS^]WTaPVT]cR^]UXa\TS^]

half centuries on debut, taking
India to 83 for 1 at stumps on
the third day of one-off Test
against England.
The teenage prodigy was
batting on 55 not out off 68
balls in the Indian second
innings when the day’s play
ended after the third session
was washed out by rains.
6ULGKDUUXOHVRXWFKDQJHLQ,QGLD¶V;,
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defied the England bowlers for _d[[TS^dc^UcWT5aT]RW>_T]RXcX]VWTa
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the post-lunch session which
started 30 minutes late due to O’BRIEN RETIRES FROM ODIS
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the whole second session with- GD3 6Y^Q\4Qi" viewers and audience want, a complete WPbP]]^d]RTSWXbaTcXaT\T]cUa^\>38b
out any success.
Iinndia’s fielding coach R Sridhar <YfUVb_]#* `]9CD game,” the former Hyderabad left-arm PS\XccX]VcWPcWT]^[^]VTaWPbcWT²Wd]VTa
The other opener Smriti
Mandhana was dismissed in
ruled out the possibility of a change
the playing XI after the opening day DE2CDA@CED"?6EH@C<
spinner said.
On the players’ front, Sridhar feels
cY]`\UbUQ\YcdYS* B_ P]S[^eT³U^acWTU^a\Pc]TTSTSc^R^\_TcT

Another debutant Deepti
Sharma, who was promoted to
number 3 after her resolute 29
not out in the first innings, was
giving Verma company on
unbeaten 18 after India were
forced to follow-on in the
one-off Test.
Before Verma, Lesley
Cooke (England), Jessica
Louise Jonassen (Australia)
and Vanessa Bowen (Sri
Lanka) were the other players
who have scored two 50-plus
scores in their debut matches.
India trail by 82 runs over-
all with nine second innings
wickets in hand and they still
need to do a lot of work to save
the match on the final day on
Saturday.
Only 45.5 overs were pos-
the morning session for 8,
caught in the slips off
Katherine Brunt’s bowling.
Earlier, India Women were
left with a mountain to climb
after being shot out for 231 in
their first innings, half an
hour before lunch.
After a dramatic collapse
on the second day on
Thursday, India’s batting woes
continued as they lost five
wickets for the addition of just
44 runs in 21.2 overs in the
morning session.
Left-arm spinner Sophie
Ecclestone (4/88) was the pick
of the England bowlers with
four wickets while pacers
Katherine Brunt and Anya
Shrubsole took the last two
Indian wickets.
of the World Test Championship
final against New Zealand was washed
out, insisting that the chosen players
are capable of making conditions
irrelevant.
The fickle English weather means
that temperatures would go down and
there would be overcast conditions
and after a day of frustrating wait and
no toss, a question was asked if India
would still like to go in with three pac-
ers and two specialist spinners.
“I was expecting this to be first
question. The eleven that has been
announced is eleven that takes con-
ditions out of equation,” Sridhar told
the media after the opening day
wash-out.
“I think its the eleven which can
play and perform on any given sur-
face and any given weather conditions.
This eleven that has been put on park.
that Shubman Gill, irrespective of an
If need be, a decision will be taken.” underwhelming England series and
The first day’s play being aban- below-par first phase of IPL, has
doned means that if required, looked in good nick.
four hours of play will be pos- “Shubman Gill is a million dol-
sible on the sixth day which is lar cricketer. He is batting brilliantly
reserved for a result. now. I am not in a position to give you
“It’s trial and refinement technical details as that will be an
with experience that ICC has answer better given by (batting
got in organising coach) Vikram (Rathour),” he
matches and they said.
know what it is “I have given him
about. And we all throwdowns and seen him
know how the bat. He is looking in good
English weather is,” nick and looking in excel-
Srdhar said. lent mindset. He is clear
“I think they have about his role and game-
been prudent and wise. As it plan. He is an exciting
is, if play starts on time, we prospect for India in long
are looking at four hours of term and I just can’t wait to
play on the reserve day. watch him play,” the fielding
“That’s going to make it coach added.
Southampton: Rohit Sharma believes
that keeping things ‘simple and real-
istic’ against a quality side like New
Zealand should be the way to go for
the Indian team in the Word Test
Championship final.
Rohit, who will be opening for the
first time in England, is also confident
of tackling the Kiwi attack, having
faced it enough in the shorter formats.
“I have played those guys and
know about their strengths and weak-
nesses. It will all boil down to what the
conditions are, what sort of situation
the team is in, whether we are batting
first or second,” Rohit told Star Sports.
“All that will count and it’s impor-
tant not to overthink. Against a qual-
ity side, it is also very important to
keep things simple, and realistic,” said
the senior opener. PTI
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