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As India prepared to hold animportant international

meet on Afghanistan nextweek, it has termed Pakistan’sdecision not to attend it as“unfortunate” and said its rolein Afghanistan is “pernicious.”

This reaction on Fridaycame ahead of the NationalSecurity Advisers (NSA)-levelmeet on November 10 here toreview the situation inAfghanistan. India has reachedto all the neighbouring coun-tries, including Pakistan, toattend the meet.

However, Pakistan playedspoilsport by declining theinvitation. Its NSA MoeedYusuf said he will not attend themeeting as there will be no rep-resentation of the Taliban.

Taking note of Pakistan’srefusal, Government sourceshere on Friday described“Pakistan’s comments againstIndia as an unsuccessful

attempt to deflect attentionfrom its pernicious role inAfghanistan”.

Sources also said Pakistan’sdecision is unfortunate, but notsurprising. “It reflects its mind-set of viewing Afghanistan asits protectorate. Pakistan hasnot attended previous meetingsof this format,” officials said.

India has extended invita-tion to several central Asiancountries, including Tajikistanand Uzbekistan, besides Russia,Iran and China. Ajit Doval(NSA)will host the conclave. Itwill be held in offline mode.

Addressing a Press confer-ence in Pakistan, when asked ifhe planned to visit India for thetalks, the Pakistan NSA said, “Iwill not go. A spoiler cannotplay the role of peacemaker.”

Meanwhile, sources saidthe high-level participation in

next week’s meeting hosted byIndia reflects the widespreadconcern of regional countriesabout situation in Afghanistanand their desire to consult andcoordinate with each other.India has an important role toplay in this process.

“Invitations have beenextended to China andPakistan too, and formalresponses are awaited.However, Pakistan has indi-cated through the media that itwill not attend,” they said.

There has been an over-whelming response to India’sinvitation. Central Asian coun-tries as well as Russia andIran, have confirmed partici-pation (first time that allCentral Asian countries, notjust Afghanistan’s immediateneighbours, are participating inthis format), sources said.

Two earlier meetings inthis format were held in Iran inSeptember 2018 and December2019. The third meeting inIndia could not be held earlierdue to the ongoing coronapandemic, they said.

Justifying its role inAfghanistan, the Pakistani NSAalso said in the Press confer-ence on Tuesday, “It may be aluxury for the Western worldsitting 10,000 miles away (tonot bother about Afghanistan)but we do not have any optionto disengage fromAfghanistan.”

Explaining Pakistan’s sup-port for the Taliban dispensa-tion in Kabul, the NSA said theworld needs to engage withthem in order to prevent ahumanitarian crisis.

“This is not a matter of theTaliban or some otherGovernment but of the ordi-nary Afghan (citizens) â�¦ Weare the biggest victim of this(instability in Afghanistan) sowhen we talk about stability inAfghanistan then one (reason)is that it is the right of ourAfghan brothers and sisters.But secondly, it is also neces-sary for our national securitythat there is stability inAfghanistan and continuouspeace is established,” Yusufsaid.

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Under severe flak from var-ious quarters for its lop-

sided investigations in the mid-sea drug bust case involvingShah Rukh Khan’s son AryanKhan leading to the grant ofbail to the accused, theNarcotics Control Bureau(NCB) on Friday replaced itsMumbai Zonal team, headedby controversial IRS officerSameer Wankhede, with aSpecial Investigation Team(SIT) comprising officers fromOperations Branch of NCBheadquarters to investigate thesensational case.

Stopping short of sayingthat it has removed Wankhede— who is facing several seriouscharges ranging from bribery,forging his caste certificate tojoin IRS to enjoying “lavishlifestyle”— from the teaminvestigating the mid-sea drugbust case, an apparently embar-rassed NCB merely said that itsDirector General had “consti-tuted” an SIT comprising offi-cers from New Delhi to “takeover” as many as six caseswith national and internation-al ramifications” from itsMumbai Zonal unit.

In a brief couched state-ment issued in the evening,Deputy Director-General(Ops) Sanjay Kumar Singhsaid, “A Special InvestigationTeam (SIT) comprising officersfrom Operations branch ofNarcotics Control Bureau

(NCB) has been constituted bythe Director General, NCB, totake over a total of 6 cases fromthe NCB Mumbai Zonal Unit,which have national and inter-national ramifications.”

“In order to conduct deep-er investigations to find out for-ward and backward linkages,no officer has been removedfrom their present roles andthey will continue to assist theOperation Branch investigationas required until any ordersissued to the contrary. It is reiterated that the NCBfunctions across the country asa single integrated unit,” Singhsaid.

The appointment of anSIT team comes in the wake ofthe NCB ordering vigilanceprobe into the “vigilance mat-ters” relating to the ongoinginvestigations in the mid-seadrug bust case and summon-

ing of Wankhede to its head-quarters in the capital lastweek for a meeting with thetop bosses.

The two events were afallout of the allegations madethrough an affidavit by “panchwitness” Prabhakar R Sail,including the charge of �8crore extortion attempt, in themid-sea drug bust case.

What has embarrassedmost is the manner in which isthe fact that Bollywood super-star Shah Rukh’s son Aryanand two other accused —Arbaaz Merchant andMunmun Dhamecha — weregranted bail by the BombayHigh Court on October 28,while a special NDPS courtgranted bail to two accusedahead of the high court grant-ing bail to Aryan and two andtwo others and it granted bailto nine others on October 30.

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India has asked Pakistanthrough diplomatic chan-

nels to grant overflight clear-ance to GoFirst’s Srinagar toSharjah flights in the largerinterest of the common people.Pakistan on Tuesday did not allow the Srinagar-Sharjah flight to use its air-space, forcing it to take a longer route and fly overGujarat to reach its destinationin the United Arab Emirates(UAE).

The duration of theSrinagar-Sharjah flight hasgone up by 45 minutes, increas-ing from three hours and 30minutes to four hours and 15minutes. The airline begandirect flights between Srinagarand Sharjah city in the UAEfrom October 23.

Top sources said that thematter has been promptlyraised through the diplomaticchannels in this regard.

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Prime Minister NarendraModi exhorted citizens to

take their children to visit his-torical sites linked to India’sfreedom struggle and alsoancient shrines to give them asense of the nation’s heritage.Modi said this after unveilingthe statue of AdiShankaracharya at the recon-structed ShankaracharyaSamadhi in Kedarnath apartfrom unveiling the foundationstones for various works andinaugurating other works total-ing �400 crore on Friday.

Addressing a gatheringafter offering special prayersand unveiling various works,Modi spoke in detail about Adi

Shankaracharya, his life, worksand teachings. Stating thatKedarnath offers a uniqueglimpse of India, he exhorted

the people to visit historicalsites related to India’s freedomstruggle and ancient shrinesalong with their children so

that they are also aware of thenation’s spiritual and culturalheritage.

Continued on Page 2

�� -9:�;9<1&

Politics over oil prices flared-up on Friday as the BJP

accused Opposition-ruledStates of Rajasthan,Maharashtra, West Bengal andDelhi of not reducing VAT onpetrol and diesel after theCentral Governmentannounced to a cut in exciseduty with slashing of localsales tax (VAT) rates of fuel.

Petrol price has been fur-ther reduced by as much as�8.7 per litre and diesel by�9.52 in the BJP-ruled Statesand UTs — from Ladakh toPuducherry.

Buckling under pressure,the Union Government had onWednesday cut excise duty on

petrol by �5 per litre and thaton diesel by �10 a litre to givereprieve to consumers batteredby record-high retail fuel prices.

Taking on the “Jeb Katronse savdhan’ jibe of Congressleader Rahul Gandhi whoaccused the Modi Governmentof tax extortion, the BJP askedwho is today proving to be“bigger jeb katra” and con-demned what it called “vulturepolitics” of the Congress.

Addressing a Press confer-ence here, national spokesmanof the BJP Gaurav Bhatia asked

why the Congress andOpposition-ruled States arenot reducing VAT on petroland diesel to give more relief tothe common men as has beendone by BJP-run States .

He said in Uttar PradeshVAT is �21.86 and inUttarakhand it is �20.46 whilein Maharashtra where, he said,under “maha vasooli aagadiGovernment” VAT on petrol is�31.19 and petrol is selling at�110.

Attacking Congress-runAshok Gehlot Government ofRajasthan and Congress pres-ident Sonia Gandhi, the BJP leader saidpetrol in Rajasthan’sGanganagar is selling at �121and diesel at �112 per liter.

Bhatia demanded thatPrime Minister NarendraModi’s initiative of reducing oilexcise duty should be carriedforward by all States by lower-ing VAT and criticised Gehlotfor “ not welcoming” excise cutby the centre and seeking fur-ther cut on it”.

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Over a month after trig-gering political storm in

Punjab by quitting as theState Congress president overthe key appointments in theCharanjit Singh Channi ledGovernment, Navjot SinghSidhu on Friday finally with-

drew his resignation, while atthe same t ime declaring that he would rejointhe office only after theappointment of the State’snew Advocate-General (AG).

Days after putting up a“united” show with Channi byv i s i t i n gKedarnath and later address-ing the party meeting, Sidhuquestioned his own party’sGovernment on what it hasdone in 50 days on the State’stwo big issues — drugs andsacrilege.

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Aday after Diwali, the airquality of the national

Capital on Friday deterioratedto “very poor” category withthe air quality index crossingthe 600 mark at several loca-tions across Delhi, whileGhaziabad and Noida crossed800 mark in morning hours.

According to the latestupdate by System of AirQuality and WeatherForecasting And Research(SAFAR), the air quality in sev-eral areas in Delhi was record-ed in the “very poor” categorywith AQI ranging around 400.

The air quality in Delhi wasrecorded in the “hazardous”category at Janpath in the cityearly on Friday. The particulatematter (PM) 2.5 concentrationwas recorded at 655.07 inJanpath on Friday morning,according to news agency ANI.As per Government standards,PM 2.5 concentrations over 380are marked as “severe.”

While as per SAFAR modelthe share of stubble emissionshas peaked 36 per cent, in last

24 hours values of ParticulateMatter ( PM ) 2.5 recordedhigher as compared to postDiwali day of last year.

RK Jenamani, IMD Delhisaid, “Overall air quality in

‘severe’ category today afterbursting for firecrackers onDiwali and presence of bio-mass pollutants in Delhi. Theair quality and fog condition toimprove once wind speed picks

up. No wind and high moistureis causing fog conditions.”

Extremely poor pollutionlevels were previously predict-ed in Delhi due to firecrackeremissions, unfavourable weath-er and a significant spike instubble burning in neighbour-ing states.

SAFAR in its short range

weather forecast said “verycalm” local Delhi wind condi-tions with little ventilation isexpected for the next three dayswhich will be unfavourable fordispersion of pollutants. Delhi’sPM2.5 concentration is pre-dicted to be in the upper endof the ‘very poor’ category tillNovember 6.

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The Delhi High Court hasslapped a fine of �20,000 on

CRPF Director GeneralKuldiep Singh in response to acontempt petition.

The court order came fol-lowing non-compliance of itsorder passed on June 9 this yearon a writ petition filed by agroup serving CRPF officersaggrieved by the discriminatory provisions ofpromotion for medical officers and combatant officers.

Through its order in June,the court had directed theCRPF chief to address thegrievances of the combatantofficers within 12 weeks.

The petitioners wereaggrieved with the anomalies inthe promotional entitlement of the medicalcadre officers of the paramili-tary who were getting a fasterpromotion than the combatantofficers.

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Restrictions on bursting ofcrackers, it seems, has suc-

ceeded in bringing down thehigh-spirited Punjabis whoindulged in comparatively lesspolluted Diwali this year.

With the Governmentallowing bursting of “onlygreen crackers” for just twohours, the state’s air quality onDiwali day this year recordeda substantial drop of 18 percentin comparison to the previousyear.

Punjabis, who are globallyknown for their over-the-topcelebrations, indulged in com-paratively “less polluted”Diwali, with the air pollutionlevels across the state onThursday recorded in “poor”category at 268. It was betterthan “very poor” air quality,328, recorded in 2020 onDiwali day.

“Punjab saw an averageAQI reduction of 18.3 percentfrom the last year,” said a seniorofficial of the Punjab PollutionControl Board (PPCB). “Themaximum AQI was recorded atJalandhar this year with AQI

category ‘very poor’. However,the last year maximum value ofAQI was observed in Amritsar,”said the official, adding that theminimum AQI for this yearwas recorded in MandiGobindgarh with AQI of 220(Poor) against the last yearvalue of 262.

Last year, the AQI of thefour cities — Amritsar,Ludhiana, Jalandhar, andPatiala — remained in “verypoor” category. However, thisyear, the AQI of only two cities— Amritsar and Jalandhar —remained in the “very poor”category. The maximum AQI

reduction was observed inPatiala (27.8 percent) and min-imum was observed inJalandhar (0.3 percent). AnAQI between zero and 50 isconsidered “good”, 51 and 100“satisfactory”, 101 and 200“moderate”, 201 and 300 “poor”,301 and 400 “very poor”, and401 and 500 “severe”.

Notably, Punjab hadallowed bursting of only greencrackers for two hours — 8 pmto 10 pm. However, sale anduse of any kind of firecrackershad been prohibited in thecities of Mandi Gobindgarhand Jalandhar from midnight

of October 28-29 to the mid-night of December 31, 2021,and January 1, 2022, as theaverage AQI for November inMandi Gobindgarh andJalandhar has remained in“poor” category.

“The Punjab PollutionControl Board thanked thepeople of the state for follow-ing the advisory issued withrespect to time for bursting offire crackers and using thegreen crackers for celebrationsof Diwali festival, resulting inoverall improvement in AirQuality,” said PPCB membersecretary Karunesh Garg. The

state Pollution Control Boardhas installed six ContinuousAmbient Air QualityMonitoring Stations(CAAQMS) in Amritsar,Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Khanna,Mandi Gobindgarh, and Patialato monitor the ambient airquality on a real time basis.

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Taking note of the worsenedair quality due to Diwali

celebrations, Punjab Healthand Family WelfareDepartment on Friday advisedthe people to stay indoors,and avoid outdoor activitiesuntil the air quality indeximproves. Notably, the air qual-ity index (AQI) in Jalandharand Amritsar was in the “verypoor” category, while in Patialaand Ludhiana, it was in the“poor” category. Ropar is theonly district in the State thatwas in the green zone (satis-factory) category.

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Vowing to restore the pristineglory of Punjab, the Chief

Minister Charanjit SinghChanni on Friday described hisgovernment as the ‘Governmentof common man, for the com-mon man and by the commonman’.

“Punjab will soon be trans-formed into the ‘GoldenSparrow of India’,” said Channiwhile addressing the gatheringat 111th Sri Vishwakarma PujaUtsav. The Chief Minister saidthat concerted efforts will bemade for holistic developmentof the state on one hand andprosperity of its people on theother.

Evoking LordVishwakarma, the divine archi-tect of entire universe, he said

that with blessings of Lord amechanism is being evolved toput the state on a trajectory ofhigh economic growth. No stonewas being left unturned forcomprehensive development of

state, he said.“From day one, mymajor thrust is only ensuringtransparent, responsive, and cit-izen-centric administration.Several path breaking initia-tives including cheap power,Basera scheme, ownership rightsto people living within Lal Lakir,and others have been alreadyinitiated by Government,” saidChanni adding that not onlythis, but several other decisionswill be taken in coming days.Channi said that technologicalskills, coupled with day-to-dayadvancements, had facilitatedmankind to grow swiftly. Heappealed to people, especiallythe youth, to improve their pro-fessional skills and enhancetheir abilities for availing opti-mal job opportunities.

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The air quality index (AQI)was recorded in “severe

category” at many places inHaryana on Friday as theban on the sale or use of fire-crackers in 14 NCR districtswent for a toss on Diwali thisyear.

The residents woke up toa thick layer of smog in NCRdistricts including Gurugram,Faridabad, Jind, Panipat,Bhiwani, Charkhi Dadriamong others.

According to the CentralPollution Control Board, Jindrecorded the worst air quali-ty index which was 498 at 5pm. Many major cities record-ed the worst AQI in themorning as well as in theevening a day after the Diwalinight.

At many places, the AQIwas in the “very poor” cate-gory on November 4 but dete-riorated to “severe category”on November 5. AQI record-

ed by CPCB at 4 pm (averageof past 24 hours) was 472 inGurugram, 469 in Faridabad,462 in Jind, 437 in Bhiwani,437 in Rohtak, 424 in CharkhiDadri, 405 in Hisar, 413 inPanipat, 400 in Sonipat.

An AQI between 0-50 isconsidered good, 51-100 sat-isfactory, 101-200 moderate,201-300 poor, 301-400 verypoor and 401-500 severe.

A ‘very poor’ AQI essen-tially means that people maysuffer from respiratory ill-nesses on prolonged exposureto such air. If the air qualitydips further, the AQI turns‘severe’, which may troubleeven those with sound healthconditions and seriouslyaffect those with ailment.

Among other parts of thestate, the 24 hours averageAQI at 4 pm was 377 inKaithal, 329 in Karnal and314 in Palwal. Panchkularecorded the AQI of 161 inthe moderate category.

Apart from cracker burst-

ing, low temperatures andstubble burning in the agrar-ian states of Punjab andHaryana are among the caus-es of deterioration in air qual-ity across the region aroundthis time of the year.

Notably, Har yanaGovernment had on October31 imposed a complete banagainst sale or use of all kindsof firecrackers in all the 14NCR distr icts namelyBhiwani, Charkhi Dadri,Faridabad, Gurugram, Jhajjar,Jind, Karnal, Mahendergarh,Nuh, Palwal, Panipat, Rewari,Rohtak and Sonipat.

Apart from this, onlygreen crackers were allowedto be sold in cities and townswhere the air quality was inthe moderate or below cate-gory and the bursting ofcrackers was permitted onlyfrom 8 pm to 10 pm.

However, cracker burstingcontinued till late Diwalinight as well on Friday in var-ious districts in the state.

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Two BJP leaders on Fridayfaced farmers’ ire in two

different parts of Haryana overthe issue of three central farmlaws.

In Hisar, the windshield ofBJP MP Ram Chander Jangra'scar was smashed after somepeople allegedly threw lathis athis vehicle during a farmers’protest while former MinisterManish Grover alongwithother party leaders were heldcaptive for several hours insidea temple complex in Rohtak byprotesting farmers.

The farmers staged aprotest against BJP’s RajyaSabha MP Jangra on his arrivalin Narnaund town of Hisarwhere he had gone to inaugu-rate a community centre.

The farmers had gatherednear the venue carrying blackflags and chanted slogansagainst the MP. In a scufflebetween the Haryana policeand farmers protesting againstthe three contentious farmlaws, the windshield of theMP’s car was also smashed.

Few people reportedly receivedinjuries during the scuffle.Jangra described the incident as“a clear murder attempt”.Talking to mediapersons, hesaid “After concluding my pro-gramme, I was on my way toattend another function whensome miscreants threw lathison my car, leaving it damaged.No one was hurt. I was sittingin the back seat of the car.”

“I spoke to Haryana DGPand the SP regarding this inci-dent. I have demanded strictpunishment as per law againstthe culprits.

Police officials informedme that two people have beenarrested in connection with theincident,” the MP said. He fur-ther said, “I was attending asocial function but not a polit-ical function. I was going toattend two more programmesin Narwana and Uchana buthad to cancel the visits as mycar was damaged, he added.

Former Haryana MinisterManish Grover along withother BJP leaders was alsoheld up inside a temple com-plex in Kiloi village in Rohtak

district for several hours onFriday as farmers staged aprotest outside. The incidentoccurred when Grover alongwith the local BJP leadersreached the temple complex aspart of their plan to watch fromthere the live telecast of PrimeMinister Narendra Modiunveiling a statue of AdiShankaracharya at the seer'srebuilt samadhi in Kedarnath.

When the villagers andfarmers came to know that theBJP leaders were at the templecomplex, they surrounded thesite, preventing the BJP leadersfrom coming out. The protes-tors also demanded that Grovershould apologise to the farm-ers.

Senior officials of districtadministration and police ofRohtak and some from neigh-bouring districts were deployedat the site throughout the dayto prevent escalation of the sit-uation. Police said that thedemonstrators allowed the BJPleaders to leave temple complexin the evening after the districtadministration and police offi-cials pacified them.

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As many as 15 patientswith eye injuries due to

fire crackers came to theAdvanced Eye Centre in thePGIMER, Chandigarh in thepast 24 hours on Friday.

These patients included13 men, two women and sixchildren, with the youngestbeing eight years of age. Ofthese, ten patients werebystanders, while five werebursting crackers themselves.

An official statement stat-ed that crackers responsiblefor the injuries were rockets inthree cases, while differenttypes of bombs were respon-sible for injuring 12 patients.Twelve patients will be need-ing surgical intervention, nineof them have serious openglobe injuries.

Nine patients have alreadybeen operated on and threeare currently undergoingsurgery, it stated. In theAdvanced Trauma centre,PGIMER, three patients with

burn injuries came. Onepatient who had around 25per cent burns (involvingchest and arms) was admittedto the Burns ward in Block-Aof Nehru hospital.

Remaining two patientswith minor injuries were dis-charged after first aid. TheDepartment of Plastic Surgeryreceived 4 patients injuredduring Diwali festivities. Twopatients sustained major ther-mal burns (25 percent and 70per cent) while lighting can-dles.

Another young patientsustained grievous handinjuries as a firecracker burstwhile he was holding it.Similarly one patient sus-tained deep burns of thigh andhand due to firecracker blast.

Both these patients arealso under close observationand will require multiple surg-eries over the next few days.Last year, 27 patients with eyeinjuries due to fire crackerswere admitted to theAdvanced Eye Centre.

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Celebrated singer ofUttarakhand Narendra

Singh Negi and Bollywoodsinger Jubin Nautiyal releaseda new Pahadi song of youngartiste from Jaunsar Bawar,Abhinav Chauhan titled"Thandi Thandi Hawa" at anevent in Vikasnagar.

The filming of the musicvideo for the song was done inthe valleys of Uttarakhand. Theemerging artist Abhinav, whoalready has about one millionviews of his famous Jaunsarisong “Kodo Ka Kodua”, has alsoparticipated in an MTV reali-ty show, appeared in threeBollywood films and two webseries. He also garnered appre-ciation from Narendra SinghNegi and Jubin Nautiyal for hissinging and acting talent.Nautiyal said that the singer’snew music album is great andwished him the best for his

future. Negi also admiredAbhinav saying that he hasdisplayed Uttarakhand’s folkculture appreciably in the music

video. In the event, the jointdirector of the InformationDepartment, KS Chauhan, folksingers Meena Rana and

Priyanka Negi along withsingers Nautiyal and NarendraSingh Negi also inaugurated arecording studio.

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The process of the CharDham shrines being closed forthe winters began on Fridaywith the portals of Gangotribeing closed ceremoniouslyon the occasion of GovardhanPooja on Friday.Following rit-uals, the portals of the shrineto goddess Ganga were closedto the public at 11:45 AM.

A large number of devoteeswere present as the priestsconducted special prayers onthe occasion. The Utsav Doli of

the goddess departed fromGangotri after closing of theshrine. It will pass through var-ious locations before reachingthe winter abode of the goddessat Mukhba. The Uttarkashidistrict magistrate Mayur Dixitinformed that more than32,948 pilgrims visitedGangotri during the pilgrimageseason this year. TheUttarakhand Char DhamDevasthanam ManagementBoard media in-charge HarishGaur inroemd that the portalsof Kedarnath and Yamunotri

will be ritually closed for thewinter on Saturday morning.While the Utsav Doli of lordKedarnath will reach his win-ter abode at Omkareshwartemple in Ukhimath, the UtsavDoli of goddess Yamuna willreach her winter abode atKharsali village. Similarly, theportals of Badrinath temple willbe closed to the public for thewinter on November 20. So farabout 4.5 lakh pilgrims haveundertaken the Char DhamYatra in Uttarakhand this year,added Gaur.

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The official programme andthe entire ceremony of

Prime Minister Narendra Modiat Kedarnath was anchored byKanchan Negi of Dehradun.Usually the programmes ofPM are covered by anchorsfrom Delhi.

The tourism departmentand Kedarnath UtthanCharitable Trust had askedNegi to anchor the event whichwas streamed live in differentplatforms. Negi is a trainer,educationalist and is alsoengaged in coordinationbetween government of Indiaand different departments ofstate government.

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The opposition Congress hastermed the Kedarnath visit

of Prime Minister NarendraModi as disappointing for thepeople of Uttarakhand.

The former chief ministerand head of election campaigncommittee Harish Rawat saidthat the PM made noannouncements for the disas-ter affected state ofUttarakhand. He criticised thePM for live telecast of hisprayers at the sanctum sancto-rum (Garbh Grah) ofKedarnath temple.

Rawat said that the PMtrampled on the beliefs and tra-dition in his visit. Rawat saidthat the PM delivered such aspeech from the templepremises which was aimed tomeet the political objectives

and the speech was live tele-casted by government com-munication mediums.

The Congress LegislatureParty (CLP) leader PritamSingh said that the PM’s speechhad no mention of Char DhamDevasthanam ManagementBoard act. He said that had thisgovernment been sensitivethen it should have immedi-ately dissolved the act againstwhich the Teerth Purohits areagitating.

The vice president ofUttarakhand CongressSuryakant Dhasmana said thatthe 50 minute long speech ofPM Modi was disappointingfor the state as it had no men-tion of recent rain triggereddisaster in Kumaon,Devasthanam ManagementBoard, green bonus and pre-vailing unemployment in the

state. He said that the onlyfocus of the PM was to ham-mer home the point that onlyhe can protect the SanatanDharma.

Congress leaders offerprayers in Shiva temples Tocounter the political advantagethe BJP hoped to garner fromthe PM’s mega show inKedarnath and its live telecastin all the 12 Jyotirlingas andShakti Peethas, the leaders ofUttarakhand Congress offeredprayers in Shiva temples in dif-ferent parts of the state.

Former CM Harish Rawatoffered prayers at TilBhandeshwar andDaksheshwar temple inHaridwar.

The CLP leader PritamSingh offered prayers atPrithvinath Mahadev temple inDehradun on the day.

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Although Prime MinisterNarendra Modi avoided

political issues and refrainedfrom targeting Oppositionparties in his address inKedarnath on Friday, the toneand tenor of his speech set theagenda of the Bharatiya JanataParty (BJP) for the forth-coming Assembly elections.In fact, it appeared that thePM was carrying forward thepolitical momentum generat-ed by the recent visit of Home

Minister Amit Shah for theBJP from the lofty heights of

holy Kedarnath. In his recentvisit, Shah had said that the

people of Uttarakhand shouldgive five more years to BJP asfilling the ditches createdduring the Congress regimewould take time to fill.

The PM emphaticallystated that he has changed theadage ‘ Pahad Ka Pani andPahad Ki Jawani Pahad KeKaam Nahi Aate’ as develop-ment is occurring at a rapidpace in the Himalayan stateand it would stop migrationfrom the mountainous areas.He also prophesied that thethird decade of the 21st cen-tur y would be ofUttarakhand. Shifting gearseffortlessly between spiritu-alism and scoring politicalvantage points in his 50minute long speech, the PMsaid that the dream of thehighlanders for rail service isgett ing real ized by theRishikesh- Karnprayag raillink and work on the allweather road is going on atfull pace. He also declaredthat people would be able toreach Kedarnath in their carin the near future.

Modi stuck to Hindutva,the core agenda of BJP by stat-ing that a grand Ram Templeis coming up at Ayodhya andsaid that a mega Deepotsavawas held in the holy city onthe occasion of Deepawali. Headded that complete renova-tion of Kashi is also takingplace. Understanding theimportance of the vote bank

of ex-servicemen and thefamily members of the serv-ing personnel of armed forces,

the PM said that it was hisgovernment which acceptedthe age-old demand of One

Rank One Pension (OROP)for the ex-servicemen. Healso added that the moderni-

sation plan of armed forceswould benefit the soldiersand their families.

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The cases of accidents, burnsand other emergencies kept

the wheels of the 108 emer-gency ambulance servicerolling in Deepawali night.The data released by the ambu-lance service suggests that 475

emergency calls were regis-tered by it during Deepawali.

It is worth mentioning here

that the emergencies related tomedical, fire and accidentsincrease appreciably during

the festival of lights and the ser-vice was all geared up meetemergencies on the day.

With 102 cases Dehradundistrict had maximum numberof emergencies during the fes-tival of lights. Haridwar andUdham Singh Nagar had 67cases each on the day. The ser-vice responded to 59 emer-gency calls in Nainital districtand 46 in Pauri. A total of sixburn cases were reported by theservice in Deepawali.

Apart from the fire relatedemergencies, the service alsoreceived 45 cases associatedwith road accidents. InDehradun district alone 11such cases were reported. Thestate head of the 108 emer-gency ambulance service, AnilSharma said that it is a matterof great pride that on Diwaliday when most of the peopleare with their families to cele-brate festival of lights the per-sonnel of the service remain onthe duties to serve emergencycases.

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This Deepawali caused thegeneration of over 80 met-

ric tonnes of plastic waste inDehradun. This waste gener-ation is almost twice thegarbage generated during thefestival last year. After thestate government lifted theban on single-use plastic lastyear due to the Covid-19 pan-demic to prevent spread of thecontagion through reusablebags, the usage of plastic hasincreased manifold in the city.

Despite the reinstatementof the ban earlier this year, theamount of single-use plasticand other plastic waste con-tinues to grow in Dehradun.During festivals, especially onDeepawali, a huge amount ofsuch waste is generated with-in a single day due to extrav-agant gift wrappers, emptyboxes and packets.

Last year, the sanitationworkers had collected over30 metric tonnes of garbagethat mainly included plasticwaste and some waste of burnt

firecrackers. However, thisquantity has increased to over80 metric tonnes thisDeepawali. MA Saify, the pro-ject head of Ramky Company

which manages garbage col-lection here stated that thedaily garbage collectedthrough the sanitation work-ers is generally about 280 met-

ric tonnes but it was over 360metric tonnes on the day afterDeepawali. However, thegarbage of burnt crackers wasless this year, added Saify.

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The MunicipalCorporation of Dehradun(MCD) has directed sanitationworkers to scan the QR Codesinstalled at the entry and exitpoints of local residentialcolonies to monitor the door todoor garbage collection service.The officials instructed thisafter the workers complained ofa delay in the door to door ser-vice due to the scanning pro-cedure.

Earlier this year, theDehradun Smart City Limited(DSCL) had installed 25,000QR codes as a pilot project totrack the movement of garbagecollecting vehicles. However,when the corporation asked thesanitation workers to regular-ly scan the codes, they called ita time-consuming task thatlengthens the garbage collec-tion process in the city.

Considering this, the chiefmunicipal health officer DrKailash Joshi has directed themto scan the code outside thefirst house, last house and oneof the houses in the mid of acolony to ensure that thegarbage is being collected in acertain area.

He said that most of thesanitation workers are not com-fortable with the use of tech-nology to scan the codes due towhich it takes a considerableamount of time for them toscan each home. Due to this,we have asked them to scan theQR codes at entry and exitpoints to verify their visits totheir respective areas, addedJoshi.

He also appealed to thepublic to register their com-plaints in the corporation if thedoor to door service is not reg-ular in their respective areas toensure efficient waste man-agement in the city.

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The Special Task Force(STF) and Dehradun

police have arrested two menfor allegedly paying the infa-mous criminal NarendraValmiki to kill a couple atManglaur in Haridwar. Theaccused had allegedly made adeal of Rs 10 lakh withValmiki, who is currently in aPauri jail, to kill the coupleand had already paid him Rsfour lakh in advance. Thepolice informed that the STFwas monitoring the activitiesof Valmiki and his associatesfor the past few months. Thepolice informed that they received the information of

three shooters arriving inDehradun on October 31 fol-lowing which they werearrested near the Asharodicheck-post the same day.They confessed that they werecalled in here by a shooterPankaj from Roorkee on theorders of Valmiki. The policesaid that the accused informedthat Pankaj gave each of thema pistol and asked them to stayin Dehradun till he calls themto kill the said people inHaridwar. The police identi-fied the victims and soonlocated the two men whopaid Valmiki to kill the cou-ple. On Thursday, the policeand SDRF teams arrested 45-year old Rajkumar Tyagi and

40-year-old Neeraj Tyagi fromManglaur. They revealed dur-ing the investigation that theywanted to kill the couple dueto the matter of family honour,informed the police. Theaccused allegedly revealedthat they contacted Valmikithrough a mobile phone witha fake ID to talk about thecontact to kill two people.They paid Rs four lakh inadvance to an associate ofValmiki and the rest of Rs sixlakh were supposed to bepaid after the kil l ings,informed the police.

The mobile used to con-tact Valmiki has been recov-ered and the accused will bepresented in court soon. ,��!�� "��"�$�� ,"7��&�8��

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The back-to-back visits ofHome Minister Amit

Shah and Prime MinisterNarendra Modi have madethe position of the ChiefMinister Pushkar SinghDhami invincible both in theadministration and the party.While Shah had patted theback of Dhami for efficient-ly managing resources duringthe recent rain triggered dis-aster in the State, Modi onFriday heaped praises on theyoung CM in his speech.

The PM said that underDhami, Uttarakhand is tra-versing the path of develop-ment at a fast pace and thestate would achieve muchfurther heights in develop-ment. He also congratulatedDhami for successful lyaccomplishing the target ofvaccinating the entire eligiblepopulation with the first doseof vaccine. The PM said thatfor a state like Uttarakhandthe task of vaccination istough since the health work-ers have to travel for many

kilometreson foota t o pmountainsto vacci-nate threeto fourf a m i l i e s .The ful ls u p p o r textendedby Modiand Shah,the topduo of theruling BJPto Dhami,i n d i c a t ethat theparty hasfull faithin the abilities of the youngCM. The party has also giventhe slogan ‘Young leader-ship, Young state’ for itsworkers for the upcomingassembly elections. This alsomeans that the BJP wouldenter the elections under theleadership of Dhami and hewould be chief minister inthe event of the party return-ing to power in the state.

It is pertinent to mentionhere that there are six formerchief ministers (major gen-eral (retd) B C Khanduri,Bhagat Singh Koshyari, VijayBahuguna, RameshPokhriyal ‘Nishank’,Trivendra Singh Rawat andTirath Singh Rawat) andheavy weight leaders such asAnil Baluni, Satpal Maharajand Harak Singh Rawat in

BJP. Almost all of the above-

mentioned leaders barringKhanduri consider them-selves in contention for theposition of CM of the state.However the recent visits ofModi and Shah have clearlyindicated that the BJP hasdecided to play its cards onCM Dhami for leading theparty.s

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The Government has cutthe basic duty on Crude

Palm Oil, Crude Soyabean Oiland Crude Sunflower Oil from2.5 percent to nil in a bid torein in the continuous rise inthe cooking oil prices sincepast one year. The Agri-cess onthese Oils has been broughtdown from 20 percent to 7.5percent for Crude Palm Oiland 5 percent for CrudeSoyabean Oil and CrudeSunflower Oil.

Following the above reduc-tion, the total duty is 7.5% forCrude Palm Oil and 5% forCrude Soyabean Oil andCrude Sunflower Oil.According to Food SecretarySudhansu Pandey, edible oilprice in the major retail mar-kets across the country havedeclined by �5-20 per kg aftervarious measures.

For instance, retail palm oilprice in Delhi declined by �5to �133/kg on November 3from �139/kg, while it fell by�18 to �122/kg from �140/kgin Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh,while by �7 to �125/kg in

Cuddalore, Tamil Nadu from�132/kg in the said period,Pandey said. Even retail priceof groundnut oil declined by�5-10/kg, while soyabean oil by�5-11/kg, and sunflower oil by�5-20/kg between October 31and November 3, he added.

Before reduction, the agri-cultural infrastructure cess onall forms of crude edible oilswas 20 percent. Post reduction,the effective duty on crudepalm oil will be 8.25 percent,crude soyabean oil and crudesunflower oil will be 5.5 per-cent each. Major edible Oilsplayers including AdaniWillmar and Ruchi industrieshave cut wholesale prices by�4-7 Per litre. Prices have beenreduced to give relief to con-sumers during festival season.The other players that havereduced the wholesale prices ofedible oils are Gemini Edibles& Fats India, Hyderabad, ModiNaturals, Delhi, Gokul Re-foils and Solvent, Vijay Solvex,Gokul Agro Resources andN.K Proteins.

To control prices of edibleoils, the Government has ratio-nalised import duties on palm

oil, sunflower oil and soy-abean oil, futures trading inmustard oil on NCDEX hasbeen suspended and stock lim-its have been imposed.

Domestic edible oil priceshave soared in tandem with theglobal prices which shot updue to reduced availability ofedible oils for food use fol-lowing diversion for biofuel inIndonesia, Brazil and othercountries. The Governmenthas taken a number of steps toensure consumers get relieffrom high prices. We are happyto share the trend from 167centres. Edible oil prices havedeclined quite significantly inthe range of �5 and 20 per kgin the major retail marketsacross the country, Pandeysaid during a press briefing.

Despite international com-modity prices being high,interventions have been takenby Central Government alongwith State Governments’ proactive involvement have led toreduction in prices of edibleoils. While the global edible oilprices have stabilised at high-er levels in the last ten days, thereduction in import duty andother steps like imposition ofstock limits to curb hoardinghas helped cool down domes-tic prices, the secretary said.

Edible prices are higherthan year ago period but fromOctober onwards, there was adeclining trend. The Government is takingsteps to improve the produc-tion of secondary edible oils,especially rice bran oil toreduce the import depen-dence.

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Th eGovernment

has no proposalto extend distrib-ution of freeration via thePradhan MantriGarib KalyanY o j a n a(PMGKAY) beyondNovember 30 in view ofrecovery in the economy andgood disposal of foodgrains inthe open market.

Since the economy is alsoreviving and our OMSS (openmarket sale scheme) disposalof foodgrains has also beenexceptionally good this year.So, there is no proposal toextend PMGKAY, FoodSecretary Sudhanshu Pandeysaid on Friday during a pressbriefing while responding toa query.

Initially, the additionalfree benefit under thePMGKAY was provided for aperiod of three months (April-June 2020) to ameliorate dis-tress caused by the Covid-19pandemic.

However, with the crisiscontinuing, the programmewas extended for another five months (July-November 2020). After theonset of the second wave ofthe pandemic, the PMGKAYwas once again rolled out fora period of two months (May-June 2021) and was further

extended for a period of fivemonths ( July-November2021).

The PMGKAY wasannounced in March 2020 toameliorate distress caused byCovid-19. Initially, the schemewas launched for the April-June 2020 period but laterextended till November 30.

The Government has beenselling rice and wheat to bulkconsumers under the openmarket sale scheme (OMSS)policy to improve availabilityin the domestic market andcheck prices.

Under the PMGKAY, theGovernment supplies freeration to 80 crore ration cardholders identified under theNational Food Security Act(NFSA).

The free ration is givenover and above the subsidisedgrains distributed to them viaration shops.

The Government has beengiving rice and wheat to bulkconsumers under the OMSSpolicy to improve availabilityin the domestic market andcheck prices.

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With the growing strategicimportance of the Indian

Ocean Region(IOR) andChina’s increased maritimepresence there, navy chiefs of12 countries of the region willreview the entire gamut ofmaritime issues in a three-dayconclave in Goa startingNovember 7.

It is the third edition of theGoa Maritime Conclave(GMC) under the aegis ofNaval War College, Goa. TheGMC is Indian Navy’sOutreach Initiative providing amultinational platform to har-ness the collective wisdom ofpractitioners of maritime secu-rity and the academia towardsgarnering outcome orientedmaritime thought, navy offi-cials said here on Friday.

The GMC-21 will buildupon the working level delib-erations of the Goa MaritimeSymposium-21 held earlier inMay this year, as the Sherpaevent for the Conclave.

The theme for this year’sedition of GMC is MaritimeSecurity and Emerging Non-Traditional Threats: A Case forProactive Role for IOR Navies,which has been derived keep-ing in mind that necessity of‘winning everyday peace’ in themaritime domain.

At the GMC-21, Navy chiefAdmiral Karambir Singh willhost Chiefs of Navies from 12Indian Ocean littorals, includ-ing Bangladesh, Comoros,Indonesia, Madagascar,Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritius,

Myanmar, Seychelles,Singapore, Sri Lanka andThailand. The DefenceSecretary and ForeignSecretary will deliver theConclave Address and KeynoteAddress of the GMC-21.

With the IOR becomingthe focus of the 21st centurystrategic landscape, the GMCaims to bring together region-al stakeholders and deliberateon the collaborative imple-mentation strategies in dealingwith contemporary maritimesecurity challenges.

The Conclave participantswould benefit from interac-tions with eminent speakersand subject matter experts overthree sessions focusing on -Leveraging Collective MaritimeCompetencies to CounterEmerging Non-TraditionalThreats, Strengthening RegionalCooperation for Maritime Law

Enforcement and Imperativesfor Mitigating Emerging NonTraditional Threats in areasbeyond National Jurisdiction inthe IOR.

There would also be exten-sive deliberations in thedomains of Hydrography andMaritime Information Sharing.The participating Chiefs wouldalso dwell upon the significanceof interoperability to effective-ly deal with emerging andfuture maritime security chal-lenges in the Indian OceanRegion.

As part of the Conclave,visitors would also be affordedan opportunity to witnessIndia’s indigenous shipbuildingindustry at the ‘Make in IndiaExhibition’ and the capabilitiesof Deep Submergence RescueVessel (DSRV) for Submarinesat the Marmugao Port Trust,Goa.

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Regulating blood insulin lev-els may even help lower the

risk of getting Covid-19,researchers from Japan saidafter studying the movement ofa protein called GRP78 thathelps the Covid-19 causingvirus to bind to and enter cells.

GRP78 is a protein that isfound in adipose tissue (i.e.,fat). Older, obese, and diabet-ic people are all more vulner-able to Covid-19 and, while thereasons for this are still notcompletely clear, the team fromOsaka University sheds somelight on this issue.

It was recently suggestedthat adipose tissue might be amajor reservoir for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, said lead author of the studyJihoon Shin. Because of this, wewanted to investigate whetherthere is any link between theexcess adipose tissue in older,obese, and diabetic patients andtheir vulnerability to Covid-19.

To do this, the researcherslooked at GRP78, which hasrecently been suggested to be

involved in the interaction ofSARS-CoV-2 with human cells.The major method by whichSARS-CoV-2 enters humancells is by a spike protein on theviral surface binding to ahuman cell-surface proteincalled angiotensin-convertingenzyme 2 (ACE2). Shin andcolleagues discovered that thespike protein can also directlybind to GRP78, and that thepresence of GRP78 increasesthe binding with ACE2. To getan idea of GRP78’s involvementin COVID-19 vulnerability

they investigated how muchGRP78 protein is present in tis-sues from older, obese, anddiabetic patients.

The results were veryclear, explained senior authorIichiro Shimomura. GRP78gene expression was highlyupregulated in adipose tissue,and was elevated with increas-ing age, obesity, and diabetes.

The study is published inDiabetes.

Aging, obesity, and dia-betes are known to be associ-ated with increased blood

insulin levels. Therefore, thegroup wondered whetherinsulin was involved inGRP78 expression. Theyfound that exposing cells toinsulin did induce expres-sion of GRP78. Importantly,they discovered that treat-ment using widely prescribedanti-diabetic drugs thatreduce insulin levels success-fully reduce expression levelof GRP78. They went a stepfurther and showed that exer-cise and calorie restriction ina mouse-model also workedto reduce GRP78 levels in adi-pose tissue.

Our findings suggest thata high blood insulin level is animportant risk factor that canpredispose older, obese, anddiabetic individuals to Covid-19 infection. As such, con-trolling blood insulin withpharmacological interven-tions or with environmentalinterventions, such as exer-cise, could help lower thesepatients’ risk, said Shin.

Given the global impactof the SARS-CoV-2 pandem-ic, the results from this studyprovide important insightsinto how to lower the risk ofinfection in these vulnerablepatients. Reducing GRP78expression by pharmacologi-cal or environmental inter-ventions may improve out-comes in these patients, saidthe researchers.

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Over 28 million more yearsof life were lost than

expected in 2020 due to Covid-19 pandemic, according to astudy published in the BMJ.

The scientists came to thisconclusion after analyzing theeffects of the vector-borne cri-sis on life expectancy and pre-mature mortality in 2020 in 37upper-middle and high-income

countries.Rate of excess premature

deaths was found to be higherin men than women, said DrNazrul Islam from the NuffieldDepartment of PopulationHealth, University of Oxford.However, the study did notinclude most countries fromAsia, Africa, and Latin Americadue to a lack of data, and wereunable to take account of othercritically important factors,

such as socioeconomic status,regional disparities, and race orethnicity.

In 31 of 37 countries, morethan 222 million years of lifewere lost in 2020, which is 28.1million more than expected(17.3 million in men and 10.8million in women).

The highest decline in lifeexpectancy (in years) was inRussia (minus 2.33 in men andminus 2.14 in women), the US

(minus 2.27 in men and minus1.61 in women), Bulgaria(minus 1.96 in men and minus1.37 in women), Lithuania(minus 1.83 in men and minus1.21 in women), Chile (minus1.64 in men), and Spain (minus1.11 in women).

Only Taiwan, NewZealand, Denmark, Iceland,Norway, and South Korea, hadcomparable or lower thanexpected years of life lost.

This underscores theimportance of successful viralsuppression and eliminationpolicies, including targeted andpopulation based public healthpolicy interventions, theresearchers wrote in the study.

The team also comparedthe observed life expectancyand years of life lost in 2020with those that would beexpected based on historicaltrends in 2005-19 in 37 upper-middle and high-income coun-tries.

Overall, excess years of lifelost to the Covid-19 pandem-ic in 2020 were more than fivetimes higher (2,510 per100,000) than those associatedwith the seasonal influenzaepidemic in 2015 (458 per100,000), Islam said.

It was also relatively low inpeople younger than 65 years,except in Russia, Bulgaria,Lithuania, and the US wherethe excess years of life lost wasmore than 2,000 per 100,000.

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Tripura police have regis-tered a case against four

Supreme Court lawyers underthe stringent UAPA and vari-ous sections of IPC for alleged-ly promoting communaldisharmony with their socialmedia posts about the recentviolence targeting Muslims, asenior official said on Friday.The lawyers have also beenserved notices asking them toappear before police byNovember 10 for questioning,Superintendent of Police ofWest Tripura district Manik

Das said. A group of Supreme Court

lawyers visited Tripura onTuesday last and after their visitwe noticed that several postswere made in social media expressing their dis-content regarding the recentcommunal incidents. Policehas registered a case and wantsto know if the posts were madeby them or were fake posts, Dastold PTI.

The case was registered atWest Agartala police station onNovember 3 under varioussections of IPC including 153(a) and (b) related to promot-

ing disharmony, enmity orfeelings of hatred between dif-ferent groups on the grounds ofreligion, race etc, 469 (forgery),504 (intentional insult, provo-cation), 120 (b) (criminal con-spiracy), besides section 13 ofthe Unlawful Activities(Prevention) Act.

If convicted under thetough UAPA, an offender mayface imprisonment up to sevenyears.

The lawyers belong to dif-ferent organisations includingLawyers for Democracy,National Confederation ofHuman Rights Organization

(NCHRO) and the PUCL. Notices were served to

Estesham Hashmi, lawyer of theSupreme Court of India, advo-cate Amit Srivastav, Coodinatorof Lawyers for Democracy,NCHRO national secretaryAnsar Indori and PUCL mem-ber Mukesh Kumar.

They were alleged to haveclaimed that the Muslim com-munity was targeted, includingwomen, and a mosque wasvandalised.

The team demandedappropriate police actionagainst the attackers, those whospread rumours and officialswho remained inactive duringattacks that occurred in theaftermath of violence againstHindus in Bangladesh duringDurga Puja.

A mosque was vandalisedand two shops were set ablazeat Chamtilla during theOctober 26 Vishva Hindu Parishad rally whichwas called to protest against thecommunal violence in neigh-bouring Bangladesh.

Three houses and a fewshops, reportedly owned byMuslims, were also ransackedin nearby Rowa Bazar, NorthTripura Superintendent ofPolice Bhanupada Chakrabortyhad said. The state gov-ernment had on October 29alleged that a group with vest-ed interest from outside hadhatched a conspiracy against theadministration to create unrestin Tripura and malign its imageby uploading fake photographsof a burning mosque on social

media after the October 26 inci-dent. In a video messageon Wednesday, DIG (SouthernRange) G K Rao said, Somemischievous incidents are hap-pening in the state since the lastfew days. There was someminor loss of property andsome incidents of disturbanceoccurred. Tripura Police regis-tered 11 cases including 4 inNorth Tripura, 3 in WestTripura, one in Gomati districtand three cases in Sepahijaladistrict. In the notice tothe lawyers, police asked themto delete the social media postsand appear before the investi-gators by November 10.

The Trinamool Congress,which is seeking to make apolitical foray into the state,approached the NHRC with acomplaint about the incidentsof violence.

The human rights panel hasforwarded its complaint toTripura Chief Secretary Kumar Alok andDirector General of Police V SYadav, and asked them to sub-mit an action taken reportwithin four weeks.

In its complaint to theNHRC on October 28, theTMC alleged that despitereports of violence against peo-ple from the religious minori-ty community, the state gov-ernment didn’t take properaction.

Tripura Chief MinisterBiplab Kumar Deb recentlyannounced compensation forlosses incurred by the victimsof the violence.

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The recent bypoll results,which were a setback for

the BJP in some states, haveadded new dimension to theparty’s national executive meet-ing on Sunday as its top brassis likely to cast a fresh look atits affairs in places like WestBengal, Himachal Pradesh andRajasthan while deliberating itsstrategy for the upcomingassembly polls.

All important issues will beup for deliberations, a BJPleader said of the meeting,adding the party is also likelyto laud the central Governmentfor its handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, including thevaccination drive, and hailPrime Minister Narendra Modifor his development initiativesand successful foreign visits.

The robust revival in eco-nomic activities with the recordGST collection last month fol-lowing a slump due to the pan-demic is also likely to come upfor deliberation at the meeting.

However, it is thebypoll results in three LokSabha and 29 assembly seatsspread across 13 states and aunion territory that may weighon the minds of the partyleadership as it meets for the

first time in a physical meetingfollowing the pandemic’s out-break last year.

Known for layinggreat store by every popularverdict, however materiallyinsignificant it may be in thebroader context, the BJP lead-ership may review the party’saffairs in West Bengal, where itsfortunes have been sliding since the high of the2019 Lok Sabha poll, andHimachal Pradesh andRajasthan, two states where theCongress has put up an impres-sive performance.

The BJP is in power inHimachal and as such theCongress’s complete sweep ofthe bypolls in a Lok Sabha and

three assembly seats there hascaused concerns in the party.

The party has, however,registered a strong show inAssam, where it won all fiveseats with its ally, and MadhyaPradesh, where it won the loneLok Sabha and two of thethree assembly seats at stake.

A party leader saidprice rice may have been a fac-tor and added that the ModiGovernment has done thecourse correction by slashingthe petrol and diesel prices fol-lowed by the BJP-ruled statesgiving further relief to peopleby slashing the Value AddedTax on the fuel prices.That the opposition-ruledstates have not done so maycome handy for the BJP lead-ers in attacking the rivals whenthey meet.

Modi is likely todeliver the valedictory addressat the national executive meet-ing in which he is expected toshape the party’s stand on avariety of key issues and set thetone for its preparedness as itgears up for the assembly pollsearly next year in the states ofUttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand,Punjab, Goa and Manipur.

BJP president J P Naddawill deliver the inauguraladdress.

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Patna/Bettiah/Gopalganj: Thedeath toll in the latest hoochtragedy in Bihar climbed to 33on Friday, while arrests weremade and errant officials pun-ished in connection with saleof illicit liquor, even as ChiefMinister Nitish Kumar calledfor a fresh campaign to dis-suade people from drinkingalcohol in the dry State.

However, officials in WestChamparan and Gopalganj dis-tricts claimed only 25 of thedeaths could be confirmed ashaving been caused by con-sumption of spurious liquor.

In West Champaran,alleged hooch trader RamPrakash Ram (50), besidesDhani Lal Ram (40), JhakkadPaswan (64) and Vikas Ram(25) died at a hospital.

All of them were residentsof Dakshin Telhua villageunder the Nautan PoliceStation limits where local peo-ple had consumed liquor on thenight preceding Diwali, thefestival of lights.

According to Champaran

Range DIG Pranav KumarPravin, the four casualties haveraised the death toll in WestChamparan to 14, and sevenpeople were undergoing treat-ment at the GovernmentMedical College and Hospitalin Bettiah town.

The hospital's superinten-dent Pramod Tiwari said,“Among those who have died,three were brought dead.Bodies are being handed overto bereaved family membersafter post mortem examina-tions."

Those undergoing treat-ment included a 70-year-oldperson who lost his eyesight onFriday morning- a commonside-effect of consumption ofillicit liquor.

The DIG said, "Two offi-cials - Manish Sharma, the in-charge of Nautan Police Station,and a village chowkidar- havebeen placed under suspensionfor their laxity. One of thealleged sellers has died, whileanother – Munna Ram – isabsconding and a search has

been launched to nab him."However, according to

sources in the local adminis-tration, two others, who haddied after consuming liquor,were cremated by their familymembers before word spreadabout the hooch tragedy. InGopalganj, District MagistrateNawal Kishore Chaudharyconfirmed 17 deaths in theMohammedpur Police Stationarea but asserted that only 11of these could be blamed onconsumption of spurious

liquor.“Three persons – residents

of a village under theMohammadpur Police Stationlimits – had been cremated byfamily members before postmortem.

"Family members ofanother three deceased refusedpost-mortem claiming thatdeaths were on account of nat-ural causes”, he said.Superintendent of PoliceAnand Kumar said RanjanKumar, the in-charge of

Mohammadpur Police Station,and a chowkidar have been sus-pended, and three alleged sell-ers – Chhote Lal Sah, JitendraSah and Ram Pravesh Sah –have been arrested.

He also claimed that raidsconducted at various places inthe area has led to recovery of100 litres of spurious liquor.Meanwhile, Chief MinisterNitish Kumar, in Patna, vowedstern action against thosefound responsible for the trag-ic deaths but expressed dismayover people continuing to con-sume a “galat cheez” (wrongthing) during festivals.Replying to questions fromreporters outside the assembly,where he went to attend swear-ing-in of two newly electedMLAs of his JD(U), the chiefminister said, “I will conduct anin-depth review of the enforce-ment of prohibition in thestate. But, it appears that weneed another extensive cam-paign to spread awarenessabout the ill-effects of drink-ing”. PTI

Kanpur: Thirty more peoplehave tested positive for Zikavirus here, taking the totalnumber of those infected in thedistrict to 66, including 9 IAFpersonnel, a senior official saidon Friday.

Of those infected, 45 aremen and 21 women, accordingto officials.The first case inKanpur was reported onOctober 23 when an Indian AirForce (IAF) warrant officertested positive for Zika virus.

"Thirty more people havetested positive for Zika virus inKanpur," District MagistrateVishak G Ayyar said.Among the 66 tested positivefor Zika virus, 9 are from IAF,the DM said.

Samples were collectedfrom various pockets in theneighbouring areas of IAF sta-tion hangars and sent to the labat King George's MedicalUniversity (KGMU), Lucknowfor testing.

Thirty of them came back

positive for Zika virus, he said.Zika is a mosquito-borne virusand hence, getting rid of mos-quitoes is the safe way out, hesaid.

To check the spread of thedisease, health teams areundertaking sanitisation pro-grammes including anti-lar-vae spraying and identifyingfever patients, screening seri-ously ill people and pregnantwomen.

Health officials have beenasked to step up surveillanceand ensure door-to-door sam-pling and testing for Zika virus.

"We advise the local peoplenot to panic regarding the sud-den spurt in Zika virus cases,"Ayyar said.

A high alert has beensounded in the periphery ofhangars of the IAF station,another official said.

To check the spread ofZika virus, Chief Minister YogiAdityanath has directed thehealth department to ensurestrict surveillance and toundertake frequent and exten-sive door-to-door sanitisationand fogging drives to preventmosquito breeding. PTI

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The body of SubrotoMukherjee, the veteran

Trinamool Congress leaderand Minister and one of thementors of Chief MinisterMamata Banerjee was cremat-ed with full State honour onFriday afternoon with Banerjeerepeatedly telling that in her life“the festival of lights had neverbeen filled with so much dark-ness.”

Mukherjee, 75 was admit-ted to the state-run SSKMHospital following a majorheart attack in late October. Astent was applied on him andwas scheduled to be released onFriday morning, family sourcessaid adding he suffered twosuccessive attacks on Thursdayevening and succumbed to hisailments past 9 pm.

While senior leaders cut-ting across party lines and a seaof humanity came to bid thefinal adieu to the departedleader, the Chief Minister wasconspicuous by her absence inthe crowd of mourners.

She earlier said “I will notgo to see Subroto da in thatstate … I do not have thatstrength to see him lying dead… let him remain in the eyesof my mind the jovial person hewas… I have seen so many

tragedies but not the one likethis … this has affected me per-sonally.”

The last of Congress YoungTurks from Bengal groomed bySS Ray the then Chief Minister,Mukherjee is often called oneof the best Chief MinistersBengal never had. “A closefriend of PR Dasmunshi he wasa favourite of former PrimeMinisters Indira Gandhi, RajivGandhi and President PranabMukherjee.

A nine-time MLAMukherjee and PR Dasmunshihad divided their politicalzones with the former prefer-ring State politics leaving thecentral politics to the latter.Later Mukherjee joined theTrinamool Congress in 1999while Dasmunshi remained inCongress. A former KolkataMayor he was an AIICC mem-ber for years

The leader whose careerspanned more than 50 yearsstill remained the youngestminister to have served inBengal. He became theInformation and CultureMinister and later Minister ofState for Home in SS Ray’sCabinet --- during theEmergency.

A leader who was loved byall the opposition Mukherjeewas a favourite of former Chief

Minister Jyoti Basu too.In fact Mukherjee was one

of the Congress leaders who in1984 impressed upon the topCongress leadership to fieldMamata Banerjee against aiconic Somnath Chatterjeefrom Jadavpur parliamentaryconstituency.

The Jadavpur elections cat-apulted Banerjee to the politi-cal centre stage of Bengal andIndia after she defeatedChatterjee.

“Despite we had a differentideological path and beliefSubroto da was like a goodfriend … he was like a grand-father of Bengal politics today… and his death will leave a bigvoid in the State politics,” saidBJP national vice presidentDilip Ghosh.

His party colleague andState BJP spokesperson SamikBhattacharya said “he was oneof the best Chief MinistersBengal never had … the circleof his political career couldhave been completed had hebeen made the Chief Minister.”

CPI(M) central committeemember Sujan Chakrabartysaid “Subroto da was not onlya politician … he was a socialperson who mixed with themembers of all the parties … atrait which is fast vanishing intoday’s politics.”

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Industrialists and entrepreneurs in Tirupur, theknitwear capital of India which is home to

nearly 1,500 garments manufacturing compa-nies, are suspecting that China is playing havocwith the cotton and cotton yarn, the main rawmaterials in the enterprises.

“We do have evidence which points to therole of a foreign hand that is manipulating cot-ton prices in our market. The hike in cottonprices during the last two months is shockingand this is the handiwork of certain forces outto destabilise Indian economy,” said Raja SShanmugham. President, Tirupur Exportersassociation.

He cautioned that if the price hike contin-ues like this, the entrepreneurs would be left withno alternative other than downing the shutters.More than three lakh workers are employed bythe TEA-run entrepreneurs.

“The profit generated out of TEA units istoo low as this is a labour intensive industry. Weare struggling to stay afloat and competent ina volatile market. The price hike has no justifi-cation at this juncture,” he said

Representatives of South India MillsAssociation, another powerful industry bodysaid that cotton prices have shot by more than50 percent since the beginning of 2021. “TamilNadu accounts for 50 per cent of the cotton con-sumption. The steep hike in cotton prices(Minimum Support Price �5,726/- per quintal)is the highest rate in the recent past. The pricesbecame volatile after we said that Tirupur wouldsoon become a hub of cotton garments andfashion industry,” said S Sakthivel executive sec-retary, TEA.

Shanmugham said there was no justification

for the current price hike. “The onslaught onIndian economy began immediately afterTirupur equipped itself with infrastructure toemerge as the sub-continent’s fashion hub. Thecompetitiveness enjoyed by informal clothesmanufactured in the hub became an eyesore forour competitors,” said the TEA president.

Though the TEA and SIMA wanted the pub-lic sector Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) tointervene in the market so that prices could bestabilised, cotton farmers, traders and CCI offi-cials were against the move. “CCI is meant forhelping the cotton farmers to procure cottonwhen the price falls below the MinimumSupport Price fixed by the Government. If theprices are rrigning above the MSP, it is a signthat the farmers are getting a small profit,” saidP Chengal Reddy, advisor, Consortium ofIndian Farmers Association (CIFA).

As on Thursday, cotton was being traded atRs 7600 per quintal which is hardly Rs 500 orRs Rs 600 more than the cost of production.“The cotton farmers are in dire straits as theyare not getting quality seeds. The Governmentof India is not allowing us to switch over to GMCotton which would have helped us to bringdown the cost of production,” said Reddy, afarming veteran.

An industry observer also agreed withReddy and said that it was not advisable to keepon spoon-feeding the industrial units. “Theyshould find a way out for themselves. The farm-ers are not making any huge kill out of the pricehike. It is not practical to keep the traders awayfrom the cotton market,” he said.

Tirupur wore a pall of gloom during thisDiwali as entrepreneurs kept their fingerscrossed and stayed away from cotton trading.

��

Ahmedabad: The GujaratGovernment on Fridayannounced that Class 10 stu-dents who have passed withgrace marks can seek admissionfor diploma courses at poly-technic institutes.

Notably, a rule framed bythe State Education Departmentin 2016 had barred studentspassed with grace marks fromseeking admission to polytech-nic diploma courses in the state.

Speaking to reporters inGandhinagar, state EducationMinister Jitubhai Vaghani saidthe State Government hasdecided to do away with the rulefrom this year onwards to helpsuch students pursue diplomacourses. "Around 30,000 seats invarious polytechnics are cur-rently vacant, and an equalnumber of SSC students havepassed with grace marks thisyear. To ensure that these stu-dents also get an opportunity tobuild their career, we havedecided to allow them seekadmission to diploma courses,"Vaghani said. The Class 10board exams in Gujarat werecancelled this year due to theCovid-19 pandemic and stu-dents were given mass promo-tion. "We have also extend-ed the date for accepting admis-sion forms.

Students with grace markswere considered ineligible fordiploma courses since 2016.Now, they will be considered eli-gible. I urge such students totake advantage of thisannouncement and fill theadmission forms in time," theminister said. When askedabout the reopening of prima-ry schools for students fromClasses 1 to 5, Vaghani said thefinal decision will be taken"very soon" after consultingexperts. PTI

��

Bengaluru: As theheavy downpourinundated parts ofB e n g a l u r u ,Karnataka ChiefMinister BasavarajBommai on Fridaysaid four StateDisaster ResponseTeams would be setup and funds grant-ed for long- andshort-term plans toavoid flooding inthe city.

The members of the 64 res-cue teams would also beincreased by recruiting morepeople from the home guardand civil defence, the ChiefMinister said adding that desilt-ing of stormwater drains dur-ing summer would be taken up.

"There is one DisasterResponse Team in Bengaluru,which should be increased tofour. The four teams will beraised with the help of StateDisaster Response Fund andthe Finance Department,"Bommai said. Soon afterreturning from Hubballi, theChief Minister convened anemergency meeting of the offi-cials following flooding inmany parts of the city.

Many areas were inundat-ed due to torrential rain in theIT capital of the country onThursday. Vehicles were stuckin the water in Chamarajpet,and neighbouring areas.

Water gushed into manylow-lying areas and trees camedown crashing. Noting thatthe rainy season has extendedthis year, the Chief Ministersaid the Meteorology

Department has predictedrainy weather in the next fouror five days. Bommai saidthere are 64 rescue teams with15 members each. The mem-bers would be increased to atleast 30. Home guards andcivil defence volunteers have tobe added in these teams, headded. While reviewing thereasons behind flooding inBengaluru, the Chief Ministersaid he came across the fact thatthere many clogged stormwa-ter drains due to which watergot stagnated. "The oldretaining walls of the stormwa-ter drains are giving way. Thetotal length of the SWD inBengaluru is 842 km and a 389-km-long retaining wall hasbeen built. We have taken upthe construction of the rest ofthe work under theNagarotthana scheme,"Bommai said.

He directed the officials toalso report to him on a month-ly basis about the reasonbehind flooding and progressmade to achieve the long- andshort-term measures to endwater-logging. PT

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Chennai: About 2,000 caseshave been registered by policeacross Tamil Nadu againstthose who violated theSupreme Court directives inrespect of firecrackers, policesources said here on Friday.

The total number of casesregistered across the State isapproximately 2,000 and itincludes violations in respect ofthe two-hour time slab fixed bythe apex court to burst fire-crackers on Deepavali.

The cases also includethose against firecracker shopsor units that sold or storedproducts by breaching 'specif-ic court directives' and also forviolation of other norms, policesources here told PTI. On

aspects like the law invokedagainst shops and other viola-tors, they declined to elaborate,saying cases have been filedunder appropriate provisions oflaw.

Deepavali was celebratedon November 4 this year andthe Supreme Court hadallowed bursting of firecrack-ers for two hours, from 6 AMto 7 AM and from 7 PM to 8PM.

On October 29, theSupreme Court had said thatcelebration cannot be at thecost of others' health and clar-ified that while there is no totalban on use of firecrackers,those fireworks which containBarium salts are prohibited.PTI

Srinagar: Union Minister JitendraSingh on Friday accused the previousgovernments of deliberately discour-aging start-ups in Jammu & Kashmir sothat the youth remains perpetuallydependent on salaried Governmentjobs and continues to hang around thepolitical masters of the day.

As a result, the region's immensepotential for entrepreneurship and self-livelihood remained unexplored, Singhsaid while addressing an interactivemeet of agricultural start-ups and farm-ers organised jointly by the Council ofScientific and Industrial Research(CSIR) and Sher-e-Kashmir Universityof Agricultural Sciences and Technology(SKUAST) here.

This is for the first time in the last

few years that under the leadership ofPrime Minister Narendra Modi, con-certed and technology-based effort hasbeen made to promote the agriculturesector for young start-ups in the region,the Minister of State for PMO, scienceand technology, earth sciences, per-sonnel, public grievances, pensions, andatomic energy and space said.

“Whereas in the past, farmers andagriculturists would largely dependupon the mood of climate and vagariesof nature for cultivation, in the last fewyears, new areas like lavender cultiva-tion have been explored at a large scaleboth in the Kashmir valley and the areasaround Gulmarg as well as the Jammuregion in Doda and Reasi districts,” hesaid.

Singh said no Government in anycountry of the world can ensure 100 percent salaried government jobs to everyyouth, but a responsible governmentalways plans to promote means oflivelihood and this is precisely what theModi Government is trying to seek.

He said a sustained awareness cam-paign needs to be launched among theyouth and their parents to educate themthat there are much more lucrativeemoluments available through theseself-livelihood and new start-up optionsand, therefore, they should not be ledto waste their time and energy inprotesting for Government salariedjobs.

Singh said the farmer today isactually an agricultural technocrat or an

agricultural start-up who has the optionof making handsome profits using newtechnology and provisions introducedin the agricultural sector by the primeminister.

He said the Union Governmentthrough CSIR is providing all relevantfinancial and technical support fornew modes of cultivation, multiple inte-grated farming and also hybrid farm-ing which have the capacity to doublefarmers' income by 2022, as envisagedby the prime minister.

On the occasion, Singh also dis-tributed farming kits to agriculturistsdrawn from all the 10 districts ofKashmir valley while the CSIR andSKUAST signed a Memorandum ofUnderstanding for collaboration. PTI

Mathura: Five persons died andone person got injured in a head-on collision between a private busand a car on Yamuna Expresswayhere in the district on Friday,police said.

The incident took place about60 kilometres away from Mathuraat a place that comes underNaujheel Police Station, they said.The occupants of the car were goingto Kanpur from Noida to invite aminister for a programme , policesaid. The deceased have been iden-tified as Shiv Sagar Yadav, hismother Prem Lata, Gaurav Yadav,and Aryan, Deputy Superintendentof Police (DSP) Netra Pal Singhsaid.

The driver of the private bus,who also died in the incident, hasbeen identified as Balwant Singh ofPathankot, he said. According toSingh, the incident occurred dur-ing the early hours of Friday morn-ing, when driver of the Delhi-bound private bus lost its controland ran across the divider. PTI

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Fundamentalism and radical-ism have been bedeviling thewhole world and have causedmuch distress and wreakedhavoc all over the world par-ticularly in Afghanistan itself.

China needs to realisethat with the collapse of theerstwhile Soviet Union in1993, Communism as a per-ceived panacea for all humansufferings has proved to beinadequate. Even the hybridCommunism practised inChina for decades now has itsown limitations. Freedom ofspirit is an inalienable non-physical aspect of humanbeings. But China has failedeven to uphold it. With thereturn of Hong Kong toChina, it was hoped thatChina would uphold thisaspect of human personalitynot only in Hong Kong butallow it to prevail elsewherealso in the country. Butforcible civil liberty curbs andother excesses in Hong Konghave even belied this hope.More serious and destabilis-ing is the matter aboutTaiwan. Taiwan has clearlydemonstrated that it cannotbe part of the authoritarianand atheist regime of China.Despite armed threats andintimidation Taiwan hasavowed to defend its democ-

ratic values and freedom ofhuman spirit.

With its borders still notdemarcated with India and itscontinued belligerent posture,India has to be wary aboutChina and face the challengeposed by it squarely. Alongwith recalibrated economicdevelopment after theCoronavirus, India has toboost its self-reliance in everysphere. It has to encourage andenlarge the pool of developedskilled manpower. Apart fromnourishing its democratic val-ues, it has to strengthen its self-confidence to meet the chal-lenge. It should also widen itssphere of influence all over theworld and broaden its tradeinterests. Moreover, apart fromthe geopolitical context of thechallenge, it has to be preparedas usual to come up to thediplomatic challenges thatmay be thrust on it.

China has had a gloriouspast and is one of the mostancient civilisations still sur-viving and on the rise. Like allother countries, China hasevery right to rise to the topbut not through aggressionand by breaking internation-al law and rules. This is boundto create security risks even forthe powerful West. Theannouncement of the

Australia, the UK and the US(AUKUS) alliance is an omi-nous manifestation of thisthreat. With abundant sophis-ticated nuclear weapons andother armaments all aroundthe world, this could evenjeopardise survival ofmankind.

The world we live in haschanged beyond imaginationand come so close that evolu-tion of human civilisationhas become a possibility.Despite so many contradic-tions, widespread uneven eco-nomic development anddaunting cultural diversities,evolution of human civilisa-tion can no longer be consid-ered a utopia. But this couldbe possible only after the for-mation of a democraticallyconstituted world parliament.By changing its attitude,China could aid the formationof such an institution whichcould ensure survival ofmankind and evolution ofhuman civilisation. No doubtevolution of such an institu-tion could be brought nearerwhen all other countries sub-ject their actions to an ethicaland moral compass.

(The writer is a former IISofficer, freelance journalist andproducer. The views expressedare personal.)

�� Sir — Delhi’s air quality has severely dete-riorated after the Diwali festival, alleged-ly owing to the bursting of crackers inthe Capital. However, there are morethan 15 factors that contribute to air pol-lution. It has been proven in an IIT reporton Delhi’s air pollution that Diwalicrackers contribute only about five percent to air pollution. There are severalother factors, both known and unknown,which contribute to pollution in theNCR. Delhi’s air pollution is causedmainly by stubble burning. Add to it theinnumerous vehicles that ply on theroads of Delhi. Vehicular pollution is alsoa major contributor. The dust and dirtcaused by construction activities andeven air conditioners contribute a majorshare in polluting the air.

Therefore, blaming Hindus for thealarming pollution levels during Diwaliis untenable, since the festival is celebrat-ed only once a year. A ban on stubbleburning, checking emission from facto-ries, curtailing vehicular and industrialemissions — activities which cause pol-lution throughout the year — will go along way in solving the air pollutionproblem of the Capital as well as thecountry.

Sravana Ramachandran | Chennai

�� Sir — Prime Minister Narendra Modi’svisit to Kedarnath was more about him-self than the reconstructed Shiv Templeor Adi Shankaracharya, whose statue wasunveiled in honour of his exertions torevive Hinduism when Buddhism wasembraced by more and more people andhis commentaries on Hindu scriptures.We couldn’t help noticing that the solefocus was on the VVIP pilgrim. Wecouldn't help thinking that no ordinarydevotee could ever dream of the kind oftreatment Prime Minister NarendraModi, hailed as ‘Rashtra Rishi’ by his sup-porters, got in the temple precincts andsanctum sanctorum. Perhaps the fact thathe is spearheading the revival ofHinduism automatically qualifies him forsuch a special treatment.

The visit was choreographed to thelast detail for his cast as a larger-than-life character. Even otherwise, on elec-tion-eve, PM Modi has been wanting toget into a temple, preferably a cave tem-ple for televised solitary meditation toconnect with the multitudes for whomreligion is a centre of devotion, and woothem for favour in elections. Clearly, hecannot do without being bathed in reli-gious symbolism.

G David Milton | Maruthancode

��Sir —Tsunamis are usually rare but oneof the most dangerous natural calamities.Over the last 100 years, 58 tsunamis havetaken more than 2.6 lakh lives, or anaverage of 4,600 lives per disaster.Humanity suffered the deadliest tsuna-mi in the Indian ocean in December2004. It caused over 2.27 lakh deathsacross 14 nations. It is worth mention-ing that 80 per cent tsunamis take placein the Pacific ocean only. To educate and

inform people about tsunamis,November 5, 2021, is observed as the“World Tsunami Awareness Day”.

The day is observed to promotes thetarget of the ‘Sendai Seven Campaign’,which aims to sustainably enhanceinternational cooperation with devel-oping countries through adequate sup-port to complement their nationalactions for implementation of the pre-sent framework by 2030. Decisions andresolutions adopted in June 2021 by theUN Ocean Decade (2021-2030) willprovide the “once-in-a-generationopportunity” to improve tsunami detec-tion and early warning systems. It iseven more important that every personknows the tsunami's natural warningsigns and immediately self-evacuatessince the waves are infamous to attackspontaneously and dangerously.

Shruti Raikwar | Ujjain

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Much talked about therise of China as aneconomic superpower has been

inviting attention for years nowbut it has been intimidating, too.The world opinion has veeredaround the fact that the attitudeof the Communist regime inChina, particularly towards mostof its neighbours, has been piv-oted around aggression andintimidation from the verybeginning. In 1962, the first vic-tim of its brazen policy of aggres-sion was its immediate neigh-bour India. During subsequentyears and decades, Vietnam andmany other countries in or bor-dering South China Sea andEast China China Sea fell prey toits aggressive attitude. Now afterits rise as an economic super-power, it has been throwingaround its weight without anyregard for international law andrules. It has usurped the rights ofits neighbors in the South ChinaSea and Pacific Ocean and hasbeen illegally hindering free nav-igation rights of other nationstoo. This has only endangeredthe security of the world. TheWest has its own concerns aboutthe intimidating rise of China.

It is not communist ideolo-gy, which is based on revolution,but its own attitude and policieswhich prompt China to adoptcoercive and aggressive meansagainst other countries to main-tain and uphold its interests, ina case or two mostly based onmere perceptions. It has had noqualms even in befriending andturning Pakistan, the epicentre ofterrorism, into an all weatherfriend just to achieve its nefari-ous aims against India. To harmIndian interests, it went to theextent of even supporting terror-ism emanating from Pakistan. Itcontinuously vetoed UN resolu-tions to declare terrorists fromPakistan as international terror-ists. Though at a much later stageit had to bow before internation-al pressure.

Although an atheist regimeand avowedly against obscuran-tism, China is not averse even tocome nearer to staunch funda-mentalist and radical Talibanregime in Afghanistan just forsome pecuniary gains.

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Something is going wrongin Africa. Nigeria andEthiopia, the two most

populous countries on thecontinent, are both stumblingtowards disintegration. Thereare now 54 sovereign Africancountries, which really oughtto be enough, but in a fewyears there could be 60.

Ethiopia is closer to thebrink, so close that it couldactually go over this month.Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed'sattempt to force the northernstate of Tigray into obediencebegan well in late 2019, whenfederal government troopsoccupied it against only minorresistance, but the Tigrayanswere just biding their time.

Tigrayans did most of thefighting in the 16-year war tooverthrow the brutalCommunist tyranny known

as the Derg. They dominatedthe less cruel and more com-petent regime that followed in1991-2018. And they with-drew from the governmentwhen Abiy tried to corraleveryone into a non-ethnic,more or less democratic'Prosperity Party' in 2019.

The military occupationof Tigray didn't last. TheTigray Defence Force (TDF)came down from the hills lastJune and cleared federaltroops out of the state practi-cally overnight. Then itpushed south into the neigh-bouring state of Amharaalong Highway One, whichlinks Addis Ababa, Ethiopia'scapital, with the only portaccessible to the landlockedcountry, Djibouti.

In July, the TDF stoppedat Weldia, still in Amhara state

and about 400 km. fromAddis Ababa, to await thegreat Ethiopian counter attack— which didn't start untilabout 10 October. It takestime to organise tens of thou-sands of half-trained volun-teers, which was about allAbiy had left after the June-July debacle.

The battle raged for twoweeks, with the attacks ofAmhara militia and volun-teers from elsewhere failingagainst the trained, experi-enced Tigrayan troops. About

a week ago the Ethiopiantroops broke and started flee-ing south, although you prob-ably didn't hear about thatbecause Abiy began bombingthe Tigrayan capital, Mekelle,to distract your attention.

The TDF has alreadycaptured Dessie and isadvancing on Kombolcha,which is halfway fromMekelle to Addis Ababa. Willthe Tigrayans actually go forAddis itself? It's not impossi-ble. They're arrogant enough,and they may be strongenough.

Nigeria is not that close tothe edge, but the signs are bad.The huge gap in income, edu-cation and simple literacybetween the very poorMuslim north and the most-ly Christian south is a majorirritant. The desperate lack of

jobs for the young is destabil-ising even the south, as lastyear's failed youth rebellionclearly demonstrated.

In the north-east, thejihadist Boko Haram hasbecome the local authority insome places, collecting taxesand digging wells. In thenorth-west, banditry is out ofcontrol, with dozens or evenhundreds of school childrenbeing kidnapped for ransomalmost every week. The regionis awash with arms, and onegang recently shot down amilitary jet.

In the 'middle belt' ofstates, farmers and herdersare often at war, and in thesoutheast Igbo secessionistsare raising the call for anindependent Biafra again.Along the coast piracy isflourishing, and the oil multi-

national Shell is offloading itsonshore Nigerian oil assets inthe face of insecurity, theftand sabotage.

"This is an exposure thatdoesn't fit with our riskappetite anymore," said ShellCEO Ben van Beurden, andmost major investors, whetherforeign or Nigerian, feel thesame way. Nigeria, likeEthiopia, is full of clever,ambitious young people withthe education and skills totransform the country if onlyit was politically stable, butthat is asking for the moon.

It would be a catastropheif these two countries, con-taining a quarter of Africa'stotal population, were to beBalkanised, but that may becoming. If the Serbs and theCroats can't live together hap-pily, why should we expect the

Igbo and the Hausa, or theTigrayans and the Amharas,to do so?

The old Organisation ofAfrican Unity rule said theformer colonial bordersmust never be changed, nomatter how arbitrary theywere, because otherwisethere would be a generationof war and chaos. That'swhy for a long time therewere fifty African states andno more, but recently therule has begun to fray.Somaliland, Eritrea, SouthSudan...who's next?

Will the dam burst ifEthiopia breaks up into threeor four different countries?Nobody knows, but it wouldbe preferable if we don't haveto find out. Better the bordersyou know than the bordersyou don't.

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(Gwynne Dyer's new book is'The Shortest History of

War'. The views expressedare personal.)

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People around the world are expe-riencing climate change and sci-entific evidence clearly indi-cates that the climate is chang-

ing and is likely to accelerate in thefuture. The effects of climate changesuch as heavier precipitation and longerdry spells are obvious; though advancedmodels are also inadequate in predict-ing regional impacts, which are impor-tant for the formulation of local adap-tation programmes. Climate changewill undoubtedly affect water, forests,and coastal areas along with theHimalayan ecosystem, which is mostlikely threatened by rising sea levels andmigrations of species.

Greenhouse gas such as, carbondioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), andnitrous oxide (N2O) are majorly respon-sible for climate change. Regardless ofwhere these greenhouse gases are emit-ted, they contribute to global warming.

India is the world's third largest pro-ducer of renewable energy and thethird largest consumer of electricity inthe world and presently 85 millionpeople in India use electricity. As thecountry advances along with its popu-lation, per capita consumption of elec-tricity is likely to rise sharply.

Would it be possible to generate allthe electricity we need without emittingadditional greenhouse gases?

India emits 83 per cent of green-house gases, a number that is likely toincrease given the country's energyneeds for development. India's popula-tion growth will intensify the demandfor food, necessitating more urea andirrigation, and using the Haber-Boschprocess to produce urea will exacerbategreenhouse gas emissions. Throughamplifying the greenhouse effect of theplanet, we are increasing the concentra-tion of greenhouse gases in the atmos-phere. Therefore, it is necessary toswitch to less CO2 intensive energy.Developed nations like the United Statesand Western Europe have the potentialto reduce greenhouse gas emissionsthrough appropriate measures and spe-cific innovations because their researchand development budgets are relative-ly large for this purpose. Obtaining car-bon-free electricity will be a huge chal-lenge for India because to achieve zeroemissions, all of our electricity mustcome from non-emitting sources. Solar,wind, hydroelectric, biomass, and geot-hermal power can provide energy with-out causing global warming. Indiadepends on 74 per cent of fossil fuels togenerate electricity.

While natural gas plants are run-ning, they need to purchase fuel and theprice of fossil fuels does not reflect thecost of climate change in terms ofgreenhouse gas emissions. Solar andwind energy are intermittent energysources. The maximum conversioncapacity of solar energy is only 33 percent. They cannot generate electricity 24

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hours a day, so their storage andgeneration cost should also beconsidered. Batteries used in off-grid solar systems can be chargedduring the day and used duringthe night. It is a reasonable solu-tion for using solar powerthroughout the day, but it is alsoquite expensive due to the costsassociated with the battery and itslife, which will determine howmuch it adds to the electricity billand the public exchequer.Installing enough solar panelsmight be an option, but theireffectiveness depends on the timeof year. Solar power generation issignificantly less in winter than insummer. Solar power and windenergy generation is totallydependent on natural circum-stances. Even in bright sunshineand strong winds, productionwill always be less than theinstalled capacity due to intermit-tent shutdowns caused by main-tenance. To collect as much sun-light as possible, we need a largenumber of solar panels that takeup a lot of space, and some roofsare not big enough to accommo-date them, so space is also anissue. Location is also increasing-ly important in solar energy. Ourinstallation needs to be increasedmany times compared to thecurrent one.

Even though nuclear powercould be a solution, but it is riskyand capital intensive.

The main reason why zero-carbon electricity is so expensiveis intermittency. Because of this,the state is aiming to generatemore renewable electricity bycombining solar and wind power

with other options like gas-pow-ered plants, which is a necessityfor cities and towns. It can beargued that the grid — a singleconnected network — is the solu-tion, but in practice, this is notfeasible, at least in the nearfuture.

To use renewable energy moreefficiently and generate carbon-free energy, we must invest morein research and development.Furthermore, issues such as wide-spread poverty alleviation, educa-tion, health, clean drinking water,water for sanitation and job cre-ation require more money to bediverted to address these issues,which in turn can adversely affectinvestment in research and devel-opment. Even if we take intoaccount the government's effortstowards clean energy, new inno-vations will be required to removeits impediments. Diffusion ofinnovations requires R&D exper-tise and also a long period of per-suasion, decision-making, andimplementation that will take aconsiderable amount of time.Conservation, afforestation andsustainable forestry practices arealso the most efficient and cost-effective ways to combat carbonemissions.

Trees can absorb four tons ofCO2 over the course of 40 years.A forest is considered a carbonsink if it absorbs more carbonfrom the atmosphere than itemits. Photosynthesis absorbscarbon from the atmosphere. It isthen deposited in forest biomass(such as trunks, branches, rootsand leaves), in dead organic mat-ter (litter), and in soil and

microorganisms. This process ofcarbon absorption and depositionis known as carbon sequestration.It is estimated that in India, for-est carbon sequestration wasaround +68 (MT C02 eq/yr) in2005-2007 and about +203 (MTCO2 eq/yr) in 2008-2011,although no reliable data areavailable. Type of forest alsodetermine the quantity of carbonit can sequester, such as a closedcanopy forests produce less car-bon sequestration, because theylack under story vegetation andgrasslands. A typical forest wouldemit close to 22,000 pounds ofoxygen but when forests are cutdown, plants absorb less CO2thus increasing the concentrationof atmospheric CO2.

In all global climate negotia-tions, developed countries haveput pressure on developing coun-tries (such as India and China) toreduce deforestation, but forestsare either fragmented or degrad-ed due to various developmentactivities such as infrastructure,construction, mining, and urban-ization. Therefore, to combatcarbon emissions caused bydeforestation and forest degrada-tion, steps must be taken tosequester and store carbon.COVID-19 is the most recentillustration of our unbalancedrelationship with nature and if thecurrent trend of development,deforestation, and sources ofgreenhouse gas emissions isallowed to increase, there will bea terrible result in the near future.Hence, deforestation must becontrolled in order to avoid theadversity that accompanies it.

(The writer is a formerIndian Forest Service offi-cer. The views expressed

are personal.)

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Acitizen journalist jailed forher coverage of China’s

initial response to Covid inWuhan is close to death aftergoing on hunger strike, herfamily said, promptingrenewed calls from rightsgroups for her immediaterelease.

Zhang Zhan, 38, a formerlawyer, travelled to Wuhan inFebruary 2020 to report on thechaos at the pandemic’s epi-centre, questioning authori-ties’ handling of the outbreak inher smartphone videos.

She was detained in May2020 and sentenced inDecember to four years in jailfor “picking quarrels and pro-voking trouble” — a charge rou-tinely used to suppress dissent.

She is now severely under-weight and “may not live formuch longer”, her brotherZhang Ju wrote last week on aTwitter account verified bypeople close to the matter.

Zhang has been on ahunger strike and was force-fedthrough nasal tubes, her legalteam, which did not have infor-mation on her current condi-tion, told AFP earlier this year.

“She may not survive thecoming cold winter,” Zhang Juwrote, adding that he had

urged his sister in letters to“take care of herself ”.

“In her heart, it seemsthere is only God and herbeliefs, with no care for any-thing else.”

Zhang Ju’s posts sparkedfresh calls for his sister’s release,with Amnesty Internationalurging the Chinese govern-ment Thursday to “release herimmediately so that she canend her hunger strike andreceive the appropriate medical treatment she desperately needs”.

Amnesty campaignerGwen Lee said in a statementthat Zhang’s detention was a“shameful attack on human

rights”. Someone close to thecitizen journalist, who declinedto be named, told AFP the fam-ily had asked to meet Zhangmore than three weeks ago atthe Shanghai women’s prisonwhere she is being held but hadnot received a response.

AFP was unable to reachZhang Ju while Zhang’s moth-er declined to comment.

The Shanghai prison alsooffered no response whenapproached by AFP.

China’s Foreign Ministryon Friday did not comment onZhang’s condition, but dis-missed calls from rights groupsfor her release as “anti-Chinapolitical manipulation.”

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The UN’s top human rightsbody is holding an urgent

session about Sudan on Fridayafter a military coup therenearly two weeks ago, withBritain, the United States,Germany and Norway leadinga push to commission anexpert to monitor the situation.

The Human RightsCouncil debate is taking placewhile the United Nations stillrecognises the ambassadorfrom the deposed Sudanesegovernment as the country’sofficial representative inGeneva, raising questionsabout how – or if – the militaryleadership in Khartoum will berepresented during the ses-sion.

The push for a humanrights expert comes amidmounting international pres-sure on Sudan’s top general,Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan,and the forces loyal to him whodissolved Sudan’s transitionalgovernment and detained othergovernment officials and polit-ical leaders in the Oct. 25coup.

“The actions of theSudanese military are a betray-al of the Sudanese revolution,of the democratic transition,and of the hopes and aspira-tions of the Sudanese people,”Simon Manley, Britain’s ambas-sador in Geneva, said in

a statement sent to The Associated Press.

“Fundamentally, this isabout respect for democracyand human rights.”

“I hope that fellow councilmembers will stand in solidar-ity with the brave people ofSudan today,” Manley said.

The four Western countriespresented a draft resolution onWednesday, and the final lan-guage still was being worked out.

Human Rights Councilspokesperson Rolando Gomez

said a provision remainedintact to create a “special rap-portur” to monitor the situa-tion in Sudan for one year.

The draft also called for theimmediate return to a civilian-led transitional governmentunder Prime Minister AbdallaHamdok, who was amongthose detained in the coup.

He is now under housearrest but has been allowed tomeet with UN

And international diplo-mats as part of mediationefforts. On Thursday, Sudan’sstate-run news agency report-ed that Burhan had ordered therelease of four GovernmentMinisters who also weredetained.

A defence lawyer for theministers said they had not yetbeen freed.

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Suspected Islamic extremistsambushed a self-defense

brigade in western Niger,killing 69 people in the latestattack in the volatile borderregion near Mali, the InteriorMinistry said.

The violence took placeearlier this week nearBanibangou, some 155 miles(250 kilometers) north of thecapital, Niamey, the ministrysaid in a statement Thursday.

The town’s mayor wasamong those killed in theTuesday attack and 15 othermembers of the village defensegroup were wounded in theambush, the statement said.

The local self-defense

groups have been helpingNiger’s military to fight extrem-ists who have stepped upattacks on civilians this yearblamed on Islamic State-linkedmilitants.

The resurgence of extrem-ist violence began with aJanuary attack on two villagesthat killed at least 100 people.The following month 237 morewere killed in a series of attacksat the hands of armed gunmenriding motorcycles.

The mounting violenceposes a strong threat to Niger’sPresident Mohamed Bazoum,who was sworn into office inApril only days after securityforces thwarted an attemptedmilitary coup at the presiden-tial palace.

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Pfizer Inc. Said Friday that itsexperimental antiviral pill

for Covid-19 cut rates of hos-pitalization and death by near-ly 90% in high-risk adults, asthe drugmaker joins the race tobring the first easy-to-use med-ication against the coronavirusto the US market.

Currently all Covid-19treatments used in the USrequire an IV or injection.Competitor Merck’s Covid-19pill is already under review atthe Food and DrugAdministration after showingstrong initial results, and onThursday the United Kingdombecame the first country to OK it.

Pfizer said it will ask theFDA and international regula-tors to authorize its pill as soonas possible, after independent

experts recommended haltingthe company’s study based onthe strength of its results. OncePfizer applies, the FDA couldmake a decision within weeksor months.

Researchers worldwidehave been racing to find a pillagainst Covid-19 that can betaken at home to ease symp-toms, speed recovery andreduce the crushing burden on hospitals and doctors.

Pfizer released preliminaryresults Friday of its study of 775adults. Patients taking the com-pany’s drug along with anoth-er antiviral had an 89% reduc-tion in their combined rate ofhospitalization or death after amonth, compared to patientstaking a dummy pill. Fewerthan 1% of patients taking thedrug needed to be hospitalizedand no one died. In the com-

parison group, 7% were hospi-talized and there were sevendeaths.

“We were hoping that wehad something extraordinary,but it’s rare that you see greatdrugs come through withalmost 90% efficacy and 100%protection for death,” said Dr.Mikael Dolsten, Pfizer’s chiefscientific officer, in an interview.

Study participants wereunvaccinated, with mild-to-moderate Covid-19, and wereconsidered high risk for hos-pitalization due to health prob-lems like obesity, diabetes orheart disease. Treatment beganwithin three to five days of ini-tial symptoms, and lasted forfive days.

Pfizer reported few detailson side effects but said rates ofproblems were similar betweenthe groups at about 20%.

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Iran’s atomic agency saidFriday that its stockpile of 20

per cent enriched uranium hasreached over 210 kilograms(463 pounds), the latestprovocative move ahead ofupcoming nuclear talks withthe West.

In a report carried by semi-official Tasnim and Fars newsagencies, spokesman BehrouzKamalvandi said the atomicagency had produced wellbeyond a 120 kilogram targetfor 20 per cent enriched ura-nium set by parliament.

Under the historic 2015nuclear deal between Iran andthe World Powers, Iran was notmeant to enrich uranium above3.67 percent. Enriched urani-

um above 90 percent can beused for nuclear weapons.

After months of delays,the European Union, Iran andthe US announced onWednesday that indirect talksto resuscitate the deal wouldresume on Nov. 29 in Vienna.

The nuclear deal, known asthe Joint Comprehensive Planof Action, or JCPOA, promis-es Iran economic incentives inexchange for limits on itsnuclear program, and is meantto prevent Tehran from devel-oping a nuclear bomb. Tehraninsists its program is peaceful.

Kamalvandi also said thatso far his agency has also pro-duced 25 kilograms of 60 percent enriched uranium, a levelthat only countries with nuclearweapons have the physical

capabilities to produce. The USunilaterally pulled out of thenuclear deal in 2018 underthen-President Donald Trump,but Britain, France, Germany,China and Russia have tried topreserve the accord.

Tehran’s strategy of delib-erately violating the deal is seenas an attempt to put pressureparticularly on Europe to pro-vide it with incentives to offsetcrippling American sanctionsre-imposed after the US pullout.

On Sept. 15, Iran’s nuclearchief Mohammad Eslami saidTehran removed surveillancecameras belonging to theUnited Nation’s nuclear watch-dog because of unfulfilled com-mitments by other signatoriesof the nuclear deal.

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China vowed on Friday topunish “diehard” Taiwan

politicians, saying it would banseveral from visiting the main-land, as tensions betweenBeijing and Taipei spiked totheir highest level in years.

China claims Taiwan as itsterritory -- to be seized one day,by force if necessary -- and hasintensified efforts in recentyears to isolate the self-ruledisland on the internationalstage.

On Friday, the TaiwanAffairs Office in Beijing warnedthat “the mainland will pursuecriminal responsibility forTaiwan independence diehardsin accordance with the law, tobe effective for life”.

The statement by spokes-woman Zhu Fenglian named

Taiwanese Premier Su Tseng-chang, parliament speaker YuShyi-kun and Foreign MinisterJoseph Wu as among a minor-ity of independence supporters.

Zhu said the politicians“have tried to instigate cross-strait confrontation, mali-ciously attacked and slanderedthe mainland... severely under-mining cross-strait relations”.

She added that Beijing hasprohibited them and their fam-ily members from entering themainland, Hong Kong orMacau.

Their affiliates would alsobe restricted from cooperatingwith mainland organisationsand individuals, she said, with-out giving more details.

Taiwan’s Su on Fridaybrushed off the threat fromBeijing, saying he “won’t beintimidated.”

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The Dutch Supreme Courton Friday handed Russia at

least a temporary victory in anappeal of what’s believed to bethe world’s largest award in anarbitration case after formershareholders of bankruptedRussian oil giant Yukos accusedthe Kremlin of taking down thecompany to silence its CEO, afierce critic of PresidentVladimir Putin.

The decision furtherextends what already has beena yearslong legal battle betweenRussia and former Yukos share-holders. It quashed a lowercourt ruling, effectively settingaside a $50 billion award madeto the former shareholders in2014 and sending the case toanother court in Amsterdam toconsider Russian claims that theshareholders committed fraud inthe original arbitration hearings.

However, the highestDutch court rejected the rest ofRussia’s arguments, a movewelcomed by the former share-holders, who said in a state-ment that they “won on all sub-stantive grounds of Russia’sappeal.”

The Russian prosecutor-general’s office welcomed theruling but said “it is regrettable”the high court didn’t dismissthe award outright.

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Atrain struck and killed amigrant from Eritrea and

at least two bodies were recov-ered from the sea and on abeach in what has been a par-ticularly deadly week formigrants on the northern coastof France. Attempting treach-erous crossings to Britain.

Many hundreds of people,setting off in a flotilla of boats,quickly ran into trouble in thewaters between northernFrance and Britain. The water-way with changeable weather,cold seas and heavy maritimetraffic is dangerous for theinflatables and other smallboats that men, women andchildren squeeze into forattempted crossings.

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Thousands of intelligenceofficers could soon face

dismissal for failing to complywith the US Government’s vac-cine mandate, leading someRepublican lawmakers to raiseconcerns about removingemployees from agencies crit-ical to national security.

Several intelligence agen-cies had at least 20% of theirworkforce unvaccinated as oflate October, said US Rep.Chris Stewart, a UtahRepublican who is a member ofthe House IntelligenceCommittee.

CIA Director WilliamBurns disclosed publicly lastweek that 97% of the agency’sofficers have been vaccinated.The National Reconnaissance

Office, which operates U.S.Spy satellites, has more than90% of its workforce vaccinat-ed.

But Stewart said someagencies in the 18-memberintelligence community hadas much as 40% of their work-force unvaccinated. He citedinformation the administra-tion has provided to the com-mittee but not released publicly.He declined to identify theagencies because full informa-tion on vaccination rates wasclassified.

While many people willlikely still get vaccinated beforethe administration’s Nov. 22deadline for civilian workers,resistance to the mandate couldleave major agencies responsi-ble for national security with-out some personnel.

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The Department of Telecomhas fixed December 2022 as

the deadline for internet serviceproviders to customise theirnetwork as well as changemodem and routers at cus-tomer premise for the servicesas per the internet protocoladdress, IPv6.

The DoT has set June 30,2022, as the last date forGovernment organisation forcomplete transition to IPv6,according to an official noteissued on November 2.

"All new retail wirelinecustomer connections provid-ed by service providers afterDecember 31, 2022, shall becapable of carrying IPv6 traf-fic either on dual stack onnative IPv6," the note said.

The IP addresses help inidentifying and connectingvarious devices and serversonto the internet.

The DoT had released thefirst and second roadmap toroll out IPv6 addresses in thecountry in 2010 and 2012which can grant several tril-lions of unique internetaddresses unlike the old regimeof IPv4 which has a limit of 3billion IP addresses. Thegrowth in the number ofdevices connecting to the inter-net has fuelled demand forIPv6 addresses.

"The service providers shallendeavour to progressivelyreplace/upgrade the CPEs (cus-tomer premise equipment)which are not IPv6 ready andare owned by service providerslatest by December 31, 2022,"

the note said. India now hasaround 50 per cent share inIPv6 addresses globally.

"The transition to IPv6even with a dual stack modewill help in growth of internetusage especially in the contextof work from home as well IoTecosystem and upcoming 5Gservices because of the require-ment of an enormous IPaddress which is not availablewith IPv4. In addition, transi-tion to IPv6 will enhance thenetwork security because ofbuilt-in 'IPsec' feature in theverison 6," IPv6 Forum chair-man Satya N Gupta said.

With proliferation of IPv6addresses, India can create itsown secure internet by settingup its own root servers forcommunication within coun-tries geographical boundaries.

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Hectic fundraising throughIPOs will continue next

week, with three firms --One97 Communications,owner of Paytm; SapphireFoods India, which operatesKFC and Pizza Hut outlets; andLatent View Analytics -- are setto launch their initial share-sales to collectively mop upabout � 21,000 crore.

This comes after five com-panies successfully concludedtheir public offerings (IPOs)this week.

Those five firms are —FSN E-Commerce Ventures,which runs online marketplacefor beauty and wellness prod-ucts Nykaa; Fino PaymentsBank; Policybazaar parent enti-ty PB Fintech; decorative aes-thetics supplier SJS Enterprises;and microcrystalline cellulosemaker Sigachi Industries.

The three-day IPOs ofPaytm, Sapphire Foods Indiaand Latent View Analytics arescheduled to open onNovember 8, November 9 and

November 10, respectively.So far in 2021, as many as

46 companies have floatedtheir IPOs to raise �80,102crore and market expertsbelieve that the year shouldclose with the �1-lakh croreprimary market fundraising.

Apart from these,PowerGrid InvIT, the infra-structure investment trust(InvIT) sponsored by thePower Grid Corporation ofIndia, mopped up �7,735 crorethrough its IPO, and BrookfieldIndia Real Estate Trust raised�3,800 crore via its initial share-sale.

The fundraising so far thisyear is way higher than Rs26,611 crore collected by 15companies through initialshare-sales in the entire 2020.

Such impressive fundrais-ing through IPOs was last seenin 2017 when firms mobilisedRs 67,147 crore through 36 ini-tial share-sales. Digital firmOne97 Communications,which operates under thePaytm brand name, is set tocome out with its Rs 18,300-

crore IPO on November 8.The IPO comprises fresh

issuance of equity shares worthRs 8,300 crore and Rs 10,000crore from an offer for sale(OFS) by existing sharehold-ers.

The company has fixed aprice band of Rs 2,080-2,150apiece, implying a valuation ofaround Rs 1.48 lakh crore.

The Rs 18,300-crore offer,if successful, will be the biggestin the country after Coal India'sIPO in 2010, wherein the state-owned company had garneredRs 15,200 crore.

"The biggest merit forPaytm's IPO would be that theyhave so much more diversifiedregulatory access under one roof.

"This focus on diversifica-tion means that none of theirparticular business books hasdepth, unlike other major play-ers who focus more on spe-cialising," Nikhil Kamath, co-founder of True Beacon andZerodha, said.

On Wednesday, Paytmraised Rs 8,235 crore fromanchor investors.

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The IMF has welcomedIndia's announcement at

the COP26 summit on new tar-gets to increase reliance onrenewables and reduce the car-bon intensity of its economy,including to adopt a net zerotarget by 2070.

Gerry Rice, Director,Communication Departmentat the International MonetaryFund (IMF), said India'sactions may help catalyseaction in other emergingeconomies as well in address-

ing the climate change chal-lenges.

"We welcome India'sannouncement at the COP26of new targets to increasereliance on renewables andreduce the carbon intensity ofits economy, including to adopta net zero target by 2070," Ricetold reporters at a news con-ference on Thursday.

"As you know, India iscurrently one of the world'slargest emitters, still heavilyreliant on coal for electricitygeneration. India's significantinvestment in renewables and

climate change adaptation poli-cies suggest it is well positionedto take further steps to reachthis new target," Rice saidresponding to a question.

"We are heartened by India'sfocus on achieving progress inthe current decade given theurgent need for global mitigationaction. And as with other coun-tries, it will be important to fol-low through with specific actionsto contain emissions over thecurrent decade," he added.

At the COP26 summit inGlasgow, Prime MinisterNarendra Modi made signifi-

cant announcements, icludingthe bold pledge of Indiabecoming net zero by 2070.

Besides the net zero target,Modi also raised India'sNationally DeterminedContributions (NDCs) ofachieving 450 giga watt non-fossil energy capacity to 500giga watt by 2030.

"India will increase its non-fossil energy capacity to 500giga watt by 2030; India willfulfil 50 per cent of its energyrequirements from renewableenergy sources by 2030.Between now and 2030, India

will reduce its total projectedcarbon emissions by 1 billiontonnes and by 2030.

“India will reduce the car-bon intensity of its economy by45 per cent and achieve the tar-get of net zero by 2070,” theprime minister said, addingthat these five elixirs will be anunprecedented contribution byIndia towards climate action.

He also asserted that Indiais the only country that isdelivering in "letter and spirit"the commitments on tacklingclimate change under the ParisAgreement.

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The Finance Ministry hasasked for suggestions on

taxation from industries andtrade bodies for Budget 2022-23, which is going to set thetone for growth of India's econ-omy hit by the Covid-19 pan-demic.

In a communication totrade and industry associa-tions, the ministry invited sug-gestions for changes in the

duty structure, rates, andbroadening of tax base on bothdirect and indirect taxes givingeconomic justification for thesame.

Suggestions may be sent tothe ministry by November 15,2021, it said.

"Your suggestions andviews may be supplementedand justified by relevant statis-tical information about pro-duction, prices, revenue impli-cation of the changes suggest-

ed and any other informationto support your proposal," itsaid.

The request for correctionof inverted duty structure, ifany for a commodity, shouldnecessarily be supported byvalue addition at each stage ofmanufacturing of the com-modity, it said.

It would not be feasible toexamine suggestions that areeither not clearly explained orwhich are not supported by

adequate justification or sta-tistics, it said.

The Budget 2022-23 isexpected to be presented inParliament on February 1 nextyear. It will be the fourth bud-get of the Modi 2.0 governmentand Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman.

The budget for the nextyear is expected to addresscritical issues of demand gen-eration, job creation andputting the economy on a sus-

tained 8 per cent plus growthpath.

“As can be seen that thegovernment policy with refer-ence to direct taxes in themedium term is to phase outtax incentives, deduction andexemptions while simultane-ously rationalising the rates oftax,” the letter said.

Currently, more than 100exempions and deductions ofdifferent nature are provided inthe Income-Tax Act.

�� -9:�;9<1&

Edible oil prices in the majorretail markets across the

country have declined by �5-20per kg after various measures,including an import duty cut,by the Government, FoodSecretary Sudhansu Pandeysaid on Friday.

The official said thatbranded oil makers have alsorevised the rates for new stock.

Domestic edible oil priceshave soared in tandem with theglobal prices which shot up dueto reduced availability of edibleoils for food use following diver-sion for biofuel in Indonesia,Brazil and other countries.

"The government has takena number of steps to ensure con-sumers get relief from highprices. We are happy to share thetrend from 167 centres. Edible oilprices have declined quite sig-nificantly in the range of Rs 5 and20 per kg in the major retail mar-kets across the country," Pandeysaid during a press briefing.

For instance, retail palm oilprice in Delhi declined by Rs 5

to Rs 133/kg on November 3from Rs 139/kg, while it fell byRs 18 to Rs 122/kg from Rs140/kg in Aligarh, UttarPradesh, while by Rs 7 to Rs125/kg in Cuddalore, TamilNadu from Rs 132/kg in thesaid period, he said.

Even retail price of ground-nut oil declined by Rs Rs 5-10/kg, while soyabean oil by Rs5-11/kg, and sunflower oil byRs 5-20/kg between October 31and November 3, he added.

The government monitorsretail prices of six edible oilsfrom 167 centres across thecountry.

In the case of mustard oil,the Secretary said, "we have notseen a significant reduction inprices," but the steps taken bythe government includingimport duty rationalisation willhave an impact on prices ofmustard oil as well.

"We are going to see asouthward trend in mustard oilprices too," he said, adding thatongoing sowing of mustardseed is better than last year” headded.

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The National Company LawTribunal has approved

State-owned gas utility GAIL(India) Ltd's acquisition ofbankrupt InfrastructureLeasing and Financial Services'26 per cent stake in ONGCTripura Power Company(OTPC), GAIL said on Friday.

OTPC is a special purposevehicle between Oil andNatural Gas Corporation

(ONGC), IL&FS Group andGovernment of Tripura (GoT)for setting up of a 726.6 MWcombined cycle gas turbine(CCGT) thermal power plantat Palatana, Tripura.

ONGC holds 50 per centinterest in the company in theproject that supplies electrici-ty to the northeastern states.Tripura government holds 0.5per cent while IndiaInfrastructure Fund II holdsthe balance 23.5 per cent stake.

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Last month, Special Ops 1.5: TheHimmat Story was in the newsfor an intriguing promotional

ploy. The trailer for the show, whichis a prequel to last year’s criticallyacclaimed Hostar special, Special Ops,was supposedly ‘leaked’ on Twitter byan account, named ‘ByeHimmat’,which called out the show’s protago-nist. It wasn’t long before everyonejumped on the bandwagon andunknowingly did their bit in promot-ing the show before Hotstar official-ly released the trailer.

Set to be a fitting precursor forSpecial Ops, ahead of the second sea-son which will release next year,Special Ops 1.5: The Himmat Story fea-tures Kay Kay Menon playing the tit-ular role of Himmat Singh, a memberof the Research & Analysis Wing(RAW). The espionage-thriller, SpecialOps, universe was conceptualised byNeeraj Pandey and has developed animmense following; receiving eightnominations at the Filmfare OTTAwards, winning two of them.

What’s surprising is that the trail-er featured a mustachioed AftabShivdasani, who is a familiar face inromantic and comedy flicks. When weread up on his appearance in the show,all we could find out was that he is setto appear in a very ‘pivotal role’ in the

show. Curiosity got the better of us,and we connected with the veteran,who has been in the industry for over22 years, to find out more about hisrole. Read on for excerpts of the inter-view:

�Even after some extensive researchon the internet on your role in theshow, all we could find out was thatyou would be playing a very pivotalrole. Could you please be kindenough to elaborate?

All I can say is that you will see

me in a very pivotal role. (laughsbefore continuing) You know whenyou do a show like Special Ops, whichwith deals with the reclusive RAW,there is not a lot that we could sharebefore the show is aired. When we dosuch a show, everything cannot beblack and white. With respect to theshow, I can only tell you one thing— expect the unexpected. With ashow like this, you can never predictanything. The moment you feel thatyou know what is going on, you arebound to be surprised.

If I tell you what I am doing in theshow, it will unfortunately take awaythe element of intrigue. I am afraidmy hands are tied on this regard, allI can tell you is, once again, that I willbe seen in a pivotal role. (chucklesheartily once again) Hard luck,though, if you were interviewing mefor a comedy or a romantic film, Iwould have been talking minus anyfilters — such projects are so muchmore easier to promote. When itcomes to show such as Special Ops,talking about the show is a differentballgame altogether because much ofwhat the show depicts is 'classifiedinformation'. But rest assured, theshow will speak for itself. It’s got somany twists and turns and so muchgrey area that its very difficult to putyour finger down on how things willpan out.

At this moment I would like tohighlight that I am extremely grate-ful that Neeraj Pandey thought of mefor something like this, because Iwanted to work with him for a real-ly long time.

�The trailer shows you sporting athick moustache, as opposed toyour usually clean-shaven appear-ance, and we have to say that it looksquite striking. Do you like itthough?

I actually had it for the durationof the shoot and, quite frankly, Ienjoyed it.

I have sported the moustache on-screen previously, in a movie calledSetters, where I played a cop, but thatwas a slightly thinner moustache. I amback to my old ways now; it was goodfun while it lasted, though.

�Last year Special Ops receivedeight Filmfare OTT award nomina-

tions, winning the award in two cat-egories. How many nominationswill Special Ops 1.5 receive?

Such awards are never the endgoal for us, the people behind thescenes. I mean, please don't get mewrong, I am quite glad that the showreceived the recognition it deserves,because I myself became a fan of theshow after closely following it. Andit comes as no surprise that it court-ed immense critical acclaim.

�What were you up to during thelockdown?

Well, we had a baby last year inJuly and it was a life-altering experi-ence. That kept us busy and what wasamazing was that we got to spend alot of time together as a family.Regardless of the unfortunate contextas to why we all were cooped upindoors, it was actually a blessing indisguise.

Not that we did not go throughany difficulties, but my wife and I, wedecided to look at things in a verypositive light. And every since ourdaughter entered our lives, everythinghas changed. She is almost 15 monthsold and life, as we knew it, haschanged. For me, it is all about fam-ily and work now.

�Any future projects that you wouldlike to shed light on?

There are a couple of scripts thatI liked and I am working on, but Ihaven’t signed them, hence I cannotreally speak about them. I am quitesuperstitious, I do not like to talkabout something till I am sure of it.I am afraid you would have to wait forthe official announcement.

(Special Ops 1.5: The HimmatStory starts streaming on Disney+

Hotstar from November 12.)

We finally caught America’sfavourite serial killer hiding

out in upstate New York and the goodnews is that he hasn’t killed anyone ina decade. The bad news is his knifeskills are still top-notch. The leadactor Michael C Hall, who plays thetroubled hero of the Dexter series,steps back into the role once againwith the forthcoming season —Dexter: New Blood — ressurecting oneof TV’s darkest characters after almosta decade-long break and an endingthat many found unsatisfying.

Hall shares, “The fact that theending of the series was both open-ended and unsatisfying was part of themotivation to come back and revisitthe character; especially after all thistime, to find out more definitivelywhat happened to him”.

The latest series isn’t just the ninthseason of the show, but a departure.Dexter Morgan has shunned warmand bustling Miami for the fictionalsmall town of Iron Lake, New York.The 10-episode series takes place over17 days in the icy winter, as bloodmixes with snow.

Dexter left a trail of corpses inFlorida, but in New York, he has man-aged to keep his murderous impulse— he calls it his dark passenger — incheck for 10 years. With just 3,000 res-idents, his new town has few secrets.He’s got a job at a fish and game out-fitter, which provides access to gunsand knives — and is even dating withthe chief of police. They also perfect-ly line dance to a Blondie song at thelocal bar.

But this charade ends as the newtwist comes in the face of his dead sis-ter, played by Jennifer Carpenter, whohaunts Dexter. Additionally, Harrison— his long-lost son, now a moodyteen with lots of questions about whyhe was abandoned by his dad —forces Dexter out of his comfortzone.

“People are going to die. We allknow that. I wanted to presentMichael with a theme; and the theme,which is very dear to me, is fathersand sons,” expresses showrunner and

executive producer Clyde Phillips.The arrival of Dexter’s soncoincides with thebubbling out of hismurderous impulses,notes Hall, as heexplains, “A sort of doorto his humanity, that he’sshut, is opened, but youcan’t selectively open inter-nal doors. They all open andeverything starts to get out.”

Dexter is both fearful andexcited in addition to comingto grips with fatherhood and by thenotion that his son also might have adark passenger. Is his murderousstreak genetic? Or does it have to dowith both of them experiencing hor-rific events when they were infants?

He adds, “The lines remainblurred and the blacks and whitesturn to gray. And that’s a part of whatthe show always does, and where theshow has always lived, I think.”

While the nurture-versus-nature

debate takes centre-stage, theseries also delves into opioidabuse, bullying, school shoot-ings and climate change. Andit goes without saying thatthe show is underlined byits trademark darkhumour. In one scene,Dexter butchers a bodywhile the Christmassong God Rest Ye Merry

Gentlemen is sung by a choir.“Sorry about the mess,” he tells the

victim, “I’m out of practice.”Hawk-eyed fans will watch as Jack

Alcott, who plays Harrison, mimicsmany of Dexter’s behaviors, like theway he eats his food aggressively orthe similar ways they sleep or cross aroom. Phillips shares, “It’s all reminis-cent. The question on everyone’smind is whether he has the essenceof Dexter? Does he have the dark pas-senger?”

Dexter ran for eight seasons from2006 to 2013, winning four Emmys

and a 2007 Peabody Award. The leadactor Hall also earned five straightEmmy nominations as the title char-acter between 2008-2012.

Dexter: New Blood was shot ear-lier this year in northernMassachusetts over 119 days. Theybegan in frigid February when, thetemperature would drop from 20degrees to two degrees, if the windchanged. All the snowy scenes werefilmed first before spring arrivedand the cast and crew had to act likeit was cold, even when it wasn’t any-more. Phillips laughs about one finalscene which was shot on July 28 whenthe crew was in shorts and T-shirtsand the cast was in overcoats, bootsand hats.

Phillips reveals, “It was a verychallenging and rewarding shoot,You stand there in a snowstorm, inknee-deep mud and you look at eachother and you say, ‘God, I love whatI do for a living!’”

Since the conclusion of the lastseason of Dexter, Hall has been onBroadway in The Realistic Joneses andHedwig And The Angry Inch as wellas in the film In The Shadow Of TheMoon. He has also been makingmusic with his band, Princess Goesto the Butterfly Museum, but Dexterstill tempts.

“The fact that the show is asbroadly appealing as it is would sug-gest that perhaps we all have someversion of a dark passenger we con-tend with. Our experience of beinghuman is at least a part about man-aging our darker impulses,” con-cludes a thoughtful Hall.

F,�

Entertainer Lionel Blair, whotaught himself to dance

by watching Fred Astairemovies and became a stapleon British stage and televi-sion for decades, has died. Hewas 92.

Blair was born LionelHenry Ogus in Montreal toRussian Jewish parents. Thefamily moved to Britain whenhe was a toddler and settled inLondon, where he and his sis-ter Joyce performed for peoplesheltering in subway stationsduring World War II bombingraids.

He began his career as ateenage actor, but soonfocused on dancing, taking thestage name Lionel Blair.

“I really wanted to be anactor,” he said in 2014. “I wasthe breadwinner after myfather died when we werequite young, and I got into amusical, became well-knownand stayed in musicals. Butreally, I want to be in (soapopera) EastEnders.”

He became close friendswith Sammy Davis Jr after thetwo performed a dance-off ata royal variety performance in1961 at London’s Prince ofWales Theatre.

He performed as a dancer,

worked as a choreographer fortelevision shows and duringthe 1960s, 70s and 80s was anincreasingly prominent pres-ence on TV variety and gameshows. He was a panelist oncharades-based game showGive Us A Clue and a presen-ter on the UK version of NameThat Tune.

He made several filmappearances, including, as achoreographer in The Beatles’1964 caper A Hard Day’s Nightand in the 1986 musicalAbsolute Beginners.

He was an annual star ofthe hugely popular seasonalstage shows known asChristmas pantomimes, andalso appeared in reality TVshows Celebrity Big Brother in2014 and The Real MarigoldHotel in 2017.

Fellow entertainersremembered Blair as an irre-pressible, upbeat presence bothonstage and off.

His style was often calledcamp, but Blair revealed, “Iprefer ‘flamboyant’, or ‘enthu-siastic.’ I’ve always been a bitover-the-top.”

Blair is survived by hiswife Susan, three children andthree grandchildren.

F,�

Zee TV’s popular fiction show, Kumkum Bhagyahas been an audience favourite courtesy its

intriguing plot and the authentic portrayal of relat-able characters like Abhi (Shabbir Ahluwalia),Pragya (Sriti Jha), Rhea (Pooja Banerjee), Aaliya(Reyhna Pandit), Tanu (Leena Jumani), Ranbir(Krishna Kaul) and Prachi (Mugdha Chapekar).While all the actors have been working round theclock to keep their viewers entertained, Pooja recent-ly got some ‘good news’ of her own.

Pooja recently opened up about her pregnan-cy for the very first time and everyone has been overthe moon after hearing this piece of news. The actor,who is six months pregnant, has been shooting forthe show continuously and also mentions that sheis happy to continue shooting till she feels fine. Infact, she came to know about her pregnancy on thesets of Kumkum Bhagya itself and ever since then,her team has been extremely supportive and has alsomade her feel at home.

Talking about her pregnancy, Pooja reveals,"Sandeep and I are really excited and happy toannounce the arrival of a new member in our fam-ily. To be honest, we’ve wanted to start our familysince a couple of years now, however, we never puta timeline on it. We always thought that wheneverit has to happen, it will happen, and I guess we’regoing to be parents at the most perfect time! We arein a very happy space and I feel everything is fallingin the right space. We are gearing up for the babyto come in and we’ve started reading up about preg-nancy, babies and parenting as well. Both of us wantto have a daughter, but we will be happy irrespec-tive of whether it is a boy or a girl. I am sure he orshe will be the most pampered child for sure.”

Reminiscing the initial days when she found outabout her pregnancy, Pooja adds, “Kumkum Bhagyahas been a blessing in disguise for me. I joined theshow just after the first wave of Covid-19 and sincethen, it’s been a joy working on the show. One fineday, I felt that something was not right and hence,I went for a blood test. Around 4 pm, during theshoot, I got the report stating that I was pregnant.I immediately called Sandeep and asked him to come

pick me up. He felt that I was not well, but I justdidn’t want to break the news over a phone call.When I finally revealed the news to him, he jumpedup and started dancing.”

She goes on to add, “Initially, due to the fatigueand morning sickness, it did get taxing. In fact, Ieven approached the makers with an option torelease me if it was getting difficult for them.However, they told me that they wanted me on theshow and have been considerate and workingaround my requirements and comfort. I wish every-body would do that. Working women, who wish togo the family way, should be encouraged to do it.”

While Pooja is prepared for her bundle of joy,her onscreen character Rhea is all set to plot sev-eral twists to separate Ranbir and Prachi. But willshe be successful?

To know all this and more, tune in to KumkumBhagya every Monday to Friday at 9 pm, only onZee TV

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Be it your high schoolsweetheart, your work

buddy, or your connection youmet on a dating app, figuringout how to pop the big questionis not always easy.

A couple, Aradhana andVinay, that met on the datingapp, Bumble, found each otheron the women-first dating appwhen they both were lookingfor marriage. After dating for ayear and half, Vinay carefullyplanned to pop the questionand Aradhana got her dreamproposal. While they weredating, every time Aradhanawatched a proposal video, itwould bring a smile to her face.Also, since both Aradhana andVinay are extremely close totheir families, “he thought ofcombining the two, and whenour families were supposed tomeet each other for the firsttime over dinner, he planned asurprise proposal for me!Everyone knew about it exceptme,” exclaimed Aradhana.

Another pair, Madhura andYatharth, had the mostadventurous proposal beforethey got married in June 2020.They were both scared ofmarriage and giant wheels. So,Madhura somehow found agiant wheel at a fair andpersuaded Yatharth to get ontoit with her. Just as it startedspinning faster, Madhura tookout the ring and proposed tohim by telling him that, “I hategiant wheels, you hate giantwheels. I hate marriage, youhate marriage. But if I have tobe on a giant wheel or in amarriage, I’ll only do it withyou.”

You, too, can plan yourgrand proposal with the help ofthese tips, given by Aradhna:

�Make it personalObserve what your

partner likes and incorporatethose elements into theproposal. It’s fun when youtailor the proposal to whatyour partner likes and wants.Vinay had noticed me tearingup while watching a proposalvideo that I saw sometimeback and when it was ourtime, he took inspiration fromthat video, it absolutelytouched my heart.

�The proposal is all about thecouple and not just one partner

Make the proposal aboutthe two of you and not just oneperson. Do add things to theproposal that both of you enjoy.Since both of us are big Gameof Thrones fans, whileproposing to me, Vinay added areference to GOT which madeit extra special.

�If you are close to your fami-lies, involve them as well

Having your family presentduring this special moment ofyour life can mean a lot. Myproposal was a surprise for mebut Vinay involved both ourfamilies as we are a tight-knitbunch and they also got to

experience it. They were, thus, apart of our important momentwhich made them very happy.

�Make sure someone is captur-ing the special moment on cam-era

This goes without saying.This is the only way to cherishthe proposal forever and pass iton to your kids one day.

�You can make a trip out of itIf you both love to travel

and want the memory to be aprivate one, you can venture outon a weekend getaway to abeautiful location and do itthere. What’s great is that if youtell the hotel management inadvance about your proposalplans, they will help you inmaking your vision a reality.

Last but not the least, don’tget too caught up in executingeverything perfectly. Whilehaving the perfect proposal canbe daunting, don't lose sight ofthe big picture. You’ve foundyour everlasting love and that’swhat you need to celebrate, soenjoy it.

While I was aware this was one ofthe biggest events in the F&Bindustry, it was a panel discus-

sion I didn’t think I would be so thor-oughly invested into. I was afraid it mightget boring, but to face the reality of theworst pandemic affecting even the rootsof our beloved industry was somethingone should really know.

After two years of interlude, NRAI(National Restaurant Association ofIndia) announced the launch of theNRAI COVID Impact Assessment reportat their first flagship event post lockdown.The Restaurant Roundtable held at EssexFarms on October 25, saw a strongpanel of industry leaders including themoderator, food writer and television per-sonality Kunal Vijayakar, corporate chefManish Mehrotra, founder and CEO ofFreshMenu, Rashmi Daga, CEO andMD of Impresario Entertainment &Hospitality Pvt Ltd, Riyaaz Amlani, andZorawar Kalra, the MD & founder ofMassive Restaurants Pvt Ltd. The panelof the eminent speakers discussed togeth-er the road to be chosen by food anddelivery industries post-pandemic.

At the beginning of the elegant con-ference, Kabir Suri, the current presidentof NRAI and co-founder and director ofAzure Hospitality, stated the reality andthe alarming statistics. Amongst theworst hit industries by Covid-19 is thefood services industry globally.

He noted, “In the financial year of2021, Indian Food Services industrycontracted severely leading to permanentclosure of over 25 per cent of food busi-ness operators which resulted in job loss-es of nearly 24 lakh people. The FoodServices industry employs approximate-ly 73 lakh people and is one of the largestemployment generators for the economy.The industry in India declined by 53 percent and was estimated to be worth �2,00,762 crores, compared to � 4,23,624crores in the financial year of 2020.However, the industry is expected torecover and reach a size of � 4,72,285crores in the financial year of 2022.”

“The people who are here are theones who have survived,” Amlani rumi-nated.

During the presentation on the saidreport of Nitin Saluja, the founder ofChaayos, he expressed, “Looking at thereport, you will realise that while we, asan industry, have thoroughly suffered andare now only struggling to come out. Thegovernment has also been equally impact-ed. The direct taxes or the GST funds thatthe government would get have also suf-fered a blow. The partner ecosystem hashad a negative impact.”

Overall, the biggest beneficiary isgoing to be a chained organised player.An organised retail business is one which

is registered with GST, whereas a chainedrestaurant is defined as a restaurantwith three or more stores.

He explained, “20 per cent com-

pounded annual growth rate of chainedorganised players as compared to a 13 percent of organised standalone store play-ers, versus a five per cent growth rate of

unorganised players.”Elaborating on the intense restructur-

ing that the industry is going through, toadapt to the challenges hurled by Covid,

he highlighted the emerging trends in thereport, saying, “There are certain trendsthat have emerged due to Covid. First andforemost is the overall shift of consumers

towards organised retail. Two, consumersmaking hygiene a priority. Which is agood thing, honestly. People care aboutcleanliness and hygiene.”

“People are becoming more awareand conscious of what they are doingbehind the kitchen, not just in front,which is a good thing,” Mehrotra joinedin.

“The Covid protocols are being fol-lowed by the employees vigilantly andthat has helped bring customers back,too,” Amlani added.

Further, Saluja spoke of the deliveryindustry shooting from a 10 per cent rateto a 33 per cent hike, “Ordering in hasbecome the norm now. It is now a thingfor everyone. People prefer virtual brands.For some, it might be 100 per cent,depending on whether it is a cloudkitchen or not. However, overall revenuehas increased to 33 per cent.”

The report stated certain recommen-dations for the government to aid theindustry, of which the biggest is to allowtax credit. Second most vital request is toallow businesses to operate 24x7. It helpsthem grow faster.

“We, as a fraternity, need from thegovernment — business support, demandstimulus and regulatory interventions. Allthe major economies ended up support-ing the food services industry by givingsome business support or overall stimu-lus. We ask for the same,” Saluja conclud-ed.

The panel also examined the difficul-ties faced by the industry as a whole. Aquestion that was on my mind, also askedby the moderator Vijayakar, was thatthere were two sides of the story - “I’veseen restaurants short of staff and chefswithout jobs, because of the pandemic.Where is the truth in this?”

“Most of the workforce in the metro-politan cities come from outside and withthe onset of the pandemic, everyone wentback. Now, getting them back is a biggertask. Most of the companies have start-ed re-hiring but have, at the same time,suffered losses that they haven’t exactlybeen able to make up for. In some cases,the chefs don’t want to return because ofthe fear after so much hardship that theyfaced,” Mehrotra answered.

Suri believed that 80 per cent of thelosses will be revived in the next twomonths and considered the report to bepivotal. He said, “the report is crucial forthe industry to garner the necessary sup-port and recognition from theGovernment and its agencies for provid-ing a fillip for consistent and sustainedgrowth.”

He later thanked all the NRAI mem-bers for their contribution to the researchstudy leading to the formation of thereport.

Saif Ali Khan plays therole of the original

Bunty in the completelyrebooted big-ticket familyentertainer Bunty AurBabli 2 and he is heapingpraise on the youngBollywood actor, SiddhantChaturvedi, who is playingthe new Bunty – a superslick, a big city conman.

Saif expresses,“Siddhant is a star, noquestion about that. Forsomeone so young to havethe screen presence that hehas and the acting maturi-ty that he exhibits, he isdefinitely one of the mostexciting talents that theindustry has chancedupon.”

“We have to give cred-it to Zoya Akhtar for dis-covering him for GullyBoy and Adi for believingthat he can be a quintes-sential hero in the come-dy genre which is one ofthe toughest for any actorto crack,” he adds.

Saif reveals that

Siddhant is natural in frontof the camera and that hewas born to be an actor.

“He is fantastic in BuntyAur Babli 2 and he lightsup the screen with his

performance and personaevery time he comes onscreen. This film willshowcase him as a masalaHindi film hero and fromwhat I have seen of him,he thoroughly relishesbeing one.”

Yash Raj Films’ BuntyAur Babli 2, which is set torelease worldwide onNovember 19, is a rib-tickling comedy that willpit two sets of con artists,from different genera-tions, against each otheras they show their mas-tery over disguises to out-wit each other. It will alsostar Rani Mukerji as theOG Babli and debutantSharvari as the new Babli— a hot, sassy, drop-deadgorgeous con-artist froma big city. Bunty Aur Babli2 has been directed byVarun V Sharma, whohas previously worked asan assistant director inYRF’s biggest blockbusterslike Sultan and TigerZinda Hai.

After announcing the release dateof Badhaai Do last week,

Junglee Pictures studio has nowrevealed the theatrical release dateof their much anticipated film,Doctor G, starring AyushmannKhurrana, Rakul Preet Singh andShefali Shah on June 17, 2022.

It will be interesting to seeAyushmann portraying the role ofa gynaecologist for the first time inthe campus comedy drama, along-side Rakul and veteran actorShefali Shah.

After two successful collabora-tions Bareily Ki Barfi (2017) andBadhaai Ho (2018), bothAyushmann and Junglee Pictureshave collaborated yet again to scorea hat-trick at the box office.

Amrita Pandey of JungleePictures says, “The writers of thefilm — Sumit, Saurabh and Vishal

along with Anubhuti have created afabulous script of Doctor G whichAnubhuti has taken to the next level.We can’t wait to bring it to the the-atres next year.”

Anubhuti Kashyap, who is mak-ing her feature directorial debutwith the movie, adds, “With theshoot of the film wrapped up, weare now gearing up to get themovie ready for theatres. I amreally happy to have got the oppor-tunity to work with Ayushmann,Rakul, Shefali, Junglee and theentire team of Doctor G who stoodby me and that reflects on screen.It has been an enriching experience.I am really excited to bring themovie to audiences.

Directed by Kashyap, Doctor Gis a campus comedy drama, co-writ-ten by her, Sumit Saxena, VishalWagh and Saurabh Bharat.

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Glenn Philips and JimmyNeesham's game chang-

ing partnership on a trickysurface helped New Zealandbeat Namibia by 52 runs in aSuper 12 game here on Fridayand stay on course for asemifinal berth in the T20World Cup.

Courtesy some late-hit-ting by Phillips (39 not out off21 balls) and Neesham (35not out off 23 balls), NewZealand posted 163 for fourand then restricted the oppo-sition to 111/7 to complete aconvincing win.

Tim Southee (2/15),Trent Boult (2/20), MitchellSantner (1/20), Ish Sodhi(1/22) and Jimmy Neesham(1/6) shared the wickets.

The win also meant that

Kiwis jumped to the secondspot in the standings and nowhave six points with a net runrate of +1.277.

They play Afghanistanon Sunday in what could bea virtual quarterfinal.

Chasing 164, Namibia

openers Stephen Baard (21)and Michael van Lingen (25)conjured 47-runs for theopening wicket.

But New Zealand sentback both the openers, firstNeesham cleaned up Lingenin the eight over and then 29-

year-old slow left-arm ortho-dox bowler Santner castledBaard with Namibia slippingto 51/2.Leggie Sodhi removedrival skipper GerhardErasmus (3) cheaply to puttighten the screws onNamibia.

Zane Green (23) andDavid Wiese (16) onlydelayed the inevitable andexperienced pacer Southeetrapped the latter in front inthe 15th over to dash theremaining opposition hopes.

Earlier, Phillips andNeesham took the Namibianattack to the cleaners andpropelled New Zealand past150 which looked unlikely atone stage. New Zealand werestruggling at 87/4, but brutalhitting by Phillips andNeesham ensured that theKiwis were back in the game.

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Star West Indian all-rounder DwayneBravo says he will retire from

international cricket after theongoing T20 World Cup hereas "time has come" to leavethe stage after a career he canbe proud of.

The 38-year-old Bravocame out of retirement in2019 and has been a keymember of the West Indiesteam defending its title in theongoing T20 World Cup.

But the Caribbeans are out con-tention for a semifinal spot after losing toSri Lanka -- their third in the showpiece-- in a Super 12 match on Thursday.

West Indies' inconsequential matchagainst Australia here on Saturday will beBravo's last international outing, bringingdown the curtains on a career spanning

more than 17 years. "I think the time has come. I've had

a very good career. To represent the WestIndies for 18 years, had some ups and

downs, but as I look back at it I'mvery grateful to represent the

region and the Caribbean peo-ple for so long," said Bravowho has been an integral partof the four-time IPL champi-on Chennai Super Kings team.

"To win three ICC trophies,two with my captain (Daren

Sammy) on the left here. One thingI am proud about is that the era of

cricketers we had we were able to make aname for ourselves on the global stage andnot only do that but have silverware toshow for it."

Earlier in the year, during their homeseries against Pakistan, skipper KieronPollard had said that Bravo was playing hislast T20I game on the Caribbean soil.

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It's Indian skipper ViratKohli's 33rd birthday and

Anushka Sharma marked theoccasion with an emotionalnote, praising her "amazingman" for his courage, honestyand guts of steel.Sharma saidthe sports star has theunmatched ability to bringhimself out from "dark place".

“No filter needed, for thisphoto and the way you leadyour life. Your core is made ofhonesty and guts of steel. Iknow no one who can pickthemselves up from a darkplace like you can.

"You grow better in everyway because you hold on tonothing in you as permanentand are fearless,” Sharma wroteon Intagram alongside a pho-tograph with Kohli.

The celebrity couple havealways been particular abouttheir privacy, but Sharma said

she decided to share her feel-ings on Kohli's birthdaybecause she wanted to tell theworld how amazing her hus-band is.

“I know we are not ones totalk to each other throughsocial media like this but some-times I just want to scream andtell the world what an amazingman you are Fortunate arethose who really truly knowyou. Thank you for makingeverything brighter and morebeautiful Oh, and HappyBirthday cuteness!" she added.

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Xavi Hernández, the playerwho personified the attack-

ing style popularized byBarcelona and Spain's nation-al team, is close to returning toCamp Nou as coach.

Xavi's current employer,Qatari club Al-Sadd, saidFriday that the former mid-fielder would be freed from hiscoaching contract once hisrelease clause is paid. His cur-rent contract runs into 2023.

Barcelona declined to com-ment on the cost, but Spanishmedia reports say Xavi's buy-out clause is 5 million euros($5.7 million).

“Xavi informed us a fewdays ago of his desire to go toBarcelona at this particulartime, because of the criticalstage his hometown club isgoing through, and we under-stand this and decided not tostand in his way,” Al-Sadd

CEO Turki Al-Ali said in aposting on the club's Twitteraccount.

“We've agreed on cooper-ation with Barcelona in thefuture. Xavi is an importantpart of Al-Sadd's history andwe wish him success.”

Xavi is set to replaceRonald Koeman, who was firedlast week following a series oflosses for a club that failed tore-sign Lionel Messi. SergiBarjuan has been coachingBarcelona since, overseeing a

draw in the Spanish league anda victory in the ChampionsLeague. He will return tocoaching the reserve team.

Faced with a barrage ofquestions about Xavi in a reg-ular pre-match news confer-ence, Barjuan repeated thatBarcelona had yet to announcethe signing of a new coach.Even so, he spoke of Saturday'smatch at Celta Vigo as his lastin the dugout.“Barcelona hasnot made anything official,but we all hope this can beworked out,” Barjuan said. “IfXavi comes, I will be happy tohelp him in any way I can.”

The 41-year-old Xavi leftBarcelona in 2015 after helpingthe club win 25 titles, includ-ing four Champions Leaguesand eight Spanish leagues in 17seasons. He was also key toSpain's streak of titles when itwon the 2010 World Cup andEuropean Championships in2008 and 2012.

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TV anchor Nauman Niaz has offered an "unconditional" apol-ogy to Shoaib Akhtar for the on-air spat between them but

also said that PTV was being "taken for granted" by the formerPakistan pacer and that also contributed in the ugly episode.

Akhtar was told to leave the set by Niaz and former Pakistancricketer immediately announced that he is resigning as PTV'scricket analyst. The manner in which Niaz treated Akhtar hadcaused a storm on social media with many demanding the ter-mination of the TV host. The incident took place during a WorldCup show in which stalwarts like Sir Viv Richards, David Gower,Rashid Latif, Aaqib Javed, Azhar Mahmood, Umar Gul and SanaMir were also present.

Akhtar had refused to appear before an inquiry committeeformed by the PTV management until Niaz was sacked for hisbehaviour.

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The third and final Test betweenIndia and South Africa in the

upcoming Test series between thetwo teams has been moved to CapeTown from Johannesburg, the CSAannounced on Friday.

Johannesburg was scheduled tohost both the series-opener (startingDecember 17) and the third Test(January 3-7) while Centurion is setto host the Boxing Day Test fromDecember 26.

However, Cricket South Africa(CSA) announced the change invenue for the third Test but did notspecify the reason for the move.

"CSA has announced a keyschedule change as the 3rd BetwayTest of the Freedom Series has beenmoved from the Imperial Wanderersin Johannesburg to Cape Town's SixGun Grill Newlands," CSA tweeted.

India will be backing themselves

for their maiden Test series win inSouth Africa, having beaten Australiain their backyard twice in the lastthree years.

On the tour of South Africa,

India will also play three ODIs andfour Twenty20 matches, beginningJanuary 11.

The tour will conclude with thefourth T20 on January 26.

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Shubham Jaglan negotiatedthe tough closing stretch at

the Dubai Creek Golf andCountry Club with two birdiesand a superb par to card 2-under 69 in the third round ofthe Asia-Pacific AmateurChampionship.

With three straight roundsunder par (70-68-69), the 17-year-old Jaglan is 6-under for54 holes and five behind theleader World No. 1 KeitaNakajima (67).

At T-13th, he has a greatchance for a Top-10 finish.

The other two Indians whomade the cut -- Milind Soniand Akshay Neranjan shot 71each and were placed T-24and T-37 respectively.Nakajima (67) moved to thetop of the leaderboard andheld a slender one-shot leadover the two-time championLin Yuxin of China.

The overnight leader Jin Bo

(69), who is trying to emulatehis brother Jin Cheng by win-ning the AAC, slipped to T-3with Sam Choi of Korea.

Jin Cheng won in 2015 andBo accompanied him toAugusta National."It was pret-ty good. I was nervous goinginto the round knowing I wasgoing to play with Puwit(Anupansuebsai). He's a reallygood college golfer and some-body I look up to, so it was apleasure playing with him,"Jaglan, who had four birdiesagainst two bogeys, said.“I gotoff to a solid start, hit the greenon the first seven holes in a row,so that settled me into theround. I didn't hole too manyputts. I gave myself some goodopportunities and the windwas up a little bit today.

“I sort of hung in there andkept giving myself good oppor-tunities and came back withbirdies on 15 and 16, which waspretty good. I saved a good paron 18,” he added.

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Indian Grandmaster KSasikiran went down to

Alireza Firouzja of France inthe eighth round of the Openevent to slip to third spot in theFIDE Grand Swiss tournamenthere.

Firouzja won in 43 moveswith white pieces againstSasikiran on the first boardThursday night.

He moved up to 6.5 pointsto grab the sole lead by a fullpoint.

A group of 10 players,including top seed and worldNo.2 Fabiano Caruana andMaxime Vachier-Lagrave, arein joint second place.

Sasikiran remained on fivepoints to share the third spotwith a bunch of players, includ-ing compatriots Nihal Sarinand P Harikrishna.

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Nitish Rana smashed half adozen sixes in his unbeat-

en 25-ball-50 to lead Delhi toa comfortable seven-wicketwin over Chandigarh in a SyedMushtaq Ali T20 group Eencounter, here on Friday.

Chasing a target of 145,Delhi knocked off the runs injust 17.2 overs as Rana with sixsixes and a boundary.

All-rounder Lalit Yadav's(23 not out off 13 balls) fivefours made it difficult for

unheralded Chandigarh bowl-ing attack.

Rana, who plays forKolkata Knight Riders in IPL,and Yadav added 65 runs in just5.1 overs to also bolster theirnet run-rate. They are now ontop of the group E table witheight points.

The other contributor withthe bat for Delhi was left-handed keeper-batter AnujRawat, who hit three sixes andthree fours in his 35-ball-44.

However credit also go tothe Delhi pacers as well.

New Zealand’s big win over Namibia

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India's seasoned bowlersmade short work of theunheralded Scotland by

bundling them out for just 85in 17.4 overs in a Super 12game of the ICC T20 WorldCup here on Friday.

With one eye on the netrun-rate, skipper Virat Kohlifinally won a toss on his 33rdbirthday and pacer JaspritBumrah (2/10), made the life ofScottish batters miserable dur-ing his first spell.

Bumrah surpassedYuzvendra Chahal (65 scalps)to now become India's high-est wicket-taker in shortestversion.

Plucky left-handed openerGeorge Munsey (24 off 19balls) clipped Bumrah oversquare leg for a six and reverseswept Varun Chakravarthy fora boundary to signal positiveintent but the gulf in class wasalways obvious.

Skipper Kyle Coetzer (1)was pegged on the backfoot bya Bumrah yorker first up andthen he bowled a slower onewhich beat the Scotsman allends up.

A lethal MohammedShami (3/15) then sent back thedangerous looking Munsey,

who failed to clear mid-on.That was the end of Scotlandbatting's brief bright spot.

The dsciplined RavindraJadeja (3/15), with his 'darts-like' accuracy, removedMatthew Cross (2), RichieBerrington (0) and MichaelLeask (21 off 12 balls) in quicksuccession to blow away themiddle-order.

Jadeja varied the pace of hisdeliveries but occasionallybowled the ones that skidthrough the surface hurryingthe batters.

Once Scotland were 44 for

4 after 10 overs, there was nolooking back for the Indianbowlers.

It was a game where evenpercentage bowling wasenough to rattle the Scotlandbatters, who didn't find toomany options to keep thescoreboard ticking.

Scotland's previous poorshow with willow against weak-er teams like Namibia andAfghanistan was an indicatorthat they wouldn't do any bet-ter against India.

Once half the side was outwith less than 60 on the board,the lower order was caughtbetween survival and attack.

Calum MacLeod (16 off 28balls) laboured along beforebeing cleaned up by Shami asIndians hardly had to bowl toomany effort balls to dismantlethe opposition.

Save one where No. 10Alasdair Evans was yorked bya 90 mph thunderbolt byShami.

It was one such happyevening in the office whereskipper Kohli wasn't botheredwhether there was a sixthbowler available or not.

Ravichandran Ashwin(1/29) and Varun Chakravarthy(0/15) were also accurate forthe better part of their spells.

SHAMI, JADEJA ROLL OVER SCOTLAND FOR 85*4��<'-;F*

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