30% fitment, retirement at 61 yrs - Daily Pioneer

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MONEY 8OXFORD JABS EFFECTIVE AGAINST

COVID, TRIAL IN US CONFIRMS

ANALYSIS 7HOBSON’S CHOICE

ON FARM SUBSIDIES

SPORTS 12INDIA EYE

WINNING START

}WORKING FORVAKEEL SAABDREAM COME

TRUE: THAMAN {WILL ‘DESTROY’ PANNA TIGER RESERVE:RAMESH ON KEN, BETWA RIVERS LINKING

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Mondayexpressed fear that the interlinking ofKen and Betwa rivers will destroy the

Panna Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh.Ahead of the signing of the agreementbetween the CMs of Uttar Pradesh andMadhya Pradesh for linking the rivers, theformer environment minister said he hadsuggested alternatives in this regard 10years ago but those were ignored. "The CMs ofUP and MP will sign a pact today to link Ken andBetwa rivers. This will all but destroy the Panna Tiger Reserve inMP, a success story in translocation and revival. I had suggestedalternatives 10 years ago but alas...," he said on Twitter.

NOTICE TO AMAZON ON ITS CHALLENGETO FUTURE GROUP-RELIANCE DEAL

The Delhi High Court Monday stayed a singlejudge's order restraining Future Retail Ltd(FRL) from going ahead with its `24,713

crore deal with Reliance Retail to sell itsbusiness, which was objected to by a US-based e-commerce giant Amazon. Adivision bench of Chief Justice D N Pateland Justice Jasmeet Singh also issuednotice to Amazon on Future Group's appealchallenging the single judge's March 18judgment on the deal by which all the objectionsraised by them were rejected. "...we hereby stay the order of thesingle judge dated March 18, 2021, till the next date of hearing,"the bench said and listed the matter for further hearing on April 30.

INDIA SEES BIGGEST SINGLE-DAY SURGE INCOVID CASES SINCE EARLY NOVEMBER

As India stares at the second Covid wave,46,951 fresh coronavirus cases in thelast 24 hours - biggest single-day

jump since November 7 - took thecountry's tally to 1,16,46,081 totalinfections, the government data thismorning showed. Of these, over 1.11crore people have recovered so far, and1,59,967 total deaths have been recorded. Inthe last one week, India has seen the sharpestsurge in fresh infections in nearly four monthsafter the spread of virus had seemed to slow down. Restrictionshave returned in several parts of the country as government andexperts say violation of protocols is leading to surge in cases.

GANDHI PEACE PRIZE 2020 CONFERREDON SHEIKH MUJIBUR RAHMAN

The Gandhi Peace Prize for the year2020 is being conferred onBangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur

Rahman, the Centre said. The pres-tigious prize for the year 2019 isbeing conferred on late SultanQaboos bin Said Al Said of Omanin recognition of his vision tostrengthen relations with India, andhis efforts to promote peace and non-violence in the Gulf region, it said.TheGandhi Peace Prize is an annual award instituted by gov-ernment of India since 1995, the 125th birth anniversarycommemoration year of Mahatma Gandhi.

HHYYDDEERRAABBAADDWWEEAATTHHEERR

Current Weather ConditionsUpdated march 22, 2021 5:00 PM

FFoorreeccaasstt:: Partly cloudyTTeemmpp:: 34/18HHuummiiddiittyy:: 29%SSuunnrriissee:: 06:17 amSSuunnsseett:: 06:27 pm

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Rahul Gandhi hits out at Centre over

rising fuel prices

5

Four states seek Rs 16,467 cr

special packagefrom Centre

8

For Assam,

BJP is the only

alternative

AALLMMAANNAACC

TTOODDAAYY

Month & Paksham:

Magha & Shukla Paksha

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Time to Avoid: (Bad time to start

any important work)

Rahukalam: 03:23 pm – 04:53 pm

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Good Time: (to start any important work)

Amritakalam: 08:13 pm – 09:54 pm

Abhijit Muhurtham: 11:58 am – 12:46 pm

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ML MELLY MAITREYI n HYDERABAD

Bringing jubilation to employees andteachers across the State, ChiefMinister K. Chandrasekhar Rao onMonday announced a generous 30per cent fitment under the 11th PayRevision and enhanced the retire-ment age to 61 years.

The new pay scales will come intoeffect from April 1, 2021 and theretirement age enhancement aspromised in the election manifestowill be implemented immediately.

“The retirement age was increasedto 61 years so as to avail the servic-es of experienced employees,” KCRtold the State Legislative Assembly.

Addressing the House on themuch awaited 11th PRC recommen-dations and enhancement of retire-ment age on Monday, the ChiefMinister said the wage revisionwould benefit 9,17,797 employeesincluding contract, outsourced,Home Guards, Anganwadi workers,ASHA, SERP workers, Vidya volun-

teers, KGBV, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyanemployees, VRAs, VAOs, Grand inAid and Work Charges and dailywage employees.

“Previous governments wouldrevise pay scales only for governmentemployees but our government witha humanitarian attitude hadincreased the wages of differentcategories of contract and out-sourced employees too. It has takena similar decision even this time,” hesaid.

The PRC ahd recommended a fit-ment of 7.5 per cent which variousemployees’ associations had reject-ed. The government appointed athree-member committee led bythe Chief Secretary to discuss thePRC recommendation with employ-ees’ associations. After theCommittee’s report, the CM too helddiscussions with employees’ andteachers’ associations to understandtheir aspirations.

KCR said that though the Statewas facing a financial crunch due todecline in the State's revenues

because of the pandemic, theGovernment has decided to pay 12month PRC dues and they would be

paid along with the retirement ben-efits of employees.

n The pay-revision willbe implementedfrom April 1, 2021:About 9,17,797employees to benefit

n The eligibilityage for getting15% AdditionalPension isdecreased from75 to 70 years

n Inter-district transfers for couplesto work in the same district

n 80% of the process of promotionscompleted: Vacancies will be filledsoon after completion of theprocess of promotions.

n Retirement gratuity isincreased from Rs 12Lakh to Rs 16 Lakh

n It is decided topay 12-monthPRC arrears

n Retirementage for GovtEmployees,Teachers areincreased to61 years

CM KCR announces 11th Pay-Revision Commission

30% fitment, retirement at 61 yrsKCR’S GIFT TO EMPLOYEES, TEACHERS

Eatala ‘200 acre’ comments shock TRS,KTR takes him to Pragathi BhavanK VENKATESHWARLUn HYDERABAD

In what can only be described as“highly unusual circumstances”,Health Minister Eatala Rajenderwas driven down to PragathiBhavan, by no less than TRS work-ing president KT Rama Rao tomeet Chief Minister KChandrasekhar Rao and explain hisremarks at Veenavanka village ofHuzurabad in Karimnagar districton Sunday.

What transpired behind closeddoors is anybody’s guess, but thosein the know say that the HealthMinister squirmed a lot during hisalmost two-and-a-half hour longclosed door meeting with the TRSsupremo.

Eatala was understandably tight-

lipped about his meeting with theChief Minister, but the officialword was that he and KCR dis-cussed the rising number of Covid-19 cases.

After emerging from the meet-

ing, Eatala went straight to theSecretariat at BRKR Bhavan wherehe confabulated with ChiefSecretary Somesh Kumar onCovid.

TRS leadership red-facedat seniors' public outburst SNCN ACHARYULUn HYDERABAD

The inability of some top TRS lead-ers to control their words is doingmore damage to the public imageof the party than the Opposition,with all its machinations could.

This is leaving the TRS leader-ship increasingly frustrated at thepublic outburst of senior leaders,and penchant of others to level alle-gations and counter allegations.

It’s not just the up-and-comingparty leaders, out to make a markfor themselves by catching theparty leadership’s eye who are giv-ing a headache to the senior-mostleaders, but also some who have

“made it” to the top echelons of theTRS.

The ‘tendency’ to shoot off theirmouths in public is being noticedacross the spectrum in the TRS, beit members of the Cabinet orthose biding their time.

Senior-most leader and HealthMinister Eatala Rajendar is knownfor his public outbursts. While hisoutburst at a public function inKarimnagar district two days agoleft his seniors squirming, formerDeputy Chief Ministers KadiyamSrihari and T Rajaiah have open-ly levelled allegations and count-er allegations at each other in pub-lic meetings.

Deadline to avail free drinking waterscheme extendedPNS n HYDERABAD

The State Government has extend-ed the deadline for fixing domes-tic water meters till April-end so asto enable more households avail the20,000 litres of free drinking waterscheme. Reminding that con-sumers should link their watermeter connection with Aadhaar,Municipal Administration andUrban Development Minister KTRama Rao told the LegislativeCouncil here on Monday that theGovernment was spending Rs 500crore for the free drinking waterscheme and hence Aadhaar seed-ing was made mandatory to bringin accountability into the system.

Centre's tax collection from petrol, diesel jumps 300%

PNS n NEW DELHI

Central Government's tax collectionson petrol and diesel have jumpedover 300 per cent in the last six yearsas excise duty on the two fuels washiked, the Lok Sabha was informedon Monday.

The Central Government col-lected Rs 29,279 crore from exciseduty on petrol and Rs 42,881 croreon diesel in 2014-15 -- the first year

of office of the Modi government. The collections on petrol and

diesel rose to Rs 2.94 lakh crore inthe first 10 months of the current fis-cal (2020-21), according to informa-tion furnished by Minister of StateAnurag Singh Thakur in a writtenreply to a question in the Lok Sabha.

Together with excise duty on nat-ural gas, the Central Government in2014-15 collected Rs 74,158 crorewhich has gone up to Rs 2.95 lakh

crore in April 2020 to January 2021period.

He said taxes collected on petrol,diesel and natural gas as a per-centage of total revenue havegone up from 5.4 per cent in2014-15 to 12.2 per centthis fiscal.

Excise duty onpetrol has beenraised from Rs9.48 per litrein 2014 to Rs32.90 a litrenow while

the same on diesel has gone up fromRs 3.56 a litre to Rs 31.80.

Taxes make up for60 per cent of

the presentretail priceof petrol ofRs 91.17 alitre inD e l h i .E x c i s ed u t y

makes up for36 per cent ofthe retail price.

Over 53 per cent of the retail sell-ing price of Rs 81.47 a litre of dieselin Delhi is made up of taxes. Asmuch as 39 per cent of the retail pricecomprises of central excise.

"The total central excise duty(including basic excise duty, cessesand surcharge) was increased by Rs3 per litre on petrol and diesel witheffect from March 14, 2020. It wasfurther revised upwards by Rs 10 perlitre on petrol and Rs 13 per litre ondiesel with effect from May 6, 2020,"Thakur said.

Param Bir moves SC;Pawar rules outDeshmukh's resignationPNS n MUMBAI/NEW DELHI

IPS officer Param Bir Singh onMonday moved theSupreme Court seek-ing direction forimmediate "unbiased,u n i n f l u e n c e d ,impartial and fair"CBI probe intoalleged corrupt mal-practices ofMaharashtra HomeMinister Anil Deshmukh.

The move by the formerMumbai police commissionercame on a day NCP chief SharadPawar ruled out his party col-league's resignation from theUddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena-

NCP-Congress government in thewestern state.

Rajya Sabha proceedings wereadjourned till 2 pm on

Monday amid uproarover corruption allega-tions in Maharashtraduring the QuestionHour.

The MaharashtraAnti-Terrorism Squad

(ATS) took an accusedarrested in the Mansukh

Hiran death case to thecreek in Thane where his body wasfound, and also detained a personfrom Gujarat who had providedthem SIM cards, officials said.

Covid: Four pvtairports can see 90 pc drop in profitPNS n MUMBAI

A vertical drop in passenger vol-ume due to the on-going pan-demic can lead to a steep 90 percent fall in the operating profitsof the four private airports Delhi,Mumbai, Bengaluru andHyderabad.

These airports accounted forover 90 per cent of the air passen-ger traffic handled by privateairports in the country andaround 55 per cent of all such traf-fic in the calendar year 2020, asper rating agency, CRISIL.

Affirmative action isnot just reservation: SCPNS n NEW DELHI

The Supreme Court on Mondaysaid States should take more stepsto promote education and establishinstitutes for the upliftment ofsocially and educationally back-ward classes as affirmative actionis not limited to just reservation.

A five-judge Constitution benchheaded by Justice Ashok Bhushan,hearing the Maratha quota case,said that several other things canbe done by the states for this pur-pose.

“Why can't other things bedone? Why not promote educationand establish more institutes?Somewhere this matrix has tomove beyond reservation.Affirmative action is not just reser-vation,” observed the bench, whichalso comprised Justices LNageswara Rao, S Abdul Nazeer,Hemant Gupta and S RavindraBhat.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal,appearing for Jharkhand govern-ment, said this would involve

issues including financial resourcesof the state, number of schools andteachers there.

Sibal argued that the extent ofreservation would differ from stateto state in the country dependingon the population and thus, therecannot be a straight jacket formu-la for this.

The apex court is dealing witha batch of pleas challenging thevalidity of 2018 Maharashtra lawgranting reservation to Marathasin education and jobs.

SUMIT ONKA n VISAKHAPATNAM

Subscribers to what has come to beknown as ‘WhatsApp University’are justifying their existence bysharing anything that is forward-ed to them with everyone on theircontact list, without scarcely athought about the panic they cre-ate.

A year after Janta Curfew wasenforced across the country, ‘info-demic’ on the pandemic continuesto spread like wildfire, and contin-ues to create panic. The subsequentlockdown had spawned a frenzy offake news and these news clips of

2020 were back on everyone’ssmartphones, regarding cancella-tion of various servicessuch as train, bus andcontainment zonesshared viaWhatsapp.

This is not onlycreating confusionfor the public, butthe service and healthsector authorities arealso finding it tough togive clarification for eachpost.

For instance, a news video clipof a vernacular news channel thatbus services will be stopped has led

to panic. Visitors to Vizag fromother states were seen booking tick-

ets for their home state in ahurry. Locals also plan-

ning their journeybecame extra cautious,afraid that they wouldbe stranded if bus serv-ices were stopped.

On Monday, givingclarification about the

news clip, the APSRTC,Vizag, regional manager said:

“Last year’s news clips are goingviral on social media regardingstoppage of bus services.

Old clips on Covid trigger panic as‘WhatsApp University’ takes a toll

Rs 2.94L cr collected on petrol, diesel in 2020-21

File photo

Page 11

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Annaprasaadam inAP temples halted PNS n VIJAYAWADA

Annadanam has been stopped inseveral temples in AP in view ofthe rising number of Covid cases. Officials said that Annadanamtemple atop Indrakeeladri inVijayawada.

Likewise, Dwaraka TirumalaChinna Venkanna temple in WestGodavari district and Annavaramtemple in East Godavari districthave also cancelled the free foodprogramme from Mondayonwards.

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hyderabad 02HYDERABAD | TUESDAY | MARCH 23, 2021

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(IN HYDERABAD)

Why has the BJPemerged stronger inthe North-East,

especially in Assam, ever sinceit was voted to power at theCentre in 2014?

The answer is simple —people regarding it as an alter-native to the Congress.

Unable to analyse the caus-es scientifically, the Oppositionis blind to identifying its ownmistakes for its defeat. Assamwas ruled by the Congresssince 1950, when the firstAssembly was constituted, tillTarun Gogoi stepped down inMay 2016, barring a seven-year interregnum.

The BJP got 36.68 percent ofthe vote in the 2014 GeneralElection winning seven seats,and in the 2016 Assemblypolls, people dislodged theCongress and gave the BJPpower.

The BJP’s vote share was 30percent. In the 2019 LS polls,its vote share was improved to36 percent. Surveys indicatethat the BJP will retain powerin Assam. Since the BJP’s rule

is constructive and people-friendly, citizens want it to rulethe state again and again.

To at least play a construc-tive role, the Congress shouldintrospect why people reject-ed its policies and why theywelcomed the BJP.

The Assamese Hindu votersgravitated towards the BJPduring 2011-2019, accordingto CSDS-Lokniti. This is attrib-uted to Congress allowing ille-gal immigrants into the stateduring the past 60 years.

The pre-IndependenceMuslim League government inAssam encouraged Muslims toimmigrate to the state on alarge scale and tried to alter thelocal demographic profile.

Therefore, the peoplebacked Gopinath Bordoloiwho agitated against this. In1951, Nehru assured people ofthe state to prepare theNational Register of Citizens,

but upon Bordoi’s death failedto keep his promise.

In the 1980s, people sup-ported the movement againstillegal immigrants. Over 860youth had to pay with theirlives during the agitation. RajivGandhi, the then PM, reacheda pact with AASU in 1985 andassured the people to imple-ment the NRC.

However, the people didnot trust the Congress andvoted the Assam GanaParishad to power. In thisbackdrop, the people wel-

comed the national BJP.The Congress which shelved

the NRC joined hands with theMuslim League in Kerala andIUDF in the Assam exposingits true nature.

The BJP has no doublestandards on the issue.

It only argued that not stop-ping illegal immigrants wouldaffect the identity of Assamand also that of the country.

After Kashmir was split intotwo Union Territories, Assambecame the state with thehighest Muslim population. As

per 2011 census, the Muslimpopulation is 34.2 percent.

The BJP made it clear thatit was never against theMuslims who speak Bengali,but would not tolerate com-munal parties that encourageillegal migration. The BJPdeclared that it will implementthe NRC to check illegal

migration.But the

O p p o s i t i o nlinked theCAA with theNRC in spite ofthe fact that thetwo are not interrelat-ed. The Oppositionknows that CAA is meant forsome caste groups facing per-secution in other countries andthe NCR is meant to save thepeople of the country fromillegal migration.

President Ramnath Kovindin his address to Parliamentmade it clear that the illegalmigrants are posing a threat tonational security and theywould be identified on thebasis of the NRC.

The BJP checked corruptionby weeding middlemen andensured that benefits of gov-ernment schemes trickle downto the people. Assam is free

from regional clashes over thepast five years. The BJP

rendered equal justiceand also achievedbalanced develop-ment of the state.Manmohan Singh

was elected to the RajyaSabha from Assam and didnothing to develop the state asPM.

Modi, soon after coming topower, developed 11,000 kmroads in the state, inaugurat-ed the longest road bridge inthe country Dhola-Sadiyaacross a tributary ofBrahmaputra and the longestroad-cum-rail bridge in AsiaBogibeel bridge onBrahmaputra. In the past fiveyears, all regions in Assamhave road connectivity.

Because of the improved lawand order in the state, majorindustrial players are investingin Assam. Large scale industri-

alisation and creation of infra-structure is taking place inAssam. The Petroleum andNatural Gas sector aloneattracted investments worth Rs95,000 crore.

The state attracted 195major industries and also20,971 MSMEs. There are 20industrial estates and 11 cen-tres for comprehensive devel-opment of infrastructure, 17industrial zones, 17 develop-ment centres, 8 mini industri-al estates, export parks, foodand industrial parks.

Modi’s objectives are toweed out corruption, no votebank politics, safeguard thecountry from nefarious forcesand work for development.

People rejected theOpposition for lack of ideals,protecting family interests,extending corrupt and anar-chic rule, joining hands withcommunal forces to practisevote bank politics.

Still wisdom is yet to dawnon Opposition. The people ofAssam have no option to rejectthem again.

Y SATYA KUMAR

BJP National Secretary

TRULY

SPEAKING

Modi’s objectives are to weed out corruption,no vote bank politics, safeguard the countryfrom nefarious forces and work for develop-ment. People rejected the Opposition forlack of ideals, protecting family interests,extending corrupt and anarchic rule, joininghands with communal forces.

For Assam, BJP is the only alternative

PNS n NEW DELHI

Sebi chief Ajay Tyagi onMonday said G VRamakrishna, who passedaway on Saturday, played acrucial role in giving shape tothe regulatory architecture forcapital markets during thewatchdog's formative years.

Besides, Sebi became astatutory body during histenure as chairman, Tyagi saidat a condolence meeting at theregulator's head office.

Ramakrishna was chair-man of Sebi from August1990 to January 1994. Hejoined the IndianAdministrative Service in 1952and held various importantpositions in the state ofAndhra Pradesh and theGovernment of India.

Harish: TS' debt to GDP ratio among lowest in the countryML MELLY MAITREYI

n HYDERABAD

Finance Minister T HarishRao has said that theOpposition members mademisleading statements on thedebt burden of the state as wellas spending on important sec-tors by Telangana governmentwithout getting their factscorrect.

Replying during the dis-cussion on Budget for 2021-22in the Legislative Assemblyhere on Monday, Harish Raosaid that the state availedloans as per the norms pre-scribed by the FiscalResponsibility and BudgetManagement Act.

The loans to GSDP ratio ofTelangana was 22.8 per centand among 28 states in thecountry, Telangana ranked

25th but the Congress ruledPunjab was third from the topwith a ratio of 38.7 per cent ofits GSDP. Rajasthan was in 8thposition with 34.7 per cent. Itwas an indication thatTelangana's debt burden wasquite low compared to major-ity of the states in the country.

Replying to Congress mem-ber Mallu Bhatti Vikramarkhawho raised concern aboutmounting debt burden ofTelangana, Harish Rao said astate could borrow dependingon the size of its economy andGSDP.

In contrast, Centre borrow-ings amounted to 62.2 per centof the GDP. The debt burdenof Telangana went up becausethe Centre enhanced theFRBM limit of States from 3per cent to 5 per cent in 2020-21 to let them borrow addi-

tional loans as revenues ofstates were hit by Covic due tolockdown and decreased eco-nomic activity.

Ironically the GST com-pensation given by the Centreto the States was shown asState loans while it shouldhave been shown as grant, hesaid. Harish Rao also refutedBhatti Vikramarka's statement

that in 2021-22, Telanganawould pay Rs 50,000 croretowards repayment of loansand debt servicing. ButTelangana would pay Rs26,624 crore towards debt ser-vicing and loan repayment, heclarified and said Telanganagovernment would comfort-ably implement its welfareand development programmesas it has clarity and commit-ment.

It was wrong to includeguarantees given by theGovernment to various corpo-rations like Civil Supplies forprocurement of paddy fromfarmers as borrowings by theState. Telangana would pay inadvance to farmers throughbank guarantee of Rs 20,000crore and it would be repaid tothe bank once the FCI reim-bursed the state, he explained.

PNS n HYDERABAD

Telangana BJP Chief BandiSanjay Kumar, on Monday,stated that the Chief MinisterK Chandrasekhar Raoannounced PRC to theemployees due to the agitationsdone by the BJP. However, hestated that by giving hiked PRCsalaries only for 12 months andthat too after retirement, theTRS government had actuallydeceived the people.

He said that the ChiefMinister announced PRC dueto the BJP's agitations and asthe people stood by the BJP,which was evident from theoutcome of the Dubbak by-election and GHMC election.He demanded that the govern-ment gave a minimum of 44per cent fitment to the employ-ees and teachers. He said thatthe BJP activists agitated forthe PRC and went to jails. BJPhas made the government givePRC, he said. He said that theemployees, who expected morethan 43 percent fitment, weredisappointed by KCR's PRCannouncement. He demandedthat the government filled upvacant posts in various state

government offices immedi-ately.

BJP MLA from Dubbak MRaghunandan Rao alleged thatthe Chief Minister announcedPRC expecting political gainsin the Nagarjuna Sagar by-elec-tions. He ridiculed the TRSgovernment for giving animpression that they did agreat job announcing PRC,which was supposed to beannounced in 2017. He allegedthat the government, whichwas greatly telling about PRCand Mission Bhagiratha, actu-ally removed the employees ofMission Bhagiratha scheme.

Finding fault with the gov-ernment for not filling up theTSPSC chairman position forthe last five months,Raghunandan Rao asked theChief Minister as to whetherhe was not getting time to fillthe TSPSC Chairman position.

‘Announcement on PRC due to agitations of BJP’

TRS distributed money throughGpay, Paytm: BJPPNS n HYDERABAD

Telangana BJP leaders havelodged a complaint with theChief Electoral Officer onMonday alleging that the TRSleaders enrolled bogus votersand distributed moneythrough Google Pay andPaytm to the voters inMahabubnagar-Rangareddy-Hyderabad constituency.

The BJP contested candi-date N Ramchander Rao saidin his complaint that theyhave also lodged a complaintpreviously that some groupsare indulging in enrollingbogus voters for the MLCGraduate constituencies.

The leaders have said thatthey have also requested theCEO to send the uploaded cer-tificates to the concerned uni-versities for verification andthereafter publish the draft listfor objections, to ensure freeand fair elections. However, forreasons inexplicable, it was notdone, and so many bogusvotes with fake certificateswere enrolled and it has affect-ed the winning chances of BJP,Ramchander Rao said.

PNS n HYDERABAD

Congress MLA fromMunugode KomatireddyRajgopal Reddy has ridiculedthe victory of TRS in theGraduate MLC elections andalleged that the TRS leaders arecelebrating their victory, whichwas only possible for them bypurchasing the votes fromgraduates.

Even the citizens know thereason for the victory of TRScandidates - S Vani Devi andPalla Rajeshwar Reddy - in theGraduate MLC elections,Rajgopal Reddy stated.

The citizens, as always show-cased their priority to the fight-ers like Teenmar Mallana, whowould fight against the govern-ment on behalf of the people,he said adding that TheenmarMallanna, Prof M Kodandaramand N Ramchander Rao won

by losing the elections, whilethe TRS candidates lost bywinning the elections.

During chitchat with thescribes at the Assembly premis-es on Monday, Rajgopal Reddysaid that former CLP leader KJana Reddy has sympathyamong the people and hewould win the Nagarjuna Sagarby-elections. "Jana Reddy hasbeen in politics for the last 40years and he doesn't need anysupport from others in thecampaign. Jana Reddy would

recognise everybody in hisconstituency. Everyone is aleader in Telangana Congressand there is no need for otherleaders to support for the vic-tory of Congress leader,"Rajgopal Reddy said.

Clarifying about his com-ments, which caused damage tohis brother Bhongir MPKomatireddy Venkat Reddy,who was expecting the positionof TPCC Chief, RajgopalReddy said that he did mentionanything about his brother. "Isaid Komatireddy VenkatReddy and Revanth Reddy arein the race to become TPCCchief. I said I am willing to joinBJP and not my brother," hesaid making it clear that any-thing can happen in Congresswhere Ponnala Laxmaiahbecame TPCC Chief and NKiran Kumar Reddy becamethe Chief Minister.

‘Anything can happen in Cong’Ponnala Laxmaiah became PCC Chief, Kiran Kumar

Reddy became CM, says Rajgopal Reddy

Continued from Page 1

He also announced that thelimit of gratuity of employeesand teachers would beincreased to Rs 16 lakh from Rs12 lakh. Recalling the signifi-cant role played by the employ-ees and teachers in achievingTelangana State, the ChiefMinister said that the employ-ees were working with thesame commitment in the devel-opment of the State. “TheGovernment's developmentand welfare programmes werereaching people with the coop-eration of employees,” he said.

The State government was anemployee-friendly one and hadannounced special incrementfor Telangana employees soonafter formation of State andextended 43 percent fitmentunder the 10th PRC in 2014,KCR reminded.

He said that the 11th payrevision was delayed due to theCorona pandemic that adverse-ly affected the State's economyand revenues. “As the Stateeconomy started recovering,the Government revised the payscales now,” the Chief Ministersaid.

30% fitment,retirement...


According to the ATS,Mumbai police officer SachinWaze, now suspended and incustody of the NIA, played akey role and emerged as theprime accused in Hiran'smurder case.

In his plea to the apexcourt, Singh, a 1988 batch IPSofficer also sought quashingof the order transferring himfrom the post of Mumbai CPalleging it to be arbitraryand illegal.

As an interim relief, Singhsought stay of the operationof his transfer order anddirection to the state govern-ment, the Centre and the CBIto immediately take in its cus-tody the CCTV footage fromthe residence of Deshmukh.

Singh's corruption allega-tions against Deshmukh per-tain to a period when he washospitalised and hence thequestion of his resignationdoes not arise, Pawar said.

Param Birmoves...


The top court is also examin-ing issues including whetherthe landmark 1992 judgementin Indra Sawhney case, alsoknown as the Mandal verdictwhich caps quota at 50 percent, requires a re-look by alarger bench in the light ofsubsequent Constitutionalamendments, judgments andchanged social dynamics ofthe society.

During the hearing con-ducted through video-confer-encing on Monday, senioradvocate PS Patwalia, appear-ing for Maharashtra, referredto the protests held earlier inthe state on this issue and saidit was a burning issue there.

“It was a burning issue there(in Maharashtra),” he said,adding, “One rally had hap-pened in Mumbai and theentire city had come to astandstill.”

This was a huge social issuein the state, Patwalia said.The arguments in the caseremained inconclusive and

would resume on Tuesday.The top court had earlier

sought to know for how manygenerations would reserva-tions in jobs and educationcontinue and had raised con-cerns over resultant inequali-ty in case the overall 50 percent limit was to be removed.

Senior advocate MukulRohatgi, appearing forMaharashtra, had said that theMandal judgement on cappingthe quota needed a re-look inthe changed circumstances.

Rohatgi had said there weremany reasons for the re-lookof the Mandal judgment whichwas premised on the census of1931 and moreover, the pop-ulation has increased manyfold and reached to 135 crore.

Attorney General KKVenugopal had last week toldthe apex court that the 102ndamendment to theConstitution does not deprivestate legislatures to enact lawdetermining the Socially andEducationally BackwardClasses (SEBC) and conferringbenefits on them.


Responding to a questionfrom TRS members MSPrabhakar Rao, the Ministersaid that every family in theGreater Hyderabad MunicipalCorporation limits was beingextended the free drinkingwater facility.

He said that for now, freedrinking water facility up to20,000 litres was being extend-ed to the GHMC limits and forextending the facility to rest ofthe State, the State Cabinet willhave to take a decision.

KTR however said all thenotified slums in the GHMCwere being provided freedrinking water.

“Hyderabad used to witnessdemonstrations with emptypots to highlight drinkingwater scarcity previously butnow such demonstrations havebecome a thing of the past.Chief Minister KChandrasekhar Rao is takingsteps to provide adequatedrinking water till the year2050,” KTR said.

Affirmative action is notjust reservation: SC

Deadline to avail free drinkingwater scheme...


All APSRTC buses are run-ning and passengers cantravel in all buses wearingmasks."

“As the dates of the newsclips match and there is asurge of cases, people tendto believe these clips,” theRTC official said.

Some clips on cancella-tion of trains are alsospreading like wildfire.


The report also said tariffhikes will help aeronauticalrevenue bounce back next fis-cal to 1.3 times of fiscal 2020while estimating a full recov-ery in traffic by fiscal 2023only. A material increase intariff will help lift the aggre-gate operating profit orEbidta of four private airportsto around 65 per cent of theirpre-pandemic levels (of fiscal2020), next fiscal, the ratingagency said in the report.


These increases took awaythe gain that would haveaccrued to consumers from asharp drop in internationaloil prices.

The hike in excise duty issimilar to the increase intaxes the government didbetween November 2014 andJanuary 2016.

Over nine instalments,duty on petrol rate was hikedby Rs 11.77 per litre and thaton diesel by 13.47 a litre inthose 15 months.

Centre's taxcollection...


It may be mentioned herethat Eatala had said that “win-ning elections is not a bigthing. One can win sellingone acre land and then have200 acres of land”.

Eatala had also told thegathering at the inaugurationof a Rythu Vedika building thatpoverty will not be eradicated

with schemes like KalyanaLakshmi, pensions and rationcards, all pet schemes of theTRS government. He had alsosaid that the government has tointroduce schemes that wouldhelp people stand on theirown feet. “The schemes have toinfuse strength, bravery andconfidence among the peoplethat they can do any work,”

Eatala had said. It may be safeto surmise that the HealthMinister was troubled by thefact that he had been over-looked by the Chief Ministerwho did not invite him to ameeting of his ministers atPragathi Bhavan over the just-concluded Graduate MLC elec-tions. KCR also assigned himany responsibilities like cam-

paigning for the elections.Adding salt to Eatala’s

wounds, KCR had given someresponsibilities to CivilSupplies Minister GangulaKamalakar.

According to sources,Eatala’s comments were direct-ed not only against the govern-ment but also against GangulaKamalakar.

Eatala ‘200 acre’ comments shock TRS,KTR...


In Karimnagar, Etala hadasked the people not toremember the party, partyflag, cash or caste but insteadremember the persons whodid them good. He also saidthat leaders mean personali-ty and not showcasing ofwealth. “Those who respondto people’s issues are leaders,”he said.

Expressing anguish, Etalasaid “I may be hurting but I

won't change my mind,” andwent on to criticise the gov-ernment schemes targeted forpoor people such as KalyanaLakshmi, pensions and rationcards. The minister said theseschemes were not the solutionto eradication of poverty.“People should stand on theirown legs and should feel thatthey have guts and courage;they must have confidencethat they can earn their ownliving,” Etala said.

Old clips on... Sebi condolesdemise ofRamakrishna

TRS leadership... Covid: Four pvt...

HYDERABAD | TUESDAY | MARCH 23, 2021hyderabad 03

Telangana reported 337 newCovid cases and two deathsduring the last 24 hours, health

officials said on Monday. With theweekly drop in number of tests, thedaily count of cases also camedown. Worried over the spike incases, authorities have alreadyramped up number of tests to60,000 but on Sunday only 37,079tests were conducted. The state's tally of Covid cases has nowmounted to 3,03,455 The surge in cases continued in GreaterHyderabad, surrounding districts and other parts of the state. In thelimits of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), thedaily count climbed further to 91, the highest this year. Rangareddydistrict bordering the state capital reported 38 new cases. MedchalMalkajgiri, another district adjacent to Hyderabad, registered 28cases. According to the daily media bulletin released by the directorof public health and family welfare, two more persons succumbedto the virus, taking the death toll to 1,671. The fatality rate remainedat 0.54 per cent against the national average of 1.4 per cent.While44.96 per cent of deaths were due to Covid-19, remaining 55.04died due to comorbidities.

TS logs 337 new Covid cases

IT and Municipal AdministrationMinister KT Rama Rao on Mondayunderscored the need for

preserving water and drew theattention of members in TelanganaLegislative Council by explaining theimportance of three Rs mantra -Reuse, Reduce and Recycle. "Thetriple R principle is essential to meetthe water requirements of futuregenerations," he said, while greeting members on the occasion ofWorld Water Day. Stating that groundwater levels in Rajanna Sircilladistrict had increased by six meters, he recalled that there used tobe a drought-like situation in the area earlier. Farmers used to digup borewells but now the situation has changed as all the waterbodies were filled with water and farmers are again digging up wellsto meet irrigation needs in their agriculture lands. Rama Rao said adrive would be started soon highlighting the importance ofpreserving water. The water harvesting theme park here won anational award, he added.

‘3Rs for water conservation’

CITY LIGHTS

PNS n HYDERABAD

Telangana Road TransportAuthority officials are gearingup to scrap old vehicles and arealerting the public who arehaving old vehicles with themwhich are unfit to be allowedon roads and have completed15 years, following theannouncement of the Uniongovernment's Ministry of RoadTransport and Highways.

Union Minister for RoadTransport and Highways NitinGadkari recently announcedthe details of the long-awaitedvehicle scrapping policy,explaining that the absence ofa fitness certificate would meanan automatic cancellation ofregistration for commercialvehicles that turn 15, and thatthe registration of a privatevehicle would be valid for 20years, with renewal requiringproof of fitness.

Government departmentswill not be able to renew reg-istration of the vehicles olderthan 15 years from April 1 nextyear, if the proposal is finalisedby the Ministry of RoadTransport and Highways.

This policy also recom-mends the mandatory scrap-ping of all government vehiclesover 15 years old.

Greater Hyderabad accountsfor 64 lakh vehicles, out ofwhich primarily, it is estimat-ed three lakh unfit vehicles arerunning in Greater Hyderabadalone - vehicles, including lightmotor vehicles, which are olderthan 15 to 20 years. But theaverage age of commercialvehicles is over 10 years andthat of the private ones is, 10 to15 years.

Such old vehicles are esti-

mated to cause 10 to 12 timesmore pollution than the latestvehicles. The Union govern-ment had said it planned toimpose green tax on old, pol-luting vehicles while exemptingvehicles like strong hybrids,electric vehicles and those run-ning on alternate fuels likeCNG, ethanol and LPG fromsuch taxation. In this regardthe vehicles which failed fitnessrenewal test would be treated

as "End of Life Vehicles" andwould be sent to the scrappingcenters.

The cost of the scrap will betaken into account when thecustomer will be buying newvehicle and the cost of the newvehicle will be reduced accord-ingly.

Scrap value for the old vehi-cle given by the scrapping cen-tre, is expected to be 4 to 6 per-cent of the price of a new vehi-

cle; a potential road- tax rebateof up to 25 percent for new per-sonal vehicles and up to 15 per-cent for new commercial vehi-cles from the states; and apotential discount of 5percentoffered by auto companiesagainst the scrapping certificateare some of the benefits theowners going for the scrappingof their old vehicles will be get-ting.

The move is expected toreduce pollution, create jobopportunities through the reg-istered scrapping centres, andboost demand for new vehicles.

It is being proposed that allvehicles of the State govern-ment, Municipal Corporation,Panchayats, State TransportUndertakings, Public SectorUndertakings and autonomousbodies with the Union andState governments may be de-registered and scrapped after15 years from the date of reg-istration.

"The scheme shall providestrong incentives to owners ofold vehicles to scrap old andunfit vehicles through regis-tered scrapping centres, whichshall provide the owners witha scrapping certificate,"Gadkari the Union Minister forRoad Transport and Highwayssaid.

City houses 3 lakh unfit vehicles

STEP BY STEP

The state government will takeup the restoration of historically

significant stepwells in andaround Hyderabad, now that ithas completed the restoration

of Bhagwandas Baoli. There arearound 140 stepwells in the

state, including the 60 inHyderabad. The MAUD

Department may take up therestoration of more stepwells,after the proposed ones are

restored.

PNS n HYDERABAD

Several international passen-gers who travelled with nega-tive Covid reports have beenfound positive for thepathogen when tested onarrival at the international air-port here, airport sources said.

Cases of international pas-sengers being found positive intests conducted at the airportdespite having a negativereport were being reportedon regular basis, they said.

Confirming that such caseshad been noticed, UnionHealth Ministry officialAnuradha Medoju here saidthe information on positivecases was shared with stategovernment officials for quar-antining and other purposes.

"A few cases (of Covid pos-itive on arrival) are reported inspite of them carrying negativereport," she said.

The official, however, saidshe does not have detailsimmediately on the number ofsuch passengers.

State health officials couldnot be reached for their com-ments. Airport sources saidthose arriving from the

Middle-East and the UK aretested mandatorily, while pas-sengers from countries like US,

Singapore and Maldives areallowed to go home if theycarry a negative RT-PCRreport of 72 hours.

While it was doubted thatsome might be faking their testreports in order to travel, theairport sources said in thecase of positive results onarrival, it could be due to thequick incubation of virus (dur-ing journey).

It was also possible that aperson might be tested nega-tive for some reasons beforethe journey despite him car-rying the virus in reality.

ANUSHA PUPPALAn HYDERABAD

The corrugated paper boxindustry is facing a crisis asprices of raw material have shotup threatening to turn thebusiness unviable.

The corrugated industryexperts said the unprecedent-ed steep escalation of price ofKraft Paper by the paper millsis the major hurdle while con-suming industries are not will-ing to pass on the cost makingtheir business unviable.

The Association of Corrug-ated Case of TS will observeblack week from March 24 to31 March 2021 against theunprecedented price hike ofpaper and raw material. Theassociation allege thatCorrugated industry on vergeof closure due to doubling ofpaper prices and other costs.

According to the association,corrugated box manufacturersare crucial supply chain part-

ners for all FMCG and durablemanufacturers. All items onesees on store shelves, includingfood, healthcare, cosmetics,medicines, electronics, elec-trical and other items includ-ing daily needs reach the shelfonly in a corrugated box. Thereis no other cost effective andeco-friendly packaging productfor transportation of prod-ucts. All box plants are MSMEsand offer direct employment to

over 3 lakh people and indirectjob opportunities to 5 lakhpeople. All commodity priceshave sky-rocketed and partic-ularly Kraft paper prices havedoubled in last few monthspushing the industry towardsclosure. The humongous andalmost daily increases in pricesof paper have crippled theindustry.

"Kraft Paper and boardprices are increasing relent-

lessly since November 2020.There is an increase of 80 to 90per cent so far. Entrepreneursare suffering immensely due tothe unabated increase in inputcosts,” ACCT chief Bharat said.

The situation is critical andthe very survival of the indus-try is under threat, he saidadding that "We draw theattention of the government toease the availability of kraftpaper by restricting export ofkraft paper, so that domesticrequirements are met'."

Government should live upto Atma Nirbhar Bharat poli-cy and save the corrugated boxindustry from closure. Anydisruption in supply chain willbe detrimental to the recoveryof economy from Covid impactand cause large scale disloca-tion of supply chain and alsodiscontent among masses dueto non-availability of essentialgoods that need corrugatedboxes to reach the customersfrom manufacturers.

Corrugated paper industry faces closure

PNS n HYDERABAD

Telangana Chief Minister KChandrashekhar Rao hasextended greetings to people ofstate on the occasion of WorldWater Day.

He said protecting the nat-ural resources like water wouldnot only maintain ecologicalbalance but also would providevaluable asset and wealth to thefuture generations.

Chief Minister said the stategovernment was implementingseveral schemes and projects tosupply water for irrigation andfor drinking water purposesand also to revive and rejuve-nate the ground water levelsthat touched rock bottom inthe undivided state. ThroughMission Kakatiya and mega

irrigation project likeKaleswaram, efforts were on toincrease the availability of theground water as well as irri-gation facility, he said.

With the implementationof Mission Bhagiratha, safe andpure drinking water was madeavailable to every householdthrough pipelines and tapsand it also eradicated the flu-oride problem once and for all.

The measures taken by thestate government for the pastsix and half years brought in aqualitative change in waterresources management.

Chandrasekhar Rao said itwas a moment of pride 'for allof us that experts all over theWorld, the Central govern-ment have appreciated themeasures taken by the gov-ernment in this regard'.

Protecting natural resources will ensure eco-balance: CM

PNS n HYDERABAD

A major fire broke out in animitation jewellery shop nearYousufain Dargah inNampally here on Monday.No casualties were reported,but property was damaged.

Police suspect a short cir-cuit in the shop led to the fire.The incident occurred whenthe shop was closed. Thelocals who noticed fire andsmoke in the shop immedi-ately alerted the police andthe fire department.

On being alerted, two fireengines reached the spot anddoused the fire in an opera-tion which took about anhour.

The worth of the propertydamaged is yet to be esti-mated.

Major fire breaks out in jewellery shop at Nampally

PNS n HYDERABAD

Works pertaining to the fly-over at Nagole, which havebeen suspended in view ofroad widening works, havecommenced on a war-footingin LB Nagar constituency.

The officials of GreaterHyderabad MunicipalCorporation (GHMC) underthe Strategic RoadDevelopment Programme(SRDP) have embarked onflyover project on either sidenear Nagole on Uppal-LBNagar road to ease traffic con-gestion.

During the lockdown, localMLA Sudhir Reddy and theauthorities took initiative towiden the road towardsNagole. The flyover workshave been suspended to facil-itate shifting of the cables,pipelines and electric poles.

A three-lane 24-metre wideand 1040-metre long flyoverwas planned at a cost of Rs

64.42 crore to facilitate easymovement from Nagole to LBNagar and from LB Nagar toUppal. As part of the project,the construction of 23 pillarswas completed.

According to the projectdivisional engineer Karthik,the works are progressing at abrisk pace. The pre-castingworks are under way current-ly.

The GHMC officials havefirst completed widening ofthe road from Nagole bridgeto RTC office via MamataNagar and Nagole cross roads.Later, they have completeddrinking water and drainagepipeline works and also that ofthe flood canal.

Currently, the officials arebusy completing the linking ofpipelines at Mamata Nagar.Once the linking work is done,the project officials will makearrangements for develop-ment of a service road near theInner Ring Road.

Nagole flyover works going on at brisk pace

Several flyers with negative reportsfound positive at Hyderabad airport

The measures takenby the Telangana

government for thepast six and half yearsbrought in a qualitative

change in water resourcesmanagement.

K CHANDRASHEKHAR RAO

Chief Minister of Telangana

The airportsources said inthe case ofpositive resultson arrival, itcould be due to the quickincubation

PNS n HYDERABAD

Finance Minister T HarishRao has given an assurance inthe Legislative Assembly thatvacancies in all the universitiesin Telangana, including theOsmania University will befilled soon.

Referring to the vacancies inuniversities including 2,064vacant posts in OsmaniaUniversity against the sanc-tioned strength of 3,213 postsraised by Congress memberMallu Bhatti Vikramarka inthe Assembly on Monday,Harish Rao said that therecruitment process wasstalled because of court cases.

The state government hadgiven notification to fill thevacancies in Osmania andother Universities and therecruitment process was takenup. However, at the time ofannouncement of results,some persons filed petitionsand the Court had given stay.

During the discussion on

Budget for 2021-22, HarishRao replied that due to thepetitions in many HighCourts, the recruitmentprocess in the Universitieswas suspended across thecountry. The issue was takento the notice of Centre and itwas in the process of bringinga Constitutional amendment.Once the amendment waspassed, vacancies in all theuniversities would be filled.

He said so far 1.34 lakh gov-ernment posts were filled. Thevacancies that would come updue to promotions to the gov-ernment employees wouldalso be filled soon, he added.

Vacancies in universities to be filled soon: Harish

PNS n HYDERABAD

One of the suspects in the sen-sational Nizam's Museumtheft case was arrested againon charges of burglary onMonday, with the police recov-ering gold worth over Rs.25lakh from him.

The Cyberabad SOT alongwith the Rajendranagar policenabbed Mohd Ghouse Pasha,26, who was involved in 15burglary cases earlier. Theseincluded the theft of pricelessartefacts including the goldstudded tiffin box from theNizam's Museum in 2018. He

was involved in six cases afterbeing released from jail. Policesaid gold worth Rs 25 lakh anda knife were recovered fromGhouse Pasha. He also hadtwo Non-Bailable Warrantspending against him. He waslast arrested in the Museumtheft case in September 2018,after he, along with an associ-ate stole artefacts including thegolden tiffin box, cup andsaucer which were used by theNizam and were kept in theMuseum. He was releasedfrom prison in August 2020and started committingoffences again, police said.

Nizam's Museum thiefheld again for burglary

TRS MLA Gandra Venkatramana Reddy giving a bouquet to Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar in Hyderabad on Mondaypraising him for presenting the budget keeping in view all sections of society. Minster for Panchayat Raj Errabelli DayakarRao and others look on

GANDRA GGREETS KKCR

hyderabad 04HYDERABAD | TUESDAY | MARCH 23, 2021

PNS n SURYAPET

In all, 100 spectators wereinjured, who had come towitness the inauguration ofthe 47th National JuniorKabbadi Tournament hereon Monday, when the gallerycaved in on them. Theinjured have been shifted tothe government and privatehospitals in 108 ambulancesand the seriously injured toHyderabad. Players from 29States are taking part in thetournament. According toDistrict Superintendent ofPolice Bhaskaran, overcrowd-ing might have led to theaccident.

Minister for Energy GJagadish Reddy consoled theinjured in hospitals andpromised them to providebetter treatment. It is learntthat over 1,500 spectatorswere sitting in the gallerywhen the gallery collapsed onthem. The mishap shockedeveryone and the stadiumwas looking like a war zonewith broken wreckage spreadall over.According to sources,90 tonnes of iron and 60tonnes wood have been usedfor the construction of threegalleries. In each gallery over5,000 can sit and witness thesports and games. For the firsttime, the National KabaddiTournament was being organ-ised in the district and officialstook it as a prestigious issueand gave wide publicity.Hence, many came to witnessthe tournament. But, sadly themishap took prior to the inau-guration of the tourney.

RAJESH JAIN NIDARKAR

n HYDERABAD

At a time when the Union gov-ernment is out to sell public sec-tor units (PSUs), the revival ofthe Ramagundam FertilizerCorporation Limited (RFCL),after a span of nearly 20 years,is receiving plaudits.

Established to enhance theprestige of the Telanganaregion, this factory will manu-facture to fulfil the fertilizershortage in half of the country.It had been decided to marketthe fertilizers manufacturedhere under the brand name of‘Kisan’. In future, the aim is tosupply fertilizers fromTelangana to all States acrossthe country. The factory will bemanufacturing urea as well asammonia fertilizers. The annu-al production capacity of ureais estimated at 13 lakh metrictonnes, officials said.

RFCL, a major investmentdone in the history of theTelangana State, is gearing up tostart production from the firstweek of April. The fertilizer unithas been revived at a cost of Rs6,120 crore. Permission hasbeen obtained from the UnionMinistry of Agriculture forproduction and sale of fertiliz-ers. The Central governmenthas revived the industry intend-ing to produce urea here tomeet the country's needs.

According to official figures,the country consumes an aver-age of 300 lakh metric tonnesof urea per year. However, thecountry is producing only 240lakh metric tonnes of urea. Theremaining 60 lakh metrictonnes are being imported fromabroad. As a part of reducingthis financial burden, theCentral government has decid-

ed to revive five closed factoriesacross the country.

The first among those is therevival of the RFCL inTelangana. The fertilizer facto-ry was supposed to resume itsoperations in January, this yearas per the schedule. But, thatdeadline could not be reacheddue to the Corona pandemic.

Due to the Corona, migrantlabourers from Rajasthan andOdisha went home and didnot return on time, so the

work at the factory came to astandstill. The installation ofurea storage tanks was stalleddue to a shortage of humanresources. All other work iscurrently being completed.CISF? staff are assigned workto maintain industrial securi-ty. Residential houses are alsobeing built for them on thefactory premises. Clamping ofspare parts for ammonia tankshas been going on at a briskpace.

PNS n MANCHERIAL

Former Central committeemembers of the CPI Maoistparty Waranasi Subrahmanyamand his wife, party districtcommittee member were takeninto custody near Vijayawadarailway station while they weretravelling to Mancherial fromChandigarh. A laptop, threemobile phones and Maoist lit-erature were recovered fromtheir possession.

Disclosing this at a press con-ference here on Monday,Mancherial DCP Uday KumarReddy said that the policeupon raiding the house ofGurijala Ravinder Rao inKyatanpalli they came to knowthat he gave shelter to the cou-ple for 20 days at his house inNovember 2020.

The couple visited here witha mission to revive the Maoist-affiliated Singareni KarmikaSamakhya in the coal belt area.They met former leaders andactivists of the outfit.

Subramaniam alias, Srikanti,Aman and Vimal, a resident of

Markapuram in Prakasam dis-trict. In the 1980s he was anordinary activist of the Maoistparty and posted in the erst-while Adilabad district. By2004, he became a Central

Committee member of theparty.

He was arrested in the Biharregion in 2011 while workingin Delhi, Punjab and Haryanaregion of the party. Upon his

release on bail in 2019, theparty deputed him to theTelangana region to revive theSingareni Karmika Samakhya.

As part of the exercise, hevisited Gurijala Ravinder Rao,his former colleague inNovember, along with his wife.Vijayalakshmi alias Sridharais the District Committeemember of the party, marriedSubrahmanyam in 1990 whileshe was employed with theBank of Mysore. She hails fromBengaluru.

She took VRS in 1996 todedicate full time to the Maoistparty. She was working inDelhi City Committee, alongwith Subrahmanyam, whenthe latter was arrested in 2011.Subsequently, she changed shel-ters and organised dens forparty members.

When Subrahmanyam wasout on bail, she took an activepart in the party activities andvisited Gurajala Ravinder Rao,along with her husband, torevive the banned outfit.

The arrested would be pro-duced in the court.

PNS n WARANGAL RURAL

Parakala MLA Challa DharmaReddy urged the TourismMinister to restore an ancienttemple, which was construct-ed during the period ofKakatiya rulers at Katakshapurvillage on the suburbs ofAtmakuru in Parkala con-stituency, was lying in a dilap-

idated condition. He wasspeaking during the ZeroHour in the Assembly onMonday.

The temple was locatedclose to National Highway163. In turn, Minister forTourism Srinivas Goud saidthat the temple would beinspected and rebuilt as soonas possible.

PNS n NEW DELHI

The SC Bench comprisingJustice DY Chandrachud andJustice MR Shah directedofficials of the Telugu statesshould sit together and reacha unanimous decision ondivision of the employees,assets and liabilities of TeluguAcademy in one month.

If unanimous solution isnot feasible, then the Benchshould conduct a trial of thepetition filed before it chal-lenging the Telangana HichCourt decision on it.

The Government ofTelangana challenged theTelangana High Court deci-sion on sharing of employeesand assets and liabilitiesbetween the two Telugu statesin three months.

The contract employeesand daily wage employeesworking in regional TeluguAcademy centre filed a peti-tion in Telangana HC inNovember 2020 stating thatthey are not getting theirsalaries since 2019December. Therefore, theysought division of theTelugu Academy betweenthe two states to renderthem justice.

In January this year, a HCbench comprising JusticeRamachandra Rao andJustice Amaranadh Goudgave its decision asking theTRS government to evolveguidelines in two monthsand resolve the problem inone month.

The bench directed theAkademy to pay Rs 3000 ascompensation to each of the17 employees for causinginconvenience to them.

PNS n MAHABUBNAGAR

District Collector S VenkatRao has directed the munic-ipal engineering and revenueauthorities to prepare anaction plan pertaining tocourt cases and file counters,if necessary, immediatelyafter going through the rele-vant files thoroughly.

He was reviewing the HighCourt cases pertaining toroad widening with munici-pal, engineering and revenueofficials at the ZP office hereon Monday.

100 suffer injuries as galleryin Suryapet collapses

The injured being shifted to hospitals in 108 ambulance

RFCL to commenceproduction from April

Police take Maoist couple into custody

n Subramaniam alias, Srikanti, Aman and Vimal, aresident of Markapuram in Prakasam district. Inthe 1980s he was an ordinary activist of the Maoistparty and posted in the erstwhile Adilabad district.By 2004, he became a Central Committee memberof the party

n Vijayalakshmi alias Sridhara is the DistrictCommittee member of the party, marriedSubrahmanyam in 1990 while she was employedwith the Bank of Mysore. She hails fromBengaluru.

SC directs TS,AP to amicablyresolve TeluguAcademy issue

Sheep die in wild dogs attackJAYASHANKAR BHUPALAPALLY: In all, 10 sheep died in a wild dogs

attack at Oda Gudemvillage nearKaleshwaram in thedistrict on Monday. Thesheep belong to oneMaraboina Bapu, whosaid that the loss due tothe death of sheep isaround Rs 1 lakh. “Ihave been providing asquare meal to myfamily through the

income I get by rearingthe sheep, but with this,I lost my livelihood.”Based on his plea, Sheep

Rearers Welfare Association district vice-president Komariahappealed to the government to the grant compensation to him.

Collector flags off 108 vehiclesJAYASHANKAR BHUPALAPALLY: Collector Krishna Aditya said that

108 ambulances wouldbe made available tothe people of remoteareas in JayashankerBhupalpally district. OnMonday, he flagged offtwo 108 vehiclesallotted by thegovernment on theCollectorate premises.So far, there are six 108vehicles in the districtand 108 services arebeing provided only to

the people of Bhupalpally, Ghanpur, Regonda, Chityala, Kataram andMahadevpur. In addition to the two vehicles flagged off, eightvehicles are available in the district. District Medical Officer SudharSingh, programme officer Uma Devi, 108 programme managerLaxman and Chityala Mahadevpur Government Medical Officers werepresent on the occasion.

Importance of nutrition for physical,mental health stressed JAYASHANKAR BHUPALAPALLY: District Collector Krishna Adityahas said that proper nutrition is key to physical and mentaldevelopment. As part of a fortnight programme on nutrition beingheld under the aegis of Women and Child Welfare department fromthe March 16, a coordination meeting was held at the SCCL'sIllandu Club House here on Monday. The meeting discussedprovision of nutrition food by officials to children and lactatingmothers. On this occasion, he reviewed the awareness programsmeant for women and parents of children. He also reviewed thenutritious food being provided to them by the ICDS officials. Hewanted the officials to take steps to ensure expectant mothers takenutritious food with the consultation of doctors and anganwaditeachers fright from the day of conception. So that the new bornwould be healthy. He asked the ICDS staff to weight children villageswise and provide nutritious food to them to ensure that the babiesgain weight. With the help of the school kitchen gardens, green andleafy vegetables, vegetables and fruits should be grown to providenecessary food to expectant and lactating mothers to rule outanaemia in them.

CITU stages protest at CollectorateMEDCHAL: The CITU staged a protest at the Collectorate here onMonday in protest against non-payment of salaries to panchayatstaff. CITU district president Ashok deplored that the government isnot paying salaries to the workers for the past four months. TheCITU leader accused the officials of deliberately ignoring the salariesof the working class. It is unwelcoming that the workers are not paidfor four months, which will only add to their problems. He allegedthat salaries being paid regularly to the MLAs, officials and othersand denying the same to the working class. Ashok demanded thatofficials address the issue immediately, or else workers will intensifytheir protests, he warned.

Sheep died in the wild dogs attack lying on theground at Oda Gudem village in JayashankerBhupalapally district on Monday

Collector Krishna Aditya flags off 108ambulance in Jayashanker Bhupalapally districtheadquarters on Monday

PNS n MAHABUBABAD

Unable to withstand the elec-toral debacle of ProfKodandaram of the TJS in therecent MLC polls, a formersoftware employee attemptedto immolate himself near thelocal Nalanda Degree Collegeon Sunday. His attempt wasthwarted with the timely inter-vention of the local TJS lead-ers.

He was identified asGugulothu Raju Naik ofMalayala Sadu Thanda. Hecompleted B Tech (ComputerScience) was briefly employedin a software company inHyderabad. However, he lostthe job because of Covid pan-demonium.

He worked in the move-ment for Telangana as a stu-dent. Prior to making a bid

on his life, Raju chatted withthe TJS student wing presi-dent Irugu Manoj onWhatsApp and was reportedto have told him that hisdeath would teach a lesson toothers.

He said that he did not feellike taking food ever since heheard about the defeat ofKodandaram.

Alerted by Manoj, TJS dis-trict president DoliSatyanarayana and generalsecretary Pilli Sudhakar cameto the rescue of Raju andsnatched petrol can from himwith their timely interven-tion when Rajunayak wasabout to douse his body withpetrol.

Professor Kodandaram,who was informed about theincident, spoke to Raju Naikand consoled him.

PNS n MEDCHAL-MALKAJGIRI

Medchal-Malkajgiri AdditionalCollector Vidyasagar stressedthe need for using water care-fully as the government schemeto conserve water will cater tofuture generation needs.

To mark the World WaterDay, he exhorted the people tosave water and ensure it is avail-able to posterity. On Monday,Prime Minister Narendra Modivirtually inaugurated Centre'sJala Shakti Abhiyan aimed atconserving rainwater to markWorld Water Day. After attend-ing the programme, addition-

al collectors Vidyasagar andSamson have taken a pledge tosave water, along with the staff.Vidyasagar called upon thepeople to save water and use it

carefully. The Centre decided tocreate awareness among peoplein this regard through thePanchayat Raj department.

He said that the Centre con-

ducts several programmes tosave rainwater and increasewater resources. The pro-gramme will continue fromMarch 22 to November 30, hesaid and asked the people toprotect water bodies, lakes andponds for a better future. Hesaid that people should takeresponsibility to protect allwater bodies and lakes in thedistrict with people's participa-tion as recharging of borewellsand wells is key.

Lakes, reservoirs, tanks andwater bodies at all places shouldhave water for purposeful use,he said.

SHORT TAKES Bid to end life overKodandaram’sdefeat foiled

An ancient temple built during the Kakatiya rulers is lying in a dilapidatedcondition at Katakshapur village in Warangal Rural district

Restoration of ancienttemple sought

‘Conserve water for future generations’

Medchal-Malkajgiri Additional Collector Vidyasagar (middle ) and others takingthe pledge to conserve water to mark the World Water Day, in Malkajgiri onMonday

Officials urgedto prepareaction plan on court cases

The wreckage spread across the stadium in Suryapet on Monday after a gallery collapased on spectators

Production & allocation

PLANT AREA

DAILY PRODUCTION

CAPACITY

UREA PRODUCTION

1,000 acres

3,850

13 lakh

metric tonnes per year

tonnes of Urea

PERCENTAGE

OF SHARES

National Fertilizer Corporation: 26 per cent

Engineers India Limited: 26 per cent

Food Corporation of India(FCI): 11 percent

Government of Telangana: 11 per cent

State Bank of India (SBI): 26 per cent

HYDERABAD | TUESDAY | MARCH 23, 2021 nation 05

Four Lashkar-e-Taiba(LeT) militants werekilled in an encounter

with security forces onMonday in Shopian districtof Jammu and Kashmir,police said. Security forceslaunched a cordon andsearch operation in Manihalarea of the district aroundmidnight, followinginformation about thepresence of militants there,nspector General of Police(IGP) Vijay Kumar said. He said the militants refused repeated offers ofsurrender and opened fire at the forces. "We appealed to them tosurrender and brought their families, including wife and a four-year-oldchild of a militant, to appeal to them to surrender. But they refused," hesaid. Kumar said after the militants opened fire at the security forces,there was a gunbattle in which four ultras were killed. "All the four werecategorised militants belonging to LeT outfit. Although, they callthemselves as Lashkar-e-Mustafa, they are listed as LeT militants in ourrecords and all these names, including TRF (The Resistance Front) arethe offshoots of the LeT or Jaish-e-Mohammad," he said. The IGP saidthree pistols and an AK rifle was recovered from the site of theencounter. The militants were identified as Rayees Ahmad Bhat, whowas active since October last year, Amir Shafi Mir, active since lastmonth, Raqib Ahmad Malik, active since December last year and AftabAhmad Wani, active since November last year. An Army jawan wasinjured in the encounter and is undergoing treatment at a hospital here,he added. The IGP said so far this year nine encounters have takenplace in the valley with most of them - eight - in south Kashmir, whileone in the north.

AICC generalsecretaryin-charge

for RajasthanAjay Maken onMonday exudedconfidence thatthe party willwin the threeassembly seatsin the state where bypolls will be held next month. Makensaid the Ashok Gehlot government has presented an"excellent" budget and the party will be benefitted by it. "Ourobservers, ministers in-charge and others have been workingfor several weeks. We are ahead in preparations and theparty will win bypolls on all seats," he told reports at theairport. He arrived in Jaipur to hold meetings with the partyleaders about finalising candidates for the bypolls. Makensaid the panel of the names shortlisted after discussion willbe sent for approval to the party high-command for finalisingcandidates. Bypolls will be held in Sahara (Bhilwara),Sujangarh (Churu) and Rajsamand assembly constituencies.According to the election schedule, nominations will startwith the issuance of notification on March 23. The pollingwill be held on April 17 and the counting will take place onMay 2.

INDIA CORNER4 LeT militants killed in encounterwith security forces in Shopian

Cong will win all 3 Assemblybypolls in Rajasthan: Maken

PNS n NEW DELHI

The BJP on Monday demand-ed resignation of theMaharashtra Vikas Aghadi(MVA) government headedby Uddhav Thackeray in thewake of former Mumbai PoliceCommissioner Param BirSingh's claim that the state'sHome Minister AnilDeshmukh set a Rs 100-crorecollection target for the policeevery month, and sought a CBIinquiry into the allegation.

Raising the issue duringZero Hour in Lok Sabhaamidst protests by the ShivSena and the NCP, BJP mem-ber Manoj Kotak said thataccording to Singh's letter tothe chief minister, the state'shome minister had asked sus-pended Assistant PoliceInspector (API) Sachin Waze tocollect Rs 100 crore from barsand restaurants in the metrop-olis every month.

Kotak said the letter reflect-ed that those who are in thegovernment were using offi-

cials in collecting money butthe chief minister so far has notuttered a single word on theissue.

"It is a serious matter. Thehome minister should resign,the Maharashtra governmentshould resign and there shouldbe a CBI inquiry into thewhole issue," he said.

BJP member Rakesh Singhthat the issue is so serious thatit can't be termed a state sub-ject as it has a national impli-cation.

Singh said that the formerpolice commissioner's lettershowed that the top func-tionaries of the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress governmentwere involved in collectinghuge amounts of moneythrough illegal means.

"The allegation against thestate home minister was madeby none other than the formerpolice commissioner. Whatwas the compulsion of thechief minister to defend anAPI-rank official, who was in

suspension for 16 years, in apress conference," he asked.

Singh claimed that a seniorpolitician from the state hadchanged his stand after tellingthat it was a serious matter andthere should be an inquiry intoit.

"What is the fear. Is there anyfear of spilling the beans aboutthose who get cut. If Rs 100crore collected from Mumbaialone, what would be the fig-ure for the entire Maharashtra,"he asked.

He demanded that the MVAgovernment should immedi-ately resign and there should bean impartial inquiry into it.

Another BJP member KapilPatil said that it was not for thefirst that such a letter has beenwritten by a senior police offi-cer and even a DGP-rank offi-cer had written a similar letterin the past.

"A senior leader had saidthat it is a serious matter but hechanged his tune overnight.What is the fear? Fear ofspilling the beans?" he asked.

However, Shiv Sena mem-ber Vinayak Raut stronglydefended the MVA govern-ment and claimed that theBJP has been hatching a con-spiracy to defame the ShivSena-Congress-NCP dispen-sation for the last 14 months sothat a BJP government can beinstalled in Mumbai.

"The issue is nothing butpart of BJP's big conspiracy," heclaimed.

Raut alleged the formerMumbai police commissionerwho wrote the sensational let-ter was the "most corruptpolice officer".

The Shiv Sena, the NCPand the Congress part of theMVA government inMaharashtra.

Congress leader in LokSabha Ravneet Singh Bittuclaimed that the central agen-cies were being used againstopposition ruled states for oneor the other pretext.

"Why such things are hap-pening in opposition ruledstates.

Param Bir's letter rocks LS; BJPdemands resignation of MVA govt

FIU warns of Covid upheavals

PNS n MUMBAI

Former Mumbai policecommissioner Param BirSingh might have writtenthe letter raising corrup-tion allegations againstM a h a r a s h t r a H o m eMinister Anil Deshmukh"out of some pressure",s t a t e m i n i s t e r a n d

C o n g r e s s l e a d e rBalasaheb Thorat said onMonday.

In a v i d e o m e s s a ge ,T h or at s a i d C ong re s s 'Ma harashtra in-chargeHK Patil held discussionswith party leaders in thestate over the controver-sy and tried to under-stand their views.

PNS n KOCHI

Congress leader RahulGandhi on Monday lashedout at the BJP-led governmentat the Centre over rising pricesof fuel, alleging it was forciblytaking money from the pock-et of people to try and run thegovernment.

Interacting with students ofSt Teresa's College, anautonomous women's college,here, Gandhi blamed thegov-ernment's mismanagementfor the collapse of the econo-my.

Gandhi, who is in the poll-bound southern state ofKerala for campaigning, said,"The problem is going tocarry on for sometimebecause the mismanagementis quite profoundand deep."

He said putting moremoney into the people's handsis the only way out of the cri-sis but the government is notlistening instead it is saying:"Produce more stuff ".

"What we believe is theway to start the economy is bystarting consumption. By giv-ing people money, they startto consume things and buythings," he said in response toa query on the rising prices offuel despite a fall in the crudeoil prices in the internationalmarket.

"...due to demonetisation,due to GST, the economy wasseverely damaged. It wasalready weak. After that, whenthe COVID-19 pandemiccame in, the economy totallycollapsed," he said.

"The government now doesnot have money because theeconomy is not running. Theyare not able to generate taxes,they are not able to generatemoney. So, they are nowforcibly taking money fromyour pocket--from petrol anddiesel-- to try and run thegovernment," Gandhi said.

He said an atmosphere ofharmony is essential for theeconomy to work."You needharmony, peace and quiet andyou need a strategy. That'swhere you are running intoaproblem," he said.

PNS n KOLKATA

BJP's election manifesto for WestBengal has promised a Rs 1500crore package for the ailing jutesector whose workers and farm-ers are seen as a vote bank for theparty. Some 3 lakh workersmostly Hindi speaking, toil inBengal's jute mills and are seenas a potential vote bank by thesaffron party. The Jute sector alsosupports some 35 lakh farmersspread over 18 out of 23 majordistricts.

"We will revamp the juteindustry with a SPV (special pur-pose vehicle) having a corpus ofRs 1500 crore. The amount willbe used for financial restructur-ing of jute mills, modernizinginfrastructure of mills, produc-tion linked incentives and mar-keting centers," the manifestosaid.

The manifesto also promisesto continue with rules oncom-pulsorily using jute packagingfor foodgrains and sugar.TheTMC manifesto on the otherhand offers sops for all farmers

and not specifically for the jutesector.

After the 2019 Lok Sabha elec-tions analysts said there havebeen noticeable changes in thepolitics of these jute growing dis-tricts and mill areas. Around 80percent of the total 40 percentvotes received by BJP candidatescame from the jute growing andjute mill areas of North Bengal(9 seats) and North 24 Parganas,Hooghly, Howrah, Nadia,Jangalmahal and Paschimanchal.

The BJP high command real-ising the importance of the jutesector, seems to have decided tofocus on it. Analysts said this isthe first time any party hasoffered a direct corpus led planfor the ailing sector and expectsthe saffron party to reap divi-dends from this announcement.

PNS n NEW DELHI

The Supreme Court Mondaysaid it would hear in July the pleasseeking mandatory arrest of NRIhusbands for deserting theirwives and harassing them fordowry.

A bench of Chief Justice Bobdeand Justices AS Bopanna and VRamasubramanian was told bysenior advocate Colin Gonsalves,appearing for the petitioner groupof women, that pleading hasbeen completed in the matter andhe is ready to argue the case.

The bench said it is listing thematter for July.

Senior advocate Sanjay Hegde,appearing for NGO Pravasi LegalCell, said they have filed a sepa-rate plea in the matter and wantto assist the court on the issue.

He said that a notice be issuedin the matter.

A counsel appearing for DelhiSikh Gurudwara ManagementCommittee said that they havealso filed a separate petition on theissue and notice be issued on it.

The bench, then issued notice

on both the pleas. O nNovember 13, 2018, the topcourt had issued notices to theCentre on the plea seeking thatthe deserted women be accord-ed legal, financial help and theirestranged NRI husbands bearrested after the filing of FIRs.

“Issue notice. The Union ofIndia, in its reply to be submittedwithin six weeks, will indicate thefeasibility of having a policy on theissue. The petitioners arerestrained from filing any furtherdocument," the top court hadsaid.

A group of women, who haveallegedly been deserted by theirNon-Resident Indian (NRI) hus-bands and subjected to dowryharassment, have moved theapex court seeking reliefs includ-ing mandatory arrest of their

estranged spouses and consularhelp in fighting cases in foreignland.

The women, represented byadvocate Satya Mitra, said in theplea that immediate look out cir-cular in cases of absconding hus-bands be issued after an FIR islodged in the case.

"In all cases where a court hasordered summons for appear-ance or a warrant for arrest of thehusband of an NRI-abandonedbride and the accused appears tobe absconding or resisting hisreturn to India through theembassies, his passport beimpounded and revoked and allsteps be taken for his return," theplea said.

The petition sought directionsto Indian embassies throughoutthe world to play a proactive andcompassionate role in coming tothe aid of abandoned NRIwomen by locating the where-abouts of the husbands, engaginglegal counsel abroad to representthe women and to take other stepsto secure the arrest of the hus-bands to India.

PNS n NEW DELHI

The Election Commissionon Monday banned 'bikerallies' 72 hours before thedate of polling and on thepolling day in all election-going constituencies amidreports that "anti-social ele-ments" use motor bikes tointimidate voters.

In a directive issued tochief electoral officers ofpoll-bound West Bengal,Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Assamand Puducherry, the pollbody pointed out that it hasbeen brought to its noticethat "in some places bikesare used by anti-social ele-ments to intimidate the vot-ers before the poll dayand/or on poll day."

After considering thereports, the Commissionhas decided that "bike ral-lies shall not be allowed atany place 72 hours beforedate of poll or on the pollday in all poll-going con-stituencies," the directivesaid.

The EC also asked its

chief electoral officers toinform all stakeholders con-cerned, including candi-dates, political parties andt he C om m i s s i on ' sobservers, to ensure strict

compliance of the direc-tions. Elections to the fiveassemblies will begin onMarch 27 and the countingof votes will take place onMay 2.

PNS n KOCHI

The Kerala High Court onMonday rejected thepetitions filed by threeBJP-led NDA candidatesagainst the decision of thereturning officers rejectingtheir nominations for theApril 6 Assembly election.

Justice N Nagareshaccepted the contention ofthe Election Commissionthat the court cannot inter-fere once the notificationfor the polls has beenissued.

BJP's N Haridas andNivedida Subramanianand its ally AIADMK'scandidate, R MDhanalakshmi hadapproached the court onSunday after their nomina-tions were rejected duringscrutiny on the groundthat their papers wereincomplete.

PNS n SARUPATHAR

Congressleader PriyankaGandhi Vadra on Mondayalleged the ruling BJP in.Assam was functioninglike a mafia and runningsyndicates. Addressing arally here, the Congressgeneral secretary said, thesaffron party in the statehas two "factions", both ofwhich have betrayed peo-ple.

The Congress leadercompared Assam's BJPleadership with'Dritarashtra' and 'Shakuni',characters in the epicMahabharata, withoutnaming whom she meant.Dhritarashtra was knownto be a blind ruler whileShakuni was a politicalmanipulator.

‘Param Bir wroteletter under pressure’

Rahul Gandhi hits out atCentre over rising fuel prices

SC to hear pleas seekingaction against NRI hubbys

BJP promisessops for jute sector

EC bans bike rallies 72-hrbefore polling in five States

BJP functioninglike mafia,alleges Priyanka

Kerala HCjunks pleas of 3 BJP-NDAcandidates

In a directive issued to chief electoral officers ofpoll-bound West Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu,Assam and Puducherry, the poll body pointedout that it has been brought to its notice that "insome places bikes are used by anti-socialelements to intimidate the voters before the pollday and/or on poll day"

PNS nNEW DELHI

The "upheavals" generated by thespread of Covid pandemic canbecome a "breeding ground" fornew variants of electronic andcyber crimes in the coming days, thehead of India's Financial IntelligenceUnit (FIU) has said in a latest report.

The federal organisation had lastyear created a special unit to dealwith high-risk or important suspecttransactions.

"Financial year 2019-20 was arather challenging year for theglobal economy on account ofCovid pandemic," FIU-IndiaDirector Pankaj Kumar Mishrawrote in the recently released annu-al report for the agency (2019-20)."The upheavals generated by Covidmight prove to be a breedingground for novel modus operandiand crimes such as electronic fraudsand cybercrimes," he said.The report has also been submittedto the Union finance ministry

under which the agency functions.The FIU acts as an interface

between the financial sector of thecountry and law enforcement agen-cies for collecting, analysing and dis-seminating information, particular-ly about suspicious financial trans-actions pertaining to money laun-dering and financing of terrorism.

The FIU chief added that thereporting entities, like banks andother financial institutions, must fur-ther "strengthen their systems inorder to identify new methods andtrends which are emerging in timesof this pandemic crisis".

The report said that the FIUreceived a slightly higher numberof suspicious transaction reports(STRs) at over 5.47 lakh during2019-20 as compared to about 3.23lakh in 2018-19.

An STR, generated by the report-ing entities like banks and otherfinancial intermediaries, is definedas a “transaction involving financ-ing of the activities relating to ter-

rorism including transaction involv-ing funds suspected to be linked orrelated to, or to be used for terror-ism, terrorist acts or by a terrorist ora terrorist organisation or those whofinance or are attempting to financeterrorism”.

Also, transactions done undercircumstances of unusual or unjus-tified complexity or appear to haveno economic rationale or bona fidepurpose can be categorised underan STR.

The FIU gathers these reports onthe basis of legal powers given to itunder the Prevention of MoneyLaundering Act (PMLA).

After analysing the STRs, it dis-seminates these reports to variouslaw-enforcement agencies in thecountry such as the CBI,Enforcement Directorate (ED),Income Tax Department,Directorate of Revenue Intelligence,Intelligence Bureau, MilitaryIntelligence, and various state policeunits among others.

A YEAR AFTER ‘JANATA CURFEW'

PNS n NEW DELHI

The coronavirus pandemic ison the upswing again in Indiawhich observed a ‘Janata cur-few' on this day a year ago,having paved the way for anover two-month long strictnationwide lockdown to curbthe contagion.

Millions of people acrossthe country stayed indoors onMarch 22, 2020 in anunprecedented and over-whelming response to PrimeMinister Narendra Modi'sappeal for the nationwidecurfew. People used to comeout briefly at 5 pm to showtheir gratitude to healthcareand other essential serviceproviders with sounds of bells,

conches and claps.India reported its first case

of coronavirus infection on

January 30 last year fromKerala, and the first death onMarch 10 from Karnataka.

A lockdown was clampedin the country from March 25till May 31, affecting theeconomy badly.

As the government initiat-ed the ‘unlock' procedurefrom June to make up for theeconomic cost of the lock-down, the COVID-19 casesstarted to gallop, and Indiasoon became the secondworst-hit nation after the USby September.

The country eased the lock-down through a graded andpre-emptive approach, withthe health ministry issuingstandard operating proce-dures for opening up religiousplaces, shopping malls, restau-rants, hotels and offices andmost recently, educational

institutions, to prevent thespread of the infection.

The number of daily coro-navirus cases peaked inSeptember with 97,894 infec-tions being reported on the17th day of the month, afterwhich India began witnessinga gradual decline in caseseven though several othercountries saw a surge in infec-tions. India crossed the grimmilestone of one croreCOVID-19 cases onDecember 19, even as thespread of the virus sloweddown with almost a monthbeing taken for the 10 lakhnew infections, unlike in theperiod from August till mid-November when they rose ata faster rate.

Corona threat rears its head again

withdrawn by King George V.The Hindu ideology is not

anti-anyone else. The word“Hindu” has been the identi-ty for the entire subcontinent.In 1930, my father’s professorat the University of Bostonasked him what he was. Thereply was: An Indian. Theprofessor said, “You are prob-ably a Hindu. My question is— are you a Hindu Christian,a Hindu Muslim or a HinduHindu?” In other words, forthe world outside, Hindu andHinduism are the markers ofIndia’s identity.

Coming to the “Bengaliversus outsider” debate, it bearsiteration here that a prominentBengali who was born 120years ago seeded a nationalistparty that dominates Indianpolitics today. This is noneother than Syama PrasadMookerjee, a towering intellec-tual, academician and politicalleader. The party he founded,the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, wasthe only true opposition to thethen hegemonic rulingCongress. Its later avatarbecame the BJP, which not onlyrules India and has become theworld’s biggest political party,but has also decimated theonce-mighty Congress.

One must not forget thatMookerjee salvaged WestBengal and led the Hindus of

the erstwhile undivided Bengalto grab a slice of their home-land from the nefarious designsof MA Jinnah and his MuslimLeague by resisting the blatant-ly biased League’s provincialgovernment of Bengal.

Bengal’s Hindus were thesecond largest ethnic minori-ty after the Muslims in undi-vided Bengal (at nearly 42 percent) but were subjected to twohorrific rounds of genocide;the first in Calcutta in August1946, following Jinnah’s clari-on call for “direct action” (theGreat Calcutta Killings), andthen in Noakhali and Tipperadistricts of eastern Bengal inOctober that year. Nearly10,000 Hindus were massacredand thousands of Hinduwomen were raped in this orgyorchestrated by BengalPremier HS Suhrawardy him-self. Mookerjee, the indis-putable leader of Bengal’sHindus, recognised the loom-ing threat as early as in 1940when he said in Sylhet (then inAssam): “The dangers in frontof us are many; the latestaddition in the shape of amovement for Pakistan shouldnot be brushed aside lightly.Jinnah is out to destroy thevery soul of India.”

The looming danger wasthe pernicious dream of a so-called “United Bengal”, pro-

moted by Suhrawardy,Nazimuddin (ex-premier)and Fazlur Rahman (Bengal’srevenue minister), and sup-ported by Sarat Chandra Boseof the Socialist Republic Party.This “United Bengal” move-ment, a smokescreen to graball of Bengal for Pakistan, hadJinnah’s blessings. Had thisLeague plan materialised, theHindus of Bengal would havesuffered a plight similar tothat of Sindh’s Hindus whohave been left without a coun-try to call their own.

The incorporation of all ofBengal into Pakistan was foiledonly by the concerted efforts ofHindus, led resolutely byMookerjee, who formed theBengal Partition Leaguetowards the end of 1946.Governing the support of allsections of the Bengali society,League sections of commu-nists and socialists also had tosupport the partition of Bengal— the Muslim League didn’tspare Hindu communists.

The supreme irony is thatMamata might not have hadeven an identity, leave aloneState, but for the heroic effortsof Mookerjee, whose partyshe now dubs an “outsider”.

(The writer is a well-known columnist and anauthor. The views expressedare personal.)

People in positions of responsibility and power need to be more careful than com-moners about their choice of words. The statements made by politicos, in particu-lar, are deciphered based on what these contain between the lines and then subject-

ed to logical interpretations and multiple conclusions. Regrettably, several of our leadersdon’t think twice before disgorging in public space comments they ought to be ashamed

of, bringing embarrassment to the party and slowly los-ing their credibility. Inexplicably, after assuming chargerecently as the Uttarakhand Chief Minister, Tirath SinghRawat has fallen into this category. Even before theembers of the controversy over his “ripped jeans”remark could die down, he has kicked up another rowby saying that people having smaller families got less-er Government ration during the COVID-19 lockdownthan those who “reproduced 20”. He also insinuatedthat “families with 20 children” were having a good timeon dole. The idiosyncrasy continued as Rawat point-ed out that “America had enslaved India for 200 years”.Well, there can’t be an explanation for that other thanRawat skipping history classes in school.

With the latest round of gaffes, he has joined the legion of leaders known for theirembarrassing statements and remarks that often spawn memes. Congress leader RahulGandhi would arguably be at the top of the ladder with comments like “Aloo ki factory”(potato factory), his inability to differentiate between “bhrashtachar” (corruption) and “bal-atkaar” (rape) and several others. Rawat’s BJP colleague and Tripura counterpart BiplabKumar Deb has apparently a similar IQ. His statements like “the roots of internet go backto the Mahabharata era”, “will chop the nails of critics” of his Government, former MissWorld Diana Hayden “does not represent Indian beauty” and his bizarre statement that“the BJP has plans to form the Governments in Sri Lanka and Nepal” have already broughtmuch ignominy to the saffron party. Also, seasoned politicians like Digvijay Singh, ShivpalYadav and many others often make out-of-context, bizarre statements that leave theirparty leaders red-faced. We don’t know whether or when his party leadership will takeRawat to task and keep a check on what he says. But it must be done before he aim-lessly shoots another one from the hip. After all, the party’s image suffers in the eyes ofpeople by such acts. For the public, of course, it’s just free entertainment.

As India on Monday marked the first anniversary of the “Janata curfew”, the firsttime that the nation realised the true gravity of the pandemic, it’s a good timeto introspect where we stand 365 days and thousands of deaths later. Actually,

it seems that after the initial spurt and the subsequent tranquilising trough and nowfacing another menacing crest, nothing has really changed. As we stare at the sec-ond COVID wave looming, the last 24 hours saw 46,951 fresh Coronavirus casesbeing reported — the biggest single-day jump since November 7 — which takesthe country’s tally to 1,16,46,081 total infections. Of these, over 1.11 crore peoplehave recovered and 1,59,967 deaths have been recorded. In the past week, India

has registered the sharpest surge in fresh infec-tions in nearly four months after the spread of thevirus had seemed to slow down. Most of the freshcases have been reported from Maharashtra,Punjab, Gujarat, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.Restrictions have returned at several placesacross the country as the Government andexperts point out that the violation of protocols isleading to the resurgence of cases. Globally, over12.3 crore people have so far contracted the virus;27 lakh people have fallen prey to it.

In the midst of all this mayhem, the city of Haridwaris nonchalantly hosting the ongoing Kumbh mela,

prompting the Centre to issue an advisory to the Tirath Singh Rawat Government inUttarakhand to shore up anti-COVID arrangements. A Health Ministry team had recentlyraised the alarm that 10-20 pilgrims and almost an equal number of locals are testingpositive every day for the virus and that such a high rate of infections had the potentialto rapidly turn into an “upsurge” in the number of cases. The ceremonies linked to Kumbh,which takes place at Haridwar, Nashik, Prayagraj and Ujjain every 12 years by rotation(though it is this time taking place after 11 years owing to suitable planetary alignments),would last most of next month with several days in April corresponding to the “Shahisnaans” (royal bath) expected to see upwards of five million converge on a single day.This development assumes significance because Rawat had recently announced that anegative COVID report won’t be made mandatory for visiting Haridwar and assured thedevotees that all “unnecessary” restrictions imposed to contain the spread of COVID willbe removed for the event, asserting that “faith is stronger than fear”. Interestingly, onTuesday afternoon, the 56-year-old Chief Minister tweeted that he has tested positive forCoronavirus. We, as a nation, must understand that the virus neither follows a calendar,nor respects geographical boundaries, nor does it care for the “COVID fatigue” that weall have fallen prey to during our solitary confinement and isolation at home. The onlyway to fight Coronavirus is to have stringent mask discipline, avoid stepping out in pub-lic space and wash hands frequently and not get taken in by the false sense of securitythat “the pandemic is over because vaccines are here”.

Kumbh of COVID

P A P E R W I T H P A S S I O N

www.dailypioneer.comfacebook.com/dailypioneer | @TheDailyPioneer | instagram.com/dailypioneer/

HYDERABAD | TUESDAY | MARCH 23, 2021

06

Foot in mouthThe proclivity of the politicos to shoot from the hip

does more harm than good for their party's image

Mamata Banerjee's claim that she is Bengal's daughter while

the BJP is an ‘outsider' is steeped in disinformation

PICTALK

A farmer inspects his wheat crop affected by rains and strong winds, in a village on the outskirts of Amritsar PTI

THE SUPREMEIRONY IS THAT

MAMATA MIGHTNOT HAVE HAD

EVEN AN IDENTITY,LEAVE ALONE

STATE, BUT FORTHE HEROICEFFORTS OF

SYAMA PRASADMOOKERJEE,

WHOSE PARTY SHENOW DUBS AN

‘OUTSIDER’

PRAFULL GORADIA

As the nation stares at another surge, Haridwar is taking it easy despite drawing mammoth crowds

The Bengali and the‘outsider' controversy

In replying to Mamata Didi’sallegation that the BJP is an“outsider” organisation,while she herself is the

“daughter of Bengal”, PrimeMinister Narendra Modi, at aspeech in Kolkata’s BrigadeGround on March 7, remarkedthat the Trinamool had beenspawned by the Congress. TheIndian National Congress wasfounded in 1885 by a retiredbureaucrat, Allan OctavianHume, an Englishman. TheCommunist parties of Indiawere all spawns of theCommunist Party of the SovietUnion. Their ideology wasauthored entirely by the ideo-logue Karl Marx. Vladimir Leninbrought the Bolshevik Party topower with the Revolution of1917. A premier street inCalcutta celebrated Lenin’s com-ing to power by being named“Lenin Sarani”, opposite Metrocinema, near the DharamtollaStreet. Incidentally, the oldHarrington Street, where the USConsulate is situated, wasrenamed by Chief Minister JyotiBasu as “Ho Chi Minh Sarani”.

I once took a client visitingfrom Germany around the city.He found every CPM graffiti tobe a sketch of Soviet dictatorJosef Stalin and wondered: “WhyStalin, now? Is there no Indianleader attractive enough to catchvotes?” In World War II, Stalinwanted to arouse Russians tofight for their motherland, incomplete contrast to LeonTrotsky’s earlier call for a “per-manent Revolution” and KarlMarx’s Communist Manifesto,which called upon the workersof the world to unite.

Mamata Banerjee neveronce has termed these thingsfrom outside. She findsHindutva and “Jai Shri Ram” asoutsiders despite the fact that RajNarain Bose, the grandfather ofYogi Aurobindo Bose, hadcoined the term “Hindutva” in1863. Leading Bengalis, includ-ing Gurudev RabindranathTagore, were members of theaggressively Hindu AnushilanSamiti. The Samiti had becomeparticularly active after the firstpartition of Bengal in 1905, until1911, when the partition was

SOUNDBITESTOP STEREOTYPING WOMEN Sir — This refers to the editorial ‘Welcomestep’ (March 22). Indian courts and theirpresiding officers are expected to strike agender balance while conducting trials. Itis deeply disturbing that judges, even in thehigher courts, are displaying an insensitiveapproach towards women in sexual harass-ment cases. A judge of the Nagpur Benchof the Bombay High Court made headlinesa couple of months ago for her unusual, anduncalled for, interpretations on molestationin two cases. Strange and despicable rea-soning by High Courts makes for a sorryreading.

They reflect a chronic lack of applica-tion of mind with regard to cases that requirehigh levels of understanding and empathy.Fortunately, the Supreme Court (SC) hasstepped in to take stock of the situation. TheSC has rightly rued the acute paucity of gen-der sensitisation training among judges anddirected a module to be put in place to fillthe lacunae.

Even law students need lessons on gen-der sensitisation. How a woman looked andhow she behaved is immaterial for a judgeto come to a conclusion on a case at hand.The history of a victim should have no rel-evance to the case in question. Over theyears, reports have it that a few rapeaccused had proposed to marry their vic-tims. It would be a travesty of justice if such“proposals” become a rule and the courtsentertain them. Each case needs an unbi-ased adjudication without preconceivednotions and strictly on merit.

Ganapathi Bhat | Akola

US AND RUSSIA MUST COOPERATE

Sir — Subsequent to Russian PresidentVladimir Putin’s mockery of USPresident Joe Biden for calling him a“killer”, the Kremlin said that it is “pre-pared for the worst” when it was askedabout the possibility of a new cold warbetween the US and Russia. When Bidenwas asked if he believed Putin was akiller, he said, “I do”, prompting Putinto counter it by saying “he who said it,

did it”. With this development, tiesbetween Moscow and Washington sankto new lows. Biden’s comments createda serious crisis between Russia and theUS in years, with Moscow recalling itsambassador for consultations and warn-ing that their ties were on the brink of“collapse”. The US and Russia feel pro-found distrust for each other since 2014.The ties deteriorated over Russia’s allegedinterference in the US elections in 2016and, more recently, when Washingtonassumed that Russian Opposition figureAlexei Navalny was poisoned with aSoviet-designed nerve agent. The latestconflict between the countries could ignitea new ‘Cold War’.

Venu GS | Kollam

COVID IS EXPANDING ITS FOOTPRINT Sir — The COVID footprint is expanding

and is a cause of great concern in our coun-try. The fresh surge in cases took the num-ber of active cases past 3,45,000. This evenas the second phase of the vaccinationprocess is on full swing.

Maharashtra touched a new high forthe last four days, followed by Punjab,Karnataka and Gujarat. Tracking crucialcases is important because it reflects theactual spread of the virus in a region as wellas the load the country’s healthcare systemis currently bearing. Maharashtra record-ed its highest spike with 30,000-odd casesand nearly 100 deaths. The healthcare sys-tem is working round the clock but the peo-ple have to bear their losses and work withthe Government.

CK Subramaniam | Mumbai

Send yyour ffeedback tto:[email protected]

We have all seen and dropped our jaws atthe recent attacks on the Asian-Americancommunity in Atlanta, US. We even wrote

posts about #StopAsianHate and#ProudToBeAsian. It's hard for a person of Indiandescent to find a place in a country that is called“the land of the free and home of the brave”. Racialintolerance has gone through the roof in the US.

What is even more disappointing is that sucha phenomenon exists even in our country. The use

of the word “chinky”, “momos”, “kalua” andother such slurs while referring to the North-east-ern community and South Indians is not fair. Theracial inequality scales further heights when a per-son from south India is mocked on the way theyspeak, eat and live. While the increasing incidentsof crimes against Asians is a cause for worry inthe US and the UK, things are not rosy and brightin our own backyard.

The recent incident of an Indian girl resign-ing from the post of president-elect of the OxfordUniversity's Students' Union citing cyber-bullyingwas heartbreaking. Our External Affairs Ministervowed that New Delhi “will take up such matters”with London “with great candour when required.”But what about the internal mess?

What about taking up such matters in ourParliament? Children are bullied because of theirplace of origin — a reality that is being brushedunder the carpet way too often. Racial and casteslurs are very common in India. People are dis-criminated against and targeted because of theirskin colour even in our nation. We must look atourselves and mend our ways.

Sean Colin Young | New Delhi

Racial discrimination in India People fromRajasthan and Gujaratunderstand water-related problems wellas there is waterscarcity. I am alsofrom Gujarat and faced suchproblems, too.

Prime Minister— Narendra Modi

We can't be deaf and blind to what'sgoing on outside the UK. We can't put at risk thegains of our

vaccination campaign.

UK's Defence Secretary — Ben Wallace

I think the pause thatwe all took duringlockdown actuallyworked in my favouras I completed myquota of sleep.

Actor—Prateik Babbar

An All-India JudicialService should nowcome into existenceas it is the demand ofthe time.

BJP Rajya Sabha MP

— Sushil Modi

I am both excited and grateful about thetwo friendlies whichthe Blue Tigers willplay this month.Unortunately, I

won't be a part of it.

India football captain — Sunil Chhetri

LETTERS TO TTHE EDITOR

Hobson’s choice on farm subsidies

DIDI WE KNOW THAT YOU ARE A BIG PLAYER BUT I

CAN ASSURE YOU THAT ENOUGH IS ENOUGH, THERE

WILL BE NO MORE SYNDICATE AND TOLABAJI.

—PRIME MINISTER

NARENDRA MODI

BEFORE CALLING THE TMC A PARTY OF ‘TOLABAJ’

YOU SHOULD FIRST REPLY WHAT HAPPENED TO THE

FUNDS THAT YOU RECEIVED IN PM CARES.

—WEST BENGAL CHIEF MINISTER

MAMATA BANERJEE

At the Trade Policy Review (TPR) meetingheld at the World Trade Organisation(WTO) in January, India insisted that a per-

manent solution for public stockholding to servethe food security objective special safeguard mea-sures (SSMs) to prevent import surges and elimi-nation of unfair farm subsidy entitlements of somemembers should be taken up on a priority basis forany farm deal that may be worked out at the 12thWTO Ministerial Conference (MC-12) scheduledto be held from November 29.

For about two decades, India has been takingup at the WTO these core agriculture issues thatare of concern to developing countries, under whathas come to be known as the Doha DevelopmentAgenda (DDA). However, it has not met with anysuccess. In fact, at the MC-10 held in Nairobi(December 2015), developed countries led by theUS and the European Union (EU) literally junkedthe DDA. Whether or not MC-12 will yield thedesired outcome, we will have to wait and see.Meanwhile, there is a need for introspection as towhere did things go wrong?

Under the Agreement on Agriculture (AoA)of the WTO, a developing country cannot giveaggregate measurement support (AMS) — anacronym for subsidies — in excess of 10 per centof the value of its farm production. For developedcountries, the threshold is kept at five per cent. TheAMS includes “product-specific” subsidies and“non-product specific” like subsidies on agricultur-al inputs such as fertilisers, seed, irrigation andpower. The “product-specific” subsidy is in excessof the Minimum Support Price (MSP) paid to farm-ers over the External Reference Price (ERP) mul-tiplied by the quantum of agri-produce. Whereasthe MSP is taken for the relevant year, say, 2018-19, the ERP is the average of the global price pre-vailing during 1986-88 fixed in rupee terms. If thesubsidy given by a developing country exceeds 10per cent, it will be treated as violation of its WTOcommitment.

The rationale behind putting a cap is that excesssubsidy given to farmers in any member countryhas the effect of giving unfair advantage to themin the global market by artificially lowering the priceof their food supplies — known as “trade distor-tion.” The cap is intended to prevent this.

India runs a mammoth programme of PublicStockholding (PSH) for food security purposes.Under it, agencies of the Government like the FoodCorporation of India buy agri-produce fromfarmers at the MSP and distribute it through a net-work of fair price shops to meet the needs of India’spoor and vulnerable population. Since the MSP ishigher than the ERP, the excess is deemed as sub-sidy under the AoA.

India’s argument is that supplies from the PSHare meant only for beneficiaries and not availablefor export, hence there is no question of these sup-plies causing any distortion in global trade.Therefore, it should be excluded from the calcu-lation of AMS to see if the cap is breached. The logicis sound. But the crucial question is why did Indianot press for this exemption from day one? Whydid it not insist on its inclusion in the AoA that cameinto force on January 1, 1995? That apart, even themethodology of calculating the AMS is flawed.

First, the MSP for the relevant/current year iscompared with the ERP that prevailed way back

in 1986-88. Second, quantities notprocured by Government agenciesare also considered for arriving at thesubsidy figure. Third, subsidy onagri-inputs to resource-poor farm-ers (they produce food for self-con-sumption and have no marketablesurplus) is included. These flawshave the effect of artificially inflat-ing the AMS. For instance, as per aMay 2018 submission by the US tothe WTO, during 2013-14 the IndianAMS on rice was 77 per cent againstonly 5.45 per cent it should havebeen sans these aberrations. In viewof the above, forget getting exemp-tion, the anomalies in AMS calcu-lation have made India’s PSH pro-gramme potentially susceptible toviolating WTO commitments.

The MC-9 in Bali (2013) agreedto a “peace clause” under which “ifa developing country gives AMS inexcess of 10 per cent, no member willchallenge this until 2017, when theWTO would look for a permanentsolution to address their food secu-rity concerns.” It came with severalriders such as submission of data onfood procurement, stockholding,distribution and subsidies. These alsoincluded establishing that subsidiesare not “trade distorting.”

In the WTO General Council(GC) meeting on July 31, 2014, Indiainsisted on a time-bound action planto find a permanent solution, to beexecuted before the end of the 2014

co-terminus with the approval of theTrade Facilitation Agreement (TFA)— an area of great importance todeveloped countries. This was agood strategic move but it wasabandoned midstream.

In December 2014, even as thelatter got away with the TFA, the for-mer got “extension of the peaceclause till a permanent solution wasfound.” Put simply, India had liter-ally surrendered its right to securea permanent solution; that it was“Ok” with “the benefit of peaceclause.” However, being subject to ahost of riders, even this is not auto-matically assured.

Meanwhile, the US and EUnations continue to give subsidies ata level much higher than the five percent (threshold applicable to them),yet remain compliant with the WTO.Unlike India, which subsidises agri-inputs and MSP to farmers, theyachieve the same result by makingdirect cash benefit transfers (DBT)to farmers which is exempt fromsubsidy cap obligation. In regard toSSM — it allows members to tem-porarily raise tariffs beyond the“bound levels,” — this is the maxi-mum permissible duty that a mem-ber country can impose underbound rate agreement; for instance,in case of wheat, it is 80 per cent —to deal with surging imports andresultant fall in prices.

The 2015 MC-10 in Nairobi had

recognised that developing countrieswill have the right to take recourseto it as envisaged under the HongKong Ministerial Declaration. Butthis comes nowhere near India’sdemand to amend an already exist-ing provision in Article 5 of the AoAto provide them the same benefitthat developed countries derivefrom Special (Agricultural)Safeguards (SSG).

In short, it is a case of lack of careand foresight on the part of ournegotiators at the WTO in letting aflawed formula for the AMS calcu-lation to creep into the AoA in thefirst place and a missed opportuni-ty to make corrections (2014/15) thathave led to the present precarious sit-uation for developing countries.

Even as India has flagged theseissues yet again, one wonderswhether the developed countries willagree to remove the flaws in the AoAor allow exemption for subsidiesgiven under the PSH.

The Government needs to thinkout of the box. It may consider DBTto farmers; India can give it withoutany cap and yet remain compliantwith its commitment under theWTO. However, in the currentatmosphere of anger over the threefarm laws, what will happen whenthe MSP goes (this is a natural con-comitant of introducing the DBT)?Prime Minister Narendra Modifaces a Hobson’s choice.

The Government may consider DBT to farmers; India can give it without anycap and yet remain compliant with its commitment under the WTO

JL KOUL JALALI

IN SHORT, IT IS A CASE OFLACK OF CARE

AND FORESIGHT ON THE PART

OF OURNEGOTIATORS

AT THE WTO INLETTING A FLAWEDFORMULA FOR THEAMS CALCULATION

TO CREEP INTOTHE AOA IN THE

FIRST PLACE AND A MISSEDOPPORTUNITY

TO MAKECORRECTIONS IN

2014/15 THAT HAVE LED TO THE

PRESENTPRECARIOUS

SITUATION FORDEVELOPINGCOUNTRIES

Armed with the traditions of nurturing nature and saving the envi-ronment, India is on the path to achieving its Paris Agreementtargets well before 2030. New Delhi is a signatory to the agree-

ment within the United Nations Framework Convention on ClimateChange (UNFCCC). Our goals include reduction in the emission inten-sity of the Gross Domestic Product from the 2005 level by 33-35 percent by 2030. It also aims at achieving about 40 per cent cumulativeelectric power installed capacity from non-fossil fuel-based energyresources by the end of the decade. These targets were underscoredby Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the virtual event CERAWeek 2021— an annual energy conference held recently. He also referred to thethird target of creating an additional carbon sink of two-three billiontonnes through forest and tree cover by 2030. Asserting that behav-ioural change is the most powerful way to fight the climate crisis, Modipointed out that during the last seven years, India’s forest cover hasexpanded significantly.

As a result, the population of wildlife, particularly species like lions,tigers, leopards and the number of springs and waterfalls have increased.This increase in forest cover is all the more important as it brings Indiacloser to its commitment of achieving land degradation neutrality by2030. As stated by Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate ChangePrakash Javadekar at the 14th session of the Conference of the Partiesto the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD COP-14) heldin September 2020, an increase in forest cover will be a boon for mil-lions of marginal farmers and poor people in the country. This increaseis important as over 75 per cent of carbon space available to human-ity has already been taken up by current and past emissions of Europe,the US and China, leaving very little for countries like India with hugedevelopmental imperatives but with very meagre carbon footprints.

Participating in the open debate on climate and security at the UNSecurity Council last month, the US’ climate envoy John Kerry asked17 major emitters to scale up targets and reduce coal usage. In orderto control climate change readily and to restore it, he called for theneed to get to zero emissions by 2050. Despite the economic slow-down because of COVID-19, it may not be possible to meet the Pariscommitment of limiting temperature rise to 1.5°C, which lends weightto demands for urgent action. While there can be no two opinions aboutachieving this zero-emission goal speedily, but developed countrieshave also to bear in mind that their actions increased carbon in theatmosphere resulting in global warming. But in turn these changes haveendangered low emitters and poor countries, which did not cause them.

The glaring inequality in carbon emissions at the global level isalso highlighted by the fact that while the US emits 16 tonnes of CO2per person, Saudi Arabia emits 19 tonnes per person but India emitsonly around 1.8 tonnes of CO2 per person. A simple solution couldbe to give incentives for transition from coal-based energy sources torenewable ones, on a fair and equitable basis, guided by commitmentsof developed nations to help developing countries in their climate restora-tion action. Now that the US has officially rejoined the Paris ClimateAgreement, the prospects for concrete results from the pact have bright-ened. The UK has already invited Modi to the next G-7 Summit whilea meeting between India and European Union (EU) countries has alsobeen scheduled and the next COP to the UNFCCC is being held inGlasgow in November. All these forums provide an opportunity to Indiato project its climate actions in a better perspective in front of the world.

(The writer is a journalist, producer and director. The viewsexpressed are personal.)

India’s vaccine diplomacyis moving at a trot and hasset the pace for countering

the COVID-19 pandemic. Itwas indeed a big boost when,as part of the first virtualQuadrilateral SecurityDialogue (QSD) leaders’meeting on March 12, USPresident Joe Biden,Australian Prime MinisterScott Morrison and JapanesePrime Minister YoshihideSuga decided to help Indiaproduce at least one billionvaccine doses for the Asia-Pacific region.

The Quad initiative aimsto reduce manufacturingbacklog, speed up vaccina-tion, and defeat someCoronavirus mutations. Thefunding would be from theUS and Japan and logisticalhelp would come fromAustralia.

South Block claims that

India has now become a “vac-cine superpower” in tack-ling the COVID-19 crisis.The new orientation is in tunewith Prime MinisterNarendra Modi’s significantforeign policy approach atprojecting India as a globalstakeholder. A Wall StreetJournal (WSJ) editorial haspraised India for its COVIDdiplomacy.

“India has emerged thesurprise leader of the globalvaccine diplomacy race. It hasexported three times moredoses than it’s given its owncitizens and can spare evenmore without hurting its ownrollout”, Eric Bellman of WSJtweeted.

New Delhi has not onlymanaged to thwart China’sCOVID diplomacy but alsoovertaken it. According to theUnited Nations (UN), Indiahas made more vaccine dona-

tions than China, with overeight million doses givenaway, compared to 7.3 millionfrom China. Both are makingvaccines for the rest of theworld in addition to gettingtheir vast populations inocu-lated. Chinese premier XiJinping has called Chinesemedical supplies to the‘Health Silk Road,’ a part ofChina’s ambitious Belt andRoad Initiative (BRI).According to the ChineseForeign Ministry, it plans toprovide free vaccines to 69countries and sell them to 28.

India, too, has adoptedvaccine diplomacy as part ofits foreign policy. ExternalAffairs Minister S Jaishankardeclared in Parliament lastweek that the ‘Vaccine Maitri(Vaccine friendship)’ pro-gramme has “raised India’sstanding and generated greatinternational goodwill.”

Giving details, the Ministersaid, “In fact, we supplied 150nations with medicines, 82 ofthem as grants by India. As(the production of) our ownmasks, PPEs and diagnostickits grew, we made themavailable to other nations.This generous approach...was also extended to the‘Vande Bharat Mission.’Starting from Wuhan, webrought back nationals ofother countries while lookingafter our own.”

“Acting East” and “actingfast” is the new mantra for

South Block. The ModiGovernment’s vaccine initia-tive got a boost, particularlyin the neighbouring coun-tries. For instance, strainedties with Nepal, Bangladesh,the Maldives and Sri Lankahave improved after a timelyvaccine supply. Indicating theimportance of this, Sri Lankaand Dominica’s leaders per-sonally received Indian-madevaccines at the airport, andthe Mongolian PrimeMinister took the Indian vac-cine.

All these initiatives werepossible because India’s mas-sive pharmaceutical industryaccounts for about 20 per centof the world’s generic medi-cines and more than 60 percent of all global vaccineproduction. In fact, Indiaadministered 29.74 milliondoses of the anti-COVIDshots to its own citizens by

March 15 and the inoculationdrive is in full swing.However, the rising numberof variants and a secondsurge of COVID in States likeMaharashtra, Punjab,Gujarat, Karnataka and TamilNadu is causing concern.There are some concernsabout vaccine diplomacy, too,in a few quarters. The first iswhether India will be able tomeet the demand and the sec-ond is whether the vaccinediplomacy is taking place atthe expense of the citizens ofthe country?

Union Health MinisterDr Harsh Vardhan is confi-dent that the Government hasaddressed these concerns.

The Serum Institute ofIndia (SII) — which pro-duces the Novavax and theAstraZeneca vaccines —recently raised concernsabout raw material short-

ages. Its Chief ExecutiveOfficer, Adar Poonawalla,alleged, “The sharing of theseraw materials is going tobecome a critical limitingfactor — nobody has beenable to address this so far.”Another Indian manufactur-er, Biological E, which pro-duces the Johnson andJohnson vaccine, has alsoraised similar concerns. Theother worry is that the coun-try is lagging behind its tar-get. However, there is opti-mism that other vaccines inthe pipeline might ease thisburden.

Overall, the COVIDdiplomacy so far has yieldedgoodwill for India and won itsome new friends. One can’tblame South Block for ridingon the new initiative. As TheNew York Times says, theCOVID-19 vaccine is the lat-est diplomatic currency.

HYDERABAD | TUESDAY | MARCH 23, 2021

07

www.dailypioneer.com facebook.com/dailypioneer | @TheDailyPioneer | instagram.com/dailypioneer/

FIRSTCOLUMN

INEQUITY IN GLOBALCARBON EMISSIONS

Give fair incentives to all for transition from coal-based energy sources to renewable ones

UTTAM GUPTA

POINTCOUNTERPOINT

The writer is a New Delhi-based policy

analyst. The viewsexpressed are personal.

Vaccine diplomacy is winning India new friends and goodwill

KALYANI SHANKAR

The writer is a senior journalist.

The views expressed are personal.

One can’t blame South Block for riding on the new initiative. As The New York Times says, the COVID-19 vaccine is the latest diplomatic currency

HYDERABAD | TUESDAY | MARCH 23, 2021 Money 08

MONEY MATTERS

Drug firm GlenmarkPharmaceuticals onMonday said it has

entered into a pact withBausch to commercialise itsnasal spray Ryaltris in Canada.The company's subsidiary,Glenmark Specialty SA inSwitzerland and an affiliate of

Bausch Health Companies Inc have entered into an exclusivelicensing agreement for the commercialisation of Glenmark'sinnovative nasal spray Ryaltris under review by Health Canada, theMumbai-based firm said in a regulatory filing. Under the terms ofthe pact, Glenmark will be responsible for regulatory approvals andsupply of Ryaltris for the Canadian market and Bausch Health,Canada, will be responsible for the commercialisation of the productin Canada following regulatory approval, it added. Glenmark willreceive an upfront payment, launch and sales-based milestonepayments in addition to royalties and supply price from sales of theproduct, the filing said. The agreement is for 10 years with an optionto renew, it added.

Glenmark to commercialisenasal spray in Canada

PNS n NEW DELHI

Four states includingAndhra Pradesh and Goahave sought Rs 16,467 croreas special financial packagefrom the government ofIndia, Lok Sabha wasinformed on Monday.

The Department ofExpenditure, Ministry ofFinance, has receivedrequests from AndhraPradesh, Goa, Manipur andNagaland for the specialfinancial packages, Ministerof State for Finance AnuragSingh Thakur said in awritten reply.

Andhra Pradesh has soughtrelease of Rs 700 crore underthe Special DevelopmentPackage for backward areas ofthe state, he said.

"The state governmentof Goa has sought a dia-mond jubilee year packageamounting to Rs 500 crorefor celebration of liberationfrom Portuguese rule. The

state government ofManipur has sought a spe-cial economic packageamounting to Rs 14,567crore including various sec-tors of economy," he said.

Nagaland has sought aspecial assistance packageamounting to Rs 700 crorecovering various sectors ofeconomy, he added.

Following the schemeguidelines, he said, theunion government exam-ines requests of the stategovernments and transfersresources to States asgrants-in-aid subject toavailability resources with-in gross budgetary support.

The release of funds tothe state of Andhra Pradeshunder the Andhra PradeshReorganisation Act, 2014 isbased on recommendationsof the NITI Aayog subjectto availability of resourceswith the union governmentwithin gross budgetary sup-port, he said.

PNS n MUMBAI

Equity benchmark Sensexdeclined 87 points on Monday,tracking losses in index majorsHDFC Bank, ICICI Bank andReliance Industries amid a

weak trend in global mar-kets. The 30-share BSEindex ended 86.95 pointsor 0.17 per cent lower at49,771.29. The broaderNSE Nifty dipped 7.60points or 0.05per cent to

14,736.40. IndusInd Bankwas the top loser in the Sensexpack, shedding around 4 percent, followed by PowerGrid,ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank,Axis Bank and Bajaj Finance.

On the other hand, TechMahindra, TCS, Sun Pharma,Infosys and HCL Tech wereamong the gainers.

"Domestic equities tradedlower as mounting concerns

pertaining to rise inCOVID-19 cases in variousparts of the country andresultant restrictions con-tinued to weigh oninvestors sentiments," saidBinod Modi, Head -Strategy at RelianceSecurities.

Further, weak global cuesand higher US bond yieldskept markets nervous.

However, strong buyingwas seen in IT, FMCG andpharma space, while finan-cials and automobiles wit-nessed selling pressure.

"Notably, investorslapped-up quality midcapand small cap stocks afterrecent corrections in thesespaces," he added.

Four states seek Rs 16,467 crspecial package from Centre

PNS n NEW DELHI

Gold in the national capi-tal tumbled by Rs 302 to Rs44,269 per 10 grams onMonday, ref lec t ingovernight decline in glob-al gold prices and rupeeappreciation, according toHDFC Securities.

In the previous trade, ithad closed at Rs 44,571per 10 grams. Silver alsotanked Rs 1,533 to Rs65,319 per kg, from Rs66,852 in the previoustrade.

In the international mar-ket, gold was trading mar-ginally up at USD 1,731 perounce while silver was trad-ing lower at USD 25.55 perounce.

Gold declinesRs 302; silvertanks Rs 1,533

PNS n NEW DELHI

Renewables in electricity mustincrease 55-fold for India toachieve net-zero emissions by2050, according to a report byCouncil on Energy,Environment and Wate(CEEW).

India will need to generateat least 83 per cent of its elec-tricity from (non-hydro power)renewable energy sources by2050 to achieve net-zero green-house gas emissions by mid-century, according to the study.

This would mean a massive55-fold increase in the use ofnon-hydro renewables in elec-tricity generation within thecoming three decades, fromonly 160 Terawatt-hour (TWh)(10 per cent) in 2019, CEEWsaid in a statement.

Further, to achieve net-zero

by 2050 the share of electrici-ty in India's industrial energyuse must rise three-fold, from20.3 per cent in 2018 to 70 percent in 2050, the study -Peaking and Net-Zero forIndia's Energy Sector CO2Emissions: An Analytical

Exposition - revealed.The share of electric vehicles

in passenger car sales will alsohave to rise to 76 per cent by2050 from just 0.1 per cent in2019, it added.

These estimates are based onCEEW's best understanding of

progress on mitigation tech-nologies.

To meet net-zero, India willneed to either eliminate green-house gas (GHG) emissions orbalance these by sequesteringGHG emissions.

The study is the first exerciseto outline multiple pathwaysfor India to attain net-zeroemissions, rather than fixatingon a single scenario or a singleyear.

It highlighted that India willneed to reach peak emissionswithin this decade if it were toachieve net-zero emissions bymid-century, a pace of transi-tion, unlike anything the worldhas seen before.

This will give India anextremely narrow window toensure a smooth and equitabletransition from a peaking yearto a net-zero year.

Renewable electricity needs to grow 55-foldto achieve zero emission in country by 2050

PNS n LONDON

A large trial in the US and twoSouth American countries of theOxford-AstraZeneca vaccinehas shown 79 per cent efficacyrate at preventing symptomaticCOVID-19 and 100 per centeffectiveness in stopping severedisease and hospitalisation, thebiotech firm said on Monday.

A Phase III study of the vac-cine, developed by OxfordUniversity and produced byAstraZeneca was conducted byAstraZeneca plc in the US,Chile and Peru and reaffirmedthat the vaccine is “safe andhighly effective”, adding to pre-vious trial data from the UK,Brazil and South Africa.

The Oxford/AstraZenecavaccine is also being producedas part of a tie-up by the SerumInstitute of India.

The vaccine's efficacy was

consistent across ethnicity andage, and in participants aged 65years and over, its effectivenesswas 80 per cent.

“These results are great newsas they show the remarkableefficacy of the vaccine in a new

population and are consistentwith the results from Oxford-ledtrials,” said Andrew Pollard,Professor of Paediatric Infectionand Immunity and LeadInvestigator of the OxfordUniversity trial of the vaccine.

“We can expect strong impactagainst COVID-19 across allages and for people of all differ-ent backgrounds from wide-spread use of the vaccine,” hesaid. In the trial, which recruit-ed over 32,000 volunteers across

all age groups, the participantsreceived either two standarddoses of the Oxford-AstraZenecavaccine or a placebo vaccine, ata four-week interval. OxfordUniversity said that the absoluteefficacy of the jabs is higher inthe new study than observed inthe Oxford-led studies, as effica-cy is affected by the protocol casedefinition i.e. higher for moresevere cases and the populationin which the study is conducted.

“In many different countriesand across age groups, the vac-cine is providing a high level ofprotection against COVID-19and we hope this will lead toeven more widespread use of thevaccine in the global attempts tobring the pandemic to an end,”said Sarah Gilbert, Professor ofVaccinology, and co-designer ofthe ChAdOx1 nCov-19 coron-avirus vaccine – namedAZD1222 by AstraZeneca.

The British-Swedish biophar-ma company will now be sub-mitting the data for analysis bythe scientific community inpeer-review literature, and to theregulators in the US – the Foodand Drugs Administration(FDA) –for emergency approvalfor use.

“These findings reconfirmprevious results observed inAZD1222 trials across all adultpopulations but it's exciting tosee similar efficacy results in peo-ple over 65 for the first time. Thisanalysis validates theAstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccineas a much-needed additionalvaccination option, offering con-fidence that adults of all ages canbenefit from protection againstthe virus,” said Ann Falsey,Professor of Medicine, Universityof Rochester School of Medicine,US, and co-lead PrincipalInvestigator for the trial.

Oxford jabs effective against Covid, trial in US confirms

State-owned engineeringfirm BHEL on Mondaysaid it has bagged its first

ever overseas order for agrid- connected solar powerproject in Mauritius.The project will be set up byBHEL at Tamarind Falls,Henrietta (Phase II), Mauritiuson Engineering, Procurementand Construction (EPC) basis, BHEL said in a statement. "BHEL hasachieved yet another milestone in international business by securingits maiden overseas turnkey contract for a grid-connected 8 MWacSolar Photovoltaic (PV) power plant," it said. The contract has beenawarded to BHEL by CEB (Green Energy) Co. Ltd, Mauritius, awholly-owned subsidiary of Central Electricity Board, Government ofMauritius. The project is funded under Government of India's Line ofCredit and has been secured by BHEL through a competitive biddingprocess. The project will be executed by BHEL's Solar BusinessDivision, Bengaluru and International Operations Division, NewDelhi.

BHEL secures first everoverseassolar project

Edible oil industry body SEAon Monday urged thegovernment to impose an

import duty of 35.75 per centon Palm stearin in line withcrude palm oil (CPO) to protectthe domestic palm refining andoleochemicals industry. Palm stearin, a by-product ofCPO, is used in the food

industry for the production of bakery fats like Vanaspati andmargarine shortenings. It is also used in the cosmetics and personalcare industry. Mumbai-based Solvent Extractors Association of India(SEA) President Atul Chaturvedi in a statement said while import ofpalm stearin and other by-products of CPO are allowed at zero duty,but the domestic players are manufacturing the same products fromimported CPO Domestic players import CPO paying customs duty of35.75 per cent as well as agricultural cess.

Hike import duty on palmstearin in line with CPO: SEA

Russian Direct InvestmentFund (RDIF) andHyderabad-based

Virchow Biotech on Mondayannounced an agreement toproduce up to 200 milliondoses of Sputnik V vaccine inIndia. The technology transferis expected to be completed inthe second quarter of 2021followed by full-scale commercial production of Sputnik V, RDIF and Virchow Biotech said in ajoint statement. Virchow Biotech capacities will help facilitate theglobal supply of Sputnik V to international partners of RDIF, it added."The agreement with Virchow Biotech is an important step tofacilitate the full-scale local production of the vaccine in India and tosupply our international partners globally," RDIF CEO Kirill Dmitrievsaid. According to the statement, the efficacy of Sputnik V is 91.6per cent as confirmed by the data published in the Lancet.

RDIF, Virchow Biotech ink pactto produce Sputnik V vaccine

PNS n NEW DELHI

Consumer electric goodsmaker Havells is expectinggood sales of its fan businessthis summer and is also provid-ing innovative solutions in thesegment, said a company offi-cial.

The company, which hasalready attained pre-COVIDlevels and reported growth insales of fans in third quarter,expects to continue the growthmomentum, said Havells IndiaPresident- Electrical ConsumerDurables, R S Negi.

Havells is betting on the pre-

mium category fans, whichare Rs 3,000 and above and arenearly 8-10 per cent of the mar-ket share. The company hasgeared up new launches in thesegment to harness the salespotential of premium fans,which are largely driven by thereplacement market.

"We saw strong growth dur-ing the third quarter for our fanbusiness. As we get into thesummer season, we expect thismomentum to continue," saidNegi. Summer is an importantseason for the fan industry,which accounts for around 45per cent of the sales, he added.

PNS n NEW DELHI

Oilseeds trade body COOITon Monday projected a recordmustard seed production at89.5 lakh tonne in the rabi sea-son of 2020-21 crop year (July-June), about 19.33 per centhigher than the year-ago, onaccount of higher yields andgood weather. Mustard seedproduction stood at 75 lakh

tonnes in the same season2019-20 crop year.

As per the estimates releasedby the Central Organization forOil Industry and Trade(COOIT), mustard seed pro-duction in Rajasthan -- thecountry's largest producingstate -- the output is expectedto increase to 35 lakh tonneduring rabi season of 2020-21,from 32 lakh tonne in the year-

ago. COOIT Chairman BabulalData said higher area undercultivation of mustard seed inthe 2020-21 rabi season andgood weather boosted pro-duction. "The weather too haslargely been favourable, andhence, per hectare productionis also expected to be higher.Accordingly, we will see recordproduction of mustard seedthis year, which will benefit all

stakeholders' farmers, con-sumers and the edible oilindustry," he said.

As per the latest estimate,mustard seed production inUttar Pradesh is estimated toincrease to 15 lakh tonne in therabi season of 2020-21 asagainst 13 lakh tonne, while inBihar it is projected to be 10lakh tonne as against 7 lakhtonnes in the said period.

PNS n NEW DELHI

SoftBank-backed non bankingfinancial firm True Balance onMonday said it has raisedUSD 10 million in debt fund-ing from a group of investors.

The investment has comefrom Northern Arc and otherinvestors from India andKorea for its lending arm,True Credits to support thecompany's growth, a state-ment said. "This round offunding will be fortifying thecollective effort by startupssuch as us and the govern-ment to make India a strongereconomy as we move forwardtowards growth. We are alsoexpecting additional fundingof USD 40 million, this finan-cial year," Vishal Bhatia, ChiefFinancial Officer, TrueBalance said.

PNS n MUMBAI

The rupee appreciated 15paise to close at 72.37against the US dollar onMonday, driven by foreignfund inflows and easingcrude oil prices.

However, subdued senti-ment in the domestic equi-ty markets and a moderate-ly strong dollar overseasweighed on the rupee, forexdealers said.

At the interbank forexmarket, the local unitopened at 72.47 against thegreenback and gained fur-ther to touch an intra-dayhigh of 72.34.

It finally ended at 72.37against the American cur-rency, registering a rise of15 paise over its previousclose.

PNS n VERSAILLES

Ikea's French subsidiary is setto go on trial Monday overaccusations that they illegal-ly spied on employees andcustomers. Trade unionsreported the company toFrench authorities in 2012,accusing it of collecting per-sonal data by fraudulentmeans and the illicit disclo-sure of personal information.

PNS n NEW DELHI

Italian firm Maire TecnimontS.p.A. on Monday said itsarms NextChem, Stamicarbonand MET Development (METDEV) have teamed up withAdani Enterprises to developgreen hydrogen projects inIndia. The company throughits subsidiaries has signed aMemorandum of Understand-ing with Adani EnterprisesLtd (AEL) to explore the devel-

opment of industrial projectsusing NextChem and Stami-carbon's technologies andMET DEV's project develop-ment capabilities and expertiseto industrialise green chem-istry and circular economysectors in India, a statement byMaire Tecnimont said.

The projects will be focusedon producing chemicals,ammonia and hydrogen fromrenewable feedstock, it added.

AEL is part of the AdaniGroup.

AEL is strongly committedto enabling the renewable tran-sition via its 3.2 GW of exist-ing and planned annual solarpanel manufacturing capabil-ity and incubation of innova-tive environmentally friendlytechnologies.

True Balanceraises USD 10mn debt fund

Rupee gains 15paise to end at72.37 against $

Havells expects good sales of fans this summer

COOIT pegs record seed output for rabi ’21

Ikea Francegoing on trialover illegalspying claims

Maire Tecnimont arms, Adani tie upto develop green hydrogen projects

Sensex ends 87 pointslower; financial stocks drag

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TuesdayMarch 23, 2021

he young, fresh talentradiated like a starlooking chic in a croptop with poet sleevesteamed with a colourblocked pleated skirt

for Ruchika Sachdeva’s new col-lection from ‘Bodice’ label at theLakme Fashion Week 2021. Thecurator’s collection is about howthe smallest atoms come togeth-er to contour and create cleansilhouettes and that ties into theseason's theme and AnanyaPanday was mastering it!

Come to think of it, amidstthe unprecedented times, thebiggest fashion event is rollingand how! With two marvellousamalgamation of going ‘phygital’and a ‘drive-in’ fashion show,this year’s fashion extravaganzacouldn’t be battered down byany deadly virus. The show didgo on! Everyone seated in thefront row dressed in their bestwere hooting for Ananya Pandayas she was doing what she bestdoes — being the ultimate divaon the ramp.

The Pioneer got in touch withthe actress for a quick candidchat on owning the runway!Asked how to stride like a stun-ning showstopper with multiplecameras seeking to have that oneexclusive shot of her, she says, “Iwas eagerly looking forward towalking the ramp. This is one ofthe moments that I admire a lot— when showstoppers are outthere having their share of enter-

tainment and stardom. Whetherthey’re interacting with the audi-ences, amusing themselves withthe coutures they are wearing orjamming on the ramp with theirdesigner with all the rightchords pumping you up — Iaspired to do all of this. To beable to make it like my personalcatwalk feels amazing.”

Upon learning about the fash-ion gala going ‘phygital’ thistime — a blend of both onground events and a digitalshowcase, Ananya was filledwith exhilaration. Narrating thiswhole new experience minutesbefore she got on the ramp, shegoes on, “Almost every event isgoing ‘phygital’ these days withthe pandemic lurking, and noneof us can drop their work lives.What caught my attention was adrive-in show — we’ve heardabout drive-in cinemas andnumerous other shows but adrive-in fashion event seemednovel! With every coming year,fashion shows are evolving andadapting to eccentric themesand set-ups, making us want tonever say ‘no’ to them all.”

Not someone that is con-cerned with how she looks,rather being a firm believer ofsporting a look of comfort,beauty for Ananya Panday ishaving pure fun and breakingfree of the stereotypical normsof beauty standards, glidingsmoothly and confidentlythroughout. The one beautyproduct that you’re always goingto find in the actress’ hand-bagis definitely the lip balm — she’snever stepping out without it!

Talking more about the newtheme presented by Lakme Indiacalled #MiniPlayMegaSlay, sheshares, “This theme is an

embodiment of finding those lit-tle moments of joy whileredefining the parameters ofbeauty, taking us back to theextensive lockdown times.That weary period alsotaught us how one can begrateful for little things. Sothe new products incorpo-rate amazing packaging,palette of vibrant coloursand a velvet finish.These tiny details mademe so happy, if I cannotice it, so can others.”

Being the muse of ayoung-cum-talentedfashionista who’sshaping the globalfashion industry,Ananya Pandaylooked etherealwhile walking theramp with an unin-habited quality thatignited the work ofRuchika Sachdeva.About being her onlymuse for the event, shelives an account saying, “Heroutfits scream thepedestals of being fullof life and dynamic.Despite being so youngin the fraternity, when Isaw one of her designs Icouldn’t believe myeyes that Ruchikahas actuallydesigned itbecause it was sobold and a pot full of vibrantcolours! Ask me my two toppicks from her new collection,one would be the hot pinkjumpsuit and my finale look —because I am in love with theway it’s connived and the mix-ture of colours in it. Intially, Igot a little nervous and my

hands were trembling before walking the ramp butguess what I overstayed on theramp because I was having agala time.”

When quizzed about somefashion gyaan, she heartilyshares that she was just there tohave fun and she had a lot of it!“I watched Kiara’s show previ-ously and she was looked sostunning on the runway andowned the ramp. It was Manish’sshow, it had to be a grand affair!How am I different from theother showstoppers? Well, I cer-tainly trust in embracing myown individuality and that’swhat I did on the ramp. Talkingabout fashion, isn’t it an astheticexpression that’s full of conge-niality? For instance, whilesporting an athleisure look, Idon’t care if my fashion game isup or getting papped, I careabout comfort alone. Imaginefeeling uneasy while doingplanks or a ‘surya namaskar’ inyour athleisure outfit, such anightmare! Hence, comfort oversporting a look for the camerasanytime,” she chuckled.

On the personal front, AnanyaPanday has turned into a digitalpolice with her new social initia-tive called ‘So Positive’. Findingit to be the need of the hour

with trolling being grosslyunfair, especially with loved ones having to go through it,Ananya couldn’t think of anybetter movement to begin with,than bringing this digital yetsocial responsibility to forefront!“People have forgotten that it’scool to be kind, atleast for once.Trolling is on a rampant stagethese days, with millenials. With ‘So Positive’ I want to builda community that’s full of posi-tivity, where people actuallystand up for one another, ratherthan pointing fingers at eachother. Everyone needs solace,everyone feels lonely at somepoint in time whenever they aregoing through their lows — theinitiative here tells you that youaren’t alone in this. More than apersonal experience, I felt it wasmy social culpablity to begin thisas it’s that safer environmentthat one can take shelter onlineon.”

Concluding the unconven-tional interview, she sharingsome insights about her upcom-ing big banner film with theTollywood heartthrob VijayDeverakonda. “I’m so happy tobe making a debut in three otherlanguages with one release,” andshe’s all smiles about Vijay beingthe immensely pleasant co-star!

Known for herquirky charismaacross the filmindustry, AnanyaPanday, who willbe the leadinglady in VijayDeverakonda’sLiger, has alwaysset anunparalleledbenchmark inthe field ofcreativity. Sheshares with ThePioneer'sSHIKHADUGGAL herexperiencewalking the rampfor RuchikaSachdeva andmore...

FASHION

T

ental hygienemaintenance is anessential aspect ofone’s life. Sincewhatever you eatgoes through your

mouth and if you do notmaintain good hygiene, theharmful bacteria present inthe mouth enters your body.This is why the teeth, gums,and tongue need to becleaned well. The COVID-19pandemic has created barri-ers for individuals to visitphysical clinics. Followingthese tips will help you main-

tain dental hygiene.

WHAT YOU NEED TO

MAINTAIN A TEETH CARE

ROUTINE:

¬Brushing¬Flossing¬Mouth wash, if necessary,under the recommenda-tion of the dentistAs you grow older, if

there’s a gap in between theteeth and the food particlesare getting in between, thenan individual will need to useinterdental cleaners.

Tongue cleaner

These are the five appara-tuses that are necessary toclean the teeth.

Brushing:

Brushing your teeth does-n’t mean your cleaning yourteeth. People brush theirteeth because psychologically,they think they are cleaningtheir teeth.

What type of brushshould an individualuse?

There are different types ofbrush are available in themarket. Here’s how you canbuy a good one.

Check the componentsof the brush:

Head of the brush: Itshould be such that oneshould be able to move it inthe mouth, especially on thecheek side of the head is bigif it cannot be moved quicklyand will not clean the teeth

Handle: It should help tohold the brush correctly.

Tip: Hold the meeting withenough pressure like you'reholding a painting brush.Suppose you hold the brushtightly and move it inside themouth if it moves from theelbow. If you have the meet-ing like a painting brushing,

the hand moves from thewrist. The pressure of thebristles on the teeth shouldbe very light.

Bristles: The tip of the

bristles is the most importantto clean the teeth. Themoment the tip of the brushturns brittle, then that brushis useless. If you hold the

meeting tight and brush hor-izontally, the bristles willbecome like a flower in aweek or 15 days. If you brushlightly, like holding a paint-ing brush with light strokes,then it is likely to last forthree months or more, butyou would need to changethe meeting as they becomesofter and the effect goesaway.

When you hold a brush

very lightly and give lightstrokes at an angulation, say45, it will be slightly tricky.But if you provide an angula-tion between the gum andteeth, vibrate it the soft foodparticle will come out. Onthe chewing surface, you cando it too and fro to clean.The interdental surface isslightly challenging to brushout, so we use floss.

An essential brushing areais inside below the tongue,i.e., the lower front teeth onthe inside side. It’s necessarybecause the saliva presenthere has minerals thatdeposit the plague and makethe tarter hard. So when youbrush your teeth, you mustmake sure to touch everycorner and tooth at leasttwice. And it does not takemore than 120 secs.

When it comes to floss, notmany know how to do it well.A floss has to be rolled onthe middle finger and usedthe two fingers, i.e., the indexfinger and the thumb, todirect the floss.

Tips to check for plagueMove your tongue on

the surface of your teeth. Itwill be very smooth. If youmove it after two hours, youwill know if the plaque for-mation has taken place asyour tongue can feel its sensi-tivity.

Most of the toothpaste inIndia has got 1000 ppm fluo-ride as per the governmentrule. The particle size of thepaste used to clean the teethshould be minimal as toomuch of it could damage theteeth’ enamel.

Patients complain ofdestructive breath issues. Inmost cases, the gum will bein good condition, whereasthe tongue’s status will bewrong. Tongue cleaning isone of the essential aspectsbecause if it is not cleaned itgives bad breath.

As we grow older, thegums go weak, the teeth’roots are exposed, and we seea triangular gap area betweenthe teeth. That’s the areawhere the food particles stay.It is advised to use an inter-dental brush rather thanusing a toothbrush.

Brushing at night is moreimportant. If people imbibe ahabit of brushing at night,they could later brush afterbreakfast in the morning.After touching at night, theoral flora formed in themouth, and not consumingany food apart from thewater helps digestion.

If you experience anybreakouts or numbness,always consult an expertthrough an appointment ortele-consult.

Dental and oral health is anessential part of your overallhealth and well-being. Poor oralhygiene can lead to dentalcavities and gum disease, andhas also been linked to heartdisease, cancer, and diabetes. Dr Sandesh Mayekar of ViveoHealth India talks to ThePioneer about oral hygiene,teeth care routine and more

& Flossflaunt

D

Lovers in transit

one are the dayswhen the mostpopular as well asthe only way ofdating someonewas ‘meeting in

person’ over a cup of coffeeor a lunch/dinner date at arestaurant, watching a movietogether, sitting by the beachor going for a long drive.Today, dating is much easierwith the advent of datingapps. The millennials arespending more time in find-ing partner with a similarvibe and getting to knoweach other by forming emo-tional connections overdeeper conversations.

Over time, with evolvingbehaviour of people and theincreasing popularity ofonline dating, there are manytrends that are playing a sig-nificant role in influencingthe dating ecosystem. A dat-ing platform, QuackQuack,shares some key insights intothe dating behaviour of menand women today. Here arethe highlights of the report:

“While dating, the majori-ty of the users are looking foremotional attachment thanphysical connection, whichmeans people are graduallymoving beyond casual datingapproach and are looking foran emotional connection.However, emotional attach-ment is more important towomen compared to men.Around 73 per cent ofwomen in comparison to 55per cent of men prioritiseemotional attachment.”

“Meeting in person is thepreferred choice for most ofthe people as they seek tomake real connections. Onthe contrary, 46 per cent ofyoungsters (<20) prefer vir-tual dating.”

“People want to keep theiroptions open as a majority ofthem would continue usingthe dating app even afterfinding a partner.Additionally, men are mostlikely to do so (73 per cent)as compared to women (54per cent).”

“Majority of people don’tthink a virtual date is enoughto decide their partner. They

want to meet their date inperson.”

Speaking about the survey,Ravi Mittal, founder of thedating platform, says, “Thedating behaviour of millenni-als and Gen Z has evolved,more so with the advent ofonline dating and alsobecause of the pandemic.Longer chat conversations,meeting over a movie orNetflix and chill are some ofthe common trends.”

“Talking about the report,from mixed reactions regard-ing who is more committedto their partner —men orwomen — to the majority ofpeople finding food taste as asign of compatibility, it hassome interesting insights,”adds he.

Further, the survey alsohighlights what people findmost irritating while talkingto someone on a dating appand the majority of peopleagree to “not getting aresponse from the personyou expected” as the mostirritating part.

Also, among online daters,76 per cent of men as com-pared to 57 per cent ofwomen feel meeting newpeople is the best way to getover toxic relationships asthey have more choices tochoose from and find com-patible partners.

A datingplatformshares somekey insightsinto how thedatingbehaviour ofmen andwomen haschanged overthe years

G

DRIVING THROUGH

PARTY

10

Hyderabad Tuesday March 23 2021

l Sadhvi

l Sowmya

l Deepika l Raashi Singhl Archana Ravi

l Sony

l Noor

l Abhilasha

what’s brewing?

Rules

ARCHIE

GARFIELD

SUDOKU

REALITY CHECK SPEED BUMP CROSSWORD

GINGER MEGGS

NANCY

l Each row and column cancontain each number (1 to 9)exactly once.

l The sum of all numbers inany row or column mustequal 45.

Yesterday’s solution

CALVIN AND HOBBES

FUN

i-Life is presenting its one of themost stylish fashion and lifestyleexhibition, showcasing the workof top fashion designers,

jewellers, fashion brands and more, onMarch 23 and 24, at HICC-Novotel,Hitech City. Actress Raashi Singh,Archana Ravi and others graced thelaunch event yesterday.

HHIGH ON FASHION

lH

ani C

how

dary

Photos by SV Chary

ctor Nithiin andKeerthy Suresh star-rer Rang De is gear-ing up forrelease onMarch

26th. The film iswritten and direct-ed by VenkyAtluri while pro-duced bySuryadevara NagaVamsi under SitharaEntertainments ban-ner. Star directorTrivikram Srinivas, who graceda pre-release event of the film at

Shilpa Kala Vedika in the city,said that Rang De — its story,characters will come to audi-

ences like a rainbow. Theace director Trivikram

added, “Humans arethe only livingbeings who cansmile and see allthe colours. Weare the lucky ones

and Rang De will belike a rainbow. I’ve

watched the film and Ireally liked it. Nithiin is

like my brother and I alwayswish him success. Nithiin and

Keerthy are playing Arjun andAnu respectively which is indi-rectly A.. Aa.”

Songs from the film garnereda lot of attention, especiallyEmito Idi and ChoosiNerchukoku. Speaking about themusic, Trivikram said, “Devi SriPrasad is one of my favouritemusic composers and I’veimmense respect for musicianswho have a classical back-ground. Oorantha Cheekati willcertainly make the audiencesweep in the theatres.”

“I’m 36 and this film has meplaying a 24-year-old. I won-

dered if that would bebelievable, but when Iheard PC Sreeram would bethe cinematographer, Igained confidence andcourage. I’m happy to beworking with him after Ishq.Keerthy always reminds of

Mahanati but in this film, she istoo naughty and has been a bigasset for the film. I have knowndirector Venky for the past 11years, yet it took long for us towork together. This is a sensiblesubject and was handled well. Ifreckoned as sentiment, RangDe will definitely score a hit,”actor Nithin said.

Actress Keerthy Suresh said,“I thank the director and pro-ducers for believing in me thatI could pull off Anu. This is mythird film in Devi Sri Prasad’smusical and I hope we score ahat-trick.”

he 67th National FilmAwards updates arehere and guess whatTollywood is also apart of the race win-ning few accolades for

the Telugu film industry andbringing the acclaimed fame!Bestowing the best honors as theycan for the cinemas and actors,the national award ceremony is agrand affair for all the cinemaenthusiasts. With Nani’s Jerseymaking it to the top and being thetriumphant of the Best TeluguFilm, the Best Editing award isalso bagged by the same film.Mahesh Babu’s criticallyacclaimed film Maharshi winningimpressive awards for BestChoreography and Best PopularFilm, Tollywood is currently hav-ing a gala time. Providing us withnotable performances all year,such accolades come as a souvenirof appreciation for the celebs andfraternity with the entire uphillstruggle that is impending to col-ors now!

11

Hyderabad Tuesday March 23 2021 tollywood

usic composer SSThaman, who hasearned praise for hissongs in films like AlaVaikuntapurramlo..,

Race Gurram, Chal MohanRanga and the most recentKrack, has received ravereviews for the songs ofhis next project VakeelSaab. The Telugu remakeof Pink that has PowerStar Pawan Kalyan essay-ing the role of AmitabhBachchan, is all set foran April 9th release.

The music composer,who has worked withthe star actor for hisparty Jana Sena’s songs,says he’s always dreamtof working with Pawan

Kalyan for a film. “I’veknown and respected

Pawan Kalyan garusince I composedsongs for JanaSena Party. Imissed the chance

to create music for Gabbar Singhbut I’m glad I bagged this project.Thanks to Trivikram and Dil Rajugaru.”

The film was supposed to be outlong before but the lockdownplayed havoc. “Despite the tryingtimes, the team thought we shouldput together a good film before theaudiences. As soon the directorSriram Venu narrated the story tome, I composed Maguva... thatreceived beautiful reviews. Thebackground score of the film isgoing to be a bigger hit, with everysong in the film suitable every situation,” the hit composer shared.

The film’s Maguva song that talksabout women, had become a hugehit months ago. Thaman talks aboutthe song, “My mom connected withthe song so well. Mega StarChiranjeevi’s mom loving it too isso touching.”

The composer who awaits therelease of Vakeel Saab said he’s alsoworking on another PK film, whichis the Telugu remake of theMalayalam hit AyyappanumKoshiyum.

WORKING FOR

DESPITE THE TRYING TIMES, THETEAM THOUGHT WE SHOULD PUTTOGETHER A GOOD FILM BEFORETHE AUDIENCES. AS SOON THEDIRECTOR SRIRAM VENUNARRATED THE STORY TO ME, ICOMPOSED MAGUVA... THATRECEIVED BEAUTIFUL REVIEWS.THE BACKGROUND SCORE OF THEFILM IS GOING TO BE A BIGGERHIT, WITH EVERY SONG IN THEFILM SUITABLE EVERY SITUATION

ne of the most-awaited films of Telugu cine-ma, Aranya, that has handsome hunk RanaDaggubati headlining the film and talks aboutconserving nature, is set to hit theatres onMarch 26. The multi-lingual film will see apan-India release, in Hindi as Haathi Mere

Sathi and Kadan in Tamil. Tollywood star Venkatesh, who is also uncle to

Rana, graced the pre-release event held in the city. The senior actor, who was all praises about the film,

said, “I am so proud of Rana, Prabhu Solomon and theentire team that put together this film. I was stunned atRana's performance, he is outstanding in the film. Heset new challenges for everyone. Films on subjects likethese are the need of the hour.”

Speaking at the event, Rana Daggubati said, “We aregoing to bring to you a beautiful experience in the rainforests. I have spent close to two years in the forests forthe film, this has changed me a human being. This filmabout urbanisation killing forests and animals andnature as a whole, needs to go out.”

The movie talks about the abuse that elephants haveto go through, and has been simultaneously shot inTamil, Telugu as well as Hindi, with slightly varyingcast members. The movie is directed by PrabhuSolomon, for a story that he wrote himself. Producedby Eros International, Aranya cast consists of VishnuVishal, Shriya Pilgaonkar and Zoya Hussain, alongsideRana Daggubati. In the Hindi version, Vishnu Vishal'srole is played by Pulkit Samrat.

EVERYONE WITH ARANYA:

hriya Pilgaonkar isthrilled to be a partof her upcomingfilm Aranya, whereshe features along-side Rana

Daggubati.Shriya took to Instagram on

the International Day ofForests to share her experienceof shooting in rainforests fullof wild elephants. The trilin-gual film Aranya marks theactress’ Tamil and Telugudebut.

Shreya shared photographson Instagram on Sundayevening where she can be seenhappily posing with elephantsand riding on their back. Inone picture, the actress alsohugs a tree.

She wrote, “It’s not everydaythat you get to film in a rain-forest with wild elephants forcompany. This film demandedthat we surrender to nature.Listen. Observe Learn. Trulyfeel that oneness & sense ofresponsibility. Our trilingualfilm releases on 26th March in

theatres ! #WorldForestDay#Aranya #Kaadan#HaathiMereSaathi#TamilTelugudebut.”

The film has been shot inthe dense forests of Keralaand Thailand. Directed byPrabhu Solomon, Aranyahas background score byOscar-winning sounddesigner Resul Pookutty.

Aranya is titled as HaathiMere Saathi in Hindi, andKaadan in Tamil.

The film, set to release intheatres on March 26, alsostars Pulkit Samrat andZoya Hussain.

RANA SET NEWCHALLENGES FOR

M

T

O S

A

VAKEEL SAAB DREAMCOME TRUE: THAMAN

VENKATESH

67TH NATIONAL FILM AWARDS

Rang De will be colourful like

the rainbow: Trivikram

JERSEY IS BEST TELUGUFILM; MAHARSHI BAGS BESTCHOREOGRAPHY AWARD

SHRIYA PILGAONKAR:Not everyday you get to film in a rainforestwith elephants

PTI n LUCKNOW

The series already out oftheir grasp, Indian women

would look to avoid a white-wash and end it on a positivenote when they take on SouthAfrica in the third and finalT20I here on Tuesday.

After losing the ODI rub-ber 1-4, things went from badto worse for the Indian team asit lost the first two T20Is tohand South Africa an unassail-able 0-2 lead in the series.

In fact, this is the firstt ime that the Indianwomen’s team has lost aT20 series against theSouth Africans.

The Indiansapproached theseries against SouthAfrica, their firstin a year, with anaim to shrug offtheir rustiness andprepare for the ODIWorld Cup, to be held in12 months’ time.

But things didn’t go as perplan as the momentum Indiagained with good perfor-mances from 2017 to 2019got lost somewhere afterthey were completely out-played in the two limitedovers formats by SouthAfrica, a side they havebeaten consistently over theyears. From poor fieldingby Richa Ghosh, RajeshwariGaikawad and ArundhatiReddy, to Deepti Sharma’s

struggles with the bat andstand-in skipper SmritiMandhana’s unimaginativecaptaincy, nothing wentaccording to plan for India inthe first two T20Is.

Harleen Deol and ShafaliVerma has been among theruns in both the matches butinconsistent performances ofMandhana, JemimahRodrirues and Richa Ghoshdid not help India’s cause.

India seem to be badlymissing the services of regularskipper Harmanpreet Kaur,who is out with a hip injury.

On the bowling front too,the spin trio of Gayakwad,Poonam Yadav and spin-ning all-rounder Deeptifailed to live up to expecta-tions, while pacersArundhati Reddy andSimran Dil Bahadur, too,have been ineffective.

South Africa, on theother hand, looked like a

well-oiled machine as boththeir batters and bowlers haveexcelled on the tour.

Lizlee Lee, AnnekeBosch and LauraWolvaardt have been inred-hot form with thebat. Skipper Sune Luus,too, is in good touch,

while Mignon du Preez did-n’t get much opportunity toshowcase her mettle in theshortest format.

Shabnim Ismail andBosch shone with the ball forSouth Africa.

sport 12HYDERABAD | TUESDAY | MARCH 23, 2021

PTI n PUNE

Struggling opener ShikharDhawan will be the focus ina spoilt-for-choice Indian

team when it takes on worldchampion England in a three-match ODI series starting here onTuesday with the visitors eyeinga positive end to their tour afterTest and T20 debacles.

The series is particularlyimportant for the 35-year-oldDhawan, who failed to make animpact in the first T20 inAhmedabad before warming thebenches the remaining fourgames.

With the management hav-ing plenty of options in(Shubman Gill) and outside(Prithvi Shaw and DevduttPadikkal) the squad for the open-ing slot, it will be a litmus test forGabbar to prove himself in thelung-opener.

He will open the inningsalong with seasoned campaign-er Rohit Sharma, who was in blis-tering form in the final game ofT20 series and would be keen tocarry on in the same vein.

The ODI format givesDhawan the time he needs tobuild his innings. With loads ofexperience under his belt, theDelhi batsman could well returnto form on Tuesday.

For the Indian team, theseries would be an extension ofits preparations for the T20 WorldCup later this year.

The 50-over-format, in gen-eral, remains low priority in 2021with no major tournamentsaround the corner.

Skipper Virat Kohli was backamong the runs in the T20 seriesand he would look to carry themomentum into the ODIs.

It has been a while sinceKohli scored a hundred in the for-mat, his last and 43rd one com-ing against the West Indies (114not out) at Port of Spain in

August 2019.He will be itching to make his

good form count and end thecentury drought. It is also expect-ed that both KL Rahul, who isnot likely to feature at thetop of the order, andRishabh Pant, after turn-ing things around spec-tacularly since the bril-liant showing DownUnder, would be part ofplaying XI.

They would have a big role inthe middle-order along with theredoubtable Hardik Pandya.

There could be a toss-upbetween Mumbaikar’s ShreyasIyer and Suryakumar Yadav, for

one spot in the playing XI. Yadavproved himself to be quite apower-hitter in the T20 series,notching up a blistering half

century in his maidenInternational appearance.

The bowling attackis expected to be spear-headed byBhuvneshwar Kumar,

who picked four wicketsin the T20 series, and the

new ball will be shared by ShardulThakur. Thakur claimed eightwickets in the T20 series.

Spinners Yuzvendra Chahaland Washington Sundar areexpected to be preferred overKrunal Pandya and Kuldeep

Yadav. Also, a fit-again Pandya

would be the fifth bowler, but itremains to be seen how manyovers he can bowl.

On the other hand, Englandwould also be keen to end thetour on a high after sufferingdefeats in the Tests (1-3) and theT20 series (2-3).

And for it to happen, skipperEoin Morgan’s role with the batwill be vital.

The likes of Jos Buttler andthe swashbuckling Jason Roywill have to fire in unison and all-rounder Ben Stokes will have tostep up with both the bat and ball.

England pacer Mark Wood

troubled the Indian batters withhis pace and in the absence of aninjured Jofra Archer, he wouldhave to shoulder greater respon-sibility along with Chris Jordanand the young Sam Curran.

The spin duo of Moeen Aliand Adil Rashid will have beenunable to trouble the Indianbatsmen and it remains to be seenwhether they have any new tricksto change the dynamics.Additionally, Ali can perform therole of a pinch-hitter, if needed.

TEAMSIndia: Virat Kohli (Captain),Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan,

Shubman Gill, Shreyas Iyer,Suryakumar Yadav, HardikPandya, Rishabh Pant (wk), KLRahul (wk), Yuzvendra Chahal,Kuldeep Yadav, Krunal Pandya,Washington Sundar, T Natarajan,Bhuvneshwar Kumar,Mohammed Siraj, PrasidhKrishna, Shardul Thakur.England: Eoin Morgan(Captain), Moeen Ali, JonnyBairstow, Sam Billings, Jos Buttler(wk), Sam Curran, Tom Curran,Liam Livingstone, MattParkinson, Adil Rashid, JasonRoy, Ben Stokes, Reece Topley,Mark Wood. Covers: Jake Ball,Chris Jordan, Dawid Malan.

PTI n PUNE

England captain EoinMorgan on Monday said

the upcoming three-matchODI series against India wouldbe an opportunity for thefringe players to push theircase for the T20 World Cup as50-over format also throws upsituations similar to T20 crick-et.

“Given the T20 World Cupround the corner, playing anyInternational cricket is a hugeopportunity for guys who havebeen on the fringes and notmade selection so far,” theWorld Cup-winning skippersaid on the eve of series open-er.

“When you score runs,and take wickets away fromhome. There’s always a hugeincentive to try and push yourcase forward.”

Morgan said it will be

exciting to “play three gamesat the same ground against avery, very strong Indian side.”

“It is a huge opportunityfor everybody to get back intothe frame of mind to deal with

fifty-over cricket. But also itwill be an opportunity for theguys who haven’t had oppor-tunities to really push theircase forward,” he said.

The England skipper feels

50-over cricket is very close tothe T20I format in throwingfamiliar scenarios.

“There are pockets of thegame that replicate T20 crick-et, and given that there’s verylimited change between bothsquads. Given the two squadsare very similar, we see set skillsets as very valuable,” he said.

Morgan also hinted thatstar-allrounder Moeen Alimay be back in action afterbeing ignored for the T20Iseries.

Talking about EnglandTest skipper Joe Root, who hasbeen rested for the ODI series,Morgan said: “We’re spoilt forchoice in batters who certain-ly want a bat at the top-four.Obviously, losing Root is amassive hole, for a guy whoscores at a run-a-ball andaverages fifty.

“He’s an exceptional play-er and we’ll miss him.”

PTI n PUNE

India skipper Virat Kohli on Mondaycriticised the fiercely-debated

umpire’s call in the Decision ReviewSystem, saying it is creating a lot ofconfusion and LBW dismissals shouldbe based solely on whether the ball ishitting the stumps, even if marginal-ly.

As per the existing rule, at least 50per cent of the ball should be hittingat least one of the three stumps for thebatsman to be adjudged LBW onreview in case an umpire’s call has beenchallenged.

“I played for a long time whenthere was no DRS. Right. If theumpire made a decision, whether thebatsman liked it or not, it stayed likethat. Vice versa the umpire gave it notout and it was out, it stayed like that,whether it was marginal or not,” said

Kohli.“According to me, umpire’s call

right now is creating a lot of confusion.When you get bowled as a batsman,you don’t expect the ball to hit morethan 50 per cent into the stumps toconsider yourself bowled.

“So from basic cricket common-sense, I don’t think that there shouldbe any debate on that. If the ball is clip-ping the stumps, that should be outwhether you like it or not, you lose thereview.”

Kohli, who was critical of the on-field soft signals following SuryakumarYadav’s dismissal during the T20series, said the game has to be keptsimple. “That’s how simple the gamehas to be if it hits the stumps, or it miss-es the stumps. It doesn’t matter howmuch it’s hitting, and those kinds ofthings, because it’s creating a lot of con-fusion.

PTI n NEW DELHI

India’s teenage shooting sensa-tions extended their domi-

nance in the ongoing ISSF WorldCup here on Monday, winningthe mixed team Gold medals inboth the 10m air pistol and 10mair rifle events to continue theirstupendous run of form in therun-up to this year’s Olympics.

With Monday’s three Goldmedals, India have so farnotched up six top finishes, fourSilver and as many Bronzemedals for a total of 14.

The sensational duo ofSaurabh Chaudhary and ManuBhaker netted the 10m air pis-tol mixed team Gold medalafter Divyansh Singh Panwarand Elavenil Valarivan producedsome excellent shooting to com-fortably claim the Gold medal inthe 10m mixed air rifle event.The 18-year-old Chaudhary andthe 19-year-old Bhaker defeated

Golnoush Sebhatollahi and JavedForoughi of Iran 16-12, makinga brilliant rally after trailing 0-4at the end of the second series togive India their fifth Gold at theongoing event.

This was the pair’s fifthWorld Cup mixed team Goldmedal. Also for India,Yashaswini Singh Deswal andAbhishek Verma bagged theBronze medal in the same eventafter getting the better of Turkey’sSevval Ilayda Tarhan and IsmailKeles 17-13 at the Dr KarniSingh Shooting Range.

In the evening, Indian menwon the skeet team event whilethe women settled for Silver.

Earlier in morning, 21-year-old Elavenil and 18-year-oldDivyansh had combined to claimthe 10m air rifle mixed teamGold. This was Elavenil’s first atthe senior level, while fourth forDivyansh at the senior WorldCups.

Manchester: India batsmanShreyas Iyer has joinedLancashire for the 2021 RoyalLondon Cup, the English coun-ty club announced on Monday.

“Lancashire Cricket isdelighted to announce the over-seas signing of IndianInternational batsman ShreyasIyer for the 2021 Royal LondonCup,” the club wrote its officialTwitter handle. Iyer, who has sofar played 21 ODIs and 29 T20s,will arrive at Emirates OldTrafford on July 15 ahead of thestart of the 50 over tournamentand will remain with the Red Rosefor the duration of the month-long group stage, the club stated.

“Lancashire is a legendaryname in English Cricket with along-standing association withIndian Cricket. I am extremelyhumbled and honoured to carrythe legacy forward of greats likeFarokh Engineer, Sourav Gangulyand VVS Laxman at Lancashire,”said Shreyas.

“Emirates Old Trafford is aworld class

International stadi-um and I am look-ing forward tomeeting my team-mates and the sup-

porters of the Club,”added Iyer, who

also captainsD e l h iCapitalsin IPL.

PTI

PTI n PARIS

Top Indian shuttler KidambiSrikanth will look to shake

off the disappointment of anearly exit from the All EnglandChampionship when he com-petes at the Orleans MastersSuper 100 tournament startingwith the qualifiers here onTuesday. Saina Nehwal, whohad pulled out of the openinground in Birmingham due to athigh injury, is recovering wellbut will take a call on her par-ticipation on Wednesday.

The $90,000 Super 100 tour-nament will offer valuable pointsfor Olympic qualification andSrikanth and Saina will be eagerto do well to inch closer to theTokyo berth. “Saina has madeconsiderable progress since with-drawing from All England. She

has started training on Saturday.She is slowly recovering but notyet 100 per cent. But it is animportant event for Olympicqualification, so we will take acall on Wednesday,” Indian phys-iotherapist C Kiran said.

While top seed Srikanthhas received a bye, fourth seedSaina is scheduled to openagainst Malaysia’s KisonaSelvaduray. Srikanth, who lost toIreland’s Nhat Nguyen in thefirst round in Birmingham, islikely to face fellow Indian AjayJayaram in the second round.Jayaram will open againstFinland’s Kalle Kolojonen.

Former CommonwealthGames champion Parupallikashyap, seeded fifth, has got abye and is expected to meetFrance’s Toma Junior Popov inthe second round.

Umpire’s call creatinglot of confusion: Kohli

PTI n PUNE

India skipper Virat Kohli on Monday said he hasdecided to open in the shortest format to accom-

modate players like Suryakumar Yadav in the sidebut there is no “guarantee” of him taking up the rolein the T20 World Cup at home later this year.

The move to open with Rohit Sharma workedwonders as the star duo played match-winningknocks to seal the five-match series against England.Kohli made the decision to ensure that Suryakumarplays at his preferred number three spot.

Ahead of the first ODI against England, Kohliexplained his surprising call in the fifth T20 and whyhe will open in the IPL, a move that attracted a lotof attention.

“Firstly, the combination that plays on the field,selectors don’t have any role to play in that, just howthe team management doesn’t have any role in selec-tion,” said Kohli.

“Secondly, as Rohit mentioned, it was a strate-gic move but yes we did enjoy batting with each other,we did enjoy that partnership and we saw the effectsof us batting together...

“...It’s not a guarantee that this is going to be con-tinued in future.”

Suryakumar had Kohli “stunned” with hisknock in his debut game and the India skipper movedup a spot in the batting order to keep the Mumbaibatsman in the eleven in the following match.

“I have batted at four, I have batted at three. NowI want to go back into, you know, understanding myrole as an opener as well which I’ve done success-fully in the past in T20 cricket.

“So that I provide an option to open up a slotfor someone like Surya who’s playing the way he isat the moment and and if he can continue like thatI should be ready to play any kind of role that teamrequires.

“We will have a conversation about this closerto the World Cup when we get there,” he clarified.

Senior opener Shikar Dhawan has lost his placein the T20 eleven but Kohli made it clear that he willopen with Rohit in the first ODI on Tuesday. He alsosaid the series will serve as extended preparation forthe T20 World Cup.

“Yes, there are a couple of things that internal-ly we have discussed that we’re going to keep an eyeon. “As far as the opening competition in ODIs isconcerned, Shikhar and Rohit will definitely start.When it comes to One-Day cricket, I don’t thinkthere’s any issues or doubts over Rohit and Shikharopening together. And they’ve been amazing for usin the past few years.”

Kohli stoutly defended out of form Rahul andelaborated on how the team deals with strugglingplayers. “I can only think about one thing when peo-ple talk about a player is out of form. Kuch toh logkahenge logon ka kaam hain kehna, chodo bekaar kibaaton mein kahi beet na jaaye raina (quoting a Hindisong). “There is a lot of impatience outside the crick-et set up. People love listening to criticism and it hasonly increased.

“In the team we know how to manage a playergoing though a tough patch. It is not as if you for-get playing the game, it is just that you don’t havethe same mental clarity that you would usually haveand then there is talk about you, which is anotherexternal factor you have to deal with. “We will con-tinue to back our players and keep them in goodmental space.”

‘No guarantee thatRohit & Kohli willopen in T20 WC’

Srikanth & Co eyeranking points

Shreyas joinsLancashire for

Royal London Cup

India's youth brigadedominates ISSF WC

INDIA EYE WINNING STARTMen in Blue look to change pattern of defeat in series opener against England in 1st game today

AFP n PUNE

India skipper Virat Kohli onMonday said players should

be consulted over the cricketcalender as the extended bub-ble life during the coronaviruspandemic has strengthenedfears of burnout.

Virat said more attentionmust be paid to cricketers’mental health.

“The players need to bespoken to and consulted withall round,” said Kohli.

“Otherwise it’s going to bea case of whoever can lastthrough difficult times likethis plays, if not then moveaway and someone else replacesthat player.”

He added, “I don’t thinkthat’s healthy for a cricket sys-tem and cricket culture movingforward which we definitelywant to make stronger andstronger.”

Responding to suggestions

that the 50-over games wereout of place in a year dominat-ed by the World TestChampionship final and theT20 World Cup, Kohli saidtournament scheduling “issomething that is not in ourcontrol.”

“I think it’s very importantto consider how much cricketyou are playing. It’s not just thephysical side of thing but themental side of things as well,”said Kohli.

“Scheduling and workloadsis something that everyonewill have to be very aware,” headded. “Especially in today’sday and age where you justdon’t know where restrictionsmight come in.”

Most players have been insecure bubbles, with only smallbreaks since last August.

From September untilJanuary, India’s players wentthrough the Indian PremierLeague and a tour of Australia.

Virat calls for playerpower in scheduling

WC spots up for grabs in ODI series: Morgan

India vs SA (3rd T20I)Live from 7:00pm IST

STAR SPORTS 2 & 3

Indian pacer T Natarajan, right, bowls as teammates Washington Sundar, Krunal Pandya, Kuldeep Yadav and bowling coach BharatArun watch him during Team India’s net session ahead of first ODI against England in Pune on Monday PTI

English players Moeen Ali, Sam Billings, Jos Buttler and Adil Rashid attendtraining session ahead of first ODI match in Pune on Monday AP

Eves look to avoid series whitewash

INDIA

VS ENGLAND

30% fitment, retirement at 61 yrs - Daily Pioneer

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