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T wo days after he said the third Covid wave was “inevitable”, Principal Scientific Adviser to Prime Minister Dr K VijayRaghavan on Friday sang an entirely different tune when he said such scenario could be prevented with prop- er preventing measures. “If we take strong mea- sures, the third wave may not happen in all the places or indeed anywhere at all. It depends much on how effec- tively the guidance is imple- mented at the local level, in the States, in districts and in the cities everywhere,” Dr K VijayRaghavan said amid debate whether the nation- wide lockdown should be implemented to stem the Covid-19. Two days Dr K VijayRaghavan had said, “Phase 3 (third wave) is inevitable, given the high lev- els at which this virus is circu- lating. But it is not clear at what time scale this Phase 3 will occur.” The current surge in infec- tions seems to be because of the Indian “double mutant” coro- navirus and the spread of the UK variant, he had said, adding that vaccines will need to be updated to tackle the new strains that are spreading the contagion faster. At a press conference here, the top scientist explained that the measures that need to be implemented were about pre- cautions, surveillance, con- tainment and about treatment, and testing. “The insidious asympto- matic transmission can be stopped. This sounds diffi- cult, but we can and must do this,” he said while pointing out that “there have been peaks and falls in different places in India and all over the world at different times and it is useful to understand how and why the rises of infections take place, why their strength varies, how they fall and what can happen subsequently.” Very simply put, he explained, infections rise when the virus has opportunities to infect humans. Infections fall as the virus runs out of oppor- tunities if the number of peo- ple it can potentially infect is lowered drastically, he added. “This happens because people who have been infect- ed are unlikely to be re-infect- ed for a while. Also, people who are vaccinated are pro- tected while people who wear masks are distant and are iso- lated from those who are infec- tious.” T he reports of Covid-19 trig- gered mucormycosis, also known as black fungus, pour- ing in from several States, have unnerved those infected with coronavirus. The black fungus is believed to be devastating for the health of infected patients with co-morbidities. But the Government on Friday tried to allay fears say- ing that there was no cause of worry “as the occurrence is nat- ural and the correlation between the two is not new.” Niti Aayog (Health) mem- ber Dr VK Paul at a Press con- ference said, “The infection affects only those who have a high blood sugar level, notwith- standing the presence of Covid- 19 infection.” The black fungus is caused by a group of molds called mucormycetes. These molds live throughout the environ- ment. As the number of Covid infections have increased, the cases of associated black fun- gus have started trickling from various hospitals in Delhi, Surat, Pune and Ahmedabad, causing concern among health authorities. “It is very uncommon to happen among patients who do not have diabetes. There are reports of this fungal infection among Covid-19 patients. But I want to reassure you that there is no major outbreak and we are monitoring the cases at our level,” Dr Paul said, adding it is absolutely pre- ventable if one’s diabetes is under control. “There are three factors triggering this fungal infection: uncontrolled diabetes, immunosuppression because of steroids or any other disease and exposure to a wet surface. The presence of Covid-19, breathing difficulty is not nec- essary for this infection, we must remember,” Paul added. W TO Chief Ngozi Okonjo- Iweala has urged the pro- ponents of the proposal for temporary waiver of certain provisions of TRIPS agree- ment for prevention and treat- ment of Covid-19 to submit the revised document “as soon as possible” so that text-based negotiations can begin. Welcoming the statement of US Trade Representative Katherine Tai on the issue, the Director General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) has said she “warmly” wel- comes Tai’s willingness to engage with proponents of a temporary waiver of the TRIPS agreement to help in combat- ing the Covid-19 pandemic. In October 2020, India and South Africa submitted a proposal suggesting a waiver for all World Trade Organization (WTO) mem- bers on the implementation of certain provisions of the agree- ment in relation to the pre- vention, containment or treat- ment of Covid-19. The proposed relaxations in the norms of the agreement are aimed at ensuring quick and affordable access to vac- cines and medicines for devel- oping countries. The agreement on Trade- Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights or TRIPS came into effect in January 1995. A fter busting a gang involved in black market- ing of oxygen concentrators, the Delhi Police are now on the lookout for Navneet Kalra, who owns Khan Chacha Restaurant and Town Hall restaurant, both situated in the Khan Market area, where over 100 oxygen concentrators were recovered by police during the raids on Friday morning. Sources said Kalra is the mastermind of the gang. Police said Kalra’s mobile is switched off and he is absconding. According to the police, 96 oxygen concentrators were recovered from Khan Chacha Restaurant and nine were seized from Town Hall restau- rant. Kalra, who is a friend with the entire Indian cricket team and often questioned for his alleged links with bookies, has gone underground. WhatsApp messages about his impending arrest are also doing the rounds in Delhi, Haryana and UP. The recovery of over 100 oxygen concentrators came after the arrest of four men identified as Gaurav, Satish Sethi, Vikrant and Hitesh from Lodhi Colony area. T he Supreme Court on Friday told the Centre to maintain daily supply of 700 MT of oxygen to Delhi and rejected Centre’s appeal against Karnataka High Court’s order to supply 1,200 MT daily. The Bench comprising Justices DY Chandrachud and MR Shah was alerted by Delhi Government Counsel Rahul Mehra that they received only 86 MT of oxygen till 9 am on Friday and that 16 MT wa in transit. “We want 700 MT oxygen to be supplied to Delhi on daily basis and we mean business. It has to be supplied and we don’t want to be coercive. Our order will take time to be uploaded by 3 pm. But you pro- ceed and arrange the oxygen... Don’t make us go firm,” Justice DY Chandrachud said. “You have to supply 700 MT of oxygen every day till we further order,” said Justice Shah. The Bench also refused to interfere with the Karnataka HC order to increase the allo- cation of oxygen to the State to 1,200 MT per day. F resh from a stupendous vic- tory in the Assembly elec- tions, Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday got her Government to move the Supreme Court seeking a uni- form vaccination policy and scrapping of the differential pricing system for the vaccines. The State’s standing coun- sel has filed an affidavit before the SC saying, “States cannot be made to negotiate and bargain individually on v a c c i n e prices. States will be compelled to allocate funds for vaccines, which will have a crippling effect on an already stretched health infrastructure.” A fter causing havoc in urban areas which are reeling under the second coronavirus wave, the virus has now invad- ed the country’s heartland where healthcare facilities are almost non-existent, testing centres rare, and Covid-appropriate behaviours are only empty talks. To make the matter worse, in many villages the authorities have no record of deaths and infections in the absence of testing facilities. This is one of the root causes of the unchecked spread of the virus. Absence of proper medical facilities in these rural areas — home to 70 per cent of the coun- try’s population — to deal with Covid-19 and unawareness about the gravity of the disease are making the situation worse. Health experts said that during the Covid first wave last year, rural areas remained more or less unaffected despite migra- tion of labour because of strict lockdown and villagers follow- ing norms. But this time around, home coming by migrants, pan- chayat elections, Mahakumbh, marriages, religious events and harvest season have made the Covid-19 situation more ugly. Take the case of rural areas in south Punjab from where 60 per cent Covid cases are being reported from villages. According to local reports, in the last 20 days, 90 people have died of Covid-19 in Chogath, a village in Bhavnagar district in Gujarat. There is a severe shortage of doctors and medical personnel in the rural areas of Gujarat, as per the report. Health authorities say around 60 per cent of cases are being reported from villages as there has been a poor response to the vaccination drive. Same is the situation in several villages of Bihar and Jharkhand. As per official figures, in many pre- dominantly rural districts in Bihar, the number of active Covid-19 cases is almost nine to ten times of what it was last year. As of now, Bihar has more than 1 lakh active Covid cases with Patna topping the list with 17,000 active cases. However, in April, five other largely rural districts with a large rural population regis- tered an increase of more than 4,000 active cases: Gaya (7,703 cases are active), Muzaffarpur (5,406 cases), Saran (4,778 cases), Begusarai (4,675 cases) and Aurangabad (4,364 cases). New Delhi: The CoWIN sys- tem is introducing a new fea- ture of four-digit security code from May 8 to minimise data entry errors about vaccination status that would subsequent- ly reduce inconvenience caused to citizens, the Union Health Ministry said. F ormer Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Friday attacked the Union Government over the Central Vista project, terming it a “crim- inal wastage” and asked the dis- pensation to focus on people’s lives. “Central Vista is criminal wastage. Put people’s lives at the centre, not your blind arrogance to get a new house,” Rahul said. Over the last year, Rahul and the Congress have been asking the Government to shelve its plans on the Central Vista pro- ject and give priority to improving medical infrastructure as the country reels under the devastating impact of the pandemic. Rahul, who early in the day wrote an open letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi over a range of issues pertaining to coro- na pandemic, took to Twitter once again to express his and party’s dismay over the Centre’s adamancy over declaring the 13,500 crore project into essential ser- vices category amid the pan- demic. The grand old party crit- icised the Government for according the construction work of the Central Vista project “essential services” tag and has and accused it of having its priorities wrong. H ousing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Friday came down heavily on the Congress for playing “cheap politics” over the Central Vista project and termed it as the party’s tactic to distract people from “monumental gov- ernance failures” in their States. “The Congress’s discourse on Central Vista is bizarre. Cost of Central Vista is about 20,000 crore, over several years. GoI has allocated nearly twice that amount for vaccination! India’s healthcare budget for just this year was over 3 lakh crore. We know our priorities,” Puri tweeted. The accusation comes hours after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi criticised the Narendra Modi Government for executing the project, terming it a “criminal wastage”, while asking the dispensation to focus on people’s lives dur- ing the Covid-19 pandemic. New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday told petition- ers to go back to the Delhi High Court if they want a speedy hearing on the PIL seeking a stay on the construction of the Central Vista amid the raging Covid pandemic, but agreed that the situation is indeed grim. New Delhi: The Delhi Government will organise a mass Covid-19 vaccination drive for mediapersons, an official said on Friday. The vac- cination camps will be organ- ised at the offices of the media houses and the cost will be borne by the Government, he said. RNI Regn. No. CHHENG/2012/42718, Postal Reg. No. - RYP DN/34/2013-2015
12

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Page 1: A>@ a]Rjd U`h_ $cU hRgV URj RWeVc cRZdZ_X daVTecV

�� ���������� ��������������� ����� �������������������� �� ����������������������������������������������� ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ �� ���������

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���� ��������� ��� �#$��������� ��%&'���$����%�&����'�#�� ����������� ������������ ����� ���� ���� ����(&���)�*'�(+,����#������-���*�����(.����&��/��0����*����������������%����������1������� ����������'������������������2����'� ����������������

��������������� �������������������$�(��!!)3 �������������4��#�������5��)�����������������������������������������#������� ������������ ������������ ���'������������������� ��������6�����1���#���������� ����#������������������������������7����� ���������1�����������������

��� � 84 �/4-69

Two days after he said thethird Covid wave was

“inevitable”, Principal ScientificAdviser to Prime Minister DrK VijayRaghavan on Fridaysang an entirely different tunewhen he said such scenariocould be prevented with prop-er preventing measures.

“If we take strong mea-sures, the third wave may nothappen in all the places orindeed anywhere at all. Itdepends much on how effec-tively the guidance is imple-mented at the local level, in theStates, in districts and in thecities everywhere,” Dr KVijayRaghavan said amiddebate whether the nation-wide lockdown should beimplemented to stem theCovid-19.

Two days Dr KVijayRaghavan had said,“Phase 3 (third wave) isinevitable, given the high lev-els at which this virus is circu-lating. But it is not clear at whattime scale this Phase 3 will

occur.”The current surge in infec-

tions seems to be because of theIndian “double mutant” coro-navirus and the spread of theUK variant, he had said, addingthat vaccines will need to beupdated to tackle the newstrains that are spreading thecontagion faster.

At a press conference here,the top scientist explained thatthe measures that need to beimplemented were about pre-cautions, surveillance, con-tainment and about treatment,and testing.

“The insidious asympto-matic transmission can bestopped. This sounds diffi-cult, but we can and must dothis,” he said while pointing out

that “there have been peaksand falls in different places inIndia and all over the world atdifferent times and it is usefulto understand how and whythe rises of infections takeplace, why their strengthvaries, how they fall and whatcan happen subsequently.”

Very simply put, heexplained, infections rise whenthe virus has opportunities toinfect humans. Infections fall

as the virus runs out of oppor-tunities if the number of peo-ple it can potentially infect islowered drastically, he added.

“This happens becausepeople who have been infect-ed are unlikely to be re-infect-ed for a while. Also, peoplewho are vaccinated are pro-tected while people who wearmasks are distant and are iso-lated from those who are infec-tious.”

���� 84 �/4-69

The reports of Covid-19 trig-gered mucormycosis, also

known as black fungus, pour-ing in from several States, haveunnerved those infected withcoronavirus. The black fungusis believed to be devastating forthe health of infected patientswith co-morbidities.

But the Government onFriday tried to allay fears say-ing that there was no cause ofworry “as the occurrence is nat-ural and the correlation between the two isnot new.”

Niti Aayog (Health) mem-ber Dr VK Paul at a Press con-ference said, “The infectionaffects only those who have ahigh blood sugar level, notwith-standing the presence of Covid-19 infection.”

The black fungus is causedby a group of molds calledmucormycetes. These moldslive throughout the environ-ment. As the number of Covidinfections have increased, thecases of associated black fun-gus have started trickling fromvarious hospitals in Delhi,Surat, Pune and Ahmedabad,

causing concern among healthauthorities.

“It is very uncommon tohappen among patients who donot have diabetes. There arereports of this fungal infectionamong Covid-19 patients. ButI want to reassure you thatthere is no major outbreakand we are monitoring thecases at our level,” Dr Paul said,adding it is absolutely pre-ventable if one’s diabetes isunder control.

“There are three factorstriggering this fungal infection:uncontrolled diabetes,immunosuppression becauseof steroids or any other diseaseand exposure to a wet surface.The presence of Covid-19,breathing difficulty is not nec-essary for this infection, wemust remember,” Paul added.

��� � 84 �/4-69

WTO Chief Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has urged the pro-

ponents of the proposal fortemporary waiver of certainprovisions of TRIPS agree-ment for prevention and treat-ment of Covid-19 to submit therevised document “as soon aspossible” so that text-basednegotiations can begin.

Welcoming the statementof US Trade RepresentativeKatherine Tai on the issue, theDirector General of the WorldTrade Organisation (WTO)has said she “warmly” wel-comes Tai’s willingness toengage with proponents of atemporary waiver of the TRIPSagreement to help in combat-ing the Covid-19 pandemic.

In October 2020, Indiaand South Africa submitted aproposal suggesting a waiverfor all World TradeOrganization (WTO) mem-bers on the implementation ofcertain provisions of the agree-ment in relation to the pre-vention, containment or treat-ment of Covid-19.

The proposed relaxationsin the norms of the agreementare aimed at ensuring quickand affordable access to vac-cines and medicines for devel-oping countries.

The agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of IntellectualProperty Rights or TRIPScame into effect in January1995.

���*�� ���+�� 84 �/4-69

After busting a ganginvolved in black market-

ing of oxygen concentrators,the Delhi Police are now on thelookout for Navneet Kalra,who owns Khan ChachaRestaurant and Town Hallrestaurant, both situated in theKhan Market area, where over100 oxygen concentrators wererecovered by police during theraids on Friday morning.

Sources said Kalra is themastermind of the gang. Policesaid Kalra’s mobile is switchedoff and he is absconding.

According to the police, 96oxygen concentrators wererecovered from Khan ChachaRestaurant and nine wereseized from Town Hall restau-rant.

Kalra, who is a friend with

the entire Indian cricket teamand often questioned for hisalleged links with bookies,has gone underground.WhatsApp messages about hisimpending arrest are alsodoing the rounds in Delhi,

Haryana and UP.The recovery of over 100

oxygen concentrators cameafter the arrest of four menidentified as Gaurav, SatishSethi, Vikrant and Hitesh fromLodhi Colony area.

���� 84 �/4-69�

The Supreme Court onFriday told the Centre to

maintain daily supply of 700MT of oxygen to Delhi andrejected Centre’s appeal againstKarnataka High Court’s orderto supply 1,200 MT daily.

The Bench comprisingJustices DY Chandrachud andMR Shah was alerted by DelhiGovernment Counsel RahulMehra that they received only86 MT of oxygen till 9 am onFriday and that 16 MT wa intransit.

“We want 700 MT oxygento be supplied to Delhi on dailybasis and we mean business. Ithas to be supplied and wedon’t want to be coercive. Ourorder will take time to beuploaded by 3 pm. But you pro-ceed and arrange the oxygen...Don’t make us go firm,” JusticeDY Chandrachud said.

“You have to supply 700MT of oxygen every day till wefurther order,” said Justice Shah.

The Bench also refused tointerfere with the KarnatakaHC order to increase the allo-cation of oxygen to the State to1,200 MT per day.

���+� ���+����� :;-:���

Fresh from a stupendous vic-tory in the Assembly elec-

tions, Bengal Chief MinisterMamata Banerjee on Friday gother Government to move theSupreme Court seeking a uni-form vaccination policy andscrapping of the differentialpricing system for the vaccines.

The State’s standing coun-sel has filed an affidavit before the SC saying, “Statescannot be made to negotiateand bargain individually onv a c c i n eprices. States will be compelledto allocate funds for vaccines,which will have a cripplingeffect on an already stretchedhealth infrastructure.”

� �����#����,$����#���� 84 �/4-69

After causing havoc in urbanareas which are reeling

under the second coronaviruswave, the virus has now invad-ed the country’s heartland wherehealthcare facilities are almostnon-existent, testing centresrare, and Covid-appropriatebehaviours are only empty talks.

To make the matter worse,in many villages the authoritieshave no record of deaths andinfections in the absence oftesting facilities. This is one ofthe root causes of the uncheckedspread of the virus.

Absence of proper medicalfacilities in these rural areas —home to 70 per cent of the coun-try’s population — to deal withCovid-19 and unawarenessabout the gravity of the diseaseare making the situation worse.

Health experts said thatduring the Covid first wave last

year, rural areas remained moreor less unaffected despite migra-tion of labour because of strictlockdown and villagers follow-ing norms. But this time around,home coming by migrants, pan-chayat elections, Mahakumbh,marriages, religious events andharvest season have made theCovid-19 situation more ugly.

Take the case of rural areasin south Punjab from where 60per cent Covid cases are beingreported from villages.

According to local reports,in the last 20 days, 90 peoplehave died of Covid-19 inChogath, a village in Bhavnagardistrict in Gujarat. There is asevere shortage of doctors andmedical personnel in the ruralareas of Gujarat, as per thereport.

Health authorities sayaround 60 per cent of cases arebeing reported from villages asthere has been a poor responseto the vaccination drive. Same

is the situation in several villagesof Bihar and Jharkhand. As perofficial figures, in many pre-dominantly rural districts inBihar, the number of activeCovid-19 cases is almost nine toten times of what it was last year.

As of now, Bihar has more than1 lakh active Covid cases withPatna topping the list with17,000 active cases.

However, in April, five otherlargely rural districts with alarge rural population regis-

tered an increase of more than 4,000 active cases:Gaya (7,703 cases are active),Muzaffarpur (5,406 cases), Saran(4,778 cases), Begusarai (4,675cases) and Aurangabad (4,364cases).

���������� ������ ������������������������������������� ������������ �� ��������� ������������������������������

New Delhi: The CoWIN sys-tem is introducing a new fea-ture of four-digit security codefrom May 8 to minimise dataentry errors about vaccinationstatus that would subsequent-ly reduce inconvenience causedto citizens, the Union HealthMinistry said.

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Former Congress presidentRahul Gandhi on Friday

attacked the UnionGovernment over the CentralVista project, terming it a “crim-inal wastage” and asked the dis-pensation to focus on people’s lives.

“Central Vista is criminal wastage. Putpeople’s lives at the centre, not your blindarrogance to get a new house,” Rahul said.

Over the last year, Rahul and theCongress have been asking the Governmentto shelve its plans on the Central Vista pro-ject and give priority to improving medicalinfrastructure as the country reels under thedevastating impact of the pandemic.

Rahul, who early in the day wrote anopen letter to Prime MinisterNarendra Modi over a rangeof issues pertaining to coro-na pandemic, took to Twitteronce again to express hisand party’s dismay over theC entre’s adamanc y overdeclaring the �13,500 croreproject into essential ser-vices category amid the pan-demic.

The grand old party crit-icised the Government foraccording the constructionwork of the Central Vistaproject “essential services”tag and has and accused it ofhaving its priorities wrong.

���� 84 �/4-69

Housing and UrbanAffairs Minister

Hardeep Singh Puri onFriday came down heavilyon the Congress for playing“cheap politics” over theCentral Vista project and termed it as the party’stactic to distract people from “monumental gov-ernance failures” in their States.

“The Congress’s discourse on Central Vistais bizarre. Cost of CentralVista is about �20,000 crore,over several years. GoI hasallocated nearly twice thatamount for vaccination! India’shealthcare budget for just thisyear was over �3 lakh crore.We know our priorities,” Puritweeted.

The accusation comeshours after Congress leaderRahul Gandhi criticised theNarendra Modi Governmentfor executing the project,terming it a “criminal wastage”,while asking the dispensationto focus on people’s lives dur-ing the Covid-19 pandemic.

New Delhi: The SupremeCourt on Friday told petition-ers to go back to the Delhi HighCourt if they want a speedyhearing on the PIL seeking astay on the construction of theCentral Vista amid the raging Covid pandemic, butagreed that the situation isindeed grim.

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New Delhi: The DelhiGovernment will organise amass Covid-19 vaccinationdrive for mediapersons, anofficial said on Friday. The vac-

cination camps will be organ-ised at the offices of the mediahouses and the cost will beborne by the Government, he said.

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Delhi Chief Minister ArvindKejriwal on Friday direct-

ed District Magistrates (DMs)to pay surprise visits to vacci-nation centres and relief campsin order to review the prepa-rations done for the conve-nience of the people.

Kejriwal also directed theofficials to ensure that all eli-gible people are vaccinatedwithin the next three months.The direction came in a high-level meeting chaired by theChief Minister on the currentsituation of Covid-19 in Delhion Friday.

The Chief Minister direct-ed the officials to ensure nodeath because of the shortageof oxygen in the nationalCapital. “Now that Delhi hasreceived oxygen, no one inDelhi should suffer because ofshortage of oxygen. All thehospitals in Delhi shouldincrease their beds and everyDM should arrange new oxy-gen beds in their districts sothat no deaths happen due tolack of oxygen in Delhi,” hesaid.

Kejriwal said, “The 48 oxy-

gen plants coming up should beinstalled immediately as soonas they reach Delhi. These 48oxygen plants have an oxygenproduction capacity of 40tonnes. This will further helpin improving Delhi’s oxygen sit-uation. We have to preparelong-term plans and build thecapacity of oxygen storage ona very large scale in Delhi. Weshould also create a specialstorage capacity for the storageof oxygen.”

In the meeting, officialsreportedly informed the CMthat the biggest difficulty at pre-sent is supplying oxygen andthat both the companies shouldbe asked to supply oxygen atthe earliest.

“All DMs have been direct-ed to make surprise visits tovaccination centres in theirdistricts every day to review thefunctioning of the centres. Atthe same time, all DMs havebeen instructed to visit hungerrelief centres located in theirdistricts every day to ensurethat the poor are not facing anyproblem with food and allfacilities and treatments arebeing provided in shelterhomes, old-age homes, andorphanages,” the chief ministersaid in a statement.

Kejriwal also expressed hisdispleasure in the meeting as allhome isolation patients werestill not being given oximetersat their homes. “In any case, itshould be ensured that oxime-ters are given to all patientsrecovering from Corona inhome isolation,” he said.

“We will be able to stop thethird wave of Corona fromcoming to Delhi. We need torecruit retired doctors, nurses,and medical staff on a largescale. Whoever wants to helpthe society should join theGovernment and contributeto helping in this difficult sit-uation,” he said.

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As the hospitals in the citystruggled with a shortage

of oxygen amid spurt in coro-navirus cases, the nationalCapital received 577 metrictonnes of life saving gas onThursday which is less than 153MT supplied a day before, saidAAP national spokespersonRaghav Chadha.

Chadha, who is also thevice chairman of Delhi JalBoard, said authorities receivednine SOS calls from hospitalsover oxygen shortage onThursday and 5.1 MT of thelife-saving gas was provided tothese healthcare facilities.

Senior AAP leader saidthat oxygen reserves are beingbuilt in Delhi on the instruc-tions of Chief Minister ArvindKejriwal for supplying oxygento hospitals in emergency sit-uations.

“When the supply of oxy-gen cannot reach any hospital,the Delhi Government deliversoxygen from the reserve stock.Oxygen reserve response pointswill be made in multiple partsof Delhi,” he said.

“We are working on a warfooting to formulate all plansand policies to increase thenumber of beds further, whichis possible only if a regular sup-ply of oxygen is maintained.

This demand of 976 MT is notone-time or temporary but aquantity that we need on a dailybasis.

This demand has also beenproved and backed by theSupreme Court and HighCourt time and again.

I would like to request thecentral government that likethey delivered 730 MT on May5, similarly, they should supplyoxygen to us in sufficientamounts on a regular and con-tinuous manner,” he said.

Chadha, while underliningthe many aspects of oxygensupply in Delhi, said, “The HC

and SC have constantly men-tioned that just by supplying730 MT on one single day. Wecannot be transferring suffi-cient oxygen and giving it toour patients on one daybecause of their increased sup-ply and completely deprivethem on another day becausethe centre decreased our sup-ply.

I would like to reiteratethat this demand of ours isn’tone-time or temporary, but aquantity that we need on a dailybasis.

This demand has alsobeen proved and backed by the

SC and HC time and again.”Elucidating upon the need

of sufficient supply of oxygento increase the number of bedsin Delhi, he said, “In this fightagainst the covid-19 pandem-ic, a normal bed, in which amattress will suffice, with justmerely two medicines and thepatient will recover. In this pan-demic, a normal bed is syn-onymous to an oxygenatedbed.

Hence, with a normal bedalso, we need the patient to besupplemented with sufficientoxygen, so that he/she canrecover at the earliest,” he said.

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��� ��� �� � 84 �/4-69

In separate incidents, theDelhi Police has arrested

four persons for allegedly sell-ing Remdesivir injection athigh prices in the nationalCapital. In the first incident, a34-year-old security guard of aprivate hospital was arrested forselling injections at high pricesafter stealing them from theCovid ward.

The accused has been iden-tified as Prahlad Kumar, a res-ident of Rohini Sector-7.

According to a seniorpolice official, an informationwas received about a personcoming near Nangloi MetroStation to deliver Remdesivirinjections at exorbitant pricefollowing which a trap was laidnear Nangloi Metro Stationon Thursday and one personwas apprehended.

“Police also recovered threeRemdesivir injections from hispossession. Interrogationrevealed that Kumar works asa security guard at AgrasenInternational Hospital, Sector-22, Rohini for the last twoyears. His duty was at Covidward,” he said.

“The accused took injec-

tions from the tray of patientsadmitted in the Covid wardwhile they were asleep. Hecame to deliver three injectionsat Rs 20,000 for each, while theMRP of one such injection is Rs3,490, police said.

Meanwhile, the outer dis-trict police said they havearrested two men for alleged-ly selling fake Remdesivir injec-tions.

The accused have beenidentified as Kamal (25) andDeepak (29), both residentsShalimar Bagh.

“Police received a policecontrol room (PCR) call onWednesday that one personwas selling duplicateRemdesivir injection. The vic-tim was contacted who toldpolice that he got the informa-tion of the Remdesivir dealerfrom internet and reached outto him as he required the injec-tion for his uncle who was hos-pitalised due to COVID,” saidpolice.

The suspect called Rahul inRohini area on May 1 to finalisethe deal where he was handedover one Remdesivir injectionat Rs 30,000. His uncle, how-ever, passed away before usingthe injection. The victim

noticed something to be sus-picious on injection and calledpolice, police said.

During investigation, thedetails of the suspect were col-lected from the complainantand later two persons wereapprehended. Police recovered15 fake Remdesivir injections,Rs 34,000 cash, one car and oneoxygen concentrator machinewere recovered from their pos-session, police said, addingthat further investigation isunderway.

Kamal works as dialysisstaff at a hospital in ShalimarBagh. Deepak is his room-mate and runs a firm to providenurse and attendant to homecare patients, police added.

Similarly in southeast dis-

trict, a tution teacher wasarrested for allegedly over-charging the Covid relatedmedicines, police said.

The accused has been iden-tified as Abhishek Pruthi, a res-ident of Govindpuri. He is aprivate tuition teacher.

On Tuesday, Kalkaji policestation got information thatone Abhishek Pruthi demand-ing higher rate for Ramdesivirinjection.

During investigation, a raidwas conducted and the accusedwas nabbed from his residence.Pruthi disclosed that his fam-ily members had becomeCovid positive and at that time,he purchased numerous Covidrelated medicines, police said.

After recovery of his fam-ily members, he decided toearn money by selling thesemedicines at higher rates andpublicize it through WhatsAppstatus. The complainant con-tacted him for medicines butdeal could not be finalizedand he made PCR call, policesaid.

One mobile phone andmedicines and steroids used intreatment of coronavirus recov-ered from his possession, policeadded.

��� ��� �� � 84 �/4-69

The national Capital record-ed 19,832 new cases while

the positivity rate droppedbelow 24.92 per cent. At least341 Covid-19 deaths were alsoreported in a day taking thetotal tally to 18,739 on Friday.

A total of 79,593 tests,including 65,663 RT-PCR testsand 13,930 rapid antigen tests,were conducted the previousday, according to the bulletinissued by the Delhi healthdepartment on Friday.

The case positivity rate(24.92 per cent) is lowest sinceApril 16, when it was 19.7 percent. It is also significant thatDelhi’s Covid positivity rate hasfallen each day during thesenine days.

On 27th April, the posi-tivity rate of Delhi was 32.7 percent on 28th April, it was 31.8,on 29th April, it was 32.8 andon 30th April, the Covid positivity rate was 32.7 percent.

At the beginning of thismonth, 1st May recorded a 31.6positivity rate, which camedown to 28.3 on 2nd May, fol-lowed by a positivity rate of

29.6 on 3rd May.On May 4th, the positivi-

ty rate stood at 26.7, on thefifth, this was 26.4 and on 6thit was 24.29 per cent.

From this drop in the pos-itivity rate, it can be conclud-ed that in Delhi the case posi-tivity rate of COVID-19 hasdropped by approximately oneper cent each day in the last 10days.

This is the fourth time inthe last four days that the

number of new cases remainedbelow 20,000. During thesedays, the Delhi government hasnot only ramped up testing butalso worked relentlessly inincreasing the number of bedsacross Delhi.

The government is alsogiving an aggressive push to thevaccination drive, which willfurther help bring down thepositivity rate in the comingdays.

According to health bul-

letin, the city had witnessed 335deaths on Thursday, 311 deathson Wednesday, 338 on Tuesday,448 on Monday, the highest sofar; 407 on Sunday, 412 onSaturday, 375 on Friday, 395 onlast Thursday and 368 onWednesday last week.

It has so far recorded1292867 cases, of which over1183093 have recovered. Thedeath toll due to the viral dis-ease stands at 18,739, the bul-letin said.

��� ��� �� � 84 �/4-69

In a significant step towardspreventing hardships faced

by the public regarding avail-ability of beds in various hos-pitals, the Delhi Governmenthas directed all healthcare facil-ities in the national Capital,including private hospitals, toensure updated status of dif-ferent categories of beds regu-larly on the designated portaland Delhi Corona App.

“It has been reported thatmany hospitals are not updat-ing the status of different cat-egories of beds regularly on thedesignated portal and DelhiCorona App.

This is creating great hard-ship to the public who in theabsence of reliable informationare forced to spend time andenergy in searching for vacant

beds and are subjected to greatharassment and agony,” theHealth department stated in itsorder to all hospitals and nurs-ing homes functioning asCovid facilities.

It also asked the Hospitalsto update the bed occupancyand availability status as fre-quently as possible but not laterthan every two hours.

“Medical Directors andSuperintendents or Directors ofall hospitals and nursing homesfunctioning as Covid hospitalsare directed to update the sta-tus of beds on portal/DelhiCorona App as frequently asfeasible but not later than twohourly,” it said.

Nodal Officers and in-charges of the hospital shall bepersonally responsible forensuring compliance, thedepartment said in the order.

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In an endeavour to combatthe shortage of beds for coro-

navirus patients, the M3MFoundation, is establishing a150-bedded Covid Care Centrein Gurugram.

The real estate major hasalso supported with 50 hospi-tal beds at Covid Care Facilityat the General HospitalMandikhera in the Nuh districtof Haryana. This Covid facili-ty will be run and managed bythe General HospitalMandikhera at Nuh.

“The sharp surge in coro-navirus cases across India hasput a strain on India’s health-care system. The shortage ofbeds and oxygen has causeduntold hardships to coron-

avirus patients and their facil-ities. From time to time, M3MFoundation has undertakenvarious initiatives for the wel-fare of the marginalised andvulnerable sections of society.We have provided 50 beds atNuh to combat the shortage ofbeds for patients in Haryana.We are also establishing a sim-ilar facility in Gurugram. Theinitiative is in line with ourcommitment to augmentingthe government efforts to tack-le the pandemic,” said, RoopBansal, Trustee, M3MFoundation.

The development comesamid more than four lakhCovid-19 cases added acrossIndia in the past 24 hours. Outof these, over 4000 have beenrecorded from Gurugramalone.

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In view of increasing numberof deaths of Covid positive

patients in Delhi, the SouthDelhi Municipal Corporation(SDMC) has augmented theexisting capacity of all nine cre-mation grounds.

“Pyres are being increasedat all cremation centres andburial grounds. Earlier therewere 436 platforms werereserved to perform last rites ofdeceased Covid patients whichnow have been increased to507,” a senior SDMC officialsaid.”Platforms have mainlybeen increased at SDMC-runcremation centres located atPunjabi Bagh, Subhash Nagar,Lodhi Road, Sarai Kale Khan,Dwarka Sector 24 and GreenPark,” he said.The official saidthat an additional 80 pyres areconstructed at Sarai kale khancremation ground to cope upwith demand. The PublicHealth Department of theSDMC has been monitoringthe situation and making addi-tional arrangements as per theneed, he said, adding that theSDMC is augmenting the exist-ing capacity so people couldnot wait for long while per-forming last rites.

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The Deputy Commissioner(DC) of Gurugram, Dr

Yash Garg on Friday issueddirections to hospitals withcapacity of more than 50 bedsin the district to arrange theirown liquid oxygen require-ments.

For this, they can either setup a liquid oxygen plant orarrange a Pressure SwingAdsorption (PSA).

These fresh directions weregiven by the DC during a vir-tual covid-19 review meetingheld on Friday.

“To fulfill oxygen needs inGurugram it is planned to setup 6 oxygen plants in the dis-trict.

Apart from this, the

administration is also trying toset up an oxygen plant underCorporate Social Responsibility(CSR). By the time these plantsare operational, the adminis-tration is also arranging oxygenconcentrators to increase thesupply of oxygen.

The administration hasalready got about 50 concen-trators and efforts are on toarrange 250 to 300 concentra-tors in the next 7 to 8 days,”Garg said.

Besides this, Chief Medicalofficer Gurugram, VirenderYadav informed that PSA based1,000 LPM Oxygen Plants willbe set up at Civil Hospital,Gurugram and in addition,PSA based 200 - 200 LPMcapacity plants will be set up atSub Divisional Hospitals,Sohna and Pataudi.

��� ��� �� � 84 �/4-69

The Delhi Government onFriday claimed that its

timely intervention in supply-ing oxygen to hospitals instant-ly through SOS calls helped toovercome the situation andsaved many lives.

“The Government hasmanaged to end the respirato-ry crisis with better manage-ment of oxygen. The stepstaken by the KejriwalGovernment during theCorona pandemic havebrought relief to hospitals fromthe oxygen problem. KejriwalGovernment’s Ministers,MLAs, officers are movingahead and helping people byputting their own lives at risk.So that people of Delhi do nothave to face the difficulties, theofficers and employees of DelhiGovernment are working dayand night, a statement from theChief Minister’s Office (CMO)quoted.

“Our officials received an

SOS call from Indian SpinalHospital at 14 : 30 hours onThursday. In this urgent call,immediate oxygen wasdemanded.

One metric tonne of oxy-gen was provided to the hos-pital immediately from theoxygen response point,” aGovernment official said.

“Another SOS call wasreceived from Lok NayakHospital at 12 noon. The hos-pital’s oxygen demand was metwithout delay and two metrictonnes of oxygen was madeavailable to them. Similarly,Irene Hospital in Kalkaji askedfor oxygen at around 4.30 pm.By sending 3 cylinders onbehalf of the Kejriwal govern-ment, the oxygen crisis wasovercome by team Kejriwal.Similarly, Kukreja Hospitalcalled SOS at 10.05 am andasked for immediate oxygen. Insuch a situation, three cylinderswere taken from the Rajghatdepot to the hospital,” he addedfurther.

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��� ��� �� � 84 �/4-69

The Delhi Police has arrest-ed a 29-year-old ambu-

lance owner, who is also anMBBS doctor, for allegedlycharging over �1 lakh from aperson to transport a Covidpatient to Ludhiana in Punjabfrom Gurugram.

The accused has been iden-tified as Mimoh KumarBundwal, a resident ofDashgarha Village, Inderpuri.

The patient’s family mem-ber told reporters in Ludhianathat as ambulances were notreadily available, they somehowmanaged to contact one Delhi-based operator who agreed to

take the patient to Ludhiana butdemanded �1.40 lakh initially.

However, he agreed tocharge �20,000 less after beingtold that the family had the oxy-gen stock with them.

An amount of �95,000 waspaid to the ambulance operatoras advance while the remaining�25,000 was paid immediately upon reachingLudhiana, the patient’s daugh-ter said.

According to Urvija Goel,the Deputy Commissioner ofPolice (DCP), West district,on Thursday.

Information was receivedthat a company CardeacareAmbulance Pvt Ltd atDashghara Village, Inderpuriwas providing ambulance service and looting people bycharging two to three timesmore than the actual rent fortransportation of Covid-19patients.

“During investigation,police traced Bundwal whoruns the ambulance servicecompany. He has been arrestedin a case registered at Inderpuripolice station,” said the DCP.

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STAFF REPORTER nRAIPUR

The Chhattisgarh govern-ment is going to pay

farmers the first installmentunder the Rajiv Gandhi KisanNyay Yojana on May 21. Themoney will be transferredinto the farmers' bankaccounts.

A decision in this regardwas taken on Friday at a cabi-net sub-committee meetingheld under the chairmanshipof Agriculture MinisterRavindra Choubey.

Choubey told the mediathat they have chosen the dayas it was death anniversary offormer Prime Minister Rajiv

Gandhi.This flagship scheme of

the state government isknown as a morale boosterfor famers and has encour-aged farming and farm sectorin Chhattisgarh.

Under the scheme, recordpaddy procurement of 92

lakh tonnes was done fromthe farmers from December1, 2020 to February 15 thisyear.

Under the scheme, afinancial assistance of Rs10,000 per acre is given to thefarmers apart from payingthem the minimum supportprice fixed by the Uniongovernment.

Apart from encouragingpaddy growers, thegovernment also benefitsmaize and sugarcaneproducing farmers.

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First installment of KisanNyay Yojana on May 21

STAFF REPORTER nRAIPUR

Based on an interim orderof the Chhattisgarh High

Court, the government willstart vaccination againstCovid-19 in the 18-44 agegroup in equal proportion tothe Antyodaya, BelowPoverty Line (BPL) andAbove Poverty Line (APL)categories.

A committee chaired bythe Chief Secretary has beenset up for this purpose, DrSubash Mishra, Director,Epidemic Control, said onFriday.

Dr Mishra said that whilehearing the writ petition, thecourt raised the concernsabout the poor and sought

recommendation in thisregard. The next hearing will

be held on receipt of the rec-ommendations.

The court said until thenthe vaccination should start

at one-third ratio of the state’sAntyodaya, BPL and APL cat-egory for the 18-44 age group.

Separate vaccination cen-tres will be opened for this,Dr Mishra told the media.

He said the Antyodayaand BPL category beneficiar-ies apart from Aadhaar cardor any other identificationhave to show ration cards forregistration for vaccination.For the APL beneficiaries,Aadhar card or any othergovernment issued identity isa must.

Now the state has around1.2 lakh vaccines available.

He added that if the sup-ply of vaccines is disrupted,then the vaccination drivewill be postponed after theexisting stock ends.

STAFF REPORTER nRAIPUR

The Chhattisgarh HighCourt on Friday told the

Chhattisgarh government toimmediately start giving anti-Covid jabs in equal propor-tions to Antyodaya, BPL cardholders and APL people in theage group 18-44 years.

In an interim order, a divi-sion bench of Chief JusticeP.R. Ramchandra Menon andJustice Parth Prateem Sahucalled for vaccination of thesedifferent categories of peoplein separate centres.

This would be aprovisional arrangement till acommittee headed by theChief Secretary formulates a

new vaccination policy forthe 18-44 group, the judgessaid.

The court took suo motucognizance of the matter and

on May 4 objected to the pri-oritization of vaccination toeconomically weaker sections,Antyodaya and BPL cardholders.

STAFF REPORTER nRAIPUR

Chhattisgarh MinisterBhupesh Baghel on Friday

inaugurated a Covid CareHospital with 500 beds at theKrishi Upaj Mandi (agricul-ture produce market) inBalodabazar town.

The virtual inaugurationwas held right before anonline review meeting ofRaipur and Durg divisions.The warehouse of the KrishiUpaj Mandi has been trans-formed into the hospital with120 oxygen equipped beds.

The Chief Minister congrat-ulated the people of the districtfor building the hospital in a

record time of 20 days. He saidthe new facility will bring reliefto Covid-infected patients, anofficial communication said.

On the occasion, Baghelappealed to the people tostrictly follow the Covid

guidelines.Collector Sunil Kumar

Jain said it is the first hospitalin the state built by transform-ing a ‘mandi’ (paddy market).

The air-conditioned ultra-modern hospital has 500-bed

capacity and it is equipped with120 oxygen-beds including 33HDU beds, 36 ICU and 380 gen-eral beds. If required, this facili-ty can be expanded in future.

The Health Departmentwill operate the hospital.

C’garh to resume vaccinationdrive for 18-44 age group

Vaccinate Antyodaya,BPL, APL in equalproportion: High Court

CM inaugurates Covid CareHospital at Balodabazar

STAFF REPORTER nRAIPUR

Chhattisgarh ChiefMinister Bhupesh

Baghel on Friday called fortotal precaution in ruralareas and continuous mon-itoring of home isolationpatients.

If any patient's healthslips, his immediate admis-sion in hospital must beensured for better treatment,an official communicationsaid.

The Chief Minister washolding a virtual meeting with18 block level officials ofRaipur, Durg, and Surgujadivisions from his official res-idence-cum-office.

He reviewed the status ofCovid-19, preventive meas-

ures, progress of vaccination,and arrangement of treatmentto positive patients.

Asking officials to regu-larly monitor private hospi-tals, he said they should notovercharge the patients

against rates fixed by the gov-ernment.

Baghel said places wheremines and factories are opera-tional, the administrationshould ensure strict imple-mentation of Covid protocol.

STAFF REPORTER n MAHASAMUND

The Chhattisgarh Police has suspended fourjail employees, including the chief jail

guard, for negligence after five prisoners onThursday escaped from the Mahasamund jail,it was announced on Friday.

While three of the prisoners have beencaught, two are still at large.

Suspension letters were issued to chief jailguard Rajkumar Tripathi and jail guardsGanesh Kumar Ekka, Bharatlal Sen andSukhiram Kosle.

They have been suspended with immediatebased on CCTV footage, an official pressrelease said.

The letter said that the five prisoners iden-tified as Dhansai (33), Damrudhar (24), Daulat(23), Rahul (22) and Karan (21) were convictedin different cases in Mahasamund jail. Theyscaled a wall and escaped.

Damrudhar, Daulat and Karan, have beenarrested. Dhansai and Rahul are on the run.

Four jail staffsuspended

STAFF REPORTER nRAIPUR

District administrations inChhattisgarh have been

given the responsibility toidentify the beneficiaries forvaccination who do not haveany identification docu-ments. After enlisting them,they will be registered andvaccines will be administeredat special sessions.

For vaccination, a personhas to have Aadhaar card orVoter ID card or Passport ordriving license or PAN card orNPR card or Pension papers.

But it does not mean thatpeople not holding any ofthese identification docu-ments should be denied vac-cination, an official commu-nication said on Friday.

Such beneficiaries aremainly elderly, saint or seer,prisoners, patients admittedin mental hospitals, those in

old-age homes, beggars,patients in rehabilitationcentres, destitutes, rag pick-ers and others.

The beneficiaries will beregistered on Cowin App anda special vaccination sessionwill be held.

RAIPUR: To ensure freevaccination in the age group18-44, the Chhattisgarh gov-ernment has ordered a totalof 75 lakh doses of Covaxinfrom Bharat Biotech andCovishield Vaccine from theSerum Institute.

The government has paidRs 6.30 crores to BharatBiotech for 1.5 lakh doses ofCovaxin delivered so far and Rs9.35 crore in advance to SerumInstitute for 2.9 lakh doses ofCovishield vaccine yet to bedelivered, an official communi-cation said on Friday.

As on May 5, a total of42,903 people aged 18 to 44

have been vaccinated in 28districts of the state.

According to the HealthDepartment, an order withBharat Biotech was placedvia mail on April 26. KrishnaIlla, CEO of Bharat Biotech,was urged to process theorder as soon as possible.

An order with SerumInstitute was placed via mailon April 26. Serum InstituteCEO Adar Poonawalla wasrequested to process the vac-cine order.

The Chhattisgarh gov-ernment has decided to pro-vide free vaccination facilityto all the citizens.

Vaccination to be held forthose without any identity Constantly monitor home

isolation patients: CMC'garh orders Covid vaccine from two companies

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Congress president SoniaGandhi on Friday urged

Prime Minister Narendra Modito urgently convene an all-partymeeting on the Covid-19 situ-ation in India. Addressing theCongress Parliamentary Party(CPP) meeting, Sonia said theparliamentary panels must beconvened to ensure collectiveaction to combat the pandem-ic better.

The meeting was attendedby Congress’s Lok Sabha andRajya Sabha MPs where shealso reviewed and expresseddisappointment over the party’sperformance in just concludedassembly polls. During her ini-tial address, Sonia Gandhi saidthe Modi Government musturgently call an all-party meet-ing on the Covid-19 situationin India. “The system hasn’tfailed but Modi Governmenthas been unable to construc-tively channelise India’s manystrengths and resources. TheModi Government has failedthe people of our country,”alleged Sonia.

Congress president furtheralleged that the ModiGovernment has refused tostrengthen the supply chainsfor oxygen, medicine, and ven-tilators. “Centre failed to place

sufficient orders for vaccines intime to meet the needs of ourpeople,” she said. Blaming theCentre for the Central Vistaredevelopment project inLutyens Delhi, Sonia Gandhisaid that the Modi governmentallocated thousands of croresfor non-essential projects thathave nothing to do with thepeoples’ well-being.

In her statement, theCongress president also said,

“Modi government has abdi-cated its fundamental respon-sibilities and duties towards thepeople, the Centre ignoredwarnings and alerts fromEGOM, National Task Forceand Parliamentary Panel.”

“The Modi Government’sinequitable vaccination policywill exclude millions of Dalits,Adivasis, Other BackwardsClasses, as well as the poor andthe marginalised,” she added.

Meeting for the first timesince the Budget Session ofParliament, the CPP also dis-cussed performance of controlrooms set up by the party lead-ers at state and district level. TheCongress president appealedto the party leaders step up reliefand support services. She alsopraised the Youth Congressand said that the efforts by itsleaders and volunteers havebeen particularly noteworthy.

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���� 84 �/4-69

Congress president SoniaGandhi on Friday

expressed her disappoint-ment over the party’s perfor-mance in the just-concludedAssembly elections. She saidit was “unexpectedly so”when she addressed the partyMPs during the CPP meeting.

Sonia said the CWC(Congress WorkingCommittee) — the party’shighest decision-makingbody — would meet soon toreview the results. “But it goeswithout saying that we, as aparty collective, must draw

appropriate lessons from thissetback in a spirit of humili-ty,” Sonia mentioned.

On the occasion, Soniacongratulated MamataBanerjee for retaining WestBengal and wished the best toMK Stalin for taking hisparty DMK to a big win.

“Unfortunately, our ownperformance in all the stateswas very disappointing and ifI may say, unexpectedly so.The CWC is meeting short-ly to review results...” Soniasaid.

Congress drew a blank inWest Bengal, and in Assam -widely seen as a Congress

stronghold unti l it wasbreached in 2016 — the partydid marginally better, win-ning 29 of 95 seats it con-tested. In Kerala, theCongress at least held itsground, losing just one seatfrom 2016 to finish with 41.

In Tamil Nadu, the partywas part of the winningDMK-led alliance and per-formed relatively better, win-ning 18 of 25 allocated seats.It, however, failed to return topower in Puducherry —where its Governmentcrashed days before polling— after the NR Congress-BJPpairing won 16 of 30 seats.

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The Armed forces havestepped up their efforts to

fight the corona pandemic byway of ferrying oxygen, essen-tial medicines and relatedequipment to various parts ofthe country. The IAF, so far,carried out more than 400 sor-ties airlifting nearly 5,000 met-ric tons of oxygen while ninewarships are now movingtowards the Indian shores car-rying oxygen.

Moreover, the Army hasset up a 500-bed corona spe-cific hospital in Patna whileretired doctors of the armedforces have been roped in toprovide consultation throughtelephone to the needy.

Giving details of thenationwide operations con-ducted by the armed forces,official said here on Friday asof now the C-17 aircraft of theIAF have conducted 400 sor-ties from within the country,including 351 to airlift 252oxygen tankers of total capac-ity of 4,904 Metric Tonnes(MT).

The cities covered wereJamnagar, Bhopal,Chandigarh, Panagarh,

Indore, Ranchi, Agra,Jodhpur, Begumpet,Bhubaneswar, Pune, Surat,Raipur, Udaipur, Mumbai,Lucknow, Nagpur, Gwalior,Vijaywada, Baroda, Dimapurand Hindan.

The IAF aircraft also con-ducted 59 international sor-ties to airlift 72 cryogenic oxy-gen storage containers of1,233 MT total capacity alongwith 1,252 empty oxygencylinders. The containers andcylinders were procured fromSingapore, Dubai, Bangkok,UK, Germany, Belgium andAustralia. In addition, the C-17 and IL-76 aircraft were alsodeployed to airlift cryogenicoxygen containers, oxygengenerators and ventilators

from Israel and Singapore.As regards the naval

effort, they said INS Talwar,INS Kolkata, INS Airavat,INS Kochi, INS Tabar, INSTrikand, INS Jalashwa andINS Shardul are deployed toferry oxygen containers/cylin-ders/concentrators and relat-ed equipment from friendlyforeign countries . Theyinclude Bahrain, Doha andSingapore.

The Kuwait Embassy heresaid on Friday, INS Kolkatacarrying 40 MT oxygen willreturn to India from Kuwaiton May nine. In total, 215MT oxygen and 2,600 oxygencylinders have been sent toIndian so far, the embassysaid.

It also informed INSKochi and INS Tabar depart-ed from Kuwait with a toral of100 MT oxygen and 1,400cylinders and are expected toreach Mumbai on May 11.Moreover, a commercial ves-sel carried 75 MT oxygenand 100 oxygen cylindersfrom Kuwait and expected toarrive in India on May, theembassy said.

In a related development,ex-doctors will now provideonline consultation on e-Sanjeevani OPD to all citizensof the country. Veterans havecome forward to answer thecall of the nation and offeredtheir services to help the peo-ple needing medical care.

Defence Secretary AjayKumar and Director Generalof Armed Forces MedicalServices (AFMS) SurgeonVice Admiral Rajat Dattaaddressed the veterans whohave come forward to offertheir services, through videoconferencing on Friday, offi-cials said.

The e-Sanjeevani OPD isa flagship telemedicine plat-form of the government,developed by the Centre forDevelopment of AdvanceComputing (C-DAC), Mohaliunder the aegis of Ministry ofHealth and Family Welfare(MoHFW).

It provides free consulta-tions to Indian citizens and isfunctioning extremely well.However, due to the surge inCOVID-19 cases, the demandfor doctors is up while the sup-ply has reduced as doctors arebeing pulled out for Covidward duties. This is where thedefence veterans are steppingin to help.

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The CRPF has plans toupgrade the training course

curriculum of the VIP SecurityTraining Centre (VSTC) to thelevel of Special ProtectionGroup (SPG) that exclusivelysecures the Prime Minister.

The CRPF secures a host ofhigh profile VIPs includingformer Prime MinisterManmohan Singh, CongressPresident Sonia Gandhi, herson Rahul and daughterPriyanka besides UnionMinisters like Amit Shah andNitin Gadkari among others.

During a recent visit to theGroup Centre at Greater Noidawhere the VSTC is also locat-ed, the CRPF Chief KuldiepSingh directed the InspectorGeneral of the VIP Security tocompare the course curriculumwith the SPG and upgradeequipment and training needs

at par with the latter.The DG also directed the

IG to designate days of work-ing in a week for the two loca-tions of the VIP SecurityHeadquarters so that the func-tioning and record mainte-nance can be streamlined. TheVIP Security Headquartersfunctions at Delhi and GreaterNoida camps.

Presently, the VSTC main-ly imparts training in totalbody strengthening exercise,rope battling, aggression deter-mination persistence (ADP)drills, proximate use of force(PUF), attack and defence tac-tics besides walk about drills,motorcade drills and rostrumdrills, according to the minutesof the DG’s visit to the VSTC.

The Blue Book of PM’ssecurity is updated by theSecretary (Security) under theCabinet Secretariat and thespecifics, including that of the

SPG, are classified due to theinformation being sensitive innature, officials said.

During the DG’s visit, theissue of Low MedicalCategory/overweight personnelin the Force was also high-lighted, The medical officershave been directed to not onlyadvise that the men shouldreduce weight but also suggesttechniques to get the desiredoutcomes, they said.

A point regarding unwill-ingness of the personnel/offi-cers for induction in VIP secu-rity duties due to non-applic-ability of special allowances wasalso discussed during Singh’svisit to the Group Centre. Theofficials emphasised that if aperson is suitable in all respectsfor VIP security duty, theirunwillingness does not matter.Such persons are bound to per-form the duties assigned tothem, officials added.

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The Central Association ofPrivate Security Industry

(CAPSI) has written a letter tothe PMO on an MoU on bio-logical threat security certifica-tion.

CAPSI Chairman K VikramSingh said that his organisationhas signed a MoU with theInternational Security IndustryOrganization (ISIO) to offerfirst-of-its-kind “Certified forBiological Threat Security”(CBTS) certification to mastertrainers of the private securityindustry to enhance biologicalthreat security in view of Covid-19 pandemic”.

“To deal with biologicalthreat security, we have well-structured plan to equip privatesecurity industry with the exper-tise of dealing with ever emerg-ing biological threats. CAPSIand ISIO jointly formulated amodule to train master trainerswho can equip the security per-sonnel who manage securityprotocols on the ground,” CAPSIconveyed to PMO.

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RSS General SecretaryDattatreya Hosabale on

Friday described the post-poll violence in West Bengalas “well conspired” and urgedthe Union Government totake “necessary and all possi-ble steps” to ensure peacethere and “to make StateGovernment act” to establishrule of law.

Stating that the violencewas “contrary to the Indianprinciple of peaceful coexis-tence”, the RSS leader said“ever ywhere fromCoochbehar to Sundarbans,there is a widespread fearpsychosis among the com-mon people” and thousands ofpeople have been rendered“homeless and looking forrefuge.”

Hosabale alleged that thestate-wide violence unleashedsoon after elections “is notonly highly condemnable butappears to be well conspiredalso”, he said.

“The anti-social elementsactive in this abhorring vio-lence, misbehaved with wom-enfolk in most barbaric anddespicable manner, brutallykilled the innocent peopleand torched the houses,shamelessly looted the shopsand malls; “ said the RSSleader in a statement.

“That the role of stateadministrative machinery wascompletely passive and theyremained mute spectators wasthe most heinous part of thisunabated and inhuman vio-lence”, he further said.

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One in three patients par-ticularly women hospi-

talised for Covid-19 infectioneven after recovery from theinfection may develop lungdamage even after a year,according to a study publishedin The Lancet RespiratoryMedicine.

As if this is not enough.Though not part of the study,doctors in India have notedthat the pathogen not onlyharm the lungs but can alsocause dangerous blood clotswhich need to be immediate-ly retrieved to save limbs insome cases.

First about the Lancetstudy : it showed that even aftera year, a third of patients’measures of lung functionwere reduced, particularly howefficiently oxygen is trans-ferred in the lungs into theblood. This was more fre-quently found in women thanin men.

In around a quarter ofpatients, CT scans showedthere were still small areas ofchange in the lungs, and thiswas more common in patientswith more severe lung changesat the time of hospitalisation.About 5 per cent of patientsstill reported breathlessness,found researchers from theUniversity of Southampton inthe UK.

“The majority of patientswith severe Covid-19 pneu-monia appeared to fully recov-er, although for some patientsthis took many months.Women were more likely to

have persistent reductions inlung function tests and furtherinvestigation is needed tounderstand if there is a sex-specific difference in howpatient’s recover,” said MarkJones, Associate Professor inRespiratory Medicine at thevarsity.

“We also don’t yet knowwhat happens beyond 12months and this will needongoing study,” Jones added.

The team worked withcollaborators in Wuhan, China,to investigate the natural his-tory of recovery from severeCovid-19 pneumonia up toone year after hospitalization.About 83 patients were recruit-ed after they were dischargedfrom the hospital followingsevere Covid-19 pneumoniaand were followed up afterthree, six, nine and twelvemonths.

The research provides evi-dence that routine respiratoryfollow-up of patients hospital-ized with Covid-19-pneumoniais required. It also highlightsthe need for exploring treat-ment strategies, including therole of exercise programmes toprevent the development oflong term Covid-19 relatedlung changes.

Hospitals in India arereporting cases of Covid-19and blood clotting issues aswell. In a statement here, DrAmbarish Satwik, vascular andendovascular surgeon at Delhi’sSir Ganga Ram Hospital said,“We are dealing with five-sixsuch cases per week on average.This week it has been one a dayof such complications.”

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In a move that might raiseeyebrows of doctors of

modern medicine, the UnionAyush Ministry on Fridayissued advisory to the Statesand UTs asking them todeploy the trained AYUSHhuman resources availablewith them for clinical man-agement of Covid-19 cases.

The move aims to aug-ment human resources for themanagement of Covid-19cases with the availability ofa pool of 8 lakh qualifiedAYUSH professionals.

Ministry of AYUSH isalso supporting States/ UTs inthe development/ conversionof AYUSH hospitals to Covidappropriate facilities.

“This could add 50,000beds, 750 Ayush hospitals(presently AYUSH medicalcolleges), and 86 clinical facil-ities (at National Institutesand Research Units ofMinistry of AYUSH) to theCovid- 19 infrastructure

“The decision to deployAyush professionals to thefrontlines of the Covid-19war is in continuation of deci-sions taken a few days back toboost availability of medicalpersonnel to fight the virussuch as postponement of theNEET-PG Exam, giving pri-ority to medical personnelcompleting 100 days of Covidduties in forthcoming regularGovernment recruitmentsand deployment of medicalinterns in Covid Managementduties under the supervisionof their faculty,” said an offi-cial from the Ministry.

He said that Ayush doc-tors are institutionally quali-fied professionals, well-trainedin various aspects of medicalcare. They have alreadyproven their competence invarious Covid-19 manage-ment roles in different insti-tutions across the country.

Some of the institutionsunder the Ministry of AYUSHlike the All-India Institute ofAyurveda (AIIA), New Delhiwhich functions as a Covid -19 Care Centre, are efficient-ly managing Covid-19 cases atpresent, he added.

Further, States/UTs havetrained nearly 1.06 lakhAYUSH professionals in dif-ferent aspects of Covid-19management, and 28,473 pro-fessionals have been deployedfor Covid-19 activities.

Training to AYUSH pro-fessionals in different aspectsof Covid-19 management wasalso provided, said the offi-cial.

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Air India on Fridayannounced that it will oper-

ate flights between LondonHeathrow airport to Mumbai,Delhi, and Bengaluru from May16 to May end. Passengers whoare already booked on thesedates and wish to travel, will berequired to revalidate theirbookings. The national carrierhas issued a list of days on whichthe flights won’t operate andhave advised passengers to reval-idate their bookings according-ly.

For instance, though AirIndia flights connectingMumbai to London Heathrowwill operate from May 16 to May30, flights on this route will notbe available on May 17, 19, 24,and 26. For flights betweenDelhi to London Heathrow, AirIndia said that they will operatefrom May 16 to May 31, excepton May 22 and 29.

Similarly, Air India flightsfrom London Heathrow toMumbai will operate from May17 to May 31, except on May 18,

23, 25, and 30. Air India has fur-ther informed that flights fromBengaluru to London Heathrowwill operate on May 17, 19, 24,26, and 31, and those fromLondon Heathrow to Bengaluruwill operate on May 16, 18, 23,25, and 30.

“With reference to recentguidelines announced by UKGovernment, passengers beforeplanning their travel are request-ed to read the guidelines care-fully. Updated advisory availableat http://airindia.in/United-Kingdoms.htm,” Air Iindia saidin a tweet.

“It will be the sole respon-sibility of the passengers toensure his/her eligibility to enterthe destination country. AirIndia will accept no liability in

this regard,” it added.“To book Air India flights to

and from London, flyers canvisit the official Air India web-site, mobile app, booking offices,call centre, or authorised travelagents. Flyers have been advisedto check the UK governmentguidelines carefully before book-ing their tickets,” it said.

Earlier on April 23, theUnited Kingdom had bannedthe entry for travellers fromIndia after Public HealthEngland (PHE) confirmed 55more cases of the so-called dou-ble mutant Indian variant,B.1.617, from all coronaviruscases tracked until April 14, tak-ing the total for the VariantUnder Investigation (VUI) inthe UK to 132.

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The Government on Fridayreiterated that India should

be included in the UnitedNations Security Council(UNSC) if the internationalbody wants to be seen as a cred-ible global leader.

In his statement at the high-level meeting of the UNSC on‘Maintenance of internationalpeace and security: upholdingmultilateralism and the UnitedNations-centered internationalsystem’, Foreign Secretary HarshShringla said, “At the core ofIndia’s call for reformed multi-lateralism, lies the reform of theUN Security Council, reflectiveof the contemporary realities oftoday.”When power structurescontinue to reflect the status quoof a bygone era, they also startreflecting a lack of appreciationof contemporary geopoliticalrealities, he said.

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To ensure smooth supply ofRemdesivir used in the

treatment of Covid-19 acrossthe country, the allocation ofthe antiviral drug to the Statesand Union Territories has beenmade up to May 16, UnionChemicals and FertilisersMinister Sadananda Gowdasaid on Friday.

The production capacityof remdesivir has beenincreased to 1.03 crore vials permonth, up from 38 lakh vialsper month earlier, the ministerhad said on Tuesday.

“Considering therequirement of Remdesivir inevery state and ensuring its ade-quate availability, allocation of#Remdesivir has been madeupto 16th May 2021. This willensure smooth supply ofRemdesivir across country sothat no patient face difficulty inthis #pandemic time,” Gowdasaid in a tweet.

The Minister alsoenclosed a letter by Departmentof Pharma Joint SecretaryNavdeep Rinwa and Ministry ofHealth & Family WelfareDirector Rajiv Wadhawan, giv-ing details of the updated allo-cation plan valid for the periodApril 21 to May 16 being madefor States/UTs.

The allotment isbeing made for the States/UTsand it is the State Governmentsand UTs that have to monitor

proper distribution, coveringgovernment and private hospi-tals as appropriate and in linewith judicious use, the lettersaid.

“State Governments/UTsare advised to place adequatepurchase orders with the mar-keting companies immediately,if they have not already done so,for the quantity that they wantto purchase out of the allocationfor the State/UT as per supplyplan in close coordination withthe liaison officers of the com-panies,” it added.

The coordination with pri-vate distribution channels in thestate could also be made, theletter said.

“The nodal officers of theState Governments have tocoordinate and follow up withthe marketing companies to getdelivery of remdesivir injectionin time as per the daily require-ments”, the letter written toadditional chief secretary/ prin-cipal secretary and secretaryhealth of all States/UTs said.

Demand for remdesivir hasgone up manifold in the coun-try amid a massive spike inCovid infections.

The Government hasalready waived customs duty onRemdesivir, its raw materialsand other components used to make theantiviral drug in order to helpaugment domestic availabilityand reduce the cost of theinjection.

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Union Minister of State forAtomic Energy and Space,

Jitendra Singh on Friday said theBhabha Atomic ResearchCentre and the Department ofAtomic Energy are supple-menting the country’s fightagainst the pandemic by pro-viding Covid related equip-ment and technology.

In an online review meetingwith senior officials of theDepartment, the Minister laud-ed the initiatives for public wel-fare during Covid-19. JitendraSingh said that the developmentof a protocol for sterilization ofPPE kits using cobalt has thepotential for re-use of PPE kits.

Singh was informed by theofficials that 25 percent of bedsnumbering about 600 have beenreserved for cancer patientsinfected by Covid in all TataMemorial Hospitals. Around5,000 Oxygen Concentratorsof 6 LPM are being received bythe Tata Memorial Centre asdonation from abroad and mostof it will be diverted to othercancer hospitals of the country.

Similar is the developmentof N-99 masks using HEPA fil-ter technology. The Ministersaid this mask is better than N-95 and the N-99 masks havealready been certified by threeindependent laboratories. Hesaid the technology has beentransferred for mass scale pro-duction as it is both durable andcheaper than N-95 masks.

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An FIR has been registeredagainst a Government

official deputed as additionalreturning officer (ARO) in theUttar Pradesh panchayat pollsfor allegedly giving winningcertificates to candidates wholost, an official said on Friday.

Additional returning offi-cer (ARO) Virendra Kumar hasbeen booked for cheating,forgery and fraud on a com-plaint from Returning OfficerSunil Kumar, a senior policeofficial said.

On Wednesday night, therewere incident of arson in NaiBazar police outpost by thesupporters of the candidateswho alleged that they was notdeclared winner due to fraudcommitted by the official.

Police have arrested 18

people and lodged four sepa-rate FIRs in connection withvandalism and arson of thepolice outpost.

After the counting of voteson Tuesday, Ravi Nishad, acandidate of district Panchayatward number 60, and KodaiNishad, of ward number 61,claimed they have won the elec-tion with over 2,000 votes, butthe administration didn't givethem certificate.

On Wednesday morning,certificates of victory was givento Gopal Yadav for ward num-ber 60 and Ramesh for wardnumber 61.

The supporters of Raviand Kodai held a demonstra-tion at Nai Bazar crossing,pelted stones, and also setablaze the police post there.

Taking note of the incident,District Magistrate Vijyendra

Pandiyan ordered matching ofvotes booth-wise and declaredboth Ravi and Kodai winnerson Thursday.

"An FIR has been lodgedagainst ARO Virendra Kumar,who is an executive engineer inthe irrigation department. A aletter recommending actionagainst him would be sent tothe State ElectionCommission," the DM said.

Police said, "Four casesunder various IPC sectionshave been lodged against 60named and 500 unidentifiedpeople in connection with thevandalism. Based on CCTVfootage, we have arrested 18people and are looking forothers."

SSP Dinesh P Kumar saidstrict action would be takenagainst those involved in thearson.

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6�8 �� ��� �*9� *����������� �����JAIPUR: With the objectivityof increasing the availability ofmedical oxygen in the State,Chief Minister Ashok Gehlotdecided to make land use con-version free by ensuring 100per cent exemption in leaseamount for setting up oxygenplants on agricultural land.

According to the proposal,oxygen gas plants are to be setup in various district head-quarters and other cities of theState by local urban bodiesthrough their resources or pri-vate institutions. “As such,under the Rajasthan UrbanAreas (Permission for use ofAgricultural Land for Non-agricultural Purposes andAllotment) Rules, 2012, 100%exemption will be given in thepremium and lease amountpayable for land use conver-sion.

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Sixty-nine-year old MK Stalin, president of theDMK, was sworn as the 26th Chief Minister of

Tamil Nadu in a simple function held at Chennai RajBhavan on Friday morning.

Governor Banwarilal Purohit administered oathof office and secrecy to Stalin who introduced him-self as Muthuvel Karunanidhi Stalin while he read outthe oath. It was an emotional moment for Durga,Stalin’s spouse, who was sitting in the VIP row in RajBhavan watching her husband mantling the role ofthe chief minister. Durga, who had undertaken pil-grimages to all famous holy shrines in South Indiafor the health and strength of Stalin, was seen weep-ing with joy as her husband was sworn in.

Stalin’s son Udhayanidhi and his family, daugh-ter Senthamarai and her industrialist husbandSabareesh and their children were present during theswearing in ceremony.

Along with Stalin, 33 of his colleagues were swornin as ministers. Some of the departments have beenrenamed in view of the changed times and to drivehome the new priorities.

Durai Murugan, the number two in the Cabinet,has been designated as Minister for Water Resources, Irrigation Projects and Small Irrigationinstead of the traditional Public Works Department.

All close confidantes of Stalin have been assignedcrucial departments while M Subramanian, the for-mer Mayor of Chennai, who had been given the taskof promoting Udhayanidhi in the party hierarchy, hasbeen assigned the charge of medical and family wel-fare.

“Subramanian is expected to play a major role indevising strategies to take on the pandemic.

The Chief Minister’s first decision after the sear-ing in was to declare financial aid of �4,000 to eachfamilies holding rice ration cards. He also issuedorders bringing the treatment cost for Covid-19 underthe Chief Minister’s Health Insurance Scheme,” ProfS Vincent, former dean, Loyola College , Chennai whowas also the member secretary of Tamil Nadu StateScience and Technological Council told “zThePioneer.

In two other significant decisions, Chief MinisterStalin brought down the price of milk by � 3/-per litreand made bus travel free of cost for all women.

A separate department has been set up to ensurethe speedy disposal of the memorandums he had col-lected during the campaign in the first 100 days of office,

“This is a paradigm shift in governance hither-to missing in Tamil Nadu. These are all welcomechanges,” said Dr Vincent.

The first full fledged cabinet meeting would beheld later in the evening at Fort Saint George.

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The number of Covid-19 patients inKerala crossed the four lakh mark

on Friday and Chief Minister PinarayiVijayan asked people in the State not tocome out of their homes unless it is foran emergency. “There are 4,0,2650patients undergoing treatment forCovid-19 across the State on Fridayevening. The last 12 hours saw 38,460new persons getting diagnosed withCovid-19. The State also saw 54 personssuccumbing to Covid-19 during the last24 hours,” said Vijayan in his daily mediabriefing.

He said the nine-day long total lock-down would come into effect from thismidnight and asked the people toadhere without failure to the regulationsand controls imposed by the govern-ment. Thattu Kada, favorite roadsideeatery joints across Kerala have beenasked to down their shutters till the endof the lockdown period, said Vijayan.

The situation in the State hasreached a flashpoint as the chief min-ister asked people not to come togeth-er even inside their houses. “Even if youare staying inside the house, wearmasks and wah hands frequently. Avoidsitting together for prayers and food.Say your prayers and have your food inseparate rooms till the pandemic sub-sides,” said the chief minister.

Banks in the State have been askedto open for business on alternate days.“All Banks in the State will function onlyon Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays,”

said the chief minister.The day saw the police head quar-

ters asking the executive not to haveany relaxation during the lockdown periods.

This made the administration toban even inter district travel. ChiefMinister Vijayan lambasted a section ofthe media for spreading fake news thatthere were no facilities in the cremato-riums in the State.

Vijayan said that medical expertshave told him that the pandemic has thepotential for high speed transmissionand this could lead to a further hike inthe number of Covid-19 patients andfatalities. “People coming from otherparts of the country to Kerala shouldcarry with them the RT-PCR certificatesfailing which they would have to under-go quarantine for a period of 14 days,”said Vijayan.

Elsewhere in the State, the districtof Ernakulam which has the highestnumber of Covid-19 patients wouldbecome out of bound for people fromother districts. The borders of the dis-trict would be closed from tonight andthe entire region would be treated as acontainment zone. This report itself isdispatched from a containment zone inthe district.

The shortage of beds, oxygen cylin-ders and ventilators in the hospitals con-tinue in Kerala. The Chief Ministerdeplored media reports about crema-toriums getting filled with dead bodiesand patients being transported to hos-pitals in two wheelers.

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The Bengal BJP has saidthat it will continue to boy-

cott the Assembly session tillthe incidents of post-poll vio-lence throughout the State onits workers ends.

Emerging from a meetingof the BJP Legislature partymembers Bengal party presi-dent on Friday said that “ourworkers and supporters arebeing attacked every day andtheir houses and lives are underthreat just because they votedagainst the TMC … we havedecided that the we will notattend the Assembly sessionuntil the this violence stops.”

BJP will not attend theswearing-in ceremony of theAssembly Speaker on Saturdayand the subsequently the StateMinisters on May 11, sourcessaid.

According to reportsBiman Banerjee will be sworn

in as the Speaker for the thirdtime in a row. There was noother nomination for the post,sources said.

Ghosh’s statement cameeven as violence continuedwith an ABVP supporter beingbeaten up at Barasat and aTMC supporters gettingattacked at De Ganga. PartyMP Locket Chatterjee who toocontested the Assembly elec-tions unsuccessfully wasattacked on Friday she said.

“The kind of violence weare witnessing is unprecedent-ed … our MLAs cannot cometo Kolkata and those who havecome here cannot return totheir places … besides theyhave to make arrangements forthe workers who have beenrendered homeless … so wecannot attend the Session,”Ghosh said.

The State BJP’s decision

came on a day when the UnionHome Ministry team visitingBengal to inquire into thealleged violence on Friday vis-ited Satgachia and Noda Khaliarea of South 24 Parganas.

Dismissing Ghosh’s claimssenior Bengal Minister ParthoChatterjee said that “the BJPhas no face to attend theAssembly after such a defeat …They are a frustrated lot … sothey are trying make an alibiofviolence.”

Another senior MinisterFirhad Hakim said that “theBJP has no respect for democ-racy which proved by theirdecision to boycott the swear-ing-in of the Speaker which isunprecedented.”

Meanwhile 10 people hadso far been arrested for attack-ing the convoy of UnionMinister V Muralidhar onThursday.

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Unrest is brewing within the Pune-based Film and Television Institute

of India (FTII) campus over the admin-istration's decision to enforce onlineclasses as “mandatory attendance crite-ria” for the newly admitted 2020 batchstudents.

Having lodged a informal protestwith the FTII administration to thiseffect, the FTII Students’ Association(FTIISA) on Friday demanded thatonline classes to be suspended imme-diately in line with a similar decisiontaken by the Satyajit Ray Film &Television Institute (SRFTI) and otherinstitutions, including the DelhiUniversity.

In a joint statement issued to themedia, FTII Students’ Association (FTI-ISA) president Aadhith V Sathvin andits general secretary Rajarshi Majumdarsaid: “We are witnessing an exponentialincrease in cases each day and people arestruggling to avail medical facilities. FTIIadministration has been enforcingMandatory online classes for the newlyadmitted 2020 batch students.

The students of this batch have beenraising various concerns about theonline medium of education over the lastone month.

“In reply FTII administration isstrangling students with mandatoryattendance criteria which are a violationof the attendance criteria mentioned in

the UGC guidelines for online classes,”the two FTII students leaders said.

Sathvin and Majumdar said FTIIchairman Shekar Kapur “is reluctant tomeet us and has given us a date 11 dayslater from now for a meeting to discussour urgent concerns”.

“We are sad and concerned to statestudents, faculties, staff members and thefamilies are being affected not just byCOVID 19 but also by financial andmental health issues associated with it.The students of FTII are from differentparts of the country and it is becomingincreasingly difficult for them to attendclasses amid this health crisis,” the twoFTII student leaders said.

Sathvin and Majumdar said that theSRFTI administration had withdrawnonline classes for the new batch after thestudents had addressed their concerns.“We are also seeing multiple other insti-tutions including Delhi University whichhas suspended their online medium ofeducation at this point of the pandem-ic,” they said.

Seeking to make a case for an earlymeeting with the FTII “to understandour concerns during devastating phaseof the pandemic to bring in an imme-diate suspension of the online classes”,the two FTII student leaders said: “Wealso demand that the administrationshould stop enforcing mandatory atten-dance criteria and help the students getthe stipulated class hours when we getback to the campus”.

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Ahmedabad: A lion was founddead on the outskirts of a vil-lage located close to Gujarat'sGir forest, a forest official saidon Friday.

The carcass of a lion, agedbetween five to nine years,was found by a patrolling partynear Navabandar village ofGir-Somnath district onThursday afternoon, the officialsaid.

While nothing suspiciouswas found at the spot, canineteeth marks were visible on thecarcass, chief conservator offorest D T Vasavada said.

"The field staff also spottedmultiple pugmarks of lions atthe spot, which confirmed thepresence of several animals inthat area. The carcass was takento Jasadhar rescue centre, wherea post-mortem was conducted,"the official said. PTI

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Puducherry: AINRC leader NRangasamy was sworn in as theChief Minister of Puducherry ata brief ceremony held at the RajNivas here on Friday and willlead a coalition Government ofBJP members in his Cabinet.

While Karnataka is the lonesouthern State with the BJP inthe ruling saddle, its inductionin the UT cabinet allows the saf-fron party expand its footprint,vis-a-vis power in the region.Incidentally, it fared well inneighbouring Tamil Nadu,where it won four assemblyseats in the Dravidian heartlandin the April 6 polls.

Union Minister of State forHome and BJP leader KishanReddy, who attended the swear-ing-in ceremony today, toldreporters that BJP and AINRC

would have three ministers eachand they would be sworn inover the next few days.

BJP's A Namassivayam,who was elected unanimously asthe leader of the BJP legislaturewing, is tipped to be deputychief minister.

On Friday afternoon, LtGovernor TamilisaiSoundararajan administered theoath of office and secrecy toRangasamy, giving him hisfourth stint in office of CM.

Rangasamy, the only legis-lator to be sworn-in today, tookthe oath in Tamil and in thename of God.

The swearing in of theother ministers belonging to theAINRC and BJP would be heldin the next few days, AINRCparty sources said.

Of the three BJP membersin the cabinet, one would bedeputy CM.

A BJP source told PTI that

Namassivayam would beRangasamy's deputy, in the firstsuch instance of the UT havinga deputy CM.

Six Ministers are likely tobe sworn in in the next coupleof days and this would ulti-mately bring the strength of thePuducherry Ministry to seven,including Rangasamy.

AINRC won 10 seats and

the BJP six in the 30-memberhouse, giving them the simplemajority to formgovernment.

There are six independentselected to the House, who are byand large supporters ofRangasamy.

The DMK emerged vic-torious from six segments of the13 seats it contested. PTI

Jammu: With no signs of improvement in theCovid-19 situation, the Union Territory of Jammu &Kashmir on Friday reported a record single-day spikeof 5,443 new cases even as 50 more patients died inthe last 24 hours .

Amid reports of shortage of beds across differ-ent hospitals in Jammu, Lt Gov Manoj Sinha con-ducted a tour of several local hospitals including GMC,Jammu to take stock of the infrastructure and patientcare management in Covid care hospitals.

During the high level review meeting LG wasinformed that the trial run of 2400 LPM capacityOxygen Generation Plant in GMC Jammu is going onand the same would be made fully functional by May8, 2021 enabling the addition of about 125 Covid ded-icated beds in the Government Medical College hos-pital, Jammu.

Meanwhile,2752 more COVID-19 patients haverecovered and discharged from various hospitalsincluding 954 from Jammu Division and 1798 fromKashmir Division.

According to the media bulletin, out of 5443 newpositive cases of novel Coronavirus (COVID-19),1868were reported from Jammu division and 3575 fromKashmir division. Also 50 COVID-19 deaths havebeen reported, 29 from Jammu Division and 21 fromKashmir Division. PNS

Puducherry: A mobile team ofthe Health Department ofPuducherry examined each ofthe 183 people at the venue ofswearing-in of Chief MinisterN Rangasamy on Friday andfound 11 of them were infect-ed with Covid-19.

Of the 11, nine were policepersonnel and the remainingtwo invitees to the function, a

press release said.The 11 were denied per-

mission to enter the venue andwere sent to a hospital.

The territorial adminis-tration observed safety proto-cols and examined all whoturned up for the function.

Admission to the venuewas restricted to a limitednumber of people. PTI

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The Goa Government onFriday announced a 15-day

curfew in the State from May9 to contain the spread ofcoronavirus infection.

In another decision, carry-ing negative COVID-19 testreport or a vaccination certifi-cate has been made mandato-ry for visitors from otherstates.

During the curfew period,grocery shops can remain openfrom 9 am to 1 pm while therewould be no restrictions onpharmacies and other medicalfacilities, said Chief MinisterPramod Sawant.The decisionto impose curfew had to betaken as people are disobeyingexisting restrictions, he toldreporters.

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With the incidence of coro-navirus infections among

children on the increase,Maharashtra Health MinisterRajesh Tope on Fridayannounced that the StateGovernment would set up a“Covid Paediatric Task Force” tocheck and treat the spread ofCovid-19 virus among the chil-dren.

Four days afterMaharashtra’s Tourism andEnvironment Minister AadityaThackeray mooted the idea of apaediatric covid care wards inMumbai in anticipation of thirdwave of the pandemic in thestate, Tope made a formalannouncement about the for-mation of “Covid PaediatricTask Force”

Talking to media personshere, Tope said: “The state gov-ernment will soon form a CovidTask Force of Paediatricians tocheck and treat the Covid-19infections among children andalso formulate the paediatrictreatment protocols, etc”.

Currently, more than 10,000children are undergoing treat-ment for Covid-19 hospitals inhospitals across the state, a

development that establishesthe increasing incidence of pan-demic among the children.

The Covid-19 incidencestatistics reveal that Maharashtrahas till date recorded 149,224infections among the children inthe 1-10 age group and 338,397in the 11-20 age, which togeth-er accounts for 9.97 per cent ofthe state’s total caseload. A

majority of the two age groups– barring those above 18 –have not yet been cleared forvaccination by the Centre.

Tope said that in the midstof “second wave” of Covid-19 inthe state, the MVA was gearingup to tackle the “third wave” ofthe pandemic which manyapprehend was in theoffing.

Mumbai: Amid the increased apprehension of a “third wave” ofCovid-19 hitting the State in the coming weeks, MaharashtraHealth Minister Rajesh Tope on Friday announced that the StateGovernment would soon fill 16,000 plus vacancies in the PublicHealth Department.

In his interaction with the media, Tope said that Chief MinisterUddhav Thackeray had given an informal go ahead to the pro-posal to fill up vacancies in the Public Health Department on “anurgent basis”. “A formal decision in this regard will be taken ata State Cabinet meeting at the earliest,” he said.Tope said that while12,000 posts fall in the Groups C & D and the rest 4,000 are equal-ly divided in Groups A & B categories,

Earlier, the state government had allowed 50 percent recruit-ment to the vacant posts but it could not be implemented owingthe Maratha reservations issue before the Supreme Court.

After the Thursday’s Supreme Court verdict and also due tothe apprehensions about a possible ‘third wave’ of Covid-19 inthe state, Tope said that the state government would go aheadand fill up all the vacant posts which would come in handy at atime when there will be a huge need of manpower to combat the pandemic.

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leaders was “organisation andexecution” of the “crime ofmassacre”. In 1951, Turkishpoet Nazim Hikmet haddescribed those incidents as a“black stain on the forehead ofthe Turkish people”.

In 1933, Austrian-Bohemian writer Franz Werfelwrote The Forty Days of MusaDagh (originally in German)which focuses on self-defencemeasures taken by a smallcommunity of Armenians liv-ing in Musa Dagh, a mountainvilayat (province) of Aleppo,southern Turkey, against theYoung Turk Government’smarauders. It was adaptedinto a film in 1982.

America’s insular characterin the pre-World War I eranotwithstanding, Americanshave been vocal about the ordealof Armenian population in theOttoman Empire even in the19th century. In 1896, ReverendAW Williams of Chicago, in col-laboration with MS Gabriel ofthe Armenian Patriotic Alliancein New York, produced a tomeBleeding Armenia: Its Historyand Horrors under of Curse ofIslam. The same year, FrederickDavis Green conjured up thehorrors inflicted on Armeniansin Armenian Massacres of theSword of Mohammed.

But such “thrilling accounts

of terrible atrocities and whole-sale murders committed byMohammedan fanatics” weredemonstratively coloured byreligious prejudices. Theauthors were no less actuated bythe desire of quick sale of thosetitles than by Christian piety.However, AmbassadorMorgenthau’s Story (1918) byHenry Morgenthau, the USAmbassador to the OttomanEmpire (1913-1916), is consid-ered as the first definitive reporton the Armenian genocide.Morgenthau was Jewish whocould not be suspected ofChristian susceptibilities.

In earlier times, theChristian subjects of theOttoman Empire were notallowed to bear arms. Theywere easy targets of butchery,rapine and rape by the Turks.However, the Young TurkMovement (July 1908) thatliberalised the OttomanGovernment also gave theChristians the right to beararms. Every Turkish city con-tained thousands ofArmenians, trained as soldiersand possessing weapons.Therefore, the massacres dur-ing World War I attained acharacter of warfare thanwholesale butcheries ofdefenceless men and women.

The Armenian genocide

tells more about Turks thanabout Armenians. It revealshow the transformation of aCaliphate into a ‘secular’ repub-lic in Turkey promoted racialexclusiveness rather than foster-ing tolerance, inclusivity andthe rule of law. While secular-ism stripped the Christian sub-jects of the autonomy of millat,enjoyed under the Ottomanemperors, it failed to accommo-date them as equal citizens.While it is still possible tospeak of “Arab Christians”(despite the ordeal of Christiansin Arab States), it is never pos-sible to speak of “ChristianTurks” even though KemalAtaturk founded the nation-State of Turkey on the idealsof secularism. The extermina-tion of the ancient Greekcommunity in Smyrna by theYoung Turks in September1922 —described by GeorgeHorton in The Blight of Asia(1926) — was another tragedycomparable to the Armeniangenocide. The foundationallegacy of the modern repub-lic often returns to hauntTurkey. No wonder, Erdoganwants to shelve the debate onArmenian genocide.

(The writer is an authorand independent researcherbased in New Delhi. The viewsexpressed are personal.)

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Belatedly but formally, theUS has recognised theArmenian Genocide(1915-17). President Joe

Biden, on April 24, 2021, recalledhow “one-and-a-half millionArmenians were deported, mas-sacred or marched to their deathsin campaigns of extermination”in Ottoman Turkey. TurkishPresident Recep Tayyip Erdogan,along expected lines, hasdeplored the American stand.Calling it “opening a woundthat’s hard to fix in our relations”,Erdogan has appealed for rever-sal of the genocide recognition.

Turkey, an important NATOmember, has always been dismis-sive of the Armenian genocideallegation. In the past, the US hadrefrained from antagonising itsstalwart ally. On February 28,1990 — in the face of a vigorousopposition by Turkey — theSenate blocked a resolution pro-posed by Senator Bob Dole call-ing upon the US Government tocommemorate the mass death ofArmenian civilians during WorldWar I. The demand resurfacedsix years later when a group of100 prominent American schol-ars and writers signed a petitiondated February 2, 1996, thatdubbed the “denial of genocideas the final stage of genocide”.This petition resulted in a hear-ing on the “History of ArmenianGenocide” before the Committeeon International Relations, theHouse of Representatives.

Levon Marshalian, a profes-sor of history at the GlendaleCommunity College, California,appearing as a witness before theCommittee, reminded it how thegenocide was acknowledged incontemporaneous Turkey. In1919, the National Congress ofTurkey had accepted over-whelming evidence provided bythe US on the genocide. It haddeclared that the “guilt” of theTurkish officials who “conceivedand deliberately carried out theinfernal policy of exterminationand robbery is patent”. The offi-cial Turkish gazette, TakvimiVekayi, published the verdict ofpost-war Ottoman trials of thoseofficials. The Turkish court ruledthat the intention of the Ottoman

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SOUNDBITE����������������� �� ��� �������Sir — We all have failed to contain thesecond wave of the COVID pandemic.Our preparedness to fight the lethal virushas been in a shambles and the gruesome-ness of the pandemic continues with nosign of a let-up. It is during these tryingtimes that the Principal Scientific Advisorto Prime Minister announced the possi-bility of a third wave without specifyingthe possible timeline or the probable tar-get age group. This announcement makeslittle difference as we are not prepared atall for the upcoming danger in the formof a third wave and are too occupied indealing with the current crisis. People arefacing immense trouble due to over-crowded crematoriums and graveyards.We are still not working on logistics andmobilisation of resources to deal with thefuture third wave which can invade ussooner than later. Being indifferent toimpending danger doesn’t make it lessdamaging or lethal.

The Centre and the States now haveto be ready with a rational plan to man-age the next wave. The whole countryneeds a plan for the supply of all criticalcare components, including testing kitsand medicines. The Centre has to urgent-ly ramp up testing and vaccination, with-out which we will be left paralysed. Amidthis shameful state of affairs inside thecountry, the fact that those in ExternalAffairs Minister Jaishankar’s team turnedpositive after reaching London has becomematter of embarrassment for us worldwide.

N Sadhasiva Reddy | Bengaluru

����� �������������������� ������Sir — Kudos to the Supreme Court andthe Delhi High Court as because of thesecourts the Delhi Government has managedto get its quota of medical oxygen.Whereas, on the other hand, Capital’sneighbouring State Haryana is facing cri-sis and has come to a position where it canonly beg for its allocated quota of oxygen.The hospitals and nursing homes in theState are facing shortage of medical oxy-gen and people are struggling for it. The

worst hit districts like Gurugram,Faridabad, Hisar etc are facing immensehardships. Oxygen supply from Roorkeehas been erratic and was also less againstthe quota of 257 MT. Further, procuringoxygen and subsequent delay in unload-ing the tankers is also a matter of concern.Unfortunately COVID-19 has now spreadits wings in the rural areas where medicalfacilities are negligible.

Yugal Kishore Sharma | Faridabad

����� � �����������������������Sir — The healthcare system in the coun-try has not collapsed but it is overburdenedby the excessive number of COVID cases.In the face of pandemic, the biggest suf-ferers are poor, however when people arestruggling to find beds in hospitals andarrange oxygen cylinders for their lovedones there are many ambulance drivers

who are charging exorbitantly (upto 500per cent of normal charges) for renderingtheir services. Further, injections likeRemdesivir are sold in black market at highprices, oxygen cylinders are also availableto those who are ready to pay several timesmore than the normal price.

When people are grieving, profiteer-ing and black marketing by some anti-social elements is real disservice to thenation. The need-of-hour is that theGovernment should not be a mute spec-tator to these anti-national acts and takea strict action against profiteers, blackmarketeers, hoarders and ambulance dri-vers who charge in excess, by slapping theNational Security Act against them.

Ramesh G Jethwani | Bengaluru

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One of the top painters of Lucknow, RajendraKaran, had a sore throat and a slight fever.He consulted a doctor who advised medi-

cines. His fever came under control but the sorethroat continued. Believing that his condition wouldimprove he did not go for a COVID test. On April21 — three days after his symptoms were visible,he felt breathless. His son Rohitas Karan did not waitfor the ambulance. He took his father to a privatehospital in his own car. “Go get a referral slip fromthe Chief Medical Officer’s (CMO’s) office. Onlythen can we admit the patient,” said the reception-ist at the Integral Medical College and Hospital inLucknow. “My father was gasping for breath. I couldsee he was in pain. But I was curtly asked to get areferral slip,” Rohitas says. He called a few of hisfriends, requesting them to arrange the referral slipfor him. He was told that he must register at theIntegrated Central Command Centre (ICCC).However, before he could get his father registeredand get a referral slip from the CMO’s office,Rajendra Karan died in the car, outside the hospi-tal, waiting for treatment. “My father would havebeen alive today if the hospital had admitted himinstead of waiting for a piece of paper from theCMO’s office,” Rohitas says. The Government’s rulesays that registration of a patient in the ICCC at theCMO’s office is mandatory and admission is givento the patient only if s/he has a referral slip fromthat centre. Hundreds of patients died as they wereturned away by the hospital because they did nothave the referral slip. After a hue and cry was raisedthis mandatory clause was withdrawn for admis-sion in private hospitals but this still holds good foradmission in State-run hospitals where only 30 percent of the seats are for open admission while therest are through the ICCC.

“We know that this is a draconian procedureand is against the spirit of imparting treatment tothe patients. We have seen patients dying in the wait-ing area but we cannot help because they do not havethe referral slip,” a doctor says with regret.

Now, take the case of Navanita ParamanikRajput, 37, who was seven months pregnant. Shehad a cold and slight fever. Her gynecologist gaveher medicine. As her condition did not improve shewas admitted to a private nursing home. In a dayher fever came under control but the oxygen levelstarted dropping. “The gynecologist called me upand said that it would be better if we could shift herto a better-equipped hospital. There is no dangerto her life but it is better to shift her,” Radha GobindoPramanik, her father says. On April 18 she was takento the King George’s Medical College Hospital. Shecame out of the ambulance smiling. Her husbandVarun went for registration and when he returnedafter a few minutes he saw that his wife was gasp-ing for breath. “We ran to get oxygen. We were toldthere is no oxygen cylinder in the OPD. I rushedto the emergency and there, too, the doctors saidthey could not help. I thought of taking her backto the nursing home where at least oxygen was avail-able. The ambulance had left by then. I heard myson-in-law shouting. Before I could understand whatwas happening she collapsed in the arms of her hus-band, just at the doorstep of Lucknow’s top hospi-tal ,” Pramanik recalls with tears in his eyes.

“It was my folly that I shifted her from the nurs-ing home. It was a big mistake because of which Ilost my daughter,” he says sobbing. “I knew there

was an oxygen crisis but I never knewthat this big Government hospitalwould have no oxygen cylinders,” hesays with regret writ large on his face.

On May 6 the Uttar Pradesh(UP) Government claimed that 353people died of the Coronavirus,with Lucknow recording 65 fatalitiesin the last 24 hours. On the face ofit, the number of deaths in Lucknowlooks small when compared with themagnitude of the catastrophe thecountry is facing. But the line of bod-ies in the cremation grounds beliesthis claim. People whose job it is tocremate bodies say that the numberof people being cremated is muchhigher than what the Government isclaiming. A rough estimate saysthat in Lucknow more than 200 bod-ies are either cremated or buried perday. A Hindi newspaper reportedthat on April 22, at least 437 bodieswere cremated in all the cremationgrounds across Lucknow. On April18 the cremation ground in Lucknowreceived 187 bodies. So where arethese bodies coming from? Is thereundercounting of casualties? Thelocal administration realises thepressure that cremation groundsare facing and, therefore, has set upextra platforms for cremation in thetwo main crematoriums ofBhainsakund and Gulalaghat.

PK Srivastava, a resident ofLucknow, says the inflow is so highthat the local administration hasintroduced a token system. “I hadgone for a cremation of my relativeon Saturday and our token numberwas 90,” he said, adding that it tookover 14 hours for the cremation totake place.

Normally around 45-50 bodiesare cremated daily. In Lucknow,

bodies of COVID patients are cre-mated separately. The Governmentclaims that the primary cause of thecrisis in the crematoriums is thatbodies are also coming in fromneighbouring districts. There is noproper system to cremate COVIDvictims there so people are bringingthem to Lucknow.

A little over a month ago — onMarch 29 — the country celebratedHoli. Throwing all precaution to thewind, people mingled and smearedcolour on each other. A day earlierthe markets were bustling. Throwingprecaution to the wind, people liter-ally jostled with each other to pur-chase sweets, new clothes andcolours. A majority of them were notwearing masks and no one wasobjecting to it. In one month, theworld turned upside down. Almostevery mohalla in UP now hasCOVID case and many houses havereported fatalities too. Then, to addto the troubles, many attended theMaha Kumbh and came back sick.

So, what went wrong? Was it afailure of the Government or the peo-ple? For me, it is a failure of both —the Government and the people.Experts at John Hopkins Medicinebelieve that human behaviour is amajor factor for the second wave ofthe pandemic. They call it “protocolfatigue” under which people wereforced to wear a face mask, washhands regularly and maintain socialdistance. In some cases the violatorsof this norm were penalised and asa result of this, people actually endedup spending about one year insidetheir homes. Once the situationeased people came out and startedcelebrating life believing that every-thing was normal. The Government,

too, lowered its guard. Though thesenior leaders and doctors warnedthat COVID had not gone away, theGovernment allowed opening ofschools, the restrictions on partiesand social gatherings were lifted andpolitical activities like elections start-ed. The infrastructure which theGovernment had built in the last oneyear was dismantled. The ICCC,which was the bulwark in dissemi-nating information about COVIDcases and was the only tool toremain in touch with patients wasdismantled too. The staff was cur-tailed and the telephone lines wererestricted. In this scenario when thesecond wave struck UP, the admin-istration was caught unawares.

When the tandav of death wasgoing on in the cities, the villageswere busy with Panchayat elections.The Teachers’ Association says 706teachers, who were deployed in theelection duty, died of COVID. Wasit preventable? Yes, it was. In 1991after the assassination of formerPrime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, theLok Sabha election was postponedfor a month. If that election couldhave been postponed, what prevent-ed the State Election Commission orthe State Government from postpon-ing the Panchayat election?

The Government argues thatPanchayat elections are held underthe direction of the High Court, butthe State Government could havemoved the Supreme Court. There isa fear that the Corona has nowspread into the villages because of thePanchayat election. The Governmenthas started screening and testing thevillagers to arrest the spread. Howmuch it will succeed in doing this,only time will tell.

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Along with the printmedia and online plat-forms, cartoons, comic

strips and hand-drawn postershave played a life-saving roleduring this pandemic. A near-universal language of lines,coexistence of images andwords, the visual economyand sequentiality of comicbooks and strips not onlyappeals to children, the illiter-ate, and adults but is alsowell-suited to disseminate epi-demic-related information andfor conveying complex scien-tific information. In someinstances, the very act of cre-ating one’s own comic strip orcharacter has therapeutic, cop-ing and healing benefits.

Comics as a citizen-friendly medium: Comicsclarify, visualise and translatecritical public health messagesand the findings of medicalscience into citizen-friendlyinformation, thus bridging art

and science. Sample this:Argha Manna, a science com-municator, in ‘Be Aware ofDroplets and Bubbles!’ conveysthe science behind theCOVID-19 transference in anengaging and relatable way.Similarly, Lili Todd and ForestRohwer of the ViralInformation Institute at SanDiego State University createda series of hand-drawn comicsand posters to offer concisescientific explanations for viralinfections, vaccinations, andthe wearing of N95/KN95masks.

Maki Naro and DianaKwon’s ‘Meet the New Strains’published by ‘The Nib’ (a lead-ing US online daily comicspublication focused on polit-ical cartoons, graphic journal-ism, essays and memoir aboutcurrent affairs) in February2021, explain the process ofvirus mutation in an easy andplayful format.

The visually-fascinatingand colourful comics explainthe otherwise difficult-to-understand mutations of theCOVID-19 virus in citizen-friendly ways. Above all, facts,numbers, data, and figurespresented in the comics medi-um not only deepen ourunderstanding of the trans-mission and prevention ofCOVID-19 but also cultivatescientific temper and rationalapproaches to COVID-19.

Comics as a pedagogicaltool: Given such strengths, itis not surprising that manyGovernments across the worldand international agenciessuch as the UN have harnessedthe power of comics to educateeveryone about wearingmasks, social distancing, andhand washing. The Ministry ofHealth and Family Welfare ofthe Government of India, forinstance, published a mini-comic titled ‘Kids, Vaayu &

Corona.’ Scripted and con-ceptualised by RavindraKhaiwal and Suman Mor,Vaayu, an Indian superhero,educates the kids about simpleprecautions (greeting tradi-tionally, among others) toreduce the chances of con-tracting COVID-19.

The award-winning artist,Sonny Liew, along with infec-tious disease expert ProfessorHsu Li Yang of NUS SawSwee Hock School of PublicHealth, Singapore, created two

conversational comic serieswith anthropomorphic char-acters to dispel doubts aboutCOVID-19. The first seriestitled ‘Baffled Bunny andCurious Cat’ surfaced inFebruary 2020 and was strict-ly dated to convey the level ofinformation available at thattime. Adopting the tone of apublic health announcement,Doctor Duck states: “Weshould all strive to act respon-sibly.”

Similarly, the SouthAfrican health department inits ‘COVID-19 Online Resource& News Portal’ communicatesmedical information throughcomic characters like Wazi,Duma, and Lunga. Sharingfacts and reliable informationis vital for handling COVID-19 and comics do that effec-tively in various formats andstyles.

Comics as personal sto-ries: The most memorable

comics are those depicting arange of personal storiesdescribing the fear of conta-gion, restrictions, touch depri-vation, isolation, hope, men-tal health conditions, angst,among others. Drawn byfrontline workers, caregivers,patients, and other stakehold-ers themselves, these heart-wrenching comics, in stylesranging from fantasy to noir,capture the uncanny that oneexperiences in the era ofCOVID-19.

Iranian cartoonistBozorgmehr Hosseinpour’smoving comics which show aphysician holding up a patientas he himself goes underwateris a compelling example.

Again, the ‘New Yorker’cartoonist Jason Chatfield’s‘COVID-19 Diary’ publishedon his website, documents insparse visuals the artist’s pro-gression from initial denial togrim acceptance of COVID-

19, culminating in his accep-tance of the virus.

Depictions like these sig-nificantly deepen what islabelled as “graphic medicine,”a confluence of comics andhealthcare. The recently-pub-lished ‘COVID Chronicles: AComics Anthology’ by ‘GraphicMundi’ for the first time, col-lects such comics and coversa broad range of topics such asracism, health inequities andpersonal realisations ofCOVID-19.

In these challenging times,comics have served us in mul-tiple ways: As a coping mech-anism, as a therapeutic medi-um, as a pedagogical tool, asan impactful science commu-nication and finally, as a medi-um which can affect behav-ioural change in individualsand communities. Given suchmerits, it is apt that we consid-er comics as another COVID-19 helpline.

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Guerrilla soldiers fromMyanmar's Karen ethnic

minority burned down aGovernment military outposton Friday after capturing itwithout a fight when its garri-son fled, a senior Karen officersaid.

The position is approxi-mately 15 kilometers (ninemiles) from a larger camp thatthe Karen National LiberationArmy stormed and burned 10days earlier. The KNLA is thearmed wing of the KarenNational Union, the main polit-ical organization representingthe Karen minority, whosehomeland is in easternMyanmar.

The Karen and the Kachinin northern Myanmar are thetwo major ethnic armed orga-nizations that have allied them-selves with the movementagainst the junta that tookpower in Myanmar after thearmy ousted the elected gov-

ernment of Aung San Suu Kyiin February.

The role of the ethnic fight-ing groups has become moreimportant as the number ofpeople joining street protests inMyanmar's cities and towns hasdeclined, in large part due todeadly violence increasinglyused by security forces to sup-press them. Hundreds ofdemonstrators and bystandershave died.

There is now daily fightingbetween the Government andthe military forces of the Karenand the Kachin.

A shadow National UnityGovernment formed by thejunta's foes announced thisweek the formation of a“People's Defense Force”intended to serve as a precur-sor to a “Federal Union Army”of democratic forces includingethnic minorities, underliningthe major rule they may play.

Video provided to TheAssociated Press showed KNLAsoldiers on Friday inside the U

Thu Hta base — a group ofwooden buildings and trench-es cut into a forest — inspect-ing mortar shells left behind bythe Government military. Thecamp is close to the SalweenRiver, which marks the borderwith Thailand.

“Yesterday our troops fireda few shots and today when weapproached there was no onethere, so we just entered,”KNLA Maj. Gen. Ner DahMya said by phone Friday.

Fighting between the guer-rillas and the Myanmar army

has been increasing since lastyear but escalated after the mil-itary's seizure of power.

The Karen National Unionhas been fighting for greaterautonomy for the region fordecades. It has denounced theFebruary coup and given shel-ter to opposition supportersevading arrest. As well as con-fronting the army on the bat-tlefield, the KNLA has report-edly been training hundreds ofyoung activists from the citiesin the rudiments of guerrillawarfare.

The attack raised the like-lihood of retaliatory air strikesby the Myanmar military anda surge of refugees trying to fleeinto Thailand.

Myanmar military jets havelaunched around 30 attackssince the end of March, tar-geting Karen villages as well asKNLA positions, according to aid groups activein the area.

Several thousand peoplecrossed the Salween River intoThailand in April but Thaiauthorities insisted they goback to Myanmar.

The U.N. Office for theCoordination of HumanitarianAffairs said last week that40,000 people have been newlydisplaced in Karen territory byintensified fighting betweenthe Government and theKNLA, and by “indiscrimi-nate attacks” by Myanmar'sarmy on civilian areas.

Many of the displaced vil-lagers have been hiding out injungles, caves and valleys.

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Police in the Maldives saidFriday an explosion that

wounded former PresidentMohamed Nasheed and fourothers including a Britishnational was an act of terrorismand they are attempting toidentify four possible suspects.Australian police said they areready to assist the investigation.

Nasheed, 53, was woundedin the blast outside his homeThursday night as he was aboutto get into his car, police said.He is being treated in a hospi-tal in the capital, Male, wheremultiple surgeries were per-formed to remove shrapnel,they said. Home MinisterImran Abdulla told a local tele-vision station that the injurieswere not life-threatening.

Nasheed has been an out-spoken critic of religiousextremism in the predomi-nantly Sunni Muslim nation,where preaching and practicingother faiths are banned by law.

Police CommissionerMohamed Hameed said policeare treating the blast as an act ofterrorism against the formerpresident. Two of Nasheed'sbodyguards and two apparentbystanders, including a Britishcitizen, were also wounded, hesaid. Police have not detectedany military-grade componentsin the explosives used, Hameed

said. They are trying to identi-fy four possible suspects but noarrests have been made, he said.

No one has claimedresponsibility for the blast.Photos circulated on socialmedia showed a ripped-upmotorcycle at the scene.

Nasheed is the currentParliament speaker and was thefirst democratically electedpresident of the Indian Oceanarchipelago, serving from 2008to 2012.

Current President IbrahimMohamed Solih said in a tele-vised speech that AustralianFederal Police investigators willarrive on Saturday. TheAustralian police force said itwill assess what assistance they

can provide the investigation.The Maldives is known

for its luxury resorts but hasexperienced occasional violentattacks. In 2007, a blast in apark in the capital wounded 12foreign tourists.

Violence has been blamedon a rise in religious extrem-ism. The Maldives has one ofthe highest per capita numbersof militants who fought inSyria and Iraq alongside theIslamic State group.

Maldives authoritiesannounced in January thateight people arrested inNovember were found to havebeen planning to attack a schooland were in the process ofbuilding bombs in a boat at sea.

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World powers held a fourthround of high-level talks

Friday in Austria aimed atbringing the United States backinto the nuclear deal with Iran,with both sides signalling awillingness to work out themajor stumbling blocks.

The talks began in earlyApril and Russian delegateMikhail Ulyanov tweeted fol-lowing Friday's meeting that“the participants agreed on theneed to intensify the process.”

“The delegations seem tobe ready to stay in Vienna aslong as necessary to achieve thegoal,” he wrote.

The US pulled out of thelandmark 2015 deal in 2018after then-President DonaldTrump said the pact needed tobe renegotiated. The deal hadpromised Iran economic incen-tives in exchange for curbs onits nuclear program, and theTrump administration reim-posed heavy sanctions on theIslamic republic in an unsuc-cessful attempt to bring Tehraninto new talks.

Iran reacted by steadilyincreasing its violations of thedeal, which is intended to pre-vent the country from obtain-ing nuclear weapons. Iranbegan enriching uranium to agreater purity, stockpiling morethan allowed and beginning to

use more advanced centrifugesin an attempt to pressure theworld powers remaining inthe deal — Germany, France,Britain, Russia and China —for economic relief.

U.S. President Joe Bidensays he wants to rejoin the deal,known as the JointComprehensive Plan of Action,or JCPOA, but that Iran needs to return to com-pliance.

Iran, which insists it doesnot want to produce a nuclearbomb, has said it is prepared toreverse all of its violations butthat Washington must removeall sanctions imposed underTrump.

On the other side is thequestion of what Iran's returnto compliance would look like.Delegates to the Vienna talksconcede, for example, thatIranian nuclear scientists can-not unlearn the knowledgethey acquired in the last threeyears, but it is not clear whetherIran's new centrifuges wouldneed to be destroyed, moth-balled and locked away, orsimply taken offline.

Because the U.S. Is cur-rently out of the deal, there wasno American representationat the talks. Diplomats involvedare shuttling between theIranian side and a delegationfrom Washington elsewherein Vienna.

Between the high-levelmeetings, expert groups havebeen meeting to try and comeup with solutions to the out-standing issues.

Ahead of the talks, a seniorU.S. Official, speaking on con-dition of anonymity to discussthe U.S. Position, saidWashington has laid out theconcessions it's prepared tomake and that success or fail-ure now depends on Iran mak-ing the political decision toaccept those concessions and toreturn to compliance with theaccord.

The official said it remainspossible to reach an agree-ment before Iran's June presi-dential election, which somebelieve are a complicating fac-tor in the discussions.

Iran's delegate to the talks,Deputy Foreign Minister AbbasAraghchi, told his country'sstate-run IRNA news agencylate Thursday that his team wastrying to reach an agreement assoon as possible but would notact in haste and would act inIran's national interests.

“We are on a specifiedpath about which there are, for-tunately, agreements, but thereare serious obstacles in the wayas well," Araghchi said.

Heading into the talks,Ulyanov tweeted that he sawpositive signs from the Iranianminister's statements.

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Atop leader of a hardlineIslamist group was arrest-

ed in eastern Bangladesh'sSylhet city on Friday, as theGovernment continued tocrack the whip on anti-gov-ernment protesters, accordingto a media report.

The legal affairs expert ofHefazat-e-Islam, AdvocateMaulana Shahinur PashaChowdhury, was apprehendedby the the CriminalInvestigation Department offi-cials at Subidbazar in Sylhet,the Dhaka Tribune reported.

However, the police havenot disclosed the chargesagainst Chowdhury, who hasearlier served as the Member ofParliament from SunamganjIII.

Dozens of Hefazat leadersand activists have been arrest-ed in recent weeks after thehardline Islamist group wagedanti-government protests.

Some Hefazat leaders havebeen charged for instigatingviolence during Prime MinisterNarendra Modi's Bangladeshvisit in March and orchestrat-ing the violent demonstrationsin 2013 when several peoplewere killed as the groupdemanded the enactment of ablasphemy law.

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Abloody, hourslong gunbat-tle in a Rio de Janeiro

slum echoed into Friday, withauthorities saying the policemission successfully eliminat-ed two dozen criminals whileresidents and activists claimedhuman rights abuses.

It was just after sunriseThursday when dozens of offi-cers from Rio de Janeiro state'scivil police stormedJacarezinho, a favela in thecity's northern zone. They weretargeting drug traffickers fromone of Brazil's most notoriouscriminal organizations,Comando Vermelho, and the

bodies piled up quickly.Whenthe fighting stopped, therewere 25 dead — one police offi-cer and 24 people described bythe police as “criminals.”

Rio's moniker of“Marvelous City” can oftenseem a cruel irony in the fave-las, given their stark poverty,violent crime and subjugation todrug traffickers or militias. Buteven here, Thursday's clash wasa jarring anomaly that analystsdeclared one of the city's dead-liest police operations ever.

The bloodshed also laidbare Brazil's perennial divideover whether, as a commonlocal saying goes, “a good crim-inal is a dead criminal.”

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Israeli troops shot and killedtwo Palestinians and wound-

ed a third after the men openedfire on a Border Police base inthe occupied West Bank onFriday, police said.

They said the three attack-ers opened fire on the base nearthe northern West Bank townof Jenin. The Border Police andan Israeli soldier opened fire inresponse, killing two of themen and wounding a third,who was evacuated to a hospi-tal.

The violence comes at atime of heightened tensionsover east Jerusalem, wheredozens of Palestinians are atrisk of being evicted followinga long legal battle with Israeli

settlers. Palestinian protestershave clashed with police thereon a nightly basis in recentweeks.

On Thursday, Israeli forcesarrested a Palestinian suspect-ed of carrying out a drive-byshooting earlier this week in theWest Bank that killed an Israeliand wounded two others.

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The US has deployed a dozenadditional warplanes to

bolster protection of Americanand coalition troops making afinal withdrawal fromAfghanistan as Taliban insur-gents step up pressure onAfghan government forces, topPentagon officials have said.

General Mark Milley,chairman of the Joint Chiefs ofStaff, said F-18 attack planeshave been added to a previouslyannounced package of air andsea power, including the USSDwight D Eisenhower aircraftcarrier in the North ArabianSea and six Air Force B-52bombers based in Qatar, that

can be called upon as protec-tion for withdrawing troops.

Also part of that previous-ly announced package are sev-eral hundred Army Rangers.

US officials said before thewithdrawal began that theyexpected the Taliban to attemptto interfere, even as the insur-gents continue pressuring gov-ernment forces, especially inHelmand and Kandaharprovinces in southernAfghanistan.

"There continue to be sus-tained levels of violent attacks”by the Taliban against Afghansecurity forces, Milley said,speaking alongside DefenseSecretary Lloyd Austin at aPentagon news conference.

He said there have been noattacks against US or coalitionforces since they began pullingout of the country on aboutMay 1, and he described theAfghan forces as “cohesive,”even as speculation swirlsaround Kabul's ability to holdoff the Taliban in the monthsahead.

Both Milley and Austin, aretired Army general, are vet-erans of the war in Afghanistan.

"They're fighting for theirown country now, so it's not aforegone conclusion, in myprofessional military estimate,that the Taliban automaticallywin and Kabul falls, or any ofthose kinds of dire predic-tions,” Milley said.

Beijing: Breaking its silence onits tumbling space rocket,whose debris is expected to fallon the Earth this weekend,China said most of it would beburnt during the re-entry andit is "highly unlikely" to causeany damage on the ground.

Replying to questionsabout the Long March 5B rock-et, which last week launchedthe core module of the coun-try's space station and startedhurtling down to Earth,Chinese Foreign Ministryspokesman

Wang Wenbin told a mediabriefing here on Friday thatChina will provide timelyupdates on it. PTI

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WhatsApp has scrapped itsMay 15 deadline for

users to accept its controversialprivacy policy update and saidnot accepting the terms will notlead to deletion of accounts.

WhatsApp had facedsevere backlash over user con-cerns that data was beingshared with parent companyFacebook.

A WhatsApp spokespersontold PTI that no accounts willbe deleted on May 15 for not

accepting the policy update.“No accounts will be delet-

ed on May 15 because of thisupdate and no one in India willlose functionality of WhatsAppeither. We will follow up withreminders to people over thenext several weeks,” thespokesperson said in anemailed response to a query onFriday.

The spokesperson addedthat while a “majority of userswho have received the newterms of service have acceptedthem”, some people have not

had the chance to do so yet.However, the company did

not clarify the reason behindthe decision and did notdivulge the number of userswho have accepted the terms sofar.

In January this year,WhatsApp had informed usersabout the changes in its termsof service and public policythrough an in-app notification.Users were initially given timetill February 8 to agree to thenew terms in order to contin-ue using the platform.

���� 84 �/4-69

The National FinancialReporting Authority

(NFRA) has prepared a provi-sional database of companiesand auditors that come underits regulatory ambit.

NFRA has the mandate tooversee compliance withaccounting and auditing stan-dards by certain class of com-panies, described as PublicInterest Entities (PIEs).

In this regard, a verifiedand accurate database of com-panies and auditors that comeunder the regulatory ambit ofNFRA is being prepared, anofficial release said on Friday.

Establishment of the data-base involves critical steps likeidentification and verificationof the primary data source, andreconciliation of data such asCompany IdentificationNumber (CIN) from differentsources.

For preparing the data-base, NFRA has been workingwith the corporate affairs min-istry’s Corporate DataManagement (CDM) divisionand three recognised nationalstock exchanges.

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Equity benchmarks stretchedtheir winning streak for

the third session on Friday asrobust corporate results andpositive global cues propped uprisk appetite despite the Covid-19 overhang.

A strong recovery in therupee, which zoomed 27 paiseagainst the US dollar, also bol-stered investor sentiment,traders said.

The 30-share BSE Sensexclimbed 256.71 points or 0.52per cent to finish at 49,206.47.

Similarly, the broader NSENifty rose 98.35 points or 0.67per cent to 14,823.15.

HDFC was the top per-former in the Sensex pack,spurting 2.70 per cent, afterreporting a 31 per cent jump inconsolidated net profit at Rs5,669 crore for the March quar-ter.

M&M, Bajaj Finserv,NTPC, Bharti Airtel, ITC,ONGC and UltraTech Cementwere the other prominent win-ners, rising up to 2.68 percent. On the other hand, BajajAuto, Bajaj Finance, Infosys,

Kotak Bank and ICICI Banktumbled up to 2 per cent.

During the week, theSensex advanced 424.11 pointsor 0.86 per cent, and the Niftyjumped 192.05 points or 1.31per cent.

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The Reserve Bank on Fridaysaid it will conduct the

first auction for special long-term repo operations (SLTRO)of �10,000 crore for SmallFinance Banks (SFBs) on May17.

To provide further supportto small business units, microand small industries, and otherunorganised sector entitiesadversely affected during thecurrent wave of the pandemic,the RBI has decided to conductSLTRO of �10,000 crore at therepo rate for the SFBs, to bedeployed for fresh lending ofup to �10 lakh per borrower.

The facility will be availabletill October 31, 2021.

In a statement, the ReserveBank of India said it will con-duct one auction for SLTROeach month.

“The first auction will beconducted on May 17, 2021, for�10,000 crore. The unutilisedportion of notified �10,000crore will be carried forward ineach subsequent auction untilfully utilised or till the last auc-tion, whichever is earlier,” itsaid.

The SFBs participating inthe scheme will have to ensurethat the amount borrowedfrom the RBI should at all timesbe backed by lending to thespecified segments till thematurity of the SLTRO.

Further, SFBs should

endeavour to lend within 30days from the date of availingthe funds from the RBI.

In case of over-subscriptionof the notified amount, theallotment will be done on apro-rata basis, the central banksaid.

���� 84 �/4-69

The impact of the secondwave of the coronavirus

pandemic on the economy islikely to remain muted as com-pared to the first wave, theFinance Ministry said in itsmonthly economic report.

Admitting that the secondwave of the pandemic hasposed a downside risk to eco-nomic activity in the first quar-ter of FY2021-22, the reportsaid “there are reasons to expecta muted economic impact ascompared to the first wave.Learning to ‘operate withCovid-19’, as borne by inter-national experience, provides asilver lining of economicresilience amidst the secondwave”.

The fiscal position of theCentral Government, it said,has witnessed an improvementin the recent months with arevival in the economic activ-

ities during the second half ofFY2020-21.

As per provisional figures,net direct tax collections for2020-21 are 4.5 per cent high-er than Revised Estimates (RE)and 5 per cent higher than col-lections in 2019-20 - the sig-nificant growth compared to2019-20 provides an indicationof economic recovery sincethe first wave.GST mop-upregistered a good growth andcollections exceeded Rs 1 lakhcrore in each of the last sixmonths owing to economicrecovery,

it said, adding, GST rev-enue registered another recordhigh of Rs 1.41 lakh crore inApril, indicative of continualeconomic recovery.

However, the report notedthat the second wave of thepandemic hit the market sen-timent as Nifty 50 and the S&PBSE Sensex recorded losses of0.4 per cent and 1.5 per cent,

respectively in April, and therupee depreciated by 2.3 percent to reach 74.51 INR/USDin April. This was mirrored bynet FPI outflows of USD 1.18billion in April.Domestic finan-cial conditions, nevertheless,continue to remain comfortablewith RBI’s support to liquidity,with open market operationsworth Rs 3.17 lakh crore car-ried out in 2020-21, it said.

Launch of G-SAP 1.0towards stable and orderlymanagement of the yield curveis a significant tool for forwardguidance. While overall finan-cial conditions remainedaccommodative, the reportsaid, credit growth continued tobe muted at 5.3 per cent as onApril 9, 2021. Sectorally, thereport said, agriculture, medi-um industry and trade servicesled the credit offtake in March,while credit to small and largeindustry and NBFC servicesremained subdued.

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The country’s foreignexchange reserves swelled

by USD 3.913 billion to reachUSD 588.02 billion in the weekended April 30, 2021, RBI datashowed on Friday.

In the previous weekended April 23, the reserveshad risen by USD 1.701 billionto USD 584.107 billion. Theforex kitty had touched a life-time high of USD 590.185 bil-lion in the week ended January29, 2021.

In the reporting week

ended April 30, 2021, the risein reserves was on account ofan increase in foreign curren-cy assets (FCAs), a major com-ponent of the overall reserves.

FCAs rose by USD 4.413billion to USD 546.059 bil-lion, as per the weekly data bythe Reserve Bank of India(RBI).

Expressed in dollar terms,the foreign currency assetsinclude the effect of apprecia-tion or depreciation of non-USunits like the euro, pound andyen held in the foreignexchange reserves.

New Delhi:SBI chairmanDinesh Kumar Khara said thatthe bank does not have imme-diate plans to raise capital as areasonable profit of the last fis-cal would be ploughed back totake care of foreseeable busi-ness growth.”We had raisedTier I and Tier II bonds earli-er. Considering the growth wehad seen last year, we are hav-ing a comfortable capital ade-quacy ratio,” he told PTI in aninterview. PTI

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The RBI on Friday asked thebanks seeking funding

from the special �50,000-croreon-tap liquidity window to on-lend money to the healthcareservice providers within 30days of availing the creditfacility.

Earlier this week, theRBI had decided to open anon-tap liquidity window of �50,000 crore with tenures ofup to three years at the reporate till March 31, 2022, toboost liquidity for ramping upCovid-19-related healthcareinfrastructure and services.

Under the scheme, bankscan provide fresh lending sup-port to a wide range of entitiesincluding vaccine manufac-turers; importers/suppliers ofvaccine and priority medicaldevices; hospitals and dispen-saries; and pathology labs and

diagnostic centres.They will also provide

finance to manufacturers andsuppliers of oxygen and ven-tilators; importers of vaccinesand COVID-related drugs;COVID-related logistics firms;and also patients for treat-ment.The RBI said requestsfrom banks desirous of avail-ing funds from the centralbank will be subject to avail-ability of funds as on the dateof application. Funds cannotbe guaranteed in case thetotal amount of Rs 50,000crore is already availed.

“Furthermore, banksshould endeavour to lendwithin a reasonable period,i.E., not later than 30 daysfrom the date of availing thefunds from the RBI,” it said ina statement adding that thereis no tenure restriction regard-ing lending by banks underthe scheme.

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The Regulations ReviewAuthority of the Reserve

Bank of India (RBI) has con-stituted an advisory group tosupport it.

The group will assist theRRA by identifying areas,regulations, guidelines andreturns which can be ratio-nalised and submit reportsperiodically to the RRA con-taining its recommendations.

“The RRA has constitut-ed an Advisory Group, rep-resenting members from reg-

ulated entities, includingcompliance officers, to sup-port the RRA in achieving theobjective set forth in theterms of reference of RRA2.0,” said an RBI statement.

State Bank of IndiaManaging Director S.Janakiraman will be theChairman of the advisorygroup and the other membersare T.T. Srinivasaraghavan(former Managing Directorand Non-Executive Director,Sundaram Finance), GautamThakur (Chairman, SaraswatCo-operative Bank).

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New Delhi:Gold rose by �474to � 47,185 per 10 gram in thenational capital on Fridayamid strong buying in glob-al precious metals, accordingto HDFC Securities. In theprevious trade, the preciousmetal had closed at �46,711per 10 gram. Silver alsojumped �1,050 to �70,791per kilogram from � 69,741per kilogram in the previoustrade. PTI

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Mumbai:The rupee gainedfor the second straight dayand closed 27 paise higher at73.51 against the US dollar onFriday, supported by positivedomestic equities and weakAmerican currency.

At the interbank forexmarket, the rupee opened at73.62 and hit an intra-dayhigh of 73.50 and a low of73.76.

PTI

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The last lockdown saw the risingpopularity of podcasts. At atime when everyone was jug-

gling housework and WFH, thesemade perfect sense as a means ofkeeping abreast of the latest as well asgetting entertained. So much so thateveryone, especially the youngergeneration, is hooked to them.

In December 2020, Amazonannounced its acquisition ofWondery, a podcasting company.The popular audio firm Spotify hasalso been acquiring multiple podcaststart-ups over the past two years.Ximalaya FM, a Chinese podcastingplatform, has earned the unicorn sta-tus. This shopping spree by industrygiants is a strong indicator of just howbig podcasts are set to become glob-ally. India too saw growth in podcastlisteners with a 42 per cent increaseof users on audio streaming platformsin March 2020.

Another reason why podcasts areincreasingly finding listeners is thewide range of genres on offer. Fromnews and talk shows to a variety ofaudiobooks and lessons on self-improvement, there is no dearth ofcontent for all listeners. While thereare a few hiccups such as monetisingby transforming the increase in listen-ers to revenue (only about 1 per centof users are paid subscribers of the topmusic apps in India), podcasting plat-forms are optimistic for the timeahead given the rise in audiences.

Germin8, an AI powered socialmedia listening and analytics plat-form, share trends for podcasts in2021::

�Continued rise of live streamingLive broadcasting of interviews,

debates, and podcasting events saw

growth over the past few years andparticularly in 2020, given the Covid-19 scenario. Podcasting events grewin popularity as virtual attendancebecame the new normal, and the pre-diction is that such live streams willcontinue to be popular in 2021.Podcast events not only bring hosts,audiences, marketers together but isalso scope for revenue earning as plat-forms can go on to charge admissionentry for listeners.

�Growth in podcast ad revenueTalking about revenue,

2021 will see an increasein earnings for brandssince podcastingoffers a low-costyet effectivemethod of adver-tising. TheG u a r d i a n ' sPodcast Insights2020 found that theaudience not onlylistens carefully to adsduring podcasts but isalso more likely to search forthe product being advertised or rec-ommend it to people they know. TheWARC Global Ad Trends report of2019 estimates that podcast advertis-ing will be worth $1.6 billion by 2022.Marketers ready to invest so much inpodcast ads speaks volumes about theexpected ad revenues.

�New and independent entrantsinto podcasting

The dynamic nature of podcast-ing makes it easier for new talent toenter the space, and 2021 is expect-ed to witness more new and indepen-dent entrants launching podcasts. Atthe same time, big industry nameslike Facebook are also adding audio

content to their platforms. Moreover,with people spending more time athome, the demand for innovative anddiverse content has opened up pod-casting opportunities for indepen-dent artists.

�Newer strategies for monetisingpodcasts

Podcast makers and platformsthis year will be looking for newavenues to cash in on the demandand monetise podcasts beyond theusual advertising. Luminary has a

subscription model similarto Netf lix via Apple

Podcasts Subscriptionsto access audio con-

tent. Platforms alsouse podcasts todrive the audienceto other business-es, such as anaudio call to action

to visit their websiteor buy an online

newspaper subscrip-tion. Podcorn uses a

model in which they connectbrands to relevant podcasters forplacing ads, a brilliant strategy thathelps all podcasters earn money.

�Increase in competition amongpodcast platforms

It is no surprise that the compe-tition among the various platformsis all set to heat up this year. Brandsare using social listening to identifydemands and offer endless options tolisteners, with genres ranging frompop culture and comedy to truecrime. Apple and Spotify have beentwo of the biggest podcast plat-forms, and now other players areputting in a good fight for their shareof the industry. Recently, Spotify

announced a host of new podcastoriginals targeted at the Indianaudience. Other apps are offeringinnovative content, exclusives withcelebrities, and audio options in var-ious languages — all to the benefitof listeners.

�More variety in listenersAlong with the diversity in pod-

cast content, the listener demo-graphic is also expanding and 2021is likely to see a continuation of thistrend. From young teens to parentsand audience across genders, ethnic-ity, age groups, and occupation, pod-

cast listenership is truly engaged inthe content available today. In fact,recent data from Nielsen showsthat there is more diversity in thepodcast audience than in the actu-al population of the US.

According to a 2020 report byFICCI-EY, 47 per cent of all inter-net users in India in the age groupof 16-64 years listen to podcasts.While podcasting is currently afrequently changing space, withsuch recent statistics, one thingseems sure — audio will continue tobe big in 2021.

—IANS

Yaar Julahay, a forthcomingseries of dramatic readings

of writers who craft storieswith the deftness of masterweavers, is all set to premiereon May 15, with the debutepisode featuring Pakistaniactress Mahira Khan readingAhmad Nadeem Qasmi's clas-sic story, Guriya (doll).

The Zee Theatre series ofdramatic readings is spreadacross 12 episodes and will airon DTH platforms — Tata SkyTheatre, Airtel Spotlight, DishTV and D2H RangmanchActive. The name of the seriesis inspired by a Gulzar poem.

Yaar Julahay brings to lifethe stories of progressive Urduand Hindi writers like Gulzar,Saadat Hasan Manto, IsmatChughtai, Munshi Premchand,Amrita Pritam, QurratulainHaider, Balwant Singh, AsadMuhammad Khan, GhulamAbbas, Rajinder Singh Bediand Intezar Hussain. The read-ers will be stars like SarmadKhoosat, Sarwat Gilani, NimraBucha, Fawad Khan, SaniaSaeed, Irfan Khoosat, YasraRizvi, Samiya Mumtaz, andFaisal Qureshi.

Guriya is the story of two

best friends Mehra and Bano.Bano has a doll (Guriya) thatresembles Mehra who doesn'tlike that doll at all. With timetheir fondness and hate for thedoll grows many fold. Towardsthe end comes an unorthodoxtwist to the storyline that sub-tly unfolds the mystery aroundthe doll.

Qasmi, an Urdu-languagePakistani poet, journalist, lit-erary critic, dramatist andshort story author, was born in1916.

According to ShailjaKejriwal, chief creative officer,special projects, ZEEL, eachepisode of Yaar Julahay fea-tures the immersive reading ofa remarkable story that is asunique and complex as thesubcontinent we live in.

“Each one of the featuredwriters has processed realitythrough characters that wecan still identify with. It was ajoy to work on these classictales with Kanwal and SarmadKhoosat because we have col-laborated with them beforeand they always approach aproject with a certain artisticsensitivity and deep respect forthe material they are workingwith. Their sensibility wasneeded for a project as uniqueas this.”

Acclaimed director andactor Sarmad Khoosat says theseries is inspired by Dastangoi,a tradition of creating andtelling stories, that definesSouth Asia.

He explains, “We haveinterpreted Dastangoi in acontemporary way and there isalso live and recorded musicalong with suggestive detailsarticulating the theme of thestory. For instance, when Idirected Mahira Khan for thestory Guriya, the set wasstrewn with dolls that in a waytold their own story. Theycreated an eerie atmospherethat augmented the narrationand enhanced the inherentmood of the reading.”

Director Kanwal Khoosatadds, “This series attempts tointroduce a newer audience toliterature through a formatthat blends Dastangoi withthe Chamber Theatre tech-nique where a reader has anenvironment, a minimal stagesetting to not just read in butto perform, interpret anddeliver a story in. In eachreading, we have tried to main-tain the integrity of the author'svoice even as we amplify itthrough the digital medium toreach as many people as pos-sible.” —IANS

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The deadly coronaviruspandemic has plagued

the entertainment industrysince last year and again theHindi film industry has cometo a halt, given the hugespike in COVID-19 cases dueto the second wave of infec-tions. Last year, during thelockdown, Aditya Chopralent his support to thousandsof daily wage earners of thefilm industry by creditingmoney directly into theirbank accounts. The biggestproduction house of India,Yash Raj Films, has come for-ward in this moment of needby launching the Yash ChopraSaathi Initiative to providesupport to thousands of dailyworkers in the film industry.

Aditya Chopra has takencognisance of the massivesocio-economic and human-itarian crisis that the dailyworkers of the industry arecurrently facing and The YashChopra Foundation is rollingout the initiative so that thou-sands of daily wage earnerscan tide over these turbulentand highly unpredictabletimes.

As part of the initiative,the foundation will initiate adirect benefit transfer of�5,000 to the women andsenior citizens of the indus-try as well as distribute rationkits to workers for a family offour for an entire monththrough their NGO partners

Youth Feed India. Through anonline application process athttps://yashchoprafounda-tion.org, those in need canapply to avail of this support.

Akshaye Widhani, SeniorVice President, Yash Raj Filmssays, “The Yash ChopraFoundation is committed toconstantly and relentlesslybeing a support system to theHindi film industry and itsworkers who have been anintegral part of our 50-yearjourney. The pandemic haspushed the backbone of ourindustry, the daily workers, toa breaking point and YRFwants to support as manyworkers and their familieswho are in need due to theloss of livelihood. YashChopra Saathi Initiative isaiming to provide support tothe pandemic hit workers ofour industry who we urgent-ly need to focus on.”

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India is cur-rently battling

the second waveof COVID-19and people havebeen comingforward to dotheir bit to tack-le the crisis.Indian CricketTeam captainVirat Kohli andB o l l y w o o dactor AnushkaSharma areaiming to raise �seven crore for COVID relief in India. Theyare kickstarting a fundraising campaign #InThisTogether onthe crowd-funding platform Ketto and are putting ��two crorefor this initiative.

#InThisTogether will run for seven days on Ketto and theproceeds raised will be directed to ACT Grants who is theimplementation partner for this campaign. ACT has beenextensively working towards providing oxygen, medical man-power, vaccination awareness and telemedicine facilities allthrough the pandemic and the amount raised by Anushkaand Virat will aid their exemplary work.

Anushka says, “India is going through an extremely dif-ficult time and the second wave of the deadly COVID-19 pan-demic has pushed our country to a state of crisis. It is timefor all of us to come together and do our bit for our fellowcountrymen who are in serious need for support. Virat andI have been hugely pained looking at the inexplicable suffer-ing that people are going through and we hope that this fundwill aid in our fight against the virus that we are all helpless-ly witnessing. We are praying for everyone’s safety. We hopethat you join us in our prayers to save as many lives as pos-sible because we are all in this together.”

Virat says, “We are going through an unprecedented timein the history of our country and our nation needs all of usto unite and save as many people as possible. Anushka andI have been shocked to see the human suffering since last year.We have been working towards helping as many people aspossible all through the pandemic and now, India wants oursupport more than ever. We are starting this fundraiser withthe confidence that we will be able to raise substantial fundsto aid those in dire need. We are confident that people willcome forward to support fellow countrymen in crisis. We arein this together and we shall overcome this.”

Gayatri Yadav, spokesperson ACT Grants says, “ACTGrants powered by India’s start up passion is on a missionto help supply oxygen and support our healthcare system,working with the government to address critical medicalneeds. Having strong voices like Anushka and Virat help drivefundraising efforts will go a long way towards helping us realisethis goal. On behalf of India’s startup ecosystem, ACT Grantsis truly grateful to have them join this mission.”

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Between lockdown and social distanc-ing measures, much like last year,

many of your traditional Mother’s Dayplans — brunch at her favorite restau-rant, shopping date, spa appointment,or a family gathering — may not bedoable. So, put on your thinking cap andcome up with innovative ways to cele-brate mom (and the other mom figuresin your life) while still keeping safe andhealthy.

Bring the fam-jam together for agame night

Get your whole family together, picka traditional game online and make anight out of it. Whether you preferhousie, trivia, or card games, there areplenty of them on the internet that willensure your virtual hangout is just as funas your in-person one and bring a bigsmile to your mom’s face.

Create a one-of-a-kindmemory jar

A gift is a way ofexpressing love, andnothing will say ‘I loveyou’ better than thisDIY memory jar. Pendown some of the mostcherished memories youhave made with momon chits of paper and putthem in a mason jar. OnMother’s Day, you bothcan sit together, readand relive those memo-ries over a cup of masalachai. This memory jar can alsoserve as a pick-me-up for her whenyou’re away.

Breakfast in bed for the queenHelp your mom celebrate her spe-

cial day in the most delicious way pos-sible — with a lavish breakfast in bedthat can double up as brunch too! Bringout some of the pantry basics — flour,eggs, butter, milk, sugar, baking pow-der, cinnamon, salt, and walnuts — andcombine those with mashed bananas towhip up a delish stack of fluffy pancakes.Vegetarians can skip the eggs and let themashed fruit take the lead in giving thisbreakfast cum dessert item an airy andlight texture. Or if she prefers Indian,why not try your hand at puttingtogether a poha or a vermicelli upma

breakfast. Sure, you owe thatto her, given how many del-ish meals she has whipped up

at the word go.

Explore an armchair travel experience

While travel hascome to a standstill amidthese testing times, tech-nology allows you to visitany place around theworld in the blink of aneye. Get an up-close lookat Mona Lisa at TheLouvre, a legendary art

museum in Paris, France;sight some of the big five in Africa’snational parks or watch history come tolife at the marvelous town of Hampi inKarnataka.

Clean the house!Not kidding at all. She has told you

this 2,68,262 times, and you know thisis exactly what she wants you to do. Takea couple of chores off her to-do list andadd to yours from this Mother’s Dayonwards and give her a little extra timeto rest.

To say that the past year has tosseda bunch of challenges at all moms wouldbe an understatement. So taking timeout and showing her some love andthanking her for all she has done for usthrough bonding activities like these isthe least you can do.

Kriti posted the video onInstagram, observing how

people were going beyondtheir capacity to helpthose in need.

“What breaks ussomewhere unites us.Today when I lookaround it doesn’t matterwhat your caste is orreligion is, pro-fession is, richor poor, whichstate are youfrom — noth-ing matters.At the end ofit we are alljust humanbeings whocan feel andr e c o g n i s eeach other’spain,” she saysin the video.

“We feel ter-rible when some-one is in needand we are tryingour best to spreadthe word and gethelp. We are totalstrangers to eachother. We aredonating, we are try-ing to figure a way toend each other’s suf-fering and pain. Just athought,” she adds.

Kriti captioned the

image: “I try and see a silver lin-ing in everything... a ray of lightin the dark, good in the bad.. Ya..

I am that person.. Main aur meritanhayi aksar baatein kiya kartehain.. Just felt like sharing mytoday’s bedtime thought..Thank you for being my ‘DearDiary’ for the night..#WeAreInThisTogether.”

The actress has justwrapped up shooting

for the upcomingf i lm Bhediya,

which also starsVarun Dhawan.The supernat-ural film isdirected byA m a r

Kaushik, andthe film is slated to

release on April 14next year.

Besides Bhediya, Kritiwill be seen in the filmMimi, which is based onsurrogacy.

She also stars withAkshay Kumar in theaction comedy BachchanPandey, and with TigerShroff in the action dramaGanpath. Kriti’s line-up offilms also includes HumDo Hamare Do withRajkummar Rao andAdipurush with Prabhas

and Saif Ali Khan.—IANS

Jaya Bachchan nee Bhaduri~~Abhishek and Shweta

Jaya Bachchan blazed a trailwith films like Abhimaan (1973)Mili (1975) and more. GenZknows her for playing the mumin Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham(2001) and Kal Ho Na Ho (2003).

While her son, Abhishek,has proved his acting chops, herdaughter too is well-known.Shweta, a celebrity columnist, isoften spotted walking the ramp atthe fashion week. Her debutnovel, Paradise Towers, turned outto be a bestseller.

While the ladies happen to beindependent, strong thinkers,each possessing a strikingly dif-ferent personality, they are report-edly very close to each other.Shweta shared how Jaya has beenthe bad cop amongst her parents.And Jaya revealed she wasamazed at the liberties whichShweta extends towards herdaughter.

Neetu Kapoor neeSingh~~Ranbir Kapoor andRiddhima Kapoor Sahni

Neetu, wife of the late RishiKapoor, started her career as achild actress at the age of eightunder the name Baby Sonia, andmade her acting debut in 1966with the film Suraj. She went onto star in several blockbusters,many with her late husband. Herson, Ranbir, is an establishedactor with whom she shares anincredible relationship. Herdaughter, Riddhima KapoorSahni, is a well-known jewellerydesigner. And Neetu’s relationshipwith both is different.

Ranbir has always been veryforthcoming about how close heis to his mother and the mother-son chemistry shines brightlyeven through their pictures.

Neetu, on her part, hasrevealed that in her darkest hourit was Ranbir who turned out to

be her ultimate supporter, her bestfriend, and her “only confidant”.“I was very troubled in my mar-ried life. I think he must havebeen 15 or so, when Rishi and Iwent through a really bad patch.I have always felt that while mydaughter should be innocent andlearn to face life as it comes, myson should be street smart andknow everything about life. So Iwould sit with Ranbir and talk tohim,” said Neetu, as per mediareports.

She believes that sharingdetails about her hard times withRanbir changed him and madehim a more responsible, matureperson.

Malaika Arora~~Arhaan KhanMalaika is widely acclaimed

as one of the fittest Bollywoodcelebs ever and no one can imag-ine that she has an 18-year-oldson, Arhaan. Along with regularexercise and yoga, Malaika Aroracredits an healthy and balanceddiet for her toned body. At thesame time, she says that occasion-al cheat meals are allowed. Morethan eating food, the actress stat-ed that she has come to love theprocess of cooking and says thatit was only because of Arhaan thatshe started cooking in the firstplace. Malaika recently shot for acelebrity cooking show where sherevealed that she took up cook-ing as a challenge after her sonquestioned her culinary skills.

The stylish mum-son duomake a striking team and happento be closely followed in thesocial media circle.

Gauri Khan~~Suhana, Aryanand AbRam Khan

Gauri Khan has been a divasince eternity and now her daugh-ter Suhana is in full bloom, fol-lowing her footsteps as well. Thepair are quite vocal about howmuch they love spending most of

their time together. While Suhana often makes

headlines for her resemblance toher father, Shah Rukh Khan, thestar kid revealed in a humoroussocial media post on Mother’sDay last year that she is ‘kind ofmad’ that she doesn’t look like hermom.

The son, Aryan, is studyingabroad to be a director. While, theyoungest, AbRam, is happy grab-bing the attention of paparazziand SRK fans alike.

Sushmita Sen~~Renee andAlisah

Be it her everlasting fitness,her positive spirit or the way shedecided to adopt — first Reneeand later, Alisah — and bringthem up single-handedly, formerMiss Universe and actor SushmitaSen is a trailblazer.

Sushmita believes that whilemotherhood is tough and raisingkids requires a lot of resilience,there are certain things only kidscan make you understand.Talking about her children,

Sushmita said that more than herteaching her daughters, there areseveral ways her own two chil-dren have “mothered” her in life.

The actress might not havegiven birth biologically, butaccording to her, bringing upRenee and Alisah felt like she gavebirth to them from her heart. Inan interview last year, she said,

“In a natural birth, the moth-er and the child connect throughthe umbilical cord but in adoption,the mother and the child are con-nected by this higher power, aconnection that you cannot cutoff. I have had the privilege ofexperiencing it twice. To becomea mother who has given birthfrom the heart. I have not misseda day of feeling the joy of moth-erhood. The wisest decision Imade at the age of 24 was tobecome a mother. It stabilised mylife. People think it was a great actof charity and wonderful actionbut it was self-preservation. It wasme protecting myself. But I amproud of the 24-year-old becauseI could have delayed the process,

ignore the calling but I didn’t dothat.”

More power to Bollywoodmothers like her who brokestereotypes by adopting twodaughters in an industry wherepeople boast about legacies.

Neena Gupta-Masaba GuptaNeena Gupta set many a

tongue wagging when she decid-ed to become a single parent toMasaba. She had already donefilms like Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron(1983), Gandhi (1982) and more.Neena has been the proud par-ent who is seen at the front rowof Masaba’s fashion shows. Shealso regularly wears clothesdesigned by her daughter. Theduo recently realistically depict-ed the highs and lows of theirrelationship in the Netflix series,Masaba Masaba.

Aparna Sen~~Konkona SenSharma

Aparna Sen and her daugh-ter Konkona Sen Sharma have asimilar career trajectories in frontof and behind the camera. Bothstarted their careers as actressesand went on to direct films.Konkona’s first outing as directorwas A Death in the Gunj in 2017.

After being raised single-handedly by her mother,Konkona finds herself in thesame situation with son HaroonShorey, whom she describes asbeing “not so little” anymore.Konkona adds, “My mom single-handedly brought up two girls,although my father was also alarge part of my life. But thatbecame my template. I felt it tobe normal.”

Earlier this year it wasannounced that Konkona, alongwith Arjun Rampal, would fea-ture in Aparna Sen’s next direc-torial venture titled The Rapist.

(Compiled by ChristyVarghese)

Have you ever thought of delving into thedetails of your beauty product? Or felt

helpless in understanding the ‘suspicious-six’ingredients mentioned on the fancy packag-ing? Our ever-evolving beauty industry withall its glamour has toxic truths like animaltesting and harmful chemicals associated with it.

Examine the list of ingredients on thelabel of the product. It is supposed to offervaluable information on what makes theproduct smell, lather or last on a shelf.Chemicals like sulphates, phthalates, silicones,fragrance, to name a few, should be noted andavoided. Fortunately, there’s a clean and

toxin-free way to dash out and shop con-sciously to add clean, vegan, and non-toxicbeauty products to your vanity.

It’s not a secret anymore that the trendfor toxin-free, vegan beauty is cherishedacross the globe for its natural skin benefitsand eco-friendliness. The soaring awarenesshas moved the radar towards clean alterna-tives that are free of harsh chemicals and ani-mal cruelty. Now, if the terms like clean, cru-elty free or vegan confuse you and make youthink, allow me to break it down for you.Clean skincare products are formulatedusing ethically sourced, nature-derivedingredients which are toxin-free and aregood for you and the planet. Similarly, theproducts that are not tested on animals ormade without any animal by-products makethem cruelty-free.

Do you know how much toxic load yourbody is carrying? From a shower gel to your

moisturiser, every indulgence contributes toa massive accumulation of toxic ingredientsin our bodies. Personal care products are list-ed as one of the major donors of chemicalsdwelling in our so-called ‘healthy lifestyle’.In a quest to reduce toxins in our skincareregime, take a few steps towards a cleanerbeauty regimen to safeguard your skin andyour environment equally.

���*� ��������F���Flip your skincare product over and

thoroughly read all the toxic ingredients suchas parfum (perfume or fragrance). Yourdivinely fragrant product has parfum in it andthere are more than 3,000 ingredients listedunder this umbrella, which you cannot be sureof putting on your skin due to the risks thesepose to your health. Most parfum con-stituents like phthalates are responsible for theendocrine disruption that imitates estrogen inthe body and can trigger allergy and asthma. Choosing skincare products that are naturally scented or formulated using essential oils can be a wisechoice.

������������� ����� ������In this time of minimalism, adapting

multi-purpose beauty or skincare productswith less packaging can do the job for you.Always look out for products that can mul-titask, like lip and cheek stain or maybe abeeswax lip balm that can nourish your lipsand calm your cuticles too. This initiative willprevent stacking up the landfills and will betwice as nice.

��������+������Ditch your comprehensive chemical-

laden skincare steps with nature’s goodness.Cutting back on skincare products meanspicking a routine with some hero ingredientsthat naturally work on your skin concerns,always focusing on nutrition-defense ingre-dients will leave your skin nourished andglowing. Essential oils, vitamins, and otherorganic elements that pack a punch ofnature’s wealth are a great way to replace tox-ins from your skincare regime.

— The author is a co founder of a cleanbeauty marketplace

which brings together natural brands

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HIMA GETS FIRST VAX SHOT����������������������6���/�������� ���������������������������������� ����������������������������������������������������������6��'�#����� ����������������������89��5����������������������� )�������������������������� ����������� ���

SEEMA QUALIFIES FOR TOKYO OLY�����������&�������2�����1� �������������9�����#�����#�����������Q�������������)���B�����1����� ������������������"?)� ����������������������!��)������������������������������ �� ������������1�����

SATHIYAN REQUESTS FOR TT TABLE ���������-�����������������������������������;���� �'�� ��9�������������B��������������Q�����������B��������������������������1���#� ��#���1���������������)���B�����

ROWERS ARJUN, ARVIND QUALIFY���������9�������#������%���-���.�����������������Q�������������;���� ������D������#��������1���� ����������������������� ���������������� ����������=; ����������������S������������������)������2�����

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Fit-again all-rounder RavindraJadeja, senior pacerMohammed Shami and mid-

dle order batsman Hanuma Viharireturned to a 20 men Indian squadannounced on Friday for nextmonth’s World Test Championshipfinal against New Zealand inSouthampton from June 18 and afive-match Test series againstEngland in August-September.

The trio missed the homeseries against England in February-March due to injuries suffered dur-ing away series against Australiaearlier this year.

But Baroda all-rounder HardikPandya, who was with the teamduring England series was not con-sidered for selection as “he is stillnot in a position to bowl”. He canplay as a specialist batsman in theshorter formats but has to bowl fora place in the Test team.

“Hardik Pandya is still not ina position to bowl. The experimentof selectors to keep him duringEngland and prepare him withbowling workload has failed mis-erably. He will henceforth not beconsidered for Test cricket,” aBCCI source told PTI.

The selectors also picked fourstandby players — AbhimanyuEaswaran, Prasidh Krishna, Avesh

Khan, and Arzan Nagwaswalla, theBCCI stated in a press release.

Opener Easwaran and pacerAvesh Khan were also with theteam during the England series

while the extra pace did it for IPLregular Prasidh Krishna andGujarat left-arm fast bowler ArzanNagwaswalla, who had a stellar2019-20 season. He is the only

Parsi cricketer currently playing atthe First-Class level in India.

The 23-year-old left-arm pacerhas 62 first-class wickets to hiscredit in 16 matches that he has

played since his debut in 2018.K L Rahul, who underwent a

surgery after being diagnosed withacute appendicitis, and wicketkeeper batsman WriddhimanSaha, infected with Covid-19 dur-ing the recently-suspended IPL,have been included subject to fit-ness.

Out-of-form spinner KuldeepYadav and pacer Navdeep Sainihave been left out of the squad,which is expected to depart forEngland for the twin assignmentsin the third week of this month.

Axar Patel has expectedlyretained his place as the third spin-ner after a successful debut seriesagainst England.

Batting star Prthvi Shaw hasnot managed to impress the selec-tors with his white-ball form andhas been overlooked. Also ignoredwas Bhuvneshwar Kumar, whosefitness woes continue to come inthe way of a consistent run.

The WTC final against the BlackCaps will be held from June 18 inSouthampton followed by the Testsagainst England from August 4.

The Test series againstEngland will start in Nottingham,followed by matches at the Lord’s(August 12 to 16), Leeds (August25 to 29), The Oval (September 2to 6) and Manchester (September10 to 14).

SQUADRohit Sharma, Shubman Gill,Mayank Agarwal, CheteshwarPujara, Virat Kohli (Captain),Ajinkya Rahane (vc), HanumaVihari, Rishabh Pant (wk),Ravichandran Ashwin, RavindraJadeja, Axar Patel, WashingtonSundar, Jasprit Bumrah, IshantSharma, Mohammed Shami,Mohammed Siraj, Shardul Thakur,Umesh Yadav, KL Rahul (subjectto fitness clearance), WriddhimanSaha (wk; subject to fitness clear-ance).Standby players: AbhimanyuEaswaran, Prasidh Krishna, AveshKhan, Arzan Nagwaswalla.

VIRAT DONATE 2 CRIndia captain Virat Kohli and

his actor wife Anushka Sharmahave donated �2 crore to a fund-raising project, which will raise atotal of �7 crore to support thecountry’s fight against the Covid-19 pandemic. The two are raisingmoney through crowd-fundingplatform Ketto. The campaign willrun for seven days on Ketto and theproceeds will be directed to ACTGrants, the implementation part-ner which will work towards pro-viding oxygen, medical manpow-er, vaccination awareness and tele-medicine facilities all through thepandemic and the amount.

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The Malaysia Open Super 750 tournament,one of badminton’s last two Olympic qual-

ifying events, was on Friday postponed due toa recent Covid-19 surge in the host country,dealing a severe blow to the qualification hopesof Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth.

The $600,000 event was scheduled to be heldin Kuala Lumpur from May 25 to 30.

“All attempts were made by the organisersand BWF to provide a safe tournament environ-ment for all participants, but the recent surge incases left no choice but to postpone the tourna-ment,” Badminton World Federation said in astatement.

“BWF can confirm the rescheduled tourna-ment will no longer take place in the Olympicqualifying window. New tournament dates willbe confirmed at a later date.”

The decision came as a huge setback forLondon Olympics Bronze-medallist Saina andmen’s star Srikanth in their bid for Olympic qual-ification.

Following the postponement of the IndiaOpen (May 11-16), Saina and Srikanth’s quali-fication for the Tokyo Games hinged on theKuala Lumpur event followed by the SingaporeOpen (June 1-6).

In light of the new development, BadmintonAssociation of India (BAI) on Friday reached outto the world body, seeking clarity on the quali-fication scenario for its shuttlers.

“It’s really unfortunate that the crucial qual-ifier had to be postponed in this way but that isthe time we live in now,” BAI General SecretaryAjay Singhania said in a statement.

“Though four of our players have alreadyqualified and there are few more including Sainaand Srikanth who can still make it. I have reachedout to BWF Secretary Thomas Lund asking forclarity on the future course of action.”

With Singapore suspending all flights fromCovid-ravaged India, it will be a difficult taskfor the Indian players, including Saina andSrikanth, to travel to the country for the lastqualifier.

BAI said it is in touch with the SingaporeBadminton Association and is trying to find abest possible way regarding the mandatory 21-day quarantine rule.

“We will do whatever best possible can bedone to find a better way out so that the shut-tlers get the chance to secure the Olympic berthsif there is any scope and opportunity,” Singhaniasaid.

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South Africa and RajasthanRoyals all-rounder Chris

Morris is “relieved” to be safe-ly back home after witnessing“chaos” unfold once Covid-19cases in the IPL bio-bubblecame to light.

Morris, along with his 10other South African playershave reached home, after theIPL was suspended followingsix cases of Covid-19 — fourplayers and two coaches.

“Look, obviously I’mrelieved,” Morris, who is cur-rently undergoing a 10-daymandatory quarantine athome, told iol.Co.Za.

Morris said they came toknow about the Covid cases inKolkata Knight Riders —Varun Chakravarthy andSandeep Warrier — on Sunday

night.“The moment we heard

that, when players are testingpositive, inside the bubble,then everyone starts askingquestions. The alarm bells def-initely started going off for allof us,” he said.

“By Monday when theypostponed that game (betweenKKR and RCB), we knew thetournament wasunder pressure tocontinue.”

The T20league was sus-pended after SRHwicketkeeper-batsmanWridhimman Saha andDelhi Capitals’ Amit Mishratested positive on Tuesday.

Later, CSK bowling coachL Balaji and batting coachMichael Hussey also contract-ed the virus.

“I was chatting to ourteam doctor, whose room wasacross the hallway from mymine in the hotel, and Kumar(Sangakarra, the Royals’ headcoach) came around the cor-ner, and drew hisfinger across histhroat, and thenwe knew it wasover,” saidMorris.

“And then itwas chaos!T h eEngland

guys

especially were panickingbecause they needed to isolatein hotels in England first, andapparently there weren’t anyrooms.”

Gerald Coetzee, who wasnamed the replacement forAustralian Andrew Tye, hadarrived in India only last weekand Morris said he tried tocomfort the young pacer as hewas panicking a bit.

“I know poor Gerald waspanicking a bit, I mean he’s

only 20 and all this is goingon,” said Morris, who wasthe costliest IPL buy everwith a whopping �16.25crore contract. “I tried tokeep him under mywing a bit and madesure he was readywhen the 12.30am pickup came at the hotel. It

was eerie, it was just a

handful of us in that wholehotel at the time.”

There was criticism of theleague happening at a timewhen a devastating health cri-sis was unfolding outside thebubble with more than 3000people dying everyday in India.

“For me, this was always atwo-fold thing; on the onehand we’re playing a tourna-ment, all happy and smiling ina bubble, while outside somany people are suffering,”Morris said.

“On the flip side of it, therewas the fact that by playing, wewere ensuring people actuallystayed at home, watched us andat least had something to smileabout or something else tothink about — even if it wasbeing unhappy with how weplayed in a game — for threehours each night.”

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Australian pace spearheadPat Cummins believes if

hosting the ICC T20 WorldCup amidst raging Covid-19pandemic is a “drain onIndian resources” or is“unsafe”, it would be prudentto shift it to the United ArabEmirates.

The postponement ofIndian Premier League aftermultiple cases of Covid-19inside the bio-bubble has ledto a big question-mark onwhether the marquee ICCevent should be held in Indiawhere a third wave is expect-ed around that time.

“If it’s going to be a drainon resources or it’s not goingto be safe, then I don’t thinkit’s right to play it over here.That’s the first question which

needs to be answered,”Cummins was quoted as say-ing by the Age newspaper.

Cummins said cricketauthorities should check with

Indian Government and dowhat’s best.

“It probably too early tosay. It’s six months away. Thepriority should be for cricketauthorities to work with theIndian Government to seewhat’s best for the Indianpeople,” Cummins said.

HUSSEY TESTS -VENew Delhi: Chennai SuperKings batting coach MikeHussey has tested negativefor Covid-19 but remains inquarantine in a Chennai hotel,team CEO Kasi Viswanathansaid on Friday.

Australian media outletsreported that Hussey can joinfel low countr ymen inMaldives if he returns anoth-er negative test.

“He tested negative beforegetting on an air ambulance

from Delhi to Chennai (onThursday). He is doing fine.All other overseas personnelhave left, head coach StephenFleming will be flying outtomorrow,” said Viswanathan.

Hussey said he is gratefulto his IPL franchise for takinggood care of him.

“I’m resting well and I’mfeeling stronger. I’m hugelyappreciative of what CSK havealready done and are doing forme,” he was quoted as sayingby Sydney Morning Herald.

“It’s horrific what’s takingplace in India at the momentwith the pandemic and I’vebeen blessed with the greatsupport I have received.

“I’m grateful for all themessages of support fromcricket fans in India andAustralia,” he said in a state-ment.

,� ��� ��������5�� ��#�5 �2���� ��������$��� ��'��� )�����?����������������NewDelhi: Kane Williamsonand three other NewZealanders on Friday flew toMaldives in a departurefrom their original plan, asthey were not feeling com-fortable staying in Covid-19hotspot Delhi.

Sunrisers Hyderabadcaptain Williamson, ChennaiSuper Kings’ Mitchell Santerand Royal ChallengerBangalore’s Kyle Jamison andCSK physio Tommy Simsektook a commercial flight toMaldives.

The four were original-ly supposed to stay in Delhiin a mini bio-bubble tillMay 10 and take a flight tothe UK ahead of the Testseries in England and World

Test Championship finalagainst India from June 18.

“Kane and few othersfrom New Zealand were notfeeling safe in Delhi becauseof the Covid situation there.That is why they decided tofly to Maldvies,” a SunrisersHyderabad official told PTI.

Another Test regularTrent Boult has flown backto New Zealand with the restof the IPL contingent andwill join the team in the UKafter spending a week withhis family.

Though there is a trav-el ban from India, NewZealand is allowing its cit-izens to return home witha mandatory two weeksquarantine. PTI

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Manchester United hasfinally reached a major

final under Ole GunnarSolskjaer.

A 3-2 loss to Roma in thesecond leg of the EuropaLeague semifinals on Thursdaydidn’t prevent United complet-ing an 8-5 victory on aggre-gate. It ended a run of fourlosses in the semifinals ofmajor tournaments in the last

18 months for Solskjaer, who isunder pressure to win United’sfirst trophy since 2017.

Villarreal will be United’sopponent in the May 26 final inthe Polish city of Gdansk after

beating Arsenal 2-1 on aggre-gate in the other semifinal.The second leg finished 0-0 on Thursday.

Faced with a huge taskat the Stadio Olimpicoafter its 6-2 thrashing atOld Trafford last week,Roma created enoughgreat chances to pull offwhat would have been a

remarkable comeback.Goals by Edin Dzeko and

Bryan Cristante, in the 57th and60th minute, briefly put Roma2-1 ahead and were the least theItalian team deserved after reg-ularly breaching United’sdefense. The visitors werethankful for a slew of saves byDavid de Gea in both halves,ensuring Nicola Zalewski’s83rd-minute winner on the19-year-old’s debut proved onlya consolation for Roma.

Roma couldn’t keep Unitedat bay at the other end asCavani showed his prowess asa finisher, opening the scoring

in the 39th minute by taking atouch from Fred’s pass andsmashing in a shot from justoutside the area.

His second goal, a headerfrom Bruno Fernandes’ cross inthe 68th, made it 2-2 and cameas a relief for United becauseRoma was threatening to scoreat will. Winning the EuropaLeague was Roma’s only poten-tial route back into theChampions League for nextseason.

1ST FOR VILLARREALAt Emirates in London,

Villarreal boss Unai Emery

came back to haunt Arsenal asthe Spanish side held out for a0-0 draw to reach firstEuropean final.

Defeat means the Gunnerswill miss out on ChampionsLeague football for a fifth con-secutive season with the pres-sure building on Emery’s suc-cessor Mikel Arteta.

Sitting ninth in the PremierLeague, Arsenal are now on theverge of failing to qualify forEuropean football for the firsttime in 26 years.

“We are devastated,” saidArteta. “We tried everythinguntil the last minute. I think wedeserved to win the game butthe details define these ties.”

Aubameyang twice hit thepost for Arsenal, while EmileSmith Rowe sliced a gloriouschance wide early in the sec-ond-half. “We had three bigchances, they didn’t have any-thing but they are through,”added Arteta, who was forcedinto a last minute reshufflewhen Granit Xhaka picked upan injury in the warm-up.

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Madrid: Rafael Nadal lost 6-4, 6-4 toAlexander Zverev in the Madrid Openquarter-finals on Friday, casting doubtsover the Spaniard’s form ahead of this

month’s French Open.Nadal has now fallen early in two

clay-court Masters tournaments aheadof the Grand Slam in Paris, after goingout in the Monte Carlo quarter-finalslast month before winning in Barcelona.

Even in Barcelona, however, Nadalneeded to save a championship point tobeat Stefanos Tsitsipas in the final.

World number two Nadal is hop-ing to clinch a 14th Roland Garros titleand record-setting 21st major in theFrench capital.

Zverev’s impressive straights-setwin at the Caja Magica earns him ameeting with Dominic Thiem in theMadrid semis, in what will be a repeatof last year’s US Open final, which waswon by Thiem.

After losing to world number eightAndrey Rublev in Monaco, Nadal wasconvincingly beaten by Zverev and thespotlight will be on the 34-year-old nowin Rome next week, his last tournamentbefore heading to Paris. AFP

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-�#��� ��������1���)��B����!������D��������� ���Munich: Bayern Munich coach Hansi Flicksaid on Friday Robert Lewandowski is focusedon breaking Gerd Mueller’s all-time Bundesligagoal-scoring record as the Poland striker is fourshort with three games of the season left.

Bayern can be confirmed Bundesligachampions for the ninth straight season athome to Borussia Moenchengladbach onSaturday.

Lewandowski is looking to add to his phe-nomenal tally of 36 goals from the 26 leaguegames he has played in this term.

He has three matches left to breakMueller’s all-time league record of 40 goals net-ted in 1971/72.

“He (Lewandowski) is fully concentratedand focused on the record, but he also knowsthe way we tick,” Flick said on Friday.

“When we play good football, then heprofits the most, because he has enormousqualities. We are talking about a world-classfootballer, he is very consistent and is alwaysgood for 30 goals and assists.

“He has three games left and then we’ll seewhat happens at the end,” Flick added withmid-table sides Freiburg and Augbsurg to fol-low after Gladbach on Saturday.

Many had thought Gerd Mueller’s 49-year-old record was near impossible to beat, butLewandowski came close by scoring 34 goalsin 31 league games last season. AFP