Naidu, 13 TDP MLAs suspended for creating bedlam in ...

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VIJAYAWADA, TUESDAY DECEMBER 1, 2020; PAGES 12 `3

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Maya: Reconsideranti-conversionlaw

5

BJP poised to upsetKCR’s applecart inGHMC polls

2

Gadkari confidentIndia will getCorona vax as‘early as possible’

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Nani attackerfaces attemptto murder casePNS n VIJAYAWADA

Badugu Nageswara Rao, themason who attackedTransport and I&PR MinisterPerni Venkataramaiah (Nani)on Sunday, was on Mondaycharged with attempt to mur-der and booked under126/2020 under Section 307IPC. The mason was pro-duced before court andremanded to judicial cus-tody for 14 days, tillDecember 14.

Earlier, the police filed amemo with the court, seek-ing custody of the accused.

Machilipatnam DSPRamesh Reddy said that theywill take the accused intopolice custody and conduct athorough investigation.

Nani escaped unhurt afterNageswara Rao attacked himwith a trowel at the former’sresidence in Machilipatnam.

Moderna says vax100% effective insevere Covid cases PNS n WASHINGTON

US firm Moderna said itwould file requests for emer-gency authorisation of itsCovid-19 vaccine in theUnited States and Europe onMonday. "Vaccine efficacyagainst Covid-19 was 94.1percent; vaccine efficacyagainst severe Covid-19 was100 percent," the companysaid in a statement today.

"We believe that our vaccinewill provide a new and pow-erful tool that may change thecourse of this pandemic andhelp prevent severe disease,hospitalizations and death,"said the company's CEOStephane Bancel.

If the US Food and DrugAdministration agrees it’s safeand effective, the first of thedrug's two doses could beinjected into the arms of mil-lions of Americans by the

middle of December.American pharmaceutical

Pfizer and Germany'sBioNTech applied for similarapprovals last week, and theirvaccine could be greenlit in theUS shortly after December 10.

The Moderna vaccine,which was co-developed withthe US National Institutes ofHealth, is being studied in aclinical trial with more than30,000 participants across theUnited States.

An interim analysisannounced earlier this monthwas based on 95 patients whofell sick with Covid-19.

The final analysis was basedon 196 cases, 185 of whichwere observed in a groupassigned a placebo versus 11who received the shots. Thirtypeople had severe cases -- allof whom were in the placebogroup -- which also includedone person who died.

Iran's English-language Press TV said on Monday that the weaponused in the killing of a prominent Iranian nuclear scientist last weekwas made in Israel. "The weapon collected from the site of the

terrorist act bears the logo and specifications ofthe Israeli military industry," an unnamed sourcetold Press TV. Speaking before the Press TVreport, Israeli intelligence minister Eli Cohentold radio station 103 FM on Monday that hedid not know who was responsible.Fakhrizadeh, who had little public profile in Iranbut had been named by Israel as a prime playerin what it says is Iran's nuclear weapons quest,was killed on Friday.

TOP NUCLEAR SCIENTIST KILLED BYWEAPON MADE IN ISRAEL: IRAN

30 CRORE PEOPLE TO BE VACCINATEDBY AUGUST 2021: HEALTH MINISTER

Actor Rahul Roy, the star of Mahesh Bhatt's 1990 hit film Aashiqui,suffered a brain stroke while shooting for his film LAC - Live TheBattle in Kargil. According to an Indian Express report, the 52-

year-old actor was brought back to Mumbai andis currently admitted to the Nanavati hospital,where he is in the ICU. "It was extreme weather conditions that causedthe stroke. He was rushed from Kargil toSrinagar and then to the Nanavati Hospital,"Indian Express quoted a source as saying.Meanwhile, the actor's brother Romeer con-firmed the news and told Indian Express thatRahul Roy is "recovering."

The Enforcement Directorate and the CBI "should be sent tothe borders" to tackle terrorists entering Jammu andKashmir, the Shiv Sena said in its latest attack on former

ally BJP. Criticising the Centre's treatmentof protesting farmers near Delhi "who arecalled terrorists", the Sena also said it was"cruel" to use water cannons on them inthe cold wave sweeping parts of northIndia. In an editorial in its mouthpiece"Saamana", the Shiv Sena referred to thegiant statue of Sardar Patel and said thefirst Home Minister of India had led manyfarmers' agitations against the British.

Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan today said that up to 30 croreIndians would be inoculated against COVID-19 by August 2021

according to the central government's plans. However, he also reiteratedthe need to follow appropriate protocols to fight offthe disease. Distributing masks and soaps at the OldDelhi Railway Station today, the minister, who is alsoChairman of the Indian Red Cross Society, said thevaccine will be available before the middle of nextyear in India. "In the first 3-4 months of next year,there is a possibility we will be able to providevaccine to the people of the country. By July-August,we plan to provide vaccines to around 25-30 crorepeople and we are preparing accordingly," he said.

AASHIQUI STAR RAHUL ROY SUFFERSBRAIN STROKE, CURRENTLY IN ICU

SENA ATTACKS CENTRE; SAYS ED,CBI SHOULD BE SENT TO BORDERS

Five-day session begins with homage to Pranab, SPB

The winter sessions ofthe state Legislature willstretch over five days

during which discussions onat least 21 issues would beheld.

This was decided during theBusiness Advisory Committee(BAC) meeting that was heldbefore the session began onMonday morning.

The BAC meeting is tradi-tionally held to decide theagenda and the business thathas to be transacted in theHouse during a session.

During Monday’s meeting,it was also decided to dispensewith the Question Hour.While ruling party members

proposed five days of the ses-sion, the Opposition Membersin the BAC insisted that theHouse would sit for at least 10

days to enable them to raiseand highlight people-centricissues. The ruling party how-ever put forth 21 issues before

the BAC, including Polvaram,decentralisation of gover-nance, TIDCO Houses etcwhile the Opposition pro-posed 11 issues, includingalleged corruption and irreg-ularities in new sand miningsystem, land acquisition fordistribution to poor etc.

As the sessions began afterthe BAC meeting, the Housecondoled the demise of formerPresident Pranab Mukherjee,popular playback singer SPBalasubramanyam and for-mer Members of theLegislature who passed awayduring the intervening periodof the sessions.

Assembly ignores Council, clears PR Bill

The State Assembly onMonday passed theAndhra Pradesh

Panchayat Raj (Amendment)Bill 2020 by a voice vote evenas the opposition Membersstaged a walkout in protest.

Chief Minister YSJaganmohan Reddy inter-vened when the bedlam that

ensued after the Oppositionraised objections whilePanchayat Raj MinisterPeddireddy RamachandraReddy was tabling theAmendment Bill and explain-ing its salient features.

“The Bill was earlier passedby this House and was sent tothe Council which returned it

with some changes. This is thesecond time the Bill is beingtabled in the House and it is amere formality to clear it.There is no reason on part ofthe Opposition to make it anissue,” the Chief Minister said.

“There is no scope for againnegating the Bill. What wasdecided by this House by the

majority of 151 will prevailand the Bill, in its originalform, is before the House forconsideration and passingremains a formality. TheOpposition is acting as if theBill has been just introducedand is unaware about it,” headded.

Crucial Billsintroducedon Day 1PNS n VIJAYAWADA

Minister for AnimalHusbandry, DairyDevelopment and FisheriesSeediri Appalaraju onMonday introduced theAndhra Pradesh Fish FeedBill in the State LegislativeAssembly here.

Besides introducing theAndhra Pradesh Fish Feed(Quality Control) Bill 2020,the Minister also intro-duced the AP AquacultureSeed (Quality Control)(Amendment) Bill 2020,the AP Fisheries UniversityBill, 2020 and AP AnimalFeed( Regulation ofManufacture QualityControl Sale and distribu-tion) Bill 2020.

SNV SUDHIRn VIJAYAWADA

As expected, the wintersession of the AndhraPradesh Legislaturebegan on a stormy noteand high drama onMonday, with Membersof both the treasury andopposition benchesexchanging heated words,forcing the Speaker tosuspend the TDP MLAsfrom the House for theday.

Before he was sus-pended, TDP supremoN Chandrababu Naiduwent to the extent ofsquatting on the floornear the Speaker’s podi-um. Naidu said that hewas being denied anopportunity to speakabout the premium to bepaid to insurance compa-nies by the governmentfor the farmers to availtheir farm claims.

For the first time,Naidu sat on the floornear the podium alongwith his party colleagues,prompting an angry reac-tion from Chief MinisterYS Jaganmohan Reddy,who pointed out that noLeader of the Oppositionhad ever behaved likethis in the House.

Jagan and the YSRCPMembers dubbed Naidu’sactions as “drama” to hogthe headlines and divertpublic attention from thegood the government hasdone for the farmers andthe farm sector in the last16 months.

However, the TDPMembers claimed theywere protesting againstthe ruling YSRCP for notallowing them to speakon important issues,including the relief pay-ment to distressed farm-ers, who suffered heavilydue to f loods andcyclones in recentmonths. The pandemoni-um prevailed for almosthalf an hour after.

This pandemoniumbegan during a short dis-cussion on agriculture inthe House afterAgriculture Minister KKannababu made a state-ment.

Naidu, 13 TDP MLAs suspendedfor creating bedlam in Assembly

4 cheat 2,500 investorsof Rs 7 crore, arrested PNS n HYDERABAD

A gang that duped 2,500investors by promising highreturns on investment to thetune of Rs 7 crore in just overtwo has been busted byCyberabad Cyber Crimepolice. The police arrested four mem-bers of the gang, all hailingfrom Andhra Pradesh.

According to the police,Nanda Kishore, ChittamReddy Anand and TulluriSrinivas Rao completed theirIntermediate whileBhumireddy Avinash, whodesigned the website andmobile app that helped the

gang commit the fraud, hascompleted his diploma inComputer Science.

Cyberabad PoliceCommissioner VC Sajjanarsaid, "The accused developeda website and an app to attractgullible citizens to invest intheir fraudulent investmentschemes starting from Rs10,000 to Rs 1 lakh andassured return of five percentper day from two monthsonwards. The accused alsoassured a 10 percent referralcommission to those who gotnews investors to join thescheme.”Chief Minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy participates in Gurupurab, marking 551st birth anniversary celebrations of

Guru Nanak Devji, at a Gurudwara in Vijayawada on Monday.

Discoms propose waiver ofmonthly charges for homes PNS n VISAKHAPATNAM

The Andhra Pradesh Discomshave proposed waiver ofmonthly minimum chargesfor domestic consumers andbringing of the group housingsocieties and apartment com-plexes under high-tension(HT) 1 category with energycharges of Rs 5.95 per unit.

The three electricity distri-bution companies in AndhraPradesh— APEPDCL,APCPDCL and APSPDCLsubmitted the ARRs(Aggregate Revenue

Requirement) and proposedtariffs for retail supply businessfor the FY 2021-22 to the APElectricity RegulatoryCommission on Monday.

The Discoms need to sub-mit their revenue generatingand retail tariff proposal to theregulatory commission to getapproval.

According to the proposal,instead of monthly minimumfixed charges, fixed nominalfixed charges of Rs10/KW/month will be leviedon contracted load.

Bail to cops inSalaam suicidecase cancelled PNS n VIJAYAWADA

A Nandyal court on Mondayrevoked the bail granted toCircle Inspector SomasekharReddy and Head ConstableGangadhar in the AbdulSalaam family suicide case.

The court, which heard thearguments of AdditionalAdvocate General PSudhakar Reddy appearingon behalf of the Government,agreed with his contentionsand issued an order revokingthe bail, under Section 306 ofthe IPC.

Nandyal Third AdditionalDistrict Judge M SuvarnaRaju directed SomasekharReddy and Gangadhar toappear before the districtcourt by December 2.

Abdul Salaam (45), hiswife Noor Jahan (38), sonDada Khalandar (10) anddaughter Salma (14) commit-ted suicide by jumping infront of a goods train in thefirst week of November.Abdul Salaam and his wifeNoor Jahan's selfie videocame to light days after theirsuicide and it was revealedthat they took the extremestep due to police harass-ment.

TDP supremo N Chandrababu Naidu, left, gesticulates angrily while ChiefMinister YS Jaganmohan Reddy retorts in the Assembly on Monday.

n TDP supremo squats in front of Speaker’s podium after microphone is cut off

Crops in over 6.6L hectares damagedby Nivar, Kannababu informs House Vijayawada: Cyclone Nivar lastweek caused extensive damage tocrops in over 6.59 lakh hectaresin different districts of AndhraPradesh, Agriculture Minister KKannababu said on Monday.Initiating a short discussion onagriculture in the LegislativeAssembly, he said completeenumeration of the crop losseswould be completed byDecember 15 and input subsidydistributed to affected farmers byDecember 31. “The Chief Minister conducted areview meeting this morning anddirected the authorities to procureeven discoloured and sproutedpaddy and rescue the farmers.The Agriculture Department andallied departments are working onthat," Kannababu said.

"There have been bountiful rainsthis season because of which allreservoirs in the state are filled tothe brim. Even drought-pronedistricts like Anantapur andChittoor received heavy rainfall.Unfortunately, there have beenfloods and cyclones that causedheavy loss to the agriculturesector," he said.The Minister said the stategovernment distributed Rs 306.9crore as input subsidy to 4.20lakh farmers who suffered cropdamages due to naturalcalamities since May 2019.Similarly, 1.16 lakh horticulturefarmers were paid Rs 102.24crore as input subsidy.The Minister said the stategovernment paid Rs 1,030 crorein 2019-20 towards crop

insurance. "We are going to setup AP State General InsuranceCompany, which will cover cropinsurance to farmers whoregistered under e-Crop," headded. Claiming that the YSRCPgovernment’s top priority wasfarmer welfare, the AgricultureMinister listed out variousmeasures initiated in the last oneand a half years.A sum of Rs 11,981 crore wascredited into farmers' accountsunder the PM Kisan-YSR RythuBharosa scheme, he said. Anot-her Rs 4,607 crore was spentthrough the Market InterventionFund for procurement of variousagricultural produce so as toensure remunerative prices forthe farmers.

Relief as ‘Burevi’ changes course towards Sri Lanka Pg 2

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vijayawada 02VIJAYAWADA | TUESDAY | DECEMBER 1, 2020

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(IN VIJAYAWADA)

TRS president KChandrasekhar Rao,who has enjoyed an

unchecked run thus far,appears all set to taste a bitterpill with the BJP poised toupset his applecart in theGHMC polls.

The BJP has launched a no-holds-barred attack on theTRS for its inefficiency intackling the floods and wide-spread corruption. Going bythe way he has targeted theBJP in a meeting at the LBStadium, it seems KCR hasaccepted defeat even beforethe votes are cast.

In his speech, he neverspoke against the Congress butlashed out at the BJP statingthat the latter had brought ahorde of national leaders andthat he was being targeted bythe saffron brigade. With hisutterances, KCR virtually

agreed that the BJP is the mainopposition and the party'ssuccess in the GHMC polls isa foregone conclusion.

The recently concludedBihar elections proved thatpeople from Kashmir toKanyakumari have acceptedthe leadership of PrimeMinister Narendra Modi,thanks to his good gover-nance and the BJP’s ideology.The secret behind the BJPwinning election after electionis the fact that the fruits ofgovernance are reaching thepeople. The opposition haslost the trust of the peoplewhile the Prime Minister haswon their confidence withhis development work.

KCR consolidated his posi-tion after Congress leadersfailed to fight for theTelangana cause and contin-ued to fight for power till the

last minute. After bifurcation,the Congress has failed to keepits flock intact. KCR managedto lure scores of CongressMLAs and weaken the grandold party, thereby denting itsprospects beyond repair.

KCR has so far been enjoy-ing an unchecked run atpower and there was no onequestioning him. There arewhispers that he has mademoney from construction of

irrigation projects and it’s anopen knowledge that he hasbeen keeping aloof from thepeople by confining himself tohis farmhouse.

He has been acting like adictator, trampling those whoraise his voice against hisanti-people policies and haseven put curbs on the media.

KCR, with tacit under-standing with the AIMIM, hasbeen indulging in anarchic

rule. His government hasfailed to come to the rescue ofpeople whose houses weresubmerged. Normal life cameto a standstill due to heavyrains that inundated the low-lying areas. The ChiefMinister, who pays visits toconsole the bereaved familiesof leaders and film personal-

ities, did not meet the peoplein flood-affectedareas who werewaiting forgovernmenthelp.

When scoresof people died due tothe Coronaviruspandemic due to lack ofamenities at the Osmania andGandhi hospitals, he failed torespond. KCR, who had cometo power stating that he wouldgive one lakh jobs, miserablyfailed to fulfil the promise. Theleader who claims that hisgovernment is providing graft-free, people –friendly gover-nance and maintaining lawand order, should take backhis statement as crime is onthe rise across the State.

The Chief Minister shouldrelease a white paper on devel-opment during his six-year

rule. KCR, who attributed hisparty’s victory in the pre-

vious GHMC polls tohimself and KTRama Rao, shouldrealise why citizens

now prefer the BJP overthe TRS.People voted for the TRS in

previous polls assuming thatKTR would transformHyderabad into a global citybut their hopes were dashed asit is dotted with potholes,overflowing sewage and fre-quent traffic snarls. Lack ofbasic amenities is the order ofthe day.

In a heart-rending inci-dent, a woman who came toapply for compensation tothe people residing in flood-hit areas breathed her last at aMee Seva. In this backdrop,the BJP is being seen as anoasis in the desert as the peo-

ple are waiting for an alterna-tive, which they can rely uponfor good governance and cor-ruption-free administration.

Not only people ofHyderabad, but also the entireTelangana is waiting for aright opportunity to teach abefitting lesson to the govern-ment.

KCR in his speech statedthat the people should live inharmony like flowers in abouquet, but people across thecountry have been livingpeacefully, irrespective ofcaste, creed or religion. Thirtypercent Muslims in Lucknow,Meerut and Bhopal, 14 per-cent in Bengaluru and 22 per-cent in Mumbai are living inpeace. Leaders who chantedsecularism have been rejectedby the people and KCR toowill join their bandwagonsoon.

Y SATYA KUMAR

BJP National Secretary

TRULY

SPEAKING

The recently concluded Bihar electionsproved that people from Kashmir toKanyakumari have accepted the leadershipof Prime Minister Narendra Modi, thanks tohis good governance and the BJP’s ideology.The secret behind the BJP winning electionafter election is the fact that the fruits ofgovernance are reaching the people

BJP poised to upset KCR’s applecart in GHMC polls

Cyclone ‘Burevi’ changes coursetowards Sri Lanka, AP to get rainPNS n VISAKHAPATNAM

In major relief to AndhraPradesh, the tropical system inthe Bay of Bengal which is verylikely to turn into a cyclonicstorm Burevi in the next 24hours has started movingtowards the South of TamilNadu and Sri Lanka.

Earlier, the projection wasthat the storm would hit TamilNadu-Puducherry coast bring-ing heavy rains to most of theplaces in South AP.

However, the latest forecastis heavy rainfall for isolatedplaces over south CoastalAndhra Pradesh duringDecember 2 and 3. IMD hasissued a red alert only forTamil Nadu and Kerala.

According to the weatherexperts at IMD, depression

over Southeast of Bengalmoved WestNorthWest wardsand lay centered over the sameregion, about 680 km east-southeast of Trincomalee (SriLanka).

The system is very likely tointensify further into a DD

during next 12 hours and intoa CS during subsequent 24hours.

Once the system intensifiesinto a cyclone, it will be named‘Burevi’ as per the namingguidelines set by the WorldMeteorological Organisation

(WMO).Unlike Nivar, Burevi may

not turn into a very severecyclone as the Bay of Bengallacks the energy to feed the sys-tem further. However, the sys-tem is likely to reach a maxi-mum intensity of 60-70 kmph

gusting to 80 kmph and bringvery heavy rains across south-ern Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka.

The depression coupled witha cyclonic circulation is pullingaway from the Nicobar Islands.The system will progress west-northwestward toward SriLanka and cross the islandcountry’s coast by Wednesdaynight. It will travel over enoughwarm water to become acyclone and start to influenceTamil Nadu coast fromWednesday onwards bringingisolated heavy rain and thun-derstorms.

Burevi will be the fifthcyclone over the North IndianOcean this year, after Amphan,Nisarga, Gati and Nivar. It isexpected to be the leastdestructive of all if the projec-tions hold true.

Five-day session begins withhomage to Pranab, SPB Continued from Page 1

Immediately after the Houseassembled, Speaker TammineniSitaram read out the names andtheir contribution and theHouse observed two-minutesilence as a mark of respect tothe departed souls.

A condolence motionmoved by the Speaker said,“This House places on recordits deep sense of sorrow at thedemise of Dr PranabMukherjee, former Presidentof India and conveys its deepsense of sympathy to the mem-ber of the bereaved familymembers”.

The services of multifacetedPranab Mukherjee wererecalled during his five-decade

public life under various capac-ities. The country’s highestcivilian award Bharat Ratnawas conferred on him besidesinternational Awards and hehad a place in internationalagencies IMF, World Bank,and other such institutions, theHouse observed.

The House also expressed itssorrow at the demise of SPBalasubrahmanyam, famousIndian singer who won sixnational awards and was asinger par excellence in variousfacets of cinema and conveyedits deep sense of sympathy tomembers of the bereaved fam-ily.

The House also expressed itssorrow and conveyed condo-lence to the family members of

Tirumala Srinivasulu MLCbesides former members of thelegislature Janardhan Tatraj(Kurupam), Dr Ravindranath(Bapatla), K VenkatachandraMohan Rao (Pitapuram), PManikyala Rao(Tadepalligudem), DRajagopal Reddy (Darsi), PAmmi Raju (Kadiayam), BNarayanaswamy (Tekkali), KVeeraraghavendra Rao(Penugonda WG), BDurgaprasda Rao (Gudur, whowas also elected to TirupatiLok Sabha in 2019), PMangapati Rao, DronamrajuSrinivas, Smt Mocherla Johar(Achanta), K Sivananda Reddy(Kadapa), YT Raja (Tanuku)and DA Satyaprabha(Chittoor).

Assembly rejects Council uggestions...Continued from Page 1

The Chief Minister pointedout that the Bill has a provisionto check malpractices in elec-tions, including money power,and shorten the election

process by expediting theschedule, besides allowingaction to be taken even afterthe results are announced. “Asthe Council has sent it back, weare passing it in the Assemblyfor the second time and it

being passed is just a formali-ty,” he asserted.

Ramachandra Reddyexplained the features and theHouse passed the Bill with avoice vote. The amendmentsproposed by the Council were

rejected.However, protesting the

passing of the Bill, oppositionMembers, including TDPsupremo N ChandrababuNaidu, staged a walkout fromthe House.

Crucial Billsintroduced on Day-1Continued from Page 1

Home Minister MSucharita tabled the AndhraPradesh Gaming(Amendment) Bill 2020 whileMinister for MunicipalAdministration BotsaSatyanarayana introduced theAndhra Pradesh MunicipalLaws (Second Amendment)Bill 2020.

Naidu, 13 TDP MLAs suspendedfor creating bedlam in AssemblyContinued from Page 1

TDP deputy leaderNimmala Ramanaidu wasallowed to speak later but hefaced constant counter attackfrom the treasury benches.Reacting to Ramanaidu’s crit-icism, the Chief Ministerlashed out saying the TDPmembers were resorting to"rowdyism" in the House.

The TDP legislators werespeaking without any compre-hension of issues, he said.

Jagan said the governmentwas determined to distributeinput subsidy to affected farm-ers by the end of December.

Naidu sought to counter theChief Minister but was deniedany opportunity.

The YSRCP members pre-vented the TDP chief fromtalking, following which theopposition legislators startedprotesting in front of theSpeaker’s podium.

Speaker TammineniSeetaram requested the oppo-sition members to return totheir seats but to no avail.

As the din continued,Legislative Affairs MinisterBuggana Rajendranathmoved a motion for suspen-sion of the TDP MLAs fromthe House for a day and themotion was carried by voicevote.

Earl ier, AgricultureMinister Kurasala Kannababuopened the discussion on theagriculture sector, as agreedin the Business AdvisoryCommittee (BAC) meeting,stating that the Chief Ministerhad taken many historic deci-sions for the welfare of thefarming community. To this,the opposition membersaccused the state governmentof not paying the premium tothe insurance companies.

While the AgricultureMinister asserted that the

Government had already paidthe premium amounts, TDP’sPayyavula Keshav said that hehad information that wassought under RTI whichrevealed the premiumamounts were not paid. Atthis juncture Naidu soughtthe opportunity to speak onthe issue. However, as soon ashe began speaking, his mikewas cut.

Furious over this, Naiduraised his voice and with anaggressive posture, rushed tothe Speaker’s podium andsquatted on the floor accus-ing the ruling party of muz-zling his voice denying hisparty the opportunity to voicepeople’s issues.

Naidu’s charge led to TDPmembers raising slogans forsome time. Kannababu saidthat never in history has theLeader of the Oppositionbehaved in such a way andthereby lowered his stature

and dignity. He condemnedNaidu’s behaviour, stating it asuncalled for from a seniorpolitician like the TDP chief.

Kannababu said there wasa need to change the rules andnorms of the Assembly so thatno member in the futurebehaves in such a way. YSRCPMembers K Parthasarathy andAmbati Rambabu also con-demned Naidu’s act.

Jagan said that despite theCovid situation, theGovernment had decided tohold the winter session asthere are some important Billsneeded to be passed for theeffective functioning of thegovernment. He deplored andcondemned Naidu’s behav-iour for obstructing and dis-turbing the smooth function-ing of the House. The ChiefMinister reminded that due toCovid, even the winter sessionof Parliament was not beingconducted.

4 cheat 2,500investors of Rs 7...Continued from Page 1

The Cyberabad police chiefsaid that the accused hadmeticulously planned thefraud to gain the confidence ofthe investors they named thewebsite as Stemcor Maxhedge,displayed the pictures of for-eigners as directors and teammembers, used two virtualUK numbers for communicat-ing with customers, showedthe address of the company as“Sobell Leisure Centre,

Hornsey Road, London N7 7NY, United Kingdom”.

Investigation revealed thatthe accused maintained thecompany only for two monthsfrom July 2020 to September2020 and duped around 2,500people to the tune of morethan Rs 7 crore.

They closed the firm asthey got scared that the hugemoney flow into their bankaccounts might land them onthe radar of officials, Sajjanarsaid.

Discoms propose waiver ofmonthly charges for homes Continued from Page 1

The proposal urged inclusionof all group housing societies,apartment complexes/build-ings (townships, colonies, gatedcommunities, villas and bunga-lows) under HT 1 Categorywith energy charges of Rs. 5.95ps / unit.

It sought removal of theexisting fixed charges of Rs100/KW/Month for functionhalls to discourage usage ofdiesel generators.

The Discoms proposed shift-ing of poultry hatcheries andpoultry feed mixing plants,aqua hatcheries and aqua feedmixing plants from Agriculturalcategory (low tension-V(C)and high tension- V(C)) toindustrial category (LT-III (A)and HT-III(A)).

Change of morning peakTOD (time of the day) timingsfrom 6 am -10 am to 4 am to8 am in line with the incidenceof agriculture loads was pro-posed.

Bail to cops inSalaam suicidecase cancelled Continued from Page 1

In response, Chief MinisterYS Jaganmohan Reddydirected DGP Gautam DSawang to conduct an inquiryfollowing which Somasekharand Gangadhar were sus-pended and later arrested.

Crops in over6.6L hectaresdamaged byNivar...Continued from Page 1

"The Andhra Pradeshgovernment has become thethird largest buyer after itprocured 12.93 million kg oftobacco at a cost of Rs 120crore this year. Likewise, thegovernment has agreed tobear the transportation cost,from field to ginning mills,on cotton since the CottonCorporation of India has arestrictive purchase policy,"Kanna Babu said.

"Through micro plan-ning, we are doing manythings like building neces-sary infrastructure not onlyfor procurement but alsomarketing the farm pro-duce.

We are setting up JanataBazaars, bulk milk chillingcentres, cold storages, mul-tipurpose facility centres ata cost of Rs 10,000 crore inover 9,900 villages acrossthe state. This will expandmarketing opportunities forfarmers," the Minister said.

Farmers protest impacts supply ofvegetables, fruits from other states PNS n NEW DELHI

The supply of vegetables andfruits to the city from otherstates has been impacted andit has been halved at AzadpurMandi, one of Delhi's largestwholesale market, owing to theprotest by farmers at theSinghu and Tikri border pointsof the national capital for thelast five days.

Vendors in other parts ofDelhi said due to curtailed sup-ply, the wholesale rates of sea-sonal vegetables has gone up byRs 50- Rs 100.

They said the roadblock atSinghu and Tikri border hasimpacted supply of vegetablesand fruits from Punjab,Haryana, Himachal Pradeshand Jammu and Kashmir.

The arrival of vegetablesand fruits to Delhi's largestwholesale market at Azadpurhas been reduced by half dueto the closed borders, saidAdil Khan, chairmanAgricultural ProduceMarketing Committee at

Azadpur."During normal days,

around 2,500 trucks of vegeta-bles and fruits used to arrive atAzadpur Mandi from otherstates. The number has comedown to around 1,000 trucksnow and if the bordersremained closed for a fewmore days, the situation willworsen," Khan said.

He, however, said the rateshave not registered any signif-icant rise so far because localproduce and stocks are beingsold.

Some other vendors said thewholesale rates of seasonalvegetables has already gone upby Rs 50- Rs 100 due to theshort supply.

They said due to obstruc-tions at the border, the trucksare finding it difficult to reachDelhi and those somehowmanaging to do so are gettingdelayed by several hours.

"The supply and rates willhave further impact if the bor-ders are not opened and traf-fic is brought back to normal,"

they said.Gopal, a wholesale com-

mission agent of green pea atAzadpur market, said supplieshave drastically reduced.

Normally 40-45 trucks ofpeas from Punjab's Amritsar-Hosiarpur belt would arriveon a given day in winters butit has reduced to 15-20 trucksnow, he said.

"The rates have gone up dueto reduced supply and hike intransport charges that haveincreased by around Rs 10,000per truck," he said.

The trucks from Punjabcarrying fruits and vegetablesthat would normally takearound 9-10 hours for a tripto Delhi, now takes 12-14hours due to closure of Singhuborder, said another whole-saler.

The reduced supply hasalso pushed retail rates in themarkets of the city. The ratesof potatoes, tomatoes andonion that were already high,have relatively been less affect-ed, said the wholesalers.

VPT can now handlebigger cargo shipsPNS n VISAKHAPATNAM

Visakhapatnam Port Trust(VPT) for the first time han-dled a bigger size cargo ship inits inner harbour on Mondaythan it did earlier. This waspossible due to the simulationstudy carried out by VPT inSingapore in October 2019.Earlier, it handled vessels withbeam of maximum 32.5meters, but on Monday theship that called on the port waswith a 38 meters beam.

A cargo vessel, W. OSLO,measuring 38 metres beamand 229.20 meters in lengthcalled on VPT to dischargeSouth African Steam Coal.

VPT improved its handlingcapacity of bigger size vesselsup to 45 meters and beam intothe Inner Harbour.

VPT Chairman K. RamaMohana Rao expressed happi-ness and commended all thoseconcerned in berthing thevessel at EQ-7. VPT will con-tinue to make efforts in han-dling bigger size vessels into

the Inner Harbour, he hoped.Bigger vessel is a great

advantage for freight sensitivecargoes like iron ore and coalas such cargoes can move onbigger vessels, thus loweringthe incidence of sea freight onthe landed cost.

It will help VPT become apotential container tranship-ment hub on the East Coast.

With the knowhow acqu-ired through simulation stud-ies vessels with 260 meterslength /45 meters beam and290 meters length/45 metersbeam with 15.20 meters draftcan be handled on high tide.This enables the port to han-dle larger baby cape/cape ves-sels also in the inner harbourthereby providing opportu-nity to attract cargo like bau-xite, pet coke, gypsum at VPT.

"Simulation Study was agame-changer that enabledthe VPT to handle biggerContainer Vessels in OuterHarbour and cape, baby capevessels in the Inner Harbour,”said VPT’s P.L Haranadh.

vijayawada 03

Chief Minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy participating in Gurupurab celebrations marking 551st birth anniversary celebrationsof Guru Nanak in Vijayawada on Monday. Ministers Perni Venkatramaiah, Kodali Venkateswara Rao, Government WhipSamineni Uday Bhanu, Women's Commission Chairperson Vasireddy Padma, MLA Kaila Anil Kumar, YSRCP leadersDevineni Avinash, Boppana Bhava Kumar participated in the event.

WAHE GGURU

VIJAYAWADA | TUESDAY | DECEMBER 1, 2020

Our govt stands by farmers: JaganPNS n VIJAYAWADA

Chief Minister YS JaganMohan Reddy has assertedthat the rural landscape of thestate was changing with thewelfare schemes being rolledout for farmers and the Statehas shown sincerity by deliver-ing welfare schemes on timelike never before while theOpposition stooped to lowand tarnished the image of theHouse.

During the discussion onagriculture, the Chief Ministeron Monday apprised theAssembly that the governmenthad been paying input subsidyin the same year and was tak-ing up crop insurance to safe-guard the interests of the farm-ers, like never before.

"Our government has takenthe responsibility of supportingthe farmers at any cost andbrought a free crop insurancescheme, without levying any

burden of premium on farm-ers. As the premium amounthas been surpassing the insur-ance claims, due to disputesbetween farmers and insurancecompanies, the governmenthas taken up the issue to ben-efit farmers and process theclaims in fast-track mode," hesaid.

The government hadreviewed the crop loss and

compensated by providinginput subsidy in the same sea-son by proving again that thisis a farmer-friendly govern-ment, he added.

The recent rains and floods,the Chief Minister said, hadfilled all reservoirs to the brimand groundwater levels swelledafter a gap of ten years.

With regard to the NivarCyclone, the State government

had taken precautionary mea-sures to reduce the damage andalso took decisions to supportthe people in the hard times.All the people in relief campswere given Rs 500 whilereturning home irrespectiveof their age, and an ex gratia ofRs 5 lakh was immediatelygiven to the kin of thedeceased. Seeds will be sup-plied with 80 per cent subsidyto the farmers in affected areas.

The crop loss enumerationwould be taken up on a war-footing and would be complet-ed by December 15 and com-pensation would be paid byDecember 31. The power sup-ply was restored in majority ofthe areas and works were goingon in the remaining.

As far as the damaged cropsare considered, the govern-ment has given orders to pur-chase decoloured and germi-nated grains, to ensure that nofarmer suffers loss.

Compensating the Kharif lossdue to natural calamitiesbetween June and September,the state government had paidRs 143 crore on October 27and similarly paid Rs 132 ccrore in November towardscrop damage due to rains inOctober.

The Chief Minister said thatthe previous government hadnever paid the input subsidy ontime. The loss in 2014 wascompensated in 2015 with justRs 690 crore and furtherdelayed the 2017 compensationby two years and totallyskipped to provide input sub-sidy of Rs 2,194 crore forKharif and Rabi in 2018.

Jaganmohan Reddy statedthat over 50 lakh farmers werecredited with Rythu Bharosa ofRs 13,500 in three spells, whichwill be of Rs 67,500 in fiveyears, while the previous gov-ernment only cleared Rs 12,731crore in their five-year regime.

Police arrest four, seize120 kg marijuana PNS n VIJAYAWADA

The Kanchikacherla policeseized about 120 kgs of ganjabeing transported fromRajahmundry to Mumbai intwo four-wheeler vehicles atParitala village of Kanchika-charla mandal in Krishna dis-trict on Monday.

The police arrested fourpersons in this connectionand seized the vehicles andfive cell phones from them.

The culprits were identifiedas K Ramakrishna (28),Agyaram Ramlakhan (30),Abdul Razak (26) and KSwaroopa (30).

Acting on a tip off, Nandi-gama DSP G NageswaraReddy, along with NandigamaRural Inspector K Satish,Kanchikacherla SI Ranganadh

and Chandralapadu SI ManiKumar, conducted vehiclechecks at Donabanda crush-er road.

They found that four peo-ple were transporting bannedganja in vehicles bearing reg-istration numbers AP 05 CM4949 and MH 01 AL 1297.

They were carrying about60 kgs ganja in each vehicle.They procured ganja fromNarsipatnam inVisakhapatnam district andwere transporting it Mumbai.

The DSP said that theyarrested four people forilleglly transporting ganja andbooked a case under Cr. No1042/2020 of NDPS Act 1985.The cops have launched aninvest-igation to nab crimi-nals involved in transportingganja.

Naidu wants stern actionagainst Bharat's killers

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

TDP supremo N ChandrababuNaidu on Monday stronglycondemned the murder ofBharat Yadav, a relative ofTDP in-charge for TirupatiParliamentary constituencyNarsimha Yadav.

He demanded that sternaction should be taken againstthe culprits involved in themurder to ensure that peaceand harmony be restored inthe temple town.

Naidu alleged that theactivists of the ruling YSRCPattacked Bharat Yadav withknives last night and wound-ed him badly. He breathed his

last while undergoing treat-ment at a hospital.

He expressed anguish overthe death of Bharat Yadav andexpressed condolences to themembers of the bereaved fam-ily.

The TDP chief alleged that

attacks on the oppositionleaders have increased inTirupati.

"It is the fifth murder afterthe YSRCP came to power.Tirupati. The otherwisepeaceful and spiritual townhas turned into a battlegroundand place for political rivalry.The YSRCP activists areresorting to attacks time andagain on them, he fumed.

Naidu expressed deepanguish over the conversion ofpeaceful Tirupati into a fac-tion political arena.

The assassination of BharatYadav is clear indication of thetotal failure of law and orderin the temple town, he said.

Arrest culprits and restore peace in temple town,says TDP chief; consoles kin of slain party leader

Boundary walls mushroom along Vizag beachfront SUMIT ONKA

n VISAKHAPATNAM

YSRCP-led Andhra Pradeshgovernment's plan to crownVizag as the Executive capitalof the state has apparentlyturned lands into gold.Especially, the beachfront landsabutting the beach which werefilled with bushes and leftvacant are now being cleanedand fenced.

From Sagar Nagar toBheemili beach stretch, activ-ities like building compoundwalls or fencing with wire onthe beachfront lands are a reg-ular affair these days. The landand apartment prices have sky-rocketed following the capitalcity proposal.

Some people in the realestate business said that thetrend was to occupy primelands and take legal course tostay government's decision.The land dispute cases take

years to get final hearing inmost of the cases.

"After capital city wasannounced, many have startedconstructing compound wallsillegally. We have taken up aspecial drive on them. We arealso checking CRZ violationsalong the stretch," said GVMC

Chief City Planner RJVidyullatha.

GVMC is also undertakinga Beach Front DevelopmentProject in which the beachstretches from RK Beach toBheemili will be developed.

Moreover, after the amend-ments in the CRZ rules, no

development zone limits werereduced and getting the clear-ance for the construction ofbuildings close to the beacheshas turned easy for new con-structions now.

GVMC officials with CityPlanning said that the con-struction activities were going

on at a rapid pace following theamendment in the CRZ.

Now, the city comes underCRZ II, a substantially built-uparea, project developers cannow increase the floor arearatio or floor space index, andbuild resorts and other tourismfacilities.

As the clearances to projectsfalling in Coastal RegulationZone - CRZ-II and III-- hasbeen delegated to the state-levelor Centre with necessary guid-ance, the local municipalauthorities are remaining indark regarding the permis-sions.

Activities like buildingcompound walls orfencing with wire onthe beachfront landsare a regular affairthese days

PNS n VISAKHAPATNAM

Vizag city police on Mondayrescued three persons whowere held captive for threedays for loan recovery andarrested four persons in thisconnection.

The loaner, along with histeam, took the three personshostage following a dispute intheir financial dealings. Theloan transaction was in carsand the victims reportedlyillegally mortgaged the carswithout informing theaccused who had financed it.They also reportedly were notpaying the installments forquite some time.

The three kidnapped per-sons were from Amalapuramin East Godavari district andthe accused are predomi-nantly from Kakinada in EastGodavari.

Deputy Commissioner ofPolice (Law and Order)Aishwariya Rashtogi said thatsince the victims and theaccused were known to eachother, the victims had come

to the house located in SagarNagar in Visakhapatnam onan invitat ion from theaccused. They were held cap-tive there and physicallyassaulted.

Based on complaints fromthe victims' family and fol-lowing up a MLC reportfrom a hospital, where thevictims were taken for treat-ment after being beaten up,we traced out the kidnaplocation and rescued the per-sons, the DCP said.

They were in confinementfrom November 28 and thepolice rescued them onNovember 29.

The cops arrested two per-sons on Sunday and sentthem to judicial remand. OnMonday, another two personswere arrested.

4 held for kidnappingto recover loan

Jagan releases brochure on ‘100-day Women's March'PNS n VIJAYAWADA

Chief Minister YS JaganmohanReddy released a brochure onthe '100-day Women's March'in his office at AP LegislativeAssembly on Monday. TheMarch, initiated by AP WomenCommission, to create aware-ness on government pro-grammes will be held for 100days till March 8.

During the March, thewomen will organize variousprogrammes to create aware-ness on the welfare schemesbeing implemented by thestate government whichinclude Navaratnalu, prohibi-tion in phases, Disa App andothers.

The Commission will holdawareness seminars on cyber-crimes for college students in

all districts across the state for100 days.

Women and Child Welfare

Minister Thaneti Vanitha,DGP Gautam D Sawang,Andhra Pradesh Women'sCommission ChairpersonVasireddy Padma, APIICChairperson RK Roja,Agriculture Special ChiefSecretary PoonamMalakondaiah, Women andChild Welfare Chief SecretaryAR Anuradha and Women'sCommission Director R Suyazwere present at the event.

Women will organizevarious programmesto create awarenesson the welfareschemes of the stategovernment

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

TDP Chief N ChandrababuNaidu on Monday launched ablistering attack on ChiefMinister YS JaganmohanReddy, saying that the YSRCPGovernment had thrown alltraditions of the Assembly tothe winds and did not care totake up a meaningful debate onthe woes of the cyclone-hitfarmers in the State.

Naidu called JaganmohanReddy a 'fake CM' who wasspending his time by makingmeaningless and empty state-ments without any commit-ment to the people who hadfallen for his trap and gave 151out of the 175 MLAs inAndhra Pradesh.

Addressing the media per-sons, the TDP chief said thathe never thought this daywould come when he wouldenter the Speaker's podium inthe Assembly to eventuallyface suspension from theHouse. 'For the first time in my

long career, I faced suspension.I faced this for the sake of thefarmers who were sufferinggreatly on account of severecrop losses. Crop losses werethere in over 20 lakh to 25 lakhacres in the past one and halfyears. The inefficient CM wasmaking empty laughs in theAssembly but not taking anysteps to help the farmers.'

Naidu expressed surprisethat a Constitutional institu-tion like the Assembly was alsoforced to wait for CMJaganmohan Reddy to arriveand the House was not start-ed as per the established con-ventions.

The Assembly or theParliament would not wait forany leader as they were aboveindividuals and they have aConstitutional sanctity of theirown. Like a deranged person,the CM was laughing andcracking objectionable jokes atOpposition deputy leaderNimmala Rama Naidu on thefloor of the House.

CM has no respect forAssembly, oppn: TDP

BJP demands

house sites for

Amaravati

farmersPNS n VIJAYAWADA

BJP state president SomuVeerraju made it clear thatthe capital of Andhra Pradeshshall be in Amaravati.

Veerraju, while interactingwith the Amaravati farmerson Monday, said that theywould exert pressure on thestate government to distrib-ute 64,000 house sites to thefarmers of Amaravati. If thestate government fails to dis-tribute lands, BJP would dis-tribute them to farmers, hevowed.

Veerraju said that theywould bring pressure on thestate government to developthe remaining 9,000 acres inthe Amaravati capital area.He said that our stance on thecapital was very clear andAmaravati will be the capital.He disclosed that he has ablueprint for the developmentof Amaravati city.

Despite the government'sdecision to relocate the cap-ital from Amaravati, theCentre did not stop funds forsetting up AIIMS andAgriculture Universitieswhose works were going onat a brisk phase, he said.

House seeks action against NaiduPNS n VIJAYAWADA

The State Assembly onMonday adopted a resolutionseeking action againstOpposition leader and TDPsupremo N ChandrababuNaidu, who had staged a sit-inin the House protesting that hewas denied to talk on farmer'sissues.

Legislative affairs andfinance minister BugganaRajendranath Reddy movedthe resolution and the houseadopted it. However, SpeakerThammineni Seetharamreserved his ruling.

Chief Minister YSJaganmohan Reddy and othermembers took strong objec-tion to the conduct of Naiduand a resolution was adoptedseeking action against him.

During the discussion onagriculture, Naidu rushed toSpeaker's podium and stageda sit-in. His body language alsowas highly objectionable andthreatening which irked othermembers of the House.

The CM said that we haveagreed to have a discussion on

agriculture, but the TDP supre-mo has come to the House bydesign and staged a sit-in at thepodium just to hog the head-lines. His body language hasbeen objectionable, he added.

It is unbecoming for a leaderof the Opposition to behave insuch a manner and that too fora person who claims to be oneof the most experienced politi-cians in the country. "Even Iwas the Opposition leader inthis House and I never disre-spected the House in such amanner," Jaganmohan Reddysaid.

We are sending a wrongmessage to other membersand to the society by suchbehavior. It has been his habitto somehow create ruckus in abid to hog the headlines in hisfriendly media and he tried thesame trick even now whenevery farmer is waiting to hearabout the measures the gov-ernment has been taking. Hehas given threatening looks toour member from Kurnooland has spoken foul language,he added.

The Chair has suspendedthe TDP members for the day

for their unruly behaviour. Ethics Committee

Chairman Ambati Rambabusaid that such conduct by aperson with 40 years in publiclife is highly objectionable andsteps should be taken to pre-vent such scenes in the Housein the future.

After the Chief Ministerexplained about the initiativestake by the government for thewelfare of farmers, Minister forLegislative Affairs BugganaRajenderanath moved a reso-lution seeking action againstthe objectionable conduct ofNaidu. This kind of situationshould not repeat and a strongmessage should be sent out, hesaid while moving the resolu-tion. The resolution was adopt-ed and the Speaker reservedhis ruling. "It is unfortunatethat such a situation happenedin the House. The Leader ofOpposition seems to be in con-fusion. Every member shouldfollow the rules. The resolutionis adopted and will be consid-ered at an appropriate time,"the Speaker said andadjourned the House for theday.

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

Krishna district TDP vicepresident Badugu Uma Devion Monday expressed shockover the murder attempt byher brother B Nageswara Raoon Transport Minister PerniVenkataramaiah (Nani) onNovember 29.

Appealing to people andpolitical parties not to politi-cize the issue as she is the onlymember in the family who wasin politics, Uma Devi said thatNageswara Rao was a masonand does not belong to anypolitical party.

She agreed that whatNageswara Rao did was acrime and that he should bepunished as per law.

She said none of her sixbrothers were habituated tobad habits except NageswaraRao who sustained a headinjury in a road accident a yearago. Since then he was addict-ed to liquor and even minis-

ter Nani had stated that heknew Nageswara Rao and hasno criminal back ground.

Uma Devi said that herbrother had no intention toharm anyone and that he willbe at the forefront to solve anyissue in the family.

"He was proactive in raisingissues of building workers andmasons after YS JaganmohanReddy took over as the CM.He lost livelihood due toshortage of sand and had nowork at hand," she disclosed.

Uma Devi further said thatNageswara Rao studied tillClass VII and was TDP pollingagent during elections.

Uma said that herbrother had nointention to harmanyone and that hewill be at the forefrontto solve any issue

Don't politicisemurder attempt onNani: Uma Devi

Ramesh Babu'sinterrogationbeginsPNS n VIJAYAWADA

The three-day interrogationof Dr Pothineni RameshBabu, the MD of RameshCardiac Multi-SpecialtyHospital, began on Monday.

He is being in quizzed inthe fire accident that brokeout in the Covid CareCentre that was set up inSwarna Palace hotel where-in ten patients died. Thequestioning continued from10 am to 5 pm in accor-dance with Covid rules inthe presence of his advocateas per the High Courtorders.

According to sources, thedoctor is responding to thequeries being raised by thepolice on several issues -sending some patients tothe Covid Care Centre setup at Swarna Palace hotel,failing to keep proper vigilon their safety, allegationsof overcharging patients,detai ls of agreementbetween the hospital andthe hotel to run Covid CareCentre and others.

VIJAYAWADA | TUESDAY | DECEMBER 1, 2020 nation 04

Union Home Minister AmitShah on Monday said he

hopes the GDP will be back topositive territory in the nextquarter, after two consecutivequarters of contraction. PrimeMinister Narendra Modi workedhard for the economic recovery

and had also announced a package after the crisis due tocoronavirus, Shah said after inaugurating two road over-bridges inAhmedabad through virtual mode. He also praised Modi for arecord FII (foreign institutional investors) inflow to India during thepandemic period. "As prime minister, Narendrabhai used the timeof COVID-19 pandemic to visualise policy-making, keeping in mindits long-term impact on the economy," Shah said. Without wastinga second, he worked on reforms in many areas like farm sector,electricity, industrial policy, to create a system to maintain the paceof development, he said. Towards this end, he offered a package ofRs 20 lakh crore for the welfare of poor people and to give pace tothe economy, Shah said in his address via video-conferencing.

Sheetal Amte-Karajgi, granddaughter ofsocial activist Baba Amte, allegedly

committed suicide at Warora inMaharashtra on Monday, family sourcessaid. Sheetal (39) took the extreme stepfollowing a recent public spat with othermembers of the Amte family over themanagement of Maharogi Seva Samiti, asocial service organisation founded byBaba Amte, a recipient of the RamonMagsaysay Award and Padma Vibhushan,

who died in 2008. Police declined to comment on reports thatSheetal apparently injected herself with a lethal dose. Her body wastaken from Warora to Chandrapur, 50 km away, for post mortem.A team of forensic experts from Nagpur has gone to Warora andthe room in Anandwan where Sheetal's body was found has beensealed, sources said. Baba Amte's sons Vikas and Prakash andtheir wives Bharti and Mandakini, respectively, had recently issued aclarification on several allegations made by Sheetal, Vikassdaughter, on social media. She was the Samiti's CEO. Theclarification from the senior Amtes had read: "Maharogi SevaSamiti, Warora is a leading social service organisation in thecountry. It provided direction and inspiration to the development ofthe deprived.

SHORT TAKES

Karnataka reports steepest dip in Covid cases in one month

Karnataka has reportedmore than 60 per cent

decline in active COVID-19cases in the last one month,Health Minister Sudhakar Ksaid on Monday. As ofNovember 29 evening,cumulatively 8,83,899COVID-19 positive caseshave been confirmed in the

state, which include 11,765 deaths and 8,47,612 discharges, theHealth department said in its bulletin. "Karnataka has reported thehighest decline in active Covid-19 cases in the past one month.From 68,180 active cases on 29th October to 24,776 active caseson 29th November, the active cases in the State have declined by63.6%," Sudhakar tweeted. Karnataka on Sunday reported 1,291fresh infections and 15 deaths, the health department said. OnSunday, there were zero COVID-19 related deaths in 25 districts ofKarnataka; Bengaluru reported 10 fatalities, Mysuru two andUdupi, Tumakuru and Dakshina Kannada one each.

PTI n NEW DELHI

The COVID-19 pandemic hasbrought to the fore India'snational character for theentire world to behold and2020 will be known as a yearof internal discovery ratherthan of external disruption,according to Prime MinisterNarendra Modi.

Across the world, peoplehave expressed wonder at theway in which Indians,whether poor or rich, youngor old, rural or urban, haveshown the ability to beresponsible, disciplined,focused, law-abiding, patientand composed during a crisisof unprecedented propor-tions, he said.

"Some may call the year2020 as a year of external dis-ruptions due to the pandem-ic. But I firmly believe that2020 will be known, not as ayear of external disruption,but as a year of internal dis-covery, for our society and forour nation," Modi wrote in anexclusive article in theManorama Yearbook 2021.

"Adversity not only buildsstrength but also brings outour true innate character.This global pandemic hasbrought to the fore India'snational character for theentire world to behold, as aresilient and united nation,"the write-up t it led"Aatmanirbhar Bharat:Transforming India" said.

Many Indian pharma com-panies are working to devel-op a vaccine against Covid.

As on Monday, the numberof COVID-19 cases in thecountry crossed 94 lakh andthe recoveries' figure neared

88,50,000, according to Unionhealth ministry data. Theofficial toll in the morningstood at 1,37,139.

In the article, Modi alsosaid that in the face of tryingcircumstances, India has notonly stayed firm but alsohelped the world.

"India emerged as a phar-macy to the world, sendinglife-saving drugs and medi-cines far and wide, at the sametime ensuring no shortage toour own people.

"After the pandemic struck,in no time, our COVID war-riors rose to the occasion and

led India's fight from thefront. Remarkable efforts on awar-footing made India self-sufficient in PPE production,"the prime minister wrote.

Countless unsung heroes,from ambulance drivers topharmacists, from securitypersonnel to small neigh-bourhood vendors, kept ourlives going even during diffi-cult circumstances, whilecarefully maintaining socialdistancing, wearing masksand adapting digital pay-ments, he said.

Modi asserted that a slew ofreforms across various sectors

are strengthening the coun-try's development trajectoryas against earlier reforms thatused to be "hostage to politi-cal expediencies".

Highlighting the signifi-cance of AatmanirbharBharat, he said it means anIndia which is more compet-itive, an India which is moreproductive and an Indiawhich celebrates local talent.

"An Aatmanirbhar Bharatwill increase India's role inglobal supply chains byattracting more global busi-nesses to India to take fulladvantage of India's policystability, low taxes and skilledhuman resources," he said.

Modi also wrote that theCOVID-19 pandemic hasreinforced the ability of tech-nology to be a valuable bridgeand from multi-nation sum-mits to multi-national compa-nies, everyone's work had togo online. He was of the viewthat in the coming year, therewill be an even greater focuson self-reliance and resiliencein technology.

The yearbook is power-packed in 25 sections and haswrite-ups on post-COVIDcareers, the cost of COVID-19on the Indian economy, workfrom home, Indo-Pak andSino-India relations and atti-tude and aptitude amongother topics, says chief editorMammen Mathew.

"Looking back at 2020 wecan say that we have comethrough quarantines andlockdowns by maintainingsocial distancing, self-mask-ing, sanitising, despite disrup-tions and confinements inour personal space," he writesin the editorial.

PM: 2020 will be known asyear of internal discovery

Modi asserted that a slew ofreforms across various sectors arestrengthening the country'sdevelopment trajectory as againstearlier reforms that used to be"hostage to political expediencies".

PRADIPTA TAPADARn KOLKATA

Buoyed by the "positive"response to its 'insider versusoutsider' campaign, the TMCleadership has decided toembrace 'Bengali pride' as itsmain poll plank for the 2021assembly polls to counter theBJP's aggressive Hindutvacampaign in West Bengal.

The Mamata Banerjee-ledparty, which has often beenmocked by opponents for nothaving a well-defined ideolog-ical plank, seems to have final-ly found its calling in Bengalisub-nationalism, as a section oftop party leaders feel only an"inclusive message of regional-ism, which the Bengalis canidentify with, will counter theaggressive nationalism andHindutva practised by the saf-fron camp".

"During the next assemblypolls, apart from development,Bengali pride will be our mainpoll plank.

Bengali pride is not justabout Bengalis, it appeals to allsons of the soil. This philoso-phy will help counter BJP's att-empts to import leaders fromoutside to control the people ofthe state," senior TMC leaderand MP Sougata Roy told PTI.

"The JD(U) in Bihar hadtalked about 'Bihari versusBahari'. Even the BJP, whichboasts of nationalism, hadcampaigned on the poll plankof Gujarati 'Ashmita' duringthe 2007 Gujarat elections. Soif we do the same, we think noone should complain about it,"another TMC leader said. Asenior leader of the MamataBanerjee-led party, who was apart of a select group of themembers that formulated thisideological plank, said "divisivepolitics and religious polarisa-

tion could never be counteredwith development politics.Only sub-nationalism andregionalism can do that."

Born in the womb of the Co-ngress, the TMC, which rose topower after a long fight againstthe CPI(M)-led Left Front,had initially adopted the sloganof 'Maa Mati Manush' (Mother,Land and People), carefullyblending socialism and secular-ism -- a powerful concoctionthat countered the communistsand their doctrines well.

The party tasted success in2011 and continued its win-ning streak in 2016 assembly

polls. The rise of the BJP inBengal's political map, howev-er, has made the TMC realisethat its socialist slogan was notall enough to offset 'Hindutva',especially at a time when it hasbeen branded as a party "thatfavours only minorities" by thesaffron camp.

According to TMC sources,after the electoral reverses in theLok Sabha polls last year, andwith the emergence of the BJPas a prime contender for power,the TMC initially tried to shedthe 'anti-Hindu' tag andembrace 'soft Hindutva', but itsoon realised that it could neverbeat the BJP in its own game.

The party then took a cuefrom the results of the finalphase of the Lok Sabha polls inBengal, where the saffronparty, which, despite its spec-tacular performance in theprevious phases, drew a blankin all nine seats that went topolls towards the end.

The TMC zoomed past thesaffron party in the final phasewith its fiery campaign over"insult to Bengali icons", fol-lowing the desecration of socialreformer Ishwar ChandraVidyasagar's bust during a BJPrally.

TMC to blunt BJP’s Hindutvaonslaught with ‘Bengali Pride’

Much like theregional partiesof Tamil Nadu,which are prop-onents of Tamilpride, the TMCplans to emergeas the protectorof Bengaliculture andidentity.

PTI n BENGALURU

Karnataka State ElectionCommission on Mondayannounced polls to 5,762 grampanchayats in the state in twophases on December 22 and27.

The results for both phaseswill be declared on December30. State ElectionCommissioner B Basavarajusaid the model code of conducthas come into immediate effectwith the announcement of thepoll schedule.

All the districts in the statewill go to polls in two phases,and the decision to this effectwas taken keeping in mind theprevailing COVID-19 situa-tion. Out of 6,004 gram pan-chayats, 5,762 will go to pollsin two phases.

According to poll officials,gram panchayats that are notgoing to polls include- 162whose term is yet to be com-pleted, six regarding whomcases are pending in the court,and 74 that are either com-

pletely (33) or partially (41)upgraded to town panchayats.

The announcement comesafter the High Court recentlyproviding three weeks time,had asked the poll panel toannounce the dates for grampanchayat polls.

In all there are about 2.97crore electors who can vote toelect 92,121 gram panchayatmembers for which 45,128polling booths will be set up,and over 2.70 lakh pollingofficials will be deployed.

EVMs will be used in Bidardistrict and ballot papers willbe used in other places.

SOP will be strictly followedfor the smooth conduct ofpolls amid COVID situation,the commission said.

Voting will be held between7 am to 5 pm on polling daysand measures are in place toallow Covid-19 voters to casttheir ballot during the lasthour.

While the election notifica-tion will be issued for first and

second phase on December 7and 11 respectively, last date forfiling of nominations will beDecember 11 and 16, and

December 14 and 19 will bethe last date for withdrawal ofnominations.

Repolling if necessary can beheld on December 24 and 29respectively for the first andsecond phase.

Reacting to announcementof gram panchayat polls, ChiefMinister B S Yediyurappa saidthese polls are as crucial asassembly and Lok Sabha pollsas it helps in strengthening theorganisation from the grass-root level.

He said, already five to sixteams of BJP leaders, under theleadership of state unit chief aretravelling across the statepreparing for gram panchayatpolls.

"We will take utmost inter-est in these polls, though can-didates will not face this elec-tion on party symbol, we wantcandidates supported by us towin," he added.

Karnataka gram panchayat polls in two phases on Dec 22 and 27

PTI n BENGALURU

Karnataka government onMonday said it has decided toimplement learning manage-ment system (LMS)-based dig-ital learning in governmenthigher educational institutionsfrom the academic year 2020-21.

'Karnataka LMS' would beimplemented in 430 govern-ment first grade colleges, 87government polytechnics and14 government engineeringcolleges, a press release said.

This would have a progres-sive impact on the teaching ofabout 24,000 teachers andlearning of about 4.5 lakh stu-dents, it said.

'Karnataka LMS' waslaunched by Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa in the presenceof Deputy Chief Minister C NAshwath Narayan, who is alsoin-charge of the HigherEducation Department.

LMS-based digital learningis said to be a novel and a firstof its kind initiative of the stategovernment, a boon to the stu-dents of Government HigherEducation Institutions, espe-cially those from socially andeconomically disadvantagedsections of society.

It is a platform to revolu-tionise the teaching and learn-ing process by effectingchanges in delivery of content,access and assessment, the

release said.It is a comprehensive system

which empowers teachers,enriches students and bridgesthe digital divide, it said.

"It provides access to all, anytime, any where," it said.

Multilingual e-content inthe form of PPTs, videos,quizzes, assignments and e-

study materials congruous withboth self-learning and class-room teaching is being devel-oped as per the university-pre-scribed syllabi of 14 affiliatingvarsities by the faculty of theDepartment of Collegiate andTechnical Education.

In the LMS, there would beanalytics for scientific assess-ment of various parametersrelated to academics.

Also, there would be scopefor ranking of students, teach-ers and colleges, cumulativeperformance report, studentsfeedback, content rating, track-ing of e-content usage by teach-ers in classrooms and studentsand detailed analytical report,it added.

Digital learning in govt colleges in Karnataka

PTI n THIRUVANANTHAPURAM

The opposition Congress-led United Democratic Front(UDF) is organising a virtu-al rally, in which lakhs of peo-ple are expected to take part,on December 5 to exposealleged corruption and 'anti-people' policies of the rulingLeft Democratic Front.

Conducted by the statecommittee of the Front, theonline rally was planned toreach the grassroot level peo-ple of society ahead of thecrucial three-tier local bodypolls scheduled next month, UDF convener M M Hassansaid here on Monday.

Leader of Opposition RameshChennithala would inauguratethe one hour virutal rally to beheld from 12 noon on December5, he said.

KPCC president, Mullapp-ally Ramachandran, formerchief minister OommenChandy and UDF leaders P KKunhalikutty, P J Joseph, N KPremachandran will take part.

UDF to holdvirtual rally on Dec 5

PNS n KOLKATA

BJP state unit president DilipGhosh Monday hit back atTMC MP Abhishek Banerjeefor calling him a 'goonda' andsaid the saffron party believedin standing by the people andthe ruling side will get the"taste of its own medicine".

If being on the side of thepeople is being a goonda thenBJP will continue to do so in"greater measure", Ghoshsaid.

Banerjee, nephew of TMCsupremo Mamata Banerjee,had told a rally in South 24Pargans district on Sunday thatBJP's Bengal minder KailashVijayvargiya is an "outsider"and Ghosh was a "goonda" .

"Abhishek has seen nothingof goondaism so far. We (BJP)will do it in greater measure.They (TMC) will get the tasteof their own medicine.

"However, we believe instanding by the side of people.This may be interpreted asgoondaism by the TMC asthey have lost contact with thepeople," he said.

Banerjee, who is thenephew of Chief Ministerand Trinamool Congresssupremo Mamata Banerjee,had also said at Sunday'srally in South 24 Parganasdistrict that no BJP leader,including Prime MinisterNarendra Modi, had the"guts" to take his name and"use innuendos like 'bhaipo'(nephew in Bengali) or 'bhati-ja' (meaning the same)" tolevel charges against him.

Commenting on this,Ghosh mocked at Banerjee as"khokababu (young scion ofaffluent family) who got thingson a platter".

TMC will get ataste of its ownmedicine, saysDilip Ghosh

PTI n AHMEDABAD

The ACB has registered casesof possessing disproportion-ate assets (DA) against 29 em-ployees of the Gujarat gover-nment in the last 11 months,as per an official release.

Among these employees,three are class-1 officers,eight class-2 officers, whilethe rest 18 are class-3 employ-ees, it said on Monday.

The cumulative marketvalue of the alleged DA,including land and residentialproperties, is estimated at Rs40.47 crore, the ACB said,adding that it has launched aspecial drive to unearth bena-mi and ill-gotten properties.

Eight of the accused wereearlier employed with now-defunct Gujarat LandDevelopment Corporation,the release said.

Other accused wereattached with departments ofUrban Development,Revenue, Panchayat,Irrigation, PWD, GujaratPollution Control Board,Police, Education, Forest andEnvironment, Health, andMines and Minerals, it said.

They were booked underprovisions of the Preventionof Corruption Act and underthe Prohibition of BenamiProperty Transactions Act,the release said.

Meanwhile, the ACB onMonday booked oneKalubhai Ram, a retired class-3 engineer of state Irrigationdepartment, for allegedlypossessing disproportionateassets worth Rs 1.38 crore,which are 97.71 per centmore than his known sourcesof income.

ACB books 29Guj employeesin DA cases

PTI n NEW DELHI

A Delhi court has dismissed abail application of a man in amurder case related to theFebruary north east Delhi riots,saying prima facie he wasallegedly part of the "riotous mob"that had caused vandalism, arsonand looting in the area. The caserelates to the killing of a local,Rahul Solanki, during the

communal violence that brokeout after clashes betweencitizenship law supporters andprotesters spiralled out of controlon February 24. The riots left atleast 53 people dead and around200 injured. Additional SessionsJudge Vinod Yadav dismissed thebail application of Sonu Saifi inthe case related to the death ofRahul Solanki due to gunshotinjuries from firing from the

riotous mob in the Dayalpur areaof north east Delhi.The court noted that though Saifiwas not visible in any of theCCTV camera footage availableon record, the victim's brotherRohit Solanki, who is a publicwitness, not only categoricallyidentified the accused by hisname but also stated about hisprofession of being a "welder".The statement of the witness

"cannot be thrown into dustbin",the court said.The court cannot lose sight of anepochal development in thematter, which is the recovery of afirearm along with four livecartridges at the instance of theaccused, it said The court also said that as per aballistic expert's report of thefirearm, it was found to be in"working condition".

No bail for accused in Rahul Solanki case

PTI n NEW DELHI

Delhi Chief Minister ArvindKejriwal on Mondayappealed to the people ofDelhi to extend all possiblehelp to the farmers protestingagainst the new farm laws atthe Singhu and Tikri borderpoints of the national capitaland urged the Centre to holdtalks with them at the earli-est.

Kejriwal wished everyoneon the occasion ofGurupurab, also known asGuru Nanak Jayanti, and saidAAP volunteers and MLAsare helping the farmers, whohave been braving the coldweather to hold the protest,in any possible way they can.Thousands of farmers contin-ued to protest against the newagri laws for the fifth consec-utive day on Monday, stayingput at the Singhu and Tikriborder points of the nation-al capital, even as the DelhiPolice enhanced security atthe Ghazipur border withUttar Pradesh as the numberof protesting farmers swelledthere.

Kejriwal urgesDelhiites toextend all helpto farmers

Hope GDP will be positive in next quarter: Amit Shah

Baba Amte's granddaughter commits suicide after family feud

To apprise youngsters about thefunctioning of the police, five girlstudents were put "incharge" of

police stations in Bahraich for a dayunder the 'Mission Shakti' campaign,SP Vipin Mishra said on Monday.Anchal, a class 10 student ofGajadhar area, was given theresponsibility of Fakharpur policestation on Sunday. Similarly, MansiTiwari, a student of class 12, was given the charge of Khairighatpolice station. The SP said the initiative had been taken to apprisethe girls with the functioning of the police force and at the sametime, remove the fear of police from the young minds. All thefive girls, including Uma Singh of class 11 (Kotwali Dehat), Era Fatimaof class 10 (Nanpara) and Tanishka Singh of class 10 (Payagpur)resolved the complaints of locals with the help of police officials, the SPsaid. One of the five girls Anchal also accompanied policemen toDujaipura village to resolve a dispute between two brothers.

Five girl students put ‘in-charge' ofpolice stations in Bahraich for a day

VIJAYAWADA | TUESDAY | DECEMBER 1, 2020 nation 05

PNS n SONIPAT (HARYANA)

Amid fears that the “DelhiChalo' protests by farmers willlead to coronavirus spreadingfaster, their leaders said the“black laws” enacted at theCentre are a bigger threat thanthe contagion.

There had been few signs ofsocial distancing as thousandsof farmers from Punjab andHaryana began their protestlast week against the threenew agro-marketing laws, set-ting off on a march to thenational capital.

On the way, they skirmishedwith police at barricades andsince Friday are massed atDelhi's entry points, many ofthem sheltering inside tractor-trolleys.

Masks appear to be a rarityand there is little attempt at keep-ing distance from each other,safeguards meant to prevent theinfection from spreading.

But as experts fear that theevent could become a coron-avirus “superspreader”, farmleaders say there are morepressing concerns before them.

“The new farm lawsbrought by the (Narendra)Modi government are a biggerthreat than coronavirus asfarmers fear they will losetheir livelihood with the imple-mentation of these laws,”Bhartiya Kisan Union (EktaUgrahan) president JoginderSingh Ugrahan told PTI overthe phone.

Kisan Mazdoor SangharshCommittee general secretarySarwan Singh Pandher askedwhy coronavirus posed a seri-ous threat to life only duringthe farmers' agitation, and notduring the recent Bihar assem-bly polls. “When Bihar elec-tions took place, where wasCOVID-19? When any politi-cal gathering takes place, whereis coronavirus,” he asked, in anapparent reference to the elec-

tion rallies. He claimed thatthe issue comes up only whenfarmers begin an agitation fortheir rights.

The Delhi Police initiallydeclined permission for thefarmers' protest in the city, cit-ing the threat of COVID-19.

On Sunday, Haryana ChiefMinister M L Khattar lashedout at his Punjab counterpart

Amarinder Singh, saying hewill be responsible if the gath-ering of farmers worsens thecoronavirus situation. Singhhas backed the protest.

A spokesperson for theBKU's Haryana unit led byGurnam Singh Charuni onMonday claimed that farmersare trying their best to keepCOVID-19 at bay.

“As much as we can, we aretrying to follow the guide-lines. But at the moment thou-sands of farmers are saying thatgetting the Centre's farm lawsrolled back is the first priorityas these will anyway destroythem,” he said.

He said it is now up to theCentre to accept theirdemands.

When asked if they fear thatthe infection may spread asthousands have gathered overa large area, he said, "No

farmer fears this disease at themoment. All they have ontheir minds is to get these lawsrolled back."

‘New farm laws bigger threat than Covid’

New Delhi: Prime MinisterNarendra Modi on Mondayspoke in defense of the farmlaws again as his ministersrushed to discuss the mammothprotest against the new laws,which is threatening to cut offthe roads to the national capital.Camping at Delhi borders, thefarmers, angry over Union HomeMinister Amit Shah's conditionalproposal for early talks, havespoken of a gherao of the city.

Over the last 24 hours, MrShah has held a series ofmeetings with his cabinetcolleagues.Reaching out to farmers -- whohave accused the government of

making the new laws for thebenefit of corporates -- PM Modisaid: "I know that decades offalsehood do put apprehensionsin the minds of farmers,,, I wantto say this from the bank ofMother Ganga - we are notworking with the intention ofdeceiving. Our intentions are asholy as the water of river Ganga".

"If someone thinks that theearlier system is better, how isthis law stopping anyone, bhai?"he added, in a bid to reassurefarmers that the new openmarket system will not mean theend to the traditional mandis andminimum support prices fixed bythe government.

New laws don't stop old system,says Modi amid farmer protest

PNS n SONIPAT (HARYANA)

Tractor-trolleys and key farmequipment have turned intotemporary shelters for thou-sands of farmers who haveassembled at the borders of theto protest against the Centre'snew farm laws. The ongoingprotests by thousands of farm-ers entered the fifth day onMonday, with the protestersthreatening to block all fiveentry points to Delhi. As tem-peratures have dipped, thefarmers demanding that thelaws be repealed are spendingthe chilly nights inside theirtractor-trolleys covered with

tarpaulin, which they haveturned into temporary shelters.

Most of the farmers havebrought at least two trolleys

with each tractor with one ofthem carrying ration and otheressentials and the other beingused to accommodate the pro-

testers. Stubble or crop residue,disposal of which otherwisebecomes a major challenge forthe farmers, is also coming inhandy as many have cush-ioned their trolleys with layersof straw and laid mattressesover it to protect them from thecold. Night temperatures overthe last few days have been set-tling in the range of around 9degrees Celsius. The tractor-trolleys have occupied over a10-km-long area in thisHaryana district which liesalong the Ambala-Delhi nation-al highway. Among the protest-ers are several men andwomen, some of them aged

over 70 years. Flags of variousfarmers' outfits from Punjaband Haryana can be seen flut-tering atop the tractors, someof which are fitted with loud-speakers and used by the lead-ers of peasants' bodies toaddress the gatherings.

The protesting farmers saythey will force the Centre torepeal the “anti-farmer” laws.

Having gathered here inthousands amid the coron-avirus pandemic, they claimadverse conditions do not affectthem as they are used to vari-ous challenges anyway whileworking in the fields.

“If these laws are imple-

mented, farmers will bedestroyed,” said Trilok Singh, afarmer from Amritsar as hesipped freshly prepared teawith some bread and biscuits.Protesting farmers have saidthat they have come preparedfor a long stir and have stockedthemselves with ration, clothes,cooking gas cylinders, quiltsand other essentials.

Another farmer KuldeepSingh said, “When the Centrefirst brought ordinance beforethese laws were passed, did theyconsult farmers at any stage.When farmers don't want thesereforms, why are these beingthrust upon us?”

New Delhi: As the ruling BJPconfronts a massive protest byfarmers who have threatened toblock Delhi and sit in on thehighway in their agitation againstnew farm bills, a "Khalistan andMaoist" link has been alleged bythe party's social media chief.

Amit Malviya, the head of theBJP's IT cell, accused the ArvindKejriwal government in Delhi offirst notifying the central farmlaws and then seizing theopportunity to "burn down Delhi"as "Khalistanis and Maoists" hadstepped in to oppose them. MrKejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party(AAP) hit back, saying the BJPwas "hopelessly trying to divertthe attention" of people as it was

clueless about handling theprotests.

"Arvind Kejriwal ledDelhi government hasalready notified thenew Farm Laws on23 November 2020and had startedimplementing them.But now that theKhalistanis and Maoists havestepped in to oppose, he sees anopportunity to burn down Delhi.It was never about farmers. Justpolitics...," tweeted Mr Malviya,who was recently also made in-charge of the BJP in Bengal.n response, AAP said in astatement: "The notification bythe Delhi government allows

farmers to sell their cropanywhere, including outside the

Mandi. Selling of fruits andvegetables was already de-regulated in Delhi manyyears back. Now thisholds for grains too. Wehave not dismantled

mandis and they arecontinuing. Farmers are not

against that. Farmers' demand isthat they should get MSPwhether inside or outside theMandi. We support thatdemand." AAP leader RaghavChaddha said: "If standing by thefarmers in this time is politics,we are guilty of doing it. Thismatter can be solved in oneminute by the Centre."

PNS n NEW DELHI

The protest by thousands offarmers who have stayed put atvarious border points of Delhi forthe fifth consecutive day onMonday against the Centre's newagriculture reform laws may actas ‘superspreader' event forcoronavirus infection, sayexperts.The national capital hasalready been witnessing a spikein COVID-19 cases post Diwalicelebrations and amid risingpollution levels.

Samiran Panda, who headsthe Epidemiology andCommunicable Diseases (ECD)division of the ICMR, soughtstrict compliance to protective

and preventive behaviour to curbthe spread of the infection.

"A protest is a mass gatheringand thus from a public healthperspective, I would suggestprotective and preventivebehaviours against the spread ofcoronavirus infection failingwhich a superspreading eventmight set in.

BJP's ‘Khalistani-Maoist’ charge, attack on Kejriwal

Tractor-trolleys, farm equipment turn into temporary shelters

PNS n LUCKNOW

BSP president Mayawati onMonday asked the UttarPradesh government to recon-sider the new anti-conversionlaw as it is full of "doubts andapprehensions", prompting aquick response from the newlyelected BJP MP and formerhead of state's SC/ST commis-sion, Brijlal who claimedthat majority of those becom-ing victims of love jihadbelong to the Dalit and back-ward castes.

"The ordinance on lovejihad brought by the UPgovernment in a hurry isfull of doubts and apprehen-sions. There is neither anyrecognition, nor acceptabil-ity to conversion throughforce or deceit in the coun-try. There are many lawsalready effective in thisregard. The governmentneeds to reconsider the newlaw," Mayawati said in atweet in Hindi.

Her remarks come afterUttar Pradesh registered itsfirst case under the newlaw in Bareilly district basedon a complaint from thefather of a young woman.

In a statement issued hereon Sunday, Additional ChiefSecretary (Home) AwanishAwasthi said a case was reg-istered on the complaint byTikaram who accused a man

-- Uvaish Ahmed -- of thesame village of trying toconver t h is daughterthrough "a l lurement"(bahla-phuslaakar).

In a prompt rejoinder,BJP MP Brijlal in a series oftweets said, "Mayawatiji , doyou know that mostly theDalit, backward and mostbackward cas tes havebecome vic t im of lovejihad? Do these castes nothave the right to live withrespect? Tell me who areyou with.”

In another tweet , hesaid,"Most of the Dalits,oppressed and most back-ward caste people have notonly lost their original reli-gion but also their exis-tence is at risk. Is it a crimeto provide security to thesepeople .”

Maya: Reconsideranti-conversion law

Mayawati’sremarks comeafter UP govtregistered itsfirst case underthe new law inBareilly based ona complaint fromthe father of ayoung woman

PNS n KOLKATA

To help save lives of roadaccident victims by takingthem to nearby hospitals asquickly as possible, the WestBengal government will soonstart a free-ambulance ser-vice, a senior official of thestate health department said onMonday.

Starting with at least 150ambulances, the state govern-ment is at the moment settingup a detailed map of the acci-dent prone zones and the near-by hospitals, he said.

This service will primarilywork on the GPS system and

for the same, the state govern-ment will have to bear a costof around Rs 30 crore, the offi-cial said.

"This will definitely help usin saving the lives of road acci-dent victims. We are targeting

to take the victims to nearbyhospitals or medical colleges ortrauma care centre within 15 to20 minutes after getting callsregarding the accident. This isin a planning stage and we aredying to start it as soon as pos-sible," he told PTI.

There will be two types ofambulances basic life supportambulances and the advancelife support ambulances, hesaid, adding that a toll freenumber will be given.

The Health department is intalks with the Public WorksDepartment (PWD), policeand the transport department,he said.

INDIA CORNER

The Jammu and Kashmiradministration has"temporarily" suspended

17 government employees,including seven teachers andthree policemen, in Kishtwardistrict for allegedly violatingthe Model Code of Conductahead of the second phase ofthe District Development Council elections, officials said Monday.District Panchayat Election Officer, Kishtwar, Ashok Kumar Sharmaordered the attachment of the employees of Dachhan block onSunday following complaints against them, the officials said.The second phase of the DDC elections, along with panchayatbypolls, is scheduled to start across Jammu and Kashmir at 7 am onTuesday, covering 43 constituencies to seal the fate of 321candidates – 125 in 18 seats of Jammu division and 196 in 25constituencies of Kashmir division. The attached employees includeseven teachers, a forester, a policeman and two Special PoliceOfficers, the officials said.

J-K DDC polls: 17 govt employeessuspended for MCC violationPNS n NEW DELHI

India on Monday said themost important challenge fac-ing the region is terrorism andthat elimination of this threatwill help it realise its truepotential including in the eco-nomic sphere.

In an address at the virtualmeet of the council of heads ofgovernment of the ShanghaiCooperation Organisation(SCO), Vice President MVenkaiah Naidu particularlymentioned about cross-borderterrorism and called for com-bating the menace under a col-lective approach.

In a clear reference toPakistan, Naidu said: "We areparticularly concerned aboutstates that leverage terrorism

as an instrument of state pol-icy." "The most importantchallenge faced by us is terror-ism, particularly cross-bor-der terrorism," he said. Naidusaid that "elimination" of thethreat of terrorism will helpthe region realise its truepotential.

India is hosting the meet forthe first time after it gained full

membership of the influentialgrouping in 2017 and it willtake place in the virtual for-mat.In another reference toPakistan, he said it is unfortu-nate that there were attemptsto deliberately bring bilateralissues into the SCO anddescribed it as a blatant viola-tion of principles and normsof the charter of the grouping.

In mid-September, India'sNational Security Advisor AjitDoval walked out of a virtualmeeting of top security offi-cials of the SCO memberstates after the Pakistani rep-resentative projected a mapthat inaccurately depictedKashmir. India had slammedPakistan for the "blatant disre-gard" to the norms of themeeting.

PNS n NEW DELHI

The National Green Tribunalhas directed the PunjabPollution Control Board tosubmit a report on a pleaagainst illegal operation of anautomobile unit at Ahmedgarhcity in Sangrur district.

A bench headed by NGTChairperson Justice A K Goeldid not issue notice to the unitand only sought informationfrom the state pollution con-trol board about the actiontaken.

"Let the Punjab State PCBfurnish a factual and actiontaken report in the matter. Weare not issuing notice to theunit at this stage as we are firstobtaining the informationfrom the State PCB about thefacts and the action taken inexercise of statutory powers ofthe State PCB.

The applicant may serve aset of papers on the State PCBand file affidavit of servicewithin one week by email, thebench said. The tribunal washearing a plea filed by DaljitKaur against the illegal oper-ation of M/s H S Automobileat Ahmedgarh in Sangrur.

According to the applicant,the unit is being operated in aresidential area without

'Consent to Establish' and'Consent to Operate' under theWater (Prevention and Controlof Pollution) Act, 1974 and theAir (Prevention and Control ofPollution) Act, 1981.

The Punjab PollutionControl Board issued noticedated June 16, 2020 pointingout the illegal operation of theunit but no further action hasbeen taken.

NGT seeks report against illegalop of automobile unit in Sangrur

PNS n KORBA

A 65-year-old woman hasbeen mauled to death by a bearin Chhattisgarh's Korba dis-trict, a forest official said onMonday. The incident tookplace on Sunday evening whenthe victim, Phulkunwar Gond,a native of Fulsar village, wasattacked by the animal inKendai forest range, he said.The woman was heading onfoot to her brother's place inHardeva village after going toa weekly market in Korbi area.

Elderly womankilled in bearattack at Korba

PNS n MUMBAI

Cricket icon Sachin Tendulkarhas helped in providing treat-ment to 100 underprivilegedchildren across six states -Maharashtra, West Bengal,Assam, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu,and Andhra Pradesh amid theCOVID-19 pandemic.

This partnership is with afoundation called Ekam, andis targeted at children receiv-ing treatment in governmentand trust hospitals. Childrenfrom underprivileged families,

suffering from critical ail-ments and those who cannotafford to follow up on theirelective medical costs, got thesupport from Tendulkar'sfoundation. Earlier thismonth, Tendulkar had sup-ported Makunda Hospital inAssam's Karimganj districtwith paediatric equipments .

Tendulkar had also partic-ipated in an initiative withUNICEF on World Children'sDay, encouraging children toplay a key part in shaping thefuture of the world.

Tendulkar comes tothe rescue of kids

Most important challenge facingregion is terrorism: India at SCO

Farmers protest may act as Covid‘superspreader' event, say experts

PNS n VARANASI

Prime Minister Narendra Modion Monday dedicated to thenation six-laning of the 73-km Varanasi-PrayagrajNational Highwayduring his visit tohis Lok Sabha con-stituency.

After the event,he will visit KashiV i s h w a n a t hMandir and inspectthe Kashi Vishwanathtemple corridor project.

The prime minister will

then attend the Dev DeepawaliMahotsav. He will depart fromRaj Ghat and view DevDeepawali celebrations from

Raj Ghat to Chet SinghGhat.

Modi will thenarrive at RavidasGhat Jetty and payfloral tributes tothe statue of SantRavidas. Before

flying back to NewDelhi, he will visit

the SarnathArcheological site and watcha light and sound show.

PM dedicates to nationsix-lane highway

Free ambulance service forroad accident victims in WB

As we enter the last month ofa calamitous year, my year-end musings have been piv-

otted around the key question —What led to a surge inModi’s popularity while the oppo-site happened to the elected lead-ers of US and UK? Why did hispersona prevail despite the pan-demic challenging resources andpolicies? I would say that he keptthe response specific to our reali-ty rather than promising the moonand went in for long-term trans-formative measures that wouldequip the nation against any suchunforeseen crisis in the future. Trusteeship paradigm of gov-erning the largest democracy: Atthe recently concluded G20 sum-mit, Prime Minister NarendraModi called for a new global indexbased on “respecting nature in thespirit of trusteeship of MotherEarth.” His collaborative responsein sync with multi-lateral institu-tions to prioritise ESG-centricconcerns (based on the tri-pillar ofenvironment, sustainability andgovernance) commits to a much-needed collective responsibility ofall nations in managing the plan-et’s resources.

By the same yardstick, thePrime Minister’s post-pandemicmanagement of his own countryhas paved the way for a new anddistinct style of governing democ-racies on a similar “trusteeship par-adigm.” When benchmarkedagainst global counterparts, Modi’scrises-management places him inthe league of the tallest global lead-ers for coming across as a trustee-head of the nation, who from thebeginning, remained visible,accountable, admonishing, nudg-ing and persuasive. At the sametime, he was empathetically “shep-herding his people, instead ofresorting to punitive measuresthat would have regressed econom-ic recovery.”

Democracies, noticeably forthe last five years, have mutatedtheir strains, deviating from theoriginal concept of fair, inclusiveand participative governance tomorphing into illiberal and total-itarian regimes. Viewed in this con-text, a “trusteeship model ofdemocracy” is in sharp contrast tothe ascent of authoritarian leaders,even in the most advanced democ-racies.

Was the Modi-ledGovernment’s response to the cri-sis financially adequate? This will

remain a subjective question asdeveloped countries had greaterflexibility for welfarist mea-sures to cushion vulnerable sec-tions of society. In contrast,injecting four stimulus packagesworth 10 per cent of the GDPto fire up the economy was theextent to which theGovernment could stretch itslimits, with the fiscal deficit dou-bling to 7.7 per cent of the GDP.

Were India’s containmentmeasures and public messagingof the COVID crisis the best?Certainly not, when comparedto Vietnam, Taiwan, Canada,Germany or New Zealand.

Was Modi’s early lockdownproactive or premature? Initially,the response to relief and reha-bilitation was ad-hoc and knee-jerk. But then the Governmentswung into streamliningCentre-State coordination forDBTs and food grains reaching800 million people.

During disaster manage-ment, it is impossible to forecastthe duration or depths of forcemajeure damages as no leadercan possibly see the end of thetunnel clearly when adversitiesstrike. While the US and theUK’s health infrastructure isranked among the best by theGlobal Health Security Index,India’s “mortality rate per mil-lion” remained among the low-est.

Modi’s popularity: Modi2.0 in 2020 is a distinctlychanged persona, in image, indemeanour, in electoral rhetoric,in elevating the national agen-da above narrow political, ide-ological or populist gains, andin taking the moral high ground

at international fora by demand-ing the reform of archaic mul-tilateral institutions.

As we enter the last monthof a calamitous year, one is com-pelled to assess just what was itabout Modi that he not onlyretained but exponentiallywidened his electoral base asseen in the recently-concludedBihar elections, despite a severe-ly pandemic-ravaged econo-my? Because 2020 was a yearthat savagely punished electedleaders for acts of omissions inadministering inadequate reliefand rehabilitation, while out-rightly rejecting Trump forremaining in denial of a human-itarian crisis of unprecedentedscale.

The answer lies in Modi’sminutiae precision on last-milemicro-management of 269 keyprojects, down to the districtlevel percolation. As Indiaapproaches the delivery stage ofthe vaccine, Modi’s forward-planning is becoming morejob-stepped by visiting vaccinehubs to fine-tune distributionmechanisms, down to assessingthe availability of cold storagechains and ancillary equipmentlike syringes.

India ready for economictake-off? In January 2021, thelevers of global growth areexpected to rebalance morefavourably towards a partialreturn to globalisation, which isa distinct reversal from theeconomic insularity of theTrump era. With President-elect Joe Biden taking chargenext month, economic recoveryis expected to accelerate with theliberalisation of international

trade as America regains itsleadership as the primary engineof growth, instead of China,which augurs well for globalrecovery.

India is now uniquely posi-tioned for a faster climb-backafter a contraction of -7.5 percent, with the grounds beinglaid to expand economic activ-ity. Optimism for an economicrebound is based on the struc-tural reforms undertaken in2020, the lowered rate of corpo-rate taxation, a stable currencybacked by strong foreignreserves, vibrant FDI flows of£35.73 billion and the FinanceMinister’s nudge to increaseCAPEX spending by publicsector enterprises to drive eco-nomic growth. Sustained buoy-ancy will, of course, depend onthe budgetary proposals and theefficacy of the vaccine in con-trolling future surges.

Going beyond crisis man-agement, the Governmentneeds to scale up humanresource capital and find neweravenues for raising capitalresources.

Second, if we aspire tomake India a “Plus One” invest-ment destination, gaps must beplugged for delays in contractenforcement. India takes 1,440days to implement contractsagainst 150 days in Singapore.We need to hasten dispute res-olution and follow Vietnam’sexample of allocating large landparcels on lease/rent/ mort-gage.

Third, the pandemic forcesa relook at our woefully inade-quate investment in healthcare,education and labour-skilling,

all of which are State subjectsand constitute three vitals of theHuman Resource Developmentindex. The Centre and Statesneed to work more closely toincentivise private participa-tion in education and healthcareby not restricting brick andmortar hospitals and universi-ties to compulsory compliancewith “not-for-profit agenda,” asany prospective investor willlook for a lucrative return oncapital.

Removing the regulatoryrestrictions on “not-for-profit”institutions in education willcreate a facilitative environ-ment for private participation bybig domestic and overseasbrands, build optimal capacitiesand bring in technology whilelowering costs per-child per-annum.

UNDP estimates that thetotal financial requirement forIndia to reach SDG 4 by 2030is $173 billion per year, asagainst the current budgetedoutlay of $76 billion annually foreducation.

The education sector willsee explosive growth if Modi’splan to turn 1.2 million schoolsinto “smart classrooms” isimplemented by connecting60,000 villages within threeyears with high-speed opticfibre. The Ministry ofElectronics and IT is contem-plating a public-private businessmodel for this visionary project,which will lower the cost of edu-cation per child through e-learning.

In order to evolve as aknowledge-based economy andtransit towards optimal digitisa-tion, the Modi Governmenthas made great strides to pushbrand India into the top 50countries club in the GlobalInnovation Index for the firsttime. Our higher educationinstitutions have improved theirglobal rankings and in theEmployability Rankings 2020Index, India has scaled up to the15th position globally. However,we need to scale up to skill/re-skill 40 crore people by 2022 inorder to match up to the paceof virtualisation which is a keyenabler for economic recoveryas these measures remain awork-in-progress.

I conclude this analysis byparaphrasing an opinion fromThe New York Times, whichlauded Modi’s initiatives bystating that he fared “better thanmany peers because he acteddecisively, pre-emptively andrelatively early...Modi’s success,analysts say, may be moredurable. He’s widely seen as amobiliser, not a despot...”

(The author is a columnistand Chairperson for the NationalCommittee on FinancialInclusion at the Niti Aayog)

While a 40-year old man, apparently a businessconsultant from Chennai, has claimed that hehas suffered from adverse reactions to the trial

vaccine administered by the Serum Institute of India (SII)during the Phase-III clinical trials, we do not know thefull details of the case. This is the vaccine developedby Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca andUniversity of Oxford where SII is a partner. For one, westill do not know whether the individual was given thenew vaccine or a placebo, which is why his allegationsraised by his lawyers are slightly suspect. The instantcountersuit by SII makes one suspect whether this was

just an extortion attempt but one thing is clear, the individual involved has little chance ofsuccess in court as volunteers to clinical trials for any medication should be fully awarethat they can suffer extremely adverse reactions to trial medication and those reactionscould also mean death.

The extremely rushed research and development for vaccines to counter the COVID-19 virus, which has devastated the global economy and driven millions across the worldback into poverty, might yet be successful but rushing clinical trials will mean that cer-tain adverse effects and even a death or two might occur. Those who volunteer for suchtrials should be made fully aware of the risks and they usually are. In case this is genuine,and it well might be, the individual and his family should be compensated for his tribula-tions. The system of clinical trials in India should ensure that those who take upon thecivic responsibility to better mankind by subjecting their bodies to such insane risks shouldbe given adequate coverage for the danger involved. Ever so often in India, many trialsare highly risky and those who volunteer, often from poorer families, are dumped and leftwithout compensation or recourse if things go wrong. There may be more than what meetsthe eye in this particular case. But that should not take away from the tremendous risksand troubles that many clinical trial volunteers put themselves through. This also high-lights that companies involved in clinical trials, whether they are large, global pharmaceu-tical firms or small research firms in India, should be more open and transparent aboutwhat the volunteers suffer. SII would do well to tell us the entire story lest this becomesa case where the anti-vaccine movement can get a foot in the door in India.

If Prime Minister Narendra Modi has had to clarify inevery public speech within days that the new farmlaws are progressive and he is just as protectionist

about farmers’ interests, then the latter’s agitation hasworked. If Home Minister Amit Shah is trying to dousethe fire and attempting reconciliatory talks after his ownpartymen are labelling the stir as a Khalistani and Maoistplot, then the kisan unions have had their way. And thoughthe protesters have largely stayed away from politicianson principle, the fact that Punjab’s Congress ChiefMinister, Capt Amarinder Singh, has been consistentlypushing their cause, no matter how self-serving that might

be, has given the farmers’ campaign a political heft that has blunted the edge of the Centre’sunilateralism. In fact, it is the first time that Congress Chief Ministers like Singh andChhattisgarh’s Bhupesh Baghel have turned the tide of national discourse by crusadingagainst the farm Acts and forcing a discussion on consensus politics, something that thecentral Congress leadership has fallen far short of. Singh’s Government has not only broughtits own amendment Bills against the farm Acts, Congress MLAs are on a relay dharna inDelhi demanding an audience with the President, who may not entertain a challenge tothe Central laws. But at least Singh has given the Congress a talking point at a time whenit’s languishing by the wayside. Of course, the Punjab Government could have simply broughtin its own law to pick up all State produce at Minimum Support Price (MSP), regardlessof the Central laws that allow farmers access to wider markets but throw them at the riskof being cheated out of a fair price given the competition. There are fears that the olderregulated system, while co-existing, would be weakened by a parallel market and Singhplayed on these by pushing an amendment to the Central law itself, knowing full well thatit was a negative rather than assertive action but would be more politically loaded. Thefirst amendment says that the sale of wheat and paddy (which are the State’s cash crops)will be valid only if the seller pays a price equal to or greater than the MSP announced bythe Central government and that any violation would be punishable. The second Bill rein-troduces the market fees or licences for private players outside the Agricultural ProduceMarket Committee (APMC) mandis, which the Central law has abolished. This it says willbe used to create a distress fund for small and marginal farmers; hence is populist. Thethird Bill attacks the central Act that gives unlimited power of stocking essential commodi-ties to traders and reassigns that right to itself, arguing that production, supply and distri-bution of goods make for a State subject. Punjab is also planning to tweak the definitionof a “trade area”, where farmers, traders and electronic trading/transaction platforms aregiven freedom to deal in farmers’ produce without any restrictions, to cover its limits. It isimpossible for the Centre or food majors to agree to such clauses but Singh has scoredover the might of the ruling BJP or any sane argument by crusading with zeal and sym-bolism. Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and Baghel, too, have pushed amendmentBills but with not as many punishing clauses. But the three have certainly built momen-tum on an issue that matters across heartland India and have sustained and mobilised amovement around it, strong enough to give the Congress its first cogent tool as an Opposition.

In fact, strategy or not, the three Congress Chief Ministers are not just holding on totheir turfs but are articulating positions on national issues. Baghel and Gehlot have beenwarning against the brutal communalisation of personal freedoms implicit in the proposed“love jihad” laws by BJP-ruled States. Singh has refused the Central Bureau of Investigation(CBI) entry without his permission. Unless there is a strategy to deflect attention from thecentral leadership, the Congress chieftains are doing pretty well as the voice of the Oppositionon their own. The problem is people still want to hear the central leadership and expect itto steer the discourse. But ever since the Hathras rape-murder case, when the Gandhi scionsvisited the victim’s family amid high drama, they have been silent. In fact, that was a bit ofa hit and run given their belligerence as we are yet to hear from them on a follow-up to thecase. Contrast that to the Chief Ministers, who have stayed with their respective causes.Also Singh, Gehlot and Baghel have defended the leadership tooth and nail, speaking outagainst the Congress’ dissenters, saying it was more important to coalesce against theBJP on graver issues than fight among themselves or lampoon the leadership. And that“electoral defeats were not the yardstick for leadership change.” Question is will the Congressleadership reward this loyalty and bring its chieftains forward or use them for fire-fighting?The fact that Singh and Baghel are more popular than Rahul Gandhi in their home Statesshows that the Congress does have leaders of merit, who collectively have it in them torevive the party and keep it relevant. The Central leadership has no choice but to devolvepower and build a semblance of representational democracy in its organisational structure.In fact, the Congress has historically had strong regional leaders. If only it were to nurturetheir strengths than making their continuity conditional on doing the bidding of its first fam-ily, the party’s organisational matrix wouldn’t have been lying in shreds across States. Norwould the grassroots workers go fortune-hunting to other parties, fearing their voice would-n’t ever matter. Will the Congress learn to identify its assets first?

Cong’s State pillars

Don’t blame FBISir — The never-ending, welluntil January 20 to be precise,denial of the presidential electionoutcome is getting more extremeeach day. However, US PresidentDonald Trump’s lawsuits havebeen failing with his pleas get-ting rejected in US courts.

The latest bit from a Trumpinterview — “This is total fraudand how, the FBI (FederalBureau of Investigation) andDepartment of Justice, I don’tknow, maybe they’re involved”— shows that doubts will alwaysremain around the verdict.

Surely, the FBI and DOJ arebeyond reproach as their basicpurpose is to protect the US andits way of life. They serve thecountry and its President,regardless of who is in power.

The 1960s TV series, F.B.I,starring Efrem Zimbalist, Jr,may have been over the top butthe good guys are still servingtheir country by working for theFBI and not against it. Shame onyou, President Trump!

A court in Pennsylvania hasdismissed a lawsuit filed byTrump’s team, observing that“voters, not lawyers choose thePresident.” The judgement camefour days after Pennsylvania

certified Trump’s Democraticrival Joe Biden as the winner inthe State which has 20 electoralcollege votes.

Trump told reporters onThursday that it would be “hard”to concede to Biden, aDemocrat. He said he wouldleave the White House if theElectoral College declares Biden

as the winner but made it clearhe was not prepared to “concede”the election.

Dennis FitzgeraldMelbourne, Australia

Farmers’ woesSir —In a democracy, it beats rea-son that its police force wants to

use stadiums to imprison protest-ers (farmers). It is a small mercythat the Delhi Governmentrefused to grant the police thepermission to do so. These farm-ers have simply been protestingagainst a law that they don’t findfavourable. They have as muchright to make themselves heardand be invited to negotiations in

the consultative nature of democ-racy. Cracking down on themwith force is no solution.

Given the recent decisions onShaheen Bagh and other cases,pertaining to protests againstthe Citizenship (Amendment)Act, this brutal silencing of protestwas all but expected.

The discontent of farmers inthis country has been growingover the years due to the Centralgovernment’s careless economicpolicies. These have debilitatedthe rural economy. Farmers haveexperienced a growing mismatchbetween their production effortsand income under the currentregime.

Climate change and its out-comes have already worsened thefarmers’ condition. The newfarm Acts expose them to mar-ket fluctuations, hence the inse-curity. The community of farm-ers is thus right in feeling agitat-ed. The Government can try andkeep farmers under control butit cannot deny the discontent thatis growing among 60 per cent ofthe country’s voting population.They could turn the tide.

Bhagwan ThadaniMumbai

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

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

op nionVIJAYAWADA | TUESDAY | DECEMBER 1, 2020

06

Why Modi still stands tallThe answer lies in his minutiae precision on last-mile micro-management of

269 key projects, down to the district level percolation

We need to recognise as a society that all of our economies aroundthe world are built on the backs of women’s unpaid labour.

American philanthropist —Melinda Gates

Beyond the kitchen counter

Onion, which is a staple kitchen item among oth-ers for an average Indian, is an essential ingre-dient for many cuisines and recipes. From spicy

curries to tangy relishes, it is impossible to imaginecooking anything without it. But it also has high med-icinal value.

If folk remedies are to be believed, onions couldtreat cold, cough, asthma and bronchitis. Among othernutritional benefits, onions stimulate growth ofhealthy bifidobacteria in the colon and help in low-ering blood lipids and are thus effective in managingcholesterol levels. The sulfide in onion reduces tumorgrowth and is being explored as a possible ingredi-ent in the cure for cancer.

The flavonoids in onion help in reducing bad cho-lesterol while thiosulfinate thins out the blood further.These, traditional practitioners say, reduce the risk ofheart attack and stroke. Onion also stimulates hairgrowth because of the huge content of sulphur in it.It stimulates blood flow and produces collagen, whichhelps in the growth of hair. One can extract its juice,mix it with almond oil or coconut oil and massage iton the scalp; leave it for around 45 minutes; then wash

it with warm water. One can also mix onion juice withlemon juice and massage the scalp with it. This pre-vents hair loss and dandruff.

In these times of immunity-boosters, we musttap into our plant wealth and heritage and develop aholistic well-being routine in our daily lives. Much ofour herbal heritage needs to be recognised and patent-ed for pharmaceutical uses.

Jubel D'CruzMumbai

Send yyour ffeedback tto:[email protected]

Vaccine troublesWhat does the case of the volunteer in Chennai tell us

about medical trials?

BINDU DALMIA

Happy Gurpurab to everyone celebrating. Maythe blessing ofGuru Nanak jialways be with us.

Former cricketer—Sachin Tendulkar

India considers SCO asan important regionalorganisation to promotecooperation in the areasof peace, security, trade,economy & culture.

Secretary (West),MEA —Vikas Swarup

L E T T E R S T O TT H E E D I T O R

S O U N D B I T EToday, our farmers areforced to ask for theirown rights! Shame onBJP govt for putting barriers to farmers intheir own country.

Congress leader—Vivek Bansal

The party’s CMs have kept the farmers’ issue boiling, enough forthe Govt to take note. Can the leadership build on this?

Plug the leaks

THEY (AUSTRALIA) HAVE OUTPLAYED US.

WE WERE INEFFECTIVE WITH THE BALL

AND DIDN’T HIT THE AREAS.

—INDIAN CRICKET CAPTAIN

VIRAT KOHLI

KOHLI IS AN IMPULSIVE CAPTAIN. HE IS MAKING

TOO MANY CHANGES IN HIS BOWLING. AND THIS IS

AN AREA THAT HE NEEDS TO TAKE CARE OF.

—FORMER INDIA PACER

ASHISH NEHRA

POINTCOUNTERPOINT

Since 2014, the Narendra Modi Governmenthas weeded out close to 44 million bogusration cards by using the Information

Technology (IT) infrastructure viz. digitisation,seeding of Aadhaar on ration cards, electronicpoint of sale machines at retail shops and so on.However, this addresses only a small aspect of theproblem and that, too, is unlikely to be rooted outcompletely with the use of technology alone.Besides, large-scale diversion and black market-ing of grain, inclusion of the privileged amongbeneficiaries, a ballooning subsidy bill and so onwill persist so long as the extant system of rout-ing food subsidy through State agencies contin-ues. What then is the way forward? TheGovernment should stop selling food at a sub-sidised price. Instead, it should limit its role tocrediting subsidy directly to the accounts of ben-eficiaries. When foodgrains at `1/2/3 per kg arenot available, these maladies will be automatical-ly nipped in the bud.

Under the National Food Security Act(NFSA), the Union Government arranges for sup-ply of wheat, rice and coarse cereals to the ben-eficiaries at `2/3/1 per kg, which is a fraction ofthe cost of procurement, handling and distribu-tion (eg. 1/15th in case of wheat). Every personwhose name is mentioned on the ration card iseligible to receive five kg of rice or wheat permonth. In addition, during April-June, to miti-gate the impact of COVID-19, the PM GaribKalyan Yojna added a “free” five kg of rice orwheat per person per month to all 815 millionindividual beneficiaries under the NFSA. Besidesone kg of free pulses per month was provided toevery family. These additional provisions wereextended for a further five months till November.

The supplies are made by the FoodCorporation of India (FCI) and other State agen-cies on behalf of the Central Government, whichreimburses to the former the excess of the costof purchase, handling and distribution over theprice charged from the beneficiaries i.e. `2/3/1per kg on additional supplies (during the eightmonths of the current year, this is zero). This reim-bursement or food subsidy is paid from theCentral Budget. In recent years, food subsidy hasincreased to frightening levels. During 2019-20,it was `2,19,000 crore. For 2020-21, prior toCOVID-19, the likely spend was estimated to be`2,53,000 crore. Including the impact of free foodduring April-November or about `1,50,000crore, this will scale up to ̀ 4,03,000 crore. In casethe free food scheme is extended further, thespend will be much higher.

The ballooning food subsidy is putting a hugestress on the Union Budget. Faced with a short-fall in tax collection in recent years and the over-arching need to contain fiscal deficit, the Centrehas been making short payments to the FCI, forc-ing the latter to borrow heavily to sustain its oper-ations. The situation is so pathetic that since 2016-17, the FCI has been drawing funds from theNational Small Savings Fund (NSSF). As onMarch 31, the cumulative borrowings from theNSSF were to the tune of `3,30,000 crore.

The allocation for the current year being`1,26,000 crore (`1,16,000 crore provided in theBudget, plus ̀ 10,000 crore in the first supplemen-tary demands for grants) against the requirementof ̀ 4,03,000 crore, the shortfall is ̀ 2,77,000 crore.If no further supplementary authorisation comes,the FCI will have to borrow all of this from theNSSF, taking its borrowings to a gargantuan`6,07,000 crore as of March 2021. Though stay-ing on the FCI’s balance sheet, this mammoth debt

is entirely the liability of the UnionGovernment and will need to be ser-viced from the latter’s tax collections inthe future. The core feature of thisscheme, or supply of wheat or rice at aprice almost close to zero, may be aboon for the beneficiaries but ends upbeing a bane for the economy. The avail-ability of wheat at ̀ 2 per kg through thePublic Distribution System (PDS) underthe NFSA, when the market price is aminimum `30 per kg, is a huge allure-ment to all those involved in its imple-mentation. No wonder, there is large-scale diversion of foodgrain from rakeunloading points and godowns of theFCI. Trucks disappear on way to theretail sale points. Then there are mil-lions of non-existent or fake beneficia-ries.

There is a clamour for becomingbeneficiaries under the scheme even asthere are numerous instances of peopleselling their subsidised quota of food-grain, say wheat bought at ̀ 2 per kg, todubious traders at `12 per kg or more.Clearly, there are millions availing sub-sidised food despite being above thepoverty line. The official word on thenumber of poor in India is no more than25-30 per cent; yet the beneficiariesunder NFSA are nearly over 66 per cent.

Further, since the handling and dis-tribution cost, besides the MinimumSupport Price (MSP) paid to farmers,is reimbursed to the FCI and other Stateagencies on “actual” as food subsidy,inefficiency and inflated cost claims(including bogus) are inevitable. The“loaders” getting away with monthlysalary in lakhs easily pass muster undera cost-based mechanism. Reports of dis-appearance of food stocks in Punjabcausing a loss of over `20,000 crore tothe exchequer in 2016 are still fresh inpeople’s memory. Such inefficienciesand irregularities have also been point-ed out by the Comptroller and Auditor

General (CAG) of India. Meanwhile,the most deserving (poorest of the poor)continue to be deprived of their fullrequirement. This is because suppliesunder the NFSA at five kg per personper month barely cover 50 per cent ofthe requirement of a person, which is10 kg per month, as estimated by theNational Sample Survey Organisation(NSSO). Having to buy the balance fivekg at a very high price, say `30 per kgin case of wheat, they are worse off.

Weeding out of 44 million bogusbeneficiaries in itself may appear to bea big accomplishment. But seen in thebroader perspective, this addresses onlya small aspect of the problem and that,too, is unlikely to be rooted out com-pletely with use of technology alone.Besides, other problems will persist solong as the system of routing food sub-sidy through State agencies continues.

In early 2015, a committee under DrShanta Kumar, a senior BJP leader, hadrecognised the need to deal with non-deserving beneficiaries and restrictingsubsidised food only to the very poor.It recommended a cut in the number ofthose eligible for subsidised food from67 per cent to 40 per cent and restrict-ing the benefit of `1/2/3 per kg only tothe poorest of poor people under theAntyodaya Anna Yojana, while increas-ing the supply to seven kg per person.Others should pay 50 per cent of theMSP paid to farmers.

Even as that report is lying in coldstorage, its prescription is nowherenear addressing the flaws in the exist-ing system. The way forward is to stoprouting subsidy through the State agen-cies. In other words, the Governmentshould not sell food at subsidised price;instead, it should limit its role to cred-iting subsidy directly to the beneficia-ry’s account. The Government cantransfer ̀ 280 per month (subsidy at therate of ̀ 28 per kg for 10 kg) to the ben-

eficiary’s account to enable him/her tobuy 10 kg from the market by paying`300 (including ̀ 20 from his/her pock-et). This will strike at the very root ofdiversion, pilferage, black marketing.When, foodgrains at `1/2/3 per kg arejust not available, the very thought ofmaking a quick buck will be nipped inthe bud. As for the FCI et al, while theywill still be involved in purchase, han-dling and distribution, they will oper-ate like any other business entity and becompelled to operate efficiently andkeep costs low.

With private entities, too, allowedto directly buy from farmers, stock farmproduce sans any limit (courtesy, thethree farm laws recently enacted by theCentre), there will be plenty of productsavailable in the market ensuring fairamount of competition and enablinglow price to consumers.

We will have a scenario whereby themarket price of wheat could come downto say ̀ 25 per kg or even less (from theexisting minimum of `30 per kg) giv-ing relief to everyone. Ditto for otherproducts. It will have a deflationaryimpact down the line as all of theprocessed food will cost less. There willbe huge saving in subsidy, which will berestricted only to the poor or about 300million (down from existing 800 mil-lion) even as the Government need nothave to pay for any flab such as inflat-ed cost, inefficiencies, subsidy to bogusbeneficiaries and so on. This will reinin fiscal deficit and trim borrowings,thereby preventing an unsustainableburden on the future generation of tax-payers.

The outcome of this approach isvery promising; however, its adoptionwill require political courage and a fun-damental change in the mindset of ourpolicymakers.

(The writer is a New Delhi-basedpolicy analyst)

The Government should stop selling food at a subsidised price through the PDS. Instead, itshould limit its role to crediting subsidy directly to the accounts of beneficiaries

analysis 07F I R S T C O L U M N

A polarisingmunicipal poll

KALYANI SHANKAR

The GHMC campaign was centred aroundcomments on Pakistan, Jinnah and a

Hindu-Muslim narrative, not civic issues

UTTAM GUPTA

THEGOVERNMENT

CAN TRANSFER`280 PER MONTH(SUBSIDY AT THERATE OF `28 PER

KG FOR 10 KG) TO THE

BENEFICIARY’SACCOUNT TO

ENABLE HIM/HERTO BUY 10 KG

FROM THEMARKET BY

PAYING `300(INCLUDING `20

FROM HIS/HERPOCKET). THIS

WILL STRIKE ATTHE VERY ROOT OF

DIVERSION,PILFERAGE AND

BLACKMARKETING.

WHENFOODGRAINS AT`1/2/3 PER KGARE JUST NOT

AVAILABLE, THEVERY THOUGHT

OF MAKING AQUICK BUCK WILL

BE NIPPED IN THE BUD

Whoever thought that a civic poll would create so much excite-ment, passion and polarisation? The Greater HyderabadMunicipal Corporation (GHMC) election scheduled for today

(December 1) has become an unprecedented high-profile politicalevent. It is being fought with the same vigour as the Lok Sabha pollsby not only the BJP, which is aiming high, but also by the other play-ers like the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), the All-India Majlis-e-Ittehaadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) and the Congress Party. The BJPis ambitious and wants to replace the TRS. This is an indication ofwhat will come in the 2023 Assembly polls. The party has an advan-tage because the Congress, which ruled the State, for many decadesand the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), which was in power till a fewyears ago, left a space for the BJP to occupy. The TDP is almostwiped out and the Congress receded to fourth place in the recentLok Sabha polls.

Eyebrows are being raised at the way the BJP has fielded nation-al heavyweights for campaigning for a municipal poll, like the partychief JP Nadda, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and UP Chief MinisterYogi Adityanath. Though he did not campaign, even Prime MinisterNarendra Modi visited Hyderabad to review the progress of the COVID-19 vaccine clinical research on November 28. First of all, the BJP,which surprised everyone by winning four Lok Sabha seats out of17 in Telangana in 2019, got the momentum and continued withanother surprise victory in the Dubbaka bypolls early in November.After the recent stunning performance in the Bihar Assembly elec-tions, the party’s morale is high. Second, if the BJP wins the GHMCpolls, it means that the saffron party is continuing its winning spree.

Moreover, the BJP is positioning itself to spread its footprint fur-ther South. As of now, the party is weak there as it has only oneState Government (Karnataka) in its kitty. Third, the BJP wants tocut the AIMIM to size. The Asaduddin Owaisi-led AIMIM has alwaysbeen strong in the Hyderabad region. Owaisi has expanded his partyto Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. The AIMIM is quite upbeatafter winning five seats in the recent Bihar polls and wants to expandin West Bengal in next year’s Assembly elections, too. However, thiswill cut into the Muslim vote bank and it will be helpful for the BJPto split the Muslim votes. Even though the TRS has always con-tested against the AIMIM in every election, the former has enjoyedissue-based support from the latter. The two parties tacticallyannounced that there would be no tie-up in the municipal polls inorder to protect their turfs.

The BJP, the TRS and the AIMIM have all been generous in spend-ing money and have more than adequate muscle power and man-power to fight this election for different reasons. The BJP wants tospread its wings further in the South. The AIMIM has always wonin the Hyderabad region and is protecting its turf. As for the rulingTRS, it is a fight for its prestige. The party, which has been on awinning spree since the State was bifurcated in 2014, made a cleverand surprise move by advancing the civic poll by two months. TheTRS had won 99 seats in the previous civic elections while the AIMIMwon 44 seats, the BJP three and the Congress two.

The BJP is attacking the TRS for its politics of appeasement.Plus, the recent flood relief measures have been inadequate. TheMusi River that runs through the city was in spate last month andtanks and nullahs developed breaches and low-lying areas were water-logged. About 50 municipal wards were affected due to it. The BJPcleverly wants to cash in on this. Interestingly, while the GHMC pollis normally fought on civic problems like water, sewerage, sanita-tion, roads and other amenities, the campaign showed a polarisingtrend. It was centred around polarising comments on Pakistan,Mohammad Ali Jinnah, allegations involving Rohingya refugees anda Hindu-Muslim narrative, not civic issues.

This led to the Director-General of Police Mahender Reddy towarn the parties after a security meeting. “They are trying to incitecommunal trouble. We are examining the speeches carefully. Actionwill be taken as per law against those trying to create disturbances,”he cautioned. Hyderabad has one of the largest Muslim populationsfor a city in India; about 44 per cent of the people in the city areMuslim while 52 per cent are Hindu. All the parties have been gen-erous in promising sops to the electorate if they win. The BJP, theTRS and the Congress have promised free drinking water supplyto the city, while the BJP has promised a free vaccine to tackle theNovel Coronavirus and renaming of Hyderabad as Bhagya Nagar.

The Chief Minister of Telangana, Kalvakuntla ChandrashekharRao, is threatening to mobilise a non-BJP Opposition front includ-ing the Trinamool Congress, the Samajwadi Party, the NationalistCongress Party and so on, in an attempt to revive the anti-BJP front.

Opinion polls have come up with varied findings, giving the max-imum seats to the TRS at 85, while almost all of them see the BJPwinning nearly 30 per cent of the votes. The 35 votes of the MLAsand MPs in the region would go in favour of the TRS. However, itall depends on whom Dame Luck favours in the end.

(The writer is a senior journalist)

Recently, we commemoratedthe birth anniversary of the lateIndira Gandhi, who has so far

remained the only woman PrimeMinister of India. She was consideredthe most popular leader of the mass-es of Independent India especiallyamong the weaker sections of soci-ety. The Congress Party during IndiraGandhi’s tenure coined the slogan“Garibi hatao (eradicate poverty)”and she led the efforts for the amend-ment to the Preamble of theConstitution to include the words,“Socialist, Secular and DemocraticRepublic of India.”

In furtherance of these con-cepts, her Government implement-ed the 20-point programme. Its basicobjective was to eradicate poverty andto improve the quality of life of thepoor and the weaker sections of soci-ety. It included removal of ruralpoverty, health, education and hous-ing for all, justice for Scheduled Caste(SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) andequality for women.

Indira Gandhi nationalised pri-vate sector banks and turned theminto the most gigantic public sectorbanking system in the world, whichgave people loans for self-employ-ment. I happened to be involved inthe implementation of the 20-PointProgramme when I was UnionMinister of State for Finance. Thebanks were instructed to provideloans to the poor and weaker sectionsof society who wanted to open somesmall business. As a result, millionsacross the country got those smallloans for setting up their own ven-tures. The rate of repayment of thoseloans was as good, if not better, than

the repayment of large loans taken bybig firms. For the benefit of the peo-ple, the number of bank branches wasincreased substantially, too.

In Goa, we had branches of theState Bank of India (SBI) and of a cou-ple of other banks in the main townsbut not in the villages. During mytenure, in the process of implemen-tation of the 20-Point Programme,branches of different banks wereopened in practically every village ofour State. Similar steps were taken inall States across India.

Indira Gandhi was much criti-cised for imposing the Emergency in1975 which lasted for 21 months. Tomy mind, Emergency was thought tobe necessary at that time in view ofthe moves of the Opposition todestabilise the Government and thecountry. The Emergency wasimposed on the advice of SanjayGandhi and Siddhartha ShankarRay. Much of the criticism of theEmergency was on account of theFamily Planning programme, whichwas implemented in North India

sometimes in a drastic and brutalmanner. Sometime later, IndiraGandhi herself felt that imposition ofthe Emergency had been a mistake.

In Goa itself, Emergency provedto be beneficial. “Trains are runningon time” was then a national sloganand in Goa the Administrationbecame more efficient, black market-ing and hoarding stopped and foodand other articles of general con-sumption were easily available, whichwas not the case earlier. The supportof the Goan people to theGovernment of India duringEmergency benefitted the CongressParty, which went on to win the LokSabha seat of South Goa. This was thefirst-ever election victory of theCongress Party in Goa. Until then, theCongress had not won a single seateither in Parliament, in the Assemblyor even at the municipality level.

In the general elections held in1977, Indira Gandhi lost her LokSabha seat from Rae Barelli butimmediately thereafter in 1978 shewon a byelection from the

Chikmagalur constituency. InNovember 1978, the Janata Partybrought in a motion to expel IndiraGandhi from Parliament. My party,the Congress (U), supported thismotion of the ruling party. However,I personally could not support it. I feltthat I had won the Lok Sabha elec-tion in the name of Indira. I metYashwantrao Chavan, who was theleader of the Congress (U) inParliament. Chavan permitted me tooppose the motion. During thedebate, while my party supported themotion, I strongly opposed it. IndiraGandhi was in the Lok Sabha duringthe debate and apparently she neverforgot my support to her on that day.In 1980, I was the only candidate inthe whole country belonging to theCongress (U) who was also support-ed by the Congress (I).

After Liberation, there were twoopposite points of view on the statusof Goa, Daman and Diu. In the firstfour Assembly elections, theMaharashtrawadi Gomantak Party(MGP) obtained a significant victo-

ry and formed the Government.The MGP wanted the merger of Goainto Maharashtra on the grounds thatGoa identified culturally and inmany other ways with Maharashtra.The United Goans Party (UGP) aswell as the Congress held that Goashould not merge with Maharashtra.The MGP wanted the matter to bedecided by voting on the floor of theAssembly.

This was strongly opposed by theUGP and the Congress. Thereafter,during the premiership of IndiraGandhi an opinion poll (referendum)was held for Goa. This was the firstand so far the only one ever held inthe country. It went against thedemand for the merger. Thereafter,the Congress and the UGP demand-ed statehood for Goa.

My first speech in the Lok Sabhaechoed that demand for statehood.However, Morarji Desai, then PrimeMinister, was not in favour of smallStates. In 1980, Indira Gandhireturned as Prime Minister and Imoved a Bill seeking statehood for

Goa. Rajiv Gandhi, then GeneralSecretary of the Congress Party, metme and promised that statehoodwould be granted to Goa. True to hisword, statehood was granted to us inthe next term of the Lok Sabha dur-ing the premiership of Rajiv Gandhihimself.

It was obtained due to the effortsof then Chief Minister PratapsinghRane, my colleague in the Lok SabhaShantaram Naik and other leaders ofthe Congress and the MGP’s Pankar.The MGP brought a resolutiondemanding Statehood for Goa. Whilereplying to the debate, ShashikalaKakodkar, then Chief Minister said,“In the early years after Liberation, theMGP stood for merger withMaharashtra and fought for itthrough the opinion poll in a demo-cratic way. The verdict of the pollwent against the merger. The MGPaccepted the people’s verdict becauseit believes in the wisdom of the elec-torate.”

(The writer is a former UnionMinister)

A leader who believed in leaving no one behind Indira Gandhi nationalised private banks, turned them into the biggest public sector banking system in the world which gave people loans for self-employment

EDUARDO FALEIRO

VIJAYAWADA | TUESDAY | DECEMBER 1, 2020

www.dailypioneer.com

VIJAYAWADA | TUESDAY | DECEMBER 1, 2020 Money 08

INDIA CORNER

DHL Express India on Monday saidit has appointed Manish Patel asits vice-president for operations. In

his new position, Patel will beresponsible for delivering serviceperformance, leading and developing acohesive team of senior managers inoperations, and ensuring consistentemployee engagement across levels,DHL Express India said in a release. Besides, he will also be drivingefficient management of the network, improving and sustaining thecustoms and regulatory compliance, overseeing security practicesand enhancing operational processes and infrastructure of theorganisation, it added. Patel succeeds Ashutosh Bajpai, who takesover as vice-president for Asia-Pacific (excluding China), Gatewaysand Customs, DHL Express, and will now be based out of the regionaloffice in Singapore, DHL Express said. As a member of the Indiasenior management team, Patel will also support DHL Express inachieving revenue and profits, implementing and developing annualoperating plans as well as driving cross-functional and digitalisationinitiatives to strengthen the business, said the release.

Edu-tech platform Kyt onMonday said it has raisedUSD 2.5 million in funding

from Sequoia Capital India'sSurge to expand its online-firstglobal academy for extracur-ricular learning. Kyt is part of thefourth cohort of Surge, a bi-annual rapid scale-up programme run bySequoia Capital India. Founded in June this year, Kyt leveragestechnology to provide online-only live lessons to children from 5 to15 years old. To date, over 1,000 students have taken a course orattended workshops with Kyt, and the platform has more than 20teachers onboard.The company plans to increase its teacher base to500 over the next 12 months and add more courses, including chess,various musical instruments, public speaking, creative writing, andhow to be a content creator, a statement said. "After speaking toseveral parents, we realised that there is a much larger need toprovide high-quality courses that focus on the holistic and all-rounddevelopment of the child, beyond just academics. With a strong team,we embarked on this vision to build an online-first, global academyfor extracurricular learning for kids," Kyt CEO Bhavik Rathod said.

Bharti Airtel's Africa arm andtelecom gear maker Nokiaon Monday announced a

three-year deal to modernisenetwork in Nairobi with high-speed 4G, and deploy 5G-readyequipment. The deployment of5G-ready network started inJune and will cover hundreds ofsites, the statement said. It willinclude upgrading existing 2G, 3G and 4G radio access network(RAN) coverage in urban, semi-urban, highways, tourist spots andcentral business districts in Nairobi and the rest of Kenya, itadded.Nokia's network infrastructure will also offer Airtel Kenya theoption to smoothly transition to 5G when necessary. The upgradednetwork will deliver enhanced connectivity to customers of AirtelKenya and access to new, high-speed data services. Airtel Kenya CEOP D Sarma said in the statement said, "We are in the midst of rollingout our network to enhance coverage along with modernisation of ourdata network that will help us deliver improved, high-speed dataservices to our customers."

Moody's Investors Serviceon Monday said the bankcapital will moderately fall

in emerging Asia over the nexttwo years, with India seeinglarger capital decline withoutfurther infusion.In a report,Moody's said the uncertaintrajectory of asset quality is one of the biggest threats for emergingmarket banks, as operating conditions remain challenging amid thecurrent COVID pandemic.The 2021 outlook for banks in emergingmarkets is negative, while the outlook for insurers is stable, it said."Inthe Asia Pacific region, banks' rising nonperforming loans andinsurers' volatile investment portfolios are in focus. Capital willmoderately fall in emerging Asia over the next two years, and banksin India and Sri Lanka will post larger capital declines without publicor private injections," Moody's said.

Banks in India to see capital declineover 2 years without fresh infusion

PNS n NEW DELHI

Union Minister Nitin Gadkarion Monday expressed confi-dence that India will get aCOVID-19 vaccine "as early aspossible" and overcome thepandemic to win the econom-ic war.

The Minister for Micro,Small and Medium Enterprisesand Road Transport &Highways said that currently,"majority of countries are notinterested to deal with China";they are rather interested inIndia.

He said such a situation isadvantageous for the coun-try's manufacturing sector toramp up its capabilities toboost exports from India.

"I am confident that we willget a vaccine as early as possi-ble and 100 per cent we willwin this war against COVID-19 and also win economicwar," Gadkari said this at a vir-tual event organised by Dun &Bradstreet. He said disburse-ment of loans to the tune of Rs1.48 lakh crore has been com-pleted so far, out of the Rs 3lakh crore worth of collateral-free automatic loans for busi-nesses announced by theCentre earlier. "We havealready reduced our imports

from China and already our(India's) exports are increasing.The trends are positive and Iam expecting good results inthis field," said the minister.

He said the MSMEs aredoing an excellent job despitefacing an economic crisis.

Eligible borrowers for thescheme include MSME units,business enterprises, individualloans for business purposesand MUDRA borrowers.

Talking about schemes forthe MSME sector, he said, "Wehave sanctioned some 93schemes and more than 100schemes are in the pipeline.We want to clear them as earlyas possible."

He said efforts are underwayfor reducing India's depen-dence on import of items suchas crude oil.

The minister said emergingareas where MSMEs can workinclude artificial intelligence,robotics, sustainability, greenmanufacturing, waste towealth, development of smartvillages, e-mobility, and virtu-al reality based solutions.

Gadkari said the MSMEministry is working on settingup a number of centers ofexcellence in collaboration witheducational and research insti-tutions like IITs and NIITs.

Pointing out that the currentannual turnover of the khadi

and village industries stands atRs 80,000 crore, he said theplan is to increase this to Rs 5lakh crore in two years.

At a separate event, the min-ister said the whole world,including India, is facing thecrisis of COVID-19 and the sit-uation is challenging.

"We need to create positivi-ty and self confidence in themind of the people. Negativityand suspicion will create morecomplication," Gadkari saidthis at the Virtual Horasis AsiaMeeting 2020.

He also said that on the basisof the latest statistics, "we cansay that we are coming to thenormal situation".

At the same time in themanufacturing sector also, par-ticulary trade and business, alot of opportunities are up, hesaid. Gadkari said that as com-pared to China, India has got

the huge potential, as the youngtalented manpower is availablein India.

He added that there is avail-ability of raw material in Indiaand policy is favourable. "I feelthat it is appropriate opportu-nity for the investor to invest inIndia," said. "Presently, we arefacing some crisis due toCOVID-19. But, 100 per cent,we are now on a proper track.The manufacturing sector isprogressing. In the highwayconstruction, we are on thesame foot," the minister said.

Horasis Chairman FrankJurgen Richter said, "Asia as aregion is making impressiveprogress in containingCOVID-19, and at the sametime is using the pandemic asa means for transformation —to make their respectiveeconomies more resilient andsustainable."

Gadkari confident India will getCorona vax as ‘early as possible’

The minister said emerging areaswhere MSMEs can work includeartificial intelligence, robotics,sustainability, green manufacturing,waste to wealth, development ofsmart villages, e-mobility and virtualreality based solutions

PNS n NEW DELHI

The government has waivedthe penalty for non-compli-ance with QR code provisionsfor B2C (business-to-con-sumer) invoices generated bybusinesses till March 31, 2021.

However, it would bemandatory for businesses tofollow the QR code provi-sions from April 1, 2021 toavail this penalty waiver.

The requirement of printingdynamic QR code on B2Cinvoices is being implementedfrom December 1. QuickResponse code or QR codehelps users verify the details indigitally signed e-invoices.

Under the Goods andServices Tax (GST), companieswith a turnover of over Rs 500crore have to generate e-invoic-es for B2B (business-to-busi-ness) transactions fromOctober 1. However, it is notyet mandatory for B2C trans-actions.

The Central Board ofIndirect Taxes and Customs(CBIC), in a November 29notification, said the penaltyhas been waived for non-com-pliance with QR code provi-sions for B2C transactionsbetween the period from

December 1, 2020 to March31, 2021, subject to the condi-tion that the said person com-plies with the provisions fromApril 1, 2021.

Commenting on the step,EY Tax Partner Abhishek Jainsaid, "The central governmenthas provided the muchrequired relaxation for thebusinesses by waiving thepenalty for non-compliancewith QR code requirement tillMarch 2021 for B2C transac-tions.

"As many of the industryplayers were not ready, thiswaiver would give the requisitetime for the industry to beready for this compliance."

AMRG & Associates Partner

Rajat Mohan said,"Government has waived thepenalty for non compliance toQR code provisions if they arecomplied by April 1, 2021, fordefault during the period ofDecember 1, 2020 to March31, 2021. This will be a relieffor large taxpayers who wereunable to implement this dig-ital change in invoicing systemdue to the shortage ofresources during the pandem-ic."

Under e-invoicing, taxpay-ers have to generate invoices ontheir internal systems(ERP/accounting/billing soft-ware) and then report it onlineto the 'Invoice RegistrationPortal' (IRP).

PNS n NEW DELHI

5G connections across theglobe are estimated to be 3.5billion and India will accountfor 350 million subscriptionsby 2026, according to a reportby telecom company Ericsson.

India may get its first 5Gconnection in 2021 if spectrumauctions are held early nextyear, said Ericsson Head ofNetwork Solutions (SoutheastAsia, Oceania and India) NitinBansal.

Globally, more than 1 billionpeople, 15 per cent of theworld's population, are expect-ed to live in an area that has 5Gcoverage rolled out, accordingto the 'Ericsson MobilityReport 2020' released onMonday.

"In 2026, 60 per cent of the

world's population will haveaccess to 5G coverage, with 5Gsubscriptions forecast to reach3.5 billion. In India, 5G sub-scriptions will surpass 350million, accounting for 27 percent of all mobile subscriptionsin 2026," the report said.

Bansal said that based on thereported timeline for spec-

trum auction for 5G services,he expects India to have its first5G connection in 2021.

According to the report,India has the highest averagetraffic per smartphone user permonth at 15.7 gb per month.

"Low prices for mobilebroadband services, afford-able smartphones, and

increased time spent by peopleonline contribute to monthlyusage growth in India.Accordingly, total traffic isprojected to quadruple inIndia, reaching 35EB (exabyte)per month in 2026," EricssonMobility Report Editor andHead of Strategic MarketingInsights States Patrik Cerwallsaid.

The report said LTE (4G)remains the dominant technol-ogy in India in 2020, account-ing for 63 per cent of mobilesubscriptions and 3G is expect-ed to be phased out by 2026.

"In the India region, LTEsubscriptions are forecast toincrease from 710 million in2020 to 820 million in 2026,increasing at a compoundannual growth rate (CAGR) of2 per cent," the report said.

5G connection to reach 350 mn in India PNS n BENGALURU

Ride-hailing company Olaannounced it has roped inGM (General Motors) veter-an Jose Pinheiro as its head ofglobal manufacturing andoperations for its electricbusiness.

Pinheiro would spearheadOlas ambition to build man-ufacturing facilities startingwith one of the largest scoot-er factory, and then expand-ing to multiple such facilitiesacross India, the companysaid. "The manufacturingfacilities will enable Ola torapidly bring to market itswide range of two-wheelerproducts under develop-ment," the statement said.

PNS n NEW DELHI

Leasing of office space by co-working players is expected tofall 58 per cent year-on-year to3.4 million sq ft in 2020 acrosssix major cities due to lowerdemand of flexible spaces fromcorporates, according to prop-erty consultant Savills India.

In 2019, the co-workingoperators had leased 8.1 mil-lion sq ft office space across sixmajor cities -- Delhi-NCR,Mumbai, Bengaluru,Hyderabad, Chennai and Pune.

In its report, Savills said it"expects 3.4 million sq ft oftake-up by coworking playersin 2020, recording an 11 percent share of the total officeleasing activity".

The overall leasing activity isexpected to reduce significant-

ly in 2020 as against 2019,owing to delayed decisionmaking by the occupiers, theconsultant said but expectedthe numbers to increase steadi-ly over the next two years.

As per the data, leasing ofoffice space by co-working

players in Bengaluru is estimat-ed to fall at 1.1 million sq ft in2020 from 2.3 million sq ft lastyear.

In Hyderabad, it is likely todrop to 1.1 million sq ft thisyear from 2.1 million sq ft.

The Delhi-NCR market will

see co-working players leasingat 0.2 million sq ft in 2020 asagainst 1.5 million sq ft lastyear. Leasing of office space byco-working segment in Puneand Mumbai is estimated todrop to 0.4 million sq ft dur-ing this year. Pune witnessed 1million sq ft and Mumbai 0.6million sq ft absorption in2019. In Chennai, 0.2 millionsq ft is expected to be leased byco-working segment this yearas against 0.6 million sq ft in2019.

However, Savills India esti-mated the leasing activity byco-working operators toincrease 42 per cent to reach4.9 million sq ft in 2021 over2020. The share of coworkingspace take-up in overall officeleasing activity is poised torebound to about 15 per cent

share in 2021, similar to the2019 level.

In the year 2022, the num-ber is expected to witness a fur-ther 25 per cent annual growthand register leasing activity of6.1 million sq ft.

"Over the years, shared officespace has emerged as a separateasset class, bringing significantcost-advantages to occupiers,"Savills India MD, Researchand Consulting, ArvindNandan said. At a juncturewhen co-working spaces wereseeing strong growth, the out-break of COVID-19 haschanged the rules with socialdistancing and de-densificationof workspace becoming imper-ative, Naveen Nandwani,Managing Director -Commercial Advisory &Transactions, Savills India said.

Office space leasing by co-working players to fall 58%

GM veteran tohead Ola's ops,manufacturingfor electric biz

PNS n MUMBAI

Banks' requests for informa-tion on credit card borrowersor 'credit card inquiries' inOctober surpassed the samein the year-ago period, acredit information companysaid on Monday.

This phenomenon sug-gests consumer economicactivity has materiallyimproved since the easing ofCOVID-19 lockdown mea-sures, Transunion Cibil, acredit information company,said.

‘Credit cardenquiries inOct surpassedyr-ago figures’

PNS n MUMBAI

Talent intelligence platformEightfold AI on Monday saidit has raised USD 125 millionin its latest funding round,valuing the Noida-based com-pany at USD 1 billion.

The series D round was led

by General Catalyst, and exist-ing investors such as CapitalOne Ventures, FoundationCapital, IVP and LightspeedVenture Partners, the compa-ny said. So far, the AI-poweredtalent intelligence platformthat uses a single solution tomanage the entire talent lifecy-

cle, has raised more than USD180 million. Eightfold hasmore than quadrupled its salessince the last round of equityfunding in April 2019 andboasts of a customers base thatinclude Tata Communications,AirAsia, Bayer, Capital Oneand Micron.

Eight-fold AI raises $125 min latest funding round

PNS n NEW DELHI

Hindustan Syringes & MedicalDevices (HMD) on Mondaysaid it is on track to produce177.6 million 0.5 ml KOJAKauto-disable syringes for thegovernment by March 2021.

The company has alsoshipped over 100 millionpieces of KOJAK AD syringesto Covax stockpile facility, asthe Covid vaccines are show-ing promising results acrossthe globe, HMD said in astatement. The WHO andUNICEF have recommended

that auto-disable syringesshould be used for administer-ing vaccines, in mass immuni-sation programmes, it added.

"The front runner COVIDvaccines being launched inIndia would need a 0.5ml ADsyringe for intramuscular drugdelivery we are informed. Inaddition to the annual pro-curement of 300-350 millionof these syringes by GoI for theUniversal Immunisation Pro-gramme, orders have beenplaced on us by the Ministryof Health and Family Welfare,"HMD MD Rajiv Nath said.

PNS n LONDON

In late October, Matthew Joneswas enjoying a rare “bit of nor-mality” at his London barbershop in a year that has beenshort on that.

He was cutting hair andlaughing with colleagues —when the news landed that thebusiness would have to closefor the second time.

Jones, 43, endured 15 weekswithout any income after thethree Sharpes barber shops heco-owns were forced to shut inthe spring as the governmentimposed restrictions to slowthe spread of the coronavirus.

The shops, including a tinyone in east London's trendyHackney neighbourhood, hadbeen open for four monthswhen Prime Minister BorisJohnson ordered a new lock-down. “It was a body blow foreveryone that works here,” hesaid. “You're just building upyour business again, trying toget back to a normal lifestyle.And then all of a sudden it's alltaken away.” As in much ofEurope, the United Kingdomsaw a sharp resurgence of

COVID-19 infections thisautumn, and officials imposeda second round of severerestrictions.

The suffering has been espe-cially acute in the U.K., wheremore than 57,000 people havedied in Europe's deadliest out-break and the economy hasplunged into the worst reces-sion on record.

While small businesses allover the world are strugglingas the virus forces many toclose outright while alsoremaking consumer habits,many in the U.K. are facing thedouble whammy of the pan-demic and the economicuncertainty caused by Britain'sexit from the European Union.

The shops hadbeen open forfour monthswhen PrimeMinister BorisJohnson ordereda new Covidlockdown

Coronavirus forces smallshops to adapt or close

On track to produce 177m auto-disable syringes by March: HMD

PNS n NEW DELHI

Route Mobile, a cloud com-munications platform ser-vice provider, is eyeing twoacquisitions in areas of con-versational AI and virtualcontact centre, and theprocess of "due diligence" iscurrently on, its CEO said.

Route Mobile ManagingDirector and Group ChiefExecutive Officer Rajdipkumar Gupta said that thecompany is also keen on anacquisition to increase mar-ketshare in geographies ofLatin America and Europe.

"We are planning toacquire a company in conver-sational AI (ArtificialIntelligence)...At the sametime, we want to have a vir-tual contact centre withinour platform. So we are look-ing to acquire two companiesin this space now," Guptasaid. The company said thatthe acquisitions, to be struc-tured as a cash-and-stockdeal, would be in range of Rs250-300 crore valuation.

Route eyes 2acquisitions;says duediligence on

PNS n NEW DELHI

Steel companies have sup-plied 56,446.245 tonnes ofmedical oxygen from theirintegrated plants to varioushospitals across the coun-try till October-end, theMinistry of Steel has said.

To aid the supply of oxy-gen in the country, UnionMinister of Steel Dharmen-dra Pradhan in Septemberhad directed steel plants tostart supplying liquid med-ical oxygen (LMO), whichis a crucial medicalrequirement for a coron-avirus patient.

The steel ministry hadalso made operational aportal wherein plant-wiseinformation regardingavailability of oxygen anddaily supply by variousplants and states to whichsuch supplies have beenmade is provided.

"Integrated steel plants(ISPs) in the public andprivate sector have beensupplying LMO to meetthe requirement of oxygenin hospitals across thecountry. 56,446.245 MT(metric tonne) LMO wassupplied by steel plants tovarious states during theperiod from September 11,2020 to October 31, 2020,"the ministry said in anupdate.

Penalty waived for non-compliance with QR code provisions for B2C

DHL Express appoints Manish Patelas vice-president for operations

Kyt raises $2.5 million in funding from Surge

Steel firms supply56K tonne medicaloxygen for Covidtreatment: Ministry

Airtel, Nokia tie up for 5G network in Kenya

‘OTT IS COOLER WITH LESS LIMITATIONS'

e walked intoshowbiz withhis musicvideos andstole the heartsof youngsters.

Iqbal then worked in sev-eral television serials

before he made his digi-tal debut with the

show The Bull OfDalal Street earlierthis year. But his act-ing journey started at

a very young age atschool. He says, “I used

to be a part of variousplays in school. Later, Istarted modeling in col-lege, after which I movedto Mumbai to try myhand at acting. That’show my first music videohappened followed byother good work.”

Having maneuveredfrom films to Televisionto OTT, the actor feelsworking for the web iscooler with no limita-

tions. “Having worked inTV, films, and the web, Ienjoy the web the most,there is absolute freedom.Television has a bit oflimitation, just like films.The web is pretty coolthat way.”

That TV industryneeds to up its game asfar as content is con-cerned, is a discussionthat has been going onfor quite some time now.And the actor feels thesame. He explains, “Theproblem with TV is thatthere are research teamsin every channel. There isscience and mathinvolved. These researchteams do their calcula-tions before making thecontent. The emotionalcontent has very littlespace. Now, TV audi-ences too are declining innumber, with each pass-ing day. Having said that,there are decent writers

too, who make goodstuff.”

Speaking about his rolein Crackdown, he says,“My role in Crackdown isjust not me. As an actor, Ilove working on charac-ters which I have to workon wherever homeworkis required. The guy Iplay is very cool and thecountry’s primary love.He is a bit of a womanis-er, he is harsh and abu-sive. Playing that charac-ter was pretty amazingand it was a nice change.”

On being directed byApurva, he says, “It was abit emotional for me tohave been directed byhim. We were classmatesand we would play crick-et as kids. We both havecome a long way. I lookforward to working withhim again, and the get-togethers he hosts,because it is a lot of funto be around him.”

Iqbal was at the receiv-ing end and faced a lot ofcriticism and hatredonline after he expressedhis views on Kashmirbeing a Kashmiri himself.When asked what hefeels about the currentsituation in J&K, he says,“I don't want to commenton this issue, because,whatever I speak now, it’sgoing to become contro-versial. All I would say isI'll pray that the place ispeaceful and very sooneverything returns tonormalcy and everybodywill enjoy the place bothvisitors and settlers.”

On being asked what’snext, the actor concludesby asking his fans to fol-low him on his socialmedia handles to get ahint about his future pro-jects as he cannot revealany of them because ofthe contracts he signs. Sogo follow him, now!

Iqbal khan, best known for his TV serials Kaisa YehPyaar Hai, Kahiin Toh Hoga, among many others, waslast seen in the web series Crackdown, and is currentlyshooting for an upcoming series. Khan, who started hiscareer with music videos, talks to The Pioneer's KRAMYA SREE about his journey into the industry,filming for OTT content, why he refrains from talkingabout Kashmir, and more

H

“MY ROLE IN CRACKDOWN IS JUST NOT ME. AS AN ACTOR, I LOVE WORKING ONCHARACTERS WHICH I HAVE TO WORK ON WHEREVER HOMEWORK IS REQUIRED.THE GUY I PLAY IS VERY COOL AND THE COUNTRY’S PRIMARY LOVE. HE IS A BITOF A WOMANISER, IS HARSH AND ABUSIVE.”

Ishaan givesdating tipsto his fans

ollywood actor IshanKhatter, who has mil-lions of followers onsocial media, isknown for his crazyfemale following,

especially after his heart-melting performance inDhadak. So it was onlynatural for him to give dat-ing tips to his fans. Thedashing young actor tookto his Instagram page toshare tips and tricks onhow to make a meaningfulprofile on dating sitesthrough a series of interac-

tive stories. When asked what dat-

ing advice he would like togive single Indians, Ishaansaid, “I think honesty andcommunication is the keyto any relationship. Weshouldn’t settle for some-thing that doesn’t let us beourselves. I’m excited andhappy. The importance ofbuilding meaningful con-nections has been realisedstrongly in 2020 and a dat-ing app does such a cre-ative job in bringing peo-ple together. Also, itsapproach of makingwomen the first move re-imagines the traditionalgender role dictated bysociety and makes the appuniquely cool.”

The pandemic musthave changed how wecommunicate with eachother but what hasn’tchanged is the need formaking meaningful con-nections through dating

apps. Meeting people atbars, going out with yourfriends or even bumpinginto old acquaintances nowseems like a thing of thepast. Since finding love isas important as ever duringa tough time, virtual datinglike is the new way to go! Itis through this realm thatpeople seem more at easewith getting to know eachother better. Bumble, thewomen-first social net-working app, has partneredwith Bollywood actorIshaan Khatter as a part oftheir new integrated cam-paign to encourage singleIndians to make the firstmove and navigate the newrules of dating in 2020. Adating app allows you toset your boundaries anddecide when you’re readyto take the next step tomeet. So plan your nextvirtual date on a dating appas suggested by Ishaan, andget ready to fall in love.

B

“HONESTY ANDCOMMUNICATIONARE KEY TO ANYRELATIONSHIP. WESHOULDN’T SETTLEFOR ANYTHINGTHAT’S LESS.”

A CUPFULL OF IMMUNITYWhether one is happy orsad, a cup of tea alwayscomes in as your bestpartner. But today, teacan do much more thanenhance your mood.BALA SARDA lists teasthat boost immunity

aving a strong immune system is moreimportant than ever. With the ongo-ing pandemic, while there is noproven cure as of now, enhancing thebody’s immunity plays a very crucialrole in maintaining optimum health

and keeping the disease at bay.Here are five teas which can play a sig-

nificant role in boosting and buildingyour immunity the natural way.

Turmeric Tea

Turmeric known as the Golden Son ofAyurveda has been known as one of thehealthiest spices of India due to its multi-ple medicinal and adaptogenic benefits.The Ministry of Ayush has recommendedTurmeric for boosting immunity. Makesure you’re drinking turmeric tea coupledwith black pepper.

The main active ingredient in Turmeric,‘Curcumin’ is responsible for its multiplelife enhancing properties. Combiningblack pepper with turmeric is proven toincrease curcumin’s absorption in thebody significantly.

Lemon Tea

There is nothing quite as healthy as a cupof lemon tea. Besides being packed withnutrients that can give your health a bigboost, it is a great way to stay hydrated aswell, and now with summers already here,this could be an elixir. Lemon tea is loadedwith Vitamin C, which can act as a naturalantioxidant in boosting the body’s immunity.

Pure Green Tea

Well-known for being an abundantsource of antioxidants, drinking green teaon a regular basis flushes out the toxinsfrom the body. Abundant in polyphenolsand catechins, green tea helps boostimmunity. Green tea has long been recog-nised as having powerful antiviral proper-ties and can go a long way to keep youhealthy and well.

Moringa Tea

Moringa is just the superfood we need.The moringa leaves provide a significantamount of antioxidants. It is a treasurehouse of all essential nutrients includingessential vitamins and minerals that areneeded to improve the immunity. Whenconsumed regularly, moringa can reallystrengthen your immunity.

Ashwagandha Tea

Ashwagandha is an adaptogenic herb,which helps our body to deal with dailystress and balances our body functioning.It also promotes overall immunity,strength, energy and endurance. It's beenused to prepare Ayurvedic medicine for along time. Ashwagandha is not limited tothe immune system but offers a lot ofother health benefits.

H

To brew them right andwell is also essential. It’s veryimportant to note that youshould always use freshlydrawn water. After it reachesboiling point (100 degrees C),allow it to rest for oneminute. This will bring downthe temperature to around 80degrees C, which is an idealtemperature to brew theseteas. Steep these teas forbetween three and five min-utes.

Avoid adding milk. Youcan add honey, stevia or anyother sweetener.

(The writer is a Founder ofVahdam Teas)

TuesdayDecember 1, 2020

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@TheDailyPioneer

facebook.com/dailypioneer

10

Vijayawada Tuesday December 1 2020 health

FUN

Rules

ARCHIE

GARFIELD

SUDOKU

REALITY CHECK SPEED BUMP CROSSWORD

GINGER MEGGS

NANCY

CALVIN AND HOBBES

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

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

Yesterday’s solution

ost pregnancies last 40 weeks; a babyis known as a premature or pre-termwhen her or she is born before thecompletion of 37th week. Based onthe gestational age, pre-term babiesare sub-categorised as extremely

preterm (less than 28 weeks), very preterm(28 to 32 weeks), moderate to late preterm(32 to 37 weeks).

“Advances in the field of medicine havemeant that more than 9 out of 10 prematurebabies survive, and most go on to developnormally,” says Dr Archana Dhawan Bajaj,Gynaecologist and Obstetrician and IVFexpert, Nurture IVF Centre. There are sever-al reasons for preterm births, while mosthappen spontaneously some are due to earlyinduction of labour or caesarean birth,whether for medical or non-medical reasons,she says. “Some of the common causesinclude multiple pregnancies, infections andchronic conditions such as diabetes and highblood pressure; however, often no cause isidentified.”

Pollution and pre-term birth

Dr Bajaj explains risk of premature orpreterm birth has been associated with expo-sure to air pollution during pregnancy byincreasing toxic chemicals in the blood andcausing immune system stress, which canweaken the placenta surrounding the fetusand lead to preterm birth. This, in turn, rais-es risk of health complications for the baby,both in the short and long term.

“As per estimates, more than 3 percent ofall premature births in the US are attribut-able to air pollution. Furthermore, findingssuggest that considerable health and eco-

nomic benefits can begained through reductionsin outdoor air pollutionexposure during pregnancy.

“Several studies havefound air pollution as one ofthe risk factors for pretermbirth. Air pollution is asso-ciated with anunfavourable vaginalmicrobiota suggesting arelationship betweenenvironmental and bio-logical risk factors thatmay further substantiatethe risk of pre-maturebirth in pregnantwomen. US CincinnatiChildren’s HospitalMedical Centre and theUniversity of Cincinnaticarried out studies andidentified a 19 percentincreased risk, with the great-est risk when exposed to airpollution during the thirdtrimester of pregnancy.”

Another study has found an association withexposure to high levels of small particulatematter with an increased risk of prematurebirth, she points out. One of the professors inthe US said that the decreasing the amount ofparticulate matter in the air below the USEnvironmental Protection Agency’s standardthreshold could decrease preterm birth inwomen exposed to high levels of small particu-lates by about 17 percent, which corresponds toa 2.22 percent decrease in the preterm birthrate in the population as a whole, Dr Bajaj says.

COVID and pre-term birth

COVID-19 has been spreading far andwide across the globe with devastating effectsacross majority of population. While it’s theaging population which is at a major risk ofdeveloping complications from the disease,pregnant women also have a reason to worryas they may face an elevated risk for deliver-ing their babies prematurely, according tonew studies from the Centers for DiseaseControl and Prevention. Additionally, theymay also be at greater risk of losing the

pregnancy or having a stillbirth, says thedoctor.

While none of the data indicate that preg-nant women are more susceptible to severeCOVID-19 infection, nor have studies sug-gested an increased risk of miscarriage, con-genital anomalies, or early pregnancy loss inpregnant patients, however, studies havedescribed an increased risk of preterm birth.

Similar results have been found withanother study conducted in Korea which fur-ther stresses the point that COVID-19 can beassociated with premature birth and some-times severe outcomes for mother and baby,including death.

Several other researchers in various partsof the globe have studied the effects of thenovel coronavirus on pregnant women andits outcome on the new born. They share thesame views of pregnant women experienc-ing a higher rate of preterm deliveries thanexpected and a British study noted a popula-tion-wide uptick in stillbirths during thepandemic.

Summary

Pregnancy is a time filled with joy andhappiness for every woman and it is theresponsibility of one and all to ensure ahealthy outcome for pregnant women andtheir infants.

While there are several other reasonsthat can cause preterm births including airpollution and COVID 19 infection, proac-tive clinical management and dedicatedsupport coupled with adequate safety mea-sures must be adopted to help protectthose who are pregnant and their new-borns.

hile we all lookforward to win-ters — sitting infront of the fire,drinking tea andtalking about

everything under the sun;there are some annoyingproblems that crop up —dry skin and dandruff.

There are many prod-ucts available in the mar-ket but a few home reme-dies work just as wellwith long lasting effect.

If you have dry skin,one of the best remediesis to mix two parts glyc-erin, two parts rose waterand one part lemon juice.Keep this in a bottle.Apply on the skin. Avoidareas where there is abreak in the skin. Leave itovernight. Wash withwarm water the nextmorning. One can usethis on the face too, theresults are amazing.

For cracked heels mixbeeswax and mustard oilby heating them togetherin equal parts. Pour itinto a container. Let itcool. Apply over thecracked heels. Wearsocks. Wash feet the next

morning. Repeat till youget smooth heels.

Dandruff is anotherwinter problem thatmany face. Mix orangepeel powder and coconutoil to make a mask.Apply this on the scalp.Leave it overnight or atleast for an hour. Washoff with shampoo. Dothis thrice a week tilldandruff disappears.

Pollution, pandemicand pre-term birthM

WINTERS AREHERE AND WITHIT, THE USUALPROBLEMS OFDRY SKIN,DANDRUFF ANDCRACKED HEELS.A FEW SIMPLEINGREDIENTSAVAILABLE INYOUR KITCHENCAN HELPTACKLE THEISSUE

Tackle

DANDRUFF issue

W

sport 11VIJAYAWADA | TUESDAY | DECEMBER 1, 2020

NEW ZEALAND POCKET T20 SERIES 2-00 Mount Maunganui: New Zealand on Monday claimedthe T20 series against the West Indies 2-0 after the thirdand final match of the rubber was washed out here.Persistent rain played spoilsport to left-arm spinnerMitchell Santner's debut as New Zealand's T20I captainand the final match of the series was called off after just2.2 overs. Ferguson was named the Player of the Seriesfor his six wickets. Both the teams will now head toHamilton, where they will play the first Test of the two-match series, starting December 3.

NO LEWA, NEUER FOR ATLETICO GAME Munich: Bayern Munich will leave Robert Lewandowskiand Manuel Neuer at home for the Champions Leaguegame at Atletico Madrid on Tuesday, coach Hansi Flicksaid on Monday. Lewandowski and Neuer “will berested” along with midfielder Leon Goretzka, whilemidfielder Corentin Tolisso has a minor injury, Flick said.Backup goalkeeper Alexander Nübel is set to replaceNeuer and make his European debut for Bayern.

4 OLY-BBOUND BOXERS INCLUDED IN TOPS New Delhi: Four Olympic-bound Indian boxers — twomen and as many women — have been included in thesports ministry's Target Olympic Podium Scheme(TOPS), SAI said on Monday. World Bronze-medallistSimranjeet Kaur (60kg), Asian medallist Pooja Rani(75kg) joined M C Mary Kom in the elite group. AsianSilver-winner Ashish Kumar (75kg) and Asian Gamesbronze-winner Satish Kumar (+91kg) have beenincluded in a group which already featured Amit Panghal(52kg), Manish Kaushik (63kg), and Vikas Krishan(69kg) among the Tokyo-bound.

LOW TO REMAIN IN CHARGE OF GERMANY Berlin: Joachim Low will remain in charge of Germanyfor next year's delayed European Championship despitea series of poor recent results, the German footballfederation announced on Monday. “The presidentialcommittee of the DFB decided unanimously this Mondayduring a teleconference, to continue with coach JoachimLow on the difficult path of renewal started in March2019,” it said in a statement. Low, 60, has been incharge of the Germany team since taking over fromJurgen Klinsmann following the 2006 World Cup and ledthe nation to a fourth world title, and first sincereunification, in Brazil in 2014. However, Germany are incrisis following a 6-0 defeat to Spain and recent drawswith Switzerland, twice, and Turkey.

HHAAZZAARRDD FFAACCEESS AANNOOTTHHEERR SSPPEELLLL OONN SSIIDDEELLIINNEESS Madrid: Real Madrid attacker Eden Hazard facesanother spell on the sidelines after the club confirmed onMonday he sustained an injury to his right thigh in theweekend loss to Alaves. The Belgium international wassubstituted after just 28 minutes of Saturday's 2-1 homeloss to Alaves. The club said in a statement that Hazardhad been diagnosed with an injury to his rightquadriceps and that his “recovery will continue to beassessed”. Real did not provide a timeline for Hazard'sreturn, but local media reported he could be ruled out forat least two weeks.

WOMEN'S CAMP IN GOA FROM TODAY New Delhi: The Indian women's football team will startits first training camp in nine months in Goa fromTuesday under national coach Maymol Rocky in a strictbio-secure environment put in place by the AIFF in wakeof the Covid-19. Women's coach Rocky said that theteam is excited to resume training with an eye on theirbig-ticket event — AFC Asian Cup in 2022. AGENCIES

SINGLES

PTI n SYDNEY

Australia’s rising star MarnusLabuschagne believes thatthe home team will enjoy a

slight advantage going into theTest series against India as mostof its top-order players will becoming in after having played afair amount of first-class cricket.

Labuschagne, who con-tributed a solid 70 off 61 balls inthe second ODI which Australiawon by 51 runs on Sunday, hasscored two hundreds in threeSheffield Shield matches.

“It definitely helps to have afew games under your belt just toget the pace and the timing of thegame from T20s to one-dayers tofour-day cricket,” he replied to aquery during a virtual mediainteraction on Monday.

The Indian players, who hadplayed IPL and now ODIs, lastplayed red-ball cricket in NewZealand and will only have twothree-day games to get into thegroove.

“But a lot of these (Indian)players we’re talking about, they’vebeen doing it for a long time,they’re not new to the changes offormat. I’d be surprised if they did-n’t shift back into gear very quick-ly.

“I will say that it’s a slightadvantage, four out of our top sixhave been playing Shield cricketand got that rhythm as a battinggroup.”

With David Warner ruledout of the last ODI as well as theupcoming T20 Internationals,Labuschagne won’t mind achance to open the innings if heis asked about it.

“Certainly, if I got asked toopen the batting absolutely. It’s

an opportunity that I would enjoytaking. We’ll wait and see how ourteam shapes up for the next gameand see the balance of the side, butyeah, I would love doing it,”Labuschagne said.

“My role at No 4 is just to readthe situation of the game and playmy role accordingly,” he said.

Asked how Warner is emo-tionally dealing withthe injury set-back thathappenedd u r i n g

the second ODI, Labuschagneinsisted that he is fine.

“He is a strong character andhe will come back. Also hisabsence is an opportunity forsomeone else.”

Steve Smith’s form is some-thing that will obviously helpAustralia in the Test series, feelsLabuschagne.

“Cricket’s a massive con-fidence game and even

though it’s a differ-ent format, it still

gives you a lot

of confidence when you’re scoringruns consistently and the waySteve and Davey (David Warner)are batting currently, I’ve got nodoubt they’ll be able to transferthat into the Test summer.

“But right now there’s still a lotof games to be played before that,we’ve just got to make sure we fin-ish this one-day series well andthen straight into the T20s wherewe start really well.”

Smith’s second ODI hundredis one of the best according toLabuschagne and he called hisform scary.

“That was one of the bestinnings I’ve seen in one-daycricket, not only from Steve butfrom anyone,” the 26-year-oldsaid.

“I think the way he batted yes-terday (Sunday) was superb. Italmost felt like he didn’t give anopportunity, didn’t really takeany risk, but he got a hundred off62 balls.

“When someone’s doing that,that’s kind of scary.”

About his own innings, he washappy to have a partnership withSmith.

“It was really nice to build thatpartnership with him, 136, it wasjust nice to keep ticking it over andwe were really busy through thatmiddle part when we came togeth-er. Then towards the back end,

Steve really took the game on andthat’s how we got 390.

“They’re two verybig scores in the last

two games,thanks obvi-

ously toSteve.”

PTI n SYDNEY

In-form Australian opener DavidWarner has been ruled out of the

remainder of the limited-oversseries against India due to a groininjury that he suffered during thesecond ODI on Sunday, while toppacer Pat Cummins has beenrested as part of his workload man-agement.

Warner, who scored 69 and 83in the first two ODIs, hurt himselfon Sunday while fielding at theSCG in the second one-dayer.

The dashing opener hasreturned home to begin his reha-bilitation and will be looking to getfit ahead of the opening Test atAdelaide starting December 17.

“Pat and Davie are critical toour plans for the Test series,”coach Justin Langer was quoted assaying by the Australian media.

“Davie will work through hisinjury rehab and in Pat’s case it isimportant all of our players aremanaged well to keep them men-tally and physically fit throughoutwhat is a challenging summer.

“The priority for both is beingfully prepared for one of thebiggest and most important homeTest series we have played inrecent years, especially with WorldTest Championship points up forgrabs.”

Left-handed batsman D’ArcyShort, who was the leading run-scorer in two series in the Big BashLeague, has been named Warner’s

replacement in Australia’s white-ball squad.

India and Australia will playone more ODI on Wednesdaybefore competing in three T20Internationals, starting Friday, fol-lowed by the much-anticipatedfour-match Test series.

All-rounder Marcus Stoinis,who missed the second ODI aftersuffering a side strain in the open-ing game, will stay in the squad.

But all-rounder MitchellMarsh, who is recovering from anankle injury sustained while play-ing in the IPL, will not be playingthe warm-up game between IndiaA and Australia A starting onSunday.

He will now continue hisrehabilitation and no replacementhas been named for him in the Asquad.

PTI n NEW DELHI

Former opener Gautam Gambhir feels Indiaskipper Virat Kohli committed a tactical blun-

der that no other captain would, by giving his pre-mier pacer Jasprit Bumrah just a two-over open-ing spell in the series-conceding second ODI lossto Australia.

Gambhir, who has been pretty critical ofKohli’s tactical acumen as captain, felt that the dif-ference between the two sides so far was howAustralian captain Aaron Finch handled his mostsuccessful pacer Josh Hazlewood in the first twoODIs that the hosts won easily.

“I find it difficult to comprehend that if youhave a bowler of Jasprit Bumrah’s calibre and yougive him only two overs upfront. It’s not a tacti-cal mistake but a tactical blunder,” Gambhir saidin ESPNCricinfo’s show Match Day Hindi.

A five-over spell would have allowed Bumrahand Mohammed Shami to at least try and pick uptwo wickets upfront.

“...I was expecting Bumrah and Shami to bowlfive-over spells each upfront and tried getting acouple of wickets each. So, I don’t think there isany captain in world cricket who would give JaspritBumrah, two overs with the new ball,” Gambhirsaid as it is.

With all top three Australian batsmen —Aaron Finch, David Warner and Steve Smith —striking form at the same time, Gambhir feels thatif any bowler had a chance of getting the trio out,it had to be Bumrah.

“Now Finch, Warner and Smith, the top threeare in prime form and who has the best chanceof taking their wicket? It’s Jasprit Bumrah

“.... And you give him 2 overs and bring himafter 10 overs, when the ball is a tad old and it getswarmer and you expect him to get wickets in theseconditions. He is human too.”

He then cited the example of how Finch usedHazlewood in the first two games.

“First game, Finch gave him six-over spell andsecond game a five-over first spell and six overswhen Starc had a bad day. Hazlewood has beenthe standout bowler.”

Gambhir was impressed with how Australia’ssixth bowling option (the combination of MarcusStoinis and Glenn Maxwell in first and MoisesHenriques and Maxwell in second) controlled theproceedings.

“It happened in the first match as well. Firstmatch, Marcus Stoinis gave some 25 runs in 6 oversthat he bowled and that was done by Henriquesin the second game. So that’s the diference you had.

“So, if your sixth bowler can give 6 to 7 overs,then you don’t need to bowl with

a front-liner who is having anoff day like Mitchell Starc.

“Imagine had Hardiknot bowled those overs, what

kind of pressure it wouldhave been on Shami andNavdeep Saini,” he said.

While Virat Kohli, withclose to 11,500 runs and 43

hundreds, has a staggeringrecord, Gambhir feels thatSmith for all practical reasonsisn’t too far behind even if thenumbers suggest otherwise.

“I don’t think there is a lotof difference between Kohliand Smith. If you go by num-

bers, Kohli always gave betternumbers than Smith but if you look athis (Smith) record, in the previous fiveor seven ODIs, he has had three hun-dreds, so difference is not much.

“He has scored 62 ball hundredsback to back. Obviously you will callKohli, the greatest ODI player as per

numbers but not much differencebetween him (Smith) and Kohli.”

PTI n NEW DELHI

The International Cricket Council’snewly-elected chairman Greg

Barclay on Monday conceded that theambitious World Test Championshiphasn’t quite achieved what it intendedto and the disruption caused by Covid-19 has only highlighted its “shortcom-ings”.

World Test Championship sched-ule has been thrown haywire by thepandemic and the ICC has come upwith a percentage allocation of pointsas all the scheduled series before the2021 final at the Lord’s cannot be com-pleted in a short span of time.

Has the Test Championship giventhe format a fillip that it was meant to?

“In short, I don’t think so. TheCovid has probably highlighted itsshortcomings of the championship,”Barclay, who took charge earlier thismonth, said during a virtual mediaconference.

The New Zealander feels that a lotof problems with the current cricket-

ing calendar is due to the World TestChampionship which was fitted in topopularise the format, something thatdidn’t happen, according to him.

“...The issues that we have alreadygot, I wonder whether some of it wasbecause of an attempt to develop a TestChampionship, clearly designed todrive interest back into Test cricket,provide a bit of context and relevance

around the Test matches,” he said.While it was good in theory but

has probably flopped in practice.“From an idealist’s point of view,

probably it had a lot of merit but prac-tically, I do disagree, I am not surewhether it has achieved what it intend-ed to do,” he said.

In fact, Barclay dropped a hint thatthe inaugural WTC could well be thelast one as smaller members can’t affordTest cricket championship anymore.

“My personal view is let’s getthrough with the little bit that we canin this Covid-19, with reallocation ofpoints and all that.

“...But once we have done that, let’sgo back to the drawing board as I amnot quite sure whether it (WTC)entirely fits the purpose and hasachieved what it intended to after beingconceptualised four to five years back.

“I think we need to look at it incontext of calendar and not put crick-eters in a situation where it’s a lot moreworse and not going to help us,” theNew Zealand lawyer asserted.

AP n NAPLES

Napoli beat Roma 4-0 in anemotional match in

the Italian league as theteam paid tribute to DiegoMaradona.

It was Napoli’s firstSerie A game sinceMaradona died on Wednesdayin his native Argentina.Maradona led Napoli to its onlytwo Serie A titles in 1987 and1990 and is considered a god-like figure in the southern city.

“Certainly I played with anextra motivation, so did all myteammates,” Napoli captainLorenzo Insigne said. “We’ve lostour idol and it hurts.

“Today without doubt wewanted even more than normalto get a result, for Diego, for ourcity which is suffering this loss.

We dedicate the victory to him.”The victory saw Napoli

move level with Roma andJuventus, six points belowleader AC Milan, whichbeat Fiorentina 2-0 earlier inthe day.

There was a touchingmoment before the game

when Insigne placed bouquets offlowers under banners dedicat-

ed toMaradona,displayed inthe emptystands ateither end ofthe stadium.

Napoli’sStadio SanPaolo willofficially berenamed the StadioDiego Armando

Maradona.There was a tribute to

Maradona in all Serie A match-es this weekend. That includeda minute of silence forMaradona, while his image wasalso projected on the stadiumscreens again in the 10th

minute, in honor ofhis shirt number.All playersstopped to

applaud.Napoli play-

ers were wear-ing a special kitwhich bore aresemblance to

the Argentinajersey in honor of

Maradona.“There is an

air of sadness,”said Napoli coach

Gennaro Gattuso. “This is awonderful city even when theweather is bad and yet there isan atmosphere of mourning.”

Insigne also held up a shirtwith Maradona’s name andnumber and kissed it after scor-ing the opening goal with a freekick in the 31st.

Fabián Ruiz doubledNapoli’s lead in the 64th, finish-ing off a counterattack with alow shot into the bottom rightcorner.

Roma offered little andNapoli effectively sealed thematch nine minutes from timewhen Antonio Mirante couldonly parry Elif Elmas’ attemptand Dries Mertens turned in therebound.

Substitute Matteo Politanoadded another goal five minuteslater with a sensational solo run.

AP n LONDON

Wolverhampton beat Arsenal in anaway match for the first time in

more than four decades, winning 2-1 inthe Premier League in a game overshad-owed by a serious head injuryto Wolves forward RaulJimenez.

The 29-year-old Jimenezwas taken away on a stretcherin the fifth minute and then toa hospital, after a collisionwith Arsenal defender DavidLuiz while both challenged for a cornerfrom Willian.

While Wolves players were visiblyupset by the incident, they went on totake control of the match.

Wolves opened the scoring in the27th when Pedro Neto slotted in arebound after Leander Dendoncker’sheader crashed off the crossbar and fellto Neto in the six-yard box. AdamaTraore created the chance, beatingKieran Tierney with a run down theright before the winger lifted the ballinto a dangerous area.

Gabriel equalized for Arsenal threeminutes later with a towering header asfour defenders, including one pulling hisshirt couldn’t stop the Brazilian fromscoring. Wolves made it 2-1 in the 42ndwhen Daniel Podence took advantageof the rebound after goalkeeper BerndLeno couldn’t collect Neto’s shot, whichbounced off his legs for Podence to vol-ley home.

Neto’s run through Arsenal’s shakydefense created panic in the penalty boxand allowed Podence to drift in topounce on the loose ball.

Traore nearly made it 3-1 in the fifthminute of injury time of the first halfafter cutting in from the right, but hisshot crashed into the side netting.

Willian nearly equalized for Arsenalwith a free kick in the 57th, but it rosejust over the bar. Rob Holding also hadan open header but couldn’t connectwith a Saka cross.

It was the first away win for Wolvesagainst Arsenal since 1979, bringing theteam up to sixth in the Premier League.

Arsenal, meanwhile, hasn’t won aPremier League game since November1, when the Gunners beat ManchesterUnited, and languish in 14th place.

AFP n SAKHIR

French driver RomainGrosjean will sit out next

weekend’s Formula One raceafter escaping a fiery crash in theBahrain Grand Prix with justburns to his hands, his teamHaas said on Monday.

Grosjean walked away fromthe wreckage after he collidedwith Daniil Kyvat’s Alpha Taurion the first lap of Sunday’s race,causing the Haas car to split inhalf and burst into flames as itsmashed through the safety bar-riers.

Haas said treatment for theburns that 34-year-old Grosjeansuffered was “going well” and hewas expected to be dischargedfrom hospital on Tuesday.

Brazilian driver PietroFittipaldi — grandson of two-time world champion EmersonFittipaldi — will make hisFormula One debut in place ofGrosjean in the Sakhir GrandPrix, also in Bahrain, nextSunday.

Kiwi pacer Lockie Ferguson poses with Player of the seriestrophy and pay cheque after end of T20I series between NewZealand and West Indies on Monday @BLACKCAPS

PTI n SYDNEY

Top Australian batsman Steve Smith hasrevealed that he suffered a “bad dose

of vertigo” ahead of thesecond one-dayer andwas not sure of playingthe game in which hestruck a series-clinching hundred.

Smith’s quick-fire 62-ball-100 pro-pelled Australia to a mammoth 389 forfour in the second ODI, which theydefended easily to secure a decisive2-0 series lead.

However, the former skippersaid he “didn’t look great there for awhile”. “I didn’t know I was playingtoday (Sunday). I had a really baddose of vertigo this morning and Iwas struggling until ... I camedown early to have a hit and a bitof a run around,” Smith told crick-et.Com.Au after receiving his sec-ond successive Man of the matchaward. “Just pleased to be able to getout here and play another goodinnings and help the team.”

MANCHESTER: Edinson Cavani’s joy atscoring twice for Manchester Unitedon Sunday could be dampened as heis to be investigated by the FootballAssociation over a social media posthe subsequently deleted. The 33-year-old Uruguayan striker sent anInstagram post including the Spanishword “negrito” (‘black’) in reply to amessage of congratulations after hisbrace completed a come-from-behind3-2 win over Southampton. Unitedsaid the word was clearly used in anaffectionate manner and has differ-ent connotations in South America.The FA issued guidelines pre-seasonclamping down on racist and discrim-inatory language and behaviour, withoffences on social media carrying aminimum three-game ban. AFP

‘Playing FC cricket gives us advantage in Tests’Labuschagne says Australian players will get benefit of playing Sheffield Shield matches

Injured Warner outShort will replace Aussie opener for whiteball series; Cummins also rested

No captain would giveBumrah two-overopening spell: Gambhir

New ICC boss questions future of Test c’shipBarclay is not convinced the current Test championship model is ‘fit for purpose’

Smith wasn’t sureif he would play

Wolves hunt Gunners ‘Mourning’ Napoli honour Maradona with big win

Jimenez had surgeryfor a fractured skullAP n WOLVERHAMPTON

Wolverhampton Wanderers strik-er Raul Jiménez had surgery to

treat a fractured skull after a clash ofheads with Arsenal defender DavidLuiz during an Premier League game,the club said on Monday.

“Raul is comfortable following anoperation last night, which he under-went in a London hospital,” Wolvessaid in a statement.

“He has since seen his partnerDaniela and is now resting. He willremain under observation for a fewdays while he begins his recovery.”

Grosjean to miss race after crashCavani could face 3-gameban for social media post

Pedro Neto celebrates after scoring AP

Vijayawada Tuesday December 1 2020tollywood

12

irector SSRajamouli’smagnum opusRRR happensto be the mostawaited Indian

film. The latest update isthat it wrapped up a 50-day massive actionsequence schedule. The

entire sequence wassaid to have beencanned in nightmode.

“Goodbye win-ternights!!!Wrappedup a major actionsequence sched-ule after almost50 days of nightshoot...Anddddnowww...

Gearing up for a newschedule in some exoticlocations :) #RRRMovie.(sic),” tweeted the teamon Monday.

Set against the pre-independence era, RRR isa fictitious story based ontwo legendary freedomfighters, AlluriSeetharamaraju andKomaram Bheem.Helmed on a massivebudget of Rs 350 crore,the period-drama featuresan ensemble star cast likeAjay Devgn and AliaBhatt in pivotal roles.

After the 50-day sched-ule, the team has nowtaken a very short breakand will get back withtheir next schedule soon,

in some exotic locales.NTR and Ram Charanhave already gone out oftown for their break,according to reports, aftercompleting their portions.Bollywood actor AjayDevgn is in Hyderabadfor the shoot of RRR,while Alia Bhatt will jointhe team in Decemberand Shriya Saran hasalready completed shoot-ing for her part.

A few moments ago,the makers of RRR tookto their official social han-dle and revealed thatalmost 70% shoot hasbeen wrapped up.Terming 2019 as a phe-nomenal year, they men-tioned that the names of

the antagonists andreplacement for DaisyEdgar Jones will beunveiled on November20.

Fans hope the updatedrelease date of RRR willbe announced once theshoot of the film con-cludes.

ny news aboutBurning starSampoornesh Babu’slatest film sends wavesacross Tollywood fans.Both of the actor’s pre-

vious films Hrudaya Kaleyamand Kobbarimatta have beensuper hits and his next BazaarRowdy is being shot at recordspeed. This is the actor’s firstfilm post the lockdown and fanscan’t wait to get a glimpse of thesets.

The commercial film is beingdirected by Vasanthi NageshwarRao, and being produced bySandhi Reddy Srinivas Raounder KS Creations' banner.

Actress Mahi is paired oppositeSampoornesh. Apart from thefilm’s content, what’s sure to gar-ner eyeballs are the dancesequences in the film, say mem-bers of the unit. Noted choreog-rapher Prem Rakshith, who settrends with films like Arya-2,100% Love, Bahubali 1,2, Ishqand others, is to get the Burningstar to dance to his tunes!

Speaking about the makingof the film, director Vasanthisaid, “Prem Rakshith has raisedthe bar of the films he worked

with, and he’s done the samewith us, we’re grateful for him.The song is being shot withSampoornesh Babu, Mahi and20 other dancers at RamojiFilm City. We’re short of shoot-ing just the climax and twomore songs, and then we'redone.”

The film’s star cast includesShivaji Shinde, Prudhvi, Shashi,Jeeva, Sameer, Naveena,Manichandana and Padmavati.The teaser, first look and otherdetails will be revealed soon.

fter givingthe audi-ence a fes-tivalbonanzathis Diwali

with five back-to-back successfulreleases, the

Telugu OTT plat-form Aha is continu-

ing the entertainmentride with yet anothernew release titledHoneymoon. The web

series is an exclusive taleof humorous, relatableand an unconventionaltake on adventures of acouple after an arrangedmarriage.

The six long episodicseries is exploring thejourney after the tag line'happily ever after' of anewly wedded couple asthey discover some hid-den facets and unravelthe little secrets abouteach other.

Jointly produced bySakkath Studio andKannada superstar DrShivraj Kumar, NivedithaShivrajkumar under thebanner of ShrimuthuCini Service,Honeymoon brings tothe light the expectationsand stages of emotions in

a newly wedded couple’slife, with loads ofhumour and emotions.Starring Kannada filmindustry sensationsNagabhushana andSanjana Anand as thelead pair, it’s going tounwind the magic offalling in love as theycontinue to deal with theups and downs. Both theactors have perfectlyslipped into their respec-tive roles of Praveen andTejaswini, and viewersare sure to see them-selves as part of this webseries, pushing real-lifecouples to go back totheir honeymoon times!

The sensational PayalRajput unveiled a post-release glimpse on hersocial media handle andcalled the show excitingand a fun watch. Everycouple has their thing,some want to rappeldown the waterfalls, oth-ers just want to snuggleup in a private igloo, butthis unique couple ven-tures to the land ofcoconut trees and house-boats.

Essentially, Kerelabecomes their oyster, andit will be fun to see whatdo they do next!

ahesh Babu-star-rer Athidi actressAmrita Rao saysthe concept ofvisibility for anactor has

changed, courtesy socialmedia and talent manage-ment firms, as compared tothe time she made her debutin 2002.

“Before the era of socialmedia and PR machinery thatwe are seeing these days, anactor's popularity and celebri-ty status was a byproduct ofhis or her talent. When Ientered the industry as ateenager and appeared infilms like Athidi, Ishq Vishk,Masti, and Main Hoon Naa,people noticed me because ofmy performance, although afilm like Main Hoon Naa hadsuperstars like Shah RukhKhan and Sushamita Sen.These days, actors are becom-ing popular also because oftheir presence on socialmedia. I think for an actor,being remembered for a char-acter and film is more impor-tant,” Amrita said.

She continued, “There isnothing wrong with becom-ing a popular celebrity onsocial media, just that there isa huge change that hashappened. I enteredthe industry dur-ing the transi-tion period.Earlier, it

was important to have talentand as an artiste, we’d focuson sharpening our skills.Now there is somethingcalled talent management. Ina way, it is a good culturalchange that lets artistes feelmore secure with a jobopportunity,” explained theactress.

Can Amrita recall themoment she felt recognisedin the pre-social media era?“Yes, I clearly remember that,because I had a mixed feel-ing. Whenever I recall, itbrings a smile on my face. Allof us were entering the venue,and the photographers werethere, on the occasion of thesuccess party of Main HoonNaa. There was a group ofcollege students standing outthere who saw me and calledout ‘Sanjana’, my character’sname in the film. I was soyoung back then, that I didn’tknow how to react, I smiled,and covered my face with mypalm, that’s how shy I was! Inmy head, it was like ‘Whatjust happened? This meantthey really watched my filmand recognised me!!’ It wasan over-the-

moon feelingof a young-ster!” she gig-gled.

Despitebeingappreciatedby critics andothers for her per-formance and evenbeing called ‘anothernative-face’ girl ofTollywood, theactress was not seenin any other filmpost that, because ofher trials inBollywood, leadingto her loosing up onopportunities here.The actress madeheadlines last yearwhen she accusedTollywood ofusingactresses asnothing butglam dolls.She alsoclaimed thatshe rejectedseveral offersfrom Telugufilmmakers forthe same rea-

son.

m

KGF

producers to comeup with another big film

ombale Films, the Kannada film pro-duction company that gave India sever-al big-budget films, including the mostfamous KGF -1 and is to wrap KGF -Chapter 2 soon, has announced theproduction of another pan-India film

that will go on floors next. After the huge success of KGF Chapter 1,

Hombale became a name to reckon with, espe-cially when it has to do with big-budget films.Their upcoming film, which the productionhouse says will have a superstar and superdirector combo, will be a film that will bemade across many Indian languages, likeKGF. Information about the title, cast andthe crew is slated to be announced onDecember 2nd and fans can’t wait forWednesday noon!

Hombale Films is already workingon two other mega projects —Yuvaratnaa (a Kannada movie withPuneeth Rajkumar), KGF ChapterII.

h

omedian Seshu Shankar, betterknown by his stage nameShakalaka Shankar is to playthe titular role in the upcom-ing film Corporator. SameepaMovies and A and I Studios are

jointly presenting the film that is beingproduced by A. Padmanabha Reddy and

co-produced by Dr SV Madhuri.Director of the film, Dr Sanjay con-

firmed that Shankar’s performance willbe the main attraction of Corporator andit will have a social message. The film alsostars actors Sunita Pandey, LavanyaSharma, and Kasturi opposite Shankar asthe female leads.

c

a

D

Anunconventional,funny andrelatable dramaon aha

Sampoornesh to groove toPrem Rakshith's tunes

a

RRR wraps up massive action sequence

Star comedian as ‘Corporator'

now there's talentmanagement

Amrita Rao: Earlier talent was important,