Union minister's son Ashish Mishra arrested

ON CHATURTHI

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee inaugurates Puja at Sitala Mandir, in Kolkata, on Saturday PIC/MPOST

RNI NO.: WBENG/2015/65962

VOL. 7, ISSUE 278 | Sunday, 10 October 2021 | Kolkata | Pages 12 | Rs 3.00PUBLISHED FROM DELHI | KOLKATA

MILLENNIUMPOST.IN

No Half Truths

NEW DELHI: Mumbai on Saturday became the first metro city in the country to see diesel prices cross the Rs 100 per litre mark after fuel prices were hiked again. Petrol price was hiked by 30 paise per litre and diesel by 35 paise a litre, according to a price notification of state-owned fuel retailers. The fifth straight day of price hike pushed fuel rates to a new record high. In Mumbai, diesel now comes for Rs 100.29 a litre; while in Delhi, it costs Rs 92.47. The price of pet-rol in Delhi rose to its highest-ever level of Rs 103.84 a litre and Rs 109.83 per litre in Mumbai, the notification showed. P2

NEW DELHI: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will pay a four-day visit to Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Armenia beginning Sunday with an aim to further expand bilateral ties and discuss key regional issues including the developments in Afghanistan.

“The visit will provide an opportunity for reviewing the

progress in our bilateral ties with the three countries as well as share views on devel-opments in the region,” the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said on Saturday while announcing the visit. It said the visit will be a continuation of India’s increased engagement with countries in its “extended neighbourhood”. MPOST

Diesel crosses Rs 100 mark in Mumbai, fuel prices up again

Jaishankar to embark on 3-nation tour today

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: India saw a single-day rise of 19,740 COVID-19 infections, tak-ing the country’s total tally of cases to 3,39,35,309, while the number of active cases has declined to 2,36,643, the low-est in 206 days, according to Union Health ministry data updated on Saturday.

The death toll has climbed to 4,50,375 with 248 more fatalities, the data updated at 8 am stated.

Meanwhile, Union Health minister Mansukh Manda-viya warned on Saturday and exhorted 19 states to escalate their inoculation pace so that India can achieve administer-

ing 100 crore vaccine doses in the next few days, adding that Covid containment can derail if festivals are not celebrated following protocols. India has so far administered over 94 crore Covid vaccine doses.

Reviewing the progress of COVID-19 vaccination with

Principal Secretaries and mis-sion directors of the National Health Mission from all major states, Mandaviya underlined that administering 100 crore doses of Covid vaccine is the immediate milestone in India’s inoculation journey.

Continued on P4

Active Covid cases in country lowest in 206 days

Mandaviya urges states to increase vax pace, adherence to Covid protocols during festivities

MPOST BUREAU

MUMBAI: NCP leader and Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik on Saturday alleged the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), which had claimed to have seized drugs onboard a cruise ship off the Mumbai

coast last week, had initially detained 11 persons but let off three of them, including the brother-in-law of BJP leader Mohit Bharatiya, a couple of hours after the operation.

Bharatiya hit back saying he will file a defamation suit seeking Rs 100 crore in dam-

ages against Malik.Addressing a press con-

ference here, Malik, who is NCP’s spokesperson, alleged that Bharatiya’s brother-in-law Rishabh Sachdeva was among those three persons.

Two others — Pratik Gabba and Aamir Furniturewala —

who had brought Aryan Khan, son of Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, to the cruise party, were released along with Sachdeva two hours after their detention, he said.

“The names of Pratik and Aamir figured in the ongoing hearings in the court,” Malik

claimed. Based on a tip-off that

a party was to take place onboard the ship, an NCB team led by its zonal director Sameer Wankhede had raided the Cordelia cruise last Satur-day and claimed to have recov-ered banned drugs. A total of

18 persons have been arrested in the case, including Bolly-wood actor Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan.

The NCP leader demanded that the call records of these three persons along with that of Wankhede be examined.

Continued on P4

‘BJP leader’s brother-in-law let off by NCB hours after his detention’

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Top Congress leadership will gather here on October 16 to deliberate on the current political situ-ation, including the Lakhim-pur violence, and decide on the organisational elections at a meeting of the party’s work-ing committee.

The meeting of the Con-gress’ top decision-making body has been convened after demands from some quarters within the party to discuss important issues, including some defections in the recent past.

Former Leader of Oppo-sition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad had also written to the Congress presi-dent to convene a meeting of the Congress Working Com-mittee (CWC) soon.

AICC general secretary K C Venugopal tweeted: “A meeting of the Congress Working Committee will be

held on Saturday, the 16th October, 2021 at 10 am at AICC Office, 24, Akbar Road, New Delhi to discuss current political situation, forthcom-ing assembly elections and organisational elections.”

The party leadership is also likely to decide on the schedule for electing the new Congress chief.

The party, in its CWC meeting, held on January 22 had decided that the Con-gress would have an elected president by June 2021, but the same was deferred at the May 10 CWC meet in the wake of the COVID-19 situation.

The latest meeting is being held in the wake of Lakhim-pur clashes on October 3 in which eight people lost their lives, including four farmers who were allegedly run over by an SUV belonging to the convoy of Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Kumar Mishra. Continued on P4

CWC meeting to be held on October 16

Lakhimpur violence, internal polls on meet agenda

Bengal govt allows opening of hotels, bars as per normal operational hours

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: The Bengal gov-ernment on Saturday asked people to avoid crowded places stating that the Covid pandemic is not over yet, as Durga Puja pandals witnessed massive footfall on Chaturthi, even before the actual festival commenced, raising concern about the spread of the virus.

The state Health depart-ment urged people to take pre-cautionary measures against the contagion and celebrate the festival from home.

With the night restrictions to remain suspended for the next 10 days from Sunday, the Bengal government also allowed shops, restaurants and bars to remain open as per normal operational hours, also permitting late closing of bars. This comes as a major step to boost the economy during the festive season.

As per the set norms, bars can remain open till midnight while there is no restriction of

time for the operation of res-taurants and eateries.

With a special license, a bar or restro-bar can serve liquor till 2 am. With the state government giving additional relaxations maintaining “late closing of bars may be allowed as per the extant rules”, now, the bars and restro-bars can opt for the special license.

Night-long pandal-hop-ping is almost a ritual during Durga Puja and people prefer to dine out at their favourite restaurants or restro-bars with their near and dear ones. It results in good business as well for the hospitality sector, facili-tating a huge turnover during Durga Puja.

The industry, however,

witnessed setbacks due to the Covid pandemic as res-taurants had to be shut for a major period of the last two years. The move of the state government is going to give a much-needed boost to the people involved in the sector. There are around 40,000 res-taurants and 4,000 bars in the state. Continued on P4

Takeaways » The state Health department urged people to take precautionary measures against the contagion and celebrate the festival from home » Bengal government also allowed shops, restaurants and bars to remain open as per normal operational hours, also permitting late closing of bars. This comes as a major step to boost the economy during the festive season » As per the set norms, bars can remain open till midnight while there is no restriction of time for the operation of restaurants and eateries » Maha Saptami of Durga Puja is on October 12. The relaxation on night restrictions will allow people to visit pandals following the Covid guidelines even after 11 pm from the day of Chaturthi

City: Pg 3New Covid cases dip to 776; over 12L jabs given in a day

Nation: Pg 5India, Denmark decide to expand ties in health, agriculture sectors

ICA-

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(21)

/202

1

A health worker takes swab samples at a railway station in Mumbai PTI

MUMBAI: The cyber cell of Mumbai Police on Saturday summoned CBI director and former Maharashtra DGP Subodh Kumar Jaiswal in a phone-tapping and data leak case, a senior official said here.

Jaiswal has been asked to be present to record his statement on October 14, the police official said.

The case relates to the ‘leak’ of a report prepared by IPS officer Rashmi Shukla about alleged corruption in police transfers in Maharashtra when she headed the state intelli-gence department. Jaiswal was the Director-General of police during this period.

Continued on P4

Phone-tapping case: CBI director

Subodh Jaiswal summoned

India has so far administered over 94 crore Covid vaccine doses

DRUGS CASE

Film: Pg 12K-wave sweeps India yet again with ‘Squid Game’

Union minister’s son Ashish Mishra arrested

MPOST BUREAU

LAKHIMPUR KHERI (UP): Union minister Ajay Mishra’s son, the primary accused of the Lakhimpur Kheri violence, Ashish Mishra was arrested on Saturday after hours of interro-gation by the Special Investiga-tion Team (SIT). The arrest was confirmed by Deputy Inspector General Upendra Agarwal who is heading the SIT. A day after staying away from interroga-tion, Ashish appeared before the investigation team on Satur-day morning. The interrogation lasted for over 11 hours as the Special Investigation Team pre-pared over a dozen of questions for the Union minister’s son.

The development came a day after the Supreme Court had expressed its dissatisfaction over the action taken against the accused in the Lakhimpur

incident that had drawn mas-sive outrage. After two of his aides were arrested, the police pasted a notice on the Union minister’s residence asking his son to be present before the investigation committee.

Meanwhile, earlier in the day, demanding the arrest of

both Union Minister of State Ajay Mishra and his son, Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) — an umbrella body of farmers protesting against the conten-tious farm laws — on Saturday called for ‘rail roko’ on October 18 to protest Lakhimpur Kheri violence. “Union minister Ajay

Mishra should be removed and arrested as he started this con-spiracy,” SKM leader Yogendra Yadav said, adding that they will burn effigies of Prime Min-ister Narendra Modi and Union Home minister Amit Shah on Dussehra on October 15.

Continued on P4

CAUTIONS AGAINST VISITING CROWDED PLACES

Highlights » The development came a day after the Supreme Court had expressed its dissatisfaction over the action taken against the ac-cused in the Lakhimpur incident that had drawn massive outrage » Earlier in the day, demanding the arrest of both Union Minister of State Ajay Mishra and his son, Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) — an umbrella body of farmers protesting against the contentious farm laws — on Saturday called for ‘rail roko’ on October 18 to protest Lakhimpur Kheri violence » Attacking the Uttar Pradesh government over the handling of the probe, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav earlier on Saturday alleged it was giving “bouquet” to culprits instead of bringing them to book

Ashish Mishra arrives at the Crime Branch office on Saturday morning PTI

Lakhimpur Kheri violence case: A day after he skipped summons, Ashish was finally arrested post 11 hours of interrogation

2 millenniumpostBusinessmpSUNDAY, 10 OCTOBER, 2021 | KOLKATA

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GLOBAL MINIMUM TAX DEAL

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: India may have to withdraw digital services tax or the equalisation levy and give a commitment not to introduce such measures in the future if the global minimum tax deal comes through.

In a major reform of the international tax system, 136 countries, including India, have agreed to an overhaul of global tax norms to ensure that mul-tinationals pay taxes wherever they operate and at a minimum 15 per cent rate.

However, the deal requires countries to remove all digital services tax and other similar measures and to commit not to introduce such measures in the future, as per the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) imple-mentation plan released late on Friday. “No newly enacted digital services taxes or other relevant similar measures will

be imposed on any company from October 8 and until the earlier of December 31, 2023, or the coming into force of the MLC (multilateral convention),” the OECD said.

The proposed two-pillar solution of the global tax deal consists of two components - Pillar One which is about real-location of additional share of profit to the market jurisdic-tions and Pillar Two consisting of minimum tax and subject to

tax rules.Finance Minister Nirmala

Sitharaman had earlier this week said that India is “very close” to arriving at the specifics of the two-pillar taxation propo-sition at the G-20 and is in the last stage of finalising the details.

The Finance Ministers of G-20 countries are scheduled to meet on October 13 in Wash-ington and finalise it.

Nangia Andersen Partner Sandeep Jhunjhunwala said the

statement released by the OECD on Friday weighed against the one in July 2021 brings out some interesting observations, on which taxmen and taxpayers had their eyes laid on.

“As a significant move, the OECD has sought for an imme-diate and upfront withdrawal of unilateral digital services tax and a commitment not to introduce such measures in the future. No newly enacted digi-tal services taxes or other rele-vant similar measures would be imposed on any company from October 8 and until the earlier of December 31, 2023, or the coming into force of the mul-tilateral convention,” he said.

The modality for the removal of existing digital ser-vices taxes and other relevant similar measures needs to be appropriately coordinated, Jhunjhunwala added.

“Pillar Two which was ini-tially proposed to be brought into effect from 2023 has now

been deferred to 2024,” he added. Deloitte India Partner Sumit Singhania said the two pillar solutions finally agreed will result in redistribution of USD 125 billion taxable prof-its annually, and ensure global MNEs pay minimum 15 per-cent tax once these measures are implemented in 2023 through a multilateral convention to be signed next year.

Consensus on global mini-mum tax will practically make tax competition amongst nations rather unfeasible by nar-rowing down any such oppor-tunities to rarest circumstances, he said. “In reaching final Two-pillar solutions, OECD Inclusive Framework has tied up several loose ends and drawn the road-map to its implementation. The final solution offers 25 percent share in super normal profits (i.e. profits in excess of 10 per cent) sought to be reallocated to market countries,” Singha-nia said

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Mumbai on Sat-urday became the first metro city in the country to see die-sel prices cross the Rs 100 per litre mark after fuel prices were hiked again.

Petrol price was hiked by 30 paise per litre and diesel by 35 paise a litre, according to a price notification of state-owned fuel retailers.

The fifth straight day of price hike pushed fuel rates to a new record high.

In Mumbai, diesel now comes for Rs 100.29 a litre; while in Delhi, it costs Rs 92.47.

The price of petrol in Delhi rose to its highest-ever level of Rs 103.84 a litre and Rs 109.83 per litre in Mumbai, the noti-fication showed. Prices differ from state to state depending on the incidence of local taxes.

Shedding the modest price change policy, state-owned fuel retailers have since Wednesday started passing on the larger incidence of cost to consum-ers. For four days in a row, the

price of petrol has been hiked by 30 paise a litre and diesel by 35 paise, the biggest rally in rates.

This is because the interna-tional benchmark Brent crude has soared to over $82 per bar-rel after the decision by OPEC+ not to increase output more than 0.4 million barrels per day, fuel rates are being increased by a larger proportion.

A month ago, Brent was around $72 per barrel.

Being a net importer of oil, India prices petrol and diesel

at rates equivalent to inter-national prices. The surge in international oil prices ended a three-week hiatus in rates on September 28 for petrol and September 24 for diesel.

Since then, diesel rates have gone up by Rs 3.85 paise per litre and petrol price has increased by Rs 2.65.

Prior to the July/August price cuts, the petrol price was increased by Rs 11.44 a litre between May 4 and July 17. Diesel rate had gone up by Rs 9.14 during this period.

India may have to discontinue equalisation levy from Oct 8The deal requires countries to remove all digital services tax and other

similar measures and to commit not to introduce such measures in future

Diesel breaks `100 mark in Mumbai, fuel prices up againDiesel now comes for Rs 92.47/litre in Delhi; while price of

petrol in Delhi rose to its highest-ever level of Rs 103.84/litre

NEW DELHI: Defending pri-vatisation policy, Principal Eco-nomic Adviser Sanjeev Sanyal on Saturday said most of the public sector undertakings (PSUs) that the government intends to sell were actually cre-ated by the private sector.

Stressing that this govern-ment is unapologetic about privatisation, he said “you (Opposition) made the point that this (PSUs) has been built through the blood and sweat of the public sector. So, let me put the record straight on this: Actually much of what we are attempting to privatise were

actually built by the private sector.”

Citing an example, he said Air India was simply taken away from the private sec-tor and nationalised in 1993.

“In 1969, banks were simply taken away and nationalised. So, when people say that these institutions were built by the blood and sweat of the Indian bureaucracy, let me point out to you that these things were originally built by private companies,” he said at India Today Conclave.

He said that Finance Min-ister Nirmala Sitharaman has already outlined strategic and non-strategic sectors for the purpose of privatisation and there will be bare minimum presence of the government in the strategic sector. PTI

Most PSUs on govt’s privatisation list created by pvt sector: Sanyal

Principal Economic Adviser Sanjeev Sanyal

MUMBAI: Mukesh Ambani, Asia’s richest person, joined Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk in the world’s most exclusive wealth club with a fortune of at least $100 billion. Reliance Indus-

tries chairman entered the rar-efied group of 11 men as his conglomerate’s stock climbed to a record on Friday. He’s now worth $100.6 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires

Index, after his wealth increased by $23.8 billion this year.

Since inheriting the oil-refining and petrochemicals businesses of his late father’s empire in 2005, Ambani, 64,

has been seeking to transform the energy giant into a retail, technology and e-commerce titan.Reliance Jio, which started services in 2016, is now the dominant carrier in the Indian

Ambani joins Bezos, Musk in exclusive $100 billion clubMukesh Ambani now worth $100.6 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index

market. His retail and technol-ogy ventures raised about $27 billion last year, selling stakes to investors ranging from Face-book Inc. and Google to KKR & Co. and Silver Lake.

Ambani unveiled an ambi-tious push into green energy in June, with a planned investment of about $10 billion over three years. And last month,he said his company would “aggres-sively” pursue production of cheaper green hydrogen. AGENCIES

Let the light of knowledge remove all the darkness aroundWishing all a very happy, prosperous and safe festive season

Technology Development & Adaptation

Remote sensing &

Geoinformatics

Research &Developmentand IPR

facilitation

West Bengal State Council of Science & TechnologyVigyan Chetana Bhavan, Salt Lake, Kolkata 64

website : www.dstbt.bangla.gov.in

Adaptation Geoinformatics

Promotion of Biotechnology

Research Fellowship &

Research Grant AwardScience

Propularisationand Awareness

3millenniumpost

THANKING THE LORD

Mamata Banerjee offers prayers at a temple, in Kolkata, on Saturday PIC/MPOST

City mpKOLKATA | SUNDAY, 10 OCTOBER, 2021

Durga Puja celebrated by people cutting across religions: Mamata

New Covid cases dip to 776; over 12L jabs given in a day

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: Kolkata Munici-pal Corporation (KMC) for the first time this year will hold a trial for pollution-free immersion by adopting wash and melt mode using raw water for washing off the idols at Takta Ghat in Hastings.

The announcement was made by Chairman Board of Administrators Firhad Hakim on Saturday soon after a KMC team led by Member Board of Administrators in-charge of Parks & Squares department Debasish Kumar inspected a number of river ghats in the city for ensuring smooth immersion which starts from Friday.

“We will be doing a trial at Takta Ghat where hosepipe will be used to splash raw water to melt the idols instead of immersing them in the river. The clay will be chan-nelized through a drainage line into the sewage treatment

plant. This will prevent lead or similar pollutants from mix-ing with the river water and will curb pollution,” Hakim said.

Mainak Mukherjee, Direc-tor General (Water Supply) will be responsible for super-vision of this pollution-free

immersion.“If the trial of the ‘wash

and melt’ model proves suc-cessful then such methods will be adopted in a large scale for immersions next year,” added Hakim.

“We will have adequate payloaders and cranes in the

ghats and the structures of the idols will be lifted immedi-ately after immersion to curb water pollution. There are des-ignated bins where flowers and leaves should be dumped before taking the idols to the water,” Kumar said.

He visited Judges Ghat, Doi Ghat and Baje Kadam-tala Ghat along with officials from Kolkata Police.

Covid guidelines will remain the same as last year.

No one will be allowed to enter the ghats without mask. Only four persons per fam-

ily or Puja pandal would be allowed to go inside the ghat to complete the rituals.

Special team of police will be deployed for crowd moni-toring. Idol immersion will take place at 22 ghats in Kol-kata from October 15 to Octo-ber 18.

The West Bengal Pollu-tion Control Board (WBPCB) has given special emphasis to minimise the effect of water pollution in strict adher-ence to the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) immersion guidelines.

KMC to hold trial run of pollution-free immersion at Takta Ghat this year

‘This will prevent lead or similar pollutants from mixing with the river water...’

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: The number of single-day Covid infections has gone down to 776 on Saturday from what stood at 784 on Fri-day. Bengal registered around 7,634 active Covid cases on Sat-urday while the figure on Fri-day stood at 7,625.

As many as 755 Covid recovered patients have been released from different hos-pitals on Saturday. The Covid recovery rate was registered at 98.32 percent on Saturday. Around 12 people died of Covid in the state in the past 24 hours. The number has jumped from Friday’s figure of 6.

The total number of infected people has reached 15,75,577 so far.

Out of this, around 15,49,049 people have so far recovered and released from the hospitals. Around 18,894 people have so far died of Covid in the state.

Bengal on Saturday admin-istered 12,66,983 doses taking the total doses administered so far in Bengal taking to 6,41,08,436. The percentage of occupancy of Covid beds in the State stood at 3.24 on Saturday

while the positivity rate jumped up to 2.13 percent from 2.06 on Friday. The fatality rate in Ben-gal registered at 1.20 percent on Friday.

Around 127 fresh Covid cases were detected in North 24-Parganas on Saturday while in Kolkata the number was reg-istered at 162. South 24-Par-ganas has seen 54 new cases, Hooghly 54 and Howrah 69, Darjeeling 41, Nadia 64, Jal-paiguri 21. Bengal has so far carried out 1,84,71,961 Covid sample tests out of which around 36,429 tests were done in the past 24 hours.

Kolkata has seen 3 Covid deaths on Saturday while North 24 Parganas has registered 4 deaths and South 24-Parga-nas 2.

Howrah has seen 1 death on Saturday and Nadia 2. Health department has so far addressed 22,33,695 general queries so far out of which 2,429 queries were addressed in the past 24 hours.

State has so far given tele-medicine consultations to 9,13,911 people so far out of which 1,210 were given con-sultation in the past 24 hours.

Around 535 people have been given tele-psychologi-cal counselling in the past 24 hours taking the total number of counselling to 4,42,873 till Saturday.

As many as 2,861 ICU/HDU beds are functional in the state. The total number of earmarked Covid beds stands at 23,947 till Saturday.

SOUMITRA NANDI

KOLKATA: Deviating from its trend of having pandals built with cloth and tarpau-lin, the inmates of Presidency Central Correctional Home (PCCH) for the first time this year is giving a thematic touch by depicting a rural atmo-sphere through its décor this year.

About 25 odd inmates have been working tirelessly to create this ambience of greenery amidst the concrete jungle in the city. The idol this year has been procured from an artisan who lives adjacent to the Uttirno building a few metres away from the correc-tional home.

“We are not holding any cultural programmes inside the premises of the correc-tional homes in strict adher-ence to restrictions related with Covid situation but food arrangements will be very special,” a senior official of the Presidency Central Cor-rectional Home said.

On the four days of the Puja there will be chicken and mutton (one day each) and fish on the other two days.

Infact, there will be spe-cial platter on all days till Lak-shmi Puja.

Last year the Correctional Administration department had deliberately avoided involving the inmates in idol making to maintain physical distancing and the idols were procured from outside,

But this time idols have been made by the inmates themselves in some of the cor-rectional homes. Berhampore Central Correctional home is one of them. “The inmates will be holding cultural pro-grammes on their own at Ber-hampore maintaining Covid protocols,” Ujjal Biswas, state Correctional Administration minister said. The superin-tendents of the prisons will ensure that everybody wears mask, carry out sanitization time to time, ensure physical distancing and other measures for a safe Puja.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: Ramakrishna Mis-sion Vidyamandira, Belur, has bagged A++ grade, the highest grade by scoring a CGPA (cumu-lative grade point average) of 3.58 out of 4 in the assessment con-ducted by the National Assess-ment and Accreditation Council (NAAC).

Vidyamandira has scored 3.4 in curricular aspects, 3.53 in teaching-learning and evalua-tion, 3.68 in research-innovations and extension, 3.72 in infrastruc-ture and learning resources, 3.8 in student support and progres-sion, 3.28 in governance, leader-ship and management, and 3.81 in institutional values and best practices.

“Vidyamandira family expresses its heartfelt gratitude and indebtedness to all the mem-bers of the Academic Coun-cil for their gracious presence in the meetings, their invaluable which helped us in our march ahead towards attainment of the desired level of excellence,” Swami Ekachittananda, Principal Ramakrishna Mission Vidyaman-dira said.

JAILER SUSPENDED AFTER FOOTAGE OF BIRTHDAY BASH IN JAIL GOES VIRAL KOLKATA: The state Correctional Administration de-partment has suspended the jailer of Howrah Correc-tional Home after the footage of birthday celebration of a gangster inside the prison premises went viral.

Sources said that the birthday of gangster Prakash Singh was celebrated through cutting of cakes and gathering of a large number of inmates at a particu-lar place was held inside the correctional home prem-ises on Thursday evening. A detail probe has started and the jailer has been suspended, jail officials said.

2 LABOURERS DIE INSIDE RESERVOIR OF AN UNDER-CONSTRUCTION HOUSE KOLKATA: Two labourers died while working in the water reservoir of an under construction building in the city on Saturday. The deceased have been identi-fied as Samal Das and Palan Das, both 35 years old. They were cleaning the water reservoir of an under construction 3-storied building situated at Russa Road South at around 9 am when the incident occured.

First Samal had gone inside the reservoir. As there was no response from him for sometime, his co-worker landed in the reservoir to see what had happened to him and was killed too. The locals informed the Golf Green police station. The duo were rescued from the reservoir and rushed to a nearby hospital where doc-tors declared them brought dead. The bodies have been sent for autopsy.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: At least two were killed and two others were injured after a portion of a dilapidated house in Rabindra Sarani col-lapsed on Saturday.

Fire department, disaster management team and police officials reached the spot for rescue operations.

The police said a portion of the building collapsed at around 5 pm. Upon hearing a loud gong, locals went to the spot and found people trapped inside the debris. The police along with the disaster man-agement team went to the site and extricated them.

The deceased have been identified as Md Toufik (20)

and Rajib Gupta (47).Toufik, resident of Gora

Chand Road, who was riding a scooter and passing through the three-storied building situ-ated at 156 Rabindra Sarani when the balcony of the second floor fell on him. He was rushed to Calcutta Medical College and Hospital where he was declared brought dead.

Gupta, a pedestrian and res-ident of K P Shah Street, was shifted to Vishudhanand Hos-pital where doctors declared him dead. The pedestrians—Pradip Das (39) and Subhash Hazra (32) - are undergoing treatment at Calcutta Medical College and Hospital. Police have put barricades around to restrict pedestrians from walk-ing near the house.

According to the locals, there were a few people living on the ground floor of the building but they escaped unharmed.

At least 2 dead, 2 injured as portion of a dilapidated house collapses

NAAC: RKM Vidyamandir

bags top grade

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: The Election Com-mission is deploying 27 compa-nies of Central Forces for smooth conduction of by-election-related duties in Bengal. These 27 com-panies which will be inducted by October 13 will be undertak-ing route march in the four con-stituencies where the bypolls are going to be held on October 30.

As per sources in the Com-mission, 8 companies will be CRPF, 9 companies will be BSF, 5 companies CISF and another 5 will be SSB. By elections will be held at Dinhata in north Bengal’s

Cooch Behar district, Santipur in Nadia district, Khardah in North 24-Parganas and Gosaba in South 24-Parganas,

“The Commission will be gradually deploying more Cen-tral Forces before the bypolls,” a senior official in the Commis-sion said.

The Dinhata seat fell vacant after the local BJP Lok Sabha member Nisith Pramanik, who contested the Assembly elections and won by a slender margin of 57 votes did not take oath to remain in the Lok Sabha.

He was appointed Union minister of state for home

affairs in July.Udayan Guha is the Trin-

amool Congress nominee for

Dinhata while BJP has fielded Ashok Mondal.

Similar is the case for Nadia’s

Santipur with the local BJP Lok Sabha member, Jagannath Sarkar, opting to remain in Parliament after winning the state polls.

Trinamool’s Brajakishore Goswami, a member of the Vaishnav community is pitted against Niranjan Biswas of BJP.

The Khardah seat fell vacant

because TMC’s Kajal Sinha, who won it, died of Covid-19 before the results were announced on May 2.

The TMC has fielded Sob-handeb Chattopadhyay, who won the Bhabanipur seat but resigned to pave the way for Mamata Banerjee to contest from that seat and continue as Chief Minister. At Gosaba in South 24-Parganas, Trinamool veteran Jayanta Naskar who represented the seat twice since 2011 died after his third victory.

The TMC has fielded Subrata Mondal, a local leader, against the BJP’s Palash Rana.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday described Durga Puja as a fes-tival that is celebrated by people cutting across religions.

The chief minister on Sat-urday inaugurated a number of Durga Puja pandals and urged people to follow Covid norms. She also interacted with Chhau artistes at one of the pandals. Banerjee was in a light mood at Bhabanipur 76 Pally where she said: “I inaugurated so many Puja pandals but nobody had offered me a cup of tea. Today, they have offered me a cup of tea. I am so happy.”

Banerjee has been inaugurat-ing Puja pandals for last few days.

The chief minister said: “My throat dried up as I have been inaugurating Puja pandals for long time. I have already visited at least 100 pandals. Yesterday,

some people offered me tea but the day before yesterday nobody offered. It was not their fault as

I was in a hurry.” She also told the people: “Do

you know that I used to teach in

a school. I taught so many little children here. I know all the lanes and bylanes here.”

She also inaugurated the Puja pandal of Chetla Akal Bodhan in presence of the state transport minister Firhad Hakim.

Due to Covid a series of restric-tions were imposed on the Puja organisers as well as the visitors last year. This year also people would not be allowed inside the puja pandals.

Meanwhile, the Regional Metereological Centre in Ali-pore has predicted rainfall in south Bengal from Wednesday and the intensity of rainfall will be increased in the weekend.

Various south Bengal dis-tricts including the city may receive light to moderate rain-fall on ‘Ashtami’, ‘Nabami’ and ‘Dashami’.

The districts will will receive the rainfall are North and South 24-Parganas, East Midnapore, West

Midnapore, Howrah, Hooghly. North Bengal districts will also receive scattered rainfall in the next couple of days.

The Puja organisers in the city have taken up all measures to check Covid infection. The guidelines were followed inside the puja padals.

Naktala Udayan Sangha in it’s 35 years of celebration come up with a unique idea of depicting the lives of displaced immigrants. Durga idol has no weapons in her hands instead She has stretched out her hands for the protection of mankind.

A train made of ply and woods was kept outside the pandals to showcase how the immigrants travel from place to another in the train.

Shribhumi Sporting has set up it’s pandals as a replica of Burj Khalifa in Dubai. Durga idol has been decorated with 45 kgs of gold.

RAINS PREDICTED FROM WEDNESDAY

27 companies of Central Force for bypolls in 4 seats

News at a Glance

Touch of theme Puja at Presidency Correctional Home‘At least 25 odd inmates have

been working tirelessly to create this ambience of greenery...’

Covid-19 Stats » Number of deaths in past 24 hours 12 » Total death toll so far 18,894 » Tested COVID positive in the past 24 hours 776 » Total COVID positive cases so far 15,75,577 » Total patients recovered from COVID so far 15,49,049 » Discharged from hospitals in a day 755 » Total sample tested so far 1,84,71,961

The Commission will be gradually deploying more Central Forces before the bypolls

Debasish Kumar inspected a number of ghats in city on Saturday

The Narrative » We will be doing a trial at Takta Ghat where hosepipe will be used to splash raw water to melt the idols instead of immersing them in the river » The clay will be channelized through a drainage line into the sewage treatment plant » If the trial of the ‘wash and melt’ model proves successful then such methods will be adopted in a large scale for immersions next year

‘We are not holding any cultural programmes inside the premises of the correctional homes in strict adherence to restrictions...’

A portion of a dilapidated house at Rabindra Sarani collapsed on Saturday evening

Mamata Banerjee plays the ‘dhamsa’ at the 75 Palli Puja pandal, in Kolkata, on Saturday PIC/MPOST

No: 922/E.E-8/e-tender/BDA/21 BHOPAL, Date 08/10/2021 Notice Inviting e-Tenders

On-line percentage rate bids for the following works are invited from Contractors and firms of repute fulfilling registration & eligibility criteria mentioned in tender document. S No.

Portal Tender No Name of work Probable Amounts of Contract

Cost of Bid Document (excluding portal fees) (Rs.)

Period of Completion i/c rainy season

1 2021_DTCP_163495 Remaining Development works (Civil Nature) at everwhere in Area of Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel Awasiya Yojna (Misrod Phase-II) Bhopal

10.95 Crore 45,000/- 04 montsh i/c rainy season

1. The detailed NIT and all other details relating to the Bid Document can be viewed on the website http://www.mptenders.gov.in

2 The Bid Document can be purchased & deposit after making on-line payment of portal fees and cost of Bid Document through Credit Card / Debit Card /Cash Card or Internet Banking system at aforesaid website from 11-10-2021at 17.30 Hrs up to 18-10-2021at 17.30 hrs. Other key dates may be seen in bid data sheet

3 Amendments to the NIT, if any would be published on website only, and not in newspaper. 4 Any relevant information can be obtained from office of the undersigned during the

office working hours & days. Sd/- Executive Engineer

Division No 8

BHOPAL DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY, BHOPAL (M.P.)

4 millenniumpostNationmpSUNDAY, 10 OCTOBER, 2021 | KOLKATA

Eastern Ladakh standoff: India, China military talks today

CHINA’S CONTINUOUS BUILD-UP MATTER OF CONCERN: ARMY CHIEF

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: India and China will hold another round of high-level military talks on Sunday with a focus on making some forward movement in the disengagement process in the remaining friction points in eastern Ladakh, government sources said.

The talks are scheduled to start at 10:30 AM at the Moldo border point on the Chinese side of the Line of Actual Con-trol (LAC) in eastern Ladakh, the sources said on Saturday.

The Indian side is expected to seek disengagement as soon as possible in the remaining friction points besides press-ing for resolution of issues in Depsang Bulge and Demchok.

The 12th round of talks had taken place on July 31. Days after the talks, the two armies completed the disen-gagement process in Gogra, which was seen as a significant forward movement towards the restoration of peace and tranquillity in the region.

The 13th round of talks is taking place in the back-drop of two recent incidents of attempted transgressions

by the Chinese troops -- one in the Barahoti sector of Utta-rakhand and another in the Tawang sector in Arunachal Pradesh.

Indian and Chinese troops were engaged in a brief face-off near Yangtse in the Tawang sector of Arunachal Pradesh last week and it was resolved within few hours following talks between commanders

of the two sides as per estab-lished protocols, people famil-iar with the development said on Friday.

Last month, close to 100 soldiers of China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) trans-gressed the LAC in the Bara-hoti sector.

The transgression took place on August 30, and the Chinese troops returned from

the area after spending few hours.

Chief of Army Staff Gen MM Naravne on Saturday said the military build-up by China in the eastern Ladakh region and new infrastructure devel-opment to sustain the large-scale deployment are a matter of concern.

He also said if the Chi-nese military maintains the

deployment through the sec-ond winter, then it may lead to an LoC-like situation (Line of Control) though not an active LoC as is there on the western front with Pakistan.

The Indian delegation at Sunday's talks is to be led by Lt Gen PGK Menon, the Com-mander of the Leh-based 14 Corps.

The border standoff between the Indian and Chi-nese militaries erupted on May 5 last year following a violent clash in the Pangong lake areas and both sides gradually enhanced their deployment by rushing in tens of thousands of soldiers as well as heavy weaponry.

As a result of a series of military and diplomatic talks, the two sides completed the disengagement process in the Gogra area in August.

In February, the two sides completed the withdrawal of troops and weapons from the north and south banks of the Pangong lake in line with an agreement on disengagement.

Each side currently has around 50,000 to 60,000 troops along the LAC in the sensitive sector.

The Indian side is expected to seek disengagement as soon as possible in the remaining friction points besides pressing for resolution of issues in Depsang Bulge and Demchok

Union minister’s son Ashish Mishra arrested

The SKM had also given a call for a ‘rail roko’ agi-tation across the country from 10 am to 4 pm on October 18 and a ‘mahapanchayat’ in Lucknow on October 26.

A day after skipping the summons, Ashish, who has been accused of running over the farmers in Lakhimpur protest site, arrived at the Police Lines for questioning over the violence in the district. He was quizzed for over 11 hours by the SIT of UP Police. As Ashish reported to the police, Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu ended his hunger strike. Sidhu had started fasting on Friday at the Lakhimpur resi-dence of late journalist Raman Kashyap, who was among the eight people killed in the October 3 vio-lence, and vowed to continue it until Ashish reports to the police or is arrested.

Attacking the Uttar Pradesh government over the handling of the probe, Samajwadi Party chief Akh-ilesh Yadav earlier on Saturday alleged it was giv-ing “bouquet” to culprits instead of bringing them to book.

Speaking to reporters, Akhilesh alleged: “The way farmers were crushed, now preparations are on to crush the laws. This government has pulverised the Constitution.

“You have seen how a vehicle ran over farmers who were fighting for their rights. The guilty persons are yet to be caught. Instead of giving summons, a flower bouquet is being given. The summon is only in name, and (in reality) ‘samman’ (honour) is given.”

Bengal govt allows opening of hotels, bars

It includes 10,000 restaurants and around 1,300 bars in Kolkata.

Besides extending the Covid restrictions till Octo-ber 30, the Bengal government also allowed the movement of people and vehicles between 11 pm and 5 am for 10 days from Durga Puja to Lakshmi Puja (October 10 to 20).

Maha Saptami of Durga Puja is on October 12. The relaxation on night restrictions will allow people to visit pandals following the Covid guidelines even after 11 pm from the day of Chaturthi.

However, wearing of masks, maintenance of phys-ical distancing and health and hygiene protocol has to be followed properly or else strict action would be taken as per the provisions of the Disaster Manage-

ment Act 2005 and Indian Penal Code.

The Covid-19 pandemic is very much active and we must not forget about the precautions we have been taking to combat it all these months. During this Durga Puja festival, we must avoid crowded places. It will be wise to stay indoors and celebrate the festival virtually, the department said in an advisory.

“The celebration of Puja this year should be restricted within the family. Any type of social gath-erings and processions must be avoided. The vol-unteers must keep strict surveillance in and around Puja pandals so that Covid protocols are followed and the entry of the visitors is restricted. There must be enough basins for washing hands and sanitisation arrangements in various locations and also in and around Puja pandals,” it said.

It also suggested that the Puja organisers will also have to ensure that people do not loiter inside the pandals for long. There must be enough space inside the mandaps so that air can freely pass. Physical dis-tancing must be maintained while offering ‘anjali’ to the goddess. There must be a mark of demarcation for each visitor inside the Puja pandals while offer-ing ‘anjali’.

‘BJP leader’s brother-in-law let off by NCB hours after his detention’

“Rishabh Sachdeva’s father and uncle came to the NCB office and telephonic conversations happened between Wankhede and the BJP leaders in Mumbai and Delhi from the phone of Sachdeva’s father,” Malik claimed.

“Why were the phones of these three persons not seized?” he asked.

According to Malik, the Mumbai Police were also given information that 11 persons had been detained from the cruise ship.

Malik had alleged that the NCB’s raid on the cruise was “fake, planned and conspired to defame the film industry and the Maharashtra government”.

“Selective people have been arrested...The mat-ter is serious. CCTV footage should be taken and a detailed inquiry should be conducted,” the Minority Affairs minister alleged.

He also hit out at the BJP for attacking him over his allegations.

“The BJP says that I am attacking the NCB since my son-in-law was arrested by the agency. I have never supported my son-in-law and he will fight his case. How can I give information I have in this case to the NCB which has framed a false case. If an indepen-dent commission is set up to conduct a probe, I will do so,” Malik said.

Hours after Malik’s press conference, Bharatiya issued a statement accusing Malik of “supporting drug peddlers and misusing his official post”.

He said had the NCB found any incriminating evi-dence against his brother-in-law Rishabh Sachdeva

and his friends the agency would have prosecuted them to the full extent of the law.

“The integrity of the NCB stands unimpeached and cannot be swayed by any amount of political influence, maybe that is why Nawab Malik is so inter-ested in targeting the NCB and its hard-working offi-cers,” he said.

Bharatiya accused Nawab Malik of misusing his official post by issuing threats and raising allegations against the premier investigating agency, the NCB.

“I shall be filing a defamatory suit for Rs 100 crore against Nawab Malik and I undertake to forward any proceeds of the said suit towards the war on drugs,” he stated.

Bharatiya alleged that Malik was hitting down on the “diligent officers of the NCB with the sole and ulterior motive of wreaking vengeance for arresting and prosecuting his son-in-law”.

“The press conference held by Nawab Malik is nothing but a lame attempt at maligning my name and more importantly, the Bharatiya Janta Party,” Bharatiya said.

Bharatiya, who had served in various capacities in Maharashtra and Mumbai units of the BJP, also said he was not an office-bearer of the saffron party.

“However, I shall be a sympathizer of the Bharatiya Janta Party. The entire exercise of the press conference on question reeks of the desperation of the MVA government to falsely accuse the honest and stellar efforts of the NCB and the BJP,” he said.

It is shameful that a Cabinet minister is using his official post to make threats and allegations against the premier investigating agency, the NCB, for con-ducting unprecedented raids and investigations in a drug-riddled society, Bharatiya said.

“Instead of supporting the war on drugs, Malik sought to support drug addicts and drug peddlers alike,” he added.

Meanwhile, Maharashtra BJP spokesman Kes-hav Upadhaye also hit out at Malik and said dragging the BJP’s name will not help in getting the accused released. “If anyone from BJP is guilty, punishment will be given,” he added.

CWC meeting to be held on October 16

The incident has given enough ammo to the Con-gress to corner the BJP government and recapture the lost political space.

The CWC meeting will also discuss certain dis-senting notes rising within the party over the spate of defections and the party’s poor electoral fortunes.

Sonia Gandhi took over as the interim Congress president in August 2019 after Rahul Gandhi resigned in the wake of the party’s Lok Sabha debacle in May 2019. There have been demands from a section of Congress leaders for having a full-time and active party president as well as an organisational overhaul.

The demand grew louder after a storm in the party in August last year over a letter to Sonia Gandhi by

a group of 23 leaders, including Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma, Bhupinder Hooda, Prithviraj Chavan, Kapil Sibal, Manish Tewari and Mukul Wasnik raising these issues.

Phone-tapping case: CBI director Subodh Jaiswal summoned

It was alleged that phones of senior politicians and officials were tapped illegally during the inquiry and the report was leaked deliberately, but the FIR regis-tered in this regard by the cyber cell does not name Shukla or any other official. Mpost

Active Covid cases in country lowest in 206 days

According to a Health ministry statement, Man-daviya noted that if festivals, synonymous with auspi-ciousness, joy and large gatherings, are not observed as per Covid protocols, containment of COVID-19 can get derailed.

“The two-pronged solution is to follow Covid pro-tocols very strictly and to speed up vaccination,” the minister said.

He cited results of experiments that pegged the number of first dose recipients not developing severe COVID-19 to be 96 per cent and further pointed out that the number increases to nearly 98 per cent for people who have taken both doses of the vaccine.

Officials of Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chhat-tisgarh, Gujarat, Haryana, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Pun-jab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal took part in the meet-ing. Observing that over eight crore balance vaccine doses are physically available with states, Mandaviya enquired about specific hurdles, if any, faced by them in increasing their pace of vaccination and vaccine coverage among the target population, the statement said.

Many states are nearing saturation of coverage in urban areas and are catering to the floating popula-tion in the city, it said.

The active cases have declined to 2,36,643 and comprise 0.70 per cent of the total infections, the low-est since March last year. The national Covid recovery rate has been recorded at 97.98 per cent, the high-est since March last year, the ministry said. There has been a decrease of 3,578 cases in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours, the data stated.

The daily positivity rate has been recorded at 1.56 per cent. It has been less than three per cent for the last 40 days, it added.

From Page 1

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Eight judges were on Sat-urday elevated as chief justices of vari-ous high courts. Five chief justices were also transferred to various high courts, the Law Ministry said.

Justice Rajesh Bindal, acting chief justice of the Calcutta High Court, was elevated as chief justice of the Allahabad High Court. Justice Ranjit V More of Meghalaya was made chief justice of the same high court, according to a list published by the Department of Justice in the Law Ministry.

Acting chief justice of the Karna-taka High Court, Justice Satish Chandra Sharma has been elevated as chief justice

of the Telangana High Court.Justice Prakash Shrivastava of the

Madhya Pradesh High Court has beeb made chief justice of the Calcutta High Court. Acting chief justice of Him-achal Pradesh High Court Justice R V Malimath will now head the Madhya Pradesh High Court.

Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi of the Alla-habad High Court will head the Kar-nataka High Court. Similarly, Justice Arvind Kumar of the Karnataka High Court had been elevated as chief justice of the Gujarat High Court.

Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra of the Chhattisgarh High Court has been made chief justice of the Andhra Pradesh High Court.

8 judges elevated as Chief Justices of high courts

150 families shifted to

relief camp as rain

lashes Hyd HYDERABAD: Several low-lying areas in Hyderabad were inundated on Saturday fol-lowing heavy rains, following which 150 families were shifted to a relief camp.

Rainwater entered homes in various residential colonies at Hayat Nagar, where some residents complained that their household items were washed away. there was knee-deep water on the roads at some localities in the city following the downpour.

The Greater Hyder-abad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) said 150 families of a locality at Hayat Nagar were shifted to a safer place follow-ing the inundation and food and water provided to them.

Lingojiguda Ward Office at Saroornagar in the city received 131.5 mm of rainfall, while a number of other areas also received heavy rain from 0830 hours on Friday to 0600 hours on Saturday, according to the rainfall data of Telangana State Development Planning Society.

The Society said GHMC building locality in Secunder-abad recorded 95.3 mm of rain-fall, followed by 69.3 mm at Patigadda. Several other local-ities also received moderate rainfall.

A man riding a bike fell in a drainage at Chintalkunta late on Friday night and res-cue and relief personnel made efforts to trace him. However, he reached home safely, official sources said.

Many two-wheelers parked at a cinema theatre were dam-aged on Friday night after a wall collapsed on them follow-ing heavy rain. TV channels showed a crocodile in the over-flowing Musi river in the city following copious inflows. The river, otherwise, lacks heavy flow of water. AGENCIES

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GOVERNMENT OF WEST BENGAL

4(W)X7.14(H)CM


Tender Notice of I & CA Deptt

Memo No. of NIT 3504-ICA(N) dt 15/09/2021 and Tender ID 2021_ICAD_344147_2 regarding “organize programmes on State Ceremonies outside Nabanna for supplying of PA System with lighting to be held upto November 2024”. Re-Tender is hereby invited from intending bidders.

Bid submission closing date: 25/10/2021 at 1:30 pm

Other details may be seen from the website: https://wbtenders. gov.in. Sd/- Director of Information, Information & Cultural Affairs Deptt., Govt. of West Bengal

ICA- T13016(2)/2021

ICA- T13018(2)/2021

ICA- T13020(3)/2021

ICA- T13022(3)/2021

GOVERNMENT OF WEST BENGALABRIDGED

NOTICE INVITING e-TENDER NO: WBNKDA/07/EE-II /2021-22

MEMO NO: 9772 /EE-II/NKDA/2021-22 Dt:07.10.21Tender ID: 2021_NKDA_347089_1

Tender has been invited on 08.10.2021 for the following work:Construction of concreate pavement road at New Town city side bank of E-Canal from Sibmondir (Box Bridge) to Restello building in AA-IA under NKDA, New Town, Kolkata..Document download & Bid submission closing date :25.10.2021 upto 6.55 P.M. Details available on www.wbtenders.gov.in ,www.nkdamar.org or contact office of the undersigned

Sd/- Executive Engineer-IINewtown Kolkata Development Authority

GOVERNMENT OF WEST BENGALABRIDGED

NOTICE INVITING e-TENDER NO: WBNKDA/08/EE-II /2021-22

MEMO NO: 9826 /EE-II/NKDA/2021-22 Dt:08.10.21Tender ID: 2021_NKDA_347248_1

Tender has been invited on 08.10.2021 for the following work:Construction of proposed Toilet block at old DCP office at st no 45 AA-IA, New Town, Kolkata.Document download & Bid submission closing date :26.10.2021 upto 6.55 P.M. Details available on www.wbtenders.gov.in ,www.nkdamar.org or contact office of the undersigned

Sd/- Executive Engineer-IINewtown Kolkata Development Authority


North 24 Parganas Zilla Parishad TenderAdditional Executive Officer, North 24 Parganas Zilla Parishad invites onlinetender as follows NIT NO: NPG/ N- 15 / 20 - 21 (Eng) (Online) dt: 08/10/2021published under North 24 Parganas Zilla Parishad. Last date of Tender submission is 01.11.2021 up to 18.00 hours. The details can be obtained from the website https://wbtenders.gov.in & or https://etender.wb.nic.in .

Sd/- Additional Executive Officer,North 24 Parganas Zilla Parishad.

1916(3)/DICO/N24Pgs, dt. 08.10.2021

GOVERNMENT OF WEST BENGAL GOVERNMENT OF WEST BENGAL



1917(3)/DICO/N24Pgs, dt. 08.10.2021





1918(3)/DICO/N24Pgs, dt. 08.10.2021



North 24 Parganas Zilla Parishad TenderAdditional Executive Officer, North 24 Parganas Zilla Parishad invites e-tender vide – NIT NO NPG /N - 18 / 21 - 22 (Eng) (Online) dt: 08/10/2021 for 13 no. works within North 24 Parganas Zilla Parishad.Tender can only be submitted online throughwebsite https://wbtenders.gov.in .


1919(3)/DICO/N24Pgs, dt. 08.10.2021



North 24 Parganas Zilla Parishad TenderAdditional Executive Officer, North 24 Parganas Zilla Parishad invites online tender as follows – NIT NO N - 19 / 21 - 22(Eng) (Online) dt: 08/10/2021. Details may be obtained from the website https://wbtenders.gov.in .


1920(3)/DICO/N24Pgs, dt. 08.10.2021



North 24 Parganas Zilla Parishad TenderAdditional Executive Officer, North 24 Parganas Zilla Parishad invites online tender as follows – NIT NO N - 22 / 21 - 22(Eng) (Online) dt: 08/10/2021. Details may be obtained from the website https://wbtenders.gov.in .


1921(3)/DICO/N24Pgs, dt. 08.10.2021

GOVERNMENT OF WEST BENGAL GOVERNMENT OF WEST BENGAL



1923(3)/DICO/N24Pgs, dt. 08.10.2021





1922(3)/DICO/N24Pgs, dt. 08.10.2021


5millenniumpost Nation mpKOLKATA | SUNDAY, 10 OCTOBER, 2021

India, Denmark decide to expand ties in health, agriculture sectors

Only TMC can oust BJP from Tripura: Abhishek

THE TWO SIDES ALSO INKED FOUR AGREEMENTS

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: Indicating that Trinamool Congress (TMC) may contest the ensuing municipal elections in Tripura, the party national general sec-retary Abhishek Banerjee reit-erated that it is the TMC that can oust the BJP from Tripura and not the CPI(M) or the Congress.

Banerjee virtually held a meeting with the newly consti-tuted 19 member steering com-mittee of the party in Tripura.

As per sources, Banerjee has directed his party workers to pull up their socks for the civic polls in Tripura which is likely to be held in this calendar year. It is necessary to contest in the local elections for having organ-isational strength at the booth level. So, the TMC is keen to contest in the municipal elec-tions or similar local elections.

Trinamool is starting a new programme christened as “Tripura-r Janya Trinamool “(TMC for Tripura) which will start from October 21 and will be held till November 2. The newly formed steering com-mittee and members of the par-ty’s youth committee have been

divided into three groups with 10 members in each group. These groups will be hosting street corner meetings, hold-ing processions and 'sabhas' in all the districts of the state to strengthen public relations.

Banerjee is scheduled to visit Tripura physically in November while TMC chair-person Mamata Banerjee will be doing so in December.

According to sources, Abhishek in the virtual meeting said that the CPI(M) has been taking up no political activi-ties in Tripura. The Congress party has also become insignifi-cant. So voting for these parties will be an exercise in futility. So, the common people will be exhorted to vote for TMC for showing BJP the exit door.

The steering committee

announced on October 6, has Subal Bhowmik as the con-vener of the committee. The other members are Sushmita Dev, the party's Rajya Sabha MP, Prakash Chandra Das, Ashish Lal Singh, Krishnad-han Nath, Debabrata Deb Roy, Abdul Basit Khan, Tridib Dutta, Sampa Das and Kalpa Mohan Tripura. The other members are Maman Khan, Nilkanta Sinha, Sarmistha Deb Sarkar, Rabi Chowdhury, Shibani Sengupta, Idris Mia, Anjan Chakraborty, Anita Das and Malin Jamatia.

TMC also announced the names of the youth com-mittee members in Tripura. There are 11 Trinamool mem-bers in the committee with Baptu Chakraborty being the convener.

Trinamool likely to contest municipal polls in N-E state

Abhishek Banerjee

TMC is starting a new programme christened as ‘Tripura-r Janya Trinamool’ (TMC for Tripura) from October 21

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his visit-ing Danish counterpart Mette Frederiksen on Saturday held "fruitful" talks with a focus on expanding cooperation in a range of key areas such as health, agriculture, water man-agement, climate change and renewable energy.

In his media statement after the talks, Modi said both sides reviewed the progress made under the India-Den-mark Green Strategic Partner-ship and deliberated on further expansion of overall coopera-tion in multiple sectors.

The two sides also inked four agreements that will pro-vide for deepening of cooper-ation in areas of science and technology, climate change and skill development.

"A year ago today, we took the historic decision to estab-lish a Green Strategic Part-nership between India and Denmark in our virtual sum-mit. This is a sign of far-reach-ing thinking and respect for

the environment by both our countries," he said.

In her remarks, the Danish prime minister complimented Modi for his focus on green technologies and described him as an "inspiration for the rest of the world".

"I am also proud that Dan-ish solutions play a key role when it comes to your very ambitious targets and I think you are an inspiration for the

rest of the world. You have set some very ambitious targets when it comes to clean water for over one million house-holds and for renewable energy including off-shore wind," she said.

The green partnership, finalised at a virtual summit between the prime ministers of the two countries, aims to create a framework for signifi-cant expansion of cooperation

in areas of renewable energy, environment, economy, cli-mate change and science and technology.

Describing the talks as "fruitful", Modi said both sides decided to cooperate in areas like efficient supply chain, smart water resources man-agement and technologies relating to the farm sector to increase agricultural produc-tivity in India.

"Great pleasure to wel-come PM Mette Frederiksen on her first visit to India. Our Green Strategic Partnership is focused on clean technologies and green growth. Our collabo-ration across sectors is vibrant and dynamic," Modi tweeted later.

In her media statement, Frederiksen said the coopera-tion between India and Den-mark is a great example of how green growth and green transi-tion go hand-in-hand.

She said both sides decided to boost cooperation, particu-larly in the health and agricul-ture sectors.

Frederiksen arrived here early this morning on a three-day state visit.

Earlier in the day, Modi welcomed Frederiksen to India at a ceremony at the Rashtra-pati Bhavan.

The Danish prime minister also visited Rajghat and paid tribute to Mahatma Gandhi.

Ahead of the talks between the two prime ministers, Exter-nal Affairs Minister S Jaishan-kar called on Frederiksen.

PM Modi with Denmark Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen in Delhi PIC/NAVEEN SHARMA

AMITAVA BANERJEE

DARJEELING: The Kalim-pong district has received Rs. 1 crore 64 lakhs grant-in-aid incentive from the Govern-ment of West Bengal for home-stays. Kalimpong district has the highest number of regis-tered homestays in the state.

This is expected to provide a major boost to rural tourism, specially during the pandemic when the tourism industry has been hit the hardest.

“We have received this amount as part of the monitor-ing incentive plan of the tour-ism department, Government of West Bengal. This amount will be disbursed amongst 328 homestays that have qualified for the second installment. The amount received on Fri-day will be disbursed immedi-ately after the Puja holidays are over,” stated R Vimala, District

Magistrate, Kalimpong.The DM stated that 337 reg-

istered homestays of the district had received the first install-ment of Rs. 50,000 each during last financial year. For the sec-ond installment the homestays were marked on certain points including hygiene; use of local products; waste disposal; serv-ing ethnic food and even tradi-tional structure of the homestay. They had to achieve 60 per cent and above on a 90 point mark-ing system to be eligible for it. “An inspection had been con-ducted in which 328 homestays had qualified and were recom-mended,” added Vimala.

“This kind of support for rural tourism is the only one of its kind given by any state government of the country in this pandemic-affected tour-ism industry,” stated Raj Basu of Association for Conserva-tion and Action (ACT)

Bengal govt gives incentives worth over Rs 1 cr to homestays

BOOST TO RURAL TOURISM

LUCKNOW: BSP supremo Mayawati on Saturday prom-ised not to derail the ongoing work of the BJP government in Ayodhya, Varanasi, Mathura and other religious places, if voted to power. Claiming that the BJP's government's works in the three holy cities are only the follow-ups of her govern-ment's initiatives, Mayawati went on to promise, in what is being seen as a subtle shift towards soft Hindutva ahead of the Uttar Pradesh assem-bly polls, to complete all those work on time.

She made the promise while addressing the 15th death anni-versary of BSP founder Kanshi Ram here and asserting that if voted to power, she will not indulge in misappropriating the credit for work done by the preceding governments like the SP and the BJP regimes.

"The BSP, if voted to power, will not stop the developmen-tal work of the current BJP

government, which followed the footsteps of the BSP, in Ayodhya, Varanasi, Mathura and other religious places, said Mayawati.

The unfinished works will not be stopped with a feeling of vengeance but will be com-pleted," she promised.

The drama of changing names of the work done by other governments will not be done by the BSP like the Sama-jwadi Party and the Bhartiya Janata Party did, she said.

All the works of their gov-ernments will be honestly reviewed. The work which is appropriate and in the public interest will definitely be taken ahead and finished on time," she added.

Apart from the construc-tion of a massive Lord Rama temple, a multi-pronged devel-opmental work, including the construction of an inter-national airport, is going in Ayodhya. AGENCIES

No derailment of BJP’s work in Mathura, Kashi and Ayodhya: Mayawati

OUR CORRESPONDENT

SHIMLA: He stood in front of the mike, completely charged up yet emotional and in tears too. He cried and looked shattered, but when hundreds of support-ers, who were there, cheered him up and asked to fight back an insult inflicted on him by the BJP leadership, the young leader dared the decision mak-ers of the BJP to answer few of his questions.

This was Chetan Bragta, head of the BJP’s IT cell in the state and son of former cabi-net minister Narinder Bragta, whose death due to post Covid complications forced bypoll in Jubbal-Kotkhai, state’s apple belt with an economy of Rs 3000 crore. Denied a ticket by the BJP, Bragta filed his nomina-

tion as party rebel with a mas-sive show of strength –much larger than BJP’s official candi-date Neelam Saraik, a former Zila Parishad member and a known Bragta rival, apart from being a party rebel.

“Is it not an insult to me, my father’s soul? I was pulled-out of the mourning within 15 days after the demise of my father and told to go to the field, rebuild on Bragta ji’s hard work, and legacy. Had I never begged for the ticket. No, not a word. Then why this insult? He declared as a massive crowd accompanied him when he went to file the nominations.

This was exactly the time when Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur had also landed up at the same place to be present with Neelam Saraik, the official

BJP candidate, whose show was totally lack-lustre.

It was almost a foregone conclusion that Chetan Bragta would be fielded from Jub-bal-Kotkhai against two-time former MLA Rohit Thakur, grandson of former CM late Thakur Ram Lal.

But, a day after when Con-gress released its list of candi-dates, the BJP went into huddle and sent a surprise in the apple belt naming Neelam Saraik instead of Bragta, who was all set to file his papers on October 8.

He filed as an Independent instead refusing to take phone calls from the party’s top bosses dissuading him from rebellion.

“My mother told me, she will go to CM Jai Ram Thakur and seek answers for the declin-ing ticket. I requested her and

advised, we will not do this. It’s an insult and I will not take it lying down. I will keep work-ing hard to fulfil the dreams of my father to make Jubbal-Navar-Kotkhai a model of fruit economy, well developed roads and property at every home,” he lamented.

The CM said efforts were underway to calm down the tempers in the Bragta camp.

“The decision to field Neelam Saraik, a woman from the area was taken by the party.We all wanted Bragta to con-test but since Saraik has been made candidate everyone will strengthen party hands,” he hoped and claimed that the decision on candidates, also for other states –where bypolls are being held, was taken to have uniform policy.

Himachal bypoll: BJP faces revolt

6 millenniumpostWorldmpSUNDAY, 10 OCTOBER, 2021 | KOLKATA

SENIOR TALIBAN OFFICIALS & US REPRESENTATIVES ARE TO MEET IN DOHA

Taliban says they won’t work with US to contain Islamic State

ISLAMABAD: The Taliban on Saturday ruled out cooperation with the US to contain extrem-ist groups in Afghanistan, stak-ing out an uncompromising position on a key issue ahead of the first direct talks between the former foes since America withdrew from the country in August.

Senior Taliban officials and US representatives are to meet Saturday and Sunday in Doha, the capital of the Persian Gulf state of Qatar.

Officials from both sides have said issues include rein-ing in extremist groups and the evacuation of foreign citizens and Afghans from the country. The Taliban have signaled flex-ibility on evacuations.

Taliban political spokesman Suhail Shaheen told The Asso-ciated Press there would be no cooperation with Washing-ton on going after the increas-ingly active Islamic State group affiliate in Afghanistan. IS has taken responsibility for a

number of attacks, including a suicide bombing that killed 46 minority Shiite Muslims and wounded dozens as they prayed in a mosque.

We are able to tackle Daesh independently, Shaheen said, when asked whether the Tali-ban would work with the US to contain the Islamic State affili-

ate. He used an Arabic acro-nym for IS.

IS has carried out relent-less assaults on the country’s Shiite Muslims since emerging in eastern Afghanistan in 2014. IS is also seen as the greatest threat to the United States.

The weekend meetings in Doha are the first since US

forces withdrew from Afghan-istan in late August, ending a 20-year military presence, and the Taliban rose to power in the nation. The US has made it clear the talks are not a pre-amble to recognition.

The talks also come on the heels of two days of difficult discussions between Pakistani officials and US Deputy Sec-retary of State Wendy Sher-man in Islamabad. The focus of those talks was also Afghani-stan. Pakistani officials urged the US to engage with Afghan-istan’s new rulers and release billions of dollars in interna-tional funds to stave off an eco-nomic meltdown.

Pakistan also had a message for the Taliban, urging them to become more inclusive and pay attention to human rights and its minority ethnic and reli-gious groups.

Afghanistan’s Shiite clerics assailed the Taliban rulers fol-lowing Friday’s attack demand-ing greater protection at their

places of worship.The IS affiliate claimed

responsibility and identi-fied the bomber as a Uygher Muslim.

The claim said the attack targeted both Shiites and the Taliban for their purported willingness to expel Uyghers to meet demands from China. It was the deadliest attack since foreign troops left Afghanistan at the end of August.

Michael Kugelman, deputy director of the Asia Program at the US-based Wilson Center, said Friday’s attack could be a harbinger of more violence.

Most of the Uyghur mili-tants belong to the East Turke-stan Islamic Movement, which has found a safe haven in the border regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan for decades.

If the (IS) claim is true, Chi-na’s concerns about terrorism in (Afghanistan) to which the Taliban claims to be receptive will increase, he tweeted fol-lowing the attack AGENCIES

President Xi Jinping vows to reunify Taiwan with China

BEIJING: Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday made a strong pitch for the integration of Taiwan with the mainland amidst heightened tensions with the estranged self-ruled island, saying the “Taiwan question” will be resolved and “peace-ful reunification” is in the best interest of people of both sides.

The Taiwan issue brooks “no external interference”, Xi said in the backdrop of the US and Japan stepping up their back-ing to the estranged island in the face of China’s increasingly aggressive posture.

Xi’s also comments came after China sent a record num-ber of military jets into Taiwan’s air defence zone for four days in a row, in a public show of force.

Taiwan considers itself a sov-ereign state - but China views the self-ruled island as a break-away province. Beijing has not ruled out the possible use of force to achieve unification.

Speaking in the ornate Great Hall of the People in Beijing to commemorate the 110th anni-versary of the revolution that ended the country’s last impe-rial dynasty, Xi said the biggest obstacle to the reunification of China was the “Taiwan inde-

pendence” force.The Taiwan question arose

out of the weakness and chaos of the Chinese nation and it will be resolved as national rejuvena-tion becomes a reality, Xi, also the General Secretary of the rul-ing Communist Party of China (CPC), said.

“This is determined by the general trend of Chinese his-tory, but more importantly, it is the common will of all Chinese people,” Xi said.

He said after years of hard work, China’s national rejuve-nation has become a historical inevitability, with stronger insti-tutions, firmer material foun-dations and a more proactive mindset.

National reunification by peaceful means best serves the

interests of the Chinese nation as a whole, including compa-triots in Taiwan , he said even as he pledged to reunify the island of over 23 million which is resisting forceful integration with the mainland of 1.4 billion population.

The 1911 Revolution led by nationalists headed by Dr Sun Yat-sen ended 2,132 years of imperial rule and 276 years of Manchu rule and heralded the beginning of China’s republican era followed by the formation of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in 1949.

Taiwan which opted for democracy separated from the PRC in 1949 while fighting a civil war with the CPC headed by Mao Zedong.

Since he took over power in 2012, President Xi, 68, has made the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and realisation of the Chinese Dream and integration of Taiwan with mainland China as his main goals.

Last week, tensions flared up after a Chinese military plane made a record 150 flights into Taiwan’s Air Defence Identifica-tion Zone (ADIZ), prompting the US to express serious con-cern over the escalation. AGENCIES

Afghans gather outside a government passport office recently re-opened after Taliban announced they would be issuing a backlog of applications approved by the previous administration in Kabul

Chinese President Xi Jinping

Over 100 dead or missing after boat capsizes in DR Congo

KINSHASA: Over 100 peo-ple are dead or missing after nine interlocked canoes sank this week in the Democratic Republic of Congo, officials said Saturday.

It was the latest in a series of maritime accidents in the sprawling country where people often travel on overloaded and unsafe vessels on the Congo, one of Africa’s biggest rivers.

Sixty-one bodies had been recovered from the sinking dur-ing the night of Monday to Tues-day, and another 60 are believed

to be missing, Nestor Magbado, a spokesman for the governor of the northwestern province of Mongala, told AFP. He said there were 39 survivors.

With no manifest of the pas-sengers on board, the number missing is an estimate based on the capacity of the boat, he said.

The vessel was actually nine traditional wooden canoes, known as pirogues, all tied together, Magbado said.

He added that the accident may have been caused by “over-crowding aggravated by bad

weather” during the night.The victims included hawk-

ers and students travelling to the provincial capital Bumba, Magbado said. “There were all kinds of people”. The scale of the accident was not clear until it was reported by media late on Friday, and confirmed on Sat-urday by provincial authorities.

Magbado said the Mongala authorities had informed Kin-shasa of the sinking just after it occurred, but had waited for more information about the number of casualties. AGENCIES

Biden wants to address delays in Green Card processing system: White House

WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden wants to address the inordinate delays in the process-ing system of the Green Card, the White House has said, a move that will benefit many Indians working in America on the H-1B visa.

A Green Card, known offi-cially as a Permanent Resident Card, is a document issued to immigrants to the US as evi-dence that the bearer has been granted the privilege of residing permanently in the US.

Indian IT professionals, most of whom are highly skilled and come to the US mainly on the H-1B work visas, are the worst sufferers of the current immigration system which imposes a seven per cent per country quota on allotment of the coveted Green Card or per-manent legal residency.

“The president absolutely wants to address the delays in the Green Card processing sys-tem as well,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told report-

ers at her daily news conference on Friday.

She was responding to a question on the wastage of some 80,000 unused employment-based Green Card numbers, which is officially lled Legal Per-manent Residency on October 1, as the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is unable to allocate them to several million people waiting in line for a Green Card.

The inordinate delay in the Green Card process of hun-

dreds and thousands of talented Indian technology profession-als, at times running into sev-eral decades, is one of the major issues of concern among the Indian-Americans and their dependent children living here.

The H-1B visa, the most sought after among Indian IT professionals, is a non-immi-grant visa that allows US compa-nies to employ foreign workers in speciality occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise. Technology compa-

nies depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees each year from countries like India and China.

Indian technology profes-sionals had urged the Biden administration and the US Con-gress to make necessary legis-lative changes to not let those Green Card slots expire.

Earlier this week, Con-gresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks introduced the Preserving Employment Visas Act that would allow the USCIS to preserve unused employ-ment-based visas for use in Fiscal Years 2020 and 2021. The legislation is the House companion to S. 2828, intro-duced by Senator Thom Tillis in September.

“Ensuring that our immigra-tion system is fair and orderly is one of my top priorities in Con-gress. These visas are already authorised by Congress and would have been used if not for the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Miller-Meeks. AGENCIES

TEHRAN: Abolhassan Ban-isadr, Iran’s first president after the country’s 1979 Islamic Rev-olution who fled Tehran after being impeached for challeng-ing the growing power of clerics as the nation became a theoc-racy, died Saturday. He was 88.

Among a sea of black-robed Shiite clerics, Banisadr stood out for his Western-style suits and a background so French that it was in philoso-pher Jean-Paul Sartre that he confided his belief he’d be Iran’s first president some 15 years before it happened. AGENCIES

Iran’s 1st prez Banisadr dies

7millenniumpost Sports mpKOLKATA | SUNDAY, 10 OCTOBER, 2021

DUBAI: Chennai Super Kings’ old guards with an uncanny knack of owning the big stage at right moments, will start as favourites against a solid Delhi Capitals line-up led by ‘young pretender’ Rishabh Pant in what promises to be an exciting first IPL Qualifier here on Sunday.

Capitals were the best team in the league and their 20-point finish at the group stage was an indication of their consistent performances which didn’t dip due to the COVID-19 forced break.

Similarly, CSK are now back in familiar settings of play-off rounds, something that they have been done 11 out of 12 times although losing three matches on the bounce wouldn’t have amused their all-power-ful skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

DC, on the other hand, were handed a rude jolt by Kona Bharat’s last-ball six in their

last group league game against Royal Challengers Bangalore. It didn’t change their pole position but did enough to shake them from their stupor.

CSK, over the years, have been in final eight times and won on three occasions which speak volumes of the team’s abil-ity to lift their game just when it’s required most. That’s the rea-son why CSK is not one of those franchises which unleashes new

talent by dozens like other fran-chises. Ruturaj Gaikwad is an exception as he could be called a pure CSK product after more than a decade.

Dhoni has a simple cricket-ing philosophy — rely on tried and tested individuals who are battle-hardened and thus he has always punted on the likes of Ravindra jadeja, Ambati Rayudu, Suresh Raina, Dwayne Bravo and Faf du Plessis. AGENCIES

Qualifier 1: Experienced CSK hold edge over Delhi

ABU DHABI: India’s senior chairman of selectors Chetan Sharma had said that Hardik Pandya would be bowling in IPL but Indian vice-captain and MI skipper Rohit Sharma is expecting the all-rounder to start bowling from “next week” even though he won’t like to put a timeline on the subject.

Pandya played five games in the UAE leg of IPL without a lot of success save one game against Punjab Kings which he won with his batting and didn’t bowl a single over as anticipated when selection committee chairman had announced publicly about the status of Baroda’s man’s bowling fitness.

“In terms of his (Hardik)

bowling, the physios, trainers are working on his bowling. He hasn’t bowled a single ball yet. We wanted to take one match at a time and see where he stands,” Rohit said after Mumbai Indi-ans’ last IPL game.

“He is getting better day by day. In the next week or so, he might be able to bowl, who knows? Only the doctors and physios will be able to give an

update on that,” the MI skip-per added. Pandya also disap-pointed with the bat, scoring just 127 runs at an average of 14.11 and a strike rate of 113.39.

“As far as his batting is con-cerned, yes, he will be a little disappointed but he is a qual-ity player. He has come back from tough situations before as well,” Rohit was frank in his assessment.

“Personally for him, he will not be happy with his batting but the team has confidence on his ability. I personally have confidence on his ability.

“He is getting better and a player like him is probably just one game away from getting his natural way and we have seen it

in the past. If I have to put every-thing together, I am confident of his ability and there is no doubt he will be a valuable asset,” the Indian vice-captain had words of praise for his key player.

Rohit isn’t overly worried about the form of the India players in the Mumbai Indians squad as T20 World Cup will be a “different ball game” where one can get back into rhythm even during the practice games.

“I personally don’t like to count too much into what has happened in the IPL and what is going to happen in T20 World Cup,” the India vice-captain said during a post-match virtual press conference after MI’s last IPL game here. AGENCIES

GOLD COAST: India’s T20 skipper Harmanpreet Kaur stressed on the need for a wom-en’s IPL after her team failed to close out a tight game against Australia in the second match of the three-match series here on Saturday.

Even during the preced-ing ODIs, India ended on the wrong side of the result in a tight finish.

“If you look at the way Tahlia McGrath batted today, we can see the confidence they are getting from a tournament like WBBL. They are ready to play international cricket,” Kaur said in the post-match presser.

“She has not played much in international cricket but got to play many matches before playing for Australia. We do have a few young players who haven’t played much cricket at the highest level like (pacer) Renuka Singh.

“She has done really well in the domestic cricket but still doesn’t have that much expe-rience. If we had women’s IPL, the domestic players would get a lot of chances to prove them-selves under pressure.”

Renuka ended up conced-ing 13 runs in the 19th over which tilted the game deci-sively in Australia’s favour. Veteran pacer Shikha Pandey conceded 11 in the 18th over.

There are as many as eight Indian players featuring in the Women’s Big Bash this season and the leading stars also fea-ture in the Hundred in the UK.

Kaur cited the example of men’s IPL where youngsters get to play with the cream of world cricket. AGENCIES

Harmanpreet joins chorus for

women’s IPL

‘Hardik may start bowling from next week’

LIMA: Indian shooters Anish Bhanwala, Adarsh SIngh and Vijayveer Sidhu combined to win the gold medal in the men’s 25m rapid fire pistol team event as the country ended the ISSF Junior World Championship on top of the standings here.

The Indian trio shot a total of 10 to finish ahead of their German counterparts Fabian Otto, Felix Luca Hollfoth and Tobias Gsoell (2) in the gold medal contest on Friday.

India’s Manvi Soni (105) bagged the junior double trap gold medal ahead of compatriot Yeshaya Hafiz Contractor (90). The bronze was won by Hitasha (76) in an event that only fea-tured Indians.

Vinay Pratap Singh Chan-drawat claimed the gold medal men’s double trap event with a score of 120, while the silver went to Sehajpreet Singh (114) and the bronze to Mayank Sho-

keen (/111).Earlier on Friday, Ayushi

Podder and Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar won the silver in the 50m rifle 3 positions mixed team event to continue India’s dominance in the tournament.

Ayushi and Aishwary shot 17 in the gold medal match to finish second to the 31 shot by the German pair of Max Braun and Anna Janssen. The Indian

duo had topped the qualifica-tion round with a world record-equalling score of 590, with the eventual gold medallists finish-ing in second spot.

The other Indian team of Nischal and Sartaj Singh Tiwana finished eighth in the qualifica-tion round with a score of 574.

This was after the Indian pair of Rhythm Sangwan and Vijayveer Sidhu clinched the

25m rapid fire pistol mixed team gold medal. Sangwan and Sidhu defeated Thailand’s Kanyakorn Hirunphoem and Schwakon Triniphakorn 9-1 to fetch India’s 10th gold of the ongoing event.

The country also claimed the bronze medal in this event with Tejaswani and Anish tri-umphing 10-8 against another Thai team in Chawisa Paduka and Ram Khamhaeng.

In the junior women’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions, Prasiddhi Mahant, Nishcal and Ayushi Podder clinched the silver medal after going down to the American trio of Elizabeth McGhin, Lorraine Zaun, and Carolynn Tucker. The Indians were beaten 43-47.

Table-toppers India ended the tournament with 30 med-als including 13 gold, 11 silver and six bronze. USA finished second with 6 gold, 8 silver and 6 bronze. AGENCIES

India ends Junior World C’ship with 30 medals

ISTANBUL: Formula One defending champion Lewis Hamilton took pole position for the Turkish Grand Prix on Sat-urday ahead of Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas with title rival Max Verstappen in third.

But Hamilton has a 10-place grid penalty for going over his allocation of three combustion engines for the season and will start 11th on Sunday. It means Bottas will be on the front row with Verstappen and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc just behind in third, alongside AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly in fourth, after a strong final lap from Gasly.

Hamilton’s record-extending 102nd pole saw him finish .13

seconds ahead of Bottas and .33 clear of Verstappen’s Red Bull. It was a tricky session, there were still some damp patches (on

track), Hamilton said. I imagine tomorrow is going to be difficult to move up. We’ve got the long straight down the back, so we’ll

see what we can do. Hamilton will go for a record-extending 101st F1 win while Verstappen chases an 18th. Verstappen felt the car improved after some complications in Friday’s two practice sessions.

The laps were quite good. We lost a bit down the straight, we’ll have to look into that. Overall, quite a decent recovery from yesterday,” Verstappen said.

Let’s wait and see what the weather will do overnight. Let’s see how competitive we will be in the race. Obviously tire wear is quite high around this track. But the track is very fun to drive.

Bottas is still seeking his first win of the season and could get

it this time with Hamilton per-haps too far back to challenge.

“I’m on pole so should be good,” the Finnish driver said. I’ll focus on my own race tomor-row and try to keep up the good pace. As the afternoon rain started to fall, drivers tried to do quick early laps in Q1 before the track got too wet.

Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz Jr. spun off track and got back on, as did AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsu-noda, while Hamilton went wide on Turn 5.Hamilton topped Q1 ahead of Verstappen and Bot-tas, while McLaren’s Daniel Ric-ciardo winner of eight F1 races was the biggest name among the five knocked out of it. AGENCIES

F1: Hamilton takes pole for Turkish GP ahead of BottasHamilton will go for a record-extending 101st F1 win while Verstappen chases an 18th

SECOND WOMEN’S T20 INTERNATIONAL

GOLD COAST: Indian bowl-ers put up a valiant effort with very few runs to defend before rookie Tahlia McGrath won the battle of nerves at the death, guiding Australia to a four-wicket victory in the second women’s T20 International and also clinch the multi-format series 9-5.

Batting first, India put up an inept performance, scor-ing only 118 for nine, largely due to a 37 off 26 balls by Pooja Vastrakar.

Australia scored the runs in 19.1 overs, courtesy rookie McGrath (42 not out off 33 balls), who launched into Shi-kha Pandey’s 18th over, getting 14 runs which proved to be a game-changer.

Renuka Singh’s inexperi-ence also cost India dearly as the 19th over yielded 13 runs with McGrath, playing only in her second T20 International, winning it for the hosts.

“We were 20 runs short on this track,” India captain Har-manpreet Kaur said after the game.

Pandey (1/27 in 4 overs) bowled one that jagged back a long way to breach through Alyssa Healy’s (4) defence and after that it was Rajeshwari Gayakwad, who controlled the

middle-overs by getting rid of Meg Lanning (15), drawing the Southern Stars skipper out with a flighted one and let the ball grip enough to beat her.

Ashleigh Gardener (1) was guilty of belting a half-tracker from Harmanpreet straight into point fielder Gayakwad.

Deepti Sharma then got the dangerous Ellyse Perry (1) as Harmanpreet timed her jump to perfection at the cover, leav-ing Australia tottering at 46 for

four.Beth Mooney (34 off 36

balls) was cautious for the better part of her innings as McGrath started smashing the bowlers. The Indian outfielding was very poor on the day.

Once Mooney was stumped off Gayakwad and Nicola Carey was also stumped off a rebound off Richa Ghosh’s body, India looked to be making a come-back at 94 for six but Pandey and Renuka couldn’t bowl tight

lines to prevent McGrath from taking her team to victory.

Earlier, Vastrakar gave a fine exhibition of power-hit-ting as her superb 36 not out off 27 balls took India to 118 after they were reeling at 81 for nine being put into bat.

Vasktrakar, fondly called ‘Chota Hardik’ by her Test skip-per Mithali Raj, has come of age as an all-rounder on this tour. She hit three fours and two sixes at the back end to

ensure that India don’t embar-rass themselves on a track which was good for batting.

Even though the score is below-par against Southern Stars but Vastrakar’s clean hits at least gave them something to fight for.

Interestingly, India were 81 for nine after the 17th over and in the last three overs, the tour-ists scored 37 with Vastrakar making all the runs in the com-pany of Gayakwad, who could not open her account.

After an impressive show in the first game where their fear-less batting was lauded, Indian batters flattered to deceive as none save skipper Harman-preet Kaur (28 off 20 balls) showed the intent of taking the attack back to the opposi-tion camp.

Instead, there was an inex-plicable batting collapse with the hit-pairing of Smriti Man-dhana and Shafali Verma fall-ing to Tayla Vlaeminck’s (2/18) pace.

Then, spinners Sophie Mol-ineux (2/11 in 4 overs) and Ashleigh Gardner (1/12 in 4 overs) stifled the batters during the middle overs with 27 dot balls and three wickets, which broke the backbone of their batting. AGENCIES

Australia win by four wickets to seal multi-format series 9-5

Batting first, India scored only 118 for nine. Australia scored runs in 19.1 overs, courtesy rookie McGrath (42 not out off 33 balls)

Amid the ongoing farmers’ pro-test over the issues of assurance of guaranteed minimum sup-port price (MSP) in writing,

and scrapping of contentious three farm laws, the announcement of a significant increase in the MSP of pulses and oilseeds by the Union government indicates that the government is all set to promote crop diversification at a large scale to make the country free from oil-import dependency as, at present, over 60 per cent of India’s edible oil needs are met through imports.

The MSP for wheat — the main rabi crop — has increased by just Rs 40, which amounts to 2.03 per cent and is the lowest in the last 12 years, while the support price for the other rabi crops — barley, gram, lentil (masur), rapeseed and mustard, and safflower — have been increased in the range of 2.14 per cent to 8.60 per cent.

The MSP for wheat was increased by Rs 40 to Rs 2,015 per quintal, and for mus-tard seed by Rs 400 to Rs 5,050 per quin-tal, for the current crop year. The decision in this regard was taken at a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) — chaired by Prime Minister on September 8 this year.

In the given scenario when a major-ity of farmers are dependent on paddy and wheat cultivation, hoping them to switch over to oilseeds and pulses, just by increasing the MSP, may prove to be a herculean task for the government due to several factors associated with the cul-tivation of oilseeds and pulses.

The issues around non-availability of hybrid seeds in adequate amount, pro-cessing units, cost-effective technologies, favourable climatic conditions, augmen-tation of infrastructure for procurement, etc. need to be addressed to attract farm-ers for cultivating pulses and oilseeds. The total area under paddy during the kharif seasons has been 15-25 per cent more than the sum of area under pulses and oilseeds.

Experts have stated that the prices of edible oils such as palm oil, sun-

flower oil, mustard oil etc. have increased by over 100 per cent

in the last one year; the exorbi-tant rise in the prices of edible

oils has been attributed to labour shortages and crop

failures in major edible oil-producing nations

such as Indonesia,

Malaysia, Argentina and Ukraine.

The consumption of mustard oil is limited to

some parts of India only, while it is exported to some

foreign countries due to its demand among the residents of

Indian origin. The low production

might be the reason behind increase in the price of mustard oil.

Thus, the government hopes to reduce India’s dependence on foreign oil imports by boosting domestic production, and protect Indian consumers from price shocks arising due to global factors. In order to boost domestic production, the MSP for rapeseed and mustard seed has been increased by as much as eight per cent in comparison to a mere two per cent increase in the MSP for a major crop like wheat.

It is also worth mentioning that the Centre had announced the National Edi-ble Oil mission worth Rs 11,040 crore on August 18, 2021 with the aim to encour-age domestic production of palm oil, as palm oil is a major ingredient in food industry and represents a significant share of India’s overall imports.

Is India ready for crop diversification and will it be a viable option for farmers who are majorly dependent on rice and wheat farming? In response to it, agricul-ture analyst Sandip Das opined that it’s a foresighted decision of the government, which is aimed at making India atmanirb-har (self-reliant) in the production of oil-seeds and pulses. It’s the need of the hour to diversify crops, as India imports about

15 per cent of its pulses from Myanmar, Mozambique, etc,

while about 60 per cent of edible oils are imported

to meet domestic need, he said.

“It is going to be a win-win situa-

tion for farmers if they switch

to pulses cul-tivation from

wheat and rice as farmers

would get better price of their pro-

duce and health of the soil would also be

improved. Pulses help in nitrogen fixation that helps

in improving productivity,” he said, adding that paddy

growing farmers can switch to cultiva-tion of maize, soybean oilseeds, ground-nut, etc.

“The major challenge associated with the production of pulses and oilseeds is non-availability of processing plants near the regions where pulses and oilseeds are grown. The government must focus on setting up processing units in all such

identified oilseeds- and pulses-producing regions,” Das said, adding that assurance of price guarantee is another major chal-lenge, as if price crashes on the pattern of international markets, it would create a big problem for farmers.

Giving details about the develop-ments that took place prior to taking such an innovative decision, BB Singh, who is former ADG, ICAR, said that the government had prepared an outline plan for it in 2016 after a meeting with officials of Agriculture Ministry and Indian Coun-cil of Agricultural Research (ICAR). The meeting was chaired by the then Principal Secretary to PM, Nripendra Misra, over the issue of increasing the production of oilseeds and pulses in the country.

“Apprehensions were expressed by the PMO official about non-availabil-ity of technologies in the country. We assured him of having all the latest tech-nologies for carrying forward the project to increase oilseed production. Upon sat-isfaction, Misraji asked us to go ahead,” Singh said, adding that Rs 150 crore was immediately allocated for seed develop-ment, procurement of pulses was allowed and the fund was released in January 2016, leading to the start of project in March 2016.

“The higher MSP on pulses and oil-seeds would definitely help in motivating farmers to grow these crops. Since we are growing surplus wheat, rice and sugar, the time has come to change the crop cultiva-tion pattern,” he said.

In contrary to Singh and other agri-culture experts, a senior official in Agri-culture Ministry advocated for fixing minimum selling price instead of increas-ing MSP in a routine way. “If there would be a base selling price for any agricultural product, the farmers would be more ben-efitted from it,” the official said.

“It’s a known fact that institutional procurement of wheat, paddy, pulses, oil-seeds etc. is limited to a few states only. So, in states where there is no scientific procurement, farmers are forced to sell their produce at throwaway prices. If there would be fixed minimum selling price, farmers wouldn’t sell their produce below the base price, resulting into an increase of their income,” the official said, adding that the states should be given the right to fix the MSP of crops as wage rate is fixed by the states.

“Since agriculture is a state subject, so let them decide agriculture policies and MSP for their respective states,” the official said, while stressing on the need to bring

major reforms in the sector.“The prime objective behind increas-

ing the MSP of oilseeds and pulses is to curb the import of edible oils as we are importing about 13-14 million tonnes of edible oil from foreign countries,” said Rajni Kant Rai, an agriculture analyst.

“India imports about three million tonnes of pulses so the consumer price of essential food item is too high. The rise in MSP is a way to motivate farmers to shift from paddy and wheat cultivation to pulses and oilseeds for better remunera-tive prices,” said Rai, who is chief execu-tive, Agri Business at ITC.

“It’s not that the farmers would start growing pulses just on the basis of high MSP on these crops. They compare it with returns, which is high in wheat and paddy, as the acreage of wheat is four tonnes in one hectare of land, which is just one tonne to 1.5 tonne in oilseeds,” he said.

“The other important factor associated with these two crops is their environment-friendly characteristics as these crops are very environmentally-sustainable. These require less water and fertiliser. These crops enrich the nutrients of soil by dis-charging proteins and nitrogen in the fields,” he said.

“The major challenge is low yield and risk coverage. The government should make available high-yield seed varieties and rollout a robust risk management scheme, as loss of crops is high in pulses and oilseeds, so farmers should get bet-ter insurance cover on failure of their crops,” Rai said.

“Farmers cultivating paddy in nat-ural water logging areas can switch to corn cultivation as its demand is increas-ing due to its usage in poultry and cattle feeds. Corn cultivation is also a suitable crop for irrigated areas. The cost of corn has also increased. Earlier, it was sold at Rs 7-8/kg and now it’s been sold at Rs 20- 25/kg,” he said.

On the availability of seeds, incum-bent ADG (seeds), Dr DK Yadav said

that there is no dearth of qualitative seeds in the country, and the ICAR is ready to meet the domestic requirement of seeds of pulses and oilseeds.

“It’s not going to happen in a single year. It will go in a phased manner. At the start, only 10 per cent farmers may go for crop diversification and, after seeing their return, others would also participate. In parallel to it, the system would get devel-oped,” Yadav said.

The highest absolute increase in the MSP over the previous year has been rec-ommended for lentils (masur), rapeseeds and mustard (Rs 400 per quintal each) followed by gram (Rs 130 per quintal). In the case of safflower, there has been an increase of Rs 114 per quintal, in compar-ison to last year. The differential price is aimed at encouraging crop diversification.

Notably, the increase in wheat MSP is the lowest in the last 12 years as, in 2009-10, the MSP for wheat was hiked by only 1.85 per cent — Rs 1,100 per quintal in 2009-10 against Rs 1,080 in 2008-09.

The area under different pulses fluctu-ates from one another during the kharif season. The area under tur peaked at 5.34 million hectares in 2016-17, for urad at 4.73 million hectares and moong at 3.83 million tonnes in 2018-19.

The area under all pulses during the kharif season has contracted in recent years. It was down to 13.2 million hect-ares in 2020-21 from 13.5 million hect-ares in 2019-20 and 14.8 million hectares in 2018-19. That increased the shortfall in supply and led to a rise in prices in the wholesale and retail markets.

Tur dal acreage peaked in 2016-17 after the prices of pulses climbed to Rs 200 a kilo in October-November of 2015 and stayed high for several months while urad dal acreage got a boost when prices stayed elevated all through 2016 and early 2017.

The area under kharif oilseeds saw a rapid expansion in the last two seasons, recovering from a contraction in 2017-18 due to some measures taken under the Pradhan Mantri Annadata Aay San-rakshan Abhiyan (PM-AASHA) —an umbrella scheme with three components launched in 2018 to ensure better trans-mission of MSP to farmers. The total area under oilseeds rose to 20.8 million hect-ares in the kharif season of 2020-21 from 17.2 million hectares in 2017-18, led by an increase in the area under groundnut and soybean.

Farmers’ reluctance to diversify away from the paddy during the kharif season and wheat during the rabi season cannot be attributed to MSP alone as assured procurement plays a significant role. The procurement process for paddy and wheat is well-established due to the stocking requirements of the government.

Paddy and wheat are procured for maintaining the buffer stocks as well as for distribution at subsidised rates through the ration shops. In states such as Punjab, Haryana and Telangana, more than 80 per cent of paddy offered for sale are pro-cured by government agencies. In Punjab, as much as 90 per cent of the marketable surplus gets procured.

There are no limits on the quantity that may be procured from any individ-ual farmer. A similar practice extends to wheat procurement also, where more than 75 per cent of the marketable surplus is procured in Madhya Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab. In comparison to primary cereals, the procurement of pulses and oilseeds is abysmally low.

It can be hoped the attempts of the government to curb edible oil export turn out to be a huge success and India becomes atmanirbhar in the production of oilseeds and pulses.

Views expressed are personal

8 mp millenniumpostSUNDAY, 10 OCTOBER, 2021 | KOLKATA

AUTHOR

DHIRENDRA KUMAR

India imports about 15 per cent of its pulses from countries like Myanmar, Mozambique, etc.

AN OBSTACLE COURSE

The visible gradient in announced MSPs across various crops aims to incentivise crop diversification in favour of pulses and oilseeds, but are Indian farmers ready to make a shift from wheat and paddy?

Some

experts recommend fixing the minimum selling

price instead of increasing MSP in

a routine way

millenniumpostKOLKATA | SUNDAY, 10 OCTOBER, 2021 9mp

THE NOBEL SERIES

The Nobel Prize in Eco-nomic Sciences in 2008 was awarded to Paul Krugman who was then at

Princeton University, “for his analy-sis of trade patterns and location of economic activity”.

Krugman did his BA in eco-nomics from Yale University in 1974, and his PhD in economics within three years in 1977 from MIT where his advisor was the well-known trade economist — Rudi Dornbusch. Krugman’s thesis was titled ‘Essays on flexible exchange rates.’

He joined as faculty at Yale University in September 1977 after completing his PhD. He then joined the faculty of MIT in 1979. Krug-man also taught at Stanford, Yale, and the London School of Econom-ics, but settled down in Princeton University in 2000, from where he retired in 2015. After retirement, he joined the City University of New York.

Krugman’s book, ‘International Economics: Theory and Policy’ — co-authored with Maurice Obstfeld — is a standard undergraduate text-book on international economics. Krugman also writes on trade pol-icy and other areas of public policy in newspapers and magazines.

He is mainly known for marry-ing theories of international trade with those of economic geogra-phy. In other words, he introduced location and transport costs as important determinants of trade in addition to what traditional trade theory tells us.

In this article, we will review the main works of Krugman, and discuss how they continue to guide us in various aspects of trade and public policy.

Main worksKrugman is an international

trade specialist, but what is unique about his work is that he looked closely at the link between patterns of international trade and locations of economic activity. As we know,

international trade and economic geography have been separate areas of study. Krugman’s work not only created a link between the two, but also contributed to the convergence in the two areas.

Trade theory has evolved greatly from the time of Adam Smith who had proposed the theory of abso-lute advantage — meaning that the country which was more efficient in the production of a good, would specialise in its production and exchange it for other goods from other countries that specialised in their production. This was fol-lowed by Ricardo’s theory of com-parative advantage — which was propounded in early 19th century and held sway for more than 100 years. As we know, the theory of comparative advantage states that a country would produce the good in which it was relatively efficient. In other words, if two countries produce two goods and if one of them is more efficient in both of them, it would still specialise only in that good, in which it was rela-tively more efficient. In the 1920s, the Heckscher-Ohlin theory was proposed, which explained inter-national trade as a function of dif-ferences in factor endowments of different countries, and different factor-proportions needed for pro-ducing different commodities that account for difference in compara-tive costs. Ohlin was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1977, as we saw in these columns, for the said work. While the Heckscher-Ohlin the-ory provided explanation for most trade patterns, in the 1970s, it was noticed that a large part of trade was taking place within the same industry — intra-industry trade was growing. For example, there was growing trade in different makes of cars. This was explained by econo-mies of scale and consumers’ pref-erence for diversity, apart from the fact that countries could specialise in different makes or brands. This was the beginning of inclusion of location or economic geography as an important factor affecting trade. Krugman led this effort. His the-ory came to be known as the new trade theory.

Krugman’s first work was his paper in 1979, where he suggested that even if there was no compar-ative advantage, trade could be triggered by economies of scale (a firm can reduce its cost of produc-tion by increasing production) and imperfect competition. The paper — ‘Increasing Returns, Monopolis-tic Competition and International Trade’ — was published in the ‘Jour-

nal of International Economics’. The paper explained why intra-industry trade occurred, and also introduced the idea that economic geogra-phy was an important factor in explaining trade patterns. In an extension of this work, Krug-man included transport costs in his 1980 paper. It was however his 1991 paper which explicitly introduced economic geogra-phy into the model. Krugman’s core-periphery model distributed the population between the core (a few highly urbanized and devel-oped regions) and the periphery (the agricultural hinterland). The majority of the population in the model lives in the core. Mobility of workers between the two regions is allowed. The model is driven by the location choices of firms and indi-viduals. To quote from the Nobel website:

Krugman’s approach is based on the premise that many goods and services can be produced more cheaply in long series, a concept gen-erally known as economies of scale. Meanwhile, consumers demand a varied supply of goods. As a result, small-scale production for a local market is replaced by large-scale pro-duction for the world market, where firms with similar products compete with one another.

Traditional trade theory assumes that countries are different and explains why some countries

export agricultural products whereas others export industrial goods. The new theory clarifies why worldwide trade is in fact dominated by coun-tries which not only have similar conditions, but also trade in similar products – for instance, a country such as Sweden that both exports and imports cars. This kind of trade enables specialization and large-scale production, which result in lower prices and a greater diversity of commodities.

Economies of scale combined with reduced transport costs also help to explain why an increasingly larger share of the world population lives in cities and why similar eco-nomic activities are concentrated in the same locations. Lower trans-port costs can trigger a self-rein-forcing process whereby a growing metropolitan population gives rise

to increased large-scale

production, higher real wages and a more diversified supply of goods. This, in turn, stimulates further migration to cities. Krugman’s the-ories have shown that the outcome of these processes can well be that regions become divided into a high-technology urbanized core and a less developed “periphery”.

Empirical evidence has sup-ported Krugman’s convergence theory where the new trade theory converged with economic geog-raphy and has come to be known as the ‘new economic geography’. For example, positive relationships between market size and wages, and between market size and migration, have been found — validating the core-periphery model.

Krugman has also worked on other aspects of trade policy such as the use of tariffs as a strategy to change the terms of trade in its favour when there is imperfect com-petition and economies of scale. He also co-authored a paper — ‘Trade Policy and Market Structure’ — with Helpman in 1989, which looked at the implications of using tariffs as a strategy for regulation of industry. The paper found that tariffs actu-ally reduced domestic output, and

that import sub-sidies improved

the terms of trade.Another important contribu-

tion of Krugman has been in the area of international monetary eco-nomics in the form of analysis of the impact of exchange rate manage-ment on growth. More specifically, in a paper in 1979, he proposed a framework to analyse exchange rate management. He suggested that a country could hold a fixed exchange rate by buying and selling foreign currency only in the short run. This is because rational inves-tors anticipate a future depletion (or accretion) of the currency reserve in the long run, thereby leading to speculation and trading in the cur-rency. Krugman also proposed a ‘canonical’ model in 1991, wherein he analysed how exchange rates will behave in a specified band or zone.

Krugman was also instru-mental in reviving the discussion on liquidity trap in the context of Japan’s stagnant growth in the 1990s — also known as Japan’s lost decade. Krugman argued in his book, ‘The Return of Depression Economics’, that Japan was suffering from a Keynesian liquidity trap on account of high interest rates, and the way out was inflation targeting: The Central Bank should commit to raise the expected inflation rate so that people are forced to save less and spend more. Krugman also argued that most developed coun-tries were also caught in a liquidity trap after the 2008 meltdown.

Finally, Krugman was at the forefront of the Keynesian resur-gence in the immediate aftermath of the 2008 global financial crisis. Having observed the US govern-ment rescuing the big banks that virtually ruled the Wall Street and were the high priests of free mar-kets, Krugman concluded that a fiscal stimulus would be a key pol-icy intervention across the world for some time to come. He also launched ‘A Manifesto for Eco-nomic Sense’ with Richard Layard in 2012, wherein Keynesian poli-cies such as an expansionary fiscal policy to reduce unemployment and generate growth have been prescribed.

Krugman has authored / edited a number of books (including textbooks) and journal articles. Krugman has also been writing newspaper articles on various trade and public pol-

icies. One of his recent books is ‘The Conscience of a Liberal’ (which was a compilation of his blogs in New York Times) — published in 2007, where he laments the rising inequality of income since the 1980s and asserts that government pol-icy has been responsible for this, just as it was responsible for fall-ing inequality from 1930s to 1970s. His other work is ‘The Great Unrav-elling’, published in 2004, which was a compilation of his columns. His most recent book, published in 2021, is titled ‘Arguing with Zombies: Economics, Politics, and the Fight for a Better Future’, wherein Krug-man strongly criticises the Repub-licans for sticking to their economic policies even though there is no evidence to support those. The ‘zombies’ in the book are the beliefs held by Republicans such as: bud-get deficits are always bad and the notion that tax cuts are beneficial for growth.

ConclusionKrugman is one of the most

versatile economists of this cen-tury, having contributed in areas of trade theory, macroeconomics and finance. He has also been instru-mental through his books, blogs and newspaper / magazine columns in simplifying important economic terms so that they are understand-able to non-economists. We have seen above that his most funda-mental contribution was in marry-ing his new trade theory (in which he introduced economies of scale and preference for diversity) with economic geography (by introduc-ing location of economic activity and transport costs). Krugman was also not afraid of speaking his mind and had criticised George W Bush in his abovementioned book, ‘Arguing with Zombies’. Defending Barack Obama’s stimulus plans, Krugman also joined the issue with Robert Lucas of University of Chicago, who had called Obama’s policies ‘schlock economics’. Krug-man criticised macroeconomists for not having foreseen the 2008 crisis. He also called out Kenneth Rogoff and Reinhart of Harvard Univer-sity over their suggestion that high debt leads to low growth. Krugman is a liberal. While he has written in favour of free trade, he has also emphasized the problems of rising inequality and poverty.

The writer is an IAS officer, working as Principal Resident

Commissioner, Government of West Bengal.


Krugman suggested

that even if there was no comparative

advantage, trade could be triggered by economies

of scale

Taking cue from the growing intra-industry trade, Paul Robin Krugman incorporated economies of scale and consumers’ preference for diverse goods to formulate his new trade theory — further interlinking it with location of economic activity

Krugman’s ‘new economic geography’

AUTHOR

KRISHNA GUPTA

Krugman’s work has been instrumental in reviving the discussion around liquidity trap in the context of ‘Japan’s lost decade’

Paul Robin Krugman

Krugman’s work not only created a link between international trade and economic geography, but also contributed to the convergence of the two areas

millenniumpostSUNDAY, 10 OCTOBER, 2021 | KOLKATA10 mp

MINDOLOGYBy Dr Era Dutta

Dr Dutta is a Consultant NeuroPsychiatrist & Life Wellness coach (MD Psychiatry, DNB, MBBS) and expertises in depression, anxiety, OCD and stress

Wellness

World Mental Health Day is celebrated internationally each year on Octo-

ber 10 to talk about mental health education and awareness, and to advocate against social stigma. The announced theme for World Mental Health Day 2021 is ‘Mental Health in an Unequal World’.

We truly live in an unequal world, and the COVID-19 pan-demic has made this disparity even more apparent. With the wealthy becoming wealthier, and the poor becoming poorer, there is a huge number of people living under poverty all around the world. The inequality is also due to race and ethnicity, sexual orientation and gender identity, and the lack of basic respect for human rights in many countries — especially for the individuals living with mental health conditions. Such inequali-ties have a grave impact on people’s mental health.

Mental health help and ser-vices are basic rights of an indi-vidual, and yet, between 75-95 per cent of people with mental disor-ders in low- and middle-income countries are unable to access men-tal health services. Even the high-income countries have the lacunae they need to fulfill. India has 0.75

psychiatrists per 1,00,000 popula-tion, while the desirable number is anything above three psychia-trists per 1,00,000 population. Our country’s requirement for other mental health professionals like psychologists (clinical psycholo-gists, counseling and rehabilitation psychologists, psychiatric social workers, etc.) is at nearly 20,250 but, presently, we have only 898 psychologists against the 1,00,000 population.

Sadly, the expenditure allo-cated by countries towards mental health in the overall health budget is grossly disproportionate world-wide. India’s annual expenditure on healthcare is 1.15 per cent of the GDP of which, less than 1 per cent

is spent on mental health.Many individuals with mental

illness do not receive the treatment they deserve due to stigma and dis-crimination. The gap between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’ grows ever wider, and there is continuing unmet need in the care of people with a mental health problem.

Is mental health even important to invest in and focus on?

Mental health includes our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It affects how we think, feel, and act. It also helps determine how we handle stress, relate to others, and make healthy choices for ourselves.

It is necessary for our func-

tioning, achievements, and bal-anced wellness to live to our fullest potential. Not focusing on mental

health leads to a massive loss in productivity in life. A recent WHO-led study estimates that depres-sion and anxiety disorders cost the global economy USD 1 trillion each year due to lost productivity.

What is the importance of celebrat-ing WMH day?

Mental health is one of the most neglected areas of public health. About one billion people are liv-ing with mental disorders; three million people die every year from the harmful use of alcohol, and one person dies every 40 seconds by suicide. Social stigma, discrimina-tion, and human rights abuses of people with mental health condi-tions further precipitate the situ-

ation of mental health disorders.

How can you celebrate this day and spread awareness?

We can all do our bit by being a part of this bigger movement.

As an individual: Take care of your mental health with a mental health routine.

At home: Support your loved ones who may be struggling. Enable a communicative and supportive environment.

In the community: Do not spread myths about mental health. Create awareness on reducing stigma.

In schools: Educate young minds to understand their thoughts, feelings, emotions, and behaviors better from the beginning.

At workplaces: Support employees from all walks of life by creating an environment of inclusivity.

How can we bridge the gap between the classes and masses when it comes to mental health access?

Telepsychiatry: It has helped open the avenues of providing help even in distant rural places, espe-cially during the pandemic, when the movement was restricted.Infrastructure: Currently, there is a

paucity of specialists and hospitals. In a government hospital, the few-est beds with the poorest amenities are reserved for psychiatry patients. We need more mental health set-ups, more specialists, and aware-ness to drive home the fact that mental health is important for all.Insurance for the mentally ill: The cumulative cost of seeking help over the years can be huge.More rehabilitation facilities: Those recuperating from mental health conditions often need an in-between safe haven to recuperate and rebuild before integrating into mainstream society.Reserving jobs: Mentally ill people are discriminated against in jobs. They can, with the right treatment and approach, perform at par with others.

Bring psychiatrists to the fore-front to help make mental health a mandate in healthcare.

LGBTQIA members need spe-cially trained mental health practi-tioners to understand their issues and concerns.

We can all do our bit by tak-ing out five minutes for our men-tal health each day and inculcating practices involving balanced nutri-tion, rest, exercise, and meditation.

Send your questions to [email protected]

A disorder across the divideThe glaring neglect around mental health — further propelled by inequalities abounding today’s world — has been impacting treatment opportunities and well-being of affected individuals

A recent WHO-led study estimates that depression and anxiety disorders cost the global economy USD 1 trillion each year due to lost productivity

World Mental Health Day

Verses of despair and hope

PROVAKAR PALAKA

These are the times of sudden deaths and harrowing dis-tress experienced by almost everyone in the society in

the backdrop of the pandemic. How humankind will come to terms with this situation and be resilient, is a big question.

Bishnupada Sethi, a well-known civil servant and poet, writes both in English and Odia language. He has a number of poetry collections to his credit: ‘Where Shall I go?’, ‘My World of Words’ and ‘Beyond Feelings’. He was instrumental to popularizing Mahima philosophy in Odisha by extensively writing on it and by preserving Bhima Bhoi’s birthplace, Khaliapali, in Sam-balpur district of Odisha. In Odisha, poetry writing by civil servants is not something uncommon but rather a convention. Poets like Ramakanta Ratha, Sitakanta Mahapatra, JP Das, to name a few, were civil servants like Bishnupada Sethi. But what makes Bishnupada Sethi distinguished from all others is his portrayal of real life. In this context, Raj Kumar, a well-known critic, in a book discussion on the author, said: “Their poetry is abstract, mythical, unreal, patroniz-ing. On the other hand, Bishnupada Sethi’s poetry is real, contemporary and down to earth.” In the context of

introducing Beyond Here and Other Poems, the poet writes in the backside of the cover page: “There are individ-uals inside the book who are in dia-logue with me.”

Covid-19 pandemic has been a phenomenon of such great magnitude in recent history, which has emotion-ally broken people across the globe. Pandemic and its devastating effects have already started surfacing in the pages of literature. Bishnupada Sethi’s Beyond Here and Other Poems is an example of that. The poet has so skil-fully captured various shades of life adversely affected by Covid-19 in this collection of poetry.

In one of his poems, ‘As I draw a deep breath’, the poet sees a gloom that has descended with the spread of Covid-19 and the subsequent lock-down. The poet can smell the ‘stench of death’ in every breath that he takes. This ‘unnerves’ the poet and he is ‘gripped by fear’. What makes him even more fearful is to find no one to mourn over the dead. The poet recollects ‘the tradi-tion of lament singing’ in society,

where even the death of a calf was lamented. But the pandemic has been so devas-tating that there does not seem to be anyone left to lament over the dead. In the lines, “There is no one to do a favour — By lamenting singing”, the poet persona seems to be disturbed to see such a deplorable condition of society.

In ‘Beyond the Lockdown’, the poet tries to capture the unbearable pains of migrant labourers. The poem cap-tures the plight of migrant labourers in various cities, who were compelled

to travel back to their vil-lages barefoot under the scorching heat. Displace-ment and migration are

not happening for the first time. Natural calamities like cyclones, drought etc. have

compelled people to move from place to place in search of ‘work, food and rest’. The use of words ‘hurt and benumb’ reveals how the

poor people have always been the victims of these natural calami-ties. However, the ending of the poem is very

powerful. It sees hope and strength

against helplessness. The poet’s persona seeks

for strength and courage to overcome the arduous journey and reach to a place where he can sustain the life of his family. His desire to see ‘his dear ones smile and grow’ fills him with determination and strength to fight.

‘Cheering up the Brave hearts’ is a poem paying tribute to the brave med-icos and paramedics who lost their lives while battling heads on against the spread of the pandemic. Indeed, the medical professionals were ‘brave hearts’. When people were coddled at homes, these brave hearts were treat-ing the Covid-19 patients by risk-ing their own lives. Many of them died to save the life of others. So, the poet’s persona salutes them saying:

“We stand to cheer up the brave hearts.” By seeing the medical professionals selflessly work-

ing to save lives, the poet is comforted, knowing that human civilization will

surely win this battle however for-midable it might look. The last two lines of the poem, “We shall have the conquest, with science as a weapon” speak volumes in the backdrop of India’s desperate response to the pan-demic, imagining it to disappear by beating thali, burning candles, etc. Rather, the poet is convinced that with our scientific approach to the pan-demic, human civilization will surely triumph.

The poem, ‘Where are the Chil-dren Gone’, rightly describes how pan-demic led to a situation which pushed everyone to confinements. Poet grieves over how children have dis-appeared from the streets and parks. Likewise, the elderly people are miss-ing from public places. There is a sense of abandonment and barrenness all around. The line ‘the silence is eerie’ reveals how silence caused by the pan-demic can be really frightening and terrifying. Here, ‘silence’ has caused grief, panic and deep pain all over. The only sound which could be heard was the occasional sirens of ambulances carrying the Covid patients. People were left with no option but to stay huddled in their havens, at homes.

In ‘My Chase with the Monster’, the poet uses the metaphor of a ‘mon-ster’ to refer to the ill powers of dark-ness and negativity. In a fearful time like this, the poet encourages people by saying, ‘life is a great gift’. It needs to be celebrated by doing good and being kind to each other. The poet is convinced that victory surely belongs to life; monsters of death cannot rule over people.

The spread of the pandemic, lock-down and subsequent social, mental and economic pressure caused by it, is certainly more than what a human mind can bear and comprehend. Bish-nupada Sethi has taken recourse to poetry to express mixed feel-ings: frustrations, hopeless-ness, determination, hope etc. Surely, poetry could be a kind of therapeutic agency that offers the poet a scope to express.


Price: ` 695Publisher: Har-Anand Publications

Against the grim backdrop of the ravages caused by the pandemic, the poetic genius of Bishnupada Sethi paints a picture of mixed emotions — of frustration

and hopelessness, as also of determination and hope — culminating into a comprehensive whole — Beyond Here and Other Poems

FRESH OFF THE

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Defeat Is an Orphan follows the roller-coaster ride through post-nuclear India-Pakistan, from bitter conflict in the mountains to military confrontation in the plains.

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Author: Myra Macdonald Myra MacdonaldPublisher: Penguin

Defeat Is an Orphan

In Never Give Up, adventurer and TV presenter Bear Grylls chronicles his life and career since stepping onto screen, taking readers on his most famous adventures and more.

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Never Give Up

The Vanishing explores some burning questions — can India ‘afford’ to protect wildlife? Is conservation and protecting the flora and fauna a hindrance to the growth agenda?...

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Chatty, anecdotal and deeply personal, this book chronicles Gulzar’s life and career across different eras of Indian cinema as he transcended commercial and critical arts. Author: GulzarPublisher: Penguin Hamish Hamilton

Actually ... I Met Them

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In Odisha, poetry writing by civil servants is not

something uncommon, but rather a convention

In the poem ‘Where are the Children Gone’, poet grieves over how children have disappeared from the streets and parks

‘Beyond the Lockdown’ captures the plight of migrant labourers in various cities

‘Cheering up the Brave hearts’ pays tribute to the medicos and paramedics who lost their lives while battling against the spread of the pandemic

MAPPING THE STATES OF INDIA

millenniumpostKOLKATA | SUNDAY, 10 OCTOBER, 2021 11mpGame On

The Governor of Assam — Sir Akbar Hydari — signed a nine-point agreement with Naga

leaders in Kohima in June 1947, wherein the Nagas were provided full autonomy in judicial, legisla-tive and executive matters along with guaranteed non-alienation of their lands. The ninth point read: “The Governor of Assam, as the agent of the Government of the Indian Union, will have a special responsibility for a period of ten years to ensure due observance of this agreement; at the end of the period, the Naga Council will be asked whether they require the above agreement to be extended for a further period, or a new agreement regarding the future of the Naga people would be arrived at.” While Phizo inter-preted this to mean the option of Independence after ten years, for the GoI, it meant a choice between remaining a part of Assam, or a separate status within the Union of India.

The Naga autonomous hills district within Assam were given representation in the Lok Sabha and the Assam legislature under Part XVI of the Constitution (arti-cles 330 and 332). However, the Nagas, under the leadership of Phizo, did not participate in the first general elections of 1952, and took up armed insurrection with active connivance from China and East Pakistan. Fed up with

the perpetual violence perpetrated by Phizo and his unwillingness to negotiate with the government, the moderate faction of the NNC — led by T Shakhire — decided to hold talks on the issue of auton-omy within the Indian Union. Even after he was kidnaped and killed by the extremist faction, the momentum built by him found expression in the Naga Peoples Convention held in August 1957, which authorized Imkongliba Ao to start the negotiations. After discussions with Prime Minister Nehru in September 1957, it was agreed that “the Naga Hills dis-trict (of Assam) and the Tuensang frontier division (of NEFA) would be constituted into one unit, to be administered by the Governor of

Assam on behalf of the President of India.”

Subsequently, two more con-ventions were held at Mokok-chung in 1958 and 1959, when Major Bob Khathing was the Dep-uty Commissioner, and a deci-sion was taken to press for a state of Nagaland within the Indian Union, as well as the formation of a Naga regiment within the Indian Army, besides the continuation of Inner Line permit. In July 1960,

Prime Minister Nehru overruled the recommendations of both the SRC and Home Minister GB Pant, and agreed to the establish-ment of an interim body of 42 elected members “for the regu-lation of Nagaland, and matters connected therewith until the cre-ation of Nagaland as a state under the Indian Union. Unfortunately, Imkongliba Ao was also assassi-nated, but after the initial setback, Shilu Ao, who later became the

first Chief Minister, ran the Coun-cil for the next two years.

And finally, on December 1, 1963, Nagaland, the 16th state of India with a territory of 6,300 square miles, and a population of approximately 3,70,000, was inaugurated by President S Rad-hakrishnan at a colourful cere-mony in Kohima, with Shilo Ao as the first Chief Minister.

The formation of Naga-land established the principle of supremacy of political settlement over ethnic issues. The SRC’s argu-ment of financial and administra-tive viability was no longer the only determinant. Right from its very inception, it was clear that the state would be heavily depen-dent on the Union government for funds, as well as functionar-ies. It also meant that the SRC rec-ommendations with respect to NEFA, Manipur, Tripura, Garo & Jaintia as well as Lushai hill tracts would sooner rather than later be set aside in favour of smaller states and UTs.

As mentioned earlier, much against the wishes of Manipur and Tripura, which had been Chief Commissioner’s provinces after their merger with India, the SRC wanted these two to be part of Assam. Even though Mani-pur and Tripura were quite apart geographically, ethnically, cultur-ally and linguistically, the fates of the two states had been inter-twined from 1947 — rulers of both

the states had sent CS Guha as their common representative to the Constituent Assembly. Both signed the Instrument of Acces-sion in 1947, and both merged their states to the Indian Union in 1949. Both were initially placed under Chief Commissioners, and narrowly missed integration with Assam in 1956, only to become Union Territories in 1963. Both received statehood in 1972, but this did not mark an end to ethnic insurgencies and extremist ide-ologies and clashes. Both states also shared a common cadre for the All-India services from 1972 -2014, and there have been no ter-ritorial alterations to these states post -1947.

Let us step two centuries back. Tripura accepted the protection of the British in 1809, while Mani-pur accepted the subsidiary alli-ance in 1824. Both were salute states, with Tripura’s status being a notch higher — it had a 13-gun salute as compared to 11-gun salute of Manipur. It may also be mentioned that during the Raj, the superintendence of Manipur was with the Governor of Assam, while for Tripura it was with the Governor of Bengal. The ruling family and the elite in both the states were heavily influenced by Bengali language, art, culture and religious mores, but to a substan-tial tribal population, this was a sign of cultural imposition.


AUTHOR

SANJEEV CHOPRA

Through political settlement

Against SRC’s argument of having united frontiers, demands for autonomy by moderate faction of Nagas culminated into carving out of Nagaland from Assam, also paving the way for statehood of Tripura and Manipur

On December 1, 1963, Nagaland, the 16th state of India with a territory of 6,300 square miles, and a population of approximately 3,70,000, was inaugurated

‘Failing’ to meet her own lofty standards over the past few years, India’s gilt-edged shooter — Manu Bhaker — has got past ridicule and castigation to reclaim her prestige at ISSF Junior World Championship

It’s hard being Manu Bhaker. Call her a champion trapped in the body of a teenager, or a teenager who has never

got to lead a normal life like many others of her age, this girl is under scrutiny — perpetually.

At the ISSF Junior World Championship in Lima, Peru, Manu is being Manu, shooting medals with aplomb. Her tally of five medals thus far is indeed a stupendous record in one edition of the championship, which no other Indian has achieved before. This is indeed a far cry from the images one saw of Manu at the Tokyo Olympics in July where she failed to win a medal.

Forget winning a medal, in Tokyo, Manu was haunted in many ways — she being a pale shadow of the confident self that one has witnessed in the past. The problem with Manu is none other than Manu herself.

It’s a bit like being Virat Kohli, where you are expected to ham-mer a hundred each time you go out to bat — be it a Test, ODI or even T20 international. 19-year-old Manu faces the same kind of scrutiny day in and day out.

Manu knows she herself is responsible for this situation where each time she takes aim at the target with her weapon — air pistol or sports pistol — she is supposed to hit the Bulls Eye. What happened in Tokyo was a nightmare not just for Manu but the entire Indian shooting contingent.

For shooting fans, it was like being part of a terrible dream, as if some kind of sorcery had happened and the shooters were flunking. Manu, too, competing in three events at the Olympics, failed, if that be the right word. If you tell people that even Abhi-nav Bindra and Gagan Narang needed the experience of a few Olympics before winning a medal, they will still say “Manu failed in Tokyo.”

In India, we put champi-ons on the pedestal when they do well. And when they are not doing well, they are brought down to terra firma with a thud and trampled upon.

What Manu has done in the Junior World Championship is praiseworthy. Perhaps, the best

thing she has learnt in her career is to ignore critics and focus on her own training.

At a time when the National Rifle Association of India has not yet found time to conduct a “post mortem” into what went wrong in Tokyo, Manu has picked her-self up well and come up with medals. There are still a few harsh critics who feel her score in the air pistol event was not good enough. Hello, she has at least shown to us what it means to be winning medals again.

When Manu exploded on the big stage three years ago, it was perhaps easier. Be it the Com-monwealth Games in Gold Coast in 2018 and then the ISSF World Cup after that, Manu was the girl who could do no wrong. When she was picked for three events at the Olym-pics, the verdict was out: She would not be able to handle the pressure.

So, does going to a Junior World Championship lessen the pressure? Certainly not. If anything, the pressure was very much in Lima too, as she had been supposed to be like the heavyweight champion in the ring throwing the punches.

That Manu rediscovered her winning touch is proof she has conquered the demons. Nega-tivity is something which has haunted Manu for the last three years, since the time she did not do well in the 2018 Asian Games in Palembang. It requires per-verts to celebrate the failures of Manu, and there are many in India who have riled and ridi-culed the young lass when she has failed.

Few have given it a thought what damage they are doing to her psyche. To be sure, after the lows of the Tokyo Olympics, if there were people who stood by Manu closely, it was definitely her own family. Her father, Ramk-ishan Bhaker, a Merchant Navy engineer by profession, is blamed for being intrusive and poking his nose in many issues.

Yet, as father of a young cham-pion, dad Bhaker deserves enco-

mium for ensuring he wrapped his daughter in cotton wool, took her away from New Delhi and her hometown Jhajjar, Haryana, for a holiday break.

Away from the shooting ranges, spending time in bucolic backgrounds in Kerala, and pris-tine beauty of the hills in Ooty, seemed to have had a therapeu-tic value for Manu and the fam-ily. And when she was picked to compete in the Lima champion-ship, a national coach masquer-ading as an expert was trying to convince her not to go for the championship!

It is believed this coach, who played havoc with her training

schedule in Zagreb before the Olympics, wanted Manu to stay away from shooting for a full two months! Had that been the case, Manu may have forgotten what it is to hold a pistol in her hand.

This is where the mental part comes into play. Manu did not get bogged down by negativity. She joined the camp along with another 83 shooters at the Karni Singh ranges before boarding the long flight to Peru. The results in the form of medals are there to see.

There are cynics who ques-tion if someone aiming for Olym-

pic glory needs to be shooting at junior events. Fact is, any shooting match gives the marksman the competitive edge and sets the adrena-line flowing. Lima has done wonders for Manu and she knows very well that the

next 11 months will again be very busy for her.

Had she taken the bizarre advice from a coach, she may have been twiddling her thumbs. No, Manu has hit the ground running. From here till the Hangzhou Asian Games next year in China, it will be a test-ing period for Manu. She will be competing in the ISSF World Cup Finals next month and then the National Championship in December.

In 2022, she will again be part of selection trials and more events. She has the hunger to again be part of at least four events in the Asian Games. That, of course, is subject to perfor-mance, as the junior talent pool is now so rich.

What Manu needs is not words of solace. She needs a

good coach to help her out, as after the Olympics, she has resur-rected herself on her own. Given the politics being played out by coaches in India and the NRAI not in control of proceed-ings, Manu and all other shooters need foreign coaches of calibre.

One has seen what dam-age the Indian coaches did to the Indian shooters before the Olym-pics. Manu is just 19 and there is a lifetime ahead of her. How-ever, if the shortened Olympic circle is taken into account, the sooner a good pistol coach from abroad is found the more helpful it will be. The Paris Olym-pics are less than three years away.

Perhaps, the time has come when the Sports Authority of India needs to play its proactive role and find the right coaches from overseas. Sadly, the NRAI seems to be in sleep mode at the moment after holding its election in September in Mohali.


AUTHOR

S KANNAN

What Manu needs is not words

of solace. She needs a good coach to help her out, as after the Olympics, she has resurrected herself

on her own

Setting her own benchmark

Manu Bhaker’s tally of five medals is a stupendous record in one edition of ISSF Junior World Championship

Negativity has haunted Manu for the last three years, since the time she underperformed in the 2018 Asian Games

Major Bob Khathing

Squid Game’, a ‘Hunger Games’ like survival show inspired by Korean chil-dren’s games, has captured

the interest of audience glob-ally. Within days of its release, the intense thriller has become one of the most-watched shows of stream-ing giant Netflix. It has been trend-ing at number one spot in several countries since its premiere, and memes based on the show have flooded the internet.

The show was released on 17 September. Netflix’s co-CEO Ted Sarandos said last month, “It’s only been out for nine days, and it’s a very good chance it’s going to be our biggest show ever.” A word of praise also came in from Jeff Bezos who said, “@ReedHastings and Ted Sarandos and the team at @Netflix get it right so often. Their interna-tionalization strategy isn’t easy, and they’re making it work. Impressive and inspiring. (And I can’t wait to watch the show.)”.

But it’s not just ‘Squid Games’. We, Indians, have lately been in love with everything Koreans - their

soppy soaps and gentle romances,

their thrill-ers and intense cin-

ema, their music and increasingly even their

food. The K’ way of life has mid-

dle and upper-class India in

thrall, as we love everything about South Korea’ movement led primar-ily by its small screen entertainment industry that has found the unlikeli-est loyalists here.

There is even a word for this South Korean cultural phenome-non ‘hallyu’.

In February 2020, ‘Parasite’ director Bong Joon-ho urged view-ers to overcome the “one-inch-tall barrier of subtitles” in his Oscar acceptance speech. Less than two years later, almost as if India was listening to him, the hallyu wave has swept through the country with shows such as ‘Crash Landing on You’ and ‘Vincenzo’, the music of boyband BTS and also films.

The pandemic-led OTT boom brought with it hal-lyu 2.0 when many Indian watch-

ers moved past their staple diet of American, Nordic and Indian shows to discover K-dramas, a world removed from the K’ Hindi dramas of not so long ago.

The viewing for K-dramas on Netflix in India increased more than 370 per cent in 2020 over 2019, a spokesperson for the OTT platform said.

From the cerebral lawyer look-ing for quality entertainment to the elderly partaker of TV soaps, the shows have found fans aplenty.

A glance at Netflix’s top-10 cat-egory shows the inroads Korean shows have made in India with

Lee Jung-jae and Park Hae-soo’s ‘Squid Game’ and ? Kim Seon-

ho and ? Shin Min-a-starrer romantic drama ‘Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha’ consistently featuring on the list.

Since it began work-ing with Korean filmmak-ers and talents in 2016, the streamer has intro-duced over 80 original

Korean shows and films to its mem-bers around the world and subs the K-content in 30 languages, the spokesper-son said.

‘Kingdom Season 2’, ‘It’s

Okay to Not Be Okay’ and ‘Crash

Landing...’ are among the series

to have regularly fea-

tured in the Top 10 on Netflix in India. And over 22 million house-holds tuned in for the horror TV series ‘Sweet Home’.

This is why Hyun Bin and Son Ye-jin of the super popular ‘Crash Landing on You’, a soft romance without any rough edges between a North Korean officer and a South Korean heiress, and actors Song Joong-ki, Park Bo-gum have become huge stars in India along-side others such as Song Hye-kyo and Bae Suzy.

K-drama lovers are also hooked on to Rakuten Viki, a streaming ser-vice that has over 15 million users globally, and has on its platform popular shows like ‘True Beauty’ and ‘Yumi’s Cells’.

“It’s been an exciting time for us, especially as Rakuten Viki houses the largest K-drama collec-tion across any streaming platform,” Sarah Kim, SVP of Content Busi-ness & Regional GM (Asia), said in a statement.

“We’re finding that people are hungry for Asian content, particu-

larly K-dramas, for its unique story-telling and plot twists, and because it offers a different production quality compared to American and Western content...,” she said.

Such is the love for all things South Korean that many fans have overcome the “subtitle barrier” and included Korean words such as “noona and oppa” (elder sister and brother), “namja-chingoo” (boy-friend), “yoja-chingoo” (girlfriend) and “sarang-hae” (I love you) and many other words and phrases in their daily vocabulary.

Globally, too, the language is making waves with the Oxford Eng-lish Dictionary recently adding 26 Korean words, including K-drama, hallyu and kimbap to the dictionary.

We are all riding the crest of the Korean wave,” BBC quoted OED as saying in a statement.

Closer home, the Korean Cul-tural Centre India has started three-month online Korean language classes and the 1,200 slots get full within two to three minutes of open-ing for registration, said KCCI direc-tor Hwang Il-yong.

“Creating unique stories from the normal and familiar life sto-ries can be the power of K-dramas, and this can be one of the main rea-sons why K-content is getting global popularity. Normal and ordinary people’s stories can get universal acceptance without resistance or barriers,” Hwang said.

To introduce Indians to the world of K-pop, KCCI also runs a K-pop contest pan India along with a K-pop academy.

Catering to the rising demand, the Jawaharlal Nehru University is also running a Korean language teacher training course as well as a regular subject in collaboration with the KCCI.

According to Young-Geul Choi, director of New Delhi’s Korea Tour-ism Organization (KTO), the popu-larity of K-content exploded during the pandemic but the first K-wave emerged in the Northeast in 2000 when teenagers became fascinated with the Korean lifestyle.

“India is now one of the top countries in terms of numbers for streaming and watching K-Pop or K-drama content. We often receive consumer queries on our social net-

working sites asking about how to visit K-drama filming sites or K-pop exhibition spaces or where to buy official merchandise,” he said.

With entertainment comes the culture, lifestyle and fashion influ-ence, which hallyu fans now want to adopt in their lives, Choi said.

‘The Family Man’ star Priyamani remembers how she made the tran-sition from English, Turkish and Belgian series to Korean shows.

She first chanced upon ‘The Bride of Habaek’ sometime late last year. She found the mystery and fan-tasy element “cute”, but it was the smash hit series “Descendants of the Sun”, featuring Song Joong-ki and Song Hye-kyo, that sparked her “love affair” with K-dramas.

“I am a big Song Joong-ki fan. I don’t have his posters and things like that on my wall but I just admire him. I immediately fell in love with him and the character he played. After ‘Descendants of the Sun’, I just kept watching and watching a lot of series. Touchwood, my love is still going strong.”

“What I found was these shows are very relatable. You can relate to the culture and tradition because they are also very family-oriented like us (Indians). You can connect with these stories even if it is a fan-tasy or romance. The acting is also extremely real,” the actor said.

Priyamani believes that K-drama fans already have cities like Seoul, Busan, or Daegu on their travel bucket list.

A lot of people were already watching these dramas even before the pandemic, added Divya Jaladi, a training manager in Guntur.

“The craze has been there for a long time now but the pandemic definitely gave it a push. People were bored, there was not much content on TV channels. K-dramas are a little bit different... There is a sort of guilty pleasure to them,” Jaladi, 37.

Aspirational storylines like rich man-meets-poor woman or plots set in a fantastical world also help.

“You sometimes wish for your-self that something like that happens to me. It’s very fantastic and gen-erally doesn’t happen (in real life). Also, you don’t get to see some very good-looking people on the screen that often.” PTI

12 mp millenniumpostSUNDAY, 10 OCTOBER, 2021 | KOLKATA

Celestial Connect

Yogajyotisha says, in this world, the relationship between the virtu-

ous is more important than a relationship resulting from birth.Expect : A windfall gainGood karma : Chant Anna-purna mantraEnergy colours : Silver, Yellow

Libra (Sept 24– Oct 23)

Yogajyotisha says arrogance does not suit warriors because it shows

weakness. Learn to conquer your arrogance. Learn humility. For humility leads to progress.Expect : Big expendituresGood karma : Chant Hanuman mantraEnergy colours : Saffron, Orange

Scorpio (Oct 24–Nov 22)

Yogajyotisha says, sorrow comes after happiness, and happiness after

sorrow; One does not always suffer sorrow, nor always enjoy happiness.Watch out : Earnings volatilityExpect : Courage to fight backGood karma : Chant Tara mantraEnergy colours : Yellow, Gold

Sagittarius (Nov 23–Dec 21)

Yogajyotisha says, there is love in friendship. Friend-ship is greater than

life. The one who wins the heart of a friend has won the world.Watch out : Hidden conspiratorsExpect : Success/PromotionGood karma : Chant Kali mantraEnergy colours : Black, Blue

Capricorn ( Dec 22– Jan 20)

Yogajyotisha says nobody is nobody’s friend, nobody is nobody’s well-

wisher, persons become friends or enemies only from motives of interest.Watch out : Untruthful personsExpect : Money/ Pilgrimage

Good karma : Chant Shiva mantraEnergy colours : Black, Yellow

Aquarius (Jan 21–Feb 18)

Yogajyotisha says, an ambitious per-son should over-come the following

six weaknesses—resting (over-sleeping), lethargy, fear, anger, laziness and procrastination.Watch out : Expenses

Expect : Unexpected wealthGood karma : Chant Guru mantraEnergy colours : Lemon, Gold

Pisces (Feb 19 –March 20)

Yogajyotisha says time creates all things and time destroys them all.

Time burns all creatures and time again extinguishes that fire.Watch out : Partnership issuesExpect : New opportunitiesGood karma : Chant Ganesha mantraEnergy colours : Red, Blue

Aries (Mar 21–April 20)

Yogajyotisha says revenge is not always better, but neither is forgive-

ness; learn to know them both, so that there is no problem.Watch out : Domestic discordExpect : Blast from the pastGood karma : Chant Laxmi mantraEnergy colours : Sky, Yellow

Taurus (April 21–May 21)

Yogajyotisha says, one should practise what one considers to be one’s duty,

instead of blindly following the practices of the world.Watch out : Machine breakdownExpect : Love is in the airGood karma : Chant Narasimha mantraEnergy colours : Green, Blue

Gemini (May 22– June 21)

Yogajyotisha says, good action you will get happiness. Bad actions you will get

misery. To get anything one has to act, perform.

Watch out : A broken promiseExpect : A friend in needGood karma : Chant Shiva mantra

Energy colours : Gold, Silver

Cancer (June 22–July 22)

Yogajyotisha says, youth, beauty, life, health, loved ones none of them is

permanent. A wise man will never run behind these.Watch out : poor communicationExpect : A positive newsGood karma : Chant Surya mantraEnergy colours : Pink, Golden

Leo (July 23–Aug 23)

Yogajyotisha says these three people are the golden flow-ers that blossom

on the creeper named Earth – the courageous, the learned and the person who knows to serve.Watch out : A dangerous liaisonExpect : Long term investmentsGood karma : Chant Vishnu mantraEnergy colours : Green, Gold

Virgo (Aug 24– Sept 23)

Sandip Chatterjee [email protected] week ahead

Within days of its release, the intense thriller has become one of the most-watched shows of streaming giant Netflix. It has been trending at number one spot in several countries since its premiere

K-wave sweeps India yet again with ‘Squid Game’

The K’ way of life has middle and upper-class India

in thrall, as we love everything about

South Korea

Union minister's son Ashish Mishra arrested

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