2 URj RWeVc S]Rded # ^`cV Uc`_Vd da`eeVU - Daily Pioneer

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I t is raining drones over vital security installations in the Jammu region. After a sensational drone attack on Jammu Air Force Station late on Sunday, two more drones were spotted over Ratnuchak-Kaluchak military station located on the Jammu-Pathankot National highway in the wee hours of Monday. Alert troops fired upon them. On May 14, 2002, Kaluchak military station was attacked by three Pakistani terrorists who had infiltrated via the International border. Wearing combat dresses the fidayeens (members of the suicide squad) had barged inside the Kaluchak military station after lobbing grenades at the front gate. At least 31 people, includ- ing three Army personnel, 18 Army family members and 10 civilians, were killed and 47 others were wounded in one of the bloodiest terror attacks. Repeated incidents of drone spotting and their use for weapons dropping, nar- cotics smuggling is keeping security forces on the tenter- hooks for a long time. Defence Spokesman in Jammu, Lt Col Devender Anand said, “On midnight of 27-28 June 2021, two separate drone activities were spotted over Ratnuchak-Kaluchak Military area by troops. The first drone was spotted at around 2345 hours on June 27 and the second was noticed in the vicinity at around 0240 hours on June 28, 2021”. Immediately, a high alert was sounded and Quick Reaction Teams engaged them with firing. F inance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday announced eight new schemes involving 1.5 lakh crore of addition credit facility to pro- vide a helping hand to the sec- tors worst affected by the restriction imposed under the Covid-19 lockdown across the country. Health and tourism sec- tors have drawn special atten- tion of the FM. The Government also extended benefits from the free food- grain programme for unpriv- ileged people till November. Under the news schemes, the Centre would extend a federal guarantee on bank loans to healthcare sector while waiving visa fees for 500,000 foreign tourists to perk up tourism.Together with previously announced 93,869 crore spending on providing free foodgrains to the poor till November and additional 14,775 crore fer- tiliser subsidy, the stimulus package — mostly made up of Government guarantee to banks and microfinance insti- tutions for loans they extend to Covid-hit sectors — totalled up to 6.29 lakh crore. Addressing a press confer- ence, Sitharaman said, “Economic relief measures are being announced today.” She provided 23,220 crore of additional funding for setting up children and pae- diatric care/paediatric beds at hospitals to prepare health- care infrastructure to deal with any emergency arising for Covid wave hitting chil- dren. To incentivise job cre- ation, the Government com- mitted to paying the employ- er and employee’s share to provident fund (PF) for all new recruitments done till March 2022. Previously, the Government paid 902 crore for 21.42 lakh beneficiaries of 79,577 establishments. With the tourism sector being hit hard by the pan- demic, she announced up to 10 lakh loan to tourist agen- cies and 1 lakh loan to tourist guides while waiver of visa fee for the first 5 lakh foreign tourists visiting India after travel restrictions ease. Tourist visa fee waiver will cost the Government 100 crore. D ays after blocking Union Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad’s Twitter account for almost an hour, Twitter courted a new controversy on Monday after a page on its website showed a distorted map of India. This time map on Twitter showed Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh as separate countries. This is the second time Twitter has misrepresented India’s map. Earlier it had shown Leh as part of China. However, soon after a backlash on social media, Twitter removed from its web- site the distorted map of India. Sources said the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology is looking into the issue, and the Government may take strict action against Twitter. “The Government has taken cognizance of this issue and is inquiring about when the changes were made in the map,” sources added. The dis- torted map appeared on Twitter website’s Career section under heading “Tweep Life” section. I n a finding that will have a major bearing on the much- anticipated “third wave” of Covid-19, a sero-survey con- ducted by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has revealed that more than 50 per cent of the paedi- atric population — already exposed to SARS-COV-2 — has developed antibodies. One of the key findings of sero-survey of SARS-CoV-2 infection among the children in Mumbai — conducted by BYL Nair Hospital and Kasturba Molecular Diagnostic Laboratory of the BMC — suggested that “more than 50 per cent of the pae- diatric population in a health- care setting have already been exposed to SARS-COV-2”. “The overall sero-positiv- ity is 51.18 per cent. This includes 54.36 per cent from the public sector and 47.03 per cent from the private sector. Moreover, it is found that, the proportion of paediatric pop- ulation having antibodies increased as compared to ear- lier sero-survey. Seropositivity is highest in the age group 10- 14 years i. e. 53.43 per cent,” Mumbai Municipal Commissioner IS Chahal said, giving details of the sero-sur- vey findings of paediatric pop- ulation. Anticipating that the pos- sible third wave of Covid-19 might affect children dispro- portionately, Chahal and Additional Municipal Commissioner (Western Suburbs) Suresh Kakani had directed the two medical establishments to conduct sero-survey of paediatric pop- ulation during the second wave itself. As per the direc- tions, BYL Nair Hospital and Kasturba Molecular Laboratory conducted the sero-survey between April 1 to June 15, 2021. New Delhi: Over 300 drones and unidentified flying objects have been sighted along the sensitive border with Pakistan post the 2019 abrogation of Article 370, central security agencies have said, even as they grapple to find a suitable technology to check these lethal sky-floaters. PTI S tate Health Minister Naba Kishore Das on Monday shot off a letter to Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan requesting him for urgent sup- ply of Covishield vaccine doses to the State. Das urged Vardhan to allo- cate additional 6 lakh doses of Covishield vaccine for the month of June to ensure smooth management of the State’s vaccination drive. He further requested the Union Min9ister that vaccine pre- positioning be done in advance so as to prevent any eventual- ity of stock-out and help the administration plan vaccina- tion sessions and mobilise ben- eficiaries in advance. “As per allocation for June (2nd fortnight), we have received 13,78,310 doses of Covishield, which has been distributed to all districts. As of today, we have stock of 3.38 lakh Covishield doses, which will exhaust in two days. There will be stock-out of Covishield vaccine in the State from June 29 onwards, for which it will not be possible to conduct ses- sions in the State after that,” Das mentioned in the letter. He further highlighted, “Odisha has administered 1.14 crore vaccine doses since January 16, 2021 and main- tained a negative wastage of 3% with saving of 2.9 lakh doses. The State is vaccinating three lakh citizens on an average since June 21 and it has the capacity to vaccinate 3.5 lakh beneficiaries per day.” T he death toll due to Covid- 19 infection in the State continued to remain high with 43 more patients succumbing to the virus in the last 24 hours as reported on Monday. This pushed the total death toll to 3,930. While nine deaths were reported from Khordha dis- trict, including five in Bhubaneswar, five each were from Bargarh, Nayagarh and Puri, four from Sundargarh, three each from Bhadrak, Cuttack and Ganjam, two from Dhenkanal and one each from Baleswar, Keonjhar, Mayurbhanj and Sambalpur. Meanwhile, the State reg- istered 3,319 new positive cases in the last 24 hours in 30 dis- tricts and the State pool, which surging the total caseload to 9,03,789. In the last 24 hours, a total of 66,109 samples had been tested and the test posi- tivity rate stood at 5.02 per cent. Of the new positive cases, 1,896 were from quarantine and 1,423 were local contacts. Cuttack district reported the day’s highest 566 cases fol- lowed by Khordha with 440, Baleswar 397, Mayurbhanj 199, Jajpur 194, Puri 175, Bargarh 163, Kendrapada 134, Jagatsinghpur 130, Angul 116 and Nayagarh 111. As many as 19 districts reported cases below 100. Those were Malkangiri 71, Dhenkanal 69, Keonjhar 65, Koraput 59, Bargarh 47, Rayagada 43, Nabarangpur 39, Sundargarh 36, Kalahandi 31, Sambalpur 29, Kandhamal 23, Ganjam 18, Subarnapur 17, Boudh 16, Gajapati 12, Jharsuguda 11, Balangir 10, Deogarh and Nuapada four each.Besides, 82 cases were reported from State pool. However, another 3,385 patients recovered on day, increasing total recoveries to 8,70,787. T he BJP State executive on Monday prepared a long list of failures of the Naveen Patnaik Government to prepare party workers for the upcom- ing panchayat and municipal elections. Chairing an executive committee meeting on virtual platform, State president Samir Mohanty said the party would take the fight to give justice to people to the next level. Mohanty alleged that the BJD Government has utterly failed to manage the Covid pandemic because of its ineffi- ciency despite continuous sup- port and unlimited flow of funds from the Centre. The failure on the part of the State Government has cre- ated a mess in responding the second wave of Covid.He fur- ther alleged that the State Government has become a stumbling block to take the Modi Government’s good schemes directly to people. The State has failed in all fronts like procuring farmer’s paddy. The health infrastructure is in a shambles. Crime and atroci- ties against women and chil- dren are increasing. Addressing party workers, party State Observer D Purendeswari called upon them to take the messages of the Modi Government’s welfare schemes and benefits to all villages. Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan asked party workers to stress on upcoming local bodies’ elec- tions and strengthen the party organisation besides high- lighting people’s issues in social media.Party vice-president Bhrugu Buxipatra accused the State Government of not pay- ing heed to the Central Government’s direction on Covid management. The exec- utive adopted resolutions on the alleged corruption in Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, the State Government’s failure in addressing migrant crisis, inefficiency in dealing border issues with the neighbouring States, failure in dealing with Mahanadi and Vansadhara water dispute, power tariff, etc. T o create new employment opportunities and boost economic activities in rural area, the State Government on Monday decided to set up District Industry and Investment Promotion Agencies (DIPAs). The decision was taken in a high-level meeting held on digital mode under the chair- manship of Chief Secretary Suresh Chandra Mahapatra in which Industries Principal Secretary Hemant Kumar Sharma outlined the proposal for extending IPICOL’s activi- ties to district level. Mahapatra directed, “These agencies should be dedicated towards facilitation and handholding of micro, small and medium enterprises. They should oper- ate as single-point-contact for all entrepreneurs and investors. It should facilitate them right from the time of project for- mulation and capacity building to financing, starting of pro- duction and market linkages. It would also facilitate them for availing different assistances from Government as per pre- vailing provisions.” The Chief Secretary direct- ed the Collectors to take proac- tive roles in promotion of micro, small and medium enterprises in their districts. Mahapatra added, “MSMEs are movers of economic growth and their promotion in the dis- tricts will result in equitable growth.” The Collectors were asked to provide decent office spaces in Collectorates for set- ting up the units. It was decided that each of the DIPAs would be managed by three professionals under direct supervision of Collector. The DIPAs would be set up in districts in a phased manner with feedback and learning about functioning and out- come of agencies from each preceding phase. It was target- ed to pilot intervention in three districts, Ganjam, Sundargarh and Jagatsinghpur. T he Board of Secondary Education (BSE), Odisha, which last week announced the matriculation results of this year, made it clear on Monday that there would be no reeval- uation of the results. The students, who are not satisfied with their results can appear in the offline examina- tion to be conducted after the pandemic situation improves, reiterated BSE President Ramashis Hazra reacting to the protests staged by students in several parts of the State on Monday. Adopting a mathematical system, the BSE declared near- ly 98% eligible students as matriculates on the basis of overall performances of the stu- dents in their Class-IX exams and Class-X practice tests. The alternative evaluation method of the students also included the performances of their schools in the previous four matriculation examina- tions. Notably, the State Government had earlier can- celled this year’s matriculation examination due to the Covid- 19 pandemic. Alleging discrepancies in their marks, students, particu- larly of schools run by the RSS- affiliated Sikhya Vikash Samiti, staged protests in different parts of the State, including in front of the BSE office here. They alleged that the BSE had grudgingly deducted the marks submitted by all Saraswati Sisu Mandirs. Admitting that some schools had submitted mark lists of their students awarding exorbitant marks, the BSE President said these anomalies were rectified after a thorough analysis of the results of these schools of last four years. “There is no question of any reevaluation of the published results. The dissatisfied students are advised to fill up the forms for physical examination. The Board will issue a notification for the offline examination on July 5,” Hazra said. B hubaneswar on Monday registered 281 new Covid- 19 positive cases, with which the total tally in the city rose to 89,466. This was a decrease from the 323 infections report- ed on Sunday. Out of the new cases, 215 were local contacts and 66 were quarantine cases. The local contacts included 22 cases in Patia, 10 in Unit-9, nine in Old Town, eight each in Patrapada and Sundarpada and six each in Niladri Vihar, VSS Nagar and Sailashree Vihar. Currently, the active cases stood at 1,317 in the city. Meanwhile, five more patients succumbed to the disease in the city in the last 24 hours, with which the total death toll increased to 440. However, 374 more persons recovered, increasing the total recoveries to 87,688.

Transcript of 2 URj RWeVc S]Rded # ^`cV Uc`_Vd da`eeVU - Daily Pioneer

Page 1: 2 URj RWeVc S]Rded # ^`cV Uc`_Vd da`eeVU - Daily Pioneer

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It is raining drones overvital security installations in

the Jammu region.After a sensational drone

attack on Jammu Air ForceStation late on Sunday, twomore drones were spottedover Ratnuchak-Kaluchakmilitary station located on theJammu-Pathankot Nationalhighway in the wee hours ofMonday. Alert troops firedupon them.

On May 14, 2002,Kaluchak military station wasattacked by three Pakistaniterrorists who had infiltratedvia the International border.Wearing combat dresses thefidayeens (members of thesuicide squad) had bargedinside the Kaluchak militarystation after lobbing grenades

at the front gate.At least 31 people, includ-

ing three Army personnel, 18Army family members and 10civilians, were killed and 47others were wounded in one

of the bloodiest terror attacks.Repeated incidents of

drone spotting and their usefor weapons dropping, nar-cotics smuggling is keepingsecurity forces on the tenter-hooks for a long time.

Defence Spokesman inJammu, Lt Col DevenderAnand said, “On midnight of27-28 June 2021, two separatedrone activities were spottedover Ratnuchak-KaluchakMilitary area by troops. Thefirst drone was spotted ataround 2345 hours on June 27and the second was noticed inthe vicinity at around 0240hours on June 28, 2021”.

Immediately, a high alertwas sounded and QuickReaction Teams engagedthem with firing.

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Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman on Monday

announced eight new schemesinvolving �1.5 lakh crore ofaddition credit facility to pro-vide a helping hand to the sec-tors worst affected by therestriction imposed under theCovid-19 lockdown acrossthe country.

Health and tourism sec-tors have drawn special atten-tion of the FM. TheGovernment also extendedbenefits from the free food-grain programme for unpriv-ileged people till November.

Under the news schemes,the Centre would extend afederal guarantee on bankloans to healthcare sectorwhile waiving visa fees for500,000 foreign tourists to

perk up tourism.Togetherwith previously announced�93,869 crore spending onproviding free foodgrains tothe poor till November andadditional �14,775 crore fer-tiliser subsidy, the stimuluspackage — mostly made up ofGovernment guarantee tobanks and microfinance insti-tutions for loans they extendto Covid-hit sectors —totalled up to �6.29 lakh crore.

Addressing a press confer-ence, Sitharaman said,“Economic relief measuresare being announced today.”

She provided �23,220crore of additional funding forsetting up children and pae-diatric care/paediatric bedsat hospitals to prepare health-care infrastructure to dealwith any emergency arisingfor Covid wave hitting chil-dren.

To incentivise job cre-ation, the Government com-mitted to paying the employ-er and employee’s share toprovident fund (PF) for allnew recruitments done tillMarch 2022. Previously, theGovernment paid �902 crorefor 21.42 lakh beneficiaries of79,577 establishments.

With the tourism sectorbeing hit hard by the pan-demic, she announced up to�10 lakh loan to tourist agen-cies and �1 lakh loan to touristguides while waiver of visa feefor the first 5 lakh foreigntourists visiting India aftertravel restrictions ease. Touristvisa fee waiver will cost theGovernment �100 crore.

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Days after blocking UnionInformation Technology

Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad’sTwitter account for almost anhour, Twitter courted a newcontroversy on Monday after apage on its website showed adistorted map of India. Thistime map on Twitter showedJammu & Kashmir and Ladakhas separate countries. This isthe second time Twitter hasmisrepresented India’s map.Earlier it had shown Leh as partof China.

However, soon after abacklash on social media,Twitter removed from its web-site the distorted map of India.

Sources said the Ministryof Electronics and InformationTechnology is looking into theissue, and the Governmentmay take strict action againstTwitter. “The Government hastaken cognizance of this issueand is inquiring about whenthe changes were made in themap,” sources added. The dis-torted map appeared on Twitterwebsite’s Career section underheading “Tweep Life” section.

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In a finding that will have amajor bearing on the much-

anticipated “third wave” ofCovid-19, a sero-survey con-ducted by the BrihanmumbaiMunicipal Corporation(BMC) has revealed that morethan 50 per cent of the paedi-atric population — alreadyexposed to SARS-COV-2 —has developed antibodies.

One of the key findings ofsero-survey of SARS-CoV-2infection among the childrenin Mumbai — conducted byBYL Nair Hospital andKasturba MolecularDiagnostic Laboratory of theBMC — suggested that “morethan 50 per cent of the pae-diatric population in a health-care setting have already beenexposed to SARS-COV-2”.

“The overall sero-positiv-ity is 51.18 per cent. Thisincludes 54.36 per cent from

the public sector and 47.03 percent from the private sector.Moreover, it is found that, theproportion of paediatric pop-ulation having antibodiesincreased as compared to ear-lier sero-survey. Seropositivityis highest in the age group 10-14 years i. e. 53.43 per cent,”Mumbai MunicipalCommissioner IS Chahal said,giving details of the sero-sur-vey findings of paediatric pop-ulation.

Anticipating that the pos-sible third wave of Covid-19might affect children dispro-portionately, Chahal andAdditional MunicipalCommissioner (WesternSuburbs) Suresh Kakani had

directed the two medicalestablishments to conductsero-survey of paediatric pop-ulation during the secondwave itself. As per the direc-tions, BYL Nair Hospital andKasturba MolecularLaboratory conducted thesero-survey between April 1 toJune 15, 2021.

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New Delhi: Over 300 dronesand unidentified flying objectshave been sighted along thesensitive border with Pakistanpost the 2019 abrogation of

Article 370, central securityagencies have said, even asthey grapple to find a suitabletechnology to check these lethalsky-floaters. PTI

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State Health Minister NabaKishore Das on Monday

shot off a letter to Union HealthMinister Dr Harsh Vardhanrequesting him for urgent sup-ply of Covishield vaccine dosesto the State.

Das urged Vardhan to allo-cate additional 6 lakh doses ofCovishield vaccine for themonth of June to ensuresmooth management of theState’s vaccination drive. Hefurther requested the UnionMin9ister that vaccine pre-positioning be done in advanceso as to prevent any eventual-ity of stock-out and help theadministration plan vaccina-tion sessions and mobilise ben-eficiaries in advance.

“As per allocation for June(2nd fortnight), we havereceived 13,78,310 doses ofCovishield, which has beendistributed to all districts. As oftoday, we have stock of 3.38

lakh Covishield doses, whichwill exhaust in two days. Therewill be stock-out of Covishieldvaccine in the State from June29 onwards, for which it willnot be possible to conduct ses-sions in the State after that,” Dasmentioned in the letter.

He further highlighted,“Odisha has administered 1.14crore vaccine doses sinceJanuary 16, 2021 and main-tained a negative wastage of 3%with saving of 2.9 lakh doses.The State is vaccinating threelakh citizens on an averagesince June 21 and it has thecapacity to vaccinate 3.5 lakhbeneficiaries per day.”

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The death toll due to Covid-19 infection in the State

continued to remain high with43 more patients succumbingto the virus in the last 24hours as reported on Monday.This pushed the total death tollto 3,930.

While nine deaths werereported from Khordha dis-trict, including five inBhubaneswar, five each werefrom Bargarh, Nayagarh andPuri, four from Sundargarh,three each from Bhadrak,Cuttack and Ganjam, two fromDhenkanal and one each fromBaleswar, Keonjhar,Mayurbhanj and Sambalpur.

Meanwhile, the State reg-istered 3,319 new positive casesin the last 24 hours in 30 dis-tricts and the State pool, which

surging the total caseload to9,03,789. In the last 24 hours,a total of 66,109 samples hadbeen tested and the test posi-tivity rate stood at 5.02 per cent.Of the new positive cases,1,896 were from quarantineand 1,423 were local contacts.

Cuttack district reportedthe day’s highest 566 cases fol-lowed by Khordha with 440,Baleswar 397, Mayurbhanj 199,Jajpur 194, Puri 175, Bargarh163, Kendrapada 134,Jagatsinghpur 130, Angul 116and Nayagarh 111.

As many as 19 districtsreported cases below 100.Those were Malkangiri 71,Dhenkanal 69, Keonjhar 65,Koraput 59, Bargarh 47,Rayagada 43, Nabarangpur 39,Sundargarh 36, Kalahandi 31,Sambalpur 29, Kandhamal 23,Ganjam 18, Subarnapur 17,Boudh 16, Gajapati 12,Jharsuguda 11, Balangir 10,Deogarh and Nuapada foureach.Besides, 82 cases werereported from State pool.However, another 3,385patients recovered on day,increasing total recoveries to8,70,787.

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The BJP State executive onMonday prepared a long

list of failures of the NaveenPatnaik Government to prepareparty workers for the upcom-ing panchayat and municipalelections.

Chairing an executivecommittee meeting on virtualplatform, State president SamirMohanty said the party wouldtake the fight to give justice topeople to the next level.

Mohanty alleged that theBJD Government has utterlyfailed to manage the Covidpandemic because of its ineffi-ciency despite continuous sup-port and unlimited flow offunds from the Centre.

The failure on the part ofthe State Government has cre-ated a mess in responding thesecond wave of Covid.He fur-ther alleged that the StateGovernment has become astumbling block to take theModi Government’s goodschemes directly to people.The State has failed in all fronts

like procuring farmer’s paddy.The health infrastructure is ina shambles. Crime and atroci-ties against women and chil-dren are increasing. Addressingparty workers, party StateObserver D Purendeswaricalled upon them to take themessages of the ModiGovernment’s welfare schemesand benefits to all villages.

Union MinisterDharmendra Pradhan askedparty workers to stress onupcoming local bodies’ elec-tions and strengthen the partyorganisation besides high-

lighting people’s issues in socialmedia.Party vice-presidentBhrugu Buxipatra accused theState Government of not pay-ing heed to the CentralGovernment’s direction onCovid management. The exec-utive adopted resolutions onthe alleged corruption inPradhan Mantri Awas Yojana,the State Government’s failurein addressing migrant crisis,inefficiency in dealing borderissues with the neighbouringStates, failure in dealing withMahanadi and Vansadharawater dispute, power tariff, etc.

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To create new employmentopportunities and boost

economic activities in ruralarea, the State Government onMonday decided to set upDistrict Industry andInvestment PromotionAgencies (DIPAs).

The decision was taken ina high-level meeting held ondigital mode under the chair-manship of Chief SecretarySuresh Chandra Mahapatra inwhich Industries PrincipalSecretary Hemant KumarSharma outlined the proposalfor extending IPICOL’s activi-ties to district level. Mahapatradirected, “These agenciesshould be dedicated towardsfacilitation and handholding ofmicro, small and mediumenterprises. They should oper-ate as single-point-contact forall entrepreneurs and investors.It should facilitate them right

from the time of project for-mulation and capacity buildingto financing, starting of pro-duction and market linkages. Itwould also facilitate them foravailing different assistancesfrom Government as per pre-vailing provisions.”

The Chief Secretary direct-ed the Collectors to take proac-tive roles in promotion ofmicro, small and mediumenterprises in their districts.Mahapatra added, “MSMEsare movers of economic growthand their promotion in the dis-tricts will result in equitablegrowth.” The Collectors wereasked to provide decent officespaces in Collectorates for set-ting up the units.

It was decided that each ofthe DIPAs would be managedby three professionals underdirect supervision of Collector.The DIPAs would be set up indistricts in a phased mannerwith feedback and learningabout functioning and out-come of agencies from eachpreceding phase. It was target-ed to pilot intervention inthree districts, Ganjam,Sundargarh and Jagatsinghpur.

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The Board of SecondaryEducation (BSE), Odisha,

which last week announced thematriculation results of thisyear, made it clear on Mondaythat there would be no reeval-uation of the results.

The students, who are notsatisfied with their results canappear in the offline examina-tion to be conducted after thepandemic situation improves,reiterated BSE PresidentRamashis Hazra reacting to theprotests staged by students inseveral parts of the State onMonday.

Adopting a mathematicalsystem, the BSE declared near-ly 98% eligible students asmatriculates on the basis ofoverall performances of the stu-dents in their Class-IX examsand Class-X practice tests.

The alternative evaluationmethod of the students alsoincluded the performances oftheir schools in the previousfour matriculation examina-tions. Notably, the State

Government had earlier can-celled this year’s matriculationexamination due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Alleging discrepancies intheir marks, students, particu-larly of schools run by the RSS-affiliated Sikhya Vikash Samiti,staged protests in differentparts of the State, including infront of the BSE office here.They alleged that the BSE hadgrudgingly deducted the markssubmitted by all Saraswati SisuMandirs.

Admitting that someschools had submitted marklists of their students awardingexorbitant marks, the BSEPresident said these anomalieswere rectified after a thoroughanalysis of the results of theseschools of last four years.“There is no question of anyreevaluation of the publishedresults.

The dissatisfied studentsare advised to fill up the formsfor physical examination. TheBoard will issue a notificationfor the offline examination onJuly 5,” Hazra said.

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Bhubaneswar on Mondayregistered 281 new Covid-

19 positive cases, with whichthe total tally in the city rose to89,466. This was a decreasefrom the 323 infections report-ed on Sunday.

Out of the new cases, 215were local contacts and 66were quarantine cases. Thelocal contacts included 22 casesin Patia, 10 in Unit-9, nine inOld Town, eight each inPatrapada and Sundarpada andsix each in Niladri Vihar, VSSNagar and Sailashree Vihar.

Currently, the active casesstood at 1,317 in the city.Meanwhile, five more patientssuccumbed to the disease in thecity in the last 24 hours, withwhich the total death tollincreased to 440. However,374 more persons recovered,increasing the total recoveriesto 87,688.

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Dr Amar Patnaik is a mem-ber of the Rajya Sabha. He

was in a way instrumental inbringing a decisive victory forthe BJD in 2019 using animproved data-driven electionstrategy and an evidence-basedreview that brought him instantrecognition from party supre-mo Naveen Patnaik.

A keen observer of theheat and dust of politics, aUtilitarian and a Benthamite, aseasoned bureaucrat, a formerPrincipal Accountant Generalof many States, Dr Patnaik isnow viewed as a think tank ofthe BJD politics.

He strode like a mightycolossus in many higherresearch domains like institu-tional perspectives in develop-mental interventions and pub-lic policy, transparency andaccountability, public financereforms, urban sector gover-nance, energy security, envi-ronment and sustainabilityissues and the like.

A scholar extraordinary,he has added feathers unto hiscap after having earned covet-ed degrees like advanced man-agement development pro-gramme from the WhartonSchool of the University ofPennsylvania, a master's degreein Public Management fromthe Lee Kuan Yew School ofPublic Policy, Singapore andthe John F Kennedy School ofGovernment at HarvardUniversity.

Currently, he is a Memberof various ParliamentaryStanding Committees, includ-ing the one to study the alarm-ing issue of pornography onsocial media. In an interview toThe Pioneer, he spokes toSugyan Choudhury on the pre-vailing economic and politicalscenario of the country and theState during the Covid-19 pan-demic.

Some economists opinethat India should go ahead inprinting currency notes toprotect its economy. What’syour considered opinion?

Many people felt that thestimulus given by the GoI toprime up the economy duringand post the first wave may notbe adequate to boost demandand consumption. The secondwave has made matters worse.Some economists are suggest-ing printing of currency notesas they feel that there isn’tenough fiscal space available todo more and that Governmentshould carry on with its bud-getary stimulus by printingmoney. In my opinion, print-ing currency notes should bethe last resort.

I think there is still somefiscal space, say in terms ofimposing a Covid tax on thesuperrich and issuing targetedCovid Bonds which may bepicked up by the banks due tolow reverse repo rate.

Besides, only printing ofnotes without a simultaneousincrease in actual supply couldbe inflationary. Currency notesalone will help build demandbut not the supply.

The rate of inflation is toohigh for the common man toeke out his living. Whatshould the UnionGovernment do to contain theinflation?

The rising inflation cur-rently is on accounts of bothcrude oil prices and food infla-tion, particularly edible oil. Ithink food inflation will mod-erate after the lockdown as sup-ply lines improve and with afavourable monsoon whereas

the oil inflation might contin-ue creating problems becauseof the tension in the Middle-East. Whether the latest initia-tives of G-7 and PresidentBiden may ease tensionsremains to be seen. India has tolessen its dependence onimports and explore alternatesources like renewable andhydrogen.

The prices of petrol, dieseland edible oil are soaring.What remedial measuresshould be taken up by theGovernment?

One of the options is tomoderate the Central Excise oncrude oil or bring it under theGST regime. I think there is asteady demand for the latterwhich should be done becausehigh POL prices is havinginflationary pressure on theeconomy and also creatingproblems for people who arealready suffering from loss ofeconomic activity due to Covid.

Simultaneously, we haveto explore alternate sources. Asfor edible oil, I think it is a tem-porary phenomenon createddue to hardening of interna-tional prices on account ofsupply constraints there. But wehave to incentivise domesticproduction in the longer term.

The country’s GDP is atan all-time low since inde-pendence. As a Member of theParliamentary StandingCommittee on Finance, what’syour suggestion for protectingthe GDP?

Every country is facinggrowth pangs because of thevirus and the connected lock-downs. Some countries aremanaging well so far whereasothers still face differentmutants of the virus. TheIndian economy was understress due to lack of demandand consumption even beforethe pandemic.

The pandemic has furtherexacerbated the situation. Ourfiscal space has got complete-ly squeezed after the first wave.Savings rates are also not toorosy.

But the Govt. still has tocreate demand and privateconsumption through a com-bination of capital expenditure-led expansion (which it hasplanned), indirect cash trans-fer like NREGS-type wageemployment and also sometargeted direct cash transfer ashas been done in Odisha byCM Naveen Patnaik.

Also, people are scared ofspending whatever little theyhave after seeing the harshsecond wave. This makes mat-

ters worse.What should the

Government do to overcomethe third wave? Are you sat-isfied with the efforts made bythe Patnaik Government inour State?

After suffering the firsttwo waves, I think Govts, bothCentral and State, are better-prepared to handle the thirdwave in terms of oxygen beds,ICU beds, ventilators and cru-cial medicines. Oxygen plantsare coming up in all districts.Doctors’ posts are getting filledup. Testing has been increasedand so has been vaccination. Ithink our State Govt is doing acommendable job under theleadership of the Hon’ble ChiefMinister Naveen Patnaik toremain extra prepared to facethe third wave.

Opposition leaders arestill disenchanted with theleadership of Naveen Patnaikduring this pandemic. Whatis your response?

Opposition leaders findghosts everywhere, even underthe Noonday Sun. It is their job.The Chief Minister has ledfrom the front right from thefirst wave onwards whether itis in taking preemptive actionof announcing timely lock-downs, setting up temporaryquarantine and medical centresat the panchayat level, givingpowers to Sarpanches under hisDecentralised, Delegation andDevolution to Empower strat-egy or involving women SHGsin disseminating awarenessand for food distribution to theneedy or in quickly ramping uphospital facilities and oxygensupplies in the second wave.

He has been reviewing thematters almost on a weeklybasis. He has also been verykind to cooperate with every-one to fight the pandemic ascan be seen in matters relatingto supply of oxygen to 19 Statesas of now and in suggesting apan-India Centre-led campaignfor vaccination. This unmis-takably reveals his statesman-like character.

How do you view the BJP-BJD skirmishes in vaccinationcentres over the photo fixingissues?

I think vaccination shouldnot be a political event. In anyuniversal vaccination pro-gramme, this should not comeinto play at all. Cooperation ofboth the Centre and the Statesis required for success of theseprogrammes. It is too childishand myopic to fight over this ina ravaging pandemic.

What should the OdishaGovernment do to ensure theState’s interests?

The Odisha Govt is study-ing the judgment and willevolve an effective legal andadministrative strategy toensure that the rights of theOdias are not ignored.Appropriate action will betaken at the appropriate time.

Speculations are rife thata formidable third front isgoing to be formed. Is the BJDgoing to opt for it?

It is too premature to talkabout this. For our ChiefMinister, the interest of 4.5crore Odias is paramount. Hewill act and decide at theappropriate time.

interview of the weekpioneer

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Recently, the FIR againstTwitter, India, action by

police against some people inGhaziabad over a circulation ofcommunal controversy videoin social media platform,besides FIRs by Delhi policeagainst spreaders of ‘motivatedelements’ on social media thatthe police were restricting thebasic amenities of Covid 19such as oxygen tankers andcylinders are a few instanceswhere response to people forirresponsible handling of socialmedia was prompt and imme-diate.

Dissemination of informa-tion and misinformation ormal-information are very easyin the age of information tech-nology. The consequence ofsuch misinformation leads to‘mobocracy and riots’ thatharm more than any deadly

virus. In India over last fewdecades, digital media hascome up with an astonishingresource of news and informa-tion that spread its wingsimmensely through onlinenews websites, You Tube,Facebook and WhatsApp.

Indeed, the main intentionof fake news is to generate atype of propaganda, that playswith the psychology and emo-tions of the readers creating avery unpleasant situation. Morespecifically, the fake news relat-ed to political issues promotesanxiety.

A report claimed that fromthe mid of 2017 to mid of 2018,totally 27 people were killed bymob due to spread of fake newsin different parts of countries.Moreover, the story of fakenews didn’t stop there. In recenttimes, while the whole world isfighting Covid 19, the fakenews goes hand in hand withmany fake advisories.

Therefore, the WHO had givena statement on fake news. “Weare not just fighting an epi-demic; we are fighting an info-demic. Fake news spreads fasterand more easily than this virus,and is just as dangerous,” it said.

With such growing fakecases, the Indian Governmenthas asked the Supreme Courtto intervene in order to preventsuch incidents of ‘infodemic’.Eventually, on the direction ofthe apex court, theGovernment established a 24-hour portal to curb the spreadof fake news and also invokedSection 54 of the DisasterManagement Act, 2005 to pun-ish the person(s) indulged inspreading fake news.

Sections 124A, 292, 153,153A, 295, 295A, 499, 503, 504and 505 of IPC, the PressCouncil Act 1978 and differentsections 66A, 66D, 69A of ITAct 2000 are not enough to pre-vent fake news or propaganda.

Similarly, the regulatorybodies like News BroadcastersAssociation (NBA),Broadcasting ContentComplaint Council (BCCC),Press Information Bureau ofIndia (PBI), and the IndianBroadcast Foundation (IBF)have limited role to handle fakenews. In the last decade, theGovernment has introducedthe Information Technology(Intermediaries Guidelines)

Rules, 2011 and later theInformation Technology(Intermediary Guidelines(Amendment) Rules 2018 wereintroduced to amend the rulesnotified in 2011 with the mottoto monitor and filter unlawfulcontent and provide for thetraceability of users of fakenews.

Besides, there are Section144 of the Code of CriminalProcedure, 1973, Section 5(2)of the Indian Telegraph Act,1885, Temporary Suspension ofTelecom Services (PublicEmergency or Public Safety)Rules, 2017, ElectionCommission of India and theRepresentation of the PeopleAct, 1951 and Department forPromotion of Industry andInternal Trade etc. However,despite all these rules and leg-islations, the Government hassomehow failed to rein in ele-ments spreading falsehood andrumour in social media.

Currently, a tough chal-lenge in front of theGovernment is to handle fakenews such as identification orclassification of misinformationand immediate action for suchmisinformation. Now torespond to such ‘fourth gener-ation espionage’, theGovernment needs to actproactively. The Governmentshould immediately adoptdivergent approaches such as

thorough and effective legisla-tion and execution and deploy-ment of technology based onautomated tools to removeunlawful information and con-tent.

This apart, theGovernment may also takeinto consideration measureslike introducing ‘fake newssyllabus’ in school level like inItaly, setting up 'RapidResponse Unit’ like in UnitedKingdom that includes spe-cialists, analyst-editors, datascientists, media and digitalexperts to monitor mis-infor-mation.

And last and but not theleast, self-control or self-regu-lation of content is very impor-tant with the growing digitalmedia platform. The vastnessand variety of fake news can beprevented and eliminatedthrough education and aware-ness.

(Dr Panda is AssistantProfessor, Law), Xavier LawSchool, XIM University;[email protected]/[email protected]; Mob:9953079450

(Sharma is communicationand language professional, whois also a PhD Scholar (English)at Siksha 'O' AnusandhanU n i v e r s i t y ;[email protected])

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The Commissionerate policeon Monday shut down sev-

eral shops at different businesshubs in Bhubaneswar and alsoimposed fines on their ownersfor flouting the Covid-19 pro-tocols.

Joint teams of police andBhubaneswar MunicipalCorporation (BMC) conduct-ed surprise raids in six zones ofthe city and sealed as many as42 shops.

Many mobile shops inBapuji Nagar were among thebusiness establishments sealedand fines were collected fromthe owners for not followingCovid appropriate behaviour.

Similarly, as many as 18shops dealing with automobilespare parts, repairing, tea andliquor located along theCuttack-Puri Road were alsosealed and penalised during theraids. "Since the beginning ofthe lockdown, we have beenconducting barricading and

checking at main junctions ofthe city. We are also conduct-ing surprise raids at severalplaces. People are requested tofollow Covid appropriatebehaviour to keep them safe,"said Zone 1 ACP ManasRanjan Garnaik. "During thesurprise raid today, we foundmany mobile phone shopsopen at Bapuji Nagar in viola-tion of lockdown norms andsealed them. A liquor shop wasalso sealed at Ashok Nagar andstrict action will be takenagainst the violators," addedGarnaik.

Notably, the capital citycity is reporting 400 to 500casesCovid-19 positive casesdaily. Besides, it has a test pos-itivity rate (TPR) of 10 per centwhile it is 5 per cent in theState. Despite the efforts of theauthorities, the State capitalremains a coronavirus hotspotsince the onset of second waveof the pandemic. Also three tofour casualties are reporteddue to the disease daily.

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Doctors at the SUMUltimate Medicare here

battled to save the life of aweek-old baby boy born to aCovid positive mother andrushed to the hospital in a crit-ical condition. The baby wasdelivered in a private hospitalin the city in the 33rd week ofpregnancy after the mothertested positive for Covid-19.The baby cried after birth andwas shifted to mother's side ina stable condition. As motherneeded focused treatmentwhen her condition deterio-rated, the baby became restlessand had difficulty in breathingon the second day and was

shifted to NICU.The motherwas put on ventilator and babywas brought to hospital as hiscondition worsened. DrBichitrananda Raut, AssociateConsultant in Department ofPediatrics and Neonatologyand his team diagnosed it to bea case of Neo-natal Multi-sys-tem Inflammatory Syndromein Children (MISC), a rare con-dition in babies caused byCovid infection.

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Governor and Chancellorof universities Prof

Ganeshi Lal on Mondayappointed Prof BansidharMajhi as Vice-Chancellor of theVeer Surendra Sai University ofTechnology (VSSUT), Burla, inSambalpur district.

Prof Majhi will remain inthe service for a period ofthree years with effect from thedate he assumes office or untilfurther orders, whichever isearlier, the official notificationsaid. Prof Majhi, currently

working as the Director ofIIITDM, Kancheepuram inChennai, has three years ofindustry experience and morethan 28 years of teaching and

research experiences in thefields of computer science andengineering. He has success-fully guided 18 PhD scholars,70 MTech and eight MTech (R)scholars. He has also served invarious administrative posi-tions as HOD, Dean(Academic) and AutomationCell Chairman.

He has been serving asmembers of various accredita-tion committees like NBA andNAAC. Prof Majhi is also therecipient of the OdishaGovernment’s with SamantaChandrasekhar Award, 2016.

BHUBANESWAR: The resultsof CHSE Odisha Plus IIExamination-2021 would beannounced by July-end,informed School & MassEducation Minister SamirRanjan Dash on Monday. “Asper direction of Supreme Court,we are planning to declare annu-al +2 examination results by July31,” he told reporters. Earlier, theCouncil of Higher SecondaryEducation (CHSE) hadannounced to release the resultsin August second week. Notably,Plus II Examination was can-celled this year in view of Covidupsurge in its 2nd wave.Minister Dash further said stu-dents who have cleared matric-ulation examination would notface any issue in admission intoPlus II courses in colleges.

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As many as ten new nursingcolleges would be estab-

lished in the State, informedHealth Minister Naba KishoreDas on Monday.

The ten colleges having 60seats each would come up in 10districts, he said. The districtsare Mayurbhanj, Balangir,Koraput, Baleswar, Jharsuguda,Puri, Sundargarh, Angul,Keonjhar and Jajpur.TheMinister also informed that aheart care hospital would beoperational in Jharsuguda dis-trict this year.

BHUBANESWAR: The OPDservices at the All IndiaInstitute of Medical Sciences(AIIMS) Bhubaneswar, whichhad been suspended due to theCovid-19 situation, resumed onMonday.

Walk-in OPD services atthe healthcare facility had beentemporarily closed from April26. The decision regardingresumption of the OPD ser-vices was taken after a declinein the number of Covid-19patients at the institution. It hasalso been decided to continuetelemedicine services. However,consultation would be provid-ed via WhatsApp, not throughvoice calls. PNS

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People across spectrummourned the death of

senior journalist JimutMangaraj, who died in a roadaccident late on Sundayevening near Janla under theTamando police station whilereturning from his village inKhordha district. Mangaraj(64) was driving a scooty whichwas hit by a truck. Mangaraj’sjournalist and writer wife

Jyoshna Routray had died a fewyears back. He is survived by ason and a daughter.

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The Utkal University hasreleased tentative dates and

action plan for online UGExaminations-2021. The affil-iated colleges have been askedto collect mobile phone num-bers/ WhatsApp numbers ande-mail ID of the students byJune 30. Colleges will collect thefees from students throughonline or directly collect fromcollege bank account.

Students will not be phys-ically present in colleges forform fill up. Colleges will keepRs 260/250 (examination fee)per student to meet their valu-ation process. Students candownload the admit carddirectly from UUeMS portal.

The internal examinationsof 20 marks will be conductedby the colleges online by July 15.The university will provide thequestion online throughUUeMS portal (www.uuems.in)before 5 minutes of com-mencement time of examina-tion. Students can downloadquestion paper directly fromabove portal by logging in theirRoll No. and date of birth. Allconcerned department heads orsubject teachers of collegeshave been requested to make

students WhatsApp group andkeep their students’ e-mail ID/WhatsApp no. /mobile No. tocirculate question paper.Students need to write answerin A4 size plain paper. Atbeginning of writing answer,students must mention theirname, University Redg. No./Exam Roll No., subject, papername on the top of each addi-tional page. Students mustmention their University Redg.No./ Exam Roll No. and putpage Sl. No. at the bottom ofeach page. (Black Ball Point Penis to be used).

After completion of theexamination time, the studenthas to serially take photographsof all answer pages or scan asPDF file and send same torespective college teachers ordepartment heads by uploadingon Google Form / WhatsApp /e-mail within 30 minutes ofcompletion of examination.

If a student is unable tosend answer sheet by abovemeans due to technical issues orother reasons, he/she can sendanswer sheets by Speed Post tohis/her college address, butuniversity or colleges shall notbe responsible for any mis-placement or delay of deliveryof post.

BHUBANESWAR: The fami-ly strengthening programme ofSOS Children's Village,Bhubaneswar, has reached outto 455 needy families throughdry ration supports partneringwith Herbalife. The companyHerbalife has sponsored almost10 tons of dry ration includingrice, wheat atta, suji, dal, sugar,salt, biscuits, soyabin, flattenedrice, oil etc of Rs 6 lakh. Theseitems are distributed by SOSamong poor and needy familiesand many families those affect-ed with Covid.Daspur,Kujimhal, Dalua, Bhola,Jamujhari, Salabari, Nodharand Chhatabar are the villagesfrom Chandaka, Kantabada,Andharua and Chhatabar pan-chayats of Bhubaneswar andJatni block where the peoplegot assistance. PNS

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BALESWAR: The Simuliapolice after registering a caseof unnatural death have begunan investigation into the recov-ery of an unidentified woman'sbody near a canal under mys-terious circumstances. Thewoman appeared to be mar-ried and was around 30 years

old, said IIC Jayant Behera.The body didn’t bear any exter-nal or internal injuries; neitherwas it sexually assaulted, hetold. The autopsy report alsodidn’t reveal anything exceptdamage to lungs, said IICBehera. The body was spottedby the locals of Iswarpur pan-

chayat who informed to thepolice. The police said thatthey presume that the deceasedwas a local or of Bhadrak dis-trict. The viscera samples willbe sent for further investiga-tion and efforts were on toidentify the deceased, said IICBehera. PNS

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The National Statistics Day iscelebrated on June 29 on

the birth anniversary ofPrasanta ChandraMahalanobis, a world-renowned statistician whoseinvaluable contributions led tothe establishment of theNational Statistical System inIndia. He is called the father ofIndian Statistics.

Today, on his 129th birthday, the statistics fraternityacross the country is celebrat-ing the 15th National StatisticsDay with the theme “Endhunger, achieve food securityand improved nutrition andpromote sustainable agricul-ture”. It is an issue of significantrelevance in the larger agendaof the country’s development

priorities. Needless to say, agood statistical system is indis-pensable for policy formulationand to monitor the progress ofvarious sectors of the economy.Statistics has, since beginning,been regarded as one of themost important tools for mak-ing decision in the midst ofuncertainty.

There has been a phe-nomenal development of use ofstatistics in our everyday life.Our life is surrounded by num-bers. Numbers bring in theconcept of calculations.Calculations warrant the use ofmathematical equations.

The point of this analysis isto arrive at a certain result ora solution to a practical prob-lem. This entire process oftranslating simple numbersinto meaningful results by col-lecting, organising, analysing

and interpreting data is calledstatistics. Numbers are every-where, Statistics extracts theinformation.Oxford Languagesdefines “Society” as the aggre-gate of people living together ina more or less ordered com-munity.

The very definition ofthis complex yet fundamentalunit of human civilisationinvolves the word ‘aggregate’,which can be seen as a statis-tical concept.

The romance of statisticsand society dates back to theages of the Mahabharata whenNala used his knowledge ofSankhyana, the probability the-ory, and estimation to winPrincess Damayanti. That waseons ago, but not much haschanged today. With the WorldWar 2 came in the concept ofoperations research. Even

today, in this advanced age ofscience and technology whenmankind is hit with the Covid-19 pandemic, doctors, scien-tists, virologists, Governmentsare all reliant upon statisticaldata and analysis to deal withthe effective management ofthe pandemic.

Be it the use of VitalStatistics to keep track of thedemography of the disease orthe use of Operations Researchtechniques for effective man-agement of vaccines, healthcareequipments and other essen-tials, it is statistics we are alldependent upon.

Data are the spine of effec-tive governance. Without hav-ing knowledge of the demo-graphic dividend of a particu-lar region, the whereaboutsconcerning the benefactors ofthe scheme, it is not possible for

a Government to formulateschemes and monitor itsgrowth and impact. Healthinsurance which happens to bea necessary component ofmodern-day healthcare isentirely based upon a branch ofstatistics called ActuarialSciences.

Every researcher needsdata to support his hypothesisand prove its utility, efficacyand authenticity. Tests ofSignificance and the concept ofDesign of Experiments play avital role in research projects.Statistics provide objectivitywhich happens to be thebedrock of scientific and socialexperiments.

Data analysis, the conceptof index numbers, time seriesare fundamental not only to thebudget formulation of a coun-try but also to any business

venture irrespective of its scale.It is statistically proven alarm-ing facts about deforestation,carbon emissions and rise inglobal temperature whichmade humans realise the scaleof damage they have inflictedupon the environment. A com-mon man does not make anyinvestment decision withoutstudying the past statistics andfuture projections.

People often distrust sta-tistics and feel they are mis-leading because they cannotunderstand the data. Thisoccurs because the statisticianswho produce data fail to makethem relevant and explain themin terms that people can under-stand. A statistical story mustbe based on sufficient knowl-edge of the data and the phe-nomenon under study. Thestatisticians play an important

role in the process by makingavailable timely, reliable andcredible statistics for objectivedecision making.

We must all rememberthat statistics are not just num-bers but are also the key ingre-dients in the formulation ofright plans and policies of acountry. Statistics is a catalystfor the modern life and thebasis of Government and com-munity planning.

Maintaining it and pro-moting the importance of sus-tainable national statisticalcapacity to produce reliable andtimely statistics happens to bethe duty of every statistician.

Without statistics and sta-tisticians, there would still benumbers along with peopletrying to interpret them. Butstatistics is central to how wethink about the world. And the

mere discrepancy betweenwhat we perceive and whatsomething actually is happensto be a statistical concept calledbias.

It is said that a society livesby faith and develops by sci-ence. Some may agree; somemay not. However, you cannotbe sure unless you look at thestatistics. “Those who ignorestatistics are condemned toreinvent it.”

Swain is Assistant Professor,Department of Statistics, UtkalUniversity Email: [email protected] Phone:9015146613

Agrawal is a MasterStudent, Department ofStatistics, Utkal UniversityE m a i l :[email protected]

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The State has witnessed acumulative deficit of six-

per cent rainfall during thismonsoon season so far, theRegional Centre of the IMDhere said on Monday.

The total average rainfallreceived in the State during theperiod from June 1 to June 27stands at 174.9 mm which is sixper cent less than the normalaverage of 186.1 mm of rain,the IMD said.

As many as 10 districtsincluding Balangir, Boudh,Rayagada, Ganjam, Gajapati,Jajpur, Bhadrak, Kandhamal,Mayurbhanj and Keonjhar haverecorded deficit rainfall of 20%to 59per cent less than the longterm average during the peri-od till June 27.Ganjam district

which has recorded the lowestamount of average rainfall atjust 79.5 mm since June 1 hasa deficiency of 47 per cent. Butthe district of Bhadrak hasrecorded the highest departureof 48per cent rainfall as com-pared to the district averagecumulative rainfall.

Similarly, the amount ofrainfall stands between 20percent and 59 per cent excess ofthe normal in as many as sevendistricts, Sundargarh,Jharsuguda, Puri, Cuttack,Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapada andKoraput.

While Sundargarh hasrecorded 257.5 mm of rain, themaximum among all districtsin the State since the onset ofthe monsoon season in thecountry. However at 221.6 mmof rain, Puri has the highestdeparture of excess rainfall at58% above the normal average.Meanwhile, the weather officehas forecasted heavy rainfall inthe State from July 1 to 3.

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Many artists are now unem-ployed for Covid-19 lock-

down and shutdown and are indire straits. As opera and the-ater have been closed, manyartists have been forced to giveup their careers and are strug-gling for bread and butter. Insuch a situation, there is ademand to further expand theState Government’s artist assis-tance scheme.

The Chief Minister's ArtistAssistance Scheme waslaunched in 2018 in order tohonour the arts and providefinancial assistance for theirsurvival. While there are manyartists in Jajpur district, withskills in various arts, not all theartists benefit from theGovernment scheme.

The artists are selectedthrough the DistrictInformation and PublicRelations Department.However, many artists havecomplained that there are flawsin selection of beneficiaries

under the artist scheme. In2016 the artists in Jajpur wereselected from 10 blocks andtwo municipalities throughauditions. They are being paida monthly allowance of Rs1,200.

Last year, the Governmenthad paid a three-monthadvance allowance to artists forthe Corona, while it paid a six-month allowance last week. Butthe problem is while Jajpur issaid to be a district of artists,there are many artists and artinstitutions who have beenbypassed by the scheme. Whilenot all artists are able to par-

ticipate in the first phase, thereare demands to give them achance to participate in theaudition every year. In the dis-trict, 2003 artists have beenidentified, and to date, 1932artists have receivedGovernment funding. Of the2003 artists identified, 41 havebeen excluded due to variousreasons including death.

According to the depart-ment, 314 artists from Bari, 275from Badachana, 143 fromBinjharpur, 54 from Danagadi,14 from Dasarathpur, 14 fromDharamsala, 152 from Korei,14 from Jajpur, 27 fromRasulpur, 26 from Sukinda,160 from Jajpur municipalityand 26 from Bailan are gettingthe benefit.

Still many artist families areliving miserably. Some havechanged over to other profes-sions in the hard times ofCovid-19. While theGovernment's outreach plan iseffective, it is important toinclude the excluded ones inthe artists scheme.

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In an aim to develop the dis-puted Kotia cluster of villages

and to assess the ground situ-ation, Koraput districtCollector Abdaal M Akhtar vis-ited the area on Saturday. Whilereviewing the ongoing devel-opment activities in the tribalhinterland, he focussed onspeeding up the work related tolift irrigation projects, ORMASprogrammees, OLEM activitiesand works pertaining to theITDA and agriculture devel-opment. Besides, Akhtar alsovisited Tadibalsa village and

took stock of the ongoing highschool construction and roadwork from Tadibalsa to Potangiand instructed officials to com-plete the works within 15 days.He distributed 120 goats

among 60 beneficiaries, 40hens to 40 beneficiaries, hon-eybee box under the NationalLivestock Mission and sixsewing machines to theYamuna sewing group.

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Bharatiya Bikash ParishadState president Surendra

Panigahi has submitted amemorandum to theSuperintendent of Vigilance,Brahmapur on Fridaydemanding immediate actionagainst a former MLA ofBrahmapur and former BeDAChairman, Secretary and con-cerned engineers of the civicbody for alleged misappropri-ation of huge funds in thename of plantation and pur-chase of gabions for protectionof the plant.

The Parishad alleged anunholy nexus among themthat led to spending a totalamount of Rs 45 lakh from theLocal Area Development(LAD) fund during the pastfour financial years, namely, FY2015-16 (Rs10 lakh), 2016-17

(Rs 10 lakh), 2017-18 (Rs 15lakh) and 2018-19 (Rs 10 lakh)showing the execution of plan-tation programme and pur-chase of gabions (Zalli) for pro-tection of the plantation in dif-ferent Wards of the BeMCand few other areas under thejurisdiction of the BrahmapurAssembly Constituency.

Panigrahi however saidthe funds were misappropriat-ed and demanded an impartialprobe by the State Vigilance tounfold the truth.

The Parishad further saidthat, a fact finding team of theParishad visited different areasof Ward No.1 to Ward No.35under the BeMC circle of thecity for an inspection on theground, but was surprised tonote that, neither a single treehas been planted nor gabionswere found on the ground inall these wards.

The Parishad gave a copyof the memorandum to theChief Secretary of the State,Principal Secretaries of UrbanDevelopment and HomeDepartment, Director of StateVigilance, Revenue DivisionalCommissioner (SouthernDivn), district Collector andBrahmapur SP for taking fur-ther action in the matter.

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In order to avoid the crisis forthe probable 3rd wave of the

Covid-19 and threat of deltavariants, the Youth for SocialDevelopment (YSD) hasextended its helping hand tothe healthcare needs of Ganjamdistrict to effectively combatthe pandemic.

The Brahmapur basedNGO with the support fromOxfam-India and Give2Asiaprovided medical equipment,oxygen cylinder (20), oxygenconcentrator (2), oxygen flowmeter regulator with humidi-fier (20), oxygen nasal mask(150), Bipap Machine (2), multiparameter patient monitor (2),digital thermometer (50), pulseoxy meter (25), nebulisermachine (20) and BP appara-tus-manual/LED (5) to differ-ent hospitals in Ganjam dis-trict.

During the handover ofhealthcare items, Ganjam dis-trict Collector Vijaa AmrutaKulange, Sub-Collector,

Brahmapur Kirti Vasan V andGanjam CDMO Dr Uma KantaMisra were present. Apartfrom this, the volunteers andteam members of YSD havebeen engaged in identifying themost vulnerable poor peoplewho lost jobs/livelihood due tothe lockdown and pandemicand providing them with dryfood and ration kits.

The YSD has provided thekits to 1,000 households in 5blocks including poor people

residing in slums under BeMCjurisdiction. The YSD also hasbeen engaged in creating com-munity awareness among peo-ple on Covid-19 appropriatebehaviour including masking,social distancing and followingpersonal hygiene.

The relief and responseworks were coordinated byChandan Kumar Sahu,Madhusmita Patra, JayashreeKar under leadership of YSDsecretary Bibhu Prasad Sahu.

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India on Monday successful-ly test-fired its new-genera-

tion nuclear-capable AgniPrime missile from a test baseoff the Odisha coast, DefenceResearch and Development

Organisation (DRDO) sourcessaid. The surface-to-surfaceballistic missile has a range of1,000 km to 2,000 km andbelongs to the Agni series ofmissiles, it said. The sleekDRDO-developed missile wastest-fired from a mobilelauncher from the AbdulKalam Island in Odisha coastat about 10.55 am. Its trajecto-ry monitored by sophisticatedtracking radars and telemetrycentres along the coastline.

The Agni-Prime can carrya payload of 1,000 kg. The mis-sile followed textbook trajec-tory, meeting all mission objec-tives with a high level of accu-racy, a DRDO release said.

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SAMBALPUR: The IIMSambalpur concluded yetanother successful academicyear with the 4th (2018-2020)and 5th (2019-2021) annualconvocation in virtual mode.The convocation was graced bychief guest Chairman andManaging Director of JSWGroup Sajjan Jindal, president,Institute of CompanySecretaries of India (ICSI)CSNagendra D Rao, Chairman,Board, IIM Sambalpur andformer Chairperson of theState Bank of India ArundhatiBhattacharya and Director, IIMSambalpur Prof Mahadeo

Jaiswal, besides the faculty,staff and students. A total of187 students were felicitated inthe convocation with the 5thBatch having highest genderdiversity across all IIMs with 46female students in a batchstrength of 95. While readingthe Director’s report of last year,Prof Jaiswal reiterated the high-lights of the academic year thatincluded several milestones forIIM Sambalpur like highestgender diversity among IIMs,introduction of the concept ofFlipped classrooms, first everTEDXIIM Sambalpur and lay-ing of the foundation stone ofthe permanent campus of IIMSambalpur by PM NarendraModi among others. PNS

BHUBANESWAR: TheNational Aluminium CompanyLimited (Nalco) has reportedresults for the Financial Year2020-21. According to the audit-ed financial results, taken onrecord in the Board of Directorsmeeting held on Monday atBhubaneswar, the Nalco hasposted an impressive netturnover and net profit of Rs

8,869.29 crore and Rs 1,299.56crore respectively in FY20-21compared to Rs 8,425.75 croreand Rs 138.23 crore achievedduring the previous year. The netprofit of the company for thefinancial year 2020-21 hasjumped by 840% over last finan-cial year. The results were drivenby strong operational perfor-mance by units, with effective

sales strategy, cost saving mea-sures, supported by favourableLME price. During year 2020-21,Nalco had achieved highest everproduction of bauxite at 73.65lakh tonnes. Similarly, companyalso achieved highest-ever exportof 1.92 lakh tonnes of alumini-um metal in 2020-21, surpassingdecade old record of 1.46 lakhtonnes achieved in 2009-10.

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Excise Department officialson Monday seized ganja

worth lakhs of rupees from atruck by carrying out a raid inthe Ambapua area in Ganjamdistrict and arrested one personin this connection. The accusedwas identified as Dablu Khan.

As per the report, theIntelligence and Enforcementwing of the Excise Departmentgot inputs about the trans-portation of the ganja con-signment and later interceptedthe truck at Ambapua nearBrahmapur.

During the search of thetruck, a number of containerscontaining three quintals of thecontraband were found con-cealed in vegetable sacks.Dablu, who was driving thetruck, was taken into custodyby the officials.

The seized contraband wasbeing transported from thedistrict to Jamshedpur inJharkhand. Further investiga-tion was on to find out thesource of the ganja and whoelse were involved in the rack-et, sources informed.

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GST officials on Mondayarrested a man for alleged-

ly floating fake firms and com-mitting Input Tax Credit (ITC)fraud worth Rs 10 crore inBhubaneswar.

The accused was forward-ed to court. Smruti RanjanSahu of Bapuji Nagar in the citywas operating multiple dummyfirms with forged documents.A scrap dealer, Sahu hadallegedly opened the firms in

the name of economicallyweaker section people like rick-shaw-pullers and other smalltraders. As many as seven suchdummy firms were being runby him in Bhubaneswar andRourkela. However, all thecompanies were benami andregistered with fake accounts.Sahu had used fake names andidentities of gullible persons ina bid to evade tax.

He had shown an annualturnover of Rs 40 crore. Heused to pass on fake ITC to hisclients in exchange for somecommission of the invoiceamount, sources said. The taxinvoices were issued in thename of bogus entities to availthe ITC.

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United Way, a Bengaluru-based activists’ forum by

obtaining support from twophilanthropic organisations,Crypto Relief India andVolunteer Covidrural, hasprovided 35 D type 46.7-litrejumbo empty cylinders toimprove the capacity of pub-lic hospitals of Nuapada dis-trict. "We have received cylin-ders in the first lot; it will befollowed by supply of oxygenconcentrators, oximeters,thermal scanners and a num-ber of other medical equip-ments," said members ofDistrict Press Club (DPC)Nuapada who coordinated

with the donors for availingthe materials.The United Wayhad requested DPC presidentAjit Panda a week ago tosubmit a list of medicalequipments relating to Covidproblems needed for the dis-trict. After a discussion withthe district Collector and the

CDMO, Ajit Panda submitteda list of requirements. "Wehave suggested that the PHCsin the district should be pro-vided two cylinders each, butwe leave that to the adminis-tration, which is free to decideabout final distribution," saidPanda.

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The Centre on Mondayinformed a Parliamentary

panel that Covid-19 cases withvariants of concern rose from10.31 per cent of total infectionsin May to 51 per cent till June20 and stressed that bothCovaxin and Covishield workagainst these strains albeit withslightly reduced potency.

Sources said the panel,headed by Rajya Sabha memberAnand Sharma, was alsoinformed that the economicimpact of the second wave ofviral infection was “asynchro-nous in its onset and wider inits spread particularly in ruralhinterland”.

Union Home SecretaryAjay Bhalla, Health SecretaryRajesh Bhushan, AdditionalSecretary in the Home MinistryGovind Mohan, AdditionalSecretary in the FinanceMinistry K Raja Raman wereamong the officials who

deposed before theParliamentary StandingCommittee on Home Affairs on‘Socio-economic fallout of theCOVID-19 pandemic’s secondwave’.

About the availability ofvaccine doses, officials informedthe panel that 135 crore jabs willbe made available in the coun-try during the August-Decemberperiod this year.

The doses would be ofCovishield, Covaxin, Bio ESubunit vaccine, Zydus Cadila’sDNA vaccine and Sputnik V,they said.

Sharing details about variouscoronavirus variants of concern,officials told the panel that itincludes the Alpha, Beta,Gamma and Delta variants.These variants have been tracedin 174 districts of 35 states andUnion Territories, with the max-imum reported fromMaharashtra, Delhi, Punjab,Telangana, West Bengal andGujarat, the parliamentary panel

was informed.According to the details

shared by officials with the par-liamentarians, coronavirus’ vari-ants of concern led to increasedtransmissibility, change in viru-lence and effect on diagnostics,drugs and vaccines. “Officials toldparliamentarians that the pro-

portion ofC OV I D - 1 9cases with

variants of concern has risenfrom 10.31 per cent in May to 51per cent in June 20,” a source inthe panel said.

A study by the IndianCouncil of Medical Research andthe National Institute of Virologyon the efficacy of Covaxin andCovishield against coronavirusvariants of concerns found that“antibody potency is slightlyreduced against these strains as

compared to standard strain. Butthe vaccine is effective in pro-tection against severe forms ofthe disease,” the source added.

The panel was informedthat a similar study on evaluat-ing the efficacy of both these vac-cines against the latest variant ofconcern -- Delta plus -- is beingconducted and will be complet-ed within the next two weeks.

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Even as there has been ris-ing concerns over the

Delta plus variant of the virus,Covid Task Force chief V KPaul on Monday asserted thatneither there is any scientificdata so far to establish that thenew variant is highly trans-missible or reduces vaccineefficacy nor any date when itwould arrive.

“It will be unfair to put adate for any Covid wave as thebehaviour of coronavirus isunpredictable and a disci-plined and effective pandem-ic response can help the coun-try get away from any signif-icant outbreak,” he said.

His assertion yet againcomes in contrast to AIIMS

chief Randeep Guleria’s pre-diction that the third wave willcome in next eight weeks. DrArora had on Sunday alsocited an ICMR study to claimthat the third wave of coron-avirus could be delayed untilDecember this year.

Dr Paul said that anotherwave of any size would bedependent upon several fac-tors, including overall disci-pline in terms of Covid-appro-priate behaviour, testing andcontainment strategies, andvaccination rates.

“And in addition, theunpredictable behaviour ofthe virus can also change thepandemic dynamics. In sucha scenario, their complex fac-tor will determine the chain oftransmission and outbreak,”he told a news agency.

“Occurrence or non-occurrence of any wave, is inour own hands. To my mind,it is not fair to put any date forany wave,” he said.

“If we are determined anddisciplined and marshal effec-tive pandemic response, weshould be in a position to getaway from any significantoutbreak,” Paul said.

Currently, three Covidvaccines — Covaxin by BharatBiotech, Covishield by SerumInstitute of India (SII) andRussia’s Sputnik V— are beingused for inoculation in India.

When asked about theDelta plus variant, Paul saidscientific knowledge about itis still in the early stage. “Weshould wait for these aspectsto be studied systematically,”he pointed out.

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Noted lawyer ParashantBhushan created a flutter

on Monday by tweeting thathe is not going to take vaccinesagainst Covid. Subsequently,he received a lot of brickbatsin social media with netizensdemanding Twitter to actagainst him for his tweetsthat were against the policy ofthe micro-blogging site.

In a series of tweets,Bhushan said he is not anti-

vaccine but against the pro-motion of universal vaccination. Bhushan claimedthe younger population has ahigher chance of dyingthrough vaccination as com-pared to suffering severe com-plications or even death due tocoronavirus.

“For the record, I have nottaken, nor do I intend to takeany Covid Vaccine,” tweetedBhushan.

“The healthy young have

hardly any chance of seriouseffects or dying due to covid.They have a higher chance ofdying due to vaccines. Thecovid recovered have muchbetter natural immunity, thanthe vaccine gives them.Vaccines may even compro-mise their acquired naturalimmunity,” Bhushan said in asubsequent tweet.

Bhushan’s stand againstvaccination is not a new phe-nomenon.

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India on Monday suc-cessfully test-fired a

new variant of thenuclear-capable Agni bal-listic missile. Having arange of 1,000km to2,000 km, this missilewill give operational flex-ibility to the armedforces.

I n d i g e n o u s l ydesigned and built bythe Defence Researchand DevelopmentOrganisation (DRDO),the missile, named AgniPrime, was successfullytested after it waslaunched from the Dr AP J Abdul Kalam islandoff the coast of Balasore,Odisha at 10.55 am.

The new generationmissile was tracked byvarious telemetry andradar stations positionedalong the eastern coast.The missile followed textbook trajectory, meetingall mission objectiveswith high level of accu-racy, officials said here.

Agni Prime is a newgeneration advancedvariant of Agni class ofmissiles. It is a canis-terised missile. DefenceMinister Rajnath SinghMonday congratulatedthe DRDO for success-fully flight testing themissile.

“Congratulations to@DRDO_India for themaiden successful flighttest of Agni P advanced

variant of Agni class ofmissiles. I complimentthe efforts of the teambehind this mission,” hetweeted.

He said manyadvanced technologies,including propulsion sys-tems, innovative guid-ance and control mecha-nisms and state-of-the-art navigation systemshave been introduced inthe missile.

Agni Prime is a next-generation, nuclear-capa-ble weapon made fully ofa composite material,

Two days ago, theDRDO successfully testfired an extended rangeversion of the indige-nously developed ‘Pinaka’rocket.

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In the Covid second waveso far, India has reported

40,845 cases of mucormyco-sis or black fungus, of whichnearly 85 per cent has beenseen in coronavirus-infectedpatients. The fungal diseasehas already claimed 3,129lives.

These data were sharedby Union Health MinisterHarsh Vardhan in a meetingof the group of ministers onCovid on Monday.

Since April, mucormy-cosis infections have sky-

rocketed across the country.Till June 7, more than 28,000cases had been officiallyreported, thus showing thatthe cases have nearly dou-bled since then.

Mucormycosis mainlyaffects people who are onme dicat ion for health problems that reducestheir ability to fight envi-ronmental pathogens.

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Balram Bhargava,Secretar y (health

research) and Director-General of ICMR onMonday cautioned that thesecond wave of covid-19 has

still not subsided as 80 dis-tricts in the country havehigh posit ivity. “ Thereshouldn’t be any laxity at thisstage,” said the ICMR chiefat a meeting of the group ofministers on Covid.

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Two unexploded IEDsrecovered from the

Jammu air force stationhold clues to the investi-gation into the earlymorning airdropping oftwo other IEDs thatexploded at the commu-nication and logistics hubof the Indian Air Force.

The recovery of theunexploded IEDs has fur-ther added to the mysteryof the first-ever droneattack on an air force assetas it indicates that thetwo suspected drones orthe quadcopters had asignificant payload carry-ing capacity.

The aerial attack is afirst of its kind in thecountry. But this is the45th drone strike carriedout across the globe so farthis year. While dronestrikes are carried out bystate agencies, aerial hitsby terror groups throughsuch machines are dubbed‘attacks’ and the agenciesare seeking to discriminatebetween the two throughthe ongoing investigation.

Security agencies,meanwhile, are trackingJammu-Pakistan calls afterleads gathered from analy-sis of cell phone towerdump data even as a fewRohingyas are also undersurveillance, sources said.

In the wee hours onSunday, two blastsoccurred at about 0140Hours and 0146 Hours atthe Air Force Station,Satwari, Jammu. Theblasts occurred nearHelicopter Dispersal Park.While one of the IEDs hitthe top of the single-storeybuilding the second explo-sive device hit the open

ground area behind thestructure.

Due to the impact ofthe IED blast at therooftop, a crater wasformed and the sound ofthe explosions was heardin a range of one kilome-ter which indicate use ofhigh-grade explosives likeRDX or PETN even as theforensic reports of thenature of blast material isawaited. Since the thick-ness of the roof built fromRCC (reinforced concretecement) slabs is betweensix to nine inches, lowgrade explosives could nothave formed the crater,officials said.

“These pointershelped the investigators inconcluding that the blastoccurred due to an aeri-al/drone attack and thatthe likely target was ahelicopter parked at theHelicopter DispersalPark,” an official involvedin the investigation said.No fatal casualty wasreported from the inci-dent.

The whirring soundof only two drones washeard. Following this, twoout of four IEDs wentunexploded and the inves-tigators are studying thematerials used for fabri-cating them.

All the IEDs wereequipped with impactcharge features to modu-late the timing of theexplosions.

The one that explod-ed on the roof of thebuilding exploded justafter hitting the surface.The other one that explod-ed in the open groundblasted after six minutes.

Cell phone towerdump data of the mobilephone network is also

being analysed to tracepossible clues or callsmade in the immediateaftermath of the explo-sions at the air facility inJammu. Jammu-Pakistanphone calls are also beingtracked in order to tracethe masterminds of thedrone attacks, investiga-tors related to the droneattacks probe said.

“It is highly plausiblethat dismantled droneswere smuggled fromPakistan and assembled inJammu before carryingout the attack on the airforce station. However,the possibility of a droneflying from Pakistan to hitthe target in Jammu is alsobeing investigated. If themachines originated fromPakistan, then operationcould be the handiwork ofthe state actors there,” offi-cials added.

Meanwhile, the secu-rity agencies have con-ducted searches in a ham-let close to Satwari whichis dominated byRohingyas.

The security agenciesare also grilling one arrest-ed accused Nadeem, 20,from whose possession 5kg IED was recovered bythe Special OperationsGroup (SOG) of Jammupolice on Sunday evening.Nadeem hails fromBanihal town and wasarrested by the SOG fromNarwal area under TrikutaNagar police station.Linkage between theseized IED and the droneattack is yet to be estab-lished.

Belying the prevailingtrends in Jammu andKashmir, no terror grouphas so far owned respon-sibility for the droneattacks.

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Though she had to quit as head of Kerala Women’sCommission last week following widespread protests

against remarks made by her towards a victim of domesticviolence, M C Josephine, the CPI(M) leader found herselfin another controversy on Monday.

Ace athlete Mayookha Johny, national record holder intriple jump, held a press meet at Thrissur on Monday andalleged that Josephine tried to hush up a sexual assault casethat happened in 2016 to save the hunter. “The Police towhom we complained showed scant regard to us followingthe interference of Josephine and since then the hunter hasbeen threatening the victim,” said Johny. The athlete said thatthe victim was a close friend of her.

“The incident happened in 2016. Johnson, the accused,has been tormenting my friend for quite some time.Though she saved herself on many occasions from themarauding Johnson, he once trespassed into her house andmolested her. The man also filmed the victim in compro-mising position.” Said Mayookha.

The victim filed a complaint against Johnson immedi-ately after the incident. But the police, though kind enoughto assure the victim of all possible help, Josephine who wasa close friend of the accused entered the scene and hushedup the case. “Even after this, he continued to threaten thevictim and tried to misbehave with her as he had the tacitsupport of Josephine,” charged Mayookha Johny.

Though Josephine was removed from the post ofChairperson of the Womens Commission, she continues tobe the member of the Central Committee of the CPI(M), theelite and apex policy decision making body of the party. Themembership of the Central Committee of the CPI(M) is acoveted position because of the vast international contactsoffered by the august body.

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The ruling CPI(M) in Kerala is facingcharges of protecting and safeguarding

‘professional gold smugglers’ in the State forthe services rendered by the latter in cash,kind and other means.

The recent seizure of smuggled gold bythe Customs Dept from KozhikodeInternational Airport has opened a pando-ra’s box for the CPI(M). Leaders of the partydeclared that the CPI(M) would keep off peo-ple with track records of gold smuggling andcriminal activities.

But all those who have been identifiedwith gold smuggling are the ones who act ascyber warriors and professional musclemenof the party with links to top leadership. ArjunAyanki and Akash Thillankeri, two youngactivists of the CPI(M) who have been namedby the Customs Department have issued athreat to the CPI(M) leadership for dump-ing them at this hour of crisis. ArjunAyanki’s social media page is full of pho-tographs featuring him with top CPI(M)leaders including Chief Minister PinarayiVijayan. Last week’s road accident nearKozhikode airport which claimed the livesof five passengers in an over speeding car ledthe Customs and Police officials to another

group which was giving the former a chase.“The race between the two groups fromPalakkadu and Kannur were for the goldworth crores of rupees smuggked in throughKozhikode. But they were ignorant of theseizure of the smuggled gold made by theCustoms officials on duty,” said a Customsofficials. According to high ranking Customsofficials in Kerala, Kozhoikode has becomethe epicentre of gold smuggling and the oper-ators enjoy political patronage. “There is aCPI(M) fraction in the Customs Departmentwhich make matters for us,” said anotherCustoms official who referred to the attempton the life of Sumit Kumar, PreventiveCommissioner, Customs in the month ofFebruary. The case was hushed up by polit-ical leaders despite Kumar’s open announce-ment that his life was in danger.

Akash Thillankery , in his social mediapost, has issued a warning to the party’sKannur district for dumping the duo fol-lowing the seizure of gold and related inci-dents. “I as a dedicatred worker of the Leftbrand of politics is doing all that I could doto strengthen anti-Fascist forces. But therecent announcement by the district leader-ship of the CPI(M) that the party would keepoff such people is like dumping us afterexploiting our services.

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Lieutenant Governor, ManojSinha on Monday paid his

obeisance at the Holy CaveShrine of Shri Amarnathji.

The Lt Governor, who isalso the Chairman of the ShriAmarnathji Shrine Board,accompanied by the senior offi-cers from Army, Civil adminis-tration, Police and the ShrineBoard, performed puja at theshrine.

“May the divine blessings ofLord Shiva ensure good healthand happiness in everyone's lifeand bless us with strength toovercome the ongoing health cri-sis”, prayed the Lt Governor.

The Lt Governor wasaccompanied by Lt Gen DPPandey, General OfficerCommanding (GOC) 15 Corps;Pandurang K Pole, DivisionalCommissioner Kashmir; Dr.

Piyush Singla, DeputyCommissioner Anantnag; AbdulJabbar, DIG South KashmirRange (SKR); Anup KumarSoni, Additional Chief ExecutiveOfficer, SASB besides officers ofArmy, Police, CRPF & ShrineBoard.

The annual pilgrimage tes-tifies to the tradition of thewonderful cultural syncretism ofJammu & Kashmir.

But, considering the ongoingsituation due to Covid-19 pan-demic, Shri Amarnath Ji Yatrahas been cancelled.

KOCHI: On the eve of hisretirement from Indian PoliceService, Loknath Behra, Chiefof Kerala Police made a star-tling disclosure. “Kerala hasbecome the largest recruitingcentre of terrorist organisations

. This is because of the highliteracy rate among the youthin the State. The terroristorganisations prefer to recruiteducated perons for the anti-national activities,” Behra toldmedia persons in his custom-ary interaction before demit-ting office.

Orissa born Behra is thelongest serving police chief inKerala having taken up the jobin 2016. He was responding toa query on the influence wield-ed by the Islamic State (IS) inKerala. “The instances of edu-cated youth joining the terror-ist organisation has to beviewed seriously. These organ-isations will not hesitate to goto any extent to charm the edu-cated and make them join thedreaded outfits. There are anynumber of persons who havejoined them from Kerala,” saidBehra. PNS

��� �����

The family of a Special Police Officer(SPO) of Jammu & Kashmir Police was

wiped out by a group of Jaish-e- Mohammadterrorists late on Sunday night atHariparigam Tral in the Awantipora area ofSouth Kashmir's Pulwama district.

Meanwhile. a top Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT)commander Nadeem Abrar, who wasinvolved in several attacks on securityforces and civilians in Kashmir, was arrest-ed on Monday. “Top LeT commanderNadeem Abrar arrested. He was involved inseveral killings. Big success for us,” IGPKashmir zone Vijay Kumar said in a tweet.

According to police, Abrar was involvedin the killing of three Central Reserve PoliceForce (CRPF) personnel at Lawaypora ear-lier this year

Meanwhile, a fresh encounter alsobroke out between security forces and ter-rorists in the Parimpora area of the city hereon Monday in which one CRPF SubInspector received injuries on his arm.

According to a police spokesman themartyred SPO from Hariparigam Tral hasbeen identified as Fayaz Ahmad. Wife ofa martyred SPO, Raja Begum also suc-

cumbed late Sunday night while theirdaughter, Rafia, died early Monday morn-ing in the hospital.

According to a police spokesman, atleast 2-3 terrorists had barged inside thehome of a SPO and fired indiscriminately.His wife and daughter also received criticalinjuries and were rushed to the nearby hos-pital. Inspector General of Police, Kashmirrange Vijay Kumar Monday visited the res-idence of the SPO and expressed sympathieswith the bereaved family members andassured them that the terrorists involved inthis barbaric act will be neutralised soon

Interacting with the media after meet-ing the family of the martyred cop Kumarsaid Jammu and Kashmir Police have beenworking at the forefront of anti-terroristoperations.

“Last night, two terrorists, who seemedto be foreign terrorists, fired on one of ourSPOs. When his wife and daughter came torescue him, they fired on them too. Theywere taken to the hospital where they suc-cumbed to their injuries. We are saddenedby this incident. We will identify and neu-tralise them soon. There is a Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) in this area and it mustbe them,” said the IGP.

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KOCHI: In a rare gesture, hitherto unseen orunheard in Kerala, Governor Arif MohammedKhan on Monday called on the parents ofVismaya, the young bride who was found deadunder mysterious circumstances in her husband’shouse last week.

The Governor drove down to Vismaya’s houseat Kollam and consoled her parents and brotherwho could not control their tears when theyrecounted everything to the former. GovernorKhan told Vismaya’s parents that he stands bythem and they are free to call on him for any help.“Vismaya, though I have not seen her, was likemy own daughter. It is as a mark of my respectto those girls who lost their lives because of dowryharassment that I have come here,” said theGovernor. He spent more than 20 minutes withVismaya’s family members . After coming out ofthe meeting, the Governor set aside all protocolsand spoke to the media. “There are laws and leg-islations against dowry. But still we see manyunfortunate incidents like the young girls losingtheir lives because of harassment. The youth ofthis country, especially the media, should inten-sify their campaign against dowry, a social evil,”the Governor told the waiting reporters. PNS

��� ����� ��

The India MeteorologicalDepartment (IMD)’s latest data

shows Central Delhi has recordedjust 8.5 mm rainfall this monsoonseason so far and is the second-most rain-deficient district in thecountry. The rain deficit in Kistwardistrict of Jammu & Kashmir is thelargest in the country. It has record-ed 5 mm precipitation against thenormal of 68.4 mm— a shortfall of93 per cent.

Meanwhile weak monsoonconditions are expected to contin-ue over most parts of the countryuntil first week of July. This breakmonsoon will adversely impact theagriculture. This will also bring hotand humid weather conditions innorth and northwest India.

According to the IMD, CentralDelhi has received only 8.5 mm

rainfall against the normal of 53.3mm since June 1— a deficiency of84 per cent. In the national capital,East Delhi has received 19.2mmrainfall against the normal of53.3mm – a dearth of 64 per cent.Northeast Delhi has gauged20.7mm rainfall, which is 61 percent below normal, and SouthDelhi got 22.2 mm – 58 per cent lessthan normal. Southwest Delhiand New Delhi have recorded 29.6mm and 27.7 mm rainfall so far --50 per cent below their respectivenormal rainfall. North Delhi hasreceived 37.7 mm rainfall – 33 percent less than normal – andNorthwest Delhi 29.8 mm rainfall– 22 per cent below the average pre-cipitation. Only West Delhi hasreceived normal rainfall so far –53.5mm against the average of52.9mm.

June 1 to September 30 is offi-

cially considered the monsoon sea-son in India. The IMD on Mondaysaid Delhi and nearby areas innorthwest India will have to wait foranother week for their first mon-soonal showers.

"Prevailing meteorological con-ditions, large scale atmosphericfeatures and the forecast wind pat-tern by dynamical models suggestthat no favourable conditions arelikely to develop for further advanceof southwest monsoon into remain-ing parts of Rajasthan, west UttarPradesh, Haryana, Chandigarh andDelhi and Punjab during the nextsix to seven days," the IMD said ina statement.

The weak monsoon is expect-ed to impact kharif sowing season.According to a private weatherforecaster Skymet, break monsoonconditions are expected from June29.

���������� ������

Having factored the anticipated “thirdwave” of Covid-19 in the State, the

Maharashtra Government is gearing itselfto administer 15 lakh doses per day.

Speaking at a function organised to adedicated Covid centre built by the stare-MMRDA to the BrihanmumbaiMunicipal Corporation (BMC), chiefminister said: “In anticipation of thethird Covid-19, we have to take extra pre-cautions. Given that the incidence of DeltaPluc Covid-19 infections is increasing, weneed to follow Covid-19 norms strictly.Keeping this in mind, we are makingpreparations to increase the vaccinationsto 15 per day”.

The Covid-19 centre that theMMRDA has developed at Malad in northMumbai has 2,170 beds. Of these 2170beds, 1,536 are Oxygen beds, while the 190ICU beds. Similarly, there are 200 Oxygenbeds for children, while 50 beds are pae-diatric ICU beds. Uddhav said that in addi-tion to the Jumbo Covid-19 centre set upat Malad, the state govrrnment was plan-ning to new jumbo Covid-19 centres inKanjurmarg, Sion, Worli and also increasethe number of beds in existing jumbo cen-tres at NSCI Worli, NESCO Goregaon andRichardson & Cruddas Byculla to ensurethat there are no shortages. The ChiefMinister said that though the Governmentplans new jumbo centres in Kanjurmarg,Sion, Worli and increase the number ofbeds in existing jumbo centres at NSCIWorli, NESCO Goregaon and Richardson

& Cruddas Byculla to ensure that there areno shortages

The Chief Minister said that thoughbeds may be going empty, the secondwave had still not subsided in the pastnearly five months.

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President Ram Nath Kovind, who took atrain ride Delhi Lucknow via Kanpur by

the special Presidential Express Train, onMonday lauded the Indian Railways for pro-viding easy transportation across the lengthand breadth of the country. In a note hepenned in the Indian Railways' visitors'book, Kovind also said he and his familywere "extremely impressed" by the trainjourney.

Kovind, who is on a five-day visit to hishome state Uttar Pradesh, arrived at theCharbagh railway station around noon. Hewas received by Uttar Pradesh GovernorAnandiben Patel, Chief Minister YogiAdityanath, state ministers and a large num-ber of senior officials and public represen-tatives.

After his journey, the president wrotein the visitors' book of the Indian Railways,praising the national transporter. "My goodwishes to the Indian Railways, which pro-vides easy and convenient transportationfrom the inaccessible mountain ranges ofthe Himalayas to the sea coast ofKanyakumari and from the green land ofnortheast India to the deserts in westernGujarat. By undertaking a happy and pic-turesque train journey after a long time fromDelhi to Kanpur and then to Lucknow, I andmy family are extremely impressed," Kovindwrote in the visitors' book.

"During this memorable journey, I hadthe pleasant experience of meeting my oldfriends and relatives in Rura and Jhijhak. Iam confident that the Indian Railways, asthe preferred daily transport service forcrores of Indians, will maintain its leadingposition in rail services across the world. Mythanks and good wishes to the entire teaminvolved in serving the Indian Railways," hesaid.

��� ����3�

The setback faced by the SamajwadiParty in the elections of chairper-

sons of district panchayats has exposedthe chinks in the armour of the party’selection machinery and election strat-egy ahead of the crucial 2022 UPAssembly elections. The party leader-ship went into a huddle on Monday.

The summary dismissal of 11 dis-trict presidents of the party by SP chiefAkhilesh Yadav on June 26 has beentermed as an “impulsive decision”which would be detrimental for theinterest of the party ahead of the nextAssembly elections.

“Election management has becomea huge challenge for the party. The set-back in the election of district panchayatchairpersons has exposed flaws in ourelection strategy. We lost some seats dueto rejection of nomination papers,even though we could have won there.Targeting the ruling Bharatiya JanataParty would serve no purpose as wecannot absolve our leadership for fail-ure to contest elections with adequatepreparations,” said a senior party leader.

Terming the setback in districtpanchayat chairpersons' elections as a“wake up call” for the party ahead of theAssembly election, a senior party leadersaid, “These elections were left at themercy of the district presidentsand many of them had little experiencein managing and contesting polls,” hesaid.

Moreover, he said, coordinationcommittees constituted in each districtcomprising former and sitting MPs andMLAs for assisting the district presidentproved to be ineffective.

Though the SP leaders are unwill-ing to speak on record, they concedethat the misuse of official machinery indistrict panchayat elections had becomean established tradition in UP duringthe last 25 years and the party leader-ship should have factored in this ele-

ment in its preparation for contestingthe elections of chairpersons of districtpanchayats.

Meanwhile, SP president AkhileshYadav alleged that UP Chief MinisterYogi Adityanath had gone “over the top”in rigging the elections of district pan-chayat chairpersons.

“BJP’s undemocratic conduct hasposed a threat to the constitutional insti-tutions. Hijacking Samajwadi Partycandidates and preventing them fromfiling nomination papers by the admin-istration along with the BJP leaders, hasexposed the designs of the rulingparty,” he alleged.

The former Chief Minister saidSamajwadi Party leaders were beingharassed and the state had unleashed areign of terror against the elected dis-trict panchayat members of theSamajwadi Party.

“It is a matter of deep concern andanguish that the officials remainedmute spectators instead of preventingthose obstructing the election process.The State Election Commission alsoremained helpless and the Raj Bhawanis also conspicuous by its silence,” hecharged.

Listing incidents of high handed-ness by the administration in districtsYadav said the BJP forcibly registeredits victory in Balrampur district byarresting the Samajwadi Party candidateand snatching the nomination paperswhile the Samajwadi Party candidatewas not allowed to file nomination forthe post of district panchayat chairmanin Lalitpur.

He said in Gorakhpur, BJP leadersforcibly closed the main gate of the dis-trict collectorate. The BJP kept guard atevery point leading to the nominationroom. Besides, he said the SamajwadiParty candidate was stopped from fil-ing nomination papers in Jhansi and inVaranasi, the SP candidate's nominationpaper was rejected by the returning offi-cer.

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New Delhi: More than 40 per cent ofthe fragile Kumaun Himalaya is sus-ceptible to permanent displacement incase of earthquake of magnituderanging from 7 to 8.6 Mw, warns a newstudy by a team of Scientists from theWadia Institute of Himalayan Geology,Dehardun, an autonomous instituteunder the Department of Science andTechnology (DST).

The scientists had carried out aprobabilistic assessment of co-seismiclandslides for the Goriganga valleylocated in the Kumaun Himalaya as itlies in the highest seismically activezone of the seismic zoning map ofIndia. This research has been pub-lished in the ‘Bulletin of EngineeringGeology and the Environment’ recent-ly.

Several studies suggest that thisregion is prone to a great futureearthquake of 8.0Mw or greater. Theteam of Scientists including SandeepKumar, Vikram Gupta, ParveenKumar & Y. P. Sundriyal estimated theNewmark permanent displacement,which provides the distribution of pre-dicted slope failure in the area.

It was found that more than one-third of the area was vulnerable to theco-seismic landslide and that earth-quakes of magnitudes 7.0, 8.0, and 8.6(Mw) might moderately damage thearea of about 1459 km2, 1256 km2,and 1134 km2 in the study region,respectively.

This work is the first of its kind inthe Himalayas region, in which earth-quake-induced landslides have beenexplored in view of future major togreat probabilistic earthquakes, said ascientist from the DST. PNS

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As lakhs of students across the countrywait for the announcement of the dates

for the revised schedule of the JEE Main2021 and NEET 2021 entrance exams, theNational Testing Agency (NTA) under theMinistry of Education (MoE) is likely tomake an announcement in this regard bythe end of this week.

MoE sources said a review meeting wasconvened on Monday on the issue ofpending JEE and NEET. “The present tim-ing could be conducive for the conduct ofentrance tests before the country is hit bya probable third wave of the corona pan-demic, the participants deliberated,” sourcessaid adding the JEE Main pending examswill be held be July end and August begin-ning and the JEE Advanced is likely to bescheduled for August end or Septemberbeginning.

The NEET UG exam conducted foradmission in MBBS, BDS, BAMS, BSMS,BUMS, and BHMS courses will also beannounced simultaneously to end thespeculations and anxiety within the aspi-rants, parents, institutions and all other

stakeholders related to the professionalcourses.

Sources said Education MinisterRamesh Pokhriyal was scheduled to inter-act with candidates and parents over thesubject last week on social media but heended up by conveying only a recordedmessage on the suggestions of MoE officials.“There was nothing concrete and therecould have been a deluge of queries on JEEand NEET which the Ministry was not pre-pared to answer. This could have furtherraised the anxiety of the candidates,” saidthe sources.

While the entrance schedule is yet to benotified, the admission brochure of the IITentrance - JEE Advanced — has alreadybeen released by this year’s nodal institute–IIT Kharagpur. This year’s JEE andNEET were postponed twice due to the pre-vailing pandemic situation in the country.The JEE Advanced was earlier scheduled tobe held on July 3 but it too was postponed.The decision comes in the wake of a MoEdirective to offer the relaxation as severalstudents had claimed that they could notappear for the IIT entrance exam last yeardue to the lockdown imposed by the state

governments due to pandemic.As per the IIT brochure released on

Sunday while most rules remain as it is,some eligibility and admission rules keep-ing the pandemic in mind have beentweaked. Along with the JEE Main 2021qualifying candidates, those who were eli-gible to appear for JEE Advanced 2020 butfailed to appear in the exam will now beallowed to appear for the IIT entrance.

“This is a one-time measure valid onlyfor JEE-Advance 2021. These candidates willbe considered in addition to and not as partof the total number of candidates whowould qualify from JEE-Mains 2021 forappearing in JEE-Adv 2021,” as per thebrochure. Till last year, an IIT aspirant hadto score 75 percent or more in the class 12board exams as mandatory eligibility for theJEE-Advance, but for this year the criteriahas been relaxed considering the completescrapping of the class 12 Board exams thisyear.

However, candidates should haveappeared and cleared their class 12 examsand should be among the top 2.5 lakh suc-cessful candidates including all categoriesin JEE-Mains 2021, read the brochure.

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Mumbai:The Covid-19 deaths droppedto 287 while the infections went down to6,727, even as 10,812 patients were dis-charged after full recovery from varioushospitals in the State.

A day after the State logged 405deaths and 9,974 infections in the state,Maharashtra witnessed the deaths dropby 118, while new cases went down by3247.

Of the deaths reported on Monday,there were 101 current fatalities, while 186were “old and hither-to unaccounted”deaths, which have been added to the statetotal Covid-19 toll as part of the ongoingreconciliation process.

As 10,812 patients were dischargedfrom the hospitals across the State afterfull recovery, the total number of peopledischarged from the hospitals since thesecond week of March last year increasedfrom 57,90113 to 58,00925. The recov-ery rate in the State rose from 95.91 peecent to 95.99 per cent.

The total “active cases” in the statedropped from 1,22,252 to 1,17,874. Thefatality rate in the State rose from 2 percent to 2.1 per cent.

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(IS), debilitating sanctionsagainst Iran continued and it fig-ured prominently in the “Axis ofevil”. Americans wasted oppor-tunities to thaw relations withIran, partly driven by pressuresfrom Arab Sheikdoms andIsrael, who had their own sec-tarian and domestic considera-tions, as also due to Americancalculation of resultant cost-ben-efit analysis of hypotheticallyundoing its belligerent posture.On the rebound, Iranians soonreposed faith in the hardlinepopulism and fiery anti-USrhetoric of MahmoudAhmadinejad — willy-nilly, theAmericans had forsaken theopportunity of engaging mean-ingfully with the pragmatistsand the reformists.

Oddly enough, confronta-tional politics of the Iranianhardliners suited both Tehranand Washington DC as eachregime was able to justify theirintransigence to their domes-tic constituents and the Arab-Israeli combine was contentwith the rupture. Only thecoincidentally overlappingtenures of a statesman inBarack Obama and a yet anoth-er Iranian moderate-progres-sive, Hassan Rouhani, couldnudge and shape the path-breaking Joint ComprehensivePlan of Action (JCPOA) or theIran Nuclear Deal. In July

2015, the deal was signed andthe crippling sanctions againstIran were lifted; for once andonly for once, the hands of themoderate political options inIran were strengthened.However, within a year, DonaldTrump was railing against the“rotten” deal and threatened to“tear up” the deal, if elected.Trump was indeed elected,and he did renege on a deal thatwas complying with all its pro-visions, as per all internation-al expert accounts. Humiliatingsanctions soon returned.

Joe Biden had campaignedon “rejoining” the Iranian Deal,albeit with political correctnessof “if Iran returns to strict com-pliance with the nuclear deal”.Biden was confirmed onNovember 7, 2020, and swornin on January 20, 2021. TheIranian presidential electionswere slotted for June 18, almostfive months after Bidenassumed the presidentship, butBiden, who oversaw the Israel-Palestinian flare-up in the inter-im, did not move forward onre-ratifying the Iranian NuclearDeal, something he hadpromised. Even on lifting sanc-tions as part of COVID-relat-ed humanitarian relief, Bidenremained inexplicably silent.Beyond the controlled levers ofthe Iranian ElectionMonitoring Agency (EMA),

managed by the clergy-ledGuardian Council, allowingfor only a handful of candidatesto run — popular circum-stances and frustrations withthe continuing failures of themoderates in power to stymiethe socio-economic conditionsor revive the Iranian NuclearDeal successfully led to revi-sionist sentiments and thereturn of the familiar hardlin-ers, with Ebrahim Raisi. Themoderates had no substantivecase to justify their re-electionand their popularity had plum-meted, and the US had facili-tated their helplessness.

Familiar sabre-rattling hasreturned with Raisi refusing tobudge from pursuing Iranianmilitaristic plans, supportingfriendly militias or from meet-ing Biden. The new IsraeliPrime Minister, NaftaliBennett, has opened account bycalling out Iran’s “regime ofbrutal hangmen” whereas theUS is left mumbling a half-con-vincing, “Iranians were deniedtheir right to choose their ownleaders in a free and fair elec-toral process”. History repeatsitself with the US misusing its“monopoly on truth”.

(The writer, a military vet-eran, is a former Lt Governorof Andaman & Nicobar Islandsand Puducherry. The viewsexpressed are personal.)

������������������� ������Sir — At a time when the country is strug-gling to contain the spread of COVID-19,which is mutating alarmingly and snatch-ing the lives of lakhs of people and the lock-down in many parts of the country has alsopushed them to face innumerable problems,it is unfortunate that President Ram NathKovind preferred to make a five-day trip toUP, including a visit to his native villageParaunkh in the State. The Railways imme-diately made all the arrangements toorganise a special train with all luxuries andcomforts for the First Citizen of India, hisfamily and entourage, in deference to hisdesire to undertake a train journey this time.

Further, as the car carrying a patient,Vandana Mishra, to a hospital was stoppedfor the presidential convoy to pass throughin Kanpur late on Friday, she died for wantof timely medical attention. ThoughPresident Kovind has sent a condolencemessage to Vandana’s family in keeping withobligations of his high office, one reallywonders when are we going to give up thistype of VVIP culture? Why can’t we learnfrom other nations, where we find no suchstoppage of traffic is entertained? When arewe going to give up this type of culture atthe cost of the lives of our citizens?

Tharcius S Fernando | Chennai

���� ������������������������Sir — It’s debatable whether Saturday night’sterrorist attack on the Indian Air ForceStation at Jammu came two days after PrimeMinister Narendra Modi met the leaders ofmainstream political parties from Jammuand Kashmir, or Lashkar-e-Taiba’s (LeT)attack on the Air Force Station against ear-lier Jammu and Kashmir Police arrested analleged LeT operative with an improvisedexplosive device (IED) weighing nearly fivekg in Jammu, but hope that this is not theindication of five States, particularly UttarPradesh, elections knocking on the door.

As per the short official statement onits official Twitter handle, the Indian AirForce said: “Two low-intensity explosions…….one caused minor damage to the roofof a building while the other exploded in an

open area” without any damage to anyequipment. Whatsoever, this could be arehearsal for more high-intensity attackswhich may be planned. This way, thePakistan-based terrorists could check ourArmy’s intelligence.

Undoubtedly, our three Services chiefsand our nation’s forces are capable enoughto face any sort of attacks and fight any bat-tle, but in the crucial moment they arevoiceless.

Yes, the terrorist attack is an indicationto the Modi Government that it’s the pri-mary business. But it seems that the PrimeMinister is simply happy with his CentralVista, Ram Mandir or election rallies. TheModi Government must wake up and notremain under any false illusion.

Bidyut Kumar Chatterjee | Faridabad

������������������ � ���Sir — The global pandemic has not pro-vided us any relaxation so far. While thenumber of cases of the pandemic has comedown, on the other hand, a new type of virushas started spreading. According to expertsand doctors, Delta Plus has been placed inthe category of “Variant of Concern” sinceits spreading intensity is more than others.

It is worth noting that research is goingon this variant so that it can be detected,whether the vaccines could be effective. Insuch a situation, many questions are beingraised. However, no citizen should leave anystone unturned to get the jab.

Aman Jaiswal | New Delhi

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The history of the fracturedUS-Iranian relationshipis fraught with deliberateamnesia and convenient

posturing on both sides that laysa disproportionately large blameon the Iranian side, in driving Irantowards hardline anchorage. Thestarting point of the Americanangst and narrative is the IranianRevolution in 1979, and the fol-lowing US Embassy hostagedrama that lasted for 444 days. Inthe Iranian conscience (complete-ly ignored in the US), the grousestarted much earlier with the US-backed coup against Iran’s nation-alist, reformist and immenselypopular Prime Minister,Mohammad Mosaddegh, in 1953.

Mosaddegh was not a bigot,instead he personified seculardemocracy — but his moves toliberate Iran from the grosslyunfair and inequitable strangle-hold of western oil companieswere his undoing. The proudpeople of a civilisation founded byCyrus the Great around 550 BCdid not take too kindly to repeat-ed sleights, manipulations andclientelism that were to trigger therevolt and takeover by the religiousfundamentals, ultimately. In thetentative years following theIranian Revolution, Americansstrengthened the hands of theIranian Ayatollahs during thedeadly Iran-Iraq war, by support-ing the Ba’athist regime of SaddamHussein (who too would be dis-owned later). The US knowinglysupported Iraq with double-usagetechnology, shared intelligence,given training, overlooked excess-es and continued giving econom-ic support — the decade-long warwith an estimated 1-2 millioncasualties, mostly on the Iranianside, galvanised the Shiite spirit ofmartyrdom and legitimised thetheocracy in Iran. Later, from 1989to 2005, Iran saw the presidentshipof moderate pragmatists in AkbarHashemi Rafsanjani andMohammad Khatami — this wasalso the years of the two Gulf Warsand Islamic extremism, wherethe pointers were squarely on theArab Sheikdoms, yet Iranremained designated ‘ForemostState Sponsor of Terrorism’!

With nothing to suggest theIranian hand in the 9/11 attack, therise of groups like Al Qaida,Taliban, or later the Islamic State

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The agreement reached by theFinance Ministers of advancedeconomies at the G-7 meetingontaxing MNCs stands on two

main pillars, viz., a global minimum cor-porate tax (GMCT) rate of 15 per cent andsecondly, “reaching an equitable solutionon the allocation of taxing rights, withmarket countries awarded taxing rightson at least 20 per cent of profit exceed-ing a 10 per cent margin for the largestand most profitable multinational enter-prises”.

They also agreed that while coordi-nating international taxation rules aroundthese two pillars,concurrent efforts willbe made for the removal of all DigitalServices Taxes, and other relevant simi-lar measures imposed by several countrieson these companies. The agreement willbe discussed at a meeting of G-20 FMsand central bank governors in July 2021.

The G-7 move is prompted by a ten-dency among MNCs to register in low-tax European jurisdictions such as TheNetherlands, Ireland, and Luxembourgand some Caribbean nations, and showtheir revenue and profits in those juris-dictions regardless of where their sales aremade. This enables them to avoid payinghigher taxes in the 'source' country.

According to the Tax Justice Networkreport, governments in source countriesare losing around $100 billion annuallyin tax revenue with the US alone losingnearly $50 billion a year. India too is los-ing huge sums estimated to be $10 billionannually. It is affected mostly by digitalgiants such as Google, Facebook, andAmazon whichreport a bulk of the rev-enues generated from Indian customersin the books of their investmentarms/subsidiaries registered in low-taxjurisdictions such as Singapore, Mauritius,and Ireland.

The problem also referred to asBEPS (base erosion and profit shifting)is also being addressed in a ‘structured’manner under the aegis of theOrganization for Economic Cooperationand Development (OECD) which iscoordinating efforts of over 140 countriesto arrive at the so-called BEPS frameworkagreement for taxing profits of theseMNCs. In a draft on “taxing digital com-panies” released on October 9, 2019, theOECD had stated: “Profits of MNCsshould be available for taxation in thecountry where their customers are, irre-spective of any physical presence in thatmarket, and that a formula should beevolved for such taxation.” However,progress on this has been stymied by theCoronavirus crisis.

Meanwhile, by-passing the OECDprocess, the developed countries led bythe US have taken the lead. The G-7agreement seeks to mount a two-prongedattack. First, by requiring every countryto set a floor below which it cannot setits corporate tax, it wants to kill the veryurge which drives MNCs to register theirsubsidiaries in low-tax jurisdictions.

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China is not a member ofthe G-7 which metrecently. It was not a for-

mal topic of discussion at themeeting either. However, it issaid the three Cs —Coronavirus, Climate, andChina - dominated the group-ing much of whose delibera-tions, obliquely, had an anti-China tone.

Prime Minister NarendraModi emphasized the role of'democratic and transparentnations' in dealing with theCoronavirus pandemic, whichsimply means that we do notexpect any solution from Chinaabout dealing with the pan-demic because China is neitherdemocratic nor transparent.The demand for a probe intothe origins of the pandemicfound much traction. A topmember of the Biden admin-

istration stressed the need torespond to China's lack oftransparency, poor environ-mental and labour standards,and coercive approach. Theissues of Hong Kong's autono-my, human rights in theXinjiang region, and peace andstability around the TaiwanStrait also resonated.

China must have felt isolat-ed being distanced from the G-7 summit. An anti-Chinatenor was growing across theworld in the last 16 monthsafter the Coronavirus outbreakwas sourced to that country.However, for the first time, theG-7, a grouping of the world'spowerful countries, appeared tounite against China, highlight-ing issues the country wouldwant to brush under the carpet.

Simultaneously, Quad,another powerful grouping of

the US, India, Japan, andAustralia, is conducting jointmilitary exercises to neutraliseChina and curb its maritimepower in the Arabian Sea andthe Pacific Ocean. This is notonly a powerful response to themaritime challenge India facesfrom China but also a vital con-dition for peace and stability inthe Indo-Pacific region. Theunambiguous statement of theG-7 on the security of the

Taiwan Strait is in a way a directchallenge to China. The factthat all the Quad membersattended the G-7 makes it a spe-cial event. It helps expand thescope of Quad itself.

China has been taking for-ward the Belt and RoadInitiative (BRI) project andover 100 countries are its sig-natories. Coincidentally, Italy isboth a BRI signatory and a G-7 member. Two special invi-tees to G-7, South Africa andSouth Korea, are also signato-ries. The G-7 summit boldlyproposed the B3W (Build BackBetter World) initiative tocounter the BRI. This infra-structure building plan is beingpushed by US President JoeBiden. Till two years ago, it wasthought impossible to stop theBRI project, but the G-7 hastaken a step in that direction.

It is important to point outthat if China's ambitious BRI iscurbed and US-backed B3W ispromoted, India is expected tobe a big gainer not just strate-gically but also economically.The BRI project is dominatedmainly by Chinese banks andinstitutions and Chinese infra-structure companies (mostlyfrom the public sector). Due totheiropaque and discriminato-ry business approaches, notonly were the countries thatsigned up feeling the increasingdebt burden, but were alsoexperiencing growing politicalinterference from the Chineseestablishment. In contrast,B3W will both be transparentand beneficial for membercountries. For instance,infra-structure companies in coun-tries like India will get big busi-ness opportunities and eco-

nomic development will getaccelerated, while at the sametime curbing China's domi-nance. For a long time, Chinahad been capturing the world'smarkets through its ever-expanding industrial produc-tion and has increased its eco-nomic clout. On the strength ofits increasing economic andmilitary power, it has beenintimidating its neighboursand trying to grab their land.The G-7 stand will boost theconfidence of these countries.For the last five years, severalcountries in the world includ-ing India are becoming sensi-tive and protective about theirindustries and economy. Theefforts of 'Make in India' and'Self-Reliant India' calls areintended to reduce depen-dence on China. In such a sit-uation, it will not be easy for

China to maintain its pace ofgrowth.

For some time, China hadbecome arrogant because of itseconomic and military powerand clout. That is why officialstatements from China used tobe combative. However, seeingthe aggressive attitude of theworld, China has now softenedits posture under the impres-sion that its changed behaviourmight douse the world's grow-ing anger.But that is not all.China is also on targetabout theorigin of Coronavirus and itsspread. It can be said thatChina should be worried aboutthe increasing global mobilisa-tion and undoubtedly, to saveitself, China willlet go of itsarroganceand its economic andmilitary aggression. Perhapsthis will pave the way for peacein the world.

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Second, source countries get to taxa certain portion of the profitsgenerated by most profitableMNCs from the operations intheir territories.

Far from addressing the coreissue, this prescription will onlycreate more anomalies. Imposinga corporate minimum tax willinterfere with the sovereign rightof a country to determine ‘whatshould be its tax policy’ andimpair its ability to galvanize thepolicy to achieve certain objec-tives. For instance, on September20, 2019, the Indian Governmentbrought about a steep reduction inthe tax rate for new entities in themanufacturing sector (incorporat-ed from October 1, 2019, andcommencing production byMarch 31, 2023) from the existing25 per cent to 15 per cent. Thiswas done to attract investment(including foreign investment),give a boost to growth, and createjobs. Under the GMCT regime,with the floor set at 15 per cent,India will lose the freedom tolower its corporate tax rate belowthis level. In fact, under an earli-er proposal mooted by the Bidenadministration to set GMCT at 21per cent(in 2017, the Trumpadministration had introduced acorporate offshore minimum taxcalled "Global Intangible Low-Taxed Income (GILTI) -it isapplied on the offshore income ofUS-based MNCs having sub-sidiaries in low-tax countries at10.5 per cent; Biden wanted todouble GILTI to 21 per centand insync GMCT at 21 per cent), Indiawould have been forced to

increase its minimum tax from 15per cent to 21 per cent. India’s abil-ity to attract investment will befurther undermined if in additionto GMCT of 15 per cent, the homecountry of the MNC (read theUSA) goes for the ‘top up’ option(under GILTI) i.e., the Indian taxrate remaining at 15 per cent, theformer collects six per cent tax onprofits earned by the firm inIndia. The effective incidence oftax - in this scenario - being 21 percent (15 per cent paid in India plussix per cent levied by US), UScompanies will be deterred frominvesting in India. That apart, aglobal minimum tax rate will dolittle to tackle tax evasion.

The only logical way forwardto do this is for the source coun-try, where the profits are generat-ed, to capture and tax them - asemphasized in the OECD draft.The GCMT cannot be a substitutefor this. Taking the Indian exam-ple, a levy of tax at 21 per cent-against the prevailing low of 15 percent (new manufacturing units) -will not result in additional taxcollection to fully offset the lossresulting from profit shifting. Forinstance, if out of �100 only �20is recorded in India, the extra rev-enue from the higher rate will beonly �1.20 (20x.06) against a lossof �12 due to profit shifting(80x0.15).

This brings us to the secondPillar of the G-7 deal. The pro-posed formula is seriously flawed.It gives to the source country tax-ing rights only to the extent of 20per cent of the profit (exceedinga 10 per cent margin) for the

largest and most profitable MNCs.Put simply, if the firm earns �100from its operation in India then,the latter gets to collect tax onlyon �20. Who gets the right to theremaining tax on �80? Will the taxhaven (read country where thefirm is incorporated and whererevenue from Indian operations isrecorded) get taxation rights on it?Or the home country of the MNCalso get a share in the cake?

The formula iserroneous.Neither the country ofincorporation nor MNC's homecountry has any right to collect taxon profits generated from itsoperations inthe source country.This right should vest entirely withthe source country. Further, itshould have the right to collect taxfrom all offshore companies doingbusiness on its territory andnotjust from the largest and most profitable MNCs - as proposed byG-7.

To conclude, G-20 shoulddrop the GMCT proposal. Itshould only focus on Pillar II witha clear stipulation that only thesource country from where an off-shore firm is deriving its income- irrespective of where it is record-ed - has the sole right to collect taxon it. A consensus should bebuilt around a criterionfor arriv-ing at the annual taxable profit.The source countryshould havethe freedomto decide the tax rateit deems fit in sync with its poli-cy imperatives. Till this is done,India should retain DST (or'equalization levy' introduced in2016/2020 instead of tax on prof-its) on digital giants.

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Islamabad: In a rare admission,a top Pakistani Minister hassaid that the families ofAfghanistan’s Taliban militantsreside in Pakistan, including inpopular suburban areas of thenational capital, and some-times the members of theinsurgent outfit receive medicaltreatment in local hospitals.

Islamabad has been con-sistently rejecting allegationslevelled by Afghan leaders thatthe Taliban use Pakistani soil todirect and sustain insurgentactivities in Afghanistan.

In an interview aired byprivate Pakistani TV channelGeo News on Sunday, InteriorMinister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed

said, “Taliban families live herein Pakistan — in areas likeRawat, Loi Ber, Bara Kahu andTarnol.”

The areas mentioned bythe minister are well-knownsuburban areas of Islamabad.

“Sometimes their (fighters)dead bodies arrive and some-times they come here to hos-pitals to get medical treat-ment,” Rashid told the Urdu-language network.

Pakistan is often accused ofhosting and supporting theAfghan Taliban militants whohave been fighting theAfghanistan Government forabout the last two decades. It israre for a top Pakistani minis-ter and senior politician toaccept it.

In the same interview,Rashid said that former mili-tary dictator Pervez Musharrafbelieved in the efficacy ofdrone attacks to target rebels inareas which were inaccessibleto Pakistani forces.

The Taliban has intensifiedattacks against Afghan gov-ernment forces since May 1when the US-led internation-al forces formally began theirwithdrawal from the country.

Last week, Prime MinisterImran Khan ruled out hostingAmerican bases in Pakistan formilitary action insideAfghanistan, fearing it mightlead to his country being “tar-geted in revenge attacks” by ter-rorists. PTI

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Islamabad: Pakistan onMonday claimed that morethan 5,000 militants of theTehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan(TTP) were present inAfghanistan, a day after Kabuldenied the presence of thebanned terror outfit in thewar-torn country.

“The assertions of theAfghan side are contrary tofacts on ground and variousreports of the UN, which alsocorroborate the presence andactivities of over 5000-strongTTP in Afghanistan,” PakistanForeign Office spokespersonZahid Hafeez Chaudri said.

He made the remarks inresponse to the media queriesabout the Afghan ForeignMinistry statement, whichsaid that the TTP “is neitherfounded in Afghanistan noroperates on our soil.”

“This movement along

with other terrorist groups isrecognised as the enemy ofpeace, stability, and prosperi-ty in Afghanistan and theregion, and the Afghan gov-ernment fights against this ter-rorist outfit like any otherterrorist group without dis-crimination,” the AfghanForeign Ministry said onSunday.

Afghanistan has “consis-tently stressed upon imple-mentation of UNSC resolu-tions and Doha agreementwhich calls on Taliban to cutties with regional and inter-national terrorist groupsincluding the Tehrik-i-TalibanPakistan (TTP), Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), The IslamicMovement of Uzbekistan(IMU), The East TurkistanIslamic Movement (ETIM),Al-Qaeda and ISIS,” it said.

PTI

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Washington: The US military,under the direction ofPresident Joe Biden, carried outairstrikes against what it saidwere “facilities used by Iran-backed militia groups” near theborder between Iraq and Syria,drawing condemnation fromIraq''s military and calls forrevenge by the militias.

Pentagon Press SecretaryJohn Kirby said the militiaswere using the facilities tolaunch unmanned aerial vehi-cle attacks against US troops inIraq. It was the second time theBiden administration has takenmilitary action in the regionsince he took over earlier this year.

Kirby said the US militarytargeted three operational andweapons storage facilitiesSunday night — two in Syria

and one in Iraq.He described the airstrikes

as “defensive,” saying they werelaunched in response to theattacks by militias.

“The United States tooknecessary, appropriate, anddeliberate action designed tolimit the risk of escalation —but also to send a clear andunambiguous deterrent mes-sage,” Kirby said.

The Pentagon said thefacilities were used by Iran-backed militia factions, includ-ing Kata'ib Hezbollah andKata''ib Sayyid al-Shuhada.

Secretary of State AntonyBlinken, speaking to reportersin Rome on Monday, saidBiden has been clear that theUS will act to protect Americanpersonnel.

AP

Moscow: The leaders of Russiaand China on Monday hailedincreasingly close ties betweentheir countries and announcedthe extension of a 20-year-oldfriendship treaty, a show ofunity amid their tensions withthe West.

Speaking in a video callwith Chinese President XiJinping, Russian PresidentVladimir Putin said that thetreaty signed in July 2001 inMoscow helped take relationsbetween Moscow and Beijingto an “unprecedented height”and would be extended foranother five years.

The Russian leader notedthat the coordination of foreign

policy efforts by Russia andChina has played a “stabilizingrole in global affairs.”

Xi in his opening remarksemphasized the importance ofa “strategic cooperation”between Moscow and Beijingin defending their commoninterests on the global stage. Headded that Russia and Chinahave worked to uphold a “truemultilateralism and global jus-tice.”

Putin and Xi have devel-oped strong personal ties tobolster a “strategic partner-ship” between the two formerCommunist rivals as they viewith the West for influence andface soaring tensions in rela-

tions with the U.S. and itsallies.

While Moscow and Beijingin the past rejected the possi-bility of forging a militaryalliance, Putin said last fall thatsuch a prospect can''t be ruledout entirely.

During Monday's call,Putin congratulated Xi on the100th anniversary of theCommunist Party of Chinacelebrated Thursday, sayingthat China is marking it with“new achievements in thecountry's social-economicdevelopment and on the inter-national stage” and recallingSoviet support for the Chinesecommunists. AP

Seoul: Heartbroken NorthKoreans have been worryingtearfully about leader Kim JongUn''s “emaciated looks,” statemedia quoted a local residentas saying, in a rare acknowl-edgement of foreign specula-tion about his weight loss.

The comments were seenas an effort to boost domesticsupport for Kim's efforts as hegrapples with deepening eco-nomic hardships caused bythe Covid, mismanagement,U.N. economic sanctions andnatural disasters, experts said.

“Our people's hearts achedmost when we saw (Kim''s)emaciated looks,” NorthKorean state TV cited theunidentified male residentwearing a straw hat as sayingon Friday. “Everyone says theirtears are welling up in their eyesnaturally.”

In recent state media pho-tos, Kim has appeared to havelost a considerable amount ofweight. Some North Koreawatchers said Kim, who isabout 170 centimeters (5 feet,8 inches) tall and has previouslyweighed 140 kilograms (308pounds), may have lost 10-20kilograms (22-44 pounds).

Kim''s health is the focus ofkeen outside attention as the37-year-old leader hasn't pub-licly anointed a successor whowould take charge of NorthKorea''s advancing nucleararsenal targeting the US and itsallies if he is incapacitated. AP

Berlin: German ChancellorAngela Merkel on Mondaydefended the idea of holding aEuropean Union meeting withRussian President VladimirPutin, arguing that it wouldoffer an opportunity to con-front Putin with Europeanconcerns.

The idea was rejected lastweek by eastern EU members.

At a summit on Friday, EUleaders agreed only to “exploreformats and conditionalitiesof dialogue with Russia.” Therewas no mention of any high-level meetings or plans for asummit with Putin, an idea thatGermany and France had

pushed. The outcome reflecteddeep divisions in the 27-nationEU''s approach to Moscow.

The EU is concerned thatPutin is turning increasinglyauthoritarian and wants to dis-tance himself from the West.Both it and the NATO militaryalliance are struggling to bringRussia back to the table. U.S.President Joe Biden's meetingwith Putin this month was arare exception.

“The concern was that weperhaps wouldn''t be able to putup a united front, (and) such asummit of course requires veryintensive preparation,” Merkel said at a question-and-answer session with Germanand French lawmakers. Shesaid it would allow Europeansto “address all the questionsthat weigh on us and alsothose on which we want tocooperate.”

AP

Tehran: Iran has not made a decision yet about whether to extendan agreement with the UN atomic watchdog over access to sur-veillance footage at its nuclear sites, the country''s foreign min-istry said Monday. The remarks by Foreign Ministry spokesmanSaeed Khatibzadeh come after a three-month deal between Tehranand international nuclear inspectors to preserve video data at thecountry's atomic installations expired last week, following a one-month extension. “No decision, either negative or positive hasbeen made,” Khatibzadeh told reporters. “Neither the continu-ation of the deal nor the erasure (of data). We are in the previ-ous position for the time being.”

Iran began limiting the access of U.N. atomic watchdoginspectors to its nuclear sites earlier this year, part of a pressurecampaign on the West over its tattered 2015 nuclear deal withworld powers. AP

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Union Finance MinisterNirmala Sitharaman on

Monday said that the financialexpenditure on the free distri-bution of ration to over 80crore poor people under thePradhan Mantri Garib KalyanAnna Yojana (PMGKAY) thisyear will be �93,869 crores.After the outbreak of the sec-ond wave in April 2021, thePMGKAY scheme was rein-troduced, initially for May-June and then extended tillNovember this year. The totalmoney spent on PMGKAYwill be �2,27,841 crores.Besides, farmers to get addi-tional protein-based fertilizersubsidy of nearly �15,000crores. To revive the NorthEastern Regional AgriculturalMarketing Corporation(NERAMAC), the government

has announced a package of Rs77.45 crore proposed for finan-cial restructuring and infu-sion of funds.

Addressing a press confer-ence to announce fresh stimu-lus measures for the economy,Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman said the estimatedfinancial implication for pro-viding free foodgrains is�93,869 crore for this year.The Centre spent �1,33,972crore last fiscal on this scheme.The total financial implicationis estimated at �2,27,841 crorefor PMGKAY, Sitharamanadded.

In the wake of the secondwave of Covid-19, the schemewas relaunched in May 2021 toensure the food security of thepoor. Then on June 23, cabinetapproved the proposal toextend it by five more monthstill November-end.

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The Government onMonday allocated an addi-

tional �19,041 crore to providebroadband connectivity in allvillages under the BharatNetproject.

Prime Minister NarendraModi had on August 15, 2020

announced that all villages willbe connected with broadbandin 1,000 days.

Additional �19,041 croreis being provided so that thecommitment that in 1,000 daysfrom 2020 all villages will havebroadband connectivity is ful-filled, Finance MinisterNirmala Sitharaman said while

announcing stimulus measuresfor various sectors.

"Total outlay for thisBharatnet project goes up to �61,109 crore," she added.

She further said �42,068crore has been already utilisedfor reaching 1,56,223 grampanchayats that are now readyfor broadband services as ofMay 31. "Now with this addi-tional �19,041 crore we shouldbe able to complete the rest,"Sitharaman said.

Under the BharatNet pro-ject, the government initiallytargeted to cover all 2.52 lakhgram panchayats with high-speed broadband services.

The Prime Minister laterannounced expansion of theproject to cover all villages aswell.

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New Delhi:The Governmentwill provide free visas to 5lakh tourists visiting India,Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman said on Monday.

Announcing measures torevive the tourism sector bat-tered by Covid-19,Sitharaman said financialsupport would be provided tomore than 11,000 registeredtourist guides, travel andtourism stakeholders.

PTI

New Delhi:Finance MinisterNirmala Sitharaman onMonday said the governmentwill infuse funds into ExportCredit Guarantee Corporation(ECGC) over a five-year peri-od to boost merchandiseexport insurance cover by Rs88,000 crore.ECGC promotesexports by providing creditinsurance services.

PTI

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The NCLT has reserved itsorder on the settlement

plan for Siva Industries after itgrilled the promoters and IDBIand asked them whether thesettlement plan is a ploy by thepromoters to seek a back doorentry. C Siva Sankaran is thepromoter of Siva Industriesand a citizen of Seychelles. In2018, the CBI filed a criminalcase against Siva Sankaran andformer senior officials of IDBIBank for defrauding the lendersto the tune of 600 crores. Thecase is still pending.

At the same time theSerious Fraud InvestigationOffice had alleged that SivaSankaran had defrauded ILFSfor hundreds of crores in activeconnivance with top brass ofILFS, Ravi Parthasarathi, HariSankaran and Ramesh Pahwa.

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�How safe are the COVID-19vaccines for pregnant women?

There is no doubt that preg-nant women need to be immu-nised against COVID-19 toenhance their protection.Unfortunately, much of the dis-course has been driven by vari-ous messages on social media.Within the span of a month offi-cial directives have gone from notpermitting the COVID vaccinefor pregnant women and lactat-ing mothers to the Government’srecent recommendation allowingCOVID-19 vaccine for both preg-nant and lactating women. Whilethis was done with an intentionof providing protection to thesewomen, critical decisions likethese should be based on scien-tific evidence with individualsafety being priority. �Which vaccine is safe for preg-nant women?

Based on documented evi-dence from the USA and the UKthe only evidence of safety for useduring pregnancy at the momentrests with the two mRNA vac-cines — Pfizer-BioNTech andModerna.

When one is dealing withpregnancy and lactation, thepublic health benefits at macro-scopic level cannot outweigh theserious risks at microscopiclevel. A dreaded complication ina particular individual could bedisastrous for a woman, herpregnancy and her family. Thespecific concerns with the rarercomplications of some vaccinessuch as the risk of blood clots orthromboembolism cannot bebrushed aside since being preg-nant itself carries a manifoldincrease in the risk of thrombo-sis magnifying the vaccine relat-ed risk. We are in urgent needfor more scientific evidence

regarding safety before power-ing ahead. �Pregnant women are a vulner-able group and are at increasedrisk for severe illness fromCovid-19. What illnesses?

In terms of getting the infec-tion, pregnant women are just asvulnerable as any other person.But when a pregnant woman getsinfected then she has a muchhigher risk of morbidity andmortality as compared to a non-pregnant woman. Pregnantwomen with severe disease are atgreater risk of ICU admission,

ventilation and death. Pregnantwomen with coexisting illnessessuch as Diabetes, hypertensionand obesity are at an even greaterrisk. There is also a higher risk ofpreterm birth, cesarean deliveryand hypertension associated withCOVID-19 infection duringpregnancy.�The COVID-19 vaccine shouldbe considered on the basis ofbenefit versus risk assessment.Who will assess the risk?

It is unfair for us to shiftresponsibility of whether or notto take the vaccine and whichvaccine to accept and take towomen shoulders since they donot have the necessary knowl-edge, understanding or skillsets to make such a decision.Besides this in reality a largepopulation of women in Indiaare not adequately empoweredor free to make these choices.Only science can do this forwomen through good evidencebacked by research. Once wehave evidence of safety andclarity as to the type of vaccineto use the answer will be evidentfor all to see.

������Sattu is a protein-richflour made from powderedchana or other pulses andcereals. The dry powder isprepared in various ways as aprincipal or secondaryingredient of dishes.

Drinking the sattu shar-bat helps you stay energeticthroughout the day. It can beprepared by mixing sattu witheither sugar and water or jal-jeera, green chillies, black saltand coriander leaves, depend-ing on how you want to haveit — sweet or sour. Sattu shar-bat is the perfect drink to bat-tle dehydration and heat stroke.

Sattu has amazing hydrat-ing properties, hence if con-sumed regularly; it can helprestore your skin’s natural glowIt also prevents the wear andtear of skin cells.

It is good for Diabetes too.It has a low glycemic index thatkeeps our sugar levels in check.The namkeen sattu drink maybe a good option for diabetics.

It also helps in weight lossby preventing unwantedhunger calls and also boostsdigestion.

COVID-19 is dropping abombshell every once in awhile, sometimes with the

sudden spike in cases, while theother with its variants. Once again,what proves to be a tough challengefor the experts is the Delta Plus vari-ant.

This has led to doctors andexperts predicting that the latestvariant could possibly trigger athird wave of the pandemic.

“The Delta Plus variant is avariant of concern that has beenrecently declared by theGovernment. It has already beenidentified and isolated in ninecountries and 22 cases have alreadybeen seen in India, especially inMaharashtra, which is already brac-ing for a third wave. It looks like thethird wave will hit Maharashtra inthe next six to eight weeks,” DrShuchin Bajaj, Internal Medicine(Founder-Director), Ujala CygnusGroup of Hospitals, tells you.

He adds that like the last wavewhich was driven by the Delta vari-ant, it is feared that the next wavewill be driven by Delta Plus.

What makes the variant a mat-ter of concern is the increasedinfection rate. “Delta Plus is muchmore infectious than the previousone. The other reason that makes iteven more concerning is it’sincreased binding to lung cells,which may give rise to a moresevere disease. And, the third is itspotentially reduced response to

monoclonal antibodies, which mayinterfere with the vaccine responseas well as medicines like the mon-oclonal antibody cocktail,” Bajajsays.

This means that even the pre-viously infected or vaccinated indi-viduals may suffer from the disease.

“All these reasons suggest thereis a definite risk that this new vari-ant will be more widespread as wellas more severe if it causes the thirdwave,” he adds.

Some symptoms of the variantresemble to the previous variantslike cough, diarrhoea, fever,headache, skin rash, discolourationof fingers and toes, chest pain andshortness of breath. While, stomachache, nausea and appetite loss canbe some of the new signs of the dis-ease.

“Delta plus variant has beeninstrumental in causing new waveof COVID pandemic in UK andparts of US. This is a variant of con-cern because of its high infectivityand can cause severe disease. Thereare concerns that it can bypass vac-cine immunity a phenomena calledimmune escape. A country likeIndia with big population size isalways at a risk of having extensiveeffect. This strain is likely to causethird wave if it ever comes. It istherefore important that peopleneed to follow COVID appropriatebehaviour at all times,” opines DrArunesh Kumar, HOD, Paras ChestInstitute & Senior Pulmonologist,

Paras Hospital, Gurugram.Dr Piyush Goel, Senior

Consultant, Pulmonary and CriticalCare, Columbia Asia Hospital,Palam Vihar, Gurugram, warnsthat the variant can possibly alsopre-pone the onset of the third waveas predicted, because of the risingcases of this variant.

“There are high chances thatthe Delta Plus variant can give riseto a third wave much before than wehave ever predicted. The efficacy ofthe available vaccines against thisvariant remain under the scannerbecause we don’t have proper stud-ies to support it. But with theincreased severity of the diseasewith this variant, the third wave canprove fatal. Needless to say, follow-ing COVID appropriate behaviouris paramount,” Kumar adds.

However, amid all this fear,there are people who have alreadystarted following COVID inappro-priate behaviour. Be it travellingwithout a reason or giving up theuse of mask, things seem to be backon square one. “The situation callsfor proper measures and it should-n’t be taken lightly. People, as we allcan see, have again become compla-cent. They should know that trav-elling unnecessarily can fast forwardthe spread of this variant. Thismeans that we have to follow allthe precautions like we did duringthe second wave. Only then, we willbe able to sail through the thirdwave,” says Goel.

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The Coronavirus pandemic and the subsequent lockdowns haveimpacted not only the cancer care but also the research in the

field of it. The uncertainty has introduced new risks for cancerpatients, disrupting the delivery of cancer treatment and the con-tinuity of cancer research. Many elective surgeries were cancelledto redirect resources and healthcare staff to manage the coronaviruspandemic. But at the same time it has revolutionised the clinicalcare by the introduction of tele-medicine, artificial intelligence anddigital healthcare services. It was the need of the hour to shift tothe digital medium so that continuous healthcare services shouldbe provided to the needy patients and curtail the spread of the virusso that patient can avail the services within the comfort of theirhouses.

For cancer patients, the challenging and unintended timesbegan for those who didn’t know that they are going through can-cer. Various studies have suggested that the pandemic led to aroughly 80 per cent drop in routine screening appointments thatcould catch new cancers in March and April. Since the cancerscreening can’t happen virtually, the cases of breast, colon andcervical cancer also increased. Most of the screenings for above-mentioned cancer require an in-person procedure like acolonoscopy (for colon cancer), mammogram (for breast can-

cer) or a pap smear (for cervi-cal cancer).

Delays in cancer screeningsand treatment are expected tolead to more than 10,000 addi-tional deaths from breast andcolorectal cancer over the nextdecade. However as we aregetting back to normal manyhealthcare centres are onceagain encouraging patients tocome in for routine care. Manyhave implemented safety pro-tocols that make it safe for mostpatients to come in for screen-ing tests. Doctors are also ask-ing outstation cancer patients,who are in the advanced stage,

to get their chemotherapy done from their nearest hospital justin case travelling is an issue.

COVID-19 can be harsh on cancer patients: COVID-19 hasa dangerous consequence of having an overaggressive immuneresponse known as a cytokine storm, which can damage lungand other tissues. Patients with cancer are treated with immune-stimulating therapies such as immune checkpoint inhibitors,chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies and bi-specif-ic T-cell engagers (BiTEs) are at the risk for complications if theimmune response produced by these therapies results in an attackon normal, healthy tissue. Patients treated with CAR T-cell ther-apies and BiTEs, in particular, can develop a side effect knownas cytokine release syndrome, which is similar to the cytokinestorm in patients with COVID-19. Researchers have theorizedthat COVID-19 could aggravate cytokine release syndrome inpatients treated with certain immunotherapies, but studies havenot definitely shown that this is happening, a new report states.

To limit the spread of COVID-19, many laboratories havedeveloped new policies so that limited number of lab workerscan enter. This also resulted on putting many studies on hold.Many projects supported by private philanthropy group facedfunding issues. Drastically decreased donations to cancer-focusedphilanthropic organisations have also been witnessed. This is notall. Some cancer centers also put a hold to all the enrollment onclinical trials entirely during the height of the pandemic. Despitethese challenges, investigators have come up with variety of waysto adapt to challenging circumstances so that trials could con-tinue. These included: leveraging telehealth, e-signatures for trialdocumentation and shipping oral medications and allowing teststo be done even outside the lab.

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Someone is rememberingyou, is the most com-mon reply we get when-

ever we have hiccups. While,we don’t know how true thefact is, what we know for sureis that it is annoying.

Often we are toldto slowly drinkwater, drop bydrop. While, itmay work forsome, butthere aremany whokeep ondoing it with-out afavourable result.Here are a few homeremedies that can help.

Put a teaspoon of sugarcrystals under your tongueand allow it to melt. Swallowand then have a glass ofwater. The hiccups will stop.Swallowing sugar stimulates

the vagus nerve and makesthe body forget the hiccups.

Holding of breath isanother age-old way to dealwith hiccups. It is recom-mended that you hold yourbreath for around 20-30 sec-

onds and repeat theprocedure twice

or thrice or tillthe hiccupsstop.

A l s o ,spices likecardamomand dry

ginger areknown to be

effective in deal-ing with the prob-

lem of long-term hiccupswhich refuse to go awayonce they come. Have gingerjuice with honey or boil halftsp of cardamom in one cupof water and sip like tea forbest results.

Hiccups can be extremelyannoying and hard to get ridof, especially for those suffer-

ing from it for a long time.ROSHANI DEVI shares easyhome remedies that can help

bid adieu to the problem

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Have you encountered a health issuethat aggravated because you worrytoo much? About one in seven

people in India suffered from mental dis-orders of varying severity in 2017, withdepression and anxiety disorders being themost common mental disorders affecting45.7 million and 44.9 million peopleeach in the country, as per a study doneby Indian Council of Medical Research.

It is said that, “If you believe you aresick, sickness will get you. And if youbelieve you are fit, fitness will embraceyou”. Modern science already acknowl-edges the strong connection betweenmind and body. The term psychosomat-ic refers to real physical symptoms influ-enced by the mind and emotions ratherthan a specific organic cause in the body(such as an injury or infection).

Whilst the necessity of formal medicalintervention cannot be emphasisedenough in treating a disease, supplement-ing it with a holistic approach of keepinga positive attitude and relaxed mind dra-matically improves the speed and quali-ty of the patient’s recovery. More impor-tantly, a psychological approach to well-being assures long-term cure minus theside effects from prolonged medication.

This is where Neuro LinguisticsProgramming (NLP) becomes an extreme-ly potent mind-programming instrument.A fusion of psychology, linguistics, cyber-netics and hypnosis balanced together,NLP is a toolbox of techniques workingat conscious and unconscious levels thatcan alter your thoughts, beliefs, memoriesand even habits. Its simple, fast and prac-tical methods help you take control of yourmind with proven benefits on psychoso-matic health issues.

Here are a few NLP techniques thatpractitioners use:

Anchoring: Setting up your mind tosubconsciously trigger desired emotionsanytime. Imagine installing a ‘emotionswitch’ you can use to get positive feelingsinstantly.

Reframing: Giving an optimistic andempowering perspective to any adversityand handle it calmly. Situations are onlyas good or bad as what you make them inyour mind.

Dynamic Spin Release: A proven,instant-anxiety-release process used bythousands of people to get immediate andpermanent relief from fears, anxiety andnegative feelings.

Swish pattern: The time-tested tech-nique to install any desired behaviorsuch as exercising, healthy eating, elimi-nate bad habits and set up a positivelifestyle.

As a full-fledged therapy science,NLP offers a plethora of methods toreverse even psychosomatic disorderslike asthma, allergies, ailments, hyperten-sion and much more. Worldwide, millionsof people are learning NLP and experienc-ing its incredible benefits in keepingtheir mind and soul healthy and thriving.Anyone can enroll into a NLP workshopor take NLP training online to keep theirmind and soul healthy.!����� �����"� ��� ������ � ���C������4����0?������-?��!�����0�9���� ������ �D��� ���

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When a child is born, theirgender already defines whatthey wear and how they

need to behave in society. Sadly, thisconditioning becomes the norm andgets ingrained in the way kids liveand interact with others. Moreover,they carry this mindset to school,which paves the way for gender dis-crimination and stereotypical behav-iour, precisely why schools need tostep up and strip away these gendernorms.

Before these thoughts processesbecome rigid practices, teachersneed to adopt a gender-neutral set-ting, a learning environment that isinclusive to all. So, where do youstart? Fostering a learning environ-ment that is welcoming and support-ive. The journey to nurturing aninclusive learning culture may belong and challenging. But it startswith you.

For children, school is a cocoonwhere they feel safe and happy.Moreover, a child’s mind is like a cleanslate, waiting to explore and absorb.Teachers can mould their thinkingand encourage them to be the bestversion of themselves. When teachersreflect on their own experiences,they tend to build a learning culturethat is inclusive and inviting. So, howcan one be more sensitive towards theway gender is presented or spoken ofin classrooms? Championing genderequality techniques to kickstart a newera of learning.

Knowing the students well:Taking the time to learn about achild’s interests, hobbies, and back-ground can ensure that they feelincluded. When teachers take aninterest in knowing a child, they forgea bond with them. Through constantencouragement and motivation, chil-dren feel comfortable and also startrespecting those around them.

Going beyond the binaries: Oneof the most effective ways to expanda child’s thinking on gender equalityis by breaking the binaries. Whenreferring to children in the classroom,teachers can use gender-neutral pro-nouns like ‘they, them, their, everyone’instead of ‘he, she or guys’. Using inclu-sive language lays the foundation foran equal learning atmosphere.

Eliminating assumptions:Children tend to pick up a habit or abelief very quickly. Thus, teachers needto be aware of the language they usein class. They need to ensure that theydon’t make any assumptions aboutsomeone’s ability, personality, or pro-fession. Including role reversal tech-niques (like women in construction ormen doing a household chore) chal-lenges these assumptions, forces themto question the norms, and promotesgender equality among students.

Giving them a voice: Listening isa skill that not many tend to possess,but it is a vital skill. Teachers need tobe good listeners, give students thesuitable space to express their con-cerns, and share their experiences.This creates a gender-inclusive learn-ing environment where students thriveand respect the opposite gender.

Being open to feedback:Continuous evaluation leads to con-sistent learning. Making the classroom

open for feedback and discussions isa great way to keep growing. Whenteachers start involving children, thewhole atmosphere transforms, andkids start thriving in a more open andinclusive environment.

Encouraging project-basedlearning: Pairing up boys and girls fora group project can be a great ice-breaker. Once they become a team and

work together on projects, theyunderstand the nuances of individualbehaviour and respect each othermore.

Re-visiting the curriculum:Teachers can re-visit the curriculumto ensure that it includes stories andvoices of people from all walks of life.Making the curriculum more inclu-sive by featuring a more gender-aware

syllabus can be a great place to start.Gender equality is not just about

listening and understanding; it ismore about respecting and accepting.Children understand more than youknow, and teaching them about gen-der-neutrality from a young age canmake them more aware and empa-thetic.

(The writer is the ManagingDirector of The Green Acres Academy.)

Actor Ayushmann Khurrana delivered an exceptional per-formance in the Anubhav Sinha directed Article 15. On

its second release anniversary, Ayushmann feels superlativecontent will be the driving force to bring people back to the-atres post-pandemic.

He says, “Article 15 is a special film in my filmographyand I can’t thank Anubhav Sinha sir for giving me one ofthe most cherished films of my career. It was an eye-open-ing film for me and helped me see things from a differentlens. We will needfilms like Article 15,with its superlativecontent, to pull peo-ple back to theatres.”

He adds, “Wewill need to be dis-ruptive and presentfresh content forpeople to enjoy,engage and discuss.I’m a firm believerthat the pandemicand lockdowns havemade us more opin-ionated than beforeand people wouldonly want to investtime and energy onthings that are out ofthe box and differ-ent. They wouldwant to have community experiences that are worthwhile.”

Ayushmann is a firm believer that fresh, unique and dis-ruptive cinema will manage to restart the theatrical busi-ness in India. He says, “Cinema will provide them with thatoption but we will have to produce the best content that wehave ever produced. People will want to be entertained withfilms that celebrate new ideas. The scale of the film will beimmaterial because content will take precedence in a wholenew world.”

“People have already been exposed to brilliant contentfrom across the world. So, for them to step out to a theatreto watch a film they need a huge incentive and content willplay this crucial role. People will want to watch brilliant films.So, let’s all aim to provide the audience with that and suc-cessfully restart our industry and the exhibition sector,” headds.

Ayushmann will soon be seen in three entertainersChandigarh Kare Aashiqui, directed by Abhishek Kapoor,Anek, directed by Anubhav Sinha, and Doctor G, directedby Anubhuti Kashyap.

With the unprecedented tur-moil from the global pan-

demic, being anxious about yourloved ones’ wellbeing has affect-ed your health. The vitality ofsleep is usually sacrificed duringsuch stressful situations. Sleep isvital to physical health and for theeffective functioning of theimmune system. A key promot-er of emotional wellness andmental health, restful sleep helpsfight back stress, depression andanxiety. With increased stressand anxiety, there is an increasedimpact on sleep patterns and thebest way to improve your sleep isto stick with good sleep habits.

A good night’s worth of sleepstrengthens your body’s defenceand empowers you to build an

effective immune system. Thiscritical biological process con-tributes to complex thinking,learning, memory and decisionmaking, heightening our brain’sfunctions.

While it can also effectivelyenhance your mood and improvemental health, lack of sleep caus-es irritation, low energy levels,feelings of depression.

Getting consistent, high-qual-ity sleep improves all aspects ofhealth which is why it is arguablymore important than ever in thebackdrop of the pandemic. Ahealthy sleeping schedule is thefruit of consistency and effort.However, it should come ease toyou, if you abide by the following:

�Your bed should only be

reserved for sleeping, avoid bring-ing a laptop, food or games tobed! Create a cosy bed environ-ment to help your purpose ofsleeping better. Keep your bedwell organised and clean at alltimes, fluff your pillow, changeyour sheets. And most important-ly, invest in a mattress that con-tributes to your restful sleep.

�Build a sleep schedule foryourself. Define sleep specifictasks and stick to the routine. Setyourself a sleep alarm that helpsyou wind down every night.

�Your daytime eating habitshave a major impact on yourbody and your sleep! Limit yourintake of caffeine, sugar andcarbs not just to sleep better, butalso for a healthier body.

�Meditation and exercise aremajor contributors that help youget restful sleep and also con-tribute to a healthy body andmind. However, engaging in vig-orous exertion of any sort lessthan two hours before bedtimemay affect your sleep. Deepbreathing and light stretchingbefore bedtime will push themind and body into a restfulslumber.

�Lastly, but most impor-tantly, let go of stress, anger andworry before sleeping. Developbedtime rituals that help youclear your thoughts and investyour time in journaling or use aweighted blanket to unwind andget restful sleep.

(The author is founder andCEO of a luxury sleeping mattress-es brand.)

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The ongoing lockdownrestrictions in India

might have eased up, butmost of the workforce con-tinues to work from home.However, the idea of work-ing from home will contin-ue to be a norm in the com-ing future. Over the past yearand a half, there have beenmultiple talks and discus-sions on how WFH can betaxing at times. With longworking hours, individualsare unable to take out timefor self-care and their part-ners.

During the pandemic,there was a surge in onlinedating. However, keeping itgoing might be a challenge,keeping in mind the WFHculture. Here are some cre-ative tips to ace online dat-ing while working fromhome.

�����The idea of taking it one

day at a time has been thecore philosophy of the pan-demic. We are not disagree-ing with this notion, but it isequally important to planyour day not only with yourwork task list but with yourpartner as well. With tightdeadlines and hectic sched-ules, make it a point to dis-cuss the availability of yourpartner. Have a hearty con-versation with your partnereither before they start forthe day, during a break orwhen they log off. A sched-ule like this will bring stabil-ity to your relationship anda sense of security knowingthat your partner is there tocomfort you during the day.

���"��+����#� �We all have a sense of

gratitude towards ouremployers who have sup-ported their teams by allow-ing them to work fromhome. However, this cannotbe equated by working 24×7.This has been a major prob-lem during the pandemic.The right way to address thisis to be open and transpar-ent with your team. Shareyour work timelines andload with them and say nowhen you feel you are beingoverwhelmed with work.Discussing these issues willmake the balance of workingfrom home more transpar-ent. Prioritising work is right,but that does not mean can-celling virtual dates. Youknow they count too!

����������������9Voicing your thoughts

and opinions to your partnerbecomes much more signif-icant when you are not meet-ing them physically. Forinstance, if you feel uncom-fortable talking till late atnight or are tired of talkingbecause of work, express thesame.

Keeping these thoughtswill make you frustratedand eventually will take a tollon your relationship.Honesty is the best policy,even when it comes to onlinedating! Also, you will lookforward to your time withyour partner, and not mere-ly a call that you just have toget over with.

���� �����Bollywood actor Sharukh Khan talked

about 70 minutes in Chak de India; we say youhave a 60-minute cruising session with your sig-nificant other. Amid the tight schedule and dead-lines, take out an hour only for your partner.Spend that time exclusively with your partner,you can dance to some music or watch a film,among other things. Use your imagination, sure-ly you have some brilliant ideas too? Believe us,this will bring excitement to your monotonous

schedule and bring you both closer.

�������H�����While it is beautiful to have a conversation

with your loved one after a tiring day, it is equal-ly important to indulge in some self-care. Usually,in the rigmarole of work and life, we forget to giveourselves a break. This could be writing a jour-nal, drinking coffee with your favourite music, orjust reading something. This will give you clari-ty about where your life and career are heading,and help you bust stress before it becomes a seri-ous concern. Being relaxed will have positiveimplications on your relationships as well.

(The author is head of trends for an online dat-ing app.)

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Arocket from ThorganHazard knocked reign-ing champions Portugal

out of Euro 2020 on Sunday andearned Belgium a blockbusterquarter-final with Italy.

Hazard’s swerving shotbefore half-time sealed a 1-0win for Belgium and settled ascrappy contest in Seville thatnever really lived up to itsbilling as the stand-out tie of thelast 16.

But it could prove a state-ment victory for Belgium,whose chief concern now willbe the fitness of Kevin DeBruyne and Eden Hazard, whoboth hobbled off injured andwill undergo scans.

De Bruyne suffered anankle injury while coachRoberto Martinez said Hazard’sproblem was “more of a mus-cle feeling”.

Cristiano Ronaldo testedThibaut Courtois with a dip-ping free-kick in the first halfbut the 36-year-old neitherbroke the international goalsrecord nor added to his five forthe tournament.

Raphael Guerreiro wentclosest to a late equaliser whenhis shot came back off thepost, one of 29 shots Portugal

had, six of them on target.But before the late rally,

Belgium were the braver, morefluid team and Martinez hailedhis side’s fighting spirit to holdon.

“We showed our talent inthe first half and in the secondhalf we showed an aspect thatwasn’t there two or three yearsago,” said Martinez. “This iswhat a winning team needs.”

For all the superstar nameson the pitch, it was EdenHazard’s less heralded brotherThorgan who proved decisive,the Borussia Dortmund wingerwho Eden once said had even

more talent than him.“In these games if you have

a chance you have to have a go,”Thorgan said. “It went in, witha bit of luck and it was the goalthat got us through. It’s a dreamfor me.”

Portugal, meanwhile, stuckto the defensive approach thatserved them so well in Francefive years ago but has perhapsbeen outgrown by a side thatnow boasts some of the mostcreative technicians in theworld. “I think it’s an unfairresult but they scored and wedidn’t,” said Portugal coachFernando Santos.

“Looking at that secondhalf, we are lucky to win,”Belgium defender ThomasVermaelen said. “Portugal madeit really hard for us. We had toreally stay focused. It has costus a lot of energy, but we havesome time to recover and nowwe are looking forward to thegame against Italy.”

While Portugal’s run for asecond consecutive Europeantitle ended, Belgium stayed ontrack to end its title drought.The Belgians lost in theEuropean Championship finalin 1980 and finished third threeyears ago at the World Cup fortheir best finish at that tourna-ment.

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Twenty-five years on fromthe penalty miss that cast

a shadow over his playingcareer, England managerGareth Southgate has a shotat redemption and revengeagainst Germany.

Euro 2020’s blockbusterlast 16 clash comes much ear-lier in the tournament thanthe Euro 96 semi-f inalbetween the pair whenSouthgate was the only one of12 players unable to find thenet from the spot.

But with a favourableroute to the final for the vic-tors and England enjoyinghome advantage at Wembleyon Tuesday and the semi-finals and final should theyget there, the pressure is onSouthgate to deliver.

Southgate himself hastried to get his England teamto look forward not back,especially given the ThreeLions’ record againstGermany in major tourna-ments.

Since lifting the WorldCup in 1966, England havenever won a knockout gameagainst the four-time worldchampions, losing at the1970, 1990 and 2010 WorldCups on top of the pain ofEuro 96.

“There’s no point fearingthe past,” Manchester Unitedforward Marcus Rashfordsaid this week. “You can’t goback and change it. What wecan change is the result of thenext game.”

Despite topping Group Dwith seven points from apossible nine, a return ofjust two goals from threegames has not impressed theEngland fans on their returnto Wembley.

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BCCI President SouravGanguly on Monday con-

firmed that the T20 World Cupscheduled to take place in Indialater this year is now being shift-ed to the UAE owing to thehealth safety concerns posed byCovid-19.

Ending weeks of specula-tion surrounding the mega-event in October-November,Ganguly told PTI, “We have offi-cially intimated the ICC that theT20 World Cup can be shiftedto the United Arab Emirates.The details are being chalkedout.”

“The decision was takenkeeping health safety concerns

of all stakeholders in mind,” headded.

The BCCI will, however,remain the hosts of the show-piece.

The former Indian captainalso informed that October 17has not been finalised as thestart date of the tournament yet.

“We will be able to finaliseitinerary details in some days.October 17 start hasn’t yet beenfinalised.”

Even an ICC spokespersonconfirmed that the global bodyis yet to zero in on a final sched-ule.

The ICC, at the start of themonth, had given BCCI a four-week window to decide andinform whether India could

host the marquee event consid-ering the Covid-19 situation inthe country.

BCCI secretary Jay Shah, ina letter to all state units, said thatthe decision was taken keepingin mind that “safety of playersand other stakeholders is ofparamount importance...”

Shah also wrote that “it wasnot an easy decision and wemulled over it for months, con-stantly keeping an eye on Covidsituation all along.”

“However with the secondwave causing such devastation,the decision ultimately boileddown to the safety and wellbeing of the players and orga-nizers,” he admitted.

“There is nothing more

that we could have wanted thanto host this prestigious tourna-ment in India, but it was not tobe.”

It was a foregone conclusionthat India will find it difficult tohost a 16-country tournamentacross nine cities with so manylayers of health security con-cerns being there.

The ICC had already start-ed its preparations and logisticsfor the tournament which willbe held in Dubai, Sharjah andAbu Dhabi. The qualifyinground could be held in Muscat,which will give ideal time to thepitches in UAE to freshen upafter 31 remaining games of IPLare held till October 15.

Once the IPL was shifted to

the UAE, it was apparent thatthe T20 World Cup will movetoo given the looming concernsabout a possible third wave ofCovid-19 infection around thattime.


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Martin Dudziak's CV

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