3ZYRc g`eVcd \VVa aRceZVd XfVddZ_X - Daily Pioneer

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B ihar witnessed moderate turnout in the second phase of the Assembly polls on Tuesday, but the rural vs urban divide was clearly visible on the polling booths that gave hope and despair to the respective alliance in the State. The 94 Assembly con- stituencies that went to poll in the phase two of Bihar elections on Tuesday recorded 53.51 per cent turnout and the figure was likely to go up as voting con- tinued beyond schedule in sev- eral places, the Election Commission said. The combined voter turnout in the two phases was recorded at 53.79 per cent till 5 pm, the Commission said. In the corresponding constituen- cies which went to poll in the 2015 Assembly polls, the turnout was 55.35 per cent, the EC said. While rural pockets of Bihar, especially those domi- nated by the Yadav and Muslim voters saw impressive turnout, the situation was just the oppo- site in the State capital Patna, which has been a BJP bastion for decades. Patna saw a turnout of just 48 per cent where as Muzaffarpur record- ed nearly 60 per cent polling. If the BJP has to worry because of lower turnout in Patna , then the JD (U) has its own share of concerns because of the second lowest turnout of 51 per cent in Nitish Kumar’s home district of Nalanda. The JD(U) had won five out of seven seats in the district in the 2015 Assembly polls. West Champaran clocked 59.69 per cent voting, East Champaran 57 per cent, Sitamadhi 58 per cent and Seohar 46 per cent. The urban district of Bhagalpur saw a turnout of 54 per cent. In rest of the districts, the turnout var- ied between 54 to 48 per cent. Ground reports suggested that youth voters turned up in large numbers to cast their votes. Incidentally, Grand Alliance chief ministerial can- didate Tejashwi Yadav has been aggressively wooing the youth voters with the promise of 10 lakh Government jobs. The second phase of elec- tions will decide the electoral fate of RJD leader and Mahagathbandhan’s chief min- isterial face Tejashwi Yadav and more than 1,450 other can- didates. Polling began at 7 am, but the time for its conclusion has been extended by one hour till 6 pm to facilitate Covid-19 patients and those with symp- toms of the disease to exercise their franchise during the final hour. The process, however, concluded early in the Maoist- hit areas. Vaishali district’s Raghopur, from where RJD leader and chief ministerial candidate of the Opposition Grand Alliance Tejashwi Yadav is contesting, has recorded 54 per cent polling, as per the EC data. Hasanpur, from where Lalu Prasad’s elder son Tej Pratap Yadav is in the fray, has record- ed an estimated 54.25 per cent votes till 5 pm. Fifty-one per cent voting was recorded in Parsa from where JDU’s Chandrika Roy, the father of Tej Pratap’s estranged wife Aishwarya, is contesting. A mericans were voting in large numbers on Tuesday in one of the most divisive bit- ter presidential elections in decades in which incumbent Republican Donald Trump is challenged by Democrat Joe Biden. Amidst a resurgent Covid-19 pandemic, nearly 100 million people have already cast their ballots in early vot- ing, putting the country on course for its highest turnout in a century. 239 million people are eligible to vote this year. The mail-in ballots could take days or weeks to be count- ed in some states — meaning a winner might not be declared in the hours after polls close on Tuesday. Security has been tight- ened at the White House and major commercial avenues across the US, with retailers boarding up their stores to head off any damages as America braced for possible unrest and violence in a bitter and divisive presidential race. About 600 National Guard troops have also been desig- nated to help respond to protests around the country if requested. Everyone, of course, is concerned about the election results and what plays out after. There is an estimated four million Indian-American pop- ulation of which about 2.5 million are potential voters in the November 2020 presiden- tial elections. Over 1.3 million Indian-Americans are voters in key battleground states, includ- ing Texas, Michigan, Florida and Pennsylvania. Large lines were seen and hundreds of people had queued up before polling stations, in particularly in the key battle- ground States like Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. The timing of the start of the polling differs from State to State, mainly due to the differ- ent time zones. People mostly in the East coast started trick- ling down to the polling sta- tions as many States opened up the polling stations at around 6 am (4.30 pm IST). These States include Virginia, New York, New Jersey, and Maine. Polling in California starts at 7 am (8.30 pm IST). Trump in the wee hours of Tuesday urged Americans to vote for him. F ive people died, including an assailant, and 17 others were wounded in a shooting in the heart of Vienna hours before a coronavirus lockdown started, Austrian authorities said on Tuesday. The dead attacker was a 20-year-old Austrian-North Macedonian dual national who had a pre- vious terror conviction. Two men and two women died from their injuries in the attack on Monday evening, Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said. The suspected attacker was shot and killed by police. Vienna’s hospital service said seven people were in life- threatening condition on Tuesday after the attack, the Austrian news agency APA reported. In total, 17 people were being treated in hospitals, with gunshot wounds but also cuts. “It is now confirmed that yesterday’s attack was clearly an Islamist terror attack,” Kurz said. “It was an attack out of hatred — hatred for our fun- damental values, hatred for our way of life, hatred for our democracy in which all people have equal rights and dignity.” Interior Minister Karl Nehammer later told APA that the dead assailant, who had roots in the Balkan nation of North Macedonia, had a pre- vious conviction under a law that punishes membership in terrorist organisations. The attacker, named as Kujtim Fejzulai, was sentenced to 22 months in prison in April 2019 because he had tried to travel to Syria to join the Islamic State group. He was granted early release in December under juvenile law. A mid ongoing tension at the Line of Actual Control (LAC), the Malabar series of naval exercises among the navies of India, the US, Japan and Australia commenced off Visakhapatnam in the Bay of Bengal on Tuesday. Australia is participating for the first time after India brushed aside China’s objection on its inclusion. Australia was keen to take part in the joint exercise and the US and Japan — the two other Quad nations — also favoured its inclusion. Held annually, this year’s Malabar exercises will be held in two phases. The first phase is from November 3 to 6 in the Bay of Bengal, while the second phase will take place in mid- November in the Arabian Sea. The current edition is unique as the Australian Navy is taking part in the exercise for the first time. China all along resisted the Australian partic- ipation claiming that the Quad countries are trying to mili- tarise the coalition and pose threat in the Indo-Pacific region. In 2007 Australia was invited for the Malabar event leading to strong protest by China. The Malabar exercise start- ed in 1992 as a bilateral drill between the Indian Navy and the US Navy in the Indian Ocean. Japan became a per- manent participant in the exer- cise in 2015. The annual exer- cise was conducted off the coast of Guam in the Philippine Sea in 2018 and off the coast of Japan in 2019. The 2+2 ministerial level dialogue between India and the US here last week had expressed satisfaction over the Malabar exercise. It will see all the four Quadrilateral coun- tries exercising together for the first time. Reacting to the beginning of the prestigious exercise, China said it hoped that the exercises would be conducive to the regional peace and sta- bility instead of the contrary. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a media briefing in Beijing “we hope that relevant countries’ military operations will be conducive to peace and stabil- ity in the region instead of the contrary”. T he air quality slipped back into the “very poor” cate- gory again in Delhi on Tuesday after recording a marginal improvement. However, the share of stub- ble burning in Delhi’s pollution dropped to 10 per cent during the day due to a change in the wind direction, a Central Government agency said. Officials at the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said the air quality had improved on Monday with high wind speed aiding dis- persion of pollutants. However, stagnant night- time conditions led to accu- mulation of pollutants. The city recorded an air quality index (AQI) of 332 at 10 am. It improved to 302 by 4 pm as wind speed picked up. The 24-hour average AQI was 293 on Monday which falls in the “poor” category. It was 364 on Sunday, with stubble burning contributing to 40 per cent of Delhi’s pollution. T he enforcement agencies are making headlines in Mumbai for going after Bollywood actors for posses- sion and consumption of even small amount of narcotic sub- stances, but in poll-bound Bihar the quantum of seizure has failed to grab eyeballs though the amount is baffling. The authorities have seized a large quantity of ganja, mar- ijuana, poppy, tobacco, and cannabis showing why prohi- bition has become such a big issue in Assembly polls this time. Over 7.79 lakh litre liquor, 4871.99 kg ganja, 108 kg marijuana (charas), 1.5 kg heroine, 40 kg tobacco, 3,350 kg cannabis (bhang), 12.50 kg poppy, and 150 gram brown sugar have been seized by the Election Commission so far till the voting of second phase of polls in Bihar. In addition, the EC has also seized 24.84 crore unac- counted money, over 90 lakh Nepalese currency, 19.68 kg gold and precious ornaments, 275 kg silver. In a related development, Janata Dal (United) MLA from Matihani, Narendra Kumar Singh, alias Bogo Singh, was arrested late on Monday in Begusarai district for alleged- ly distributing money to voters’ hours before polling began in the second phase of the Assembly election. According to the chief elec- toral officer of Bihar, the enforcement agencies have seized 52.89 crore so far after the implementation of the model code of conduct. The seized amount is higher than in the 2015 Assembly polls and 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Over 19.52 crore have been recov- ered during vehicle checking across the State. During the phase I polling, over 10.78 litre liquor was seized. The Opposition is now relentlessly attacking Nitish Kumar for the “farce in the name of prohibi- tion due to rampant smuggling and the growing use of drugs” while the JD(U) is extolling its virtues. As per the Excise Department data, before the liquor ban, Bihar consumed close to 26 million litres of alco- hol each month. The same year, the estimated all-India fig- ures for alcohol consumption stood at about 5.70 billion litres. Over 3 million litres of liquor have been confiscated during the four and a half years since prohibition. Up to 1.4 million litres of this confiscat- ed liquor was country-made and over 1.6 million litre for- eign-made. According to the EC, over 3.54 lakh people (bad charac- ters or having criminal back- grounds) have been out on notice in the State during polls. The data shows 25,215 arms have been deposited while licenses to 3,062 arms licence have been cancelled. To main- tain law and order, the author- ities have acted against 4,983 people under the crime control act. According to EC, 857 spe- cial surveillance teams have been deployed in the State to keep an eye to check on black money and supply of drugs, liquor to lure voters. During the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the EC had seized 9.12 crore black money, 1.24 lakh litre liquor, 717 kg drugs and 62 kg precious ornaments and jewelry from Bihar. In the Assembly elections in 2015, seizures worth 23.8 crores were registered by the EC machinery with 19 crore of cash found circulating besides 5.78 lakh litres of illicit country- made and foreign liquor from different places in Bihar, while the recoveries in 2019 was less than 20 per cent of that. A mid reports of violence at a few places, Madhya Pradesh recorded 66.37 per cent voter turnout in the cru- cial bypolls for 28 Assembly seats. The highest polling per- centage was recorded 83.69 per cent for two seats in Nagaland, followed by Telangana 81.44 per cent. According to the Election Commission, the poll percent- age was 51.57 per cent in Uttar Pradesh, 51.3 per cent in Karnataka, 68.08 per cent in Odisha, 81.44 per cent in Telangana, 62.51 per cent in Jharkhand, 68 per cent in Haryana, 57.98 per cent in Gujarat and 71.99 per cent in Chhattisgarh. In Madhya Pradesh, A total of 355 candidates, including 12 Ministers, are in the fray in these bypolls. The stakes are high for Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, former CM Kamal Nath, Jyotiraditya Scindia, and Narendra Singh Tomar in the bypolls. Congress veteran Digvijaya Singh questioned the use of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) in India, saying the device is prone to hacking. According to the EC, the aver- age voting percentage in the 2018 Assembly polls in these 28 constituencies, most of them in the Gwalior-Chambal region, was 72.93. New Delhi: Achieving a sig- nificant milestone in the fight against coronavirus, India’s active Covid-19 cases have fallen below 5.5 lakh and now comprise merely 6.55 per cent of the total infections as the number of recoveries crossed 76 lakh, the Union Health Ministry said on Tuesday. The slide in active cases is supplemented by an exponential rise in recoveries, it said.

Transcript of 3ZYRc g`eVcd \VVa aRceZVd XfVddZ_X - Daily Pioneer

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Bihar witnessed moderateturnout in the second phase

of the Assembly polls onTuesday, but the rural vs urbandivide was clearly visible on thepolling booths that gave hopeand despair to the respectivealliance in the State.

The 94 Assembly con-

stituencies that went to poll inthe phase two of Bihar electionson Tuesday recorded 53.51 percent turnout and the figure waslikely to go up as voting con-tinued beyond schedule in sev-eral places, the ElectionCommission said.

The combined voterturnout in the two phases wasrecorded at 53.79 per cent till

5 pm, the Commission said. Inthe corresponding constituen-cies which went to poll in the2015 Assembly polls, theturnout was 55.35 per cent, theEC said.

While rural pockets ofBihar, especially those domi-nated by the Yadav and Muslimvoters saw impressive turnout,the situation was just the oppo-site in the State capital Patna,which has been a BJP bastionfor decades. Patna saw aturnout of just 48 per centwhere as Muzaffarpur record-ed nearly 60 per cent polling.

If the BJP has to worrybecause of lower turnout inPatna , then the JD (U) has itsown share of concerns becauseof the second lowest turnout of51 per cent in Nitish Kumar’shome district of Nalanda. TheJD(U) had won five out ofseven seats in the district in the2015 Assembly polls.

West Champaran clocked59.69 per cent voting, EastChamparan 57 per cent,Sitamadhi 58 per cent andSeohar 46 per cent. The urbandistrict of Bhagalpur saw aturnout of 54 per cent. In restof the districts, the turnout var-ied between 54 to 48 per cent.

Ground reports suggestedthat youth voters turned up inlarge numbers to cast theirvotes. Incidentally, GrandAlliance chief ministerial can-didate Tejashwi Yadav has beenaggressively wooing the youthvoters with the promise of 10lakh Government jobs.

The second phase of elec-tions will decide the electoral

fate of RJD leader andMahagathbandhan’s chief min-isterial face Tejashwi Yadavand more than 1,450 other can-didates.

Polling began at 7 am, butthe time for its conclusion hasbeen extended by one hour till6 pm to facilitate Covid-19patients and those with symp-toms of the disease to exercisetheir franchise during the finalhour. The process, however,concluded early in the Maoist-hit areas.

Vaishali district’sRaghopur, from where RJD

leader and chief ministerialcandidate of the OppositionGrand Alliance Tejashwi Yadavis contesting, has recorded 54per cent polling, as per the ECdata.

Hasanpur, from where LaluPrasad’s elder son Tej PratapYadav is in the fray, has record-ed an estimated 54.25 per centvotes till 5 pm. Fifty-one percent voting was recorded inParsa from where JDU’sChandrika Roy, the father ofTej Pratap’s estranged wifeAishwarya, is contesting.

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Americans were voting inlarge numbers on Tuesday

in one of the most divisive bit-ter presidential elections indecades in which incumbentRepublican Donald Trump ischallenged by Democrat JoeBiden. Amidst a resurgentCovid-19 pandemic, nearly100 million people have alreadycast their ballots in early vot-ing, putting the country oncourse for its highest turnout ina century. 239 million peopleare eligible to vote this year.

The mail-in ballots couldtake days or weeks to be count-ed in some states — meaninga winner might not be declaredin the hours after polls close onTuesday.

Security has been tight-ened at the White House andmajor commercial avenues

across the US, with retailersboarding up their stores tohead off any damages asAmerica braced for possibleunrest and violence in a bitterand divisive presidential race.About 600 National Guardtroops have also been desig-nated to help respond toprotests around the country ifrequested. Everyone, of course,is concerned about the electionresults and what plays out after.

There is an estimated fourmillion Indian-American pop-ulation of which about 2.5million are potential voters inthe November 2020 presiden-tial elections. Over 1.3 millionIndian-Americans are voters inkey battleground states, includ-ing Texas, Michigan, Floridaand Pennsylvania.

Large lines were seen andhundreds of people had queued

up before polling stations, inparticularly in the key battle-ground States like Pennsylvaniaand Wisconsin.

The timing of the start ofthe polling differs from State toState, mainly due to the differ-ent time zones. People mostlyin the East coast started trick-ling down to the polling sta-tions as many States opened upthe polling stations at around6 am (4.30 pm IST). TheseStates include Virginia, NewYork, New Jersey, and Maine.Polling in California starts at 7am (8.30 pm IST).

Trump in the wee hours ofTuesday urged Americans tovote for him.

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Five people died, includingan assailant, and 17 others

were wounded in a shooting inthe heart of Vienna hoursbefore a coronavirus lockdownstarted, Austrian authoritiessaid on Tuesday. The deadattacker was a 20-year-oldAustrian-North Macedoniandual national who had a pre-vious terror conviction.

Two men and two womendied from their injuries in theattack on Monday evening,Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said.The suspected attacker wasshot and killed by police.

Vienna’s hospital servicesaid seven people were in life-threatening condition onTuesday after the attack, theAustrian news agency APA

reported. In total, 17 peoplewere being treated in hospitals,with gunshot wounds but alsocuts.

“It is now confirmed thatyesterday’s attack was clearly anIslamist terror attack,” Kurzsaid. “It was an attack out ofhatred — hatred for our fun-damental values, hatred forour way of life, hatred for ourdemocracy in which all peoplehave equal rights and dignity.”

Interior Minister KarlNehammer later told APA that

the dead assailant, who hadroots in the Balkan nation ofNorth Macedonia, had a pre-vious conviction under a lawthat punishes membership interrorist organisations.

The attacker, named asKujtim Fejzulai, was sentencedto 22 months in prison inApril 2019 because he hadtried to travel to Syria to jointhe Islamic State group. He wasgranted early release inDecember under juvenile law.

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Amid ongoing tension atthe Line of Actual Control

(LAC), the Malabar series ofnaval exercises among thenavies of India, the US, Japanand Australia commenced offVisakhapatnam in the Bay ofBengal on Tuesday.

Australia is participatingfor the first time after Indiabrushed aside China’s objectionon its inclusion. Australia waskeen to take part in the jointexercise and the US and Japan— the two other Quad nations— also favoured its inclusion.

Held annually, this year’sMalabar exercises will be heldin two phases. The first phaseis from November 3 to 6 in theBay of Bengal, while the secondphase will take place in mid-November in the Arabian Sea.

The current edition isunique as the Australian Navyis taking part in the exercise for

the first time. China all alongresisted the Australian partic-ipation claiming that the Quadcountries are trying to mili-tarise the coalition and posethreat in the Indo-Pacificregion. In 2007 Australia wasinvited for the Malabar eventleading to strong protest byChina.

The Malabar exercise start-ed in 1992 as a bilateral drillbetween the Indian Navy andthe US Navy in the IndianOcean. Japan became a per-manent participant in the exer-cise in 2015. The annual exer-cise was conducted off thecoast of Guam in the PhilippineSea in 2018 and off the coast ofJapan in 2019.

The 2+2 ministerial level

dialogue between India and theUS here last week hadexpressed satisfaction over theMalabar exercise. It will see allthe four Quadrilateral coun-tries exercising together forthe first time.

Reacting to the beginningof the prestigious exercise,China said it hoped that theexercises would be conduciveto the regional peace and sta-bility instead of the contrary.

Chinese Foreign Ministryspokesman Wang Wenbin tolda media briefing in Beijing “wehope that relevant countries’military operations will beconducive to peace and stabil-ity in the region instead of thecontrary”.

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The air quality slipped backinto the “very poor” cate-

gory again in Delhi on Tuesdayafter recording a marginalimprovement.

However, the share of stub-ble burning in Delhi’s pollutiondropped to 10 per cent duringthe day due to a change in thewind direction, a CentralGovernment agency said.

Officials at the IndiaMeteorological Department(IMD) said the air quality hadimproved on Monday withhigh wind speed aiding dis-persion of pollutants.

However, stagnant night-time conditions led to accu-mulation of pollutants. Thecity recorded an air qualityindex (AQI) of 332 at 10 am. Itimproved to 302 by 4 pm aswind speed picked up.

The 24-hour average AQIwas 293 on Monday which fallsin the “poor” category. It was364 on Sunday, with stubbleburning contributing to 40 percent of Delhi’s pollution.

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The enforcement agenciesare making headlines in

Mumbai for going afterBollywood actors for posses-sion and consumption of evensmall amount of narcotic sub-stances, but in poll-boundBihar the quantum of seizurehas failed to grab eyeballsthough the amount is baffling.

The authorities have seizeda large quantity of ganja, mar-ijuana, poppy, tobacco, andcannabis showing why prohi-bition has become such a bigissue in Assembly polls thistime. Over 7.79 lakh litreliquor, 4871.99 kg ganja, 108 kgmarijuana (charas), 1.5 kgheroine, 40 kg tobacco, 3,350kg cannabis (bhang), 12.50 kgpoppy, and 150 gram brownsugar have been seized by theElection Commission so far tillthe voting of second phase ofpolls in Bihar.

In addition, the EC has also

seized �24.84 crore unac-counted money, over �90 lakhNepalese currency, 19.68 kggold and precious ornaments,275 kg silver.

In a related development,Janata Dal (United) MLA fromMatihani, Narendra KumarSingh, alias Bogo Singh, wasarrested late on Monday inBegusarai district for alleged-ly distributing money to voters’hours before polling began inthe second phase of theAssembly election.

According to the chief elec-toral officer of Bihar, theenforcement agencies haveseized �52.89 crore so far afterthe implementation of themodel code of conduct. Theseized amount is higher than inthe 2015 Assembly polls and2019 Lok Sabha polls. Over�19.52 crore have been recov-ered during vehicle checkingacross the State. During thephase I polling, over 10.78litre liquor was seized. The

Opposition is now relentlesslyattacking Nitish Kumar for the“farce in the name of prohibi-tion due to rampant smugglingand the growing use of drugs”while the JD(U) is extolling itsvirtues.

As per the ExciseDepartment data, before theliquor ban, Bihar consumedclose to 26 million litres of alco-hol each month. The sameyear, the estimated all-India fig-ures for alcohol consumption

stood at about 5.70 billionlitres. Over 3 million litres ofliquor have been confiscatedduring the four and a half yearssince prohibition. Up to 1.4million litres of this confiscat-ed liquor was country-madeand over 1.6 million litre for-eign-made.

According to the EC, over3.54 lakh people (bad charac-ters or having criminal back-grounds) have been out onnotice in the State during polls.

The data shows 25,215 armshave been deposited whilelicenses to 3,062 arms licencehave been cancelled. To main-tain law and order, the author-ities have acted against 4,983people under the crime controlact. According to EC, 857 spe-cial surveillance teams havebeen deployed in the State tokeep an eye to check on blackmoney and supply of drugs,liquor to lure voters.

During the 2019 Lok Sabhapolls, the EC had seized �9.12crore black money, 1.24 lakhlitre liquor, 717 kg drugs and 62kg precious ornaments andjewelry from Bihar. In theAssembly elections in 2015,seizures worth �23.8 croreswere registered by the ECmachinery with �19 crore ofcash found circulating besides5.78 lakh litres of illicit country-made and foreign liquor fromdifferent places in Bihar, whilethe recoveries in 2019 was lessthan 20 per cent of that.

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Amid reports of violence ata few places, Madhya

Pradesh recorded 66.37 percent voter turnout in the cru-cial bypolls for 28 Assemblyseats. The highest polling per-centage was recorded 83.69per cent for two seats inNagaland, followed byTelangana 81.44 per cent.

According to the ElectionCommission, the poll percent-age was 51.57 per cent in UttarPradesh, 51.3 per cent inKarnataka, 68.08 per cent inOdisha, 81.44 per cent inTelangana, 62.51 per cent inJharkhand, 68 per cent inHaryana, 57.98 per cent inGujarat and 71.99 per cent in

Chhattisgarh.In Madhya Pradesh, A total

of 355 candidates, including 12Ministers, are in the fray inthese bypolls. The stakes arehigh for Chief Minister ShivrajSingh Chouhan, former CMKamal Nath, JyotiradityaScindia, and Narendra SinghTomar in the bypolls.

Congress veteran DigvijayaSingh questioned the use ofElectronic Voting Machines(EVMs) in India, saying thedevice is prone to hacking.According to the EC, the aver-age voting percentage in the2018 Assembly polls in these 28constituencies, most of them inthe Gwalior-Chambal region,was 72.93.

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!��!�1����! �����������������,2,�����New Delhi: Achieving a sig-nificant milestone in thefight against coronavirus,India’s active Covid-19 caseshave fallen below 5.5 lakhand now comprise merely6.55 per cent of the totalinfections as the number ofrecoveries crossed 76 lakh,the Union Health Ministrysaid on Tuesday. The slide inactive cases is supplementedby an exponential rise inrecoveries, it said.

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In a huge relief to restaurantsin the national Capital, the

tourism department of DelhiGovernment on Tuesday noti-fied the termination of theprocess of granting approvals tostandalone restaurants in Delhi.The decision to provide a majorrelief to the restaurant industrythat affected especially after amajor economic downfall dueto the Covid-19 lock-downwas taken following the direc-tion of the Delhi Chief MinisterArvind Kejriwal.

The notification comes inthe wake of a meeting con-vened by Kejriwal last month,wherein he directed various officials to remove has-sles in the ease of doing busi-ness for the restaurant indus-try in Delhi.

As per the order, “In termsof decision taken by the ChiefMinister of Delhi in the meet-ing dated October 7 regarding

Ease of Doing Business forRestaurants, the ‘VoluntaryScheme of Granting Approval’ to the ‘StandaloneRestaurants’ being implement-ed by the tourism departmentis hereby discontinued withimmediate effect.”

Before June 2003, thescheme for granting approvalsto restaurants was being imple-mented by the Ministry ofTourism on an all India basis.However, the scheme was dis-continued on an all India basesw.e.f June 30, 2003, and theStates were asked to formulatetheir own guidelines if theywished to implement thescheme.

The scheme was adoptedby the tourism department inthe same year and formallylaunched in 2004 for all restau-rants having more than 30seats. Various reviews andreconsiderations were done bythe department over the yearson the request of restaurant

associations. However, owingto the recent circumstances(Covid-19), CM Kejriwal hasordered the removal of the vol-untary scheme of granting

approval for standalone restau-rants, the government said ina statement.

On October 7, Kejriwalhad convened a meeting with

the delegation of the NationalRestaurant Association of India(NRAI), wherein he directedseveral ministers and top offi-cials of various departmentsand agencies to remove hassles in the ease of doingbusiness for the restaurantindustry in Delhi. In the meet-ing, various decisions weretaken for the economic revivalof the hospitality industry inthe national capital.

“A detailed representationwas received from the NRAI, toprovide relief and ease regula-tions and approvals constrain-ing the growth of the restaurantindustry in Delhi. The notifi-cation to remove grant ofapproval by the tourism depart-ment to standalone restaurantshas been issued in the wake ofthe same meeting, which willprovide relief to the hospitali-ty industry, encourage theireconomic growth and genera-tion of employment in theindustry,” it said.

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In order to curb pollution lev-els in the national Capital

occurring every year due to theuse of crackers around Diwali,Delhi Environment MinisterGopal Rai on Tuesday launchedthe anti-cracker campaign.

Rai appealed to the peopleof Delhi to use green crackersand not polluting crackers.Under the campaign, all SDMsand police officials and 11teams of the DPCC have beendirected to ensure there is nobursting of polluting crackersacross Delhi.

“The teams are ensuringeffective implementation onground, checking that thecrackers sold must have a‘Green Cracker’ logo on them,and second, the crackers sold

in the shops must be fromauthorised companies,” he said.

In the wake of the campaign,Gopal Rai visited the SadarBazar area in Delhi to inspect thesale of crackers. Rai said, “As perthe directions of the SupremeCourt, polluting crackers havebeen banned in Delhi and onlypollution-free green crackershave been allowed this year.”

The Minister added fromTuesday, an anti-cracker cam-paign has been launched inDelhi. All the SDMs, 11 teamsof the DPCC and all police offi-cials have been directed toensure there is no bursting ofpolluting crackers across Delhi.

Rai added every year, pol-lution levels in Delhi havebeen high due to the use ofcrackers around Diwali. “Dueto this, crackers which cause

pollution have been bannedand we are promoting the useof only green crackers thisyear. The Delhi Governmenthas launched the Anti-Crackercampaign from today, with anaim to curb pollution in thecity,” he said.

“I want to appeal to thepeople of Delhi, this is the timewhen we are witnessing Covidand pollution at the same time,please do not burn crackers. Ialso want to appeal to them toonly use green crackers andkeep the crackers away fromchildren, women, elderly andpeople with co-morbidities.For effective implementation ofthe anti-cracker campaign, wehave constituted DPCC andSDM teams who are inspectingthe on-ground situation,” headded.

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The Delhi Government’sWomen and Child

Development department hasdirected its district officers toshare their live locationthrough WhatsApp daily tomark their attendance.

Rajendra Pal Gautam, theMinister of women and childdevelopment department haswarned of action against offi-cers failing to comply with theorder issued last month.

The move comes after itwas observed that some districtofficers were sending the statusof their live location throughtext only and also, they werenot sharing the location oftheir field visits.

According to the letter

issued by the department, dis-trict officers were directed tosend their daily attendance, inmorning and evening through live location viaWhatsApp in a group createdspecifically for this purposesince October 5.

“The status of live locationsent by various district officershave been analysed. Hence, all district officers aredirected to post their dailyarrival and departure atten-dance through live location aswell as field visit location, fail-ing which it would be assumedthat the officer is not attendingto his or her duty, and further action would be initi-ated against the erring officersas per rules,” said the depart-ment letter.

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A43-year-old CentralIndustrial Security Force

(CISF) personnel succumbedto burn injuries which he sus-tained after a heater kept in hissecurity box caught fire onMonday night.

The deceased identified asthe CISF Head Constable AlokKumar hailed fromChhattisgarh and was on dutyat Indira Gandhi MemorialMuseum.

According to a seniorpolice official, a police controlroom (PCR) call was receivedaround 10 PM at Tughlak Roadpolice station that a CISF jawanon duty at Indira Gandhi Smritihad caught fire and PCR Vanshifted him to Safdarjung hos-

pital and he is in critical con-dition. “A police team was alsodispatched for the spot andduring inspection of the spot,it was confirmed that he sus-tained burn injuries after aheater kept in his security boxcaught fire while he was reheat-ing his food,” said the seniorpolice official.

“Doctors informed policethat Kumar had sustained 60

per cent burn injuries. He diedon Tuesday morning duringthe course of treatment in thehospital,” the senior police offi-cial added.

Senior officials of the CISFvisited the spot and hospital,police said, adding that anenquiry in is underway todetermine tye sequence ofevents that led to the death ofthe CISF head constable.

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The ongoing Covid-19 pan-demic and confusion over

operation of firecrackers shopshas decreased sales of fire-crackers to 25 per cent inGurugram this year so far.Due to the covid infection andair pollution the market inGurugram is still deserted.

However, on the otherhand the firecrackers mer-chants in Gurugram are sellingenvironmentally friendly fire-works ‘green’ crackers as man-dated by the Supreme Court.

The firecrackers are avail-able for sale only at designat-ed shops-cum-godowns inGadoli and Kadipur area inGurugram, no retail shops(with temporary license) areallowed to sell firecrackers.The Gurugram district has

only 6-7 godowns of fireworks.Ashok Saini, owner of Star

Nights Fireworks, one of thefireworks merchants said, “Dueto ongoing coronavirus and airpollution firecracker business-es are going down. The otherreason is confusion among thepeople. I receive a number ofcalls from people to check

whether shops are open ornot”.

“The profit margin was30-35% but this year now it is10-15% only. This Diwali greencrackers are the only hope of arevival in the firecrackers busi-ness,” he said.

The firecracker sellersclaim this time the manufac-

turer located in Sivakashi inTami Nadu and parts ofRajasthan has supplied onlygreen crackers.

As per new directions of thedistrict magistrate in Gurugram,fireworks can only be per-formed only on Diwali onNovember 14 between 8 to 10.

The firecrackers merchantclaimed that people from Delhi,Noida, Gurugram and otherdistricts come to purchase fire-crackers. They said every shopwith a license is open till theyget any direction from thecourt or authorities.

“This year the ongoingCOVID pandemic hit the peo-ple income earlier a customerwho used to buy Rs 5,000 firecrackers this year he is spend-ing on Rs 1,000 to buy crack-ers. Means they are purchasingsmall quantities,” saini added.

Meanwhile, the buyers said

the cause of pollution is notfirecrackers the other activitieslike Construction works, vehi-cles and stubble burning is alsocausing huge pollution,” saidAman Dalal who has comefrom Noida to buy firecrackers,adding that the governmentmust focus on other elementswhich cause major pollution.

Rajan Rajpal of GanpatiFireworks said People burnfirecrackers only on Diwalijust for a few hours and its con-tribution to overall pollution isvery little.

“Few days are left in Diwalicelebration and air pollutionhas already increased, reasonbehind the pollution are otherelements one should stop toblame firecrackers behind thepollution,” Rajpal said, addingthat firecracker businesses havebeen affected due to these falseclaims”.

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Stating that 39 Nepalese stu-dents of a Buddhist school

in Dehradun where a teacherreportedly committed suiciderecently wanted to return toNepal, the chairperson of StateCommission for Protection ofChild Rights (SCPCR), UshaNegi directed the district mag-istrate (DM) of Pitthoragarh toensure the safe arrival of thestudents to the Nepal border.On Tuesday, Negi went to visitthe Buddhist school located inPurkul area of Dehradun tointeract with the students whowished to return to Nepal. Asinformed by the SCPCR offi-cials, the students are probably

going through shock due to thesudden demise of one of theirteachers, so the commissionalso provided professionalcounselling to the students.

Negi also told the studentsthat if they wish to come backto this school again from Nepalin a few months, they wouldhave to first inform the schoolmanagement who will thennotify the commission and thedistrict administration abouttheir arrival, stated the officials.They further added thatSCPCR has also sent the list ofNepalese students to theNepalese embassy and IndianEmbassy and informed themabout planned students’ depar-ture from the school.

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The crackdown on malprac-tices during examinations

in Sri Dev Suman UttarakhandUniversity is bearing positiveresults. The strict transparen-cy measures adopted by theuniversity have brought downthe cases of cheating drastical-ly as not even a single cheatingincident was registered duringthe last examinations.

However, the university isplanning to take some newsteps in the forthcoming exam-inations to prevent malprac-tices. In order to prevent thetendency of copying, the strin-gent decisions taken by the uni-versity vice chancellor PPDhyani have been executed inthe examinations. The strictmeasures adopted by the uni-versity have paid rich dividendsas not a single cheating case

came to light this year duringexamination as compared tothree dozen students caught formalpractices last year. Thisyear, the vice chancellor hadissued orders to cancel centreswhere cheating incidents werefound. Dhyani conducted sur-prise inspections of 22 exami-nation centres in seven dis-tricts. The flying squads andofficers of the university alsoconducted raids in the centres.Dhyani said, “Several teamswere formed to conduct sur-prise raids and it was foundthat the cheating activity hasdropped down to zero percent. There should be completetransparency in the examina-tion to judge the knowledge ofthe student thus providingequitable status and not pro-viding any advantage to thecheaters,” he added.

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The tally of the novelCoronavirus (Covid-19)

affected patients inUttarakhand increased to63197 on Tuesday with the statehealth department reporting316 fresh cases of the disease.On the day, 409 patients weredischarged after they got curedfrom the disease. A total of57951 patients have so farrecovered from the disease andthe recovery percent hasmounted to 91.70. The healthdepartment also reported thedeath of four patients onTuesday. One patient each wasreported dead fromGovernment Doon MedicalCollege (GDMC) hospital,Kailash hospital Dehradun,Himalayan hospital and districthospital Rudraprayag onTuesday.

The health departmentreported 74 cases of the diseasefrom Dehradun, 59 fromUdham Singh Nagar, 43 fromPauri, 29 from Nainital, 19 eachfrom Almora and Pithoragarh,14 from Tehri, 13 fromChamoli, 12 from Uttarkashi,seven from Rudraprayag andthree each from Bageshwarand Champawat. Out of the409 patients discharged fromdifferent hospitals on Tuesday,208 are from Dehradun, 38from Pauri and 26 fromUttarkashi.

Uttarakhand now has 3705active patients of the disease.Dehradun district with 605active cases is at top of tablewhile with 465 active casesPauri district is on secondposition. Haridwar has 430,Nainital 419, Udham SinghNagar 324, Rudraprayag 266,Tehri 278, Chamoli 213,Pithoragarh 202, Uttarkashi199, Champawat 105 andBageshwar 101 active cases ofthe disease. With 99 activecases of Covid-19, Almora isnow at the bottom of the table.

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The education minister ofUttarakhand Arvind

Pandey has said that properarrangements for safety havebeen taken in the schools andthe students should come to theschools without any fear. Hemade this appeal during a liveinteraction through the virtu-al classroom system from theRajiv Gandhi NavodayaVidhyalaya on Tuesday. Theminister interacted with theprincipals, teachers and stu-dents of class X and XII anddiscussed the measures adopt-ed in view of the pandemic ofthe Covid-19. The ministergot information about theschool timings, furniture,online studies, syllabus andstudies from the teachers andofficials of the department andasked the students about theproblems faced by them.Pandey directed the officials to

solve the problems of the stu-dents without delay. The edu-cation director R K Kunwar,additional education directorGarhwal M S Bisht and addi-tional project director MukulKumar Sati accompanied theminister during the onlineinteraction. The schools inUttarakhand opened onMonday after a gap of morethan seven months. Theschools were opened for the

students of classes X and XII inview of their board examina-tions. The schools were closedin the state on March 14 inUttarakhand to prevent stu-dents from Covid-19 infec-tion. The education depart-ment has issued standard oper-ating procedure (SoP) foropening of schools andappointed the Principals of allthe schools as nodal officers.

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Attempting to reduce thespread of plastic waste on

the roads and spreading aware-ness about Covid-19 amonglocals at the same time, theMunicipal Corporation ofDehradun (MCD) launchedPlastic Lao Mask Pao cam-paign on Tuesday.

The corporation has com-menced this campaign in asso-ciation with the UnitedNations Development

Programme (UNDP) andHDFC bank. For this cam-paign, the corporation will setkiosks in various places of thecity like Gandhi Park, MCDcompound and Pacific Mallbesides some colonies for thenext fifteen days where thelocals can bring plastic wasteand can get face masks inreturn. According to themunicipal commissionerVinay Shankar Pandey, thiscampaign will help in thereduction of plastic waste in

the city while helping toenhance protection fromCovid-19. This will also helpthose people who cannotafford masks as now they caneasily get them through thiscampaign, stated officials.

Meanwhile, Pandey alsoappealed to locals to segregategarbage before dumping itthrough door to door collec-tion or in garbage bins as theunsegregated garbage causesvarious hygienic and environ-mental issues in the city.

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Chief minister TrivendraSingh Rawat will inaugu-

rate free WiFi connectivityprogramme for all State col-leges, the Dobra-Chanthibridge and flag off a mountainbike rally on the eve of theState’s 21st foundation day to becelebrated on November 9.While the State foundationparade and release of a devel-opment booklet will bepresided over by the chief min-ister at police lines inDehradun, Rawat will laterattend a parade and culturalfunction at the summer capitalGairsain. All the main govern-ment buildings in all the dis-tricts will also be illuminated

from November 8 to 11. Thesedecisions were taken in a meet-ing chaired by the CM at hisresidence on Tuesday.

It was decided that eventsto be held to commemorate theoccasion will be held with sim-plicity and decorum. Apartfrom the main governmentbuildings in all districts, theoffices and tourist rest housesof the GMVN and KMVNwill also be illuminated. OnNovember 9, homage will bepaid to the statehood martyrsat the memorial in Dehradun.The State foundation paradewill be held in the police linesin Dehradun. Social distancingand other Covid-19 relatedguidelines will be strictlyobserved. Events will be held in

all the districtswhere the min-isters in-chargewill be the chiefguests. Theunveiling off o u n d a t i o nstones andinauguration ofschemes for thedistricts willalso be under-taken on the occasion. OnNovember 9, the CM will alsovisit Gairsain where the ITBPand the police will conduct aparade which will be followedby cultural programmes. Onthe following day, the CM willunveil the foundation stones ofand inaugurate various devel-opment works at Bharadisain

in Gairsain.Cabinet minister Arvind

Pandey, State minister DhanSingh Rawat, secretaries AmitSingh Negi, Radhika Jha andinformation director generalMeharban Singh Bisht werealso present in the meeting inwhich these decisions weretaken.

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The nation is supreme forworkers of the Bharatiya

Janata Party, said chief minis-ter Trivendra Singh Rawat. Hesaid this while speaking at theparty’s training programmeheld for various areas onTuesday.

Rawat said, “Training ispart of the party’s work cultureand the party works keeping inmind its political character.For the BJP, the nation issupreme and the party comesafter that. This is the disciplinetaught to party workers duringtraining,” he said.

The CM also informed thegathering about efforts beingundertaken for security, capa-bility and a self-reliant India.He said that the efforts direct-ed by Prime Minister NarendraModi to control Covid-19 arebeing appreciated by the world.Under his able guidance, thenation is swiftly bringing Covidunder control. Rawat referredto various steps taken by thePM from announcing the

At manirbharBharat specialpackage to initi-ating the ‘vocalfor local’ cam-paign. “On theappeal of thePM, the citizenshave doneeverything thathas helpedstrengthen thenation. Eachsegment of society has coop-erated during the Covid pan-demic and the BJP workers toohave attempted to provide allpossible assistance to the peo-ple during this period,” said theCM.

Referring to Uttarakhand,he said that the State govern-ment had hit corruption hardwith strict action against thoseinvolved in corruption. Whilethe e-office system was initiat-ed to bring transparency,redressal of public grievances isbeing done swiftly through theCM dashboard. In the first 17years since the state’s creation,a total of Rs 40,000 crore was

invested in Uttarakhand whileMoUs worth Rs 1,25,000 crorewere signed during theinvestors summit. The ground-ing of works amounting to Rs25,000 crore has been done inthe past three years. Further,the CM Swarozgar Yojana hasbeen started to facilitate selfemployment for people at thelocal level. A total of 150 workshave been included in thisscheme. In addition to this, thesolar self employment scheme,Pirul policy and growth centresare also proving useful inimproving the economic con-dition of the people, said theCM.

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Despite the Covid-19 impactin the city, several women

got Mehendi designs on theirhands in various Mehendi stallsfor the occasion of KarwaChauth to be observed onWednesday. Several localMehendi artists stated thattheir business did well due toKarwa Chauth but it was stillless than the last year. Somestated that many customerspreferred home visits ratherthan visiting their stalls whileothers informed that manywomen applied henna designson their own this time.

According to Sanju Singhwho had a Mehendi stall set upnear Dispensary Road espe-cially for Karwa Chauth, manymarried women used to bringtheir young daughters too for

the henna designs on hands butthis time, there was hardly a kidwho came to his stall with par-ents. "Some of the women wereeven asking us to apply thedesigns which could be appliedfaster on their hands. They didnot want to stay for too long assome complex designs mighttake 30 to 40 minutes too. Thebusiness was of course lessthan last year but it was betterthan it was during Teej," saidSingh. Some also stated thatmany customers insisted thatthe artists must wear gloveswhile applying Mehendi. "Fourwomen turned back from mystall just because I said I can-not wear gloves while applyingMehendi on their hands. It isnot that I do not take precau-tions in public places. I waswearing a mask and usingsanitisers to sanitise my handsas well as customer's before

applying the Mehendi but it isquite difficult to apply it andmake designs wearing gloves.Making designs needs preci-sion and it is not possible withgloves on," stated anotherMehendi artist ShahanawazAlam. He further informedthat he earned about Rs 1,300during Teej festival whereas heearned more than Rs 12,000ahead of Karwa Chauth.Farheen Bano who mostly goesfor home visits informed thatmany of her last year's cus-tomers asked her to send sim-ple designs so that they canapply Mehendi on their own. "Iused to visit at least 25 to 30women every year for KarwaChauth but this year, I just vis-ited 10 customers as many areavoiding calling others to theirhomes. Some of these cus-tomers did not even allowtheir kids to get henna on

their hands. I think some peo-ple are overprotective of theirkids due to Covid," addedBano. Meanwhile, the localMehendi artists also informedthat the situation is getting bet-ter in Dehradun as they are get-ting calls for wedding functionsand some of them are evenbooked till December.

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Stating that the extra vigi-lance of the authorities in

marketplaces is unintentionallyintimidating many customersand shopkeepers, the presidentof Doon Valley MahanagarUdyog Vyapar Mandal(DVMUVM) said that theauthorities should spreadawareness among locals onCovid-19 rather than simplypenalising them for not wear-ing masks.

Since the footfall isincreasing in the local marketsdue to various approaching fes-tivals, some local shopkeepersstated that the number ofpolice personnel has increased

in the market areas. Though itis a good decision to maintainorder in the marketplaces,people still get intimidated bythe presence of the police,said the shopkeepers. "Weunderstand that the authoritieswant to keep Covid-19 undercheck but the officials shouldnot overdo it. Recently, districtofficials like sub-divisionalmagistrate (SDM) arrived inmarketplaces and imposedfines on several people whowere not wearing masks. Iconsider it a little too muchwhen the police were alreadydeployed in the market," stat-ed Masson. He added that itseemed like the authoritieshave some target to achieve by

imposing several penalties bythe end of the day. Accordingto Masson, maintaining phys-ical distancing is a little diffi-cult in marketplaces during thefestive seasons but peopleshould wear masks and usesanitisers. However, he alsoadded that not every customershops extensively in the mar-ket and he or she might beunable to afford face masks ormay not consider masksimportant. Therefore, theauthorities should focus onspreading awareness amongpeople and give them maskswhen people forget to usemasks due to certain reasonsrather than recovering fineevery time, said Masson.

"We are already losingbusiness to online shoppingsites because people want toavoid crowded places due toCovid-19. Now if anybodyforgets to wear a mask, policeimpose a fine rather than giv-ing them a warning or askingthem to buy a new mask. I sawmany people who did notenter my shop and went backwhen they saw a customerarguing with police about thefine imposed for not wearinga mask just outside my store.I know that police are doingtheir duty but that is alsointimidating customers andscaring them away," said aclothing store owner JasvinderSoni.

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In its endeavour to contest theassembly elections of 2022,

the Uttarakhand Congresswould appoint in-charges in allthe districts and the assemblysegments. Talking to the mediapersons at the state headquar-ters of the party here onTuesday, the Pradesh CongressCommittee (PCC) presidentPritam Singh said that elabo-rate discussions and brain-storming was held during thethree day visit of the state incharge of the party DevendraYadav and the roadmap for theparty was planned. He said thatthe party is ready for the elec-tions and for it responsibilitieswould be distributed and incharges would be appointed.The PCC chief said that thoughit is not proper to talk about theelections every now and thenand the Congress party is readyto give its contribution forbuilding the state. He addedthat the Trivendra Singh Rawatgovernment has failed on everyfront and people of the state areclosely monitoring its activities.

Singh said that the Congressparty has plenty of issues whichthis failure of the governmenthas provided to it.

Informing about the party’splan to hold Dharna outsideGandhi Park on the call givenby the party president SoniaGandhi against the Hathrasincident, the PCC presidentsaid that daughters are notsafe in the country. He said thatthe party which had given the

slogan of ‘Beti Bachao, BetiPadhao’ has failed to protect thedaughters and the incident ofHathras is an example of thisfailure. The Congress leadersaid that atrocities against theDalits are increasing in thecountry and in view of the sit-uation the Congress presidenthas given a call to theCongressmen all over thecountry to organise protests onNovember 5.

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Terming the review meetingsof different departments

convened by chief ministerTrivendra Singh Rawat as farceand a failed attempt to hidethings, the spokesperson ofUttarakhand Congress GarimaDasauni has said that thesemeetings are actually beingconducted to resolve disputes.In a statement she said that thereview of the departments isdone to access the perfor-mance but in Uttarakhand nowork has been done. She saidthat in the last three and halfyears no coordination betweenthe ministers and the chiefminister and between ministers

and secretaries was witnessed. The people of Uttarakhand

are facing hardships due to lackof this coordination at toplevel. Dasauni said that the gov-ernment of the overwhelmingmajority has proved to be a fail-ure on every front. “If the CMRawat is really serious aboutreviewing the departments heshould take a look at the alle-gation made by the opposition.This would give him a betteridea about the direction inwhich his government is mov-ing. The people of the statehave understood the reality ofthe government and now itwould not get impressed by thehollow talks of CM,’’ she said.

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The parents of the studentsare continuing to be scep-

tical about the decision toreopen the schools. The parentsexpressed their apprehensionduring a meeting organised bythe National Association forParents and Students Rights(NAPSR) at Nehru Colonyhere on Tuesday. The presidentof the association, Arif Khansaid that the government hassuccumbed to the pressureexerted by the private schools

and reopened the schools. He said that detection of a

Covid-19 infected student onthe very first day in a school inRanikhet shows that the threatfrom the disease persists. Hesaid that the parents are appre-hensive since the schools arenot ready to accept the respon-sibility for the safety of the stu-dents. The NAPSR threatenedthat the parents would beforced to lock the schools if thestudents got infected withCovid-19 in the schools.

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In an attempt to draw theattention of the government

towards their demand forrestoration of old pension forthe employees registered underNew Pension Scheme (NPS),the women employees wouldput mehendi designs with thedemand on their palms on theoccasion of Karwa Chauth.On Tuesday an online conven-tion of the women wing of thefederation of old pensionrestoration was held in whichthis decision was taken. Thevice president of the womenwing of the federation YogitaTiwari said that the pension isthe right of employees and thewomen would play an impor-tant role in restoration of theold pension scheme. She saidthat the demand for the oldpension is justified and thegovernment should take it seri-ously.

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Continuing his attack on theRashtriya Janata Dal (RJD)-

Congress-Left alliance which, healleged, wants people not toraise the slogan “Bharat mata kijai”, Prime Minister NarendraModi on Tuesday again claimedthat Bihar had made up its mindto re-elect the NationalDemocratic Alliance (NDA)and reject the proponents of the“jungle raj.

Touring the State for thefourth time after the start of theno-holds-barred election cam-paign last month, PrimeMinister counted the advantageof a “double-engine”Government versus “Jungle-raj” and its “yuvraj” — RJDleader Tejashwi Yadav.

Modi’s last leg campaignwas on amid voting in 94 of theState’s 243 Assembly seats for thesecond of the three-phased statepolls, the biggest in India sincethe novel coronavirus pandem-ic started.

The last phase of the poll inBihar is on Saturday.

Tejashwi has also been hit-ting back at Modi by demand-ing to know why the unem-ployment rate is at 46.6 per centin Bihar despite the doubleengine Government and thereason of migration from thestate.

The Prime Ministeraddressed rallies in Forbesganjand Saharsa districts for thethird and final phase of pollingin Bihar Assembly election

“Bihar has given a clearmessage, on the basis of the ini-tial information we’re getting,that the State has decided to

reelect the NDA Government,”the Prime Minister, who is themain face of the NDA eventhough it is led by Chief MinisterNitish Kumar in Bihar,” Modisaid while addressing a publicrally.

“Those who brought jungleraj into Bihar (RJD)... theirassociates... what do they want?Do you know? They want thatyou don’t chant ‘Bharat Mata kiJai’. On this auspicious land,where Goddess Chhathi is wor-shipped, is it possible that peo-ple won’t chant for the nation,”he said.

Without taking names, ThePrime Minister continued, “Onegroup says- ‘Don’t chant- ‘BharatMata ki Jai’, other one says itgives them a headache. Now,they’ve come together to seekvotes from the people of Bihar.They don’t want you to chant ‘JaiSri Ram’.”

The return of the “double-engine” government will helpthe state progress at a faster pace,Modi said, in an attack on theopposition’s chief ministerialcandidate Tejashwi Yadav, whooften mocks Nitish Kumar overthe phrase.

Repeating his “doubleyuvraj” jibe at Tejashwi Yadavand Congress’s Rahul Gandhi,

the Prime Minister asserted“they’ve been rejected by thestate.”

Spearheading the NDAattack, Prime Minister has so farheld 12 rallies in the state.

The BJP is fighting on 121seats while its alliance partnerand Nitish Kumar’s party JD (U)is contesting on 122 seats.

Prime Minister, has, so farin his rallies did not speakagainst Lok Janshakti Party(LJP) leader Chirag Paswanwho has been denouncingNitish Kumar and even threat-ening him with a jail term “if LJPto be in the power in Bihar”.

LJP is seen to be the B-teamof the BJP in the contest keep-ing in mind the post-poll cal-culations.

“Some people have a prob-lem... they say ‘why does Modiwin elections?’... Modi wins elec-tions because he works to resolvethe issues of all the (poor)mothers and sisters... That’s whythey bless Modi... This son hasdedicated his life for the poor,”the Prime Minister said in hispoll rally.

He took a dig at theCongress and said the party “hasreached a stage where they don’teven have a total of 100 seats inparliament”

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Hitting out atPrime Minister

Narendra Modi andBihar Chief MinisterNitish Kumar, for-mer Congress chiefRahul Gandhi onTuesday alleged they have“looted” Bihar, and claimedthat the people have decided tovote them out of power.

Addressing a poll rally inKatihar, Rahul criticised theNDA Government overdemonetisation, migrant crisis,GST, handling of the coron-avirus pandemic and the threenew farm laws.

He said neither Modi norKumar did anything to helpmigrant labourers when theywere walking thousands ofkilometres to return to theirhome during the coronavirusinduced lockdown.

“The Congress hadarranged buses for the move-ment of migrant workers. Weare not in power so we couldnot do it for millions, but wehelped as many people as wecould,” he said.

Rahul Gandhi also claimedthe PM and the Bihar CM havefailed to fulfil promises ondevelopment and job creation.

“I want to ask all the youthwho are here that Modi ji hadsaid he will give two crore jobsevery year, Nitish ji said thesame, but where are the jobs?Why are the youth unem-ployed today,” he said.

He also alleged that farm-ers are angry with Modi overthe three recently enacted agri-cultural laws. “And that is whyfarmers in Punjab burnt theeffigies of Narendra

Modi, Ambani and Adanion Dusshera. The truth (ofthese laws) has come out inPunjab. It has come out inBihar as well.”

He said demonetisationhurt the poor but benefited thebig “chosen” corporate andGST has harmed small shop-keepers.

The Congress leader fur-ther stated that at least 20 percent of the maize produced inthe country comes from Bihar,but “do you get the right price?What did Modi ji and Nitishji do to get you the rightprice?”

“Every youth of Biharknows that Narendra Modiand Nitishji have togetherlooted Bihar. They havedestroyed Bihar’s small shop-keepers.

And now the youth andthe farmer of Bihar havedecided to vote for GrandAlliance,” he added.

Gandhi is scheduled toaddress another rally duringthe day.

Earlier in the day theGandhi scion urged people tovote so that a new governmentof their choice can be formed.

The Congress leader wasaddressing public meetings atKatihar and Kishanganj dis-tricts of northeast Bihar wherethe third phase of poll isscheduled to be held onNovember 7.

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The EnforcementDirectorate has attached

assets worth �169 crore ofTopworth Urja Ltd in connec-tion with a money launderingcase relating to coal block allo-cation scam.

The ED had initiated inves-tigation under Prevention ofMoney Laundering Act(PMLA) on the basis of an FIRregistered by the CBI againstTopworth Urja & Metals Ltd.(formerly Shree ViranganaSteels Ltd.) and its Directorsunder Indian Penal Code (IPC)Sections relating to criminalconspiracy, cheating andforgery among others.

The firm, through fraudu-

lent means and by makingmisrepresentation, got allot-ment of Marki Mangli –II, III& IV coal blocks. As much as9,21,748 MT of coal wasextracted illegally during theperiod 2011-12 to 2014-15 andthere was illegal gain to theextent of �52.50 crore byextracting the coal from theseallocated coal blocks namelyMarki Mangli-II and MarkiMangli-III, the ED said in astatement.

Further, there was benefitto the extent of �20.40 crore onaccount of sale of excess powergenerated out of captive powerplants and sold to the con-nected grid, it further said.

The company also gener-ated the share capital by

issuance of equity and prefer-ence shares on high premiumpursuant to application andallocation of coal block andbenefited to the extent of�96.72 crore.

New Delhi: In a major boostto India’s preparedness totake on the Chinese on theLine of Actual Control(LAC), the Indian Army hasreceived the initial consign-ment of extreme cold weath-er clothing from the USA forits troops deployed on theChina border.

“An initial lot of extremecold weather clothing fromthe American defence forceshave been received and arebeing used by our troopsthere,” government sourcestold ANI here.

The sources said that theIndian Army maintains astock of 60,000 of theseextreme cold weather clothing

sets for troops deployed inentire Ladakh including bothwestern fronts in Siachen andEastern Ladakh sector.

This year, there was anadditional requirement ofaround 30,000 of these sets asclose to 90,000 troops aredeployed in the region inview of the aggression by thePeople’s Liberation Army(PLA) along the LAC.

The emergency acquisi-

tion of the extreme coldweather clothing will helpthe Indian Army troops to getthrough the harsh winters inthe Ladakh sector.

The Indian side hasdeployed two additional divi-sions on the LAC that havebeen brought to the sectorfrom plains and a mountaindivision which has been training for high-altitudeoperations for many yearsnow.

India is getting a lot ofequipment from Americaincluding a number of assaultrifles for the special forces aswell as the SiGSauer assaultrifles for the infantry troops.

Agency

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The Ministry of ConsumerAffairs has asked the Food

Corporation of India (FCI) to tieup with rice mills for increasingsupply of fortified rice via rationshops and other welfareschemes as 112 aspirationaldistricts of 15 states have beenidentified for distribution of for-tified rice. Five states includingAndhra Pradesh, Gujarat,Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu andChhattisgarh have already start-ed the distribution of fortifiedrice in their identified districts.

At a high level meetingchaired by Union ConsumerAffairs minister Piyush Goyal,the FCI has been asked to comeup with a comprehensive plan forprocurement and distribution offortified rice in all the Districtsof the country under IntegratedChild Development Services(ICDS) and Mid-Day?Meal(MDM) Scheme from 2021-2022. It was felt that “there is aneed to scale up the supply ofFortified Rice Kernels(FRK),whose availability currently is ata meagre quantity of 15,000tonnes per annum,” the ministry

said.Covering 112 Aspirational

Districts for PDS, ICDS andMDM would mean require-ment of nearly 130 Lakh MT ofFortified Rice, for which FRKsupply capacity in the countryneeds to go up?to nearly 1.3 LakhMT. ?If the entire PDS (NFSA)rice supply which is of the orderof about 350 Lakh MT is to befortified, then there has to be anuninterrupted supply pipeline ofFRK from the industry of theorder of about 3.5 Lakh MT.

Further, there are nearly28,000 Rice Mills in the countrywhich need to be equipped withBlending Machines etc. for mix-ing of FRK with?normal rice.FCI has been asked to tie up withthe rice mills in different regionsfor necessary investments inthis regard.

Rice can be fortified byadding a micronutrient powderto the rice that adheres to thegrains or spraying of the surfaceof ordinary rice grains in sever-al layers with a vitamin and min-eral mix to form a protectivecoating.

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The Supreme Court onTuesday expressed unhap-

piness over the pendency of aplea by a convict seeking par-don in the Rajiv Gandhi assas-sination case for over two yearswith the Tamil Nadu Governor.

The top court asked thecounsel for petitioner A GPerarivalan, who is serving lifesentence, whether the court canexercise its jurisdiction underArticle 142 of the Constitutionto request the Governor todecide his plea of pardon filedunder Article 161. Article 161empowers a Governor to pardon

a convict in any criminal case.A bench of Justices L

Nageswara Rao, Hemant Guptaand Ajay Rastogi said, “Wedon’’t want to exercise our juris-diction at this stage but we arenot happy that recommendationmade by the government ispending for two years”.

The bench was hearing aplea of 46-year-old A GPerarivalan who has soughtsuspension of his life sentencein the case till the CBI-ledMulti-Disciplinary MonitoringAgency (MDMA) probe is com-pleted.

During the hearing, thebench told senior advocateGopal Shankarnarayanan, rep-resenting Perarivalan, that “theGovernor has to act on the aidand advice of the council ofministers. But if the Governordoes not pass order, what thecourt can do, you tell us”.

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There’s a major fall in week-ly new Coronavirus cases,

in fact dropping below 40,000on Tuesday. But as there is anincrease in infections in Stateslike Manipur, Delhi,Maharashtra and Kerala, theCentre advised people to go fortesting even if they note theslightest of Covid-19 symp-toms.

“There are few Stateswhere active cases are on a risein November as compared toOctober. Manipur has now3,500 cases from previous2,000. Cases in Delhi haveincreased to 33,000 from26,000. In Kerala, cases haveincreased to 86,000 from77,000,” Rajesh Bhushan,Union Health Secretary said onTuesday.

However, during the sameperiod, Maharashtra,Karnataka, Tamil Nadu andUttar Pradesh were the topstates which registered adecline in the number ofCovid-19 cases.

“We’ve observed a declin-ing trend for weekly new casesover last 7 weeks. There’s majorfall in weekly new cases. Healthcare systems are not unneces-sarily burdened with Covid-19cases. There’s less pressure onnetwork of hospitals,” Bhushansaid at a press briefing here.

He further said that theCovid-19 recovery rate is near92 per cent and cumulativepositive rate is 7.4 per cent.“Cases per million populationare at 5,991. Covid-19 deathsare at 89 deaths/million popu-lation which is lower if com-pared globally. Active casesare around 5,41,000 now,” hesaid.

The Ministry also advisedpeople to continue followingCovid-19 guidelines during

the festival season so that thereis no surge in cases. “It isimportant to follow the strate-gy of Test - Track - Trace -Treat. Let us keep our focus onthis strategy even if our num-bers are coming down,”Bhushan added.

India’s COVID-19 case-load mounted to 82,67,623with 38,310 fresh infections,while the death toll reached1,23,097 after 490 new fatalitieswere reported, the data updat-ed at 8 am showed.

A total of 76,03,121 peoplehave recuperated from theinfection so far, pushing thenational recovery rate to 91.96per cent, while the case fatali-ty rate stands at 1.49 per cent.

“More than 11 croreCOVID-19 tests have beenconducted so far. The cumula-tive, weekly and daily positiv-ity rate is constantly decliningand stands at 7.4 per cent, 4.4per cent and 3.7 per centrespectively,” the health secre-tary said.

V K Paul, head of theNational Task Force onCOVID-19, urged people tofollow Covid-appropriatebehaviour and asked them toget themselves tested if theyobserve any symptom of theviral disease.

In these times, even thesmallest of symptoms, such ascold, cough and sore throat isCOVID-19 unless proven oth-erwise. “It might be other flutoo, but if we miss even onepositive case, that may result inthousands of cases,” Paul said.

“I request you to kindly getyourself tested if you have anysymptoms of Covid-19. Wehave facilities to carry lakhs oftests. People who you came incontact in the past 8-10 daysthey must self-quarantinethemselves and not exposeothers,” he said.

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Coronavirus infectionleaves behind significant

changes in the immune sys-tem even after 10 weeks ofrecovery, researchers havesaid. In their study publishedin the journal Allergy, theyhave identified seven groupsof symptoms including “flu-like symptoms” with fever,chills, fatigue and cough,“common cold-like symp-toms” with rhinitis, sneezing,dry throat and nasal conges-tion. The findings could playa significant role in the treat-ment of patients and in thedevelopment of a potent vac-cine.

The study which was con-ducted by a team of MedUniVienna scientists led byimmunologist Winfried FPickl and allergologist RudolfValenta (both from theCenter for Pathophysiology,Infectiology andImmunology) involved 109convalescents and 98 healthyindividuals in the controlgroup.

The researchers were able

to show that various symp-toms related to Covid-19occur in symptom groups.They identified seven groupsof symptoms such as “flu-likesymptoms” (with fever, chills,fatigue and cough); “com-mon cold-like symptoms”(with rhinitis, sneezing, drythroat and nasal congestion);“joint and muscle pain”,; “eyeand mucosal inflammation”;“lung problems” (with pneu-monia and shortness ofbreath); “gastrointestinalproblems” (including diar-rhoea, nausea and headache);and “loss of sense of smelland taste and other symp-toms”.

“In the latter group wefound that loss of smell andtaste predominantly affectsindividuals with a ‘youngimmune system’, measuredby the number of immunecells (T lymphocytes) thathave recently emigrated fromthe thymus gland. This meansthat we were able to clearlydistinguish systemic (e.g.,groups 1 and 3) from organ-specific forms (e.g. groups 6and 7) of primary COVID-19disease,” says Pickl.

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Contrary to the generalperception, temperature

and humidity do not play asignificant role in coronavirusspread, scientists have said,explaining that whether it’shot or cold outside, the transmission of Covid-19from one person to the nextdepends almost entirely onhuman behaviour.

They said that taking tripsand spending time away fromhome were the top two con-tributing factors to Covid-19growth, with a relat ive importance of about 34 percent and 26 per cent respec-tively.

The next two importantfactors were population andurban density, with a relativeimportance of about 23% and13% respectively.

The study is published inthe International Journal ofEnvironmental Research andPublic Health.

Earlier, at the onset of thecoronavirus pandemic, it was

thought that hot summer temperatures couldreduce its spread.

Then later, in India whichis now witnessing winter sea-son, it was predicted thatcold would result into pike of the Covid-19 cases.

However, research led byThe University of Texas atAustin in their new studyfound that temperature andhumidity do not play a significant role in coronavirusspread.

“The effect of weather islow and other features such asmobility have more impactthan weather,” said DevNiyogi, a professor at UTAustin’s Jackson School ofGeosciences and CockrellSchool of Engineering wholed the research. “In terms of relative importance, weatheris one of the last parameters.”

Co-authors are SajadJamshidi, a research assistantat Purdue University, andMaryam Baniasad, a doctor-al candidate at Ohio StateUniversity.

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KOCHI: Monday’s outburstby Chief Minister PinarayiVijayan against the Centre andprobe agencies like theEnforcement Directorate, NIAand CBI brought an unprece-dented reaction from the BJPon Tuesday.

K Surendran, the BJP’sKerala President asked Vijayanto cooperate with the investi-gating agencies which are prob-ing a series of scams and cor-ruption charges ranging fromgold smuggling through diplo-matic channel and LIFEMission kickbacks.

Besides the broadside bySurendran, Congress leaderRamesh Chennithala, who isalso the Leader of theOpposition, joined the boutand asked Vijayan to handover the vigilance departmentwhich he heads as home min-ister.

By evening, a team ofEnforcement Directorate offi-cials reachedThiruvananthapuram in con-nection with the probe intoBineesh Kodiyeri’s involvementin drug trafficking and his

business deals.The ED team is likely to

‘raid’ or inspect the residenceof Bineesh, but what embar-rasses the CPI(M) is the factthat the latter, who is underarrest and is in a Bangalore jail,stays with his father, KodiyeriBalakrishnan, the party’s Keralastrongman.

Vijayan in his Mondaymedia briefing had alleged thatthe Centre’s investigating agen-cies like ED and CBI were try-ting to subvert the developmentactivities of the KeralaGovernment to discredit andtarnish the image of his party.Later on Monday, M VGovindan, a close aide ofBalakrishnan declared that theED would be taught a lesson byhis party.

Surendran, who conveneda media meet, charged thatVijayan has lost his mental bal-ance. “His principal secretaryhas been arraigned as the fifthaccused in the LIFE Missionscam by none other than theVigilance Department of theKerala Government. Vijayanheads the Vigilance

Department and the bnamingof Sivsanakar as an accused isan attempt to save the chiefminister himself,” saidSurendran. The BJP leadercharged that one of the con-tractors who had been taskedwith the constriction of resi-dential apartments in Thrissurdistrict has gifted five i-phonesand it has been found that oneof the phones was being usedby a close relation of the chiefminister. “The Vigilance probewas ordered by Vijayan toderail the CBI probe into themassive corruption in this pro-ject,” charged Surendran.

The BJP leader furtheralleged that the CPI(M) lead-ers tried to purchase theintegrity and loyalty of the EDand CBI officials. “There was aunit of the CPI(M) operating inthe Kochi and Kozhikodeoffices of the CustomsDepartment and this has beenbrought to light. Chief Ministerknows that the probe officialswould soon reach hisdoorsteps and that is the rea-son why he shows signs ofupset,” said Surendran. PNS

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With the arrival ofEnforcement Directorate

and Income Tax officials toThiruvananthapuram byTuesday evening, grapevine isthat the house of BineeshKodiyeri, who has been arrest-ed in connection with financ-ing narcotics, may be searched.

Bineesh, son of CPI(M)Kerala secretary KodiyeriBalakrishnan, has been arrest-ed by ED and sent to the cus-tody of the probe agency. TheED has told the BangaloreCivil Judge that Bineesh wasnot cooperating with the probeand feigning poor health. Thedigital records seized by the EDfrom Anoop Mohammed, oneof the close aides of Bineesh,has brought the ED toThiruvananthapuram.

If the ED raids or inspectsthe residence and businessestablishments of Bineesh, itwould be an embarrassment tohis father Balakrishnan. TheCPI(M) strongman recently

shifted to one of the penthouseapartments built by the partyfor senior leaders atThiruvananthapuram.

But CPI(M) leadership hasalready initiated discussionsto opt for an alternativearrangement if the ED raids theresidence of Bineesh inT h i r u v a n a n t h a p u r a m .Balakrishnan, ailing for sometime now, may be given leavefor the time being and M VGovindan, one of his trustedlieutenants may be givencharges of the party secretary,according to insiders in theCPI(M).

Meanwhile the CPI(M) haslaunched a synchronised cam-paign all over the State toexpose the “evil designs” of theBJP to discredit and tarnish the“good works” done by thePinarayi Vijayan governmentduring the last four years.

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A21-year-old woman was admitted to hospital in a criticalcondition after she was reportedly abducted and raped in

J&K's Kulgam district, police said.Police sources said the woman was abducted and raped by

a group of youths in Akhal area of Kulgam where she had goneto attend a marriage ceremony. “The girl was found by localswho shifted her in an unconscious state to a hospital in Kulgamdistrict.

“She was later shifted to a hospital in Srinagar after attend-ing doctors in Kulgam described her condition as critical,” apolice source said.

Sources also said two accused have been arrested so far afteran FIR was lodged in the police station.

Locals blocked the road in the native village of the girl,demanding death penalty for the culprits.

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As many as 478 more personstested coronavirus positive

in Jammu and Kashmir onTuesday, while 578 others recov-ered and were discharged fromdifferent hospitals in the UnionTerritory.

So far, 96,188 coronaviruscases were reported in J&K, ofwhich 88,718 have recovered. Ofthe new cases, 195 were fromJammu division and 283 fromKashmir division. As many as1,502 COVID patients havedied in the UT, including 12 whosuccumbed on Tuesday. Of the5,968 active cases, 1,621 are inJammu division and 4,347 inKashmir division.

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Panaji: Functioning of Goa'stwo Covid-19 facilities wereaffected for brief period afterResident Doctors posted therestruck work on Monday aftertheir free accommodation priv-ilege was revoked, but they havesince rejoined duty, the SouthGoa district authorities said on Tuesday.

“Some disruption in servicesat Covid hospitals was reportedon Tuesday afternoon asResident Doctors had with-

drawn services to demand sep-arate accommodation,” SouthGoa District Collector Ajit Roysaid in a statement here, addingthat doctors had resumed work.

Roy said that while theResident Doctors were on strike,senior consultants andDirectorate of Health Servicesdoctors attended to Covid-19patients.

“The Health Departmentand district administration iscommitted to provide best

healthcare in times of Covid-19pandemic,” the statement added.

On Monday, ResidentDoctors at the Employee StateInsurance Hospital and SouthGoa District Hospital struckwork to protest against the Goagovernment's decision to getthem to vacate official accom-modation or pay rent from theirown pockets.

Goa's coronavirus cases total43,954, including 2,215 activecases and 616 deaths. IANS

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At least 137 more people tested Positive forCOVID-19 in Tripura on Tuesday, pushing

the tally in the state to 30,989, a health depart-ment official said.

The COVID-19 death toll rose to 347 as twomore patients have succumbed to the infection,he said.

West Tripura district, of which state capi-tal Agartala is a part, has accounted for 181 ofthe 347 COVID-19 deaths, the official said.

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In a development that threat-ens to trigger a major con-

frontation between the Centreand Maharashtra Government,the BJP-led NDA Governmenthas put a spoke into the wheelof the Mumbai Metro-III carshed project, by opposing theUddhav Thackeray dispensa-tion’s decision to locate themetro car shed at Kanjurmargin north-east Mumbai.

Nearly three weeks afterthe Maharashtra scrapped theprevious BJP-led Government’sdecision to locate Metro phase-III car shed at Aarey colony atGoregaon and moved the pro-ject to Kanjurmarg, the Centre’sDepartment of Promotion ofIndustry & Internal Trade(DPIIT) has shot off a letter tothe state government opposingthe location of car shed projectat Kanjurmarg would be“against the interest of theGovernment of India”. TheDPIIT also claimed owner-ship of the 102-acres landthere.

Lodging a protest with thestate government against themove to re-locate the car shedproject at Kanjurmarg, DPIITSecretary GuruprasadMohapatra said: “The improp-er and unilateral action of theMumbai Suburban DistrictCollector and MumbaiMetropolitan Region

Development Authority hascaused severe loss” to theDPIIT and the Government ofIndia”

“I would request you totake necessary steps and todirect the collector to withdrawthe orders passed in this regardin order to protect the interestsof the Government of India,”Mohapatra stated in his letterto the state government.

However, the Maharashtragovernment is in no mood toback off from its decision tolocate the car shed project atKanjurmarg. So much so thatthe ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi(MVA) leaders have slammedthe Centre for its efforts to sab-otage the Metro-III car shedproject and said that notwith-standing the reservationsexpressed by the Centre aboutlocating the project atKanjurmarg, they would goahead with the project.

On his part, MaharashtraTourism and EnvironmentMinister Aditya Thackerayindirectly expressed his unhap-piness over the manner inwhich the Centre had tried tocreate hurdles for the MumbaiMetro-III project by sayingthat the land on which the carshed was being built belongedto the Maharashtra govern-ment.

Mumbai Mayor KishoriPednekar of the Shiv Senacharged that it was a “conspir-acy” against the MVA govern-ment. “An affidavit was filed inBombay High Court during thetenure of the previous BJP-led

government saying that theKanjur Marg land belongs tothe State Government,” shesaid.

Charging that theOpposition BJP was out tostall the Mumbai Metro-IIICar Shed project, NCP chiefspokesperson and MinorityAffairs Minister Nawab Maliksaid: “Way back in 2002, theCentre had transferred largetracts of salt-pan lands to theMaharashtra government....First the BJP said the landbelonged to a private owner.Now they are saying that theland belongs to the Centralgovernment. The BJP is mere-ly creating hurdles for theMumbai Metro carshed This isnothing but the BJP’s conspir-acy to stall the Metro project”..

Hitting out at the Centrefor desperately trying to stallthe project, CongressSpokesperson Sachin Sawantsaid that since 1981, the landownership was with the stategovernment and accused thePrime Minister NarendraModi-led BJP of continuouslycreating obstacles for the MVAGovernment.

NCP MP Supriya Sulecharged that the BJP wasdestroying the country’s “coop-erative federal structure” “Thecountry is now lapsing into anundeclared state of Emergency.By opposing the location of theMetro car shed project atKanjurmarg, the ruling BJP atthe Centre is trying to doinjustice to Maharashtra,” shesaid.

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AJammu-based social activistAmandeep Singh Boparai,

who hogged limelight after heattempted to hoist a Tricolour inthe premises of PeoplesDemocratic Party (PDP) inJammu on October 24-25, waspicked up by the police from hisresidence in Sanjay Nagar areaof Jammu early Tuesday morn-ing. On record the local policeauthorities remained tight lippedand shied away from making astatement.

Till late evening no officialstatement was released ascribingreasons behind Boparai's deten-tion by the spokesman ofJammu & Kashmir police.

Even the family of Boparaiincluding his father, an ex-ser-viceman, was also not allowed tomeet him. Official sources main-tained, Boparai was picked up by

the police for violating existingCovid-19 guidelines underSection 188 of the Indian PenalCode (Disobedience to orderpromulgated by a public ser-vant).

A police guard stationed atthe main gate of the Modelpolice station in Gandhi Nagarprevented his father from enter-ing the police station premisesas he arrived there to know thereasons behind detention of hisson.

Speaking to the media per-sons outside the police station,Boparai's father alleged, “my son,who had hoisted a tricolor in theoffice of PDP and also took outa Tiranga rally on October 25,was forcibly picked up by thepolicemen from my residencewithout disclosing the reasonsbehind the same”. Boparai'sfather said, “my son has notcommitted any crime or

indulged in anti-national activ-ity. I want to know the reasonsbehind his detention but herethe police guard at the gate noteven allowing me to enter thepolice station. He ill treated meand pushed me when I attempt-ed to go inside the complex”, headded.

At Boparais' home, his wifealso alleged ill treatment at thehands of the police men. Shetold media persons, “a largenumber of policemen forciblyentered our house and withouteven showing us any officialorder or search warrant theyforcibly pushed my husbandinside the police jeep and tookhim away”. Late evening,Boparai was released by thepolice from Gandhi Nagar policestation. His father and lawyerwere present outside the policestation to receive him along withhis supporters.

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The Mumbai police onTuesday issued fresh sum-

mons to Bollywood actressKangana Ranaut and her sisterRangoli Chandel to appearbefore them on November 10and 11 in connection with aFIR registered against them forallegedly creating “hatred” and“communal tensions” betweenHindus and Muslims andattempting to trigger disaffec-tion among the people

against the MaharashtraGovernment.

Nearly a week after failedup to turn up for questioningin connection with the FIR reg-istered against them on the abasis of an inquiry ordered by

a city magistrate’s court, theBandra police issued freshsummons to Kangana toappear before the investigatorson November 10, while theyasked her sister RangoliChandel has to a*ppear themon November 11.

The Bandra police hadissued first summons toKangana and Rangoli andasked them to appear beforethem on October 26 and 27.

However, the two sistershad bought time from thepolice by saying that theywould not be able to respondto the summons as they werebusy with their brother’s wed-ding.

It may be recalled that onOctober 17, the Bandra police

had registered FIR againstKangana and Rangoli afterMetropolitan Magistrate JaidevGhule of Bandra 12th courtordered investigations undersection 156(3) of CrPC into acomplaint filed againstKangana and her sister RangoliChandel by Bollywood castingdirector and fitness trainerMunawwarali alias Sahil A.Sayyed.

Sayyed had among otherthings alleged that bothKangana and Rangoli had adtried to create “hatred” and“communal tensions” betweenHindus and Muslims and thatKangana had tried to lower theimage of Maharashtra chiefminister Uddhav Thackerayand created disaffection among

the people against theMaharashtra government.

“Among the chargesinclude Indian Penal Code Sec.124-A (sedition) and spreadingcommunal hatred and false-hoods. The police have alreadyrecorded the complainant’sstatement,” Sayyed’s lawyerRavish Zamindar said.

“Perused the complaint,heard the advocate of the com-plainant along with the docu-ments filed on record. Onprima facie perusal of com-plaint and submission I havefound a cognizable offence hasbeen committed by theaccused,” Magistrate Ghule hadnoted, while directing theBandra police to register anFIR against Kangana and her

sister Rangoli. “All allegations are based

upon comment on electronicmedia that is twitter and inter-views.

The accused used socialmedia like twitter and thoroughinvestigation is necessary by theexpert. All offences allegedand levelled against the accusedare cognizable. Search andseizure is necessary in thiscase, in such circumstances Ihave found it to be proper topass order under Section156(3) of CrPC,” the Judgehad ruled.

Among other things, thesection 156(3) of CrPC readwith section 190 empowers toMagistrate – upon receiving acomplaint of facts and upon

information received from anyperson other than a policeofficer, or upon his own knowl-edge that such an offence hasbeen committed any magistrateempowered under 190 canorder an investigation to into acomplaint.

Apart from trying to create“hatred” and “communal ten-sions” between Hindus andMuslims, the complainant’scase is that the accused num-ber 1 (Kangana) – through herone of her tweets – had alleged-ly tried to lower the image ofchief minister UddhavThackeray and the state gov-ernment agencies but also cre-ate disaffection among thecommon people against theMaharashtra government.

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The atmosphere intensifiedfor the three-phase pan-

chayat elections and theAligarh will again have delim-itation for the Pradhan election.The State Government tookthis decision due to the expan-sion of the municipality ofabout 24-gram panchayats andthree new panchayats in thedistrict.

The details of the delimi-tation are to be submitted to thegovernment by the PanchayatRaj Department by 11thNovember. Work has started atthe district level.

Three-phase panchayatelections were held in 2015 inwhich, 902-gram pradhans,1054 area panchayat membersand 52 district panchayat mem-bers were voted in the district.Nearly 2.5 years later, the gov-

ernment incorporated 16 grampanchayats of the city into theMunicipal Corporation.

Then it was announced tocreate Madarak NagarPanchayat. Six panchayats werealso included in this and one inChandaus and Pisawa NagarPanchayats. In this way, 24 pan-chayats have joined the munic-ipal bodies.

This includes Manjurgadi,Ramgarh Panipur andMaheshpur partially.

Now 878 gram panchayatsare left in the district whoseterm ending in 2020.

The government has issuedthe order of delimitation. Ifmore than one thousand pop-ulation of partially joined pan-chayats is outside the body,then a new panchayat will beformed there. The report is tobe sent to the government by11 November.

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Aligarh: Aligarh’s brass idols ofLakshmi-Ganesh will be wor-shiped by people across thecountry. Idols have been deliv-ered or delivering even beforeDiwali.

There is a huge demand foridols of gods and goddesses inMaharashtra most affected bythe pandemic. In September,October and November 2020,the estimated idol business isover 200 crores.

Aligarh, famous for lock-hardware, has an annual

turnover of more than Rs 600crore for artistic sculptures (art-ware). Hundreds of small andbig businesses here are associ-ated with this industry.

Thousands of familiesdepend on this industry. HereLaxmi-Ganesh, Radha-Krishna,Laddu Gopal, Durga, Saraswati,Lakshmi Vishnu, Hanuman,Rama Darbar, Gautam Buddha,statues, animals and a variety ofartistic sculptures based ontribal and rural life are manu-factured. PNS

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The chief of Army Staff,General MMNaravane’s visit toNepal, starting today, isbeing seen as a clear

attempt by both countries torevive bilateral relations, which areat a new low due to the map androad rows and their repudiationas Kathmandu printed its ownmap, incorporating disputed areasof Kalapani, Lipulekh andLimpiyadhura. General Naravane’svisit is a part of the unique tradi-tion that began in 1972, when theArmy chiefs of both countrieswere ceremonially appointedchiefs of each other’s armies. It wasField Marshal Sam Manekshaw,the legendary Sam Bahadur, whoinstitutionalised the unique mil-itary relation that had both polit-ical and strategic ramifications.“When a soldier says he is notafraid of death, he is either lyingor a Gorkha,” Sam would say. Notwo countries are privileged withsimilar bonding as the Gorkhas ofNepal, who serve and even dieprotecting India’s territorialintegrity and sovereignty. Thestrategic military relations are attwo levels — between the two sov-ereign armies and the IndianArmy’s Gorkha connect.

For India, Nepal is geo-strate-gically the most important neigh-bour, dominating avenues to theIndo-Gangetic heartland. Thesecurity concerns emanate fromthe north of the Himalayas andhave constituted the core worry.In 1959, the then Prime MinisterJawaharlal Nehru had said that anattack on Nepal and Bhutan willbe deemed as an attack on India.The Chinese have made equiva-lent remarks.

Nepal faces only an internalthreat as the Maoists posed twodecades ago. The hijack of IC-814demonstrated Nepal’s fragile inter-nal security system. Fortunately,it has no external threat.

In 1952, King Tribhuvan invit-ed India to establish a militarytraining mission, which includedoccupying 22 border posts alongwith Nepal Army but Kalapaniwas not one of them. By 1970,under pressure from theCommunist lobby in the palace,the training facilities were with-drawn. In 1965, King Mahendra,and in 1990, King Birendrarequested India to modernise theNepal Army, which is equipped 80per cent with Indian military

hardware provided at friend-ship prices — 70 per cent aidand 30 per cent payment,which over time has becomenear gratis. According to treatyarrangements, Nepal acquiresmilitary equipment fromabroad only when India isunable to provide them. Butthis is not sacrosanct as the US,the UK and east Europe haveprovisioned the Army.

The Nepal Army was testedduring the counter-insurgencycampaign against the Maoists,when it initially failed to meetthe challenge. The Indian Armyprovided tactical advice andmilitary equipment in stavingoff the threat which ended ina stalemate. As part of tacticalconsultations in September2003, the Bilateral SecurityCooperation Mechanism wasestablished, which is supposedto meet twice a year. After KingGyanendra staged the royalcoup in February 2005, militarysupplies were suspended,resulting in a rift betweenArmy chief General JJ Singhand the Foreign Office asGeneral Singh pointed out thatblocking the flow of weaponsand equipment would under-mine Nepal Army’s counter-insurgency operations. Thoughoverruled, he defended themilitary ties zealously.

The bulk of Nepal Army’sspecialised training is held inIndia and it bags maximumtraining slots. Joint training hasreached the battalion level

under the Surya Kiran seriesand military exercises are heldin both the countries. TheIndian military has become thefirst responder during crisis orcalamity in Nepal. In the 1990s,there was a horrible aviationtragedy at the TribhuvanInternational Airport. The IAFrushed in several helicopters tohelp trace victims of the acci-dent. Similarly, in 2015, afterthe earthquake, the Indianmilitary’s immediate responsewas acknowledged by NepalArmy chief, General GauravRana.

The second strand of bilat-eral relations is the recruitmentof Gorkhas from Nepal in theIndian Army, which is a con-tinuation of the British inher-itance through the TripartiteAgreement of 1947, wherebyNepalese get into British,Indian and their own armies.The British had insulated theGorkhas from the rest of theIndian Army by not allowingIndian officers to lead them. Atthe end of World War II, therewere 51 Gorkha battalionswhich were divided betweenthe British and Indian Armies.Today, the 43 Gorkha battal-ions, which are larger than theentire British infantry, whichhas two Gorkha battalions,make up the largest infantryregiment of the Indian Army.While initially all were recruit-ed from Nepal, gradually theNepali Gorkha content reducedto 70 per cent and currently is

60 per cent while the remain-ing comes from Indian domi-ciled Gorkhas fromDharamshala to Darjeeling. In2015, a Gorkha battalion com-posed entirely of IndianGorkhas was formed.

On an average, India recruitsannually 1,500 to 2,000 NepaliGorkhas with unending queuesof aspirants. Indians have offi-cered the Gorkhas withpanache and passion thatBritish Gorkha veterans nowenvy. These battalions havewon gallantry awards that out-match other Indian regimentsand those Indians who doubttheir loyalty should have theirheads examined.

The Indian embassy has cre-ated a wealth of facilities for the1.25 lakh ex-servicemen (10lakh if you add families) inNepal, who are exceptionallyorganised, disciplined, lately,affluent after One Rank OnePension (OROP) and behold-en to India. A special Gorkhacell in Army Headquartersmonitors their welfare. Payand pensions account for thethird-largest remittance aftertrade and tourism, and this hasremained unaffected by thepandemic or other crises.

Nepali politicians withLeftist leanings, especiallyMaoists, have invariably raisedthe question of stoppingrecruitment in foreign armies,especially the Indian Army.The Chinese influence in Nepalhas grown dramatically since

the Communist Government isin place. It has been seekingparity with India, includingjoint military training whichstarted in 2017. China mayobject to the use of Nepalitroops of the Indian Armyagainst a friendly ChinesePeople’s Liberation Army. Anecho was heard duringDoklam.

With the Nepal CommunistParty in power, the recruitmentissue keeps popping up. Onesuspects there would be amini-revolt in the countrysidefor contemplating a sacrilege asheinous as stopping Gorkhasfrom showing off their valour.A proposal that had emanatedfrom the Kathmandu Embassyin 1974, recommending thisinfamy, was axed in New Delhiwith alacrity for its potential torob India of a vital strategicasset. The serving Gorkhasand the ex-servicemen com-munity together constitute theone reliable pro-India con-stituency in Nepal that NewDelhi can count on, especial-ly when India-Nepal relationshave hit rock-bottom. It is thisGorkha asset and magic thatGeneral Naravane’s visit willnurture and preserve besidescreating an ambience for nor-malising ties.

(The writer, a retired MajorGeneral, was Commander IPKFSouth, Sri Lanka and foundermember of the Defence PlanningStaff, currently the IntegratedDefence Staff)

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����������� ���Sir — Elections in the US haveoften surprised people. In 2016,Hillary Clinton had more pop-ular votes than Donald Trump.Nonetheless, she lost. The USPresident is not elected based onpopular votes cast in his/herfavour. Rather, when the peopleexercise their ballot, they areactually voting for a group ofpeople called electors, who formthe electoral college. This has 538electoral votes in aggregate. Eachelector is entitled to cast one votefollowing the general election,and the candidate who getsmore than half (270), wins.Hence, in 2016, Clinton lost toTrump.

The 2020 US election isunique in many ways for India,too. An Indian-Americanwoman leader, Kamala Harris, is the Democratic Vice-Presidential nominee and has afair drawing power, according tothe opinion polls. On the otherhand, Prime Minister NarendraModi has been rooting for theRepublican President DonaldTrump and his deputy. In boththe “Howdy, Modi!” mega eventin Houston and “NamasteTrump” extravaganza inAhmedabad, Modi had can-

vassed rather openly for Trump.Then again, the failure toapplaud Harris, a person ofIndian origin, wholeheartedly isnot lost on the observers.However, India can easily reachout to the Democratic Presidentand the Vice President if they arevoted to power. The fact remains,Democrat or Republican, the USPresidents are always driven bytheir national interests and per-

manence has never been theirstrong suit.

Haridasan RajanKozhikode

����������Sir — It is a matter of grave con-cern that two-third of India’spopulation lives in poverty with68.8 per cent surviving on lessthan $2 a day. And over 30 per

cent even have less than $1.25 perday available. Around 800 mil-lion people are considered poor,making the Indian subconti-nent one of the poorest countriesin the world. Most of them livein the countryside and keepafloat with odd jobs.

Poverty has indeed been oneof the biggest challenges for theGovernment. And the nation-wide lockdown to slow the

spread of the Coronavirus hasmade things even worse. TheGovernment needs to target spe-cific areas such as acceleratingeconomic and agriculturalgrowth, ensuring speedy devel-opment of infrastructure, growthof non-farm employment, accessto assets and credit, and reform-ing the public distribution systemand special employment schemesfor the poor.

B Ahsanullah Delhi

����������������Sir — On November 2, theNational Green Tribunal issuednotices to the Ministry ofEnvironment and Forests andfour State Governments — Delhi,Haryana, Uttar Pradesh andRajasthan — on banning fire-crackers from November 7 toNovember 30 in the interest ofpublic health and environment.This comes as a welcome step asthe quality of air continues todeteriorate, especially in Delhi,which may, in turn, lead to a risein COVID-19 cases.

Khushboo VedUjjain

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Issuing of post-dated cheques or signing ofirrevocable mandates to banks to debit theagreed Equated Monthly Installment (EMI)

on a fixed date every month is a common prac-tice when loans or goods purchased on credit arerepaid on a regular basis. If the cheque or auto-matic electronic debit is dishonoured by the bankfor want of funds/mandate and the debtor failsto clear the dues within 15 days of a written noticeby the bank (to be given within 30 days of dis-honour), the creditor can file a criminal com-plaint. This is because the debtor commits anoffence punishable with up to two years in jailor fine up to two times the amount of the chequeissued or both. The criminal case can bedropped in case of a compromise or settlement.This is provided under Section 138 of theNegotiable Instruments Act, 1881. The objectiveof all this is to promote the efficiency of bank-ing operations and to ensure credibility intransacting business through cheques. The 1881Act was amended in 1989 to introduce a one-yearjail term that was enhanced to two years in 2003.But the offence was made “compoundable”, mean-ing that the criminal proceedings can now bedropped if some compromise is reached betweenthe two parties.

India, with its huge population, has problemsthat are unique to it and the overburdening ofresources or institutions is one of them. So, it isnot surprising then, that a total of 346 lakh courtcases were pending in the country on October29 this year. Out of this, there were over 251 lakhcriminal and over 95 lakh civil cases, of whichover 199 lakh criminal cases were more than ayear old. A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filedby the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) in 2013had highlighted that out of the pending 270 lakhcourt cases, about 40 lakh were cheque bouncecases, involving about �1,200 crore. These cases,estimated to be about 20 per cent of the total case-load (2018), are clogging the already overbur-dened criminal courts. Do we have enough jailsand judges to convict every offender? Shouldn’twe have a hierarchy or priority list of offences tobe targetted by the prosecution and adjudicat-ing systems? Should the debtors, who havealready mortgaged movable and immovableproperties, be further subjected to criminal lia-bility?

The Government is considering decriminal-ising cheque bounce cases and some other “civilwrongs.” On June 8, the Finance Ministry soughtstakeholder comments on its proposal to decrim-inalise 39 “minor economic offences” createdunder 19 Acts, including non-repayment of loansand dishonour of a cheque or automatic electron-ic debit for “improving the ease of doing busi-ness and helping unclog the court system andprisons.” However, the decriminalisation propos-al has been opposed by the IBA, theConfederation of All-India Traders, the FinanceIndustry Development Council, the Federationof Industrial and Commercial Organisationand some Bar Councils.

The Bar Council of Delhi has highlighted theeffect of the pandemic on lawyers in the coun-try and how every advocate is facing a financialcrisis. The Bar Councils of Maharashtra and Goa,too, have opposed the proposal to decriminaliseSection 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act.They contended that the offence of chequebounce should not be termed as a “minor” infrac-tion by the Government in its bid to decriminalisethe same. For lawyers, decriminalisation clear-

ly means an adverse impact on theirlivelihoods. For traders selling on cred-it, there is a genuine problem of hav-ing no security against customerdefault. Instalment purchase of goodson EMI is supported by post-datedcheques, and no one will accept chequesif their bouncing is decriminalised.Trade will be left at the mercy of civillitigation that takes several years for jus-tice to be delivered. Even after the cur-rent stringent Section 138, more than20 per cent of all pendency of casesacross the country is only pertaining tocheque bounce.

The bankers’ opposition to decrim-inalisation can also be understood forcheque bounce against unsecured loans.However, there is absolutely no justi-fication for continuing with this addi-tional protection in case of securedloans. While sanctioning EMI-basedloans, banks insist on mortgage ofimmovable property or shares, deben-tures, fixed deposits and so on. Or theyobtain guarantees from employers fordeduction from the borrowers’ salary.In such cases, cheque bounce should beconsidered for decriminalisation tobegin with. Borrowers — distressed bythe Coronavirus pandemic — havebeen provided some relief by way ofmoratorium and deferral of fresh appli-cations for insolvency proceedings butthe criminal liability under theNegotiable Instruments Act, 1881, asamended in 1989, 2003 and 2018,remains. Normally, for criminal liabil-ity to be pinned to a person, presenceof mens rea, malafide intention is amust. However, in cheque bouncecases, malafide intention may or maynot be there and need not be proved.A strict liability has been created with-out going into a cheque issuer’s inten-tions as a measure to build trust andcredibility in cheque transactions.

The objective of amending Section138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act

in 1989 was to add credibility in trans-acting business through cheques.Current realities are so very differentfrom 1989 when cheque bounce wasfirst criminalised.

Provision of criminal liability —prosecution and imprisonment — onstrict liability basis, without the need toprove malafide intention, is an identi-fied deterrent for attracting new invest-ment. It is in larger public interest todeclog our criminal courts and jails.

In Kaushalya Devi Massand vsRoopkishore Khore case, the SupremeCourt held that the offence committedunder Section 138 of the NegotiableInstruments Act cloaks a civil wrongas a criminal act and the gravity ofoffence under Section 138 of the Actcannot be equated with a crime underthe provisions of the Indian Penal Codeor other criminal offences.

In Makwana Mangaldas Tulsidasvs. State of Gujarat and others case, theSupreme Court recently favoureddecriminalisation of dishonour of smallvalue cheques. The court suggested var-ious ways to deal with the situation ofoverflowing cheque bounce cases pend-ing adjudication across the country. Theapex court suggested developing amechanism for pre-litigation settlementin these cases.

The Centre, while decriminalisingsome defaults, has to balance the inter-ests of lawyers, the business communi-ty and the welfare of the public at large,especially those who are not wilfuldefaulters. In cheque bounce cases, weneed to find a balance so that malafideintent is punished while other, less seri-ous offences are compounded. As theworking of the SARFESAI Act (TheSecuritisation and Reconstruction ofFinancial Assets and Enforcement ofSecurities Interest Act) and theInsolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC)have shown, the cases of wilful defaultsare very few and such offenders con-

tinue to dodge the law while a largenumber of non-wilful defaulters con-tinue to suffer harassment in courts.Public policy is all about balancing con-flicting requirements and expecta-tions. Creditors would want to have asmany solutions as possible and pursueall those remedies simultaneously.However, such an approach has a dele-terious effect on business sentiment. Itmay end up having a chilling effect onpotential borrowers and consumerdemand. If fear of imprisonment andlitigation charges along with a fine trulyhad a deterrent effect and resulted intimely payment of cheques, the courtswould not have such a big pendingcaseload. And it is this huge backlog ofcheque bounce cases that delays thetrial of more serious crimes and at thesame time erodes public faith in thejudicial system.

Hence, decriminalisation ofbounced cheques should be seriouslypursued. Secured creditors have reme-dies available under the Securitisationand Reconstruction of Financial Assetsand Enforcement of Securities InterestAct, 2002 and the IBC, 2016. Casesinvolving secured lenders should bedecriminalised except for borrowersdeclared “wilful defaulters” or “fugitiveeconomic offenders.” Even in casesinvolving unsecured creditors, thecriminal cases should be continuedagainst repeat offenders and a morelenient view may be taken of first-timedefaults and offenders. There should bevery clear articulation of legislativeintent as to its retrospective or prospec-tive operation. To eliminate a large pen-dency of court cases, retrospectiveapplication based on a differentiatingcriterion like secured/unsecured cred-itor and wilful/non-wilful defaulterswould be necessary and desirable.

(The writer is former SpecialSecretary, Ministry of Commerce andIndustry)

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It is a sad fact that 53 people lost theirlives in the riots in north-east Delhiin February this year. Nearly 600

people were injured and propertyworth several crores was destroyed.Countless families had their sources oflivelihood destroyed and some unfor-tunate ones lost their sole bread-win-ners. The Delhi Police, too, had its shareof dead and injured, and I have nodoubt that it has been analysing thecause of the tragic course of events andhow it reacted and responded to the sit-

uation in the national Capital as itunfolded. Disconcertingly, there havebeen allegations that Delhi Police actedunder political pressure during the riots.But after an initial delay/dithering, itacted swiftly and controlled the situa-tion. The National Security Advisor andthe present Commissioner of Police,who was specially brought in from theCentral Reserve Police Force (CRPF),visited the worst-hit areas of the Capitalfor a few days, restored order andinstilled a sense of security and safetyamong the public.

While the embers of the riotswere still burning, criticism from var-ious quarters started pouring in regard-ing lack of transparency and impartial-ity in the conduct of the police. Severalarticles have appeared in the media car-rying allegations of one-sided probes.Motives are being attributed for both,arresting or not arresting people. It isindeed sad to see respectable namesbeing lent to write-ups castigating thepolice investigation with hardly any

attempt to access authentic material.It has been my experience in over

three decades of policing in Delhi andsome other AGMU-cadre States andUnion Territories that there is hardlyany political interference in policefunctioning in these jurisdictions, be itin handling of law and order situations,crime control or investigation of crimes.The police are usually free to act pro-fessionally in such matters barringindividual aberrations.

After the inept and biased handlingof the 1984 riots, which badly impact-ed its image, the Delhi Police, under theable leadership of the legendary VedMarwah and subsequent illustriousCommissioners of Police, has been act-ing professionally and competently. Ithas handled grave law and order situ-ations and various communal riots,including widespread unrest after theimplementation of the MandalCommission report. It appears that alle-gations of biased investigation in therecent riots are based more on percep-

tions than facts. Now that the DelhiPolice has filed several chargesheets,including a comprehensive 1,800 pageone in an important case related to theconspiracy behind the riots, a consid-erable amount of material relating tothis investigation has come into thepublic domain. The investigators havemade extensive use of modern technol-ogy in collecting evidence and havebeen able to get statements of key wit-nesses recorded before magistrates.Also, it emerges that the Delhi Policehas filed chargesheets against theaccused belonging to both the commu-nities, based on the quantum of evi-dence adduced during the course ofinvestigations.

Recently, the police filed a supple-mentary chargesheet against nine peo-ple, who were part of a WhatsAppgroup called Kattar Hindu Ekta, byadding Sections 153 A and 505 of theIndian Penal Code for promotingenmity between different groups in thename of religion. This has exposed the

allegations and conspiracy theoriesregarding favouritism and biased inves-tigation to be based on presumptionsand hearsay. It appears that those lev-elling such charges were either spread-ing much misinformation or weresimply jumping the gun. In fact, in casesof pre-planned caste or communal riots,it will be highly undesirable and unfairto arrest an equal number of peoplefrom both the groups/communities.Rather the police investigations, arrestsand chargesheets have to be basedstrictly on the evidence collected andthe facts of the case.

The competent court has alreadytaken cognisance of the matter and therelevant courts will hear both theprosecution and the defence. The evi-dence adduced by the prosecutionwill be subjected to rigorous scrutinyand witnesses will be examined andcross-examined. The accused and theirattorneys will get every opportunity topunch holes in the prosecution’s ver-sion.

As a former police officer and aconcerned citizen, I am hopeful andconfident that the rule of law will pre-vail and truth will eventually triumphin the probe in the Delhi riots.

Delhi Police did a commendablejob during the initial three months ofthe lockdown necessitated by theCOVID-19 outbreak and earnedimmense public goodwill. Police per-sonnel served and helped citizens in allpossible ways without even caring fortheir own lives or the welfare of theirown families. The lives of 20 police per-sonnel were also lost to COVID. Thepolice leadership would be well-advisedto step up efforts to improve public per-ception and project a people-friendlyimage by earning the trust and good-will of the masses.

(The writer is former SpecialCommissioner of Police, Delhi Police andMember, Public Grievances Commissionand Police Complaints Authority, Delhi.He is also an Advocate and Consultantin criminal matters)

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Kampala: Ugandan police havearrested Bobi Wine, a popularsinger and opposition presi-dential hopeful who is biddingto unseat Uganda’s long-timeleader.

Wine, whose real name isKyagulanyi Ssentamu, wasdragged from his car by policenot long after he was officiallynominated as a candidate inpresidential elections scheduledfor next year.

The local NBS Television,reporting from the scene, saidWine was put into a police vanamid violent scuffles betweenpolice and his supporters.

A police spokesman didnot immediately respond toquestions. Authorities fre-quently accuse Wine of plan-ning rallies that could disruptpublic order, which he denies.

Critics say PresidentYoweri Museveni, in powersince 1986, increasinglydepends on the armed forces toassert his authority. Museveniwas nominated as a candidatefor president on Monday. AP

Washington/New York:Security has been tightened atthe White House and majorcommercial avenues across theUS, with retailers boarding uptheir stores to head off anydamages as America braced forpossible unrest and violence ina bitter and divisive presiden-tial race.

Vital government installa-tions are on high alert while theSecret Service has fortified theWhite House. A “non-scalable”wall has been temporarily erect-ed around the sprawling pres-idential complex ahead of thevoting on Tuesday.

About 600 National Guardtroops have also been desig-nated to help respond toprotests around the country ifrequested.

On election eve, contrac-tors were seen busy boarding upmajor stores and businessesfrom New York and Boston inthe north to southern Houstonto Washington DC and Chicagoin the east to San Francisco inthe West.

Stores along the posh 5th

Avenue in Manhattan as well asacross the New York city board-ed up and workers were seendrilling plywood onto thestores’ facade late in the night,amid fears that Election Daycould bring violence, lootingand clashes, similar to the chaosseen in the summer duringprotests over the death ofGeorge Floyd.

New York City Mayor Billde Blasio said Monday that hehas spoken with PoliceCommissioner Dermot Sheaand there is no specific reportsor specific threats of violence at

this point.“Everyone, of course, is

concerned about the electionresults and what plays out after.But I want to emphasise, at thismoment, we don’t see a specif-ic challenge. We are ready for allsorts of challenges. A lot ofpreparation has been happen-ing over the last few weeks,” deBlasio said during a press con-ference.

Responding to a questionon concerns about violence inthe city on and after electionday and stores boarding up, hesaid every store owner has to

make their own decision and herespects the decision of eachstore owner.

“I want to talk aboutElection Day and the aftermath.Everyone’s thinking about thisdeeply. Everyone’s concerned,”he said adding that the cityshould be prepared for the factthat the election results will notnecessarily be a 100 percentclear on Tuesday night or evenon Wednesday. PTI

Brussels: The European Unionis considering stepping up itslegal action against Britainover legislation that wouldbreach parts of the legallybinding Brexit agreement thatthe EU and the British gov-ernment reached late last year.

The fight over the gov-ernment’s proposed bill con-tinued Tuesday as the twosides were deep in negotiationson a free trade agreement. Atrade deal must reached with-in weeks for it to be in place onJan 1, when an 11-monthBrexit transition period ends.

“This dispute will have to

be resolved,” EU spokesmanDaniel Ferrie said.

A legal fight on top of thenegotiations only highlightshow bruising Britain’s with-drawal from the EuropeanUnion has proven to be.

The 27-nation bloc said itcould now move to a secondphase in the dispute over theU.K. Internal Market bill fol-lowing Britain’s refusal to replyto an Oct. 1 legal requestseeking an explanation for itsactions, EU leaders fear that ifthe UK bill becomes law, itcould lead to the reimpositionof a hard land border between

Northern Ireland, which ispart of Britain, and EU mem-ber Ireland.

The border was heavilymilitarized during the decadesof sectarian violence inNorthern Ireland, and the freemovement of people andgoods across it is viewed asessential to upholding the1998 Good Friday peaceaccord.

There are hopes that thelegal fight would become obso-lete if both sides agree on atrade deal. But despite monthsof talks, substantive disagree-ments remain. AP

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Washington: Joe Biden is pre-dicting a victory inPennsylvania on the eve of theelection.

Speaking at a drive-in rallyin Pittsburgh, Biden encour-aged the audience to vote andsaid, “I have a feeling we’recoming together for a big wintomorrow!” The crowd, about250 cars gathered in the park-ing lot of Heinz Field, honkedtheir horns and cheered as hespoke.

Biden was the headliner ata star-studded pair of ralliesMonday night. Before hespoke in Pittsburgh, runningmate Kamala Harris delivereda call to action at a rally inPhiladelphia that was live-streamed on a large screen atthe Pittsburgh rally. JohnLegend played in Philadelphia,while Lady Gaga performed in

Pittsburgh and exhorted thecrowd to “vote like your livesdepend on it!”

Biden delivered a speechfocused on the need to expandhealth care, address incomeinequality and racial injus-tice. After four events acrossOhio and PennsylvaniaMonday, Biden’s voice grewhoarse, but he was still ener-getic, at times pounding thepodium for emphasis.

Biden’s campaign insiststhe Democrat has multiplepaths to victory, but his easi-est route is throughWisconsin, Michigan andPennsylvania.

He’ll be campaigning inScranton and Philadelphia onElection Day, and told thecrowd Monday night, “Thepower is in your hands,Pennsylvania!”

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Dubai: Iranian Supreme LeaderAyatollah Ali Khamenei said onTuesday the U.S. presidentialelection’s result will not impactTehran’s policy towardsWashington.

“Our policy towards theUnited States is clearly set anddoes not change with themovement of individuals. Itdoes not matter to us whocomes and goes,” Khamenei

said in a speech carried live onstate TV. Khamenei was speak-ing on the anniversary of the1979 seizure of the U.S. embassyin Tehran, which coincidedwith the birthday of Islam’sProphet Mohammad.

“The students’ attack onthis den of spies was quiteappropriate and wise,”Khamenei said, referring toradical Islamist students who

stormed the embassy, takinghostage 52 staff for an eventu-al 444 days. There have been noU.S.-Iranian diplomatic rela-tions since. Iran this year can-celled rallies and other eventsmarking the embassy seizurebecause of concerns over thespread of the coronavirus whichhas killed about 36,000 peoplein the country, the worst hit inthe Middle East. AFP

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Washington: Claiming thatDemocratic vice presidentialcandidate Kamala Harriswants to be the first womanpresident of the United States,President Donald Trump toldhis supporters that this is one“good reason” not to vote forhis challenger Joe Biden.

“This wonderful woman,she wants to be your first

female president. I don’t thinkso. I don’t think so. You know,that’s a good reason not to votefor sleepy Joe too, right? Youdon’t want to do that,”

Trump, a Republican, said at a political rally inKenosha in Wisconsin, a key battleground state on theeve of Tuesday’s presidentialelection. PTI

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Paris: France’s DefenseMinister says French militaryforces fighting Islamic extrem-ists in West Africa “put away”more than 50 jihadists in arecent operation in Mali.

Defense Minister FlorenceParly tweeted Monday night

that the French force in theregion, called Barkhane, alsoconfiscated weapons andequipment from the fighters inthe operation last Friday, whichshe said “shows once again thatterrorist groups cannot actwith impunity.”

Parly is currently visitingMali’s capital Bamako, whereshe met with the head of thetransitional government.

After Mali’s president wasousted in August by a militaryjunta, she urged democraticelections “as quickly as possi-ble” and said the current lead-ership promised to ensurethem.

France, which has suffered

repeated deadly Islamicextremist attacks, has thou-sands of forces in West Africato help fight extremist groupsthere.

Islamic extremist rebelswere forced from power innorthern Mali after a 2013French-led military operation,but regrouped in the desert andnow launch frequent attacks onthe Malian army and its allies.

Meanwhile, Mali has facedmonths of political upheaval.Under international pressure,the junta appointed a civilian-led government to lead thecountry through an 18-monthtransition period to new elec-tions. AP

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French PresidentEmmanuel Macron spoke

to the Egyptian andPalestinian leaders after aweek of anti-French protestsaround the Muslim worldand three Islamic extremistattacks on France.

Macron is seeking to calm tensions and to straighten out misunder-standings while also defend-ing France’s values. TheFrench president’s office saidTuesday that EgyptianPresident Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi and Palestinian PresidentMahmoud Abbas both offeredhim support.

Around the Mideast andSouth Asia, demonstratorshave expressed anger inrecent days over caricaturesof the Prophet published inFrench newspaper CharlieHebdo and Macron’s policiestoward freedom of expressionand Islamism.

Macron’s office said in astatement that el-Sissiexpressed his solidarity withFrance and denounced theattacks as well as the protests.

El-Sissi’s office said theEgyptian leader told Macronduring a Monday phone callthat coexistence between dif-

ferent religions “should bepromoted through dialogue,understanding, mutualrespect and without prejudiceto religious icons.”

El-Sissi said he andFrance’s leader discussedtheir countries’ “mutual posi-tions” in fighting extremismand its supporters.

Macron also spoke withAbbas, who offered condo-lences and “his support toFrance in this ordeal,” accord-ing to Macron’s office.

The Palestinian presi-dent’s office said Abbasstressed “the need for every-one to respect religions andreligious symbols and notallow anything offensive to Prophet Muhammad andall prophets and religionswhile condemning all thosewho do so.”

Abbas also emphasised“his rejection of extremism,violence and terrorism,” whileMacron expressed his “respectfor Islam and the Islamicworld,” according to the offi-cial Palestinian news agencyWAFA.

Macron also explainedFrance’s positions during aweekend interview withArabic network Al Jazeera inwhich he called for mutualunderstanding and respect.

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China has annexed over 150hectares of Nepal’s territo-

ry, according to a leadingBritish daily whose report wasrejected by the Chinese ForeignMinistry on Tuesday as a “com-pletely unfounded rumour”.

Foreign Ministryspokesman Wang Wenbin’sremarks came after TheTelegraph quoting Nepalesepoliticians reported that Chinahas annexed more than 150hectares of land in five areasnear the border, including bydiverting the flow of a river toclaim the previously submergedland.

Reacting to the newsreport, Wang said: “I want topoint out that the report is acompletely unfoundedrumour”.

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Bangkok: A top leader ofThailand’s pro-democracyprotests insisted Tuesday thatthe student-led movement willnot back down from its mostcontroversial demand, that thecountry’s monarchy undergoreforms.

Lawyer Arnon Namphaalso told a crowd outsideBangkok Remand Prison thatthe movement would hold alarge demonstration in front ofParliament if a draft constitu-tional amendment the pro-testers are seeking is notapproved in its next session,scheduled for mid-November.

“When Parliament opens,and if they do not pass the draftamendment of the constitution,we will close Parliament withour own hands,” he said.

The movement wantsPrime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha to step down, the consti-tution to be amended to makeit more democratic, and themonarchy reformed to make itsactivities more transparent andaccountable.

The protesters have beenholding almost daily ralliesaround the country, someattracting upwards of 10,000people. AP

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An independent humanrights expert working

with the United Nations iscalling on Myanmar’s gov-ernment and military lead-ership to stop persecutingsupporters of the oppositionahead of Sunday’s generalelection.

Thomas Andrews, a for-mer US congressman fromMaine who is the UN specialinvestigator on Myanmar,called for free and fair elec-tions but expressed concernsabout the denial of the vote toRohingya Muslims and oth-ers based on race, ethnicity orreligion.

Andrews, who as anindependent “special rap-porteur” does not speak for

the UN, said the Myanmararmy is using a penal code setup under colonialist Britainin 1861 to “lock up journal-ists, students and others forexercising their basic right tofree expression.” He alsolamented allegations of statecensorship of some candi-dates.

Myanmar’s electoralcommission has canceled vot-ing in several parts of thecountry facing bouts ofunrest.

Warsaw: Poland’s right-wingGovernment is delaying thepublication and implementa-tion of a high court ruling thattightens the abortion law andthat has triggered almost twoweeks of nationwide protests.

A government official saidTuesday that the leaders are tak-ing time to debate the contest-ed ruling and find a solution.

“There is a discussion goingon, and it would be good to takesome time for dialogue and forfinding a new position in thissituation that is difficult andstirs high emotions,” saidMichal Dworczyk, the head ofPrime Minister MateuszMorawiecki’s office. AP

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New Delhi: Prime MinisterNarendra Modi will onThursday chair a virtual glob-al investor roundtable that willprovide an opportunity to lead-ing global investors and Indianbusiness leaders to engage anddeliberate with senior policymakers on how to further accel-erate the growth of interna-tional investments in the coun-try.

The Virtual Global InvestorRoundtable (VGIR) is beingorganised by the Ministry ofFinance and the NationalInvestment and InfrastructureFund, the Prime Minister'sOffice (PMO) said in a state-ment.

It is an exclusive dialoguebetween leading global institu-tional investors, Indian businessleaders and the highest decisionmakers from the government ofIndia and financial market reg-ulators, the statement said.

Union Finance MinisterNirmala Sitharaman, UnionMinister of State for FinanceAnurag Thakur, RBI GovernorShaktikanta Das and other dig-nitaries will also be present onthe occasion. PTI

New Delhi: The FinanceMinistry will soon come up witha fresh round of economic stim-ulus, Economic Affairs SecretaryTarun Bajaj said on Tuesday.

Addressing the media here,he said that the Department ofFinance has received sugges-tions and discussions are on inthe ministry regarding the nextset of measures amid the pan-demic. It will be announced byFinance Minister NirmalaSitharaman, he said.

Bajaj's statement comesjust over a week after he saidthat the Centre is open for fur-ther measures to boost theeconomy. Last month, theFinance Minister had also saidthat the Centre has not closedthe option for another stimu-lus package.

In May, the governmentcame up with the much talked-about Rs 20 lakh crore'Aatmanirbhar Bharat' eco-nomic package. Both therounds of stimulus so far havereceived more flak than appre-ciation from the industry andexperts, as many are of theopinion that they are inade-quate, more so in terms ofboosting demand.

A recent Moody's reportsaid that that the second roundof fiscal stimulus amounts tojust 0.2 per cent of the country'sreal GDP forecast for the finan-cial year 2021 and in total, thetwo rounds of stimulus bringthe government's direct spend-ing on coronavirus-related fis-cal support to just around 1.2per cent of GDP. IANS

New Delhi:Institutional flow offunds in real estate fell 73 percent in January-September atUSD 1.18 billion (around Rs8,700 crore) as investorsremained cautious due to theCOVID-19 pandemic, accordingto property consultant JLL India.

However, the institutionalinvestments are likely to risesharply in the current quarterand the total inflow could reachto USD 4.8 billion during theentire this year. Institutionalflow of funds include invest-ments by family offices, foreigncorporate groups, foreign banksproprietary books, Pensionfunds, private equity, real estateetc. PTI

Washington: Gita Gopinath,chief economist of theInternational Monetary Fund(IMF), has urged policymakersto provide more fiscal stimulusto boost the recovery from theCovid-19 pandemic as theglobal economy is in a liquid-ity trap.

"For the first time, in 60 percent of the global economy --including 97 per cent ofadvanced economies -- centralbanks have pushed policy inter-est rates below 1 percent. Inone-fifth of the world, they arenegative," Gopinath wrote in anop-ed article in the FinancialTimes, adding central bankshave little room to further cutinterest rates if another shockstrikes, Xinhua news agencyreported.

"It has led to theinescapable conclusion thatthe world is in a global liquid-ity trap, where monetary poli-cy has limited effect. We mustagree on appropriate policies toclimb out," Gopinath said onMonday, noting fiscal policymust play a leading role in therecovery.

Gopinath suggested thatfiscal authorities can activelysupport demand through cashtransfers to support consump-

tion and large-scale invest-ment in medical facilities, dig-ital infrastructure and e n v i r o n m e n tprotection.

"These expenditures createjobs, stimulate private invest-ment and lay the foundation fora stronger and greener recov-ery," she said.

Gopinath noted that "theimportance of fiscal stimulushas probably never beengreater" because the spendingmultiplier, the pay-off in eco-nomic growth from an increasein public investment, is muchlarger in a prolonged liquiditytrap.

"Monetary policy has andwill remain central to thiseffort, but with the world in aglobal liquidity trap it is timefor a global synchronised fiscalpush to lift up prospects for all,"said the IMF chief economist.

In its World EconomicOutlook report released lastmonth, the IMF revised up the2020 forecast for global econ-omy to a contraction of 4.4 percent. Despite the upward revi-sion, the IMF said the ascentout of this crisis is likely to be"long, uneven and highlyuncertain". IANS

New Delhi: Markets regulatorSebi on Tuesday streamlinedframework for processing ofdraft schemes pertaining tomergers and demergers filed bylisted companies with the stockexchanges.

The changes are aimed atensuring that the recognisedstock exchanges refer draftschemes to Sebi only uponbeing fully convinced that thelisted entity is in compliance

with the regulatory norms, itsaid in a circular.

The new framework willbe applicable for all theschemes filed with the stockexchanges after November 17,2020.

According to Sebi, stockexchanges will have to providethe 'no-objection' letter to Sebion the draft scheme in co-ordi-nation with each other. PTI

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The Government ownedNational Bank for

Agriculture and RuralDevelopment (NABARD), thesecond largest lender to RelianceCommercial Finance Limited(RCF) with over Rs 1,100 croreof secured loan exposure, hasgiven clean chit to RCF and hasremoved its Red Flag.

NABARD is a part of theconsortium of lenders and issignatory to an Inter CreditorAgreement (ICA) executedbetween the lenders of RCFunder the June 7, 2019 circu-lar of RBI on resolution ofstressed assets.

New Delhi: After recordingpositive growth in September,India's exports declined 5.4per cent to USD 24.82 billionin October on account of dip inshipments of petroleum prod-ucts, gems and jewellery,leather, and engineering goods.

Trade deficit in Octobernarrowed to USD 8.78 billionas against USD 11.76 billion, asimports also fell 11.56 per centto USD 33.6 billion during themonth under review.

"India's merchandiseexports in October 2020 wereUSD 24.82 billion, as comparedto USD 26.23 billion inOctober 2019, showing a fall of5.4 per cent," the Commerceand Industry Ministry said ina statement.

Major export commoditieswhich recorded negative

growth during October includ-ed petroleum products (53.30per cent), cashew (21.57 percent), gems and jewellery(21.27 per cent), leather (16.69per cent), man-made yarn/fab-rics/made-ups (12.82 per cent),electronic goods (9.40 percent), coffee (9.25 per cent),marine products (8.09 percent) and engineering goods(3.84 per cent).

Sectors which showed pos-itive growth included rice, oilmeals, iron ore, oil seeds, car-pet, pharmaceuticals, spices,cotton and chemicals.

During April-October2020, exports declined 19.05per cent to USD 150.07 billion,while imports fell 36.28 percent over the same period lastyear to USD 182.29 billion.

Oil imports dipped 38.52

per cent to USD 5.98 billion inOctober. During April-October, it declined 49.5 percent to USD 37.84 billion.

After contracting for sixstraight months, India's exportsrose 5.99 per cent to USD 27.58 billion inSeptember.

Federation of IndianExport Organisations (FIEO)President Sharad Kumar Sarafsaid the nominal decline inexports during the month wasmainly because of huge con-tainer shortage and hike in seafreight, which upset exports,particularly for those who havenegotiated on CIF (Cost,Insurance, Freight) or C&F(Cost and Freight)basis.Besides, farmers' agitationin some of the hinterland statesalso affected exports duringOctober, he said. PTI

Mumbai: The rupee pared itsearly gains to close almost flat at74.41 on Tuesday due to dollarbuying by banks and resurgingcrude oil prices.The rupeeopened sharply higher at 74.34amid heavy buying in local stockmarkets and raced to hit the day'shigh of 74.25. PTI

New Delhi: Private sector com-panies offering the benefit ofthe new LTC cash voucherscheme to its employees willnot have to undertake anyadditional compliance burden,Finance Secretary AjayBhushan Pandey said.

Companies as per statuteare required to maintainrecords of travel and otherdocuments submitted byemployees for availing LTC.

Under the new scheme,employees will have to submitto their companies bills indi-cating expenditure of anamount 3-times of the LTC.The companies as in past willmaintain the records and onlysubmit them to Income TaxDepartment if sought for. PTI

New Delhi: Gold prices rose Rs55 to Rs 50,735 per 10 gram inthe national capital on Tuesday,tracking strong global trends,according to HDFC Securities.

In the previous trade, theprecious metal had closed at Rs50,680 per 10 gram. PTI

Mumbai: The Sensex rallied504 points while the Niftyreclaimed the 11,800-level onTuesday, propped up by bank-ing and finance counters, asglobal markets marched high-er on US election day.

Encouraging Q2 results andforeign capital inflows added tothe buying momentum in thedomestic markets, traders said.

Rising for the secondstraight session, the 30-shareBSE Sensex ended 503.55points or 1.27 per cent higherat 40,261.13. Similarly, thebroader NSE Nifty jumped144.35 points or 1.24 per centto 11,813.50.

ICICI Bank was the top

gainer in the Sensex pack,soaring 6.51 per cent, followedby SBI, HDFC, PowerGrid,Sun Pharma, IndusInd Bank,Titan, Bajaj Auto, HDFC Bankand Axis Bank.

On the other hand, NTPC,Reliance Industries, NestleIndia, HCL Tech, Infosys andHUL were among the lag-gards, shedding up to 3.75 percent.Global bourses followedWall Street higher as investorswagered on fresh US stimulusimmediately after the elec-tions.Bourses in Shanghai,Hong Kong, Seoul, and Tokyoended with significant gains.

Stock exchanges in Europewere also trading on a positivenote in early deals. PTI

New Delhi: The FinanceMinistry on Tuesday said thatthere has been no increase inservice charges by any publicsector bank even as Bank ofBaroda decided to withdrawchanges made with regard tothe number of free cash deposittransactions in a bank accountper month.Bank of Baroda had made cer-tain changes with effect fromNovember 1, 2020, with regardto the number of free cashdeposits and withdrawals permonth, a Finance Ministrystatement said.

The number of free cashdeposits and withdrawals, havebeen reduced. PTI

New Delhi: The Indian gov-ernment has time till the lastweek of December to appealagainst the verdict of an arbi-tration panel that scrappedlevy of Rs 22,100 crore tax onthe UK-based telecom firmVodafone Group Plc using aretrospective law.

Finance Secretary AjayBhushan Pandey, refusing to bedrawn into discussion on for-mer Finance Minister ArunJaitley's promise to honourawards in retrospective taxcases, said the government isexamining all aspects to arriveat a decision on whether toappeal against the Voda award.

"We are still examiningvarious aspects and a decisionwould be taken in due course,"Pandey told PTI.

Asked if there is a timelimit on the decision to file anappeal, Pandey said, "All arbi-tration orders if at all have tobe appealed, have a time limitof 90 days. So, we have time todecide, so will decide." PTI

New Delhi: The quantum of borrowing to meet states' GST rev-enue shortfall has to be "reasonable" considering its economicimpact and the Centre will continue to request the opposition-ruled states to opt for the proposed borrowing plan, FinanceSecretary Ajay Bhushan Pandey has said.

He said while extending the loan, the Centre would takeauthorisation from states that repayment would be made onlyfrom the GST compensation cess which is being collected andrepayment schedule will be set in such a manner that the col-lections in cess pool post June 2022 would be enough to repaythe interest arising out of borrowing.

So far, 21 states and 3 Union Territories have opted for theborrowing plan proposed by the Centre to meet the Rs 1.83 lakhcrore shortfall in Goods and Services Tax (GST) collection ofstates. PTI

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Leena AI, an artificial intelli-gence (AI)-powered

employee experience platform,on Tuesday announced an $8million Series A financing ledby Greycroft to expand its go-to-market programs and accel-erate product development.

The round also included apersonal investment fromAdam Miller (Founder ofCornerstone OnDemand),Alan Patricof (Chairman ofGreycroft) and Jim Moffatt (ex-Chairman/CEO of DelloiteConsulting). In conjunctionwith the funding, MarkTerbeek, partner at Greycroft,will be joining Leena AI's board.

The funding will allowLeena AI to continue itsmomentum by helping theworld’s top enterprises to mod-ernize their legacy internalhelpdesk systems to better theiremployee experience.Traditional internal helpdesksystems take longer for employ-ees to get answers from HRteams. Leena AI leverages arti-ficial intelligence to automati-cally answer repetitive employ-ee queries in real-time andenables HR to better supportemployees.

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The India’s first-ever virtual 24hour EdTech Hackathon

competition was organised byleading e-learning platform-Fliplearn to challenge the tech-nology prowess of students andEngineers and showcase theircreativity with an aim to devel-op original and innovative solu-tions in the education domain.

The virtual event took placeon October 17 and 18, 2020. Alladmitted teams had 24 hours tobuild creative solutions to theproblems through coding, pro-

gramming, design, data etc. Thegoal of the event was to build thefuture of education using tech-nology.The competition wasopen for students of Class IX toXII and engineering students andprofessionals. ‘Hackathon 2020’was categoriaed into two cate-gories. Category one includedstudents from class IX to XII, andCategory two included studentsand professionals from engi-neering colleges.

‘Hackathon 2020’ received agreat response from school andengineering students and pro-fessionals from across India with

entries received from 100+Schools and 20+ Engineeringcolleges across the country andfinal participation by over 320teams with 450 plus partici-pants.

The Hackathon saw a highdegree of competitiveness andGagan Gupta of The MillenniumSchool, Bhatinda who won thecompetition in the first catego-ry was rewarded with gift vouch-ers worth �30,000 along withexciting gifts. In the second cat-egory, the winning team wasGuna Shekhar and Aditi Singh ofIIIT Gwalior.

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The FORE School ofManagement, New Delhi

in association with Instituteof Urban Farming andSustainability (IUFS), India,recently organised a seminarin virtual platform on“Biosecurity and Agriculture”.

Dr Jitendra K Das,Director, FORE School wasthe Session Chair for thisevent, who began proceed-ings by taking delegatesthrough importance ofBiosecurity and sustainablefarming in the context of

preservation of the planetfor future generations andhaving effective checks andbalances in place to protectagainst global warming, pol-lution, climate change, harm-ful biological/biochemicalsubstances in pesticides orfertilizers.

Anil Chopra, Director,Wingify, shared sustainabili-ty insights from his longcareer working with mar-quee institutions such asNational Dairy DevelopmentBoard, Mother Dairy, andhis time at Institute of RuralManagement.

Ayear back, no one would haveever imagined that striving for

sustenance will turn into survival forexistence. Though pessimism is acurse to progressive mentality, for along time, year 2020 will be remem-bered as the bane of the millennium.The pandemic caused more pain tounskilled and semi-skilled workers inunorganised sectors. In contrast, tal-ents equipped with specialised skillsand training programmes are leastaffected by company redundancypolicies.

The tentacles of Coronavirus arepervading across the globe and havedeeply shaken the economies. Theimpact is so huge that except a fewsectors, the majority of businesseswere forced to curtail operational costthrough furlough and layoffs. InIndia alone, more than 40 millionpeople have lost their jobs and tensof millions are receiving deductedsalaries. Though India is a develop-ing country, the scenario of developedcountries is also quite bleak. Theunemployment list of the world'slargest economy, the USA, got furtherincreased with 30 million more job-less people. Also, the average salaryof Americans dropped by 12 per centas per a recent survey.

In contrast to the growing eco-nomic upheavals, a trend that is quitepalpable in the international jobmarket is the improved job immunityof employees who are constantlyup-skilling themselves. Still, such

professionals are enjoying Covid-proof career growth and theiremployers are not apprehensive aboutoffering them handsome compensa-tions and lots of other benefits.

Recently, while delivering a con-vocation address, Prime MinisterNarendra Modi, strongly emphasis-es on skilling, reskilling, andupskilling and mentioning them asthe need of the hour. The current eco-nomic slowdown has once againproved that upskilling is an effectiveantidote for unemployment andunderemployment. Business leadersand recruitment experts in India andabroad also believe that organisationsneed to make themselves stronger,competent, and smarter through

advanced technologies and prac-tices.

In fact, adaptation to Industry 4.0is not only quintessential to makethem competent but also to makethem immune against various unfore-seen threats. This transformation isimpossible without the deploymentof reskilled and upskilled workforce.However, employees reluctant tolearn fresh skills will have limited rolesto play. On the other hand, organi-sations which will facilitate and fos-ter learning for their people, willemerge as long-run winners.

Today, to counter the ramifica-tions of COVID-19 on the worldeconomy, there is an urgent need toadopt an open talent economy based

on intellectual & skill collabora-tions.As per McKinsey's latest report,titled, "COVID-19: Implications forbusiness", many organisations arefinding new leaders during this ongo-ing pandemic. Their young managersat mid-level are defying the challengesand problems of this testing time toachieve better than others. Theseorganisations are intelligently work-ing upon the employees' motivationprogrammes and management prac-tices.

With better digital infrastructureand high penetration of communi-cation devices, businesses across theworld are benefitting their employeeswith bespoke learning programmesand training modules. And, unlikeexorbitant conventions and seminarsinvolving hefty consultation fees ofindustry experts, venue expenses, anda large amount of logistics, e-learn-ing encompasses myriads of advan-tages. Besides, e-learning training pro-grammes are useful in developingboth hard and soft skills amongemployees. Detailed and interactivevideos by the seasoned trainers canbe replayed n number of times by anindividual to derive maximum froma course module. Hence, as learningis the part and parcel of growth andit cannot be stopped so long as busi-nesses have desires to survive andgrow, e-learning will stay as a bulwarkagainst potential threats.

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Real estate, tough brimming withlucrative career option, is notgiven the due attention even

against the backdrop of humungousgrowth. The various stigma attached tothe profession makes it discouragingfor the young graduates to consider ittheir prospective career.

Having the notion that it is tradi-tional and is not backed up withorganised structure, adds on to theambiguity surfacing the industry. Butthe sector is perennially transformingto cope up with the market competi-tion, opening up new doors for jobopportunities promoting operationalefficiency and transparency.

The most effective way to get aknack of the industry is to work withsuccessful people who have in depthknowledge of the sector. Nothing ismore beneficial that detailed first-handexperience acquired from the profes-sionals.

The real time tactic to close a dealto developing valuable insights, fund-ing intricacies, winning consumerconfidence, all the functioning can benurtured by working closely withthose having expertise in the field.

Understanding the industry is onepart of the process, in the path aheadit is important to keep in mind thatthings are better said than done. As theindustry is ruled by immense compe-

tition, those with little or no investmentmay be very sceptical to carry thingsforward.

Here one’s wisdom will be instru-mental in forming the stepping stoneof the career. Irrespective of the knowl-edge and in-depth analysis, the firstdeals are never perfect. Instead of fear-ing the outcome, one should go aheadand act because things learnt by ownmistake contributes to a lifetime lesson.

The interaction will build the con-fidence, give exposure of handling realtime situation. Remember practicalexperience is the ultimate outcome ofyears of theoretical knowledgeacquired. Hence, rather than waitingfor the right time or opportunity, beshrewd and take things into yourhands.

With proper utilisation of tech-nology accompanied with strong com-munication, the industry can realise itshidden potential. While matching upwith the latest market trends, tech-nology can add a whole new dimen-sion to the prospect of career.

The confluence of the traditionalskills with the rapidly changing tech-nology will fetch numerous boomingchannels suitable for considering thesector as a serious option for startingthe business.

Where modernisation owing todigitisation has smoothly seeped into

our lives, likewise real estate is alsoundergoing transaction. By studyingthe minute intricacies of the industryand keeping a tab on the lifestyletrends, meaningful insights will be gen-erated that will leverage the journey ofcareer in the real estate sector.

Evolving with time further con-tributes to the diversification generat-ing employment opportunities forvarious roles entailing project man-agement, operational strategizing,space optimisation, sales and market-ing, construction, etc.

Owing to this shift experientialspaces are gaining popularity amongstthe customers. This has opened upopportunities for the skilled aspirantsbrimming with creative ideas to ven-ture in real estate.

With the rapid change in housingand commercial needs, the prospectsof co-working and co-living spaceshave seen a promising wave. In 2019,real estate attracted an investment ofaround �43,780 crore equivalent to US$ 6.26 billion where housing salesreached 2.61 units across seven majorcities.

Delving on the statistics, theindustry has great potential for theemerging startups as residential andcommercial units together can formthe integral part of future real-estate.Contributing as the second highest

employment generators it is home toskilled, capable and experienced pro-fessionals who are continually updat-ed and can make predictions of thefuture market.

Looking at the immense potentialand scope the industry can offer, for-mal education in real estate should betaken seriously by those aspiring tomake future in this filed. Read books,article, stay updated with the top poli-cies and trends, take classes, exploreas many properties as possible to getreal life feel of the market, in order tothrive in the industry.

Therefore, before coming to a con-clusion, in depth research of theindustry will aid in making a wise deci-sion. Incorporating the right strategyaligning with the competitive markettrends can open up plethora of oppor-tunities to take leverage of.

Myths like real estate being a lega-cy business, a sector that has nospace for introverts, only brokersstand the chance of profitability, willbe evaded once studied the industryclosely.

From project engineers to archi-tects, facility managers to corporatecommunication specialists, regionalmanagers, designers, real estate offerswide range of diverse openings.

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There’s a question on every busi-ness leader’s mind today: When

will things get back to normal?While we have no clear-cut answers,top domain experts believe that itmay not be for some years to come.Bill Gates, the tech-mogul-turnedhealth philanthropist, believes that 'ifwe do a brilliant job, we could endthe novel coronavirus pandemic in2022'. The Director-General of theWHO, Tedros Adhanom, holds asimilar view. Healthcare veteransbelieve that herd immunity could bethe key to getting rid of the pandemicbut might take at least a year toachieve, under high exposure.

One way or the other, we are infor the long haul — and some busi-nesses are adapting better than oth-ers to this new normal.

How businesses are adapting toCOVID-19 with digital transforma-tion? Dhiren Lalchand, a Surat-based diamantaire, recently closed adeal of lily-cut diamonds with Arikin Antwerp. His secret sauce for suc-cess in a locked-down world? Astrong focus on quality, coupledwith a robust, cloud-based video con-ferencing solution.

Both Dhiren and Arik are a partof a larger industry trend driven bythe ongoing pandemic. We are wit-nessing a digital exodus of business-es on an unparalleled scale. In arecent NASSCOM survey, 60 per centof Indian SMBs admitted to usingcloud-based business solutions (suchas video conferencing tools) — out

of which around half were in the earlystages of adoption.

The reasons for this shift areapparent. Social isolation, remoteworking, and physical distancingwill remain an integral part of ourreality for the foreseeable future.Businesses have to adapt to this sea-change by accelerating their digitaltransformation — even those whichhave, up until now, been dominant-ly offline — or risk becoming irrel-evant.

This behoves us to ask a ques-tion: Are we in a new era of digitalcollaboration?

We might as well be. In severalglobal studies, an overwhelmingmajority of people have expressed anurge to not go to their respectiveoffices. This trend is driving an evo-lution in conventional workplacemodels. Several offices are experi-menting with alternate working dayswhile others are operating entirely ona remote basis. New-age conceptssuch as staggered staffing, rotation-al shifts, and permanent remoteworking options are being eagerlyevaluated, discussed, and imple-

mented.This shift has taken video con-

ferencing solutions and remote col-laboration tools beyond being just‘productivity enhancement mea-sures’. They are now integral elementsof new-age business models.

In today’s fast-changing marketlandscape, there are tremendousgrowth opportunities. This holds forvendors that differentiate throughbetter quality and more scalable,manageable, and secure cloud ser-vices (and devices). The end-objec-tive? Ensuring an optimal meetingexperience - regardless of where theusers work.

The world around you haschanged and continues to change ata rapid pace. The true depth of thistransformation extends well beyondwhat you can see most visibly withpeople wearing masks and using san-itizers frequently — but it won't takeyou much effort to notice it, whetherin your home or at your workplace.

It shouldn’t be surprising, then,that the global video conferencingmarket is pegged to be worth morethan �46,000 crore by 2026. TheIndian public cloud market, on theother hand, is expected to reach�63,000 crore by FY2025. Moreinterestingly, this cloud-driven dig-ital transformation is only just begin-ning — and businesses that mostreadily adapt to the changing para-digms are the ones that will achievethe maximum success.

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Darwin, an InternationalConference and India’s

Biggest EvolutionaryMovement in Biology is backwith its second edition. Aninitiative of SomaiyaVidyavihar, the internationalconference is organised byBioriidl, an extension ofResearch InnovationIncubation DesignLaboratory (riidl), a not forprofit organisation underSomaiya Trust. The virtualconference will be held from

December 2, 2020 toDecember 5, 2020.

All the biology enthusi-asts can register to be a partof the revolutionary confer-ence at thedarwin.in. Thelast date for registration isNovember 15, 2020.

The conference willencompass ResearchSymposium, a platform forresearchers to exhibit theirresearch papers; VirtualWorkshops, to provide Do-It-Yourself biology experiencesand an insight into variousadvances and technologies in

the biotechnology field; PanelDiscussions; Talk Sessionsand Virtual Tours to variousinstitutes and labs to makethe attendees understand theglobal innovation culture.

Renowned geneticsexpert, Prof George Church,Professor of Genetics atHarvard Medical School, afounding member of theWyss Institute and the direc-tor of PersonalGenomes.org,will be giving the keynotespeech at the conference,among other notable speakers.

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Mahindra University’s student, Kartikeya Bhardwaj(Mechanical Engineering Student, Class of 2020), has cre-

ated a deep learning app, Chakshu Face Attendance, to provideemployers/institutions/organisations with touchless recording ofattendance attributes. Especially relevant in today’s Covid out-break, this app provides a safe alternative to touch-based fin-gerprint attendance systems. The start-up is being incubated atMahindra e-hub, an incubation centre of Mahindra Universityunder the University’s Centre of Entrepreneurship & Innovation.

In big organisations, for attendance, fingerprint or ID scan-ners are the norm. In Covid times, “touchless” technology is thecall of the hour since anything that is used by many people mayturn out to be conduit for transmission of the virus.In addition,a common issue is that of Buddy Punching, where employeesdo proxy attendance of their colleagues using their IDs resultsin huge losses and is an unethical practice that still floats aroundin offices all over the world.

Chakshu.ai has developed Chakshu Face Attendance, aTouchless Employee Attendance App that lets an organisationClock attendance through an android device (phone or a tablet),using Face Recognition. The Attendance process is Completelytouch-Free, and Covid-19 ready. It also eliminates the BuddyPunching problem through SpoofSense: Chakshu’s AI algorithmis trained to detect Spoofing attacks and reject them, thereby mak-ing the process secure and trustable.

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Turnitin, a leading providerof academic integrity and

assessment solutions, hasrecently acquired ExamSoft, asoftware-based assessmentplatform, from SpectrumEquity. ExamSoft empowerseducational institutions andcertification and licensure pro-grams to protect exam integri-ty, streamline assessmentprocesses, and improve learn-ing outcomes.

Turnitin has been buildingand broadening its assessmentcapabilities since its 2018 acqui-sition of Gradescope. ExamSoftfurther expands Turnitin’s port-folio of leading academicintegrity and assessment prod-

ucts to include a broad assess-ment platform serving educa-tion, certification, and licensureprograms. Together they willoffer institutions further flex-ibility when delivering assess-ments at all educational andprofessional levels.

By joining forces, Turnitinand ExamSoft become a singledestination for institutions touphold integrity at every stagein a student’s journey, frombook reports and problem setsto high-stakes exams and pro-fessional licensure. As onecompany, they provide expand-ed product offerings that allowcustomers to choose the com-bination of tools and servicesthat best serve their assessmentneeds.

This global pandemic is def-initely going to leave a longlasting impact on our lives,

it has forced us to innovate andchange the way we work and live.but it’s the immediate impactthat’s more devastating and crip-pling. It has forced us to innovateand change the way we work andlive.

Upskilling, the process oflearning new skills that is beingused extensively in the industry, isthe only way to stay ahead in thegame in a post-pandemic world.

Upskilling has been a pressingneed for recruiters and organisa-tions, long before the COVID-19crisis came into existence. Toovercome this virus spread uncer-tainty, companies are movingtowards a more data-drivenapproach, paired with digitally-agile operations and automation.Upskilling, the process of learningnew skills that is being usedextensively in the industry, is theonly way to stay ahead in the gamein a post-pandemic world.

According to the McKinseyGlobal Survey 2020, 87 per cent of

the executives said that they wereexperiencing skill gaps in theworkforce. Whether you are afresher or an experienced profes-sional, the need for learning addi-tional skills and becoming digi-tally-oriented, regardless of thetype of industry you work in, iscrucial.

According to the Centre forMonitoring Indian Economy(CMIE), the unemployment rateof India stands at 7.7 per cent, asrecorded in early August 2020which has also exacerbated theglobal unemployment rate.

According to Campaign India,India ranks third in the list of topten most targeted countries bycyber attackers. Organisations,therefore, require cyber securityprofessionals who are experts indefensive or offensive mecha-nisms to make their systems hack-proof.

As per estimates, the cyberse-curity employee base is expectedto grow from the current 1.3 lakhto up to 3 lakh. Cyber security hasbecome a major concern fororganisations.

Here are some specificationhow upskilling is must in post-COVID-19 world.

Upskilling is the need of theHour: Upskilling, the process oflearning new skills that is beingused extensively in the industry, isthe only way to stay ahead in thegame in a post-pandemic world.Now, the Coronavirus pandemichas made upskilling vital. Whetheryou are a fresher or an experiencedprofessional, the need for learningadditional skills and becomingdigitally-oriented, regardless ofthe type of industry you work in,is crucial.

Early-skilling on multi-skillsets: The COVID-19 crisis pro-vides several opportunities thatyoung graduates and students cantake advantage of, provided con-certed efforts are made by author-ities and educational institutionsin identifying the gaps. TheGovernment has also been proac-tively advocating the skilling ini-tiatives in order to benefit fromthis window of opportunity andunlock the country’s true poten-tial.

Additionally, policymakershave recommended the inclusionof ‘vocational education’ into thecurriculum across all states edu-cation boards and educationalentities, in a bid to equip studentswith skills from the school-stageitself. On the work front, employ-ers are likely to hire candidateswho are highly motivated and pos-sess multiple skill sets, as thenature of work is destined tochange completely.

Become self-reliant throughupskilling: The emerging trendsin technology will require profes-sionals at all levels and acrossindustries to develop entrepre-neurial skills in order to overcomeredundancy and become morecompetitive and self-reliant.Upskilling will help individualsdevelop proficiency in technolo-gies that are highly in demand atpresent, and will remain so in thefuture as well. It prepares them tobe resilient and to withstand newchallenges of this competitiveworld.

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The field of photography hasevolved tremendously in the lastcouple of years. Photography

had, traditionally, been restricted toevents, weddings, and movies; butwith the surge in e-Commerce plat-forms, advertising, mass media, anddigitally related fields have created ahuge demand for professional photog-raphers .

Learn by taking up a CourseTo make a career in the digital pho-

tography world, you need to stayupdated with the new techniques andequipment. With the change of era,when budding photographers used togather the rudiments of photographytechniques on their own, the institutesacross the country offer courses to trainpeople in the creative field. You can geta degree in photography (Bachelor’s orMaster’s), or pursue diploma courses,the duration of which may varybetween three months and a year.

Getting a majors in photographyfrom institutions would help to honeyour existing skills and eradicate thegaps. The enhancement of knowledgewill help in shaping your career.

Back to basicsEnrolling yourself in a course will

help you understand the basics of pho-tography: Framing, rule of thirds,shutter speed and editing.Understanding these basics will helpyou take balanced and interesting pho-tographs.

Practice and learnOnce you learn the craft, the next

step is to practice it, and become pro-ficient. Participating in competitionsand events can give you an opportunityto grow, recognise your strengths, anddevelop your skills. Competitions alsoprovide you with a great platform toshowcase your talent and a chance toget your work evaluated and critiquedby a panel of judges.

Choose your segment To become a professional photog-

rapher, it is important to experimentwith different genres that allow you togain knowledge about different areas ofphotography. Venturing out into vari-

ous domains will help you understandthe areas of strength, and help you buildup expertise in the areas of yourchoice. In the long run, you will be ableto carve a niche in a particular domainof photography.

Create your Blog/websiteShowcasing your skills is as impor-

tant as doing good work. A portfolio,blog , Social account or website can eas-ily be turned into your marketingbrochure. Making a portfolio commu-nicates your views, abilities, skills, etc,and gives you a professional outlook.When you have your own blog/website,you can showcase your work to increaseyour chances of getting noticed.

Get the right gear Just like doctors are incomplete

without their surgical tools, photogra-phers are incomplete without theirequipment. Good equipment matters.A lens is also an important piece ofequipment, as it can provide diverseshot options.

If you are yet to take a profession-al plunge, you don't have to spend a for-tune buying an expensive camera.Begin with a point-and-shoot or amobile camera, and later shift to aDSLR, once you are sure of your skills,and passion for the field. Buying aDSLR will largely depend upon yourbudget.

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The Swinburne Universityof Technology invitesapplications for its

International ExcellenceUndergraduate Scholarship.Indian students can apply.

Award: 10% – 25% off yourcourse fees every year for a max-imum of 4 years with $38,000total for your bachelor’s degree.

Eligibility: Except for theBachelor of Aviation andPiloting, and the Bachelor ofAviation and Piloting/Bachelorof a Business double degree, youcan apply for any bachelor’sdegree programme at the uni-versity.

Not be currently acceptedor enrolled at Swinburne, unlessyou are only enrolled in ELI-COS programme.

Not be holding anotherscholarship or reduced feearrangement. As per the uni-versity requirement, the candi-dates have to demonstrate theEnglish language ability throughthe TOEFL or IELTS test.

How to apply: If you meetthe eligibility criteria, you willreceive an email from the uni-versity about the acceptance ofadmission and in the sameemail you will also find out ifyou have received an award.Interested applicants must checkout the entry requirementsbefore applying.

Application deadline: Thelast date to apply is February 7,

2021.

The Strathclyde BusinessSchool, Glasgow is delighted tobe able to offer a number ofMBA scholarships for January2021. Scholarships will beawarded on a rolling basis up tothe final deadline of November30, 2020, so early application isadvised.

The scholarships will beawarded to candidates whodemonstrate in their MBA pro-gramme application and inter-view, excellent academic per-formance; significant profes-sional/managerial/leadershipexperience and career develop-ment and who will contribute tothe overall academic, culturaland experiential profile of theprogramme cohort.

Number: Up to 10Value: Up to £10,000Eligibility: All applicants

will be considered automatical-ly who can demonstrate throughtheir ideas outlined in theirapplication and interview howthey would contribute to bringthe class together through team-work to create community, fromthe outset, in order to achievethe ultimate learning experiencefor the group as a whole.

For more information:https://www.strath.ac.uk/study-withus/scholarships/strathclyde-businessschoolscholarships/mbainternationaldivisionscholar-ships/sbsfulltimembascholar-shipsjanuary2021 or write [email protected].

Application deadline: Thelast date is November 30, 2020.

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The best of Indian women’s crick-et will combine with and also go

up against stars from countries likeEngland, South Africa, and the WestIndies when the third edition of theWomen’s T20 Challenge gets under-way here on Wednesday.

The four-match tournament willhave three teams — defending cham-pions Supernovas, last year’s runners-up Velocity and Trailblazers — com-peting against each other once beforethe summit clash on November 9.Cricketers from Sri Lanka,Bangladesh and New Zealand willalso participate.

The Supernovas, led byHarmanpreet Kaur, have been invin-cible so far winning all the previoustwo editions. They will kickstart thetournament taking on Mithali Raj’sVelocity in a repeat of last year’s finaleyeing a third title on the trot.

Harmanpreet was in top form inthe last edition scoring two half-cen-turies in three matches and in thefinal, her blisteriing 37-ball 51 sealeda second win for them.

India’s T20 captain will look toreturn to her majestic form, overcom-ing a patchy show in the World T20in Australia earlier this year.

She had a forgettable outingaveraging a dismal 6.00 from fivematches that cost India quite dearlyin the tournament where they fin-ished runners-up, after being bowledout for 99, chasing 185.

There will also be JemimahRodrigues to watch out for.

The Mumbai cricketer was thetop run-getter (123 runs at an aver-age of 61.50) in their triumphantcampaign last season. She wasadjudged the ‘Player of the Series’.

The opposition camp featuresMithali, who will be keen to lead fromthe front and avenge their 2019defeat when they lost by four wick-ets in a last over thriller.

Velocity will rely heavily on 16-year-old Indian sensation ShafaliVerma who grabbed eyeballs by hit-ting most sixes (nine) in the World

T20 and finished as the fifth highestrun-scorer.

All the International players willmaking a return to the field after theCovid-19 break that followed theWomen’s WT20 in February-March.It will be interesting to see their fit-ness levels, coming back after endur-ing a lockdown.

The tournament will also featureThailand’s opening batter NatthakanChantham, who scored her country’sfirst Women’s WT20 half-century.She became the first Associate crick-eter to play in the tournament whichis seen as a precursor to a full-fledgedWomen’s IPL.

Natthakan will representTrailblazers captained by Indianopener Smriti Mandhana.

Trailblazers will also feature vet-eran pacer Jhulan Ghoswami, Englishspinner Sophie Ecclestone, and WestIndian star Deandra Dottin.

All matches will be held inSharjah.

TEAMSSupernovas: Harmanpreet Kaur (c),Jemimah Rodrigues (vc), ChamariAtapattu, Priya Punia, Anuja Patil,Radha Yadav, Taniya Bhatia (wk),Shashikala Siriwardene, PoonamYadav, Shakera Selman, ArundhatiReddy, Pooja Vastrakar, Ayushi Soni,Ayabonga Khaka and Muskan Malik.Velocity: Mithali Raj (c), VedaKrishnamurthy (vc), Shafali Verma,Sushma Verma (wk), Ekta Bisht,Mansi Joshi, Shikha Pandey, DevikaVaidya, Sushree Dibyadarshini,Manali Dakshini, Leigh Kasperek,Danielle Wyatt, Sune Luus, JahanaraAlam and M Anagha.

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BCCI presidentSourav Ganguly

wants injuredsenior openerRohit Sharma totread cautiouslywhile deciding oncompeting for hisIPL team Mumbai

Indians in theplay-offs as herisks aggravat-

ing the hamstringtear that led to hisexclusion from theAustralia-boundIndia squad.

Rohit has beenout of action since the

second leg fixture againstKings XI Punjab due to a lefthamstring tear and has beenleft out of the Indian squad forAustralia tour starting laterthis month.

The BCCI president saidthat the board will do every-thing possible to get an “assetlike Rohit” back in the park asthat’s their job.

“Rohit is injured at themoment. Otherwise, whywould we leave out a playerlike him. He is the vice-captainof the national (limited-overs)team,” Ganguly told PTI.

“We will have to assesshim. I don’t know (when hecan come back). He hasn’tplayed so far since the time he

has got injured. We want himto recover. It’s the BCCI’s jobto get their best players on thepark. If he recovers, he plays,”said the former captain.

When asked about thevideos put out by MumbaiIndians where Rohit is seenbatting at the nets, Gangulystruck a note of caution for thesenior player.

“Yeah, you don’t want himto get injured again. He has ahamstring tear and it will getruptured again. It will then getlonger for him to come back.But yes, there are people work-ing with him.

“The Mumbai Indiansphysio is working with him.The Indian physio (Nitin

Patel) is there. Rohit himselfknows that he has got a longcareer ahead and its not justthis IPL or next series for him.

“I am sure he is matureenough to do what is best forhim,” said the man, whoplayed 424 internationalmatches for India.

For someone who hasplayed 113 Tests and 311ODIs, Ganguly feels that whatlooks good during trainingmight not hold up in a matchsituation.

“...I can tell you that thingsyou do easily at the practicemight be a bit of struggle dur-ing match situation. The mus-cles react differently to pres-sure situations.”

However on a positivenote, the BCCI president saidthat Ishant Sharma’s recoveryfrom a side strain is going welland he “expects” the seniorspeedster to be available forthe Tests against Australia,starting mid-December.

“Yes, we are expectingIshant to be back for the Testmatches. He has already start-ed bowling from shorter run-ups and short spells. He hasbowled at NCA. But as thereis a BCCI protocol for fastbowlers, Ishant will be playingthe two first-class games inAustralia.”

Ganguly also backed theyoung Rishabh Pant, who hasbeen under fire for not play-

ing his natural game and scor-ing at a strike-rate below 115.

“Don’t worry. His batswing will come back. He is ayoung guy and all of us needto guide him. He’s got tremen-dous talent. Rishabh will befine. He and WriddhimanSaha are our two best wicket-keeper-batsmen in the coun-try.”

Asked if Pant, who hasalready been dropped fromtwo white-ball squads, will getto play Test matches given thatSaha is a better keeper and isin good batting form as well,Ganguly was non-committal.

“Only one can play, sowhoever is in best form willplay.”

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Delhi Capitals’ skipperShreyas Iyer is quite

“chuffed” about the way histeam bounced back from fourconsecutive losses to make theIPL playoffs and insists that the“fearless” bunch has what ittakes to upstage defendingchampions Mumbai Indians upnext.

Delhi Capitals earned a top-two finish with an easy six-wick-

et win over Royal ChallengersBangalore on Monday. Theywill take on the defending cham-pions on Thursday for a place inthe IPL title clash.

“Mumbai Indians are one ofthe best teams. Having saidthat, I feel we are also a fearlessand amazing bunch of boys,”Iyer said at the post-match pressconference.

“It really depends on theday. They are pretty experi-enced in such (finals) stages butthe team has a good attitude andgood composure on that givenday is going to make it through.”

With Prithvi Shaw, Iyerhimself, Rishabh Pant and SouthAfrican paceman KagisoRabada, Delhi is packed with tal-ented youngsters.

Iyer said the key to gettingpast holders Mumbai onThursday in Dubai would behandling pressure with ease.

“We need to keep thingssimple and not complicate inpressure situations. The way wehave been going, this was a real-ly good win and it’s going to bea really good booster as well forus.”

The four-match losing

string snapped, Iyer was a reliv-ed man.

“This win was very essentialand it has put smiles on our facesafter four consecutive losses.Today the way we played, it wasa comprehensive win. All thedepartments were covered upwell by the players.

“I am really chuffed by theirperformance, the way they cameup and delivered at the righttime. The second place obvious-ly makes you feel good after theseason you had, with all the upsand downs,” he said.

“The IPL is always a roller-coaster journey.”

Iyer also hoped that AjinkyaRahane will continue to play asignificant role. Rahane scored60 runs in the win against theRCB.

“He (Rahane) carries a lot ofexperience in the IPL and theway he paced his innings, it wasamazing to see. It was greatexample and he peaked at theright time, just when we need-ed him.

“With a few importantmatches coming up, he willdefinitely play an importantrole.”

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Leicester swept into secondplace in the Premier League

with an impressive 4-1 victoryat Leeds, while Fulham beatWest Bromwich Albion 2-0 tofinally clinch their first win ofthe season on Monday.

Brendan Rodgers’ side arejust one point behind leadersLiverpool after winning five oftheir first seven games in a top-flight season for the first time intheir history.

Harvey Barnes and YouriTielemans put Leicester twoup before half-time at EllandRoad.

Stuart Dallas got one backfor Leeds but Jamie Vardy’seighth goal of the seasonand a late Tielemans penal-ty wrapped up Leicester’sfourth successive awayleague win.

After the disappointment ofmissing out on a place in theChampions League last term,Leicester have shown they arecapable of mounting anothertop-four challenge.

Even a title push might notbe impossible given they have

already thrashed ManchesterCity 5-2.

“We were technically bril-liant. We had the quality to playwhen we had the opportunities.

I thought we were amazingright across the team,”Rodgers said. “This teamhas got an amazing men-tality with lots of young,hungry players. It’s still

very early and most of ourgames have been away but we’vehad brilliant performances.”

At Craven Cottage, Fulhamavoided their worst start to aseason since 1951 thanks to firsthalf goals from BobbyDecordova-Reid and Ola Aina.

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Sunrisers Hyderabad bowlersplayed their part in a must-

win game by restricting MumbaiIndians to 149 for eight in IPL'sfinal league fixture here onTuesday.

MI would have ended upwith much less if it wasn't forKieron Pollard, who ensured histeam put up a fighting total ona slow surface with an entertain-ing 41 off 25 balls. The defend-ing champions collected 51 runsoff the last five overs.

Needing a victory to makethe play-offs, SRH bowlers mademerry on a helping surface aftertheir skipper David Warnerdecided to put the opposition into bat.

MI skipper Rohit Sharma(4), who missed the last fourgames due to a hamstring injury,made a surprise return in histeam's last game ahead of theplay-offs. However, he lasted foronly seven balls as pacerSandeep Sharma (3/34) hadhim caught at mid-off with awell-disguised knuckle ball.

Sandeep also found thestumps of Rohit's opening part-ner Quinton de Kock (36 off 29)who played on after smashingthe SRH pacer for couple of sixesand a boundary.

It was the turn of spinnersRashid Khan (1/32) andShahbaz Nadeem (2/19) to pro-vide wickets in the middle-overs.

Nadeem got rid of the in-form Suryakumar Yadav (36)and Krunal Pandya (0) in the12th over and then Rashidremoved Saurabh Tiwary in thefollowing to reduce MI to 82 forfive. Just when the partnershipbetween Ishan Kishan (33 of 30)and Pollard was looking danger-ous, Sandeep removed thesouthpaw to tighten the screwson the opposition.

However, Pollard came tohis team's rescue yet again with

a valuable cameo.Pollard hammered four

sixes, three of those came in the

penultimate over bowled bydeath overs specialist TNatarajan.

West Indian all-rounderJason Holder (2/25) also pro-duced a tidy spell.

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Speedster BlessingMuzarabani grabbed a five-

for in the regulation play andscalped two more wickets in theSuper Over to help Zimbabwestun Pakistan in the third andfinal ODI here on Tuesday.

It was Zimbabwe’s first winover Pakistan since 2015. Thehome team has already clinchedthe three-match ODI series,having won the earlier twomatches.

Pakistan and Zimbabwenow play a three-match T20Iseries, starting on Saturdayhere.

In a high-scoring match,

the 24-year old Muzarabaniovershadowed centuries fromhis team-mate Sean Williams(118 not out from 135 balls)and Pakistan captain BabarAzam (125 off 125 balls) and afive-for from 20-year-old fastbowler Muhammad Hasnain (5for 26).

Muzarabani returned withfigures of 5 for 49 in the homeside’s run-chase and then tooktwo more wickets in the superover in which Pakistan couldonly manage two runs.

Requiring just three runs towin in the Super Over,Zimbabwe wrapped up thematch in three balls.

Chasing 279 for a win,

Babar Azam produced a cap-tain’s innings to score his 12thODI century but was dismissedin the 49th over by a sharp ris-ing ball from Muzarabani to setup a thrilling finish.

Pakistan appeared to haverecovered from 3 for 20 and 6for 151 when Babar featured ina century stand with WahabRiaz (52 from 56 balls). ButWahab fell at 251 in the 47thover and Pakistan lost twowickets in the penultimate overto give Zimbabwe a rare win.

The Pakistan captain faced125 balls from which he hit 13fours and a six.

Earlier, Zimbabwe made agreat recovery after being threedown for 22 runs as Hasnainran amok, dismissing captainChamu Chibhabha, CraigErvine and Brian Chari inquick succession.

The experienced duo ofBrendon Taylor (56) andWilliams then teamed up for a84-runs partnership. Later,Wesley Madhevere (33 from 31balls) and Sikander Raza (45from 36 balls) also providedgood support as the left-hand-ed Williams resurrected theZimbabwe innings.

Williams remained unbeat-en on 118, hitting 13 fours andone six.

SRH need 150 to reach playoffs

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Skipper Rohit Sharma onTuesday returned to the

Mumbai Indians’ playingeleven for the team’s last leaguegame against Sunrisers

Hyderabad despite concernsover his fitness.

According to MumbaiIndians’ team management,Rohit suffered a hamstringstrain in his left leg in the gameagainst Kings XI Punjab on

October 18. He ended up miss-ing the next four games beforemaking a comeback on a daywhen BCCI president SouravGanguly advised not to rush hiscomeback from what he calleda “hamstring tear”.

When asked about his fit-ness status at the toss, Rohitsaid: “Looks like I’m fit andfine”.

With his team already inthe play-offs, Rohit could havetaken more rest beforeQualifier 1 on Thursday but thestar batsman decided to spendsome valuable time in themiddle after a two-week injurylay-off.

Like Ganguly, India headcoach Ravi Shastri had alsoadvised Rohit to not rush hisreturn.

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