4 CRYf]¶d 65 XcZ]]Z_X e` T`_eZ_fV e`URj - Daily Pioneer

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I n a major setback to Amazon, the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) on Monday rejected the US e-commerce giant’s appeal against an antitrust suspension of its investment deal with Future Group, saying the retailer had not made full disclosures at the time of seeking approval. The NCLAT upheld a 200 crore penalty on Amazon by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) and asked the e- commerce giant to deposit the same in 45 days. The appellate tribunal rat- ified the CCI findings that Amazon didn’t make full dis- closures regarding the deal with Future Retail subsidiary — Future Coupons Pvt Ltd. In its order, NCLAT said, “Amazon has not made full, whole, forthright and frank disclosures of relevant materi- als. It had furnished only lim- ited disclosures pertaining to acquiring its strategic rights and interest in FRL (Future Retail Ltd)” and executing the commercial contract. “In this regard, this appel- late tribunal is in complete agreement with the view arrived at by the first respon- dent (CCI),” said the NCLAT bench comprising Justice M Venugopal and Ashok Kumar Mishra. The CCI on December 17, 2021, levied a 200 crore penalty on Amazon and sus- pended its deal with Future, stating that the US firm delib- erately suppressed the actual scope and purpose of the 2019 investment and made false and incorrect statements. Amazon had challenged the decision, arguing that it had not concealed any infor- mation. A ny hope that Covid-19 could soon be a night- mare of the past may be entire- ly misplaced. The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that countries are like- ly to witness waves of Covid-19 infection every four to six months. Making this prognosis, WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan has said that there is a need to get the boost- er shots to deal with the situa- tion. “Boosters are important to boost waning immunity, especially in the vulnerable age groups,” she said. “One is likely to see waves every four to six months, the intensity depends on how many susceptible people are there in the population,” she told a TV channel. She emphasised that boost- er dose was particularly impor- tant for vulnerable people. After registering a lull peri- od for a few months, India has been again registering an upward trend in Covid infec- tions Swaminathan outlined sev- eral reasons behind the current rise in the number of Covid-19 cases in India. Waning immu- nity, more transmissible sub- variants like BA4 and 5, and crowding with no masks are some of the reasons behind the spike, she said. She said the Government must explain to the people the booster shot is needed for a strong long-lasting immunity. Meanwhile, three cases of BA.4 and one of BA.5 Omicron sub-variants of coronavirus were found in Mumbai on Monday. Amid a surge in Covid-19 cases in Mumbai and other parts of Maharashtra, medical experts say most of the patients are showing mild symptoms and fatality is low in the present “mild wave”, and also no new virus variant of concern has been observed. The patients were being administered paracetamol, and not Remdesivir drug, which was used for patients in the first and second Covid-19 waves, they said. Meanwhile, with 8,084 new coronavirus infections being reported in a day, India’s tally of Covid-19 cases rose to 4,32,30,101 while the daily positivity rate was over three per cent after nearly four months, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Monday. The death toll climbed to 5,24,771 with 10 fatalities, the data updated at 8 am stated. The active cases comprise 0.11 per cent of the total infections, while the national Covid-19 recovery rate was 98.68 per cent, the Ministry said. An increase of 3,482 cases has been recorded in the active Covid-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours. The daily positivity rate was recorded at 3.24 per cent and the weekly positivity rate was recorded at 2.21 per cent, according to the Ministry. C ongress leader Rahul Gandhi who was ques- tioned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday in a money laundering probe linked to the National Herald newspaper was asked to appear before it again on Tuesday, officials said. They said the questioning on Monday con- tinued well past 9 pm. Rahul reached the agency’s headquarters accompanied by party leaders and a large num- ber of supporters. Rahul was questioned for almost 20 minutes when he reached the ED office around 11 am. He was allowed by the ED to leave for lunch around 2 pm and returned for the ques- tioning around 3.30 pm. Sources said Rahul wrote down his statement under sec- tion 50 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) during the first round of questioning. When Rahul left the Congress headquarters he was accompanied by party leaders, including Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel and former Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram. Priyanka sat with Rahul in a vehicle as the convoy of seven SUVs, escorted by armed CRPF personnel, entered the ED office on APJ Abdul Kalam Road. The probe pertains to alleged financial irregularities in the party-promoted Young Indian that owns the National Herald newspaper. The National Herald is published by the Associated Journals Limited (AJL) and owned by Young Indian Pvt Limited. At a Press conference later in the day, the Congress said the 1937-established AJL faced huge debts and the party during 2002-11, gave 90 crore to the National Herald to pay the salaries of the jour- nalists and staffers who worked there. B ihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has distanced him- self from yet another pet agen- da of the Sangh parivar: Rewriting history. “History is what it is, how can anyone change it?” He said on Home Minister Amit Shah’s assertion that it’s time to revisit history books as histo- rians have focussed only on Mughals so far, ignoring other glorious empires. When a reporter asked what he thought of Shah’s sug- gestion, the Bihar CM said, “Will you change history then? I don’t understand how one can change it. History is history.” Language is a different issue but you can’t change the fundamental history, he said. This is yet another stance of the Bihar CM differing with the BJP on ideological issues. Kumar has already shot down the demand for removing loud- speakers from mosques. He has also opposed the CAA in its present form and all together rejected the need for implementation of the NCR. Nitish has brushed aside the demand for implementation of Uniform Civil Code in India. Last week, Shah urged his- torians in the country to revive the glory of the past for the pre- sent, saying it will help in building a bright future. “Most of the historians in India have given prominence to recording the history of Mughals only, ignoring the glorious rules of many empires like Pandyas, Cholas, Mauryas, Guptas and Ahoms,” Shah had said at a recent book launch. “The Mauryas ruled the whole country — from Afghanistan to Lanka for 550 years. The Satvahanas ruled for 500 years. The Guptas ruled for 400 years and (Gupta emperor) Samudragupta had for the first time visioned a united India and established an empire with the whole country. But there is no reference book on them,” he had said. A sserting that betting and gambling are illegal in “most parts” of the country and pose significant financial and socio-economic risk for con- sumers, the Information and Broadcasting Ministry on Monday issued an advisory directing print, electronic and digital media to refrain from advertising online betting plat- forms in India. The Ministry said that the advisory was issued in larger public interest and comes in the light of instances of a number of advertisements of online betting websites/platforms appearing in print, electronic, social and online media. On May 26, the Delhi High Court sought Centre’s response on a petition seeking banning of online gambling and betting in India. Similar cases are pending in Gujarat, Karnataka and Kerala High Court await- ing Centre and State Government’s response. The petitions pointed out that many online betting web- sites have made people addict- ed and even students now largely have access to mobile phones and the internet. Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice Sachin Data issued notice to Centre and Delhi State seeking response. The I&B Ministry advised the print and electronic media to refrain from publishing advertisements of online bet- ting platforms. It has also advised the online and social media, including online adver- tisement intermediaries and publishers, to not display such advertisements in India or target such advertisements towards the Indian audience. “Betting and gambling, illegal in most parts of the country, pose significant financial and socio-economic risk for the consumers, espe- cially youth and children, the advisory states. These adver- tisements on online betting have the effect of promoting “this largely prohibited activi- ty”, according to a Ministry statement. A top Sri Lankan official, who claimed before a par- liamentary panel that Prime Minister Narendra Modi allegedly influenced President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to award a wind power project to the Adani Group in this island nation, resigned on Monday, a day after retracting his earlier statement. The resignation of MMC Ferdinando, the chairman of state-owned power entity Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB), has been accepted, energy minister Kanchana Wijesekara said on Monday. Ferdinando, during a hearing of the Committee On Public Enterprises (COPE) on Friday, said that President Rajapaksa had summoned him after a meeting in November last year and told him that the wind power pro- ject be awarded to the Adani Group of India’s billionaire Gautam Adani as Prime Minister Modi had urged him to do so. However, President Rajapaksa on Saturday cate- gorically denied Ferdinando’s statement before the parlia- mentary panel. Rajapaksa tweeted: “I cat- egorically deny authorisation to award this project to any specific person or entity”. On Sunday, Ferdinando wrote to the COPE chair in Parliament Professor Charitha Herath that he was withdraw- ing his comment, saying it had been done under stress, and that he was not influenced by either President Rajapaksa or the Indian High Commission here to retract it. K uwait has said it will deport expatriates who reported- ly took part in a demonstration against remarks made by the now-suspended BJP spokesper- sons against Prophet Mohammad. The deported people will not be allowed to enter Kuwait again. The action was initiated against the protesters on Monday as they violated the law of Kuwait prohibiting demon- strations or sit-ins, reports said. The local authorities are in the process of “arresting expats and referring them to the deportation centre to be deport- ed to their countries”, news agency ANI reported, quoting the Arab Times. The expats will be banned from entering Kuwait again, it said. Instructions have been issued to arrest expats from the Fahaheel area which saw a demonstration after Friday prayers, Arab News, an English-language daily news- paper published in Saudi Arabia, quoted sources as say- ing. All expatriates must respect Kuwait laws and not take part in any type of demon- strations, the report said, quot- ing the instructions to author- ities. However, the nationali- ty of the protesters was not dis- closed in the report. Incidentally, Kuwait along with Qatar and Iran were the first countries in the Arab world to summon Indian envoys to their respective coun- tries to register official protest against remarks criticizing the Prophet. According to latest statis- tics, the number of Indian nationals legally residing in Kuwait has crossed the 10-lakh mark in 2019. The Indian com- munity in Kuwait continues to grow at 5-6 per cent per annum. The Indian community remains the largest and the most preferred community in Kuwait, the second largest expatriate community being the Egyptians, according to the Indian Embassy in Kuwait. N uclear weapons will increase in the next decade and India, one of the nine nuclear States, will continue to modernise its nuclear arsenal, the prestigious Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said on Monday in its annual report. The report assessed the current state of armaments, dis- armament, and international security and said despite a marginal decrease in the num- ber of nuclear warheads in 2021, nuclear arsenals are expected to grown over the next ten years. It signals that post-cold war decline in nuclear arsenals is ending. The SIPRI report said the nine nuclear-armed States — the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan, Israel and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) — continue to mod- ernise their nuclear arsenals. Although the total number of nuclear weapons declined slightly between January 2021 and January 2022, the number will probably increase in the next decade, it said. Russia and the USA together possess over 90 per cent of all nuclear weapons. The other seven nuclear-armed States are either developing or deploying new weapon sys- tems, or have announced their intention to do so. India had 160 nuclear war- heads as on January 2022 and it appears to be expanding its nuclear arsenal, the report said. Similarly, Pakistan also appears to be expanding its nuclear arsenal, it said. “China is in the middle of a substantial expansion of its nuclear weapon arsenal, which satellite images indi- cate includes the construc- tion of over 300 new missile silos,” the SIPRI statement noted. China had 350 nuclear warheads in January 2021 as well as January 2022, it said. New Delhi: Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra visited party president and their mother Sonia Gandhi at the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital here on Monday, a day after she was admitted to the facility.

Transcript of 4 CRYf]¶d 65 XcZ]]Z_X e` T`_eZ_fV e`URj - Daily Pioneer

Page 1: 4 CRYf]¶d 65 XcZ]]Z_X e` T`_eZ_fV e`URj - Daily Pioneer

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In a major setback toAmazon, the National

Company Law AppellateTribunal (NCLAT) on Mondayrejected the US e-commercegiant’s appeal against anantitrust suspension of itsinvestment deal with FutureGroup, saying the retailer hadnot made full disclosures at thetime of seeking approval.

The NCLAT upheld a �200crore penalty on Amazon bythe Competition Commissionof India (CCI) and asked the e-commerce giant to deposit thesame in 45 days.

The appellate tribunal rat-ified the CCI findings thatAmazon didn’t make full dis-closures regarding the dealwith Future Retail subsidiary —Future Coupons Pvt Ltd.

In its order, NCLAT said,

“Amazon has not made full,whole, forthright and frankdisclosures of relevant materi-als. It had furnished only lim-ited disclosures pertaining toacquiring its strategic rightsand interest in FRL (FutureRetail Ltd)” and executing thecommercial contract.

“In this regard, this appel-late tribunal is in completeagreement with the viewarrived at by the first respon-dent (CCI),” said the NCLATbench comprising Justice M

Venugopal and Ashok KumarMishra.

The CCI on December 17,2021, levied a �200 crorepenalty on Amazon and sus-pended its deal with Future,stating that the US firm delib-erately suppressed the actualscope and purpose of the 2019investment and made falseand incorrect statements.

Amazon had challengedthe decision, arguing that ithad not concealed any infor-mation.

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Any hope that Covid-19could soon be a night-

mare of the past may be entire-ly misplaced. The World HealthOrganization (WHO) haswarned that countries are like-ly to witness waves of Covid-19infection every four to sixmonths.

Making this prognosis,WHO chief scientist SoumyaSwaminathan has said thatthere is a need to get the boost-er shots to deal with the situa-tion. “Boosters are importantto boost waning immunity,especially in the vulnerableage groups,” she said.

“One is likely to see wavesevery four to six months, theintensity depends on howmany susceptible people arethere in the population,” shetold a TV channel.

She emphasised that boost-er dose was particularly impor-tant for vulnerable people.

After registering a lull peri-od for a few months, India hasbeen again registering anupward trend in Covid infec-tions

Swaminathan outlined sev-eral reasons behind the currentrise in the number of Covid-19cases in India. Waning immu-nity, more transmissible sub-variants like BA4 and 5, andcrowding with no masks aresome of the reasons behind thespike, she said.

She said the Governmentmust explain to the people thebooster shot is needed for a

strong long-lasting immunity.Meanwhile, three cases of

BA.4 and one of BA.5 Omicronsub-variants of coronaviruswere found in Mumbai onMonday. Amid a surge inCovid-19 cases in Mumbaiand other parts of Maharashtra,medical experts say most of thepatients are showing mildsymptoms and fatality is low inthe present “mild wave”, andalso no new virus variant ofconcern has been observed.

The patients were beingadministered paracetamol, andnot Remdesivir drug, whichwas used for patients in the firstand second Covid-19 waves,they said.

Meanwhile, with 8,084 newcoronavirus infections beingreported in a day, India’s tallyof Covid-19 cases rose to

4,32,30,101 while the dailypositivity rate was over threeper cent after nearly fourmonths, according to theUnion Health Ministry dataupdated on Monday.

The death toll climbed to5,24,771 with 10 fatalities, thedata updated at 8 am stated.The active cases comprise 0.11per cent of the total infections,while the national Covid-19recovery rate was 98.68 percent, the Ministry said.

An increase of 3,482cases has been recorded inthe active Covid-19 caseloadin a span of 24 hours.

The daily positivity ratewas recorded at 3.24 per centand the weekly positivityrate was recorded at 2.21per cent, according to theMinistry.

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Congress leader RahulGandhi who was ques-

tioned by the EnforcementDirectorate (ED) on Monday ina money laundering probelinked to the National Heraldnewspaper was asked to appearbefore it again on Tuesday,officials said. They said thequestioning on Monday con-tinued well past 9 pm.

Rahul reached the agency’sheadquarters accompanied byparty leaders and a large num-ber of supporters.

Rahul was questioned foralmost 20 minutes when hereached the ED office around11 am. He was allowed by theED to leave for lunch around 2pm and returned for the ques-tioning around 3.30 pm.

Sources said Rahul wrotedown his statement under sec-tion 50 of the Prevention ofMoney Laundering Act(PMLA) during the first roundof questioning.

When Rahul left theCongress headquarters he wasaccompanied by party leaders,including Priyanka Gandhi

Vadra, Rajasthan ChiefMinister Ashok Gehlot,Chhattisgarh Chief MinisterBhupesh Baghel and formerUnion Finance Minister PChidambaram.

Priyanka sat with Rahul ina vehicle as the convoy ofseven SUVs, escorted by armedCRPF personnel, entered theED office on APJ Abdul KalamRoad. The probe pertains toalleged financial irregularitiesin the party-promoted YoungIndian that owns the NationalHerald newspaper. TheNational Herald is publishedby the Associated JournalsLimited (AJL) and owned byYoung Indian Pvt Limited.

At a Press conference laterin the day, the Congress saidthe 1937-established AJLfaced huge debts and the partyduring 2002-11, gave �90crore to the National Heraldto pay the salaries of the jour-nalists and staffers whoworked there.

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Bihar Chief Minister NitishKumar has distanced him-

self from yet another pet agen-da of the Sangh parivar:Rewriting history.

“History is what it is, howcan anyone change it?” Hesaid on Home Minister AmitShah’s assertion that it’s time torevisit history books as histo-rians have focussed only onMughals so far, ignoring otherglorious empires.

When a reporter askedwhat he thought of Shah’s sug-gestion, the Bihar CM said,“Will you change history then?I don’t understand how one canchange it. History is history.”

Language is a differentissue but you can’t change thefundamental history, he said.

This is yet another stanceof the Bihar CM differing withthe BJP on ideological issues.Kumar has already shot downthe demand for removing loud-speakers from mosques.

He has also opposed theCAA in its present form and alltogether rejected the need forimplementation of the NCR.Nitish has brushed aside thedemand for implementationof Uniform Civil Code in India.

Last week, Shah urged his-torians in the country to revivethe glory of the past for the pre-sent, saying it will help inbuilding a bright future.

“Most of the historians inIndia have given prominence torecording the history ofMughals only, ignoring the

glorious rules of many empireslike Pandyas, Cholas, Mauryas,Guptas and Ahoms,” Shah hadsaid at a recent book launch.

“The Mauryas ruled thewhole country — fromAfghanistan to Lanka for 550years. The Satvahanas ruled for500 years. The Guptas ruled for400 years and (Gupta emperor)Samudragupta had for the firsttime visioned a united Indiaand established an empire withthe whole country. But there isno reference book on them,” hehad said.

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Asserting that betting andgambling are illegal in

“most parts” of the country andpose significant financial andsocio-economic risk for con-sumers, the Information andBroadcasting Ministry onMonday issued an advisorydirecting print, electronic anddigital media to refrain fromadvertising online betting plat-forms in India.

The Ministry said that theadvisory was issued in largerpublic interest and comes in thelight of instances of a numberof advertisements of onlinebetting websites/platformsappearing in print, electronic,social and online media.

On May 26, the Delhi HighCourt sought Centre’s responseon a petition seeking banningof online gambling and bettingin India. Similar cases arepending in Gujarat, Karnatakaand Kerala High Court await-ing Centre and State

Government’s response.The petitions pointed out

that many online betting web-sites have made people addict-ed and even students nowlargely have access to mobilephones and the internet.Division Bench of Acting ChiefJustice Vipin Sanghi and JusticeSachin Data issued notice toCentre and Delhi State seekingresponse.

The I&B Ministry advisedthe print and electronic mediato refrain from publishingadvertisements of online bet-ting platforms. It has alsoadvised the online and social

media, including online adver-tisement intermediaries andpublishers, to not display suchadvertisements in India ortarget such advertisementstowards the Indian audience.

“Betting and gambling,illegal in most parts of thecountry, pose significantfinancial and socio-economicrisk for the consumers, espe-cially youth and children, theadvisory states. These adver-tisements on online bettinghave the effect of promoting“this largely prohibited activi-ty”, according to a Ministrystatement.

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Atop Sri Lankan official,who claimed before a par-

liamentary panel that PrimeMinister Narendra Modiallegedly influenced PresidentGotabaya Rajapaksa to awarda wind power project to theAdani Group in this islandnation, resigned on Monday, aday after retracting his earlierstatement.

The resignation of MMCFerdinando, the chairman ofstate-owned power entityCeylon Electricity Board(CEB), has been accepted,energy minister KanchanaWijesekara said on Monday.

Ferdinando, during ahearing of the Committee OnPublic Enterprises (COPE) onFriday, said that PresidentRajapaksa had summonedhim after a meeting in

November last year and toldhim that the wind power pro-ject be awarded to the AdaniGroup of India’s billionaireGautam Adani as PrimeMinister Modi had urged himto do so.

However, PresidentRajapaksa on Saturday cate-gorically denied Ferdinando’sstatement before the parlia-mentary panel.

Rajapaksa tweeted: “I cat-egorically deny authorisationto award this project to anyspecific person or entity”.

On Sunday, Ferdinandowrote to the COPE chair inParliament Professor CharithaHerath that he was withdraw-ing his comment, saying it hadbeen done under stress, andthat he was not influenced byeither President Rajapaksa orthe Indian High Commissionhere to retract it.

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Kuwait has said it will deportexpatriates who reported-

ly took part in a demonstrationagainst remarks made by thenow-suspended BJP spokesper-sons against ProphetMohammad. The deportedpeople will not be allowed toenter Kuwait again.

The action was initiatedagainst the protesters onMonday as they violated the lawof Kuwait prohibiting demon-strations or sit-ins, reports said.The local authorities are in theprocess of “arresting expatsand referring them to thedeportation centre to be deport-ed to their countries”, newsagency ANI reported, quotingthe Arab Times. The expats willbe banned from enteringKuwait again, it said.

Instructions have beenissued to arrest expats from theFahaheel area which saw ademonstration after Fridayprayers, Arab News, anEnglish-language daily news-

paper published in SaudiArabia, quoted sources as say-ing. All expatriates mustrespect Kuwait laws and nottake part in any type of demon-strations, the report said, quot-ing the instructions to author-ities. However, the nationali-ty of the protesters was not dis-closed in the report.

Incidentally, Kuwait alongwith Qatar and Iran were thefirst countries in the Arabworld to summon Indianenvoys to their respective coun-tries to register official protestagainst remarks criticizing theProphet.

According to latest statis-tics, the number of Indiannationals legally residing inKuwait has crossed the 10-lakhmark in 2019. The Indian com-munity in Kuwait continues togrow at 5-6 per cent perannum.

The Indian communityremains the largest and themost preferred community inKuwait, the second largestexpatriate community beingthe Egyptians, according tothe Indian Embassy in Kuwait.

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Nuclear weapons willincrease in the next decade

and India, one of the ninenuclear States, will continue tomodernise its nuclear arsenal,the prestigious StockholmInternational Peace ResearchInstitute (SIPRI) said onMonday in its annual report.

The report assessed thecurrent state of armaments, dis-armament, and internationalsecurity and said despite amarginal decrease in the num-ber of nuclear warheads in2021, nuclear arsenals areexpected to grown over thenext ten years. It signals thatpost-cold war decline innuclear arsenals is ending.

The SIPRI report said thenine nuclear-armed States —

the United States, Russia, theUnited Kingdom, France,China, India, Pakistan, Israeland the Democratic People’sRepublic of Korea (NorthKorea) — continue to mod-ernise their nuclear arsenals.Although the total number ofnuclear weapons declinedslightly between January 2021and January 2022, the numberwill probably increase in thenext decade, it said.

Russia and the USA

together possess over 90 percent of all nuclear weapons.The other seven nuclear-armedStates are either developing ordeploying new weapon sys-tems, or have announced theirintention to do so.

India had 160 nuclear war-heads as on January 2022 andit appears to be expanding itsnuclear arsenal, the report said.Similarly, Pakistan also appearsto be expanding its nucleararsenal, it said.

“China is in the middle ofa substantial expansion of itsnuclear weapon arsenal ,which satellite images indi-cate includes the construc-tion of over 300 new missilesilos,” the SIPRI statementnoted.

China had 350 nuclearwarheads in January 2021 aswell as January 2022, it said.

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New Delhi: Congress leadersRahul Gandhi and PriyankaGandhi Vadra visited partypresident and their motherSonia Gandhi at the Sir GangaRam Hospital here on Monday,a day after she was admitted tothe facility.

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Page 3: 4 CRYf]¶d 65 XcZ]]Z_X e` T`_eZ_fV e`URj - Daily Pioneer

RANCHI | TUESDAY | JUNE 14, 2022 jharkhand 03

PNS � Ranchi

The police action against con-spirators of Friday violence

has gained momentum as Ranchipolice on Monday conducted raidsat different locations; also theGovernor has summoned DGPNiraj Sinha, ADG (Operation)Sanjay Latkar and other senior of-ficials seeking report about Fridayviolence. At the same time a PILhas been filed at Jharkhand HighCourt seeking NIA probe in vio-lence.The Ranchi police on Mondayraided 42 houses in Lower Bazaar,Hindpiri, Daily Market, and Kot-wali police station areas simulta-neously. The police after the raidsdetained 29 persons for interroga-tions in connection with Friday vi-olence. Sources said that therewas conspiracy behind the vio-lence as messages was spread inWhatsapp group. Some people

had formed a group spreading re-ligious hatred urging people toparticipate in the violence. The po-lice are now looking for the adminof this group.The Ranchi Police is conducting

raids in search of the rioters. Forthis, a raiding team has beenformed by the Ranchi Police today.On the basis of the CCTV footage,the raiding team is busy identify-ing the accused involved in the vi-

olent incident and arresting them.Sources said that some hardlinersfrom Uttar Pradesh had visitedRanchi creating plans for violence. Meanwhile, on Monday when po-lice visited various areas to arrestthe rioters they had to face publicire. At Gudri Chowk, peopleprotested police action when theyreached the area to detain youthsbehind the incident. A section ofMuslim women was noticed at theKotwali police station. They wereasking about two youths liftedfrom Moti Masjid locality underKotwali police station area whilepolice personnel were noticeddriving them out from the policestation.While in other development Gov-ernor Ramesh Bais on Mondaysummoned DGP Niraj Sinha, ADG(Operation) Sanjay Latkar andRanchi SSP SK Jha at the Raj Bha-van to seek reports about the statusof the probe into Friday violencein Ranchi.The Raj Bhavan Secretariat tookstock of the law and order situa-tion in Jharkhand. The law and

order of the capital turned bad onJune 10 when a strong mob at-tacked police and religious placeson the Main road during thecourse of protest against the re-marks by BJP’s Nupur Sharmaagainst the prophet.Also, a PIL has been filed atJharkhand High Court demandingNational Investigation Agency(NIA) probe over Friday violence.The petitioner Pankaj Yadav hasrequested the court to hand overthe probe to the National Investi-gation Agency (NIA).The petitioner has made Jhark-hand government, Chief Secretary,Ranchi DC, Ranchi SSP, NIA, En-forcement Directorate and the In-come Tax respondent of this case.He has also made AsaduddinOwaisi, President of the All IndiaMajlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen arespondent.The petitioner in his plea hasstated that Ranchi Police or Jhark-hand Police can’t investigate andtake to a logical conclusion asthere is a larger conspiracy behindthe violence.

Police raid houses of Friday violence conspiratorsPIL at HC forNIA probe

Rapid Action Force personnel stand guard at Mainroad to maintainlaw and order following clashes during protest against now- sus-pended BJP leaders remarks on prophet Mohhamad, in Ranchion Monday. Pix by Ratan Lal

PNS � Ranchi

Chief Minister Hemant Sorenhas given approval to the pro-

posal to issue sanction orders foroffenses under the provisions ofsection-13(1)(d) read with section-13(2) of the Prevention of Corrup-tion Act, in CBI, ACB, RanchiPolice Station Case No- RC-07(A)/2016-(R) dated- 02-06-2016against accused Shivendra NathVerma, Chairman, Jharkhand StateElectricity Board, Jharkhand,Ranchi Presently Managing Direc-tor, Uttarakhand Jal Vidyut NigamLimited and Alok Sharan, thenmembers (Finance), JharkhandState Electricity Board, Jharkhand,Ranchi Presently Principal Director,International Projects IN. C., ATS.In the year 2011-2012 the accused,in connivance with the officials ofJharkhand State Electricity Board,Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited(BHEL), Bhopal and M/s NorthernPower Erector Limited (NPEL),dishonestly under criminal conspir-

acy, Swarnrekha HydroelectricMachine, Sikidri (On the basis ofnomination for repair and mainte-nance of Swarna Rekha HydroElectricity Project, Sikidri), workworth Rs 2.5 crore was given toBHEL at a very high rate of Rs20.87 crore. The officials of Jhark-hand State Electricity Board dis-honestly against the financial rulesestablished by Bharat Heavy Elec-

tricals (BHEL), Bhopal on thebasis of payment terms and C.V.C.paid in violation of the rules. In ad-dition, the officials of BharatHeavy Electricals Limited(BHEL), Bhopal, dishonestlyawarded the work related to the re-pair and maintenance ofSwarnarekha Hydro ElectricityEquipment, Sikidari (SwarnaRekha Hydro Electricity Project,

Sikidari) with M/s Northern Powerof Rs.15.32 crore. Sublet/con-tracted in C.V.C. The work was ex-ecuted by M/s Northern Power at acost of Rs.5.55 crore. Thus BharatHeavy Electricals Limited(BHEL).The Jharkhand State ElectricityBoard had to suffer financial lossdue to poor quality work and de-layed execution of work by M/sNorthern Power Erector Limited.Apart from this, during the year2005, the work of repair and main-tenance was given by the Jhark-hand State Electricity Board toM/s Heavy Electricals (BHEL)Limited, Bhopal on the basis oftender for Rs. Higher rate of Rs20.87 crore was given on the basisof nomination. Thus, the aboveFIR accused the accused of misap-propriation of government moneyby misusing the official position,negligence, fraud, dishonesty,criminal conspiracy with the inten-tion of forgery, financial irregular-ities and embezzlement ofgovernment funds.

CM approves prosecution in corruption case related to Energy Dept

Chief Minister Hemant Soren interacts with media persons in Ranchion Monday. PNS

CM to unveil statue of VeerShaheed Ganesh HansdaOn the second death anniversary of Veer ShaheedGanesh Hansda, CM Hemant Soren will unveil thestatue of Veer Shaheed and inaugurate the park atKasaphlia, and Baharagora. Ministers Champai Soren,Banna Gupta, Joba Manjhi, Hafizul Hasan, Odishagovernment minister Sudam Marandi, West Bengalminister Birbaha Hansda will be present as specialguests at the inauguration ceremony. Ramdas Soren,Samir Mahanti, Niral Purti, Sanjeev Sardar, DashrathGagrai, Savita Mahto, Mangal Kalindi, Sukhram Oraon,Deepak Birua will be included as guest of honor includ-ing MP Bidyut Baran Mahto. Dr. Sanjay Giri, presidentof Sampoorna Humanity Welfare Association and pres-ident of Veer Shaheed Ganesh Smarak Seva Samiti,said this in a press conference held at CP Club Tu-iladungri (Golmuri) on Sunday.

New laser machine at DevkamalDevkamal Hospital an-nounced the commission-ing of their new LaserTRINITON by INMODE .This is an Israel productand probably the bestlaser machine in theworld. The machine hasfour different modes offunction -- for unwantedhair removal, for removalof all pigmentations andacne scars, for facial skintightening and contourcorrection and facial re-modelling and body sculp-turing. Most of theseprocedures require four tosix sittings and would bedone by doctors trained inlasers. It is the safest andthe least invasive of thelasers and this meansleast possible damagewith better results as the depth of the laser is finelycontrolled. This facility is available at Devkamal Aes-thetic and cosmetic centre, 404 commerce house, Be-hind Firayalals. For registrations: 7549332200. Earlybird registrations get the first sitting free of charge on15th and 16th june from 11 am to 4 pm .

Gangwar gets ‘Most EffectivePrincipal’ award

A.S.Gangwar, Principal DPS Bokaro Steel City hasbeen acknowledged as the ‘Most Effective Principal’ inthe nationally acclaimed Corporate Social Responsi-bility (CSR) Impact Summit 2022 which was held inNew Delhi. He was felicitated by Dr. Dinesh Tyagi,Managing Director, Common Service Centre, underMinistry of Information Technology, Government ofIndia. Gangwar was felicitated for bringing in innova-tions in the application of multi-media learning tools forteaching, research, and knowledge mobilization andalso for the community outreach activities for learnersof the marginalized sections of the community. He hasbeen acknowledged for promoting

ethical leadership.

Fino Payments Bank partners forinsurance policyFino Payments Bank Limited (“Fino Bank” or “TheBank”) today announced that it has partnered with GoDigit General Insurance, one of India’s fastest growinggeneral insurers, to offer shop insurance policy to smalland medium business owners. Fino is associated withGo Digit as a corporate agent. The product waslaunched at an event organized at Fino Bank’s regionaloffice in Ranchi. Manish Dwivedi, Zonal Head, ShishirSingh (Regional Head), Sanjeev Sinha (Business Sup-port Manager), Dilshad Ali (Key Account Manager),Kaushal Raj Srivastava (Portfolio Manager) and otherteam members of Fino Bank were present at thelaunch event. The tie-up will allow small and mediumbusinesses to avail the benefits of Digit’s My Busi-nessPolicy in case of any adverse event.

Cong holds demonstrationagainst ED summon The Dhanbad district congress committee led by dis-trict president BP Singh and state working presidentJaleshwar Mahto organised a march from its districtheadquarters to deputy commissioner's office toprotest action taken against their leaders Sonia Gandhiand Rahul Gandhi. They later handed over a memo-randum to DCthat was addressed to the Governor inwhich they condemned the alleged one-sided actionand demanded to withdraw the case by ED. Singhsaid, we had been fighting and would fight to opposethe Modi government's move. Similar words were saidby Mahto.

Guv takes stock ofLaw and Order sit-uation in City, State

PNS � Ranchi

Governor Ramesh Baissummoned the Director

General of Police, Addi-tional Director General ofPolice (Operations), RanchiDeputy Commissioner andSenior Superintendent of Po-lice, Ranchi on Sunday at RajBhavan and inquired fromthem about the incidents thattook place in Ranchi on andafter 10th June.The governorasked, what information theadministration had aboutthe proposed event, dharna,demonstration, processionand what arrangements didit make. “You have IB, CIDand what inputs did the spe-cial branch give? Howmany security personneland magistrates were pres-ent there during the proces-sion?” he questioned. TheGovernor further asked,“Why didn't you take anypreventive action? Why did-n't you use water cannon,rubber bullets and tear gas?There was no provision ofthese things there.

PNS � Ranchi

The 80th Annual Conven-tion of the All India

Ophthalmological Society(AIOS) was organized from2nd June to 5th June 2022 atGeo World Centre, Mumbai.As many as 6000 ophthal-mologists from all over thecountry participated in theconference, whererenowned ophthalmologistDr. BP Kashyap and a teamof ophthalmologists fromJharkhand provided trainingon electrophysiology of eyesto eye specialists from allover the country.Dr. Bibhuti Bhushan pre-sented the topic of electro-physiology, Dr. RahulPrasad discussed the elec-trodes of the machine, Dr. B.P. Kashyap explained thefull field and multifocalelectroretinogram and Dr.Bharti Kashyap explained indetail electrooculogram tothe eye doctors, Dr. VibhutiKashyap, Ranchi'srenowned retina specialist,gave presentation on Pattern

electroretinogram and Dr.Nidhi Gadkar Kashyap pre-sented on the topic of VisualEvoked Potential.The electrophysiology ex-amination of the eyes tellsthe function of the retina andnerves of the eye. We takephotos of the inner screen ofthe eyes from the rest of theold tests, but all these do nottell the function of the eyes.With this test, which surfaceof your screen is diseased, itbecomes known. If there is adisease of the eye curtain orvein and everything insidethe eyes is looking normal,then in such a situation this

test helps a lot.This is a very informativetest in case the central visualfield is defective or the eye isvery bright due to light, thelight is decreasing andeverything inside the eye islooking normal.Unlike a heart ECG, no dyeis used in this test. In patientswho are not very safe to givedye in the vein due to otherdiseases of the body such askidney, heart disease, dia-betes, blood pressure, thistest proves to be very bene-ficial in such patients.Electrophysiology examina-tion reveals diseases of dif-

ferent surfaces of the retina,as well as whether this dis-ease is congenital or oc-curred after birth. This testis very effective in the iden-tification of congenital dis-eases of the eyes.Sometimes small childrenwhose eyes are not fixed,they move continuously, ittells which congenital dis-ease of the eyes of the chil-dren. Sometimes a child'scongenital ailment can bedetected by the examinationof the eyes of the parents.Electrophysiology exami-nation also shows howmuch benefit is being donein the diagnosis and treat-ment of many congenitaldiseases of the eye retinaand diseases of the nervesof the eyes. It helps a lot inthe diagnosis of inflamma-tory disease of the bloodvessels of the eye, this testhelps to identify whereverthere is a disturbance in thepath of light from the retinato the brain.Electrophysiology test fa-cility is available only inKashyap Memorial EyeHospital in Jharkhand-Biharand this facility has beenavailable for the last fouryears.

Dr BP Kashyap & team trainsOphthalmologists at AIOS conferenceTraining given onelectrophysiologyof eyes

Chief Instructor Dr. B. P. Kashyap and co-training eyedoctors during Electrophysiology training workshop, atGeo World Centre, Mumbai. PNS

PNS � Ranchi

Three youth leaders andchildren from Jhark-

hand, who were forced tolive in bondage and depriva-tion of child labour, haveemerged from the darknessof child labour to becomecatalysts of social change.They once toiled in the micamines in exchange for a fewmorsels of food. But nowthey are leading the fightagainst child labour. Anotheryoung girl from a margin-alised family is now spear-heading the movementagainst child marriage.These four children were fe-licitated by BhupenderYadav, union minister oflabour on the eve of June12, the World Day Against

Child Labour. “Kailash Satyarthi is mak-ing remarkable efforts forchildren from across theglobe. We are glad to meetthe child leaders and hearabout the efforts beingmade by them for buildinga child-friendly world. So-ciety will change due to theconstant efforts of thesechildren. We will providefull support to the childrenin their efforts. We havevisited the villages in Jhark-hand and are aware of thesituation on the ground,”Yadav said while appreciat-ing the efforts made by thechildren.Apart from the three youthleaders from Jharkhand,four others also receivedappreciation from the min-

ister. These include threeformer child labourers fromRajasthan: Rajesh Jatav,Amar Lal and Tara Banjara,who recently representedIndia in the InternationalLabour Organisation’s(ILO’s) fifth global confer-ence on the elimination ofchild labour in Durban.Other change makers,recognised for their efforts,were Payal Jangid, alsofrom Rajasthan and SurjeetLodhi, from Bidisha districtin Madhya Pradesh, who isa recipient of the presti-gious UK-based Dianaaward.Nikita Kumari, from Dhabvillage in Koderma district,used to scavenge in theabandoned mica mines anddig out scraps from the ageof eight years. She wasforced to work to supple-ment the income of herfamily, comprising her par-ents and four siblings. Shewas subsequently rescuedby Bachpan Bachao An-dolan (BBA) activists-a sis-ter organisation of KailashSatyarthi Children’s Foun-dation (KSCF)-and enrolledin a school.Other former child labour-ers from Jharkhand, felici-tated by the union minister,include Neeraj Murmu andChampa Kumari.

3 Child Labour survivors from State felicitated

PNS � Ranchi

Congress workers, onMonday, staged a

protest in Khunti under theleadership of Jharkhand's Fi-nance and Food SuppliesMinister, Dr RameshwarOraon against the BJP's dic-tatorship and vendetta poli-tics. On this occasion, seniorstate Congress leaders AlokKumar Dubey, Lal Kishore-nath Shahdeo, Dr RajeshGupta were present.Speaking on the occasion

Oraon said that the ED's ac-tion against senior Congressleader Rahul Gandhi clearlyshows the feeling of animos-ity, ED officials also knowthat it is wrong, but they arehelpless. He said that themanner in which the leadersof the opposition parties andespecially the leaders of theCongress are being ha-rassed, the dictatorship ofthe Government is clearlyvisible in this.“There is an atmosphere ofanger among the common

people due to such action inthe whole Country. It iswrong, it is unfortunate. Ma-hatma Gandhi had said thatyou can bind me withchains, even you can destroythis body, but you can neverimprison my thoughts, Con-gress party through its ideasand movement for wrongpolicies will oppose,” saidOraon.On this occasion, Dubeysaid that from now on a newmovement has started in theCountry, on one side theChief Ministers of Ra-jasthan, Chhattisgarh are onthe road and on the otherhand the Finance Minister ofJharkhand, Dr RameshwarOraon following the samepath. “If the experts areprotesting by taking to thestreets, then the day is notfar when the countdown ofthe Central Government willstart. The way the Congressparty has started variousprograms through recentlyheld Navsankalp ChintanShivir in Udaipur, there isrestlessness among BJPleaders and this is the reasonwhy central investigativeagencies are being misused,but the party is not going topanic,” he added.

Oraon leads protest againstED questioning Rahul Gandhi

Finance Minister, Rameshwar Oraon alongwith senior lead-ers during the nationwide protest against the alleged partisanaction by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) against formerPresident of All India Congress Committee, Rahul Gandhi,in Khunti on Monday. PNS

PNS � Ranchi

Campaigning for Mandarby-poll has gained mo-

mentum with both BJP andCongress releasing the list ofstar campaigners for by-pollelection. As the by-poll isheld at the time when theruling coalition is having anunsavory situation---com-munal clashes in Ranchi, EDprobe against senior IAS of-ficer and chief minister him-self under ED scanner overallotment of mining lease.The by-poll will set the ref-erendum against the rulingcoalition of which Congressis partner while at the sametime it will be a litmus testfor BJP as the Saffron partyhas failed to win any by-pollafter the Soren governmentcame to power in 2019.Both the BJP and Congressare leaving no stone un-turned to win the election.The Congress has fieldedShilpi Neha Tirkey daughterof Bandhu Tirkey who losthis membership after CBICourt found him guilty inassets disproportionate case.BJP has fielded GangotriKujur who was party MLAfrom 20214 to 19.The BJP star campaigner listincludes leaders from bothBihar and Jharkhand. Senior

BJP leader from Bihar SushilKumar Modi, Buxar MP andunion minister of state forconsumer affairs, food andpublic distribution AshwiniKumar Choubey, MangalPandey, Bihar BJP presidentSanjay Jaiswal, Nikki Hem-brom and others.The Jhark-hand BJP leaders who findplace in star campaigner listare Deepak Prakash, BabulalMarandi, Arjun Munda,Raghubar Das among oth-ers.As Mandar is ST reservedconstituency, BJP tribal lead-ers such as Rajya Sabha MPSameer Oroan, Khunti MLANeelkanth Singh Munda,Lohardaga MP SudarshanBhagat, Dumka MP SunilSoren, State ST morcha pres-ident Shivshankar Oroanamong others find place inthe list.Moreover, the BJP to checkindiscipline within the partyhas suspended Deo KumarDhan from primary mem-bership of the party for sixyears. BJP suspended itsmember Dev Kumar Dhanon Sunday for six years forfiling nomination as an in-dependent candidate in theensuing Mandar bypoll.Dhan was upset after beingdenied the party ticket forthe polls.

BJP, Cong release starcampaigners’ list for Mandar

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Alleging that the Congressand corruption were made

for each other, the BJP onMonday attacked theOpposition party for taking tothe streets as their leader RahulGandhi was summoned forquestioning by the ED andsaid the protest was to protectthe Gandhi family’s assets ofover �2000 crore.

Addressing a press confer-ence, BJP leader and UnionMinister Smriti Irani said theshow of strength by theCongress is aimed at puttingpressure on the probe agency,and asserted that nobody isabove the law “even RahulGandhi”.

Congress members shouldalso ask Rahul Gandhi about hisfamily’s relations with DotexMerchandise, which shedescribed as a hawala operator

whose transactions have beenflagged by the FinancialIntelligence Unit.

She alleged that the Gandhifamily floated Young Indian tograb the assets worth over Rs2,000 crore of AssociatedJournals Limited, which pub-lishes the National Heraldnewspaper.

Never before such a blatantattempt was made by a politi-cal family to hold a probeagency to ransom, she said.

For his part, UnionMinority Affairs MinisterMukhtar Abbas Naqvi allegedthat Congress and corruptionare “made for each other”, andclaimed that the oppositionparty was carrying out a “satya-graha for corruption”.

Naqvi said that with thefamily facing allegations, theCongress was “fabricating agi-tation”. He said this proves thatthe Congress and corruption

are “made for each other”.The country has earlier

witnessed ‘satyagraha’ againstcorruption, but the country iswitnessing the Congress’ cultureof “satyagraha for corruption”for the first time.

The Congress’ attempt toshow strength on the streetsduring investigation into a cor-ruption case shows its brazenattitude despite indulging ingraft, Naqvi told reporters.

“The Congress has becomea ‘crew of corruption’ and achampion of converting cor-ruption into revolution,” thesenior BJP leader said.

Rahul was questioned bythe Enforcement Directorate(ED) in a money launderingprobe linked to the NationalHerald newspaper after theMP reached the agency’s head-quarters here accompanied bya battery of party leaders andsupporters.

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Four holy relics of LordBuddha accompanied by a

25-member delegation, led byMinister of Law and JusticeKiren Rijiju, reached Mongoliaon Monday for an 11-day expo-sition.

The holy relics werereceived ceremoniously andwith great reverence at theUlaanbaatar InternationalAirport by Ch Nomin, CultureMinister of Mongolia,Saranchimeg, MP/Chairpersonof India Mongolia FriendshipGroup, Khamba Nomun Khan,Advisor to the President ofMongolia, and a large numberof monks, The CultureMinistry said in a statement.

Rijiju said the historicalrelations between India andMongolia will further strength-en with the arrival of KapilvastuRelics in Mongolia. He main-tained that through the dele-gation India is carryingBuddha's message of peace tothe world.

Rijiju also informed thatthe main Buddha statue in theGandan Monastery was giftedby Prime Minister NarendraModi in 2015 to the people of

Mongolia and it was installedin 2018.

He said that the people ofMongolia enjoy a strong bondwith India and look up toIndia as a source of wisdom.

The holy relics were there-after welcomed at the GandanMonastery ceremoniouslyamidst prayers and Buddhistchants. A large number ofMongolian people gathered topay their respects to the sacred

Buddha relics. The relics werehanded over to the GandanMonastery in the presence ofBuddhist monks for safekeep-ing ahead of its 11-day exposi-tion beginning Tuesday.

The relics left Delhi withthe delegation Sunday eveningafter a customary ceremony.These are among the 22 specialrelics kept in the NationalMuseum of the CultureMinistry.

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Pointing to the fact that someStates are witnessing a spike

in COVID-19 cases, UnionHealth Minister MansukhMandaviya on Monday saidthat the pandemic was notover yet and the need was toaccelerate efforts to identify allbeneficiaries in the 12-17 agegroup for the first and seconddoses, so that they can attendschools with the protection ofthe vaccine and the vulnerablegroup of over 60 years for theprecaution doses.

Stressing the need for beingvigilant and observing Covid-appropriate behaviour, heappealed to States and UnionTerritories to continue andstrengthen surveillance andfocus on genome sequencingfor identifying new variants inthe country.

Mandaviya held a meetingwith Health Ministers andsenior officials of States andUnion Territories via videoconference to review theprogress of vaccination exerciseunder the Har Ghar Dastak 2.0

campaign, the Health Ministrysaid in a statement.

Emphasising the impor-tance of COVID-19 vaccinationamong the vulnerable agegroups, he urged the statehealth ministers to personallyreview the status and progressof the special month-long driveof Har Ghar Dastak 2.0 cam-paign that started on June 1.

“Let us accelerate ourefforts to identify all beneficia-ries in the 12-17 age group forthe first and second doses, sothey can attend schools with theprotection of the vaccine,”Mandaviya said.

He urged States forfocussed coverage of the 12-17age group through school-based campaigns, along withtargeted coverage of non-schoolgoing children during the sum-mer vacation, the statementsaid.

He added that the popula-tion group of above 60 years ofage is a vulnerable category andneeds to be protected with theprecaution dose. “Our health-care workers are going fromdoor-to-door to ensure that

the vulnerable population isadministered the precautiondose,” he said. Highlighting theincreased case positivity rate insome districts and states andreduced COVID-19 testing,Mandaviya stated that increasedand timely testing will enableearly identification of casesand help curb spread of theinfection in the community.

The Minister stated thatthe five-fold strategy of test,track, treat, vaccination andadherence to COVID-19-appro-priate behaviour needs to becontinued and monitored bystates and UTs.

States were also urged to

focus on implementing theOperational Guidelines forRevised Surveillance Strategyfor COVID-19 which focuseson surveillance of incominginternational travellers and sur-veillance through health facili-ties, labs, community, etc., thestatement said.

The Health Ministers ofStates were urged to also reviewthe administration of precautiondose to the 18-59 age group withthe private hospitals on a regu-lar basis, the statement said.

He said, “We can utilise thelearning from the first HarGhar Dastak campaign to aimfor achieving 100 per cent cov-

erage among the eligible popu-lation for ensuring extendedprotection against COVID-19.”

“Adequate vaccine dosesare available across the country.Let us ensure accelerated cov-erage of Covid vaccination dur-ing the second phase of HarGhar Dastak campaign,” hestressed. The States were alsostrongly advised to ensure thatthere is no wastage of COVID-19 vaccines at any cost. Thismust be ensured through activemonitoring and on basis of“first expiry, first out” principle,where doses that expire earliershould be used for vaccinationfirst, according to the statement.

State Health MinistersSapam Ranjan Singh (Manipur),Alo Libang (ArunachalPradesh), Thanneeru HarishRao (Telangana), Anil Vij(Haryana), RushikeshGaneshbhai Patel (Gujarat),Banna Gupta (Jharkhand),Mangal Pandey (Bihar), RajeshTope (Maharashtra),Prabhuram Choudhary(Madhya Pradesh), and KSudhakar (Karnataka) were pre-sent in the meeting.

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The Department of Consumer Affairs(DoCA) has directed major e-com-

merce food business operators (FBOs)like Swiggy and Zomato to submit a pro-posal within 15 days on improving theirconsumer grievance redressal mecha-nism amid rising complaints from cus-tomers.

The department pointed out thatduring the last 12 months, "over 3,631grievances have been registered on theNational Consumer Helpline (1915) forSwiggy and 2,828 have been registeredfor Zomato".

The direction was given during ameeting chaired by Secretary,Department of Consumer Affairs, RohitKumar Singh, with major e-commercefood business operators, to discuss per-tinent issues which affect consumers in

this sector.The meeting was attended by online

food business operators, includingSwiggy and Zomato as well as theNational Restaurant Association ofIndia (NRAI). These platforms weredirected to show individual consumerreviews transparently and refrain fromshowing only the aggregation of reviews.

On Swiggy platform, there were 803complaints (22 per cent of the total3,631) related to deficiency in services.Non/delay in delivery of productaccounted for 17 per cent of the totalcomplaints, delivery of defective/dam-aged product 13 per cent. Delivery ofwrong product and paid amount notrefunded accounted for 11 per cent eachto the total complaints. Similarly, onZomato platform, deficiency in servicescontributed 25 per cent to the total com-plaints followed by delivery of defec-

tive/damaged product (18 per cent),non/delay in delivery of product (11 percent), paid amount not refunded (11 percent) and delivery of wrong product (11per cent).

During the meeting, major issuesraised by the consumers on NationalConsumer Helpline of DoCA were dis-cussed including veracity of the amountof delivery and packing charges and thereasonability of such charges, disparitybetween the price and quantity of fooditems shown on the platform and actu-ally offered by the restaurant, inconsis-tency in the delivery time shown to con-sumers at the time of placing an orderand the time at which the order is actu-ally delivered, and absence of any mech-anism to separate genuine reviews fromfake ones.

The National RestaurantAssociation of India (NRAI) raised the

issue of customer information not beingshared by the e-commerce FBOs withthe restaurants which impacts their abil-ity to serve the consumer needs better.Further, delivery charges are deter-mined and levied by the latter. Further,a commission of around 20% is alsocharged by the online FBOs on eachorder. In the last few months, thedepartment has taken many steps to pro-tect consumers' interest. It has askedrestaurants not to levy service chargesand will soon bring a legal frameworkon this issue.

In April this year, the CompetitionCommission of India (CCI) asked itsdirector-general to submit a report onthe matter in 60 days. The NRAI,which represents over 500,000 restau-rants, had moved CCI in July 2021 alleg-ing anti-competitive practices by thefood delivery platforms.

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The Delhi High Court onMonday dismissed a peti-

tion by CPI(M) leaders BrindaKarat and KM Tiwari chal-lenging the trial court’s refusalto direct the registration of anFIR against Union MinisterAnurag Thakur and his BJPcolleague and MP PraveshVerma for their alleged hatespeeches concerning anti-CAAprotest at Shaheen Bagh here.

Justice Chandra DhariSingh, who had reserved theverdict on March 25, refused tointerfere with the trial court’sorder and said that under thelaw, the requisite sanction isrequired to be obtained fromthe competent authority for theregistration of FIR in the pre-sent facts.

The judge said that the trialcourt rightly decided the peti-tioners’ plea and that no casefor exercise of the high court’swrit jurisdictionwas made outin view of the presence ofalternate remedy under thelaw.

The petitioners hadassailed the trial court orderbefore the high court on theground that a cognisableoffence is made out againstthetwo leaders in the present caseand an FIR should be lodgedagainst them for their allegedhate speeches concerning theanti-CAA protest at ShaheenBagh here and that they wereonly asking the police to inves-tigate the matter.

The petitioners hadclaimed in their complaintbefore the trial court that“Thakur and Verma hadsought to incite people as aresult of which three incidentsof firing took place at two dif-ferent protest sites in Delhi.”

Delhi Police had defendedthe trial court order, saying thatit rightly held that it does nothave jurisdiction to deal withthe case and referred to theSupreme Court’s judgementswhich said that if a judge is say-ing he does not have jurisdic-tion, he should not commenton merits and that is the rightapproach.

It was the petitioners’grievance that at the Rithalarally here, Thakur had, onJanuary 27, 2020, egged on thecrowd to raise an incendiaryslogan – “shoot the traitors” –after lashing out at anti-CAAprotesters.

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The Supreme Court on Monday soughtresponses from the CBI and the ED on a

plea of actor Mohd Naseer seeking bail in con-nection with criminal cases related to allegedcheating and siphoning of funds in the namesof Ponzi schemes.

Naseer, a visually impaired actor who hadacted in the 2009 Bollywood Hindi movie —‘The Shadow, the Dark Side of Truth’, is in jailfrom 2019 in connection with the caseslodged by CBI and the ED.

A vacation bench comprising justices A S

Bopanna and Vikram Nath sought replies ofthe probe agencies within three weeks aftersenior advocate Siddharth Bhatnagar, appear-ing for the jailed actor, said the Orissa HighCourt, which reserved the order on the bailplea on June 12, 2020, was yet to deliver it.

The actor was arrested on July 20, 2009,and was granted bail on the same day.However, after filing of the charge sheet by theCBI, which was entrusted with the probe bythe high court in 2012, the actor was taken intocustody in 2019 and since then he is in jail.The order on the bail application is awaitedin the high court, his lawyer said.

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BJP MLA from MaldaDakshin, Sreerupa Mitra

Chaudhury, has complained tothe National Commission forWomen alleging she wasassaulted while participating ina political programme in herconstituency on Saturday.

Chaudhury alleged thatpolice remained a mute specta-tor and failed to control the sit-uation as she and other womenaccompanying her wereattacked, the NCW said in astatement. She alleged that shewas assaulted without anyprovocation.

The incident reflects theincrease in atrocities and vio-lence against women in WestBengal, Chaudhury alleged,according to the NCW state-ment.

NCW Chairperson RekhaSharma has written to ManojMalviya, Director General andInspector General of Police,West Bengal to take cognizanceof her complaint and to conductan independent inquiry in thematter. The body also askedthe officer to inform it of theaction taken in the matter at theearliest.

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������*�*�The CBI onMonday arrested anAccounts Officer and aJunior Accounts Officer, bothof Regional Office, NationalHighway Authority of India(NHAI), Dispur, Guwahati(Assam) and three employeesincluding Executive Directorof a private company based atGurugram (Haryana) in abribery case of � 4 lakh. Theagency recovered cash to thetune of � 2.33 crore from thepremises of ExecutiveDirector of the private com-pany GR Infraprojects Ltd.after searches.

After registering the case,

the CBI laid a trap and caughtboth the public servants —NHAI Accounts Officer DipakDas and Junior AccountsOfficer Manoj Kumar—fordemanding and accepting abribe of Rs 4 lakh from anemployee of the said privatecompany, the CBI said in astatement. The three privatepersons arrested are ExecutiveDirector Sunil Kumar Agarwaland two other staffers of GRInfraprojects Ltd., GurugramSearches were conducted at 15places including Guwahati,Bengaluru, Gurugram, Shillongand Patna at the premises of theaccused. PNS

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Sharpening its attack on Kerala ChiefMinister Pinarayi Vijayan over the

gold smuggling scam case, the BJP onMonday alleged that he is using allmeans to block the investigation as thereis a needle of suspicion firmly pointedat him and his family.

The BJP’s attack on the Kerala CMcomes days after Swapna Suresh, theprime accused in the case, levelled alle-gations of some sort of smuggling activ-ities against him and his family. The ChiefMinister had dismissed the allegations as“baseless”. Addressing a press conferenceat the BJP headquarters here, Union min-

isters Rajeev Chandrasekhar and VMuraleedharan hit out at Vijayan andalleged that he is using the state machin-ery to block the investigation in the case.

Referring to Vijayan’s letter toPrime Minister Narendra Modi in July2020, Chandrasekhar said the chiefminister had termed this crime a seri-ous one which warranted thoroughinvestigation and assured the StateGovernment’s all assistance.

“From that day till today he hasdone everything to block the investi-gation in this crime. He used state policeto roadblock the central agencies whohave expertise (in probing such cases),”Chandrasekhar said.

He further said that recent revelationsby Swapna Suresh, which were basicallysworn statements in a court, were “explo-sive and unprecedented”. It has firmlypointed the needle of suspicion to ChiefMinister Vijayan and his family,” he said.

Muraleedharan alleged that thechief minister, wary of protests, hasbanned black colour in Kerala.

“Since last week what we are seeingin Kerala is unprecedented. The situa-tion is that black colour is banned inKerala....Height of fascism in the state,”Muraleedharan said adding why Vijayanis so frightened if he has nothing to hide.

Suresh, a former employee of theUAE consulate, was taken into custody

by the National Investigation Agency(NIA) along with another accusedSandeep Nair from Bengaluru on July11, 2020.

The NIA, Enforcement Directorate(ED) and Customs conducted separateprobes into the racket that was bustedwith the seizure of gold worth Rs 15crore from the diplomatic baggage of theUAE Consulate at Thiruvanantha-puram airport on July 5, 2020.

Several people, including MSivasankar, the former principal secre-tary to the chief minister, and anotherformer employee of the UAE Consulate— Sarith — were arrested in connectionwith the case.

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Though life limped back tonormalcy in parts of

Howrah and Murshidabadwhere the Internet serviceswere still suspended in manyplaces the Prophet row con-tinued to burn some otherparts of Bengal includingNadia district where the pro-testers on Monday resorted tobombing and vandalizingshops even as the police hada hard time to contain theunruly mobs.

Large contingent of policeforces led by Nadia SP RashidMunir Khan did the rounds ofthe National Highway 34 link-ing Kolkata to Siliguri and theNorth East where the pro-testers assembled intermit-tently often hurling bombsand damaging passing vehi-cles, sources said.

Though the situation wasnormal during the noon,

crowds assembled towards theevening and started hurlingbombs and damaging theshops along the NH 34 forcingthe police to fire tear gasshells, locals said. About 15people had been arrested.

Bethuadahari, morefamous for housing a nation-al park came in the news onMonday when violent mobsattacked local trains injuring

passengers. Section 144 was clamped

in large parts of the area.Most shops had been closedin the area following a 72-hour shutdown call given bythe local business communi-ty. Meanwhile, ADG Law andOrder Javed Shamim saidmore than 200 people havebeen arrested and 42 FIRsfiled in the violence.

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Students took out a protestmarch in Aligarh Muslim

University on Sunday lateevening in protest against thedemolition of Afreen Fatima'sresidence in Prayagraj. Duringthis, the students also raised slo-gans and demanded the arrestof Nupur Sharma. AfreenFatima of Prayagraj won thepresident's post in the year2018 in the student union elec-tions held in the Women'sCollege of Aligarh MuslimUniversity. Afreen graduatedfrom AMU. Afreen Fatima wentto JNU after that. Afreen'sfather Javed Mohammad aliasPump is the mastermind of theviolence spread in Prayagraj.Javed's residence in Prayagrajhas also been demolished by thegovernment on charges of nui-sance.

The protest march consist-ed of hundreds of students andthese students raised slogans ofIslam Zindabad and Modi, Yogi,Shah Murdabad. Student leader

Zaid said that the former stu-dent has completed her gradu-ation here and she was thePresident of Women's College.Afreen Fatima's house has beendemolished. Today in Indiathere is no court, no judge, nolawyer, everything is done by thegovernment. We have come toprotest that today the govern-ment has done a lot wrong andwe want the government toreturn whatever money it willcost for the house which hasbeen ruined.

The student leader said thatthe question is why NupurSharma is not being arrested?Because of this, the atmosphereof the whole of India is getting

spoiled. Nupur Sharma isresponsible for the murder oftwo innocent girls yesterday. Shefurther asked to arrest her andpunish her. Only after thatthere are chances of controllingthe atmosphere in India. I don'tthink the atmosphere will beunder control. The biggestaccused is Nupur Sharma andthe government who is sup-porting her and it is visible toeveryone. We appeal to thePresident to get her arrested assoon as possible. Our onlyappeal here is that if the atmos-phere of India is to be normal-ized, then we are appealing tothe President that NupurSharma should be arrested atthe earliest.

At the same time, AMUProctor Waseem Ahmed toldthat the students have taken outa protest march. They havetaken out a protest march fromDuck Point to Bab e Syed.However, no memorandum hasbeen given. The students justcame till Baba Syed Gate and leftfrom there.

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World Day Against ChildLabour is obser ved

every year on June 12 as a daydedicated to creating aware-ness about the menace ofchild labour and human traf-ficking. The theme of worldday against child labour, 2022was “Universal SocialProtection to End ChildLabour." But in Aligarh 15000children including 5000 work-ing on Dhabas, 3000 streetchildren and others areengaged in lock and hardwareindustry out of which 80% aremuslim children who are

deprived from education aswell. Despite of the fact thatworld day against child labourwas celebrated all over theworld, the children of Aligarhworking in lock and hardwareindustry have no hope for thebetterment of their life. Thesechildren lost their childhooddue to poverty and the cir-cumstances as they wereforced to do child labour bytheir own parents.

Despite the right to edu-cation being a fundamentalright under IndianConstitution. Yet we know ofmany underprivileged chil-dren forced into child labour

by their own parents due tocertain circumstances,stripped of their childhoodand their right to education.

Aligarh is the town his-torically famous for theAligarh Muslim Universityand is world famous for itseducation. But at the sametime, the surrounding areaslike purani chungi gate,shamshad market, dodhpur,zakariya market etc are allsprawled with a number of teastalls, or dhabas where a lot ofchildren works. These teastalls and dhabas operate from8:00 am to 11:00 pm. Theowners of these tea stalls and

dhabas pay only Rs100 toRs120 per day to the childrenand make them work for morethan 12 hours a day. Not onlythis, Aligarh is a hub of edu-cation, which has 3 main uni-versities including AMU,Mangalaytan University andRaja Mahendra Pratap Singhuniversity. Apart from thisthere are many graduate andpost graduate colleges presenthere. Despite of this fact manychildren in Aligarh aredeprived of education andare engaged in child labour.Majority of them are willing togo to school if an opportuni-ty is given.

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Bahujan Samaj Party chiefMayawati, on Monday,

attacked the Yogi Adityanathgovernment over the demoli-tion of the house of an accusedin the Prayagraj violence case.

The BSP chief said that anatmosphere of “fear and terror”had been created by the gov-ernment through unlawfulaction and the courts shouldtake cognisance of it.

The former chief ministerof Uttar Pradesh also demand-ed the arrest of suspendedfunctionaries of BharatiyaJanata Party, Nupur Sharmaand Naveen Kumar Jindal,whose remarks against ProphetMohammed sparked protests.

In a series of tweets inHindi, Mayawati said, ‘By tar-

geting a particular communi-ty, doing demolition using bull-dozer, other malicious aggres-sive actions, crushing theprotest, an atmosphere of fearand terror has been created.This is unfair and unjust. Thecourt must take cognisance ofthe faulty action of targeting theentire family by demolishingthe houses,” she said.

Her remarks came a dayafter the Prayagraj

Development Authority (PDA)demolished the house of thealleged mastermind of the June10 violence there amid heavypolice deployment. The build-ing map of the house of theaccused, Javed Ahmad, hadnot been approved by the PDA,according to an official of theagency.

Mayawati further said,“The root cause of the problemare Nupur Sharma and NaveenKumar Jindal, due to which thehonour of the country hasbeen affected and violencebroke out. Why has no actionbeen initiated against them,and why has the governmentridiculed the rule of law? Notsending both the accused to jailyet is grossly biased and unfor-tunate. Immediate arrest isrequired.”

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The hate campaign is show-ing no signs of receding as

two persons, including awoman, have been booked forallegedly passing derogatoryremarks against ProphetMohammed in Bareilly.

Another person, belongingto the minority community,was also booked for his allegedremarks against a BharatiyaJanata Party leader on socialmedia.

As a precautionary mea-sure, extra police personnel hasbeen deployed near every placeof worship and local leadershave been advised to spread amessage of peace to maintaincommunal harmony.

One of the accused bookedby police at Prem Nagar police

station is Kuldeep Kumar, whois a history sheeter and hasbeen arrested on several occa-sions by the police. He sharedan objectionable post on socialmedia.

The second FIR was regis-tered for sharing a similarsocial media post againstProphet Mohammed underSection 295A (deliberate ormalicious act intended to out-rage religious feelings of anyclass) while the third FIR wasregistered against Rehan Khan,who shared an inflammatorycontent against suspended BJPleader Nupur Sharma.

Bareilly’s SeniorSuperintendent of Police RohitSingh Sajwan said, “We havebooked three persons and willtake action against everyonewho is sharing this objection-

able content, regardless of reli-gion or caste.”

In Ballia, a youth wasarrested in the Rasra area forallegedly posting objection-able content against ProphetMohammed on a social mediasite, a police official said onMonday. Krishna Kumar, whoposted the objectionableFacebook post on Sunday, wasarrested, Circle Officer (Rasra)Shiv Narain Vaish said.

The case has been regis-tered against him on the com-plaint of Sheikh Huzaifa, amember of Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind, who in a tweet onSunday urged the police to takeaction against the accused.Taking cognisance of the com-plaint, the police on Mondayarrested Krishna Kumar, thecircle officer added.

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The protest marches beingheld across Kerala by

workers of the IndianNational Congress took aturn for the worse on Mondayas the Kannur-Thiruvananthapuram IndiGoflight saw Congress activistsraising slogans against ChiefMinister Pinarayi Vijayanwho was travelling in the air-craft. This is the first of itskind protest seen in Kerala’spolitical history as a reigningchief minister had to faceprotest while on a flight.

The IndiGo flight fromKannur toThiruvananthapuram wasthoroughly checked by thepolice as the chief ministerwas scheduled to travel in theaircraft. Each of the passen-gers were individually ques-tioned by the cops beforeallowing them inside the air-craft. The two Congress lead-ers, one of them wearingblack shirt, reportedly told thepolice that they were on theirway to the capital city to callon an associate who wasadmitted to a leading hospi-

tal in a critical stage. Bothhave been taken into custodyby police at the capital city.

Once the plane was air-borne, the two Congress lead-ers stood up and shouted slo-gans demanding the resigna-tion of the aircraft. Videoimages released by vernacularnews channels showed E PJayarajan, the CPI-M strong-man who is also the convenorof the LDF, rushing to theCongress activists andpin-ning them down. “They wereintoxicated and inebriatedand were shouting non sensecausing inconvenience to thetravellers,” Jayarajan toldreporters after the aircraftlanded atThiruvananthapuram.

But police in Kannur air-port told media persons thatboth the Congress activistswere known to them person-ally and they were allowed toboard the aircraft only afterthe cops made sure that theywere bonafide passengers.“How come Jayarajan whorushed to the Congress work-ers and pushed them downknew that they were intoxi-cated? Even the police in theairport had given them clear-

ance to travel by the flight,”said V D Satheeshan, leader ofthe Opposition.

The demand for the res-ignation of Vijayan as ChiefMinister is the fall out of thedisclosures made by SwapnaSuresh, the prime accused inthe infamous Gold Smugglingscam that Vijayan had“smuggled out” a suitcasestuffed with currency notesduring his official trip toWest Asia in 2016 with theactive help rendered by theUAE Consul General. Swapnawas the liaison officer of theConsulate General Office atthat time and she claimed itwas she who played the roleof facilitator in transportingthe suitcase through diplo-matic channel.

Since the disclosuresmade by Swapna last week,the Opposition Congress andthe BJP were on a warpathagainst the CPI-M ledGovernment demandingVijayan’s resignation thoughthe latter had categoricallydenied the allegations.

Since Saturday, theCongress and the BJP weredemonstrating across theState demanding the resigna-

tion of Vijayan. On Saturdayand Sunday, a heavy posse ofpolice men had succeeded inkeeping the protestors awayfrom the venues where thechief minister made hisappearance to attend publicfunctions. People inKottayam, Kochi andThavanur (in Malappuramdistrict) where the chief min-ister attended public meetingswere put to a lot of hardshipby the police who insisted thatthose wearing black shirtsand even black masks changethe costume.

Though Anil Kant, theState Police Chief had deniedreports that persons wearingblack dress or face maskswere asked to remove thesame, Jayarajan had askedmedia persons why the peo-ple were insisting that theywould wear only black cos-tumes. The capital cityresembled a war zone asCongress and BJP workersfought pitched battle againstthe heavy security blanket bythe police who used watercanons and tear gas shells tokeep the demonstrators awayfrom the vicinity of chiefminister’s motorcade.

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Hearing a writ petitionregarding large scale cor-

ruption in the appointment ofprimary teachers the CalcuttaHigh Court on Monday notonly sacked 269 teachers “ille-gally” appointed by-passingthe merit list but also directedthe Central Bureau ofInvestigation to probe thealleged irregularities in theprimary Teachers EligibilityTest.

The Court of JusticeAbhijit Gangopadhyay alsodirected the central agency toquestion the Chairman andSecretary of the PTET board,Manik Bhattacharya and Dr PChakrabarty Bagchi. The twosenior officials had appearedbefore the CBI officials andwere being questioned whenreports last came in.

The Court also directedthe respective boards andschools to immediately stop

disbursement of salaries of thesacked teachers and askedthem not to enter the schoolpremises.It was the eighth CBIinvestigation ordered by theHigh Court in the past morethan a month into the varioustransactions of the State gov-ernment. The same Court hadearlier ordered CBI investiga-tions into the appointments ofpara-teachers in Secondary,Higher Secondary (Plus-2)level directing the centralagency to summon and ques-tion the then EducationMinister Partho Chatterjeeand his Deputy PareshAdhikari.

Latter’s daughter AnkitaAdhikari who was appointed asa teacher in a higher sec-ondary school bypassing eligi-ble candidates was also dis-missed from service. Lastmonths the Court had alsoordered CBI probe into theappointment of Group D andC level staff.

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Hundreds of Congress lead-ers and workers, trying to

march to the EnforcementDirectorate to stage a ‘satya-grah’ against alleged harass-ment of party president SoniaGandhi and Rahul Gandhi,were taken into custody andlater released in the evening.Interestingly, to avert any lawand order problem arising outof the demonstration, the localadministrations across the statehad put senior leaders, includ-ing Congress Legislative Partyleader Aradhana Mishra`Mona’, under house arrestsince Sunday night. They pre-vented the movement of theCongress leaders throughoutthe day on Monday.

Prominent amongst thosetaken into custody while tryingto take out ‘satyagrah march’included former UP Congresspresident Ajay Kumar Lallu,former MLAs Shyam KishoreShukla, Akhilesh Pratap Singh,and senior leaders VirendraMadan, Amarnath Agarwal,Siddharth Priya Srivastava, VedPrakash Tripathi, MukeshSingh Chauhan and others.

Lallu later tweeted a videoand wrote, “Delhi Police’s dic-tatorship is at its peak in thecourse of Rahul Gandhi’s visitto the ED office. The attemptto suppress the opposition onthe basis of power is the des-peration of the Modi govern-ment. Whatever the outcome,we will not back down from thestruggle.”

Meanwhile in Delhi, theED questioned Rahul Gandhiin connection with the inves-tigation of a money launderingcase related to the NationalHerald newspaper. He reachedthe agency’s headquarters inDelhi along with party leadersand supporters. After an inter-rogation of about two-and-half hours, Rahul was allowedto leave the ED headquartersfor lunch at around 2:10 pm,officials said.

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Agroup of lawyers hasapproached the Allahabad

High Court against the demo-lition of the house of JavedAhmad, the alleged master-mind of the violence that tookplace following Friday prayerson June 10 here.

Violence had taken place inparts of the state following arow over now-suspended BJPspokesperson Nupur Sharma'sremarks against ProphetMohammed.

The PrayagrajDevelopment Authority (PDA)had demolished Ahmad'shouse on Sunday, with an offi-cial of the agency saying thebuilding plan of the structurehad not been approved by thePDA. The move came a dayafter the authorities bulldozed

two houses of violence accusedin Saharanpur.

Five advocates belonging tothe Zila Adhivakta Manchclaimed in their petition to theAllahabad High Court chiefjustice that the house demol-ished on Sunday was owned byJaved's wife Parveen Fatima.

The house was given toFatima by her parents beforeher marriage, so Ahmad hadno ownership over it and on theplot, hence the demolition wasagainst the law, claimed theplea which was e-mailed to thechief justice.

The petition said to justi-fy the demolition, the PDApasted a notice on the house onJune 11, mentioning about ashow-cause notice of a previousdate. Neither Ahmad nor hiswife had got the show-causenotice, it claimed.

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The Raj Bhavan-Nabanna(Secretariat) conflict hit a

new low as for the first timepost Independence the BengalAssembly on Monday passed aBill replacing the StateGovernor by Chief Minister asthe Chancellor of theUniversities.

The Assembly passed theBengal University Laws(Amendment) Bill, 2022 with182 members supporting itand 40 members voting againstit. The State Cabinet hadapproved the decision earlythis month. While there was noreaction from GovernorJagdeep Dhankhar whose officeperennially had been at log-gerheads with the StateSecretariat --- on issues of vio-lence, corruption etc --- he hadearlier said that he would takeappropriate steps when the Billwould be sent to him for con-sideration. State OppositionLeader Suvendu Adhikari whoalong with five BJP leaders hadearlier been suspended for oneyear from entering Assemblyand was sitting outside theHouse in protest for a large partof the day said “as Education

comes in Concurrent List … Iwill request the Governor tosend the Bill to the President ofIndia for his consideration.”

Experts said the Governorcould either reject the Bill or re-send it to the Assembly for orsend it to the President for con-sideration. “If there is a conflictbetween the State and theCentre the Centre’s stand willprevail,” experts said adding“Governor himself being alawyer of repute will takeappropriate decision.”

Earlier a badge of Bengalcivil society members includ-ing, poets, painters, cine artists,educationists etc had wrote aletter to the Governmentrequesting appointment of amember from the intelligentsiaas the Chancellor.

Following frequent clashesbetween the Governor and theChief Minister over crucialpolicy matters, theGovernment had earlier decid-ed not only to replaceGovernor as the Chancellor butalso the Visitor of the privateuniversities. The Cabinet hasalso decided to replace theGovernor who is also theVisitor of the private universi-ties with the EducationMinister.

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������������ ����������������Sir — This refers to ‘Protests galore overProphet remarks’ (June 11). SuspendedBJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma andher former party colleague NaveenJindal must be penitent and remorsefulfor their blasphemy against ProphetMuhammed. They must withdraw theiralleged derogatory statements against theProphet by tendering an apology to mol-lify and placate the rage of Muslims allover the world. One must be very mind-ful of one’s words and language. Onemust not incur the wrath of any religionand must not add fuel to the fire to create disruptions and bad bloodbetween religions.

Such sacrilegious comments andremarks lead to communal violence andriots. None has any right to pass suchderogatory statements against any reli-gion, sanctum and any sage, saint andprophet. One must hold one’s tongue,weigh one’s words and think before onespeaks. One must propagate and pro-mote fraternity, peace and tranquility andconvey the message of communal har-mony between religions. There are wellknown and famous adages and maximsregarding the tongue. So we must becareful and mindful of our words.

Zubair Khan | Hyderabad

�����������������������������Sir — Nowadays, social media and elec-tronic media are running their own courton a parallel level on any matter, wheresome party spokespersons, some reli-gious leaders and some ‘experts’ are invit-ed for a debate on a particular topic andthe subject of debate is sort of a burn-ing issue. The topic like Gyanvapi issuewas in the headlines in the past, then allthe TV channels were sitting in theircourt on this subject and now thedebate is in full swing on the commentmade by a spokesperson on ProphetMuhammad. Although that spokesper-son has expressed regret over that remark, the party has taken action,

the police have also started their proceedings.

Now the issue has taken a legal form,so the right to decide it also lies with thecourt. It should be near and not with TVchannels. The debate going on in socialmedia and TV channels creates dissat-isfaction among the people somewhere.Because the anchors of TV channels trytheir best to make a burning issue moreburning, so that the spokesperson givessuch a statement with enthusiasm whichcan become a new debate point for theTV channel itself.

Rajender K Sharma | Rewari

������������������ ������Sir — The recent incidence of sologamyby Kshama Bindu marks one-of-a-kindstory in India. The concept surprisedeverybody but, at the same time, it seemsto be the future of relationships. We allmust not be surprised with the introduc-tion of sologamy in India; rather we mustbe prepared for more incidents ofsologamy from every corner of the

nation. Kshama, like many other girls,wants to enjoy the aesthetics of marriage,though she does not want to share herlife with a partner. Kshama is now asocial media sensation with appreciationand critics showering love on her.

Sologamy has its relevance in mod-ern society, especially when we have seena lot of divorce cases across the world.This is true to many western developedsocieties also, where 20 or even moreyears of relationship broke because ofruptures in mutual understanding ofpartners. Marrying self is not a big anti-social practice that needs to be criticised.What Kshama Bindu did is womanempowerment and Indian society has toaccept the fact that a woman is no morea property of her husband. She can be herown husband, a property of her own selfand she need not share her body withanybody else.

Kirti Wadhawan | Kanpur

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not also the world). The mostinteresting observation, inthis crisis, is that no Muslimcleric, scholar, nation ororganisation has volunteeredto dispel the ‘misconception’that Nupur might have hadon Islam. Doing so musthave been the easiest, quick-est and most effective way todisarm the critics of Islam. Itis normal for people of otherreligious backgrounds to havepreconceived and unfoundednotions about each other’sfaith. Is it not the moral dutyof religious scholars to dispelthem? Should a Hindu Punditdemand arrest and punish-ment of a non-Hindu, who isbewildered at why Hindusworship an elephant-headeddeity called Ganesha, forinstance? Or will he honest-ly try to share the spiritualsymbolism behind it? SinceHindus have chosen the sec-ond alternative, one seesimages of Ganesha or Natarajetc adopted in the West.

Why then, for instance,Mufti Abul Qasim Nomani,the Vice-Chancellor of DarulUloom of Deoband, with allthe intellectual resources ofIslam at his command, couldnot distinguish himself fromthe rest of the crowd in hisapproach? He brought nospecial faculty on the table toenlighten us. Even an averageQuyum, halal meat seller ofKanpur, and Harun, cycle

repairer of Lucknow, aredemanding the arrest andpunishment of NupurSharma, a demand Nomanimerely repeated.

What is scarier is that pro-testors are trying to push fora blasphemy regime in Indiasimilar to that exists inPakistan. In Pakistan, thepunishment for blasphemy isdeath. Muhammed IsmailQureshy, senior advocate inthe Supreme Court ofPakistan, in his bookMuhammad: The Messenger ofGod, and the Law ofBlasphemy in Islam and theWest (2008), informs that it is“well-established unanimousreligious opinion prevalentin different Islamic compendi-um of law that the punish-ment of blasphemy of holyProphet is death” (P.121).While Qureshy traces a histo-ry of blasphemy law, he leavesthe fundamental and philo-sophical question unan-swered. The fundamentalquestion is why Islam neededcapital punishment in thefirst place to protect itsProphet from criticism?

There have been greatsavants in India like Buddha,Mahavira, Shankaracharya,Sri Chaitanya, Guru Nanaketc who were founders ofrespective religious sects.However, their adherentsnever found it necessary todefend reputation with any

kind of blasphemy law. It isnot implied that they werenever criticised by anyone.However, people’s venerationfor them at large outweighedoccasional acts of criticism, ifany. It was their saintlinessand superlative dispositionthat instantly courted people’sreverence.

Why the Prophet ofArabia needed a blasphemylaw to protect his reputationis a question that Islamicscholars must answer. In theearly days of Islam, theremight have been the possibil-ity of criticism for politicalreasons. However, it is intrigu-ing why Pakistan, a country of98 per cent Muslims, neededa stringent blasphemy law(Pakistan Penal Code- 295 C)in the 1980s? As experienceshows, such law is prone tomisuse both against Muslimsand non-Muslims. It is easy toaccuse anybody of blasphemyas the case of Bibi AasiaNoreen (2015) shows.Registered cases of blasphemyspiralled in Pakistan since1986 due to amendments inthe Pakistan Penal Code byinsertion of Section 295 to298-C between 1980 and1986. The “Pakistanisation” ofIndia should be opposed at allcosts.

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

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Television debates are abanality that leavesviewers no moreenlightened in the end

than in the beginning. Thechannels in India prefer hostingtalk shows because they consti-tute the most cost-effective for-mat of programme, requiringminimal investment in terms ofresearch, shooting and produc-tion. They also suit the psychol-ogy of the Indian audience,which takes delight in otherpeople’s quarrels. Generally, talkshows are to be watched only tobe forgotten, like chewing gumsare to be chewed and then spitout. It happens rarely that com-ments made in the course of talkshows become the main news ofthe day (or even week).

The comments made byNupur Sharma, BJP’s now-sus-pended spokesperson, onIslamic belief in general, and theProphet of Islam in particular,were apparently off the cuff.These were admittedly made inthe heat of the moment, forwhich television debates provideample opportunities. She wasapparently provoked by a co-participant calling Shivalinga atGyanvapi’s mosque a fountain.Her observations were casualrather than premeditated.Listening between the sen-tences, it appears, she was actu-ally trying to say that Islam (likeany other religion) also has itsown Achilles’ heel.

Her party, the BJP, couldhave handled the matter moreclinically by declaring that aninternal committee had been setup to examine the issue for nec-essary action. However, the lawof the land would prevail overprecepts of Sharia, in case a con-flict arose between the two.But both her party, and theGovernment of India, went intohiding over the issue. Even theRSS and VHP were found com-pletely missing in action.

The developments sincethen are singularly unfortu-nate. Protests, diplomatic hec-toring and last Friday’s violencehave scarred the scenario.However, inadvertently, theyhave also presented us with a‘Nupur” moment of history.This moment, if seized upon,can help address the root ofcommunal problems in India (if

Page 7: 4 CRYf]¶d 65 XcZ]]Z_X e` T`_eZ_fV e`URj - Daily Pioneer

by the members of CPI and thesocialist party.

Many other such groups wereformed in Bombay and even oneby the name Ipta came up inBangalore in 1942.

In May 1943, during the firstcongress of the CPI, Joshi workedfor an amalgamation of all thesecultural fronts and asked the work-ers to take the cultural heritage ofIndia among the masses. Iptaworkers were asked to shape uptheir creative expression in simplelanguage and tell the reality ofcommon people’s life, exposingpain and pangs.

Ipta’s purpose was a culturalresurgence of mass struggle againstsocial inequality and oppression.It was born as the voice of thedowntrodden but with the purposeof promoting the CPI’s politicalagenda. It had its first head officein Bombay which was later shift-ed to Calcutta in 1946. The mottoof the organization was ‘PeopleTheatre Stars the People.’ N.M.Joshi was its first president. ChittaPrasad, the famous artist, designedthe logo of Ipta that features a manbeating the drum, symbolisingthe oldest form of communicationin India.

The time was ripe for Ipta tocome to the street as Bengal wasdevastated in a manmade famineand the city of Calcutta became acity of moving skeletons. Thencame the Japanese bombing andcyclone. These all inspired a groupof young talented artists to expresstheir creativity with a strong socialmessage. ‘Bhukha hai Bangal’ wasone of the earliest street plays pro-duced by the Punjab squad of Ipta.It created a massive sensation inthe Hindi belt of north India.

Ipta soon attracted a galaxy ofyoung talents. There were writerslike Ismat Chugtai, KrishanChander, Mulk Raj Anand, PremDhawan, Bhisham Sahni, and

Manik Bandopadhay. Theatre per-sonalities: Shambhu Mitra, HabibTanvir, Prithviraj Kapoor, UtpalDutt, Tapas Sen. Musicians: Pt RaviShankar, Salil Chowdhury, SachinDev Burman, Timirbaran. Poets:Shailendra, Kaifi Azmi, SahirLudhianvi, Majrooh Sultanpuri.Singers: Hemant Kumar, BhupenHazarika, Hemanga Biswas.

Then there were film directors:Ritwik Ghatak, K.A. Abbas,Chetan Anand, Basu Chatterjee,Rishikesh Mukherjee. Dancers:Uday Shankar, Zohra Sehgal,Kameshwar. Actors: Balraj Sahni,Deena Pathak, HarindranathChatterjee, A.K. Hangal, KarunaBandhopadhay. In a nutshell, someof the finest talents in the field ofart and culture enthusiasticallyjoined Ipta, though it was backedby a political ideology.

Though Raj Kapoor, V.Shantaram, Saddat Hasan Manto,and Dev Anand were never officialmembers of Ipta, all of them werevery closely associated with it atmany levels.

These superbly gifted menand women, apart from makingtheir career in their respective field,had the dream of a classless,socialistic society for a new Indiawhich was awaiting its freedom.

One of the earliest works ofIpta was the music composition ofIqbal’s famous poem ‘Sare jahan seAchha’ by Pt Ravi Shankar. Iptapopularized this song by singing itat all its functions, street plays andconferences, making it almost anational anthem.

From the beginning, Ipta tookout its live performance on streetsby mingling with common people,walking on pavements, travellingin local trains, and assembling atmarketplaces. Ipta used the mar-ketplace, factory gate, slums, rail-way platform, etc., its stage for per-formance, gathering a huge crowd.

By doing things unconvention-

ally and in a most creative way, Iptamade waves across India. InBombay and Calcutta’s industrialzones, Ipta became hugely popu-lar with its street plays, theatre andpro-people songs. In their presen-tation, they tactfully inserted polit-ical messages and a huge numberof people were influenced. By theend of 1944, the CPI, which was amarginalised party not long ago,again gained ground.

It performed in almost allpublic functions, especially inBombay’s Marine Drive on theoccasion of the Marathi StageCentenary Festival. Such was thesuccess that The Times of Indiawrote on May 10, 1944, “There wasnothing pointless or unnecessaryin the performance at the People’sTheatre. With the limited facilitiesat their disposal the organisersachieved much.”

The heading of the news itemwas crowned with ‘Real Thing.’The message of every single pre-sentation of Ipta—whether it wasstreet play, shadow dance, poetry,cinema, choir, or painting—wasabout communal harmony, social-ism, concord, cosmopolitan cul-ture, and social awareness.

‘People’s Theatre Show: UnityMain Theme,’ a report publishedin The Times of India on October25, 1947, said, “The message ofHindu Muslim unity was the cen-tral theme of a programme onvariety entertainment staged onFriday by the Indian People’sTheatre Association.”

Meanwhile Ipta entered theworld of cinema as well. By 1946,Ipta members had done two films.Neecha nagar, released onSeptember 29, 1946, was directedby Chetan Anand. The other wasDharti ke lal; released on August30, 1946, it was directed by K.A. Abbas.

(The second part of the articlewill be carried tomorrow)

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(The views expressedare personal.)

It is unfortunate that in ourcountry over 12,000 persons die daily in acci-

dents or during deliverybecause blood could not betransfused immediately despiteeasy availability at the region-al or national level.

Blood and blood productsare essential resources forwomen suffering from bleed-ing in pregnancy and child-birth, children renderedseverely anaemic due to malar-ia and malnutrition, personswith disorders of blood orbone marrow, haemoglobinand immune system. Victimsof emergencies, trauma, and accidents and those undergoing surgical proce-dures may direly need it. Theneed for blood is universal, butaccess to blood for all thosewho need it is not.

About 800 women diefrom pregnancy or childbirth-related complications everyday all over the world. Most ofthese deaths occur in develop-ing countries. The risk ofmaternal mortality is highestfor adolescent girls under 15years of age. Blood shortagesare particularly acute in low-and middle-income countries.The issue of safety of blood isvery important.

Every year just 1 per centof eligible persons donateblood in India. The WorldBlood Donor Day on 14 Juneeach year seeks to enhanceawareness of the need for safeblood and blood products fortransfusion, educate the laypeople on the vital role of vol-untary, unpaid blood donors instrengthening national healthsystems, and support country’s

blood transfusion services,blood collection bodies andsimilar organisations byexpanding blood donationprogrammes and campaigns.

This year’s slogan of theWorld Blood Donor Day is,

‘Donating blood is an act of sol-idarity. Join the effort and savelives’ giving’ draws attention tothe seminal role voluntaryblood donations play in savinglives and enhancing solidaritywithin communities.

Blood cannot be manufac-tured in vitro, so it has only tobe retrieved from a donor. Amajor difficulty with blood isour inability to segregate thecomponents of blood sincethe patient may require onlyone of its components. Then,there are several taboos; bloodor organ donation is just notacceptable to certain mindsets.

Blood donors are mostlystudent groups; others in thesociety also need to come tothe fore. Worldwide, develop-ing countries suffer from bloodshortages. India has a shortageof 41 million units.

To build a sound structurefor collection, storage and sup-ply of safe blood to the needy,the National Organ & TissueTransplant Organisation web-site (www.notto.nic.in) pro-vides updated information and

online facility for registeringpledges for organ donation.

There are certain visceralfears and myths: blood dona-tion can impinge upon healthor cause blood deficit in thebody; it can lead to infections;one with diabetes, blood pres-sure, etc., or the elderly mustavoid it. In reality, blood dona-tion prevents accumulation ofexcess iron from the body,thus reducing the possibility ofdeveloping cardiovascular diseases.

The human body has onaverage 5-6 litres of blood andformation of new blood is anongoing process so that at anypoint of time around one-tenth of it (350-450 ml) canalways be spared. The quan-tum of blood donated quanti-tatively restores to normallevel within 48 hours. Any

healthy individual can donateblood four times a year with-in an interval of three months.After blood donation one canimmediately resume work, theonly advice is, (i) take 10 -12glasses of water within 24hours, (ii) avoid driving, exces-sive exposure to smoking orsun for three to four hours, and(iii) avoid alcohol for a couple of days.

All religions and faithsproclaim the act of giving asone of the greatest virtues,many faiths endorse blooddonation as a noble deed. TheHindu call it the greatest gift(Rakt daan mahadan); amongChristians organ and tissuedonations are ethically accept-able as expressions of love,charity. Let each of us con-tribute to the noble cause ofdonating blood.

������������� ��������������"���$����� ������������ $������� �

(The writer is a blogger andsenior journalist. The view

expressed are personal.)

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�2���� ����2�- Having committed a plethora ofgargantuan blunders from thelate 1930s, the Communist Partyof India in 1942-43 took itself to

a near non-acceptable position in India’spolitics. By opposing the Quit IndiaMovement, supporting the MuslimLeague’s Pakistan demand, castigatingNetaji Bose, slamming other Congress lead-ers, and supporting Britain’s war effort afterRussia was attacked by Nazi Germany, itwas fast losing its mass base, especiallyamong the educated urban middle class.

Puran Chand Joshi, the general sec-retary of the CPI who was busy in mak-ing a nexus with Muslim League, slowlyunderstood that enough is not done tomake a strong base of the party amongfarmers, daily wage-earners, and factoryworkers. He felt that for mass awakeningand implanting the idea of communism,the shortest route is cultural entertainmentthrough which a message of nation build-ing can also be sent across.

It was at this time that Joshi played amasterstroke that no one ever thought ofin Indian politics. Understanding thescope of capturing people’s interest in cul-tural entertainment, he formed a cultur-al front of the CPI on May 25, 1943. Abunch of extraordinarily talented creativeminds, young in age and over energeticin spirit, assembled at the MarwariVidyalaya Hall of Bombay and formed theIndian People’s Theatre Association(Ipta). It included poets, singers, musi-cians, theatre workers, cinema directors,music composers, shadow artists, andpainters from across India but largelyfrom Bengal, Bombay, Assam,UP, Punjaband Andhra Pradesh. It was a cultural-political unit of CPI.

It was the first of its kind in India. Thename of the organisation was given byHomi Jahangir Bhaba the noted scientist.Jawaharlal Nehru congratulated the ini-tiative by sending a message.

The idea of Ipta was not an overnightthought that crossed Joshi’s mind; it hada long history dating back to June 1935.

On June 21, 1935, an Anti-FascistInternational Conference of culturalactivists was held in Paris in which theIndian writer Mluk Raj Anand, who waslater associated with Ipta, took part. Itsreplica conference was held on April 19,1936, in Lucknow under the chairmanshipof Munshi Premchand. The conferencesaw the birth of All India ProgressiveWriters’ Association and it was fullybacked by the CPI.

In 1937, another cultural frontnamed the League Against Fascism &War was formed in Calcutta and in1941, as soon as the Soviet Union wasattacked by Germany in the SecondWorld War, another intellectual front ofintellectuals named Friends of SovietUnion also came up.

Though many non-communist cultur-al workers joined these organisations, theywere all largely motivated and mobilised

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Britain's government isexpected to introduce leg-

islation Monday that wouldunilaterally change post-Brexittrade rules for NorthernIreland amid opposition fromlawmakers who believe themove violates internationallaw.

The legislation would letthe government bypass the so-called Northern IrelandProtocol, which requires theinspection of some goodsshipped there from other partsof the United Kingdom. Theprotocol, designed to preservefree trade on the island ofIreland, is part of the broadertrade deal that Prime MinisterBoris Johnson negotiated withthe European Union whenBritain left the 27-nation bloc.

But the arrangement hasproved politically damagingfor Johnson because it treatsNorthern Ireland differentlyfrom the rest of the UnitedKingdom, potentially weak-ening the province's historiclinks with Britain. NorthernIreland's Democratic UnionistParty has refused to return tothe region's power-sharing gov-ernment until the protocol isamended to address those con-cerns.

The opposition LabourParty, and even some membersof Johnson's Conservatives,say unilaterally changing theprotocol would be illegal andwould damage Britain's stand-ing with other countriesbecause its part of a treaty con-sidered binding under inter-national law.

“Breaking internationallaw to rip up the PrimeMinister's own treaty is dam-aging to everything the U.K.And Conservatives stand for,”opponents of the bill said in anote being circulated among

Conservative lawmakers,according to the FinancialTimes.

Arrangements forNorthern Ireland - the onlypart of the U.K. That shares aland border with an EU nation- have proved the thorniestissue in Britain's divorce fromthe bloc, which became final atthe end of 2020.

The 1998 Good Fridayagreement that ended decadesof violence in Northern Irelandwas underpinned by the factthat both the U.K. And Irelandwere EU members, allowinggoods and people to flow freelyacross the border.

While both sides are com-mitted to keeping the borderopen, other competing inter-ests have made that difficult toachieve.

The EU, focused on pro-tecting its internal market,wants to ensure that all goodsflowing into the bloc meet itsstandards. Britain is trying toassert its newly won indepen-dence from the EU while pre-serving the union of England,Northern Ireland, Scotlandand Wales.

After a conversation withBritish Foreign Secretary LizTruss, European CommissionVice President Maros Sefcovicsaid “unilateral action is dam-aging to mutual trust and a for-mula for uncertainty.”

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China's capital has putschool back online in one

of its major districts amid anew COVID-19 outbreaklinked to a nightclub, while lifehas yet to return to normal inShanghai despite the lifting ofa more than two-month-longlockdown.

China has stuck to its“zero-COVID” policy requir-ing mass testing, quarantinesand the sequestering of anyonewho has come into contactwith an infected person inconcentrated locations wherehygiene is generally poor.

A total of 228 cases havebeen linked to the HeavenSupermarket club in the down-town Workers Stadiumnightlife area after an infectedperson visited there Thursday.

Of those, 180 were cus-tomers, four were staff and 44were people with whom cus-tomers had later contact.

The entire area, along withthe adjacent Sanlitun shoppingand dining complex, was shutdown until further notice.

The outbreak promptedauthorities in the sprawlingChaoyang district to put schoolback online, with the exceptionof students taking middle andhigh school placement exams.Sports gatherings in the cityhave also been put on hold.

Chaoyang, home to morethan 3 million people, hasordered three consecutive daysof mass testing, with long linesforming and wait times of twohours or more in some places.

In the city of Shanghai, 502people have been linked tothree positive tests detectedThursday among patrons of theRed Rose Beauty Salon.

The individuals involvedcome from 15 districts acrossthe city of 25 million people,prompting the first large-scalerestrictions since the lockdown

was formally ended June 1.With mass testing and

restrictions on movement backin force, streets and super-markets emptied again over theweekend.

Failure to undergo testingwill lead to a yellow code on aperson's health status app, for-bidding them access to allpublic places.

Most students remain athome and all but a few restau-rants are open only for takeout.Many customers simply par-take of their food and drink onthe steps beside flower bushesoutside the establishments.

While 22 million Shanghairesidents were released fromlockdown almost two weeksago, 220,000 people are stillrestricted to their homes undera rule requiring that no posi-tive cases are found within theirresidential compounds formore than 10 days.

Another 600,000 are incontrol zones, where theirmovements are restricted with-in their compounds.

Corrugated steel fencesand other barriers continue toblock off neighborhoods andbusinesses, leading to furtherdiscontent and complaintsfrom residents who remain inlockdown.

The strict implementationof lockdowns, along with a lackof information and poor dis-tribution of food and otherdaily necessities, has led torarely seen displays of angerand desperation.

Residents have confrontedworkers and police who havebecome known as “big whites"for the protective gear theywear, circulated protest videosonline and coordinated night-ly screaming and pot-bangingevents to let off steam.

The loosening of restric-tions led to an exodus of non-Shanghai residents, includingforeigners, who had foundthemselves trapped in the lock-down. Despite the recent out-break, Beijing reported just 51new cases on Monday, 22 ofthem asymptomatic. City res-idents are still undergoing reg-ular testing — mostly everyother day — and must wearmasks and swipe a mobilephone app to enter publicplaces and facilitate case trac-ing.

China has maintained its“zero-COVID” policy despiteconsiderable economic costsand an assertion from the headof the World HealthOrganization that the policyisn't sustainable.

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In a significant development,the Chinese Ambassador to

Sri Lanka Qi Zhenhong methis US counterpart JulieChung here on Monday andheld discussions on “broadtopics of mutual interest” andpledged support in helping theisland nation mitigate its crip-pling economic crisis.

Sri Lanka is currently fac-ing its worst economic crisissince independence fromBritain in 1948.

The economic crisis hasprompted an acute shortage ofessential items like food, med-icine, cooking gas and otherfuel, toilet paper, and evenmatches, with Sri Lankansbeing forced to wait in lineslasting hours outside stores tobuy fuel and cooking gas.

“Ambassador QiZhenhong met with the USAmbassador Julie Chung atthe Chinese embassy on June13 and had a friendly discus-sion on broad topics of mutu-al interest. China and theUnited States could work

together to help Sri Lankaovercome current difficul-ties,” a tweet from the ChineseEmbassy in Sri Lanka said.

Commenting on themeeting, US AmbassadorChung said discussions cen-tered on the current politicaland economic situation in SriLanka and asserted that therewas an exchange of ideas ontrade investment and devel-opment.

Both envoys agreed onthe need to jointly come for-ward in helping Sri Lankaweather through the currenteconomic and political crisis.

The meeting assumes sig-

nificance and comes at a timewhen Sri Lankan PrimeMinister RanilWickremesinghe said lastweek that his governmentcould not tap on the USD 1.5billion credit line from Chinaand is yet to hear back fromBeijing on the USD 1 billionloans.

In a media briefing lastweek, Chinese foreign min-istry spokesman Zhao Lijiansaid that Beijing had ear-marked humanitarian aidworth USD 73 million to SriLanka.

Last month, SamanthaPower, the US Agency for

International Development(USAID) administrator, helda telephone conversation withWickremesinghe to discusshow USAID is responding tothe country's political andeconomic crises.

Meanwhile, India has pro-vided a USD 55 million Lineof Credit to Sri Lanka for theimport of fertilisers, in a bidto help the island nation tideover its food scarcity, theIndian High Commission saidlast week.

Addressing the Parliamentrecently, Wickremesinghe saidSri Lanka will need USD 5 bil-lion to ensure that the people'sdaily lives are not disruptedfor the next six months.

The nearly bankruptcountry, with an acute foreigncurrency crisis that resulted inforeign debt default ,announced in April that it issuspending nearly USD 7 bil-lion foreign debt repaymentdue for this year out of aboutUSD 25 billion due through2026.

Sri Lanka's total foreigndebt stands at USD 51 billion.

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The mutinous soldiers whoousted Burkina Faso's demo-

cratically elected president earlythis year vowed they would doa better job at stopping the jiha-di violence rocking the country.Five months later, however,attacks are increasing andpatience with the junta appearsto be waning.

Many in Burkina Faso sup-ported the military takeover inJanuary, frustrated with the pre-vious government's inability tostem Islamic extremist violencethat has killed thousands and dis-placed at least 2 million. Lt. Col.Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba,who led the coup and was laterinstalled as interim president,vowed to restore security.

But violence linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic Stateincreased nearly 7 per cent dur-ing the junta's first three monthsof rule compared with the threemonths prior, according to theArmed Conflict Location &amp;Event Data Project.

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North Korean leader KimJong Un and his top

deputies have pushed for acrackdown on officials whoabuse their power and commit

other “unsound and non-rev-olutionary acts," state mediareported Monday, as Kim seeksgreater internal unity to over-come a COVID-19 outbreakand economic difficulties.

It wasn't clear what specific

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Members of the Housecommittee investigat-ing the Capitol riot

said Sunday they have uncov-ered enough evidence for theJustice Department to consid-er an unprecedented criminalindictment against formerPresident Donald Trump forseeking to overturn the resultsof the 2020 election.

The committee announcedthat Trump's campaign man-ager, Bill Stepien, is among thewitnesses scheduled to testifyat a hearing Monday thatfocuses on Trump's effort tospread his lies about a stolenelection.

“I would like to see theJustice Department investigateany credible allegation of crim-inal activity on the part ofDonald Trump,” said Rep.Adam Schiff, D-Calif, a com-mittee member who also leadsthe House IntelligenceCommittee.

“There are certain actions,parts of these different lines ofeffort to overturn the electionthat I don't see evidence theJustice Department is investi-gating.”

The committee held itsfirst public hearing last week,with members laying out theircase against Trump to showhow the defeated presidentrelentlessly pushed his falseclaims of a rigged electiondespite multiple advisers tellinghim otherwise and how heintensified an extraordinaryscheme to overturn Joe Biden'svictory.

Additional evidence is set tobe released in hearings thisweek that will demonstrate howTrump and some of his advis-ers engaged in a “massive effort”to spread misinformation, pres-sured the Justice Department toembrace his false claims, andurged then-Vice President MikePence to reject state electors andblock the vote certification onJan 6, 2021.

Stepien, a longtime Trumpadviser, has kept a relatively lowprofile compared with manyothers in the former president'sorbit. He previously served asWhite House political directorand also national field directorfor Trump's 2016 campaign.Before aligning himself withTrump, Stepien had worked inNew Jersey for former GovChris Christie, a longtimeTrump friend turned critic

Monday's witness listincludes BJay Pak, the top fed-eral prosecutor in Atlanta wholeft his position on Jan 4, 2021,a day after an audio recordingwas made public in which

Trump called him a “never-Trumper," and Chris Stirewalt,the former political editor forFox News.

The committee memberson Sunday also reiterated theywould present clear evidencethat “multiple” GOP lawmak-ers, including Rep. Scott Perry,R-Pa, had sought a pardonfrom Trump, which wouldprotect him from prosecution.Perry on Friday denied heever did so, calling the asser-tion an “absolute, shameless,and soulless lie.”

“We're not going to makeaccusations or say things with-out proof or evidence backingit,” said Rep Adam Kinzinger,R-Ill. Lawmakers indicated thatperhaps their most importantaudience member over thecourse of the hearings may beAttorney General MerrickGarland, who must decidewhether his department canand should prosecute Trump.They left no doubt as to theirown view whether the evidenceis sufficient to proceed.

“Once the evidence is accu-mulated by the JusticeDepartment, it needs to make adecision about whether it canprove to a jury beyond a rea-sonable doubt the president'sguilt or anyone else's,” Schiff said.“But they need to be investigat-ed if there's credible evidence,which I think there is.”

Rep Jamie Raskin, D-Md.,said he doesn't intend to“browbeat” Garland but notedthe committee has already laidout in legal pleadings criminalstatutes they believe Trumpviolated.

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acts were mentioned at the rul-ing Workers' Party meeting onSunday. But possible statecrackdowns on such allegedacts could be an attempt tosolidify Kim's control of hispeople and get them to rally

behind hisleadership inthe face of thed o m e s t i ch a r d s h i p s ,s o m eobservers say.

Kim andother seniorparty secre-taries dis-cussed “wag-ing morei n t e n s i v es t r u g g l ea g a i n s tunsound andnon-revolu-tionary actsi n c l u d i n gabuse ofpower andbureaucratismr e v e a l e damong someparty officials,”the officialK o r e a nCentral News

Agency said.Kim ordered the authori-

ty of the party's auditing com-mission and other local disci-pline supervision systems tobe bolstered to promote theparty's “monolithic leader-ship” and “the broad politicalactivities of the party throughthe strong discipline system,”KCNA said.

Kim has previously occa-sionally called for strugglesagainst “anti-socialist prac-tices” at home in the past twoyears amid outside worriesabout his country's fragileeconomy that has been bat-tered by pandemic-relatedborder shutdowns, U.N.Sanctions and his own mis-management.

The North's elevated

restrictions on movement'sin the wake of the COVID-19outbreak could cause a furtherstrain on the country's eco-nomic difficulties, someexperts say. North Korea onMay 12 admitted the omicronvariant of the coronavirushad infected people, and itsubsequently has said about4.5 million people — morethan 17% of its 26 millionpeople — have fallen ill withfevers and only 72 have died.

Foreign experts widelydoubt the outbreak was NorthKorea's first, and they believethe statistics being disclosed instate media are manipulatedto prevent political damage toKim while bolstering internalcontrol and promoting hisleadership.

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Day after day, Russia ispounding the Donbasregion of Ukraine with

relentless artillery and air raids,making slow but steadyprogress to seize the industri-al heartland of its neighbour.

With the conflict now in itsfourth month, it's a high-stakescampaign that could dictate thecourse of the entire war.

If Russia prevails in the bat-tle of Donbas, it will mean thatUkraine loses not only land butperhaps the bulk of its mostcapable military forces, open-ing the way for Moscow to grabmore territory and dictate itsterms to Kyiv. A Russian fail-ure could lay the grounds fora Ukrainian counteroffensive -- and possibly lead to politicalupheaval for the Kremlin.

Following botched earlyattempts in the invasion to cap-ture Kyiv and the second-largest city of Kharkiv withoutproper planning and coordi-nation, Russia turned its atten-tion to the Donbas, a region ofmines and factories whereMoscow-backed separatistshave been fighting Ukrainianforces since 2014.

Learning from its earliermissteps, Russia is treadingmore carefully there, relying onlonger-range bombardments

to soften Ukrainian defences.It seems to be working: The

better-equipped Russian forceshave made gains in both theLuhansk and Donetsk regionsthat make up the Donbas, con-trolling over 95% of the formerand about half of the latter.

Ukraine is losing between100 and 200 soldiers a day,presidential adviser MykhailoPodolyak told the BBC, asRussia has “thrown prettymuch everything non-nuclearat the front.” PresidentVolodymyr Zelenskyy earlierput the daily death toll at up to100. Ukrainian DefenseMinister Oleksii Reznikovdescribed the combat situationas “extremely difficult,” using areference to an ancient deity ofsacrifice by saying: “TheRussian Moloch has plenty ofmeans to devour human livesto satisfy its imperial ego.”

When the war was goingbadly for Russia, many thoughtPresident Vladimir Putin mightclaim victory after some gainsin Donbas and then exit a con-flict that has seriously bruisedthe economy and stretched itsresources. But the Kremlin hasmade clear it expects Ukraineto recognize all the gains Russiahas made since the start of theinvasion — something Kyivhas ruled out.

Russian forces control the

entire Sea of Azov coast,including the strategic port ofMariupol, the entire Khersonregion — a key gateway toCrimea — and a large chunk ofthe Zaporizhzhia region thatcould aid a further push deep-er into Ukraine, and few expectthat Putin will stop.

Unlike earlier bat-tlefield failures, Russia appearsto be using more conservativetactics. Many had expected it totry to encircle Ukrainian forceswith a massive pincer move-ment from the north andsouth, but instead it has useda series of smaller moves to

force a retreat and not overex-tend its supply lines.

Keir Giles, a Russia expertat London's Chatham Housethink-tank, said Russia was"concentrating all of its artilleryon a single section of the frontline in order to grind its wayforward by flattening every-

thing in its path.”Western officials still praise

the ability of Ukrainian forcesto defend their country, fight-ing back fiercely and similarlyrelying on artillery and retreat-ing in some sections whilelaunching frequent counterat-tacks.

“Ukraine has been pursu-ing a policy of flexible defense,giving ground where it makessense to do so instead of hold-ing on to every inch of the ter-ritory," Giles said.

A senior Western officialwho spoke on condition ofanonymity because he wasn'tauthorized to discuss the sen-sitive issue in public said theRussian campaign "continuesto be deeply troubled at all lev-els,” noting that Moscow'sforces are taking “weeks toachieve even modest tacticalgoals such as taking individualvillages.”

Last month, the Russianslost nearly an entire battalionin a botched attempt to crossthe Siverskyi Donets River andset up a bridgehead. Hundredswere killed and dozens ofarmored vehicles weredestroyed.

“There is a sense of strate-gic improvisation or muddlingthrough,” the official said, pre-dicting that over the summerthe Russian military could

reach a “point where they canno longer effectively generateoffensive combat power.”

Russia has a clear edge inartillery in the battle forDonbas, thanks to a biggernumber of heavy howitzersand rocket launchers and abun-dant ammunition. TheUkrainians have had to beeconomical in using theirartillery, with the Russiansconstantly targeting their sup-ply lines.

Ukraine has begun toreceive more heavy weaponsfrom Western allies, who haveprovided dozens of howitzersand are now planning to startdelivering multiple rocketlaunchers.

Putin has warned that ifthe West gives Kyiv longer-range rockets that could hitRussian territory, Moscowcould hit targets in Ukrainethat it has spared until now.Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrovalso said that Russia couldrespond by seizing more landas a buffer zone from suchweapons.

Moscow's earlier territori-al gains in the south, includingthe Kherson region and a largepart of the neighboringZaporizhzhia region, haveprompted Russian officials andtheir local appointees to pon-der plans to fold those areas

into Russia or declare them tobe independent, like the so-called “people's republics” ofDonetsk and Luhansk.

Ukrainian officials andWestern analysts voiced con-cern that Moscow could try topress its offensive into theheavily populated and indus-trialized Dnipro region farthernorth, an advance that couldpotentially slice Ukraine intwo and raise a new threat forKyiv.

“Russian objectives in thecontext of this war are shiftingin relation to the situation onthe ground,” said EleonoraTafuro Ambrosetti, an analystwith the Milan-based ItalianInstitute for InternationalPolitical Studies.

“Their goals are sort offlexible enough to be adaptiveto context on the ground," shesaid, noting that Russia couldtry to damage Ukraine's econ-omy by seizing the entire coast-line to deny access to shipping.

A top Russian generalalready has spoken of plans tocut off Ukraine from the BlackSea by seizing the Mykolaiv andOdesa regions all the way to theborder with Romania, a movethat would also allow Moscowto build a land corridor toMoldova's separatist region ofTransnistria that hosts aRussian military base.

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AJapanese foundation announcedMonday it is launching a fundraising

drive to provide more than 1,200 Ukrainianevacuees in Japan with additional financialsupport for language studies and otherneeds. Jumpei Sasakawa, executive directorof the Nippon Foundation, said it aims toraise 1 billion yen ($7.4 million) throughcooperation with the U.S. And Ukrainianambassadors.

The foundation has already pledged 5billion yen ($37 million) for the trans-portation and living costs of Ukrainian evac-uees.

Japan has so far accepted more than1,200 war-displaced Ukrainians since Russiainvaded in late February.

Sasakawa said he was approached by U.S.Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel, whoasked him to enable ordinary Japanese tohelp support Ukrainian evacuees.

Ukrainian Ambassador to Japan SergiyKorsunsk, who joined Sasakawa and Emanuelat a news conference, urged Japanese to seedonations to the fund as an “investment byJapan in a nation that will be always befriends with you.”

He said Ukrainians in Japan will be “abridge between our countries” when Ukraine

is ready to rebuild itself.Japan quickly joined the United States

and other major industrialised economies inimposing sanctions on Russia and support-ing Ukraine because it fears a similar devel-opment in East Asia, where Beijing hasbecome increasingly assertive and has threat-ened to take military actions against Taiwanif it refuses to unite with China.

Acceptance of the Ukrainian evacuees isunusual for Japan, which has extremely strictrefugee and immigration policies despite itsown shrinking labour force.

Advocates have expressed hope that itssupport for the Ukrainians will lead to a morelenient immigration policy.

Human rights groups have criticisedJapan for neglecting displaced people fromother countries such as Afghanistan andMyanmar, who have not received such awarm welcome or a nationally-organised sup-port system.

“I would say, this is a win-win situation.Japan could use the help on its labour short-age and Ukraine people or evacuees can bringtheir skill set and find work and contributeto their temporary new home,” Emanuel said.

The Nippon Foundation was founded bySasakawa's grandfather, Ryoichi Sasakawa, afar-right politician and businessman, to dis-tribute money earned from motorboat rac-ing, a popular gambling pastime.

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Kremlin-installed officialsin occupied southern

Ukraine celebrated Russia Dayon Sunday and began issuingRussian passports to residentsin one city who requestedthem, as Moscow sought tosolidify its rule over capturedparts of the country.

At one of the centralsquares in the city of Kherson,Russian bands played a concertto celebrate Russia Day, theholiday that marks Russia'semergence as a sovereign stateafter the collapse of the SovietUnion, according to Russia'sstate news agency RIA Novosti.

In the neighboringZaporizhzhia region, Moscow-installed officials raised aRussian flag in Melitopol's citycenter.

Ukrainian media reportedthat few, if any, local residentsattended the Russia Day fes-tivities in the two cities.

Russia Day was also cele-brated in other occupied parts

of Ukraine, including the rav-aged southern port ofMariupol, where a new citysign painted in the colors of theRussian flag was unveiled onthe outskirts and Russian flagswere flown on a highway lead-ing into the city.

Also, the Russia-alignedadministration in Melitopolstarted handing out Russianpassports to those who appliedfor Russian citizenship. RIANovosti posted video of aMoscow-backed official con-gratulating new Russian citi-zens and telling them: "Russiawill not go anywhere. We are

here for good." President Vladimir Putin

earlier this year issued a decreefast-tracking Russian citizen-ship for residents of theKherson and Zaporizhzhiaregions. In captured cities inthe south and east, Moscow hasalso introduced the ruble asofficial currency, aired Russiannews broadcasts and takensteps to introduce a Russianschool curriculum.

The Kremlin's adminis-trators in the Kherson andZaporizhzhia regions havevoiced plans to incorporatethe areas into Russia, despiteprotests and signs of an insur-gency among local residents.

Russian-installed officialsSunday in Melitopol reportedan explosion in a garbage binnear the city's police head-quarters and said two residentswere injured.

Another blast was report-ed at an electrical substation inthe city of Berdyansk, which isalso under Russian control.The Kremlin-backed adminis-

tration pronounced it a ter-rorist attack, and officials saidelectricity was shut down inparts of the city.

On the battlefield, Russiasaid it is used missiles todestroy a large depot in west-ern Ukraine that containedanti-tank and air-defenseweapons supplied to Kyiv bythe US and European coun-tries.

It said the attack took placenear the city of Chortkiv in theTernopil region.

Ternopil Gov VolodymyrTrush said four Russian mis-siles damaged a military instal-lation and four residentialbuildings in Chortkiv. Morethan 20 people were wounded,including a 12-year-old girl,Ukrainian PresidentVolodymyr Zelenskyy said.

"This strike had no tacticalor strategic sense, just like theabsolute majority of otherRussian strikes. It is terror, justterror," he said in a videoaddress.

In light of the strike,

Zelenskyy made another pleafor modern missile defensesystems from the US and otherWestern countries, saying,"These are lives that couldhave been saved, tragedies thatcould have been prevented ifUkraine had been listened to."

Also, heavy fighting con-tinued for control ofSievierodonetsk, an easterncity in Luhansk province witha prewar population of 100,000that has emerged as central toRussia's campaign to capturethe Donbas, Ukraine's indus-trial heartland.

Russian forces shelled aSievierodonetsk chemical plantwhere up to 500 civilians, 40 ofthem children, were holed up,Luhansk Gov Serhii Haidaisaid.

An official with the pro-Moscow, self-proclaimedLuhansk People's Republic,Rodion Miroshnik, said 300 to400 Ukrainian troops alsoremained inside the plant. Hesaid that efforts were underwayto evacuate the civilians.

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Police have opened criminalinvestigations into the

killings of more than 12,000Ukrainians nationwide duringRussia's war, and authorities inthe Kyiv region near Bucha onMonday reported discoveringthe bodies of several victimswhose hands were tied behindtheir backs.

"Shots to the knees tell usthat people were tortured,"said Andriy Nebytov, head ofthe Kyiv regional police.

"The hands tied behindthe back with tape say that peo-ple had been held (hostage) fora long time and (enemy forces)tried to get any informationfrom them."

Since the withdrawal ofRussian troops from the regionat the end of March, the author-ities say they have uncoveredthe bodies of 1,316 people. Onesite reporters saw Monday wasa mass grave in a forest nearBucha, where the horrors ofwar shocked the world after aregional Russian withdrawalearlier in the war. Reporterson Monday saw a mass gravejust behind a trench dug out fora military vehicle.

The bodies of seven civil-ians were retrieved from themass grave. Two of the bodieswere found with their handstied and gunshot wounds to theknees and the head, Nebytov.

Nationwide, police chiefIgor Klimenko told the

Interfax-Ukraine news agencyon Monday that criminal inves-tigations into the deaths ofmore than 12,000 Ukrainiansincluded some found in massgraves. He said the masskillings of people resulted fromsnipers firing from tanks andarmored personnel carriers.

Bodies were found lying onstreets and in their homes, aswell as in mass graves. He did-n't specify how many of themore than 12,000 were civilianand military.

Complete informationabout the number of bodies inmass graves or elsewhere isn'tknown, Ukrainian PresidentVolodymyr Zelenskyy told theAmerican Jewish Committeeon Sunday.

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Equity benchmarks hadanother rough day on

Monday, with the Sensex plum-meting 1,457 points and theNifty tumbling to the 15,774level, mirroring an extremelyweak trend in global marketsalong with unrelenting for-eign fund outflows.

Index majors ICICI Bank,Infosys and Reliance Industriesbore the brunt of heavy selling.

The 30-share BSE Sensextumbled 1,456.74 points or2.68 per cent to settle at52,846.70. During the day, itplummeted 1,776.36 points or3.27 per cent to 52,527.08. TheNifty tanked 427.40 points or2.64 per cent to close at15,774.40.

Bajaj Finserv, BajajFinance, IndusInd Bank, TechMahindra, ICICI Bank, TCS,NTPC, Infosys and State Bankof India were the major lag-

gards in the Sensex pack.The BSE benchmark had

ended 1,016.84 points or 1.84per cent lower at 54,303.44 onFriday. The broader NSE Niftyhad plunged 276.30 points or1.68 per cent to 16,201.80.Elsewhere in Asia, markets inSeoul, Tokyo, Hong Kong andShanghai settled with deepcuts.Markets in Europe werealso facing heavy selling pres-sure in mid-session deals.

Stock exchanges in the USended sharply lower on Friday."Weak global cues ahead of theFed meet painted benchmarkindices here in a sea of red as

street awaits CPI data today ona day when the rupee hit a newlow.

The risk off mode in equi-ties globally after the US infla-tion print raised fears of anaggressive rate hike..." said SRanganathan, Head ofResearch at LKP Securities.

Meanwhile, internationaloil benchmark Brent crude fell0.98 per cent to USD 120.75per barrel. Foreign institution-al investors (FIIs) remained netsellers in the capital market, asthey sold shares worth Rs3,973.95 crore on Friday, as perexchange data.

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Retail inflation eased to 7.04per cent in May, mainly on

account of softening food andfuel prices as government aswell as RBI stepped in to con-trol spiralling price rise by wayof duty cuts and repo ratehike.

However, the inflationprint stayed above the ReserveBank's upper tolerance level of6 per cent for fifth month in arow. The Consumer PriceIndex (CPI) based retail infla-tion was 7.79 per cent in April.In year-ago month of May2021, retail inflation stood at6.3 per cent.

Inflation in the food basketin May 2022 was at 7.97 percent, down from 8.31 per centin previous month, as per datareleased by National StatisticalOffice (NSO) on Monday.

The food basket has weigh-tage of 39.06 per cent in theoverall Consumer Price Index.As per data, the inflation printin 'cereals and products' seg-ment eased to 5.33 per cent inMay as against 5.96 per cent inthe preceding month, whilethat for 'oil and fats' softened to

13.26 per cent from 17.28 percent. The rate of price rise forfruits slowed to 2.33 per centfrom 4.99 per cent. However,

vegetable prices accelerated18.26 per cent as against 15.41per cent in April. Among oth-ers, the prices of eggs and

'pulses and products' showeddeceleration, with negativeinflation prints of (-)4.64 percent and (-)0.42 per cent,respectively.

In the 'fuel and light' cat-egory, inflation during themonth softened a tad at 9.54per cent from 10.80 per cent inApril.The Reserve Bank, whichfactors in CPI in its monetarypolicy, had earlier this monthraised inflation forecast forcurrent financial year to 6.7 percent from its previous estimateof 5.7 per cent.

As per the RBI's projec-tions, inflation in the firstquarter of the fiscal is likely tobe 7.5 per cent and at 7.4 percent in the following threemonths. It is expected todecline to to 6.2 per cent and5.8 per cent in the third andfourth quarters, respectively.The government has tasked theRBI to ensure inflation remainsat 4 per cent with margin of 2per cent on either side.

In an off-cycle meeting onMay 4, the Reserve Bank hadhiked the key repo rate — atwhich it lends short termmoney to banks —by 0.40 percent.

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The 6th Edition of SouthIndia’s largest Renewable

Energy Expo, RenewX 2022concluded in Hyderabad,which is emerging as the CleanTechnology hub of the country.

India has set an ambitioustarget of meeting half of itsenergy needs, which is 500 GW,from renewable resources by2030 and reach the net zeroemission levels by 2070.

Curated on the theme,‘Unlocking the Era to Net ZeroEmissions’, the Expo stressedon the increase in the pene-tration of renewable energyadoption and geared up thestakeholders to progresstowards sustainable develop-ment goals.

Speaking on the side-linesof the Expo, N. Janaiah, VCand Managing Director,Telangana State Renewable

Energy DevelopmentCorporation Ltd, said,“TSREDCO is committed tohelp people set up rooftoppanels, who will approach soci-eties and educate consumersabout the installation process,savings, and cost per month.

Cost comparisons will alsobe made with 3 to 4 con-sumers to arrive at optimumcosting. Consumers have wel-comed this initiative as it pro-vides them with a one-stopshop advantage and will onlyhave to pay the bill.”

Ajay Mishra, DirectorGeneral – RESI and FormerSpecial Chief Secretary,Telangana, said: “Today thecost of Hydrogen is about $5-6/unit, and as per the predic-tion of industry captains thecost of green hydrogen willcome down to $1/Unit in thenext 4-6 years, which will makeit viable for the consumer.”

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The rupee plunged 20 paiseto close at an all-time low

of 78.13 against the US dollaron Monday, as a lacklustretrend in domestic equities andstronger greenback overseasweighed on investor senti-ments.

Forex traders said weakAsian currencies and persistentforeign capital outflows werethe other major factors thatdragged the local unit down.

At the interbank foreignexchange market, the localcurrency opened at 78.20 andwitnessed an intra-day high of78.02 and a low of 78.29 againstthe US dollar.

The local unit finally set-tled at its all-time low of 78.13,down 20 paise over its previousclose. On Friday, the rupee hadtumbled 19 paise to close at arecord low of 77.93 against the

US dollar."The Indian rupee,taking cues from weakerregional currencies plummet-ed to a life low.

The dollar extended gainson Monday as US treasuryyields rose after Friday's infla-tion shock raised speculation ofa more aggressive rate hikefrom the Federal Reserve thisWednesday," Dilip Parmar,Research Analyst, HDFCSecurities.

Parmar further noted thatafter Friday's US inflation data,money markets are pricing a175 bps hike by its Septemberdecision, implying two halfpoints and one 75 bps hike.

"The last 75 bps hike by the Fedwas made in November1994."Spot USD/INR is expect-ed to trade higher and a crossabove 78.30 will pave way for78.50 and 78.70 while on thedownside 77.70 acts as sup-port," Parmar noted. The dol-lar index, which gauges thegreenback's strength against abasket of six currencies, rose0.55 per cent to 104.71. Brentcrude futures, the global oilbenchmark, declined 1.58 percent to USD 120.08 per barrel.

On the domestic equitymarket front, the BSE Sensexended 1,456.74 points or 2.68per cent lower at 52,846.70,while the broader NSE Niftytanked 427.40 points or 2.64per cent to 15,774.40.Continuing their selling spree,foreign institutional investorsoffloaded shares worth a net Rs3,973.95 crore on Friday, as perstock exchange data.

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The government IT spend-ing in India is likely to

reach $9.5 billion in 2022, anincrease of 12.1 per cent fromlast year, a new report said onMonday. Software will contin-ue to be the highest growingsegment in India this year, fol-lowed by IT services.

"Contrary to the world-wide spending, all segmentswill experience growth in 2022in India," said ApekshaKaushik, principal analyst atGartner.

Now, governments areexecuting innovative activi-ties by harnessing technologyto streamline digital services,advance automation processesand evolve citizen experiencesand building a data fabric.

Global government ITspending is likely to reach$565.7 billion in 2022, an

increase of 5 per cent from2021. Continuing the trendfrom 2021, software is forecastto record the strongest growthacross all segments in 2022.

As legacy modernizationcontinues to be a priority ingovernment organizations,growth in the data center sys-tems segment will continue toslow though the forecast peri-od, the report mentioned.

"Governments are execut-ing innovative activities byharnessing technology tostreamline digital services,advance automation processesand evolve citizen experiences,"said Daniel Snyder, director

analyst at Gartner.Spending on telecom ser-

vices is set to decrease in 2022as governments reduce spend-ing on expensive legacy sys-tems in favour of digital servicedelivery models.

Anything-as-a-Service(XaaS) is gaining popularityacross government organiza-tions as it provides betterreturn on investment normal-ising IT spend over time mak-ing budgeting for IT morepredictable. "The pandemicsped up public-sector adoptionof cloud solutions and theXaaS model for acceleratedlegacy modernization and newservice implementations," saidKaushik.

With the ongoing talentchallenges facing organiza-tions, XaaS makes it easier forgovernment organizations tofind the right talent via XaaSoperating models.

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Shares of Life InsuranceCorporation of India (LIC)

continued to fall for the tenthday running on Monday andtumbled nearly 6 per cent.

The stock tanked 5.85 percent to settle at Rs 668.20apiece on the BSE. During theday, it plunged 6 per cent to Rs666.90. On the NSE, it tum-bled 5.66 per cent to end at Rs669.50 apiece.

Shares of the companyhave been falling for the pastten days, losing 20.17 percent. LIC got listed on thebourses on May 17.

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Punjab Chief MinisterBhagwant Mann on

Monday assured farmers toprovide regular and uninter-rupted power supply during thepaddy season.

According to an officialstatement, Mann said the stategovernment has taken a con-scientious decision to conservethe state's precious naturalresource in terms of ground-water by allowing paddy trans-plantation in a phased manneracross the state from June 10 to17.

Resultantly, the chief min-ister said Punjab State PowerCorporation Limited (PSPCL)had already been directed toensure a minimum of eight

hours of power supply to farm-ers during the ongoing paddyseason. Showing deep concernover the fast depleting ground-water level, the chief ministerurged the farmers to makejudicious use of water.

Mann has already givendetailed instructions to PSPCLto make sure that the powersupply to other categories ofconsumers, especially thehouseholds, should not be

hampered and ensure they tooget regular power supply dur-ing the peak summer season,the statement said. Elaboratearrangements have alreadybeen made by PSPCL to meettotal expected demand of15,000 megawatt, whichincludes farm sector require-ment for paddy, it added.

To meet this demand, thetransmission capacity to pro-cure from outside the state hasbeen enhanced to 8,500 MW asagainst 7,100 MW in last sea-son and remaining power of6,500 MW is being arranged-from its sources within state, asper statement. According toestimates of the state agricul-ture department, farmers arelikely to sow paddy over an areaof nearly 29 lakh.

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Policy aims to leverage inno-vative technologies devel-

oped by IndianStartups/MSMEs/Innovators/Entrepreneurs to improve oper-ational efficiency and Safety ofIndian Railways Grant up to Rs1.5 crore to innovator on equalsharing basis with provision ofmilestone-wise payment Indian

Railways, the National trans-porter has taken an importantinitiative in field of innovationthrough participation of start-ups and other entities. Ministerof Railways, Communicationsand Electronics & InformationTechnology, Ashwini Vaishnawhas launched “StartUps forRailways” today in Rail Bhavan,New Delhi.

This policy will bring scale

and efficiency in field of oper-ation, maintenance and infra-structure creation through par-ticipation of very large anduntapped startup ecosystem.Speaking at event, AshwiniVaishnaw said that long goingdiscussions over integration oftechnology into IndianRailways have taken today thefirm shape in form of this ini-tiative launched today.

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ONGC Videsh Ltd, the over-seas investment arm of

state-owned Oil and NaturalGas Corporation (ONGC), isfacing temporary disruptions inmoving its share of oil from theSakhalin-1 project in Far EastRussia due to sanctions againstRussia, its Managing DirectorAlok Gupta said.

OVL holds a 20 per centstake in Sakhalin-1 whereExxonMobil's Russian sub-sidiary, Exxon Neftegaz, is theoperator. Exxon has announcedits exit from project followingRussia's invasion of Ukraineand has reportedly begun with-drawing expatriates from pro-ject.

Sakhalin-1 producedaround 271,000 barrels of oilper day in January andFebruary 2022, according toRussian Energy Ministry data,against average of 227,000 bpdlast year. Output has slippedafter sanctions against Russia

made it difficult to ship oil fromproject. Production slipped tojust over 60,000 barrels per daybetween May 1 and 15,Moscow-based news agencyInterfax reported.

"There are temporary dis-ruptions because of forcemajeure taken in case ofSakhalin-1," Gupta said at aninvestor call post-ONGC'sFY22 earnings. "This situationis going to be normalized overnext two-three weeks, as we arefinding out alternative mea-sures."

He did not elaborate onalternatives being explored.The ExxonMobil-led Sakhalin-1 consortium declared forcemajeure on its scheduled oilexport shipments to Asia afterit faced difficulties in charter-ing ice-resistant tankers to shipoil from De-Kastri marineexport terminal located onSakhalin Island in Russia'sKhabarovsk region. Thesetankers are operated by Russianstate-owned shipper

Sovcomflot that is subject tosanctions from US and Europe.Shipowners are facing difficul-ty in arranging insurance cov-erage. Gupta said sea betweenKhabarovsk region andSakhalin usually clears of ice byJune and so the ice-class vesselsand ice-breaking support areneeded before that.

According to the transcriptof the call, he termed Exxon'sexit from Russia as a result ofa "grandstanding or let's sayhigh moral stance taken notexactly in terms of energy sanc-tions which have been imposed,but (due to) high moralgrounds.

"The refusal to provideproduction and indemnitycover for ice-class vessels hasled to an inability to movecrude from terminal to trans-fer point which is in SouthKorea, he said. "This disruptionis going to be there for a cou-ple of months because of whichwe are having suppressed pro-duction from Sakhalin."

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Healthians, a leading diag-nostic services provider

and the pioneer of the health-test-at-home concept, haslaunched diagnostic tests livereporting that starts just 4hours after sample collection.

The service has beenlaunched in Delhi, Gurgaon,Noida, Mumbai, Bengaluru,Ahmedabad, Hyderabad,Ghaziabad, Faridabad, andGreater Noida. "Making India,and eventually the world,healthier is what we are work-ing for, and this service isanother step in that direction,"said Deepak Sahni, founder &CEO, Healthians.

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India's coal import is likely todecline by 11.4 per cent to

186 million tonnes (MT) in thecurrent financial year, even asthe state-owned firm has issuedimport tenders to source thedry fuel from overseas.

Coal India Ltd, whichaccounts for over 80 per cent ofdomestic coal output, last weekissued tenders to import coal ina bid to build up the stock offossil fuel at the indigenouspower plants, as mandated bythe government.

The country imported 210MT of coal in the 2021-22.According to the medium-term projections of the min-istry of coal, of the 186 MT ofcoal that the company isexpected to import in theongoing fiscal, 130 MT is non-coking coal and 56 MT is cok-ing coal. Non-coking coal ismainly used as thermal coal forpower generation. India is like-ly to import 172 MT of coal in

2024-25, 173 MT in 2027-28,and 170 MT in 2029-30. Thecountry imported 215 MT ofcoal in FY'21 and 249 MT ofcoal in FY'20, the coal ministrysaid.

Coal India last week float-ed its maiden tender to import2.416 million tonnes of coaland also floated two interna-tional competitive bidding e-tenders of 3 million tonneseach to source coal from over-seas.

The import tender wasfloated after the governmentasked the company to build upstock of fossil fuel to avoid thereoccurrence of power out-ages, which happened in Aprilon account of shortage of thefuel.

Though CIL is on its fullsteam in augmenting the pro-duction to meet the domesticdemand of the country, this isa step towards a state of readi-ness to combat futuristic coalsupply crunch if any, the PSUsaid.

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The government on Mondaysaid it will pursue recovery

of USD 3.85 billion fromReliance Industries and itspartners in Panna/Mukta andTapti oil and gas fields case andis mulling an appeal against anEnglish court order over costrecovery dispute in same fields.

Reacting to an EnglishHigh Court last week dismiss-ing India's appeal against aUSD 111 million internation-al arbitration award in favourof Reliance Industries Ltd andShell-owned BG Explorationand Production India Ltd(BGEPIL), the government ina statement said it has right toseek leave of English commer-cial court to challenge thisjudgment.

Reliance and BGEPIL onDecember 16, 2010, draggedthe government to arbitrationover cost recovery provisions,profit due to state and amountof statutory dues includingroyalty payable. They wanted toraise limit of cost that could berecovered from sale of oil andgas before profits are sharedwith government.

The Government of Indiaalso raised counter claims overexpenditure incurred, inflatedsales, excess cost recovery, andshort accounting. A three-member arbitration panel,headed by Singapore-basedlawyer Christopher Lau, bymajority issued a final partialaward (FPA) on October 12,2016.

It upheld government viewthat profit from fields should becalculated after deducting pre-vailing tax of 33 per cent andnot 50 per cent rate that exist-ed earlier. It also upheld thatcost recovery in contract isfixed at USD 545 million inTapti gas field and USD 577.5million in Panna-Mukta oil

and gas field. The two firmswanted that cost provision beraised by USD 365 million inTapti and USD 62.5 million inPanna-Mukta. Royalty, it said,had to be calculated after theinclusion of marketing margincharged over and above thewellhead price of natural gas.

The government used thisaward to seek USD 3.85 billionin dues from Reliance andBGEPIL.

"Disputes arose betweenthe parties which were referredto arbitration for resolution in2010. So far, the ArbitralTribunal has passed eight sub-stantial partial awards. 66 of the69 issues were decided infavour of the Government ofIndia in the final partial awardpassed by the Tribunal in2016," an official statementsaid. Pursuant to the 2016award, the government soughtpayment of USD 3.85 billion-plus interest from Relianceand BGEPIL.

"The Contractor (Reliance-BGEPIL) failed to make thepayment as per the Award.Therefore, the Governmenthas filed an application for exe-cution of final partial award2016 before the Delhi HighCourt," the statement added.

Reliance-BGEPIL chal-lenged the final partial awardof 2016 before the EnglishCommercial Court. The chal-lenges were classified undernine broad heads. "In April,2018 the English Court passeda judgment,

in favor of Union of India,dismissing eight out of ninechallenges," statementsaid."Regarding the ninth chal-lenge, the Court directed thatmatter be remitted back toTribunal, for reconsideration.The Tribunal subsequentlypassed its order on this chal-lenge, partly in favour ofContractors.

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Daniil Medvedev returned to the topof the ATP rankings on Monday,

ahead of Alexander Zverev, with NovakDjokovic slipping out of the top two forthe first time in nearly four years.

The 26-year-old Russian, who wassurprisingly beaten by Tim van Rijthoven

in the final at 's-Hertogenbosch onSunday, briefly occupied the number onespot for two weeks at the end of Februaryand the beginning of March.

But with Djokovic losing in the quar-ter-finals at the French Open, where hewas defending champion, the dooropened for Medvedev to rise again to topspot.

Medvedev is unable to compete atWimbledon as Russian and Belarusianplayers have been barred following theRussian invasion of Ukraine. Rankingspoints, however, will not be awarded.

Zverev climbs to number two for thefirst time having spent a total of 56 weekssince November 2017 at number three.The German, however, is facing a spellon the sidelines after tearing ligamentsin his right ankle during his French Opensemi-final with Nadal.

Djokovic's grip on the number oneranking had already been weakened byhis exclusion earlier in the year, becauseof Covid regulations, from the AustralianOpen where he was also the defending

champion.It is the first time since October 2018

that Djokovic is not in the top two.Rafael Nadal, who beat the Serb at

Roland Garros and went on to take thetitle for the 14th time, stays at numberfour, now only 245 points behind his greatrival.

Casper Ruud reached his best careerranking of fifth in the world, up one placeahead of Stefanos Tsitsipas.

Former world number one AndyMurray climbed 21 places to 48 follow-ing his journey to the final in Stuttgartat the weekend while Medvedev's con-queror Van Rijthoven jumped 99 placesfrom 205 to 106.

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Erling Haaland said histransfer to ManchesterCity from BorussiaDortmund is a "great

move" for his career as theNorwegian aims to fire thePremier League champions tomore silverware.

City announced last monththey had beaten off competitionfrom Europe's top clubs to agreea deal with the German giantsafter triggering Haaland's report-ed £51 million ($63 million)release clause.

The 21-year-old's move wasofficially completed on Mondaywith Haaland penning a five-year contract to follow in thefootsteps of his father Alfie IngeHaaland, who played for Citybetween 2000 and 2003.

"This is a proud day for meand my family. I have alwayswatched City and have loveddoing so in recent seasons,"said Haaland. "I want to scoregoals, win trophies, and improveas a footballer and I am confi-dent I can do that here. This isa great move for me, and I can'twait to get started in pre-season."

The arrival of one of worldfootball's biggest talents endCity's search for a specialiststriker to succeed Sergio Aguero,who left the club last year.

City's attempt to sign

England captain Harry Kanefrom Tottenham fell short lastsummer, but Pep Guardiola'smen still had enough to pipLiverpool by a point to win afourth Premier League title infive seasons.

Haaland has scored 23 goalsin 19 Champions Leagueappearances for Dortmund andRB Salzburg and will be expect-ed to get City over the line whenit matters most in Europe.

"There are so many world-class players in this squad andPep is one of the greatest man-agers of all time, so I believe I amin the right place to fulfil myambitions," he added.

"You can't help but admiretheir style of play, it's excitingand they create a lot of chances,which is perfect for a player likeme." Haaland had almost hispick of Europe's top clubs thanksto a buyout clause below his

market value and a stunningrecord of 86 goals in 89 gamesfor Dortmund.

He rejected ManchesterUnited's advances when movingfrom Salzburg to Dortmund inJanuary 2020 and his decision tochoose the Etihad as his desti-nation is a coup for City's risingstatus.

"His rise has been remark-able, but he is still only 21. Hisbest years are ahead of him, and

we are confident he can get evenbetter working with Pep," saidCity's director of football TxikiBegiristain.

"He is a huge talent and hasbeen one of the best strikers inEurope over the last few seasons.

"His goalscoring record isexceptional and his perfor-mances at Borussia Dortmundand in the Champions League inparticular have proved he cansucceed at the highest level."

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Spain won a second succes-sive UEFA Nations League

match on Sunday with a 2-0win over the Czech Republicwhile rivals Portugal conced-ed a goal after just 57 secondsto lose to Switzerland.

Spain went in front inMalaga after 24 minutes whena perfectly-weighted pass byMarco Asensio released CarlosSoler to score.

Pablo Sarabia added thesecond on 75 minutes as Spaingot the better of a Czech sideagainst whom they had drawn2-2 in Prague last week.

Despite the win, Spainwere indebted to some finesaves by Athletic Bilbao goal-keeper Unai Simon.

He thwarted an 18th-minute strike from VaclavCerny and, two minutes later,denied Jan Kuchta.

In Geneva, Switzerlandtook the lead after just 57 sec-

onds against a Portugal sideplaying without CristianoRonaldo when Haris Seferovicscored from Silvan Widmer'spass. Portugal's stand-in skip-per Pepe made his 128th inter-national appearance and theywere unlucky not to get some-thing from the game withSwiss keeper Jonas Omlin sav-ing from Danilo and BernardoSilva.

Victory was a welcomeboost for a Swiss side whowent into the game having losttheir previous three matches.

Spain stay top of League AGroup 2 with eight pointsfrom four games with Portugala point further back.

Erling Haaland scoredtwice and set up the third asNorway beat neighboursSweden 3-2 in Oslo in LeagueB. "I'm speechless!" the 21-year-old striker toldNorwegian television, beforeadding: "To win againstSweden in the last match of the

season, it's beautiful."Haaland, who is heading

for Manchester City fromBorussia Dortmund this sum-mer, gave Norway the lead inthe 10th minute heading in anear-post cross.

He added a penalty in the54th minute after HjalmarEkdal fouled AlexanderSorloth.

It was Haaland's 20thinternational goals in 18Norway appearances.

Sweden replied eight min-utes later when Emil Forsbergsmashed home a pass fromDejan Kulusevski.

Haaland then crossed forSorloth to head home andrestore the host's two-goallead after 77 minutes.

Viktor Gyokeres gave theSwedes brief hope by riflinghome a shot five minutes intoadded time.

"This tasted great," saidNorway coach StaleSolbakken.

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Two-time Olympic medallist P V Sindhuand rising star Lakshya Sen will seek

consistency as they lead the Indian chargeat the Indonesia Open Super 1000 bad-minton tournament beginning here onTuesday.

Sindhu has managed to secure twoSuper 300 titles — the Syed ModiInternational and the Swiss Open — thisyear but she has looked vulnerable against

top players, facing defeats at the hands ofThailand's Ratchanok Inthanon, China'sChen Yu Fei and Korea's An Se Young.

However, the former world championis known to up her game in big events andshe will look to gear up for next month'sCommonwealth Games with another goodshow at the Istora Gelora Bung Karno whenshe opens against China's He Bing Jiao.

If Sindhu, seeded seventh, can cross theopening two rounds, she is likely to face thethird seeded An Se Young, who has an over-

whelming 5-0 record against the Indian.In men's singles, eighth seed Sen and HS

Prannoy — the two architects of India's epicThomas Cup win — will cross sword in anall Indian contest.

Sen has been in good touch for the lastfew months. His World ChampionshipsBronze was followed by a maiden Super 500title win at India Open and a final appear-ance at the All England Championship andGerman Open Super 300.

World Championship Silver medallistKidambi Srikanth, who was in sensationalform at the Thomas Cup, will meet ChineseTaipei's Wang Tzu Wei in his opener.

Former Singapore Open champion BSai Praneeth, who hasn't been in the best ofform, is pitted against Denmark's Hans-Kristian Solberg Vittinghus in hisopening match.

Top men's doubles pair of SatwiksairajRankireddy and Chirag Shetty, who hadskipped the Indonesia Masters last week, willopen their campaign against Korea's ChoiSol Gyu and Kim Won Ho.

In women's doubles, Ashwini Ponnappaand N Sikki Reddy, Treesa Jolly and GayatriGopichand, and Ashwini Bhat and ShikhaGautam, will also be in the fray.

Ashwini and Sumeeth will also pair upin the mixed event, while Ishaan Bhatnagarand Tanisha Crasto will also look to go deepin the draw.

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Handling "mental pressure"at the highest level is

something Indian athletes lack,according to reigning worldchampion boxer NikhatZareen, who feels specialisedtraining should be given toovercome this hurdle at big-ticket events.

Indian athletes have a ten-

dency to perform well at reg-ular events but falter at the bigstage like the Olympics or theWorld Championships.

"Our Indian boxers arevery talented, we are not lessthan anyone. We have strength,speed and power.. Everything,"Zareen said when asked wherethe Indian boxers are lacking.

"It's just that once youreach that (world) level, boxers

should be given training tohandle the mental pressure.

"Once you reach the bigplatforms a lot of athletesbecome nervous, they aren'table to perform," added Zareen.

Zareen, who was crownedthe world champion in theflyweight event last month,has also sealed a berth for theBirmingham CommonwealthGames, starting on July 28.

Zareen has had to wait longfor a chance in the flyweightcategory which veteran Indianboxer MC Mary Kom hasmade her own but theTelengana boxer feels the waitincreased her hunger to dowell. "Not only for me but otherboxers in that category, they toowanted a chance. But you haveto prove yourself and I havedone that by becoming worldchampion.

"If I hadn't struggled and ifMary Kom wouldn't have beenin my weight category I mightnot have worked so hard.

"And if I hadn't workedhard I wouldn't be a worldchampion today. So I will takeit in a positive way. Maybe I hadmore hunger because I got achance so late."

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Gurunaidu Sanapathi hasbecome India's first

weightlifter to win a Gold at theIWF Youth WorldChampionships in Leon,Mexico.

The 16-year-old claimedthe yellow metal with a totaleffort of 230kg (104kg+126kg)in the boy's 55kg event late onSunday night.

While Sanapathi, the 2020Asian Youth WeightlifitngChampionships Bronze medal-list, stood on top of the podium,Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's AliMajeed 229kg (105kg+124kg)came in second and YerassylUmrov of Kazakhstan 224kg(100kg+124kg) third.

Besides Sanapathi, compa-triot Soumya S. Dalvi baggedthe Bronze in her event on thesecond day of competitions.

Maharashtra's Dalvi, a two-time Khelo India Youth Goldmedallist, heaved 148kg(65kg+83kg) to claim the thirdspot in the 45kg girl's eventbehind Rose J Ramos ofPhilipines 155kg (70kg+85kg)and Venezuela Kerlys M.Montilla 153kg (71kg+82kg).

The other Indian in the fray,R Bhavani finished eighth witha best effort of 132kg(57kg+75kg).

India's tally at the wordevent now stands at four medals.

On the opening day of com-petition, Akansha KishorVyavhare and Vijay Prajapatihad won Silver medals in theirrespective events.

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Tim van Rijthoven made the most ofa rare main tour berth as he claimed

a first title by sweeping aside DaniilMedvedev 6-4, 6-1 in the final of thegrass court tournament in 's-

Hertogenbosch. The 25-year-oldDutchhman, ranked 205th in the world,took 1hr 5min to crush the Russian.Van Rijthoven, who was invited into theDutch event as a wild card, had spentthis season, like most of his career, onthe second tier Challenger Tour.

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Liverpool have reached a deal withBenfica to buy the Uruguay striker

Darwin Nunez for an initial 75 millioneuros (£64 million), the Portuguese clubsaid on Monday.

The transfer could eventually rise to100 million euros, Benfica said in a state-ment, eclipsing Liverpool's club-record £75million paid to Southampton for Dutchcentre-back Virgil van Dijk in 2018.

Nunez scored 26 goals in 28 leagueappearances last season in Portugal.

The 22-year-old, who was left out ofUruguay's squad for Saturday's 5-0 friend-ly victory over Panama, was expected tobegin a medical on Monday which couldtake two days to complete.

Personal terms are not anticipated tobe a problem, with the player having

expressed his desire to play for Reds man-ager Jurgen Klopp despite interest fromManchester United.

Nunez is set to sign a reported six-yearcontract with Premier League andChampions League runners-up Liverpool,who have been in talks with Benfica forseveral weeks.

He netted in both legs of Benfica'sChampions League quarter-final defeatagainst Liverpool in April, earning praisefrom Klopp.

Nunez is likely to arrive at Anfield asa direct replacement for Sadio Maneafter Bayern Munich stepped up their pur-suit of the Senegal forward.

Liverpool have rejected two offersfrom the Bundesliga champions and areholding out for a fee in excess of £40 mil-lion for Mane, who has one year left on hiscontract.

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The 21st KazakhstanCurl ing Cup WCT

(World Curling Tour) MixedDoubles 2022 was heldbetween May 26 to May 29.The Indian team bagged therunners-up position in thetournament.

Rashmi Saluja, Presidentof the Curling Federation ofIndia felicitated the winningteam at a glittering ceremo-ny in New Delhi.

She also presented kits tothe Indian Curling team setto represent India in the

upcoming Indo-KazakhstanCurling Championship 2022.The Indian Curling Team

Jersey was also unveiled byher at the event.

The Kazakhstan Mixed

Doubles Curling Cup is partof the World Curling Tourthat connects the world'smost high-profile events inelite Curling.

Organized by the WorldCurling Federation, it enlistsparticipation from nationalteams worldwide in theMixed Doubles category.

Unveiling the Jersey,Rashmi Saluja remarked, "Weare happy with Indian MixedDoubles team's victory in theWorld Curling Tour (WCT).I extend my best wishes to theIndian contingent at theirsingular achievement."

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Weightlifter GurunaiduSanapathi becomesYouth World Champion

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After suffering back-to-backdefeats in the first twomatches of the five-matchT20I series against South

Africa, India can't afford to loseanymore if they want to win thehome assignment against theTemba Bavuma-led side. The SouthAfricans made a mockery of theIndian bowling attack in the open-

ing two matches and easily chaseddown the targets to go 2-0 up.

For the Men in Blue, thingshave gone from bad to worse in thelast few days. After losing skipperKL Rahul and star spinner KuldeepYadav ahead of the start of theseries, India failed to put up a strongshow in the familiar conditions tokeep the visitors at bay.

The poor performance of theIndian spinners — Yuzvendra

Chahal and Axar Patel — has beena cause of concern. The duo havepicked up a total of two wickets intwo matches and have conceded 134runs in 11.1 overs. They leaked runsin the middle orders that allowedProteas batters to settle down at thecrease and play big shots at will.

Chahal's performance is a bigshocker for the Indian team as theleg-spinner was in top-form in therecently concluded 2022 season ofthe Indian Premier League and fin-ished as the leading wicket-taker ofthe season.

In the batting, Ishan Kishan hasdone well up till now, but hisopening partner, Ruturaj Gaikwad,is yet to make any significant con-tribution. He hasn't looked com-fortable in either of the games.Shreyas Iyer, at three, has tackledTabraiz Shamsi with ease but is yetto find a solution against the shortball.

The Indian team managementwill be hoping that the star middle-order trio of skipper Rishabh Pant,all-rounder Hardik Pandya, andveteran Dinesh Karthik will comegood and go, all guns blazing, in themust-win match in Vizag.

In the second T20I, which wasplayed at Cuttack's BarabatiStadium, in a surprise call, AxarPatel was promoted to bat ahead ofKarthik, who made his comebackto the national set-up on the backof an outstanding IPL season. Theteam's decision has been heavilycriticised by fans and former crick-eters alike, and in the upcomingmatches one can expect Karthik atsix.

Pant's captaincy has also beenunder scanner after the first twomatches. The 24-year-old has failedto make the most of the resourcesavailable and his decision to holdAxar till the 12th over on Sunday

was a bizarre call. In the firstmatch, he was slammed for notallowing Yuzvendra Chahal tocomplete the quota of four overs.

Going into the third game, itwill be interesting to see if Indiamake any changes to the playingeleven. Even though the chancesare quite low, it won't be a surpriseif one of Umran Malik or ArshdeepSingh makes his India debut onTuesday.

The duo have received theirmaiden call-up on the back of agood performance in this year'sIPL. While Umran has impressedwith his pace and wicket-takingabilities, Punjab Kings' pacerArshdeep has established himself asone of the best death bowlers in thecountry as far as T20 cricket is con-cerned.

As for South Africa, they are onthe cusp of winning their first T20Iseries in India and would like tocontinue the good show in theremaining three matches as well.

After getting bashed by Indianbatters in Delhi, their bowlersbounced back in Cuttack andrestricted the hosts to 148 runs.However, they will hope that thespin duo of Tabraiz Shamsi andKeshav Maharaj come up with abetter display.

Aiden Markram, who testedpositive for COVID-19 ahead of thefirst T20, is likely to miss out, andthere is no update on Quinton deKock's hand injury either. DeKock's replacement at BarabatiStadium — Heinrich Klaasen —starred in the second match withhis 46-ball 81 and would like tocontinue the ace form.

H���India: Rishabh Pant (c & wk),Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ishan Kishan,Deepak Hooda, Shreyas Iyer,Dinesh Karthik, Hardik Pandya,Venkatesh Iyer, Yuzvendra Chahal,

Axar Patel, Ravi Bishnoi,Bhuvneshwar, Harshal Patel, AveshKhan, Arshdeep, Umran Malik.South Africa: Temba Bavuma (c),Quinton de Kock (wk), ReezaHendricks, Heinrich Klaasen,

Keshav Maharaj, Aiden Markram,David Miller, Lungi Ngidi, AnrichNortje, Wayne Parnell, DwainePretorius, Kagiso Rabada, TabraizShamsi, Tristan Stubbs, Rassie vander Dussen, Marco Jansen.

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Pakistan have pipped India to climb tofourth spot in the latest ICC men's

ODI team rankings after completing aclean sweep over West Indies in a recent-ly concluded home series.

New Zealand with 125 points are ontop of the table while England are a pointbelow at 124 and Australia are placedthird at 107.

Before the start of the series, Pakistanwere placed fifth in the rankings with arating of 102 points but it must be men-tioned that India haven't played any ODIssince the home series against the WestIndies few months back.

With a 3-0 victory over the Windies,Pakistan leapfrogged to No 4 with ratingof 106, leaving India behind a notchbelow at 105.

India, though, will have a chance to

climb the rankings as they play Englandand West Indies — three ODIs each —before Pakistan play their next ODI seriesin August. Pakistan have enjoyed a bril-liant last couple of years in the 50-overformat. Apart from the blip againstEngland away from home, they have won

all their ODI series,including 2-1 serieswins against Zimbabwe and South Africa.

They defeated Australia by the samemargin when they came to visit Pakistanfor the first time since 1998. West Indiesstood no chance against Pakistan as theywere rampaged 3-0.

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Sri Lanka's Angelo Mathews andPakistan's debutante spin sensation

Tuba Hassan were on Monday votedthe ICC's 'Player of the Month' for Mayin their respective categories.

Mathews was selected the stand-out male player after piling on runsover the course of his side's impressiveICC World Test Championship seriesvictory against Bangladesh.

Amassing 344 runs at an averageof 172 over the course of the two Tests,Mathews registered a huge score of 199in the draw at Chattogram, and asupreme 145 not out in Mirpur.

His epic innings in the second Test

enabled his side to post an imposingtotal of 506 and complete a 10-wicketvictory, gaining valuable points in theICC WTC standings.

Mathews becomes the first SriLankan player to be named the Playerof the Month since its inception inJanuary 2021, scooping the awardahead of fellow nominees AsithaFernando (Sri Lanka), and MushfiqurRahim (Bangladesh).

Mathews said, "I am absolutelyhonoured and delighted to be the ICCMen's Player of the Month. I would liketo congratulate Asitha Fernando andMushfiqur Rahim who were frontrunners for this award, on their spec-tacular performances.

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National Cricket Academycoaches Sitanshu Kotak,

Sairaj Bahutule and MunishBali will be part of India crick-et team's support staff, whichwill be headed by VVSLaxman, on the short tour ofIreland later this month.

Kotak, who has been partof the India A set up earlier, willbe the batting coach while Baliand Bahutule, who were part ofthe victorious U-19 World Cupcampaign in the Caribbeanearlier this year, have beenhanded the fielding and bowl-ing duties.

NCA head Laxman willcoach the team in Ireland with

the games scheduled on June26 and June 28 in Malahide.

With head coach RahulDravid and the other seniorteam support staff set to departfor England with the Test squadlater this week, the trio of Bali,Kotak and Bahutule has alreadyjoined the squad currentlyplaying South Africa at home.

"After the senior supportstaff departs for the Englandtour, Bali, Bahutule and Kotakwill take over the duties for theremaining T20 against SouthAfrica in Rajkot andBengaluru.

"They have already beenwith the limited overs squad fora while and by the time thesenior support staff leaves forEngland, they will be ready forthe task," a BCCI official said.

The squad for the Irelandseries is yet to be announced.The short tour coincides withthe tour of England whereIndia are supposed the resched-uled fifth Test against Englandfrom July 1. India lead theseries 2-1.

Before that, India will playa four-day warm up againstLeicestershire from Jun 24-27.

India will field a team ofprimarily T20 specialistsagainst Ireland but a fullstrength squad is expected forthe white ball leg of Englandtour comprising three T20sand as many ODIs from July 7.

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Record championsMumbai, who are back to

their ruthless best, face a highon confidence Uttar Pradeshin what promises to be anintriguing semifinal of theRanji Trophy, beginning hereon Tuesday.

The in-form Mumbai bat-ters will be up against a var-ied UP attack, which will bebolstered by the addition ofpacer Mohsin Khan.

The 41-time Ranji cham-pions made it to the last fourwith a world record 725-runhammering of Uttarakhandand will aim to carry themomentum into the game. UPdecimated Karnataka by fivewickets.

Mumbai will once againrely on their batters to set thetone. All eyes would be onPrithvi Shaw, who will have tobe at his best against Mohsinand Co.

The two other big impactplayers are Yashasvi Jaiswaland an in-form Sarfaraz Khanwho would be oozing withconfidence after their hun-dreds in the last game.

Sarfaraz has pummelledopposition attacks into sub-mission at will. And thus itwill indeed be a challenge forthe UP bowling unit to stophim.

Debutant Suved Parkar,who scored a double hundred,will look to add runs in hiskitty while Armaan Jafferwould also be eyeing a biggerknock.

Mumbai will however, beforced to make a change aswicket-keeper Aditya Tare hasbeen ruled out due to aninjury and Hardik Tamorecould make the playing XI.

But this time they wouldbe facing the likes of left-armpacer Yash Dayal, AnkitRajpoot and tweaker SaurabhKumar, who can spin a webaround the opposition.

Kumar, who picked upseven wickets in the quarter-final, could well be the go-toman for skipper KaranSharma.

Mumbai are unlikely totinker with their bowlingcombination. And left-armspinner Shams Mulani, whohas been taking fifers at will,will look to recreate his magic.

Add to it the experience ofDhawal Kulkarni, MohitAwasthi, Tushar Deshpandeand young off-spinner TanushKotian, Mumbai have the nec-

essary fire-power to get thebetter of the UP batters.

UP also have a relativelyinexperienced batting line-up and are reliant on one ortwo batters. Their top-orderwould need to fire in unisonand skipper Sharma will haveto lead from the front.

Two other batters whocan make an impact arePriyam Garg and RinkuSingh.

But the others like AryanJuval, Samarth Singh, DhruvJorel would need to stand upand take greater responsibil-ity. While Mumbai would bekeen to get a step closer totheir 42nd title, UP have thewherewithal to pull off amajor upset.

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South Africa wicketkeeper-batterHeinrich Klaasen hopes his

match-winning effort against India inthe second T20 helps him prolong hisinternational career.

Dropped after the T20 WorldCup last year, Klaasen also foundhimself out of the ODI side and alsolost his central contract.

He would not have got a look-inhad Quinton de Kock not injured hiswrist before the game on Sunday asthe 30-year-old finally got a chance.He took the game away from Indiawith his fiery 46-ball 81, his career-best T20 score.

"It was difficult (pitch) to bat. Ifound myself struggling up front.

Then I decided if I go out today Iwould rather go my way and try tobe positive. It's just one of those daysthat it came off," he said at the post-match media interaction.

"It's a blessing from above thatthis innings came at this time for mein my career... That puts me on themap ahead of international cricket.So hopefully this will just prolong mycareer a little bit longer."

He said he got an indicationabout playing a couple of days backafter de Kock injured his hand andit was on the eve of the match he wasconfirmed a place in the XI.

"Quinny came up to me two daysback on the team bus and said he hadinjured his wrists. I thought he is astrong character and he would be

fine. But yesterday again, he said hishand is not fine. Yesterday morning,we came to training and the coachtold me I might play," he said.

From four off 12 balls, Klaasenstepped it up against the spinners andcompleted his fifty in 32 balls.

To his advantage, BhuvneshwarKumar, who returned with magicalfigures of 4/13, was taken out of theattack after giving a triple blow upfront.

Bhuvneshwar returned only inthe 18th over and by then Klaaseninnings virtually sealed it for the vis-itors. "I also knew we needed to tar-get the spinners. The seamers had alittle bit up and down so we can takea little bit less risk against them andit came off today," he added.

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It may have looked odd to sendAxar Patel ahead of India's 'des-

ignated finisher' Dinesh Karthik inthe second T20 against SouthAfrica but top-order batter ShreyasIyer defended the strategy, sayingthe need of the hour was to "rotatestrike".

India were struggling to getgoing and were 112/6 when AxarPatel got out in the 17th over as itwas mainly due to the veteranKarthik's pyrotechnics while bat-ting at No 7 that they could get posta respectable 148/6.

"It's something we had strate-gised earlier as well. We had sevenovers left when Axar went in, andhe's someone who can take the sin-gles and keep rotating the strike,"Shreyas said at the post-matchmedia interaction on Sunday.

"Also, at that point in time, wedidn't require someone to go in andstart hitting from ball one. DK canobviously do that, but he has beena really good asset for us after 15overs, where he can go in and starthitting straightaway."

Promoted at No 6, Axar scored10 off 11 balls before being cleanedup by Anrich Nortje, while Karthikslammed an unbeaten 30 from 21balls.

Shreyas argued that evenKarthik had struggled to get histiming right like many others onthe day on a two-paced wicket.

"Even he was finding it a littlebit difficult at the start. The wick-et played a huge role in this game.And as for that strategy, we can andwe will be going with it in the nextmatches as well," Shreyas said.

As a matter of fact, Karthiktook 15 balls to score eight runs butthen he broke free in the next six,smashing two sixes and two fours.

On hindsight, it may have feltthat India could have notched 160-plus had the in-form Karthik gotmore time in the middle.

Shreyas however agreed thatthey fell short by about 12 runs inthe end.

"If I look back I think 160would have been a really good scoreon this wicket to put them undera little bit of pressure. But we werelike 12 runs short," he added.

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James Anderson claimed his650th Test wicket as England

reduced New Zealand to 27-1 intheir second innings at lunch onthe fourth day of the second Test.

Anderson was gifted hislandmark wicket as NewZealand opener Tom Lathamleft a straight ball that clatteredinto his stumps.

The 39-year-old fast bowleris just third man ever to reachthe landmark after spin legendsShane Warne and MuttiahMuralitharan.

Restored to the team bynew captain Ben Stokes,Anderson looks as good as everand his experience will be cru-

cial if England are to win theirfirst Test series since January2021.

England are locked in an

intriguing battle with NewZealand after being dismissedfor 539 in Monday's morningsession at Trent Bridge.

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