4`]U hRgV WcVVkVd _`ceY :_UZR - Daily Pioneer

19
S ix-time world champion MC Mary Kom (51kg) defeated Nikhat Zareen in an intense and ill-tempered trial bout here on Saturday to make the Indian boxing team for next year’s Olympic qualifiers in China. In a bout which featured very few clear punches, the 36- year-old Mary Kom prevailed 9- 1 against the 23-year-old former junior world champion to make the squad. Tension was palpa- ble inside the boxing hall before and after the bout owing to the bitter row triggered by Zareen’s public demand for a trial. Words were exchanged between the boxers during the bout and outside the ring, and a few representatives from Zareen’s home state Telangana’s boxing association cried foul once the result was declared. The two also didn’t shake hands after the fight and Mary Kom rebuffed Zareen’s attempt at a hug. “I was a bit angry. There is no doubt. But it’s all done now. I have moved on. All I say is that talk once you perform not before that. Everyone can see what you do in the ring,” Mary Kom said after the bout. The Olympic qualifiers are scheduled to be held from February 3 to 14 in China. When asked about her refusal to hug Zareen, Mary Kom retorted, “they call it clinching in our sport.” “I did not start this con- troversy. I never said I won’t appear for trial. That’s why I can’t take it when somebody insinuates that probably it was my fault. It was not my fault and my name shouldn’t have been dragged into it,” she said. Zareen, on her part, said she gave her best in the contest and expected her senior rival to be more cordial once it was over. “I am hurt by how she behaved. She used some foul language inside the ring too, but it’s okay,” said Zareen. “I am a junior, it would have been nice for her to just exchange a hug once it was over. But I don’t want to com- ment any further,” she added. Boxing Federation of India President Ajay Singh had to step in to control the situation outside the ring after AP Reddy, claiming to represent the Telangana Boxing Association, vociferously protested the decision. Turn to Page 4 K nown more for its hot weather conditions, Rajasthan is witnessing five of its cities registering sub-zero temperatures with Fatehpur in Sikar district being the coldest at minus 4 degrees Celsius as extreme cold wave conditions prevail across north India. A waterfall in Kinnaur dis- trict in Himachal Pradesh froze completely, and so did water supply lines at several places in Srinagar, which recorded its coldest night at minus 5.8 degrees. At minus 11.2 degeres, Pahalgam in south Kashmir’s Anantnag district was the cold- est recorded place in the Valley. If Delhiites shivered, then residents in neighbouring Haryana and Punjab too as Hisar (0.2), Narnaul (0.5), Rohtak (1.8) and Bhatinda (2.3) had temperatures dipping five to seven notches below normal. Temperatures in Leh and Drass in Ladakh plummeted to minus 19.1 degrees Celsius and minus 28.6 degrees Celsius respectively. Deaths due to cold have been reported from several places across States, though there is no official con- firmation about the numbers. In Himachal Pradesh, tem- peratures below the freezing point were recorded in Kufri, Manali, Solan, Bhuntar, Sundernagar, Seobagh and Kalpa. Keylong was the coldest place recording minus 11.5 degrees Celsius. Normal life was affected in Rajasthan also due to fog. MeT officials said Sikar and Mount Abu recorded a minimum tem- perature of minus 1 and minus 1.5 degrees Celsius respective- ly, while Alwar recorded a low of 0.2 degree Celsius and Pilani 0.6 degrees Celsius. Churu (1.1), Sriganganagar (2.1), Dabok (2.6), Bikaner (2.7) and Chittorgarh (2.8 degrees Celsius) reeled under cold wave conditions which are likely to continue in the State over the next 24 hours. The MeT department has fore- cast ground-frost conditions in several districts, besides a dense fog. In Kashmir, the MeT department has forecast rain and snowfall on the New Year’s eve that is likely to bring respite from the cold wave conditions in the valley. “There is a pos- sibility of light rains or snow- fall across Kashmir for a few days from December 31,” an official said adding fairly-wide- spread rainfall or snow is like- ly on January 2 which may con- tinue till January 3. The ski-resort of Gulmarg in north Kashmir recorded a low of minus 7.5 degrees Celsius, up from the previous night’s minus 9.5 degrees Celsius while the night tem- perature at Pahalgam resort, which also serves as one of the base camps for the annual Amarnath yatra in south Kashmir, settled at a low of minus 11.2 degrees Celsius. Kashmir is currently under the grip of “Chillai-Kalan”, the 40-day harshest period of win- ter when the chances of snow- fall are maximum and most fre- quent and the temperature drops considerably. ‘Chillai- Kalan’ began on December 21 and will continue till January 31. The 40-day period is fol- lowed by a 20-day long “Chillai-Khurd” (small cold) and a 10-day long “Chillai- Bachha” (baby cold). As for Punjab and Haryana, Hisar was the coldest place in the two states with the minimum settling at 0.2 degrees Celsius, seven notches below normal limits, the MeT department said. Turn to Page 4 T he Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) on Saturday issued ‘Red alert’ as Delhi recorded its coldest day of the season with minimum temperature plummeted to 2.4 degrees Celsius at Safdarjung observatory and 1.7 at Palam observatory. The same temperature was on December 30, 2013. The IMD’s database on Delhi weather pattern also revealed that before December 30, 2013, the coldest day in December was December 11 in 1996 when minimum temper- ature was recorded at Safdarjung observatory 2.3 degrees Celsius. Dense fog in the Delhi and National Capital Region (NCR) also reduced visibility and flight operations, trains and vehicular move- ment also disrupted. Delhi’s Aya Nagar recorded minimum temperature 1.9 degree Celsius temperature while Narela recorded it3 degree Celsius. Four flights were diverted from Delhi airport as it saw dense fog on Saturday from 4 am to 10:30 am. As per the Railway official, 24 trains were also delayed due to poor visibility ,ranging from 2-5 hours. “The mean maxi- mum temperature for December was less than 20 degrees Celsius only in 1919, 1929, 1961 and 1997,” an offi- cial of the India Meteorological Department said. Turn to Page 4 R emaining in Government and achieving targets, set within a year, with a sense of responsibility is not an easy task, said Health and family welfare, Panchayat and rural development minister T. S. Singhdeo. In an exclusive interview with The Pioneer, he said there is always an urge to do more hard works, as even after suc- cess, there is always a need to take initiatives with responsi- bility to maintain the continu- ity. On health sector, he said Universal Health concept is not new, but presently in around 8 countries in the world free health services are provided to its citizens. In this context, he said, the state government is working towards public trust model through integrated health services under Dr Khoochand Baghel Health Scheme by creating hybrid insurance, so that government hospitals get the funds through claim in a self sustaining model. He pointed out there are several bottle necks in health sector, adding the key one is ensuring medicines. Several payments are pend- ing for years due to which med- icine companies are reluctant to provide medicines, he said. Districts are more interested in direct procurement while it should be done through the CGMSC, he said, while dis- closing that this is being worked out. Second challenge, the min- ister said, is human resources from doctors to nurses and technical hands. Generally, each govern- ment should spend around 3% of GDP on health sector but only 1% is being spent while the recurring expenses on HR, procurement of medicine, equipment are required, Singhdeo pointed out. Now, government has allowed funds from DMF, he said. Additional to it tele-med- icine services at Dhamtari have been started which have now been extended to Kanker dis- trict, the minister stated. On central and state health schemes, he said private hos- pitals have recovered their dues from insurance companies as claim but government hospitals which got around 12 lakh patients only claim payments of 1.2 lakh cases have been cleared. Health officials have been directed to clear the claim pendency to reduce the fund crunch, the minister added. RNI Regn. No. CHHENG/2012/42718, Postal Reg. No. - RYP DN/34/2013-2015

Transcript of 4`]U hRgV WcVVkVd _`ceY :_UZR - Daily Pioneer

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Six-time world champion MCMary Kom (51kg) defeated

Nikhat Zareen in an intense andill-tempered trial bout here onSaturday to make the Indianboxing team for next year’sOlympic qualifiers in China.

In a bout which featuredvery few clear punches, the 36-year-old Mary Kom prevailed 9-1 against the 23-year-old formerjunior world champion to makethe squad. Tension was palpa-ble inside the boxing hall before

and after the bout owing to thebitter row triggered by Zareen’spublic demand for a trial.

Words were exchangedbetween the boxers during thebout and outside the ring, and

a few representatives fromZareen’s home state Telangana’sboxing association cried foulonce the result was declared.The two also didn’t shake handsafter the fight and Mary Kom

rebuffed Zareen’s attempt at ahug.

“I was a bit angry. There isno doubt. But it’s all done now.I have moved on. All I say isthat talk once you perform notbefore that. Everyone can seewhat you do in the ring,” MaryKom said after the bout.

The Olympic qualifiers arescheduled to be held fromFebruary 3 to 14 in China.

When asked about herrefusal to hug Zareen, MaryKom retorted, “they call itclinching in our sport.”

“I did not start this con-troversy. I never said I won’tappear for trial. That’s why Ican’t take it when somebodyinsinuates that probably it wasmy fault. It was not my faultand my name shouldn’t have

been dragged into it,” she said.Zareen, on her part, said she

gave her best in the contest andexpected her senior rival to bemore cordial once it was over.

“I am hurt by how shebehaved. She used some foullanguage inside the ring too,but it’s okay,” said Zareen.

“I am a junior, it wouldhave been nice for her to justexchange a hug once it wasover. But I don’t want to com-ment any further,” she added.

Boxing Federation of IndiaPresident Ajay Singh had tostep in to control the situationoutside the ring after APReddy, claiming to representthe Telangana BoxingAssociation, vociferouslyprotested the decision.

Turn to Page 4

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Known more for its hotweather conditions,

Rajasthan is witnessing five ofits cities registering sub-zerotemperatures with Fatehpur inSikar district being the coldestat minus 4 degrees Celsius asextreme cold wave conditionsprevail across north India.

A waterfall in Kinnaur dis-trict in Himachal Pradesh frozecompletely, and so did watersupply lines at several places inSrinagar, which recorded itscoldest night at minus 5.8degrees. At minus 11.2 degeres,Pahalgam in south Kashmir’sAnantnag district was the cold-est recorded place in the Valley.

If Delhiites shivered, thenresidents in neighbouringHaryana and Punjab too asHisar (0.2), Narnaul (0.5),Rohtak (1.8) and Bhatinda (2.3)had temperatures dipping fiveto seven notches below normal.

Temperatures in Leh andDrass in Ladakh plummeted tominus 19.1 degrees Celsiusand minus 28.6 degrees Celsiusrespectively. Deaths due tocold have been reported fromseveral places across States,though there is no official con-firmation about the numbers.

In Himachal Pradesh, tem-peratures below the freezingpoint were recorded in Kufri,Manali, Solan, Bhuntar,Sundernagar, Seobagh and

Kalpa. Keylong was the coldestplace recording minus 11.5degrees Celsius.

Normal life was affected inRajasthan also due to fog. MeTofficials said Sikar and MountAbu recorded a minimum tem-perature of minus 1 and minus1.5 degrees Celsius respective-ly, while Alwar recorded a lowof 0.2 degree Celsius and Pilani0.6 degrees Celsius.

Churu (1.1), Sriganganagar(2.1), Dabok (2.6), Bikaner(2.7) and Chittorgarh (2.8degrees Celsius) reeled undercold wave conditions whichare likely to continue in theState over the next 24 hours.The MeT department has fore-cast ground-frost conditions

in several districts, besides adense fog.

In Kashmir, the MeTdepartment has forecast rainand snowfall on the New Year’seve that is likely to bring respitefrom the cold wave conditionsin the valley. “There is a pos-sibility of light rains or snow-fall across Kashmir for a fewdays from December 31,” anofficial said adding fairly-wide-spread rainfall or snow is like-ly on January 2 which may con-tinue till January 3.

The ski-resort of Gulmargin north Kashmir recorded alow of minus 7.5 degreesCelsius, up from the previousnight’s minus 9.5 degreesCelsius while the night tem-perature at Pahalgam resort,which also serves as one of thebase camps for the annualAmarnath yatra in southKashmir, settled at a low ofminus 11.2 degrees Celsius.

Kashmir is currently underthe grip of “Chillai-Kalan”, the40-day harshest period of win-ter when the chances of snow-fall are maximum and most fre-quent and the temperaturedrops considerably. ‘Chillai-Kalan’ began on December 21and will continue till January31. The 40-day period is fol-lowed by a 20-day long“Chillai-Khurd” (small cold)and a 10-day long “Chillai-Bachha” (baby cold).

As for Punjab andHaryana, Hisar was the coldestplace in the two states with theminimum settling at 0.2degrees Celsius, seven notchesbelow normal limits, the MeTdepartment said.

Turn to Page 4

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The Indian MeteorologicalDepartment (IMD) on

Saturday issued ‘Red alert’ asDelhi recorded its coldest dayof the season with minimumtemperature plummeted to2.4 degrees Celsius atSafdarjung observatory and1.7 at Palam observatory. Thesame temperature was onDecember 30, 2013.

The IMD’s database onDelhi weather pattern alsorevealed that before December30, 2013, the coldest day inDecember was December 11 in1996 when minimum temper-ature was recorded atSafdarjung observatory 2.3degrees Celsius. Dense fog inthe Delhi and National Capital

Region (NCR) also reducedvisibility and flight operations,trains and vehicular move-ment also disrupted. Delhi’sAya Nagar recorded minimumtemperature 1.9 degree Celsiustemperature while Narelarecorded it3 degree Celsius.

Four flights were divertedfrom Delhi airport as it sawdense fog on Saturday from 4am to 10:30 am.

As per the Railway official,24 trains were also delayed dueto poor visibility ,ranging from2-5 hours. “The mean maxi-mum temperature forDecember was less than 20degrees Celsius only in 1919,1929, 1961 and 1997,” an offi-cial of the India MeteorologicalDepartment said.

Turn to Page 4

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Remaining in Governmentand achieving targets, set

within a year, with a sense ofresponsibility is not an easytask, said Health and familywelfare, Panchayat and ruraldevelopment minister T. S.Singhdeo.

In an exclusive interviewwith The Pioneer, he said thereis always an urge to do morehard works, as even after suc-cess, there is always a need totake initiatives with responsi-bility to maintain the continu-ity.

On health sector, he saidUniversal Health concept is notnew, but presently in around 8countries in the world freehealth services are provided toits citizens. In this context, hesaid, the state government isworking towards public trustmodel through integratedhealth services under DrKhoochand Baghel HealthScheme by creating hybridinsurance, so that government

hospitals get the funds throughclaim in a self sustaining model.

He pointed out there areseveral bottle necks in healthsector, adding the key one isensuring medicines.

Several payments are pend-ing for years due to which med-icine companies are reluctant toprovide medicines, he said.Districts are more interested indirect procurement while itshould be done through theCGMSC, he said, while dis-closing that this is beingworked out.

Second challenge, the min-

ister said, is human resourcesfrom doctors to nurses andtechnical hands.

Generally, each govern-ment should spend around 3%of GDP on health sector butonly 1% is being spent whilethe recurring expenses on HR,procurement of medicine,equipment are required,Singhdeo pointed out.

Now, government hasallowed funds from DMF, hesaid. Additional to it tele-med-icine services at Dhamtari havebeen started which have nowbeen extended to Kanker dis-trict, the minister stated.

On central and state healthschemes, he said private hos-pitals have recovered their duesfrom insurance companies asclaim but government hospitalswhich got around 12 lakhpatients only claim payments of1.2 lakh cases have beencleared.

Health officials have beendirected to clear the claimpendency to reduce the fundcrunch, the minister added.

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As it marked its 135th foun-dation day, the Congress on

Saturday took to the streets withflag marches across the coun-try to "save Constitution-saveIndia", its leader Rahul Gandhiexpressed apprehension thatAssam might return to thepath of violence due to policiesof the BJP Governments at theCentre and the State.

Vowing to fight against anyattempt to undermine theConstitution, Congress leaderssharpened its attack on theruling BJP over the NPR, NRCand amended Citizenship Act.

Congress' spearheadsRahul and Priyanka GandhiVadra addressed party workersand supporters in Assam andUttar Pradesh respectively —the two states that witnessed themost violent protests against theCitizenship Amendment Act.

The leaders alleged thatthose who had no contributionin the freedom struggle want-ed to spread fear "in the nameof nationalism", suppress thevoice of people and were ques-

tioning the legacy of Congress.Led by party chief Sonia

Gandhi at AICC headquarters,thousands of Congress workersand leaders hit the streets invarious cities such as Mumbai,Delhi, Kolkata and Jaipur todenounce the Government's"anti-people policies" and cor-ner it on the amendedCitizenship Act, NPR and NRC.

"Sacrifice for the nationstands above all else for theCongress party. From the timeof our foundation, through theIndian independence move-ment and for all the days tocome, India comes first. 135years of Unity, 135 years of jus-tice, 135 years of equality, 135

years of ahimsa, 135 years offreedom. Today we celebrate135 years of Indian NationalCongress," Sonia read theparty's statement after hoistingthe grand old party's flag.

Former prime ministerManmohan Singh, seniorCongress leaders A K Antony,Motilal Vohra and AnandSharma among others attend-ed the event.

Rahul stepped up his attackon Prime Minister NarendraModi over the NPR and theproposed NRC, terming theexercises "notebandi no. 2" andwarning that they will be moredisastrous than demonetisa-tion."This whole tamasha that

is going on is notebandi no. 2.This will be more disastrous forthe people than demonetisa-tion. This will have twice theimpact of demonetisation," hesaid, hitting out at the govern-ment.

"His (Prime MinisterNarendra Modi) 15 friends willnot have to show any documentand the money generated willgo into the pockets of those 15people," Rahul said.

The Maharashtra unit ofthe Congress took out the flagmarch between the AugustKranti Maidan and the statue ofLokmanya Tilak near GirgaumChowpatty.

Congress workers led by

Chief Minister Ashok Gehlotand Deputy Chief MinisterSachin Pilot took out similarprotest march against the "anti-people" policies of the BJP-ledCentral government inRajasthan while party leaders inGujarat likened the Modi gov-ernment with the erstwhileBritish rulers and called for theneed to launch a "second inde-pendence movement" to dis-lodge the BJP-led dispensa-tion.

The Congress in Keralaheld a "Maha Rally" whichmarched to the Raj Bhavan inthe state capitalThiruvanathapuram. "If theConstitution goes, they willintroduce Hindutva Rashtra,which is nothing but sanatandharma and Manu Smriti....The country would be takenback 100 years," former financeminister P Chidambaram toldthe gathering.

The Delhi Congress led byits president Subhash Chopratook out a march from theparty office on DDU Marg toAmbedkar Stadium where theygarlanded a portrait of DrBhimrao Ambedkar and thenmoved forward to the Rajghatto pay homage at MahatmaGandhi's memorial.

Telangana Congress leadersand workers staged a'Satyagraha' at its office inHyderabad after police deniedpermission to take out a rally onthe occasion of the party's135th formation day.

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Normal life came to almosta grinding halt in various

cities in Tamil Nadu onSaturday as hundreds of thou-sands of Muslims took to thestreets to protest against theCitizenship Amendment Act2019 (CAA-2019) and theNational Population Register.

The cities of Chennai,Tiruchirappalli, Thanjavur andThoothukudi saw mammothcrowds owing allegiance toTamil Nadu Thowheed Jamaatcoming out to register theirprotest against the laws whichthey fear would make themnot only homeless but evenwithout a country of theirown.

Traffic along the mainthoroughfare connectingChennai to the southern partsof the State was held up formore than five hours as therallyists marched along theGST Road shouting slogansagainst Prime MinisterNarendra Modi and the BJP-led Government at the Centre.

“If you want to know thebirthplace of my great grand-father, come to Khabaristaan,”said one of the placards dis-played in the rally. No unto-ward incidents have beenreported from anywhere in theState other than the routineskirmishes.

Since early last week , theState of Tamil Nadu has beenseeing protests against theCAA and NPR staged byDMK and other political out-fits which constitute the oppo-sition alliance. Friday sawhundreds of folklore artistsdrawn from various districtsperforming round-the -clockshow in Chennai.

Abdul Rehman,spokesman,Tamil NaduThowheed Jama at, whoaddressed the rally at Chennaisaid that this was just thebeginning of the oppositiontowards CAA and NationalRegistry of Citizenship. Thisis the second freedom strug-gle to be launched by theMuslims in Tamil Nadu. Wewill intensify the agitation inthe coming days and our mis-

sion is to make the ChiefMinister call off the prepara-tion of NRC. This agitationwill see more and more peo-ple joining it in days to comeand we are also planning aSecretariat Siege on January 7,”said Rehman.

Chief Minister EdappadiPalaniswamy told reporters atSalem on Saturday that thefears and anxiety of theMuslims were unfounded andwithout any reason. “NoMuslims in India are going tobe affected by the CAA or theNRC. This is some viciouscampaign launched by theDMK with ulterior motives.Interestingly, this is the sameDMK which had supportedthe CAA and the NRC in2010. The only difference isthat the DMK was the rulingparty in Tamil Nadu and animportant constituent of theUPA Government in theCentre,” said Palaniswamywho also furnished documentsshowing the DMK leaderStalin’s speech supporting thethen union government’smove to implement the NRC.

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Lucknow: A high-voltagedrama unfolded here onSaturday evening as Congressleader Priyanka Gandhi Vadraalleged she was manhandled bypolice personnel who grabbedher by the throat and pushedher when she resisted theirattempts to stop her from vis-iting the residence of retiredIPS officer SR Darapuri, arrest-ed in connection with therecent anti-CAA protests.

"They do not have theright to stop me. If they wantto arrest me, they should do so,"Priyanka told reporters aftermeeting Darapuri at hisIndiranagar's sector 18 resi-dence. She accused the BJPGovernment of acting in acowardly manner.

The State police deniedthe allegation as "false", whilean angry Congress, at a pressconference in Delhi, slammedthe police action and demand-ed imposition of President'sRule in UP.

Narrating the sequence ofevents, Priyanka told reporters,"As we were on our way, apolice vehicle came and thepolicemen said you cannot go.I asked them 'why'. And wastold that we will not be allowedto move ahead,"

"I got off the vehicle andstarted walking. I was sur-rounded and a woman cop heldme by my throat. Anotherwoman cop pushed me and Ifell down. I was forciblystopped and a woman officerpulled me up by my neck. ButI was determined. I am stand-ing with every citizen who hasfaced police oppression. This ismy 'satyagraha'."

Archana Singh, CircleOfficer, Modern Control RoomLucknow, who was deployed insecurity duty, said the allega-tions of manhandling theCongress leader and grabbingher by neck are "false".

UP Congress spokespersonAshok Singh told PTI,"Priyanka's vehicle was stoppedat the Lohia crossing. Sheprotested and asked as to whywas she being stopped."

Singh said after the policestopped her, she started walk-ing.

"The policemen started fol-lowing her. After walking foralmost a kilometre, she againgot into her vehicle. After this,when the police tried to stopher in Munshipulia area, sheagain started walking and thensuddenly turned towards abylane in Indiranagar's sector18. She walked for almostthree-four kilometres and gave

the police and party workers aslip," he added.

Priyanka told reporters thepolice action led to trafficsnarls. "There is no reason to doso. God knows, ask them whyhave they stopped (us)."

"What is the reason forstopping us, that too in themiddle of the city? This is notan issue of the SPG, but of theUttar Pradesh police. There isno point stopping us. Will youstop (anyone) in the middle ofa crossing?," she asked a policeofficial.

Attacking the YogiAdityanath Government, shesaid it was working in a "cow-ardly manner". "I am the in-charge of eastern UP Congressand the Government is notgoing to decide where will I goin the State."

Addressing a press confer-ence in New Delhi, Congressleader Sushmita Dev saidPriyanka was acting as aresponsible leader without dis-turbing peace. Dev said there is"a complete goonda raj andthere should be President'srule in the State".

Priyanka also aired herviews in a Facebook post.

After meeting Darapuri'sfamily members, she toldreporters, "I was going in apeaceful manner, how was thelaw and order scenario going toget deteriorated? I did not tellanyone about this (visit) so thatnot more than three personsaccompany me. They do nothave the right to stop me. Ifthey want to arrest me, theyshould do so."

To a question on whetherthe government felt its politicswas in danger because of her,she said, "Everybody's politicsis in danger."

Earlier in the day, address-ing party leaders and workersduring a programme held hereto mark the 135th FoundationDay of the party, she virtuallyequated the BJP governmentwith the British.

"Today in the country,there are such powers in thegovernment with whom we

had a historical clash. We are atpresent fighting an ideologyagainst which we fought dur-ing the freedom struggle," shesaid at the UP Congress head-quarters.

"Today the country is introuble. If we do not raise ourvoices, we will be proved to becowards."

In her first visit to thestate capital after violentprotests against the amendedcitizenship law and a proposedcountrywide implementationof the National Register ofCitizens claimed at least 19 livesin UP, she said voices of dissentwere emanating from multiplecorners.

"But the government wantsto suppress them through fear.Whenever such situations arise,the Congress rises to the chal-lenge and accepts them. Thereis no place for violence and fearin our heart."

She alleged the BJP makeslaws which are against theConstitution and then sup-presses those who oppose it.

"People were killed in thecountry, including in UttarPradesh, and those who couldnot be killed were put in jails.Their only fault was that theywere raising voices against awrongdoing," she said, refer-ring to protests against theand CAA and NRC.

Targeting the central gov-ernment, she said that those infear either resort to violence tosilence the enemy or retreat.

"The BJP silenced the voiceof the people through violenceand cowardice, and is nowretreating saying that it (BJP)has discussed NPR (NationalPopulation Register) and notNRC. The country is recog-nising your cowardice," theCongress leader said.

Hitting out at rival politi-cal parties in the state, thoughwithout naming them, she said,"Other opposition parties in thestate are not saying much.They are feeling afraid or thereis something else, which I don'tknow. But, we are not going tofeel afraid." PTI

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Not wanting to let theNarendra Modi

Government off the hook on thecontentious CitizenshipAmendment Act (CAA) andthe National Register of Citizens(NRC), the MaharashtraCongress on Saturday organiseda 'Save Bharat, SaveConstitution' flag march fromthe historic August KrantiMaidan to nearby WilsonCollege in south Mumbai inprotest against CAA and NRC.

The massive protest marchbegan after AICC general sec-retary in-charge of MaharashtraMallikarjun Kharge hoisted thenational flag on the occasion of135th foundation day of theCongress at the historicGokuldas Tejpal hall -- wherethe party was founded wayback in 1885-- and paid his trib-utes to the Gandhi SmrutiStambh at the August KrantiMaidan.

Thousands of Congressworkers and leaders participat-ed in the flag march that beganat the August Kranti Maidanand vended its way towardsWilson College where it culmi-nated into a public rally, whereall the participants took a pledgeon the Preamble of theConstitution.

Upping the ante againstthe BJP-led NDA government,Kharge dubbed Prime MinisterNarendra Modi and HomeMinister Amit Shah as “masterliars” for “misleading” the peo-ple on the twin issues of theCAA and NRC.

Addressing the rally ofCongress workers, Khargecharged that the “RSS-run” BJPgovernment was trying to re-write the Constitution. “Theintroduction of the citizenshipamendment act, NRC andNational Population Registerare all part of an attempt to re-write the Constitution. Modiand Shah are trying to trampleupon the Constitution anddivide the country on the basisof religion and caste. We haveorganized the flag march to givea 'Chale Jao' call to the BJP gov-ernment,” the senior Congressleader said.

Kharge recalled that theCongress party was founded inMumbai, where the “Chale Jao”

movement was started in 1942.“After a lot of struggle thecountry got Independence. DrBabasaheb Ambedkar gave usthe constitution of the country.The Congress party has alwaysrun the country based on theconstitution which madedemocracy even deeper rootedin India. The constitution offersequal rights to all the citizens,but the BJP Government — runby the RSS — is trying to re-write the Constitution”.

Kharge also remindedModi and Shah that they hadfailed in fulfilling several of thepromises, including the credit-ing of �15 Lakh in each bankaccount of people and 2 crorejobs every year, made by themin the run-up to the 2014 LokSabha polls.

Speaking on the occasion,Maharahstra Pradesh CongressCommittee president and StateRevenue Minister BalasahebThorat said that since the daythe congress party was formedit had always worked for all peo-ple irrespective of their religion,caste and region and kept allsections of the society togethersince Independence.

Thorat charged that theBJP was trying to strip therights of the citizens that theconstitution bestowed uponthem. “But we will not let theBJP succeed in its attempt,” hesaid.

Thorat said that to free thecountry from Modi and Shah'sdictatorship, the Congress partyhad launched this new freedomstruggle.

Former Union HomeMinister and chief ministerSunilkumar Shinde, formerchief ministers PrithvirajChavan, Ashok Chavan,Mumbai Congress presidentEknath Gaikwad, formerdeputy speaker of the legislativecouncil Manikrao Thakre,PWD minister Nitin Raut,woman party leader YashomatiThakur, MPs Hussain Dalwai,Kumar Ketkar, former unionminister Milind Deora, formerMP Bhalchandra Mungekar,former leader of the Oppositionin the State Assembly VijayWadettiwar and AICC secretaryAmit Deshmukh were promi-nent among those who partic-ipated in the 'Save Bharat, SaveConstitution' march.

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In the backdrop of antiCitizenship Amendment

Act(CAA) arson in some partsof the country, Rajya SabhaChairman M Venkaiah Naiduon Saturday highlightedMahatma Gandhi's ideals andsaid the Father of the Nationeschewed violence in all itsforms even in the face of mostdaunting challenges. Hismethods of protest werescrupulously non-violent,Naidu said adding peace is aprerequisite for progress.

Making this observationwhile releasing the RajyaSabha calendar 2020 here, theChairman said Gandhi placedgreater emphasis on dutieswhich are also enshrined inour Constitution that interalia, call for 'to safeguard pub-lic property and to abjure vio-lence; to abide by theConstitution and respect itsideals and institutions, touphold and protect the sover-eignty, unity and integrity ofIndia'. Quoting Gandhi, Naidusaid "the true source of rightis duty. If we all discharge ourduties, rights will not be far toseek."

Naidu also pointed outthat as a seeker of truth,Gandhi experimented withtruth and challenged the pre-vailing stereotypes of his time.

A firm believer in non-vio-lence, he eschewed violence inall its forms even in the face ofmost daunting challenges. Hismethods of protest werescrupulously non-violent.While protesting against theBritish rule, he remained civileven to his adversary. Hecalled off Non CooperationMovement after ChauriChaura incident which hadturned violent. Naidu saidpeace is a prerequisite forprogress and that we all mustpreach and practice non-vio-lence.

Paying tributes to theFather of the Nation, Naidusaid Gandhi was a great leaderand a visionary who personi-fied certain everlasting idealsand universal values such astruth, non-violence, peace,harmony and tolerance.

The Chairman saidGandhi's simple life, powerfulideas and thoughtful actionsbased on truth and non-vio-lence are an eternal inspirationto the nation and humanity at

large which are even more rel-evant in these troubled timeswhen the world is faced withchallenges such as climatechange, environmental degra-dation, disparities, extrem-ism, and terrorism.

Naidu said it is our col-lective responsibility to recalland take forward the legacy ofthe great leader for the welfareof the country and the entireworld. He was happy to notethat the government under theleadership of Prime MinisterMinister Narendra Modi, haslaunched various ambitiousnation building initiatives witha view to fulfil Gandhi's vision.

Among such initiatives,Swachh Bharat Mission standsout which is aimed at endingthe age old practice of opendefecation and making sani-tation facilities accessible to alland this Mission evolved as apeople's movement which cre-ated massive public aware-ness about the importance ofhealth, hygiene, human dig-nity and gender equality which

were very close to the heart ofMahatma Gandhi, he said.

Releasing the calendar, theChairman said it is exclusive-ly dedicated to the memory ofMahatma Gandhi on the occa-sion of celebration of his 150thbirth anniversary.

He expressed the hopethat the themes of Calendarwill convey the messages ofGandhi and lead all on thepath of peace and progress.The main theme of the RajyaSabha Calendar is 'MahatmaGandhi: The Man and HisMessage'.

The Calendar capturesvarious themes based onMahatma Gandhi's life andworks such as "Swaraj(Freedom in the real sense),'"Swacchta (Cleanliness andSanitation)," "Satyagraha(Truth and Non-violence)," "Sarvodaya (Upliftment of all),"" Samarasata (Harmony andPeace)," "Swadeshi (Self-Reliance)," "Gram Rajya (RuralUpliftment)," Removal ofUntouchability, Tradition andModernity, "Nayee Talim(Education for life)," "Seva(Spirit of Service) andLeadership and PublicService."

Deputy Chairman, RajyaSabhai Harivansh, Leader ofthe House ThaawarchandGehlot; Minister of State forParliamentary Affairs V.Muraleedharan, SatyanarayanJatiya and Sukhendu ShekharRoy(members and Vice-Chairmen) and Desh DeepakVerma, Secretary-General,Rajya Sabha were also presenton the occasion.

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Aday after Union MinisterHardeep Puri sarcastically

feigned ignorance about theidentity of Prashant Kishor, thepolitical strategist on Saturdaygave one back with a tongue incheek remark. He called himselfan ordinary man and asked whya senior leader like HardeepPuri would know him.

"Hardeep Singh Puri-ji iscorrect. He is a senior minister.Why will he know an ordinaryman like me? (But) I know himbecause some of the works of hisdepartment are relevant in theAssembly elections in Delhi,"Prashant Kishor said, addingthat it was "correct" for Mr Purito not know about everyone.

The Janata Dal (United)leader who has been widelycredited for the "chai pe char-cha" campaign that helpedPrime Minister Narendra Modicome to power in 2014 hit backat the bureaucrat turned politi-cian saying why would such abig leader know an ordinaryman like me.

On Friday Hardeep Puriwas quoted by a news agencyas dismissing Prashant Kishoras "a chap who used to work inUN" and suggested neither henor his party were troubled bythe prospect of his I-PAC plan-ning AAP's and Delhi ChiefMinister Arvind Kejriwal's re-election campaign.

Taking a dig at Puri after heplayed down the impact ofKishor's Indian Political ActionCommittee (I-PAC) - a con-sultancy firm that has beensigned on to help Delhi's rul-ing Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in2020 Delhi Assembly polls,also appeared to take a swipe atthe BJP over the controversialNRC (National Register ofCitizens) that the central gov-ernment had earlier said wouldbe carried out nationwide.

"In Delhi lakhs of peoplelike me... from UP, Bihar... liveand struggle to make a spacefor themselves in the city. If abig person like Hardeep SinghPuri will try to know aboutsuch a big number of people, itwill go against his status, post,and dignity. It will not suit hisstatus," Kishor said.

Kishor, whose wife is fromAssam, has been fiercely criti-cal of the NRC and the equal-ly controversial amendments tothe citizenship law, expressingconcern that NRC was "dis-criminatory not only on thebasis of the religion but also onthe basis of the class".

Arvind Kejriwal's AAPlaunched its re-election cam-paign last week with DeputyChief Minister Manish Sisodiarevealing the official slogan -'Ache beete 5 saal, lage rahoKejriwal (Past five years havebeen good, keep going withKejriwal').

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RAIPUR | SUNDAY | DECEMBER 29, 2019chhattisgarh 03

STAFF REPORTER nBALRAMPUR

Awild elephant that wasinjured in a bull-fight with

other male elephant in the for-est of Balrampur in northernChhattisgarh was successfullytreated by a team of veterinar-ian and forest officials aftertranquilizing it.

The pachyderm was alsofitted with a satellite radiocollars, officials said here onSaturday.

According to officialinformation a tusker‘Behradev’ was spotted byforest staff in seriously injuredcondition. The elephant wasinjured by another wild ele-phant. It sustained injury dur-ing a fight about 15 days ago.

“Forest department hadcalled team of experts fromTamil Nadu for tranquilizingand collaring ‘Behradev’. DrManoharan from Tamil Nadu,Dr Lakshminarayan fromWildlife Institute of India,Dehradun and otherssuccessfully executed the

operation,” Principal ChiefConservator of Forest(Wildlife) Atul Shukla said.

The elephant was tran-quilized at Rajpur range underGopalpur circle of Balrampurforest division. After adminis-tering medicines and radiocollar fitting, it was releasedinto the wild, officials said.

Meanwhile, sources in the

department informed thatanother wild elephant Pyarewho was fitted with radio collarhad dropped it. Currently, thereare four elephants in the statethat are fitted with radio collarto keep a continuous track.

Two wild elephants inSurguja, one in Raigarh andone in Mahasamund aretagged with radio collar.

Injured wild elephant tranquilizedand fitted with radio collar

STAFF REPORTER nRAIPUR

Ice crystals covered theplain areas of Sarguja and

Jashpur districts situated inNorthern part ofChhattisgarh following dropin temperature. The tempera-ture reported ranging mini-mum of 3.8oC at Ambikapuron Saturday.

Generally the area duringwinter months reporttemperature fluctuationbetween 1oC to 3oC.

Similar situation wasseen in Mainpat, Jokapat inSarguja, Sannapat andPandrapaat in Jashpurdistrict. The Meteorologicaldepartment also predictssimilar temperature tocontinue for next 48 hours.

According to

Meteorological departmentRaipur, cold day is very likelyat isolated pockets overnorthern parts ofChhattisgarh. In capital city,Raipur the next 48 hours willhave a clear sky, the maxi-

mum and minimum temper-ature to be around 23oC and10oC respectively. The gener-al forecast says there will beno significant changes inminimum temperature overChhattisgarh during next two

days.The alert has been

sounded in Koriya,Balrampur, Sarguja, Surajpur,Jashpur, Bilaspur, Kawardha,Mungeli, Korba, Raigarh,Bemetara, Janjgir,

Rajnandgaon, Baloda Bazar,and few pockets ofMahasamund district for coldwave/severe cold wave.

In next 48 hours, possi-bility of cold wave and coldday also looms over Koriya,Balrampur, Sarguja, Surajpur,Jashpur, Bilaspur, Kawardha,Mungeli, Korba, Raigarh,Bemetara, Janjgir,Rajnandgaon, Baloda Bazar,and few pockets ofMahasamund district.

The maximum and mini-mum temperature fluctua-tions were reported from -1to -5oC while the Ambikapurreported maximum of 17.8oCand minimum of 3.8oC whilemaximum drop fluctuationswas of -6 degree recorded inPendra Road reporting 4.1oCof minimum temperaturewhile maximum was 22.1oC.

STAFF REPORTER n RAIPUR

Chhattisgarh Chief MinisterBhupesh Baghel registered

his ire over a local Congressparty leader for raising slogansagainst party leaders duringthe Congress Foundation Dayfunction, and ordered to issuenotice to the leader.

As per the incident, afterthe function one of the leadersand his supporters raised slo-gans against a few Congressleaders over tussle in civicbody elections. Agitated overit, Chief Minister directed thesaid leader to raise the issuebefore the Raipur DistrictCongress but later he directedthe Congress office bearers toserve him a notice.

Earlier, ChhattisgarhPradesh Congress CommitteePresident Mohan Markamgreeted entire party men aftersaluting the flag and offeringgarlands at Mahatma Gandhi’sportrait as part of the 135thfoundation day of theCongress on Saturday. A pro-

gramme marking the day washeld at CPCC’s state head-quarters, the Rajiv Bhawan.

Chief Minister BhupeshBaghel, Secretary in-charge ofthe State Congress DrChandan Yadav, Excise andIndustry Minister KawasiLakhma, Women and ChildDevelopment Minister AnilaBhedia, Education MinisterPremasai Singh Tekam, RajyaSabha MP Chhaya Verma, andmany other Congressmenwere present.

Meanwhile, a massiverally was taken out from DrAmbedkar’s statue near NagarGhadi Chowk to GandhiMaidan with slogan "SaveIndia - Save the Constitution".

STAFF REPORTER n RAIPUR

UN Resident Coordinator inIndia Renata Lok-

Dessallien said she would visitChhattisgarh once again and atthat time the governmentdepartments should come upwith proposals on top priorityfor the state.

The proposals will be thentaken up for discussion forcooperation.

Appreciating the hospitali-ty, she assured that based onthe proposals, she would inter-act with the UN agencies.

She was speaking at aninteractive session withChhattisgarh State PlanningCommission DeputyChairman Ajay Singh, memberDr K Subramaniam, advisor toCM Pradeep Sharma and headof departments and UNAgencies chiefs.

Deputy Chairman AjaySingh briefed on the progressmade by Chhattisgarh after itsformation along with selected

few targets for which assistanceof UN Agencies are required.

School education,Panchayat, Planning, econom-ics and statistical department,public health engineering,urban administration depart-ment heads briefed on thedifferent works being undertaken through UN Agenciesand stressed the need for futureassistance in differentprogrammes.

Women and child develop-ment department DirectorJanmejay Mahobe briefed onthe works being implementedthrough UNICEF in statealong with drive to eradicatemalnutrition across the state.

STAFF REPORTER nRAIPUR

Chhattisgarh BJP held ameeting to discuss the

Citizen (Amendment)Act, 2019 (CAA) at itsstate headquarters,Kushabhau Thakre prem-ises on Saturday.

National vice presi-dent of the party and for-mer chief minister DrRaman Singh said there isa need to reach out to peo-ple to bring out truth tocounter the lies beingspread by Congress, whichis damaging the atmos-phere in the country.Everyone has to be sensi-tive as it is an emotionaldecision.

State BJP presidentVikram Usendi saidCongress is spreadingrumours across the coun-

try. Central governmenthas taken vital decisionswithin six months whichhas sent the Congress intoa tizzy. There is a need togo among the people withthe details of the CAA.

State organisation gen-eral secretary Pawan Saisaid drive to create aware-ness among the people is

being organised across thestate and every one’s partic-ipation is necessary.Rajnandgaon MP and stategeneral secretary SantoshPandey said BJP since itsformation has prepared theroadmap and is trending onit, the CAA is part of it. It isthe reason the Congressand other parties are feeling

uneasiness. Former minis-ter Ajay Chandrakarexplained in detail the pan-chayat election process andurged all to work in coordi-nation and need for morehard work.

IT Cell chief DeepakMahske spoke on the drivebeing organised throughsocial media.

STAFF REPORTER n RAIPUR

State revenue and natural disas-ter management minister Jai

Singh Agrawal has directeddepartmental officers to ensure allsteps are taken to tackle situationcreated after cold wave and frostthat hit the state.

Relief commissioner and sec-retary revenue and disaster man-agement department in the letter toall the divisional commissioners,collectors and chief district med-ical and health officers has pointedout that as per regular updatesfrom National MeteorologicalCentre and National DisasterManagement Authority,Chhattisgarh will face cold wave inmonth of December to January,which will be in form of cold waveas per prevalence and intensity.The climate has changed and tem-perature had fallen this month.

The letter further states thatduring this period, the homeless,poor, old, destitutes and schoolgoing children can be affected.

The officials were directed toensure adequate measures to pro-tect people from cold wave.

Officials have been directed toprovide temporary shelter, blanket,fire-place, medical facilities and ifnecessary change in timing ofschools along with providingfinancial assistance under Revenuebook 6-4 provisions. Assistancefrom civil organisations, UNICEF,Red Cross Society and others canalso be taken, the letter said.

Publicity of necessary preven-tive measures to be taken by thepeople should also be made andregular climate related newsshould be heard to prevent ventur-ing out of house, it said.

The senior citizens should beadvice to intake hot food andwater, while food materials shouldnot be kept more than 48 hours incase of regular power cut in refrig-erators. Medical assistance shouldbe taken immediately in case ofany changes in body due to cold,breathing problem, excessive shiv-ering among others, the letter said.

Optional holidayon January 2RAIPUR: Chhattisgarh ChiefMinister Bhupesh Baghel hasdeclared optional holiday onJanuary 2, 2020, on the occa-sion of Guru Govind SinghJayanti, so that people of Sikhcommunity in the state maycelebrate the festival with zealand fervour.

Chief Minister has giveninstructions to GeneralAdministration Department totake necessary action in thisregard. It is noteworthy thatoffice-bearers of ChhattisgarhState Gurudwara ManagementCommittee, under the leader-ship of MLA Raipur NorthKuldeep Singh Juneja andChairman of Chhattisgarh StateMinority CommissionMahendra Chhabra, had metChief Minister and hadrequested for optional holidayon January 2, 2020.

STAFF REPORTER n RAIPUR

State government has mademinor changes in posting of

IAS officers on Saturday inwhich three officers were givenadditional charges.

According to order issuedby General AdministrationDepartment K.C. Devsenapati(IAS-2007), Chief ExecutiveOfficer, Chhattisgarh InfotechPromotion Society (CHiPS),Raipur has been given addition-al charge of member secretary,Chhattisgarh State PlanningCommission till next order.

He will also continue tohold the additional charge ofex-officio special secretary,electronics and information

technology department.D. Rahul Venkat

(IAS-2015), deputy secretary,planning, economics andstatistical department has beengiven additional charge ofex-officio deputy secretary,Chhattisgarh State PlanningCommission till next order.

Similarly, Prabhat Malik(IAS-2015) director,Institutional Finance andadditional charge of AdditionalChief Executive Officer, CHiPShave been given additionalcharge of Chief OperatingOfficer, CHiPS. The additionalcharge of Additional ChiefExecutive Officer, CHiPS hasbeen dropped.

STAFF REPORTER nRAIPUR

Not only the perform-ances of the artistes

from various states of Indiaand abroad are mesmeriz-ing the attendees of theNational Tribal Dance Festat Science College Groundof Raipur, but also the liveexhibition and vibrantmodels of tribal culture,folk art and tribal lifestylehas become the centre ofattraction for the visitors.

Magnificent gate and'Shilpgram'- the exhibition ofChhattisgarhi art and cultureat National Tribal Dance Fest

is a treat for art lovers. Largenumber of people at the festis visiting Shilpgram and

appreciating the indigenousart and culture.

In Shilpgram, dresses

made by weavers, varioustraditional artifacts made ofbrass, iron, bell metal

bamboo and clay have alsobeen put on display for sale.Total 36 stalls have been putup in the Shilpgram, whichincludes 14 stalls of handloomweavers, 12 stalls of handicraftitems, 4 stalls of Matikalaboard, one of Silk Departmentand two of Khadigram Board.

Bhitti Chitra has beenprominently displayed inKhadigram Board's stall.Guest participants and peo-ple of Raipur are appreciat-ing Shilpgram and theproducts displayed. On thefirst day itself, handicraftitems worth nearly `4 lakhwas sold in Shilpgram.

Cong infighting out duringparty’s foundation day

STAFF REPORTER nRAIPUR

Divisional ForestOfficer (DFO)

Kathghora DD Sant wassuspended while ChiefConservator of Forest(CCF) Bilaspur PK Kesarwas issued show causenotice in connection withthe death of a femaleelephant that had died aftergetting trapped inKathghora forest range.

Deputy secretary forestdepartment GanveerDhamsheel issued thesuspension order onSaturday late evening.

Notably, the elephantwas trapped in a marshyfiled at Bankheta paraunder Kulahria GramPanchayat of Kendai forestrage in Kathghora forestdivision for about pastthree days. However, forestdepartment started the res-cue operation too late thatbecame a reason for the

death of the elephant.The suspension order

clearly stated that “DD SantDFO Kathghora seriouslyneglected his duty and didnot initiate any effort tosave the elephant thatbecame the reason fordeath of the elephant.This has damaged theimage of the stategovernment.”

In a separate noticeissued to CCF Bilaspur PKKesar, the IFS was ques-tioned as to why he did notvisit the incident site andtried to rescue theelephant despite beinginformed personally andseeing the newscirculating in newspapersand media.

This is violation of AllIndia Service (Conduct)Act 1968 and why shoulddisciplinary action not beinitiated against you, thedeputy secretaryquestioned.

STAFF REPORTER n RAIPUR

Awild elephant that wastrapped in heavy mud at

Kathgora forest division inKorba district of Chhattisgarhdied on Friday, officials said.

As per locals the elephantwas trapped in a marshy filed at

Bankheta para under KulahriaGram Panchayat of Kendai for-est rage in Kathghora forestdivision since Friday.

However, forest officialsclaimed that they got informa-tion about the elephant beingtrapped in mud on Thursdayafternoon following which the

rescue operation was launched.“I have sought a report on

entire incident from CCFBilaspur division and furtheraction will be taken based onthe report,” Principal ChiefConservator of Forest(Wildlife) Atul Shukla said.

Forest officials while out-lining the challenges said thatthey tried entire day to pull outthe elephant. JCB machine wasalso deployed to rescue the ele-phant but due to slippery condi-tions the machine could notfunction.

Also, at the nightfall otherwild elephants too used to comeout to rescue the pachydermtrapped in marsh, thus hamper-ing the rescue operation.

Notably, Kathghora,Dharamjaigarh, Korba andother northern regions ofChhattisgarh are home to morethan 200 wild elephants.

Wild elephant trapped in mud dies

Parts of C’garh reel under cold wave

Minor reshuffleof bureaucrats

DFO suspended, CCF slapped notice

Shilpgram becomes centreof attraction for people

UN agencies to cooperatefor devp of Chhattisgarh

Cold wave in statealert sounded

BJP to start mass campaign inChhattisgarh to explain CAAThe deptt

proposals will betaken up fordiscussion forcooperation

Agitated over it,Chief Ministerdirected partyleader to raise theissue before theRaipur DistrictCongress

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Ranchi: Union Minister GirirajSingh on Saturday accused theCongress of wanting to "dividethe country" by spreading liesand confusion over theCitizenship Amendment Act,and said if Rahul Gandhi has"love for infiltrators", he cantake them to Italy.

Asking the Congress torefrain from a "policy of dou-ble-standards", Singh claimedthat the UPA government hadearlier talked about the citi-zenship law, but did not goahead with it due to "appease-ment politics".

"The Congress wants todivide the country by speakinglies.... If Rahul Gandhi haslove for infiltrators (immi-grants), let him take them toItaly," the Union AnimalHusbandry, Dairy and FisheriesMinister said.

Singh's comments comeon a day when Gandhislammed the BJP and RSS dur-ing a visit to Assam — whichhad seen violent protestsagainst the CAA — expressingapprehension that the state isreturning to the path of vio-lence, owing to the "anti-peo-ple" policies of the saffronparty.

Addressing a public rally atGuwahati, the former Congresspresident appealed to people to

be united and tell the BJP thatthe culture and identity ofAssam "cannot be attacked".

Continuing his attack onthe Congress, Singh toldreporters in Ranchi that onlythe grand old party and 'tukde-tukde' gangs have problemswith the CAA.

"The BJP is cleansing sinsof the Congress, which isspreading confusion and cre-ating an atmosphere of fear," healleged.

The minister said evenMahatma Gandhi said Hindusand other minority groups inPakistan had been citizens ofIndia, and if they returned tothe country, they should be

treated with the same dignity."The Congress accepted

Partition on grounds of reli-gion. Thereafter, people fol-lowing Hindu, Sikh, Christian,Buddhism, Jainism and Parsireligions faced persecution;the honour of sisters anddaughters were robbed andpeople were intimidated intoconversions," Singh claimed.

Referring to an allegedhate speech by AIMIM leaderAkbaruddin Owaisi in 2013, hesaid people will never forgivethose who had talked about"'Hindu mukt Hindustan',insulted the national flag andconspired to create distur-bance in the country." PTI

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Aday after Union MinisterHardeep Puri sarcastically

feigned ignorance about theidentity of Prashant Kishor, thepolitical strategist on Saturdaygave one back with a tongue incheek remark. He called himselfan ordinary man and asked whya senior leader like HardeepPuri would know him.

"Hardeep Singh Puri-ji iscorrect. He is a senior minister.Why will he know an ordinaryman like me? (But) I know himbecause some of the works of hisdepartment are relevant in theAssembly elections in Delhi,"Prashant Kishor said, addingthat it was "correct" for Mr Purito not know about everyone.

The Janata Dal (United)leader who has been widelycredited for the "chai pe char-cha" campaign that helpedPrime Minister Narendra Modicome to power in 2014 hitback at the bureaucrat turnedpolitician saying why wouldsuch a big leader know an ordi-nary man like me.

On Friday Hardeep Puriwas quoted by a news agency asdismissing Prashant Kishor as "achap who used to work in UN"and suggested neither he nor hisparty were troubled by theprospect of his I-PAC planningAAP's and Delhi Chief MinisterArvind Kejriwal's re-electioncampaign.

Taking a dig at Puri after heplayed down the impact ofKishor's Indian Political ActionCommittee (I-PAC) - a consul-tancy firm that has been signedon to help Delhi's ruling AamAadmi Party (AAP) in 2020

Delhi Assembly polls, alsoappeared to take a swipe at theBJP over the controversial NRC(National Register of Citizens)that the central governmenthad earlier said would be carriedout nationwide.

"In Delhi lakhs of peoplelike me... from UP, Bihar... liveand struggle to make a space forthemselves in the city. If a bigperson like Hardeep Singh Puriwill try to know about such a bignumber of people, it will goagainst his status, post, anddignity. It will not suit his sta-tus," Kishor said.

Kishor, whose wife is fromAssam, has been fiercely criti-cal of the NRC and the equallycontroversial amendments tothe citizenship law, expressingconcern that NRC was "dis-criminatory not only on thebasis of the religion but also onthe basis of the class".

Arvind Kejriwal's AAPlaunched its re-election cam-paign last week with DeputyChief Minister Manish Sisodiarevealing the official slogan -'Ache beete 5 saal, lage rahoKejriwal (Past five years havebeen good, keep going withKejriwal').

Kishor, who helped YSRCongress leader Jagan MohanReddy sweep to power inAndhra Pradesh polls in April-May, is also working against theBJP in Bengal - he has beensigned on by Bengal ChiefMinister Mamata Banerjeeahead of Assembly elections in2021. He has also been signedon by the Nitish Kumar's JDU,the BJP's ruling ally in Biharwhere Assembly elections aredue in 2020.

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MK Stalin, president of theDMK and Tamil Nadu’s

Leader of Opposition has askedthe students of the State to boy-cott the television programmefeaturing Prime MinisterNarendra Modi and school stu-dents.

A programme by namePariksha Pe Charcha featuringthe Prime Minister and 500selected school students gettingready for the upcoming publicexamination has been scheduledfor telecast on January 16, 2020.

The students were invited tosubmit questions on the basis ofwhich they will be shortlistedand called for an interactionwith the Prime Minister. Thecompetition is open only forstudents of classes IX to XII.Participants have to write theirresponses on any one of the five

themes in a maximum of 1,500characters. The best responseswill be featured in Modi's inter-active session with the studentsscheduled in New Delhi onJanuary 16. Stalin said it was notproper on the part of the PrimeMinister to conduct such aprogramme at a time when thestudents in Tamil Nadu wouldbe busy celebrating the annualPongal festival which falls on

January 15. “It is a BJP pro-gramme featuring the PrimeMinister and the students wouldnot benwefit by watching sucha political programme. In TamilNadu, the AIADMK govern-ment has cancelled the holio-day for the day and has askedthe students and teachers to bepresent in schools without fail,”said Stalin. But Chief MinisterEdappadi Palaniswamy saidthat Stalin was having wrongnotion about the programmeand he was not aware of therealities. “We have not asked theteachers or students to attendschools on that day. But if thereare students without any accessto television and internet, wewill make arrangements forthem in their schools so thatthey could watch the pro-gramme in the television setsinstalled in the schools,” said thechief minister while speaking toreporters at Salem.

From Page 1“How will boxing grow

amid this kind of politics,”Reddy later told reporters afterbeing asked to leave the ring-side by Singh and pacified byZareen herself.

Bitterness dominated thebuildup to the bout after it wasinsinuated that the onus was onMary Kom to agree for the trialeven though it was a call thatthe federation had to take.

Mary Kom was visibly agi-tated at the end of the bout inwhich she impressed with hercomposure, refusing to let herrival get a clear shot for mostof the bout. She raised the

tempo in the final three min-utes. “Whatever one can sayabout Mary Kom, it is alwaysgoing to be less. She is a phe-nomenal talent. As for Nikhat,she is a great hope for thefuture and she was impressivein this bout too,” said Singhafter the bout.

In other results, two-timeworld silver-medallist SoniaLather (57kg) was upstaged bya swift-moving SakshiChaudhary. Lather, also anAsian medallist, couldn’t copewith Chaudhury’s relentlessattack.

In the 60kg category, for-mer world champion L Sarita

Devi lost to national champi-on Simranjit Kaur. It was onceagain a battle of pace as Kauroutwitted Sarita with her pre-cise hitting and quick reflexes.

Also making the squadwas two-time world medallistLovlina Borgohain (69kg) aftershe beat Lalita, while formerAsian Games bronze-winnerPooja Rani claimed the 75kgcategory slot after a facile tri-umph over Nupur.

The Indian Squad: MCMary Kom (51kg), SakshiChaudhary (57kg), SimranjitKaur (60kg), LovlinaBorgohain (69kg) and PoojaRani (75kg).

From Page 1The minimum tempera-

tures in several cities in the twoStates were even lower thanShimla which registered a lowof 4 degrees Celsius.

Most places in the twoStates witnessed fog with visibility reducing to 600 metres, disrupting air, railand road traffic in the region.The Met department has fore-cast no relief from the intensecold conditions in the nextthree days besides predictingdense fog in Punjab andHaryana. Weather was dryover Uttar Pradesh while coldday to severe cold day condi-tions occurred at most places inthe State.

From Page 1In December this year,

the mean maximum temper-ature (MMT) till Thursdaywas 19.85 degrees Celsius. It isexpected to dip to 19.15degrees Celsius by December31, he said.

With chilling cold contin-uing to sweep Delhi-NCR,the region is expected torecord its second-coldestDecember since 1901, theweather department had saidon Thursday.

Since December 14, most

parts of the city have witnessed15 consecutive cold days or a15-day cold spell. The lasttime such a long cold spell waswitnessed was in December1997. After 1992, Delhi hashad cold spells only in fouryears - 1997, 1998, 2003 and2014. Severe cold day/coldday conditions are predictedtill December.

Meanwhile, in weeklyweather forcast, MeT forecastthat maximum temperaturewill oscillate between 14degrees Celsius and 16 degrees

Celsius while minimum tem-perature may dip further andexpected to settle at two ,three degree Celsius tillDecember 30.

“Situation will improvefrom January 3 onwards whenminimum temperature willstart settling between fivedegree Celsius and Ninedegree Celsius, Delhi will wit-ness rain and thunderstormactivities on December 31 andJanuary 1 and 2,” the RegionalWeather Forecast (RWFC)Unit for Delhi said.

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Amid the continued war ofwords between the

Opposition BJP and rulingShiv Sena, a fresh controversybroke out on Saturday over thecontroversial graffiti of a roomin the Chief Minister’s officialresidence “Varsha” vacatedrecently by former chief min-ister Devendra Fadnavis thateulogised Fadnavis and pro-jected his successor UddhavThackeray in a poor light.Significantly enough, one ofthe scrawls on the wall read:“UT IS Mean”.

Within days after Fadnavisvacated the chief minister’sofficial bungalow “Varsha” inthe upmarket Malbar Hill insouth Mumbai a fortnight ago,the State Public WorksDepartment (PWD) officialsvisited the bungalow forundertaking repairs and reno-vation. They found severalscribbles on the walls of a liv-ing room of “Varsha”. A cou-ple of scrawls on a portion ofthe wall read: “SHUT UP”, “UTIS Mean”. UT apparently meantUddhav Thackeray.

Some other scribbles read:“FADNAVIS ROCK (sic) withpurportedly anti-Sena scrawls:'UT is mean', 'We are happy inany condition, unlike somegood person', and 'BJP &Sivsena were friend (maybestill are)' (sic). “ha ha BJP werock”, 'BJP & Sivsena were

friend (sic) (maybe still are)'.In a portion written above

a switch board, there is a scrib-bling naming all the membersof Fadnavis’ family and there isa comment next to it: 'We arehappy in any condition. Unlikesome good person'. In anoth-er portion of the wall, there arescribbles: ‘Devendra Rox' and'BJP Rocks'.

There is a scribble insideheart-shaped scrawl: 'BJP4ever'. In another portion ofthe wall, there is a caricature ofa woman, saying 'Mera Beta hiCM banega', while an accom-panying male caricatureresponding 'Ok'.

Meanwhile, a video of theliving room of “Varsha” wherecontroversial graffiti has beenfound went viral in the socialmedia.

On his part, Fadnavis –who in his capacity as theleader of the Opposition in theState Assembly has been allot-ted another official bungalow“Sagar (also in Malbar Hill) –has gone on record saying thatthe scribbles did not exist on

the walls of a living room of thechief minister’s official bunga-low when he handed over theplace to the PWD a fortnightago after relinquishing theCM’s office. “We checkedeach and every corner of thebungalow before handing itover to the PWD. There wereno scribbles at that time. Thisseems to be cheap and dirtypolitics resorted to defameus”.

However, no official com-ment was forthcoming fromthe ruling Shiv Sena on thedevelopment.

The latest controversyshould be seen in the contextof a controversial tweet thatAmruta Fadnavis, wife ofDevendra Fadnavis had taunt-ing the Shiv Sena president,saying one cannot be a'Thackeray' just by puttingThackeray after his name.

Earlier this month, AmrutaFadnavis had taken to to twit-ter to slam the ruling Shiv Senafor its double-standards on theissue of tree-felling in Mumbaiand Aurangabad.

Not used to taking on herhusband’s political opponentsdirectly, Amruta made a depar-ture as she took a pot shot atthe Shiv Sena for the party-con-trolled Aurangabad MunicipalCorporation’s move to hack1,000 trees to facilitate con-struction of a memorial for lateBal Thackeray at Aurangabad’sPriyadarshini Park.

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Delhi Chief Minister ArvindKejriwal on Saturday said

that his party will go throughthe 'aarop patra' (charge sheet)released by the BJP against hisgovernment and implementthe "good suggestions" given init in the next five years.

The Delhi BJP on Saturdayreleased an 'aarop patra' againstthe Aam Aadmi Party govern-ment, alleging that it misguid-ed and befooled people in thelast five years and "failed" to ful-fil the promises made duringthe 2015 assembly election.

Reacting to the charges,Kejriwal said one should keephis critics close to himself,referring to the words of poetKabir Das,'nindak niyarerakhiye'.

"We will go through the'aarop patra' of the BJP andwhatever good suggestions havebeen given in it we will imple-ment it in the next five years.We want everyone to reviewour work and point out ourshortcomings and give sugges-tions so that we can do moregood work," he said. DelhiDeputy Chief Minister ManishSisodia told reporters that theAAP welcomes the positivesuggestions made by the BJP.

"The AAP govt has workedrelentlessly in the past 5 years.We will go through the pointsmade by the BJP and take thepositive suggestions made bythem.

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Rajasthan BJP president SatishPoonia on Saturday said the

Ashok Gehlot government hasshown "insensitivity" to thedeaths of 10 infants within 48hours at a city hospital by notsending any of its ministers hereto take stock of the situation.

The death of 12 infants thisweek, two of them on Friday, inthe state government-run J KLon Hospital here rocked thecity on Friday, prompting LokSabha Speaker and local MPOm Birla to urge Rajasthan

Chief Minister Gehlot to act"sensitively" on the issue.

According to a report bythe superintendent of the hos-pital, where all the deathsoccurred, 77 children died thismonth itself till December 24,while a total of 940 infants diedthis year.

The state BJP president onSaturday reached Kota andvisited the hospital to assess thesituation and also interactedwith the attendants of infantsundergoing medical treatmentat the Neonatal (NICU) andPediatric (PICU) Intensive

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Amassive car bomb explod-ed in a busy area of

Mogadishu on Saturday, leav-ing at least 76 people dead,many of them university stu-dents, officials said.

The blast occurred at abusy intersection southwest ofthe Somali Capital where traf-fic is heavy because of a secu-rity checkpoint and a tax office.

The wounded were carriedon stretchers from the site,where the force of the explosionleft charred and twistedremains of vehicles.

Mogadishu is regularly hitby car bombings and attackswaged by Al-Shabaab Islamistmilitants allied to Al-Qaeda,but Saturday’s blast is the dead-liest in about two years.

Many of those killed arebelieved to be university stu-dents whose bus was hit by theblast. Two Turkish nationalsalso died, police said.

“The number of casualtieswe have confirmed is 76 deadand 70 wounded, it could stillbe higher,” the director of theprivate Aamin Ambulance ser-vice, Abdukadir Abdirahman

Haji, told AFP.Police officer Ibrahim

Mohamed described the explo-sion as “devastating”.

“We have confirmed thattwo Turkish nationals, pre-sumably road constructionengineers are among the dead,we don’t have details about

whether they were passing bythe area or stayed in the area,”he said.

Mogadishu’s mayor OmarMohamud Mohamed told apress conference that the exactnumber of dead was not yetknown, but that around 90people were wounded.

“We will confirm the exact number of the number ofthe dead later but it is not goingto be small, most of the deadwere innocent university stu-dents and other civilians,” hesaid.

“This was a devastatingincident because there were

many people including stu-dents in buses who were pass-ing by the area when the blastoccurred,” said another witness,Muhibo Ahmed.

Sakariye Abdukadir, whowas near the area when the carbomb detonated, said the blast“destroyed several of my carwindows”.

“All I could see was scat-tered dead bodies... Amid theblast and some of them burnedbeyond recognition.” No grouphas yet claimed the attack.

Mogadishu is regularly hitby attacks by Al-Shabaab,which has fought for morethan a decade to topple theSomali government.

The militant groupemerged from the IslamicCourts Union that once con-trolled central and southernSomalia and is variously esti-mated to number between5,000 and 9,000 men.

In 2010, the Shabaabdeclared their allegiance to Al-Qaeda.

In 2011, its fighters fled positions they once held inthe capital Mogadishu, andhave since lost many strong-holds.

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Technical failure, pilot error and weather

conditions are being consid-ered as possible causes of theplane crash in which 12 people were killed and morethan 50 injured, officials in Kazakhstan said onSaturday.

A Bek Air jet, identified as a 23-year-old Fokker 100, crashed on Friday morning, several minutes after departing from the airport of Almaty, Kazakhstan’s largest city andformer Capital.

The plane with 98 peopleon board apparently struggledto get off the ground, with itstail striking the runway twiceduring takeoff.

Residents of Almaty werecontinuing to bring flowersand candles to a makeshiftmemorial near the airportentrance and 49 people injuredin the crash were still hospi-talized.

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Hong Kong riot policearrested at least 15 people

in clashes on Saturday withdozens of pro-democracy pro-testors who targeted a mall nearthe border with China todemonstrate against mainlandtourists and shoppers.

The fresh unrest ended abrief calm after protestors hadbattled riot police in shoppingmalls and streets of commercialdistricts across the city forthree days over the Christmasperiod.

On Saturday afternoon,masked plain-clothed officerswielding batons arrested 14people, including a 14-year-oldgirl, who were protesting inside

the mall in Sheung Shui district, forcing shops to shut and harassing shoppers, an AFP reporter at the scenesaid.

Riot police charged into themall to reinforce the officersand used pepper spray to dis-perse a crowd of residents whogathered to protest against thearrests.

After the police left, someprotesters stayed on a foot-bridge linking the mall to anMTR metro station andharassed passers-by theythought were mainlandChinese tourists.

Another man was arrestedby riot police in a later incidentinside the mall, his head cov-ered in blood.

Similar protests and clash-es also took place in a mall inKowloon Bay district, where anumber of people were arrest-ed Saturday evening.

Blood and a black maskwere seen by an AFP reporteron the floor where plain-clothed police subdued pro-testers in the mall.

In recent years SheungShui has been swamped by ahuge influx of mainlandersand parallel traders seeking tocircumvent Chinese taxes,angering many residents whohave seen their local shopstransformed to cater to the vis-itors.

Hong Kong’s many mallshave become regular protestvenues as protesters try to

cause economic disruption intheir push for greater democ-ratic freedoms and policeaccountability.

The last month had seen arelative drop-off in violenceand protests after pro-democ-

racy candidates won a landslideat local elections.

But with Beijing and cityleaders refusing further con-cessions, rallies and clashesreignited over the Christmasperiod.

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The Sudanese Governmentand nine rebel groups on

Saturday signed an agreementon a roadmap towards endingthe bloody conflict in theDarfur region.

The deal outlines differentissues the parties will need tonegotiate during the latestround of talks in Juba.

“We believe this is animportant step,” said AhmedMohamed, the chief negotiatoron Darfur matters from theSudan Revolutionary Front orSRF, a coalition of nine rebelgroups involved in talks withthe Sudanese Government.

“This step no doubt willhelp the process to achieve alasting peace in Darfur and alsoit will enable the transitionalprocess in Sudan to movesmoothly without hindrances,”Mohamed told AFP.

Among the issues theyagreed need to be tackled arethe root causes of the conflict,the return of refugees andinternally displaced people,power sharing and the inte-gration of rebel forces into thenational Army.

The deal also states that theSudanese government willaddress land issues, such as thedestruction of property duringthe conflict.

Khartoum has been nego-tiating with different rebelgroups in the capital of SouthSudan for two weeks, in the lat-est round of efforts to end con-flicts in Darfur, Blue Nile andSouth Kordofan.

Rebels in these areas foughtbloody campaigns against mar-ginalisation by Khartoumunder ousted president Omaral-Bashir.

The Darfur fighting brokeout in 2003 when ethnicminority rebels took up armsagainst Bashir’s Arab-domi-nated government.

Human rights groups sayKhartoum targeted suspectedpro-rebel ethnic groups with ascorched earth policy, raping,killing, looting and burning vil-lages.

Bashir, who is behind barsfor corruption and awaitingtrial on other charges, is want-ed by the InternationalCriminal Court in The Haguefor his role in the conflict thatleft around 300,000 peopledead and 2.5 million displaced,according to the UnitedNations.

However, there is freshhope for peace after Sudan’stransitional government, led byPrime Minister AbdallaHamdok, made peace in theseareas a priority.

“We failed to achieve a last-ing peace for Darfur simplybecause the previous govern-ment was not ready to takestrategic decisions to resolvethe conflict in Darfur,” saidMohamed who has beeninvolved in previous failedpeace talks.

General SamsedineKabashi, the top SudaneseGovernment representative atthe talks said: “We are com-mitted to ending all the prob-lems in Darfur and ensuringthat we restore peace and sta-bility not only in Darfur butacross all parts of the country.”The peace process began inAugust and mediators aim toreach a final deal by February2020.

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Dozens of Lebanese protest-ers held a brief sit-in inside

a bank in Beirut and another inthe country’s south on Saturday,part of their focus on bankingpolicies they complain are inef-ficient and corrupt.

Lebanon is facing its worsteconomic crisis in decades,while protests against corruptionand mismanagement havegripped the country sinceOctober. The local currencyhas taken a nose dive, losingmore than 40 per cent of itsvalue after over 20 years ofbeing pegged to the dollar.

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Chinese lawmakers onSaturday voted to abolish

the “custody and education”punishment system, whichallowed police to hold sex work-ers and their clients withoutcharge for up to two years, statemedia reported.

Critics say the nearly three-decade-old system has little to dowith education.

“Sex workers are subjectedto police violence... Forcedlabour, compulsory testing forsexually transmitted disease...Humiliation and physical vio-lence at these centres,” said ShenTingting, director of advocacyand policy at Asia Catalyst, anNGO working with margin-alised groups in the region.Abolishing this system is a “sig-nificant positive step,” she said.

The arbitrary detention sys-tem will cease from December29, and those held at “educationcenters” should be releasedimmediately, state news agencyXinhua reported.

There has been a publicpush to close the centres eversince China’s top legislative

committee abolished its systemof “re-education through labourcamps” in 2013.

Shutting the labour camps -- introduced as a speedy way tohandle petty offenders -- endeda practice long criticised byhuman rights groups.

Yet authorities retained theright to detain sex workers andtheir clients, and in 2014 policeannounced that popular actorHuang Haibo would be held forsix months for having soliciteda prostitute. That prompted arare instance of dissent fromstate media, which questionedthe system.

Although illegal, prostitu-tion remains widespread inChina, with an estimated sever-al million sex workers.

Under current laws prosti-tutes and their clients can befined up to 5,000 yuan (USD714) and face up to 15 days ofadministrative detention.

“Sex workers’ issues seldomsits on the agenda of the gov-ernment,” said Shen, addingthat abolishing detention centersis only a small step towards safe-guarding the rights of prosti-tutes.

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The former deputy leader ofBritain’s Labour Party says

he left politics in part because of the nasty moodinside the left-wing party,which was soundly defeated ina national election earlier thismonth.

Tom Watson told theGuardian newspaper in aninterview published Saturday that he found theatmosphere inside the partyunbearable.

“The point is that the bru-tality and hostility is real andit’s day to day,” Watson said ofthe Labour Party under JeremyCorbyn’s leadership.

Watson said in Novemberthat he was stepping down asdeputy leader and would notseek re-election. He had beenin conflict with Corbyn’s sup-porters for months, in partbecause of his desire for a sec-ond referendum on whetherBritain should leave the

European Union.He said Labour never had

a clear message on Brexit dur-ing the election campaign,while Prime Minister BorisJohnson was able to win easi-ly with his “Get Brexit done”refrain.

Watson said Corbynshould have resigned severalyears ago when he lost the con-fidence of Labour legislators inParliament despite retainingthe backing of the party’s gen-eral membership.

“I thought, as soon as theleader loses the confidence ofthe parliamentary party it’salmost impossible to see howyou can form a government,”Watson said. “I thought Jeremyshould have resigned, and henearly did.”

Johnson’s ConservativeParty won a substantial major-ity in Parliament in the Dec. 12vote, leading Corbyn to say hewill resign his post when theparty chooses a new leaderearly next year.

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Ten Afghan soldiers werekilled in a Taliban attack on

a military base in the southernprovince of Helmand on Sat-urday, officials said. The Talibandug a tunnel into the base involatile Sangin district and thenblew it up before their fighterscould attack the compound,Nawab Zadran a spokesman for215 Maiwand Army Corps insouthern Afghanistan told AFP.

“There were 18 soldiers inthe base at the time of the attackproviding security for the peo-ple of Sangin. Four soldiers werewounded and four repelled theTaliban attack bravely,” he said.

Provincial spokesmanOmar Zawak confirmed theattack and said the soldierswere killed by the powerful blastinside the base. Taliban spok-esman Zabihullah Mujahid in astatement sent to media claimedresponsibility for the attack.

The attack in Helmandcomes as local and internation-al forces brace for another dead-ly winter amid US-Taliban talksto end the violence inAfghanistan.

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The Lahore High Court hasreturned Pakistan’s former

military dictator Gen (retd)Pervez Musharraf ’s applica-tion challenging the death sen-tence handed to him by a spe-cial court in a high treason case,citing non-availability of thefull bench due to winter vaca-tions.

The registrar office of theLahore High Court (LHC)returned Musharraf ’s applica-tion, which named the federalgovernment and others asrespondents, filed through hislawyer Azhar Siddique onFriday.

The 86 page-long petitionsought constitution of a fullbench of the court to quash theverdict of the three-membertribunal which sentenced the76-year-old Musharraf to deathin absentia for high treason fol-

lowing a six-year legal case onDecember 17.

The registrar of the courtreturned the application onFriday with observation thatthe full bench was not availabledue to winter vacations, theDawn reported.

A three-member benchconstituted by the LHC is set tohear on January 9 Musharraf ’smain application throughwhich he has challenged allactions against him startingfrom complaint of high treasonto establishment of the specialtrial court and its proceedings.

While returning the peti-tion against the verdict of thetribunal, the registrar asked thepetitioner to refile it in the firstweek of January, Musharraf ’slawyer Siddique said.

Musharraf, in his petition,has asked the high court to setaside the special court’s verdict,terming it illegal, without juris-

diction and unconstitutional.The petition highlighted

that the “judgement containeda mix of anomalies and con-tradictory statements”. It saidthe special court “rapidly andhurriedly wrapped up the trialwhich was far from conclusion”.

The petition stated thatthe special court “has not takeninto consideration that noactions detrimental to nation-al interest were taken by theapplicant” as “no offence ofhigh treason is made out fromthe evidence presented againsthim (Musharraf) before thespecial court”.

Musharraf had earliermoved the LHC against theconstitution of the specialcourt.

He filed an application inthe LHC, urging it to halt thespecial court from sentencinghim in absentia.

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ANavy SEAL platoon leadercontroversially pardoned

of war crimes by US PresidentDonald Trump was describedas “toxic” and “freaking evil” byveterans who served with himin Iraq, The New York Timesreported on Friday.

Video testimony providedto war crimes investigatorsand published by the newspa-per showed former members ofEddie Gallagher’s elite com-mando unit accusing him ofshooting at a 12-year-old anddiscussing the accusations thatGallagher targeted civilians.

“The guy is freaking evil,”special operator first class CraigMiller, one of the most experi-enced members of AlphaPlatoon’s SEAL Team 7, told theNaval Criminal InvestigativeService (NCIS).

Another platoon member,identified by the Times as spe-cial operator first class CoreyScott, said: “You could tell hewas perfectly okay with killinganybody that was moving.”

“The guy was toxic,” specialoperator first class Joshua

Vriens added. Gallagher deniesthe allegations, dismissingthem as smears by platoonmembers who could not matchhis performance.

The sniper and medic, now40, was originally accused ofpremeditated murder afterallegedly stabbing to death acaptured, wounded 17-year-old Islamic State fighter inIraq in May 2017.

During his 2019 trial, thecase became a cause celebre inconservative media and Trumpvoiced support for the SEAL.

The president intervenedin March to have Gallagherremoved from jail and placedin a Navy hospital, where hehad more freedom.

In July, Gallagher wasacquitted of murder by a military jury but convicted of having posed for a picture next to the body of theIS fighter.

He was demoted, and theNavy moved to remove his offi-cial SEAL pin — sometimesreferred to as a Trident pin —a signal Gallagher had lost therespect of the elite group.

But Trump intervened

again, ordering the pin andrank be restored.

“The Navy will NOT betaking away Warfighter andNavy Seal Eddie Gallagher’sTrident Pin,” Trump tweetedNovember 21.

His comments came asmultiple US news outletsreported that then-NavySecretary Richard Spencer hadthreatened to resign over theaffair, a claim he denied.

“Contrary to popularbelief, I am still here. I did notthreaten to resign,” the USNavy chief said in November,adding he did not considerTrump’s tweet to be a formalorder.

“I need a formal order toact,” Spencer told reporters.

On November 24, a Navyspokesman told AFP he could“confirm” the Navy had beennotified the White Housewould ultimately not inter-vene in the process againstGallagher. Spencer was firedthat same day over theGallagher dispute. Eventually,the NCIS began an inquiry andthe platoon members werecalled to give evidence.

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AUS military base in SouthKorea accidentally blared an

alert siren instead of a bugle call,causing a brief scare just as theUS and its allies are monitoringfor signs of provocation fromNorth Korea, which has warnedit could send a “Christmas gift”over deadlocked nuclear nego-tiations.

The siren at Camp Casey,which is near the border withNorth Korea, went off by“human error” at around 10 pmon Thursday, said Lt Col MartynCrighton, a public affairs officerfor the 2nd Infantry Division.

The operator immediatelyidentified the mistake and alert-ed all units at the base of the falsealarm, which did not interferewith any operations, Crightonsaid in an email Saturday.

The incident came a daybefore Japanese broadcasterNHK caused panic by mistak-enly sending a news alert sayingNorth Korea fired a missile

over Japan that landed in the seaoff the country’s northeasternisland of Hokkaido early Friday.

The broadcaster apologized,saying the alert was for mediatraining purposes.

North Korea has beendialling up pressure onWashington ahead of an end-of-year deadline issued by leaderKim Jong Un for the Trumpadministration to offer mutual-ly acceptable terms for a nucleardeal.

There are concerns thatPyongyang could do something

provocative if Washington does-n’t back down and relieve sanc-tions imposed on the North’sbroken economy.

The North fired two missilesover Japan during a provocativerun in weapons tests in 2017,which also included three flighttests of developmental inter-continental ballistic missiles thatdemonstrated potential capa-bilities to reach the US main-land.

Tensions eased after Kiminitiated diplomacy withWashington and Seoul in 2018

while looking to leverage hisnukes for economic and securi-ty benefits.

But negotiations have fal-tered since a February summitbetween Kim and PresidentDonald Trump broke downafter the US side rejected NorthKorean demands for broad sanc-tions relief in exchange for a par-tial surrender of its nuclearcapabilities.

In a statement issued earli-er this month, North Koreansenior diplomat Ri Thae Songasserted that the Trump admin-istration was running out of timeto salvage faltering nuclear nego-tiations, and said it’s entirely upto the United States to choosewhat “Christmas gift” it getsfrom the North.

The North also in recentweeks said it conducted two“crucial” tests at a long-rangerocket facility it said wouldstrengthen its nuclear deter-rent, prompting speculation thatit’s developing a new ICBM orpreparing a satellite launch.

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Gunfire broke out inside amall in a Denver suburb

on Friday, killing a 17-year-oldboy and causing shoppers toscatter in search of hidingplaces, police officials and awitness said.

Aurora Police Departmentspokesman Anthony Camachosaid officers were looking for atleast one suspect who wieldeda handgun in the shootingthat occurred at 4 pm inside aJC Penney store at the TownCenter at Aurora mall.

He said there was no ongo-ing threat inside the mall,which remained open exceptfor the JC Penney. Yellow policetape cordoned off one entranceto the store. “We do not believethere is a threat to the generalpublic,” he told reporters.

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Assuring that honest com-mercial decisions taken by

bankers will be protected,Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman on Saturday saidthe Government has decided totake measures to assuage con-cerns over harassment by inves-tigative agencies.

In a meeting with heads ofthe public sector banks (PSBs),also attended by the CBIDirector, she assured the

bankers that a distinctionwould be made between gen-uine commercial failures andculpability.

“Banks have gone througha slightly worrying periodwherein decision making wasgetting difficult because of fearof 3Cs. There was concernand bona fide decisions are notbeing made by banks becauseof what they would say undueharassment, uncalled forharassment happens because ofthese agencies pursuing on

cases,” Sitharaman said.The Central Bureau of

Investigation (CBI),Comptroller and AuditorGeneral of India (CAG), andCentral Vigilance Commission(CVC) are commonly referredas 3Cs.

“So, on that we’ve had aquite a few decisions, and quitea few exchanges of engagementwith the banks in the presenceof the CBI director to help eas-ing out the process. Some of theconfusion, apprehension havebeen explained by the CBIdirector,” she said. The CBI willhave discussions, and work-shops with the bank officialsfrom the level of vigilance offi-cers, senior managers to gen-eral managers to explain andeliminate apprehension fromtheir minds, she added.

The Minister also said thatthe similar exercise will bedone with other investigativeagencies like EnforcementDirectorate, Directorate of

Revenue Intelligence, andCustoms to allay fears fromtheir mind.

Sitharaman also directedpublic sector bank heads toclear long pending vigilancecases against their officials foralleged malpractices.

The banks should form apanel headed by GeneralManager and it should eithertake decision to pursue the casewith timeline or close the fileof long pending vigilance cases,she instructed.

It was decided that theCBI will develop a mechanism— as recently introduced forincome tax notices — so that itsnotices carry a registrationnumber to avoid any scope forunauthorised communicationand consequent harassment.

In line with tax depart-ment, she said, the CBI canlook at documentation identi-fication number to checkunnecessary harassment fromofficial of the investigative

agency.“While pursuing criminal

action against those responsible,the agency shall be sensitive tothe distinction between genuinecommercial failures and culpa-bility. It was also noted thatthere is need for preserving thevalue of the business enterpriseby treating it on a separate foot-ing from culpability of indi-viduals, if any,” she said.

During the meeting sheassured bankers that prudentcommercial decision-makingwould be protected.

It was also decided thatPSBs may report instances offraud through e-filing of FIRson a designated email addressof CBI so as to avoid scope ofany arbitrage due to informa-tion asymmetry.

The CBI would establish adedicated phone number onwhich any person could giveinformation regarding anyundue harassment by the inves-tigative machinery, she added.

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New Delhi: Finance MinisterNirmala Sitharaman onSaturday instructed public sec-tor banks to clear pending vig-ilance cases against their offi-cials for alleged malpractices.

The Minister also said noMerchant Discount Rate(MDR) charges will be applic-able on select modes of pay-ment from January 1.

The modes of paymentwill be notified soon,Sitharaman said after a reviewmeeting with heads of publicsector banks (PSBs). In herBudget speech in July,Sitharaman had proposed to

waive MDR charges to spurdigital payments.

“I, therefore, propose thatthe business establishmentswith annual turnover morethan �50 crore shall offer suchlow-cost digital modes of pay-ment to their customers and nocharges or Merchant DiscountRate shall be imposed on cus-tomers as well as merchants.

“RBI and banks will absorbthese costs from the savingsthat will accrue to them onaccount of handling less cashas people move to these digi-tal modes of payment,” she hadsaid. PTI

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Union Power Minister RKSingh said here on

Saturday that the newa powertariff policy, to be unveiledwithin a month, will prohibitpower companies from passingon their losses to the consumerbeyond a limit.

The policy was currentlyunder the Union government’sconsideration, Singh toldreporters here.

“The policy is pro-con-sumer and transparent,” hesaid.

“In the new policy, we arebuilding the rights of the con-sumers. Right now there is nocharter of rights of electricityconsumers,” Singh said.

“In the policy, we will givae(prescribe) standard of ser-vice. For example, if I make acall, I will get the response instipulated time. If distributioncompany violates that then a

penalty would be imposed,” theminister said.

It will also prohibit powerdistribution companies frompassing on their losses to theconsumers, he said.

“So if I (the company) aminefficient or not able to do themeter reading, billing or col-lection, I cannot pass on the

burden to consumer beyond acertain level,” he explained.

“Another thing we havealready done is if I am a gen-erating company and tied upwith another company to sup-ply power, then it is incumbentto supply power from the mostefficient plant so that the powerpurchase cost is minimum,” hesaid.

“Only when first plant isfully online, generating fullcapacity, then the second plantwill be run. The least efficientplant would not be run at all,”the minister added.

Thanks to this change,consumers are now saving �3crore per day across the coun-try, he said.

The new policy will alsoban unnecessary load shed-ding, he said.

“If you do load sheddingwithout any reason then youwill have to pay penalty to theconsumer,” he said.

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The Ministry of Finance onSaturday said that the

health of public sector bankswhich have been reeling undernon-performing assets for thelast few years has been restoredand a total of 13 banks report-ed profits in the first half of thecurrent fiscal.

Addressing the media aftermeeting the chiefs of publicsector banks, Finance MinisterNirmala Sitharaman said thatthe reform measures under-taken by the government havehelped bring the banks back toshape.

A statement from the min-istry noted that the gross NPAsof the state-run banks havedeclined from �8.96 lakh crorein March 2018 to �7.27 lakhcrore in September 2019.

“Extensive reforms carriedout by the government haverestored banks to health, withthe gross NPAs of PSBs declin-ing from �8.96 lakh crore in

March 2018 to �7.27 lakh crorein September 2019, their pro-vision coverage ratio rising totheir highest level in sevenyears, and banks returning toprofitability, with as many as 13banks reporting profits inH1FY20,” the statement said.

It further said that with theEssar Steel resolution deacision,banks have recovered �38,896crore, in addition to �4.53 lakhcrore recovered in the lastfour-and-a-half years.

It said that PSBs haveattached assets worth over �2.3lakh crore over the last threefinancial years.

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Aseven-member Group ofMinisters (GoM) has been

constituted to fast-track andoversee the implementation ofthe �69,000 crore revival planfor state-owned telecom cor-porations BSNL and MTNL,sources said.

The high-level group willexpedite smooth implementa-tion of recent decisions takenon revival of BSNL and MTNLthat includes crucial elementslike allocation of 4G spectrumand asset monetisation, officialsources told PTI.

The GoM includesDefence Minister RajnathSingh, IT and Telecom MinisterRavi Shankar Prasad, HomeMinister Amit Shah, FinanceMinister Nirmala Sitharaman,Commerce Minister Piyush

Goyal and Oil MinisterDharmendra Pradhan, theyadded.

“There are crucial elementslike business viability, work-force, issue of bonds, moneti-sation and 4G spectrum allot-ment in the revival package.The GoM will expedite andoversee the plans,” the sourcessaid.

In October this year, thegovernment had approved a�69,000 crore revival packagefor BSNL and MTNL thatincludes merging the two loss-making firms, monetising theirassets and giving VRS toemployees so that the com-bined entity turns profitable intwo years.

The Union Cabinet head-ed by Prime Minister NarendraModi had approved the plan tocombine Mahanagar Telephone

Nigam Ltd (MTNL) — whichprovides services in Mumbaiand New Delhi — with BharatSanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL)that services the rest of thenation.

Over the last few weeksboth the companies launchedtheir Voluntary RetirementScheme (VRS) plans. Nearly92,700 employees of BSNL andMTNL have opted for volun-tary retirement, which isexpected to save about Rs 8,800crore annually in salary bills forthe debt-laden telecom com-panies.

The two firms will alsomonetise assets worth �37,500crore in the next three years.

MTNL has reported lossesin nine of the past 10 years andBSNL too has been ringing inlosses since 2010.

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The Finance Ministry willorganise a conference ‘Arun

Jaitley Memorial Lecture’ onMarch 20 next year to pay trib-ute to the former finance min-ister.

Jaitley, who as the financeminister ushered in India’sbiggest tax reforms and was thechief trouble-shooter of theBJP and the Modi govern-ment, had died on August 24after battling multiple healthissues for the last severalmonths.

“The @FinMinIndia tohold Shri. Arun JaitleyMemorial Lecture. The first ofthis annual program will be onFriday, 20 March 2020. AnEconomists Conclave shall be

held the next day. Eminenteconomists shall be invited.Grateful to @PMOIndia forconsenting to launch thisevent,” Finance MinisterNirmala Sitharaman said in atweet on Saturday.

“Honoured to announcethis on Shri Jaitley’s birthday,today. Thankful to Shri.@narendramodi to have comeup with this thought and tohave given it a structure. TheLecture and the Conclave shallhopefully be a fitting tribute toShri. Arun Jaitley and hisinspiring leadership,” sheadded.

From being the BJP gov-ernment’s key political strate-gist to managing the crucialfinance portfolio, Jaitley woremany hats.

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The statistics ministry hasconstituted a 28 member

Standing Committee onStatistics (SCES) chaired by for-mer Chief Statistician PronabSen to improve quality of dataamid criticism of the govern-ment over political interference.

“The first meeting of theSCES is scheduled on January6, 2020. The agenda would bevery broad based. We willcome to know about that onlyin the first meeting nextmonth,” Sen told PTI, con-firming that an SECS has beenconstituted.

About the other members,Sen said, “The order to set upthe committee has already beenissued. But, I don’t have detailsabout other members. It has tobe seen that how many mem-bers come for the first meeting.

Earlier in March this year,expressing concerns over“political interference” in influ-encing statistical data in India,as many as 108 economists andsocial scientists had called forrestoration of “institutionalindependence” and integrity to the statistical organ-isations.

Their statement had comein the backdrop of controver-sy over revision of grossdomestic product (GDP) num-bers and withholding employ-ment data by the NationalSample Survey Organisation(NSSO).

The economist had saidthat for decades, India’s statis-tical machinery enjoyed a high-level of reputation for theintegrity of the data it producedon a range of economic andsocial parameters.

“It (statistical machinery)was often criticised for thequality of its estimates, butnever were allegations made ofpolitical interference influenc-ing decisions and the estimatesthemselves,” they had said in anappeal.

They had appealed to allprofessional economists, sta-tisticians and independentresearchers to come together toraise their voice against the ten-dency “to suppress uncom-fortable data” and impress uponthe government to restoreaccess and integrity to the public.

Earlier in November thisyear, the Ministry of Statisticsand Programme

Implementation (MOSPI) haddecided not to release theConsumer Expenditure Surveyresults of 2017-18 citing dataquality issues.

The MOSPI had also men-tioned that an expert panel hasrecommended that 2017-18would not be an appropriatefiscal to be used as a base yearfor new GDP series.

On the consumer expen-diture survey, the ministry hadearlier said that it was sepa-rately examining the feasibili-ty of conducting the nextConsumer Expenditure Surveyin 2020-2021 and 2021-22 afterincorporating all data qualityrefinements.

The ministry had issuedstatement against the back-drop of the Congress attackingthe Narendra Modi govern-ment over the NationalStatistical Office (NSO) surveywhich reportedly points to a fallin consumer spending for thefirst time in four decades in2017-18.

A media report had alsoclaimed that the survey wasapproved to be released on June19 this year but was withheldby the government agencyowing to its “adverse” findings.

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The country’s economy isgoing through a difficult

situation but not in a crisis, NitiAayog distinguished fellowRamgopal Agarwala said hereon Saturday.

The reforms like demon-etisation, Goods and ServicesTax (GST) and the Insolvencyand Bankruptcy Code (IBC)were required but hastilyimplemented, Agarwala said inhis personal view.

Speaking at the BharatChamber of Commerce here,Agarwala said, “In my person-al opinion, the country is in adifficult situation but not in acrisis.

The reforms implementedwere necessary but hastilyimplemented.”

He said demonetisationwas actually ‘note badli’(change in currency notes),not ‘note bandi’ (note ban).

“Black money was run-ning sore on the economy. Butmore thinking had to go in forimplementing demonetisation,”Agarwala said.

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The investment would createmore than 3 lakh 25 thou-

sand direct and indirectemployment opportunity.

The Group will provide 25per cent loan free investmentfor the period of 3 years.

The Group will providefree farm management trainingfor investors who grow theirbusiness through this invest-ment scheme.a

Giving a major boost toagriculture and poultry-basedstart-ups, the IB group — aChattisgarh based poultry gianthas announced its investment scheme, PARI-VARTAN GEN NXT withworth of �200 crore venturecapital fund for equity invest-ments.

The voracious move isdeliberated to create more than25,000 employment opportu-nities accountable for Indianpoultry growth and to motivate small poultrybusiness owners to adopt it as a mainstreamprofession.

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Pep Guardiola admitted ManchesterCity’s faint hopes of retaining thePremier League title were in tatters

as they blew a two-goal lead and hadEderson sent in a dramatic 3-2 defeat atWolves on Friday.

Guardiola’s side recovered fromEderson’s 12th minute dismissal to takecontrol thanks to Raheem Sterling’s dou-ble either side of half-time.

But City’s fatigued stars were unableto go the distance as Adama Traore’s goalstarted a thrilling Wolves fightback.

Raul Jimenez equalised with eightminutes to go and Matt Doherty hit thewinner to send Molineux wild in the 89thminute.

“Always the goals can be avoided butsometimes it’s tiredness. It’s a lot of min-utes to defend with 10 men,” Guardiolasaid.

“No regrets, they did absolutelyeverything to defend a result for 80 min-utes but it was difficult.”

Third placed City trail runawayleaders Liverpool by 14 points and,Jurgen Klopp’s red-hot team have agame in hand, making it hard to imag-ine the champions getting their hands onthe trophy for a third successive season.

“It is a big gap for a long time. It’s nota race if you think about it,” Guardiolasaid.

“I have been asked the question fora long time and it is the same answer. It’snot realistic to think about the title race.

“We have to think of the next gameand about winning our games.”

Wolves, flying high in fifth place,have contributed to City’s downfall morethan most and, after winning 2-0 at theEtihad Stadium in October, they celebrat-ed a top-f l ight double over the

Manchester club for the first time since1960-61.

The only blemish for Wolves were themissiles thrown from the stands whenCity celebrated their second goal, an inci-dent that prompted the FootballAssociation to launch an investigation.

Referee Martin Atkinson was seenpassing a metal hip flask to the fourthofficial as an announcement over the tan-noy warned “numerous instances ofobjects being thrown have been seen.CCTV will be used to prosecute offend-ers”.

It was a bitter night for Guardiola,whose team have lost five league gamesthis season after being beaten just four

times in the whole of last term.City had looked closer to their best

in recent wins over Arsenal and Leicester,but they could not have made a worsestart at Molineux.

When Diogo Jota escaped with awell-timed run behind the City defence,Ederson rashly raced out of his area.

The Brazilian misjudged the bounceof the ball and clipped Jota, earning a redcard. Guardiola then replaced SergioAguero with reserve keeper ClaudioBravo.

City responded by snatching thelead in controversial fashion in the 25thminute.

Riyad Mahrez made an incisive run

that ended with Leander Dendonckerstepping on the Algerian’s foot, leadingVAR to award a penalty.

That was not the end of thedrama as Sterling’s spot-kick wassaved by Rui Patricio, only for VARto intervene again as the penalty wasretaken for encroachment.

RELENTLESS PRESSURESterling shot to the same side

with his second kick, but althoughPatricio saved again, this time the wingerfollowed up to tap in the rebound.

When Sterling doubled the lead inthe 50th minute, City looked in charge.

Beating the offside trap with ease,

Sterling ran onto Kevin De Bruyne’s passand clipped a deft finish over Patricio.

But Sterling’s eventful nightwasn’t finished yet and, when hesurrendered possession carelessin midfield five minutes later,Wolves took advantage to reducethe deficit.

Traore’s blistering pace makeshim a tough opponent, so Citybacked off just enough to allow

the wing-back to blast a low drive pastBravo from 20 yards.

Wolves’ relentless pressure in theclosing stages finally forced City tocrack.

Benjamin Mendy made a mess of try-

ing to shepherd the ball out for a goal-kick and Traore stole possession.

Traore crossed for Jimenez to stabpast Bravo from close-range, leavingCity’s exhausted players on their knees infrustration.

There was even worse to come forCity in the 89th minute as Doherty tookJimenez’s backheel, slalomed past NicolasOtamendi and smashed a fine finish intothe far corner.

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SEEMA BANNED FOR 4 YRS FOR DOPINGNew Delhi: &����F��!���%������!����������������� ���������� %������� ���� ������ ���� �����������%������ ������������������ ������������������&�������������������)������������(����������� ?)�(�A� ����� �����F�� ���� ������� %��������������������������������4H���+����)������+������� ����� !����������� ��� $��������������I"�������� ��������������������%���� ���������� ������� ������� ��� ������ !����������� ��������� ���� ��� ������� %����� �������� �� ���������������� ������������������������������ )������������(�����������J�������������������������������������� ��������������������)�(�F������(����� (������������ "����� ?�(("A� ��%������� �������� �� ���� �������� ����� �� �������� �����������������������

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MUMBAI CITY EYE FIRST HOME WINMumbai: 1�����!����:!�%���� ��� �� ������ ����F����%��F�%�������������������������-�������:!� ��� ��� &������ ������ ,������ ����� ����� �����1������������������������������������������%������������������������������������������� ������ ����� %��� ��� ������ ������ �������� ���� 1����:����� ������ ��� ������� ��������� /��� ;���!���� �������� ����� ���� ������� ������ �����������������%��������%��������/���������������� ������� �� ��������� ������ ����� %��� �������� ����������-��������������%������ ������������������ ���� � ���� ����� %���� ���� ������ ���� ���������%��� �������������� �3�����

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Same look, same impressive buildand same oversized ego: Zlatan

Ibrahimovic returns to AC Milan fora final challenge seeking to provethat he remains the superstar heclaims to be.

The 38-year-old Swedish strik-er signed a six-month contractwith the struggling Italian giants onFriday vowing to help rescue theirseason.

“I’m coming back to a club Ihugely respect and to the city ofMilan I love,” he said.

“I’ll fight together with myteammates to change the course ofthis season. I will do everything tomake it happen.”

“The club and the striker haveagreed on a deal until the end of thecurrent season with an option toextend the contract for the next one,”Milan said in a statement.

The six-month deal is reportedto be worth in the region of 3.5 mil-lion euros ($3.9 million) plus bonus-es, according to press reports.

Ibrahimovic will arrive in Milanon January 2 to take his medical andjoin his teammates for his first train-ing session, the club added.

In November, Ibrahimovic andthe LA Galaxy parted ways after twoseasons following the club’s elimina-tion from the Major League Soccerplayoffs.

“Zlatan Ibrahimovic returns toAC Milan where he played a lead-ing role in the club’s history,” Milanadded.

Their previous union was a suc-cess, with an Italian title in 2011,and the trophy for top scorer inSerie A for the Swede in 2012 whenhe hit 28 goals.

He had previously won threeleague titles with Inter Milan, andtwo with Juventus, which wererevoked following the Calciopolimatch-fixing scandal.

AC Milan’s first game after thewinter break will be at home againstSampdoria on January 6.

Milan must hope that showy

Swede, never far from the headlines,will bring some punch and a win-ning mentality to the locker room.

‘FASCINATING CHARACTER’Ibrahimovic had turned out for

many of Europe’s top teams, suchas Amsterdam’s Ajax, AC Milan,Barcelona, Paris Saint-Germainand Manchester United, before hesigned for US team LA Galaxy in2018.

In his second autobiographyentitled ‘Football is me,’ published in2018 he claims to have changed thehistory of his sport.

“Now go back to baseball,” hetold his supporters at the LosAngeles Galaxy, where he was,between 2018 and 2019, the bestplayer in the North AmericanChampionship.

“I came, I saw, I conquered.Thank you LA Galaxy for makingme feel alive again.”

During his time at PSG hepromised to stay “if they replace theEiffel Tower with (his) statue”.

“I arrived like a king, I’m leav-ing like a legend,” he said after heleft the French club.

He proved in California that hestill had legs after injuries precipi-tated his departure fromManchester United in 2017.

“Lions do not recover likehumans,” he said.

But Ibrahimovic’s strength isthat he has the talent to back up hisverbal jibes.

He delighted fans with his‘kung fu’ goals, his outrageousoverhead goal against England in2012, or the slalom in 2004 withAjax, dribbling past six players tobeat the goalkeeper, which launchedhis career.

At PSG, he became the bestscorer in the club’s history, with 156goals in 180 games, before beingovertaken by Edinson Cavani.

He was twice top Serie A scor-er, in 2009 with Inter and in 2012with AC Milan, he also has therecord for the Swedish nationalteam with 62 goals.

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Liverpool manager JurgenKlopp insisted he had never

lost faith in Roberto Firminowhen the Brazilian was worriedby a lack of goals before scoringfour in three matches includingthe Club World Cup final.

Firmino, known affectionate-ly to Klopp as Bobby, met withKlopp after a worrying run of onegoal in 16 appearances.

But the German told Firminohe was in the side for more thanjust his goals, since when he’sbeen on a spree.

He followed up his goals inthe semi-final and final of theClub World Cup with a BoxingDay double in the PremierLeague leaders’ 4-0 rout of near-est challengers Leicester City.

Firmino’s goals against theFoxes led to an embrace withKlopp on the touchline atLeicester’s King Power Stadium.

“Journalists told me he had-n’t scored for a while, but thething about Bobby is that I don’tthink about scoring,” Kloppexplained.

“I think about how importanthe is, so we had a little talk andI told him. For the first time he

was a little bit concerned aboutthat fact (he had not scored in somany games), and I told him Iwas not interested in that num-ber.

“He is the connector for ourteam, he is so important for us.He is the only one who can play

the position, and he plays theposition in a very special way.

“He doesn’t have to come (fora hug) with every goal, but thistime we had a little thing where,after being calm enough to leavehim on the pitch in games that Inever thought about (his lack ofgoals), he thought he would saythank you.”

Liverpool, bidding to becrowned English champions forthe first time in 30 years, are 13points clear at the top afterthrashing Leicester.

They have now extendedtheir unbeaten run in the PremierLeague to 35 matches, withLiverpool’s last loss in the topflight a 2-1 defeat by ManchesterCity on January 3.

Liverpool, who next faceWolves at Anfield on Sunday, areclosing in on Arsenal’s all-timetop-flight record of 49 unbeatenmatches, set from May 2003 toOctober 2004.

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MC Mary Kom remained combative longafter winning the trial for Olympic

qualifiers on Saturday, slamming the con-troversy that preceded her showdown withNikhat Zareen.

The 36-year-old six-time world cham-pion prevailed 9-1 over the 23-year-old for-mer junior world champion and at the endof it all, there was no customary handshakeand the senior pro also rebuffed an attempt-ed hug from her younger rival.

“I don’t like this, you drag my name intoan unnecessary controversy and then youtry to posture. Yes, I didn’t hug her, what’sthe big deal? I did not start this, I never saidI will not fight you in a trial then why didyou drag my name,” Mary Kom said refer-ring to Zareen’s open letter to SportsMinister Kiren Rijiju specifically demand-ing a trial bout against the Manipuri legend.

“I am also a human being, I also get irri-tated. Can’t I get angry when my credentialsare questioned like this? And this wasn’t thefirst time. It has happened so many timeswith me despite the fact that no other Indianboxer has achieved what I have achieved,”she added referring to past selection con-troversies in which she has been challengedwithout much success by the likes of formerCommonwealth Games Bronze-winnerPinki Jangra.

“Perform and take my spot, who is stop-ping you? But don’t talk big without that. Ifyou do that, I will hit back. Why was thismade a media trial about me?” she fumed.

The controversy first erupted whenBoxing Federation of India President AjaySingh, after the world championships, stat-ed that Mary Kom’s Bronze was goodenough for her to get an exemption from tri-als, despite a laid down selection policy

which offered direct berths in Olympic qual-ifiers to only the gold and silver-winners.

“Did I make that announcement?Whose fault was it, was it mine? I didn’t evenknow about it, I was told and it surprisedme. Because mentally, I was prepared for atrial at that time,” she asserted.

“Once the trial was announced, did I sayI won’t come? Then why was my name takentime and again?” she asked.

The multiple-time Asian Gold-medal-list, who was given the moniker ‘MagnificentMary’ by the International BoxingAssociation (AIBA), also responded toquestions on her refusal to appear for tri-als ahead of the world championships inOctober. She was picked on the basis of herinternational performances, which includ-ed Gold medals in India Open (May) andthe President's Cup in Indonesia (July).

“I was told by the two High PerformanceDirectors Santiago Nieva and RaffaeleBergamasco that the selection would bedone on the basis of our performances. Iasked for an exemption based on that. Youask them, I didn’t make that policy,” she said.

“If they are not consistent with the pol-icy, it is not my fault. Will that also be heldagainst me?” she asked.

Questions finally shifted to her plansgoing forward and her mood changed forthe better. “I will give my best wherever Icompete. If I get a medal, great. Everyonesays that Tokyo Olympics is my last. But Iwill see how my body is. In any case, I willalways be attached to boxing, it is my life,”she said.

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Delhi predictably got six pointsbut lost three wickets in their

pursuit of a meagre 84-run target,failing to log home a bonus point intheir third group A Ranji Trophyleague encounter against Hyderabadat Arun Jaitley stadium on Saturday.

Delhi now have seven pointsfrom three games and are current-ly placed 12th in the combinedpoints list of the 18 teams in groupA and B. Hyderabad are second lastwith three defeats in as many games.

However, Delhi’s problems willcompound after Saturday’s match asthey will miss the services of ShikharDhawan, Navdeep Saini and IshantSharma when they next face Punjabin an away game. Punjab are cur-rently on top of the elite table with17 points from two wins with bonuspoints.

While Dhawan and Saini willnot be playing the next game due tointernational commitments, Ishantwill not be available in the thirdgame as a part of workload manage-ment programme. Another pacerPawan Suyal has a muscle tear in hisgroin and could be out of RanjiTrophy for good.

Worse, one of the replacementseamer Kuldeep Yadav was set tomake his debut and now finds him-self embroiled in a controversyafter allegedly behaving inappropri-ately with a female hotel staff onChristmas day in Kolkata.

DDCA are now in a spot to pre-pare a good team with not enoughready replacements.

The match showed lack ofability in adverse conditionswith next best score afterDhawan’s 140 is Anuj Rawat’s29.

Starting the day at 24 forno loss, Delhi crawled to thetarget in 27.5 overs but only afterlosing opener Dhawan (21), hispartner Kunal Chendela (6) andNitish Rana (6). Once Chandelaedged one to Kola Sumanth behindthe stumps off Mohammed Siraj,Delhi’s chances of getting sevenpoints from the game evaporated.

Regular skipper Dhruv Shorey

(32 not out) played for himself in hispursuit to get some form back witha lot of time at disposal in the com-pany of Jonty Sidhu.

UP THRASH SAURASHTRA��7���� Uttar Pradesh thrashedSaurashtra by an innings and 72runs, even as Test specialist

Cheteshwar Pujara failed mis-erably with the bat in thesecond innings of the EliteGroup B match.

Uttar Pradesh hadbowled out Saurashtra for

331 in their first essay andthen posted a mammoth 523

on the board, courtesy a 165 by mid-dle-order batsman Mohammed Saif.

Thanks to Saif ’s century, UttarPradesh managed to grab a massive192-run first innings lead.

When play resumed on thefourth and the final day, at the SCAStadium in Khanderi, Saurashtra

needed to bat their skins out to savethe game and evade defeat.

However, Uttar Pradesh skipperSaurabh Kumar spun his webaround the opposition batsmenand led the side to an emphatic vic-tory.

Kumar, a slow left-arm ortho-dox bowler, returned with match-winning figures of 6-55, as histeam shot out Saurashtra for 120and gained even the bonus point.

In the other two matches,Himachal Pradesh took the firstinnings lead and secured threepoints, whereas Karnataka had to becontent with one point.

In the game at Indore, MadhyaPradesh took the first innings leadagainst Tamil Nadu and collectedthree points.

BENGAL SETTLES FOR 3 POINTS��������Bengal had to be satisfiedwith three points by virtue of their

first innings lead over Andhra intheir group A fixture.

Both the teams agreed for adraw in the post-lunch sessionafter Bengal reached 46 for no lossin 21 overs. The hosts rued missingout on securing an outright winafter the match saw several inter-ruptions because of bad light andrain in the first three days.

Opener CR Gnaneshwarbecame the saviour for Andhra ashe remained unbeaten on 74, bat-ting through the third and fourthdays before the visitor’s inningsfolded for 181 after Ishan Porel dis-missed Y Prithvi Raj (four) in the70th over, at the stroke of lunch.

ODISHA ROUT UTTARAKHAND���������The pace bowling duo ofBasant Mohanty and SuryakantPradhan shared eight wicketsbetween them as Odisha trouncedUttarakhand by 10 wickets at hometo complete a hat-trick of wins.

This was Odisha’s third bonus-point win in a row as they leadgroup C by with 21 points in theirkitty, five points clear of secondplaced Jharkhand.

A superlative 110 by man-of-the-match Shantanu Mishra helpedOdisha secure a tall 117-run firstinnings lead as Uttarakhand, resum-ing the final day on 54 for four intheir second essay, folded for 195 in52.1 overs at the DRIEMS Groundhere.

Suryakant Pradhan grabbed5/63, while the experiencedMohanty, who had struck 6/17 inthe first innings, claimed 3/76 enroute to a match-haul of nine wick-ets to lead Uttarakhand’s collapse.

Chasing a paltry 60, Odishawere steered home by ShantanuMishra (29 not out) and GovindaPoddar (26 not out) after openerDebasish Samantray retired hurt onseven.

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Ishant Sharma was told about hisproblems by many but there was

only one Jason Gillespie who provid-ed him the solutions that he wasseeking for the longest time.

Ishant also feels that “bettercommunication” with years of expe-rience between him, MohammedShami and Umesh Yadav alsoworked wonders for country’s finestpace unit under Virat Kohli’s cap-taincy.

“The problem in India is thateverybody tells you about the prob-lem but no one tells you the solution.Now knowing the solution is animportant aspect,” Ishant toldreporters during an interaction at theFeroz Shah Kotla after the RanjiTrophy encounter againstHyderabad.

“I have realised that may be oneor two people worked on the solu-tions. Problem everyone can tell youbut one who is a good coach will tellyou about solutions,” said the veter-an of 96 Tests and 292 wickets.

So what was his problem? “A lotof people would tell me that I needto increase the pace of my fullerdeliveries. No one told me how to dothat? It was when I went to playcounty cricket, Jason Gillespie gaveme the solution,” said Ishant, whoplayed for Sussex under Gillespie’scoaching.

“Gillespie told me that in orderto increase pace in fuller deliveries,you don’t just release it but hit thedeck so that it should target the kneeroll,” he said.

Ishant also explained how theformer Australian pacer changed histraining methods to get betterresults.

“Like first, I would put cones (ongood length spots) during nets. Butthat’s okay for a youngster, whowants to get his areas right but forsomeone like me, I need to see wheremy ball is finishing rather thanwhere it’s pitched. Practice is almostsame but outcome is different.Gillespie’s instructions ensured thatmy fuller delivery is faster now.”

Ishant played a lot of Testmatches under Mahendra SinghDhoni and there were six or sevenfast bowlers being rotated at thattime, compared to three or four now.

“Look during Dhoni’s time,some of us didn’ have that much ofexperience. Also the fast bowlerswould be rotated a lot, that’s also areason that consistency as a groupcouldn’t be achieved.

“If you know that you are a poolof 3-4 fast bowlers (now with JaspritBumrah), that increases communi-cation. Earlier, there would be 6 to7 bowlers, communication wasn’tthere.

“But when Virat took over, wehave all by then gained fair amountof experience and that helped. Nowwhen you play more, stay in thatdressing room more, spend moretime with team compared to fami-ly, discussions are free and frank.And then you start enjoying whenyou go out there in the middle. That’sa different feeling,” said the man whowill be the second pacer after KapilDev to complete 100 Tests.

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While it is true thatgreatness in moviescontinues to surprisethe viewer even ifaccompanied by a

degree of predictability, much of cine-ma’s brilliance in the last decade couldhave been missed had the eye persist-ed with the obvious. Though there isstill a year to go in the second decadeof the twenty-first century, the pastnine years have more or less definedwhat people would think when recall-ing films from this period.

The sheer volume of change wit-nessed since 2010 by the mediumwhen it comes to exhibition and dis-tribution formats as well as the audi-ence right from the unlimited choice,the consumption pattern and muchmore was last seen decades ago.These epoch-making changes thatinclude the arrival of OTT andstreaming services delivered nothingless than a body-blow to the way welooked at cinema. It wouldn’t beentirely incorrect to point out thatthe transition witnessed in the ten-years from 2010-19 is similar to theera when the talkie replaced the silentfilm or the video onslaught of the late1970s and the 1980s. These develop-ments transformed not only the con-tent but also left a long-lastingimpact on the narrative within main-stream cinema.

The second decade of the new mil-lennium also witnessed something

similar. Although mirroring the timesbefore, a much eclectic lot defined thestandout films, a few amongst themthat would probably redefine the term‘great’, but what truly separated it fromthe previous times was the way thecontent was consumed that made itnearly impossible for the trade or thecritics to guess what “films” wouldmean to the viewer at the next turn.

The last few years could well bedefined as one where much of themainstream attempted to adapt thetenets of independent cinema andfocused more on things such as the set-ting, a more naturalistic style of dialogueand nuances more than ever before. Thiskind of cinema is also known as ‘mum-blecore’ in the west, where the narrativeprimarily revolves around stories emerg-ing from personal experiences of film-makers, and usually, the protagonists arein their 20s or 30s.

In the initial years, this decade wasdominated by the typical Bollywoodcommercial cinema where films featur-ing the likes of the three Khans —

Salman, Shah Rukh and Aamir —Akshay Kumar, Ajay Devgn and HrithikRoshan ruled not only the box office butalso the projects that got greenlit. Filmssuch as Dabangg (2010), Golmaal-3(2010), Housefull (2010), Bodyguard(2011), Ra.One (2011), Don -2 (2011), EkTha Tiger (2012), Agneepath (2012),Dhoom 3 (2013), Krrish 3 (2013), ChennaiExpress (2013), PK (2014), Kick (2014),Happy New Year (2014), Prem RatanDhan Payo (2015), and Dilwale (2015),to name a few barely offered anythingsubstantially fresh or different fromwhat had previously been seen.

It’s not like the top male stars did notattempt something out of the ordinary.Intriguingly, the biggest box office hit atthe beginning of this decade, My Nameis Khan (2010) featured two of the lead-ing commercial stars, Shah Rukh Khanand Kajol, and was directed by KaranJohar, probably the last of the ‘commer-cial’ filmmakers in the most real senseof the word, and was as much of a depar-ture from the conventional format aspossible while still remaining within therealm of popular Hindi film.

The film followed the life of RizwanKhan (Shah Rukh Khan), a middle-classMuslim from Mumbai who hasAsperger’s syndrome, and moves to SanFrancisco to live with his brother,Zakir (Jimmy Shergill) after the deathof his mother. In the United States,Rizwan marries Mandira (Kajol), asingle mother, but following the deathof their son Sameer as a result of anti-Muslim hate crime in the aftermath ofthe 9/11 attacks, he takes off a cross-country mission to meet the USPresident George W. Bush to tell himthat even though his name is “Khan”, heis not a terrorist. Shah Rukh Khan’sattempt to infuse some geopolitical real-ism into mainstream Bollywood in MyName is Khan remained confined to hisprevious efforts such as Swades (2004)or Chak De! India (2007) but the film’ssuccess was not meant to be a game-changer as it was still a mainstream filmwith a slight difference that was meantto stand out but not inspire more suchfilms.

For what it’s worth, his contemporarieslike Aamir and Salman, as well as

Ajay Devgn and Akshay Kumar alsoexperimented within the parameters ofpopular cinema. In 2011, Kumar featuredin Patiala House where he played a sec-ond-generation Indian in the UnitedKingdom who gives up on his dream toplay for the English cricket team after hisfather (Rishi Kapoor) was not given achance due to racism. In a marked depar-

ture from the kind of roles he wasfamously associated with, Patiala Houseoffered a much-restrained Kumar.

Similarly, Devgn, too, had done hisbit of experimentation after playing a desiOthello in Vishal Bhardwaj’s adaption inOmkara (2006), played a small-townbusinessman pushed to do the unimag-inable to protect his family in the Hindiremake of the Malayalam remakeDrishyam (2015).

But the biggest successes that A-liststars enjoyed in the name of trying some-thing unfamiliar, and by extensionsomewhat offbeat while checking all theboxes of a standard Bollywood entertain-er was witnessed by Salman and AamirKhan with Bajrangi Bhaijaan (2015),Sultan (2015) and Dangal (2016).Unfortunately, the curse of the A-listmale star in Hindi cinema continuedwhere barring a handful of such excur-sions, the Khans, Kumar, Devgn, and toa large extent, Roshan, too, persisted withthe tried and tested.

In a loosely formed 1975 autobiog-raphy, the seminal artist Andy Warholexpressed that while “they always saytime changes things, but you actuallyhave to change them yourself.” A senseof this could also be seen in the way the“new” Bollywood emerged from withinthe confines of the way things stood. Ifon the one hand, the likes of Shah RukhKhan tried to do the same thing some-what differently in My Name is Khan, thenew storytellers attempted to do differ-ent things in way that not only the tra-ditional audience of popular Hindi cin-ema but also the punditocracy wouldfind it easy to accept.

In 2010, Vikramaditya Motwane’sassured debut in Udaan, Dibakar

Banerjee’s Love Sex Aur Dhoka, andManeesh Sharma’s Band Baaja Baaraatset the foundation of things to come inthe years ahead. Udaan looked at thesmall-town in a new light in Bollywood,Love Sex Aur Dhokha inculcated thetenet of found footage genre in the typ-ical Bollywood psyche, and Band BaajaBaaraat pitched the smaller subset oflocalities in larger cities. Even thoughsuch films were made within the purviewof the operating system, they alsoacknowledged the changing mood of theviewer.

The access to world cinema, andmore importantly, American and glob-al television shows, initially via piratedDVDs followed by online piracy and laterthe arrival of Internet streaming services,had made the standard viewer moreaware, and as a result, far more demand-ing. They made their intention clear as

the decade progressed, and one can clear-ly see how the typical fare was rejectedas the years progressed. The viewer firstbegan to invest in new stars such asRanbir Kapoor, Ranveer Singh as well asnew genres of storytelling that didn’tdepend on any A-list male superstar. In2011, the top-10 grossing Hindi films fea-tured two films each of Salman Khan(Bodyguard, Ready) and Shah RukhKhan (Ra.One, Don-2), one each ofHrithik Roshan (Zindagi Na MilegiDobara) and Ajay Devgn (Singham) butthe bigger headline-grabbing news layelsewhere.

With The Dirty Picture and No OneKilled Jessica, Vidya Balan had twofilms that broke the �100-crore barrier,and most of the top acting honours wentto Ranbir Singh for Rockstar. In the sameyear, Anand L. Rai’s Tanu Weds Manu,followed by Anurag Kashyap’s gangstersaga Gangs of Wasseypur (2012) and thenAbhishek Verman’s 2 States (2014) shift-ed the spotlight on the kind of themes,genres, and narrative that would occu-py a better part of popular Hindi film-making.

In a marked departure, the old guardwas slowly challenged by the next

wave both in front as well as behind thecamera unlike the way it used to previ-ously happen. This challenge was notlimited to filling in some shoes, some-thing that the trade pundits are on thelookout for as this helps the cycle to con-tinue, but the young male and femalestars tried to bridge the gap between theconventional and the outliers. While onthe one hand, Ranveer Singh, RanbirKapoor and Varun Dhawan slowlystarted to dominate the box-office morefrequently than the ‘seniors’ and in 2017with Irrfan’s Hindi Medium making over�300 crore, the transformation wasmore or less in place. Despite havingclearly modelled their careers on starsof the generation that preceded them,what made these three young male starssomewhat different was their willingnessto facilitate a meeting point of the bestof art-house and the customary single-screen outlook.

In many ways, Ranveer’s casting inMotwane’s Lootera (2013), a loosereworking of O. Henry’s The Last Leaf,and later Ranbir Kapoor’s presence inAnurag Kashyap’s ambitious but doomedBombay Velvet (2015) was nothing lessthan inspired. Here were two of the mostprominent young Bollywood stars thatwere drawn from the same blueprintsince the era of Dilip Kumar-DevAnand-Raj Kapoor and they were notcompromising on their stardom to work

with filmmakers that, in the manner ofspeaking did not hail from their world.These were set-ups that worked for thebusiness-driven mentality of old Hindicinema with enough of the newBollywood blood that did feel the needto resort to the standard practice of pack-ing films.

This was the same time when unpar-alleled cinematic experiences such asRitesh Batra’s The Lunchbox (2013),Anand Gandhi’s Ship of Theseus (2013),Rajat Kapoor’s Ankhon Dekhi (2014) andNeeraj Ghaywan’s Masaan (2015) wereenjoying global acceptance. One couldbe mistaken into believing that the likesof Ranbir Kapoor and Ranveer Singhwere transporting some of the same pas-sion that possessed these indie-spiritedfilmmakers to puck Bollywood films.However, the failure of Lootera andBombay Velvet at the box office pushedthings to a corner.

Post-Bombay Velvet, Ranbir Kapoorfound himself in the same spot where themainstream rejection of Rocket Singh:Salesman of the Year (2009), a film wherethe ‘hero’ tried to transcend the bound-aries of archetypal Hindi film leadingman syndrome had put him. Kapoordecided to shift to safer projects — readImtiaz Ali’s Tamashaa (2015), KaranJohar’s Ae Dil Hai Mushkil (2016),Rajkumar Hirani’s Sanju (2018) — andRanveer Singh also took up what thetrade labeled sure-shot hits — GoliyonKi Rasleela Ram-Leela (2013), Gunday(2014), Dil Dhadakne Do (2015), BajiraoMastani (2015), Befikre (2016), andPadmaavat (2018).

The surprising success of HindiMedium initiated the era of the

‘small hero’ and did more than everbefore to breakaway from what Bombaycinema meant when it pitched the lead-ing man. The last few years saw a flur-ry of films featuring leading men thatdidn’t necessarily fall in the ‘superstar’bracket, yet, struck gold in more waysthan one. Movies like M.S. Dhoni: TheUntold Story (2016), Sonu Ki Titu KiSweety (2018), Stree (2018), Andhadhun(2018) and Badhaai Ho (2018), Uri: TheSurgical Strike (2019) and Chhichhore(2019) were not only bereft of the pres-ence of the so-called A-List male star butalso gave a new meaning to the term‘blockbuster.’ The acceptance of thesmaller film without the customaryfrills was a portent of a long-overduechange in the way projects were con-ceived and executed in the world ofBombay cinema.

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The Ministry of External Affairs(MEA), led by the suave andsophisticated S. Jaishankar,organised two significant discus-sions on the Indo-Pacific region

— the 6th Indian Ocean Dialogue andDelhi Dialogue XI — in New Delhi onDecember 13-14. The theme for the firstevent was ‘Indo-Pacific: Re-imagining theIndian Ocean through an ExpandedGeography’, while the second one focusedon ‘Advancing Partnership in Indo-Pacific’.The MEA called the exercise an attempt tobuild on the “growing recognition of theIndo-Pacific concept in strategic and aca-demic circles within the region and beyond”.

The two high-profile events almostcoincided with a ‘Special Talk’ by CleoPaskal, an Associate Fellow at London-based Chatham House (also known as theRoyal Institute of International Affairs) andexpert on all things Indo-Pacific. Organisedby Global Counter Terrorism Council, aDelhi-based think tank, Paskal highlight-ed “strategic shifts in the Pacific islands” and“how they may impact India’s outreach inSouth Pacific”.

What explains the growing curiosity onIndo-Pacific? Partly, the interest is spurredby economic/financial reasons. As JNUVice-Chancellor M. Jagadesh Kumar writesin the ‘Foreword’ of ChintamaniMahapatra’s recent book, Rise of the Indo-Pacific: Perspective, Dimensions andChallenges: “If there’s one region in theworld where nearly half of the world’s pop-ulation resides and facilitates significantseaborne trade on the sea lanes of commu-nications with a coalesced Gross DomesticProduct (GDP) more than that of eitherUSA or the European Union, then it is theIndo-Pacific region.”

Prof Mahapatra, in the same book,traces three major developments that led toemergence of the concept of ‘Indo-Pacific’that “doesn’t replace but subsumes thegeopolitical entity, hitherto known as the‘Asia-Pacific’”. The newest development, hewrites, is “the rise of India as an econom-ic powerhouse and influential political actorin world affairs, especially in Asian affairs”.Also, to India’s advantage is the fact that itis strategically located between two globaloil supply ‘choke points’ — the MalaccaStrait and the Strait of Hormuz — forcingother major powers to seek maritimesecurity cooperation with it.

The second important development isChina’s perceptible emergence as a revision-ist power in the region. China, in recentyears, has abdicated the façade of its“peaceful rise” in favour of an assertive for-eign policy and use of military strength toassert its sovereignty over ‘disputed’ islandsin the South China Sea. China has nowcome to be seen as a new “bully” and a“pushy hegemon”, especially in its neighbor-hood. “Everyone is really scared at the pos-sibility of China turning the island into amilitary base,” said Paskal, adding: “A mil-itary installation would carry strategic andsymbolic significance. Some Americanofficials believe China’s efforts in the regionecho the period before and during WorldWar II, when Japan wrested control of islandassets, which were won back in turn byAmerican and Australian troops in bloodybattles.”

Paskal further reminded that it was alsoa matter of feasibility. “China goes wherethere is value and interest. With the UnitedStates pulling back in much of the worldunder President Donald Trump’s ‘AmericaFirst’ policy, Beijing is often knocking ondoors left open.”

Along with the rise of China and India,the third important development is “the ero-sion of self-confidence of a regional group-ing in the Asia Pacific that had emerged asa leader in regional multilateralism” —ASEAN (Association of Southeast AsianNations). China’s emergence as an assertivepower threatening to change the status quocreated new challenges to this grouping.ASEAN simply failed to develop a cohesiveand coherent policy vis-à-vis China, thanksto uneven Chinese influence on its mem-ber-states.

Paskal explained the reasons behindChina’s endless appetite for islands, espe-cially in South China Sea. “If you have oneisland, you get 200 nautical mile area aroundexclusively,” she said, further explaining howat the end of the Cold War, “the UK andthe US realised that this region was not thecentre of the map and they pulled back bygiving the strategic control to Australia andNew Zealand”. This traditional Americanindifference, which has aggravated underTrump’s ‘America First’ policy, along withthe much weakened and divided ASEAN,has opened doors for India. What alsoseems to be unwittingly helping NewDelhi is that there is now a growing back-lash against China’s “debt-trap diplomacy”not just in South Asia but in the widerworld. This rethink has resulted in coun-tries seeking to renegotiate loan agreementsor even scrap some of the Chinese projects.This backlash might help India regain someof the losses it had incurred in the past dueto its defensive foreign policy.

Despite the Trump administration’stransactional approach to foreign policy,which has been troubling not just India butalso its strategic allies and partners, theIndo-American relationship is movingahead quite appreciatively. President Trumphas further deepened the already vibrantrelationship by turning it strategic in a sig-nificant way. More significantly, the US-China trade war promises to give Indiamore elbow room to seek its rightful placein the region.

In all this, India has a constant andperennial support in Japan. For more thana decade now, Tokyo has actively sought toplay a proactive role in the region whereIndia is one of the key partners. Strategicexpert Brahma Chellaney, in one of his arti-cles, emphasises that the US-India-Japanrelationship would not just help achieve astable balance of power in the Asia-Pacificregion but also check China’s neo-colonialtendencies. “This triangular relationship isgoing to be critical in shaping an open,inclusive, and rules-based Indo-Pacific,” hewrote.

Paskal, too, underlined the strategicimportance of the region when sheemphasised that “if we understand whatis happening in Pacific, we can understandwhat is happening at other locations” ofthe world. “It is also the front line for anywar between America and Asia,” shesummed up.

As a series of recent events in NewDelhi suggest, India is finally gearing up toplay the Great Indo-Pacific Game. Unlikethe previous UPA government, which wasshy about even using the term ‘Indo-Pacific’in its diplomatic/strategic discourse, theModi government has clearly articulated itspolicy towards the region. The dice is beingrolled, albeit slowly, by India, the US andJapan to create a stable balance of power inthe Indo-Pacific region and ensure that noone nation, especially the one prone to bea bully in its neighborhood, dictates itsauthoritarian writ in this part of the world.

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Nestled somewhere in-between the visible andnot so apparent

changes lay one of the foremostmetamorphosis that took placein this decade that could wellbe the one singular most sig-nificant transformation. Thechange in the way the soloheroine film was viewedunderwent a major overhaul,and for the first time, the so-called women-centric genreceased to exist as perBollywood’s parameters.Following the success of TheDirty Picture, Vidya Balan hadcome to be seen as a brandgood enough to sell a film butprojects such as Kahaani(2012) or Mary Kom (2014)and Queen (2014) withPriyanka Chopra and Kangana

Ranaut in the lead respective-ly were rare and in-between.

The trade did not see thesefilms in the same light as mid-level productions or ‘smaller’films and consequently didnot see it as a worthy businessproposition to invest moreregularly. This changed a littlewith Tanu Weds Manu Returns(2015) and Piku (2015), whichwere amongst the year’s topbox office earners. Althoughboth Kangana Ranaut andDeepika Padukone were themainstays of Tanu Weds ManuReturns and Piku, the formerwas billed as an ensemble castand the latter also featuredAmitabh Bachchan and Irrfan(read males) to ‘shoulder’ it.The pundits might have beenquick to take away the credit

from leading ladies for being amajor contributor to the com-mercial success of the film, butit was a matter of time beforethis mentality was done away.

The steady increase in thenumber of such films pushedthe sub-genre forth, and by2017, it became as regular asany other genre. A single year,2017, saw films like Phillauri,Anaarkali of Aarah, NaamShabana, Begum Jaan, Mom,Lipstick Under My Burkha,Indu Sarkar, Simran, Haseena,and Tumhari Sulu viewed in adifferent manner by the tradeas well as the audiences.Barring the odd exception,almost the entire lot was treat-ed as a standard businessproposition, and as a result, thepublicity or the number of

screens they played on was dif-ferent than the typical way theindustry approached thesefilms in the past.

The ‘women-centric’ genredid away with the myth of notbeing able to rake in the bigbucks, and in 2018, two filmsthat had women as the sololead breached the year’s tophits with Raazi bringing inover �200 crores on an approx-imate budget of �40 crore,and Hichki collecting morethan �200 crores on an esti-mated modest budget of �20 crores.

In a time when the audi-ence was not only spoilt forchoice but was also willing toshell out money to access con-tent, traditional films across theworld had to offer something

exceptional to retain the view-er. The arrival of Netflix andAmazon Prime and scores ofsimilar platforms where cen-sorship was not the issue andthe discerning audience couldeven dictate the nature of con-tent has given cinema the joltit needed to change. The juryis still out on whether filmshave managed that or not, butif there is someone who is final-ly being heard, it’s the averageticket-paying viewer.

The writer is a film histo-rian and author of Dark Star:

The Loneliness of BeingRajesh Khanna; Qayamat Se

Qayamat Tak: The Film ThatRevived Hindi Cinema and

Rajneeti: A Biography ofRajnath Singh

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Saving “Planet Earth” is anurgent need of the day. How

fast our environment is chang-ing is remarkably unbeliev-able. But how much we aredoing to save it is too little.Therefore, debating semanticsmay seem useless when we aretalking about who is pollutingand how much that is affectingthe planet and its inhabitants.

A new climate debate hasbeen started by Greta TintinEleonora Ernman Thunberg,the teenage climate activistfrom Sweden. She demands animmediate solution from theworld leaders to what shedescribes as “climate crisis”.When she first heard aboutglobal warming as an eight-year old, she says, she thought:“That can’t be happening,because if that was happening,then the politicians would betaking care of it.” But it did nothappen the way she thought itout to be. Barely after eightyears, she had to send a wake-up call to the world leaders.Inspired by American civilright activist Rosa Parks, whofought for equal rights forAfrican Americans in the1950s, Greta has decided totake the climate debate to theworld stage. Apart from Parks,she has drawn inspiration from

teenage activists of Florida(US), who all were protestingto put an end to gun violence.And Greta did it really. OnAugust 2018, instead of goingto school, she set alone outsidethe Swedish Parliament build-ing with a banner displaying,“School Strike For Climate”(Skolstrejk for Klimatet).

Greta’s only objective thenwas to make politicians takenotice and act to stop globalwarming. From a solo cam-paigner, she has soon becomea mega star. She has a “missionimpossible” ahead, which shewants to make it simply “pos-sible”.

She has started a historicjourney. Once her strike cameup in public, it has made tensof thousands of students fromaround the world joined her#FridaysForFutureStrike. Hercall was globally received bystudents by skipping schools onFridays to protest against cli-mate change. This has gener-ated public consciousness notonly in Sweden but also acrossthe world. Her climate actionjourney today is known as“Fridays for Future Movement”.Further, the climate cam-paigners from different parts ofthe world came together inMarch 2019 to coordinate the

first Global Strike for Climate.Nearly 1.6 million people fromdifferent corners of the globetook part in this strike. Besides,she has addressed some of theparliaments across Europe.Meanwhile, she is declared asthe youngest ever “TimePerson of the Year” award forher invaluable contribution toprevent global warming. Shehas even been nominated for aNobel Peace Prize. Her historicspeech at the UN ClimateAction Summit on September23 this year draws a sharp line:“This is all wrong… How dareyou?... You have stolen mydreams and my childhood withempty words… You are failingus… And if you choose to failus, I say: We will never forgiveyou.” This is more than enoughto all our leaders. They haverightly got the message.

How does her campaignaffecting all of us? Obviously,her climate activism has spreadenvironmental awarenessmuch beyond the realm ofpolitical leaders and their elitediscussion forums. Second, hergatherings and speeches arebeing listened to by peoplecarefully. Third, for the firsttime a person of her age hascome out to stop degradationof the planet. Fourth, she has

gathered support from millionsof children of her age andbeyond. Fifth, her meetings,discussions and dialogues atthe top global forums havemade children realise that itdoes not matter how small oryoung you are, one can makea change. Finally, the mainhighlight of her strike is thatyoung people think that politi-cians are not doing enough tostop the climate crisis. Andhence, the environment move-ment led by her made it clear

that now these young peoplewant to pressurise the politi-cians to act.

The global climate ischanging much faster nowthan it has at any point of timein the last 2000 years. In fact “astage is already reached wherethe climate change is causing300,000 deaths every year andthe ill-effects continuing couldlead to 500,000 deaths a year by2030. The change is adverselyaffecting 300 million peopleand 310 million more are like-

ly to add to this category in thenext 25 years and 75 millionextra people will be displacedby the climate change” (Singhand Kahlan, 2014).

Today, a new category of“climate refugees” is beingadded to the millions of generalrefugees to many countries. Inthe past, we have heard aboutrefugees those who are peopleforced to migrate due to war,violence, ethnic conflict andprobably natural disasters.Currently, many people areneeded to be relocated as theclimate is changing very fast.The ecosystems are changingso quickly and it is unprece-dented that many in Africa andin some parts of Asia forinstance are failing to recognisewhat they once call as theirhomelands.

UN efforts are laudable. Itwas in 1992, the world leadersthose who have gathered at theRio Earth Summit adopted aseries of environmental agree-ments, including the historicUN Framework Convention onClimate Change (UNFCC).Since then the world body isstriving hard, but nothing con-crete has come up so far.

What lies ahead is that ourfuture is bleak. All the youngpeople are inheriting a planet

which is fast becoming unin-habitable. What Greta is argu-ing is a pure climate emer-gency. She said: “The science isclear and all we children aredoing is communicating andacting on that united science.Now political leaders in somecountries are starting to talk.They are starting to declare cli-mate emergencies andannouncing dates for so-calledclimate neutrality. But onlysetting up these vague, distantdates and saying things whichgive the impression of thatthings are being done and thataction is on the way, will mostlikely to do harm than good”(speech at the NationalAssembly in Paris, July 23,2019). This simply brings outthe hollow promises of ourleaders just to make us feel thatactions are on its way.

It is time to act, not just tospeak. It is time for politiciansto listen to what scientists havesaid. We as young citizens ofthis planet have all the right tourge our leaders to changewhat they can. Therefore, donot postpone it as simply cli-mate talk. It is our turn torethink about our survival only.

(The writer is a young cli-mate thinker based in Delhi)

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�������� ��� ��������� �!!���� ����"��#The Rohingyas of Myanmar

are recorded as one of themost persecuted communitiesin the world. Though theyhave been living in Myanmar'sRakhine province for decades,they have been continuouslysingled out as foreigners or out-siders by the State. That's notenough, a systematic state-sponsored violent campaignwas launched against them in2017; some call it "genocide”,others term it as “ethnic cleans-ing”.

Nearly seven lakh of themhave crossed over to neigh-bouring Bangladesh with ahope to escape from torture,rape and horrendous killings.Today they are no less a “Nolands men”; they are facing sur-vival threat even as refugees inBangladesh. It is really intrigu-ing to see how the issue of suchglobal magnitude has beenhandled by the democraticregime of Myanmar led byformer Nobel Peace LaureateAung San Suu Kyi.

The first set of atrocitiesagainst the Rohingyas tookplace in October 2016 andended in January 2017. Thesecond assault on them beganin August 2017. And theseatrocious campaigns againstthe Rohingyas finally led to thelargest human exodus in theAsian continent since the his-toric Vietnam War that tookplace between November 1,1955 and April 30, 1975.

Currently, the Rohingyaissue has reached the heart ofthe International Court ofJustice (ICJ). And a Suu Kyi-ledteam has concentrated itsdefence on two counts: First,those atrocities may have beencommitted but those did notindicate genocide under inter-national conditions, and sec-ond, that Gambia illegitimate-ly lodged a complaint againstMyanmar on behalf of theOrganization for IslamicCooperation (OIC). The legalteam of Suu Kyi and theGovernment of Myanmaradvocated that it is unheard offor an international organisa-tion or a non-governmentalorganisation to submit a case tothe ICJ by a non-affected coun-try. Further the legal defenceteam made it clear that manyof the OIC’s 57 membernations have not yet ratified the1948 Genocide Convention.And some of them have mis-erably failed to safeguard orprotect the ethnic or religiousminorities in their own back-

yard or even to guarantee thebasic minimum rights andfreedoms to them. So in a way,the OIC backing a sensitivemotion against Myanmar maynot be truly helpful in indict-ing the Tatmadaw at the ICJ.

On the other hand, bothGambia and Myanmar are sig-natories to the 1948 GenocideConvention. In this regard,both of them and the rest of theparticipating nations in theConvention are committed toprevent and punish actions ofgenocide in war and in peace-time. With the support of theOIC and a team of interna-tional lawyers, Gambia hasasked the ICJ to implement aninjunction to ensure Myanmarimmediately “stops atrocitiesand genocide against Rohingyapeople”.

And Suu Kyi on her part,on December 13, when sheappeared on behalf of theGovernment of Myanmarstrongly defended her country’smilitary against allegations ofgenocide. Though the hearingconcluded, the declaration ofthe final verdict may take sev-eral years. In her opening state-ment only, the democracy icon,simply denied “genocidalintent” on the part of the mil-

itary and outlined the historyof the tensions in the RakhineProvince. She promised thatcivilians and the members ofthe military who attacked inno-cent people would be punished,but repeatedly termed the 2017crackdown as an “internal con-flict”. This is what is appearedto the international communi-ty as a blatant lie at least on thepart of persona of her status.

In fact, in the last June, thepre-trial chamber of theInternational Criminal Court(ICC) asked the competentauthorities of Myanmar to sub-mit written observations, eitherpublicly or confidentially, onthese three specific subjects:one, the possibility of thecourt’s exercise of territorialjurisdiction over the allegeddeportation of members of theRohingya people fromMyanmar into Bangladesh;two, the circumstances sur-rounding the crossing of theborder by members of theRohingya people fromMyanmar into Bangladesh andfinally, any other matter in con-nection with the prosecutor’srequest that in the opinion ofthe competent authorities ofMyanmar, would assist thechamber in its determination of

this request. While saying so,Suu Kyi underlined that inthis internal conflict, Myanmarmilitary was responding toattacks by armed local groupssuch as the Arakan RohingyaSalvation Army (ARSA).Surprisingly, she did not utterthe word Rohingya in her3,379 words speech to describethe minority group. This clear-ly shows how the political eliteof entire Myanmar want to dis-lodge the Rohingyas of theiridentity and status within andoutside the country. In all offi-cial records, the Rohingyas aresimply named as Bengalis andeven described as Kalars, a slurreferring to their darker com-plexion. This is an attemptdirectly to deny them the rightsand residential status of theRakhine province. And Suu Kyihas finally done the same at theheart of the ICJ, in front of thewhole world.

Officially, the Rohingyasare not regarded as one of the132 ethnic groups of Myanmar.They are denied citizenshipunder the infamous 1982Citizenship Law that effective-ly renders the entire commu-nity homeless in their ownancestral land. But surprising-ly, the Rohingyas constitute

nearly one million of the totalfifty million population inBuddhist majority Myanmar.For them, getting citizenship isa complex system, as they needto prove that they have beenliving in Myanmar for the last60 years. It is difficult for themsimply because either docu-mentary record is not availableor these are not made availableto them from the respectiveoffices.

If we look at Tatmadaw andits origin, then one can fathomwhy a state actor has commit-ted such heinous crimes againstlakhs of hapless Rohingya civil-ians. During World War II, theformation of the BurmeseIndependence Army (BIA) wasannounced by Aung San (SuuKyi’s father) in December 1941with the support of the JapaneseArmy. But later when Japaneseoccupied Burma, they dis-banded the BIA and constitut-ed a smaller Burmese DefenceArmy under the leadership ofAung San. Thus, the formationof the modern Burmese Armylies in Japanese war tactics andthe Imperial Army which com-pletely denies the acceptance ofthe historic GenevaConvention. And precisely, nonational armed forces have so

long involved in fightingunremitting combat missionsthe way the Tatmadaw hasbeen doing. And for MyanmarArmy, these wars were againstthe country’s domestic gueril-la groups wherein the linesbetween the combatants andthe rebels were almost blurred.Unfortunately, just after theindependence in 1948, theArmy was fully engaged infighting counterinsurgencyoperations against the ethnicand communist militias in theheartlands of central Myanmar.From the 1970s onwards, thesame Army was fully dedicat-ed to preserve the centralisedmilitary regime at Yangoon,then capital of Burma from theconstant threats from ethnicmilitias. These rebels who weremainly from Karen, Shan, Mon,Kachin and Rakhine wereeither struggling for autonomyor for complete independencefrom the central military rule ofthe country. Thus an impover-ished army, though mod-ernised, dominated mainly byBamar majority officers at thehighest ranks have always havea grudge against the minoritiessuch as the Rohingyas in theRakhine province.

Along with this a damningUN Report of 2018 that direct-ly accused the Tatmadaw ofcarrying out genocide againstthe Rohingya Muslims. TheUN Report said it found con-clusive evidence that theactions of the Armed Forces“undoubtedly amounted to thegravest crimes under interna-tional law” in Rakhine as wellas in Kachin and Shan, Statesalso troubled by ethnic acon-flicts for long now. But unfor-tunately, the team of UN inves-tigators was denied access toMyanmar and they had inter-viewed some 875 people whohad fled the country. The mis-sion found that the militarywere “killing indiscriminately,gang-raping women, assaultingchildren and burning entire vil-lages” in the Rakhine, home tothe Muslim Rohingya minori-ties and in Shan and Kachin.Then adding to this conclusivereport, the Asia Director of theHuman Rights Watch, BradAdams stated: “The fact-find-ing mission’s powerful reportand clear recommendationsdemonstrate the obvious needfor concrete steps to advancecriminal justice for atrociouscrimes, instead of more hollowcondemnations and expres-sions of concern.” But then

what all these have helped isthat finally Myanmar has beendragged to the floor of the ICJ.And once again, officially,Myanmar has refused to acceptthe truth that its Tatmadaw hascommitted any genocide orethnic cleansing, saying that it’sa kind of counter attack fromthe Army to the armed actionsof the ARSA and other suchrebels.

For Suu Kyi, she could notso far offer a workable alter-native to the Rohingya crisis.Most of her political career hasbeen seriously dwarfed byvoluminous domestic compul-sions. She is no more an ambi-tious politician who could turnthe tables, but she is forced toact the way events are takingshape back home, largely deter-mined by the Army. Her states-manship is long lost the wayshe had to tie up with theMyanmar Army to cling on topower for the sake of offeringa democratic alternative to hercountrymen. Some critics saythat she not only defended hergenerals at the ICJ, but alsostrengthened her position inview of the upcoming nation-al election next year Novemberso as to bounce back to poweronce again. Further it may sohappen that she has pleased theTatmadaw that has always beenviewed as a symbol of nation-al unity and territorial integri-ty back home, thinking thismight persuade them torethink the critical provisionsof the 2008 Constitution thatbars her from taking over as thePresident of the country. Noone knows the political calcu-lation of Suu Kyi and herNational League forDemocracy. They, at any cost,don’t want to hurt and disre-spect the majority Burmanswho virtually hate theRohingyas.

It is now clear that theordeal of the Rohingyas has notbeen over. They may languishin squalid Bangladeshi refugeecamps for some more years,and maybe permanently. TheICJ may not be able to sendthem back home. It all dependson Suu Kyi and most impor-tantly, the Tatmadaw whocould only guarantee a safe andpeaceful passage to theRohingyas to the RakhineProvince. Let’s hope thatRohingyas get back their homeand hearth soon.

(The writer is an expert oninternational affairs)

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It’s time to say goodbye to the year2019. That makes imperative, a lookinto the premise that the country set

for itself in 2019, to figure out what lega-cy we carry forward to the New Year. It ison this premise that 2020 would take off.The obvious reasons are two-fold. First,the living world, driven by a cause-effectchain, carries forward residual effect ofall the good or bad choices made andhappenings thereto. To put it simply, acause necessarily precedes an effect,which in turn, sets the ground on whichfuture takes off. It is something like aseed, which has been gathered in thepast, if laid down in the ground andnursed, will grow into a fruit bearing treein the coming time. Second, the livingorder remains subject to continuedchurning with related bearing on societaldynamics in future. Life, therefore, needsto be seen in succession.

The year 2019, as we know had beenmarked with many significant develop-ments. True to the indications of Marsplaced adverse to its dire enemy Saturn,in both Solar Ingress chart as well as theone drawn during Lunar Eclipse we hadon January 21, 2019, we had to deal withserious security concern. We had to bear

with devastating Pulwama attack onFebruary 14 by Pakistan based terrorists.That was followed by India’s counterat-tack on Balakot based terrorists inPakistan occupied Kashmir on February21, 2019. That was enough for the rulingdispensation to evoke emotional chord ofIndian populace and romp back topower with greater strength during 2019parliamentary election, otherwise goingthrough trying times on various counts.

In all the referral charts discussed inthe New Year issue, finance, female, andweather indicating Venus was in debility.No wonder, we are faced with progres-sively declining economy leading tomassive unemployment and inflation,with no apparent signs of recovery innear future. Agrarian crisis owing toerratic weather cycle — heavy rain fol-lowed by flood at places, and severedrought in other areas — has adverselyaffected the lives of a large majority.Female security remained a matter ofgrave concern, with ghastly acts happen-ing all across the country, many of themon kids. In this respect, there has beensome positive developments also, asUnnao rape accused has been convictedby the court of Law. Also, deck has been

cleared for execution of the death sen-tence granted to the convicts ofNirbhaya murder case. The matterrequires serious attention. Unless atti-tudes change, this problem won’t getover just through the whip of law. Thatcalls for sustained efforts towards raisinghuman capital from early childhood.Sense of awareness about respectingfemale’s dignity needs to be induceddeep in the inner realms of every mindright from early school stage itself.

As would Neptune placed adverse toJupiter imply, a clash of beliefs and per-ception has been going on almost allthrough the year. That has widened com-munal divide. All the more after scrap-ping of Article 370 that entitled specialstatus to Jammu and Kashmir. The statehas since been downgraded and dividedinto two Union territories. If that wouldnot be enough, following CitizenshipAmendment Act enforced recently, weare witnessing protests happening almostall across the country, some of them eventurning violent. Not to say anything onscattered cases of cow lynching deathshere and there. Sense of intolerance andimpatience have been on the rise.Societal churning following above inci-dents are expected to have far reachingconsequences. Not to justify or denounce

the decisions taken so far, the situation ason date has become volatile, which isgoing to have definite bearing on societalharmony. No matter whether the rulesframed threatens a particular communityin real terms or not, a sense of distrustagainst government’s intent and thereby asense of insecurity seems to have over-taken a large section of the society, par-ticularly in view of proposed NRC. Howwe are going to dispel their sense of inse-curity, only time ahead will tell.

Remember, we are an inseparablepart of a complex world, full of diversity,where everyone is born unique, eachmanifesting varying mind-traits.Therefore, there is nothing unusualabout having conflict of beliefs and per-ceptions. Also, it needs to be borne inmind that the living world being aninseparable unified organism, the rever-berations at one end of the societal exis-tence shall be felt far and wide. The callof time, therefore, for all conscientiousminds is to work out ways and means tofind a common ground to ensure peace.

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The 1920s. For some it was roaring,for others, Jazzy. But in the truesense, was the decade if all that jazz.The decade when hemlines went up,reservations came down, Al Capone

brought in the ‘bootleg’ word, Ford gave theworld the first peep into mass productionthrough his automobiles, radio became themedium to connect and such was the capitalisturbanisation and yen for good life that evenChrist had to be refashioned into a modernbusinessman and masculine outdoorsman wholikes women just to keep religion relevant!

That’s the Westside story for you. So far sogood. Back home, India was far from indepen-dent and Lord Macaulay was breaking up themuch arrived Indian gurukul to propel an edu-cation system that would beset the society withclerks and babudom. Mahatma Gandhi, on theother hand, was non-co-operating with aweapon that was flashy and new to the world –that of non-violence. It was still 27 years toIndependence, but the freedom struggle hadstarted talking shop.

1920s was also the age of female emancipa-tion, suffrage rights, flannelled pants, flappers,crossword puzzles and dance marathons, notto mention the positivity that a “mere mouse”brought to industry. Yes, Mickey Mouse wasborn in 1928 and his creator Walt Disneyfamously said that anyone could do anything ifa mere mouse could propel a billion-dollarindustry. The Charleston, Fox Trot and theLindy Hop is today hip hop, freestyle and acro-batic. But the dance craze has raced throughthe decades. As have movements, music andideas.

The 1920s was also the age of social andpolitical change. The first commercial radiostation in the US, Pittsburgh’s KDKA, hit theairwaves in 1920. It was also, the year of theworst terrorist attack in American history,unsurpassed in horror until the OklahomaCity Bombing in 1995 and September 9, 2011.It was definitely the year of first. It was the yearwhen America had a de-facto womanPresident. While on the campaign trail pushingfor the US to accept the League of Nations,President Wilson suffered a blood clot that

caused paralysis, partial blindness, and braindamage. For the remainder of his term —another year-and-a-half — the First Lady,Edith Wilson, stepped in and assumed his role.

The image that we have of the 20s — peo-ple swaying to jazz, women bobbed out andsmoke swirling in bars was something thatmay have swept the average American it wasalso the era of doom rather than celebration.As the war ended in 1919 to bring peace andhappiness, the boom ended in doom with thegreat economic recession setting in in 1929 toclose the 20s with unemployment, anxiety,anger, resentment, bankruptcies and suicides.The roaring 20s was now roaring in pain andan average American turned from enjoying theready-to-wear clothes and refrigerators to wor-rying about the next loaf of bread.

Closer to home, The League of Nationswas established, Non-cooperation movementwas launched on August 31, 1920, by MahatmaGandhi. In February, actor Pran was born. Inthe same month, actor IS Johar was born. Twomonths later, Ravi Shankar, the sitarist wasborn. After the introduction of theGovernment of India Act in 1919, a nationalParliament with two houses was introduced.About 5 lakh of the wealthiest Indians weregiven the right to vote. The highlight was thatwithin the provincial Governments, Ministersof education, health and public works couldnow be Indians.

Cut to 2019. Donald Trump made historyon June 30 when he became the first sittingUS President to set foot in North Korea. TheUK ended 2019 with clarity about Brexit, butit took a turbulent journey to get there. Andwhere was India?

In May, Prime Minister Narendra Modicame back with a thumping majority. InAugust, Article 370 was revoked from J&K.Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan com-pared the Indian Government to Nazis warn-ing that global inaction over Kashmir wouldbe the same as appeasing Hitler! Then camethe Ayodhya verdict — Ayodhya land to bedivided into three parts. One-third goes toRam Lalla represented by Hindu Maha Sabha,one-third to Sunni Wakf Board and one-third

goes to Nirmohi Akhara. If this was notenough to stoke the fire, the year ended withThe Citizenship (Amendment) Bill or CABinto an Act — Citizenship (Amendment) Act,2019.

The 21st century is the age of knowledge,upskilling, ideas, thoughts and, most impor-tantly, how you monetise them is the newname of the game. As opposed to the 1920swhen the globe had emerged from the 1stWorld War and there was a spring in the stepof economy, fashion, woman emancipationand what we now know as the urban migra-tion scourge, the 2020s open with scaryprospects of strife, polarisation, recession andgeneral disinterest in simple life.

But the young of the 1920s were as are theyoung of the 2000s. Slangs were burdening thedictionary for inclusion with the same pres-sure as they are deluging the Oxonian todaytoo. The 1920s was the age when the partieswere bigger, the pace was faster, the showswere broader, the buildings were higher,morals were looser and the liquor cheaper. In2000s. the parties have turned rave, the showshave become murky, the buildings are shaky,morals have vanished but yes the liquor con-tinues to be cheaper.

Indeed, the world is over the moon, ratherthe black side of the moon, looking for life onother planets after killing much of it on NatureEarth. Not that 1920s did not have environ-mental concerns. Scientists were talking aboutmicro climates and recycling even back then.But the concern was less and the intent more.Today, the concern is more and the intent less,leading to global warming, water wars, climatechange and the shadow of carbon footprint allover the atlas, giving the term ‘irreversibledamage’ a whole new weightage.

Besides, the world today has taken a rightturn on a wrong note, numbers like 9/11 and26/11 have polarised futures for the worse anda globalised, urbanised and criminalised worldis talking about how to scrape everything fromreputation to data in such a manner that ajazzy 1920 would have exclaimed: AhApplesauce! An expletive that would translateto ‘What the Fish!’ In today’s times.

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The present Indian educa-tion system was imposedon us by the British —Macaulay (ThomasBabington). This was the

imperialist kind of education asthey wanted educated clerks. Whenwe got our Freedom in 1947, thesuccessive Governments tried tochange but unfortunately educationhas not reached the nooks and cor-ners of the country. While moreand more people have succeededgetting into schools but when wetalk of quality education that’s wor-rying. Quality education is differentfrom functional. Then there is theevaluation, the results are disheart-ening. If a child in Class V can’tread or write correctly, we are doingsomething wrong. We are text-ori-ented. A child must receive educa-tion from a teacher who is the text.What is concerning is whether chil-dren understand what they learn.Real learning takes place when havethe knowledge and also the abilityto apply it. Application — one is toknow and second is to do — to beable to do. The third, one is to be.What kind of human beings are we?Are we peace loving? Are we alwayscriticising ? Are we creating stu-dents who are sloganeering. Look atthe condition of the nation rightnow. We haven’t learnt from ourparliamentarians or from theoreti-cal education or from our leaders tosettle things by understanding.Somebody started something, wejust join and it becomes a politicalissue. The children should be happyto learn but they are now gettinginto all kinds of things. The blamerests with the media. It should actas a teaching tool. Schools, teachersand parents have to give bettersense to students to understand thedifference between correct andincorrect.

We also have a very littlerespect for our country’s property.Good education should lead togreater discipline, greater respectfor each other and be able to livetogether peacefully. These were thefour principles of UNESCO — to

know, to be, to do and to be able tolive with each other peacefully. Theworld has become a global villageso whatever happens in one coun-try affects the other. We are cele-brating the 150th year of Gandhi,his anniversary but unfortunatelywhat you are seeing for the past fewmonths is just the opposite of whatwe are teaching. There is a gapbetween our action and exams.

I call Indian education systemas Indian exam system. Look at thenumber of holidays, the number ofstrikes, the number of very hot daysand very cold days. The total num-ber of working hours are limited toprobably 1,500. But out of this howmuch is actual work? Not morethan 140 hours in a year. More thanhalf the year, the children are notlearning.

Today, we have got two types ofschools — privately owned and theother in which the Government istaking the responsibility. So far theGovernment was taking the respon-sibility for six-14 years but now inthe new education policy it is goingto be divided into five stages — pre-primary to the higher senior sec-ondary school, they are going togive compulsory and free educa-tion. But offering that doesn’t reallymean that every student is gettinglearned. Our education is not badbut somehow the outcomes are notwe want to see as much we seethrough Pichai (Sundar) andNadella (Satya Narayana). There isno doubt that the Indian mind isthe best mind in the world.However, we need the best educa-tion which leads to people withgreater values. The leaders have toset an example. Each morning par-ents are hiding the newspaper sothat the children don’t see suchnews. Our morality has fallen to thelowest.

Value education is a way for-ward but not without seeing an out-come. Children should actually begiven credit for their values. Havingdebates, declamations and havinglot of enactments would help whenthey leave school. But this is only

happening in the paid schools.What about those schools whereparents are not educated and theyfall back upon schools to do theneedful? Look at the unemploy-ment, it is going to be huge in thecoming years. Our students aregoing to end up becoming jack ofall trade. There are so many sub-jects in Class X. There are 5 marksfor Economics, 10 marks for Civics,10 marks for Geography. Even theSocial Studies has so many subjects.What they are learning are only forexam. So parents are sending theirchildren to tuitions.

Other systems like IB andIGCSC are promoting a lot of self-learning. Also, there is a very littlebeing done when it comes toresearch at a lower level. It is onlywhen students go to colleges maybein abroad that there is a big differ-ence. Children are not becomingthinkers. The Government hasstarted thinking labs. But howmany impart quality? Very minis-cule compared barely to the needs.

Technology has played animportant role in education. Takethe example of Byju’s. It is becom-ing very popular for parents whoare not educatedand for parentswho don’t have time. One can alsotake tuitions online. The CentralBoard of Secondary Educationneeds to be congratulated for intro-ducing many new subjects but stillsocially and culturally, we do notgive skill education. Children whotake skill and vocational credits areacademically low. If a child opts forpre-medical, pre-engineering, pre-accountancy, pre-legal studies thenit is okay. But if he takes otherthings like music and or dance onehas no respect in the society.

There is little parent educationin our country. If parent is going ona strike, child will do it also. Whereare the likes of Sardar Vallabh BhaiPatel to whom they look up to.When they look at the world, theysee the same thing.

One is talking about theimpeachment of the President ofAmerica. So the whole world is

undergoing a huge a huge upheavalwith morality. Children are shout-ing and slonganeering as if they areenjoying all of this. Ther eis a mobmentality. Then the child says hecan’t be prosecuted because he isunderage. There is no underage.There is no age bar for inhumanebehaviour.

There is very little respect forothers. If there is, it is to limitedprofessions like doctors, engineers,chartered accountants, lawyers orMBAs. But if you are doing any-thing different from that then thereis a lot of risk factor. Parents arereally breathing down their wardsnecks. They have nothing to con-tribute towards their child’s well-being, they only expect. They wanttheir own ambitions to be fulfilledby the children without giving thempsychological support. This is lead-ing to more and more cases ofdepression. Cases of suicide andrunaways are on the rise. If theschools are good, country is good.If people are educated in true sense,there is progress in the nation but ifall of this is missing then theefuture of the nation becomes atstake.

We have failed to create broadpublic awareness for two things —education and health. On day-today basis there is unspoken suf-fering of the illiterate and unedu-cated those who are born afterIndependence . There is still such abig gap between those who arewell-educated and those who arepoorly educated. Education is themost complex and greatest chal-lenge in a country as huge as ours.A solution is each educated personcould teach one family. We did havethe slogans like Each one TeachOne or Teach for India. We needmany such projects.

Now, of course, birth is beyondhuman control but rehabilitatingthose who haven’t got enough forthe disability sector and the mar-ginal sectors, we need to make asacrifice and hold their hands. Thisis something which touches myheart the most.

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Broadcasting in India started in1927. Since then, the scenario hascompletely changed. Earlier, weused to have big radio sets whichare now found in the museums.

During my childhood, not many had radiosets. We used to go to our neighbour’s to lis-ten to sports commentaries. Those were thedays of the captive audience.

Delivering a talk on radio was consid-ered a matter of privilege and pride,bigauthors, writers and intellectuals used tohave a major highlight in their resumesunder the section of radio talker. But theintroduction of transistors changed the way.

If we talk about contemporary times, wesee there is a change in the technologicaland listening patterns. We have radio appsand people listen to the commentaries ontheir mobiles. But if we talk about program-ming earlier, we used to have radio talks of15 minutes. There were more talks, inter-views and drama back then. There was atime when drama was in full swing. We usedto have a show called Hawa Mahal whichmillions of people heard daily. Earlier, weused to have really long drama whichextended over hours but no longer so. Theyhave been replaced by docu-drama.

This interconnectedness is the biggestrevolution in the radio industry. Earlierradio was one-way traffic where the broad-cast contents reached millions of ears butonly a few people sent a feedback via lettersand they all were piled up in sacks. We wereable to reply to few as responding to all let-ters was not possible.

We used to get complains and requeststo respond to their letters. Now, we see thatthis space has become more interactive. Weexpanded our horizon from the four walls ofthe studio and started interacting with theoutside world. We started with letters andhave now progressed to mails, messages andcalls. We also have the dial-out optionswhere the hosts themselves call people.

The biggest turn came with the intro-duction of phone calling in the programmeand radio bridge. Earlier, in the radiobridge, we used to connect throughSTDs across different States.

It used to be expensive and required alot of rehearsal. Now, with the help of satel-lites, we can connect to multiple stationssimultaneously. Through phonic pro-grammes, we have reached the masses. Takean example. A poor farmer whose reach toan AIIMS Professor sounded impossible istoday, directly speaking with the doctor whogives them appointments and calls them andasks them to just mention the name of theradio channel. A lot of significant socialchanges that happened across the countryhave been made by these phonic pro-grammes.

The All India Radio (AIR) has alwaysstressed on appropriate language, right pro-nounceability and original music. We havenever used duplicate music. If anybody did,the punushment was quick and swift. Withthe rise of private FMs, we see different con-tent.

There is a stark distinction between AIRand private FM. The policy of AIR is publicservice broadcasting, information, educationand entertainment. There is change in prior-ity in FM and Vividh Bharti, where enter-tainment is of slightly greater importance.But there is no FM channel where we do notfind phonic channels.

In the FM Rainbow we see programmesfor pets, carrier guidance, legal guidance.But their main motive is to earn revenue.We see the usage of politically incorrect lan-guage and content. This is one side to it, butit is an undeniable fact that we have seeninnovative formats too.

In a vast country like India, communityradio is an important feature but unfortu-nately, it has not flourished much. Evensmaller countries like Nepal have aroundone lakh community radios.

In the US, there are millions of suchradio stations. In India, we have campusradio but not community. If we have morecommunity radio stations it will spreadawareness, promote unity and provideemployment opportunities to people.

All India Radio has reached its satura-tion, FM is almost there in all the cities, dig-ital radio is making its presence felt. There

was a time when people used to leave our

country and go because the writers whoused to write in regional languages likeGujarati and Punjabi did not have a forumfor publication.

Now, that I have travelled across multi-ple countries, I can say that there is no placein England, Canada and America where youdo not find an FM channel in Hindi.Regional writing is included in mainstreammedia. We can proudly say that in Englandwe have Tejender Sharma, in America, wehave Shushant Dev and in Canada, ShailjaSaxena. We have an annual event where lis-teners across the country gather. There arethousands who prefer to listen to the radioover watching TV.

There is a listener Javendra KumarDhruve who has the bio-data of each andevery announcer and programme officer ofAIR. He regularly posts on their birthdaysand other events. He has data which wemight not find even in Akash Vani Bhawan.We do not have a monopoly of any show,nor does Doordarshan or any other channel.It all depends on the content. The positivething is that with the rise of private FMs,there is a lot more serious content comingin. Whether it is the Anu Kapoor Show orNilesh Mishra Ki Kahani, the focus is oncontent.

From 1920 it has been 99 years and a lotof changes through which Radio hasevolved. The AIR has updated with time.The most amazing news is that almost 99.6per cent of the population is covered byAIR.

On any given day, more than 50 crorepeople listen to the radio in any part of thecountry. If anybody needs blood and it isannounced in FM Gold or FM Rainbow,within minutes there is a flood of blooddoners. That’s quite an achievement. Thereare 900 TV channels but none provides freeclassical, folk or live music.

The major contribution of AIR has beento protect the nation’s culture and diversity.

The AIR is the only medium whichcaters to the needs of all ages — from five-year-old to 90-year-old. Even in this digitalbase, AIR has maintained its utility base andkept its connection with the people.

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There

is a

very

fam

ous s

ayin

gth

at co

med

y is

trage

dy p

lus

timin

gs. T

he b

est w

ay to

writ

eab

out c

omed

y is

to th

ink

abou

t las

tfe

w da

ys o

f you

r life

and

thin

kab

out t

he th

ings

that

irrit

ate y

ouan

d ju

st sta

rt wr

iting

abou

t it.

You

will

find

that

mos

t peo

ple w

ill fi

ndth

e sam

e sce

ne v

ery

irrita

ting.

Take

an ex

ampl

e abo

ut p

lane r

ides

.Pe

ople

are c

uttin

g th

e que

ue to

get

into

the p

lane w

hich

I ha

ve n

ever

unde

rsto

od. O

ne is

goi

ng to

the

exac

t sam

e plac

e! Yo

u wo

n’t re

ach

the d

estin

atio

n be

fore

me!

Or h

owth

e rela

tives

pus

h yo

u or

insis

t you

eat m

ore.

They

tell

you

to ea

t an

extra

piec

e of g

ulab

jam

un. Y

ouwo

nder

how

that

one

extra

piec

ewo

uld

affe

ct th

eir li

ves?

All

it wi

ll do

is lea

d yo

u to

die

faste

r!St

and-

up co

med

y is

prob

ably

the t

ough

est a

nd th

e sim

ples

t art

form

. Tou

ghes

t bec

ause

the o

nus i

son

e per

son

to k

eep

the a

udien

ceen

gage

d wi

th n

o su

ppor

t exc

ept f

ora w

orki

ng m

icrop

hone

and

a spo

tlig

ht. T

he au

dien

ce si

ze ca

n va

ryfro

m fi

ve to

50,

000

(yes

, tha

t’s ri

ght!)

and

perfo

rman

ce d

urat

ion

can

vary

from

five

to 1

20-1

50 m

inut

es.

Sim

ples

t bec

ause

it h

ardl

y ne

eds

a set

-up.

Just

one m

ic an

d de

cent

light

ing

and

a com

edian

can

start

perfo

rmin

g. Ju

st on

e per

son

who

isth

e writ

er, a

ctor

, dire

ctor

all r

olled

into

one

. The

pre

ssur

e of w

ritin

gfre

sh is

also

hig

h in

com

edy

beca

use

unlik

e son

gs, j

okes

hav

e lim

ited

repe

at v

alue.

Whi

le sin

gers

are

requ

este

d th

e sam

e son

gs o

ver a

ndov

er ag

ain m

akin

g it

toug

h to

try

ane

w co

mpo

sitio

n, th

e aud

ience

at a

com

edy

show

wou

ld p

oint

out

are

peat

joke

.To

day,

the s

tand

-up

com

icoc

cupi

es th

e spa

ce o

f a B

olly

wood

starle

t but

with

less

er p

ress

ure o

flo

okin

g go

od an

d sta

ying

pol

itica

llyco

rrec

t. H

e can

qui

te ea

sily

be ca

lled

toda

y’s yo

uth

celeb

rity,

just

with

mor

e Ins

tagr

am an

d tw

itter

follo

w-er

s and

mor

e end

orse

men

t dea

ls.

In th

e lat

er ye

ars (

read

196

0son

ward

s) h

asya

kav

i sam

mela

nbe

cam

e a p

opul

ar fo

rm o

f com

edy

whe

re p

oets

recit

ed th

eir p

oetr

ype

pper

ed w

ith so

cio-p

oliti

cal c

om-

men

tary

and

satir

e tar

getin

g th

ego

vern

men

t. Ev

en o

n te

levisi

on ce

l-eb

rate

d po

ets l

ike S

uren

dra S

harm

a,Sh

ail C

hatu

rved

i and

Kak

a Hat

hras

iru

led th

e roo

st.W

hen

it co

mes

to p

ure p

laysta

nd-u

p, I

belie

ve Jo

hnny

Lev

erwa

s a p

ione

er, w

ho in

late

80s

star

t-ed

his

care

er b

y do

ing

stage

per

for-

man

ces a

nd re

leasin

g au

dio

cass

ette

sof

his

sets.

Afte

r Lev

er, T

V g

ave

birth

to a

lot o

f sta

nd u

p co

med

ians

thro

ugh

show

s lik

e Gre

at In

dian

Laug

hter

Cha

lleng

e. an

d a n

ew w

ave

of E

nglis

h sta

nd-u

p co

med

ians w

asta

king

fron

t sta

ge in

Indi

a.St

and-

up co

med

y ha

s exi

sted

inth

e UK

ever

sinc

e the

18t

h an

d 19

th

cent

uries

. The

rise

of E

nglis

h sta

nd-

up co

med

ians b

roug

ht a

brea

dth

offre

sh ai

r to

this

sort

of en

terta

in-

men

t. In

200

8-20

09, V

ir D

as an

dPa

pa C

J ret

urne

d to

Indi

a to

mak

eth

eir m

ark

on th

e des

icom

edy

scen

e. Th

ey p

erfo

rmed

in E

nglis

han

d qu

ickly

caug

ht th

e atte

ntio

n of

the y

outh

. In

2010

, The

Com

edy

Stor

e fro

m L

ondo

n in

augu

rate

d its

bran

ch in

Pall

adiu

m M

all, M

umba

i. ‘N

ot ca

rs an

d ho

uses

, jus

t som

efu

n an

d co

nven

ience

!’ wa

s quo

ted

the E

cono

mic

Tim

esin

a su

rvey

con-

duct

ed o

n un

ders

tand

ing

the m

il-len

nials

of I

ndia

. Thi

s sur

vey

give

s agi

st of

the e

ver-c

hang

ing

min

dset

of

the m

illen

nials

whi

ch is

far d

iffer

ent

from

that

of t

he o

lder

gen

erat

ions

.Br

eaki

ng fr

ee fr

om th

e res

trict

ions

of an

cient

Indi

an so

ciety,

the m

od-

ern

yout

h is

large

ly in

fluen

ced

bycu

lture

s aro

und

the w

orld

. Th

e you

th to

day

have

dev

elope

dth

e kna

ck o

f tak

ing

a jok

e on

them

-se

lves a

nd p

urely

enjo

y th

e hum

our

in it

. Thi

s im

prov

emen

t in

the

mat

urity

and

sens

ibili

ty o

f the

audi

-en

ces h

as h

elped

the c

omed

ians

crac

k jo

kes o

n iss

ues t

hat w

ere p

re-

viou

sly ta

booe

d in

the s

ociet

y.W

hile

conv

entio

nal h

umou

r inc

lud-

ed w

it, p

uns a

nd ir

ony

are s

till

acce

pted

, new

form

s of h

umou

r are

gain

ing

tract

ion.

Com

edy

is no

w a f

ull-b

lown

busin

ess w

ith so

cial m

edia

achi

ev-

ing

mom

entu

m in

the r

ecen

t tim

es.

Now

, com

edian

s nee

d no

t dep

end

on fi

lm p

rodu

cers

and

their

whi

ms

and

fanc

ies. T

hey

can

now

reco

rd a

vide

o an

d pu

blish

it o

n Yo

uTub

eth

emse

lves,

ente

rtain

ing

tons

of

view

ers.

From

per

sona

l sho

ws to

socia

l med

ia v

ideo

s, th

ey h

ave m

ul-

tiple

optio

ns to

choo

se fr

om. A

top

tier c

omed

ian ea

rns e

quiv

alent

to a

telev

ision

star

.O

pen

mics

are i

n vo

gue a

gain

.Fr

om tw

o-th

ree o

pen

mics

a we

ekto

six-

a day

in M

umba

i, th

is so

rt of

com

edy,

along

with

hum

our a

t cor

-po

rate

even

ts, h

as ac

hiev

ed li

onisa

-tio

n. N

ext b

ig w

ave i

s loc

al lan

guag

ehu

mou

r. La

st tw

o ye

ars h

ave s

een

live s

tand

up

happ

enin

g in

Guj

arat

i,M

arat

hi, T

amil,

Pun

jabi a

nd g

ettin

gpo

pular

.W

hen

I do

stand

-up,

peo

ple a

skm

e to

talk

abou

t Fac

eboo

k —

‘Sin

ceit

has c

ome,

the

pres

sure

to en

joy

life h

as in

crea

sed’.

Thi

s is t

he o

pen-

ing

line.

It is

all ab

out t

he k

ind

ofstu

ff pe

ople

post.

You

feel

depr

esse

dby

seein

g ot

her p

eopl

e hav

ing

fun.

The o

ther

segm

ent i

s whe

n I t

alkab

out m

y ch

ildre

n. O

nce m

y so

npa

rticip

ated

in fa

ncy

dres

s com

peti-

tion

and

he h

ad to

be d

ress

ed li

keEa

rth. W

e wen

t aro

und

sear

chin

gon

Goo

gle t

he w

ays t

o co

nver

t a k

idin

to E

arth

. On

day

two,

he a

sked

me

to d

ress

him

like

a br

injal

. I ad

vise

him

to w

ear a

gre

en ca

p an

d ho

ldhi

s bre

ath

for f

ive m

inut

es to

turn

him

pur

ple!

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**(

Dea

r God

,

Iwas t

augh

t you

are o

mni

po-

tent

, om

nisc

ient a

ndom

nipr

esen

t. O

f cou

rse,

as I

grew

up,

I un

ders

tood

that

teac

hers

onl

y te

ach

wha

t is i

nth

e syl

labus

. Th

ere a

re a

lot o

f thi

ngs t

hat I

was t

augh

t tha

t hav

e sin

cech

ange

d, fo

r exa

mpl

e Plu

to is

no

long

er a

plan

et an

d th

e Hig

gsBo

son

does

exist

. Kee

ping

the

ever

chan

ging

fact

s in

min

d I w

asth

inki

ng w

hat i

f you

wer

e not

real-

ly w

atch

ing

us o

n th

is Th

ird R

ock

from

the S

un, i

n a r

emot

e sol

arsy

stem

, on

the e

dge o

f the

gala

xyca

lled

the M

ilky

way?

Wha

t if t

hepr

oblem

s of t

he m

ultiv

erse

hav

eyo

u so

cons

umed

that

you

have

com

plet

ely fo

rgot

ten

abou

t us?

I h

ave a

lso b

een

taug

ht th

atth

ere a

re so

me m

en h

ere o

n th

ispl

anet

that

hav

e mor

e acc

ess t

oyo

u th

an ev

eryd

ay p

eopl

e. W

e call

them

, or t

hey

call

them

selve

s the

enlig

hten

ed o

nes.

I am

hop

ing

that

this

lette

r will

find

its w

ay to

one

of th

em an

d th

e enl

ight

ened

one

sm

ight

enlig

hten

you

with

the

prob

lems w

e hav

e. To

put

it su

ccin

ctly,

this

plac

eis

a mes

s. I a

m so

rry

to h

ave t

o sa

yth

is to

you,

but

you

are t

o bl

ame.

Im

ean,

wha

t wer

e you

thin

king

?Yo

u ke

pt se

ndin

g us

thes

e mes

si-ah

s on

a reg

ular

bas

is w

hopr

each

ed in

your

nam

e. N

ot th

atth

ey w

ere b

ad, t

hey

only

spok

e of

love

but

wha

t hap

pene

d is,

soon

their

follo

wers

bec

ame c

ults

that

grew

vol

umin

ously

into

wha

t we

call

relig

ions

. In

time,

one r

eligi

onfo

ught

the o

ther

claim

ing

to k

now

the r

ight

pat

h to

you.

W

hen

you

notic

ed th

at th

efir

st ev

er m

essia

h di

d no

t rea

lly cu

t

it, w

hy d

id yo

u se

nd m

ore a

nd cr

e-at

e thi

s div

ide t

hat w

e hav

e to

now

live w

ith? I

can’t

beg

in to

tell

you

of th

e stri

fe th

at h

as b

een

crea

ted

in yo

ur n

ame.

Entir

e cou

ntrie

sha

ve b

een

wipe

d ou

t, pe

ople

mas

-sa

cred

, for

tune

s mad

e, fo

rtune

slo

st an

d in

equa

lity

foste

red.

I w

as b

orn

two

deca

des a

fter

my

coun

try

was t

orn

into

two

onth

e bas

is of

a w

hat w

e call

relig

ion.

Yet,

let m

e tell

you

that

the i

dea o

fPa

rtitio

n wa

s bor

n alm

ost a

100

year

s bac

k, w

hile

you

were

pro

ba-

bly

on a

heav

enly

bea

ch en

joyi

ng a

pina

colad

a. Pe

ople

ofte

n bl

ame t

heBr

itish

for t

he P

artit

ion;

the t

ruth

is th

at it

was

way

bac

k in

193

0w

hen

the i

dea o

f Pak

istan

was

born

in a

sess

ion

of th

e Mus

limLe

ague

that

it g

erm

inat

ed.

They

thou

ght t

hat b

y cr

eatin

ga H

indu

stan

and

Paki

stan

the m

at-

ter w

ould

com

e to

an am

icabl

een

d. B

ut th

ey d

id n

ot k

now

that

Hin

dusta

n an

d Pa

kista

n do

not

exist

out

ther

e in

the m

ud an

dsa

nd b

ut in

the m

inds

of p

eopl

e.Th

e Par

titio

n sti

ll ex

ists a

nd sa

dly

take

s plac

e eve

ry li

ving

day

.Pa

rtitio

n is

a con

tinuo

us p

roce

ssbu

t bea

r with

me j

ust a

wee

bit

mor

e bef

ore I

expl

ain w

hy.

On

my

side o

f the

land

, the

atte

mpt

was

to b

e sec

ular

whi

chm

eans

that

all r

oads

to yo

u ar

ewe

lcom

e. In

my

land

a lot

of

optio

ns ex

ist to

atta

in yo

u an

d all

are a

llowe

d to

co-e

xist.

But

mer

elyall

owin

g do

es n

ot d

o an

ythi

ng.

Co-e

xisti

ng is

not

easy

. Yo

u ar

e sup

pose

d to

be t

he b

eall

and

end

all o

f One

ness

. Sad

ly,on

enes

s is t

he la

st th

ing

I see

her

e. If

you

are t

akin

g th

e tim

e out

to re

ad th

is, le

t me e

xplai

n so

me-

thin

g to

you.

I kn

ow th

at yo

u ar

e

God

and

you

don’t

nee

d ex

plain

-in

g bu

t hum

or m

e and

my

rant

.Th

e pro

blem

with

bein

g di

visiv

e is

that

it is

not

any

grea

t phi

loso

phy

but m

erely

a ha

bit.

Whe

n yo

u ar

ein

the h

abit

of d

ivid

ing

you

don’t

stop

at re

ligio

n, yo

u ju

st go

on.

W

ithin

relig

ion

ther

e are

var

i-ou

s sec

ts, so

met

imes

they

are a

lsoca

lled

caste

s. W

ithin

the c

aste

s,th

ere a

re th

e rich

and

the p

oor,

with

in th

e rich

and

poor

of t

heca

ste, a

re th

e fam

ilies

of t

he ca

ste,

with

in th

e fam

ilies

are b

roth

ers

and

siste

rs, h

usba

nds a

nd w

ives

,eld

ers a

nd th

e you

ng, w

ho ca

n’tse

e eye

to ey

e. Th

ere a

re sc

hool

san

d wo

rkpl

aces

teem

ing

with

div

i-sio

n, th

e clev

er an

d no

t so

cleve

r,th

e fro

nt an

d th

e bac

k be

nche

r, th

ech

ap w

ho se

ems l

ike h

e has

afu

ture

and

the c

hap

who

has

non

e. Yo

u wo

n’t b

eliev

e whe

n I t

ellyo

u th

at th

ere i

s also

a di

visio

n on

body

type

s, ye

s you

did

not

crea

teall

men

equa

l, th

at is

just

hogw

ash.

Size

zero

is b

ette

r tha

n an

y ot

her

size,

for y

our i

nfor

mat

ion.

So,

watc

h it

whe

n yo

u ar

e cre

atin

g.Th

e hab

it of

div

ision

doe

s not

stop

till i

t com

es h

ome a

nd d

ivid

esyo

u fro

m th

e one

s, w

ho yo

u on

ceca

lled

your

own

. It w

ill m

ake y

oufe

el de

pres

sed.

It w

ill ch

allen

geyo

ur v

ery

exist

ence

. If t

here

is ev

il,an

d yo

u wo

uld

know

bes

t abo

utth

at, l

et m

e ass

ure y

ou th

at th

eha

bit o

f div

ision

is th

e wor

st of

it.

Is th

ere a

way

by

whi

ch yo

uco

uld

inte

rced

e and

stop

wha

t is

goin

g on

, with

out s

endi

ng an

othe

rM

essia

h pl

ease

? Can

you

not j

ust

appe

ar in

the s

ky an

d sa

y, ‘H

ey I

am G

od. A

nd fo

r my

sake

just

stop

this

divi

ding

’. In

my

nativ

e lan

guag

e the

re is

a wor

d ca

lled

akas

hwan

i, w

hich

mea

ns yo

ur v

oice

boo

min

g ou

t of

the h

eave

ns, w

hich

ofte

ntim

es g

iv-

ing

us a

prop

hecy

. Can

you

not

mak

e a w

orld

wide

aka

shwa

ni?

Unl

ess,

of co

urse

, the

aka

shwa

nido

es n

ot ex

ist ei

ther

. Whi

ch th

enis

a rea

l bum

mer

!In

the a

bsen

ce o

f you

r boo

m-

ing

voice

, wha

t is t

he w

ay fo

rwar

d?Yo

u ar

e God

and

you

have

the

answ

ers t

o all

the q

uesti

ons.

Wha

tdo

you

sugg

est?

Plea

se d

o no

t com

e up

with

sugg

estio

ns li

ke ap

proa

chin

g wo

rldlea

ders

. The

y us

e div

ision

for t

heir

own

gain

. The

y ar

e the

mos

t dan

-ge

rous

kin

ds. L

eave

out

God

men

.A

lot o

f the

m ar

e in

priso

n fo

r rap

-in

g, ye

ah, n

o ki

ddin

g!

I can

see y

ou fr

own

and

scra

tch

your

hea

d. Y

ou d

on’t

see a

way

out o

f thi

s, do

you?

Is th

ere n

owa

y to

turn

bac

k tim

e and

kno

ckth

e guy

out

who

thou

ght a

bout

divi

ding

firs

t?Th

ere i

s a p

art o

f me t

hat

som

etim

es co

njur

es u

p a c

onsp

ira-

cy th

eory

abou

t you

. Tha

t you

have

giv

en u

p on

us a

nd ar

e act

u-all

y en

cour

agin

g th

is wr

angl

ing

soth

at w

e jus

t brin

g an

end

to o

ur-

selve

s and

you

can

start

afre

sh; a

clean

slat

e. If

that

is in

deed

the c

ase,

then

plea

se g

ive

us o

ne m

ore c

hanc

e. I

prom

ise yo

u we

will

take

the p

ath

you

show

us.

If we

ever

nee

ded

you

it is

now.

Peo

ple

are d

ying

. Thi

s is v

ery

urge

nt. Y

ou k

now

whe

re E

arth

is ri

ght?

Or s

houl

d I s

end

you

aG

oogl

e Loc

atio

n?In

Ant

icipa

tion,

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orrie

d Ea

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We

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20s,

spec

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28, w

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were

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e no

t ev

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depe

nden

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at th

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me,

Hoc

key w

aspl

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eryo

ne t

alks

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eing t

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ame b

utth

e las

t tou

rnam

ent w

e won

was

the

1975

Wor

ld C

up.

Till

that

tim

e,H

ocke

y use

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laye

d on

gra

ssan

d w

e w

ere

very

goo

d on

tha

t.Th

en ca

me t

he A

strot

urf.

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e th

e fir

st O

lym

pic

Gol

dca

me

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dia

thro

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Hoc

key,

itha

s be

en a

dow

nwar

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in.

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thin

gs ar

e loo

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final

ly. T

here

have

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n a

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f sac

rific

es b

y us

and

man

y thi

ngs w

hich

we w

orke

don

in a

ll th

ese

100

year

s be

caus

eof

whi

ch to

day w

e are

getti

ng go

odre

sults

.Th

ere

has n

ever

bee

n a

prob

-le

m o

f tal

ent i

n In

dia w

heth

er it

isin

hoc

key

or a

ny o

ther

spor

t. Bu

tth

e m

ain

thin

g is

the

stat

e of

our

infr

astr

uctu

re, t

he b

asic

s th

at w

eha

ve. T

o sp

eak

abou

t tho

se th

ings

,I w

ould

say

that

till

Dha

nraj

Pill

ayan

d hi

s bat

ch e

very

thin

g w

as o

ut-

stan

ding

. But

afte

r tha

t, th

ere

was

a lac

k of

team

bon

ding

bec

ause

for

play

ers

jitni

frie

ndsh

ip g

roun

d ke

baha

r ach

hi h

ai, j

itney

ap ac

he d

ost

ho, e

k te

am k

a fa

mily

mah

ool h

ai,

aapa

s mai

apka

resp

ect h

ai, u

tna h

eac

hha

aap

grou

nd p

ar p

erfro

m

karo

ge. S

o th

at w

as so

met

hing

we

lack

ed.

Toda

y, th

is is

the f

irst t

hing

we

have

chan

ged.

We n

ow p

lay

unde

rth

e bes

t coa

ches

. The

cred

it fo

r the

chan

ge sh

ould

also

go

to th

e co

regr

oup

of 34

-35 p

layer

s tha

t too

k the

initi

ativ

e and

set t

he go

al to

feat

ure

in a

cert

ain

tour

nam

ents,

impr

ove

the

rank

ings

and

win

med

als.

We

wer

e m

otiv

ated

to e

nd th

e ba

rren

run

and

star

ted

prep

arin

g ac

cord

-in

gly.

This

is w

hat I

can

say

abou

tth

e play

ers t

hat I

play

ed w

ith in

the

last

8-10

yea

rs a

nd th

ose

who

are

activ

e. W

e use

d to

go w

ith a

targ

et.

We

had

a go

od c

oach

ing

staf

f and

Hoc

key I

ndia

whi

ch al

so al

so st

art-

ed o

pera

ting

prof

essio

nally

.Th

e sta

rtin

g of

the n

ew le

ague

give

s us t

he ch

ance

to p

lay w

ith ve

r-sa

tile

play

ers

from

all

over

the

wor

ld. B

efor

e th

at, i

t was

onl

y in

Oly

mpi

cs o

r at

the

Wor

ld C

upw

hen

we w

ould

get

to p

lay

agai

nst

the b

est i

n th

e bus

ines

s tea

ms l

ike

Ger

man

y or

Hol

land

.Si

nce

hock

ey is

a sm

art g

ame,

ther

e are

man

y thi

ngs o

ne n

eeds

todo

. You

are s

uppo

sed

to re

ad y

our

oppo

nent

s, an

alyse

the t

eam

and

itspl

ayer

s th

at a

re in

you

r po

ol a

ndth

en st

rate

gise

acc

ordi

ngly.

In th

e las

t few

yea

rs, w

ith th

ehe

lp o

f few

wor

ld-c

lass c

oach

es, w

eha

ve w

orke

d ex

tens

ively

on

impo

r-ta

nt ar

eas l

ike,

whe

re to

atta

ck fr

oman

d ta

rget

ing t

he w

eak p

layer

in th

eop

posit

ion.

The

resu

lts of

this

com

-bi

ned

plan

ning

is th

at in

the l

ast c

ou-

ple

of y

ears

, the

re h

as b

een

a sig

-ni

fican

t rise

in th

e tea

m ra

nkin

gs.

It ta

kes

time

to b

uild

a te

ambe

caus

e th

e 16

-18

play

ers

that

mak

e the

fina

l cut

com

e with

a di

f-fe

rent

min

dset

and

app

roac

h. T

oco

mbi

ne t

hem

all

and

eek

out

are

sult

is th

e res

pons

ibili

ty o

f sen

ior

play

ers.

All

the

team

mem

bers

have

to en

sure

that

wha

t the

y nee

dto

do

to g

et to

the g

oal.

Whe

n w

e ta

lk a

bout

tea

mbo

ndin

g, ea

rlier

whe

n pl

ayer

s fro

mPu

njab

or H

arya

na u

sed

to g

o fo

rth

e na

tiona

l ca

mp,

the

y us

ed t

osh

are

room

s and

din

ing

area

. But

in t

he p

ast

few

yea

rs,

we

have

shar

ed r

oom

s w

ith p

laye

rs f

rom

othe

r Sta

tes a

s well

, frie

ndsh

ips h

ave

and

team

bon

ding

hap

pene

d.A

lso, b

ecau

se o

f Hoc

key

Indi

aLe

ague

, in th

e las

t five

year

s we h

ave

prog

ress

ed c

ontin

uous

ly. A

ll th

ebe

st pl

ayer

s in

the w

orld

par

ticip

ate

givi

ng u

s exp

osur

e and

conf

iden

ce.

Earli

er w

e us

ed t

o ge

t sc

ared

of

them

but

now

afte

r sha

ring c

amps

,w

atch

ing

them

pre

pare

, obs

ervi

ngth

eir a

ppro

ach

to b

ig g

ames

, the

irdi

et st

ruct

ure a

nd ev

eryt

hing

, con

-fid

ence

and

belie

f has

bee

n in

stille

din

us. W

hen

I st

arte

d, h

ocke

y w

asth

e on

ly sp

ort t

hat w

as p

laye

d in

�Le

nny

Bruc

ew

as t

he f

irst

com

edia

n to

bre

ak d

own

the

barr

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ree

spee

ch in

stan

d-up

com

-ed

y. �St

and-

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med

yis o

ften

sep-

arat

ed in

to o

ld-s

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ord-

base

dco

med

y) a

nd n

ew-s

choo

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erfo

r-m

ance

-bas

ed) c

omed

y.�

Jero

me

Alle

n Se

infe

ldis

anA

mer

ican

com

edia

n, a

ctor

, w

riter

,pr

oduc

er, a

nd d

irect

or. H

eis

know

n fo

r pla

ying

ase

mi-f

ictio

nalis

ed ve

r-sio

n of

him

self

in th

esi

tcom

Se

infe

ld,

whi

ch h

e cr

eate

dan

d w

rote

with

Larr

y D

avid

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infe

ld

wou

ldre

writ

e his

joke

s at l

east

50tim

es b

efor

e se

ttlin

g on

the

corr

ect

vers

ion.

�M

oder

n st

and-

up c

omed

y in

Indi

a is

a yo

ung

artfo

rm, h

owev

erCh

akya

r Koo

thu

was

pro

min

ent i

nTr

ivan

drum

and

sou

ther

n Ke

rala

durin

g th

e 16

th a

nd 1

7th

cent

urie

s.It

had

all t

he a

ttrib

utes

of m

oder

nst

and-

up co

med

y and

is w

idely

con-

sider

ed to

be t

he o

ldes

t kno

wn st

aged

com

edy

act a

nyw

here

in th

e wor

ld�

Mor

t Sa

hlm

ade

a na

me

for

him

self

by in

ject

ing

polit

ics i

nto

his

com

edy.

As

the

one

of t

he f

irst

stan

d-up

s to

intro

duce

satir

e to

the

stag

e, he

wou

ld o

ften

sit o

n a

stool

and

read

hea

dlin

es d

irect

ly fr

om a

new

spap

er in

his

hand

s, ev

iscer

atin

gth

em to

a liv

e aud

ienc

e. C

onsid

ered

a pol

itica

l phi

loso

pher

he w

as th

e firs

tco

med

ian

to la

nd o

n th

e fro

nt p

age

of T

ime

mag

azin

e. H

e se

t the

mol

dth

at L

enny

Bru

ce,

Woo

dy A

llen,

and

Geo

rge

Carli

n an

d m

any

mor

ew

ould

follo

w

It was

in 1

745

that

the f

irst m

atch

play

ed by

wom

en h

as be

en re

cord

-ed

. The

matc

h wa

s play

ed be

twee

nele

ven

mai

ds o

f H

ambl

edon

and

Bram

ley i

n Su

rrey

, En

glan

d. T

hesp

ort h

as co

me a

long

way

sinc

e the

n.To

say t

hat i

t has

bee

n gu

ided

by t

hem

en’s g

ame e

spec

ially

in th

e las

t thr

eede

cade

s it w

on’t

be in

corr

ect.

The

wom

en’s

gam

e ha

s se

en it

sfa

ir sh

are

of u

ps a

nd d

owns

. Fro

m

bein

g ide

ntifi

ed as

a ga

me t

hat w

omen

also

som

etim

es p

lay o

r pl

ay f

or a

chan

ge; i

t has

slo

wly

starte

d de

vel-

opin

g and

now

bein

g ref

erre

d to

as a

wom

an's

gam

e. W

ith id

entit

y ca

me

the

reso

urce

s and

the

finan

cial s

up-

port

help

ed p

rovi

de g

et t

he m

edia

supp

ort t

o ta

ke th

e gam

e to

diffe

rent

parts

of t

he w

orld

. Th

e Int

erna

tiona

l Cric

ket C

ounc

ilto

ok o

ver t

he In

tern

atio

nal w

omen

’s

crick

et co

uncil

in 20

05. T

hat b

roug

htall

wom

en’s t

eam

s to

com

e und

er th

eum

brell

a of

the

ir re

spec

tive

men

’scr

icket

boa

rds.

Star

ted

by in

itiat

ing a

sem

i-fin

al an

d fin

al m

atch

of

the

wom

en’s T

20 W

orld

Cup

to be

play

edat

the s

ame v

enue

prio

r to

the m

en’s

matc

h; to

get T

V su

ppor

t; the

wom

en’s

gam

e has

com

e a lo

ng w

ay.

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tura

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me.

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go

to sc

hool

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re w

asa

grou

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my

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ey u

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od-

ies

afte

r th

e tr

aini

ng s

essio

n.Th

at p

ulle

d m

e in

. In

itial

ly, I

used

to tr

ain

with

my

brot

her

but s

low

ly c

oach

esst

arte

d no

ticin

g m

e an

d th

eir

guid

ance

help

ed m

e tim

e thi

ngs.

Peop

le of

ten

say t

hat P

unjab

and

Har

yana

are

the

onl

y tw

oSt

ates

whi

ch p

rodu

ce n

atio

nal

play

ers b

ut th

at’s n

ot so

. Act

ually

,ho

ckey

is a

toug

h ga

me;

one h

asto

wor

k re

ally

har

d. T

he n

ewge

nera

tion

is ta

king

a b

ack

step

beca

use o

f thi

s. W

hate

ver h

ock-

ey i

s al

ive

in t

he c

ount

ry i

sbe

caus

e of

the

aca

dem

ies

we

have

. The

re ar

e a co

uple

of go

odon

es in

Jala

ndha

r and

Am

ritsa

rth

at h

as c

onst

antly

pro

duce

dw

orld

-cla

ss p

laye

rs.

No

one

is de

nyin

g th

e fa

ctth

at th

ese t

hing

s hav

e dec

reas

edin

com

paris

on t

o th

e ea

rlier

times

but

one

of t

he m

ajor

rea-

sons

for

Pun

jab

and

Har

yana

bein

g at

the

for

efro

nt i

s th

eir

polic

ies.

Play

ers

can

see

a sa

fean

d se

cure

futu

re th

roug

h th

issp

ort. O

ne th

ing t

hat I

hav

e rea

d a

lot o

f tim

es an

d I e

spec

ially

wan

t

to h

ighl

ight

is th

at p

eopl

e ofte

nco

mpa

re o

ur re

sults

with

that

of

the o

ther

fore

ign

team

s but

don

’tlo

ok at

the b

asic

s.W

hen

I was

in H

olla

nd an

dw

as p

layi

ng fo

r Blo

emen

daal

, Isa

w th

at th

ey h

ave a

roun

d 3,

000

astro

turfs

for p

laye

rs to

trai

n on

whi

ch i

s no

t th

e ca

se i

n ou

rco

untr

y. So

how

can

you

expe

cton

e to

get

des

ired

resu

lt?In

Indi

a, m

ost o

f the

tale

ntco

mes

from

rura

l are

as a

nd th

ech

ildre

n fro

m a

poo

r fa

mily

back

grou

nd u

sual

ly g

et i

nto

spor

ts. T

hey

don’t

hav

e a

prop

-er

infra

struc

ture

of a

n ex

pens

ive

gam

e lik

e hoc

key,

whe

re a

basic

nece

ssar

y ki

t cos

ts ne

ar a

roun

dRs

100

00,

whi

ch t

hey

cann

otaf

ford

.Th

is is

com

plet

ely d

iffer

ent

from

the o

ther

fore

ign

coun

tries

whe

re t

he p

laye

rs a

re g

ettin

gpr

oper

tra

inin

g fr

om a

ver

yyo

ung

age.

They

are

aw

are

ofw

hat’s

hap

peni

ng i

n m

oder

nho

ckey

and

the

str

uctu

re w

ithw

hich

the

natio

nal t

eam

ope

r-at

es. G

ood

resu

lts c

ome

with

good

tra

inin

g, a

nd w

e ha

veno

ticed

a tre

nd th

at in

spor

t rich

coun

trie

s us

ually

, the

y ge

t int

oth

e spo

rt at

a v

ery

youn

g ag

e in

com

paris

on t

o ou

rs. S

o th

is is

one

anot

her

maj

or f

acto

r as

itcr

eate

s a b

ig g

ap fr

om th

e ve

ryba

sic le

vel o

nly.

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Women’s suffrage isthe right of womento vote in elections.Most countriesenacted women’s

suffrage in the first half of the 20thcentury. New Zealand was the first togrant women such a right. Themovement actually began in 1848,when a women’s rights conventionwas held in Seneca Falls, New York.The movement made other rightspossible for women. By the early 20thcentury, women were able to attendcollege and to train for professions,although not in the same numbers asmen. They began to enter male-dom-inated professions like law, medicine,clergy and corporate. In the after-math of the Women’s SuffrageMovement, women’s economic rolesincreased in society. Since there wasmore educational opportunities forwomen it led more and more womento sense their potential for meaning-ful professional careers. Alsowomen's salaries increased but not tothe amount that men received.However, this still was a huge successfor women because it was such a bigstep from what it had been before.

India granted voting rights as itgained Independence, whereby notjust general but also special rightswere granted to them just like otheroppressed sections in India.

Here one needs to discuss theshift from suffrage movement tomovement for inclusion in actualpolitics in India. The conventionalIndian and worldwide political wis-dom says that women are less inter-

ested and engaged in politics thanmen. Major explanations for this so-called gender gap were women’slower access to socioeconomicresources. For example, men aremore likely to be full-time employedthan women, and employment ispositively related to political partici-pation.This is a global perception.

Women also tend to have fewerpolitical resources and be less likelyto be politically engaged and interest-ed which has been related to women’ssocialisation toward a gender rolethat is more passive, private, rule-abiding and compassionate, whilemen get opportunities to orienttoward leadership, public roles,autonomy and self-reliance. Womenwere found to be less likely todemonstrate, attend political meet-ings, contact a politician or be a partymember than men, but more likely tosign a petition, boycott products forethical reasons and donate funds.That is because they have privatesphere i.e. family responsibility. InIndian culture there is no concept ofco-parenting.

Moving on from right to vote toactive participation, one domain ofthe formal politics that has recentyears seen surge in active and effec-tive participation of women has beenthe Panchayati raj and local bodyinstitutions, where it has been consti-tutionally mandated for reservationof seats for female candidates.

While there have been manypositive cases of women panchayatsarpanch taking stand on issue butstill in many States they remain rub-

ber stamps for husband. In past fewyears, the involvement of womenparliamentarians raising and fightingfor women rights issues is dismal.This will continue as long as womenare dependent for their politicalfuture on make party noes. There hasto be substantial number of womenin Parliament, like in local institu-tions, providing voice to women tosway decision favouring genderequality in male dominatedParliament and State Assemblies.

Therefore , It is of utter impor-tance that sufficient affirmativeaction is provided in form of consti-tutional reforms to achieve genderbalance in the Parliament, enablingwomen to engage in legislativeprocesses and have greater voice inthe active nation building

Male dominance of the mostprestigious (parliamentary) commit-tees reinforces the de facto genderingof politics as masculine. Thus theneed for women to be involved inpolitics. There is need of sufficientnumber of women to raise issuesrelated to them, India for examplestill battling with domestic violence,sexual assault and marital rape andunder representation in politics.

So the question arises that howcan that be done. How women canbe adequately represented inParliament?

Female political participation hasbeen a cause of concern and contin-ues to be the unfinished agend of theprevious century. While some coun-tries have managed to combat factorsthat prevent women from entering

the political arena, others continue tostruggle to this day.

The various factors that havebeen a cause for under representationinclude structural, political and ideo-logical factors. The reason why somecountries have achieved gender-bal-anced politics is because of the roleplayed by political parties, women’smass movements, socio-cultural sup-port for women in politics, and theupheaval of political systems. Theseconditions have enabled the adoptionand implementation of quotas andreservations successfully. It is impor-tant for countries to improve theirgender-balance in politics, because ithas been proven that an increasednumber of women in politics impactseducation and health indicators.

In a country like India, it isimportant to adopt a multi-prongedapproach when it comes to increas-ing women representation. Not onlydo political parties need to step uptheir efforts to increase intra-partyrepresentation, but civil societyorganisation and the general publicneed to unite together to form acohesive mass women’s movement todemand political equality. Only whenall sectors of the society unite willwomen attain political equality.

Real democracy is a democracywhere women do not just have theright to vote and to elect but to beelected. Human rights are women’srights and women’s rights are humanrights. In the end one would like tosay women of India have nothing tolose but their chains and their fightwill continue in 21st century.

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Music in India has beenthe biggest medium forthe promotion and suc-cess of films. The filmcatches public imagina-

tion much before its release and that’ssolely due to the release of songs in it.In earlier days, we used to have morefolk music than modern. Folk music inthose days was like medicine. Musichelped individuals release stress, helpedthem sleep and was a premium sourceof peace. It was an important part ofthe household way before it got com-mercialised.

Earlier, music was viewed as a cre-ation which people liked and adopted.People bought tickets to listen to goodmusic. In due process of time, musicmoved towards commercialisation. It isno longer used only for therapy. If welook back at the music trajectory overthe past few decades, we will observethat earlier music was created forhuman needs, for peace but now it iscreated for business purposes. In con-text of music learning we will see thatthere is still some purity left in our cul-tural and classical Hindustani music. Ifwe compare it to eating habits, we seethat the people earlier used to have alifespan of 100-110 years but now it hasreduced to 65-70 years.

Similarly, old original music iseverlasting and evergreen but contem-porary music is easily swayed. Itattracts the attention of people hardlyfor 15 days, but old songs can still beheard in by-lanes. This distinction ispretty stark. I believe my audiencecome to listen to me and my songs andare not only buying show tickets todance and enjoy. They come for tran-

quility and to actually listen to music.In the last decade, we have seen themonopoly of film music, but now thereis a wave of independent music too.

People are able to portray their tal-ents using social media platforms.Artists gain a lot of face value via suchplatforms. Music has a wider reach. Ithas opened gateways for opportunities.However, on the contrary, we also see alot of inappropriate content surfacingon such platforms. Music should notremain confined. It should be expandedin this global world. It can either be inthe form of independent music orfusion both of which have a greatfuture ahead.

It is important to stress thatthrough music, we stage our cultureinternationally. Presenting remixes bystealing or manipulating music willbring shame to us.

Music has evolved with technology.Original singers are lost behind thesetechnologically created pseudo singerswhich is not good news. Live music andrecorded music are vastly different.The rise of recorded music is a blow tolive instrument players. But as we say,there are two sides of the coin. Hence,it cannot be negated that technologyhas also proved to be a blessing for us.It has made the recording processeseasier. Although it is useful, we shouldnever forget to preserve and uphold ourtraditional culture and originalHindustani music. It is great if it goeshand in hand. Good music is alreadythere. On the other hand, there is noactual need of such technologies orplatforms to make music flourish atgreater level but it has just become ameans to earn money.

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sunday pioneer

{MedTalk} 8Sunday, December 29, 2019

Diabetes mellitus (DM) isa complex disease thataffects almost all humansystems. Diabetes car-ries risks of both cardio-

vascular (CV) and microvascular(eyes/kidneys/nerves) complications.Previously, drugs were meant to treatblood glucose levels only, but thisline of thought has now changed.New drugs like sodium-glucose co-transporter 2 (SGLT2)inhibitors(canagliflozin/dapagliflozin/empagliflozin/remogliflozin)and glucagon-like peptide-1(GLP-1) agonists(dulaglutide/liraglutide) have pathbreaking benefits in multiple bodyorgans besides lowering blood sugarlevels. SGLT2 inhibitors act byinhibiting glucose reabsorption inthe kidneys. GLP-1 (Glucagon likepeptide) receptor agonists works onGLP 1 hormone receptors therebyincreasing insulin secretion. The tri-als with these drugs have showngreat protection of heart and kidneywhich has led to decrease in heartattacks, kidney failure, stroke andliver disease. ● Diabetes could be cured?

Previously it was thought thatdiabetes could not be reversed.Studies done in last five years haveshown that it is possible to reverseDiabetes. Initial studies showed thatmarked weight loss after surgery(bariatric surgery) normalised bloodsugar levels. It was also noted thatreversal of Diabetes was possible in

people with who lost >15kg ofweight. Similar results were seenwhen dietary calories were decreasedto less than 800-1,000 kcal per day, anear starvation diet. Interestinglythese interventions led to shrinkageof liver and pancreatic fat andimproved insulin secretion. Howeverit was not clear whether results fromthese controlled studies could beapplied to general population. Abouttwo years back, a study incorporat-ing low calorie diet was tried in gen-eral community in UK and wasfound to be successful. People with>15kg of weight loss had maximumreversal of Diabetes. An interestingquestion is whether this reversalcould be sustained.● Trendline data of blood glucoselevels on continuous mode is possi-ble!

Multiple skin pricking for bloodglucose monitoring each day is cum-bersome, inconvenient and expen-sive. Continuous glucose monitoringsystem (CGMS) represents a signifi-cant advance because it providesreal-time information about currentblood glucose concentrations, pro-vides short-term feedback about theeffectiveness of Diabetes interven-tions such as diet, drugs and insulinadministration, and it provideswarnings when blood glucose con-centrations become dangerouslyhigh or low. This device could beapplied using a device patch overskin and data could be downloaded.● New insulins continuously act

for 24 hours or beyondInsulin is a lifesaving drug. Very

often patients ask this question thatwhether taking insulin will lower myblood sugar too much(Hypoglycemia)? This often occurswith older generation of insulin.Modification of insulin structure hasresulted in newer insulins which pre-vent occurrence of low sugar fre-quently. Two of these long actingbasal insulins are degludec andglargine 300. These have a slow andpersistent action which may contin-ue till next day. Similarly, a newshort acting insulin with lower ten-dency for hypoglycemia is available.Any of these newer insulins areabout five to ten times more costly.● Provide insulin by use of newpancreas

Giving insulin externally cannotmimic natural insulin secretion. Wealso use a smarter way of givinginsulin in the form of insulin pumpswhich can simulate natural insulinsecretion but needs to be pro-grammed. These are used in patientswith Type I Diabetes which needmultiple doses of insulin daily. Anartificial pancreas uses man-madetechnology to match the way a pan-creas works. It is designed to releaseinsulin in response to changingblood glucose levels using computer-based algorithm. This has beenapproved for use in the US and islikely to be a very costly device.

With inputs from Bhavya Arora, Nutritionist &Diabetes Educator

Sweet & sour

PREVIOUSLY, IT WASTHOUGHT THAT

DIABETES COULDNOT BE REVERSED.

STUDIES DONE INTHE LAST FIVE

YEARS HAVESHOWN THAT IT IS

POSSIBLE TOREVERSE IT

BY ANOOP MISRAChairman, Fortis-C-DOC Centre of

Excellence for Diabetes

In India, about 50.9 million people sufferfrom Diabetes and this figure is likely togo up to 80 million by 2025, making itthe Diabetes Capital of the world

■ In January 1922, 14-year-oldLeonard Thompson was the firstperson to receive an injection ofinsulin to treat Diabetes.Thompson lived another 13 yearswith the condition and eventuallydied of pneumonia.

■ In 1922, metformin wasdeveloped for the treatment ofType II Diabetes mellitus.

■ The 1923 Nobel Prize inPhysiology awarded to FrederickBanting and JJR Macleod—publicly shared with Charles Bestand James Collip, respectively—sparked controversy as to whowas due credit for the discoveryof insulin.

■ Working at theRockefellerInstitute forMedical Researchbetween1915–1919, IsraelKleiner reportedconvincing results on the effectof ground pancreas solutions onblood sugar levels, usingrigorous experimental controlswhich theoretically, supportedthe internal secretion hypothesisof the origin of Diabetes andpractically, suggested a possibletherapeutic application.

■ The survey conducted during2015-2019 by Rajendra PrasadCentre for Ophthalmic Sciences,All India Institute of MedicalSciences, New Delhi also showedthat the prevalence of knownDiabetes cases was 8.0% andnew Diabetes cases was 3.8%.

■ Males showed a similarprevalence of Diabetes (12%) asfemales (11.7%). KnownDiabetics comprised 67.3%participants, while 32.7% werenew Diabetics.

The technological advancements in healthcare hasbenefited the industry including the diagnostic market.In 2020, genetic testing will further shape the

preventive healthcare segment. Recent findings in genomicstudy and the significant decline in the costs of genetic testing

will change the game completely. The industry will use these totransform how personalised healthcare is delivered. Government

backed research initiatives like IndiGen project will see rapid change ingenetics sector. — AMOL NNAIKAWADI, Joint MManaging DDirector,

Indus HHealth PPlus

GENETICSAY

Ayushman Bharat and the role of private hospitals inmaking it a success continued to remain a point ofcontention in 2019. The scheme is a

potentially game-changing scheme forIndian healthcare but the Government andprivate hospitals have to reach a commonground if it is to turn successful. Weexpect the Government to arrive at agenuine understanding with privatehospitals over the treatment packages

so that private participation under the scheme isincreased. Another noticeable development of the yearwas the Government’s initiative to strengthen andstreamline the regulation of medical devices.The move isexpected to significantly increase the level of compliancerequired by manufacturers or importers of medicaldevices. This will help boost quality control and motivatemanufacturers to improve quality to internationalstandards.— DR DHARMINDER NAGAR, MD, Paras Healthcare

BOOSTQUALITY

ONHIGH

Almost half of alldeaths attributableto high bloodglucose occurbefore the age of70 years. WHOestimates thatDiabetes was theseventh leadingcause of death in2016

One of the great discoveries

of 1920 was that insulin

effectively controls Diabetes

The year gone by has witnessed an extensive usage of onlinehealthcare by urban, semi-urban and rural people alike. 2019

saw an increase in acute disease manifestation from dengue toacute seasonal infections. More and more Indians have nowstarted using online platforms because of the ease andanonymity that it offers. Moreover, this year a lot of emphasisand awareness was seen for mental health issues likedepression, anxiety and substance abuse. As per our data, morethan 70% of the people who took depression self-test on theplatform are found to be at risk of moderate to severedepression. This year also had a lot of younger peoplestruggling with chronic disease issues like obesity, Diabetes andhypertension. Out of the total Diabetes risk assessments takenon the platform, more than 65% of individuals were found to bewith medium to high risks. Overall, of the total queries/callsreceived, 71% were from the ones in the age group of 20-40years. We are glad that we have made healthcare moreaccessible & have helped individuals to analyse their health viathe self-test section on the app. Going forward, 2020 will bringin more people to rely on online consultations for their firstdoctor touchpoint due to the availability & the ease of access.This would see a change of attitude towards seeking help, earlyintervention leading to better health outcomes.

—SATISH KANNAN, Co-founder & CEO, DocsApp

ANALYSETHISDeaths by Diphtheria was reduced due to theintroduction of new immunisations.America's population also increased in healthbecause of a new interest in nutrition, caloricconsumption and physical health. The dietaryhabits of Americans changed significantly asthey practiced the moral of less fat and meatand more fruits and vegetables. Thediscovery of vitamins and their effects alsocame about during this decade.

Penicillin is considered one of the mostimportant inventions to come out of the1920s. It was created by Sir AlexanderFleming, Professor of Bacteriology at StMary’s Hospital in London after studyingbacteria in 1928. Penicillin is used as anantibiotic, penicillin kills bacteria or preventsthem from growing and multiplying.

French researchers also perfected atuberculosis vaccine that saved the lives of98% of the infants treated in tuberculosishouseholds. Other French researchers whowere credited with the discovery of adiptheria anatoxin also produced the firsttetanus anatoxin

Dual-Acting Osteoporosis DrugProviding more bone-strengthening power, the recentFDA approval of a new dual-acting drug (romosozumab) isgiving patients with osteoporosismore control in preventingadditional fractures.

Peanut Allergy TherapyIt’s a terrifying reality for2.5 percent of parents– the possibility thatat any moment, theirchild might be unableto breathe due to anallergic reaction.Development of a

new oral immunotherapymedication to gradually build

tolerance to peanut exposureholds the opportunity to lendprotection against attack.

Closed-Loop Spinal CordStimulationSpinal cord stimulation is a

popular treatment for chronicpain. But unsatisfactoryoutcomes due to subtherapeuticevents are common. Closed-loopstimulation is allowing for bettercommunication between thedevice and the spinal cordproviding more optimalstimulation and relief of pain.

TECHTAKE 2020

● In 2019, science and health expertslearned more about the best waysto eat, how immune cells can beprogrammed to fight cancer,and why vaping might bemore dangerous than wethought.

● The first full face transplanton an African Americanpatient took place in July.At 68, Robert Chelsea's is also theoldest face transplant patient.

● In May, runner and nutritionist

Roxanne Vogel completed what iscalled the fastest-ever rapid MountEverest ascent, racing door to door

from her home in California tothe top of the world's tallestpeak — and back — in twoweeks.●Willem Einthoven, thediscoverer of theelectrocardiograph, which

measures electrical currents in theheart, won the Nobel Prize forphysiology or medicine in 1924.

■ In, 1921 Sir Ganga Ram Hospitalwas founded in Lahore

■ In 1925, the National Institute ofMental Health and Neuroscienceswas established in Bangalore. Todayit is listed as an Institute of NationalImportance

■ In 1926, King Edward MemorialHospital and Seth GordhandasSunderdas Medical College was founded in Mumbai

■ In 1930, the All-India Institute of Hygiene and PublicHealth was established in Calcutta

That insulin could control high blood sugar levels was the greatest find of 1920. Since then, alot of research has gone into knowing and tackling this century’s biggest lifestyle disease