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12
T he horror at the Goa Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), the State’s largest Covid-19 facility con- tinued as oxygen shortage killed 13 more Covid-19 patients in the dark hours (between 1 am and 6 am) of Friday, taking the tally to 75 in the last four days. As per the State Government statistics, 26 patients died at the Goa Medical College and Hospital during the wee hours of Tuesday, followed by 21 on Wednesday, 15 on Thursday, and 13 on Friday (total 75). Even as hospitals in Goa see a surge in Covid-19 cases, the scenes at crematoriums in the coastal State are equally grim as bodies continue to line up for last rites. Goa’s coronavirus case- load rose to 1,32,585 after 2,455 patients tested positive for the infection on Friday. According to a resident doctor of GMCH wards, pres- sure in the central pipeline started falling around 1 am on Thursday, and three patients in his ward succumbed to the fluctuations, despite their attempts to revive them. “Relatives called us fran- tically saying patients were gasping for breath and their saturation levels (SPO2) had dropped to 40-50,” the resi- dent doctor said, adding, on the night of Wednesday- Thursday, there was a drop in oxygen pressure at least five to six times. I n a first in India, Pharma company Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, the Indian part- ner of Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), said it has commenced Sputnik V’s India rollout with the first dose being administered in Hyderabad on Friday as part of a pilot project. Sputnik V, which has an efficiency of 91.6 per cent, is the third vaccine to be approved for use in India, the other two being Covishield and Covaxin. The vaccine is expected to fill the supply side to give a fillip to halted inoculation drive in many States. The soft launch took place, a day after the Centre had said the vaccine is likely to be avail- able in the market from next week. The first consignment of imported doses of the Sputnik V vaccine had landed in India on 1 May. The company also said the imported vaccine has been priced at 948 per dose plus an additional 5 per cent GST to be charged on it, putting the price around 995.4, just under 1,000 a dose. I t all started with the recovery of a handful of bodies from rivers across Uttar Pradesh. The small count increased to hundreds and now it is esti- mated that thousands of bod- ies were recovered and then buried in the sand across the State and the river highlight- ing the devastation corona has unleashed on the rural parts of the State. The people living along the rivers like the Ganga and the Yamuna recount that not a day passes when they do not come across 10-12 bodies floating in the river. “If you take the full stretch of the Ganga which is around 1,100 kms, then thousands of bodies have been found in last fortnight either floating or buried in the sands across the two main rivers,” Sanjay Dutta, a volunteer of Bondhu Mahal Samiti, a philanthrop- ic organisation, said. The organisation is helping Covid positive people and their fam- ily members and even cre- mating unwanted bodies, he said in Kanpur. There is little doubt the abandoned corpses could be those of Covid-19 patients. “This is unparalleled situation where highly decomposed and bloated corpses are being fished out regularly from the rivers. Many of them are in such a bad shape that one can- not recognise them,” he said. The recovery of bodies has started a war of words between Bihar and Uttar Pradesh Governments After 71 bodies were recovered from Buxar in Bihar early this week. When 45 bodies were found floating in Ballia and Ghazipur region, the SP, Ballia, Vipin Tada said that seeing the wind direction it seems that the bodies are coming from Bihar. I n more troubles for the debt- ridden industrialist Anil Ambani, Swiss Federal Court has agreed to share information with the Indian authorities about the bank accounts of him, his wife Tina Ambani, and their two children Jai Anmol, and Jai Anshul, according to the Swiss media. Swiss newspaper Gotham City on May 12 reported that Indian Finance Ministry’s Foreign Tax and Research Division filed a petition in the Swiss Federal Court for getting details of the bank accounts operated by Anil Ambani. According to Gotham City, the court’s order came on April 29. The newspaper confirmed from the registrar’s office that the order directed to banks named Anil, Tina, Jai Anmol, and Jai Anshul Ambanis, though the order available in the public domain shows only A, B, C, D due to privacy issues. Gotham City’s reporter Francois Pilet reported that the court registrar’s office allowed him to see the actual names. “As court reporters, we are allowed to see the names of the parties in every decision on the Swiss Supreme Court,” he explained to news portal News Laundry. Another international investigative portal Global Investigative Review (GIR) on Friday reported in detail about the Swiss court’s direction to banks to disclose the details of bank accounts of Anil Ambani and their family. According to Swiss media reports, earlier an Indian whistle-blower approached the Swiss courts seeking Anil Ambani family’s bank accounts. Later the Indian Government too filed the peti- tion, they said. Recently, in a case filed by Chinese banking consortium, Anil Ambani deposed in a London court that he has no money and is living with broth- er Mukesh Ambani’s help. M oved by the suffering of the Covid- 19 patients, an astrologer turned himself into a “sanitizer man” to save lives in the national Capital. He calls himself by the name of “Yogi” and is devoted to containing coronavirus in his own “small way” by sanitising all last-mile vehicles, includ- ing e-rickshaws and autos, in the West Delhi. Yogi wanted to ensure vehicle seats were disin- fected after the pas- sengers step out from them and used by the new ones. “Most of owners of these vehicles are either careless or simply not aware about the cleanliness,” he said. A resident of Vishnu Garden, Yogi also cleans and sanitises spaces around small-time earners like “rediwalas”, “patriwalas” and areas under the flyovers inhabited by the homeless. “I realised that though the Government is asking people to sani- tise but how would these people with no water or soap do that?”, he asked. He decided to start his sani- tising mission by, to begin up, picking-up a six-liter cane of liquid sanitiser. E nveloped by the multitude of com- plexities involving contraction of Covid-19 by his one-and-a-half-year old son, a stressed Assistant Registrar of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur hanged himself. Surjit Das, 40, originally hail- ing from Karimnagar district of Assam, was appar- ently stressed due to the neighbours distancing them- selves from him and his fami- ly after they came to know of his toddler son’s infection from coronavirus. Das was employed with IIT, Kanpur in 2015 and resided in the residential campus of the prestigious insti- tution along with his wife Bulbul Das, eight-year-old son Shobhit and Suniyojit (one-and-a-half-year old) and his mother-in-law. According to the police, he was undertaking treatment of his infected son at his home. Following this, the Health Department officials pasted a notice mentioning “corona infected area.” Due to this, the neighbours maintained a safe distance from him and his family. Possibly, Das was per- turbed over this stigmatisation. Reports quoting his wife suggested he took dinner with the family and went to his room to sleep. However, he was found hanging from the ceiling fan in the din- ing hall. After the victim’s wife raised the alarm, neighbours and security guard lowered him from the fan and rushed him to a nearby hospital where he was declared dead. W hen the first Covid-19 waves swept through the country last year, Goa remained largely unaffected. Of course, tourism, the main source of livelihood, took a serious hit, but Goans were able to keep both infection and fatality at the low end of the scale on a national basis. The Goans threw caution into the sea and celebrated Christmas and New Year as if corona were a long forgotten tale of horror. Few wore masks or took any precaution as they drank and danced and kept alive the spirit of Goa. But the recklessness of the past few months has now come to haunt Goans. The State with just around 1.5 million popu- lation sparsely scattered settled along the Arabian Sea has emerged as one of the worst affected places in India in terms of positivity rate. Only Rajasthan and Sikkim are ahead of Goa’s positivity rate of around 40-50 per cent over the week. Goa now has a fatality rate of 1.5 per cent which is much higher than the national aver- age of 1.2 per cent, and for every 100 confirmed cases, 25 are currently infected. The situation is so grim that Goa’s total death count more than doubled from 964 to 1,937 in just three weeks. Nearly ten per cent of the cur- rent casualties are those who were suffocated to death for want of oxygen. W ith a drastic fall in the arrival of domestic and international tourists due to Covid-19, Goa tourism has taken a big knock. The State’s restaurants, pubs and beaches are deserted due to the imposition of night curfew, ban on international flights, curtailed domestic flights, restriction on visitors and an unrelenting spike in Covid-19 cases and deaths. Nearly 2,100 of the total registered 3,500 hotels have downed their shutters, 5-star hotels have slashed their rates by nearly 50-60 with a meagre occupancy rate of 5-10 per cent, which is a drastic drop from a high of 80 per cent occupancy in March this year. Footfall in casinos is paltry, and phones of car/bike rental com- panies have fallen silent. Top officials said visitors from other States are not com- ing as the Government has made it mandatory to carry a negative Covid-19 test report or a vaccination for visitors from other States. Over two dozen film and TV serial mak- ers and their units that moved from Mumbai and Chennai recently shifted their shootings to Goa, now returning back as the shooting for permission has been withdrawn due to a spike in Covid cases. T he three-member high- level selection committee comprising Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Opposition leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, and Chief Justice of India NV Ramana will at last sit together on May 24 to decide the next CBI Director. The post is vacant for more than three months. The shortlisted names are from the 1984 to 1986 batch IPS officers, including BSF DG Rakesh Asthana and NIA Chief YC Modi. According to highly-placed officials, more than 13 names are shortlisted and their resumes are already sent to the selection commit- tee members for perusal. Senior police officers like ITBP chief SS Deshwal, CISF chief Subodh Jiaswal, Kerala DGP Loknath Behera, Gujarat ACB chief Keshav Kumar and Uttar Pradesh DGP HC Awasthy are also short-listed for the post. According to sources, the Government may bring the name of some non-controver- sial officers as surprise as it did the last time by making RK Shukla CBI Director in January 2019 after the removal of Alok Verma. Some officials said the Government may also consider officers from 1986 batch as all officers from 1984 batch are retiring from service in May, June and July. CBI Director is selected for two years. The Modi Government is already facing a case filed by noted lawyer Prashant Bhushan in Supreme Court for not appointing CBI Director on time. exclusive pioneer I t appears that Covid-19 is not the only calamity that India may have to deal with in the coming days. There are people who are still trying to deal with the chaos, destruc- tion and death that the second wave of Covid- 19 has brought. The next punch comes to hit the country is black fungus or mucormycosis. The rising number of black fungus patients, especially in Maharashtra where 111 patients, all Covid-19 survivors, are undergoing treat- ment according to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, is a cause of worry. Mucormycosis, also referred to as zygomy- cosis, is a serious but rare fungal infection caused by a group of molds called mucormycetes. These molds live throughout the environment. When someone breathes in these spores, infection in the sinus or lung can occur. It primarily affects people who have health problems or take medicines that lower the body’s ability to fight germs and sickness. It is affecting Covid patients more because of prolonged administration of steroids and sub- sequent immunocompromised state. Dr Monalisa Sahu, Consultant Infectious Diseases, Yashoda Hospitals, Hyderabad shares dos and don’ts to follow to prevent black fungus.

Transcript of 8`R deZ]] XRdad W`c `ijXV_ "$ UVReYd cRZdV e`]] e` (&

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The horror at the GoaMedical College and

Hospital (GMCH), the State’slargest Covid-19 facility con-tinued as oxygen shortagekilled 13 more Covid-19patients in the dark hours(between 1 am and 6 am) ofFriday, taking the tally to 75in the last four days.

As per the StateGovernment statistics, 26patients died at the GoaMedical College and Hospitalduring the wee hours ofTuesday, followed by 21 onWednesday, 15 on Thursday,and 13 on Friday (total 75).

Even as hospitals in Goasee a surge in Covid-19 cases,the scenes at crematoriums inthe coastal State are equally

grim as bodies continue toline up for last rites.

Goa’s coronavirus case-load rose to 1,32,585 after2,455 patients tested positivefor the infection on Friday.

According to a residentdoctor of GMCH wards, pres-sure in the central pipelinestarted falling around 1 am onThursday, and three patientsin his ward succumbed to thefluctuations, despite theirattempts to revive them.

“Relatives called us fran-tically saying patients weregasping for breath and theirsaturation levels (SPO2) haddropped to 40-50,” the resi-dent doctor said, adding, onthe night of Wednesday-Thursday, there was a drop inoxygen pressure at least five tosix times.

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In a first in India, Pharmacompany Dr Reddy’s

Laboratories, the Indian part-ner of Russian DirectInvestment Fund (RDIF), saidit has commenced Sputnik V’sIndia rollout with the firstdose being administered inHyderabad on Friday as part ofa pilot project.

Sputnik V, which has anefficiency of 91.6 per cent, is thethird vaccine to be approved foruse in India, the other twobeing Covishield and Covaxin.The vaccine is expected to fillthe supply side to give a fillipto halted inoculation drive inmany States.

The soft launch took place,

a day after the Centre had saidthe vaccine is likely to be avail-able in the market from nextweek. The first consignment ofimported doses of the SputnikV vaccine had landed in Indiaon 1 May.

The company also said theimported vaccine has beenpriced at �948 per dose plus anadditional 5 per cent GST to becharged on it, putting the pricearound �995.4, just under�1,000 a dose.

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It all started with the recoveryof a handful of bodies from

rivers across Uttar Pradesh. Thesmall count increased to hundreds and now it is esti-mated that thousands of bod-ies were recovered and thenburied in the sand across theState and the river highlight-ing the devastation coronahas unleashed on the ruralparts of the State.

The people living alongthe rivers like the Ganga andthe Yamuna recount that nota day passes when they do notcome across 10-12 bodiesfloating in the river.

“If you take the full stretchof the Ganga which is around1,100 kms, then thousands ofbodies have been found in lastfortnight either floating or

buried in the sands across thetwo main rivers,” SanjayDutta, a volunteer of BondhuMahal Samiti, a philanthrop-ic organisation, said. Theorganisation is helping Covidpositive people and their fam-ily members and even cre-mating unwanted bodies, hesaid in Kanpur.

There is little doubt theabandoned corpses could bethose of Covid-19 patients.“This is unparalleled situationwhere highly decomposed andbloated corpses are being

fished out regularly from therivers. Many of them are insuch a bad shape that one can-not recognise them,” he said.

The recovery of bodieshas started a war of wordsbetween Bihar and UttarPradesh Governments After71 bodies were recovered fromBuxar in Bihar early this week.When 45 bodies were foundfloating in Ballia and Ghazipurregion, the SP, Ballia, VipinTada said that seeing the winddirection it seems that thebodies are coming from Bihar.

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In more troubles for the debt-ridden industrialist Anil

Ambani, Swiss Federal Courthas agreed to share informationwith the Indian authoritiesabout the bank accounts ofhim, his wife Tina Ambani, andtheir two children Jai Anmol,and Jai Anshul, according tothe Swiss media.

Swiss newspaper GothamCity on May 12 reported thatIndian Finance Ministry’sForeign Tax and ResearchDivision filed a petition in theSwiss Federal Court for gettingdetails of the bank accounts

operated by Anil Ambani.According to Gotham City,

the court’s order came on April29. The newspaper confirmedfrom the registrar’s office thatthe order directed to banksnamed Anil, Tina, Jai Anmol,and Jai Anshul Ambanis,though the order available inthe public domain shows onlyA, B, C, D due to privacy issues.

Gotham City’s reporterFrancois Pilet reported that

the court registrar’s officeallowed him to see the actualnames. “As court reporters, weare allowed to see the names ofthe parties in every decision onthe Swiss Supreme Court,” heexplained to news portal NewsLaundry.

Another internationalinvestigative portal GlobalInvestigative Review (GIR) onFriday reported in detail aboutthe Swiss court’s direction tobanks to disclose the details ofbank accounts of Anil Ambaniand their family. According toSwiss media reports, earlier anIndian whistle-blowerapproached the Swiss courtsseeking Anil Ambani family’sbank accounts. Later the IndianGovernment too filed the peti-tion, they said.

Recently, in a case filed byChinese banking consortium,Anil Ambani deposed in aLondon court that he has nomoney and is living with broth-er Mukesh Ambani’s help.

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Moved by the suffering of the Covid-19 patients, an astrologer turned

himself into a “sanitizer man” to savelives in the national Capital.

He calls himself by thename of “Yogi” and isdevoted to containingcoronavirus in his own“small way” by sanitisingall last-mile vehicles, includ-ing e-rickshaws and autos,in the West Delhi.

Yogi wanted toensure vehicleseats were disin-fected after the pas-sengers step out from themand used by the new ones.

“Most of owners of these vehiclesare either careless or simply not awareabout the cleanliness,” he said.

A resident of Vishnu Garden,Yogi also cleansand sanitisesspaces aroundsmall-time earners like“rediwalas”, “patriwalas” andareas under the f lyoversinhabited by the homeless.

“I realised that though theGovernment is asking people to sani-tise but how would these people with

no water or soap do that?”, heasked.

He decided to start his sani-tising mission by, to begin up,

picking-up a six-liter cane of liquidsanitiser.

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Enveloped by the multitude of com-plexities involving contraction of

Covid-19 by his one-and-a-half-year oldson, a stressed Assistant Registrar of theIndian Institute of Technology (IIT),

Kanpur hanged himself.Surjit Das, 40, originally hail-

ing from Karimnagar district ofAssam, was appar-

ently stressed dueto the neighbours

distancing them-selves from him and his fami-ly after they came to know ofhis toddler son’s infectionfrom coronavirus.

Das was employed withIIT, Kanpur in 2015 andresided in the residentialcampus of the prestigious insti-tution along with his wife Bulbul

Das, eight-year-old son Shobhit andSuniyojit (one-and-a-half-year old) andhis mother-in-law.

According to the police, he wasundertaking treatment of his infectedson at his home. Following this, theHealth Department officials pasted anotice mentioning “corona infectedarea.” Due to this, the neighboursmaintained a safe distance from himand his family. Possibly, Das was per-turbed over this stigmatisation.

Reports quoting his wife suggestedhe took dinner with the family and

went to his room to sleep.However, he was found hangingfrom the ceiling fan in the din-ing hall. After the victim’s wiferaised the alarm, neighboursand security guard lowered him

from the fan and rushed him toa nearby hospital where he was

declared dead.

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When the first Covid-19waves swept through the

country last year, Goaremained largely unaffected. Ofcourse, tourism, the mainsource of livelihood, took aserious hit, but Goans were ableto keep both infection andfatality at the low end of thescale on a national basis.

The Goans threw cautioninto the sea and celebratedChristmas and New Year as ifcorona were a long forgottentale of horror. Few wore masksor took any precaution as theydrank and danced and keptalive the spirit of Goa.

But the recklessness of thepast few months has now cometo haunt Goans. The State withjust around 1.5 million popu-lation sparsely scattered settledalong the Arabian Sea hasemerged as one of the worstaffected places in India in

terms of positivity rate. OnlyRajasthan and Sikkim areahead of Goa’s positivity rate ofaround 40-50 per cent over theweek.

Goa now has a fatality rateof 1.5 per cent which is muchhigher than the national aver-age of 1.2 per cent, and forevery 100 confirmed cases, 25are currently infected.

The situation is so grimthat Goa’s total death countmore than doubled from 964 to1,937 in just three weeks.Nearly ten per cent of the cur-rent casualties are those whowere suffocated to death forwant of oxygen.

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With a drastic fall in thearrival of domestic and

international tourists due toCovid-19, Goa tourism hastaken a big knock.

The State’s restaurants,pubs and beaches are deserteddue to the imposition of nightcurfew, ban on internationalflights, curtailed domesticflights, restriction on visitorsand an unrelenting spike inCovid-19 cases and deaths.

Nearly 2,100 of the totalregistered 3,500 hotels havedowned their shutters, 5-starhotels have slashed their ratesby nearly 50-60 with a meagreoccupancy rate of 5-10 percent, which is a drastic dropfrom a high of 80 per centoccupancy in March this year.Footfall in casinos is paltry, and

phones of car/bike rental com-panies have fallen silent.

Top officials said visitorsfrom other States are not com-ing as the Government hasmade it mandatory to carry anegative Covid-19 test reportor a vaccination for visitorsfrom other States. Over twodozen film and TV serial mak-ers and their units that movedfrom Mumbai and Chennairecently shifted their shootingsto Goa, now returning back asthe shooting for permissionhas been withdrawn due to aspike in Covid cases.

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The three-member high-level selection committee

comprising Prime MinisterNarendra Modi, Oppositionleader Adhir RanjanChowdhury, and Chief Justiceof India NV Ramana will atlast sit together on May 24 todecide the next CBI Director.The post is vacant for morethan three months.

The shortlisted names arefrom the 1984 to 1986 batchIPS officers, including BSFDG Rakesh Asthana and NIA

Chief YC Modi. According tohighly-placed officials, morethan 13 names are shortlistedand their resumes are alreadysent to the selection commit-tee members for perusal.

Senior police officers likeITBP chief SS Deshwal, CISFchief Subodh Jiaswal, KeralaDGP Loknath Behera, GujaratACB chief Keshav Kumar andUttar Pradesh DGP HCAwasthy are also short-listedfor the post.

According to sources, the

Government may bring thename of some non-controver-sial officers as surprise as it didthe last time by making RKShukla CBI Director inJanuary 2019 after the removalof Alok Verma. Some officialssaid the Government may alsoconsider officers from 1986batch as all officers from 1984batch are retiring from servicein May, June and July. CBIDirector is selected for twoyears.

The Modi Government isalready facing a case filed bynoted lawyer PrashantBhushan in Supreme Court fornot appointing CBI Directoron time.

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It appears that Covid-19 is not the onlycalamity that India may have to deal within the coming days. There are people who

are still trying to deal with the chaos, destruc-tion and death that the second wave of Covid-19 has brought. The next punch comes to hitthe country is black fungus or mucormycosis.The rising number of black fungus patients,especially in Maharashtra where 111 patients,all Covid-19 survivors, are undergoing treat-ment according to the BrihanmumbaiMunicipal Corporation, is a cause of worry.

Mucormycosis, also referred to as zygomy-

cosis, is a serious but rare fungal infectioncaused by a group of molds calledmucormycetes. These molds live throughoutthe environment. When someone breathes inthese spores, infection in the sinus or lung canoccur. It primarily affects people who havehealth problems or take medicines that lowerthe body’s ability to fight germs and sickness.It is affecting Covid patients more because ofprolonged administration of steroids and sub-sequent immunocompromised state.

Dr Monalisa Sahu, Consultant InfectiousDiseases, Yashoda Hospitals, Hyderabad shares dos and don’ts to follow to prevent black fungus.

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With Punjab heading forthe next State Assembly

in early 2022, Chief MinisterCapt Amarinder Singh onFriday fulfilled a long-pendingdemand by announcingMalerkotla as the State’s 23rddistrict on the occasion of Eid-ul-Fitr.

The Chief Minister alsoannounced a slew of projectsfor the development of thehistoric city, including settingup of a Medical College,Degree College, womenpolice station, bus stand,among others, during theState-level celebration of ‘Eid-ul-Fitr’ held virtually in viewof the pandemic situation.

On the occasion, theChief Minister underscoredIndia’s secular character,which he said was manifest-ed in the defeat of communalforces in the recent Assemblyelections in Tamil Nadu andWest Bengal.

Recalling the rich andglorious histor y ofMalerkot la , the ChiefMinister said that its conver-sion into a district, which wasa long-standing demand ofthe local people, would easethe hardships of such peopleand enable them to resolvetheir administrative problemsmore seamlessly.

Initially, said the ChiefMinister, the sub-divisions ofMalerkotla and Ahmedgarh,as well as the sub-tehsil ofAmargarh, would be includ-ed in the newly-created dis-trict. The process of bringingvillages under the jurisdictionof Malerkotla district would

begin later, after the conclu-sion of the census operations,he added.

The Chief Ministerdirected Sangrur DeputyCommissioner to find a suit-able building to immediatelystart the functioning of theDistr ict Administrationoff ice. The DeputyCommissioner for the newlycarved out district would beappointed soon, he said.

Announcing variousdevelopment projects for theMalerkot la , the ChiefMinister said that aGovernment Medical College,in the name of Nawab SherMohammed Khan, wouldsoon be set up at a cost of Rs500 crore, and the StateGovernment had alreadyallotted 25 acres of land onRaikot road to enable thelocal boys and girls to pursuemedical education. The firstinstallment of Rs 50 crore forthis purpose had already beensanctioned, he added.

The Chief Minister alsoannounced establishment of aGovernment College for Girlsto impart quality higher edu-cation to the local girls, whocurrently have to travel longdistances for the same.

A new bus stand will alsobe constructed at a cost of Rs10 crore, he said, adding thatMalekotla will also get a‘Mahila Thana’, to be exclu-sively managed by women.

To ensure holistic urbandevelopment of Malerkotla,the Chief Minister a lsoannounced a sum of Rs sixcrore under the UrbanEnvironment ImprovementProgram (UEIP).

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The deadly black fungus hasfound its way into Punjab,

lending a darker hue to the pic-ture of gloom in the alreadyCOVID-hit State.

Some cases of this rare butserious fungal infection —mucormycosis or as popularlyknown as ‘black fungus’ — hasbeen reported from Punjab’sMohali and Ludhiana districts.

Notably, this infection hasbeen detected quite frequent-ly among the COVID-19patients, including those whohave recovered, in some othersstates of the country. As perreports, it often manifests in theskin and also affects the lungs

and even the brain, resulting inloss of organs — like eyes, oreven death.

The cases of black funguswere found in Delhi in earlyDecember. After that, somecases were also reported inAhmedabad (Gujarat),Bamglore (Karnataka), andRajasthan also. The infection isdangerous because 54 percentof its patients have died.

“As of now we do not haveany data or figures about thetotal cases of black fungus thathas been reported from Punjab.There are a few. I have learntthat PGI is getting many casesbut that were from many states,including Punjab, Haryana,and even Himachal,” PunjabGovernment’s health advisorDr KK Talwar told The Pioneer.

Listing out the reasons forthe fatal infection, Dr Talwarsaid that excessive use ofsteroids during treatment ofCOVID-19 patients is whatcauses this fungal infection,besides when contaminatedwater is used for hydratingoxygen.

“We have all along beeninstructing the hospitals anddoctors regarding the use ofsteroids during the COVIDpatients’ treatment. But, someof the private hospitals givesteroids to their patients, whichmay cause this infection…butas of now, there are not manycases of black fungus in theState,” said Dr Talwar.

Renowned surgeon DrArvinder Singh Soin main-tained that the Black Fungus(mucormycosis infection) afterCOVID-19 can result in loss ofvision, brain damage, and evendeath. “To prevent it, avoid

steroid’s overuse; control dia-betes; no unnecessary antibi-otics; and hygienic oxygen —that is clean concentrators,clean water for humidifier,and certified source,” he said.

Alarmed, the state healthauthorities have decided toissue strict guidelines to allhospitals regarding use ofsteroids while treating theCOVID patients, besidesensuring hygienic supply ofoxygen by timely changingthe water in humidifier amongo t h e rthings.

“The cases of black funguswere being reported fromother states, and now it hasreached Punjab also. As ofnow, I am aware of one casefrom Mohali and nearly adozen from Ludhiana. TheHealth Department is wellaware of this and is cautious.We will soon be purchasingthe injections and medicinesused for its treatment,” said asenior health official, who didnot wish to be named.

It has been learnt thatmore than 10 patients, detect-ed with black fungus, areundergoing treatment atLudhiana’s Dayanand MedicalCollege and Hospital. “A caseof black fungus has been

reported fromLudhiana, andthe patient wasreferred toP G I -C h a n d i g a r hdue to somecomplications,”said the offi-cial.

The newdisease is being

detected in patients recoveringfrom the coronavirus. As perexperts, if caution is not taken,it can happen to anyone. Infact, it is so dangerous that insome cases, the limbs ofpatients have to be amputatedto save their lives.

“Patients have also dieddue to this, while doctors haveto remove their eyes or otherorgans to save the lives ofsome patients. Black fungus issaid to be extremely dangerouswith such results so we need tobe prepared for it also whilecontinuing our fight with coro-navirus,” added the official.

KNOW BLACK FUN-GUS

Black fungal infection iscaused when a patient inhalesa group of moulds (mucormy-cosis) present in the air. Themoulds then, spread into thelungs, cavities, and chest cav-ities, making the condition ofa patient serious and compli-cated.

COVID-19 link: As perexperts, the exact reason howmucormycosis is linked withCOVID-19 is yet not disclosed,but some experts believe thatit is being caused by highdependency on steroids usedto treat inflammation or pre-existing disease such as dia-betes. It happens MONG peo-ple who have diabetes, canceror who have had an organtransplanted, who have beentaking steroids for a long time,or who have a skin injury, itcan also happen to a premature baby.

Signs: The health expertssays that facial deformity,impair sensory and vitalorgans, can be the sign of

black fungus.Symptoms: Extreme

headaches; vision impairmentlike swelling in an eye, poor orhazy vision or bloodshot eyes;Swelling on face with swellingand pain in eyes, cheeks andother parts of the face can bewarning signs. It can alsoaffect the skin giving rise tomultiple necrosis or lesionslike symptoms. The infectioncan travel up to the braincausing, symptoms like mem-ory loss, altered mental state,delirium, or neurologicalimpairment. The patients canalso experience black patchesaround the nose and eyes,while it can also cause the lossof teeth.

Most Prone Category: It ismore likely to occur in thosepeople who are already suffer-ing from some disease; orthose taking medicines thatreduce body’s immunity orreduce the strength to fightother diseases of the body. Itcan occur in any part of the body.

Where is it found?Although it is a rare infection,it can live anywhere in theenvironment, it is found in theground and rotting organicmatter, such as leaves, rottenwood, and compost manure.

How to avoid? Thoughthere is not a fool proof way,but the experts have suggest-ed staying away from the con-struction sites, not going to thedusty area, wearing full sleevesgloves while gardening orfarming, wearing masks, avoid-ing going to places where thereis water leakage, wheredrainage water is collected.

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With the deadly secondwave of COVID-19

spreading its tentacles to therural areas of Haryana, theState Government will beginthe door-to-door surveillanceon May 15 to find out influen-za like illness (ILI) and severeacute respiratory infections(SARI) cases.

For this, villagers generalhealth checkup scheme hasbeen chalked out by the State'sHealth Department. Underthis, a list of 7007 villages in 22districts of the state has beenprepared where two designat-ed teams i.e. field team and thevillage headquarter team willbe designated to carry out thesurveillance work.

The State Government hasallocated 5000 thermometers,5200 pulse oximeters, 20000paracetamol tablets (500 gm),20000 calcium salts plus vita-min D3 tablets, 20000 doxy-cycline capsules, 100000 B-

complex tablets, 200000 vita-min c tablets and 200000 OPRto the districts under the healthcheckup scheme.

A letter from Rajeev Arora,Additional Chief Secretary wassent to all deputy commis-sioners and civil surgeons onFriday to start the health checkup of people in rural areasfrom May 15.

The rural areas of Haryanawere safe from the first waveof COVID but the secondwave has reached many vil-lages in Rohtak, Hisar,Bhiwani, Karnal, Panipatamong other districts.

“The health check upscheme will be rolled out inseveral parts of the state onSaturday. The village with highCOVID load will be taken onpriority during the survey byfield teams. It was proposed toform 8000 teams. Teams arebeing formed accordingly andwill be scaled up in the nearfuture,” said a senior officer ofthe Health Department while

talking to The Pioneer.The field team will have

four members includingASHA, anganwadi worker,school teacher, lady panchay-at member or gram sachiv ofthat village or any other mem-ber nominated by BDPO. Thefour members team will gohouse to house for a survey ofILI like symptoms and gener-al check up of the population.This team will refer the select-ed cases to the village headquarter team at the villageisolation centre, he said.

The field team will be pro-vided with a triple layer or sur-gical mask for self use and dis-tribution among the popula-tion, hand sanitizers, infraredthermal scanner and pulseoximeters.

The officer said that thevillage isolation centres to beset up in villages will have 2rooms, each with space for 5-10 beds with adequate venti-lation, clean drinking water,fan and separate toilet facili-

ty.Buildings with the facility oftoilets and electricity likeschools, Panchayat Ghars orCommunity Centres are beingconverted into village isolationcentres.

The rooms will be desig-nated as a quarantine room(for suspected patients whohave not been tested) and anisolation room for confirmedCOVID patients , he added.

The CEOs, Zila Parishadswill be the nodal officer whileDDPOs and BDPOs will assistthe Deputy Commissioners insetting up these isolation cen-tres.

Apart from this, a rapidantigen team is also constitut-ed which will visit the villageCOVID Care Centre for sam-ple collection and monitoringof admitted patients.

Notably, the Chief MinisterManohar Lal Khattar had a daybefore directed to get saniti-zation done in every village ofthe state.

HARYANA RECORDS164 DEATHS, 10,608 NEWCASES

Haryana on Friday report-ed 164 fatalities and 10608 freshCOVID-19 cases. The state alsoreported 14577 recoveries, onceagain more than the fresh infec-tions for the fifth consecutiveday. A day before, 163 deaths,12286 fresh infections and16041 new recoveries werereported in Haryana. Accordingto the state's health bulletin, thedeath toll due to COVID-19 hasreached 6402 while the state'scumulative caseload was record-ed at 675636. The state's activecases declined below one lakhand was recorded at 99007. Inthe last 24 hours, a maximumof 16 deaths were reported inRohtak followed by 15 fatalitiesin Gurugram and 12 in Jind. Amaximum of 2144 fresh infec-tions were reported in the worstaffected district of Gurugramfollowed by 1146 cases in Hisarand 826 cases in Faridabad.

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With rural areas, whichwere largely unaffected in

the first wave, now showing aCOVID spike, Punjab ChiefMinister Capt AmarinderSingh on Friday urged vil-lagers to restrict movementinto their villages to only thosepersons who are free of thevirus.

Addressing the people ofthe state in a live Facebook tele-cast, the Chief Minister calledfor strict measures in the ruralareas over the next two months,which he described as“extremely crucial”.

“Now the rural areas areseeing a surge in cases, so weneed to be very careful,” he said,urging the villagers to conduct‘thikri pheras’ to keep out-siders away and allow onlyCOVID-free people to enter.

Exhorting people to “saveyour mohallas and villages to

save yourself, your familiesand Punjab”, the Chief Ministerasked them not to delay goingto hospitals in time.

“We have teams of doctorseverywhere, approach them ifyou feel unwell,” he urgedthem, stressing that delay ingoing for treatment was lead-ing to people ending up inLevel-III (L3). While occu-pancy of Level-II (L2) beds is50 percent, at the L3 level,around 90 percent of the bedsare currently occupied, andthe State Government is in theprocess of adding another2,000, he pointed out, attribut-ing this to the people not goingfor treatment in time.

Noting that there are threestages of the disease, of whichthe first can be managed athome, Capt Amarinder reiter-ated his plea to the people to goto the doctor at the first sign ofsymptoms. “Let the doctordecide the course of treatment,

don’t get into diagnosis andmedication yourself,” heappealed to them.

“I fail to understand whywe are harming the interestsof the State and your familiesin this manner,” he said,adding that “we do not wantPunjab to go the way of Delhiand Maharashtra, which haveexperienced unprecedentedproblems amid the secondwave.” The disease was wreak-ing havoc the world over,with even the most advancedcountries not immune to it,he said, urging people to helpthe Government save theState. Underlining that thepandemic threat continues andsome people are still not tak-ing the pandemic seriouslyeven after 14 months of its out-break, the Chief Minister saidthat Punjab has, so far, had 4.75lakh plus cases, withThursday’s 24-hour case loadat 8,484.

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heading for thenext StateAssembly inearly 2022,Chief MinisterC a p tA m a r i n d e rSingh on Fridayfulfilled a long-p e n d i n gdemand bya n n o u n c i n gMalerkotla asthe State’s 23rddistrict on theoccasion ofEid-ul-Fitr.

The ChiefMinister alsoannounced aslew of projectsfor the devel-opment of thehistoric city,including set-ting up of aM e d i c a lCollege, DegreeC o l l e g e ,women policestation, busstand, amongothers, duringthe State-levelcelebration of‘Eid-ul-Fitr’held virtually in

view of the pandemic situation. On the occasion, theChief Minister underscoredIndia’s secular character, whichhe said was manifested in thedefeat of communal forces inthe recent Assembly elections inTamil Nadu and West Bengal.

Recalling the rich and glo-rious history of Malerkotla,the Chief Minister said that itsconversion into a district, whichwas a long-standing demand ofthe local people, would ease thehardships of such people andenable them to resolve theiradministrative problems moreseamlessly. Initially, said theChief Minister, the sub-divi-sions of Malerkotla andAhmedgarh, as well as thesub-tehsil of Amargarh, wouldbe included in the newly-cre-ated district. The process ofbringing villages under thejurisdiction of Malerkotla dis-trict would begin later, after theconclusion of the census oper-ations, he added.

The CM directed SangrurDeputy Commissioner to finda suitable building to immedi-ately start the functioning ofthe District Administrationoffice. The DeputyCommissioner for the newlycarved out district would beappointed soon, he said.Announcing various develop-ment projects for theMalerkotla, the Chief Ministersaid that a Government

Medical College, in the nameof Nawab Sher MohammedKhan, would soon be set up ata cost of Rs 500 crore, and theState Government had alreadyallotted 25 acres of land onRaikot road to enable the localboys and girls to pursue med-ical education. The first install-ment of Rs 50 crore for this pur-pose had already been sanc-tioned, he added. The ChiefMinister also announced estab-lishment of a GovernmentCollege for Girls to impartquality higher education to thelocal girls, who currently haveto travel long distances for the same. A new bus stand will alsobe constructed at a cost of Rs 10crore, he said, adding thatMalekotla will also get a ‘MahilaThana’, to be exclusively man-aged by women.

To ensure holistic urbandevelopment of Malerkotla, theChief Minister also announceda sum of Rs six crore under theUrban EnvironmentImprovement Program (UEIP).Further, to promote the cultur-al heritage of Malerkotla, theChief Minister said that he hadalready written to His Highnessthe Aga Khan Foundation UKto undertake conservation andrestoration of Mubarak ManzilPalace, occupied by BegumSahiba Munawwar ul Nisa, thewife of Nawab Iftikhar AliKhan, the last ruler of Malerkotla.

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With cases ofMucormycosis or black fungusinfection on rise in the Stateamid COVID-19 pandemic,Haryana Congress on Fridaydemanded constitution of aState level committee to mon-itor the situation in all districtsof the State and provide freetreatment to the affectedpatients. The State has report-edly witnessed over 40 cases ofblack fungus infection in themonth of May. A study is alsobeing conducted on the blackfungus infection and its asso-ciation with Covid and otherfactors such as the adminis-tration of steroids and age-group of the affected patientsat Rohtak PGIMS. HaryanaCongress chief Kumari Seljasaid that a state level com-mittee of doctors should beconstituted to monitor theconditions of all the districtsof the state and identifypatients from black fungusdisease and provide themtreatment as soon as possible.

The State Government

should bear the entire cost oftreatment and medicines forthe patients suffering fromblack fungus, she demanded.

Like other states of thecountry, cases of black fungushave also been reported inHaryana amid the Coronaepidemic. Patients sufferingfrom this disease are not get-ting treatment in the state andblack marketing of medicinesused in the treatment of thisdisease has started, she said.

Selja demanded from theHaryana Government thatpeople should be made awareof this disease. The seniorCongress leader said thatmore than 40 cases of blackfungal disease have beenreported in Haryana in the lastfew days. Cases have beenreported in Faridabad,Gurugram, Karnal, Fatehabadand other districts.

It is even more seriousthat the Health Department ofthe state does not have anydistrict wise data on howmany black fungus patientshave so far been found inHaryana.

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The lack of proper medicalfacilities in rural areas is

causing major problems forthe residents of villages wheresome or many people areexperiencing symptoms ofCovid-19.

The villagers state thatdue to lack of medical healthinfrastructure those experi-encing symptoms have twochoices- either to remain inthe village or travel manymiles to get tested.

Though the authoritieshave provided necessary ser-vices in some villages there aremany villages especially inremote areas where people aresuffering from fever and othersymptoms while also experi-encing the anxiety caused byuncertainty regarding the gov-ernment response.

Kandali, Jeli, Margaon,Kumdi and Pali villages aresome of the vil lages inRudraprayag district whereresidents are facing problems.Dharmendra Bisht of Kumdivillage said, “Our governmentis not addressing the crisisresponsibly. Due to lack ofproper medical facilities inour village people have to

travel miles to get the medicalfacilities, Covid test and forvaccination. We had to call thechief medical off icer ofRudraprayag several times forthe covid testing as the vil-lagers were having fever for along time.”

He added, "We and resi-dents of some nearby villageshave to travel 20 kilometresfor vaccination and due tothat, unnecessary crowdingcan be observed at the vacci-nation centre. We want thatthe vaccination and testingfacility should be made avail-able in the government schoolof our village so that we don'thave to travel so far facing therisk of infection."

Rohit Pundir of Kharchedvillage said that for any criti-cal case the villagers have togo to Srinagar base hospitalwhich is about 35 kilometresfrom the village.

The people with mildsymptoms are being isolated attheir own homes and treatedthrough the medicines givenin the Covid kits or pre-scribed by a doctor.

Block Panchayat memberAjay Pundir of Bhyunta villageof Rudraprayag district said,“Only a small number of

Covid tests are being done inthe village. We don’t have aproper medical facil ity.Villagers don’t have basicthings like a thermometerand oxymeter to keep a checkon the health of the peopleexperiencing symptoms. Thekits being provided to thepatients contain just somemedicines and masks.However, the contents listedon the cover of these kitsinclude items like thermome-ter, oxymeter, masks, sanitis-er and different medicines torecover so I don’t understandwhether it’s a scam but what-ever is happening with the vil-lagers is not good.”

At Jaigaon village which issituated in the Duggada blockof Pauri district, ten personswere found to be Covid pos-itive a few days ago. TheGram Pradhan Sanjay Rawatsaid, “When we told our MLAthat most people of the villageare suffering from fever andthat Covid test is needed herethen we got a good responsefrom her and soon a teamcame to our village for theCovid test. Now the Covidpositive patients have beenprovided with Covid kits andare in home isolation.”

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The second wave of the con-tagion of Covid -19 sweep-

ing across the state showedsome respite on Friday with thestate health department report-ing 5,775 new cases of the dis-ease. The cumulative count ofCovid -19 patients in the stateis now 2,77,585. The authori-ties also reported the death of116 patients of the disease onthe day which increased thedeath toll to 4,426 in the state.The department also reportedthe death of 65 patients ofCovid -19 from temporaryBaba Barfani hospital on theday which had occurred fromApril 25 to May 12.

The department dis-charged 4,483 patients fromdifferent hospitals after theirrecovery on the day. A total of1,88,690 patients have so farrecovered from the disease.The recovery percentage isnow at 67.98 while the samplepositivity rate is 6.60.

A total of 116 deathsoccurred in the state fromCovid 19 on Friday. Out ofthem 20 occurred at SushilaTiwari government hospitalHaldwani, 14 at Bombay hos-pital Nainital, 13 at District

hospital Rudrapur UdhamSingh Nagar and nine atMahant Indiresh hospitalDehradun.

Similarly eight patientssuccumbed to the disease at

HNB base hospital Srinagar, sixat Synergy hospital Dehradun,five at SPS government hospi-tal Rishikesh and four each atDistrict hospital Uttarkashiand Sanjivini hospital Kashipur,

Udham Singh Nagar on Friday.Three patients each died atDistrict hospital Bageshwar,Civil hospital Mussoorie,Kailash hospital Dehradun,Lehman hospital Dehradun,

Max hospital Dehradun,ONGC hospital Dehradun andMilitary Hospital Dehradunon the day.

The provisional state cap-ital Dehradun reported 1583new cases of the disease onFriday. Haridwar reported 844,Udham Singh Nagar 692,Nainital 531, Pauri 359, Tehri349, Uttarkashi 286,Rudraprayag 285, Almora 267,Pithoragarh 225, Chamoli 201,Champawat 115 andBageshwar 38 new cases of thedisease on Friday.

The state now has 79,379active patients of the disease.Dehradun continues remains atthe top of the table of activecases of the disease with 27,956patients; Haridwar has 14,024,Nainital 6,904, Udham SinghNagar 6,102, Pauri 5,717, Tehri4,804, Chamoli 2,403,Uttarkashi 2,233, Rudraprayag2230, Almora 2, 145,Champawat 2,025, Pithoragarh1,639 and Bageshwar 1,197active cases of the disease. Tocontain the contagion ofCovid-19, the state adminis-tration has set up 454 contain-ment zones in different parts ofthe state. In the ongoing vac-cination drive 32,881 peoplewere vaccinated in 516 sessions

in different parts of the state onFriday. A total of 6,74,728 peo-ple have so far been fully vac-cinated in the state while18,94,106 have been partiallyvaccinated.

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Senior cabinet ministerMadan Kaushik inaugurat-

ed a new 20 bed ICU for theCovid 19 patients at Kailashhospital on Friday. The hospi-tal now has 76 ICU beds for theCovid 19 patients. The medicalsuperintendent of the Kailashhospital Dr Atish Sinha saidthat the new ICU has four ven-tilators and six bi papmachines. Apart from it 10beds are for the patients need-ing high flow oxygen. He addedthat soon two ventilators andfour bi pap machines would beprovided in the new ICU.

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After hitting hard in theplain areas of the state the

contagion of the Covid -19 isnow spreading fast and becom-ing more fatal in the moun-tainous districts ofUttarakhand. In the last four-teen days ( May 1 to 13), a totalof 301 deaths were reported inthe nine mountainous districtsof the state. During this peri-od 1621 deaths occurred in theplain districts of Haridwar,Dehradun, Udham SinghNagar and Nainital. It is perti-nent to mention here that 312deaths had occurred in themountainous states fromMarch 15 last year to April 30this year. It shows that analmost equal number of deathshas occurred in the hill districtsin the last 14 days when com-pared to the previous 13months of pandemic. The shareof deaths of mountainous dis-tricts in total number of deathstoo has increased from 11.9

percent ( from March 15, 2020to April 30,2021) to 18.6 per-cent ( May 1 to May 13, 2021).A total of 4245 deaths haveoccurred from Covid 19 so farin the state out of which 613deaths have occurred in themountainous districts.

Pauri districts leads thetable of mortality from Covid19 with 200 deaths followed byAlmora (89), Pithoragarh (80),Tehri (52), Rudraprayag (49),Uttarkashi (43), Bageshwar(39), Chamoli (34) andChampawat (27).

The founder of SocialDevelopment for Communities(SDC) foundation AnoopNautiyal said that the govern-ment should take immediatesteps to improve testing, pro-vide medicines kits andstrengthen healthcare facili-ties in hill regions. “Greaterthrust on vaccination needed inmountainous areas. All effortsshould be made to minimizemortalities in the state and themountainous areas,’’ he said.

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Fighting a grim battle on theCovid 19 front, the state

health department is now gear-ing up to meet the challenge ofDengue.

In a letter to all the districtmagistrates (DM), the secre-tary health Amit Singh Negihas said that all necessarypreparation should be made toprevent the spread of dengue.He has directed the adminis-tration to make micro plans tocontain the disease. Negi saidthat source reduction of themosquito is an effective way ofcontrolling the disease andteams of health departmentand Asha workers should bemade for this activity.

He said that the availabil-ity of Enzyme Linked ImmunoSorbent Assay (ELISA) kits fortesting the disease should bemaintained and the hospitalsshould be made functional totreat patients of dengue. Negialso called for sanitizationand awareness campaigns tocontain the disease and direct-ed that fever surveys should bedone in the initial stages.

It is worth mentioninghere that Dengue, a vectorborne disease, had affectedmore than 10,500 persons inUttarakhand and had takenmany lives in the year 2019. InDehradun district alone, thehealth department had report-ed 4991 patients with sixdeaths. As dengue seasonstarts with the summers andlasts till onset of the winters,the state health departmentwhich at present is engaged indealing with pandemic ofCovid-19 wants that thedengue should not assumeepidemic proportions thisyear.

Dengue is a viral infectionspread by the mosquito AedesAezypti popularly known asTiger Mosquito.

The symptoms of the dis-ease are persistent high fever,rashes, headache and pain inthe joints. In the acute casesthe platelets number decreas-es drastically which may provefatal for the patient. InUttarakhand the disease ismore prevalent in Dehradun,Haridwar, Nainital andUdham Singh Nagar districts.

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In an appreciable gestureMuslim youths donated

blood on the occasion of Eid-ul Fitar here on Friday.Organised under the aegis ofthe ‘ Mera Lahu Insaniyat KeNam’ campaign, the blooddonation camp was held atSidara Guest house, Majra,Saharanpur Road. The organ-

iser of the campaign and for-mer position holder ( stateminister rank) Shadab Shamssaid that the Muslim youthsafter fasting for 30 days in theholy month of Ramzan enthu-siastically participated in theblood donation camp.

He said that every religionteaches love for humanity.Shams said that the campaignof donating blood would con-

tinue. It is pertinent to men-tion here that Shams and histeam ‘ Khidmat-e- Khalk’ hasconverted the Majra basedMadarsa into a Covid carecentre for treatment of Coronapatients.

The programme wasattended by Aftab Alam, Sadarof Majra Madarsa CommitteeShahid Ali, Meherdin Khanand others.

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The process of the reopeningof the Char Dham shrines

began on Friday with thereopening of Yamunotri shrinein Uttarkashi district on theoccasion of Akshay Tritiya onFriday. The portals of theshrine were reopened at 12:15PM with only a limited num-ber of priests present on theoccasion due to Covid guide-lines. The usual crowd of devo-tees was absent as the state gov-ernment has postponed theChar Dham Yatra this year dueto the ongoing surge in Covidcases.

Earlier, the Doli (proces-sion) of goddess Yamuna start-ed at her winter abode ofKharsali on Friday morning.The younger brother of thegoddess, Shani also reached

Yamunotri to send her off toher summer abode.

Chief minister Tirath SinghRawat greeted devotees acrossthe nation and abroad on thereopening of the Yamunotrishrine. He said that in view ofthe Covid pandemic, the devo-tees should offer their prayersfrom home. In Yamunotri alimited number of priests andofficials of the district admin-istration were present on theoccasion. Meanwhile, the doliof goddess Ganga also depart-ed from her winter abode ofMukhba for Gangotri. Theprocession which reachedBhairavghati on Friday willreach Gangotri on Saturdaymorning in time for reopeningof the shrine at 7:31 AM.

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The Panchmukhi idol ofKedarnath departed from

the lord’s winter abode ofUkhimath on Friday. Due tothe conditions caused by theCovid-19 pandemic, the doli oflord Kedarnath went by a vehi-cle this time instead of beingcarried by devotees on foot.Passing by the Vishwanathtemple in Guptkashi, Fata andSonprayag, the procession willreach Gaurikund for night restbefore progressing furthertowards Kedarnath.

Earlier, the rituals began atthe Omkareshwar temple inUkhimath on Friday morningwith the ritual worship ofBhairav, the Kshetrapal ofKedarnath. The Panchmukhiidol of Kedarnath was thenseated in the palanquin ritual-ly in the presence of variouspriests and officials concerned.As the doli progresses in its

vehicle, at various stops, thedevotees will have to maintainsocial distancing and otherCovid guidelines to pay their

obeisance and seek blessings ofthe lord. After reachingGaurikund on Friday andspending the night there, the

procession will then continueon foot covering a distance ofabout 17 kilometres to reachKedarnath. There the doli will

stay for two days after which theKedarnath shrine will bereopened ritually in the earlymorning on May 17.

Meanwhile, the portals ofBadrinath shrine will bereopened to the public on May18 at 4:15 AM. The Rawal(chief priest) of Badrinath,Ishvari Prasad Namboodari,the seat of Adi Shankaracharyaand representatives of theDimri Panchayat with the GaduGhada containing the sesameseed oil used to anoint the lordwill reach the Yogdhyan Mandiat Pandukeshwar on May 16.They will then reach Badrinathon the evening of May 17. It isalso pertinent to mention herethat the portals of the DwitiyaKedar shrine Madmaheshvarwill be reopened on May 20while the portals of TritiyaKedar shrine Tungnath andChaturth Kedar shrineRudranath will be reopened onMay 17.

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The State’s Tourism andCulture minister Satpal

Maharaaz greeted the devoteeson the occasion of Yamunotrishrine being reopened for thesummer. Stating that the gov-ernment had postponed theChar Dham Yatra to mitigatethe Covid-19 risk, he said thatconsidering the sentiments ofthe devotees, the Char DhamDevasthanam Board has beendirected to facilitate onlinedarshan of the shrines for thedevotees.

The government will beable to open the Char DhamYatra once the situation nor-malises, added the minister.

Tourism secretary DilipJawalkar said that the outline ofonline darshan of Char Dhamshrines for devotees is beingprepared. The Garhwal com-mission and chief executiveofficer of Char DhamDevasthanam Board, RavinathRaman that the website andother mediums are beingupdated to enable online dar-shan of the shrines for thedevotees.

It is pertinent to mentionhere that apart from the CharDham Yatra being postponed,various Covid guidelines haveto be followed by the limitednumber of priests allowed inthe shrines to conduct thedaily ritual worship of thedeities in the Char Dhamshrines.

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The State’s Tourism andCulture minister Satpal

Maharaaz said that three oxygenproduction plants are being setup in the Kumaon region.Stating that production of oxy-gen will begin soon at theseplants, the minister said that thegovernment will ensure thatthere is no shortage of oxygenin the state. The state govern-ment is committed to providingall possible assistance to theCovid affected people, he reit-erated. Maharaaz said that thedemand for oxygen hasincreased in the state during theCovid pandemic. Consideringthis, the government is ensur-ing adequate supply of oxygenin addition to setting up oxygenplants in various regions toensure that there is no dearth ofoxygen for Covid patients. Heinformed that an oxygen plantis being set up by the DefenceResearch and DevelopmentOrganisation (DRDO) at theLD Bhatt government hospitalin Kashipur. This plant willhave the capacity of producing500 litres of oxygen per minute.Further, the Bajaj company isplanning to establish a 400 litreper minute capacity oxygenplant in Khatim and a 1,000 litreper minute capacity oxygenplant at the medical college inRudrapur. The plant in Khatimawill start functioning by the endof this month while the plant inthe medical college in Rudrapurwill start production by June 15.The minister also appealed tothe people to desist from unnec-essarily keeping oxygen cylin-ders at home. People shouldreturn oxygen cylinders oncethey are not needed so that theymay be used for those in need.

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Prime Minister NarendraModi released the eighth

instalment of the financial ben-efit under the Pradhan MantriKisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) scheme via video con-ferencing on Friday. As part ofthis instalment, a total of�20,667 crore was transferredto more than 9.5 crore farmersacross the country, includingthose from West Bengal. Thisis the highest amount paid bythe Government under thescheme in a single instalmentand for the first time, thescheme has reached farmers ofWest Bengal as about 7.03 lakhof them got their first instal-ment of �2,000 each. Thescheme was not implementedtill now in West Bengal as theState Government and theCentre were at loggerheadsover various issues, includingverified data of farmers.

As part of this scheme, theGovernment is workingtowards encouraging farmers totake up alternative forms offarming such as organic farm-ing. These crop require lessinvestment. They are good forhealth and for the soil too. Italso sells for a higher amount,”he said. All farmers, especiallyfrom Punjab, are satisfied withthe scheme. I have seen manyvideos of farmers expressingtheir satisfaction on socialmedia,” PM Modi said.

The PM also interacted

with the beneficiaries of thescheme after releasing theamount. Talking to a farmerfrom Andhra Pradesh, whoturned a piece of barren landinto suitable land for organicfarming, the PM said, “Youhave set an example for others.Your self confidence speaks foryour ability and experience.”The farmer from the southernstate told PM Modi that shegrows three crops on her landthroughout the year.

Talking to a farmer fromMeghalaya who has set up abusiness model for organicfarming, PM Modi said asmany as 10,000 FarmerProducer Organisation (FPO)were being set up in the coun-try and small farmers were alsogetting associated with them.“Your confidence in what youdo makes your model a sought-after one,” the PM told thefarmer. Talking to a farmerfrom Meghalaya who has set upa business model for organicfarming, PM Modi said asmany as 10,000 FarmerProducer Organisation (FPO)were being set up in the coun-try and small farmers were alsogetting associated with them.

“Your confidence in what youdo makes your model a sought-after one,” the PM told thefarmer.

Union agriculture ministerNarendra Singh Tomar wasalso present at the event. “Westbengal has joined the schemewith more than 7 lakh farmersof the state getting the benefittoday,” he said. Soon after win-ning the just-concluded WestBengal assembly elections,Chief Minister MamataBanerjee had shot off a letter tothe Central Governmentdemanding release of �18,000arrears to each eligible farmerfrom the State.

The scheme, launched in2019, was a NationalDemocratic Alliance (NDA)flagship project that aimed atproviding financial support tothe farmers of the country.Under the scheme, �6,000 istransferred to the beneficiaries’bank accounts per year. Thisamount is paid in quarterlyinstallments of �2,000 each.Until now, �1.15 lakh crore hasbeen transferred to farmerfamilies under the scheme, aGovernment release issued onThursday claimed.

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The National InvestigationAgency (NIA) on Friday

said it has arrested a self-styledlieutenant of People’s LiberationArmy/ Revolutionary People’sFront (PLA/RPF) in ambush.He was involved in the killingof an Assam Rifles personnel inManipur in 2017.

The agency on Thursdayarrested MayanglambamSiromani, 32 of KakchingKhunou Angom Leikai underWaikhong police station ofKakching district of Manipur.

The case was initially reg-istered on November 15, 2017at Chakpikarong police stationin Chandel district relating toan ambush on Road OpeningParty of 4th Assam Rifle atChamol-Sajik Tampak Road inthe district resulting in thekilling of one Assam Riflespersonnel and severe injury toanother soldier. Two terroristswere also killed in theencounter.

The NIA had re-registeredthe case on March 29 in 2018under various Sections of theIPC, Arms Act, Explosives Actand Unlawful Activities(Prevention) Act and took overthe investigation.

During the NIA investiga-tion, it was revealed thatSiromani was involved in theconspiracy for the attack on theroad opening party of AssamRifles. Based on the evidence, hewas charge-sheeted whileabsconding. Further, he wasdeclared a proclaimed offenderand a cash reward of Rs 2 lakhwas announced for informationleading to his apprehension.

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Aplea has been moved in theSupreme Court to consti-

tute a special investigationteam (SIT) to conduct theinvestigation into over 100corpses, found floating in theGanga river in Bihar’s Buxar,and Uttar Pradesh’s Ghazipurand Unnao districts, amid theongoing second wave of Covid-19 pandemic.

The plea, filed by lawyersPradeep Yadav and VishalThakre, urged the top court toissue direction the StateGovernment cconcerned toconduct post-mortem of thedead bodies.

“The act of the states isinhuman as they failed to pro-vide facilities for decent bur-ial/cremation of dead bodiesand to keep a check on pollu-

tion of the holy river, Ganga,by such indecent act either ofindividuals or of authorities,”the petition said.

The petitioners emphasisedthat the recovery of decom-posed bodies from the river isa matter of serious concern,noting that the river was asource of water for many areas,and if these bodies were ofCovid-19 patients, then there is

a possibility of spread of infec-tion through water in the vil-lages of both Bihar and UttarPradesh.

The petitioners also citedthe Pt Parmanand Katara case,wherein the apex court hadheld that the right to dignityand fair treatment underArticle 21 of the Constitution,was not only available to a per-son during lifetime, but also tothe body after death.

The plea also alleged thatin the present case, the statehas also failed to monitor thecrematoriums, which exorbi-tantly charged people for lastrites during the pandemic.

The petitioners haveclaimed that the state govern-ments, till date have not takenany effective measure to puri-fy the water, and this was a vio-lation of Article 21.

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Prime Minister NarendraModi on Friday directed all

the States to take strict actionagainst hoarders of concen-trated oxygen cylinders.

The Prime Minister’s direc-tion came when he wasaddressing the nation afterlaunching the eighth instalmentof financial benefits worth Rs19,000 crore under the PradhanMantri Kisan Samman Nidhi(PM-KISAN) scheme to ben-efit more than 9.5 crore farm-ers that includes first-time ben-eficiaries in West Bengal.

The Prime Ministerexpressed dissatisfactionagainst these hoarders for theirindulgence in such acts at atime when even Indian Armedforces comprising all its threedivisions-- the Indian Army,the Indian Navy, and the IndianAir Force -- have been engagedto serve the human being amidCovid-19 crisis.

“Our three armed forcesare trying to serve the needyand oxygen trains are contin-uously dispatching oxygencylinders amid the Covid cri-sis. But there are a number ofpeople who are involved inhoarding of oxygen. Statesshould take strict action againstsuch people,” Modi said.

Despite the acute shortageof concentrated oxygen in var-ious states, several people havebeen caught hoarding the sup-ply of the life-saving gas.

Meanwhile, the PrimeMinister also warned the peo-ple residing in villages to bevery alert and follow all Covid-19 measures without fail toavoid the spread of the deadlydisease.

Modi appealed to the vil-lagers as well as those unitedwith Gram Panchayats tospread awareness among oth-ers in the village to use “mask,take seriously to each symptomof Covid, go for Covid test, fol-low precautions until Covidreport comes negative, andadminister the vaccine”.

“People’s participation isessential to defeat Covid-19,”Modi said.

The cumulative numberof Covid-19 vaccine dosesadministered in the country isnearly 18 crore (17.93 Crore,said the Union HealthMinistry’s latest report receivedon Friday morning.

It said that the Covid-19vaccination drive has success-fully completed 118 dayswherein 17.89 Crore doseshave been administered to theidentified beneficiaries throughcollaborative efforts of all statesand UTs. India is the fastestcountry globally to reach the 17crore target in 114 days. USAtook 115 days and China took119 days to administer thesame amount of doses.

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At a time when people aredesperately hankering for

Remdesivir injections, payingexorbitant prices in black mar-ket too, a team of Indian sci-entists have found a combina-tion of easily available drug—Sofosbuvir in combination withLedipasvir and Daclatasvir asbetter drug than Remdesivirand potential therapeuticagents for the coronavirus.

They had investigated 61antiviral drugs and found thatunlike Remdesivir whose routeof administration is intra-venous, Daclatasvir andLedipasvir, are orally adminis-tered. Combinations ofLedipasvir and Daclatasvir withSofosbuvir are clinicallyapproved, said the scientists ina study published in theCurrent Science journal.

“The combined score sug-gests that these combinationshave superior anti-SARS-CoV-

2 potential than Remdesivirand other investigationaldrugs,” said the scientists fromBiochemical SciencesDivision, CSIR-NationalChemical Laboratory, IndiaAcademy of Scientific andInnovative Research (AcSIR),Pandit Bhagwat Dayal SharmaPost Graduate Institute ofMedical Sciences, and INTOXPrivate Limited, Pune whoworked on the efficacy ofdrug repurposing for treatingCovid-19.

“Our analysis suggestedSofosbuvir in combinationwith Ledipasvir andDaclatasvir as potential ther-apeutic agents for SARS-CoV-2. The combined score sug-gests that these combinationshave superior anti-SARS-CoV-2 potential than Remdesivirand other investigationaldrugs,” they said.

They said the presentwork provides a rationale-based approach to select drugs

with possible anti-SARS-CoV-2 activity for further clinicalevaluation. With the shortageof Remdesivir, the combina-tion can be used to save thelives of severe Covid-19patients.

“Drug repurposing hasbeen utilized as the most pre-ferred therapeutic interventionfor Covid-19 mitigation due toits necessity and feasibility. Toprioritize the therapeuticregime against COVID-19, weused 61 antiviral drugs andtheir combinations,” said thepaper.

Selected molecules weresubjected to virtual screeningagainst — human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 receptor-binding domain (hACE-2)which serves as an anchor forvirus attachment and entry,SARS-CoV-2 RNA dependentRNA polymerase (RdRp)responsible for viral RNAreplication, and SARS-CoV-2main protease (MPro) needed

for viral polyprotein slab pro-teolytic processing.

“Based on docking score,pharmacodynamic and phar-macokinetic parameters, com-binations of Daclatasvir,Elbasvir, Indinavir, Ledipasvir,Paritaprevir, and Rilpivirinewere analysed further. Ouranalysis suggested Sofosbuvirin combination withLedipasvir and Daclatasvir aspotential therapeutic agentsfor SARS-CoV-2,” it added.

The team said that thefindings provide a scientificrationale for applyingLedipasvir and Daclatasvir incombination with Sofosbuvirfor Covid-19 management.

“Recent initial clinical trialdata from Iran with Ledipasvirand Daclatasvir in combinationwith Sofosbuvir against Covid-19 are encouraging. Based onour analysis and available pre-clinical and clinical data, werecommend prioritization andaggressive perusal of clinicalevaluation of these drug com-binations,” it further said.

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The onset of southwestmonsoon over Kerala is

likely to be on May 31, a daybefore the normal date of June1, with a model error of ± 4days. As a well-marked lowpressure area overLakshadweep area & adjoiningsoutheast Arabian sea is all setto develop into a cyclonicstorm along the west coast inthe next 24 hours. Accordingto the India MeteorologicalDepartment (IMD), Tauktae,(meaning gecko (named byMyanmar) once formed, islikely to intensify into a ‘verysevere cyclonic storm’ withwind speed of 150 to 160kmph gusting to 175 kmph onMay 17. This will be the firstcyclone of this year.

The red alert has beensounded in Kerala for severaldistricts for Friday andSaturday. Kerala ChiefMinister tweeted, “Red Alert!14 May -Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam,

Pathanamthitta, 15 May -Malappuram, Kozhikode,Wayanad, Kannur, Kasargod.Follow guidelines issued by@KeralaSDMA.”

“This year, the onset of thesouthwest monsoon overKerala is likely to be on 31stMay with a model error ofplus/minus 4 days,” the IMDsaid. In the Indian monsoonregion, initial monsoon rainsare experienced over southAndaman Sea and the mon-soon winds then advancenorth-westwards across theBay of Bengal.

The normal onset date ofthe monsoon over Kerala isJune 1. Earlier the IMD hasstated that monsoon is likelyto make its onset over theIndian subcontinent at its nor-mal date of June 1.

The IMD’s operationalforecasts of the date of mon-soon onset over Kerala duringthe past 16 years (2005-2020)were proved to be correctexcept in 2015.

According to the IMD, it is

very likely to intensify into acyclonic storm during the next24 hours and is also expectedto intensify further during thesubsequent 24 hours. Tauktaeis likely to move north north-eastwards initially for somemore time and then movenorth-north westwards andreach the Gujarat coast byMay 18 morning. The depres-sion over Lakshadweep areahas moved north-north-east-wards with a speed of about 19kmph and is now centred overLakshadweep about 30 kmsouth southwest of Amini Divi,320 km west-southwest ofKannur (Kerala), 1120 kmsouth southeast of Veraval(Gujarat) at about 11.30 am onMay 14.

After the cyclonic warningthe National Disaster ResponseForce has deployed severalteams on ground. At least 24teams are pre-deployed and 29teams are on standby forGujarat, Kerala, Karnataka,Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra,NDRF DG, SN Pradhan said.

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In accordance with instruc-tions from President Kassym-

Jomart Tokayev and guided bythe principles of strategic part-nership between the two states,the Kazakhstan Governmenthas provided humanitarianassistance to India during thisserious epidemiological situa-tion of Covid-19.

The first of the two Kazakhaircraft with the cargo landed atthe Indira Gandhi InternationalAirport in New Delhi in themorning on May 14 with thesecond one expected to arriveseveral hours later.

This humanitarian aid,weighing around 40 tons,includes medical masks, respi-rators, protective suits andportable artificial lung ventila-tion devices from Kazakh man-ufacturers in the healthcaresector. This aid was officiallyhanded over at the airport byAmbassador of Kazakhstan toIndia Nurlan Zhalgasbayev toDirector, Eurasian Departmentof the Ministry of ExternalAffairs, Bandaru Wilsonbabu.

On May 4, PresidentTokayev, in a telegram to PrimeMinister Narendra Modi,expressed “deep solidarity withthe Indian nation over the dev-astating Covid-19 surge in thiscountry”, and on May 7,instructed his government toprovide and dispatch the nec-essary assistance to the Indianauthorities.

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Come June and supply ofCovid-19 vaccines is like-

ly to increase sharply, helpingIndia get close to 300 croredoses in the seven-month peri-od ending December, govern-ment officials said on Fridayeven as it announced of sup-plying nearly 192 lakh Covid-19 vaccines to the states and theUnion Territories (UTs) in thenext fortnight from May 16 to31, 2021. This will include162.5 lakh of Covishield and29.49 lakh of Covaxin.

Estimates chalked out byofficials suggested that the ten-tative supply figures in May (8.8crore doses) could almost dou-ble by June (15.81 crore doses)and quadruple by August (36.6crore doses). In Decemberalone, 65 crore doses might beavailable, over a seven-foldjump from the May numbers,they said.

Meanwhile, officials fromthe Union Health Ministry saidthat Union Health MinisterHarsh Vardhan will hold ameeting with Health Ministersof four states for Covid-19 vac-cination and management onMay 15. In addition, a totalquantum of more than 4.39crore doses was also availablefor direct procurement by the

States as well as private hospi-tals in the month of May 2021.

A total of 17,92,98,584 vac-cine doses have been adminis-tered through 26,02,435 ses-sions, according to the provi-sional report till 7 am. Theseinclude 96,18,127 healthcareworkers (HCWs) who havetaken the first dose and66,04,549 HCWs who havetaken the second dose,1,43,22,390 FLWs who havereceived the first dose,81,16,153 FLWs who havereceived the second dose and39,26,334 beneficiaries in the18-45 years age group whohave taken the first dose.

Besides, 5,66,09,783 and85,39,763 beneficiaries aged45 to 60 years have beenadministered the first and sec-ond dose respectively, while5,42,42,792 and 1,73,18,693beneficiaries of more than 60years old have taken the firstand second dose.

The ministry said 4,40,706beneficiaries in the age groupof 18-44 years have receivedtheir first dose of COVID vac-cine in the last 24 hours andcumulatively 39,26,334 across32 states and UTs since the startof phase-3 of vaccination drive.

More than 20 lakh vacci-nation doses were administeredin a span of 24 hours. As onDay-118 of the vaccinationdrive (May 13), 20,27,162 vac-cine doses were given. Across18,624 sessions, 10,34,304 ben-eficiaries were vaccinated forthe first dose and 9,92,858beneficiaries received their sec-ond dose of vaccine.

The Ministry also said thata national tracking platformwill be established soon todetermine the impact of thejabs against CovidD-19 and thebreakthrough infections thatare likely to occur among thosewith complete and partialimmunisation.

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In a major bureaucraticreshuffle, 20 civil servants

were on Friday appointed tojoint secretary-level posts.

A 2002 batch IndianAdministrative Service (IAS)officer, D. Senthil Pandiyan, wasappointed as Joint Secretary inthe Ministry of AYUSH for atenure of five years, replacingIndian Forest Service (IFS)officer Roshan Jaggi, a 1988-batch J&K cadre officer.

Nirupama Kotru, a 1992batch Indian Revenue Service(IRS) officer, was appointed asJoint Secretary and FinancialAdvisor in the Ministry of Coalfor an overall tenure of fiveyears in place of Reena SinhaPuri, a 1987-batch IRS officer.

Bhaskar Verma, a 1995-batch Indian Civil AccountsService (ICAS) officer, has beenappointed as the MemberSecretary, National MonumentsAuthority (NMA), Ministry ofCulture, for five years replacingNavneet Soni.

The AppointmentsCommittee of the Cabinet,chaired by Prime MinisterNarendra Modi, approved theappointments that include thenames of Lily Pandeya for theJoint Secretary’s post in the

Ministry of Culture; MayankTewari for the same post in theDepartment of Defence; NazliJafri Shayin in the Ministry ofDefence (Finance); IndiraMurthy in the Ministry ofEarth Sciences; BhuvneshKumar in the Ministry ofElectronics and InformationTechnology; and PatibandlaAshok Babu in the Departmentof Health and Family Welfare.

Manisha Sinha, AshishVachhan and Sandhya Bhullarwere appointed as JointSecretaries in the Departmentof Economic Affairs.

Jeetendra Singh has beenappointed as Joint Secretary inthe Department of HeavyIndustry; Sumant Singh in theDepartment of Home Affairs;Sanjiv Shankar in the Ministryof Information andBroadcasting; Manoj Kumarin the Department ofInvestment and Public AssetManagement; and SonmoniBorah in the Department ofLand Resources.

Indian Ordnance FactoriesService (IOFS) officer VeenaTamta Bhatia has been appoint-ed as the Additional CentralProvident Fund Commissioner(HQ), EPFO, under theMinistry of Labour andEmployment.

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The Congress on Fridayraised concern over the

spiralling violence in thePalestinian territories andIsrael and urged an immediatecessation of hostilities.

In a statement, Congressleader Anand Sharma saidthat the spiralling violence inEast Jerusalem, Gaza andIsrael, coinciding with the fes-tival of Eid, is distressing anda matter of grave concern forthe world.

He also said that thePalestinian peoples’ right topray at Al Asqa mosque with-out any restriction must alwaysbe respected and not violated.

“The orchestrated inci-dents in Jerusalem were out-rageous and triggered tensionsand violence,” he said.

Noting that people of bothPalestine and Israel “have aright to live with dignity in asecure environment, Sharmasaid that the escalation of con-flict, air attacks on Gaza andthe rocket attacks by Hamashave resulted in tragic loss ofinnocent human lives, espe-cially the children and elderlyand also injuries to many civil-ians.

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Commerce and industryminister Piyush Goyal on

Friday had a virtual meetingwith United States TradeRepresentative (USTR)Katherine Chi Tai.

The meeting focused onincreasing vaccine availabilityin an inclusive and equitablemanner to combat the Globalpandemic caused by Covid-19.

The proposal of India onwaiver of certain TRIPS provi-sions to increase global vaccineproduction in order to take onthe challenge of vaccinating thepoorest of the poor and savelives was also discussed.

Goyal thanked the USTRfor the US announcing its sup-port for India’s proposal.

The minister mentionedthe supply chains for the vac-cine manufacturers must bekept open and unbridled as theentire world is in dire need ofvaccines.

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Continuing to drop letterbombs on the PMO one

after the other, Bengal ChiefMinister Mamata Banerjee onFriday wrote to Prime MinisterNarendra Modi wondering whythe Centre was not living up toits promises on corona specificequipment.

The Chief Minister wroteanother letter to the PrimeMinister requesting him to beevenhanded in allotting PSAplants (Pressure SwingAdsorption) plants — needed togenerate oxygen — to the States,particularly Bengal.

Complaining that the Centrehad promised 70 such plants forBengal whereas it had only beenallotted four in the first phase,Banerjee wrote, “We were toldwe shall get 70 PSA plants, nowwe are told that we shall get fourin the first phase with no clari-ty on the remaining plants.”

This is her fifth letter to thePrime Minister in the past twoweeks.

She also complained in herletter, as to how “…Priorities arebeing fixed and re-fixed, imple-

menting agencies are being set-tled and unsettled, quota forWest Bengal is being down-wardly revised and furtherdownwardly revised every day,”adding there was lack of clarityabout whether the State would get the remainingplants.

The Prime Minister’s Officehad earlier approved allocationof funds from PM-CARES forinstallation of 551 PSA plants inacross the country. Out of theseBengal was to get 70.

Mamata further wrote inher letter requesting the PrimeMinister “to kindly get the pri-orities, implementing agencies,and quota fixed, justly, fairly andquickly” as “our own supple-mentary PSA-installation plansby State agencies... are gettingdisturbed because of the indeci-siveness at Delhi.”

Pandemic issues apart, theChief Minister also hit out at theCentre for making unnecessarydelay over the transfer of PMKisan Sanman Nidhi funds tothe Bengal farmers.

Mamata attacked the PrimeMinister on a day when theCentre transferred its first install-

ment of �2,000 to more than 7.5lakh eligible farmers on Friday.In an open letter to the farmersthe Chief Minister said that thefirst installment of the PM-Kisan fund was in fact a result ofher continuous fight to get thecentral funds for Bengal farmers.

The Prime Minister onFriday released the eighth install-ment of over �20,000 crore tomore than 9.5 crore farmers.About 41 lakh Bengal farmershad applied for thescheme.

In an open letter to farmers,Banerjee said “You all were sup-posed to get �18,000, but havereceived a very small amount.Even this sum would not havebeen transferred had we notfought for it. We will continuethis fight till you get the entireallocation.”

Her Trinamool Congressalso hit out at the Centre forreleasing only �2,000 for eachfarmers whereas the PrimeMinister had promised Rs 18,000after the elections. “The PMspoke of �18,000 and here he hasgiven only �2,000… where is therest?” asked senior party MPSaugato Roy.

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Aday after the Armies ofIndia and Pakistan

exchanged packets of sweetsand demonstrated that thebonhomie was prevailingalong the Line of Control asnot a single incident of cease-fire violation was reportedsince February 24, the Indianborder guards deployed alongthe International border onFriday claimed they haverecovered a consignment ofarms and ammunitiondropped by a Pakistani dronein the Samba sector. The armsconsignment was droppedapproximately 250 metresinside the Indian territory.

BSF officials also claimedthe consignment was recov-ered from the same area whereBSF had earlier detected across border tunnel in themonth of November 2020.The tunnel was used by thePak rangers to push armedterrorists inside the Indian ter-ritory.

Recently a Pakistani

intruder was also shot dead bythe BSF troops in the samearea on May 5.

Last year on June 20, 2020

BSF troops had also neutral-ized a Pak Hexacopter inSamba/Kathua area andrecovered a huge quantity ofArms/Ammunition & explo-sives. According to a state-ment released by the BSFspokesman in Jammu, "As perinput, on 14 May 2021, troopsof BSF carried out a searchoperation in the general areaof Samba sector. At about12.15 hrs, BSF troops recov-ered a wrapped item with ayellow colour polythene bag ina field. The wrapped packetcontained 01 AK -47, 01Pistol, 01 Mag, 15 rounds of 9mm, 01 wooden frame (usedto attach payload with drone)& wrapping material".

BSFspokesman said, "IGBSF Jammu N S Jamwal con-gratulated the alert BSF troopsfor this big achievement whichagain foiled the nefariousmotive of Pakistan and saidthat BSF is ever alert and vig-ilant on International Border24x7 to thwart away the nefar-ious designs of Pakistan".

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Since the nine-day long total lockdown in Kerala which is in force

since May 9 has failed to bring downthe number of Covid-19 patients, theadministration has decided to extendthe lockdown to May 23.

The lock down declared on May7 was for nine days which wouldhave ended on May 16.

The move th extend the lock-down was announced by ChiefMinister Pinarayi Vijayan in hisdaily press briefing on Friday.

Vijayan said that the total lockdown would be in force till May 23.Four districts have been broughtunder triple lock down measures.These are the districts ofThiruvananthapuram, Ernakulam,Thrissur and Malappuram. The deci-sion to have triple lock down in thesedistricts was in the backdrop ofunabated hike in the number ofCovid-19 cases.

On Friday, the State diagnosed

34, 694 new persons with Covid-19while 93 patients succumbed to thepandemic.

The Test Positivity Rate in theState as on Friday was 26.41.

The Chief Minister asked thepeople in the State to be extra cau-tious as the India MeteorologicalDepartment has warned of heavydownpours, rains and high sea wavesalong the Kerala coast as a conse-quence of the low pressure developedin the Arabian Sea in the West Coast.

The failure of the administrationto accommodate Covid-19 patientsin First Line Treatment Centrescame out in the open in southernKerala as nearly 50 patients afflict-ed with the pandemic set up a tem-porary shed along the paddy fieldsin Thiruvalla as covid shelter.

An embarrassed administrationhushed up the issue by shifting thepatients to the nearest FLTC but notbefore many people were seen run-ning helter-skelter in this predomi-nantly rural area.

Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh onFriday recorded 15,747 freshCovid-19 cases that took theinfection count to 15,96,628,while 312 more fatalities pushedthe death toll to 16,958, officialssaid.

In the past 13 days, thenumber of active cases in thestate has come down by over1.17 lakh. On April 30, therewere about 3.10 lakh activecases and the number current-ly stands at 1,93,815, saidAdditional Chief Secretary,Health, Amit Mohan Prasad.

As many as 1,57,257patients are in home isolation,he said.While the state report-ed 15,747 fresh cases the pre-vious day, 26,174 Covid-19patients recovered from thedisease. So far, 13,85,855patients have recovered in Uttar

Pradesh and the recovery ratestands at 86.8 per cent, Prasadsaid.

Among the fresh deaths, amaximum of 21 were reportedfrom the state capital Lucknow,20 from Kanpur, 16 fromBahraich, 15 from Meerut, 14from Chandauli, 13 fromJhansi, 12 from Varanasi, 10each from Gautam BuddhNagar, Hardoi and Mathura, ahealth bulletin issued here said.

Among the fresh cases,1,464 were reported fromMeerut, 900 from Lucknow, 718from Gautam Buddh Nagar,587 from Varanasi, 567 fromGorakhpur, it said. So far, over4.41 crore samples have beentested for COVID-19 in thestate, including more than 2.63lakh tested on Wednesday, hesaid. PTI

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Tamil Nadu is all set to extend the lockdown period with more stringent

measures as all measures to check thetransmission of Covid-19 have come acropper. There is no worthwhile change inthe number of daily cases reported acrossthe State as the second wave is causinghavoc everywhere.

On Friday, the pandemic claimed 288lives across the State while 31, 892 new per-sons were diagnosed with Covid-19. TheDirectorate of Public Health andPreventive Medicine said in its release thatthere were 1.95 lakh active Covid-19patients in the State undergoing treatmentin various hospitals.

More than 1.53 lakh persons were sub-jected to RT-PCR tests on Friday. Thedeath toll in Tamil Nadu till date crossedthe 17,000 on Friday. A meeting convenedby Chief Minister Muthuvel KarunanidhiStalin which was attended among othersby legislature party leaders of all politicalparties with representation in the Housedecided unanimously to support whatev-

er measures the Government takes to con-trol the transmission and spread of thepandemic in the State.

The leaders of all political parties whotook part in the deliberations assured theGovernment that they would not hold anypublic meetings or demonstrations any-where in the State till the pandemic sub-sides. A high power committee was con-stituted with medical professionals, poli-cy makers and leaders of various politicalparties to chalk out ways and means tocontrol the spread of Covid-19.

In a camaraderie which is quiteunusual in Tamil Nadu, the political lead-ers authorised the Chief Minister to takedecisions which he feels apt and suitableto check the Covid-19.

Meanwhile, Sterlite Copper, owned bythe Vedanta Group, has started despatch-ing tanker trucks filled with medicaloxygen to various government owned hos-pitals in the State. A company represen-tative said that from May 15, the plant atThoothukudi would be able to produce 35tonne medical grade oxygen per day andthis would be gradually hiked.

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In the wake of the grimCovid-19 situation in Jammu

& Kashmir, the CentralGovernment has rushed a teamof experts to study the reasonsbehind high mortality rate.

The region has witnessedmore than 800 deaths in the lastone month. The positivity rateis also hovering around 10percent while the active posi-tive cases stood at over 52,000.

MoS PMO Dr JitendraSingh, who is regularly track-ing the Covid-19 managementefforts on Friday tweeted,"Central team of experts deput-ed to visit GMC and otherhealth institutions in Jammu inview of COVID surge. Localauthorities are advised tofrankly point out constraints

faced by them without mincingwords, so that Centre can opti-mally step in to assist them".

On ground zero the UnionTerritory administration is rac-ing against time to recruit doc-tors, nurses and other para-medics to utilise their servicesin the overall management ofCovid-19 patients.

Meanwhile, there was nolet up in the increasing num-ber of deaths. On Friday 60more patients succumbed tothe virus while 3027 newcases were detected taking thetally of active positive cases to52,001. The positivity ratedropped down marginally to9.59 across J&K.

The National HealthMission, UT of J&k Fridayreleased some statistics inorder to spread awarenessabout the importance of vac-

cination.According to the analysis

of Covid mortality in J&K UTbetween 15 Apr-12 May, thetwitter handle of NHM said,1-93% of Covid +ve critical caseswho died in this period wereunvaccinated, 7% were partiallyvaccinated.

"46% of deaths occurredwithin 3 days of testing +vethus indicating that they werewell into late stages of infectionbefore they got tested".

patients not to remain ina denial mode NHM advocat-ed the need for early testing sothat treatment could start early.

Referring to self medica-tion as another reason behindthe high mortality rate, NHMdata revealed, "49.37% of totaldeaths were those who arrivedjust <=3 days before in the hos-pital".

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Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) pres-ident Nana Patole on Friday created a sensation in the

State political circles by alleging that during the previousDevendra Fadnavis Government telephones of several lead-ers belonging to the Congress, NCP, Shiv Sena and BJP, andalso some IAS and IPS officers, between 2016 and 2017 weretapped.

Talking to media persons here, Patole charged that hehad received information from a private television channelthat his telephone was being tapped between 2016 and 2017when the BJP-led saffron alliance Government ruled the state.

“In the name of busting a narcotics gang, the phones ofmine as well as Amzad Khan were tapped during theDevendra FadnavisGovernment using false names. I urgethe Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government to conduct ahigh-level inquiry into the phone tapping indulged in by theprevious BJP-led Government and bring the culprits behindit to book,” Patole said.

The MPCC president also alleged that apart from hisphones, the phones of Congress, NCP, Shiv Sena and BP lead-ers, and also some IAS and IPS officers were also beingtapped. “In my case, the previous BJP government tried tolink me to drug trafficking gangs and also project in an objec-tionable manner. While tapping my telephone, the peopleinvolved were using a fake name and address”.

Patole demanded to know if requisite permission wastaken from the authorities concerned before tapping my tele-phone. “What was the purpose of tapping my telephone?Keeping an individual under surveillance without requisitepermission is an offence and invasion into the privacy of theindividual concerned,” the Congress leader said.

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In some relief to the healthauthorities in Maharashtra,

the daily Covid-19 deathsdropped to 695 in the State onFriday, while the infectionscame down to 39,923 .

A day after daily deathsjumped from 816 to 850 andthe infections dropped from46,781 to 42,582, Maharashtralogged 695 deaths and 39,923new cases.

With 695 new deaths, thetotal number of deaths in thestate climbed from 78,857 to79,552. Similarly, with 39,923new infections, the total num-ber of cases climbed from52,69,292 to 53.09,215.

As 53,249 patients weredischarged from the hospitalsacross the State after full recov-ery, the total number of peopledischarged from the hospitalssince the second week of Marchlast year went up from46,54,731 to 47,07,980. Therecovery rate in the state wentup from 88.34 per cent to88.68 per cent.

The total “active cases” inthe state dropped from 5,33,294to 5,19,254. The fatality rate inthe state stood static at 1.5 percent.

With 62 fresh deaths, theCovid-19 toll in Mumbaiincreased from 14,040 to14,102, while the infected caseswent up by a relatively low 1660to trigger a jump in the infec-tions from 6,83,185 to6,84,845.

The situation in Puneimproved a bit as the “activecases”, which had come belowone lakh mark early this week,improved once again as the“active cases” dropped from1,01,181 to 96,028.

Nagpur with 40496 activecases stood second in the state,followed by Mumbai (35,843),Thane (31,526), Ahmednagar(27,573), Satara (21,927),Solapur (21,232), Nashik(18923), Beed (18806),Chandrapur (15,701), Jalgaon(11,193), Latur (10237),Aurangabad (8716), Jalna(7072), Parbhani (7060),Osmanabad (6453) andBuldhana (6090).

Of the 3,06,02, 140 samplessent to various laboratoriesacross the state so far, 53,09,215have tested positive (17.35 percent) for Covid-19 until Friday.

Currently, 34, 82, 425 peo-ple are in home quarantinewhile 28,312 people are ininstitutional quarantine.

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Aizawl: The total lockdown imposed inAizawl and other district headquarters fromMay 10 has been extended for another 7 daysto flatten the Covid-19 transmission curve.

The government order issued on Fridaysaid that the existing complete lockdown,which was scheduled to be lifted on May 17(4 am) has been extended till 4 am of May24.

"As Covid-19 positive cases continue tosurge inspite of the stringent measures taken,the competent authority has decided to con-tinue with the total lockdown with an antic-ipation of flattening the curve of the diseasetransmission thereby preventing probableoverburdening of healthcare facilities," theorder said.

The second corona wave continues totrouble the northeastern State. Mizoram onFriday reported 201 Covid-19 cases, pushingthe state's tally to 8,377.

A total of 90 people were discharged inthe state during the day.

The number of active cases now standsat 2,060, while 6,294 people have recoveredfrom the infection. At least 23 people havesuccumbed to the infection in Mizoram so far.The Government order said that people resid-ing in the state capital and other district head-quarters/towns shall strictly confine toindoors and not venture outside without per-mission. PTI

Guwahati: Assam ForestMinister Parimal Suklabaidyaon Friday visited Bamuni Paharin Nagaon district, where 18elephants died a day ago pre-sumably due to lightning, andordered an inquiry into theincident.

A panel, headed by DeputyConservator of Forest K KDeori with seven veterinariansas members, has been institut-ed to carry out the inquiry, andfile a preliminary report with-in three days and a detailedaccount in the next 15 days, an

official release stated.Suklabaidya, who assessed

the situation at Bamuni Paharin Kothiatuli forest range alongwith top officials, said "no vis-ible sign of any struggle" wasfound at the site and an initialprobe into the incident sug-gested that the pachydermswere struck by lightning.

The exact cause of death,however, will be clear followingthe arrival of the post mortemreport, and submission ofdetails by the committee, theMinister said. PTI

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Puducherry Lieutenant Governor Dr TamilisaiSoundarajan has said steps were underway to

increase the number of beds for Covid patients inKaraikal district of the Union Territory.

Speaking to reporters after holding a reviewmeeting here with the District Collector ArjunSharma, the Lieutenant Governor said consider-ing the rise in the number of Covid cases inKaraikal, the Government has taken steps toincrease the number of beds in hospitals.

In addition, privatemedical colleges have beenasked to raise the bed capacity and appoint moredoctors, she said. Stating that the district has ade-quate supply of oxygen, she thanked the fishermenwho donated 40 oxygen cylinders in their boats forthe benefit of patients in the government Karaikalhospital.

The Lieutanant Governor pointed out that ithad been observed that late referrals for treatmentat hospitals were often the reason for Covid deathsand askd the people to seek proper medical atten-tion in the early stage itself.

She said the district administration would con-sider increasing the number of Covid care centresand alternative medicine centres. When her atten-tion was drawn to volunteers who are involved inburying the Covid victims in the district, theLieutenant Governor said she would initiate aninquiry as to why government staff were notinvolved in the activity and why it had been entire-ly left to volunteers.

She appealed to the people to cooperate withthe government by staying indoors and thereby stopthe spread of Covid. Health Secretary Arun andother officials were present at the review meeting.

Amaravati: Andhra Pradeshreported more than 20,000fresh cases of coronavirus forthe fourth consecutive day onFriday, while 19,177 patientshad recovered and another 96succumbed to the infection.

The latest bulletin said22,018 positive cases turned outfrom 89,087 tests in the 24hours ending 9 am today, tak-ing the infection count to13,88,803.

The number of activecases increased to 2,03,787after a total of 11,75,843 recov-eries and 9,173 deaths.

The overall infection pos-itivity rate climbed to 7.81 percent after 1.77 crore tests whilethe case fatality rate remainedstable at 0.66 per cent.

The recovery rate was84.6 per cent and the activecase ratio was about 15 percent.

East Godavari districtreported the highest 3,432 freshcases in 24 hours, followed byChittoor 2,708, Anantapuramu2,213 and Visakhapatnam2,200.

While Srikakulam report-ed the lowest 695 andVizianagaram 899, seven otherdistricts added between 1,000and 1,800 new cases each. PTI

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other terrorist organisations itfaces. Its commando and spe-cial forces units have beenparticularly successful.

Against this, the harsh factis that the Taliban haveexpanded their control overhuge tracts of Afghanistan’scountryside and some cities,besides inflicting a number ofheavy defeats on the Afghantroops. At least some of thereverses the latter suffered thebeginning of 2020 are attrib-utable to the Trump admin-istration’s atrocious policies.These included asking theGovernment forces early in2020 to go on the defensive inthe interest of its peace nego-tiations with the Taliban, andarm-twisting it into agreeingto the Taliban demand ofreleasing 5,000 of their fight-ers in Afghan jails as a pre-condition for talks. Many ofthe released fighters havegone back to combat despitethe Taliban’s promise thatthey would not do so.

The Taliban, however,began gaining ground evenbefore the TrumpAdministration’s policies andpressures hampered theANDSF’s operations. Also,while the capabilities of theAfghan troops have improved,a big question mark hangs

against the future availabilityof effective air support, whichhas played an important rolein many of the ANA’s success-ful operations. According toone estimate, 80 to 90 per centof the air support to it is nowprovided by the fledglingAfghan Air Force (AAF).

The AAF, however, hasbeen supported by the massiveair power of the US. Also,international contractors, nowdoing the bulk of the mainte-nance work on its planes andhelicopters, will depart withthe American troops. Thiswill seriously affect its opera-tional capabilities. This under-lines the importance of contin-ued American aid. On July 7,2012, Hillary Clinton, then USSecretary of State, announcedin Kabul that President Obamahad designated Afghanistan asa major non-NATO ally of theUS. The questions are: Howmuch and of what kind?

Apart from military hard-ware, there is a need forfunds. Countering a blend ofinsurgency and terrorism is avery expressive business. TheUS has provided over $86 bil-lion as security assistance toAfghanistan between finan-cial years 2002 and 2019.Since 2014, it has been pro-viding between five and six

billion dollars per year tofund the ANDSF. How muchand what form of assistancewill Washington provideAfghanistan after the with-drawal of its troops?

Clearly, the military out-come in Afghanistan hangs inthe balance. So does the fate ofAfghanistan. All indications arethat the Taliban have everyintention to re-impose themedieval, authoritarian theo-cratic system that had reducedAfghanistan to a cleric-admin-istered prison. As AhmedRashid wrote in Taliban: Islam,Oil and the New Great Game inCentral Asia, edicts of theTaliban’s Department ofPromotion of Virtue andPrevention of Vice “hadchanged the lifestyles of Kabul’sonce easy-going populationand forced Afghan women todisappear from public view”.

India needs to watch out.As the diversion to Kandaharof the Indian Airlines hijackedFlight IC-814 in December1999 showed, the Taliban wereactively promoting terrorismagainst it by Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Taiba. Do we have a coherentpolicy to meet the challenge?

(The author is ConsultingEditor, The Pioneer. The viewsexpressed are personal.)

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The latest available esti-mates of the number ofpeople, mostly school-girls, killed in three

blasts in front of a co-education-al school in Kabul on May 8, varyfrom at least 60 (BBC) to over 85(CNN). The figure may rise fur-ther by the time this column ispublished. The diabolical intentto kill as many as possible is clearfrom the fact that a car bomb wasfirst detonated and two impro-vised explosive devices followedas the girls rushed out of theschool in panic.

Two questions arise. Who isbehind this ghastly crime? Whatare its implications? As to thefirst, no one has claimed respon-sibility. The AfghanGovernment has blamed theTaliban, which has deniedinvolvement and condemnedthe strike. This leaves one withthe Islamic State, which hasstaged terror attack in Kabul andelsewhere in Afghanistan andwhich retains its ability to strikedespite losing a great deal of ter-ritory over the months.

The Taliban are the morelikely culprits. There is no rea-son why one should believethem, particularly when theMay 8 blasts have to be seen inthe background of the surge intheir attacks and terror strikesfollowing President Joe Biden’sannouncement that allAmerican troops will leaveAfghanistan by September 11.They know they will not win anelection and they do not believein democracy. They want tocontrol Afghanistan by force andestablish the Sharia rule.

Will they be able to do it?What will happen if they do?The answer to the first woulddepend on the fighting qualitiesof the Afghan National Securityand Defence Forces (ANDSF),the support they continue toreceive from the US and itsNATO allies. As to the first,despite serious problems ofdesertion and unwillingness toenlist, the Afghan NationalArmy (ANA), the land warfarearm of the ANDSF, has emergeda battle-hardened force capableof confronting the Taliban and

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SOUNDBITE����������� � �� ���Sir — An oxygen crisis in the Goa MedicalCollege and Hospital (GMCH), the State’slargest COVID facility, has led to the deathof over 74 patients in the span of four daysdue to daily disruptions in oxygen supply.Just two days after 26 patients lost their livesat the GMCH within hours, the StateGovernment told the Bombay High CourtBench in Goa that 15 more patients had suc-cumbed.

The Bench was informed of 13 moredeaths from the same hospital. The spate ofdeaths due to the lack of oxygen is causinga serious concern for the COVID-19patients in Goa’s hospitals. However, thePramod Sawant Government and the hos-pital both told the court that all the deathscould not be attributed to the disruption inoxygen supply.

The issue relating to oxygen shortage isso severe that the court had ordered the StateGovernment to drop everything and ensurethat there are no deaths for “at least onenight”. The relatives of the patients did raisean alarm after the oxygen pressure beganto drop overnight. But it was several hoursbefore anyone was able to fix the problemand ensure a steady supply of oxygen. It wasa simple case of utter negligence on the partof the health department and theGovernment.

CK Subbu | Goa

������� ������������������Sir — The recrudescence of COVID-19 inthe form of the second wave has claimedmany lives since mid-March 2021. Cold,cough, breathlessness and fever have beenexperienced from time immemorial. Coldtriggers fever and cough triggers breathless-ness if curative measures are not taken intime; it is a known fact.

Fever appears in many forms like flu,malaria, typhoid, encephalitis (brain fever),monkey fever, and so on. The said fevershave not given an undertaking that theywould not appear since Corona has beenappearing on a grand scale. But sinceCorona made an appearance, we havehardly heard of the fevers experienced ear-

lier. If a patient with cold, cough or feverapproaches a doctor, they do not treat thepatient without subjecting her/him to aCOVID test. Have all other fevers lostground to Corona? If all other fevers aretreated like COVID, the fatalities are boundto occur due to wrong diagnosis andwrong administration of medicines.

Whether malaria, typhoid and flu havenot at all revisited after Corona first brokeout in March 2020, the other normal ail-ments are still very much a reality. Thisaspect must be looked into by theGovernment, scientists and doctors.

KV Seetharamaiah | Hassan

��������� ����������� � ������Sir —This refers to the news report, ‘Dozensof bodies found buried in sand near Gangain Unnao’, May 14. When COVID-19 firsthit India, the biggest fear among both the

policymakers and public experts was thatthe pandemic would travel to India’s Hindiheartland — primarily across the rural beltof Uttar Pradesh (UP) and Bihar.

Given the size of the two States, the den-sity of population, the abysmal healthcareinfrastructure and the manner in which thevirus could quickly transmit in theseregions, this fear was legitimate. There wasnever any cogent explanation as to why thiswas the case, but this did not deter specu-lative, and clearly misplaced, theories aboutthe innate immunity of those in rural India.

The tragic sight of the bodies floatingin the Ganga confirms that the numbers ofreported COVID fatalities are much high-er than the official figures.

N Sadhasiva Reddy | Bengaluru

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While ushering in the era of thebiological revolution one can-not fail to notice that one of thebiggest ironies in biology is that

microbes, which are the oldest self-replicat-ing organisms on earth and which wereamong the last to be discovered, have large-ly been ignored. This is evident from the pre-sent crisis of the Coronavirus, which hasdevastated half of the world and has broughtit almost to the brink of disaster, partlybecause of the late discovery of microbes andtechniques of genome sequencing.

The lack of attention to micro-organismsis largely due to our observational bias. Wetend to ignore what we cannot see. This pre-disposition allowed us to make greatprogress in astronomy observing visibleobjects billions of miles away from us, longbefore we could appreciate the role of bac-teria and viruses on this planet. Life on earthis much more than there are plants. Ourinherent knowledge gaps about viruses &microorganisms have brought us to the pre-sent-day crisis.

Hence, biological revolution is inevitable.The following facts expose us to the ongo-ing revolutionary and unprecedented bio-logical research and its unique opportuni-ties.

Microbes have evolved into a complexnanomachine even capable of splittingwater via energy from the sun, billions ofyears ahead, than terrestrial plants. There isonly one existing prokaryotic type of bac-teria capable of producing oxygen withoutthe sun — the cyano bacteria. We have yetto discover its mechanism.

If one happens to look to the list of noblelaureates in the last decade one cannot failto notice that most of the noble prizes evenfor physics and chemistry have gone for theirstudy on solving the biological riddle.Several aspects of the mystery of biology arestill to be unravelled. Dr SiddharthaMukherjee of New York University observedthat though cancer research started earlierthan space travel, cancer is still an uncon-querable ‘emperor of maladies’. It is no sur-prise that MIT, an institution known forengineering and technology has changed itsfocus to molecular biology and some of itsfaculty members have even won nobleprizes for their research on cell biology.

Dr Bruce H Lipton of WisconsinUniversity and subsequently at StanfordUniversity, USA, in his ground-breakingwork, has discovered how cell mechanismsreceive and process information in the cellthrough the critical cell membrane. The cellmembrane through its receptor and integralprotein that serves as an antenna sends sig-nals from the outside environment. Theimplication of this research will radicallychange our understanding of life. It showsthat genes and DNA are controlled by sig-nals from outside through the cell mem-brane. This research in cell biology andquantum physics is being hailed as a break-through showing that behaviour can be

changed as we train our thinking.Thoughts and minds’ energy direct-ly influence how the physical braincontrols the body’s physiology.Mental ‘energy’ can activate orinhibit the cells’ function to produceproteins.

Biologists in collaboration withbiochemists, biophysicists are work-ing hard to cutting-edge research onmost of the areas of the burningissues to meet the demands of thegrowing population that consumesmore and more transportable formsof stored energy. Scientists areturning to alternative sources ofrenewable energy like solar, hydro,wind and tide. But our energyneeds are still not being met becauseof their intermittent supply andtime difference between their pro-duction and demand. The alterna-tive renewable energies are gettingcheaper, better all the time.However, we are yet to find a wayto store these energies ineffective,cheap, reliable ways, without muchcreation of waste.

If biologists can devise a bat-tery that allows overcoming inter-mittency problems inherent insolar, wind, and other renewablesources, we could use clean andabundant sources to meet all ourenergy needs.

The battery converts chemicalenergy to electrical energy by mov-ing electrons from one metal toanother. Electrons are tiny negative-ly charged particles. The copper-zinc plates form positive and neg-

ative poles. It conducts the electriccurrent. It can go as long as all theelectrons get transferred. Thus, abattery is an energy transportationdevice. When the battery is dis-charged, we use electricity to charge.

Dr Angela Belcher, materialsscientist at MIT, is evolving virus-es into variants that could organizenon-biological materials such asgallium arsenide and silicon forsemiconductors. Her experimentgave her confidence to build newtools to build batteries. She foundthat metals and metal oxidesworked particularly well. Viruses donot have cell walls or any structur-al elements. It is a protein capsulewith DNA / RNA. She found thatviruses-building elements could beused to make electrodes that canopen a door to clean and efficient,new way for making batteries. Hernext step is a virus-based state of artbattery, but could this battery takethe form of a dashboard, seat cover,door panel? Nobody knows.

Until recently, it was undisput-ed that cell membrane itself is amedium for exchange of waterfrom cells and outside. Dr PeterAgre, molecular biologist at JohnHopkin’s Institute, in 1980 whilepurifying Rh protein from redblood cell membranes to identify itmade a discovery that the mem-brane has Rh protein that works asa gate and alters a particular sub-stance vehicle with a pass to allowentry into the cell. These proteinsare known as aquaporins.

Starting with a large volume ofthe red blood cells, he separatedthe cell membrane from the rest ofits content. Next, he carefully iso-lated Rh protein from other pre-sent proteins. We all need freshwater to survive but it is only fiveper cent of the total water volumeof the earth. Most of it is in icesheets and the soil.

Hence, water purification iscritical for human survival. Thisdiscovery will use cell proteins ofthe cell membrane to purify water.We now know the whole family ofaquaporin found in virtually allorganisms on earth. A particularamino acid occupies a particularpattern of location and pattern.

Contrary to the theory by afamous economist, Thomas RobertMalthus, the world would beengulfed by war, famine and pesti-lence, but the convergence of biol-ogy and engineering is giving usgreat hope that we can avoid thegloomy future. How to bringtogether researchers from the fieldsof science for a collaborative effortin bioengineering by encouragingnational investment in fundamen-tal research that motivates scientiststo work in interdisciplinary areas.

For all this to happen we musthave convergence-minded policiesand international collaboration inthe field of biology, where scientistsand technologists can work on aplatform to defer the sixth massextinction of Holocene orAnthropocene.

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It was national technologyday on May 11 (the day iscelebrated to mark 1998

Pokharan nuclear tests) andthe irony is Indian science hasmanaged to break an atomand unleash its power but anatomic size virus seems insur-mountable. The statementcould well be turned around-to, in this battle of humans’ vsvirus, policy makers ignoredscience.

A month into one thedarkest periods of modernIndian history things look tat-tered and dishevelled withcitizens in queues even for per-forming last rites of their lov-ing. Early celebrations, polit-ical compulsions of a democ-ratic society, vibrant regionalsensitivities,one can attributea ton of reasons to the currentlevel of pandemic devasta-tion, yet what is lacking issound backing and knowl-edge of a science-led bunch of

experts leading the fightagainst pandemic. It may notbe an exaggeration if oneassumes India’s second waveCOVID battle is being foughtin courts, national and localadministrative offices. Eachone in their desperation orcompulsion to make the rightannouncement is giving asiloed decision, often over-reaching each other’s territo-ry, therefore creating anunwarranted bottleneck at acritical time. Examples havebeen quoted of differencesbetween Delhi and Mumbaiand will continue to be a casestudy for any future pandem-ic management, but what itshowed was any governancehas to start right at the colonycluster level. The biggestbunch of caregivers/adminis-trators/counsellors are right inthe neighborhood and there-fore healthcare and civic infra-structure has to be upgraded

at the mohalla level. Tossing afew social media posts withglossy pictures of infrastruc-ture fail to impress when a per-son urgently needs to breathe.Running to courts to interveneis allowing the judiciary towalk into executive’s coreresponsibilities while present-ing a united face to any calami-ty/war or crisis is one of thebasic rules of public adminis-tration. One does not start to

gain brownie points before theunconnected and potentiallydangerous parties during a cri-sis situation. It is shocking tosee central,state, local admin-istrations if not judiciary, cre-ating opposing guidelines forCovid management or tryingto control surge with delays.

Second, it is important forthose at the top to understandthat the pandemic is a bluntreminder of the gross neglect

of rationale domain experts inpolicy making and governance.India still is governed bybureaucrats, who by trainingare generalists with no specialdomain knowledge for han-dling new world challengesand therefore solutions.Political leaders of any huewould always cater to theirconstituencies and come upwith the most populistschemes, which may or maynot impact lives and liveli-hoods in the long term. Anexample, free food distribution,while at a humanitarian levelit is a noble move yet ensuringa continuous supply of govern-ment subsidized ration is theonly long-term solution. If the‘one nation one ration card’had been operationalised inmajor parts of India, alongwith various schemes formigrants and those out of thesocial net, tons of public sec-tor human resources such as

police could have been betterutilized for enforcing otherCovid appropriate protocols.Ifa few scientists, epidemiolo-gists, doctors had been perma-nently co opted in a steeringcommittee for Covid man-agement in national and Stategovernments (if not local) thepermanent tag of India facingworst Covid wave in the worldcould have been avoided.

Finally, the truth no mat-ter however harsh or shamingif told honestly and with com-passion, always benefits theorator. The government hasbeen avoiding queries on vac-cination supply and distribu-tion. All domain experts havebeen suggesting vaccinationbeing the only long-term solu-tion for protecting a largechunk of population andavoiding mass graves. Thegovernment had nearly eightmonths to be prepared for thecurrent onslaught and has

been blessed with one of thelargest vaccine manufactur-ing sites in the world, alongwith a home grown vaccine. Ittherefore cuts a very sorryfigure when despite all thewealth and a team to pushIndia to the next lever ofgrowth, only about 10 percent of the population hasbeen vaccinated while a size-able chunk of India, eveninmost impacted districts ofDelhi and Mumbai,are battlingit for ajab in the arm. The cur-rent vaccine distribution pol-icy of the government isopaque and needs clarity alongwith an almost daily update onthe pipeline for next fewmonths. Estimates suggestnearly one per cent of the Indiapopulation would be willing topay for vaccines. Governmentmust prioritise COVID3 man-agement by securing nearly 1.5billion vaccines for India in thenext few months.

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The writer is an advisor to AmitySchool of Natural

Resources andSustainable

Development, UttarPradesh. The views

expressed are personal.

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Palestinians grabbed theirchildren and belongings and

fled neighborhoods on the out-skirts of Gaza City on Friday asIsrael unleashed a heavy barrageof tank fire and airstrikes, killinga family of 6 in their home.Israel said it was clearing a net-work of militant tunnels aheadof a possible ground invasion.

Israel has massed troopsalong the border and called up9,000 reservists as fightingintensifies with the Islamicmilitant group Hamas, whichcontrols the Gaza Strip.Palestinian militants have firedsome 1,800 rockets, and theIsraeli military has launchedmore than 600 airstrikes, top-pling at least three high-riseapartment buildings, and hasshelled some areas with tanksstationed near the frontier.

As Israel and Hamasplunged closer to all-out wardespite international efforts at acease-fire, communal violence inIsrael erupted for a fourth night.Jewish and Arab mobs clashedin the flashpoint town of Lod,even after Israel dispatchedadditional security forces.

The Gaza Health Ministrysays the toll from the fightinghas risen to 119 killed, includ-ing 31 children and 19 women,with 830 wounded. The Hamasand Islamic Jihad militantgroups have confirmed 20deaths in their ranks, thoughIsrael says that number is muchhigher. Seven people have beenkilled in Israel, including a 6-year-old boy and a soldier.

Before dawn Friday, Israelitanks and warplanes carried

out an intense barrage on thenorthern end of the Gaza Strip.

In the darkness, HoudaOuda and her extended fami-ly ran frantically inside theirhome in the town of BeitHanoun, trying to find shelteras the earth shook for two andhalf hours, Ouda recalled.

“We even did not dare tolook from the window to knowwhat is being hit,” she said.When daylight came, she sawthe swath of destruction out-side: streets cratered, buildingscrushed, their facades torn off,an olive tree burned bare, dustand powered concrete coveringeverything.

Rafat Tanani, his pregnant

wife and four children, aged 7and under, were killed after anIsraeli warplane reduced theirfour-story apartment buildingto rubble in the neighboringtown of Beit Lahia, residentssaid. Four strikes hit the build-ing at 11 p.m., just before thefamily was going to sleep,Rafat’s brother Fadi said. Thebuilding’s owner and his wifewere also killed.

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In a major step toward return-ing to pre-pandemic life, the

Centers for Disease Controland Prevention has easedmask-wearing guidance forfully vaccinated people, allow-ing them to stop wearing masksoutdoors in crowds and inmost indoor settings.

“Today is a great day forAmerica,” President Joe Bidensaid Thursday during a RoseGarden address heralding thenew guidance, an event wherehe and his staff went withoutmasks.

Hours earlier in the OvalOffice, where Biden was meet-ing with vaccinated Republicanlawmakers, he led the group inremoving their masks when the guidance wasannounced.

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KP Sharma Oli, heading aminority Government, was

sworn in as Nepal’s PrimeMinister on Friday, four daysafter the embattled leader losta crucial vote of confidence inParliament.

President Bidya DeviBhandari administered theoath of office and secrecy to Olias the prime minister at ascaled-down ceremony at ShitalNiwas, the presidential palace.

The 69-year-old Chairmanof the Communist Party ofN e p a l - ( U n i f i e dMarxist–Leninist) was reap-pointed as prime minister bythe president in his capacity asleader of the largest politicalparty in Nepal’s House ofRepresentatives.

Oli will head a minoritygovernment as he does notenjoy a majority in Parliamentafter losing the vote of confi-dence on Monday. He wasreappointed to the post onThursday night as theOpposition parties failed tosecure majority seats inParliament to form a new gov-ernment.

Oli will now have to take avote of confidence at the Housewithin 30 days, failing which,an attempt to form a govern-ment under Article 76 (5) ofthe Constitution would be ini-tiated by the President.

The ministers of Oli’sCabinet were also sworn induring the ceremony.

During the oath-takingceremony, Prime Minister Oliand Deputy Prime MinisterIshwar Pokharel did not men-tion the word God thoughPresident Bhandari had men-tioned it.

“I will take oath in thename of the country and thepeople,” Oli said, whilePresident Bhandari had men-tioned “God, country and thepeople.”

All the Ministers and min-isters of state from the oldCabinet have been included inthe new Cabinet.

Pradeep Gyawali has beenreappointed as ForeignMinister while Ram BahadurThapa and Bishnu Poudyalwere appointed as ministers forHome and Finance. The oath-taking ceremony was kept briefkeeping in mind the raging

COVID-19 pandemic in thecountry.

Vice President NandaBahadur Pun and SupremeCourt Chief Justice CholendraShumsher Rana were amongthe distinguished personali-ties who attended the ceremo-ny.

There are 22 ministers andthree ministers of state in thenew Cabinet.

Oli previously served asprime minister from October11, 2015 to August 3, 2016 andagain from February 15, 2018to May 13, 2021.

Earlier, the President hadasked the Opposition parties tocome up with the support ofmajority lawmakers to form anew government by 9 pm onThursday after Oli lost thevote of confidence in the Houseon Monday.

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Israel’s Army says a soldierhas shot and killed a

Palestinian who tried to ramhis car into a military post inthe occupied West Bank, thengot out and attempted to stabthe soldier.

The incident took placeon Friday north of the city ofRamallah in the occupiedWest Bank. The Palestinianhealth ministry confirmedthe death, but no other detailswere immediately available.

Rights groups have com-plained about past shootingsof Palestinians by the Israelimilitary under questionablecircumstances.

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Thousands of Muslims ledby activists from an

Islamic political party demon-strated in Bangladesh’s capitalon Friday to denounce attacksby Israel against Palestinians.

After the end of Eid a-Fitrprayers at Dhaka’s main BaitulMokarram Mosque, activistsfrom the Islamic AndolanBangladesh, or IslamicMovement Bangladesh, beganprotesting and were joined bythousands of others.

M u s l i m - m a j o r i t yBangladesh celebrated the keyfestival of Eid a-Fitr in a sub-dued manner after the gov-ernment urged people to avoidlarge gatherings. Authorities

arranged prayers in phases atthe Baitul Mokarram Mosque,where devotees maintaineddistancing to avoid spreadingthe coronavirus.

Afterward, protesterscrowded together outside, car-rying signs reading “Boycottterrorist state Israel” and chanting “Down withIsrael.”

The current eruption ofviolence between Israelis andPalestinians began a monthago in Jerusalem. Israel regardsall of Jerusalem as its capital,while the Palestinians wanteast Jerusalem, which includessites sacred to Jews, Christiansand Muslims, to be the capi-tal of a future Palestinianstate.

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Chancellor Angela Merkel’sspokesman says Germany

won’t tolerate anti-Semiticdemonstrations amid tensionsin the Middle East.

Anti-Israel protests in sev-eral cities this week have drawnconcern and condemnation,particularly a protest outside a synagogue inGelsenkirchen.

A video showed dozens ofprotesters waving Palestinianand Turkish flags and yellingexpletives about Jews.

Merkel spokesman SteffenSeibert said Friday that “anyonewho uses such protests toscream their hatred of Jews isabusing the right to demon-strate.”

He added that “our democ-racy will not tolerate anti-Semitic demonstrations.”

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Abomb ripped through amosque in northern Kabul

during Friday prayers, killing12 worshippers, and wounding15, Afghan police said.

No one immediatelyclaimed responsibility for thebombing, the latest in a surgein violence as U.S. and NATOtroops have begun their finalwithdrawal from the country,after 20 years of war.

According to Afghanpolice spokesman, FerdawsFaramarz, the bomb explodedas prayers had begun. Themosque’s imam, Mofti Noman,was among the dead, thespokesman said and addedthat the initial police investi-gation suggests the imam mayhave been the target.

Taliban spokesmanZabihullah Mujahid deniedany insurgent connection to themosque attack, condemning itand accusing Afghanistan’sintelligence agency of beingbehind the explosion.

Both the Taliban and gov-ernment routinely blame eachother for attacks. The attackersare rarely identified, and thepublic is seldom informed ofthe results of investigationsinto the many attacks in thecapital.

One worshipper,Muhibullah Sahebzada, saidhe had just stepped into thebuilding when the explosionwent off. Stunned, he heard thesound of screams, includingthose of children, as smoke

filled the mosque. Sahebzada said he saw sev-

eral bodies on the floor, and atleast one child was among thewounded. It appeared theexplosive device had been hid-den inside the pulpit at the front of the mosque, headded.

“I was afraid of a secondexplosion so I came immedi-ately to my home” he said.

An image circulating onsocial media shows three bod-ies lying on the floor of themosque.

The explosion comes onthe second day of a three-daycease-fire announced by theTaliban for the Muslim holidaythis week of Eid al-Fitr, whichfollows the fasting month ofRamadan. The Afghan gov-ernment has also said it wouldabide by a truce during the hol-

iday.So far, many of the attacks

in Kabul have been claimed bythe Islamic State group’s localaffiliate, though the Taliban andgovernment routinely tradeblame.

Last week, a powerful carbombing attack in Kabul killedover 90 people, many of themstudents leaving a girls’ school.The Taliban denied involve-ment and condemned theattack.

Earlier this week, U.S.troops left southern KandaharAir Base, where some NATOforces still remain. At the war’speak, more than 30,000 U.S.troops were stationed inKandahar, the Taliban heart-land. The base in Kandahar wasthe second largest U.S. base inAfghanistan, after Bagramnorth of Kabul.

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Bangkok: The United Nations’special envoy on Myanmarmet with Thailand’s primeminister on Friday as she con-tinues efforts to end violence inMyanmar sparked by a militarytakeover in February.

The envoy, ChristineSchraner Burgener, toldPrayuth Chan-ocha inBangkok that she hopesThailand will find ways towork with Myanmar’s militaryto ease the unrest, the primeminister’s office said in a state-ment.

The Army’s seizure ofpower has been opposed by abroad cross-section ofMyanmar’s population. AP

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Republicans vaulted Rep.Elise Stefanik into the ranks

of House leadership Friday,electing an ardent DonaldTrump defender in hopes ofcalming their searing civil warover the deposed Rep. LizCheney’s unremitting combatwith the former president.

Stefanik, R-N.Y., a moder-ate turned Trump loyalist who’sgiven voice to many of his falseclaims about election fraud,was elected as expected to theNo. 3 post that Cheney, R-Wyo., held for over two years.

Backed by Trump and theHouse’s top two Republicans,Stefanik defeated challengerRep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, by

134-46 in a secret ballot voteconducted behind closeddoors. A member of the con-servative House FreedomCaucus, Roy was a prohibitive

long shot whose candidacyseemed a signal to GOP lead-ers that hard-right Republicansexpect a robust voice movingforward.

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As a candidate, President JoeBiden promised to protect

those often described as“dreamers,” brought to the USillegally as children, and theirfamilies by reinstating anObama-era policy that pro-tected them from deportation.

Biden is scheduled to meetFriday with six immigrantswho benefited from the pro-gramme.

The Oval Office meetingcomes as Biden looks to pressCongress to pass legislationcodifying the Deferred Actionfor Childhood Arrivals pro-gramme that then-PresidentBarack Obama instituted byexecutive action in 2012, pro-viding limited protections forimmigrants brought to the USillegally as children.

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Ireland’s health service shutdown its IT systems on

Friday after being targeted in aransomware attack by what itcalled “international crimi-nals.”

Appointments and elec-tive surgeries were canceled atseveral hospitals and DeputyPrime Minister Leo Varadkarsaid the disruption could lastfor days.

“There’s lots we don’t knowbut it appears to be a ran-somware attack by interna-tional criminals,” Varadkar said.“The problem could runthrough the weekend and intonext week, unfortunately.”

Ransomware attacks aretypically carried out by crimi-nal hackers who scramble data,paralysing victims’ networks,and demand a large payment todecrypt it. Varadkar called theattack “very serious.”

“It’s coming at a time when

the health service is extremelybusy doing lots of other things,”he said. “It’s going to be a verydifficult time for the health ser-vice.”

Health Service ExecutiveCEO Paul Reid told broad-caster RTE that health bosseshad “taken a precautionarymeasure to shut down a lot ofour major systems to protectthem.”

“We are at the very earlystages of fully understandingthe threats, the impact and try-ing to contain it,” he said.

The health service saidappointments for coronavirusvaccinations were not affected.Varadkar said emergency ser-vices, ambulance services, GPsystems and pharmacy sys-tems also were unaffected, butsaid there would be “majorproblems” for radiology ser-vices, radiation oncology, elec-tive surgeries and obstetricsand gynaecology appoint-ments.

Tokyo: An arrested Japanesereporter returned home Fridayafter being released byMyanmar’s ruling junta in whatit called a gesture of friendshipto Japan.

Japanese Foreign MinisterToshimitsu Motegi said YukiKigazumi was released afterefforts by Japanese diplomatsand others. The reporter board-ed a plane at Yangon’s airportand landed in Japan on Fridaynight.

Kitazumi, a freelance jour-nalist and former reporter forJapan’s Nikkei business news,said in brief comments at theairport that he learned of hisrelease the night before and wastold to pack his bag in 10 min-utes. AP

London: A group of leadingUK and US scientists, includ-ing Indian-origin CambridgeUniversity immunology andinfectious disease expertRavindra Gupta, on Fridaycalled for more investigation todetermine the origin of theCovid-19 pandemic, includingthe theory of an accidentalrelease from a lab in the cen-tral Chinese city of Wuhan.

In a letter published in thejournal ‘Science’, the expertsfrom world leading universitiessuch as Harvard, Stanford andMIT said knowing how Covid-19 emerged is critical forinforming global strategies tomitigate the risk of future out-breaks.

They caution that hypothe-ses about both natural andlaboratory spillovers must betaken seriously until there issufficient data. PTI

Jerusalem: The number ofPalestinians killed in the WestBank has risen to seven. TheIsraeli army says one was killedafter attempting to stab a sol-dier. Palestinian health officialsconfirmed that death and said

six other Palestinians werekilled by Israeli army fire in theoccupied West Bank. Thehealth ministry said five werekilled in stone-throwing clash-es with Israeli forces in sever-al locations. AP

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Yes Bank has invited bids forsale of immovable assets of

a borrower, E CommerceMagnum Solution Ltd, torecover dues of over �345crore.

In an e-auction sale notice,Yes Bank said it took physicalpossession of the immovableproperties mortgaged to it onAugust 29, 2020 pursuant to ademand notice issued to theborrower and mortgagor inJanuary 2020.

The e-auction will takeplace under the Securitisationand Reconstruction ofFinancial Assets and

Enforcement of SecurityInterest (Sarfaesi) Act.

The auction is with regardto One Hughes project atChowpatty, Mumbai of ECommerce Magnum SolutionLtd, Yes Bank said.

The bank has set thereserve price for the auction atRs 270 crore.

“The properties will not besold below the reserve price setby the AO (authorised officer),”it said.

The properties in posses-sion by the bank will be sold byway of e-auction on June 15,2021 for recovery of � 345.32crore as on April 27, 2021, YesBank said in the notice.0

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India’s exports in Apriljumped nearly three-fold to

USD 30.63 billion from USD10.36 billion in the same monthlast year, according to govern-ment data released on Friday.

Imports too rose to USD45.72 billion last month asagainst USD 17.12 billion inApril 2020, the data showed.

Trade deficit widened toUSD 15.10 billion as againstUSD 6.76 billion in April 2020.

Exports in April last yearhad plunged by a record 60.28per cent due to the Covid-19pandemic induced lockdown.

In March this year, exportsgrew by 60.29 per cent to USD34.45 billion.

Due to the low base effect,exports in April 2021 record-ed a growth rate of 195.72 per

cent.Oil imports stood at USD

10.8 billion as compared toUSD 4.66 billion in the corre-sponding month last year.

Major export commoditieswhich have recorded positive

growth in April include gemsand jewellery, jute, carpet,handicrafts, leather, electronicgoods, oil meals, cashew, engi-neering, petroleum products,marine products and chemi-cals.

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The country’sf o r e i g n

exchange reservesincreased by USD1.444 billion toUSD 589.465 bil-lion in the weekended May 7, 2021,RBI data showed.

In the previousweek ended April30, 2021, the reserves had risenby USD 3.913 billion to USD588.02 billion. The reserves hadtouched a lifetime high of USD590.185 billion in the weekended January 29, 2021.

During the reporting weekended May 7, 2021, theincrease in reserves was onaccount of a rise in foreign cur-rency assets (FCA), a majorcomponent of the overallreserves.

FCA rose by USD 434 mil-lion to USD 546.493 billion inthe reporting week, the ReserveBank of India’s (RBI) weeklydata showed.

Expressed in dollar terms,

the foreign currency assetsinclude the effect of apprecia-tion or depreciation of non-USunits like the euro, pound andyen held in the foreignexchange reserves.

Gold reserves surged byUSD 1.016 billion to USD36.48 billion in the reportingweek, the data showed.

The special drawing rights(SDRs) with the InternationalMonetary Fund (IMF) weredown by USD 4 million to USD1.503 billion. The country’sreserve position with the IMFdeclined by USD 1 million toUSD 4.989 billion in the report-ing week, the data showed.

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The Indian rupee strength-ened by 13 paise to settle at

a near seven-week high of73.29 against the US dollar onFriday, tracking weakerAmerican currency in the over-seas market.

At the interbank forex mar-ket, the local unit opened at73.41 against the greenbackand witnessed an intra-dayhigh of 73.22 and a low of73.41.

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Rates for the tax refundscheme for exporters -

Remission of Duties and Taxeson Exported Products(RoDTEP) - are expected to beannounced in the coming twoweeks, a senior official said onFriday.

Director General ofForeign Trade (DGFT) AmitYadav said it is working withthe finance ministry on thescheme.

Last year, the governmentapproved the RoDTEP schemefor reimbursement of taxesand duties to exporters, with aview to give a boost to thecountry’s outbound shipments.The scheme was implementedfor all goods, with effect fromJanuary 1.

“My sense is that in thecoming two weeks, we wouldbe in a position to have anannouncement of the rates forRoDTEP,” he said at a PHDC-CI webinar.

Apex exporters’ body theFederation of Indian Export

Organisations (FIEO) has timeand again asked the govern-ment to announce the rates fordifferent sectors under thescheme as delay would haveimplications for future exports.

The rates have to be noti-fied by the Department ofCommerce, which would bebased on the recommenda-tion of a committee chaired byG K Pillai, former commerceand home secretary.

Yadav said due to theCOVID-19 pandemic, therehas been an impact on both taxcollections and expenditureand there is also the challengeof revenue.

On the MerchandiseExport from India Scheme(MEIS), the DGFT said it isworking with the Departmentof Revenue on the issue.

“We have proposed to therevenue department that if theMEIS scrips

can be issued, which can beencashable a year after...Something

(on these lines) we areworking on,” he said.

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The BSE Sensex eked outmarginal gains on Friday

after two sessions of deepdeclines as investors scoopedup Asian Paints, RIL andFMCG stocks amid a rebound-ing trend in overseas markets.

A recovering rupee alsopropped up the market, thoughthe COVID-19 situation andpace of vaccination weighed oninvestor sentiment, traders said.

The BSE benchmark

swung between gains and loss-es during the session, beforefinally finishing 41.75 points or0.09 per cent higher at48,732.55. However, the broad-er NSE Nifty slipped 18.70points or 0.13 per cent to14,677.80. Asian Paints was thetop performer among theSensex components, rallying8.51 per cent, after the compa-ny on Wednesday reported an81.13 per cent jump in consol-idated net profit to Rs 869.89crore for the March quarter.

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Reliance Jio on Friday said itis working with Reliance

Foundation to provide 300 freeminutes of outgoing calls permonth, which amounts to 10minutes per day, for the entireperiod of the pandemic.

The scheme will be avail-able to JioPhone users whohave not been able to rechargedue to the ongoing pandemic,the company said in a state-ment.

Reliance Jio is the firstcompany to announce free talktime for users in the secondwave of pandemic whereinmany states have imposed lock-downs or lockdown-likerestrictions as a desperate mea-sure to restrict the spread of thevirus.

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Stressing that India needssmart and sensible crypto

regulation, leading cryptocur-rency players in the country onFriday urged the governmentagainst the ban and soughtengagement to build consensuson crypto regulation.

The government earlierindicated that it would take a‘calibrated approach’ towardsdigital assets and formulatinga Bill on cryptocurrencies. Afinal decision is yet to be taken.

At a webinar organised bythe Internet and MobileAssociation of India (IAMAI)and its Blockchain and Crypto

Assets Council (BACC) mem-bers, the stakeholders said thatconsultation and disseminationof information between thegovernment and the industryparticipants is crucial to deter-mining the most appropriateregulatory framework and sup-porting innovation. “There areover 1.5 crore Indians holdingover Rs 1,500 crore worthcrypto-assets. India is no longera niche market, but a rapidlygrowing finance market.Despite the growth in cryptoadoption, India is behind interms of both regulations aswell as number of successfulcrypto startups,” said NischalShetty, CEO WazirX.

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In an attempt to ensure liq-uidity for exporters in the dif-

ficult period of Covid pan-demic, the government hasdecided to credit all customsrefunds and duty drawbackclaims, made by them uptoMay 14, by the end of themonth.

The Central Board ofIndirect Taxes and Customs(CBIC) has launched a specialrefund and duty drawbackbetween May 15 and May 31.Under this drive, efforts will bemade by customs officials forpriority disposal of all pendingCustoms refunds, IGST refundsand Customs duty drawbackclaims pending as on May 14this year.

In an instructional circularissued to all Principal ChiefCommissioners, ChiefCommissioners andCommissioners of Customsand Central taxes, the CBIChas instructed officials to close-ly monitor performance of thespecial refund and duty

drawback drive on a daily basisand, wherever required, suit-ably guide the officers con-cerned to maximise the dis-posal.

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Maintaining its rising trend,fuel prices increased

again on Friday just after a dayof pause with state-owned fuelretailers hiking rates of petroland diesel by 29 paisa and 34paisa per litre respectively inthe national capital.

In Delhi, petrol now costs�92.34 per litre and diesel ispriced at �82.95 per litre upfrom yesterday’s level of Rs92.05 and �82.61 a litre respec-tively in the national Capital.

Across the country as wellthe petrol and diesel pricesincreased on Friday but itsquantum varied depending onthe level of local levies in

respective states.In Mumbai, petrol now

comes for around �98.65 alitre and diesel for �90.11 a litreaccording to a price notifica-tion from oil marketing com-panies

Petrol prices in some statesincluding Rajasthan, MadhyaPradesh and in some places inMaharastra have breached the�100 per litre mark while pre-mium petrol has been hoveringabove that level for some timenow.

Fuel prices have nowincreased on four of the last fivedays rising continuously fromMonday to Wednesday, paus-ing on Thursday and again ris-ing on Friday. Prior to holdingback auto fuel prices onSaturday and Sunday, its pumprates had also increased sharplyon previous four days as well.

Petrol prices haveincreased by �1.79 a litre Delhiin May in the eight increases sofar. Similarly, diesel prices haverisen by � 2.22 per litre in cap-ital this month.

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India on Friday expressedhope for an early decision in

the WTO on a proposal ofIndia and South Africa for atemporary waiver of certainintellectual property rights pro-visions in the TRIPS agreementto deal with the Covid-19 pan-demic.

In October 2020, Indiaand South Africa submitted aproposal suggesting a waiverfor all World TradeOrganization (WTO) mem-bers on the implementation ofcertain provisions of the TRIPSAgreement in relation to theprevention, containment ortreatment of Covid-19.

The agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of IntellectualProperty Rights or TRIPS came

into effect in January 1995. Itis a multilateral agreement onintellectual property (IP) rightssuch as copyright, industrialdesigns, patents and protectionof undisclosed information ortrade secrets.

Commerce Secretary AnupWadhawan said the proposalhad received support from sev-eral countries.

“I am hopeful that in anearly timeframe, some decisionwill be reached at the WTO...Iam hopeful that an early out-come will be achieved on this,”he told reporters.

The move would help inscaling up the production ofvaccines and other essentialproducts to deal with the coro-navirus, he added.

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New Delhi:Gold rose by �146to �47,110 per 10 gram in thenational capital on Friday fol-lowing recovery in global pre-cious metal prices, according toHDFC Securities. In the pre-vious trade, the precious metalhad closed at �46,964 per 10gram. Silver also gained �513to �70,191 per kilogram from�69,678 per kilogram in theprevious trade.”Spot gold pricesfor 24 carat in Delhi rose by�146 with recovery in COMEX(New York-based commoditiesexchange) gold prices.

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Kim Jong Un has a decisionto make: Maintain his bru-

tal family legacy or become alegitimate leader, a dilemmathat could ultimately destroythe Kim dynasty. As NorthKorea faces a critical cross-roads, North Korea: Inside TheMind Of A Dictator chroniclesthe life and reign of Kim JongUn as the young and unpre-dictable leader attempts toturn around his nation’s for-tunes.

The film features never-before-seen interviews thatshed new light on the dualityof Kim Jong Un, both hiscapacity for ruthlessness and asofter side nostalgic for hisyouth. For the first time in anextended global televisioninterview, one of the assassinsof Kim Jong Un’s half-brother,Siti Aisyah, tells her extraordi-nary full story. Also, in a worldexclusive, João Micaelo, Kim’sformer childhood classmate,speaks publicly for the firsttime about visiting Kim inNorth Korea. It also tracks thegame-changing rise of Kim’ssister, Kim Yo Jung, to hisright-hand woman and voiceof the regime, maintainingorder using fear and violencewhile her brother reinventshimself as a modern leader.

First-hand testimonies,intimate archival footage andrare interviews paint an in-depth portrait of a fracturedcountry. Key moments thatgive a fresh perspective on thenotorious dictator and hisfamily’s dynasty also include

the following:- A rare interview with

Kim Dong Chul, the longest-held American in North Korea,who was imprisoned for spy-ing for the CIA.

- The story of Kim JongUn’s aunt and uncle who caredfor him as a teenager beforeescaping to the United States.

- US Ambassador JohnBolton’s critiques of Trump’snegotiations with North Koreaat the summit in Hanoi, insighton the breakdown in peacetalks and Kim’s subsequentwrath.

- An interview with LeeYoung Guk, a bodyguard toKim Jong Un’s father, KimJong Il, who spent significanttime with Kim Jong Un as achild.

To understand Kim’s lead-ership decisions over the pastthree years, including hisencounters with PresidentDonald Trump and his plansfor the “hermit kingdom,”experts, journalists and gov-ernment officials unravel theinner workings of his mindand his tumultuous past as heworks to determine his legacy.

The two-hour special delvesinto the complex familydynamics of the Kim dynastyat the heart of North Korea’shistory and operations, andoffers key insight on his schooldays in Europe, the failedHanoi summit and NorthKorea’s growing arsenal ofnuclear weapons.

The special also takes adeep dive into the psychologyand history of the elusivesupreme leader in order to bet-ter understand his all-encom-passing dynastic power andstruggle to keep a grip on con-trol while navigating an uncer-tain future. From his isolatedchildhood to the fleeting free-dom he experienced in histeenage years to his attempts atdiplomacy under the pressureof crippling sanctions, theseries pulls back the curtain ona dictator torn between the oldways he grew up with and theencroaching modern world.

The film takes viewers ona journey through Kim JongUn’s past and present to under-stand the man and the mythwho holds North Korea’suncertain future in his hands.North Korea: Inside The MindOf A Dictator is produced forNational Geographic by 72Films. Mark Raphael andDavid Glover are executiveproducers for 72 Films andCarolyn Payne is executiveproducer for NationalGeographic.

(It premieres today at 9 pmas a part of SPOTLIGHT onNational Geographic.)

8.45 am: I wake up with ajolt and reach out for myphone and open aWhatsApp group I’ve

pinned on top these days.My immediate concern is if MrPathak had found a ventilator bedfor his mother in North Delhi, arequest that came in late last night.I had sent two verified leads, postwhich I slept, guiltily. To my heart’srelief, the 33-year-old man hadmet his requirement through thecontact. I scroll further and the taskfor the day seems ready. My friend’sfather, Mr Ramnarayan inBengaluru, has been prescribedTocilizumab and his daughter isfrantically searching for the medi-cine as the hospital has run out ofsupplies.

9.00 am: In another group,a request lands for oxygenconcentrator in Delhi andI tweet it right away, men-

tioning between asterisksthat ‘the patient is just 27’ and

also, forwarding the message toother groups. I am looking forleads for the respective cases bycross-messaging and shiftingbetween social media platforms.

2.00 pm: While I havereceived 10 contacts forthe concentrator, my calllog indicates 38 other calls

already made in a hunt forthe Tocilizumab. I dial the 10 con-tacts and much to my disappoint-ment, only one gives hope.

5.30 pm: I have lost track ofthe number of calls I havemade today, perhaps 60-70. I even memorise a

few numbers now whichare being shared over and over againbut to no avail. I have found twoleads for the Tocilizumab. While onesays it will be available tomorrowevening, the other requires fullpayment before delivery. Leavingthis decision on the patient’s fami-ly, I pass on a verified lead for theconcentrator to the Delhi patient.

8.45 pm: I have failed toarrange the medicine forthe Bengaluru mandespite making desperatecalls. I am exhausted and

begin to imagine and feel pityfor the plight of his daughter. Whilethe concentrator will be delivered by

tomorrow morning, my mind is stillnot at ease.

Next day, 11.00 am: Theconcentrator has beendelivered without any has-sle. The 27-year-old

patient’s family is thankful.I shed a tear of relief! My focus isback on finding more sources for theTocilizumab while 20 other requestspile up in my notifications box.

3.00 pm: I learn that MrRamnarayan will neverneed Tocilizumab, or anyother medicine now. Thesearch is over. A hope has

been killed. Another pyre isbeing set up. I don’t know the manbut the grief of his death consumesme, leaves me agitated and helplesslike never before. Was an advanceand a hefty payment for a medicinemore important than a life?

3.30 pm: I feel like quittingbut another request for anoxygen bed in the citymakes me recollect mythoughts, which do not

agree on giving up on anoth-er life battling hard.

As the second wave racked everynerve of the country in April, this

timeline with few variations becamethe routine for many people alongwith juggling WFH. While thedemands for resources may have less-ened with the falling number of casesthis month, the incidents which thevolunteers share haunt them and givea detailed insight into the insides ofa relief group formed due to thenecessity that emerged out of the cur-rent pandemic.

THE BEGINNINGFor Abu Sufiyan, founder of

Purani Dilli Walo Ki Baatein, itbegan when some symptoms start-ed to show among a few of his teammembers in early April, who werethen asked to quarantine and work

from home. He got himself tested forCOVID-19. Even though the reportswere negative, the symptoms wereevident. Medical experts alerted himto stay at home since they felt it couldbe the new mutant spreading inIndia, which wasn’t being detected bythe RTPCR tests though the symp-toms turn out to be more severe.

He shared, “I started searchingfor resources for my team as a few oftheir family members had severesymptoms. And soon, social mediaand our group was flooded withrequests from people in the capitalwho were looking for COVIDresources desperately. There wereSOS calls for hospital beds, plasma,Remdesivir, oxygen support, concen-

trators, cylinders and refillers, ven-tilator beds, other life-saving medi-cines like the Tocilizumab and evenmeals for those who stayed alone andcouldn’t cook. The demands forICU home setup followed soon afterwhen people realised how hospitalswere now too crowded, understaffedand unequipped. We started prepar-ing lists of verified contacts for therespective needs and put them out asa consolidated information.”

Journalist Aditya Raj Kaul, whohas been closely and endlessly work-ing with over 500 volunteers, duringthe second wave to arrange requiredsupplies for COVID-19 patients,said that an extremely dire situationlike this demands every one of us toact responsibly. He said that the cur-rent struggle of finding oxygen sup-plies reminded him of his grand-mother’s demise in 2003 due to theunavailability of oxygen support intime. “It had stayed with me,” headded, “and that’s how I started fromone WhatsApp group to another andbecause of my good following onTwitter, I would amplify SOS callsand tag several accounts whichcould be connected to the cases.That’s how it grew after people per-sonally started reaching out to meand I could help out more peoplefrom places like Jodhpur, areas ofJharkhand, UP and Jammu. In theinitial days, we used to get more than300-500 requests a day, which weredifferent from those 1,000s wereceived on WhatsApp groups.”

DEPLETING RESOURCES, COM-MON CHALLENGES ANDEVOLVING STRATEGIES

While the information wasbeing verified and shared throughpersonal handles and social mediatoolkits, due to the rising number ofcases and demands, they soon fellshort. Abu added, “After a fewhours of creating a list of availableresources, they would exhaust andhence, would be of no use to peo-ple whom it reached by the end ofthe day. This became one of themajor challenges and hence, westarted to mention the date and timewhen a resource was verified for useand a disclaimer for its limitedavailability.”

Chennai-based independentjournalist and part of a volunteer

group in the city, Manasa R, point-ed out at how suppliers seemed tohave run out of stock in most sce-narios, due to which the meaning of‘a verified contact’ changed each day.She said, “From hospitals to officials,they stopped attending the callswhen the cases surged. The lineswere either busy or unavailable orthey’d hang up. Out of 200 calls, twowould respond only in the negative.The most unique challenge was theprocess of verification. After weadded a supplier’s contact to thedatabase, who could help us find anoxygen cylinder, the supplier wouldlater run out of stock and stopanswering calls. And we had to startfinding new suppliers from ascratch.”

Aeshal Fatima, class 12th stu-dent and Delhi-based volunteer,part of nine such groups onWhatsApp, pointed towards thenon-functioning of Google spread-sheets, which had been circulatedmajorly around social media. “Nomatter how many times I updatedthe sheet with a verified lead, thecontact soon would go out of reachor the resources they had availablegot exhausted since hospitals wererunning out of oxygen on an hourlybasis,” said she.

While finding the supplies wasa major issue, their reasonability andaffordability became a concern soonafter. Pointing towards the challengethat unfolded — unreasonable pricesof oxygen cylinders or concentratorsdue to the high demand, she said,“This is the worst thing someonecould do to the one who’s alreadysuffering. And the sadder part is thatin such a life-and-death situation,one has no choice but to give in, nomatter the cost.”

HAUNTING STORIES OF VIC-TORY AND DEMISE

It was 2 am when Kaul receiveda request from Bengaluru for a 26-year-old girl, whose parents wereunable to find a hospital bed. Kauland his team started working on thecase right away, got the girl admit-ted to a hospital, however, to theirdisappointment, the girl passedaway the same night at 4.30. “One ofthe volunteers, closely associatedwith the case, broke down andcouldn’t come to terms with the fact

that we were unable to help save her,”he shared.

On her second day as a volunteer,Aeshal came across a request on oneof the groups she was part of for anoxygen cylinder in Lucknow. She said,“I sent a few leads and went to sleepwith guilt and fear within. I woke upto see that the patient had found thecylinder and was relieved to hear this.That was the first time when I wasreally motivated to help out as manypeople as I can during these toughtimes and I made sure I dedicatedmyself to it also given the obligationone feels after coming across arequest.”

While there were stories of vic-tory and demise coming in, therewere also certain cases where thealready broken-down healthcare sys-tem meant that non-Covid patientshad a tough time getting relief. Abushared, “In one of the most unusualcases during those days, we cameacross a case of my friend’s househelp’s daughter, who had fallen fromthe stairs and suffered a severe injuryon head. Due to the unavailability ofbeds in hospitals, they were strugglingto find a doctor and a bed for her. Ittook seven hospitals that night, all atdifferent places, to get tests and MRIscans done. She was finally admittedto the eighth hospital.”

On the other hand, there are alsostories of resilience, faith and patiencewhich passed the test of time andemerged. Manasa shared how hercousin was unable to find a bed forher younger brother for over eightdays, “the longest a case took to close,”due to which she began losing hope.“I cried in relief when a combinationof luck, perseverance and a person-al contact” of the family worked inhelping the patient. When she sharedthe story with other volunteers in thegroup, who were not involved in thecase, they listened patiently, celebrat-ed with her as though the patient wasone of their own. “Well, everythingis significant — a person beingsaved, a person dying, a person notreceiving the resources on time, a per-son actually managing to find aresource. We, as volunteers, although,are quite careful about our boundarieswith patients and their kin, in a timelike this, we are all invested in eachof them in some way or the other,” sheadded.

Rakul Preet Singh is a self-made actor. In a little

over seven years since herBollywood debut in the 2014film Yaariyan, she has workedher way through the uphilltask of dealing with the tag ofan outsider, and is today oneof the busiest actors in theHindi film industry.

She attributes her suc-cess to her ability to not becowed down or be scared oflosing stardom. “I am not thekind of person who lives infear. I came with nothing andI always see the brighter side.I got an opportunity to livemy dream and here I am.Ultimately it boils downto when people startappreciating yourwork. That onesmile that youbring on some-one’s face orwhen they comeand say ‘weloved that film ofyours’. That iswhat we all workfor, after all,”she said.

At 30,Rakul is high-ly sought-afterin Bollywood,and has along list offilms linedup forr e l e a s eover thenext few months. Currently,she awaits the release of theOTT fi lm Sardar Ka

Grandson, co-starring ArjunKapoor. She also has Maydaycoming up with AmitabhBachchan and the film’s actor-director Ajay Devgn. InAttack, she shares screenspace with John Abraham.She also has Thank God with

Ajay Devgn and SidharthMalhotra, KamalHaasan’s Indian 2 and theAyushmann Khurrana-starrer Doctor G in the

works.“There is so much

love from the audienceand the con-

s t a n tthought isto just

keep work-ing in differ-

ent settingswith the hope to

entertain,” sheadded.

Rakul madeher acting debut

in the 2009Kannada f i lmGilli, and herTelugu debut inKeratam the

same year. A yearlater, she made herTamil debut inT h a d a i y a r aThaakka.

In Bollywood, many con-sider the 2019 comedy hit DeDe Pyaar De, co-starringDevgn and Tabu, her coming-of-age role. She has also beenseen in Marjaavan andAiyaari.

Ask her what is important— script or the character —Rakul replies that she believesin the theory of “permutationand combination.”

“Sometimes you choose afilm because you love thestory and you want to be a partof the message promoted bythe film or the entire premiseof the film itself. And thenthere are times when you go byyour character and the script.The rest of the times, itdepends on the director andother actors involved with theproject. It is subjective to eachprospective film,” she said.

Talking about Sardar KaGrandson slated for release onMay 18 on Netflix, Rakulexplained what made herchoose this project, “It was thepure emotion of the film thatmade this a no brainer. WhileI cannot tell you all about it forobvious reasons, the storydepicts a grandson who iswilling to go to any extent tofulfill his grandmother’s wish.”

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Abominable is a computer-animated adventure film

which follows a teenage girlnamed Yi, who encounters ayoung Yeti on the roof of herapartment building in Shanghai.She names him Everest andembarks on an epic quest toreunite the magical creaturewith his family at the highestpoint on earth along with hermischievous friends Jin andPeng (played by Albert Tsai).But the trio of friends will haveto stay one-step ahead ofBurnish, a wealthy man intenton capturing a Yeti, and zoolo-gist Dr Zara to help Everest gethome. Actor Albert Tsai sharesabout his experience of workingon the film and more. Excerpts:

�How did you get involved?As soon as I read the script

and the character description ofPeng, I just fell in love with him,so I decided to audition for therole. I was really excited to bepart of a film that was portray-ing Chinese culture, with amodern Chinese family, whichwe haven’t had, ever, really. Thelast major film was Mulan,which was about ancient times.

�How did animator and direc-tor Jill Culton pitch Peng toyou?

Just that he’s a fun-loving,energetic kid. He is alwaysintended to be the youngercharacter and almost comicrelief, but with more depth thanthat. He is also the optimisticone of the group. He’s alwaysplaying, and when other peopleare about to give up, he reallywants to continue the journey.He has a ton of fun on thisadventure with Everest. Peng isthe only one, along with Everest,who seems to be taking thisjourney more like a vacation.When the others are consider-ing the next step, he’s over therehaving a thumb war withEverest.

�What did you want to bringto the role?

I did try to really infusesome of my personality intoPeng. A lot of his body languageand movements were sort ofinspired by what I did in therecording booth because theyhad a camera on us when wewere recording the audio, just tosee what we would do. Being aTV actor, I did the movementsalong with the lines, which wasnatural for me and that theyimported onto Peng.

�Did Peng change at all as thefilm evolved?

He stayed more consistentthrough the various stages ofproduction. I feel like he wasalways going to be the youngermember of the group, thecomedic heart. I think therewere slight personality changes...

I don’t know if he was quite thebasketball aficionado that hebecame.

�What is it about the Yeticreatures that we’re so obsessedwith?

I think it’s just part of ourobsession with mythical crea-tures. We love the unknown, andwhat we haven’t confirmed ordiscovered yet. Also, what’s real-ly exciting is, we bring a differ-ent version of the Yeti into thefilm, as opposed to sticking tothe normal depiction, which ismore gorilla-like, abominablesnowman who is mean andscary. We bring a cuter, moreinnocent version. He’s got thesepowers, which aren’t normallypart of the Yeti mythology, so it’sreally fun. Jill [Culton] said shewanted to base Everest off of herexperience with her dogs, whichis why he sort of has dog-like

qualities. But he also has hisown emotions and he’s quite

intelligent.

�Was it fascinating tosee the film come tolife step by step?

That was one ofmy favorite parts ofthis entire experi-ence. It was fascinat-ing for me to see howa scene could go frombasic storyboardsand sketches to ani-mation and layout.

It started out as veryrough 3D animation

and it got finer and finer,with lighting and effects

and all that, until finally it’s

what you see at the movies. Thescenes I saw a lot of were Everestand Yi’s escape from the city, andthe blueberry sequence. Itracked those two from thebeginning and it was exciting forme to see how they were animat-ed.

�You’re usually on your own inthe recording booth. What sortof challenge was that as anactor?

It was definitely very differ-ent than what I am used to. A lotof times in the recording ses-sions, we would do a certain lineseveral times, changing thenuance, and then we’d move onto the next one. It had a sequen-tial approach, and we couldplay around with it a lot more.Jill was so collaborative, alongwith the whole team, and noth-ing had been set in stone yet, sowe were able to ad lib a bit andimprov here and there. The fewrecording sessions we did dotogether as a cast were a lot offun, too, because that was morelike traditional acting.

�You’re a big fan of animatedfilm. Any favorites?

I really love The Lion King.I think that was the first animat-ed movie I watched, so it wasspecial for me. And it was a lit-tle like Abominable, since itwas nature-focused. A favoriteDreamWorks movie of mine? Ilove Shrek and Kung Fu Pandatoo, those were really funny.

�You’re a producer these days,what prompted that?

I’ve always been fascinatedby what happens behind thescenes and how a team of cast,writers, producers and directorsput together a TV show, so I’vealways wanted to get into thatside of things. I’ve been trying todo that, and it’s where I seemyself in the future.

(The film premieres on May16 at 9 pm on Sony PIX.)

There is always an untold storybehind every song. While someof those stories do come to fore

in some way or the other, most of themremain a secret behind the scenes, wellaway from the spotlight. SingerSunidhi Chauhan, who recentlyreleased her latest single Ye Ranjisheinafter almost two decades, shares someunknown trivia about five of herfavourite songs.

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Not many people know this but Ihad no voice to sing this song in the stu-dio on the day of the recording. Justthree days before the scheduled record-ing, I had lost my voice and my doc-tor told me if I really wanted to makeuse of this opportunity, I would haveto keep my mouth shut right up to themoment when I have the microphonein front of me at the studio. “If youspeak at all during the next three days,you will lose your voice. If you reallywant it that bad, you better keep mum.Sing straight on the mic, on the day ofthe recording,” he said. I was crushedto hear that, especially since I am some-one who believes in practising andrehearsing almost to the point ofexhaustion. However, for a change, Ifollowed my doctor’s instructions andwent with his gut feeling. I was reallyscared, couldn’t imagine what I wouldsound like with a bad throat. Eventuallyit all turned out for the best. My doc-tor’s instincts were spot on and myvoice was back to its usual element andwe successfully recorded the song.

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My second all-time favourite song isAaj Socha To Aansoo Bhar Aaye by LataMangeshkar, and composed by MadanMohan ji. Each time I hear that song, Iget transported to another place. I can’thelp but get lost in Lata ji’s voiceand the emotions shebrought to life in thatsong. While I am not asad person, I haven’thad anything to besad about in a longwhile, I cannot helpbut relate to this songso much. My eyesstart welling up assoon as I hear Lata ji’svoice in this song.

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There is no way I could ever forgetthis song; obviously because of its com-position. Much gratitude to MMKeeravani sir who gave me this beauti-ful song. A little story behind this songis that the mukhda was to be sung in onebreath and I couldn’t help but wonderwhether it would be physically possiblefor me to do so because it had too manylines. But Keeravani sir wanted it to bein one breath and he said that he knewI could do this. He told me that hebelieved in me and I should just take mytime to practise as much as I need. I tookabout 45 minutes to an hour, maybemore. I lost track of time but when I got

on the mic, somehow nailed it. Icouldn’t believe I had managed to singthat mukhda in one breath. It is onememory which stands out, it really wasa crazy time.

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Rehna Tu is my all time favouriteby AR Rahman sir and Prasoon Joshi.They have created a masterpiece. Themelody and the lyrics, it just takes meto a place where I don’t want to comeback from. And I must have heard it a

zillion times already but that feelingnever wanes...

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I have to mention Le Chale here.When Viveck Philip, who composedthis song, and (Onir) Anirban, who isthe director of the film, approached meto sing this song, right off the bat I wasin love with it. I was head over heels forthe melody. Let me share a storybehind this song, which not many, infact, nobody knows. I was kind of chok-

ing while singing this track in the stu-dio. I tried to not make it too obviousbecause I knew that if I stopped singingI would start crying. It was really toughkeeping my emotions in check whilesinging this one. And mind you, thiswas before I got know about the con-text of this song in the film. It was pure-ly magical, what that melody wasdoing to me. Those notes were drivingme crazy and I could feel myself chok-ing again and again. Nobody knowsthis, not even Anirban or Viveck... WellI think they will get to know this now.

Actor Divyanka Tripathi, who is cur-rently shooting in Cape Town for the

stunt-based reality show Khatron KeKhiladi 11, says that it was tough leav-ing her husband, actor Vivek Dahiya, athome.

“This is the first time after our mar-riage in 2016 that Vivek and I would beby ourselves for an extended period oftime. We have gotten emotional manytimes. Last week, we had been preparingourselves for the day when I would leavefor Cape Town. Leaving him and goingmakes me very sad,” she said.

The actor also added that the fami-ly members of all contestants were reluc-tant in letting them travel overseasamidst the pandemic. “During theseuncertain times, it’s understandablytough for family members to let us go.In all honesty, I think they are the biggestKhatron Ke Khiladi,” Divyanka said.

However, a part of her was overjoyedat being given a chance to engage withsomething adventurous again.

“I am excited that I am going to dosomething that was long due. Beforecoming to Mumbai, I used to get a lot ofchances to participate in adventurousactivities. I used to participate in a lot ofadventure camps when I was a kid. I usedto be away from home for 10-day or 50day-camps, so I was in the habit of stay-ing alone. And in the 15 years since Icame to Mumbai, I have never had achance to travel and be by myself so Ihave not touched that aspect of my per-sonality in a long while. But I have to saythat the next few weeks would be some-what bittersweet as I have to stay awayfrom Vivek to make use of an eagerlyawaited opportunity,” she added.

On the deadly second wave ofCOVID-19, Divyanka expressed, “It is atough time for the industry, but it is notjust limited to our industry. Across pro-fessions, just about everyone is goingthrough a tough time. But it is a bit easyfor us actors, since we are no strangersto this lifestyle. When we are working,our schedules are erratic, we work rig-orously and for extended hours. Butwhen we don’t have work, like, between

shows we work on ourselves at home.” “These times are a reminder that

more than work, life is important. I wouldurge everyone to follow social distanc-ing norms and to stay safe. During thistime, mental health is important, and itis important to stay in touch with yourloved ones at all times. Those of us whoare lucky to not be affected by the pan-demic, we should try to be healthy men-tally and keep indulging in activities athome to keep ourselves engaged,” shesigned off.

A"�2�

It’s almost a year since the world witnessed actorAbhishek Banerjee delivering a splendid per-

formance in the crime-thriller series Paatal Lok.Having starred in comic roles prior to the pro-ject, Abhishek showed the fans how versatile hecould be when taking on roles in another genre.He has now shared his experience from the timewhen he was shooting for the eponymous series.

“Sudip (Sharma) sir went to watch Stree intheatre one day and he called me the next day say-ing that he wanted me to try for the characterVishal Tyagi (Hathoda Tyagi). He said, ‘He sawa maniac in my eyes’. It was a shocker as I didn’texpect that. I stared at myself in the mirror look-ing for the maniac in me. Initially, I didn’t findthe role exciting, Tyagi didn’t have many dia-logues, even the screen time was less comparedto other characters! I was half-hearted aboutattempting the audition plus I was the castingdirector too so didn’t want to be in an embarrass-ing situation where I get to hear the news of myown rejection from the the team,” he said.

“However, Karnesh (Sharma) sir and Sudipsir were both convinced that I could do a goodjob with it. They were not liking the other optionsI presented to them for Hathoda’s role! Finallyafter a long internal duel, I gathered courage andgave the audition. I gave it my all but still was ner-vous when I finally sent them the test. Next morn-ing Karnesh sir called, I picked it up anxiously.I was told that they really like my audition andI am on board for the part. Phew! That was sucha relief. But it was only the beginning of a diffi-cult yet beautiful journey.”

The series went on to receive a lot of praiseas it opened to strong critical acclaim. Abhishek,for his portrayal of Hathoda Tyagi, also receiveda lot of appreciation. His role in the series trulyhelped him break free of the comedy personaonscreen.

His recently released anthology film, AjeebDaastaans, was again a successful outing. Witheach new project, he keeps proving his mettle. Henow has five projects in line with quite a few morein developing stages. Abhishek will next be seenin Rashmi Rocket, Bhediya, Aankh Micholi,Dostana 2 and Helmet.

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Liverpool kept their chances of a placein next season’s Champions League in

their own hands with a thrilling 4-2 vic-tory over Manchester United at OldTrafford on Thursday.

Jurgen Klopp’s men still need to wintheir remaining three games over the next10 days to guarantee their place in theChampions League for a fifth consecutiveseason, but cleared the biggest hurdle intheir path with a first victory away toUnited since 2014.

Roberto Firmino scored twice eitherside of half-time after Diogo Jota cancelledout Bruno Fernandes’s early opener for thehome side.

Marcus Rashford’s strike set up agrandstand finish, but Mohamed Salahsecured a vital win in the final minute asLiverpool moved up to fifth in the table.

“We are still in the game, still in therace. That is all we could do tonight,” saidKlopp.

“It was necessary. Without this resultwe don’t have to talk about it.”

The clash between English football’stwo most successful clubs had beenpostponed 11 days ago as United fansstormed the pitch and clashed withpolice amid protests against the club’sowners.

A peaceful protest took place beforekick-off as supporters again voiced theiranger at the Glazer family.

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Jadon Sancho and ErlingBraut Haaland both netted

twice on Thursday as BorussiaDortmund won the GermanCup with an emphatic 4-1 winover RB Leipzig to spoil JulianNagelsmann’s hopes of leavingwith a title.

Dortmund turned on thestyle at Olympic Stadium,converting all of their threefirst-half shots on target tosweep Leipzig aside as Sanchonetted twice either side of asuperb Haaland goal.

“I am very happy that Icould score two goals and setup one for Haaland,” Sanchotold ARD.

The England winger couldhave claimed a hat-trick late onafter rounding Leipzig goal-keeper Peter Gulacsi, but failedto get his shot away.

Spain midfielder DaniOlmo pulled a goal back forLeipzig, before Haalandgrabbed his second in thedying stages despite slipping ashe connected.

Dortmund lifted theGerman Cup for the fifth timein the club’s history.

“It’s unbelievable, I amproud of the morale the teamhas shown in the last fewweeks,” said captain MarcoReus as Dortmund have alsorecently got back into theChampions League places.

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Granada: Real Madrid kept thepressure on Atletico Madrid bythrashing Granada 4-1 onThursday to reduce the gap totwo points at the top of La Liga,with two games left to play.

A draw or defeat for RealMadrid would have givenAtletico the chance to win thetitle on Sunday by beatingOsasuna but goals from Modric,Rodrygo, Alvaro Odriozola andBenzema secured a comfortablevictory at Los Carmenes.

Atletico could still becrowned champions this week-end if they overcome Osasuna

and Real fail to win away atAthletic Bilbao.

Even third-placed Barcelonaare still in the running but theyneed an incredible swing ofresults if they are to overturn afour-point deficit. AFP

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India’s star pacer Jasprit Bumrah has saidthat former New Zealand speedster

Shane Bond, who is currently the bowlingcoach of Mumbai Indians, has played amajor role in shaping his career.

The Mumbai Indians fast bowler,who will lead India’s attack in the upcom-ing World Test Championship final againstNew Zealand, expressed his views in avideo shared by his IPL franchise.

“I always try to talk to him even whenI am not here and with the Indian team.So, it’s been a good journey, and hopeful-ly, every year I keep learning somethingnew and try to add new things to my bowl-ing.

“He has played a major role in that. It’sbeen a great relationship so far, and hope-fully, this continues for many many yearsto come,” Bumrah said.

He said he was always fascinated byhow Bond bowled in his playing days andtries speaking to the MI bowling coacheven when he is on India duty.

“I met him (Bond) for the first time

in 2015. As a child, I had seen him bowland was always very fascinated by how heused to bowl for New Zealand, and how

he used to operate,” the India pacer said.Bumrah, who has so far played 19

Tests, said that Bond assisted him a lot inbroadening his horizon which in turnhelped him blossom as a cricketer.

“When I met him over here, it was agood experience. He helped me a lot toopen my mind to different things that Icould try on the cricket field. So that wasvery good and that relationship has onlygotten better each and every year,” addedthe Gujarat pacer.

Bond, on his part, termed Bumrah asthe best death bowler in the world.

Seasoned New Zealand left-arm pacerTrent Boult also had words of praise forhis compatriot, saying that Bond was a“tremendous thinker of the game and apretty good tactician.”

“He has been here for a long time, heknows what he is doing and he puts in alot of work into making sure that thebowlers are well equipped and have gotenough information to make some deci-sions on the day. Yeah, really enjoy work-ing with him,” said Boult, who has played71 Tests.

Bond played major role in shaping Bumrah’s career

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New Delhi: Former India selector Sarandeep Singh hasbacked the current committee’s call to ignore Hardik Pandyafrom the Test squad and said the all-rounder doesn’t fit intothe playing XI even in the shorter formats if he can’t bowlhis quota of overs.

After undergoing a back surgery in 2019, Hardik hasnot bowled regularly since his comeback and not being ableto offer his all-round skills cost him a place in the IndianTest squad for the UK tour.

Sarandeep, whose tenure ended with the historic tourof Australia earlier this year, was also surprised that a raretalent like Prithvi Shaw did not even make the standbys forthe England tour.

“The selectors’ decision to ignore Hardik for Tests isunderstandable. He has not been able bowl regularly afterhis surgery. I feel he has to bowl 10 overs in ODIs and fourin T20s to be part of the playing XI even in shorter formats.He can’t just play as a batsman,” Sarandeep, a former Indiaspinner, said.

“If Hardik doesn’t bowl, it disturbs the balance of theside hugely. You have to play an extra bowlerbecause of that and someone likeSurykumar Yadav has to miss out. As wesaw in the ODI series against England andAustralia, we can’t play with five bowlingoptions.

“Then team now has other all-roundersin Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, Jaddu isback, Shardul Thakur can also be an all-rounder, he has shown that. They allcan do the job if Hardik can’t bowl.”

Talking about Shaw not beingpicked for the UK tour, Sarandeepsaid it is way too early to sidelinea batsman like him.

“He has the potential to dowhat Sehwag did for India. Youcan’t sideline him so early in hiscareer. He has scored tons of runsin domestic cricket after beingdropped post Australia tour. He hascorrected his technical flaws also andlook how he played in the IPL.

“You have to back a talent likeShaw for that matter.” PTI

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Rafael Nadal ended a run ofthree straight losses to

Alexander Zverev with a con-vincing 6-3, 6-4 win over theGerman on Friday to reach theItalian Open semifinals.

Zverev had beaten Nadal instraight sets at the same stage inMadrid a week ago but their lat-est meeting went the Spaniard’sway from the start.

Aiming for a record-extend-ing 10th Rome title, Nadal racedto a 4-0 lead in the first set andsaved all eight break points hefaced in the second.

“I played more solid thanMadrid. Conditions are differ-ent,” Nadal said, alluding to thefact that the high-altitude of theSpanish capital allowed Zverev todominate more with his serve.“Here are little bit more normalconditions. I was able to controla little bit more.”

It was a stark contrast fromNadal’s long three-set comebackwin over Denis Shapovalov a dayearlier, when the Spaniard savedtwo match points.

Nadal’s semifinal opponentwill be big-serving AmericanReilly Opelka, who reached hisfirst Masters semifinal with a 7-5, 7-6 (2) win over Argentinequalifier Federico Delbonis.

In the women’s tournament,2019 Rome champion KarolinaPliskova rallied past 2017 FrenchOpen winner Jelena Ostapenko4-6, 7-5, 7-6 (1) to set up a semi-final against Petra Martic. Marticeliminated Jessica Pegula 7-5, 6-4 for her biggest result sincerecently hiring former FrenchOpen champion FrancescaSchiavone as her coach.

The only real moment ofconcern for Nadal came when he

tripped over the service linewhile running down a drop shotwhen he was serving for the firstset.

The crowd of about 2,500 letout a collective gasp as Nadaltumbled onto the clay and rolledover onto his back wincing inapparent pain.

After putting Nadal’s replyaway for an easy winner — theSpaniard still managed to get theball over the net — Zverevhopped over the net to check onthe 20-time Grand Slam cham-pion.

Nadal got up, though, dust-ed himself off and served out theset with his back and even head-band still covered in clay.

“Some lines are higher thanthe rest of court, so when youtouch the line it’s dangerous,”Nadal said.

Zverev, the 2017 Romechampion and winner of thetrophy in Madrid last weekend,had numerous opportunities torecover from an early break inthe second set but Nadal steppedup his game each time and closedit out on his first match pointwith a perfectly executed serve-and-volley.

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Former opener WV Raman’sunceremonious ouster fromthe Indian women’s team

head coach’s position has openeda can of worms with both theMadan Lal-headed CricketAdvisory Committee and NeetuDavid-led selection panel comingunder the scanner of BCCI big-wigs.

Raman, who successfullycoached the women’s team to T20World Cup final in Australia andis widely acknowledged as one ofthe best Indian coaches, wasremoved by Lal and Naik’s CAC,which reinstated Ramesh Powar,who was removed from the samepost in 2018.

IS LAL’S COMMITTEE ILLE-GAL?

“Maddi paaji (Madan Lal) cel-ebrated his 70th birthday onMarch 20. The BCCI, in its appealto Supreme Court against some ofthe reforms, doesn’t ask for roll-back of age-cap of 70 years. So howcome Madan Lal was allowed to sitin CAC meeting?” a senior mem-ber asked.

While the BCCI has no inten-tion of using its veto to over-ruleLal and Naik, the board’s top offi-cials are unable to wrap theirheads around as to what led to rec-ommendation of Raman’s removal.

DID RAMAN & NEETU HAVEA FALL-OUT?

It has been confirmed frommultiple sources that Raman hadred-flagged the kind of squad thatDavid, Arati Vaidya, RenuMargrate, Mithu Mukherjee and VKalpana picked for the SouthAfrica series, for which teen bat-ting sensation Shafali Verma wasnot picked for the ODIs and seniorpacer Shikha Pandey was inexplic-

ably dropped.“Do you know what kind of

logic was given for droppingShikha and Shafali? It is beyondcomprehension,” a peeved seniorofficial said.

The selectors said that Pandeywas unfit because she hasn’tworked hard on training duringlockdown and was “overweight”.

“But when they were asked toprove their point, they couldn’tsimply do it,” the official alleged.

In the case of Shafali, herfielding was questioned and putforth as the reason for her non-selection in the ODI team.

“If Raman had a counter-ques-tion that if Shafali’s fielding is aproblem for 50-over cricket, thenit is bigger problem in T20 formatwhere it is more important. Thenhow is she being selected in T20format,” the official asked.

The selection of leg-spinner CPrathyusha and left arm seamerMonica Patel has also been ques-tioned as they didn’t look ready forthe rigours of International crick-et.

Prathyusha gave 60 odd runsin 8 overs in one of the games.

“How did Monica get selectedover Shikha Pandey?” is a questionthat is being asked.

COUNTER POINTS AGAINSTRAMAN

While the majority believethat the stylish southpaw of yester-years has been hard done by, thereare a few critics who feel that therewere some loose ends from his sidetoo.

“Some girls complained that hewill at times switch himself off dur-ing training sessions. Also somegirls felt under-appreciated.Someone like RajeshwariGayakwad was not even oncepraised despite she being the bestbowler during the series,” a mem-

ber from the anti-Raman campsaid.

Another allegation againstRaman is that he unwittingly gave

gloveswoman Nuzhat Parween adebut cap without knowing thatshe has already played both ODIsand T20Is for India.

5����=���(�,�-��,�������� ������ �New Delhi: Ousted Indianwomen’s coach WV Raman haswritten to BCCI president SouravGanguly, alleging that there is a“prima donna culture” in thenational team and it needs tochange.

In the mail that has also beenmarked to National CricketAcademy head Rahul Dravid,Raman has also offered to presenta roadmap for women’s cricket inthe country, if asked.

“As far as I know, Raman hassaid that he has always ‘believed inteam being placed above every-body else, and insisted that no indi-vidual can really be a prima donna’,”a source privy to Raman’s mail said.

The stylish former left-hander’scrisp letter to the two former cap-tains is sure to ruffle a few feath-ers given that it has always been thecoaches who have either steppedaside or sacked following falloutswith players, most notably ODIcaptain Mithali Raj.

While Raman’s letter didn’t

name anyone, it is understood thathe has spoken extensively about thestar culture that prevails in theteam, which he said is probablydoing more harm than good.

It is learnt that Raman haswritten about certain individualswho need to place the team aboveself.

“Raman has asked Dada(Ganguly) that if a past accom-plished performer feels constrainedby this culture, then he (Ganguly)as a former India captain, shouldtake a call on this matter, whetherthe coach is asking for too much,”the source added.

Raman, it is learnt, is dismayedby allegations that he is not proac-tive as a coach. “In case the presi-dent and secretary want to hear hisopinion on allegations about hiswork ethic, he can explain.”

The letter has been copied toDravid because Raman sincerelybelieves that he can contributetowards building a roadmap forIndian women’s cricket. PTI

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New Delhi: Chennai Super Kings battingcoach Michael Hussey has recoveredfrom Covid-19, paving the way for hisreturn to Australia on Sunday butSunrisers Hyderabad’s Wriddhiman Sahahas received conflicting results in twocoronavirus tests, prolonging his isolation.

Saha, who has been named in India’ssquad for the World Test Championshipfinal and the subsequent Test seriesagainst England, is hoping to join thesquad’s bio-bubble in Mumbai on May 25.His inclusion is subject to fitness.

“Hussey has returned with negativeRT-PCR results and has recovered well.

We haven’t yet decided when he is goingto fly back and which route he will take— Maldives or Australia,” CSK CEO KashiViswanathan said on Friday.

In case of Saha, he will continue to bein quarantine after one of his two testscame positive.

“My quarantine period is still notover. Out of the two tests done, 1 was neg-ative and other one came as positive.Otherwise I am doing much better.Requesting everyone not to spread mis-leading stories/information without wholecontext,” the wicketkeeper-batsman post-ed on Twitter. PTI

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Australia captain Tim Paineon Friday stood by his

comments that his team indeedgot distracted by India’s“sideshow” but clarified that hedidn’t ever intend to use it as anexcuse for their home Testseries defeat in January.

A day after receiving onlineflak from Indian fans for his“side show” comments onIndian team, Paine clarifiedhimself while chatting withAdam Gilchrist in a podcast.

“I was asked a number of

things, and one of those wastalking about the challenges ofplaying against India. One of

them is the distraction they cancreate,” Paine said in the Gillyand Goss podcast on Friday.

“There was a lot of talk thatthey weren’t going to Brisbane.They’re always changing glovesand bringing out physios andall that can get on your nerves.Just said that was one of thethings that probably distractedme and took my eye of the ballat times.”

The 36-year-old Paine hadsaid that his team was distract-ed by the Indian team’s “nig-gling” during the epoch-mak-ing Test series early this year

which the visitors rallied towin.

Soon Paine was trolled onTwitter by Indian fans.

“I did say that they simplyoutplayed us and that theydeserved to win but they leftthat one out. The Indian fanshave been slamming me onsocial media. They say that I’mmaking excuses again but it’s allgood fun,” Paine said.

“I certainly wasn’t makingany excuses. I was asked aboutsome of the challenges of thesummer, and I said that wasone of them for me,” he added.

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