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VIJAYAWADA, SUNDAY, MARCH 20, 2022; PAGES 10+16 `5

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RNI No.APENG/2018/764698

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VIJAYAWADA WEATHER

ALMANAC

Updated: MARCH 19, 2022 5:00 PM

Forecast: Mostly sunnyTemp: 36

oc

Humidity: 49%Sunrise: 6:15 AMSunset: 6:21 PM

Month & Paksham:

Tithi: Dwitiya: Mar 19 11:37 AM to

Mar 20 10:06 AM AM

Tritiya: Mar 20 10:06 AM

to Mar 21 08:20 AM

Nakshatram:

Chitra: Mar 19 11:38 PM

to Mar 20 10:40 PM

Swati: Mar 20 10:40 PM

to Mar 21 09:31 PM

Rahukalam: 4:53 PM to 6:23 PM

Yamagandam: 12:23 PM to 1:53 PM

Varjyam: 04:00 AM to 05:31 AM

Gulika: 3:23 PM to 4:53 PM

Amritakalam: 04:31 PM to 06:04 PM

Abhijit Muhurtham: 11:59 AM

to 12:47 PM

TTOODDAAYY

KCR on Delhi mission,to meet Modi on ‘paddy’

Shah, Kejriwalto lock hornsin Telangana

Indo-Japanese bilateralties poised to get a fillipPM holds talks with visiting Japanese counterpart

Covid cases on rise

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

Tension prevailed in Nuzvid onSaturday as MLA Meka VenkataPratap Apparao and TDP leaderMudraboina Venkateswara Raogot down for a debate on Saturdayat the Pedda Gandhi BommaCentre in the town on the develop-ment of the constituency.

YSRCP MLA Meka PratapApparao claimed that the IIIT wasestablished under the rule of YSRajasekhara Reddy and that theother development works weretaken up under the YSRCP andthe previous Congress govern-ments.

Contending his view, TDPleader MuddaraboinaVenkateswara Rao alleged thatthere is no development in theconstituency since YSRCP came to

power. Both leaders levelled alle-gations against each other's party.Finally, they agreed to a debate onSaturday and their supportersinstalled LED screens. Theyappealed to the supporters tocome to the venue.

The Nuzvid police said there

was no permission for the debatein the town. The MLA was putunder house arrest since morning.The police searched for the TDPleader and Venkateswara Rao tillevening. Surprisingly, he appearednear the Pedda Gandhi Bomma inthe evening.

The police immediately tookVenkateswara Rao into custody.The police made it clear severaltimes during the day that therewas no permission for the debatein the town as it might lead to lawand order breakdown. Over 400police personnel were deployed inand around Nuzvid.

Apparao said Muddaraboinacontested for the Nuzvid MLAseat three times but had neverwon the elections. He alleged theTDP leader, who had come fromOngole, is a non-local.

Objecting to his comments,Mudraboina said political leadersgenerally migrate from one placeto another. He said there is nosubstance in local and non-localdichotomy in politics as anybodycan contest from anywhere in thecountry.

AP govt can no longer surviveon loans, says Kishan ReddyPNS n KADAPA

Expressing concern over the dete-riorating financial position ofAndhra Pradesh, Union Ministerfor Tourism G Kishan Reddy hassaid that the Andhra Pradesh gov-ernment can no longer survive onloans and it is going to face a severefinancial crisis in the coming days.

The BJP organised a massivepublic meeting christened'Rayalaseema Ranabheri' here onSaturday.

Addressing the meeting, UnionMinister Kishan Reddy said thatthe AP government would beunable to pay even the salaries ofgovernment employees in the com-ing days.

“The debt-ridden AP govern-ment cannot carry out any majordevelopment works, maintain

schools and construct projects.The government can not con-struct and repair roads.

How long does the AP govern-ment survive on loans?” he asked,adding that the AP government is

now also searching for new loansand it would continue to do so inthe future as well, he said.

Kishan Reddy said that manyChief Ministers of Andhra Pradeshfrom Rayalaseema includingNeelam Sanjiv Reddy, YSRajasekhar Reddy, ChandrababuNaidu and now YS Jagan MohanReddy ruled the State but theRayalaseema region remainedbackward,” he deplored.

He said that the successive gov-ernments had neglected the irriga-tion projects in the backwardRayalaseema region, regrettingthat Rayalaseema now looks like adesert without water sources, nosources to generate employmentand steps not taken to eradicatepoverty in the region.

‘Rayalaseema threw up many CMs, but none developed the region’

Union Minister for Tourism G Kishan Reddy addressing the ‘Rayalaseema Ranabheri’ meetingorganised by BJP in Kadapa on Saturday

Rs 1,114.93 cr budget for VMCPNS n VIJAYAWADA

The Vijayawada MunicipalCorporation (VMC) Council onSaturday approved the annualbudget for the year 2022-23 with anestimated revenue of Rs.1062.35crore and an estimated expenditureof Rs.1114.93 crore.

Mayor Rayana Bhagyalakshmichaired the meeting. The VMCestimated the revenue at Rs.691.05crore, the capital income of Rs308.17 crore and other deposits andadvances of Rs 63.13 crore. Thetotal revenue is estimated at Rs1062.35 crore. The opening balancewas Rs 99.02 crore.

The VMC estimated the expen-diture at Rs.1114.93 crore. The rev-enue expenditure is estimated at Rs596.20 crore, capital expenditure atRs.437.47 crore, loan repaymentsRs.18.11 crore, deposits andadvances estimated at Rs.63.13crore. The closing balance is esti-mated at Rs.46.44 crore.

Presenting the budget, MayorRayana Bhagyalakshmi saidVijayawada ranked third in the

country in Swachh Survekshanamong the cities with more than 10lakh population. She said the VMCis trying to get the first rank in thecountry in sanitation and hygiene.She said the VMC is developinginfrastructure facilities and hasbeen trying to ensure the supply ofpotable drinking water to alldenizens in the city.

The main opposition TDP has

protested in the Council on the col-lection of user charges on garbagecollection. The TDP and the CPMhad been opposing the collectionof user charges on garbage collec-tion in the city. The OppositionTDP staged a protest in the coun-cil on a collection of user chargesfor garbage collection.

Vijayawada Mayor Rayana Bhagyalakshmi addressing the VMC Budget meeting in theCouncil Hall on Saturday

AP Inter, SSC examsschedule revisedPNS n VIJAYAWADA

The revised Andhra PradeshBoard of IntermediateExamination schedule (Theory)has been released and the exam-inations will begin from May 6.The BIE schedule was revised inview of the clashing dates of theall-India JEE main exam.

According to a press releaseissued by BIE Secretary MVSeshagiri Babu, the board willnow hold its first year inter exam-inations from May 6 between 9.00am and 12:00 noon.

Cheap liquor brands were givenpermits during TDP rule: KolusuPNS n VIJAYAWADA

YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) MLAKolusu Parthasaradhy on Saturdayaccused the Opposition of mislead-ing the public for political gains, byfalsely propagating liquor sales todefame the government, althoughthe current government didn'tmake any changes to liquor man-ufacturing policy or provided anyfresh permits.

Addressing a press conference atthe party central office,Parthasarathy slammedChandrababu Naidu for mislead-ing people with his cheap politicsand asserted that the governmenthad not given permits for any newdistilleries or breweries since 2019.

He said that all brands of liquorwere given permits during theChandrababu Naidu term in 2018,

including the President Medal,Governor Reserve, Napoleon,Seventh Heaven, and yet theOpposition was carrying ona Goebbel's propagandato tarnish the State’simage.

He said that noother governmenthad given such alarge number of per-mits like the previousTDP government.Most of the distilleriesbelong to TDP leadersAyyannapatrudu, SPY Reddy,and Adikesavula Naidu, he said andadded that the TDP had no moralright to talk about liquor becausethey had extensively promotedand set up wine shops all over theState.

The MLA said that the current

government is committed to pro-hibition and so brought down thenumber of liquor shops to 2934 and

closed all the permit rooms,belt shops, and has been

implementing strin-gent policies to tack-le this menace.Through the SpecialE n f o r c e m e n tBureau (SEB) in thelast two years

between May 2020 toMarch 2022, a total of

92,766 cases were bookedand 69,178 people were arrest-

ed. Besides, 12,40,635 liters ofspurious liquor was seized. It wasshameful for Naidu to falsely accusethe government of promoting alco-hol menace, while it was their min-ister who had promoted beer as ahealth drink, he added.

NAVEENA GHANATE n HYDERABAD

After the standoff at the inaugu-ral of the Statue of Equality,Chief Minister K. ChandrasekharRao will leave for NewDelhi on Monday andmeet “the PrimeMinister todemand the pro-curement ofpaddy.”

The CM and adelegation ofMinisters will bemeeting the PrimeMinister and UnionMinisters.

The CM has decided to hold ameeting of the TRS LegislatureParty at the Telangana Bhavan onMarch 21 (Monday) at 11.30 am.

The Chief Minister has direct-ed all MLAs, MLCs, StateExecutive Committee Members,District Presidents, ZPChairpersons, Presidents of

DCCBs, DCMS and DistrictPresidents of Raithu BandhuSamithies to attend the meeting.

Chief Minister KCR said thatthe meeting will chalk out a planto hold protests demanding that

the Centre should buy yasan-gi paddy from the State.

TRS MPs in the LokSabha and Rajya Sabhawill stage protests inline with the protestsin Telangana. TheCM said that theCentre is procuring

100 per cent paddyfrom Punjab, and

protests will continuedemanding that the FCI should

procure 100 per cent of the paddyproduced from Telangana too.The CM said that it is a life anddeath issue for the farmers ofTelangana and that the TRS is gear-ing up for an intense struggleregarding the procurement ofpaddy. He requested all invitees toparticipate in the programme.

PNS n NEW DELHI

Prime Minister Narendra Modi onSaturday held "productive" talkswith his Japanese counterpart FumioKishida on a wide range of issuesincluding ways to further boostbilateral economic and cultural ties.Kishida, accompanied by a high-level delegation, arrived here ataround 3:40 pm on his first visit toIndia as the head of the Japanese gov-ernment.

"Advancing friendship with Japan.Prime Ministers @narendramodiand @kishida230 held productivetalks in New Delhi. Both leaders dis-cussed ways to boost economic andcultural linkages between the twocountries," Modi's office tweeted.

External Affairs MinistrySpokesperson Arindam Bagchi saidthe agenda of the summit talksbetween Modi and Kishida includ-

ed multifaceted bilateral ties as wellas regional and global issues ofmutual interest.

"PM @narendramodi welcomedJapan's PM @kishida230 for the 14thIndia-Japan Annual Summit.Discussions on our multifacetedbilateral ties, regional & global issuesof mutual interest on the agenda," hetweeted.

According to a media advisoryissued by the external affairs min-istry, the Japanese prime minister isscheduled to depart from India at 8am on Sunday. Kishida is travellingto Cambodia after concluding hisIndia visit.

Before leaving for India, Kishidasaid Russia's invasion of Ukraine isunacceptable and such actionsshould never be allowed in the Indo-Pacific region.

PNS n NEW DELHI

India's COVID-19 tally increasedto 4,30,06,080 on Saturday with2,075 fresh infections, while theactive cases declined further to27,802, according to Union healthministry data

The death toll due to the viraldisease climbed to 5,16,352 with 71fresh fatalities, the data updated at8 am stated

The active cases comprise 0.06per cent of the total infections. Thenational COVID-19 recovery ratewas recorded at 98.73 per cent, thehealth ministry said

A reduction of 1,379?cases hasbeen recorded in the activeCOVID-19 caseload in a span of24 hours

The daily positivity rate was

recorded at 0.56?per cent and theweekly positivity rate stood at0.41 per cent, the ministry said

The last 24 hours saw a totalof?3,70,514?COVID-19?tests beingconducted. India has so far con-ducted over?78.22 crore tests, itsaid

PNS n HYDERABAD

The political battle betweenUnion Home Minister Amit Shahand Delhi Chief Minister ArvindKejriwal is reaching Telanganasoon from New Delhi.

The BJP after its victory in theAssembly elections in four statesand AAP (Aam Aadmi Party)after its sensational victory inPunjab are now focussing onTelangana.

While the BJP leaders are try-ing to bring Union Home minis-ter Amit Shah to TS, AAP lead-ers are trying to bring DelhiChief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

Telangana BJP President BandiSanjay Kumar is launching thesecond leg of his Praja SangramaYatra on April 14.

No Modi, no seers forYadadri inaugural SNCN ACHARYULUn HYDERABAD

Contrary to the decision of ChiefMinister K. Chandrasekhar Raothe inauguration of YadadriTemple will be held in a simple waywithout Prime Minister NarendraModi and Tridandi Chinna JeeyerSwamy.

The CM’s dream to build amagnificent temple in Telanganathat can match Tirumala, India'srichest temple in neighbouringAndhra Pradesh, has becometrue with the completion of themakeover of the famous YadadriTemple at an expense of aroundRs 2,000 crore.

m m 2,075 fresh cases , 71 deaths reported

Meka-Mudraboina spat leads to tension in Nuzvid

Pak PM Imran's partyissues show-cause

notices to dissidents

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran

Khan's party on Saturdayissued show-cause notices

to its dissident lawmakers for allegeddefection and sought an explanation

from them by March 26 as to whythey may not be declared defectors

and disqualified as a member of theNational Assembly. Nearly two dozen

dissident lawmakers of the rulingPakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf party recentlycame out in the open ahead of voting

on a no-confidence motion againstPrime Minister Khan, with the

government accusing oppositionparties of horse-trading. The

disgruntled lawmakers have beenstaying at Sindh House in Islamabad

which is a property of the Sindhgovernment and run by the Pakistan

Peoples Party (PPP).

Chinese envoy saysNATO shouldn't

expand east

AChinese diplomat says NATO

should stick to what heclaimed was a promise not

to expand eastward. In a speech onSaturday, Chinese Vice Foreign

Minister Le Yucheng criticised the far-reaching Western sanctions imposed

on Russia after it invaded Ukraine andsaid the root cause of the war in

Ukraine lies in the Cold War mentalityand power politics. Echoing a Kremlintalking point, the Chinese envoy said if

NATO's enlargement goes further, itwould be approaching the outskirts ofMoscow' where a missile could hit the

Kremlin within seven or eightminutes."

Modi gifts JapanesePM Fumio Kishida a

‘Krishna Pankhi'

Prime Minister Narendra Modi

gifted his Japanesecounterpart Fumio Kishida,

who is on an official visit to India, a'Krishna Pankhi', a sandalwoodartefact made in Rajasthan withintricate work with its windows

depicting different poses of LordKrishna, epitomising love, compassion

and tenderness. Sharing details,official sources noted that the 'Pankhi'

is intricately carved with traditionaltools and has a hand carved peacock

figure at top, India's national bird. Ithas a small 'ghungaroo' (small

traditional bells) on its edges whichmove with the flow of wind and hasfour concealed windows with more

intricate carvings inside.

In brief

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VIJAYAWADA | SUNDAY | MARCH 20, 2022 vijayawada 02

EGG RATES

VIJAYAWADA 385

VISAKHAPATNAM 400

HYDERABAD 367

RREETTAAIILL PPRRIICCEE `̀33..8855

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Dressed/With Skin `260

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(IN VIJAYAWADA

The now-controversialGO 111, issued onMarch 8, 1996, follow-

ing the recommendations ofan expert committee, wasintended to protect the catch-ment areas of the HimayatSagar and Osman Sagar lakes,which were then the mainsources of drinking water toHyderabad.

This order prohibited set-ting up polluting industries,major hotels, residentialcolonies, or other establish-ments that could possiblyincrease pollution load in 84revenue villages falling in thecatchment of the lakes up to10 km from the full tank levelof the two lakes.

Additional restrictions interms of earmarking 60% areain a residential layout (ambi-

guity about the number ofhouseholds) as open spaces;and 90% of the total geo-graphical area as recreationand conservation use in themaster plan were imposed.

Thus, this GO could beconsidered as a major envi-ronmental initiative of itstime addressing conservationof land and water resources ofa given geographical area.

On the flip side of it, thesaid order, or any subsequentones, failed to distinguishbetween upstream and down-stream areas, to identify andstrengthen the institutionsand enforcement mecha-nisms, and to prescribe penalactions against the violators.

That this GO 111 has pro-tected the catchment area oftwo lakes and conserved a sig-

nificant part of the ecosystemof Hyderabad Metro City is amyth perpetuated for longthough with laudable objec-tives but pathetic policy pre-scription.

To be charitable, imple-mentation of GO 111 could atbest be termed as partial suc-cess serving limited objectives.

As large numbers of unau-thorised structures and

encroachments have mush-roomed in the protected zoneafter the issue of this GO, itwould be sufficient to say thatthis policy deterrent wasgrossly inadequate to containthe counter forces of econom-ic and speculative gains like-ly to be accrued by its flagrantviolation.

The recent announcementmade by Chief Minister K

Chandrasekhar Rao to reviewthe gamut of issues concern-ing GO 111 is not a day toosoon. Instead of indulging inan acrimonious debate among

protagonists of environmentand development, it is time toput our heads together forfinding appropriate solutions.

One of the inadequacies ofGO 111 is that it lacks thenumbers of ambient stan-dards of land, air, and waterpollution. A blanket ban -sansany numbers of qualitativeand quantitative norms -- isunscientific and needs to becorrected.

What is the sanctity of cov-ering the catchment of thelakes up to 10 km from fulltank level? Why not 5 or 15km? Why the same purposecould not be achieved byfocusing on various streamsdepending on their degreesbringing water to lakes? Suchquestions need to be deliber-ated up on in consultation

with all the stakeholders.Technology is now available tohelp us in finding the solu-tions. This article is written toignite a healthy discussion formaintaining a delicate balancebetween environmental anddevelopmental concerns thatin fact, complement eachother. Just as every policy ofthe government needs to bereviewed after a passage oftime, it is appropriate toreview GO 111 after 26 yearsof its coming intoexistence.The end objective ofconserving quality and quan-tity of lake water remainssame. The only thing is howto achieve these goals.

The revised order shouldhave better clarity of objec-tives, scientific and effectiveways to achieve the goal, a

robust compliance mecha-nism needs to be put in place.The experiences gained else-where confirm that choosinga market-based compliancemechanism is far more effec-tive than a regulatory system.

To conclude, completeelimination of GO 111 will setan alarm bell in environmen-talists' camp, while maintain-ing status quo is a losingproposition. Therefore, itwould be appropriate to issuea revised comprehensive orderbased on the learnings ofimplementation of GO 111.

A significant amount ofgroundwork has been done inthis regard in consultationwith reputed national agenciesand that needs to be proper-ly documented in an imple-mentation framework.

DR SHAILENDRA JOSHI, Advisor of Telangana govt and former

chief secretary of Telangana

That this GO 111 has protected thecatchment area of two lakes andconserved a significant part of theecosystem of Hyderabad Metro City is amyth perpetuated for long though withlaudable objectives but pathetic policyprescription.

GO 111: Has it outlived its purpose? Time for a relook

AP Finance dept seeksdata on pending duesPNS n VIJAYAWADA

With senior bureaucrats of theAndhra Pradesh governmentmaking a beeline to the HighCourt in recent days in con-tempt cases and facing flakover non-clearance of pendingbills, the State Finance depart-ment has asked all otherdepartments to forthwith fur-nish complete data on pend-ing payments.

Once the departments sub-mit the data, the matter will bediscussed with CM and CS,according to Special ChiefSecretary (Finance) S S Rawat,who has told the departmentheads to treat the matter as"urgent".

Though Rawat issued a sim-ilar memo to all departmentsearlier this month for furnish-ing data by March 11, only the

Panchayat Raj and RuralDevelopment Departmentshared the details.

He issued a fresh note onFriday setting March 21 as thefresh deadline for depart-ments to comply with theorder.

The Finance Departmenthas classified the cases into sixcategories with contempt casestopping the list.

In recent days, many top

bureaucrats, including thestate Chief Secretary, weresummoned to the AP HighCourt for personal appearanceand pulled up over non-clear-ance of pending bills runninginto hundreds of crores ofrupees.

The other day, a specialchief secretary-rank officerappeared before three judgesin five contempt cases, where-in payment of retirement ben-

efits to government staff wasinvolved.

"In our department, every-thing has been cleared but thepayment is stuck with theFinance Department. Yet, asthe department head, I had toface the court, the SpecialChief Secretary pointed out.

The senior bureaucrat wasnot alone as almost everydepartment head has beenfacing the same situation.

The Special Chief Secretary(Finance) was pulled up by theHigh Court on several occa-sions, mainly over non-pay-ment of MGNREGA dues.

Payments are not clearedeven after the relevant billswere approved and uploadedon the government'sComprehensive FinancialManagement System (CFMS)portal.

Once the departments submit thedata, the matter will be discussedwith CM and CS, according to SpecialChief Secretary (Finance) S S Rawat,who has told the department headsto treat the matter as "urgent".

APCRDA to handover developed plotsto Amaravati ryots PNS n VIJAYAWADA

The Andhra Pradesh CapitalRegion Development Authority(APCRDA) on Saturday wrote let-ters to the Amaravati farmers ask-ing them to register the plots allo-cated to them in return for thelands given by them to the govern-ment under the Land PoolingScheme (LPS). Recently, the APHigh Court instructed the AP gov-ernment to hand over the devel-oped plots to the Amaravati farm-ers. The letter from the APCRDAappeared as if it was the response

to the high court direction whichhad earlier asked the governmentto hand over the plots to the farm-ers in three months. It furtherasked the government to developthe capital city in six months.

In the letters, the APCRDAasked LPS farmers to registertheir plots by March 31. The let-ter also asked the farmers to visitthe APCRDA office and start theregistration process. The APCR-DA had also given the contactnumbers of 08645-244774, 80645-244778 for the farmers to get theirdoubts clarified.

8 killed in bus mishapon AP-K'taka borderPNS n TIRUPATI

In a ghastly road accident,eight persons were killed andmany others injured when aprivate bus overturned nearPavagada in Karnataka'sTumkur district in Karnatakastate on Saturday.

Police said that as many as12 ambulances were deployedto shift the injured to hospitals,Home Minister of Karnataka

Araga Jnanendra told themedia at Shivamogga.

Superintendent of PoliceRahul Kumar Shahapurwadsaid rash driving was sus-pected to be the reason for theaccident.

The bus was carrying some60 passengers, including somewho were seated on its roof.The toll might rise as thecondition of some of theinjured is said to be critical.

AP govt can no longer survive...Continued from page 1

Even after several decades ofIndependence, the regionremains backward, he lament-ed. He demanded ChiefMinister YS Jagan MohanReddy to announce what hehad done for the developmentof the Rayalaseema regionand AP during the last threeyears.

Taking a dig at ChiefMinister YS Jagan MohanReddy, the Union Ministercriticised that he had madeAndhra Pradesh as ‘AppulaAndhra Pradesh’. KishanReddy said that the Centralgovernment has been releas-ing funds for the constructionof the Polavaram project. Heassured that the BJP ledCentre is committed to the

development of theRayalaseema region andinformed that national insti-tutions were established inTirupati, Kadapa andAnantapur districts.

The Tourism Ministerpromised to develop theGandikota fort in Kadapadistrict as a tourist place,adding that funds were allo-cated for the development ofAmaravati temple, Srisailam,and Simhachalam temple. Hesaid that the BJP is againstdynastic politics and it wouldnot encourage them. Healleged that cases were beingbooked against those whojoined the BJP in AP.

BJP state president SomuVeerraju said that the YSRCPregime is resorting to vindic-tive politics and vowed to face

it fittingly. He alleged thatminor irrigation and majorirrigation projects wereignored in AP and develop-ment had come to halt. TheBJP would continue its strug-gle till the pending irrigationprojects were completed.

Former minister CAdinarayana Reddy allegedthat the YCP governmenttried to implicate him in YSVivekananda Murder cases.The CBI exposed the hand ofMP Avinash Reddy, BhaskarReddy, and others in the mur-der of Vivekananda Reddy.

MPs Y Sujana Chowdary,CM Ramesh, GVL NarasimhaRao, TG Venkatesh, BJPnational secretar ySatyakumar and national gen-eral secretary D Purandeswarialso spoke.

Indo-Japanesebilateral ties poised...Continued from page 1

The Japanese prime minis-ter said he will exchangeviews on the situation inUkraine with leaders ofIndia and Cambodia.

Prime Minister Modi hadspoken to PM Kishida onphone in October 2021soon af ter he assumedoffice. Both sides expresseda desire to further strength-en the special strategic andglobal partnership.

This year also marks the70th anniversary of the

establishment of diplomat-ic relations between thetwo countries.

T h e an nu a l s u m m itbetween Prime MinisterModi and his then Japanesecounterpart Shinzo Abewas cancelled in December2019 in Guwahati in thewake of massive protestsrocking the Assam capitalover the amended citizen-ship law.

The summit could not beheld in 2020 as well as in2021 primarily due to theCOVID-19 pandemic.

Rs 1,114.93...Continued from page 1

The TDP corporators havestrongly condemned the col-lection of user charges andalleged that the budget hadneglected the welfare of weak-er sections and the Minorities.

The TDP alleged that thecorporation budget was pre-sented in violation of munic-ipal law. No developmentalactivities were taken up by theruling YSRCP in Vijayawadaduring the last three years.The corporation failed to getfunds from the Central andState governments, they said.

AP Inter, SSC exams schedule...Continued from page 1

Following is the revised sched-ule for first year: May 6 –Second Language Paper-1;May 9 – English Paper-1; May11 – Mathematics Paper-1A,Botany Paper-1 and CivicsPaper-1; May 13 –Mathematics Paper-1B,Zoology Paper-1, HistoryPaper-1; May 16 – PhysicsPaper-1, Economics Paper-1;May 18 – Chemistry Paper-1,Commerce Paper-1, SociologyPaper-1 and Fine Arts, MusicPaper-1; May 20 – PublicAdministration Paper-1, LogicPaper-1, Bridge CourseMathematics Paper-1 (forBiPC students) and May 23 –Modern Language Paper-1 andGeography Paper-1.

The revised second yearinter exams schedule is: May 7– Second Language Paper-II;

May 10 – English Paper-II;May 12 – Mathematics Paper-IIA, Botany Paper-II, CivicsPaper-II; May 14 –Mathematics Paper-IIB,Zoology Paper-II and HistoryPaper-II; May 17 – PhysicsPaper-II and EconomicsPaper-II; May 19 – ChemistryPaper-II, Commerce Paper-II, Sociology Paper-II and FineArts, Music Paper-II; May 21– Public AdministrationPaper-II, Logic Paper-II,Bridge Course MathematicsPaper-II (for BiPC students)and May 24 – ModernLanguage Paper-II andGeography Paper-II.

Similarly, the AP govern-ment has revised the scheduleof Class X examinations fromApril 27 to May 9. The Boardof Secondary Educationreleased the schedule for theSecondary School Certificate

Public Examinations here.

The schedule is as fol-lows:

April 27-First Language(Group-A); April 28-SecondLanguage; April 29-English;May 2-Mathematics from9.30 am to 12.45 pm; May 4-Physical Science and May 5-Biological Science from 9.30am to 12.15 pm; May 6-SocialStudies from 9.30 am to 12.45pm; May 7-First LanguagePaper-II from 9.30 am to11.15 am and OSSC MainLanguage Paper-I (Sanskrit,Arabic and Persian) from9.30 am to12.45pm and May9-OSSC Main LanguagePaper-II (Sanskrit, Arabic andPersian) from 9.30 am to12.45 pm and SSC VocationalCourse (Theory) from 9.30am to 11.30 am.

Covid cases on rise...Continued from page 1

The number of people whohave recuperated from thedisease surged to 4,24,61,926.The case fatality rate wasrecorded at?1.20 per cent, itadded

The cumulative COVID-19 vaccine doses adminis-tered in the country so farunder the nationwide vacci-nation drive have exceeded181.04?crore

India's COVID-19 tallyhad crossed the 20-lakh markon August 7, 2020, 30 lakh onAugust 23, 40 lakh onSeptember 5 and 50 lakh onSeptember 16. It went past 60lakh on September 28, 70lakh on October 11, crossed80 lakh on October 29, 90lakh on November 20 andsurpassed the one-crore markon December 19

India crossed the grim

milestone of two crore onMay 4, 2021, and three croreon June 23

The 71 new fatalitiesinclude 59 from Kerala

Of the total 5,16,352 deathsreported so far in the coun-try, 1,43,765 were fromMaharashtra, 67,197 fromKerala, 40,033 fromKarnataka, 38,025 from TamilNadu, 26,145 from Delhi,23,492 from Uttar Pradeshand 21,193 from West Bengal

The health ministr ystressed that more than 70per cent of the deathsoccurred due to comorbidi-ties

"Our figures are being rec-onciled with the IndianCouncil of MedicalResearch," the ministry saidon its website, adding thatstate-wise distribution of fig-ures is subject to further ver-ification and reconciliation.

No Modi, no seers...Continued from page 1

The CM had plans to conductthe re-inauguration of thetemple in a big way. In fact, theCM had invited PrimeMinister Modi to inauguratethe temple when he met hima few months ago.

Tridandi Chinna JeeyerSwamy also had a role in re-developing the temple as hewas appointed as Advisor inAgama Sastra.

But in the changed circum-stances the temple is going tore-inaugurated on March 28without Prime MinisterNarendra Modi and TridandiChinna Jeeyer Swamy.Devotees will be allowed tohave darshan on the sameday.

In the changed politicalscenario the CM is now a bit-ter enemy of Prime MinisterModi. At the same time thedifferences arose recentlybetween the CM and TridandiChinna Jeeyer Swamy.

In addition to this, the com-ments made by Chinna JeeyarSwamy on

Sammakka–Saralaka havebecome a big controversy inTelangana making it a senti-mental issue.

TPCC President RevanthReddy had demanded thatChief Minister KCR shouldremove Chinna Jeeyer Swamyfrom the post of Advisor inAgama Sastra.

Due to all this the CMdecided to conduct the inau-gural function in a simpleway. But the government hasdecided to inaugurate the tem-ple at the ‘muhurtam’ fixed byChinna Jeeyer Swamy.

According to the schedulereleased by officials the week-long MahakumbhaSamprokshana will start onMarch 21 on the temple’spremises in Yadagirigutta.

Meanwhile, reacting to aquestion at a media conferenceat Vijayawada on FridayChinna Jeeyer Swamy said, “Iwill give advice if anyone asks.I will go if I am invited (forYadadri Temple inauguration).If not I will enjoy watching it.I have no differences withanyone.”

Continued from page 1

At the same time as per thedirections of the AAP leader-ship, AAP TelanganaConvenor Indira Sobhan isalso starting her padayatra onApril 14 on the occasion ofAmbedkar’s birthday.

Telangana AAP ConvenorIndira Sobhan said AAP’ssouthern states in-chargeSomanath Bharathi and herselfwill conduct a padayatra acrossthe State covering all the 119Assembly constituencies. Shesaid AAP supremo Delhi ChiefMinister Arvind Kejriwal islikely to inaugurate the paday-atra.

At the same time, BJP lead-ers are saying that UnionHome Minister Amit Shah islikely to come to Telangana fora two-day visit on April 14. TheBJP leaders said that AmitShah will inaugurate thepadayatra of Sanjay at Jangaonand address a huge public

meeting there on the same day.If Amit Shah and Arvind

Kejriwal come to the State onthe same day, that is, on April14, it will become a big day inTelangana politics.

The victory in the recentAssembly elections held infive states has given a push tothe leaders of the BJP and AAPin Telangana. Compared toAAP, the BJP has some base inTelangana and both parties aredepending on young voters.

Both the BJP and AAP lead-erships are of the opinion thateven if they do not come topower in the coming Assembly

elections it will help to build astrong base in the State whichcan be converted to power inthe 2028 Assembly elections.

The coming Assembly elec-tions are very crucial for theTRS, the Congress and theBJP. While the ruling TRS istrying for a hat-trick theCongress is trying to come topower after a gap of 10 yearsand the BJP is trying to test itsluck.

In the multi-corner contestanti-government votes willget split among oppositionparties and this is giving con-fidence to the TRS.

Shah, Kejriwal to lockhorns in Telangana...

VIJAYAWADA | SUNDAY | MARCH 20, 2022 vijayawada 03

ACA to hostCK NayuduCricket Trophy

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

Former minister and TDPleader Nakka Ananda Babu onSaturday urged the Union gov-ernment to intervene and pre-vent the ruling YSRCP leadersfrom continuing their massiveliquor frauds in AndhraPradesh.

Ananda Babu asserted thatthe TDP would approach thecourts to intensify its agitationagainst Chief Minister JaganMohan Reddy and his party'scheap liquor and illicit liquordens.

Addressing a press confer-ence here, the TDP leadertermed it shameful on the partof the CM not to implementphased prohibition even three

years after coming to power.The ruling YCP leaders werefilling their personal treasurieswhile countless families weregetting destroyed due to theliquor menace.

Ananda Babu said that theChief Minister and his partymen were looting Rs. 16,500 Crevery year by selling cheapliquor, illicit liquor and drugs.The CM has set new targets toincrease this looting to Rs.20,000 Cr this year. Whereas,the overall liquor revenue tar-get was just Rs. 6,000 Cr dur-ing the Chandrababu regime.

The TDP leader stronglyobjected to the YCPGovernment mortgaging theliquor income for over 20 yearsfor getting Rs. 25,000 Cr of

loans. Cheap liquor sold at Rs60 to Rs. 70 per bottle duringthe TDP regime but now itsrates went up to Rs. 250 to Rs.270. Like nowhere else in thecountry, substandard and poorquality liquor brands werebeing sold in the State.

Ananda Babu termed it asunfortunate that countryarrack, which was stoppedover 40 years ago, was broughtback under the Jagan regime.This had become a cottage

industry for the ruling partyleaders. Over 40 people dieddue to this liquor menace atJangareddygudem recently.Jagan Reddy should explainwhy the SEB filed 12 FIRs andarrested 22 persons if the illic-it liquor fatalities were natur-al deaths.

The TDP leader said that allthe harmful cheap liquor beingsold in AP now was beingbought from the distilleries ofCM's benamis. Establishedcompanies' brands were notbeing sold in the State. All theincome, coming from J-brands,was reaching the Tadepallitreasury by evening. TheCentre should order a judicialinquiry into cheap liquorbrands of the YSRCP.

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

TDP national general secre-tary Nara Lokesh on Saturdayslammed Chief Minister Y.S.Jagan Mohan Reddy for 'fail-ing' to prevent the flow of illic-it liquor in his ownPulivendula assembly con-stituency in the Kadapa dis-trict.

Lokesh said the officialsregistered over 300 illicit liquorcases in Pulivendula alonesince January 2021. Withoutany conscience, the ChiefMinister was telling utter liesthat there was noillicit liquor any-where in theState.

In a statementhere, Lokeshridiculed thequestion thatJagan Reddy soinnocently askedwhether it waspossible to brewillicit liquor in ahighly populatedtown like Jangareddygudem.How would the Chief Ministerreact now on illicit liquordens found in his own assem-bly segment?

Nara Lokesh recalled howthe CM boasted of hisGovernment's huge achieve-ment for making it possible tobring fish and prawn toPulivendula. He expressed aweand surprise at that time thatnobody would have everdreamt or imagined aboutfish and prawn coming toPulivendula town. Now, illic-it liquor dens had also come to

the CM's hometown rightunder his nose.

The TDP MLC assertedthat the YCP regime could nolonger continue its misinfor-mation campaigns on illicitand cheap liquor deaths.Doubts were arising whetherJagan Reddy had any cursethat his head would breakinto thousand pieces if heuttered even a single truth.The ruling party would not beable to cheat the people forev-er. The CM cannot betray allthe people all the time.

Lokesh termed it as a 'mis-fortune' that thepeople of AndhraPradesh had got aChief Ministerwho had no socialresponsibility atall. Lakhs of poorfamilies were suf-fering heavilybecause of theh i g h l y - p r i c e dharmful liquorbrands. Manydrinkers were

falling sick with multipleorgan failures and eventuallydying.

Nara Lokesh advised theChief Minister and his MLAsto open their eyes at least now.The poor drinkers were turn-ing to illicit liquor as they wereunable to pay high rates for J-brands of cheap liquor.Consequently, they were los-ing their lives. If illicit liquorwas causing deaths instantly,the cheap liquor brands werekilling the drinkers slowly byspoiling their body organslike liver, kidneys, etc.

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

On the occasion of WorldSparrow Day on March 20, theZoo Education Team of theIndira Gandhi Zoological Park,Visakhapatnam, organised anawareness programme on spar-rows for Zilla Parishad HighSchool students, Yendada.

The students were madeaware of the importance ofsparrows to the environmentand how to protect them. TheZoo education team explainedhow sparrows take their foodand contribute to the growth oftrees in the environment.Sparrows do their part to con-tribute to the ecological bal-ance and all the children needto come forward to protectsparrows from this early age.

The Zoo education teamexplained to the students howto make items that provide

food and water for sparrowswith used plastic bottles.Sparrow nests made of clay and

bird feeders were provided tothe students on behalf of theIndira Gandhi Zoological Park.

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

TDP politburo memberYanamala Ramakrishnuduon Saturday termed it 'moralbankruptcy' on the part ofthe ruling YSRCP leaders toblame the Chandrababuregime for every-thing even afterits three-yearrule. JaganMohan Reddywas taking thelives of innocentpeople by sup-plying his ownbrands whichwere severelyharmful and life-threatening.

In a statement here, theTDP leader accused the rul-ing YSRCP leaders of earningfrom cheap liquor, ganja anddrugs ten times more than theliquor revenue coming to theState Government. The ChiefMinister betrayed the peopleby breaking his promise onphased prohibition. TheGovernment was just bent ongetting as much revenue aspossible from liquor sales.

Ramakrishnudu recalledhow Jagan Mohan Reddyspoke about the destruction oflives because of the liquormenace. Why was the Chief

Minister not taking any stepsto prevent the illicit liquordeaths now? The Governmentshould publish a white paperon liquor sales, revenue andloans it brought in the pastthree years.

Expressing serious con-c e r n ,Ramakrishnududemanded theGovernment todisclose thenames of distil-leries from whichharmful cheapliquor brandswere beingbought. Why were

these brands being boughtwithout releasing tenders?Details on the quality ofthese brands and also rele-vant reports should berevealed.

Ramakrishnudu said theYCP brought Pegasus to thefore only to divert the pub-lic attention from rising pub-lic resentment. The Jaganregime was afraid of thebacklash on liquor deaths,commissions and loans.Some uneducated YCP lead-ers had no idea about thespelling of Pegasus but theywere throwing mud on theTDP regime.

300 illicit liquor cases booked inPulivendula, says Nara Lokesh

TDP blames mafiafor liquor deaths

TDP urges Centre to check ‘liquor frauds'

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

Ruling YSRCP Kakinada cityMLA DwarampudiChandarsekar Reddy madesome serious allegations onJana Sena Party chief PawanKalyan on Saturday. Speakingto the media persons at theparty office, the MLA said thatPawan Kalyan would be defeat-ed in the coming electionsfrom whichever constituencyhe competes. Ever since theJana Sena chief made com-ments against the CM and theruling party MLAs and MPs onJSP foundation day,Dwarampudi counter-attackedin his own inimitable style acouple of times.

On Saturday, the MLA saidthat Pawan would not win as alegislator at whichever place hecontests from in the comingelections. Dwarampudi furthersaid that he would take up thepost of in-charge in the con-stituency in which PawanKalyan is contesting. TheDenduluru MLA vowed to work

for the party there (in whichconstituency Pawan will contest)and defeat Pawan Kalyan.

Dwarampudi advised PawanKalyan to know the facts beforemaking any comments. Hesaid that Pawan was doinginjustice to Jana Sena leaders

and activists by once againpledging the party for packagesand very soon Janasainiks willcome to know about the facts.

TDP chief ChandrababuNaidu had backstabbed NTRand he would not spare PawanKalyan, he alleged.

‘Pawan Kalyan will bedefeated in next polls’

Students sensitised about sparrows

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

The Andhra CricketAssociation (ACA) is hostingthe prestigious Senior Men'sU-25 Col. CK NayuduCricket Trophy at Mulapadu,near Vijayawada, fromMarch 22 to April 8. Asmany as four national teamsare participating in the tour-nament includingMaharashtra.

MV Siva Reddy, CEO ofACA, said that ACA hadmade foolproof arrangementsfor the conduct of the tour-nament without causing anyinconvenience to the teams.

Siva Reddy said that fournational teams, namely,Vidarbha, Chandigarh,Maharashtra and Railwaysare participating in the tour-nament. He said that thefour teams already reachedVijayawada and are in quar-antine to follow SOPs ofCorona as the matches arebeing played under a Bio-Secure Environment.

He said that the ACA,under the leadership ofPresident P Sarath ChandraReddy, in the current crick-et calendar successfully con-ducted four tournaments. Hestated that ACA successfullyconducted Women's U19One-day tournament atVisakhapatnam, SeniorWomen One dayTournament atVisakhapatnam, SyedMushtaq Ali T20 Trophy atVijayawada and Men's U19Cooch Behar Trophy (4-daymatches) at Visakhapatnam.

Siva Reddy said that ACAis now hosting the Col.CKNayudu Trophy (Men 4 dayU25) and is also hosting theIndia -South Africa T20match on June 12 atVisakhapatnam followed byAPL (Andhra PremierLeague) for this season inboth Men and Women cate-gories.

SRM inks MoU with HET on staff trainingPNS n VIJAYAWADA

Heartfulness Education Trust(HET) inked MoU with theSRM University on staff train-ing, in-depth faculty training,and other inner well-beingworkshops. The collaborationaims to promote preventivehealthcare and mindfulnesspractices.

Heartfulness Education

Trust advocates bridgingancient tradition with modernscientific understandingthrough workshops, intern-ships for students,Conclave/Roundtable onHeartfulness Leaderships andother offerings of HET. The col-laboration intends to help thestudents to improve their learn-ing skills and behaviour, incul-cate humility, emotional matu-

rity, confidence, stress manage-ment, self-awareness and mostimportantly, develop a sense ofpurpose towards life.

Prof V S Rao, Vice-Chancellor said that SRMUniversity-AP looks forward toorganising purposeful pro-grammes with the HeartfulnessTrust. Ramesh Krishnan,Programme Director (HET),talked about the vision and

mission of the trust. He saidthat the curriculum is devisedfor all streams of education andcan potentially contribute toattaining the highest form ofbeing.

Harshada Kulkarni fromHeartfulness Education Trust,Registrar-Dr R Premkumar,Dean and Associate Deanswere present during the occa-sion.

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

Vijayawada-Central con-stituency MLA Malladi Vishnuhas said that the governmentheaded by CM YS JaganmohanReddy believes that povertycan be eradicated only througheducation. The MLA took partin a programme organised bySri Alluri SitaramarajuMemorial Library Seva Samitiin GottumukkalaSuryanarayana Raju MunicipalHigh School on Saturday. Onthe occasion, he praised theservices of Alluri SitaramarajuMemorial Library Seva Samitiby providing snacks to the stu-dents and also offering cashrewards to students who haveachieved better results.

The MLA said that Class Xwas the foundation for the stu-dents to pursue higher educa-tion, he appealed to all the stu-dents to concentrate on their

studies to get good results. Hesaid that CM YS JaganmohanReddy has taken the initiativeto develop government schoolsto ensure quality education forpoor students. The govern-ment has introduced manywelfare schemes to make surethat the poor students get aneducation without burdeningtheir parents.

He said that 38,427 stu-

dents are being benefitedthrough the Amma Vodischeme. 14,188 studentsreceived a school uniform setwith 7 various things on thereopening day throughJagananna Vidya Kanuka.

He alleged that the previousTDP government neglectedthe government schools andencouraged private and corpo-rate schools.

Govt schools being improved toprovide quality edu: MLA Vishnu

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

RP Sisodia, Special ChiefSecretary to Governor, partici-pated as chief guest at the pro-gramme organised by theTelugu Association of NorthAmerica (TANA) Foundation todistribute scholarships worth Rs18 lakh to 160 students, here onSaturday.

Speaking on the occasion,Sisodia said that the financialcondition of students should notbe a constraint for their ambi-tion to pursue higher education.

He expressed the concernthat the ambitions of several stu-dents are cut short as they dropout after school, unable to pur-sue further education, due tofinancial constraints. He saidunlike people from other States,

Telugu NRIs under the bannerof TANA are doing great serviceby helping needy students topursue their dreams of higherstudies in foreign countries.

Speaking on the occasion,Vallepalli Sashikanth, Secretary

of the TANA Foundation saidthat the Foundation is distrib-uting scholarships to 1000 to1500 students every year and thenumber will be increased to2000 from the coming year.

Dr M Malakondaiah, for-

mer Director-General of Police,participated as a special guest.Pathuri Nagabhushanam, VicePresident of AP BJP, Prof KRKPrasad, Trustee and Secretary ofTANA Foundation and othersparticipated in the programme.

TANA scholarships disbursed to students

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

Vedanta’s VGCB recentlylaunched a drinking water projectwhich will benefit over 2,000households in Visakhapatnam.

As a part of its CSR initiative,Vedanta’s VGCB installed a 4,000LPH capacity RO plant which isproviding clean and safe drinkingwater supply to communities atnominal cost.

After the successful installationand commissioning, the plant washanded over for complete oper-

ation and maintenance to OldTown Development Committee,Visakhapatnam. The projectwould be operating in a self-sus-tainable model. Its operational

and maintenance cost would bemet through the nominal pricecharges collection from commu-nities towards the water dispens-ing. Mayor Golagani Hari

Venkata Kumari appreciatedVGCB’s efforts.

Sauvick Mazumdar, CEO, Iron& Steel Sector, Vedanta Limitedsaid, “At Vedanta, we are commit-ted towards holistic developmentof communities through ourstructured CSR initiatives. Healthis one of the major focus areas ofour CSR intervention and thisdrinking water project is yetanother step towards our endeav-or to improve health & sanitationfacilities for communities aroundour operations."

Vedanta's water project to benefit 2,000 households in Vizag

Dharna staged before excise PSPNS n BHIMAVARAM

TDP activists took out a rallyand staged a dharna at theexcise police station in thetown on Saturday protestagainst the illicit liquor. Theyraised slogans against theflawed liquor policy of theState government.

Naras araop et TDPParliamentary constituen-cy in-charge Thota Sita

Ramalakshmi deplored thatinstead of announcing com-p ens at ion to t heJangareddygudem spuriousliquor deceased families,the Chief Minister was try-ing to project the deaths asnatural deaths. She demand-ed the government to dis-burse Rs 25 lakh compensa-tion to the family of eachdeceased,

She said that the TDP cadres

organised protest dharnasacross the state at excise policestations to register their protestagainst illicit liquor.

State TDP secretary KollaNageswara Rao, KolleparaSrinivas, Veeravalli Srinivas,ITDP president Kadali Vasuand Bhimavaram mandalpresident Revu Venkanna andITDP president BodduMohan and other leaders werepresent.

40 fresh Covid casesreported in AP

PNS n VIJAYAWADA

Andhra Pradesh reported 40fresh cases of Covid-19 in 24hours ending 9 AM onSaturday. The latest bulletinsaid 58 infected persons gotcured while no fresh deathswere reported in the state.

The state Covid-19 chartnow showed 23,19,181 totalpositives, 23,03,933 recoveriesand 14,730 deaths till date. Thenumber of active cases stoodat 518, the bulletin added.Anantapuramu district regis-tered 11 fresh cases in 24 hourswhile four districts added zeroinfections. Of the remainingeight districts, two loggedseven each, four registeredthree each, one added two andanother just one in a day.

East Godavari district has159 and Anantapuramu 155active cases now. Four districtshave less than 10 active caseseach, with Kurnool havingthe lowest of only two. Theremaining seven have lessthan 40 active cases each.

Dwarampudi further said that hewould take up the post of in-charge inthe constituency in which PawanKalyan is contesting. The DenduluruMLA vowed to work for the party there(in which constituency Pawan willcontest) and defeat Pawan Kalyan.

VIJAYAWADA | SUNDAY | MARCH 20, 2022 04

PNS n KADAPA

Kadapa district governmentemployees' sports meet 2022began here on Saturday.Deputy Chief Minister SBAmzath Basha, district in-charge minister AdimulapuSuresh, Legislative Councildeputy chairman JakiyaKhanam and CollectorVijayarama Raju participatedin the inauguration of thesports meet held in the districtsports authority stadium.

Speaking on the occasion,Minorities Welfare minister SBAmzath Basha said that it washappy to note that the employ-ees' sports meet is being organ-ised in a big way like Asian

games and appreciated theorganisers and participants.

He said that the governmentemployees suffer mental pres-sure due to heavy work andthey need relief from the men-tal stress. By participating insuch a sports meet, the govern-ment employees could get ridof stress. Participation in sportswould enrich their energy andinfuse their enthusiasm. Hehailed Collector VijayaramaRaju for taking a special inter-est to organise the sports meetin a big way in Kadapa. Thedistrict sports meet is beingorganised when the YSRKadapa district is being divid-ed, he said, adding that thesports meet would enhance a

friendly atmosphere amonggovernment employees.

Minister Adimulapu Sureshunderlined the need of organ-ising such sports events for thegovernment employees toremove their stress and revital-ize their energy. The sportsevent would also help to explorethe sports talent among the gov-ernment employees. The min-ister informed that grounds invarious districts are being devel-oped in order to encourageyouth to participate in sport.

The council deputy chair-person said that the sportsmeet helped all governmentemployees assemble at oneplace before the district wasdivided. The Collector exhort-

ed the employees to participatein sports with enthusiasm. Hesaid that the Kadapa districthad stood in 5th place in effi-cient implementation of wel-fare schemes. He explainedthat delay took place in theconstruction of houses in thedistrict because of a by-electionin Badvel and heavy floods. Hesaid that prizes would be givento the winners in the valedic-tory function.

ZP chairman AkepatiAmarnath Reddy and MayorSuresh Babu also spoke. MLCRamesh Yadav, Joint CollectorsGauthami, CM Saikath Varma,Dyanchandra, DRO Malola,RDOs, and other officials werepresent.

Kadapa dist govt employees' sports meet 2022 begins

PNS n ELURU

Telugu Desam Party (TDP)leaders and activists, led byconstituency convener BadetiRadhakrishnaiah, staged a dhar-na in protest against the indis-criminate sale of illicit liquornear the BSNL office here onSaturday.

Holding placards, flex ban-ners and TDP flags they raisedslogans against the liquor poli-cy of the state government.Addressing the gathering, TDPleader Badeti Radhakrishnaiahdeplored that 27 people diedafter consuming spurious liquorat Jangareddygudem and 15people died around Eluru.

He lamented that as many as50 people died after consumingsanitizer across the state. Theyconsumed sanitized as they

were unable to buy liquor as theprices had hiked exorbitantly.He held the governmentresponsible for all these deathsas it failed to curb the brewingillicit liquor and sale.

The TDP leader said thatChandrababu Naidu had madeAP as Harita Andhra Pradeshand ridiculed that Jagan MohanReddy had made AP asMadhyandra Pradesh. Helashed out that a person OmPratam lost his life after he hadquestioned minister PeddireddyRamachandra Reddy on thesteep hike of prices of liquor.

The poor quality of liquorbeing brewed in the JaganMohan Reddy family mem-bers’ companies and they wereplundering money of people byselling the same at higher prices,the TDP leader flayed stating

that they were earning Rs 6,000crore per annum.

YSRCP MP K RaghuramaKrishnam Raju, in a letter toPrime Minister Narendra Modi,informed that the cheap liquorbeing sold in AP containsValkoinen, Pairogalo, andScoparon substances which arehazardous to public health.

The low-income group peo-ple unable to buy cheap liquorat a higher price are consumingcountry-made liquor which istaking their lives, he regretted.The sale of cheap liquor andganja has become a lucrativebusiness in AP to the YCP lead-ers, he charged. TDP leadersincluding Pali Prasad, DasariAnjaneyulu, Chode VenkataRatnam and Vandanala Srinivasamong those who participatedin the dharna.

TDP stages dharna in protestagainst sale of illicit liquor

PNS n ELURU

YSRCP Denduluru MLA KAbbaya Chowdary hasdemanded that the govern-ment order a comprehensiveinquiry on the use of Pegasusspyware to keep a vigil on theopposition leaders during theTDP regime.

The MLA also demandedthat the TDP chief and formerChief Minister N ChandrababuNaidu break his silence on thePegasus spyware allegationsmade by West Bengal ChiefMinister Mamata Benerjeeagainst him.

Addressing a press confer-ence here on Saturday, rulingparty MLA Abbaya Chowdarysaid that anybody’s phonecould be tapped by usingPegasus spyware. He said thatthe phones of YSRCP leadersmight have been tapped dur-ing the TDP regime. TheYSRCP MLA pointed out thatChandrababu Naidu alignedwith the Trinamool Congressbefore the 2019 elections andnow Mamata Benerjee herselfdisclosed that Naidu purchasedthe Pegasus spyware.

Chowdary said that Naiduused to claim that he was keen

on using the latest technologyand the technology Naidu usedwas Pegasus spyware. In thename of bringing IT to thestate, Naidu had brought thePegasus spyware, he ridiculed.

When the then TDP MLARevant Reddy was caught red-handed in a note for vote casein Hyderabad, Naidu ques-tioned tapping of his phoneand claimed that it was a crimeunder Section 8. But howNaidu used Pegasus spyware tokeep a vigil on oppositionleaders, he asked. The YSRCPMLA slammed that Naidu in2018 issued a GO 184 to givepowers to the Intelligence

police to tap the telephones,mobile phones and internetservices providers.

“Naidu joined hands withMamata Benerjee before the2019 elections and shared thedais with her in public meet-ings. Now Mamata Benerjeerevealed in the Assembly thatNaidu bought the PegasusSpyware. The West BengalChief Minister’s commentscreated commotion across thecountry. People of the stateknow the tactics used by Naiduto come to power”, AbbayaChowdary lambasted.

The TDP leaders are nowtelling that Mamata Benerjeewas misinformed. If the WestBengal Chief Minister madebaseless remarks againstChandrababu Naidu why hehad not responded so far, the

MLA questioned the TDP.He alleged that the then

Intelligence Chief ABVenkateswara Rao’s son ChetanKrishna purchased Spywaresoftware by spending Rs 25crore through an Israel-basedcompany. The YSRCP leaderslodged a complaint with theHyderabad police previously,he reminded.

Abbaya Chowdary demand-ed the government to order acomprehensive inquiry on theuse of Pegasus spyware in thestate during the TDP regime.If the Pegasus spyware waspurchased during the TDPregime, Chandrababu Naiduand Lokesh would be culpritsin the case and the YSRCPwould not leave the issue tillthe inquiry is completed, hemade it clear.

YSRCP for probe into use ofspyware during TDP regime

Anybody’s phone can be tapped by

using Pegasus spyware, says

Denduluru MLA K Abbaya Chowdary.

He says the phones of YSRCP

leaders might have been tapped

during the TDP regime.

JSP speeds upmembershipdrive PNS n VIJAYAWADA

The Jana Sena Party hasgiven another opportunityto the people to enrol theirnames for active membershipin the party. The membershipdrive will be taken up fromMarch 20 to 27.

In a video message onSaturday, Jana Sena PartyPolitical Affairs Committeechairman Nadendla Manoharsaid that the enrolment ofnames for active members inthe party would begin on 20March and continue toMarch 27.

On the appeals of the partyleaders, Jana Sena chief KPawan Kalyan had taken thisdecision, he said. Those whocould not enrol their nameswith the Jana Sena as activemembers can avail them-selves of the opportunitynow, he said.

"The response to theparty's ambitious activemembership drive has beenoverwhelming. Messages andphone calls are coming infrom our leadership to theparty office asking them toextend the membership reg-istration process for a fewmore days. Pawan Kalyandecided to extend it foranother 8 days as per theirwish.

CCTVs to be installedat vulnerable placesin Kakinada city PNS n KAKINADA

In a bid to enhance security inport city Kakinada, CCTVswill be installed at all vulner-able places. Informing this inthe municipal council annualbudget meeting here onSaturday, Mayor Sunkara SivaPrasanna Sagar said that thesurveillance camera networkwould be arranged in the cityat a cost of Rs 1 crore.

The Mayor said that Rs308.58 crore budget estimateswere unanimously approvedfor the year 2022-23 of whichRs.249.94 cr would be spenton implementation of variousdevelopmental and welfareprogrammes.

Municipal CommissionerSwapnil Dinakar Pundkarwhile introducing the revisedbudget estimates for 2021-22and the budget estimates forthe year 2022-23 said thatduring next year as much asRs.250 crore would be spenton city development thatinclude Installation of mod-ern street lights, solar energysystem, laying of internal

roads, SC/ST welfare, womenand child welfare programmes.

He said tendering processwould commence shortly forworks to be taken up by thecorporation MP Vanga GeetaViswanath, city MLADwarampudi Chandrasekharareddy, deputy MayorsChodipalli Satyaprasad, MisalaUdaya Kumar, Additionalcommissioner NagaNarasimharao, corporationsecretary Yesubabu wereamong those taking part in thedeliberations.

Meanwhile, the TDP corpo-rators were arrested andwhisked away to Indrapalempolice station while they werestaging dharna in front of thecouncil hall protesting againstthe action of the commis-sioner in terrorizing people byhis announcement of confisca-tion of properties of the taxdefaulters and also question-ing the propriety in extendingfifty percent tax concession tothe godowns owned by the cityMLA. The councillors howev-er released an hour later onpersonal sureties.

YSRCP govt targetingRs 20k cr through liquorsales in 2022-23: TDPPNS n ONGOLE

Telugu Desam Party (MLA)MLA Yeluri Sambasiva Raohas alleged that the YSRCP gov-ernment has set a target of earn-ing Rs 20,000 crore through saleof liquor during the year 2022-23.

During the TDP regime thegovernment had earned only Rs6,000 crore perannum throughsale of liquor butduring the YSRCPregime the incomehad gone up to Rs16,500 and the gov-ernment now set atarget of enhanc-ing the income toRs 20,000 crore, healleged in a state-ment here.

The JaganMohan Reddy gov-ernment had come to power byassuring people of completeprohibition but introduced var-ious unknown brands of liquorthat had become hazardous tothe lives of people. The liquor istaking the lives of people, helashed out.

The TDP MLA slammedthat the Chief Minister had settargets to earn huge moneythrough the excise departmentand the excise officials are mak-ing all efforts to increase the saleof liquor in the state disregard-ing the health of people.

“If the government is com-mitted to implementing prohi-

bition in a phased manner, theincome on liquor sales shoulddecrease but the same is spi-ralling in the state which clear-ly indicates that the governmentis encouraging the liquor sale,”he charged.

The TDP MLA flayed thatChief Minister Jagan MohanReddy did not respond whenhis paternal uncle Y S

Vi v e k a n a n d aReddy was mur-dered and the peo-ple should notexpect the ChiefMinister wouldrespond to thedeaths inJangareddygudem.The officials wereconniving with thepoor quality liquormanufacturers andillicit liquor brew-ers for kickbacks.

Sambashiva Rao said thatYCP MP RaghuramakrishnamRaju disclosed that the chiefliquor being sold by the govern-ment contains Volonin,Pairogalo and Scopron sub-stances which are hazardous tothe health of consumers. “TheTDP regime had made AndhraPradesh as an illicit liquor-freestate but now the YCP govern-ment has made AP as a hub forthe sales of illicit liquor, poorquality liquor and ganja. Thesale of illicit liquor, poor qual-ity liquor and ganja is going onin AP unabated everywhere”, helambasted.

Yeluri Sambasiva Rao

PNS n HYDERABAD

Telangana armed strugglefighter Mallu Swarajyam, (91),died on Saturday at the CareHospital here.

Swarajyam was born toBheemreddy Rami Reddy andChokkamma in 1931 inKarivirala Kothagudem villagein the Thungathurthy con-stituency in erstwhile Nalgondadistrict. The place is now inSuryapet district.

Swarajyam’s parents were

landlords. She participated inthe Telangana armed struggleduring 1945-46 and made theNizam government tremble.

In 1946-47, the Nizam’sgoons burnt her house. MalluSwarajyam fought in Adilabad,Warangal and Karimnagar dis-tricts during the armed strug-gle as a woman commander.

She created awarenessamong the people against theDoras arrogance throughsongs. The Nizam governmentannounced a reward of Rs

10,000 for handing over MalluSwarajyam to the government.

Mallu Swarajyam distrib-uted her paddy to the poor asper the call given by theAndhra Mahasabha in 1941.

Mallu Swarajyam’s participa-tion in the armed strugglewent on along with her elderbrother Bheemreddy NarsimhaReddy aka BN. BheemreddyNarsimha Reddy was elected asMiryalaguda MP twice.

Mallu Swarajyam was elect-ed as an MLA from

Thungathurthy constituencytwice (1978-83, 1983-84). Sheused to raise labour issues inthe Assembly.

She was also a leader of theAll India Democratic WomenAssociation (AIDWA) andfought for women’s issues. Herfiery speeches made her adynamic leader among thepublic and the working class.

Mallu Swarajyam’s husbandMallu Venkata NarsimhaReddy was a member of theCPM’s central committee andthe District CPM Secretary inerstwhile Nalgonda for a longtime. Venkata Narsimha Reddydied on December 4, 2004.

Mallu Swarajyam is sur-vived by daughter PaduriKaruna and sons Dr MalluGoutham Reddy and MalluNagarjuna Reddy, who is alawyer and the CPM’s SuryapetDistrict Secretary. GouthamReddy is a member of theCPM’s Nalgonda district com-mittee.

Mallu Swarajyam’s daughter-in-law Mallu Laxmi contestedthe LS polls from Nalgonda in2019 and lost to Congress can-didate Uttam Kumar Reddy.

Telangana struggle icon Mallu Swarajyam no more

The US cities thatthe delegation willbe visiting includeLos Angeles, SanDiego, San Jose,Boston and New

York. Minister KTRhas a packed

agenda in this week-long trip. Hewill be interacting

with top managementexecutives of several world

renowned companies in the US.

KT Rama Rao offto US for wooinginvestorsPNS n HYDERABAD

Telangana IT and IndustriesMinister K T Rama Rao isleading a delegation to the USto invite global firms to investin the state. Minister KTR ina tweet said: "On my way tothe United States for a worktrip after 5 years. Lots ofexciting meetings lined up inwest coast and east coast overthe course of next week.Looking forward to some hec-tic activity and travel#Wanderlust"

The Telangana delegationleft for the US on Saturdaymorning from Hyderabad.

The US cities that the del-egation will be visiting includeLos Angeles, San Diego, SanJose, Boston and New York.

Minister KTR has a packedagenda in this week-long trip.He will be interacting with topmanagement executives ofseveral world renowned com-panies in the US.

He will explain to them theprogressive policies of theState and the benefits ofinvesting in industry-friend-ly Telangana.

Telangana IT and IndustriesPrincipal Secretary JayeshRanjan, Director ElectronicsSujai Karampuri, Director LifeSciences Shakti Nagappan,Director Food ProcessingAkhil Gawar, DirectorPromotions Vijay Rangineniand Chief Relations OfficerAmarnath Reddy are amongthe officials who are accompa-nying the Minister.

Emergency meeting at Farmhouse

Chief Minister K ChandrasekharRao held an unscheduled

meeting with his Cabinet col-leagues at his farmhouse onSaturday. Ministers Harish Rao,Sabita Indrareddy, ErrabelliDayakar Rao, Vemula PrashantReddy, Srinivas Gowda, JagadishReddy, Indrakaran Reddy,Gangula Kamalakar and KoppulaIshwar attended the meeting. MPSantosh Kumar, MLC Kavitha, CSSomesh Kumar and other seniorofficials were also present. Themeeting discussed governanceissues, job notifications, andmatters relating to agriculture,among other matters. The gov-ernment is reportedly thinking ofissuing a notification for recruit-ment to the police force immedi-ately as there are no age relax-ations and changes in rules. The

three-hour meeting reportedlydiscussed job notifications andthe public pulse after theannouncement in the Assembly.The meeting considered the yearfrom which age relaxation shouldbe given as there were no jobnotifications for many years. Italso discussed the Yadadri tem-ple inauguration and paddy pro-curement issues. As some farm-ers have sown paddy during thecurrent season too, the ChiefMinister has decided to intensifythe state's fight with the Centreover paddy procurement anddraw up plans accordingly. Afterthe bureaucrats left, the meetingof the ministers continued.Minister KT Rama Rao andAgriculture Minister NiranjanReddy could not attend the meet-ing as they were out of town.

2 human traffickingoffenders detainedunder PD Act PNS n HYDERABAD

In an effort to root outorgansed Human traffickingnetwork, running prostitutionin Rachakonda Commissionerate limits and to create senseof safety and security amongthe family system, C.P.Rachakonda on Saturdayinvoked PD Act against two ofhuman trafficking offendersfor organising prostitution inthe limits of Jawaharnagar PSof Rachakonda Commissionerate. They were detained inCentral Prison, Cherlapallyand Women Prison,Chenchalguda.

The offenders Vanarula SaiKishore, and Vanarula Bhavani,along with four other traffick-ers have formed a gang andrunning brothel house in ShivajiNagar, Balaji Nagar, underJawahar Nagar PS Limits. Theyare inducing innocent womenin the guise of providing liveli-hood and dragging them in toprostitution. They procure malecustomers through their knowncontacts and send the victimwomen/girls to other traffickersin Hyderabad on payment.Thus, they were making quickmoney.

On receiving information,Jawaharnagar Police on March15 raided the house in ShivajiNagar and arrested the accusedpersons along with four othertraffickers and rescued three vic-tim women who hailed from APstate and lodged them in a res-cue home.

PNS n HYDERABAD

A doctor died after acciden-tally falling into the open liftof a hotel here on Fridaynight, police said. The lift wasnot fixed and it had no accesspoint except at the bottomand at a top floor, they saidon Saturday.

The doctor, who was stay-ing in the hotel, appears tohave entered into it assumingit to be a normal lift, theysaid. A case on charges ofcausing death by negligencewas booked against the hotelmanagement, they added.

Doctoraccidentally fallsinto open lift at hotel, dies

PNS n RANGAREDDY

The Rajendranagar policealong with SOT Shamshabadnabbed three persons for pos-sessing ganja on Saturday atPDP X roads near HimayathSagar toll gate road.

The police seized a total of560 kg of ganja, one car, oneDCM and 3 mobiles, all worthRs1.30 crore.

Acting on specific informa-tion, the sleuths of SOTShamshabad Zone, along withRajendranagar Police, appre-hended three interstate drugpeddlers identified asSaleemullah (labourer), ShaikRehan (painter) and Shaik

Waseem (driver) all residentsof Maharashtra state whileNaushad (Main receiver) andSantosh (Supplier) areabsconding.

All the 5 accused have beenrunning the illicit transporta-tion of ganja fromChitrakonda agency area ofOdisha state to Maharashtravia Hyderabad to earn easymoney. The ganja was pro-cured from ganja cultivatorsin Chitrakonda agency area.They were supplying to sell-ers of different states.

About 15 days back, A totalof 1,000 kg dry ganja was tobe arranged to Naushad andas part of their deal 560 kg of

dry ganja was arranged. Later,Saleemullah drove the DCMand went to Badrachalamand loaded 3 tons of potatoes.On 18th March, the driverwent to Chitrakonda agencyarea and parked it at a remoteplace. Santosh loaded 280packets of dry ganja eachweighing 2 kg. The packetswere hidden under potatobags. After loading ganja, thevan left the agency area in theevening for Amravathi ofMaharashtra via Hyderabad.

On the instructions of theNaushad, the vehicle wasdirected to avoid toll roads, toescape checkings inHyderabad.

560 kg of ganja seized, 3 held in Rajendranagar

VIJAYAWADA | SUNDAY | MARCH 20, 2022 nation 05

Karnataka Chief MinisterBasavaraj Bommai on Saturday

said a decision on introducingBhagavad Gita in schooleducational curriculum will betaken after discussions, as hemaintained that the scriptureimparts moral values. BJP-ruledGujarat on Thursday hadannounced that the Bhagavad Gitawill be a part of the school syllabus

for Classes 6 to 12 across the state from the academic year 2022-23."What else?...You tell me, if not Bhagavad Gita, what else will givemoral values?" the Chief Minister said when questioned whetherBhagavad Gita will bring moral values among children. "It has beendone in Gujarat, our minister has said he will discuss it. Let's seewhat details the Education department comes out with," Bommaisaid responding to a query on the government consideringintroducing the scripture in school education.

The Nationalist Congress Party(NCP) in Maharashtra has

decided to distribute theportfolios held by party leader andcabinet minister Nawab Malik,currently in custody in a moneylaundering case, to otherministers of the party, a seniorleader has said. With thisdecision, Malik will be left with no

portfolio in the Shiv Sena-led Maha Vikas Aghadi govt. The NCPhas, however, decided not to ask Malik to tender resig-nation asdemanded by the opposition BJP. Malik held minis-tries of SkillsDevelopment and Minority Affairs in the state government. He isalso the guardian minister of the Parbhani and the Gondiadistricts. The Skills Development ministry will be reassigned tostate Health Minister Rajesh Tope and the Minority Affairsdepartment to Housing Minister Jitendra Awhad, respectively.

NCP decides to reassignMalik's portfolios

RSS national executivemember Indresh Kumar

on Saturday condemned thealleged incident of vandalismat a temple in Bangladesh andurged India to intervene, say-ing the Sheikh Hasina govern-ment has completely failed inprotecting the minorityHindus there. He alsoappealed to the Congress and

all other opposition parties to condemn the incident rising above pol-itics of religion and caste and join New Delhi in building pressure onDhaka to stop attacks on Hindus, which he said continues to remainunabated in the neighbouring country. Kumar, founder and chiefpatron of Muslim Rashtriya Manch, also called upon the Muslimsociety to condemn the attack.According to reports, a mob of over200 people allegedly attacked the devotees and vandalised ISKCONRadhakanta temple in Dhaka late on Thursday.

‘B'desh govt has 'completelyfailed' in protecting Hindus’

An offence has been regis-tered against a woman and

her live-in partner for allegedlyforcing the former's minordaughter to quit studies andwork at a beer bar in NaviMumbai, police said onSaturday. Based on a complaint

lodged by the 17-year-old girl, the police registered an FIR againstthe woman and her live-in partner on March 15, sub-inspector SunilGiri of New Panvel police station said. The girl, in her complaint, hasclaimed that her mother and her live-in partner had forced her to quitstudies and work at a beer bar to support the family, the official said.Fed up of their constant harassment, the girl ran away from homelast month and she was subsequently tracked down, but she refusedto live with her mother, he said.The minor was shifted to a Kharghar-based children's shelter home, where she narrated the ordeal tothem, he said.

Woman booked for forcing daughterto quit studies, work at bar

INDIA CORNER

‘Gita imparts values, decision onintroducing it in schools after talks’

PNS n HARIDWAR

The government is accused ofsaffronising education but"what is wrong with saffron",Vice President M VenkaiahNaidu asked on Saturday as hecalled for total rejection of theMacaulay system of educationfrom the country.

Indians must give up their"colonial mindset" and learnto take pride in their Indianidentity, the vice presidentsaid in his address after inau-gurating the South AsianInstitute of Peace andReconciliation at the DevSanskriti Vishwa Vidyalayahere.

Naidu also saidIndianisation of the educationsystem is central to India'snew education policy, whichputs great emphasis on thepromotion of mother tongues.

"We are accused of saffro-nising education, but thenwhat is wrong with saffron,"he asked.

Calling for rejection of theMacaulay system of educationin the 75th year of

Independence, Naidu said itimposed a foreign language asthe medium of education inthe country and confinededucation to the elite.

"Centuries of colonial ruletaught us to look upon our-selves as an inferior race. Wewere taught to despise ourown culture, traditional wis-dom. This slowed our growthas a nation. The imposition ofa foreign language as ourmedium of education con-fined education to a small sec-tion of the society, depriving

a vast population of the rightto education," he said.

Thomas BabingtonMacaulay was a British histo-rian who played a major rolein the introduction of Englishas the medium of instructionfor education in India.

"We should feel proud ofour heritage, our culture, ourforefathers. We must go backto our roots. We must give upour colonial mindset andteach our children to takepride in their Indian identity.We must learn as many Indian

languages as possible. Wemust love our mother tongue.We must learn Sanskrit toknow our scriptures, whichare a treasure trove of knowl-edge," the vice president said.

Encouraging youngsters topropagate their mothertongue, he said, "I am lookingforward to the day when allgadget notifications are issuedin the mother tongue of arespective state. Your mothertongue is like your eyesight,whereas your knowledge of aforeign language is like yourspectacles."

Foreign dignitaries com-ing to India speak in theirmother tongue instead ofEnglish despite knowing itbecause they take pride intheir own language, he added.

"Sarve Bhawantu Sukhinah(all be happy) and VasudhaivKutumbakam (the world isone family), which arephilosophies contained in ourancient texts, are the guidingprinciples of India's foreignpolicy even today," Naidusaid.

"India has had strong ties

with almost all South Asiancountries which have com-mon roots. The Indus valleycivilisation extended fromAfghanistan to the Gangeticplains. Our policy of notattacking any country first isrespected all over the world.It is the country of warriorking Ashoka the great, whochose non-violence and peaceover violence.

"There was a time whenpeople from all over the worldcame to study in the ancientIndian universities of Nalandaand Taxila, but even at theheight of its prosperity, Indianever thought of attacking anycountry because we firmlybelieve that the world needspeace," the vice president said.

Apart from the pursuit ofeducation, children shouldalso be taught to stay in closecontact with nature, he said."Nature is a good teacher.You must have noticed thatpeople living close to naturesuffered less during the Covidcrisis. The motto should benature and culture togetherfor a better future."

What is wrong with saffron?

PNS n CHANDIGARH

Ten AAP MLAs, including awoman, were inducted in theBhagwant Mann-led Cabinetin Punjab here on Saturday.

Governor BanwarilalPurohit administered the oathof office and secrecy to the 10ministers at a ceremony at theGuru Nanak Dev auditoriumin Punjab Raj Bhawan here. Allof them took the oath inPunjabi.

Barring Harpal SinghCheema and Gurmeet SinghMeet Hayer, eight others arefirst-time MLAs.

Cheema, a legislator fromDirba, was the first to take oathfollowed by Dr Baljit Kaur, thelone woman in the cabinet andMLA from Malout.

Next to take the oath wasHarbhajan Singh from Jandiala,followed by Dr Vijay Singla

from Mansa, Lal Chand fromBhoa, Gurmeet Singh MeetHayer from Barnala, KuldeepSingh Dhaliwal from Ajnala,Laljit Singh Bhullar from Patti,Bram Shanker Jimpa fromHoshiarpur and Harjot SinghBains from Anandpur Sahib.

There are 18 berths in thecabinet, including the chiefminister, but Bhagwant Mannhas gone for a lean cabinet.

Haryana Governor Bandaru

Dattatreya, Punjab ChiefMinister Bhagwant Mann,Protem Speaker Dr InderbirSingh Nijjar, AAP MLAs andfamily members of those whowere inducted as ministerswere among those present atthe event.

Punjab Governor Purohithad on Wednesday adminis-tered the oath of office andsecrecy to Bhagwant Mann ina swearing-in ceremony at

Khatkar Kalan, the ancestralvillage of freedom fighterBhagat Singh.

The Aam Aadmi Partybagged 92 seats in the 117-member Punjab Assembly,decimating the Congress, theShiromani Akali Dal-BahujanSamaj Party combine, and theBJP-Punjab Lok Congress-SAD (Sanyukt) alliance.

In the cabinet, the partygave representation to fiveMLAs from Malwa, four fromMajha and one from the Doabaregion.

It has accommodated fourMLAs who represent reserveconstituencies -- Dirba,Jandiala, Malout and Bhoa.Besides, four are Jat Sikhs andtwo are Hindus.

However, the AAP MLAswho defeated stalwarts, includ-ing Congress' Charanjit SinghChanni, Navjot Singh Sidhu,

SAD's Parkash Singh Badaland Sukhbir Singh Badal andPunjab Lok Congress chiefAmarinder Singh did not finda place in the cabinet.

Congratulating all the newlyinducted ministers, Manntweeted, "Today the new cabi-net of Punjab took the oath andat the same time pledged to ful-fil the expectations of the peo-ple. Congratulations to all thenew ministers. We have towork together with full sincer-ity for the three crore people ofPunjab." Mann had announcedthe names of MLAs who willbe inducted into the cabinet onFriday.

Of the cabinet members,Harpal Singh Cheema is atwo-time legislator from Dirbaand the party's Dalit face.Cheema, 47, had been theLeader of the Opposition in theprevious assembly.

Nagaland Assembly becomes firstin country to implement NeVAPNS n KOHIMA

The Nagaland LegislativeAssembly (NLA) on Saturdaybecame the first in the coun-try to have operationalisedthe National e-VidhanApplication (NeVA) pro-gramme for conducting a ses-sion in paperless mode.

The Nagaland AssemblySecretariat has attached a tabletor e-book each on the tables ofthe 60 members as the Budgetsession for fiscal 2022-23which commenced this morn-ing.

This is the medium throughwhich we will be using thisNeVA application in theAssembly as part of the pursuitto have a paperless House,Speaker SharingainLongkumer said while makinga statement on the new appli-cation.

A similar system outsidethe framework of NeVA hasbeen in operation in HimachalPradesh while many other

state Assemblies are moving inthis direction, Longkumer said.

Paperless Assembly of e-Assembly is a concept involv-ing electronic means to facili-tate all the works of the legis-lature. It is being done underthe supervision of the Ministryof Parliamentary Affairs.

The Assembly Secretariathas already conducted prelim-inary familiarisation trainingfor the members and it will becontinuing with the training

programme for the benefit ofall the members.

In the coming days, it will bescaled up to the full advantageof the e-Vidhan system andachieve one of its targets ofmaking the functioning of thestate legislature paperless, hesaid.

Once all other assembliesimplement it, Parliament andall state legislatures will be net-worked together effectively,the Speaker said.

Goa Cong leader riles GFP byblaming it for poll debaclePNS n PANAJI

Congress on Saturday issued ashow-cause notice to its leaderVijai Bhike after his state-ment blaming the ally GoaForward Party (GFP) for thepoor performance in the lastmonth's Goa Assembly elec-tions drew a sharp responsefrom the latter.

Bhike's comment was "mali-cious" and intended to jeopar-dize the "healthy alliance", thenotice said, seeking explana-tion from him.

The BJP won 20 out of 40seats in the Goa elections and isset to form government with thesupport of two MGP MLAs andthree Independents. Congresswas a distant second, winningonly 11 seats, six less than thelast time, while GFP won onlyone, a loss of two seats com-pared to 2017. Bhike, chief of theNorth Goa district Congressunit, said on Friday that joininghands with the GFP was a mis-take.

I think we made the wrongdecision by tying up with the

Goa Forward Party as thealliance did not benefitCongress in any way but theother party took advantage of it,he told reporters at Saligao.

GFP chief Vijai Sardesai failedto win Mayem and Mandremseats for his candidates, Bhikeclaimed, adding that the GFP'svote share fell to 1.8 per centfrom 3.5 per cent in 2017.

On Saturday, GFP's SantoshKumar Sawant (candidate fromMayem) and DeepakKalangutkar (candidate fromMandrem) slammed Bhike.

One should recall that GFPpresident Vijai Sardesai hadgiven a call for forming `TeamGoa' (alliance) against the BJPin 2020. But Congress leadersdidn't act on it until Sardesaimet Rahul Gandhi in NewDelhi and the alliance wasforged for the 2022 polls,"Kalangutkar said.

Even after Sardesai met RahulGandhi, local Congress leaderskept on saying that the allianceis yet to be announced whichcreated doubts about the tie-up,they added.

Refused moneyfor liquor, 35-year-old man killsmother in UPPNS n SHAHJAHANPUR

A 35-year-old man alleged-ly murdered his mother in avillage here after she refusedto give him money to buyliquor, police said onSaturday.

"The incident occurred inMukrampur village underthe Roja police station lim-its on Friday evening.Accused Ram Naresh hadasked his mother Ramwati(70) for some money to buyliquor. When she refused, hegot angry and attacked her.He hit her on the head witha sharp object which result-ed in her death," StationHouse Officer (SHO)Rajkumar Sharma said.

Naresh was arrested and acase of murder lodged, hesaid.

The body of the womanwas sent for a post-mortemexamination, Sharma said.

PNS n NEW DELHI

The Ministry of Home Affairs(MHA) has constituted anadvisory board comprisingthree judges of the Delhi HighCourt to review the cases reg-istered under the stringentNational Security Act (NSA)which allows the detention ofa person up to a year withoutany charge.

Such an advisory board isconstituted under Section 9 ofthe 1980 Act.

According to an official noti-fication, Justice Yogesh Khannawill be the chairman of theadvisory board while justicesChandra Dhari Singh andRajnish Bhatnagar will bemembers of the high-poweredbody. The NSA empowers thegovernment to detain a personif it considers the individual athreat to national security or toprevent him or her from dis-rupting public order.

Under the NSA, a personcan be detained for up to 12months without a charge. The

detained person can be held for10 days without being told thecharges against him or her.

The detainee can appealonly before the advisory boardfor relief but will not be alloweda lawyer during the trial.

In the case of every NSAdetainee, the government con-cerned shall, within threeweeks from the date of deten-tion, place before the advisoryboard the grounds on whichthe order has been made andthe representation, if any, madeby the detainee.

The advisory board shall,after considering the materialsplaced before it and after hear-ing the detainee, submit its

report to the government with-in seven weeks from the dateof detention of the personconcerned.

The report of the boardshall specify as to whether ornot there is sufficient cause forthe detention. In cases wherethe advisory board has report-ed that there is, in its opinion,sufficient cause for the deten-tion of the person concerned,the government may confirmthe detention order and contin-ue the detention for such peri-od as it thinks fit.

In cases where the board hasreported that there is no suffi-cient cause for the detention,the government shall revoke

the detention order and thedetainee to be released forth-with.

A detained person can con-tinue to be in jail withoutobtaining the opinion of theadvisory board for a periodlonger than three months, butnot exceeding six monthswhere such person had beendetained with a view to pre-venting him from acting in anymanner prejudicial to thedefence of India.

This also applies if the per-son is detained to preventfrom interfering with the gov-ernment's efforts in copingwith the terrorist, the securityof India or the maintenance ofpublic order or the mainte-nance of supplies.

The NSA was enacted in1980 when the Indira Gandhigovernment was in power.

According to the data pro-vided by the government inParliament in 2020, nearly1,200 people across the coun-try were detained under theNSA in 2017 and 2018.

PNS n JAMMU

Praising the CRPF for playinga key role in the fight againstPakistan-sponsored terrorismin Kashmir, naxalism, andextremist forces in the north-east, Union Home MinisterAmit Shah on Saturday askedthe paramilitary force to pre-pare a roadmap for meetingfuture challenges.

Shah was addressing a gath-ering at the 83rd raising day ofthe Central Reserve PoliceForce (CRPF) at the MaulanaAzad Stadium here. This is forthe first time that the paradehas been held outside theCRPF headquarters in Delhi-NCR. CRPF is not only a cen-tral armed police force butevery child of the countryloves it for its bravery andcourage. Whenever riots hap-pen anywhere in the country,the deployment of the CRPFgives satisfaction to the peo-ple," said Shah at the CRPF dayparade.

The love and respect earnedby the CRPF, the country'slargest paramilitary force, isdue to the sacrifices, dedicationand devotion of its personnel,

Shah said."Whether it is naxal-infest-

ed regions of central India,Pakistan-sponsored terrorismin Kashmir or extremist forcesin the northeast, the CRPF hasplayed a key role in the elim-ination of such groups andrestoring peace in all the threeregions, Shah said.

Shah said the CRPF hasplayed an appreciable roleacross the country and assert-ed that there will be no needfor redeployment of CRPF inthe three regions in the nextfew years. "I am sure that wewill be able to restore peaceand if it happens, the credit willgo to the CRPF jawans. I amsaying it with confidence thatever since Prime MinisterNarendra Modi took over, the

work done by CRPF is self-explanatory," he said.

There was a time in the1990s when extremism in thenortheast and Pakistan-spon-sored terrorism in Kashmirwas at its peak and everyone inthe country was concerned.

Within two decades, theCRPF with its dedication,devotion and determinationfought the battle against theanti-national forces who arenow on the verge of extinc-tion," he said.

"As home minister, I con-gratulate the bravery shown byyou in the violence-hit areas ofthe three regions. It is becauseof your professional handlingof the situation that the coun-trymen are breathing in apeaceful atmosphere, he said.

TN agri budget pushesfor use of technologyPNS n CHENNAI

The Tamil Nadu AgricultureBudget for 2022-23 lays empha-sis on the use of technology likeIoT, drones and remote sensing,besides envisaging a role forindustries and other allied depart-ments to ensure remunerativeprices for farmers and enhancingemployment opportunities in thefarm sector. Pushing for greaterinvolvement of various depart-ments to further improve the farmsector and make it viable, stateAgriculture and Farmers WelfareMinister M R K Panneerselvampresented the Agriculture Budgetfor Rs 33,007.6852 crore in theAssembly on Saturday.

He announced that an indus-trial estate for agro products willbe set up in Tiruvarur district byTamil Nadu Small IndustriesDevelopment Corporation(TANSIDCO) to ensure remu-nerative prices to farmers for theirproduce and also create employ-

ment opportunities.Tamil Nadu Start-up and

Innovation Mission (TANSIM),in partnership with Agricultureand Farmers WelfareDepartment, will organise a spe-cial hackathon for agriculture-related technical problems toidentify start-ups who can solvetheir problems. "Such agritechstart-ups with commerciallyviable ideas will be funded witha grant of up to Rs 10 lakh," hesaid. Farmer ProducerOrganisation (FPO), withCentral assistance, will be encour-aged to start small agro-basedenterprises, he added.

In order to overcome theshortage of labourers and toensure precise application ofrequired agricultural inputs infarmers' field, drone infrastruc-ture will be created in Tamil NaduAgricultural University and itsconstituent colleges, researchinstitutes and Krishi VigyanKendras.

Sitting HC judges to review NSA cases

Common UniversityEntrance Test: DUacademic council todiscuss changes PNS n NEW DELHI

The Delhi University's academ-ic council will meet on Tuesdayto discuss changes in the admis-sion process to colleges in viewof it adopting the CommonUniversity Entrance Test. Fromthe next academic year, it hasbeen proposed that students willget admission to undergraduatecourses solely on scores they getin the entrance test.

With the implementation ofthe Common UniversityEntrance Test (CUET), theDelhi University (DU) will bedoing away with the earlier sys-tem of admission under whichit used announce cut-offs basedon Class 12 board results.

Amit Shah to CRPF: Prepareroadmap for meeting challenges

10 AAP MLAs inducted into Mann cabinet in Punjab

n Vice-President calls for rejecting Macaulay's system of education

VIJAYAWADA | SUNDAY | MARCH 20, 2022 money 06

MONEY MATTERS

Smartr Logistics is looking toenter into the fast-growingthird-party logistics (3PL)

business from next year and plansto set up 15 fulfillment centres aswell as some big warehousingfacilities at select locations,company's MD and CEO, YogeshDhingra has said.Launched last year,the logistics tech-startup also plansto expand its presence to over 250

cities and 6,000 PIN codes by this year-end.It currently has presenceacross 50 cities in the country along with 75 service centres."Earlynext year we will be entering into the 3PL business with warehousingfacilities and fulfilment centres among others to provide end-to-endservice to the end-customer," Dhingra told PTI.He said under the 3PLbusiness, the company will be doing storage, billing, packaging anddelivery to the customer, adding, "we are trying to figure out variouskinds of business where we can get into and fulfill the logistics needsof the customers."Dhingra said that the company will set up close 15fulfillment centres and some big warehouses at different locations inthe country to cater to the third-party logistics requirements."ByJune-end, we are looking to have more than 3,500 PIN codes andclose to about 100 cities and by December this year about 250 citieswith more than 6,000 pincodes," he said, adding that SmartrLogistics will be launching its Ground Express product from thesecond quarter of the forthcoming fiscal year.

Smartr Logistics plans to enterthird-party logistics biz

NMDC on Saturday said ithas signed a pact withIIT-Kharagpur for

exploration of minerals usingdrones.The MoU for 'drone-based mineral exploration' wassigned virtually by the seniorofficials of NMDC andprofessors of IIT Kharagpur,the miner said in a statement.NMDC, under the Ministry ofSteel, is into exploration ofwide range of minerals such asiron ore, copper, rock

phosphate, limestone, magnesite, diamond, tungsten and beachsands etc.NMDC CMD Sumit Deb said, "NMDC would be the firstCPSE in India to conduct drone-based geophysical surveys andhyperspectral studies for mineral exploration in the country."Thetie up with IIT-Kharagpur, he said, will open a new chapter and seta benchmark in the field of mineral exploration for thenation.NMDC is conducting exploration for various minerals inMadhya Pradesh and also in the Beloda-Belmundi block inChhattisgarh for diamonds.Under the pact, NMDC and IIT-Kharagpur would develop spectral products, methods andalgorithms for exploration using drones for mining, the statementsaid.The collaboration between NMDC and IIT-Kharagpur wouldfurther lead to the development of software spectral tools formineral excavation and capacity building programmes on miningtechnology, it said.

NMDC, IIT-Kharagpur ink pact fordrone-based mineral exploration

The Bureau of Indian Standards(BIS) will increase its activitiesto promote its various quality

norms through engagementorganisations and NGOs.As a part of Azadi ka AmritMahotsav 'Iconic Week'celebrations, a webinar wasorganized at BIS headquarters on

'Engagement of Consumer Organization & NGOs in StandardsPromotion Activities of BIS', an official statement said.Whileinaugurating the webinar, Pramod Kumar Tiwari, Director General, BIS,explained about the genesis of consumer movement in different partsof the world and the important role it played in improving the qualityecosystem.He also highlighted the role of consumer organisations andNGOs in development of standards and how they act as a bridgebetween government, regulators and common consumers."Tiwari alsoexplained the need for intensifying the Standards Promotion activitiesof BIS," the statement said.During the webinar, the participants wereinformed about the recent guidelines of BIS for engagement ofConsumer Organizations and NGOs in the work of standardspromotion activities including formation and operation of StandardsClubs, awareness programmes, door-to-door campaigns.

BIS to intensify activities relatedto promotion of quality standards

PNS n MUMBAI

Iran has offered to help Indiameet its energy needs byrelaunching rupee-rial tradefor export of oil and gas, saidIranian ambassador to IndiaAli Chegeni.

Chegeni said if both thecountries resume rupee-rialtrade, bilateral trade cantouch USD 30 billion.

Iran used to be India's sec-ond largest oil supplier butNew Delhi had to haltimports after the former USpresident Donald Trumpwithdrew from the nucleardeal with Iran and re-imposed sanctions on its oilexports."Iran is ready to meetIndia's energy security needsby launching rupee-rial tradefor export of oil and gas,"Chegeni was quoted as sayingin a statement issued by theMVIRDC World TradeCenter, here over the week-end.

He further said "a rupee-rial trade mechanism canhelp companies from both the

countries deal with each otherdirectly and avoid third-partyintermediation costs."

It can be noted that NewDelhi and Tehran had abarter-like mechanism fortrade settlement, whereinIndian oil refiners were pay-ing in rupees to a localIranian bank and the fundswere used by Tehran to payfor imports from India.

This pushed Iran tobecome the largest sourcemarket for crude for India,unseating Saudi Arabia which

used to be the largest suppli-er.However, after the USreimposed sanctions, theIndo-Iran trade plungedsharply from USD 17 billionin FY19, to less than USD 2billion in April-January ofthe current fiscal.

The envoy further saidTehran is also willing to workclosely with New Delhi torevive and find alternativeroutes for the stalled Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline pro-ject for transporting naturalgas to India.

Iran ready to meet India's energy needs,moots relaunching rupee-rial mechanism

PNS n PERTH

Russia's first McDonald's storeopened in 1990, just monthsafter the fall of the Berlin Wall.

It was a potent symbol thatthe Cold War was ending anda great ideological wound heal-ing.

Now every McDonald's inRussia is closed, as nations andcorporations reduce, suspendor sever ties in response to theinvasion of Ukraine.

The scale of economic sanc-tions imposed on Russia areunprecedented. It has beensuggested this conflict could beremaking the world order, withRussia choosing territorialhegemony over global trade.

As Craig Fuller, the chiefexecutive of supply-chain infor-mation service Freightwaves,

has put it:If the Russia-Ukraine con-

flict's international ramifica-tions keep spreading, we face areal possibility of a bifurcatingglobal economy, in whichgeopolitical alliances, energyand food flows, currency sys-tems and trade lanes couldsplit.

This is likely to be an exag-geration. Nonetheless shockwaves are spreading throughalready battered supply chains.

In this article I'm going tofocus on three elements ener-gy, food and trade lanes.

Energy exports still flowingFears over Russia's huge fos-

sil fuels export being interrupt-ed has led to global oil and gasprices spiking.

Oil tanker freight rates havetripled as ship owners weigh

the risk of being stuck withcargo they can't offload.

So far, though, there hasbeen no significant disruptionto Russia's exports. The US andUK (and Australia) are ban-ning all imports of Russian oil,

but these are not significantmarkets (and the UK timelineto end imports is by the end of2022).

More important is whatEuropean Union nations do,given their high dependence on

both Russian oil and gas.So far the EU has imposed

financial sanctions on Russianenergy producers while stillbuying their product.

Moving away from Russianoil is not easy. Russia has a12per cent global share, andglobal refineries are fine-tunned to work with pecifictypes of oil found in specificregions.

Where possible, reducingproduction to change the oilmix that goes in takes weeksand require changes in equip-ment. Severing ties withRussian oil may not be anoption in the short-term.

Replacing Russian gas iseven more challenging. TheEuropean Union takes morethan 40per cent of its gasimports from Russia.

Pipelines like Nord Stream,connecting Russia to Germany,are unmatched. Sea transporta-tion is limited. If oil tankers areoversized tin cans, LNG carri-ers are super-cooled cryogenictanks that keep the gas lique-fied at minus 160? degrees (-260 degree Celsius).

There are few players in thisgame, with the volume of gastransported globally about0.1per cent that of oil.

Food suppliesIn 2020 Russia and Ukraine

accounted for 25.6per cent ofglobal wheat exports (Russia17.6per cent, Ukraine 8percent), 23.9per cent of globalbarley exports (Russia 12.1percent, Ukraine 11.8per cent)and 14per cent of global cornexports (Ukraine 13.2per cent,Russia 1.1per cent).

Battered but not broken: how global trade is responding

PNS n WASHINGTON

US President Joe Biden's cam-paign to unite the globeagainst the Russian invasion ofUkraine is being challengednot only by adversaries such asChina but also by the world'smost populous democracy,India.

An Indian government offi-cial said on Friday that thecountry will increase itsimports of Russian oil, allow-ing it to boost energy suppliesat a discount as its economystruggles to recover from thecoronavirus pandemic.

The official, who was notauthorised to talk to reportersand spoke on the condition ofanonymity, said the latest pur-chase was 3 million barrels.

Although India isn't alonein buying Russian energy sev-eral European allies such asGermany have continued todo so the decision conflictswith Biden's efforts to isolateRussia's economy with sanc-tions.

The increased flow of oil

could further strain the rela-tionship between Washingtonand New Delhi, which hasalready been tested by India'srecent procurement ofadvanced Russian air defencesystems.

The White House is stillconsidering whether to enactsanctions on India for thatpurchase.

The issue is being looked atwith a different spin followingRussia's invasion of Ukraine,according to a US officialfamiliar with the Bidenadministration's deliberations.

Russian oil sale to Indiacomplicates Biden's efforts

PNS n NEW DELHI

The Open Network for DigitalCommerce (ONDC) willensure that small retailers getan equal opportunity to engagewith big firms, protect theirbusinesses and serve customerswith modern ways of deliverysystem, Commerce andIndustry Minister PiyushGoyal said on Saturday.

India is leading the world inbuilding digital public infra-structure, he said at an entre-preneurship summit.

As UPI is to the digital pay-ment domain, ONDC is to e-commerce in India. It willenable buyers and sellers to bedigitally visible and transactthrough an open network, nomatter what platform/appli-cation they use.

The ONDC team "is work-ing to democratise e-com-merce so that millions of small

mom-and-pop stores all overthe country and small retailersdo not get extinguished like wehave seen in the West, but get

an equal opportunity to engageusing digital technologies toprotect businesses and growtheir businesses and serve their

customs with modern ways ofdelivery," he said.

ONDC received its certifi-cate of incorporation as a pri-vate sector non-profit compa-ny on December 31, 2021.

A number of establishedcompanies have integratedwith the platform and the gov-ernment has already set up anine-member advisory coun-cil, including Nandan Nilekanifrom Infosys and NationalHealth Authority CEO R SSharma, on steps required todesign and accelerate the adop-tion of ONDC.

The minister suggestedaction agendas for entrepre-neurs to promote innovationand boost the startup ecosys-tem in the country.

He called for scaling updiversity in startups as thecountry needs entrepreneurs insectors such as agriculture andtextiles.

ONDC to help small retailersserve customers in modern ways

PNS n NEW DELHI

Reforms undertaken by thegovernment within the IncomeTax department and the"strengthening" of the Indianeconomy are among the majorfactors that led to the highest-ever direct tax collections in thecountry, which stand at over Rs13.63 lakh crore, CBDTChairman J B Mohapatra hassaid.He said apprehensionsabout the state of the economy,battered by the COVID-19spread, were belied as it "did sowell and the corporates cameout so well (in paying taxes)"during the current financialyear 2021-22.Mohapatra exud-ed confidence that the directtax mop up, which primarilyincludes personal income taxand corporation tax revenuereceipts, will continue its pre-sent streak and the departmentwill be able to successfullychase the target of collecting Rs14.20 lakh crore in taxes in thenext fiscal."It will be very dif-ficult to say how things will panout the next year but there is noroom to say that good timesonly last for four quarters,"

Mohapatra told PTI in aninterview.The Central Board ofDirect Taxes (CBDT) is theadministrative body for the I-T department and according toits March 17 announcement,direct tax collections (as onMarch 16) in India broke allprevious records.The CBDTchief listed the reasons that hebelieves led to the record col-lections."First is the strengthen-ing of the Indian economy. Thebetter the economy, the betteris the tax mop up, which is hap-pening right now."

"Second reason will be thereforms undertaken acrossdepartments having an effect

on the tax department's owncollection numbers," he said.

There are policy measuresthat have been taken over aperiod of time, in the budget oroutside the budget, and arenow giving the "rebound effect"or dividends, Mohapatrasaid."The third reason, I wouldsay, will be the reforms withinthe department... which havebeen continuous in the last fouryears.

"Probably, we have changedmore than ever in the historyof this department and thesereforms take a while to gathersteam and create results," hesaid.

Reforms in I-T dept, ‘strengthening' of economyled to record tax collections: CBDT chairman

PNS n NEW DELHI

Dodla Dairy Ltd on Saturdaysaid it has acquiredKarnataka-based Sri KrishnaMilks Pvt Ltd for Rs 50 croreto expand its business.

In a regulatory filing,Dodla Dairy informed thatthe company has executed anagreement with Sri KrishnaMilks Pvt Ltd for the acqui-sition of business as a "goingconcern" and on a slump pur-chase basis for considerationof Rs 50 crore.

The deal is expected to beconcluded in around twomonths from the date of theacquisition.The considera-tion would be in the form ofcash.

Krishna Milks Pvt Ltd(SKMPL), incorporated in1989, was the first private sec-tor dairy company inKarnataka.

SKMPL is mainly intoprocuring milk, manufactur-ing, and selling dairy prod-ucts. Its turnover in 2020-21was Rs 67.27 crore.

Dodla Dairyacquires KrishnaMilk for Rs 50 cr

PNS n MUMBAI

The country's foreignexchange reserves declinedUSD 9.646 billion to USD622.275 billion in the weekended March 11, according tothe latest data from the RBI.

In the previous week endedMarch 4, the reserves roseUSD 394 million to USD631.92 billion. It touched a life-time high of USD 642.453 bil-lion in the week endedSeptember 3, 2021.During thereporting week, the decline inthe reserves was due to a fallin the foreign currency assets(FCA), a major component ofthe overall reserves, theReserve Bank of India's (RBI)weekly data released on Fridayshowed.FCA decreased byUSD 11.108 billion to USD554.359 billion in the weekended March 11.Expressed indollar terms, the foreign cur-rency assets include the effectof appreciation or depreciationof non-US units like the euro,pound and yen held in the for-eign exchange reserves.

Future group firms to conveneshareholder, creditors meeting in AprPNS n NEW DELHI

Listed companies of theKishore Biyani-led Futuregroup on Saturday informedexchanges about meetings oftheir respective shareholdersand creditors being convenedon April 20 and 21 to get theirapproval for the Rs 24,713-crore deal with RelianceRetail.

Listed entities, includingFuture Enterprises Ltd, FutureRetail Ltd, Future ConsumerLtd and Future Supply Chain,informed exchanges aboutdates and other procedures forthe virtual meetings of share-holders and creditors.

The meetings are held vir-tually through video confer-encing and other audio-visu-

al means, the addendumnotice added.According tothe order passed by theMumbai bench of theNational Company LawTribunal (NCLT) on February28, the meeting of the share-holders would be held onApril 20. The meeting to seekthe approval of creditorswould be held on the next day,April 21, 2022.

The NCLT had given a go-ahead for convening meetingsof shareholders and creditorsof respective Future groupcompanies for approval ofthe scheme of merger andtransfer of the business toReliance Retail.As part of thedeal, Future EnterprisesLimited is the transferee com-pany to Reliance Retail.

Forex reservesdecline US $ 9.65 bnto US $ 622.27 bn

India is in final talks to startwheat export to EgyptPNS n NEW DELHI

India is in final talks to startwheat export to Egypt whilediscussions are going on withcountries like China, Turkey,China and Iran to begin theoutbound shipments of thecommodity, the commerceministry said on Saturday.Itsaid that India's wheat exportsincreased to USD 1.74 billionduring April-January 2021-22as against USD 340.17 millionin the same period last year.In2019-20, wheat exports wereworth USD 61.84 million,which rose to USD 549.67million in 2020-21, it said.Italso said that the Agriculturaland Processed Food ProductsExport DevelopmentAuthority (APEDA) hasrecently organized a meeting ofkey stakeholders in the valuechain for promoting exports tothose countries which have ahuge shipment potential inthe wake of global supplychain disruptions due to theRussia-Ukraine conflict."Atthe meeting, the Railwaysassured to make available suf-ficient rakes to meet anyimmediate demand for addi-tional wheat transport. Portauthorities have also beenasked to augment dedicatedterminals along with dedicat-ed containers for wheat apart

at ports," it added.India's wheatexports are mainly to neigh-bouring countries withBangladesh having the largestshare of more than 54 per centin both volume and valueterms in 2020-21. It hasentered new wheat marketssuch as Yemen, Afghanistan,Qatar and Indonesia.The topten importing countries forIndian wheat in 2020-21 wereBangladesh, Nepal, UnitedArab Emirates, Sri Lanka,Yemen, Afghanistan, Qatar,Indonesia, Oman andMalaysia.

"We are giving thrust onbuilding infrastructure in thevalue chain for giving boosts tocereal exports in collaborationwith the state governmentsand other stakeholders such asexporters, farmer producer

organizations, transportersetc," said M Angamuthu,Chairman, APEDA.

India accounts for even lessthan 1 per cent in world wheatexport. However, its share hasincreased from 0.14 per cent in2016 to 0.54 per cent in 2020.India is the second largestproducer of wheat with a shareof around 14.14 per cent ofworld total production in 2020.

India produces around107.59 million tonnes of wheatannually while a major chunkof it goes towards domesticconsumption.

Major wheat growing statesin India are Uttar Pradesh,Punjab, Haryana, MadhyaPradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar andGujarat."The unit price ofwheat plays an important rolein international trade.

Free pricingsystem tostrengthen MFIsPNS n MUMBAI

Rating agencies have opinedthat the new regulatoryregime for microfinanciers,wherein the cap on interestthey could charge on borrow-ers has been freed up, willbring in the industry underregulatory coverage but willlead to increased credit costfor borrowers.

The Reserve Bank onMonday issued master direc-tions on the regulatoryframework for microfinancelenders which builds on theconsultation paper issued onthe subject on June 14, 2021.The revised framework isapplicable from April 2022and it makes the regulationslender agnostic as it is applic-able to all the RBI-regulatedentities involved in microfi-nancing.The revised regula-tions aim to provide a levelplaying field to all the play-ers involved in microfinanc-ing, which will help theselenders to benefit from moreflexibility in loan pricing.

Icra Ratings in a note notedthat though loan pricing free-dom is good in terms ofmargins, the increased per-missible indebtedness posesrisk of overleveraging of bor-rowers.

SANCTIONS ON RUSSIA

sundaymagazine

spirituality 07VIJAYAWADA, March 20, 2022

IT IS DIVINITY THAT SHAPES,NOT ONLY YOUR ENDS, BUT

ALSO YOUR ACTS, YOURWORDS AND THOUGHTS

— SWAMI SIVANANDA

HIDDENSOULSPRAMOD PATHAK

As the Russia Ukraine war continues to cause death anddevastation of enormous proportions and the so-calledglobal community appears helpless, a basic question

crops up. Why are we still ruled by animal instincts with hos-tility, aggression and propensity to kill continuing with thespirit that was seen in the prehistoric ages. Have all thoseattempts to make human beings humans through education,religion and other agencies of socialisation failed to makean impact? One more question arises: Who are the soldiersfighting for? Are the Russians fighting for their country orfor a person named Putin. All those ideological alibis makelittle sense. The fact remains that it is one man’s ego, and hisparanoid assumptions that has brought this world to thebrink. Advocacies of Social Darwinism could not have ledto anything better. Survival of the fittest is a jargon that jus-tifies violence and aggression to approve pouncing of thestrong on the weak. The law of the jungle is prevailing inhuman societies, too. Man has proved to be worse than ani-mals. Animals only kill when there is need. Human beings,on the other hand, kill even when they don’t have any press-ing reason to do so. And this is not the first time.Animalinstincts have had the better of human reason in the pastalso. And it has always been just one cause. One man’s egoand many peoples’ acquiescence. The way out is applicationof righteous reason by all those who don’t say no when theywant to say no. It is against this backdrop that we need todiscuss education. Education, that is supposed to refinehuman nature and transform the animal in us to humanbeings. According to a social media post, a letter addressedto teachers was found in a Nazi concentration camp at theend of 2nd World War. It says something very relevant. Evenif the authenticity is doubtful the contents need a seriousthought. It is quoted below. ‘I am survivor of a concentra-tion camp. My eyes saw what no one should witness.Chambers built by learned engineers. Children poisoned byeducated physicians, infants killed by trained nurses,women and babies shot and burnt by high school and col-lege graduates. So, I am suspicious of education. My requestis to help your students become human. Your efforts mustnever produce learned monsters, skilled psychopaths and edu-cated illiterates. Reading, writing and arithmetic are impor-tant only if they serve towards making our childrenhumane’. Interestingly, Madan Mohan Malviya, the founderof BHU said something similar some four decades earlier.He said that a teaching university would half perform its func-tion if it does not seek to develop the heart power of its schol-ars with the same solicitude with which it develops the brainpower. He placed formation of character as one of the prin-cipal objects of creating the university. It should notturnout engineers, doctors, managers, etc., but also men ofhigh character, probity and honour. It is time to try and re-invent education so that it creates decent human beings ratherthan cold blooded professionals. It is going to be a daunt-ing task as designing a curriculum to make good humanbeings is a tall order. But attempts can be made so that theunreasonable and undeserving are not followed by the unwill-ing.Education must awaken the conscience.

Pathak is a professor of management, writer, and an acclaimed public speaker. He can be reached at ppathak.ism@gmail.com

We should, because this is thecosmic arrangement. Theworld cannot exist without

majority of us doing this. Several exam-ples will substantiate this reality. The firstand the best example is that of a moth-er. We survive in our childhood becauseour mothers choose to live for us. Evenbefore a child is born, she is already inthe mood of sacrifice. This goes on tillthe child is not so dependent on her.This is our requirement but a motherdoes this without complaint or seekinga favour. A father scarifies his needs forhis child; tries to spend time with hischild even though it maybe tough.

The third example is of socialworkers, the genuine ones. They keepthe world going by their selfless activ-ities for benefit of others. Sometimes,their families also suffer or are deprivedof what they should be getting bothmaterially and time wise. But not manycomplain if they can see the big picture.The last example is of spiritualists. Inthis case, I will cite an example, that isof Adi Shankaracharya, because he wasso outstanding. His entire life after heleft home at a young age was spent inwelfare activities of the spiritual kind,which are still benefiting the humani-ty after many centuries.

Those, who live for others, benefitin many ways for their efforts. Theymeet God’s approval, which is allimportant. Why? Because God is thecontroller of this creation; His will issupreme. God rewards such people inmany ways. Mothers get pure love fromtheir children, which is rare in this self-ish world. Fathers get recognition fromtheir children and also from the soci-ety, even thought tacit. Spiritualists, thegenuine ones, are given lots of respect,even veneration. Similarly, social work-

ers are given special places in societies.All such attention is highly satisfying,which enriches one’s life; makes itworth living. One knows that there isa higher purpose for one’s existence.This is very different from the averageperson’s life of just existing. For thoseliving for others, their satisfaction com-bined with God’s grace really feels good.

They benefit in many other ways aswell. Their tolerance power is muchgreater than that of an average person,who is likely to blow his fuse quite read-ily. Such persons have another rare qual-ity, i.e. of patience, which enriches theirlives. The mode of goodness, whichthrives on goodness of all kinds, goeshigher in proportion in them. This helpsthem in countering the modes of pas-sion and darkness effectively. And,most importantly, their ‘jeevani-shakti’(living force) multiplies, which makesliving that much easier, compared to anaverage person who mostly struggles.

Opposite is the fate of those who

have a narrowly selfish existence. Oneloses in the mind when the going istough. Some even commit suicide.Living for others gives a meaning to life.Going can be tough for anyone, but theykeep going, because there are so manyreasons to want to live. One can neverbe complete in oneself; one needs oth-ers to exist well. How does one do that?He or she lives for others. The cosmicdesign calls for us complementing oneanother. A common example is of a hus-band and wife team; they mostly pro-vide what they mutually need. Theworld shuns those who are not usefulto others. The only exceptions arethose spiritualists, who are engaged in‘tapasya’. Even these return to serve thehumanity. And it is not one-sided.Normally selfish persons do not get helpor cooperation from others. The spir-itualism starts from here, i.e. when oneserves others.

Bishnoi is a spiritual writer and can be reachedat spiritual@ajitbishnoi.com

Guilt has a big role to playon the spiritual path. Arole that can interesting-ly be classified as a ‘non-role’. Simply put, the more

guilty we feel, the more we create anegative karmic balance as a result ofaccepting ourselves as the ‘doer’ of theaction. This ownership of the actionof guilt results in the adding of onemore leaf in the book of our samskaraswaiting to play out at some point intime in this life or beyond.

When I discussed this with afriend, he was delighted. While oth-erwise being someone sitting on theproverbial ‘spiritual fence’ the conceptof being guilt-free sparked a glint inhis eye and he asked me — “so I canreally do whatever I want and remainguilt-free with no consequences?”His reaction made me laugh as Irealised that he was imagining him-self committing all sorts of moral andethical misdeeds and getting awayscot-free by surmounting his guilt.

Before I proceed with correctingthe delusions in my friend’s head, Iwould like to share the story of Rabiaof Basra, a saint who died in 801CE.

Rabia was sold as a slave when shewas young. When a famine hit Basra,her master forced her into prostitutionto make extra money. She had a greatlove for the divine and prayed longand hard when she could and entereda state of dhyan (intense spiritual edi-tation). One day, Rabia’s master sawher with an ethereal lantern suspend-ed over her head, radiating light.Awestruck, he freed the young girl.Rabia went on to become a great Sufisaint. Could she have reached such anevolved state by feeling guilty aboutbeing a prostitute? I doubt it! Despitethe odds, she had confidence in her-self and faith in the power she wor-shipped and was devoid of guilt as shedid not associate her identity with thatof the body she was in.

Now coming to my friend’s situ-ation. His statement has two big anderroneous assumptions. The firstbeing the belief that if I tell myself thatI am not guilty, I will overcome guilt.If we look at the psychological threemind model proposed by SigmundFreud, there is the conscious, subcon-scious and unconscious mind. Theconscious mind is said to be in thevicinity of 10% of the total and this iswhere my friend would first tell him-self at a superficial level that he does-n’t feel the guilt. Little realising that theguilt has already seeped deep into hissubconscious. Therefore escape isnot as easy as it appears. The otherproblem can be illustrated by a some-what ludicrous situation of a personwalking up to a police station and stat-ing that while he has murdered a fewpeople and feels no guilt so theyshould let him run free.

Simply put, the burden that the

spirit or ‘Jivaatma’ carries, theJivaatma will need to bear and theburden the physical being carries, thebeing will need to bear — both therewards and the consequences.

How then, does one surmountguilt. A suggested approach is a func-tion of three aspects. These can alsobe considered as three levels:l Balancing the negative with thepositive: When we experience a senseof wrongdoing on our part a great wayto limit the impact of the guilt is tooverwhelm this with performinggood deeds or ‘seva’. We will then viewourselves as performing positiveaction or karma that far outweighs thenegative, thus keeping our sense ofself-worth and self-belief intact - twoelements that are crucial for spiritu-al evolution. l Acceptance: Belief in the philoso-phy of destiny creates a sense of accep-tance. Acceptance that the deed wasmeant to happen and acceptance thatyou were meant to be the ‘instrument’through which it would be imple-mented. l Non-doership: This draws from theability to accept as stated above andtakes it another step forward. It is theability to truly realise that we are notthe ‘doers’ and nothing is done

through us — perceived positives ornegatives.This realisation is a functionof the realisation of ‘maya’ or the illu-sionary perception of reality.

Reflect for a moment, on thisstory from the Ramayana about thefight between Rama and Vali or Bali(the brother of Sugriva and father ofAngada). Bali had the boon of beingable to seize half the strength of thosewho fought him face-to-face. Ramawas aware of this boon, and in orderto be victorious in combat with Bali,hid behind a tree and shot an arrowinto Bali’s back thereby killing himand ending his reign. Now, whywould the mighty, just, and reveredRama not experience any guilt aboutwhat appears to be an act of cow-ardice.

To understand this, you will needto lean on the teachings of GuruVasishtha. Rama had been schooled byhim in the belief that this worldappearance is nothing but a delusioncreated by the mind. All that is con-sidered real is but a thought in thesupreme consciousness. A dreamwhich appears real to the dreamer butwhen one awakens they see it for whatit is — nothing. Good, bad, right,wrong, ‘you’ and ‘I’ are all just wordsthat are used to realise this journey.

Thus surmounting his own identity,duality, the world appearance, themind and the senses had helpedRama realise non-doership and there-fore there was no element of guilt, justa Role Play that was being performed.

Needless to say, while this can be‘academically comprehended’ it isn’tsomething that can be realised with-out significant spiritual evolutionand practice.

So, in conclusion, guilt is not agreat thing for personal as well as spir-itual progress. Looking down uponourselves is not a very good route torealising the divinity within. To over-come guilt there is no shortcut. Juststep after step of doing the right thingsin the form of seva that will help the‘guna mix’ through the creation ofmore ‘satva’. Over time acceptanceand eventually non-doership willeliminate this entirely. My advicewould be two-fold — seva is a lowhanging fruit so easy to perform. Goahead and go overboard with it. Onthe other hand are acceptance and thesomewhat more difficult aspects ofnon-doership — in this case ‘fake ittill you make it’. And make it you sure-ly will.

The writer is the author of Hingori Sutrasseries of spiritual books

The Goal ofEducation

Live for others

Mental health wellnessand productive perfor-mance go hand in

hand. Therefore, it makes sensethat employee well being hasbecome a primary concern ofseveral organisations and per-formance discussions.Employees need unwaveringsupport and faith from theiremployers if they are to performat their best,and this is especial-ly true for employees who maybe dealing with mental healthchallenges like anxiety ordepression. Employers need tomake it clear to their employeesthat they can count on yourencouragement and under-standing without fear of losingtheir jobs or a promotion. Withthis in mind let’s discuss anxiety,a disorder that can seriouslyaffect performance, quality ofwork and employee motivation.

Anxiety disorders suffererscan be affected physically, psy-chologically, emotionally andeven spiritually. Even thoughthere may not be any outwardsigns of illness, anxiety disordercan be fraught with distressingand debilitating symptoms. Itcan also cause severe lifestyleimpairment and what seems likeinsurmountable physical andmental health challenges. Thesechallenges often leave sufferersfrightened, confused, frustrated,and at their wit’s end.

The five major forms ofanxiety are: Panic disorder, Posttraumatic stress disorder,Obsessive compulsive disorder,Social anxiety disorder and

Generalised anxiety disorderSomeone with anxiety

might always feel on edge, havedifficulty concentrating for longspans of time or worry exces-sively. They might also be easilyirritable and indecisive, andmay experience elevated levelsof stress and nervousness.

People often assume anxietyand stress to be essentially thesame. Almost every professionalworking person experiencesstress, particularly when dead-lines look or a company is fac-ing difficulties, but not everyemployee experiences anxiety.

Here are a few waysemployees can support:l Be open to discussion: Everyoneexperiences a different intensityand frequency of anxiety. No twoemployees will have the same

trigger nor will they express theiranxiety in the same way. Despitethe stigma around mental health,employers should initiate an hon-est dialogue and take the initiativeto let employees know that theirmental wellness is being taken seri-ously. Once the employees startfeeling more confident confidingin the management you can col-laboratively create a motivatingwork environment. l Be flexible: Sometimes simplyknowing the possibility of work-ing flexibly can help reduce anemployee’s anxiety. For peoplewith anxiety some days are worsethan others thus, they might needadditional time for certain assign-ments. Making small adjustments,offering telecommuting or flex-time can do a world of good. l Frequent and transparent

communication: A one time hon-est discussion isn’t enough. Onceyou’ve established healthy dia-logue with an employee you mustmaintain regular contact.Communication is a key factor inemployee motivation. Arranginga meeting with employees everymonth to ask them how they arecoping with their workload, assist-ing them by providing positivefeedback, discussing achievementsand progress, appreciating andrecognising their work is crucial.

It is important to rememberthat not all disabilities are exter-nally visible. Individuals withanxiety want to give their all andas employers its your responsi-bility to provide them the toolsand support they need to do so.

The writer is a life coach andmotivational speaker

Employers must acknowledge anxiety and make adjustments toaccommodate those suffering from it, writes ANAMIKA YADUVANSHI

Mental health & workThose, who live for others, benefit in many ways. Theymeet God's approval, writes AJIT KUMAR BISHNOI

The more guilty we feel, the more we create a negative karmic balance as aresult of accepting ourselves as the ‘doer’ of the action, shares HINGORI

BEAT THE GUILT TRIP

THE BURDENTHAT THE SPIRITOR ‘JIVAATMA'CARRIES, THEJIVAATMA WILLNEED TO BEAR

AND THE BURDENTHE PHYSICAL

BEING CARRIES,THE BEING WILLNEED TO BEAR -

BOTH THEREWARDS & THECONSEQUENCES

sundaymagazine

97Beat the Guilt Trip

VIJAYAWADA, March 20, 2022

Dairy sector in the post Covid timeis just about limping back to lifeafter facing challenges likedemand degeneration, high cost ofcattle maintenance and changing

demand patterns. Even though it has been adifficult time for farmers, especially the smalland marginal ones, who own limited numberof milch animals, the pandemic also forcedaction on the much required digitisation of thedairy sector.

As the initial hardships subsided, theIndian dairy sector actually faced an unprece-dented boost of demand, given the importanceof milk in building up stamina and immunity.Also, as supply chain was impacted due toCovid, the dairy sector actually saw a boost inthe demand of the small farmers who couldsupply locally without any hindrances.Growing demand and long range transportissues brought forward the importance of localdairies.

TECHNOLOGY TO MAKE DAIRY SECTOR

‘SMART’

For the sector to grow sustainably from thegrass root level, while maintaining the qualityof milk, will need more than change in patternof consumer demand of milk and milk prod-ucts. It will need interventions like micro-finance, health tracking devices for cattle, cattlemonitoring drones for larger farm and freerange cattle, product traceability for customersthrough technology and many such technologyinterventions. Dairy farming need to become‘Smart’ to sustain the changes in demand andother parameters.

An economic survey estimated that in thelast six to seven years, India’s milk productioncapacity has escalated by 35.61 per cent to198.4 million tonnes in 2019-2020, nearly a 6per cent increase over 2018-19. Meanwhile,dairy and animal husbandry are estimated tocontribute 4.2 per cent to India’s GDP. But stillwhen demand is increasing at a rate of 6 per-cent, supply is only increasing at a rate of 4percent. The difference in supply is what isleading to additives and milk adulteration. Andit has been proven that the technology inter-ventions coupled with better supply chainmanagement and traceability of milk freshnesswill help to build up the trust on the product.

The pandemic has turned the crisis into anopportunity for dairy farmers and right inter-vention can help the sector overcome its draw-backs like limited export market, being a part

of unstructured market and production alongwith more human interaction with the prod-ucts. However, as indicated earlier, most of thedairy farmers are marginal — hence to boostthe technology introduction, the sector alsoneed structural changes like strengthening thecooperatives beyond supply points and makingthem shared technology sources as well,

DAIRY CO-OPS SHOULD BECOME ‘TECH HUBS’

The capacity created by private dairies inthe last 20 years is more than the capacity setup by the cooperatives in over 30 years.However, given the micro nature of most of thefarmers, Indian hinterland and rural farmersare still unorganised and in desperate need fortechnological intervention. The proliferation ofdairy-tech start-ups, is transforming the face ofthe Indian dairy sector slowly but steadily.

The risk of technology adaptions andtraining to use these technologies is best to bedealt through collaborations — in this case co-operatives, which can be used like hub andspoke model to enable the technology training.Even in the supply side, as online ordering ismore prevalent, registering supply throughcommon platform is more rewarding than try-ing to create independent micro platforms.

Artificial Intelligence and machine learn-ing in supply chain management will essential-ly take away the issues of sharing a commonselling point through co-operatives. The sharedcost of technology, order management andsupply chain will help the rural economyimmensely. It is always easier to look after thewell-being of the cattle through a unifiedsource, rather than trying to face challengesalone. The co-operatives can adopt biotechnol-ogy advancements for disease managementamong cattle or utilise Internet of Things fortracking livestock, breeding programmes andwellbeing of the cattle from one point of man-agement.

Technology can be utilised seamlessly onlywhen it can have used for a sizeable popula-tion. Not only it helps to transform the price ofthese technologies to a much reduced andaffordable cost, but also minimises humanintervention in management of the cattle, orthe milk supply chain.

HOW WILL A TECH LED DAIRY ECONOMY LOOK

LIKE

The advanced high-tech setups in privatefarms or the modern cooperatives will essen-tially pave the way for an export led growth of

Indian dairy market. According to the UNFood and Agriculture Organisation (FAO)forecast, world trade in dairy products in 2021stood at 88 million tonnes in which India hada miniscule share with annual dairy productsexports of just about 1.18 lakh tonnes in 2020-21. Apart from the growth of export market,according to the National Dairy DevelopmentBoard (NDDB), the demand for milk and milkproducts in India will surge up to 266.5 millionmetric tonnes by 2030.

Through common platforms, technologyproviders will have direct access to farmers andprovide customised services. The farmers willbe able to focus on the quality and variationsof the products. As technology drives in, it willbecome much easier to set standards for dairyproducts, thus slowly weeding away the prob-lem of adulteration. Bureau of IndianStandards (BIS) along with National DairyDevelopment Board (NDDB) has alreadyissued a unified system for quality and safety ofmilk and dairy products across the country.The integrated logo of Kamdhenu Cow — aseal of certified quality, is the first ever moveby India to bring uniformity in milk qualityand certify end-to-end milk value-chain.Themove will not only benefit dairy consumers,but also milk producers who aims to achievegreater access to international markets. Qualitywill also bring in better price realisations inboth domestic and export markets.

The pandemic has established that devel-opment is proportionate to tech-adoption forevery sector, and the story isn’t going to be anydifferent for the dairy sector. Already, there aretechnology interventions in the market like AIenabled collar to study the pregnancy cycle ofbovines; a smart cloud based solution whichdigitises cattle health, milk production, milkprocurement, milk testing, and cold chainmanagement; and direct payment platforms fordairy processors and cooperatives.

Add to these, mechanisms like cattle moni-toring drones, well refrigerated supply chainand methods to check out milk freshness atrealtime that enables quality assurance, andIndia can become a powerhouse for milk pro-duction and export. The Indian dairy supplychain is a complex geography given theamount of transportation required to reachfrom plant to consumers. As it is a function ofa lot of factors like right packaging, storagetemperatures during passage, cold chain avail-ability, weather, perishability quotient of theproduct, the last mile coverage — it is a daunt-

ing task to digitalise milk supply chain, espe-cially with the challenging geography thatIndia has. However, numerous supply chainstartups have actually taken up the challenge tobridge the gap, thus opening up huge possibili-ties for the dairy farmers and their profitability.

Another part of dairy management is feed-ing the bovine proper nutrition. There aretechnology breakthroughs that are able to pro-vide quality check and manage the feeding aswell. There are a number of feed technologiesthat today produce formulated feed additivesand supplements, that enables optimal milkproduction throughout the year. The NationalDairy Development Board (NDDB) has alsodeveloped bypass protein technology to pro-duce specially treated protein supplements thathelp to increase milk yield and quality.

CONNECTING THE FARMERS — HOW TO

REPLACE TRADITION

According India Brand Equity Foundation,despite technologies making its presence felt indairy sector, only around 20 percent dairyfarmers are involved in organised productionof milk. Given this unorganised status of theindustry, the scale of production is still lackingand most of the dairy farmers still lack finan-cial means, accessibility and expertise todeploy the technology. As cooperatives andfintech startups ease out the financial crunch,it will take effort to help farmers adopt theavailable technologies and become ‘smart’.India’s mega plan to produce about 300 milliontonnes of milk by 2024, will need market con-nectivity, financial planning and policy push tobe achieved.

B2B marketplaces have started mentoringthe farmers and making modern equipmentand advisory services available at the doorstepto farmers through smartphones. B2C plat-forms on the other hand have also emerged ata rapid pace, offering services to pick up freshproduce from farms and deliver them at thedoorstep of retail customers, hotels, restaurantsand cafes.

Technology intervention and help to accessthem has had a positive enough influence ondairy farmers in India. The current start-upand technology revolution will need to trans-form the resolution to adapt modernisationthus pushing the nano-steps towards achievingthe “Second White Revolution” in the country.

The writer is an IITian & alumni of theUniversity of Massachusetts . He is founder Sid’s

Farm Private Ltd

The more guilty we feel, the more wecreate a negative karmic balance as a

result of accepting ourselves as the ‘doer'

F R O M T H E I N S I D E

Endgame: Putin resetting whole world While keeping the channel for truce open withrounds of talks with Ukraine, it seems RussianPresident Vladimir Putin is in no mood to stop

AS COOPERATIVES ANDFINTECH STARTUPS

EASE OUT THEFINANCIAL CRUNCH, ITWILL TAKE EFFORT TO

HELP FARMERS ADOPTTHE AVAILABLE

TECHNOLOGIES ANDBECOME ‘SMART'.

INDIA'S MEGA PLAN TOPRODUCE ABOUT 300MILLION TONNES OFMILK BY 2024, WILL

NEED MARKETCONNECTIVITY,

FINANCIAL PLANNINGAND POLICY PUSH TO

BE ACHIEVED

TECH INTENSIVE DAIRY SECTORCAN BECOME MORE SUSTAINABLETECH INTENSIVE DAIRY SECTORCAN BECOME MORE SUSTAINABLE

The current start-up and technology revolution will need to transform the resolution to adapt modernisation thuspushing nano-steps towards achieving the Second White Revolution in the country, writes KISHORE INDUKURI

There's nothing moretouching than putting

a smile on a kid'sface when you can—Emma Roberts

sundaymagazine

opinion 09VIJAYAWADA, March 20, 2022

MAKHAN SSAIKIA

PERSPECTIVE

The Ukraineinvasion hasunveiled Putin’splan: He not onlywants to stopNATO’s advancein the vicinity ofRussia, but alsohas a grand planto help Russiagain its lostglory. And thepath to that goalhinges on newthe post ColdWar global orderhe is trying tomake

MANAN DDWIVEDI

The vision of an Indian global leadership was initially flagged off by former US President Donald Trump which has been further defined in the context of

President Biden’s foreign policy thought and proclivities, which is there to be observed by all and sundry and not to be scathingly relegated to the backburner

Endgame: Putin resetting whole world

American pivot in Indo-Pacific

Asia-Pacific is on the boil asfar as the context of the

largest international system isconcerned. The initiation of theAmerican pivot to the Orientand the Asiatic space is also awell-written and much toooften deliberated upon phe-nomenon. The rise of thePeople’s Republic of China is anomniscient and an ominousdevelopment but the surge inthe Asian economic marketsand the change in theAmerican pivot since the timesof Secretary of State HillaryClinton in 2011 served asdefining moments of the inter-national system. The Asianpivot of the United States ofAmerica was orchestratedthrough its much-famed Asia-Pacific fleet operating fromnear the vicinity of its militarybases such as Guam. WithChina being expansionist,hegemonic and quintessential-ly overarching, its militarymodernisation and the Hanpredominance over the supplychains warranted a novaeapproach to balance theChinese, “peaceful rise”, as theChinese observers designatethe nomenclature, to the eco-nomic and geo-strategic pelfand influence of Beijing.

The Asia-Pacific was his-torically buttressed since the

heady days of World War IIand was identified with lorelike instances, such as the bat-tles of the INA under the lead-ership of Subhash ChandraBose, the utilitarian treatmentof the Navajo ethnic fraterni-ty in the Indo-China regionwith the use of the Navajo sol-diers as radio men and signaldecoders with the Americanforces, along with the highflown bravery and valour of theChindit contingents of theBritish forces pitted against aninvading Japanese military dis-pensation.

The United States studycentre writes, “The BidenAdministration sees the UnitedStates as being in a ‘systemscompetition’ between democ-racy and autocracy. By makingideological competition withChina an organising principlefor US foreign policy,Washington risks underminingits attractiveness as a partnerand key actor in the Indo-Pacific.”

Thus, the Manichaeisminvolved in the Indo-Pacificnarrative, along with theBushism of “Us versus Them”initiated during the hurly burlydays of the Gulf war era, stillechoes in the foreign policyutterances of President JoeBiden.

The American pivot inconsonance with earlier analy-sis and deliberations pointedtowards the quintessentialstandpoint policy of encirclingand containment 2.0 aimed tobelittle the strength and the riseof People’s Republic of China.It was pointed out that the soleChinese tilt, the au courant textof the Quad narrative and theattendant US foreign policymight not be an effective andinstrumental weapon to utilisein order to achieve the largerobjective of strangulatingBeijing.

Still, the Quad approach ofnations comprising India, theUnited States, Australia andJapan needs to broaden thebroadside beyond China. Whatit means is that the new Quadgrouping which has beenrecently reinvigorated needs todabble into the contemporarycontexts of cyber threats, dronewarfare, good governance,accountability, innovation andthe miasma of dual use tech-nologies. This is somethingwhich has been already includ-ed in the larger and broaderagenda and the mandate of theQuad, which is more than abland grouping of the liberaldemocratic nations, their ide-ology and doctrine amount toa significant but not a com-

prehensive figment by anystretch of imagination. TheUS in Asia and the Pacific havea larger mandate to fulfil whichtethers the democracies withpluralistic demeanour to amuch larger operational frameof reference.

The other burning andpedestalled quests such as theuniversalisation of digital infra-structure and an adherence toopen, resilient and trustworthytechnologies, are also some ofthe mainframe ventures of theUS in the tested seas and theattendant maritime spacewhich takes the Americaninterest and stakes in the Indo-Pacific much beyond the pal-lor of Chinese security andstrategic transgressions. TheQuad narrative also includesthe concerns of freedom ofspeech, freedom of expressionand to spawn a free, open andobjective space for the jour-nalists who can operate sansthreats and coercive environs.

This initiative rings trueabout the Chinese scheming inHong Kong in the name of sup-porting and promoting humanrights and all significant free-doms without getting axiomat-ic and holier-than-thou, aboutthe all favourite dictum of“Values” in the Americandomestic firmament.

Still, it needs not be under-scored that the USA is anIndo-Pacific power. So theconcomitant poser posits itselfon the situation that how doesone comprehend the Indo-Pacific? Ideally and academi-cally, the conceptualisation ofthe Indo-Pacific includes alarge regional footprint stretch-ing from the America’s Westcoast to the north coastline ofAfrica where in the extent ofthe Indo-Pacific expanseextends from the penguins tothe polar bears. German geo-strategic thinker and strategistKarl Haushofer introduced thenomenclature of “Indo-Pacific”in the 1920s while the Indianhistorian Kalidas Nag men-tioned the Indo- Pacificdenomination in his work inthe 1940s.

The White House’s officialrelease sheds pertinent andsignificant light on the themeof America’s Indo-Pacific pol-icy. The White House’s whitepaper contends boldly that,“The United States has longrecognised the Indo-Pacific asvital to our security and pros-perity. Our ties were forged twocenturies ago, when Americanscame to the region seekingcommercial opportunities, andgrew with the arrival of Asianimmigrants to the United

States. The Second World Warreminded the United Statesthat our country could only besecure if Asia was, too. And soin the post-war era, the UnitedStates solidified our ties withthe region, through ironcladtreaty alliances with Australia,Japan, the Republic of Korea,the Philippines, and Thailand.”

In a way it was theAmerican debacle at PearlHarbour and the US espousalof the state of Philippines in theinitial epoch of the 20th cen-tury which flagged off theregion’s situation in the contextof the larger international sys-tem. Apart from the valueladen approach which hasbecome the foundationaltheme of US foreign policy, theregional organisations such asASEAN, TPP and RCEP, too,appear in the foreground asforming the key mandate of theAmerican foreign policy.

Thus, a primal substra-tum of Indo-Pacific security isthe projected order of the day,wherein, the larger tracts of lib-eral democracy and America’savowed inclusiveness con-cerning the tenet of valuescomes tidily and effectively tothe fore. Nations of the orderof Philippines, ROK andThailand have been tradition-al and all weather allies of

Washington, which haslaunched forth a new rebal-ancing in the Asia-Pacificbeyond the dark shows andantecedents of World War II.

The recently observed sup-port and succour being envis-aged by Washington to the geo-economic and geo-strategicrise of India is a strategic anddiplomatic theme, which positsNew Delhi as the upfront cyno-sure of all global eyes. Thevision of an Indian global lead-ership was initially flagged offby former US President DonaldTrump, which has been furtherdefined in the context ofPresident Biden’s foreign poli-cy thought and proclivitieswhich is there to be observedby all and sundry and not to bescathingly relegated to thebackburner.

The Indian Covid-19diplomacy also gels with theAmerican and the Quad’s takeon the mitigation mechanismsof the Covid containmentwhich further underscores theQuad’s and the American con-cern for India’s rise in theAsiatic and the global geo-political space.

(The writer teaches atInternational Relations andInternational Organisations,IIPA, New Delhi)

While keeping the channelfor truce open with

rounds of talks with Ukraine,it seems Russian PresidentVladimir Putin is in no moodto stop attacks on Ukraine tillhe attains his objectives, whichinclude resetting the US-ledliberal world order. EmbattledUkrainian PresidentVolodymyr Zelenskyy is beg-ging for help from the inter-national community, particu-larly from America, but exceptsupplying weapons and slap-ping severe economic sanctionson Putin and his cronies, theWest has, so far, miserablyfailed to stop the Russianstrongman. The whole world isa mute spectator to the crisis.

The magnitude of Russia’smulti-pronged invasion isunparalleled after the SecondWorld War. The attacks onUkraine are not just aboutteaching Zelenskyy a lesson forchoosing to get away from theRussian sphere of influence, butthe invasion is a tell-tale signthat Russia and CommunistChina are trying to redefine theglobal liberal world order dom-inated by the US-led Westsince the end of the devastat-ing war in 1945-46.

Succinctly, the West couldnot grasp grim signals emerg-ing from many corners of theglobe, especially from anemerging Russian Federationthat has grown by leaps andbounds under the leadership ofPutin since 1999. In fact, thebreakdown of the USSR shouldhave been a stern warning forthe US as it opened the stagefor resetting the Cold War-infested world order by theresurgent Russia.

Putin has always been anenigma for the US. The “grandspy master”, Putin has an innerdesire to bring back the gloryof the old Russian Empire.And therefore the Russianinvasion and Putin’s war moveswere foretold. By the end of2021, Moscow presented a listof demands to Washington,saying these need to be meturgently to stave off an imme-diate conflagration in neigh-bouring Ukraine.

His message to the Westwas straight and unmistakable- if these demands are not metor considered immediately,Russia will have to resort tomilitary action to settle it. And

finally, Putin did the same onFebruary 24 by heralding thespectre of the Third World Warto Europe.

This week Putin saidRussia would achieve its goalsin Ukraine. He also underlinedthat his country would not sur-render to what he termed as“Western attempt” to achieveglobal dominance and dis-member Russia. He alsoadvanced his opinion thatRussia is ready to discuss neu-tral status for Ukraine.

Putin declared, “Russiawould never break down orback down, they don’t knowour history or our people.”This makes absolutely clear

what Putin wants from theWest and out of the debris ofUkraine.

As America’s image hastaken a severe beating for itsinability to save Ukraine fromRussian assault, US PresidentJoe Biden tried to weave afavourable narrative by brand-ing Putin “war criminal”. Whileretorting to Washington’s“unforgettable rhetoric”,Moscow has threatened that ithas all the wherewithal to cutthe world’s superpower downto size. It also accused the US-led West of stoking a “WildRussophobic Plot” to tear themodern Russian Federationapart.

The moot point is whetherthe “war crimes” threat of theUS is deliverable? Can Putinand his forces be booked by theUN body under war crimes? Asa matter of fact, the Russianinvasion of Ukraine is regard-ed as the most brazen illegalwar ever launched by a sover-eign state against another sincethe end of the Second WorldWar. This aggression ofMoscow has clearly violated theprinciples of the UN Charterthat prohibits the “use of forceagainst the territorial integrityor political independence ofany state”. The western mediaclaim there is an avalanche ofevidence that the Russian army

is committing war crimesacross Ukraine simply by tar-geting non-combatants i.e.civilians.

Today, Ukraine’s 44 millionpeople are facing the continuedonslaught of the Russian Armyfrom all sides. And more thanthree million Ukrainians haveleft for the neighbouring coun-tries. Paul Dillon, spokespersonof the InternationalOrganization for Migration(IOM), said: “We have nowreached three million marks interms of movements of peopleout of Ukraine to neighbour-ing countries. And amongthese people there are 157,000third-country nationals.”

Further, some 1.5 million chil-dren have now joined the exo-dus from Ukraine.

The view of the MariupulDrama Theatre indicates that itwas a shelter for 1,000 peoplein the war-torn zone. The sad-dest part of the tragedy is thatthe theatre in the front andback was earmarked in whitecolour as “Deti” meaning chil-dren in the Russian language.Despite such labelling, thebombing was carried out onthe shelter. Hundreds of civil-ians were hiding there in thecolumned theatre in centralMariupol after their homeswere devastated by the Russianforces. These facts are sufficient

evidence of war crimes. The facts, however, are not

always taken into account ingeopolitics, especially whenthe accused is a mighty power.With veto-power-buildingChina openly backing Russia,the efforts to try Putin and hismen as war criminals wouldprove futile.

Seen in that perspective,Putin warned that if theUkrainians continue to resist,they “risk the future ofUkrainian statehood”. It is aclear indication that Putinwants Ukraine to surrenderunconditionally.

It is an all-out conflict. IfPutin is claiming that he has anupper hand in this stand-off, hereally has. Putin has consoli-dated his power and van-quished all his enemies over theyears.

Initially, it seemed thatRussia was only concernedabout NATO expansion inEastern Europe. Putin is tryingto bring a permanent freeze onthe further advancement of thealliance’s military infrastructurelike massive bases and weaponsystems in the territories oferstwhile Soviet Union, animmediate end to western mil-itary assistance to Ukraine,and a ban on intermediaterange missiles in Europe.

The Ukraine invasion hasunveiled Putin’s plan: he notonly wants to stop NATO’sadvance in the vicinity ofRussia, but also has a grandplan to help Russia gain its lostglory. In the path to that goalhinges on new the post ColdWar global order. Putin hasdelivered a massive setback tothe US-led world order. And,China under the leadership ofXi Jinping has offered its shoul-der to Putin. It shows a newworld order is in the making.Its only aim is to prevent thedemocratic liberal order onceruled by the West.

(Dr Makhan Saikia hastaught political science andinternational relations for overa decade in institutions ofnational and internationalrepute after specialisation inglobalisation and governancefrom Tata Institute of SocialSciences, Mumbai. He is thechief editor of the Journal ofGlobal Studies, an internation-al research journal)

People cover the windows Museum of Ethnography with metal plates in Lviv, western Ukraine AP file photo

Egypt on Saturday dis-played recently dis-covered, well-deco-

rated ancient tombs at aPharaonic necropolis justoutside the capital Cairo.

The five tombs that wereunearthed earlier thismonth, date back to theOld Kingdom (1570 BCand 1069 BC), and theFirst Intermediate Periodthat spanned more than acentury after the collapseof the Old Kingdom,according to the Ministryof Tourism andAntiquities.

Mostafa Waziri, secre-tary-general of theSupreme Council ofAntiquities, said Egyptianarcheologists started exca-vating the site in

September.He said the tombs were

for senior officials, includ-ing regional rulers andsupervisors of the palacein ancient Egypt.

All of those five tombsare well-painted, well-dec-orated. Excavations didnot stop. We are planningto continue our excava-tions. We believe that wecan find more tombs inthis area, Waziri toldreporters at the site.Thetombs were found near theStep Pyramid of Djoser inthe Saqqara Necropolis,about 24 kilometers (15miles) southwest of Cairo.

Footage shared on theministry's social mediapages showed burial shaftsleading to the tombs.

Walls were decorated withhieroglyphic inscriptionsand images of sacred ani-mals and after-life itemsused by ancient Egyptians.

The Saqqara site is partof a sprawling necropolisat Egypt's ancient capitalof Memphis that includesthe famed Giza Pyramidsas well as smaller pyra-mids at Abu Sir, Dahshurand Abu Ruwaysh. Theruins of Memphis weredesignated a UNESCOWorld Heritage site in1970s.

In recent years, Egypthas heavily promoted newarchaeological finds tointernational media anddiplomats in the hope ofattracting more touriststo the country.

Egypt displays recently discoveredancient tombs in Saqqara

After two years of low-key celebrations amidrising COVID-19

cases, 'Dol jatra' or Holi wasmarked with grand fervourthis time at Mayapur -- theglobal headquarters ofInternational Society forKrishna Consciousness

(ISKCON) -- with close to alakh devotees taking part inthe annual fiesta on Friday,smearing each other withcolours and dancing to thebeats of Hare Krishna'chants.

The religious organisationalso observed the 536th birth

anniversary of 15th centurysaint Chaitanya MahaPrabhuon this occasion, itsspokesperson Subrata Biswassaid. Devotees from 92 coun-tries offered prayers early inthe day, and some of themwere seen adorning the tem-ple premises with seasonal

flowersandstrings ofmultihuedlights.

Priestsblewconchshells andperformedarati' amidtraditionalbeating ofdrums,before therevellers setout to playwith gulal'(coloured pow-der).

At Belur Math,the global headquar-ters of RamakrishnaMath and Mission,monks participated inthe prayer sessions andchanted mantras on theoccasion of 'Dol jatra'.

Entry of visitors, however,was restricted for the thirdyear in a row, given the factthat the pandemic hasn'tended yet, a spokesperson atthe Math said.

Thousands of take part in ‘Dol jatra’

scopekaleid backpage VIJAYAWADA | SUNDAY | MARCH 20, 2022

Australia's Great BarrierReef is suffering wide-spread and severe

coral bleaching due to highocean temperatures twoyears after a mass bleachingevent, a government agencysaid on Friday.

The report by the GreatBarrier Reef MarineAuthority, which managesthe world's largest coral reefecosystem, comes three daysbefore a United Nations dele-gation is due to assesswhether the reef 's WorldHeritage listing should bedowngraded due to the rav-ages of climate change.

Weather patterns over thenext few weeks will be criti-cal in determining the over-all extent and severity ofcoral bleaching across theMarine Park, the authoritysaid.

Bleaching hasbeen detectedacross the MarinePark it is wide-spread butvariable,across

multiple regions, ranging inimpact from minor to severe,the authority added.

The reef has suffered sig-nificantly from coral bleach-ing caused by unusuallywarm ocean tempera-tures in

2016, 2017 and 2020. Theprevious bleaching damagedtwo-thirds of the coral.

The environmental groupGreenpeace said the severeand widespread coral bleach-

ing suffered during aLa Ni a

weather pattern that is asso-ciated with cooler PacificOcean temperatures was evi-dence of the Australian gov-ernment's failure to protectthe coral from the impacts ofclimate change.

This is a sure sign that cli-mate change caused by burn-ing coal, oil and gas is threat-ening the very existence ofour reef, GreenpeaceAustralia Pacific ClimateImpacts Campaigner MartinZavan said in a statement.

In July last year, Australiagarnered enough interna-tional support to defer anattempt by UNESCO, theUnited Nations' culturalorganization, to downgradethe reef 's World Heritage sta-tus to in danger because ofdamage caused by climatechange.

Aprocess is underwayto translate and pub-lish hundreds of orig-

inal Buddhist manuscriptsfrom Nalanda andVikramshila, saved duringthe burning of the ancientuniversities in the 12th and13th centuries by BakhtiyarKhilji's army and laterbrought back to India fromTibet by traveller, freedomfighter and monk RahulSankrityayan, a Bihar stateminister has said.

Bihar Art and CultureMinister Alok Ranjaninformed the assembly onThursday that the processhas been started by the

Central Institute of HigherTibetan Studies (CIHTS) atSarnath.

"The state government hassigned an MoU with CIHTSfor the translation and pub-lication of original Buddhistmanuscripts that were savedduring the burning of twogreat ancient universities ofNalanda and Vikramshilaand taken to Tibet.

"The valuable manuscriptswere brought back to Indiaby Sankrityayan and arenow housed in PatnaMuseum. The work to trans-late the manuscripts toHindi and publish those isexpected to be completed in

five years," he said.The manuscripts were

written in Sanskrit by schol-ars of the two universitiesbetween the seventh and12th centuries AD.

CPI (ML) MLA fromDumraon, Ajit KumarSingh, had raised the issuedemanding that the stategovernment preserves theoriginal Buddhist manu-scripts brought bySankrityayan.

He also demanded that amemorial dedicated toShehnai player Bharat RatnaUstad Bismillah Khan bebuilt at his native place inDumraon.

Huge turnout at Puri temple asLord Jagannath adorns golden attire

Astampede like situationwas created in front of theShree Jagannath Temple

here on Friday as a large numberof people gathered there to wit-ness a ritual in which the siblingdeities are decked in gold jew-ellery on the occasion of DolaPurnima.

The incident occurred whenthe huge crowd gathered beforethe Lion's Gate attempted tobarge into the 12th-centuryshrine after breaking barricadesto have a glimpse of the deities -Lord Balabhadra, Devi Subhadraand Lord Jagannath - in "SunaBesha" (golden attire), officialssaid.The deities were decked ingold jewellery embellished withdiamond and gems taken outfrom the temple treasury.

The crowd was later properlymanaged and none has sufferedany injury though some womenhad fallen down on the ground,a senior official of the ShreeJagannath TempleAdministration (SJTA) said.

We were not expecting such ahuge turnout of devotees. Manydevotees came to the temple towitness the Suna Besha as theywere denied the opportunity fortwo years due to Covid-19restrictions. The people includ-ing women broke the barricadeand attempted to enter into thetemple after pushing us down, apolice official said.

The devotees might have gotimpatient because of the hotand humid weather in the townwhile the shed provided by theadministration was not enoughto give respite to that hugecrowd.The deities adorn goldenattire on five occasions a yearand Dola Purnima is one ofthem. The other days are:'Ratha Jatra' (July), 'Dusshera'(October), 'Panchuka' in themonth of Kartik (November)and 'Pusha Purnima'(December).

Earlier in the day, LordJagannath was worshipped as"Dola Govinda" during DolaPurnima and Lord Govinda(Narayana) with GoddessSridevi (Lakshmi) are placedon the 'Dola Bedi (pedestal) toplay Holi with the devotees.

On the occasion of "DolaJatra", a six-day festival isheld, which begins from theFalguna Dasami. While spe-cial rituals are held in theShree Jagannath Temple, theidol of deities, especially ofLord Krishna, is carried to allhouses in villages on a deco-rated "Veemana" (palanquin).

The people carrying theidols and those followingthem are smeared with 'Abira'(dry colour). The processionhalts in front of each house-hold and the deity is offeredfruits and sweetmeats.

Astate-of-the-

art brain centre thatwill work on map-

ping the human brainat cellular and connec-

tivity levels, with a focuson high-resolution brain

imaging, was launched bythe Indian Institute of

Technology Madras onSaturday. The centre, namedafter Sudha Gopalakrishnan,wife of Infosys co-founder andIIT Madras alumnus KrisGopalakrishnan, aims tobecome a world-renownedresearch centre, generatingunprecedented human braindata, scientific output andtechnology tools, officials said.

According to them, theinstitute plans to train itsundergraduate and post-graduate students in neuro-science and computing,and machine learningtechniques on brain data.

The combination ofIIT Madras, which has

the expertise in sci-ence and data

analysis, withmedicine, is

going to berevolution-

ary.Going

for-

ward,we havean extraor-dinary prob-lem in neuroscience--on the functioning of thehuman brain. We are at anearlier stage in our under-standing of the human brainfunctioning. The IIT Madrasbrain centre will help in solv-ing complex issues that willbenefit the world, K VijayRaghavan, Principal ScientificAdviser to the Government ofIndia, said.

The centre's first ongoingproject titled Computationaland Experimental Platform forHigh-Resolution TerapixelImaging of ex-vivo HumanBrains' for high-throughputlight microscopic imaging ofwhole human brains is sup-ported by the central govern-ment.

Through this project, thecentre has developed a high-throughput histology pipelinethat processes whole humanbrains into high-resolutiondigital images.

Using this technology plat-form, the centre is imagingpost-mortem human brains ofdifferent types and ages.

Entrepreneurship and devel-opment in science and

technology areimportant for

the

nation's growth.While there havebeen great stridesin supporting entre-preneurship, there is aneed for more supportto foster world-class

research in India. Scientistsand engineers play an impor-tant role in feeding the knowl-edge economy of the country,which has a the right talent,resource and opportunity inleading some areas globally,Kris Gopalakrishnan said.

MohanasankarSivaprakasam, professor at theDepartment of ElectricalEngineering, IIT Madras andhead of Sudha GopalakrishnanBrain Centre,

explained that the technologyplatform developed by theinstitute and its strong medicalcollaborations, is allowing thegeneration of high-resolu-tion large-format histol-ogy sections of humanbrains that willadvance the fieldsignificantly.

Advanced centre to aid projectmapping human brains at

cellular level

Process to translate, publishoriginal Buddhist manuscripts

Afghanistan is theunhappiest countryin the world even

before the Taliban swept topower last August. That'saccording to a so-calledWorld Happiness reportreleased ahead of the UN-designated InternationalDay of Happiness onSunday. The annual reportranked Afghanistan as lastamong 149 countries sur-veyed, with a happiness rateof just 2.5. Lebanon was theworld's second saddestcountry, with Botswana,Rwanda and Zimbabwerounding out the bottomfive. Finland ranked firstfor the fourth year runningwith a 7.8 score, followedby Denmark andSwitzerland, with Icelandand the Netherlands also inthe top five.

Researchers ranked thecountries after analyzingdata over three years. Theylooked at several categoriesincluding gross domesticproduct per capita, socialsafety nets, life expectancy,freedom to make life choic-es, generosity of the popu-lation, and perceptions ofinternal and external cor-ruption levels.

Afghanistan world'sunhappiest country,even before Taliban

Great Barrier Reef sufferswidespread coral bleaching