AHMEDABAD l MONDAY, AUGUST 2, 2021 l Pages 12 l 3.00 RNI NO. GUJENG/2019/16208 l Vol 2 l Issue No. 247

CMRupani!

HappyBirthday

First India Bureau

is journey from the Rash-triya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) to the Bharatiya Ja-nata Party (BJP) to becom-ing Gujarat’s top leader has inspired youngsters.

As Chief Minister Vijay Rupani cel-ebrates his 65th birthday today, he will mark the occasion by planting the 23,726th sapling at a Miyawaki for-est near Rajkot city.

During his tenure as CM, Rupani has been instrumental in improving the state’s health infrastructure, and effectively handled first two waves of the COVID-19 pandemic. When agri-culture was hit badly by excessive rainfall during last year’s monsoon, Rupani’s government announced a Rs3,700 crore relief package--the big-gest Gujarat had ever seen.

Further, under Rupani’s leader-ship, the state has implemented the Sujalam Sufalam Jal Abhiyan to in-crease water conservation capacity, and launched several programmes to improve rail and road connectivity across the state and beyond.

H

Vijay Rupani —PHOTO BY HANIF SINDHI

PERSPECTIVEAHMEDABAD | MONDAY, AUGUST 2, 2021

02www.firstindia.co.in I www.firstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefirstindia I facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia

l Vol 2 l Issue No. 247 l RNI NO. GUJENG/2019/16208. Printed and published by Anita

Hada Sangwan on behalf of First Ex-press Publishers. Printed at Bhaskar

Printing Planet Survey No.148P, Changodar-Bavla Highway, Tal. San-and, Dist. Ahmedabad. Published at D/302 3rd Floor Plot No. 35 Titanium Square, Scheme No. 2, Thaltej Taluka,

Ghatlodiya, Ahmedabad. Editor-In-Chief: Jagdeesh Chandra.

Editor: Anita Hada Sangwan responsible for selection of news under the PRB Act

SPIRITUAL SPEAK

Teach this triple truth to all: A generous heart,

kind speech, and a life of service and compassion

are the things which renew humanity.

—Buddha

IN-DEPTH

Nirmala Sitharaman @nsitharaman

“With the easing out of COVID restrictions, GST collection for

July2021 has again crossed `1 lakh crore, which clearly indicates that the economy is recovering at a fastpace. The robust GST revenues are likely to continue in the coming months too.”

Ashwini Vaishnaw @AshwiniVaishnaw

The first goods train through Haldibari - Chilahati rail link to Bangladesh crossed the zero point at 16:35 hrs today. This rail link will encourage the economic & social development of the region and help in the growth of regional trade.

TOP TWEET

HOCKEY TEAM, SINDHU GIVE US REASON FOR SUNDAY CELEBRATION

ndia’s medals tally at the Tokyo Games has increased, thanks to woman power. PV Sindhu became the

first Indian woman athlete to win two medals at the Olympics when she beat her Chinese op-ponent for a bronze. She had won a silver medal at the Rio Olym-pics. Sindhu’s victory took the medals tally to two as weight-lifter Mirabai Chanu earlier won a silver medal. A third medal could also come India’s way if boxer Lovlina Borgohain wins her bout on August 4. Since 2000, Indian women athletes have won seven of the country’s 15. These medals will up their share.

Sindhu’s victory came a day af-ter her loss to Chinese Taipei’s Tai Tzu Ying and against a left-hand-ed player who is no mean player.

It has been a great Sunday for Indian sport not only because Sindhu has earned herself an ice-cream from the prime minis-ter but also because Indian men’s hockey team entered the semi-final in the Olympic Games after 49 years.

I

arliament’s mon-soon session will conclude on Au-gust 13, 27 days after it began on

July 17. Lot of important is-sues were on the agenda with the three farm laws over which farmers have been pro-testing for months being one of them. Then Pegasus spy-ware happened and the ses-sion turned stormy. The gov-ernment’s obduracy in nei-ther confirming nor denying the use of the spyware frus-trated the Opposition which was of the view that targeting individuals holding key posi-tions was not only a breach of their privacy but was also a threat to democracy.

As both sides stuck to their

positions, adjournments were the only way to ensure peace in the two Houses. The ruckus and the consequent adjourn-ments became so frequent that a lot of precious time was lost. A report said that Parlia-ment was able to function for only 18 hours out of the sched-uled 107 hours. That cost a

loss of more than Rs 133 crore of tax-payers’ hard-earned money. Besides Appropria-tion Bills, only five other bills could be passed in the Lok Sabha in the din.

With just some more days to go one would like to see the two Houses to conduct busi-ness smoothly. That may not happen, however. Pegasus snooping issue hasn’t died yet. Nor have farmers relent-ed on their demand for the scrapping of the farm laws. Although the issues being raised by the Opposition are significant, the deadlock can’t be allowed to persist. Repeat-ed adjournments should force us to look at some other par-liaments to see if they func-tion the way we do.

HOUSE DISRUPTIONS A COSTLY AFFAIR

A report said that Parliament was able to

function for only 18 hours out of the scheduled 107 hours. That cost a loss of more than Rs 133 crore of tax-payers’ hard-earned money

P

LANDMARK DECISION TO BENEFIT OBC-EWS STUDENTS

n a landmark decision the Centre has announced a big change in the reservation pol-icy pertaining to admission for medical colleges in the country providing 27% reser-vation for other backward classes and 10 % for economi-cally weaker classes from the pool of all India quota(AIQ). for NEET, the uniform en-trance examination for medi-cal and dental colleges across the country for admission to medical and dental colleges. This policy is going to come into operation from the aca-demic year 21-22. According to the National Sample Survey 2019 OBC constitute 40% of India’s population.

WHAT IS NEETThe national eligibility cum entrance examination is the entrance test for entry to all undergraduate (NEET UG) and postgraduate (NEET PG) medical and dental courses in the country. Until 2016 All India Pre-medical test was the national level

Entrance examination for medical colleges while state governments used to hold sep-arate entrance examinations for medical colleges for the seats which were not contest-ed at the centre level. NEET was held for the first time in 2013 but discontinued the fol-

lowing year. Since NEET has been the uniform entrance test for medical courses it was conducted by CBSE initially and has been conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA) since 2018. In 2020 15.97 lakh students appeared for NEET UG AND PG courses. This year NEET is scheduled for 11 and 12 Sept.21.

Importantly the reservation for medical and dental colleges will impact the All India Quota (AIQ) which was introduced in 1986 in the form of a pool of seats where the States have been contributing 15 percent seats for undergraduate cours-es and 50 per cent for post grad-uate courses from States medi-cal colleges available seats. Till 2007 no reservation was avail-able in medical colleges but through a supreme court deci-sion reservation of 15% for scheduled cases and 7.5% for scheduled tribes was intro-duced in the all India quota(AIQ). The same year the central government passed the Central Government Institu-tions (Reservation Admission Act) 2007, providing for 27% reservation to OBC students in centrally controlled medical institutes while state govern-ments provide reservation for OBC seats outside the All India Quota. This benefit was not extended to seats allocated un-der the AIQ in the state col-leges. The 10% economically weaker section which was to be provided under the consti-tution (103 Amendment Act 219 too has been implemented in central educational institu-tions but not in the NEET AIQ for State medical colleges.

IMPACTThe denial of OBC and EWS benefits of reservation has been the subject of protest for years. The Madras High Court has passed decision in favour of OBC students

Who can too avail reser-vation in the AIQ pool of seats. The Federation of Other Backward Classes Employees welfare of States has been also agitat-ing for reservation. It will have a great impact in fa-cilitating more seats for these two category of stu-dents and open up:z Reservation will be offered at both undergraduate and postgraduate admissions in medical and dental collegesz It will be implemented in the current year 2021-22z Will benefit OBC under-graduate students 1500 and postgraduate 2500z It will benefit EWS- economi-

cally weaker section under-graduate students 550 and post graduate 1000;z It will effect and operate from All India Quota(AIQ) scheme consisting of 15% of total available UG seats and 50% of total available PG seats in Govt. Medical Colleges in the country.During the last six years

MBBS seats in the country have increased by 50% from 54348 in 2014 to 84649 in 2020. The number of PG seats has increased by 80% from 30191 in 2014 to 54275 in 2020. During the same period 179 new med-ical colleges have been added. Today there are 289 state and 269 private medical colleges.

Providing reservation for OBC and EWS category stu-dents will open additional opportunities for this catego-ry and is a further push to-wards social justice. India is a country to hold unity in diversity and looking at the proportionate population it is a welcome step though po-litically criticized being a step looking towards the coming state elections. Every successive governments ir-respective of any hue have been taking such decisions benefitting the marginalized sections of the society. How-ever, it should not be ignored that infrastructure, quality of medical teachers, strength-ening of other facilities in teaching medical colleges and hospitals should be up-graded and strengthened for furthering the cause of qual-ity medical education.

THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY

THE AUTHOR ARE PERSONAL

I

KEWAL KHANNAThe writer is a commentator on

economic and political issues, author of number of books including Indian

Economy Towards Globalisation

Providing reservation for OBC and EWS category

students will open additional opportunities for this category and is a

further push towards social justice. India is a country to hold unity in diversity

and looking at the proportionate population it

is a welcome step though politically criticized being a

step looking towards the coming state elections

The reservation for medical and dental

colleges will impact the All India Quota (AIQ)

which was introduced in 1986 in the form of a pool of seats where the states

have been contributing 15 percent seats for

undergraduate courses and 50 per cent for post graduate courses from States medical colleges

available seats

First India Bureau

Gandhinagar: Chief Minister Vijay Rupani on Sunday said the quality of education in government schools in the state is improving and more than three lakh students from pri-vate schools have taken admissions in state-run educational institu-tions in five years since

he took charge of the top post.

Speaking at an event to mark his five years in office, Rupani--who became the chief min-ister of Gujarat on Au-gust 07, 2016--said he was carrying forward the work of Prime Min-ister Narendra Modi to make Gujarat the “best state”.

Turn to P6

Quality of education in government schools improving: CM Vijay Rupani

He inaugurated interactive smart

classes in 3.6K schools, unveiled

plans for 15K smart classrooms under ‘Gyankunj’

project and set up computer labs in

3K schools CM Rupani is fl anked by Education Minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama to his right and Deputy CM Nitin Patel to his left during Sunday’s event.

GYAN SHAKTI DIVAS

www.fi rstindia.co.in I www.fi rstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefi rstindia I facebook.com/thefi rstindia I instagram.com/thefi rstindia

AHMEDABAD l MONDAY, AUGUST 2, 2021 l Pages 12 l 3.00 RNI NO. GUJENG/2019/16208 l Vol 2 l Issue No. 247

OUR EDITIONS: JAIPUR, AHMEDABAD & LUCKNOW

Hyderabad: PM Narendra Modi will be the fi rst Indian prime minister to preside over a meeting during New Delhi’s presidency of the UNSC, told ex-UN envoy Syed Akbaruddin.

Imphal: Former Manipur Congress president Govindas Konthoujam joined the BJP on Sunday. He joined the BJP in the presence of Manipur CM N Biren Singh.

New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi posted video on social media showing PM Modi with industrialists and wrote “Happy Friendship Day to ‘Hum 2 Humare 2’ ki sarkar”.

New Delhi: Minister for Minority Affairs Mukhtar Naqvi said cases of instant triple talaq have dropped by 80% since Protection Of Rights On Marriage Act was enacted.

MODI 1ST INDIAN PM

TO PRESIDE UNSC MEET

FORMER MANIPUR

CONG CHIEFJOINS BJP

FRIENDSHIP DAY: RAHUL’S

JIBE ON PM MODI

INSTANT TRIPLE TALAQ CASES DOWN BY 80%: MIN

BJP to return in UP with massive majority: ShahLucknow: Union home minister Amit Shah on Sunday said that the BJP would re-turn to power with a massive majority in the next assembly elec-tions in Uttar Pradesh and asked the opposi-tion leaders to prepare for their defeat.

Speaking at the ‘bhu-mi pujan’ ceremony of the Uttar Pradesh State Institute of Forensic Science (UPSIFS) that is coming up in Sarojini Nagar locality in Luc-know, Shah said that under the leadership of chief minister Yogi Adi-tyanath, the state has emerged as a leader.

Hailing UP chief Minister Yogi Adity-anath Shah said, “Dur-ing the Covid pandem-ic, Yogi ji and his team did excellent work. Op-position leaders will now come out because

elections are approach-ing but people must not be misled by them.”

The union minister said that the BJP does not work for any par-ticular caste or family but works for the poor-est of the poor.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah, along with UP CM Yogi Adityanath and Dy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya, applauds as ACS Home Awanish Awasthi and National Forensic Sciences Univ Chancellor JN Vyas exchange MoUs in Lucknow on Sunday.

SHAH HAILS YOGI FOR LAW AND ORDERNew Delhi: Home Minister Amit Shah said under the leader-ship of chief minister Yogi Adityanath, the state has emerged as a leader. “Yogi Adityanath has turned Uttar Pradesh into a number one state in implementation of 44 welfare schemes. He has improved the law-and-order situation that is now inviting investments and has also checked corruption.

HISTORY SCRIPTED AT TOKYO

Tokyo: The trailblazing PV Sindhu smashed her way into history

books with a second suc-cessive Olympic medal on Sunday.

Sindhu secured a bronze medal by beating world no.9 He Bing Jiao

of China in the women’s singles third place play-

off, becoming only the sec-ond Indian and the coun-try’s first woman to win two

Olympic medals. She had won a silver medal at the Rio Games. With this, India’s med-al count swelled to three. Weightlifter Mirabai Chanu (49kg) has already left after se-

curing a silver, while boxer Lovlina Borgohain (69kg) is as-sured of at least a bronze after

making the semifinals to be held on August 4.

PV clinches Bronze; Only Indian woman to win 2 Olympic medals

...ERUPTSIN JOY

CRUCIAL READCOURT BACKS CBI PROBE IN SURVIVOR’S CAR CRASH LINKED TO UNNAO RAPE CASENew Delhi: A Delhi court has upheld the investigation conducted by the CBI that had ruled out any foul play in the Unnao rape survivor’s accident in 2019. In 2019, the rape survivor, her family, and lawyer were travel-ling in a car when it was hit by an overspeeding truck in Rae Bareli, killing two aunts and leaving her and the advocate critically injured.

KERALA EXERCISES FULL LOCKDOWN

49.49 CR + DOSES GIVEN TO STATES

JULY: `1.16 L CR + GROSS GST REVENUE

OVER 7,800 RIGHTS PILs SINCE 2019 Cochin: Amid surge in

COVID-19 cases in Kerala, the state has imposed a complete weekend lock-down on Sunday. The state government on Thursday had announced a complete lockdown from July 31 to August 01, this year. P5

New Delhi: Over 49.49 crore COVID-19 vaccine doses have been provided to States and UTs so far, through all sources, and a further 8,04,220 doses are in the pipeline, informed the Union Health Ministry on Sunday.

New Delhi: GST revenue for the month of July stood at over Rs 1.16 lakh crore, 33 percent higher than same month of 2020, indicating economy is recovering at fast pace, the fi nance ministry said.

New Delhi: Over 7,800 Public Interest Litigations (PILs) regarding the viola-tion of fundamental rights have been fi led in various High Courts across the country since 2019, as per the government data.

SC to hear pleas seeking probe into Pegasus row on August 5

J&K Police to deny security clearance for passport, govt services to stone pelters

India’s ‘R’ value cause of concern: AIIMS chief

Dhanbad judge case: Cop suspended for not filing FIR on timeDhanbad: The Officer-in-charge of Jhar- khand’s Pathardih Po-lice Station, Umesh Manjhi, has been sus-pended for not register-ing an FIR on time in connection with the death of Dhanbad Addi-tional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Uttam Anand who passed away following an alleged hit-and-run incident on Wednesday.

Anand during morn-ing walk was hit by an auto on Wednesday.

New Delhi: The Su-preme Court will hear a batch of petitions seek-ing a court-monitored probe into the Pegasus spyware controversy on Thursday, August 5.

A bench comprising Chief Justice NV Rama-na and Justice Surya Kant will hear three separate petitions in the case.

In a hearing on July 30, a bench headed by Chief Justice NV Rama-

na took note of the sub-missions of senior law-yer Kapil Sibal, who ap-peared for the petition-ers in the case. The top court agreed that the

plea needed to be heard in view of the large ram-ifications of the alleged snooping.

The petitions filed be-fore the Supreme Court, also include those by senior journalists N Ram and Sashi Kumar.

Several eminent citi-zens, politicians and journalists have accused the central agencies of snooping over them by using Israeli spyware Pegasus.

Srinagar: The CID wing of Jammu and Kashmir Police has or-dered the denial of se-curity clearance re-quired for passport and other government ser-vices to all those in-volved in stone-pelting or subversive activities.

In an order issued on Saturday, the senior su-perintendent of police (SSP), CID, Special Branch (SB), Kashmir, has directed all the field

units under it to ensure that the person’s in-volvement in law and order, stone-pelting cas-es, and other crime prej-udicial Turn to P6

New Delhi: India’s ‘R-Value’ is inching up, and it’s a cause of concern, AIIMS Chief Dr Ran-deep Guleria said on Saturday, stressing on the need of aggressive containment strategies in the parts of the coun-try that are witnessing a surge in fresh Covid in-fections. His remarks come amid concern over a third wave.

“Starting from .96, and going all the way up to 1, the rise in R-

Value is a cause of con-cern. Simply put, this means that the chances of infection spreading from a person, who has Covid, to others have gone up. Turn to P6

CORONA CATASTROPHEGUJARATINDIA

41,831new cases*

541new fatalities

23new cases

00new fatalities

Narendra Modi @narendramodiWe are all elated by the stellar performance by @Pvsindhu1. Congratulations to her on winning the Bronze at @Tokyo2020. She is India’s pride our outstanding Olympian

Amit Shah @AmitShahWell played @Pvsindhu1. Time and again you have proved your unparal-leled commitment towards the game. May you continue to bring glory

Anurag Thakur @ianuragthakurSMASHING VIC-TORY PV Sindhu!!! You dominated the game & made history #Tokyo2020! An Olympic medalist twice over! India is so proud of you

Ashok Gehlot @ashokgehlot51Congratulations to @Pvsindhu1 for winning women’s singles badminton bronze medal at #TokyoOlympics. Superb performance! Her dedication & grit are inspirational.

WAIT OF LONG 49 YEARS: HOCKEY SHINES BRIGHT TO ENTER SEMIS

Tokyo: The men’s hockey team raised hopes of resurrecting a glorious past by entering the

semifi nals for the fi rst time in 49 years as India surpassed its performance at the 2016 Rio Games. They play world

champions Belgium next and a win would mean a medal secured while

a loss will still give them a shot at bronze medal.

Shuttler beats China’s He Bing Jiao 21-13, 21-15

It makes me feel really happy because I’ve worked hard for so many years. I had a lot of emotions going through me - should I be happy that I won bronze or sad that I lost the opportunity to play in the final?—PV Sindhu, after winning semifinal

SINDHUSINDHUSINDHUSINDHUSINDHUSINDHU

NEWSAHMEDABAD | MONDAY, AUGUST 2, 2021

04www.fi rstindia.co.in I www.fi rstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefi rstindia I facebook.com/thefi rstindia I instagram.com/thefi rstindia

Modasa MLA linked rural Aravalli to RajCongress people representative Rajendrasinh Thakor has focussed on connecting rural areas with urban citiesFirst India Bureau

Ahmedabad: Located in Aravalli district of the state, the Modasa constituency is being presided over by Con-gress MLA Rajendras-inh Thakor. He regis-tered a win in the 2017 Gujarat state assembly elections, defeating Bharatiya Janata Par-ty’s (BJP) Bhikhusinhji Parmar by a margin of 1,640 votes.

Modasa has two blocks - Modasa and Dhansura, with175 vil-lages under the con-stituency. Eight candi-dates contested the 2017 polls from Modasa inlcuding contenders from Nationalist Con-gress Party (NCP), Ba-hujan Samaj Party

(BSP), BJP, All India Hindustan Congress Party, and the Indian National Congress (INC). No women con-tested from this gener-al category seat.

Thakor, who won a

second consecutive term, had run on the is-sue of road connectivity in rural and urban areas.

“There were several villagers who had to travel long distances due to lack of river

bridges. I have asked the administration to build them in Rakhi-yal, Sardoi, Sui, Modar-sumba, Jivanpur, among other villages. Due to my efforts, the highway connecting to

Dhansura to Ahmedabad is under construction which will allow direct com-mutation from Rajash-than to Gujarat,” as-serted Thakor.

He added, “Two

years ago, I exposed a scam of toilets built under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. Toilet blocks made out of cardboard were erect-ed, without drainage and waterline of septic

tanks. It all collapsed within weeks of instal-lation. No inquiry has been made even after several requests.”

One of the residents of the constituency, Kis-han Valand said, “Being

a tribal and Scheduled Caste (SC) dominated constituency, Modasa is not taken seriously. There is a village called Fareri, which has not a proper road in the last 50 years.”

Modasa MLA at a tree plantation drive in the district. Thakor interacting with school kids.

MODASA REPORT

Cong agitates against Gyan Shakti Day

The Swarnim Vijay Varsh victory flame lit by Prime Minister

Narendra Modi at the National War Memorial (NWM) in New Delhi on December 16, 2020 reached the military station at Dhrangadhra on Sunday. The year 2021 marks 50 years of the 1971 India-Pakistan

war. An event to welcome the flame, which represents the soldiers who were martyred in the war, was attended by

1971 war veterans, renowned civil dignitaries and serving

officers of the station, where the station commander and veteran

Captain Sudhir Kumar (retd) received it.

First India Bureau

Ahmedabad: Protest-ing the Gyan Shakti Day celebrations of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and completion of a 5-year term by Chief Minis-ter Vijay Rupani, the Congress party held demonstrations across the state on Sunday.

Addressing their contention with the fanfare, Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) president Amit Chav-da said, “The govern-ment is promoting privatization due to which, government schools have been closed. There is a conspiracy afoot to shut down govern-ment-run schools and colleges in the state.”

On CM Rupani com-pleting his term, Chav-da stated, “It is an occa-sion to bid farewell to Vijaybhai with honor and respect. Does Ru-pani want to prove that Anandiben or Naren-drabhai did not work in the past?”

Speaking on the is-sues of the education sector, he asserted, “Ex-aminations are being held for recruitment, but people are not get-ting jobs even after passing them. The gov-ernment has left no op-portunity to loot the people, even in econom-ic upheaval due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Fees of educational in-stitutions were not re-duced nor did the gov-

ernment bother with requesting private play-ers to cut their fees.”

In Rajkot, Congress leader of opposition Paresh Dhanani was detained by police along with leaders of Youth Congress and National Students’ Un-ion of India (NSUI), including a female president.

Taking a dig at the government, Vadodara Congress too agitated against the Gyan Shak-

ti celebrations. Con-gress members and supporters gathered at the Nagar Praathmik Sikshan Samiti office including senior lead-er Siddharth Patel, city Congress presi-dent Prashant Patel. They were detained by police for violation of COVID-19 guidelines.

“When people are fighting a pandemic and inflation, the gov-ernment is celebrating to hide their failures.

The education policy of the government is not right as they are talking about e-educa-tion but have failed to fill vacancies of teach-ers, lab technicians, PT teachers and librari-ans in schools. Around 3,500 schools still do not have computers. Gujarat ranks 21st in the country in terms of girls’ education with several schools in rural areas closing down,” said Patel.

Cong members were detained by police in Ahmedabad and Vadodara. —PHOTOS BY HANIF SINDHI

Leaders and supporters gathered in A’bad, Vadodara, Rajkot and other places

Not a single hi-tech AMC school set up in 7 years: RTI replyAAP MARKS ‘AGYANTA

DIWAS’ WITH PROTESTS

First India Bureau

Ahmedabad: No “high-tech” state-of-the-art schools have been devel-oped in Ahmedabad over the past seven years, a reply to an RTI (Right to Information) application revealed, despite the state gov-ernment’s claims to the contrary.

RTI activist Alpesh Bhavsar had filed a peti-tion under the RTI seek-ing information about the high-tech schools being developed by the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation’s Primary School Committee. Bhavsar had wanted to know how many schools had been developed with the latest technol-ogy and gadgets, and how much money had been invested for this.

The Education Offic-er in reply has admitted that in the last seven years not a single school run by the municipal corporation has been

converted into a high-tech schools; neither has the state govern-ment allocated any funds for the purpose.

The RTI reply also said that the AMC did not conduct any survey of municipal schools in 2020-21 and so did not have any records for this period.

The education offic-er also admitted that, since no high-tech schools were set up, it is difficult to say that the improved facilities attracted students from private schools to gov-ernment schools. A leading Gujarati daily had published an arti-cle saying that the gov-ernment schools are being digitised and high-tech gadgets are being installed, caus-ing 34,000 private-school students to switch over to govern-ment-run ones in the last seven years.

The education officer refused to share details of expenses entailed in scholarships and the mid-day meal pro-gramme on the grounds that these would run into “hundreds of pages”.

First India Bureau

Ahmedabad: With the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) celebrating five years of Vijay Rupani as chief minister of state, opposition parties Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) have both launched par-allel campaigns against the ruling government. On Sunday, AAP ob-served ‘Agyanta Diwas’ (Ignorance Day) and held demonstrations in Ahmedabad and Surat.

The party provided information to citizens about the current state of education in the Gu-jarat. It claimed that around 6,000 govern-ment schools were re-cently closed in the state on the pretext of not having enough stu-dents on the roster.

“The government keeps shutting down schools from time to time. There are more than 14,000 schools in the state, but students of dif-ferent classes are being forced to study in one classroom. As for infra-structure, around 845 schools have only one classroom, 5,621 schools have two classrooms and

4,707 schools have three classrooms. There is a shortage of over 18,000 classrooms in govern-ment primary schools,” asserted an AAP leader.

Meanwhile, 5,353 gov-ernment and 458 pri-vate primary schools do not have compound wall facilities. Only 20% of children in govern-ment schools appear for competitive examina-tions, 31% of these schools do not have ac-cess to drinking water, 35% do not have sanita-tion facilities and 80% of schools do not have remedial education.

Out of 32,772 schools in the state, 12,000 schools have only one or two teachers. According to official government figures, there are 13,140 vacancies for primary teachers in the state but no provision has been made in the previous budget for the recruit-ment of these teachers. The new education poli-cy mentions the inclu-sion of exercise, music and painting in educa-tion. If new teachers are to be recruited for these three subjects, 96,000 teachers have to be re-cruited, he reiterated.

Party members at a gathering in V’dara on Saturday.

AMC did not conduct any survey of municipal schools in 2020-21 either

SALUTING THEIR SACRIFICE

To Receive Free Newspaper

PDF Daily

Whatsapp: http://bit.ly/whatsappahm

Telegram:

https://t.me/firstindiaahmedabad

Click the above link☝ & subscribe us on your

preferred platform.

GUJARATAHMEDABAD | MONDAY, AUGUST 2, 2021

05www.fi rstindia.co.in I www.fi rstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefi rstindia I facebook.com/thefi rstindia I instagram.com/thefi rstindia

Dy CM inspects sites for SSG’s new Mother & Child Devt hosp Furthering its focus on improving healthcare, state govt sanctions Rs50 cr for Phase 1 of the department overhaul; 600-bed facility being planned currently First India Bureau

Vadodara: Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel on Sunday in-spected three pro-posed sites for the new Maternal and Child Health Depart-ment of Vadodara’s Sir Sayajirao Gener-al Hospital. Thereaf-ter, he also met with collector R.B. Barad, Medical Superinten-dent of the hospital Dr Ranjankrishna Aiyar, City Party President Dr Vijay Shah, and Head of Paediatrics Dr Sheila Aiyar to discuss nec-essary matters in-cluding ownership of the proposed premis-es and speedy occupa-tion.

Not one to rest on laurels, Patel—who is also Gujarat’s health

minister conducted—the inspections soon after the Gyan Shakti Divas celebrations held to mark the start of the nine-day programme commemorating his tenure and that of CM Vijay Rupani ended.

Superintendent Ai-yar lauded the govern-

ment’s commitment to improving neonatal and maternal health in Gujarat.

“The state govern-ment has made a gener-ous provision of Rs50 crore in the budget for the first phase for the construction of a new and convenient mater-

nal and child health de-partment. We plan to set up a 600-bed facility and are currently in the pro-cess of selecting a suit-able site,” he said.

To this end, Patel was shown one vacant plot near Yavateshwar compound, another in the Kirti Mandir staff

quarters of Sayaji Hos-pital, and a third near the Infectious Diseases Hospital in Karelibaug.

He discussed with the District Collector the process of ownership and possession of these spaces and suggested that this work be com-pleted quickly.

First India Bureau

Surat: The Surat Municipal Corpora-tion has constituted a committee of councillors and doc-tors to check on sev-eral complaints against private hos-pitals for charging exorbitant fees dur-ing the second Cov-id-19 wave.

Besides members of the Standing Com-mittee and SMC offi-cials, the committee has two members of Indian Medical Asso-ciation, according to Dr Ashish Nayak, SMC’s deputy health commissioner.

The SMC has so far spent an estimated Rs 300 crore to combat Covid-19 crisis dur-ing the last one and a half years. It has paid Rs 28.23 crore to pri-vate hospitals for treating 7,305 corona patients under the

municipal quota.The cost of treat-

ment per patient in the second wave was three times higher than the first wave, because of increased expenditure on oxy-gen and ventilators.

In all 4,825 patients were treated in the first wave in 2020 at a cost of Rs 10.50 crore, which is Rs 21,761 per patient. An estimat-ed Rs 17.50 crore was paid to private hospi-tals for the treatment of 2,480 patients this

year and this works out to Rs 70,564 per person.

A private hospital doctor said the treat-ment was expensive during the second wave since there was a paucity of beds, oxygen, ventilators and medical sup-plies, but that most private hospitals charged as per the government guide-lines. Action should be taken if some are found charging exor-bitant fees.

First India Bureau

Ahmedabad/Gandhi-nagar: Gujarat on Sunday reported 23 COVID-19 cases, the fifth day in a row when the addition was less than 30, taking the overall tally in the state to 8,24,900, an of-ficial said. The toll re-mained at 10,076 as the state witnessed no death from infection during the day, in the process maintaining the fatality clean slate that began on July 19.

The recovery count touched 8,14,570, which is 98.75 per cent of the tally, after 21 people were discharged from hospi-tals, the first time since May 4 when the number of those who recovered was lower than those who got infected, he pointed out.

Ahmedabad led with eight cases, followed by six in Vadodara, among other districts, the offi-cial said, adding that the state now has 254 ac-tive cases, with five pa-tients being critical. An

official release said 3,73,452 people were vaccinated against COVID-19 on Sunday, taking the total number of doses administered so far in the state to

3,36,37,830. This claim comes at a

time when Amdavadis faced chaos while try-ing to acquire tokens to get their vaccines on Sunday.

First India Bureau

Vadodara: Two peo-ple were injured in a road accident in which two trucks collided near Ferti-lizer Bridge on the outskirts of Va-dodara early on Sun-day morning. The fire brigade rescued the injured persons who had been trapped inside the wreckage, one of whom was the driver of one of the trucks, and sent them to a nearby hospital for treatment. The driv-

er is said to be in a serious condition.

Officials at the scene said the trucks had been travelling from Ahmedabad to Surat,

when one rear-ended the other while they were descending from the bridge at about 6am on Sunday.

The driver and clean-

er of the second truck got trapped inside the cabin of their vehicle. Local residents who witnessed the pile-up attempted to rescue the men, but could not. So they called the fire and emergency services, which sent out a team to rescue the trapped driver and cleaner.

The two men were whisked away to SSG Hospital in ambulanc-es of the 108 service.

Police officials, who are investigating the crash, have identified the driver as Diwallar Sheikh.

Dy CM Nitin Patel and other stakeholders at one of the proposed sites.

Surat Municipal Corporation. —FILE PHOTO

Joint Commissioner of Police Ajay Chaudhry joined his teams to keep an eye out for curfew violators at the historic Ellis bridge in Ahmedabad on Saturday night. —PHOTOS BY HANIF SINDHI

—FILE PHOTO

OPTIONS OPEN

Did pvt hosps charge too much? SMC to check

Guj sees less than 30 new cases, for 5th day in a row

Two injured in V’dara truck collision

First India Bureau

Ahmedabad: In a unique initiative, a 150-year-old heritage building in Ahmedabad’s Khama-sa area is being re-stored and turned into an innovation centre for underprivi-leged girls.

Built by a colonial ar-chitect, the building sustained structural damage after 2011 earthquake, said San-skriti Panchal, an ar-chitect working on this

restoration project.“It used to be a girls’

college but suffered ma-jor damage in 2001 earthquake, after which it was abandoned when the government shifted the college it to a new building,” she said.

LxS Foundation in partnership with Guja-rat Chamber of Com-merce and Industry will develop this building, the estimated cost of which is Rs3.2 crore.

Panchal, who is also Co-Founder of LxS Foundation, said that

the innovation centre will be completed in the next two years.

“In 2018, we decided to restore the building and approached the state education minis-ter, and the process be-gan,” she said.

Elaborating on the foundation of the pro-ject, the architect said that each heritage res-toration has to work for people.

“One misconception we all have it that herit-age is something that we should be proud of

our past. However, I think we need to rewind the fact that heritage is something that respects our past and to be proud of our present and fu-ture,” she noted.

With a hope to em-power girls in the vicin-ity of the building, she emphasized that the project will greatly ben-efit the people.

“Our core concept is to include the com-munities. It is essen-tial to do so for con-serving the heritage,” she said.

150-year-old heritage building to become ‘innovation centre’LIVING HISTORIES

GCCI, LxS Foundation will develop abandoned

structure to benefit under-

privileged girls; project will

cost an estimated `3.2 crore

It used to be a girls’ college but was abandoned following the 2001 earthquake. —ANI PHOTO

COVID-19 UPDATE

8,14,570+21

RECOVERED IN A DAY

TOTAL RECOVERED

8,24,900TOTAL CASES

+23 CASES IN A DAY

10,076TOTAL DEATHS

00 DEATHS IN A DAY

25408 MAX

CASES IN A’BAD

ACTIVE CASES

VADODARA 06

SURAT 02

JUNAGADH 02

KEEPING PACE

FUN WITH

FRIENDS With boating having resumed near Vallabh Sadan, youngsters were seen paddling away on the Sabarmati river as they celebrated Friendship Day in Ahmedabad on Sunday.

—PHOTO BY HANIF SINDHI

Quality of....“(Then CM) Modi left a developed and excellent state for us, and our gov-ernment will make it the ‘best state,” Rupani said. He also said the “knowl-edge economy” would be of great importance in times to come and that his government was working towards mod-ernizing education in the state and improving its quality. The state government celebrated Sunday as ‘Gyan Shakti Divas’, Day 01 of the nine-day programme to mark Rupani’s tenure.

“People in the opposi-

tion and those living in the world of advertise-ments only talk. But, you must listen to the reality that in the last five years, more than three lakh students have left private schools to take admission in government schools,” Rupani said. “It means the quality of our schools is improving. We are not doing public-ity, but solid work,” he added, in an apparent dig at the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which had criticized the Gujarat government over the condition of govern-

ment schools in the state. He also said his government has laid emphasis on the mod-ernization of education, with attention to quali-ty and evaluation.

“There are around 16,000 smart classes in government schools where the state govern-ment has created digital classes to modernise education. More than 30,500 government pri-mary, higher and sec-ondary schools have been connected with the internet. We are making arrangements to bring global knowledge to the

remotest village in Gu-jarat through broad-band connectivity in schools,” the CM said.

On the occasion, Ru-pani inaugurated inter-active smart classes across 3,6 r labs in 3,000 schools, among other such initiatives in the state. “In the coming times, the knowledge economy is going to be of great importance. In Gujarat, we understand the economy because we are a state of traders. I am sure that with the work done by us in the education sector in the last five years, Gujarat

will dominate in the knowledge economy as well,” he said.

Rupani said his gov-ernment has also started working in the direction of implementing the new education policy, and in-formed about his govern-ment’s state-of-the-art ini-tiative to monitor exams and the presence and per-formance of students and teachers in schools through a central com-mand and control centre.

J&K Police...to the security of the state be specifically looked into during verifi-

cation related to pass-port, service and any other verification related to government schemes. “The same must be cor-roborated from the local police station records,” the order read.

India’s ‘R’...The areas which are wit-nessing this surge should bring in restrictions and employ “test, track, and treat” strategy to break the chain of transmis-sion,” Dr Guleria ex-plained. The R-Factor is an indicator of the effec-tive reproductive num-ber of a virus.

FROM PG 1

INDIAAHMEDABAD | MONDAY, AUGUST 2, 2021

06www.firstindia.co.in I www.firstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefirstindia I facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia

Anita Hada

New Delhi: Upbeat and ecstatic on defeat-ing BJP on her home turf, West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC Su-premo Mamata Baner-jee, after refusing to join the Mahagath-bandhan in the previ-ous election, now sees an 'opportunity' in uni-fying the various po-litical parties under one banner. And hence her five-day visit to the political capital of the nation where a 'friend-ly' Mamata met several party leaders in an ef-fort to form a front against the BJP.

But the real ques-tion is, what role is she looking for herself in the alliance? What will she do in this alli-ance? Does she want to lead the coalition or be its face as the prime ministerial candidate in the next elections? She definitely has a better momentum at the moment of uproot-ing BJP, than other parties.

Even before she re-turned from Delhi, discussions had start-ed that the Congress-led UPA would be re-constituted and Mamata Banerjee's party (TMC) would

join it. Significantly, Mamata was a minis-ter in the UPA-II gov-ernment and in 2011, shortly after she be-came the chief minis-ter, her party diverged from the UPA. So, it seems natural that the UPA should be recon-stituted and TMC re-turns to it. After all, Shiv Sena leader San-jay Raut has also been vocal for the need of a new alliance by call-ing the UPA defunct.

Grapevine in Delhi political circles is that Mamata may become the chairperson or convener of UPA. Al-though she is refusing

it now, but it is possi-ble only when Sonia Gandhi leaves active politics. An informed Congress leader says that this proposal can be considered. Rahul Gandhi becomes the President of the Con-gress Party and Trina-mool Congress joins the UPA, after which Mamata could be made the President or Convener of the UPA.

If the Gandhi fami-ly only confines itself to Congress and Mamata gets the com-mand of the UPA, then she can bring many other parties into the UPA fold. She

can prepare Jagan Mohan Reddy to join this alliance. Sama-jwadi Party's Akhile-sh Yadav is among the few opposition lead-ers Mamata Banerjee did not meet during her Delhi visit this time and it is believed that she will meet him in the next visit and Akhilesh will have no objection in joining if Mamata takes over the reins of the oppo-sition alliance.

But what if Mamata Banerjee does not join the UPA or Congress leaders do not agree to make her the UPA chairperson? Will

Didi, as she herself said, continue her ef-forts to unite the op-position? It is being said that Prashant Kishor is also trying to find a central role for himself and if he joins the Congress, he can prepare the Con-gress to make Mamata the face of the opposi-tion alliance. Making Didi a face of the alli-ance does not mean that she will be made a contender for the post of Prime Minis-ter. This decision will be taken only after the elections, on the poll result of each individ-ual party.

WILL MAMATA FINALLY BE THE FACE OF OPPOSITION IN 2024 POLLS?

Mamata Banerjee

New Delhi: The opposi-tion is all set to ap-proach the Supreme Court seeking an inde-pendent probe into the Pegasus snooping issue.

"Pegasus issue is a very serious security concern for the nation. The opposition is plan-ning to approach the Supreme Court for un-biased and fair investi-gations in the Pegasus snooping case," sources told ANI.

The move comes soon after the BJP levelled serious allegations against the opposition parties that they were not allowing the Parlia-ment to function.

"The opposition par-

ties are responsible for not allowing both Hous-es of Parliament to transact any business.

The disruption in Par-liament has resulted in a loss of over Rs 133 crore to taxpayers' mon-

ey," the BJP had alleged.Many opposition par-

ties have decided to ap-proach the apex court, instead of raising the Pegasus issue in the Par-liament during the on-going Monsoon Session.

Opposition parties have decided to change their agenda in Parlia-ment from Monday.

"From this week we have decided to raise is-sues like inflation, hike in fuel prices, unem-ployment and COVID mismanagement in Par-liament," sources added. Earlier, opposition par-ties including Congress had demanded a court-monitored probe into the Pegasus issue. —ANI

New Delhi: Union min-ister of health and fam-ily welfare Mansukh Mandaviya on Sunday said that 130 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine have been ad-ministered in response to Congress leader Ra-hul Gandhi’s tweet about vaccine shortage.

“More than 13 crore vaccines have been ad-ministered in India in the month of July. It is going to accelerate this month. We are proud of our healthcare workers for this achievement. Now you should also be proud of them and the country,” Mandaviya tweeted.

Rahul Gandhi had tweeted, “July has passed, vaccine short-

age has not gone.” Along with the tweet, Gandhi also shared a 30-second video clip ti-tled “COVID: Will India be able to meet its vac-cination target?” which showed several news headlines about vac-cine crunch.In his re-ply, Mandaviya took a swipe at the Congress leader saying that he was also one among the several people who had received their Covid-19 vaccine in July. —PTI

New Delhi: Amid a surge in the number of COVID-19 cases in Ker-ala, the state has im-posed a complete week-end lockdown on Sun-day. The Kerala govern-ment on Thursday had announced a complete lockdown amid the spike of COVID-19 cases from July 31 to August 01, this year.

Streets remained de-serted in Thiruvanan-thapuram and Kochi with only shops selling essential commodities allowed to remain open.

Kerala with an active caseload of 1.54 lakh is contributing 37.1 per-cent of the total active cases in the country, in the last 7 days, reports.

New Delhi: Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari has instructed to open one side of the 1.6-km-long Kuthiran Tunnel in Kerala.

This is the first road tunnel in the state and will drastically improve connectivity to Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, according to an official statement. “The 1.6-km-long tunnel is designed through Peechi-Vazhani Wildlife Sanctuary,” it added.

The road will improve connectivity to important ports and towns in North-South Corridor without endangering wildlife, it added.

GADKARI INSTRUCTS OPENING OF ONE SIDE OF KUTHIRAN TUNNEL IN KERALA

Sangrur: Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh said that the Punjab

government would soon take up the issue to retrieve the pistol and diary of Shaheed Udham Singh from the United Kingdom with Union Ministry of External Affairs. On the 82nd martyrdom day of Shaheed Udham Singh, the

Chief Minister told the media that as of now the pistol of Shaheed Udham Singh is in Scotland.

PUNJAB CM RAISES ISSUE TO RETRIVE PISTOL, DIARY OF UDHAM SINGH

New Delhi: Citizens in the national capital woke up to heavy rainfall, resulting in waterlogging in a few areas on Sunday morning. Vehicles commuting from

the Yamuna Bazar area witnessed heavy waterlogging due to heavy rainfall. According to the India Meteorological Department, thunderstorms with moderate to heavy

intensity rain would occur over and adjoining areas of entire Delhi, NCR, IMD tweeted.

New Delhi: Raj Singh Gehlot, Chairman of the Ambience Group of Companies who was arrested and sent to ED custody for seven days, will be questioned about how money was routed to different

companies and how he made the J&K Bank settle for Rs 128 crore in place of Rs 289.08 crore. Gehlot was arrested by the ED on July 28 and produced

before a PMLA court via video conferencing on July 30. He has been sent to ED custody by the court for seven days. An ED official related to probe said it was found that Gehlot had entered into a criminal conspiracy to siphon off the loan amount.

RAINS LASH DELHI, WATERLOGGING REPORTED FROM SEVERAL AREAS

ED TO GRILL RAJ GEHLOT ON HOW J&K BANK SETTLED `289 CR AT `128 CR

New Delhi: Deepak Das took charge as the new Controller General of Accounts on Sunday. He is

the 25th officer to hold the position of Controller General of Accounts (CGA). A 1986-batch Indian Civil Accounts Service (ICAS) officer, Das is appointed by the

government as the Controller General of Accounts (CGA), Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance, with effect from August 1, 2021.

DEEPAK DAS TAKES CHARGE AS NEW CONTROLLER GENERAL OF ACCOUNTS

CRUCIAL READOppn’s ‘0s’ together can never match PM

New Delhi: Term-ing Opposition leaders as ‘zeros’, Union minister of state for Home Af-fairs and BJP lead-er Ajay Mishra Teni on Saturday said that together they can never match the stature of Prime Minister Narendra Modi who has been tak-ing the country forward on the path of develop-ment.

Terming West Bengal Chief Min-ister and Trina-mool Congress (TMC) supremo Mamata Banerjee as ‘desperate’ who recently visited Delhi, to unite a ‘frustrated’ Oppo-sition ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

Teni said, “Mamata Baner-jee is desperate. That’s why she is trying to unite the desperate and frustrated people. She did this effort in 2019 also. All the zeros together can never be equal to one. No one can match the develop-ment line that Modi ji has drawn.” —ANI

Mandaviya calls out the Gandhi scion

Kerala imposes weekend lockdown as cases surge

GANESH CHATURTHI CELEBRATION

CONG ‘JAMES BOND OF SPYING’ WHEN IN GOVT’

COMMITTEE TO VISIT J-K, LADAKH

DELHI: 85 NEW CASES, 1 DEATH

Mumbai: Amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the Lalbaugcha Raja Ganeshotsav Mandal will be celebrat-ing Ganesh Utsav in a traditional way adhering to all COVID-19 related guidelines and restrictions. Last year, Lalbaughcha Raja Ganeshotsav Mandal, for the first time in history, refrained from holding the festivities in the wake of the pandemic.

New Delhi: Attacking the Congress which has been protesting in Parl demanding a discussion on the Pegasus snooping allegations, Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said the party was “James Bond of spying” when in power and it now wants to waste Parliament’’s time over “fake and fabricat-ed” issues. Naqvi, who is the Rajya Sabha Deputy Leader, also accused the Congress and a few other Opposition parties of working with the policy of “rant and run” by making allegations and scooting off. On the Opposi-tion insisting on debating the Pegasus issue, Naqvi said they want to waste Parlia-ment’’s time. —PTI

New Delhi: The Parl Standing Committee on Home Affairs is likely to visit Jammu and Kashmir and La-dakh from August 17 to 22, sources said on Sunday. PM Modi had on June 24 held the first high-level in-teraction between the Centre and political leadership mainly from Kashmir after August 5, 2019, when the Centre revoked the special status of J&K.

New Delhi: With 85 new COVID-19 cases reported in the last 24 hours, Delhi on Sunday witnessed a slight increase in daily +ve cases. However, it reported only 1 death on Sunday. New cases have consistently remained below 100 for the past few days. According to the Delhi Health Bulletin, positivity rate in the last 24 hours dipped to 0.12 per cent.

OPPOSITION PARTIES LIKELY TO SEEK SC’S INTERVENTION

hocolate has a special place in many of our lives. It is widely seen as an affordable and es-sentially harmless

treat – a food of comfort, cele-bration and joy. But those bars, cakes and Easter eggs are also part of a £61 billion a year glob-al industry with a troubling his-tory of social and environmen-tal harm.

For example, there are now an estimated two million child labourers working on cocoa farms in west Africa. Some are tricked or sold into slavery on those farms where they are forced to carry heavy loads of cocoa, use harmful pesticides, and handle machetes.

Reports suggest the problem is getting worse, despite prom-ises from large chocolate pro-ducers. Multinational choco-late firm executives have admit-ted that the cocoa supply chain is “broken”.

The high demand for choco-late products and volatile price of cocoa means that some traders seek to buy cheaper beans from deforested regions and lower quality

plants. This affects the prices and practices of legitimate farmers, reducing sustainabil-ity gains that have been made, such as improved land man-agement.

At the heart of this complex issue is the difficulty of trac-ing cocoa from farms to the end product. The majority of the world’s crop – around 70% – is grown on small farms in remote areas of Ghana and Ivory Coast.

From those farms it is col-lected by small-scale traders and taken to larger facilities, where vast quantities are trad-

ed on international markets. With many different parties mixing crops early in the sup-ply chain, tracing beans back to their farms of origin be-comes extremely difficult.

So far, certification schemes such as Fairtrade, which aim to encourage responsible sourc-ing, appear to have failed. Some well-known chocolate brands such as KitKat have dropped ethical labels and self-certifica-tion, which has become increas-ingly popular, with the likes of the company which owns Cad-bury Dairy Milk.

But our research suggests a

solution could now be within reach, with a reliable system that tracks the journey from cocoa trees to the chocolate in your fridge.

The system uses something called “ b i o m a r k e r s ” , which are like bi-ochemical fin-gerprints or bar codes ex-tracted from the plant’s

D N A . These pro-vide a unique identifier of a plant that is also observed in its beans. The biomarkers in co-coa beans are so hardy they can even survive the industri-al processes used in chocolate making.

TEST AND TRACEThis allows for the identifica-tion of an individual farm’s beans from a mixture of beans of different origins in the final product. The method has now been successfully tested in a study of cocoa supply chains, tracing specific plants on indi-vidual farms through to choco-late products.

If a database was created with sufficient samples, choco-late bought anywhere in the world could be traced back to the farm where the cocoa was originally sourced. Chocolate producers and customers would know precisely where the raw material of their chocolate has come from.

While the solution has proved to be effective in our small pilot study, if the method can be scaled up effectively, there can be no excuses for continued abuses within chocolate supply chains. Claims that farms are too widespread or remote, or the

cocoa supply chain too com-plex, become empty.

Such a biomarker data-base identifying the origin of cocoa products could be built by firms or done independently at an estimated cost of around £5 per farm – the cost of a box of chocolates. The industry’s serious challenges of child la-bour, modern slavery, and envi-ronmental degradation could then be addressed, with target-ed audits of specific farms where chocolate producers source their cocoa.

The chocolate industry and governments need to face this ethical challenge. We have de-veloped an effective tool for them to make progress – and drastically improve a trade that is rife with environmental de-struction and human misery.

ChocolateChocolateA NEW WAY TO MAKE A NEW WAY TO MAKE SURE YOUR FAVOURITE SURE YOUR FAVOURITE BAR IS AN ETHICAL TREAT

GLENN PARRY

Professor of Digital Transformation, University

of Surrey

PEDRO LAFARGUE

Professor of Digital Transformation, University

of Surrey

MICHAEL ROGERSON

PhD Candidate, University of Bath

BAR IS AN ETHICAL TREATBAR IS AN ETHICAL TREAT

solution could now be within reach, with a reliable system that tracks the journey from cocoa trees to the chocolate in your fridge.

The system uses something called “ b i o m a r k e r s ” , which are like bi-ochemical fin-gerprints or bar codes ex-tracted from the plant’s

D N A . These pro-vide a unique identifier of a plant that is also observed in its beans. The biomarkers in co-coa beans are so hardy they can even survive the industri-al processes used in chocolate making.

TEST AND TRACEThis allows for the identifica-tion of an individual farm’s beans from a mixture of beans of different origins in the final

cocoa supply chain too com-plex, become empty.

Such a biomarker data-

BAR IS AN ETHICAL TREATBAR IS AN ETHICAL TREAT

C

SOURCE: THECONVERSATION.COM

—SHUTTERSTOCK/IVAN_KISLITSIN

Some well-known chocolate brands such as KitKat have dropped ethical labels and self-certifi cation.

Biomarkers in cocoa beans are so hardy they can even survive the industrial processes used in chocolate making.

A cocoa farmer at work in Ivory Coast. —LEGNAN KOULA/EPA-EFE

TALKING POINTAHMEDABAD | MONDAY, AUGUST 2, 2021

07www.fi rstindia.co.in I www.fi rstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefi rstindia I facebook.com/thefi rstindia I instagram.com/thefi rstindia

AHMEDABAD | MONDAY, AUGUST 2, 2021www.fi rstindia.co.in I www.fi rstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefi rstindia I facebook.com/thefi rstindia I instagram.com/thefi rstindia082NDFRONT

Guj BJP gets Patil’s choice as gen secretary (organisation)First India Bureau

Gandhinagar: In a de-velopment that would be music to the ears of Gujarat BJP President CR Patil, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday appointed RSS affiliat-ed Bihar’s Joint Gener-al Secretary (Organisa-tion) Ratnakar as the General Secretary (Or-ganisation) of Gujarat.

Ratnakar replaces Bhikhubhai Dalsaniya, known to be close to Gu-jarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, who kicked off a nine-day celebration on comple-tion of five years in of-fice also on Sunday.

Party sources say Ratnakar and CR Patil have worked closely in Bihar and both will gel well. Getting Ratnakar as General Secretary (Organization) was his choice.

Few in the Gujarat BJP are surprised since this was expected for almost seven to eight months or even earlier when Patil took over as the state chief last year.

Earlier, the party high command had of-

fered options to Dalsan-iya for a safe move out of Gujarat, but some-how, it never worked out. Party sources say Dalsaniya and Chief Minister Rupani had a good tuning.

The move has warmed up political at-mosphere with Gujarat Congress President Amit Chavda’s com-ment, “There is rumour among people that the five-year celebration of the CM is an indication

of a graceful exit for him.”

“The appointment of Ratnakar as party gen-eral secretary may be the beginning of change of guard; five years are being celebrated as if no other CM in the past 45 years has ever done any development work.”

Reacting strongly, Chief Minister de-scribed Chavda’s utter-ances as displaying an insolent attitude. “Con-

gress has no business to comment on BJP’s in-ternal affairs,” he as-serted.

Dalsaniya has served the party as the state general secretary (or-ganisation) for 13 years, a longer period than the 11 years Narendra Modi served on this post from 1985 to 1996. Modi was credited for catapulting the party to power for the first time in Guja-rat.

Earlier, Sanjay Joshi

had served as General Secretary (Organiza-tion) from 1996 to 2001. Sanjay Joshi and late Keshubhai Patel were described as a ‘jugal-bandi’ that brought BJP to power again in 1998 elections after revolt in 1995 and 1996. The Gen-eral Secretary (Organi-zation) is expected to strengthen party organ-ization and bolster co-ordination between party and the state gov-ernment.

EXPECTED MOVE!

BJP appoints Ratnakar as GS (organisation) who is close to State chief CR Patil

Bihar BJP’s joint general secretary Ratnakar has been named Gujarat’s General Secretary (Organisation).

Gujarat’s U-turn over fire safety norms after SC rap

First India Bureau

Gandhinagar: Over a week after the Supreme Court pulled it up over implementation of fire safety measures in health facilities, the Gu-jarat Government has now taken a U-turn to insist that it has not re-laxed any provisions of Fire Prevention Act 2013.

On July 8, the govern-ment had issued a noti-fication granting an exemption to hospitals from following fire safe-ty rules and acquiring Building Use (BU) per-missions until 2022. The apex court had blasted it for this.

However, in its latest affidavit, the State Gov-ernment has claimed that the July 8 notifica-

tion did not give any relaxations or infringed on any provisions of the Fire Safety Act. All authorities competent to take action are also empowered to initiate all actions, including coercive ones.

It stated that show-cause notices have al-ready been issued to 1,500 hospitals, water supply of 30 hospitals snapped and 185 hospi-tals were partially sealed for want of fire safety certificates. They were allowed to operate only after they com-plied with the norms.

Out of 328 dedicated Covid-19 hospitals, 298 have fire NOCs and 30 don’t and have been is-sued showcause notic-es. All 47 dedicated Covid hospitals func-

tional in Gujarat at pre-sent have fire NOC. There are 5,705 hospi-tals, of which 4,604 hos-pitals have fire NOC and 1,101 don’t.

The State’s 703 hospi-tals effectively follow guidelines for electric equipment, but 185 hos-pitals’ electric facilities are overloaded and have been asked to rectify it. Fire safety officers have carried out inspections at 1,713 hospitals for 5,418 times.

From December 2020 till date, 11,068 person-nel have been trained at 2,074 training sessions, while 1,683 mock drills will be conducted. Dur-ing the second wave, nine fire accidents oc-cured in Covid hospi-tals and all were suc-cessfully handled.

A huge fi re at a Covid-19 hospital in 2020 snuffed out 8 lives. —FILE PHOTO

First India Bureau

Ahmedabad: A recent communique from the Gujarat Government announcing the with-drawal of subsidies to the small and medium scale renewable energy firms has raised their hackles, for this amounts to a whopping Rs 2,200 crore loss for

them. In the next few years,

35 Giga Watt (GW) Hy-brid Renewable Energy is expected to be added to the State’s energy bas-ket. Five GW of this will come from a Rs 25-bil-lion solar power park of the Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Ltd (GUVNL) at Dholera Special Invest-ment Region and 30 GW

in Kutch by central PSUs, including NTPC.

The MSME sector is wondering if this is the reason for the GUVNL withdrawing the subsi-dy to Small Scale Dis-tributed Solar Projects (SSDP). They are also surprised that GUVNL, which is not paying the subsidy, is communicat-ing this and not the MSME Department that is supposed to release the subsidy.

The Gujarat Federa-tion of Solar Industries (GFSL) has asked GU-VNL to furnish details of how much subsidy is

being paid to whom and when, GFSL’s Kishors-inh Zala said.

A worried Zala told the First India that Mi-cro, Small and Medium Entrepreneurs (MSME) had already invested Rs 182 crore in registration with discom companies and Gujarat Energy De-velopment Agency. Some 4,000 MSMEs have signed MOUs to pro-duce 2,500 MW renewa-ble energy.

He said 12,500 MS-MEs had got attracted to the SSDP proposal, where the State was to purchase power at Rs

2.83 per unit. “These units will suffer a loss of Rs 2,200 crore, if the subsidy is not released,” he feared.

An industrialist told First India that the gov-ernment might have re-alized that if the MS-MEs get self-sufficient in power generation, there will be hardly any buyers from the major players.

He also feared that this would raise suspi-cion among the MSMEs since they invested only after the government’s industry policy was an-nounced.

MSMEs livid over withdrawal of renewable energy subsidyGAINS FOR SOME, LOSSES FOR OTHERS!

The Gujarat Govt has recently informed them about with-drawal of subsidy after they had pumped in huge money

PAYING RESPECTS

Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel and Education Minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama paying homage to saint Hariprasad Swami of Sokhda near Vadodara on Sunday.

Surat group to send kits to flood-hit Konkan

Guj engg college hostel named after L&T chief

First India Bureau

Surat: Surat’s Vid-yakunj, Vidyaeep Sain-ath Sports Club and Veerta Group have come together to des-patch 500 foodgrain kits to Maharashtra’s Kon-kan district devastated by heavy rains. The kits would be sent in two days.

The kits have been prepared by Vidyakunj, Vidyadeep Sainath Sport Club and Veerta Group.

The kit has been de-signed to last for a month to ensure that the affected people get adequate food. These organisations in Surat have experience of dis-tributing food kits since the city itself is prone to floods.

Maheshbhai Patel of

the Veerta Group said, “When we saw the scenes of devastation in the Konkan, some of our friends realized that people there must be in need of help now. So we reached out to as many people as we could through social media and talked to them about helping people. With this in mind, the Suratis do-nated with an open mind.”

First India Bureau

Anand: The alma mater of Larsen & Toubro Group chairman AM Naik at Vallabh Vidyana-gar has named its new hostel after him, it said on Sunday.

The Birla Vishvakar-ma Mahavidyalaya Engi-neering College at Vallabh Vidyanagar in Anand district has named its new hostel as “AM Naik House of Scholars” in honour of Naik, who was present on the occasion with Gu-jarat Deputy Chief Min-ister Nitin Patel on Sat-urday when the new hos-tel building was inaugu-rated. Naik, 79, had com-pleted his engineering at this institute in 1963. The honour has been given to its distinguished alum-nus “in recognition of

his outstanding contri-bution to the Indian in-dustry as the head of Larsen & Toubro, one of the country’s preemi-nent engineering and construction compa-nies,” a press release from the college said.

The autonomous engi-neering college is the first engineering college in Gujarat. Naik will also be honoured with an honorary doctorate by the Charutar Vidya Mandal University (CVMU), its president Bhikhubhai Patel said in a statement.

—REPRESENTATIONAL PHOTO

The foodgrain kits.

As time goes by the famous quote by Richard Cumberland, “ It is better to wear out than rust out”,

makes more good sense than ever.—Jagdeesh Chandra, CEO & Editor-in-Chief, First India

AHMEDABAD, MONDAYAUGUST 2, 2021

www.fi rstindia.co.in I www.fi rstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefi rstindia facebook.com/thefi rstindia I instagram.com/thefi rstindia 09

tar Entertainment Produc-tion presented a mega plat-form to promote and felici-tate the young and gorgeous talents for a renowned beau-ty pageant on Sunday at Ho-tel Clarks Amer, Jaipur.

Jagdeesh Chandra graced the occasion as the Chief Guest and felicitated the participants. While

addressing the audience, he said, “It is indeed a proud moment for the country to have so much talent

around. I congratulate not just the participants but

their families and par-

ents for the much-needed support.” He further wished them all the best for their future endeavours.

Rohit Khandelwal, Mr World, Su-man, Miss India 2019 and Second Runner up Miss World, Rishee Miglani, Youth icon of Rajasthan were present as the jury members on the occasion. The show was di-rected and choreographed by Loke-sh Sharma.

The organisers, Saurav Anand and Akanksha were very confident about taking the COVID precau-tions. The most important focus was being placed on safety and sanita-tion. Following the instructions of the government, full care was taken care of, BioSecure Bubble, Complete Sanitisation, No Mask No Entry at the venue. Show directors instruct-ed everybody not to remove masks even during the practice sessions.

A GLAM AFFAIR!

MITALI DUSADcityfirst@firstindia.co.in

S

CITY FIRST BRINGS YOU GLAM MOMENTS WITH FEMINA MISS INDIA 2019 SUMAN RAO, MR. WORLD

2016 ROHIT KHANDELWAL AND THE GORGEOUS PARTICIPANTS AT THE STAR ENTERTAINMENT FASHION EVENT AT CLARKS AMER, JAIPUR!

Jagdeesh Chandra with (L-R) Rishee Miglani, Anchor Pratika Sood, Rohit Khandelwal, Suman Rao and Saurav Anand

Sahi

ba P

apta

Payal ShingadeSuman Rao

Shreeyanshi Katre

Jagdeesh Chandra with Suman Rao

During the ramp walk

Lokesh Sharma

—PHOTOS BY M

UKESH KIRADOO

10ETC

AHMEDABAD | MONDAY, AUGUST 2, 2021www.fi rstindia.co.in I www.fi rstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefi rstindia I facebook.com/thefi rstindia I instagram.com/thefi rstindia

FACE

OF TH

E DAY

URFI, Artist

ARIESMAR 21 - APR 20

Your professionalism in handling problem areas will be appreciated. Tenant troubles are foreseen for some house

owners. You will fi nd family life fulfi lling. A senior is likely to put in a good word for you to the higher ups. Financially, you will be able to consolidate your position.

LIBRASEPT 24 - OCTOBER 22

You will have to be more focussed on the academic front. You may get busy organising something on the social front. To prove yourself,

you may need to put your ideas into action. A party may be thrown in your honour at work. Your good performance is likely to be noticed by higher ups.

TAURUSAPR 21 - MAY 20

A business trip is indicated and will achieve much. Your strategy to promote yourself on the professional front will bear fruits. You may need to

speed up things on the academic front to remain ahead. On the social front, the day fi nds you in your element. Something special awaits you on the romantic front.

SCORPIOOCT 23 - NOVEMBER 22

Success is foretold on the academic front. Your reputation is likely to boost your image on the social front. On the work front, you will

manage to keep your superiors satisfi ed. This is an excellent day to spend time with family.Good planning will see you complete a task at work in record time.

GEMINI MAY 21 - JUNE 21

You may achieve what you had aimed for on the academic front. A celebration can fi nd you in your element today. Praise and honour are likely

to greet you in something that you have managed to achieve. You will be a pillar of strength to a friend or associate. A good day at work is foreseen today.

SAGITTARIUSNOV 23 - DEC 22

Excellent opportunities may knock at your door. Professionals will be able to give their best in a new situation. Financially, this

day may prove lucky for you, so go ask for the raise that is keeping you on tenterhooks. Don’t take any chances with your health today.

CANCERJUNE 22 - JULY 23

Good performance on academic front will enhance your work reputation. Some favourable developments on the social front are foreseen.

Buying new furniture or a major appliance is possible. With good networking, a prized posting can be yours Those trying to get back their money will succeed.

CAPRICORNDEC 23 - JAN 20

Getting into a favourable situation on the academic front is possible. Some positive changes can be expected on the home front. This seems

a good day for job seekers. New avenues for earning open up as you get more determined. Fitness through extra efforts is assured for the deskbound.

LEOJULY 24 - AUGUST 23

You are likely to take up someone’s cause and earn appreciation from all quarters on the social front. Remaining on the good side of

those who matter on the academic front will help you achieve much. Good tidings of your well wishers will keep you going on the professional front.

AQUARIUSJAN 21 - FEB 19

Your desire for an exciting time on the social front may be fulfi lled. Those looking for buying a house can get a good bargain. Appreciation

is in store for some homemakers. A professional victory is yours if you play your cards well today. Those in business will be able to maintain good earning.

VIRGOAUG 24 - SEP 23

A new deal is likely to come through and give you a taste of success. Those fond of travelling may get their chance soon. A change of job is

likely to give you better salary and perks. Those in business will soon get a chance to make profi ts. Spending time with lover proves most fulfi lling.

PISCESFEB20 - MARCH 20

Your performance at work will be commendable. Your happiness is in your hands today. Spouse may need her space, respect that. This is a

favourable day for completing pending jobs. Financially, no problems are foreseen. It is best to avoid outside food. Much fun is in store on the social front.

YOUR DAY

Horoscope by Saurabbh Sachdeva

FROM THE LOCAL STREETS OF PINK CITY

aniharon Ka Raas-ta, the lane where these craftsmen are placed in Pink City is today acclaimed nationally for lac work. Situated in

old Jaipur at Tripoliya Bazar, Maniharon Ka Raasta is a nar-row and crowded lane where hundreds of lac work artisans give shape to such unique art pieces for local sale and bulk export. When I visited the cramped street, it was jammed mostly with buyers, their ech-oes, congested traffic, and flames of craftsmen furnaces or wooden stoves coming out from a large number of adjoin-ing lac shops there.

In Rajasthan, lac business is usually done by Hindu fami-lies who are called Lakhera and Mohammedans people, i.e., Manihar Community. Jaipur’s colourful artefacts like lac ornaments along with lac wall paintings, showpieces admire greatly by people. An all-time favourite Lehariya style Lac Bangles and orna-ments in vibrant colours are a big craze among young wom-en. The beauty of these multi-coloured neckpieces, rings, earrings, lac bangles enhances more as the craftsmen bejewel these traditional ornaments with beads and colourful glass stones, like octane or stones imported from China or Aus-tralia. But today, with innova-tive techniques such fine prod-ucts are being crafted with bronze, steel, and other alter-native materials and it be-comes difficult to identify the original lac products.

A very elite lac piece “Gulal Gota”, the harmless potlis that are made with fine lac sheets and filled with herbal colours are especially being crafted for the Holi festival since the royal era. In Holi, people throw gulal gota on each other to make the festival more enjoyable.

In traditional Indian fami-lies, lac bangles are also sym-bolised as Suhag / gulali or haraa choodha which are usu-ally worn by a new bride just after her marriage for a cer-

tain period. Pink coloured bangles are worn exclusively during Holi. All in all these bangles are considered very auspicious and specially pur-chased for festivities like Teej, Gangaur, Karva Chauth and special ceremonies.

INSIGHTThe art of making lac products is over 300 years old. To estab-lish the Lac art industry in Ra-jasthan, Jaipur Maharaja brought artists from Arabia and also from the other states of India. During the formation of Jaipur, Maharaja Jai Singh II shifted the master craftsmen of lac work from Amer to Jaipur and today Jaipur has become a hub of the lac industry.

It is so amazing that the size of the lac bangles is easily ad-justed or mild cracks in any

product can be mended with mild heating, tender fabrica-tion and gentle moulding. However, lac products are heat prone and Rajasthan’s ex-tremely hot weather is a major obstacle for this art.

INSIGHT (FILLER ITEM) The raw material, i.e., lac is the by-product/waste of small in-sects and acquired from the trees like Peepal, Bud, and Plasa. Lac is usually imported from Bihar, U.P., etc. The entire process of making lac products involves heating, combining, kneading, hammering, and shaping through moulds or by hands. The process requires a lot of accuracy and time. Col-oured Lac applies to the Paper Mache cut-outs or the lac moulds. The ready products are then decorated and this process is called Chipai.

Disappointed with the cur-rent scenario Shilp Guru and

2013 National Award winner Awaz Mohammad told me that from Rs 10 to Rs 2 lakh we use to design a variety of lac orna-ments, paintings and prod-ucts. But due to a lack of gov-ernment’s support and tough competition with other substi-tute articles the lac work is not getting a good response as compared to earlier times.

Mohamad Shamsher whose forefathers started this work 200 years ago and now he and his entire family are into this business stated with great dis-tress that it’s seasonal work and sale for these items in-crease during festival or mar-riage time.

Seeing the unsatisfactory conditions of hard struggle, government ignorance and less earning in the domain the time is not so far when these craftsmen of lac industry move on to some other profes-sion and the splendid legacy of such wonderful art of lac work may abolish soon.

A Street with echoes and fumes from the Eco-friendly yet gloomy Lac Industry

ANUBHA JAINcityfirst@firstindia.co.in

M

Lisa Haydon got trolled as a social media commented on her recent Insta-

gram post saying, “@lisa-haydon stop selling chem-icals to ruin people life. Your baby will be cursed for fooling followers.” Tak-ing no time, Lisa quickly shut down the troll with one word: “Wow”. Her fans supported her. —Agency

It seems Ellen Pompeo’s hus-band had a rath-er different re-

action to her char-acter in Grey’s Anat-omy. During her recent interview the Grey’s Anatomy star opened up about how her husband, Chris Ivery dealt with her intimate scenes on the show. Pompeo and Dempsey’s palpable chemistry seemed to have been a problem for Ivery at the start. He said, “I did not sign up for this.”

—Agency

ETCwww.fi rstindia.co.in I www.fi rstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefi rstindia I facebook.com/thefi rstindia I instagram.com/thefi rstindia

AHMEDABAD | MONDAY, AUGUST 2, 2021

KANGANA KANGANA DOES DOES

SHAYARISHAYARIK angana Ranaut, who

is busy shooting her film ‘Dhaakad’ in the

European nation, took out some quality me-time. On Friday, the actress took to her Instagram space and dropped some breathtak-ing photographs of her-self glowing in a beautiful green dress. She quoted an Urdu shayari by Mirza Ghalib to define her feel-ings. In the pictures, the star can be seen standing at the balcony, looking outside, while being stuck in her thoughts. Sharing the picture, Kangana wrote, “Nikalna khuld se aadam ka sunte aaye hain lekin, bahut be-aabru hokar tere kuche se ham nikle.” One of the users wrote, “Gorgeous”. The second one said, “Green suits you.” “The best of Bollywood,” compliment-ed the third fan. —Agency

SUHANA KHAN TURNS ARTIST

MRUNAL WITH DQ

SRK’s daughter Suha-na Khan brought her artistic skills into

play to pay a tribute to her mother. On Friendship Day, the star-kid attempted charcoal art to draw Gauri Khan’s portrait. Taking to her Instagram story, Su-hana shared a clip of her artistic skills with follow-ers online. —Agency

A ctress Mrunal Thakur, who will be seen with actor Dul-

quer Salmaan in their yet-to-be-titled trilingual film, revealed her look and character’s name on Sun-day. While Dulquer’s char-acter is called Lieutenant Ram, Mrunal’s character has been introduced as Sita. —Agency

Titled Freddy, Kar-tik Aaryan’s new film is a romantic

thriller, which will be directed by Shashanka Ghosh. Freddy will be co-produced by Ekta Ka-poor’s Balaji Telefilms and Jay Shewakram-ani’s banner North-ern Lights Films.

—Agency

K aty Perry and Orlando Bloom made a red carpet appearance as they looked

their best for a UNICEF event on Saturday night, July 31 at La Certosa di San Giacomo in Capri, Italy. Katy was seen looking gorgeous in a black ensemble, Bloom chose to wear a navy blazer and white trousers. —Agency

KARTIK AARYAN IN FREDDY

THE DYNAMIC DUO Sneak-peek into B’day

Me g h a n Markle will cel-e b r a t e

her 40th birthday on August 4 and plans for her up-coming bash have now been re-vealed. Markle has hired Oprah

Winfrey’s party planner for it. She

will host a “small gather-ing” hosting 65 people along with husband Prince Harry and their kids, son Archie, and daughter Lilibet Diana at their California home. —Agency

11

Scarlett Scarlett Johansson Johansson v/s Disneyv/s Disney

fter Scarlett Johansson filed a lawsuit against Dis-ney relating to Black Widow’s streaming release and how it reduced her promised compensation, Hollywood agents and stars have been reacting to the same. The actress’ lawsuit seems to be gaining a lot of support from industry insiders. —Agency

The film was released on the OTT p l a t f o r m

and revolves around a small-town girl Mimi (Kri-ti Sanon) who dreams of becoming an actress in Bol-lywood. The film is set in the small town of Ra-jasthan. Mimi works as a dancer at a hotel to earn money so that she can go to Mumbai and act in films. A US-based couple looking for a surrogate mother to carry their child conveys the plan to their driver Bhanu (Pankaj Tripathi) who in turns prom-ises them to find a perfect girl. One day, Bhanu spots Mimi and lures her into be-coming a surrogate. Mimi is offered 20 lakhs and she grabs the offer and gets pregnant.

But as the yet-to-be-born child has some issues, the couple drops the plan and flies back to the US leaving Mimi in no man’s land.

The life-changing incident breaks Mimi but she gives

birth to the child and realises that the child is perfectly nor-mal without any abnormali-ties. She along with the sup-port of a family raises the child when one fine day the American couple returns to take back the custody of the child. The film is a family drama but it is a career-defin-ing film for Kriti Sanon and

she makes full use of her character. She as Mimi starts on a carefree note and trans-forms into this single help-less mother in a beautiful manner. Kriti’s glamour, dances, and mostly her per-formance in the second half will surely bring tears to the eyes. Pankaj Tripathi has be-come a pro in doing support-

ing roles. In Mimi, he plays Bhanu and is the main person who evokes comedy with his dialogues. Supriya Pathak as Kriti’s mom, Sai Tamhankar, Man Singh Rathore do their supporting roles perfectly and give depth to the film. The film is directed well with few loopholes that can be overlooked.

DIRECTORDirector : Laxman Utekar

CAST & CREWKriti Sanon, Pankaj Tripathi, Sai Tamhankar, and Supriya Pathak

MIMI

RATING:

KRITI SANON TALKS ABOUT DISPARITY

Kriti Sanon, in an i n t e r v i e w opened up on the pay dis-

parity between ac-tors and actresses. She believes that patriarchal mind-set is so normal that it will take a little time to alter and grow. In an interview, Kriti Sanon said, “The only thing that I had pointed out which happens is when a male and a female ac-tor have a similar kind of role, I feel like men don’t have to prove by having the film solely on them, to grow and to in-crease their price and somewhere females, some-times have to prove it more by such kind of films, which is what I felt is a very weird dif-ference. But I think we’re slowly grow-ing and things are changing”.

—Agency

Ellen’s husband jealous?

Lisa Haydon slams trolls

A

Kriti Sanon

Katy Perry &Orlando Bloom

Kangana Ranaut

Meghan MarkleEllen Pompeo

Lisa Haydon

Kartik Aaryan

Suhana KhanScarlett Johansson

her post...

A LIGHT HEARTED FILM WITH A STRONG MESSAGE

KAVITA CHAUHANcityfirst@firstindia.co.in

12AHMEDABAD | MONDAY, AUGUST 2, 2021www.fi rstindia.co.in I www.fi rstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefi rstindia I facebook.com/thefi rstindia I instagram.com/thefi rstindia

CITY BUZZGET VACCINATED

STAY MASKED

Some more glimpses from the beauty pageant Elite Miss Rajasthan-2021 success party organised at Hotel Hilton on Saturday. Swati Jangid, Aanchal Ajaipal, Riya Suledia, Tripti Arora and Sapna Bundwal, the elite beauties of Rajasthan posed for the shutterbugs as they had a gala time. —PHOTOS BY MUKESH KIRADOOSOME MORE GLIMPSES...

Kashi Ram Prajapat, a 24-year-old boy, from a humble family in Bhilwara village of Rajasthan, a passionate artist’s willpower and enthusiasm, his aggressive lip-syncing videos have taken Josh - India’s leading short-video app by storm. Kashi enjoys over 782.8K fans on Josh and can make a living out of it. His work has been appreciated by popular celebrities like Yo Yo Honey Singh, who have uploaded Kashi’s videos on their Instagram stories.

MEET AND GREET!

Jagdeesh Chandra with the renowned photographer Anil Gaba and Yogesh Shriram Bhedi, CMD of The Dadhikar Fort, Alwar during a courtesy meet at his residence on Sunday, Gaba presented him with one of hsi works.

Jagdeesh Chandra launched the poster of ‘Mera Rakht Desh Ke Naam’. It is a campaign by social workers Ajay Singh Pawan, Rakesh Chaksh and their team which will be held on August 14. The main motto behind the initiative is to pay tribute to the young martyrs who lost their lives fi ghting for the nation. The campaign will take place at SSS Jain Subodh College and Amar Jawan Jyoti Shahid Smarak.

Reviving Ecosystem

CITY FIRST

ICCI Ladies Organi-sation (FLO) Jaipur came for-ward to support OUR ECOSYSTEM with a 1000 Tree Plan-

tation Drive headed by chair-person Monica Kothari Jain on

Thursday. It was organised at The Elephant Village where 1000 trees were planted by the members

along with their kids. They planted a separate patch of me-

dicinal plants and banana trees keeping in mind the diet of el-ephants. The entire drive was organised and supported by ACF Hathi Gaon, Vikram Singh Shekhawat and Forest officer Joginder Singh.

cityfirst@firstindia.co.in

FCITY FIRST

Gora Foun-dation & Common-w e a l t h

Entrepreneurs Club announced the Chanderkala Chandak Schol-arship for the UPSC exam 2022. Sunil Sihag ‘Gora’ founder of the Gora Foun-dation stated that all the students of Rajasthan & children of de-fence personnel (serving and re-tired) are eligible for the scholar-ship program. It

Scholarship for UPSC Exam

The students of Poornima Universi-ty, Jaipur, along with their International

counterparts are coming forward to help the home-less people of the city amidst the pandemic. The volunteers of ‘Poornima Pathshala’, an NGO run by the university, are distrib-uting food packets at multi-

ple locations in the city. Ra-hul Singhi, Co-founder of Poornima University in-formed that the university has been very helpful with this noble cause. Funding has already been managed for about three months of food. The chefs and stu-dents of their Hotel Man-agement Institute are help-ing with cooking.

HELPING THE NEEDY

POORVI SINGHAL

Co n g r a t u l a -tions are in order for class 12

CBSE students as generous results came pouring in for these as-pirants on Fri-day. The class of 2020-21 had a rather bumpy ride, as their exams got cancelled and eventually, a ‘fair and square’ scoring system was laid out by the gov-ernment. It accords 30% weightage each to class 10 and 11 re-sults and 40% to class 12 pre-boards and practical assess-ments. Shivangi Trivedi, a student of St. Angela Sophia Sr. Sec. School has passed her 12th

board examinations with flying colours as she scored 95.6% with humanities as her stream. She shared, “It was dif-ferent than all the

years as there was less interac-tion as com-pared to our pre-

vious pattern. And yet, I was over-whelmed when the results were an-nounced.”

Jagdeesh Chan-dra congratulated Shivangi on her bril-liant achievement. Shivangi further plans to pursue her education in BA (LLB). Her parents, Dr Piyush Trivedi and Shilpa Trivedi are very proud of their daughter’s achievement.

cityfirst@firstindia.co.in

Shades of Success

Young leaders, ready to go to the Children’s session of the Ra-jasthan Legislative

Assembly on November 14, have a brilliant opportunity to interact with erudite politi-cians. The calendar for the eighth week of Digital Baal Mela season 2, sponsored by Future Society and LIC and co-sponsored by IDBI Bank, has been released. Deputy Leader Rajendra Rathod, Con-gress leader Rukakshamani Kumari, MLA Ashok Lahoti, Minister BD Kalla and Dhruv Kumar Banerjee will interact with the young minds and share their words of wisdom from their experiences.

A haven of knowledge

Digi

tal B

aal M

ela

will be up to 40% of the total fees. The esti-mated cost of the scholarship will be around sixty lakh rupees. Online classes will be held in EDUKEMY Delhi under the guidance of revered Sabbir S Bashir. Businessman & social activist Ashok Chandak unveiled the scholarship banner at his office.

WHAT’S HAPPENING!

Gujarati Management Guru Dr Shailesh Thaker was honoured by the International Federation of Learning and Development on Friday. Dr Shailesh is the first Gujarati to receive this honour.

Swati Chhabra with daughter Avika Chhabra ready with saplings to be plantedDuring the event

Jagdeesh Chandra with Dr Piyush and Shivangi Trivedi

The students of Poornima University during the distribution drive

During the event