DBD0 - Daily Pioneer

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A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi lauded security forces for neutralising four Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terrorists in Nagrota, India on Saturday summoned Pakistani envoy here to register its protest over Islamabad’s continued backing of terror activities emanating from its soil. Reiterating its demand that Pakistan must fulfil its inter- national obligations not to allow any territory under its control to be used by terrorists, Pakistan’s Charge d’Affaires Aftab Hasan Khan was told that the huge cache of arms, ammunition and explosive material indicated a detailed planning for a major attack to destabilise the peace and secu- rity in Jammu & Kashmir to derail the polls to local District Development Councils. Registering its protest, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said the attack was prevented due to the alertness of the Indian security forces. “India reiterated its long- standing demand that Pakistan fulfil its international obliga- tions and bilateral commit- ments not to allow any territo- ry under its control to be used for terrorism against India in any manner. It was demanded that Pakistan desists from its policy of supporting terrorists and terror groups operating from its territory and disman- tle the terror infrastructure operated by terrorist outfits to launch attacks in other coun- tries,” the MEA further said. It also added that the Indian Government was “firm- ly and resolutely committed” to take all necessary measures to safeguard its national security in the fight against terrorism. The MEA said the JeM is proscribed by the United Nations and several countries. The Government of India expressed its serious concerns at continued terror attacks by JeM against India. The JeM has been part of several attacks in India in the past, including the Pulwama attack in February 2019. The four suspected Jaish-e- Mohammed terrorists, who were hiding in a truck, were killed in a three-hour encounter with security forces on the Jammu-Srinagar NH near Nagrota early Thursday. Turn to Page 4 I n a move aimed to meet the shortage of doctors across the country, the Government has allowed the Postgraduate (PG) students of Ayurveda to per- form a range of general surgery, including orthopedic, oph- thalmology, ENT and dental. The Centre has issued a gazette notification in this regard allowing Ayurvedic PG passouts to receive formal training for such procedures. The training modules for sur- gical procedures will be added to the curriculum of Ayurvedic studies. The amendments in the Indian Medicine Central Council Regulations, 2016 has been carried out to introduce formal training in these pro- cedures as part of the curricu- lum for postgraduate students of shalya (general surgery) and shalakya tantra (diseases of ear, nose, throat, ENT, eye, head, oro-dentistry) speciali- sations. Union Ayush Secretary Rajesh Kotechea explained the Ministry has specified the pro- cedures that an Ayurveda doc- tor can conduct while handling a patient. The gazette notification issued on November 19 stated that during the period of study, the PG scholar of Shalya and Shalakya shall be practically trained to acquaint with as well as independently performing specified activities so that after completion of his/her PG degree, he/she is able to per- form the procedures indepen- dently. As per the legislation, Ayurveda practitioners can legally perform common pro- cedures such as skin grafting, cataract surgery, and root canal treatment. As per the amendments, the complete list of procedures that will be taught in MS (Ayurved) Shyalya tantra will include perianal abscess, breast abscess, axillary abscess, cel- lulitis, all types of skin grafting, ear lobe repair, excision of the simple cyst and benign tumours (lipoma, fibroma, schwannoma, etc) of non-vital organs, excision/amputation of gangrene. They will also be allowed to take up traumatic wound man- agement all types of suturing, haemostatic ligatures, ligation and repair of tendon and mus- cles, removal of metallic and non-metallic foreign bodies from non-vital organs among many other areas. Under MS (Ayurved) Shalakya Tantra, the Ayurveda doctor can practice in medical areas pertaining to diseases of eyelids such as Glaucoma and trained to carry out various surgery, including cataract surgery. The practitioners will also be eligible to conduct local Anesthesia in the eye, and var- ied surgeries related to nose, ear, and dental-related medical issues. A fter 57 days of standoff, protesting Punjab farm- ers’ unions have agreed to lift rail blockade and decided to allow passage of all trains in the State from Monday evening for a fortnight. The decision by the members of a conglomerate of 30 farmer unions came after a one and a half hour meeting with Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh. Railways are estimated have suffered a loss of over 2,220 crore, while industries in Punjab suffered a loss to over 30,000 crore due to farmers’ protests. Now, farmers’ unions will be concentrating their protests outside residences of BJP leaders and businesses owned by corporates, while preparing for their protest in Delhi on November 26-27. Amarinder welcomed the farmers’ decision and urged the Centre to resume rail services to Punjab forthwith. “Had a fruitful meeting with kisan (farmers’) unions. Happy to share that starting November 23 night, kisan unions have decided to end rail blockade for 15 days. I welcome this step since it will restore normalcy to our economy,” Amarinder said. “I urge the Central Government to resume rail services to Punjab forthwith,” he added. The Chief Minister is now likely to meet Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi next week to push for resump- tion of rail services in his State. The decision to lift the rail blockade was announced by Bharti Kissan Union (Rajewal) president Balbir Singh Rajewal at a meeting of representatives of the Kisan Unions with the Chief Minister here to resolve the imbroglio over the rail blockade imposed by the farmers in protest against the Centre’s laws. Rajewal, however, warned of resumption of blockade if the Central Government fails to hold talks with the farmers’ representatives in the next 15 days to address their concerns on the agricultural laws. Turn to Page 4 D elhi’s air quality recorded a marginal improvement on Saturday morning due to favourable wind speed but remained in the “poor” cate- gory. Similar situation was wit- nessed in NCR cities of Noida, Greater Noida, Ghaziabad, Gurgaon and Faridabad. Government agencies said the air quality index (AQI) was likely to improve to the “mod- erate” category later in the day. Delhi’s AQI was 263 at 9 am. The 24-hour average AQI was 296 on Friday. It was 283 on Thursday and 211 on Wednesday. Similarly, the average 24- hour AQI at 4 pm on Saturday was 256 in Gurgaon, 246 in Faridabad, 238 in Ghaziabad, 231 in Noida and 228 in Greater Noida, according to CPCB’s Sameer app. An AQI between zero and 50 is considered “good”, 51 and 100 “satisfactory”, 101 and 200 “moderate”, 201 and 300 “poor”, 301 and 400 “very poor”, and 401 and 500 “severe”. Calm winds and low tem- peratures trap pollutants close to the ground, while favourable wind speed helps in their dis- persion. Delhi’s ventilation index — a product of mixing depth and average wind speed — was around 13,000 square metre per second on Saturday and is likely to be 6,000 square metre per second on Sunday. T he ruling AIADMK in Tamil Nadu on Saturday said its alliance with the BJP will continue for the 2021 Assembly elections and exud- ed confidence it will win a hatrick poll next year. AIADMK top leaders O Panneerselvam and K Palaniswami made the announcement at a Government event here, attended by Union Home Minister and BJP veteran Amit Shah. Chief Minister Palaniswami is the AIADMK Co-Coordinator while Coordinator Panneerselvam is his deputy. “I would like to inform through this meeting that in the coming election (2021), the victorious alliance of AIADMK and BJP will continue,” Panneerselvam said. Palaniswami, who said Prime Minister Modi and Shah were working towards making the country a superpower, asserted that “the alliance formed for the Lok Sabha polls will continue.” “Our alliance will win max- imum seats and AIADMK will retain power,” he said. The AIADMK and the BJP aligned for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, along with others, includ- ing PMK, but the combine could win only the lone Theni seat out of the 39 segments in Tamil Nadu, with the ruling party clinching it. The top leaders’ assertion comes against the backdrop of the Government’s denial of permission to the BJP’s Vel Yatra, aimed at exposing the DMK for “lending support” to an atheist group accused of denigrating Tamil hymn ‘Kanda Sashti Kavacham’, sung in praise of Lord Muruga, cit- ing the Covid-19 pandemic. The AIADMK had recent- ly lashed out at its saffron ally on the matter and accused it of attempting votebank politics. BJP State president L Murugan has been courting arrest in different towns after trying to take out the proces- sion despite denial of permission. New Delhi: As many as 57 out of 428 trainee civil service officers have tested Covid positive at the Lal Bahadur Shashtri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA) at Mussoorie in the last 24 hours, prompting authorities to close “all non-essential departments” there. The co-curricular activities have been sus- pended till further order. Officers found infect- ed have been quarantined and 162 people have been examined while the remaining staff were also investigated. Sanjeev Chopra, director of LBSNAA, said, “A total of 33 OTs (Officer Trainees) tested Covid-19 positive on Friday.” However, the Ministry of Personnel Public Grievances & Pensions said that 57 officer trainees have tested COVID positive at LBSNAA since November 20, 2020. Turn to Page 4 London: A new UK study on Saturday suggests that individuals who have previously had Covid-19 are highly unlikely to contract the ill- ness again for at least six months following their first infection. The study, done as part of a major collab- oration between the University of Oxford and Oxford University Hospitals (OUH) NHS Foundation Trust, suggests that most people are unlikely to get Covid-19 again if they have already had it in the previous six months. “This is really good news because we can be confident that, at least in the short term, most people who get Covid-19 won’t get it again,” said Professor David Eyre of the University of Oxford’s Nuffield Department of Population Health, one of the authors of the paper. Turn to Page 4

Transcript of DBD0 - Daily Pioneer

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Aday after Prime MinisterNarendra Modi lauded

security forces for neutralisingfour Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM)terrorists in Nagrota, India onSaturday summoned Pakistanienvoy here to register its protestover Islamabad’s continuedbacking of terror activitiesemanating from its soil.

Reiterating its demand thatPakistan must fulfil its inter-national obligations not toallow any territory under itscontrol to be used by terrorists,Pakistan’s Charge d’AffairesAftab Hasan Khan was toldthat the huge cache of arms,ammunition and explosivematerial indicated a detailedplanning for a major attack todestabilise the peace and secu-rity in Jammu & Kashmir toderail the polls to local DistrictDevelopment Councils.

Registering its protest, theMinistry of External Affairs(MEA) said the attack wasprevented due to the alertness

of the Indian security forces.“India reiterated its long-

standing demand that Pakistanfulfil its international obliga-tions and bilateral commit-ments not to allow any territo-ry under its control to be usedfor terrorism against India inany manner. It was demandedthat Pakistan desists from itspolicy of supporting terroristsand terror groups operatingfrom its territory and disman-tle the terror infrastructureoperated by terrorist outfits tolaunch attacks in other coun-tries,” the MEA further said.

It also added that theIndian Government was “firm-ly and resolutely committed” totake all necessary measures to

safeguard its national securityin the fight against terrorism.

The MEA said the JeM isproscribed by the UnitedNations and several countries.The Government of Indiaexpressed its serious concernsat continued terror attacks byJeM against India. The JeM hasbeen part of several attacks inIndia in the past, including thePulwama attack in February2019.

The four suspected Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorists, whowere hiding in a truck, werekilled in a three-hourencounter with security forceson the Jammu-Srinagar NHnear Nagrota early Thursday.

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��� �61�+67)/

In a move aimed to meet theshortage of doctors across the

country, the Government hasallowed the Postgraduate (PG)students of Ayurveda to per-form a range of general surgery,including orthopedic, oph-thalmology, ENT and dental.

The Centre has issued agazette notification in thisregard allowing Ayurvedic PGpassouts to receive formaltraining for such procedures.The training modules for sur-gical procedures will be addedto the curriculum of Ayurvedicstudies.

The amendments in theIndian Medicine CentralCouncil Regulations, 2016 hasbeen carried out to introduceformal training in these pro-cedures as part of the curricu-lum for postgraduate studentsof shalya (general surgery) andshalakya tantra (diseases ofear, nose, throat, ENT, eye,head, oro-dentistry) speciali-

sations.Union Ayush Secretary

Rajesh Kotechea explained theMinistry has specified the pro-cedures that an Ayurveda doc-tor can conduct while handlinga patient.

The gazette notificationissued on November 19 statedthat during the period of study,the PG scholar of Shalya andShalakya shall be practicallytrained to acquaint with as wellas independently performingspecified activities so thatafter completion of his/her PGdegree, he/she is able to per-form the procedures indepen-dently.

As per the legislation,Ayurveda practitioners canlegally perform common pro-cedures such as skin grafting,

cataract surgery, and root canaltreatment.

As per the amendments,the complete list of proceduresthat will be taught in MS(Ayurved) Shyalya tantra willinclude perianal abscess, breastabscess, axillary abscess, cel-lulitis, all types of skin grafting,ear lobe repair, excision of thesimple cyst and benigntumours (lipoma, fibroma,schwannoma, etc) of non-vitalorgans, excision/amputationof gangrene.

They will also be allowed totake up traumatic wound man-agement all types of suturing,haemostatic ligatures, ligationand repair of tendon and mus-cles, removal of metallic andnon-metallic foreign bodiesfrom non-vital organs amongmany other areas.

Under MS (Ayurved)Shalakya Tantra, the Ayurvedadoctor can practice in medicalareas pertaining to diseases ofeyelids such as Glaucoma andtrained to carry out varioussurgery, including cataractsurgery.

The practitioners will alsobe eligible to conduct localAnesthesia in the eye, and var-ied surgeries related to nose,ear, and dental-related medicalissues.

�*���'��� � �61�+67)/

After 57 days of standoff,protesting Punjab farm-

ers’ unions have agreed to liftrail blockade and decided toallow passage of all trains in theState from Monday evening fora fortnight. The decision by themembers of a conglomerate of30 farmer unions came after aone and a half hour meetingwith Chief Minister CaptainAmarinder Singh.

Railways are estimatedhave suffered a loss of over�2,220 crore, while industriesin Punjab suffered a loss to over

�30,000 crore due to farmers’protests. Now, farmers’ unionswill be concentrating theirprotests outside residences ofBJP leaders and businessesowned by corporates, whilepreparing for their protest inDelhi on November 26-27.

Amarinder welcomed thefarmers’ decision and urged theCentre to resume rail servicesto Punjab forthwith. “Had afruitful meeting with kisan(farmers’) unions. Happy toshare that starting November23 night, kisan unions havedecided to end rail blockade for15 days. I welcome this stepsince it will restore normalcy toour economy,” Amarinder said.

“I urge the CentralGovernment to resume railservices to Punjab forthwith,”he added. The Chief Minister

is now likely to meet UnionHome Minister Amit Shah andPrime Minister Narendra Modinext week to push for resump-tion of rail services in his State.

The decision to lift therail blockade was announcedby Bharti Kissan Union(Rajewal) president BalbirSingh Rajewal at a meeting ofrepresentatives of the KisanUnions with the Chief Ministerhere to resolve the imbroglioover the rail blockade imposedby the farmers in protestagainst the Centre’s laws.Rajewal, however, warned ofresumption of blockade if theCentral Government fails tohold talks with the farmers’representatives in the next 15days to address their concernson the agricultural laws.

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����� ��� �� � �61�+67)/

Delhi’s air quality recordeda marginal improvement

on Saturday morning due tofavourable wind speed butremained in the “poor” cate-gory. Similar situation was wit-nessed in NCR cities of Noida,Greater Noida, Ghaziabad,Gurgaon and Faridabad.

Government agencies saidthe air quality index (AQI) waslikely to improve to the “mod-erate” category later in the day.

Delhi’s AQI was 263 at 9am. The 24-hour average AQIwas 296 on Friday. It was 283on Thursday and 211 onWednesday.

Similarly, the average 24-hour AQI at 4 pm on Saturdaywas 256 in Gurgaon, 246 inFaridabad, 238 in Ghaziabad,

231 in Noida and 228 inGreater Noida, according toCPCB’s Sameer app.

An AQI between zero and50 is considered “good”, 51 and100 “satisfactory”, 101 and 200“moderate”, 201 and 300 “poor”,301 and 400 “very poor”, and401 and 500 “severe”.

Calm winds and low tem-

peratures trap pollutants closeto the ground, while favourablewind speed helps in their dis-persion. Delhi’s ventilationindex — a product of mixingdepth and average wind speed— was around 13,000 squaremetre per second on Saturdayand is likely to be 6,000 squaremetre per second on Sunday.

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The ruling AIADMK inTamil Nadu on Saturday

said its alliance with the BJPwill continue for the 2021Assembly elections and exud-ed confidence it will win ahatrick poll next year.

AIADMK top leaders OPanneerselvam and KPalaniswami made theannouncement at aGovernment event here,attended by Union HomeMinister and BJP veteran AmitShah. Chief MinisterPalaniswami is the AIADMKCo-Coordinator whileCoordinator Panneerselvam ishis deputy.

“I would like to informthrough this meeting that inthe coming election (2021), thevictorious alliance of AIADMKand BJP will continue,”Panneerselvam said.

Palaniswami, who saidPrime Minister Modi and Shahwere working towards makingthe country a superpower,

asserted that “the allianceformed for the Lok Sabha pollswill continue.”

“Our alliance will win max-imum seats and AIADMK willretain power,” he said.

The AIADMK and the BJPaligned for the 2019 Lok Sabhapolls, along with others, includ-ing PMK, but the combinecould win only the lone Theniseat out of the 39 segments inTamil Nadu, with the rulingparty clinching it.

The top leaders’ assertioncomes against the backdrop ofthe Government’s denial ofpermission to the BJP’s VelYatra, aimed at exposing theDMK for “lending support” toan atheist group accused ofdenigrating Tamil hymn‘Kanda Sashti Kavacham’, sungin praise of Lord Muruga, cit-ing the Covid-19 pandemic.

The AIADMK had recent-ly lashed out at its saffron allyon the matter and accused it ofattempting votebank politics.

BJP State president LMurugan has been courtingarrest in different towns aftertrying to take out the proces-sion despite denial of permission.

New Delhi: As many as 57 out of 428 traineecivil service officers have tested Covid positiveat the Lal Bahadur Shashtri National Academyof Administration (LBSNAA) at Mussoorie inthe last 24 hours, prompting authorities to close“all non-essential departments” there.

The co-curricular activities have been sus-pended till further order. Officers found infect-ed have been quarantined and 162 people havebeen examined while the remaining staff werealso investigated. Sanjeev Chopra, director ofLBSNAA, said, “A total of 33 OTs (OfficerTrainees) tested Covid-19 positive on Friday.”

However, the Ministry of Personnel PublicGrievances & Pensions said that 57 officertrainees have tested COVID positive at LBSNAAsince November 20, 2020.

Turn to Page 4

London: A new UK study on Saturday suggeststhat individuals who have previously hadCovid-19 are highly unlikely to contract the ill-ness again for at least six months following theirfirst infection.

The study, done as part of a major collab-oration between the University of Oxford andOxford University Hospitals (OUH) NHSFoundation Trust, suggests that most people areunlikely to get Covid-19 again if they havealready had it in the previous six months.

“This is really good news because we can beconfident that, at least in the short term, mostpeople who get Covid-19 won’t get it again,” saidProfessor David Eyre of the University ofOxford’s Nuffield Department of PopulationHealth, one of the authors of the paper.

Turn to Page 4

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Alot of content is beinggenerated on the OTTplatform and in a hurry at

that. Reason is simple, once thecinemas open and start gettingpopulated the relegation of alternate

entertainment avenues will becomea natural process. Of course,committed OTT viewers will stayand carry on with their web series butthe vertical surge of viewership willrecede — equally vertically once lifereturns to normal.

Sensing this as no rocket science,

the producers are dishing out jiffiesand also getting lapped up by homebound bored viewers. A SimpleMurder, in that sense is not so muchof a drag, but calling it run-of-the-millsmall budget series would not be anexaggeration.

Greed is of course at the centre of

the story revolving around a proposedsupari killing but on actual show is thedegeneration of society at large. Be itmarital relationship, adultery, sexualharassment at office, political criminalnexus, contract killing or, for thatmatter, even honour killing and inter-religion marriages, there is a peep into

all aspects of what urban jungles ae allabout.

Showcasing such wholesomenegativity comes with obvious baggageand that’s what A Simple Murdercarries with a lot of unease.

The characterisation and theactors chosen for it complement eachother with excellence but for a storyto carry on through the seven episodesand then into a second season, thereneeds to be something more.

�How tough wasit to come back toshoot after lockdownopened?

As much as I wasexcited to be back on setbut there was also a sense offear. Actors don’t have theluxury to always wear a maskso that was something I wasscared of. But I was sure that ourproducers took all the precautionsand sanitised the sets frequently. Ourshots were also spaced out and onlythe people required were allowed onthe sets. So yes, it was fun yet different.�How’s your equation with the co-stars? Is there a bit of awkwardness dueto social distancing that needs to bemaintained?

The equation was nice as I knewKanan and Tarun and are good friends.Before the lockdown we had a really goodtime but after the lockdown we had toshoot separately to follow social distancing.We hardly met. We miss each other whileshooting.� Is the costume heavy to walk aroundin? How much time does it take to beready?

Definitely the costume is heavy. It usedto take two hours to get ready. We haveassumed our Gods and Goddesses wearingheavy jewellery so I had to follow thataccording to the genre of the show. Also,after the lockdown I had to do my ownmake-up and it used to take time as we hadto sanitise our rooms and maintainhygiene. It has already been four monthsand I have now started getting used to this.� You have been part of many realityshows as well. What was the attraction?

I have not been a part of many realityshows apart from two or three probably.It’s a really different experience altogether.Working for daily soaps is a bit stressful,you are always sleep deprived and it’s kindof monotonous. So, it was a really goodbreak from that genre. The good thingabout reality shows is that you get to beyourself and as an individual you get toshow your own talent. I love dance showsbut I don’t think I’ll be a part of anyconversational show.� Did you have apprehensions intaking up Shaadi Mubarak?

I was a little apprehensive about thecharacter as it was an elderly one.When I watched the show, I came toknow that it was a central characterand there will be a love angle and it’san interesting concept. The lead ofthe show is a wedding planner so weget to do a lot of new things dailyas we interact with different charactersand it’s a mixture of lot of emotions and

relationships. It’s a different show.�How easy is it to play Preeti JIndal?

I don’t consider any character as easyas I am still a learner in this industry. Eventoday I am nervous on the first day ofshoots. It takes time for me to get into theskin of the character. But yes, now I am atease. The main concern with Preeti Jindalwas that it was a replacement and I havenever replaced anyone before. It was a

challenge as the audience has seen thecharacter as some other person. I amsure I will leave a mark but let’s hopethe audience accepts me.� Is it okay to draw comparisons

when actors are replaced?Everybody has their own

individuality and personalityand pattern of performing.

Comparing is like an expectation forthe actor to be a mimicry artist. The

most important aspect is to get into theskin of the character and then add in yourelement. You should be able to convince

the audience by your performance andthat is what matters.

�You have hosted shows as well.How has the experience been?

I have hosted a couple of shows andI love doing it. I would love to get suchopportunities. It is very different fromacting. I feel actors should not bebound to acting. They must explore allfields of this fraternity. So, I would loveto do it again�What about Bollywood plans?

Every actor dream’s to be inBollywood. So yes, still looking forward.

Let’s see what’s there.

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This film is based on SandhyaMenon’s book When DimpleMet Rishi and the series has

been written by Gazal Dhaliwaland directed by Akarsh Khuranaand Nipun Dharmadhikari. Onthe face of it, Mismatched is a lightrom-com and at the heart of it arediverse students. This is somethingthat the younger viewers are goingto identify with. But then given thetheme and the story of the movie,this one is totally for the teenagers— those between the ages of 16 to19 — young, angry, rebelling,want to have fun, experimentingand just being themselves awayfrom the prying eyes of theirparents.

Then there is the lead pair. Agirl who only has one thing inmind – to excel and have a career— unlike her mother who onlywants to see her daughter married.The boy, a romantic and a

Bollywood movie fan is looking fora wife. Yes, at 18. Sounds bizarre.But it is funny to see how he goesabout winning his girl.

But this is make-belief andthere has to be drama and nothingcomes easy in reel life or real.There are bound to be twists andturns and there are several here.

But if you are the kind ofperson who likes to watch showsthat have a clear-cut ending, thisone be avoided since it is seasonone and given by how things endhere, season 2 is definitely on thecards. When? Time will tell. Also,those who are always looking formeaningful content, this ispredictable and somewhat boring,at least it will be for the adults. Theteenagers are sure to find aconnection and see themselves inat least one of the severalcharacters.

While it is interesting to seediverse characters, since the focusis on the lead all the time, the backstories of the others have notbeen explored even when each hasone. This means that there isn’tmuch depth to the characters, atleast for now.

Overall, one can binge watchthese six episodes.������� ������� �

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Those who saw the original, thissequel will only be a takeoff wherethings left off. However, one does

have to see the first one to enjoy this rathercute but preposterous love story.Preposterous because not only are therethree Vanessa Hudgens but they switchagain just so one from the original pair isable to spend time with her ex and theyneed closure while everyone around themis hell bent on getting them together

because they look sweet together.Preposterous because one of the three

Hudgens’ is a villain and wants the crownfor herself, steals all the jewels anddisappear to a non-extradition country!Her own millions have sadly disappearedand her minions are not below stealing orkidnapping from the royalty even thoughshe is one.

But it is a Christmas movie as well andeverything has to be sweet and cute withplenty of love thrown in for good measure.

Also, one can’t have a Christmas moviewhere the halls and the entire façadedoesn’t scream Christmas in bold letters.With everything warm and fuzzy aroundyou, all you have to do is sit back with amug of hot chocolate and enjoy this one.

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Even though Christmas is more thana month away, people will tell youthat there isn’t enough time to

ensure things are in place if you want toget into the spirit of this festival. HolidayHome Makeover with Mr Christmas withBenjamin Bradley who is known in theindustry and his clients as a designer ofincredibly detailed, atmospheric andbeautiful interiors is a series just right foryou if you want to know how things aredone.

If you don’t know how to do it right,then also, the show is interesting to

watch. So much so that one actually wantsto go out there but all the decorations thereare so make one’s home welcoming andfull of the festival spirit with family andfriends and good food to eat.

One can always tweak it to Indiantastes and we do love a festival and loveto celebrate it with all its trimmings — tree,food and OTT decorations. And even ifyou don’t have to go all overboard,Bradley gives little gems of advice on howone can still celebrate without beingostentatious and staying away from thecommercial aspect of this festival.

But it is difficult to stay groundedwhen he goes around doing the absolutelybeautiful home transformation. All onewants is to enjoy the brilliance of the reveal.

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Bollywood needs to take a leaf out of thisminiseries to know how to make a show thatwill keep you glued to your screens from the

word go. But then one can’t expect anything less fromYour Honor given that it stars Bryan Cranston. Thosewho have seen Breaking Bad, Cranston will be afamiliar face. The show that has 10 episodes is basedon the Israeli series Kvodo created by Ron Ninio andShlomo Mashiach.

Interestingly, despite the fact that it is a thriller,

the pace is slow even though there is so muchhappening all at the same time. It is amazing to seehow the makers have slowed the storyline withoutcompromising on the tautness and the whole nail-biting thing to know what comes next.

There are so many characters and their storiesand each intertwined rather beautifully to bring youa tale of a father’s love for his son and how a parentwould go to any lengths to protect their child whateverbe the cost, even it means at the cost of one’s professionand belief.

It is definitely a show that is not to be missed.Unfortunately, one will have to wait and see what thefinal outcome of this one will be since only half willbe aired from December 6, 2020. The series will alsoair on Zee Cafe. ������� ������� �

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If you don’t mind added depression in theseCorona days, Das Capital will grip you with adark drama embedded in a complete loss of

faith in humanity and humanness. Seeped incorruption, our society has nowhere to go exceptto hell and there is no gentle way of saying this.Das Capital encases the total ruination of man’sintegrity, his existential compulsions and his uglywill to survive the life and times of modernity,whatever it takes. And if it takes selling his lovingwife’s dead body to skeleton sellers, so be it.

Yashpal Sharma gives a stellar performancethrowing up all this dirt at you with suchconvincing depression that you would be part ofhis society to not get affected.

This story of poverty, corruption and all thata rural society is beset with unfolds in the

villages of Bihar where the BDO is king and king-maker, a shark who has no qualms in biting awaythe last flesh of decency from a trait called scruples.He makes money and down the line the racket eatsup the insides of everybody — the common man,the clerks and even the crops and vegetation of thearea.

What gets you in the end is the fact that allthis is reality and it happens all the time as so-called well meaning administrators, politicians andNGOs look the other way, if at all they are not partyto the chain of organised corruption.

Yashpal as a reserve quota clerk trying to makeends meet gives a reality slap to the audience withhis topline performance which brings tears to youreyes along with his.

You cry with him, for him and ultimately foryourself for living in such torrid times where thelife and death of a common man is of noconsequence whatsoever.

Das Capital is a very gripping drama but toonegative to take in, in such negative times.

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With the national Capitalwitnessing fresh surge in

coronavirus cases, Aam AadmiParty leaders led by DeputyChief Minister Manish Sisodiaorganised an awareness cam-paign on social distancing anddistributed free masks in vari-ous Assembly constituencies.

In this regard, a mask dis-tribution and social distancingawareness campaign wasorganised at Shanti Marg, WestVinod Nagar and NarwanaRoad in Patparganj focusing onthe local citizens, fruit sellersand shopkeepers.

Sisodia said we are respect-fully appealing to people towear masks and follow thesocial distancing norms. Butthere are few folks who are notfollowing the rules and hence,it is important to take strictaction against them. He saidwearing masks is the safest wayto prevent one as well as oth-ers from getting infected withcoronavirus.

“The Delhi Governmenthas taken every possible step tohandle the Covid situation withproper home isolation mea-

sures and enough Covid beds inhospitals. But, it is important tonot let the spread of the diseaseincrease much. Hence, itisimportant to follow the socialdistancing norms and wearmasks until there is a reliablevaccine for Covid 19,” he said.

Ward councillor GeetaRawat along with large num-bers of volunteers and local cit-izens joined the awareness

drive. Post the drive, Sisodiahad rounds of conversationwith citizens and volunteers athis camp office in Patparganj.

Meanwhile, party MLAfrom Kalkaji Assembly con-stituency Atishi distributedprotective face masks inGovindpuri to enforce DelhiCM Arvid Kejriwal’s urgentplea to follow Covid-19 safetyprotocols. She encouraged the

residents and shop owners tokeep a set of masks and furtherdistribute to those who are notwearing them.

Atishi began her awarenessdrive in Ward 91 of Kalkaji andwalked all the way up to Nehrucamp, urging people along theway to wear a mask and followsocial distancing. She alsoemphasised that just by fol-lowing these two simple rules,the possibility of contractingthe virus can be reduced. Thefight against Covid19 is still onand it is our collective respon-sibility to protect each other,she said.

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North Delhi MunicipalCorporation (NMC) will

provide four PersonalProtective Equipment (PPE)Kits to those who carry thebody to perform last rites atNigam Bodh Ghat.

A senior NMC official saidthe corporation has earmarked52 wooden pyres and three‘Compressed natural gas’(CNG) furnaces for last rites ofCovid deaths.

“We have made adequatearrangements for cremation ofbodies. The total number ofbodies of Covid patientsreceived is not more than 22 ina day for the last ten days.Twenty bodies of Covidpatients came for last rites onSaturday. North Corporationalso appeals to the citizens tocome in less numbers withbodies for last rites as it willhelp in maintaining social dis-tance. More rush may lead tospread of virus,” he added.

The Municipal HealthOfficer of North DMC hasalso asked his counterparts inother both corporations toensure to route bodies toattached cremation groundsto the hospital as per the orderissued earlier. The medicalsuperintendents of Covid hos-pitals have also been asked torelease bodies at intervals sothat there is no rush at crema-tion ground at one point oftime, he said.

Moreover, three new CNGfurnaces are likely to start onMonday so six furnaces wouldbe available for last rites, he said.

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At least 12 people wereinjured after an Uttar

Pradesh roadways bus collidedwith a tree on Mathura Road innational Capital on the earlyhours of Saturday. Police said thedriver fled after the accident andefforts are underway to nab him.

According to RP Meena,the Deputy Commissioner ofPolice (DCP), Southeast dis-trict, a police control room(PCR) call regarding the acci-dent near Sukhdev Vihar wasreceived around 3:22 am fol-lowing which EmergencyResponse Vehicle (ERV) wasdispatched for the spot.

“When police teamreached the spot they foundthat 12 passengers sustainedminor injuries who were thenshifted to the AIIMS TraumaCentre, while 10 more weregiven first-aid at the spot byCATS ambulance staff,” theDCP said.

“During initial investiga-tion it was revealed that thecrash took place in front of theCentral Road ResearchInstitute near a CNG pump.The bus was coming from Bahin Agra and was headed forISBT Sarai Kale Khan,” theDCP said.

“A case of accident hasbeen registered and an investi-gation is in progress. Policehave informed Agra depot offi-cials regarding the accident,”the DCP added.

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Rajesh Dhanda, a villagerfrom Haryana, Budhana

village in Hisar district hasturned farm stubble into abusiness opportunity by col-lecting agro-waste from farm-ers and selling it to various dis-tricts in Rajasthan.

Several reports came upthis year which showed stubbleresidue being burned blatant-ly in the region of Haryana,Punjab and Uttar Pradesh. Thenational Capital was alsogripped in pollution, after amajor contribution being thesmoke and soot coming fromthe fields of Punjab andHaryana where farmers burnpaddy stubble as they preparethe farm for the rabi crop.

During the season, Dhandaprovides a super seedermachine, which is used forsowing seeds to farmers, inexchange for paddy stubble. “Iencourage farmers in my vil-lage not to burn paralli (stub-ble) and give it to me. Inexchange I provide them withsuper seeder to sow their nextcrop,” said Dhanda.

“I collect these paddy stub-bles in my fields and varioustraders from Rajasthan’s Churu,Rajgarh, Bikaner and Jaipiurcome here with their truck tobuy this stubble residue,” saidDhanda. “Traders pay aroundRs 7,000 to Rs 9,000 for paddystubble per acre and it is some-times also sold for Rs 250 perquintal. This year in my villageI had taken stubble residuefrom around 450 acres of land,”said Dhanda.

“This practice and aware-ness regarding different use ofstubble residue rather than burn-ing was initiated by me in my vil-lage five years ago and this yearI had earned around 10 lakhsrupees from the stubble residueI collected from the farms of myvillage,” said Dhanda.

“Collection of stubbleresidue also provides wages toaround 10 to 15 people. I wishto extend this stubble residuecollection to oher villages nextyear,” Dhanda added.

Punjab and Haryana alone

generate 30 million tonnes ofpaddy straw every year, of whichonly a small fraction is used forsuch trading, as per experts.

“In order to boost farmersfor not burning stubble, theHaryana Government this yearinitiated a scheme and thosefarmers who were not burningstubble were given Rs 100 peracre or Rs 50 per quintal as anincentive,” said Surendra Saini,the District Public RelationOfficer (DPRO), Hisar.

“For storage of paddystraw, a field or a communitycentre was also designated inevery village to store paddystraw. The buyers had also vis-ited these places to buy stubbleresidue. The farmers were alsoallowed to buy paddy straw andsell it further,” said Saini.

“The Government’s processof incentive for stubble residuetakes time as we have to regis-ter first on website and then ini-tiate the process but givingdirectly to Rajesh has benefitedus as in exchange he provides ussuper seeder machine whichsaves us a lot of money as com-pared to what government isgiving us,” said Harish, a resi-dent of Budhana village.

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The Delhi Police has arrest-ed two men for allegedly

robbing a taxi in southeastDelhi’s Govindpuri area.

The accused have beenidentified as Akshay (20) andShantanu Kumar Pandey (29).Police said that the duo alongwith their associate Vineet Singh, who is stillabsconding, were planning tosell the robbed vehicle butfailed to do so.

“Singh works in a steelfactory in Uttar Pradesh’sMuzaffarnagar,” said police.

According to RP Meena,the Deputy Commissioner ofPolice (DCP), Southeast dis-trict, the incident took place onthe intervening night ofNovember 17 and 18 when thedriver picked up a woman passenger from TughlakabadExtension.

“On the way, when hestopped the car near a trafficsignal, the accused, who alsocame in a taxi, forcibly enteredthe car. They evicted the driverand the woman passenger and fled with the vehicle,” saidthe DCP.

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Accusing the BharatiyaJanata Party (BJP)-ruled

municipal Corporations ofbeing involved in “corruption”,the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)chief spokesperson SaurabhBhardwaj on Saturday said theparty will hold a series of 181Press conferences to expose therampant “corruption” in thecorporations.

Presenting the ‘MunicipalCorporation of Delhi’ (MCD’s)audit report, Bhardwaj saidthat corporations in Delhi arepoor even after the propertyrates are higher compared toother States. “The councillorsare rich here because of therampant corruption in prop-erty tax collection in the MCDby the BJP leaders,” he said.

The AAP leader said whenthe AAP Government wasformed in 2015, the DelhiGovernment had an income ofRs 30,000 crore, which gotincreased to Rs 60,000 crore ina span of four years withoutincreasing taxes, but the MCD’s taxpayers decreasedin a year.

As per the report, in 2015-16, the MCD collected taxesfrom 3,95,219 people, the nextyear, they collected taxes from4,41,879 people. The taxpayersdecreased in 2017-18, and theMCD collected taxes from only4,05,774 people, he said.

Bhardwaj also said as perthe MCD audit report, the taxfrom the ParsvanathDevelopers never reached theMCD treasury despite sendinga tax notice of Rs 7 crores,which means it went into thepockets of BJP leaders, or offi-cials or both.

The AAP spokesperson

added, “The main source ofrevenue of the municipal cor-porations across India is prop-erty tax. And the surprising factis that in Delhi, which is thecapital of India and where theproperty tax is one of the high-est in the country due to highproperty rates, the MCDs arelacking funds.

The MCD here is poor butthe councilors are rich. How isit possible?

Bhardwaj said, “The lowerthe taxes the higher the com-pliance. The lower the taxes, themore and more people will paythe taxes and the treasury of thegovernment will have a muchhigher collection. But, a reversetrajectory has been noticed inMCD, where the taxes are high-er and the compliance and col-lection are lower, and the cor-ruption is more.

Bhardwaj also said theproperty tax collection in 2015-16 was Rs 336 crores, it was Rs614 crores in 2016-17, and itwas again decreased to Rs 553crores in 2017-18.

“Another instance whichhas been mentioned in theiraudit report, the property is sit-uated at Magazine Road in theCivil Lines area in the name ofParsvnath Developers.

This property was vacantland till 2015-16, which is whytheir taxes were Rs 65,43,000.After that, the property wasredeveloped, and 23 towers of10 stories each were construct-ed. You can imagine the amountof tax that the MCD was col-lecting from this single property. The tax whichwas collected owing to the landbeing vacant was seized, and theMCD did an assessment andgave a tax notice of Rs7,72,00,000,” he said.

Gurugram: A doctor, whoworked in a prominent hospi-tal in Gurugram, allegedlycommitted suicide by injectinghimself with a poisonous sub-stance at his flat on Saturday. Itis suspected that he was men-tally disturbed over his wife’salleged extramarital affair, thepolice said.

Police said, they havereceived a complaint againstthe deceased’s wife given by thevictim’s father Vinod Sodhi atSector-50 police station inGurugram.

According to the policethe deceased has been identi-fied as Manuj Sodhi (47), anative of Bhiwadi in Rajasthan.

The victim was a doctor in ahospital in Gurugram and hewas posted at the ICU ward.

Sodhi was living with hiswife Monika and children inhis Gurugram flat located inOrchid Petals Society at Sector-49. The couple had a love mar-riage around 22 years ago, thepolice said. SR

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Bengaluru: CongressKarnataka unit president D KShivakumar on Saturday saidhe has received summons fromthe CBI in connection with adisproportionate assets case,and he will be appearing beforethe investigating agency onNovember 25 . “It is true thatthe CBI has issued summons,on November 19. CBI officershad come to my house to issuesummons, but we were nothere as we were attending apersonal event.

Next day morning when Icame home, they issued mesummons,” Shivakumar said.

Speaking to reporters here,he said CBI has asked him toappear on November 23 ataround 4 pm, but it will not be

possible on that day as healong with Congress legislatureparty leader Siddaramaiah willbe touring Maski andBasavakalyana assembly con-stituencies, where bypolls arelikely to be announced soon.

“From tomorrow I will betouring Hospete (Ballari),Maski (Raichur),Basavakalyana (Bidar). I will beback on November 25. I haveofficially communicated that Ican appear in the afternoonthat day and have also spokento CBI officials over phone andthey have agreed to it,” headded.

On November 19,Shivakumars daughterAishwarya had got engaged tosenior BJP leader S M Krishnas

grandson and the late CafeCoffee Day founder V GSiddharthas son Amartya.

CBI on October 5 hadconducted searches at 14 loca-tions, including in Karnataka,Delhi and Mumbai at thepremises linked to Shivakumarand others. The investigatingagency had said searches haveled to recovery of Rs 57 lakhcash and several documents,including property documents,bank related information, com-puter hard disk etc, and theinvestigation is continuing.The CBI had also registered acase against Shivakumar andhis family members on the alle-gations of possession of dis-proportionate assets worth Rs74.93 crore. PTI

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The Covid-19 deaths plunged to 62 inMaharashtra on Saturday, even as the

infections went up marginally to 5,760 in thestate.A day after Maharashtra logged 155more deaths and 5640 fresh infections, thenumber of deaths came down 93, while theinfections rose by 120 in the state.

With 62 fresh deaths, the Covid-19 tollin the state increased from 46,511 to 46,573.Similarly, with 5670 fresh infections, the totalinfected cases jumped from 17,68,695 to17,74,455.

As 4,088 more people were dischargedfrom various hospitals the number of peo-ple discharged from the hospitals onSaturday after full recovery since the secondweek of March this year went up to16,47,004. The recovery rate in the statedropped marginally from 92.89 per cent to92.82 per cent.

With 17 new deaths, the Covid-19 tollin Mumbai went up from 10,639 to 10656,while the infections rose by 1,093, trigger-ing a jump in the total infections in the

metropolis from 273,486 to 2,74,579. Meanwhile, the number of “active cases”

total cases rose from 78,272 to 79873. Thefatality rate in the state stood at 2.62 per cent.

Pune district, which continued to be theworst-affected city-district in Maharashtra,saw the total number of cases increase from3,44,750 to 3,45,663 while the total numberof deaths in Pune increased from 7266 to7278.Thane district remained in the thirdspot --after Pune and Mumbai – after thetotal number of infections rose from 2,33,866to 2,34,552, while there was no increase inthe pandemic toll which stood at 5436.

A day after Maharashtra recorded amilestone of sorts as the number of theCovid-19 tests conducted in the statecrossed 1 crore figure to touch a figure ofstaggering 1,00,35,665, the total number oftests went up to 1,01,20,470. Of the totalsamples sent to laboratories, 17,74,455 havetested positive (17.53 per cent) for COVID-19 until Saturday.

Currently, 5,22,819 people are in homequarantine while 4569 people are in insti-tutional quarantine.

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Bengaluru: Karnataka reported1,781 new COVID-19 cases and20 fatalities on Saturday, takingthe total number of infections to8,71,342 and the toll to 11,641.

The day also saw 1,799patients getting discharged afterrecovery.

Bengaluru Urban toppedthe list of fresh infections,accounting for 972 cases.

Cumulatively 8,71,342COVID-19 positive cases havebeen confirmed in Karnataka,which includes 11,641 deathsand 8,34,968 discharges,thehealth department said in its bul-letin.

It said that out of 24,714active cases, 24,220 patients arein isolation at designated hospi-tals and are stable, while 494 arein Intensive Care Units.

Ten out of the total 20 deathsreported on Saturday are fromBengaluru Urban, followed byDakshina Kannada (3),Tumakuru (2), Ballari, Dharwad,Haveri, Kolar and Mysuru (1).

Most of the deceased eitherhad a history of Severe AcuteRespiratory Infection (SARI) orInfluenza-like illness (ILI).

Mysuru followed BengaluruUrban in the number of newcases with 126, Tumakuru had92, Vijayapura 63, DakshinaKannada 46, Chikkaballapura38, Ballari and Mandya 37.

The rest of the cases werescattered in other parts of thestate. Bengaluru Urban districtalso topped the list of positivecases with a total of 3,62,626infections, followed by Mysuru49,923 and Ballari 38,055. PTI

Thiruvananthapuram: The CrimeBranch will conduct a probe into thevoicecclip purported to be of gold smug-gling case accused Swapna Suresh, nowin judicial custody, alleging that centralagencies were putting pressure on her togive a statement against Chief MinisterPinarayi Vijayan.

The direction in this regard wasissued by state DGP, Loknath Behera onSaturday. A Special Investigation Teamof the crime branch has been entrustedto conduct the preliminary enquiry,police sources said.

In the clip, released by an online por-tal on Wednesday, Suresh,lodged in awomen's prison here, purportedly saidthat the investigation agencies allegedlytried to force her to name Vijayan, whichshe refused to do.

She was also asked to sign docu-mentsregarding her statement withoutbeing permitted to read them, it wasalleged

The EnforcementDirectorate (ED)hadrequested Jail DGP Rishi Raj

Singh to conduct a probe into the cir-culation of the voice clipping, alleged tobe of Suresh. Singh had informed DGPBehera about the ED's request, followingwhich a preliminary probe by the crimebranch has been ordered.

The Customs, the NationalInvestigation Agency and the ED con-ducted separate probes into the goldsmuggling racket using a diplomaticchannel that was unearthed with theseizure of Rs 15 crore worth of the pre-cious metal from a baggage of the UAEconsulate at the airport here on July 5.

The ruling CPI(M) had said 'attempts'to force the accused to turn approveramounts to challenging democracy andthe law of the land, while Union minis-ter V Muraleedharan had alleged that itwas a 'politicalplot' to divert attentionfrom corruption charges, ahead of thelocal body polls next month. PTI

Srinagar: The PAGD continued onSaturday with its tirade against theadministration of its candidatesbeing allegedly prevented fromcampaigning and security used asa “pretext to impede and cus-tomize democracy” in Jammu andKashmir, a week before the firstdemocratic exercise post the abro-gation of its special status.

People's Alliance for GupkarDeclaration president FarooqAbdullah sent a two-page letter toJammu and Kashmir ElectionCommissioner K K Sharma, sayingproviding security to a select fewand “literally interning” the rest wasa “gross interference” in a democ-racy.

“I am taking the liberty of writ-ing to you about the upcomingDDC (district development coun-cil) elections. A strange and a

unique feature has come to thefore,” the National Conferenceleader said in the letter.

“Candidates put up by thePAGD are immediately whiskedaway to 'secure locations' in thename of security and confined tothose 'secure locations',” he said.“They are not allowed to canvass,they are completely out of touchwith those from whom they aresupposed to seek votes.”

The former chief minister saidthe current state of affairs in therealm of security was “blatantly ori-ented” towards providing securityto a select few and confining oth-ers.

“This comes across more as anattempt to interfere in the democ-ratic process than any real concernfor the wellbeing of the contestants.Security cannot and should not be

used as a tool or an excuse to inter-fere in democratic processes,” theSrinagar MP said.

The PAGD president's lettercomes amid allegations by theValley's major political parties,including the NC and the PeoplesDemocratic

Party, of not having a level-playing field for the polls. The par-ties have accused the administra-tion of locking up their candidatesin accommodations at severalplaces and not allowing them tocampaign.

The DDC polls will be held ineight phases beginning November28 and ends on December 24. ThePAGD is an alliance of several polit-ical parties seeking the restorationof Jammu and Kashmir's specialstatus abrogated by the Centre inAugust last year. PTI

Fatehpur (UP):A youth wasarrested here on Saturdayevening for an alleged attempt torape a 10-year-old girl, policesaid.

Kishanpur police stationPandhari Saroj said around 1 pmon Saturday, the had gone toagriculture fields to attend to thenature's call when her 19-year-old neighbour tried to rape her.

“As the girl started crying, awoman rushed to help her,” theSHO said. PTI

Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh ChiefMinister Yogi Adityanath onSaturday ordered stern action underthe stringent Gangster Act againstthose found selling spurious liquorin the state.

The chief minister cracked thewhip a day after five persons diedand many others were taken ill afterconsuming hooch in a village inAllahabad district on Friday.

“The Chief Minister has takenserious cognizance of the incidentin Allahabad in which some peopledied,” said the Uttar Pradesh gov-ernment in an official statement.

“Those found selling spuriousliquor should be booked underGangster Act, and their propertiesshould be seized. The seized prop-erty should be auctioned and themoney received from it be used tohelp the aggrieved families,” thestatement said in a direction to gov-ernment officials.

The hooch tragedy occurred inAmliya village under GangaparPhulpur Police Station of Allahabaddistrict.

Allahabad's SeniorSuperintendent of PoliceSarvashreshtha Tripathi had onFriday told PTI that five people diedwhile others were admitted toSwarooprani Nehru Hospital as aprecautionary measure.

Samajwadi Party presidentAkhilesh Yadav, meanwhile, onSaturday said the BJP Governmentis not bothered about the health andlife of the common people.

Akhilesh Yadav said despitethe tall claims by the chief minister,the spurious liquor business hasbeen registering speedy growth inthe state. “The confidence level ofthe liquor mafia is so high that theyare violating all laws and laid downnorms and selling spurious liquoropenly,” he said. PTI

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Kolkata: The West Bengal healthDepartment will soon come out withguidelines on follow-up treatment ofthose who have recovered fromCOVID-19, amid rising cases of peo-ple falling sick or dying shortly afterbeing cured of the disease, a seniorofficial said on Saturday.

Depending on their presenthealth parameters after recoveringfrom COVID-19, the departmentwould divide them into two groupsand continue the necessary treatmentfor a period of at least two months, hesaid. “There are reports that several ofthose who recovered from COVID-19 are falling sick again. There arecases where people have even died. So,we have decided that those who have

recovered must continue follow-uptreatment,” the official said.

The decision was taken followingan expert-committee meeting held onFriday. “The follow-up tests will bedone as per requirement. A curedpatient can go for a test within a week,within a fortnight or after a monthdepending on the health condition,”he said. The patient need not go to aCOVID-19 hospital to undergo thetest, he added. “He or she can visit anygovernment hospital where such testswill be done as per the advise of thedoctor,” the official said.

In the recent past, many of thosecured of coronavirus in the state havelost their lives due to acute respirato-ry distress syndrome or cardiac ail-ments. PTI

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One youth was killed and 23 othersincluding security personnel injured

in police firing, attacks and clashes onSaturday as the police had to fire on an agi-tating mob, who went berserk whileobserving a shutdown during a protest thathad been on for the past six days in north-ern Tripura to oppose the government'sdecision to rehabilitate thousands ofrefugees.

These tribal refugees had fled toadjoining Mizoram 23 years ago followingethnic strife in the state.

Police said that 45-years-old SrikantaDas was shot dead and 23 others includ-ing security and fire service personnel seri-ously injured when police had to open fireon the agitating mob that also attacked thesecurity forces at Panisagar in NorthTripura district.

“The agitated mob damaged three gov-ernment and police vehicles and a motor-bike. Government would give Rs 5 lakhrelief to the family of Srikanta Das,”North Tripura district Magistrate andCollector Nagesh Kumar told the media onSaturday evening.

He said: “Huge contingent of securi-ty forces including Tripura State Riflestroopers led by senior police officials weremobilised in Panisagar and Kanchanpursub-divisions (in North Tripura District)to deal with the situation.”

The injured were admitted to variousgovernment hospitals.

A tweet of Tripura police said: “Evenafter facing brutal attack, police personnelshowed utmost restraint and sensitivity inmaintaining law & order and proportion-ate force was used in self defence in Panisagar incident today(Saturday).”

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From page 1Two policemen were

injured during the gunfight andthe driver managed to escape.

The police said it was like-ly that the terrorists were “plan-ning a big attack” and that theywere headed towards theKashmir Valley where localelections are due later thismonth.

Modi on Friday held ameeting with Union HomeMinister Amit Shah, NationalSecurity Adviser (NSA) AjitDoval and others. “Our secu-rity forces have once againdisplayed utmost bravery andprofessionalism. Thanks to

their alertness, they havedefeated a nefarious plot to tar-get grassroots level democrat-ic exercises in Jammu & Kashmir,” Moditweeted.

Incidentally, this is the sec-ond time in a week that aPakistani official has beensummoned. Last Saturday,India had summoned theCharge d’Affaires of thePakistan High Commission toregister a strong protest overthe heavy shelling by Pakistaniforces on multiple sectors alongthe Line of Control (LoC) inJammu & Kashmir that left atleast nine people dead.

From page 1Buta Singh Burjgill, president of the BKU

(Dakonda), said their protests at toll plazas,outside railway stations, shopping malls andresidences of BJP leaders will continue.

According to railways, it has suffered a lossof Rs 2,220 crore, including Rs 67 crore in pas-senger revenue, due to the ongoing protest byfarmers in Punjab.

A total 2,352 passenger trains have beencancelled or diverted since farmers began aprotest in September against the Centre’s newfarm laws.

The Railways said around 230 loadedrakes for Punjab are currently held up outsidethe State. This includes 78 rakes of coal, 34of fertiliser, eight each of cement and petro-leum, oil and lubricants and 102 containerscarrying steel and other commodities. Around33 rakes are stuck in Punjab itself, it said.

The deadlock between the protesting

farmers and the Railways continued with thenational transporter rejecting a proposal bythe protesters that only freight trains will beallowed to run in the State.

The farmers’ organisation that resorted to‘rail roko’ agitation from September 24 overthe farm laws, had already agreed to allowgoods trains to run in the State, besides clear-ing rail tracks and vacating platforms.

The Railways has maintained that itneeds full guarantee from the StateGovernment that no trains will be disruptedand both passenger and freight trains wouldbe allowed to operate.

As per a State Government statement, theindustry had suffered losses of Rs 30,000 croreand the major industrial hubs of Ludhiana andJalandhar had suffered Rs 22,000 crore in loss-es, while more than 13,500 containers werelying at Dhandari Dry Port, from where theycould not be sent to other parts of the coun-try due to the rail transport suspension.

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From page 1“This ongoing study involv-

ing a large cohort of healthcareworkers has shown that beinginfected with Covid-19 doesoffer protection against rein-fection for most people for atleast six months — we found nonew symptomatic infections inany of the participants who hadtested positive for antibodies,while 89 of those who had test-ed negative did contract thevirus,” he said.

Prof Eyre explained that weknow from a previous studythat antibody levels fall overtime, but this latest study showsthat there is some immunity inthose who have been infected.

“We will continue to followthis cohort of staff carefully tosee how long protection lastsand whether the previous infec-tion affects the severity of infec-tion if people do get infectedagain,” he said.

Additionally, the oppositealso proved true — healthcareworkers who did not have anti-bodies against Covid-19 weremore likely to develop theinfection.

The latest study is part of amajor ongoing staff testing pro-gramme supported by theNIHR Oxford BiomedicalResearch Centre and PublicHealth England and covered a30-week period between Apriland November this year, with12,180 healthcare workersemployed at OUH.

“This is an exciting finding,indicating that infection withthe virus provides at least short-term protection from re-infec-tion — this news comes in thesame month as other encour-aging news about Covid vac-cines,” said Dr Katie Jeffery,Director of Infection Preventionand Control for OUH.

The healthcare workerswere tested for antibodies to thevirus that causes Covid-19 as away of detecting who had beeninfected before. The hospital

tested staff regularly for Covid-19, both when they becameunwell with symptoms and alsoas part of regular testing of wellstaff.

The researchers then fol-lowed whether staff who hadbeen infected before had thesame number of new Covid-19infections as those who had notbeen infected before.

During the study, 89 of11,052 staff without antibodiesdeveloped a new infection withsymptoms. None of the 1,246staff with antibodies developeda symptomatic infection.

Staff with antibodies werealso less likely to test positive forCOVID-19 without symptoms,76staff without antibodies test-ed positive compared to just 3with antibodies. The threehealthcare workers with anti-bodies who tested positive forthe virus that causes COVID-19 were all well and did notdevelop symptoms of COVID-19 again.

Susan Hopkins, DeputyDirector, National Infection

Service, PHE and one of thestudy’s authors said: “This studyis a fantastic example of howwell-structured long-termcohort surveillance can producehugely useful results.“Studies like this one areabsolutely vital in helping us tounderstand how this new virusbehaves and what the implica-tions are for acquired immuni-ty.” “Our comprehensive stafftesting programme is revealinga regular stream of valuableinformation as we try to betterunderstand how to tackle thisdisease,” added OUH ChiefExecutive Officer Dr BrunoHolthof.

Despite an estimated 51million people infected with thevirus worldwide, with high lev-els of transmission ongoing,reports of patients becoming re-infected after already havinghad COVID-19 remain rare.However, up until now therehave not been any large-scalestudies of how much protectionfrom reinfection people getafter Covid-19. PTI

From page 1Chopra said that the hostels, mess,

administrative office, and the library havebeen sanitized. “All non-essential depart-ments have been closed, complete saniti-sation for the entire campus has beenundertaken,” said Chopra adding that theacademy, the Dehradun DistrictAdministration and Health Department ofUttrarkhand are working together toaddress the challenge.

There are currently 428 trainee officersof the 95th Foundation Course of IndianAdministrative Service (IAS), IndianPolice Service (IPS), Indian Forest Service(IFS), and Indian Revenue Service (IRS)at the academy campus that started onOctober 13.

Later in a statement, the personnel

ministry said that all officer trainees, whohave tested positive, have been quarantinedin a dedicated COVID care Centre. “Theacademy has conducted more than 162 RT-PCR tests in coordination with districtauthorities since Friday, the statement said.The academy is taking every measure tobreak the chain of COVID-19 spread inconsonance with the guidelines of theMinistry of Home Affairs and the DistrictAdministration, Dehradun, the ministrysaid. “The academy has decided to conductall activities, including training, online tillthe midnight of December 3, 2020. Theprotocols relating to social distancing, fre-quent hand wash and wearing of mask arebeing strictly followed by the officertrainees and staff members,” it said.

The academy had announced special

measures to deal with Covid-19 includingkeeping medical kits, masks, and sanitiz-ers in each room, allocation of time slotsand venues for dining, separate time slotallotment for use of the library amongmany other measures to tackle Covid-19spread. Food and other necessities arebeing delivered to the officer trainees intheir hostels by staff who are equipped ade-quately in protective gear, it added.

LBSNAA is a research and traininginstitute on public policy and publicadministration in India. The academy'smain purpose is to train civil service offi-cers of the IAS and also for Group-ACentral Services. After completion oftraining, the trainee officers are awardedan MA degree in Public Management fromJawaharlal Nehru University. PNS

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Lucknow: With 24 freshCOVID-19 deaths in UttarPradesh, the toll due to the dis-ease rose to 7,524 in the state,while the total cases surged to5,24,223 with 2,326 new infec-tions, officials said on Saturday.

Briefing reporters here,Additional Chief SecretaryMedical and Health AmitMohan Prasad said that in thepast 24 hours 2,326 fresh caseswere reported from the state.

“So far, 4,93,228 COVID-19 patients have recovered fromthe disease in the state. PTI

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Inadequate beds inGovernment hospitals and

absence of specific guidelinesfor Covid treatment resulted inprivate hospitals charging exor-bitant fees, a Parliamentarypanel on Saturday said as itpulled up the Government andasserted that a sustainable pric-ing model could have avertedmany deaths.

The first report by anyparliamentary committee onthe government’s handling ofthe Covid-19 pandemic wassubmitted by Chairperson ofthe parliamentary standingcommittee on health RamGopal Yadav to Rajya SabhaChairman M Venkaiah Naidu.

Underlining that health-care spending in the countrywith a population of 1.3 billionis “abysmally low”, the panelsaid the fragility of Indianhealth ecosystem posed a bighurdle in generating an effec-tive response against the pan-demic.

“The committee, therefore,strongly recommends theGovernment to increase itsinvestments in the publichealthcare system and makeconsistent efforts to achieve theNational Health Policy targetsof expenditure up to 2.5 percent of GDP within two yearsas the set time frame of year2025 is far away and the pub-lic health cannot be jeopardisedtill that time schedule,” thereport stated.

The National HealthPolicy 2017 has set a target ofgovernment expenditure onhealthcare up to 2.5 per centof GDP by 2025 from just 1.15per cent in 2017.

Stating that the public hadto undergo trauma and dis-tress due to absence of a ded-icated healthcare system, thecommittee observed that thenumber of Government hos-pital beds in the country werenot adequate to handle theincreasing number of COVIDand non-COVID patients.

“... Cost of health service

delivery increased due toabsence of specific guidelinesfor COVID treatment in pri-vate hospitals as a result ofwhich patients were chargedexorbitant fees,” the commit-tee noted in the report.

Stressing on the need forbetter partnership betweenthe government and privatehospitals in wake of the pan-demic and shortage of state-run healthcare facilities, thereport said, “The Committeeis of the view that arriving ata sustainable pricing model totreat COVID patients couldhave averted many deaths.”

The committee believeshealthcare should never belimited to only those who canafford to pay but should movetowards the noble vision ofuniversal health coverage. Forthis to happen, theGovernment needs to be con-siderate and support the pri-vate health care sector, thereport said.

The committee was allpraise for healthcare workersand doctors for being on thefrontline in handling the dead-ly virus and said they shouldhave defined working hours,predictably functioning reliev-er rosters and scheduled off-duty days.

The doctors, who havelaid down their lives in fightagainst the pandemic, must beacknowledged as martyrs andtheir families be adequatelycompensated, it suggested inthe report.

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The EnforcementDirectorate (ED) on

Saturday conducted searches atseven places in Jammu andKashmir under the provisionsof Prevention of MoneyLaundering Act in a case relat-ing to suspicious transactionsin J&K Bank.

Among these seven loca-tions, six are in Srinagar andone in Ananatnag district.

The ED initiated investi-gation under PMLA after CID,Srinagar registered an FIRagainst officials of J & K Bank,unidentified public servantsand private persons and othersfor suspicious transactions invarious bank accounts.

It has been alleged in theFIR that the bank accountswere used for routing money ofpublic servants as well as someprivate parties. Further, bankofficials, in connivance withthese public servants, deliber-ately omitted to raise the alertsas required under Anti-Money

Laundering (AML) norms,officials said.

Investigations conductedunder PMLA so far haverevealed that the transactionsin many of these bank accountsmaintained with J &K Bankwere not genuine and theseaccounts were utilized for thepurpose of laundering, the EDsaid in a statement.

On the basis of specificinformation, searches at sevenplaces belonging to accusedMohammad Ibrahim Dar,Murtaza Enterprises, AzadAgro Traders, M & M CottageIndustries and Mohd. SultanTeli were conducted whichresulted in recovery of evidenceof money laundering as thebank accounts have been foundto be used for routing suspi-cious transactions, the agencysaid.

The individuals and enti-ties covered under searchesare involved in hospitality andagro based Industries, civilconstruction and real estate, itsaid.

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The Malabar maritime exer-cise hosted by the Indian

Navy in two phases concludedon Friday in the Arabian Sea.The Quad countries includingIndia, the US, Australia andJapan took part in the presti-gious drill. Australia partici-pated for the first time afterIndia invited it for the eventdespite Chinese protests.

Giving details of the exer-cise, navy officials said here onSaturday the 24th edition of theannual Malabar was conduct-ed in two phases. 20. Phase 1of the exercise involving par-ticipation by Indian Navy (IN),United States Navy (USN),Japan Maritime Self DefenseForce (JMSDF) and RoyalAustralian Navy (RAN), wasconducted off Visakhapatnamin Bay of Bengal from 3-6November. The second phasewas conducted in the ArabianSea from 17-20 November.

The first phase witnessedparticipation of Indian Navyunits with United States Ship(USS) John S McCain, HerMajesty’s Australian Ship(HMAS) Ballarat with integralMH-60 helicopter, and JapanMaritime Self Defence Ship

(JMSDF) Onami, with integralSH-60 helicopter. IndianNavy’s participation in thisphase was led by Rear AdmiralSanjay Vatsayan, Flag OfficerCommanding Eastern Fleetand included destroyerRanvijay, indigenous frigateShivalik, Offshore PatrolVessel Sukanya, Fleet SupportShip Shakti, submarineSindhuraj, P8I and Dorniermaritime reconnaissance air-craft and Advanced Jet TrainerHawk.

During Phase 2 of theExercise, the four navies par-

ticipated in joint operationscentered on the VikramadityaCarrier Battle Group of theIndian Navy and NimitzCarrier Strike Group of the USNavy. The two aircraft carriers,along with other ships, sub-marine and aircraft of theparticipating navies, engagedin high intensity naval opera-tions including cross-deck fly-ing operations and advancedair defence exercises by MIG29K fighters of Vikramadityaand F/A-18 fighters and E2CHawkeye from Nimitz.

The US Navy’s Strike

Carrier Nimitz was accompa-nied by cruiser Princeton anddestroyer Sterett in addition to P8A maritimereconnaissance aircraft.

The Royal AustralianNavy and JMSDF were repre-sented by frigate Ballarat anddestroyer Murasame respec-tively, along with their integralhelicopters.

Indian Navy’s participa-tion in Phase 2 was led by RearAdmiral KrishnaSwaminathan, Flag OfficerCommanding Western Fleetand included aircraft carrier

Vikramaditya, indigenousdestroyers Kolkata andChennai, stealth frigate Talwar,Fleet Support Ship Deepakand the integral helicopters ofthese warships, indigenouslybuilt submarine Khanderi andP8I and IL-38 maritime recon-naissance aircraft.

In addition to ‘DualCarrier’ operations, advancedsurface and anti-submarinewarfare exercises, seamanshipevolutions and weapon firingswere also undertaken duringboth phases of the exercisedemonstrating the synergy,coordination and inter-oper-ability between the fourfriendly navies.

The Malabar series ofexercises, which began as anannual bilateral naval exercisebetween India and the US in1992, has seen increasingscope and complexity overthe years.

The 24th edition of MAL-ABAR, conducted in a ‘non-contact at sea only’ format inthe backdrop of COVID-19pandemic, was reflective of thecommitment of the partici-pating countries to support afree, open, inclusive Indo-Pacific as well as a rules-basedinternational order.

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India’s coronavirus tallycrossed the 90.5 lakh-mark

on Saturday with 46,232 newinfections reported in the last24 hours, even as the totalnumber of tests conductedacross the States has crossed the13-crore mark with the last onecrore done in just 10 days. Thetotal cases in the country nowstand at 90,50,597 including4,39,747 active cases and84,78,124 recoveries. With 564new deaths, the count mount-ed to 1,32,726.

The number of active casesremained below five lakh forthe eleventh consecutive day.The total recoveries havesurged to 84,78,124 pushing thenational recovery rate to 93.67per cent, while the COVID-19case fatality rate stands at 1.47per cent.

According to ICMR, thetotal number of tests conduct-ed in India for the detection ofCOVID-19 infection hascrossed the 13-crore mark withlast one crore done in just 10

days, while the cumulativepositivity rate remained lowand continues a downwardtrajectory, the Union HealthMinistry said on Saturday.

On Friday 10,66,022 weretested.

The cumulative nationalCOVID-19 positivity rate hasdeclined and stood at 6.93 percent as on date while the dailypositivity rate on Friday wasjust 4.34 per cent.

Higher volumes of testingeventually lead to low positiv-ity rate, the ministry said.

“An average of more than10 lakh tests conducted dailyhas ensured that the cumulativepositivity rate is sustained atlow levels and is presently fol-lowing a downward trajectory,”the ministry underlined.

Twenty-four states andUnion Territories have con-ducted more tests per millionpopulation than India as awhole. Twelve states have lowertests per million populationthan the national average andthey have been advised to sub-stantially ramp up the levels oftesting, the ministry under-

scored.“In view of the increase in

coronavirus cases of some ofthe north Indian states, theCentre has advised all statesand Union Territories to rampup testing,” the ministry said.

Around 78.19 per cent ofthe new recovered cases wascontributed by 10 states andUTs.

Delhi saw 8,775 peoplerecovering from COVID, whileMaharashtra and Keralareported 6,945 and 6,398 newrecoveries, respectively. Besides,ten states and UTs have con-tributed 77.69 per cent of thenew cases of coronavirus infec-tions. Delhi reported 6,608cases in a day. Kerala recorded6,028 new cases whileMaharashtra reported 5,640cases on Friday.

Of the 564 new fatalities,82.62 per cent have beenreported from 10 states andUTs. With 155 deaths,Maharashtra reported 27.48per cent of the new fatalities,Delhi accounted for 20.92 percent of the daily toll with 118deaths.

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Maintaining that India wasmoving forward with the

goal of reducing its carbonfootprint by 30 to 35 per cent,Prime Minister Narendra Modion Saturday said that efforts areon to increase the use of nat-ural gas by four times in thisdecade and to double the oilrefining capacity in the nextfive years.

He said this while address-ing the eighth convocation ofPandit Deendayal PetroleumUniversity (PDPU) via videoconference.

“Today, the country ismoving forward with the goalof reducing its carbon footprintby 30 to 35 per cent. When Itold this to the world, itexpressed surprise and won-dered if India could achievethis,” he said.

“Our effort is to increasethe share of natural gas in ourenergy needs by four times inthis decade. Work is also on tonearly double the oil refiningcapacity in the coming fiveyears,” he added.

He also expressed confi-dence that the country willachieve its renewable energygeneration target “before time”.

“Today, per unit cost (ofsolar power) has come down toless than �2 from �12-13 ear-lier. Today, solar power hasbecome the country’’s priority.We have made a commitmentto generate 175 gigawatt renew-able energy and I am confidentthat we will achieve this before2022,” he said.

“Also, our renewable ener-gy target of 450 gigawatt by2030, a big aim, will beachieved before time...I amconfident of that,” he said.

Modi said that the oil andgas sector will see an invest-ment of crores of rupees in thisdecade, which will createopportunities for the graduat-ing students of the university inthe fields of research, manu-facturing and others.

He also said that work isunderway to strengthen thestart-ups ecosystem related tothe energy security sector, anda special fund has been allo-cated for the purpose.

“If you have any idea, prod-uct or any concept which youwant to incubate, then this fundwill be a good opportunity foryou, and a gift from the gov-ernment,” he said.

The PM said that despitethe hardships caused by thecoronavirus pandemic, thegraduating students shouldremember that their strengthand capacities are much biggerthan the challenges, and askedthem not to lose confidence.

He asked the students torecall the period of the coun-try’’s Independence movementand how people sacrificed theirlives for it. He asked them tosimilarly become a soldier for‘’Aatmanirbhar Bharat’’.

“There is a lot to do for thecountry, but your commit-ment, your aim should not befragmented. You see that onlythey become successful in lifewho do something with a senseof responsibility...Failures arethose who live with a sense ofburden. The youth of the 21stcentury should go ahead with

a clean slate. The concept that‘’nothing will change’’ will haveto be cleaned...,” he said.

The PM asked the stu-dents to take sustained effortsas it will bring about positiveresults.

He said the ‘’Clean India’’programme was an example ofthis, and said small efforts ofcrores of people turned it intoa movement.

During his address, he alsorecalled how his decision to seg-regate domestic and agriculturefeeders made it possible for thehouseholds to get 24-hour elec-tricity in Gujarat.

Modi inaugurated fivestate-of-the-art facilities tomark the eighth convocation ofthe PDPU.

The facilities he unveiled atthe university are a 45 -MWproduction of monocrystallinesolar photovoltaic panel, a techbusiness incubator, a sportscomplex, and a TranslationalResearch Centre at the PDPU,as well as an Indo-EU bilateralproject under Horizon 2020‘’India-h2o’’ for industrial wasteand desalination.

Modi also suggested thestate government to changethe name of the PetroleumUniversity to Energy University.

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The India MeteorologicalDepartment (IMD) has

predicted depression overSouthwest Bay of Bengal dur-ing the next 48 hours. A lowpressure area, formed overequatorial Indian ocean andadjoining central parts of southBay of Bengal on Saturday, mayhit Tamil Nadu-Puducherrycoast as a cyclone of lowerintensity on November 25.

Predicting the possibilityof cyclone, the IMD onSaturday said the depression islikely to intensify further dur-ing the subsequent 48 hours.This would expectedly revivethe North-East monsoon yetagain over the Tamil Baducoast from Monday itself.

Under the influence of the‘low pressure’ area, formed onSaturday, the rainfall activity islikely to increase over extremesouth peninsular India fromNovember 23 onwards withfairly widespread to wide-spread rainfall/thunderstormactivity over Tamil Nadu,Puducherry & Karaikal andKerala & Mahe duringNovember 24-26, and oversouth coastal Andhra Pradeshand Rayalaseema duringNovember 25-27.

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The wait of a number of first-time Lok Sabha MPs for an

official accommodation inDelhi will end soon. PrimeMinister Narendra Modi willinaugurate multi-storeyed flats-three towers known as Ganga,Yamuna and Saraswati, whichhave come in place of old bun-galows at Dr BD Marg in thenational capital, for members ofParliament on November 23via video-conferencing. LokSabha Speaker Om Birla willalso be present during theinauguration.

A PMO statement onSaturday said that three towershaving 76 flats were con-structed on land housing eightold bungalows, which weremore than 80 years old. Theconstruction of these flats hasbeen completed with savings ofabout 14 per cent from thesanctioned cost and withouttime overrun despite theimpact of Covid-19, it added.

The new flats have fourbedrooms, offices for the MPand his or her secretary andparking spaces and are centrallyair-conditioned. In addition,the flats have elevators thatconnect the basement parking,the ground floor office and liv-ing spaces and the first floorbedrooms

The PMO statement saidseveral green building initia-tives have been incorporated inthe construction, includingbricks made from fly ash andconstruction and demolitionwaste, double glazed windowsfor thermal insulation andenergy efficiency, energy effi-cient LED light fittings, occu-pancy based sensors for lightcontrol, air conditioners withVRV system for low powerconsumption, low flow fix-tures for conservation of water,rainwater harvesting systemand rooftop solar plant.

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President Ram Nath Kovindwill inaugurate the two day

long all India Speakers’ confer-ence in Kevadia in Gujarat onNovember 25 and PrimeMinister Narendra Modi willaddress the valedictory functionon November 26.

Addressing the media onSaturday, Lok Sabha SpeakerOm Birla said that the theme ofthe two-day meeting will be ‘har-monious coordination betweenlegislature, executive and judi-ciary. Vice President VenkaiahNaidu will also address the pre-siding officers.

This is the 80th meeting ofpresiding officers. Birla said thatthe All India Presiding Officers’Conference (AIPO) waslaunched in the year 1921 andsince then, this Conference hasbeen ceaselessly striving tostrengthen the democratic wayof life and promoting a sense ofunity and oneness in the IndianLegislatures. This Conferenceprovides a platform to share newideas, views, and experienceswith all the Presiding Officers inIndia. He said that the collectivewisdom of our venerable legis-lators has helped the Legislaturesto keep pace with the changingtimes. Many of the significant

innovations in parliamentarydemocracy trace their roots tothe deliberations that took placeduring the Sessions of theseConferences.

Birla said that During thisConference, the PresidingOfficers of the Legislatures shalldiscuss the need for better coop-eration and coordinationbetween the three pillars ofdemocracy. “This is in line withour Constitutional obligationsthat spell out the jurisdictions ofthe Legislature, Executive andJudiciary and the balanceamongst them. It is our collec-tive efforts to maintain the con-stitutional sanctity, which is veryimportant for mutual coexistencebetween the three organs ofgovernance and the sustenanceof democracy in the nation,” hesaid.

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Supreme Court Judge JusticeSurya Kant on Saturday inau-

gurated the North East DelhiRiots Claims Commission(NEDRCC) for providing com-pensation to victims of the com-munal violence that took placein February.

Justice Kant inaugurated thecommission online and said in

a statement that justiceto victims of the riot wasthe need of the hour.

“Justice to the riotvictim is the need of thehour. Riot victims mustbe compensated withpromptitude. To achievethis objective, I wishthis commission(NEDRCC) all the verybest,” Justice Kant said inthe statement.

Communal clasheshad broken out in northeastDelhi on February 24 after vio-lence between citizenship lawsupporters and protesters spi-ralled out of control leaving atleast 53 people dead and around200 injured.

There are about 750 casesregistered in north east Delhi andaround 1,200 persons have beenarrested in matters related to theriot.

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ADelhi court on Saturdayasked former Union

Minister M J Akbar and jour-nalist Priya Ramani whetherthere was a chance of settlementbetween them in a criminaldefamation complaint filed byhim against her. Akbar had filedthe complaint against Ramani forallegedly defaming him by accus-ing him of sexual misconductaround 20 years ago when he wasa journalist.

Ramani had said the allega-tions against Akbar, made in thewake of #MeToo movement in2018, were her truth and weremade in public good. AdditionalChief Metropolitan Magistrate(ACMM) Ravindra KumarPandey posed the query onSaturday as he started hearingafresh the final arguments in thecase since the previous judgehearing the matter was trans-ferred to another court onWednesday.

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Bengaluru: As pro-Kannadagroups decided to go aheadwith Karnataka bandh onDecember 5 against the estab-lishment of the MarathaDevelopment Corporation(MDC), Chief Minister B SYediyurappa on Saturday askedthem to withdraw it, as hewarned against any forcefulenforcement.

Asserting that he was forKannada and Kannadigas,Yediyurappa said, “I'm readyfor all that is required to bedone for Kannadigas, but it isnot right to call for bandh for

some other reason, people willnot appreciate it.”

Speaking to reporters here,he said he will not allow force-ful enforcement of bandh. “I'mobserving the burning of effi-gies and bad behaviours. Wewill have to take strict action.Let them protest peacefully, butthe government will not toler-ate attempts to give it a differ-ent turn,” he added.

Pro Kannada organisationsat a meeting on Friday haddecided to go ahead with thebandh on December 5 asplanned earlier, and have set a

November 30 deadline for thegovernment to withdraw itsdecision to establish MarathaDevelopment Corporation.

Terming the bandh call'unnecessary,' Yediyurappa hadearlier too warned pro-Kannada groups against forc-ing a bandh on the people ofthe state. He had even clarifiedthat the decision to set up aMaratha DevelopmentCorporation had nothing to dowith the Marathi language,and it is for the Maratha com-munity residing in the state.

Noting that his govern-

ment was making all honestefforts to provide justice to allthe sections of the society,Yediyurappa on Saturday said,there is no room for discrimi-nation. “Let them (Kannadagroups/activists) understandthis and withdraw their bandh.I request the activists for coop-eration with folded hands,” headded. Kannada activists havebeen opposing the creation ofMaratha DevelopmentCorporation, ever since thegovernment mooted the moveearlier this month.

It has now been approved

by the cabinet also.The gov-ernment had earlier announcedthe setting up of the MarathaDevelopment Authority, butsubsequently changed it to cor-poration, as authority has to beconstituted by a law, by passingan act in the legislature.

The creation of the cor-poration is seen as a move bythe BJP to woo the Marathacommunity that has consider-able presence in theBasavakalyan assembly con-stituency also Belagavi LokSabha constituency, which isdue for a bypoll. PTI

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Mizoram's COVID-19 tally rose to 3,607on Saturday as 66 more people, includ-

ing 15 security personnel, tested positive forthe infection, an official statement said.

Aizawl district reported the highestnumber of new cases at 46, followed byLawngtlai (eight) and Serchhip (six), the state-ment issued by the state Information andPublic Relations Department said.

Forty-two infections were detected dur-ing RT-PCR tests, seven during TrueNat and17 during rapid antigen tests, it said.

Eleven policemen, three Assam Rifles per-sonnel and one Army jawan are among thenew patients, the statement said.

Twenty-five new patients have travelhistory, while 36 infections were detected dur-ing contact tracing and it is yet to be ascer-tained how five patients contracted the dis-ease, it said.

The state now has 491 active coronaviruscases, while 3,111 people have recovered fromthe disease and five patients have succumbedto the infection so far, the statement said.

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Chennai: Union HomeMinister Amit Shah onSaturday said the country hasrallied behind Prime MinisterNarendra Modi to fight againstthe Covid-19 pandemic and itwas doing better than evendeveloped countries over thehandling of the contagion.

Patting the Tamil Nadugovernment over its effectivehandling of the situation underthe Palaniswami-Panneerselvam leadership, hesaid it was duly implementingthe various instructions of theCentre on the matter.

“The world and countryare fighting against COVID-19.

The country has successfullyfaced it under PM Modi. On acomparative note, India hasfared better than many devel-oped countries,” he said.

Not just the governmentand its machinery, but theentire 130 crore people werefighting against the pandemic,he said at a state governmentfunction here. PTI

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Gandhinagar: Seven members of a family were charred todeath in a road accident near Surendranagar at around 3 a.m.on Saturday when a dumper truck hit their Echo vehicle. Theaccident caused a fire in the vehicle, in which all the sevenpersons trapped inside perished, according to police.

The Surendranagar police have nabbed the person whowas driving the dumper and have sent him for corona test-ing.

The seven victims belonging to the Nai (Barber) com-munity included three women (one girl child) were return-ing from Chotila pilgrimage to their homes in Patan district.One unit of the extended family was from Nanapura villagein Radhanpur Tehsil of Patan while the other was from Koradavillage in Santalpur Tehsil of Patan.

“The accident is believed to have been caused between3 to 5 in the morning. We received the information around5.30 a.m. There were seven persons, including the driver, insidethe car which was hit by the dumper.

All the bodies are badly burnt. We have sent the bodiesfor postmortem to the Rajkot hospital. We have caught thedriver of the vehicle which caused the accident, who had fledthe scene and sent him for corona testing.

The Bajana police is investigating the matter,” said BNJadeja, Inspector, Bajana police station, who is investigatingthe case told IANS. IANS

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Atotal of 78 cows belonging to a pri-vately-run government-aided cattle

shelter in Churu district have died of sus-pected food poisoning in the last 24 hours,an official said on Saturday.

While 78 cows have died since Fridaynight, a few others are sick, said an offi-cial of the state's Animal HusbandryDepartment.

Prima facie, the animals died offood poisoning, said Animal HusbandryDepartment's joint director, Dr Jagdish.

He said the teams of the departmentare present in the cow-shelter located inBilyubas Rampura village in Sardarshahar.

The fodder samples have been col-lected for testing, he added.

The death of such a large number ofcows occurred on a day before‘Gopasthmi', a festival dedicated to cowsand Lord Krishna.

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Panaji: Goa Police is gearing upfor a surge in tourists ahead ofthe peak tourism season inDecember, Director General ofPolice Mukesh Kumar Meenasaid on Saturday, adding thatpreparedness for crowds espe-cially in wake of the pandem-ic was a challenge for the secu-rity force.

Meena also said that near-ly 900 police personnel hadtested positive for Covid-19,ever since the outbreak earlierthis year.”I could see on beach-es, the crowd has increased andhotels too are seeing more andmore bookings. It will be a

challenging task,” Meena said,when asked about the policepreparedness for tourists dur-ing the peak tourism season.

“We have already discussedwith officers, they are forminga strategy. Because of Covid itis a challenging task to deployforce round the clock,” Meenasaid. The top cop said thataround 900 police personnel, including himself,had tested positive for coron-avirus.

“People are fed up withbeing in one place now. Theywant to come and relax. They

think Goa is the best place,”Meena said, adding that allactivities, including those relat-ed to tourism should beallowed by following existingSOPs, wearing masks andmaintaining social distancingnorms.

Tourism activity in Goa,peaks during the Christmasweek leading up to New Year,during which hundreds ofthousands of tourists visit thestate annually. This yearthough, tourism activity isslowly picking up, after a sev-eral month-long lull in wake ofthe pandemic. IANS

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As volunteers line up to getthe first doses in the Phase-

III trials of the vaccine to cureCovid-19 at the JawaharlalNehru Medical College(JNMC), Aligarh MuslimUniversity; their identities willremain confidential in view ofthe social stigma related to thepandemic.

The step has been taken inline with various Supreme

Court and High Court judge-ments on identity protection ofvolunteers for medical/scien-tific study, privacy laws, dataprotection laws for which pro-visions are made under theIndia Penal Code.

JNMC is conducting thePhase-III, Covid19 Covaxintrials aimed at evaluating thesafety and efficacy of theCovid-19 vaccine study led incollaboration with ICMR andBharat Biotech.

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The mother is not ready with thedecision of CBI to conduct a

narco test of Vikrat alias Chhotuwho first arrives at the scene. Shehas mentioned her son as a minor.He was a target of CBI since thebeginning of the investigation. Thefield belongs to this family. Chhotuhas been questioned by the CBI sev-eral times. The High Court hasasked CBI to submit a status reporton 25 November. Due to this, CBIis investigating fast.

The girl was attacked on 14September at Chhotu's farm. Here,the girl went to cut fodder with hermother and brother. She died on 29September. CBI started investigat-

ing this on 11 October amidstuproar in the country. Chhotu'sname came up only two days later.He was the first to reach the scene.Chhotu gave this same informationin several inquiries. Chhotu is animportant link in this case.According to Chhotu, the CBI hadasked him to conduct a narco testwhich created panic in the family.Chhotu's mother Bitta Devi told themedia that she would not give con-sent to a narco test for her sonbecause he is a minor (16 years old).Narco should be made for thosewho were present at the scene andthose who are associated with theincident. The elder brother has saidthat CBI has questioned Chhotuseveral times.

Aligarh: 14-year-old Diya Vashisht, the star shooter of thedistrict got 8th rank in the prestigious Walther Meton Cup-2020 shooting championship of Germany and has beenselected for the finals. She has become the first girl shoot-er of the state to play in this championship of Germany atsuch a young age in a 10-meter air pistol event. She alsowon bronze in the open shooting championship organizedby the Shooting Sports Federation in Indonesia. Due to theCorona, these competitions were conducted online in whichmore than 365 countries took part

Diya said that at the age of eight, she won the firstbronze medal in the 16th Uttar Pradesh Inter SchoolShooting Championship in 2014 in Agra, and in 2017, shewas qualified for the National in All InDiya Inter SchoolChampionship and won a gold medal in Varanasi. Sincethen, she dreamed of playing in Germany's championship. PNS

Aligarh: The Tailor of AligarhMuslim University (AMU), whowas returning home was shotdead in Nagla Mallah of Kwarsiarea. One of the fleeing attack-ers was captured by the moband handed over to the policeafter beating.

The police are investigatingthe murder as an illicit affair. 20-year-old Salman, son ofSarfuddin Abbasi was a con-tractual tailor in AMU. Salmanwas returning home from themosque in the locality in theevening after offering namaz.On the death of Wahid's sonfrom the locality, there was acrowd in the street. Salman wassurrounded by three attackersand fired rapidly. PNS

Mumbai: A prominent rights activist hasdemanded that the MaharashtraGovernment provide 15 per cent reserva-tions for minorities in the public and pri-vate space in the upcoming new housingpolicy to help maintain the country's 'sec-ular character', here on Saturday.

In a letter to Housing Minister JitendraAwhad and Chief Minister UddhavThackeray, Harmony Foundation PresidentAbraham Mathai said that he had made asimilar suggestion in 2003 when he was theChairman of the Minorities Commission.

However, no government initiated anypolicy that could encourage multi-cultur-al habitations even as “the rapacious can-cer of communalism and radicalism” ruth-lessly devastates the fabric of nationhood.

Despite attempts, Minister Awhad andother government officials were not avail-able for comments on the issue.

Mathai said that unlike the past whencommunities lived in harmony as goodneighbours, in recent years, the communalforces have led to minorities seeking refugein ghettos, which in turn led to further divi-siveness and rise of radical hate-mongers on

both sides.In order to curb such 'ghettoization', it

is imperative to accommodate the minori-ties in all housing colonies which have nowbecome vote-banks with political partiessoliciting support on communal lines, saidMathai.

He pointed out how such polarisationhas resulted in many prominent personal-ities including Bollywood actors like EmranHashmi denied a house in an elitist com-plex in Bandra.

“This only proves that there has beena divide for decades as the majority com-munity is suspicious of the minoritiesespecially the Muslims. When we as a soci-ety keep them away it is only natural thatthey would find security in their ghettoswhere some have the propensity to embraceextremism and eventually become radi-calised,” Mathai pointed out.

He urged the Maha Vikas Aghadipartners - Shiv Sena-Nationalist CongressParty-Congress - to give top priority to thisand give 15 per cent reservations to all reli-gious minorities in the private housing sec-tor as well as MHADA, CIDCO and othergovernment bodies building homes. IANS

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Veteran lawyer and Tripura'sAdvocate General Arun

Kanti Bhowmik died of Covid-19 early on Saturday in Kolkata,official and family sourcessaid.

Family sources said thatBhowmik, 80, was ailing forquite some time due to hisheart disease and was shifted toa private hospital in Kolkata onFriday.

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Asoldier of the Indian Army made asupreme sacrifice while two women

received injuries during separate incidentsof ceasefire violations along the line of con-trol in the twin border districts of Rajouriand Poonch on Saturday.

To prevent any misadventure by theBorder Action Team (BAT) of the Pakistanarmy in the region, the foot soldiers of theIndian army have been maintaining tightvigil and conducting regular patrolling inthe forward areas.

According to the ground reports, therewas no let up from the Pakistan side to pro-voke strong Indian response. Several sectorsremained active across the region since earlymorning. Local villagers alleged Pakistanarmy was targeting civilian areas withheavy mortar shelling.

Defence Spokesman in Jammu, Lt-ColDevender Anand said, “Havaldar PatilSangram Shivaji received critical injuriesduring unprovoked ceasefire violation by thePakistan Army along the line of control in

Nowshera sector of Rajouri on Saturday”. Hesaid the Indian Army retaliated strongly.Havaldar Patil,hailing from Kolhapur dis-trict in Maharashtra, later succumbed to hisfatal injuries.

In the evening, the Pakistan Armyonce again provoked the Indian army byresorting to fresh mortar shelling in the samesector. Indian army retaliated befittingly,Defence spokesman said.

After a small gap of 15 minutes, cease-fire violation was also reported from theDegwar and Malti sectors of Poonch.Defence Spokesman said, Pakistan armyresorted to intense shelling leading to civil-ian injuries.

According to local villagers, two womenidentified as Sakina Bi (40 years) W/o NazmDin and Mansha Bi (18 years) D/O ShamsDin of village Bagyal Dara in Poonchreceived injuries during ongoing mortarshelling. The injured were evacuated to thedistrict hospital in Poonch amid constantshelling. The large population living in theforward villages remained closeted insidetheir homes due to intense shelling.

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The Narcotics ControlBureau (NCB) on Saturday

evening arrested televisioncomedian Bharti Singh foralleged possession and con-sumption of a banned drug,hours after it seized 86.5 gramsof Cannabis during the raids onone of two homes in north-westMumbai.

Continuing their investiga-tions into the Bollywood-drugmafia nexus case, the NCBsleuths raided the homes ofBharti Singh and her husbandHarsh Limbachiyaa at Andheri’sLokhandwala Complex andVersova in north-west Mumbaito look out for banned drugs.

From one of their homes,the NCB officials seized 86.5grams of cannabis. After the

raids, the couple was taken tothe agency’s office where Bharatiwas placed under arrest as perthe provisions of NDPS Act1986 late in the evening, whilethe questioning of her husbandHarsh was continuing till late inthe evening.

During the questioning,Bharti and her husband report-edly confessed to having con-sumed cannabis (ganja). Thedrug consumption is in additionto the charge of possessingbanned drugs that Bharati faced.

The raid on the homes ofBharti and her husband Harshand the subsequent arrest of thetelevision comedian came aftertheir names figured in the cus-todial interrogation of a 21-year-old drug trafficker whom theNCB officials had arrested ear-lier the day on Saturday. Duringthe raid conducted at a locationin Khar Danda area, the inves-tigators seized various drugsincluding 15 blots of LSD

(commercial quantity), ganja(40 gm) and Nitrazepam (psy-chotropic medicines).

In a statement released tothe media, the NCB said that ina follow-up on the inputs pro-vided by the arrested drug traf-ficker, the agency “raided twoanother places on 21.11.2020including production office andHouse of actor-comedian MsBharti Singh and from both theplaces 86.5 grams of Ganja wasrecovered”

“Both Ms Bharti Singh andHer Husband HarshLimbachiya accepted the con-sumption of Ganja. Ms BhartiSingh was placed under arrestas per the provisions of NDPSAct 1986 and examination ofShri Harsh Limbachiya isunderway,” the NCB said in itsstatement.

The NCB said that it hadarrested two more persons inconnection with seizure of MD,a popular club drug that’s sold

in pills (ecstasy) or as a powder(MDMA)..

The arrest of Bharti comeson the heels raids carried out atthe residence of Bollywoodactor Arjun Rampal onNovember 9, his and his live-infriend Gabriella Demetriades’questioning and the subsequentarrest of his Australian friendAustralian friend Paul Bartelwas on Friday arrested by theNCB in the much-discussedBollywood-drug mafia nexuscase.

Earlier on November 8, theNCB officials had carried outsearches at film producer FirozA. Nadiadwala’s residence alongGulmohar Cross Road at JuhuVile Parle Development (JVPD)Scheme in north-west Mumbai.During the searches, the NCBsleuths seized a total of 717.1 gmof Ganja, 74.1 gm charas and95.1 gm MD (CommercialQuantity) along with Rs3,58,610. They also seized 10 gm

of Ganja from another accusedWahid Abdul kadir Sheikh @Sultan. After the seizure ofdrugs and cash, the NCB offi-cials arrested five persons,including Firoz A. Nadiadwala’swife Shabana Saeed.

On November 9, the NCBofficials carried out searches atRampal’s residence for sevenhours and seized 11 electronicgadgets including a laptop,mobile phones and tablets fromthere. They also seized somedocuments from Rampal’s res-idence.

The raid on Rampal’s resi-dence and his subsequent ques-tioning should be seen in thecontext of the arrest of a SouthAfrican national AgisilaosDemetriades – the brother ofRampal’s live-in partnerGabriella Demetriades -- madeby the NCB from Lonavala nearPune last month. Agisilaos isalleged to be a part of a largerdrug syndicate operating in

Bollywood, which is beinginvestigated after the death ofactor Sushant Singh Rajput.

For ty-seven-year-oldRampal was grilled for eighthours by the NCB on November13 in connection with thenature of his links with Agisialosand Bartel, the seizures madeduring the raid conducted at hisBandra residence for sev4enhours on Monday, the role of hislive-in partner Gabriella, aSouth African model in thenexus with the drug peddlers.

On his part, Rampal hadsaid that he had nothing to dowith drugs and he was co-operating with the NCB.Rampal’s grilling came aftertwo rounds of questioning thatthe NCB subjected his live-part-ner Gabriella to, on November11 and 12.

The NCB’s investigationshave revealed that Agisialoswas in touch with OmegaGodwin, a Nigerian national

who had earlier been arrestedfor supply of cocaine inMumbai. During his custodialinterrogation, Godwin hadnamed Agisialos. Earlier, ex-Dharma Productions employeeKshitij Prasad had earlier beenarrested by the NCB in con-nection with the Sushant SinghRajput’s death-related drug caseand expanded Bollywood-drugnexus case.

Sushant, it may be recalled,was found hanging from a ceil-ing fan in his closed room of hisduplex flat at Mont Blanc build-ing at Bandra’s Carter Road innorth-west Mumbai onJune 14.

Incidentally, the raid onRampal’s residence came a dayafter the NCB officials carriedout searches at film producerFiroz A. Nadiadwala’s residencealong Gulmohar Cross Road atJuhu Vile Parle Development(JVPD) Scheme in north-westMumbai. During the searches,

the NCB sleuths seized a totalof 717.1 gm of Ganja, 74.1 gmcharas and 95.1 gm MD(Commercial Quantity) alongwith Rs 3,58,610. They alsoseized 10 gm of Ganja fromanother accused Wahid Abdulkadir Sheikh @ Sultan.

After the seizure of drugsand cash, the NCB officialsarrested five persons, includingFiroz A. Nadiadwala’s wifeShabana Saeed.

The NCB has registeredtwo drugs cases in the wake ofthe investigations launched bythe CBI into the death of actorSushant Singh Rajput in Junethis year upon the directiveissued by the Supreme Court

Nearly twenty persons–including Sushant’s girlfriendRhea Chakraborty and herbrother Showik --- were arrest-ed in connection with a caseregistered by the NCB onAugust 28, two days after it reg-istered a case suo moto.

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Ankara: Afghanistan’s chiefpeace envoy Abdullah Abdullahsaid on Saturday that the USdecision to begin withdrawingtroops from Afghanistan hascome too soon, as his countryis still struggling to attain peaceand security amid an ongoingconflict.

In an interview with TheAssociated Press, Abdullah alsodescribed as “shocking” anAustralian military report thatfound evidence that eliteAustralian troops unlawfullykilled 39 Afghan prisoners.

He welcomed a decision byAustralian authorities to pursuethe perpetrators.

Abdullah spoke in Ankarawhere he sought Turkey’s sup-port for negotiations between

the Afghan government and theTaliban that are taking place inQatar to find an end to decadesof war. The talks have made lit-tle progress so far.

“This is the decision of theUS administration and werespect it,” Abdullah said of theUS decision this week to reducetroops levels in Afghanistanfrom more than 4,500 to 2,500.

“Our preference would havebeen that with the conditionsimproving, this should havetaken place.” Acting US DefenseSecretary Christopher Millerannounced that Washingtonwould reduce troop levels inIraq and Afghanistan by mid-January, in line with PresidentDonald Trump’s pledge to bringUS forces home. AP

Lahore: A Pakistani court hasjailed two more aides ofMumbai attack mastermindand Jamat-ud-Dawah (JuD)chief Hafiz Saeed in a terrorfinancing case.

The Anti-Terrorism Court(ATC) of Lahore on Fridayhanded down six and five-and-a-half years of imprison-ment to JuD leadersMuhammad Ashraf andLucman Shah, respectively.

ATC Judge ArshadHussain Bhutta also imposed afine of Rs 10,000 on each ofthem.

On Thursday, the 70-year-old JuD chief was sentenced to10 years of imprisonment intwo terror cases by ATCLahore. Saeed’s two close aides— Zafar Iqbal and YahyaMujahid — were sentenced to

10 and a half years each, whilehis brother-in-law AbdulRehman Makki was sentencedto six months of imprisonmentin the same cases.

Saeed, a UN designatedterrorist whom the US hasplaced a $10 million bountyon, was arrested on July 17 lastyear in the terror financingcases. He was sentenced to 11years in jail by an anti-terror-ism court in February thisyear in two terror financingcases.

The JuD chief is lodged atLahore’s high-security KotLakhpat jail.

Saeed is wanted in India forplanning the 2008 Mumbaiattacks when 10 Pakistani ter-rorists killed 166 people,including six Americans, andinjured hundreds others. PTI

Washington: Native Americansare urging President-elect JoeBiden to make history by select-ing one of their own to lead thepowerful agency that overseesthe nation’s tribes, setting upone of several looming tests ofBiden’s pledge to have a Cabinetrepresentative of Americans.

OJ Semans is one of dozensof tribal officials and votingactivists around the countrypushing selection of Rep. DebHaaland, a New MexicoDemocrat and member of thePueblo of Laguna, to becomethe first Native American sec-retary of interior.

Tell Semans, a member ofthe Rosebud Sioux, that a well-regarded white lawmaker isconsidered a front-runner forthe job, and Semans chuckles.

“Not if I trip him,” Semanssays.

African Americans,Mexican Americans, AsianAmericans, Native Americansand other people of colourplayed a crucial role in helping

Biden defeat President DonaldTrump. In return, they saythey want attention on prob-lems affecting their communi-ties — and want to see morepeople who look like them inpositions of power.

“It’s nice to know that aNative American is under con-sideration,” said Haaland, whosays she is concentrating on hercongressional work.“Sometimes we are invisible.”

In Arizona, AlejandraGomez was one of an army ofactivists who strapped on face

masks and plastic face shieldsin 100-plus-degree heat to godoor-to-door to get out theMexican American vote.Intensive Mexican Americanorganising there helped flipthat state to Democrats for thefirst time in 24 years.

“We are at a point wherethere was no pathway to vic-tory” for Democrats withoutsupport from voters of colour,said Gomez, co-executivedirector of the political groupLiving United for Change inArizona. AP

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Saudi Arabia’s King Salmanopened on Saturday the

Group of 20 summit as thecoronavirus pandemic over-shadows this year’s gathering ofheads of state, transforming itfrom an in-person two-daymeeting of the world’s mostpowerful leaders to a virtualgathering of speeches and dec-larations.

The pandemic, which hasclaimed more than 1.37 millionlives worldwide, has offered the

G-20 an opportunity to provehow such bodies can facilitateinternational cooperation incrises — but has also under-scored their shortcomings.

The G-20’s member-coun-tries represent around 85 percent of the world’s economicoutput and three-quarters ofinternational trade.

“We have a duty to rise tothe challenge together duringthis summit and give a strongmessage of hope and reassur-ance,” King Salman said in hisopening remarks.

Detroit: Michigan’s electionsagency on Friday recom-mended that the November 3results be certified next week bystate canvassers, a decisionthat would bless Joe Biden’s vic-tory over President DonaldTrump but likely not cool par-tisan strife over the vote.

The recommendation wasposted online with the formalMonday meeting notice of theBoard of State Canvassers.

The guidance came at theend of a stormy week in whichTrump summoned Republican

state lawmakers to the WhiteHouse on Friday in an extra-ordinary effort to try to setaside Biden’s 154,000-vote vic-tory.

On Tuesday, GOP can-vassers in Michigan’s largestcounty, Wayne, refused to cer-tify local results but thenchanged their position afterhours of intense public criti-cism over Zoom. Then aftertalking to Trump, they said aday later they were rescindingtheir previous vote but it wastoo late. AP

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Los Angeles: Micro-bloggingsite Twitter will hand control ofthe presidential @POTUSaccount to President-elect JoeBiden the moment he is swornin on inauguration day onJanuary 20, even if PresidentDonald Trump has not con-ceded his election loss, thecompany has said.

The @POTUS account isthe official account of thePresident of the United Statesand is separate from the@realDonaldTrump accountthat Trump uses to tweet.

Biden, 78, will be the 46thUS President when he is swornin.

The handover requires nosharing of information betweenthe outgoing Trump team andthe incoming Biden team,Twitter said, adding that allexisting tweets on thoseaccounts will be archived andTwitter will transfer theaccounts — reset to zero tweets— to Biden that day. PTI

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The head of the Tibetangovernment in exile has

visited the White House for thefirst time in six decades andmet the newly appointed seniorUS official on Tibetan issues,the Central TibetanAdministration said onSaturday, a development thatcould enrage Beijing, which hasaccused the US of trying tointerfere in China’s internalaffairs.

Dr Lobsang Sangay enteredthe United States White Houseon Friday — a historic feat.This is the first time in the last6 decades the head of theCentral TibetanAdministration (CTA) hasbeen invited into the WhiteHouse, the CTA said in a state-ment.

“It is a great honour to bethe first political head of theCentral TibetanAdministration to formallyenter the White House,” Sangaysaid in a tweet.

“Today’s visit amounts toan acknowledgement of boththe democratic system of theCTA and its political head...This unprecedented meetingperhaps will set an optimistictone for CTA participationwith US officials and be moreformalised in the comingyears,” said the CTA, which isbased in Dharamshala in India.

Sangay, the President of theCentral TibetanAdministration (CTA), wasinvited to the White House tomeet the newly appointed USSpecial Coordinator forTibetan Issues, Robert Destro,on Friday, it said.

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President-elect Joe Bidenturned 78 on Friday. In

exactly two months, he’ll take

the reins of a politically frac-tured nation facing the worstpublic health crisis in a centu-ry, high unemployment and areckoning on racial injustice.

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Donald Trump Jr, the eldest son of US President

Donald Trump, has tested positive for COVID-19, his spokesperson said, latest in the First Family to have been infected by the deadlyvirus.

Trump Jr tested positive atthe start of the week and hasbeen “quarantining out at hiscabin since the result,” thespokesman said on Friday.

“He has been completelyasymptomatic so far and is fol-lowing all medically recom-mended COVID-19 guide-lines,” the spokesman added.

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Bangkok: Secondary schoolstudents in Thailand’s capitalrallied Saturday for education-al and political reforms, defy-ing government threats to crackdown with legal action againstthe country’s high-profileprotest movement.

The rally was called by agroup that calls itself “BadStudents,” mocking their statusas rebels against traditionalschool rules and authorities.

Reflecting their light touchtoward protest actions, theyused props including people indinosaur suits and oversizebeach balls standing in forasteroids.

Just as an asteroid hittingthe earth is believed to have ledto the extinction of the

dinosaurs, they pointed out, theold-fashioned members ofThailand’s establishmentimpeding change will face acollision with the country’spro-democracy movement.

Though the original goalsof the Bad Students includedabolishing outmoded regula-tions such as dress codes andreforming antiquated curricu-lums, they now also supportthe demands of Thailand’sbroader pro-democracy move-ment, which seeks major polit-ical change.

Saturday’s rally, held inone of Bangkok’s busiest shop-ping areas, attracted a crowd ofat least 1,000 people, many ofwhom were not secondaryschool students. AP

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Kabul: About 23 mortar shellsslammed into different parts ofthe Afghan capital on Saturday,killing at least eight people andwounding 31 others, an officialsaid.

The shells were fired fromtwo cars, Interior Ministryspokesperson Tariq Arian said.No one took immediateresponsibility for the earlymorning attack that also tar-geted the posh Wazir AkbarKhan area of Kabul, whichhouses diplomatic missions.

The Taliban issued a quick

statement denying any respon-sibility for the attack. TheIslamic State group affiliatealso operates in the area andhas claimed responsibility forrecent assaults in Kabul includ-ing two devastating attacks oneducational institutions thatkilled more than 50 people,many of them students.

As well as insurgentgroups, there are several heav-ily armed warlords with mili-tias living in Kabul with long-standing animosities againsteach other. AP

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Melbourne: Australia willrespond “very seriously” towar crime allegations against itsdefence personnel, PrimeMinister Scott Morrison hasassured the people ofAfghanistan, a day after a long-awaited military report said thecountry’s special forces unlaw-fully killed 39 people in thewar-torn nation.

According to the reportreleased on Thursday, there is“credible information” that atleast 19 serving and formerAustralian special forcesallegedly committed up to 39unlawful murders during theconflict in Afghanistan. PTI

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State-owned Punjab & SindBank on Saturday said its

board has approved a propos-al to raise up to �5,500 crore byissuing shares on a preferentialbasis.

The board approval is inline with the Government sanc-tion to infuse an amount of �5,500 crore in the bank towardscontribution of the Centre inthe preferential allotment ofequity shares during FY2020-21. The board has clearedagenda to “offer, issue, createand allot equity shares up to �5,500 crore including sharepremium to the Government ofIndia by way of preferentialissue of equity shares”, thebank said in a regulatory filing.

The fund raising will helpbank meet its regulatory andgrowth capital.

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The Government onSaturday said a grant of

�107.42 crore has beenapproved for implementing 28food processing projects spreadover 10 states that are likely togenerate jobs for nearly 10,000people.

A decision in this regardwas taken in the virtual meet-ing of the Inter-MinisterialApproval Committee (IMAC)chaired by Food ProcessingIndustries Minister NarendraSingh Tomar. Junior ministerRameswar Teli was also present

in the meeting. The committee considered

the projects applied through anunit scheme of Creation andExpansion of Food Processingand Preservation Capacities(CEFPPC) under the PradhanMantri Kisan Sampada Yojana(PMKSY) for necessary grants-in-aid.

“28 projects with projectcosts of �320.33 crore, sup-ported with a grant of � 107.42crore by Ministry of FoodProcessing Industries (MoFPI)were approved under the CEF-PPC Scheme by the IMAC,” anofficial statement said.

Of this, a grant of �20.35crore has been approved for sixprojects from north easternstates.

These projects are worth�48.87 crore, it said.

The projects will create aprocessing capacity of 1,237tonne daily and are spreadacross the states of MadhyaPradesh, Gujarat, UttarPradesh, Maharashtra, Jammuand Kashmir, Karnataka, TamilNadu, Uttarakhand, Assam,and Manipur.

These projects are likely togenerate employment for near-ly 10,000 people, it added..

Life Insurance Corporationof India launched its first

Digital Application, “ANAN-DA”, an acronym for AtmaNirbhar Agents NewBusinessDigital Application, onThursday, the 19th ofNovember 2020. The launchwas done by MR Kumar,Chairman, LIC of Indiathrough Video Conferencing,in the presence of theManaging Directors, TC SuseelKumar, Mukesh Kumar Gupta,Raj Kumar and other SeniorOfficials of the Corporation.The Digital application is a toolfor the on boarding process toget the Life Insurance policythrough a Paperless modulewith the help of the Agent /Intermediary. It is built on

paperless KYC process usingAadhaar based e-authentica-tion of the Life Proposed.

ANANDA is a first of itskind in the Indian LifeInsurance industry with LIC ofIndia pioneering the processthrough its in-house IT enabledsystems. This tool has beenbrought out at the right time,to enable and empower theMarketing force of LIC to facethe current challenges and pro-pel insurance selling to a high-er level. With social distancingbeing the new normal, prospec-tive customers can avail thefacility of taking a New LifeInsurance Policy in the comfortof their homes/offices withouthaving to meet the Agent /Intermediary in person.

Noida: With theincrease in thenumber of coronapatients in the cap-ital of the country,strict restrictionshave also beenimposed on theevents organisedthere. The peopleof Delhi have nowstarted organisingmarriages inNoida in UttarPradesh instead of Delhi.

A similar case has come upin Noida Sector 48. A Delhiparty is going to organise awedding ceremony in Sector 48Park of Noida this week.Residents of Sector 48 are

angry about this controversialevent.

Residents of Sector 48 havewritten a complaint letter inthis regard to Ritumaheshwari,CEO of Noida DevelopmentAuthority.

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Petrol price on Saturday washiked by 15 paise per litre

and diesel by 20 paise, the sec-ond straight day of increase inrates after firming interna-tional oil rates broke nearly atwo-month-long hiatus in pricerevision.

The price of petrol in Delhiwas hiked to �81.38 per litrefrom �81.23, according to anotification from oil marketingcompanies.

Diesel rates went up from�70.68 to � 70.88 per litre. OnFriday, petrol price was raisedby 17 paise per litre and dieselby 22 paise.

This is the first revision inpetrol prices since September22. Diesel rates had notchanged since October 2.

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American cult-bike makerHarley-Davidson on

Saturday said it is workingwith its new partner HeroMotoCorp to “ensure a smoothtransition” for its customers inIndia, including after-sale ser-vices and warranty. Last month,Harley-Davidson and HeroMotoCorp announced theirpartnership for the Indian mar-ket.

They have inked a distri-bution agreement, under whichHero MotoCorp will sell andservice Harley-Davidsonmotorcycles. It will also sell

parts and accessories and gen-eral merchandise riding gearand apparel through a networkof brand-exclusive Harley-Davidson dealers and Hero’sexisting dealership network inIndia.

H a r l e y - D a v i d s o nManaging Director (AsiaEmerging Markets and India)Sajeev Rajasekharan said in astatement, “As we change ourbusiness model in India, we arepleased to be continuing ourjourney in the country togeth-er with Hero MotoCorp. Weare working closely with Heroto ensure a smooth transitionfor our riders.”

New Delhi:Bharti Airtel onFriday said it will acquire 5.2per cent stake in solar powercompany AvaadaMHBuldhana for �4.55 crore inan all-cash deal. Avaada MHBuldhana Private

Limited is a newly-formedcompany and developing acaptive generating solar powerplant in Maharashtra whichwill become operational byMarch 2021. It is a subsidiaryof Avaada Energy PrivateLimited (AEPL).

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Focus on automobile after-market is the key to

‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’, a seniorofficial said.

According to H.J.SPasricha, Head CMD andScientist F, Bureau of IndianStandards (BIS), “Indian OEMsas well as their componentmanufactures have delivered toa large extent towards the twinobjectives of AtmanirbharBharat.”

“Now, automotive after-market needs to be one of thekey areas of focus. A well grad-ed plan aimed towards curbingcounterfeits and substandard

products through proper cer-tification and enforcementcould very well be the waytowards vibrant aftermarket.”

Pasricha spoke at a webinarorganised by Society of IndianAutomobile Manufacturers(SIAM).

The webinar as per a SIAMstatement aimed to addresscontemporary aspects relatedto the aftermarket parts busi-

ness. It touched upon after-market tenets such as quintes-sential quality, curbing coun-terfeit, vocal for local, simpli-fying supply-chain, amplifyingaccess and evaluating e-com-merce.

“Aftermarket business ischallenging with multiple play-ers right from OEMs at oneextreme to counterfeiters at theother end,” said Prashant K.Banerjee, Executive Director,SIAM.“We look forward tohave an active collaborationwith government, BIS(Implementing Agency),ACMA, AIAWA, e-commerceentrants, aggregators etc. to cre-ate a quality conscious market.

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India, which has not signedany trade agreement since

2012, will soon revive talks onthe possible free trade agree-ment (FTA) with the EuropeanUnion and the US. Even as theNarendra Modi Governmentopted out of the RegionalComprehensive EconomicPartnership (RCEP), it is keenon inking trade deals withother economic blocs, a high-ly placed source said, addingthat India could gain signifi-cantly amid a growing anti-China sentiment in many partsof the world.

The EU is India’s largest

trading partner accounting for11.1 per cent of total Indiantrade, on par with the US andahead of China (10.7 per cent).

“We are positive that FTAswith the EU and US will ben-efit India and talks will beresumed,” Gopal KrishnaAgarwal, the Bharatiya JanataParty’s national spokespersonon economic affairs, said.“India is not opposed to tradeagreements with other coun-tries, though now that seems tobe the popular notion after weexited the RCEP, we under-stand the need to remain glob-ally and regionally integrated,”Agarwal added.

After intense negotiations

for an FTA with the EU, talkshave been stalled since 2013after differences on variousissues could not be ironed out.

Other Asian nations look-ing at trade deals with the west,Vietnam has already inked one

Vietnam, which is emerg-ing as a formidable competitionto many economies, has alreadysigned at a trade pact with theEU.”The European economyneeds now every opportunityto restore its strength after thecrisis triggered by the coron-avirus,” Ursula von der Leyen,President of the EuropeanCommission, said in a state-ment.

“India should not waste

time now. It must act fastbefore other countries seal thedeals,” Federation of IndianExport Organisations (FIEO)president S.K. Saraf toldIndianarrative.com. “We mustrevive talks on the stalled FTAsand other trade pacts to cash inon the changing geopoliticalorder. The current anti-Chinasentiment in Europe couldhelp India at this point and wemust not waste an opportuni-ty.”

Typically, trade agreementsincluding the one withAssociation of Southeast AsianNations (Asean) have notworked in India’s favour butexperts opined that New Delhi

must remain engaged withother countries not only toboost trade but also to beheard in the global communi-ty.

Foreign Secretary HarshShringla’s seven-day trip toEurope just a few weeks ago isbeing seen as an importantdevelopment in this direction.On Thursday the first stand-alone India-Luxembourg sum-mit between Prime MinisterNarendra Modi and his coun-terpart Xavier Bettel was heldvia video conferencing, wherethe former underlined the needto expand trade and econom-ic co-operation between Indiaand the EU.

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An expected slowdown inthe rate of foreign fund

inflows along with the upcom-ing Q2FY21 GDP figures isexpected to weaken the Indianrupee during the coming week.

Besides, expectations on afurther stimulus has fannedfears of higher Governmentborrowings.

Nonetheless, rising virusinfection in the US amid hopesof more stimulus is expected tokeep the US dollar subdued.

Consequently, the rupeeis projected to range between73.70 to 74.50 per greenback.

“Flows into equity marketshave been robust and support-ed the rupee,” said Sajal Gupta,Head, Forex and Rates,Edelweiss Securities.

As per estimates, morethan Rs 25,000 crore have

flown into the country’s stockmarkets till now duringNovember.

“However, we expect theflows to slow down going for-ward and that can put somepressure on rupee and risingimports owing to normalisa-tion can also keep strong rupeein check.”

Last week, rupee appreci-ated to 74.11 levels but sawstrong support at 74 handle.

Nonetheless, dollar pur-chases from RBI as reflected inthe forex reserve capped fur-ther appreciation.On Friday,official data showed that India’sforeign exchange reserves rose$4.277 billion during the weekended November 13.

Accordingly, the reservesincreased to $572.771 billionfrom $568.494 billion reportedfor the week ended November6.

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Mumbai:Economic recoveryalong with hopes of a Covid-19 vaccine will keep domesticstock markets high during theupcoming trade week.

Analysts opined that mar-kets are likely to oscillatebetween renewed fears of ris-ing covid cases globally andoptimism over vaccine devel-opment.

Besides, profit booking aswell as expensive propositions

might dampen sentiments.Nevertheless, upcoming

Q2FY21 GDP figures com-bined with sales push duringthe festive season is expected toarrest any major downslidemovement.”Going ahead, themarket is likely to be volatile assentiments oscillate betweenfear of rising covid cases glob-ally and optimism over vaccineprogress,” said SiddharthaKhemka, Head of Retail

Research, Motilal OswalFinancial Services.

“Investors would closelywatch out the developmentover the US stimulus talkswhere the hopes are fading.However the overall structureof the market remains positive,as the economic activity con-tinues to improve and Covidcases continue to declinedomestically, except fewregions.” IANS

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New Delhi: With an aim totackle the problem of severeacute malnutrition under thePoshan Abhiyan in the coun-try, Community Managementof Acute Malnutrition(CMAM) Association of India,comprising manufacturers ofready-to-use therapeutic foods,has extended support to theGovernment to develop newproducts and implement feed-ing protocols. “CMAMAssociation is poised to alignwith various nutrition inter-ventions through developmentof therapeutic products as pre-scribed by the Governmentand extending the PM’s visionof a self-reliant India,” saidAkshat Khandelwal, presidentof CMAM Association.

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Born and brought up inVaranasi, this PhD stu-dent always wanted topursue a career in envi-ronmental sciences.

When she was doing her PhD, it wasa project that studied the effect of cli-mate change on agriculture. Duringa discussion, she found that therewas little work done on the impactof climate change on health. Thismade her shift her focus of study.

Nidhi Singh, who has been doingher research for the last five years tellsyou that it has not been easy to col-lect the data. “Back in 2016, therewere only a few reviews, one can saythere was a big void from India thatshowed the impact of air pollutionand climate change on health. Weknew that there was an impact onhealth from studies from othercountries, but no data fromIndia,” Singh says.

What got her interested inpursuing a PhD is her fatherwho did his research inPsychological. “As a child,what he did fascinated meand I knew that I wanted todo something similar. Ichose Science in Class XIas I wanted to be a doc-tor but I couldn’t. Soenvironment beckonedme,” Singh recalls.

However, to sub-mit her thesis, it has

not been easy.“Getting data was a

challenge. Hospitals areunable to maintain a proper data.

But we managed to get data from the

Municipal Corporation of Varanasi. Thatdata had gender, age, place and date of deathand cause of death. In 70 per cent cases, it readcerebrovascular death. I had to struggle toascertain the actual cause of death. If we hadspecific data, my research would have betterimpact due to the findings. Also, there is nosingle body that keeps a record of proper causeof death; this is a limiting factor. There are nostudies that directly indicate that Diabetes oreven BP could be attributed to air pollution.Each city has different pollution levels depend-ing on the weather. For proper conclusion weneed better monitoring,” Singh opines.

Since she lives in Varanasi, her primaryfocus involved two areas. First, the impactof heat and cold wave and second, impactof air pollution on mortality. In the firstinstance, she found that impact of heat wavewas more pronounced here and the elder-ly and male were more vulnerable.

Her second area of study involvedblack carbon, the first kind of study on thisfrom India. In fact, both her studies arepioneer works from the country.

“I used black carbon and PM2.5 andPM 10 and gases like NO2, SO2 and ozone.We wanted to study the impact of these onmortality. We found black carbon is the mostimportant pollutant that increases the risk ofmortality and is in fact most lethal of them.This was followed by SO2, NO2 and then par-ticular matter. These are good findings and canhelp the Government to base their policies andinclude black carbon in order to define qual-ity of air pollution,” Singh tells you.

Also, the entire Indo-Gangetic region dueto its geographical position makes cities in thisarea highly polluted and densely populated.“Many people, due to socio-economic condi-tions, are unable to take required steps to avoidextreme temperatures or air pollution. Again,these findings are important and immediateaction is needed by the Government to takecorrective steps,” Singh says.

Her recommendation based on herresearch, for her city for now, better trafficrules, doing away with outdated vehicles,introducing LPG and doing away with burn-ing fossil fuel and creating awareness amongthe public of the impact of air pollution on health.

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What if it was possible topredict that a disease wasabout to hit your lushcrop? What if there was away to pinpoint the exact

time to harvest your crop to get the mostout of it? What if there was a way to pre-dict how the weather will affect your cropin a particular year and necessary steps onecould take to prevent damage?

This and much more is now possibledue to the remote sensing data that is avail-able and there are scientists who can readthese numbers and help farmers.Meet one such scientist who wonthe Green Talent Award thisyear — Parmita Ghoshwho has done her bach-elors in agriculturalengineering and mas-ters inGeoinformatics.

This young scientistwho has been working withCorteva Agriscience inHyderabad for the last oneyear tells you that her expertiseis in remote data science agricul-ture, her company is a big playerin this field and hence chose to beassociated with them. “Working withthis organisation will help me reach the farmerwho can benefit from my research. Solutions Idevelop directly go to the farmer,” Ghosh says.

She tells you that her work involves devel-oping solutions that she gets from the remotesensing data assist the farmer in his cropping pat-tern like which crop to grow and when to sowthe seed, how to save resources and then to gen-erate an alert system for any risk that can arisedue to a disease attack and take timely measuresto protect their yield.

For example, for a farmer in Punjab grow-ing wheat, what Ghosh can do sitting inHyderabad is monitor the entire wheat seasonand if there is any crop pests or if the crop needs

irrigation, she can, via the satellite images.monitor the health of the crop and check for anystress and inform the farmer accordingly who canthen take preventive steps. What is even betteris that Ghosh can even predict the yield so thatthe farmer can plan post-harvest activities muchin advance.

However, all the information that Ghosh hasat her finger tips is not necessarily welcomed bythe farmers. “There have been times when wehave sent alerts to them but they are just not readyto accept our advice because they have been fol-lowing ageold practices and beliefs. To educatefarmers, we have ground staff who visit the farm-ers regularly. This instills some confidence in theadvisory. There are so many new crop diseasestoday, diseases that their forefathers have not evenheard of or seen. Take foliar new worms; this isnew to India. So some farmers today depend onthe advisory given to them and slowly they gain

confidence in our methods,” Ghoshsays.

She agrees that it is easier tobring the younger farmer to

the fold since we are livingin the era of digital technol-ogy and so are they.“These young farmers arelooking for methods toincrease their yield. Theyare also aware of the alertsystem. Workshops thatwe hold regularly helps the

traditional farmer to adaptto using technology to help

them,” Ghosh tells you.While she has only been in

the profession for a year, she tells youthat there are a few basic problems that

India’s farmers face. “More than the use of tech-nology, it is the reachability of technology to eachfarmer,” Ghosh says.The good part is that the datamodels are available countrywide depending oncropping patterns and kind of diseases that maybe indigenous to that region.

“There are, of course, challenges that comewhen monitoring the satellite and getting thenumbers and algorithm correct. But regularmonitoring and taking into account the unpre-dictability of Mother Nature, we are able to getthe number right up to 95 per cent. The advicewe give therefore comes with riders,” Ghoshsays.

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The hullabaloo over hishamstring was confusingas well as amusing for

Rohit Sharma, who says healways knew that the injury wasnot that serious and he wouldbe battle-ready for the tour ofAustralia.

India’s white-ball vice-cap-tain, in a detailed conversationwith PTI, opened about the lefthamstring injury during theIPL, which became a matter ofintense speculation after hereturned to action within daysof being left out of the Australiatour earlier this month. He wassubsequently added to the Testsquad.

“I don’t know what wasgoing on, to be honest and whatall were people talking about.But let me put this on record,I was constantly communicat-ing with BCCI and MumbaiIndians,” Rohit said.

He hit a match-winningknock of 68 off 50 balls in theIPL final against Delhi Capitals,playing through pain. Rohit iscurrently doing strength andconditioning work at theNational Cricket Academy inBengaluru before heading toAustralia.

“I told them (MumbaiIndians) that I can take the fieldsince it is the shortest formatand I will be able to manage thesituation quite nicely. Once Imade my mind clear, it was allabout focussing on what Ineeded to do,” he said.

“Hamstring is feelingabsolutely fine. Just started theprocess of getting it nice andstrong. Before I play the longerformat, I absolutely needed tobe clear in mind that there is nostone that is left unturned,that’s probably the reason, I’mat the NCA,” Rohit added.

For Rohit, the chatter onthe outside regarding his injuryand his subsequent participa-tion in the IPL play-offs, did-n’t matter much.

“So for me, it was not aconcern what x, y or z was talk-ing about like whether hewould make it to Australia,” hesaid.

“Once the injury hap-pened, the next two days all Idid was to figure out what I cando in the next 10 days —whether I will be able to play ornot.”

Unless one goes to theground, one won’t know howthe body is shaping up, feels thefive-time IPL champion cap-

tain.“But every day, hamstring

(degree of injury) was chang-ing. The way it was respondingwas changing, so I was feelingquite confident that I couldplay and that is the communi-cation that I had with MI at thatpoint.

“I told them that I think Iwill be okay to play just beforeplay-offs. If there is any dis-comfort, I won’t be playing theplay-offs.”

All Rohit needed was threeand half weeks to get ready forTests and he fails to understandwhat the fuss was all aboutgiven that the series startsDecember 17.

“Of course, there is stillsome work that needs to bedone on my hamstring. That’swhy I didn’t go to Australia forthe white-ball leg as there areback-to-back games. Around 6games in 11 days,” he saidabout the limited overs legbeginning November 27.

“So I thought if I get towork on my body for 25 days,I can probably go and play theTest matches. So it was an easydecision for me and I don’tknow why it became so com-plicated for others,” he won-dered aloud.

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India’s craftiest pacerMohammed Shami is in the

“right zone” after his impressiveperformance in the IPL, allow-ing him to prepare for the bigTest series against Australia“without any pressure”.

Shami had his best IPLseason as his 20 wickets forKings XI Punjab, including aspectacular defence of fiveruns in double Super Overgame against Mumbai Indians,was one of the highlights of thetournament.

“My performances forKXIP in IPL has given me a lotof confidence and put me inthe right zone,” Shami toldBCCI.TV on Saturday.

An artist with the red ball,Shami feels that a good IPL hastaken off the burden fromhim.

“The biggest advantage isthat I can now prepare for theupcoming series without anypressure. There is no burdenon me. I am very comfortableat the moment.

“I had worked hard on mybowling and my fitness in thelockdown. I knew that IPLwould take place sooner orlater and I was preparingmyself for it.”

Shami made no bones thatTest matches are a priority forhim on this tour as he is try-ing to get into the groove dur-ing the training session overlast one week.

“We are going to have along tour starting with thewhite ball followed by pink andred ball Tests. My focus areahas been the red ball and I amworking on my lengths andseam movement.

“I have always felt that

once you start pitching the ballat the lengths you desire, youcan succeed in different for-mats.”

He feels that post IPL, hiswhite ball form is in controland that’s why he requiredmore preparation with redball.

“What you need is control.I have done well with thewhite-ball and now spendingtime in the nets bowling withthe red ball. You don’t bowl inthe same area since both for-mats are different but yourbasics don’t change much.”

With Steve Smith andDavid Warner, who were miss-ing during India’s victoriouscampaign in 2018-19, back inthe mix, things will get tougherfor the Indian pace quartet.

But the senior bowler ishardly perturbed by their pres-ence.

“India have quality bats-men and we bowl at them inthe nets. We don’t look at

names, we focus on our skills.You can be a world-class bats-man, but one good ball will stillget you out,” Shami said.

The veteran pacer saidthat the diverse skill sets makesfor a very potent attack like theone India has with him, UmeshYadav, Ishant Sharma and themenacing Jasprit Bumrah.

“Our fast bowling groupcan bowl at 140 kph plus andyou need that kind of pace inAustralia. Even our reserves arequick, you don’t get to see thatkind of an attack.”

Shami reminded that thepacers have done well in alloverseas conditions and havetaken 20 wickets in a lot ofaway Test matches as well as inspin-friendly conditions athome.

“There is a healthy compe-tition but there is no rivalrywithin the group. If you look atthe numbers, we have managedto pick 20 wickets almost on allour away tours.”

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Virat Kohli is more than hundred percentcharged up every time he takes the field and

the Australian team is preparing in equal mea-sure to counter the threat posed by the Indiancaptain, said all-rounder Marcus Stoinis.

Kohli, who is heading family way in January,will be returning after playing the six white ballgames and the opening day/night Test scheduledin Adelaide.

“Don’t worry about Virat. He is up for everysingle game that he’s playing. Yeah, maybe therewill be extra motivation, but I don’t think there’sany extra motivation than 110 percent,” Stoiniswas quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo.

“So let’s see. I am sure he (Kohli) will be readyto go. He is getting home for the birth of his kid,which is the right decision in my opinion. So Iam sure he will be extra motivated.”

Stoinis said that coach Justin Langer and hismen will have foolproof strategy to counter theIndia skipper, who is in a league of his own whenit comes to white-ball cricket.

“We’ve definitely got our strategies, we’ve hadthings that have worked in the past, and at othertimes the same plans haven’t worked and he’smade some runs.

“Obviously, he (Kohli) is a great player, andto all these good players, you do what you wantto do, you have your plans, and on the day, youget extra competitive and you hope it all falls inyour side of the court.”

On the personal front,Stoinis scored 352 runs and took13 wickets for Delhi Capitals inthe IPL and wants to replicatethat performance in the limitedovers games against India,starting Friday.

Asked what changedfor him this season,Stoinis said: “I willhopefully continue tobring that form intothe summer, butthere’s nothing reallytoo different (that Ihave been doing).

“The break wasgreat — it was niceto come back quitefresh into all these com-petitions. I feel like Iwas going well inEngland beforeleading in as well, sohopefully the resultskeep coming my way,”he said.

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BCCI secretary Jay Shahon Saturday said that

pacer Mohammed Siraj,who has lost his father,was given the option of fly-ing back home to be withhis grieving family but hedecided to stay back inAustralia for “nationalduty”.

Ghouse, who was suf-

fering from a lung ailment,died on Friday. He was 53.

“The Board of Controlfor Cricket in India (BCCI)had a discussion with Sirajand he was offered theoption of flying back and bewith his family in this hourof grief,” Shah said in aBCCI media release.

“The fast bowler hasdecided to stay with theIndian contingent and con-

tinue performing hisnational duties. The BCCIshares his grief and will besupportive of Siraj in thisextremely challengingphase,” Shah added.

Board president SouravGanguly took to Twitter tolaud the Hyderabad pacerfor his resilience and men-tal fortitude in this hour oftragedy.

“May Mohammed siraj

have a lot of strength toovercome this loss..Lots ofgood wishes for his successin this trip... Tremendouscharacter,” Ganguly tweet-ed.

If Siraj had chosen tofly back to India, he wouldhave had to do another 14-day quarantine here inAustralian under the localgovernment rules on hisarrival.

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After nearly a decade of hostingno home Test matches due to

a terrorist attack on a rival team’sbus in 2009, Pakistan says it’sready to welcome major cricketingnations like South Africa, NewZealand, England and West Indiesin 2021.

“We’re working hugely in termsof building relationships, nurturingthose relationships with (other)cricket boards,” Wasim Khan, chiefexecutive of the Pakistan CricketBoard said.

South Africa is due to visitPakistan in January to play a two-Test series which is part of worldTest championship, followed bythree Twenty20s.

New Zealand is penciled in forthree ODIs and five Twenty20s inSeptember, followed by twoTwenty20s against England atKarachi. It will be England’s firsttour to Pakistan since 2005.

The PCB has also plans ahome series against West Indies inDecember.

“We have a chock-a-block eightto 10 months coming up for us onthe road playing at home,” Khansaid.

“We’re also in discussions withCricket Australia. They’re due to betouring during the 2022 season,we’re looking at them coming foran extended period of time.”

When Sri Lanka’s team buscame under a terrorist attack inMarch 2009, the doors of interna-tional cricket remained shut on

Pakistan until Zimbabwe becamethe first test-playing nation to playlimited-overs series at Lahore in2015.

Test cricket only returned toPakistan late last year when SriLanka played two five-day gamesat Rawalpindi and Karachi.

Bangladesh also played a Testmatch before its second test wascalled off due to Covid-19.

In between the Zimbabwe andBangladesh tours, a franchise-based domestic Twenty20 league —the Pakistan Super League —played a big role in pressingPakistan’s claims to host interna-tional games.

Players like Shane Watson,Dale Steyn and AB De Villiers wereamong some big names that touredPakistan and have played for var-ious city-based franchise teams.

Khan believes these players hada significant role in portrayingPakistan’s improving image amongcricket-playing nations.

“A lot of these players go backto their own countries … and say,

you know what? Pakistan is one ofthe safest places to play,” Khan said.

“These are those cricketerswho are associated with their owncricket boards, who are interna-tional cricketers, who perhaps hada (different) perception of Pakistanbefore they came here.”

Khan also wants to organize alimited-overs series against neigh-boring Afghanistan somewherenext year, after Pakistan PrimeMinister Imran Khan, a formercricket captain for the country, vis-ited Kabul and extended an invita-tion to Afghan national team thisweek.

“We will do everything wecan to find a slot in the calendar toarrange fixtures againstAfghanistan,” Wasim Khan said.

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New Zealand fast bowler,who has not been named

in the Test squad that playsWest Indies next month is nottoo worried about it and sayshe will fight for a spot in thelong-format side which alreadyhas a good pace-bowlingattack.

The pace bowler, who isundergoing quarantine afterreturning from the IndianPremier League, where heimpressed with his pace buthad a mixed tournament per-formance-wise, will play theT20 series that begins onNovember 27.

“The Test side is areally tough team tobreak into, there isso much depth.Obviously, ourbig three(Boult, Southee,Wagner) havebeen so successful for a longperiod of time,” Fergusontold reporters in an interac-tion.

“I’ve had chats through-out. Steady (coach GaryStead) and I talk a lot, I’ve

got some familyengagements thatweek, but even then,

(Jamieson) played sowell last season, so he

certainly deserves a spot in thatside,” Ferguson said.

Ferguson picked six wick-ets in five games he played andconceded runs at just 7.46 inthe IPL for KKR.

“When you see the depth,Kyle Jamieson, one of my goodmates, coming through andtaking the opportunity andplaying well, puts pressure onother bowlers to perform wellall through the levels. I thinkit is great. For me, honestly, ifit means I’ve got to work hardto get an opportunity andhave a chance for that side, asI always do, take it game by

game, keepputting the workin in the back-ground, and if

that opportunitycomes I’ ll doeverything I canto take it withopen arms,”Ferguson added.

The right-arm pace bowlerhad a forgettableTest debut inDecember lastyear againstA u s t r a l i awhen helimped off thefield after

bowling just 11overs at Perth.

'� ����� Senior cricketers ShoaibMalik, Mohammad Hafeez, WahabRiaz and Mohammad Amir havereceived a pay boost after beingdenied central contracts by thePakistan Cricket Board.

The quartet has been informedthat since they don’t have centralcontracts they will now receivematch fees in the ‘A’ categorywhich they were previously beingpaid in the ‘C’ category.

“The four had voiced theirreservations to the board’s CEO,Wasim Khan that they are beingtreated unfairly that despite notbeing given central contracts they

are not being paid match fees inthe highest category reserved forseniors,” a well-informed sourcesaid.

“Previously after the centralcontracts were announced andthey were not named in the list,they were paid fees for playing forthe national team in the ‘C’ cate-gory which roughly came toaround 202,000 rupees for a ODIand lesser for a T20 international.”

The source said that the fourwill now get match fees in the ‘A’category which will be around460,000 for ODIs and 330,000 forT20Is approximately per match.

The board, however, didn’tentertain another request from theplayers that they also be givensome compensation for missingout on foreign T20 league con-tracts because of national duty.

“The board has said that itcannot give any compensationfor this and the players have to givepriority to national duty,” headded.

Hafeez recently suffered aloss of around 10 million rupeesfor having to pull out of the SriLankan premier league after hewas named in the touring squadfor New Zealand. PTI

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The Airtel Delhi HalfMarathon on Saturday

announced the entries of worldrecord holders Brigid Kosgeiand Ababel Yeshaneh for theupcoming event, adding lustreto an already star-studded field.

The event is part of thecountdown to the WorldAthletics Gold Label Race.

At the Chicago Marathon inOctober 2019, Kenya’s Kosgeistunned the world when shebroke the long-standingwomen’s world marathon recordby more than a minute, clock-

ing 2:14:04.Yeshaneh was a distant sec-

ond on that occasion but stillran a superb personal best of2:20:51.

However, the tables wereturned at the Ras Al KhaimahHalf Marathon in February thisyear when a contest between thepair in the final stages of the racesaw Ethiopia’s Yeshaneh prevailin a world record 64:31 withKosgei second in 64:49.

In their most recent out-ings last month, the 26-year-oldKosgei won the rescheduledLondon Marathon in 2:18:58while the 29-year-old Yeshanehhad to contend with misfortuneand fell at the World AthleticsHalf Marathon Championshipsin Poland, with just over threekilometres remaining, whichtook her out of medal con-tention although she recoveredquickly to finish fifth.

While the elite runnerswill be at the start line atJawaharlal Nehru Stadium,amateurs across the world willjoin the event using the newAirtel Delhi Half MarathonMobile App.

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Bereaved Siraj declines BCCI offer to fly back home

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Dominic Thiem became thefirst player in four years to

reach back-to-back champi-onship matches at the NittoATP Finals on Saturday, as heearned a milestone 7-5, 6-7(10), 7-6(5) victory againstWorld No 1 Novak Djokovic.

The 2019 runner-up failedto convert four match points ina dramatic second-set tie-break, but held his nerve torally in a final-set tie-breakagainst Djokovic at The O2 forthe second straight year.Thiem’s victory was his 300that tour-level and his fifthagainst a World No 1. The lastplayer to reach consecutivefinals at the season finale wasDjokovic (2012-16).

Each set came down to justa few points and it was Thiemwho claimed the biggest pointsin the decider. Thiem increasedhis aggression to win six con-secutive points from 0/4 downin the final-set tie-break andconverted his sixth match pointwith a powerful forehandapproach shot. Thiem is only

the second player in 2020 towin a tie-break against theWorld No 1. Djokovic enteredthe third-set tie-break with a15-1 tie-break record this sea-son.

Thiem has now won five ofhis seven most recent ATPHead-to-Head matches againstDjokovic, which includes twowins at this event. The Austrianalso earned a final-set tie-break victory against Djokovicin the round-robin stage lastyear.

With his fifth win againstDjokovic (5-7), Thiem joins

Andy Murray as the only play-ers to beat each member of theBig Three on five or more occa-sions. Thiem also owns six winsagainst Rafael Nadal (6-9) andhas triumphed five timesagainst Roger Federer (5-2).Thiem has excelled in match-es against the Big Three sincethe start of the 2019 ATP Tourseason (9-3).

In a tight first set, neitherplayer was able to earn a breakpoint in their opening fivereturn games. AsDjokovic attempted toshorten points by comingto the net, Thiem madethe crucial move at 5-5.The World No 3 consis-tently fired backhandsdown the line toDjokovic’s forehand volley andextracted errors to serve for theset. Thiem converted his firstset point with an ace down theT.

Thiem was put under pres-sure on serve in the second set,but he found big serves to savebreak point at 3-4 and two setpoints at 5-6, 15/40. In the tie-break, Thiem held four match

points but he could not convertas errors began to creep into hisgame. Djokovic served withpower and fired a forehandonto the line to escape dangeron two match points and lev-elled the match when Thiemdrove a backhand into the net.

There were no signs ofdisappointment from Thiem inthe decider. The 27-year-oldcontinued to serve at a highlevel to stay ahead in the scoreand reach a tie-break. Thiem

committed errors earlyin the final-set tie-break,but he charged backfrom 0/4 with consistentaggression to win six ofthe final seven points.Last year, Thiem recov-ered from 1/4 to beat

Djokovic in another final-settie-break.

Djokovic was attempting toreach his eighth championshipmatch at the season finale andmove one win away frommatching Federer’s record haulof six Nitto ATP Finals crowns.The six-time year-end WorldNo 1 ends the year with a 41-5 record and four titles.

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The Indian women’s seniorteam will undergo its first

national camp since the coron-avirus-forced lockdown, in Goafrom December 1, kick-startingits preparations for the 2022AFC Asian Cup with a host ofhealth safety measures.

As many as 30 players havebeen summoned by head coachMaymol Rocky for the camp.The 2022 edition of the conti-nental event will be hosted inIndia.

A detailed StandardOperating Procedure (SOP) hasbeen prepared for the resump-tion of the team training, whichlays down numerous Covid-19protocols and guidelines in anexhaustive manner.

National teams directorAbhishek Yadav said the team iseager to return to the field assoon as possible.

“The team is eager to getback on the pitch as soon as pos-sible. The last few months havebeen unprecedented but we aretaking cautious steps to takeIndian football forward togeth-er. “The AFC Women’s AsianCup is in sight and we have to

be at the top of our preparationsby the time the tournamentkicks off.”

He stressed that the safety ofthe team is of paramount impor-tance.

“We have formulated thesafety protocols from the proto-cols laid down by the Ministryof Health and Family Welfare,Government of India; SportsAuthority of India (SAI), ourmedical team and other stake-holders.”

The SOP, as prescribed byIndian team doctor ShervinSheriff, mandates that incomingplayers and support staff mustget a COVID test (RT-PCR)done from an ICMR accreditat-ed laboratory prior to theirdeparture from their hometowns.

If the RT-PCR test resultcomes negative, they can pro-ceed to travel with necessaryprecautions.

After reaching Goa, a RapidAntigen Test (RAT) has to bedone and if the result is negative,they can proceed to their respec-tive rooms for seven days ofquarantine. They will be testedagain on Day 8, before joiningtraining.

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Kylian Mbappe’s two goalsagainst his former club were

not enough as French leagueleader Paris Saint-Germainwasted a 2-0 lead and lost atMonaco 3-2.

Mbappe’s first-half bracetook him to 99 goals for PSGsince joining from Monacothree years ago in a deal wortha staggering 180 million euros.

But lively German forwardKevin Volland netted twice afterthe break, and was fouled bycenter half Abdou Diallo for apenalty converted by formerSpain and Barcelona midfield-er Cesc Fabregas in the 83rd.

Diallo was sent off to leavePSG with 10 men in the closingstages. The defeat was PSG’sthird of the season and ended arun of eight straight wins afterlosing the first two games.

Monaco moved up tosecond place, and fourpoints behind PSG, despitebeing without top scorerWissam Ben Yedder ashe recovers from thecoronavirus.

A n ot h e rc o m f o r t a b l ePSG win looked onthe cards when Mbappelatched on to a fine passfrom winger Angel DiMaria and finished con-fidently in the 24thminute.

The France strikerthen beat goalkeeperVito Mannone from thespot in the 36th aftermidfielder YoussoufFofana gave away a

penalty.Striker Moise Kean and

Mbappe had goals ruled out foroffside shortly before the break,

and Monaco pulled one backin the 51st when Vollandturned in Fofana’s cross fromthe right.

Volland pounced againin the 64th when Fabregasset him up from closerange and Fabregasscooped over a shot 10minutes later as Monacofound another gear.

In Friday’s other game,Rennes missed the chanceto move into second afterlosing at home to Bordeaux1-0, with winger HatemBen Arfa punishing hisformer teammates with the

only goal.Ben Arfa scored nine goals

for Rennes two seasons ago, andstruck in the 36th after cuttingpast three defenders on the leftand smacking in a diagonalshot.

It was the formerFrance international’s sev-enth career goal againstRennes, his best againstany side.

Rennes welcomedback influential teen midfielderEduardo Camavinga, who wasout for several weeks with a leginjury, and winger Romain DelCastillo hit the crossbarmoments before halftime.

The defeat dropped Rennesto fifth place, while inconsistentBordeaux climbed to 11th.

Casemiro were also missingfollowing the internationalbreak.

Given their absentees, adraw may not worry Zidanetoo much, particularlyagainst a Villarreal sidewho sat second at kick-offafter four victories onthe bounce.

But another slipmeans Madrid havenow won only three oftheir last seven gamesin all competitions,with a crucial visit to InterMilan to come in theChampions League onWednesday.

If Atletico Madrid beatBarcelona they will movethree points clear of their

city rivals, with a game inhand, and nine ahead ofBarca.

Mariano had not start-ed for Real Madrid sinceMay 2019, when he againscored early againstVillarreal after just 83 sec-

onds.He was not far

behind this time,heading in DaniCarvajal’s cross afterVillarreal’s defencehad stopped for an

offside on Lucas Vazquezthat never materialised.

Villarreal increasinglytook charge of the game,their slick passing giving asense of control but fewchances, the best of them in

the first half falling to DaniParejo, who nodded over.

But Madrid appearedto tire as the match wore onand Villarreal’s pressureturned more threatening inthe last 20 minutes, withMoreno flashing wide fromthe angle and then Parejomissing the target from acutback.

The equaliser was latebut deserved, as ThibautCourtois flew out to meeta through-ball for Morenobut arrived second andfouled the striker with hishands.

Courtois dived theright way but Moreno’sshot was well-placed intothe corner.

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Apatched-up Real Madridhad to hang on for a 1-1

draw away at in-form Villarrealon Saturday, handing Barcelonaand Atletico Madrid the chanceto capitalise in La Liga.

Barca and Atletico faceeach other at the WandaMetropolitano on Saturdaynight, when victory for eitherside would now prove evenmore valuable after anotherstumble from the reigningchampions.

Mariano Diaz gave RealMadrid the lead after just 105seconds but Zinedine Zidane’steam faded at La Ceramica andVillarreal claimed a deservedpoint through Gerard Moreno’ssecond-half penalty.

Mariano was almost soldlast summer but had to standin for Karim Benzema, who isinjured, and Luka Jovic, whotested positive for coronaviruson Friday.

Sergio Ramos and

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Kwesi Appiah scored from thespot as NorthEast United FC

began their Indian Super Leaguecampaign with a 1-0 win overMumbai City FC here onSaturday.

A red card and a penal-ty turned a game, thatMumbai were otherwisedominating, on its head andhanded NorthEast United FC a win-ning start at the Tilak Maidan.

Appiah (49’) scored the onlygoal from a penalty after theIslanders were reduced to 10-menfollowing Ahmed Jahouh’s red cardjust before the breather.

In the early stages, it looked likeNorthEast were aiming for nothingmore than a goalless draw, withextreme caution visible in theirgame plan.

Predictably, it was Mumbai whodominated the first half. TheIslanders were neat and proactive forlong spells, though they were unable

to find a cutting edge.Despite having players like

Jahouh, Hugo Boumous, andRowllin Borges, all capable of creat-ing magic on their day, SergioLobera’s side failed to get a singleshot on target in the first 45 minutes.

They did hold the lion’s share ofthe possession that occasionally

resulted in hopeful efforts. The match took an unexpected

turn as Jahouh, who was dictatingthings from midfield, was sent offwith a straight red, a couple of min-utes before half time. His offence wasa studs-up challenge on NorthEast’sKhassa Camara.

Gerard Nus’ men capitalisedon their numerical advantage soonafter the restart. The Highlanderswere awarded a penalty in the 49thminute when the ball struck Borges’arm after NorthEast’s Dylan Fox hadheaded in a short corner. Appiahsent keeper Amrinder Singh inwrong direction.

With Mumbai now under pres-sure, NorthEast took control overthe game with Khumanthem Meeteiand Appiah making regular inroads.

Mumbai had a rare opportuni-ty in the 65th minute when Sarthakgot his head to a cross, but his effortsailed inches over the bar. Lobera’steam kept knocking on the door inthe final quarter, but an equalisereluded them.

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Chelsea climbed to the topof the Premier League forthe first time in more

than two years with a convinc-ing 2-0 win at Newcastle, whileBrighton survived late penaltycontroversy to secure their firstever victory at Aston Villa onSaturday.

Frank Lampard’s side

moved above Leicester on goaldifference thanks to FedericoFernandez’s first-half own goaland Tammy Abraham’s strikeafter the interval.

Chelsea are unbeaten innine games in all competitionsand have not lost in their last sixleague matches.

With five clean sheets intheir last six matches in allcompetitions, Chelsea’s third

successive league victory was theperfect way to start a hectic peri-od leading up to Christmas.

Maurizio Sarri was in chargethe last time Chelsea were inpole position in the PremierLeague in September 2018.

But Lampard’s squad aremore formidable than his prede-cessor’s fragile team and a seri-ous title challenge looks increas-ingly possible.

Chelsea’s pressure wasrewarded in the 10th minutewhen a short corner caughtNewcastle flat-footed.

Mason Mount whipped ina low cross and Fernandezturned it into his own net underpressure from Ben Chilwell atthe far post.

With Lampard’s menmonopolising possession, Timo

Werner should have doubledtheir lead from Mount’s pass,but the German forward scuffedhis shot wide from 10 yards.

The Blues put the resultbeyond doubt in the 65thminute when Werneraccelerated away fromthe Newcastle defenceand slipped a pass toAbraham, who guidedhis shot past Karl Darlowand in off the post.

Abraham has nowscored in three consecu-tive appearances in all compe-titions for the first time sinceSeptember 2019.

“It’s not an easy game. Weplayed well in patches and theresult is key in thesegames,”Lampard said.

“The Premier League is

tough, relentless, and we dealtwith the challenge of the gamevery well.

“I won’t get excited aboutbeing top of the table for five

minutes. It’s importantto be humble and knowit’s a long race.”

Chelsea could sur-render top spot beforethe end of the day, withTottenham able to goabove them if they beatManchester City.

Manchester Unitedhost West Brom in the day’s lategame.

VAR CONTROVERSYAt Villa Park, Brighton’s 2-

1 success ended a run of sevengames without a win in allcompetitions, but it didn’t come

easily for the Seagulls.Graham Potter’s side, who

had won only once in the leaguethis term, took the lead throughDanny Welbeck before EzriKonsa’s equaliser for Villa.

Solly March put Brightonback in front, but Brightondefender Tariq Lamptey wassent off for a foul on JackGrealish in stoppage-time.

Villa were controversiallydenied a penalty in the final sec-onds when Michael Oliver gavea spot-kick for March’s challengeon Trezeguet, only for the ref-eree to change his mind afterconsulting the pitchside moni-tor.

In the 12th minute,Welbeck took Adam Lallana’spass near the halfway line,sprinted away from the sluggishVilla defence and clipped acool finish over EmilianoMartinez.

It was the 29-year-old’s firstgoal since July when the formerArsenal forward netted in hislast game for Watford.

Fresh from his fine perfor-mances for England during theinternational break, Grealishwas full of confidence and theVilla captain’s curling effort waswell saved by Mat Ryan.

Ryan saved with his leg tokeep out Tyrone Mings’ close-range effort, but a game full ofchances finally featured a Villagoal in the 47th minute.

Bertrand Traore’s free-kickreached Konsa at the far postand the unmarked Villa defend-er slid in for a clinical finish.

March restored Brighton’slead from Pascal Gross’s pass inthe 56th minute, bending asuperb strike into the top cor-ner from the edge of the area.

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Bayern Munich droppedpoints for just the second

time this season as they wereheld to a 1-1 draw by WerderBremen on Saturday.

Maximilian Eggestein’s well-worked goal gave the visitors adeserved lead late in thefirst half before the cham-pions struck back throughKingsley Coman after thehour.

But they were unableto build on their equalis-er as a dogged performancefrom Florian Kohfeldt’s menearned a deserved share of thespoils.

Werder travelled to theAllianz Arena having avoideddefeat in their previous four out-ings, though each of those endedin draws.

And, with Bayern havingearned 10 consecutive victoriescoming into this fixture, theywould’ve expected to dominatefrom the off, rather than give upthe best of the first-half chances.

However, only a brilliantNeuer save denied Josh Sargentfrom close range early on, beforeLeonardo Bittencourt volleyedinto the side-netting when hemight have done better.

Werder capitalised onBayern’s uncertainty at the backas Sargent burst in behind down

the flank being marshalledby Martinez and Alaba,before pulling back forEggestein to sidefoot homejust before half-time.

Milot Rashicashould’ve made it two

shortly after the restart, takingtoo long in a one-on-one situa-tion, prompting Douglas Costato respond by cracking the barwith a deflected effort.

That marked the start of aspell of long overdue Bayernpressure that finally told whenComan headed in Goretzka’sright-wing cross at the back post.

But, despite the introductionof Leroy Sane and Serge Gnabryoff the bench, Hansi Flick’s menstruggled to create much ofnote in the final half-hour.

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Ciro Immobile scoredon his return from

coronavirus isolation asLazio beat rock-bottomCrotone 2-0 under dri-ving rain in southern Italy onSaturday.

Immobile’s diving headerput Lazio ahead in the 21st

minute on a water-loggedpitch after storms in the soleof Italy.

It was the fourth Serie Agoal in six games this term forthe top scorer in Europe lastseason, who had missedLazio’s last two league games.

The Italy internationalwas also involved in the sec-ond goal, sending JoaquinCorrea through just before thehour mark as the rain brieflysubsided in Calabria.

Argentine Correa fired inhis first league goal this sea-son from a tight angle through

the legs of Crotone goal-keeper Alex Cordaz.

Simone Inzaghi’s sidemoved up to fifth in theearly Serie A table.

Crotone fell to theirsixth defeat in eight games asthey remain winless in theirreturn to the top flight aftertwo seasons in Serie B.

Dortmund: BorussiaDortmund star Erling Haalandhas been rewarded for hisstunning exploits, named the2020 Golden Boy recipient.

The prize, presented byItalian newspaper Tuttosportand won by Joao Felix last year,is given to the best playeraged 21 or under from a top-tier league in Europe.

And Norway internation-al Haaland – the leading con-tender – graced Saturday’sfront page of Tuttosport, beat-ing the likes of Dortmundteam-mate Jadon Sancho,Bayern Munich’s AlphonsoDavies, Manchester Unitedforward Mason Greenwoodand Barcelona sensation AnsuFati to the award.

Haaland scored 44 goalsacross all competitions in 2019-20 — 16 of those coming in 18appearances after a mid-seasonmove from Austrian champi-ons Salzburg to Bundesligaoutfit Borussia Dortmund.

Among all Bundesligaplayers last season to havescored at least 10 goals, onlyRobert Lewandowski (81.2)had a better minutes-per-goalrecord than Haaland (81.7).

Haaland has six goals in asmany Bundesliga appearancesfor Dortmund this term.

The 20-year-old has foundthe back of the net four timesthrough three ChampionsLeague fixtures in 2020-21,taking his tally to 11 goals from11 matches across all competi-tions. Agencies

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ATK Mohun Baganstar forward Roy

Krishna has set his sightson their upcoming ISLclash against arch-rivalsSC East Bengal, sayingthey have to win thegame “at any cost”.

The two Kolkataheavyweights will clashswords in the IndianSuper League for the firsttime, on November 27,after the respectiveteams’ foray into the top-tier tournament this sea-son and the Fij ianInternational is al l

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pumped up.“I know, our fans will wait with

interest to see our victory in thederby match. We have to win the

match at any cost,” the 33-year-old said at the team hotel onSaturday.

“I have heard a lot aboutthe Kolkata derby. I am waitingto play that match as I havenever seen that match or evenhad a chance to play.”

He had scored the solitarygoal in their win over KeralaBlasters in the ISL opener.

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� How did you get interestedin acting?

Since childhood, I hadbeen performing in schoolplays and continued to do soeven during college days. I wasworking with a shoe designingcompany and came to Mumbai.I wanted to join acting classeswhile working. That helpedhone in my skills and realisedthat I could do this as a career.Then I quit my job and took upacting.� How tough was it to quit awell-paying job?

It was very tough. Therewas a lot of family pressure.They wanted to know why Iwas leaving a corporate to pur-sue acting. But I knew this iswhat I wanted to do and knewthat I would make a mark evenif it took time. I took this time,I polished my skills and kepttraining.� From shoe designing toacting. How did that hap-

pen?I was also interested in

designing and wanted to pur-sue it. Acting was and is mypassion. I wanted to go into act-ing when I was in Class IX andX But you know how parentsare; always protective of the girlchild. So, I decided to pursuedesigning after Class XII. Butthen when I came to Mumbai,I was right there in the middleof it all. I was so fascinated withthe industry. I fought with myparents and told them this iswhat I wanted to do. I got somecommercials and small actingroles.

� You are from Kanpur. Werethere adjustment issues whenyou came to Mumbai?

When I was working, thepace was hectic. Mumbai is atough place to be. But I fol-lowed my dream and workedhard. I was flexible since theaim was to get into acting.� Was it tough to get yourfirst break?

Initially, it was. With time,I sorted myself. Newcomerstend to become impatient anddesperate. But I do a lot of yogaand meditation. I realised I wasnot giving myself enough time.I calmed myself down and

things started happening auto-matically. Ginny weds Sunnycame to me in 2019 after I fin-ished training in 2018.� How was the experience ofbeing part of Ginny WedsSunny?

It was fun. The atmos-phere was very friendly. My co-workers were great. We wouldsit around and chat. Scam 1992was a quick project whichcame because I was part of afestival. The makers saw methere and asked if I wanted toaudition for the same. I got thescript and got selected. Since itwas a Hansal Mehta project, I

agreed even though my part isvery small — just two scenes.Every actor wants to play themain lead but then when Iheard the story and about thecast of Ginny Weds Sunny, Iliked it and was convincedthis was the right movie tobegin with.� You have done short films,web shows, theatre and ads.What do you love doing?

I love to be in front of thecamera. I also love to writewhich takes a lot of my time aswell. When I am in front of thecamera, I feel like I am breath-ing.

� You were last seen in Khuda Haafizplaying a cop. Did you have to preparefor the role?

I had to speak Arabic in the film. Ialso did action for the very first time.We had to prepare for that. Otherwisethe part would have come very easily tome. But this was not the case here. I hadto learn a different language and havecommand over the accent. When we gotto the actual

shooting, there was an action director.He trained all of us on how to throw apunch, how to take a jab and how totake a reaction shot. There was a lot ofprep for me.� Did you feel that the role was out-side your comfort zone?

My only worry was what if I amunable to do justice to the character.Since everything that we do is attachedto our name. When I said yes to the pro-ject a lot of people told me that it wouldbe quality work since I am known to

now pick up good projects given thekind of films I have done in the past.

Having said this, it is important totake risks and I am very gratefulto the director Faruk Kabir andApoorva for pushing me to takeup the part. I came on board theproject only a week before thefilm was to be shot and I sawAnnuji (Kapoor) recite his lines

with such conviction. I did thesame and it came out well.� Does that mean you get only cer-

tain kinds of films?Not at all. I have a plethora of films

and each is different. I have had no role

where I have repeated myself. I can safe-ly say that I can’t complain that I havenot got different roles to play or enoughparts. I am the lucky few who have beenoffered different characters. In Marzi,I played a teacher and in Betaal I playedas an IPS officer.� What is your character in Sir SirSarla?

I play a student of literature, Sarla.The play has not been set in any par-ticular place; it is the house of theProfessor Palekar and his two favouritestudents – Paridhar and Sarla. To beginwith, when the play was first stage, therole of Sarla was essayed by SonaliKulkarni. It was reopened in 2012 witha new cast and that is when I came in.The first half of the play is aboutmemories. So Sarla keeps coming backin the memory of the Professor andParidhar; Sarla has got married andgone away. Sarla was always in love withthe Professor and Paridhar in lovewith Sarla. The second half is all abouthow she can’t find a connection with hernew family as they speak about moneyand not literature. And then all three ofthem come together and share their

problems.� Was it tough to identify with therole? Were there any challenges?

For me, I grew up with Sarla. I havebeen playing her for the last eight years.We started rehearsing for this play muchin advance and have lived with the char-acter since 2012. Doing theatre is a play-ground; we are all students. The audi-ence is different, sometimes the timingsare different or something else comesup. It feels weird when I was not onstage. For many of us, going back to the-atre is like brushing up our skills timeand again. When I started playing thisrole, I didn’t understand much of it; Iwas so nervous since I knew peoplewould make comparisons. The good isit stopped soon and the show has beena hit since then. Over the years, I havefound a relationship with Sarla whichis very special.� You have been doing theatre forsome time. What is the attraction?

It is my medium. It’s an actors’medium. All other mediums are direc-tors’. He tells you what to do, how to doit and when to do it. An actor has nosay what the director puts or removes.

I don’t have a say here. In theatre, it ismy stage; it is my show and it must goon. Theatre is sanity for actors other-wise it is very difficult for us to find ourvoices. The kind of time we spend onrehearsal, it is quite a bit. You developa special relationship with every play.Ask any person who has done theatre,he will remember each and everyrehearsal. It is very difficult to explainthe relationship an actor has with the-atre – it is very sacred.� How did you come on board for therole?

I got a call from Mak sir (MakarandDeshpande). I had already done a cou-ple of plays with him but they weresmaller roles. He was looking to reviveSir Sir Sarla. I had no idea about the playbut only saw it as a kid. When I got acall, I was shocked to be offered Sarla.I know every actor would have cut anarm to get this role; it is such a power-ful play. I was overwhelmed when I wasoffered the character.� What next?

I have completed shooting forSandwich by Rohan Sippy. I am shoot-ing for Shaad Ali’s Call My Agent.

� How did your music journey begin?I was always interested in music but my passion started when

I was in college with cultural events that used to take place. Bythe end of my engineering degree I knew that I wanted to pur-sue music in some form or the other. Since I had a passion formusic and writing songs, I formed my Chennai Street Band in2015. But due to the lockdown earlier in the year, I was stuck inmy room as was my band, I worked on some of my work as anindependent artist.� Tell us about your Chennai Street Band.

I will continue to be associated with it once things are backto normal. Thanks to platforms like Gaana, it opens a chance toperform virtually. I will perform some of my songs and some ofour band’s. But we are looking forward to getting back on thestage. We do alternative pop in Tamil. But we recently releasedour first Hindi single.� What is your EP Intezaar about?

I worked on this EP during the lockdown period and it wasreleased in August. For our band, we released a full-length recordin November last. Post that, we had a long tour. But just beforethe Pune-Bengaluru leg of the tour the lockdown kicked in.Whatever we had wanted to do as a band couldn’t be done. ButI wanted to try my music. I love the beach and Intezaar is all aboutthat. It has two parts. A guy sitting at the beach is having a con-versation about finding his love when he spots a couple celebratingthe sunset.� What were the challenges working on your music projectsduring this lockdown?

There were a few limitations. If you look at our previousalbum, it took us two-and-a-half years to bring it out. Each andevery detail was worked on before we went ahead with it. Wespent money on the highest level of production that was avail-able out there for recording. We wanted to give our best to thelisteners. But when Intezaar happened, it was in May, there werechallenges. But it was also good to explore alternatives. I wentand got myself a set of home equipment and explored. Of course,there would be a difference in the quality. But I wanted to putout some music and this was a good time to experiment.� How did you get associated with Gaana LaunchPad?

This was a surprise. One day I was just added to theLaunchPad. One day I got a call from one of the team members.She told me that they were doing an exclusive with independentartists and you are among the 30 who are featured in the playlistand that’s how I got associated with it. But my association withthem started last year with our band. We did have a bunch offans on the platform.� Do you think artists like yourself need such launchpads?

It immensely helps. Even if we have releases, what is miss-ing due to the present pandemic is the connection with the lis-teners. When we perform on stage, we have a direct connectionwith our listeners. Through this launchpad, we get to expand ourfan base and interact with them in terms of music. Also, everyindependent artist seeks some sort of support from streamingplatforms to get recognition. When you have launchpads like this,it is going to do wonders for your music especially now.� Who has been your inspiration in the indie music space?

To write, half the time, I don’t know if there is a process toit; it just happens. Like when Intezaar happened, I was sittingon a cliff in Varkala beach (Kerala) with the golden sun and sawa couple who I could feel were very much in love. That imagestuck in my head and the song was born. Song writing can comefrom anywhere. As for artists whom I look up to, one of themis AR Rahman. He drove me to listen to music; internationallyI love ColdPlay. There are many brilliant indie artists in India,I would like to mention Parvaaz, Prateek Kuhad and MaalavikaManoj aka Mali.� What are your upcoming projects?

We will be releasing our first Hindi single.

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She was last seen in Khuda Haafiz. Theactor speaks with Shalini Saksena about

how she had to prepare for essayingTamena Hamid character, her role

in theatrical Sir Sir Sarla andupcoming projects

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Most of us might be guilty ofgatecrashing a wedding or theother both knowingly or

unknowingly. However, no one wouldlike to put himself in such an unsavourysituation. While putting a filter on theguests can be bit difficult for theorganisers, but it is not much difficultto protect yourself from being one inthis tech-savvy world.

Meet a 31-year-old husband-wifeduo, Rishika Agarwal and NavamGupta, who have devised WedHaven,a wedding management app that canhelp keep gatecrashers at bay, while alsosimplifying the tedious tasks that areinvolved in it.

Launched in late February, this year,WedHaven is a result of a lot of personalexperiences of the duo. “Until we gotmarried in 2014, we didn’t know thehassle of arranging marriages in India.It is nothing short of a Herculean task.Moreover, the other big challenge is tomake sure that all the guests reached theright location. It took us hours to makesure that all our friends and relativesreach the place on time and whileengaging in this we ended up missingon some of the precious moments,”Agarwal tells you. She adds that it tookthem a year for the ideation andresearch work.

The idea behind the app was toenable people to shed the burden offtheir shoulders and let the technology

do the work. “Traditionally, people prepare guest

lists by writing down the names onpaper. It is a tedious task. Now, this iswhen our app comes to play. One cansimply download the app and with thehelp of our WedHaven Gold plans, theycan just export their contacts and pre-pare a guest list in a matter of seconds,”Gupta explains and tells you that thepaid plans start at �5,000. Not that onecan’t experience the app for free. Thereare some features like preparing cal-

endars or scheduling events that onecan do for free on the app.

The app creates a digital weddingthrough the information provided,with details of all the events, venues,timings, real-time updates, and send-ing out invitations to the guests on theapp. Further, one can also prepare a dif-ferent guest list for all the different func-tions, given the limited number ofguests allowed today. Not only this, totake it a notch higher, one can also trackthe status of baraat.

The other highlight of the app isthat it prevents you from gatecrashinga shaadi. One doesn’t need Google Map,just log in to the app and you will getthe directions to the venue. Hence, thereis not even a slightest chance to entera wrong venue with more or less a sim-ilar name.

Living up to the name, the duo’saim is to make weddings as secure aspossible. To cater to this, one can gen-erate a code on the app for the guestsand can always accept or deny entriesas per their choice.

However, the loophole here is,which by the way the duo has decidedto work upon, that there is no physicalresources on the gate who can confirmthe guest name and allow them entry.Moreover, it is also not mandatory forthe guests to download the app.

“We are into the early stages of thisprocess and we do have plans toaddress this problem. We are planningto hire people who can do the checkon the entry way. But that will be at alater stage,” Gupta says.

Another fact that can prove as adisadvantage for them is the fact thateverything here is online. However, forsome it can be the best thing that canhappen, while for others, may be forour parents or grandparents it can benothing but pure inconvenience.

“It is true to certain extent, but nowthat lockdown has made us all learn the

importance of going online, this willnot be much of a problem for anyone.More so, since we have kept the designand feature user-friendly and extreme-ly simple. There is no rocket scienceinvolved in it. Even our parents witha little guidance can do the trick,” Guptaexplains.

He points out that the fact that theyare only offering wedding managementservices and is not involved in organ-ising the same. “We don’t have anyintentions of eliminating weddingplanners or to eat up their jobs, we areclearly a wedding management brandand our services are a proof of it. Andalso, only about 25 per cent of peopleactually involve wedding planners inIndia, rest of us rely on our parents andclose relatives to get the job done. So,competing with wedding organisersand planners is out of context here,”Gupta asserts and tells you that peo-ple can book services on the app itselfor can do it over a call.

Post the lockdown, the duo hasmanaged 10 weddings under theirGold plan, and the feedback wasencouraging. “We have received apositive response from our customers.Like we mentioned before, there are afew features that we would like to addin the near future including logistics.We will continue to update the app andmake it more user-friendly and acces-sible,” Agarwal says.

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MADE INWEDHAVENMADE INWEDHAVEN

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Till now, the year 2020 has been adifficult one to say the least. TheCovid-19 pandemic has changedeverything around us. How wemeet and greet others, type of

clothes we wear, how we stand and even sit inpublic places, how often we go out; basicallyeverything has changed. Months ofuncertainty, lockdown, reports of chaoscaused due to the pandemic all over media,restricted movements and forced isolationshave taken a toll on the mental and emotionalhealth of a large number of people.

As per recent reports, there has been asignificant rise in people seekingpsychological help over the past few months.Anxiety, Depression, increased incidents ofdomestic violence, substance abuse, stress dueto loss of livelihood and financial crisis,escalation in the number of suicides weresome of the grave issues for which peoplesought psychological help. People of all ageshave been deeply impacted due to the changedworld order.

As the nation is in a gradual phase of unlockat present, most of the workforce and economyhas opened up. People have resumed work withvaried work days and shifts. However, childrenare still stuck at homes. They are unable to go totheir respective schools and colleges as Covidcases continue to rise and thus as a safetymeasure, educational institutions have not yetbeen given the nod to operate completely.Students, at different educational levels, areforced to continue with online classes. Somehave even appeared for online exams, while fewothers wait for the technical glitches to besorted. These have been challenging timesespecially for children as not just they had toadapt to a very different method of learning,they have also been deprived of the fun timesthey share with their friends in school andcollege. Those belonging to the lower socio-economic strata have found it even moredifficult to keep up with the teaching due to lackof resources like smartphones, laptops andslower internet speed.

Problems faced by children due to thepandemic include:

● Online learning: Technological advancementsmade it possible for students to continue withtheir studies even from the space and safety oftheir own homes. Online classes, e-lectures,webinars replaced regular classrooms andlecture halls. However, it came with the side-effects of reduced attention span, virtualabsenteeism as students would login for classbut would be watching or playing somethingelse rather than listening to their teachers, lackof writing skills as all the assignments orprojects had to be virtually completed andsubmitted. Poor internet connectivity,concurrent online classes of sibling, lack ofsmartphone also affected the children’s ability toattend e-schools/colleges. In addition to this,time-bound assignment submissions and examsheightened the child’s anxiety if in case he/she isunable to upload the document for a reasonbeyond his/her control. Back-to-back classesalso affected the children’s ability to payattention to what is being taught. ● Restricted outdoor activity: Childhood is aperiod where an individual grows not just bylearning things at school, but also by engagingin play activities with his/her peers. It is atreasured time of the day and almost all childrenlook forward to going out and playing with theirfriends. But the pandemic forced them to stayindoors and thus restricted their ability to playwith friends and siblings. This has been one ofthe most important factors for children havingmore psychological and behavioural issuesduring the past few months. Regular exerciseand playing activities ensure adequateproduction and secretion of endorphins and

growth hormones which are vital for a child’soverall health and well-being. ● Lack of privacy: With everyone being athome for most part of the day, one’s personalspace has also been compromised to a certainextent. This is especially true for adolescents asmore family time, less time with friends hasbeen tough on some teenagers. Although, manyhave utilised this time well to bond with theirfamily members, some found it difficult whichoften led to an increase in arguments andconflicts at home. ● Increased screen time: Ask any parent of ateenager or even a child and they will tell youhow fed up they are due to their child’s excessivephone/laptop usage. Social media, OTTplatforms, messaging apps, online games; thiscocktail is any parents’ worst enemy andironically their child’s go to thing. Excessivescreen time has been an issue for a very longtime now, but due to the pandemic when evenstudies started happening online things justwent from bad to worse for children andadolescents. As per a recent pre-Covid timesstudy, an adolescent on an average spendsaround 6-7 hours watching or usingphone/laptop screen; much higher than thehealthy usage. Children and adolescents arecompletely hooked onto the screen which hasadverse effects on their psychological well-being. ● Restricted socialisation: Due to thepandemic, our social interactions and gatheringshave been severely affected. Humans are socialanimals and we need to socialise for us to feelsafe and secure. Adolescents and young adults,especially the ones in their last school or collegeyear, are apprehensive if they would be able tomeet their friends and teachers properly onefinal time before they pass out from theeducational institutions. Children have reportedfeeling isolated and lonely during the past fewmonths as they have not been able to go andmeet their friends in person. ● Increased risk of child abuse: The pandemichas increased the prevalence of many commonsources of family stress, placing children at riskof abuse and neglect. As per recent reports, theincidents of domestic violence and abuse hadsignificantly gone up during the lockdownperiod placing children at a greater risk andadversely affecting their impressionable minds.A child who has been a victim or even a witnessto abuse at home can experience a variety ofpsychological and emotional issues both as achild and even later on as an adult. Providing asafe and nurturing home environment for achild to grow in is each one’s responsibility andwe need to take adequate steps to ensure thesame. Any incident of abuse needs to bereported to the police and Child WelfareCommittee so that the child can be immediatelysecured and the perpetrators be punished.

As the number of new cases has lessenedover the past few weeks and we all learnto live with Covid-19 around, things are

slowly getting back to normal; a new normal. Asa child/adolescent going through any of theabove mentioned issues, you can take thefollowing measures to ensure that you remainhealthy and emerge stronger from this crisis:● Communication: Talk to your parents,siblings or friends about how you are feelingabout the current scenario. Confide in the oneyou trust. Share whatever you are feeling orthinking about, no matter how trivial you mightthink it may sound to them. As a parent, bepatient and a good listener to youchild/adolescent. Hear them out and try tounderstand what he/she is going through.Encourage them to talk about their feelings,their thoughts, any apprehensions or anythingthey are worried about. Listen to understand,rather than to reply. Provide a caring, supportiveand non-judgmental environment at home forhim/her to feel safe and secure at home. Do not

dismiss their fears orthoughts as illogical, evenif they seem so to you. ● Get involved at home:Use the current situationto your benefit and tryto get involved withsome tasks at home.Learn new skills,take upresponsibilities andhelp out at home inwhatever way you can. ● Limit screen time: It might be difficult withonline classes but reduce your screen time asmuch as possible. Attend classes sincerely ratherthan trying to multi-task or fool your teacher asyou are the only one who’ll suffer because of it.Take short breaks between classes. Always sit ona chair or floor and do your work; use you bedonly for sleeping. Be mindful of your posture, aslong usage of phone/laptop can lead to problemslike cervical spondylitis. ● Read books: Do not limit your learning onlythrough phone/laptop. Put in the extra effortand prepare through books as well; readingthoroughly helps in concept clarity and thus canbe better recalled during exams.● Maintain a routine: Having a structured daywill lessen the anxiety or boredom you may feel.Go to bed and wake up at the same timeeveryday, do some physical exercise for half anhour at least, eat healthy home cooked food. Fixa time for your studies and engage in yourhobbies regularly. ● Socialise but responsibly: Gradual unlockingof the country has begun and thus it has becomeeasier to meet your friends. Once in a while youcan go out and meet your friends for lunch ordinner provided you are following the safetyguidelines laid down by the government forprevention of spread of Covid-19. It will be agood change for you and you can catch up withyour friends in person after many months. If not

this, you always have theoption of being in touch withthem over video calls ornormal phone calls. The

important thing is to be in touchwith your loved ones and not be

withdrawn or isolated. ● Avoid substance use: Teenage is a time whenthe individual wants to explore and experimentdifferent things in life. The new found sense ofindependence and an emotional roller-coasterdriven by the hormonal changes can tempt oneto seek thrill even at the expense of their well-being. Substance or drug use, which can rapidlydevelop into an abuse, is a major issue whichplagues our children and adolescents. With theglorification of such activities in popular songsand movies, it poses a major threat as engagingin such things is wrongly considered to be cooland youngsters give into it just to be a part of agroup. Please be advised to stay away from suchstuff and use your intelligence and smartnesswisely. ● Seek Professional Help: If you notice asignificant change in your child’s behaviourwhich is affecting his/her personal, social,academic/occupational functioning please beadvised to consult your nearest Mental HealthProfessional like Clinical Psychologist, ChildPsychologist, Psychiatrist, Psychiatric SocialWorker or Counsellor.

When the going gets tough, the tough getgoing! Let us all do our bit to ensure that we allemerge stronger and wiser from this pandemic.

The author is a Consultant Clinical Psychologistat AKGsOVIHAMS Medical Centres at Pitampura

and Satya Niketan. He provides psychotherapy, coun-selling, psychological assessment, and de-addiction

counselling to people of all age groups

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The legend goes that Diwali is celebrated to mark LordRama’s return to Ayodhya after slaying Ravana. Wehave been celebrating Diwali for ages. But it is impor-

tant is to remember that more than Rama’s victory, it is thevalues he stood for that needs to be recapitulated andimbibed. Lord Rama lives not only as an incarnation of Godborn to end evil prevailing in the world during those times.Lord Rama lives as Maryada Purushottam, the noblestamong human beings who stood for certain values and prin-ciples, rather epitomised them. Let this Diwali remind usof those values and, may be, give us the will and the abil-ity to practise those. Rama and Ramayana need to be thesource of strength and sustenance for us to practise right-eousness. Thinking of those principles that Rama stood formay then be a timely reminder to help us reinvent ourselves.The sum and substance of Rama’s character lie in this onestory that has been narrated and recounted time and again.The story goes that when Rama returned to Ayodhya afterkilling the mighty demon king, who was the most power-ful of the kings on the globe in those days, people were dis-mayed. So the citizens of Ayodhya asked out of disbeliefhow Rama could kill someone as invincible as Ravana. Thereply that the Lord gave is worth pondering over. Lord Ramavery humbly said that I did not kill Ravana. It is the ‘I’ thatkilled Ravana. I, the bloated ego doused in arrogance. Itwas the ego of Ravana that proved his undoing. In fact, onebig difference between Rama and Ravana was humility.Rama was humility incarnate whereas Ravana was all prideand haughtiness. In the present times, what we are seeingall around us is that humility as a value has become almostextinct, and arrogance and pride are driving human behav-iour. Even the corona impact has not done much to damp-en the human ego, though it did show man his place. Rama’sprinciples were driven by ethics. This, however, was alsoshown by all his kinsmen, but Rama still stood apart. Henot only chose to keep his father’s promise even though hecould have avoided it, given the ground swell of opinionthat was in his favour. Look how people conduct themselvesto retain power today. What happened in the USPresidential election is a pointer. Prudence and ethical wis-dom are two entirely different things. Prudence is aboutknowing which side of the bread is buttered while ethicalwisdom is knowing when to say no to the buttered side.Even when Rama was in exile, his brother, Bharat, and peo-ple of Ayodhya pleaded to him to reconsider his decision.But that did not deter him from his principled resolve.Rama’s commitment to carry out his father’s promise evenafter the latter’s demise is a lesson in values. Rama’s pur-suit of dharma was above everything. And the entireRamayana reflects this. Rama knew the essence of dhar-ma and he also had the will to uphold it. He was an idealrepresentation of man who combined values, virtues andvision. Rama’s victory over Ravana is certainly to be rejoiced.But his principled conduct offers more valuable lessons.

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There are some questions thateach one of us must answer forour own well being. The first

question being: “Do you accept that youare small?” If you don’t, you are farremoved from reality. For example, ifyou consider yourself very big orimportant and you come down with acontagious disease. Just watch the reac-tion of all near and dear ones. They willtry to help surely but only after mak-ing sure that they are safe. The wise per-sons take shelter of the omnipotent God.I do so because I have realised that with-out a good connection with God, I amhelpless.

The next question is: “Are you partof the creation or an independent enti-ty?” Lord Krishna states in the BhagavadGita that we all are parts of God. (15.7)He knows because He is the creator.When you accept this fact, then, oth-ers become equally important to you.You need to cooperate with them. Onlythen, you will get their help. The thirdquestion is: “If you don’t, then, can youexist on your own?” My experience tellsme that I cannot. It has been estimat-ed that human beings need help fromupwards of twenty persons to exist wellon a daily basis. The fourth question is:“Do you know everything you need toknow?” Only a silly person wouldanswer in the affirmative, becausethere is so much knowledge. Therefore,wise persons take shelter of the omni-scient God, who provides the requiredinformation through intuitions, etc. orarranges through some other sourceslike human beings, media, etc.

The fifth question is: “Can you dowhatever you desire?” My answer is afirm no. I am very limited in what I canaccomplish on my own. Therefore, Ihave chosen to take shelter of God, and

I seek His help very frequently. Godguides and helps as only He can.Suppose I need some favour fromsome person and he is not keen tooblige. God can and does change thatperson’s mind if God feels that it is forgeneral good, not just for my selfish rea-sons. The sixth question is: “Can youcontrol results?” Unfortunately, theanswer will be in negative mostly thanpositive, such is the nature of this chang-ing world. Therefore, Lord Krishna hasinstructed us to not try to predetermineresult. (2.47) But one thing is certain andthat is one can cross all impediments byGod’s grace, which can be attained bydeveloping God consciousness. (18.58)There are many ways the same can beachieved.

The seventh question is: “Whatdoes taking shelter mean to you?” Tome it means turning to God and pray-ing for His guidance and help for what-ever is troubling me. God is very mer-ciful. He guides and helps. The eighthquestion is: “What do you really want

in life?” One seeks the benevolence ofGod so one’s family should remainhealthy, peaceful and happy. The ninthquestion: “What does the word protec-tion mean to you?” We need to be safefrom whatever could threaten us, onwhich we have no control. For exam-ple, we need assurance that no oneshould physically harm us. That bringsus to the last question: “Can you gainat will whatever you need by way ofresources to exist well?” The answer hasto be a firm no, because we need somany types of resources throughout ourlives. However, God has promised in theGita that for His advanced devotees.(9.22)

What did you learn by answeringthese questions? My experience tells methat for a high quality of life, I needGod’s shelter. I have found no other wayto exist well. God must guide and helpme at all times. For me, this is anabsolutely necessity.(��� ������������������������ �� � ������ ���

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Karma is like opening abank account. We havechoices on how muchmoney we want to put in toadd to our balance or how

much we wish to withdraw. We canchoose to put different investments thatresult in interest to increase what wehave available in our account. We canalso choose to use credit card inwhich we pay interest on what wespend. The choice is ours to make.

Similarly, we have a karmicaccount. Each day we can choosewhether we want to engage in thoughts,words, and deeds that are going toresult in good that comes back to us.We can also engage in thoughts,words, and deeds, for which we mustpay the consequences. Beyond creat-ing good and bad karmic accounts, wecan also choose to do things that cre-ate a balance of zero so that we do nothave to return to this world to eitherreap the benefits or pay the conse-quences.

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We can reduce our karmas by liv-ing mindfully of the karmic law. Thatmeans doing things that do not incurgood or bad karma. However, if we arestill not living life in a neh-karma orkarma-less way, it is better to have goodkarma than bad karma. There aremany examples of people who candirectly see the rewards that came backto them from a deed of good karma.Many times, we cannot read the cor-relation between what we have donewhat we received in return. Sometimesthe effects span several lifetimes. Atother times, what happens to us is aresult of something we set in motionyears ago.

Everything we do is recorded inthe karmic accounts. There is a strictaccounting of our every thought, wordand deed. It is wise to make sure thatwe do not commit any actions,thoughts or words that can rebound tous with consequence. Instead, we musthave thoughts, words, and deeds thatare good so that good can come backto us.

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However, if we are on the spiritu-al path, we do not want to return to thisworld to reap the rewards of what wedo. There is a better plan. We can dogood but do so without having to comeback to reap the rewards. The solutionis do good in the Name of God, with-out wanting any reward for ourselves.This means we are doing good in the

world, but the credit is being passed onto God. We do not want material gainsfor what we do. We only want to accu-mulate spiritual benefits and the loveand pleasure of God. These are termedacts that are neh-karma or karma-free.

How can this be done? We canhave good thoughts, words, and deedsin life but we pass on the credit to God.We do good things because it is theright thing to do, not to make name forourselves or earn money. We say goodthings to others because it is the kindand loving thing to do, just out of good-ness of our heart, without expectinganything in return. We think goodthings about others as an expression ofthe spiritual love we are developing inwhich we recognise all people asmembers of the same family of God.

We still do good, but our deeds areselfless without us wanting any mate-rial rewards. We do get benefits, butthey are of the spirit. These benefitscome in the form of spiritual progress,the love of God, earning the pleasureof God, and the burning of our karmaswithout creating new ones.

Another activity in which we canspend our time without creating morekarma is Meditation. When we sit witha still mind we are not creating morekarma. Sitting in meditation but think-

ing critical and hurtful thoughts of oth-ers is not karma-less meditation. It issitting and thinking thoughts thatcreate more karma. That is why sim-ran or repetition of the name of Godis an important helping factor in pre-venting karma in meditation.

If we repeat the name of God, ourmind is focused and does not have achance to create karma by thinkingnegative thoughts against anyone.Simran helps us forget the past hurt orfuture worries, helps us to focus onbeing in the present moment in whichwe are meditating to progress on thespiritual journey back to God. Theanalogy is like keeping our car in neu-tral at a red light. We are not using upour gas, but we also not moving in anydirection.

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The soul undergoes a long journeythrough various forms of creationfrom the moment is separated fromGod until it returns to God. This jour-ney involves transmigration of the soulin which it accumulates karma, arecord of all its thoughts, words, anddeeds. Karmas accumulated can begood or bad: good thoughts, words,and deeds, or bad thoughts, words, and

deeds. The law of karma, or the law ofaction and reaction, provides a systemof justice in which one is rewarded forgood karmas and punished for bad kar-mas. A soul must pay off all karma toget back to God.

The realities of the karmic lawshould sink into us so that we makebetter choices in our thoughts, words,and deeds. If we want to make spiri-tual progress, the roadmap is laid outfor us and is our choice as to whetherwe put our car into drive and move for-wards, stay in neutral and remain idle,or drive in reverse. Our free willmeans the choice is ours to make.

Let us remember that whatever wedo will come back to us, whether goodor bad. Let us also realise that others,especially our children, are watching usand will model their behaviour uponours. Let’s be aware of the effect of ourthoughts, words, and deeds and ensurethat we do not do anything that willcome back to us as karmic debt in thefuture. It is better if we do everythinggood in the Name of God withoutwanting any material rewards. In thisway, we will not be creating karma andwe will find that we will wind up ourkarmas, reunite with God, and enjoyeternal peace and happiness.

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Disagreements can arise in any rela-tionships. The consequence of suchdisagreements sometimes leads to

arguments, that are the worst moments tocome across. But if we handle such situa-tions in the right way, we can help us tobounce back with a stronger bond. Here aresome tips to deal with anxiety after argu-ments with loved ones:

������� ���� ����������After an argument, you should give

some time and space to each other. This isimportant to resolve the conflict. To avoidfurther heated arguments, give a breathingroom by stepping away for a glass of wateror a breathing exercise. This will give time tocalm down the emotionally charged up indi-viduals.

���������������������������������When you are away from your loved

one giving time to cool down, try to under-stand the reason behind the other person’sbehaviour. If they are being anxious, thenunderstand what triggered their anxiety leveland what you can do to calm down the situ-ation.

�� ������������������When the time is right, extend the olive

branch. Talk to each other calmly and dis-cuss each other’s point of view. Talking andapologising to each other means that youacknowledge that both of you have beenhurt and want to heal the relationship.

�����������������During the fight, both the individuals

are trying hard to get their respective pointacross and this makes the situation worse.To resolve the argument, try to listen to yourloved ones’ perspective. If you still disagreewith the other person’s perspective, then youcan acknowledge their emotional hurt and

pacify with statements like ‘I am sorry(topic) made you feel bad’. Most importantly,do not get into defensive mode when theother person is speaking about your role inthe argument.

������ ����One of the most important steps is

before or while communicating, hug the

person and rub the spinal cord. Massagingthe spine will help in the flow of hormonesand calms down the cells of the body. Itrelaxes the stressed muscles and the personwill settle for better communication.

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/�(�����'������ ���������&���“The awkward fit of theory to

actuality is most vivid for poorwomen in poor economies. Thesewomen may depend on others, butlack the supposed securities of depen-dence. They are impoverished, but areoften providers. They are powerless,yet others who are yet more vulnera-ble depend on them for protection.Their vulnerability reflects heavydemands as much as slenderresources.”

— Philosopher Onora O’Neill

Concerns about inequality andinjustice women face in various

societies don’t require a league con-sisting only of economists and pol-icy-analysts. Both historically andcontemporarily, philosophers and lit-erary figures world over have reaf-firmed their interest through theircharacters in these overwhelmingproblems. I will like to initiate thisarticle by bringing into picture twocharacters: Sissy Jupe from CharlesDickens’s novel Hard Times andVasilisa Arsenyeva from SalmanRushdie’s novel The Golden House.One may wonder what these novel-ists writing in different centuries haveto do with women and a just society.Both Dickens and Rushdie in theirown way handled hard facts of lifewith an unfailing appeal to theirreaders.

Mr M’Choakumchild wasexploring Sissy’s knowledge aboutnational prosperity. “Now, thisschoolroom is a Nation. And in thisnation, there are fifty millions ofmoney. Isn’t this prosperous nation,and a’n’t you in a thriving state?” Sissypleaded ignorance but neverthelessexplained her ignorance. She said shecould not answer the question unlessshe knew, “Who had got the money,and whether any of it was mine.”Obviously Sissy Jupe, not happywith sad affairs of distributive justicechose to lament it.

Rushdie, in V Arsenyeva, findsa different version of a woman.Rushdie captured her emotions whileshe delivered a monologue on pover-ty, love and need. Let me quote fromher monologue. “Please. I require nosympathy regarding the poverty ofmy origin… Poverty is a disgustingcondition and to fail to emergefrom it is also disgusting. FortunatelyI excelled at all things both physicaland mental and so I have been ableto come to America… I know mypresence here is the fruit of my ownlabour... The past is a broken card-board suitcase full of photographs ofthings I no longer wish to see. I amthe general of myself and my bodyis the foot soldier that obeys what thegeneral commands.”

The two characters share somecommonalities. First both arewomen: one a young school-goinggirl and the second V Arsenyeva; arelatively older Russian girl with ori-gin in Siberia, and living in America.Next both concern themselves withresources: their distribution andempowerment. Both characters,through their outpourings, set theball rolling: an emotive story of realagony and anguish of a little girl whowould be a woman a few years laterand a young woman who was a lit-tle girl a few years earlier. Sissy forher age was quite wise; povertytaught her wisdom from very earlystage of childhood; it gave her far-sightedness early in life. She coulddistinguish between finer nuisancesof micro and macroeconomics andhad no qualms in believing macroaffluence did not suo motu convertitself into micro affluence and socio-economic comfort. The monologueof V Arsenyeva is a reflection onovercoming paucity of resourcesand ignorance by dint of “great self-discipline” and the acquired abilityto “build a house” so that “one canlive in it (this being an example).”Sissy lamented lack of empower-ment, Arsenyeva believed in self-determination and relentless pur-suance of her dreams.

Both these women used theirexperiences to remind the world itfell short of being completely just.History bears us out the world hasalways fallen short of being com-pletely just particularly when itcomes to women. The exclusion ofwomen outside the realm of oppor-tunity to partner in building pros-perous societies and economies isdenial of a just society to them andothers too.

Much work both in theory andpractice has been done for exploringthe methods to improve the lot of theweak, the exploited and the margin-alised. Looking at the recent historyof empowerment, a conference thattook place at World Institute forDevelopment Economics Research inHelsinki in 1988 to deliberate uponissues like what is meant by “qualityof life”, and the requirements in termsof socio-economic policy for improv-ing and ultimately achieving it there-

by empowering the deprived ones,started a lively discussion on wayahead. Helsinki conference unequiv-ocally stressed on the need to assessa number of distinct areas of humanlife in determining how well people aredoing rather than measuring qualityof life by hinging on single index ofper capita national income.

From Helsinki conference theworld travelled through MillenniumDevelopment Goals and reached in2015 more comprehensive and inclu-sive Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs). Goal 5 of SustainableDevelopment Goals 2015 aims toeliminate all forms of discriminationand violence against women in thepublic and private spheres and toundertake reforms to give womenequal rights to economic resourcesand access to ownership of proper-ty. Descent work, equal access to edu-cation, and representation in polit-ical and economic decision makingprocesses are the rights womenmust enjoy. Investment in theempowerment of women results notonly in making progress on Goal 5of the Sustainable DevelopmentGoals but also in fuelling sustainableeconomic development. Let us havea look at Indian scenario.

On August 14, 1947, JawaharlalNehru reminded the nation aboutthe task ahead i.e. “…the ending ofpoverty and ignorance and diseaseand inequality of opportunity.” Butunfortunately for close to six decades(which indeed is a long period) thetasks identified by Nehru remainedlargely unaccomplished with notmuch success. Many countries likeCuba, South Korea, Taiwan,Thailand, Costa Rica, etc, followingdifferent growth strategies couldachieve huge reduction in humandeprivation and inequality. In thesecountries much stress was laid par-ticularly on expansion of basic edu-cation and health care. India’s per-formance was certainly not worthbragging about and not very enthus-ing in the field of opportunities forwomen and their empowerment.When it comes to women, wheredoes the problem lie particularly intraditional societies like ours?

Julia Annas, Professor ofPhilosophy, Columbia University,in an essay titled “Women and theQuality of Life: Two Norms orOne?” tries to answer above questionby analysing the existence of “twoactual norms for human life”. Shegives examples from traditional soci-eties where certain practices havewithheld benefits accruing towomen. For example, unfortunate-ly it is still believed that resourcesshould not be “wasted” on educatingdaughters. The reason adduced for

this as cited by Annas is “…thewomen in the traditional society,with their domestic futures, don’tdesire education.” Annas furthergives similar examples like, to quoteAnnas, “…women may justly bekept from participation in public lifebecause they are more self-centeredand less capable of impartial thoughtthan men.” This example showshow such reasons adduced result invarious assertions of differencesbetween men’s and women’s natures.Annas ridicules this reasoning andasserts that “superficial desires” ascompared to “informed desires”where all positive aspects of educa-tion are known to women mustrecede and thus women will showdesire for education. What thelearned philosopher means is,“…injustice results from the existenceof two norms,” and harps on miti-gating superficial desires “resting onan unreflective view of their cir-cumstances.”

Even now it has been a knownpractice in many households that thewoman who cooks food is the last toeat it and that too whatever meagreis leftover. They are not expected tocomplain and they are ever ready toconfess that their nutritional statusand physical heath are good evenwhen they have physical ailments.Thus desires adjust to deprivationand division of functions. This sortof exclusionary neglect needs imme-diate attention and equipping womenwith adequate information not jus-tifying “superficial desires” is the firstcrucial step towards eliminatingcases of exclusionary neglect. Annasrightly concludes in any societygender issues are not focused onwomen alone but the relationshipbetween men and women.

Current efforts afoot in Indiaunder the visionary leadership ofPrime Minister Narendra Modi reflecton concerns expressed by philoso-phers like Professors Julia Annas andOnora O’Neill. Narendra Modi hasvisualised through his vast experienceas leader of Gujarat and afterwards thenation the use of comparative per-spective by going beyond the limited.

For example, the need to under-stand the nexus between social con-ditions and economic opportunitieshas been properly appreciated. Hehas realised the crucial linkagesbetween creating basic educationalfacilities and opening up of new eco-nomic opportunities and expandingthe scope for better use of labour andskills. Most importantly, it has alsobeen recognised that social oppor-tunities are influenced by a host offactors like the state of health andeducational services, the nature andavailability of finance, the presence

of markets, including policies to pro-mote and restrict these markets, pres-ence of middlemen in markets andvery importantly gender injustice.Therefore, the Prime Minister insistson unified approach to empower-ment and this is reflected in variousprogrammes launched by presentGovernment.

The commitment of India toimplement the SustainableDevelopment Goals was spelt outthrough the speech and commitmentmade by Prime Minister of India atthe UN Summit for the adoption ofpost 2015 Development Agenda. Inhis speech the Prime Minister said,“Today, much of India’s developmentagenda is mirrored in the SustainableDevelopment Goals.” Further withreference to empowerment, he said,the attack on poverty includes notonly expanded conventional schemesof development, but also a new eraof inclusion and empowerment,turning distant dreams into imme-diate possibilities. He further spokeabout new bank accounts for 180million; direct transfer of benefits,micro enterprises and micro finance,drawing on the strength of digitaland mobile applications with thefocus on basics, housing, power,water and sanitation for all. These areimportant not just for welfare, butalso human dignity. Development isintrinsically linked to empower-ment of women and it begins with amassive programme on educatingthe girl child that has become everyfamily’s mission.

He clarified these are goals witha definite date, not just a mirage ofhope. Thus the broad agendatowards empowerment with refer-ence to SDGs in India is set.

The Prime Minister’s constantemphasis on inclusion and inclu-siveness is at the root of develop-mental efforts progressing in India.Sincere, honest and transparentefforts to achieve overall develop-ment for all with no exceptions areclearly visible. The Prime Minister’shistoric speech makes it amply clearthat overall human developmenthas much to do with making struc-tural changes to conquer theinequities and exploitations thatcharacterise society. This in turn con-stitutes an efficient and effectiveblend of meeting “basic needs” andequipping people with “capabilities”.Efforts aim at planning and inter-twining capabilities created nowwith a bigger expansion of capabil-ities in the future. Possible conflictsbetween immediately enhancingcapabilities i e meeting basic needsand long-term expansion of capa-bilities in the future i.e economicprosperity cannot be ruled out and

need be addressed in time. Though SDGs cover all human

beings, for the purpose of this arti-cle and due to paucity of space, I willlimit myself with some importantschemes launched in recent past toenhance opportunities for womenempowerment.

The Government of India hasrecognised, amid others, two impor-tant ways to empower women:Economic empowerment throughparticipation in economic activitiesand opportunities and secondthrough mitigation of educationaldeprivations. The schemes chalkedout and implemented broadlyaddress these requirements andthereby endeavour to ensure thatwomen gain equal rights, opportu-nities and access to resources. Thefirst and foremost thing is their safe-ty, security and economic empow-erment. Towards that end, schemeslike Mahila Police Volunteers (MPV)envisaging engagement of MahilaPolice Volunteers in States/UTs whoact as a link between police and com-munity and facilitate women in dis-tress; Pradhan Mantri UjjawalaYojana empowering women belowpoverty line and protecting theirhealth by providing LPG cylinderfree of cost.

Working Women Hostel(WWH) ensures the safety andsecurity for working women by pro-viding safe and conveniently locat-ed accommodation. Pradhan MantriSukanya Samriddhi Yojna aims ateconomic empowerment of girls byopening their bank accounts andenabling their parents to save fundsfor their female child’s education andmarriage. Under this scheme theaccount can be opened at any postoffice or a branch of an authorisedcommercial bank in India betweenthe birth of the girl child and till theage of ten by a parent or guardian.The account offers 8.6 per centinterest with the girl child able tooperate the account once she is tenyears old and the account allows forfifty per cent withdrawal at the ageof eighteen for higher education.Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana aimsat prioritising housing for women.Launched in 2016, Mahila-E-Haat isa bilingual marketing platformintended to help aspiring womenentrepreneurs, NGOs and self-helpgroups to showcase their services andproducts. Mahila Shakti Kendra waslaunched in 2017 to provide womenwith opportunities for skill devel-opment, employment, health, nutri-tion and digital literacy.

Each Mahila Shakti Kendraworking at National, State, Districtand Block levels, provides an oppor-tunity to women to approach the

Government for their entitlementsthrough capacity building and train-ing. Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao Yojanathat came into being in January 2015,drives at generating awareness andimproving the efficacy of welfare ser-vices for girl child. Most importantcomponents of the scheme includeaddressing the issue of decliningchild sex ratio, gender-based sex-selective eliminations and protectingsurvival, protection and education ofthe girl child.

These schemes resonate wellwith the sustainable targets on gen-der equality and are marked byinclusionary coherence. For example,the Government has identified end-ing violence against women and pro-viding security and safety to womenas a key national priority. BetiBachao Beti Padhao scheme aims atequal opportunity and education forgirls; Sukanya Samridhi Yojana aimsat prosperity of girl child and JananiSuraksha Yojana provides safe moth-erhood intervention under NationalHealth Mission with the objective ofreducing maternal and neo-natalmortality among poor pregnantwomen.

The most novel feature of theseschemes is generally these don’tflow from a common perception thatproblems faced by women are casesof more general difficulties of thedeprived and marginalised popula-tion. Each and every scheme with itsdistinct identity and full-fledgedmission is intended for girls andwomen and aims at establishment ofa just society for women without anydiscrimination.

The crux of recent efforts inIndia in the field of women empow-erment is reduction of womeninequality and injustice by providingthem resources and opportunitiesand equipping them with decision-making power including politicalpowers. Onora O’ Neill suggests, “aserious account of justice cannotgloss over the predicaments ofimpoverished providers in margin-alised and developing countries.”That is an important lesson for pol-icy makers who plan for creating ajust society or making society lessunjust. An emerging New Indiavery well addresses the issue raisedby Onora O’ Neill. The concept of ajust society is firmly embedded in themulti-peaked idea of a New India.

(The writer, a retired AdditionalDeputy CAG, is a poet, writer andcolumnist. His fourth book “Soliloquyof a Small-Town Uncivil Servant”, asemi-autobiographical account, published in 2019 by RupaPublications, New Delhi, has been get-ting international acclaim)

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Agirl was vying for an Engineeringcourse. She, however, could notget through her 12th examination

in the first attempt. In her secondattempt, she scored good marks butcould not get through the Engineeringentrance test. Frustrated, she came alongwith her father asking: “Sir, I wish totake up Engineering course. Please sug-gest a puja that may help me successfullyget through entrance test next year.”

“Instead of wasting one whole year,waiting for another chance to get intoEngineering, why don’t you look foranother alternative options available?” Iasked. “Sir, I am good at Mathematicsand other Science subjects. So, I can dowell in this discipline,” the girl respond-ed. “If I look at your track record, youfailed your 12th examination, scoringpoorly in Mathematics. Of course, youimproved your score in your nextattempt. But have you analysed why youfailed in your first attempt?” I asked.“May be my time was bad.” She replied.

Well, you can’t simply blame time ordestiny indications for your failure.Better look into your own fault line. Alook at your chart reveals that the basicreason for your failure has been lack of

focus. Your monkey mind keeps flirtingwith varying ideas, which you keepbreeding non-stop. Being so deeplyengaged in those thoughts, mostly irrele-vant, your mind doesn’t allow the spacenecessary to be focused towards yourstudies. Consequently, you fail to absorbwhat you have studied, and with obviousconsequences. This inherent habit ten-dency will chase you even in the future,not allowing you time and mind spacenecessary to do justice to your studies,unless otherwise consciously addressed.

It will not be out of place to mentionhere that consistency is the key to anydiscipline of science. One missing link inbetween, and you are lost. But there aresubjects, which you can absorb well withjust a short spell of attention. Better lookfor other options that you can cope with.The problem these days is that oftenchildren, and even their parents getdrawn towards the ongoing trend. IfEngineering followed by Management isthe going thing, parents get tempted topush their children towards that course.Seldom do they care to identify child’sindwelling potential. Often desire trendcomes in conflict with inlaid potential.Consequently, the child fails to put in

one’s qualitative best, and when they failto make it to their desired destination,they end up frustrated.

“Agreed sir, I realise that I lack focus.But isn’t there a puja that can help meovercome this weakness?” Asked thegirl. Well, the problem is with yourmind-trend. So, it can be correctedthrough a mental process only. Andhabit dies hard. So you need to continu-ously work upon your inherent infirmi-ties. It is difficult to digest that a punditcan enter your mind space by conduct-ing a puja, to make necessary amend.You can yourself do it better by follow-ing a method I am going to suggest.Whatever discipline you take, focusedattention will always help you. But at thesame time, you should also check uponyour own worth. “What does the chartsuggest?” asked the girl’s father.

Lagna lord Mars is in the lagna itselfthat makes out a very strong headed girland stubborn also. Incidentally Marshappens to be the 3rd cusp sub-lord,identified with natural inclinations.Mars occupies the constellation ownedby Mercury, which is placed in the 7thhouse. Linkage of Mars to Mercury sug-gests that she would be inclined towardsEngineering. But Mars being opposite

Mercury means that she is a restivecharacter. She suffers from attentiondeficiency.

Mercury is placed adverse to mis-chievous Neptune as well, whichaccounts for her insensible reasoningand judgement. Mind signifying Moonis posited in an airy sign Libra, andplaced adverse to Rahu. So, she thoughhas a fertile mind who would be contin-uously breeding thoughts, but shall beengaged in unnecessary brooding andcontemplating over them. With this stateof mind, you can’t do justice to the call-ings of Engineering or any science disci-pline.

To figure out a course correspondingto her inherent worth, the 4th cuspcoordinates will throw light. 4th lordSaturn is in a Venus owned sign Taurus.The constellation lord is Jupiter in aMercury owned sign Gemini. The 4thsub-lord is again Venus. Saturn, Jupiter,Venus and Mercury seen in togethernesspoint to Commerce, Insurance,Psychology, philosophy, and office man-agement.

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