ECI to announce poll schedule for 5 states GHMC orientation prog ...

09 January, 2022|Sunday | Volume No: 9| Issue No:276 Pages: 12 www.indianchronicle.com Published from : Ranga Reddy (Telangana State) 3

INDIAN CHRONICLE

ECI to announce pollschedule for 5 states

New Delhi: The Election Commission of India (ECI)will announce the dates for the upcoming Assembly elec-tions in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa, Punjab andManipur at 3.30 p.m. on Saturday. Besides the poll sched-ule, Covid-19 protocols will also be announced amid therising number of cases across India. Last week, the pollbody held a meeting with the Health Ministry to discussthe current Covid situation in the five states. The HealthMinistry had submitted a report on the resurgence andthe status of vaccination coverage across the nation.Several political parties have already announced can-cellation of political rallies and are focusing more on digi-tal campaigns in the wake of the unabated surge.

Palwancha suicide case:Vanama RaghavendraRao in police custody

INDIAN CHRONICLE BUREAU

HYDERABAD, JAN 8 TRS MLA Vanama Venkateshwara Rao's son

Vanama Raghavendra Rao was arrested by the policeon Friday night. The police said that they have takenRaghavendra into custody from Chintalapudi in AndhraPradesh and was shifted to Kothagudem throughMandalapalli. SP Sunit Dutt officially confirmed the arrestof Vanama who has been accused 2 in the family suicideof Ramakrishna.

The police said that the accused went missing onthe day of Ramakrishna's suicide and was taken into cus-tody in Andhra-Telangana border. He will be shifted tothe court after inquiry, the SP said.

It is also known that Vanama Raghavendra was sus-pended by the TRS party on Friday based on the allega-tions against him. Raghavendra Rao is said to have trav-elled Thorrur, Hyderabad, Chirala, Visakhapatnam andRajahmundry from January 3 and changed SIM cardswhen moving from one place to another. Raghavendrawho stayed in Visakhapatnam for two days was caughtby the police at Mandhalapalli of Bhadradri and WestGodavari border when travelling towards Hyderabad. Hewas later shifted to Palwancha ASP office.

The police also took Mukdevi Girish and other intocustody.

POSTINGS OF DISTRICTCADRE STAFF COMPLETED


HYDERABAD, JAN 8Hyderabad: The State government has claimed that

postings of all district cadre employees across the State,as per the Presidential Order, were completed on Fri-day. In a release Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar said ofthe 22.418 teachers, who were issued posting orders,21,800 joined at their new places by the evening. Al-ready 13,760 other district cadre employees joined intheirnew postings. He claimed that completion of themassive exercise in such a short time was a majorachievement. "The Presidential Order would create op-portunities for employment with 95 per cent reservationfor local youth."

GHMC orientationprog for traders

Hyderabad: The GHMC Kukatpally zone on Fridayconducted an awareness and orientation programme withrepresentatives of the Traders' Association on online ser-vices being provided by the civic body under the ease-of-doing business (EODB) drive. Said a senior officer, trad-ers were explained the process of filing on the GHMCwebsite and also informed to give positive feedback onthe services extended.

Traders dealing in kirana shops, textiles, medical,general stores and AMOH of Moosapet circle attended.

Awaiting law panel report on UniformCivil Code: Centre to Delhi HC

“Citizens belonging todifferent religious denomi-nations follow differentproperty and matrimoniallaws, which is an affront tothe nation's unity,” the Cen-tre told the Delhi HighCourt while responding toa plea seeking direction tothe government to draft aUniform Civil Code.

The Centre, in an affi-davit, also said it wasawaiting the report of theLaw Commission of India,which is examining variousissues relating to the Uni-form Civil Code.

The affidavit of theMinistry of Law and Justicecame in response to a peti-tion filed by BJP leaderAshwini Kumar Upadhyay,who has contended that thegovernment has “failed” toput in place a uniform civilcode, as provided under

Article 44 of the Constitu-tion.

“The expression ‘Uni-form Civil Code’ denotesthe field of personal lawrelating to marriage, di-vorce, maintenance, cus-tody and guardianship ofchildren, inheritance, suc-cession and adoption,” theministry said.

It said that Article 44of the Constitution createsan obligation upon theState to secure for citizensa uniform civil codethroughout the country andthat the purpose behind theArticle was to strengthenthe object of "SecularDemocratic Republic" asenshrined in the Preambleof the Constitution.

“Article 44 divests re-ligion from social relationsand personal law,” the min-istry added.

The ministry said, “asand when the report of LawCommission in the matteris received, the Govern-ment would examine thesame in consultation withthe various stakeholdersinvolved in the matter”.

Responding to theplea that has sought a di-rection against the Union ofIndia to draft a Uniform CivilCode within three months,the ministry said it was

against the Constitutionalscheme. It added that onlythe parliament had the sov-ereign power to enact lawsand no outside authoritycould issue a direction toenact a particular piece oflegislation.

The petitioner, Mr.Upadhyay, had argued thatGoa has a common civilcode since 1965, whichapplies to all of its residents,and it is the only state tohave it as of now.

Property andmatrimonial lawsaffront to nation’s

unity: Centre

Delhi likely to record 20,000fresh COVID cases

UttarakhandThe Uttarakhand High Court has suspended physi-

cal hearings after a judge and four other employees ofthe court tested positive for Covid-19 on Friday, officialssaid.

Important matters will be heard virtually, accordingto a high court official.

Apart from the five, four Nainital residents also testedpositive for COVID-19 on Friday. Although all the in-fected people are asymptomatic, they have been homequarantined and around 60 samples from the High Courtsent for testing, he said.-

Punjab3 members of Punjab CM family test positive for

COVID-19Three family members of Punjab Chief Minister

Charanjit Singh Channi have tested positive for COVID-19, a senior health official said on Saturday.

However, the chief minister has tested negative forthe infection.

Mohali civil surgeon Dr Adarshpal Kaur saidChanni's wife Kamaljit Kaur, his son Navjit Singh anddaughter-in-law Simrandheer Kaur have tested posi-tive for coronavirus.- PTI

New DelhiDelhi likely to record 20,000 fresh COVID cases

with positivity rate of 19%: Satyendar JainDelhi is likely to record around 20,000 COVID-19

cases on Saturday with a positivity rate of around 19%,Health Minister Satyendar Jain said.

He said till now there has been no Omicron vari-ant-related death in the national capital.

Mr. Jain said most of the patients who succumbedto coronavirus infection on Thursday had comorbidities.

"The hospital admissions are lower this time andthe severity of infection is lower as well. Delhi will seearound 20,000 cases with a positivity rate of 19 per centtoday," he told reporters.-PTI

West BengalBengal govt relaxes COVID curbs; allows salons,

parlours to operate with 50% capacity

The West Bengal government Saturday relaxed itsCOVID-19 curbs in the state, allowing salons and beautyparlours to operate with 50% capacity till 10 pm.

An official order to this effect said the owners shouldensure that the staff and customers are fully vaccinatedand they follow all health protocols.

However, there was no clarification from when theorder would be applicable.-PTI

NationalOver 2 crore children in 15-18 age group vaccinated

with first dose so far: MandaviyaOver 2 crore teenagers in the age group of 15-18

years have received their first dose of COVID-19 vaccinein less than a week of the inoculation drive being launchedfor children, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviyasaid on Saturday.

With the administration of more than 90 lakh(90,59,360) vaccine doses in the past 24 hours, the cu-mulative number in the country has exceeded 150.61crore (150,61,92,903), according to provisional reportsupdated till 7.00 a.m.

"Great Going, my Young Friends. Over 2 crore young-sters between the 15-18 age group have received theirfirst dose of COVID-19 vaccine in less than a week ofvaccination drive for children," Mr. Mandaviya tweeted.-PTI

FCRA nod for Missionaries ofCharity restored

New Delhi, January08,

Nuns walk near theentrance of the head officeof Missionaries of Charityin Kolkata on December 28,2021. | Photo Credit: AFP

The Union HomeMinistry had cited ‘adverseinputs’ for rejection.

The Ministry of HomeAffairs (MHA) on January 7restored the FCRA registra-tion of Missionaries of Char-ity (MoC), the Catholic reli-gious congregation set upby Nobel laureate MotherTeresa.

The Foreign Contribu-tion Regulation Act (FCRA)registration is mandatory to

receive foreign donations.The move comes just

days after the Ministry is-sued a statement that theFCRA registration of theMoC was not renewed as“some adverse inputs werenoticed”.

The registration wasrenewed, making MoC eli-gible to receive and utiliseforeign funds in its bankaccounts even as the U.KParliament debated the is-sue, seeking to know if theBritish government hadraised the issue of block-ing of overseas funds of theMoC and other NGOs withIndia.

On January 7, the MoC

NGOs did not apply forrenewal.MHA had earliersaid in a statement that theMoC’s renewal was re-fused on December 25 fornot meeting the eligibilityconditions.

Rain, snow lashes J&K, weatherlikely to improve on Sunday

Srinagar: Snowfall and rain lashed Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday which is likely to continue for the next12 hours and gradually decrease on Sunday morning, the weather office predicted. A statement issued by theIndia meteorological department (IMD) said: "Currently, it is snowing/raining at most places of Jammu andKashmir. "Current weather is most likely to continue for next 12 hours. There will be gradual decrease in snow/rain intensity from today evening.

Vanama Raghava admitted tothreatening Ramakrishna: ASP

Vanama Raghavendra Rao alias Raghava has admitted to threatening Ramakrishna that led him to commitsuicide along with his family on January 3. "Ramakrishna poured petrol on his wife and two daughters and set themon fire before killing himself. While Ramakrishna, his wife Srilakshmi and Sahitya died on the spot and anotherdaughter Sahithi succumbed to injuires a day later. Based on the complaint of Ramakrishna's brother-in-lawJanardhan lodged a complaint with Palwancha police. A case under sections 302, 307, 306 of IPC was registeredagainst Raghava," ASP said.

PUBLIC NOTICEThis to inform to the general public at large that,

Rathod Vijaya Laxmi W/o Late Rathod GundajeeR/o H.No. 2-28, Sri Ramnagar Colony, NeradigondaMdl, Neradigonda, Dist, Adilabad, is intending to ad-vance loan from State Bank of India BranchNeradigonda, by mortgaging, open plot in Sy. No. 3,measuring 222.2 Sq.yrds, situated at Neradigonda, DistAdilabad to the Bank.

That, the Original link document No. 68/97 is lami-nated.

If any one has any claim, right, title or interest ofany kind in the said property, they may contact the un-dersigned within 15 days of the publication of this No-tice, with all documents of claim and title.

If no objection is received within 15 days, then thebank will proceed to complete the other formalities forthe mortgage and if any claim and objection arise, itshall be deemed to have been waived.

Dt. 06-1-2022Bipin Kumar Patel

Advocate,Adarsh Building, N.H. No.7,

AdilabadCell : 9440005500

was removed from the listof around 6,000 NGOswhose registration hasceased to exist. The NGOwith the registration num-ber-147120001 was in-cluded in the list of 16,908

Ranga Reddy INDIAN CHRONICLEINDIAN CHRONICLEINDIAN CHRONICLEINDIAN CHRONICLEINDIAN CHRONICLE SUNDAY 09 JANUARY 2022

Indian ChronicleEnglish Daily

2

Industrialists express satisfaction overpower supply since Telangana formation


HYDERABAD, JAN 8Several industrialists expressed satisfaction over

uninterrupted power supplied to the industrial sector sincethe formation of Telangana State in 2014.

At a meeting with Special Chief Secretary for En-ergy Sunil Sharma, Telangana State Southern Power Dis-tribution Company Limited (TSSPDCL) Chairman andManaging Director (CMD) G Raghuma Reddy and oth-ers on the issues related to the department on Ease ofDoing Business (EoDB), the industrialists thanked theState government for supplying quality and uninterruptedpower to the industrial sector.

When Sharma sought suggestions and problemsbeing faced by the industrial sector, the industrialists saidthey were not facing any problem with respect to the powersupply. They gave a few suggestions to the officials forrendering quality services.

In response, Sharma asked the officials concernedto look into the issues raised by the industrialists andtake necessary steps to implement them. He also ad-vised the industrialists to bring it to his notice if anyone isfacing problems pertaining to power supply and related

issues.In his power-point presentation, Raghuma Reddy

explained in detail to the industrialists on various onlineservices provided by the TSSPDCL. The consumers canavail services pertaining to sanction of new electricityline, application status, complaints tracking, power dis-ruption information and billing among other servicesthrough the website: www.tssouthernpower.com

Over 70 industrialists and senior officials from theenergy department took part in the meeting.

Fully preparedto handle Covid:SCCL Director


HYDERABAD, JAN 8Hyderabad: Singareni Collieries Company Limited

(SCCL) Director N Balaram on Friday said the manage-ment was fully prepared to face any situation in the wakeof rise in Covid-19 cases in the State.

At a meeting convened with the Singareni area man-agers to review the situation in view of rising number ofCovid positives cases, Balaram said the SCCL adminis-tered Covid vaccines to all the employees and if anyonefailed to get the vaccine then necessary arrangementsshould be made to administer vaccine at their residenceonly.

He also gave instructions to officials concerned totake steps for administering booster doses to 60-year-oldworkers. Since the State Health Department has startedadministering vaccines to those who are in the age groupbetween 15 and 18 years, officials should administer vac-cines to the same age group in Singareni areas.

The management has kept 40,000 rapid antigen testkits ready for conducting tests and if required an addi-tional 50,000 kits would be made available. There arearound 500 beds with oxygen facilities and dependingupon the requirement, the management would increasethem to 1,500.

The oxygen plants that were established at five dif-ferent places in Singareni were working effectively andarrangements were also made to supply medicines andinjections to the hospitals on priority basis, Balaram added.

9-month pregnant womanends life in Mancherial

Mancherial: In a heart-wrenching incident, a 26-year-old womanended life by hanging from a ceiling fan as she feared that she might givebirth to a baby girl for the second time, in NTR Nagar here on Wednesdayevening. She was carrying a nine-month pregnancy and was scheduledfor delivery on Thursday. The incident went viral on social media plat-forms on Friday.

Mancherial Inspector Narayana Naik said that the deceased wasYeggana Ramya, the wife of Anand from NTR Nagar in the town. Ramyaresorted to the drastic step in the absence of her family members at thehome, as she was reportedly upset to give birth to a baby girl, as predictedby a private radiologist of the town. She feared that her in-laws wouldtorture her for delivering a baby girl for the second time. Her expecteddate of delivery was on January 6.

But the matured foetus in her womb was found to be a baby boy asper a report of post-mortem. The discovery shocked her family memberswho felt that she would have been excited to see her son if both of themwere alive. Hailing from Narspur village in Dandepalli mandal, Ramyawas married to Anand in 2017. The couple had a three-year-old girl namedAdhya.

Pulishetti Ganganna, the father of the woman, a case was regis-tered. Investigations were taken up. In the meantime, people widely sharedher story on social media platforms. They expressed shock over the inci-dent and opined that the foetus could have seen the world had the womandid not take the hasty decision.

We are working to launchHealth Profile pilot project

soon: KTRHyderabad: IT and Industries Minister KT Rama Rao

said possibilities were being explored to commence theHealth Profile programme initially in Mulugu and RajannaSircilla districts as a pilot project this Sankranti.

As part of the health profile scheme, one village ineach district is being identified to take up the project.Under the initiative, residents’ health details, includingBP, sugar, urine and other blood test details at the fieldlevel.

In case additional details were required in specificcases, such persons would then be taken to the localPrimary Health Care Centres or Telangana DiagnosticCentres for further tests.

“We are working to launch the pilot project soon,probably Sankranti,” said Rama Rao while speaking toTelangana Today on the sidelines of 24th National con-ference on e-Governance, which commenced here onFriday.

The State Cabinet has already taken the decision toconduct a pilot project of the programme in Mulugu andRajanna Sircilla districts. All the guidelines for implemen-tation of the pilot project have also been finalised.

Punish Vanama Raghava inpublic: Bandi Sanjay

Hyderabad: State BJP president Bandi SanjayKumar on Friday demanded that the State governmentpunish Vanama Raghava, wanted in connection with thedeath of four members of a family in Kothagudem, in pub-lic.

“Instead of directly arresting Raghava and remand-ing him, the people should punish him stringently. Thiswill also instill confidence among people and also sendsa strong message,” he said, interacting with media per-sons at the State party office here.

He also advised the police not to succumb to pres-sure from various quarters in taking action againstRaghava. “This is not the first time that Raghava harassedwomen. He also behaved in a similar manner with a po-lice officer and those who meet him seeking help,” hesaid.

“The lives of four family members could have beensaved if the police acted swiftly against Raghava thenonly,” he said, finding fault with the police for resorting tolathi-charge against the BJP activists for staging a dem-onstration in front of his house in Kothagudem.

The police should first punish Raghava rather thanarresting the BJP leaders, Sanjay added.

CPI (M) Central Committeemeeting commences in Hyderabad

Hyderabad: The Communist Party of India (Marxist)three-day Central Committee meeting commenced hereon Friday. Apart from the party’s draft political agenda,the Central Committee members will discuss the strate-gies to be adopted for elections to be held in differentStates shortly.

The draft of the party’s political agenda would bediscussed for submitting at the party’s 23rd Congress tobe held in April at Kannur, Kerala. Senior leaders includ-ing Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, former TripuraChief Minister Manick Sarkar, Polit Bureau membersPrakash Karat, BV Raghavulu, Brinda Karat and CentralCommittee members will participate in the meeting.

During the meeting, a draft of the party’s politicalagenda would be discussed and would be presentedbefore the public. Suggestions, feedback or amendmentscan be shared by the party members with the party’sCentral Committee, CPI (M) General Secretary SitaramYechury said.

“One month’s time will be allocated for the partymembers to share their views and suggestions. This isthe party’s internal democracy. After amendments, thepolitical agenda report will be presented before the 23rd

All India Congress,” said Yechury.CPI (M) State General Secretary Thammineni

Veerabhadram said the proposed meeting of Kerala ChiefMinister Pinarayi Vijayan with Telangana Malayalee As-sociation members on Saturday will now be conductedonline due to Covid. The Kerala Chief Minister will ad-dress the Telangana Malayalee Association membersvirtually at 6 pm on Saturday, he added.

All set for 2nd edition ofBird Walk in Kumram

Bheem AsifabadINDIAN CHRONICLE BUREAU

HYDERABAD, JAN 8: The stage is set for the second edition of Bird Walk

to be hosted by the Forest department, Kumram Bheem-Asifabad district unit in different important habitats of thewinged wonders in Kaghaznagar Forest Division on Sat-urday and Sunday.

District Forest Officer S Shantaram said that elabo-rate arrangements were made for the smooth conduct ofthe event aimed at exposing forest wealth to enthusiasticbird watchers, wildlife photographers, researchers andnature lovers belonging to several parts of Telangana.About 60 participants are expected to take part in thewalk.

According to the DFO 21 spots were identified fororganising the event. Food, accommodation and trans-portation facilities are going to be provided to participants,by charging Rs 2,000 per head. The participants would

report at the office of Kaghaznagar Forest Divisional Of-ficer on Friday at 7 pm and would leave for their destina-tions at 9 pm.

The birding spots of this edition include irrigationtanks, river fronts, a vulture project near Nandigaon vil-lage in Penchikalpet mandal and some important habi-tats situated in Penchikalpet, Kaghaznagar, Sirpur (T),Bejjur and Koutala forest ranges. Around 270 bird spe-cies were already discovered in Kaghaznagar forest di-vision. Some more species are likely to be spotted duringthis event.

During the first edition of Bird Walk held in 2019,nearly 150 wildlife photographers and members ofHyderabad Birding Pals and enthusiastic bird watchers,students, researcher, wildlife photographers and naturelovers from several parts of Telangana and neighbouringMaharashtra and Pondicherry entered into the dense for-ests and important habitats of the birds and clicked theirphotographs. About 100 bird species including migra-tory and rare ones were discovered.

In the meantime, Collector Rahul Raj, DFOShantharam, Superintendent of Police (Administration)YVS Sudheendra unveiled a wall poster of the Bird Walkat Kumram Bheem-Asifabad district headquarters on Fri-day.

Khammam Con-gress corporators,sarpanch join TRS

Khammam: Several Congress leaders joined TRSin presence of IT Minister and TRS working president KTRama Rao in Hyderabad on Friday. At a programme atTelangana Bhavan, Khammam Municipal CorporationCongress corporators — Motarapu Sravani (55th divi-sion), Dhanala Radha (17th Division) andRaghunathpalem mandal, Budidampadu villagesarpanch Meera joined the TRS.

TRS working president along with Transport Minis-ter Puvvada Ajay Kumar welcomed the Congress lead-ers into the party fold. Speaking on the occasion, thenewly-joined leaders said they were impressed with ChiefMinister K Chandrashekhar Rao’s governance.

They also said that Rama Rao and Puvvada Ajayhave been making concerted efforts for the developmentof Khammam and they wanted to be part of the ongoingdevelopment. They lauded the welfare schemes imple-mented by the Telangana government.

420 new digitalclassrooms for BC welfare

schoolsHyderabad: To provide quality education to the stu-

dents amid the Covid pandemic, the number of digitaland e-learning classrooms will be increased from 1,276to 1,696 in 281 BC welfare residential schools. A deci-sion to this effect was taken by BC Welfare MinisterGangula Kamalakar during the Board meeting of Ma-hatma Jyotiba Phule Telangana Backward Classes Wel-fare Residential Educational Institutions Society(MJPTBCWREIS) at the Minister’s chambers on Friday.

In association with Telangana State Renewable

Energy Development Corporation (TSREDCO), the So-ciety will set up solar water heaters in all BC Gurukuls toprovide hot water to students. Further, the Society hasdecided to strengthen the academic cell and internal auditteams as well as develop a system to constantly monitorthe condition of residential schools through efficient func-tioning of committees on hygiene, building appearancesand food quality assurance.

Speaking on the occasion, Minister GangulaKamalakar wanted the BC Gurukuls to function as perthe aspirations of Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Raowho was giving priority to BC welfare especially by pro-viding quality education through residential schools. Hepointed out that number of BC Gurukuls was increasedfrom 16 in 2014-15 to 281 by 2020-21 where thousandsof students from BC communities are pursuing their edu-cation.

KaghaznagarRDO suspended

for negligenceKumram Bheem Asifabad: Kaghaznagar Revenue

Divisional Officer (RDO) Rai Sidam Chitru has been sus-pended for showing negligence in providing compensa-tion to families displaced by irrigation projects and fail-ing to honour orders of the High Court. An order to thiseffect was issued by Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar onThursday evening.

Regulatemining

The Dadam mine landslide, which claimed thelives of five workers last week, has brought illegaland unscientific mining into sharp focus in Haryana.Taking suo motu notice of the incident, the NationalGreen Tribunal has set up a panel to pinpoint theviolations and determine the extent of damage causedto the environment. The committee, which includesrepresentatives of various departments concerned— environment, forests, pollution control, mine safetyand disaster management — has been given twomonths to submit its report. The fact-finding exerciseis supposed to not only fix lapses in the Dadam casebut also recommend measures to prevent a repeat ofsuch incidents.Besides focusing on workers’ safetyand environmental degradation, there is a need tolook at the larger picture so as to streamline miningoperations in the entire state. With mining being asteady money-spinner for the government as well asprivate players, there is a tendency to bend or by-pass rules to maximise profits. It is significant thatHaryana earned revenue of Rs 1,022.63 crore fromthe mining sector in the 2020-21 financial year, 31per cent more than the figure for 2019-20, and thattoo despite the Covid-induced lockdown and otherrestrictions.Illegal mining is a double whammy — itcauses loss of revenue to the exchequer and wreakshavoc on natural resources. The law necessitatespaperwork for each activity — mineral extraction, stor-age, transportation — but compliance is poor due tocollusion between contractors, transporters and offi-cials.


Impact Foundation celebratesSilver JubileeGNS News Agency, Jan 8

Hyderabad: Impact Foundation celebrated its SilverJubilee at a function held in FTCCI, Red Hills, on Mon-day. A voluntary foundation, which started in 1996, Im-pact has been providing free personality developmentclasses and imparting employable skills to rural, unem-ployed youth in both the Telugu States.As part of the cel-ebration, the foundation honoured five social workers fromthe Telugu-speaking States, who work in various fields.Many dignitaries, including politicians Jaya PrakashNarayana and VV Lakshminarayana, novelist YandamuriVeerendranath, psychologist Dr BV Pattabhiram andeducator Gottipati Satyavani attended the event.In thelast 25 years, the foundation has helped over one lakhplus kids, teens and youth from the rural areas ofTelangana and Andhra Pradesh, many of whom are nowwell-settled in India and abroad. The voluntary group hasalso produced several trainers. Dr Gampa NageshwarRao, founder of Impact, shared that the organisation wasstarted with a month-long training programme, at AdamSchool, Chikkadpally, where about 40 people underwentthe training.

GNS News Agency, Jan 8Hyderabad: Be grateful to the past and welcome the

New Year with fresh hope, Rachakonda Police Commis-sioner Mahesh M Bhagwat said here onMonday.Speaking at the New Year celebrations held atthe Rachakonda Police Commissionerate, Bhagwat saidthe staff of Rachakonda Commissionerate played a sig-nificant role in completing numerous tasks in the previ-ous year successfully and lauded them for working withutmost enthusiasm whenever required.The staff workedround the clock tirelessly for the allotment process of em-ployees to new local cadres as per the new zonal systemin the State which has been done at the district, zonaland multi-zonal level, he said, adding that theRachakonda Police were striving hard to keep the soci-ety peaceful in all possible ways and that the PreventiveDetention Act was invoked against 171 persons in2021.He also advised the staff to take appropriate pre-cautions besides following the Covid-19 protocol and tobe more vigilant in view of the rising cases of the Omicronvariant.

Welcome New Year withfresh hope: Mahesh Bhagwat

Ducon technology forSingareni thermal plant

GNS News Agency, Jan 8Hyderabad: Ducon Infratechnologies, a fossil fuel

clean technologies company, will provide technology,flue-gas desulphurisation (FGD) for a 2×600 MW FGDpackage for Singareni Thermal Power Plant, Stage-I,Telangana.This project was jointly bid by Ducon’s affili-ate Ducon Technologies and an EPC organisation inIndia.Ducon will provide its FGD execution expertise tothe project from concept to commissioning. The antici-pated value of the order for Ducon will be in the range ofRs 150-200 crore.Ducon Infratechnologies was also de-clared the lowest bidder on two other NTPC FGD projectsand is expecting to receive those orders soon.Indian com-panies will spend an approximate $20 billion on fossilfuel clean technologies, greening of fossil fuels and greenenergy in view of India’s commitment on green energy,emission standards and strict regulatory mandates, a re-lease said.

Karimnagar will turn into cleanand green city: Gangula

GNS News Agency, Jan 8Karimnagar: BC Welfare and Civil Supplies Minister

Gangula Kamalakar said on Monday that efforts are on todevelop Karimnagar as a clean and green city.As part ofit, a variety of sanitation instruments was purchased byspending Rs 8.60 crore. Stating that two sweeping ma-chines were already purchased, he informed to buy twomore sweeping machines soon to maintain the road inthe town clean.Earlier, sanitation workers used to facesevere hardship due to lack of sanitation instruments.However, the problem has been solved after theTelangana government came to power.Municipal Cor-poration of Karimangar got Rs 4 crore by winningsafaimitra suraksha challenge award. The entire amountwould be spent to take up sanitation works, the Ministerinformed while inaugurating an Excavator vehicle pur-chased by MCK at corporation office premises onMonday.Kamalkar said that besides finding a permanentsolution to the dumping yard, it was also decided to con-struct storm water drainage by spending Rs 133crore.Stating that footpath encroachment has become abig problem in the town, the Minister informed that ataskforce committee along with police, municipal and rev-enue officials was formed to remove encroachments.Corporation commissioner would lead thecommittee.While Rythu Bazar and other vegetable mar-kets were lying vacant, vendors were selling vegetableson roads causing inconvenience to traffic. It is continu-ous process and all the encroachments would be re-moved in the near future, he expressed confidence.MayorY Sunil Rao, deputy mayor Challa Swaroopa Rani, com-missioner Seva Islawath, and corporators participated inthe programme.

GNS News Agency, Jan 8Hyderabad: Even as India’s unemployment rate

reached a four-month high of 7.91 per cent in December,Telangana made it to the top five States with lowest un-employment rates and secured fourth spot with just 2.2per cent. However, the State topped all others in lowestrural unemployment rate at a meagre 0.4 per cent.Whileneighbouring Karnataka has the lowest unemploymentrate of 1.4 per cent, Gujarat and Odisha were in secondposition with 1.6 per cent, Chhattisgarh third at 2.1 percent closely followed by Telangana in the fourth rank.

According to the latest report published by Centrefor Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), Telangana main-tained a steady decline in unemployment rate since theCovid-19 pandemic. The State reported highest unem-ployment rate of 14.7 per cent in May 2020 when the firstlockdown was imposed and India’s unemployment ratestood at 21.7.But with the proactive measures taken bythe State government propelling the growth of agricul-ture and allied sectors tremendously, Telangana recov-ered faster than others. Due to the unprecedented growthin agriculture and allied sectors, the rural unemploymentrate in December 2021 was recorded at just 0.4 per centagainst the national average of 7.2 per cent. In terms ofurban unemployment rate, the State registered 6.3 percent against India’s 9.2 per cent.Telangana especiallyHyderabad has been one of the largest job providers inthe country, with not only locals but people from otherStates flocking to the State in search of livelihood. It is

Telangana among best performing Statesin unemployment at 2.2 per cent

one of the major States to maintain lowest unemploy-ment rate since the first lockdown imposed due to Covid-19 pandemic.As per the Reserve Bank of India’s Hand-book of Statistics on the Indian Economy 2020-21 pub-lished in September 2021, Telangana has emerged asthe fourth largest contributor to the country’s economy.The Net State Value Added (NSVA) by Telangana at cur-rent prices to the country increased from Rs 4,16,930crore at the time of Statehood in 2014-15 to Rs 8,10,503crore in 2020-21, a two-fold increase in a short span ofjust seven years. The State’s NSVA in agriculture wasover 1.76 lakh crore followed by real estate, ownership ofdwelling and professional services (Rs 1.59 lakh crore),trade, repairs, hotels and restaurants (Rs 1.32 lakhcrore).In its report published in September 2021, the NITIAayog termed Telangana as sixth highest contributor toIndia’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2020-21.

Siddipet,Jan 8:-On 08/01/22 at the residence ofHarish Rao,Tresa State President Vanga Ravinder Reddymet Hon'ble Minister of State for Finance and HealthTanniru Harish Rao to address the issues of vro.In thisevent District Vro Presidents Akula Ravinder District vrosGeneral Secretary Naresh Kumar, Vice Presidents BakiKanakayya, Mallesam, Suresh Babu, Division Presidentsand District VROs , others were present.

Aid to the poor people-CM KCR Assistance Fund.

-CMRF checks of Rs. 10 lakh 4 thousand handedover to 28 beneficiaries in the constituency.

- Beneficiaries are advised to deposit the checks intheir bank account immediately.

- Minister Harish Rao ..Siddipet,Jan 8:-Minister Harish Rao said that the

Chief Minister's Assistance Fund is a boon for the poorpeople.On Saturday, CMRF checks worth Rs 10 lakh and

Rs 4,000 were distributed to 28 beneficiaries in the con-stituency at the minister's camp office inSiddipet.Speaking on the occasion,the Minister said thatthe Siddipet constituency is a testament to the fact thatthe Chief Minister's Assistance Fund is helping the poorto get help from the poor. Beneficiaries are advised todeposit the checks in their bank account immediately. Ofthese, Rs 10 lakh 4 lakh has been sanctioned for 17persons from the town, 2 persons from Siddipet RuralZone, 2 persons from Chinnakodur Zone, 6 persons fromNangunnur Zone and 1 person from Siddipet Urban Zonefor a total of 18 persons.

Medak dist Veldurthy town zphsconducted karate compitationJan 8Medak dist veldurthy town zphs conducted karate

compitation organized pd prataap singh ratode in this

compilation total 118 students participated 80 studentsgain yellow belts, 18 students gain orange belts, 20 stu-dents gain brown belts in this program conductedexaminors ramesh goud, and nagesh, attended cheifguest narsapur mla madan reddy, surpunch bagymmaanjaneyuly, meo yadagiri, mptc mohan reddy, smcchirman karrevenkatesh and student parents

This world is actually run by people sitting and working in their cubicles.”

Hyderabad:The line, an apt evaluation from Piyush Prajapati,

the protagonist of Cubicles, potentially summarizes thereality of the global IT sector, where people put their headsinto a desktop at a cubicle, synergizing the power to makeor break deals. It was not a surprise that the show reso-nated immediately with millions of aspirants and employ-ees across India, as they connected with the strains andthemes that the series explored in its first season. After ahit season 1, SonyLIV and TVF are set to bring an easy-breezy season 2 from 7th January. Cubicles S2 will seeAbhishek Chauhan, Nidhi Bisht, Arnav Bhasin andShivankit Singh Parihar reprising their roles.

Cubicles traces the life of 22-year-old PiyushPrajapati, fresh from college with big dreams. As he takesup his first job with a leading IT company, he slowly real-izes that the reality is not as rosy as he had initially sur-mised. He falls into the daily grinds of corporate life andslowly gets embroiled in the realities of office politics,cutthroat competition, and the ruthless corporate culture.The second season picks up from Piyush’s assimilationof the harsh reality. However, it’s a mixed bag, which alsoexplores themes like ‘competitors’ on the job ending upas friends.

The short 5 episodes narrative story of everythingthat drives corporate elves -- relationships, personal life,workplace blues, new opportunities, and the challengesof changing equations in professional lives. Will Piyushfinally break through the cusps of the mundane, or doesa change await him in the corporate realm? Does hecruise through his relationships with his colleagues, ordoes fate have a whole new set of challenges for him instore?

Cubicles S2 makes for a perfect binge-watch! So,don’t forget to untangle the answers in Piyush’s life from7th January only on SonyLIV.

Hyderabad, January, 2022 : Dr Raj Narayan Mudiraj,state president of the Telangana Citizens' Council, saidthat at the time of the Third Wave danger, everyone shouldbe vaccinated and wear masks and sanitize their handsfrequently. On Friday, in Indira Priyadarshini college asthe chief guest at the awareness program and distribu-tion of masks on corona and omicron virus diseases or-ganized by the Telangana Citizens Council,along withBhagya Health Club and NSS Unit 1 2 3 US at the Gov-ernment Women's College, Nampally on Friday. He saideveryone should take the vaccines provided by the stateand central governments to protect their health and pro-tect themselves from the disease. Telangana PradeshCongress Party state secretary Dr Mohammad AjazZaman said the students were advised to be vigilant aboutthe virus and make their peers aware as well. The eventwas graced by College Principal Dr D Varalakshmi, Mrs.Wali Saubhagya, Mrs. Bimamba NSS Program Officer,

Awareness programme on coronaand omicron virus diseases by TCC

Social Workers Mr. Boggarapu Sarath, TRS Party GansiBazaar President Mr. Manish Agarwal, TCC GreaterHyderabad President Mr. NR Laxman Rao Gupta, BCUnited Presidents Mrs. A Pushpalatha, BJP women leaderSmt. L Rajani, Shri C Rajender Mudiraj, Shri B VeereshYadav and others addressed the gathering and then dis-tributed masks to 600 students.

Kalyana Lakshmi, ShadiMubarak A boon for poor girls-Distribution of checks amounting to Rs. 56 lakhs 6

thousand 496 rupees to 56 beneficiaries in ChinnaKoduru zone and Rs.78 lakh 9 thousand to 78 beneficia-ries in Nangunur model.

- State Finance and Medical Health Minister HarishRao.

Siddipet,Jan 8:-State Chief Minister KalwakuntlaChandrasekhar Rao has introduced the Kalyana Lakshmiand Shadi Mubarak schemes for the marriage of poorhousewives like nowhere else in the country, said HarishRao, Minister of State for Finance and Medical Health.OnSaturday, Minister of State Tanniru Harish Rao distrib-uted checks worth Rs 56 lakh 6 thousand 496 rupees to56 beneficiaries in Chinna Koduru zone and Rs 78 lakh9 thousand to 78 beneficiaries in Nangunur model at theminister's camp office in Siddipet.Speaking on the occa-sion, the Minister said that the government will imple-ment several welfare programs for the welfare of the poor.The Chief Minister said that with the help of KCR, theburden of marriage has been reduced for many poorfamilies.KCR Kalyana Lakshmi and Shadi Mubarak in-troduced the Pythagoras with the intention that the par-

ents of the girls should not be bothered.The Minister wasaccompanied by Zilla Praja Parishad ChairpersonSmt.Roja Radhakrishna Sharma, Municipal ChairmanSmt. Manjula Rajanarsu, Suda Chairman RavinderReddy, RDO Shri Anantha Reddy, local representativesof Nangunur and Chinna Koduru mandals, sarpanchesof various villages, municipal councilors and local publicrepresentatives.

Hyderabad: GNS News Agency, Jan 8 City Police Commissioner CV Anand asked police

personnel to strictly adhere to Covid safety protocols in-cluding wearing face masks and observing social dis-tancing due to the increase in Covid cases.“If anyone isfacing health issues, they should inform their superiorofficers. Action will be taken against officials who shownegligence. It is our responsibility to take care of the staff,”

Strictly adhere to Covid safetyprotocols, Hyderabad CP to personnel

GNS News Agency, Jan 8Adilabad: Farmers expressed gratitude to Chief Min-

ister K Chandrashekhar Rao for implementing RythuBandhu scheme at Mukhra (K) village in Echoda mandalon Monday.The beneficiaries of the innovative invest-ment support scheme took out a bullock cart rally in thestreets of the village. They then performedksheerabhishekam to a life sized flex poster of the ChiefMinister for extending the financial aid to the agrariancommunity. They danced to drum beats, while womencarried harati as part of the celebrations.

Rythu Bandhu: Farmers takeout bullock cart rally in Adilabad

he said.Interacting with members of the HyderabadCommissionerate Ministerial Staff Association, he askedthem to ensure that all employees wear masks and takeappropriate precautionary measures. “Arrangements arebeing made for Covid tests and medicare for personnelof the Hyderabad city police in view of the increase incases,” Anand said. He praised the officers and staff forworking effectively as a team.


New Delhi, GNS News Agency, Jan 8Photographs of Indian Army troops holding a large

Tricolour in eastern Ladakh’s Galwan Valley as part ofNew Year celebrations were released on Tuesday bysources in the security establishment, in a tit-for-tat re-sponse to a video by the Chinese state media purport-edly showing PLA soldiers unfurling their national flag inthe region three days back.Law Minister Kiren Rijiju, alawmaker from Arunachal Pradesh that shares borderwith China, also posted on Twitter three photos with acaption “brave Indian Army soldiers in Galwan Valley onthe occasion of #NewYear2022”.

On January 1, China’s state media played up thevideo purportedly showing Chinese PLA soldiers send-ing New Year greetings to the Chinese people fromGalwan Valley while resolving to “never yield an inch ofland.” The sources in the Indian security establishmentsaid the site of the Chinese soldiers celebrating the NewYear is in a depth area on their side near the GalwanValley region and that it is not at all close to the bufferzone created in the region after the deadly clash that hadtaken place on June 15, 2020.The video shared by theChinese media triggered reactions in India with Congressleader Rahul Gandhi asking Prime Minister NarendraModi to “break the silence” over Chinese “incursions” inthe Galwan region of eastern Ladakh.The Opposition partyhas been targeting the Modi Government over its han-dling of Chinese incursions in eastern Ladakh andArunachal Pradesh.

The ties between India and China nosedived sig-nificantly following the fierce clash in the Galwan Valleythat marked the most serious military conflicts betweenthe two countries in decades.In one of the photos, re-leased by the sources in the Indian security establish-

Indian troops hoist National Flag inLadakh’s Galwan Valley on New Year

ment as part of the information warfare, around 30 Indiansoldiers armed with Sig Sauer-716 assault rifles wereseen with the National Flag.Another photo showed thegroup with four of them holding the flag and anotherTricolour flying high on a flagpole adjacent to a tempo-rary observation post. A flag of the Dogra regiment of theIndian Army is also seen in the photo.

The sources said the photographs were of January1 in the Galwan Valley.The Indian and Chinese troopsexchanged sweets and greetings at 10 border pointsalong the Line of Actual Control (LAC) including in east-ern Ladakh and North Sikkim on January 1, 2022, whichwas seen as a warm gesture in the midst of the lingeringrow in eastern Ladakh.In contrast to the Indian securityestablishment releasing photographs of the exchange ofsweets and greetings on the New Year, China chose toplay up the purported video.

The attempt by the Chinese state media also cametwo days after China renamed some places in ArunachalPradesh that drew a strong response from India.In itsreaction, India asserted that Arunachal Pradesh has “al-ways been” and will “always be” an integral part of Indiaand that assigning “invented” names does not alter thisfact.The eastern Ladakh border standoff between the In-dian and Chinese militaries erupted on May 5, 2020, fol-lowing a violent clash in the Pangong lake areas.Bothsides gradually enhanced their deployment by rushingin tens of thousands of soldiers as well as heavyweaponry.As a result of a series of military and diplo-matic talks, the two sides completed the disengagementprocess last year in the north and south banks of thePangong lake and in the Gogra area.

Each side currently has around 50,000 to 60,000troops along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the sen-sitive sector.The 13th round of Corps Commander-levelmilitary talks in October ended in a stalemate with theIndian Army saying that the “constructive suggestions”made by it were not agreeable to the Chinese side.Intheir virtual diplomatic talks on November 18, India andChina agreed to hold the 14th round of military talks at anearly date to achieve the objective of complete disen-gagement in remaining friction points in eastern Ladakh.Itis learnt that the Chinese side is yet to respond to the nextround of military talks.The defence ministry on Friday saidit held several rounds of military talks with the Chineseside to deescalate the situation in eastern Ladakh with-out compromising on its stand of ‘complete disengage-ment and immediate restoration of status quo ante.Indiahas been insisting on returning to the status quo thatexisted before the face-off took place in early May 2020.

New Delhi, GNS News Agency, Jan 8A stampede like situation was created today in Uttar

Pradesh's Bareilly district at a marathon organised by aCongress leader as part of the party's "ladki hoon, ladsakti hun (I am girl, I can fight) election campaign aheadof upcoming assembly polls in the state. The visuals ofthe event, which came on social media, showed that hun-dreds of women and teenage girls participated the eventwithout mask.

The massive crowd as marathon participants started

the long run, but soon a few of them in the front trippedand fell to the ground, which led to a brief scare as thosein the back pushed them. The situation almost led to astampede, but thankfully no one sustained any seriousinjury. Congress leader and former Bareilly MayorSupriya Arom, who organised the event, is reported tohave said, there was nothing to worry. According to re-ports three of the girls who sustained minor injuries havebeen sent to district hospital for treatment.

"Thousands in crowds also went to Vaishno Devi.What about that? See, it is very human thing. These areschoolgirls and they only wanted to come out for a bit. Butif anyone is offended for any reason, I want to apologiseon behalf of the Congress," Aron reported to have said.The Congress, which has been reduced to a non-playerin Uttar Pradesh, has been focusing on gender equalityin view of the spiralling crime against women in the state.Some of these cases - including the gang-rape of a Dalitwoman in Hathras, and a case in Unnao - made head-lines and provoked outrage across the country.Congressleader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra first gave the "ladki hun,lad sakti hun" election slogan last month.

Stampede like situationcreated at Congress' Bareilly

marathon event

New Delhi, GNS News Agency, Jan 8Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) Chief Swati

Maliwal wrote to Rajya Sabha Chairman Venkaiah Naiduon Tuesday seeking reconstitution of the parliamentarypanel formed for deliberating the Child Marriage Amend-ment Bill, 2021.In the letter, the DCW chief expressedconcerns upon the fact that only one woman parliamen-tarian was included in the 31-member parliamentarystanding committee and sought its reconstitution withmore than half women MPs.Maliwal demanded that thepanel set up for deliberating the Bill which aims at raisingthe marriageable age of girls from 18 to 21 years must bechaired by a woman as the matter was integral to thefuture of crores of women.“It’s sad that the present com-mittee has only one woman amongst 30 men! This is asensitive matter and shall impact the lives of crores ofwomen. Therefore, it must be decided through a compre-hensive and consultative process led by women,” shesaid.Drawing attention towards failure of agencies inimplementing existing laws against child marriage,Maliwal in the letter also emphasised upon wider consul-tation and assessment in the matter.She also drew atten-tion towards systematic failure of agencies in implement-ing the existing laws against child marriage.“The issue ofraising the legal marriageable age of women in India iscontentious and requires comprehensive assessmentand deliberation backed by extensive research, both onthe implementation of the existing provisions of law aswell as the implications of the proposed amendments,”the DCW chief said in the letter.

DCW chief writes to Naiduseeking reconstitution of panel

reviewing marriage Bill

New Delhi, GNS News Agency, Jan 8The first meeting of the Congress screening com-

mittee for the upcoming Punjab Assembly elections com-menced at 6 pm at the party’s war room here on theGurdwara Rakabganj Road.Senior leader and AICC gen-eral secretary in-charge of Rajasthan Ajay Maken is head-ing the screening committee.Chief Minister CharanjitSingh Channi has not come for the maiden conference ofthe panel due to his official engagements in Chandigarh,sources said.The committee has among membersChandan Yadav and Krishna Allavaru, Congress jointsecretary in-charge of the Youth Congress.Ex officiomembers of the committee are Harish Choudhary, AICCin-charge of the state; PCC chief Navjot Singh Sidhu; ex-state chief and chairman, Punjab election campaign com-mittee, Sunil Jakhar; and all AICC secretaries in-chargeof the state.The screening committee will consider candi-dates for the upcoming elections, with 80 of the stateAssembly’s current 117 MLAs hailing from theCongress.Denying tickets to sitting MLAs would be anuphill task for the Congress with the BJP and AmarinderSingh’s new outfit waiting to poach senior leaders.TheCongress has agreed to follow one family, one ticket rulein Punjab.

Punjab Assembly polls: Firstmeeting of Congressscreening panel starts

Chandigarh, GNS News Agency, Jan 8Even as there is no sign of Sino-Indian de-escala-

tion along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in easternLadakh, the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) has cre-ated a new record by keeping the formidable Zoji La passon the Srinagar–Leh National Highway open for vehicu-lar traffic in the first week of January.The pass, located atan altitude of 11,649 feet about 100 km east of Srinagar,links the Union Territory of Ladakh with the rest of thecountry, and remains closed in winters due to high snow.

The BRO achieved this feat through its frontlineprojects – Vijayak and Beacon. They are collectively re-sponsible for maintaining the road axis that has strategicimplications in addition to the socio-economic well-be-ing of LadakhLast winters, the pass was kept open tillDecember 31, which was a record. This season, BROsilently embarked on a mission to better its own record byreorganising and adding a few more snow clearancedetachments and augmenting them with the state-of-the-art snow clearance equipment, according to an officialstatement issued today.

Beacon and Vijayak projects have been workinground the clock in extreme weather conditions to keepthe logistic supply line open to Ladakh. Unprecedentednumber of troops have been deployed in Ladakh overthe past about two years to counter Chinese deploymentson the other side of the LAC.There are two road routes toLadakh — along the Srinagar axis through Jammu andKashmir and along the Manali axis through HimachalPradesh. Both these routes become non-operationalduring winters as several high mountain passes enrouteremain closed due to heavy snow. Supplies, equipment

BRO creates a record, keeps strategicallyvital Zoji La open for traffic in early January

and troops are ferried in and out of Ladakh by air in sucha situation, which continues till spring when BRO clearsthe snow.

The administration of Ladakh and the local popu-lace has lauded the efforts of BRO as this additional win-dow reduces the logistic burden on government agen-cies and also helps the local inhabitants to stock addi-tional rations and supplies to brave the impending harshwinters.In the first three days of the year 2022, about 178vehicles have been able to transit through the pass withthe collective assistance of the BRO and the local policepersonnel.The number is considered significant becausewith the temperatures plummeting to minus 20 degreecentigrade, the road is subject to extreme frosting withblizzard like conditions, which can lead to accidents. Be-sides snow clearance, the road axis is subjected to main-tenance on a daily basis to keep it road worthy.

GNS News Agency, Jan 8New Delhi: Covid antiviral drug Molnupiravir was

on Monday launched in India at Rs 1,399 for a five-daycourse for mild to moderate infection.Amid rising casesof new Covid variant Omicron in the country, an expertpanel of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisationhad recently approved antiviral drug Molnupiravir for re-stricted use in emergency situation.Along withMolnupiravir, the CDSCO has also granted emergencyuse authorisation to the Serum Institute of India’s Covidvaccine COVOVAX, Hyderabad based Biological E RBDProtein CORBEVAX.Molnupiravir is an antiviral medica-tion that inhibits the replication of certain RNA viruses. Itis used to treat Covid-19 in those infected by SARS-CoV-2. The recommended dose of Molnupiravir 800 mg istwice a day for five days.A patient needs to take 40 cap-sules containing 200 mg of medication. Over a dozenpharma companies including Torrent, Cipla, Sun Pharma,Dr Reddy’s, Natco, Mylan, and Hetero are in the processto manufacture the oral pill.Cipla, Sun Pharma, and DrReddy’s Laboratories are also expected to releaseMolnupiravir capsules in the coming weeks.Molnupiravir,

developed by MSD and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, isalso the first oral anti-Covid pill approved by UK’s drugregulator.The US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA)has also cleared Molnupiravir for the treatment of mild-to-moderate Covid-19 in adults, and for those who are ata high risk to severe disease.

Covid antiviral drug Molnupiravirlaunched in India

21-year-old engineering studentarrested in ‘Bulli Bai’ app case

GNS News Agency, Jan 8Mumbai: 21-year-old Vishal Kumar who was ar-

rested in the ‘Bulli Bai’ app case will be presented beforea Bandra court on Tuesday, informed the police.A casewas registered based on a complaint received on Jan 1,the probe is underway. We’ve contacted the app hostingplatform and are awaiting their reply. Further action is tobe taken based on their reply,” Additional Commissionerof Police and Delhi Police Public Relations Officer (PRO),Chinmoy Biswal told ANI here today.

Earlier in the day, Mumbai police detained a womanin Uttarakhand believed to be the mastermind behind the‘Bulli Bai’ app, informed the police.“The main accusedwoman was handling three accounts related to the ‘BulliBai’ app. Co-accused Vishal Kumar opened an accountby the name Khalsa supremacist. On Dec 31, he changedthe names of other accounts to resemble Sikh names.Fake Khalsa account holders were shown,” said theMumbai Police.A 21-year-old civil engineering student,Vishal Kumar was arrested by Mumbai Police on Tues-day after questioning for several hours.“A woman hasbeen detained by the cyber cell of Mumbai Police inUttarakhand. Seems like is the main mastermind behindthe app. She will be presented before a court inUttarakhand for transit remand. After obtaining the transitremand, she will be brought to Mumbai,” said a policeofficial.

GNS News Agency, Jan 8Chennai: The advisory council constituted by the

Tamil Nadu government to ascertain the living conditionsand other details of Sri Lankan Tamils living inside andoutside of camps will conduct a survey on the Sri LankanTamils who require Indian citizenship.A decision to thiseffect was taken during a meeting of the council heldduring the last week of December, 2021, sources in thecouncil told IANS.The advisory council, constituted afterthe Chief Minister had promised in the Assembly to studythe details of Sri Lankan Tamils, would be conducting thesurvey soon within and outside the camps.

According to a study by the Tamil Nadu government,as of July 1, 2021, there are 58,668 persons from 18,937families living inside the refugee camps for Sri LankanTamils constituted by the Tamil Nadu government overthe years. The study also revealed that there are 34,123persons of Sri Lankan origin living outside the camp from13,553 families.Sources in the advisory council informedIANS that after the survey results are obtained, the stategovernment would request the Union Home Ministry toconsider the case of the Sri Lankan Tamils and press formaking necessary provisions in the Citizenship (Amend-ment) Act, 2019 to felicitate Indian citizenship forthem.Chennai North MP and member of advisory councilKalanidhi Veeraswamy told IANS: “We will be writing tothe Union Home Ministry and to the State government onthe number of Sri Lankan Tamils who have arrived in the

TN govt to conduct survey on Sri LankanTamils wanting Indian citizenship

country since Independence and also seek details onthe number of them who have got Indian citizenship.”.The Member of Parliament said that there were sugges-tions on categorising the Tamils who have arrived fromSri Lanka under multiple divisions like those who reachedafter the Sirimavo -Shastri pact and those who reachedafter the Sirimavo- Gandhi pact, those who have reachedIndian shores during the war between the rebel forcesand Sri Lankan Government and also children of thosepersons who were born in Tamil Nadu.

Kalanidhi Veeraswamy said: “There is a need toreach out to all of them and to find out on what all docu-ments they have in their possession and to evolve poli-cies based on these facts and then to press the HomeMinistry as well as the state government.”

SEC to hold meeting onBharat Biotech’s Nasalvaccine booster dose

New Delhi: The Subject Expert Committee (SEC) ofthe Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) is expectedto meet on Tuesday afternoon to discuss Bharat Biotech’sapplication for clinical trials of its intranasal Covid vac-cine as a booster or a third dose.The Hyderabad-basedmanufacturer has proposed the booster dose for thosewho have been already been innoculated against Covidwith Covishield and Covaxin vaccines.Bharat Biotechaims to conduct clinical trials on 5,000 subjects (50 percent vaccinated with Covishield and 50 per cent vacci-nated with Covaxin).The interval between the seconddose and booster dose will be six months, sources havetold.According to the sources, India is expected to get anIntranasal booster vaccine in March, after timely conduc-tion of trials.Earlier in mid-December, the company soughtpermission to conduct clinical trials for its intranasalbooster dose.


GNS News Agency, Jan 8Washington: More than 4,000 flights were cancelled

globally in the past 24 hours, more than half of whichwere in the US, as new Covid-19 cases driven by theOmicron variant continue to cause staff shortages at air-lines and airports amid a busy holiday travelseason.Worldwide, 4,020 flights had been cancelled bySunday afternoon, according to flight tracker FlightAware,with 2,393 of them being within, into, or out of the US,reports Xinhua news agency.US news portal Axios saidthat some 4,700 domestic flights have been cancelledthis weekend, with poor weather conditions contributingto delays already exacerbated by the Omicron variant inthe US, where the Covid-19 record was shattered againon December 30 with over 580,000 daily cases reportednationwide.

“The airport most affected by cancellations is Chi-cago O’Hare, where 273 flights — 26 per cent of thoseplanned — were shuttered on Sunday, as the surround-ing Cook County grapples with a record number ofcoronavirus infections and a snowstorm,” reported Forbeson Sunday.Regional carrier SkyWest Airlines cancelled510 flights Sunday, or 21 per cent of its scheduled trips,while airlines like Southwest, JetBlue and Delta also re-ported more than 100 cancellations each.“Snowstorms,freezing temperatures and severe weather across thecountry have also compounded airlines’ woes by pre-venting flights from operating as scheduled,” said thebusiness magazine.

Mass flight cancellations were first reported in thedays before Christmas as both air travel and Covid-19infections gained momentum.Last week, Anthony Fauci,chief medical advisor to the White House, told MSNBCthat the government should consider requiringcoronavirus vaccines for domestic flights.The surge ofcoronavirus cases reported in the United States has beendriven by the Omicron variant, which early studies sug-gest is more transmissible with milder symptoms andmakes up the majority of new infections in the country.

US suffers from continued flight chaos

Beijing,GNS News Agency, Jan 8A landslide at a construction site in southwestern

China has killed 14 people and injured three others, offi-cial reports said Tuesday.The cause of the landslideMonday evening in Bijie city in Guizhou province is un-der investigation, the reports said.Workers were buildinga training facility for a hospital at the time of the landslide.Mountainous, inland Guizhou is one of China's least de-veloped regions.More than 1,000 people joined the over-night rescue effort, Xinhua News Agency said.

Workplace accidents are a recurring problem inChina as a result of managers cutting corners, lax en-forcement of safety standards and decayinginfrastructure.Among China's worst accidents was a mas-sive 2015 explosion at a chemical warehouse in the portcity of Tianjin that killed 173 people, most of themfirefighters and police officers.

Landslide in southwesternChina kills 14 people, injures 3

Chandigarh, GNS News Agency, Jan 8American rapper J $tash took his own life after al-

legedly shooting and killing his 28-year-old girlfriend infront of her children on New Year’s day.

According to multiple reports, the incident took placeat approximately 7am on January 1 in Temple City, attheir California home.

The rapper al-legedly shot his girl-friend dead and thenkilled himself. As perreports, one of thevictim's three fright-ened sons who wereinside the property

called 911 to report the murder and suicide.The Floridarapper allegedly locked the master bedroom after gettingcaught in an argument with Jeanette Gallegos.Gallegos'three boys aged seven, nine and 11 years were report-edly knocking on the room's door, concerned for theirmother's safety, says report.

American rapper J $tash locks bedroomdoor, kills girlfriend before shooting

himself dead on New Year

Beijing,GNS News Agency, Jan 8Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday issued a

new mobilisation order for the training of armed forceswith a focus on developing an elite force capable of fight-ing and winning wars.Xi, 68, heading the ruling Commu-nist Party of China (CPC) since 2012 followed by thePresidency and Chairman of the Central Military Com-mission (CMC) -- the overall high command of thecountry’s two million-strong military -- has prioritised real-time training with constant up-gradation of technologybesides in-depth of reforms since he took over power.

Unlike his predecessors, Xi is widely expected tocontinue in power at the end of the 2nd five-year tenurethis year and start a record third term after the once in afive-year CPC Congress scheduled to be held in themiddle of this year.Since 2018, he has been issuingmobilisation orders every year, setting operational priori-ties for the military which now enjoys over USD 200 bil-lion annual defence budget.

In this year’s order, Xi said the armed forces mustclosely follow the evolution of technology, warfare andrivals, redouble their efforts to better combine trainingwith combat operations, and strengthen systematic train-ing and the use of technologies to develop an elite forcethat is capable of fighting and winning wars, state-run

President Xi issues new order for Chinese militaryto develop elite force to fight and win wars

Xinhua news agency reported.All officers and soldiersshould uphold the spirit of fearing neither death nor hard-ship, and conduct training in a vigorous, well-designedand safe manner to boost their commanding and fightingcapability and foster excellent conduct, the order said.Theentire rank and file of the armed forces must resolutelyimplement the plans and instructions of the Party leader-ship and the CMC, it said, adding that the changing land-scape of national security and combat circumstances mustbe accurately understood.

New Delhi, GNS News Agency, Jan 8Pakistan’s rediscovered enthusiasm for holding a

SAARC summit in Islamabad is likely aimed at shoehorn-ing the Taliban as the representative ofAfghanistan.Reacting to Pakistan Foreign Minister ShahMehmood Qureshi’s desire for a SAARC summit andadvising India to attend it virtually if its leadership did notwant to visit Pakistan, sources here pointed out that evenbefore such an interaction is considered, the eight-mem-

Recognition for Taliban behindPakistan push for SAARC summit

ber grouping would need to reach a consensus on whowill represent AfghanistanWith the Taliban not yetrecognised by a single country, it is unlikely that any ofthe other SAARC members, barring Pakistan, will be com-fortable with sharing the round table with the insurgentgroup’s representatives, they added.

Pakistan has been pushing the Taliban leadership’sclaim at various fora but the international community willprefer to be guided by the deliberations at the UnitedNations. Last month, the UN Credentials Committee hadfailed to reach unanimity on giving representation to theTaliban and Myanmar’s military regime. The committeechief and Sweden's Permanent Representative AnnaKarin Enestrom said after the closed-door meeting that itwas decided "to defer its decision of the credentials" andno other meeting has been scheduled in the nearfuture.Pakistan had sought the ouster of the Ghani-re-gime representative Ghulam Isaczai and his replacementby the Taliban’s Suhail Shaheen.Strangely, pointed outthe sources, Pakistan’s desire for a summit of the region’sneighbours doesn't sit well with its recent attempts at infil-tration into Jammu & Kashmir. In fact, one such attempt inKeran (Kupwara) out of the several over the past coupleof days, was suspected to have been carried out by com-mandos of the Pakistan Army, they said.

London, GNS News Agency, Jan 8The UK’s health service on Tuesday marked the first

anniversary of the deployment of the Oxford/AstraZenecavaccine against COVID-19, manufactured and deployedin India soon after as Covishield.Brian Pinker, 82, be-came the first person in the world to receive the life-sav-ing vaccine at Oxford University Hospital on January 4,2021. Since then, the UK’s National Health Service (NHS)said around 50 million AstraZeneca vaccines have beenadministered in the UK.

Around 2.5 billion doses have also been distributedat-cost to more than 170 countries, including those manu-factured by the Serum Institute of India in Pune.“Backedby government funding, the UK-made Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine has played an absolutely crucialrole in our fight against COVID-19, saving countless livesin the UK and around the world,” said UK Health Secre-tary Sajid Javid, who marked the vaccine deploymentanniversary with a visit to a vaccination centre inLondon.“The UK’s vaccination and booster programmeis world leading but with the rapid spread of the Omicronvariant, it is more important than ever that people comeforward for their vaccines and booster to top up your im-munity this winter and protect the progress we havemade,” he said.

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC)said it invested early in Oxford University’s vaccine de-velopment team, supporting their technology since 2016and their COVID-19 jabs since March 2020 with morethan GBP 88 million to help research, develop and manu-facture the vaccine.The UK’s National Institute for HealthResearch’s (NIHR) helped recruit thousands of volun-teers from across the UK for the phase 3 clinical trials andsupported the researchers, which paved the way for ap-proval by the independent Medicines and Healthcareproducts Regulatory Agency (MHRA) in December 2020.

“The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine is a UK successstory and demonstrates what can be achieved when re-searchers, scientists and the government work together,”said UK Vaccines Minister Maggie Throup.

“The at-cost vaccine has given billions of peoplearound the world a way to fight back against this virus,”she said.More than 133 million COVID-19 vaccinationshave been administered in the UK since its rollout of thePfizer/BioNTech vaccines in December 2020, includingaround 34 million boosters and third doses, securing vi-

UK marks first anniversary of Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine deployment

tal protection against Omicron. The current “Get BoostedNow” campaign encouraging adults to get a top-up dosehas led to further increase in vaccination rates.ProfessorAndrew Pollard, who helped develop the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, has warned that it would not besustainable or affordable in the long term to keep vacci-nating all adults against COVID-19 with boosters andsaid that vulnerable groups should be identified for addi-tional doses.

“It really is not affordable, sustainable or probablyeven needed to vaccinate everyone on the planet everyfour to six months,” Prof. Pollard told the BBC.“We haven’teven managed to vaccinate everyone in Africa with onedose so we’re certainly not going to get to a point wherefourth doses for everyone is manageable… We may wellneed to have boosters for the vulnerable in the popula-tion but I think it’s highly unlikely that we’ll haveprogrammes going forward regularly of boosting every-one over the age of 12,” he said.Under current guide-lines, for people who are clinically vulnerable to COVIDdue to underlying health conditions, a third dose of avaccine is considered their full course – with a fourth jabbeing given as their booster.

Beijing, GNS News Agency, Jan 8A landslide at a construction site in southwestern

China has killed 14 people and injured three others, offi-cial reports said Tuesday.The cause of the landslideMonday evening in Bijie city in Guizhou province is un-der investigation, the reports said.

Workers were building a training facility for a hospi-tal at the time of the landslide. Mountainous, inlandGuizhou is one of China's least developed regions.Morethan 1,000 people joined the overnight rescue effort,Xinhua News Agency said.Workplace accidents are arecurring problem in China as a result of managers cut-ting corners, lax enforcement of safety standards anddecaying infrastructure.

Among China's worst accidents was a massive 2015explosion at a chemical warehouse in the port city ofTianjin that killed 173 people, most of them firefightersand police officers. (

Landslide in southwesternChina kills 14 people, injures 3

London, GNS News Agency, Jan 8A third dose of Covid-19 vaccine can provide up to

88 per cent protection against hospitalisation from infec-tion by the Omicron variant of coronavirus, according toearly results from studies conducted in the UK.The find-ings compiled in a report by the UK Health SecurityAgency (UKSHA) show significantly higher protectionprovided by third vaccine dose against the highly mu-tated variant first identified in Botswana and South Africain November, compared to two doses.Eric Topol, profes-sor of molecular medicine and director of the ScrippsResearch Translational Institute in the US, noted thatvaccine effectiveness dropped to 52 per cent against

Omicron around six months after taking the second shotof a Covid-19 vaccine.However, a booster dose substan-tially increased immunity and lowered the odds of beinghospitalised with Covid-19 infection."That's a big boostof protection. Vaccine effectiveness increased from 52per cent (due to two dose waning after six months) to 88per cent after the third dose," Topol tweeted onSunday.The UKHSA report cited two studies that exam-ined the association between both variant and vaccina-tion status and risk of hospitalisation.The first study isbased on approximately half a million Omicron cases,and includes all age groups while the second one uses asmaller dataset and is restricted to ages 18 and over.Thefirst study confirms the previous finding of reduced over-all risk of hospitalisation for Omicron compared to theDelta variant. Jerusalem: Israel will admit foreigners withpresumed Covid-19 immunity from medium-risk coun-tries as of January 9, the Health Ministry said on Monday,moving to reverse a ban on entry by foreigners imposedin late November in response to Omicron surge. Reuters

Boosters raise vaxeffectiveness against

Omicron to 88%: Studies

Cairo, GNS News Agency, Jan 8Sudan's Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok announced

his resignation Sunday amid a political deadlock andwidespread pro-democracy protests following a militarycoup that derailed the country's fragile transition to demo-cratic rule.Hamdok, a former UN official seen as the civil-ian face of Sudan's transitional government, had beenreinstated as prime minister in November as part of anagreement with the military following the October coup.In that time he had failed to name a Cabinet and hisresignation throws Sudan into political uncertainty amiduphill security and economic challenges. In a televisednational address Sunday, Hamdok called for a dialogueto agree on a “national charter” and to “draw a roadmap”to the transition to democracy in accordance with 2019constitutional document governing the transitional pe-riod.

Sudan PM Abdalla Hamdokquits amid political deadlock

London, GNS News Agency, Jan 8Captain Harpreet Chandi, a 32-year-old Indian-ori-

gin British Sikh Army officer and physiotherapist alsoknown as Polar Preet, has created history by becomingthe first woman of colour to complete a solo unsupportedtrek to the South Pole.Chandi announced her history-making feat on her live blog on Monday at the end of Day40 after travelling 700 miles (1,127 kilometres) while pull-ing a pulk or sledge with all of her kit and battling tem-peratures of minus 50 degrees Celsius and wind speedsof around 60mph.

“I made it to the South Pole where it's snowing. Feel-ing so many emotions right now. I knew nothing aboutthe polar world three years ago and it feels so surreal tofinally be here. It was tough getting here and I want tothank everybody for their support,” she wrote.

“This expedition was always about so much morethan me. I want to encourage people to push their bound-aries and to believe in themselves, and I want you to beable to do it without being labelled a rebel. I have beentold no on many occasions and told to ‘just do the normalthing', but we create our own normal," Chandi said.Sheuploaded a live tracking map of her trek and also postedregular blogs of her journey to the snow-capped region.

British Sikh Army officermakes history with solo climb

to South Pole


GNS News Agency, Jan 8Ashok Leyland has won the bid for providing 500

new buses to Sri Lanka, while the Sri Lanka Police forcewill procure 750 jeeps from Mahindra and MahindraSriLanka’s Cabinet has given its nod for a new deal an-nounced by the Energy Minister last week, to jointly de-velop the Trincomalee oil tank farm with India.Accordingto a press statement issued by the Department on Gov-ernment Information, on decisions taken at the first cabi-

Sri Lanka Cabinet clears Trincomaleeoil tank farm deal with India

net meeting of the year held on Monday, India and SriLanka “have reached an agreement to implement a jointdevelopment project” through diplomatic talks.

“Accordingly, the Cabinet of Ministers approved aproposal presented by Minister of Power to allocate 24 oiltanks for the business activities of the Ceylon PetroleumCorporation, to allocate 14 tanks of the Lower Oil TankComplex already in use by Lanka IOC for the company’sbusiness activities and to implement a developmentproject by a company named Trinco Petroleum TerminalPvt. Ltd. of the remaining 61 tanks, 51% to be owned byCeylon Petroleum Corporation and 49% by Lanka IOC,”the statement said, reaffirming Minister UdayaGammanpila’s announcement last week.

It however did not mention the 50-year lease for the14 tanks run by Lanka IOC that the Minister earlier spokeof. According to local media reports, the agreement onthe project is expected to be signed soon.The signing ofthe agreement will mark a milestone for New Delhi in along-stalled, controversial project in Sri Lanka's easternTrincomalee district, which has an enviable naturalharbour. While Indian involvement in a strategic nationalasset is viewed with suspicion by Sri Lanka’s Sinhalanationalist forces, New Delhi has been keen in partneringSri Lanka in developing the World War II-era storage tanks,since it was first discussed around the time of the Indo-Lanka Accord of 1987. Prime Minister Narendra Modi,during his visit to the island nation in 2015, spoke of de-veloping Trincomalee as a “regional hub”.The cabinet alsocleared two other proposals with Indian involvement.Ashok Leyland has won the bid for providing 500 newbuses to Sri Lanka, while the Sri Lanka Police force willprocure 750 jeeps from Mahindra and Mahindra, the offi-cial release said.

GNS News Agency, Jan 8British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday said

that the U.K.‘s state-run hospitals will face “considerablepressure” in the coming weeks due to the steep rise invirus infections.Speaking during a visit to a vaccine cen-tre, Mr. Johnson said “the pressure on our NHS hospitalsis going to be considerable in the course of the next coupleof weeks and maybe more” as “Omicron continues to surgethrough the country”.The U.K. saw record numbers ofcases in the last days of 2021 though it has not releasedfigures for the whole country this year.The country is oneof Europe’s worst affected with a death toll of nearly1,49,000.

The Prime Minister said that he was aware of highlevels of hospital staff absences due to COVID-19, add-ing: “we’re looking at what we can do to move people intothose areas that are particularly badly affected”.Around50,000 NHS staff were absent from work on Friday be-cause they were ill or self-isolating due to COVID-19, TheSunday Times reported.

Chris Hopson, the chief executive of NHS Providers,which represents hospitals in England, told Sky News

U.K. hospitals will face ‘considerable pressure’,Boris Johnson amid spike in COVID cases

that “the pressure on hospitals outside London is nowgrowing” after the capital bore the brunt of virus casesearlier.Mr. Johnson urged the public to get a booster vac-cination, saying there are slots available for two millionpeople this week. So far almost 34 million people havereceived the booster jabs.The Omicron variant “does seempretty conclusively to be less severe than Delta or Alpha,”he said. “It is putting fewer people into ICU.”

GNS News Agency, Jan 8With COVID-19 cases surging just as students are

about to return from winter break, dozens of U.S. collegesare moving classes online again for at least the first weekor so of the semester — and some warn it could stretchlonger if the wave of infection doesn’t subsidesoon.Harvard is moving classes online for the first threeweeks of the new year, with a return to campus scheduledfor late January, “conditions permitting.” The University ofChicago is delaying the beginning of its new term andholding the first two weeks online. Some others are invit-ing students back to campus but starting classes online,including Michigan State University.Many colleges hopethat an extra week or two will get them past the peak of thenationwide spike driven by the highly contagious omi-cron variant. Still, the surge is casting uncertainty over asemester many had hoped would be the closest to nor-mal since the start of the pandemic.For some students,starting the term remotely is becoming routine — manycolleges used the strategy last year amid a wave of cases.But some fear the latest shift could extend well beyond aweek or two.

Jake Maynard, a student at George WashingtonUniversity in the nation's capital, said he is fine with aweek of online classes, but beyond that, he hopes offi-cials trust in the booster shots and provide a traditionalcollege experience.He has already taken a year of onlinelearning, which he said “did not work” and wasn't what heexpected from a school that charges more than $50,000 ayear.“I’m a junior, but about half my schooling experiencehas been online,” said Mr. Maynard (20) of Ellicott City,Maryland. “You lose so much of what makes the schoolthe school.”The university is inviting students back to cam-pus starting Monday, but classes will be held online untilJan. 18 as officials ramp up virus testing and isolate anyinfected students. The school has more than doubled itsisolation space and moved up the deadline for a newbooster shot requirement by three weeks because ofomicron.“The omicron variant hit us at a terrible time, ba-sically the last couple weeks of the fall semester, whichdoesn’t give us much time to prepare for spring,” said Dr.Lynn Goldman, dean of George Washington’s school ofpublic health.The university was among many that sawinfections soar in the days before winter break. The cam-pus averaged more than 80 cases a day during finals

U.S. colleges returningto online classes

week, compared with just a few a day for much of the fall.And while most recent cases were mild, nearly all wereamong students who had received at least two doses of aCOVID-19 vaccine.As for the mid-January target date forresuming in-person learning, Dr. Goldman said officials"recognize there’s some possibility that it won’t bepossible.”So far, more than 70 colleges across 26 statesare starting the term online, and others say they are con-sidering it. Many making the move now use quarter sys-tems that start earlier than those with semesters.

Many of those shifting online are in recent virus hotspots, including George Washington, Yale and Columbiaon the East Coast, along with Wayne State University inDetroit and Northwestern University near Chicago. Thelist also includes most of the University of California cam-puses and Rice University in Houston.At the University ofCalifornia, Riverside, students can return on Monday butface two weeks of online classes. They are also beingbeing asked to sequester for five days while they undergotwo rounds of virus testing.It’s the first time since last springthat the school has moved fully remote, but ChancellorKim Wilcox said it is the best way to prevent the virus fromspreading after students return from holiday travel.“Wethink about it as rebuilding our bubble,” he said. “It givesus a chance to reset things and then hopefully be off andrunningSome other colleges are delaying the new termwithout offering remote classes. Syracuse Universitypushed its semester back a week, citing projections thatthe first three weeks of January will be "the most challeng-ing of this surge.”Others are pressing ahead with in-per-son learning, saying the health risks are low with masksand booster shots.At Northeastern University in Boston,one of a growing number of schools requiring boosters,students are returning as planned. Officials said the schoolis shifting its focus from preventing all cases to warding offserious illness or hospitalization.“As we move into thisendemic phase of the pandemic, our job is to continue tocontrol COVID effectively, not let COVID control us,” KenHenderson, chancellor and senior vice president for learn-ing, said in a message to the campus.The move drewpraise from Republican Gov. Charlie Baker, who saidCOVID-19 poses little risk to college students, while “pro-longed isolation is a very real risk to their growth andmental health.”The University of Florida plans to return toin-person learning at the start of the semester, despite arequest from a faculty union to teach remotely for the firstthree weeks.Paul Ortiz, president of the campus chapterof the United Faculty of Florida, said older faculty mem-bers will be at higher risk, especially with no mask orvaccine mandates, which have been outlawed by GOPGov. Ron DeSantis.“We do not want our campus to be-come a super-spreader,” Mr. Ortiz said. “There’s just a lotof uncertainty right now, a lot of stress.”At some collegesstarting remotely, officials say they are committed to aquick return to the classroom.The 50,000-student cam-pus of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign plansto resume in-person classes after one week of online in-struction. Students are being encouraged to return duringthat first week so they can take two virus tests, which willclear them to resume in-person activities if they test nega-tive.

GNS News Agency, Jan 8Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said on January 2 that

Israel would offer a fourth dose of COVID-19 vaccine topeople over 60 and to medical staff as it faces a surge inOmicron variant infections.Israel last week approved afourth dose of the vaccine developed by Pfizer andBioNTech, a second booster, for people who are immune-compromised and the elderly living in care homes."Wenow have a new layer of defence," Mr. Bennett said in atelevised news conference, adding that Israel's top gov-ernment medical official, whose approval is needed toexpand the booster campaign, had signed off on the lat-est move."Israel will once again be pioneering the globalvaccination effort," Mr. Bennett said.

Earlier, the Health Ministry's Director-GeneralNachman Ash said Israel could reach herd immunity asOmicron infections mounted and Merck & Co'smolnupiravir anti-viral pillwas approved for use in COVID-

Israel to offer fourth COVID vaccineshot to over 60s, medical staff

19 patients over 18.Herd immunity is the point at which apopulation is protected from a virus, either through vacci-nation or by people having developed antibodies by con-tracting the disease.The highly transmissible Omicron vari-ant has caused a wave of coronavirus cases, with world-wide infections hitting a record high, with an average ofjust over one million cases detected each day betweenDecember 24 and 30, Reuters data showed.Deaths, how-ever, have not risen to the same degree, raising hopesthat the new variant is less lethal, a view Mr. Bennett alsoechoed in describing the second booster as largely a bidto prevent serious illness among the elderly.

Daily cases in Israel are expected to reach recordhighs in the coming three weeks. Mr. Bennett said that upto 50,000 people might soon be infected each day, whileeligibility for testing could be tightened to help relievelong lines at testing stations."The [infection] numbers willhave to be very high in order to reach herd immunity," Mr.Ash told 103 FM Radio earlier. "This is possible but wedon't want to reach it by means of infections, we want it tohappen as a result of many people vaccinating."The headof the health ministry's coronavirus task force, SalmanZarka, said herd immunity was far from guaranteed, be-cause experience over the past two years showed thatsome COVID-19 patients who recovered were laterreinfected.Israel's health ministry said around 60% of its9.4 million population are fully vaccinated, almost all withthe Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which means they have ei-ther received three doses or have recently had theirsecond.But hundreds of thousands of those eligible for athird inoculation have so far not taken it.Over the past 10days, daily infections have more than quadrupled. Se-vere cases have also climbed, but at a far lower rate,rising from about 80 to around 100.

GNS News Agency, Jan 8The Food and Drug Administration allows extra Pfizer

shots for children as young as 12The U.S. is expandingCOVID-19 boosters as it confronts the Omicron surge,with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) allowingextra Pfizer shots for children as young as 12.

Boosters already are recommended for everyone 16and older, and federal regulators on Monday decidedthey’re also warranted for 12- to 15-year-olds once enoughtime has passed since their last dose.But the move, com-ing as classes restart after the holidays, isn’t the final step.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention mustdecide whether to recommend boosters for the youngerteens.The FDA said everyone 12 and older who’s eligiblefor a Pfizer booster can get one as early as five monthsafter their last dose rather than six months. Children tendto suffer less serious illness from COVID-19 than adults.

FDA expands COVIDboosters for more U.S. teens

But child hospitalisations are rising during the omicron wave— most of them unvaccinated.

GNS News Agency, Jan 8Sokhary Chau, a city councilor in Lowell, Massachu-

setts, was unanimously picked by his council peers toassume the legislative body’s top post on Monday. Healso became the city’s first Asian American mayor.“Godbless America, right? I was a refugee, now I’m mayor of amajor city in Massachusetts,” the 49-year-old, who worksfor the U.S. Social Security Administration, said after be-ing officially sworn in. “I don’t know if that could happenanywhere else in the world. I’m still trying to absorb it.”Mr.Chau, in his inaugural remarks, reflected on his family’sperilous escape from Cambodia and the former industrialcity of Lowell's deep immigrant roots.

Located on the Merrimack River near the New Hamp-shire state line, Lowell was an early center of America’stextile industry, drawing waves of European and LatinAmerican immigrants over generations.Today, the city ofmore than 115,000 residents is nearly 25% Asian andhome to the nation’s second-largest Cambodiancommunity.“As a proud Cambodian American, I am stand-ing on the shoulders of many immigrants who came be-fore me to build this city," Mr. Chau said Monday before acrowd that included his wife and two teenage sons.Mr.Chau recounted how his father, a captain in the Cambo-dian army, was executed by the communist Khmer Rougein 1975 during the country’s civil war.He said his mother,who died last year, managed to keep her seven childrenalive for four years, surviving “landmines, jungles, hun-ger, sickness and uncertainty” to deliver them safely tothe U.S.

Mr. Chau said America may not have “streets pavedwith gold” as his family imagined while living in refugeecamps, but it’s a land where democracy is possible be-cause of “systems of checks and balances” and principleslike fairness, equality and transparency.In an interviewlater, Mr. Chau said he was around 9 years old when hisfamily initially settled in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with thehelp of the Catholic Church — an experience thatprompted the family to convert to Christianity.They madetheir way to Lowell's growing Cambodian community in

First Cambodian Americanmayor in US takes office

the mid-1980s, where some of his older siblings immedi-ately set to work in local factories.

Mr. Chau, however, continued his studies and even-tually earned a scholarship to Phillips Academy, a exclu-sive boarding school in nearby Andover. He went on toMacalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, where he stud-ied economics and political science, also on ascholarship.Before running for office, Mr. Chau said heworked mostly in financial services, including running amortgage lending company in Lowell with his wife beforethe housing market crashed in the early 2000s.Mr. Chau’selection follows the ascendance of new Boston MayorMichelle Wu, whose parents immigrated to the U.S. fromTaiwan.

She was sworn in last November as Boston's firstwoman and first person of color elected to the post.Mr.Chau is also among the growing list of Cambodian Ameri-can officeholders in Massachusetts: at least two other citycouncilors, a school committee member and two statelawmakers, all from Lowell, according to Vannak Theng,president of the Cambodian Mutual Assistance Associa-tion of Greater Lowell.But while Cambodian Americansserved on local boards and state legislatures nationwide,none were elected mayor, according to the Asian PacificAmerican Institute for Congressional Studies, a Washing-ton nonprofit that helps Asian Pacific Americans pursuepublic office and maintains a listing of current officehold-ers.

In fact, Long Beach, California, home to the nation’slargest Cambodian community, only elected its first Cam-bodian American city councilor in 2020, the organizationnoted.Mr. Chau’s election also comes on the heels of afederal court lawsuit that argued Lowell’s election pro-cess violated the voting rights of minority residents, whocomprise nearly 50% of its population.A recent settlementin the case prompted the city to change its election pro-cess, starting with the 2021 elections.

The result was the city’s most diverse class of office-holders, said Oren Sellstrom, litigation director at Law-yers for Civil Rights, a Boston group that brought the 2017suit.“Just four years ago, the city’s elected officials wereall white and largely unresponsive to the needs of thecity’s communities of color,” Mr. Sellstrom said.

“This historic change in the city’s power structurewould never have been possible under the old electoralsystem.”To be sure, the mayoral office in Lowell is largelyceremonial.The city, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) northof Boston, is run by a city manager picked by the council.The mayor is effectively the council president, leading itsmeetings and also serving as chair of the city’s schoolcommittee.Still, Mr. Chau acknowledged his election's sig-nificance to the wider Cambodian diaspora, calling onothers to step up in their communities.“We can no longerbe just victims,” he said as he closed his inaugural re-marks. “It is our time now to be leaders and to succeed.”


New Delhi: Gen-Z has always stood out for beingthe generation to break away from the traditional normsand keep individuality at the centre. This philosophy isalso reflected in their fashion choices. With Gen-Z styleicons such as Jaden Smith and Billie Eilish shaping upfuture trends, in 2022, Gen-Z is sure to step out in some ofthe most unique fashion trends we expect to rise.-BindiyaBhatt, Director – Category, at Myntra, shares some of themost promising trends that we expect Gen Z to flaunt in2022.Experiments in Color: Gen-Z is more open to ex-perimentation with the colours that they pair. They aren’tafraid of mixing and matching colours that aren’t conven-tionally worn together to create a unique ensemble thatis fashionable and comfortable. Want to don a pair ofpink trousers with a bright orange cardigan? Gen-Zwouldn’t shy away from that and neither should you!

Turning back to the 90s: Fashion trends come instrong, disappear and then resurface again, and rightnow, Gen-Z is experiencing all the 90s fashion trendsthat Millenials swore they would leave behind. With therevival of cut-outs, asymmetric slits, sparkly butterfly clips,tinted sunglasses and skinny baguette bags taking cen-tre stage, Gen-Z is living out the 90s fashion dream, of

Gen Z fashion trendsto look out for in 2022

course, in their own unique way, made popular by popu-lar global trend-setters.Going Fluid: Gen-Z has a morefluid approach to gender than the previous generations,as cultural norms shift and gender fluidity becomes amore recognized concept. Hence this cohort never shiesaway from flaunting fashion in any way they see fit. Gen-der-neutral clothing has been gaining popularity overthe past few months, and we expect to see significantlymore of this trend in 2022. With global brands alreadyhopping onto the gender-neutral wagon, we can expectmore brands to also join the gender-neutral hype trainin the coming year.Being the Punk Academic: PunkAcademia is one of the newer trends that fashion enthu-siasts never imagined Gen-Z would bring about, how-ever, with popular celebrities the signature punk aca-demic looks, it is no surprise that it is a hit among theGen-Z. From tartan miniskirts and oversized mohairsweaters to fitted corsets and bodycon tops, this trendsurely is a good mix of two opposite worlds.The ComfyWay: Gen-Z has a strong preference for clothing that iscomfortable, especially with work from home culture andpost-pandemic norms. What’s ruling the trend and havebecome the standard uniform in every Gen-Z’s closetare silhouettes, comfort sleepsuits, stay at home looks,and athleisure, for being super comfortable yet stylishand chic. From leggings and bike shorts to oversizedjumpers and track pants, Gen Z has found these par-ticular pieces of clothing acceptable for just about anyoccasion.Gen-Z is all about self-expression and indi-viduality. Their shopping habits, especially on a plat-form like Myntra, with a dedicated section for them, called,ï¿½Style Cast’, catering to their specific needs, reflectsthis in a number of ways. With a generation that thriveson the idea of acceptance and self-expression, there isno doubt that their fashion trends will keep evolving andchanging to be more inclusive, unique and bold in ev-ery way.

GNS News Agency, Jan 8Known as 'IHU', the B.1.640.2 variant has been re-

ported by researchers at institute IHU Mediterranee In-fection in at least 12 cases, and has been linked to travelto African country Cameroon.However, the researchersnoted that it is too early to speculate on how this variantbehaves as far as infection and protection from vaccinesis concerned.The yet-to-be peer-reviewed study, postedon the preprint repository MedRxiv on December 29, re-vealed that IHU has 46 mutations and 37 deletions re-sulting in 30 amino acid substitutions and 12deletions.Amino acids are molecules that combine to formproteins, and both are the building blocks of life.

Fourteen amino acid substitutions, including N501Yand E484K, and nine deletions are located in the spikeprotein.Most currently used vaccines are targeted at thespike protein of SARS-CoV-2, which the virus uses toenter and infect the cells.N501Y and E484K mutationswere earlier also found in Beta, Gamma, Theta and Omi-cron variants."The mutation set and phylogenetic posi-tion of the genomes obtained here indicate based on ourprevious definition a new variant we named IHU," theauthors of the study said.

Explained | What are variants of concern?"These data are another example of the

unpredictability of the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 vari-ants, and of their introduction in a given geographicalarea from abroad," they added.The B.1.640.2 has notbeen identified in other countries so far or labelled a vari-ant under investigation by the World Health Organization(WHO).According to the researchers, the index (first) casewas an adult diagnosed positive by RTPCR performed ina laboratory on a nasopharyngeal sample collected in

New coronavirus variant'IHU' identified in France

mid-November last year.Epidemiologist Eric Feigl-Dingposted a long Twitter thread in which he said that newvariants keep emerging but it does not necessarily meanthey will be more dangerous.

"What makes a variant more well-known and dan-gerous is its ability to multiply because of the number ofmutations it has in relation to the original virus," Feigl-Ding tweeted on Tuesday."This is when it becomes a"variant of concern" - like Omicron, which is more conta-gious and more past immunity evasive. It remains to beseen in which category this new variant will fall," hesaid.Explained | Understanding the Omicron variant ofcoronavirusMany countries are currently experiencing aspike in COVID-19 cases driven by the Omicron variantwhich was first identified in South Africa and Botswana inNovember last year.Since then, the variant of concernhas spread to over 100 countries.In India, a total of 1,892cases of Omicron variant have been detected across 23states and Union Territories so far.

The technology will enable users to start their ve-hicles as well as make adjustments to control the ve-hicles through facial expressions and hand gestures.LG

LG builds tech to start carsusing facial recognition

Electronics has developed a new technology that willenable car owners to start their vehicles without using akey by identifying their facial expressions and finger move-ments using multiple in-car cameras, report says.The bio-metric authentication system uses one of the cameras toidentify the user's specific body parts.A second cameraautomatically adjusts its viewing angles based on thedata of the first camera to capture the user's iris and otherbiometric characteristics.The technology will enable us-ers to start their vehicles as well as make adjustments tocontrol the vehicles through facial expressions and handgestures, according to a report by Digitimes.

It can also detect whether a driver is drowsy or has asudden illness by monitoring their eyelids and facialmovements.Besides regular and autonomous driving, thebiometric recognition technology can also be applied tovirtual reality, augmented reality and 5G communications,according to the report.

A notice in the app said it is in a research and devel-opment pilot phase and is only available to selected us-ers through supported institutions.China has releasedpilot versions of its digital yuan wallet application onmobile phone app stores as the country's central banksteps up its push to develop its own digital currency.The"e-CNY (Pilot Version)" app, developed by the People'sBank of China's (PBOC) digital currency research insti-tute, was available for download on Chinese Androidand Apple app stores on Tuesday in Shanghai.

A notice in the app said it is in a research and devel-opment pilot phase and is only available to selected us-ers through supported institutions that provide e-CNY

China central bank launches digitalyuan wallet apps for Android, iOS

services, including major domestic banks.PBOC Gover-nor Yi Gang said in November that China would continueto advance the development of its central bank digital

currency and improveits design and usage,including increasing itsinteroperability withexisting paymenttools.In a year-endmeeting, the PBOCsaid it would continueto push forward withthe research and de-

velopment of the digital yuan.

GNS News Agency, Jan 8Companies will not be allowed to list abroad if the

review finds that national security could beimpacted.China's cyberspace regulator on Tuesday saidit will implement new rules from Feb. 15 that require plat-form companies with data for more than 1 million users toundergo a security review before listing its sharesoverseas.The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC)

China to require certain firms to undergo cybersecurityreviews before pursuing overseas listings

also said such firms should apply for cybersecurity re-views before submitting listing applications to foreign se-curities regulators, according to statements published onits WeChat account.Companies will not be allowed to listabroad if the review finds that national security could beimpacted, it said in a statement on its official WeChataccount.

The CAC first proposed the rules in July, saying thatthe security review will put a focus on risks of data beingaffected, controlled or manipulated by foreign govern-ments after overseas listings.New rules governing theuse of algorithm recommendation technology will alsobe implemented from March 1, the CAC said in a sepa-rate statement.Those rules, which were first proposed inAugust last year, will require companies to give users theright to switch off the service and also tightens oversightof news providers that use such technology.China'scyberspace regulators are imposing tighter restrictionson data collection and data storage. Authorities are alsomore broadly pushing for companies to listdomestically.Two new sets of rules, the Data SecurityLaw and the Personal Information Protection Law, whichcover data storage and data privacy respectively, wentinto effect last year.

GNS News Agency, Jan 8The carriers had faced pressure from the White

House, airlines and aviation unions to delay the deploy-ment amid concerns about potential interference of 5Gwith sensitive aircraft electronics that could disruptflights.Verizon Communications and AT&T Inc said lateon Monday they had agreed to a two-week delay in de-ploying C-Band wireless spectrum, averting an aviationsafety standoff that threatened to disrupt flights startingthis week.The carriers had faced pressure from the WhiteHouse, airlines and aviation unions to delay the deploy-ment amid concerns about potential interference of 5Gwith sensitive aircraft electronics like radio altimeters thatcould disrupt flights.

The agreement pushes back the deployment dateto Jan. 19. Verizon said the delay "promises the certaintyof bringing this nation our game-changing 5G network inJanuary." AT&T said it agreed to the delay at the requestof Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg."We know avia-tion safety and 5G can co-exist and we are confidentfurther collaboration and technical assessment will allayany issues," the company said.Over the next two weeks,regulators, airlines and wireless carriers will look at waysof minimising the potential impact of interference on flightoperations.Earlier on Monday, groups representing U.S.airlines, aircraft manufacturers and airports had urgedthe White House to intervene to delay the use by wirelesscarriers of C-Band spectrum for 5G, which the carrierswon in an $80 billion government auction.The delay cameafter the chief executives of AT&T and Verizon on Sun-day had rejected a request to delay the planned Jan. 5introduction of new 5G wireless service over aviationsafety concerns but offered to temporarily adopt new safe-guards.

Buttigieg and Federal Aviation Administration chief

Verizon, AT&T to delay 5Gdeployment, averting aviation standoff

Steve Dickson had asked AT&T CEO John Stankey andVerizon CEO Hans Vestberg on Friday for a delay of upto two weeks.In December, the FAA warned that interfer-ence from the planned use of 5G wireless spectrum posedan air safety risk and could result in flight diversions. Butit had not yet issued formal notices that would furtheroutline the potential scale of impact.Sara Nelson, presi-dent of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, whichrepresents 50,000 flight attendants at 17 airlines, hadsaid on Twitter that "if medicine delivered to hospitalsand homes is delayed" Verizon would be responsible"Ifpassengers are stranded, thank @Verizon," Nelson said."Their incentive is money. Our incentive is safety.

It’s the purest form of profits over people."The wire-less companies Sunday said they would not deploy 5Garound airports for six months but rejected any broaderlimitation on using C-Band spectrum. That exclusion zonearound airports is not as large as the FAA wants.TheTrade group Airlines for America, representing AmericanAirlines, FedEx and other carriers, had asked the Fed-eral Communications Commission to halt deploymentaround many airports, warning thousands of flights couldbe disrupted daily.

Apple has built an ecosystem of 1 billion iPhoneowners who spend money on services and that it is well-positioned for future categories like self-driving cars andaugmented reality.Is Apple Inc really worth $3 trillion 16months after becoming the first company valued at $2trillion?The answer depends on how one views the iPhonemaker's ability to keep up the unprecedented growth ofthe past 15 years. In its last fiscal year ended Sept. 25,Apple delivered 33% revenue growth to $365.8 billionthanks to strong demand for 5G iPhone upgrades.

But that growth spurt came after a year of single-digit sales growth and a fiscal 2019 when Apple's salesdeclined.The bull case for Apple is that it has built anecosystem of 1 billion iPhone owners who spend moneyon services and that it is well-positioned for future cat-egories like self-driving cars and augmented reality.

The deep discount investors once ascribed to Apple'sstock because of its dependence on the iPhone for salesgrowth has disappeared as Apple has proved that thedevice sits at the centre of an expanding solar systemthat adds new gadgets like the Apple Watch and AppleAirTags and new, paid services like television and fit-ness classes."Apple has been and still is an incrediblegrowth story anchored by must-have products and a grow-ing portfolio of services. While years ago the stock pricewas a value investor's dream, I don’t think the currentnear-record high price should be a sell signal for long-term focused investors," said Trip Miller, managing part-ner at Gullane Capital Partners.Moreover, Apple is trad-ing at about 30 times its expected 12-month earnings,down a bit from a multiple of 32 in early 2021 but still athighs not seen since 2008, according to Refinitiv data.

Hal Eddins, chief economist at Apple shareholderCapital Investment Counsel, said Apple has been a"safety stock" through the pandemic and that investorsare likely expecting solid holiday sales.Apple "seems tobe vaccinated against anything that Omicron can throwat it," Eddins said. "I’m not complacent at this level, butthere would have to be some nasty unforeseen events torock the boat."Some analysts believe Apple has plenty ofroom to grow in coming years, with future products suchas the Apple Car."We see the prospects of Apple Car -representing the clearest path to doubling Apple's rev-enue and market cap - catalysing a shift in investor narra-tive back toward the attractiveness of the platform (1 bil-lion loyal customers) and long-term, sustainable growth,"Morgan Stanley analyst Katy L. Huberty wrote in a No-vember note.

No guaranteesThe bear case, however, is that Apple is hitting the

limits of how much it can grow its user base and how

Analysis | Is Apple worth $3 trillion?Bulls, bears examine the case

much cash it can squeeze from each user, with no guar-antees that future product categories will prove as lucra-tive as the iPhone.In a December note to investors,Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi warned that Apple'sprospects in the augmented and virtual reality categoryare bright but likely to account for only 4% of its revenueby 2030. Moreover, the entire market for those devices isnot likely to near the billion-unit mark until 2040, hewrote.Sacconaghi also saw "no obvious catalysts formultiple expansion" in Apple's stock "given slower ex-pected growth" in the next fiscal year. He has a market-perform rating on the stock.Another concern is uncer-tainty over Apple's ability to lock in the same profits forpaid services on its future hardware. Its App Store busi-ness model, which takes commissions on in-app pur-chases of digital goods, has been targeted by proposedlegislation in the United States and Europe.

To be sure, one of the primary drivers of Apple'sballooning valuation is the goal it set in 2018 to get whatat the time was nearly $100 billion in net cash off its bal-ance sheet and become net-cash neutral.

That goal, for which Apple never specified a dead-line, has been tough to meet because it simply keepsmaking money. Apple generated $104 billion in cash fromoperations in fiscal 2021 and returned $106.5 billion toshareholders. But its net cash remained at $66 billion atthe fiscal year's end.With big acquisitions largely out ofthe question under current U.S. antitrust regulators, Applehas had few options but to shovel cash back to share-holders, said Tom Plumb, founder of Wisconsin CapitalManagement and an Apple shareholder.

"They're fighting the fact they've got $100 billion ofcash flow a year," Plumb said. "You can't bet against acompany that has this type of cash flow."


San Francisco: The market cap of Apple finallycrossed the $3-trillion mark (which is almost India’s GDP),more than a year after surpassing the $2-trillionmark.Shortly after hitting the $3-trillion milestone late onMonday, the market cap dipped again a bit during theday. The Apple stock closed at $182.01.In order to offi-cially designate Apple as the first publicly-traded com-pany to have the $3-trillion valuation, the market cap mustbe above the $3-trillion mark when the market closes af-ter the day’s trade, reports The Verge.The momentousgrowth has come owing to the success of iPhones andother products despite supply constraints.In India, Appledoubled its India market share in its fiscal year that endedon September 30, 2021, according to CEO TimCook.Apple estimated that supply constraints had arounda $6 billion revenue dollar impact driven primarily by in-dustry-wide silicon shortages and Covid-related manu-facturing disruptions.

“Even so, we set an all-time record for Mac and quar-terly records for iPhone, iPad, Wearables, Home and Ac-cessories representing 30 per cent year-over-year growthin products,” Cook had said during an earnings call with

Apple briefly crosses record$3 trillion market cap

analysts in October.“During fiscal 2021, we earned nearlyone-third of our revenue from emerging markets anddoubled our business in India and Vietnam,” headded.The festive season’s (Q4) full impact will be re-flected in the next quarter and experts believe that iPhone13 and 12 are likely to lead within the portfolio globally,including India.Apple isn’t the only company in the tril-lion-dollar club. Amazon, Google parent company Alpha-bet, Microsoft, and Tesla all have market caps exceeding$1 trillion.

San Francisco: Apple is planning to launch four newhandsets iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Max, iPhone 14 Pro aswell as iPhone 14 Pro Max in September and now a newreport has claimed that the iPhone 14 may come with ahole-punch display that eliminates the notch, alongsidean updated iPhone SE with 5G connectivity.According toMark Gurman’s “Power On” newsletter, Apple is planningto introduce a hole-punch screen, that creates a compactwindow for a camera to shine through, without needing touse a full notch, reports AppleInsider.The iPhone maker

iPhone 14 to get punch-hole screen,rumoured to ditch screen notch

may come up with an alternative to keep using Face ID onits flagship devices.

In addition, Gurman also claimed that the iPhone SEwould gain an update that would add 5G connectivity toApple’s entry-level iPhone.In addition, Apple is also plan-ning to launch iPhone models without a SIM slot bySeptember.Earlier this week, a rumour from Brazilianwebsite Blog do iPhone claimed that iPhone 15 Pro mod-els launching in 2023 might not have a physical SIM cardslot. However, a new report from MacRumors, says thatApple has advised major US carriers to prepare for thelaunch of eSIM-only smartphones by September 2022.

It is possible that Apple might remove the physicalSIM card slot starting with some iPhone 14 models, ratherthan some iPhone 15 models as originally rumoured.It isalso said that there will be support for two eSIM cards,ensuring dual SIM functionality. The removal of the SIMcard slot could further improve water resistance.The nextflagship series, the iPhone 14 line-up, will come with upto 2 TB of storage.Apple will adopt QLC flash storage fornext year’s iPhone and that thanks to the newer storagetechnology, it will increase capacity to 2 TB.

San Francisco: Samsung Electronics on Tuesdaysaid it will unveil its Galaxy S21 FE 5G at the ConsumerElectronics Show (CES), set to open Wednesday in LasVegas, one of the most anticipated phones amongSamsung fans for its flagship expertise and reasonableprices.The launch of the long-awaited model, which had

Samsung to unveilGalaxy S21 FE at CES

According to the National Crime Records Bureau,there is a 400 per cent increase in cybercrime againstchildren in 2020 in comparison to the previous year, witha majority of them related to publishing or transmitting ofmaterial depicting children in sexually explicit acts.Today’schildren and teens are growing up in a digitally connectedworld. It is crucial that they learn to balance the benefitsoffered by technological offerings with an understandingof their own and others’ online behaviour, and then de-velop effective strategies for staying secure and making apositive online impact. It’s important that preteens andteens understand everything about Internet ethics anddigital well-being before they navigate online.

Digital wellbeing for preteens (6 to 13 years)* What kind of interactions are they having online?* What kind of information are they accessing online?* What kind of influence are they having online?* What kind of instructions do they have?Digital wellbeing for teens (13 to 18 years)* Digital Security – What tools and techniques do

they have when they navigate online?* Digital Safety – Are they informed about physical

and psychological well-being?* Digital Spirit – Do they understand and confirm

legal and ethical, content online?A few dangers to consider protecting children:* Cyberbullying means being cruel to others using

technological means on mobile phones, computers, so-cial media, messaging platforms, emails, discussiongroups, and websites. Cyberbullying is widely used forteasing, making fun of, spreading rumours online, send-ing unwanted messages and defamation.

* Online predators – A cyber predator’s goal is tolure and manipulate a child’s belief system by posing as ifthey care for the child along with his or her family. AnInternet predator creates a fake online profile that emo-tionally replaces a trusted parent or partner in a child’smind.

* Social boundaries – Children do not yet under-stand social boundaries. They may post sensitive or per-sonally identifiable information online or on their socialmedia profiles, which is not meant to be visible in public.Speak frankly to your children and discuss public bound-aries and what they mean for the family as a whole.

* Phishing – It’s a malicious attempt to steal your

A guide for parents toprotect kids online

personal information and gain control of an online ac-count of yours. The scammer will send you a fake emailthat links to a fake login to your favourite game or providean alike in exchange for a free game. Cybercriminals of-ten trick children into downloading free games/softwarecontaining malicious malware.

* Social Expressions – Children and teens post pho-tos of parties with drinking and drugs on social media.Usually, teens block their families from the photos andposts, and others just keep posting. We have seen youngteens lose jobs and family relationships many times be-cause of inappropriate posts made in the past.

Rating of Games:* EC: Early Childhood – Ages three and older.* E: Everyone – Ages six and older.* T: Teen – Ages 13 and older.* M: Mature – Ages 17 and older.* AO : Adults Only – Above 18.* Pictures (i) Parental Guidance (ii) Violence and (iii)

Bad Language (iv) 18 YearsGame Genres:* Puzzle: Problem Solving Skills – (Example: Rush

Hour)* Action: Physical Challenges – (Example: The Leg-

ends of Zelda)* Strategy: Gamer(s) Decision Making Skills – (Ex-

ample: StarCraft)* Adventure: Story-based – (Example: Harry Potter’s

Hogwarts Mystery)* Arcade: Single-player Games – (Example: Space

Invaders)* Sports: Sports – (Example: EA Sports Cricket).* Skill based: Mental Skills – (Example: Poker).Tips for protecting children from internet dangers:* Set time limits with Screen Time Agreements (for

both smartphones and the internet). Enable parental con-trols for media, games, and apps. (c) Managing yourchild’s requests and expectations

* You can have daily / weekly reports on their activityusing various apps. (a) Screen Time App – If it’s an iOSdevice. (b) Digital Wellbeing App – If it’s an Android de-vice. (c) Use child monitoring apps such as Justify, NetNanny, Teen Angles, and others to keep an eye on yourchildren.(c) The most recommended app is “Re-ThinkWords”: It provides an important opportunity for adoles-cents to change their minds and not post hurtful mes-sages online.

* Keep an eye on (a) adding money to your child’sbank account. (b) Removing options from payment ac-counts/cards associated with apps. (c) A summary of whatthey bought

* Manage your home network and digital parentingneeds with www.justificloud.com. It is the world’s only all-in-one smart solution that works on your home router andhelps to create various policies to manage screen times,bandwidth limits, content controls, no internet zones,prioritising devices for better productivity, etc.

New Delhi: Smartphone brand OnePlus on Mondayannounced to launch much-awaited ‘9RT 5G’ smartphoneand OnePlus Buds Z2 this month in India.The virtuallaunch will happen on OnePlus India’s YouTube channelon January 14.“With just a few days to go, users can alsoregister to get notified and receive real-time updates viathe ‘Notify Me’ page, which is live on OnePlus.in andAmazon.in,” the company said in a statement.

The OnePlus RT is said to be a rebranded OnePlus9RT that was launched in China later last year.OnePlusRT may be available in Hacker Black and Nano Silvercolours in India, whereas the Buds Z2 may come in Ob-sidian Black and Pearl White colours, according to re-ports.

OnePlus RT is likely to feature a 6.62-inch AMOLEDdisplay with 120Hz refresh rate.It may be powered by theSnapdragon 888 SoC paired with up to 12B RAM and upto 256GB of storage.The device is likely to feature a triplerear camera setup with a 50MP primary sensor, 16MP

OnePlus 9RT 5G, Buds Z2to launch in India on Jan 14

wide-angle lens, and a 2MP macro lens. Up front, thephone may house a 16MP selfie camera. It may pack a4,500mAh battery with 65W fast chargingsupport.Meanwhile, OnePlus Buds Z2 may feature 11mmdynamic drivers and Bluetooth v5.2 connectivity.The TWSearbuds come with ANC support to reduce noise up to40dB. There are three microphones for ANC as well asvoice calling.

Washington: Seven-year-old children performedbetter on a challenging task requiring sustained attentionif their mothers consumed twice the recommended amountof choline during their pregnancy, a new Cornell studyhas found.The findings were published in the Journal ofthe Federation of American Societies for ExperimentalBiology.

The study, which compared these children with thosewhose mothers had consumed the recommended amountof choline, suggests that the recommended choline in-take for expectant mothers does not fully meet the needsof the fetal brain.“Our findings suggest population-widebenefits of adding choline to a standard prenatal vitaminregimen,” said Barbara Strupp, professor in the Divisionof Nutritional Sciences (DNS) and Department of Psy-chology, and co-senior author of the study, ‘Prenatal Cho-line Supplementation Improves Child Sustained Atten-tion: A Seven-Year Follow-up of a Randomized ControlledFeeding Trial’.

The first author of the study is Charlotte Bahnfleth,PhD. ’19, a former graduate student in the Strupp Labora-tory. The co-senior author is Richard Canfield, senior re-search associate in DNS. Marie Caudill, a professor inDNS, was also a co-author.Choline – found in egg yolks,lean red meat, fish, poultry, legumes, nuts and crucifer-ous vegetables – is absent from most prenatal vitamins,and more than 90 per cent of expectant mothers consumeless than the recommended amount.Several decades ofresearch using rodent models has shown that adding extracholine to the maternal diet produces long term cognitivebenefits for the offspring.In addition to improving offspringattention and memory throughout life, maternal cholinesupplementation in rodents has proven to beneuroprotective for the offspring by mitigating the cogni-tive adversities caused by prenatal stress, fetal alcoholexposure, autism, epilepsy, Down syndrome andAlzheimer’s disease.

In the Cornell study, all women consumed a pre-pared diet with a specified amount of choline throughoutthe third trimester of pregnancy. One-half of these womenconsumed 480 mg choline per day, which slightly exceedsthe recommended adequate intake (AI) level of 450 mg/day. The other half consumed a total intake of 930 mgcholine per day, approximately double the AI level.Whentested at 7 years of age, the children of women in the 480mg/day group showed a decline in inaccuracy from thebeginning to the end of a sustained attention task, whilethose from the 930 mg/day group maintained a high levelof accuracy throughout the task. These findings parallelthe effects of maternal choline supplementation and dep-rivation in rodents, using a closely analogous sustainedattention task.“By demonstrating that maternal cholinesupplementation in humans produces offspring attentionalbenefits that are similar to those seen in animals,” Struppsaid, “our findings suggest that the full range of cognitiveand neuroprotective benefits demonstrated in rodents mayalso be seen in humans.” The new findings build on aprevious study from this research group describing ben-efits during infancy. That study demonstrated that mater-nal choline supplementation improved information pro-cessing speed throughout the first year of life in thesesame children.

Few studies with human subjects have evaluatedthe effect of maternal choline supplementation and this isthe first study to follow the children to school age.“By show-ing that the beneficial effects of prenatal supplementationendure into childhood, these findings illustrate a role forprenatal choline in programming the course of child cog-

widely been speculated to be out last summer, was de-layed due to the global chip shortage that roiled auto-motive and appliance production around the globe.

As the name, the Fan Edition (FE) suggests, themodel comes with key features of the Galaxy S21 seriesmost beloved by its fans but with an affordable pricetag.Samsung said it will launch the Galaxy S21 FE onJanuary 11 and determine where to release the model“depending on the market conditions” of the country.It isexpected to be rolled out in Europe first. Samsung hasnot yet announced the pricing either.

The previous Galaxy S20 FE was launched in Sep-tember 2020, in six colors with an “accessible” startingprice of $699 to deliver “flagship experiences to reacheven more consumers,” it said at the time, by including“innovations Galaxy fans told us they love most.”Thetech giant said Galaxy S21 FE is similar to the S21 se-ries in its look and experience, powered by a Snap-dragon 888 chip, packing 6 or 8 GB of RAM and with128GB or 256GB of storage, reports Yonhap newsagency.It runs on One UI 4 based on Google’s latestoperating system, Android 12.It is 7.9 millimeters thickand available in four colours — olive, lavender, whiteand graphite.

It uses the sleek contour cut outer design and apunch-hole selfie camera.It is fitted with the 6.4-inchDynamic AMOLED 2X screen with a 240Hz touch re-sponse rate and 120 Hz refresh rate, and comes with atrio of rear cameras, a 12 MP ultra-wide sensor and an 8MP telephoto lens.

Choline during pregnancy impactschildren’s sustained attention: Study

nitive development,” Canfield said. “And because theability to sustain attention in challenging situations is criti-cal to nearly all areas of cognitive performance, the cu-mulative impact of improving sustained attention is likelyto be substantial.” Current recommendations – includingthose for pregnant women – were set in 1998 and arebased on the amount of choline needed to prevent liverdysfunction in men, studies have shown.This researchwas funded by the National Institute of Food and Agricul-ture, part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and theBalchem Corp. Bahnfleth was supported by an NICHDTraineeship and the Egg Nutrition Center Young Investi-gator Research Award for Early Exploration.

As the name, the Fan Edi-tion (FE) suggests, the modelcomes with key features of the

Galaxy S21 series most be-loved by its fans but with an

affordable price tag.

Hyderabad: The first Urdu job mela scheduled to beheld at Maulana Azad National Urdu University (MANUU)on January 6 has been postponed in view of precaution-ary measures announced by Government of Telanganato control the spread of Covid-19 pandemic, a press re-lease from MANUU, said.

Dr. Mohammed Yousuf Khan, Incharge, Training andPlacement Cell, MANUU said that the decision was takenby competent authorities in view of orders issued by theTelangana Government on January 1, regarding strict pro-hibition imposed on any public meetings to stop the spreadof the Omicron variant of Covid-19. The new date of theUrdu job mela will be announced later.Meanwhile, seniorfaculty member of MANUU and expert on Deccan Stud-ies, Prof. Mohd. Naseemuddin Farees has superannu-ated from the educational institution. On the occasion,MANUU organised a farewell function in honour of theoutgoing scholar, on December 31, which was attendedsenior MANUU faculty members.

MANUU Urdu jobmela postponed


Influenza infections mayup pneumonia risk: Study

London: Researchers have now revealed that influ-enza infections can lead to an increased risk of bacterialpneumonia, which claims many lives around the worldevery year.

Using an animal model, the study, published in thejournal PNAS found that different nutrients and antioxi-dants, such as vitamin C and other normally cell-protec-tive substances leak from the blood, thereby creating anenvironment in the lungs that favours the growth of thebacteria.

The bacteria adapt to the inflammatory environmentby increasing the production of the bacterial enzyme HtrA.

The presence of HtrA weakens the immune systemand promotes bacterial growth in the influenza-infectedairways. The lack of HtrA stops bacterial growth.

“The ability of pneumococcus to grow in the lowerairways during an influenza infection seems to dependon the nutrient-rich environment with its higher levels ofantioxidants that occurs during a viral infection, as well ason the bacteria’s ability to adapt to the environment andprotect itself from being eradicated by the immune sys-

tem,” said study author Birgitta Henriques Normark fromKarolinska Institutet in Sweden.

The results provide valuable information on howbacteria integrate with their environment in the lungs andcould be used to find new therapies for double infectionsbetween the influenza virus and pneumococcal bacteria.

“HtrA is an enzyme, a protease, which helps toweaken the immune system and allows pneumococcalbacteria to penetrate the protective cell layer on the in-side of the airways,” said study author Vicky Sender.

“A possible strategy can therefore be the use of pro-tease inhibitors to prevent pneumococcal growth in thelungs,” Sender added.

It is still not known if Covid-19 patients are also sen-sitive to such secondary bacterial infections, but the re-searchers think that similar mechanisms could potentiallybe found in severely ill Covid-19 patients.

“It’s likely that acute lung inflammation, regardless ofcause, gives rise to leakage of nutrients and antioxidants,and to an environment that fosters bacterial growth,”Henriques Normark noted.

25 million couples in India couldn't accesscontraceptives due to coronavirus

The Covid-19 pan-demic interrupted contra-ceptive access for an esti-mated over 25 millioncouples in India, said a re-port by the Joint United Na-tions Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).

Health officials insome low- and middle-in-come countries are bracingfor a surge in new births dueto interruptions to contra-ceptive access during thepandemic, said the reporttitled "Prevailing againstpandemics by puttingpeople at the centre."

The report highlightedthat the global AIDS re-sponse was off track beforethe COVID-19 pandemic hit,but the rapid spread of thecoronavirus has createdadditional setbacks.

Modelling of thepandemic's long-term im-pact on the HIV responseshows that there could bean estimated 123,000 to293 000 additional new HIVinfections and 69,000 to148,000 additional AIDS-related deaths between2020 and 2022, said the re-port released ahead ofWorld AIDS Day 2020 onDecember 1.

"The collective failureto invest sufficiently in com-prehensive, rights-based,

people-centred HIV re-sponses has come at a ter-rible price," WinnieByanyima, Executive Direc-tor of UNAIDS, said in astatement.

"Implementing just themost politically palatableprogrammes will not turn thetide against COVID-19 orend AIDS. To get the globalresponse back on track willrequire putting people firstand tackling the inequalitieson which epidemics thrive."Although some countries insub-Saharan Africa, such as

Botswana and Eswatini,have done remarkably welland have achieved or evenexceeded the targets set for2020, many more countriesare falling way behind.

The report highlightedthat insufficient investmentand action on HIV and otherpandemics left the worldexposed to COVID-19.

Had health systemsand social safety nets beeneven stronger, the worldwould have been better po-sitioned to slow the spreadof COVID-19 and withstand

its impact.COVID-19 has shown

that investments in healthsave lives but also providea foundation for strongeconomies.

"No country can defeatthese pandemics on itsown," said Byanyima.

"A challenge of thismagnitude can only be de-feated by forging global soli-darity, accepting a sharedresponsibility andmobilising a response thatleaves no one behind. Wecan do this by sharing theload and working together."

'Emotionally flexible people havebetter romantic relationships'

Being emotionally flex-ible may be one of the mostimportant factors when itcomes to longevity andoverall health of the roman-tic and familial relation-ships, say researchers.

The study, publishedin the 'Journal of ContextualBehavioral Science', statis-tically combined the resultsof 174 separate studies thathad looked at acceptanceand commitment therapy,mindfulness, and emotionregulation.

The researchers' aimwas to clarify how mindfulflexibility on one hand andinattentive, mindless, andrigid inflexibility on the otherwere linked to the dynam-ics within families and ro-mantic relationships.

"This meta-analysisunderscores that beingmindful and emotionallyflexible in tough and chal-lenging situations not onlyimproves the lives of indi-viduals, it might alsostrengthen and enrich theirclose relationships," saidstudy co-author RonaldRogge from the Universityof Rochester in the US.

The results suggestthat psychological flexibilityand inflexibility may play keyroles in both couples andfamilies in shaping how in-dividuals interact with thepeople closest to them.

The meta-analysis,also commonly referred toas a "study of studies," ce-ments and adds to the find-

ings of Rogge's earlier workin which he and a teamtested the effects of couples'watching movies togetherand talking about the filmsafterwards.

In that work, the teamdemonstrated that couplescould bring mindful aware-ness, compassion, and flex-ibility back into their relation-ships by using movies tospark meaningful relation-ship discussions, leading toboth immediate and long-term benefits.

That study, conductedin 2013, found that an inex-pensive, fun, and relativelysimple watch-and-talk ap-proach can be just as effec-tive as other more intensivetherapist-led methods—more than halving the di-vorce or separation ratefrom 24 to 11 per cent after

the first three years of mar-riage.

"The results suggestthat husbands and wiveshave a pretty good sense ofwhat they might be doingright and wrong in their re-lationships," Rogge saidabout the earlier study.

"You might not need toteach them a whole lot ofskills to cut the divorce rate.You might just need to getthem to think about howthey are currently behaving.And for five movies to giveus a benefit over threeyears—that is awesome,"Rogge noted. IANS

The results suggest thatpsychological flexibility and

inflexibility may play keyroles in both couples and

families in shaping how indi-viduals interact with thepeople closest to them

Study suggests electronic skin hasstrong future stretching ahead

Washington: A mate-rial that mimics human skinin strength, stretchability,and sensitivity could beused to collect biologicaldata in real-time. Electronicskin, or e-skin, may play animportant role in next-gen-eration prosthetics,personalised medicine, softrobotics, and artificial intel-ligence.

“The ideal e-skin willmimic the many naturalfunctions of human skin,such as sensing tempera-ture and touch, accuratelyand in real-time,” saysKAUST postdoc Yichen Cai.

However, making suit-ably flexible electronics thatcan perform such delicatetasks while also enduringthe bumps and scrapes ofeveryday life is challenging,and each material involvedmust be carefully engi-neered.

Most e-skins are madeby layering an activenanomaterial (the sensor)on a stretchy surface thatattaches to human skin.However, the connectionbetween these layers is of-ten too weak, which re-duces the durability andsensitivity of the material;alternatively, if it is toostrong, flexibility becomeslimited, making it more likelyto crack and break the cir-cuit.

“The landscape of skinelectronics keeps shifting ata spectacular pace,” saysCai. “The emergence of 2Dsensors has acceleratedefforts to integrate theseatomically thin, mechani-cally strong materials into

functional, durable artificialskins.” A team led by Caiand colleague Jie Shen hasnow created a durable e-skin using a hydrogel rein-forced with silicananoparticles as a strongand stretchy substrate anda 2D titanium carbideMXene as the sensing layer,bound together with highlyconductive nanowires.

“Hydrogels are morethan 70 percent water, mak-ing them very compatiblewith human skin tissues,”explains Shen. By pre-stretching the hydrogel in alldirections, applying a layerof nanowires, and then care-fully controlling its release,the researchers createdconductive pathways to thesensor layer that remainedintact even when the mate-

rial was stretched to 28 timesits original size.

Their prototype e-skincould sense objects from 20centimeters away, respondto stimuli in less than one-tenth of a second, and whenused as a pressure sensor,could distinguish handwrit-ing written upon it. It contin-ued to work well after 5,000deformations, recovering inabout a quarter of a secondeach time. “It is a strikingachievement for an e-skinto maintain toughness afterrepeated use,” says Shen,“which mimics the elasticityand rapid recovery of hu-man skin.” Such e-skinscould monitor a range of bio-logical information, such aschanges in blood pressure,which can be detected from

vibrations in the arteries tomovements of large limbsand joints.

This data can then beshared and stored on thecloud via Wi-Fi.

“One remaining ob-stacle to the widespreaduse of e-skins lies in scal-ing up of high-resolutionsensors,” adds groupleader Vincent Tung; “how-ever, laser-assisted additivemanufacturing offers newpromise.” “We envisage afuture for this technologybeyond biology,” adds Cai.

“Stretchable sensortape could one day monitorthe structural health of inani-mate objects, such as furni-ture and aircraft.”

‘Emotionally flexible people havebetter romantic relationships’

Being emotionally flex-ible may be one of the mostimportant factors when itcomes to longevity andoverall health of the roman-tic and familial relation-ships, say researchers.

The study, publishedin the ‘Journal of ContextualBehavioral Science’, statis-tically combined the resultsof 174 separate studies thathad looked at acceptanceand commitment therapy,mindfulness, and emotionregulation.

The researchers’ aimwas to clarify how mindfulflexibility on one hand andinattentive, mindless, andrigid inflexibility on the otherwere linked to the dynam-ics within families and ro-mantic relationships.

“This meta-analysisunderscores that beingmindful and emotionallyflexible in tough and chal-lenging situations not onlyimproves the lives of indi-viduals, it might alsostrengthen and enrich theirclose relationships,” saidstudy co-author RonaldRogge from the Universityof Rochester in the US.

The results suggestthat psychological flexibilityand inflexibility may playkey roles in both couplesand families in shapinghow individuals interactwith the people closest tothem.

The meta-analysis,also commonly referred toas a “study of studies,” ce-ments and adds to the find-ings of Rogge’s earlier workin which he and a teamtested the effects of couples’watching movies togetherand talking about the filmsafterwards.

In that work, the teamdemonstrated that couplescould bring mindful aware-ness, compassion, and flex-ibility back into their rela-tionships by using moviesto spark meaningful rela-tionship discussions, lead-ing to both immediate andlong-term benefits.

That study, conductedin 2013, found that an inex-pensive, fun, and relativelysimple watch-and-talk ap-proach can be just as effec-tive as other more intensivetherapist-led methods —more than halving the di-vorce or separation rate

from 24 to 11 per cent afterthe first three years of mar-riage.

“The results suggestthat husbands and wiveshave a pretty good sense ofwhat they might be doing

right and wrong in their re-lationships,” Rogge saidabout the earlier study.

“You might not need toteach them a whole lot ofskills to cut the divorce rate.You might just need to get

them to think about how theyare currently behaving. Andfor five movies to give us abenefit over three years —that is awesome,” Roggenoted.

Doctors perform rarerobotic surgery to treat

woman with tumourGurugram: A 48-year-

old woman from Mauritiuswith a pancreatic tail tumourwas successfully treatedwith complex robotic sur-gery in Delhi-NCR.

Thee patient under-

went a ‘robotic distal pan-createctomy with splenec-tomy’ to remove the tumourwhich was four centimetresin size.

According to the FortisMemorial Research Institutein Gurugram, on presenta-tion, a whole-body PET CTscan was conducted.

It revealed that, in ad-dition to large uterine fi-broids (eight centimetres insize), there was a mass on

the tail of the pancreas – anuncommon and rare occur-rence.

An endoscopic ultra-sound guided needle bi-opsy confirmed that the tu-mour was benign. However,

it had to be removed as ithad the potential to becomemalignant.

“The surgery of thepancreatic tail tumour is oneof the most complex roboticsurgeries. Most patients whoundergo this surgery areprone to developing compli-cations,” Dr Niranjan Naik,Director Surgical Oncology,Fortis Memorial ResearchInstitute, said in astatetement.

Up to 4 percent pa-tients have the risk of mor-tality which is one of thehighest in the world.

“We conducted twosurgical procedures in thesame general anaesthesia

in one sitting – a distal pan-createctomy with splenec-tomy and a total abdominalhysterectomy,” Naik added.

Both the surgical pro-cedures were managedrobotically through a fewvery small key holes.

“Our approach worked,and the patient has recov-ered well without any post-operative complications,”Naik said.


GNS News Agency, Jan 8Hyderabad: Hyderabad surpassed Bengaluru with

nearly 3 million sq ft of net absorption recorded during thefourth quarter of 2021, pushing Bengaluru to second place,which followed closely with 2.4 million sq ft. Hyderabademerged the top market in terms of absorption among topseven cities of India.During Q4 2021, Hyderabad recordedhigher absorption than cities such as Chennai (0.85 mnsq ft), Delhi NCR (1.61 mn sq ft), Kolkata (0.47 mn sq ft),Mumbai (1.88 mn sq ft) and Pune (1.34 mn sq ft).

JLL research shows, Hyderabad saw its Q4 2021net absorption increase 145 per cent to 2.99 million sq ftfrom 1.22 million sq ft in Q4 2020, while Bengaluru wit-nessed its absorption rise 95 per cent to 2.42 million sq ftin Q4 2021 from 1.24 million sq ft in Q4 2020. Hyderabadsaw the overall net absorption in 2021 at 4.14 million sqft.Hyderabad also dominated in terms of completions inQ4 2021 with 2.53 million sq ft compared to 2.45 millionsq ft completions in Bengaluru, 0.09 million sq ft in Chennai,0.35 million sq ft in Delhi NCR, 0.10 million sq ft in Kolkata,1.68 million sq ft in Mumbai and 1.93 million sq ft inPune.Hyderabad’s cumulative new completions in 2021stood at 9.31 million sq ft, accounting for 20 per cent of thecountry’s new completions.

Pan-India scenarioThe Indian office sector ended the year 2021 with

net absorption for Q4, 2021 (October-December 2021) at11.56 million sq. ft, the highest in the last eight quarters,and up by 86 per cent quarter-on-quarter. On a half-yearlybasis (six months), net absorption was up by 26 per centfor the H2 periods (July-Dec 2021) on a year-on-year (Y-o-Y) basis.New supply of 9.12 million sq ft was completed

Hyderabad surpasses Bengaluru inoffice net absorption in Q4 2021

in Q4 2021, down by 16 per cent Q-o-Q. For the year2021, the new supply addition was recorded at 45.7 mil-lion sq ft and was higher by 23 per cent y-o-y.

“While net absorption was up marginally, we haveobserved greater traction in overall leasing activity. TheGross Leasing Volume (GLV) for the last quarter of 2021was recorded at the pre-Covid levels as seen in Q4 2019at 15 million sq ft. This is also the highest in the last eightquarters and higher than the average quarterly GLV num-bers during the pre-Covid (2018 and 2019) period as well,”said Radha Dhir, CEO and country head, India, JLL.Overalloffice rentals remained largely stable across most majoroffice markets in India in Q4 2021. Vacancy dropped from15.9 per cent in Q3 2021 to 15.3 per cent in Q4 2021backed by good leasing activity. For the first time sincethe pandemic broke, demand has surpassed new supplyand hence vacancy has dropped by 60 bps Q-o-Q.

GNS News Agency, Jan 8New Delhi: The Subject Expert Committee (SEC) of

the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) is expectedto meet on Tuesday afternoon to discuss Bharat Biotech’sapplication for clinical trials of its intranasal Covid vac-cine as a booster or a third dose.The Hyderabad-basedmanufacturer has proposed the booster dose for thosewho have been already been innoculated against COVIDwith Covishield and Covaxin vaccines.Bharat Biotechaims to conduct clinical trials on 5,000 subjects (50 percent vaccinated with Covishield and 50 per cent vacci-nated with Covaxin).

The interval between the second dose and boosterdose will be six months, sources have told ANI.Accordingto the sources, India is expected to get an Intranasalbooster vaccine in March, after timely conduction oftrials.Earlier in mid-December, the company sought per-mission to conduct clinical trials for its intranasal boosterdose.The SEC will also hold a meeting to provide emer-gency use authorization to Russia’s Sputnik Light vac-cine, which is a one shot vaccine.

SEC to hold meeting onBharat Biotech’s Nasal vaccine booster dose

GNS News Agency, Jan 8Hyderabad: Hyderabad-based pharmaceutical com-

pany Granules India appointed Dr KVS Ram Rao as jointmanaging director & CEO with effect from January 05,2022. Dr Rao has over two decades of experience in phar-maceutical and chemical industries.Dr Ram Rao holds abachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from OsmaniaUniversity, Hyderabad, and a master’s degree & Ph.D. inchemical engineering from Indian Institute of Science,Bangalore. He has over 29 years of experience in thefield of manufacturing, R&D, business, and customer ser-vice management.He worked as ED & CEO for CSM Busi-ness of PI Industries. He played a significant role in DrReddy’s Laboratories while working in various capacitiesfrom 2000 to 2018. He also worked with Jubilant Life Sci-ences and Gujarat Heavy Chemicals.

Commenting on the appointment, Dr Krishna PrasadChigurupati, CMD, Granules India, said, “During the pastfew years, we have stressed the importance of building acompany around the pillars of efficiency andsustainability.”Dr Ram Rao’s varied experience in the ar-eas of chemical and API businesses including R&D andmanufacturing through adoption of innovative technologyand best practices in sustainability, will further strengthenGranules’ drive towards becoming a strong integratedmanufacturer, Dr Chigurupati added.Dr Rao establishedinnovative business models and instituted good manu-facturing and R&D systems. He has strong market knowl-edge, financial/analytical skills, customer-oriented ap-proach, industry network at multiple levels, well-groundedprinciples of governance and ethics, the company said.

Granules India appointsDr KVS Ram Rao as CEO

GNS News Agency, Jan 8Hyderabad: I-Venture @ ISB, with an aim to provide

increased acceleration support to women-founded / co-founded startups has launched the ‘Women of Innovation(I-WIN)’ programme.

I-WIN aims to mentor and handhold women entre-preneurs to scale up their business modules and in theprocess pave new growth trajectories. Sector agnosticstartups with a minimum of one-year incorporation andproof of concept stage ventures can apply and benefitfrom the programme.The programme will facilitate womenentrepreneurs to fine-tune their business model, explorefundraising avenues and forge partnerships. As a resultof the multi-pronged approach adopted by I-Venture @ISB, women entrepreneurs can develop a go-to-marketstrategy and scale up their products and technologies.

Saumya Kumar, director, I-Venture @ ISB, said, “Hav-ing women entrepreneurs is important for the economy’sgrowth because their participation directly impacts theimprovement of the standard of living and helps in jobcreation. We see I-WIN as another programme in thatdirection.”I-Venture @ ISB administers business incuba-tors that provide ‘Start-to-Scale’ support for entrepreneur-ship and facilitates the conversion of startups into profit-able entrepreneurial ventures.

ISB launches ‘Women ofInnovation’ programme

GNS News Agency, Jan 8New Delhi: India’s merchandise exports in Decem-

ber 2021 rose to $37.29 billion, higher by 37 per cent ona year-on-year basis, preliminary data showed onMonday.According to the data furnished by the Commerceand Industry Ministry, last month’s exports rose by 37.55per cent over December 2019.“Value of non-petroleumexports in December 2021 was $31.67 billion, registeringa positive growth of 27.31 per cent over non-petroleumexports of $24.88 billion in December 2020 and a posi-tive growth of 34.92 per cent over non-petroleum exportsof $23.48 billion in December 2019.”

The value of non-petroleum and non-gems andjewellery exports rose to $28.69 billion, registering a posi-tive growth of 28.64 per cent over December 2020.As perthe data, India’s merchandise imports last month in-creased by 38.06 per cent to $59.27 billion over $42.93billion in December 2020, a rise of 49.70 per cent over$39.59 billion reported for the corresponding month of2019.

“Value of non-petroleum imports was $43.37 billionin December 2021 with a positive growth of 30.22 percent over non-petroleum imports of $33.31 billion in De-

India’s exports rise over 37% YoY,imports over 38% in December

cember 2020 and a positive growth of 50.20 per cent overnon-petroleum imports of $28.88 billion in December2019.“Value of non-oil, non-GJ (gold, silver and preciousmetals) imports was $35.57 billion in December 2021 witha positive growth of 34.68 per cent over non-oil and non-GJ imports of $26.41 billion in December 2020 and apositive growth of 47.75 per cent over non-oil and non-GJimports of $24.07 billion in December 2019.”Consequently,India’s trade deficit last month widened by 39.90 per centYoY to $21.99 billion from $15.72 billion while it increasedby 76.10 per cent when compared to $12.49 billion re-ported for December 2019.

GNS News Agency, Jan 8Hyderabad: One Moto, a British electric vehicle com-

pany, has signed a memorandum of understanding withTelangana Government for setting up its India manufac-turing unit.The new facility is likely to come up on theoutskirts of Hyderabad. The plant will create almost 500direct and 2,000 indirect jobs in the State.Hyderabad hasemerged as a key market for EVs, with the State govern-ment accelerating the EV revolution with supporting poli-cies for production and strong infrastructure. The brandplans to invest up to Rs 250 crore to establish the manu-facturing unit.

Jayesh Ranjan, principal secretary, I&C and IT of

British EV firm One Moto to set upRs 250-crore unit in Telangana

Telangana launched One Moto’s three e-Scooters – Byka,Electa and Commuta at Hyderabad on Monday. All the e-scooters are high-speed premium products.On this occa-sion, Mohammed Muzammil Riyaz, partner & promoter ofOne Moto India said, “The idea is to manage all the pro-duction in India and cater to the growing market. We aimto manufacture at least 40,000 units in the first phase ofthe plant launch, and capacity will easily be taken up to1,00,000 in two years.”

Sameer Moidin, co-founder & partner, One Moto In-dia said, the new manufacturing plant will have majorautomation integration with additional semi-robotics, andlatest manufacturing machinery to produce cutting-edgeproducts. The plant will be spread across 15 acres ofarea.Shubhankar Chaudhry, CEO, One Moto India said,“With the new manufacturing plant, we not only aim toserve our customers in India but also export vehicles toother global markets which One Moto is developing.”

There is an opportunity to create jobs in the State ofTelangana not just at the manufacturing facility, but alsoin rural areas. “We will be also setting up skill develop-ment programmes with the State since EV after-sales ser-vice requires a specialised skillset,” Chaudhry added.Themanufacturing plant will produce all One-Moto fleet inaddition to two Indian fleets that are to be introduced byEllysium Automotives, currently promoting One Moto inIndia.

Hyderabad: The stock market in recent times hasexhibited wide movements either ways. In days it rose,BSE was up about 800 to 1,000 points, aiding in wealthcreation. On days it dived, it fell around 700 or more points,giving an opportunity for the existing investors to buystocks at a lower price. The falls also make it the right timefor newbies to wade into the stock market waters.Of course,researching stocks before investing is a must. However,those who are not risk averse can begin their journey byopting to systematic investments in a single or even abasket of stocks. They need to just decide on the frequencyand amount and should stick to it investing when the mar-kets are rising as well as falling.

What is Equity SIP?

Systematic Investment Plan (SIP) removes the hassleof timing the market. (Anyway, not many get it right.) SIPcreates wealth in a disciplined manner. Using SIP, onecan build a portfolio over time by investing a fixed amountin the same stocks at set intervals.To begin with, selectfinancially stable companies that operate in a profitablearea with long-term growth prospects. There is no needfor monitoring the portfolio on a day-to-day basis. Somebrokerages suggest a fixed set of stocks based on theamount that will be invested. If this does not suit, you canchoose the stocks that you want to invest in.Several bro-kerages are offering these SIPs. Transaction fee and ap-plicable taxes apply like regular purchases.

Lower riskThis SIP approach reduces the overall risk due to

market fluctuations as it uses the concept of rupee costaveraging to allow you to buy more stock units when themarkets are low and lesser units when they are high.

Goal based investingSIP in equities is suited for the salaried individuals

who aim to save for long-term goals without having toinvest in one-go. The approach inculcates discipline asthe corresponding amount is automatically debited fromthe bank account on the set date. With time, comes in thepower of compounding, where the profit earned on theinitial investment is reinvested.

ExitLike entry, exit from the stocks cannot be timed. How-

ever, one can use the stop loss feature to halt the erosionof value if stocks fall below a threshold. Once the pricehits this mark, the stocks will be sold. While this protectsthe value of investment going down, it also nullifies thefuture possibilities of making a profit when it rises again,and perhaps to new highs, in days to come, as you havealready exited the stock.

Tax outgoIf a profit is made, the capital gains tax will be 15 per

cent if sold within a year. It means for every Rs 100 profitearned on the investments, a tax of Rs 15 will be de-ducted if the exit is within one year. If the exit is after oneyear, the profit is taxed ten per cent for profit above Rs onelakh.

How to play thestock market

GNS News Agency, Jan 8

Hyderabad: TiE Hyderabad, the global entrepreneur-ial network, has announced that Suresh Raju will takeover the reins as chapter president for 2022.Suresh Rajuis the founding managing partner, Jupiter Alternative In-vestment Fund that invests into equities and equity-re-lated securities using a proprietary quantitative invest-ment model to maximise risk adjusted returns. He wasvice president, TiE Hyderabad in the year 2021.

Setting the agenda for TiE Hyderabad in 2022,Suresh Raju said, “TiE Hyderabad will continue to play akey role in engaging local entrepreneurial ecosystemthrough well-known TiE programmes such asMentorAdvisor, Investor Connect, TiE Women, Knowl-edge Series, Leadership Series, Open Mic, TiE Grad, TiEYoung Entrepreneurs and TiE-SNC Israel.”Commentingon how TiE Hyderabad plans to impact startups, he added,“Entrepreneurs are germinating new businesses in Tier 2and Tier 3 cities faster than ever before, and TiE Hyderabadintends to support them by enabling mentoring and knowl-edge sharing, networking, funding and facilitating cus-tomer connections in new markets. We will launch a newprogramme in 2022 to connect and build startup ecosys-tems in Tier 2 & 3 cities.”The new board also comprisesRashida Adenwala, founder partner, R&A Associates asvice president; Manohar Reddy as past president, founderand CEO of Feuji Inc.The other board members includeAnnapragada Venkateswara Rao, investor & businessmentor; Dr Balaji Bhyravbhatla, MD, HyLasCo Bio-Tech-nology (India); Bhat Dittakavi, founder, CEO, Data Scien-tist, Variance Ai; JT Rao, CMD, winAMR Systems; RanvijayLamba, MD & country head, Arcesium India.RaviChennupati, CMD, Ezone Security Solutions; SharlinThayil, co-founder & CEO, business director, View360Technologies, Carnegie Technologies; NarasimhanVenkatesh, senior director, Engineering, Silicon Labs;Venkat Kamalakar Bundla, founder and MD, Garphi Bio-sciences.

TiE Hyderabad names SureshRaju as president for 2022

GNS News Agency, Jan 8Hyderabad: RACEnergy, an electric vehicle infra-

structure company, inaugurated its first battery swap sta-tion in Hyderabad along with Hindustan Petroleum Cor-poration Limited (HPCL).Jayesh Ranjan, principal secre-tary of the Industries & Commerce (I&C) and InformationTechnology (IT) Departments of Telangana government,and Gautham Maheswaran, CTO and co-founder,RACEnergy, inaugurated the first station at HITEC city.

The pilot will see three battery swap stations beingset-up at various HPCL outlets at prime locations in thecity this month.The battery swap stations and swappablebatteries manufactured by RACEnergy provide a solutionthat is economical and scalable, wherein drivers can sim-ply swap their discharged batteries with the charged oneswithin two minutes, enabling them to be on the road forlonger durations.To bring vehicles on-board its platform,

RACEnergy, HPCL partner to setup battery swap stations in Hyd

RACEnergy is providing retrofit kits that convert existingICE auto-rickshaws into electric vehicles that will be com-patible with its swapping network.By clubbing these twotechnologies, RACEnergy is able to provide a similar ex-perience of re-fueling ICE vehicles.

I-Venture @ ISB, with an aim to pro-vide increased acceleration support to

women-founded / co-founded startups haslaunched the ‘Women of Innovation (I-

WIN)’ programme.


Hyderabad: Never can a filmmaker be as cryptic as RamGopal Varma. Once again, Varma has openly triggered apublic debate on the ongoing issue of ticket prices inAndhra Pradesh. While filmmakers are unhappy with theongoing issue, let’s wait to see if RGV’s remarks will makecelebs and bigwigs of the Telugu film industry react to thelow ticket fares in AP.Before actually shooting a series oftweets to Cinematography Minister of Andhra PradeshPerni Nani, Varma wanted the AP government to comeup with a new strategy to deal with the issue of ticketprices prevailing in the State. He further suggested theState government devise a plan that it can buy ticketsfrom producers and sell it to poorer sections at lower

Will celebs react to RGV’s Twitterdebate on AP ticket prices?

prices.At a time when many bigwigs in the Telugu film in-

dustry keep mum on the ongoing row, Varma said hewould demand his colleagues in the film industry to speakup and express their true feelings about the ticket ratesbecause ‘if you can’t speak out now, you can never openyour mouth’. “It is not my request, but it is my demand to allmy colleagues in the film industry to speak up on their truefeelings about the ticket rates issue because ippudu nollumoosukunte inkeppatikee theravaleru ..Tharvatha Meekharma(sic),” his tweet reads.

Another tweet of Varma reads, “Dear honourableminister of cinematography @perni_nani Sir, I would likeyour honourable team to understand that pricing of he-roes like @alluarjun @pawankalyan @urstrulymaheshetc is nothing but a subtract between production cost andthe expected recovery based on track record.”While histweets on ticket prices and remuneration of star heroesmay seem very logical to common people, however, someusers wondered whether RGV was actually rubbing theYS Jagan’s government the wrong way only to face theimplications. The drama apart, none of the celebs or topfilmmakers have responded or reacted to his series oftweets. It’s a wait and watch game for everyone.

Hyderabad: Talented and flawless actor DivyankaTripathi Dahiya, known for her most popular televisionshow ‘Yeh Hai Mohabbatein’ was last seen in a realityshow ‘Khatron Ke Khiladi 11’, is now all set to enter theindependent music space.She marks her debut with ‘Babulda Vehda’, an achingly beautiful music video composedby Meet Bros and sung by Asees Kaur, the singer who isknown for her hits like ‘Raatain Lambiyan’, ‘Tere Naal

Pyaar Hogaya’, and ‘Tujhe Kaise Pata Na Chala’.Presented by MB music label, penned by lyricist

Kumaar, the romantic track ‘Babul Da Vehda’ brings outthe right emotions with Asees Kaur’s flawless vocals.Check out the exclusive stills of Divyanka Tripathi fromthe music video.Teaser of ‘Babul Da Vehda’ was out yes-terday. The song will be released on January 5

Divyanka Tripathi features in herfirst-ever music video by Meet Bros

Hyderabad: Starring actor Aadi Sai Kumar andNuveksha in the lead, upcoming romantic action thriller‘Atithi Devo Bhava’ will hit the screens this Friday. Direc-tor Polimera Nageshwar is making his debut with themovie, and says ‘Atithi Devo Bhava’ would be a land-mark film in the career of Aadi Sai Kumar.Nageshwar, anative of Bhogapuram near Visakhapatnam in AndhraPradesh, has been working in various projects under bigdirectors like K Vishwanath and SS Rajamouli. However,he is optimistic of getting a possible break with his debutfilm after 20 years of struggle in the film industry.

“I was toiling a lot in the early 2000s, now I’m happythat I could direct a movie with an actor like Aadi Saikumar.The movie is about a protagonist named Abhay Ramwho struggles with a phobia that keeps haunting him fora long time. Time and again, he gets taunted for the weak-ness that he is suffering from. How does his love interestNuveksha come into his life, and how does a turnaroundhappen are part of the plot. Comedian and actor Saptagiriwill be the major highlight in the film. Naveena Reddyand other artistes are going to add fun to the story,” saysthe director.

Rather than making it a story-driven film, Nageshwarwanted the film to be made with a commercial template. “Iusually write stories that have suspense and romance.Although ‘Atithi Devo Bhava’ has a very old-fashioned

‘Atithi Devo Bhava’ will give AadiSaikumar a good break: Director

title, the story is set in the modern era. There’s an amplescope for all the characters in the film,” he says.The direc-tor ensured that the story suits the image of Aadi Saikumar.Sharing that a major part of the shooting was held inHyderabad and songs were shot in Darjeeling, Nageshwaradds, “I’ve no doubt that the film will create some noise atthe box office. We were able to complete the film on timebecause of the producers Rajababu Miryala and AshokReddy Miryala. We initially thought of releasing the filmpost Sankranti, but reconsidered our decision keeping inview the present scenario of Covid-19 and Omicron scare.I am hopeful the audiences would like the movie.”

Hyderabad: South star Anupama Parameswaran isall over the stage in the latest Telugu lyrical song‘Brindavanam’ from the upcoming flick ‘Rowdy Boys’. Thesong sees the actor complain about her fantasy loveKrishna in a college performance that not only steals thehearts of the audience in the song but also the Teluguaudiences on YouTube – as the song has garnered morethan 1.8 million views within a day of its release.

The film ‘Rowdy Boys’ marks the debut for Teluguproducer Dil Raju’s nephew Ashish Reddy. The movie istouted to be a romantic entertainer where Ashish Reddywill be seen romancing Anupama Parameswaran.Withthe release of the new song, the audiences have beenlooking forward to more information about the film andare excited to see Anupama rock the dance floor.Pennedby Suddala Ashok Teja, the song ‘Brindavanam’ is com-posed by Devi Sri Prasad and is crooned by singer Mangli.The foot-tapping beats and effects are a cherry on thetop.‘Rowdy Boys’, which is bankrolled by Dil Raju andShirish in collaboration with Aditya Music, is slated to re-lease on the occasion of Sankranti on January 14.

Parameswaran’s ‘Brindavanam’ isstealing hearts

Hyderabad: Samantha Ruth Prabhu, who is backhome after a Christmas and New Year vacation in Goawith her best friend Shilpa Reddy, shared a beautifulmessage on social media late on Monday night. Call it#MondayMotivation or words to live by, the actor penned,“I never met a strong person with an easy past.” Going by

I never met a strong personwith an easy past: Samantha

the picture she shared along with the quote, it looks likeSam got inspired after looking at the view through herairplane window.The ‘Sam Jam’ star also shared a pic ofher extremely excited pups welcoming her back home.“So excited to meet the same person coming up the samestairs every single day of every single year,” she wrotealong with laughing emojs.Samantha later posted a pic-ture with actor Vennela Kishore and director RahulRavindran and captioned it, “What would I do withoutyou…” and added a heart emoji. Through her tough times,her friends from the industry and otherwise have been herstrong pillars of support.“If your biggest achievement thisyear was simply making it this far, simply waking up in themorning when you didn’t want to face the day, simply sur-viving – that is something to celebrate, too,” she recentlywrote on Instagram.“Keep finding the things that makeyou believe in your healing. Be gentle with yourself andnever forget that even the smallest step forward is still astep towards who you are becoming. We are in this to-gether. 2022,” she added.

Hyderabad: Zee Telugu is all set to kick-start the NewYear with a bang as it’s going to premiere ‘Aranya’ onJanuary 9 at 6 pm. Written and directed by PrabhuSolomon, the movie stars Rana Daggubati as the nobleprotector of the forest’s mighty elephants, along with tal-ented stars like Pulkit Samrat, Shriya Pilgaonkar, ZoyaHussain and Anant Mahadevan in pivotal roles.Set in aforest near Vizag, ‘Aranya’ showcases the heartwarmingstory of a man trying to protect the environment and wildanimals from the destruction being caused by a huge re-finery that is being built by a known corporate house. Whilethis refinery threatens the natural habitat of the royal el-ephants, which have been living for over generations, theproject continues after getting the necessary blessings ofEnvironment Minister Kanakamedala Raja Gopalam(Anant Mahadevan).

The elephant’s protector – Aranya (Rana Daggubati)tries to rebel, but the company tries to stop them fromspoiling the party by building a long wall around the refin-ery. As a man without resources and connections, Aranyais an underdog. But at the same time, he is also a larger-than-life, cult hero for the forest-dwellers.‘Aranya’ will surelytake you on a thrilling ride as elephants battle to savetheir natural habitat. While Rana Daggubati’s act will im-press you, the real heroes are the elephants. You can’thelp but put yourself in their shoes and feel their emo-tions. Aranya’s bond with the elephants and the extent towhich he goes for them will surely tug at your heartstrings.But can Aranya race against time and prevent the refineryfrom coming up?

‘Aranya’ to be premiered onJanuary 9 in Zee Telugu

Hyderabad: Sara Ali Khan has been currently bask-ing in the success of her latest release, ‘Atrangi Re’. Sheleft us in awe with her spectacular acting chops, phenom-enal screen presence and raw energy as her characterRinku.Directed by Aanand L Rai, in the film, Sara not onlyblew away the audience with her portrayal of RinkuSooryavanshi, but also left many celebs from the industryimpressed.Opening up about the reactions she receivedfrom the industry, Sara revealed that actor Vidya Balanhad called her after ‘Atrangi Re’ released. Sara said, “In-cidentally, I had re-watched ‘The Dirty Picture’ recently.Then, I had called her. I had seen the film a long time backbut of late, there were certain films and performances Iwanted to see.

‘The Dirty Picture’ was one of them and I was blownaway by her performance. So, this was the first time I hadseen this film after I started acting. Hence, there was adifferent kind of appreciation for her and I told her aboutit.”She further added, “And then she called me after watch-ing ‘Atrangi Re’ and she told me that there was not asingle false note in my performance. She added that whilethere was ‘masala’ and ‘masti’ when it comes to my char-acter, there was also emotional vulnerability. She alsosaid that she enjoyed the film as a whole.”The film alsostars Akshay Kumar and Dhanush in the lead roles.

Sara Ali Khan gets a pat onher back from Vidya Balan

Hyderabad: A flier stating that Allu Arjun’s new block-buster ‘Pushpa: The Rise’ is going to be out on the OTTplatform Amazon Prime Video has surprised everyoneon social media. The news first made some of the audi-ences who missed out on the film in theatres happy. Butthe reality is far from the speculation. A poster in theMalayalam language sparked confusion among the fansas it did rounds on social media that the film is releasingon OTT streaming platform on January 7. The social me-dia handle of the OTT platform has been replying to thequeries saying that no such announcement has beenmade.Meanwhile, ‘Pushpa’ theatrical run is likely to con-tinue further because of fewer films releasing thisSankranti. As SS Rajamouli’s ‘RRR’ has been postponedinordinately without further announcement date, Allu Arjunwould cash on the space. If Prabhas’s ‘Radhe Shyam’too opts out of the race this January, the box office run for‘Pushpa’ will continue adding more bucks to its alreadyRs 300 crore tally.The Hindi version of ‘Pushpa’ is alsodoing quite well in various States.

Allu Arjun’s Pushpa releasing on OTT?Flier triggers confusion among fans

Washington: NBA star Tristan Thompson on Tues-day issued a public apology to ex- Khloe Kardashianafter confirming that he fathered a baby boy with modelMaralee Nichols.A paternity test result has revealed thatTristan fathered a child with Maralee, the former con-firmed through his Instagram handle. -Taking to his IGstories, Tristan wrote, “Today, paternity test results revealthat I fathered a child with Maralee Nichols. I take fullresponsibility for my actions. Now that paternity has beenestablished I look forward to amicably raising our son. Isincerely apologize to everyone I’ve hurt or disappointedthroughout this ordeal both privately and publicly.” The30-year-old athlete also apologized to his ex- KhloeKardashian, with whom he shares 3-year-old daughterTrue Thompson.

“Khloe, you don’t deserve this. You don’t deservethe heartache and humiliation I have caused you,” hewrote. “You don’t deserve the way I have treated youover the years. My actions certainly have not lined upwith the way I view you. I have the utmost respect andlove for you. Regardless of what you may think. Again, Iam so incredibly sorry.” Tristan acknowledged how hisrelationship with Nichols, hurt Kardashian, whom he wasstill dating when his newborn was conceived, as per PageSix.This confession comes after a headline-making legalbattle with Nichols.As Page Six previously reported,Nichols claimed in a paternity lawsuit that she and Tristangot into sexual intercourse over his 30th birthday week-end in March, which resulted in a pregnancy.The basket-ball player admitted to having sexual intercourse withNichols but denied being the father of her infant, whomshe welcomed on December 1.

Tristan Thompson publically admitsfathering Maralee Nichols’ baby

As per Page Six, Tristan had filed his own lawsuitagainst Nichols in Texas in response to her paternity suitagainst him in California, though it was dismissed lastmonth.Earlier this month, the model shared the first pic-ture of her baby with People magazine and also openedabout her with Tristan.“Instead of focusing on any negativ-ity, I am choosing to embrace being a mother and doingthe best I can for my son. I do not want any further mediaattention, nor do I want a romantic relationship with Tristan.My goal is to raise our son in a safe, healthy, loving andprivate environment,” the model said in a statement toPeople magazine.As per Page Six, Tristan had repeat-edly demanded Maralee’s baby undergo a DNA test toprove he’s the father, but she stalled until recently.Courtdocuments also revealed last month that the basketballplayer used the secret Snapchat username ‘blkjesus00’to arrange intercourse with Maralee on the social mediaplatform.Though Maralee has claimed that she and Tristanhad a five-month affair, the latter has maintained in legalfilings that the two only had intercourse once.

‘Harry Potter’ actor JamesPhelps broke director’s ribs

during filmingLos Angeles: Actor James Phelps, who starred as

Fred Weasley in the blockbuster ‘Harry Potter’ fantasyfilms alongside his twin brother Oliver as George, injuredMike Newell during a play fight whilst filming the fourthmovie in the series.The 79-year-old filmmaker recalled:“We were doing the scene when Fred and George wererejected from entering the Tri-Wizard tournament.“We hadthese wigs on and beards on what looked like old men,and Mike said, ‘OK, I think you guys are going to be reallyannoyed with each other, I think you should have a goodfight about this’.”

Speaking on the special ‘Harry Potter 20th Anniver-sary: Return To Hogwarts’, which celebrated the releaseof the first film based on the best-selling books by ac-claimed author J.K. Rowling, Newell explained that heintervened to encourage the boys to fight which left him inagony, reports femalefirst.co.uk.He said: “These two weresort of prissying about at it and I said, aNo, come on boys,it’s a fight’.A I was a tubby 60-year-old gent at that stageand I really shouldn’t have done it.“I remember grippinghim round the waist and trying to fling him about and soforth and I cracked a couple of ribs. I was in absoluteagony from then on, but of course, the wonderful thingwas that I’d made a complete twit of myself and every-body felt much better for that.”

Actor Trisha, Sathyaraj fall sickafter testing Covid positive

Hyderabad: Senior actors Trisha, Sathyaraj andmusic composer SS Thaman have tested positive forCovid-19. Trisha announced it on social media stating,“Despite taking all the precautions and safety measures,I’ve tested positive just a little before the New Year. Youname the symptoms, I had it. Even though it was one ofmy most harrowing weeks, I am recovering and feel bet-ter today thanks to my vaccinations. I request everyoneto do the same and mask up. Hoping to clear my testsand fly back home soon. My heartfelt thanks to the bestfamily and friends, I have and for all the prayers.”


Printed, Published and Owned by V. Srinivas Reddy, Printed at Karshak Art Printers, Plot No B-7, Industrial Development Area, Moula-Ali, Ranga Reddy (Dist). T.S. Published from Plot No. 3, Flat No. 13,Surya Saroj Apartment, HUDA Complex, Saroor Nagar, Ranga Reddy (Dist) T.S. Editor: V. Srinivas Reddy, RNI No. APENG/2013/49469. E-mail: [email protected]. Phone: 9440231967

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Hyderabad: Playing in his maiden World Blitz event,Telangana chess player Arjun Erigaisi finished at a cred-ible 24th overall in a field comprising top players acrossthe globe. The Warangal lad, who recently became IndiaNo.1 in blitz surpassing Viswanathan Anand, scored 12.5points from 21 rounds. Considering the tough competi-tion, Arjun’s performance was impressive.The 19-year-old Arjun played out impressive draws with MagnusCarlsen, Levon Aronian, Daniil Dubov and IanNepomniachtchi. He was also in a good position with 11.5points after 16 rounds and was just 1.5 points behindleader Aronian. However, he slipped from there and suf-fered three losses – against Vachier-Lagrave, Firouzjaand Kravtsiv – that hurt his chances.Arjun, though disap-pointed a bit not to play his best, said it was a great learn-ing experience. “Playing against strong players in the eventwas a very good experience. I could have done better. Iam disappointed with the overall result, but it was a goodexperience,” he said.

He also revealed that his decision to take a drawoffered by Nepomniachtchi, the World Championship con-tender, in the 17th round was a momentum breaker forhim. “Till round 16, I was doing well. In the 17th round,Nepomniachtchi offered me a draw. I was mesmerised byit as he was such a big player and he offered me a draw.And I took it. But later I realised that I was in the advanta-geous position against him. That was a big learning les-son for me. I then lost the next three rounds and I fumbledin the end. I also learnt that I should not let the previousperformance affect me in the next games,” he elaborated.

‘Playing in World Blitz greatlearning experience’

Was he under any pressure going into such a bigtournament for the first time? “No, I wanted to do my bestand see how it goes. I didn’t think that I was India No.1and should do well. I was not nervous as well. I did prettywell for the better of the tournament,” he said.Arjun, whowill be seen in action next in the Tata Steel Chess tourna-ment main event in Netherlands beginning January 14,targets 2700 rating points in the classical format. His cur-rent rating points are 2633.“I want to do well in this tourna-ment and want to improve my rating points. The target isto achieve 2700 rating points by the first half of the year. Iam working on my openings,” said Arjun, who is IndiaNo.8 and No. 120 in the world rankings in the classicalformat.

Hyderabad: Haryana’s Rahul and Bhajan Kaurbagged gold in the sub-junior boys and girls recurve cat-egories respectively at the 1st NTPC National RankingArchery Tournament at Gachibowli Stadium, Hyderabadon Monday.

Results:Sub-junior recurve: Boys: 1 Rahul (Haryana), 2

Kapish Singh (Rajasthan), 3 Amit Kumar (MadhyaPradesh); Girls: 1 Bhajan Kaur (Haryana), 2 Tashu (UttarPradesh), 4 Manjiri Alone (Maharashtra);

Sub-junior compound: Boys: 1 Parth Sunil Korde(Maharashtra), 2 Madhur Kaushik (Delhi), Mihir Nitin Apar(Maharashtra); Girls: 1 Aditi Gopichand Swami(Maharashtra), 2 Maya Bishoni (Rajasthan), 3 KasalRutuja Parmeshwar (Maharashtra).

Rahul, Bhajan win recurve gold atNTPC National Archery Tournament

Sydney: Spain and Poland remained perfect at theATP Cup with 3-0 wins in their matches Monday, theirsecond consecutive victories in the team event.RobertBautista Agut clinched the match for Spain by beatingCasper Ruud of Norway 6-4, 7-6 (4) after Pablo CarrenoBusta defeated Viktor Durasovic 6-3, 6-3. Bautista Agutimproved to 9-2 in singles at the team event.KamilMajchrzak gave Poland the early lead over Georgia witha 6-1, 6-1 win over Aleksandre Bakshi before HubertHurkacz clinched it with a 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-1 win overAleksandre Metreveli.

“He (Metreveli) played well in the first set and thingswere not going my way. But I got better with each set andam happy to get the win,” Hurkacz said.Spain and Polandlater both won their doubles matches to make it 3-0scorelines. Poland can book a place in the semifinals if itdefeats Argentina on Wednesday in its next groupgame.Majchrzak needed only 53 minutes to beat Bakshi.“I was trying to move (Bakshi) around and I think that wasthe key to the match,” said Majchrzak, who is coached byformer world seventh-ranked Joakim Nystrom.

“He brings me a lot of confidence and a lot of calm inmy tennis so I can feel that I am improving,” Majchrzaksaid of Nystrom on the ATP Tour”s website.

“We are working on (developing an all-court game)but in a way that doesn”t interrupt my baseline game. Wewill take it from the practice to the matches but it takestime.”Greece plays Argentina and Serbia takes on Chilein night matches Monday.The four group winners in the16-team tournament advance to the semifinals on Fridayand Saturday, with the winners meeting in the final .

ATP Cup: Spain, Polandcontinue winning streak

Hyderabad: The Telangana Cricket Association(TCA) alleged malpractices and corruption in theHyderabad Cricket Association (HCA) team selections forthe BCCI tournaments.The TCA secretary Dharam GuruvaReddy said that despite the Supreme Court disqualifyingthe Apex Council, the HCA continued to work and selectteams for the BCCI tournaments.

“It is not known whether who is appointing the Selec-tion Committee when the Apex Council itself is barredfrom operations and under which authority the SelectionsCommittees are appointed or changed for the selection ofits teams for the BCCI matches. Heavy corruption is re-ported and suspected orally by several parents who ap-proached the Telangana Cricket Association with the proofthat eligible players who performed were not selected,while many non-performers were also selected for theteams that play BCCI tournaments,” he said in a release.

He further alleged that HCA has ignored the direc-tions of BCCI to collaborate with TCA to develop the gameoutside Hyderabad.

TCA alleges corruptionin HCA team selection

New Delhi, EMS News Agency, Jan 6Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh and Harbhajan

Singh will be among a host of former stars in the IndiaMaharaja team which will take part in the inaugural edi-tion of the Legends League Cricket (LLC), starting on Janu-ary 20 in Oman.The first season of LLC, which is a profes-sional cricket league for retired international cricketers,will be played at the Al Amerat Cricket Stadium in Omanamong three power-packed teams.The other two teamswould be representing Asia and rest of the world.

Apart from the above trio, Irfan Pathan, Yusuf Pathan,Badrinath, RP Singh, Pragyan Ojha, Naman Ojha,Manpreet Gony, Hemang Badani, Venugopal Rao, MunafPatel, Sanjay Bangar, Nayan Mongia and Amit Bhandariwill also be part of the India Maharaja team.“Like trueKings, they will come, they would see and they wouldconquer. The Cricket Maharajas from India are comingtogether to take on the battle against the other two topteams from Asia and rest of the World,” former India coachand Commissioner of Legends League Cricket RaviShastri was quoted as saying in a media release.

“It would be the mother of all rivalries when Sehwag,Yuvraj, Bhajji play against Afridi, Murali, Chaminda,Shoaib, this will be a blast from the past for the fans,” headded.The Asia team called the Asia Lions includes formerPakistan and Sri Lankan legends Shoaib Akhtar, ShahidAfridi, Sanath Jayasuriya, Muttiah Muralitharan, Kamran

Sehwag, Yuvraj, Harbhajan to play for IndiaMaharaja in inaugural Legends League Cricket

Akmal, Chaminda Vaas, Romesh Kaluwitharana,Tillakaratne Dilshan, Azhar Mahmood, Upul Tharanga,Misbah-ul-Haq, Mohammed Hafeez, Shoaib Malik,Mohammed Yousuf and Umar Gul.Former Afghan skip-per Asghar Afghan will also be a part of the team, whileplayers representing the third team are yet to be an-nounced.

The Punjab Sports Department has asked players,who were recently given Rs3,000 (each) of kit money, topurchase kits from three designated vendors immediately.The kit includes one track-suit and two pairs of shoes.Theplayers alleged that they were being forced to purchasekits in anticipation of attending Punjab Chief Minister’srally. However, officials maintained, the department wasensuring a smooth process to help eligible players to getkits.

The players, who have been approached throughcoaches, have been asked to submit cheques for Rs3,000in favour of either of three vendors, namely Ess Kay SportsIndustries, Ess Kay Sports and Santosh SportsIndustries.“There’s nothing like that (players to attend theCM’s rally). The players were awarded money throughthe Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme for purchasingkits. If the money is designated to purchase kits, it should

be used for that purposeonly. We are just ensur-ing a smooth process,”said Parminder PalSingh Sandhu, Director,Sports Department(Punjab).“The process tobuy kits through head-quarters and distribute itto players is very tediousand time consuming.

There are more than 8,000 beneficiaries covered underthis scheme and we have been ensuring a smooth pro-cess to give them the kits. Why would we ask them toattend any rally?” he asked.

The players, meanwhile, alleged that the departmentwas covering up for the blunder and benefitting the ven-dors directly. “How is it possible to get a good qualitytrack-suit and two pairs of shoes for just Rs3,000? If thedepartment had made DBT to players, they should letthem use the amount as per their wish. The process clearlyindicates a prior planning between the vendors and theauthorities, while the players were kept in the dark,” saida player, seeking anonymity. “The department has donean appreciable job by sending money directly to all ben-eficiaries. However, they should not interfere in its usage.Different disciplines have different requirements and play-ers can use the amount accordingly. This is turning out tobe a problem for coaches, parents and the departmentitself,” said a parent.

Notably, there are no orders in writing asking play-ers to submit cheques and the coaches are pursuing play-ers verbally. “We have been asking players to submitcheques. Some parents understand, while the others askfor official orders. Since we don’t have any orders in writ-ing, we end up facing the parents’ fury. If the departmenthad these plans, it should be put under official orders. Anundertaking should have been taken from parents or play-ers, so that they buy the kits directly from the vendors. Ourviews were nowhere in the policy making, but we areones facing problems,” said a senior coach.

Punjab Sports Dept transfers Rs 3,000 kit money into players’accounts; asks them to purchase

kits from designated vendors

Former India fast bowler Ashish Nehra will beAhmedabad IPL franchise’s head coach during the 2022Indian Premier League season while England opener ofyesteryears Vikram Solanki is in line to become ‘Directorof Cricket’.World Cup-winning former India coach GaryKirsten will be the ‘Mentor’ of the franchise which is ex-pecting to get its formal ‘Letter of Intent’ (LOI) during themonth.“As far as I have heard, they have signed Ashishas their head coach and someone who would be in over-all charge of the franchise. Solanki will be the ‘Director ofCricket’ and also expected to double up as batting coachand Kirsten will be in a mentorship role,” a senior IPL

source told PTI on conditions of anonymity.“TheAhmedabad franchise can’t announce it formally as it is aBCCI diktat and they can only make a formal announce-ment after they get the LOI. The head honchos ofAhmedabad franchise has already interviewed the trioand short-listed them for the season,” the sourcesaid.Nehra has earlier been a coach with Royal Chal-lengers Bangalore where Kirsten was also involved for acouple of seasons.Both of them have had a long and fruit-ful working relationship since the time when Nehra was aplayer and Kirsten his national coach.Nehra shares a greatrapport even with Solanki, who has worked previously asa coach in IPL.

Once it gets the green light from BCCI, the franchisewill go ahead and select a few assistant coaches.Nehrahad been away from coaching for two seasons as he haddecided that he would be taking up such an assignmentonly if he has the profile of a head coach where he canmake a difference both in terms of team composition andstrategy.He had multiple offers from various IPL franchisesbut it is understood that the former left-arm speedster ismore keen on taking up the challenge of building a crackteam from scratch.

Nehra all set to become head coachof Ahmedabad IPL team, VikramSolanki to be ‘Director of Cricket’

The upper back spasm that ruled Virat Kohli out ofthe second Test against South Africa could well be a re-currence of the slip disc problem that had stopped himfrom playing English County cricket back in 2018.The In-dian skipper missed out on what would have been his99th Test match for the country on the morning of thesecond game against South Africa here, adding to theintriguing drama that is unfolding around him on an al-most daily basis now.This was after the skipper had agood net session at the Wanderers on Sunday afternoonand coach Rahul Dravid, as is his wont is, didn’t drop theslightest hint that the skipper has niggling back issueswhich have resurfaced after nearly three and halfyears.Kohli, in fact, had posted some snap-shots of histraining session where he was seen lunging forward andplaying the on-drive. It was obvious that he felt fine as hewent through an intense net session only to develop adiscomfort on the morning of the Test match.Interestingly,his IPL team Royal Challengers Bangalore had tweeteda picture of KL Rahul with a tweet “The focus shifts to theWanderers as #TeamIndia have a chance to seal the se-ries.”

Nothing wrong with the tweet save the fact that it wasposted 12 noon IST, at least one hour before Kohli’s in-jury status was revealed at the toss by Rahul, who is not apart of the RCB set-up. Although to be fair to them, it didn’tmention Rahul as India captain.In 2018, he was sufferingfrom a condition called ‘herniated disc’ (slipped disc) andwas advised by the doctor to not play county cricket forSurrey if he wanted to be part of the Test series afterthat.The condition didn’t warrant a surgery which could

All’s not well: Back problemresurfaces for captain Kohli after 2018as he grapples on and off-field issues

have ruled him out for good three to four months.A backspasm is sudden tightness and pain in back muscles. Itmay happen from overuse of muscle or an injury.In caseof Kohli, someone who is a fitness freak and pushes hisbody to the limits, the chances of back injury are alwayshigh and as one reaches mid-30s, the recovery takes moretime.If Kohli recovers within a week to play the third andfinal Test in Cape Town it would then mean that it wasn’tvery serious, just like Ajinkya Rahane’s hamstring nigglethat ruled him out of the Wankhede Test, a day after hehad a full session at the BKC Indoor Centre.With India 1-0 up, Kohli must have wanted to play this game and getback to form which has deserted him for almost two yearsnow.He was seen sombrely ambling around the Bull Ringbefore the start of the game and looked visibly disap-pointed on having to miss a game.

If runs have dried up on the field, his off-the fieldrelationship with the BCCI hasn’t exactly made matterseasy for him as the establishment’s poster boy isn’t nowon very good terms with the big wigs of the board.So muchso that someone like Dravid, who always likes a healthydistance from controversies, acknowledged that Kohli isbeing “phenomenal” around the group in spite of all the“noise” around him.It was an admission that the feisty In-dian Test captain is under pressure and perhaps a serieswin and at least one three-figure score or something closeto it will remove a huge load off his chest.Kohli wouldhave surely addressed the media before the Cape TownTest starting January 11 had it been his landmark 100thgame in the traditional format. That’s what Dravid hadpromised on the eve of second Test.

Once “back spasm” ruled him out of contention fromthe second Test, it does not exactly seem to be the best oftimes for the megastar, who is battling on-field issues asbatter and off-field differences with establishment.Now itcan’t be said with any degree of certainty that whether hewould be in a mood to take questions from media aheadof his 99th Test.In any case, the degree of relevance be-tween 99 and 100 is so vast, one can only wonder as towhat exactly are the odds that he might not comeBut thenKohli is a non-conformist and could do exactly what no-body is apprehending him to do.If India wins the series inSouth Africa, what’s left to achieve for the maverick super-star. There could be some more surprises in store forcricket lovers and no one can quite guess at this point,what it could all lead to in the coming few months.

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