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RNI No. TELENG/2018/76469

Established 1864Published From

HYDERABAD DELHI LUCKNOWBHOPAL RAIPUR CHANDIGARH

BHUBANESWAR RANCHIDEHRADUN VIJAYAWADA

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MONEY 8‘ECONOMY RECOVERING DUE TO TARGETED RELIEF, RAPID VAX’

ANALYSIS 6UNDERSTANDING CHINA’S

DOMESTIC POLITICAL REFORMS

SPORTS 12SURYA CAN BAT AT NO 3 IN T20 WC: MANJREKAR

}POORNA TO PLAY A

TOUGH COP

Page 11{

HYDERABAD, SATURDAY, JULY 10, 2021; PAGES 12 `3

PNS n HYDERABAD

The use of Molnupiravir, anexperimental oral drug havingantiviral properties, has resultedin early recovery of COVIDpatients with mild symptomswhen compared to standardtreatment, during Phase 3 clini-cal trials, Hetero said on Fridayciting interim data.

The city-based drug makeralso said it has approached theDrug Controller General ofIndia (D CGI) seekingEmergency Use Authorisation(EUA) for Molnupiravir inIndia.

Hetero had commenced aphase-III, comparative, ran-domized, multicenter clinicaltrial on mild Covid-19 patients.

PNS n HYDERABAD

Ramky Company has fabricated itsaccounts and shown fake losstotaling Rs.1,200 crore, accordingto Income Tax authorities.

The IT Department, which raid-ed the offices and other premisesof Ramky group on 6th July,released a statement on Friday.

According to the statement,majority of shares of Ramky weresold to an entity based in Singaporefor huge capital gains. The compa-ny, which is doing works all overthe country, has been running realestate business at Hyderabad in afocused manner.

But, to avoid tax on capitalgains they have shown excess lossto the tune of Rs.1,200 crores. Theyhave set off Rs.288 crore of currentassets as bad debts by manipulat-ing accounts, which is also amethod to conceal the profits ofthe company.

The Income Tax Departmenthas got all the evidential docu-ments regarding the sale of shares,fake losses, showing bad debts andall other related matters.

The statement mentioned thatthe authorities of the company hadaccepted that they did not show anincome of Rs.300 crore and wereready to pay tax for it now.

Officials of the department stat-ed that further inquiry is on andthat the course of action will beaccording to procedures.

Ramky company belongs toYSRCP Rajya Sabha memberAyodhya Rami Reddy and hisbrother Ramakrishna Reddy, whois a YSRCP MLA fromMangalagiri.

Till now, Ayodhya Rami Reddyhas not reacted to these develop-ments.

ML MELLY MAITREYI n HYDERABAD

Chief Minister K ChandrasekharRao has instructed the officialsconcerned to begin the recruit-ment process in the wake of therecent approval of the new zonalsystem, and fill the vacant posts.

In the first phase, 50,000 postsshould be filled and the recruit-ment process for the purposeshould commence immediately, hesaid.

The vacancies that would ariseupon departmental promotionsshould also be identified and thoseposts filled in the second phase, headded.

The Chief Minister chaired ahigh-level meeting on Friday onfilling vacancies in the State in viewof the President's approval of thenew zonal system proposed by theState government.

PNS n HYDERABAD

Kerala-based textile major Kitexgroup is inclined to make invest-ments to the tune of Rs.3,500 crorein Telangana.

This emerged after a delegationfrom the company, led by itsManaging Director Sabu M Jacob,met IT and Industries MinisterK.T.Rama Rao at Pragathi Bhavanhere on Friday.

The Kitex Group has agreed inprinciple for Phase- I investment ofRs 1,000 crore within a span of twoyears in the textile industry for theproject 'Textile Apparel' in theKakatiya Mega Textile Park inWarangal. This investment will gen-erate 4,000 jobs in the State, accord-ing to Sabu Jacob, MD, Kitex Group.

KTR briefed the team aboutTelangana's Industrial Policy, TS-iPASS that facilitates single-windowapprovals, inspection process, 24x7

power supply to industries and highquality cotton cultivated in the State,among other things.

PNS n HYDERABAD

As many as 25,196 building per-missions were given through TS-bPass, a self-certification-basedinstant approval system for build-ing permissions. Since its officiallaunch on 16 November 2020,building permissions are beingprovided within 21 days from thedate of submission of applicationand in case of shortfalls intimationwas provided within 10 days.

Minister K T Rama Rao released

the MA&UD Annual Report 2020-21 on Friday in the presence ofPrincipal Secretary Arvind Kumar,along with other head of the depart-ments. This is the 4th year in a rowthat the Annual Report of MAUDDepartment has been presented.

As per the report, through TS-bPASS a total of 4,732 permis-sions were given for instant reg-istrations up to 75sq yards, 19,985instant approvals for >75sq yardsto 600 sq yards were given, and479 single-window approvals for>600 sq yards and all non-resi-dential buildings.Beware of TDP men in TS

politics, warns Harish RaoTPCC chief Revanth Reddy is confidante of Chandrababu

PNS n HYDERABAD

Senior TRS leader and FinanceMinister T.Harish Rao has allegedthat Telugu Desam Party pres-ident N ChandrababuNaidu is enteringTelangana politics inthe guise of Congressparty.

Naidu is well awarethat Telangana peoplewould not acceptTelugu Desam and hencehe is sending his aides toCongress party and indirectlyplaying a role in Telangana politics,according to Harish Rao.

Chandrababu Naidu was gettingplum posts for his close associatesin the Congress party, he said in anoblique reference to RevanthReddy's appointment as TelanganaPradesh Congress Committee

president.Revanth Reddy was the one

involved in 'Note for Vote' scam onbehalf of the Telugu Desam Party.

"One should realise that thesame Revanth Reddy is

now the PCC chief ",he said.

Harish Rao, whoparticipated in sever-al developmental pro-grammes in Bejjanki

mandal of Siddipetdistrict under the fourth

phase of Palle Pragathi,addressed a public meeting

after inaugurating the RythuVedika, Mahila Bhavan, AmbedkarBhavan at Kallepalli village onFriday. He also announced Rs.1crore grant for the village towardsdevelopmental works.

State gears up to fight vaccine hesitancy

NAVEENA GHANATE n HYDERABAD

Telangana has now opened anoth-er front in its war against Covid-19 to fight vax hesitancy as notmany people are coming forwardto voluntarily take Covid-19 vac-cine. The vaccination drive, whichhas seen more than 1.22 croredoses being administered till date,

is hampered by hesitancy amongsections of the public.

The Telangana HealthDepartment is now looking at'vaccine persuasion squad' where-in the staff will mobilise people

who have not taken jabs and cre-ate awareness. Besides, throughmobile vaccine centers, namely'Vaccine on wheels',

25,196 permissions giventhrough TS-bPASS

CM instructs FeverSurvey again inborder districts PNS n HYDERABAD

Chief Minister K.ChandrasekharRao has instructed the Medicaland Health Department officialsto conduct Fever Survey onceagain in the Covid-19 affectedareas of the State.

The coronavirus had not yetcome totally under control in theborder States. As a result, the bor-der districts in the State were notfree from the impact of Covid-19,KCR said. Such areas in the Stateshould be identified and a scien-tific study conducted for makingcritical analysis to identify the fac-tors behind the spread of Covid,he added.

A team of senior officials fromthe Medical and Health depart-ment, led by Secretary S A M Rizvi,

BC Residentialinstitutionsnamed afterJyothiba PhulePNS n HYDERABAD

The state government hasdecided to change the nomen-clature of all BC Residentialeducational institutions andname them after MahatmaJyothiba Phule.

The government i ssuedorders to this effect on Fridayand said that all BC ResidentialSchools/Junior Colleges andDegree College sanctioned byGovernment wil l functionunder MJPTBCWREI Societyas Mahatma Jyothiba PhuleTelangana Telangana BackwardClasses Welfare ResidentialSchools/Junior Colleges andDegree College for Women,Peerlapalli located at Wargal,Siddipet.

Hetero saysMolnupiravirwill treat mildCovid patients

T-TDP headRamana quits,to join TRSPNS n HYDERABAD

TDPs Telangana unit president LRamana on Friday resigned fromhis post and is to join the rulingTRS. He told PTI that he haddecided to quit and join the rul-ing party to reach out to differentsections of people and serve thembetter. He said he would join theTRS in the next two-three days.

He called on TRS supremo andChief Minister K ChandrasekharRao on Thursday.

Ramana thanked TDP chief NChandrababu Naidu for helpinghim grow during the last 30 yearsand sent the resignation letter toNaidu. Meanwhile, TDPsKarimnagar president Ambati JojiReddy said in a press release that theparty has nothing to lose because ofRamanas exit. Ramanas resignationwas anticipated and there is noth-ing surprising, Joji Reddy said.

Jagan strips deputies of important portfoliosPNS n AMARAVATI

In a major development, AndhraPradesh Chief Minister Y S JaganMohan Reddy stripped two of hisdeputies of important portfolios bytransferring their subjects fromRevenue to Finance department.

Commercial Taxes department,being looked after by Deputy ChiefMinister K Narayana Swamy, andRegistrations and Stamps, beinglooked after by another DCMDharmana Krishna Das, have beentransferred from the Revenuedepartment to Finance under thecharge of Minister BugganaRajendranath.

As things stand, Dy CMNarayana Swamy will now contin-ue to look after Excise andProhibition department while the

other Dy CM Krishna Das will holdcharge of Revenue (Lands)Department.

Chief Secretary Aditya Nath Das

issued an order around Thursdaymidnight effecting the changes "tohave more synergy of resourcemobilization with FinanceDepartment."

"All the related Heads ofDepartments and autonomousorganisations like Commissionerof Commercial Taxes, Directorand Inspector General ofRegistrations and Stamps andthe AP VAT Appellate Tribunal(Visakhapatnam) are a lsoattached to the FinanceDepartment henceforth," theChief Secretary said in the order.

State Cabinet tomeet on July 13CM KCR has convened a Cabinetmeeting at Pragathi Bhavan here onJuly 13. The meeting will discussCovid situation, agriculture, PallePragathi and Pattana Pragathi aswell as other issues.

WhatsApp blinks,puts privacypolicy on hold PNS n NEW DELHI

WhatsApp LLC told the DelhiHigh Court on Friday that till thedata protection bill comes intoforce, it will not compel users toopt for its new privacy policy asit has been put on hold and willimplement it "if Parliament allowsit". WhatsApp clarified beforebench of Chief justice D N Pateland Justice Jyoti Singh that itwould not limit the functionali-ty for users who are not opting fornew privacy policy in the mean-time.

Appearing for the instant messag-ing platform, Senior AdvocateHarish Salve said, "We voluntarilyagreed to put it (the policy) onhold... We will not compel peopleto accept." Salve said that WhatsAppwould nonetheless continue to dis-play the update to its users.

CM to address VasalamarriGrama Sabha today

Kitex group managing Director Sabu M Jacob met IT and Industries Minister KT Rama Rao at Pragathi Bhavan on Friday

Fill 50K posts via directrecruitment: CM KCR

Persuasion squads toconvince peoplealongside vax on wheels

Vaccination Trends

Municipal Administration and Urban Development Minister KT Rama Rao released thedepartment's Annual Report 2020-21 on Friday in the presence of top officials

n A total of 15 new bridges cum checkdam on Musi soon, with an outlay of Rs8 cr, to ease traffic and develop Old City

KTR wins Kitex for TSRs 1,000 cr investment in Phase 1

K Narayana Swamy Dharmana Krishna Das

Huge malpracticefound in the accountsof Ramky company: IT

By Doses Today AllLast 30 DaysBy Age

WON’T HEAR ‘PROFESSIONAL PUBLIC INTERESTLITIGANTS' UNLESS THEY PAY FINE: SC

MAHARASHTRA, KERALA REPORT 53 PCOF INDIA'S TOTAL CASES LAST WEEK

TALIBAN CLAIMS IT NOW CONTROLS 85 PC OF AFGHANISTAN'S TERRITORY

35 PC OF INDIA'S TIGER RANGES AREOUTSIDE PROTECTED AREAS: REPORT

Maharashtra and Kerala recorded more than half of the Covid-19cases registered in India last week, the Centre said on Friday asit stressed that the pandemic is far from over and there is no

room for complacency. A senior official said, "The country is stilldealing with the second wave and we needto introspect if we can afford misplacedbelief that Covid is over." The governmentsaid visuals from tourist spots and the waypeople are mingling without following Covidprotocols is "a serious cause of concern"and will increase the risk. Joint secretary(Health) Lav Agarwal referred to recentspikes in cases in some countries to cautionpeople against lowering their guard.

The Taliban claimed Friday to be in control of 85 percent ofAfghanistan, including a key border crossing with Iran, followinga sweeping offensive launched as US troops pull out of the war-

torn nation. Hours after President Joe Biden issued a staunchdefence of the US withdrawal, the Talibansaid fighters had seized the border town ofIslam Qala -- completing an arc of territoryfrom the Iranian border to the frontier withChina. In Moscow, a delegation of Talibanofficials said they controlled some 250 ofAfghanistan's 398 districts. Separately,Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid toldAFP the Islam Qala border crossing was"under our full control".

Thirty-five per cent of India's tiger ranges are outside protectedareas and human-animal conflict affects over 75 per cent of theworld's wild cat species, according to a new report. The study,

which has been done by WWF and the United Nations EnvironmentProgramme (UNEP) with contribution from155 experts from 40 organisations based in27 countries, also stated that human-wildlifeconflict is the greatest threat to animals."Currently, 35 per cent of India's tiger range,40 per cent of the African lion range and 70per cent of the African and Asian elephantranges are outside protected areas," said thereport -- 'A future for all-The need forhuman-wildlife coexistence'.

The Supreme Court on Friday said that it will not hear any“professional public interest litigants” unless they deposit the finesimposed on them by the court. The top court was hearing an

application filed by two persons on whom the apex court had in August,2017 imposed a cost of Rs 5 lakh each forfiling a “motivated” petition challenging theappointment of then Chief Justice Dipak Misra.They had also questioned the practise ofrecommending to the President, the name ofsuccessor by the incumbent Chief Justice ofIndia. The top court was informed that one ofthem, Swami Om had expired during the firstCOVID wave last year while Mukesh Jain hasbeen in Balasore jail for the past one year.

Not leaving Kerala on myown, being ‘hounded out’,says Kitex group chairman

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Chief Minister K.Chandrasekhar Raowill address a Grama Sabha atVasalamarri village inYadadriBhongir district on Saturday.KCR adopted Vasalamarri village,visited it recently, and hadcommunity lunch with the villagers.

Printed and published by B Krishna Prasad for and on behalf of CMYK Printech Ltd., Phone: 040-23322341, Hyderabad Office: F-502, Diamond Block, Lumbini Rockdale, Somajiguda, Hyderabad - 500 082. Telangana. Printed at Sree Seshasai Enterprises, Plot No.19, IDA Balanagar , Hyderbad-500037, Medchal -Malkajgiri District, Telangana. Chief Editor: Chandan Mitra. Resident Editor: B Krishna Prasad, AIR SURCHARGE of Rs 2.00.

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hyderabad 02HYDERABAD | SATURDAY | JULY 10, 2021

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(IN HYDERABAD)

Some interesting develop-ments are taking place inthe power sector. India is

about to touch 2 Lakh MWClub in respect of meetingpower demand, next only toChina and US, as on 6th Julyit met 1,97,000 MW demand-- highest in country so far.

The Union Cabinet hasapproved a package of Rs 5lakh crore to bail out ailingdistribution companies. TheSupreme Court has vacatedthe stay of the High CourtChandigarh, paving the wayfor privatization of powerutilities in Chandigarh.

The Government of Indiahas notified Consumers(Rights and Obligation) Rules2020 which empower con-sumers in respect of demand-ing better services from elec-tricity suppliers.

It is expected that theElectricity Act Amendmentswill be placed in the forth-coming Parliament sessionand the Government maynotify the new ElectricityPolicy shortly. Also, during thepandemic the services provid-ed by the electricity personnel

across the country are beinglauded as for the past 18months there have been nomajor complaints of powersupply being disrupted acrossthe country.

Like any other business,electricity production, its trans-portation and its delivery tousers is a complex process.Right now electricity produc-tion is in the hands of Central,State, and private players.Electricity production is het-erogenic with coal, gas, nuclearand renewable energy.

But the delivery system ofelectricity at the user end iscausing concern as in fact thehealthiness of this system,which includes more use, reli-ability and payment system,depends on this.

Electricity, being a lifeline,contributes greatly toIndustrial, Agricultural,Transport and Domestic ends.At the Domestic level, out of 32crore consumers, 30 crore are

using it for lighting and othercomforts. Today every house iselectrified and new rules spec-ify time limits and provide thatthe service connection cannotbe disallowed. For politicalreasons, now electricity hasbecome an election plank.

Enthused with the results ofDelhi, where one party gave50% rebate, now all politicalparties are trying to replicatethe same model.

The other segment likeIndustries use 42% of electric-ity and they are also lookingfor cheap electricity to sustainnational and internationalcompetition, as, like in the

case of many other products,leave aside China, nowBangladesh and Vietnam aregiving competition.

In fact, when the ElectricityAct 2003 was introduced, itwas expected that the powersector would be dealt with oncommercial lines and that thecost of power production,cost of its transportationwould be effectively recoveredfrom the users and if a user isnot in a position to pay, thenthe Government would beproviding subsidized compo-nent and part of it can also canbe recovered from the higheruser component.

This important ingredientof commerce was welcomedby almost all sections. Onemore aspect was added thatthe tariff would be regulatedby an independent body andin a transparent manner.

In fact, for the past twodecades, this arrangement hasbeen working satisfactorily.Besides, to engender compe-tition, competitive bids were

also introduced so that distri-bution companies could buythe cheaper mode.

While two processes wereplaced, there is the third part,which has come into market.It is dynamic pricing. Theprices are determined on thebasis of demand and supplyand now, with two exchanges,around 50 traders are also inpower markets.

All said and done, perhapselectricity is the only com-modity which is sold 24x7.Recently, while addressingIAS probationers, I told themthat only one paisa per unitprofit would work out Rs7,200 per month for one MWprofit and this country can sell4,00,000 MW and tariff poli-cy gives you 15% profit. Withsuch a good market, thereverse is also true if one paisaper unit loss the losses are dis-astrous and sadly we havemoved in that direction anddespite all efforts to improve

the system, we are failingagain and again.

Today it is estimated that atthe domestic level the percapita consumption is 180units in urban areas.

Along with the effectiveintroduction of energy con-servation methods, it wouldbe encouraging to increasethe standard of living byusing more appliances likeair-conditioners, geysers andcooking media so that theoverall standard of living isimproved. Basical ly atdomestic level, the consump-tion is around 24% and itserves 30 crore householdsand an average rate for 400units, varying from 171 paisein Daman to more than 750paise in some states.

If we club all least costpower like hydro and otherold units, the power rateswould be around 300 paisaand this power can be soldto Domestic and

Agricultural consumers atpooled rate.

The State Governmentcan further offload cost.While I am writing this, atleast three states that aregoing to pol ls haveannounced that they wouldfind a way so that domesticpower can be given at con-cessional rate or even free ofcost in urban households.

Even as a bulk buyer, thestate governments canreduce the collection cost asis the case in Delhi, wherethe Delhi Government ispaying upfront distributioncompanies, saving signifi-cant collection cost.

Thus, one of the effectiveways can be pooling thedomestic consumers at thenational level and allocatingthem cheaper power.

It will be very interestingto watch cheaper or subsi-dized electricity being sup-plied in the years ahead.

(The author is Chairman ofTripura Electricity RegulatoryCommission. Views expressed

are personal)

D RADHAKRISHNA

Electricity pricing: Cost, market or welfare?Along with effective introduction of energyconservation methods, it would be encoura-ging to increase the standard of living byusing more appliances like air-conditioners,geysers and cooking media so that theoverall standard of living is improved.

NAVEENA GHANATE

n HYDERABAD

It appears that the TeluguDesam Party may not slip intooblivion in Telangana eventhough the president of thestate unit of TDP, L. Ramana,has decided to join theTelangana Rashtra Samiti.

Now in Telangana,'Chandrababu Naidu' and'Telugu Desam' are used aspejorative terms, with the fol-

lowers of ruling and oppositionparties labeling each other as"heirs of TDP".

On Friday 'Telugu DesamRashtra Samithi (TRS)' wastrending online with the sur-facing of old images and videosof Chief Minister KChandrashekhar Rao wearingthe yellow sash.

This started a day after K TRama Rao said:"RevanthReddy is yet to come out ofTDP senses. Even Congress

leaders are branding the TPCCas the new Telugu DesamCongress".

The TDP has not been inpower in Telangana for 17years, and after bifurcation itsrole has been nominal.Moreover, the party is seen as"Andhra Party".

Incidentally, the presidentsof both TRS and TPCC wereonce part of TDP. WithRamana joining TRS, netizenswere abuzz that the TRS party

has completely transformedinto Telugu Desam RashtraSamithi. Nobody wants to betagged with TDP. Even FinanceMinister Harish Rao said thatChandrababu Naidu had beentrying to enter Telangana onceagain through his men in theCongress. However, netizenswere quick to point that it hadbecome routine to dragChandrababu and TDP in thewar of words to intensifyregional feelings.

‘Telugu Desam Rashtra Samithi'versus ‘Telugu Desam Congress' PNS n KOCHI

Ahead of talks with theTelangana government overhis investment plans, chairmanof the Kitex group Sabu Jacob,who has backed out from a Rs3,500 crore project in Kerala,on Friday said he was not leav-ing his home state on his own,but was being 'hounded out.'

He alleged that the Keralagovernment authorities didnot bother to interfere evenafter his announcement ofwithdrawal from the multi-crore investment project fromthe state.

"I'm not going on my own.I'm being hounded out, I ambeing kicked out..," Jacob toldreporters at the airport nearhere as he reached to take aspecial private jet sent by theTelangana government to trav-el to Hyderabad to discuss hisinvestment plans with theauthorities there.

Jacob said he was invited bythe Telangana governmentafter his group had a discus-sion with them "at differentlevels".

Reiterating his allegationthat the atmosphere in Kerala

was not conducive for launch-ing business, the industrialistsaid no other investor in thesouthern state should facesuch an experience here.

Jacob said he had beendoing business in Kerala forthe past 53 years.

"If this is the experience ofan investor who has created ahistory and a revolution in theindustrial sector in Kerala,then what would be the fate ofthose who invest a meagreamount of Rs 10,000 or Rs20,000 for earning their liveli-hood?" he asked.

Jacob claimed that not a sin-gle Kerala minister telephonedhim to enquire about the rea-sons for his group's withdraw-al from investing in the state.

"But chief ministers of ninestates telephoned me.Industrialists also called me.

Now a private jet has beensent for us", Jacob said andcalled for a change in theapproach of the Kerala govern-ment towards industries.

However, there was noimmediate reaction from thestate government to Jacob'sfresh charges against it.

Continued from Page 1

He reminded the gatheringthat market yard, godowns,sub market yards were con-structed in Bejjanki at a costof Rs.20 crore.

After the formation ofTelangana, not even one guntaof agricultural land had with-ered, thanks to theKaleswaram project, throughwhich the Mid Manair reser-voir was filled.

In Bejjanki mandal, previ-ously people were witness tosevere drinking water crisis,crops withering away due tolack of irrigation facilities,and burnt transformers andmotor pumps. All those hard-ships had disappeared afterthe formation of Telangana, hesaid.

Cautioning people to bewary of leaders from Andhra,Harish Rao said in 2018,Chandrababu Naidu hadentered into an alliance withthe Congress and tried to winelections, but Telangana peo-ple rejected the 'Andhra Babu'.

So this time he had changedtack, having realized that peo-

ple would not accept TDPleaders. Hence, he sent hispeople into the CongressParty. In a way, Naidu is enter-ing once again Telangana inthe guise of Congress, he said.

After the TRS came topower, water was ensured toagricultural lands and people'shouses. What the Congressand TDP could not do in thelast 70 years, TRS did in sevenyears. Even before the rainscame, every tank was fullwith Kaleswaram water, hesaid.

During the Congressregime, people used to goround the banks for croploans. But Chief Minister KCRgot the Rythu Bandhu invest-ment assistance credited to thefarmers' accounts.

The BJP did not help theState in any way, but wasbreaking the back of the poorby increasing prices. The costof diesel had touched Rs.100a litre. In the last seven years,the 'contribution' of BJP wasincreasing the prices of dieseland petrol by Rs.25 and Rs.26respectively.

Continued from Page 1

The Secretary, MJPT-BCWREIS, Telangana,Hyderabad also said that tillnow 261 Residential schoolsand 19 junior colleges andone degree college had beensanctioned under the controlof BC Welfare Department.He also said that 119Residential schools wereupgraded as Junior Collegesduring the year 2021-22.

Continued from Page 1

These clinical trials wereaimed at evaluating the effica-cy and safety of Molnupiravirplus standard of care (testarm) versus standard of carealone (control arm), in mildCovid-19 patients with a pos-itive SARS CoV-2 RT PCR testfor COVID-19 and random-ized within 5 days of onset ofsymptoms. In April this year,Hetero had entered into anon-exclusive licensing agree-ment with MSD, to manufac-ture and supply Molnupiravirin India and over 100 low andmiddle-income countries(LMICs).

There were fewer hospitaladmissions in Molnupiravirgroup compared to standardof care alone over 14 days ofobservation, the interimresults said. "Phase 3 TrialDemonstrates StatisticallySignificant fewer hospitaladmissions, faster time toclinical improvement andearly negative SARS CoV-2RT PCR with MolnupiravirTreatment in mild COVID-19patients compared to stan-dard of care alone," Heterosaid.

Continued from Page 1

KCR said that the new zonalsystem had been introduced todo justice to the local candi-dates as that was one of thebasic objectives of theTelangana movement. Heattributed the delay in intro-ducing it to the government'sresolve to formulate the newzonal system carefully and inthe most scientific manner.Besides, the Centre's approvalcame only recently.

Now all the hurdles for the

recruitment process had beencleared.

There are about 50,000

posts earmarked for directrecruitment and they will befilled first, he said.

The Government hadalready taken up the promo-tion process in all the depart-ments and the vacanciescaused by the promotionsshould be identified and areport submitted to theCabinet meeting to be held onJune 13, he said. The meetingwas attended by Rajiv Sharma,Chief Advisor to Government,Chief Secretary SomeshKumar, Principal Secretary toCM Narsing Rao, PrincipalSecretary Ramakrishna Raoand others.

Not leaving Kerala on my own,being ‘hounded out': Kitex CMD

KTR wins Kitex for TSContinued from Page 1

The Minister observed that theinvestment proposed by the Kitexcompany would qualify for megaproject status as per TS-iPASS Actand that it would be eligible forincentives tailormade for thecategory.The visiting team sharedthe company's activities andexpansion plans outside Kerala andappreciated the positive responseshown by the TS government itsplans. The company's

representatives said that they wereimpressed with the government'spolicies and the conduciveenvironment in the State for thetextile industry. They later flew in ahelicopter arranged by the stategovernment to visit the KakatiyaMega Textile Park in Warangal.They were accompanied by TSIICMD Narasimha Reddy and otherofficials. The visiting team said thatthey had not seen such a megaTextile Park anywhere in thecountry.

Fill 50K posts via direct recruitment: CM KCR

BC Residential... Hetero says... Beware of TDP...

Continued from Page 1

should visit the affected borderdistricts from July 11 to 13, heinstructed.

He asked them to visitNagarjuna Sagar, Miryalaguda,Nakirekal, Suryapeta,Khammam, Dornakal,Huzurabad, Mancherial,Peddapalli, Bellampalli,Godavari Khani, Siricilla andWarangal areas, using a heli-copter for three days. A reportof their findings should be sub-mitted to the Cabinet, he said.

The Chief Minister also said

that officials should prepare aplan for curbing the spread ofcorona and take preventivesteps. They should hold meet-ings with local DistrictCollectors, District panchayatofficers, municipal commisison-ers, DMHO and hospital super-intendents as well as local offi-cers concerned and alert themabout the Covid-19. KCR helda review on the Corona situa-tion and general health situationin the State at Pragathi Bhavanhere on Friday with HealthDepartment and CMO officials.

The Chief Minister said that

not only in the country, butacross the globe no one was ableto identify the exact reasons forthe spread of Covid-19.Governments were lacking intotal understanding to take def-inite measures to control thepandemic as there was uncer-tainty about which variantwould strike next and when thenext Covid wave would come.

Hence, the Medical andHealth department had to be onhigh alert and update its knowl-edge on controlling corona virusand taking measures to protectpeople from the pandemic.

Cantinued from Page 1

The Health Department willreach out to people who havenot received their jabs yet.

An official in the HealthDepartment acknowledgedthe declining interest amongpeople in getting inoculated.The off icial said, "Weexpected this decline.Initially all those who wereinterested and those whohad concerns voluntarilycame forward to get inocu-lated. Now we see vaccinehesitancy. The TelanganaHealth Department is goingto take up special awarenessprogrammes - initial lymobilizing people who needto take doses by creatingawareness and then going topeople through mobile vac-cine centers i.e. Vaccine onwheels".

However, it is due to lackof awareness on availabilityand price rather than aboutthe credibility of the vaccine,officials say. The reasons fornot taking jabs are many, butthe commonly cited ones arelack of knowledge on avail-ability and price of vaccinesand fake news circulating onsocial media.

Apart from convincingpeople, the HealthDepartment has to take careof vaccine wastage as well.With low number of peoplecoming to vaccine centers,the wastage is likely toincrease. Sources indicatedthat if only one or two peo-ple turn up, they are beingsent back as we cannot openvials for just a couple of peo-ple.

The vaccination drive hasbeen open to all citizens aged18 years and above. Whileprior appointment was thenorm previously, now vacci-nation is available with same-day appointment or even noappointment.

State gears up tofight vaccine...

Cantinued from Page 1

He announced then that theGovernment would developthe village in all respects as amodel village and sought thefull involvement of villagers inits eventual transformation.

He had asked DistrictCollector Pamela Satpathy toappoint various committees inthe village and collect dataabout the village and the liv-ing conditions of variouscommunities.

CM to address Vasalamarri...

CM instructs Fever SurveyContinued from Page 1

GHMC, HMDA, DTCP havein total issued 47,595 buildingpermissions to the tune of Rs1377.17 crore. Last year 254mn sq ft built-up area wasadded in Telangana.

Principal Secretary ArvindKumar said, "The implemen-tation of TS-bPASS has been amajor highlight during thisyear. More than 28,000 instantapprovals have been givensince its introduction.Transparency, strict timelines,zero tolerance to corruptionand online-based approvalprocess ensured that citizen'sinterface with officials is min-imized".

In other important achieve-ments, Telangana stoodNumber 1 in implementationof PM SVANidhi, wherein atotal of Rs347 crore was sanc-tioned to 3,47,006 street ven-dors during 2020-21.Telangana is the only state inthe country which will haveFaecal Sludge Treatment Plants(FSTPs) in all the Urban LocalBodies (ULBs).

The state government hasdecided to construct 15 newbridges across river Musi inHyderabad. This year beauti-

fication works were taken upon Tank Bund at an estimatedcost of Rs 39.00 crore and theywere nearing completion.Refurbishment of footpath onboth the sides of Tank Bundwith flamed finished granitewas taken up which hadbecome a treat to visitors.

Apart from the first Cable-Stayed Bridge Lighting, first-ever Construction andDemolition waste manage-ment plant and First Waste-to-Energy (WTE) plant in south-ern India at Jawaharnagar werealso commissioned in the2020-2021 financial year.

The MA&UD department

fared well even in healthcare asduring the first lockdown(March- May 2020) Annapurnameals were provided, includingdinner in 373 centres, free ofcost. Meals served during 2020-21 totaled 2,53,97,580. A totalof 224 Basthi Dawakhanas werecurrently functional in GHMCand 33 new Basthi Dawakhanaswere ready for inauguration, hesaid.

Free 20 KL per month watersupply scheme was announcedfor all household (domestic)connections in GHMC area,under the jurisdiction ofHMWSSB, and implementedduring 2020- 21.

25,196 permissions given through...

Continued from Page 1

In response to Salve's submis-sion, the court observed thateven though the implementa-tion had been put on hold, thepolicy still continued to exist.

“You are not implementingit but the policy is with youand any day it can come,” thecourt said.

Salve reiterated that theapproach would be main-tained till the data protection

bill becomes the law.“Commitment is that I will

do nothing till the Parliament'slaw comes in. If Parliamentallows it, I will have it. If itdoesn't, bad luck... I've takenit off till the Parliament makesa law. Either we fit in or wedon't,” Salve said.

The Personal DataProtection Bill seeks to regu-late the use of individual's databy the government and privatecompanies.

WhatsApp blinks, puts privacy...

Continued from Page 1

He said necessary amend-ments to the Second Scheduleof AP Government BusinessRules, 2018, would be issuedseparately.

The changes were broughtinto effect based on a file cir-culated by the CM's PrincipalSecretary Praveen Prakash.

Commercial Taxes andRegistrations and Stamps wereso far under the RevenueDepartment, under the juris-diction of a Special ChiefSecretary.

In the Finance Department,these subjects have beenentrusted to a Secretary-rankofficer N Gulzar of the 1999batch.

As per the Chief Secretarysorder, the Commercial TaxesCommissioner will now have

to report to the FinanceSecretary, who is two yearsjunior to him.

The Governor is yet to issuea notification on the change ofsubjects of the two DeputyChief Ministers.

"Sometimes, the ChiefMinister orders for allotmentof subjects to a minister andsends (the file) to Governor forpost-facto approval.

This is as per Rule 5 and 6of the New Business Rules," atop bureaucrat told PTI.

He said it would be appro-priate if the portfolio changeswere also done simultaneous-ly.

"Otherwise, it will createconfusion, and also overlap-ping, till such modificationsare effected," the bureaucratpointed out.

Jagan strips deputies...PLANS FOR THE YEAR AHEAD

p 15 new bridges cum check dam on Musi, to be taken up with anoutlay of Rs 8 crore, would help ease traffic and develop the Old City

p 49 works to be taken up at cost of Rs 858.32 cr under the StrategicNala Development Program (SNDP) during 2021-2022.

p 2,067 Tree Parks (Pattana Prakruthi Vanalu) in the ULBsp Rs 700 crore worth Integrated Veg & Non-Veg Markets (IVNMs) and

Vaikuntadhamants in all ULBsp EBRTS (Metro Neo) project (KPHB - Financial District - Kokapet) in

PPP Mode is planned during the year.p 35.50 lakhs MTs of garbage biomining to be completed this yearp Rs 47 crore worth automated Drip Irrigation to be taken up by HMDAp Rs 25 crore worth Uppal Skywalk and Rs 36.80 crore Mehdipatnam

Skywalks in progress.p A green field township district at Neopolis Kokapet to provide jobs to

about a million people in next 5-7 years.

HYDERABAD | SATURDAY | JULY 10, 2021hyderabad 03

PNS n HYDERABAD

The state government is takingthe conservation of ponds amatter of concern. As part ofthis, the government has decid-ed to remove the LakeProtection Committee fromthe responsibilities of ponds'conservation and hand thoseover to the additional collectors.

To this end, the governmenthas issued an order, GO no.74.Currently, the Lake ProtectionCommittee under the HMDAis responsible for identifyingthe boundaries of ponds andsurvey numbers of lands fallingwithin the various ponds. Thisis causing a serious delay in thenotification of ponds identifiedby HMDA. This is due to thelack of full coordination betw-een the Irrigation and RevenueDepartments and the LakeProtection Committee. Withthis, the government hasdecided to hand over theresponsibility to the addition-al collectors.

Accordingly, the HMDALake Protection Committeeofficials have handed over thedetails of the identified pondsto the additional collectors ofthe seven districts under theHMDA. With the exception ofthe Hyderabad, the pondsaround Rangareddy, Medchal,Bhubaneswar Yadadri, Medak,Sangareddy and Siddipet arebeing affected.

The realty business is boom-ing in the HMDA area. Thewater sources identified in themaster plan are often beingoccupied and sold as lay-outs.

As a result, the flooddrainage system is getting clut-tered and no water is flowinginto the ponds. To prevent this,the HMDA-led Lake Protect-ion Committee had been work-ing on pond conservation forthe past few years. However,due to alleged lack of cooper-ation under the Collectorate,the conservation of the pondsis still pending. The govern-ment, which has given priori-ty to water resources, has issuednew regulations and GO tohand over the responsibilitiesto the additional collectors.

Sea change in conservationof ponds in Telangana state

G RAVI KIRANn HYDERABAD

The changed strategies of theterrorist organisations havefailed the Hyderabad Police inthe Darbhanga blast case. Inthe 2007 twin blasts atLumbini Park and GokulChat, outsiders were the pri-mary operators. Even in thecase of Dilsukhnagar blastthat happened in 2013, con-victed terrorists were out-siders and not fromHyderabad. Central intelli-gence agencies had warnedabout those two blasts, but didnot tell anything about thelocation of the blasts.

But, now in the latest plot oftriggering blast in the runningtrain, the terrorist organisationhad followed a new strategy.They had sent the peopleinvolved in the blast manyyears before and they keptthemselves away from anycrime-related activities untilthe time of the DarbhangaBlast. That is why the

Hyderabad Police were unableto identify them as terroristactivists.

Around 44 people werekilled in the 2007 blasts.Aneeq Shafique Sayeed andAkbar Ismail had been found

as culprits in this case and evi-dence also endorsed thepremise accordingly. Bothwere Indian Mujaheddinactivists and had come fromnorth India. They didn't hap-pen to live here in Hyderabad.

They had taken the help of afew local people.

In 2013 twin blasts atDilsukhnagar, Riyaz Bhatkaland Yasin Bhatkal had trig-gered the blasts, while a fewother people were involved init. All were from UP, Biharand one from Pakistan aswell. In both the 2007 and2013 blast cases, the culpritshad come from outside andoperated here in Hyderabadby staying here for a few days.

But, in the latest case, theentire scenario of operationhad been different. Both theaccused Nasir Malik andImran Malik were from UttarPradesh. But, Nasir Malikhad come from UP 20 yearsago. He had started a textilebusiness here in Asifnagar.Imran Malik joined him latera few years ago. Both havebeen businessmen living here.

If these people wereinvolved in any type of activ-ity related to terrorism or atleast to religious fundamen-talism, then the police might

have suspected them. But, asthat had not been the casenothing was done, except NasirMalik had gone to Pakistanthrice and those trips wereshown as business trips.

All the activities related tothe Darbhanga blast was donewithin the span of a fewmonths. They had got themoney through a bankaccount and they got the rawmaterial used in the blaststhrough an agent. They hadmade bombs at their homeonly, and needless to say therewas no surveillance of anypolice. After trials, they justtransported it throughRailway Parcel Service.

Therefore, it can be said thatterrorist organisations aremaintaining sleeper cells, ashas been the case with Malikbrothers, at many areas.

And they can activate thoseat any time as per their plans.And in such cases, until thathappens the police cannotidentify them whatever may betheir potential danger.

Terrorists' new strategy failed cops

PNS n HYDERABAD

A Class X student died,allegedly by hanging, in hishouse at Bhudevi Nagar inAlwal in the early hours ofFriday. He is suspected tohave been depressed over hispoor performance in studies,police said.

The boy, K Arun, 16,hanged himself from the ceil-ing fan in his bedroom on thefirst floor, when his parentswere fast asleep in the adja-cent room. They woke up inthe morning and knocked onthe door of his room. Whenthere was no response frominside, they forcibly opened itand found Arun hanging.They immediately loosenedthe noose and tried to shifthim to the nearby hospital,but he had died by then, offi-cials said.

According to the Alwalpolice, enquiries with hisparents and friends suggest-ed he was a bit weak in aca-demics and was worriedabout his future. He was vis-ibly depressed for the last fewdays.

However, no suicide notewas found at the spot. A caseof suspicious death wasbooked and is being investi-gated. The body was shiftedto the Gandhi Hospitalmorgue for autopsy.

Upset over poor performance in studies, Class X student ends life

Poorly-lit roads or those without any lighting poses danger toHyderabadis treading to their homes from beneath Biodiversity Flyover,more so women, especially those who do not use motorised forms oftransport. Women in the city, who have no option but to pass through

such stretches, take each step with the constant fear of danger lurking insome corner. Poorly lit streets are perceived as dangerous. A well-lit

street would reduce fear. It would make the street welcoming, for womenand for all, including senior citizens. It would enable mobility. Residentsurge the GHMC to take action against the agencies responsible for this

and solve the issue at the earliest.

‘LIGHTS OUT'

PNS n HYDERABAD

The Gachibowli Police ofCyberabad Commissioneratearrested a couple for stealinggold from the persons who hasdied of Covid and the uncon-scious patients at TIMS hospi-tal here on Friday.

The police officials haverecovered 16 tulas of gold orna-ments and 79 tulas of silverornaments from the accused.

The accused persons identi-fied as Chintapally Raju, 36, andLathasri, 39, residents of RajivGruhakalpa, Yellammabanda ofKukatpally, used to work as thepatient care staff at the hospital.

According to the police,Raju, who hails fromMahabubnagar got separatedfrom his first wife and came toHyderabad in search of liveli-hood. Here, he had purchaseda car and used to work as dri-ver under Ola for some time.In 2017, he got acquainted

with Lathasri and they bothmarried following which theyboth joined TIMS as patientcare staff.

The accused persons whowere working as patient care staffin TIMS hatched a plan tocommit theft of gold ornamentsand other valuables on the bod-ies of the patients and dead bod-ies. As per their plan, Raju usedto commit theft of gold and sil-ver ornaments from the uncon-scious patients, while Lathasriused to check if anybody isobserving their activity.

After committing the theft ofvaluables, the accused mort-gaged some of the ornamentswith Muthoot Finance and alsosold them to Attica GoldCompany and spent the amountfor their lavish expenses. Theremaining gold was mortgagedwith Ashok of JagdambaJewellers and spent for their lav-ish expenses, said Venkates-warlu, DCP, Madhapur.

Couple held for stealing valuables from patients

PNS n HYDERABAD

E-rickshaws currently com-prise 83 per cent of the Indiaelectric vehicle market. Indiacurrently has around 15 lakhe-rickshaws that increase withadditional sales of around11,000 new ones every month.These figures could be muchhigher as a large percentage isstill unregistered, whichincludes Telangana.

Various manufacturers ofelectric vehicles have urged theTransport Department ofTelangana to accord permissionto e-rickshaws in Telangana atthe earliest, which would helpthe mass people, especiallyduring the Covid pandemic.

EV companies includingCitadel Enterprises Pvt Ltd,Altius Technologies, KTEnterprises have manufacturedpassenger e-rickshaw (4+1)and applied for the approval ofTransport Department ofTelangana in 2019 and 2020,

but the state government havenot honoured to ply e-rick-shaws in Telangana.

"It is needless to mentionthat almost all states havegranted and approved basemodel and are already plyingthese e-rickshaws which areeco-friendly, non polluted eco-nomically, ecologically and

employment generated on theroads. The policy of CentralGovernment is to promoteeco-friendly activity with e-mobility, but the state govern-ment of Telangana, which hasdeclared eco-friendly policy isnot supporting citing lameexcuses," opined the manu-facturers.

EV manufacturers await nodfrom state to sell e-rickshaws

PNS n HYDERABAD

Telangana Governor DrTamilisai Soundararajan onFriday called upon the peopleto take up rain water harvest-ing activities as a movement.

"Though our country isreceiving copious rains, we arelagging behind in conservingthe rain water thus staring at amajor water crisis," she said.

The Governor was address-ing the Vice-Chancellors of dif-ferent universities of Telanganathrough a video conference onthe theme of “Catch the Rain,where it falls, when it falls,”from Raj Bhavan, here.

The Governor stated thatthough India accounts for 18%of the world's population, and20% of the livestock of theworld, it has only four per centof the water resources of theworld.

"Most of the rain water isgoing unused. It is high timethat we create rain water har-vesting structures to conserveand use it. We must reduce theindiscriminate and over-exploitation of the preciousground water. We must accel-erate the ground waterrecharge. We need to achievethe water use efficiency by 20per cent. Water is critical fordevelopment," she added.

The Governor expressedconcern that 256 out of 700districts have been identified as'critical' or 'over exploitedground water levels' in ourcountry.

The Governor urged all thestakeholders to proactivelypromote the "Catch the Rain,"campaign having a tagline of"where it falls, when it falls,"launched as part of theNational Water Mission.

PNS n HYDERABAD

The Cyber Crime Police ofHyderabad arrested a couplefor cheating people of Rs 12lakh through fake socialmedia networks in the city onFriday.

The accused identified as PNaveen Kumar, Sirisha, res-idents of Lingampalli havecreated a fake Facebookaccounts in the name ofSwetha Reddy with the photoof Sirisha and sent friendrequests targeting suitablepersons to loot money.

“The accused personstrapped a victim offering ajob in the Income TaxDepartment and collectedRs 8 lakhs from him. Later,Sirisha got the same victiminto a love trap and collect-ed Rs 2.5 lakhs from him.Another victim has paid Rs 2lakhs falling for their traps,”said ACP KVM Prasad.

After the victims regis-tered a complaint, the policeofficials arrested them.

Couple held for fleecing people

RAIN WATER HARVESTING

‘Catch the rain’ when

it falls, says Governor

PNS n HYDERABAD

The Telangana State Board ofIntermediate Education hastaken a crucial decision to pro-vide a seat in the Intermediateclasses to every single studentwho has applied for admissionafter passing the Class X Boardexaminations.

The TSBIE had issued ordersto prepare additional sectionsif necessary to the Intermediatecolleges. Classes will be con-ducted in batches dependingon the situation.

This decision has been takento ensure that all students, whohave passed the Class X can getinto Intermediate courses.Officials hope that the future ofthe students will be better ifeveryone is given a seat. Thereis a feeling in the academic cir-cles that there is no reason topass everyone in the Class Xand then say that there is noseat in the Intermediate. Over5.70 lakh students in the statehave passed the Class X this

year. For them, there are a totalof 2,500 government, aidedand private junior colleges inthe state. They have up to fivelakh seats.

About 405 government col-leges enrol up to 80,000 stu-dents a year. Generally, eachcollege has 88 seats for CECand HEC. And another 88seats are there for BiPC andMPC taken together. Officialssay up to 75,000 students havealready enrolled in govern-ment colleges. And some have

also enrolled in private collegesin the state. And this numberis likely to increase further if thedeadline for taking admissionis extended. So, those whowant to join can join.

Officials say the number ofseats in government collegesand private colleges is likely toincrease depending on thedemand. Classes are currentlyconducted online. Therefore,sources say that joining privatecolleges is the same as joiningthe government colleges.

TSBIE to provide seat to every aspirant

PNS n HYDERABAD

The mortal remains of ArmySepoy Maruprolu JaswanthKumar Reddy who was killedin cross firing on Thursday atthe Line of Control, Jammu& Kashmir, arrived by anIndian Air Force aircraft atAir Force Station Hakimpet,on Friday.

The mortal remains werereceived by senior militarypersonnel of the station withfull military honours. Theremains will be taken to hisancestral village Dharivada ofGuntur in Andhra Pradeshfor cremation, it said. SepoyReddy who was with the 17thBattalion of Madras Regimentis survived by his mother. Atthe AFS, a wreath laying cer-emony was organised andsenior officers from Army, AirForce and Civil administrationpaid homage.

Mortal remains of sepoy martyred atLoC reaches Hyd

PNS n HYDERABAD

The Meerpet police raided ahouse at Karmanghat late onThursday and arrested twopersons including a womanon charges of human traf-ficking.

The arrested persons wereidentified as R Anitha, 40,

the organiser and houseowner and J Raj Kumar, 25,a construction worker fromChampapet in Saroornagar.

According to the police,the flesh trade was beingorganised from the house forthe last three months byAnitha, by procuring womenfrom Mumbai, West Bengal

and other places . Shebrought women promisingjobs, but forced them intoflesh trade instead, policesaid.

Following a tip-off, theMeerpet police team raidedthe premise and arrested RajKumar, who was there as acustomer, and Anitha.

Flesh trade racket busted

PNS n HYDERABAD

The Telangana governmenthas taken up development of agreenfield township district ofNeopolis Kokapet here at a costof Rs 265 crore.

The layout developmentwith infrastructure facilitiessuch as roads, undergrounddrainage, water supply distri-bution network, electrificationand streetlights have taken upin an area of 533 acres with big-ger size plots for multipurposeuse zone and unlimited FSI.

The works are targeted to becompleted in 18 months. Thegovernment will provide mod-ern infrastructure and it isexpected that once developed,this will provide employmentto about a million people innext 5-7 years, says the annu-al report of Municipal Admi-nistration and Urban Develo-pment Department releasedon Friday.

High rise towers will comeup at Neopolis Kokapet. Thelayout development is pro-posed with seamless connec-

tivity to the ORR by construc-tion of Trumpet Interchange atKokapet layout and additionalentry and exit to the ORR atNarsingi.

Hyderabad MetropolitanDevelopment Authority andthe Telangana State IndustrialInfrastructure Corporation willbe auctioning their plots atKokapet on July 15-16. A totalof 13 land parcels spread over64.93 acres will be auctioned onbehalf of the state government.The government has fixed theprice at Rs 25 crore per acre.

Principal Secretary,Municipal Administration andUrban Development, ArvindKumar had told representa-tives of real estate companiesand developers at the pre-bidmeeting conducted for the e-auction late last month thatNeopolis Kokapet will be a rolemodel for the entire country.

The land can be used forsetting up office spaces, com-mercial complexes, recre-ational purposes and residen-tial use. There will be no zonalrestrictions.

Rs 265 cr allotted for Neopolis Kokapet

PNS n HYDERABAD

The Commissionerate ofIntermediate Education(CIE) on Friday asked all thegovernment junior collegesand private aided juniorcolleges in the State tointroduce Sanskrit as secondlanguage in the collegesconcerned immediately.

Presently, some of thesecolleges are offering Telugu,Hindi and Urdu as secondlanguage to the intermediatestudents. With this directionfrom the CIE, students in allgovernment junior collegesand private aided junior col-leges can now opt forSanskrit as second language.

CIE to Jr colleges: Offer Sanskrit as second language

PNS n HYDERABAD

After heavy rains onWednesday, the city has beenexperiencing a pleasant andbreezy weather. On Friday, thesky was cloudy, and it showeredat a few places. Sivarampally inRajendranagar received themaximum rainfall of 4.8 mm.Some areas of Shaikpet,Gandipet and Chanda Nagaralso witnessed light drizzles.

Hyderabad has received184.4 mm average rainfall inJuly so far, and according toTelangana State DevelopmentPlanning Society forecast,there can be light to moderaterain at isolated places in thecity in the next three days. Themaximum temperature in thecity is expected to be around33 degree Celsius to 35 degreeCelsius, while the minimumtemperature will rangebetween 24 degree Celsiusand 26 33 to 35 degree Celsius.

Many districts acrossTelangana received heavy rain-fall on Friday. The highestrainfall of 76.5 mm wasrecorded at Vemsoor, Kham-mam. Other districts, includ-ing Kumram Bheem-Asifabad,Vikarabad, Sangareddy,Mancherial and Nalgonda alsowitnessed moderate rainfall.

The Indian MeteorologicalDepartment (IMD), Hydera-bad, has posted a three-dayOrange warning, starting July11, for several districts ofTelangana.

According to IMD, heavy tovery heavy rain, accompaniedwith lightning is likely tooccur at isolated places inAdilabad, Kumaram BheemAsifabad, Bhadradri Kothagu-dem, Khammam, Nalgonda,Suryapet, Mahabubabad, War-angal (Rural), Warangal(Urban), Janagaon, Manche-rial, Nirmal, Nizamabad andMulugu districts.

IMD issues orange alertin T’gana from tomorrow

DARBHANGA BLAST CASE

hyderabad 04HYDERABAD | SATURDAY | JULY 10, 2021

PNS n PATANCHERU

Achievers' Day was celebratedto hand over the offers ofappointment to the selectedstudents of engineering, man-agement, pharmacy and sci-ence streams at School ofTechnology (SoT), GITAMHyderabad Business School(GHBS), School of Pharmacyand School of Science ofGITAM University inHyderabad on Friday.

A total of 903 students havebeen placed through the institute'scampus placements process.About 165 companies visited forrecruitment and 197 Gitam stu-dents bagged multiple offers.

So far, 88 per cent of eligiblestudents of B Tech, M Tech,BBA, MBA, B Pharmacy, BScand MSc have placed in IT ser-vices, product development,core Industries and pharmaceu-tical companies.

Two students selected forVirtusa - International hiringwith a salary of $ 45K per annum,MuSigma selected eight studentswith a salary of Rs.30 lakhs for 4years, Federal Bank Rs.12 lakhsper annum, Byjus Rs.10 lakhs,Upgrad Rs.8 lakhs, Opentext

Rs.7.25 lakhs, Optum Rs.7.15,TCS Digital, Wiley Mthree andDell Technologies Rs.7 lakhs,Zomoso Technologies Rs.6.89lakhs, Hitachi Consulting andCloud Thing 6.5 lakhs, ColinsAerospace Rs.6.25, CallHealth,TEK Systems Rs.6 lakhs, ModakAnalytics Rs.5.5 lakhs, IntellipaatRs.5.3 lakhs per annum. About 25companies offered CTC of Rs.5lakh packages.

TCS recruited 200 engineeringstudents from the GITAMHyderabad campus. The Achievers'Day Celebration began at 10.30AM. Students heard messagesfrom Sri Sravan Reddy, CEO-Techuva, Chief Guest for this occa-

sion. He appreciated and congrat-ulated all achievers and said this out-come allows them to have a betterconfidence level and decision mak-ing towards a professional career.

Prof N Siva Prasad, Pro-Vice-Chancellor, who presided over theprogramme said that despite theseveral challenges due to theCOVID-19 pandemic, the hardwork put in by our students andthe quality education imparted byGITAM is reflected in theseplacement results. Earlier, DrNathi Venu Kumar, Director,GCGC delivered the welcomeaddress and Prof M AkkaLakshmi proposed the vote ofthanks.

Achievers' Day celebrated at Gitam varsity

PNS n PEDDAPALLY

Protesting against the anti-Constitutional policies of theSingareni management, thenational labour unions calledfor 'Chalo Hyderabad RLCoffice' as part of its unitedmovement action plan. TheSingareni workers from 11 divi-sions took out a car rally underthe leadership of State HindMazdoor Sabha (HMS) presi-dent Riyaz Ahmed on Friday.

Alleging that the Singarenimanagement has colluded withthe TBGKS though its timelimit was completed, the HMSdemanded immediate electionsto the recognised union inSingareni. The other demandsinclude continuing the part-nership with national unions till

the elections held for the JBCCI,stopping political interference inSingareni and making partner-ships in the discussions whileentering agreements as followedin the coal companies ofMadhya Pradesh, Maharashtra,Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh andWest Bengal.

Meanwhile, the Singareniworkers under the aegis ofAITUC, INTUUC, HMS, CITUand BMS submitted a memo-

randum to Regional LabourCommissioner V T Thomas inHyderabad on Friday, seekingimmediate elections for recog-nised trade unions. Earlier,union leaders V Seetharamaiah,B Janak Prasad, M Narsing Rao,P Madhava Naik and RiyazAhmed demanded conductingtrade union elections inSingareni as per the circularissued by the LabourCommissioner, New Delhi.

PNS n SANGAREDDY

All online services will bestalled following the modern-ization of high-end UPS atTelangana state data centre inHyderabad and hence thedistribution of essential com-modities was stopped fromFriday morning to Saturdayevening, State Civil SuppliesCommissioner V Anil Kumarhas said.

He said in a statement thatdistribution of essential com-modities through rationshops will be restored fromSunday as usual. CivilSupplies Commissioner AnilKumar appealed to the rationbeneficiaries to cooperatewith the inconveniencecaused due to technicalupgrading.

Ration supplyin TS stalled

A CHANDRASHEKHAR RAOn SANGAREDDY

With the abnormal increase inthe number of welfare schemessuch as Palle Pragati, HarithaHaram, maintaining nurseriesand protection of plants andRural Employment AssuranceScheme apart from the dutiesof the village panchayat, thepanchayat secretaries in thecombined Medak district arefacing heavy work pressure.Apart from the welfareschemes, they have alreadyoverburdened with daily videoconferences, review meetings atthe mandal officer and submis-sion of various reports to thehigher officials. Any lapse onthe part of the village secre-taries, the officials are issuingmemos or otherwise suspen-sions. Under these circum-stances, the village secretaries

are placed under severe workpressure.

Since the State governmentwas according priority for therural development, the villagesecretaries are being squeezed.Above all, unwarranted super-vision and supremacy ofsarpanches is also causingheavy pressure. The village sec-

retaries allege that in somepanchayats where womensarpanches at the helm ofaffairs, their husbands arewielding powers. The womenpanchayat secretaries are facingit too difficult to attend forduties from early in the morn-ing till late in the evening withthe heavy workload.

The schemes, which the Stategovernment is taking up pres-tigiously like Palle Pragati, vil-lage parks, Vukuntadhamams,dumping yards, sanitationworks, cess collection, streetlights management and ruralemployment assurance schemeare causing heavy workload tothe secretaries. They said in thedistribution of pensions, theyhave to give their fingerprintsif the fingerprints of the bene-ficiaries are not accepted. Theywanted the government toreduce the workload at least tosome extent.

After the removal of fieldassistants, the panchayat secre-taries are deputed to take careof Rural EmploymentAssurance works. As part of it,the secretaries have to identifythe employment assuranceworks in villages, entrusting thework to the labour, entering

their attendance, paying wagesto the workers on a daily orweekly basis and issuing jobcards. The government hasabolished the field assistantswithout making alternatearrangements and as a result,the burden fell on the secre-taries. As per the rules, employ-ment must be given to 50 dailylabourers per day and the offi-cials are issuing warnings oftaking legal action as per theCCA rules against the secre-taries who failed to achieve thegiven targets. So, they wantexemption at least from theemployment assurance scheme.

The Panchayat RajDepartment has introducedtwo mobile Apps to improve thefunctioning of panchayats andalso supervising the ongoingworks. The village secretarieshave to upload details and pho-tos three times a day morning,

afternoon and evening, estab-lishing the progress of work.

The Palle Pragati PS App andPalle Pragati supervisor App arenot functioning properly asthere are popping up messagesfor the everyday update of thesoftware. Even if there is aproblem with the App, thatday their attendance will not beincluded.

Panchayat secretaries' associ-ation president Balaram said thegovernment should considerreducing the work burden onthe secretaries as they arealready overburdened with PallePragati, Haritha Haram, sanita-tion works and employmentassurance work. He said the sec-retaries are falling ill frequent-ly with work pressure and thehigher officials issuing orderssuspending them for not dis-charging duties is causing men-tal agony for the secretaries.

Panchayat secretaries face heavy workload LAUNCH OF PALLE PRAGATI, HARITHA HARAM

ILAMONI SHEKARn MAHABUB NAGAR

The water dispute betweenthe two Telugu states is reach-ing a simmering stage andbecoming a water war as theAndhra Pradesh government ishampering the determinationof the Telangana governmentto make greenery the fields inthe Krishna riparian areas.Both the chief ministers areresponding sharply and dash-ing letters to the CentralJalshakti Ministry seekingclearance of sharing of Krishnawaters.

The Krishna river entersinto Telangana from Karnatakaat Thangadi village in Makthalconstituency and though it isrunning about 200 km in thestate, a typical situation pre-vailed where even a single dropof water is not being used overthe decades, thanks to the pre-vious rulers of the combinedAP. Total water availability inthe Krishna river is estimatedat 811 TMCs and the ratio ofAndhra Pradesh and Telanganahas been decided as 66:34.Though the Bachawat Tribunalwas established 17 years ago, it

is pity that the water sharingratio had not been finalised.

The Telangana Governmentis strongly determined to get a50:50 share in the utilization ofKrishna waters from this yearonwards. The dispute sparkedwhen the AP Government ini-tiated a lift irrigation scheme inRayalaseema leaving theKrishna riparian areas. Thethen Chief Minister for com-bined Andhra Pradesh YSRajasekhar Reddy during thedesign of the Pothireddypaduproject had said that onlyfloodwaters would be used.The Brijesh Kumar Tribunal

also vouched for it. Followingthe change in the politicalatmosphere, the Telangana statehas been formed. As per theState Bifurcation Act, 2014, it isdecided that Telangana willuse 299 TMCs and AndhraPradesh government 512TMCs.

The Telangana state has 65.5per cent of the Krishna ripari-an area and hence the Telanganagovernment observed that injus-tice is done to the state thoughit has more than double ofriparian area. In fact, Telanganahas to get 555 TMC in the watersharing and ignoring the norms,

the AP government com-menced a new project withoutany approval from the Krishnaboard and Apex Council. TheTelangana government hasraised criticism against the APgovernment for initiating LIprojects. On the other hand, theAP government is alleging thatthe Telangana government wasusing 175.54 TMCs of water asagainst its allocation of 89.15TMCs. The Krishna Boardmeeting scheduled on Fridaywas postponed. Both the stategovernments are gearing up toraise their issues in the nextKrishna River Board meeting.

Singareni trade unionsdemand immediate elections

PNS n RANGAREDDY

Chief Minister KChandrasekhar Rao is releas-ing funds liberally in a big wayfor laying roads in Telanganastate and it will certainly boostthe rural economy, Minister forEducation Sabitha Indra Reddysaid on Friday.

The Minister inauguratedthe Chevella-Malkapur roadlaid at Rs 2.70 crore and aRythu Vedika building alongwith Chevella MLA KaleYadaiah on Friday. Speakingon the occasion, Sabitha IndraReddy said the funds to thetune of Rs 50 crore wasreleased for laying roads in 83km in the first phase and Rs 21crore for 33 km-long roads inthe second phase inRangareddy district. Effortswere made to get Rs 14.63

crore for four bridges. Shesaid 83 km road would be laidat Rs 50 crore in Vikarabaddistrict in the first phaseand 10 km at Rs 7.19crore in the second phase.About Rs 3.39 crore wasreleased for the construc-tion of two bridges.

Sabitha Indra Reddysaid after theTelangana state wasformed, the Stateg o v e r n m e n tunder the stew-ardship ofC h i e fM i n i s t e rKCR is

paying special focus on thedevelopment of roads

and roads connectingfrom mandal centresto constituencies and

from there to district head-quarters and capital cityHyderabad.

Stating that Chief MinisterKCR was taking up many pro-grammes for the welfare of thefarmers, she said 2604 RythuVedikas were built in the state forfarmers to have discussions andthe government was paying Rs10,000 per acre as investmentassistance. It was spending Rs 15crore every year and the amountwas credited into the farmers'bank accounts directly withoutany application or lobbying. So,the credit goes to Chief MinisterKCR, who was striving for thewelfare of the farmers.

ZPTC Malathi KrishnaReddy, MPP VijayalakshmiRamana Reddy, market commit-tee Chairman Sivaleela, Chevellasarpanch Sailaja Agireddy andothers were present.

‘KCR granting funds liberally forroads to boost rural economy’

PNS n JAYASHANKAR

BHUPALA PALLY

A man allegedly killed hiswife by slitting her throatby suspecting her fideli-ty and later jumped todeath on the railwaytrack. The incidentoccurred at JayashankarBhupalapally on Friday.

According to reports,Siripuram Harisankar, son ofRajaiah of Lakshminagar colonyhere married Byri Ragini (24) sixmonths ago.

As the family faced it difficultto find a girl from the same com-munity, they have chosen a girlfrom another community andperformed the marriage.

Harishankar used to harassRagini over dowry and he alsostarted suspecting her fidelity.Unable to bear the harassment,

Ragini went to her parents.Under the pretext, both theelders made a patch up bid on

Wednesday at Rudraramand asked Ragini to

live with her hus-band.

Harishankarhad a quarrel withhis wife on

Thursday and slither throat with a knife.

After confirming that sheis dead, he left the house. Theneighbours found the body ofRagini in a pool of blood. Later,the police found the body ofHarishankar on the railway trackat Dharmaram mandal ofWarangal urban district on Friday.The police suspected that hecommitted suicide after killing hiswife. Bhupalapally DSP SampathRao and CI Vasudeva Rao visit-ed the spot and are investigating.

Suspecting fidelity, mankills wife; ends life

K VENKATESHWARLUn HYDERABAD

As the leaders of all Telanganapolitical parties proposed tolaunch padayatra towoo the voters inthe wake of theensuing by-elec-tion in theH u z u r a b a dAssembly con-stituency, inde-pendent politicalleader TeenmarMallanna also decided totake up padayatra for 6,000 kmin August.

It may be recalled thatTelangana BJP Chief BandiSanjay Kumar has alreadyannounced that he will take upthe first phase of padayatrafrom August 9 for 52 days fromBhagyalaxmi temple toHuzurabad constituency.YSRTP Chief YS Sharmila alsoannounced that she will takeup padayatra across theTelangana state after 100 daysfrom July 8. TelanganaCongress chief A Revanth

Reddy also hinted at taking uppadayatra after the monsoonsession of the Parliament in aphased manner.

Teenmar Mallanna is yetto decide the exact date

of his padayatralaunch. However,on FridayT e e n m a rM a l l a n n aannounced his

padayatra coordi-nation committees

comprising convener,co-convener and 10 mem-

bers for 33 districts Friday.Teenmar Mallanna also decid-ed to complete the appoint-ment of coordination commit-tees at mandal level within aweek. Teenmar Mallanna alsoappointed a state-level com-mittee to coordinate all districtlevel coordination commit-tees. Dasari Bhoomaiah hasbeen appointed as the state-level coordination committeeconvener and MadamRajanikumar as co-convener ofthe committee. Mallanna willannounce his next action plan

in a public meeting to be heldat Ghatkesar on July 18.

Teenmar Mallanna said hewill launch his padayatra tofree the Telangana Thalli fromthe suppressive rule of TRS.On Friday, Teenmar Mallannaconducted a meeting withimportant members of histeam in a private function hallin the outskirts of Hyderabadcity.

Reacting to TeenmarMallanna's padayatra, one ofthe political analysts has stat-ed that Mallanna's padayatrawill make Telangana state apolitical 'charmer' as alreadythree leaders-Bandi Sanjay, YSSharmila and A RevanthReddy announced that theywill take up padayatra in thestate. Mallanna is the fourthone to take up padayatra tomake padayatras a political'charmer.

YS Sharmila and Mallannahave the experience of paday-atras among all four politicians.YS Sharmila and Mallannawalked more than 3000 kmearlier.

Teenmar Mallanna plans padayatra

PNS n HYDERABAD

Pradesh Congress Committee(PCC) president A RevanthReddy on Friday said that KCRwill opt for early elections afterAugust 15, 2022, and made itclear that he will not make KTRthe chief minister at any cost.

Reacting to the criticismmade by KTR and Harish Rao,Revanth Reddy said the TDP isthe party that provided politicallife to Chief Minister KChandrasekhar Rao in 2009. Isit not correct that AICC ChiefSonia Gandhi and former ChiefMinister YS Rajashekar Reddyprovided political life to HarishRao? He said that he has ten-dered his resignation to theMLA position before joining theCongress party. The TRS lead-ers should clarify whether it iscorrect or not that Congressmade T Harish Rao the Ministerbefore being elected as MLA.

In a chit chat with the scribesat his residence on Fridayevening, Revanth Reddy askedthe TRS leaders to tell fromwhich party KCR came from.He made it clear that he is thepresident of the TelanganaCongress party like KCR, whois the president of the TRSparty. About 75 per cent of theKCR's Cabinet was filled withTDP leaders only. If T Congressbecomes a TDP, then TRS will

also become TDP soon as thepeople are ready to dethrone theTRS party in the state. TheKalvakuntla family is synony-mous with looting and deceiv-ing and Congress will certainlypull the power from the TRS, headded.

Revealing the truth thatKTR's real name is Ajay,Revanth Reddy said that theKCR family touched the feet ofSonia Gandhi during the

Telangana movement in Delhi. Targeting Union Minister G

Kishan Reddy, Revanth Reddysaid that Kishan Reddy gotpromotion in the Union Cabinetexpansion just because of himas he was elevated to the post ofPCC Chief. Revanth Reddysaid, "Kishan Reddy is not aleader having guts. The officialsdid not even visit Kishan Reddywhen he consoled the peopleduring the floods in Hyderabadignoring the protocol".

The PCC president exudedconfidence that Congress willwin 72 seats in the coming elec-tions. He made it clear thatnobody from his family will askfor tickets and nobody will con-test the next elections from hisfamily. He trashed the reportsthat he will contest from the LBNagar Assembly constituency.The fight is going on betweenCongress and TRS like snakeand mongoose, he added.

Revanth Reddy predicts earlyAssembly polls in Telangana

Kodandaramrules out mergerof TJS with Cong PNS n HYDERABAD

Telangana Jana Samithi (TJS)Chief Prof M Kodandaram hascondemned the campaign beingcarried out that his party will bemerged with Congress partysaying it is 'malicious'. TJS willnot be merged with theCongress party or any otherparty at any cost, he said onFriday.

Speaking to the media,Kodandaram made it clear thathe didn't approach any politicalparty for a merger or alliance. Itis a fact that TPCC chief ARevanth Reddy proposed thatCongress and TJS will fightagainst the government on pub-lic issues creating a JAC. The TJSwill decide soon on whether tocontest the Huzurabad by-pollor not. Kodandaram alleged thatChief Minister KChandrasekhar Rao has beendoing injustice to the Telanganastate by colluding with AndhraPradesh Chief Minister YS JaganMohan Reddy.

Cong complains

to NWS against

Minister ErrabelliPNS n HYDERABAD

TPCC general secretary BakkaJudson has complained to theNational Women Commission(NWS) against TelanganaPanchayat Raj MinisterErrabelli Dayakar Rao, allegingthat he has humiliated awoman officer MPDO at aGrama Sabha at Kamalapur inWarangal rural district onFriday.

In his complaint, Judsonalleged that Errabelli teased theofficer, saying double meaningdialogue in the presence of allthe other officials and TRSparty leaders. Reacting to theMinister's teasing, other col-leagues who were present at themeeting made fun out of itinstead of supporting her.

Comparing the situationwith Draupadi's humiliation inthe epic Mahabharat, herequested the NWC chairper-son Rekha Sharmaji to initiateaction against the minister.

TS, AP row widening oversharing of Krishna waters

nation 05HYDERABAD | SATURDAY | JULY 10, 2021

Gunbattle underway betweenmilitants and security forces

An encounter broke out betweensecurity forces and militants in

Kulgam district of Jammu and Kashmiron Friday, police said. Security forceslaunched a cordon and searchoperation in the Redwani area ofKulgam, in south Kashmir, during thenight after receiving specific inputsabout the presence of militants there, apolice official said. He said the searchoperation turned into an encounter aftermilitants fired at security forces. The security forces retaliated and the

exchange of firing was going on, the official said, adding further details are awaited. This isthe second gunfight in Kulgam district and the third in south Kashmir in the last two days.Four militants were killed in two encounters with security forces in south Kashmir onThursday.

Home Minister Amit Shah calls on President Kovind

Union Home Minister Amit Shah onFriday met President Ram Nath

Kovind and the meeting wasdescribed as a courtesy call. Shah called on the president two daysafter Prime Minister Narendra Modieffected a major reshuffle of hisministry. "I have made a courtesy callto honourable President Shri RamNath Kovind today," Shah tweeted inHindi, along with a picture of him andthe president. In the reshuffle, effectedon Wednesday, the prime ministerdropped 12 ministers, brought in 36

new members and redistributed the portfolios. Kovind administered the oath of office andsecrecy of all new ministers. The newly created Ministry of Cooperation has been allocatedto Shah, in addition to his responsibility of the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Maha govt confers Honorary Doctorof Laws degree on former CJI Bobde

Former Chief Justice of India, JusticeSharad Arvind Bobde was on Friday

conferred with the degree of HonoraryDoctor of Laws (LLD) by MaharashtraGovernor Bhagat Singh Koshyari at the108th convocation of the Rashtra SantTukadoji Maharaj Nagpur University(RTMNU). According to the releaseissued by the Raj Bhavan, the Honorarydegree awarded to Justice Bobde wasaccepted by his son Shrinivas Bobdeduring the virtual event. Former judge of

the Supreme Court, Justice Vikas Sirpurkar delivered the convocation address, while thegovernor presented degrees and diplomas to 77,912 graduating students. Gold and silvermedals along with cash prizes were also given away to meritorious students, and D.Litt. waspresented to two candidates, PhDs were given to 867 candidates, it was stated.

INDIA

CORNER

PNS n NEW DELHI

Observing that there is a direneed for compiling informationon vital environmental issuesand planning to address thegaps in compliances, theNational Green Tribunal hasdirected the chief secretaries ofall the States and UnionTerritories (UTs) to ensurecompletion of DistrictEnvironment Plans (DEPs) byOctober 31.

The green panel said that itis the Constitutional obligationof the States/UTs to ensurecompliance of the environ-mental mandate as clean envi-ronment is part of right to life.

The tribunal said it is unhap-py to note that all theStates/UTs have not taken thematter as seriously as the sub-ject requires.

“We hope that the ChiefSecretaries of all the States/UTswill provide due attention to thesubject in the larger publicinterest and in the interest ofhealth, safety of the citizens andrule of law to effectuate basisfundamental rights of the citi-zens,” the NGT said.

A bench headed by NGTChairperson Justice AdarshKumar Goel said the DEPs maycontain data on each environ-mental issue covering eachcity, town and village and theymust show the extent of gap in

compliance of laid downnorms.

“The DEP must give time-lines for accomplishment oftasks backed up with budgetarysupport and the officers entrust-ed with the job, with contactdetails of the nodal officer atvarious levels in the District.

“ Scope for public participa-tion on remedial measures likeplantations. DEPs may alsocontain mechanism for reviewat different levels. The DistrictMagistrates may accordinglyexecute the action plans byreviewing the progress on var-ious targets at least once in amonth,” the bench said.

All the States may according-ly consolidate the DEPs andprepare their respective State

Environment Plans and uploadthe same on their respectivewebsites, the tribunal said.

“The existing machineryshould be able to meet the chal-lenge and should be revampedfrom time to time. As repeat-edly observed by this Tribunal,degradation of air, water andsoil cause large number ofdeaths and diseases, apart fromloss of livelihood.

“There seems to be huge gapin responsibility entrusted tothe authorities and action onthe ground, as shown by thereports. Damage to the envi-ronment is a criminal offenceunder various statutes. Deathsand diseases attributable tonon-compliance of environ-mental norms cannot be dis-

puted but adequate remedialaction remains to be seen,” thebench said.

The green panel said theeffect of deaths and diseasesdue to pollution is no less thanhomicides or hurts to humanbeings.

Major failure of State author-ities in compliance of wastemanagement norms, whichmanagement is vested in theState authorities but noaccountability is fixed for suchfailures, it said.

"Such unsatisfactory state ofaffairs needs to be checked byinvolvement of senior func-tionaries in the Government,committed to the welfare of cit-izens, the Constitution and theRule of law.

“We hope the concernedauthorities will not fail the cit-izens. Remedies need to be pro-vided at grass-root level with ashigh priority as opening of pri-mary health centres or policestations for protection of basicright to clean environment,health and hygiene,” the tri-bunal said.

The NGT said that 73rd and74th amendments to theConstitution covering therequirement of having a planfor protection of environmentupto Panchayat level, coming inforce in the year 1993 seek topromote protection of environ-ment at the grass root level.

NGT directs all states, UTs tocomplete DEPs by October 31 PNS n NEW DELHI

A 'Graded Response ActionPlan' to deal with a possible thirdwave of the coronavirus waspassed in a Delhi DisasterManagement Authority(DDMA) meeting on Friday,Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwalsaid.

A Delhi government panel onmanaging the possible thirdwave of Covid has devised acolour-coded mechanism whichprescribes a graded response,including the closure of mosteconomic activities at the high-est 'Red' level alert.

"The 'Graded ResponseAction Plan' was passed in theDDMA meeting today. Nodoubts will remain about whenthe lockdown will be imposed orwhen it will open. In the meet-ing, there was also discussion

about the Delta plus variant. Wehave to stop this variant fromspreading in Delhi, for which thegovernment is taking all neces-sary steps," Kejriwal tweeted inHindi.

The colour codes based onpositivity rate (on two consecu-tive days), cumulative number ofnew cases (over a week) andaverage oxygenated-bed occu-pancy (for a week) will designatefour levels of alerts.

The graded response willinvolve restricting economicactivities as per the level of alertlinked with the severity of thepandemic. Shops and establish-

ments of essential goods and ser-vices will be allowed to openduring all the four levels of alerts.

"After detailed deliberationsand presentations made by thehealth department and IndianCouncil of Medical Research(ICMR), it was decided to noti-fy the Graded Response ActionPlan that will objectively andtransparently ensure an institu-tional and automatic responsewith regards to enforcementmeasures, lockdowns andunlock based on criteria such astest positivity rate and quantumof cases,” an expert present at themeeting said.

PNS n LUCKNOW

The condition of former UttarPradesh chief minister KalyanSingh, who is admitted to inten-sive care unit (ICU) of SanjayGandhi Post-Graduate Instituteof Medical Sciences here, is "bet-ter" and showing "consistentimprovement", the hospital saidon Friday. Singh was admittedto the ICU on the evening ofJuly 4 due to an infection andreduced consciousness levels.

"The condition of KalyanSingh, who is admitted in ICUof Critical Care Medicine(CCM), is better. He is hemo-dynamically stable. He is show-

ing consistent improvementand his vital parameters are sta-ble," the hospital said in a state-ment. "He is communicativeand is being treated by seniorfaculty of CCM, Cardiology,Neurology, Endocrinology andNephrology," it added.

Earlier, the former chiefminister was undergoing treat-ment at Dr Ram ManoharLohia Institute of MedicalSciences here. Prime MinisterNarendra Modi on Fridayspoke to the grandson of Singhto enquire about his health, andsaid countless people across thecountry are praying for hisspeedy recovery.

Graded response plan to deal with possible3rd Covid wave passed by DDMA: Kejriwal

Condition of Kalyan Singh better: Hospital

Prime Minister Narendra Modion Friday spoke to the grandsonof ailing BJP leader KalyanSingh to enquire about hishealth, and said countlesspeople across the country arepraying for his speedy recovery.In tweets, Modi also recalled hislong association with the formerUttar Pradesh chief minister. "Iwas deeply touched to knowthat during his conversationwith @JPNadda Ji, Kalyan Singh

Ji remembered me. I also havemany memories of myinteractions with Kalyan SinghJi. Several of those memoriescame back to life. Talking to himhas always been a learningexperience," he said. Nadda,accompanied by UP chiefminister Yogi Adityanath andother BJP leaders, had visited aLucknow hospital to meet the89-year-old Singh on Thursdaynight.

PM Modi speaks to Kalyan Singh'sgrandson to enquire about his health

PNS n KOCHI

The Kerala High Court on Fridaydirected the Centre not to takeany coercive action against themembers of News BroadcastersAssociation (NBA), which repre-sents several news channels, overnon-compliance of the new ITrules.

Justice P B Suresh Kumar alsoissued notice to the Centre andsought its stand on the plea byNBA which has contended thatthe new IT Rules give governmentauthorities "excessive powers" to"unreasonably and impermissiblyrestrict" the freedom of speechand expression of the media.

Senior advocate ManinderSingh, who appeared for theNBA, said that under the new ITrules, a Joint Secretary would be

heading the oversight mecha-nism which would supervise theself-regulatory body headed by aretired judge.

Under the rules, media compa-nies or their associations have toform self-regulatory bodies whichwould be headed by a retiredjudge of the Supreme Court orHigh Courts or an eminent per-son.

Singh contended that as aresult a Joint Secretary would be

supervising orders of a retiredjudge.

In its petition, filed thoughadvocate Nisha Bhambhani, theNBA has said the InformationTechnology (IntermediaryGuidelines & Digital Media EthicsCode) Rules, 2021, are ultra viresto the Information TechnologyAct, 2000 apart from being viola-tive of Article 14 (equality beforelaw) and 19(1)(g) (right to free-dom to practise any profession, or

to carry on any occupation, tradeor business) of the Constitution.

It has challenged Part III (Codeof Ethics and Procedure andSafeguards in relation to DigitalMedia) of the IT rules on theground that they create an "over-sight mechanism giving the exec-utive unfettered, unbridled andexcessive powers to regulate con-tent of digital news media".

"The grievance redressal mech-anism created and the powers del-egated have a 'chilling effect' onthe content of the media. Thewrit (petition) also states that theexecutive by creating such a struc-ture, has made inroads into judi-cial power and vested itself withpowers reserved exclusively forthe judiciary and such exercise ofpower is without jurisdiction," itsaid.

NBA members get HC breather fornon-compliance of new IT rules

Kerala govt todistibute 90LOnam food kits PNS n THIRUVANANTHAPURAM

The Kerala government willdistribute special food kitsduring Onam festival seasonto 90 lakh ration card hold-ers, Chief Minister PinarayiVijayan said on Friday.

A decision in this regardwas taken by the state cabinetat a meeting on Thursday.

"Onam is Kerala's mostpopular festival. We will dis-tribute special food kits sothat Onam can be celebratedby all Keralites.

More than 90 lakh rationcard holders will be benefit-ed. The pandemic inducedeconomic challenges shouldnot dampen the festive spir-its of our people," Vijayantweeted. The much popularfree food kit distribution tonearly 90 lakh families acrossKerala started as a welfaremeasure to aid people whenthe state went into a lock-down due to the COVID-19pandemic.

PNS n THIRUVANANTHAPURAM

With Kerala witnessing aspike in Covid-19 cases andPrime Minister NarendraModi expressing concern overit, the state government said onFriday the numbers went updue to certain relaxations inthe restrictions and wereexpected to go down.

Health Minister VeenaGeorge told PTI that preven-tive mechanisms like enforcinglockdowns, earmarking con-tainment zones and aggres-sivetesting and tracing by thegovernment ensured that largenumber of people susceptibleto the virus were able to receiveproper medical care.

"The government's endeav-our is to ensure that the num-ber of infected persons nevergoes above the medical capac-ity of the state, so that no onedies due to non-availability ofbeds or oxygen", she said.

Vaccination was the onlyway to prevent spread of the

virus, George asserted.Asked about the concerns

raised by the PM, she said the"central government teamwhich came to Kerala toinspect the steps taken herewas satisfied by the effortsmade".

She further said that accord-ing to medical experts aplateauing of the number ofcases was an expected stage inany pandemic.

On Thursday, Kerala record-ed 13,772 new COVID-19cases and 142 deaths, pushing

the virus caseload to 30,25,466and related fatalities to 14,250.

George attributed theincrease in cases to the unlockphase as people came out inlarge numbers.

To a query on overcrowdingat certain places, like liquorvends, which had been high-lighted by Kerala High Court,George said the matter wouldbe addressed with the help ofthe police.

The Minister said the healthdepartment with the help ofthe police would be takingsteps to ensure people followcovid protocols like social dis-tancing and wearing of maskswhen they step out of theirhomes.

The other steps taken by thestate to control the spread ofthe infection are "focused andtargeted" testing and tracing,10 times more testing in areaswith a high test positivityrate(TPR) and enforcing triplelockdown in places wherenumbers are high.

Covid cases went up due to unlockmeasures, they may go down: Kerala

PNS n RAIPUT

Chhattisgarh police have fileda sedition case against G PSingh, an IPS officer, who wassuspended earlier this week ina disproportionate assets casefollowing raids at his premis-es by the state's AntiCorruption Bureau (ACB) andEconomic Offences Wing(EOW), officials said onFriday.

According to police, thedocuments recovered duringthe raids revealed that Singhwas allegedly involved in pro-moting enmity and hatching aconspiracy against the estab-lished government and publicrepresentatives.

Singh was booked underIPC sections 124-A (sedition)

and 153-A (promoting enmi-ty between different groups ongrounds of religion, race, placeof birth, residence, language,etc) of the IPC at Raipur's CityKotwali police station late onThursday night, Raipur SeniorSuperintendent of Police (SSP)Ajay Yadav said.

The action was taken basedon the seizure report filed byACB/EOW to police in con-

nection with the raids, hesaid.

Further investigation intothe matter is underway, headded.

The ACB/EOW which car-ried a three-day search ataround 15 locations linked toSingh, an Additional DirectorGeneral (ADG) rank officer,from July 1 to 3, claimed tohave discovered movable andimmovable assets wortharound Rs 10 crore.

Singh, a 1994-batch officer,who was earlier ADG of theACB and EOW, was posted asdirector of the state policeacademy before being sus-pended on July 5.

During the raid at the offi-cial residence of Singh here inPension Bada, some pieces of

torn papers were found fromthe backyard of the house.When pieces of papers wererearranged, serious and sensi-tive contents were found to bewritten and typed on it, theFIR said.

“These papers containedobjectionable commentsagainst leaders of reputedpolitical parties along withdetailed plans of conspiracy.Besides, secret assessmentsrelated to representatives andcandidates of different assem-bly constituencies along withcomments on serious issues ofthe concerned area were alsowritten on it. The papers alsocontained critical commentson several governmentschemes, policies, social andreligious issues”, it said.

ADG suspended in DA case bookedon sedition charge for ‘conspiracy'

TN CM holdsall-party meeton Mekedatudam rowPNS n CHENNAI

Tamil Nadu Chief MinisterM K Stalin has conveneda consultative meeting onJuly 12, of all parties withrepresentat ion in theAssembly, to discuss theMekedatu dam issue.

Pitching a united front,the government said onFriday that the proposedmeet is to reflect the unan-imous views of all sectionsin Tamil Nadu to protectthe interests of farmers.

The government is tak-ing all legal steps on theissue, and days ago Stalinwrote to his Karnatakacounterpar t B SYediyurappa categoricallystating that the proposeddam went against theSupreme Court verdict andalso would affect interestsof Tamil Nadu farmers.

PNS n AGARTALA

Not to be left behind in thegame of 'fruit diplomacy',Tripura Chief Minister BiplabKumar Deb, plans to gift Queenvariety of pineapples, the statefruit, to Bangladeshs PrimeMinister Sheikh Hasina Wazedas a return gift.

The pineapples, whose con-signment will weigh a littlemore than double the weight ofpackets of the famous`Haribhanga mangoes whichSheikh Hasina sent, will be senton Saturday as a return gift.

A huge consignment of 300kgs of mangoes was handedover to Deb on Monday by theAssistant High Commissionerof Bangladesh here, Md. JubaidHossein.

Haribhanga mango is a well-known breed of mangoesgrown in Rangpur district ofBangladesh, which is much

prized in export markets.In return "some 100 packets

of queen pineapples weighing650 kgs would be sent to theIndian High Commission inDhaka to be handed over toBangladesh Prime Minister", anofficial in the Chief Ministersoffice said.

Tripura played host to overa million refugees fromBangladesh in 1971, outnum-bering its own population at the

time. Since the election ofSheikh Hasinas government,Bangladesh has made specialefforts to connect with theNortheastern state increasingland, rail, and energy connec-tivity with Tripura.

The pineapples which arebeing gifted were collectedfrom Ampi block in Gomatidistrict, famous for growing thestate fruit, officials said.

The pineapples are beingpacked in good bags after thor-ough checking which would besent through Agartala-AkhauraIntegrated Check Post (ICP) toIndian High Commission inDhaka and would be handedover to Sheikh Hasina onSunday.

In Tripura, an estimated 1.30lakh MT pineapples are grownevery year across 8,800 hectareof orchards in all the eight dis-tricts of the state, which are alsoexported to foreign countries.

Tripura CM to send pineapples as a return gift to Sheikh Hasina

FRUIT DIPLOMACY

Understanding China’sdomestic political reforms

YOUR CAR MAY RUN ON PETROL OR DIESEL, MODI

GOVERNMENT RUNS ON TAX EXTORTION. THE

GOVERNMENT SHOCKINGLY LOOTED `25 LAKH

— CONGRESS LEADER

RAHUL GANDHI

WHO USES PETROL AND DIESEL? CYCLING WILL KEEP

US HEALTHY AND WILL END POLLUTION. IS PETROL

AND DIESEL NECESSARY FOR OUR HEALTH?

— MADHYA PRADESH ENERGY MINISTER

PRADHUMAN SINGH TOMAR

Beijing’s wolf warrior diplomacythrough its aggressive posturingis already well established. Aquestion that baffles many is

how President Xi Jinping has taken overthe Chinese society and economy tostrengthen his reign — something that hispredecessors couldnot think of.

One has to accept that when Xi tookover in 2013, the economy was much bet-ter than it was previously when Hu Jintaohad taken over. Also, because of Hu’s ini-tiatives, intellectuals had the freedom toexpress their concerns on serious issues,which they lost when Xi assumed power.Immediate domestic issues that he facedwere employment generation, accommo-dating the excess manufacturing output,environmental degradation, and foodsecurity. The rise of the middle classadded to his woes. At the internationallevel, initiatives such as ‘March West’, theOBOR, and ‘circular lending’ through itsdebt trap policies were efforts to find solu-tions. As this is a time-consuming job, itbecame pertinent for Xi to control theraising dissent voices and from there hisjourney of throttling the society began.

As a first response, in 2013, at the 18th

Party Central Committee’s Third Plenum,Xi introduced “social management” tobring about “law and order” to ensure“stability”. This led to the establishmentof a National Security Commission, andlater in 2014, Social Credit System (SCS)which worked hand in glove with oneanother. The objectives of these institu-tionalised governance mechanisms wereto monitor individual behaviours toascertain their loyalty to the regime andparty cause so that a “rule of law” couldbe established. Whipping followed thestructural framework. For instance, in2015, Xi Jinping made it mandatory forall the NGOs in the country to have CCPparty cells that would work in coordina-tion with the PSB that paved the way forCCP’s anti-corruption drives. Many lib-eral NGOs were either shut down or takenover by the party cadres. In the same year,Party sacked the editor of the XinjiangDaily, Zhao Xinwei, for his “inappropri-ate” discussions on the policies of the gov-ernment. Several others such as theChongqing party chief, Bo Xilai, and for-mer Politburo Standing Committee mem-ber, Zhou Yongkang, were not spared andremoved from their positions so that Xicould get a clear path.

Second, Xi transformed ‘United Front’to ‘Great United Front’ and targeted tobroaden the range of party influence invarious sectors of the society. Aiming forsocial control, in 2015, CCP convened itsfirst conference, and ever since then it isunstoppable. Under this initiative, Xi hasattempted to reach out to the “non- Partyintellectuals” who comprise students,media professionals, and businesses ofChinese origin. It aimed to ‘developfriendship’ through “pairing up” by estab-lishing linkages between CCP workersand “non-Party intellectuals” through a

In the coming years, Asian relations might be marked by increasinghostility and shifting sands of strategic alignments

XI JINPINGCONTINUES TO BE

IN COMMAND OFCHINESE AFFAIRS.

THIS WILL HAVEREPERCUSSIONS

THROUGHOUT THEWORLD. IT

APPEARS THATTHE WORLD IS ALREADY

GEARING UP FORTHIS AS IT SEEMSTO UNDERSTAND

THE DOMESTICFUNCTIONING OF

CHINA. IN THECOMING YEARS,

ASIAN RELATIONSMIGHT BE

MARKED BYINCREASING

HOSTILITY ANDSHIFTING SANDS

OF STRATEGICALIGNMENTS

It is coming back to where it all started two decades back. The Talibanis in the driver’ seat this time and on a relentless northward marchtaking town after town. It appears the Afghan nation may fall prey to

Taliban well before the end of this year. While the US is packing its bags,ordinary Afghans who fought against the Islamist insurgent group andhelped the Americans are worried about their fate if and when the Talibanreturns to power. The rapid gains of the Taliban and the deterioratingsecurity situation in Afghanistan has put the legitimacy of the democ-ratic government in Kabul at stake. It highlights a changed security sce-nario with regard to Pakistan and India who are the other primary stake-holders in the Afghan peace process. The possible return of the Talibanhas the Pakistani deep state and the military establishment elated asthey would now be in a firm position to dictate the internal affairs ofAfghanistan. It provides Pakistan a fresh opportunity to undermine India’sposition as a key participant in the Afghan affair and eventually achieveits (Pakistani) objective of strategic depth, to use Tilak Devasher’s words

from his book, Pakistan — Courting the Abyss. A Taliban return con-stitutes a setback for India which has for years remained staunchly anti-Taliban and in the early years gave covert support to the Northern Allianceto oppose Taliban rule. Nevertheless, New Delhi has tried to change itspolicy of not engaging with the insurgent group in recent years. But thathasn’t resulted in fruitful results given Taliban’s historical closeness tothe Rawalpindi Generals.

From the security perspective, India needs to be worried given thefact that the Taliban has provided shelter to proscribed Islamist terror-ists who have been blacklisted by the UN. Also, India cannot trust theTaliban to remain committed to the Afghan peace accord or that theywon’t let the country become a haven for terrorist groups like IslamicState and Haqqani Network. India, therefore, is on a pretty patchy turfwhen it comes to the outcome of the Afghan war. It is imperative thatthe mandarins of India’s foreign policy craft a new security strategy whichcan deal with India's core regional security concerns following the exitof US troops from Afghanistan. The security strategy can include someelements: First, build a consensus among Afghans for a common socialcompact in accordance with Afghan customs and traditions to harmo-nize not just traditional Afghan lifestyles but also to conform to liberaldemocratic and cultural principles. Second, collaborate with the Afghansecurity forces, providing them training and equipment and take partin joint war exercises. The Afghan armed forces need to be strength-ened in order to deal with the Taliban. Third, hold the Taliban account-able for the human rights abuses that they committed in the past. Indiashould convince the world that the gains in made in past decades indemocratic development of Afghanistan cannot be allowed to fritter awayand no violation of the rights and liberties of women and children wouldbe tolerated. Four, India must take the place of the US place in Afghanistan,not through direct military action but increased economic aid. India isone of the largest contributors of foreign aid to Afghanistan but muchmore needs to be done. India needs to invest in new areas and remaincommitted to Afghan economic prosperity. India must remain alert toAfghan developments because a disturbance in Afghanistan will haveramifications for India's regional security concerns. At the same time,India must be watchful about Pakistani tactics to undermine India’s posi-tion and resolutely oppose such attempts.

(The writer is Research Associate at Defence Research and Studies,New Delhi. The views expressed are personal.)

Most analysts thought itwould take a year ortwo of guerilla war

for the rebels in Tigray to driveEthiopian federal forces out oftheir state, but it has only takeneight months. “The capital ofTigray, Mekelle, is under ourcontrol,” Getachew Reda,spokesperson for the TigrayPeople’s Liberation Front(TPLF), told Reuters on satel-lite phone on Monday.

The Ethiopian govern-ment, scrambling to disguiseits defeat, immediatelydeclared a “unilateral cease-fire” in the rebel state untilSeptember, ostensibly to allowfarmers to plant their crops,but nobody was fooled. Tigrayis gone, and other states mayfollow. This could even be thefirst act in the disintegrationof the old Ethiopian empire.

Ethiopia is now officiallya federal republic, but its bor-ders are still those of theChristian-ruled multi-nation-al empire that was built byAmhara conquerors in the late19th and early 20th centuries.Four of its 80-odd languageshave more than 5 millionspeakers each, and one-thirdof the population is Muslim.

The chief task of anyEthiopian government hasalways been to hold this wildmixture of ethnic and religiousgroups together, and force orthe threat of force has alwaysplayed a big role in that task.Until 2018, when a relativelyyoung politician called AbiyAhmed was chosen as primeminister.

He was chosen above allbecause, although he was anOromo, as a very young man

in 1991 he fought in the over-whelmingly Tigrayan armythat overthrow the Derg, thebrutal Communist regimethat had oppressed Ethiopiansince 1977. So he was trustedby the Tigrayans.

This was crucial, becausehe was really chosen as primeminister to pry the fingers ofthe Tigrayans from the leversof power without starting acivil war.

Tigrayans are only seven

million of Ethiopia’s 115 mil-lion people, but because theydid the heavy lifting in oust-ing the Derg they totally dom-inated the ‘federal’ govern-ment for the subsequent threedecades. The Tigrayan elitehad become both arrogantand corrupt, and everybodyelse knew their time was up.Maybe Abiy could persuadethem to go peacefully.

It was worth a try, but it'snot clear that Abiy everbelieved that himself. His‘peace’ deal with Eritrea aftertwenty years of hot and coldwar won him the Nobel Prize,but it also enabled him tomake an alliance with Eritreaagainst the state of Tigray if heneeded to.

The Tigrayans were pre-dictably unhappy about beingevicted from power in

Ethiopia. The leaders of theTPLF gradually withdrewfrom Addis Ababa and con-centrated in their own state,effectively ceasing to cooper-ate with the federal govern-ment.

When Abiy postponednational elections last yearbecause of Covid, the TPLFwent ahead and held state elec-tions in Tigray anyway, clear-ly seeking democratic legiti-macy for an imminent seces-sion. The trigger for the out-break of actual fighting lastNovember is disputed, butAbiy activated his secretalliance with Eritrea and thetwo jointly invaded Tigray.

It looked like a walk-over,and by the end of NovemberAbiy declared that the fightingwas over. But it was just begin-ning: the TPLF had decided to

skip a conventional defencewhere Ethiopia’s tanks andplanes had the advantage, andgo straight to the guerillawarfare that it excelled in.Ethiopia held the towns, andthe TPLF held the rest.

There was an almost com-plete federal blockade on newsout of Tigray in the followingmonths, except for occasion-al reports of massacres byEthiopian or Eritrean troops.The real war was being foughtsilently in the back country,but the smart money was onthe Tigrayans.

Then suddenly lastMonday the TPLF was back inthe capital, Mekelle, havingchased the puppet administra-tion out, and the war was over.Abiy's troops are pulling out,the Eritreans are apparentlygoing home, and Tigray is to

all intents and purposes inde-pendent.

So now Abiy has a newjob: to prevent the rot fromspreading. There are powerfulseparatist forces in other statesof Ethiopia too, many peopleare very unhappy at the fed-eral government’s conduct ofthe recent election, andTigray’s example could beinfectious.

Ethiopia can survive los-ing Tigray, but the wholesaledisintegration of Africa’s sec-ond-biggest country wouldbe an almost limitless disaster.Abiy’s blunders are as much toblame for this dreadful situa-tion as the obdurate and self-centred leadership of Tigray,but he is probably now theonly man who can hold therest of the country together. Ifhe’s lucky.

Ethiopia can survive losing Tigray, but the wholesale disintegration of Africa's second-biggest country would be an almost limitless disaster

HYDERABAD | SATURDAY | JULY 10, 2021

06

www.dailypioneer.com facebook.com/dailypioneer | @TheDailyPioneer | instagram.com/dailypioneer/

FIRSTCOLUMNTAMING THE

AFGHAN STORMThe deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan

necessitates that India frame a new Afghan strategy

POINTCOUNTERPOINT

(The writer is anAssistant Professor atCentral University of

Punjab, Bathinda. Theviews expressed are personal.)

End of the Ethiopian empire?

GWYNNE DYER

(Gwynne Dyer’s new book is'Growing Pains: The Future ofDemocracy (and Work)’. Theviews expressed are personal.)

PRANAY SHOME

patron-client relationship, whichthe experts call a “clientelisticstate corporatism”. This was sup-plemented with an introduction ofa new model of social governancein 2017 that emphasized “collab-oration, participation, and com-mon interests” in which it wasaffirmed that the “Party commit-tees exercise leadership, the gov-ernment assumes responsibility”.

In 2018, Xi abolished the termlimits to his presidency conse-quently to which he now stands vir-tually as a permanent President. Toattain the safety and security of hisreign he further placed the People’sLiberation Army reserve forcesunder his direct control and theCentral Military Commission, amove that slashed the powers of thePLA and the local governments.The functioning of this structureallows the CCP to place their rep-resentatives in almost all businesshouses and also open up theirfinancial balance sheets and otherimportant databases for scrutiny bythe CCP officials at any time.Students, especially the researchscholars studying abroad havebeen tasked to bring in informationso that it can be of help to China.

Third, the use of ChineseIntelligence Services (CIS) towardsthe ‘thousand grains of sand’ the-ory to link the cause of Xi to thecitizens by making it inescapablefor them to work for the cause ofstate objectives complicates the sit-uation still further. Working in theframework of “multiple profession-al systems” seems to be an inex-pensive method of getting cooper-ation and loyalty from the people.The 2017 National IntelligenceLaw obligated the citizens, compa-

nies, and organisation underArticles 7 and 14 to undeniablysupport the state intelligence agen-cies. Further, the law also givessweeping powers to the intelligenceagencies to “investigate” foreigncompanies, organisations, andindividuals on its soil. Such lawscombine the civil and physicaldefence to punish any dissentingvoices and are unheard of indemocratic countries.

Fourth, the closure of certainthink tanks organisations such asthe Unirule Institute of Economicsthat promoted political liberaliza-tion also speaks volumes of tightercontrols. Nevertheless, media cen-sorship has also played an impor-tant part in Xi’s consolidation ofpower. The Cybersecurity Lawthat was introduced in 2016 direct-ed the service providers that thedata of its citizens shouldn’t bestored outside China. Also, thebanning of the Signal end-to-endencryption messaging app andthe systemic pressures to shutdown Apple Daily that used to pro-vide neutral access to the foreignand security policy raises concernsof tighter academic and intellectu-al controls under Xi. With varioussocial media such as Twitter,Youtube and Facebook alreadybanned, the social unrest of theyoung Chinese might feel claustro-phobic which is not good forBeijing. The integration of the“Great Firewall” and “GreatCannon”—responsible for theinflow and the outflow of informa-tion through the internet andpropaganda warfare respectively —is also an area of concern for theworld. The death of Li Wenliang,the Chinese whistle-blower of the

Corona epidemic, is yet anotherexample ofthe alarming condi-tions.

Fifth, even the judicial systemshave not been spared. In 2020, theCentral Political and Legal AffairsCommission which is responsiblefor overlooking China’s police andlaw enforcement agencies cameunder the ambit of the “educationand rectification” campaign to“remove tumors” or the “two-faced men”. Such programsencourage mandatory self-report-ing and ideological indoctrinationto confirm that only those loyal tothe leader and its style of function-ing remain within the system thusresulting in a major shuffling of itsstaff. Supposed to be lasting till2022, one can easily comprehendthe role of such an initiative in theupcoming 20th Party Congressscheduled next year.

Finally, one can confidently putacross the view that it wouldn't bea major surprise next year if XiJinping continues to be in com-mand of Chinese affairs. This willhave repercussions throughoutthe world. It appears that theworld is already gearing up for thisas it seems to understand thedomestic functioning of China. Inthe coming years, Asian relationsmight be marked by increasinghostility and shifting sands ofstrategic alignments that mightforce democratic countries likeIndia to bring profound changes intheir military and operationaldoctrines. At a domestic level, asChina’s espionage infiltrationincreases it might mandate otherdemocratic states to enhance theircounter-espionage methods as wellas regulations.

NISHTHA KAUSHIKI

HYDERABAD | SATURDAY | JULY 10, 2021

07

‘I pick characters thathave the scope of

being portrayed in a different light.’—Jimmy Sheirgill

Bollywood

Actor VARUN DHAWAN took to socialmedia to share that he was about to saygoodbye to his shaggy long hair andbeard as the shoot for his forthcomingfilm, Bhediya, is about to end, with justone day's work left.

“Since we are not allowed to put outany stills from the film, this was the lasttime I stared in the mirror and saidgoodbye to my long hair, beard and thechanges I underwent for this character,”he expressed.

Actor-filmmaker ROBERT DOWNEY SR,father of Hollywood star Robert DowneyJr, has passed away aged 85 after bat-tling Parkinson’s. Downey Sr is bestknown for films such as PutneySwope and Greaser's Palace.

“Last night, dad passed peace-fully in his sleep after years ofenduring the ravages of Parkinson's.He was a true maverick filmmaker,and remained remarkably optimisticthroughout,” shared Downey Jr.

ROBERT DOWNEYSR PASSES AWAY

‘The new generation wesee today, they don't idolworship like probably peo-ple 20 years ago used todo. I don't think it's (just)because of OTT. I think it isbecause of society in gen-eral. Cinema culture was ahit but people are so busywith their own lives today,not that they can help it.The newer generationshave digitisation and tech-nology at their disposal.’

fairtalkVIKRANT MASSEY

‘For a long time, I hadhoped to portray a fierceand empowering charac-ter, so when Collar Bombcame my way, I did notthink twice before audi-tioning for the role of ASISumitra Joshi. I wasthrilled to perform stuntsin action sequences forthe first time. It turnedout to be a lot of fun andwas an extremely memo-rable experience.’

dailytalkASHA NEGI

TRENDBLAZER

GOODBYE LONGHAIR: VARUN DHAWAN

Children possess an amazing-ly innate ability to learn.However, their expansive

brain potential isn’t always nurturedthoroughly. With technologicaladvancements, children are becom-ing increasingly hooked to smartdevices and gadgets as they findthem fascinating. This can result inattention deficiency, a decline inlearning capabilities and an overalldeterioration in brain development.Parents have now recognised thisproblem and are turning to theancient device, abacus, to enhancethe cognition and brain-power oftheir children.

Abacus is no longer merely atool for mathematical calculations,it has now become an essentialinstrument for a child’s mentaldevelopment, offering numerouscognitive and logical thinking ben-efits. Research has also indicatedthat it helps improve memory, lev-

els of concentration and a child’sperformance in academics and life,in general.

In light of these benefits, aba-cus classes have emerged as a cru-cial upskilling course and havebecome extremely popular.

Abacus training not just helpsin strengthening a child’s mathemat-ical capability but also aids in devel-oping the necessary skill set to takeon the challenges posed by theworld. Provided below are the

major advantages that are broughton by abacus training.

Mathematical proficiency It is a well-known fact that

children fear mathematics andconsider it to be a difficult subject.However, it is one of the mostinteresting if one invests timeand approaches it correctly.Abacus results in a better under-standing of math when intro-duced from an early age. Regular

practise of abacus and visualisa-tion brings desired and impressiveoutcomes; the child becomes capa-ble of performing mathematicalcalculations mentally.

Logical understandingAfter years of abacus training,

children recall the image of the aba-cus to carry out mental calculations.With practise, a child learns to applylogic based on the movement of thebeads. It not only helps in his/herearly years, but it also trains thebrain to apply logic as and whenrequired later in day-to-day situa-tions in everyday life.

Sharpens memory The abacus trains the mind in

such a way that it learns to avoid anydistraction while calculating or car-rying out mathematical operations.Abacus courses have a positiveimpact on children, especially when

practised daily wherein they achievea high level of concentration andmemory. After mastering the aba-cus, they move on to a visualisationtechnique that helps them in carry-ing out calculations virtually whichfurther boosts concentration andsharpens memory. Later, when chil-dren use these skills in other walksof lives they find themselves aheadof non-abacus individuals in execut-ing various tasks — simple ortedious.

Motor skills Besides improving brain func-

tion, the abacus also helps in stim-ulating organs that result in the over-all development of the child. Themovement of the small beadsimmensely helps the child in devel-oping their gross motor skills.

Develops analytical skillsWhen a child is solving a math-

ematical problem using an abacus,they are simultaneously honingtheir analytical skills. The capabil-ity to figure out which formula touse is nothing else but analyticalskills. The development of analyti-cal skills is not just restricted to theworld of numbers, as the childgrows, it will help them in real-lifesituations.

Spatial reasoningAn abacus is a multi-sensory

tool. It behaves in many different,yet controlled ways, and it demon-strates how children can equatephysical objects with abstract think-ing. This helps build both their spa-tial reasoning and imagination.

In conclusion, it is evidentfrom the long list of benefits of anabacus course that it contributesgreatly to nurturing mathematicalskills in young children.Additionally, it also prepares kidsfor the bigger challenges and oppor-tunities of life by fostering soft skillsin them. When children solvemathematical problems with thehelp of an abacus, they are also hon-ing their critical-thinking and ana-lytical skills.

(The author is the founderand chairperson of British YouthInternational College, an educa-

tional institution that provides co-curricular training programmes.)

Last year on July 11, India lostJyotsna Bhatt, one of its finest

ceramic artists and gurus. An artist whofor nearly 60 years created pots, vases,bowls, platters and cats, flowers andowls which spoke of a finely honedgraphic skill and draughtsmanshipthat brought a human touch to worksthat might otherwise verge on the aus-tere. She created a vocabulary of sparse-ly decorated tableware/pots/vases andobjects of art that caught the attentionof modernist interior collectors, acrossIndia. She hit her stride with the pitch-perfect footed bowls, flared vases andstoneware, applying glaze directly to theunfired body and firing only once. Shelimited decoration to incised lines, sub-tle spirals and subtle mineral lips,allowing the beauty of her darkenedvessels to shine through.

Likewise, Jyotsna behen describedthe vessels that she created in bodilylanguage — lip, neck, shoulder, belly,foot — and in terms of human quali-ties, with quietness or strength beingfavoured characteristics. It’s not hard todraw parallels between her — an ani-mated, dignified figure, throwing clayin a starched sari with her lustrous hairtied up in a bun, bending over herwheel in rapt attention — and thesolemn propriety of her creations.

Both as a guru and as a practition-er, her notion of ‘truth to materials’ wasthe key. And she revealed this in theopacity and depth of wares. She val-orised the humble surface of fired clay,and often left her pots unglazed or pre-ferred the natural or matte glaze.Jyotsna behen loved nature, prakriti washer elixir and her fulcrum.

Anyone who has held her rough-hewn, earth-toned pieces of pottery isa proud stakeholder of Jyotsna Bhatt’slegacy. I have always, in the olden days,bought one pot a year from Art

Heritage in Delhi when it had summershows. Her love for adding littlenuances was in the delicious details.

In a career characterised by wheel-thrown pots and hand moulded plat-ters, owls and lounging cats, her worksconveyed an absence as well as the pres-ence of aesthetic ambitions born of qui-etude and tranquil notes of perfection.

Among her legion of cats, flowersand buds, it was her relief indented owlsthat had an intrinsic aura of Darwiniancharm and elegance of ecologicalechoes. Her owls were both solid andrustic-looking, combining Westernisedstreamlined notes with stock Asiantints.

For her, making pots was anintensely disciplined yet spiritual activ-

ity. She brought back the words ofBernard Leach when he wrote that justas “artists paint their bodies and soulsinto their pictures”, so potters made potsthat reflected their character. Thislofty aspiration was always translatedinto her practise. She sensitively inter-wove her finesse and artistic achieve-ment within the visions of her idioms.

She loved to teach and spent at least50 years teaching and encouragingyoung potters. She admired originali-ty of thought and expression which shebelieved was gradually dying in the faceof redundancy birthed by technology.

When asked about her process andher preferences for firing she says,“The firing and temperature range Iused for this show are both oxidationand reduction atmospheres. I usedwood and gas firing, ranging from1260 °C to 1280 °C. I have always hada preference for matte and satin matteglazes with mottled colour tones.Colours, for me, had always a softernatural tone. I reduce my firing usingcopper oxides and their carbonates, tinoxide and titanium dioxide. As for oxi-dation firing or what I call normal fir-ing, I like the play of ash and flameson the works, which enhance theforms, so I accordingly let them be anopen body (without any glaze orglossy surface).”

As someone who likes small-er cars and sedans, I have

often failed to understand therationale behind the growth ofthe three-row SUV segment inIndia over the past few quarters.To be precise, extended wheel-base three-row versions of SUVs.There was the MG Hector Plusbased on the Hector, then theTata Safari based on the Harrierand now Hyundai’s Alcazar,based on the Creta. If you want-ed a three-row car I always feltthat the Ertiga and XL6 did thejob quite well at one end of themarket and then there is alwaysthe old, reliable Toyota Innova.

But after having driven theAlcazar, I had a few conversationswith potential vehicle buyers,people who drive themselves,who told me that they were seri-ously considering the Alcazar astheir next vehicle. Not that any ofthem were ruling out the HectorPlus or Safari, but a couple ofthese folks owned the first-gen-eration Creta and buying the sec-ond-generation Creta did not,according to them, feel like anupgrade. These people wereclearly not Honda City owners.

When I drove the Alcazar,and I drove the two-litre petrolwith the six-speed manual, I

genuinely felt that thecar was positionedat separate anddiscrete seg-ments, likesenior executiveswho were beingdriven betweenwork and home.Families that makefrequent highway jour-neys and need the luggagespace, with the third-row foldeddown. And then there are parentsof school-going children whocould use three-row cars forschool runs and of course, thehospitality segment. The last twosegments being non-existentnowadays, although hotels arethankfully recovering. Instead, afew of the people considering theAlcazar drove themselves, theywere all mid-career professionalsand felt that the Alcazar ticked allthe boxes for them, even if theywould never really enjoy thecomforts of the captain seats,which are really nice. The thirdrow however is not a place foradults in any situation but apinch. That said, Hyundai has

smartly put two USBcharging points and

air-con controlsfor this row aswell, and if it isbought by afamily where thechildren are put

in this row, theycan entertain them-

selves.Make no mistakes, in

the top-end ‘Platinum’ trim, theAlcazar is a very nice car. Indeedeven the two lower trims havefeatures like the panoramic sun-roof, but I’d rather have sixairbags in all trims over a sun-roof, only the Platinum comeswith that. The multi-colourambient lighting, which I could-n’t really experience since wedrove in the day is a nice addi-tion as well, but by far the featureI appreciated the most was theside-mirror cameras that activat-ed when you gave an indicatorsignal and displayed on the req-uisite dial on the digital instru-ment cluster. That is a really use-ful feature in a car but particu-larly so in a long car like the

Alcazar. Yes, it isn’t new asHonda and Kia have displayedsuch mirror cameras on the cen-tral console, but this view in theinstrument cluster feels morenatural because it eliminates theblind spot without you needingto lift your eyes off the road.

There are other features Iliked in the Alcazar, but when itcomes to things I wasn’t so fondof, well, its looks come to mindright away. While the second-generation Creta has grown onme somewhat, the Alcazar justdoesn’t have a very aestheticappeal. However, I’ve alwaysmaintained that you sit inside acar, and interior comfort and fea-tures are what matter. Hyundaiknows that, because the Santro,the ugly duckling of all cars madeHyundai India into a royal swanof a company. I have already beenproven wrong in assuming thatthere will be a limited appeal tothe Alcazar. And Hyundai’s suc-cess in the SUV market — theCreta continues to be India’s top-selling SUV — might mean thatthis Creta derivative could kicksome ass as well.

Ronnie Screwvala’s forthcomingproject, a series based on the

1984 Bhopal Gas Tragedy, gets RichieMehta — the critically acclaimed cre-ator — to join the team as the writer,director and showrunner.

As a producer, Ronnie’s worketches a different league altogetherwith offerings like The Lunchbox andThe Happening among others.Teaming up with Mehta, who as a cre-ator scaled great heights by winningan International Emmy for DelhiCrime series, there are great expecta-tions from the duo.

Produced by Ronnie’s RSVPMovies and Ramesh Krishnamoorthy’sGlobal One Studios, the series isbased on Dominique Lapierre andJavier Moro’s 1997 book, Five PastMidnight in Bhopal: The Epic Story ofthe World’s Deadliest IndustrialDisaster, detailing the disaster in1984.

“The authors have done such aprecise and fascinating job of mappingout the human story which creates athread all through this disaster and istold in an impartial manner. As a sto-ryteller, this is very important for meto step back and allow the viewer tofill in that judgement,” shares Mehta.

“I think since it happened in the1980s, it is starting to evaporate fromthe collective consciousness of youngpeople. Many people don’t even knowabout it, so I feel it’s really important

to get it out there in an impartial andextremely well-researched manner,which the authors have done,” he adds

Upon announcement of the series,Ronnie had referenced Chernobyl, agold standard for series about man-made disasters. He says, “We’ve beenlooking at storytelling in many differ-ent ways. Against the backdrop of therising popularity of OTT platforms, Ithink this isn’t limited to just Indianaudiences but also applies to viewersaround the globe. The mixture of greatstorytelling with a true story has a lotmore gravitas.”

While no broadcasting partner hasyet hopped on board, Ronnie shares,“We’re quite happy to develop thiscompletely on our own, go with ourown conviction and go to somebodywho buys in into our vision ratherthan the story being a mishmash ofeveryone’s take. Because the minuteyou get into development funding thenit becomes just too many people in theroom.”

The series, which is likely to con-sist of six to eight hour-long episodes,is in development and will com-mence production in early 2022.RSVP’s Sanaya Irani Zohrabi,Krishnamoorthy and Mehta will serveas executive producers. Mehta’s broth-er, Shaun Mehta will be co-writing.

RSVP’s landscape of future pro-jects includes Pippa, Sitara, TheImmortal Ashwatthama and Tejas.

Bringing a true story to lifeProducer RONNIE SCREWVALA teams up with RICHIE MEHTA for a series on Bhopal Gas Tragedy

ABACUS FOR YOUR CHILD’S GROWTHDR RASHMI MANTRI elucidates on how training your children in the ancienttool helps them not just with mathematics but in day to day life too

IN REMEMBRANCE UMA NAIR talks aboutJYOTSNA BHATT, aceIndian ceramist and potter

KUSHAN MITRA

A castle fit for a KingHyundai’s newAlcazar mightappeal to morepeople than oneimagines

HYDERABAD | SATURDAY | JULY 10, 2021 Money 08

MONEY MATTERS

Volvo Car India on Fridaysaid its retail sales haveincreased by 52 per cent

in the first half of the year at713 units as compared withthe same period of last year.The Swedish luxury carmakerhad retailed 469 cars in theJanuary-June period of 2020.Volvo's mid-size luxury SUV XC60 contributed the most, being thehighest selling model in the first half of the year, the automaker saidin a statement. The company is confident and positive about a muchstronger growth in the remaining part of the year as it has alreadyannounced the launch of its first full-electric SUV XC40 Recharge inthe country later this year, it added. Besides, the company plans tointroduce the petrol variants of its premium sedan S90 and XC60 inthe second half of 2021. “A 52 per cent growth in the high-endluxury mobility during a highly depressed consumer sentimentphase and major covid restrictions in the marketplace shows theconfidence that the Indian consumer has in Brand Volvo."

Tata Motors on Friday said ithas rolled out finance offersfor its passenger vehicle

customers in collaboration withIndusInd Bank. As part of thispartnership, the auto major willprovide the 'Step Up' schemewhere the customers can chooseand buy from its range of passenger cars in the country, with aspecial low EMI option scheme for the first 3-6 months."The recentCOVID-19 upsurge has impacted everyone, and to help ourpassenger car family in these challenging moments, we aredelighted to be partnering with IndusInd Bank to roll out specialfinance schemes," Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles Business UnitHead Network Management and Trade Finance Ramesh Dorairajansaid in a statement. This is in alignment with the company'sconstant effort to fast track the availability of safe personal mobilitysolutions to individuals and families at pocket-friendly rates, headded.

Tata partners IndusInd Bankto offer finance solutions

Private steelmaker JSWSteel on Friday reported 39per cent growth in its

crude steel output to 4.10million tonne (MT) during thequarter ended June 2021.Thecompany had produced 2.96MT in the April-June quarter of 2020-21, JSW Steel said in astatement. In June alone, it produced 1.37 MT, up 18 per cent from1.16 MT in the same month of 2020. The capacity utilisation level ofthe company came down to 91 per cent during the quarter underreview, compared to 93 per cent a year ago due to a shortage ofoxygen supply, which was diverted for medical purposes to combatthe COVID-19 virus. During the first quarter of the ongoing fiscal,the company said it has supplied over 65,000 tonnes of liquidmedical oxygen (LMO) to various hospitals across the country.JSW Steel Ltd is the flagship company of the diversified USD 13billion JSW Group, which has a leading presence in sectors such assteel, energy, infrastructure, cement, sports, among others.

JSW Steel output grows 39 pcto 4.10 MT in Jun quarter

State-owned BHEL has bagged anorder worth Rs 1,405 crore fromthe Nuclear Power Corporation of

India Ltd for supply of 12 nuclearsteam generators. The steamgenerators will be manufactured at theTiruchirapalli plant of BHEL. Valued atRs 1,405 crore, the order has been won under NPCIL's Fleet Modeprocurement programme. It mandates supply of 12 steamgenerators for India's highest rated indigenously-developed 700MWe PHWRs to be set up at four different locations in the country,according to a release issued on Friday. This is the second majorsupply order secured by BHEL through competitive bidding for theFleet Mode implementation programme of 10x700 MWe nuclearprojects. The first equipment order secured by BHEL under thisprogramme for the supply of 32 Reactor Header Assemblies isunder execution. BHEL holds the distinction of being the sole Indiancompany to be associated with all the three stages of the nuclearpower programme of the country and has emerged as the leadingpartner for NPCIL for over four decades now, as per the release.

BHEL bags Rs 1,405 croreorder from NPCIL

Volvo reports 52 pc increasein half-yearly retail sales

PNS n NEW DELHI

The Finance Ministry onFriday said the economy hasstarted showing signs of revivalfrom the impact of the secondwave of the COVID-19 pan-demic on the back of targetedfiscal relief, monetary policyand a rapid vaccination drive.“The broad-based economicrelief package, extended tomitigate the second wave,amounted to Rs 6.29 lakhcrore. RBI continues with itsefforts to calm the nerves of themarket and revive sectors withboth backward and forwardlinkages and multiplier effectson growth,” the ministry saidin its monthly economicreview. To stimulate the econ-omy and ease the financialimpact of the coronavirus pan-demic and lockdown, FinanceMinister Nirmala Sitaramanlast month announced eighteconomic measures amountingto Rs 6.29 lakh crore to providerelief to individuals as well asbusinesses in the country.

Apart from eight relief mea-sures announced in health andother worst affected sectors,Sitharaman announced a stim-ulus package for the tourismindustry, which included fivelakh tourist visas to be issuedfree of charge, once the govern-ment resumes issuance.Resilient tax collections of thecentral government in the firsttwo months of FY 2020-21 andsustained momentum in cap-ital expenditure, particularly inthe road and rail sector.

‘Economy recovering due totargeted relief, rapid vax’

PNS n UNITED NATIONS

Stressing on the need for local-isation of SustainableDevelopment Goals (SDGs)to achieve the 2030 SDG agen-da, India has said that there isno "one size fits all" approachbut countries can certainlyshare experience and learnfrom each other.

Speaking at the High LevelPolitical Forum (HLPF) on"How can localisation of SDGscontribute to Leaving no onebehind?”, India's PermanentRepresentative to the UnitedNations Ambassador T.S.Tirumurti said that due to thelocalisation efforts, the path to

implement the 2030 Agendawill be relativelysmooth even inthe face of theCOVID-19pandemic.

"For the2 0 3 0A g e n d ato suc-ceed inbig coun-tries likeIndia witha populationof 1.3 billion,SDG localisationis an imperative,"he said on Thursday.

Tirumurti said that breaking

down goals and imple-mentation to sub-

national andlocal levels is

the onlyway tosucceedi nachiev-i n gS D Gtargets.Localis

a t i o na l s o

a l l o w sd e v e l o p i n g

local solutions tolocal challenges by

empowering provincial and

local levels of government."There is no 'one size fits all'

approach for localisation, butwe can certainly share experi-ence and learn from eachother," he said.

Tirumurti said that the glob-al pandemic is threatening todisrupt the “Decade of Action”.

"It goes without saying thatwe need to work together col-lectively to ensure that allcountries, especially vulnerableones, stay their course on the2030 SDG Agenda," he said.

He said that the overall coor-dination for implementation ofSDGs in India is handled by theNational Institution forTransforming India or NITI

Aayog, which is driven by themandate to work in a spirit ofcooperative and competitivefederalism and has been exten-sively engaging with govern-ments at national and local lev-els as well as civil society orga-nizations.

NITI Aayog has assisted indeveloping SDG vision docu-ments at sub-national and locallevels. The fact that ourGovernment has given a prideof place to digital governance,especially to make them peo-ple-centric, has paved the wayfor citizen-friendly localisa-tion, Tirumurti said.

Institutional structures atthe state and local levels, such

as nodal SDG department,dedicated SDG teams, and dis-trict-level structures, help dis-solve a silo-based functioning.

After the fiscal decentralisa-tion, the government took for-ward in 2015-16 the imple-mentation of local develop-ment plans by local govern-ment integrating SDGs intothem, he said.

The ‘SDG India Index',spearheaded by NITI Aayogsince 2018, plays a pivotal rolein SDG localisation by measur-ing performance by using glob-ally-accepted methodology andranking them accordingly. It isbeing brought out annuallysince 2018.

‘Localisation of SDGs imperative to achieve ’30 Agenda’

PNS n MUMBAI

The BSE benchmark Sensextumbled 183 points on Friday,tracking losses in indexmajors HDFC Bank, RelianceIndustries and TCS.

The 30-share index ended182.75 points or 0.35 percent lower at 52,386.19. Thebroader NSE Nifty dropped38.10 points or 0.24 per centto close at 15,689.80.

Bajaj Auto was the toploser in the Sensex pack,shedding around 2 per cent,followed by TCS, HDFCBank, Axis Bank, RelianceIndustries and TechMahindra. On the otherhand, Tata Steel, Bajaj Finserv,Bharti Airtel and NTPC wereamong the gainers. Domesticequities traded on a weaknote mainly led by continuedprofit-booking in financials,said Binod Modi, Head -Strategy at RelianceSecurities.

However, metals, pharmaand realty indices shined,while IT index remained softafter TCS missed earningsestimates, he said.

Sensex drops 183points; Nifty slipsbelow 15,700

PNS n NEW DELHI

India has invited UK compa-nies to invest in the insurancesector, while Britain offered itsLondon market for direct list-ing of Indian firms.

This year, India hasincreased the foreign directinvestment ceiling from 49 percent to 74 per cent. Earlier, thegovernment allowed firms tolist overseas without simulta-neous listing at the domesticmarket.

To deepen bilateral ties inthe financial sector, the firstmeeting of India-UKFinancial Markets Dialoguewas held on Thursday lateevening, a finance ministrystatement said, adding thedialogue was established at the10th Economic and FinancialDialogue (EFD) in October2020.

The government-to-gov-ernment discussion focusedon four themes -- GIFT(Gujarat International FinanceTec-City) City, India's flagshipinternational financial centre,banking and payments, insur-ance, and capital markets, it

added.Following the government-

to-government discussion,private sector partners wereinvited to the discussion, thestatement said.

At the meeting, Indian andUK participants discussedmatters relating to the insur-ance sector, including domes-tic updates on the impact ofCOVID-19, opportunities toencourage UK investment inthe Indian market, and theUK Solvency II Call forEvidence.

Participants also took stockof capital markets coopera-tion, it said, adding the UKoutlined progress on regulato-ry reforms, including throughthe Wholesale MarketsReview and the Lord HillListings Review.

There was also a productivediscussion on opportunitiesfor increased cross-borderactivity, including an updatefrom India on the implemen-tation of the direct listingpolicy, according to the state-ment.

India invites UK companiesto invest in insurance sector

PNS n NEW DELHI

The Road Transport andHighways Ministry will seekthe Cabinet's approval forallowing construction of smartcities, townships, logistic parksand industrial clusters alongthe national highways, Unionminister Nitin Gadkari said onFriday.

Addressing a virtualevent, Gadkari said hisaim is to constructworld-class highwaynetworks and the roadtransport and high-ways ministry haschalked out a plan formonetising existing high-ways projects for infra capitalgeneration.

"And now we have prepareda cabinet note for approval....for making roadside town-ships, smart cities, logisticparks, industrial clusters," hesaid. "We are making 400roadside amenities," Gadkariadded.

The min-ister alsosaid that his

ministry isplanning to

construct tunnelsworth Rs 2.5 lakh

crore.Gadkari also said that use

of steel and cement should bereduced in road constructionwithout compromising onquality through innovationand research.

He said CNG, LNG andethanol should be used for the

road equipment machinery.The minister emphasised

on import substitution, costeffective, pollution free andindigenous methods anddevelopment of alternative fuel. Gadkari said India with about63 lakh kms of road networkis the second largest road net-work in the world. The govern-ment is investing 1.4 trilliondollars i.e. Rs 111 lakh croresin infrastructure developmentthrough NationalInfrastructure Pipeline (NIP),he added.

Road ministry to seek Cabinet nod fortownships alongside highways: Gadkari

PNS n NEW DELHI

The new premium income oflife insurance companies rosenearly 4 per cent to Rs30,009.48 crore in June thisyear, data from Irdai showed.

All the life insurance com-panies had collected first yearor the new business premiumincome worth Rs 28,868.68crore in the same month a yearago. There are total 24 lifeinsurance companies in thecountry. Of these, the coun-try's largest and the only state-owned insurer Life InsuranceCorporation of India (LIC)

reported 4.14 per cent fall innew premium income in June2021 at Rs 21,796.28 crore asagainst Rs 22,736.84 crore inthe year-ago month.

For the remaining 23 pri-vate sector life insurers, thenew premium in June jumpedabout 34 per cent to Rs8,213.20 crore as against Rs6,131.84 crore in the year-agoperiod. Cumulatively, theoverall new premium of all thelife insurers during April -June2021-22 rose 6.87 per cent toRs 52,725.26 crore as againstRs 49,335.44 crore in the year-ago period.

Life insurers report 4 pcrise in new year premium

PNS n MUMBAI

Disruptions in business activ-ities caused by the secondwave of the pandemic maybring India Inc revenue downby 8-10 per cent sequentially inthe June quarter to Rs 7.3 lakhcrore, as per a report.

Similarly, operating profit isalso expected to log a 6-8 percent drop on a sequentialbasis, but be at least 65 per centhigher year on year, given a lowbase.

On an annualised basis,however, revenue growth isexpected to be buoyant on thelower base to the tune of 45-50per cent, according to an earlyestimate of the first-quarterearnings season that waskicked by TCS last evening.

The largest software compa-ny said its domestic revenuedipped by Rs 350 crore, eventhough overall revenue jumped18.5 per cent to Rs 45,411 croreand net income soared 28.5 percent to Rs 9,008 crore.

India Inc is likely to reporta sequential decline of 8-10 percent in revenue at Rs 7.3 lakhcrore for the first quarter of thisfiscal, led by consumer discre-

tionary products such as auto-mobiles, which saw volumesimpacted by the lockdownsacross the states to contain thesecond wave of the pandemicinfections, Crisil said in a noteFriday.

Annualised revenue is like-ly to grow 45-50 per cent, rid-ing on higher volume on a lowbase and higher realisationsdue to an increase in commod-ity prices. Factoring out com-modity sectors, year-on-yearrevenue growth will be lowerat 37-40 per cent, the reportsaid.

The Crisil estimate is basedon an analysis of 300 compa-nies, which account for 55-60

per cent of the market capital-isation (excluding financialservices and oil companies).

The sequential drop will bebroad-based, with 25 of the 40sectors represented by these300 companies logging lowerrevenue.

Robust year-on-year rev-enue growth is reflective ofhigher commodity prices anda low base last year. On asequential basis, however, sec-tors like automobiles, FMCGand construction have seenmoderation, while steel andaluminium continued to growstrongly because of high com-modity prices, according to thereport.

Q1 revenue seen falling 10%;yoy may clip at 50%: Report

PNS n NEW DELHI

Gold in the national capitalon Friday tumbled Rs 451 toRs 46,844 per 10 gram reflect-ing an overnight decline inglobal precious metal pricesand rupee appreciation,according to HDFCSecurities. In the previoustrade, the precious metal hadclosed at Rs 47,295 per 10grams. Silver also tanked Rs559 to Rs 67,465 per kilogramfrom Rs 68,024 per kilogramin the previous trade. Therupee appreciated 4 paise to74.67 against the US dollar inopening trade on Friday. Inthe international market, goldwas quoting marginally high-er at USD 1,805 per ounceand silver was trading flat atUSD 25.93 per ounce. "Goldprices were firm with fall inUS treasury yields," accord-ing to HDFC Securities.

Gold tumblesRs 451; silvertanks Rs 559

PNS n NEW DELHI

Sugar mills have exported4.75 million tonne of thesweetener so far in the ongo-ing 2020-21 marketing yearending September,with maximumshipments toIndonesia ,trade bodyA I S T Asaid onFriday.

Millshave con-tracted toexport 5.9million tonneof sugar so far asagainst the 6 mil-lion tonne quotaassigned by the food ministryin January this year, All IndiaSugar Trade Association(AISTA) said in a statement.

Additional 4,30,000 tonneof sugar has been contractedunder OGL (open generallicense) route without subsidysupport.

Moreover, sugar export toIran has started albeit in smallquantity. About 6,982 tonnewas shipped to Iran in June, itadded. The sugar marketingyear runs from October to

September.According to AISTA, mills

have exported a total of 4.75million tonne of sugar fromJanuary 1 till July 6, 2021.

Of the total exports under-taken so far, maxi-

mum exports havebeen undertak-

en toIndonesia at1.58 milliontonne so farthis year,followed byAfghanistan

at 5,82,776tonne and the

UAE at4,47,097 tonne

and Sri Lanka at3,63,972 tonne.

About 2,73,365 tonne ofsugar is under loading. Anadditional 6,48,993 tonne ofsugar is in transit and for deliv-ery to port-based refineries, itsaid.

AISTA said it does notexpect any substantial increasein export of sugar to Iran inthe current season, as theyneed raw sugar.

"We are not in a position tosupply raw sugar to them atthis stage, as the current sea-son has since closed," it added.

India exported 4.75 mntonnes of sugar in ’20-21

Securitisation volumes for NBFCs, HFCssurged to Rs 17,500 cr in Q1 FY22: IcraPNS n MUMBAI

Despite the impact of the sec-ond wave of COVID-19, secu-ritisation volumes by non-banking financial companiesand housing finance compa-nies surged 2.3 times to Rs17,500 crore of their loanassets in the first quarter of

2021-22, according to areport.

During the first quarter of2020-21, the volumes hadsignificantly fallen to Rs 7,500crore due to the pandemicand the resultant nationwidelockdown in March 2020,Icra Ratings said in a reportreleased on Friday.

Rupee recovers7 ps to settleat 74 against $PNS n MUMBAI

The rupee gained 7 paise toend at 74.64 (provisional)against the US currency onFriday, tracking weakness inthe American currency in theoverseas market.

However, a muted trend indomestic equity markets andsurging crude prices restrict-ed the gain in the domesticunit, forex dealers said.

At the interbank foreignexchange market, the rupeeopened strong at 74.68 perdollar. It hovered in a rangeof 74.57 to 74.68 during thesession before ending at 74.64against the greenback, a gainof 7 paise over its last close.

On Thursday, the rupeehad settled at 74.71 againstthe US dollar.

Meanwhile, the dollarindex, which gauges thegreenback's strength againsta basket of six currencies,slipped 0.09 per cent to 92.32.

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SaturdayJuly 10, 2021

e know that work-ing from home ishere to stay for longowing to Covid-19lashing the countrywith yet another

wave. While staying put athome can make us crave todouse those carbs-heavy or fat-loaded snacks, we mustremember that eating healthyis the only way to keep yourimmunity in check. While it iscertainly tricky to select froma wide range of healthy taggedpackaged foods, here’s a list ofseven lip-smacking snacks tomunch on while you workfrom home!

Myprotein Gooey filledcookie: Set to change yoursnacking game forever, thecookie is baked to perfectionwith deliciously rich doughand oozing a smooth indul-gent filling. The cookies comepacked with 20g of protein tohelp you reach your daily pro-tein requirement. A perfectway to keep cravings in checkwhile supporting training

goals. Being fibre-rich, they area great addition to a balanceddiet without any meal prep.

The Healthy Cravings Co

Grammingway Ragi DietChips: Craving for chips butnot the fried ones? These ragichips by Graminway are prob-ably meant for you. A healthysubstitute to potato chips,being low in cholesterol andfat, these chips are made ofragi flour, vegetable oil andtapioca starch combined withthe necessary spices.Munching these flavour-packed crunchy snacks inbetween your main mealskeeps the hunger pangs away.

The Green Snack Co: TheGreen Snack Co vouches on

spreading healthy, tasty andauthentic foods. Offering arange of flavourful snacksmade with the goodness ofQuinoa, Kale leaves andsome super Grains, thebrand offers puffs, crisps,stix, and more. It is definite-ly a healthy snacking option.

Eat to your heart’s content

W

For many months,social service havebeen on the frontlinesof promotive, preven-tative and treatmentservices during

Covid-19 to ensure the besthealth and well-being of thepeople the workers are serving.However, in the middle of allthis is an educator, someonewho is meant to give other chil-dren a purpose to be successfulcitizens of the nation, but her-self turns out to be an inspira-tion for the kids she's givinglessons to at the academy!

A Hyderabad-based masscommunication pedagoguenamed Himabindu Achantaturned a benefactor in her ownway and provided youngsterswith a multi-faceted resourcethat will help them learn even inthe times of self-isolation. "It'sbeen a decade since I became apart of 'Jesuit' institutes, initiallyas a disciple, and now as anacademy teacher. I've been fol-lowing the path of social ser-vice either through planet pro-grams or community outreach.In 2019, I started an NGOnamed 'Beyond 103' with thehelp of my quick-witted stu-dents! As a founder, I had earli-er participated in communityservices in the tribal areas ofKhammam and then lend myhand to contribute towardsnourishment and basic ameni-ties of immigrants inSecunderabad, based on theirrequirements during the exten-sive lockdown imposed upon us.And now, we are back with abang," the professor represent-ing Loyola Academy shared.

These are unprecedentedtimes — things are being donedifferently and the same hit theour education sector too. We areall confined to a secluded placewhile there are some who does-n't even have access to ampleresources.

How will they progress? Hasthe state government issuedguidelines for them? Not yet,but Himabindu learnt andunderstood very well the bless-ing of children being able toattend digital classrooms. Herideology forced her to givethose who can't access this priv-ilege, a thought. "How were

foundlings managing their class-es? What do other distressedkids do to keep themselvesengage amid pandemic? Whatkind of extra curricular activi-ties are there for tribal kids? Ibelong to the education sector, Ithought hard about it. I decidedto contribute along with thetheme of 'digital schooling' butto the children living in orphan-ages. I got in touch with a veryold friend from 'VatsalyamVoluntary Organisation' in thecity who informed that theyhave nothing through whichstudents could attend classesexcept one laptop, which wasinsufficient. Along with my stu-dents, including those who aregraduates, we managed to makea donation of a computer andset up digital schooling for theentire organisation, with thehelp of web-cams and mics suc-cessfully," she added.

"Like all great movements,Beyond was also started in aclassroom of a campus. Thedream of a professor along withthe hardwork of some studentsresulted in this beautiful organi-sation. It was a movement to gobeyond the classrooms andreach out to people who areunnoticed and unheard," sharedRenoj Roy, one of the teammembers, another memeberBhargava Ram said, "For me,Beyond is a hope that unites allhelping hands within andbeyond, extending our limits fora better society. Together weunite for each other. We'll workhard and do more activitiesuntil everyone feels responsiblefor others, to this nature andthis planet."

Now, based on their schoolschedule, the founder's teamalong with other educators fromthe arts stream, will be conduct-ing classes related to dance,singing, drawing, painting, inaddition to general knowledgeand English communicationskills. The teacher is in full hopeto provide skill-based learningfor the budding future of thiscity so they can focus on theirown skills, interests, andimprove their creativity levelswhich will push many towards abetter career path! Digitalschooling is the need of thehour," said Himabindu Achanta.

Teaching for a better,equal, bright tomorrow

F

nspite of the wide useof biological thera-pies, one can’t denythe importance ofpsychosocial thera-pies. Especially psy-

chotherapy that includes psy-choanalysis has not been forgot-ten as some might have thought.Meet Kushal Roy, a psychother-apist in the heart of our owncity, whose roots belong to the‘babumoshai’ city of Kolkata, isdoing a phenomenal job at themoment in the field of suicideprevention ans minimisingmental health issues of locals,including inclusive members ofour society.

A tragic suicide in Bollywoodlast year made this young psy-chotherapist realise the urgencyof de-stigmatisation of mentalhealth and now he runs some-thing called ‘You are enough’that is helping many heal. “Myassociation with Hyderabad hasbeen the quintessential arrangedmarriage! I didn’t procastinateto stay here, there was nothingto protest against the will of thecity. Like any other bridegroom,I had my days of discovery too.Even though deep down I callmyself a Kolkata guy, I graduallyfell in love with Hyderabad thatincluded the midnight foodfrenzy, the cosmopolitan feeland the communal harmony.Moreover, the growing indica-tive modernism that this citybrings in never fails to surpriseme, rooted in strong heritage.The city is also bursting withnew opportunities and ideas forall sorts of businesses. Womenhere feel protected, respected,

loved and values. Even thoughwe have a habit of complaining,the administration is doing agood job here,” shares Kushal.

Initially, his biggest apprehen-sion was over not having similarsupport network in the new city,nonetheless he says Hyderabadtotally proved him wrong. “It’sthe best city to live in, in termsof climate, food, love, law andorder, rent, software experts, andthe list goes on. People here don’tprofess hate, there’s culturalcohesion here and it’s a myriadof cultural means that make thecity stand out amongst others.It’s also a pharmacy hub!Affordable living makes it evenbetter for outsiders like us toreside. But, with monsoonahead, there are still bad roadsand waterlogging issues that Ihave witnessed, yet overall, it’s aworld class city! Not to forget,there’s more to Hyderabad thanits Biryani and Golkonda Fort,”adds he who is also an LGBTactivist.

He was twenty years old whenhe walked out of the Rajiv

GandhiInternationalAirport not

knowing Hindi or Telugu, hadzero idea about how to commu-nicate further and no friendsaround. One can imagine theinitial setbacks! But the city givehim unbeatable confidence thatafter so many years, I never failsto mesmerise him time andagain. He further says, “It’streating me better than expectedand what strikes the chords withme is that it’s racially diverse,queer and I feel comfortable inmy sexuality. I have visited the

city during my collegedays too and I wasindeed impressed bythe Telangana gov-

ernment. The best stress-busterhere can be a visit to the ‘DogPark’ — you get fresh air, youcan excercise and pet dozens ofdogs! There’s no shame in need-ing a friend when you are upsetand dogs are the best loyalfriends you can get. They don’tjudge you.”

He suggests people visitingHyderabad to stop byCharminar to witness the iconicbeauty of the town but mindyou, only for a few minutes oryou might end up creating atraffic jam! “All the marketshere are decorated in their ownmanner, the grandeur of themonuments represents prosperi-ty and is seen as a metaphor forthe rulers who ruled the city.Sometimes when you're seekingpeace after a long day at work,you can always visit the BirlaMandir here. Cyberabad is morethan the folks from of the ITindustry who are just sipping ontheir tea or coffee! The‘Maahishmati Palace’ under theBaahubali series is a must visitat the Ramoji Film City here.Talking about Baahubali, I alsobelieve it’s a good place for thefilmmakers too, Hyderabadoffers all the facilities to create amulti-starrer blockbuster hit.The best food comes into thepicture just when the holymonth of Ramadan is about to

begin, though not the staplefood, kebabs are worth havinghere! I owe my love to the southIndian cuisine. The more youexplore, the more city has tooffer you.”

Concluding the interview heshares that Hyderabad is a dis-play of how the city shouldfunction, and others can learnfrom it on the basis of howindigenous, inclusive, empower-ing, wise and an enrichingarchitectural hub it is!

“It’s progressing towards heal-ing, reconciliation and reflectingits true culture. As a relevantperson from the city, I had theprivilege of listening to an out-numbering hearth-warmingnarratives from all the stratas.The neighbourhood leaderswants to address the challengescommunities are facing, smallbusiness owners wants tounleash more entrepreneurialopportunities, youngsters wantto carve their future, migrantswants to begin a new life here,locals wants to work even hard-er for their survival, developerswants to revive the vacant plotsand activists are wanting torecognise climate emergency.This city wins anyone’s hearteasily. Nenu ee Hyderabad bhoo-mi ni premisthunnanu (I so lovethe land of Hyderabad),” thepsychotherapist signs off.

This week, ThePioneer'sSHIKHA

DUGGAL talksto a

psychotherapistfrom Kolkata,

who lives, lovesand thrives in

Hyderabad. Heshares the high

points of hisrelationship

with theDeccan city, and

what he lovesmost about it.

I

THE MORE YOU EXPLORE HYDERABAD,

THE MORE IT OFFERS

The workfrom home

scenario hastaken a toll onour health. Be

it the longworking hours

or thetendency to

binge onunhealthysnacks, it’s

tough to let goof the two.

Here is a list ofhealthy snacksto your rescue.

Maniarrs khakhra:The common go-to

Gujarati snack relishedthroughout the world,the khakhras byManiarrs are healthy andmade primarily of ragiwith multiple flavoursand spices combinations.A new taste every day isensured in its eight dif-ferent variety combopack.

Roasted Makhana: Fox nuts ormakhanas are dubbed as a great source of calcium. Comingas fat-free, these fox nuts are an ideal snack when you expe-rience sudden hunger pangs at work or while studying. Italso keeps your blood pressure in control.

Myprotein Vegan CarbCrusher: Myprotein’s anotherrecent release, an indulgent three-tiered peanut flavour protein barand a low sugar snack. Each baris enrobed in a rich dark choco-late coating and layered withtoasted soya spread. Every servinghas at least 15g plant based pro-tein and less than 2g sugar. Thismouth-watering treat is the idealway to upgrade your healthysnacking.

Keeros Snack Pack: Popular among the Indian audi-ence, given its nutritional value, this super snack has high fibre,high energy, good for your heart and bones. It keeps your cho-lesterol in control and even helps you in losing weight. A greatsnack option for those suf-fering from Diabetes.

KUSHAL ROY

Rules

ARCHIE

GARFIELD

SUDOKU

REALITY CHECK CROSSWORD

GINGER MEGGS

NANCY

l Each row and column cancontain each number (1 to 9)exactly once.

l The sum of all numbers inany row or column mustequal 45.

Yesterday’s solution

CALVIN AND HOBBES

FUN

SPEED BUMP

10

Hyderabad Saturday July 10, 2021what’s brewing?

PARTY

SocialiteSailaja Reddy and

many others were seenrevelling in the Trendz three-dayexhibition at Taj Krishna, BanjaraHills. The exhibition, organised by

Santhi Kathiravan showcasesdesigner wear from all around the

country in over 80 stalls. The exhibit will go on till

July 11, so go grabsome!

TTRREENNDDYY TTAALLEESS

PARTY

MODELBEHAVIOUR

A new avenue for the models in the city tostrut their stuff, AJ events is organising acompetition for models where a lucky few

would get the chance to walk the runway intop looks by brands of Punjagutta's Next

Galleria Mall. The 'Face of Hyderabad'will be chosen from more than 40

contestants at the event.

Ph

oto

s b

y S

V C

ha

ry

lP

riyan

ka

lS

aila

ja R

eddy

lS

afa

lA

adya

Sha

rma

lS

ridev

il

Hai

ma

lK

aash

raf

lA

ryan

l Santhi Kathiravan

l Disha

harwanand and Siddharth-starrer Maha Samudram, one of the most-anticipatedfilms of Tollywood, will see the latter making a comeback to the Telugu film indus-try after almost eight years. The film’s shooting has been wrapped upon Friday, announced the team. Touted tobe an intense love story with edgy actionsequences, Maha Samudram is directed by

Ajay Bhupathi of RX 100 fame. The film also featuresAditi Rao Hydari, Anu Emmanuel, Jagapathi Babu,Rao Ramesh and Garuda Ram in pivotal roles.

In the new poster released by the makers,Sharwanand and Siddharth can be seen dancing joy-ously in Vishakhapatnam, where portions of the filmhave been shot. Sharing the poster, Siddharth wrote,“It’s a wrap on #MAHASAMUDRAM Coming back toTelugu Cinema after 8 years and I could not haveenjoyed myself more! Thank you @DirAjayBhupathi@ImSharwanand @aditiraohydari and @AKentsOfficialfor everything. See you in cinemas whenever god andgov permits (sic).”

Maha Samudram is produced by SunkaraRamabrahmam under AK Entertainments. The makersbrought Raj Thota on board to handle cinematographywhile the music of the film is composed by ChaitanBharadwaj. The editor of the film is Praveen KL. Themakers will soon announce the release date of the filmonce theatres reopen.

ce Telugu producerDil Raju is nowfocussing onremaking Telugufilms inBollywood.

Already, he is bankrollingthe Hindi versions of Jersey,F2, and HIT. The shoot ofHIT’s Hindi remake will goon the floors very soon.Meanwhile, the teamsigned Dangal girl SanyaMalhotra as the femalelead of the film.

HIT’s Hindi remake isbeing directed by SaileshKolanu, who helmed theoriginal version.Rajkumar Rao is playingthe lead hero of it. Thiswill be the first film inthe combination ofSanya and Rao.Announcing her inclu-sion, Dil RajuProductions officiallytweeted, “Welcome tothe #HIT team @sanya-malhotra07!”

Speaking to a newsagency, Sanya said, “Ihave watched HIT andI really liked the con-cept of the film.When the film wasoffered to me, Iimmediately said yes.It is a very interestingand intriguing storythat deserves a massaudience. I am look-ing forward to thisone and excited towork with Raj.”

HIT is being pro-duced by Dil Raju,Bhushan Kumar,Krishen Kumar,and KuldeepRathore.

The pre-produc-tion works of thefilm are going onat a rapid paceand the regularshooting willbegin soon.

11

Hyderabad Saturday July 10, 2021 tollywood

t is known news that the young actor Aadi SaiKumar is teaming up with director MVeerabhadram for his upcoming film titledKirathaka. Touted to be a crime thriller, thefilm is bankrolled by popular industrialist DrNagam Tirupathi Reddy under the banner

of Vision Cinemaas. The film marks their third pro-duction venture in the Telugu film industry.

RX 100 actress Payal Rajput has been roped in toplay the female lead opposite Aadi in the movie.The makers of Kirathaka released the first lookposter that featured Aadi Sai Kumar andPayal Rajput. The regular shoot ofChuttalabbayi fame Veerabhadram’s direc-torial venture will start on August 12. Nowaccording to the latest report, Kerala girlPoorna has been roped in to play crucialrole in the Aadi Sai Kumar and PayalRajput-starrer Kirathaka.

Apparently, Malayalam actressPoorna will be seen in a powerfulpolice officer’s role in Kirathaka,which is jointly bankrolled byNagam Tirupati Reddy and PManmadha Rao under VisionCinemas and Shivratri Filmsbanners.

On the otherside, Poornais also playing an importantrole in an upcoming muchhyped Telugu actiondrama Akhanda, inwhich NandamuriBalakrishna is play-ing the lead roleand PragyaJaiswal plays thefemale lead.

POORNATO PLAY A TOUGH COP

I

Chiru launches Sridevi Soda

Centre's dance number

egastarChiranjeevilaunched thefirst singleMandhulodafrom upcom-

ing romantic and actiondrama Sridevi SodaCenter starring SudheerBabu. Mandhuloda is agood dance numberwhich has a folk touch. Ithas music by ManiSharma, whose lyrics arepenned by KasarlaShyam.

Anandhi will ve play-ing the female lead inSudheer Babu starrerSridevi Soda Center.Apart from the lead pair,

the movie also hasNaresh, Raghubabu,Ajay, Pavel Navageethan,Satyam Rajesh, HarshaVardhan, Saptagiri,Kalyani Raju and Rohiniin supporting roles.

Sudheer Babu-starrerSridevi Soda Center isdirected by Palasa fameKaruna Kumar and isbacked by Vijay Chilladand Shashi Devireddyunder the banner of 70MM Entertainments.

“The#MassKaBossSong…#Mandhuloda is allyours. Thank youMegastar@KChiruTweets garu for

extending your support#SrideviSodaCenter #SSC#70mmSSC,” tweetedSudheer Babu.

According to the latestbuzz in the film industry,ZEE has acquired thedigital and satellite rightsof Sridevi Soda Center.

Apparently ZEENetworks has paid awhopping amount of Rs9 Cr for the non-theatri-cal rights which is thebiggest deal for the non-theatrical rights of aSudheer Babu-starrer,barring V, which alsostarred Natural starNani and Aditi RaoHydari.

M

ani Ratnam is comingup with a web seriestitled Navarasa. OnFriday, the makers

launched a teaser of the seriesannouncing the release date ofNavarasa. It will premiere in agrand manner on Netflix Indiafrom August 6.

The web series is an anthol-ogy of nine short stories andeach of them is directed bydirectors Priyadarshan,Gautham Vasudev Menon,Bejoy Nambiar, KarthikSubbaraj, Sarjun, Vasanth,Karthick Naren, RathindranPrasad, and Arvind Swami.

Siddharth, Surya, VijaySethupathi, Parvathy, PrakashRaj, and others will be seenplaying key roles in the film.The teaser is directed byBharatbala with Rahman scor-ing the music. Mani Ratnam iscollaborating with JayendraPanchapakesan to produce theseries on their respective ban-ners Madras Talkies and QubeCinemas.

Each of the 9 episodes ofNavrasas covers nine emo-tions and they are Shringara(love/beauty), Hasya (laugh-ter), Karuna (sorrow), Raudra(anger), Veera (courage),Bhayanaka (terror), Bhibhatsa(disgust), Adbhuta (surprise),and Shanta(peace). Theepisodes are titled Inmai,Roudhram, Edhiri, ThuninthaPin, Summer of 92, GuitarKambi Mele Nindru, ProjectAgni, Peace, and Payasam.

M

Mani Ratnam’s

Navarasa

on Netflix

fromAugust 6

Dangal girl in Dil

Raju’s Production

A

Pooja Hegde to starin Dhanush-Atluri film

t is known that Dhanush isteaming up with VenkyAtluri of Tholi Prema famefor a straight Telugu film,produced by SuryadevaraNaga Vamsi. According to

the latest buzz in the film industry,the makers are considering the nameof Pooja Hegde to play the female leadrole in this Dhanush-starrer.

With Dhanush’s popularity in thesouth and in Bollywood, Naga Vamsifeels a Telugu film would do justice tothe script. Apparently the Maari actorsaw a potential box-office winnerwhen the makers approached himwith the script. Sources say thatDhanush gave his nod for the projectbecause the plotline apparently isbroad and has a wider appeal.

We know that actress Pooja Hegdehad signed a big budget action dramaBeast in which she be seen romancing

the ‘Beast’. After a gap of 8 years, theactress is making her comeback inKollywood.

In Tollywood, she will be seen play-ing the female lead in the films MostEligible Bachelor, Radhe Shyam andAcharya . Pooja Hegde is also in thetalks of Telugu superstar MaheshBabu-Trivikram and Pawan Kalyan-Harish Shankar projects.

I

Maha Samudramwraps up shootingS

AFP n RIO DE JANERIO

Former Barcelona team-mates Lionel Messi andNeymar will line up oppo-

site each other in Saturday’sCopa America final looking toend a hoodoo that has alsoaffected some of their countries’greatest players.

Like Brazil’s Pele and DiegoMaradona of Argentina beforethem, neither Messi norNeymar have ever won theCopa.

That statistic will change forone of them in the dream finalat Rio de Janeiro’s iconicMaracana stadium.

For six-time Ballon d’Orwinner Messi, this will be hisfourth Copa final and perhapshis last chance to finish on thewinning side.

He’s been his team’s stand-out performer, as ever, scoringfour goals and creating fivemore — the tournament leaderin both categories.

But at 34, this may well behis last Copa and next year’sWorld Cup could be his lastmajor international tournamentaltogether.

So far, finals have led onlyto disappointment for Messihaving lost in 2007, 2015 and2016 at the Copa, and seen hisside beaten 1-0 by Germany at

the 2014 World Cup.Some people believe win-

ning something with Argentinais Messi’s only remaining profes-sional goal.

“We’ll try to stop himachieving this objective,” saidBrazil centre-back Marquinhos.

“As much as Messi, we alsohave players that deserve thistitle ... like our own ‘Ney’ whowasn’t there for the last Copa,”he added.

At 29, Neymar has a bitmore time on his side but he

was injured and absent twoyears ago when Brazil wontheir ninth title on home soil,beating Peru 3-1 in the final.

‘ETERNAL RIVALS’But as well as the two super-

stars lining up on oppositesides on Saturday, this is a clas-sic match between two worldheavyweights.

“We’re going to play a finalagainst our eternal rivals, thelifelong ones, the two mostpowerful national teams in

South America and we hope ...it will be a great match,” saidArgentina coach Lionel Scaloni.

“Brazil versus Argentina ismuch more than a simple gameof football ... these jerseys makethe world stand still to watchtheir games. That represents thehistory of Brazil-Argentina,”added Marquinhos.

Incredibly, thesetwo sides are noteven the two mostsuccessful ones inCopa history, withUruguay havingwon 15 titles toArgentina’s 14 andBrazil’s nine.

In what is the47th edition of theCopa, this is also justthe fourth time thesetwo have met in the final,with Argentina triumph-ing the first time in 1937and Brazil coming outon top in 2004 and2007.

And that isdespite havingfaced each othermore than 100times in their his-tory.

They havebeen by far thestrongest two

sides in the competition, even ifArgentina rode their luck atouch in their semi-final penal-ty shoot-out win over Colombia.

‘WORLD CLASS PLAYERS’The two squads are impres-

sive for their strength in depth.In their semi-final victory

over Peru — and despiteManchester City forwardGabriel Jesus being sus-pended — Brazil left the

likes of Liverpool’sRoberto Firmino,Flamengo hot-shotGabriel Barbosa andReal Madrid starletVinicius Junior on thebench.

In midfield,Liverpool’s Fabinho has

been kept out of the side bya resurgent Fred, ofManchester United.

Likewise, Paris Saint-Germain winger Angel

Di Maria — a brightspark when he cameon in the semi-finalagainst Colombia —has mostly started onthe bench while newBarcelona signingSergio Aguero hashardly had a look infor Argentina.

Messi and

Inter Milan’s Lautaro Martinez(three goals) have providedArgentina’s main attackingthrust but they have quality andcreativity throughout.

“Argentina are not justLautaro and Messi, we cannotonly concentrate on those two,”said Brazil and Real Madridmidfielder Casemiro.

“They’re great players,world class players, but ifArgentina have reached thefinal it’s because of the (whole)group, we have to respect this.”

As well as looking to end hiscareer-long trophy drought withArgentina, Messi could makehistory in another way onSaturday.

He currently sits on 76goals for Argentina, one shy ofPele’s South American record of77 national team goals.

COLOMBIA VS PERUFew teams want to play a

third-place match in any tour-nament, even less so during theCovid-19 pandemic, but that’snot the case for Colombia and

Peru at the Copa America.They will square off Friday

night at the Mané GarrinchaStadium in Brasilia.

Both teams have improvedtheir confidence and cama-raderie at the South Americanchampionship and will return toWorld Cup qualifiers inSeptember with renewed hopesof going to Qatar next year.

Colombia is currently fifthin South American World Cupqualifiers, leaving them short ofa direct ticket to Qatar.

Peru had it even worsebefore Copa America, sittinglast in qualifiers. Fans feared thatcoach Ricardo Gareca, a nation-al hero after leading the team tothe 2018 World Cup, had losthis magic. But he has directedPeru into the semifinal of theSouth American championshipdespite veteran striker PaoloGuerrero’s injury.

The match gives Colombiaa chance to exact revenge forPeru’s 2-1 victory over them inthe group stage nearly threeweeks ago.

sport 12HYDERABAD | SATURDAY | JULY 10, 2021

PNS n NEW DELHI

Rio Olympics Silver medallistPV Sindhu believes she has

a good draw going into theTokyo Games but the 2019World Championship Goldmedallist is aware about thetough competition of the qua-drennial event and feels everypoint will be crucial.

The World No 7 has beenplaced in Group J alongsideWorld No 34 Hong Kong’sCheung Ngan Yi and World No58 Ksenia Polikarpova of Israelin the women’s singles.

“It’s a good draw in thegroup stage. The Hong Kong girlplays well and it’ll be a goodmatch. Everybody is going to bein top form, I hope I do well.Every match is important so Iwill take it match by match. Thisis the Olympics and it is notgoing to be easy, each point isvery important,” Sindhu said.

In men’s singles, World No15 Praneeth has been drawn intoGroup D alongside World No 29Mark Caljouw of Netherlandsand World No 47 Israeli shuttlerMisha Zilberman.

“It’s a mixed draw, not so

tough and not so good. I haveto be 100 percent to win allmatches and it will be a goodmatch for me,” WorldChampionships Bronze medal-list Praneeth said.

Sindhu and Praneeth maysquare off against Japanese shut-tlers world championshipBronze medallist AkaneYamaguchi and World No 1 and

two-time world championKento Momota respectively inthe quarter-finals stage.

However Indian pair ofChirag Shetty and SatwiksairajRankireddy are expected toface a stiff challenge in the men’sdoubles group stage as they areplaced in the Group A alongsidetop-seed and World No 1Indonesian duo of Kevin

Sanjaya Sukamuljo and MarcusFernaldi Gideon, who also fin-ished at the top in the Race toTokyo standing, and World No3 Chinese Taipei pair of LeeYang and Wang Chi-Lin.England’s Ben Lane and SeanVendy are the fourth pair placedin Group A.

India’s doubles coachMathias Boe is hopeful of get-ting good results. Talking aboutthe draw, Boe said: “It’s a veryeven group which means evenif you lose a match, you are stillin the game because nobodyknows what will happen. We’llfocus on preparing as much aspossible in the last few weeks.We will attack on court andhopefully, we get good results.I am positive, it’s a good chal-lenge for us.”

In the singles category, 42players are divided into 14groups with each group consist-ing of three players and the topplayer from each group willqualify for the knockout stage.While in the doubles category,16 pairs are divided into fourgroups and the top two pairsfrom each group will advanceinto the last-8 stage.

Sindhu expecting no easy matches

PTI n NEW DELHI

Former India batsman VVSLaxman feels Kuldeep Yadav

and Yuzvendra Chahal must fea-ture in the upcoming ODI seriesagainst Sri Lanka as bowling inthe three matches will help thespin duo regain confidence.

A vital cog of the Indianbowling attack in limited-overscricket in the lead-up to the 50-over World Cup in 2019, the twowrist spinners have seen theirstocks decline recently.

“I would like to see themplay in three ODIs, becausethere are six spinners as yourightly mentioned. I think inODIs, each bowler will get toplay 10 overs,” Laxman said dur-ing Star Sports' show GamePlan.

“So, the more overs they

bowl, the more success theyhave, they will get back the con-fidence — especially KuldeepYadav.

“Chahal is a successful andexperienced bowler, he is highon confidence and a very impor-tant member, keeping in mindthe T20 World Cup. I thinkKuldeep requires to get his con-

fidence back,” he added.Praising Suryakumar Yadav,

Laxman, who featured in 134Tests, 86 ODIs for India, said the30-year-old right-hander hasthe potential to be a part of theWorld T20 squad.

“I was excited seeing theway Suryakumar Yadav batted atNo 3. His first scoring shot inInternational cricket, that tooagainst a quality fast bowler likeJofra Archer, shows the kind ofconfidence, the talent and theskill he possesses — this is agreat opportunity!

“I want him to play all sixmatches because he is someonewho can definitely walk into theT20 World Cup squad, as far asI am concerned. I want him togrow and gain the confidence ofscoring runs, even at the inter-national level,” he added.

Mumbai: Former India cricketerSanjay Manjrekar says sinceskipper Virat Kohli is likely toopen with Rohit Sharma in theT20 World Cup, SuryakumarYadav is an ideal candidate forthe number three slot.

Kohli and Rohit Sharmahad opened for the first timein the fifth match of thehome T20 series againstEngland in March thisyear, raising a 94-runpartnership.

Manjrekar feelsthat Suryakumar Yadavcould be the front-run-ner for the numberthree spot, which oth-erwise belongs skipperKohli.

“Yes, I think he(Surya) is one of the

front-runners, especially withthe news coming out that RohitSharma and Virat Kohli aregoing to be India’s openers.There could be a number three

slot open for me,” Manjrekarsaid.

“I don’t know whatplan they have with (KL)

Rahul, there certainly is aplace for someone likeSuryakumar Yadav. I haverarely seen somebody batlike that in the IPL for thewhole season and evenmore, the kind of batsman-ship we have seen.

“And that makes himan ideal number three, hecan hit good balls for

fours, certainly one ofthe options,” headded. PTI

Surya can bat at No 3in T20 WC: Manjrekar

PTI n NEW DELHI

Race walkers Bhawana Jatand K T Irfan underwent

fitness tests on Friday whileanother Olympic-bound athleteM Sreeshankar will have toprove his fitness on July 21 toconfirm participation in theTokyo Games.

Bhawana and Irfan, both20km race walkers, and longjumper Sreeshankar were toldby the Athletics Federation ofIndia (AFI) to undergo tests tocheck their competition fitness.All the three are currently train-ing at the Sports Authority ofIndia (SAI) centre in Bengaluru.

“We cannot take unfit ath-letes to the Olympics. We haveto check when did the athletesqualify for the Olympics, arethey injury-free or fit for com-petition,” AFI President AdilleSumariwalla said.

“This is just a test of fitnessand we are not looking at somequalification (mark),” he added.

Sreeshankar will also havehis fitness test conducted inBengaluru on July 21.

Olympic-bound Irfan,Bhawana undergofitness tests

Colombo: The Indian cricketteam’s six-match limited-oversseries against Sri Lanka was onFriday rescheduled owing to aCovid-19 outbreak in thehome team camp, with thefirst ODI now starting on July17 instead of July 13.

“Yes, the series will nowstart from 17th of July insteadof 13th. The decision wastaken in consultation withSLC keeping the safety andsecurity of players in mind,” asenior BCCI official told PTI,confirming the development.

It has been learnt thatnew dates are still beingchalked out in consultationwith the BCCI. The tentativedates could be July 17, 19 and21 for the 50-over games,while the three-match T20Irubber is likely to start fromJuly 24. PTI

India's series againstSL rescheduled

PNS n NEW DELHI

Prime Minister NarendraModi has reviewed prepa-

rations for facilitation of India’scontingent at Tokyo-2020 andwill meet with Olympic athleteson July 13 to ‘wish them luck’.

The Olympics in Tokyo areto start on July 23 amid Covid-19 conditions with no specta-tors allowed inside or outsidethe Olympic arena.

In a series of tweets, thePrime Minister said, “Reviewedpreparations for facilitation ofIndia’s contingent at@Tokyo2020. Discussed thelogistical details, their vaccina-tion status, the multi-discipli-nary support being given.

“On behalf of 130 croreIndians, I would be interacting

with the Olympics bound ath-letes on 13th July to wish themluck. Let us all #Cheer4India',Modi said.

Earlier, Prime Minister hadasked countrymen to supportIndian Sportspersons going toTokyo to win medals.

In his monthly radio talk,he had spoken highly aboutIndian Olympic contingentwhich he said comprised ofmany sportspersons with verypoor economic backgroundwho had come-up by theirsheer dedication and hardwork.

At a time when Olympicsare to begin, Prime Ministerhad this week appointedAnurag Thakur as new sportsminister taking over fromKiren Rijiju.

AFP n LONDON

England defender JohnStones has challenged his

team to make their Euro 2020‘dream’ come true when theyface Italy in Sunday’s final.

Gareth Southgate’s sidehave reached the country’s firstEuropean Championship show-piece after 55 years without amajor final appearance.

England will win just thesecond senior internationalhonour in their history, after the1966 World Cup, if they beatthe Italians at Wembley.

Manchester City centre-back Stones admits it was hardto imagine England having this

opportunity to make historywhen the tournament kickedoff four weeks ago.

“It’s huge, with the finalbeing at Wembley as well it’seven more special, something

we could have only dreamt ofat the start of the tournament,”Stones said on Friday.

“We'’ve got this far now andwe’ve grown throughout thetournament and not put toomuch pressure on ourselves.We’ve overcome some toughtests over the last few years.

“We’ve learned a lot ofthings and gained a lot of expe-rience and that’s got us towhere we are on Sunday. It’s amassive occasion.”

After reaching the 2018World Cup semi-finals,England have gone one stepfurther this time.

Now they want to finish thejob and end the country’s long

trophy drought.“On Sunday we’ll be out

there fighting for everything,wanting to win that game,”Stones said.

“There’s a big prize at theend of it that we want to be onthe receiving end of.”

Much of the credit forEngland’s revival since theirhumiliating Euro 2016 exitagainst Iceland goes to GarethSouthgate.

Southgate replaced SamAllardyce as England boss andhas overseen the introductionof a host of young talents whohave gelled with more experi-enced stars like Stones, HarryKane and Harry Maguire.

Stones urges Eng to make Euro dream come true

AFP n RIO DE JANERIO

Rio de Janeiro, one of theBrazilian cities hardest hit

by the coronavirus pandem-ic, on Friday gave the go-ahead for thousands of fans toattend Copa America finalagainst Argentina at theMaracana.

The city has decided toallow a crowd of up to 7,800people, ten percent of the sta-dium’s full capacity of 78,000.

This would make it thefirst match in the 2021 CopaAmerica with fans in thestands.

The decision was basedon the organizers presentingprotocols “of operation andaccreditation that adopt mea-sures to protect the health ofthose involved, using appro-priate tools to prevent conta-gion and the propagation ofCovid-19,” said a notice in theofficial gazette on Friday.

Rio to allow fans forBrazil-Argentina final

Bowling in Sri Lanka ODI’s will boostKuldeep & Chahal's confidence: VVS

PM Modi reviews Olympic prep;to interact with athletes on July 13

Neymar, Messitarget first major

internationaltrophy as familiar

foes Brazil andArgentina face offin mouthwatering

Copa America final

Brazil’s Neymar hugs Argentina’s Lionel Messi @ChampionsLeague

Venue: Maracana Stadium, Rio de Janerio

Time: Sunday 5:30 am IST

Live Telecast: SONY TEN 2

LAST 5 MATCHESBrazil Argentina

W (1-0 vs Peru) W (4-3 vs Colombia)

W (1-0 vs Chile) W (3-0 vs Ecuador)

D (1-1 vs Ecuador) W (4-1 vs Bolivia)

W (2-1 vs Colombia) W (1-0 vs Paraguay)

W (4-0 vs Peru) W (1-0 vs Uruguay)

CLASHOF THETITANSCLASHOF THETITANS

AFP n LONDON

Matteo Berrettini became thefirst Italian to reach a

Wimbledon singles final on Friday with a four-sets victory against Hubert Hurkacz.

Berrettini claimed a 6-3, 6-0, 6-7 (3/7), 6-4win over his Polish opponent who had knockedout eight-time champion Roger Federer in thequarter-finals.

World number nine Berrettini will faceeither Djokovic or Denis Shapovalov inSunday’s final where he will attempt tobecome Italy’s first men’s Grand Slamchampion since Adriano Panatta at the1976 French Open.

“I think I never dreamed about thisbecause it was too much for a dream,” saidBerrettini.

“I am trying to be the best at everything butafter the third set I was feeling I deserved to winit but lost it.

“I said ‘it doesn’t matter’, I was feel-ing the stronger player and that’s whatI said to myself and eventually it paidoff.”

Should he win on Sunday,Berrettini may be able to celebrate anational double with Italy facing Englandin the Euro 2020 final in Londonlater that day.

“So far it is the best ten-nis day of my life buthopefully Sunday will beeven better. I feel kind ofchills but I am doing it, soI have to believe it.”

Berrettini, havingwasted three break pointsearlier in the first set,eventually brokethrough in the sev-enth game, backingit up in the ninth,converting setpoint courtesyof an uglyforehandshank fromthe Pole.

The 25-year-old thenraced through the second setin just 23 minutes, a Hurkaczdouble fault and a wrong-footing forehand allowingBerrettini to seal a 10th

successive game.That became 11 games in a row

at the start of the third set before18th-ranked Hurkacz, bidding to be

the first Polish man to make a Slam final, stoppedthe rot.

Hurkacz held on and swept the third settiebreaker but his momentum was quickly halt-ed as the Italian broke for 1-0 in the fourth.

Berrettini was unable to convert a matchpoint in the ninth game but made no mis-

take on his own service.The Italian fired 22 aces, taking his

tournament total past the 100-mark, and60 winners. He only faced two break

points, both of which he saved.

BARTY VS PLISKOVAAshleigh Barty will fulfil a childhood dream

when she plays in Saturday’s Wimbledon final butKarolina Pliskova stands in her way of achievinga more significant one.

Barty is attempting to win her firstWimbledon title on the 50th anniversary of fel-low indigenous Australian Evonne GoolagongCawley’s maiden crown.

Pliskova is driven more by proving to her‘brutal critics’ she was right in sticking to herstyle of play rather than alter it radically as the

former world number one dropped outof the top 10.

Whatever happens onSaturday a return to the top 10beckons for the 29-year-oldworld number 13 but for thekeen angler the catch of theday would be her first GrandSlam title.

To do so she must over-come a world number one

who produced her bestperformance yet of the

fortnight in beat-ing 2018 cham-pion AngeliqueKerber in thesemi-finals.

B a r t yalso has afirm hold ontheir head-to-

head meetingsleading Pliskova 4-2 (1-0 to Bartyon grass) including their mostrecent meeting in Stuttgart on claythis year.

Women’s finalLive from 6:30 pm ISTSTAR SPORTS SELECT 1 & 2

Matteo becomes 1st Italianto reach Wimbledon final