Lockdown set to be extended with some measures to restart ...

17
ts, towns and cities as red, orange and green zones—the- re might be some zoning wit- hin cities and towns as well— to allow differentiated restora- tion of normal life, with condi- tions like use of masks and so- cial distancing in public. sinesses and markets may be allowed to resume in areas with no infections or a low in- cidence of the disease. States are likely to designate distric- Rajeev.Deshpande @timesgroup.com New Delhi: Even as the 21- day lockdown looks set to be extended, the Centre in con- sultation with states is mo- ving to restart economic acti- vity in a graded manner in what marks a major change of approach in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic. Spelling out the shift in a video conference with chief ministers on Saturday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said while the earlier mantra was “jaan hai to jahan hai (if there is life, you can enjoy the world)”, the way ahead would be guided by “jaan bhi, jahan bhi (life as well as our world)”. He also noted that CMs had suggested extending the lock- down by two weeks. Right at the outset of the interaction, the PM said the situation had “left us with no option but to extend the lock- down by at least two weeks”. The discussions ended with a broad agreement on framing norms for greater public mo- vement while continuing with a focused containment strategy for hotspots. While the lockdown is to be extended till month-end, there will be several measures for a calibrated exit, the guidelines for which are to be spelt out in the next two to three days. Bu- Green, Orange & Red Zones For Graded Exit Plan Lockdown set to be extended with some measures to restart economy On Saturday, PM Modi brought the modest gamchha into the spotlight, highlighting its utility as protective gear. The PM had recently praised #MaskIndia, a TOI campaign to encourage people to use homemade face covers P 7 Jaan Bhi, Jahaan Bhi New Motto: PM ➤ PM Narendra Modi said the motto of his govt earlier was ‘jaan hai to jahaan hai (saving lives is most important)’ but now is ‘jaan bhi jahaan bhi’ (saving lives as well as ensuring wellbeing) ➤ CMs of Kerala, West Bengal, UP, Delhi, MP and Karnataka, besides the J&K administrator, pushed for an extension while Andhra CM Jagan Reddy suggested a partial lockdown ➤ A few hours after the meeting, Maharashtra extended the lockdown till April 30, following Odisha and Punjab, which had done so earlier. Later in the day, Telangana and West Bengal also extended the lockdown till end-April HOTSPOTS TO STAY SHUT, OTHERS MAY SEE SOME EASING ➤ Businesses & markets may be allowed to reopen in areas with no infections or low incidence as part of graded lockdown exit plan ➤ Industrial townships may have strict entry and exit norms, internal transport for workers ➤ There could be an alternate day time-table for some markets. Larger mandis may see restrictions on number of people ➤ Govt may allow units that can accommodate employees on their campuses to function ➤ State govts being nudged to go to villages to buy harvested crop directly from farmers ➤ States may consider limited restoration of transport, at least within districts and cities. Inter-state transport not on table for now ➤ Suggestions to restart public services by greater use of e-tokens and appointments ➤ More steps on supply chain movement likely; relaxations for flood control activities too Pop star Rihanna joins forces with Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to set up a $4.2m grant to help victims of domestic violence affected by stay-at-home orders in Los Angeles Even those with moderate symptoms caused due to Covid-19 may have pneumonia, the WHO has clarified, adding that such cases don’t need hospitalisation SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son says he has secured a monthly supply of 300 million face masks for Japan from May More than 1.7 million people have been reported to be infected globally and 103,257 have died Banker Deepak Parekh says Japanese firms are being pushed by their govt with a $2.2bn incentive to relocate from China and Indian states should respond to this by offering them special zones with water & power APRIL 12, 2020 | CAPITAL | PAGES 18 O F I N D I A NEW DELHI PRICE `6.00 OR `10.50 (`8.50 IN FARIDABAD & GREATER DELHI EDITION) WITH SUNDAY NAVBHARAT TIMES INDIA’S LARGEST ENGLISH NEWSPAPER HAPPY EASTER DAY 18 LOCKDOWN SUNDAY SPECIAL WFH is changing office dressing CEOs in lungis, execs in shorts. As video chats become new norm, waist-up dressing is catching on P 9 My quarantine days Squirrels, Sanju baba and sunset selfies…Mrs Funnybones on the art of surviving a lockdown P 9 O wing to the extraordinary circumstances created by Covid-19 pandemic, Times Life will temporarily appear within the main edition of The Times of India. However, it will continue to bring you its cutting edge lifestyle content every Sunday. To rev up your life with Times Life, turn to P 13 Turn to Page 3 AlokKNMishra@timesgroup.com New Delhi: CM Arvind Kejri- wal suggested at a video confe- rence with PM Modi on Satur- day that the nationwide lock- down should be extended till April 30. And as a consensus see- med to have emerged on this issue between the CMs. Kejriwal tweeted wel- coming Modi’s “correct deci- sion” to extend the lockdown though no formal announce- ment was made by the Centre till late in the night. The lockdown had started on March 25 and is to remain in force till the midnight of April 14 unless it is extended. Kejri- wal also sought funds for Delhi, just like any other state, becau- se the city is handling a greater volume of such cases as compa- red to many other states and has put many people in quaran- tine. Soon after the video con- ference was over, Kejriwal twe- eted: “PM has taken correct de- cision to extend lockdown...” CM welcomes ‘PM’s correct decision’ India in better status, P 3 A t a time when several com- panies have seen their re- venues collapse due to the pan- demic, the government is set to move an ordinance to suspend fresh insolvency action aga- inst firms for six months by lenders or other creditors. It is looking at amend- ments to sections 7, 9 and 10 of the Insolvency and Bankrupt- cy Code through the ordinan- ce, reports Sidhartha. This means financial creditors, in- cluding homebuyers in resi- dential real estate projects, cannot initiate action insol- vency action, for six months under section 7 of the IBC. P7 Ordinance to stop new insolvency cases for 6 mths M inisters and senior offi- cers will be back in offices from Monday, with up to a third of junior officers and staff also allowed to assist them, while ensuring social di- stancing norms.“The govern- ment has desired that all offi- cers who are entitled to official transport facility will come to office from Monday, that is offi- cers of the level of joint secre- tary or higher,” said an official source. The move signals the Centre’s plan to manage the exit from the lockdown. With ministries resuming work, se- veral key functions can be per- formed as officers will have ac- cess to all documents. P 7 Mantris, officers to return to work tomorrow Graded plan, P 7 FULL COVERAGE: P 2-12 Centre to Bengal: Stop flouting lockdown rules, P 5 DurgeshNandan.Jha @timesgroup.com New Delhi: The health mini- stry said on Saturday that In- dia’s Covid-19 count for the first time rose by more than 1,000 cases in 24 hours. Many of these cases, however, had been accounted for earlier in TOI’s round-ups from states, which have indicated a surge in Covid-19 numbers in the past three days. Delhi recorded five deaths in the past 24 hours, its hig- hest single-day toll, even as the number of new cases re- mained high at 166. Delhi now has 1,069 cases, the second ci- ty after Mumbai to cross the four-figure mark. Meanwhile, ICMR said it had tested 1,79,374 samples for Covid-19 from 1,64,773 individuals in the country till 9pm on Saturday, out of which 7,703 (which is abo- ut 4.3%) were positive. In a 1st, health min reports over 1,000 new cases in a day 5 Deaths, 166 Fresh Cases In City DELHI JUMPS TO NO.2 SPOT Name of State/UT Cases on Saturday Total Cases Recovered Deaths Maharashtra 187 1,761 79 127 Delhi 166 1,069 25 19 Tamil Nadu 58 969 21 10 Rajasthan 139 700 60 9 Madhya Pradesh 55 529 38 40 Telangana 25 503 45 14 Rest of India 195 2,895 324 72 Total 825 8,426 592 291 40 deaths in 24 hrs, P 7 TIMES NEWS NETWORK Bhopal: An MP youth who made TikTok videos to ridicu- le the use of masks saying ‘trust in god, not in a piece of cloth’, has had a sobering les- son after testing positive for Covid-19. Looking far from cheery in contrast to his old videos, the 25-year-old posted a TikTok clip from his hospital bed in Sa- gar on Saturday, saying: “Pray for me, friends.” That’s the last video he posted from hospital as his phone was taken away. His no-mask videos had gone viral, like the disease. He is an electrician but came as a savio- ur to many during the lock- down, distributing vegetables for free among the needy. In his first TikTok video, he is seen wearing sunglasses and loung- ing with swag on a two-whee- ler as he explains why he do- esn’t wear a mask. Someone is heard asking: “Arre bhai, vi- rus ke wajah se mask nahi pa- hente (brother, why don’t you wear a mask)?” He made anti-mask video, then fell sick CHANGE OF TONE Iss kapde ke tukde pe kya bharosa karna, karna hai toh uss upar wale pe karo (why trust this piece of cloth, trust in the Almighty) —Youth’s TikTok video before contracting Covid-19 Doctors have declared me corona-positive. Please continue to support me and pray for me. I will not be able to post TikTok videos from now on — Video after infection Pray for me: Youth, P 6 T hree night shelters at Ya- muna Pushta housing around 150 people went up in flames on Saturday followi- ng fights among homeless migrants over distribution of food, police said. Delhi Ur- ban Shelter Improvement Board member Bipin Rai sa- id the unrest began with the rumour that a body found in the Yamuna was of a home- less inmate, which led to sh- elters being put on fire. Some arrests have been made. P 4 3 night shelters set ablaze over food distribution Chidanand.Rajghatta @timesgroup.com Washington: An Indian- American CEO of a New Jer- sey-based pharmaceutical company may be among sco- res of coronavirus victims from the subcontinent, a de- ath toll that includes several New York City cab drivers. So- me of the victims are dying alone in hospitals, with fami- ly members and friends unab- le to be in close proximity du- ring their final hours because of medical and travel restric- tions, and in some cases Indi- an citizens have had to be bu- ried or cremated with mini- mum or no ceremony in the US because of the travel ban. Among the dead this week is Hanumantha Rao Marepal- li, 56, of Martinsville, NJ, who was president & CEO, Sanno- va Analytical Inc, and who formerly worked for pharma major Novartis. Marepalli re- portedly died on Friday, and as per directives from the New Jersey administration and the North Brunswick ma- yor’s office and the North Brunswick office of emergen- cy management, his last rites have been entrusted to a de- signated funeral home in New Jersey. The Telugu Association of North America, however, sa- id Marepalli passed away af- ter a heart attack, but was part of a distress situation in which the dead are not being adequately memorialised as per Indian rites because of the circumstances. Desi CEO may be among several Indian victims in US Indians in forefront, P 8 ManthanK.Mehta @timesgroup.com Mumbai: A woman’s plea on Twitter for camel milk from Rajasthan for her three-and- a-half-year-old autistic child during the lockdown went vi- ral, leading to an Odisha-ba- sed IPS officer stepping in to help her source it. On April 4, Neha Kumari from Chembur tagged PM Na- rendra Modi in her tweet that read: “@narendramodi Sir I have a 3.5 yrs old child suffe- ring from autism and severe food allergies. He survives on Camel Milk and limited qty of pulses. When lockdown star- ted I didn’t have enough camel milk to last this long. Help me get Camel Milk or its powder from Sadri (Rajasthan).” The message was retweet- ed, and heard, by many, and of- fers of help poured in. IPS offi- cer Arun Bothra, posted as CEO at Central Electricity Supply Utility in Odisha, was alerted about Neha’s post by one of his Twitter followers. A spl trip to get camel milk for autistic child Train halts for milk, P 6 HELPING HANDS ➤ A Mumbai woman appealed on Twitter for camel milk from Rajasthan for her three-and-a-half-year- old autistic child ➤ Odisha-based IPS officer Arun Bothra helped procure milk powder & camel milk from a vendor in Rajasthan ➤ A freight train made a special stop at Falna station to load the parcel A round 50 resident doctors at ESIC Medical College and Hospital, a designated Covid-19 hospital, in Farida- bad have called a symbolic protest against the “lack of personal protective equip- ment (PPE)” and N95 masks. They have alleged senior doctors of the hospital have stayed away from Covid-19 duties. However, dean Ase- em Das refuted the charges, saying the hospital had eno- ugh protection gear. P 2 Faridabad hosp doctors protest lack of PPE H aryana CM M L Khattar said 22 districts would be divided into three zones — red, orange and green. The fo- ur hotspots that all are in NCR — Gurgaon, Faridabad, Nuh and Palwal — were de- clared ‘red zones’. P2 Khattar puts Haryana’s 4 NCR areas in red zone A day after denying that ICMR had conducted any such study, the health mini- stry clarified that a “statisti- cal rate of growth-based ana- lysis” had been done which found that without lockdown and containment measures, Covid-19 cases could be pro- jected to spiral to 8.2 lakh by April 15, registering a 41% cu- mulative growth rate. P5 ‘8.2L cases if no lockdown’ With 3 new areas, city has 33 containment zones, P3 T en foreign Tablighi Jama- at missionaries were ar- rested on April 9 from a mad- rassa in Tamil Nadu’s Naga- pattinam district on charges of violating the lockdown norms and the Foreigners Act. Police said, “They did not attend the TJ conference in Delhi’s Nizamuddin. We are now waiting for their swab sample test results.” P 5 TN: 10 foreign TJ preachers held A 30-year-old man who tes- ted positive for Covid-19 committed suicide in a ho- spital in Maharashtra’s Ako- la Saturday. Meanwhile, a 61- year-old man jumped to de- ath from his Pune flat, men- tioning in his suicide note he was fed up with coronavirus. In Malegaon, an SI shot him- self dead during a police me- et regarding the lockdown. Man tests +ve, kills self; 2 more commit suicide S ources present in a go- vernment meeting, whe- re the decision was taken to ramp up production of hyd- rocholoroquine and make it available for foreign countri- es, said PM Modi insisted In- dia must help out others and this was “a moment when In- dia could save lives”. P5 PM overruled HCQ export ban T he UP government has decided to adopt group testing or pooled sample tes- ting, being successfully used in Germany and Israel. The process, which will save time and effort, involves mixing of many samples to create a super sample and putting it up for testing in one go. P6 UP to launch pool testing T he Centre will fund Sea- gull Biosolutions, a Pu- ne-based firm, to develop a vaccine for Covid-19 which is expected to enter phase-1 tri- al in 18-20 months. Seagull Biosolutions is the first com- pany the government is fi- nancially backing for coro- navirus vaccine efforts. P7 1st co to get govt funds for vaccine T he US became the first co- untry in the world to record more than 2,000 deaths in a 24- hour period. With 20,110 fatali- ties (2,108 fresh deaths), it has surpassed Italy as the country with the most deaths worldwi- de. Italy reported 619 more deaths, and its toll has now shot up to 19,468. Some ex- perts suggest the US may have reached, or is at least very near, the peak death toll per day. P 8 2k+ die in 24 hrs, US toll highest in world FAT AIM t p STAY NEALTHY & SAFE - WHO has declared COVID-19 (Coronavirus) as Pandemic for which there is no vaccine available yet Patience & discipline demonstrated by the entire nation during lockdown is an example of restraint in the interest of health India is experiencing testing times while we brave through COVID-1 9. Isolation and social distancing will help us overcome this. To control further spreading of COVID-19 disease , there is a need to remain cautious and careful for the next few days. By observing Social Distancing we can control the COVID-19 pandemic in the verynearfuture. Use masks nevertheless and not only if you have cold , and cough , to stop the spread of COVID-19 disease . Also , sanitise or wash your hands and to the extent possible do not touch your face , eyes or ears . If you come in contact with a COVID-19 positive individual , stay at home , check for fever twice and immediately inform Health Officials . Use Aarogya Setu - App designed to keep the informed in case one has crossed paths with someone who has tested positive. Remain updated with latest information and follow government recommendations , they are for your safety. For right information on COVID-1 9 , please WhatsApp 9013151515. We acknowledge and abide by the various positive measures undertaken by the Government to control COVID- 19 pandemic. With our 750 bed hospital and 1200 strong team of doctors , paramedics and other workers , we stand committed , 24x7 towards the State & Central Government and towards your safety. MOVE TOWARDS THE FUTURE WITH POSITIVE THINKING o.' o Medical Helpline Phone : + 91-11-23978046 , Toll-Free Number : 1075 a 'rt ' Register yourself and encourage family & friends to register on Aarogya Setu A pp pt; SGT ' Me d ical College , Hospital & Research I n stitute 1 1: 1 a 1 U n h wd ty) Budhera , : d Road , I gi 0 1800 102 9205894938, 191

Transcript of Lockdown set to be extended with some measures to restart ...

Page 1: Lockdown set to be extended with some measures to restart ...

ts, towns and cities as red,orange and green zones—the-re might be some zoning wit-hin cities and towns as well—to allow differentiated restora-

tion of normal life, with condi-tions like use of masks and so-cial distancing in public.

sinesses and markets may beallowed to resume in areaswith no infections or a low in-cidence of the disease. Statesare likely to designate distric-

[email protected]

New Delhi: Even as the 21-day lockdown looks set to beextended, the Centre in con-sultation with states is mo-ving to restart economic acti-vity in a graded manner inwhat marks a major change ofapproach in the fight againstthe Covid-19 pandemic.

Spelling out the shift in avideo conference with chiefministers on Saturday, PrimeMinister Narendra Modi said

while the earlier mantra was“jaan hai to jahan hai (if thereis life, you can enjoy theworld)”, the way ahead wouldbe guided by “jaan bhi, jahanbhi (life as well as our world)”.

He also noted that CMs hadsuggested extending the lock-down by two weeks.

Right at the outset of theinteraction, the PM said thesituation had “left us with nooption but to extend the lock-down by at least two weeks”.The discussions ended with abroad agreement on framingnorms for greater public mo-vement while continuingwith a focused containmentstrategy for hotspots.

While the lockdown is to beextended till month-end, therewill be several measures for acalibrated exit, the guidelinesfor which are to be spelt out inthe next two to three days. Bu-

Green, Orange &Red Zones For

Graded Exit Plan

Lockdown set to be extended withsome measures to restart economy

On Saturday, PM Modi brought the modest gamchha into the spotlight,highlighting its utility as protective gear. The PM had recently praised #MaskIndia, a TOI campaign to encourage people to use homemade face covers P 7

Jaan Bhi, Jahaan Bhi New Motto: PM➤ PM Narendra Modisaid the motto of his govt earlier was ‘jaan hai to jahaan hai (saving lives is most important)’ but now is ‘jaan bhi jahaan bhi’ (saving lives as well as ensuring wellbeing)➤ CMs of Kerala, West Bengal, UP, Delhi, MP and Karnataka, besides the J&K

administrator, pushed for an extension while Andhra CM Jagan Reddy suggested a partial lockdown➤ A few hours after the meeting, Maharashtra extended the lockdown till April 30, following Odisha and Punjab, which had done so earlier. Later in the day, Telangana and West Bengal also extended the lockdown till end-April

HOTSPOTS TO STAY SHUT, OTHERS MAY SEE SOME EASING➤ Businesses & markets may be allowed to reopen in areas with no infections or low incidence as part of graded lockdown exit plan➤ Industrial townships may have strict entry and exit norms, internal transport for workers➤ There could be an alternate day time-table for some markets. Larger mandis may see restrictions on number of people ➤ Govt may allow units that can accommodate employees on their campuses to function

➤ State govts being nudged to go to villages to buy harvested crop directly from farmers ➤ States may consider limited restoration of transport, at least within districts and cities. Inter-state transport not on table for now ➤ Suggestions to restart public services by greater use of e-tokens and appointments➤ More steps on supply chain movement likely; relaxations for flood control activities too

Pop star Rihanna joins forces with Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to set up a $4.2m grant to help victims of domestic violence affected by stay-at-home orders in Los Angeles

Even those with moderate symptoms caused due to Covid-19 may have pneumonia, the WHO has clarified, adding that such cases don’t need hospitalisation

SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son says he has secured a monthly supply of 300 million face masks for Japan from May

More than 1.7 million people have been reported to be infected globally and 103,257 have died

Banker Deepak Parekh says Japanese firms are being pushed by their govt with a $2.2bn incentive to relocate from China and Indian states should respond to this by offering them special zones with water & power

APRIL 12, 2020 | CAPITAL | PAGES 18

O F I N D I A

NEW DELHI PRICE `̀6.00 OR `̀10.50 (`̀8.50 IN FARIDABAD & GREATER DELHI EDITION) WITH SUNDAY NAVBHARAT TIMES

INDIA’S LARGEST ENGLISH NEWSPAPERHAPPY EASTER

DAY

18LOCKDOWN

SUNDAY SPECIAL

WFH is changingoffice dressingCEOs in lungis, execs in shorts. As video chats become new norm, waist-up dressing is catching on P 9

My quarantine daysSquirrels, Sanju baba and sunset selfies…Mrs Funnybones on the art of surviving a lockdown P 9

Owing to the extraordinary circumstances created by

Covid-19 pandemic, Times Lifewill temporarily appear within the main edition of The Times of India. However, it will continue to bring you its cutting edge lifestyle content every Sunday. To rev up your life with Times Life, turn to P 13

Turn to Page 3

[email protected]

New Delhi: CM Arvind Kejri-wal suggested at a video confe-rence with PM Modi on Satur-day that the nationwide lock-down should beextended tillApril 30. And asa consensus see-med to haveemerged on thisissue betweenthe CMs. Kejriwal tweeted wel-coming Modi’s “correct deci-sion” to extend the lockdown

though no formal announce-ment was made by the Centretill late in the night.

The lockdown had startedon March 25 and is to remain inforce till the midnight of April14 unless it is extended. Kejri-wal also sought funds for Delhi,just like any other state, becau-se the city is handling a greatervolume of such cases as compa-red to many other states andhas put many people in quaran-tine. Soon after the video con-ference was over, Kejriwal twe-eted: “PM has taken correct de-cision to extend lockdown...”

CM welcomes ‘PM’s correct decision’

�India in better status, P 3

At a time when several com-panies have seen their re-

venues collapse due to the pan-demic, the government is set tomove an ordinance to suspendfresh insolvency action aga-inst firms for six months bylenders or other creditors.

It is looking at amend-ments to sections 7, 9 and 10 ofthe Insolvency and Bankrupt-cy Code through the ordinan-ce, reports Sidhartha. Thismeans financial creditors, in-cluding homebuyers in resi-dential real estate projects,cannot initiate action insol-vency action, for six monthsunder section 7 of the IBC. P 7

Ordinance to stopnew insolvencycases for 6 mths

Ministers and senior offi-cers will be back in offices

from Monday, with up to athird of junior officers andstaff also allowed to assistthem, while ensuring social di-stancing norms.“The govern-ment has desired that all offi-cers who are entitled to officialtransport facility will come tooffice from Monday, that is offi-cers of the level of joint secre-tary or higher,” said an officialsource. The move signals theCentre’s plan to manage theexit from the lockdown. Withministries resuming work, se-veral key functions can be per-formed as officers will have ac-cess to all documents. P 7

Mantris, officersto return to

work tomorrow

�Graded plan, P 7

FULL COVERAGE: P 2-12�Centre to Bengal: Stopflouting lockdown rules, P 5

[email protected]

New Delhi: The health mini-stry said on Saturday that In-dia’s Covid-19 count for thefirst time rose by more than1,000 cases in 24 hours. Manyof these cases, however, hadbeen accounted for earlier inTOI’s round-ups from states,which have indicated a surgein Covid-19 numbers in thepast three days.

Delhi recorded five deathsin the past 24 hours, its hig-hest single-day toll, even asthe number of new cases re-mained high at 166. Delhi nowhas 1,069 cases, the second ci-ty after Mumbai to cross thefour-figure mark.

Meanwhile, ICMR said ithad tested 1,79,374 samplesfor Covid-19 from 1,64,773individuals in the countrytill 9pm on Saturday, out ofwhich 7,703 (which is abo-ut 4.3%) were positive.

In a 1st, health minreports over 1,000new cases in a day

5 Deaths, 166 Fresh Cases In City

DELHI JUMPS TO NO.2 SPOTName of State/UT Cases on

SaturdayTotal Cases Recovered Deaths

Maharashtra 187 1,761 79 127

Delhi 166 1,069 25 19

Tamil Nadu 58 969 21 10

Rajasthan 139 700 60 9

Madhya Pradesh 55 529 38 40

Telangana 25 503 45 14

Rest of India 195 2,895 324 72

Total 825 8,426 592 291

�40 deaths in 24 hrs, P 7

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Bhopal: An MP youth whomade TikTok videos to ridicu-le the use of masks saying‘trust in god, not in a piece ofcloth’, has had a sobering les-son after testing positive forCovid-19.

Looking far from cheery incontrast to his old videos, the25-year-old posted a TikTokclip from his hospital bed in Sa-gar on Saturday, saying: “Prayfor me, friends.” That’s the lastvideo he posted from hospitalas his phone was taken away.His no-mask videos had goneviral, like the disease. He is anelectrician but came as a savio-ur to many during the lock-down, distributing vegetablesfor free among the needy. In hisfirst TikTok video, he is seenwearing sunglasses and loung-

ing with swag on a two-whee-ler as he explains why he do-esn’t wear a mask. Someone is heard asking: “Arre bhai, vi-rus ke wajah se mask nahi pa-hente (brother, why don’t youwear a mask)?”

He made anti-maskvideo, then fell sick

CHANGE OF TONEIss kapde ke tukde pe kya bharosa karna,

karna hai toh uss upar wale pe karo (why trust this piece of cloth, trust in the Almighty)

—Youth’s TikTok video before contracting Covid-19

Doctors have declared me corona-positive. Please continue to support me and pray for me. I will not be able to post TikTok videos from now on

— Video after infection

�Pray for me: Youth, P 6

Three night shelters at Ya-muna Pushta housing

around 150 people went up inflames on Saturday followi-ng fights among homelessmigrants over distributionof food, police said. Delhi Ur-ban Shelter ImprovementBoard member Bipin Rai sa-id the unrest began with therumour that a body found inthe Yamuna was of a home-less inmate, which led to sh-elters being put on fire. Somearrests have been made. P 4

3 night sheltersset ablaze over

food distribution

[email protected]

Washington: An Indian-American CEO of a New Jer-sey-based pharmaceuticalcompany may be among sco-res of coronavirus victimsfrom the subcontinent, a de-ath toll that includes severalNew York City cab drivers. So-me of the victims are dyingalone in hospitals, with fami-ly members and friends unab-le to be in close proximity du-ring their final hours becauseof medical and travel restric-tions, and in some cases Indi-an citizens have had to be bu-ried or cremated with mini-mum or no ceremony in theUS because of the travel ban.

Among the dead this weekis Hanumantha Rao Marepal-li, 56, of Martinsville, NJ, whowas president & CEO, Sanno-va Analytical Inc, and whoformerly worked for pharmamajor Novartis. Marepalli re-portedly died on Friday, andas per directives from theNew Jersey administrationand the North Brunswick ma-yor’s office and the North

Brunswick office of emergen-cy management, his last riteshave been entrusted to a de-signated funeral home inNew Jersey.

The Telugu Association ofNorth America, however, sa-id Marepalli passed away af-ter a heart attack, but waspart of a distress situation inwhich the dead are not beingadequately memorialised asper Indian rites because ofthe circumstances.

Desi CEO may beamong several

Indian victims in US

�Indians in forefront, P 8

[email protected]

Mumbai: A woman’s plea onTwitter for camel milk fromRajasthan for her three-and-a-half-year-old autistic childduring the lockdown went vi-ral, leading to an Odisha-ba-sed IPS officer stepping in tohelp her source it.

On April 4, Neha Kumarifrom Chembur tagged PM Na-rendra Modi in her tweet thatread: “@narendramodi Sir Ihave a 3.5 yrs old child suffe-ring from autism and severefood allergies. He survives onCamel Milk and limited qty ofpulses. When lockdown star-ted I didn’t have enough camelmilk to last this long. Help meget Camel Milk or its powderfrom Sadri (Rajasthan).”

The message was retweet-

ed, and heard, by many, and of-fers of help poured in. IPS offi-cer Arun Bothra, posted asCEO at Central ElectricitySupply Utility in Odisha, wasalerted about Neha’s post byone of his Twitter followers.

A spl trip to get camelmilk for autistic child

�Train halts for milk, P 6

HELPING HANDS➤ A Mumbai womanappealed on Twitter for camel milk from Rajasthan for her three-and-a-half-year-old autistic child➤ Odisha-based IPS officer Arun Bothra helped procure milk powder & camel milk from a vendor in Rajasthan➤ A freight train made a special stop at Falna stationto load the parcel

Around 50 resident doctorsat ESIC Medical College

and Hospital, a designatedCovid-19 hospital, in Farida-bad have called a symbolicprotest against the “lack ofpersonal protective equip-ment (PPE)” and N95 masks.They have alleged seniordoctors of the hospital havestayed away from Covid-19duties. However, dean Ase-em Das refuted the charges,saying the hospital had eno-ugh protection gear. P 2

Faridabad hospdoctors protest

lack of PPE

Haryana CM M L Khattarsaid 22 districts would be

divided into three zones —red, orange and green. The fo-ur hotspots that all are inNCR — Gurgaon, Faridabad,Nuh and Palwal — were de-clared ‘red zones’. P2

Khattar puts Haryana’s4 NCR areas in red zone

A day after denying thatICMR had conducted any

such study, the health mini-stry clarified that a “statisti-cal rate of growth-based ana-lysis” had been done whichfound that without lockdownand containment measures,Covid-19 cases could be pro-jected to spiral to 8.2 lakh byApril 15, registering a 41% cu-mulative growth rate. P 5

‘8.2L cases if no lockdown’

� With 3 new areas, city has33 containment zones, P3

Ten foreign Tablighi Jama-at missionaries were ar-

rested on April 9 from a mad-rassa in Tamil Nadu’s Naga-pattinam district on chargesof violating the lockdownnorms and the ForeignersAct. Police said, “They didnot attend the TJ conferencein Delhi’s Nizamuddin. Weare now waiting for theirswab sample test results.” P 5

TN: 10 foreign TJpreachers held

A 30-year-old man who tes-ted positive for Covid-19

committed suicide in a ho-spital in Maharashtra’s Ako-la Saturday. Meanwhile, a 61-year-old man jumped to de-ath from his Pune flat, men-tioning in his suicide note hewas fed up with coronavirus.In Malegaon, an SI shot him-self dead during a police me-et regarding the lockdown.

Man tests +ve,kills self; 2 morecommit suicide

Sources present in a go-vernment meeting, whe-

re the decision was taken toramp up production of hyd-rocholoroquine and make itavailable for foreign countri-es, said PM Modi insisted In-dia must help out others andthis was “a moment when In-dia could save lives”. P 5

PM overruledHCQ export ban

The UP government hasdecided to adopt group

testing or pooled sample tes-ting, being successfully usedin Germany and Israel. Theprocess, which will save timeand effort, involves mixingof many samples to create asuper sample and putting itup for testing in one go. P 6

UP to launchpool testing

The Centre will fund Sea-gull Biosolutions, a Pu-

ne-based firm, to develop avaccine for Covid-19 which isexpected to enter phase-1 tri-al in 18-20 months. SeagullBiosolutions is the first com-pany the government is fi-nancially backing for coro-navirus vaccine efforts. P 7

1st co to get govtfunds for vaccine

The US became the first co-untry in the world to record

more than 2,000 deaths in a 24-hour period. With 20,110 fatali-ties (2,108 fresh deaths), it hassurpassed Italy as the countrywith the most deaths worldwi-de. Italy reported 619 moredeaths, and its toll has nowshot up to 19,468. Some ex-perts suggest the US may havereached, or is at least very near,the peak death toll per day. P 8

2k+ die in 24 hrs, UStoll highest in world

CCI NG 3.7 Product: TOIDelhiBS PubDate: 12-04-2020 Zone: Delhi Edition: 2 Page: TOIDFP1 User: radhey.shyam Time: 04-12-2020 01:49 Color: CMYK

FATAIMtp

STAY NEALTHY & SAFE -WHO has declared COVID-19 (Coronavirus) as Pandemic

for which there is no vaccine available yet

Patience & discipline demonstrated by the entire nation duringlockdown is an example of restraint in the interest of healthIndia is experiencing testing times while we brave through COVID-1 9. Isolationand social distancing will help us overcome this. To control further spreading ofCOVID-19 disease , there is a need to remain cautious and careful for the nextfew days.

By observing Social Distancing we can control the COVID-19 pandemic in theverynearfuture.

Use masks nevertheless and not only if you have cold, and cough, to stop thespread of COVID-19 disease. Also, sanitise or wash your hands and to theextent possible do not touch your face, eyes or ears .

If you come in contact with a COVID-19 positive individual, stay at home, checkfor fever twice and immediately inform Health Officials . Use Aarogya Setu -App designed to keep the informed in case one has crossed paths withsomeone who has tested positive.

Remain updated with latest information and follow governmentrecommendations , they are for your safety. For right information on COVID-1 9,please WhatsApp 9013151515.

We acknowledge and abide by the various positive measures undertakenby the Government to control COVID-19 pandemic. With our 750 bedhospital and 1200 strong team of doctors, paramedics and other workers,we stand committed , 24x7 towards the State & Central Government andtowards your safety.

MOVE TOWARDS THE FUTURE WITH POSITIVE THINKING o .' oMedical Helpline Phone: +91-11-23978046, Toll-Free Number: 1075 a'rt 'Register yourself and encourage family & friends to register on Aarogya Setu App p t ;

SGT ' Medical College, Hospital & Research Institute1 1: 1 a 1 Unhwdty)

Budhera, :d Road, I gi 0 1800 102 9205894938, 191

Page 2: Lockdown set to be extended with some measures to restart ...

DOES IT FEEL LIKE WEEKEND?Photos: Tarun Rawat, Piyal Bhattacharjee

My daughter’s kids are staying with us in Delhi since March 18 and would like to go back to their house in Faridabad to join their

parents. Can they be escorted by the police? -Mr. Revti Singh They can’t travel during the lockdown. Please wait until

restrictions are lifted.

I am a senior citizen. Can I go in my car to buy groceries, vegetables or milk? -Rakesh Gupta

Walking to buy milk and veggies is advised. If there’s an issue, you can take the vehicle, but only to the nearest shop.

Please let me know if courier service is included in the list of essential services. If not, can they get specific permission from the local police to deliver courier stuck in their offices in March as it is the end of the financial year -CRK Rao

You will need to check with courier services if they are operating. Some are operating with permission.

Are morning or evening walks allowed inside a gated complex? If some residents are violating the rules of lockdown, how do we report it? -Chaitanya Ravindra

No, it is not allowed. You can inform specific details on our COVID helpline 23469526.

I have an arms licence valid for Delhi only. It was valid till April

1. In the present situation. Please tell me what to do -Manoj Kumar

You can try applying online. If there’s an issue, please wait for the lockdown to be lifted.

LOCKDOWN DOUBTS

WRITETO US

L CKDOWNFAQS?

To make your life easy during the coronavirus lockdown, TOI invites its readers to send their

queries at www.toilockdownfaqs.comWe will seek answers from the police and relevant

authorities. We request you to keep your questions brief.You may also email your queries to [email protected]

Answers by Delhi Police spokesperson additional commissioner Mandeep Singh Randhawa

My brother’s marriage was fixed 6 months ago. Now, we can’t have a grand celebration, but can we go ahead and plan a simple marriage with few people from both the sides ? If yes, how can people attend the wedding? -Muhammad Aleem

No gathering is allowed during the lockdown. However, you can present you case to the local DCP.

SUNDAY TIMES OF INDIA, NEW DELHIAPRIL 12, 20202 TIMES CITY | LOCKDOWN-DAY 18

New Delhi: More than 35 he-althcare workers, mostly nur-ses and some doctors, have tes-ted positive for Covid-19 in Del-hi. At least 300 others who camein contact with them are underquarantine. In Mumbai, 90 he-althcare workers have similar-ly been infected. The story isthe same in other states such asRajasthan, where 22 healthca-re workers have confirmed po-sitive for Covid-19. In MadhyaPradesh, two doctors have died

and a few others remain in qua-rantine after testing positivefor the novel coronavirus.

In addition to high infec-tion risk, health workers de-ployed in Covid-19 facilities al-so suffer from physical andmental exhaustion, the tor-ment of difficult triage deci-sions and the pain of losing pa-tients and colleagues. It is pos-sible to alleviate these pain,say experts, mainly by provi-ding them protective gear, N95masks at the least, and distan-cing them from their families.

According to Dr S K Sarin,

head of the task force appoin-ted by Delhi government toprepare a strategy for Covid-19management in the capital,most Covid-positive cases in-volving health workers camefrom non-Covid-19 hospitals.“This is due to the initial igno-rance about precautions onthe part of possibly both thepatient and the doctor,” he sa-id. “They probably did not rea-lise that asymptomatic ormildly symptomatic patientscan transmit the infection.”

In his report, Sarin has ad-vised, “Anyone entering thehospital, including doctorsand nurses, should be scree-ned for symptoms of Covid-19.If they have any symptoms,they should be immediately re-ferred to a coronavirus facilitywithin the hospital or outsi-de.” Till about a week ago, mostnon-Covid-19 hospitals didn’thave such facility. He said me-dical staff should wear N95mask at all times, while pati-ents should be asked to wearsurgical masks. “Workers run-ning the flu clinic, collectingtest samples and managing Co-vid-19 facilities must get full-body protection and wear haz-mat suits,” he recommended.

Delhi State Cancer Institu-te (DSCI), where 22 healthcareworkers have tested positivefor Covid-19, recorded its firstcase on March 3, when a seniorresident in the preventive on-cology division tested positi-ve. He contracted the infectionfrom a relative. It is still uncle-ar whether the senior resident

infected the other 21. Three pa-tients undergoing treatmentfor cancer were also found positive three days ago andone of them died on Friday.

tic patients admitted for otherillnesses. “We have a screeningsystem in place and anyonewith fever is advised to reportto a Covid-19 facility. But what

can you do when the personhas no Covid-19 symptoms atthe time of admission but testspositive later?” sighed a doctor.

Like Sarin, Dr K SrinathReddy, president, Public He-alth Foundation of India, toostressed on personal protec-tion equipment (PPE) kits formedical staff in high-riskareas. He also suggested de-ployment of younger doctors.“They tend to recover fasterand without serious compli-cations even if they get the di-sease compared with seniordoctors,” Reddy explained.

Leeladhar Ramchandani,secretary general of Delhi Nur-ses Federation, said that manyhospitals had indeed providedPPE kits to the staff deployed inCovid-19 facilities, but hadn’tbeen trained on how to wear orremove them, thus predispo-sing them to infection. “We ha-ve written to the government toprovide on-site accommoda-tion and fooding to nurses in Co-vid-19 facilities so they can workwithout the risk of transmit-ting the virus to family mem-bers. There’ve been instanceswhen a nurse’s child or elderlyfamily members have been in-fected,” Ramchandani said.

At Max Hospital in Saket,at least 150 staff members, in-cluding doctors and nurses,are under self-quarantine aftercoming in contact with two pa-tients whohad been admittedto the hospital for heart proce-dures but later tested positivefor Covid-19. Similar incidentsalso happened at Mumbai’s

Wockhardt Hospitals and Del-hi’s Sir Ganga Ram Hospital.

A medicine specialist at atop private hospital expressedthe anxieties of many healthworkers. “I haven’t been go-ing to hospital for the past fewdays because there aren’t ma-ny patients. I am also scared ofbeing infected because I haveold parents at home,” he said.

An article in the respectedmedical journal The Lancetrecently said, “It is vital thatgovernments see workers notsimply as pawns to be deploy-ed, but as human individuals.In the global response, the sa-fety of health-care workersmust be ensured. Adequateprovision of PPE is just thefirst step; other practical me-asures must be considered,including cancelling non-es-sential events to prioritise re-sources; provision of food,rest, and family support; and psychological support.”

Dr Namit Choksi, aSchwarzman Scholar fromTsinghua University, China, re-ported that patients with a his-tory of travelling abroad or ex-posure contact with positive ca-ses often hide their medical his-tory for fear of being sent intoquarantined or not being trea-ted. “The government shouldtake necessary steps and rackup supplies of PPE kits to makesure every frontline worker hasaccess to them. In addition, ly-ing about his or her medicalhistory to a medical professio-nal must be made a punishableoffence,” demanded Choksi.

At Maharaja Agrasen Ho-spital in Punjabi Bagh and SirGanga Ram Hospital in KarolBagh, health workers contrac-ted the virus from asymptoma-

35 Health Workers Infected In Capital, Lack Of Protection Adds To Threat From Asymptomatic Patients

Thrown into battle without enough [email protected] A TALE OF TWO CITIES

Delhi

Mumbai

Healthcare workers put under quarantine: 340+

Hospital No. of staff +ve for Covid-19

Staff in quarantine

Delhi State Cancer Institute, Dilshad Garden 21 40+

Maharaja Agrasen Hospital, Punjabi Bagh 5 80+

Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, Karol Bagh 2 100+

Apollo Hospital, Sarita Vihar 1 20+

AIIMS, Ansari Nagar 2 40+

Safdarjung Hospital, Ring Road 2 20+

Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Institute, Patel Nagar 1 20+

Moolchand Hospital, Lajpat Nagar 1 20+

35Healthcare

workers found positive for

Covid-19

8Hospitalsaffected

5Hospitalsaffected

JASLOK, BREACHCANDY, BHATIA and KHAR HINDUJAare the private hospitals in Mumbai that have been affected by spread of Covid-19 among healthcare workers

Among publichospitals in Mumbai, several staffers from KEM, Sion and Bhabha hospitals have been taken off rosters as they came in contact with Covid-19 positive patients

5 WAYS TO REDUCE RISK

1Flu clinics at the entrance

to test anyone entering for Covid-19 symptoms

2Separate unit for Covid-19 suspects

3Those found negative to be allowed to continue

treatment or work in the main building, while Covid-19 +ve ones can be quarantined at home or hospital

4Allhealthcare

workers to use N95 masks, patients can use surgical masks

5PPE kits must for medical

staff dealing with sample collection, screening and treatment

THE LANCET SAYS

It is vital thatgovernments seeworkers not simply as pawns to bedeployed, but ashuman individuals

Gurgaon: About 50 residentdoctors at the ESIC Medical Col-lege and Hospital in Faridabadhave declared a symbolic indefi-nite strike in protest against the“lack of personal protectiveequipment”, including N95masks, to deal with novel coro-navirus cases. However, thesedoctors, wearing black bands,continue to provide services.

ESIC is the Covid-19 hospi-tal in the district. Nearly 150 of the hospital’s 550 beds havebeen placed in the isolationward for coronavirus patients.

“We have been told that onlythose who see Covid-19 positivecases will be given PPE kits andN95 masks. This attitude iswrong. All doctors should be gi-ven safety gear as no one knowswhich suspected patient canturn positive,” a resident doctorsaid, not wishing to be named.

The junior doctors also alle-ged that they are the only onesdealing with Covid-19 cases inthe hospital as the seniors haverefrained from such duties.

“We have been threatened bythe dean that we might lose ourjobs if we don’t treat Covid-19 pa-tients. We do not have health in-surance and are being deniedPPE,” another doctor claimed.

However, hospital dean Ase-em Das refuted the junior doc-tors’ allegations. “We have suf-ficient protection gear for thedoctors — 3,000 PPE kits and7,000 N95 masks — and are follo-wing a protocol here. Only doc-tors dealing with COvid-19 pati-ents are given the safety gear.”

Not given PPE,allege docs atFbd hospital

[email protected]

New Delhi: Saurabh Kochar, aresident of east Delhi’s Mans-arovar Garden, has been try-ing to kick the butt for the lasteight years, a habit he picked inhis final year in college. Kochartried quitting many times, on-ce going a month without smo-king, before work stress andpartying made him cave in.The national lockdown to con-tain the spread of Covid-19, fe-els Kochar, could finally makehim give up smoking for good.

“I smoked eight-nine ciga-rettes a day. When the lock-down was announced, I hadjust one unopened packet of 20cigarettes,” the 29-year-oldpublic relations consultant sa-id. “When I went out the nextday, all the paan shops were clo-sed and cigarettes were only

available in general stores. Butmy preferred brand was una-vailable and I didn’t like the al-ternatives.” Kochar visitedevery grocery store in Mans-arovar Garden and nearby are-as but failed to find his brand.

Instead of shifting tobaccoloyalties, Kochar steeled hisnerves to beat his habit. “I had20 cigarettes left for the 21daysof the lockdown. So, I smokejust one a day, after dinner,” hesaid. The cut down hasn’t be-en easy. “The craving is inten-se but eventually, it’s all in themind. I try to distract myselfor start playing with my kid.”

There was panic on a What-sApp group of Kochar’s fri-ends, most of them smokers,about cigarettes during thelockdown, with the membersexchanging notes on brandsstill available in their localities.

at a premium.” But unlikeothers of his ilk Kumar’s quo-ta has actually gone up. “I usedto buy two-three cigarettes da-ily, but since I now buy a wholepacket to avoid going out fre-quently, my consumption hasincreased,” noted Kumar.

Not only is smoking affec-ting Kumar’s health but do-mestic peace too. “Before thelockdown, I rarely smoked athome. I reached office andsmoked the first one and thelast one on my walk homefrom the metro station,” he sa-id. Kumar’s wife, who rarelysaw him smoke earlier, nowthrows a fit to see him puffing.Toys businessman Moham-med Nazim, 43, of Sadar Bazarfound cigarettes unavailableand has taken to bidis. “Fellowsmokers in this area are all ho-oked to bidi now,” he claimed.

supply. The thought of ex-hausting my stock makes meso anxious that each time Icrave a cigarette, I just pushan unlit one into my mouthand save it for the next time,”said the sales manager of aprivate firm. Sharma saidthat a packet of 10 cigarettesnow sells for Rs 150-170 insteadof its regular Rs 100. Brandscosting Rs 150 go for Rs 210-250.“The niche brands are eitherunavailable or selling for theprice of gold,” he grumbled.

Kamal Kumar, a privatefirm employee is happier thatVasundhara Enclave is relati-vely better off. The 40-year-oldsaid, “Though the paan shopsare closed, shop owners nowroam around, looking for smo-kers. Two of them have givenme their visiting cards and as-sured me of cigarettes, albeit

dent Anurag Sharma, 35, thefear of running out of cigaret-tes forced him to reduce hisdaily intake. “Cigarette pri-ces are on fire and shop ow-ners are claiming there is no

But with many now trying toquit, like Kochar, it has trans-formed into a support groupwith the friends egging eachother on to cut smoking further.

For Malviya Nagar resi-

Lockdown helping many who’re trying to kick the [email protected]

COSTLY AFFAIR: A packet of 10 cigarettes is now selling for `̀150-170

New Delhi: In Nabi Karimand Chandni Mahal areas innorth Delhi, selected lanes we-re barricaded with tin sheets,shops closed and policemenput on duty. Friday’s decisionof Delhi government to add se-ven more localities to the listof containment zones took theresidents of these areas bysurprise, leaving them fu-ming about the lack of notice.

“We understand the rele-vance of the idiom jaan hai tojahan hai (If there is life, thenthere is the world). But the sud-den decision to seal half our ne-ighbourhood, which has only afew Covid-19 cases, is difficult tounderstand,” said Farukh Ali,secretary of Qila Qadam Sha-rid residents’ welfare associa-tion. He pointed out that hund-reds of labourers lived on rentin Nabi Karim and they had nowork, money or food stock. “Un-less adequate arrangementsare made for people living injhuggis and rented accommo-dation, it’s unfair to expect100% cooperation,” Ali said.

North Delhi MunicipalCorporation standing commit-tee chairman Jai Prakash refu-ted the contention to say thatNabi Karim, Chandni Mahaland neighbouring areas had112 suspected cases, of which 60were confirmed as positive this

week. “We want people to be sa-fe, and that is why we need to bestrict. The residents should co-operate with us,” Prakash said.ADelhi government source ad-ded that the containment zo-nes are identified for their vul-nerability after a thorough re-view and had nothing to dowith the number of suspects orpositive cases at a given time.

In Chandni Mahal, the in-ternal roads connecting Turk-man Gate, Matia Mahal and the

shut down and residents havenot been provided any contactnumber for essential items.”

Also sealed was Pocket E ofGTB Enclave, where 150 or sostaff of GTB Hospital and Del-hi State Cancer Institute live.“The entry gates are closed, po-sing problems for nurses wor-king the night shift,” said localMaheswar Dutt. “The RWA hasmade arrangements for fruitand vegetables vendors to cometo the rear gate at fixed hours.”

old police chowki were sealedby police on Friday night. Butlocal resident Vijay Sharma sa-id, “Despite all efforts, peopleare going out to buy essentialgoods. Police have informed re-sidents that a few shops sellingessential items will be openbetween 8 and 11 in the mor-ning, but people are restless.”In Zakhir Nagar, Naseem Ah-med, president, RWA, LanesNo 22-45, added, “The only biggrocery store in Gali 22A was

Sealed for safety, but residents ofOld Delhi fume over lack of [email protected]

The government’s decision to add seven more localities to the list of containment zones took the residents by surprise

Anindya Chattopadhyay

Gurgaon: Outlining a way outof the lockdown in a phasedmanner, Haryana CM Mano-har Lal Khattar on Saturdayevening said the state’s 22 dis-tricts would be divided intothree zones — red, orange andgreen — based on the spread ofthe novel coronavirus.

And just as traffic lights be-have, the ones in red will have towait longest. The four infectionhotspots in the state, all in NCR— Gurgaon, Faridabad, Nuh(Mewat) and Palwal — whichhave a significant number ofcases and have already announ-ced containment zones were alldeclared ‘red zones’ by the CM.What this means is that no eco-nomic activity will be immedia-tely allowed and business es-tablishments will not open. Thedistricts together account for132 out of Haryana’s 165 cases —44 in Nuh (also the state’s hig-hest), 30 in Gurgaon, and 29each in Palwal and Faridabad.

Gurgaon, along with Mum-bai and Bengaluru, is conside-red the heart of India’s corpo-rate economy. Reopening thecity, base for hundreds of Indi-an and multinational compa-nies and an ecosystem of star-tups, is crucial for the economyand focus will remain aroundexploring a staggered resump-tion of economic activity here.

During the past week, Gur-

gaon has stepped up its contain-ment and surveillance efforts,starting a door-to-door survey tocheck residents for symptomsof Covid-19 and record their tra-vel history. It also sealed nineareas — Raipur village in Soh-na, Sector 9, Nirvana Countryin Sector 54, Palam Vihar, Ema-ar Palm Gardens in Sector 83,Laburnum society in SushantLok 1, Sector 39, Fazilpur-Jhar-sa and ward no 11in Pataudi.

“Districts in the red zoneare where people are most af-fected by coronavirus. All thehotspots in this zone have alre-ady been identified. Economicactivities in these districtswill not be started anytime so-on,” Khattar said. Urging peo-ple to wear a mask wheneverthey step out of their house, hesaid they should make it a ha-bit “just like wearing clothes”.

Joel.Joseph @timesgroup.com

New Delhi:South Delhi Muni-cipal Corporation initiated amassive drive to curb the spre-ad of novel coronavirus in con-tainment zones on Saturday. Itdeployed over 200 sanitationworkers, 20 sprinkling tankers,eight fire tenders and 16 jettingmachines to spray disinfec-tants and keep the areas clean.

Door-to-door sweeping andgarbage collection was carriedat sealed locations with the exer-cise expected to continue for thenext one week. Dedicated surve-illance teams would be formed

by the health department for do-or-to-door survey and screeningof houses in the containmentzones, a SDMC official said.

“In Ashok Nagar, whichwas the only containment areain west zone, around 400 hou-ses were sanitised by usingmotorised pump, after threepositive cases were detected.In Zakir Nagar, 35 sanitationworkers were deployed for pro-per cleaning of the area. Disin-fectants were sprayed throughknapsack pump and powerspray,” the official added. TNN

SDMC deploys 200 safaistaff in isolated zones

Adoctor in charge of acommunity health centre

in Dasna is the latest amonghealthcare professionals to beinfected by the coronavirus. He was among two persons totest positive in Ghaziabad onSaturday, raising concernsabout a fresh cluster emergingin the city because he had notonly treated patients, but alsogone on calls to some areas. TNN

Gzb doc tests +ve,triggers fresh worry

Haryana’s 4 NCRareas in red zone

CCI NG 3.7 Product: TOIDelhiBS PubDate: 12-04-2020 Zone: Delhi Edition: 1 Page: TOIDDITA User: affanul.haque Time: 04-12-2020 00:07 Color: CMYK

Umasankar

Page 3: Lockdown set to be extended with some measures to restart ...

SUNDAY TIMES OF INDIA, NEW DELHI APRIL 12, 2020 3TIMES CITY | LOCKDOWN-DAY 18

[email protected]

New Delhi: Mantosh Kumar isn’t al-lowed to go home, contacts his family only over the phone and gets his tem-perature checked numerous times a day. The hazmat suit he wears while at work every day for over six hours hints at a responsibility much bigger than his education up to the matricu-late level warrants. The 30-year-old is indeed engaged in a critical task: removing garbage from houses under Covid-19 quarantine in south Delhi.

A native of Baliya district in Ut-tar Pradesh, Kumar has been work-ing as a garbage collector in South Delhi Municipal Corporation for three years now. He never ever im-agined that he would one day go to work wearing something that he describes as “worn by people who go to moon”. The young man con-fi des, “My family asks me not to do this dangerous work. Sometimes I do get scared and anxious, as if I can’t breathe inside the suit. Then I ask myself, ‘Who else will do this important work for society?’”

Vigorously rubbing sanitiser into his hands, Kumar continues, “There are eight of us given this special task of getting rid of poten-tially infectious material. We are staying in rooms provided by the

corporation near New Friends Colony. Not meeting the fam-ily is the hardest part of my current state.” The last time he went home to parents, wife Antima Kumari and 18-month-old son Rudra was March 21.

At 7am every day, he reach-es the area he has been deput-ed to, houses that are under quarantine, including of for-

eign returnees in isolation. For a few days he was on duty in Nizamuddin

too. “It takes around 20 minutes to get ready. We have to wear a full-body suit, heavy gumboots, gloves and masks,” Kumar informs. “We carry disinfectant and sanitising material and use it as much as pos-sible. Ghabrahat to hoti hai, upper garmi ka din bhi hai, lekin… (We do feel scared and on top of it, it is getting hotter, but the protective

gear is what will save our lives).”Moving from house to house

marked with special stickers by the district administration, Kumar col-lects waste —now classifi ed as bio-medical waste by Central Pollution Control Board — from houses un-der quarantine. “We ask the house-holds to place the garbage bag at a corner and spray it with sodium hy-

pochlorite. We disinfect the bag and surrounding areas of the house us-ing our knapsack pumps and place the garbage in specially designated auto-tippers,” he explains. The gar-bage is incinerated at the Okhla waste-to-energy plant, according to Pradeep Verma of Dakshin Dilli Swachh Initiatives Limited.

His wife constantly keeps on asking him to quit the dangerous job, and he has a hard time explain-ing to Antima that he is adequately protected. The garbage collectors have also been trained by doctors on bio-waste handling. “At 2-3pm, we remove the safety gear, taking care not to touch it with bare hands. When the doctor points a tempera-ture gun at my head and says it’s normal, it’s then that I can breathe a sigh of relief,” smiles Kumar.

If you know of #LockdownHeroes whose stories you would like to share please log on to www.toilockdownheroes.com. We will seek to get in touch and feature select stories in The Times of India newspaper

From doctors, nurses, bankers to milkmen and security guards , there are many frontline warriorswho are battling it out daily to ensure we are safe and taken care of during the lockdown. We salute all these real, unsung heroes

Family Tells Kumar To Quit ‘Dangerous’ Job, But Waste Picker Says He Is Doing Important Work For SocietyIN ‘MOON SUIT’, HE GOES TO ISOLATION HOMES

Chief minister Arvind Ke-jriwal said, “The PM hastaken correct decision to

extend lockdown. Today, Ind-ia’s position is better than ma-ny developed countries becau-se we started the lockdown ear-ly. If it is stopped now, all gainswould be lost. To consolidate, itis important to extend it.”

Kejriwal had earlier calledfor extending the lockdownacross the country and notjust in a few states. Sources inthe CM’s office said that most of the chief ministershad suggested extension ofthe lockdown.

The CM’s demands for cen-tral funds come in the wake ofthe Covid-19 outbreak, whichhas taken a heavy toll on taxcollection in Delhi amid theneed for greater expenditureby the government for distribution of food and ensur-ing social security. Delhi hasbeen one of the very badly affected regions in the country.Recently, deputy CM Manish

Sisodia wrote to Union finance minister NirmalaSitharaman, pointing out that“the central government provided an emergency disas-ter management relief assist-ance worth Rs 17,000 crore to all states but Delhi was not giv-en a single rupee.”

Asked whether the Delhigovernment will extend thelockdown by two weeks even ifthe central government did notdo so, sources in the Delhi gov-ernment said that decisionwill be taken by the govern-ment at an appropriate timebut the discussions at the PM’svideo conference have suggest-ed that the lockdown will be ex-

tended across the country.Since the lockdown has af-

fected the livelihood of thou-sands of people, the Delhi government has arranged dis-tribution of food for over 8 lakhand is providing free ration to71 lakh people whose familyhave ration cards. Those who don’t have one are also being given ration.

Electronic passes are beingprovided to people in Delhi toensure that the lockdown doesnot affect the supply of essen-tial items like vegetables, gro-cery, medicines and milkamong other items. Over 12,000people are staying in shelterhomes and schools which arebeing used to house migrantworkers and homeless.

‘India in better position thanmany developed countries’

Total cases 1069Active 1023Discharged 26Dead 19Migrated 1

DELHIWATCH

New Delhi: The two workers, among the 35, whowere found in febrile state at a pastry shop in Beng-ali Market three days ago, tested negative for novelcoronavirus on Saturday.

On Wednesday, a surveillance team with officialsfrom district administration, New Delhi Municipal Co-uncil, Delhi Police and health department visited theBengali Market area and found 35 workers living in anunhygienic condition in a small space above the pastryshop. Of them, two were suspected for infection and im-mediately sent to the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital fortest. After that these workers were sent to a quarantinecentre. “But these two are likely to stay at the quaran-tine facility as they won’t be allowed to go back to the-ir previous shelter,” said an NDMC official. TNN

Workers evacuated fromBengali Market test negative

New Delhi: The number of Co-vid-19 containment zones in Delhirose to 33 on Saturday with the go-vernment sealing three more are-as. A-30 in Mansarovar Garden,Gali No.1to 10 under C-Block of Ja-hangipuri, and areas near H.No.176 in Deoli Extension were decla-red as containment zones after no-vel coronavirus cases were foundin these localities.

According to unconfirmedreports, some areas under Sha-

heen Bagh have also been sealed. Meanwhile, on Saturday, Del-

hi’s Covid-19 count crossed 1,000mark. It has the maximum num-ber of cases (1,069) in the countrynow, followed by Maharashtra.The containment areas have be-en sealed to ensure that those sta-ying inside do not move out andoutsiders are not allowed insidethe localities. The screening andtesting of persons living withinthese zones are going on. TNN

Delhi count crosses 1,000,3 new containment zonesNew Delhi: Delhi government has

shifted the Najafgarh wholesale ve-getable market to Haibatpura villa-ge. The move is aimed at ensuringappropriate social distancing at themarket in the wake of the novel co-ronavirus outbreak. An official saidthe Najafgarh mandi used to drawhuge crowd due to its location on themain road, which posed a risk topublic health. In her order, Najaf-garh SDM Saumya Sharma direc-ted the SHO to ensure adequate poli-ce deployment at the new site for ef-fective crowd management. PTI

Najafgarh mandishifted to new site

�Continued from P1

CCI NG 3.7 Product: TOIDelhiBS PubDate: 12-04-2020 Zone: Delhi Edition: 1 Page: TOIDDLS User: mukesh.kumar2 Time: 04-12-2020 00:11 Color: CMYK

NET 0 K .Now on M WING

-IT

9 .6 e 0 0 0 0 .o o * 0 0

0 0 s o lo . . 0e ll

Qur Nelms buperhdrdeg work 2427 . -to giseyouth f% 4s tkat geep you

your f a tfej bring ;It stra t tQ tltaf _ ¢. you can stag i kr

IAdia stay stroQg: ' . , ' '

; it

; ypu knMO ark,such -hjrgps . t W Bet r o U; oviesflo vtW

; using ffit ps@

ealgub themes' ' ' ' ' " 'andvAeyviUI cherQ fh@irstiory ' , .

41

#, MFeft rVU H' ; o©oM0 wtv ' ' ER}Il:ROE

Ote"

5 g uava ® HealthifyMe 'V'F I T PASS6 months I worth 4599 12 months I worth ?999 2 months I worth ?1,598 3 months I worth T1,279

plus exclusive offers to let you save up to 760,000 in a year

Aarogya Setu AppI'm safe I We re safe I India is safe nTV

Government of India

Don't be afraid of Corona!Download Aarogya Setu App

I

0 All

1001-

information rega rding1 available

Proper evaluation of threat andwe ae<ommend:

risks t Corona Virus infectionMNNSF Seeialoefanee e Facility for self-evaluation on

the basis I Corona infectionsymptoms

Tam SN/ MsesmeN

desk numbers of all stategovernments available

CMdt app rey iYlyfa updHes

T-11 U 1 1 I i l I :} l t l l [ i i t } l i l l l [ >

Scan QR Codeand Download

In CD016 ?. -r

N

Download Aarogya Setu App

$ 4 N

d GLA ?it

3TPT W* ?,IcnRldf -4

ff vu W&

*ft

f ar& fair-i rT a+r urci

nor 3T4FCT Wate AYar.¢ f raa WSW

f Wcft UZ 31W UMFF tav uz lawn? aiff-A- rtu w fft

ar&a fp s I arnzr z& I. mft #I& . xu t R w aT* go

ivw * c@m arri v i I ,- a5r earre) wk IraF aTa7iaw *atoI mr f 8T*wa #i3rfi I

HAPPYINES

o t

Knowledge is Safety!Read the paper to enhanceyour awareness and safety

during these times.Healthcare vouchers

to be won daily.Convert points to5X TIMESPOINTS

for assured rewards.Weekly Points Bonanza!Weekly draws for 12000

TIMESPOINTS, every Sunday.T&Cs apaly Pa t6jMtion window: 7l011AM

1 1

home ministry written tofor alleged lockdownviolation?

wQ2. Who Is the Bengal?

To puddoet%M w M7

w s

Stay Safe Tip!

Page 4: Lockdown set to be extended with some measures to restart ...

* SUNDAY TIMES OF INDIA, NEW DELHIAPRIL 12, 20204 TIMES CITY | LOCKDOWN-DAY 18

@Radhika Agrawal @Amar_Singh123 @funky.fusion

@sunitavc@apurbapencilartist

New Delhi: Parents of abouteight lakh students of Delhigovernment schools study-ing between nursery andClass VIII will now become“teachers.” Implementing“Mission Buniyaad” and“Happiness Curriculum” intheir homes during the lock-down will be their major re-sponsibility.

Deputy chief ministerand education minister Ma-nish Sisodia announced thison Saturday during a video-conference with the teachersand parents. The activitiesare designed to strengthenthe kids’ foundation in lear-ning, Sisodia added.

To help the parents successfully implement thetwo flagship programmes ofthe government, from Mon-day onwards, they will be as-signed one activity dailywith detailed guidelines.Sin-ce April 1, the students of ju-nior classes have been recei-ving their activities throughmessages.

“Due to the lockdown, pa-rents and children have a lotof time together. We now ne-ed to think of turning this in-to a quality time so that stu-dents do not get stressed. We

need to understand that co-rona is a reality and so is thelockdown. In it, the role ofparents is changing. We willnow have to transform homeinto schools. Parents have toact as teachers and our tea-chers will guide you all,” sa-id Sisodia while addressingan hourlong“Parenting inthe lockdown” session.

which can be done at home,”said Bhavna Sawnani, amentor teacher.

Neeru Puri, also a mentorteacher,” advised the parentsthat everyone in the familyshould sit together and prac-tise mindfulness.

Bhushan announced thatremedial classes will be heldafter the schools open.

Sisodia said that the go-vernment was working onstarting the entrepreneurshipcurriculum online as well.

Director education, Bi-nay Bhushan, and two expertteachers also took part in thesession.

“To help children learn,books are not required. The-re are simple activities,

Parents to teach happiness to kids Shradha.Chettri

@timesgroup.com

What strategies should we adopt to keep children calm?

Mindfulness is certainly an exercise, which can help the children focus and concentrate What changes can be seen in students due to mindfulness?

Their performance and focus have improved, and they have become sensitive. There has also been an improvement in the way they deal with relationshipsHow to manage to teach children while also working

from home? When you are at work, you

can ask the child to read a story, understand it and ask them to write. Once you are done with work, they can read it out to you

How to help in learning English? Firstly, work on removing the

fear created around English. Children should be given videos to see and hear. Let them listen and allow them to speak even if they are making mistakes

QUESTIONS FROM PARENTS

TIPS FOR PARENTSTO TEACH MATHS➤ Help children identify the different shapes in the house➤ Use clock to learn about cones➤ Use calendar to teach them division➤ Utilising straws and other objects to learn addition, subtraction

TO TEACH HINDI➤ Make small cards with words and let children learn

➤ Family members play word antakshari

➤ Mind mapping where you choose a subject and build a story around it. The children can be asked to write

Photo for representation

Published for the Proprietors, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd., by Rajeev Yadav at Times House, 7,Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, New Delhi -110002 and printed by him at Times Of India Press, 13, Site IV, Industrial Area, Sahibabad (UP) Dainik Jagran Press, Plot NO. C2/2-1, SelaquiIndustrial Area, Dehradun(UTTARAKHAND) and Dainik Jagran Press , Biharman Nagla, Pilibhit Bypass Road, Bareilly (UP) and Bennett Coleman & Co. Ltd. Plot No. 7-8, Sector M-11, Transport Hub, Industrial Model Township, Manesar, Haryana-122051. Regd . Office,: Dr.

Dadabhai Naoroji Road, Mumbai-400001. Editor (Delhi Market) : Neelam Raaj – responsible for selection of news under PRB Act, @ All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission of Publisher is prohibitedRNI NO : 50787/90

Air Charge : Ahemdabad, Hyderabad, Chennai, Nagpur & via Rs.5.00, Leh Rs.2.00, Price in Nepal : NEP Rs.15.00.MADE IN NEW DELHI

Vol. 31 No. 15.

New Delhi: Delhi Police has initiated an inqui-ry against a head constable posted with thecommunication unit for helping a group ofmen cross the border to reach Mewat in Harya-na. Police received the information from anemail sent to the police commissioner.

The cop had allegedly offered to help people“stuck” in Delhi during the lockdown cross theborder in a post on a social media site. The enqui-ry is being conducted by the DCP concerned andthe cop has been sent to the police lines.

During the enquiry, it was found that thecop, Pankaj Khan, had helped some men from amadrasa in southwest Delhi to cross the border.He had allegedly used his own vehicle for the jo-urney and had shown his identity card at theborder post to gain access.

Khan was medically examined and sent toquarantine. He would also be issued a show-cause notice regarding his post.

Police sources say that an FIR would be re-gistered against him if the allegations are fo-und to be true. Khan has, however, denied thecharges. TNN

Cop faces inquiry afterhelping men cross border

New Delhi: Three night sheltersat Yamuna Pushta occupied byaround 150 people went up in fla-mes on Saturday evening, stun-ning Delhi government and poli-ce already grappling with the Co-vid-19 outbreak. While police areinvestigating the fire and somearrests have been made, the inci-dent seems a fallout of simme-ring anxieties and a fight for sur-vival among the homeless, peoplehaving free meals there and mig-rant labourers housed there fol-lowing the national lockdown.

Police said on Saturday thatthe fire resulted from a more se-rious of the many intermittentquarrels between the inmatesover distribution of food. It is alsolearnt that on Friday, when fruitgiven by a donor was being givenout, one of those who had comewith the distribution group wasattacked with a knife. The ugly si-tuation was controlled by staffand civil defence volunteers.

Delhi Urban Shelter Improve-ment Board member Bipin Rai,who reached the site soon after re-ceiving news of the fire, said pri-ma facie, the unrest began with therumour that a body discovered inthe Yamuna on Saturday around3pm was of a homeless inmate ofthe shelter, which then lead to analtercation and eventually to theshelter being put on fire.

According to police, the origi-nal inmates had been alleging thatever since the workless labourerswere given shelter there, the quali-ty of food had deteriorated. AnilMittal, additional PRO, Delhi Poli-ce, claimed that these disgruntledinmates also clashed with civil de-fence volunteers deployed to ensu-

re social distancing. “On Friday,when the civil defence volunteerschased the inmates, some of themjumped into the Yamuna. Four pe-ople were pulled out safely, but onewas claimed to be missing. On Sa-

turday, a body was recovered nearCivil Lines and the inmates clai-med he was the missing man andcreated a ruckus.”

As rumours of an inmate’sdrowned body being discovered

spread rapidly, tension escalated.Some unidentified people peltedstones at the night shelter for rea-sons as yet undetermined. Whenthe caretakers of the night shel-ters fled to save themselves, somepeople barged into the sheltersand torched them, according topolice sources.

Police have arrested six peopleand registered cases of riotingagainst them. The body found inthe river remains unidentified.

However, there are other sto-ries about the circumstances lea-ding up to the fire. One version isthat the unrest began on April 5when DUSIB directed the mana-gement agencies to ensure inma-tes were locked in to ensure socialdistancing and meals were ser-ved only to those are staying atthe shelter. The order, of whichTOI has a copy, also stated thatDUSIB would make paymentsper meal to the agencies based onthe daily occupancy reports. Onthe face of it, the order could beseen as promoting the lockdownnorms, but created anxiety andambiguity over the status of tho-se who are not homeless but que-ue up for food at the shelters.

Rai, however, claimed that theorder was recalled when it becameclear that it was not possible to dis-tinguish those not staying, only ea-ting at the shelter. “We are servingfood to everyone,” Rai insisted.

Giving details of the fire at theshelters near ISBT, Atul Garg, di-rector, Delhi Fire Services, said,“We received a call about the firearound 6pm. Three night shelterslocated at a distance of 50 metreswere aflame. The blaze was exting-uished in an hour and no causalitywas reported. Six fire tenders wereused to douse the flame.”

Anxieties, Simmering Tensions Were Causing Frequent Altercations

3 shelters housing 150 peoplegutted, cops point at food row

A DUSIB member said the immediate trigger was a rumour that a body found inthe Yamuna on Saturday around 3pm was of a homeless inmate of a shelter

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Noida: Groceries and essential itemswill be delivered at the doorstep insealed Covid-19 containment zones inNoida. The district magistrate consult-ed RWAs and apartment owners’ asso-ciations and revised the rules on Satur-day after a TOI report pointed out thatsingle-point delivery of essentials wasundoing what the sealing exercisemeant to enforce — social distancing.

For the first two days of the sealingof Covid-19 hotspots, delivery vanswould stop outside the society gatesand people would line up to buy things— waiting for a long time, surroundedby people with no social distancing pos-sible. Now, mobile vans will be allowedup to houses in gated sectors.

In condominiums, where RWAshave banned the entry of deliveryagents and made collection at thegates mandatory since the beginningof the lockdown, they will not enterthe premises but willmake the rounds ofseveral gates instead ofjust one so people don’t have to gatherat one point of delivery.

“We have allowed home deliverypersonnel to enter the premises of so-cieties in containment zones for door-step deliveries. RWAs have decided toeither collect supplies from the gate,multiple points or towers. We expecteveryone to maintain social distanc-ing at all times,” said district magist-rate Suhas LY. The trucks will also re-main parked for longer, so peopledon’t need to hurry. The TOI reporthad pointed out that longer wait timeswere also putting people at risk.

The Noida Authority said deliver-

ies will be scheduled twice a day —from 10am to 1pm, and from 4pm to6pm. With residents complainingabout vendors assigned to their areas sometimes not being accessible,the Authority is also taking deliveryorders on its helpline, 88600-32939,and on NOIDApp. On Friday, the ad-ministration got 720 calls — 252 for

groceries, 233 for veg-etables, 138 for milkand 97 for medicines,

all of which were delivered, a districtofficial said.

Condominium residents, howev-er, were concerned about senior citi-zens who would have to keep going allthe way to the gate to buy supplies.

Officials said that since the deci-sion about delivery point has been leftto the RWA or AOA, it is up to them tofigure out what works best as long associal distancing is maintained. “Insome areas, RWAs have been asked toget volunteers for every tower orblock to help with deliveries for se-nior citizens or other vulnerablegroups,” an official said.

Noida rejigs supply ruleat hotspots for distancing

[email protected]

The Noida Authority said deliveries wouldbe scheduled twice a day — from 10am to1pm, and from 4pm to 6pm

Prem Bisht

TIMES IMPACT

New Delhi: On April 2, Delhi chiefminister Arvind Kejriwal had an-nounced a relief assistance of Rs5,000 to drivers of autorickshaws, e-rickshaws, Gramin Sewa vehiclesetc. to compensate for the loss of in-come in wake of the lockdown. Thegovernment on Saturday announ-ced that the process of direct trans-fer of the one-time financial helpwould start from Monday.

The reason it took 10 days for thegovernment to fix the modalities ofthe direct transfer after the anno-uncement by the CM, sources said,was because the government wan-ted a mechanism that will ensureonly genuine beneficiaries get theamount. That is why, the govern-ment has decided to give the benefitto all Public Service Vehicle (PSV)badge and driving license holdersand not just vehicle owners or thosewho have permits.

“Unions of autorickshaw andtaxi drivers had approached the go-vernment, saying that if only per-mits were made the basis of assi-stance, many needy drivers wo-uldn’t benefit from it,” a Delhi go-vernment official said.”

The one-time financial help willbe given those holding PSV badgesissued till March 23 and valid dri-ving license of para-transit vehi-cles. The amount will be given thro-ugh direct benefit of transfer in theAadhaar linked bank accounts ofthe eligible PSV holders in Delhi.The online applications can be fil-led from 10 am on April 13 at https://transport.delhi.gov.in/.

Auto drivers toget ̀̀ 5,000 relieffrom Monday

[email protected]

New Delhi: As many as 50 ofthe 102 Tablighi Jamaat mem-bers, who were evacuated byDelhi Police from differentmosques in the central Delhiarea on Monday, have testedpositive for the novel corona-virus. Most of them were fore-igners and had come to attendthe event held at Alami Mar-kaz Banglewali Masjid inmid-March.

Many other Jamaat members were staying in lod-ges and guesthouses waitingfor the lockdown to end to re-turn to their countries, saidpolice sources.

A senior police officer sa-id that the cops were trying totrace people who had atten-ded the programme at theAlami Markaz.

“Police inspected about 70mosques in Chandni Mahalarea and 102 people were eva-cuated from 13 mosques. Aro-und 60 of the evacuees were fo-reigners. After we informedthe administration, the su-spected cases were moved to aquarantine centre in GulabiBagh. We were later informedthat 50 of them had tested posi-tive,” the officer added.

“We are now trying to findout who all they had met.”

Special precautions arebeing taken after three peoplefrom the central Delhi areasuspected to have succumbedto the coronavirus. However,the cops were still waiting fora confirmation in this regard.

Several measures have be-en taken to ensure that the peo-ple who had come in contact

with the Jamaat members andthe three deceased remain insi-de their homes. Their mobilephone locations are beingtracked to ensure that they donot move around the locality.

Delhi government has, me-anwhile, declared Chandni Ma-hal a containment zone. “No re-sident of the locality is allowedto go out of his/her home andessential items are being deli-vered at their doorsteps,” saidanother police officer.

“The mosques in whichthe Jamaatis were staying arealso likely to be turned into

no-access zones. Police haverequested the civic bodies toensure that the area is saniti-sed,” the officer added.

Meanwhile, police havesaid that no action will be ta-ken against the local guestho-uses and lodges where the Ja-maatis were staying.

“An enquiry has revealedthat they were not staying to-gether in the guesthouses. Afew guesthouse owners hadeven asked the members ofthe Jamaat to leave. With the-ir help, the area sub-divisio-nal magistrate had shifted so-me of the Jamaat members tothe quarantine centre in Gu-labi Bagh.”

50 more Jamaatmembers test+ve for Covid-19

POLICE SAY

We (police) inspectedabout 70 mosques inChandni Mahal areaand 102 people wereevacuated from 13mosques on Monday

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi:The food, supplies and consumer af-fairs department on Saturday submitted a comp-laint to Delhi Police against a fake website chea-ting people in the name of issuing ration cards.

An official said the fake website was du-ping the vulnerable section affected by thelockdown. Delhi government has been distri-buting ration free of cost to about 71lakh bene-ficiaries besides giving free wheat and rice toeven those not having the ration card by issu-ing e-coupons after registering them on a go-vernment portal.

According to the complaint given by a spe-cial commissioner of the food and supplies de-partment to the special commissioner of poli-ce (Crime Branch), the fake website — ration-card.co.in — claims to help people register fora digital ration card after paying Rs 407

“Only the government is competent to is-sue a ration card and there is no enabling provision under law to authorise any agent to issue ration card,” said the complaint,which had the screenshots of the website atta-ched with it.

According to officials, the complaint againstthe website was received by the office of the mi-nister of food and supplies on Saturday evening.“It is requested that necessary directions be is-sued for immediate registration of FIR and ar-rest the miscreants,” the complaint read.

Govt files complaintagainst fake ration site

[email protected]

Jamia student arrested for Jafrabad riots:Delhi Police has arrested a Jamia Millia Islamiastudent named Safoora Zargar, who is the mediacoordinator of the Jamia CoordinationCommittee, for allegedly inciting the riots innortheast Delhi’s Jafrabad in February. Policeclaimed that Safoora along with Jamia PhDstudent Meeran Haider had allegedly incited amob to lead an attack during the riots and wasseen in a video clip recorded during the attack.Police sources say that Safoora was arrested bythe northeast district police from Jamia based onthe footage and interrogation of Haider, who wasarrested by the Special Cell, earlier last week. TNN

In Loving Memory of

Lt. Shri Ram Chander Gupta

(22.05.1950 - 12.04.2014)

You are remembered inour thoughts, & all celebrations. We feelblessed by Sanskar youleft behind. Missed by Gupta Family.

CCI NG 3.7 Product: TOIDelhiBS PubDate: 12-04-2020 Zone: Delhi Edition: 2 Page: TOIDDLS1 User: mukesh.kumar2 Time: 04-12-2020 01:54 Color: CMYK

TIMES TRIBUTESR A T E C A R D

Publications

TOID Capital + NBT (Delhi+NCR) 1295TOID Full Run ## + NBT (Delhi+NCR) 1360THE TIMES OF INDIA (Delhi+NCR) 780THE TIMES OF INDIA (Delhi) Full Run## 900NAVBHARAT TIMES (Delhi+NCR) 595THE ECONOMIC TIMES (Delhi+NCR) 715SANDHYA TIMES ( Delhi) 100

'Placement on specified obit pages only. This rate benefit is extended up tillthe size o1320 sq. cm only. #t! Full run includes Delhi City + NCR (IncludingGurgaon + Noida) + Chandigarh + Western U.P. + Uttarakhand T01 Capital(Delhi & NCR) Includes T0I Gurgaon & T0I Noida.

1 1 1 1 I 1

q11 I I I I

I I I

1 1 1 1 I

FT F- I I V I I I

Our beloved

7irish Chandra Bhandaripassed away on 28.03.20

to merge with the Divine.\Ue request all relatives and friendsio pray for him at their homes.

In grief:Bhandaris Mahajans

Bhardwajs

Sad Demise

Smt. RajbalaYadav1961 -2020

Departed for heavenly abode on 11th April, 2020You will always remain the profound source of love, affection andguidance for us and an integral part of our life forever. May your

blessed soul rest in peace.In Grief: RS Yadav, Anshul Yadav, Alok Yadav entire Yadav

$Ikl and Vardan Envirolab I Sector 40, Gurugram

Cur father ,Shri V Narayfana Iyer ,

89 years , ex Vo ltas Ltd Delhileft for his heavenl y abodeon March 27, 2020 at 4.40pm in coimbatore . Born in

Tripunithura , Kera a he wasa resident of Karol Baghand Mayur Vihar-1 , Delhi.He moved to Coimbatore

after the death of our mother ,Saraswathy, in 2005. We,

the children and our families ,and our extended fami y w i l

miss him deeply.Sagan (son) .

sagarsi lver49ta gmail. comKala (daughter) :

Perunkolam(r, bellsouth.netDeepa (daug hter)

9811542370

, ARCHNATRIPATHI03.11.1969.12.04.2004

"Sixteen years havepassed since you left us

A

shell shocked andshattered. Not a singleday passes when you are

not remembered and missed. We alwaysfeel your presence around us. "Aftercompleting his B. tech (CSE), Kartikeya hasjoined IBM at Bangalore and Shubhra isappearing for her 12th board" . May yoursoul rest in eternal peace. Deeply rememb-ered by Saras , Kartikeya and Shubhra.

'C

In Lo cimm g Memory OfF--

I

Shr iA .."To live in hearts we leave

behind is not to die".It's been a year today.You are rememberedevery moment and willlive in our hearts forever.You lived an exemplarylife spreading love allaround. You have leftbehind an impeccablelegacy which continuesto inspire us all. You arein a better place andyour light will guide usforever. Bandana (Wife),Kumar & Ri tuparna ,S a m b h a v , Ip s i t a &Debasish , Kabir, Samaira ,Shlok , Nandini , Near& Dear Ones.

JI I. I I I httyl/hibuks.time nQiacam

OBITUARY

DEATHANNIVERSARY

, ,6, G i

SAD DEMISE

To place an Obituary announcementor Remembrance ad please Call -

Vilod : 9958992088

L To pay tributes, log on to http://tributes.timesofmdia.com

Page 5: Lockdown set to be extended with some measures to restart ...

5SUNDAY TIMES OF INDIA, NEW DELHIAPRIL 12, 2020 TIMES NATION | Lockdown-Day 18

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi: Taking seriousnote of alleged dilution oflockdown measures and dis-regard of ‘social distancing’norms in West Bengal, thehome ministry has writtento the state chief secretaryseeking strict action againstthese violations and preven-tion of their recurrence.

This is the second suchmissive to Bengal regardingviolation of lockdown mea-sures, the first having beensent on April 4. The mini-stry, in a letter to the chief se-cretary and the DGP on Fri-day, said it had received furt-her reports from securityagencies indicating a gra-dual dilution of the lock-down in Bengal, with an in-crease in the number of ex-ceptions being provided bythe state government.

“For instance, shops rela-ting to non-essential items

have been allowed to func-tion. There is no regulationin vegetable, fish and muttonmarkets where people havebeen thronging, in completeviolation of social distan-cing norms, in Rajabazaar,Narkel Danga, Topsia, Meti-aburz, Garden Reach, Ikbal-pur and Maniktala in Kolka-ta. Significantly, areas suchas Narkel Danga are repor-tedly witnessing more Co-vid-19-like cases,” a deputysecretary in the home mini-

stry said in the letter.The officer said the state

police had been allowing re-ligious congregations in dis-regard of MHA guidelineson the lockdown that bar allreligious gatherings withoutany exception. The ministryadded that free ration was be-ing distributed in Bengal notthrough the institutional de-livery system but by poli-ticians. “This may have re-sulted in spread of Covid-19,”the MHA officer said.

Stating that the activiti-es were in violation of theministry’s orders issuedfrom time to time under theDisaster Management Act,2005, and liable for penal ac-tion under the Act, the homeministry requested thatstrict action be taken in thematter and a report be fur-nished to it urgently. “It isfurther requested to takemeasures to prevent recur-rence of such violations infuture,” the ministry added.

2nd MissiveTo State

After April 4

Stop flouting of lockdownnorms, MHA tells Bengal

A Gujjar family leads a flock of sheep towards a field on the outskirtsof Srinagar on Saturday. The nomadic Gujjars of J&K have beenadvised by the authorities to suspend the biannual migration withtheir sheep and cattle to higher pastures because of the pandemic

Bilal Bahadur

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi: Prime MinisterNarendra Modi insisted that In-dia help out other countries thatneed hydroxycholoroquine rat-her than opting for a blanket ex-port ban after ensuring that the-re will be no deficiency for de-mand and buffer stock in India.

Sources present in the me-eting where the decision wastaken to ramp up productionof the drug and make it avai-lable for countries which hadrequested its supply saidwhen officials pitched for anexport ban, Modi simply as-ked for statistics on India’s fu-ture projected consumption inthe worst case scenario.

This projection would acco-unt for use by patients, closecontacts and healthcare wor-kers — as currently recommen-ded — in keeping with produc-tion capacity. “The PM said thathe wanted to seize this opportu-nity for India and the world.‘This is an important momentwhere India can save lives andwe cannot let it go,’ the PM sa-id,” according to a source.

The PM is understood tohave keenly tracked emergingresearch on Covid-19 and afterreading about hydroxychloro-quine, he called some heads ofpharma companies to inquireabout India’s production capa-city. Coming from Gujarat, hisunderstanding of the pharma-ceutical industry proved han-

dy and he requested compani-es to ramp up production. Thiswas before President DonaldTrump spoke of the drug to In-dia, said sources.

Minister of state for chemi-cals and fertilisers MansukhMandavia said, “While we wentto brief the PM about India’sproduction capacity, he alreadyknew most of it. He wanted us tomove forward. His directivewas to bring all stakeholders onboard to ensure that we ramp upproduction immediately.”

Cadila Healthcare’s Pan-kaj Patel said, “PM Modi moti-vated the industry by sayingthis is the chance for India tomake a mark globally. He assu-red us help and results are he-re for all to see. This month ourindustry produced 20 croretablets. My company will pro-duce APIs worth 15 crore tab-

lets next month.”Modi asked officials to en-

sure standard bureaucraticprocedures do not come in theway of increasing productionto meet the demands of Indiaand other countries.

India produces 70% of thehydroxychloroquine in theworld. As of now India’s needis 1.5 crore tablets and has 3.28crore tablets which will soonreach 5 crore. State govern-ments have also stocked thesetablets which will reach 2.5crore by end of the week.

The ‘India Model’ of proac-tively helping out with the medicine, said sources, is qui-te different from the ‘ChinaModel’ where assistance is ti-ed up with conditions and qua-lity is poor. Countries from theUS and Brazil to the Maldiveshave thanked India.

‘A moment when India cansave lives, we can’t let it go’How PM Stepped In To Scrap Ban On HCQ Export

The PM is understood tohave keenly tracked emerging research onCovid-19. After readingabout hydroxychloroquine,he asked heads of somepharmaceutical firms to ramp up production.This was even before US President Trump spoke about the drug to India, sources said

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi:Aday after it sa-id that there was no suchICMR study, the health mi-nistry said on Saturday thatthere was a “statistical rateof growth-based analysis”that without a lockdownand containment measures,Covid-19 cases could be pro-jected to spiral to 8.2 lakh byApril 15, registering a 41%cumulative growth rate.

Though the health mini-stry had on Friday denied re-ports about an ICMR studythat the ministry of externalaffairs had referred to in abriefing to foreign media, itclarified that the chart was astatistical analysis. Howe-ver, it maintained that it wasnot a report or a study. Theprojection, explained by LavAgarwal, joint secretary inthe health ministry, takes in-to account containment me-

asures alone, without imple-mentation of the lockdown.

The statistical analysisalso calculated that in a sce-nario without a lockdown, atotal of 1.2 lakh positive ca-ses could have been repor-ted by April 15 if the peakgrowth rate of the disease at28.9%, seen before the lock-

down was initiated, hadsustained. At these rates, asof April 11, the cases couldhave been 2 lakh with just alockdown and around44,000 with only contain-ment measures, in keepingwith the two projections.

Agarwal’s commentswere a partial walkback on

the ministry’s position onFriday. The government sa-id that it was a statistical ex-ercise. The clarification po-inted to the need for closercoordination within the go-vernment as an MEA repre-sentative was in fact presentat Friday’s Covid-19 update.

In the current situation,after the implementation ofthe lockdown as well asstringent containment me-asures, India is witnessinga significantly lower num-ber of positive cases at 7,447as of Saturday, Agarwal sa-id highlighting the impor-tance of the measures andsocial distancing.

“India’s response to thecoronavirus pandemic hasalways been pre-emptiveand proactive to the extentof being overprepared. Wehave taken a graded appro-ach depending on the situa-tion,” Agarwal said.

Without lockdown, virus could haveaffected 8.2 lakh by April 15: Analysis

Medics in protective suits prepare to cremate a Covid-19 victim in Karad

PTI

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi: The home minis-try on Saturday directed allstates and Union Territoriesto provide police protection todoctors and medical staff inhospitals and other placeswhere patients diagnosed asCovid-19 positive are beingtreated as well as where sus-pected cases are quarantined.

The advisory came on a day

PM Modi, while interactingwith CMs via video conference,expressed distress at instancesof attacks against doctors,nurses and paramedics. It hasalso been communicated to pro-vide necessary police securityto doctors and medical staffwho visit places to conductscreening of people to find outsymptoms of the disease, thehome ministry said in a release.

Meanwhile, the NationalSecurity Act was slapped onfour people, including a cler-ic, in Meerut for allegedly at-tacking a magistrate, copsand health officials whowere sealing a lane — a Covidhotspot — adjoining amosque in Jali Kothi area onSaturday.Meerut SSP Ajay Sa-hani said, “After six Jamaatisevacuated from a mosque test-ed positive, city magistrate ac-companied by health officersand police rushed to Jali Kothiarea to seal the lane where themosque is situated. However,locals pelted stones at them.”

Give policeprotection tomedical staff:MHA to states

[email protected]

Mumbai: Veteran ban-ker Deepak Parekh hassuggested that statesshould take steps to lureJapanese companiesthat are being pushed bytheir government with a$2.2billion incentive torelocate from China.The states could offer thecompanies land withpermissions and accessto utilities, he advised.

“We should make iteasy for the Japanese tocome to India ratherthan them going to Mala-ysia, Vietnam or Thai-land. States have to takethe initiative and offerthem 2000-5000 acres insome special zone wherethey do not have to lookfor land or building app-rovals,” said Parekh. Ja-pan’s incentive to com-panies is a part of its sti-mulus package. TheHDFC chairman war-ned that the Covid-19 cri-sis could result in real es-tate prices correcting byas much as 20%.

In a webinar on Fri-

day, Parekh pointed outthat central banks, theworld over, are buyingcommercial paper anddebt issued by privateentities. He said RBI ispushing money intobanks that are reluctantto invest in the debt ofprivate companies andwhen they do it is at veryhigh spreads. Anotheroutcome of the crisis,he said, would be ‘deglo-balisation’. He pointedout that European co-untries have alreadymade it mandatory forgovernment approvalfor all acquisitions.

Full report onwww.toi.in

Tap Japanese cos,Parekh tells states

Umesh K [email protected]

Navi Mumbai: A doctorwent beyond his call of dutyto save a newborn hours afterhis birth. Dr Rajendra Chan-dorkar, who works at a hospi-tal in Alibaug, got onto his bi-ke and rode the baby to the ho-spital which has an intensivecare unit for newborns, about1.5km away from the nursinghome where he was born. Thechild’s aunt rode pillion,cradling him in her arms.The doctor’s alacrity paid offas the baby is now doing welland is set to go home soon.

The boy, weighing 2.9kg,was born at Dr Vaje NursingHome around 7.30am on Tu-esday. Soon after, he had diffi-

culty in breathing, said doc-tors. Also, the child had cya-nosis — a condition in which

the skin turns pale blue andgrey. This spurred the need tokeep him in intensive care fornewborns, also known as NI-CU. The child’s mother wasalso in a critical condition.

Dr Chandrakant Vajefrom the nursing home calledup Dr Rajendra Chandorkarof Anandi Maternity & ChildHospital, located 1.5km away,which has the NICU. Dr Chan-dorkar reached the nursinghome on his bike. But the babycould not be transported tothe hospital’s NICU as therewas no ambulance or other ve-hicle. That’s when the baby’saunt, Supriya Petkar (28), anurse at a public health cent-re, asked the doctor if he wo-uld ride the newborn on hisbike while she rode pillion,

holding the child.In no time, the doctor, the

nurse and the newborn rea-ched the hospital. “The babywas wheeled into the NICUwhere he was given resuscita-tion, fluid, antibiotics andoxygen for 12 hours,” said DrChandorkar. The mother co-uld not be transferred to thehospital due to her condition,said Dr Chandorkar, presi-dent of Indian Medical Asso-ciation’s Alibaug unit. “Hermedical history was initiallyof concern. But later, it was toensure the baby’s survival.”

On Friday, three days la-ter, the newborn was movedback to the nursing homewhere the mother was. Thenewborn’s family is relievedthat all has ended well.

Doc turns ‘ambulance driver’, saves newborn’s life

New Delhi: In the middle ofthe nationwide lockdown,parents of a gallantry award-winning officer completed anover 2,000-km-long journey byroad from Amritsar to attendthe funeral of their son in Ben-galuru, according to a familymember. Col Navjot Singh Bal,who had earned a ShauryaChakra and ran marathonsdespite battling cancer, diedon Thursday at a hospital inBengaluru, officials said.

His brother, Navtez SinghBal, tweeted late on Saturdaynight, “Reached safely. Re-lief ! Parents holding up fine.Respect! This drive would not have been possible with-out the help of all men andwomen in uniform — green,maroon and khakhi. Thankyou and thank you again..” PTI

Parents of Coldrive 2,000kmfor his funeral

[email protected]

Nagapattinam: Ten foreignTablighi Jamaat missionar-ies and their two guides werearrested on April 9 from a ma-drassa in Needur village inTamil Nadu’s Nagapattinamdistrict on charges of violat-ing the Covid-19 lockdownnorms and the ForeignersAct. The police, after conduct-ing an initial investigation,told reporters, “They did notattend the TJ conference inDelhi’s Nizamuddin. We arenow waiting for their swabsample test results.”

They were produced beforethe Mayiladuthurai judicialmagistrate at his house on thesame day, who remanded themin 15 days of judicial custody.

10 Tablighisfrom abroad

arrested in TN

New Delhi: The Supreme Co-urt Bar Association has deci-ded that its lawyers will be av-ailable for work during sum-mer vacations and appealed tothe Supreme Court judges tocancel vacations to hear casesduring that one-and-halfmonth period in order to makeup the loss of working daysdue to lockdown.

“SCBA resolves that all la-wyers practicing in the SC willgive up the summer vacationwhich is scheduled from May16 till July 5, and make themsel-ves available for work duringthat period. Accordingly, theEC resolves to appeal to the CJIand his companion Judges todeclare cancellation of Sum-mer Vacation,” the resolution,passed unanimously by its ex-ecutive council, said. TNN

Lawyers in SCwant vacation

cancelled

Bengaluru: One small act ofappreciation has ended upmaking a Karnataka-cadreIPS officer a one-man helplinefor migrant labourers from Bi-har stranded anywhere in thecountry, reports Kiran Pa-rashar. Inspector general ofpolice (administration) See-manth Kumar Singh has so farhelped hundreds of workers,coordinating with his coun-terparts in other states to en-sure the migrants get rationsand medical help on time.

An acquaintance of See-manth had called him up afterthe lockdown announcement,

seeking food for 400 Bihari la-bourers stuck in Bengaluru.With the help of ADGP Daya-nand B, a team delivered foodpackets through police and anNGO. Thankful for See-manth’s prompt help, his ac-quaintance narrated the inci-dent to a local newspaperwhich went on to publish anarticle about it and alsoshared his mobile number.

His number was sharedacross WhatsApp groupsand soon transformed into a“helpline number” for mi-grant Bihari labourers.

Full report on www.toi.in

How a K’taka IGP’s numberbecame a migrant helpline

The doctor and the baby’s auntshuttling between hospitals withthe newborn on a bike in Alibaug

One of the Indoreans bookedunder NSA for attacking a

policeman in a containmentzone four days ago testedpositive for Covid-19 in Jabalpuron Saturday, where he wastaken after arrest, triggeringalarm bells in the administrationof all the districts he passedthrough. Twenty-six cops wereimmediately quarantined in thetwo cities. The policeman hehad beaten and those whoescorted him have beenquarantined. TNN

Cop’s attacker tests+ve for Covid in MP

Hyderabad: Playing the GoodSamaritan, a house owner inHyderabad has waived offrents of his 75 tenants duringthe lockdown. The 41-year-oldman, who owns three buildingsin the city, has told his tenantsthat they need not pay him rentfor April, reports Sushil Rao.

“I know what it is to gohungry. I do not want any of the-se families to suffer during thiscrunch time,” says Koduri Ba-lalingam. His buildings haveone-bedroom houses which arerented to industrial workers.The total rent he has waived offcame to Rs 3.4 lakh. “If the lock-down continues and they haveno means of earning, I willthink of waiving rent for thenext month too,” he told STOI.

In addition to waiving offthe rents, he has also distribu-ted Rs 2.5 lakh among 250 poorfamilies in Telangana andAndhra Pradesh. From the ti-me he set up his own mechani-cal workshop in 2005, Balaling-am has contributed a total ofRs 1.20 crore to people in need,including granting scholars-hips to meritorious students.

Full report on www.toi.in

Hyd landlordwaives rent of75 tenants hitby lockdown

New Delhi: India is looking tostep up engagement with WestAsia on Covid-19, with the go-vernment on Saturday sen-ding a rapid response teamcomprising doctors to Kuwaitto help the local governmentin testing and treatment of co-ronavirus patients. The me-dical team was sent at the request of the Kuwaiti go-vernment and will remainthere for two weeks.

“The deputation of Indianmedical experts follows therecent phone call between PMModi and PM of Kuwait She-ikh Sabah Al Khaled Al Ha-mad Al Sabah, in which bothleaders agreed for a concertedand coordinated effort aga-inst the global pandemic,” thegovernment said. Subsequ-ently, foreign minister S Jais-hankar and his Kuwaiti coun-terpart held a telephone con-versation to discuss the preva-iling situation in Kuwait.

“India and Kuwait share astrong partnership. India isreaching out to Kuwait to furt-her complement its efforts tofight the menace effectively,”the government said. TNN

India sendsrapid responsemedical team

to Kuwait

HDFC’s Deepak Parekhwarned that the Covid-19crisis could result in realestate prices correcting byas much as 20%

Bengal CM Mamata Baner-jee said on Saturday that

she will go along with PMNarendra Modi over his pro-posal to extend the lockdownfor another two weeks tillApril 30, but emphasised thatshe would enforce the shut-down in Bengal with a humanface to balance life andlivelihood. “I told the PM thatthere should be strict enforce-ment, but no overzealous-ness,” the CM said at the statesecretariat Nabanna. TNN

Full report on www.toi.in

Didi for shutdown‘with human face’

Nagpur: A 30-year-old manfrom Assam who had testedpositive for Covid-19 two daysago committed suicide earlyon Saturday by slitting histhroat in the isolation ward ofa state-run medical college atAkola in Maharashtra.

The deceased, a migrantworker who had come to a villa-ge near Akola from Salpara incentral Assam’s Nagaon distr-ict, was in a group of seven putin quarantine after it was re-ported that they had spent eightdays together in a mosque atBadnera in Amravati. He testedpositive on Thursday, althoughhe showed no symptom. Offici-als said he had come to Akolavia Tablighi Jamaat contacts. Ithasn’t been ascertained yet ifhe attended the Tablighi mar-kaz at Delhi’s Nizamuddin. TNN

Assam migranttests +ve, slitsthroat in Maha

CCI NG 3.7 Product: TOIDelhiBS PubDate: 12-04-2020 Zone: Delhi Edition: 2 Page: TOIDINS1 User: yudhajitshankar.das Time: 04-12-2020 01:39 Color: CMYK

Phone : 080.26995199 1 26995773 Fax:0091.080.26571563126564830126562121126566811

IMU131111 I'll " 'S.

No. NIMHIPER (6)IRECTIDIR/ADDENDUM I2020 .21 Date : 09.04.2020

Extension of last date for submission of Applicationfor the Post of Director, NIMHANS

With reference to the Advertisement No. NIMHIPER(6)/RECT/DIR12019.20dated 07.03.2020, pertaining to Recruitment to the Post of Director, NIMHANS,the last date for submission of Application for the above post is extended to30.04.2020.In view of the nationwide lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic , theapplicants are hereby informed to submit soft copy of the duly filled-inapplication alongwith relevant enclosures as notified.The completed application maybe sent via e-mail to the following IDs:

To: [email protected]: [email protected]

As and when the postal services resume , hard copy of the app lication may be sent(by post) to: The Director, NIMHANS, Hosur Road, Bengaluru .560 029.Otherterms and conditions as per the original notification remain unchanged.NOTE: Any Corrigendum / Addendum / Modification, etc., in the Notificationwill be made available on the Institute 's Website (only). No further pressadvertisement/ notification will be issued or published in this regard. Sd/-

Director

General public is here by informed thatter. an unidentified person (depicted in the

photo) name : Unknown , residence andfamily: Unknown about 35 years of agewas found dead at H.C. Sen Raod,Delhi on 01.04.2020. In this regard aFIR/DD No. 20-A dated 01.04.2020has been registered at Police StationKotwali , Delhi.

His physical description is as under:-Sex: Male , Age: 35 years, Height : 5'8" Face: LongComplexion: Shallow, Buiit: Thin , Wearing : Black andWhite T-shirt and Blue Colour Lower and Black Jacket.Any person having any information or clue about thedeceased may kindly inform to the undersigned on thefollowing address or Telephone Numbers.

SHOP.S. Kotwali , Delhi

Ph. No.: 011-29717100 , 23953442DP/173/ N/2020 Mob. No: 8750870121

INDIAN MUSEUM, KOLKATAMinistry of Culture, Government of India

ADVERTISEMENT FOR THE POST OF DIRECTOR(Advertisement No. 3/2020)

Applications arc invited from Indian citizens for the post ofDirector , Indian Museum, Kolkata in the scale of pay ofRs. 1,44 ,200/- - Rs. 2, 18,200/- plus other allowances as perCentral Government rules and as per the fixation and fitmentin Level 14 of 7th CPC. Period of probation will be two years.The method of recruitment will be by direct recruitmentfailing which by deputation/ absorption.The detailed advertisement and format of application areavailable in the website https :// indianmuseumkolkata.org/.Completed applications in the prescribed format should reachthe Director-in-charge, Indian Museum, 27, JawaharlalNehru Road, Kolkata -700016 on or before 1st June, 2020.

Director-in-chargeIndian Museum, Kolkata

IRCON INTERNATIONAL LIMITED(A Govt. of India Undertaking)

Website:www.ircon .org CIN-L45203DL1976G01008171e-PROCUREMENT NOTICE

s-Tender No.:IRCON12059 /CGRP/119.201KHS-DHARAM/BSP -37 Dated: 11.04.2020e-Tender for and on behalf of Chhattsgarh East Railway Limited is invited from biddersmeeting qualifying requirements for the work of "Construction of Catch water Drains andyard Drain between Korichhapar (Km45 ) to Dharamjaygarh (Km74) in connection withconstruction of East Rail Corridor from Kharsia to Dharamjaigarh with spur fromGharghoda to GarePelma New BG Electrified Double line in the state of Chhattisgarhover South East Central Railwa . .Estimated Cost of the work Rs.25 ,32, 36 ,503.371-LaslDale , 'T ", e of Bid Submission 11.05.2020 up to 15.00 Hrs. (IST)For further details ,visit website https :I/etenders .gov. inteprocure/aop . Corrigerdum , if any,would be hosted only on the website. Chief General Manager/CGRP

l l l l 1 .El l III i ir®=

PhD Admissions - July 2020 Times Ranking: 2nd in IndiaOnl ine applications are invited for the admission to PhD programmes invarious disciplines for the 1st semester of academic year 2020-21. Thedetails of the programmes are available on the institute websitehttp :www. iitrpr . ac.in/admissions .Last date for receiving the online application form is 30.04.2020. Registrar

Page 6: Lockdown set to be extended with some measures to restart ...

SUNDAY TIMES OF INDIA, NEW DELHIAPRIL 12, 20206 TIMES NATION6 SUNDAY TIMES OF INDIA, NEW DELHI

APRIL 12, 2020TIMES NATION | Lockdown-Day 18

The MP youth replies: “Isskapde ke tukde pe kyabharosa karna, karna hai

toh uss upar wale pe karo (whytrust this piece of cloth, trust inthe Almighty).” With this pro-found statement, he walks off,slow motion style. Local sourc-es say he continued to go aroundwithout a mask, distributingvegetables to help the needy.

On Friday, he tested posi-tive and was admitted to a hos-pital in Sagar. From his hospi-tal bed, he posted a new video.Looking pale and soundingfrightened, he asks people topray for him. “Doctors have de-clared me corona-positive.Please continue to support meand pray for me. I will not beable to post TikTok videos fromnow on,” he says in the video.

Officials don’t yet know howhe got infected and the officialsare going to localites he visitedfor contact tracing. The locality,where his five-year-old childand wife live, has been declaredacontainment zone.

Full report on www.toi.in

From hosp bed,youth asks allto pray for him �Continued from P 1

Lucknow/Mumbai: In abid to speed up Covid-19tests in the state, Uttar Pra-desh government has de-cided to adopt group test-ing or pooled sample test-ing, which is being used inGermany and Israel at pre-sent to contain the virusspread. Maharashtra hasalso sought permissionfrom the Centre and the In-dian Council for MedicalResearch (ICMR) to allowpool testing, state healthminister Rajesh Tope saidin Mumbai on Saturday.

The method involvesmixing of several samples tocreate a large or super sam-ple and putting them up fortest in one go instead of test-ing every single sample oneat a time. It's not new and wasused widely by the US to

screen patients of syphilisduring the World War II.

The technique now hasbeen validated for coronavi-

rus testing and is being usedsuccessfully by Israel andGermany. Health officials inUP are in the final stages of

rolling out the method. “We are the first one in

the country to be rolling thisout from next week. While itis in use in Germany and Is-rael, ICMR is working on astandard operating proce-dure (SOP),” confirmed Vi-kasendu Agarwal, state sur-veillance officer, UP. “In allprobability, the super sam-ple size will be made fromthe swab of 10 persons andput to test. Ten samples willbe collected each day in thebeginning and scaled up lat-er. This means that we will beable to test 100 persons from apool of two or three districtsevery day,” he explained.

Epidemiologist and com-munity health specialist,Vishwajeet Kumar said thatadoption of the techniquewas a smart move. “It willspeed up sample process-ing by several folds at much lower cost. Considerthis: If 10 super samples aretested, the outcome for 100can be studied at a cost ofjust 10 diagnostic kits in-stead of 100.”

Full report on www.toi.in

UP, Maha eye pool tests tospeed up Covid screening

Germany AndIsrael UsingThis Method

IPS officer Arun Bothra,originally from Rajas-than, told TOI, “Since I

am an IPS officer, many areof the view that I will beable to help out. I contactedthe lady, who said her fam-ily usually stocks up oncamel milk for two to threemonths. She got emotionalsaying they barely hadenough left for three to fourdays and her child will col-

lapse without the milk.”While Bothra got in

touch with the railways totry and procure it, one per-son messaged him on Twit-ter saying he knows of afirm that supplies camelmilk powder. The officersaid, “The firm owner toldme that a stockist in Andhe-ri had just 400gram of themilk powder. The lady’shusband picked it up fromthe location and said itwould suffice for four days.”

Bothra said he sharedthe woman’s request on var-ious WhatsApp groups inRajasthan.

Following Bothra’s re-quest, Tarun Jain, chiefpassenger traffic managerwith North-Western Rail-way, reportedly asked therailways’ commercial de-partment in Ajmer to get intouch with the vendor tofind out a convenient sta-tion for him to deliver thestock. Falna was found to

be the closest station as Sa-dri is not along the route ofthe train. As the train doesnot have a halt at Falna, therailways agreed for a spe-cial stoppage to load theparcel. The milk supplierloaded 20kg of camel milkpowder along with 20 litresof camel milk.

Bothra said, “The stockarrived in Mumbai on April9 and it was collected by thefamily on April 10 at 5pm.”

Full report on www.toi.in

Train makes spl halt to pick up camel milk

The Telecom Regulatory Author-ity of India recommended on

Saturday that all DTH and cableset-top boxes (STBs) shouldsupport interoperability, andurged the information and broad-casting ministry to make it man-datory by introducing the requisiteprovisions. Interoperable set-topboxes will allow consumers tochange their DTH operator withoutbuying a new set-top box. Atpresent, the STBs deployed bycable TV networks are non-in-teroperable — the same STBcannot be used interchangeablyacross different service providers.Trai also recommended the man-datory provisioning of USB port-based common interface for alldigital television sets in India.

Two dead, 4 missing inMP fly-ash dyke crashTwo bodies have been recovered,including that of an eight-year-oldchild, and four persons are stillmissing after the fly-ash dyke ofSasan Ultra Mega Power Project(UMPP) in MP’s Singrauli col-lapsed on Friday evening. Districtcollector KVS Chowdhary ordereda magisterial probe on Saturday. Apress note issued by the adminis-tration said the power plant waswarned four times betweenOctober and December 2019 aboutthe dyke but in vain.

Pak shells forward postsand villages along LoCPakistani army on Saturdayresorted to intense mortar shell-ing on forward posts and villagesalong the Line of Control (LoC) inPoonch district of J&K, officialssaid. The latest ceasefire violation

by Pakistan in Kirni sector comesbarely 12 hours of intense firingand shelling in nearby Balakoteand Mendhar sectors, that left aresidential house completelydamaged, they said.

Two cars of Wadhawansregistered ‘illegally’Two of the five luxury cars used byscam-tainted DHFL promotersKapil and Dheeraj Wadhawan andtheir families to dodge the ongo-ing lockdown and travel fromMumbai to Mahabaleshwar onMarch 25 were registered inJharkhand in 2016 by furnishing afalse address, transport officialshere found out on Saturday. Theenquiry into the registrationstatus of the two cars was carriedout a day after ED seized all fivevehicles that ferried 23 membersof the Wadhawan clan to Mahaba-leshwar. The other three areregistered in Maharashtra.

OTHER TOP STORIES

Trai recommendsmaking DTH set-topboxes interoperable

SUNNI Muslim H'some Boy28/5'10'' B.Tech PermanentGovt.Job Officer Grade SeeksConvent Edu Qlfd B'ful Girl.WhatsApp: 9565256693

SUNNI Muslim H'some Boy30/5'10''MBA Senior ManagerBank Of Baroda Divorcee,Issueless Seeks B'ful Qlfdgirl. WhatsApp: 9838560558

SPB H'some boy 29/5'11"BTech/MTech/IIT Kgp (CS)After5 years in USA Founder& CEO of a startup In IndiaMob:9131267139/9993873300.

INDUSTRIALIST familyseek suitable alliance fordaughter 37 yrs , MBA, VP topFintech Co at Mumbai, issuel-ess divorcee.Cont: 8263036271

PQM for working AP/MTCM.Tech,PhD,IIT slim w'htishfair 5'3''/1 Nov'85/VNS/20:47ready to move.Send BHP. #9161226022,Upper Cast No bar

US citizen Nationalized GujBoy 36 yrs/5'8"/ Director ofEngg- Mnc bsd in LosAngelesOwn House in USA. Nevermarried. Open to relocate.Pref girl bsd in USA. Email: [email protected]

SM4 NM Saxena Boy 29/5'8"M.Tech in Structure Eng.Own Consultancy in Meerut /Noida/Delhi.E:[email protected], 9837170774

MBA Grahwali Rajput i'lessdivorcee, '83/5'3" b'ful girlwkg MNC Delhi. Seeks w.s'tldi'less div/unmarried boy ofhigher caste. Pref NCR. #8755664305, 8126076556

27/5'1' Fair, MCA, IT, B'fulBaniya girl seeks BaniyaH'some, IT professional boynon maglik, Call - 8279368757/9410011194, 9012073871

AMBASTH, 25/5'6" B.Tech,MNC Bangalore,12L,FatherClass-1 Rly. Officer, MotherArchitect ,Patna base. GroomReq.- Cent. Gov. or PSU Class1/Pvt- IIT/IIM, Born after1990. M-9838425401.

SM4 Basor/ Burud Slim GirlNov'87, 5'4'' NET, Ph.D/ Bio-tech Lab Head (Adhoc). Casteno bar . # 9415715590, Email:[email protected]

SM 25/5'3" vry Pretty Conve-nted Journalism Cardif UKFather vry well rptd B.Manseeks Alliance from high sta-tusB'uss class fmly9999950601

MBA PhD Canadian CitizenBengali Brahmin Girl, 76born, Fair, Good Looking 175,short marriage of 15 months,no children, Parents wellsettled in Mumbai, smallfamily, one younger brother,caste no bar. Mob. 9820902141/[email protected]

SM4 84 born Bengali Brah-min boy, post schooling edu-cation in England till postgraduation followed by twoMBA from USA, 185 tall,handsome, cultured, re-turned in Feb 20 & joinedfamily business in construc-tion. Girls with Engineering/ Finance background desire-able small family, elder sistersettled in Canada, Parentswell settled in Bombay. Casteno Bar. Mob: 9820902141 / [email protected]

KKB girl fair, b'ful, 27/5'7" MURP CEPT Ahmedabad,Asstt Professor inNCR, Father Sr Officer UPGovt WhatsApp [email protected]

B'FUL Issueless, Div. justafter mrrg 1982/5'2", slim,B.Tech, M.Tech, 10 LPA, wkgMNC Bnglr, Arora Girl seeksBachlr/Div., Engg. MBA,i'less, Veg. T.T. #8685912142

LOOKING for Medico & hig-hly Qualified Match fromM.P.for H"sme Boy MS Gener-al Surgery,6'2'',34-Yr,Caste noBar.M-9826500805, 9826614838

QSM4 Kayasth B.Tech Boy29/5'9" wrkg MNC Noida18 LPA. Presently Posted inFrance Now in India April 20.Contact: 9675230949.

SM4 H'some Jadaun RajputBoy 5'9"/30. MBA, Wkg as HRin Finance Co., Jaipur, SeeksFair Beautiful well educatedGirl from Reputed Family #9929095766, 7014636919

BENGALI Brah boy 29/5'8''B.Tech P.G.P.M wrkg in MNC15LPA, Fthr Engr, Mthr prin-cipal seeks b'ful fair slim edugirl # 9425236160,9089890005

AGRAWAL girl B.E IIMDec 91/'5'4'' slim smart Ama-zon Banglore. Decent Jaipurfamily. Upper CNB. #6377428205, 6350638058

SRIV h'some boy 30/5'9" CA/MNC/ Hyderabad/ 15 LPAseeks PQ wkg v.fair/fair b'ful/tall girl from edu fmly. Mob:9919666606/9415156757 Lko.

MBA Khatri B'ful Girl 28/5'4'' Seeks Lucknow SettledSM Preferably affluent Busi-nessman, CA, Doctor. Cont:9415082333, 9236261001

SM4 B'ful V'fair Dec 91/5'2"veg. Brahmin, doing MBAfrom USA, parents Govt. job.India, Abroad Families Cont-9667514555 upper cast no bar.

MBA NIT, wkg top consultngGgn, 25L, 1-2-83, 10:20am, del,mgk, CNB, seek well qlfd boy<38yr, no div., 9899778509 E: [email protected]

PQSM4 NM, B.E./ M.Tech,Work in Deloitte, Gurgoan,Handsome Salary, SindhiSahiti, 12/7/91, 00:05, Ajmer(Raj.) Based. M - 9414707767

SM4, G Br Mglk Adi 36/5'10"B.Tech 8.5 LPA wkg GGN Boy,Urg. seeks B.Tech MCA MBAMSc slim girl in NCR, WUP.#9412073075 (W.Ap), 7906766497

M4 Jaat Boy, 1988 Born, 5'9''having Bachelor's in Comp.Application runs his ownB'ness namely Kango, KiwiAvoid Tomar # 9999915991

V B'ful Fair Slim Rajput Bhopal based UG and PG fromU.K 5'4" 25 year old Girl Look-ing for Business family Groom.Upper caste (Rajput,Brah-min and Vaishya) Email-I'd:[email protected]

B'FUL Khatri Girl, 5"1.04.1993, 8.20 am, noida ed.,wrkg graduate in travel ind.#9958407583/9999801893,[email protected]

NEED simple Edu girl forGaur Brah. 32/5'10" Bsc MBAfrom DU doing Intena.Buiss.earning 40Lpa 9650484517 E:[email protected]

A B'ful Match for H'some Mo-hyal Brahmin Boy,39/6 ft, Lt.Col, Early Marriage. Caste nobar Send Details & Pic of GirlW'app 9780355951,9484292970.

SM4 Punjabi Boy 28/5'10"B.Tech,IIT,MBA,IIM,Sr.Man-ager in MNC 45LPA Father In-dustrialist Caste No Bar, NoDowry 8358052712 ,8889682789

SM4 h'some T.Totaller, slimboy, Del Saxena fmly 38/5'11",B.Tech wkg Ncr S/w 15L wkgmatch Ncr pref #7838306690Email: [email protected]

SM4 Punjabi Divorcee l'essboy 49/5'10" B.Tech IIT, MBAIIM. Sr. Manager in MNC45Lpa. Caste No Bar. Cont:9109104775, 9109104774.

VAISH MS Gynae Govt Col-lege 26/5'3" Doc Fmly reqMCH DM MD MS IAS cast nobar 9837040828 E-ml: [email protected]

SM4 fair Jaat girl 5'7"/Feb'90M.Tech, Ph.D soon, Guest Fa-culty Delhi Govt Univ. AvoidJatrana, Chahal. #7206276797E: [email protected]

UP Based well stld. B'nessClass family fair, slim, b'ful28/5'4" B.Com convent edugirl, seeks alliance from wellsettled, well educated boy.E-mail: [email protected]: 09752859139, 09752747470

B.TECH iit mba iim 28/5'11B'ness analyst MNC 1Cr. Father Indu'list. Cast no bar nodowry affluent Fmly. # 8602908512,E:[email protected]

[email protected]

New Delhi: The IndianCouncil of Medical Re-search has said the rapidantibody-based blood testsfor Covid-19 will help detectthe growth rate of cases inhotspot areas which can beused by the government todevise a containment strat-egy. Besides, the test is alsouseful in ensuring whetherahealthcare worker has de-veloped immunity to thevirus after he or she has ac-quired it once.

The results come with adelay in antibody tests.However, such tests thathelp detect whether a per-son has been infected withcoronavirus can help the

government assess howmany people have been ex-posed to the disease in hot-spots and assess how suc-cessful the containmentmeasures have been, ICMRhead of epidemiology andcommunicable diseases DrRR Gangakhedkar said.

“This test is a first gen-eration, meaning it is a newbeginning. With time, thistest will also be as success-ful as other such tests usedfor other similar diseases,”Dr Gangakhedkar said.

However, Dr Gangak-hedkar said the testing kitsfor these rapid diagnostictests are yet to arrive. ICMRhad approved the rapid an-tibody test last week.

Full report on www.toi.in

‘Rapid tests will help incontainment planning’

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

� Continued from P 1

CCI NG 3.7 Product: TOIDelhiBS PubDate: 12-04-2020 Zone: Delhi Edition: 1 Page: CAP6 User: vivek.arora Time: 04-11-2020 23:57 Color: CMYK

FUNJ Saraswat Brah. Unma-rried 178cm , 29-07.89, 11.20AM ,Delhi, PHD , Self Emp. SOKpm ,Need Veg Bride x9871702230.aiaysharma2788(7gmail.com

SM for Brahmin 31/5 ' 7" MS(US) S/W Engr in California.Girl employed in US or open torelocate to US preferred. M:+ 9 1 9 3 3 5 9 1 3 8 8 5 E m a i l:surpol954ta Kmail.com

NRI SON 29yo/ USA/ 5'9"/Engg Grad / Brahmin. seeksalliances for a bride. 25 -29yo from an educatedfamily / same caste. Ph:qqQMTT2Q

CO-jMONWEALOf

Commonwealth of Learning(COL), an intergovernmentalorganisation headquartered InCanada , Invites app licationsfor the post of ProgrammeOfficer : Skills at its regionalcentre, the CommonwealthEducational Media Centre forAsia (CEMCA) In New Delhi.P l e a s e visit www.col.org/ w o r k i n g - w i t h - u s andwww.cemea.org/opportunitiesfor more details . Interestedcand ida tes should app lylatest by : May 15 , 2020 byemail to [email protected].

M4 Gr Br manglik 36/169cmfair handsome music teacher atNo i da 6.5LPA. Working girlfr om a decent family. ContactIl ftF:1R1 G

EUM March 90 /5'5"/15 LPALko Based BE Bits . Filani .MBA . IIM Kolkata wrkg. IBM.Fthr . Reid . Cl-1. Sister Doctorseeks PQ Match (wa) 8004288488

PQ)d for KKB boy Dec 8. 1991,57' MBA working as Managerin MSC in Mumbai . PreferredMu mbai working girl. Call#

V49:. i11)1M1

SANADHYA Brahmin fairb'ful girl 1991/5'3- , MBA , belonging to Well Established StatusBusiness Family of West U.P.Mobile : 9917612109. 8272011000

SM 4 brahmin girl . 5'5" / Fair/ 14.07.86 / 2.45 I'M / Ghaziabad/ M.B.A / WhatsApp & Call:9 8 1 8 4 3 4 0 0 7 EM IDpkvashishtha'a Rmai.com

M TTAL girl born march9 5 / 1 6 0 cm p u r s u i n g MDS(orthodontics) from a reputedgovt . college . Well set t ledf a m i l y f r o m L u c k n o w .n kumarluckn owl; gmai1. com9t 5241A 19

PQM for July 83/5'2" B.TechAgrawal girl wrkg. in MNCGurgaon 30 LPA , Never marr-ied , Caste no bar. # 9871013992Em: hoa¢rawal(a?gmail.com

SM4 Gaur Brahmin , Fair. BTulgirl 5' 2" A.Mglk 3OYrs/Madhyanadi / B.Tech / MBA(HR) Wkgin MNC. 19LPA. Seeks wkg boyin NCR. 9868820272 ; 9891813921

PQM4 Garg Fair Girl , 32/5'4"BE . Working MNC NCR , veryhandsome Pkg, I ' less Div. (V,short marriage) # 9717298557Em : elite .mail.usfa.Rmail.com

DESIRED PQ. Tall , Hand-some Groom , P r e f e r a b l yAgarwal , f rom Delhi-NCR'S,Status Business Family / TopProfessional, For 25/164 . Slim,Non-Mangl ik , P r e t t y , VeryFair , M B A From D e l h i 'sEsteemed Institution. SalaryMore T h a n N i n e Lacs PA(Cont inuing Optional). SelfSufficient. Daughter Of UpperMiddle Class , Nuclear . SouthDelhi Based Family. DecentMarriage. Mail Profile & Photoat : soberdelhiteagmail.com

PQ_M for b'ful KKB girl . AntyaNadi 29/ 08/89 . 158cm. Wkg inMNC. Delhi. Pkg 7.5 lacs , Ph.8429412490.7007867577.

SM4 29 yrs/ 5'4" Saxena girl ,B.Tech ., Exe. MBA (I I M / L ) ,wkg MNC Hyd. Father Sr. RlyOfficer younger brother in USContact: 9516795529 (6 to 9 pm)virendraidea1961(a;gmail.com

Mumbai basedBengali Brahmin

family seeksDr/Engg/CA/MBA/PIIDboy 37-40 yrs from well

settled respectable familybased in metros for their

daughter Mar '83born, 5'4" working as

Dr in Mumbai.All Brahmins accepted.

Email:matrisg 1929[a:gmai I.com

+91 9819386239+91 9969015391

SUITABLE match for GBgirl.34/5'5'.CA. CS. ManagerFinance;U,eading MNC 12LPA,Corn 8057523007

SWETAMBAR JAINSvery well settled in

Mumbai, inviteproposals for theirbeautiful daug hter ,

33 yrs, 5'5 " , LLBgraduate

Email-aditisarabha [email protected]

PQM4 Gupta girl . Feb'89/5' I "P h . D . M . tech from NDRIKarna l. wkg as Asst . Prof. inGovt. Univ. Caste no bar M:9717RR-0430

DOCTOR High Bus inessfamily match for a B 'ful , slim ,fa ir , Jain girl . June 92 , 65" , MDRadiologist Affluent Dehradunbased family. Mob. : 9897636327

SUITABLE DT/IAS/IRS/CA/DM/judge for Agarwal Medicogirl 26/Sf t MBBS c e r t i f i e dDiabetic Doctor , s taying inGK1. S.Delhi. Wsao 9810180536

RASTOGI, 05.07.80 ,5'0".MBA10lakhs , working in MNC,delhibased family ,Seeks veg, welleducated boy wrkg in DelhiNCR N 011-22465025,9650878690

ELITE BRIDES WANTED ELITE GROOMS WANTEDKHATRI/ARORA, 32, 180 cms, management BRAHMIN, 26, 157 cms, Management Professional ,Professional , MBA from a reputed Institute. Lives in Masters from a reputed Institute. Lives in New Delhi.Australia. Father is a CEO. Family is financially well off.Looking for an amiable and well educated match. is a Businessman. Looking for a compatible and.Contact: 6366448342 well educated match. Contact: 6366530294

KHATRI, 32, 178 cms, Management Professional, KAYASTHA, 28, 170 cms, Management Professional,MBA. Lives in New Delhi. Father is a Director and Masters from a reputed Institute. Lives in Canada.Mother is a Regional Advisor. Family is affluent. Father is a General Manager. Family is financially wellLooking for a compatible and well educated match.Contact: 6366448342 off. Looking for a suitable well educated match.

Contact: 6366530294KHATRI / CASTE NO BAR , 36, 173 cms ,Professional , Masters from a reputed Institute. Lives in KHATRI, 30, 168 cms, Manager, MBA. Lives inCalifornia. Father is a Professional. Looking for a Delhi/NCR. Father is retired. Family is financially welllikeminded and well educated match. Contact: off. Looking for a likeminded and well educated match.6366448342

Contact: 6366530294

KAYASTHA/CASTE NO BAR, 38, 170 cms, NotWorking, Masters from a reputed Institute. Lives in RA)PUT, 34, 163 cms, General Manager, MBA. LivesDubai. Father is a Managing Director and Mother is a in Jaipur. Father is an ADM. Looking for an affable andJournalist. Family is affluent. Looking for an affable well educated match. Contact: 6366530294and well educated match. Contact: 6366448342

RAJPUT, 27, 163 cms, Legal Associate, B.A. LLBKASHYAP /CASTE NO BAR, 36, 168 cms, NotWorking, Bachelors in Engineering. Lives in Gurgaon. (Hons). Lives in Lucknow. Father is a Businessman.Father is a Businessman. Looking for a suitable well Looking for an amiable and well educated match.educated match. Contact: 6366448342 Contact: 6366530294

Call Consultation at . Home V 99629 76000

M4 SC Girl MBA 1985 FairSlim 5 ' 1 " Father In DefenceJalandhar Settled MarriageBureau Stay Away 9814013693

PQ8M for Protestant girl29/ 5' 3' / M A BEd w h e a t i s hteaching in a reputed privates c h o o l . m ob. 9 8 1 0 9 6 4 3 8 3 /341111'-1777

QUALIFIED match forphysical education teacherbased in Delhi. Brahmin . singledivorcee ,30 years , 57. Contact:gX'J1410047

PQM4 Jaipur based Sunnisayyed girl 25/5.5" h1tech lITWorking in top N I N C abroadS e e ki n g h t e c h i ; nt c c h I IT74 7 13114' il8 4414454:i44

M/NM PQ4 Noida bsd b ful PbKh girl155cm/26 .10.84/ 11:15 amMalhura , B.Com (lb FD (NIFT)Fshn Dsgnr . E.mrg. 9910718577 ,rajeshk .channa(a gmail.com

PQM for Delhi based b'fulPunjabi Manglik girl 23.02.88/3:40 am/ Delhi/ 5'6' . MA , PGDiploma . working in rep. Org.rashm irav i. matrigugmail.com

SQ NCR M4 1983 born 57" AggPGDM v.f Sr Mgr Bank 12 LPA.C a l l 9 8 6 8 1 7 2 2 8 1 . E m a i l :greet i¢upta235r;¢mail.com

PQ match (b/w 31-39 yrs) for33 born 5"3' Hindu Punjabi girl ,divorced , Issueless. Universityfull time job in Sydney. Prefwrkg in Aus with PR . Email:matrimonial .mlCa;gmail.com.

9M4 Purij abi Khatri girl 28/53"Well Educated BA , MA . B.Ed'E n g l ish ) Teacher in ReputedS u . l l h I lh i School ParentsI) IN111:37A:i711

USA bsd veg PhD Hindu girl1988!5'2' wkg in Oregon USAS 1 3 0k pa see ks U S A bsdpro fe s si o n a l l y g lf d m a t c h i111 1230723643 a 9868726208

USA bsd egr MBA b 'ful slimHindu girl / 1982/5'3" wkg TopM M N C S170K/ Sl i g ht Sk i nProblem Except Face. seeksUSA bsd prof qlfd matchn7flf174FLITTA

ALLIANCE Invited 4 PQB e n g a l i K a y a s t h a B o y ,1988/5'8" , Pvt. Job , 7LPA , SeeksEducated G i r l . 9829053606 ,Jaipur.

W 6.1 / M u m b a i / MNC/15LPA , Handsome boy seeksbeautiful/prof. qualified girl.M- AMIT{7 7 A l / QR2 1 n?2RI F

S A X E N A B o y28 , 5 "11 "working in gurugram4I. , LPA fa ther c lass I officerwanted beautiful working girlwork ing in MNC preferredteaching profession, cast no barMob 9 4 1 5 0 1 3 2 3 6 m a i l :maheshsaxena98dyahoo. in

8M4 Gupta Boy /33/5'10"/NM.Hotel Mgmnt Grad . US GreenCard , Wrkg . in Pennsylvania ,Seeks bful . wrkg . girl willing tomove USA , caste no bar . 73030-62164 , matrikaranCayahoo.com

$/M for Lucknow base familyfor Eng/ MBA Srivastava boy.Working MNC at Mumbai DOBNov 91. 9452451148 E-mai l :msrivastva22/, ;cmail.com

EIGH status affluent businessf ly se t t led in Dubai seeksal l iance for charming son(never married) 35 / 5.10" USAgraduate . Director in owncompany seeks charming girlfrom well established non vegfly. Caste no bar. Email detailsn h o r o s c o p e o nmiradorl2O4(al zmail.com

Well sett led , aff luentHindu Maharashtr ianfamil y invites proposalfor their son , handsome,ta l l (6' -2 ") f a i r , 45yrs,never married , MBA,GM in MNC , Salary 12Lakh P.M. Australian/US/Indian Citizen, workingin I n d i a / A b o r a d .Expecting Beautiful , fair,tall (above 5 '5"), below35 yrs qualified Hinducultured girl willing tostay in India / Abroad,cast no bar, pl. respondwith photo & details to

Email:[email protected]

Ph: 022 -26465466,07045904032

UK Ctzn Gntl H' sum HnduThakr wel sttld Engnr Ownhouse DOB 13.9.94 , 5' 7 ' seeksQfied BTul grl , wllng 2 migrtecast no bar Wapp +447533167086

33YRS/SHIASY&D/ MES A/W.Stld IT Prof./ Rptd Fmly ofLko/ Seek ing B'f ul -Edu .W r k n g g i r l ( m d h l k o o 9Ugmail.com , wtsap ) 9450087466)

To book your advertisement,TINIESSinter: tall 8279912222

PQM4 39/5'5 " MUM basedSindhi boy B E . wkg with Big-4consulting firm. E: [email protected] . M/WA: 9620303313

DECENT D e l h i basedAhluwalia family seek Punjabiw o r k i n g m a t c h ( p r e f e rDelhiNCR) for their 1987 born ,handsome , fair , 56" . divorceeson. no l iabi l i ty , working inreputed airlines . Contact-9810975667. 9310401251

A High Status PunjabiBusiness family based atRaipur, Seek Alliance fortheir Son, well qualified ,

Handsome , 2915"11MBA- Narsee Monjee.

Involved in FamilyBusiness. He is Suffering

from RetinitisPigmentosa which will

Cause Eye SightDeteroriation with Age

not Leading to Blindness.Looking for an Educated,Beautiful & Cultured girl

from similar StatusFamily. They can

Consider Girl with minorHealth Issue ,

Second Marriage cases(With No Issue) as well

Caste No Bar.i

punjabllgroomOgmail.com

SM4 Saxena boy Mglk 30/180Wheatish . Slim Wkg in Financein Mumbai as Sr. Mngr. 10-15LPA . Wkg girl preferred. Casteno bar . Wts. App 9717691279

I

ACCOUNTANT

REQ. B .Com / M . C o mA c c o u n t a n t s w i t h 3 years '

experience in Accounts to beplaced in a PSU in Delhi. SendCV on jobs(auccglobal.in

WORK FROM HOME

EXCELLENT OpportunityWork From Home if you writeEng l i s h La n g u a g e t h e n youearn 50 .000/- to 1,00.000/- permonth. # 9873692888 , 9540605177

BUSINESSPROPOSALS

FACE-MASg 3 ply, made orautomat ic machine availabledirect from manufacturer.ComWhatsapp Mr .Kapll 9811055733,.all: info.kason(ggmai.com

education

COACHINGCLASSES

ON12M MATHS CL ASSESUPTO 10th STD BY H I G H LYQUALIFIED ACADEMICIANWITH 2Oyr YEARS OF EXPC O N T: 9650871319. 8368425314

CHEM @ NEET, IIT-JEEBIT-SAT ,XI.X II (CBSE/ ICSE/iB/IGCSE)with 20yrs expertence faculty at your door stepDr. Aman # 9718774489

To book your advertisement ,TL_IES inter call 927881 222 2

BookyourServices adsFor any wary, call

Aman :9312633518

Readers are recommended tomake appropriate enquiresand seek appropriate advicebefore sending money,incurring any expenses ,a c t i n g on m e d i c a lrecommendat ions or enteringinto any commitment inrelation to any advertisementpublished in this publication.The Times of India Groupdoesn 't vouch for any claimsmade by the Advertisers ofpproducts and -ices. ThePrinter, Publisher, F4itor , andOwners of The Times OfIndia Group publicationsshall not be held liable for anyconsequences , in the eventsuch claims are not honouredby the Advertisers.

AA

I z

e 1

TIMES S [mate %4e rinds it's makh.

Readers are advised to make appropriate/ thorough enquiries before acting upon anyadvertisement, This newspaper does not vouchor subscribe to claims and representationsmade by advertisers regarding particulars ofstatus , age income of bride/groom.

Page 7: Lockdown set to be extended with some measures to restart ...

[email protected]

For the last four years, it was used for crop dusting. But now, it has a new name and purpose. Chennai-based startup Garuda Aerospace’s

drone is spraying disinfectant all over locked down cities in its new avatar of Corona Killer-100.

Garuda has deployed 300 drones across 26 Indian cities, including Vara-nasi, Raipur and many in Tamil Nadu, at the behest of state governments and municipal bodies that are looking for ways to disinfect their areas with as lit-tle human intervention as possible. “We spray in public areas, hospitals, bus sta-tions — anywhere Covid-19 can spread,” says Agnishwar Jayaprakash, the founder and president of the startup. Commercial pilot volunteers are steer-ing these drones.

Across the country, startups are uti-lising the lockdown period to innovate and add to the state’s arsenal to fight the coronavirus pandemic. Their work has resulted in disinfectant-spraying drones, drones that make public announcements or shoo away crowds during a lockdown, disinfectant trucks, new kinds of sanitis-ers and even robotic dispensers.

TRUCK WITH SANITISING TECHTarun Bhalla, founder of an education and social robotics startup called Av-ishkaar, wanted to do something for the community as well keep himself occu-pied so he posted on social media that his firm would help build any technol-ogy required. New Delhi MP Meenakshi Lekhi saw it and reached out to ask if they could create an external sanitising machine for her constituency.

“In the last 10 days, we have been able to create a sanitising machine that can be installed on any vehicle. We had to identify 10 or so vendors and convince them to sell us spare parts. We have even been sleeping in the office for the safety of our kids,” says Bhalla.

A truck they put the ma-chine on has been going around South Extension, Moti Nagar and Punjabi Bagh, resulting in more such requests from Delhi MLAs and MPs. They have also installed this system on an SUV for a private citi-zen and are collaborating with an NGO to create a sanitisation tunnel for a food distribution centre outside a Noida-based hospital — all free of cost.

They have also made a face shield and are at present

working on building an internal saniti-sation robot that utilises Type-C UV technology. Since UV light is harmful to humans, the idea is the robot should be able to map the room and automati-cally disinfect at night when it is empty. “We know UV kills the SARS virus and other viruses in the coronavirus family, but the jury is still out if it can kill Covid-19. We have to find a way to test its efficacy,” he adds.

BOT FOR COVID WARDKochi-based Asimov Robotics is also us-ing UV technology for its robot, which is meant to tend to patients inside quar-antine zones. The robot is autonomous, can carry 25kg, and moves at a speed of 1m/sec. It has retractable trays to carry food. “If it goes to the Covid ward and there are 10 beds, it goes from patient to

patient to give food. The tray disinfects itself

through detergent and UV technolo-

gy between bed to bed,” says found-er Jaikrishnan

T, adding that while the affect of UV hasn’t

been tested on Covid-19, he believes exposure for

longer than 6 sec-onds should deacti-vate the virus.

The robot also squirts hand sani-tiser if both hands are put in front of it. The firm is do-ing test runs and

has been in touch with hospitals that

could use the robot.

But there are some challenges. “To map the area the robot will be in, we will have to go inside the hospital. We’re trying to do it remotely, but it takes longer.”

FEVER-SPOTTING DRONEMarut Drones was mostly working on mosquito eradication last year but start-ed ideating on fighting Covid-19 in Janu-ary. Founder Prem Kumar Vislawath says they have come up with five drones

— one that sprays disinfectant, one that tracks movements and makes public an-nouncements, a thermal analysis drone that can see if anyone has high tempera-ture in a crowd, a medical delivery drone for supplies and a surveillance drone.

At present, they have deployed 17 disinfection drones and six surveillance ones across eight districts in Telangana. They can also be used in a more tar-geted capacity — in the neighbourhood of a known patient, for instance. “We’re working with drone companies in dif-ferent states and are sourcing 60 to 70 drones from them,” says Vislawath.

In Bangalore, General Aeronautics is using two drones to disinfect at the mu-nicipal corporation’s behest. Having done 100 missions and covered 1,25,000 square metres in the last 10 days, they hope CSR funding can allow them to scale up.

STARTUPS TAKE ON COVID: Garuda Aerospace’s Corona Killer-100 drone can spray 20 litres of disinfectant over 20km. (Below) A robot that can tend to patients

From disinfectant drones to robotic nurses, Covid-busting tech is here

Drones aren’t just being used to spray disinfectant, they can be used to deliver medical supplies and identify someone with a high temperature in a crowd

Garuda Aerospace

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi: The Centre andstates are moving to restarteconomic activity in a grad-ed manner though the cur-rent lockdown looks set to beextended beyond April 14.However, areas containingCovid-19 hotspots won’t seeany restoration of economicactivity as yet. “There will besome experimentation to getthe economy going after athree-week lockdown,” anofficial source said.

The government is exam-ining a proposal to allowunits that can accommodateemployees on their campus-es to function after author-ities are satisfied about ad-herence to social distancingrequirements. Harvestingoperations have alreadybeen exempted and state gov-ernments are being nudgedto go to villages to buy theharvested crop directly fromfarmers so that there is nocrowding at mandis.

In his interaction withchief ministers on Saturday,PM Narendra Modi empha-sised the criticality of thecoming 3-4 weeks for deter-mining the impact of stepstaken to contain the virus, agovernment release said.“For a brighter future and aprosperous and healthier In-dia, we need to focus on both‘jaan’ and ‘jahan’,” Modisaid. Sources said there wasno plan at the moment for thePM to make a televised ad-dress to the nation.

The plans being consid-ered include special normsfor industrial townshipswhich will have strict entryand exit norms and internaltransport for workers. Such

areas will be subject to sani-tisation strategies such asuse of disinfection tunnelsat factories and plants andreworked labour shifts.

In areas where marketscan be reopened, there mightbe an alternate day timetableand larger mandis may seerestrictions on the numberof people who can be presentat any point in time. Similar-ly, states may consider limit-ed restoration of transport,at least within districts andcities, to begin with. Inter-district travel may not be al-lowed immediately, and in-ter-state travel and restora-tion of train services and air-lines are not on the table.

Full report on www.toi.in

Economic activity tostart in graded way

[email protected]

New Delhi: The governme-nt is set to move an ordina-nce to suspend fresh insol-vency action against compa-nies by lenders or other cred-itors for six months due tothe coronavirus pandemic.

The Centre is looking atamendments to sections 7, 9and 10 of the Insolvency andBankruptcy Code (IBC)through the ordinance at atime when a large number ofcompanies have seen theirrevenues collapse duringthe last month or so, withforecasts suggesting that de-mand for goods will remainweak due to Covid-19.

Although the RBI hasallowed lenders to providea three-month loan morato-rium for a majority of bor-rowers, banks fear a spikein defaults and loan repay-ment problems.

While announcing reliefmeasures last month, fina-nce minister Nirmala Sith-araman had indicated thatthe government will consid-er suspending the three pro-visions of IBC. Sitharamanhas already announced re-lief for micro-small and me-dium enterprises underIBC and raised the defaultthreshold from Rs 1 lakh to

Rs 1 crore for triggering in-solvency proceedings.

The new move will meanthat financial creditors, in-cluding home buyers in resi-dential projects, cannot ini-tiate insolvency action, forsix months under Section 7of IBC. Similarly, Section 9empowers operational cred-itors like vendors to seek ac-tion. Section 10 allows a de-faulting company to ap-proach the National Compa-ny Law Tribunal to declareit insolvent, providing pro-tection from creditors.

Full report on www.toi.in

Ordinance likely todeter insolvency

cases for 6 months

[email protected]

The city of Chennai andthe state of Rajasthan,the country’s largest

state in terms of area, have thesame number of Covid-19 test-ing labs, eight. And that’s dou-ble the number of labs in In-dia’s most densely populatedstate, Bihar — four. Jhark-hand, meanwhile, has justtwo. Testing centres are notevenly distributed across thecountry because some statesare just not equipped enough.

The disparity could be get-ting reflected in the number ofcases and deaths (which willonly be reported as Covid-19deaths if people test positive inthe first place) reported across

states. Maharashtra has thehighest number of testing cen-tres (29) and the maximumnumber of cases (1,574). At theother end of the spectrum, Na-galand has no testing centreand no reported case.

Exactly in the middle ofthe range lies Bihar, which re-ceived a large part of the waveof migrant workers who madetheir way home around thetime the Covid-19 lockdownbegan. Bihar has till now re-ported just 60 cases.

Recognising the gaps intesting, the Indian Council ofMedical Research (ICMR) re-vised guidelines for setting upa lab earlier this week and in-vited government and privatemedical colleges to do so aswell on Wednesday, introduc-

ing distance of nearest testingcentre as a factor. But thestumbling block has been theinfrastructural checklist — in-

government testing labs arealso the ones which have littleor no private labs that quali-fied for Covid-19 testing.

Some states are working tobridge the gap. “Many of youhave questions about testing.We have compiled testing dataof major states by using differ-ent sources. States have testedmore where positive caseswere reported earlier. Lab in-fra also varies across. Capaci-ty has been an issue across thecountry,” Bihar health secre-tary Sanjay Kumar tweeted onThursday. Odisha is offeringfinancial incentives to suppli-ers of viral transport medi-ums and airlifting reagentsand testing kits, health secre-tary Nikunja Bihari said.

Full report on www.toi.in

dispensable to safe and correcttesting. And not all states havethe resources. The stateswhich are under-served by

Why parts of India can’t ramp up Covid testing

Vishwa.Mohan @timesgroup.com

New Delhi: Prime MinisterNarendra Modi on Saturdayurged states to incentivisefarmers to sell their produceat their doorsteps whichwould prevent crowding in‘mandis’ (agri markets) andurged them to come out withreforms to promote this.

The suggestion came dur-ing his interaction with chiefministers via video confer-encing to strategise on tack-ling the Covid-19 spread.

Taking forward the agri-culture ministry’s reformagenda on making farmersfree from ‘mandi’ regulations,he suggested that statesshould modify their Agricul-tural Produce MarketingCommittee laws to facilitatesale of farm produce outsidedesignated ‘mandis’.

Besides decongesting agrimarkets, the move will also al-low direct marketing of farmproduce by farmers withoutinvolving middlemen. Stateswill have to facilitate it by al-lowing movement of trucks orrefrigerated vans in a regulat-ed manner. Some states, in-cluding Maharashtra, havestarted doing it where suppli-ers are using app-based sys-tem to facilitate movement offruits and vegetables.

Full report on www.toi.in

Review mandiregulations, letfarmers sell atdoorsteps: PM

[email protected]

New Delhi: Most states sup-ported a two-week extensionof the lockdown beyond April14 but sought more funds fromthe Centre and ways to ensurethe livelihoods of millions ofpeople renderedjobless.

Punjab andOdisha have al-ready extendedthe lockdowntill April 30 andMaharashtrajoined them onSaturday. At thevideo confer-ence with PMNarendra Mo-di, chief minis-ters of Kerala,West Bengal,Uttar Pradesh, Telangana,Delhi, Madhya Pradesh andKarnataka, besides the J&Kadministrator, pushed for anextension while Andhra Pra-desh chief minister Jaganmo-han Reddy suggested a partiallockdown. Almost all statessought more resources to tack-le the health and economic im-pact of the Covid-19 pandemicand also pitched for utilisingMGNREGA to provide succour to people.

Jharkhand chief ministerHemant Soren demanded in-crease in pay and number ofwork days under MGNREGAwhile Telangana CM K Chan-drasekhar Rao urged linkingof the job scheme with agri-culture. Rajasthan CM AshokGehlot said Reserve Bank ofIndia should ensure thatbanks had enough money.

West Bengal chief minis-ter Mamata Banerjee de-manded a national package of6% of the country’s GDP tocombat the pandemic and pro-vide relief to micro, small andmedium enterprises.

Soren and Banerjee saidstates’ share of GST should bereleased immediately by theCentre and demanded a year’smoratorium on interest.

Kerala CM Pinarayi Vi-jayan asked for special trainsfor stranded people in differ-ent parts of the country.

Full report on www.toi.in

CMs seek morefunds from

Centre to tideover lockdown

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi: The Centre has ex-empted marine fishing operat-ions, aquaculture industry, mo-vement of fish/shrimp and fishproducts and workers for allthese activities from the lock-down restrictions. The movewill allow the enlisted fishingactivities to be carried out dur-ing the lockdown period in allcoastal states under a regulatedprovision of permits/passes,issued by district authorities,where workers will have to takeall precautionary measures.

In its fifth addendum to itslockdown guidelines, thehome ministry on Friday putthese activities under the ex-empted categories along withvarious other related worksincluding operation of proc-essing, packaging, cold chain,sale & marketing, hatcheries,feed plants and commercialaquaria in the marine fisher-ies sector. The move came inthe backdrop of demandsfrom the sector as lakhs offishermen have been out ofwork ever since the lockdownwas imposed to fight thespread of Covid-19. In his or-der, the Union home secretaryAjay Bhalla asked chief secre-taries of states to allow theseexemptions while adhering tosocial distancing and otherprecautionary measures.

Govt exemptsmarine fishingindustry fromrestrictions

New Delhi: The I&B minis-try on Saturday asked televi-sion broadcasters and DTHoperators to cooperate withdistributors across valuechains to ensure uninter-rupted supply of DTH andcable TV services in the in-terest of viewers. “All stake-holders are advised to con-tinue to provide uninter-rupted services to their sub-scribers and cooperate withother players within distri-bution chain in viewers’ in-terest,” a ministry notifica-tion said. Swati Mathur TNN

‘Ensure non-stopDTH services’

7SUNDAY TIMES OF INDIA, NEW DELHIAPRIL 12, 2020 TIMES NATION | Lockdown-Day 18

MASKED CRUSADER: PM Narendra Modi at a video-conferencewith chief ministers on tackling Covid-19 in New Delhi on Saturday

ANIResumption OfTrains, Flights

Not Likely Soon

➤ Molecular biology setupfor virological diagnosis

➤ Functioning and calibrated biosafetycabinet (anenclosed space to safely work with pathogens)

➤ Cold centrifuge or microfuge for RNA extraction (RNA carries the genetic information)

➤ Real-time PCR machine (polymerase chain

reaction, which makes miillions of

copies of a target DNA)

➤ Staff already trained in

handling samplesand the equipment

➤ Well-defined policy to deal with biomedical waste

WHAT A NEW TESTING CENTRE MUST HAVE

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi: In an initial steptowards return to normalcy,ministers and senior officerswill be back in governmentoffices from Monday, with upto a third of junior officersand staff also allowed to as-sist them, while ensuring so-cial-distancing norms.

“The government has de-sired that all officers who areentitled to official transportfacility will come to officefrom Monday, that is officersof the level of joint secretaryor higher,” said an officialsource, although a formal co-mmunication was not issued.

The move signals the gov-ernment’s plan to manageexit from the lockdown, al-though it is yet to decide onallowing private sector to be-gin operations, in a limitedway. While a source said thegovernment has asked busi-nesses to brace for a possibleopening up, a senior officersaid a decision on resumingoperations at factories pro-ducing “non-essential”goods has not been taken yet.

Although ministrieshave been opened up in alimited manner, govern-ment officials said they werelooking to operate in thismanner for the next few

months as full-scale oper-ations could only commencewhen Covid-19 was broughtunder control, for which avaccine is essential.

With the lockdown still inplace, the first two days areunlikely to see any publicdealing as citizens would stillbe confined to their homes.An extension will allow min-istries to prepare for a limitedopening up of public dealingin the coming weeks althoughcompliance requirementshave been eased for threemonths in several sectorssuch as taxation and compa-nies law to reduce the need tovisit government offices.

Lockdown exit path? Mantris toreturn to offices from tomorrow

Gehlot, Soren

[email protected]

New Delhi: The Union sci-ence and technology minis-try will fund a Pune-basedfirm to develop a vaccine forCovid-19 which is expected toenter phase-1 trial in 18-20months. Seagull Biosolu-tions is the first company thegovernment is financiallybacking for coronavirus vac-cine efforts. It will also pro-duce at-home test kits for Co-vid-19 that can detect evenasymptomatic infections.

For both purposes, Seagullwill use its existing Active Vi-rosome Technology (AVT)which can develop novel Ac-

tive Virosome agents to in-duce antibodies. The firm isdeveloping two kinds ofagents to produce 19 types ofneutralising antibodies. Wh-ile the first agent will expressthe S protein — which medi-ates attachment of the virus to

the host cell surface receptors—the other will express struc-tural proteins of Covid-19.

The company will con-duct tests on wild mice tocheck efficacy of the two AVagents. The next round oftests would be on mice mod-els of SARS disease and lateron monkeys or another smallanimal. The AV-vaccineagent will then be preparedfor phase-1clinical trials.

Vishwas Joshi, founderand MD of the firm, told TOIthat their AVT platform haspreviously been used to devel-op vaccines for ebola, zika,chikungunya and dengue.

Full report on www.toi.in

Pune firm first in India to getgovt funding for Covid vaccine

[email protected]

New Delhi: On Saturday,Prime Minister NarendraModi brought the modest,multi-purpose gamchha intothe spotlight. While videoconferencing with chiefministers across India on Co-vid-19, he covered his facewith the desi stole to high-light and underline its usageas an affordable and easilyavailable protective gear formillions of ordinary people.

Modi has repeatedly spo-ken about using homemadeoptions to cover faces as a re-placement for masks.

The gamchha — best de-scribed as a thin cotton towel— is popular in various ava-tars in states like Bihar, eastUP, Bengal and Assam, and isalso offered as a gift to hon-oured guests. Farmhands,landowners, contractors,daily wagers, rickshaw pull-ers and porters — the acces-sory is used by both the well-heeled and the underclass asan improvised, makeshift de-fence against extreme heatand biting cold.

In Bollywood, AmitabhBachchan used the gamchhawith relish in ManmohanDesai’s Coolie (1983). Direc-

tor Anurag Kashyap turnedit into an object of upwardly-mobile cool in The Gangs ofWasseypur (2012). The Timesof India has been activelyspearheading a campaign,#MaskIndia, to encouragepeople to use homemade facemasks as a preventive mea-sure against Covid-19.

Soon after the PM’s inter-action with CMs, the Uniongovernment issued an advi-sory about use of homemademasks, emphasising on im-portance of its regular clean-ing and clarifying that home-

made masks were advisablefor common people but notfor those involved in health-care. In a telephonic conver-sation with BJP’s Varanasidistrict president HansrajVishwakarma on Thursday,Modi had suggested use oftowel or scarf (gamchha) inplace of masks as a precau-tion against the virus. “In-stead of masks, use ofgamchha will be more effec-tive. There is no point wast-ing time and money onmasks, which are requiredfor doctors and the medicalstaff,” Modi suggested.

Full report on www.toi.in

Modi brings themodest gamchha

into spotlightAs per reports from

states, Saturday saw825 new Covid-19 cases

in the country, the second-highest after Friday’s 863.

Lav Aggarwal, joint secre-tary in the ministry, said 1,035fresh Covid-19 cases and 40deaths due to the disease werereported in the last 24 hours,taking the official number ofcases to 7,447 and the numberof deaths to 239 nationwide.

Reports from states collat-ed by TOI put the total num-ber of cases in the country at8426, and the death toll at 290,with 32 reported on Saturday.

Maharashtra continues toreport the maximum numberof cases, 187 on Saturday, butthe situation in Delhi seems tobe deteriorating fast as well.

Among the 166 new casesreported in the capital, 128were related to the Nizamud-din cluster caused by the Ta-blighi Jamaat meetings inMarch. But in order to avoidprofiling of positive cases,the government has puttheir data under a new cate-gory called ‘positive cases —under special operations’.

Delhi has a capacity of2,406 beds designated for Co-vid-19 patients in all its hospi-tals. Because of the suddenrise in cases in the state, only32% of these are vacant, gov-ernment data shows. “If thetrend of sharp rise in cases inDelhi continues, we may soonreach a crisis situation. Gover-nment will have to designatemore hospitals for Covid-19treatment,” said a doctor.

Full report on www.toi.in

40 deaths in last 24 hours� Continued from P 1

New Delhi: Ex-gratia pay-ments made to temporary,casual and daily wage work-ers by companies will be con-sidered as CSR expenditureunder the companies law,provided that such pay-ments are over and above dis-bursement of wages. Weeksafter announcing that con-tributions by companies toPM-CARES Fund to tacklethe pandemic would be con-sidered as CSR, the corpo-rate affairs ministry hascome out with a set of FAQsto clarify various aspects. PTI

Ex gratia underCSR spend: Govt

The government onSaturday allowed

subscribers of small savingsschemes such as PublicProvident Fund and SukanyaSamriddhi Yojana to depositmoney into their accounts upto June 30, in case they couldnot do so during the 2019-20financial year. In addition,PPF accounts, which maturedon March 31, including theone-year window forextension, can now beextended up to June 30. TNN

Subscribers ofsmall savings gettime till June 30

The firm is developing two kindsof agents to produce 19 types ofneutralising antibodies

Reuters

HOMEMADE MASK

CCI NG 3.7 Product: TOIDelhiBS PubDate: 12-04-2020 Zone: Delhi Edition: 1 Page: CAP07 User: rajyashree.dutta Time: 04-12-2020 00:49 Color: CMYK

Page 8: Lockdown set to be extended with some measures to restart ...

* SUNDAY TIMES OF INDIA, NEW DELHIAPRIL 12, 20208 TIMES GLOBAL

Burning Man, the annualarts event that draws tens

of thousands of people toBlack Rock Desert and tens ofmillions of dollars to northernNevada’s economy, has joinedthe list of high-profile gather-ings to fall prey to the coro-navirus pandemic. Organisersof the event, which was tohave been held from August 30to September 7, announced onFriday that they had made thedecision not to build Black

Rock City, the “temporarymetropolis” that is createdeach year for the event. “Giventhe painful reality of Covid-19we believe this is the rightthing to do,” organisers said.

Beatles’ handwritten ‘HeyJude’ lyrics sell for $910,000 Paul McCartney’s handwrittenlyrics to The Beatles’ hit song“Hey Jude” sold for $910,000 onFriday, nine times its originalestimate, auction house Ju-lien’s Auctions said. A bassdrumhead with The Beatles’logo that was used during theband’s first North Americantour in 1964 was the other topitem, selling for $200,000.

AROUND THE WORLD

An inflatable Easter bunny along with messages of support forBritish health workers placed in front of apartments in England

Burning Manmusic fest fallsvictim to corona [email protected]

After workout videos andsaree photos, social me-dia feeds have been tak-

en over by pictures of a two-tiered cup of foamy coffee.Originating in South Korea,Dalgona Coffee is the perfectdrink for the Instagram age —aesthetically pleasing, andeasy to whip up. You only needfour ingredients —milk, wa-ter, sugar and instant coffee.

Social media is full of Indi-ans sharing pictures and vid-eos of themselves making thedrink, thanks to a bunch ofYouTube videos sharing therecipe. Food YouTube channel,Kabita’s Kitchen, has a videoon how to make the coffee withHindi instructions and hasamassed over 1 million viewssince it was posted on March31. Many Indian YouTubershave shared their version ofthe recipe in a variety of lan-guages, including Malayalam,Tamil and Marathi. On Insta-gram, there are 2.2 lakh postsunder the hashtag DalgonaCoffee and TikTok videos un-der the hashtag have receivedatotal of 170 million views.

Indians who have tried itsay they are familiar with thebasic process behind makingit. It is essentially “phenti huicoffee” or beaten coffee. Themain difference is how youpresent it — you take spoon-fuls of the whipped mixtureand put it on top of milk, rath-er than pouring the milk ontop and mixing it. It’s one ofthose trends that comes out ofnowhere — the term ‘DalgonaCoffee’ was virtually nonex-istent on Google until Janu-ary 26, Vice reports. It first ap-peared on a Korean TV showin January. In the show, actorJung Il-Woo travelled to Ma-cau and tried the coffee,which resembles the Koreantoffee candy Dalgona.

Slowly, the trend began topick up steam, with YouTub-ers and TikTokers sharing

recipes and pictures of theend result. It happened first inSouth Korea itself, but slowlyspread across the world, par-ticularly in countries whereresidents have been advisedto follow social distancing.

There is something relax-ing and stimulating aboutboth watching the videos ofother people making the cof-fee, and whipping it up your-self — the repetitive move-ments are pleasing to watch,and physically taxing to per-form, which is probably whymany people have called thetrend the Dalgona Coffee Cha-llenge. The reactions of the co-ffee have been varied — whilesome absolutely adore thefrothy texture, others pointout it’s nothing new and tasteslike regular cold coffee. Andlike any other social mediatrend, the jokes are endless.People are applauding anyonewho hasn’t posted a picture ofthe drink yet, memes aboutthe “overhyped” trend, a mil-lennial spin on something thathas always been there abound,and tea drinkers are trying tolure people onto their side.

Full report on www.toi.in

S Korea’s Dalgona coffeeis the new quarantine fad

IN OTHER NEWS

Los Angeles: Harvey Weins-tein was charged in Los Ange-les on Friday with a third sexu-

al assault case,and prosecu-tors there saidthey have star-ted the processof seeking hisextradition

from New York, where the for-mer film producer is servingprison time for rape.

The disgraced movie pro-ducer was newly charged witha single felony count of sexualbattery by restraint. The 68-year-old had already beencharged in Los Angeles withrape, sexual penetration byforce and forcible oral copula-tion for an alleged encounterwith one woman, and withsexual battery of a second wo-man, both in February of 2013.

Weinstein’s spokesman de-clined to comment until he wasable to reach Weinstein’s lawy-ers. Weinstein’s attorneys co-uld not be reached. REUTERS

Weinstein hitwith third

sexual assaultcase in LA

US Tops Toll Tally, Sees 2000+ Deaths In A Day

[email protected]

Washington: The United Sta-tes became the first country inthe world to record more than2000 deaths in a 24-hour periodfrom Covid-19 infections as thecoronavirus pandemic toll inthe country surpassed that ofItaly’s. Figures from JohnsHopkins University show 2,108people died in 24 hours.

At the time of writing, theUS had recorded a death toll of

20,110, going past Italy’s19,468, even as the pandemicappeared to be slowing downin some areas responding tomitigation measures whilepicking up steam in placeswhere the measures are lax.

New York state, which re-mains the epicentre of the USoutbreak, makes up nearly halfof the total death toll across thewhole of the US with 7,844dead. Overall, the US crossedhalf a million cases, the mostin any country, and five timesas much as China’s, whose fig-ures are considered dodgy.

Some experts are suggesti-

ng the US may have reached, oris at least very near, the peakdeath toll per day, if the mitiga-tion measures remain in place.“We re-run the model, basical-ly, almost every night — andthe new returns from differentstates are suggesting differentpeaks in different states, but atthe national level we seem tobe pretty much close to thepeak,” Dr Chris Murray, the di-rector of the Institute forHealth Metrics and Evalua-tion at the University of Wash-ington — who created the mod-el the White House is using togauge the peak of coronaviruscases, said on Saturday.

Murray’s model projectsabout 61,500 Americans willlose their lives to the virus byAugust, if the country keepssocial distance measures inplace until the end of May.The toll is much less than the80,000 projected, which inturn is far less than the1,00,000-240,000 that PresidentDonald Trump had feared ba-sed on early modeling. Butplanners are warning repeat-edly that all bets are off if thesocial distancing measuresare relaxed prematurely.Some experts are also cau-tioning that the US may be un-intentionally underreport-ing fatalities because manydeaths outside the hospitalsare not being recorded.

President Trump, who haslong been battling and strikinga balance between saving livesand saving the economy, isyearning for a May 1 re-open-ing even as his aides are cau-tioning against committing tothe date. “I would say, withoutquestion, it’s the biggest deci-sion I’ve ever had to make,”Trump said on Friday duringhis White house news briefing.Asked what metrics he’ll con-sider in ordering a reopening,he pointed to his head and said:“The metrics’ right here.” Ef-forts to reopen the country’sstalled economy, business, andpublic life are increasingly be-coming partisan, with differ-ences that Trump may not beable to control or bridge.

Toll Now 20,000+, YetTrump Eyes RestartOf Biz From May

Countries Infected Death

United States 5,14,415 20,110Spain 1,61,852 16,353Italy 1,52,271 19,468France 1,30,727 13,832Germany 1,23,878 2,736China 83,014 3,343United Kingdom 79,865 9,891

Iran 70,029 4,357Turkey 52,167 1,101Belgium 28,018 3,346

185countries/regions hit

17,33,792+infected globally

1,06,469+have died

3,92,781+ have recovered

TRACKING OUTBREAK

Source: Johns Hopkins University

APPLAUDING THE WARRIORS: Medical workers react to applause from firefighters outside a health centrein Manhattan. To thank healthcare workers and hospital staff, New Yorkers have been clapping everyday at7pm as hospitals change shifts, a trend that has been named #ClapBecauseWeCare

Reuters

Countries on Saturdaysought to keep peoplefrom travelling in sunny

Easter weather and grappledwith how and when to startloosening the weeks-long shut-downs of much of public life.

The Japanese governmentappealed to the public nation-wide to avoid bars, clubs andrestaurants, broadening ameasure announced earlierfor seven urban areas, includ-ing Tokyo. Italian authoritiesstepped up checks, particular-ly around the Lombardy re-gion, which has borne thebrunt of the Covid-19 out-break. Roadblocks were set upon main thoroughfares in andout of Milan and along high-way exits to discourage peoplefrom going on holiday trips.

“Don’t do silly things,”said Domenico Arcuri, Italy’sspecial commissioner for thevirus emergency. “Don’t goout, continue to behave re-sponsibly as you have doneuntil today, use your head andyour sense of responsibility.”

In Spain, which recordedits smallest day-to-day in-crease in deaths in nearlythree weeks — 510, police setup thousands of roadblocksaround the country. It was thethird consecutive daily de-cline in the number of peopledying. In Britain, police wereurged to keep a close watch ongatherings in parks and at theseaside on what was set to bethe hottest day of the year.

The Easter holidays coinci-de with mounting hope in Eu-rope of the beginning of a slowreturn to normal as rates of in-fection slow in many cases.Some countries are alreadyplanning small first steps out ofthe shutdown. Austria aims toreopen small shops on Tuesday.Spain, with more than 16,300dead, is preparing to start roll-ing back the strictest of itsmeasures on Monday, when au-thorities will allow workers insome nonessential industriesto return to factories and con-

struction sites after a nearlycomplete two-week stoppage.

Italycontinued to includeall nonessential manufactur-ing in an extension of its na-tional lockdown until May 3.But Premier Giuseppe Conteheld out hope that some indus-try could re-open earlier if con-ditions permit. Italy hastopped 19,000 deaths and150,000 cases of the coronavi-rus Deaths rose by 3.2%, or 619.

Officials in Germanyareset to consider on Wednesdayhow to proceed after severalweeks of restrictions on publiclife. They have, however,sounded a cautious note.

But Iran reopened gov-ernment offices and business-es outside the capital after a

brief nationwide lockdown tohelp contain the worst out-break in the Middle East. Busi-nesses in Tehran will be al-lowed to reopen next weekend.

Britain on Saturday re-ported 917 more deaths, downfrom the peak of 980 recorded aday earlier. The country’s over-all death toll neared 10,000. PMBoris Johnson, who is downwith Covid-19, continued to re-cover at a London hospital.

China reported on Satur-day a rise in new cases, mostlythose arriving from abroad, asdoctors in the Wuhan warnedits behaviour was still not well-understood. About 46 newcases were reported on Friday,including 42 from abroad, upfrom 42 a day earlier. AGENCIES

Spain to ease work rules astoll drops for 3rd day in row

AP

South Korea said on Saturday that it plans to strap tracking wristb-ands on those who violate self-quarantine orders as the country

struggled to prevent its people from becoming complacent over thedwindling number of new infections. But officials admitted that theylacked a legal power to enforce the new rule for wristbands if peoplerefused to wear them. Officials worry that some of the 57,000 peoplewho are under orders to stay home for two weeks have slipped out,leaving behind smartphones equipped with government-issuedtracking apps. Yoon Tae-ho, a disease-control official, said the wristb-ands are designed to alert officials if wearers leave home or cut themoff. He said the bands would be deployed within two weeks. NYT

S Korea to strap tracking wristbands onthose who violate quarantine orders

VIRAL BRIEFS

WHEN A KLIMT CAME TO LIFE: Russians can’t go to their belovedmuseums due to the virus lockdown, so they’re recreating art while stuckat home. A Facebook group where the works are posted has become ahuge hit. Some 350,000 people are following the group, where thousandsof photos are posted, each showing the original work and the mockupmade at home. The rules say one must only use items on hand and thephotos can’t be digitally manipulated. (Above) Recreations of JohannesVermeer’s ‘Girl With a Pearl Earring’ and Gustav Klimt's ‘Medicine’

The anti-coronaviruslockdown may have left

plenty of Britons ready to scaletheir walls in frustration, butrunner John Griffin has put hispent-up energy to better use -by climbing the height of MountEverest up his staircase. It tookGriffin four days to climb 41,000steps at his three-story housein West Sussex, equivalent tothe 8,850 metres that theworld’s highest mountainmeasures. His effort has so farraised £3,500 ($4,340) for acharity that supports morethan 1,200 UK food banks. Usinga computer programmed by hisneighbour to track his progress,he almost came unstuck on daythree when his knee began tohurt, but took his wife’s adviceto tape frozen peas to it andmanaged to push on, finallyreaching the ‘summit’ after 29hours of ‘climbing”. His familywas waiting on the rooftopterrace when he ran up thestairs for the final time. “It wasa real sense of achievement,”he added. REUTERS

Brit scales ‘indoorEverest’ — with helpfrom frozen peas

Naomi Canton

London: Concerns are beingraised about the numbers ofethnic minorities contrac-ting Covid-19 in Britain after areport found that a dispropor-tionate number of those pati-ents in intensive care who tes-ted positive for the disease we-re BAME (black, Asian andethnic minority.)

A report by Intensive CareNational Audit and ResearchCentre found that, up to April 3,2020, of the 1,966 patients admit-ted to critical care with Co-vid-19, 35 % were non-white,which is nearly double the19.5% of the UK populationwhich is an ethnic minority. Fo-urteen per cent of those caseswere Asian even though Asi-ans make up 7.5% of the UK po-pulation and 14% of those caseswere black yet blacks are 3% ofthe UK population. Similarly,14% of those critically ill withconfirmed Covid-19 receivingadvance respiratory supportare Asian and 17% are black.

On Saturday the head of theBritish Medical Association,Indian-origin Chaand Nag-paul, called on the governmentto investigate whether ethnicminorities in the UK are morevulnerable to the virus after it

was revealed that the first 10doctors in the UK to have diedfrom the virus were all BAME.

Full report on www.toi.in

Geneva: The World HealthOrganization said on Satur-day that it was looking into re-ports of some Covid-19 pati-ents testing positive again af-ter initially testing negativefor the disease while beingconsidered for discharge.

South Korean officials onFriday reported 91patients tho-ught cleared of the new corona-virus had tested positive again.Jeong Eun-kyeong, director ofthe Korea Centers for DiseaseControl and Prevention, saidthe virus may have been “reac-tivated” rather than the pati-ents being re-infected.

WHO said: “We are awareof these reports of individualswho have tested negative for Co-vid-19 using PCR (polymerasechain reaction) testing andthen after some days testing po-sitive again... We are working toget more information on thoseindividual cases.” According toWHO’s guidelines, a patient canbe discharged from hospital af-ter two consecutive negative re-sults in a clinically recoveredpatient at least 24 hours apart.

Based on current studies,there is a period of about twoweeks between the onset ofsymptoms and clinical recove-ry of patients with mild CO-VID-19, WHO said. REUTERS

WHO lookinginto reports ofpeople testing-ve, then +ve

CELEBRATE EASTER, BUT INDOORS: France has deployed some1,60,000 police, including officers on horseback who patrolled beachesand parks, to check public gatherings on Easter (Sunday). The country’s coronavirus death toll rose by 635 to 13,832 on Saturday

Afghanistan on Saturdayturned down Pakistan’s

demand to handover the chief ofthe Islamic State terror group’sKhorasan unit, Aslam Farooqi,the mastermind behind a deadlyterror attack on a gurdwara inKabul last month, according to amedia report.The Afghanforeign ministry turned downPakistan’s demand, sayingFarooqi was involved in thekilling of hundreds of Afghans,therefore, he should be triedunder the law of the country,Express Tribune reported. PTI

Af refuses to handover Kabul gurdwarabomber to Pakistan

The commander of US forcesin Afghanistan met Taliban

chiefs in Doha to call for an end towhat they say is an increase inAmerican attacks since a peacedeal signed in February, allega-tions the US military denied onSaturday.The meeting betweenTaliban chiefs and General ScottMiller, commander of US forces,took place on Friday. AGENCIES

Taliban meet with USgeneral amid tensionover peace deal

Some of the other victimsof the novel coronavirusin the US, including sever-

al New York cab drivers, havebeen even more bereft, dyingvirtually alone and their bod-ies disposed of by the state.

The New York Taxi Work-ers Alliance, which is led bythe Indian-American activistBhairavi Desai, has said thebusiness has been decimatedby the coronavirus, with driv-ers’ WhatsApp groups filledwith messages about thosewho are in hospital and thosewho have passed away. Fourdrivers from Punjab are saidto be among the victims.

Many Indians in Americawork in areas that constitutethe frontlines in the pandemic:

doctors, nurses, cab drivers,truckers, grocery and conve-nience store workers, gas sta-tion attendants etc. Alsoamong the dead are more than40 workers of the MetropolitanTransportation Authority thatruns the New York City sub-way and employs a large num-ber of Indian-origin personnel.

Scores of travellers fromIndia on tourist visas, includ-ing parents visiting their rela-tives, are among those strand-ed in the US following the lock-down. In one instance fromParsipanny, NJ, parents of acouple visiting US for theirdaughter’s delivery contractedthe virus and are in hospital ina critical condition, as is theirson-in-law. The daughter deliv-ered a healthy child and bothmother and baby are stable.

An Indian doctor whopassed away in North Caroli-na has had to be cremated inthe US even though he is anIndian citizen. Two Indianstudents who have died in re-cent weeks in cases not relat-ed to coronavirus have had tobe cremated here and theirashes are being preserved bya community organisation atthe request of parents, pend-ing repatriation to India.

In another instance, an In-dian-American permanentresident who has been diag-nosed with cancer post thecoronavirus outbreak isawaiting his family that isstuck in India due to the trav-el ban. Names of people in-volved have been withheld onrequest from community ac-tivists attending to the cases.

Many Indians in Americain forefront of Covid fight

English designer brandBurberry is going tomanufac-

turing gowns and masks to helpwith an unprecedented demandfor PPE, reports Naomi Cantonfrom London. The UK governmentis calling on more firms to manu-facture protective equipment.Spirits giant Diageo and chemi-cals giant Ineos are alreadyproducing sanitiser whilst RollsRoyce and car manufacturerMcLaren are making visors.

Top fashion brandjoins other UK firmsin fight against Covid

Fears rise in UK thatethnic minorities moreprone to coronavirus

�Continued from P 1

UK home secretary Priti Pateladdressing media on Saturday

FLAVOUR OF THE TIME

Getty Images/iStockphoto

Public schools in New YorkCity’s 1.1million-student

district will be shuttered forthe rest of the academic year,but online education willcontinue as the city strugglesto contain the outbreak, ma-yor Bill de Blasio announcedSaturday. It was not an easydecision to close schools, deBlasio said, “but it is the rightdecision”. The goal is to reop-en school sites by September,and high school graduatesmay be denied a commenc-ement ceremony, de Blasiosaid. School buildings in NewYork City, the US epicentre ofthe pandemic, have beenclosed since March 16. AP

NYC schools toremain closed till September

Dhaka: Bangladesh has exe-cuted a former military captainfor his involvement in the 1975coup in which the country’sfounder Bangabandhu SheikhMujibur Rahman was assassi-nated, nearly four-and-a-halfdecades after the massacre.

Abdul Majed was hanged atDhaka central jail in Kerani-ganj at 12am (local time) on Sun-day, bdnews24.com reported.

In 1998, Majed was sen-tenced in absentia to death alo-ng with a dozen other army offi-cers over the murders. Bangla-desh’s Supreme Court upheldthe verdict in 2009 and five ofthe killers were executed sev-eral months later. Mazed wasarrested in Dhaka on Tuesdayafter hiding in India for nearlytwo-and-a-half decades.

President Abdul Hamid onThursday rejected his mercyplea, removing the last hurdlefor his hanging. Majed’s wifemet him one last time on Satur-day when the jail authoritieshad scheduled his execution. PTI

Ex-army officerbehind killing of

Bangladesh’sfounder hanged

CCI NG 3.7 Product: TOIDelhiBS PubDate: 12-04-2020 Zone: Delhi Edition: 2 Page: TOIDCOM User: harshita.u Time: 04-12-2020 01:20 Color: CMYK

Page 9: Lockdown set to be extended with some measures to restart ...

SUNDAY SPECIAL

[email protected]

Sujit Vakkalanka, an internist at a Virginia hospital, has been quarantined for the last two weeks. When the 31-year-old

started running fever on March 24, he was terrified. “I kept think-ing what will happen now? What will happen to my family? I couldn’t sleep at night,” he re-calls. On a H1B visa, Vak-kalanka, whose aged par-ents live in Andhra Pradesh’s Kakinada, knows that the price of falling sick is very high.

The US health system relies heavily on immi-grants like Vakkalanka, who make up 17% of all health care workers in the US. Many are on the frontlines treating American citizens who have coronavirus, de-spite the risk to their own safety, and even their visa status.

But the present immigration policies give them a raw deal. If these health workers (usually on a H1B or J1 visa) fall sick, they risk los-ing their jobs. If they die, their families can be deported. Dr Deepika Gupta, a hospital-ist treating Covid-19 patients in Spokane county, Washington, knows the risks she takes every time she dons her scrubs. “Every time I walk into the hospital, I tell myself I cannot fall sick, I cannot die. I live in the constant fear that I may be asked to leave,” says the 35-year-old, who moved to the US from Dehradun some ten years ago.

“This is a terrible result for individu-als on the frontline helping to deal with a healthcare crisis,” says Ian Wagreich, chair of the International Medical Grad-uate Taskforce government liaison com-mittee, “If these physicians were able to get their US permanent residence cards (PRs), then the families would be pro-

tected. But because of the per-country limits on immigrant visas, Indian physi-cians may have to wait for decades before obtaining PRs.”

Physicians for American Healthcare Access (PAHA) has been advocating with lawmakers for improved and more flexible immigrant policies. PAHA president Dr Sanjeev Ram Alur says, “H1B visa is con-ditional visa where they can stay in US if they are able to work. These physicians, along with their families, face deportation if they are unable to work for any reason.”

Dr Alur’s visa is up for renewal, and he is hoping that the process will go with-

out a hitch. Doctors like Alur must also deal with the harsh reality of lay-offs

and decreased remuneration as hos-pitals postpone elective surgeries

and see a drop in revenues.Screening and testing pa-

tients in Georgia’s Augusta city, Dr Nikhil Patel knows that he will be ineligible for health insurance, ben-efits like social security or even a pay cheque in case he falls ill. “Irrespective of this we are going to work. So far at my hospi-tal, we have tested 1,000 patients and we have a

case load of over 120 as of now. We fear that it will

peak in the coming week,” he says. Dr Patel says that

lawmakers should bring down visa restrictions that disallow

physicians from practising out-side a geographical area. “I would

be happy to travel and contribute to a high-load area but my visa will

not allow it. People don’t understand that when we say no to serving in another location. It is not because we don’t want to, it is because we can’t,” he adds.

Patel’s parents live in Mumbai, and there have been frequent calls in the last two months as anxiety levels rise. “Earlier we used to speak once a week, but with the situation the way it is, they are very worried about me and the risk I am taking,” he says.

Vakkalanka, on the other hand, is a re-lieved man after his test was Covid-19 nega-tive. He expects to join work next week but realises how close it came to derailing his dreams. “Two colleagues have tested positive but I didn’t. I just lucked out,” he says, “I think that as a doctor you should have a free mind. If you have thoughts about your future or your family haunting you, it is bad for the patient and the hospital. You cannot work like that.”

Stuck between visa and corona worries

PanicdemicThe consequence of

coronadosing

BC/AC21st century’s new

epochs: Before Corona and After Corona

Cove-DwellersThose who are hunkering down

until the storm passes

CaremongeringSpreading kindness and love to help the

lonely, anxious and vulnerable

QuarantoningThe activity that takes away the guilt from comfort-eating and Netflixing

CoronaroamersSelfish knobheads flouting isolation rules as they think the rules don’t apply to them. Aka covidiots

CORONA WORDPLAY: THERE’S A PUNDEMICOUT THERESome of the many neologisms inspired by the novel coronavirus

Sources: News reports, Bloomberg, Urban Dictionary

CoronakidsAnother result of relentless

spousal intimacy

Gen-CThe generation born in

the time of Covid-19

Covid-22Pandemic-related

dilemmas, e.g. balancing the need for fresh air

with the risk of leaving your house.

CovidivorceOne result of relentless

spousal intimacy

ZoombombersYou moved to video. Well,

so did the trolls

Pre-Traumatic Stress Disorder

When every cough concerns

CoronadoseOverdosing on

bad news

QuarantimeThe (slow and unpredictable) passage of time in isolation

IsobeardWhen you’re in isolation

due to coronavirus and can’t be bothered

shaving anymore

9am My morning begins with a frantic call from

my cousin, ‘How did you hurt your leg?’

‘To cheer up my mother in-law, we were playing antakshari. Half-way through, I not only started belt-ing out ‘Tamma Tamma Loge’ but decided to demonstrate the steps, you remember that energetic, stomping bit? Well, I fell while do-ing it and fractured my foot. I now firmly believe that it’s not just the audience but even God who refuses to watch my dance moves.’

11.30am As I am sit-ting with my

daughter doing her math lessons, I discover on WhatsApp that my son has shaved his head with a trimmer. When I tell her that I have to go to check on her brother in the next room, she says, ‘No! Wait till I finish 4 more lessons.’

Along with a baffling urge to scream, I also have a number of questions like — why so many les-sons when school is shut till Au-gust! How important can this be when clearly you are not working on exponential growth models? How does it matter if ‘A farmer has 10 sheep and if 3 are taken away how many are left?’ How is this even relevant at a time when no one is taking anyone’s sheep anywhere, because no one is eating meat? I mean, come on, even bloody biryani is now made with jackfruit.

Luckily, I manage to stifle this rant and start humming an old song, I think it’s from Saajan.

Noon Now she is insisting on a game of mo-

nopoly. Though I would rather bang my head on the wall, I nod wearily. It is halfway through the game when I am singing ‘Zahareela Zahreela Pyaar’ with all the hissing sound ef-fects that I realise I have a serious problem.

My subconscious, worried that I may not be coping as well as I should, is trying to re-mind me of the one person who survived an extended lockdown with equanimity, Sanjay Dutt.

2pm Unable to get in touch

w i t h M u n n a B h a i M.B.B.S, I reach out to Dr Parul Tank, a well-known psychiatrist and therapist, for tips on surviving the pandemic. She writes back saying her primary advice to everyone at this point would be to avoid conflicts as much as possible.

‘This is a time to be particularly careful about how you phrase requests around chores. Let’s not bring up past issues wherein a blame game can start and learn to be more accepting,’ she states. She throws in some useful bullet points:

1. Routines: Children need them even more than adults. In-volve them in household chores. This will make them expend energy and teach a sense of responsibility

2. Pamper yourself: Eat some-thing nice, watch a show you like. Rub some oil in your hair, whatever you find relaxing.

3. Exercise mind and body:Put on music and dance. Endor-phins will flow and you get an activ-ity you can do together as a family and then end with some calm breathing exercises.

4. Cut back on caffeine: It can mimic anxiety so try and reduce it. (All you Instagrammers posting artistic pictures of phenta hua cof-fee just because it has a fancy name new Dalgona, do pay heed)

5. Have lots of sex: Err, I am paraphrasing. What she actually said was ‘Find productive distrac-tions’. Though by this, she meant finishing all the To-Do lists that we accumulate, I think this particular distraction that floods your body with feel-good chemicals should be on the top of the to-do list. Let’s just say, horizontal refreshment, as it was called in the 1860s, may also give you some respite from serving yet another round of tea and pakoras.

3pm Inspired by Dr Tank’s list, I tell my son to make

me some chocolate souffle.’ When the man of the house asks me why I am ordering our son around I retort, ‘I have a broken leg, I can’t go and make it myself can I?’ He snorts, ‘As if you could make chocolate souffles before you broke your leg?’

‘No, I couldn’t, but that’s not the point! Anyway, Dr Tank also has a task for husbands, and it involves the bed, not rumpling it but making it.’

When he doesn’t move from the couch, I want to throw a few things, but remembering the advice about phrasing things correctly, I sprinkle some endearments and a ‘please and thank you’. He instantly leaps into action with the same determined look that I last saw on the big screen when he was jumping onto a moving plane.

4.30pm The day goes by in fielding multiple

calls from friends and family, all about them feeling bored or trapped. How-ever, one old friend still made a lot of sense. She says, ‘When my boys com-plain, I just tell them to be grateful that we don’t have to walk to our vil-lage in order to survive, or worry about our next meal. If the only battle you are facing is boredom, then count your blessings and shut up.’ Amen.

5.40pm The family joins me on the balcony.

‘What is that on the tree Mom, is it a squirrel?’ asks my older one, and then tells me to pass him the binoculars. ‘It

is a squirrel! You know mom, my friend said she saw peacocks in Juhu. Can you believe it? All these animals are coming out now.’ I tell him, ‘There’ve always been peacocks in Juhu. Even this squirrel, balcony and binoculars have always been there, it’s we who forgot they existed.’

As the sun begins its journey to light up a day across some other dis-tant land, where people are in exactly the same situation as us, I say, ‘While not forgetting to help those less fortu-nate than us, we should also use this time to invest in ourselves as indi-viduals and as a family. One can look at this time as a curse or a gift. The old glass half full or half empty co-nundrum baba.’

I then turn to the man of the house, ‘Accha listen, can you make me a gin and tonic please?’

He looks at me in astonishment, ‘Now? Isn’t it a bit early to start?’

I nod, ‘You know people have been saying ibuprofen should be avoided during this coronavirus period. So, for this leg pain, it’s best if I get a drink instead of a painkiller, right?’

As he walks to the bar I say, ‘Fill my glass to the brim and two cubes of ice, and a wedge of lime please.’

Breaking my foot during a pan-demic has not turned out to be so bad after all.

I not only started belting out ‘Tamma Tamma Loge’ during the antakshari but decided to do the steps, falling and fracturing my foot. I now believe that even God refuses to watch my dance moves

When your lockdown glass is half full… of gin

TWINKLE KHANNA

Mrs. Funnybones

[email protected]

When most of us started WFH-ing, we all had dreams of shedding our constricting suits, ties and bras, and

roaming around in holey tees and shoes that do not pinch. But while the pressure to dress and impress has eased, a new fash-ion category has come to the fore: waist-up dressing. Since Zoom and Skype calls are now literally the only interactions one has with colleagues, the focus has shifted to the visible top half.

In the US, retail giant Walmart recent-ly reported increased sales in tops but not bottoms while back home, Sonam Shah of The Label Life saw a similar trend before the lockdown started. If it continues, she feels a more loungey aesthetic will emerge.

Fashion journalist and author Sujata Assomull points out that we dress accord-ing to our mood, so it is natural for people to dress easy in these uncertain times. “You could call #WFH dressing the new “Friday Dressing”, she says. “People are dressing more for themselves than others right now, and in the future, this attitude could continue.”

Even CEOs are taking it easy. Mahin-dra group chairman Anand Mahindra recently confessed on Twitter that he had donned a lungi under his shirt while work-ing from home. Nikhil Rajpal, CEO of Hero Electronix, says he still makes an effort to wear collared T-shirts, but usu-

ally pairs them with shorts as the days get hotter in Gurugram. “We did tell employ-ees to dress like they would at work, but the dress code is much more relaxed than it used to be,” says Rajpal, 44. “At the same times, some basics are important — you don’t want to see someone who looks like they haven’t showered, have messy hair

or show up in night clothes. You want to show that you’re focusing.”

Kailash Mohan assistant product man-ager at Johnson & Johnson Consumer India, says he is having more fun with his wardrobe, wearing colours that pop on video. “I have taken out colourful T-shirts from my cupboard, which I wear with chi-nos or three-fourths,” says Mohan, 31. His team has even started a weekly ‘fancy dress’ competition. Does he miss the for-mals? Sometimes, he says. “I even took out an ironed shirt for a video call even though we don’t have to follow any dress code in this period,” says Mohan.

Juggling house work and office work has meant that women are putting a pre-mium on comfort. Jayashri Kulkarni, busi-ness unit lead at J&J and Mohan’s col-

league, has swapped her saris and formal salwar-kameezes for simple cotton kurtas and tees paired with jeans, shorts, track pants. “It would be hypocritical to say clothes don’t matter but right now there is a nonstop overlap between home and work, and the workspace can be anywhere from the bedroom to the kitchen, so I need to be more comfortable,” says Kulkarni, who feels she will continue to look for comfort and functionality once she gets back to of-fice as well. “I would be open to wearing more casual clothes in internal interac-tions, which otherwise I would’ve been more careful about,” she says.

So will quarantine fashion change workwear in the long run? Ayushi Gid-wani, CEO of women’s workwear brand FableStreet, says there is likely to be a shift

towards more breathable fabrics such as cotton that are suitable for the Indian cli-mate rather than polyester. “You don’t have air conditioning at home all the time,” she says. “Also function will supersede style, in terms of roomy clothing with extra stretch.” Gidwani’s own wardrobe has shifted from dresses to multi-purpose trou-sers and cotton shirts (no whites), which make it easier to move around at home.

Now, there will definitely be more peo-ple wearing loungewear and athleisure inspired looks that facilitate comfort and ease of everyday workings, says designer Raghavendra Rathore. “It will be the new normal way of approaching and dressing for work.

It’s also about habit. The more indi-viduals are asked to work remotely, the more they expect to be comfortable when back in the workplace, says menswear designer Sandeep Gonsalves of Sarah &

Sandeep. “And yes, a lot of workplaces will be willing to relax their dress codes after this lockdown ends,” he says.

Office dress codes have been loosening for a while, especially in startups. Re-searchers attribute this to the “red sneak-ers effect”: our tendency to think that people who dress unconventionally are more competent than conformists who want to blend in.

But Gidwani warns that even maver-icks need to be well-groomed. “If you haven’t been able to do laundry or ironing, at least ensure that your shirt or top is ironed,” Gidwani says. “Every company understands that life is different when working from home but rather than for your employer, you should dress up for yourself.”

What’s the point of dressing when no one except your family or your pets will see you, right? Wrong, say psychologists who’ve studied the impact of clothing on behaviour. The thing is that act of getting dressed prepares our mind and body for a day of work and separates the home space from the work

WHY YOU NEEDPYJAMA DISTANCING

As video meetings dominate our work days, waist-up dressing has become the new quarantine chicChad Crowe

CEOs in lungis! How WFH will change office dressing

Chad Crowe

SOLDIERS WITHSTETHOSCOPES

Indian-origin doctors are the backbone of the UK’s publicly-funded National

Health Services (NHS). There are approximately 65,000 Indian-origin doctors in the NHS, 70% of whom trained in India.

Now, many of them are on the frontlines of the battle against Covid-19 in the UK. Dr Narendra Babu Chinnappa, a consultant chest physician at Singleton Hospital in Wales, says it feels like it is wartime. “At the end of the day we are like soldiers in the middle of a war. We have to go and face it,” says the 46-year-old who is originally from Kolar in Karnataka.

His relatives back home worry about him, especially after hearing the news that an India-born doctor Jitendra Rathod had succumbed to the virus in Wales. Five others are on ventilators.

But he is more concerned about his elderly parents in India. “If India gets to the same level as the UK or Italy, it will be difficult to control as the population is so big.”

Dr Joydeep Grover, a consultant of emergency medicine at Southmead Hospital in Bristol, sees 100 new Covid patients every day. “It is inevitable that we will get infected. It is not ‘if’, it’s ‘when’,” says the 47-year-old, who moved to the UK in 2003 after training at AFMC in Pune.

But it’s the support of the community that keeps morale up. “I have never seen, in my whole medical career, so much support for us. We have people dropping off food, pizza companies sending free pizzas. It is quite amazing,” Grover adds.

— Naomi Canton

Remote workers will get used to being comfortable. And, a lot of offices will be willing to

relax dress codes after this lockdown ends

— SANDEEP GONSALVESMENSWEAR DESIGNER

100,000 doctors of Indian-origin in the US, as per estimates

17% of all health care workers in the US are immigrants

Usually on a H1B or J1 visa, they risk losing their jobs if sick

When I got fever, I kept thinking what will happen now? What

will happen to my family?—SUJIT VAKKALANKA | INTERNIST AT VIRGINIA HOSPITAL

Every time I walk into the hospital, I tell

myself I cannot fall sick, I cannot die—DR DEEPIKA GUPTA |

HOSPITALIST, WASHINGTON

Indian-origin doctors on H1Bs fear an infection will put their life, and visa status at risk

SUNDAY TIMES OF INDIA, NEW DELHI APRIL 12, 2020 9

CCI NG 3.7 Product: TOIDelhiBS PubDate: 12-04-2020 Zone: Delhi Edition: 1 Page: TOIDBF User: vivek.arora Time: 04-11-2020 21:56 Color: CMYK

Page 10: Lockdown set to be extended with some measures to restart ...

ALL THAT MATTERS

Of US President Donald Trump’s many outrageous acts, few rival his threat to impose economic sanctions on India un-less it lifts its ban on export of hydroxy-chloroquine — a drug used to combat ma-

laria, lupus and auto-immune diseases — and supply it to the US instead. The raw material for the Indian production of this drug comes mainly from China, whose lockdowns have badly disrupted supplies. To save lives, India has re-stricted or banned the export of this and several other essential drugs.

Medical experts have repeatedly said there is no evi-dence that this drug will combat Covid-19. Clinical trials will take time to deliver a verdict. Yet Trump is so con-vinced that the drug works that he has twisted India’s arm to supply to the US. Modi has agreed to lift the export ban, examine how much of the drug is needed for different pur-poses, and then permit exports on a case-by-case basis. Trump boasts this is a personal victory.

I unhesitatingly call Trump a monster who wants us to act as though American lives are more valuable than In-dian ones. Indian diplomats have to be more circumspect in word and deed. But they must seize the opportunity to ensure a diplomatic payback. In return, Trump should restore duty-free entry into the US of $ 6.2 billion of Indian exports under the generalised system of preferences (GSP), a privilege he cut off in 2018. Many hoped for a trade deal restoring GSP during Trump’s visit to India in January, but in vain. India now has the leverage to make it happen.

I would love to send the following note to Trump. “Per-haps you will try anything — including unproven drugs — to improve your re-election chances. Or maybe you genuinely believe in the magical healing powers of hy-droxychloroquine. But even if clinical trials ultimately prove that the drug works, that will surely be the strongest possible argument for India to maintain its export ban and preserve scarce supplies to save Indian lives. Since India’s population is four times higher than America’s, India needs anti-Covid-19 drugs more than the USA. You yourself used the US Defence Production Act to ban the export of respi-rators by 3M to meet US domestic needs. If the US needs such bans, why not India too?

“On the other hand, consider the possibility — backed by almost all medical experts — that the drug will not work. In that case neither American nor Indian Covid-19 victims will be affected. But millions of Indians also sufer from malaria, lupus arthritis and auto-immune diseases,

all of which require this drug. To deprive millions of In-dian sufferers to improve your re-election chances is a moral outrage.”

Modi and Indian diplomats cannot be so frank. They have to treat this as a diplomatic issue, not just a moral one. They could send this note.

“We are grief-stricken that Americans are threatened with disease and death by a virus originating in China, which deserves harsh condemnation for suppressing the initial news of the virus, permitting much faster trans-mission to the US and India. Despite our low income and limited resources, we have always believed in trying to help the US wherever possible, to strengthen links between the world’s two greatest democracies. We are desperately short of many essential drugs to combat malaria, lupus, and auto-immune diseases, and so have banned their ex-port. But we are happy to make an exception for the United States.

However, we have serious needs too. The virus has forced us to shut down entire cities and industries, putting mil-lions out of work. Millions had earlier lost their jobs when the US withdrew GSP. We have been working on a trade deal to restore GSP, but that has not yet succeeded due to other preoccupations.

Now Covid-19 gives us both a chance to take this issue to the centre stage. We will sacrifice and share with you drugs we ourselves desperately need. But we hope this will enable you to overcome forces opposed to the restoration of GSP.

We were pained that you said publicly that if we had not supplied the drug, we would have been subjected to sanctions. We trust that was mainly political theatre. As we both know, the US now has almost 4 million people of Indian origin. Their votes could make the difference be-tween victory and defeat in the coming US presidential election. Their votes cannot be won by threatening sanc-tions against India. But they will surely respond favour-ably to an amicable deal whereby India supplies you with a life-saving drug and you restore GSP to help millions of Indians in distress.”

Like the article: SMS MTMVSA<space> Yes or No to 58888@ 3/sms

It’s time for India to play hardball

with Trump

Email your letters to the editor at [email protected] ‘Sunday Mailbox’ in the subject line.

Please mention your name and city

INBOX

Brace for challenges after lockdown liftsThis refers to ‘Covid-19 is not the only crisis the country is confronting’ (ATM, April 5). The sick and the elderly call for special attention in these troubled times. They are now cooped up in their homes and are bereft of prescribed exercise and access to doctors for their ailments. Unsure of how they are faring, many of them might rush for unscheduled check-ups once the lockdown is lifted. This can throw up new challenges for the govt and the healthcare sector which is already stretched by Covid-19. Thus strategies to ensure that such a vulnerable section continues to be cared for are important. Kerala recruiting 276 doctors through video-conferencing must be kept in mind.

V Nagarajan, Chennai

Balanced approach needed This refers to ‘What India did right with the lockdown will overshadow the wrongs’ (ATM, April 5). The government has shown timely resolve and nimbleness to tackle the ever expanding menace of coronavirus. While saving the lives of citizens is the government’s priority, it is also aware of the huge economic fallout of the lockdown. The economy cannot be put into deep freeze. How Modi and his team tackles the situation will now decide India’s politico-economic future.

Kamna Chhabra, Gurugram

Disconnected from realityPico Iyer in his interview with Namita Devidayal (ATM, April 5) reiterates the need for humans to pause and reflect. While we live in an interconnected world, we are far disconnected from reality.

B Stephen Gomes, Mumbai

US President Donald Trump called Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ask him to release ship-ments of Hydroxychloroquine tablets hoping they might be a

“game-changer” in the fight against Covid-19. Whether they work or not, that call underscored how the pandemic has turned the world order upside down.

As a new immigrant in America in the 90s, I was used to thinking of the US as the safe zone and India as the dangerous outback swarming with exotic diseases. I remember pots of water being boiled at my home every time I returned to Kolka-ta. Indian water was deemed unsafe for my Amer-icanised digestive system. It seems an ironic twist that now an American president is looking to India

for help in keeping Americans safe, that too with a drug used to fight malaria.

America-returned or London-returned used to be badges of pride in middle-class India. Your stock went up in the neighbourhood with that visa stamp. I always brought back extra Camay soaps and Kit-kat chocolates to distribute among the neighbours, cheap treats in America that still carried foreign-returned cachet in India.

Once we brought back Camay soaps. Now we bring back the virus. “Foreign-returned” has ac-quired a patina of suspicion rather than pride. The foreign-returned are sent to quarantine much like Americans once did to all immigrants during the cholera epidemic of 1892. Parents in India worry more about their children in America than in some other corner of India. Countries like Italy are re-garded with trepidation the way the West tradition-ally regarded yellow fever zones in Africa.

Foreigners in India, usually on the top of high society’s guest list, are objects of suspicion these

days. When my friends Milena Chilla-Markhoff and her mother, who live in Kolkata about half the year, opted for repatriation back to Germany after commercial flights ceased in India, their biggest hurdle was getting someone to take them to the hotel from where the evacuees would leave for the airport. The cab services that would have once clamoured to take foreigners were reluctant to ferry anyone who looked foreign.

To go or not to go has become a difficult ques-tion. A US consular official said while some 7,000 people had registered for repatriation to the US, when their staff cold-called 800 people for one of the evacuation flights, they got only 10 positive re-sponses. I hear stories of Americans choosing to go back to the States because they are worried about aging parents back in America, but unsure wheth-er it’s the safest thing to do, the old immigrant story turned on its head.

It’s not that India is a safe haven from the virus. While the death toll has crossed into three figures,

the low levels of testing make it unclear what kind of infection rates India is grappling with or where hotspots will erupt next. The point is that for the first time America feels no safer than India. Even more disorienting, the West is having to look to the East for survival tips from namaste to anti-malaria drugs.

Until recently leaders like Boris Johnson and Donald Trump had downplayed Covid-19, Trump calling it a hoax that would disappear like magic. The West was open for business as usual unlike Asia with its heavy-handed lockdowns, thermal scans and flight bans. Now as the toll spirals in America and Boris Johnson emerges from the ICU, Indian academic Mukul Kesavan writes “There is a First World defined by pandemic readiness; its capital is Seoul.” Addressing his party, Modi claimed the “speed with which India took decisions in a comprehensive and holistic manner is not only being talked about in the world but has been praised by the World Health Organisation.” Brazil’s presi-

dent flatters India by evoking images of Hanuman bringing lifesaver herbs from the Himalayas. The fact is countries like India have long sought Amer-ica’s favour. They are not used to America seeking favors from it. But this is not the time for schaden-freude. Rather it is about shared suffering. One just hopes that when we emerge from this pandemic, we will remember these lessons with humility.

My friend Milena has reached Berlin with her mother. After undergoing ten days of India’s strin-gent lockdown, she felt compelled to hand out sanitisers to young people sitting too close togeth-er on the train in Germany. She has also figured out what gifts she could bring back from India that her friends in Germany might truly value the way Camay soaps once raised my stock in Kolkata. She is gifting them something the West covets in these days of Corona panic but is of little value in India — rolls of toilet paper.

Like the article: SMS MTMVSD<space> Yes or No to 58888@ 3/sms

From namaste to corona drugs, West is looking to East for survival tips

Something wonderful is taking place in India, thanks to the lockdown —social hierarchies are getting disman-tled and demolished phata-phat, even as we head into the next, most critical

phase of battling the deadly virus. We have been forced to confront our countless hang-ups and deep prejudices built over centuries. Hurrah! We have started to clean our own toilets. This is a very big social shift for a coun-try where we have traditionally discriminated against those who earned their livelihood making sure middle class potties remained spotless, while the saabs and mem-saabs concentrated on more sanitised matters and stayed away from jhadoos and mops.

Today, Bollywood stars are posting videos of them-selves doing more than whipping up lemon tarts in their ultra-modern kitchens. There they are, on all fours, hard at it, scrubbing the floor tiles of their huge loos. The lockdown has turned out to be an unexpected bless-ing in our hyper-hierarchal and closed society that had zero qualms about treating hired help as menials, born to clean upper class excreta. Today, the most important persons in our stratified lives are the people who can-not respond to our SOSes — the hard-working and frequently underpaid maids, cooks, dhobis, car-wash boys, bartan-cleaners, and an army of do-mestic staff on whom our sanity hinged. We are finally down on our creaky knees, pouring gallons of pine-scented phenyl into toilet bowls.

What if, post-lockdown, the old or-der actually changes forever and yields place to new? Will India awaken to a new dawn — such as freedom from toilet-cleaning anxiety? I doubt it. Our ideas of ‘clean’ and ‘unclean’ are a bit too entrenched. We refuse to see dirt as the rest of the world does. Public dirt doesn’t bother us. We can walk past piles of rotting garbage on the streets and think nothing of it. We readily excuse paan and gutka chewers who spew spirals of spit on the roads. We forgive neighbours who empty dustbins out of their windows… and bratty children who routinely litter without being reprimanded. We have tolerated that most inhuman of practices — lowering sanitation workers into septic tanks, without demanding a strict law being passed against this barbaric act. But when it comes to our private space, we promptly trot out the old cliché — ‘cleanliness is next to godliness’.

All our double and multiple standards will have to be flushed down the tube once the lockdown lifts. Our exag-gerated squeamishness towards cleaning our own crap

may have to be abandoned once and for all. Dignity of labour has always been an alien concept here. Perhaps this is a good time to review and reject those despicable social structures that have condemned such a huge sec-tion of our society, forcing people to stay abjectly poor and downtrodden through generations. The lockdown is actually quite a boon. Our nasty caste system may fi-nally get chucked out of our narrow minds. In stages, of course. The lockdown has proved to be just the disrupter we needed to establish balance in our very unequal lives. Let this new realignment not disorient us to the extent that will make people fall back on it with a vengeance once we regain our familiar existence.

The word ‘co-operation’ within families that had for-gotten its meaning is leading to positive lifestyle chang-es. For those who have taken the incalculable services provided by over-burdened house helps entirely for granted, a major rejig was urgently required. And it has taken place. While access to fancy gyms is no longer an

option, perhaps making one’s own bed and lying on it, is one way to fight off extra calories. As someone joked, it’s worth keeping the mask on at home, if only to discourage overeating.

Meanwhile, it certainly looks like the drastic changes in our everyday lives has made gourmet chefs of us all. Nobody is eating ‘daal chawal’ any more, going by elaborately staged social media posts. Will we ever eat ‘normal food’ again? Or have chia seeds already replaced jeera in our kitchen cabinets? Are broccoli para-thas here to stay? What happens to the delicious, timeless mooli and aloo-gobhi versions? Should we be embracing all things non-desi, be-cause they are just so much more convenient? Since when has quinoa biryani displaced the real thing? Hmmm… something major is afoot. And not all of it is amazing. Have you noticed how nobody but nobody is eating Chinese anymore? Or that every upwardly mobile young man

projects himself on Instagram wearing an apron while tossing pasta as kids in designer sleepwear cheer? Oh yes, he no longer shaves! Why bother? Hirsute has nev-er been this out there and fashion-approved.

I am comforting myself by reading epidemiologist Kurt Wittkowski’s out-of-the-box opinion which questions conventional wisdom surrounding mass quarantine. “What people are trying to do is flatten the curve. I re-ally don’t know why.” He argues the only thing that stops respiratory diseases is herd immunity. Music to my un-tutored but very receptive ears. Will someone kindly pay attention to the good professor… and let us out?

Like the article: SMS MTMVCOL<space> Yes or No to 58888@ 3/sms

The social lesson of Covid-19: It’s time to flatten the ego curve

SWAMINOMICSSWAMINATHAN S ANKLESARIA AIYAR

DRUG TRADE-OFF: We should ask for the restoration of GSP privileges as a payback for supplying hydroxychloroquine to the United States

Italy has been one of the coun-tries worst-hit by the virus. As a writer, how has the human trag-edy affected you?Being a writer doesn’t make my response to tragedy any different from that of people who don’t write for a living. The enormity and strangeness of this cri-sis is totally incomparable, both in scale and in experience, to anything we’ve ever seen before in living memory, and provokes in everybody a variety of responses: fear, worry, solidarity, grief, but also the sense of being united in a common experience, albeit tragic, and in a purpose — not letting the contagion spread. As a writer, maybe, my only advantage is that by vocation and profession I am used to observing human experience — both my own and that of others — and that maybe I have the tools to try and express this whirlwind of alter-nating feelings.

How many days have you been under lock-down? What has been your daily routine?I have been in lockdown now (in Rome) ex-actly a month. I deem myself unbelievably lucky, and am fully conscious of my privi-lege: not only do I live in a pleasant home, with an outdoor space which gives me sun-light and respite, but most of all I haven’t really changed my daily routine in any significant ways. I used to spend my work-ing hours writing at my desk, and that’s what I still do. Ok, instead of going to the gym I train with online fitness videos. But I belong to that small, privileged slice of society which hasn’t seen its job and, there-fore, its livelihood, disappear overnight; I do not live with an abusive spouse; I do not share a cramped apartment with too many other worried, exhausted people; I don’t have, as I used to until a few years ago, small

children at home to take care of, and to somehow keep occu-pied, during endless school-less days. Even more poignantly, I do have a home where I can

stay: I am not homeless, nor do I live in a slum. My situation is therefore not even remotely as dramatic as that of so many other people. As I said in my letter, class makes all the difference, both in Italy and — much more extremely — in India. Even being able to stay home during the lock-down is a privilege in and of itself, as this protects me and my loved ones from being infected by the virus.

How can literature help us survive this crisis?That is exactly the magic of literature: the possibility for people to empathise and identify with lives that one would never be able to or even wish to live first hand, and therefore to have a glimpse in the rest of the human ex-perience outside one’s immediate reach. And if there ever was a moment when the power of literature to harness global empathy has a sig-nificant role, this is it. At the same time, as I said be-fore, nobody on the planet has, in recent memory, ever lived a situa-tion like this one: one in which all of us almost 8 bil-lion humans are exposed to the

same biological danger. There is something awesome — as in awe inducing — in this commonality of experience. There is no doubt that the mission of a lot of the lit-erature and art which will be produced in the coming years and decades will be to try and make sense of this.

You wrote in The Guardian article, “If we turn our gaze to the more distant future, the future which is unknown both to you and to us too, we can only tell you this: when all of this is over, the world won’t be the same.” What kind of world do you visualise?As I said, anyone who ventures into telling the future simply hasn’t understood what’s happening, so I would rather not do so my-self. What I can foresee is only that every-thing will be different: our societies, the global geopolitical power relationships, the role of capitalism, the relationship politics has with science and scientific research… Not to mention that aspect of our present time which seems to have been pushed aside by the news but which is, in fact, at the core of the Covid-crisis, as it’s the rea-son why the virus was transmitted from wildlife to humans in the first place: i.e. the relationship that we, as a human spe-cies, have with the natural habitat and the planetary ecosystem.

At this moment of history, what is your message to India?

Do not let anyone manipulate you into turning other people — especially,

groups of other people — as scape-goats for your understandable fear and anxiety. If someone — au-

thorities, people in power, dem-agogues — tries to convince you that sectarian conflicts

are the answer to the spread of the contagion,

— this only means that they are fighting against democracy, not against the virus; and that their aim is holding onto power, not protecting public health.

Italian novelist Francesca Melandri wrote a moving letter to the citizens of UK on the emotional impact of coronavirus recently. In an email interview with Avijit Ghosh, the author of this viral missive talks about why the Covid crisis is unlike anything we’ve seen before, and how it will change the world

Even being able to stay home is a privilege during the lockdown

FOR THE RECORD

THE BRIGHT SIDE: Celebs like Malaika Arora have been sharing their cooking or cleaning routines. That gives hope that the lockdown will break down social hierarchies

Woody Allen has finally found a publisher for his memoir Apropos of Nothing. His detractors and so-cial justice warriors forced Hachet-te to cancel publication of the book.

Its employees, in the usual virtue-signalling of the self-appointed custodians of society’s conscience, walked out of the company’s New York office in sup-port, they said, of ‘all survivors of sexual assault’. Arcade has published the book instead.

As the whole world knows by now, Allen was ac-cused of sexually abusing his adopted daughter Dylan Farrow as a child. The accusation was made by Dylan. She was supported by her brother Ronan Farrow, who is Allen’s son and a famous journalist. Hachette had published Farrow’s prize-winning book Catch and Kill last year. On hearing that Hachette was to publish his father’s memoir, Farrow denounced the decision, saying it showed “a lack of ethics and compassion for victims of sexual abuse”.

These attempts to silence individuals and groups by social justice warriors are always couched in the most noble terms, as standing for the highest moral principles. The reality is that they seek to curb the freedom of anyone they disagree with. Allen is simply the latest victim.

This is not the place to go into the merits of the allegations against Allen except to point out that he has been investigated and not charged with anything. That doesn’t mean he is necessarily innocent, of course, but that’s where the case stands. The issue that it raises, though, merits an airing and that is whether the private lives and conduct of creative peo-ple should be the criteria to judge their work.

This question has been debated ever since Richard Wagner’s anti-Semitism prompted some people to shun his work. But even if we accept the basic prem-ise that no one should listen to Wagner or read Allen’s memoir, the flaw in the argument is that it leads to madness. Where do you stop? Assuming it’s commend-able to shun a writer found guilty of sexual abuse, what do we do when we start probing every aspect of every writer’s life? Why not shun a writer who was violent towards his wife? What about racist writers or those who are cruel to their children? Or those who dump their parents in homes?

It would mean retrospective shunning of the most ridiculous kind: Ted Hughes’ poetry because two of his partners committed suicide; Tolstoy because his volatile behaviour tortured his wife Sofia and he kept serfs; Charlie Chaplin because he had sex with under-age girls; Charles Dickens for trying to get his wife committed to a mental asylum because he had fallen for a younger woman; and so on. The outcome of mor-ally policing all creative people who are in the public eye is absurd. It limits curiosity, invention, and risk-

taking. Imagine scientists not pushing an experiment to the hilt (such as trying to find a vaccine for Covid-19) for fear that, if it is a success, it may pitchfork them into the limelight and then their every peccadillo will be ruthlessly laid out for public scrutiny.

That this is a slippery slope is demonstrated by what happened to British Nobel laureate Sir Tim Hunt in 2015 when he joked that women scientists were a problem in the lab because they were a “distraction” and “they fall in love with you”. Hunt had to leave his honorary professorship at University College London after vilification by students and feminist scientists.

Multiply such examples and it’s easy to see not just how much invaluable expertise may be lost if it becomes common for prominent figures to be sub-jected to this judgmental treatment but also how younger scientists might be discouraged from seeking glory through new discoveries.

No one is forcing Ronan Farrow to read his es-tranged father’s memoirs, just as no one forced anyone to read the Satanic Verses. If only the morally out-raged could admit that their essential purpose, couched as support for victims and for the greater good of society, is to impose their point of view and deprive others of freedom. They are no different from those who demanded that Penguin pulp Wendy Doni-ger’s The Hindus. Both groups arrogated to them-selves the final word. The only difference is that Doni-ger’s attackers were boors and fanatics while someone like Farrow makes the same demand only in the language of political correctness.

Farrow is within his rights to criticise the book. Allen has come across as a sleazebag ever since he slept with and then married his adopted daughter. Farrow’s loyalty to his sister is praiseworthy. But Ar-cade was right to uphold freedom of speech. If we publish only authors whose private lives are unblem-ished or who are prepared to submit themselves to the prevailing orthodoxy, we will be the losers.

Like the article: SMS MTMVCOL<space> Yes or No to 58888@ 3/sms

SINGED BY SCANDAL: No one is forcing Ronan Farrow to read his estranged father’s memoirs but pulping them is an attack on the freedom of speech

Wagner or Woody, can we shun creative folks for their pvt lives?

AMRIT DHILLON

BY INVITATION

Fra

nce

sca

Ma

nto

van

i

SANDIP ROY

BY INVITATION

SHOBHAA DE

POLITICALLY INCORRECT

SUNDAY TIMES OF INDIA, NEW DELHIAPRIL 12, 202010

CCI NG 3.7 Product: TOIDelhiBS PubDate: 12-04-2020 Zone: Delhi Edition: 1 Page: CAP10 User: vivek.arora Time: 04-11-2020 21:45 Color: CMYK

Page 11: Lockdown set to be extended with some measures to restart ...

ASK SURAKSHIT

What made you move from nuclear physics to spirituality? ■ I asked my physics professor somequestions about the particles we werestudying — whether they exist, as wecannot see them.He said they must ex-ist as the formulae being used indicat-ed they must exist.I had no experienceof Vedic philosophy then, yet I was in-trigued by the answer I got.Several bigcorporations came with job offers toPurdue University campus, but I was-n’t comfortable at that thought.

I always thought I would producesomething as a theoretical physicist butnot in a corporation. Later on, as I gotfamiliar with Vedic philosophy,it struckme that the intellectual class in this ageis forced to work for the mercantileclass,whereas in Vedic times, it were theintellectuals who had the last word.Perhaps my karma stopped me fromworking for money.

I gave up science and got into hu-manities. I felt this is my calling;my in-terest was communication and theatre,and then I got introduced to Krishnaconsciousness, so got into philosophyand religion.Did your science backgroundhelp you understand spiritualitybetter?■ I always admired Einstein as he was agreat scientist and was spiritual, too.Physics tries to find the ultimate cause;physicists try to find the irreducible el-ement and we try to find the unlimit-ed elements, the biggest instead of thesmallest. The quest for the cause ofeverything that exists is something incommon for physics and spirituality.Only the methods and the under-standing of higher dimensions are dif-ferent. In general, physics and manyphysicists tend to be reductionist, tend

to believe in just matter, and if we un-derstand how matter works perfectly, itis thought we reach perfection.Acharya Prabhupada always said wecan never explain consciousness; allthese theories of psychology andphysics about consciousnesshaven’t been able to do justice.Our point of difference is thewhole reductionist tendency;we tend to look at thegreatest, that from whicheverything comes mustinclude everything that exists.Are you saying that there issomething beyond existence?■ Yes, there is something beyond exis-tence of matter. In spirituality, too, wehave provable, visible results. For in-stance, when you learn to meditate onthe Mahamantra, you reach a state ofsteady bliss.Does chanting afford you protection against the coronavirus? ■ Our immune system is weakened

mostly by anxiety, fear of death and thefear that I will lose something. Thepoint being made is that if you havecomplete faith and you are free fromanxiety,your immune system would be

stronger and so you will have im-munity against coronavirus oranything else, for it gives thegreatest possible defenceagainst anything. The essence,

the driver of the body, issoul; the Atman givesenergy, and when we tap

into that, and as the level of con-sciousness is high, the body will re-spond favourably.

If you have a beautiful bird cageand you spend the whole time pol-ishing the cage and the bird is starv-ing — this is what modern society isdoing, giving so much attention tobody and thought and not giving at-tention to soul,not understanding thenature of soul.What kind of problems do people bring to you?

■ Those who seek advice areyounger or older. The young arelooking for the purpose of life; theelderly realise that after all these years,they don’t know what life is all about.Those in the middle years are busy ashouseholders and are executing theirresponsibilities.

Earlier, the young would ask, whatshould I do with my life? What is thepurpose of life? Now,there are all kindsof things, perhaps more challengingquestions related to ecology, climatechange, environment, gender issues, allmore specific.They are concerned tothe point of experiencing what is be-ing called ‘ecological distress’. Thehopelessness they feel is a source of de-pression and frustration.

Questioning is always good. If tra-ditional practices are not based onproper values, it can promote blindfaith and superstition.

The older people ask, what do Ido with my life now that my kidshave grown up? Much older peopledon’t come, unless it is to do withdeath and depression.When very old,they don’t like to admit their mistakesbecause of ego.What do you tell them aboutdeath?■ I say death is a transition; it is not tobe feared. Srila Prabhupada said, fromthe moment you are born,you are dy-ing.We have less time every momentwe live.

Understand that your real exis-tence is spiritual, and not to hanker af-ter matter. Gandhiji said there isenough for our needs, but not for ourgreed. Find contentment. Chantingand meditation will help you calmdown, find peace and work out solu-tions to problems. ■

Sentient beings wish to return totheir origin where their

nature will be in perfect unity.Surangama Sutra

✥

One should lift oneself by one’s own efforts and should not

degrade oneself; for one’s own Selfis one’s friend, and one’s own self is one’s enemy.Bhagwad Gita 6:5

✥

To subdue one’s self and return topropriety, is perfect virtue. If a mancan for one day subdue himself andreturn to propriety, all under heaven

will ascribe perfect virtue to him.Analects 12.1.1

✥

Start by doing what’s necessary; thendo what’s possible; and suddenly you

are doing the impossible.St Francis Of Assisi

✥

Take up one idea. Make that oneidea your life — think of it, dream

of it, live on that idea. Let the brain,muscles, nerves, every part of yourbody, be full of that idea, and just

leave every other idea alone.This is the way to success.

Swami Vivekananda✥

Everybody loses ground sometimesand it doesn’t mean anything.It’s the way life works. Life

has a beautiful way of remakingitself every few weeks.

Donald Miller✥

Be willing to be a beginner every single morning.

Meister Eckhart

S A C R E DS P A C E

Back To Life

The Origin Of Conflict

The world is a very con-flicted place right now.The coronavirus pandem-ic has pushed us all into

one of the scariest health and eco-nomic crises that most of us will seein our lifetimes.The war-like situa-tion is adversely affecting the worldeconomy and is expected to impactour social, psychological and physi-cal status in the months and years tocome.

We are all in conflict, facing invis-ible enemies that can strike anyone,across geographic and political bound-aries.This is leading to fear and anx-iety at multiple levels.And it isn’t justabout the coronavirus.What we’re ex-periencing as human beings right now,is a complex web of conflict that hastied us up in knots everywhere.

Family and commercial disputesand workplace conflicts are cloggingup our legal systems. Polarisation be-tween races and religious denomina-tions have led to violent communal ri-ots everywhere. Our constant viola-tion of nature has led to climate change,ravaging vast areas of earth with floodsand forest fires, killing millions ofspecies.The truth is, the conflict spiraldoesn’t seem to be in the mood to spareanyone on this planet right now.

First,we need to identify the sourceof all conflicts, and tackle it at the root,taking action together.Conflict nippedin the bud is always easier to controland overcome.Else it will spiral out ofcontrol.

A deeper understanding of this canbe found in the Bhagwad Gita.Thisspiritual text has shaped the philoso-phy of many leaders including Gand-hiji, guiding us on the various dimen-sions of conflict. In the Gita, Krishnaspeaks with Arjuna about the four typesof conflicts that human beings facedthousands of years ago and which arerelevant to us even today.

Krishna speaks about buddhi —wisdom, intellect — and our abilityto see things clearly for what they

are, and to differentiate between rightand wrong, for self, others, and be-yond. It is when the buddhi becomesbhrasht, the intellect is lost or cor-rupted, that conflict arises in variousforms:

1Conflict with self: Arising fromlack of understanding of our own

real needs, personal interests, anddeepest fears — which,when not ad-dressed and remain unresolved, re-sult in inner conflict, characterisedby anger and resentment that clogour hearts and minds.We often re-fer to this as ‘inner conflict’.

2Conflict with society: Built oninner conflict, and the need to be

appreciated and acknowledged forwho we are, conflict with society in-cludes disagreements with family,friends, colleagues, bosses, neighboursand the community. This leads towhat we call the ‘Trust Deficit’ be-tween people, businesses, media,NGOs and government.

3Conflict with nature: Caughtup with inner conflict and trust

deficit, people have become desensi-tised to nature,and have rampantly de-stroyed natural bodies on the planet,making our lives unsustainable.

4Conflict with God:As we alien-ate ourselves from each other and

from who we are and distance our-selves from life-giving nature,we dis-connect from the Absolute, and cre-ate conflict between universal andindividual souls.This is reflected inindividuals and organisations, whobecome ‘soulless’.

Once we understand and relateto the four conflicts described above,the knowledge allows us to applyour own buddhi to identify our per-sonal interests, become empathetic,find common ground, and cultivatebeautiful relationships that create val-ue that is beneficial for all.

From the Gita’s point of view,individual self-control, social col-laboration, universal interrelatedness,and Absolute Oneness are keys to re-solve the fourfold conflicts we arefaced with every day.

The coronavirus is forcing us torelook at the way we have lived ourlives and the risks we put ourselvesand others through every day.We’rebeing reminded of what’s really im-portant to us at an individual level;of the significance of anonymouspeople who keep our lives and econ-omy running smoothly; of our re-sponsibility to nature and how it willbloom or go bust depending on howwe treat it; of the fact that we haveto collaborate and act as One, irre-spective of who we are, in order tosurvive and thrive as human beings.

The world needs to take a sharpturn, and we as human beings haveto reimagine the relationships wehave with our own self, with socie-ty, with nature, and the larger forcesthat be. ■

The authors are mediation experts

When individuals are not in harmony with their community and nature,we face losing equations all around, write RADHIKA & MEHERNOSH SHAPOORJEE

Prayers to the Almighty seemto have gone unanswered inthe Covid-19 pandemic. Iwonder if God exists?

— Shyam Kumar S, 35 years ■ The pan-demic Covid-19 has alreadytaken thou-sands of livesand renderedothers illwo r l d w i d e

without discriminating between re-ligions, countries, rich or poor.

This outbreak has affected theentire human race. It is a lesson forus to protect and respect the envi-ronment and its species.The virusis affecting everyone — and Godseems to be doing nothing to stopthis.According to the law of nature,one reaps what one sows. It seemsas if humans have destroyed natureby their karma and now the humanrace is facing the consequences.

There are natural disasters whichaffect a large number of people likeearthquakes and other geologicalprocesses. Coronavirus also comesunder this category.Humans remainignorant of their violent acts againstnature and now are calling out toGod for help when karma is bounc-ing back on us.The fruits of karmaare related to our past deeds, andGod doesn’t interfere with this law.God perceives his creations equal-ly; he is not partial to anyone. ■

Send your question to [email protected] with

subject line: Ask Surakshitand state your age

April 12: Easter Sunday April 13: Baisakhi

April 14:Vishu KaniKalashtami, Puthandu,

Pohela Boishakha April 18: Varuthini Ekadashi

Vallabhacharya Jayanti Birthday of Guru Angad Dev

THIS WEEK

The US-born, Mexico-based, 68-year-old GURU PRASAD SWAMI was a nuclear physicist whenhe came in contact with the Hare Krishna movement. During his military service in

Panama, his life changed dramatically. He received sanyasa initiation in Rio de Janeiro,Brazil, in 1982, from Iskcon founder Srila Prabupada. He interacts with NARAYANI GANESH

SACRED FLORA

TulsiBasil or tulsi, as it is called in

India, is revered in many cultures.The plant, Hindus believe, is theearthly manifestation of Goddess

Tulsi, an avatar of Vishnu’s consortLakshmi. It is believed that

following Christ’s resurrection, basilwas found growing around histomb; hence, Christians see basil as a symbol of life and

regeneration.The Romans believedthat basil had magical properties, sothey followed purification ritualsbefore harvesting the plant.Thereare over a hundred species of basil.

Tulsi is native to the Indiansubcontinent and is grown for

religious and medicinal use.Tulsi isconsidered effective in boosting

the immune system.Tulsi leavescontain phytochemicals,

bioflavonoids and anti-oxidantcompounds, such as rosmarinic acid,which is said to be very effective in

treating cough, sore throat andinflammation of the chest.The

easiest way to boost the immunesystem is to have tulsi-infused water

every morning on an emptystomach. One or two cups of tulsi-

ginger tea every day, especiallyduring the monsoon season, is saidto correct the doshas in the body.

Due to its broad-spectrumantimicrobial qualities, ayurvedicdoctors say tulsi can be used as ahand sanitiser, mouthwash and

water purifier. For centuries, driedtulsi leaves have been mixed withstored grains to keep insects away.

THE PHYSICIST MONK

NEW DELHI, SUNDAY, APRIL 12, 2020 SPIRITUAL PROMOTIONAL FEATURE

©G

ETTY

IMAG

ES

©G

ETTY

IMAG

ES

©GETTY IMAGES

Scriptures and saints tell us thatto become eligible to receivethe grace of God and Guru,we

must purify our mind. In fact, thegoal of all spiritual practice is simplyto prepare our receptacle — theheart and mind — to receive God’slove. But how do we practically dothis? Jagadguru Shri Kripalu Ji Ma-haraj explains that the quickest wayto purify your mind is through ex-posing it to adverse situations.

When somebody criticises you,consider it to be a golden opportu-nity to test your forbearance andhumility.By not giving vent to anger,your mind should not be inflamedby it. By understanding that everyfault lies within you, and that bybringing a fault to your attention,your criticiser is your well-wisher indisguise, you will remain unaffect-ed and even grateful. If not,your re-taliation, be it physical or mental,will destroy any semblance of devo-tion you had in your heart and mind.

There is the well-known story ofSaint Eknath, who came out of theholy river Narmada following his bath,where a mischievous person was stand-ing,waiting.Full of pent-up anger,hegargled something in his mouth andspat it all over Saint Eknath,“You havetaken a sacred bath to purify yourself,so I had better dirty you again!” Justimagine! But instead of retaliating,Saint Eknath joyfully exclaimed,“Allglories to you, O Lord! You are somerciful.”He then took another bathin the Narmada. Unmoved by the

Saint’s antics, the man waited for himto return. As soon as Saint Eknathstepped out,he spat on him again.“OMaharaj,You really have outdone Yourown mercy!”Again,he took his bathand again the man spat on him.Thiswent on from morning till evening.A crowd soon gathered to see whowould concede defeat,and in the end,it was the man. “Are you made ofstone? I have spat on you withoutgood reason and you have not evenuttered a single word in complaint.”The Saint replied,“My dear friend,you are my benefactor. Because ofyou, I have taken so many holy dipsin Narmada.Why should I curse you?”

What does purification mean?Tolerance.When there is a reasonfor anger, but you do not get angry.There is a reason for attachment,butyou are not attached.There is a rea-son for pride,but you are not proud.There is a reason for envy, but youare not envious.There is a reason forhatred, but you do not hate.This isthe purified state and it develops inadverse circumstances; they too areblessings of God.Criticism is there-fore,both positive and negative, andit is the negative aspect that is mostbeneficial to us. If somebody un-derstands this, then he will alwaysremain undisturbed.

Kripalu Bhaktiyoga Tattvadarshan,Vedic knowledge revealed by Jagadguru

Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj as presentedby the president of Jagadguru Kripalu

Parishat, Dr Vishakha Tripathi;www.jkp.org.in

‘Does God really care?’YOG GURU

SURAKSHIT GOSWAMI

DR VISHAKHA TRIPATHI

Secret Of RemainingUndisturbed

CCI NG 3.7 Product: TOIDelhiBS PubDate: 12-04-2020 Zone: Delhi Edition: 1 Page: TOIDIN1 User: sujeet.mohapatra Time: 04-11-2020 20:16 Color: CMYK

Page 12: Lockdown set to be extended with some measures to restart ...

TIMES SPORTSUNDAY TIMES OF INDIA, NEW DELHI | APRIL 12, 2020

LIVERPOOL LEGEND DALGLISH TESTS POSITIVEFOR COVID-19 BUT NOT SHOWING SYMPTOMS

WE ARE MENTALLY PREPARED FOR PAY CUTS, SAYS PAKISTAN TEST CAPTAIN AZHAR ALI

SUNDAY CROSSWORD 3250

CRYPTIC CLUES

QUICK CLUES

ACROSS1 Means of raising a pound for a

villainous type (6)4 One willing to try out a mount (8)9 Poison a dog, about time (6)10 Horse sadly lost nail (8)12 Stand often taken by political

speakers (8)13 Fly from a mixed double set (6)15 Period of time - spring, for example (4)16 Shows put on for the pupils’ benefit (10)19 Prime conifers doomed (5,2,3)20 Cliff shows where he was hurt (4)23 What is wrong in a record being

beaten? (6)25 Stout fellow broke the law in the

beginning (8)27 One who talks one round to composing

some music (8)28 Love to point out there’s a choice (6)29 Kind impression is important to the

press (8)30 First sign of spring has arrived - let’s

have a ball (6)

DOWN1 Kitty puts flag on vessel (7)2 Break a record in flavour (9)3 Unable to direct course of publicity

discord (6)5 Takes a set dish? (4)6 It may work wonders in Malta’s new

constitution (8)7 Fiddle for a dance (5)8 Tracks for athletes (7)11 Decline to keep awake? (4,3)14 Churchman gets a pass, yet goes

astray (7)17 Though a pound short, victualler may

be making a profit (9)18 Temporarily dispense with the services

of a rugby player (5,3)19 Quarrel about nuclear risk (4,3)21 Royal train perhaps? (7)22 Students brought up to demonstrate

human fallibility (4,2)24 The way a politician may indicate

annoyance (5)26 Sort of brake on the turntable? (4)

SOLUTIONS TO CROSSWORD 3249 CRYPTIC QUICK

ACROSS1 Fastidious (6)4 Deliberate (8)9 Obvious (6)10 Base for statue (8)12 A spice (8)13 Private warning (3-3)15 Ancient city of Asia Minor (4)16 On top of everything else (2,3,2,3)19 Energy (3-2-3-2)20 Plausible (4)23 Optimistic (6)25 Suitable (8)27 A hostile criticism (8)28 Slow to understand (6)29 Ultimate (8)30 Thin layer (6)

DOWN1 Slavishly imitative (7)2 Thoroughgoing (3-3-3)3 A light shoe (6)5 Smooth (4)6 Precise (8)7 Proportion (5)8 Melancholy (7)11 German city (7)14 Moroccan port (7)17 Without hurrying (2,7)18 Of superior quality (8)19 Express discontent (7)21 Source of dread (7)22 Idiosyncrasy (6)24 A corrupt payment (5)26 Long detailed story (4)

[email protected]

Bengaluru: The big purses in tennis are claimed by the elite of the sport, the structure is such. Vijay Amritraj feels there isn’t much non-profit organiza-tions like the ATP and WTA Tours can do even in these des-perately dark times, when play-ers have lost their livelihood and lower-ranked pros are struggling to make ends meet.

Almost a thousand tourna-ments across all platforms, age-group events to the senior pros, have been cancelled or post-poned. The situation isn’t unique to tennis or its stakehold-ers. The world, ravaged by a vi-rus, is on its knees. But tennis, unlike team sports and other individual disciplines, makes greater demands on its pros.

Indian superstar Amritraj, who has worn several hats in-cluding that of Player Council president, underlined that a more equitable distribution of

prize money was an issue the boards needed to address, but didn’t see much hope in the agenda, given that star power drives the sport.

The top-heavy prize-money arrangement has been long criticized, most recently by Ser-ena Williams’ coach Patrick Mouratoglou who, in an open letter on Twitter, raised the question of financial stability of the 100th-ranked player in the world. “I find it revolting that the 100th-best player of one of the most popular sports in the world is barely able to make a living out of it,” the French-man wrote, adding that profes-sional tennis operated under a “dysfunctional” system.

Speaking to TOI from his Los Angeles home, Amritraj said it’s the rockstars of the court — Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Serena Wil-liams — who power the sport. “Outside of the top players, there may be half-a-dozen others who really sell the sport. The big money is being spent on those

ranked between 10 and 50, I’m not talking about the quality of play here, we all know how good that is, but do they sell the sport?” he asked, before stretch-ing the question to the backend.

In the 2020 Australian Open, players falling in the qualifying field or even the first round of the main draw, potentially ranked between 80 and 250, made between Australian $20,000 and 90,000. There are four majors in a year, but pick-ings from the Futures, Chal-lenger and Tour-level events aren’t that big. And, there are

salaries to dispense to coaches, trainers and physios, besides travel and accommodation.

“This is a very real problem today. Like most countries in Covid-19, we are not prepared for it,” Amritraj said. “The Tour is not set up as a gift. There’s no money coming from anywhere to look after anyone.”

Amritraj, who championed the players’ pension scheme al-most 30 years ago, wondered if the Tours could go back to tour-naments and ask for a percent-age to be put aside for times like this. “This happens to be a

global phenomenon, what hap-pens if it’s a regional one?” he asked forcefully, but wasn’t hopeful of the outcome.

“For years, tournaments have been fighting against paying players who’re not helping ticket sales,” he pointed out. “Let’s get rid of doubles, for example. Let’s just have four teams, they’re not helping ticket sales, is how they look at it. Now, to tell them that we need to put some more money aside, to look after today the play-ers coming tomorrow, who are going to be ranked outside the top-100 — we don’t know what

they will say. “The board of directors needs to come to an un-derstanding,” he said, before warning, “That we are hit by this al-ready doesn’t m e a n w e won’t be hit by it again.”

Amritraj, ranked No. 16 in the world at his peak, was president of

the ATP Player Council from 1989 to 1992, and again in 1994. “The discussion then was wheth-er there should be big discrepan-cies in the winner and runner-up checks, the runner-up and the semifinalists and all the way down,” Amritraj said of 30 years ago, when the Tour as we know it today came into being.

“There could be just one or two points that differentiate the winner and the runner-up, 7-6 in the third or fifth sets. Why then are we making such discrepan-cies between the first and second place all the way down to first-round losers? That’s what I disa-greed with at that time. I’m not saying that the sport should have a socialist form of financial ar-rangement, but it was a discus-sion worth having.”

Amritraj added, “We come from a country where we be-lieve there shouldn’t be such discrepancies. The west, espe-cially the Americans, sort of play with the winner-take-it-all (philosophy). It’s like Vince Lombardi said, winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing. But from a public relations per-spective, it seemed like some-thing we can live with because with all the baseball, football and basketball guys getting big contracts, nobody was really talking about the guy who didn’t make the team.”

‘TOUR IS NOT SET UP AS A GIFT’

STAR ATTRACTIONS: Serena Williams, Dominic Thiem, Petra Kvitova, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal

COVID-19 CRISIS

The board of directors needs to

come to an understanding.

That we are hit by this already

doesn’t mean we won’t be hit by it again.”

—Vijay Amritraj

Tennis Legend Vijay Amritraj Feels That While The Situation Is Far From Ideal For Tennis Players Ranked Around The 100 Mark, There’s Little That Can Be Done Apart From Knocking On The Doors Of Tournament Directors

New Delhi: The Board of Control of Cricketin India (BCCI) president Sourav Gangulyadmitted that the chances of the 2020season of the Indian Premier League (IPL)starting any time soon is bleak. Gangulysaid that he will be able to give a concreteupdate on whether the IPL will be furtherdeferred after speaking to BCCI office-bearers. “But practically speaking, when lifehas come to a standstill everywhere in theworld, where does sport have a future inthis,” he said in an interview to a new-spaper. “We keep monitoring developments.At the present moment, we can’t say anyt-hing. And what is there to say anyway?Airports are shut, people are stuck at home,offices are locked down, nobody can goanywhere. And it seems this is how it’sgoing to be till the middle of May,” saidGanguly. “Where will you get players from,where do players travel. It’s just simplecommon sense that at the moment, nothingis in favour of any kind of sport anywhere inthe world, forget IPL.”

Will definitely consider running forAIFF presidency, says Bhutia: Former

Indian football team capta-in Bhaichung Bhutia hassaid that he will considercontesting for the post ofAll India Football Federa-tion (AIFF) president infuture. Bhutia retired in

2011, after being Indian football’s posterboyfor more than a decade. “That is definitelysomething to be considered in future,” hesaid when asked if he wants to become theAIFF president one day, while answeringquestions on Facebook. “At the moment Iam focussing on grassroot football withBaichung Bhutia Football School and UnitedSikkim club and also at district level (inSikkim). In future, I will definitely consider it(the AIFF president’s post),” said the legen-dary striker.

Home series loss to India definingmoment of my coaching career, saysLanger: Australia’s unprecedented homeTest series defeat to India in served as a“wake-up call” for Justin Langer, whoreckons the series will prove as the definingmoment of his coaching career. “That was amassive wake-up call and a really toughtime in my life,” Langer was quoted assaying by the Australian Associated Presson a podcast. “I’ve got no doubt in 10 years’time, I will look back on that period and itwill be the making of my coaching career.”

Lyon has surpassed Ashwin as bestoff-spinner, feels Hogg: Former Austra-lia cricketer Brad Hogg believes NathanLyon has improved a lot in the last few

years and thats why he isa better off-spinner thanRavichandran Ashwin inTest cricket in contempo-rary times. “I feel Lyon hastaken the mantle fromAshwin over the last year

just as the best off-spinner, but I love theway both continue to improve their gamesand not be complacent where they are at,”Hogg said while replying to a fan onTwitter who asked him to rate who is abetter off-spinner between Ashwin andLyon in Test cricket.

Shooters gear up for internationalonline championship: Some of theworld’s elite shooters will transform theirliving rooms into competition ranges onApril 15 for a first-of-its-kind internationalonline championship, the coronaviruslockdown triggering another out of the boxthinking. An electronic target setup, besidea mobile phone with internet connection, isall they require to shoot in the champions-hip. From India, the event has attracted bignames such as Manu Bhaker, SanjeevRajput and Divyansh Singh Panwar, whoseTokyo Olympics dreams have been put onhold for a year after the Games’ post-ponement last month due to the Covid-19pandemic.

Authorities advise Ronaldo ‘he has noprivilege to train during lockdown’:Juventus star Cristiano Ronaldo has beenadvised by local authorities in Funchal,Portugal that he has ‘no privilege’ when itcomes to coronavirus lockdown rules afterthe striker was spotted training at Madeira’snational stadium. “Ronaldo has no specialpermission to train. Cristiano Ronaldo hasthe right to train as long as he respects therules like all citizens, there is no privilege,”Goal.com quoted Madeira’s regional secre-tary of health Pedro Ramos as saying.

Zenit use drone to deliver awardduring lockdown: Social distancing mayhave stopped players and club officials frommeeting in person but Zenit St Petersburghad a novel idea when they delivered theirPlayer of the Month award using a drone.Brazilian Malcom won nearly 30% of the fanvote to pick up the award for March afterZenit build a nine-point lead at the top ofthe Russian Premier League standingsbefore the season was suspended due tothe coronavirus pandemic. Russia is inlockdown until April 30 while the league issuspended until May 31, but the club mana-ged to deliver the trophy without the formerBarcelona winger having to step out of hisapartment.

Narayanan loses spirited semis toFirouzja: Kerala GM SL Narayanan’sfabulous run in the Banter Blitz Cup onlinechess tournament hosted by chess24.comended Friday midnight as he lost a spiritedsemifinal contest to the sensational AlirezaFirouzja, 6-9. The 16-year-old Iranian willtake on world champion Magnus Carlsen inthe title match next week. TNN/AGENCIES

GALLERY

Nothing is in favour ofany kind of sport, forgetIPL: BCCI prez Ganguly

New Delhi: They are trained tobreak through defences and finishtheir jobs often with a smile fol-lowed by wild celebrations. Nowhemmed in by the curse of Co-vid-19, they are restive. Holding onto their sense of humour has be-come a challenge.

“How are you?” asks SubhasBhowmick after picking up thephone even before you can say hel-lo. Promptly comes the reply,“Well, it’s a million-dollar ques-tion.”

Jose Ramirez Barreto ispenned inside his Navi Mumbaicomplex with his children. He wasplanning to fly out to Brazil to bewith his wife and eldest daughter

but grounding offlights put paid tohis hopes.

Talking to TOI,Barreto fired thesame question.“How are you, my

friend?” Stuck with his 10-year-oldson Joao and 17-year-old daughterIsabella in one corner of the coun-try, one can imagine how the dar-ling of Mohun Bagan hearts isdribbling through the days of lock-down.

“We are keeping well and get-ting food. Just that I have to keepthe children busy,” said Barreto,trying to sound charming as ever.It is a task harder than slicingthrough stubborn defences.

Plans of admitting his son to

lockdown. But now the numbersare increasing and police is enforc-ing people to stay home.”

Skipper Bhaichung Bhutia wasreturning home to Sikkim fromKolkata when the lockdown hap-pened. “But I couldn’t go beyondSiliguri. I am staying here alone.”With his parents now in ancestralvillage in Sikkim, Bhutia is send-ing help through his network.

Chima Okorie, the bully ofmany defences, now feels isolatedin Manchester, where he went tocomplete a course, according tonews reports. His family is in Lon-don but he could not travel. Onewho used to mow down defenceswith bulldozing runs and powerfulshoulder charges, now laments atthe barrenness that is Old Traffordtoday. “No one knows when the twomost-followed clubs in the worldwill start training, let alone play-ing matches.”

Gremio, the club in southern Bra-zil where Barreto once was a stu-dent, has been shelved for the timebeing. Wife Veronica and eldestdaughter Natalia are in Brazil.“We were supposed to fly out onMarch 22 but we could not. Theplanes were grounded,” he said.

Being a father of a seperatedfamily is not helping his cause. Thearea in Navi Mumbai has been de-clared a red zone. “But we arelucky to be in a complex where weare well provided for. Trucks arecoming with supplies every day,”he said.

However, news from Brazil hasgot him worried. Talking to Veron-ica daily is the only way out. “InBrazil, we were late in announcinglockdown. The pandemic took ev-eryone by surprise. Our presidentand state governors could notagree on a common plan. The pres-ident was somewhat against the

Hemmed-in strikers feel the pandemic heat

[email protected]

Barreto Stuck In Mumbai Red Zone; BhutiaLocked In Siliguri; Bhowmick Planning A Book

New Delhi: “We knew that there willlight at the end of the tunnel.” This was

Real Kashmir FC’s Scot-tish coach David Ro-bertson’s reactionwhen he got to know thathe, his wife Kym, andson Mason have found aplace in UK govern-

ment’s evacuation/repatriation list.

“We are on the list. It is a relief for us.We have to wait now till the high com-mission contacts us,” David told TOI onSaturday. “There are six from the UK inour team. There is me, my wife, my sonMason, Kallum (Higginbotham), whoplays as a striker with Real Kashmir, andtwo coaches – Jonathon and Jimmy. Weare all on that list,” the 51-year-old added,thanking TOI.

In its March 31edition, TOIhad high-lighted the plight of David, who was des-perate to return to Aberdeen (Scotland)in order to tend to his ailing parents. Da-vid’s mother, a cancer patient, is under-going chemotherapy. His father, too, isnot in the best of health.

Being stranded in Srinagar, Davidisn’t even able to video chat with his par-

ents – given the excruciatingly slow In-ternet speed in Kashmir.

David is expected to be moved out ofIndia from the Sri Guru Ram Dass JeeInternational Airport in Amritsar on ei-ther April 13, 17 or 19.

“There are three flights – one on the13th (April), one on 17th and one on 19th.We are expecting to get on one of those. Ithink they (UK high commission) willkeep running flights until everyone isout,” an optimistic David said.

It is highly likely that the UK highcommission will arrange transport forDavid and the other five from Srinagarto Amritsar. Currently, they’re confinedat a Srinagar hotel belonging to RealKashmir owner Sandeep Chattoo.

Giving specifics about what hap-pened in the last 10 days, David said:“(After reading the story) My local MPback in Aberdeen contacted people andthen I got a phone call from the UK highcommission here in India. Things mate-rialized just yesterday (Friday).”

At the same time, David is also con-cerned for Real Kashmir’s African play-ers – Loveday Enyinnaya (Nigeria), Ar-mand Bazie, Gnohere Krizo (both IvoryCoast) and Aaron Katebe (Zambia) –who are there with him at the Srinagarhotel, with still no word when they willgo back to their respective countries.

“There are four African players whomight have to wait longer. I don’t knowwhether their countries are doing thesame things that the European coun-tries are doing. They’ll have to sit tightfor a while and then a window mightopen up for all of them to get home,” Da-vid said.

‘Stranded’ Scottish coachto be repatriated soon

[email protected]

TOI Report Helps DavidRobertson And FiveOthers Get On UK

Govt’s Evacuation List

TIMES IMPACT

Chandigarh: Indian hockeystriker Mandeep Singhfinds the delaying of Olym-pics “a sensible decision”. In

a chat withTOI from theSports Au-thority India(SAI) centre inBengaluru, hesaid: “Had it

happened this year, manycountries would have pulledout and it would be unsafe tohold the biggest show onearth during or just after apandemic.”

On the brighter side, the25-year-old has found morepreparation time. He said:“The delay is a blessing in dis-guise. We can use the time un-til next year to be a much im-proved side.”

Playing hockey since theage of six, the Jalandhar play-er has never spent so muchtime indoors. Asked if it wasdepressing, the forward re-plied: “Not at all. I am withteammates and the team’smorale is good. We under-stand the seriousness of thesituation and the decisionsthat have been taken (lock-down and restrictions) are in

the best interest of everyone.”Locked inside the SAI cen-

tre to be safe from the Covid-19virus, Mandeep watchesshort clips, reads and usesvideoconferencing to take En-glish lessons from Heide, wifeof team analyst, Chris Ciriel-lo. The forward said: “We areworking on our communica-tion skills as a team or indi-vidually. We have started toread more, which is the bestthing to do now. I have pickedsome good books and joinedthe distance communica-tions class of Heide, who is ateacher in Australia. Thecourse is going on well, and Iam happy with my progress.”

Looking at the need to ob-serve social distancing andstay indoors at well, team’sscientific adviser, Robin Ar-kell, has come up with theidea of individual training.“Robin has been a good influ-ence on the team. Since hetook over as scientific adviser,he has made individual fit-ness training schedules for usto follow inside the hostel.The physical routines in-clude stretching, jogging,core exercises, and stepping,”said Mandeep, Hockey India’s‘Dhanraj Pillay Forward ofthe Year’ in 2019.

Corona ‘break’ giveshockey players chance

to work on [email protected]

CCI NG 3.7 Product: TOIDelhiBS PubDate: 12-04-2020 Zone: Delhi Edition: 1 Page: TOIDSOPD User: hindol.basu Time: 04-11-2020 23:15 Color: CMYK

Page 13: Lockdown set to be extended with some measures to restart ...

In a recent column, writer Rega Jha ad-mitted to ‘doomscrolling’ – some-thing we all are doing but didn’t have

a term for so far: our habit of being un-able to stop consuming bad news at anobsessive pace. Along with it, we are liv-ing through a time when a new vocabu-lary is being formed as we go through‘coronageddon’ (yes, another buzzwordfor the new normal).

Brand expert Harish Bijoor says most ofthe new vocabulary is courtesy social me-dia, which has the ability to grab the tailof a trendy word and make it go viral.He notes: “Social media — partic-ularly Twitter — is about crisplanguage. Out there, there is aneologism every minute. Ear-lier, pop culture used toevolve in and throughthe lyrics of musicians.Today, it evolves in thehashtags of tweets.” From#covidiot and #quarantini to #corona-dosing – the lockdown lexicon isjust getting started. As FinancialTimes writer and columnist Ed-ward Luce puts it, this is just thestart of lockdown living.

WHAT’S THE GOOD WORD?Luce mentions how he is now usingwords daily that did not even exist amonth ago. Some have found entry intothe March editions of online dictionaries,and some are on their way to becomebonafide lifestyle trends. From the moremedical terms like ‘super-spreader’, ‘con-tact tracing’, ‘community spread’, ‘flattenthe curve’, ‘young vector’ to lifestylechoices like ‘social distancing’, ‘social iso-lation’, ‘micro-socialising’, ‘cocooning’,‘self-quarantine’, ‘caremongering’ tochanges in work, like ‘WFH’ (workingfrom home), ‘contactless delivery’, ‘dis-

tance learning’, and hashtags like ‘quar-antini’ and ‘virtual happy hour’ – newterms and phrases are flying in fast.

Fashion commentator Sujata Assomullsays, the fact that some phrases are in thedictionaries proves that scholars believethis pandemic has caused a major shift inour approach to life. “Some of thesewords will be our lingo for time to come.For instance, I can imagine a Quarantiniused as normally as we use Cosmopoli-tans, and WFH as regularly used as OOO(out of office).”

DEFINING LIFESTYLEDramatic shifts in culture and technology

often catalyse the formation of new vo-cabulary. This period of lockdown has

also led to a lot of introspection.“Over the years, socialmedia has made our useof the language quite

flippant. But now, weseem to be thinkingabout the true mean-

ing of words. We willnow use words like

‘hope’ and ‘fear’ in a more mean-ingful way,” adds Assomull. Now, that’s a‘coronarevelation’ (a life-alteringepiphany at the time of lockdown)!

As the world slips into isolation,one wonders just how we gothere. While we are eager to go

back to our old ways of life, some habitswe are getting used to right now mustcontinue for the survival of mankind…

WHAT WE EAT For animals, for the environment, andfor your own health, going vegan lookslike the inevitable move. “Innumerablescientific studies have established thatplant-based food is completely nourish-ing for the human body, and we canchoose to turn vegan/vegetarian – ahealth-nourishing choice for humansand the planet at large,” says nutritionistManjari Chandra. While there is no evi-dence linking the present pandemic tomeat consumption, yet coronavirus(along with HIV, Ebola and Nipah), iszoonotic – which means all these diseasesoriginate from animals. This pattern ishard to ignore and will urge meat-eatersto review their food choices in the future.

HOW WE COOK Stock up but don’t hoard. This virus hasmade us get back to basics, make do withwhat’s available and not be dependenton exotic produce. It has given us thetime and opportunity to learn to eathome-cooked food and get back to oldcooking methods. We had forgotten thatto cook our own food and eat it before itloses its warmth is a luxury. This alsogives us the freedom to engage the nextgeneration in cooking, bond with themand pass on traditional recipes.

HOW WE SHOPMinimisation of waste has found a wholenew meaning in our houses under lock-down. Everything, from plastic wraps to

leftover food, is being recycled becausewe have lesser resources at hand andplenty of time to think this through. Be-fore we are done with this physical dis-tancing cycle, recycling might become ahabit for us. In the longer run, it needs toevolve into a mindset. To live with less…1. Start eliminating the unnecessary; 2. Stoppurchasing the latest and second questionevery buy; 3. Select keepsakes with care

HOW WE TRAVEL Overtourism became a huge problemlast year with several countries wardingoff bulk travellers. The current debaclehas put that debate to rest for a longtime to come. We are all going throughtravel withdrawal symptoms followingborder closures and stay-at-home advi-sories. Shoba Mohan, founder of a trav-el company, says, “After the Covid-19

travel meltdown, most people will re-view cancellation policies of hotelswith a hawk eye. Also, bookings will bedone much closer to the date of travel.”So, think staycations, weekend moun-tain trips and slow train journeys.

HOW WE THINKWork on your psychosomatic health. Asper research, infectious outbreaks haveshaped the psyche of humanity foryears to come. Epidemics and pan-demics propagate fear and erratic be-haviour long after they are over. “Goback to self-correcting systems ofAyurveda, yoga and herbalism and healyour mind and body,” says Dr ManojKutteri, wellness expert.

THE TAKEAWAY FROM THIS?With enough time at hand now, theworld is engaging in hobbies likesewing, gardening, embroidery, pot-tery. Hobbies and self-care rituals arecrucial in such times as people needto anchor on feelings of comfort andfamiliarity. The world needs to en-gage more with hands than withgadgets. We need a one-on-one withour planet.

THE PUNDEMICDoomscrolling

Obsessively scrolling for

updates on the pandemic –

even though there’s no good

news. Also ‘coronadose’

(overdosing on bad news)Quarantini

The cocktail people drink at

home while under quaran-

tine. Also led to the trend of

‘virtual happy hour’Coronials/Quaranteens

Babies being conceived while

people are cooped up at

home. Also, ‘Gen-C’

Covidiot

One who behaves with reck-

less disregard for the safety

of others

Covidivorce

Result of relentless spousal

intimacy

Panicdemic

The consequence of ‘corona-

dosing’ or ‘doomscrolling’

Bat-terfly effect

When chaos theory becomes

chaos reality

Pre-traumatic Stress

Disorder

When every cough concerns

Quarantime

The slow and unpredictable

passage of time in isolation

Cove-dwellers

Those who are hunkering

down until the storm passes

Covid-22

Pandemic related dilemmas,

for instance, balancing the

need for fresh air with the

risk of leaving your house

Caremongering

Spreading kindness and love

to help the lonely, anxious

and vulnerable

Pandemic Proposal (in pic.)

A marriage proposal that

happens just because you are

stuck alone for so long

Pandemiquette

Social etiquette during

a pandemic – no handshak-

ing, coughing into the

elbow etc.

— Source: various websites

Do you have your own covidic-

tionary? Share with us at

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

If you haven’t shared a quarantini with your quarantribe while listening to somequarantunes – are you even living through a lockdown? Here’s your #lockdownlexicon

The new pandemictionarySlow travel, taking up a hobby, recycling and repurposing every buy and eatingplanet-friendly food – the current conundrum will reshape our lifestyle choices

Downsize, the way forward

The

world needs

to engage more

with hands than

with gadgets

In the long run,travellers may wish to

look for less crowded, off-the-beaten trackdestinations, maybe tryingfor drivable places

— Shoba Mohan, travel entrepreneur

PIC: ISTOCK

If you are chronically stres-sed, your pet could be too.They absorb our emotions.

How can you find out if they arestressed, and what can you doabout it? Read on...6 COMMON SIGNS OF STRESS1. Decrease in appetite: If yourpet suddenly loses interest infood or stops eating altogether,it could be due to stress or un-derlying health conditions. 2. Isolation and hiding: If yourpet is constantly isolatinghim/herself from other pets orpeople, s/he is depressed.3. Increased sleeping hours: Ifyour pet is sleeping more thanusual or seems overly lethargic,it may be due to stress.4. Aggression towards peopleor other animals... is a sign of astressed or sick pet.5. Obsessive licking... of pawsis one of the major signs of

anxiety in pets.6. Diarrhoea, constipation orother digestive issues: It is ab-normal if such a condition lastslonger than 24 hours, or if diar-rhoea is bloody.

Consult your veterinarian ifthese symptoms persist. Theycan be due to various condi-tions, including hypothy-roidism, anaemia, severe dehy-dration, diabetes, heart and liverproblems, to name a few.

— The writer is a veterinarian(BVsc & AH)

Dr Dheeraj Bhardwaj

Is your pet under stress?

If you have queries related tomanaging pets during the

lockdown, for example, if youcan take your pet for a walk, ifvet clinics are allowed to oper-ate etc., send your queries [email protected]

We will seek answers from rel-evant authorities. Please keep

your questions brief.

It would be most regrettable if weemerge the other side of Covid-19 thesame as before we went under. Some-

thing must shift after such an earth-shat-tering experience. Mistakes have beenmade and we are paying for those. As welimp out of the punishment zone, theonly way to rebuild life is to do so withnew lessons learnt.

Last week this column spoke of thefragility of life and preciousness of thepresent moment. Of how the world is oneand the only way out, to help save eachother. We must learn to envisage the worstand remain prepared for it. We spoke ofhow family and health score over every-thing else.

While we leave it to political leaders,environmentalists and scientists to workout how the new world emerges, till eachindividual assimilates the lessons the pan-demic has taught us, nothing will change.

So, what changes do you hope toadopt? Here are mine: Buy frugally, share freely

Stay mindful of protecting our habitat

Learn to relax: Sometimes, just do nothing.

Why must you always be occupied or

needlessly worrying?

Cut dowwn on social life

Adopt one creative indulgence: What

gives you most solace these days?

Painting, singing, dancing, writing, knitting,

cooking? Don’t give it up!

Know your prejudices: List the things that

bug you. Make a conscious effort of work-

ing past them.

Indulge yourself: The world need not know,

so long as your conscience is clear.

Insttill discipline: Make at least two good

things mandatory – your choice. For

instance, no breakfast till you exercise, or a

drink till you walk. No movie till you read

something, or no reading till you meditate.

o-zone

When we limp out of pandemicpunishment zone, we must do sowith a determination not tounlearn lessons learnt

Vinita Dawra Nangia

So, here we are in 2020.Homebound. In this togeth-er. And for those of you who

have to work from home, it couldbe challenging to balance spread-sheets with domestic distractions.But the biggest mountain to climbcould be your diet. Eating well dur-ing quarantine is also an importantway to maintain good immunity –especially vital at this time. If youwant to get the best of this period,take heed of 4 Rs: Routine, repur-pose, replenish, relocate.

ROUTINEThis means having scheduledmealtimes and eating what youwould normally eat at office. Eatevery two hours (interspersing fourhealthy balanced meals with pieces of fruit or a healthy crack-

er/khakra), drink at least 8-12 glass-es of water and have a glass of an-tioxidant-rich vegetable juice daily(just blend three different raw veg-etables –– can lightly steam for 30-60 seconds as a step of caution inthese times –– in a blender. Addhalf the pulp to a glass, top up withwater, season, mix, and drink up).

REPURPOSEUse the time that you wouldhave spent commuting

to prep healthy snacks and cookmeals for yourself. This is, in fact,the bright side of this lockdown.With no maids/cooks, the charge

of the kitchen is in your handsand you can wonderful-

ly control what goesinto your system.

REPLENISHIf you have a littlemore time on

your hands,use them

to pickout lean-er andhealthi-er op-t i o n s ,

like veg-e t a b l e s ,

lean meats,eggs, nutritious

grains, milk and allother necessities

that your body should not livewithout. Now would be the timeto shore up immunity-buildingsources of Vitamin B12 (whilefound mainly in animal sources,both vegetarians and non-vegetar-ians may need to take supple-ments, so do check with your doc-tor accordingly), vitamins D3 andC, as well as zinc. All of these arefound in food sources but can betaken as supplements too. Lastly,turmeric is another wonderful im-munity-building gem.

RELOCATEDon’t eat at your desk. If you areworking from the dining table,clear your table for meals, or eatmindfully at another location.Chew every bite, don’t work whileyou eat, and nourish yourself everytime you put food in your mouth.You’ll be surprised at how far thiscareful approach can take you dur-ing this crazy time in our world.

Consulting Nutritionist& Clinical Dietician

by Pooja Makhija

AVOID...Unstock all the

unhealthy things

that affect your

immunity: alcohol,

aerated drinks,

artificial

sweeteners,

fruit juices,

junk and

fried foods. These may

initially spike your blood

sugar levels, but will also send

them crashing down

SOCIAL DISTANCING FROM JUNK FOOD

Instagram — that inarguably created theFOMO culture –– is now full of mundanestuff. There are people posting pics of

house cleaning, daily dal-chawal cooking, giv-ing laundry advice and uploading videos ofcloset cleanses. The days of brunch photos,vacay selfies and concert stories are over. En-ter: intimate chronicling of days spent inside.The filters are off.

In an article in The Atlantic, writer KaitlynTiffany asked people to post more – and withabandon. After all, the content stakes areoff. Psychiatrist Dr Shobhana Mittalsays, “If social media had a true call-ing, NOW would be the time for therealisation of its ultimate potential –as a glue keeping us all together so-cially while we sit physically apart.”

In fact, since the lockdown, social net-working apps have become the way forward forpeople to express themselves, showcase their

creativity, and vent. FOMO has a new contextnow, it is all about missing out on popularhashtags! “It is giving people an opportunity tofind strength in this otherwise anxiety-pro-voking situation,” she notes.

Agrees psychiatrist Dr Samir Parikh, andadds, “The ones making an effort to con-

nect with friends, family are goingto come out of the lockdown with

a positive frame of mind. Theones who aren’t, are going tostruggle for a long time.” At atime when doing your bit for

your country is all about sitting athome, posting regularly could just be

your ‘hero’ moment. (Read the full text on timesofindia.com)

Posting mundane stuff will helpyou connect socially at the timeof physical distancing

[email protected]

Why you must post your boring life?

eat or delete

As the world is staying indoors,home space energy is beinglooked upon as a science of

joy. A good idea for Baisakhi is to bringout your old phulkari dupatta and useit as a throw on a couch, add someplants to the corner to create a happyspace. Harinder Singh, of PhulkariRestoration Project, says, “In these

times, we can bring out themetaphor of the craft more thanever to lift our spirits. The bagh(garden) resonates with life.”Here’s how you can bring in pos-itive vibes…

1. GO BOHO-CHICUse neutral base and then add colourand diverse elements. To give anyspace that boho-chic touch, usecolourful flowers.

2. SMALL FLORAL DETAILSIt’s a minimal trend that brightens upany space and is suitable for differentdecorative styles. It’s best to choose asmall cactus, bonsai or orchid, etc.Place in a strategic spot.

3. NEO MINTAccording to trend forecasters WGSN,neo mint is the spring-summer 2020colour. A softer shade of turquoiseand green, it is an energising hue.

4. ABSTRACT ENERGYThis fun, free-spirited trend takes in-spiration from abstract expressionistartwork. Artist Anu Malhotra says,“Art with abstract energy enhancesthe mood and energy of a space andlifts your spirits.” With bold geomet-rics, hand-drawn sketches and playfulblocks of colour, this look is all aboutexpressing your personality.

5. HOME SPA SPACEBeauty rituals in bathrooms are thenew must-dos. Create your ownspace in bathrooms for that feel-good soak. Home space is where youwill heal.

(Read the full text on timesofindia.com)

When the mood is grey, bring colour home – justin time for spring festivities

[email protected]

Plants bring in freshness to lifeless spaces

SUNSHINE CHEERmind matters summer decor

The

pressure to

carefully curate is

replaced by the need

to document

daily

Make things at home with the help of your kids

Add a bit of Easter cheer

PIC: ISTOCK

PIC: ISTOCK

PIC

S:

IST

OC

K

PIC: ISTOCK

A new worldand a new you

ADVERTORIAL, LIFESTYLE PROMOTIONAL FEATURE

As we create new lifestyles within our four walls, wecook things we’ve never cooked before, wear thingswe’ve never worn before, write things we’ve neverwritten before, sing songs we’ve never sung before,read books we couldn’t read before – in short, dothings we’ve never done or had the time to dobefore. Times Life invites you to share whatyou’ve been up to during the lockdown to stand achance to get featured.

Starting today, Times Life is

asking you to send us the

doubts adding to your

mental load during the

lockdown. We will get our

experts to respond so that

you can continue to stay

calm during the chaos.

Write to us:[email protected] your name, phone number

and city.

Log on toTimesRediscoverYou.com

and share a snap of yournew-found activity or hobby.

You can also tag us onour social media handles

with #RediscoverYou

SUNDAY TIMES OF INDIA APRIL 12, 2020

/timeslife.toi

TALK IT

OUT

PIC

: G

ET

TY

IM

AG

ES

CCI NG 3.7 Product: TOIChennaiBS PubDate: 12-04-2020 Zone: Chennai Edition: 1 Page: TOICHS15 User: sivakumar.b Time: 04-11-2020 21:21 Color: CMYK

Page 14: Lockdown set to be extended with some measures to restart ...

SUNDAY 12 APRIL 2020 I ADVERTORIAL, ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY PROMOTIONAL FEATURE DELHI TIMES, THE TIMES OF INDIA14 LEISURE / DELHI TIMES

TaurusIt’s time you findthe light within. Inthe next few weeks,there are bound tobe situations thatpull you away fromthat thought andmight trick you into

believing thatlimelight, and

all of its trappings,are where you be-long. Don’t kid yourself. The deeperpart of you, and its eternal flame, iswhere your light shines.

GeminiFor the sake of yourheart, stay awayfrom the non-com-mittal types. Walkaway from thosewho already haveother tabs open.There’s nothingwrong with theirlife choices. They

are just not in alignment with whatyou are seeking at this moment.This

phase of your life calls for agreater degree of clarityand communication. Re-member, you are far toowise to get involved in dirtypolitics. Stay detached andwatch the show.

CancerEverythingyou’ve putyour heartinto hasturned outfor the best.Don’t letyour fears,or the opin-ions of oth-ers, steal

your thunder. Lots ofchanges are in order. Youare about to see if what youhave created is worthyenough to stand the test oftime. The money issue ishuge. Don’t make it too im-portant.

LeoLet go ofthose whodisrespectyou orkeep youfrom vi-b r a t i n gh i g h e r.Some ofyou maybe awak-

ening to your toxic patternsin romantic relationships.Your intuitive abilities areheightened at this point. Turning in-wards will give you the direction youneed to move forward. For some of

you, creative blocks could pose as achallenge. Instead of working on au-topilot,change things up for yourself.

VirgoIf you see a relationship as problem-atic, it will be. And if you see it as a

delight, it will be.All the magic is inyour point of view.You keep thinkingabout that lastconversation andwhat it reallymeant. Yes, it’sdeeper than itseemed but still

nothing to stress about. What youlearn about someone through gossipor social media will be only partlycorrect.

LibraIt is a time for youto discard or get ridof what is consid-ered unhealthy inyour life. It couldbe an unhealthyperson or a badhabit. It’s time for

you to start anew chapter

in your life. It is also a goodtime to keep to yourself andalso write and create. Fo-cus on your health and

well-being.

ScorpioIf you have a pit-

fall, it relates to be-lieving that there isa specific path, orone way, that willget you where youneed to go.Don’t ex-pect anyone to tellyou how it’s sup-posed to go andknow enough to pay attention towhat your life is telling you.Whether you see it or not, the fu-ture is wide open. Stretch yourselfand be big enough to rise up andmeet it.

SagittariusWhatever you ac-complish, no mat-ter how difficult orimprobable it maybe, it will be addedto your regular du-ties. Consider theexpectation youwill be setting upand manage ac-cordingly. It seems to be a time for

you to work hard but you may alsohave to work on towards someoneelse’s time or schedule.There may belots of compromising and adjust-ments, but you will do well.

CapricornThe end of a rela-tionship or part-nership will only oc-cur if there havebeen problems inthe partnership inthe past (before thefull moon). Theremay be some finan-cial obligations to take care of.

There will be opportunities to makemoney.

AquariusExpect the unexpected, especiallywhen it comes to finances and fi-nancial obligations. The next twoweeks can bring about some changesand disruptions with finances. You

may have to paysome expensesthat you weren’texpecting. Therecould be some elec-trical issues andyou may find your-self replacing a ve-hicle, computer,

cell phone or telephone.

PiscesAs you decide, mo-ment to moment,how you’d like tolive, you’re formingwho you are. Thisprocess is so im-mersive that there’sno time, reason orroom for worry.When we reach the

point where everything has tochange we either wake up or wedon’t. You are crossing that line. Thisis all taking place in a process thatwill unfold over the next six months.

SonakshiSinha

PriyankaChopra

Anushka Sharma

JacquelineFernandez

Neha Dhupia

KareenaKapoor Khan

Diana Penty

DeepikaPadukone

Preity Zinta

Aries: Lara Dutta (April 16, 1978)

ASTROSPEAK

STAR BIRTHDAY

AriesThe next twoweeks arevery positivefor you, sowork hard.You will alsoreceive prais-es and recog-nition foryour hard

work. You will be highly mo-tivated and active to get proj-ects done. It’s a great time foryou to focus on your health.You seem to have the vitalityand energy to exercise on a dai-ly basis. Now is the time tocomplete work projects andtasks. Be careful with yourtone, you may sound pushy tosome.

Rani Mukerji

Alia Bhatt

BEE

TLE

BA

ILEY

HAGA

R TH

E HO

RRIB

LE

GARF

IELD

WIZ

ARD

OF ID

H O W T O P L A Y

Fill in the gridso that everyhorizontal row,every verticalcolumn andevery 3x3 boxcontains thedigits 1-9,withoutrepeating thenumbers in thesame row,column orbox.You can’tchange the digits alreadygiven in thegrid. Every puzzle has one solution.

Level: Medium

SUDOKU CHALLENGEENGINEERING | MANAGEMENT | MEDIA | LAW

Rules■ Connect adjacent dots with vertical or

horizontal lines, creating a single loop(Fig A).

■ Crossovers or branches are not allowed(As shown by dotted lines in Fig B).

■ Numbers in the puzzle indicate the num-ber of lines thatshould surroundit, while emptycells may be sur-rounded by anynumber of lines.

■ You can’t drawlines around ze-roes.

■ Each puzzle hasjust one uniquesolution.

How to begin: Ex-ample (Fig A) - Be-gin with the zeronext to 3. Since nolines can be drawnaround zero, markcrosses around it,as shown. Now there is a cross in one space around 3. So we know the threelines of 3 can only be drawn in the remaining three spaces. Next, these linescan only be extended in one direction each. Continue, using the same logic.Hints: Keep eliminating possibilities by marking crosses in spaces betweendots where a line isn’t possible, i.e., if you have already completed requiredlines or where a line extension may create a branch or cause a deadend (Fig B)

(Fig A) (Fig B)Not allowed

LOOP THE LOOP

SCRAMBLE

H O W T OP L A Y

Now arrange theletters in the cir-cles to form theanswer to the rid-dle or to fill in themissing word asindicated

CPAAE

CERTS

Rearrange theletters in thefour wordjumbles, oneletter to eachsquare/circle,to make fourordinarywords

If you think nobody cares if you're alive, try missing a couple of ___ ____. -Earl Wilson (3,8)

DIPRPY

SPELLATHONToday’s Ratings:

02-average 03-good 04-outstanding

How many words of four or more letters can you make from the let-ters shown in today’s puzzle? In making a word,a letter can be usedas many times as it appears in the puzzle. Each word must containthe central letter.There should be at least one seven letter word.Plu-rals, foreign words and proper names are not allowed. British Eng-lish Dictionary is used as reference.

S

E

EA

W

XB

MINDBENDERCan you figure out which well known oxymorons these words are?

Ex) Initial facsimile = original copy

1) Urbane defiance, 2) Specific possibility, 3) Bogus truth, 4) Big tiny, 5) Gravely comical

Level: MediumTIMES KAKURO

Note: A digit cannot ap-pear more than once inany particular digit com-bination. For instance inthe example, we cannothave the combination of8+4+8 for 20.

H O W T O P L A Y

The numbers in the coloured squares referto the sums of the digits that you must fillinto the empty spaces directly below or tothe right of the coloured square containingthe number. For instance, in the given ex-ample, the 2 boxes below 12 must contain2 digits that add upto 12, whereas for 20,the 3 boxes placed horizontally next to itmust add upto 20. No zeroes are used here,only the digits one through nine.

Example

2012

SOLUTIONS TO GAMES/PUZZLES

LOUCMN

TIMES SUDOKU LOOP THE LOOP TIMES KAKURO

SCRAMBLE

Words:Apace,crest,column,drippyAnswer:If you think nobody cares if you're

alive,try missing a couple of car payments.-Earl Wilson

MINDBENDER

1) Civil Disobedience,2) Definite maybe,3) False fact,4) Jumbo shrimp,5) Seriously funny

SPELLATHON

base,BEESWAX,ease,swab

Lara Dutta almostdrowned during the making of her debut film Andaaz

DID YOU KNOWFormer Miss Universe Lara Dutta, who made India proud

in 2000, continues to charm everyone with her personali-ty. But did you know that Lara Dutta almost drowned dur-

ing the making of her debut film Andaaz?She didn’t know swim-ming then and had to be rescued by Akshay Kumar. The actressfinally learnt to swim during her shoot for the 2009 film Blue.

Yami Gautam

#CORONASUTRAThe best of locked-down creativity

CCI NG 3.7 Product: TOIDelhiBS PubDate: 12-04-2020 Zone: Delhi Edition: 1 Page: TOIDRSVP User: atul.srivastava Time: 04-11-2020 21:14 Color: CMYK

FinOlexFORTUNE Anupam V Kapil..

For appointment; m ac [email protected] sms on 9822042295.

Page 15: Lockdown set to be extended with some measures to restart ...

BEN AFFLECK and MATTDAMON are among themany stars who will be participating in a virtual poker tournamentto raise money for hunger relief organi-sation. Other namesfeatured includeTom Brady, AdamLevine, BryanCranston, andTobey Maguire.

[email protected]

For Ileana D’Cruz, Easter cel-ebrations are somethingthat she looks forward to

every year. However, she had nev-er imagined an Easter Sunday likethis year’s. With the lockdown inIndia, and all of us battling the#coronavirus outbreak, it’s allabout bringing in the festivitiesover video calls. In a conversationwith us, Ileana shares her Eastermemories from better times, andtells us what today’s celebrationwill be like.

“I remember my mother mak-ing all sorts of lovely Easter eggs,like the chocolate and marzipanones. When we were kids, shewould also get little baskets andhave us decorate them. My sistersand I would paint them and putlittle yellow chicks (of course, fakeones) in them, along with theeggs,” she says.

While her parents are in self-isolation in their hometown (inGoa), her sisters are in the US. “Imiss being with my whole family,which means complete madnessin the house (laughs). I miss thenoise and wondrous smells com-ing from the kitchen with mymother pottering about in there.If I was home right now, I wouldbe inhaling the aroma of freshly-baked hot cross buns. I would havemy sisters for company and wewould be chatting away or bick-ering about something or the oth-er. Being away from family meansI don’t really celebrate the day.”

Ileana signs off saying that thisyear, it will only be about videocalls, but she adds, “I am happythat we at least have this technol-ogy, which can help us feel that weare close to each other even whenwe are physically not. These aredifficult times, but some of us arefortunate to have the amenities tobe able to spend this lockdown inthe comfort of our homes. So, inthis lockdown, Easter Sunday willbe a big family gathering over avideo call.”

RASHAMI DESAIActress

KEEP COVID-19 AT BAY WITH HOMEMADE MASKS

Join the #MaskIndia movement to help India battle coronavirus. To spread awareness about the importance of wearing a maskevery time you step out, click a selfie wearing a homemade face cover and post it on social media with the hashtag#MaskIndia. The best pictures will be featured in The Times of India and maskindia.com.

If we have to win this battle against the coronavirus, it’s important towear a mask each time we step out. Get creative with homemademasks and leave the N95 and surgical masks for healthcare workers

It’s important that we leave thesurgical or N95 masks for thefrontline warriors. Let’s makeour masks at home. All youneed is a T-shirt andtwo rubber bands. Itdoesn’t take muchtime and is veryeasy to make.#MaskIndia!

DARSHAN RAVAL

I request everyone to pleasestay at home and take the nec-essary precautions. Masks areimperative in this fight againstthe coronavirus, and I urgeeveryone to use them wheneverthey step out.

PULKIT SAMRATActor

Musician

GAJRAJ RAO Actor

NILA MADHAB PANDA

The ministry of Health has appealed to people to wear home-made masks, and now state governments have also made itmandatory for people to wear masks.I request everyone to makea mask at home. When you use a scarf or a dupatta to use as amask, you can easily wash these and then reuse them.

FilmmakerTOI is doing this #MaskIndiacampaign as wearing a maskis a must when you step out.You can also make thesemasks at home using a hand-kerchief or a dupatta. I urgeeveryone to wear a maskwhen they step out.

WRITING ON THE WALL: DELHI, MASK UP!

A man walks past a graffiti at the Lodhi Art District. While the artwork isn’t new, the artist’s imagination – the figureson the wall are seen in suits and masks – takes on a whole new meaning at a time when the world is fighting the coronavirus pandemic and people have to take refuge behind masks and hazmat suits to keep themselves safe

BUZZSTOPBUZZSTOPRUPERT, GF TO HAVE A BABYBEN AFFLECK, MATT DAMON AMONGSTARS IN A CHARITY POKER EVENT

RUPERT GRINT and GEORGIA GROOME are excited to announce they are expecting a babyand would please ask for privacy at this time,” apublicist for the 31-year-old Harry Potter star andthe 28-year-old Double Date actress announcedthis week. The couple – who has been datingsince 2011 – were recently spotted together inLondon, with Groome’s bump clearly visible.

Ranjit KumarIleana: In this lockdown,Easter Sunday will be a bigfamily meet over video call

ILEANAD’CRUZ

I MISS THE NOISE AND WONDROUS SMELLS COMING FROM THE KITCHEN,WITH MY MOTHER POTTERING ABOUT IN THERE. AT HOME, I WOULD BE INHALING THE AROMA OF FRESHLY-BAKED HOT CROSS BUNS. BEING AWAYFROM FAMILY MEANS I DON’T REALLY CELEBRATE THE DAY

Just like we shouldn’t be stocking up food inexcess, we should not be hoarding N95 masksduring the coronavirus pandemic. I would requesteveryone to make a mask at home. Making amask at home is easy and safe.

Prathamesh Bandekar

BTS announce at-home concert seriesBTS, the South Korean K-pop group, were

forced to cancel their Seoul concerts slat-ed for April, due to the coronavirus pan-

demic. However, this week they confirmed onInstagram, a multi-part at-home concert seriesfor their fans. The Bang Bang Con concert se-ries will be available to fans around the globe.

Agencies

@bts.bighitofficial

SUNDAY, APRIL 12, 2020 I ADVERTORIAL,ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY PROMOTIONAL FEATURE

#MaskIndia#MaskIndia

✃OF INDIAFollow us on: twitter.com/DelhiTimesTweet

facebook.com/DelhiTimesOnline instagram.com/delhi.times

BTS had to cancel and postpone concerts amid the coronavirus pandemic

CCI NG 3.7 Product: TOIDelhiBS PubDate: 12-04-2020 Zone: Delhi Edition: 1 Page: TOIDLEI User: atul.srivastava Time: 04-11-2020 21:13 Color: CMYK

Corona Virus isSpreading fasterthan we think...

i 40

!!!?!!! atSocie!s

Industrial HousesGoverment BuildingsCommercial Business Parks

'OHSAS _ ISO;` 1 c -

Certilied ;," 45001

Page 16: Lockdown set to be extended with some measures to restart ...

SUNDAY, APRIL 12, 2020 I ADVERTORIAL,ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY PROMOTIONAL FEATURE

OF INDIAFollow us on: twitter.com/DelhiTimesTweet facebook.com/DelhiTimesOnline instagram.com/delhi.times

THE 2020BURNING MANFESTIVAL HAS

OFFICIALLYBEEN

CANCELLED

@burningman

DWAYNEJOHNSON HADLOST JACKREACHERROLE TO TOMCRUISE

CCI NG 3.7 Product: TOIDelhiBS PubDate: 12-04-2020 Zone: Delhi Edition: 1 Page: CAP16 User: atul.srivastava Time: 04-11-2020 21:13 Color: CMYK

SP ROBOTIC WORKS

India's #1 Edutainment Company*

Learn Online1 Build real world applications.Right from your Home!

Build a Missing Key Finder AppYour Dad constantly, forgets his Car Keys.

Build an app to find the misplaced Keys!

Build a Pedometer AppMake your Dad work out and measurethe distance he walks, everyday!

:

ONLINEPOW HOME CAMS'

s. Login & Learn Anytime.Smart Classe r

Build a Home Security L --Facial Recognition App

Burglar Proof your home , by buildingan App that will allow only family

members to come in to your house!

Build a Voice Recognition AppSurprise your Mom by switching on & offyour TV , AC, Fan etc. with your ownVoice Recognition App!

ri

I j

1:1 Personalised Al Assisted See your code Build 50+ Apps usingTechnical Support Interactive Learning come to life Al and / or Android+

opLLY A

cc SrGM$ or2

m

; HELPS BUILD usP/040

*, 4 I ONLINE COURZ Cognitive 1 I

Build: Build: Focus Face Recognition App Voice Controlled App ' = Decision

Al based Rock Paper Scissors Game GPS based Tracking App Touched over 1 Lakh studentsVoice Recognition App Gaming, Sensor & Camera based Apps across

overcountries

And 10+ such applications And 50+ such applications

. . . - 1

60 TO REGISTER

Page 17: Lockdown set to be extended with some measures to restart ...

CMYK

A ND-NDE

Weekly NewsEmployment News Karmasangsthan Karmakshetra

Eenadu SakshiNava Telangana

The HinduThe Indian ExpBusiness StandardHindustan TimesThe TelegraphDeccan ChronicleBusiness Line

The Financial Exp

Loksatta Sakal Lokmat

Sandesh

MARATHI

The Pioneer

The Times Of IndiaThe Economic TimesMint

Dainik Jagran Dainik Bhaskar JansattaAmar Ujala PioneerHindustanPrabhat Khabar Rajasthan Patrika Business Standard

GUJRATI

-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Daily Update All Indian Newspaper in PDF

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

IF You Are Preparing For IAS, PCS, SSC Exam Then Just DownloadUPSC IAS All in One App From PlayStore. You will get here UPSC Complete Solution Free (All Study Material, Video Lecture, Magazines, Newspaper & The Hindu Analysis Video

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

ENGLISH HINDI TELEGU

For Download any newspaper in PDF at morning Go to www.DailyEpaper.in OR click here

OR

Click Here

http://bit.ly/2UQ3ARu
https://play.google.com/store/apps/developer?id=Web360

Extended Liability of Shareholders? EXTENDED LIABILITY OF SHAREHOLDERS

Extended Liability of Shareholders? EXTENDED LIABILITY OF SHAREHOLDERS

From pictures to extended finite elements: extended digital image correlation (X-DIC)

From pictures to extended finite elements: extended digital image correlation (X-DIC)

NANO family extended

NANO family extended

2020 COVID-19 - Strategy post-restart

2020 COVID-19 - Strategy post-restart

Covid Chronicles Recipes from the Lockdown Larder Corona ...

Covid Chronicles Recipes from the Lockdown Larder Corona ...

Social Inequities in the Impact of COVID-19 Lockdown ... - MDPI

Social Inequities in the Impact of COVID-19 Lockdown ... - MDPI

Shift in Social Media App Usage During COVID-19 Lockdown ...

Shift in Social Media App Usage During COVID-19 Lockdown ...

journalism of courage - The lockdown to contain the ...

journalism of courage - The lockdown to contain the ...

Balanced allocations (extended abstract)

Balanced allocations (extended abstract)

Refinements for Restart Model Elimination

Refinements for Restart Model Elimination

The lockdown to contain the coronavirus outbreak has disrupted ...

The lockdown to contain the coronavirus outbreak has disrupted ...

MPLS Traffic Engineering--RSVP Graceful Restart - Cisco

MPLS Traffic Engineering--RSVP Graceful Restart - Cisco

COVID lockdown, how people managed and impact of welfare ...

COVID lockdown, how people managed and impact of welfare ...

EXTENDED PRODUCT OFFER - Athens

EXTENDED PRODUCT OFFER - Athens

Time extended LOTOS

Time extended LOTOS

Gun scare forces P-CEP lockdown - Plymouth District Library

Gun scare forces P-CEP lockdown - Plymouth District Library

Extended essay cover

Extended essay cover

Limited Extended Inheritance

Limited Extended Inheritance

Rituparna extended abstract SPG2013

Rituparna extended abstract SPG2013

MPs call on government to end partial lockdown - Kuwait Times

MPs call on government to end partial lockdown - Kuwait Times