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VOL. 55 * NO. 181* AHMEDABAD THURSDAY 20/1/2022

Army soldiers patrolling at LOC amid snowfall, in Poonch on Wednesday.UNI

The Union Minister for Culture, Tourism and Development of North EasternRegion (DoNER), Shri G. Kishan Reddy attends the Retreat Drill Ceremony, atNational War Memorial, in New Delhi.

A bust of Kargil War Hero, Capt Vikram Batra, Param Vir Chakra (Posthumous)was unveiled at Palampur Military Station on 19 Jan 2022. The bust was unveiledby Sh. GL Batra & Smt. Kamal Kanta Batra, parents of Capt Vikram Batra in pres-ence of Lt Gen YK Joshi, GOC-in-C Northern Command, who was the Command-ing Officer of 13 JAK RIF during the Kargil War.

Modi, Amit Shahgreet NDRF on itsRaising Day

New Delhi, Jan 19 (IANS)Prime Minister NarendraModi and Union Home Min-ister Amit Shah on Wednes-day greeted the National Di-saster Response Force(NDRF) on its Raising Day.

Taking to twitter, PmModi said: “Greetings to thehardworking @NDRFHQteam on their Raising Day.They are at the forefront ofmany rescue and relief mea-sures, often in very challeng-ing circumstances. NDRF’scourage and professional-ism are extremely motivat-ing. Best wishes to them fortheir future endeavour.”

Extending his greetings,the Home minister de-scribed the NDRF as a sym-bol of courage, service anddedication.

No explosives foundin unattended bagin Delhi’s Trilokpuri:Delhi Police

New Delhi, Jan 19 (IANS)Delhi Police on Wednesdaysaid that the two bags thatwere lying unattended atthe Delhi’s Trilokpuri areacontained no explosives.

Confirming the devel-opment, Deputy Commis-sioner of Police (East Dis-trict) Priyanka Kashyap,who reached the spot toassess the situation, saidboth the bags were stolenfrom some person and theyhave identified him. “It con-tained no explosives,” shestated.

One of the bags con-tained a laptop while theother had personal belong-ings of its owner.

Meanwhile, sensing thegravity of the situation, aBomb Disposal Squad of theDelhi Police had alsoreached the spot.

Trivendra SinghRawat unwilling tocontest U’khandAssembly polls

New Delhi, Jan 19 (IANS)Former Uttarakhand ChiefMinister Trivendra SinghRawat on Wednesday ex-pressed his unwillingness tocontest the Assembly pollsand has written a letter toBJP national president J. P.Nadda in this regard.

In the letter to Nadda,Rawat said: “Leadership haschanged in the state andthe party got a youth leaderPushkar Singh Dhami. In thechanged political scenario, Ishould not contest the 2022Assembly polls.”

He said that he had ear-lier also conveyed his intentnot to fight the 2022 polls.

“As per responsibilitiesextended to me by the na-tional secretary and party inthe past, I have done elec-tion related work inMaharashtra, Punjab,Haryana, Delhi, HimachalPradesh, Chandigarh andUttar Pradesh,” the letterread.

Union Cabinetapproves ‘safaikaramcharis’ bodyterm for 3 more yrs

New Delhi, Jan 19(IANS) Ahead of the Assem-bly elections in five states,the Union Cabinet chairedby Prime Minister NarendraModi on Wednesday ap-proved the extension of theNational Commission forSafai Karamcharis (NCSK)term for three years whichwas set to expire on March31, 2022.

The total financial im-plication of this extensionwould be nearly Rs 43.68crore and the major ben-eficiaries would be the‘safai karamcharis’ andidentified manual scaven-gers in the country. Thenumber of manual scaven-gers identified under theManual Scavenging ActSurvey as on December 31,2021, is 58,098.

ED raids due to political rivalry: Punjab CMChandigarh, Jan 19

(IANS) In the run-up to polls,Punjab Chief MinisterCharanjit Channi onWednesday said the En-forcement Directorate (ED)raids in a sand mining casewere happening due to po-litical rivalry.

He said the BJP was us-ing central forces beforepolls as they did in WestBengal.

Responding to the raidsin which the ED seized un-accounted Rs 10 crore cash,including Rs 8 crore from

the premises of the nephewof Channi in a 2018 sandmining case, Channi said theBJP government at the Cen-tre was using central inves-tigating agencies againstthe political rivals.

Citing instances of raidsat relatives of MamataBanerjee in West Bengal andin Tamil Nadu, at M.K. Stalin’srelatives, he said it was theBJP’s ‘old tactics’ to use EDand IT and bring distrac-tions during the time ofelections. A total Rs 10 crorein cash was seized in the

two-day raid that ended onWednesday. About Rs 8crore from the residence ofBhupinder Singh Honey, thenephew of Channi, whofloated a firm — Punjab Re-altors — to get sand miningcontracts, an official said.

Media reports said goldworth Rs 21 lakh was alsorecovered from the nephewof Channi.

The raids were con-ducted at least a dozenplaces in the state under theprovisions of the Preventionof Money Laundering Act.

BJP releases list 30 star campaigners for 1st phase in UPNew Delhi, Jan 19 (IANS)

The BJP on Wednesday re-leased a list of 30 star cam-paigners for the first phaseof Uttar Pradesh Assemblypolls. Prime MinisterNarendra Modi, Union Min-isters Rajnath Singh, AmitShah and Nitin Gadkari,Chief minister YogiAdityanath, Uttar PradeshBJP president SwatantraDev Singh are named as theparty’s star campaigners forthe first phase of Assemblypolls in the state.

Union MinistersDharmendra Pradhan,Smriti Irani, Mukhtar AbbasNaqvi, Sanjeev Balyan, Gen-eral V.K. Singh, S.P. SinghBaghel, Sadhvi NiranjanJyoti are also on the list ofstar campaigners for the

first phase of Uttar Pradeshassembly polls. The BJP hasalso named Uttar Pradeshin-charge Radha MohanSingh, both the deputy chiefministers of state - KeshavPrasad and Dr. DineshSharma as it’s star cam-paigners for first phase ofstate. Other names includeLok Sabha member HemaMalini, Jaswant Saini, AshokKatariya, Surendra Nagar,Choudhary BhupendraSingh, B.L. Verma, RajveerSingh ‘Raju Bhaiya’, KantaKardam, RajnikantMaheshwari, Mohit Beniwal,Dharmendra Kashyap, J.P.S.Rathore and Bhola SinghKhateek. The first phase poll-ing will be held in 58 Assem-bly constituencies of West-ern part of Uttar Pradesh.

Bookies give 230 seatsto BJP, 130 to SP in UP

New Delhi, Jan 19 (IANS) Bookies in Uttar PradeshPradesh’s Hapur-Meerut, running the ‘Satta Bazaar’, arebetting high on the ruling BJP to triumph in the Febru-ary-March Assembly elections, giving it around 230 ofthe total 403 seats. The Samajwadi Party comes secondwith 130 seats. The bookies are not giving seats to theCongress and the Aam Aadmi Party yet, saying that theywere speaking on the basis of their early trends and thesituation might change in the coming phases of themulti-stage elections. But as of now, they are plumpingfor the BJP. As per their own trends, the BJP will suffer aloss of around 60 to 70 seats, but will emerge as the stron-gest player in the UP election. “Though a lot of thingshave gone against the BJP but also they are going tonail it. The BJP rolled back the agricultural bills. LakhimpurKheri incident was also against the saffron party. But alsowe have found that they are going to make it again. Theyare winning around 230 seats as per our trend.

‘Reach out to families, don’t wait for them’: SCNew Delhi, Jan 19 (IANS)

The Supreme Court onWednesday told the stategovernments to reach outto the families who losttheir loved ones to Covid-19, and emphasised, thegovernments should notwait for them to file appli-cations to claim compensa-tion.

A bench comprisingJustices M.R. Shah andSanjeev Khanna told theKerala government counselto send out its officers tothose families, where it hasrecorded a Covid death.“Officers must go to them.We don’t have to tell you...Deaths already registered.They must be paid. Let your

officers go to districts...” TheKerala government has re-corded over 40,000 Coviddeaths and it has receivedover 23,000 claims so far.

During the hearing, Jus-tice Shah, expressing dis-content at the delay inCovid compensation byvarious states, said: “Statesbelieve people are at theirmercy...”

Justice Khanna notedthat the gap between theCovid deaths recorded andthe number of applicationsreceived, is a matter of seri-ous concern.

The bench noted thatthe number of applicationsseeking Covid compensa-tion claims is less than reg-

istered death cases in manystates, yet governmentsfailed to take proactivesteps.

The bench asked theGujarat government to pro-duce the documentationsample, stating the proce-dure followed while reject-ing compensation claims.The Haryana governmentcounsel informed the topcourt that state officials arealready reaching out tofamilies, where it has re-corded Covid death.

The top court said it willtake the help of the StateLegal Services Authority toreach victim families fordisbursement of compen-sation. The top court will

pass the order later in theday.

Earlier in the day, thetop court expressed dis-content over the delay inpayment of compensationto families of those whosuccumbed to Covid-19,and ordered personal ap-pearance of chief secretar-ies of Andhra Pradesh andBihar at 2 p.m Wednesday.

The top court was hear-ing a plea by advocateGaurav Kumar Bansal,where it is monitoring thedisbursal of compensationto families of those whodied due to Covid. The Su-preme Court has approvedthe compensation of Rs50,000 to victim families.

PM Modi lauds first dose vaxof over 50% of youngstersNew Delhi, Jan 19 (IANS)

Prime Minister NarendraModi on Wednesday laudedthe first dose of vaccinationof over 50 per cent ofyoungsters between theage group of 15 and 18years. In response to a tweetby Union Health MinisterMansukh Mandaviya, thePrime Minister tweeted,“Young and youthful Indiashowing the way! This is en-couraging news. Let us keepthe momentum. It is impor-tant to vaccinate and ob-serve all COVID-19 relatedprotocols. Together, we willfight this pandemic.”

Over 50 per cent of ado-lescents of 15-18 age grouphave been vaccinated withthe first dose of Covid-19vaccine. Since the begin-ning of inoculation drive forthis age bracket, a total of

3,81,26,520 teens have re-ceived their first dose as perthe CoWIN portal. UnionHealth Minister had called it“Big day for India’s fightagainst Covid-19" as Indiaachieved the milestone ofadministering over 50 percent adolescents of this agegroup with first dose of vac-cines on Tuesday night. “Bigday for India’s fight againstCOVID-19! Over 50 per centof our youngsters between15-18 age group have re-ceived their 1st dose ofCOVID19 vaccine. Well done,my Young Friends! Your en-thusiasm for vaccination isinspiring people all over In-dia”, he had said in a tweet. AsCovid-19 cases began tosurge in India, the nation-wide drive to vaccinate teen-agers in this age group of 15-18 years began on January 3.

PM Modi to meet CentralAsian leaders virtually

New Delhi, Jan 19 (IANS) Prime Minister Narendra Modiwill host the first India-Central Asia Summit in virutal for-mat on January 27.

Presidents of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan,Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan will participate in the virtualmeet. This will be the first engagement of its kind betweenIndia and the Central Asian countries at the level of lead-ers. The state heads of central Asian countries were invitedto grace the Republic Day celebrations but was forced tocancel it owing to the Corona situation.

In a statement, the Ministry of External Affairs said: “Thefirst India-Central Asia Summit is a reflection of India’s grow-ing engagement with the Central Asian countries, whichare a part of India’s Extended Neighbourhood”.

PM Modi paid a historic visit to all Central Asian coun-tries in 2015. Subsequently, there have been exchanges athigh-levels at bilateral and multilateral forums.

The inception of the India-Central Asia Dialogue at For-eign Ministers’ level, the 3rd meeting of which was held inNew Delhi from 18-20 December 2021, has provided animpetus to India-Central Asia relations’, the statement read.

During the first India-Central Asia Summit, the leadersare expected to discuss steps to take forward India-CentralAsia relations to newer heights. They are also likely to ex-change views on regional and international issues of inter-est, especially the evolving regional security situation.

Boris Johnson under pressure amid reportsof looming leadership challenge in UK

New Delhi: British PrimeMinister Boris Johnson is onthe brink of facing a leader-ship challenge, according toreports, after an angry back-lash over claims partieswere held at his residenceduring coronaviruslockdowns. After Johnsondenied an accusation by hisformer adviser that he hadlied to parliament aboutone party, sources said therequired number of lettersfrom his own lawmakerscalling for a no-confidence

vote in his leadership couldbe reached on Wednesday.As many as 20 Conservativelawmakers who won theirseats at the last generalelection in 2019 plan to sub-mit letters of no confidencein Johnson, as per a mediareport. Johnson`s office didnot respond to a request forcomment. Just two yearsago, Johnson was the dar-ling of his party after he se-cured the biggest Conserva-tive majority since MargaretThatcher in 1987.

Up to 50K to lakh daily casesexpected: Guj Covid Task Force

Gandhinagar, Jan 19(IANS) The Task Force consti-tuted by the Gujarat govern-ment to monitor Covid situ-ation, on Wednesday ex-pressed apprehension thatin the third wave the statemay witness 50,000 to1,00000 cases a day by Janu-ary end or the start of Feb-ruary if Covid protocols arenot properly followed.

After Tuesday’s spike ofover 17,000 cases in Gujarat,Health Minister HrishikeshPatel met the experts of theTask Force and then ad-dressed the media, appeal-ing to the people not to dis-

regard the threat of Omi-cron.

Patel said, “The govern-ment has continued the cur-rent guidelines and rightnow there’s no need tochange it, but if circum-stances demand, there willbe changes.”

“We appeal to thepeople that please registeryourself when you gettested positive in a privatelab, so that the governmentgets the correct figures andgauge the situation,” addedPatel.

The minister also in-formed that at present the

state had a capacity ofmanufacturing 1500 metrictonne of oxygen, whereasthe current daily require-ment was 70 metric tonne.

“The eligible people forthe second dose have re-ceived 9,60,702 doses of thevaccine per 10 lakh peoplein the state. The state is in aleading position among thelarge states of the countryconsidering the same,” in-formed the minister.

It is apprehended thatthe possible third wavemight have its peak effect inGujarat around January endand February beginning.

Davos Summit: 'PatrioticMillionaires' call for wealth tax

Zurich: A group of morethan 100 billionaires andmillionaires has issued aplea to political and busi-ness leaders convening vir-tually for the World Eco-nomic Forum: make us paymore tax. The group callingitself the "Patriotic Million-aires" said that the ultra-wealthy were not currentlybeing forced to pay theirshare of the global eco-nomic recovery from thepandemic."As millionaires,we know that the current

tax system is not fair. Mostof us can say that, while theworld has gone through animmense amount of suffer-ing in the last two years, wehave actually seen ourwealth rise during the pan-demic - yet few if any of uscan honestly say that we payour fair share in taxes," thesignatories said in an openletter, published on the oc-casion of the World Eco-nomic Forum`s "virtualDavos", which began on Jan.17.

Air India getsnew chief

New Delhi, Senior IASofficer Vikram Dev Dutthas been appointed as thenew Chairman & Manag-ing Director of nationalflight carrier Air India. Theappointment comes attime when the nationalcarrier has been taken overby Tata Group. The ap-pointment was a top levelbureaucratic reshuffle ingovernment of India.

Cabinet sanctions Rs 973cr for loan moratoriumNew Delhi, Jan 19 (IANS)

In a major relief for borrow-ers, especially of homeloans, hit by the outbreak ofCovid and the lockdown,the Union Cabinet, chairedby Prime Minister NarendraModi, on Wednesday ap-proved the payment of ex-gratia amount of Rs 973.74crore to the SBI as reim-bursement related to loanmoratorium. This is pertain-ing to remaining claims sub-mitted by Lending Institu-tions (LIs) under the schemefor grant of ex-gratia pay-ment of difference betweencompound interest andsimple interest for sixmonths to borrowers in

specified loan accountsfrom March 1, 2020 to Au-gust 31, 2020, when Indiawas hit hard by the pan-demic, a Finance Ministrysaid. As per the data avail-able, about 1,612 LIs have23,89,30,080 beneficiarieswith a claim of Rs 6,473.74crore, out of which Rs 5,500crore have been disbursedearlier, and claims of Rs973.74 crore was pending. Inthe context of the Covid-19pandemic, a scheme forgrant of ex-gratia paymentof difference between com-pound interest and simpleinterest for six months toborrowers in specified loanaccounts from March 1.

UP polls: BJP announces alliancewith Apna Dal, Nishad Party

New Delhi, Jan 19 (IANS)The Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP), Apna Dal and theNishad Party on Wednesdayofficially announced their

alliance to contest the UttarPradesh assembly polls to-gether. Addressing a jointpress conference with thealliance partners, Apna Dalpresident Anupriya Pateland Nishad Party presidentSanjay Nishad, BJP chief JPNadda said: “BJP, Apna Daland Nishad Party will jointlycontest Uttar Pradesh as-sembly polls in all the 403seats.” “In the last two days,we had discussions with ourNDA alliance partners and ithas been decided to jointlycontest all 403 assemblyseats in Uttar Pradesh. We allcame together in 2019 LokSabha elections and in the2022 assembly polls also,”Nadda said.

Ahmedabad, Page 2

Editorial2FromEditor’sDesk

Swami PrasadMaurya’s

‘Skylab’ swipe isa deep one,

requires a littlebit of decoding

Given that UP has among thelargest proportion of youth inits population, the Skylabreference might be a bit dated.

In July 1979, the sky was falling. Panicked resi-dents in the coastal areas of Andhra Pradesh andOdisha began moving inland, schools were closed,the fear of death from above loomed. Skylab, NASA’sfirst space station — put into orbit in 1973 — provedthat human beings could live in outer space for ex-tended periods. The mission was supposed to lastfour years longer than it did, but the Skylab beganto be pulled into earth’s orbit in 1979, and there wasevery chance that it might crash into a populatedarea.

Cut to India 2022. In this election season, lead-ers are crossing over, joining new parties — nota-bly in Uttar Pradesh. Swami Prasad Maurya, formerminister in the Yogi Adityanath government, saidthat the UP CM was parachuted into the position in2017, “dropped into the chair like Skylab”. The meta-phor is a deep one, invoking awe and dread, distanceand despair. It’s also a swipe at his former cabinetcolleague, hinting that Adityanath was not in therunning for the post and that his appointment cameas a surprise and disappointment.

Unfortunately for Maurya, his comment is alsoleaving many people a bit flummoxed. Given thatUP has among the largest proportion of youth in itspopulation, the Skylab reference might be a bitdated: Those under 35 are more likely to think it’s arooftop restaurant than a space station. Then, thesubject of Maurya’s ire was certainly launched likeSkylab. But it is unlikely that Maurya meant to leaveit there. Given that Skylab’s journey is evocative morefor its rise than its subsequent crash, perhaps, nexttime, a more recent James Bond reference mightcome in handy, help him to say it better — Skyfall.

AHMEDABAD THURSDAY 20/1/2022

Author: Anil Padmanabhan is a journalist who tweets@capitalcalculus

In a few weeks from now, Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman will rise to present what will be the 10th UnionBudget of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Demo-cratic Alliance. The build-up suggests that the Union Bud-get, given that the threat of covid-19 has returned, will re-tain its focus on the ‘lives vs livelihoods’ trade off. At thesame time, it is likely to unveil fresh plans to further unlockand inspire the entrepreneurial spirits with an eye on sus-tainable growth. A signal to this effect was evident in thefirst round table hosted by Prime Minister Narendra Modion the Union Budget with a clutch of venture capitalistsand private equity investors. Especially when the PM que-ried the movers and shakers of global capital for fresh ideasto further improve the Ease of Doing Business.

Clearly, there is a plan in the mix. In fact, this has beenthe signature of Modinomics. Yes, sometimes-unexpecteddevelopments may have thrown things off kilter, yet theNDA cannot be faulted for not having a plan. A quick stocktaking will reveal that each budget has steadily createdbuilding blocks to evolve a new architecture for both gov-

NDA’S BUDGET MANTRA: REFORM, TRANSFORM, PERFORMernance and development. And all of this alongside thedamage control measures to mitigate the fallout from thefrequent shocks arising either from global economic dis-ruptions or more recently the covid-19 pandemic.

The initial budgets of the NDA tenure put the spotlighton anti-corruption and poverty alleviation measures whiletaking baby steps towards establishing a rules-based re-gime—as opposed to the seven decade precedent of op-erating within an exceptions-based regime which providedthe ecosystem for fostering corruption—by opting for auc-tions of coal mines and spectrum.

The tough love included a crackdown on illegalwealth—including demonetisation of high value curren-cies in 2016 and linking of Aadhaar with the income taxPAN—and initiating targeted delivery of public goods andservices. The latter was achieved by leveraging a digitalframework with the moniker: JAM (Jandhan, Aadhaar andMobile). This in turn had a two-fold advantage. For one,the JAM trio enabled an economic GPS for each beneficiarywhich ensured targeted delivery of subsidised cooking gas,a range of social security payments including for the ruralemployment safety nets, income support to farmers andcovid-19 relief. The Direct Benefits Transfer resulted in sav-

ings to the exchequer of a staggering Rs1.7 trillion at theend of March 2020.

Secondly, what it did was to also launch India on a freshset of digital rails with Aadhaar, the 12-digit unique iden-tity issued to all residents in the country, as the nucleus ofan indigenous technology stack.

It was precisely this, which enabled the payments back-bone Unified Payments Interface or UPI—poised to log arecord $1 trillion in transactions in this calendar year. Notonly has UPI powered the FinTech revolution, innovationsleveraging the underlying technology stack to create forexample, the Account Aggregator framework—which willallow for monetising cash flow data of small and mediumenterprises to access collateral-free credit—is acceleratingfinancial inclusion at an unprecedented pace.

A significant subtext of these new digital rails is the pushfor formalisation of the Indian economy. At the momentmore than three-quarter Indians own a bank account—anecessary step of formalisation.

The biggest nudge so far to formalisation was thelaunch of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), which for thefirst time economically unified the country. Overnight, In-dia went from a maze of complex indirect tax rates to ‘One

Country, One Tax’. The fact that the States and the UnionGovernment pooled their sovereignty also seeded thefoundations of a new federal polity: cooperative federal-ism. And in recent years the Union Budget has been usedto signal a reset of the Indian economy wherein privateenterprise—not just India Inc but also the rapidly prolifer-ating start-ups and small enterprises—have an equal stake.

Besides improving Ease of Doing Business, the first post-pandemic budget took an unprecedented and bold deci-sion declaring that the public sector is no longer the com-manding heights of the economy. It then went a step fur-ther and announced that the PSU assets will be monetisedto release scarce capital to fund fresh investments in infra-structure—which has posed a serious supply-side con-straint restricting the ability of the economy to grow at asustained pace.

In fact, the 2021-22 Union Budget not only cleaned thebooks of the Union Government by accounting for the fis-cal sins of the last four decades, it also switched the accentof spending away from revenue to capital expenditure.

In the final analysis it is clear that together these build-ing blocks forcing a fundamental reset have a single ob-jective: sustained growth.

Christie’s ‘Old Master andBritish Drawings’ online sale

By IANSlife

New Delhi, Jan 19(IANSlife) The ‘Old Masterand British Drawings’, anonline sale will be open forbidding from January 14-28.The sale features 76 lots fromthe 16th to the 19th centuriesfrom the Italian, French, thernEuropean and British schools.The sale highlight is a re-cently rediscovered workby the 19th century roman-tic artist, Caspar DavidFriedrich. Bohemian land-scape with a chapel in a field,executed in graphite, pen andgrey ink, and watercolour (es-timate: $150,000-$250,000);from The Estates of Bernardand Helga Kramarksy is an im-portant example of a pendrawing by Guercino, MarsHolding a Sword (estimate:$70,000-$100,000), and a

Study Of A Female Head InRed Chalk by GiovanniBattista Tiepolo (estimate:$20,000-$30,000). Among theFrench works in the auctionare two gouaches by the17th-century artist Pierre-Paul Sevin after PaoloVeronese’s monumental can-vases of The Wedding at Canaand The Feast in the House ofLevi. Also among the worksfrom the same school is a re-discovered work by theFrench Rococo artist JeanRestout, The Rest on the Flightinto Egypt (estimate $15,000-$25,000). Only known toscholars from black-and-white photos, the work’swhereabouts were previouslyunknown and was formerlyattributed to Restout’syounger and more famouscontemporary, FrançoisBoucher.

In ‘Naya J&K’ Central schemes focus on commonman; old narratives punctured, UT marches ahead

New Delhi/Srinagar, Jan19 (IANS) The schemessponsored by the CentralGovernment to improve theliving standards of thepeople are helping everysection of the society inJammu and Kashmir. Thebenefits of these formats aretrickling down to a commonman in the Union Territoryfor the first time since 1947.

Prior to August 5, 2019— when the Centre an-nounced its decision to ab-rogate J&K’s special statusand divided it into twoUnion Territories — the divi-dends of Centrally spon-sored schemes didn’t reacha common man due to Ar-ticle 370 — temporary pro-vision of Indian Constitution— being in vogue. The Ar-ticle, which the former rulersclaimed provided specialprivileges to the permanentresidents of J&K, acted as abiggest impediment for thenatives.

However, the scrappingof Article 370 led to the Cen-trally sponsored schemesgetting implemented in J&Kautomatically as the stum-bling block stood removed.

Results of BJP-led Cen-tral government “biting thebullet” are visible as manypeople in J&K have availedthe benefits under PrimeMinister Awas Yojana(PMAY- housing for all),Mumkin, Ayushman BharatPradhan Mantri Jan ArogyaYojana - SEHAT and other

people friendly initiativeslaunched by the Govern-ment of India.

Mumkin, PMAY, SEHATIn order to create em-

ployment the governmentlaunched the ‘Mumkin’scheme — a livelihoodprogramme designed pri-marily for unemployedyoung people in the agebracket of 18 to 35, with aspecial focus on those al-ready working in the trans-port sector or who want toboost their earningsthrough self-employment.The programme is a part ofthe Mission Youth Initiativeof the J&K government touplift, mentor, and providesustainable livelihood to theyouth registered with Dis-trict Employment andCounselling Centres(DE&CC). Till date hundredsof youth across J&K haveavailed the benefit of thisscheme and have becomeowners of their own ve-hicles. They are earning theirlivelihood and are support-ing their families.

Under the ‘Mumkin’scheme, small commercialvehicles are being providedto the youth with reason-able subsidies both from themanufacturer and the gov-ernment. As per the guide-lines, the banking partnerextends the loan facility tothe extent of 100 per cent ofthe on-road price of the ve-hicle to be purchased. Mis-sion Youth, J&K provides an

amount of Rs 80,000 or 10per cent of the on-road priceof the vehicle (whichever islesser) as upfront subsidy.

Similarly, PradhanMantri Awas Yojana (PMAY)too has helped thousands ofhomeless people to con-struct houses in rural andurban areas in Jammu andKashmir. Under PMAY theGovernment of India aims toconstruct about 2 crorehouses in the country till theend of 2022. The beneficia-ries of this scheme includehomeless people in villagesand poor in urban areas.And J&K is getting its dueshare.

Another scheme whichhas evoked tremendous re-sponse in J&K is PradhanMantri Jan Arogya Yojana(PMJAY)-SEHAT. AyushmanBharat, a flagship scheme ofthe Government of India,was launched as recom-mended by the NationalHealth Policy 2017, toachieve the vision of Uni-versal Health Coverage.

This initiative was de-signed to meet SustainableDevelopment Goals (SDGs)and its underlying commit-ment, which is to “leave noone behind”. The main aimbehind the scheme is to ex-tend health insurance cov-erage to all residents ofJammu and Kashmir.

SEHAT stands for Social,Endeavour for Health andTelemedicine. It is a healthinsurance scheme for the

Union Territory. It providesfree-of-cost insurancecover to all the residents ofthe UT of J&K. It also pro-vides financial cover up toRs 5 lakh per family on afloater basis to all residentsof the UT of J&K.

The benefit of Rs5,00,000 is on a familyfloater basis. This meansthat it can be used by oneor all members of the fam-ily. It covers medical proce-dures including oncology,cardiology, nephrology etc,and up to three days of pre-hospitalization and 15 dayspost-hospitalisation ex-penses like diagnostics andmedicines are also includedin the scheme. Till datelakhs of beneficiaries havebeen registered under thisscheme in J&K and they areavailing the benefit of cash-less treatment in the pri-vate hospitals. In Decemberlast year the J&K govern-ment had empanelled 12top private hospitals in theUT under the PMJAY-SEHATscheme.

Welfare StateAt present there are

many Centrally sponsoredschemes operational inJammu and Kashmir andthe benefits of these for-mats are reaching to thegrassroots level. Theschemes which used to getcaught in official wranglesand files are accessible tothe people whom thesewere meant for. It’s a big

change which the Hima-layan region has witnessedduring the past two years.

A common man in J&Kprobably for the first time inseven decades is reapingthe fruits of being a citizenof a welfare state. Till Au-gust 5, 2019, the narrative inJammu and Kashmir re-volved around India-Paki-stan relations and holdingtalks with militants andseparatists. The Kashmirbased politicians kept acommon man busy withsuch issues which were ofno significance or use tohim. But these issues wereprojected in such a waythat people thought thatwhatever their leaders aresaying is a “Gospel Truth”and nothing can change inJ&K till Pakistan and themilitants sponsored by itare taken on board. In factmany people in New Delhitoo were under the same il-lusion. But the governmentled by Prime Minister,Narendra Modi, shatteredthe myth by ending the so-called special status of J&K.

Whosoever came intopower in J&K after 1947, didlittle towards integratingthe erstwhile princely statewith the country. Theynever made people awareabout the ill effects of Ar-ticle 370, which the Kashmirbased politicians used toclaim was a bridge con-necting J&K with NewDelhi.

Jan 19: A day to reflect on Kashmiri Pandits’ unending wait for justiceBy Deepika Bhan

January 19 is not just another date on the calen-dar. It is an occasion to remind ourselves of a bittertruth that exposes the hypocrisy of India’s secularpolitics and polity.

The day is observed globally as the HolocaustRemembrance Day by the Kashmiri Pandit (KP) com-munity every year, a day of mourning the loss of lives,homes, livelihoods, language, culture, Kashmir andKashmiriyat. It is also a day to remember the failureof the administration and civil society.

Thirty-two years ago, what happened in Kash-mir on the night of January 19 has been chronicledby members of the community as a period of com-plete horror and hostility not seen before anywhere.An entire population slept or kept its eyes and earsshut even as fanatics danced on the Valley streetsand roads, roared from loudspeakers atop mosques,threatening to rape and kill the ‘kafirs’ if they failedto leave Kashmir.

There was no one to stop the mobs that hadtaken over everything in the Valley; none to put anend to the venomous speeches. The administrationhad withered away; the police had become non-functional. There was no one the miity communitycould turn to.

All those leaders — Farooq Abdullah, the lateMufti Mohammad Sayeed, Saifuddin Soz, GhulamNabi Azad, and others — who claim to be votaries ofsecularism, were nowhere to be seen. FarooqAbdullah was the Chief Minister of J&K in 1986-1990.Mufti Mohd Sayeed was the Union Home Minister(1989-1990). It was under their watch that terrorismflourished in Kashmir.

The maximum number of targeted killings of KashmiriPandits, Sikhs and all those who were seen as ‘pro-India’, bru-tal gang-rapes and killing of Pandit women, desecration oftemples, kidnappings, attacks and harassment of the Valley’smiity were happening when the two were at the helm.

Life in the Valley had been completely overwhelmed byterrorism propagated and sponsored by Pakistan, targetinganyone who was seen to be ‘pro-India’. None of the ‘secular’leaders dared to raise their voice against the sinister violenceand the targeting of the miities.

When warnings were pasted on the doors and walls ofKP homes, open threats were published in local newspapers,messages were conveyed to targeted people to leave or die,none from the majority community, no civil society mem-ber and none of the political leaders, either in the erstwhilestate or in New Delhi, stood up.

There was no human rights organisation talking aboutthe plight of the community, which was left to perish or flee.A community that gave the country its first Prime Ministerand many top bureaucrats, diplomats and intellectuals wasleft to fend for itself.

January 19 also exposes the hollowness of the country’stop constitutional institutions, which failed to take note ofthe atrocities, investigate and prosecute all those involvedin the persecution and exodus of their fellow citizens.

Three decades after the mass exodus, none of the suc-cessive governments at the Centre or in the state, set up acommission or formed an SIT to probe the exodus. Whenover five lakh people are forced to leave their land, isn’t it thenatural course of action for any government or top legal in-stitutions to investigate the matter and punish the perpe-trators?

Unfortunately, in this case, no probe has ever been or-dered, no commission ever set up, and no sincere effort madeto deliver justice to the persecuted.

For the past 30 years, KP community leaders have been

demanding justice. But their tragic stories of killings,brutalities, torture and harassment have not movedanybody. Even their plea to declare the community‘internally displaced’ has been continually iged bysuccessive governments.

In fact, in 2014, the Centre refused to grant thestatus of ‘Internally Displaced Persons’ to KashmiriPandits, despite it being the recommendation ofParliament’s Standing Committee on Home Af-fairs.

The closest that any organisation came to de-scribe the plight of the community was the NationalHuman Rights Commission (NHRC). Under the lead-ership of Justice M.N. Venkatachaliah, who headedthe NHRC in 1996-98, the commission ruled that the“systematic ethnic cleansing” inflicted on KPs by ter-rorists, forcing them to exit their homeland, was akinto genocide.

In 2019, for the first time in three decades, theCentre agreed that genocide had take place in theValley while imposing a ban on the JKLF. The thenUnion Home Secretary, Rajiv Gauba, had said: “JKLFchief Yasin Malik was the mastermind behind thegenocide and exodus of Kashmiri Pandits.” Gaubaalso noted, strengthening the case against the JKLF:“Murders of Kashmiri Pandits by the JKLF in 1989 hadtriggered their exodus from the Valley.”

This was the closest that any government cameto describing the tragedy that befell the community.Even the number of those killed and those who fledthe Valley is disputed, while rape and gang-rape num-bers are not even recorded. In many cases of mur-ders, FIRs were never filed and even in those instanceswhere cases were lodged, the movement has been anear nil.

Holocaust Remembrance Day

National Stock Exchangeof India Ltd. (NSE) hasemerged as the world’s larg-est derivatives exchange in2021 by number of contractstraded based on the statis-tics maintained by FuturesIndustry Association (FIA), aderivatives trade body. NSE isranked 4th in the world incash equities by number oftrades as per the statisticsmaintained by theWorld Federationof Exchanges(WFE) for the cal-endar year 2021.

Commentingon the occasion,Mr. Vikram Limaye,MD & CEO, NSEsaid: “It is a matterof great pride forus and for ourcountry that NSEhas emerged as aglobal leader and achievedthe distinction of being thelargest derivatives exchangein the world for the 3rd con-secutive year and the 4thlargest exchange in cash eq-uities by number of trades.We are truly grateful to theGovernment of India, Securi-ties & Exchange Board of In-dia, Reserve Bank of India,trading & clearing members,market participants and allour stakeholders for the sup-port extended to us over theyears. Our achievementswould not have been pos-sible without their support.”

NSE is ranked as the larg-est exchange globally in eq-

NSE is the world’s largest derivativesexchange for the 3rd consecutive year

uity derivatives as well as cur-rency derivatives by numberof contracts traded. At theinstrument level, NSE ranks1st in index options and cur-rency options by number ofcontracts traded. The indexoptions contracts on NiftyBank index ranks 1st andNifty 50 index ranks 2nd glo-bally within the index op-tions category by number of

contracts traded. The US Dol-lar – Indian Rupee optionscontract ranks 1st by numberof contracts traded in thecurrency options category.

The year 2021 witnessedtotal registered investor baseon NSE surpassing the 5-crore mark to reach a countof 5.5 crore investors. ForeignPortfolio investors broughtin net inflows in equities forthe 3rd consecutive calendaryear – Rs 1,01,122 crores in2019, Rs 1,70,262 crores in2020 and Rs 25,752 crores in2021.

In the last 10 years, theequity derivatives daily aver-age turnover increased by

4.2 times from Rs 33,305crores in 2011 to Rs 1,41,267crores in 2021. During thesame period, the cash mar-ket daily average turnoverincreased by 6.2 times fromRs 11,187 crores in 2011 to Rs69,644 crores in 2021. Theequity derivatives to cashmarket turnover ratio hassteadily declined from 2.98 in2011 to 2.03 in 2021.

In currency de-rivatives, the dailyaverage turnoverincreased by 83%from Rs 14,252crores in 2011 to Rs26,017 crores in2021. NSE hadlaunched weekly fu-tures on the mostactive US Dollar –Indian Rupee cur-rency pair. FCYINRpairs other than

USD-INR such as the GBP-INR, EUR-INR and JPY-INRhave also seen significantgrowth in volumes over theyears with daily averageturnover increasing by 7times from Rs 783 crores in2011 to Rs 5,525 crores in2021.

NSE has recently an-nounced the launch of de-rivatives on the Nifty MidcapSelect index from January 24,2022. The midcap segmenthas come into focus in therecent equity market rallywith broad based participa-tion from all classes of inves-tors resulting in improved li-quidity in these stocks.

The Minister of State for Science & Technology and Earth Sciences (I/C), Prime Minister’s Office, Person-nel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr. Jitendra Singh addressing the joint India-UK meet on “Sustaining Food Production under Environmental Stress”, in New Delhi

Ahmedabad, Page 3

In the news 3

A H M E D A B A D * M A R K E T * G U I D E

AHMEDABAD THURSDAY 20/1/2022

Sunny Leone: I take great pridein my songs becoming raging hitsMumbai, Jan 19 (IANS)

Sunny Leone, who had in-credible dance number hitswith tracks like ‘AuntiyaanDance Karengi’, ‘Machli’ and‘Panghat, for which she re-united with Baby Doll singerKanika Kapoor, is in a happyspace. The actress maintainsthat all the songs pushedher to do her best as all ofthem were very differentfrom each other.

Elated with the lovepouring her way, she says, “Isee myself as an entertainerand I take great pride in mysongs becoming raginghits. People have been lov-ing the number. It’s so over-

whelming that my hardwork has paid off.”

Considered among theindustry’s most effortlessdancers, Leone says she re-

members training for mostpart of November to makesure each of these numbershave a different vibe tothem.

She adds, “Sometimesthere is a tendency to rep-licate steps but each ofthese songs were designedso differently. I t meantworking on a differenttrack every few days but Iconsciously wanted eachof these to stand out. I amso happy with the re-sponse.” Ask her if there’s afavourite and she signs offwith a smile, “Why pickwhen you can groove toall?”

Vaani Kapoor wants her filmographyto be as diverse as possible

Mumbai, Jan 19 (IANS)Actress Vaani Kapoor, whorecently essayed a transwoman in ‘Chandigarh KareAashiqui’, is consciouslyworking onshaping uph e rfilmographyby choosingscripts andcharactersthat are dif-ferent fromthe league.

S h ehopes thather work in‘ChandigarhK a r eA a s h i q u i ’and her up-coming re-l e a s e‘Shamshera’where shewill be seeno p p o s i t eR a n b i rKapoor, will incite the confi-dence in film-makers abouther craft.

Talking about the same,she says, “I would like myfilmography to be as diverseas possible and after show-ing my range as an actor in‘Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui’and ‘Shamshera’, I can onlyhope that filmmakers would

feel extremely confident toapproach me with any chal-lenging role. I have alwayswanted to win over theirtrust and be a part of inter-

esting cin-ematic vi-sions ofp o w e r f u lfi lm-mak-ers.”

S h eadds, “Iknow that Iwill give itmy every-thing topull off anycharacterthat I’m ap-proachedwith toplay onscreen.”

Statingher opin-ion on thebest thingabout the

profession of acting, the ac-tress says, “The best thingabout our profession is thatone can get to become somany characters and live somany lives. I want my jour-ney in cinema to be filledwith varied films andgenres and characters thatlight up the screen to enter-tain audiences.”

Fardeen Khan foundpositive for Covid

Mumbai, Jan 19 (IANS) Bollywood actor FardeenKhan has tested positive for Covid and says he is as-ymptomatic. Fardeen, who is the son of late veteranstar Feroz Khan, took to Twitter on Wednesday toshare the news. “Tested positive for C-19. FortunatelyI am asymptomatic. Sending my best to all those inrecovery.” Headded: “The rest,keep gettingtested if in doubtas this variant isalso targetingchildren, downto toddlers, andthey can begiven very lim-ited medication.Happy isolating.”Fardeen is all setto make his comeback on the big screen after 11 yearswith the film ‘Visfot’, which also stars RiteishDeshmukh. Fardeen was last seen on the silver screenin the 2010 movie ‘Dulha Mil Gaya’. ‘Visfot’ is the offi-cial remake of 2012 Venezuelan film ‘Rock, Paper, Scis-sors’ which was selected as that country’s entry forthe Best Foreign Language Film at the 85th AcademyAwards. The thriller thrives on the collision betweenthe city’s stark contrasts - the ‘chawls’ of Dongri andthe high-rises.

Amaal Mallik’s ‘Tum HoToh’ features in ‘Family Guy’

Mumbai, Jan 19 (IANS)Musician Amaal Mallik’ssuperhit song ‘Tum Ho Toh’featured in ‘Family Guy’, oneof the funniest and long-running international ani-mated series.

The music composer isexcited that the vibe of thesong resonated with themakers of his favourite se-ries.

Amaal said: “I’m thrilledthat a show that popularand global looped ‘Tum HoToh’ in for one of its epi-sodes. What’s more reward-ing than having makersresonate with your creativework. Watching the episode

refreshed my memories ofcreating the song withShaan & Rashmi Virag.”

The original is a lovesong that has been sung byShaan, written by Rashmi

Virag and it features TaapseePannu and Saqib Saleem.

The instrumental ofAmaal’s song appears in Epi-sode 11 of Season 20. Thepart that has Mallik’s pieceof music looped in showsthe notorious infant Stewieand his mother Lois at adrum circle.

Amaal added: “A lot ofmy music is heard and seenon very popular fiction andnon-fiction shows in Indiabut this is a special first forme and I thank all those whoso proudly brought the epi-sode to my notice. Gratitudeto those rooting for my mu-sic.”

Salman, Pragya to feature in Guru , IuliaVantur’s music video ‘Main Chala’

Mumbai, Jan 19 (IANS)Bollywood superstarSalman Khan and south ac-tress Pragya Jaiswal are go-ing to feature in the lovetrack ‘Main Chala’ sung byGuru Randhawa and IuliaVantur.

It is goingto be a treatfor music lov-ers andSalman fans.G u r uRandhawa isall parise forsinger IuliaVantur.

He says:“I’m very ex-cited that Icould sharethis song withIulia Vantur,who is not justa wonderfulartiste butalso a warm person. Hertone is very distinct andtakes the song to the nextlevel. The track has turnedout to be beautiful and I’mconfident people will loveit.” Starring Salman Khanand Pragya Jaiswal, the lovesong has been directed byShabina Khan. It has beencomposed and penned byShabbir Ahmed.

Adds Iulia Vantur abouther experience of workingwith Guru Randhawa: “Mainchala’ is a very soulful song,written with a lot of love.We’ve put our hearts in itand I hope it will touchpeople’s souls. I’m grateful

for it, I’m grateful to Gurufor believing in it, for mak-ing this song special, in his

voice. He is an amazing ar-tiste, I appreciate him verymuch as a singer and as aperson as well. I believe lovewill be welcomed ineveryone’s hearts with‘Main Chala’.” Produced bySalman Khan and Bhushan

Kumar, the song will be re-leased on T-Series’ YouTubechannel on January 22.

Arjun never wanted to do horror comedy,‘Bhoot Police’ changed his perspective

Mumbai, Jan 19(IANS) Bollywood actorArjun Kapoor was neverreally keen on exploringhorror comedy but thestory of ‘Bhoot Police’pushed him to try hishand at the genre.

The actor said, “It’s nota genre that I was lookingfor, script-wise.When I heard it,when I read it, whatworked for me wasthe camaraderie be-tween the brothers,the friction and thebanter betweenthem. So I quiteliked the friction, thebrotherhood and atthe same time thelove-hate relation-ship and the wittytone.”

He further said,“There was a certain can-vas and a certain colourcreated in the script itself,so my decision to say yesto the film came from thedirector’s vision, andthankfully it came at apoint where I knew thepassion Saif had, also be-cause everybody knew inthe industry he is so bull-

ish on the script.”On his camaraderie with

Arjun in the film, Saif men-tioned, “Arjun and I have arelationship off-camera too;he is a family friend and wehave known each other forages! On camera, we don’ttake each other for grantedand bring out the best we

can. We had a good timeworking together and thatshows in the movie.”

The film is set for itsworld TV premiere on StarGold, sharing his excitementfor the premiere, Arjun said,“I cannot wait for the audi-ences to enjoy the World TVPremiere of our movie,‘Bhoot Police’ on 23 January,

Sunday at 8 PM on StarGold.”

The ‘Ishaqzaade’ actoradded, “‘Bhoot Police’ is anideal family watch. Usu-ally, horror-comedies arenot children-friendly. ButBhoot Police is the kind offilm the whole family canwatch together over din-

ner. It is not oftenthat you get a filmthat is mildlyfrightening andcan be watchedwith the wholefamily. The kids willdefinitely enjoywatching themovie with theirfamily!” Speakingabout her role in‘Bhoot Police’, YamiGautam said, “Thecharacter Mayathat I play in

‘Bhoot Police’ was physi-cally challenging. We hadto shoot under toughweather conditions be-cause the cold was bitter.There were a lot of out-door sequences andkeeping the light andweather in mind, wehad to pack a lot withina day, every day.”

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Ahmedabad, Page 4

City-State4 AHMEDABAD THURSDAY 20/1/2022

Ahmedabad, The staterevenue department willform a special investigationteam (SIT) to probe seriousallegations of irregularitiesin land deals in the state. Theannouncement was madeby Revenue MinisterRajendra Trivedi after sev-eral land owners in Navsaridistrict alleged that theywere duped of crores of ru-pees by fraudsters in con-nivance with local revenueofficials.

The complaints are re-lated to fraud in compensa-tion for land acquired for theproposed Mumbai-Vadodara Expressway. Thereare 12 complaints which in-volve alleged siphoning ofRs 1 crore each.

The SIT, consisting ofthree members, including a

SIT set up to probe fraud inExpressway land compensation

retired district or session’sjudge, a retired police officerof DySP rank and a retiredrevenue officer, preferably ofIAS rank, Trivedi said.

We will forward all com-plaints of serious nature tothe three-member SIT afterscrutiny. The SIT will conducta thorough probe and un-earth the facts. We are in nomood to spare the guilty, hesaid.

In all, 12 land owners ofChikhli taluka, from wherethe highway will pass, wereduped by fraudsters usingfake consent letters, powerof attorney and other forgeddocuments, the ministersaid. The fraudsters, with thehelp of a lawyer and rev-enue officials, presentedthemselves as land ownersand used forged documents

to claim compensationwhich runs in crores of ru-pees. Instead of the actualowners of the land, the com-pensation against the ac-quired land went to theseaccused, Trivedi said.

What was found?In all, we have unearthed

12 fraud cases. The Navsaripolice have already regis-tered an FIR and the processis on for 11 other cases, hesaid. In the first FIR, com-plainant Fatmaben Mayat(82) of Alipore village inChikhli, Alleged thatfraudsters used forged con-sent letters and power attor-ney for her and her relatives,some of them deceased, toclaim a compensation of Rs2.12 crore against the landacquired for the highway, itwas stated.

Congress alleges scams inPDEU, calls for an inquiry

Ahmedabad, Levellingserious allegations of irregu-larities, fake achievementsand recruitment scams atPandit Deendayal EnergyUniversity (PDEU, formerlyPDPU), Gujarat Congress hasdemanded a probe in therunning of the private uni-versity.

Gujarat Congress chiefspokesperson Manish Doshialleged that PDEU not onlyfaked news of having madea ventilator ‘Shodh’ duringpandemic, it has cheatednational ranking agenciesby showcasing hundreds ofstaff members, students etc.as teachers to score better inranking. He alleged it ap-pointed a chief human re-source officer (CHRO) with-

out following a proper pro-cess, and spent lakhs to starta diploma course in Germanto benefit its DirectorGeneral’s wife.

Doshi has alleged thatPDEU DG SundarManoharan may have madetall claims of inventing anddesigning a ventilator,Shodh, during pandemic,but the ventilator is sold atRs5.5 lakh by a Chennaibased company HILD De-fence and Aerospace PrivateLimited/Eagle Limited onIndiamart.com.

The brochure of theproduct mentioned thatPDEU only carried out tech-nical inspection. How canPDEU inspect this when thevarsity doesn’t have exper-

tise in life sciences and asimilar field? Who is usingPDEU’s name to make moremoney? Doshi told.

Manish Doshi said in or-der to get a good ranking,PDEU also tagged GERMIcorpus fund as its own eventhough it is an autonomoustrust. He alleged that theCHRO has been appointedwithout following a neces-sary process of inviting ap-plications, conducting inter-views etc. Mirror’s attemptto reach PDEU RegistrarTarun Shah on phone didnot get a response. Later, heasked this newspaper toprovide questions in writing. However, Shah or DG didnot revert to the writtenqueries too.

Khusbu Gujarat Ki Hit hard By CovidAhmedabad, The

third Covid wave has hitthe tourism season inGujarat. Favourite touristattractions like theStatue of Unity (SoU),Kutch Rann Utsav andDholavira, an archaeo-logical site in Kutch, arefacing major cancella-tions from tourists acrossthe country. According totourism departmentsources, the otherwisejam-packed tent cities atthese locations are wit-nessing low occupancyof 25% to 40% after Janu-ary 5.occupancy of 25%to 40% after January 5.Not only the state gov-ernment, even Gujarat-based tour operators’revenues have been im-pacted.

Krinal Thaker, salesand marketing managerat Lallooji and Sons, one of

the tent city operators inKutch and at SoU, said, Oc-cupancy is usually morethan 85% on full moon days.January is the peak seasonbut thanks to Covid, the av-erage tent occupancy isdown to 40%.

Thaker said 80% touristsvisiting Gujarat are fromMaharashtra, Delhi,Bengaluru and Hyderabadbesides those from withinthe state. Most of them havepostponed their trip amidstCovid wave.

Tent city operators inKutch, who usually look toexpand operations as theseason matures in Januaryand February, have put theplans on hold this year.

Yogesh Sutaria, pro-moter of Expositions andConventions that is manag-ing a tent city in Dholavira,told Mirror, We started thetent city here with 30 tents

last month (December2021) and had plans todouble the number to 60.However, seeing the rise inCovid cases, we have put theplan on hold.

Sutariya further said, Wehad 70 per cent occupancytill January 7. At present ithas dropped to 25 per centas people fear to ventureout during the Covid wave.People are either postpon-ing or cancelling it alto-gether.

Chairman of the Gujaratchapter of Travel AgentsFederation of India (TAFI)Manish Sharma said, SoU,Rann Utsav and Dholaviraare mostly full between No-vember and February be-cause of the winter and fes-tival season in Gujarat. TheSoU has around 550 tentsand hotel rooms while theRann Utsav has about 400tents which are usually full

in December and Januaryevery year.

December remained agood month but Januaryhas been poor. As thecases come down, thesedestinations will instantlypick up. People who hadbooked the trips are tak-ing credit notes so thatthey can visit next month(February).

When asked about themonetary loss, Sharmasaid the Rann Utsav gen-erates a revenue of Rs 25crore between Decemberand February. Decemberhappened to be good butprospects are bad forJanuary and February, hesaid.

Religious tourism hasalso been affected. Janu-ary and February willprove to be disastrous forthe sector in Gujarat, astate official said.

NID student feted at IDA 2021 foreffective design of tampon box

Ahmedabad, To bring awareness among womenabout newer products of menstrual hygiene, a stu-dent of National Institute of Design (NID) has de-signed a tampon pad box. Besides designing a con-venient and aesthetic packaging, the student hasalso explained in detail about its effective usage.

The design by Apurva Gupta, a fourth-year stu-dent of Graphic Design at NID Ahmedabad, got anhonorable mention at the 15th International DesignAwards 2021. Tampons are soft plugs that are in-serted inside the vagina to absorb menstrual blood.

Students from 80 countries had submitted theirdesigns for the award. Apurva, who hails from Patna,designed it as part of the project Mesa tampons apackaging design for tampons to educate peopleabout the product not with visuals but the productexperience itself.

Apurva said, while tampons are available atmedical stores, a lot of women are confused abouthow to use them. I designed a package which has areproductive system on the front and a graphical ex-planation of the use of tampons. The experience ofopening the box mimics the motion of taking out atampon from the body.

NID faculty member Tridha Gajjar, who guidedthe project, said the project’s significance lies in ex-plaining its usage to buyers in a simple way.

Cooped up in rusty & crampedcage, 14-year-old leopardess diesin Chennai zoo

Chennai, Jan 19 (IANS) The Postmortem reportof a 14-year-old leopardess at Arignar Anna Zoologi-cal park has revealed that esophageal rupture andpulmonary hemorrhage as the primary reasons forthe death.

The leopardess, ‘Jaya’ had died on Monday afterit was squeezed inside the poorly maintained rustycage at the zoo. The postmortem conducted by theveterinarians of the Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Ani-mal Sciences University (TANUVAS) said that theleopardess ribs were squeezed leading to the cut-off of oxygen flow to its lungs.

A zoo official, while speaking to IANS on condi-tions of anonymity, said, “Nasal swab samples of ani-mals, including lions and leopards, were taken and14 samples were sent to the National Institute ofHigh-Security Animal Diseases for testing. Thesamples of this leopardess were also taken but whilereleasing the animal the cage got jammed and theanimal was squeezed inside. We could not rescue it.”

Tamil Nadu Chief WildLife Warden, Shekar KumarNeeraj while speaking to IANS said, “National levelexperts will be roped in for a total review of themanagement practices in the zoo. Some shortcom-ings are observed here and I have already written tothe Central Zoo Authority to depute expert veteri-narians on a consultancy basis.”

Covid has affected the Zoo with 70 staff becom-ing positive and the animals were also affected. Ac-cording to staff in the zoo, during the pandemic of2021, several lions had tested positive due to Covid-19 and two died of the disease.

Mongolia’s daily Covid casesexceed 3,000

Ulan Bator, Jan 19 (IANS) Mongolia recorded3,088 new Covid-19 cases over the past 24 hours,exceeding the 3,000 mark for the first time sinceSeptember 23 last year, bringing the national tallyto 415,765, the country’s health ministry said onWednesday.

The latest confirmed cases were all locally trans-mitted, and more than half of them were detectedin Ulan Bator, the hardest-hit area by the virus andhome to over half of the country’s population of 3.4million. Meanwhile, no more deaths due to the viruswere reported in the past day, and the country’sCovid death toll remains at 2,016, Xinhua newsagency reported. Since the beginning of this year,daily Covid infections have significantly increasedacross the country due to New Year celebrations andthe Omicron variant.

The Omicron cases currently account for at least90 per cent of new daily infections in the country,said Tsolmon Bilegtsaikhan, director of the NationalCentre for Communicable Diseases, urging the pub-lic to follow all relevant health guidelines.

So far, 66.7 per cent of the total population hasreceived two Covid vaccine doses, while more than979,390 people aged over 18 have received a thirddose.

In addition, 49,504 Mongolians have received afourth dose, which the country started to adminis-ter from January 7 on a voluntary basis.

BHU starts course in Hindustudies

Varanasi (UP), Jan 19 (IANS) The Banaras HinduUniversity (BHU) in Varanasi has started a new course- masters in Hindu Studies.

According to a BHU spokesperson, the post-graduate course is the first-of-its-kind to be offeredby a university in the country. He said it is an inter-disciplinary programme designed in line with theNational Education Policy, 2020.

The programme will be offered by the BharatAdhyayan Kendra, in collaboration with the Depart-ment of Philosophy and Religion, Department ofSanskrit and Department of Ancient Indian History,Culture and Archaeology, under the faculty of Arts.

The course will make the world aware of manyunknown aspects of Hindu Dharma and help in tak-ing its teachings to more people, said Prof V K Shukla,a senior rector.

A total of 45 students, including a foreign stu-dent, have joined the first batch.

Centenary Chair Professor Rakesh Upadhyayasaid the course was important for building the‘sanatan’ life values.

FIR against priest, 8 others forholding ‘Rathothsav’ violatingCovid guidelines

Chikkamagalur, (Karnataka) Jan 19 (IANS)Karnataka police have lodged an FIR against ninepersons, including a priest, for conducting‘Rathotsav’ ceremony violating orders of DeputyCommissioner issued against the backdrop of Covid-19 situation.

The religious programme was organised atSakharayapattana, in Kadur taluk of Chikkamgaluron January 17.

DC K.N. Ramesh had ordered prohibitory orderson Sri Shakuna Raganathaswamy religious fare andceremony of Rathotsav, where the idol of God isplaced in a palanquin and taken around.

Despite the prohibition, thousands of peopleparticipated in the religious function and allprogrammes were held.

Revenue inspector Jintendra had lodged a com-plaint in this regard with Sakharayapattana policestation. Based on the complaint, FIR has beenbooked on Wednesday, against priest Krishna Bhat.

The other accused included Naveen, Varun,Reethu, Sandeep, Sachin, Ganesh, Ullas and Nithin.All of them organised and facilitated the religiousfare. The investigation is on.

Renewing Public awarenessneed of the hour: Task Force

Ahmedabad, With theCovid cases surging to arecord 17,119 cases on Tues-day, Chief MinisterBhupendra Patel sum-moned an emergencymeeting of the GujaratCovid Task Force to takestock of the situation.

Senior experts presentin the meeting were ap-prised of the Covid situationin the state and prepara-tions made for hospitaliza-tion, oxygen, medicationand patient transportation.This was to ensure that asituation akin to the one cre-ated during the secondwave does not arise againand their advice was soughton the road ahead.

Sources informed Mirrorthat stress was mainlyplaced on genome se-quencing, research on clini-cal presentation of patients,the importance of ventila-tion and the need to renewpublic awareness on mask-ing, social distancing andvaccination.

The experts spoke aboutthe need to ramp up ge-nome sequencing in Gujaratso that the fiasco that un-

folded during the secondwave, is not repeated. Late tothe sequencing initiative,Gujarat had been caughtshorthanded, identifyingthe predominance of theDelta variant in the state’spopulace only in May, whenthe peak of the secondCovid wave had alreadypassed on April 30, 2021.

Doctors further sug-gested that sequencingalone was not enough, thesame had to be correlatedwith clinical presentationsof symptoms in severeCovid patients, which couldhelp in changing treatmentstrategies if required.

Weight was also givenon the fact that the Omicronvariant, now dominant inGujarat, being three timesmore transmissible than

Delta, and thus the need foradequate ventilation to stopthe spread of virus.

Ironically, the confer-ence room in which themeeting of the Covid TaskForce was held, itself had nodiscernible ventilation, leav-ing the experts, bureaucrats,ministers and the CM in aclosed environment asCovid cases reached un-precedented levels in thestate. The doctors advisedand the government agreedthat renewal of awarenesson masking and social dis-tancing had become impor-tant and would thus betaken up in the coming days.Health Minister RushikeshPatel is likely to give moredetails on government ac-tion in a press conferencetoday.

Sore over AMC apathy on UHC,Cantt Board to write to PM

Ahmedabad, Residents of Shahibaug cantonmentboard said they will approach PM Narendra Modi seekinga health centre after the AMC allegedly failed to follow thecentral government’s directive to set up an urban healthcentre within the cantonment premises.

As per sources in the board, the project has not beenstarted even four years after an order for it was passed bythe central government. The cantonment area in Shahibaughas a population of over 16,000 residents, which includesfamilies of army officers and soldiers. Currently, the canton-ment board only has a dispensary which consists of twodoctors and one nurse and a pharmacist. A major problemarises when a resident needs OPD service or other labora-tory tests for common ailments. Residents are required togo outside in such situations. Sumer Rajput, former mem-ber of the Ahmedabad Cantonment Board, said, There are67 cantonment areas in the country, and the central gov-ernment directed the Gujarat state government in 2017 toset up a UHC within the cantonment. The order was for-warded to the AMC, where the existing dispensary was sup-posed to be upgraded to UHC at a space allotted by thecantonment board. It is the responsibility of the AMC tobuild the UHC and run it properly. We have approached theAMC multiple times over the issue. Vijay Yadav, the currentnominated member of the cantonment board, said, We havewritten to the municipal commissioner, mayor and the chiefmedical officer of the AMC, but no action has been takeneven after allotting space for the purpose.

CM holds meeting of experts asGujarat reports 17k Covid cases

Ahmedabad, Chief Min-ister Bhupendra Patel onTuesday chaired a meetingwith a panel of experts toassess the Covid-19 situa-tion even as Gujarat re-corded the highest single-day surge of 17,119 newcases and 10 deaths.Ahmedabad district, too, re-corded a new high of 6,078new Covid cases and threefatalities.

At the meeting, sourcessaid that the experts ad-vised the governmentabout creating awarenessamong the public about theseverity of the infection.

According to some ofthe experts that the gov-ernment was informed thatdaily cases in state can goup to 50,000 to about onelakh and the peak can occurbetween last week of Janu-ary and first week of Febru-ary. The wave is expected toabate by end of February orearly March, they said.

Infectious disease spe-cialist Dr Atul Patel, Zydushospital director and dialec-tologist Dr VN Shah, IndianInstitute of Public HealthGandhinagar director andpublic health specialist Dr

Dileep Mavlankar,pulmonologist Dr TusharPatel, anesthesiologist DrAmi Parikh and director ofUN Mehta Institute of Cardi-ology and Research CentreDr RK Patel, were part of thepanel. Some of the expertsrecommended that offlineclasses up to Class 9 inschools must remain closedfor the next four weeks aschildren below 15 years areyet to be vaccinated. It wasalso suggested that a teamof clinicians must conductweekly meetings with ateam from the genome se-quencing laboratory tokeep track of changing clini-cal manifestations of thevariant in circulation.

According to sources,experts were apprised bythe state government thatoverall hospitalization ratehas been low with approxi-mately two per cent of thecases in hospital. Around 60per cent of the sampleswere being sent for genomesequencing, they were told.The Gujarat BiotechnologyResearch Centre has a ca-pacity to sequence up to 20samples per day.

The state also informed

the experts that it has keptarrangements ready to setup temporary hospitals ifneeded, sources said.

A state governmentpress release said that theexperts made clear the seri-ousness of the current stateof transmission at the meet-ing and that the experts rec-ommended adoption ofCovid-appropriate behaviorof social distancing, wearingmasks, and sanitization asthe need of the hour.

Dr VN Shah told The In-dian Express that Covid pa-tients are generally seenwith cough, cold andbodyache, and not lungdamage in most cases. Re-quirement of oxygen is lessas the infection is more onthe upper respiratory tract(during the third wave). Idon’t think there will be ahuge requirement of ICUbeds or ventilators. There iscommunity spread. But thisis not a simple flu, so pleasedo not ignore your symp-toms, he said. We (doctors)insist that do not go for ag-gressive treatment like wedid during the secondwave… symptomatic treat-ment shall suffice.

Trust set up by govt to start work from Transferee Hostel in a weekAhmedabad, The Ma-

hatma Gandhi SabarmatiAshram Memorial Trust(MGSAMT ), a registeredbody set up by the Gujaratgovernment to implementits Rs 1,200-crore GandhiAshram Memorial & PrecinctDevelopment project, hasbeen allotted an address atTransferee Hostel nearSubhash Bridge inAhmedabad. The trust islikely to start functioningfrom the office within aweek.

Officer on Special Dutyfor the project and retiredIAS officer IK Patel con-firmed this and told that anyTrust will need its own reg-istered office like a com-pany. And so, we had soughtspace at Transferee Hostelfrom the Gujarat govern-ment. It has now been allot-ted and it will be functionalwithin a week.

The Transferee Hostel isthe same building where ajudicial inquiry commission– headed by former Su-preme Court judge the lateG T Nanavati – to probe intothe 2002 Godhra Train Car-nage and subsequentGujarat riots was based outof.

Patel added that this willbe the temporary address ofthe Trust and subsequently,it will be shifted in theproject within Sabarmati

Ashram premises.He said that currently

the properties withinAshram premises areowned by various trustsconnected with the Ashramand they would have beenrequired to enter into a rentagreement with any of themto start the office fromwithin there.

As per a Gujarat govern-

ment resolution in Septem-ber 2021, the trust/societyhas been empowered to for-mulate a scheme orschemes for carrying outany of the objectives of thissociety and for the manage-ment of MGSAMT.

The resolution also saysit shall also function to ac-quire any body, corporate,associate, cooperative orga-nization, advisory societiesand other suitable bodies asit may deem necessary in

order to carry out the objec-tives effectively.

The governing councilof the trust can also sell,lease, transfer, dispose of,hire or give on rent all or anyassets of the society.

MGSAMT was registeredin September last year afterthe Governing Council ap-proved the Memorandumof Association (MoA) for the

trust. As per the resolutiondated September 6, 2021,the trust would the forma-tion of a Trust to facilitateand expedite functions andactivities related to the Con-servation, Development andMaintenance of the AshramMemorial was under activeconsideration of the StateGovernment.

An autonomous bodyformed under the SocietiesRegistration Act, 1860 andthe Bombay Public Chari-

table Trust Act, 1950, the 12main objectives of the trustincludes to develop, operateand maintain memorial ofMahatma Gandhi as well asto develop and maintain thesite(s) and the surroundingarea(s) of the memorial ofMahatma Gandhi.

It will also build andmaintain museums, art gal-leries, and auditoriums andestablish, develop andmaintain libraries, apartfrom organizing seminars,symposia and so on.

The governing councilof the trust currently listsseven members all of whomare government functionar-ies, and its members can goup to 20, the decision on itssize being that of the coun-cil or the state government.

Kartikeya Sarabhai, oneof the trustees of SabarmatiAshram Preservation andMemorial Trust that man-ages around five acre area oforiginal Ashram, refused tocomment on the govern-ment resolution and said ,the Prime Minister himselfhas said that he does notwant sarkari karan(governmentalisation) (ofthe memorial).\

A senior official con-nected with the develop-ment said that the sevenmembers of the governingcouncil of the trust are alsothe trustees of MGSAMT

and that more trustees willbe added to it from the sixtrusts which are the custo-dians of the Ashram land.The original Ashram wasaround 120 acres where sixtrusts are custodians of theland, these being theSabarmati Ashram Preserva-tion and Memorial Trust,Sabarmati Harijan AshramTrust, The Khadi Gramodyog

Prayog Samiti, TheSabarmati Ashram GaushalaTrust, Gujarat Harijan SevakSangh, and Gujarat KhadiGramodyog Mandal.

Under the project,Gujarat government in col-laboration with the CentralGovernment is planning tomake the entire GandhiAshram precincts into aworld class memorial.

Rajkot police team sent to Delhi astwo accused get 3-day police remand

Ahmedabad, Days afterpolice arrested two accusedin Rajkot who are allegedlyinvolved in a racket of fakepostings in Police Sub In-spector (PSI) and LokRakshak Dal (LRD) constablerecruitments, the duo wassent to three-day police re-mand on Tuesday. A team ofRajkot Police has also beensent to New Delhi after inves-tigations revealed the in-volvement of the accusedbased in the national capitalin this racket. According topolice, Krishna Bhardwaj (32)from Junagadh and JainishParsana (25) from Jamnagarwere arrested on Sunday aspart of a gang that allegedlytook Rs 15 lakh 12 aspirantsby promising them PSI andLRD postings without ap-pearing for the written and

physical tests. None of theaspirants received any post-ing after which policebooked both Bhardva andParsana for fraud and crimi-nal breach of trust in an FIRlodged at Gandhigram po-lice station in Rajkot city. Acourt in Rajkot has given thepolice three-day remand ofboth the accused, said a se-nior police officer. Probe hasrevealed that the accusedwere in touch with personsin New Delhi and money wasalso transferred throughHawala source. Thereforeone team has been sent toDelhi for further investiga-tion, he said. Meanwhile, theaccused Krishna has beenbooked in another FIR fordoing committing a fraud ofRs 4.76 lakh against a citybased jeweller.

Ahmedabad, Page 5

International 5AHMEDABAD THURSDAY 20/1/2022

The Tories are plunging into meltdown as ministers round on a group of newly-elected MPs over a coupattempt branded the 'Pork Pie Plot' - because one of the plotters represents Melton Mowbray. Around 20MPs are said to have held a meeting yesterday lunchtime to coordinate sending letters required to spark avote on ousting Mr Johnson. The revolt was fuelled by the premier's car-crash interview in which he ap-peared close to tears when grilled about the litany of allegations about lockdown breaches in DowningStreet. There is speculation that the threshold of 54 letters to trigger a full no confidence vote could even bereached today - although 1922 chair Sir Graham Brady keeps the tally a closely-guarded secret. Seven MPshave publicly confirmed contacting Sir Graham, but the true figure could be significantly higher. A desper-ate attack by ministers and whips - including branding them 'f***** nobodies' seems to have backfired.Defence minister James Heapppey was sent out to put the case for the PM this morning, but conceded hetoo had been 'battered' by voters. 'I choose to believe what the Prime Minister has said. But I know thatthat's not good enough for many of my constituents,' he said.

Police were called around 4.25pm to the Moor Lane area of Roeburndale fol-lowing a report of a serious accident on a farm. It was reported a Polaris Rangervehicle pulling a trailer had fallen into a river when a bridge collapsed. Elevenpeople were in the ranger vehicle and trailer at the time of the incident. Oneman suffered fatal injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene.

Malik Faisal Akram, from Blackburn (top-right, being arrested in 2018), wasshot dead by US law enforcement on Saturday night after taking four peopleand a Rabbi hostage in a 10-hour siege (bottom-right). Tonight, it was revealedthat the 44-year-old was the subject of a 'short lead investigation' - effectivelychasing a tip-off - by MI5 for a least four weeks at the end of 2020. While therewere concerns about Akram's activities, spooks deemed there was no sign hepresented an imminent threat and he case was closed before tactics such aseavesdropping were deployed, according to the Times. It comes as a new image(left) emerged of Akram tonight, taken at an outreach centre in Dallas - aroundthree miles from the site of the attack in Colleyville - just days before he tookhostages. Wayne Walker, chief executive at the shelter, Our Calling, said Akramwas hugged by a man who dropped him off there on January 2. Meanwhile, po-lice in the UK have released two teenagers who they arrested as part of theirinquiry into the attack without charge. The youngsters, who are believed to beunder the age of 18, and cannot be identified for legal reasons, were detained inSouth Manchester on Sunday.

Pak Election Commissiondeclassifies key documents inPTI foreign funding case

New Delhi, Jan 19 (IANS) As troubles mount forImran Khan, the Election Commission of Pakistan(ECP) has ordered the declassification of all criticaldocuments linked to the foreign funding caseagainst the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI).

The documents were part of the ECP scrutinycommittee report, released a couple of weeks ago,which had been kept secret and were not releasedalong with the report when it was made public, re-ported Dawn news.

The documents being made public will includeall the papers sought by the ECP through the stateof Pakistan, in its letter dated July 3, 2018.

Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikander Sul-tan Raja passed the order on Tuesday when thecounsel for the petitioner contended that certaincritical portions of the report had been kept secretand his client was being denied access to them.

The CEC directed that no part of the reportshould be kept confidential and the whole reportshould be provided to the petitioner.

Malaysia reports 3,245 new Covidinfections, 9 new deaths

Kuala Lumpur, Jan 19 (IANS) Malaysia recorded3,245 new Covid-19 infections over the past 24hours, bringing the total number of confirmed casesin the Southeast Asian country to 2,813,934, accord-ing to health ministry.

The new infections included 274 imported casesand 2,971 local transmissions, showed data releasedon the health ministry’s website.

An additional nine deaths from the pandemicwere recorded, bringing the total death toll to31,818, Xinhua news agency reported.

The health ministry also reported 3,093 new re-coveries from Covid, bringing the total number ofrecoveries to 2,741,355.

Currently, 40,761 active cases have been re-ported in Malaysia, with 183 of them held in inten-sive care units, and 84 of them in need of assistedbreathing.

The country administered 129,597 vaccine doseson Tuesday. A total of 79.7 per cent of the popula-tion have received at least one dose, 78.6 per centare fully vaccinated and 29.8 per cent have receiveda booster dose.

Taliban govt convenesconference on Afghan economicsituation

New Delhi, Jan 19 (IANS) The Taliban regime inAfghanistan on Wednesday will be discussing theeconomic situation of the country. A one-day con-ference ‘Economy of Afghanistan’ is being convenedin Kabul, Khaama Press reported. This is the first timethe government will be discussing the economy af-ter the Taliban captured power on August 15 lastyear. The conference is said to be headed by the act-ing Prime Minister Mullah Muhammad HassanAkhund and will be broadcast live on the state-runRTA channel. A statement reads that the ‘conferencewill be opened by second Deputy PM Abdul SalaamHanafi and will be concluded by a speech of firstDeputy PM Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar’. The actingPM is not likely to speak. It is not clear who else willbe attending the conference and whether foreignpeople are invited or not, previously it was said thatforeigners will also take part in the conference.

Australia to rebate visa feesfor int’l students, backpackers

Canberra, Jan 19 (IANS)Australian Prime MinisterScott Morrison on Wednes-day said the governmentwould rebate visa fees for in-ternational students andbackpackers to support theworkforce challenge amidsurging Covid-19 cases na-tionwide.

Those include interna-tional students who arrive inAustralia over the next eightweeks and backpackerswho arrive within 12 weeks,Xinhua news agency re-ported. “And there arearound 150,000 studentswho have visas who we areencouraging to come backto be there for the start oftheir university or collegeyear,” he told reporters inCanberra.

“But we also want themto come here and be able tobe filling some of these criti-cal workforce shortages,particularly those who areworking and being trainedin health care, aged care,those types of sectors,” hesaid. Australia on Wednes-day reported more than70,000 locally-acquiredcoronavirus infections and

more than 60 deaths, ac-cording to health depart-ment figures from statesand territories.

The latest data make itthe second deadliest day ofcoronavirus pandemic inAustralia after more than 70deaths were reported onTuesday. A poll published byNine Entertainment news-papers on Wednesdayfound that an overwhelm-ing majority of Australianswant the federal govern-ment to subsidize rapid an-tigen tests (RATs) for Covid-19. The Resolve PoliticalMonitor found that 86 percent of voters believe RATsshould be free or subsidisedin some way. Morrison saiddespite the increasing num-ber of cases and staff short-falls in critical supply chains,Australia was “doing betterthan almost any other coun-try in the world” in the fightagainst Omicron. “When itcomes to even the largenumber of more than 350deaths in the course of thepast week, our death ratethat relates to Omicron isone of the lowest in theworld,” he said.

Jakarta, Jan 19 (IANS) In-donesian lawmakers passeda law on the relocation of thenation’s capital to the islandof Kalimantan, which sharesborders with Malaysia andBrunei, from the most popu-lated island of Java.

The move is a step for-ward in one of the most am-bitious projects ini-tiated by thecountry’s PresidentJoko Widodo,Xinhua newsagency reported.

Some formerpresidents hadfloated ideas of relo-cating the capitalcity in the past. Thepresident, widelyknown as Jokowi,three years agovowed to relocatethe capital city tothe province of EastKalimantan due to a numberof issues like high popula-tion density and land sub-sidence in Jakarta which ishome to more than 10 mil-lion people.

Nusantara, which thenew capital is called, will bebuilt in two districts in EastKalimantan — Penajam

Indonesian parliament passes lawto relocate capital to Nusantara

Paser Utara and KutaiKartanegara. It is set to oc-cupy about 256,000 hect-ares of land.

The name of Nusantara,which can be translated asan archipelago in English,was chosen by PresidentJokowi, Minister for NationalDevelopment Planning

Suharso Monoarfa has said.Indonesia, the world’s

fourth most populous coun-try, is home to some 270 mil-lion people, consisting ofabout 17,000 islands.

“The national capital hasa central function andserves as a symbol of acountry to show the identityof the nation and state,”

Minister Monoarfa ex-plained during a meetingwith lawmakers at theHouse of Representativeson Tuesday.

The ground-breaking ofthe construction projectthat is slated to cost $32 bil-lion was initially expected tobe conducted in August

2020, but theCovid pan-demic hasforced the gov-ernment to putit on hold.

Some ofthe projects onthe construc-tion of the newcapital will becarried out bypublic-privatepartnerships,and the earlystage of the re-

location will begin this yearand is expected to end in2024. At this stage, the gov-ernment will build a presi-dential palace, parliamentbuildings, and a housingcomplex in the primaryzone. The move of civil ser-vants at the early stage mustbe completed before Au-gust 16, 2024.

Tsunami-hit Tonga gets interimtelecommunication system set up

Wellington, Jan 19(IANS) An interim telecom-munication system hasbeen set up in Tonga to al-low its connection with therest of the world using 2Gnetworks, New Zealand’sMinistry of Foreign Affairsand Trade said on Wednes-day.

Digicel, the internationalmobile phone network pro-vider, has set up an interimsystem on Tongatapu usingthe University of SouthPacific’s satellite dish whichmay allow 2G connection tobe established on Wednes-day, Xinhua news agencyreported citing NewZealand’s foreign ministry.

However, this connec-tion will be limited and

patchy covering about 10per cent of usual capacityand prioritising voice andSMS communications, itsaid.

US cable companySubCom said at least fourweeks are needed to repairTonga’s cable connection.

Power in the Pacific is-lands country has been re-stored, with clean-up anddamage assessments ongo-ing. Tongan authorities havebeen distributing relief sup-plies.

Work to clear the airportrunway continues and is ex-pected to be completed onWednesday, said a state-ment of the ministry.

Tsunami waves hitTonga on Saturday, follow-

ing a series of violent erup-tions from underwaterHunga Tonga-HungaHa’apai volcano, 65 km th ofthe country’s main islandTongatapu.

Three fatalities, twoTongan nationals and a Brit-ish national, have been con-firmed. No further deathshave been reported, it said.

On Tuesday overnight,the Tonga government is-sued its first official mediarelease since the eruption.

It said emergency re-sponse operations are un-derway, with initial damageassessments conducted,and relief supplies andhealth teams deployed toaffected areas.

Water supplies have

been affected by volcanicash, it said, adding chal-lenges to sea and air trans-portation remain due todamage sustained bywharves and ash coveringrunways.

The Tonga governmenthas approved the arrival oftwo navy vessels HMNZSWellington and HMNZSAotearoa, which departedNew Zealand on Tuesday.The vessels are expected toarrive in Tonga by Friday de-pending on weather condi-tions.

A C-130 Hercules aircraftof the New Zealand AirForce is on standby to de-liver humanitarian aid anddisaster relief stores includ-ing collapsible water con-tainers, generators and hy-giene kits for families oncethe airport runway iscleared.

A second NZDF P3 Orion

surveillance flight is beingconducted on Wednesday.This flight will include a sur-vey of Fiji’s southern Lau Is-lands, at the request of thegovernment of Fiji, to checkfor potential tsunami dam-age, said New Zealand’s for-eign ministry.

New Zealand is continu-ing to assess Tonga’s watertransport logistics capabili-ties for the transport of wa-ter from HMNZS Aotearoa,which will carry bulk watersupplies and humanitarianand disaster relief stores,New Zealand Defense Min-ister Peeni Henare said onTuesday.

“Water is among thehighest priorities for Tongaat this stage and HMNZSAotearoa can carry 250,000liters, and produce 70,000 li-ters per day through a de-salination plant,” Henaresaid.

Dharamsala, Jan 19(IANS) Agreeing that the Ti-betan struggle is far moredeep rooted and complexand historically resilientthan other issues that con-front China, French SenateTibet Support Group Presi-dent Jacqueline Eustache-Brino said France shouldlead the EU on the ques-tion of Tibet.

In an interaction withTashi Phuntsok, represen-tative of Bureau du Tibet inBrussels, on Tuesday,Jacqueline felt that asdiaspora Tibetan commu-nities in the West are be-coming larger there was aneed to strengthen and ro-bustly support them.

She promised that thegroup would work on allthe issues that Phuntsokhad brought out in his ad-dress.

Besides Eustache-Brino,the interaction was at-tended by Senators AnnickBillon, Bernard Fournier,Olivier Rietmann, LoicHerve and Andre Gattolin.

As France has assumedthe Presidency of the EU,representative Phuntsokfelt that France should leadthe EU in promotion of Eu-ropean culture and protec-tion of democracies asmentioned in PresidentMacron’s priorities.

Chinese encroach-

France should lead EU onTibet, says French senator

ments on these areas in Eu-rope are substantive andaggressive and the very fi-ber of the EU is threatened.

According to a CentralTibetan Administration(CTA) post, Phuntsok re-quested that Tibet issues bestridently brought out in theEU-China annual summitsand human rights dialogueswith China. PresidentEustache-Brino said be-cause of the pandemic themeeting could not be heldfor some time. She, however,listed a number of activitiescarried out by the group, in-cluding meetings withMichel van Walt, Tibetan Par-liamentarian ThuptenGyatso, and former politicalprisoner DhondupWangchen, etc.

She requested the rep-resentative to convey thegroup’s sincerest wishes toHis Holiness the Dalai Lama.

Phuntsok began by in-forming the meeting of HisHoliness’ good health andhow grateful he was onceagain to meet with thegroup in the Senate.

He recalled the long as-sociation of the group since1988 with Tibet, includingwith Senator Louis deBrossia in the Senate andMP Lional Luca in the Na-tional Assembly.

He described the situa-tion in Tibet as being a vast

prison and Tibet being theleast free country in theworld. The bondage of Ti-betans in Tibet under Chinais best imagined when Ti-betans say that it is easier togo to heaven than to obtaina passport to travel outsideTibet. In this, therefore, he re-quested the group to workfor reciprocal access andtravel in Tibet in lieu of thefreedom that Chinese diplo-mats, tourists, students, etc.,enjoy in the West. As His Ho-liness is most respectedleader around the world andparticularly for the Buddhistworld and as the institutionof the Dalai Lama is signifi-cant for protection of hislegacies, he requested thegroup to request France toannounce its position onthe succession of the DalaiLamas like the German, Bel-gian, the Netherlands andthe US. He further statedthat pressure on China to re-sume contact with Tibetansfor negotiation is as impor-tant as the recognition ofthe Central Tibetan Admin-istration to carry forward thelegacies of the Dalai Lama.

Tibetan spiritual leader,the Dalai Lama, has lived inIndia since fleeing his home-land in 1959. The Tibetangovernment-in-exile, nowcalled the CTA, is headquar-tered in this HimachalPradesh hill town.

Pakistan to pay Chinesevictims in terrorist attack

New Delhi, Jan 19 (IANS)Pakistan has decided tocompensate the 36 Chinesenationals, who died andwere injured in a terroristattack last year — aimed atremoving a major irritant inbilateral relations, ExpressTribune reported.

A total of 10 Chinese na-tional lost their lives and an-other 26 were hurt in a sui-cide attack on a bus that wascarrying them to the worksite of the Dasu HydropowerProject in July last year. ThePak government hasworked out four differentcompensation amountsranging from $4.6 million(Rs 810 million) to $20.3 mil-lion (Rs 3.6 billion), sourcestold The Express Tribune.Pakistan has decided tomake the payment despitethere was no legal or con-tractual obligation on thegovernment, the report said.

The Dasu HydropowerProject is funded by theWorld Bank and does not fallin the scope of the ChinaPakistan Economic Corridor(CPEC). Four Pakistani na-tionals had also died in theattack. After the govern-ment tried to downplay theterrorist attack as an acci-dent caused by gas leakage,China immediately retali-ated and cancelled a sched-uled meeting of the JointCooperation Committee ofthe CPEC, the report said. TheChinese contractor had alsostopped the work on theproject and demanded acompensation of $37 million.The compensation that thecontractor had claimed wasover 500 per cent more thanwhat a Chinese national’sheirs would have received ifkilled in a similar attack intheir own country, accordingto government sources.

2021 one of the sevenwarmest years on record: WMO

Geneva, Jan 19 (IANS)Although average globaltemperatures were tempo-rarily cooled by the 2020-2022 La Nina events, 2021was still one of the sevenwarmest years on record,according to six leading in-ternational datasets consoli-dated by the World Meteo-rological Organisation(WMO).

The average global tem-perature in 2021 was about1.11 degrees Celsius abovethe pre-industrial (1850-1900) levels. 2021 is the 7thconsecutive year (2015-2021) where global tem-perature has been over 1 de-grees C above pre-industriallevels, according to alldatasets compiled by WMO.

Since the 1980s, eachdecade has been warmerthan the previous one. Thisis expected to continue. Thewarmest seven years haveall been since 2015, with2016, 2019 and 2020 consti-tuting the top three. An ex-ceptionally strong El Ninoevent occurred in 2016,which contributed to recordglobal average warming.

Global warming andother long-term climatechange trends are expected

to continue as a result ofrecord levels of heat-trap-ping greenhouse gases inthe atmosphere, the WMOsaid in a global release.

WMO uses six interna-tional datasets to ensure themost comprehensive, au-thoritative temperature as-sessment. The same data areused in its annual State ofthe Climate reports, whichinform the internationalcommunity on global cli-mate indicators.

The rankings of indi-vidual years should be con-sidered in the long-termcontext, especially since thedifferences between indi-vidual years are sometimesmarginal. “Back-to-back LaNina events mean that 2021warming was relatively lesspronounced compared torecent years. Even so, 2021was still warmer than previ-ous years influenced by LaNina. The overall long-termwarming as a result ofgreenhouse gas increases isnow far larger than the year-to-year variability in globalaverage temperaturescaused by naturally occur-ring climate drivers,” saidWMO Secretary-General,Professor Petteri Taalas.

“The year 2021 will beremembered for a record-shattering temperature ofnearly 50 degrees Celsius inCanada, comparable to thevalues reported in the hotSaharan Desert of Algeria;exceptional rainfall, anddeadly flooding in Asia andEurope as well as drought inparts of Africa and SouthAmerica. Climate changeimpacts and weather-re-lated hazards had life-changing and devastatingimpacts on communities onevery single continent,” Pro-fessor Taalas said.

La Nina refers to thelarge-scale cooling of theocean surface temperaturesin the central and easternequatorial Pacific Ocean,coupled with changes in thetropical atmospheric circu-lation. It usually has the op-posite impacts on weatherand climate as El Nino. LaNina has a temporary globalcooling effect, which is typi-cally strongest in the secondyear of the event.

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Ahmedabad Page 6

6 Sport

Business &Technology

AHMEDABAD THURSDAY 20/1/2022

Mumbai, LagnamSpintex Limited, one of theleading manufacturers ofHigh-Quality 100% CottonYarn has announced an-other quarter of outstand-ing financial performancein its board meeting heldon 15th January 2022.

Riding high on supportfrom customers and clientsdue to quality products, thecompany reported an en-hanced Income of Rs 91.16crores for Q3FY22 as com-pared to Rs 62.8 crores forQ3FY21.

The income during Ninemonths ending December2021 jump to Rs 247 croreas compared to Rs 132crores during the previousNine months ending De-cember 2020, a jump of87.12%.

Profit After Tax for quar-ter ended December 2021zooms to 107 % at Rs 9.40crores, against Rs 4.54crores during the previous

Lagnam Spintex PAT zooms to 107% atRs 9.40 cr. in Q3, Declares 5% Interim Dividend

quarter ended December2020. During the Ninemonths ending December2021 PAT increases to Rs21.70 crore as against lossof Rs 1.71 crores during theprevious Nine monthsended December 2020, amammoth jump of 1368%YOY.

The Earnings per equityshare stands at Rs 5.32 forthe Quarter Ending Decem-ber 2021 an increase of107% from correspondingquarter ended December2020. The EPS for Ninemonths ending December2021 is Rs 12.28 as com-pared to Rs (0.97) for Ninemonths ending December2020, a jump of 1166% YoY.Pursuant to strong results,the Board of Directors hasdeclared interim dividendof 5%. Lagnam had also de-clared dividend of 5% forthe year ended 31st March2021. The company is on anupward wave in the spin-

ning industry due to thehuge demand, supply gapin the Indian Spinning in-dustry and the China PlusOne business strategy inthe Textile Industry in therecent past and backed byits high-quality yarn.

Based on this, the Boardhas also approved a CapitalExpenditure amounting Rs.212 crores approximatelyto install 41,472 spindles of100% Cotton Compactyarn. Post installation, thecompany expects todouble their capacity andrevenue.

Commenting on the an-nouncements of Q3FY22results, Mr Anand MangalMD of Lagnam Spintex Ltdsaid, "Our continuousgrowth is a big testimony ofhow quality products areliked and encouraged byclients. Our growth acts asa great motivational forceto expand our horizon andscale new heights."

Porsche consumers knowhow to make their dreamscome true, even if it means go-ing out of their way to do it.Popular car enthusiast andPorsche India's loyalist AshiqueThahir placed his 911 Carreraon his office wall which high-lights one of the brand's goalsof 'Exclusivity and Social Accep-tance.' Mounted on the wall ofthe Team Thai office in Calicut,the 911 was bought in 2010and its claim to fame is the1,00,000 km-plus figure on theodo. Thahir, who is a hardcorepetrolhead and a popularPorsche enthusiast has a work-place in Calicut which alreadyhad a grand appearance for thevisitors. Just when one thoughtit couldn't get any more atten-tion, the office now has theiconic 911 mounted on the wall,making the ambience evenmore spectacular. Car enthusi-asts like Thahir create history bydemonstrating their enthusi-asm for what they want, andthis has to be one of the mostunusual installations and out-landish ideas in the history ofIndian car enthusiasts.

Ashique Thahir, a popular Porsche enthusiast mounts his iconic911 on his office wall

Mumbai, Imagine Mar-keting Private Limited,(“Imagine Marketing” or“boAt”) India’s #1 Earwearbrand (as per IDC IndiaMonthly Wearables Tracker,November 2021 release un-der its flagship brand“boAt”) announced a 50-50joint venture with DixonTechnologies Limited(“Dixon”), an electronicmanufacturing services pro-vider in India to manufac-ture wireless audio prod-ucts. Both the companieswill come together to co-in-vest in the evolving Indianmobile accessory market,thereby paving the way to-wards “Make in India” in thiscategory. The associationwill enable the companiesto meet the evolving needsof customers by deliveringhigh-quality andaspirational lifestyle-fo-cused hearable solutions,backed by quality manufac-turing and robust R&D.

boAt, Dixon Tech. form JV to Design andManufacture wireless audio solutions in India

The joint venture is animportant milestone inboAt’s journey to establish amanufacturing base in India.Imagine Marketing ownedboAt continues to make sig-nificant investments in theareas of design, researchand development of prod-ucts, technology relation-ships and supply chain andmanufacturing. ‘boAt Labs’,the in-house research anddevelopment team com-prising 25+ engineers hasbeen instrumental in cus-tomizing and designingproducts specifically for theIndian consumer.

“We are pleased to com-mence this joint venturewith Dixon, that will enableus to deliver high-qualityproducts at affordableprices to our rapidly emerg-ing online audience ofyoung, digitally-enabledand trend-conscious con-sumers in India and globally.It will also give an impetus

to build in-house design ca-pabilities and to developlifestyle-oriented productsto delight our “boAt heads”,said Sameer Mehta, Co-Founder and Chief ProductOfficer, Imagine MarketingPvt. Ltd. Mr Atul B. Lall, ViceChairman & Managing Di-rector, Dixon TechnologiesLimited adds, “Over theyears, boAt has built strongbrand equity, capitalizing onits early-mover advantagewith strong growth mo-mentum through their highquality audio devices whichare known for their style andefficiency. Through our part-nership, we aim to provideboAt with a faster ability toscale up manufacturing inIndia with our low-coststructure, high quality andsuperior execution trackrecord. We strive to developinnovative products withboAt for not only the dis-cerning Indian consumersbut also for global markets”.

19 testing prior to their ad-mission/ surgery/ procedure.This is causing unnecessaryconfusion as the treatingspecialists have to post addi-tional manpower at TraumaCare COVID facility to man-age their patients, moreoverthe infrastructure needed forsuch specialist care is alsonot available at the TraumaCare COVID facility.” Said MrKapila.

“The reconversion of theTrauma centre to Covid fa-cility was absolutely uncalledfor and unwarranted. The lifeof an accident victim isequally precious as of aCOVID patient for whichthere are sufficient facilities.As the COVID-19 in Delhiand North India are goingdown and hospital/ICU bedoccupancy to COVID is at anall time low. As such, theTrauma centre servicesshould be immediately fullyrestored at JPNT trauma cen-tre “ said Mr Kapila.

IRF demands to resume normal Trauma Centreservices at AIIMS JPNAT Trauma Centre

New Delhi, InternationalRoad Federation (IRF),Geneva based Global RoadSafety body working for bet-ter and safer roads world-wide in a letter written to theUnion Health and FamilyWelfare Minister MansukhMandaviya has urged him torestore normal trauma ser-vices at the Jai PrakashNarayan Apex Trauma Centre(JPNAT) which is part of theAll India Institute of MedicalSciences (AIIMS) in the Na-tional Capital Delhi.

With the Covid cases in-creasing the Jai PrakashApex Trauma Centre (JPNAT)was once again recently re-converted to COVID Facilityfor the second time and theTrauma Services were shiftedto Main AIIMS Hospital witha make-shift Trauma Emer-gency Department.

“The Jai Prakash NarayanApex Trauma Centre associ-ated with AIIMS is one of onlytwo level-1 trauma centres

— a centre equipped to pro-vide the highest level of careto the critically injured — inNorth India. Country ac-counts for one of the highestnumber of road fatalities andinjuries in the world. The con-version of trauma centre cutsavailability of beds, ICU, andoperation theatres fortrauma patients in need ofurgent interventions. “saidMr K K Kapila, PresidentEmeritus, International RoadFederation (IRF) in a letter tothe minister.

“India accounts for about1.5 lakh road accident deathsper year, the highest in theworld with more than 4.25lakh Injuries/ Trauma in Indiaannually, most of them are inthe young age group of 18-40 (about 70%), thereforetremendous loss of Produc-tive years of lives lost. More-over, Trauma causes veryhigh in-hospital mortality(15-30%) as well as irrepa-rable disabilities to the vic-

tim.” Said Mr K K Kapila, Presi-dent Emeritus, InternationalRoad Federation (IRF) in hisletter to the Union HealthMinister.

"The JPNAT trauma cen-tre has been the only facilityin the country providing24x7 quality patient carewith all specialties cateringto injured patients.The Cen-tre also catered to compli-cated trauma victims re-ferred from other hospitals,patients from central armedpolice forces injured in ac-tion, patients of mass andmultiple casualty incidents,"Kapila said.

“It is also interesting tonote that 95% of the currentadmissions at AIIMS COVIDfacility (JPN Trauma Centre)are not cases of COVID pneu-monia or COVID related dis-ease, they are rather cases ofdifferent specialties (like Car-diology, Gastroenterology,Cancer, etc.) who have testedpositive on routine COVID-

JONATHAN McEVOY: Lewis Hamilton's (centre) future was unresolved on Tuesday night as conflictingviews continue to swirl over the fate of race director Michael Masi (left), who oversaw the controversial lastlap of the 2021 decider (won by Max Verstappen, inset). The dramatic Abu Dhabi race - and undoubtedlyMasi's survival - was discussed in a one-hour meeting on Tuesday between Mohammed Ben Sulayem (topright), the new president of motor racing's governing FIA, the body investigating the furore, and FormulaOne chief executive Stefano Domenicali (bottom right).

Former England coach Bayliss backs Straussto lead England’s revival in red-ball cricket

London, Jan 19 (IANS)Former England head coachTrevor Bayliss has backedformer captain AndrewStrauss to lead the revival ofEngland in red-ball cricket,citing his role in changingthe fortunes of England inwhite-ball cricket in 2015.With England’s revival inred-ball cricket becoming ahot topic of discussion dueto 0-4 thrashing in theAshes, Bayliss has endorsedStrauss’s name to take upthe reset project.

“Something desperatelyneeded to change andEngland’s commitment toimproving after years of un-der-achievement led to win-ning the World Cup of 2019and formidable 50-over andT20 international sides. Thearchitect of that change, ofcourse, was Andrew Straussas then team director. I be-lieve he would be the per-fect man to do the same forEngland’s red-ball gamenow, if his personal situationis such that he can devotethe time to it,” wrote Bayliss

for Daily Mail.Strauss was appointed

as director of cricket in May2015 to lay the foundationof England’s revival in white-ball cricket, especially in thewake of the side crashingout in the group stages ofthe Men’s Cricket World Cup.

He was instrumental inbringing Bayliss as headcoach with England reach-ing the final of Men’s T20World Cup in 2016, semi-fi-nals of Champions Trophy2017 and winning the Men’sCricket World Cup on homesoil in 2019.

“I thoroughly enjoyedworking with Straussy. He isan intelligent man with aninnate knowledge of thegame and has wide-rangingexperiences as a player, En-gland captain and then anadministrator. England willbe hard-pressed to find any-one better than him to pullthis task off and get theteam back on the right roadin Test cricket. When I waswith England, Strauss hadthis ability after a meeting to

perfectly summarise whatwe were thinking and whatneeded to be done. Every-one understood his mes-sage,” opined Bayliss.

As of now, Strauss servesas chairman of the Englandand Wales Cricket Board’s(ECB) cricket committee andhad stepped down asEngland’s director of cricketin 2018 to help look after hiswife, Ruth, who died of lungcancer later in the year inDecember and currentlyruns a foundation in hername.

The 59-year-old signedoff by hoping Strauss isgiven a leading role in reviv-ing England’s fortunes inred-ball cricket. “There are somany people passionateabout the long form of thegame in England that I amoptimistic change can hap-pen. Yes, it might take time,but England is a countrywith a proud Test historyand there are few prouderthan Andrew Strauss. I thinkhe should be at the forefrontof putting things right.”

Cameron Boyce makes BBLhistory by claiming double hat-trick for Renegades

Melbourne, Jan 19 (IANS) Australia leg-spinnerCameron Boyce made history in the Big BashLeague (BBL) by claiming a double hat-trick for thefirst time in the tournament. Boyce, turning out forMelbourne Renegades against Sydney Thunder atthe Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), also becamejust the 10th bowler in T20 cricket to take four wick-ets in four balls. Boyce’s astonishing effort wasspread across two overs of Thunder’s innings and itbegan from the final delivery of the seventh overwhen he dismissed Thunder opener Alex Hales, whomiscued the loft to long-off. Returning to bowl inthe ninth over, Boyce deceived Jason Sangha withflight on the first delivery as the right-hander gotstumped while dancing down the pitch in order tohit the leggie for the big shot. On the very next ball,Alex Ross tried to play a reverse sweep and wastrapped lbw in front of stumps as Boyce completedhis hat-trick.

Limited-overs series betweenAustralia and New Zealandpostponed

Auckland, Jan 19 (IANS) New Zealand’s limited-overs tour to Australia, originally scheduled be-tween January 24 and February 9, has been post-poned until further notice due to New Zealand’sborder controls and quarantine requirements. Therewas a proposal earlier from New Zealand Cricket(NZC) and Cricket Australia (CA) to extend thelength of the tour so that the Kiwi players could re-turn home at a time more manageable for the man-aged isolation and quarantine process but the NewZealand Government confirmed on Wednesday ithad no capacity to meet the request. The teamswere scheduled to play three One-dayInternationals, beginning January 30 at the OptusStadium in Perth, followed by a one-off T20I atManuka Oval, Canberra on February 8. The discus-sions for when the postponed fixtures will be playedare ongoing between CA and NZC.

Australian Open: Nadal overcomestricky customer Hanfmann tosecure 3rd-round spot

Melbourne, Jan 19 (IANS) Spanish stalwartRafael Nadal made it to the third round of the Aus-tralian Open without dropping a set, defeating Ger-man qualifier Yannick Hanfmann 6-2, 6-3, 6-4 at theMelbourne Park here on Wednesday.

Playing in only his second tournament sincemid-August, Nadal, the winner of 20 Grand Slams,did not need to move into top gear to get the jobdone against the world No. 126, who used someheavy groundstrokes to sometimes unnerve hisopponent.

“Having played him before at Roland Garros Iknew that he is dangerous,” Nadal said after the twohour, 42-minute result. “His result against Thanasi(Kokkinakis) in the first round says that he is play-ing great and coming from the qualies (qualifiers)he was used to the courts. He has big shots, a goodserve and has a lot of potential. Today his level wasmuch higher than his ranking says,” Nadal wasquoted as saying by atptour.com.

Australian Open: Sania, Bopanna losein women’s and men’s doubles opener

Melbourne, Jan 19(IANS) Veteran Indian play-ers Sania Mirza and RohanBopanna were eliminated inthe opening round of thewomen’s doubles and men’sdoubles, respectively, at theAustralian Open, here onWednesday.

The 35-year-old Mirzaand her Ukrainian part-ner Nadiia Kichenok,seeded 12th, lost 4-6, 6-7 to the unseededSlovenian pair of KajaJuvan and TamaraZidansek in one hourand 36 minutes.

The Indo-Ukrainianpair had three breakpoints in the fifth gameof the first set but wasunable to convert any ofthem. They were then bro-ken in the eighth game totrail 5-3 and though theybroke back to make it 5-4,they lost serve again in thevery next game to concedethe set.

In the second set, Mirza-Kichenok broke through inthe seventh game to take a

4-3 lead. Leading 5-4 andserving for the set, however,Juvan/Zidansek managedto break them back.

The match eventuallymoved to a tiebreak andJuvan-Zidansek edgedahead in the closing stagesto win, an olympics.com re-port said.

Meanwhile, RohanBopanna and FrenchmanEdouard Roger-Vasselin lost6-3, 6-7, 2-6 to the Filipino-Indonesian pair of TreatHuey and ChristopherRungkat in the men’sdoubles.

After a comfortable holdof serve in the first two

games, the unseededBopanna-Roger-Vasselinbroke their opponents’serve in the fourth gameand went on to take the firstset. There were no breaks ofserve in the second set asboth pairs played resolutely,with the wildcards Huey-Rungkat eventually taking

the tie-breaker to forcea deciding set.

In the third set, vet-erans Bopanna/Roger-Vasselin seemed tohave lost steam as theywere broken twice —in the third and fifthgames. Huey/Rungkatheld their serves easilyto seal the match inone hour and 48 min-utes.

However, both ace In-dian tennis players still havemixed doubles to play for atthe Australian Open.Bopanna has paired up withCroatian Darija JurakSchreiber while Sania willplay with fellow Grand Slamchampion Rajeev Ram ofthe USA.

ACA boss Greenberg confident all selectedAussie cricketers will tour Pakistan

Sydney, Jan 19 (IANS)Australian Cricketers’ Asso-ciation (ACA) CEO ToddGreenberg is confident thatall the players selected forthe month-long tour of Pa-kistan will not have any res-ervations touring the coun-try in March-April this year.

Australia will play threeTests, an equal number ofODIs and a one-off T20 Inter-national on the tour begin-ning with the first Test at theNational Stadium in Karachion March 3. This will beAustralia’s maiden tour ofPakistan since 1998, whenthe Mark Taylor-led sidewon a three-Test series 1-0.

New Zealand had aban-doned their limited-overstour of Pakistan in Septem-ber last year due to securitythreat perception and flownout hours before the start ofthe opening ODI. Later, theEngland men’s and women’steams also called off theirbrief trips to Pakistan beforethe ICC T20 World Cup in theUAE. “I think everyone will

go,” Greenberg toldsen.com.au on Wednesday.“It’s a very significant tourwith three Test matches.Talking to (the) players, theywant to test themselvesagainst the very best in theworld and they want to playin different conditions.” AfterAustralia wrapped up theirAshes assignment with a 4-0series win against the JoeRoot-led England side, the fo-cus has now turned to thetour of Pakistan, which is sig-nificant for several key mem-bers of the Australian Testsquad, including MarnusLabuschagne and UsmanKhawaja. Labuschagne is cur-rently ranked No.1 Test batterin the world but has yet toplay a Test in the sub-conti-nent, while Khawaja wouldlike to show his centuries inboth innings of the fourthAshes Test at SCG were not aflash in the pan. The Test se-ries could also open the doorfor leg-spinner MitchSwepson to make his debutin the longest format.

SANY India delivers India’s largestCrawler Crane for Wind Mill Application

SANY India, a leadingconstruction equipmentmanufacturer in India, hasadded one more feather totheir cap with the keyhandover of the country’sfirst 800 tons lifting capac-ity crawler crane toDwarkesh Transport Corpo-ration, SANY India’s es-teemed patron based inAnand, Gujarat.

SANYSCC8000A isIndia's largest Crawler Cranewith distinct design andsafety features, which makeit one of its kinds in the in-dustry. This leviathan crane,will be used by DwarkeshTransport for wind turbineinstallation.

The owners of DwarkeshTransport Corporation, Mr.Rajendra Dwivedi, Mr. DipalDwivedi, Mr. Romal Dwivediand their family werepresent to grace the keyhandover ceremony. FromSANY India, Mr. DeepakGarg, Managing Director,Sany India & South Asia, Mr.

Sanjay Saxena, Senior VicePresident & Head of HeavyEquipment Business Unit,Mr. Vinay Oza- RegionalHead (HE), West Region andMr. Kapil Jain- General Man-ager, Institutional Sales pre-sented the SCC8000A craneto Dwarkesh Transport Cor-poration. Speaking on theoccasion Mr. Deepak Garg,Managing Director, Sany In-dia & South Asia said “Weshare a special bond withDwarkesh Transport Corpo-ration.

They have been our es-teemed customer sincemany years and we cherishthis association as bothcompanies continue togrow and capture new mar-kets. Dwarkesh Transport al-ready own more than 15cranes of Sany and as aproud owner of India’s larg-est crawler crane, we wishthem success in all their ven-tures and look forward toachieving new milestoneson this journey with them.

Ahmedabad, Page 7

Business Brief

Business 7AHMEDABAD THURSDAY 20/1/2022

AGS Transact Techno. raises Rs.204 cr. from 17 anchor investors

Mumbai, AGS Transact Technologies Limited(the “Company”), allotted 1,16,57,141 equity sharesto 17 anchor investors and raised Rs. 204 crore aheadof the company’s proposed IPO at the upper priceband of Rs. 175 per equity share.

The Offer consists equity shares of face value ofRs. 10 of AGS Transact Technologies Limited aggre-gating up to Rs. 6,800 million (the “Offer”) throughan offer for sale of equity shares by Mr. Ravi B. Goyal(the “Promoter Selling Shareholder”) aggregatingup to Rs. 6,775.80 million, equity shares aggregat-ing up to Rs. 7.63 million by Mr. V.C. Gupte, equityshares aggregating up to Rs. 5.97 million by Mr.Shailesh Shetty, equity shares aggregating up to Rs.4.64 million by Mr. Rakesh Kumar, equity shares ag-gregating up to Rs. 2.98 million by Mr. Nikhil Patiyatand equity shares aggregating up to Rs. 2.98 mil-lion by Mr. Rajesh Harshedrai Shah (collectively, the“Other Selling Shareholders”).

Marquee investors include HDFC Balanced Ad-vantage Fund, Nippon Life India Small Cap Fund,BNP Paribas Arbitrage, Ashoka India Equity, KuberIndia Fund, Saint Capital Fund, IIFL Special Oppor-tunities Fund, Abakkus Growth Fund, Quant MutualFund, Tara Emerging Asia Liquid Fund, Cohesion MKBest ideas, Authum Investment & Infrastructure andResonance Opportunities Fund.

UTI Mutual Fund launches‘UTI Sensex Index Fund’

Mumbai, UTI Mutual Fund (UTI) launches anopen-ended scheme replicating/tracking the S&PBSE Sensex Total Return Index (TRI) - ‘UTI SensexIndex Fund’. The New Fund Offer opens on Janu-ary 19, 2022 and closes on January 24, 2022. Thescheme will re-open for subscription and re-demption on ongoing basis from February 01,2022.

On the occasion, Mr. Sharwan Kumar Goyal,Head - Passive, Arbitrage & Quant Strategies, said,“UTI Sensex Index Fund is a low-cost index fundwhich will track the S&P BSE Sensex Index pas-sively. The scheme endeavors to achieve returnequivalent to underlying index while minimizingtracking error. The scheme will aim to offer an op-portunity to capitalize on growth of basket ofblue-chip companies in a disciplined manner.”

Equities extend losses; Sensexdown 380 points in early trade

New Delhi, Jan 19 (IANS) The 30-scrip SensitiveIndex (Sensex) and broader 50-scrip Nifty on theNational Stock Exchange extended their losses fromthe previous session and traded in the red onWednesday. At 10.30 a.m., Sensex traded at 60,368points, down 0.6 per cent from the previous closeof 60,75 points. It opened at 60,845 points.

Nifty traded at 18,013 points, down 0.6 per centfrom the previous close of 18,113 points. It openedat 18,129 points.

Asian Paints, Ultratech Cement, Adani Ports, TataConsumers, and Shree Cement were some of the toplosers, NSE data showed. Top gainers during theearly trade were ONGC, Coal India, UPL, Tata Steel,and Bajaj Auto.

Exide Life appoints Sanjay Vij asthe ED and Principal Officer

Bangalore, Exide Life has announced the ap-pointment of Mr. Sanjay Vij as the Executive Di-rector and Principal Officer with effect from 10thJanuary 2022.

On January 1, 2022, HDFC Life Insurance Com-pany Limited (“HDFC Life”) announced thecompletion of the acquisition of Exide Life Insur-ance Company Limited (“Exide Life”), subsequentto receiving all relevant regulatory approvals. Pur-suant to the agreement, there was a cash pay-outof Rs. 726 crore and 8,70,22,222 equity shares atan issue price of Rs. 685 per share were allottedto Exide Industries Limited (“Exide Industries”).Exide Industries now holds 4.1% stake in HDFCLife. The process for merger of Exide Life intoHDFC Life will be initiated shortly.

Mr. Vij is a veteran in the life insurance indus-try. He joined HDFC Life in July 2001, and has sincecontributed to the company's incredible growth.As the Group Head - Bancassurance and Chief Val-ues Officer (CVO) in HDFC Life, he was responsiblefor managing the P&L, market growth, and busi-ness of crucial bancassurance channels. As theCVO, he was responsible for institutionalizing andleading the EPICC values program. He was also amember of the Executive Committee (EC).

Cured of Covid-19? Please waitfor 1-3 months to buy life cover

Chennai, Jan 19 (IANS)Cured of Covid-19 andwanting to buy a life insur-ance policy? Then wait for aperiod ranging from one to

three months, say life insur-ers.

This has been the prac-tice of some life insurersduring the first wave of

Covid-19 and now practicedby others as well,” a seniorinsurance industry officialtold IANS.

With the reinsurers forc-ing the primary life insurersto put their skin in the game,the latter have turned cau-tious while accepting livesfor insurance under theirterm policies.

So, what is the waitingperiod? mally in insurance,the term waiting periodmeans a specified period forwhich certain risk covers arenot provided and the coverkicks in after that period af-ter the premium is paid.

For instance, in the caseof Corona Rakshak policy,the waiting period is 15 daysfrom the date of com-mencement of the firstpolicy.

However, in the case ofCovid-19 cured persons,the waiting period for buy-ing a life insurance coverwill be three months if he/she was hospitalised andone month in case of homequarantine, said an agent ofHDFC Life Insurance Com-pany Ltd.

The waiting period willbe counted from the dateon which the prospectivepolicy buyer is certified asCovid-19 negative.

Sony shares slump after Microsoft’slargest buyout in gaming history

New Delhi, Jan 19 (IANS)Shares of Japanese technol-ogy giant Sony haveslumped in Tokyo trade af-ter Microsoft said it plans tobuy mega games companyActivision Blizzard, BBC re-ported.

The deal worth $68.7 bn,would be Microsoft’s big-gest ever buyout and thelargest deal in gaming his-tory, the report said.

It would see the US firmowning popular gamingfranchises including Call ofDuty, Warcraft andOverwatch.

The deal would be a ma-jor step for Microsoft’s Xboxgaming brand in its battleagainst Sony’s PlayStation,the report said.

It also comes a year af-ter Microsoft bought an-other influential gamingcompany, Bethesda for $7.5bn. Buying the troubled butsuccessful Activision would

turn Microsoft into theworld’s third-biggest gam-ing company by revenue,behind China’s Tencent andSony, marking a major shiftfor the industry, the reportsaid.

Microsoft said theActivision-Blizzard dealwould help it grow its gam-ing business across mobile,PC and consoles as well asproviding the buildingblocks for the metaverse.

The purchase of the Callof Duty maker comes asMicrosoft is also aggres-sively expanding its GamePass subscription service.

“We’re investing deeplyin world-class content, com-munity and the cloud tousher in a new era of gam-ing that puts players andcreators first and makesgaming safe, inclusive andaccessible to all,”MIcrossoft’s chief executiveSatya Nadella said.

Restrictions on K’taka iron ore industryhampers socio-economic growth of the state

New Delhi, Jan 19 (IANS)The Karnataka Iron ore in-dustry continues to face thebrunt of a 10-year-oldmechanism imposed on thelocal mining industry whichis also restricting the socio-economic development ofthe state.

Karnataka is the onlystate in India to impose suchrestrictions on the exportsof iron ore from the state orsell iron ore freely to all buy-ers in India. This is causingsub-optimal growth of thelocal iron-ore industry as se-lective buying by consum-ers impacts the overalleconomy of the state.

At a time, when India canbenefit hugely by beingcompetitive in the worldtrade as demand for iron oresurges globally command-ing a price of $122 pertonne, NMDC, a governmentof India owned mineral pro-ducer, has cut down its ironore price by Rs 500 pertonne (Rs 300 per tonne inKarnataka and Rs 200 pertonne in Chhattisgarh). Thishas reduced the iron oreprice in Karnataka to Rs

3,233 per tonne for Fe 62.5grade iron ore. At the sametime, miners operating inOdisha have hiked their ironore price by Rs 250 pertonne owing to the marketcondition and are sellingtheir ore at Rs 7,183 pertonne.

Mineral-rich states likeOdisha are driven as per themarket conditions as it hasopen trade practices thatare not dominated by do-mestic buying patterns. Thisleads to fair competitionand appropriate revenue tothe exchequer. On the otherhand, the iron ore sector inKarnataka is majorly im-pacted by the iron ore ma-jor NMDC’s pricing pattern.

Karnataka is the onlystate in India that has restric-tions on exports withoutany alternate avenues forminers to sell their iron ore.This forces them to sell themined ore only domesticallyas per the pricing patternset by the major iron oreproducer NMDC which cap-tures the largest marketshare with almost 14 Mt perannum. The irony of the

whole thing is that the buy-ers in Karnataka are free toimport iron ore or buy fromother sources includingfrom captive mines.

Due to the one-sidedopening of the Karnatakamarket, there is an inflow/import of around 3.2 Mt ofiron ore in the state. This iscreating an artificial over-supply and pressure on theprivate miners to reduceprices beyond market levels.Currently, the unsold ironore stocks lying in Karnatakais to the tune of around 4.25Mt.

Karnataka, which al-ready is losing heavily to thetune of Rs 8,000 crore perannum because of the dis-parities, is now staring at afurther loss of Rs 700 croreper annum due to restric-tions on the trade of iron ore

and price reduction byNMDC. Given the demandand supply scenario of ironore, there is no reason forsuch price cut by NMDC, butits actions raise questionson whether the mining ma-jor which is under the Min-istry of Steel has taken sucha step under the influence ofthe steel sector. The state ofKarnataka has an annualdemand of 37 MT of iron orewhile the production in thestate is 42 MT, which is al-ready in surplus to the statedemand. If NMDC keeps upwith the same price, theother miners in the state willhave no option but to re-duce the price of iron due toa conditional restriction ofthe export ban imposed bythe hoable Supreme Courton the state’s iron ore sectoralmost a decade ago.

FoodTech platform Pluckk raises $5 mnseed capital from Exponentia Ventures

Reliance Jio prepays Rs 30,791cr, clears deferred spectrumliabilities till Mar 2021

New Delhi, Jan 19 (IANS) Reliance Jio Infocomm onWednesday announced that it has paid Rs 30,791 croreto the Department of Telecom towards prepaymentof the entire deferred liabilities related to spectrumsacquired before March 2021.

Reliance Jio Infocomm is a subsidiary of Jio Plat-forms. The company has paid for the year 2014, 2015,2016 and the spectrum acquired in 2021 through trad-ing of right to use with Bharti Airtel, it said in a state-ment. “RJIL had executed the first tranche of prepay-ment on the anniversary date in the month of Octo-ber 2021 pertaining to spectrum acquired in auctionin the year 2016,” it said in a statement. “Subsequentto Department of Telecom’s decision in the month ofDecember 2021 providing the telcos the flexibility toprepay their deferred spectrum liabilities on any date,RJIL has now prepaid in the month of January 2022,the entire deferred liabilities acquired in auction in theyear 2014 and 2015 as well as spectrum acquiredthrough trading.” These liabilities were due in annualinstalments from FY23 to FY35 and carried an interestrate between 9.30 per cent to 10 per cent per annumwith an average residual period of seven-plus years.

New Delhi, Jan 19 (IANS)Fresh produce food-techventure, PLUCKK (A brandowned by Fruveggiie TechPvt limited) has raised $5million seed capital in afunding round, fromExponentia Ventures, afund focussed on emergingbusiness ideas in both B2Cand B2B space.

Founded in 2021, byPratik Gupta, Pluckk aims tobuild India’s first digitalcommerce business toserve the growing demandof lifestyle-oriented freshproduce. The company’sproposition is centered onglobal food trends rangingfrom vegan, carb alterna-tives, gut health, immunityto plant-forward eating toprevent diabetes and men-tal health.

This round of fundingwill be utilised towardsbuilding the right team,technology, farm to fork in-frastructure, customer ac-quisition and expansioninto key metro cities. A part

of this fund will also be uti-lized to acquire Indus Fresh– an existing player in thefresh FnV category servingboth B2C and B2B custom-ers like Flipkart, Amazon,Swiggy, Dunzo and Zepto.

Pratik Gupta, CEO andCo-Founder, PLUCKK, said,“The biggest consumerrevolution we are witness-ing today is that consumersnot only want to enjoy eat-ing but are also increasinglyvery careful on what theyeat. Pluckk aims to be thebrand of choice by provid-ing the widest curatedrange of such lifestyle-ori-ented fresh produce. At thecore Pluckk will work withfarmers through its be-spoke win-win programthat focuses on farm prac-tices to ensure residue freeand traceable produce.”

With this fresh funding,the products and servicesof PLUCKK will now also bemade available to a widerset of consumers in keymetro cities such as Banga-lore & Mumbai (further ex-pansion plans to Gurugram,Pune, Hyderabad) on its di-rect-to-consumer (D2C)platform as well as through

leading ecommerce plat-forms under its brandname.

On the firm’s third in-vestment, Alok Gupta, Part-ner, Exponentia Ventures,said, “Our commitment con-tinues to invest in ideasthat connect with theemerging ecosystem. InPluckk, we find an agilebusiness team with execu-tion focus and leveraging adeep customer insightwhich can scale to millionsof customers.” The Indianonline grocery market sizeis currently valued at $4billion growing at a com-pound annual growth rate(CAGR) of 37 per cent andis expected to grow 10Xtouching $40 bn in thenext 7 years. Of the totalgrocery market, fruits andvegetables account for 15-20 per cent of the marketsize, Pluckk aims to gain ahigher single-digit share ofthis market in the next 3-5years.

India extendsban oninternationalcommercialflights till Feb 28

New Delhi, Jan 19 (IANS)India’s civil aviation regula-tor, the DGCA, on Wednes-day extended the ban onscheduled internationalcommercial flights till Febru-ary 28, 2022.

At present, India suffersfrom a third Covid wavewhich is said to be driven bythe Omicron variant.

In a notification, theDGCA extended the ban onscheduled internationalcommercial flights till Febru-ary 28, 2022.

“This restriction shall notapply to international all-cargo operations and flightsspecifically approved by theDGCA. “However, flights un-der Air Bubble agreementwill not be affected.”

Last month, the civilaviation regulator, had ex-tended the ban on sched-uled international commer-cial flights till January 31,2022.

Ahmedabad, Value-con-scious buyers from India’ssmaller cities and towns willpropel the growth of Indiane-commerce. According toRedSeer’s analysis, buyersfrom ‘Bharat” (mid-incomebuyers from India’s 2+ citiesand towns covering morethan 80% of India’s popula-tion) will triple in size in fiveyears, from approx 78 Mn in2021 to nearly 256 Mn by2026.

Snapdeal, the country’slargest pure-play valueeCommerce platform interms of revenue for FY 2020,is leveraging this growth inthe ‘Bharat Shoppers’ base byexecuting a Bharat-focusedstrategy that aims to servethe value-conscious buyers.

According to RedSeer,the overall online shopperbase in India is projected toreach 350 million by FY 2026,compared to 140-160 millionin FY 2021. However, the ‘ma-ture’ segment of the overallshopper base is nearingsaturation and the ‘emerging’shopper segment will drive

Snapdeal to use IPO proceeds todrive value e-commerce growth

growth.Termed as “Bharat shop-

pers”, these emerging shop-pers mainly started makingpurchases online since thelaunch of Jio in 2016 and fol-lowing the subsequent de-cline in the cost ofsmartphones and mobiledata access. These shoppersare from the mid-incomesegment and a majority ofthem reside in the Tier 2+ cit-ies of India. These shoppersare value-conscious giventheir affordability needs.

Snapdeal’s targets value-seeking, mid-income, price-conscious buyers and re-ceives more than 86% of itsorders from outside metrocities, with more than 72% ofits orders coming from buy-ers living in Tier 2+ cities &towns (on the count of unitsof shipped orders during thesix months ending Septem-ber 30, 2021), each with apopulation of less than 1 mil-lion. In line with this, morethan 95% of the productssold on Snapdeal are pricedbelow Rs 1000 and more

than 77% of Snapdeal’s busi-ness comes from repeat cus-tomers. Snapdeal’s asset-light logistics networks, pow-ered by 3PLs, covers 96.65%of India’s pin codes. It servedbuyers from more than 2,500cities during the six monthsending September 30, 2021.

With over 200 millionapp installations on GooglePlay Store, Snapdeal is one ofthe top-four online lifestyleshopping destinations interms of total app installa-tions in India as of August 31,2021.

Snapdeal uses artificialintelligence, machine-learn-ing algorithms and otherdata science tools to analyselarge volumes of data andoffer a personalized and dis-covery-led shopping experi-ence that is designed to helpusers find products that mayinterest them. During the sixmonths ended September30, 2021, more than 60% ofthe orders placed on theplatform were madethrough discovery and with-out using a search term.

New Delhi, realme,India's fastest-growingsmartphone brand, an-nounced its Ultimate Per-former, the realme 9i,equipped with theQualcomm Snapdragon 680processor. The realme 9i willbe the first realmesmartphone to be poweredby theQ u a l c o m mSnapdragon680 which isbased on6nm process.The smartphone isp o w e r -packed withnumerous ad-vanced features like DartCharging solution, massivebattery, excellentnightscape camera, smoothadaptive display, and moreto bring an unparalleled ex-perience to young users.

Commenting on the oc-casion of the launch, Mr.MadhavSheth, CEO realme

Realme unveils the Ultimateperformer, Realme 9i

featuring Snapdragon 680 Processor and 33W Dart ChargingIndia, VP, realme, and Presi-dent, realme InternationalBusiness Group said, “EveryNumber series has broughtnew and exciting innova-tions and specifications tothe users. Staying true to ourlegacy of 'Dare to leap,'weare elated to introduce thefirst entrant in the 9 series,

the realme 9i, our UltimatePerformer, sporting the firstSnapdragon 680, 6nm pro-cessor. It reflects realme’scommitment to bring seg-ment-leading, cutting-edgetechnology to the youthand empower them withmore choices to fulfill their

aspirations. We are confi-dent that this newsmartphone will attain thesame level of popularity asits predecessors, cementingits appeal among millions ofyoung users worldwide.”

realme 9i, an UltimatePerformer for everyone, ispowered by the Qualcomm

S n a p d r a g o n680, the ad-vanced 6nmp r o c e s s o r ,which featuresa powerfulO c t a - c o r e ,clocking up to2.4GHz speed,bringing lesspower con-sumption and

more performance. The pro-cessor provides a 25% in-crease in CPU and AI perfor-mance, as well as a 10% in-crease in GPU performance,allowing smoother applica-tion, faster launch, higherframe rate, better gamingexperience.

Apple may launch‘iPhone SE+ 5G’ in 2023

San Francisco, Jan 19(IANS) Cupertino based techgiant Apple is reportedlyplanning to launch a fourth-generation iPhone SE+ witha larger 5.7-inch display asearly as 2023.

According to display in-dustry consult-ant Ross Young,there is also apossibility thatthe screen maybe an OLEDone instead ofLCD — if dis-play costscome downsufficiently bythen, reportsApple Inside.

Meanwhile, the third-generation iPhone SE iswidely expected to launchthis year.

The new phone willhave the new chipset — the5nm A15 Bionic, adding

support for 5G networks.Price-wise, the phone is ex-pected to cost the same asthe iPhone SE (2020) inChina and around the world— $399. Despite having asmall-form factor, the newdevice will most likely be

based on theiPhone XR de-sign. The AppleiPhone SE 3will feature 5Gconnectivityinstead of 4Gseen in theiPhone SE2020. Thesmartphone isalso expected

to come with improved per-formance with upgradedinternals. The upcomingiPhone is expected to fea-ture a 4.7-inch LCD with bot-tom and top bezels, Touch-ID sensor/home button inthe same aluminum body.

SARDAR SAROVAR NARMADANIGAM LIMITED

(A wholly owned Government of Gujarat Undertaking)

Tender Notice No.& 1) Est. Cost (a) Pre bid meetingName of the work (Rs.in lacs) (b) Last date for online

2) Tender Fee downloading/submission (in Rs) of tender documents (including GST) (c) Last date for physical3) EMD (in Rs.) Submission4) Class (d) Online verification of5) Time Limit documents

(e) Opening of Technical bid(f) Opening of Price Bid

1 2 3Works under the Chief Engineer (D&V), SSNNL, Vadodara

Tender Notice No-21 of (1) 4958.85 (a) NA2021-22 (Second Attepmt) (2) 28,320.00 (b) 07/02/2022 up to 18.00 hrs.

(3) 49,58,850.00 (c) From 08/02/2022 to(4) “AA” 14/02/2022 up to 18.00 hrs.(5) 5 Years (d) 09/02/2022 from 11.00 hrs.

onwards (if possible)(e) 09/02/2022 at 12.00 hrs. onwards (if possible)(f) 09/02/2022 at 15.00 hrs. (if possible)

Note: The details regarding contact place for physical submission and opening of tender, please visit websitewww.ssnnl.nprocure.com

INF/2012/22

ID No.501653Five (5) years contractfor operation andmaintenance (O&M) ofall hydro mechanical,electrical equipment’sand civil work of SardarSarovar Dam, Kevadiafor the year 2022-27.

UMARGAM MUNICIPALITY, UMARGAME-TENDERING NOTICE/TWO BID SYSTEM

Umargam Municipality, Umargam, Dist.Valsad, Gujarat invites on line e-tendersfrom the firms registered in appropriate category for the following works.Sr. Name of Work Estimated CostNo. EMD

Tender FeeCategory ofRegistration

1. Tender for construction work of pevar Block Road 60,55,385.00in verious aera in umargam municipality, umargam 33,500.00under 14th Finance commission grant. 400.00

“D” Class & AboveThe details and the terms & condition are mentioned in the tender form. Therights are reserved to reject the online tenders without assigning any reasons.More details regarding the tender can be available on the website ofwww.nprocure.com. The tender downloading and submitting facility will beavailable from www.nprocure.com. For submitting the on line tender and toobtain the digital signature registration from (n) code solution ltd. and Formore help please contact on the telephone no. (079) 26857316/17/18 ext.321and toll free no.1800 233 1010. Price bids of only that contractor shall be openedwho satisfy the bid evaluation criteria mentioned in the tender document relatingto annual turn over, largest value of job done and work experience of similarnature of works.

Bid Documents Downloading Start Date 20/01/2022 from 10.00 Hrs.Last Date for Submission of Online Tender 29/01/2022 upto 17.00 Hrs.Dates of Submitting the Tender Fee/E.M.D. and 05/02/2022 from 11.00 to 16.00 Hrs.relevant Documents of the Tender at the UMARGAM Municipality.Openings Dates for online Tender Technical Bid Technical Bid on 07/02/2022 at 16.00Price Bid Hrs. Price Bid date to be intimated later.

Chief OfficerUmbergaonMunicipality

Executive ChairmanUmbergaonMunicipality

PresidentUmbergaonMunicipality INF/Valsad/567/2022

MILESTONE DATES

Executive Engineer, P.H.Mechanical Dn, GWSSB, Hajimarket, 1st Floor,Opp.Jilla Sevasadan-2, Tithal Road, Valsad-396001 invites onlinetenders for SITC of Pumping Machinery with 5 Years Comp.O & M of(1) Sakarpatal (2) Polasmal (3) Jamanyamal (4) Umbarpada (5) Ghanafrom those who are registered in appropriate class for tender IDNo.501371, 501368, 501367, 501372, 501357 with cost of (1) Rs.686.35Lakh (2) Rs:394.99 Lakh (3) Rs:168.93 Lakh (4) Rs:256.82 Lakh (5)Rs:271.06 Lakh respectively. The interested contractors shall have topay required tender fee/EMD in prescribed manners. Further detailscan be made available on web site: www.nprocure.com&www.gwssb.nprocure.com Further any amendment made will bedisburse only on above web site only. The last date of tenderdownloading/uploading is Dtd:08/02/2022 up to 18.00 hrs.

Gujarat Water Supply and Sewerage Board,Gandhinagar

TENDER NOTICE NO.6/2021-22TOLL FREE NO.1916

INF/Valsad/564/2022

Executive EngineerP.H.Mech.Division

Valsad

CHANGE OF NAMEI have changed my name from

NILABEN HASMUKHLALSHAH to NEELA HASMUKHSHAH. Residing at: C-903,

Indraprasth Gulmohar,B/h. Keshavbaug, Vastrapur,

Ahmedabad- 380015.3474

Newsin a Nutshell

Ahmedabad Page 8 CMYK

CMYK

8 NationalAHMEDABAD THURSDAY 20/1/2022

2 kids killed in leopard attacks in UPBahraich (Uttar

Pradesh), Jan 19 (IANS)Two children were killedby leopards in separatecases in villages nearKatarniaghat WildlifeSanctuary (KWS), a forestdepartment official said.

The half-eaten bodiesof the kids were recov-ered on Tuesday after amassive search operationby the locals along with aforest team and police.

Divisional forest of-ficer (DFO) Akash DeepBadhawan said oneRamtej, 9, was attackedand dragged by a leopard

from village Rikkha PakadiyaDeewan under Motipur po-lice station area on Mondayevening.

A joint team of policeand forest departmentcombed the adjoining for-est and spotted the half-eaten body in the bushes inGhusri in Motipur forestrange on Tuesday.

In the second attack,Aditya, 4, of Jhala village un-der Matera police stationarea, who had come to hismaternal uncle’s house inMaiglapurwa village, was at-tacked by a leopard on Mon-day evening.

The DFO said only thehead of the boy could berecovered on Tuesdayfrom a spot about 2kilometres from wherethe leopard had attackedhim. It is not yet knownwhether the attacks wereby the same leopard ortwo leopards. “It is unlikelythat the same leopardwould attack within amatter of hours,” said awildlife expert. AkashDeep said forest employ-ees and a police teamhave been deployed inthe area to prevent anyrecurrence of the incident.

Global Covid caseloadtops 333.5 mn

New Delhi, Jan 19 (IANS)Amid an ongoing resur-gence across the world, theglobal coronavirus caseloadhas topped 333.5 million,while the deaths havesurged to more than 5.55million and vaccinations toover 9.68 billion, accordingto Johns Hopkins University.

In its latest update onWednesday morning, theUniversity’s Center for Sys-tems Science and Engineer-ing (CSSE) revealed that thecurrent global caseload andthe death toll stood at333,596,115 and 5,553,993,respectively, while the totalnumber of vaccine dosesadministered has increasedto 9,685,515,903.

The US continues to bethe worst-hit country withthe world’s highest numberof cases and deaths at67,581,992 and 853,951, ac-cording to the CSSE.

The second worst hit

country in terms of cases isIndia (37,618,271 infectionsand 486,761 deaths), fol-lowed by Brazil (23,229,851infections and 621,803deaths). The other countrieswith over 5 million cases arethe UK (15,501,850), France(14,284,535), Russia(10,682,826), Turkey(10,682,826), Italy(9,018,425), Spain(8,518,975), Germany(8,140,498), Argentina(7,318,305) Iran (6,227,849)and Colombia (5,596,917),the CSSE figures showed.The nations with a death tollof over 100,000 are Russia(316,168), Mexico (301,469),Peru (203,550), the UK(153,017), Indonesia(144,183), Italy (141,825),Iran (132,113), Colombia(131,268), France (128,629),Argentina (118,420), Ger-many (115,916), Ukraine(105,059) and Poland(102,686).

UP: Man kills 5-year-old toavenge brother’s death

Etah (Uttar Pradesh), Jan19 (IANS) To avenge hisbrother’s death, a man iden-tified as Sunil, kidnapped a5-year-old child and stran-gulated him to death.

The matter came to lightwhen Rajan Singh, the fa-ther of the deceased child,approached the police inGhazipur on January 15. Inhis complaint, he stated thathis 5-year-old son had gonemissing from his residence.

Based on the complaint,a case was immediately reg-istered and an investigationwas started.

During the investiga-tion, police scanned CCTVfootage in and around thearea in which the boy wasseen with a woman, identi-fied as Pooja, wife of Rajan’sbrother, who used to residenear Rajan’s house.

Pooja was detained and

during interrogation, sherevealed that she had goneto meet Rajan at his houseand the child accompaniedher when she returned toher house. She said that hewas playing outside herhouse.

In the CCTV footage, theboy was again seen with aperson who was identifiedas Sunil, a relative of Rajan.

Sunil was also detainedand during interrogation, heconfessed to having killedthe boy.

He said that his brotherManoj was married toRajan’s sister but died in the

year 2015, following whichhe suspected that Rajan andone Raj Kumar were respon-sible for his death.

He further alleged thatRajan’s wife had borrowedRs 1,500 from him and wasnot returning it.

Therefore, in a bid totake revenge, Sunil kid-napped and took Rajan’sson to Pillua and killed himon the same day by strangu-lation.

The body of the boy waslater recovered from Pilluaand sent for autopsy.

Sunil has been arrested,the police said.

Weather to remain cloudy withlight rain & snow in J&K, Ladakh

Srinagar, Jan 19 (IANS) Weather remained cloudyin J&K and Ladakh on Wednesday as the India Me-teorological Department (IMD) forecast partly togenerally cloudy weather in both UTs with possibil-ity of light rain and snow at scattered places duringthe next 48 hours. An IMD statement said today,“Weather will remain partly to generally cloudy inboth regions with possibility of light rain/snow atscattered places. “Forecast for next 10 days: A spellof light rain/snow likely (60 per c chance) duringJanuary 22-23rd. “Thereafter, mainly dry weather isexpected from 24th onwards till ending January.There is no forecast of any major snow spell till end-ing January”. Srinagar had 2.7, Pahalgam minus 1.9and Gulmarg minus 6.0 as the minimum tempera-ture. In Ladakh region, Drass had minus 19.2, Lehminus 10.5 and Kargil minus 11.6 as the night’s low-est temperature. Jammu city had 9.1, Katra 6.2,Batote 3.6, Banihal 1.4 and Bhaderwah 1.1 as theminimum temperature.

Foggy morning in Delhi, air still‘very poor’

New Delhi, Jan 19 (IANS) The residents of thenational capital on Tuesday woke up to a foggymorning with the minimum temperature settling at7.4 degree Celsius. The people continued to breathepolluted air, as the Air Quality Index (AQI) in Delhiwas 256 for PM10 and 148 for PM2.5. As the PM10was on a high scale, the System of Air Quality andWeather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR) has is-sued a health advisory stating that sensitive peopleshould consider reducing prolonged or heavy ex-ertion and heavy outdoor work. The PM2.5 level wasunder the ‘very poor’ category. Usually, the air qual-ity is categorised as ‘good’ when the AQI is between0 to 50; ‘satisfactory’ between 51-100; ‘moderate’ be-tween 101-200; ‘poor’ between 201-300; ‘very poor’between 301-400; ‘severe’ between 401-500; and‘hazardous’ at over 500.

Spurious liquor claims four livesin Himachal

Shimla, Jan 19 (IANS) Four people died and threewere hospitalised in a village near Sundernagartown in Himachal Pradesh’s Mandi district onWednesday after consuming spurious liquor.

The police said seven people from Slapper vil-lage consumed liquor together on Tuesday night.Soon after consumption, their condition deterio-rated and they were admitted to the Shri LalBahadur Shastri Medical College in Nerchowk.

Superintendent of Police Shalini Agnihotri toldthe media that police are investigating the case.

As per locals, there was rampant sale of illicit li-quor in Sundernagar area from quite some time andthe police were mute spectators.

Omicron causing hospitalisations,deaths worldwide: WHO

New Delhi, Jan 19(IANS) In a fresh warning,WHO chief TedrosAdhanom Ghebreyesushas said that Omicronvariant of thecoronavirus is causinghospitalisations anddeaths the world over,and the narrative that itis a mild disease is mis-leading.

Amid an ongoing re-surgence across theworld, the globalcoronavirus caseloadhas topped 333.5 mil-lion, while the deathshave surged to morethan 5.55 million andvaccinations to over 9.68billion, according toJohns Hopkins Univer-sity.

“Make no mistake,Omicron is causinghospitalisations anddeaths, and even the lesssevere cases are inun-dating health facilities,”the WHO chief said lateon Tuesday.

“Omicron may beless severe, on average,but the narrative that itis a mild disease is mis-

leading, hurts the overall re-sponse and costs morelives,” he added.

India on Wednesday re-ported 2,82,970 fresh Covidcases in the last 24 hours,which is a rise of over 18 percent from the previousday’s count.

According to Tedros,Covid is circulating far toointensely with many stillvulnerable.

“For many countries, thenext few weeks remain re-ally critical for health sys-tems. I urge everyone to dotheir best to reduce risk ofinfection so that you canhelp take pressure off the

system,” he emphasised.Tedros said that we canstill significantly reducethe impact of the cur-rent wave by sharingand using health toolseffectively and imple-menting public healthand social measuresthat we know work. “Ev-ery variant of the COVID-19 virus, including Omi-cron, is dangerous andcan cause: severe dis-ease, death, further virusmutations andjeopardise the effective-ness of the tools wehave to fight it,” said theWHO.

Delhi govt deploys sr nursingofficers in pvt hospitals tomonitor Covid situation

New Delhi, Jan 19 (IANS) Delhi government has decidedto deploy senior nursing officers from state government-run hospitals as nodal officers in the private healthcare fa-cilities to monitor the Covid situation and vaccination atprivate facilities. The government-run hospitals have beenasked to find suitable replacement for retired and trans-ferred nursing personnel. “The competent authority ispleased to deploy senior nursing officers as nodal officersin various private health care facilities from Delhi govern-ment hospitals to monitor management of Covid-19 patientsalong with monitoring of Covid vaccination,” read an orderissued by the Delhi health department on Tuesday late night.The letter states that these senior nursing officers stand re-lieved from their respective hospitals with immediate effect,with the directions to report to their place of posting in pri-vate hospitals without waiting for any formal relieving ordersform their hospitals. The order has been directed to all medi-cal directors and medical superintendent of state govern-ment-run hospitals. Meanwhile, the national capital on Tues-day reported 11,684 fresh Covid cases in the last 24 hours.

Mulayam Singh’s daughter-in-law Aparna Yadav joins BJP

New Delhi, Jan 19 (IANS)Mulayam Singh Yadav’sdaughter-in-law AparnaYadav on Wednesday joinedthe BJP just three weeksahead of the first phase ofpolling in Uttar Pradesh.

She joined the BJP inpresence of Uttar Pradeshstate unit presidentSwatantra Dev Singh,deputy chief minister

Keshav Prasad Maurya, BJPmedia department headAnil Baluni, at party head-quarters here. WelcomingAparna in the party, Singhsaid that Mulayam SinghYadav’s ‘Bahu’ (daughter-in-law) is joining BJP and shewill work to strengthen theparty. Deputy chief ministerMaurya said, “Despite beingMulayam Singh Yadav’s

daughter-in-law, she alwaysspoke in favour of BJP’swork. Taking a dig atSamajwadi Party chiefAkhilesh Yadav, Maurya said,“Akhilesh was not successfulin managing family, as chiefminister and also as a Mem-ber of Parliament.

Cerebrospinal fluid may offer cluesto post-Covid brain fog: Study

New York, Jan 19(IANS) Analysing cere-brospinal fluid in peoplewith post Covid condi-tions like brain fog mayprovide insights intohow SARS-CoV-2 im-pacts the brain, suggestsa study.

Some patients whodevelop new cognitivesymptoms such as brainfog even after a mildbout of Covid-19 tend tohave abmalities in theircerebrospinal fluid simi-lar to those found inpeople with other infec-tious diseases.

A team of research-ers from University ofCalifornia and WeillCornell Medicine, con-ducted a small study,where they analysed thecerebrospinal fluid of 17of participants.

All participants hadCovid but had not re-quired hospitalisation.

They found that 10 of13 participants with cog-nitive symptoms hadanomalies in their cere-brospinal fluid. But allfour of the cerebrospinalsamples from partici-

pants with no post-Covidcognitive symptoms weremal. Participants with thesesymptoms presented withexecutive functioning is-sues, said senior authorJoanna Hellmuth, from theUCSF Memory and AgeingCentre.

“They manifest as prob-lems remembering recentevents, coming up withnames or words, staying fo-cused, and issues with hold-ing onto and manipulatinginformation, as well asslowed processing speed,”she said. Examinations ofthe cerebrospinal fluid re-vealed elevated levels ofprotein, suggesting inflam-mation, and the presence ofunexpected antibodiesfound in an activated im-mune system. Some werefound in the blood and cere-brospinal fluid, implying asystemic inflammatory re-sponse, or were unique tothe cerebrospinal fluid, sug-gesting brain inflammation.

While the targets ofthese antibodies are un-known, it is possible thatthese could be “turncoat”antibodies that attack thebody itself.

“It’s possible that theimmune system, stimu-lated by the virus, may befunctioning in an unin-tended pathological way,”said Hellmuth.

“This would be thecase even though the in-dividuals did not have thevirus in their bodies,” shesaid.

The researchers alsofound that the partici-pants with cognitivesymptoms had an aver-age of 2.5 cognitive risk-factors, compared with anaverage of less than onerisk factor for participantswithout the symptoms.

These risk-factors in-cluded diabetes and hy-pertension, which can in-crease the risk of stroke,mild cognitive impair-ment and vascular de-mentia; and a history ofAttention deficit hyperac-tivity disorder, which maymake the brain more vul-nerable to executive func-tioning issues. Other riskfactors included anxiety,depression, a history ofAheavy alcohol or repeatedstimulant use, and learn-ing disabilities.

Admiral R. Hari Kumarmourns INS Ranvir victims

Mumbai, Jan 19 (IANS)The Chief of Naval Staff, Ad-miral R. Hari Kumar onWednesday termed Tuesdayevening’s accident aboardwarship INS Ranvir as “unfor-tunate”.

“The Indian Navy and allpersonnel extend heartfeltcondolences to the familiesof those who succumbed toinjuries caused by the unfor-tunate incident. We fullystand by them in this diffi-cult time,” said AdmiralKumar. At least 3 naval sail-ors were killed and 11 in-jured in the blast onboardthe destroyer INS Ranvir inthe Mumbai harbour. Theyare: Arvind kumar MahatamSingh, 38, Signal & Commu-nications, Surendrakumar S.Waliya, 47, Sports PT Masterand Krushnakumar Gopirav,46, Anti Submarine Instruc-

tor. Their bodies have beensent to Sir J J. Hospital whilea board of enquiry has beeninstituted to probe the inci-dent, said an official spokes-person. The injured are: P.V.Reddy, 23, YogeshkumarGupta, 36, Gopaal Yadav, 21,Shubham Dev, 20, HariKumar, 22, Shailendra Yadav,22, Tanmay Dar, 22, L.Surendrajit Singh, 39,Komendra Singh, 24,Avinash Varma, 22 and Kapil,21. INS Ranvir was on across-coast operational de-ployment from the EasternNaval Command,Visakhapatnam, from Nov2021 and was due to returnto its base port shortly. Thefourth of the five Rajput-Class destroyers, the war-ship was commissioned intothe Indian Navy on Oct 28,1986.

Delhi Police ASI, accompliceheld on graft charges

New Delhi, Jan 19 (IANS) The Central Bureau ofInvestigation has arrested an Assistant Sub Inspec-tor of Delhi Police and a private person in a briberycase, an official said here on Wednesday.

According to the official, a case was registeredagainst the Assistant Sub Inspector of Delhi Police,posted at Sultanpuri Police Station in Delhi on theallegations of demanding a bribe of Rs 40,000.

The accused have been identified as KuldeepSingh, Assistant Sub Inspector and Bhagat Lal, a pri-vate person.

It was alleged that the accused demanded a bribefrom the complainant for not arresting his brotherand nephew in a separate case, earlier registered atSultanpuri Police Station.

“The accused directed the complainant tohandover the bribe to a tea vendor operating in frontof said Police Station,” the official said.

At 2.82L new Covid cases, Indiasees over 18% single-day rise

New Delhi, Jan 19(IANS) India reported2,82,970 fresh Covidcases in the last 24 hours,which is a rise of over 18per cent from the previ-ous day’s count. In thesame time, 441 deathswere registered takingthe toll to 4,87,202, saidthe Union ministry ofhealth and family wel-fare on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, India re-corded 2,38,018 new in-fections and 310 deaths.

Meanwhile, the ac-tive caseload hasjumped to 18,31,000which constitutes 4.83

per cent of the country’stotal positive cases.

The Omicron infectiontally has risen to 8,961across the nation, an in-crease of 0.79 per centfrom Tuesday’s. The recov-ery of 1,88,157 patients inthe last 24 hours has in-creased the cumulativetally to 3,55,83,039. Conse-quently, India’s recoveryrate stands at 93.88 percent. Also in the same pe-riod, a total of 18,69,642tests were conductedacross the country. Indiahas so far conducted over70.74 crore cumulativetests. The weekly positivity

rate has climbed to 15.53per cent amid a suddenspike in cases. The dailypositivity rate has de-clined to 15.13 per cent.With the administrationof over 76 lakhs vaccinedoses in the last 24hours, India’s Covid in-oculation coverage hasreached 158.88 crore asof Wednesday morning.More than 12.84 crorebalance and unutilisedCovid vaccine doses arestill available with thestates and UTs to be ad-ministered, according tothe health ministry as ofWednesday morning.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Union Minister andApna Dal leader Anupriya Patel, Nishad Party leader Sanjay Nishad and senior BJP leaders in a group photoafter a meeting, at BJP headquarters in New Delhi on Wednesdsay. UNI

Workers making cricket bats at a factory, in Srinagar on Wednesday. UNI

People crossing the road during fresh snowfall at Mughal Road in Shopianon Wednesdsay. UNI